There were so many times I thought I have died

[fooloftheking]

WHO: Bobo Del Rey
WHERE: Both North and South Village
WHEN: First few weeks of February after returning
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Will update if needed

---

There are so many parts that I have hidden and that I yet lost - Either village, First wk of Feb

Bobo Del Rey is dead. Long live the King.

Much as Bobo rallied himself with the others, almost glad to have found himself with Eddie, Venom and Karen in that hell that passed for a temple - and he's sure there's something in that about religion and belief and faith and facing the truth but fuck all that noise - but just because they're the ones he was with, and therefor cared enough to help, he's caught up in so much more.

Like the fact that he did care about others. It's been so many decades since he's cared, and a lot of torture both given and received, and now he's having to face the truth. He's dead. Except instead of being sucked into Hell for more torture, to be further tormented until the heir died once more as they always did, he is here. There is no return. There is no torture. There's just this, and he's not sure what that means. Not for himself, or the confusion that has been haunting him since this place.

But once they're assured everyone has made it back, and that things are back to normal, Bobo is doing his best to get back to a normal life. When in the southern most village, he works on the butcher shop, trying to pull everything together. Cleaning up the entire shop from top to bottom, turning all of the hides, and working to bottle the ink he'd made from tallow soot, leaving the little bottles on the counter near the soap that Watney made.

When back to the north, he can be found often working on the former police station turned barn where they now houses a myriad of animals, including the new baby groffle that somehow the cowboys had managed to bring back with them after the video. They weren't doing much better than he was, but none of them were talking about it. Instead they kept working.

So he works on splitting logs, and preparing the land to add a pasture to turn them out into until the weather turns and they can take them out further from the village.

There are so many colors that I still try to hide while I paint - Off Color

If Bobo is conflicted over who he is and the man he will be, having a moment of his device going a bit wonky is not going to fix that.

He hasn't bothered himself too much with what the device color means, or about these powers that some speak of possessing. His isn't what he knows as being a revenant, and he's not sure what to think of being given something else, but he knows one thing.

In his mind that change in colors is a possible sign of a weakness that he isn't willing to admit to others. Especially after he finds himself standing in the middle of the butcher shop feeling what he can only describe as sad over the state of the animals in various degrees of death and dismemberment around him.

Ripping up some rag pieces he's kept around into thin strips, he wraps them around is wrists, over the palm of his hand, using them to hide the device, before going about his business. Business that is less the business he's chosen for himself and more spending time seeking out others in the inn. Approaching others if they don't seek him out, quieter and less boisterous than he usually is.

It would seem if the images of his death aren't putting him in mind of his past, and what he might become or refuse to acknowledge, well then the powers that be aren't willing to give him a choice.

Comments

[imareporter]

It's completely out of character - he went fucking catatonic up on the mountain when he should have nutpunched Carl Brock (or at least the shrine. Could you nutpunch a shrine?

...why was he so focused on taking care of business? Violence wasn't the answer. Or plans. that was Stark's job. Okay no. Focus.)

He should have. As a kid. Done more. Been more but that's fine he can take things on now. He's a fucking symbiote host and it is past time he and V started pulling their weight.

Agreed. Hunting is an excellent place to start.

Two birds with one stone. Check on the crew, and maybe arrange for some sort of ...bird bringing back service? Some way to get 7 and Venom together (bro deserved some time with his special lady.) and...

He went catatonic. And now he's just fine?

"...Hey Bobo?" Enter one Eddie Brock, knocking on the door, "Dude? You around?"

[fooloftheking]

The shop is quiet, though neat as a pin. Soaps and bottles of ink on the counter, the wood gleaming, and there's a singular sound from the back room. A fairly constant woosh sound. A sound that pauses when Eddie speaks. For a moment he's not even sure about the voice, thinking perhaps in the meditative state he imagined his name. Then there's more.

Setting the knife on the counter with a clatter, leaning back far enough to be seen.

"Back here," he calls, realizing how's glad for the interruption to pull him out of his thoughts.

[imareporter]

Eddie moves expertly through the shop, concern and protectiveness welling up inside him. It's just because we were protecting everybody on the mountain.

Right. Absolutely.

The Eddie that appears is cautious but different. Straighter, less twitchy, far more put together then he was.

"Checking in on you." He pauses, "How are you?"

