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;

[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;

[ofletters]

Right. [ Sure you won't, buddy. ]

What I meant is - Is her stuff there? If it is, then she's coming back.

[ After a week or so. ]

[shivving]

Says who?

[ receipts pls. ]

[ofletters]

Says - ... I mean, that's just what happens.

[ :l ]

Trust me. Been here almost four years.

[shivving]

And this just happens? People just - disappear?

[ There's a touch of anguish in his voice. Up and vanished, and there's nothing he could have done to stop it.

Just because she's (probably) coming back doesn't make the loss of her any less painful. ]

[ofletters]

Yeah. Circumstances... are different, though. If their room's still in tact, they'll probably be back in about a week with all their memories. Sometimes, though, people disappear completely. Come back a year later with no Wonderland memories. Sometimes they don't come back at all.

[ Sam himself has done two of the three. ]

[shivving]

[ Not helping, Sam. ]

How do you keep 'em here?

[ He's had that question answered, of course. More than once. But he still hasn't gotten an answer he likes. ]

[ofletters]

[ SORRY BUDDY ]

You... don't. [ There's no way around that, so better to not sugar-coat it. Joel doesn't seem like the sugar-coat-type, anyway. ] We don't have an explanation for why some people are here for years without going back and some are only here for a month before they're totally gone. It's a crappy system.

[ And one nobody understands. ]

My guess is it has something to do with the Core, but there's no proof to that.

[shivving]

[ Well this is new. Isn't it? Honestly, Joel prefers to leave this theoretical crap up to other people. But it bothers him that no one's figured out anything, even those who have been studying it for years. ]

What's the Core?

[ofletters]

[ Ah. ]

The center of Wonderland. Kind of like it's heart, I guess.

[ He doesn't 'guess.' This is what he believes. ]

It's on the Mirror side, so we can't really see it much. If you do, though... well, you don't get much out of it. And you lose a memory after being exposed to it.

[shivving]

The Mirror side.

[ Whatever that means. ]

An' you think this heart, this - core - is what takes people away, or brings 'em back?

[ofletters]

Honestly? I'm not sure, but I think it's a better bet than pointing fingers at any of the, uh... characters.

[ But, really, who knows what the Queen, the Duchess, etc. are up to. ]

I think our memories give it power, so it'd make sense for it to want to bring in its source of that.

[shivving]

[ Joel's quiet a moment, thinking. ]

Is it alive?

[ Is it sentient, he means. Can it be reasoned with. ]

[ofletters]

I'm not sure if I think it's sentient, but I also don't think that's the same as alive. Not in this place.

[ There's a thoughtful pause. ]

... I'd say 'no.' If I had to guess.

[shivving]

[ He mulls this over for a moment. ]

Anyone ever tried - talkin' to it? Seein' why it does what it does?

[ Or, you know. Bullying and torturing it into submission. Either way. ]

[ofletters]

I'm not sure. [ And then, to explain: ] You lose a memory - maybe more than one - when you come in contact with it. People might've tried talking and then forgot.

[ Sam himself doesn't really remember the encounter beyond the fact that it happened. ]

[shivving]

[ Someone must have tried something, then. If not talked to it, then at least...studied it. Gotten close. Otherwise there'd be no way to know about the lost memories. ]

You ever seen it?

[ofletters]

Yeah. Once. [ There's a light shrug. ] But that's all I can tell you about it. It's like having the guys from Men in Black zap you.

[shivving]

[ It's a testament to Joel's state of mind that the reference to what is, to him, a thirty-plus year old film - from someone who looks as though they shouldn't even have been born until well after the movie came out - doesn't even faze him. He nods. Point taken. ]

Alright then.

[ Something to consider. But even Joel can concede that it sounds like a long shot. ]