ringleadering | ic contact.

If you thought I was scared of that, do you think I'd be where I am? You're right. Bubbles always burst, and you. Just how many times have you done the bursting, Rick? How many communities have you busted in and torn up because you don't like the way they're doing things? You ask people their numbers, but what about you? How many people has your morality gotten killed?

If it's like you say, if I end up on my knees, I ain't gonna mourn it. My ticket got punched a long time ago. Same day as yours, I bet.

Some things are unavoidable, like this I suppose. What about yours? How many brains have you bashed in? Who started it all? It's choices. We've all made some we can't take back. Some of us don't get another chance to make it right.

No, mine did a long time ago and I'm still here. I'll still be here until my people are safe. Can promise you that.

I've never made a choice I wasn't square with, never killed anyone on purpose without having a good reason. That goes for your folks too. Like you say, we all make choices. If you ain't happy with the choices you make, then you ain't gonna be happy, and there's no point living your life at other people's expense just to be an unhappy son of a bitch every damn day you're living it.

Nobody's died for me who wasn't happy to step in front of that bullet. Because I keep my people safe. Because when someone kills a bunch of them I make it fair.

Guess that makes us more similar than you'd like. And guarantees only one of our ways is gonna work. But then I don't envy whichever group survives, do you? This kind of shit circles the drain. You get done with one fight, you're only going to have to fight to keep what's yours all over again. And more people die for no reason. Humanity's not coming back until there's so few of us left that we can stay the fuck away from each other.

That was the reasoning for the negotiating. To stop this before it gets too out of hand. To make a way that benefits everyone more and not just a group. Your group. Everyone's got to pull their weight and we got to come together more than to be divided. Like you said, it's going to keep being more fights.

What do you suggest, then? Give me something to work with.

Also, I don't regret keeping my people alive. What we've had to do. We're still standing. We're still breathing.

What do I suggest? You mean other than you making a square effort to get back into line? Giving me Daryl back?

Neither of those things are happening. You're not getting Daryl back.

You wound me, sweetcheeks. I mean me and Daryl, we've got a rapport, like you and me. That kid could go far.

You're not making much of an effort to sweeten the pot here. I mean, especially since I'm the one still sitting on it.

Hate to break it to you but Daryl doesn't like you. That must come as such a shock to you.

What else do you want?

He should. Two of us, we have a lot in common.

Aren't you supposed to be courting me? Maybe I want one of those houses of yours. A lawn. A pool. And, oh, a puppy. What else?

Oh no, that's right. You want to implement your rules, right? Disperse my wives, maybe? Things only work the way they do because I keep them working that way. If this goes the way you want, then I'm as good as dead. What's my motivation?

He'd knife you for suggesting that. But I think he wants Dwight more than you.

I was trying that and you weren't having none of it. What would you do with a puppy? Kill it?

I don't care what you do with your own social life there. That's your business. You don't got to die. If you stop overlording everyone things could be different. We could find a way to move past this.

They'll need to be things done, however. Dwight and the guy who shot Benjamin. What's fair is fair, right?

Why would I kill a puppy? Jesus. You know, you are one hell of a really fucked up guy, Rick. This apocalypse thing has done some real shit to your head if you think I'd kill a puppy.

I am all for discussing your theoretical terms. How better to get to know a guy, right? But first you've gotta answer me this.

Who's Benjamin?

Why would you bash peoples heads in with a baseball bat rather than just shoot them? Answer me that.

A kid who was apart of the Kingdom. One of your guys killed him. He was Carl's age I think.

You've looked down the barrel of a gun. You tell me. Some people think that kind of end would be a relief. They'd be happy to play it up for the sake of their loved ones and get shot, some of them, just to get out of the game. Nobody wants Lucille to cave their heads in. And nobody wants to watch that shit either, do they? Which one do you think gets people to shut their mouths and play by the rules sooner?

Normally speaking, I'd have to kill just one of you to make my point. That's a low body count for control.

You think a story like that might have got back to me. Question: what was the kid doing that got him shot? You know, since you clearly know more about this unacceptable bullshit than I do.

Alright but which do you think makes people want to rebel against you more?