[fooloftheking]

Bobo had never bonded with the revenants because of their shared torment. He took over because if someone didn't, lives would be taken. What happened on the mountain, up at that shrine, and all they'd shared because of it - even if against their will - and for Bobo there is a difference in how he feels towards Eddie and Karen. Venom too, even if he's really not sure how to handle this. He'd kind of always thought it was a monster friend thing, and not a those were Venom's eyes staring at him from Eddie's face kind of thing.

But then there's a loaded question out there and he takes a deep breath, huffing it out.

"Alive, which is apparently better than I could be doing, so least there's that." And it's what he keeps telling himself, not thinking about if he'll return. He doesn't doubt Wynonna will finish them off without Bobo there to keep them under control. He's in Hell for good this time, and therefor this world is just about all he needs.

"Hanging in there," he says after a moment, thinking about his words and being honest in that. If only for Eddie's sake. "You? You doing okay?"

[imareporter]

"I wasn't. My dad fucking makes me go catatonic. My therapist said it's because I have unresolved issues with identity and self-expression since he didn't give me an opportunity to-something-something-something."

He waves his hand, "It's not important. Point is I'm feeling better now. Despite how weird that is."

There's something very different about him. He seems stronger, more focused, more aware, "...What can I do to help you?"

[fooloftheking]

"Or because your dad was a fucking asshole that needed to be gutted like a fish and his head put on a pike for all the other abusive assholes, but sure. Let's got with your therapist's analysis," Bobo says, apparently and obviously having feelings on what he's seen of Eddie's past.

His head cants, considering Eddie for a moment. To hear Venom speak of him, the things that Bobo has seen, he's a lot like Robert Svane. A good man, if a bit timid. Now he's waving away this past that's holding him down and says he's feeling better. Bobo isn't feeling at all better, and wonders what he's done to get to that point. Might be helpful for himself.

"I was actually about to start working on collecting soot for ink, and bottling what I've made. It's kind of tedious but if you want to help, the more the merrier."

[imareporter]

Eddie agrees. There are days, when he gets angry or hurt or scared - where he fantasizes about taking it out on Carl Brock. Then he remembers the old man is all he has and Carl is his only family and he-

dismisses it.

Something trickles into the back of his mind as he chuckles, "...Good ole' Carl. I can help you with that. you make your own ink?

Like for writing?"

There's a note of hunger in his voice.

[digging]

When the life-shaking happens, it's instinctive to try and dig back into a normal routine. On returning from their mountain jaunt, Karen had bathed, slept, written down whatever seemed salient and bearable to put down, and then stepped immediately back into the norm. Meal times, updating the village records, setting and checking her snares — Lather, rinse, repeat. She's done this before, and it's supposed to be comforting, the familiarity, and maybe on some level it is. More often than not she ends up feeling mechanical and depersonalized — A whirring brain that exists outside a body going dutifully about its daily business.

But sometimes, that's just all you can do, is go on. If this place has taught her anything, it's that.

There's a single rabbit dangling from one hand as she shoulders open the front door of the butcher's shop. She might have taken it directly to the inn kitchen — There are plenty of people there who know how to dress a rabbit over there, including herself — but there's been that subtle tug, her mind refusing to shut down.

"Hey," she says as she pulls the door gently closed behind her.

[fooloftheking]

It's a common instinct. Leave it behind, pretend it isn't troubling you, and go about your life. Which Bobo is doing with gusto, including providing himself with work in the form of hunting down what he might find, without eyeing the groffle one more time before his roommates had his hide instead.

Of course, there comes to be a limit in how much one can clean, and hunt, and kill before the memories start coming back. Finding himself humming softly under his breath, songs he hasn't heard since his youth. Seeing a glimpse of the curve of a wooden wall from the corner of his eye when his thoughts are elsewhere and realizing that the saloon he first things of in that moment is long in his past, or the tree house he momentarily feels transported to will never again be their home. After a while it doesn't matter how hard you try and ignore the thoughts, how hard you work, they're still there.

So the sound of another voice, one that he instantly recognizes, does what hunting and wood chopping and tanning hides hasn't been able to do for him. It puts him entirely into the here and now.

"Karen."

Stepping out of the back, smiling as he brushes the loose fall of his longer hair out of his eyes.

"How are you?" Looking her over, certainly curious what brought here there. Spying the rabbit and the smile widens a bit. "Something I can help you with?"

[digging]

Karen has to laugh at that, a soft chuff of sound as her chin drops. Just the absurdity of it all, of them. This place.

She doesn't answer how she's been. He knows well enough.

Wordlessly, she holds up the rabbit instead. "I could have taken it straight to the inn, but then I wouldn't have had a conveniently morbid excuse to check on you." 'Convenient' being the operative word there, given how sufficiently morbid their vacation had turned out to be.

"Have you talked to Eddie recently?"

[fooloftheking]

It seems so easy to try and just be normal. Normal to a time that doesn't exist. Normal to people they won't ever be again. Normal because to act otherwise is like stepping into new space, and no one wants to make the first move.

"I'm glad you did," he says, pausing before adding. "Find a convenient reason to come see me, that is," he adds, figuring she has taken that first step, he could meet her half way.

Pausing though at that question, giving a small shake of his head. "I hadn't ever much talked to Eddie before..." He waves his hand towards the vague general direction of the shrine. "I know Venom though. I just hadn't realized..."

Stopping then, not even sure how to put it. "Seen enough strange in my life, you think there'd stop being things that surprise me, but they keep happening." Giving her a look before gesturing for her to come further into, heading into the back of the shop.

"How are you though?"

[digging]

It's a small thing, that admission to actually wanting her around, but it feels profound. She's spent too much of her life since Kevin died being pushed away by people she cares about, and whether the reason is selfish or noble, it never fails to feel like shit.

"You know," she answers obliquely of how she is, a diffident lift of one shoulder before she steps over to the counter and drops off the rabbit. "As well as could be expected." She hedges a moment and then blows out a sigh as she cants a hip against the front of the showcase. "When I got back, I had gotten a box. There was a picture of my family inside, from home. So. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel about any of it." Is this some sort of lesson? Cherish what you have while you have it? Because if so, the delivery method could stand some improvement.

"I didn't know Eddie before, either— Or Venom," she corrects, still getting used to the dynamics of that particular relationship despite their mountain jaunt. "Manhattan got half-leveled by an alien invasion while I was living there, though, if that's strange enough for you. It was led by a guy who lives here now, I bet he's super happy to be stuck with the rest of us."

[fooloftheking]

Having received a box himself recently, Bobo is a bit confused to hear what it is that Karen received. Facing her with a frown, his head cocking to one side as he gestures with his words, a vague waving of his hand. "Why in the name of all that is holy would they send you that?"

He doesn't feel he needs to ask the rest. Send her that now. Send her that after showing her a vision of her brother's death that they thought fit to share with others.

"Have you ever..." He pauses, considering this, of what to ask her, how to word this. "Have you ever had a moment to say goodbye? To your brother? I mean, I don't know much about all of this. Most of my family is long gone, and I've only ever wanted to mourn one person."

Not that he has, and he hasn't let himself think about it. Even now with what he's seen of himself.

Though he's a bit stunned to learn of her world, of what they had been through. "And now this bastard is here now? And you've all let him live?" Even without the emotions he feels for Karen, he's kind of in a mood to finish another, and this could be kindness for Karen and nothing more. "Wait, the rest of you? How many are here from your world?"

Off Color

[quinientos]

Vasquez doesn't actually have the dog tamed, but he thinks he has it in control enough that he can leave and do other things. At least it gives him the time to go back to his routine, which means dropping off a drink and some smokes to Bobo, in case he wants them for his shift.

Once he's inside, he frowns when he sees the strips, gesturing to his wrists. "Did you cut yourself when you were butchering?" he asks, a bit wary, because that's not something that sounds like him. There's no one here that he trusts with a blade and a cut of meat so much, so it seems odd that he could slip like that.

[fooloftheking]

Oh but he smiles when the door opens and he sees Vasquez. Through all of this, if he has to think on when things started to change for Bobo? It was in meeting Vasquez those first moments after he arrived in this place. Meeting a man that might be a lover for a time, but more than that he's a friend. Someone that he's shared the truth of what he is before anyone else. Someone that he actually wanted to share a home with, have a life here with.

It's the start of the changes he's been feeling, and unlike being wary as he is about the emotions that are changing for him, he is glad to see the man.

Even if he tenses at that moment when he asks about the questions. He knows it looks odd, but the thought that this place is marking the changes in him, the way he feels, it leaves him nervous and unsettled, and he's not sure he's ready for others to see the weakness within him as well.

"Nono, it's just... it is letting me feel more comfortable," he says, even with Vasquez he's not sure if he's ready to talk about this, but he's likely to be the one he first speaks to. "Promise, it's all just..." He pulls the edges of one of them back, showing where the skin is whole and fine. "You doing okay? How's the pup?" He smirks then. "And the dog?"

Oh he's got jokes now.

