CYOA Page 33
Sep. 15th, 2013 03:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You know this woman's no pushover... that she's killed before. But she likely also realizes that Joel is right about her not being able to shoot both of you before one of you kills her. For over a year, you've been living in a place where people work together for the greater good; maybe it's rubbed off on you. Who knows? But you find you'd rather talk to her than kill her.
"Look, we're not... " You don't even know what you're trying to say. We're not killers? That's a lie. "We don't want to hurt you. I promise we won't shoot you if you put down the gun. But... I can't let you shoot him, either."
"You promise?" she asks bitterly.
"Yes! We will, I swear!" You try to telepathically nudge Joel to make the same declaration.
Annoyingly, he doesn't.
You slowly move closer to him. He shakes his head at you slightly, but you're sure that's just because he'd rather have you as far away from the line of fire as possible.
"Promises don't mean shit," the woman growls.
"Maybe not to some people, but they do to us," you reply.
Her eyes dart between Joel and you. "That your daughter?" she asks Joel.
"Yes," Joel replies without hesitation.
Awwww! You know why he said it, but your heart still melts anyway. Some people in Jackson do refer to you as father and daughter, but everyone there knows the truth. This woman will actually believe that you're his daughter... somehow, it makes you feel less inclined to shoot her.
She glances at you. "He nice to you?"
"Of course," you reply automatically, puzzled at the question. ...Even if he wasn't, why would this bitch give a fuck?! She sneaks a couple more glances at you, then slowly starts lowering her gun. Like she's decided she believes you, and... what? Now she's not afraid? Like Joel wouldn't kill her in a second without thinking twice about it, just because he's allegedly my dad?
"A man that's decent to his daughter is... prob'ly an okay guy," she answers your unspoken question. She doesn't have a holster for the gun, but she did lower it, so you and Joel follow suit.
You close the gap between you and Joel and put your arm around his waist. "More than okay," you agree. "He's way nicer than he looks."
Joel glares at you for that, but he does put his arm around your shoulders. Gives you a squeeze before you two part. "Thank you for not shootin' us, ma'am."
"Likewise," she replies. You think she still seems a bit wary.
...but Joel seems wary, too... So you'll go first -- you holster your gun and smile at the stranger. "Oh! I'm Ellie, by the way." In case she didn't catch your name when Joel yelled it earlier. "And this is Joel."
The woman nods... the way people seem to when committing something to memory. "Joe," she says.
"No -- Jo-EL," you repeat, taking care to enunciate the second syllable.
She chuckles. "I got that. My name is Jo."
"Oh. ...Oh! I thought that was a boy name."
"It's both," says Joel. "For a girl it's short for... Jolene?"
"JoAnne," Jo answers.
You decide 'Jo' is a cute name for a girl. Or... an old lady. Whatever. Middle-aged, you have to remind yourself, because she's probably around Joel's age (or younger) and you're trying really hard to convince yourself that he's not very old. "So where are you guys going?"
"Good question. We're not exactly sure. It may not even exist." She pauses, then apparently decides to come all the way clean. "It's some fairy tale place called Jackson."
"Ha!" You can't help grinning at that, and you see that even Joel is almost-smiling. "It exists."
"You've seen it?"
"We just came from there, actually!"
"Ah. So... you left it because... ?"
"We didn't leave-leave. We're just looking for someone," you say. "I wouldn't call it a fairy tale, exactly? But it's nice there." ...sometimes.
"Better than a QZ?"
"Loads better," you assure her.
"We've been wait-listed for the Billings QZ for years, since they shut our old one down. We heard rumors about this small town and thought... what the hey, you know?"
"Oh, it's not small. There's almost three hundred people there now!"
Joel chuckles. "That's tiny. A real small town is... maybe ten thousand people."
You roll your eyes. Joel is so behind the times! "Uh, that's fucking huge -- I'm talking about now! Not ~back in your day~ when there were a million people in every town." You can't even imagine that many people roaming the earth, let alone one single town!
"If a town had a million people, it wouldn't be a town no more -- it'd be a city," Joel just has to correct you.
"Whatever, DAD," you drawl. You're glad to see Jo looks amused, anyway. Someone in Jackson likes to say that you and Joel should do a comedy act. We might be funny enough... but I don't know about the 'acting' part!
"Do you think they'll let us in?" asks Jo.
"Oh yeah, definitely," you reply. "Just tell them you're friends of ours."
"Friends." Jo quirks an eyebrow. "Who were aiming to shoot each other just minutes ago."
"...Tell them you know us," you revise your advice. "You can tell them the truth -- anyone else out here would've done the same thing. So... what are you going to do now? Look for your friend?"
"She'll come back, after she catches that crazy horse. I'll wait here."
"Okay, we'll wait with you."
"Ellie..." Joel doesn't like that, clearly.
"What? Maybe we can trade or something. You need ammo? We get lots of that in Jackson."
"That would be fantastic," Jo says, sounding quite relieved.
"There's nothin' we really need to trade for, though," Joel points out. Grumpily.
"What about... meat?" Jo suggests. "We killed a deer this morning... it's too much meat for just the two of us..."
"Yeah! That sounds good!" You and Joel used up all your fresh meat already, as it's summer and it won't stay good for long. And fresh is so much yummier than dried. You weren't going to take the time to go hunting if you could help it, so you weren't expecting to have anything fresh until you got back home (unless maybe the hospital has some?).
"Ellie, I'd like a word with you." Joel motions for you to follow him out of Jo's earshot -- and he actually means he'd like to have at least several words with you. Probably heated ones.
You wonder what his objections will be. Probably that he doesn't want to waste time talking to a stranger. Even if the stranger is about to become a neighbor, and even if you are perfectly fine doing all the talking. "We ain't out here to socialize," you can hear him saying already. When you're at a safe distance, you cross your arms over your chest and give him a look. "Okay, what is so bad about waiting here a little while? Making a new friend?"
"Makin' friends is one thing. But... we don' know these people..."
"Yeah. Hence the making friends part. She has no reason to shoot us."
"It ain't that. Just... we don' know what their situation is. Maybe that other one ain't comin' back."
"Why would she ditch her... friend, partner, sister... whoever..." You didn't get a real good look at the other woman, but you don't think they're far apart in age to be mother and daughter. It's hard to tell old people's ages sometimes, though.
"Who knows? Maybe she's too scared to come back... or she got lost. Maybe it wouldn't be on purpose. Maybe somethin' happened... she ran into some trouble. We don't know."
"Okay, so... we wait for a little bit, and if she doesn't come back in... like, whatever amount of time you think is appropriate, we leave," you suggest.
"By then, you'll be all buddy-buddy with her an' you won't wanna leave her out here by herself," Joel objects. "You'll prob'ly wanna go help her look for her friend."
He might be right about that; sometimes it's annoying that he knows you so well. "Oh, but you wouldn't mind. Wouldn't feel one bit guilty leaving her." You suspect he wouldn't admit it if he did.
"I don' know. She ain't exactly helpless. She's got a weapon. I'm jus' sayin'... we don' know what's goin' on, an' we don't wanna get dragged into their... drama."
"...Their 'drama'? Do you know how heartless you sound right now?"
Joel shrugs. "I never claimed to be a good person."
Ugh! "I didn't say you were a bad person," you sigh. "You're good, I know."
"Not as good as you. Clearly." Joel smiles a little.
"Okay -- so let's wait for selfish reasons, then. Deer meat! That's not all dried up into jerky sticks!"
"Thought you liked jerky."
"I do, but real meat is better!"
"You just had some a few days ago."
"That was a few days ago!"
"Anyhow, she might've lied about that, you know."
"What? Why would she-- oh, like... to get us to stay and give her stuff?"
"Yes."
"I don't think she was lying. Do you? You're the expert. -At being able to tell when people are lying, I mean," you add quickly. Lying can be kind of a sensitive subject with Joel...
But he doesn't seem to take offense. "No, I don't think she was, but she could just be a damn good liar for all I know. Seen enough good poker players to know they exist." Joel's not bad at poker himself. He's tried to help you improve your game (he says you've got good instincts, but your 'poker face' needs work). "If you really feel strongly about this, though, we can stay a little while."
Now that you don't need to argue your case, you start to consider some of the things Joel said. Maybe he has a point. It could take forever for that other lady to return, and while you feel that helping her out would be the right thing to do, you understand why Joel would want to stick to your mission and not spend the time and supplies required to extend your stay Outside.
But... fresh deer meat!
If you're salivating for deer meat and want to wait with Jo a while, turn to page 63.
If you decide to give her some bullets and leave, turn to page 68.
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Date: 2020-07-18 04:14 am (UTC)