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simp-ly-writes · 6 months

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Suits, Ties, and Thus Spies (pt.4)

Pairing: Spy!Task Force 141 x Handler!Reader

Summary: Taking notes off the recent missions and getting pushed into another. More intensive training has your new relationships straining beyond what you imagined. You can only hope that they all will be with you for when the actual mission starts.

Warnings:4000~ words, light swearing, blood, violence, torture. A/N: a bit of a longer one stuffed with drama... Masterlist | Taglist | edited.

10:00 AM | Autumn | Taylor Tailors Headquarters

Stuffed inside the private vehicle. Price was gripping the dividing wall in front of him as the car drifted slightly at the slurry forming beneath the tires. Winter had decided to come at a sudden and the team captain was restless not being the one responsible for the vehicle. A voice came over the intercom- only further irritating the man. “I do assure you agents-in-training that I have been driving for the company longer than many of your careers. Oh,” the woman laughs out, bright red lipstick reflecting in the windshield as she soars down the driveway and into the parking garage. “Stop pissing in your pants now, we are almost there- promise.”

Riley shakes his head, leaning against the window as Johnny bounces across from him, bumping Price's shoulder repeatedly. Gaz inspects his suit, wondering where you all were headed- he was praying for something warm but from all the seemingly random items you forced them to back within their bags… he was still quite unsure of it all.

The door is soon thrown open, Riley turns slowly- glaring into an eye-widened surprise to see Samantha who only sharpens her smile, lips turning into a thin smile. Her black hair shimmers under the artificial lighting as the car honks-locked. The group trailing and presenting their IDs to the scanner, the front desk seemingly empty as a phone rings softly from behind the wood. Johnny makes a joke reaching towards the phone before Samantha turns sharply back on her heel, tea and muffin in hand within the blink of an eye- slapping his hand away with a wink. “Hello Agent Whitby-yes. They have just arrived, I’ll send them your way in just a moment.”

Turning her head upwards, she greets them all with a handshake before another team moves their bags into the locker room. Samantha's heels click against the tiles as she ascends the stairs. Still stunned by the headquarters interior, Price bumps into Kyle who can only smile before admiring the tree sculptures of fighters into what appears to be an artificial sunroom. Whitby stands in the centre, his shirt misplaced as he fights off the AI people that swarm him. Their pixels crumble towards the floor as they are defeated just as another spawns in his spot.

Samantha claps her hands, the heat leaving the room as an artificial voice speaks of Whitby's score. Smiling as Samantha hands him the muffin, she takes a sip of her tea- eyeing the way his shoulders rise and fall before turning and smiling at the rest of the men. “Have a good session you all, I will be at the front desk for the next few hours if you need anything.” The door softly clicking closed behind her just as the air conditioning comes in and benches emerge from the floors.

Taking a seat while drying himself off, Whitby motions a hand over, “Handler D has sent me the reports from our last mission with some personal notes… nothing to be ashamed of really- just the things we do a bit differently here.” Snapping his fingers, scans of cards appear in front of the task forces faces as they read through the notes and look through the compiled footage. Like a sports play-by-play little arrows and sticky notes are displayed all over- highlighting the next steps and offering compliments for others.

The task force all nods over each word as Whitby stands, the screens disappearing just as the sunroom scene displays once more. Heat enters the room as sweat begins to drip from John's brow. “We are going to Greece for the next mission, heat is going to be one of our biggest enemies. Get used to sweating and to drinking wherever you can while out on patrol for hours. Mission file states that our princess has been kidnapped from her guarded tower- guards are shitting themselves- running about like little headless bitches and we are gonna solve all… or well most of their issues.”

“Alright!” Soap cheers, tearing off his suit-jacket and rolling up his sleeves as the rest follow suit. Whitby stalks around the room, adjusting their position independently and as a team throughout the various planned scenarios. He keeps looking at seemingly a normal wall, making multiple hand signals as the course changes. Kyle narrows his eyes, seeing through to a control room as Doctor Charlotte Derby stands, clipboard in hand as she whispers commands to the operator. The lady smiles and copies, mouth forming a smile as laughs seemingly are shared in the room before Kyle is slipping on the floor beneath him, slipping on the rain that started to fall within the room.

Shrugging his shoulders he continues to race between halls as the rest of the boys improve upon their communication with the new tools they have on themselves. Time slipping by as late lunch emerges. “Are we going to be seeing Handler Dee at any time today?” Price asks, taking a bite of his meal within one of the restaurants the base provided. Whitby wipes his mouth clean with the provided serviette, taking a sip of his drink before clearing his throat. “Potentially, they are in a fitting currently- are there any concerns?” The agent questions, raising a brow and meeting each of their eyes.

Slapping a hand on his shoulder, Johnny shakes his head before diving back into his meal. Whitby shuffles his suit back into place, shimmying in his seat before motioning Charlotte to join them. Standing himself up- offering the lady the booth seat, he pulls up a chair from an empty table, sitting at the end before conversation settles upon the files the Doctor spreads across the table. “You all made wonderful improvements, I’m sure Handler Dee is smiling ear to ear at the news from Samantha's call. There are still some mental tests I have to finish with you all today before we can let you board that plane tonight but you should all be proud of yourselves nonetheless.” She finishes with a bright smile, sneaking a bit of Whitby's food with a wink as he playfully glares back before motioning for her to hand him his drink.

The group revolves into their own conversations as Whitby curses softly underneath his breath, “I do apologise everyone but work is calling, I wish you all a good start to your mission-”

“You’re not coming with us?” Simon asks, addressing the group for the first time today as Whitby has to do a double take, ensuring that he did in fact get a response from the man after hours of trying to spark conversation. “No sadly, though I do look great in a Swimsuit-” Charlotte smacks his shoulder. Taking the offensive hand, Whitby leans over, kissing her on the cheek with a cheesy smile before bowing and leaving out the door.

John stacks everyone's plates just as Charlotte pays the bill and directs the group over to a private lounge. Papers already wait in a stack, the grandfather clock in the corner ticks lightly as Soap swears to see the eyes of a painting move in his peripheral vision. “Alright, you all have two hours to complete this basic intelligence quiz and I have the languages and mathematics set up for us till the dinner hour. I will be sitting just off to the side here if you have any questions or concerns, good luck you all.”

–

Whitby quietly enters the fitting room, standing off to the side as he tilts his head- a small smile forming in his eyes before growing as he takes in your new uniform. Cream coloured with a linen dress shirt underneath, you are a cloud drifting its way towards his navy blue suit embroidered with small floral designs only seen underneath the warm lighting. An assistant shakes their head mocking as you step off the pedestal, making a playful runway walk towards the agent just as he picks up your hand, giving you a twirl before pulling you into his chest.

