insert some appropriately depressing song lyric here

[shittybirthday]

WHO: Joel & Ellie; Joel & Rick; Joel & Walt; Joel & Abduxel; Joel & Kotetsu; Joel & Jesse; Joel, Ellie & Jesse; Joel & OPEN??
WHERE: Various
WHEN: End of July - through to end of August
WHAT: A clusterfuck?? No idea how to summarise this lmao.
WARNINGS: Swearing, possible violence. Will edit if necessary!

XAVIER SCHOOL FOR IMPORTS ( for rick, walt & kotetsu; closed with one prompt open-ended enough to be OPEN )

→ FOR RICK; closed | backdated to before Ellie's canon update; after this.
[ It's a little after 2pm. Joel has just finished up work for the day around the school: usually he knocks off around 3pm but all the jobs he had planned to do are done. Not a whole lot to do during the school break, with the school being so quiet and mostly empty.

Carl had asked Joel over the network to talk to his dad, survivor to survivor, something Joel wasn't particularly keen to do, still isn't particularly keen to do, but he kind of likes Carl. Grown pretty fond of the kid, actually. And so, he heads up to the third floor, stops outside room 330 and hesitates a moment before rapping on the door with his knuckle. Not too loud, because he knows only too well how much a sudden knock on the door can make a person jump when you come from the kind of worlds Joel and Carl come from. Then he takes a step back, brings his arms up to cross them over his chest and waits.

When, or if, Rick answers the door, he'll see a tall, burly guy standing there, all broad shoulders and scruffy beard and a hard look on his face, dressed in a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and jeans that are dusted with sawdust from working in the workshop. ]


→ FOR KOTETSU; this can also be an OPEN POST, so feel free to tag in! | backdated to before Ellie's canon update
[ Really, trying to install long shelving is a job for two people. So far, Joel has installed the brackets and the frame without a problem; it's the actual shelving itself that's been proving difficult. Or maybe he's just having a shit day, because nothing seems to be going right.

Trying to balance a long and heavy plank of wood along the frame, Joel has a few screws held pinched between his lips, teeth gritted in concentration, a drill in one hand. The plank itself isn't heavy, not to Joel, who has super strength power; it's gravity he's working against here, and he's on a ladder, about to start drilling the top shelf when the plank of wood over balances and goes clattering to the ground with a series of deafening thumps. His dog, Lucy, who's accompanied him today on his odd jobs around the school and is dozing on the floor near the door, bolts upright, startled.

At the same time, Joel swears in angry exasperation: ] Goddammit! Jesus Christ-! [ which comes out loud but somewhat muffled due to the screws he's still got pinched between his lips. ]


→ FOR WALT; closed | current timeline
C'mon, girl. In.

[ Clutching a heavy bag of cement under his arm (which weighs nothing to Joel, thanks to his super strength power) and an old bucket of cementing tools in his other hand, his old jeans and old t-shirt covered in flecks of old paint and cement dust, Joel shoulders the doors to the school open and jerks his head with a brief whistle for Lucy, his dog, to go on in ahead of him.

He wearily follows in after her, a sullen and dreary look on his tired face. He wonders if Ellie will be home. Probably not. She hasn't been home much at all since she disappeared for those few days. He's been trying to keep himself busy around the school, trying to take his mind off it all, but her distance hangs heavier and heavier over him with each passing day. With luck, she's with Jesse. Not that Joel is particularly happy about her preferring to be with Jesse than him, but he at least knows she'll be safe with him.

Lucy suddenly growling pulls Joel out of his morose thoughts and he looks over her a little surprised, then sees what - or rather, who - she's growling at. That Walt guy. Lucy is standing there staring at Walt, teeth bared slightly, a low and menacing growl rumbling in her throat. ]

Lucy. Quit that. [Said in a deep and gruff commanding voice, which has Lucy looking quickly at him with mild guilt, before turning her attention back on Walt. She reluctantly backs down, sitting, but keeps her eyes trained on him.

Meanwhile, Joel glances back to Walt, whom he eyes with expressionless mistrust. ] Sorry 'bout that. She ain't real fond of strangers.

