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

[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. ]