“You look amazing,” he mumbles before pulling away, still holding your hand. Thomas and Evan wave their sewing materials behind you, signaling for your return as Whitby helps you to stand back up. He takes a seat in front of you, setting a timer on his watch, his head resting against his fist, arm following chairs to the edge in a 90 degree angle. “Anything outstanding to report,” you make small talk, watching as their hands masterfully work the fabric and smile when they remember all the little details you voiced in passing throughout the years. Another favorite to add to the closet, you think to yourself.

“Nothing quite, love. They all served well- more field time will show everything I’m sure of it. Charlotte said their first written test results are coming out well for not going through our overly formal training. How many missions do we have with them again?” His knee starts to bounce as your eyes snap over to the movements, leading up to his glass-framed eyes as he raises an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side in a cat-like motion- challenging you silently to a staring contest.

Both your eyes begin to burn, competition brewing under each of your skins as Jason coughs, the head tailor looking bored at the exchange before signaling the assistant to take their breaks as he picks the work back up. “One more after this one and then Laswell and I are even,” you state, blinking rapidly just as Wihtby moves his glasses to rub his eyes. The room falls silent before Whitby stands, turning on the record player as soft classical music starts to surround the room. Humming to the strings, Whitby makes an exit- continuing his performance down the hall and towards the offices for his own mission.

You watch his exit- eyes softening as a cough from behind has you rolling your head back as Jason squeezes your nose as you scrunch it up in distaste. “What was that for?” you question. “Say yes to that poor man already, you two have been dragging this charade on for a decade too long- who knows what will come first for you both, a new partner, another promotion, death?-”

“Jason!” you hiss out, “Please, not just before a mission- can’t have that especially on something like this. Its our future head of state for fucks sake!” you curse out just as Jason trims the last bit of string from your shoulder, marking the project complete. “Apologies, Handler but I just want to see my two friends happy in a job where temporary is the definition.” You nod your head in response, “Thank you for the suit,” you add in a lightened tone as Jason sends you an apologetic smile- waving as you leave the room and he begins to back up the supplies.

–

6:00 PM | Autumn | Taylor Tailors Headquarters

“HANDLER!” a voice shouts, your shoulders jumping up-tensing as you turn on your foot like a robot. “Handler D!” The voice shouts again, footsteps rapid as they turn around the corner, Handler Jacobs nears, a tower of folders underneath his arm, his tie over his shoulder as you help him to address his appearance- taking the papers from underneath his arm as you both make your way towards the lobby.

“The reports from my side before I send it all over to the higher-ups. Would you mind if I stole the other 3 or so agents you have out in Russia? There has been an uprising in France, some internet criminals rising havac and…” You raise your palm as the Handlers rambles soon fall short. “Yes, Handler,” you state with a smile- eyes going wide as he pulls you into an energetic squeeze. You wince from the impact, the files flooding the floors beneath as you groan out, eyes searching the mess beneath as he lets you go. Slipping on the files in a daze and back down the hall.

Sighing to yourself, you begin to work through the documents, leveling them back into a stack as a group of footsteps come from behind. You curse, cheeks firing red as you turn around, straightening your hair and kicking another folder off to the side, your eyes flash with horror as your newest agents stop in their tracks, looking at your off-guard appearance with curiosity before snapping towards the mess underneath you.

Without a word or mocking comment, the men get to work, helping you to pick up the remaining files as Gaz helps you to arrange them back into the appropriate places. “How’d things get like this?” Simon questions as you blink up at the man kneeling beside you, handing you another bundle of papers as you blush in embarrassment. “An over-excited Handler.” Is all you say with a huff, beginning to stand. John rushes to place a hand on the banister above your head. You duck from the movement, standing up more quickly before looking at its placement. Sending him a warm smile, he only nods in reply as Johnny and Kyle split the papers, walking them over to the mailboxes with you.

‘Thank you all,” you comment while singing off on the last document within the office before the parcel goes through the shoot and up towards the street level. “S’nothing,” Johnny states, eyes crinkling. “Coffee, anyone?” you ask the group once seeing the time on your wrist, a series of tired mumbles sound within the room as you make your way towards the nearby break room.

Samantha stands in the room, leaning against the water fountain before standing to attention at your presence. “At ease,” you comment as she moves to sit down at an empty table. You take the orders of the room just as Simon helps you to bring the rest of the drinks over as you all sit. With hands wrapped around the warm mug's surface, you lean back in your chair, ankles crossing underneath the table as Samantha starts to read through her messages on her phone- seemingly lost in her own world. “So…” you begin, looking at each tired face with remorse. This is only the beginning…

“How was this morning's training? You think you are alright to finish the rest of the planned material tonight?” you ask softly before taking a sip of your drink, humming contently as the warm liquid floods your senses. “There’s more?” Kyle asks softly, voice carrying strain as Johnny groans beside him, having used all his energy this morning he leans his head into Simon's shoulder who grunts yet does not shove the man off.

“Well, yes.” You state, “And the most damning of them all unfortunately. I will be walking you all through our captive training. How to live through waterboarding, to not suffocate in toxins. How to find your way outside of restraints in multiple positions and live to see another day,” you perform hands fling off your cup and into the air as you make grand gestures. Samantha looks up from her phone, as if seeing a ghost she rapidly shakes her head. “Good luck you all,” horror flashing through her eyes, “the utter SHIT you experience in there…” she shakes her head, seemingly unable to finish the sentence before standing up quicking and darting out of the room before you could comfort the woman.

John looks to the group, trying to hide his growing worry as he scratches at his bread before looking back at you staring right through him. Placing a light hand on top of his formed fist upon the table, it uncurls and you pull your hand away soon after. “I will be with you all the whole time.” You state, eyes hollow as you hold out better than Samantha, everyone had to go through this training eventually- yet it stayed with you forever.

–

You watch from behind the impact and bullet-proof glass. The room slowly starts to fill with water, you listening to their heart monitors flooding your room, raging above the waves. John is already directly out orders, looking around for an escape. The lights flicker, the electrical starting to become enveloped by the quick rising water before turning black. Fighting to open a case underneath the water, Simon rips out a flashlight, tossing it over towards Kyle who turns it on, pressing it in his mouth as he dives under, scanning the floors for a potential secret door.

He emerges as the rest of the taskforce now treads water- the level almost reaching the ceiling. Each taking one last breath, they twist and turn, eyes wide and burning from the growing pressure. You step back from the glass as John swims up to it, trying to peer into the room as you make your way outside, greeting Charlotte who stands with warm towels ready for the next event. You both mentally count towards ten, the sounds of the glass shattering, the water pouring out underneath the door as you stand cold-faced and unmoving.