[ He's not really that sorry. ]

OUT IN HEROPA ( for ellie; closed )

→ FOR ELLIE | following directly from this.
[ It's a pretty low-key Italian restaurant: cheap seats, dim lighting, the wood panelling in the old place seeming to sag a little with age. It's a quiet place, though, not crowded or busy, and it's just as well because Joel is pretty on edge.

He's trying not to be. He's trying, for all intents and purposes, to act like everything is normal, everything is fine. Maybe he's been trying too hard: with how distant Ellie has been with him, how much she's been spending time away from home, preferring to hang out with Jesse than spend time with him, Joel feels like Ellie is slowly slipping away from him. It scares the hell out of him. He doesn't know what to do or how to address it, either, other than to desperately hope that if he pretends everything is normal, then everything will return back to normal.

Seated opposite Ellie at the small, cramped booth, Joel forks up a spiel of spaghetti and glances up at Ellie with his eyes. So far, conversation has been stilted and awkward, Joel trying to fill in the silence with scattered attempts at conversation, which is unusual for him. Joel is never one for trying to fill in the silence, usually. ]

So, uh. [ Twirling the spaghetti around and around on his fork, eyes looking back down to his plate. ] What've you been gettin' up to with Jesse? Been hangin' around him a lot lately.

PARK NEAR XAVIER SCHOOL ( for abduxel; can also be OPEN )

N.B. this is also open-ended enough to be OPEN, so feel free to tag in!
[ Something Joel does routinely, every day, is go for a run. It's not for leisurely exercise so much as to stay fit - he knows how fast and sudden things can go to shit in a civilised society, and the quickest way to wind up dead is not being able to outrun danger.

He's in grey sweatpants, a ratty dark blue t-shirt and sneakers, and running alongside him is his dog, Lucy. Seems Lucy has been keeping him company more than Ellie has been lately. Joel feels like he barely sees Ellie anymore, with how much she's not home. He's caught between desperately wanting to bridge the growing rift between them and wanting to keep himself busy in effort to not think about why this growing rift is happening.

He's run nearly five miles. As he approaches the park, he slows to a stumbling stop and leans over to brace his hands on his knees, breathing hard, a coppery taste of breathlessness in his mouth and sweat dripping off his face. His shirt clings damply to his back and chest, and there are dark pit stains under his arms.

Seeing Lucy go bounding off into the park with a loud and excitable bark, Joel looks up quickly from where he's hunched over. Damn dog has a real thing for chasing pigeons and squirrels, and there are a whole flock of pigeons just up ahead, squabbling about near a park bench fighting over leftover crumbs and food someone had left behind from lunch, but there's a person just nearby that Lucy seems to be heading straight for. Christ almighty. She's a friendly dog and all but she can be real damn intimidating, especially around strangers.

Joel straightens up and immediately launches into a run, exhausted as he is, and calls out a breathlessly annoyed: ]

Lucy, goddammit!

BEACH HOUSE IN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION ( for ellie & jesse )

→ FOR ELLIE & JESSE (closed)
[ Joel slides a cup of strong coffee across the kitchen counter to Jesse (even though caffeine likely has no effect on Jesse) while taking a sip of coffee from his own mug. It's pretty damn early; not even seven o'clock in the morning yet. Just before six, while the morning was still pale, Joel had shaken Jesse rudely awake and told him to get his ass downstairs, help him finish getting things ready for Ellie's birthday. Right now, Joel is frying up a large batch of pancakes, one of Ellie's favourites; he turns back to the skillet and flips one of the pancakes over with the spatula as he sets his coffee down next to the plate of pancakes he's already cooked.

At the back of the beach house is a large room with French doors that open up onto a large porch overlooking the ocean. Balloons and birthday paraphernalia has been strung up along the rafters, and in the middle of the room is a huge square shaped thing that is covered with a large sheet. Ellie's birthday present, which Joel and Jesse have been working on all week, flat-packed and stowed in the back of the large van Joel had rented to drive them to the beach house and put together in the middle of the night with the use of wrenches and a lot of quietly muttered and sometimes hissed orders from Joel to Jesse.

