It's another botched jump, because of course it is.
Five lands alone, and there's not a lot of time to process what the hell happened because he nearly trips and falls over a mangled body. He stops breathing, stricken in a way he'll later be glad no one saw, because he's always finding the bodies and tracking other peoples' blood with his footsteps, always too late --
-- and then one of them moans, and he comes back to himself. Jesus, but they're in sorry shape and there's a shitton to do. The lucky part of that is that these strangers don't have much energy to spend on wondering who the hell he is or why he's there, ask questions he isn't ready to answer. He's able to help at least stem the worst of the injuries, get direction on where they need to go. He can't jump three at a time, or get them all the way back to Jackson in a single go, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than they could've managed on their own.
Lingering isn't his idea. But he exhausts his power, that many jumps in that small a timeframe, and there's a rationality to staying near some form of civilization with the actual undead shambling around.
There's a bitter humor he can't help as he learns more about when he is, what happened. If it's not one end of the world, it's another. It always is.
Ellie's word goes a long way towards making people, at least, tolerate him -- not just what he did for her and hers, but -- of all things -- because she's actually read the stupid comics about the Umbrella Academy. He never would've guessed those survived into this apocalypse, but here they are.
Here, right now, being a farmhouse she and Dinah are planning to move into. It affords him some distance from the others, and she actually puts him to work with boxes and nicknacks and tables and shit, doing what she can with only one unbroken arm. He's reminded of Vanya, powerfully, the quiet home she lived in as an amnesiac, where she actually found some happiness.
"So," he says abruptly, not looking up from loading some plates into a cupboard. "I have a question for you."
Even now, Ellie's not entirely sure she didn't end up in a fucking coma and everything since Seattle has been some sort of dream. A comic book hero coming to her rescue. Sometimes she wonders if she died on the floor of that theater, and if she and Dina and Tommy never made it back to Jackson. Sometimes she wonders if that would be better. I'll make her pay, she promised Tommy when they got home, but how could she even think of it in the state she's in? She failed. Abby got away. Now she sees Joel in the dark shadows of rooms. Standing in beneath the trees near his home in Jackson. Hears him, sometimes.
It's why she can't stay there anymore.
Dina understands. They'll have their little farm and pretend everything is okay and Five... well, Ellie doesn't know what the hell to do with him, but he's making up for the hindrance a broken arm is giving her right now. If all of this is some post-death thing where what's left of her floats around, maybe it's not all that bad.
It'd be nice if the guilt could leave her alone, though.
She has a box of Joel's wooden sculptures, some half-finished, and is putting them on the dining table that had been left in the farmhouse some twenty-five years ago. Ellie looks over at him, lifting a brow--one that's healing, to have a scar beneath it now where its partner has one through it.
He loads the last plate, and turns around to face her, leaning back against the countertop with his arms crossed loosely.
"Precautions against your infected are all well and good, but they aren't the reason why you can't set up this place yourself. If we should be expecting visitors, now's the time to say something."
He doesn't outright ask what happened? but it's implied, here.
Ellie pauses, but averts her eyes, not looking over at him. She doesn't talk about Abby. Ever since they got back, besides an exchange or two with Tommy or Dina, she doesn't talk about her. Ellie only really talks about the upcoming baby or the farmhouse, these days. Surprisingly bland conversation considering everything else.
"She's not gonna come here."
Twice now, Abby could have killed her. Twice now, Abby let her go. Ellie plans to make her regret those decisions.
Ellie doesn't look at him. There's a bag of Dina's to unpack. It's her various kitchen things, tools found and bartered here and there, and Ellie begins to put them on the table to see what there is.
"She didn't kill us. Coming here would be stupid. She got what she wanted."
She wanted to kill Joel. She succeeded. There's no reason for her to return to Jackson. Luckily, most people aren't as hell-bent on revenge as Ellie.
In contrast to Ellie, he's a picture of stillness. But her refusal to look at him, to stay put, is hardly lost on him. From here, he can see a pan, some cooking implements, but he doesn't move to help yet.
"What, to kick the shit out of all of you? Teach you a lesson, that was it?"
She pauses, holding a glass measuring cup. A good thing it's thick, tempered glass, because her knuckles are white with the force she's using to grip it with her fingers.
He says slowly, clearly thinking aloud, "And you went to get revenge." He raises his eyebrows, drops them, as he adds, "Which apparently didn't work out too well for you. Rarely does."
