Slingin' from the hip, never the heart. | Open Post

[tinstar]

Raylan's job took him everywhere, from Harlan to Los Angeles to Paris. The Marshals service was demanding but Raylan leaned into the work, traveling as needed to get to get his man.

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[thering]

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be considered 'every day', neither. Think you're on your own with that one, Marshal." Sometimes Doc does enjoy the limelight, and he likes being special. Sometimes he shies away from it. But the fact of the matter is, just because it's easy to forget he's more than a century and a half old sometimes doesn't mean that Doc is any less strange than the other people or the other things that are happening in this town. At least he is able to be an anomaly that Raylan can blend into. Surely two cowboys don't stick out more than just the one.

"Sometimes you cannot protect them from everything, hard as you may try." Sometimes you are the problem that you are trying to protect someone else from. Doc understands that too. He doesn't quite make eye contact as he holds his mug out for an unhealthy ration of moonshine. He would never risk asking if it is maybe too much or perhaps too early or say or do anything other than bring his drink in close once Raylan has finished pouring and peering into his rippling reflection before taking a drink.

"I think we're in the same boat for that. Not mattering much what we would do." Doc is actively rejecting the notion of making any plans beyond taking things one day at a time. Maybe decisions will be made that will require his input. Maybe there will be none. He is not allowing himself to get involved any more than he already has. For Doc it is not a matter of sticking his head in the sand as much as it is not wanting to meddle in something that, for better or worse, he doesn't feel is his place to interfere in. But maybe Raylan does perceive this very conscious, deliberate distancing as strange.

"Well if we can survive living on this I'm pretty sure we're set to survive this place at least," Doc jokes, lifting his glass of moonshine to gesture at what good shit he is referring to, changing the subject again to more neutral, friendly banter territory. "Whatever else is waiting for us back home, however we get there, it's a whole other problem for another day."

[tinstar]

Raylan bobbed his head, begrudgingly. It was more than odd to be the most 'every day' of the bunch of them, part of why he'd gravitated so easily to Doc's like type habits and mannerisms. There was a comfort there, in their large group of two. It wasn't as though Raylan really forgot but it was easy to let slip from the forefront of his mind that Doc was coming on a hundred and seventy.

Pouring out, the bottle was set back down so he could get back around his own cup. He wouldn't find any argument to the idea that it was too early or too much - they had nowhere to go. Nothing to do.

"Even if you could, we shouldn't want to. Not everything. Shit shapes a person. Either way, we could never think of all the things that might happen." One day at a time kept the plate that was already heavy enough, a little lighter. He didn't understand Doc's distancing but.. he doesn't have to. Understanding wasn't going to give him any secrets or gifts that would change Doc's mind. Man had a right to make it up the way he wanted to.

Raylan huffed a chuckle. "If we can survive this, we'll survive anything. Pretty sure we're workin' on being test subjects for how to liquidate our livers. They might need a doc for us, we keep goin' at this pace for weeks more. Somehow," he mused with a look into his cup with a pull of his lips before he spoke into it as he lifted it up for a drink, "I doubt we're going to stop."

[thering]

"Oh you and I have stomached worse things, I'm sure." There has been no reason to stop, so far. Doc doesn't think he would find any reason to in the coming days. He is in a better mood when he's had a glass, aboe to think more clearly than when he is cranky and grumpy, and other people who have had a glass themselves would find him more tolerable too. It's a win-win situation, as far as he's concerned.

"Suppose we are turning in after this bottle. That's about as responsible as I am willing to be." Gives them a little bit more time to finish up, but not too much that they might risk filling in the silences that fall between them with questions or suggestions that might go too far.

[tinstar]

Raylan chuckled and sighed, setting his hat a little too far forward on his face as he laid his head back against the chair. "Far too many to tell," he admitted with a heavy hefted breath that sounded fairly satisfited with how they'd spent their evening.

He glanced at the bottle from under the rim of his hat with a nod and settled back down. "Probably a good idea. Else we're gonna pass out out here and I don't know how safe that is. Malcolm would hate to come down at see us lookin' like to CowboyPopcicles out here." He heaved another deep breath.

"Might as well finish inside, let our toes remember what it's like to be warmed by actual heat and not moonshine,mm?" Raylan pushed his hat back and stood up, wobbling a little before getting his feet under him. "Maybe we don't wait for the rest of the bottle," he admitted with a laugh.

[ooc: yeah, I feel the wrap up of this one comin' you wanna cap it off?]

Sure 👍

[thering]

"My soul is unwilling but my toes might agree with you," Doc jokes. He doesn't think he has much of a soul left anymore, but that's another topic of misery for another miserable day.

Standing mostly upright out of sheer stubbornness, he reaches over to get the door, holding it open long enough for Raylan to get inside. A heavy hand claps against his back on his way in and Doc follows soon after, letting the porch door swing closed behind them. Thought of conquering the stairs is a little daunting right now but with a few laughs and clumsy bruises on their way to the promise of a dreamless sleep in a soft, warm bed, they can probably manage the feat between the two of them coordinating their efforts leaning against each other on their way up.

But first. They have a drink to finish in the dark.