I'm Superman with the Wind at his Back [Open]

[nunpunching]

WHO| Punchy and open
WHAT| Punchy ego trips
WHEN| Midway through week 2, during the day
WHERE| The gift shop on the second floor
WARNINGS| Swearing, I guess

Hell yeah Punchy's in a gang.

At least, that's what he's telling himself as he heads down to the gift shop to look for supplies. The shop is a surprisingly good for the science crew - miniature science kits, automated piggy banks, battery-operated toys, and all manner of things that can be broken down and used for parts.

And, of course, it's got a healthy supply of merchandise branded in Punchy's image. Punchy feels absolutely zero shame as he loads up his Punchy backpack with Punchy-brand sunglasses and Sour Patch Punchies ("deliver a punch of sourness!"). A Punchy hat sits atop his head with a chibi version of him stitched onto the visor. He tops this all off by putting a thermos with his face on it into his Punchbox, alongside an alarm clock of him boxing with Hyperion and a pair of socks with his trademark puppet printed on them.

The puppet is dangling out of the waistband of his bright gold pajamas. He's also got one of those corpse-clearing robots tucked under his arm, and he's beatboxing to himself as he grabs things off the shelf. He's in a startlingly good mood for the Arena, given that he's finally found not only a person who agrees with him, but an entire motley group of kindred spirits. Pacifists who want to solve the puzzle of how get out of here, rather than kill their way through the competition.

It's what he's always wanted out of sidekicks, really.

Comments

[onlyimmune]

She chuckles a bit as Punchy talks, growing increasingly amused the longer she's around him, but the smile slips from her lips as soon as Joel speaks. Taking both of them in her hands, she frowned at them.

"... Guess they knew you were coming," She says, her voice tightening slightly. They could have fucking well told her. After a couple of seconds, though, she pushes the dark thought away and forces a lopsided grin to her lips. "Hey, I'm not going to turn down my own personal action figures," She says, slipping them into her pockets.

[nunpunching]

"Probably had it in their pockets that you was gonna roll up." Punchy goes through more of the bobbleheads; the ones he brushes nod and wobble in a way that's almost creepy, given their blank painted eyes.

"My action figure," Punchy proclaims, holding it out to Ellie for her examination, "has built-in punching action. How boss is that? I be high-rolling so hard they stamp me on a plastic."

[aintyourdad]

Joel doesn't like the implications of that - bringing Ellie here for a few months, then bringing him here, like some kind of sick plan.

But he lets the two of them ooh and aahh over the toys. He trusts Ellie's judgment enough, and he's more concerned with finding useful supplies - no matter what weird form they might take. He ignores the Wyatt Earp sheriff hats, ignores the sparkly sunglasses, goes instead for batteries, water bottles, trail mix, and a couple of clean T-shirts.

[onlyimmune]

She lets Joel wander off without comment, attention entirely focused on the action figure in Punchy's hand.

"No waaay," She says, a very real grin splitting her face. "That is so fucking awesome!" And she means it. Punchy may have just jumped up ten respect points. "Fuck, man, I want one. There's gotta be one of me in here." She picks up a Wyatt figure off the shelf, with a real cowboy hat, and can't help but laugh. "Oh man, wait until he sees this," She says, pocketing it.

[nunpunching]

"Check dis," Punchy grabs a Sherlock action figure and hits a button. Its long black coat billows dramatically. As stoked as he is by this, though, he keeps an eye on Joel.

"You two bumped into any faces yet?"

[aintyourdad]

"Faces?" Joel asks from where he's inspecting a 'Team Waximus' T-shirt rather bemusedly. "There're a lotta faces around here, you'll have to be more specific."

[onlyimmune]

Ellie snorts at the Sherlock figurine, not because she recognizes him (she doesn't) but because she thinks he looks kind of ridiculous. When Joel pulls out the t-shirt though...

"Oh man!" She runs over to grab it. "Oh, man oh man I am so totally going to wear the shit out of this," She says, dragging it from Joel's hands to slip it over her head.

"Uh, a few people. Not sure who you know, though. Mindy, Guy, Sandy, Hawkeye, Venus, this one dwarf dude--"

[nunpunching]

"Shit's a Wackimoose?" Punchy asks, although he's grinning too. "I know Guy, he's in my trap, he's good peeps. Been keeping keen for homies but I got a bunch stashed up the ringer upstairs. Science peeps. It's legit."

