Jon's journal

[Jon Eckart]

(OOC: as far as dates go, this is assuming that the TECS universe is modern day, so I’m figuring ages from 2019. And, unless someone has any input, I’m making up the ’07 newspaper article and relevant details for it)

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The following are excerpts from my journal I started a couple weeks after my thirteenth birthday. The idea for the journal came from my seventh grade Language Arts teacher to start over the summer; she thought it would help us students with our writing and spelling. I was never too good at daily entries like she wanted, but turns out the school wasn’t going to be grading us on it, they just wanted to see if we got better at it.

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October 9th, thirteen years ago

Well, I don’t know where to start on something like this…

I was born in Medford, Oregon on August 15th, 1993. I guess life was good up until the crash. We were heading home from my 13th birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese’s, when someone ran a red light and hit the car. The counselor said my parents died quick and weren’t in pain.
While the state decided where I would be going, they let me stay with one of my school friends. While I was staying with my friend, we would all go back to my mom & dad’s house when we could and figure out what I wanted to keep, and his dad said we should try to deal with bills and see about doing something with the house.


November 14th, thirteen years ago

Well, I guess they found someplace for me to go live. My new home was a few cities away in Yreka, California, and I would have to change schools, and probably not get to see my friends. When they showed up at my friend’s house in the afternoon, we loaded my clothes and stuff I would need into the car first, and they promised we would come back for the rest the next day.
We got to their house and got my stuff unloaded out of the car and situated in my new room, then set down for dinner. After dinner, we watched some TV and then I went to my room to get my things put away.


November 19th, thirteen years ago

Well, I started eighth grade at the new school. It’s not like my old school. The kids here are mean, and the teachers send lots of homework home. And, my new home isn’t as nice as it was anymore. When I get home, I’m made to do my homework right away, and if I don’t finish it before dinner, I have to have dinner in my room and can’t watch TV. Some nights, I’d have to go to bed without dinner, other nights I’d have to go to bed early.


December 10th, thirteen years ago

I can’t take this… no friends, nothing besides schoolwork, sometimes it’s like they don’t really care about me. We never did go back for the rest of my stuff from my friend’s place. I don’t like being here anymore. It wasn’t too bad at first, but then the rules and expectations and everything got piled on, and I never had any time to be a kid anymore. I wish my parents were still here.


December 27th, thirteen years ago

Christmas came and went, only got some clothes and a new backpack, while they bought eachother pricey stuff, then they sent me to bed early.
I hate it here.

 

[Jon Eckart]

January 14th, twelve years ago

Once they went to bed, I got back up and packed what I could in my two backpacks (mainly clothes and this journal and wrapped up a couple blankets and a pillow… tossed everything out my window and climbed down to the bags and took off.
I stuck to side streets and eventually found my way out of the city, and along the highway. A bit outside of the city, I managed to catch a ride and made it to Red Bluff. The driver stopped at a Burger King and got us food, and we drove around a bit until we found a good place for me to get out. When I was getting out of the car, Vic, the driver, gave me $60 cash.
I found a place under a bridge, and set myself up as good as I could for the night.


January 15th, twelve years ago

I found a car in a parking lot that wasn’t locked and slept in the backseat that night. Slept pretty good. Found a couple interesting things in the cars; a thin piece of metal with a notch cut into one end with a hinge in the middle of it, and a pen with a bunch of metal things that looked like some kind of key.


January 20th, twelve years ago

Figured out what both things were. The piece of hinged metal is a thing for unlocking car doors, and the pen with the key-looking things is a lock-pick set. With both things, might be able to get a car started and make it further down the road… dunno where I’m heading, as long as I get there.
-Made it to Oakland just as the sun was coming up. Drove on side-streets and lonely roads all the way here. Took a quick nap and ditched the car in a bunch of trees, and walked into town.


February 4th, twelve years ago

This isn’t as easy as I hoped it’d be. There’s a few shelters around where I can get meals at and sleep at, a couple of them have showers. It doesn’t get too cold here, so that’s nice. Most of the other homeless are nice enough. One of the shelters even lets us do our laundry.
One of the other homeless has been helping me with finding good places on the street to sleep, and we’ve been talking about how I could get back in school, and we came up with a plan.


