stardustly | plot box

plot box

PLOT BOX !

» For all kinds of shenanigans. Things I want to do will be listed here and if anyone has any ideas, hit me up. It'd be easier to post on the other topics for things listed here so it will not become cluttered!

» general open post. smutty open post. general memes. smutty memes. au scenarios.

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He should have known better not to trust the goddamn Winnebago a second time. It was a miracle the thing worked at all, but when he'd crammed Rick in through the door and taken to the driving seat - all. over. again - he'd at least expected the thing to hold out. It started with an unsettling rattle, went to the destination, and he'd parked up expecting it to go again when he needed it to.

But, lesson taught, Rick slumped in the seat beside him defeated, he's turned the key and the engine had backfired and cut out with a puff of smoke.

He supposed he should be grateful it wasn't on fire. The dead converged on the grounded machine, attracted by the noise, and Negan scowled at the rotting faces as the bodies pressed themselves up against the outsides of the vehicle. It was like a fortress inside, of course, it would hold, but...

"Man oh man. Today just keeps getting better and better, don't it?"

He shot a glance at Rick, then pulled himself up to his feet, starting to pull the curtains in the cabin, beckoning for Rick to follow him.

"You keep this place stocked for crap like this, right? Food, water, pack of cards? Why don't you give me the tour?"

It wasn't a request. Given the dead "holy" man hanging from the bridge, entrails feeding the mob below (punishment for Rick's little uprising), the lesson had to be learned by now. Obedience. That was all he wanted, all he'd accept.

And if Rick didn't want to learn, he could always go back outside.

The failure cut Rick deeply and splattered his heart messily at his feet. They all depended on him and he let them down, thrusting everyone back towards a mad man drunk on power and influence. A man who thought the world bowed down to him and he didn't have to answer to anyone. He should have crumbled, dust and ashes to their feet but somehow Negan clawed his way back up from the depths.

Rick should have killed him, watched the light leave his eyes little by little until the tell tale rattle filled the terse air.

Instead, he sat there beside Negan, nearly all the fight within him drained by the exhaustion and stress accumulated from the long months they waged against one another. But it wouldn't be the end, not really, for now, yes, but things would turn back around. Rick would find a new surge and then Negan would meet his ultimate end.

Sighing deeply when they were stalled, Rick slowly climbed to his feet. He pushed back the curtains and barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "That's the front and here's the back. Tour over." His disdain for Negan clear as anything but he didn't make a move or anything. His arm still really hurt and he didn't really want to deal with fighting against the walkers at the moment.

"Things in the cabinets. I'm sure you know how to open them." He sat down at the table, hands clenched on the seat beneath him. Water would have been nice, actually, but he didn't want to bother. Also, he couldn't even remember the last time he ate anything or slept.

Negan was not impressed, but if he had expected anything north of lackluster, maybe killing Ezekiel in such a spectacular fashion hadn't been the way to go. Still, the truth was that without the Kingdom getting involved in his disagreement with Alexandria, Rick's rebellion wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as it did, and less people would have had to die as a consequence. The fact that he'd only killed Ezekiel - and still spared Rick his son, though he had insisted on them being separated - was frankly a miracle. Daryl stayed at the Kingdom, Carl stayed at Alexandria to raise his sister, and that crazy ass widow bitch Maggie was to keep to the Hilltop.

Rick was with him. His new job, as Negan had explained, was to organize the collection of goods, and the distribution of others as needed, and when he wasn't doing that job, he'd be locked down.

He was still going to take some breaking in, but whatever. They'd get there with time, and since it was the end of the world, they both had plenty of it. Rick was lucky. The alternative didn't give him a job to do, didn't give him a life to live, and it sure wouldn't have left him the option to see his kids grow up any more than they already had. Dead was still pretty final, no matter how you looked at it.