[aintyourdad]

Joel is a little baffled by Ellie's excitement, but just shrugs vaguely. If she likes it, she can have it. "Guy knows what the hell he's doin', that's for sure," he comments lightly to Punchy. That's high praise indeed coming from him - Wyatt's probably the only other person he's met here so far for whom he has that kind of respect.

[onlyimmune]

"Yeah Guy's pretty alright," She says vaguely as she beams proudly down at her shirt and then goes to forage through the rest of the store. "Science peeps? Are you guys going to blow up the arena or something, bust us out?"

Under her breath, she mumbles: "They've gotta have something with Howard on it in here. He'd get a kick out of it..."

[nunpunching]

"Shit, that sounds like a boss plan. We get the pipes hunked up then we gonna hustle on out. All the homies, not just my crew, we ain't discriminatory." He spells out each syllable of that.

"You mean the little homie, right? Got a snowglobe of him over here." Punchy hands it over to her as if he's an employee here, like he knows where everything is. Howard and Eponine are holding hands inside a watery wonderland with little pieces of glitter.

[aintyourdad]

"You do that, you let us know, so we can get clear of the blast," Joel comments dryly. No way does he want to be near a bunch of crazy scientists blowing shit up. Bill's nail bombs are the most he ever wants to deal with.

[onlyimmune]

"Aw niiiice," She says, grabbing the globe with a grin when she pauses, eyes falling on something else. Wordlessly, she reaches out and grabs a figurine of Venus in one of the dresses she wore to a crowning, and quietly shoved it in her bag without a word.

"Hey I wouldn't mind seeing some fireworks," She said with a grin instead, a little too loud, as she turned to face them both. "Specially not ones that come with an escape plan in tow."

[nunpunching]

"Course I'll bump the siren." He watches as Ellie shoves the figure into her bag, catching sight of the face. "Aw, hey, dat shawty's some redbone finery. You her homie?"

[aintyourdad]

Joel doesn't miss the Venus figure. Ellie must be collecting stuff of all her friends. Venus, though - Joel shakes his head slightly at the thought, but doesn't comment.

[onlyimmune]

"Uh, yeah. She's a friend of mine," Ellie said, a little too quickly, but immediately tried to shrug it off when she came to the end of the aisle, turned the corner, and found a rubber Zoidberg mask.

She snorted, a little too loudly, and grabbed it to put it on - and then faltered, her heart stuttering slightly. She knew exactly the last time she'd seen one of these masks, and--

She forced the thought away and made herself smile and hold it out to Punchy. "Here, check out this shit. You can be that weird alien dude."

[nunpunching]

"I'd like to make her a friend of mine, if you know what I mean." Punchy waggles his eyebrows, although it looks a bit goofy since he doesn't have the independent, saucy arch down like, at all. "A friend under the sheets at my crib."

As if Ellie didn't get the innuendo the first time. Punchy's grin gets wider as he takes the Zoidberg mask.

"Hey, this bizzle's one of my homies!" He puts it on and raises his hands in mock claws. "Wizzle wizzle woop!"

[aintyourdad]

"I think we get the picture," Joel says, rolling his eyes at the kid. He's pretty sure a deaf monkey could've picked up on that innuendo.

When Punchy puts the mask on, though, Joel's eyebrows shoot up. "Is that... a lobster?"

[onlyimmune]

Ellie managed to somehow keep the blush to a bare trace of red, offering absolutely no comment on Venus that way.

"Zoidberg," She said quickly, all too happy for the shift of conversation. "He's in my district, I met him on the train. Fucking nuts, basically. An alien or something though he's from Earth, apparently. He's a doctor, I guess." She looked at Punchy, "Didn't know you guys were friends, though. Small world."

[nunpunching]

"Not sure we's tight yet, but he's with us in the gang. Our science gang. Super legit." Punchy takes the mask off and stuffs it in his backpack. "You guys got a place to crash?"

[aintyourdad]

"Yeah, we do," Joel said immediately. "We're all set up."

[onlyimmune]

"Yeah, we're fine," Ellie said, a little less aggressively than Joel, maybe, but no less certain.

"Don't you worry about us. This is old school, compared to home."

/wrap?

[nunpunching]

"A'ight. I hear y'all on the waves, I'mma be disappointed." He gives them a little salute and finishes zipping his bags. "Deuces."

[aintyourdad]

Joel shakes his head a little. What the hell does deuces mean?

"See you around," he mutters, getting his brand-new troll bag ready to head back to their little camp.