"Are you here to fucking lecture me or unpack this shit?"
It's a sharp question, a sudden change in tone as she finally looks at him, daring him to say more. No one had dared do such a thing when she returned. She thought Maria might, but the moment she saw Tommy and learned Jesse had died going after them, she'd been silent. It was almost worse.
It's a truism that Five is drawn to conflict, as if energized by the potential of a fight rather than inclined to de-escalate. So he leans forward, just a little, as he answers.
"I don't know. Depends on which one is less likely to waste my time.
You nearly got killed, looking for revenge. She clearly doesn't care about you as much as you care about her. Otherwise, she could've killed you then. Come back for you now. Do you really think you'd sleep better at night if you'd succeeded? Sounds like a wasted effort to me."
Hunched in on himself against the blustering wind, Joel's exhausted footfalls trudge into thick snow banked up along the paths of the hydroponic farm behind his house. He's not long come back from patrol with Tommy; they were supposed to be back by early evening, but thanks to the blizzard that had swept in late afternoon, he and Tommy were forced to wait out the worst of it in the ski lodge. It's late at night now, probably close to midnight, and pitch black save for the thin beam of light cutting through the darkness from his flashlight. The dry frozen air burns his lungs, the smell of snow fills his head, and the weight of cold listlessness that's been trapped inside him since last night sags heavy and cold in his heart. I don't think I can can ever forgive you for that has been piercing into his gut like rusty jagged rebar since Ellie left him alone on his porch last night.
Pushing through the gate leading into his snowed out yard, Joel throws an look over at Ellie's garage behind his house. The lights are off. She must be out. Or asleep. Disappointment sinks deep into his gut. He'd hoped that maybe, maybe, her lights would be on, and that maybe, maybe, he'd work up the courage to knock softly on her door to check in on her. Just to see her, even if only for a few moments. A few precious moments. ...But I'd like to try is the only thing he has left to cling desperately onto by the jagged edges of his fingernails. He'll have to wait until tomorrow to see her. If she'll even look at him.
Rounding the side of his house to the back porch, his heavy boots thud on the snow-drifted wooden steps as he clicks off his flashlight. He looks up as he shrugs a backpack strap off his aching shoulder... and comes to a slow stop.
It's Ellie, standing in the dim warm glow of his porch light by the back door.
"...Hey," greets Joel, surprise hidden within the gruff weariness in his voice.
It's the first terrible thought Ellie has when she heads to the house and realizes he's out. It'd be an easy out for herself--she tried, he wasn't home, might as well go hang out with Dina. But she knows she has to follow up, because if she doesn't start to try and work on this now after last night, she never will.
Thinking about the hope in his voice makes her both want to stay and scream. She hates him but. She doesn't want to, not after everything they went through together. It pulls her every direction at once, but at least that means some part of her wants to be here.
So, she waits, and it's maybe ten or fifteen minutes before she can hear Joel making his way over.
She gives a little wave. "Hey."
She can't remember the last time she just showed up to spend time with him. It makes it awkward as hell, and she fucking hates it. She rocks on her heels, fiddles with her fingers.
I know the world of anime can be intimidating, because of all the cultural differences, and also because there's just so much of it that it can be hard to know where to start. But don't get your panties in a twist about it: I'm here to be your sensei. Let's start you on something easy mode and work you up to classics like Bizarre Jelly.
So your first stop is gonna be Cowboy Bebop.
Cowboy Bebop is a classic. It was one of the first anime I ever watched, back when you had to pass around badly subtitled VHS tapes with some dude you met off a Yahoo Group. (Don't sweat the details if no one's told you what that is –– it was fucking unholy, but the internet was a better place then. More creative. More democratic. And less fucking ads. Oh, shit, I'm getting off topic.) But I really think that until you watch Bebop, you can't really consider yourself an anime fan. Sure, maybe you've seen a few, maybe you think the medium is something you'll enjoy for years to come, but you're not REALLY an anime fan until you've enjoyed Hajime Yatate's Cowboy Bebop.
You know why?
Because Cowboy Bebop makes you ask the real fucking question, which is: how fucking badass, mind-blowing, eargasm-inducing, perfect can an anime be?
This fucking much, that's how much.