[quinientos]

Vasquez laughs warmly, seeing as he doesn't know how much he wants to think about Faraday being a 'pup', but he smirks lasciviously as he thinks about putting him through the paces of training a dog. "My pup is fine, my dog is, too," he guarantees, sprawling in a chair and getting comfortable so that he can settle in.

"More comfortable," he says, gesturing to them. He shrugs, because he doesn't really care, and it looks fine, it's just different. "I'm better than good. I think I'm in a relationship," he admits, which feels odd.

[fooloftheking]

He smiles then, glad for Vasquez. Bobo knows how hard things were for him before this place, with Faraday arriving, and yet they seem to be doing alright. Even after getting lost coming back from the winter vacation to the shrine that no one asked for.

He moves his hands a bit, shrugging. "It's hard to explain. You noticed anything weird going on? Since we got back," he adds, since that was weird enough on its own.

A brow arches then, smirking. "You're just realizing that?"

[quinientos]

"Other than the fact that Faraday hasn't bitched at me so far today?" He's teasing here too, because they always bicker and push, and today's no different. "No," he admits bluntly. "Should I have noticed?" He tries to keep his nose out of other people's business, so maybe he just missed it.

"I've never been in any relationship," he adds, soberly. This isn't a joke, not to him. "I don't know what it looks like."

[fooloftheking]

That gets him to laugh, smiling at him though he can't help himself. "You sure he isn't sick?" Hey, it's as logical, right?

"Well..." He pauses, considering that, and realizing just how serious he is about it.
"Should you have? Maybe not. I mean, I live with you both, and to me I figured he had it about as bad as you do," he says, shrugging. "But I don't think anyone else would have known."

Though that he can understand. "You two look like you like one another. You look happy. He isn't acting like a total idiot. So I figured you guys were doing good together."

1st Week

[clouded_heart]

When Bobo's back, Foggy makes a trip up to his place. He's leading the kirin along by their leashes, the box of chicks tied onto the back of one, padded to keep the warmth in the and chicks safe and warm.

He goes around the back to where he can hear chopping and pauses when bobo comes into view.

Clearly, things didn't go great for him either, up there.

"I brought you some house guests back."

[fooloftheking]

There's a stack of logs to one side, broken down into fireplace size though not split. Not yet. He's just focusing on breaking down the larger trees he's brought back from further out to the North. Working hard to provide wood for himself, for the bakery and the forge. All that he can. Work and try and focus.

Glancing up with a quick startle at the sound of a voice, and then chuckling when he saw Foggy and the animals.

"You are a man that would be revered in my time. A man that returns horses is appreciated." And not murdered because of it. "You're a good man to make that hike for us and help."

[clouded_heart]

"They're not horses. By any stretch of the imagination."

Foggy brings them forward and hand them over. "The chicks lived in the kitchen near the stove to keep them warm. And because my room had a kitten living in it and I wasn't sure how many chicks would survive that. I also fed the salamander a couple of times, just to make sure, but really, Leonardo did the bulk of the looking after. I just walked them over."

He looked up at Bobo. "How are you coping?"

[fooloftheking]

"They're the equivalency of what we have here. Hell, I always thought cars should count the same, and stealing one was a death sentence," he says, shrugging. "How it used to be."

He takes the leads though, moving in to scritch one of them, stroking along the kirin's neck.

"It's a real kitten, right? Or one of those bird things?"

He's seen others with them, after all.

"I'm surviving. I mean, been through worse. It wasn't Hell, after all."

[clouded_heart]

"I'm not a fan of the death penalty. And New York doesn't have it, which is good." He understands there are times it seems like a solution, but he isn't comfortable with giving people that power, the right to decide who lives and who dies.

"It's a real kitten. Lynn. He's a cute little bugger." He slides his hands into his pockets, rocking on his feet. "Yeah, I know, you've been to Hell, nothing compares, but that doesn't make it easy or not traumatic. Trauma is trauma. So how are you doing?"

[fooloftheking]

"In the time I'm talking about taking a man's horse was a death sentence. And it was big business. Had to do something to stop it," he says. "But then there's a lot that involved just killing people in that time." As well he knew.

"Huh. Hadn't know there were any, so that's good to know," he says with a nod. Though he can't help but to laugh at that reaction.

"It makes it easy though. You just focus on that and nothing else is as bad," he says, sighing as he moves to head for the police station to get the kirin settled in, assuming that Foggy will follow. "So apparently? I'm a dead man. Shot and condemned back to Hell instead of being tortured on Earth."