thearena | open;

Entry tags:

open;

Who| Joel and YOU?!?!
What| Joel has found the TLOU store and isn't pleased. Alternately, Joel has found a copy of his biography and is REALLY displeased.
Where| The TLOU store; the bookstore.
When| Week 2 yo
Warnings/Notes| Cussin', possibly violence, references to body horror and torture/murder etc.

[ Option A; the TLOU store ]

He stumbles upon it early the second week. They've been scouring every shop and store - anything might have useful items, after all, and even if they don't, potential hiding spots are good to have as well. So it's a shock when he makes his way into the next shop on his list and finds -

Toy plastic gas masks. A neon colored flamethrower. Artfully tattered backpacks, bandanas, plaid shirts. Dawn of the Wolf posters.

The scowl on his face deepens as he wanders further into the shop, not liking any of this one bit but wanting to be thorough, too. And then, there they are. Ugly as sin, and even knowing they're fake, made of rubber, enough to get his heart racing a little faster - clicker masks.

[Option B; Story time ]

Later in the week, he's making the rounds and ducks into a bookstore for a breather, not expecting to find anything of interest. That is, until he picks up a book at random and sees his own goddamn name on it. It's like watching a train wreck, really - he starts flipping pages, unable to look away. The story itself doesn't bother him. Even the exaggerations, the blatant inaccuracies, the clearly biased point of view - he couldn't give two shits.

But the fact of its existence is just one more reminder that the Capitol seems to know everything about them. Things they shouldn't have any knowledge of, they know about. Enough to twist it all around to suit whatever their purpose happens to be.

There isn't much that frightens Joel, but this is kinda scary.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Okay, so, the monsters in your world look creepier than mine and I didn't think that was even possible." Clementine pipes up from behind Joel, holding one of the toy gas masks in her hands and staring at the masks the same way he is.

From the outside this store had a lot of resemblance to her own which was what first drew Clementine inside. After a moment the resemblance started to make sense, given what Joel and Ellie had told her of where they'd come from.

Then she find Joel himself inside and feels reasonably confident in making that judgement that this is the store based off their world.

Joel glances back at her, and shrugs a little. "Never thought about it," he says vaguely. "Figures they'd make it into a joke, though."

"Really?" she says, walking up next to him. "Because if I saw one of those things I'd be pretty creeped out." Clementine squints at it, how did one of those see? Even Walkers had eyes, though she thinks they relied on smell and hearing more than sight. "They have masks of the Walkers too in my store."

Joel shrugs, still making a face. "Don't get me wrong, they never stop being ugly as hell, but after a while you stop being surprised."

Clementine pulls her own face then, "... yeah, I never thought I'd get used to the Walkers at first, then I did." they stopped horrifying her on a visual level, even the smell when you got down to it was something she was now used to. Blood and guts were just part of the world, it was what they could do that she worried about.

"But they're not dead, right?" she asks for confirmation about the clickers. "How do they come after you if they can't see?"

"Yeah," Joel says quietly in agreement. He used to think the same thing - those first weeks, months, when everything was chaotic and terrifying and no one seemed to know what was going on except that everyone had gone insane.

Of course, they all adjusted, the ones who were left. Life changed drastically, but it continued.

"They, uh. They hear," he says, snapping back to the present, with the girl next to him asking questions. "Like bats. Echolocation."

Clementine twists her hands together behind her back, still holding the gas mask in her fingers. "Echolocation. I've never heard of that." she says. "I thought bats could just see in the dark."

She'd never really seen a bat come to think of it and mostly remembers them from Halloween decorations.

She hopes Joel doesn't mind talking about these monsters, he seemed distant there for a moment and she could understand that, she really could. If she thinks he's uncomfortably too much she'll stop but she is admittedly very curious about these bizarre looking things.

"No, they - make sounds," he explains. It's useful information - Joel is good at compartmentalizing, so it doesn't really make him all that uncomfortable. He's been luckier than some, in that regard. Hasn't had to watch a loved one turn.

"They make clicking sounds, the sounds bounce back and tell them where things are. That's why we call them clickers."

