Dekalb, Illinois didn't have much. Not that she thought, anyway. It had some tall buildings, a lot of woods, but nothing really noteworthy and nothing that could effectively distract her from talking about Sam and Henry... or, trying to, until she pushed that button one too many times. Then, she'd been forced to internalize and that was worse.
Until. Passing through the streets of the small town, set on their trek out West where Tommy and the Fireflies waited for them, Ellie spotted it. There was a big advertisement, faded and greying against the glass of a bus stop: Star Worlds Arcade.
We ain't got time for this, she'd been told, to which Ellie said she needed a fucking break from the grief-ridden silence or she might explode. Reluctantly, with more than one sigh of exasperation, Joel agreed.
It took longer than either of them would have liked to find the place. The sun set over their search and Joel had just begun to air his protests when she cried out, pointing dramatically in the direction of a faded yellow banner with chipped orange writing.
"Told ya!" she chirped, smug, and headed to the door. Didn't matter that it was getting dark and they were both dead tired from... well, everything; she'd been trying to find a working copy of Angel Knives' game. Even though she'd been unlucky so far, the arcades usually had some supplies in the back room, enough scavenging to keep Joel occupied while she tested out a few machines. Sometimes he'd even indulge her in a story about some of the games he'd played as a kid and she'd crack a joke or two about his age, still listening intently through the grin.
"Oh, man..."
This place in particular was a wreck. Machines leaned sideways on each other, screens crashed through, consoles in pieces. She stepped inside with her nose wrinkled, not put out by initial failure (not now, not ever). Ellie glanced back over her shoulder, shrugging lightly, and began to move through the store.
"If you see it--you know the one--lemme know." She glanced up and cracked a smile; the ceiling was littered with what seemed like stars, dots that were illuminated above them in faded florescence. Can't believe those things still have juice. How d'they work, anyway...?
Joel wasn't happy about taking a detour. Sure, he'd relented when Ellie had snapped at him about wanting a break, but he had relented with utmost reluctance, heaving a quiet but heavy sigh like the mere thought of acknowledging that Ellie needed a distraction was enough to make him uncomfortable right to his bones. If he was honest with himself, he needed a break, too - his feet were killing him, blistered and sore and tired, and his legs ached numbly from hours of walking. But a detour meant cutting into time they could be using to make tracks: the more they kept moving during daylight hours, the more distance they covered.
He said nothing when Ellie exclaimed triumphantly at finding the old, rotted out game parlour. He came to a brief stop in his tracks as Ellie went on ahead of him, his shoulders sagging, something heavy and uneasy weighing down somewhere deep in the pit of his chest. Pushing it aside with another quiet sigh, he continued after her, rubble and debris and broken glass crunching under his feet as he stepped through the sagging doorway.
"Hm," was all Joel answered gruffly. What was the name of the game she was looking for? Demon Knives? Or Angel… Something? Jesus, why did it matter so much, anyway? As Ellie glanced up towards the ceiling, Joel instinctively did the same - and stared for just a moment, at the glow-in-the-dark stars and constellations dotted all around the chipped, flaking ceiling.
He quickly looked away. Shoving aside the sudden memory of sticking those very same glow-in-the-dark stars all over Sarah's ceiling flooding into his mind, he started down an aisle of video game machines, almost all of them leaning against each other like dead soldiers. House Of The Dead, old racing games with steering wheels still intact, Mortal Kombat games, shooting games, an air hockey table with a thick layer of dust spread across it…
"Hey, uh," he called out hesitantly, his eyes landing on a machine that looked similar to the one Ellie had wistfully made a fuss over back in Bill's town. Angel Knives was emblazoned across the sides. He stepped to the side to peer down along the aisle at Ellie, a finger pointing in towards the machine. "Think I found it."
The place was just like all the others they'd found, games leaning on each other for support, threatening to crash down to the cracked tiles like dead, electric dominoes. That didn't stop the excitement at the prospect of finding an Angel Knives machine that worked (or any of the consoles, really, since none of them seem to have any juice left).
"Man..." Ellie puffed out a frustrated exhale, rising up from where she'd been examining a handful of power cords; they were all cut and fraying, unquestionably safety hazards to try and plug into an outlet that might not be powered up, anyway.
Pair of rubber gloves might help. Just as she considered it, though, Joel's perpetually-wary voice carried through the silence. Immediately she perked up, abandoning the potential of electrocution (and Galaga, maybe) to make her way over to the machine.
There it was! Ellie didn't consider them to be lucky people, not after... well, everything, but what were the odds they'd come across two of them during their cross-country misadventure? What're the odds we get one that works, more like...
"Yeah, that's it," she agreed, examining it from all sides, running a hand along the grooves of the console. "Hey--"
She wrinkled her nose as she stared at the back, following the trail of the power cable.
"There isn't even an outlet near it," she pointed out, now frowning, but obstinate. "D'you think we could find an extension cord? It could still work."
As Ellie approached, Joel took a step back, a glance thrown towards the door leading back out to the street. This really wasn't how he wanted to be wasting time. Still, he remained tight-lipped, eyes back on the machine while Ellie inspected it, looked it over, ran her hands along the edges like it was somehow precious to her. Stupid. It was just a stupid video game machine. Junk, just like everything else was.
A small snort, a little incredulous and mostly unhelpfully stubborn, left him at Ellie's question about extension cords. "Even if we did find one, you need electricity to power those things."
Which of course... there was a chance there was a generator somewhere about, but Joel wasn't about to go hunting around for a generator just so Ellie could play a damn video game.
He gave a mildly exasperated, impatient show of his hand at the machine. "Why the hell is this thing so important to you, anyways?"
"I told you," she started, almost impatient, perhaps sensing his disinterest, "I had a friend who-- We found one just like this, but it didn't work, either. She knew everything about it. Since then, I always wanted to give it a try, but..."
But. Ellie leaned forward, sweeping the wall for any kind of extension cord and coming up short.
"Details, details," she sighed at the mention of the power. "We see generators all over the place, right? Or close enough that we could probably drag one over."
Maybe she wouldn't be able to do it on her own, but they'd been through a lot lately. If she was tenacious enough, maybe she'd be able to convince him that it would be worth it to take a mental break.
"Aren't you tired? We've been walking all day." Ellie straightened up again, hands planted on her hips as she tilted her head at the other. "Look, why don't you get some sleep, and I'll check around and see if I can get this thing running."
Then, quickly:
"Promise I'll keep watch. I mean, goes without saying."
Of course he was tired. He was exhausted to the point where his muscles ached and his bones creaked. Joel's idea of stopping for a rest, though, was only once the sun started to sink in the horizon and it became time to set up camp for the night. Or stopping to sit on a fallen log or a broken wall to chow down a stale energy bar, a drink of dirty water from his military canteen, maybe food from a rusty can if he and Ellie were lucky enough to come across stock.
Joel showed no enthusiasm at the idea of hunting around for a generator, but when Ellie suggested he go nap and leave her on her own--
"You outta your mind?" he countered brusquely. As much to say, there's no way in hell I'm leaving you to your own devices. He knew she was capable to look after herself, but the thought of something happening to her…
No. Just no.
He had a mind to tell her to quit wasting time, let's just keep moving, you don't need to play any dumb video games. He also didn't have the energy to argue with her, though. And so, with that, Joel heaved another sigh. One of those relenting, put out sighs of his before he cast a glance around the ramshackled game parlour.
"I'll see what I can find," he said, reluctant and sounding even more put out. He set his eyes back on Ellie. "We don't find anything, though, we keep movin'. We clear?"
Always. Puffing out her cheeks, Ellie began to move around the place, spotting a back door and meandering over to it. She thought to fight him on the issue, to try and get the guy to sit down, at least. Joel was a hardy guy, obviously used to a life of physical activity, but he was still pushing fifty (right?) and needed to take a breather like the rest of humanity.
Or, what was left of it.
Ellie pushed through the door into the back room, letting it flap shut behind her. There wasn't much: a desk with some old papers, a phone, two chairs, a shelf with almost nothing on it. Whistling, the girl bent down to rummage through the drawers, coming up with a pair of scissors. When she straightened, she had to admit there was no generator in the back office and headed back into the arcade.
"Find anything?" she asked, but as she did, her eyes fell on another closet on the wall opposite marked 'Utilities' in faded gold letters.
"Ah-ha..." Ellie set the scissors on the counter for Joel to stow away and moved across the room. No, it didn't matter if she got to play the game; maybe she could be naive, but she'd learned a lot about realism in the past year, especially lately. If they didn't find it, it'd be too bad, but they'd move on. ... That didn't mean she wouldn't try, though. After everything Riley had done to give her the experience...
Maybe it was better that she not get to play the real thing, so she could keep that memory as vivid as possible.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Until. Passing through the streets of the small town, set on their trek out West where Tommy and the Fireflies waited for them, Ellie spotted it. There was a big advertisement, faded and greying against the glass of a bus stop: Star Worlds Arcade.
We ain't got time for this, she'd been told, to which Ellie said she needed a fucking break from the grief-ridden silence or she might explode. Reluctantly, with more than one sigh of exasperation, Joel agreed.
It took longer than either of them would have liked to find the place. The sun set over their search and Joel had just begun to air his protests when she cried out, pointing dramatically in the direction of a faded yellow banner with chipped orange writing.
"Told ya!" she chirped, smug, and headed to the door. Didn't matter that it was getting dark and they were both dead tired from... well, everything; she'd been trying to find a working copy of Angel Knives' game. Even though she'd been unlucky so far, the arcades usually had some supplies in the back room, enough scavenging to keep Joel occupied while she tested out a few machines. Sometimes he'd even indulge her in a story about some of the games he'd played as a kid and she'd crack a joke or two about his age, still listening intently through the grin.
"Oh, man..."
This place in particular was a wreck. Machines leaned sideways on each other, screens crashed through, consoles in pieces. She stepped inside with her nose wrinkled, not put out by initial failure (not now, not ever). Ellie glanced back over her shoulder, shrugging lightly, and began to move through the store.
"If you see it--you know the one--lemme know." She glanced up and cracked a smile; the ceiling was littered with what seemed like stars, dots that were illuminated above them in faded florescence. Can't believe those things still have juice. How d'they work, anyway...?
no subject
He said nothing when Ellie exclaimed triumphantly at finding the old, rotted out game parlour. He came to a brief stop in his tracks as Ellie went on ahead of him, his shoulders sagging, something heavy and uneasy weighing down somewhere deep in the pit of his chest. Pushing it aside with another quiet sigh, he continued after her, rubble and debris and broken glass crunching under his feet as he stepped through the sagging doorway.
"Hm," was all Joel answered gruffly. What was the name of the game she was looking for? Demon Knives? Or Angel… Something? Jesus, why did it matter so much, anyway? As Ellie glanced up towards the ceiling, Joel instinctively did the same - and stared for just a moment, at the glow-in-the-dark stars and constellations dotted all around the chipped, flaking ceiling.
He quickly looked away. Shoving aside the sudden memory of sticking those very same glow-in-the-dark stars all over Sarah's ceiling flooding into his mind, he started down an aisle of video game machines, almost all of them leaning against each other like dead soldiers. House Of The Dead, old racing games with steering wheels still intact, Mortal Kombat games, shooting games, an air hockey table with a thick layer of dust spread across it…
"Hey, uh," he called out hesitantly, his eyes landing on a machine that looked similar to the one Ellie had wistfully made a fuss over back in Bill's town. Angel Knives was emblazoned across the sides. He stepped to the side to peer down along the aisle at Ellie, a finger pointing in towards the machine. "Think I found it."
no subject
"Man..." Ellie puffed out a frustrated exhale, rising up from where she'd been examining a handful of power cords; they were all cut and fraying, unquestionably safety hazards to try and plug into an outlet that might not be powered up, anyway.