The boys stumbled out into the hall, adrenaline still pumping through their ears, their bodies shivering as they ran over to you, gripping a towel around their shoulders. Yet what you don’t expect is for Kyle to hug you seemingly out of the view before dropping you just as quickly. John watches them interacting softly as Simon stands behind him observing quietly as well. Johnny cheers out in celebration once realizing everyone is safe before slinging a still wet arm around the Doctor's shoulders as he bounces up and down. “You had done well to complete the first trial,” you speak in a monotone form that has Simon peering down at you, trying to crack your exterior yet you remain unrelenting. Understanding of your pivotal role during these times just as your past mentors have done so for you.

“On to the next,” Charlotte announces, stepping away from Johnny before breaking a small shake of his shoulder in congratulations. A series of small separate rooms greet you, tears begin to well in your eyes from the horrors that you had witnessed. Shaking your head, you turn and motion for each man to pick a room as the door locks shut behind them before climbing up a ladder. Through the intercom you ask everyone to sit in the chair. You hear them yell out, former trainees from earlier in the day stand in the observation deck, looking down from the rafters and through the clear ceilings that you walk upon, observing them each, picking up a series of gas masks last minute, distributing a few to Charlotte before starting.

The chair locks various restraints around their legs, arms, thighs and chest. Various different locks and chains of varying weights tug them into place. Your voice is shaking, “Your goal is to exit the room that will be flooded with gas. I am unable to enter the room while this session is in progress by any means- even in the face of potential death. Good luck, agents.”

A loud horn sounds, the boxes flooded with red light as the soul illuminate, your grip your hands into fists as Charlotte stands across from you looking down, face falling and covering her features as she watches Simons eyes go wide as he stares up into her own before twisting himself in the chains forcefully, shouting as they allow for minimal movement. John's hands were shaking, the gradual lack of oxygen was going to kick in another 25 minutes and no one had made much progress. Kyle had unlocked the most- his and Soap’s bombs training seemed to provide the upperhead- one of their hands unlocked as they raced to unlock the other.

A click can be heard, Simon had forced his wrist from underneath a series of chains, you wince at the blood and bruising of his fingertips- his gloves seemingly cut open as blood floods his suits fabric. He fumbles for a piece of his belt as you smile encouragingly down at him, happy that he remembered the hidden set of tools found within the buckle and by the sounds of Johnny's sharp intake of breath- he remembered as well. Looking down at your watch once more, you jump, the glass banging as each one looks up at the sudden noise. 10 minutes remain, Charlotte now grips your hand in her own, watching as the timer counts down.

A loud crash is heard, John is now laying sideways, his chair tipped over as blood seeps from his temple. Skull smashes into a chain just as he manages to kick his shoes off, shimmying off the chains of his feet and loops them around the legs of his chair, grunting before emitting a powerful shout as he tries to force himself back upright. Chair rocking back and forth as your drum begins to sound. Kyle had managed to unlock the remaining chains around his waist as he now stands, one left around his ankle yet he remains unbothered- repeatedly throwing his chair against the glass above- his door unable to open.

Your eyes become cloudy, imagining yourself in his situation when you were in training. Your breathing becomes shallow, your palms sweating, dropping your tools rust as it runs down from your forehead, mixing in with your eyes as they burn. You cannot hear over your blood as it becomes less of escaping the room but of your panic instants. The drumming becomes loudly as you rush away from the glass as it shatters, you stumble back as Charlotte manages to hold you upright. Throwing the chair into the corner, the siren sounds and gas begins to rise from the floors and up into the air of the concealed rooms. Multiple trainees from the rafters above have fled the scene, throwing up in worry or to try and sleep away their own injuries.

A chain can be heard rustling above the siren, flinging over the side of the enclosure as Kyle pulls himself upwards. As soon as both his knees touch the glass, you are rushing over- slipping a gas mask over his face before Charlotte and a few other scientists pull him away to the final trail. You soon pull your own mask from resting on your neck.

Much to your surprise, Simon is next out, he rips his mask to above his nose, taking in deep breaths before choking as the gas floods the space - condensing. You help him to strap on the mask just as another assistant tears him away from your grasp, out watch as he turns around to look at you with a panicked gaze before the door slams closed behind them both. In three more minutes, the remaining men would collapse from the lack of oxygen… you looked up into the red lights above, closing your eyes in a prayer before hearing more locks falling to the concrete floors below as you walked off the glass and onto a side stage. Johnny flings himself onto the glass, he does not even feel as it cuts through his skin, body delirious from the gas as his body is carried into the hall. John had two more minutes… you began to count them down, gripping the railing before falling to your knees as tears strained down your cheeks, fogging up your mask. A beep on your watch warned of the gas limit even with your mask on as a group of scientists forcefully removed you from the room as your nails scratched at their arms, you yelled out pleas. Brain seemingly lost to the gas- forgetting all of the formal qualities you were trained to possess for these torturous trials.

↳ Taglist: @thriving-n-jiving @cringeycookies @lilliumrorum @brokenpieces-72 @ashy-kit @notsaelty @hindi-si-ikay @sleepyycatt @no-lessthan3

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and-claudia · 10 months

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Against All Odds pt. 7 (Joel Miller x fem! reader)

SHE LIVES!!!!!! Hey guys sorry it's been awhile!! This semester is crazy!! I got a little time off and was finally able to work on some writing!! I am still getting back into the swing of it so I am so sorry if this isn't my best quality!!

Warnings: more angst, allusions to SA

General Warnings for later on: The main story will have an age gap between Joel and the reader (Reader will be 25 once we get to the main storyline), this will also be your warning that it will eventually be an x pregnant reader (if that's not your jam, I'm sorry) there is also going to be more graphic/trigger parts later on so please always to be sure to read the warnings BEFORE reading. This story will also be 18+ and TO BE ON THE TAGLIST YOU CAN NOT BE AN AGELESS BLOG (i do actually check that) also there first hand full of parts are all prologue so Joel won't actually be in it for a bit

word count: 4000+ (shorter again, I know but I wanted to do the whole ambush part and the suburbs part together in one part, so the next one should be longer, but it may not be out until closer to Christmas once the semester is over)

Taglist Sign-Up (read my rules carefully before filling it out)

gif not mine

After we had all gotten a chance to clean up, Joel decided to go out and see if he could get the truck started. Meanwhile, I went around the kitchen seeing if there was anything salvageable to bring with us.

“Truck’s ready.” Joel said as he walked in.

“Good, I found a few cans of food in here. I figured I could check the garage too before we left.”

He nodded before turning around and walking back out. I turned to Ellie who was throwing her bag back on.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Yup. I’ll help you look in the garage when we get out there.” She said as we headed for the door.

“Thanks.”

We got to the truck and tossed our bags in before taking one last good look around. There wasn’t much out here in all honesty. I was ready to just get in the truck and leave when Ellie called me over.

“Hey, I found some more cans over here!” She hollered causing Joel and I to walk over.

“What‘cha got?” I asked.

“I found a few things, they were all under that crusty shirt.” She said pointing to it.

When I saw it, my eyes almost bulged out of my head. I knew where that shirt came from, and it belonged to the man standing beside me who had a similar expression on his face.

