that one time travel psl

[eyediot]

sad bad end s5 jon and tim on a monster road trip



[Algric had given the trio a fair warning of what was happening. Not the specific details of what he was coming from, but he was from a little further along Algric's timeline, and came through Hilltop Road. Never pleasant, but he's here now. IT took a few days of settling, readjusting, and putting some firm self-imposed boundaries on himself before Jon felt comfortable enough to see the others.

After a few minutes of surprise and staring, Jon ends up sitting alone with Tim for a few minutes; the others having some things to take care of themselves. He sits there, fiddling a bit with his fingers, trying not to be self conscious. He can't do anything about the myriad of different, newer scars, nor about his black sclera or so many other things about himself now.

But god... Tim. Alive and not shouting at him right this second. How novel.]

Tim... I.. [Where does he even start.]

Comments

[kayakking]

[It's odd in a way. He didn't feel it during that brief moment before 'Jonah' gets it under control. No, it was only after he bites it off and shakes his head that Tim realizes how much he'd leaned forward, how much he, on a primal level, had needed to answer whatever Jonah was going to say.

And that terrible thought, that wriggling, burrowing thought, that if Jonah hadn't kept it controlled, he might never have known it happened at all. How little his will meant.]

What the---

[Now? Now is a look Jonah is VERY familiar with.] Don't. EVER. Do that.

[eyediot]

[Even as that familiar tone and expression hit him, Jonah is sitting, hand over his mouth and looking rather disgusted with himself.]

...I'm trying not to. [It's hard not to fall into the same argumentative attitude he had with Tim in the end.] I don't want to do that.

[kayakking]

[It's practically habit now, isn't it? The parry and thrust. Except the opponent Jonah used to spar with constantly is deeply unpracticed here.]

So, what? Just accidental mind control?

[eyediot]

[And how unpracticed he is doesn't go unnoticed. It's enough for Jonah to let down that first guard. A show of... some vulnerability, in his voice.]

Yes. I have to... consciously control it. [Consciously not let it slip through, carefully pick his words, how he asks a question.] It's part of why I didn't want to immediately come here. I wanted to make sure I even could keep it back before I spoke with all of you.

[kayakking]

[And it's that tone more than the words that... start settling that guard back down. There's still a fear there under it. It started from another entity, but could be the Eye's, with just a little more, sweet for how new it is.

His look subsides to a wariness.]

Can you?

[eyediot]

[He takes a steadying breath, finally dropping his hand from half-covering his mouth.]

I can... with some careful thought. It just... means taking a little longer to have a conversation, but. I think the trade off is worth it. [If it means they trust him, and he doesn't break that trust.]

[kayakking]

[Tim is quiet, watching him with a strange intensity. Then, slowly, he nods. He'd decided to trust Jon... For now, that extends to Jonah.

Still.]

So...

I have a request and- Look, it's going to sound fucked up, but hear me out.

[eyediot]

As someone who's seen the extreme of 'fucked up'... Try me.

[kayakking]

Right. [That.. that does get a wry half smile. Apocalypse. Right.]

... [It still takes a second, though.]

Can you make it hurt?

[Then, quickly:] I didn't- I didn't know it was happening until you stopped. I need- I want to know, for sure. When it is and when it isn't.

[A beat, and an almost helpless:]

I don't want to like it.

[eyediot]

[Jonah's eyes on him soften out of sympathy and understanding. God, if they'd known when Elias was doing it to them, or if he'd been able to realize what was happening to himself sooner... Maybe things would've turned out different.

He nods at that.]

I think I can do that. [Would it be any different than forcing information? That always seemed to hurt whoever was on the receiving end.] I'll think about how to do it.

[kayakking]

Okay... okay. Yeah. That will work.

[He takes a moment to compose himself again.]

You wanted to know what I know, yeah?

[eyediot]

[The easiest way to do it would just set in a compulsion, a way for it to automatically hurt if anyone tried but Jonah isn't entirely keen on rewriting anyone's heads.]

Y-yes. Just so I know what I don't have to retread.

[kayakking]

All right.

[He rubs his face and organizes his thoughts a little. And what follows is fairly pithy, to the point and informative. Algric had managed to outline quite a bit of the biggest points, as much as the final blow to Jonah from Elias hadn't come, nor with it all of its explanation.

He knows about the fears, about Sasha (the grief is fresh, and the gesture to his shoulder is unmistakable), the rituals, his own death and Jon's. He knows about the means to escape (yet none of them have taken it). He knows about Elias, and the Lukases. He knows... actually, so little. Nothing in the way things actually work, what Elias is planning, nor honestly, how bad it gets.]

I think that's the main parts.

[eyediot]

[Jonah, for his part, listens patiently. There is still so much they don't know, because Algric had been kept in the dark as long as he had himself.

When Tim finishes, Jonah rubs at his mouth thoughtful.]

... I think I can. Probably clear anything up. If you want to know anything.

[kayakking]

... How much DO you know? What's the limit on this because I really have a lot of questions.

[eyediot]

I ... [Huh. There's something he didn't give much thought to as he wandered the apocalypse.]

As far as everything here goes, most of it? There are a few things about Elias directly I'm unsure about.

But on a meta level, I... could know anything if I wanted? I think.

[He didn't try before. Didnt have any reason to try.]

[kayakking]

[Jonah really doesn't have to Know to see the battleground of wariness and pure, unadulterated curiosity on Tim's face.]

What... like? Anything?

Like, if I asked-

[What could Jon not possibly know?]

Why did my first girlfriend break up with me?

[eyediot]

[The expression on Jonah's face isn't anger or misery, no. It's bewilderment and confusion. Really. Apocalyptic google at his back and call and he asks this?

After a minute, he schools his face into something more serious and the green fills his eyes while he lets that internal mental archive scroll through.]

Let's see... First girlfriend, Molly Hampton, dated you for five months just after primary. She... [Okay. Okay wait, he chuckles half a laugh.]

She told you she broke up with you because she was afraid of cutting herself on your braces, but really it was because you kept teasing about her dimple.

[kayakking]

[That's EXACTLY what he asks. He starts to nod at the answer, then-

-He doesn't even have time to DOUBT. It's not just correct but WORLD IS ALTERED. In the most mundane way.]

What? No. They were cute! Like, really cute.

[eyediot]

I'm sure but apparently she was really self conscious about it.

[kayakking]

... I could kick past-me.

[eyediot]

I know the feeling.

[It's taking everything he has not to go beat the tar out of his past self in the other room.]

But that prove it for you?

[kayakking]

[That and Jon/ah's strength stat of like. 6.]

Yeah... yeah I guess it does.

Huh.

[Anything.]

[eyediot]

[It would be like watching toddlers have a half-assed slap fight.

Jonah watches him, trying to gage where to even start.]

There's... so much more, worse parts of this that Algric didn't have the pieces to when he told you all about it.

[kayakking]

[Yeah. Yeah there definitely is. He lets out a breath, shoulders sinking as he braces.]

So. Yeah. Lets start there. Like... why all this? Was there even a point?