entrancelogs | + It's good that we can't see what isn't there +

Entry tags:

+ It's good that we can't see what isn't there +

Who: EVERYONE
Where: Wonderland and adjacent dimensions!
When: Friday, April 21st to Monday, April 24th
Rating: PG-13, warn if higher!
Summary: A place to list your tears throughout the event, and describe the worlds that can be seen or accessed through them. Event Post.
The Story:

While invisible zombies ravage Wonderland, tears are popping up everywhere! Through them characters can see versions of themselves from alternate universes. Some of them show a different version of Wonderland, some a different version of their home. Some are as benign as a character drinking coffee instead of tea, others are as drastic as somebody's entire personality changed completely.

On day one tears are so small as to barely even be recognisable. Faint voices and melodies can be heard through the tiny cracks if you step really close, but these brief and indistinct glimpses are barely even worth describing.

On day two tears have opened up wide enough to recognise them for what they really are. Yesterday's melodies will sound clearer, and the voices will become decidedly familiar, belonging to people characters know, sounding perhaps even like the characters themselves. Look through the tears and they may catch sight of home, or something that merely looks like another part of Wonderland. The tears are yet narrow and instable though, and the field of vision is correspondingly poor.

On day three the tears have grown a great deal. The worlds beyond them can be seen and heard, though most cannot be interacted with at all. Only the biggest ones are already stable enough for characters to stick their hand inside, and pulls through any objects within reach.

On the fourth and last day some tears have finally become large and stable enough for characters to pass through whole. Not all tears will reach this stage, but those who have can be visited, and the world beyond them explored... at each character's own peril.

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[ She says she's fine, but a moment later she's fallen quiet again, staring vacantly - not into space, he realizes, but at the mangled body on the ground. Silently, Joel takes a step sideways, putting himself between Ellie and David and blocking her view. ]

C'mon.

[ He doesn't feel any hesitation in grabbing the gun from where it lies on the ground - not the machete, the one he'd swung at Ellie, but he needs a weapon, at least until he can find a better one. One with less history. He shoves the pistol into the back of his jeans, then puts an arm around Ellie, turning her and steering her gently but firmly towards the door. ]

[ Ellie lets Joel steer her away. Her hands, her clothes, her face all have flecks of blood on them from her finishing off David, but none of that seems to register much as he begins to move them out of the restaurant.

The fire is spreading, but not so much that they can't slip out. When they do so, the blizzard is still raging full-force, muffling the general alarm of the village and, luckily, obscuring their figures from anyone who might be in the area. ]

They'll still kill us if we're found. [ She reports in a hollow voice. Right now, she feels so sick and bone-tired that the desire to just lie down in the snow is very compelling. ]

[ Joel hunches against the snow and biting cold, unconsciously pulling Ellie a little closer as he scans the area - or at least as much of it as he can see. No one else in sight, but this blizzard isn't giving them much visibility. It'd be all too easy for someone to sneak up on them unawares. ]

Then we won't let 'em find us.

[ Easier said than done. Ellie's still sounding uncharacteristically lackluster and distant, letting him pull her along without resistance, but not taking any initiative either. It worries him, but more than that, the thought of her getting herself hurt because she's not paying attention worries him. Joel pauses, crouching down and turning to meet her eyes with both hands on her shoulders. ]

Ellie. [ He says her name to get her attention, surprisingly gentle. ] Hey. Look at me, alright? I know it's hard, but I need you to focus now. Help keep an eye out, so we can get somewhere safe. Just for a little while. Can you do that?

[ More often then not, they've survived without a solid plan. Get somewhere safe. Where is safe anymore, though? Their end game is the hospital in Salt Lake, but that plan had been utterly derailed. ... With Joel back on his feet, though, maybe they could finally get moving. Leave this area and all its insane, cannibal freaks.

They'd taken her backpack, so all she has at the moment is her switchblade. He's got the pistol he'd taken from David. Ellie is going to nod, to agree, but then she shakes her head hopelessly. ]

Where can we go? [ She breathes, tone borderline desperate. ] The basement's not safe, they tracked me back there -

[ Obviously. ... But, this isn't the time for giving up, and she knows that even through her draining fog. So, Ellie just sighs, nodding again, this time with more conviction. ]

Okay. Okay. [ The more you say a word, the stranger it sounds. ] After you.

[ She'll watch his back, keep him safe, just like she's been doing all winter. ]

We'll find someplace.

[ They always do, right? Things have always worked out for them before, eventually. They will again.

They have to.

The basement. He grimaces, remembering it, remembering the fact that there's another him running around somewhere, just as desperate to find Ellie. How the hell's he gonna explain that? Well, he'll figure that out too.

Ellie nods, and Joel nods back, giving her shoulders an encouraging squeeze. ]

Atta girl. C'mon now.

[ Shifting the pistol to his right hand, he reaches out to take hers with his left almost without thinking, just as he'd reached out to take Sarah's hand so many times - when they were in a crowd, crossing a busy intersection, or just after she'd had a long day at school, or suffered a hard defeat at one of her soccer games. If pressed, of course, he'd claim he'd taken Ellie's hand now because of the blizzard. They can't afford to get split up, especially when calling to each other would only attract the attention of their enemies. ]

[ What Joel doesn't know - what neither of them know - is that there's still a Joel in that basement, the one she'd traveled with, one that's more sick and more injured than this one had been. He's still there, alone, and she doesn't realize that they're in the process of leaving him behind (how could she?).