So the story follows Spike and Jet as they hunt bounties across the galaxy. They're aboard the spaceship Bebop, a rust bucket that only gets fixed when they have the rare bit of cash. They're broke. An anime about two men, you say? Don't worry, Ellie. Hajime Yatate has you covered, because there's this babe, too. Faye Valentine is a woman so sexy, so slick, so scantily-clad that you'll commit to drinking her bath water for the rest of your life.
And there's a weird kid, Edward, and this dog, Ein. Ein is a corgi. He might not be badass, but he's sure as hell cute.
Got all that? Let's keep going.
It's not enough to have a slick cast of characters. Cowboy Bebop is sci-fi and a western at once, which is hard to pull off. The Wild West in space, bounty hunters shacking up on Mars and Venus? Star Wars tried it, sure, but it hits different in Bebop, where it feels like humanity has worked to get there, rather than it being in a galaxy far far away. The artists did everything they could to make it feel real: the ship mechanics, every air brake and veneer thruster rendered beautifully, the planets having atmospheric effects like Venus making you sick, the fucking ads of the future. (Have you ever seen an ad, kid? You're missing out. In the early 00s there used to be whole websites dedicated to showcasing the best and funniest ads. Now there's so many ads that people just click through and ignore that no one tries for smart writing anymore.) And you know, they didn't HAVE to add that shit. It's expensive to animate instead of just adding a shitty expository line explaining it, and not everyone is going to watch with a critical eye to catch it. But they did it anyway, because world building is worth its weight in gold. And boy, does Bebop have it all –– bar brawls, space truckers, gambling dens, those motherfuckers from PETA but full-on terrorists, you name it. Hyperspace travel, bitch!
I know all of that is reason enough to start watching it, but here's more: they do monster-of-the-week without making you want to blow your brains out. There's a few two-parters, sure, but most episodes are a different bounty. Sick, right? And the spread of tone is pretty solid too. You've got some comedy, you've got some serious shit. A nice balance. And you can savor it too. Media these days is really made to binge, so everyone's doing serialized storytelling, but Bebop, you can watch one at a time and enjoy each for what it is on its own without rushing through to get the next part of the story. Each story has value, you know? But then there's still a few things that'll keep you pushing on: Spike's past, Vicious's deal, you know. Characters. There's so many shows out there that wow you with explosions and space fights and giant machines, which, don't get me wrong, get me hard. But the characters here will keep you coming back for more, more more. The banter between them is top notch, and Faye... there will never be another woman like Faye.
When I started writing this for you, I sat down to rewatch some of Bebop just to refresh my memory, but I ended rewatching the whole thing again. And you know what? I loved it as much as the first time. There isn't a lot of anime like it. The industry's changed. I don't know if we'll ever see anything like it again.
Until Netflix gets a hold of it, at least.
Anyway, I'll be by with a USB key later. Take your time with it. Savor it, because you'll never be able to forget it and watch it fresh ever again. And let me know what you think of it when you're done. We can go head to head on it, like real otaku.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slamS IN
Five lands alone, and there's not a lot of time to process what the hell happened because he nearly trips and falls over a mangled body. He stops breathing, stricken in a way he'll later be glad no one saw, because he's always finding the bodies and tracking other peoples' blood with his footsteps, always too late --
-- and then one of them moans, and he comes back to himself. Jesus, but they're in sorry shape and there's a shitton to do. The lucky part of that is that these strangers don't have much energy to spend on wondering who the hell he is or why he's there, ask questions he isn't ready to answer. He's able to help at least stem the worst of the injuries, get direction on where they need to go. He can't jump three at a time, or get them all the way back to Jackson in a single go, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than they could've managed on their own.
Lingering isn't his idea. But he exhausts his power, that many jumps in that small a timeframe, and there's a rationality to staying near some form of civilization with the actual undead shambling around.
There's a bitter humor he can't help as he learns more about when he is, what happened. If it's not one end of the world, it's another. It always is.
Ellie's word goes a long way towards making people, at least, tolerate him -- not just what he did for her and hers, but -- of all things -- because she's actually read the stupid comics about the Umbrella Academy. He never would've guessed those survived into this apocalypse, but here they are.
Here, right now, being a farmhouse she and Dinah are planning to move into. It affords him some distance from the others, and she actually puts him to work with boxes and nicknacks and tables and shit, doing what she can with only one unbroken arm. He's reminded of Vanya, powerfully, the quiet home she lived in as an amnesiac, where she actually found some happiness.