Pair of rubber gloves might help. Just as she considered it, though, Joel's perpetually-wary voice carried through the silence. Immediately she perked up, abandoning the potential of electrocution (and Galaga, maybe) to make her way over to the machine.
There it was! Ellie didn't consider them to be lucky people, not after... well, everything, but what were the odds they'd come across two of them during their cross-country misadventure? What're the odds we get one that works, more like...
"Yeah, that's it," she agreed, examining it from all sides, running a hand along the grooves of the console. "Hey--"
She wrinkled her nose as she stared at the back, following the trail of the power cable.
"There isn't even an outlet near it," she pointed out, now frowning, but obstinate. "D'you think we could find an extension cord? It could still work."
'Could' being the word of significance.
no subject
A small snort, a little incredulous and mostly unhelpfully stubborn, left him at Ellie's question about extension cords. "Even if we did find one, you need electricity to power those things."
Which of course... there was a chance there was a generator somewhere about, but Joel wasn't about to go hunting around for a generator just so Ellie could play a damn video game.
He gave a mildly exasperated, impatient show of his hand at the machine. "Why the hell is this thing so important to you, anyways?"
no subject
But. Ellie leaned forward, sweeping the wall for any kind of extension cord and coming up short.
"Details, details," she sighed at the mention of the power. "We see generators all over the place, right? Or close enough that we could probably drag one over."
Maybe she wouldn't be able to do it on her own, but they'd been through a lot lately. If she was tenacious enough, maybe she'd be able to convince him that it would be worth it to take a mental break.
"Aren't you tired? We've been walking all day." Ellie straightened up again, hands planted on her hips as she tilted her head at the other. "Look, why don't you get some sleep, and I'll check around and see if I can get this thing running."
Then, quickly:
"Promise I'll keep watch. I mean, goes without saying."
no subject
Joel showed no enthusiasm at the idea of hunting around for a generator, but when Ellie suggested he go nap and leave her on her own--
"You outta your mind?" he countered brusquely. As much to say, there's no way in hell I'm leaving you to your own devices. He knew she was capable to look after herself, but the thought of something happening to her…
No. Just no.
He had a mind to tell her to quit wasting time, let's just keep moving, you don't need to play any dumb video games. He also didn't have the energy to argue with her, though. And so, with that, Joel heaved another sigh. One of those relenting, put out sighs of his before he cast a glance around the ramshackled game parlour.
"I'll see what I can find," he said, reluctant and sounding even more put out. He set his eyes back on Ellie. "We don't find anything, though, we keep movin'. We clear?"
no subject
Always. Puffing out her cheeks, Ellie began to move around the place, spotting a back door and meandering over to it. She thought to fight him on the issue, to try and get the guy to sit down, at least. Joel was a hardy guy, obviously used to a life of physical activity, but he was still pushing fifty (right?) and needed to take a breather like the rest of humanity.
Or, what was left of it.
Ellie pushed through the door into the back room, letting it flap shut behind her. There wasn't much: a desk with some old papers, a phone, two chairs, a shelf with almost nothing on it. Whistling, the girl bent down to rummage through the drawers, coming up with a pair of scissors. When she straightened, she had to admit there was no generator in the back office and headed back into the arcade.
"Find anything?" she asked, but as she did, her eyes fell on another closet on the wall opposite marked 'Utilities' in faded gold letters.
"Ah-ha..." Ellie set the scissors on the counter for Joel to stow away and moved across the room. No, it didn't matter if she got to play the game; maybe she could be naive, but she'd learned a lot about realism in the past year, especially lately. If they didn't find it, it'd be too bad, but they'd move on. ... That didn't mean she wouldn't try, though. After everything Riley had done to give her the experience...
Maybe it was better that she not get to play the real thing, so she could keep that memory as vivid as possible.