Negan rolled his eyes, and he began to flick through all the cabinets, checking out what was inside. There was no booze, not unexpectedly. Some medical supplies, some cleaning supplies, food and water. He took out two bottles of water, and a can of mystery meat, then slung himself in the half-seat beside the table, watching Rick bury in on himself in his own misery.

He pushed one of the bottles across to him, then focused on opening the can of meat, pulling the ringpull back and investigating the contents. He crinkled the edges of can with his fist, then turned it over and slammed it down on the table in front of Rick, so that it came out whole. Then he drew his knife, unfolding it, before reaching across to chop the meat into four large pieces.

"The sullen bitch in heat act is gonna get real boring real fast, Rickadee."

The loathing he felt grew more by the day but for the time being he needed to play by the 'rules' Negan set in place, usher in a false sense of security before things changed. Even after everything, he held onto a small tendril of hope that things would shift into another sort of way, one far more favorable to Alexandria, the Kingdom, Hilltop and the other small communities scattered around. At least, Oceanside kept out of the conflict and no one messed with them beyond what Alexandria did. He still needed to find a way to recover the guns from the Scavengers to distribute back around.

The key of which might rest in Negan's odd apparent fondness for him. Daryl remarked about it in hushed whispers before they were yanked apart from one another and Rick left with Negan. It seemed unbelievable at first but in the time since the beginning of his captivity, Rick noticed small things and lingering looks. It made him feel perhaps a little guilty to use such a thing against someone but, well, desperate times called for extreme measures. He could worry about his sense of morals later.

The one problem, then? Mustering up the willpower to be close to Negan and not appear repulsed about it.

Eyes falling onto the bottle of water, he tried to play slightly more agreeable and took a swig of it before Negan commanded him to. The focus on his wellbeing added another checkmark in the column of Daryl's assumptions. But why? Why did Negan want to bother with him when he had plenty of others? There were also his gaggle of wives, which Rick really disapproved up but he kept the thoughts to himself.

Trying to not think about Ezekiel pained him as well, especially when he started to really warm up to the man. The death really hurt Michonne and Rick needed to fix things one way or another.

"I'm sorry, dear, thanks for draggin' me away from the room I'm locked up in and bringin' me out to witness the brutal murder of another one of my friends. You really shouldn't have." The words were out of his mouth before he thought better of it, eyes filled with absolute hatred to the likes he never felt before, not even towards the Governor.

"Oh, come now. If I wanted another wife, I'd take one. I thought I brought a man out here. At least, that's what I figured from all that war talk of yours."

Rick hadn't given up on that. Punishments, and the measures that Negan had put into place would only force him to take his resistance further underground, and that would only make life more difficult, but admittedly Negan did have a soft spot for the man. If he didn't, he'd have killed his son, or adopted Rick's daughter as his own. That would surely have been a more powerful bargaining chip.

But Negan didn't hold toddlers at knifepoint. No matter what kind of man Rick might think he was, he wasn't that kind of man.

He rolled his eyes, turning the blade on the table with the tip embedded in the cheap oilcloth cover. When he span the blade, it sank into it easily, carving a hole. Rick's entire focus was on the knife itself, rather than the man on the other side of the table, clearly broadcasting that he wasn't remotely worried about what Rick might do. To be fair, he was far too deep into the snare to think about going back, and if he did, the wire around his throat would choke him dead.

He didn't look straight at Rick as he stabbed the piece of meat in front of him with the tip of the blade, but he did when he raised blade, meat and all up to Rick's mouth, offering him the large morsel on the sharp tip.

"Go ahead. I've wanted you to wrap your teeth around my meat since I first laid eyes on you." He fake shuddered across his shoulders, and his mouth peeled open into an even more sinister grin. "Ooh, it gives me the shivers just thinking about it. Open that pretty mouth of yours and take it, Ricky boy."