“Ellie, go wash your hands, we’ll get the cans.” I said and she gave me a weird look, “Just go do it.”

She shrugged and did as I said.

“Huh, never really expected to see that again.” Joel said tossing the shirt aside.

“Yeah, me neither… Do you think Bill or Frank ever found it?” I asked.

He only shrugged and started grabbing the cans to put in the truck. So much for a conversation.

When Ellie got back, we loaded up the truck with everything we were taking. Joel got into the driver's seat, and Ellie got in behind him. Out of instinct, I went to get in the backseat with Ellie. I had never actually ridden up front ever. I was still in a car seat when the outbreak happened and then anytime I rode in a vehicle after that, I was always in the back.

“What are you doing?” Joel asked.

“What?”

“Get up front.” He nodded to the vacant seat beside him.

I shut the door and went to get in the front seat, “This is weird.” I commented but to tell the truth, I was kinda excited to ride up front.

“Both of you buckle up.” Joel said, as he started the truck.

“What?” Ellie asked.

“This thing.” I showed her mine that I had pulled down.

She glanced around herself before Joel turned around in his seat and reached back to help her out. I couldn’t help but smile to myself, it was really such a dad thing to do, but I tried not to dwell on it too much knowing it would only make me sad. Subconsciously, my hand went to my stomach.

“Is it safe?” I asked as he pulled out of the garage.

“Hm?”

“Riding in the front when you’re pregnant, is it safe?” I clarified.

“You think I would tell you to if it wasn't?” He asked as we began to drive away from the house.

I shrugged and reached up to open the glove compartment. I found a cassette tape in it. It was too faded to read what was written on the side. I shrugged and opened it anyway.

“What are you doing?” Joel asked.

“Road tunes.” I said as I put it in.

An old song started playing that I vaguely recognized. I reached up to change it to see what else was on it, but Joel stopped me.

“No leave it, leave it. This is good. This is Linda Ronstadt. Do you know who that is?”

“I don’t.” Ellie said from the backseat.

“I’ve heard of her… I think my mom used to listen to her… This song sounds a little familiar.” I said.

We pulled up to the gate and Joel stopped. He took a deep breath before pressing the button to open it. The sun was low in the sky, casting a warm, golden glow across Joel’s face. I rested my head against the window as we drove. As the song got to the chorus I heard the familiar words “And I think I'm gonna love you, For a long long time” I couldn’t help but think of Joel… and as I sat there, eyes closed, I allowed myself to pretend, even for just a moment that everything was normal… that Joel and I were together, the outbreak never happened, maybe even we were the same age, going home to tell my parents about the baby, his daughter-no our daughters- sitting in the backseat. It felt so right. It felt like a dream… too good to be true.

Progress was slow. Once every hour or so, we were having to stop to siphon gas out of abandoned cars. During one of our stops, I was looking at the map trying to help refine our route. I traced my pinky over a route that would take us longer but would ultimately be safer.

“Why don’t we follow that one? 84?” Ellie asked pointing to a different interstate.

“Because 84 goes to Hartford, the QZ there is in shambles. We’re trying to avoid it, but not take forever… so I’m thinking… stay here on 90, avoid Connecticut all altogether… only issue is, it does take us further North… so it’s going to take us even longer…” I said, scanning the map for any alternatives.

“Well, we’re already taking forever, stopping every hour.” Ellie said with a sigh as she sat back in her seat.

“I know, but we have to.” I said with a similar sigh just as Joel opened the door.

“We have to what?” He asked, starting the truck again.

“Stop every hour for gas.” I said.

“But why? I thought cars were supposed to be useful. This just seems like a major inconvenience.”

“They were. 20 years ago. But gas breaks down over time… the stuff I’m siphoning out of these cars is practically just water now. So to keep the truck going, gotta make stops. But it beats walking there.”

“I think found us a route to take. It takes us North a bit, but it’ll avoid Conetticet completely. I think it’s worth it if it means we avoid Hartford.”

“Let me see.”

I showed him and to my surprise, he agreed it was the best option.

“We got maybe two hours left of daylight… I wanna get past Springfield at least.” He said.

I nodded and soon we were on the road again. We had already cycled through the tape and were now riding in an awkward silence. I glanced behind me at Ellie to see what she was doing and found her reading a book.

“Whatcha reading?”

She held it up to show me, “‘No Pun Intended: Volume Too’ by Will Livingston,” She said with a smile, “Get it? Volume Too.”

“Jesus.” I heard Joel sigh under his breath, hearing our conversation.

“Is there some good stuff in there?” I asked.

She nodded and then scanned the page she was on to find a worthy joke, “Oh here, it doesn’t matter how hard you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationary.”

I smiled, it was cheesy but good.

“What did the mermaid wear to her math class?... An Alge Bra!” She said, laughing a little at it.

I laughed some too and glanced over at Joel, he was shaking his head slightly, clearly not amused by the jokes.

“I stayed up all night wondering where the sun had gone-” Ellie began another joke.

I knew this one and decided to push Joel’s buttons, just a little.

“But then it dawned on me!” I said with Ellie.

“No way, you know that one?” Ellie said.

Joel looked over at me still not amused, “You can ride in the back.” He said.

“You’re such a stick in the mud, you know that?” I said to him.

Thankfully Ellie got the hint that that was enough jokes for now and closed her book in favor of looking at what we were driving past. Both sides of the roads were covered in cars that had been forced off the road.

“Must have been some truck.” Ellie said.

“Yeah, they used to stick big-ass plows on them, and clear the roads for their tanks and such.” Joel said, not even glancing away from the road in font of him.

“I wanna see a tank!” Ellie said.

“I don’t.” I commented, talks usually didn’t mean good news.

“You will. Tanks, choppers, all that stuff. But they’ll fight the wrong enemies. Just scattered around now.” He said, clearly bringing a heavier tone to our conversation than Ellie was wanting because she quickly changed the topic.

“Oh yeah, I found this…” She said leaning forward and holding a new cassette tape in her hand, “This make you feel all nostalgic?”

Joel glanced at it, “This is actually before my time.”

“Great, even older, old music.” She said, sitting back.

“It’s a winner though.” Joel said, putting it in.

“Found something else too.” Ellie said, pulling out a magazine from under the seat.

She opened it and scanned the pages, “It’s light on the reading but it has some interesting pictures.”

At that Joel and I both looked back to see what she had found.

“No, no, no. Put that back.” Joel said immediately, meanwhile, I was just trying not to laugh.

During the whole exchange, I was just trying not to laugh, but then I was sent over the edge when I heard Ellie say, “Why are all these pages stuck together?”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I started laughing so hard it was difficult to breathe. What made it even better was Joel trying to come up with a response. He stumbled over his words and couldn’t get an answer to form.

“I’m just fuckin’ with ya.” Ellie said, before scooting over to the window and tossing it out.

I was in tears by this point.

“Dude, chill, you’re gonna piss yourself.” Ellie said.

“I’m trying not to.” I said, whipping the tears from my eyes.

After that, the drive died down. Every so often we would comment on what we saw. We passed some wild buffalo that had roamed more and more since the outbreak. We passed an old amusement park. You could see the old rollercoasters still standing tall. I had always wanted to ride one, but never got to. Joel told us about a few that he had been on when he and his brother went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, a couple of my brothers had been there before too, I was just too little to go with them. Later on we saw the tanks that Joel promised. And just like the hundreds of cars we had passed, they were left abandoned on the side of the road.

I was grateful when Joel announced that we had done enough driving for the day and pulled the truck off the main road, across a field, and into the tree line to keep us hidden. I got out and stretched. Sitting all day had made my knees stiff.

“I’m gonna make us some food.” Joel said and I nodded.

“I’m going to go find a place to pee.” I said, walking the other way.

When I got back I could smell the food and it made my stomach rumble.

“What is that?” I asked, walking over to stand by Joel.

“20-year-old Chef Boyardee ravioli.” He said.

“Could’ve left out the ‘20-year-old’ part.” I said, taking a seat.

“You can raid what we have, it’s slim pickings though, but I guess if the smell or something is already making you feel sick.” He said.

“Oh, no, I feel fine. It smells really good actually.” I said, happy that I didn’t feel like I was going to puke anytime soon.

“Good. Here.” He said scooping some out and handing it to me, “Ellie, come eat.” He called the young girl over.

Ellie took her portion and sat down with it then immediately dug in.

“Slow down some.” Joel said.

“This is good stuff, what is it?” She asked between bites.

“Chef Boyardee.”

“That guy was good.” She said, shoving another bite into her mouth.

“I actually agree.”

“Me too.” I nodded, taking a bite of my own.

“So… how long we staying out here?” Ellie asked.

“I figured I sleep tonight and drive tomorrow, all day, all night, get us to Wyoming by next mornin’.” Joel said.

It wasn’t a bad plan, I just didn’t know if he’d be able to stay up that long without dosing off. Ellie must have thought the same thing.

“Why doesn’t Yn take a shift driving? I feel like that’s a lot of driving for just one person.” She said.

“I don’t know how to… well, I know the logistics of it, but I’ve never actually done it before. And don’t think right now is the time for driving lessons.” I said.

She nodded before firing off another question, “Can we start a fire? I’m freezing.”

I already knew the answer but Joel beat me to it, “Now why am I going to tell you no?”

“Because infected will see the smoke.” She said with a sigh.

“Fungus ain’t that smart.” He shot back.

“We’re too remote now for infected.” I chimed in.

“Okay, so people?” She asked and we nodded, “So what are they gonna do? Rob us?”

“Oh, they’ll have way more in mind than that.” Joel said.

Ellie nodded, understanding what he meant. A young girl, a woman in her 20s, and an older man wouldn’t be much of a fight against raiders, and if a big enough group got to us and overwhelmed us, they could easily have their way with any of us. It was a scary thought, but it was just the reality of what could happen.

Conversation died off after that and we finished our meal in quietness. Then after that, we got ready to settle down for the night. We each grabbed a sleeping bag and brought them over to the lantern to set up.

“Actually smells pretty good.” Ellie commented as she laid her’s out.

“That would be Frank’s then.” Joel said.

“That would mean you have Bill’s.” I said, popping the tag off of mine. I had found an unused one in one of Bill’s supply stashes.

I hesitated as I thought about where to lay mine out. Yes Joel and I had a few moments today where we seemed like our old selves before we knew about the baby, but I wasn’t 100% sure where we were overall and I didn’t want to test my luck. So, I opted not to lay mine right next to his. We all got settled in and Ellie turned off the light.

I was just about asleep when I heard Ellie call out for Joel.

“Joel? Can I ask you a serious question?” She said.

I was worried that something was wrong.

“Yeah.”

She took a deep breath and sighed, “Why did the scarecrow get an award?” She asked.

There was a few beats of silence before Joel spoke up, “Because he was outstanding in his field.”

I could see him fighting a smile.

“You dick!” Ellie said with a laugh, “Did you read this?”

“No.” Joel said, suppressing a laugh as he rolled over to but his back to us, “Now go to sleep. Both of you.”

It was quiet for a few moments before Ellie spoke once again, “Those people you said… there’s no way anyone knows we’re here, right? No one’s going to find us.”

��No one’s gonna find us.” Joel confirmed.

“Okay.” Ellie said quietly.

I fell sleep soon after that but was woken up only a few hours later. It was still dark out. I rolled over and saw Joel’s sleeping bag was empty. I glanced around and found him standing watch. I quietly got up and walked over to him, making sure not to startle him.

“You should be asleep.” He said.

“So should you.” I commented.

He was silent for a moment, “I couldn’t… just paranoid, I guess.”

I nodded. In the short time she’s been with us, I could tell the effect it had on Joel. I knew about Sarah. And I could tell that having Ellie around was bringing that all back to him.

“Hey, we’ll be okay. Alright?” I said gently as I hugged onto his arm and laid my head on his shoulder.

I could feel the way he relaxed some and let a sigh. After a few minutes of standing there with him a yawn escaped my lips.

“You should go back to bed. I’m gonna stay up. Just in case. We’ll stop again tomorrow night and just get to Wyoming the next day.” He said.

“Okay.” I let go of his arm only for him to catch me by the wrist gently.

“I love you, you know that right?” He asked.

I nodded, “I love you too, Joel.” I said quietly.

And I meant it. Despite the shit show we’ve been through the past few days, I did still love him. I knew we would figure this all out eventually. It would take time, but we’d get there, together. I went back to my sleeping bag and slid back into it. When I woke back up the next morning, Joel was already heating up coffee on the camping stove. Ellie was just waking up as well. About 30 minutes later, we were loaded back up and on the road again.

Joel had poured the coffee into thermos to drink on the road. In the past, I would’ve happily shared it with him. But now the smell was revolting almost. Ellie seemed to agree.

“Is that seriously what the Starbucks in the QZ used to sell?” She asked, clearly disgusted.

“Well, theirs was a lot fresher than what Bill saved up, but yeah, this what they sold.” Joel said.

“Smells like burnt shit.” Ellie said.

“Yeah, it’s gross.”

“You love coffee.” Joel said.

I shook my head, “Not anymore.”

“Alright, eyes on the map, where am I heading?”

“Keep headin' south until we hit 78, that will get us to 76, then from there we’ll get to 70 west which we will stay on for pretty much ever.” I said.

Joel nodded.

“Where in Wyoming did you say your brother was?” Ellie asked.

“Last contact came through a radio tower close to Cody.” Joel said.

I scanned the map to find it and once I did I held it up to show her.

“Wow that is deep in there… And what if he’s not there?” She asked.

“Then odds are he’ll be near a settlement, probably close to another city out there. Ain’t too many of ‘em in Wyoming.”

She nodded and I thought, more so hoped, that would be the end of her questions. I knew this was a touchy subject for Joel and I really didn’t want to upset him.

“What’s his name?” She asked.

“Who’s name?”

“Your brother.”

“Tommy.” He said.

“Younger or older?” She fired off another question at him.

“Younger.” “Why isn’t he with you?”

I watched Joel for his reaction to this question.

“Long story.”

“Is it longer than 25 hours? ‘Cause I think that’s what we got.” She asked.

I could tell Joel was considering his options of telling her or not. To my surprise, he began telling her about how he was a “joiner.” He told her that he enlisted in the Army right out of high school. Then after the outbreak, Tommy was the one who convinced Joel to join a group that was heading to Boston. He told her how Tommy met Marleen and how she convinced him to join the Fireflies. But last he heard he had quit that too and he was alone and that is why Joel was heading out there, to go get him.

“If you don’t think there’s hope in the world, why bother going on?” Ellie asked.

Joel glanced over at me for the briefest second before answering, “You haven’t seen the world, so you don’t know.”

“You keep going for family. That’s about it.” He added.

“I’m not family.” Ellie pointed out.

“No, you’re cargo. And I made a promise to Tess. And she was like family.”

I could tell the conversion was making him shut down.

“What if you don’t find him?” Ellie asked.

It was a legitimate question. One that I was too scared to ever dare ask.

“I will.” Joel said firmly.

“How do you know?”

“I’m persistent.”

That shut the conversation right down.

“Hey Ellie, we got up pretty early. You can take a nap back there if you want.” I said.

“I’m not even tired.” She said.

But sure enough after about 30 min of silence, she was out.

“Are you okay?” I asked Joel.

He sighed, “Yeah.”

“You sure?”

He only nodded.

I decided to drop it, he had already shut down, and there was no point in making it worse. Instead, I opted to also get some rest. Later that day, Joel had changed his mind and continued driving through the night.

I could never fall asleep very long. I ended up dosing off and on throughout the night. When I woke up again, the sun had risen and we were approaching a city. Ahead of us was an overpass tunnel and from the looks of it, it was blocked.

“Where are we?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

“Kansas City. Wait here.” Joel said, turning off the truck and going to get out but I stopped him.

“Joel, we are way too close to the city for you to go out there alone.” I said, worried about Infected or even other people attacking him.

“I’ll be fine.” He said and got out, then he grabbed the rifle from the back seat.

I watched anxiously as he got closer to the tunnel. There could be anything in there. After a couple minutes of looking, he began making his way back. I didn’t take my eyes off him until he was back in the car.

“Now what?” I asked.

He grabbed the map to look for an alternate route.

“Screw it.” He said tossing me the map.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“We go back a ways, get off the highway, come back down, take the next ramp. Puts us back on the road, 5 minutes tops.” He said.

I sat quietly as he drove but I began to grow wary as we got deeper and deeper into the city.

“Where the fuck is the highway?” He asked.

“I’m trying Joel!” I said looking between the map and the signs we were passing. They were all so faded it was nearly impossible to figure out where we were and him yelling at me wasn’t helping.

“Quit looking at the state map!”

“Joel, I am trying my fucking best! Quit yelling at me, I’m already freaked out as it is being this far into the goddamn city!” I shot back.

“Well we wouldn’t be if you could just give me directions!”

“I thought you had a fucking plan? 5 minutes tops, remember?!” I shot back.

Suddenly Ellie yelled from the back seat, “Stop!”

We did and turned to see what was wrong.

“Is that the QZ? Where the fuck is FEDRA?” She asked.

Sure enough to our left was the entrance to the QZ with its gates wide open.

“We need to get the fuck out of here.” I said.

“Hey! Please help!” We all turned to the front to see an injured man stumbling towards us.

“Both of you seatbelts, now.” Joel said, putting his own on too.

“Aren’t we gonna help him?” Ellie asked, clearly confused.

“No.” Joel and I both said.

Joel turned the car to try and get away from him. I was scanning the area for anyone else, knowing it was a trap.

“Joel!” Was all I was able to yell as I saw a guy throw a cinder block from a fire escape.

It hit our windshield and shattered it. Joel kept driving. We ran over something and I could feel the car drop as it popped the tires. Then another man stepped out in front of us and began shooting. Joel swerved the truck to the left. I only caught a glimpse of the glass window before we went straight through it. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact I knew was coming.

taglist: (if you filled out a form and aren't on this list that means either a) your blog is not coming up in the searches so I am unable to confirm that you are 18+, or b) you did not follow my rules for being tagged in this fic)

@sexyvixen7

@joelmillerslays

@elliaze

@little-lovely-darling

@swimmjacket

@watercolorskyy

@mserynlarsen

@sebby-staan

@beelanie

@fan-g0rl

@paige96

@pedropascalfanclub

@ameliadraws

@mavs101

@azerty29

@rileyferg

@belliedellie

@rhaenyrasgf

@imcreepininyourheartbabe

@nani-kenobi

@lunas-sstuff

@holb32

@reidsgubbler

@cleocat246

@novamidoriya

@katmae1997

@dizzywinterdaydream

@mrswidowjohansson

@abzidabzy

@givemeth

@morgaussy

@summerchicken

@kelh27

@ayamenimthiriel

@letmehavemyfictionalmen

@everything-isfucked

@emilyjustemily

@drewharrisonwriter

@littlwitchgoblin

@angel4astraea

@vodkawriter

@taz-97

@angel4astraea

@kodzuvk

@kittenlittle24

@nooneyouknow55

@hehehehannahthings

@keileighr

@shotgun-shelby

@joeldjarin

@catsareawesomek

#joel miller x reader fluff #joel x reader #joel the last of us #joel miller x pregnant reader #joel miller smut #joel miller tlou #joel miller #joel tlou #joel miller x reader #hbo the last of us #the last of us hbo #the last of us

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mid-nighttiger · 1 year

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since i was looking at codywan ao3 stats over the years, i thought it'd be interesting to compare with the three other biggest pt-era ships. at the time of posting (2023/08/01), the largest pt-era ship on ao3 is anakin/padme, followed by anakin/obi-wan, then cody/obi-wan, then obi-wan/qui-gon

