ic inbox

[backpacking]

❝ ... Uh. Yup! This is Ellie!
Leave your message, or... whatever,
and I'll probably see you around before I listen to it, honestly. ❞

[ BEEEEEEEP ]

Comments

[ Text ]

[luckynumberthree]

[ The text comes early on the third morning of the zombie event, short and to the point and lacking any and all of Simon's normal good cheer. ]

Jo's dead.

[ Had it been someone not from a world like theirs he might have waited until he could sugarcoat it a little better. But they'd lived this, all of them. He knew Ellie would want to know, and he didn't have it in him to mince words. Not now.

In fact, those are about the only two words he's got in him at all right now, which is why there won't be any answering texts after the one he sends to both Ellie and Michonne. He turns off his phone and heads into the mansion instead. ]

[jumpscaring]

I wasn't originally going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind.

[jumpscaring]

I can't believe I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a day off.

[jumpscaring]

Why was Cinderella thrown off the basketball team? She ran away from the ball.

this was totes here yesterday yo

[jumpscaring]

Fishermen are reel men.

[jumpscaring]

Last time I got caught stealing a calendar I got twelve months.

yesterday!!!! i suck

[jumpscaring]

A friend of mine tried to annoy me with bird puns, but I soon realized that toucan play at that game.

[jumpscaring]

If you ever get cold just stand in a corner for a little bit. They're usually around 90 degrees.

[mypartnerintime]

[Left outside Ellie's door is a little package with a CD inside and a note taped to the front:

It's a little late, but I figure you and I have both been up to our eyeballs in events and stuff. Tell me which ones you like! (^_^)

P.S. My music tastes aren't quite the same as a lot of my friends so... idk, if you find these weird I can ask Chloe to put together something more rock n' roll or punk.

-Mad Max

The CD itself contains a bunch of songs and a list, with handwritten little notes next to the titles:]

1. Matilda by Alt-J. One of my favorite bands. This is a tribute to a movie called Leon: the Professional about the most badass twelve year old ever. And her hitman best friend!
2. In My Mind by Amanda Palmer. This one's from Chloe's list. Amanda Palmer makes great music and this one's way too cute to pass up.
3. There is a Light that Never Goes Out by the Smiths. And oldie but a goodie. Makes me feel so 80's.
4. Adventures in Solitude by The New Pornographers. Funny band name. These guys are amazing, they make these super unique songs with voicing that'll blow your socks clean off.
5. Raindrops by Regina Spektor. Okay, this one's a little more mainstream, but it's just so cute. Regina Spektor's voice is awesome.
6. Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap. I got this from a movie, 500 Days of Summer. Fun feels-hipster movie, but the soundtrack might be the best bit. And you can't go wrong with Joseph Gordon-Levitt!
7. Exile Villify by The National. This song was made for Portal 2, a video game, and if you haven't played any of the Portal games yet YOU SHOULD.
8. Oceans by Seafret. This one has an interesting music video, but even just the song is cool. Deep.
9. A Comet Appears by The Shins. Kinda mellow. First time I heard it was on a show called Chuck. This one's pretty deep, too.
10. Kids Will Be Skeletons by Mogwai. I figure I should give you at least one instrumental song so you can see if you like it. Somehow it's both quiet and exciting at the same time. Great when taking photos. :D

[shivving]

[ It's been quiet lately. Ellie had tried to apologize for the way she'd treated him during the whole Neverland thing, but Joel hadn't wanted to hear it. After all, it's not like she'd been in control of her actions. And dwelling on it now won't change a thing.

He's been thinking, though. About a lot of things. Ellie's reaction when he'd tried to ask about David. All these events and how they change people. They way people up and disappear and how there's no way to stop it. And what that man with the floppy hair had said at the poker table.

If she goes back, she'll be going right back to where she left off. He'd meant it to be comforting, of course. I'm assuming you'd be there, right?

But it had been anything but.

He looks over at Ellie now, bent studiously over a comic book. Not Savage Starlight, but something given to her by one of her friends here. Easy enough to leave her to it, let her enjoy herself for a while...but instead, he clears his throat. ]

Ellie.

[backpacking]

[ Neverland had been disturbing. It'd been like what she knows of her Mirror: an Ellie bent on her own survival above all else. Though the Mirror seemed more like a loner, and her time on the 'island' had included bonding with at least two others, both of which encouraged each other's violence. Thinking about the kinds of traps she'd left for innocent people (for Joel, who'd avoided them, thankfully) makes her stomach twist with guilt.

