( picture prompt meme )

[socketeer]

the picture prompt meme I — Comment with your character. II — Others will leave a picture (or two, or three...) III — Reply to them with a setting based on the picture. IV — Link to any pictures that are NSFW, please. V — Be aware that this meme will be image-heavy. Link to an image: <a href=IMAGEURL>TEXT</a> Embed image in your reply: <img src=IMAGEURL> Image width and height: <img src=IMAGEURL width=500> OR <img src=IMAGEURL height=INSERT>

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[funguy]

[ The second Ellie gives the answer he had been fishing for, the urge to fling accusations at her face is strong. Then why do you keep trying to leave? But Ellie has her ways of getting under his skin, and he feels a pang of guilt like he always does when she alludes to any of their time together before Jackson. Joel shifts restlessly and shakes his head, but as uncomfortable as this sort of thing is for him, as much as he wants to hunch up his shoulders and ignore the hell out of the rest of the world, he wants their lives here to work so much more. ]

It wasn't wasted- [ As soon as she pauses he snaps it harshly, defensively, and she must expect it because Ellie curls up and groans dramatically, which is more than enough to make his mouth click shut. It's been an argument rehashed between them a few times already. Sometimes she's so goddamn theatrical about it all that he wants to laugh at the most inappropriate things, but not now. He rubs a hand over his mouth to hide a frown. Sure, he had plenty of regrets about how he and Ellie came to be where they were, but in the end it had been worth it.

They don't talk much. Not real talking, not like this, and so when Ellie dumps her purse out in the sand instead of closing off and calling him a name like usual... he flounders. Joel doesn't say anything for nearly half a minute, not looking at Ellie anymore, his eyes focused on some small dot of nothing on the opposite shore of the lake. ]

Nobody here has ever lived like this before either, darlin'. [ He sighs hugely, but he doesn't sound frustrated or angry anymore, though part of him still is. ] It's not like Boston. We're all on our second, third, hundredth chance. In places like this, it don't matter who you were before, or what happened to you.

Don't you wanna start over?

[backpacking]

[ Ellie has no illusions about the struggles of the other people who live in Jackson. It'd be selfish - and stupid- to assume that she and Joel were the only ones who'd ever had to tough it out. In this world, the only people who haven't had a shitty time are nobody, because everyone has to deal with the way things are now.

So, she knows they've all worked their asses off to get here, too, but they do a better job of acting like they hadn't than she does (she thinks). ]

It's not that easy! [ Comes the indignant reply, and she kicks at a rock lying somewhere near one of her trainers. ] Yeah, I want to just... forget it all happened and be a kid who hangs around and watches movies, I guess, but-- the world didn't change, Joel. Just because we're in this place, it doesn't mean there aren't Infected out there.

[ And worse than Infected. The regular watches and occasional need to take care of an intruder makes that obvious. It's good, though. Better to not have the chance to forget entirely what the real world is like. ]

Of course it matters what happened. [ She mutters, digging her heel into the sand, making a curved dip in the grains as she goes. ] That stuff is why we're... who we are.

[ There's a puff as she exhales, inflating her cheeks, glancing almost guiltily at him. ]

... And, anyway, I wouldn't know how to just forget all that stuff and start over.

[funguy]

[ The rock Ellie kicks skitters into the shallow water, pulling Joel's eyes from the opposite shore, back to her. She looks a lot younger than her fifteen years all the sudden. The relationship between them, as strained as it had become, was still one of the only things that could stir up the parts of Joel that he had considered mostly dead. Protectiveness, fondness, annoyance, regret... not quite the same mixture of devotion that soaked his memories of Sarah, but it's similar enough.

After Salt Lake City, the long conversations stopped. He knew she didn't trust him, at least not like she had before... but she hadn't questioned him directly about any of his story, either. It didn't occur to Joel that her doubt in him, in his lies, might be the root of at least some of her problems in Jackson.

Instead he was caught up in the little thrum of hope he feels. This was the most Ellie had shared about her feelings with Joel in a long time. With a low groan he finally sits down in the sand, slowly stretching his long legs out in front as the aches and pains of his hard life made themselves known. ]

I didn't say it was easy, Ellie. [ Joel doesn't say it unkindly, more patient right now than he usually is. The peace between them feels fragile. ] But there's nothin' we can do. Boston's good as dead, darlin'. You saw the other quarantine zones, how they all ended. And there's always gonna be Infected out there. That don't mean we gotta be in the middle of it, though.

[ The lie he told Ellie all those months ago is at the tip of his tongue. There is no cure, there is no solution. Joel swallows it back, scared of finally having her call him out, and he shakes his head. ]

You can't wanna go back out there.

[backpacking]

[ They've certainly come a long way. She can still remember with ease how he'd butted heads with Tess about the "mission" in the beginning, how she'd clung to change like a drowning woman and he'd scoffed at the idea, so clearly wanting to return to the QZ and the life they'd built up together. As with all the people she'd seen die, she feels a twist of guilt in remembering Tess. ]

'Course I don't. [ Ellie mutters, not meeting his gaze. ] That's not it.

[ Shit, how could she want that? How could anyone? Even the hunters had had a little community going, fucked up though it was. People are meant to live in groups like this, working together to keep life going.

That objective knowledge isn't enough to banish the fear, the mistrust, the jagged edges to her person that she'd developed over the past year. ]

It's just - You don't really think all this can last, do you? [ It isn't a jab at the idea; her tone is a subtle plea for him to say "yes, I do; yes, it can." Even if he says as much, though... it's not like this is the first time he's lied to me. ]

I guess I'm just waiting. [ Ellie crosses her arms and leans forward, draping herself over bent knees. ] Waiting for things here to get messed up.

[ Again. ]