maskormenacelogs | I'll take the long way 'round

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I'll take the long way 'round

WHO: Joel & OPEN.
WHERE: Various! Around both Heropa and Pennsylvania.
WHEN: Through July.
WHAT: Doing dead drops, smuggling drugs, being a dad, being a prick… The usual.
WARNINGS: Will edit if anything arises!

» coffee shop in heropa | open

[Joel has a long drive ahead of him to Pennsylvania. About seventeen hours if he drives straight without a break, which ain't gonna happen. He's picked up a rental car - something mundane and bland looking, something that doesn't stand out - and he's said his extremely reluctant goodbyes to Ellie, promised her he'll be back in a few days.

It's pretty early in the morning and so that means he's not going anywhere until he's had his fill of coffee. He's pretty miserable. Pretty grumpy and sullen-looking. Nothing new there. What's prompting it this morning, though, is leaving Ellie. He hates leaving her. It makes him damn nervous. He misses her like hell already and he's barely even a few blocks away from his apartment.

The secret life of a drug mule. It ain't easy.]

» in a diner halfway between heropa and pennsylvania | open

[Ten hours into the trip and he's had to stop for the night. He's paid for a cheap motel room to stay in overnight - paid in cash, of course, keeping things suitably careful and nondescript, so nothing looks suspicious - and he's now he's heading into a cheap, kind of run-down looking diner after having just filled up the car with gas. Not that it's run-down to him. Hell, run-down is like luxury to him, after twenty years of living in streets festering with dead bodies, rotted out cars and collapsing buildings.

If there's anything good about this smuggling job… It's a lot cleaner, a lot easier, a lot simpler than the smuggling jobs he did back in the quarantine zone. At least he can drive a car, not have to go trudging through rain and hail and sleet. At least he can take a break and have some decent food and some coffee. At least he doesn't have to run for his life from Clickers or wonder how the hell he's going to get around patrol outside of curfew. At least there are no kids to smuggle.

Shit, he misses Ellie.]

» calling ellie from his motel room | closed to ellie

[It's kinda late by the time he gets back to the motel room. He's tired and he's pretty grumpy, but he's had a decent meal at the diner and he's had a hot shower. And so now, he's reclining on the bed, propped up against the cheap pine headboard with a few lumpy pillows with the television on while nursing a beer that he's helped himself to from the motel's bar fridge.

He flicks through the channels and upon finding nothing that really grabs his attention, he tosses the remote aside and reaches across to his bedside table for one of his burner phones. He's got two: one with Jesse's number it in, and one with the number of the burner phone he gave Ellie. The last thing he wants is records of long-distance conversations with Ellie where he's got no cover to explain why the hell he's travelling back and forth between Heropa and Pennsylvania all the time. Not to mention he doesn't want to run the risk of talking anything to do with smuggling over their handheld devices.

He flips the phone open and presses her number locked into the speed dial, and holds the phone against his ear as he takes a sip of beer.]

» a bar in pennsylvania | open

[He's made the drops. Picked up the cash from dead drop points. Time to head home. Except it's late, it's raining, he's tired, he could really use a drink. Might as well stay the night in Pennsylvania and drive back in the morning.

Much like his stay overnight halfway between Pennsylvania and Heropa, he's paid for another cheap motel in cash. He'll call Ellie when he gets back there, tell her what's going on, but for now - he's sitting at the bar, dressed in a red flannel shirt and old looking jeans, sipping a Jack and Coke. Every now and again, he glances up at the television playing overhead.

It's only his first drink; as he finishes it off, he sets the glass down and shoves it towards the bartender with a push of his fingers.]

Another, thanks.

» back home in heropa | open

» option 1
[Now he's back home, Joel has got things he's gotta do. He no longer has the mundane looking rental car but his old red '57 Chevrolet, which rumbles loudly due to a hole in the muffler and looks like it needs to be stripped right back and refurbished.

He goes grocery shopping - and hell, walking around a supermarket is still a pretty surreal experience, seeing all those shelves of food at his disposal, all that fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, meat, alcohol, Christ it's still all so overwhelming even a month after being here. And as for being surrounded by people, well, that's one of the perks of doing these drops between here and Pennsylvania, he supposes: way less people to deal with, as opposed to the supermarket and the mall, where there are far too many people, as far as Joel is concerned. Too many untrustworthy, unpredictable people. Though he keeps it very carefully concealed, he still heads around town with a pistol tucked into the back of his waistband. Just in case.]

» option 2
[Most afternoons, when he's not busy doing a drop, he waits outside the ice cream parlour where Ellie works to walk - or sometime drive - her home. He can be found sitting on a bench nearby, or standing against a wall near the shop with his arms crossed over his chest, just waiting. He does a lot of people watching while he waits, always keeping an eye out for danger. And, like when he goes shopping, always has his pistol concealed in his waistband. Just in case.]

