thearena | how many roads we've traveled; open;

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?"

Threaded | Flat

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.

Stealth was the simplest thing in the world, just now. The fog moved like waves, now obscuring, now revealing the twilight forms of buildings and creatures, the ground subtly strewn with the detritus of a lost society, long overgrown and left to its own devices. Shepard doesn't doubt that but for the interference of the Capitol's Gamemakers, this would likely be a thriving— if perhaps radioactive— nature preserve. Like so many good things in this world, lost.

She'd gotten out of the Cornucopia with relatively little trouble. Once the mad scuffle for supplies, the screams in the greyness, had subsided, all had turned to lonely greyness and the lilting shapes of things not human. Shepard was smart; she knew when to run. One did not willingly engage in mortal combat this early in an arena, if one wanted to see the end.

That was what made her wary against the twin shapes she saw in the fog, even moreso than the notion that they might be tributes. She'd found refuge in the half caved-in remains of what had once been a very nice suburban home. One-story, open floor plan— more open than ever, now, with the garage-half of the house slumping and split open like a broken shoe. It looked fine from the front, and one of the bedrooms was structurally sound, even if the glass was half-gone, but there was no mistaking the main living room for indoors.

Jane squinted around the edge of the gaping lintel, sidelong, listening hard. One of the figures lifted an arm and pointed, almost directly at Shepard herself. Could they see her?

Screw waiting. Screw not knowing. Screw any aimless wandering. He had heard those dogs, he knew the unsound structure of the buildings, he knew how easy it was to get a foot caught in the fractures in the streets. Hawkeye had gone and sprinted down Main Street, tugging the hoodie closer to his body in some attempt at invisibility or anonymity. He had worked his way into buildings like a roach or a rat- for some reason, even every half-cracked window seemed to hit him with memories of old days. It meant Hawkeye knew, suddenly, how a plank of wood could prop up a pane of glass while he slipped inside. It meant he knew how to tip-toe around the rotting hardwood floors or stairs while making the house creak a little less. Now, call him useless all you want- the guy knew how slip in and out of bedrooms without waking up the parents.

So in Main Street were the businesses, and out those branched into homes. The more Hawkeye observed, the more he felt an unsettling creep. He knew someone with those same exact dinner plates, he knew someone with that model of car that was parked out front. He was in the kitchen and thinking of rummaging under the sink- cable ties would be useful, so very useful- when suddenly someone just gimps in. And Hawkeye stays silent. Even though the grayness is lessened in the homes, the fog cover not quite reaching all it can with the walls in the way of its conquest, the shape of the man is what Hawkeye focuses on first. It's all he really needs.

He inches closer, more or less silent, not exactly hidden when the kitchen's open for any pair of eyes of search. And if Joel didn't appreciate the fact that Hawkeye damn well could have gotten his hands on a knife and didn't, then he wasn't sure what more he could do for the fellow. Hawkeye entertains the thought of making a quip on the trails and tribulations of domestic life. Only he can't see sign of Ellie near, can't see any indication that she will come through the door like Joel just had, and the urge is squandered. "So what'd you get at the fair, son?" He asks, "A goldfish?" The bag- "A shiner?"

closed;

For Joel and Riley

For Joel!