i've seen more places than i can name; OPEN;

[aintyourdad]

Who| Joel and Open!
What| Joel is figuring things out, his first week in the Capitol. Possibly checking in on some people, and bumping into new ones!
Where| Various locations - see the open starters for details.
When| The last week or so of the arena, leading up to the crowning.
Warnings/Notes| Maybe some cussing. The thread with Hawkeye will undoubtedly include descriptions of gore, child death, body horror and general brutality. Also drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

[1. D8 kitchen]

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, before the world went to hell, Joel had been a pretty normal guy. A hard-working, single dad, even. One who did normal things, like errand running, doctor appointments, soccer games.

He'd even, sometimes, cooked an actual meal. He was never a gourmet chef, of course, but out of necessity - being a single parent - and also partly because he just liked himself a good chili sometimes, he'd picked up a few things here and there. Now, after twenty years of scrounging and scavenging and - if he was lucky - cooking over a campfire, he found himself presented with a large, gleaming, state-of-the-art, fully-stocked kitchen. And plenty of leisure time to mess around with it.

Right now, he was mostly just digging around in drawers and cupboards, seeing what-all they had, matching it up with his memories when he could, and sometimes just pulling something out and staring at it in confusion. What the hell is that even used for?

[2. D8 suite]

Sleeping was never one of Joel's strong suits. Sleeping for eight hours at a time, on a big, soft bed? It just wasn't going to happen. He was too, too used to sleeping on the hard cold ground, in short, bite-sized chunks, plagued with nightmares to even contemplate sleeping through a whole night. Tonight, it was worse even than usual, only his second or third in the Capitol since dying in the arena, anyway, and Joel got up out of the nest of blankets he'd made on the floor to stretch his legs.

On entering the common room, he spotted the eerily familiar blue glow of a television screen - eerie, because it had been so long since such a thing had existed in his world, and familiar because it had been so ubiquitous in his life before the outbreak. On the screen, even this late at night, is coverage of the arena. It takes him a moment to work out what it is - a highlight reel, recapping some of the more dramatic moments of the past several weeks.

When his own face appeared on the screen, he froze, tensing up, unable to look away as Ellie's death was replayed in front of him like a movie. His fists clenched tightly and his face became hard as stone.

[3. A coffee shop]

Joel mostly found the Capitol distasteful. Too many people, on the whole, and all of them dressed ridiculously. And they stared at him, like he was some kind of circus freak. Like he was the weird one. But getting the lay of the land was old habit for him, and he knew at some point he was going to have to leave the main Tribute center again - it was better to know the major landmarks, at least, no matter how nervous the crowds of people made him.

Anyone watching him would just see an older man, shoulders tense and slightly hunched - at least, until he caught a whiff of something he never thought he would smell again. Coffee.

Goddamn, but that was coffee. Words could not describe how much he had missed coffee over the years - one of the few vices he'd had, before the outbreak. And now here it was, a goddamn coffee shop, right on the corner of a bustling intersection, like some kind of miracle, like an oasis in the desert. Joel ducked inside, overwhelmed with the smell. He was going to get him some fucking coffee.

[4. Tribute training center]

Joel never in his life did anything like training. Maybe that was why this place fascinated him - this clean, sterile place for people to just, what? Throw knives at targets for a while? Do workout routines? Oh sure, he remembered gyms, fitness centers, places where people used to go to exercise back when running and hiding and killing wasn't something most people had to do on an everyday basis.

But standing around, practicing different ways of killing people? To be able to do it better the next time? It kind of blew his mind. He ran a rough hand over some of the equipment, like he was trying to figure it out. Figure out how it might be helpful to anyone.

Comments

[aintyourdad]

He'd figured that out already - Ellie's death was all over the highlight reels, even in just the few days he'd been back - as well as he and Ellie's reunion, and several other moments from their time in the arena had flashed across various screens that he'd seen.

It was the most bizarre thing he'd experienced so far, really.

He hunched his shoulders a little as he padded into the kitchen area, turning on the lights just because he could, because they were there, and worked, and having light was nice. Nothing could hide in a brightly-lit room.

"They want me to shave off my beard," he said conversationally, sliding a glass of water across to her. Maybe that'd get her mind off things. It was certainly absurd enough.

[onlyimmune]

She glanced back at the tv one last time as Joel headed for the kitchen, before taking a breath, steeling herself, and following after him.

She had to pull herself together. For his sake.

"Your beard, huh?" Ellie said, forcing herself to be conversational, to give him a small smirk. "How else are the sponsors going to know you're a man's man, then?"

[aintyourdad]

It was better than dwelling on it. Better than watching the horror show over and over again.

Like they didn't see it enough in their nightmares.

"Well, one of 'em," he said, keeping his voice light, now digging around for something to munch on - again, just because he could. This place had more food than he could ever eat, and he planned to take advantage of it.

"The other said somethin' about it's 'part of my distinctive look'. Then I told 'em both to get the hell out and stop pesterin' me."

[onlyimmune]

"I think I'd agree with the second one to be honest," Ellie said as she pulled herself up onto the counter, sitting on the edge and kicking her feet as she watched him.

"You'd just look weird without it. Maybe you can get them to shave curls in it, or whatever. Or dye the tips gold."

[aintyourdad]

"Wait, I'd look weird without the beard but okay with curls or gold tips?" He paused in his rummaging to turn and give her the most skeptical, raised-eyebrow look he could manage.

[onlyimmune]

And she gave him the most innocent, completely guilty grin.

"No? You don't think so? What about blue streaks, that would be super awesome."

[aintyourdad]

He scowled at her, then turned and pulled out a big bag of potato chips. "Quit it or you'll give 'em ideas. Stupid ideas."

Ideas that were likely to get someone punched in the face if they tried anything. "Bad enough they're already talkin' about tuxedos for somethin' or other, like I'm some kinda doll they can dress up. Do they make us go to parties?"

[onlyimmune]

"Uh, yeah. That's like half of what we're supposed to do here. They have parties all the time." She paused, and then fumbled through her pockets for her communicator, finally getting it up before she managed to find a picture and hold it out for him.

On the screen was a picture of herself, in a gown made entirely of diamonds.

"That's what Victory made me wear to the one in the Districts. We're like, supposed to be luxury items or whatever."

[aintyourdad]

Joel stared at the picture, his mouth hanging half open for a few moments as his brain tried to work out the incongruity of Ellie - his Ellie, tough, rough-and-tumble, scrappy survivor Ellie - wearing something so outrageous, so inappropriate for her usual context.

"What the hell," he heard himself mutter.

[onlyimmune]

She couldn't help but snort as she reached out to take it back. "I fucking know, right? But she told me that if I didn't put it on, she'd have the peacekeepers do it for me."

She put the communicator away. "You're eight, right? So that's supposed to be textiles or whatever. Maybe they'll put you in a quilt. Or a uniform."

[aintyourdad]

"Peacekeepers. Those military assholes?" Joel scowled and shook his head. Anyone ever threatened her like that again would answer to him.

"I'd probably be okay with a quilt. Those're at least useful."

[onlyimmune]

"Yeah, the guards or whatever." She rolled her eyes at his scowl. "Pretty sure she was kidding, Joel, relax."

He couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh man, now I have to see that. Joel in a quilt suit. That would be awesome."

[aintyourdad]

He still scowled - in his opinion, that was nothing to joke about, and he didn't trust any of these Capitol people farther than he could throw them.

"I think you're enjoying this way too much," he commented after a moment, shoving the bag of potato chips in her direction. "First you want them to dye my beard gold, now you want to see me in a wacky suit? What am I, a dress-up doll?"

[onlyimmune]

His bad temper about it only made her more smug.

"Uh, yeah. Exactly. If I have to dress up in god knows what, then yeah, I'm going to enjoy it when you do too. Come on, Joel, it's harmless. I'd rather play dress up and get some sympathy for when we are shoved back into killing our friends, yeah? Trust me, you want sponsor gifts. Especially if we have to go back into an arena without anything to fucking eat, again."

Joel's first arena had been really lucky, that way, but Ellie wasn't about to forget hers.

[aintyourdad]

He knew about the gift thing - he'd gotten a couple himself, not just from Ellie, but from anonymous people. And he'd seen enough others get them to understand that they could mean the difference between life and death, even in a relatively cushy arena like the one he was just in.

He still didn't have to like it, though.

"So dressing up gets us these sponsors?" he asked skeptically.

[onlyimmune]

"Well, playing along gets you sponsors." She shrugged.

"They like to think that you don't completely despise them, you know? And I don't think they're all bad people, Joel. I mean, the place is fucked up, but it's just normal to them, right?"

[aintyourdad]

Joel thought about that for a moment. Growing up in a place like this, never being taught any different - she had a point. Just like someone meeting him and Ellie, from a better, safer world than theirs, might find them repugnant.

"I still don't see what they've got against jeans," he muttered gruffly.

[onlyimmune]

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Just because you've had to wear basically the same thing every day for 20 years doesn't mean you should, Joel."

Clothing wasn't exactly a quick turnaround commodity, in the apocalypse. "And maybe if you work with them, they'll put you in something you like. Who knows, it's worth a shot."

[aintyourdad]

"Jeans are comfortable, though," Joel pointed out. "If they're okay with me wearin' jeans, then I'm okay with them."

He was a simple guy, with simple tastes. Even before the apocalypse.

[onlyimmune]

She rolled her eyes and held up her hands. "Alright! Alright. You go ahead and wear whatever you want, I won't stop you. You can keep rockin' that lumberjack look as looong as you like."

She looked down at her pajamas, way more plain than the ridiculous onesy she'd worn in the arena.

"Me? I mean, I don't really care about clothes, you know, not like the way people used to, or whatever, but it's kind of nice having stuff clean every day, to not just wear 20 year old hand-me-downs."

[aintyourdad]

Joel smiled faintly and shook his head a little. But he agreed with her about that, at least.

"Clean is good. Been a long time since I've been able to wear clean every day. Been a long time since I've been able to have a long, hot shower, too."

Ah, the wonders of functional plumbing.

"I'm not sure my nose knows what to make of it, all this clean stuff."

[onlyimmune]

"Oh my god, the showers here are awesome," Ellie said, suddenly lighting up. "They even have these like - there are these rooms where you go in and it's super hot and there's a bunch of people there and then they all go jump in the swimming pool."

"Like, I don't go in the main swimming pool, obviously," She said, "But they have this little kiddy pool that's pretty awesome."

[aintyourdad]

"You mean like a... sauna?" It took Joel a moment to pull that word from the dregs of his memory, but super hot and full of people rang a bell, even if he never had any actual experience of them.

[onlyimmune]

"Yeah! That's it. That's the fucking word. Sauna. They've got one of those, in the uh - they've got this like, spa place. My escort took me, once, to 'clean me up'. It's kind of weird as fuck but it has like a waterfall into the swimming pool and they have ice cream and all kinds of shit."

[aintyourdad]

He nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, those used to be a thing in our world, too. You'd go to one of 'em - maybe for just an hour, or sometimes a whole day. Some of 'em would be in real fancy exotic resorts and people'd go on vacation to 'em.

"They'd have massages and skin treatments and stuff."