The urge to kill Negan burned hotly through his veins but Rick just managed to swallow it down and not act violently in retaliation. He doubted how much longer he could last, especially when Negan kept pushing him right to the brink with the 'paybacks'. It all seemed to hinge on him and why? Why did Negan have to focus so intently on him and not any of the other leaders? When it came to captivity, he only picked him and while things were 'difficult', Negan never forced him into the rooms the others were sent. Rooms were a generous term but it unnerved him. It seemed to with the others as well and it gave Rick a very small opening of something else to use.

Negan's attachment to him would be his undoing.

All the innuendos held a little truth to them and again Rick knew how he could push at it but it would be a very underhanded thing to do. It would make him far worse than some of the others they dealt with in the past and could he really cross such a line? It would be no going back from there but he really needed to keep his people at the forefront of his mind. He would do anything for them. No matter what.

Trying to not sigh, Rick took the bite of the meat, letting the blade nick his lip 'on accident' to see how Negan would react. Testing. Mostly to see how deep the attachment went and if Negan actually cared if he hurt himself. Droplets of blood seeped along his mouth, oozing down his chin to splatter along the rather filthy shirt he had on. No one really cared if he had clean clothes or not. It really didn't matter if Negan told them to 'include him' because they didn't.

The group resented him and Rick wanted them to, sometimes making sure they saw how Negan reacted to him. It built things up and jealous people went to extremes.

He stood up to grab for a rag to wipe his mouth, making sure his shirt raised for Negan to see the rather large bruise on his back and the tiny little scars from the 'fight' he had with the other Saviors. He mostly let them have the upperhand to see how Negan reacted to his wellbeing in danger.

Maybe he was falling for him. It was a problem that nobody had quite been willing to bring up to him over the last few weeks, that there was no sense in why Rick and his team had been given such an easy time of it when Negan should be making examples of them. He didn't. He punished around them. He split them up, he manipulated, he got his way by other means, and they kept resisting anyway.

Even Rick, spoiled with all the ways that Negan had worked to ensure that he didn't have to bear the worst of what his punishments might entail, wasn't put in jail, burned, didn't lose any limbs--kept on resisting. He obeyed, because the alternative was always worse, but it was always only just. Like cutting his mouth on the blade of the knife, and acting like it was no big deal.

He knew it was a challenge or a test or both. Rick had to guess that there was more going on, more beneath the words than anything else. But before Negan could move to react, Rick stood up, reaching for the cloth, exposing injuries to his body that Negan hadn't made.

They were completely unacceptable. Even if he could guess where Rick had gotten them, that didn't make them okay, and a fierce wellspring of protectiveness opened up in him at the sight. Rick belonged to him. He wasn't theirs to kick about and brutalize. And yet there was no rule in place to protect him either. Unlike his wives, the "no touching" rule didn't apply, and if Negan punished them for it, he would only be breaking his own rules on the subject.

The Saviors were held together only because everyone knew the rules, and everyone followed them. There could be no punishment for not following an order that hadn't been given. But he couldn't protect Rick without looking soft on him either. He was just a prisoner, nothing else; an enemy, who had made a lot of people angry, killed a lot of people's friends. That tended to rile them up. Negan couldn't make one rule for Rick and one for everyone else.

But he still dug the knife into the table, meat and all, and stood up, staring inscrutably at Rick. ]

Take the shirt off. The pants too.

For the time being, Negan held more of the cards and because of it the other groups mostly behaved. They didn't push the boundaries as much as they could because they were concerned over the consequences and didn't have him to rally them. The loss of Ezekiel also squashed some of the fire but it wouldn't last for long. The Saviors thought they were untouchable and for the moment they were but only just because they had no idea who they were messing with. They had been through worse and always managed to come out victorious. Things were bleak but Rick could feel the shift and some of the power shifting back into his hands. He just needed to play the balance correctly of when to make Negan work for it and when to give in and let him think he had won.

Men like Negan were always so predictable and he faced enough of them during his time on the force. He knew how to negotiate and while it used to be with his words, now he knew how to use other means.

