expiationlogs | 001; open;

Entry tags:

001; open;

Who: Joel and YOU?!
Where: Outskirts of Aldrip
What: Joel isn't pleased to be here. He's especially not pleased that someone knows a lot about him, and has it all written on a piece of paper.
Warnings: Nothing yet, aside from Joel's general assholishness.

[ Joel approaches the town carefully. It's long, long habit - infected are dangerous, sure, but people are what you really need to watch out for. People are capable of anything.

And this town? It's way too fucking good to be true. It's just... there. Out in the open, no defenses, no lookouts, no patrols. He doesn't trust it. And he especially doesn't trust whoever left this piece of paper on him, with his personal information, and some kinda crime he's supposed to have committed. The first thing he needs to do is find somewhere reasonably safe, and the second thing? The second thing is to destroy this paper before someone else gets their hands on it.

Then he needs to find Ellie.

No one is armed. No one tries to attack him, or shouts for FEDRA, or anything. Not even on the outskirts of the town, where he'd expect people to be particularly wary. Somehow, despite the tension in his shoulders, despite the glares he shoots at everyone in his vicinity, someone gets him to some sort of... inn, or something? What the fuck.

He finds a table near the back, with his back to a wall and all exits firmly in his sight lines. Then he pulls the paper out, unrolls it, looks at it a moment. Crumples it up in his hand, then goes to rip it up. Except, he can't. A line of frustration appears on his brow as he tries to tear at it, with his hands, his teeth, he even pulls out a blade at one point and tries to cut it.

The only thing he gets out of the exercise is a paper cut. ]

What the fuck is goin' on here.

[ His voice is incredulous (and also Texan). ]

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[Why, yes. Yes, she has. In fact, he's so pointed about it, that she almost has to wonder if he knows something that she doesn't. He's hit her situation almost a little too on the nose, and likely he doesn't even know it. However, as she does when she's up against a question she doesn't want to answer, she settles for the characteristic habit of evasion.]

Is that how you normally start a conversation with someone? If so, I'm going to assume you get some very strange looks in return.

[She gets the unspoken point here, however. When she willingly gave herself up for the sake of Marlene, she isn't sure she thought it'd be okay, per se. She'd thought she'd find a way out of it. Somehow. Someway. But she isn't the surrendering type.]

It's how I start talking to someone I've just been kidnapped with, yeah.

[ He raises his eyebrows. Judging by her non-answer, he's gonna guess that yes, she has been kidnapped before. Which is actually a little surprising - from what he's heard from some of the other people here, he wouldn't have expected many of them to go through things like that.

He'll also refrain from informing her that he's been a kidnapper more than a kidnappee. ]

[Folding her hands together, she chooses to settle on his words for a bit. He has a point, after all. This whole situation is almost like a breath of fresh air for her. It's incredibly unrealistic to think that the others like her, like Joel, would all have the same feelings on it. She's not about to go telling anyone that they ought to change how they feel.

That difference in feelings, after all, is partially what makes humanity as miraculous as it is.]

Were things worse for you back home or are they worse here?

[She's gently prying, as gently as she can muster. Just to get an understanding for what he might have come from. An understanding as to why he is the way he is. More so, to see if there might be something she can do or say that may make things just a touch more bearable.]

It's not about worse or better.

[ He says that flatly. Simply. ]

I've got people who rely on me, back home. No one had any right to take me from that.

[ He sits back a little, eyeing the exits again, parsing whether they're being listened to, spied on. ]

Besides, whatever this seems like right now, I guarantee you it's a trick, a trap. We weren't brought here for charity.

[She agrees with that, too. No one had any right to take any of them from their lives. This isn't just an interruption. For some of them, this very well could be a very crucial interjection. She doesn't even know what happens back in the world she's come from. Is she simply not there?]

I don't think anyone here is interpreting this as charity. Most of us probably don't.

[She thinks of Ethlyn, who is simply dead in her world. For someone like Ethlyn, this is probably a second chance. What's the likelihood of multiple people experiencing that, however? Even for Aerith, it's a little like a second chance. Sort of. It certainly saved her from a potentially terrible situation.]

I do think it's important to learn about the people here. I don't know if they have information or not. Maybe they do and they're just not sharing it. Maybe they had nothing to do with what got us here and they're just trying to survive in their own world. None of us know for sure either way. It's important for us to tread with care. We shouldn't do anything irrational. We should look out for each other and our own. And we should bide our time for opportunity.