"Because... sound is like waves, right? It bounces back off things?" Clementine gives a nod as she says it, sure that's right. Maybe it was one of the things she learned in school when she went, or she'd heard it from another source somewhere down the line, she can't say for sure.

Maybe if she see's Bruce again she could ask him.

"Their hearing must be really good."

"Yeah, that's right," Joel says with a nod. More or less, he's far from an expert. "It bounces back, so they can tell where somethin' is. And yeah, they have real good hearing. Better'n a regular person. But if you know what to listen for, you can hear them coming too, and stay out of their way."

"Are they slow too?" Walkers are always slow, it's probably one of the only good things about them.

Otherwise they can be quiet, they can lurk in blind spots, sit and wait for hours or days, weeks even for someone to come along and you wouldn't realise until you were on top of one and it was trying to get a bite out of you. Worse than that were the herd, one Walkers being followed by another and another until they dozens if not hundreds lurching along in a pack. They might be slow but unlike people they never got tired.

She'll try not to shudder at the memory of them.

Joel shrugs vaguely. "They used to be people. They can come at you pretty quick if they hear you. It's best not to get to that point."

Clementine nods. Not dead, right, they didn't get stiff or rot these things Joel had had to fight, they were alive.

"Why do you think they put these things in here?" she asks after a moment. "Just to mess with us?"

"Who knows? Maybe," Joel says, shaking his head. "The same way they like to dress up like us and pretend like we should be flattered."

None of this flatters him, though. If they want to do something nice for him, they can let him and his girls go, and leave them be.

"I kind of worry about the people who live in the Capitol." Only kind of though. They don't seem right to her but at the same time they let the Games happen and enjoy them when they could object. The Games wouldn't happen if people didn't want to watch them.

"Sure are a lot of flannel shirts in here."

"Mm," he grunts in response to her first statement. He doesn't worry about any of them, honestly - that would imply he cares. He knows the people of this world are oppressed, in some ways similar to how the people in his own world are oppressed by the military regimes of the QZs.

But if he bothered to worry about that, he would be consumed with it. And that way lies madness. He doesn't have it in him to worry about anyone beyond his small circle.

"I think they think it's some kinda fashion statement," he finally says, responding to the flannel thing. "Stupid, but at least I won't run out of warm clothes."

Clem smirks, "Can you imagine them in a flannel shirt? It'd look like someone stuffed a poodle in there." A multi-coloured poodle. One of the little ones.

Amused at her own joke she let's herself chuckle before finally asking Joel a more serious question, "So you've been okay? You and Ellie?"

"I'm pretty sure a few think it's funny to try and grow their beards out like mine," Joel comments, shaking his head a little.

"We're fine. No major injuries so far. Stickin' close, mostly - Ellie and Tess are one or two shops down. In earshot. What about you?"

"You know I've seen people wearing my hat in the Capitol? It's so weird." Clem didn't like it one bit. The hat was special, it wasn't just a fashion accessory (okay it was originally, she didn't remember where her dad had got it though) but a connection to her family, her past. There was a reason she didn't wear it into the arenas.

It's a relief to hear they're doing okay. "I've been alright. I've stuck with Mindy and Chibi-Usa, mostly."

"Doin' alright without a grownup?" Joel asks, then holds up a hand. "I know, I know, you and Mindy can take care of yourselves, but there's some high-up places around here, and Chibi-Usa is real little."

"We're doing okay." she doesn't say great, she knows Joel wouldn't believe that. Okay is best, okay is accurate. "We found a place and blocked it up so only someone our size can get in. And we figured out a system for who does what and everything."

Clementine wants to reassure him as much as prove herself capable.

"Good. That's good, sounds like you're bein' smart," Joel says encouragingly. Kids need encouragement, that much he knows. To be told they're doing a good job once in a while.

When he compliments her Clementine smiles. It feels good coming from Joel, he's as pragmatic a survivor as she's ever met so she knows that if he gives her a compliment he must think she's doing the right thing. Sometimes he really does remind her of Lee.

"It's been pretty easy so far. It's weird." she admits. "I don't like it."

"Yeah," he agrees. "Too easy. Don't let your guard down, not for a second."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

open;

Aaaaayy

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject