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]

Definitely.

[He glances at Tim, then at where the other three disappeared to.]

Keeping this timeline's me from it would be best, I think.

[kayakking]

Right. There's no need for him to risk things like that at this stage.

[In some weird way, Jon's life hasn't been better, even living with two semi-eldritch boyfriends and a rapid slide into it himself.]

Get it, make sure it's the right time, set it off, and get out.

[eyediot]

[Not to mention avoiding one of the worst marks... Jon wonders if Tim actually knows about all that.]

Right. Shouldn't be too hard at this point.

[A quiet exhale and Jon falls quiet again. After this long it's comfortable. But he also just doesn't know how to approach other topics with a Tim that doesn't hate him.]

[kayakking]

[The Stranger's is just as deep on this Jon as the future one, just via other means.

But... the End...]

.. So, what's the plan. I mean, really. Last I knew, Algric didn't want to go back to his time.

[eyediot]

[He'd been listening to everyone in the other rooms, other apartments. Hard to turn it off. Tim's voice jerks him out of it.]

Uh. Y-yes, he... still doesn't want to. And he said I'm not going back either, which... I admit is preferable. I'm not sure where to go from there. I think we were focusing on the immediate issues.

[kayakking]

[One young couple talks fondly of their plans to move out of the city, scraping pennies and dimes together. It should be easy, given that the wages are higher here, but there never seems to be enough to save at the end of the month. An elderly woman collapsed two hours ago and now lay helplessly beside her favorite chair, her dog snuffling confused at her neck, but she can't work past the pain and the phone her grandson had left her is in the kitchen. The dog doesn't understand at all but is enjoying the fact that he can lay on the couch. Two young children fight over a small blue truck. One had never liked it before, and had thrown it under the bed, but the sibling finding it was enough to make him want it all the more. Neither realize that this noise is driving- ]

Right. That's probably best for the moment, anyway.

[There's a beat as yet again, he struggles to find a way to call Jon, Jon but mean this Jon and not the other Jon.]

... Do you have a middle name? ... online name?

[eyediot]

....A. A different name. No, no middle name, and I didn't really do the online thing much.

[It's selfish, to want to keep his name. It isn't his timeline, and it only makes sense since Algric did the same thing. He thinks on that, going through some different names he... might tolerate going by.]

Maybe... [He hesitates. He just cannot think past his own name. He's always been Jon.] I don't know, maybe Will?

[kayakking]

[At least Tim seems to be on the same page here.]

... You don't really seem like a Will.

[eyediot]

No, I suppose not.

[Stephen? No, not quite right. Andrew doesn't sit well either.

He laughs a little huff to himself.]

I guess it would be bad luck to call myself "Jonah".

[kayakking]

[A beat



then another....]



... depends on how much it'd piss him off.

[eyediot]

[That reaction told Jon quite a bit... So Tim knows.]

This early... I think it might piss him off quite a bit. But it isn't as if he's using the name now.

[kayakking]

[HE SURE DOES.]

I'm sure there's a form he can fill out to lodge a formal complaint if there's a proper issue.

[eyediot]

I'm fairly certain of that for a fact.

[He's glad for the humor at least. But Jon -- Jonah -- watches Tim quietly.]

Tim, how much did- [He shakes his head, wiping at his mouth like a bad taste in his mouth.]

... Would you be all right to tell me how much Algric has told you?

[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.