[Image ID: Graph of total works on AO3 by ship. Quiobi is shown as a blue line, Obikin as red, Anidala as yellow, and Codywan as green. The horizontal axis shows the years from 1997 to 2023, and the vertical axis shows the number of total works from 0 to 9000. /End ID]

quiobi starts increasing moderately but steadily from 1999 to about 4000 works in 2023. there are under 100 anidala and obikin works dated 1999-2009, then both ships start to increase slowly, then faster from 2015-2019, and even faster from 2019-2023 (anidala faster than obikin). anidala overtakes quiobi at about 2500 works in 2019 to reach nearly 9000 in 2023. obikin overtakes quiobi at about 2750 works in 2020 to reach about 8000 in 2023. there are no codywan works until 2009, then it increases slowly from 2015-2019 and grows rapidly from 2019-2023. codywan overtakes quiobi at 3500 works in 2022 to hit nearly 6000 works in 2023

[Image ID: Graph of works posted per year by ship. Quiobi is shown as a blue line, Obikin as red, Anidala as yellow, and Codywan as green. The horizontal axis shows the years from 1997 to 2023, and the vertical axis shows the number of works posted from 0 to 2500. /End ID]

these two graphs confirm my feeling based on my experiences* in sw fandom that quiobi is an old, steadily growing ship. the phantom menace in 1999 sparked the ship, and there has been a moderate but steady 50-100 works per year since then til 2014, when it starts to grow. after 2016 and 2020, there are some moderate step-ups in the number of works posted per year (200-300 and 300-500, respectively), but not the huge spikes of the other ships

anidala and obikin share pretty similar growth patterns, with the number of works per year being pretty low until 2016, when it jumps to 500-600 (overtaking the number of quiobi works posted per year), then jumps again in 2020 to over 1000 and has been growing ever since. i already discussed codywan in my previous post, but in brief, there is a low growth from 2015-2019 of about 100 works per year, before it spikes in 2020 and catches up with the number of anidala and obikin works posted yearly

*when i got into star wars fandom, quiobi was the pt-era largest ship. i never felt that it was losing popularity, just that other ships were growing faster

[Image ID: Graph of year over year growth by ship. Quiobi is shown as a blue line, Obikin as red, Anidala as yellow, and Codywan as green. The horizontal axis shows the years from 2000 to 2023, and the vertical axis shows the percent growth from -100 to 1100. /End ID]

what's interesting here that all of the ships had spike in growth in 2016, most likely from the force awakens being released in december 2015 and sparking new interest in star wars, and 2020, possibly from folks quarantining at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and spending more time writing. season 7 of the clone wars being released in 2020 could have also been a factor. it would be interesting to see if other fandoms also had a spike in new works in 2020. anidala had a spike in 2005, when revenge of the sith was released. there are no obikin works dated 2004 on ao3, which is why there is a gap in the graph from 2004-2006 (percents don't play nicely with zeroes). not shown on this graph is the jump from 1 quiobi work dated 1998 to 104 works dated 1999, because that is a 10,000% increase that completely destroys the vertical range

notes:

largest ships were determined from the relationship tags in the "Star Wars - All Media Types" tag on ao3

works from each ship tag on ao3 were filtered by date. no other filters were used. some works may have been tagged with multiple ships (e.g., codywan and anidala) and/or with a 3-way ship (e.g., obianidala)

each year shows the number of works at the end of that year (i.e., 2022/12/31, 2021/12/31, etc)

data for works posted by year and for % growth for 2023 was extrapolated from the number of fics posted in 2023 so far. at the time of making these graphs (2023/08/01), there have been 191 quiobi, 1391 obikin, 2205 anidala, and 1179 codywan works posted in 2023

technically, the graphs show the number of works updated, not posted, as i could not find any option to filter works on ao3 by date posted

since quiobi, obikin, and anidala are all significantly older than ao3 itself, these graphs are of limited scope pre-2009. pre-2009 data is affected by which works were imported from older archives and/or backdated by their creators moving to ao3

deleted works were not accounted for

#midtalks #star wars #quiobi #obikin #anidala #codywan #long post #ao3 #ship statistics

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letaot-ze-magniv · 9 months

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General guide to birds in Israel pt 2- cooler birds

This will be a long post. Link to part 1

White spectated bulbul/bul-bul me-mush-kaf

Usually referred to as just bulbul, this bisexual king is the roundest and my most favourite bird. IMPORTANT! BULBUL MEANS DICK! DO NOT TALK ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR BULBULIM IN PUBLIC!

These birds are slightly larger then the house sparrow and are easily distinguished by their yellow butt. Their calls are reminiscent of frogs. They mate for life and are all bisexual and they cuddle each other. They are a menace to farmers because they are fond of fruit and tend to nibble just a little at a time. You can find them in all parts of Israel as long as there are nice trees nearby.

Eurasian blackbird/shakh-rur

These timid birds like to hide in bushes and trees. Their calls are beautiful and I love them. They are smaller then a pigeon. The males are black and the females are brown. They feed on seeds, fruits and bugs, and use their beaks to search the ground for worms. You can find them in Jerusalem and the north, they like cool weather and don’t fuck with sand.

Great tit/yar-ge-zi ma-tzui

Life isn’t easy for these tiny psychopaths, which might be the reason they developed such a temper. Their Hebrew name translates to “angry one”, and for a reason. They are very aggressive towards other birds. They also feed on the brains of bats. You can distinguish between males and females by the thickness of the black stripe on their belly- males have a thicker one than females. They are most common to the north of Jerusalem, but you can find them in some parts of the desert.

Palestine sunbird/tzu-fit bo-he-ket

No, that’s not a hummingbird, it’s the sunbird! Despite their remarkable likeness they aren’t even a little related. Sunbirds feed on nectar and are pollinators! The males have black feathers that shine in the sunlight (which is how they got their name) and the females are a muddy grey, but they’re just as lovely. You can find them in all parts of Israel, especially near lush flowery areas!

White wagtail/nakh-li-e-li la-van

First migrant bird everyone!!! (Some blackbirds migrate here but some nest during summer so shhhh) This lovely round bird starts it’s visits around October and leaves when it gets hellishly warm again. Due to global warming the wagtails visits are shortening, so appreciate them while you can. Like their name suggests, the wagtails wag their tails. A lot. You can find them near water sources during the cold-ish months of the year!

Eurasian jay- or-va-ni shkhor ki-pa

Eurasian jays can be found in other parts of the world, but I’m pretty sure the one we have in Israel is a different sub-species because the ones in Europe lack the beautiful black top that they’re named after.

The jay is a type of corvid, and in addition to being extremely social and intelligent, these birds can mimic other animals. Due to urbanisation, the jays learned to mimic car alarms, the ringing of phones and the cries of human babies. Jays are extremely fond of acorns, and burry them in the ground in preparation for harsher months. A single jay can remember between 4000 to 5000 hiding spots!

Syrian woodpecker/ na-kar su-ri

This picture is of a male woodpecker. The females have a completely black head. Woodpeckers can locate bugs that have burrowed inside trees and use their beak and long tongues to eat them, thereby helping the trees get rid of pests! Woodpeckers also love acorns, and compete with jays over them. To prevent concussions, the woodpecker’s tongue wraps around their brain, keeping it in place while they peck. You can find them in non-desert areas of Israel!