» option 3
[He's got more money than he knows what to do with now. He's hardly spent any of it. Some days, though, he'll go down to the electronics store to browse through the movies and music. Movies he wants to show Ellie, music he wants to introduce her to. He's bought a big TV and a DVD machine, that he's crammed into the small bedroom they share; there are nights when neither of them can sleep and so they stay up watching movies together.

Sometimes, with DVDs or CDs clutched in his hand, he'll head over to the section in the electronic store where they sell pianos and guitars and instruments. He tinkers on the pianos, pressing keys here and there, and sometimes gives the guitars a quiet strum and a longing look as if debating whether to take one down and play it. Damn it, he's missed playing music.]

[[ooc; If there's anything else you'd like to do with Joel, feel free to set up a thread!]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't know if seeing giraffes in cages can compare to what we saw before.

Well...

[That was a pretty amazing moment. In all his twenty years of living the shitty life they had back home, he hadn't ever seen anything so untamed, so, well, beautiful. Breathtaking, even. It's a moment he'll never forget, and going to the zoo will come nowhere near close to recreating that moment with Ellie.]

Yeah, you're right. Forget about the zoo.

[She'll never forget it, either. It was like a bucket of cold water to the face: a reminder that not all was miserable; that the world was worth saving.]

Then how about... a football game?

A football game? Really?

[The amusement is audible in her voice.]

Really. Why not?

[He fondly remembers the way they'd ended up talking about football, him trying to explain the rules to her and her getting confused by it all. She'd been learning, though. She'd listened to what he was saying, had repeated back the rules, seemed really interested in what was clearly a hugely foreign concept to her. He'd enjoyed it, too. Found himself kind of imagining taking her to a football game. Maybe watch her scream and cheer, even if she didn't know what the hell she was screaming and cheering for. Watch her become enthralled and caught up in the game. High-five her when the team they were going for scored.

The thought makes him smile a little.]

Might have to watch a few games on TV first. Explain all the rules to you.

Oooooh-kaaayyyyy. Then we'll go to one. [She remembers that time fondly, too. He was telling her about something that he liked, a thing that he was interested in. Hearing him talk about something like that was awesome.

Little things made him human.]

Can't be that hard to follow if so many people like it.

It ain't hard to follow once you watch it or play it a couple of times. But sure. We could go to a game. Bet you'd really like that, actually.

[There's a pause, then, though. Does football work the same here in this place? Probably. Which brings up a point that affects both Ellie and himself.] Probably gonna be a lotta people at a game, though. Fair warning.

Ah, right. [She forgets about that, sometimes. She's grown used to passing people on sidewalks, but even still sometimes crowded stores or areas make her anxious. Ellie is quick to get out of those situations.]

Well... we'll see how it is. I'm sure I'll be fine.

[Yeah. Joel wouldn't even blame her if she said she didn't want to go. He doesn't like crowds, either. At all. Still makes him damn nervous, even walking on the street sometimes, especially if it's busy.]

Maybe something to think about for later, huh?

Yeah. It's not like we have a shortage of stuff to do.

Speakin' of which. You been goin' to the Youth Centre?

[That's almost out of the blue.]

Uh huh. Usually before work. Why?

Just askin'.

[And maybe because he's checking. Casually wanting to know if Jesse's been watching out for her.]

Jesse been there?

[She's getting the feeling...]

Yup. He's there all the time.

[Ellie doesn't bother going if he's not.]

Been hangin' out with him outside of the Youth Centre, too?

Sometimes, yeah. We'll get something to eat before I head back.

...Alright.

[For once, Joel has nothing to comment on or get suspicious about, like he usually does with people hanging around Ellie. Means Jesse has been doing what Joel asked him to do.]

No more questions about me hanging out with Jesse?

Like, I said. Just askin'.

[...Alright. He's got other questions. Not so much about her hanging out with Jesse, but... Other things. Things that have kinda niggled at him for a while.]

What d'you even like about him, anyways?

[She knew he was getting at something.]

Jeez, what a question. Um--he's friendly? It was kinda creepy, at first, but--I guess he doesn't mind hanging out with me or working at the youth center because he misses his kid at home. It's not even his kid biologically, he just says he takes care of him and the mom. [Vaguely familiar.]

He's... really nice for no reason and at all and there's nothing behind it. [Risky.] You saw how he was eager to help you and offered you a job right away when I asked.

That, and he can be pretty funny. I guess.

[Well... that's kind of interesting. Joel didn't know until now that Jesse had a kid to look after. So, he's, what? A stepdad? If the kid isn't his biologically? Guess it doesn't really matter.

But yeah, he's seen plenty how eager Jesse has been help, and Joel still doesn't know what to make of it. People sure ain't just nice for the sake of it, not in Joel's experience.

First things first, though, because this is the first time Ellie's actually told him what she thinks of Jesse, and Joel is gonna get to the bottom of this:]

Creepy, how?

Creepy like I just got here and didn't really know what to do with someone offering to be nice. [You know what she means, Joel.] He got it, though.

And he's got a kid?

Uh huh. S'what he said. [A pause.] I haven't really asked too much about that.

[Children tend to be sore subjects.]

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