So she goes, lets him grab her hand and lead. Ellie doesn't know the place much better than he does, since the last day or so has been a blur, but she does as he said and keeps her eyes and ears open. She won't let either of them be taken out now, not after surviving so much.

The wind and the cold are oppressive, and Joel especially doesn't seem dressed for a hard winter. Ellie glances sideways at him, still wondering how he'd managed to recover so much since she'd last seen him. ... Still, he'd survived the rebar, and she's more than learned to expect anything from the guy.

The buildings give way to a clearing as the place thins out. She can still hear calls, but nobody has yet crossed their path. ]

[ This is uncharted territory for Joel as much as Ellie. When he'd been searching for her - before he'd been pulled into Wonderland - he'd been on the other side of town, and even if they had been retracing their steps now, that had been months ago, for him. He doesn't remember a thing.

He's freezing, too. He hadn't exactly been toasty the last time, but at least he'd had a winter coat. Now his plaid flannel seems unbearably thin.

They've got to find shelter and fast, or he'll be just another burden for Ellie to carry. Again.

Miraculously, luck is on their side. Whether because of the blizzard or something else, none of the hunters find them as they make their way out of the town. Not that the woods are more promising. Shelter. They need shelter.

He's so cold.

Joel stumbles into a crevice between two towering boulders, dragging Ellie with him. It's not quite a cave, but it's dry, and blocks the worst of the wind. He's shivering as he crashes down on dry pine needles, wrapping his arms around himself. ]

We gotta get outta here. [ He's speaking to himself as much as her, speaking his thoughts aloud to force himself to focus. ] Find somewhere warm. Somewhere they ain't.

[ If her coat would at all fit him, Ellie would offer it. As it is, he's unprepared for the weather, and there's nothing she can do but press on, hoping some kind of shelter comes up before it gets dark, before it gets worse. Joel seems to find a little bit of a haven for them, of sorts, and she crawls in after him, jaw shaking with restrained chatters. ]

I know. [ But the hunters can follow tracks, obviously, and they'd been seeing red trying to find the people who'd slaughtered their friends. They shot us first, she thinks dully, not for the first time... but that doesn't matter. ]

We can't stay here. [ Ellie says after a pause, trying not to think about how the wind sounds louder, angrier. ] We should... see if we can find another house, or something.

[ There won't be food, but maybe they could build a fire. Without Callus, she knows she won't be able to do anything if Joel can't move, so they have to act fast.

Endure. Endure. Endure. ]

[ At least Ellie seems do be doing all right. Considering the circumstances, anyway. She's more with him now than she had then - no more glassy-eyed gazes into the distance - and her coat seems to be doing a decent job of keeping her warm.

For the moment. That won't last. But it's something.

Joel nods in agreement, forcing himself to focus. Find shelter. They've got a weapon. He listens closely, and hears no sound of pursuit - nothing but the wind. It'll have to be enough. ]

Yeah.

[ He scrubs his face, then takes a deep breath, bracing himself for another trip out into the snow. ]

C'mon.

[ And he levers himself up, creeping out of the little crevice and back into the blizzard. ]

[ As in all things, Ellie does better without the downtime to reflect on how dire their situation (always) is. Right now, they have to keep moving, keep thinking, or they'll be in even more trouble. She can't linger on David, even though every available second has her mind drift back to the cell, the town, the restaurant. The body. Forcing herself with every fiber of her being to focus on the now is what gives her the tiniest bit of edge when a hunter happens across their path just as they slip out from the hideaway. ]

"Fuck - She's over here!" [ Joel seems to be a surprise, though, as David's people were almost definitely just looking for the little girl, having likely been told that her partner in crime was laid up with injuries. As such, he takes a second too long to turn his gun on them, having to choose between the man and the girl, and Ellie leaps.

The guy gets a knife to the shoulder, but that doesn't take him down. The pair struggle, and he manages to elbow her in the gut, tossing her off, before readying a shot to Joel, the larger threat. ]

[ Underdressed for the cold as he is, Joel's reaction time, like the hunter's, is similarly just a second or so delayed. By the time he raises his gun, Ellie's already jumped, stabbing her knife viciously into the man's shoulder and blocking Joel's aim.

He curses, and for a moment he's ready to attack himself, getting the hunter's attention on himself and away from Ellie. But just then, the hunter throws Ellie off, raising the gun on Joel.

He dives just in time, hearing the bullet sing past his ear, and he fires himself, three quick shots before the man falls to the ground. By then, of course, it's too late. The hunter's yelling and the gunshots have attracted attention, and there are more running their way. Joel scrambles to pick up the other gun - his own ammo is already running low - and then gestures to Ellie. ]

C'mon, we gotta move.

[ Not far - he leads her through the woods, to a low boulder, and drags her down behind it, leaning close and listening hard. Time to see if they've been followed. ]

[ He doesn't have to say it twice. The hunter goes down and she scrambles to her feet, following Joel as he moves out from the town's edges and back into the woods. Those guys will follow them anywhere, she guesses, and she wonders if it'd be smarter to go back to that basement, after all, in case they'd abandoned it completely on their search... ]

They'll follow our footprints, [ She breathes in warning. ] That's how they found us before.

[ It'd been her stupid mistake, but the past was past. Now, she has to figure out a way to keep them both safe in the present. Going into uncharted territory might be smarter, but with no indication of shelter. Heading to where she and Joel had holed up could get them in trouble, but they'd have four walls... ]

There was a mall, um - [ She shakes her head, brow furrowed. ] I think I could find it again...

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+ It's good that we can't see what isn't there +

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