The whole time, Joel has been particularly preoccupied. Moody, not very talkative, silently troubled by something, and it isn't just because preparing a surprise birthday for Ellie is reminding him of the times he would arrange and set up birthday parties for Sarah. Ellie being so distant with him: it's been eating away at him more and more with each passing day. He's been snappier at Jesse since they arrived at the beach house, impatient with him, getting easily pissed off with him, but refusing to say what's really on his mind. ]

She's gonna be up real soon. [ Glancing over his shoulder at Jesse and what he's doing as last minute preparation before Ellie wakes up. ] How're you goin' over there with all that?


→ FOR JESSE (closed)
[ It's late now, well past midnight. Out on the porch overlooking the ocean, Joel is slouched on one of the padded deck chairs, a bottle of beer clutched on his thigh and his other elbow propped on the armrest with his head propped against his hand. It's a warm and clear night; the bright almost full moon shimmers a dim, milky light down on the dark water. It's supposed to be peaceful, and it is, but… For some reason, his mind keeps wandering to thoughts about back home, about travelling across America with Ellie in search of the Fireflies.

Joel clears his throat quietly, lifts his beer to his lips for a quick sip, and heaves a long sigh as he sets the bottle back down on his thigh. God, he's tired. So goddamn tired. ]

Sound of the ocean out there reminds me of… me and Ellie. Windin' up washed up on a riverbank, in Pittsburgh. [ Washed up isn't quite accurate but he doesn't want to talk about Henry and Sam. ] It was the middle of the night. Bunch of Hunters were tryin' to kill us. We wound up on this collapsed bridge, had no choice but to jump off into the river.

[ He pauses and looks like he wants to say more, then just gives a small shake of his head as he lifts his beer back to his mouth for another sip. ]

Comments

BEACH HOUSE - BIRTHDAY PARTY

[hostage]

[Honestly, Jesse ran out of stuff to do a while ago, and he's mostly just been fussing with perfecting the decorations since then. Six may have been an excessively early waking time. Not that he really has cause to complain; It's Joel who gets tired, not Jesse. Jesse's the one with literally boundless energy. The coffee makes a good excuse to stop for a break without getting sniped at, though, so Jesse takes the mug in hand and leans against the counter.]

Everything's perfect. Don't worry.

[nohalfway]

[ It's nearly a shocker that it took until roughly 7am for Ellie to wake up. Given that she's permanently programmed to wake up at the crack of dawn from years of military drills? 7am is sleeping in. Ultimately, the sound of Joel and Jesse talking and moving things around are what pry her from sleep. ]

[ She's managed to adjust back to life here relatively fast, and she chocks that up to the amount of time she'd been here last. Waking up in a clean bed, not having to quickly pack your things and go, no fear of infected lurking nearby... It honestly should come as no surprise that she doesn't change out of her pajamas or fix her hair. Ellie sparks her entry with a loud yawn while bare feet pad down the stairs, eyes partially closed while she rubs them and her nose. ]

Morning.

[ She calls from the staircase, not quite in the kitchen yet. ]

[shittybirthday]

[ That - hearing Ellie coming down the stairs - has Joel snapping a quick look over his shoulder at Jesse. God, it's ridiculous that his stomach does a small flip of apprehension; he swallows it down, though, and faces back to the skillet like everything is fine. Hell, he looks relaxed enough, making breakfast while still in the sweatpants and t-shirt he'd slept in, bare feet, hair still vaguely sleep tousled (not that he got much sleep), but the slight tension in the way he holds his shoulders probably gives him away. ]

Down here, kiddo. Hope you're hungry.

[hostage]

[Jesse meets Joel's look with a smile, somewhere between excited and reassuring. Nothing bad's going to happen right now, not with this. This is the easiest thing in the world, doing something nice for Ellie. He's practically giddy with joy now that she's awake.

Setting his mug down on the counter, Jesse peeks around the corner so he can see her face when she spots the decorations.]

Moooorning, Ellie.

BEACH HOUSE - AFTERPARTY

[hostage]

[In the middle sure is an awkward place to be. Between Ellie and Joel, Jesse's figured out exactly what's going on and what happened back in their world. But for keeping the sacred trust of the other, he can't really speak openly to either of them. Sprawled out in the chair beside Joel, all he can do is listen.]

...Sounds scary. 'specially with Ellie not being able to swim.