Pressing the rag to his bleeding lip, Rick nearly startled at Negan's words. Really? Let him get right on that. Turning to face the man, he tilted his head to the side, the rag pressing a little harder to his mouth. He wanted Negan to see the damage done but he hadn't anticipated such genuine concern. Through all their time together, he knew how to read Negan and could tell the more honest emotion expressions. The man really didn't have many actual walls, not in the way most did in their new society.

It made him wonder sometimes how Negan managed to hold onto things for so long or could no one else read him as easily as he could? Letting the bloody rag fall onto the counter, he pulled his shirt up and off, allowing for it to pool on the ground beneath his feet. The reveal exposed the scars he had prior to being locked up in the compound but also revealed plenty of relatively fresh marks. There were plenty of bruises and cuts, one of which probably should have received stitches. A few burn marks ran along his stomach but the ache in his arm hurt the worst. If he had fought back, they wouldn't have managed to inflict anything on him but he had his reasons for not reacting. They would be sorry, though, he would make sure of it.

The thing was, as easy as Negan was to read, and as much of a teddy bear as he could be, he was also quite capably ruthless. If someone broke his rules and knew better, it ended quickly for them, particularly if he could use it to teach someone else a lesson, and spread word of his viciousness among others. If he was harsh with one, at the right time, then those who had risked breaking the rules in the past would count their lucky stars that he hadn't caught them, and never do it again.

But Negan really did only want obedience. People being afraid was useful, but it made life very boring, and Negan at his core, despite the act, was a man who enjoyed the company of others, and found being alone very hollowing. All he wanted was to keep them alive, and stop them making the stupid, selfish mistakes that got them killed.

It worked, but it was lonely. They saw his friendliness as a mask, not realizing that it was the viciousness that was the face he put on over the rest of it. Stupid, really, since this world was full of people who were like him--soft people, hardened by the life they were forced to lead. It was funny. With Lucille's cancer, he'd had to put that mask on so much earlier than everyone else, had to be tough in the face of inquisition about her.

Maybe Rick reminded him of her, a little bit.

Perhaps that was what made the wounds and bruises so upsetting. His jaw worked into a knot, and he stepped forward, gripping Rick's shoulder firmly.

"Did they rape you, or just beat you?"

Because rape he could punish. He could smash heads, make this all better.

Time blurred along the edges most days and Rick lost track of counting how much of it had passed. It seemed like an eternity and the old world existed as a faint memory in the back of his mind. He barely remembered what it felt like to be safe and to actually find rest. Things were always too dire and he took all the weight of things onto his shoulders but he could see some why people decided to follow after Negan. The man had the ability to make others feel safe if they were in his good graces, nearly as if he could take on the entire world on his own. The pressure it caused could nearly break anyone and Rick knew because his community thought the same when they looked at him.

He needed to be above any types of human weaknesses, which made their current predicament sting worse because of the very obvious failures. He let down all of them and he couldn't close his eyes without seeing Glenn, Abraham and now Ezekiel dead.

Rape him. Like anyone could ever do such a thing. The Saviors looked at him and completely discounted what he could do. They believed him harmless and breakable, despite how long the war lasted THANKS to him. It didn't seem to matter but they failed to understand how looks were very, very deceiving.

They would learn, though, soon enough.

"They didn't rape me," Rick replied, the rattling sound of the walkers just outside the doors put his nerves more on edge. He remembered the last time they were out here like this and he felt more exhausted now than back then. He wouldn't be able to take on all the walkers on his own, especially not with the state of his arm.

He gave a shrug as if it didn't matter, as if he nearly expected it. "Just didn't want me joinin' their crew." In fact, Simon had been downright livid on Rick's job assignment because apparently prisoners were to work on the lower rungs of their society or deal with the fences. They certainly didn't have a more cushiony job and a nicer type of room. Rick also didn't have to work for points, which again made plenty angry but he never asked for anything. Negan literally had to give him things for him to take anything. The state of his clothing being a prime example and, well, others never gave him things unless Negan made sure of it either.