"So," he says abruptly, not looking up from loading some plates into a cupboard. "I have a question for you."
no subject
It's why she can't stay there anymore.
Dina understands. They'll have their little farm and pretend everything is okay and Five... well, Ellie doesn't know what the hell to do with him, but he's making up for the hindrance a broken arm is giving her right now. If all of this is some post-death thing where what's left of her floats around, maybe it's not all that bad.
It'd be nice if the guilt could leave her alone, though.
She has a box of Joel's wooden sculptures, some half-finished, and is putting them on the dining table that had been left in the farmhouse some twenty-five years ago. Ellie looks over at him, lifting a brow--one that's healing, to have a scar beneath it now where its partner has one through it.
"Yeah?"
no subject
"Precautions against your infected are all well and good, but they aren't the reason why you can't set up this place yourself. If we should be expecting visitors, now's the time to say something."
He doesn't outright ask what happened? but it's implied, here.
no subject
"She's not gonna come here."
Twice now, Abby could have killed her. Twice now, Abby let her go. Ellie plans to make her regret those decisions.
no subject
His tone is measured, every word carefully enunciated, as he watches her. He hasn't moved any closer, but his gaze is sharp, serious.
no subject
"She didn't kill us. Coming here would be stupid. She got what she wanted."
She wanted to kill Joel. She succeeded. There's no reason for her to return to Jackson. Luckily, most people aren't as hell-bent on revenge as Ellie.
no subject
In contrast to Ellie, he's a picture of stillness. But her refusal to look at him, to stay put, is hardly lost on him. From here, he can see a pan, some cooking implements, but he doesn't move to help yet.
"What, to kick the shit out of all of you? Teach you a lesson, that was it?"
no subject
"No. Before then. She came here to kill someone."
And she did.
no subject
He says slowly, clearly thinking aloud, "And you went to get revenge." He raises his eyebrows, drops them, as he adds, "Which apparently didn't work out too well for you. Rarely does."
no subject
It's a sharp question, a sudden change in tone as she finally looks at him, daring him to say more. No one had dared do such a thing when she returned. She thought Maria might, but the moment she saw Tommy and learned Jesse had died going after them, she'd been silent. It was almost worse.
he is CRUISING FOR A BRUISING
"I don't know. Depends on which one is less likely to waste my time.
You nearly got killed, looking for revenge. She clearly doesn't care about you as much as you care about her. Otherwise, she could've killed you then. Come back for you now. Do you really think you'd sleep better at night if you'd succeeded? Sounds like a wasted effort to me."
no subject
"Look. You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. I appreciate your help and what you've done, but you're--"
You are treading on some mighty thin ice here.
She can hear his voice in her head.
"Stop. Just shut up."
let the healing from all the pain begin X(
Pushing through the gate leading into his snowed out yard, Joel throws an look over at Ellie's garage behind his house. The lights are off. She must be out. Or asleep. Disappointment sinks deep into his gut. He'd hoped that maybe, maybe, her lights would be on, and that maybe, maybe, he'd work up the courage to knock softly on her door to check in on her. Just to see her, even if only for a few moments. A few precious moments. ...But I'd like to try is the only thing he has left to cling desperately onto by the jagged edges of his fingernails. He'll have to wait until tomorrow to see her. If she'll even look at him.
Rounding the side of his house to the back porch, his heavy boots thud on the snow-drifted wooden steps as he clicks off his flashlight. He looks up as he shrugs a backpack strap off his aching shoulder... and comes to a slow stop.
It's Ellie, standing in the dim warm glow of his porch light by the back door.
"...Hey," greets Joel, surprise hidden within the gruff weariness in his voice.
no subject
It's the first terrible thought Ellie has when she heads to the house and realizes he's out. It'd be an easy out for herself--she tried, he wasn't home, might as well go hang out with Dina. But she knows she has to follow up, because if she doesn't start to try and work on this now after last night, she never will.
Thinking about the hope in his voice makes her both want to stay and scream. She hates him but. She doesn't want to, not after everything they went through together. It pulls her every direction at once, but at least that means some part of her wants to be here.
So, she waits, and it's maybe ten or fifteen minutes before she can hear Joel making his way over.
She gives a little wave. "Hey."