Why Glenn? When you were - deciding - why him?

Something was wrong with the drop off but it could have easily been fixed. Your guy went off leash and shot Benjamin and he died. He was just standing there from what I was told. They all were.

It could have been anyone. Any one of you. And then your friend just had to have his outburst. We'd talked about that, and the most important thing with having rules is that you enforce them. Which one was Glenn? The little one, right?

Maybe there was some preference favored in there. Maybe I kept you alive, and your kid, because you were the leader. Maybe I didn't kill Daryl cause I have a thing for crossbows. Maybe I didn't beat any of the women to death because the children are the future. Could be. Might've just been dumb luck, though.

As for the drop off, I'd have to look into that with prejudice. If someone did a thing like that, and kept it from me, well they would need to be admonished, wouldn't they? Eye for an eye, and all that.

It's still a game to you. All of this. All of that and look where it's all ended up. Glenn was one of the last actually decent men around here. Abe was one of the best fighters. The girl Dwight killed, Denise, was our doctor. She took care of us. Olivia, the one yours shot, was a good woman. She didn't take more than anyone else. The one who did, well, you cut him open. Sasha, well, she always did things by her terms. Respected the hell out of her. The people you lost, did you have that much of a bond with them? Do you really give a shit or were they just numbers?

Could be the start of more going against your 'rule' and what you 'say'. They're getting tired of such tight control.

When's the last time you lived in a house? With your wife? She turn or get bitten?

[ Maybe it's the game comment that gets to him, this time. Maybe it's that, god damn him, Rick is right that there's been a whole hell of a lot of fuck ups, and that someone not telling him about this Benjamin kid is a pin in the machine of it all falling apart. Maybe it's Sasha, dying in that box. He wasn't so convinced of the circumstances, but how else could she have died? How else? It hadn't been supposed to go down like that.

Whatever the reason, he answers with one word. He hasn't talked about that shit in a long time. If he tries hard enough, there's a whole other story with his name on it; he never cared about anyone or anything, and nothing he loved ever mattered. It hadn't even existed. ]

Turned.

[ Pushes on as though there was no slip at all. ]

If you want Dwight for the girl, and another guy for the boy, then your people are gonna wonder: where's the justice for Glenn? For Abe? That girl of yours - you called her Maggie - she ain't gonna rest until she sees me rotting like the rest of them. Your own people will shit all over your own peace, that's the way this works.

Not to mention I couldn't turn over my folks like that even if I wanted to. If I can't punish them myself then that makes me responsible for their shit.

[ In some ways, he didn't know why he asked but in others he knew exactly the reasoning. Humanizing Negan had the ups and downs, all of which he knew about from his time before the world turned into creating monsters. At least, more visible monsters ready to tear apart flesh and eat organs.

Relating to Negan again had ups and downs, none of which any of the others would understand but they weren't in the leadership role. They didn't understand the lengths it took and how swallowing your pride sometimes became necessary for the greater good. ]

My wife turned too. While giving birth to Judith.

Not if we find a way to make peace for everyone and make this work for everybody. To avoid a war, they'd swallow it down and it is what Glenn would have wanted. He always put everyone else's safety ahead of anything else. He's the one that wanted to build something, to make a life and be something greater than all of this. He had the hope that we didn't have to become monsters right along with the walkers.

Don't matter who ends their lives as long as they are ended. If you want to handle it, fine. Daryl gets his freedom. He gets to pick which community he wants to live in and that goes for everybody else. There will be four main communities and everyone will gather things each week to put in at the trading post. Then every community gets some of what is found. If the saviors are offering protection from the walkers, they can have a bigger cut than the other three but not half. The saviors have to offer things along with everyone else. They also don't come into our communities anymore unless they want to live there.

What did you want Daryl for? What purpose was he going to serve?

If you actually wanted a house I can look into that. Can't promise a puppy and don't got any pools but a few places got those slip n slides.

Well that sucks. About your wife, not your grand ideas.

[ He isn't going to express his opinion on that right now, either, because it is not only ambitious, but difficult for a man like him to imagine working. Every time anything got close to comfortable it would go to shit. Walkers always came, always ruined everything; it was like there was an endless supply. Hard to believe there were still so many left; he felt personally like he'd killed enough it should have made a dent.

