fulsome hands don't feel repentance

[shivving]

Who: Joel, his Mirror, and you
Where: The Mirror and Real side, respectively
When: Throughout the event
Rating: To be added as necessary, but please read! Joel's Mirror is a nasty person. Any interaction with him has the potential for casual or blatant misogyny, violence, cruelty, and torment for the sake of torment. If you're interested in your character being murdered, he'll happily do so with little to no provocation. He makes Joel look like a fuzzy teddy bear. Please feel free to plurk or PM if you'd like to request character death/maiming or discuss how things go down!
Summary: Joel's Mirror is visiting the Real side, while his Real gets his first taste of the other side of the looking glass.
The Story:

Real

[ One minute, he's walking across the grounds, his day and his life as normal as either ever seem to get, either in Wonderland or elsewhere. He's got his rifle slung over his one shoulder; a less-than-impressive showing at the hunting range with Evie had spurred him to start practicing on his own time. There's no excuse for getting rusty, not when another (literally) hellish event could start at any moment.

The next minute, it's like his world is turned upside down, stomach lurching violently. Joel blinks, looking around at a world that's suddenly in greyscale, and his blood goes cold. What is this? A stroke? But he feels fine, and as he stares around the black-and-white landscape, he scowls. Speaking of events. ]

What is this, some Wizard of Oz shit?

[ Whatever it is, it's not good news, and he stalks off in the direction of the mansion. His first priority - as always - is finding Ellie, and confirming that she's safe. ]

Mirror

[ Oh, he's been waiting for this.

For months now, he's been watching. Observing. Biding his time.

His "Real" is nothing so worthy of the name. The Joel Miller on the other side of the glass is a sniveling pushover, incapable of standing on his own, completely wrapped around the finger of that little girl. Pathetic. He spends his days in the kitchen like a woman, reading books like a child, and generally wasting his life. Letting the useful skills he'd learned back in Boston erode away, leaving him soft and lazy. Even days like today, when he bothers to get off his ass and shoot something, it's a waste; he shoots at motionless targets on the edge of the woods, when there are any number of animals to hunt just yards away.

It's embarrassing.

When the Queen comes onto the network, shrieking and blabbering shrilly about traitors, Joel rolls his eyes. But he takes note. He doesn't have any particular interest in kissing up to the Queen...but a good hunt is always entertaining. And the excuse to take a jaunt over to the other side of the Mirrors, without the risk of being branded a traitor himself?

Well, why not?

He crosses over and starts walking without any particular destination in mind, letting his feet take him where they may and keeping an eye out for anything or anyone interesting. ]

Comments

[backpacking]

[ Ellie knows she isn't going to win against him in a fight over this gun (or any fight, not the way they're grappling now). So, she pulls back for a moment, but lets go fairly quickly, using the brief time in which he grabs it from her hands to stomp hard on one of his feet (on the grazed leg) before trying to dash out again, to get some space between them. If she can't, he'll probably kill her.

She's afraid of that possibility, but also, she's thinking of what Joel might feel if he hears. There's gotta be a way to outmaneuver this guy. Cullen's Mirror had been strong, too, but he'd been slow and had given up. David - David had just been insane, maybe, and she'd managed to sneak up on him by some stupid luck.

It's not clear if she'll have that luck again, but she's gotta hope. ]

[daddyswatching]

[ He's prepared for her to fight for the gun, ready to break her wrist if necessary to get it away. Instead, she lets go almost immediately, taking advantage of his momentary focus on the gun to slip from his grip and stomp on his foot.

The thick boot he's wearing helps cushion the blow, but it's not enough to block it entirely. Joel grunts in pain, doubling over slightly, and Ellie darts out from under his arm, hightailing it across the room. Oh, no. She's not gonna get away that easy.

Unlike Cullen, this Mirror is nimble and frighteningly fast. Unlike David, he's completely sane, and has always kept immense control over his own emotions. Another man might have let his anger and frustration get to him, might have retaliated against Ellie's attacks immediately, shouting threats or shooting wildly at her and giving her another precious few seconds to escape. Not Joel. He shoves the handgun into the back of his waistband for potential later use and charges after her, tackling her to the ground and holding her there with her arms twisted up painfully behind her and his knee digging into her lower back. ]

Uh-uh, [ he breathes into her ear, uncomfortably close. ] No more of that now. [ He presses his knee harder into her back, twists her arms up higher. Makes absolutely sure that she's secure this time, without any hope of getting away. Ideally, eventually, she'll start crying or begging him to let her go. There's nothing Joel relishes more than the sound of someone else terrified and helpless, completely at his mercy.

For the moment, he smiles grimly, pressing Ellie down into the carpet. ]

You're gonna pay for what you did to him, [ he starts, voice gravelly and low. ] You stupid little bitch. You think you mean anything to him? [ He laughs hollowly. ] I dunno how he fuckin' stands you, whining all the time. Your stupid jokes. If I was him I woulda killed you a dozen times already.

