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

[quinientos]

Vasquez smiles at that like anyone would when they think about someone they like a great deal. He won't say love out loud, not to Bobo, but he probably already knows. "I hope he does come find me. It's always a more interesting day when he does," he admits.

"I don't think we could share books," he admits. "I could teach him Spanish, but then I don't get to have the fun of speaking in front of him and him not understanding," he admits. "Where I come from, you spend a little time with someone and if they got along, they got married and had children. That won't work for us. I have no child-bearing hips," he deadpans.

[digging]

For a long moment, Karen doesn't reply, considering the honest answer to Bobo's question about Kevin. How strange that such acute insight would come from him, of all people, although she's got to acknowledge that she's supposed to be better about not judging books by their covers by now.

"It's funny," she slowly begins, an idle hand lifting to scratch at her hairline. "I never even thought about it. But no, I guess I didn't. I, um." She pauses, her brow briefly creasing before she can swallow back the spike of emotion. "I didn't even get to go to the funeral. My dad wanted me to leave, so I just... did." She wouldn't have had the energy to fight him on it even if the punishment hadn't felt deserved.

Talking about Loki is easier, if vaguely irritating. "Apparently it's complicated," she answers to the why of his being here now, and then sighs again with a resigned cant of her head. "And I don't know, I guess when it comes down to it, I'd rather this place be neutral on what happened before somebody got here. You never really know how different someone might be if you take them out of a shitty situation." Like Frank, who has, to her knowledge, not killed a single person either time he's been here, and now has an adopted daughter and a house and like twenty-five dogs that make him actually happy.

"And I think it's got to be at least fifteen of us from that universe, maybe more," she adds, squinting as she mentally tallies. "And some who disappeared, too."

[fooloftheking]

"Suppose I need to find a way to turn a shirt into earplugs. He's loud enough as it is," he teases, still finding all of this so new and exciting and different. He has friends. Actually friends. People he shares with. It's odd, but he wouldn't give it up for the world either.

"Don't teach him. What's the fun in that," he says, smirking. "And you don't but he does," Bobo points out, smirking. "But I remember when life was a lot like that. If the weather was nicer, you two could go on trips, explore together, go camping, but don't do it," he says, eyes narrowing. "Not right now. Not that you would," he says with a smirk.

"You two need a project to work on together."

[clouded_heart]

"Well, wasn't it the dream of the early West? Your own land, a farm, a self made man and that?" He keeps up his attentions on the groffle.

[fooloftheking]

"I guess. For me it was trying to keep my town in one piece, but I guess you're right. But now we have chicks and horses of a sort, and now this guy."

[clouded_heart]

"And now this ridiculous creature," Foggy agrees. "Are you and them from the same sort of time?"

[quinientos]

"He's very loud," Vasquez agrees, but there's no remorse in his words. If anything, it's the opposite and he sounds extremely proud by Faraday's volume issues, which means that they're never going to stop being insufferable, so long as they're both there.

"I might not teach him, but others could. Spanish isn't that hard to learn." At least, not for everyone. He thinks maybe he's starting with reading and writing English, though, so he might have some time. "A project," he echoes.

"What kind of project are you thinking?"

[fooloftheking]

"And now this guy" he says, thumping his side lightly, friendly in that touch. "We are. Not from the same places, but there years are less than a decade between us all."

[fooloftheking]

Talking about Loki, for Bobo, is easier. Because it's about someone he hasn't coped with, and being a man that thinks kill first and worry about the consequences never. Though when she makes that commentary about the things people have done before, he sobers a bit. Rocking a bit, considering that as he nods. "I suppose I can understand that. I've tended to tell people my history before the person from my home could." At least the history he wanted them to know. "She's vanished though," he says with a shrug. No loss to Bobo, whether this place lacks Peacemaker or not.

Falling silent a moment, doing better about considering his words rather than just rushing into things. Maybe not always but with Karen, with this, he wants to make sure he doesn't say the wrong thing.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to be there," he murmurs, moving a step closer. "Would you want to maybe do something for him? Maybe that's why they gave you the picture? To help you say goodbye?" And if that's not what they meant, he's more than willing to try and direct it that way for her sake.

[clouded_heart]

"It must be... nice. To be so out of time, but have people who can help. For both of you." He glances to the kirin. "Maybe I should get an animal. Not a croc-dog. Those things are horrifying, I don't care how friendly they are."

[fooloftheking]

"What is with those damned things?" His nose wrinkles, making a face. "I don't get why anyone finds that as a good pet." He shakes his head.

"It was good for me and Vasquez when I first got here. He understood my life, and I got where he was coming from. Made things easier I think when Faraday showed up."

[fooloftheking]

Bobo rolls his eyes, but there's enough of a smile there that he isn't at all bothered. That doesn't mean he's not going to keep giving them shit.

Making a bit of a face, Bobo nods. "I know a bit, but not much. We spoke more French in Purgatory," he notes. "So you won't have to worry about him learning it from me."

Bobo shifts, sitting back and considering that. "Easy enough of one would be that we could use a corral around that building we're using for a barn. Split logs and get them put up. I got nails in a box with the steel for the horse shoes, and you could work on that. Likely we're going to need to take a look at the roof eventually. Just to make sure it's holding up. Could work on furniture for the house if you thought there was anything we needed."

[clouded_heart]

"I don't know, they're terrifying nightmare creatures, I'm just grateful Anne doesn't have one. I like looking after the kitten, but if she had a croc dog, I would make her find someone else to look after it during the next crisis."

[quinientos]

"I'm not so sure that I want us to be doing any of the things we did in Rose Creek before the battle," Vasquez admits, shifting a little in his seat, knowing that he's uncomfortable even thinking about it. "It's not a good reminder of what came next."

"Something for the house, though, I think that could work. Maybe we can make a couch, if we find something to stuff the seats with?" he says, thinking of the purple animals and their wool.

[fooloftheking]

"At least the llamas or whatever they are look cute, and the unicorns," he says, waving a hand at them. "Have use. Same as that mess," he says, scritching the groffle. "I guess maybe yappy ugly dogs could be used for security?"

[clouded_heart]

"A lot of people seem to like them. Must be something to it. I just don't get what." He's not really a pet person on the whole, despite the fact he quite likes animals.

[fooloftheking]

"You a dog person otherwise?" He knows he's not, and honest about that. "I mean, never had a pet myself."

[clouded_heart]

"I'm not a pet person. Taking care of Matt was a full time job." It's mostly a joke, but he just didn't have time for pets. College, then work. Marci wasn't really an animal person. "And animal fur on suits is a bad look for a high paid lawyer."

[fooloftheking]

"Yeah, trust me. I know that feeling. I had a few dozen pets for the longest time. All on two legs, and never a desire to have the four legged kind after that," he admits, not even joking. Not in the least.

He chuckles at that. "Yeah I guess that could ruin things."

[clouded_heart]

Foggy stares at Bobo. He is well aware that the man is not joking and he's feeling... conflicted about it.

Not because he disapproves, he knows those people were there willingly. It's everything else that's a bit conflicting.

As such, he's quiet for longer than might be socially appropriate.

[fooloftheking]

Bobo nods, understanding avoiding the things that trigger thoughts of the past. He's been doing a bit of that himself. "And no need to do that or talk about it. I can work on the corral, hope to get it done before the snow gets too bad around the village."

He's not always sure what they're doing with all of this, but he's in for the long haul and seeing how things turn out.

"Could go with those llamas," he points out. "Could find sweetgrass like we uses to use for beds and wrap it in that purple fluff." He pauses and then chuckles. "Let me guess. That's the next of the herd?"

[fooloftheking]

"Don't get like that, Foggy," he says, waving a hand at him. "I don't mean like actual pets. More like kids. Murderous, dangerous, idiotic kids," he says with a snort. "But when you're responsible for that much you don't want to take on pets."

And he's not sure why he's making excuses and explanations but he is.

[quinientos]

Vasquez shrugs, like he hasn't been thinking about it for a while. Maybe he shouldn't be so occupied with adding more animals to the group, but it makes him feel useful. It takes him back to before he was an outlaw, and that's not something he thinks should be so easily ignored.

"We started taking over another building, so we can have more of them now," he says. "Maybe our first project is to build a pen for them, really."

[clouded_heart]

"I'm not getting like anything." He pets the groffle softly. "I'm very aware of the BDSM community and consensual pets, not getting into pet play or that. I was just thinking about it, not judging it. And you don't have to justify yourself to me."

[fooloftheking]

"Wait, no. I didn't mean like that. I meant like they're attack dogs with a short chain. Very few of them am I intimate with, and most of them I would kill before sleep with," he says, nose wrinkling.

Though he doesn't like he is justifying himself, feeling like the worst parts of Robert were surfacing.