CYOA Page 146
Sep. 12th, 2013 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You've had enough of this fucking cave... this fucking kid!
Joel asks you how it went, and you find that you don't want to tell him much about it, for some reason. Like you'd be betraying a confidence or something. He doesn't push you -- because of course, he doesn't really care. The kid means nothing to him.
You continue on your mission... you complete the mission, finding Danny safe and sound at the hospital, unwilling to leave his (allegedly) dying mother, who was given a week to live... like, four weeks ago. So the whole thing was a big waste of time. Joel disagrees, pointing out that now you can bring reassurance to his family.
Whatever.
On the way home, though, you start thinking... your Boston trip would've been deemed a failure by anyone looking in from the outside (like, say, a Firefly). You were supposed to save the world! Instead, all you did was nearly get killed a bunch of times. But! You realized afterward that it wasn't all for 'nothing.' How could it be, when without it, you wouldn't have Joel? If those Fireflies in Boston had been alive and you'd been delivered safely to them, you and Joel would've just gone your separate ways and never seen each other again.
So, maybe this trip is like that one: it started out as one thing, but turned into something else. You say as much to Joel when you've almost reached the mid-point of your journey back, when you're on what you've dubbed a pee-and-snuggle break. (...but not peeing and snuggling at the same time, ewww!)
"What're you gettin' at?" he asks.
"Maybe we were supposed to do something else out here, too." You're done with the pee part and are now cuddling in the cool shade of the evergreens, limbs all comfortably tangled together.
"Sure -- it's good practice. Keepin' our Outside skills sharp. When you don't do somethin' for a while, you--"
"Not just that. Something else."
He kisses your temple. "If you mean this, we do plenty of it at home. And I know you ain't talkin' about comin' out here to have sex."
"Ha. No, I know better than that. Not 'til I'm seventeen."
"Eighteen," he corrects you, like you knew he would.
"Yeah, but the thing is, see... you're just taking my word for it, how old I am. I could totally be eighteen already, for all you know."
Joel chuckles. "An' you were sixteen when we met, then? 'Cause I thought you looked about twelve, if you recall."
You ignore the jab. "Or I could be seventeen right now, almost eighteen... I don't have a birth certificate to prove it. People just told me when my birthday was and how old I was, and I believed them."
"Give it up, kiddo... this ain't gonna work."
"It could, though! No one at home has to know my real age!"
"Except they do. We've already celebrated your birthday with 'em."
"Well, maybe... I was just kidding around about my age?"
He just gives you a Look.
"Okay, fine, that has nothing to do with... what I was thinking about."
"So what are you thinkin' about?"
"Well... that boy."
"What boy?"
"I think we're almost to the place where we found him, aren't we?"
"Oh... him?"
"Yeah."
"What about him?"
"Well, I was thinking... maybe we're supposed to help him."
"Help him how?"
"I dunno, like... bring him home with us?"
Joel is surprised. "I thought we agreed he was... odd."
"He is, but so what? Shouldn't weirdos get to have a nice place to live, too?"
"He wasn't just weird. More like... feral."
"Yeah, I know, he'd prob'ly need like... etiquette lessons and stuff."
"Not just that--"
"Well, whatever, but we could help him! He knows English so we know he hasn't been alone his whole life. And he doesn't speak like a three-year-old, so he's probably only been alone for... I dunno..."
"A long time, relative to his age," Joel supplies. "He knows how to survive on his own. Look, it's real nice of you to want to help. But when you take a feral animal an' try to make it--"
"He's a human being, Joel!"
"So... what, you wanna be his mom?"
"No! No, nothing like that. I don't mean he should stay with us. Maybe at first, when he--"
"Hell no. Not with all the gear we've got."
"Okay, fine. Maybe Tommy and Maria can keep him. Or they can find someone who wants a kid and he can go live with them."
Joel sighs. "Maybe he don't even want our help. You ever consider that?"
"If he doesn't, then he doesn't," you shrug. "But shouldn't we at least ask?"
"No. We shouldn't."
Uggghh why is he so stubborn sometimes?! You haven't really turned on the charm yet, though. The charm meter's only at like... maybe forty percent. You can do way better.
But... much as you hate to admit it, Joel is sometimes right when you have arguments like this. David didn't exactly act like he wanted to come with you.
If you give up on the idea of taking the kid home with you, turn to page 224.
If you dial up the charm and convince Joel to let you give it a go, turn to page 231.
Carlos
Date: 2021-02-04 01:23 pm (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2021-02-05 01:06 am (UTC)