thearena | 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

The sound cuts through the quiet of the store like a knife - a knife going straight into his gut. On instinct, Joel drops down into a crouch, evens out his breathing, slows his movements so he makes no sound.

It wouldn't surprise him one goddamn bit if they thought it would be funny to stick an actual clicker into this store.

He veers quietly around a corner, ears peeled for the sound. When he spots the source of it - one of those goddamn trolls - a scowl forms on his face and he swings around behind it, quietly. Grabbing it in a chokehold, he growls, "this your idea of a joke, huh?"

He might have cried out where he able-- by having the ability and by being pulled into a chokehold as he is. His tongueless maw works like such a thing could be done anyway. He's tall, so whoever's got him has pulled him into bending backwards, all awkward. Instinct brings his hands up to grip the arm what's got him, trying to keep himself from being brought down or losing balance.

But only to have his conditioning come in to firmly put a stop to this action. His hands fall down and loose, though they shake with the effort. He's all just being held up by his neck which is a goddamn way to die but-- well, it's probably the Capitol. His avoxing team has found him, grabbed him here, and are going to punish him for what he's done.

With the last of what he's got, he shakes his head as much he can, that gruff voice in his damaged ears. No, no, he didn't think it to be a joke he just wanted to try it, he just wanted to give something more than silence, he didn't think no one would hear, he fucked up, he knows...

Edited 2014-09-03 22:35 (UTC)

Joel is used to the struggle. He's used to fighting, it's what he expects. He puts someone in a choke hold, he knows they'll scrabble and twist and wiggle right up until they can't breathe anymore and they fall unconscious. And he's done it often enough to know how long it takes.

Maybe trolls are different, somehow, but when this one suddenly just stops fighting, it shocks him, enough to loosen his grip a little, anyway. " - The hell?"

Survival instinct is something he knows. A lack of one is what's shocking.

The very moment Joel loosens his grip, he lurches forward, trying to free from his grip. On his knees, he gasps for breath. It's punctuated by coughs, his dry throat all getting to a proper ache now what has him reaching to touch it and then promptly putting that hand back down, as though shocked.

He rises up to standing. His breath is still a little hard but it's calming. It's a tribute what got him. Oh think Mirth. Thank fuck. It ain't his avox team. Even if this motherfucker might still kill him, it's better than that. He ain't yet being punished for his transgression of noise.

His breath is shuddering relief. He puts his hands behind his back as a proper slave ought to, and his head bows down. He can't quite make his eyes go empty, not after a scare like that, but his body language should be enough as to say, 'I am only here to serve, ain't meaning no harm'.

The sight of the thing on its knees like that makes Joel's mouth twist again - in disgust. Not at the troll, but as realization dawns.

The avoxes are around the Tribute Tower, of course. He avoids them as much as he can, does things for himself, doesn't interact with them. They did that to a Tribute, and threw him into the arena.

Yeah, he'd rather die than see that happen to Ellie, or Tess.

"Christ," he mutters, running a hand over his jaw, the fight going out of him. "Those sons of bitches."

He can see the fight leave. The way it just turns into revulsion. It's hard not to think it's for him, but it's not all because of the avoxing. It strikes him with clarity, he'd be culled for this weakness on Alternia. To the Capitol he has been made better, shown an example of for his sin. But by Alternia he only exemplifies the very unforgivable weakness that sin encapsulates. In two senses now would he deserve it.

All thinking that, he can feel the Alternian part fighting this, warring against his conditioning. If it's possible to cringe away from the internal, he's doing it. That mysterious third option of neither Alternian nor Avox seems more and more safe to take to.

Whilst Joel ruminates, the Initiate lifts his head and looks around. There's another daywalker mask left just lying lose there. He ought to put it in it's proper place. But as he picks it up he finds himself staring at it again. What kind of thing got happening to the daywalkers of this tribute's world that they look like this?

Edited 2014-09-11 15:16 (UTC)

There are no words. Joel knows what it means, he's been around long enough to know what the Avoxes are, more or less. He knows better than to demand a verbal answer from this - person.

Of course, that leaves him at a kind of impasse. Joel isn't big on talking, either, never has been particularly gregarious. That doesn't mean he doesn't have questions, though, like what this guy (gal? who knows) is doing in his - "his" - store.

When the troll picks the mask back up, Joel snatches it away from him, tosses it back on the shelf abruptly. "You shouldn't touch that shit."

He jumps, flinching at the sudden movement as the mask is ripped from his hands. For a second, there's another round of fear that he's disobeyed somehow, or upset the tribute. His head hangs some.

But then he gathers up enough of himself to lift his head back up and communicate, albeit in the smallest of means; he tilts his head. Why?

His gaze flicks back to the masks. Were they trapped somehow? He doubted these things could--not come alive, no-- but become animate. Perhaps coated in a poison of some kind...

"Because if you make that noise again, or wear one of these masks, there are people here who'll kill you without a second thought," Joel snaps, annoyed. Yes, he is definitely one of them.

He flinches at the scolding, the tone and all. Especially the noting that he made sound-- even a tribute wants his silence, that's different. He bows his head, then after a pause, gives a nod. Yes, sir. Of course.

But he's learned something from it too; what noise he got to making has some association with those daywalkers. He can't be surprised he got attacked over such a thing. Even a year in this place, without any daywalkers up at all, he'd been taking heads off just to be sure... Of course, he could and would do no such thing now.

Something about the way the guy defers to Joel, practically bows, makes him incredibly uncomfortable. This is why he avoids avoxes in the Capitol, and why he avoids them here as well. Why he warned Tess so strenuously about them.

He doesn't want to see her like this.

"Jesus Christ, just... stay outta here, alright?" he snaps. "Go find your people, if you've got any left."

With that, he turns to go. He needs to get away from this guy, that's for damn sure.

His people. Kurloz, his other self... the others of his friends couldn't bear his presence. Others he simple hadn't gound. But it's a command and so he nods.

But he only goes after Joel does, staying to linger and eye those masks. For a brief moment he considers the idea of doing something about them, as though to thank Joel for his sparing. Could he really disobey so blatantly and destroy these things? He thinks not.

But he can hide them. He plucks them all off the shelf and looks about for a backpack to shove them in. He zips them up tight and proceeds to shove that away too, far in the back of the store. And then, finally, he leaves.

open;

LOL

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject