how many roads we've traveled; open;

[aintyourdad]

Who| Joel and YOU!; Joel and Riley; Joel and Riley and YOU!
What| After the cornucopia run, Joel is injured and looking for Ellie. Riley is going to save his ass and then they're going to look for Ellie together!
Where| Some of the old abandoned houses probably.
When| The first 2-3 days of the arena.
Warnings/Notes| Probably the usual TLOU stuff - violence, injury, monster killing, cussing.

[OPEN - before meeting Riley]

Joel is hurt. He took a beating from that kid before he ran off - broken ribs for sure, probably a concussion considering the dizzy spells. He needs to sit down, take a breather, and go through this bag of stuff he almost gave his life for. But to do that, he needs to find shelter. He's a sitting duck out here.

He stumbles into the first building he finds, sliding down a wall until he's seated against it. He hasn't even bothered to check if the building is empty - possibly a big mistake, but he's having a hard time thinking straight right now, he needs to catch his breath and go through this bag.

Then - then when he's rested a little - he'll go back out and look for Ellie.

[Closed - to Riley]

He's running on fumes, hasn't had any food or water since he arrived, his ribs ache and make him walk funny, and he still hasn't found Ellie. Frankly, Joel is getting desperate, despite the haul of supplies he was able to grab. The bag is slung over his back, and he's got the piece of wood studded with nails in his hands, ready to use it against anyone or anything that might attack.

He's been hearing the dogs howling and growling in the fog since his arrival, but none of them have ever been close enough to be really concerned about. That is, until he stumbles over a piece of debris in the fog and twists his ankle, letting out a surprised sort of half-yell as he lands in the dirt.

"Goddamn it," he mutters, reaching for the piece of wood again and stumbling up. He's in bad shape now, unable to run on the twisted ankle, taking shallow breaths because of the broken ribs, and dizzy from a concussion. And then there's a dog growling right behind him.

No, not just one dog. At least two or three.

"Shit."

The first one, he manages to send flying with the wood, as it lets out a surprised yelp of pain. But there are a couple more shapes approaching him in the fog, and he doesn't have the strength to keep them all back. Not when they're obviously hungry.

[Open - For anyone who wants to run into Joel AND Riley!]

A house. They need to find a house that's empty, that's not about to fall down around their ears, and that they can defend easily. If only long enough to get a little rest. Joel hates it - he hates being the one to slow them down. He hates it enough when it's Ellie he's with, and he hates it doubly so now, with this other girl, this Riley.

But he knows it's true. He knows they have to stop - that he has to stop - and eat, and rest soon. Otherwise he'll be good for nothing but a quick death. And he hasn't even found Ellie yet.

He has to find Ellie.

"Think that might be somethin', up ahead," he murmurs to the girl next to him, pointing at a shadowy shape starting to form in the fog as they approach. "Wanna check it out?"

Comments

closed;

[firefall]

It's the barking that draws Riley's attention. She's got a good start, with her crowbar and her bag of goodies, but she's not going to turn down more that could be useful. Particularly she remembers, mostly on instinct, that the noise of animals fighting could lead you to food they'd found. She's going to need food, soon.

She approaches quickly but cautiously, so she can assess the situation before deciding to go in. She doesn't want to get torn apart by a pack of dogs her first day out of that little playpen the Capitol put them in. She sees that there's just a few, not bad odds for driving off a kill, but she hesitates initially on seeing the large shadow; she doesn't want to save someone with an obvious chance of hurting her through sheer weight.

Then she hears him curse, and recognizes his voice just as she creeps close enough to see him more clearly through the fog. Joel. Sure, he's an asshole, but he's Ellie's.

The decision is instantaneous. She bursts into motion, sprinting around the building, slamming her crowbar across one dog's neck so hard its throat is crushed. The other one she kicks in the stomach hard enough to send it flying a small distance backwards.

"So I guess Ellie does all the work in your glorious partnership, huh?" she shouts back to him teasingly, her grin fierce and excited.

[aintyourdad]

For a brief, wonderful moment, he thinks it's Ellie. Like in Colorado, those weeks he was so sick and she kept him alive. Or any number of other occasions when he found himself in trouble and she had his back.

But as the shape materializes in the fog, that hope is crushed, and he turns away from her as he rolls up onto his hands and knees, then eventually gets back to his feet, pain etched on his face as he does so - he's got a few more bruises and lacerations for his trouble now, too.

"You asked her that yet?" he asks after a moment to catch his breath.

[firefall]

"Nah, not yet. She'll tell me at her own pace, whatever she wants me to know." Riley shrugs with a pleasant smile.

One of the dogs lunges for her. She turns quickly and slams the crowbar sidelong against its skull; dazed, it drops, whimpering and bleeding. The other one decides it doesn't like its odds anymore and turns tail, fleeing into the fog.

She notices now that he's wincing, moving carefully. She frowns. "You look like shit, man. Where're you hurt? Was it the dogs, or someone else?"

[aintyourdad]

And yet that doesn't stop her from asking him potentially-intrusive questions - but he doesn't say that aloud. He doesn't have the energy to argue with her, not here, not when he's in this kind of shape.