February 25th, twelve years ago

We both found a cash part-time job a few days ago, and came up with a plan. We’ll save enough money to get a motel room, and Jake (the guy who’s helping me) is trying to find a way to get fake IDs and papers. We’ll hang onto the jobs and get enough money saved up to get a regular apartment, and as far as anyone knows, we’re family.


March 18th, twelve years ago

Things are starting to look up for us! We got a hotel room, paid by the month, and have food and everything we need! Jake found a guy for the papers, and we should have them within a week or so. We might have to stay here for a while to get enough money saved up, but it’s working pretty good here. Jake says we might have some issues with getting a apartment, but if we find the right place, it might work out.


April 22nd, twelve years ago

We made it! We got the apartment, and were able to afford some stuff like dishes and towels and stuff. Our next big purchase is going to be beds, but for now, this is a lot better than what we had.
Once the new school year starts, we’re planning to try to get me into school. We have a meeting with the school next week to get started on the paperwork.
On the way back from work, I found a newspaper and once upstairs, sat and read through it. The headline sounded like some sort of joke. It said “Famous Thief Empties Art Museum”, and in smaller print below that, it said, “Thief believed to be world famous Carmen Sandiego. ACME following leads”, and in normal print, “ACME continues looking for good detectives. Chief Weller issued a statement, saying “…the Agency was looking to expand its roster and branch out into even more countries.” I’d seen the place before with its tower in the middle of the buildings. It sounds like maybe something to check out.


June 10th, twelve years ago

We met with the school and I’m enrolled in school. They had me do some placement tests, and they said I’m on the lower edge of being in 9th grade. They gave me a couple study packets to fill the gap until I go back to school in the fall. When I got home, I paged through them both and got started on some of the work in them before heading to my job. When I got there, my boss offered me more hours over the summer and a little more pay, which I picked up. Less time at home, but money in the pocket.

 

[Jon Eckart]

Early Spring, nine years ago

Forgot about doing this for a while until I found it behind my dresser while I was doing some cleaning in my room and found it.
High school is going good, I’m doing pretty good in most classes, and am on track to graduate with the class of ’12. I’ll be a Junior when school starts in the fall. I’m a little nervous about what to do after school; kind of want to go to college for something. Jake helped me get my license, and for my birthday, he helped me get a car. We couldn’t get anything too expensive; we ended up finding a 1995 Dodge Stealth RT Twin Turbo. Whoever had it babied it, and they installed an automatic transmission in it. On the way home, I thought to stop and see what kind of education you needed to have to work there. I scribbled down everything they told me.


Graduation seven years ago

Jake came to my high school graduation ceremony, and afterward we went out to a good dinner at a pretty good restaurant. Turns out I did good enough in school to get a scholarship to college. All I have to do is decide what I want to go to school for. When we got home, I started poking around area universities to see what I could find.


Freshman year, college, six years ago

Started college, the days are going to be long, but the classes shouldn’t be too hard. The general classes are pretty easy, the computer class is a little more involved than I thought it would be but I shouldn’t have a problem with it, and the criminology class is already very interesting. Though, I am glad none of them are going to be a walk in the park.


Junior year, college, five years ago

So far, I’m doing pretty good in the computer classes, breezing through the required general education classes, and loving Criminology. I know my entries have kind of tapered off, there hasn’t been much beyond classes all day going on. I’ve made a few friends at college, and we hang out now and then, and we occasionally study together. Despite being in college and of age and all that, I don’t go out much… I’ve just been mainly focusing on getting the best grades I can and getting done with college so I can try out for ACME or another job in the area of law enforcement.


Senior year, college, three years ago

-It’s almost graduation time! My teachers are pretty sure that I could graduate early as long as I keep my grades up for the rest of this semester. Everyone says to get it over with, unless I really want to stick around… I’m not sure, but I think sticking around would push my GPA higher, though the sooner I’m out of college, the sooner I can apply for a job in law enforcement (either ACME, the local police, maybe even the Feds could be interesting).

-Jake passed away in his sleep at age 59. The doctors said it was a hard-to-detect brain cancer. That night, I walked down to the area bar and closed the bar. A couple of the regulars (it seemed) helped me get home afterwards. He left a will in the lockbox he kept under his bed; everything was left to me, along with his life insurance policy. It turns out that when my old friend’s family sold my parent’s house and sold the stuff that I didn’t take, they put the money into a trust fund in my name. It took close to two weeks of dealing with a lawyer to get everything straightened out, but everything was taken care of. Well, I don’t need a two bedroom apartment, and once done with college, I’m going to apply for the ACME Training Academy, which is on the same campus the detective agency runs out of. Once the funeral and everything was done, I went back to college, and settled on making up the time by not graduating early.