It's over now, though. By all of Wonderland's questionable logic, they should never have to go back there again.

Today, she's managed to bury her mind in comics, is up to her eyeballs in comic mischief and superhero storylines, when Joel interrupts.

Ellie glances over the page at him, blinking. ]

Joel? [ She questions, trying to get a read on him and failing. ]

[shivving]

[ He almost chickens out. Asks what do you want for dinner, something mundane and safe. But this is important. And he...they can't keep pretending like everything's all right. Sooner or later, it won't be.

He clears his throat, shifting a little to face her. ]

We gotta talk.

ho ho ho!

[goeth]

[ on the morning of december 25, ellie received a festive little pair of elf pants holding a gift specially tailored to her. merry christmas...? ]

backdated to the 28th

[thesamurai]

[ Outside of Ellie's door is a survival kit with a note that simply says 'You never know. Merry Christmas. - Michonne' ]

[shivving]

[ He hadn't gotten her a present. Christmas hasn't really been something to celebrate for decades; the most he could hope for was getting drunk off his ass on cheap whiskey with Tess. Even here, with the castle's decorations, with other people celebrating...well, he wouldn't have known what to get Ellie in any case. Besides, the idea of presents is kind of pointless, with the closets catering to their every whim, isn't it?

But when he wakes to find a beat-up old journal in a stocking he'd never seen before, when he pages through it and figures out who it had belonged to, as he deciphers the cramped letters and realizes what it means...He can't keep that to himself.

He heads across to Ellie's room immediately, knocking sharply on the door. ]

Ellie, y'there? Got somethin' I think you wanna see.

[backpacking]

[ It's the reverse of what she'd done to him not long ago, though Joel's tone isn't panicked as hers had surely been. Ellie opens the door, blinking, looking up into his face curiously. ]

What's up? [ She questions, standing aside to let him pass. ]

Back-dated to December 25

[mypartnerintime]

[Ellie gets night-vision goggles. Not high-tech looking ones, but more of the retail, 'for hunting' sort with limited features. Useful in a pinch, though Max hopes Ellie ends up using it more for pranks than anything else. A small tag reads, "Merry ChristMax!"]

august

[shivving]

Katana, huh?

[ He's been talking to Michonne. ]

[backpacking]

[ Hello to you, too, dude. ]

wha?

audio. this is late 😬

[poppycock]

[ amongst the many and varied conversations of the network regarding this interesting and suspicious turn of events and ensuing chaos, klaus has been quite thorough in taking it all in.

thorough enough to have found a particular exchange regarding a group of beloved and missed drawings that were taken from him some time ago.

klaus waits. he waits until later in the afternoon, torn between his cautiousness and preoccupations involving wonderland, and in reaching out to an unknown entity with vulnerability at all. (he knows who she is. what little he's gleaned has been from a message or two on the network.)

he calls, pacing down the hall to nowhere, abound with energy much like everyone else. ] I believe you have something that belongs to me. [ a moment and he adds, more softly, ] Drawings.

audio. no problem!

[backpacking]

Hello? [ She picks up, and he explains... and she glances to the drawings, which are carefully laid out on the dresser. She's looked them over a dozen times, squinting, trying to take in their details. ] Oh... yeah, no problem! I can bring them over. Where're you?

[ She has no idea who this is, and she doesn't invite people to her room anymore. So, with the phone tucked under her ear, she gingerly gathers up the papers and heads out into the hall. ]

Christmas Presents 2017!

[thesamurai]

[ Not only is this Michonne's daughter, Michonne is also her Secret Santa, which she'll reveal later, after everything i open. The presents for Ellie are:

A Classic books box set

A blue tooth wireless speaker in whatever shape she likes best.

A huge stack of Wonder Woman comics

A shirt for punny fun.

And there, of course, has to be something practical, so now Ellie has a cool ass knife

Intended this for That Christmas Log, but just in case:

[nascensibility]

[When Ellie unwraps the gift done up in brown paper and twine - simple, no-nonsense, no frippery - she will find a leather-bound book of (truly awful) ancient Roman jokes and puns, a record, and a folding knife of Damascus steel.

The inscription inside the book reads:]

Don't let Joel see this, some of them are quite filthy, but I read it when I was your age and thought it exceptionally funny.
Happy Christmas!

[Voice]

[mypartnerintime]

Hi Ellie. You saw the whole... Queen of Hearts thing at the end of the carnival, right?

[Voice]

[backpacking]

Yeah. [ f cuk ] ... You mean the whole-... declaration of war thing?