#☆ ───── JUNIPER WOLFHART ( VERSE. KEEP FINDING SOMETHING TO FIGHT FOR )

[jundlcndwastes]

PROMPTS FROM THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE | what can i say? i’m a rebel. / from ellie asked by @goldnplques

❝ Now I see why Joel is always in a mood, ❞ the former smuggler muttered under her breath, but she didn't completely mean it. Ever since she had met him, it always seemed like Joel was in a dark mood because of something and it really took a miracle to make him smile or even laugh for that matter. It probably didn't help that he was charged with making sure that a "rebellious" teenager stayed safe. ❝ Well, can the rebel please not give me a heart attack like that next time? Because I'm pretty sure if you even stub your pinky toe Joel's gonna be up my ass about it. ❞

[jundlcndwastes]

↪ 𝑫𝑶𝑵'𝑻 𝑺𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑬 𝑨𝑻 𝑴𝑬 . ( a collection of lyric starters from an assortment of billie eilish songs . | don't you know i'm no good for you ? - joel miller asked by @goldnsnds

❝ You don't have to do that with me. ❞ For those who had been around when the beginning of the end of the world started, you noticed how you had changed. At first, it was learning what it took to survive, as in teaching yourself how to hot wire a car when traveling lost distances or setting up animal traps to hunt for food. For a lot of folks, it was learning how to use weapons and to kill. Not just clickers. People, too.

That's where things shifted when you realized what it took for you to survive in this world. People weren't always there to be neighborly and lend a helping hand when shit hit the fan. Most of the time they took advantage of you - stole from you, beat you, left you for dead, or just killed you to make it easier for them to get what they wanted. Taking a life did something to you. It took away something you could never get back no matter how much you tried. It was blood that would never truly wash off. She suspected the first time she took someone's life went about the same way for Joel. No doubt it changed him the way it had done her. It carved paths out for them. Observing him now, she figured that his path led to him feeling like he didn't deserve to have someone care about him.

❝ You don't have to push me away because you carry the weight of what you've done on your shoulders and that makes you think that you don't deserve someone caring about you. We've all had to do things we'll never get over in this life but what are we supposed to do? Let it weigh us down like heavy, guilty chains? I'm not going to tell myself I don't deserve the love of someone else because of what I thought I had to do to see another day or protect the people I love most. You shouldn't either, Joel. It's a very lonely life and you deserve to let yourself deserve better. ❞

[jundlcndwastes]

↪ 𝑫𝑶𝑵'𝑻 𝑺𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑬 𝑨𝑻 𝑴𝑬 . ( a collection of lyric starters from an assortment of billie eilish songs . | i don't know what feels true . - ellie williams ( maybe after joel saves her from the hospital, and they're back at jackson? ) asked by @goldnsnds

Juniper was holding onto an extremely heavy secret, one that she didn't wish she had the burden to bear. But she would. For both of their sakes. She had been standing in the very same room as Joel when Marlene had told them what was going to happen to Ellie. Her DNA or her blood or whatever scientific reason behind her being the cure wasn't something that they could extract and keep the young girl intact and able to leave once she had given them her "donation." Marlene never even had the balls to tell Joel upfront that taking her to Jackson was Ellie's death sentence. Being the cure meant sacrificing her life for the greater good. If Juniper wasn't a moral person whatsoever, if she put the world in front of the life of one girl, maybe she would have agreed with Marlene that Ellie giving up her life to save the rest of earth's population was the right thing to do.

But dammit, she did have morals, and she had grown to care about Ellie so damn much ever since meeting her. "I think she'd wanna do what's right" made Juniper see red because how the hell were they supposed to know that? What, did she tell them that before she was tricked and sedated and prepped to be surgically probed? Fuck no! And even if Ellie did feel that way, how could they let her? The world wouldn't be worth living in with the weight of a dead child on their conscious. If that's the way that Juniper felt, then she knew Joel was thinking the same thing when he gunned down Marlene to save Ellie.

❝ What do you mean? ❞ She asked her, having a feeling what she meant but pretending to be blind to it all the same. Juniper tried making some eye contact and didn't want her to lead her on into believing things didn't go down the way she and Joel said they had. Sh

[jundlcndwastes]

☆ ───── QUESTION PROMPTS. | “ you were going to leave without saying goodbye? ” — from ellie williams asked by @amesstms / @goldnsnds

Juniper didn't want to leave and that was the problem. She felt like she had finally carved out a place for herself, belonging somewhere with people she thought were unlikely to want her among them. Not because there was anything bad about her, but because Ellie and Joel were such a strong duo, an inner circle that was hard to fit into. It reminded her a lot of the dynamic she shared with her own dad. But she had to go. For now, at least, hoping that whatever happened in the end, there was a sliver of chance that she could return to the family she had made for herself.

Her hand tightly grasped the strap to her bag that was hiked firmly over her shoulder. She could already feel her palms sweating just looking at the disappointment in Ellie's brown eyes. ❝ I knew it would be harder if I did, ❞ she admitted, knowing how cowardly it actually was. ❝ I'll be back though. There's just something I have to see through first. ❞