-I decided that once done with college, take a little time to see the sights and maybe take a vacation to someplace I haven’t been. I’m thinking maybe Russia or Asia someplace.

 

[Jon Eckart]

Two years ago

End of school year, Spring - Graduated college and came out to my car and found a manila envelope with ACME’s logo on it in my locked car on the driver’s seat. Opened it carefully, and it was an application to join ACME’s Academy. Took it home and filled it out, and took it back. The next day I was called into the Academy office, and by the time I left the office, I was enrolled. Training starts in five days, so I’m going to get all the rest I can and get ready for the classes. I dropped off the paperwork they gave me (which included my academy schedule, which I hung onto), and went out and stocked up on school supplies.

Fall - The Academy is pretty tough, it’s a year-long program, including half-day weekends.
The list of classes included interrogation (both how to do it and how to resist it), stealth, fitness, martial arts, adrenaline control, firearms, self-defense, unarmed combat, and a bunch of other classes. Classes typically run for like ten hours a day with a lunch break.


Early this year

-Graduated from the Academy. At the ceremony, they let the graduates know that they’ll call us when they get the grades finalized so they know where to put us. Out of the class I was in (45 people), only like 25 walked down the aisle, me included. While I’m waiting, I’ll keep an eye out for other jobs in case I didn’t do good enough to get into the Agency itself… maybe try for a position in the regular police department.

-It’s been a couple days, and still haven’t gotten a call from the agency, so I filled out an application at the police department. The teacher did let us know that even if we don’t get placed at the agency itself, we can use what they taught us at the academy on future applications. Hopefully, something works out that makes use of my education. Went to a bar down the street, had a few, went home and went to bed.

-It’s been a week, and nothing. I even went down there, and was told I would hear something soon. I decided to have a few beers and a burger at the bar. A little bit after the waitress brought the third beer, someone asked if they could sit at my table, I said yes, and they did. I glanced up from the newspaper I was reading; a man in his mid-thirties wearing a neat suit had sat down with a glass of scotch on the rocks and some papers under his cellphone so they didn’t blow away. We talked a little, then he apologized for not introducing himself. He told me his name was Chase Devineaux, and that he was the Director Of Operations at ACME. He said that he had seen me at the Academy, and the reason they hadn’t called me yet was a couple things came up when they ran my name; nothing major, he and the Chief had to discuss it. The job was mine if I still wanted it, and he finished his drink and left me the paperwork and his card. About half an hour after he left, the police department called me back and wanted to set up an interview, and I let them know that something else came along. When I got home a little after that, I filled out the paperwork and sent an e-mail to Chase to let him know I’d bring the paperwork there in the morning. Before I headed to bed, got an e-mail back asking me to ask the receptionist to let him know when I got there with the paperwork.

-Among the paperwork was a list of stuff that I was advised to have for the average mission. I went to several stores and got most of it, and improvised about some of it. My sidearm would be supplied by ACME, along with a firearms license. My ACME-issued communicator was included in the envelope of paperwork with its wristband. Once I got all of the shopping done, I set about organizing everything, and figured out how to modify the backpack to get to things easily without taking it off (some stitching work using instructions found online). A couple items weren’t on the list, and needed a trip to a military surplus store; a rugged ham radio and some MREs, along with a fair amount of the mission-specific items.

-The next day, I brought the paperwork back, and found Chase waiting for me. He gave me a tour of the building and showed me where my desk would be, got me my ID card and set my communicator up. I had the option to start that day, and I took it. I had thought ahead and loaded the desk stuff in my car, and once I was shown to my desk, I ran outside and got the stuff destined for the desk life, and my daily backpack, and started setting up everything. I got the desk set up and got my laptop setup to access the system.

 

[Jon Eckart]

Thanks, Lucy ?

 

[Julie Justice]

That's great, Jon. I'm glad you're with ACME and I look forward to reading about your adventures. ?

 

[Jon Eckart]

Thank you, Julie!