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

[eyediot]

...I think you'd hate him more if you knew what else happened.

[Jonah really.... truly hates that man, now that he's had some distance to deal with his trauma.]

[kayakking]

Of course there's more.

[DESPISES him.]

... Okay. All right. What else.

[eyediot]

Let's see. Off the top of my head: murdered Leitner in my office and framed me for it, kept all of you in the dark when Nikola kidnapped me for a month. Made the deal with Peter Lukas that... hurt Algric. [That one he hesitates, sounding less like a laundry list and more... personal.] Somehow kept all information about the Unknowing and our plans to stop it from you. He... [Hm.] He hurt Melanie, made her... Made her Know how her father really died in Ivy Meadows.

[That man did so much to cause so much harm to so many in just a few short years. Jonah sits, like he's debating talking about the last big thing.]

In... the end. F-for me. I killed Peter. Wandered the Lonely for... months looking for Martin. Found my way back to the Institute, there wasn't... Anyone left, Tim. Everyone was... dead or just. Gone.

[Tim is probably going to hate him.]

[kayakking]

[... A month.

Killed Peter- fine. He feels like he should have a better reaction than the grim satisfaction he felt at hearing about the man's murder. But good. Frankly.

There's more there, tucked in too curt explanations of people he doesn't entirely know and the significance he doesn't have enough to grasp yet.

But... he knew a writhing when he heard one. His gaze sharpened. What did he DO?]

... what happened?

[eyediot]

[An Avatar of the Beholding, is able to know anything and everything on a whim and a question.... and Jonah finds he can't help curling into himself. He shifts in the seat, knees pulling him like trying to make himself smaller.]

He... tricked me. I was. I was tired, and. And weak, and... alone. He tricked me into... doing the ritual. Th-the Watcher's Crown.

[kayakking]

[It's no great leap to put it all together. It takes little to look at Jonah and guess there were enough marks. From the pocked skin to the burn, to the - good lord what happened to his NECK.

No wonder that transformation happened.]

God. [It comes out in an explosive breath, clearly the foreshocks of the coming explosion. There is a spark, white hot and vicious. But it... never hits? The angry, bladed words whistle past his open back.]

That bloody son of a bitch.

[eyediot]

[He expected anger. The explosive burst of emotions that would cut Jonah deep, like Tim always had a way of doing right up to the end. "Why didn't you stop it?" "Why did you keep reading it when you knew what it was?" "Why did you let it happen?" All things he kept asking himself

If stopping reading would have killed him... maybe that would have been worth not destroying the world. It's what Jonah keeps telling himself when he can't sleep.

It's surprising when the anger isn't directed at him. He looks up at Tim, bewildered and openly vulnerable, having been ready to defend himself.

Where he had the words ready to explain about how he couldn't have stopped, Jonah sits. Speechless and lets Tim express what he doesnt have the energy to anymore.]

[kayakking]

[And then it goes off. Tim is out of his chair abruptly, the wood clattering against the kitchenette table as it's slammed back in. (The others hear.) He's working out the frustration that should have been tearing chunks in the spaces between his intentions and actions... instead, as he paces, the futile rant is directed at someone neither here, nor honestly would even care enough to enjoy it.]

Of all of the petty, evil bullshit! Consigns a whole fucking world to- to one of those- all of those things because the wretched old fool doesn't want to die?

It's not enough? A whole building full of suffering. Of all of the - the absolutely random horror poor fucks somehow live through and it's not enough. No, he kills all of us and rips it out of you.

[eyediot]

[It's odd, feeling so prepared for the anger in front of him, but watching it be directed to the pair of eyes trying to see from across the city. (It's only because of Algric and Martin that Jonah hasn't been found out. It's still too early to show the cards.) Elias definitely wouldn't care to hear or savor any bit of this; anger and fear often coincide together, but rarely make a nice palette for the Eye's tastes.

The other thing, though, is how uncomfortable it feels, sitting here and listening to someone be angry on his behalf. That feeling of being seen for the first time in ages - not as the Archivist, or an Avatar, or a harbinger, or a tool. But as someone worthy of being angry for. Someone who, despite all the mistakes he's made and likely will continue to make, has suffered in the eye of the storm.

His jaw is trembling when he finally finds his voice again.]

Tim. There... It's too late in my timeline, but. There's still a chance here. We can stop it from happening.

[kayakking]

[His attention snaps back to Jonah at the sound of his name. His fist clenches and then- then relaxes, and stays relaxed. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.]

I... Yeah. Yeah. We have to.

[eyediot]

[Jonah watches him, eyes a perfect mixture of hurt, hope, and vulnerability. Behind that black sclera is a man who was hurt, badly, for his mistakes, and the regret of an entire world on his back. The exhaustion and weight on his shoulders is visible now, even if he hasn't expressed what the end of the world fully entails. Tim probably doesn't need it.]

He's... already marked a bit faster than I was. By four. As long as we keep him from at least one, it should work out.

[He's already mentally working out which may be the easiest to avoid. The Vast, probably. Simple. Just don't go looking for Michael or Simon.]

[kayakking]

[Tim returns to the chair, gripping the back of it. But hasn't pulled it out. Hasn't sat yet. There's still... too much.]

How do I help?

[eyediot]

First, we stop the Unknowing. That'll... Keep him from a potential mark of The End, though there's no guarantee it won't happen some other way.

[For as much as these things hunt The Archivist, trying to keep Jonathan Sims alive will prove a fun task.]

Simon Fairchild and Michael Crew. Both for The Vast, and I know Michael particularly just wants to be left alone. That's an easy mark to avoid.

[kayakking]

... Fairchild's a wildcard though.

[He's read those statements.]

[eyediot]

He is. But he generally works more... with funding large projects than randomly targeting. Crew only... marked me because I went looking.

[While there's no outward scar of the Vast, his lungs remember it.]

I also don't... Think Simon cares much about Elias, so it may be a nonissue.

[kayakking]

... so that offer to ask you anything still good?

[eyediot]

...Yes. Any time.

[kayakking]

It's... different for Jon. And you, isn't it? Is just being free of the Institute going to be enough?

[eyediot]

[Jonah focuses eyes on Tim, then at the wall, with Jon on the other side, talking with the Martins. Worried about what's happening to him, is he going to look like that? All scarred and bruised and -

Can they really be free of it all? Jonah knows he can't. It's far too late for that. But for Jon... There's only one real, strong harness on him after the Eye.]

For him, probably not. Not entirely. One of the reasons Elias chose m-... Him. [Hm.] Us is because when we came to the Institute, we were already marked, had been for years. By the Web. And it will.. probably never let us go.

[kayakking]

So what? What does THAT one want in all this?

[eyediot]

...I don't know.

Elias didn't know either.

[kayakking]

Great. Well, no point getting tangled up in chewing on that, then.

[eyediot]

Agreed.

[Jonah does feel a little more at ease without that righteous anger directed at what happened to him.]

Those will be the easiest to avoid, I think, and without all of the marks his plan won't work.

[kayakking]

... You said, the rituals collapse. But we're still going for the Unknowing.

Why?

[eyediot]

... Would you believe me or think it was stupid if I said I wanted to keep a promise I made to the you in my time?