video

[shivving]

public

[ When Joel's face appears on the screen, he's not screaming. He's not stalking the room in rage or setting the library on fire.

He is calm. Eerily so. He glares unblinking into the camera, brow furrowed, silent just long enough to become unsettling.

He has the look of a man who hasn't slept in the last twenty-four hours. ]

I know it's probably the mansion what took Ellie. That more'n likely, none of you had anything to do with it.

If I find out otherwise, I will kill whoever's responsible.

[ end feed. ]


private to tess

Tess.

Comments

Video

[morethan084]

Who's Ellie?

[Hey Joel. Remember not!Sarah?]

Video

[shivving]

[ Oh, he remembers. ]

She's -

[ That's the real question, isn't it? Who is Ellie? Who is she to you? ]

A girl.

[morethan084]

[Right. She gathered that much.]

I can help you look for her, but I need a description of what she looks like.

[very private audio]

[failedparenting]

[Well, fuck. Considering the way Joel landed here guns literally ablaze, he'd rather not see him when something really has happened to that kid.]

Joel, I can guarantee you no one hurt your girl. That just....that kinda thing doesn't happen here, not if it's not the mansion.

[And you know what, if it did? He'd have hunted the sick down a while ago. Just keep putting 'em down until they stop coming back.]

I don't wanna blow smoke up your ass. It took my wife in December and she's just gone. But if her things are still there, there's a chance she'll come back soon. Different, maybe, but she'll come back.

[very private audio]

[shivving]

First time for everything.

[ This place may be infinitely better than back home, events and all. But that doesn't mean he's going to just blindly trust everyone in it. He knows all too well that there's no morality check on those who come through.

It'd let him in, after all. ]

...Different.

[ Explain. ]

[failedparenting]

There's usually a kinda pattern to people disappearing and coming back. Well, no, not a pattern really, but they make some sense.

[Just sit tight here bud, he'll get to the point.]

Usually, if someone disappears and stays gone for a while, they're not gonna have any memories when they come back. Sometimes, if someone disappears and comes back in a few weeks, they'll remember this place. Happened to me one or two times. [Ahem.] And sometimes, someone will disappear for a short while and their shit stays in place, and come back remembering this place, but they'll be from a different time than they were before.

[You get all that? He realizes that might be a little confusing, so he pauses for a few moments to let Joel absorb it.]

That's happened to my boys a few times.

[postictal]

[So it looks like NoChill McLibraryTorcher has not acquired any further chill in the interim. Good to know.]

i'm not sure you needed to announce this publicly when we all remember what happened last time you thought ellie was in trouble.

[shivving]

[ tim buddy he is one thousand percent not in the mood ]

well, now you're reminded.

[postictal]

thanks for that.
if her stuff's still in her room she'll probably be back soon.

video;

[needlebearer]

...She's gone?

[Arya can't hide her distress - first Jon and now Ellie, the closest she had to a best friend here.]

video;

[shivving]

[ Shit.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the mental energy left to reassure Arya when he can barely reassure himself. ]

Yeah.

video;

[ofletters]

[ Gotta avert future disaster, here - ]

Don't kill anyone. [ Again. Sigh. ] You're right, it was probably just... the kind of thing that happens here. Have you checked her room?

video;

[shivving]

I won't kill no one that don't deserve it.

[ This time. ]

Yeah, I checked her goddamn room. She ain't there.

[ He's not stupid. ]

video;

[beatupgrass]

Y'know, normally I'd say you were overreactin' and that it's probably nothin', but... the flarkin' fact is people could just kill people quietly, blame it on one of those trips home, and nobody'd know 'til she was back and didn't have a freakin' clue who did the thing.

[NOT HELPING, ROCKET. look he likes Ellie. and doesn't believe in Occam's Razor. because trust no one.

also this is the freakin' guy from wacky Wonderland who was all up his ass with his "concern," and and he seems way more interesting now.]

video;

[shivving]

[ Talking raccoon. Okay.

Joel just stares for a moment, wondering if he's starting to hallucinate from the lack of sleep. ]

What the hell're you?

video;

[nascensibility]

I'm sorry.

[Evelyn knows the feeling, a sickening dread that climbs into one's stomach and rests there as though it belongs. She is loathe to see others wear the same emotion, taut calm stretched over a storm. Joel's inevitable hand-clenching is almost audible.

A beat, then-]

...have you slept?

video;

[shivving]

[ He knows exactly what she's asking. He also knows that there is no way in hell she'll be satisfied with any answer he gives her.

So why try. ]

I am sure that at some point in my life I have slept.

[ Just leave him be, Evie. ]

I'm fine.

private »

[blackmarkets]

[ Well, fuck.

Last thing she wanted was Joel going on a killing spree around the mansion because Ellie was gone. She'd been on the fourth floor when the original video had gone out, already on the move when she responds. She knows that tone, knows how delicately she's gonna need to handle this if everyone was gonna make it through in one piece. ]

Where are you?

private »

[shivving]

First floor. My rooms.

[ It still feels strange to have a place he can call his own. Not whatever apartment he's currently squatting in. Not the empty houses and abandoned cars he and Ellie had taken shelter in along the road. His rooms.

He's not ready for a killing spree yet, though, and he gives up his location to Tess easily, content - for the moment - to wait until she arrives. To seek out her leadership one more time. ]

[shorthair]

[Clementine only just met Ellie, but from talking to Joel and her, she figured out pretty fast they were from the same world, and now it seems like they're really close too. She understands the fear in- Well, she's heard enough about their worlds to know why it's scary for her to go back. She's worried, and she only just met her. They come from worlds far more terrifying than Wonderland is.

She can only imagine how Joel feels.]

If her stuff's still there, she'll be back in a week cause this place sent her back. If it's not, there's still a chance she'll be back, but it's slimmer.

I'm sorry.

[shivving]

Yeah, that's what people're sayin'.

Nothin's been touched.

[ Which means there's nothing to do but wait.

He hates it. ]

video;

[choosetruth]

[Georgia doesn't look particularly friendly on a good day, but that's nothing compared to the scowl she's giving him now from behind her sunglasses.]

You need to step back. This is blind panic talking and, from the looks of it, a complete lack of sleep. Baseless accusations are not going to bring her back.

video;

[shivving]

[ Don't try to out-badass Joel, little girl. ]

I ain't accusin' anyone.

[ Yet. ]

video

[thesamurai]

[ Goddammit. ]

This is what Wonderland does.

[ Michonne's upset, and her jaw clenches tightly as she closes her eyes, breathes, and opens them again. ]

Is her stuff still here?

video

[shivving]

It's still here.

[ He's been told now, multiple times, what that likely means. That she'll come back, and soon.

Somehow, that doesn't put him any more at ease. ]