[But they shouldn't make one another miserable either.]

[ Joel just kinda... sits through that. No real reaction. His face is blank, he seems mostly to be waiting for her to finish. ]

You givin' that lecture to everyone you meet, or am I special?

Only the people who seem like they need to hear it!

[Which means that it's the latter and in this case, Joel is very much special. Aerith knows she can be pushy, however, and when it comes to Cloud, she can get away with it. She knows not to try emulating that with others. At least, not until she has a better understanding of who they are and how they work.

Joel is immediately an enigma.]

Did it help at all or are you just more annoyed now than you were before? I have that effect on people.

That was you tryin' to help me? With what?

[ He's actually, genuinely confused. It's probably because, in general, Joel gives off much more of a fuck off vibe than a help me vibe. So it is genuinely baffling to him that anyone would look at him and think, ah yes, that guy, he definitely needs some guiding words. ]

Welllllll...

[Aerith folds her hands together. Her weight shifts between her feet as if she can't keep still, almost as if she has a hard time settling down. It seems, however, just to be an idle and subconscious motion at best. Or simply juvenile antic.]

You sounded angry. I didn't want you to think you have to stop being angry. I just wanted to help lessen it. If I could. That's all.

[For all of his hostile demeanour, evidently Aerith is just not getting the memo. Or she's not at all disturbed by people who are like that. Plenty of people in Midgar, after all, are not too different. Even angry, standoffish people are still people.]

[ She definitely has not seen him angry. That's a side of himself that he doesn't generally allow innocent young people to see if he can possibly help it. This is nothing. ]

Kid, if I need your help, I'll ask for it. But if you want my advice... save the lecture. We've all just been kidnapped. It's shitty. Let people feel shitty about it for a bit.

I. Never said they couldn't feel that way. It would be unrealistic and unfair for me to assume that everyone here is going to handle things the same way.

[Which is true. At no point in time has Aerith ever even implied that. It's fine for people to be angry. Scared. Worried. Concerned. Afraid. Any number of complicated feelings that they may be experiencing in this situation.]

Me offering to help someone? That's not a lecture. But I'm very good at giving those if you want to see what a real one is like. All I did was offer to help. You could have simply said 'no, thank you,' and left it at that. You didn't. So if it makes you feel better to just throw all of that at me, then go ahead. By all means.

[ For someone as quick to dish it out as she is, she sure can't take her own medicine very well, is all Joel can think. But he just stares her down, his gaze steady and his face still pretty impassive. ]

No, thanks.

[She willingly opens the door for him to continue. Whether he's complaining, taking it out on her, taking it out on someone else, throwing something, whatever might be within his capacity. He doesn't take any of it, regardless.

Watching him, rooted to where she stands, she doesn't say anything for several moments, as if with gaze alone she can try to extract information she doesn't even ask for. And finally, she looses a breath.

He's a piece of work, isn't he! It's too bad that she has a thing for facing a challenge.]

The offer is always open. Lecture or otherwise. That said... You're angry. This is a bad situation. So what do you want to do about it?

[Her question is earnest, not prodding and not goading.]

[ Jesus Christ, this girl can't just leave a man in peace, can she? Finally, he sighs, and stands, preparing to walk away. If she won't leave, he will. ]

Right now, I'm gonna tell you to mind your own fuckin' business.

[ And he's going to go find a drink. Surely they have booze in this place? ]

[She absolutely cannot. Just ask Cloud. Some people warm right up to this demeanour and others just... probably find her incredibly annoying. Joel seems to be falling into the latter, though Aerith doesn't seem particularly fazed or turned by the way he speaks to her.

Wall Market has evidently prepared her for this. Or she just has some nerves of steel, which is also entirely feasible.]

I'm not very good at that, but I'll do my best. [Okay, now maybe she's trying to get under his skin a little. But to be fair, hasn't this been a great way of distracting him?] If you change your mind, I'll be here. Well, not right here here, but you know what I mean.

[If he thinks this is the only time she's going to try to get into his head, he has no idea who he's just come up against.]

[ Joel just rolls his eyes. Whatever she thinks she can do for him, she can't, and feeding her clearly over-inflated ego isn't on his list of things to do, today or any other day. So he just ignores her and goes to find that drink. ]

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