[shittybirthday]

[ That was a damn awkward thing to say, really. What's really on his mind - Ellie - feels stuck in his throat and in his chest, like it's trying to fight its way out. That awkward recount of what he and Ellie had gone through in Pittsburgh had come out instead. Jesus. ]

Hm. [ Muttered sullenly. A noncommittal yeah. ] Scary is one way to put it, I guess.

[ Joel lapses into a brooding silence for a few moments, absently picking at the beer bottle label with his thumbnail, and then: ]

Think she enjoyed the party okay?

[hostage]

Of course she did.

[As much as she could, with all the stuff weighing on her mind. Jesse watches Joel for another moment, the way he's fidgeting with that beer. As much as the guy likes to believe he can hide everything going on in his head, Jesse can read this one thing clear as day.]

You're doing the best you can. She knows that.

[He'd like to offer something more assuring, but there is at least that.]

[shittybirthday]

[ Joel wants to believe Jesse. Everything he's doing doesn't seem like enough, though, not with the way Ellie seems to be slowly slipping away from him more and more with each passing day. It's almost like the more he tries, the more distant she's becoming.

He doesn't know how to say any of that, however, and so says after another short pause: ]

She's been spendin' a lotta time with you lately.

[ Stating the obvious, but. It's possibly a precursor statement to what he wants to ask. ]

OUT IN HEROPA

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie had made the suggestion to go out both out of guilt and desperation. While Joel is frantically trying to figure out what it is Ellie has been so distant, Ellie is trying to decide whether or not her distance is valid. It's been an insanely uncomfortable existence since her return, and obviously she's in a place where nothing she does is going to make her feel better. Not until she talks to him about the situation. ]

[ She can feel the tension, the discomfort from Joel. It's almost tangible, thick enough to cut with a knife. Half of Ellie feels guilty while the other feels no sense of debt of explanation to him. For a while, she just idly twirls her spaghetti around her fork, deciding it's best to just... Try and act normal. That's why she'd suggested going out in the first place. ]

Hookers and blow.

[ Ellie responds matter-of-factly, straight look on her face. It's obviously meant as a joke. ]

We've been doing hookers and blow.

[shittybirthday]

[ Joel's eyes cut back up to Ellie. He knows that's supposed to be a joke, but... ]

Where'd you learn that kinda talk? The hell has Jesse been teachin' you?

[nohalfway]

[ Ellie is halfway through shoving a large forkful of spaghetti in her mouth when he drops that question, which has her stopping. Mouth wide, eyes shifting to Joel to stare. ]

[ She simply raises one eyebrow. Really? You're asking where I learned to talk like that. Where I learned to talk like that. ]

[shittybirthday]

[ ...Yeah, alright. Fair deuce. He gets the point just from that look of hers alone, and he lets out a conceding sigh to say as much. But let him clarify. ]

What would you know 'bout those things, huh?

[ Hookers were definitely a thing back in the quarantine zone - people resorted to all manner of things just to survive, and prostitution for ration cards was a thriving market. Ellie seemed to have been sheltered from all of that, and a lot of other things that went on in the qz, too. And as for blow, well - what the hell would Ellie know about cocaine? ]

PARK NEAR THE SCHOOL

[abduxel]

[ Abduxel, or the man known as Matthew Lin, sits on a park bench dead-centre, his arms sprawled across the back-rest in an all-black designer suit, as is typical. Like usual, his horns are hidden by glamour magic, and so he simply looks like an excessively well-dressed young man, alone in the park. His gaze is intent; he's staring unwaveringly at a man across the park who's trying to hide his tears, from the memory that Abduxel had just dredged up, while the man's company slowly caught on to his altered state and, baffled, tried to comfort him.

He doesn't realize right away when the dog starts to beeline for him. Lucy bounds and snaps her way through a kit of pigeons that angrily, indignantly take to the skies with flutters and fearful chirps. Not even that noise shakes his focus, but then the dog is only a few feet from him, and suddenly stops, cocking her head. Her tail still wags, but uncertainly. He smells strange. A dog among imPorts would be used to some of these scents by now, the scents of magic and slight inhumanity, but there's still something that makes her pause and hesitate -- until he suddenly looks at her and smiles.

Tail thrashing again with that boundless happiness only dogs seem capable of, Lucy sticks her face onto Matthew's lap. He takes a second to make sure his knife is tucked up safely in his left sleeve, poking it back with his right hand, before he indulges the friendly dog and starts to ruffle her fur on either side, though he struggles to avoid getting licked in the face.

His dark eyes flick up to Joel as the salt-and-pepper fox approaches, who seems disgruntled by his dog's apparent disobedience. ]

What did you call her? Lucy? [He turns his attention to the dog again and talks in falsetto:] Hello Lucy! Who's a good girl!

[shittybirthday]

[ Lucy suddenly stopping mid-frenetic run is kinda strange, definitely out of character for her. Usually, when she goes chasing after pigeons or squirrels, she gets even more frenzied, barking and leaping up into the air for the pigeons or up against the tree the squirrel has scurried up. Not that she stops for long, not with the way she's suddenly directs all her excitable energy to the stranger on the bench...

...Whom Joel recognises instantly as he gets closer. It's that guy Joel has seen Ellie hanging out with once or twice. Great.

Joel comes to a slow stop, looking neither pleased nor friendly, just a grim but unreadable expression on his hard, sweaty face. Unbeknownst to Joel, one of the pigeons that frightfully took to the sky did a shit mid-air while Joel was running towards Lucy, which is now splattered in a stringy, white blob on his left shoulder.

Breathing hard and hands setting on his hips as he tries to catch his breath, Joel ignores the overly friendly, overly cutesy way the guy is making a fuss over the dog. ]

Lucy, quit that.

[ ...which the dog ignores. Her tail is still thrashing and her tongue is still madly trying to lap at the guy's face before she burrows her face into the guy's crotch with a loud snuffle. ]

Lucy. [ And then muttered to himself impatiently: ] Jesus Christ.

[abduxel]

[ Matthew doesn't recognize Joel, really, although he has the sense he's seen him before. He keeps fussing over Lucy, only sparing a short glance at Joel as he ruffles her fur. She shoves her nose between her legs and he reacts like anyone, jerking back a little and trying to push her head away, but he's chuckling in good humour. ] Down, girl, we just met.

[ But then Joel says the J. C. word. Matthew flinches like a sad puppy struck with a newspaper, being unprepared for it, and sets his attention on Joel with a sudden sharp focus in his gaze to see if the man noticed. He hates when he's accidentally so obvious, and after that moment he tries to look casual, again. He fumbles a little for words, speaking now to Joel in his normal tone of voice, trying to patch over what, for him, is an awkward moment: ]

It - look, it's alright, she's alright. Are you an imPort? You look kind of familiar.

[shittybirthday]

[ Yeah, Joel kinda notices that weird shift in the guy's demeanour. He only just catches it as his eyes flick briefly up to the guy's face, not that Joel knows what to make of it other than a passing thought of, 'weirdo'. He eyes the guy a little warily, then heaves an impatient sigh at Lucy, and lunges forward with a hand outstretched to grab her collar. ]

Yeah, you're that guy I've seen Ellie hangin' 'round a couple of times.

[ Said in a guarded and not too friendly tone. At the same time, he's dragging Lucy back from the guy. She strains against him, attempting to struggle her way back to him. ]

Park Near School

[cartesianspidertank]

[ Wow, dogs running up to Tachikoma seemed to be the new Stand-in for meeting new people!!! Tachikoma leaned over to the pet the dog enthusiastically. She was much more comfortable and knowledgeable about the proper social actions in regards to pets after her meeting with Rex and Annie. ]

Hello dog!!

[shittybirthday]

[ Ohhh, no. Oh, hell. Panic wells sudden in Joel and he picks up the pace of his jogging to a fast run, alarm written across his sweaty face. Lucy is a big dog, and that is one small little kid. He shouts out Lucy's name a few more times in a loud and low and angry bark, which Lucy mostly ignores. She jumps up at the kid excitedly, giant paws on the kid's shoulders, and starts lapping at the kid's face with all her weight coming down on the kid.

Joel comes to a skidding halt in front of Lucy, lunges down and grabs Lucy's collar. He drags her back with a hard yank, and when Joel angrily orders her to sit, the dog instantly cowers with a guilty look on her face. Her tail is still wagging but is also drooping between her legs in an apologetic manner.

Joel turns to the kid, crouching down in front of her. ]

You alright, kid?

[cartesianspidertank]

Ow...

[ Tachikoma is flat on her back, having been pushed down by the large dog. She takes a moment to do a self-diagnostic (which in this form means looking around at anything that hurts) and notices that her elbows have been skinned. She also bumped her head it looks like, but no significant damage there.

Definitely not ideal, but certainly a learning experience!!

She sits up. ]

It doesn't seem like I've accumulated any significant damage!!

[kingpawn]

[ People and their pets. They really need to get them under control, especially in a school setting like this. Walt stares at the growling animal and then looks past her to the owner. Great. As though this day couldn't get any worse.

Walt's arms are full, a box of items from his office that he was just about to bring out to his car. But he stares at Joel overtop of it, not even bothering to hide the disdain on his face. ]

I hope she'll be alright with the kids once school is in session. The last thing Jesse needs to clean up is a lawsuit.

[shittybirthday]

[ This asshole. The look of disdain this bald bastard is levelling at him doesn't really faze Joel, though he's trying his hardest not to shake his head with a disgruntled roll of his eyes. Jesse told him to be careful around Walt and so Joel is going to try his hardest to do that, even though Walt doesn't scare him in the slightest. ]

Ain't never had a problem with her 'round kids. Not that that's any of your business, by the look of things.

[ Eyeing the box of personal belongings Walt is holding in his arms. ]

Get fired or somethin'?

[kingpawn]

[ Is this dickhead serious? Walt gives him an incredulous look after, not only what he perceives as disrespect (not that that's any of your business, by the look of things -- what the fuck!) but the immediate assumption that he got fired. ]

As much as I'm sure you would like that, no. I'm moving to a different office.

[ Lied Walt. Because, quite frankly, he didn't want to give Joel the satisfaction of knowing he wouldn't be around. ]

I'm so sorry for my slow. ;A;

[biteouttagrimes]

[ Carl had informed Rick that there were other survivors in this world. That Ellie had someone from her world, and that he thought Rick should talk to him. So the knock on the door, unexpected though it was, wasn't exactly unexpected in terms of who it might be. Sometimes survivors were the worst kind of people, but at the same time -- at least this guy would understand. He would get it where no one else seemed to.

So when the former cop opened the door, he was able to take in the sight of Joel in the flesh. He could tell right then from the beard, to the build, to the flannel that this was the guy Carl was talking about. He was bulkier than Rick. But Rick imagined they were both the same kind of deadly. ]

You must be the one my son was talkin' about.

[ He stepped to the side, giving a single gesture with his head for Joel to come in. ]

The name's Rick.

don't even worry, bb! <3 <3

[shittybirthday]

[ So, this is the guy. Joel gives the guy - Rick - a quick and assessing up and down look before giving a short nod in acknowledgement that, yes, Joel is the one Carl obviously told Rick about.

He hesitates at the invitation to come in, eyes cutting between the view of the guy's place from the door and back to Rick, then drops his arms away from his chest to his sides and concedes. Still not real keen on this whole thing but alright, fine. ]

Joel.

[ He heads in. Being the awkward and closed off guy that he is, Joel isn't sure where to place himself in the room, so he just comes to a stop in the middle of it and turns to face Rick. ]

Look, I, uh. I ain't gonna take up too much of your time. Just droppin' in to introduce myself. Your kid kinda asked me to.

<3333!!! x infinity

[biteouttagrimes]

He's worried. 'bout me adjustin'.

[ Which is why Rick suspects Carl wanted Joel to introduce himself. Joel has gone through it. Joel has adjusted to not having to fight for his life everyday. Rick can't say he's fitting in by society's normal standards, but he doubts he will ever be able to do that again. ]

You know how it is. With kids. Worryin' 'bout their parents' embarrassing them.

[ He cracks a smile, some attempt at light humor. Or perhaps, some attempt at normalcy. The smile doesn't last long because he and Joel are cut from the same cloth -- not exactly the type for jokes and humor. Not anymore. A pause follows before: ]

Thanks. For lookin' out for him when I wasn't here.