So he skips all that to go straight to the next question. ]

Daryl's got all the skills I look for in a right hand man. He's tough, but he has a sense of fair. Without that, you get accidents. You get innocent bystanders getting shot for no reason, and I can't stand for that.

You don't leave a guy like that hunting rabbits on the sidelines. You give him a job to do, you make him useful. He's happier when he's busy, isn't he? Am I wrong?

[ Having a more 'real' conversation with Negan felt odd and unsettled Rick in ways he didn't want to look into too deeply. There were actually a lot of things he preferred to ignore and not uncover because he worried about what would happen if he did. He needed to maintain a certain sort of balance, especially with all the people they lost recently and how much more fell onto his shoulders to keep up. ]

Same about your wife. Were you the one who had to -

Thought you already had one. Simon - was it?

Daryl is my right hand man. He always has been. So was Glenn. He's one of the reasons we've all made it this far. He's helped keep us together. They both did in different ways. He likes going off hunting rabbits and it's how he feels most useful. He contributes to everything. Just might not seem like it.

[ He doesn't answer that question because, honestly, he's humiliated by the answer. He remembers talking to Carl about his mother, too. Interesting. Because hey, look, that was a tough kid. ]

Simon's great. But you know how it is. People die. Always got to have a backup dancer waiting in the wings.

[ And if he's a little impressed with his good choice, taking out Glenn and taking away Rick's only support with Daryl, then he's not going to bring it up. It might piss Rick off, and at this point if things don't go his way then it's probably best to have him on his side. Might save him by the skin of his teeth.

Not that he's thinking so negatively as that. But, you know. Backup dancing. ]

You know he's broken, right? Underneath that brusque exterior, that there is a broken man. Still spirited, sure, still kicking, but only cause the world hasn't stopped moving around him. He doesn't have hopes for the future, doesn't exist beyond his next meal. You've felt that, right?

[ He knew it wouldn't be easy to have Negan talk about actual things with substance but each and every comment led to something. Rick worked at a lot of negotiating in the past with his time as a Sheriff's Deputy and he knew a few tricks of the trade and how to read between the lines.

Besides, he didn't find it challenging to piece together Negan. ]

People are interchangeable to you then. No one can ever replace Glenn. No one ever will. The same with Abe. They're apart of us.

[ Discussing Daryl prickled at him and he had to grit his teeth to keep himself from snapping back. ]

Yeah, I know. We've had a rough couple months and some of the losses - he blames himself for 'em. Before Alexandria, we were struggling and barely made it to this point. Can you blame him? Every time we get somewhere, something screws it up. You're not the first person we've dealt with trying to rip everything away. You don't know the half of what we've overcome. That's why I'm trying to give you an opportunity to avoid what we can do.

I know. I know you've seen some shit. To get to this point, we all have.

It's like dicks. You and me, we've always known we're blessed, and we've measured out dicks against a whole lot of other people. Was close now and then, but we always came out number one. And now here you are. You've won all your dick measuring contests and I've measured mine. Short of whipping them out and waggling them at each other, we're not going to know who the winner between us is. And, having never lost a contest, we're neither of us planning to back down.

I don't doubt the competition will be tough. But you've got a whole hell of a lot more to lose than I do. All of you have. I'm not saying it to be a bitch, it's just the way these things are.

You'll find those people backed against the wall fight the hardest. They give it all they got because they've got the most to lose. Different than those who just fight for power or for what they think they deserve. It's different when it's for who you care about. Much different. You haven't seen what all we're capable of and the lengths we'll go to.

Think of it, all the communities working together and how much better the sanctuary will be because of it. With others willingly helping and adding to things.

Carl said a lot of your people act scared and are frail. It doesn't have to be like that. We can change things for all of us. Just got to be willing to give it a chance. Either way, it's gonna happen. Things will change. It's just the matter if you want a whole lot of bloodshed before it happens.

It's a new world, Negan, you're either going to be apart of it or you're not. Your people are going to give it a shot or they'll die. It's as simple as that.

ic contact.

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