Joel Miller (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shivving) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
entrancelogs2017-10-07 04:08 pm
shivving) wrote in entrancelogs2017-10-07 04:08 pm
open; lay your weary head to rest
Who: Joel & YOU
Where: Tartarus
When: Throughout the event
Rating: R for eventual death
Summary: There's a hundred monsters between him and Ellie. Joel will cut through every last one of them to get to her if that's what it takes.
The Story:
[ Joel opens his eyes, and his heart sinks. The room he's in is unfamiliar, and it's immediately obvious what's happened. It's another event, the mansion transforming itself around them as they sleep.
At least he remembers who he is this time.
He gets to his feet and goes to the window, frowning at the sight of a dark, foreboding green sky. Then he takes out his phone and calls Ellie. The connection's spotty, but he manages to get her location - his main objective, because he's willing to bet that she's no longer in the next room over, as she had been when he'd gone to sleep the night before. He's also willing to bet that it's not going to be a picnic in the park getting back to her.
And as it turns out, he's right. He's barely taken two steps when something horrible and screeching whizzes past his head, and just the sound alone is nearly enough to drive him insane.
Oh, this'll be fun. ]
Where: Tartarus
When: Throughout the event
Rating: R for eventual death
Summary: There's a hundred monsters between him and Ellie. Joel will cut through every last one of them to get to her if that's what it takes.
The Story:
[ Joel opens his eyes, and his heart sinks. The room he's in is unfamiliar, and it's immediately obvious what's happened. It's another event, the mansion transforming itself around them as they sleep.
At least he remembers who he is this time.
He gets to his feet and goes to the window, frowning at the sight of a dark, foreboding green sky. Then he takes out his phone and calls Ellie. The connection's spotty, but he manages to get her location - his main objective, because he's willing to bet that she's no longer in the next room over, as she had been when he'd gone to sleep the night before. He's also willing to bet that it's not going to be a picnic in the park getting back to her.
And as it turns out, he's right. He's barely taken two steps when something horrible and screeching whizzes past his head, and just the sound alone is nearly enough to drive him insane.
Oh, this'll be fun. ]
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Hey - [ He hesitates a moment, not wanting to startle him or make things worse, then sets a heavy hand on the younger man's shoulder, squeezing it gently. ]
Hey, it's all right now. You can let go.
[ Whether Tim will even hear him, let alone listen and understand...well, that remains to be seen. ]
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[And then yourself.]
[He's not supposed to be...like this. He panics, he loses his mind, he's fucking crazy, and he knows that, he knows it, but he's supposed to have a better handle on it than this. He's supposed to be better than this. He should be...deflecting, compartmentalizing, doing something, doing anything, to circumvent this. He talks people down from the worst of it. He doesn't get talked down.]
[He's supposed to be better than that.]
[At last, the words break through the patina of whatever...whatever it is that mantled over his mind, and Tim gasps like a drowning man emerging from water, glancing up with his jaw tight and his face drawn.]
...is it dead?
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[ Carefully, ready to pull back if he needs to, Joel puts his hand over Tim's, easing his deathgrip from the handle of the knife. They gotta get out of here before something else nasty shows up. ]
You did good, son. It's dead.
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[did he do?]
[Oh god. What did he do.]
[He did this. He did this to - to this thing, and it was unthinking, and she'd just sunk to the ground like it was nothing and his breath is so thin in his chest, like an air bubble steadily constricting, and it makes it so damned hard to just breathe.]
[Just breathe.]
[There's a hand over his, gently pulling his grip away. He lets it happen. He's trembling too hard to allow for anything else.]
[The film clouding over his thoughts is still too difficult to think through. His brow furrows, and he - remembers. Joel was limping. He fell. He's not okay.]
Are you...okay?
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[ Yeah, his ankle hurts, but the wound is technically healed. Just a little sore, that's all. Running after that thing hadn't helped.
He crouches down, pulling the knife from the monster's neck with a sickeningly wet squelch, making a face before he cleans it off and hands it back to Tim. ]
...You all right?
