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[focusrighthere]

[Immediately after he woke up, he began to panic. This was the wrong place to be. He was alone and some piece of shit took his watch -- his watch, Jesus Christ, why? It was broken, it wasn't worth anything to anyone but him. He swears under his breath and envisions a slow death for the party responsible while he moves through the giant castle like an angry shadow.

Normally he knows how not to be seen, but with the confusing events clouding over his judgment he's moving a bit too fast. It's huge in here. He's nowhere near Tommy's camp anymore, that's for sure. What he needs to do is push forward and search every area for Ellie, just keep searching until he finds the little girl he's lost somewhere along the way. Again.

If you are unfortunate enough to bump into Joel first, he's got a backpack full of weapons and explosives and a hell of a lot of snap judgments to make about anyone he might run into. It might not look like the start of a friendly encounter.

But he has no idea to expect magic from anyone or anything. You're all normal, fallible civilians, right?]

Comments

[focusrighthere]

[Knights and heroes, huh? Like something out a storybook, with a castle and the whole cast of characters. Exuberant amounts of food. Shell-shocked kids who wander around with their older and equally shell-shocked counterparts.

Joel nods.] Alright, then. If you say so.

Guess we're lucky to have some of our people here with us.

[willrememberthat]

Yeah. It's not bad, here.

[focusrighthere]

Beats outrunning monsters, doesn't it?

[willrememberthat]

Where were you before you came here?

[focusrighthere]

Hm... year's 2034.

[He's gathered that not everybody is from the same time period, let alone the same world. As impossible as that sounds, as much as his mind is trying to tell him to reject that concept. Clem's from Georgia, but it doesn't sound like her breakout period or circumstances match up at all with his own.]

Last place I lived before here was Wyoming.

[willrememberthat]

That's really far in the future. It's 2009 where I'm from. [Or somewhere around there. Thanks, comics.

Clementine frowns. 2034. It's never really occurred to her to think about the future. The plan was always to find her parents, find safety. They've never thought about looking for a cure, and she's never really let it sink in that maybe this wasn't a temporary thing. Walkers would be around forever, until there were no people left.

If she made it to 2034, she'd be nearing her parents' age. She'd be older than Lee, maybe, and he'd--]

I'm sorry you have to deal with monsters, too.

[focusrighthere]

[2009. Four years before the infection started. Joel was 26 years old and Sarah... she was 8. He spaces out about the same time Clementine does, thinking about things he would rather not be thinking about and frowning at nothing in particular.

He leans his hip against the counter and folds his arms over his chest, features darkening over and brow furrowing up. It's not until Clementine speaks again, apologizes about the monsters, that he trains his eyes on her and gives her a closer look.

She looks no older than 8 or 9, he thinks.]

That's alright. [There's something tender in it. Quiet. He almost wants to ask about where her parents are, but he knows better than to bring it up before she does.] Your, ah, your friends. You said they look after you?

[willrememberthat]

[A nod. That gets a small smile out of her as she attempts to shake off her thoughts.]

Mmhmm. Lee looks after me. He looked after me at home, too.

[focusrighthere]

Good. [But now there's no where else to go except here:] Did you know him from before?

[willrememberthat]

Before everyone went crazy? No... I was with my babysitter when it happened. My parents, they--[she almost grimaces]--they were on vacation. Lee came into my house looking for help.