001 [video - voice]

[shittybirthday]

[A video image clicks on, revealing a broad, churlish looking man, in his late 40s but looks like he's in his 50s. His face is world-weary, haggard, with heavy-set wrinkles on his brow. His dark hair is flecked with grey, as is his beard. There's an angry concern in his hard eyes and his jaw is clenched tight. He looks like a man one wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of.]

--goddamn it.

[The video image switches off. That wasn't what he'd wanted to do. A second later, a voice feed starts instead, and there's a momentary pause as Joel examines the device to ascertain it is actually on. He was no stranger to technology similar to this before the outbreak but that was over twenty years ago. Reacquainting himself with technology like this, even after he was shown the ropes by that asshole soldier who escorted him from the lab, is foreign as hell after years of having to live with hardly any technology at all.]

Alright, look-- [A brief shuffling sound of him handling the device, switching it from one hand to the other. When he speaks, it's with a strong Texan accent, his voice gruff and hard.] I got no idea who's listenin' to this but I'm gettin' real sick of this bullshit. Just gonna cut straight to the chase:

First off, I'm lookin' for someone. A girl. 'Bout fourteen years-old. Red-brown hair, freckles, green eyes, scar on her right eyebrow. It's real important I find her. If you've seen a girl who matches this description, tell her Joel is lookin' for her.

Secondly, if the girl I'm lookin' for is here and I find out anyone has so much as touched a single hair on her head, I won't hesitate to hunt you down and pop your goddamn kneecaps off. I ain't messin' around here.

And lastly-- [another pause] I need, uh, need someone to point me towards a place where I can get my hands on some clothes.

[Because the clothes he's wearing right now? Are torn at the seams and shredded. Just in the last hour, he's transformed into a fucking giant bear twice without seeming to have any control over it and his clothes, the only clothes he's got, are now more or less destroyed.

And another pause, filled with the sound of a quiet, preoccupied sigh and the shuffling noise of the device being handled as he switches back to the other hand. Screw it, he'll just address Ellie directly. If she's here, if she's listening, he knows she won't hesitate to contact him. Jesus, he hopes she's alright.]

If you are here, kiddo… just lemme know, alright?

[The voice feeds ends.]

Comments

[valr]

Happened to be in the store at the same time, she seemed a little out of her depth. [a beat, and:] You always jump down people's throats for talking to your kid?

[She doesn't like the attitude she's getting just for having been helpful.]

[shittybirthday]

That ain't any of your business, is it?

[But fine. He lets out a conceding huff of a sigh.]

Look, she's-- it's complicated, alright? We come from a place where people ain't nothin' but cruel. I got my reasons for not trustin' anybody, especially with Ellie.

[valr]

Seems like she's been handling herself fine for the last few weeks. Maybe you need to trust her.

[shittybirthday]

I trust her just fine. It's other people I don't trust.

[This woman lecturing him on how to handle Ellie is pissing him off, so he's going to move swiftly on.]

So - anything else you introduced her to that I oughta know about?

[valr]

Nothing you oughta know about.

[She's being purposefully vague just to be a shithead.]

[shittybirthday]

[Well, that's real damn helpful. Joel is used to shitheads, though - he comes from a world full of them.]

That's how you're gonna play it, is it? Alright. Guess I'll be findin' that out from her myself, anyways.

[valr]

[A shrug; there's not really anything for him to find out, so she isn't bothered]

Tell her I say hi.

[she doesn't really expect him to, but maybe he will.]

[shittybirthday]

Sure.

[Dismissive right there. He'll be doing no such thing, except to find out what the hell else this girl has 'recommended' to Ellie.]

So, you also got a - what d'they call it, 'superpower'?

[valr]

No superpowers. I'm a valkyrie.

[It's not a secret, though she also doesn't expect him to believe her.]

[shittybirthday]

...A what?

[valr]

Valkyrie. You got the Norse gods where you're from?

[shittybirthday]

Uh, no.

[Joel's tone is equal parts cynical and clueless. Cynical because there sure as hell ain't no God - or gods- where he's from, regardless how much the Doomsday zealots tried to insist there was back when the outbreak first hit; and clueless because, well, he's vaguely heard of Norse mythology before but he has no clue what it is.]

[valr]

[At least this isn't the first time she's run into this sorta thing.]

It's what my people used to believe in, a thousand years ago. Valkyries are part of that, we ain't gods, but we helped choose who'd die in battles, and who'd go to what part of the afterlife. Humans just think it was all myth, but its real, where I come from.

[shittybirthday]

[Joel is so hardened against the idea of God or gods, not to mention mythology, that this honestly mostly goes right over his head.]

...Alright, then.

So, a Valk-- whatever you said you are, is basically - what? Some kinda Grim Reaper?

[valr]

Kinda. We'd escort the dead to the afterlife and look after them there.

['Serve them' is really how it goes, but she doesn't like phrasing it that way.]

[shittybirthday]

Look after 'em? What, the dead can't look after themselves in the afterlife?

[What the hell is this conversation.]

[valr]

Keep 'em fed and warm in Valhalla and make sure they're battle ready when the time comes.

[shittybirthday]

...When the time comes for what?

[valr]

End of the world, so we can make a better one.

[shittybirthday]

The hell would you want do that for?

[valr]

Isn't about wanting, it's just how things will go.

[Although she does want it, but - that isn't important.]

[shittybirthday]

Makin' a new world that'll probably turn out about as shitty as the old one? With the help of dead people?

[valr]

Not dead people, some of them will survive.

[Her tone gets a little sharper, because she doesn't like people talking about her beliefs like that.]

[shittybirthday]

So, you pick and choose who're gonna die for a cause these so-called gods could resolve themselves?

[valr]

They are gods. Not so called, not anything but what they are, and you should show a little respect for the gods that helped humans crawl out of the fucking mud.