[ He clearly isn't, but Joel's not sure what's going on with him, exactly. ]
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[It's a half-mumbled echo, almost matching his tone exactly. A memory of I'm fine after I'm fine mumbled across hotel rooms, over the dashboard, in gas station rest stops, outside the jagged Rosswood treeline.]
[The knife presses into his palm. His fingertips close around it automatically. He should...stand. As soon as he's certain he won't simply fall right the hell back over the minute he does.]
...sorry. I'm - sorry.
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[ Yeah, something's up. Joel's seen this sort of thing before. He doesn't know just what it is Tim had been through, but it's larger than this one monster in this one hallway.
He's not making a move to stand up just yet, so Joel stays where he is too, crouched on the floor next to Tim. ]
Jus' take it easy.
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[And just like that, Tim's concern for his own well-being is pretty much scrubbed clear. He can't look at the shape of the monster lying prone there. Can't look at it - because he knows he won't see it. He'll see someone else, and he'll hear those pleas to just let things be over.]
[Pleas he was too selfish, too stupid, to follow up on.]
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[ He'll push through. But Tim seems to be coming back out of his own head a bit, though Joel notices the way he studiously avoids looking at the body lying on the floor.
Slowly, he gets to his feet, wincing just a little when he puts weight on his ankle, then holds out a hand to help Tim up. He's careful to keep his own body between the other man and the dead banshee, blocking his view. ]
C'mon, let's get outta here.
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[That seems to have pulled himself back into a space where he can think properly - if mostly about the well-being of someone else aside from himself. But he's not worried about himself; he's the one taking everyone's time and wasting their energy being stupid.]
[Tim rocks to his feet under his own power, but he's still shaking. That doesn't mean he's not about to offer a hand to Joel in turn.]
If you're limping, we're gonna need to move fast.
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[ He can. It's not that bad, just lingering soreness and the result of six weeks with his ankle immobilized in a cast. But Tim fussing over Joel is better than him going catatonic, and he bites back any further protests, instead just clapping a hand on his back in reassurance (and ignoring that outstretched hand). ]
You're right. Let's get movin'.
[ And he does, taking off as fast as he can go. He knows that he's gonna be the slow one no matter what, so might as well get going. ]
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[At least he can keep pace with Joel and make sure that he doesn't lose too much ground when whatever's wrong with his leg flares up.]
Where's Ellie? Do you know?
['Cause anybody who's paid the slightest attention to Joel during his time here would know that she's his priority, honestly.]
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[ And oh, if he isn't pissed about that. ]
Up near the top of the tower. I'm tryin' t'reach her.
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[Meeting in the middle will probably mean that Joel doesn't end up taking off his own foot just by stressing it, because apparently pacing himself is completely off the table.]
[Not that Tim can blame him.]
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[ His own potential (or actual) physical limitations had never even been a consideration. Joel shakes his head firmly. ]
She's pretty safe where she is. I don't want her wanderin' around.
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What are these things? They're not...I mean, the last few times it was zombies.
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They're bad news, is what.
[ Helpful. ]
You goin' somewhere in particular?
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No idea where he is. I don't think his phone came with him.
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[ Joel's glad he'd been able to get a message to Ellie at all. He glances at Tim. ]
You just wanderin', then?
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[For lack of a better word. He suspects that if Jay did have his phone with him, he'd have made his presence known electronically by now - not that he can be positive. Jay's predictability kind of gets called into suspect once he starts panicking.]
I mean - not sure what else to do, until I find him. [Because hiding in some safe zone sure as hell isn't going to be his priority until after he manages to pin down Jay - at the very least.]
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[ If he had no idea where Ellie was, he wouldn't stop looking until he'd found her. ]
Well, if you're headin' up, you're welcome t'stick with me for a while.
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[But right here, right now - ragged as he is, weary and flagging and tremoring right down to his bones - the look he shoots in Joel's direction is unreservedly and painfully grateful.]
...thanks. And - [He doesn't - can't - look back. But he can jerk his head vaguely without turning around at the carnage he left behind.] Thanks for helping. Back there.
fade out from here?
C'mon, let's get the hell outta here.
sounds good to me!
Yeah. [He's agreeable to that.]