Voicetesting

[deadgirlwalking]

Not sure this is gonna work out, you know. We can look, but I don't think we'll find them here.

[Clementine shifts uneasily and lowers her voice to a slightly sullen mumble.]

I miss them, too. There were good times. I mean... terrible, but. Also good. I wish...

[She sighs a little.]

You should finish the episode. I think you have to.

Comments

[guitar_of_saven]

Looking here seems like the fastest way to find anyone.

[deadgirlwalking]

How would you know?

[It could easily sound harsh, but comes out more cautious, as if she'd like to trust the information, but isn't quite sure how.]

[guitar_of_saven]

[He knows being cautious is good.]

I don't from personal experience, but my mun sometimes finds her others' friends around.

[deadgirlwalking]

[ Clementine nods slowly, putting that information away for later. ]

I'm not sure if that would be better or worse. Finding them here.

[guitar_of_saven]

I don't think anyone really does. But where are you headed?

/a wild luke appeared! also from post ep5 so I'll be careful

[burningdaylight]

Hey, kid. [He's not smiling -- at least, not at first when he emerges from the rustling brush with his machete in hand. But when he catches her eyes he offers something gentle and small in a shortlived attempt at reassurance.] You a'right? Jus'... thought I'd ask.

I've finished S2 by now, and it destroyed me /sobsob

[deadgirlwalking]

[ Oh, she's really not. Clem's eyes widen and she tenses, but it doesn't take more than a quick glance over to realize it's him, and he's alive. And so she rushes forward, wraps her arms around him.

Bonnie said it wasn't her fault, but had she not tried to help, had she not broken the ice and fallen into the lake with him, maybe Luke would have made it. She should have covered him... But she had no time to think it through, only had time to act, and her impulse is always to help, to be active.]

I'm sorry I didn't listen.

I feel you.

[burningdaylight]

[His smile falls, a sad, sympathetic tilt to his brows – and by the time he jams his machete back into its sheath she’s there, gripping him, torn up over something he doesn’t immediately understand. He has met so many Clems plucked from different games and points in time – and spent long enough in a game of his own – not to instantly think of the last way he had left her last back home.]

S’alright, Clem. S’alright. [He loops his arms around her unhesitatingly.] M’sure whatever’s got you worried, s’gonna be fine, okay?

Sorry about the late!

[deadgirlwalking]

[ It feels like a punch to the gut, because he's so wrong. She didn't listen and then he died, just like that, and now he's here, and somehow that doesn't fix a thing. Clementine pulls back a little so she can look at him, and for a moment it looks like she's gonna punch him - lightly, the way she did when he pulled her into that comic book store. Hurt, but fond. But then she just grabs his jacket. ]

It isn't fine, Luke. I tried to help, but I got you k-... you're dead.

no worries!

[burningdaylight]

[It's not knowing he died that gets to him. He had the sense, after scorching-cold water tore into his lungs and a scream gurgled and died inside him, that there was no hope for him. But for Clem, floating within arm's length of the surface, there had been. And whether or not there was a God still up there, he had prayed with every fibre of his being that Clem had been saved after her drifting silhouette above had faded into darkness.

It's looking into her face and seeing the haunted shadows and the pain she’s too young to have to bear that brings on a gut-stab of guilt, his lips pinching. He won't let her carry this burden on her shoulders.]

Hey-- [Luke draws back too and drops to one knee to meet her eye to eye, his own shining dully. He takes her gently by the shoulders, looking to command her attention.] Hey. You did what you thought was right. An' don' let nobody tell you you it's your fault, Clem -- you understand? 'cause that ain't so. [He shakes his head, his throat bobbing.] It ain't. ...a'right?

[deadgirlwalking]

[ Nobody blames her, that's the worst thing. Bonnie seemed to be happy to tell her she did everything did. It's Clementine herself who feels that she didn't. Like she made the wrong choice, like she should have listened to Luke. It seems she gets the people she cares about in trouble constantly. She tried to find her parents and got Lee killed. She wasn't carefuly in that bathroom and got Omid killed. She didn't cover Luke, but tried to save him, and got him killed. She found Kenny again, and got all his friends killed.

It's not really her fault, and part of her has hardened enough to know that. But another part of her is still just a little kid who saw too many people die. Her father figure, her brother figure, her friends. It's tempting to think that Jane has a point, but... Clem isn't cut out for that, she thinks.]

Okay. And... and thanks. You saved me...

[burningdaylight]

I couldn't jus'... leave you. I had to do somethin'... 's'what family does for each other.

[He gently pulls his hands back, holding her gaze steady.]

I... [He trails off breathlessly, shaking his head.] I don' know what I'd a' done if I made it without you.

[Pushed on because he'd have to, he knows that. But feeling somehow emptier and heavier at the same time, a piece of him gouged out and lost with her forever.]

[deadgirlwalking]

[ He would have survived, is what he would have done.

Only, no. No, she knows Kenny too well, knows how poorly he takes loss. Luke... might not have survived that, after all. And neither would Kenny, or Jane, or anyone. For some reason, they need a kid to glue them all together, and it's just as well, because Clementine needs all of them, and has to relearn not to need them whenever they die. ]

But you didn't. You saved me.

[burningdaylight]

[He says nothing for a long time, doesn't need to. He just reaches to pull her close again, gazing past her shoulder and ahead with unfocused eyes. It's strange no longer being forced to hurry along from one moment to the next and denied the chance to settle, to breathe, to take everything in, for better and for worse. He has all the time in the world now, a staggering level of freedom that leaves him grasping helplessly for what to do with it. Much more so when he knows he can't be there to help Clem back home. Not anymore.]

You're a good kid.

[And she deserves better than anything this world can ever hope to give her.]

...Not that you weren't before, or anythin'. [He huffs a soft, unsteady laugh.] Though you got some real cheek, sometimes. [Don't change, kiddo.]