[ video ]

[hostage]

[This post goes up very shortly after Jesse comes out of his catatonic state, on the evening of the 23rd. He's a little frenzied, a little wild-eyed and panicked, but he has to know he didn't imagine all of it. There has to be someone else who saw it, too.]

Did anybody - Did anybody else just get back? I mean, like... Were any of you guys ported out, too? To the future, or whatever it was. I can't be the only one. I mean, I saw some of you there. It was De Chima, right? We were just in De Chima? But our bodies got left behind here, I guess. I dunno. What was it? Was it a dream, or... Like, did we seriously just see the future? Because I think that's what it was. I think that was the future. I wasn't alone. I mean, I know I wasn't alone there.

...Right?

Comments

[hostage]

[Jesse lets out a short laugh at Joel's timely appearance. Not a moment too soon.]

Yeah, you haven't gotten rid of me yet.

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie is mainly shocked that she didn't hear him at the door. Her hearing is usually better than that, but what just happened has her a little distracted. She whirls around fast, looking up at Joel while she tries to quickly fabricate an answer. ]

Right about how...

[ Her eyes look over to the sandwich Jesse hasn't finished yet. ]

Important it is that he should eat something. Because he just woke up from that weird mood he was in.

[shittybirthday]

[ Joel's frown deepens a little at Ellie. She's acting a little weird. But then again, thinks Joel as his attention cuts back to Jesse, it's probably due to this whole weirdness with him. Yeah, that's probably it, because he himself is a little weirded out at not just how strange Jesse has been acting, but how suddenly normal he seems now.

He steps into the room slowly and moves across to a table to set the pizzas and drinks down. He then turns around to look at Jesse, a hand rubbing across his beard while he studies Jesse cautiously before setting both his hands on his hips. ]

You, uh. You remember anything? 'Bout how weird you been acting the last few days, or...?

[hostage]

[Jesse recognizes the look on Joel's face. It's a look he's seen on his parents' faces, and on Mr. White's face, too. It's the look of someone trying to figure out if he's on something. The look of someone gauging his sanity. Jesse's smile fades when he sees it.]

No. I don't remember anything I was doing here, 'cause I wasn't here.

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie had that feeling, too... But there's enough strange things that go on here that Ellie would rather believe it was the doing of the people who brought them here. What he explained was pretty fucking vivid. When Ellie catches that look on Joel's face too, she shifts herself around, turning to look at Joel directly. ]

I think the guys that brought us here are up to something. He really wasn't here, Joel.

Out of nowhere, Jesse was back to normal.

[shittybirthday]

[ It was just so damn weird, not to mention disturbing and unsettling, seeing Jesse behaving like he was drugged out of his mind. Or like he'd lost all control of his mind and his body. Almost behaving like a person who was on the brink of turning into a Clicker, only minus the primal rage. ]

Yeah, I can see that. [ About Jesse being back to normal out of nowhere, that is. He's still giving Jesse a cautiously assessing look, like he's trying to work it out for himself what the hell happened. But then he gives a frank and acknowledging lift of his brows. ] Wouldn't surprise me if the mob that brought us here are behind this. Sure ain't the first time weird shit has happened.

[ He turns to pick up both sodas that he'd bought and faces back to both Jesse and Ellie, and moves across the room. He holds one out for Ellie to take, holds the other out to Jesse, seeing he probably needs a drink far more than Joel does right now. ]

[hostage]

[Jesse accepts the soda gratefully and takes a long drink. He feels a little better, Joel rolling with that explanation. It doesn't really matter, given the business they're in, but he'd rather not have Joel thinking he's getting high. He's not sure why that's important to him, but it is.]

Sorry for the trouble, anyway. If it happens again, you're probably better off locking me in a room 'til it's over.

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie hasn't been here very long... Three months, approximately. And in that time, sure, she has seen plenty of strange things. Hell, her powers are still something to marvel at. But this? This is a whole new thing to her. Ellie looks at Jesse, then to Joel with her face colored in concern. ]

Does this kind of stuff happen all the time? Should we be worried?

[shittybirthday]

It happens enough.

[ He's been through weird dream shit, weird Satan... shit, weird... other shit. And he knows plenty of other weird shit has happened that he's managed to avoid, simply due to luck or being out of town at the time. The more he thinks about it now, Jesse acting like a drooling, catatonic zombie very well could be some weird thing this place schemed up. Weirder things have happened, after all.

He studies Jesse again. ]

You remember anything?

[hostage]

[Jesse looks at Ellie. He doesn't want to say she should be worried, not about him or about this world. But Joel's right. It does happen. More and more frequently, it feels like.]

I remember where I went. A hundred percent clear. But I'm gonna sound like I'm tweaking the fuck out when I tell it to you.

[He directs a wry little smile to Joel.]

I was in the future. This world's future. I went to 2025.

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie remains seated, hands tangling together when Jesse starts up again about this. She can't rightly believe that he is tweaking out because... Well, if this happens often? And he sounds pretty put together now that he's fully explaining it for the second time. ]

[ Joel doesn't know yet. Jesse hasn't explained what the government does and she's sure that he doesn't need to. Not with Joel. Not with how his expectations of this place were pretty low from the get-go, and not when even Ellie wasn't surprised. Still, she can't help but get quiet for a moment, eyes now locked to her own hands as her fingers fidget. ]

He says this place turned into a glorified Q.Z.

[shittybirthday]

[ What Jesse says gets an unreadable look from Joel. He'd sure like to think Jesse is just tweaking, but he's seen too much weird shit here to simply dismiss it as that. And when Ellie cuts to the chase for him... He looks at her, then back at Jesse, and he sets his jaw as he glances away again. ]

Jesus. [ That's muttered to himself under his breath, but then louder: ] Yeah, well, the way things're goin' with all the bullshit that's been happening from the government, wouldn't surprise me if that's where things are heading.

[ Eyes back on Jesse. ]

How in the hell could you have been in two places at once, though? I mean, you've been here the whole time, actin' like, I dunno, some lobotomised zombie from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

[hostage]

[That must've been one hell of a thing to see. Jesse's once again quietly sorry that Ellie had to find him like that. He would have rather not been found at all.]

I, um... I dunno. It was more than just a dream, though. Like, I could swear I was just there. I'd say maybe it was a vision or something psychic like that, but everybody there could see me, too. They talked to me and... stuff.

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie looks back up at Jesse. ]

This is happening to other people too?