"Looks worse than it is," he insisted, winching just a little as Negan clasped his shoulder. He never wanted to consider why he cared if Negan did or not. Why would he want Negan to care about him? It sure had been a long time since anyone took an actual interest in him, though, or thought to take care of him.

Yes. Rick was spoiled. Rick was very lucky that he was spoiled, because in any other scenario he would be dead already. If Negan didn't feel that they had some kind of connection to each other, strange though it was, then Rick would have gone the same way as anyone else who broke Negan's rules. But here he was, enjoying flaunting them, taking advantage if only to find out how far Negan's protectiveness would stretch.

He could tell that he was being played in that way, boundaries tested. Other people had done the same, in the past, and paid the price. Rick wasn't paying yet, but maybe he should be. Negan didn't appreciate being tested. In the long term, it meant that someone wanted more than what they had, and in Rick's case, that could only be perilous. He was intelligent, dangerous, but still - because of both - far too interesting for Negan to give up on.

But those boundaries...

"You're going to have to stand up for yourself if you want to stay alive. You have been given rights, and if they don't respect that, then they only have me to answer to. It would still be better, though, if you didn't let them run roughshod all over you."

He loosened his grip slightly, and moved his hand along Rick's collarbone, stroking his neck, before retreating his hand away. It went into his pocket, and he turned away, taking a deep, controlling breath.

"I'm relieved they didn't rape you. I'd have to kill them. Messy business. Besides..." He glanced back at Rick, and winked at him. "It's always a shame when someone ruins sex for people, don't you think? One thing left in the world that still feels really good."

"Why don't you sit back down. And eat. You look like a walker shit you out."

The expressions on Negan's face and the way he touched him told Rick all he needed to know, confirming Daryl's suspicions he whispered to him before they were ripped apart from each other. Even with the days blurring together, Rick knew it had been quite some time since he saw anyone from his group but he had plans for fixing it. He just needed to earn Negan's trust first and a little more attachment before he started shifting things. Negan needed to believe he still held all the power but Rick knew he actually took it the moment their eyes met.

The Saviors seemed to have won the war but they hadn't really and soon enough they would see how wrong they were. They were counting him out but in so many ways he was more dangerous than Negan could ever be.

"Wouldn't think you'd appreciate me fightin' back," Rick responded, especially when he tended to not stop until others weren't breathing any longer. How would Negan react to coming back into the room with ten men dead at his feet and only Rick standing there. One man shouldn't be able to do the things Rick managed to do. Plus, it would clue others in too much and he needed to seem not as lethal for the rest of his plans to work.

Picking up the filthy shirt, he pulled it back on and moved to sit back down. Later, he'd make a demonstration of what would happen if anyone else dared to touch him. One guy in particular already had his target on his back. Oh, he wouldn't kill him but he would make it difficult for the man to ever eat again.

The concern again.

Fingers picked at the canned meat substance and he brought a little up to his mouth to chew and shallow. To think he missed cans of beans lately.

Maybe that was what it would take for Negan to do something about it. Maybe it would take Rick almost killing a guy for him to set new rules about what could and couldn't be done to him. Or maybe, far more likely, Negan would find his own way around the rules.

He watched Rick redress, wordlessly, and pulled the knife out of the table, cleaning it on his pantleg and then folding it back up. Only when the blade was back in his pocket, and Rick was eating, did he voice his thoughts.

"There's one way I can make them leave you alone. One sure fire way. But you don't want to hear it."

He was going to leave Rick to decide for himself what that meant, whether he should ask, or wait for Rick to finish speaking, because at the end of the day, Negan would probably tell him anyway. A solution was a solution, but he wanted to keep the other man on the edge of his seat with it.

Mostly because it was more fun that way.