She can't remember the last time she just showed up to spend time with him. It makes it awkward as hell, and she fucking hates it. She rocks on her heels, fiddles with her fingers.
"You busy? I can come back another time."
Another out, this time for the both of them.
no subject
I know the world of anime can be intimidating, because of all the cultural differences, and also because there's just so much of it that it can be hard to know where to start. But don't get your panties in a twist about it: I'm here to be your sensei. Let's start you on something easy mode and work you up to classics like Bizarre Jelly.
So your first stop is gonna be Cowboy Bebop.
Cowboy Bebop is a classic. It was one of the first anime I ever watched, back when you had to pass around badly subtitled VHS tapes with some dude you met off a Yahoo Group. (Don't sweat the details if no one's told you what that is –– it was fucking unholy, but the internet was a better place then. More creative. More democratic. And less fucking ads. Oh, shit, I'm getting off topic.) But I really think that until you watch Bebop, you can't really consider yourself an anime fan. Sure, maybe you've seen a few, maybe you think the medium is something you'll enjoy for years to come, but you're not REALLY an anime fan until you've enjoyed Hajime Yatate's Cowboy Bebop.
You know why?
Because Cowboy Bebop makes you ask the real fucking question, which is: how fucking badass, mind-blowing, eargasm-inducing, perfect can an anime be?
This fucking much, that's how much.
So the story follows Spike and Jet as they hunt bounties across the galaxy. They're aboard the spaceship Bebop, a rust bucket that only gets fixed when they have the rare bit of cash. They're broke. An anime about two men, you say? Don't worry, Ellie. Hajime Yatate has you covered, because there's this babe, too. Faye Valentine is a woman so sexy, so slick, so scantily-clad that you'll commit to drinking her bath water for the rest of your life.
And there's a weird kid, Edward, and this dog, Ein. Ein is a corgi. He might not be badass, but he's sure as hell cute.
Got all that? Let's keep going.
It's not enough to have a slick cast of characters. Cowboy Bebop is sci-fi and a western at once, which is hard to pull off. The Wild West in space, bounty hunters shacking up on Mars and Venus? Star Wars tried it, sure, but it hits different in Bebop, where it feels like humanity has worked to get there, rather than it being in a galaxy far far away. The artists did everything they could to make it feel real: the ship mechanics, every air brake and veneer thruster rendered beautifully, the planets having atmospheric effects like Venus making you sick, the fucking ads of the future. (Have you ever seen an ad, kid? You're missing out. In the early 00s there used to be whole websites dedicated to showcasing the best and funniest ads. Now there's so many ads that people just click through and ignore that no one tries for smart writing anymore.) And you know, they didn't HAVE to add that shit. It's expensive to animate instead of just adding a shitty expository line explaining it, and not everyone is going to watch with a critical eye to catch it. But they did it anyway, because world building is worth its weight in gold. And boy, does Bebop have it all –– bar brawls, space truckers, gambling dens, those motherfuckers from PETA but full-on terrorists, you name it. Hyperspace travel, bitch!
I know all of that is reason enough to start watching it, but here's more: they do monster-of-the-week without making you want to blow your brains out. There's a few two-parters, sure, but most episodes are a different bounty. Sick, right? And the spread of tone is pretty solid too. You've got some comedy, you've got some serious shit. A nice balance. And you can savor it too. Media these days is really made to binge, so everyone's doing serialized storytelling, but Bebop, you can watch one at a time and enjoy each for what it is on its own without rushing through to get the next part of the story. Each story has value, you know? But then there's still a few things that'll keep you pushing on: Spike's past, Vicious's deal, you know. Characters. There's so many shows out there that wow you with explosions and space fights and giant machines, which, don't get me wrong, get me hard. But the characters here will keep you coming back for more, more more. The banter between them is top notch, and Faye... there will never be another woman like Faye.
When I started writing this for you, I sat down to rewatch some of Bebop just to refresh my memory, but I ended rewatching the whole thing again. And you know what? I loved it as much as the first time. There isn't a lot of anime like it. The industry's changed. I don't know if we'll ever see anything like it again.
Until Netflix gets a hold of it, at least.
Anyway, I'll be by with a USB key later. Take your time with it. Savor it, because you'll never be able to forget it and watch it fresh ever again. And let me know what you think of it when you're done. We can go head to head on it, like real otaku.
x Travis