I should just kill you now. Be doin' him a favor. Maybe he'd finally see, huh? See how much better off he is without you.

[backpacking]

[ He catches her in a second and she thinks: this is it. He's got her gun and there wouldn't be time to get to a closet and nab another weapon without him catching up even if she could get away. This Joel - this Mirror, she has to tell herself, as a wild spike of panic surges through her, is too fast. Maybe that's what he's supposed to be, then. Some version of - some version where he'd just become a hunter with no ties to anyone else.

The Mirror nearly crushes her, pinning her arms and forcing her face into the floor. The raw fear fills her as if she's stuck in a locked room and the water is rising, but she knows she can't give in to that, no matter how goddamn awful this is and seems like it's going to be. Her phone may still be in her pocket, but she won't be able to reach Joel if he's on the other side of the mirrors, and she wouldn't have time to send out any message to anyone, with him bearing down on her.

He's close, all of a sudden, and she flinches reactively, squirming as much as she can to try and get away. The comments about Joel - the real Joel - don't dig in as deep as he'd probably like. She thinks she knows well enough how Joel feels about her, and her own insecurities (she has to hope, in these dire moments so devoid of hope) are safe from the Mirror's knowledge. ]

I'm just gonna come back if you kill me, you shithead! [ She yells, struggling all the while. ] And then I'll hunt you down and kick the shit out of you!

[ Not alone: she isn't stupid. With a mob. And lots of weapons.

The revenge fantasy is nice when it's really all she has. ]

You're not even fucking real! [ She continues to shout, voice full of venom. ] You're a stupid-fucking-fairytale made up by the Queen of Hearts, and that's the saddest damn thing I ever heard, you fake character piece of shit.

[daddyswatching]

[ Joel doesn't hesitate; he pulls his fist back and slams it hard into the side of her face, giving her a nice black eye. Something to remember him by, should he wind up leaving her alive after all this. ]

That feel real enough for ya?

[ But Ellie isn't any more successful at finding Joel's weak spots than he had been when it came to her. Deep self-reflection has never been one of his hobbies, and the philosophical question of whether he's "real" or not is not one that plagues him late at night. He knows what he enjoys, and what he doesn't, and that's enough for him.

Right now, he's enjoying the way Ellie struggles fruitlessly against his grasp, fighting him and making no headway. ]

If you come back, I'll just kill you again. [ He hums as an idea occurs to him. ] Or maybe I'll leave you alive this time. You can run to Daddy Joel and cry to him about the big bad man. Betcha he'll give you a big ol' hug and promise to protect you. Swear he'll never let anything like this happen to you again. [ He leans in close once more, whispering in Ellie's ear. ]

He's lyin'. He can't protect you from shit.

[backpacking]

[ Fuck. Her vision swims, everything going dark briefly as he hits her. Whatever he says next goes unheard as she struggles to keep it together, to pull through the pain that's now pounding insistently in her skull like someone knocking at the door. When she can string thoughts together again, he's still there, still keeping her from getting away, still talking.

The guy likes the sound of his own voice, she thinks, but without the usual, derisive conviction. ]

Not if I'm not alone, you won't. [ She grumbles, but between the pain and where she's crushed against the floor, it doesn't come out as much more than an irritated mumble.

Maybe it would be worse if he left her alive, depressing as it is to even think about. That way, she'll have to deal with the injuries, and the memory of what happened.

Well. She'll have to deal with that either way. ]

Get off me! [ She yells, struggling again, renewed as he draws closer. ] I don't give a shit about your stupid grudge!

[ Ellie can't reach her switchblade or anything else useful, but she can writhe and flail and shout. If that's all she can do, then she's going to do it as long as possible. ]

[daddyswatching]

[ She's still fighting. Not surprising, from what he's seen of her. From what he can guess of her world, based on his own. Most girls her age would be crying from terror by now, pleading for him to stop. Not Ellie.

But the blow to her head hadn't been without effect. Her eyes glaze over briefly before clearing, before she hardens her gaze and starts yelling at him again.

He could punch her again, hit her over and over until either her spirit or her body is broken. For all that she struggles against him, she can't escape him like this, and they both know it. He could beat her to a pulp, on and on until she loses consciousness or heart altogether. But the idea sounds boring, even to Joel, who delights in subduing those weaker than himself. Even he doesn't often target children; it's like kicking a puppy. Momentarily entertaining, maybe. But ultimately pointless. Ellie's nowhere close to giving up, and pummeling the will out of her like this - while completely doable - will be slow and tedious, he can already tell.

Time to up the ante.

Ignoring Ellie's threats, he sets one hand on her elbow, still twisted up behind her back, and the other on her wrist. One knee still pressed into her lower back - the only reason her spine hasn't broken is that she's flat against the floor - he raises his other leg, and snaps his boot forward against her arm with as much force as he can muster.

The crunch as the bone breaks is one of the more satisfying sounds he's heard, overtaken only by her screams of pain. Joel lets her go and backs away to watch, an ear-to-ear grin plastered on his face. ]