Negan stood back up, left Rick with the meat, and made his way up and down the camping car, checking out the windows, then pulling the curtains closed. For a moment, the vehicle rocked on its suspension, but it held. They wouldn't have been driving the damn thing around if the dead could breach the door and walls. Sooner or later, they'd move on, seek out easier prey.

Light still shone down from above, as Negan settled back down in the seat opposite Rick, but it was notably darker even so. Mood lighting.

"Feeling any better?"

Pushing more of the meat into his mouth with trembling fingertips, Rick remained silent as he normally did. He never really spoke much unless he absolutely needed to and even then his words remained clipped and to the point. Gone were the days of inspiring speeches or teasing in any way. The Saviors weren't ready for the former and he never felt the need for the latter unless he saw his people. So far, they kept him locked away in the compound but it would only be a matter of time.

The deepen bond he had with Negan would change everything in a matter of time. He just needed patience to see it all through.

Looking up, he let out a tiny sigh, reaching for the water to take another swig. "What is it?" he finally asked, setting the bottle down with a dull thud on the table. His eyes followed Negan's movements when he moved around and for a moment his mind flashed back to the other times he found himself in the caravan with those who actually mattered to him.

He refused to believe Negan mattered whatsoever to him.

At the second question, he nodded his head. The concern again.

Negan stared straight at Rick, measuring the man up. He was certainly up to something. That quiet, haunted look, that concealed the occasional challenging glance when he thought Negan wasn't looking... It was a big deal, and Negan was determined to tear it out of him sooner or later, get him back to something resembling human that wasn't so thoroughly defiant.

He cocked his head, held his breath, waited until Rick really needed him to speak, and then made his proposal.

"Okay. So I have an opportunity for you. You get a slightly better deal, access to luxuries--alcohol, cigarettes; free movement around the compound. And nobody can touch you. If they touch you, I burn them."

He leaned slightly forward across the table, gaze as intent as a laser.

"You can marry me. Become - heh - another one of my wives. So long as you don't mind me dressing you up the way I wish to. Keep you clean shaved, neat and tidy."

If Rick had thought that Negan was soft on him before, he probably couldn't have imagined that his intent went this way. But here it was. The offer. The best offer he was going to get.

Loathing boiled beneath his skin but he continued to pick at the meat to keep himself in check, knowing the very delicate balance he needed to maintain here. One false move had the potential to destroy everything not just for his community but for all the others depending on him. The loss of all the leaders chipped away at some of the direction but he remained - the lone survivor oddly enough when he began it all in the first place. Negan should have killed him already, guaranteeing no one else would step out of line but how many times had he sparred the man's life as well? They both seemed incapable of killing the other one for some unknown reason. Unknown in the very least on his end, others seemed quite certain of why Negan refused to kill him.

Waiting for Negan to speak, Rick tried to not snap at him to get on with it, knowing the man wanted to make a rise out of him. He refused to give him the satisfaction and instead only glared at him as if it would hurry him the hell up. When Negan explained, Rick wished he never wanted him to speak up in the first place. It had to be a joke, right? Staring for a moment, Rick tried to maintain a rather neutral expression but inside he felt a multitude of conflicting things.

On one hand, he would rather be split in two than to have to deal with Negan more. But on the other hand, it would give him more of an opportunity to move around and plan more. It might also speed up his plan to butter up Negan to allow him to go out on not only runs but to the other communities. He missed his kids and he needed to see where the groups stood with his own eyes.

"What would I have to do?" Rick eventually asked, nails digging into his clenched palms. "What do ya expect?" The vacant expressions on the other wives faces looked less than desirable but they also lacked any true power. They also failed to have the pull he did and whatever twisted fascination Negan held for him.

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plot box

Break down and some other stuff, lmk if this works!

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I can ttly write 3rd prsn

can always change to brackets if you prefer!

I'm good! I don't mind either way, I just forgot part way through

okay!!

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rick wants to scream.