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]

[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?

[eyediot]

"All this", which part? The part where Elias just wants to be immortal and orchestrated almost everything we've been through and will go through to get it? Or-or how the rituals are supposed to change the world so their patron entity can be summoned here?

[He sighs heavily, rubs at his eyes. Deep breath, start over.]

Elias knew when he built the Institute as Jonah what he was going to do. And he knew it would take a very, very long time to do it. Of the Entities, only two have not tried a ritual that I can find evidence of. The End, because it.. doesn't really need to. And the Eye. He had to wait until ... the right pieces came into play.

During the Prentiss attack, Elias... purposefully waited to pull the co2. He had to wait and make sure I'd be.. I'd be marked. I don't know if he had intended you to be part of it. I know he didn't expect Not!Sasha to infiltrate either, but he allowed it.

[Just gonna. Give Tim a minute to digest that much.]

[kayakking]

[That's a lot. Every word of that is wrapped up in implications so wide and heavy it both blows the smaller concerns of the compulsion on Algric and Jon, and the upcoming ritual, entirely out of the water.

And then, in almost the next moment, breathes new, acute urgency into foiling them.

But then... then that last bit. That's where it hits, good and personal, deep under the skin that still itches sometimes. Still drags up the memory of the two of them dropping under Prentiss attack, the futile attempts to shield each other.]

Why-

Why did he need us- us half eaten? What the hell does that figure into immortality? He let that thing wear her face. To only get us a LITTLE killed?

[eyediot]

[Jonah sighs through his nose.] Me, specifically. And.

Tim, there are so many parts to this. It's hard to.. explain it linearly. These entities mark us. In some small ways, in other big ways. And usually you either become an avatar or a monster for it, or... [Food. At the mention of the marks though, he feels a bit self conscious himself, rubbing at the burn scar wrapped around his hand like he shook hands with fire.] To even attempt a ritual, you have to be marked.

Gertrude came up with the theory that the rituals.. don't work. At all. That these entities are too big, and too intertangled with each other for any ritual to successfully summon one single entity. And she tested it, watched the, the People's Church of the Divine Host. They attempted, Gertrude watched.. and it fell in on itself.

Somewhere.. between that and Elias appointing me, he got the idea. That you can't summon just one, but you could construct a ritual to summon them all. And to do it... the person performing it has to be marked.

[A beat, squeezing that scarred hand of his.]

By all of them.

[kayakking]

[It's impossible not to have his attention drawn to the smooth patch of burn tissue. Whatever had happened there was more than a scalding....

More than a bug bite, or a scratch of an old friend... He looks up and Jonah, horror tinging with sudden understanding of what kind of game Elias is playing. Or at least, this part of it. Why everything suddenly drove down, so dire and terrible.

... why everything is escalating so drastically as soon as Jon stopped isolating himself... As soon as Jon started sniffing on the path of what was really going on. ]

... Oh god. We have to keep him out of there.

[Nevermind that Jonah is right here, complete, and fully formed. A door that has never quite closed again.]

[eyediot]

...Yes. We do.

[He knows Tim, at least what he remembers of Tim. And getting personal, getting emotional wasn't the way to impart information. It doesn't matter that he wandered alone for so long, it didn't matter that there wasn't anyone left.]

It may mean Elias rearranges a few plans, but that'll probably take him some time, and give us more.