He grabs up the 2x4, checks that it's still usable as a weapon, and grimaces a little. He probably does look pretty bad, bruises and scrapes at the very least, but his worst injuries are internal right now.

"Nah, some punk-ass kid thought he could take me back there. Minute I put up a fight, he turned tail and ran. Got these out of it," he adds, pointing at the bag of supplies slung across his back. "Couple of cracked ribs, maybe a concussion. The dogs're just scavengers."

Meaning: they wouldn't have attacked him if he hadn't looked like easy prey, so he knows he looks like easy prey right now.

"I gotta find Ellie."

[firefall]

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us," Riley replies, her voice just a little sharp, a little reminder that hey, dickhead, you're not the only one worried. Still, she's brisk and neutral with him more than anything as she continues, and she keeps her voice quiet so they can't be easily heard.

"Hey, are you limping? Let's find somewhere to get you off your feet and assess our supplies. Ellie's not gonna forgive me if I let you run off and get yourself in trouble. Shouldn't stay here with all that noise we just made anyway." She looks around, trying to make out if there's a likely place to sit themselves down for a few minutes.

[aintyourdad]

Well, that answers his question. Obviously he didn't phrase it as a question, but that's basically what he intended it as - to see if Riley has found her, or knows where she is.

Goddammit.

"We gotta find some higher ground, get out of this fog so we can look for Ellie," he says gruffly, though that's not really a direct contradiction of what she just said, either. Stopping and resting is also part of the 'find higher ground' plan.

[firefall]

"I agree. But I'm not gonna let you walk more'n a half hour if we don't find high ground. I've been wandering around a while and all the terrain's flat as a pancake so far. I've got the crowbar, some chain, wire, kindling, some kinda bug spray and goggles." She speaks almost in a whisper, in case there's someone around they might not see. "How about you?"

She raises her voice again - not loud, just normal. "So, you need my shoulder to lean on or are we gonna get going? I can even slow down so's you can keep up, pops."

[aintyourdad]

"A wrench, sleepin' bag, kindling, bug spray, some other odds and ends I can make use of," he says automatically, his own voice low and quiet so as not to carry. His tone never changes.

"I'm fine, just keep goin'. Might be a house or building with an upstairs we can use. Anything to get out of this fog and get a better vantage."

[firefall]

"You're fine for now. If you blow all your energy pushing yourself today, you won't be fine tomorrow. I refuse to explain to Ellie that I got her pseudo-dad killed because I let him be a fucking moron." The word dad sounds crisper, more bitter than the rest of the sentence. "I was a military kid and then I was a Firefly, okay? And I was good at it. I know what's what and I know how you keep people on their feet in bumfuck nowhere, so don't try and brush me off like that."

She clears her throat slightly. "We're in luck on the houses front. I raided a few before I found you. Hung out with some guy calling himself Roland. Not a fun bone in him I could see, but an all-right guy for what you're gonna find in a place like this. It's hard to tell where to go in this fog, but I'm pretty sure of the direction I found some apartments in. Good place for holing up for a little bit, all those hallways can be like a rat warren."

[aintyourdad]

Joel just scowls even more, if that's possible. It's not so much what she says as a whole that bothers him, but what. "How the hell'd you get in with the Fireflies?" he hears himself asking. "Kid your age should be in school."

Except Ellie, but Ellie's special. And okay, so maybe the injuries are making him even grouchier than usual. And having his ass saved by a kid. A kid he doesn't like or approve of. Who is apparently a freaking Firefly. Christ.

"I'm sure you know all about survival outside the zone," he mutters sardonically.

[firefall]

"I was in school," she snaps. "And about to turn legal adult, shithead, so you can stop condescending to me anytime. I didn't much fancy a soldier's life and I know damn well how the fucking civvies get treated, so yeah, I decided to say fuck all that shit and go do something that wouldn't make me feel dirty for existing. What a concept, right?"

She scowls at the ground. "I coulda dumped your ass and left you to die, pops, but see, you're important to my girl. So you get to be my deadweight instead, and you know what? I hate your guts but I will still take a fucking bullet for you if I gotta, so I'd really like it if you'd shut the fuck up with the growly jackass routine to the girl sticking her neck on the line for you. Just because I'm looking out for you doesn't mean I won't punch you in the fucking mouth if you start trying to play papa bear to me too."

[aintyourdad]

That is some rich shit coming from such a small mouth, Joel thinks to himself. He is reasonably sure that even in his current state, he could stop this little shit from doing much more damage to him.

"I am nobody's dad, and if you think the Fireflies ain't got their hands dirty, well, I've got a bridge to sell you in Tahiti. Nah, Fireflies're plenty dirty, don't kid yourself. It's all just different ways of killin' each other."

He comes to a pause at an old fire hydrant, leaning against it with a heavy sigh as he tries to catch his breath. "You don't owe me shit, kid, so if you hate me so much, you can just head on out now. I'm not interested in listenin' to you moan about how much you wanna punch my teeth in. If your hackles were up any higher, I'd expect you to piss on Ellie's leg when we find her. That won't do her no good, so how about we both just cool it?"