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]

[Control his breathing? Fuck that. He's panicking.]

This hasn't happened before. I-i don't know what this is. Tim--

[kayakking]

[It hurts more the higher his panic goes, or maybe it's just his panic making him focus on it. But the fire seems to spread the more he dwells on how bad this is.]

I'm going to get eyewash, a looking glass and some towels. I need you to stay here. I'm going to be right back with things to help. Okay?

[eyediot]

Y-yeah. I'm not, um. Not... going anywhere.

[It's cyclical, the way his mind focuses on the abnormal pain, the more Focus is on it, the more focused and obvious the pain is. What started as a mild irritant now feels like a migraine pounding behind his eyes and a fire behind the eyelids.]

[kayakking]

[Tim's hands leave his wrists and the couch shifts again. The footfalls are heavier, hurried- but not running. It's not long, really.]

All right, try to keep your eyes open.

[And so it goes. He says what he's going to do before he does it after the first few flinches.

The eyedrops are no relief. In fact, he barely feels them hit, the irritation from whatever it is swallowing fine nerve stimulation. The warm, damp towel over his eyes does feel a BIT better.]

[eyediot]

[When Tim returns, he's huddled, curled into himself on the couch with his head ducked into his arms. Anything to make the darkness feel voluntary and controlled instead of what it actually is.

At every drop, he asks when it's happening. Is Tim even doing it? Is he trying? But the towel helps. Jonah swallows hard and uses both hands to hold the towel in place so he can lean his forehead against his knees.]

...You think it had something to do with the ritual.

[kayakking]

[A pause. Without sight, there's no telling what Tim's expression is with the deeply neutral tone. Without Sight, there's no hint to his actual thoughts.

It's gone.]

Anything else, you'd have just healed, yeah?

[eyediot]

Everything else did heal.

[kayakking]

[He can hear the shaky sound of Tim's inhale at that.]

How do we fix it?

[It comes out before he can really think about it. He's so used to Jonah just... having answers. Like Algric, except even moreso.]

[eyediot]

[There is a moment of such heavy silence. Jonah is terrified. His sight, both kinds, was all he had to be useful. To have lost it feels like he's lost everything.

He's too panicked to think back, to remember those brief few minutes in the smoke when he was blind there until Tim sat him down with a statement that healed it up.]

I... i-i don't know.

[kayakking]

...

What?

[eyediot]

I. Don't. Know.

[He's shaking he's so scared of this.]

[kayakking]

[It crackles merrily, devouring Jonah Sims and Jonah Magnus' purposes at once. ]

Okay. [It's breathed. Then firmer.] Okay.

We'll figure this out.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ It's at that moment that Algric comes out of the bathroom, toothbrush still in hand, having heard the commotion. ]

Jon--? Tim? Is everything all right?

[kayakking]

[Tim's head snaps up, and his look would put things into emergency if Jonah curled up on himself in a ball of pain and ABJECT terror didn't. The towel pressed to his eyes is yet another terrible possibility.]

Nnnnnnnot currently. Something's happened to his eyes.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Oh. Oh god. All of these signs point to horrible things.

He was already having a chilly day (mostly due to his own anxiety over his relationship with Jonah), but that little twist drops the temperature around him by ten degrees. He looks wildly between the two of them. ]

What? What's - what's happened? When? Let me see--

[ He's already moving to peel back the towel delicately. ]

[eyediot]

[The tight knot in his chest loosens just a hair hearing Algric's voice. But the hand peeling away the towel has his hands instinctively jerking, trying to hold it there before he realizes they just want to look and lets it go.

He doesn't know which way to turn his head, but his eyes have that same tinged red as the night of the Unknowing, angry and vibrant. Like a scorch burning at the edges of thick paper.]

[curriculum_fictae]

[ He removes the towel and ...

That's - bad. It's really bad? He'd seen the red before, but he hadn't known what to make of it. But now he can. The heat practically radiates off of Jonah's eyes, like a fever or - or something worse. ]

Oh god.

[kayakking]

Any ideas on what we're dealing with?

[His best guess at the moment is a last Fuck You from the Stranger.]

[curriculum_fictae]

I - I'm not sure. But it seems hot, and. Nearly burning?

[ Or maybe he's just freezing; his touch leaves trails of frost on Jonah's face. ]

Desolation, maybe.

[eyediot]

[His breath catches and he feels his heart jump six inches into his throat.

Tim.

That last moment and the statement he'd given Jonah after it was over.

His voice sounds strained.]

It-it got in my eyes. When, there at the end when I was... too weak to heal properly. That has to be it.

[kayakking]

[There's little for Jonah to go on here. Tim is silent, unmoving. He knows, there's no way he hasn't known. A choice like that can't be anything but informed and it BE what it is. And something curls in him, exhilarated and satisfied. He shoves that down.

But Algric can see the way Tim goes pale (and the reddening around his ears, the blotch of a mortified flush on his face.)]

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Algric looks between the two of them, knowing both Jon and Tim well enough that they haven't told him something. Something important.

He draws in a deep breath. Doesn't glare, but - well, his eyes can be intense too, damn it. ]

What happened.

[kayakking]

[He draws a shaky breath in. No, whatever this is, he has to face it head on. Claim it. And then meets Algric's eyes.]

I don't- I don't know specifically. But .. it might have been me.

Jonah had collapsed, and I had opened up the shelter we were in...

[eyediot]

[Before Algric can start in on the "collapsed" comment:]

I made. The choice to either.... extract a statement from those things, or. Or get Tim out as fast as I could. It was... already almost too late, so.

[Jonah still has no sense of self preservation in any small, consequence standing way.]

[kayakking]

Wait. [That whole part is buried in the confusion of the Unknowing itself...]

What?