Lesser whitethroat/siv-khi to-kha-nim

Another migrant birds! These floofballs come here twice a year, once in spring and once in autum, although some whitethroats nest in the north all year long. During their migration you can find them everywhere in Israel, even in very urban areas! They get their Hebrew name, which roughly translates to miller’s shrubbery-liker, because their white chests look how a miller’s apron would look after a long hard day!

Super winged lapwing/sik-sak

The siksaks are water birds with ridiculously long legs that they use to stab their prey. They kind of look like they are wearing a tux! Their original Hebrew name was “sharoni mezuyan”, which translates to “one that lives in the Sharon and is armed with a weapon” but also “fucking sharoni”. You can find them anywhere in Israel as long as there is a near enough water source.

White breasted kingfisher/shal-dag la-van kha-ze

One of my favorite birds. The kingfisher is a magnificent bird of prey with brilliant blue feathers that always make my day. They are most common in the north and west of Israel, but they nest in smaller numbers in the south. They kingfisher’s diet consists of not only fish, but of crabs, frogs, slugs, bugs, and even the occasional rodent. Their varied diet helps them thrive even in drier areas.

#מקורי שלי #ישראבלר #ציפורים #לטאות #birds of Israel #birds #jumblr

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xgummibearx · 10 months

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Fatgum x (F) Reader, Fantasy AU (pt. 4)

A continuation of Part 3, Taishiro learns a new fear as he struggles to rescue you from a strange unknown creature.

((I was going to post part 3 and 4 as one big fic but....I went 4000 characters over the limit))

(x) walked slower now, stepping into a clearing. She could see the familiar gate to the gardens down the path up ahead, but she found herself trembling and not from the cold. Her heart was racing, her feet now frozen in place. She had ran, all through the woods. Her lungs ached in protest as she stopped to catch her breath. Her ears were met with strange cries in the woods, human screams mixed with the howling of beasts that set her very teeth on edge. She had seen it, but it moved so fast it seemed only a shadow that ran through the trees, and she heard still it’s nearing steps that sounded off like a steady drumbeat that seemed to be matching the beating of her heart; as if to catch up with it’s rhythm to snuff it out. Then just like that, it’s footsteps stopped, a low croaking growl filled the clearing that reminded her of the creaking of bones as she backed into a tree. There, across from her, it emerged. It’s bulging eyes were misshapen and poorly matched, it’s limbs moved unnaturally as if someone had haphazardly sewn the poor creature together with naught but ill intentions and suffering for inspiration. It stared, then charged immediately. It moved with such speed and ferocity, she screamed, tears immediately escaping her as she dove out of the way. It’s arms stretched like vines with fingers akin to gnarled tree branches as It grabbed at her, the monster reeked of rotting burned flesh, it’s eyes and mouth reminded her of dying coals as it pinned her to the ground to scream into her face. She sobbed, desperately crying out for help. The name of her love, to any God that may hear, she begged, screaming madly as her pleas collided with the bone chilling howls of the beast; and he heard. Of course, he would hear her. In a maelstrom that would strip wood from the very bow of a ship, he would hear. If all the hounds of hell were crying out at once and she but only whispered his name, Taishiro would hear her.

He broke through the trees with the force of a wildfire, his men following in pursuit with the vengeance of a pack of wolves as they circled the monster before them. The rage and fear in his eyes as he brandished his sword she swore could have made the very snow melt. The beast roared, tossing (x) aside as if she were only a doll. She couldn’t hear Taishiro’s words but she could see his face contort with a scream of rage. They all heard the crack of her skull against stone, her blood crimson against the pure white snow. Immediately, his men rode to her aid; but their mysterious beast was not alone. Two more came through the trees, charging at the knights with gnashing teeth.

They barred the way to their ladyship’s side. Taishiro had never known a rage like this, the anger that festered within him like a thorn made his voice seem inhuman as he roared with rage, charging headfirst at one of the creatures. “You will rue this day!” He swore, an oath of suffering like nothing these creatures could imagine as his blade masterfully struck one in the eye. Another struck his horse. Taishiro collided with the snow as he watched in horror; the body of his steed cleaved in two. He stood, on shaky legs with his sword looking dull and cold against the light cast by the stormy skies. The winds were picking up as the snow fell even more heavily. The rest of his knights had already began the assault, their cries coalesced with the roars of the strange beasts. Such grotesque beings he had never seen before. They seemed neither living nor dead.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as his sword began to glow with an ethereal golden light. It burned like a star in the distance as the monsters turned their attention to him; they didn’t even have a moment to gnarl their disgusting their teeth as the light faded from their eyes. Black blood stained the ground and showered him like a cloud of death as he took deep breaths that billowed into the air; steam rising off him as sweat rolled down his face. His eyes were fixed on her.

Snow clung to her hair and skin like pale hands that seemed to be desperately trying to pull her to the world of the living. The cold was making her face pale and grey like everything else around them. Taishiro dropped his sword and ran, his vision tunneling as the knights gathered the corpses of the beasts. “No! No Please! My love please…” His hands were shaking as he lifted her, cradling her against him. Taishiro brought his ear to her chest and he heard her heartbeat; strong and relaxed. He felt her breathing against his neck that was as reassuring as her touch. He smiled; tears of relief filled his eyes as he held her close. “You’re going to be alright…I’ve got you…” He pressed a kiss to her temple, trying to steady his shaking breaths.

Never had he known a fear such as this, never had fear so quickly stilled his heart. “Take the carcasses back to the stronghold, I will send for the high council personally to inspect them…these creatures, were not born or bred by natural means…” He narrowed his eyes, they were still twitching; some of them partially alive and screaming in agony as their blood spilled down into the snow. “What kind of sorcery is this…” He hissed, his hold tightening on (x) as Tamaki approached with his horse.

“My Lord, you may use my horse if you like.” He offered. “I will oversee the transport of the beasts remains…you have more important matters to attend to.” His eyes fell on her ladyship. She was beginning to stir, her head felt like it was pounding as she tucked her face into his chest. Cold, she felt cold. The cold wind that was blowing, the ice cold steel of his armour as he held her. Her eyes slowly opened, her gaze meeting his.

“Taishiro…my love what happened I…” He hushed her softly, his smile gentle as he thanked Tamaki.

“That beast threw you against a rock…” Taishiro explained, getting her on the horse then climbing up behind her. “I’m taking you back to the castle, we are blessed to have skilled healers here.” He added. The wound on the side of her head was not deep, but his heart ached at the sight of it. “Whatever devilry conjured these demons will be begging for something as sweet as pain before I finish with them…” He vowed silently, trying to guide the horse back to the stronghold as swiftly as possible.

Upon arrival they were met with the roaring fire of the stronghold's fireplace as he brought her to the sick bay. (x)’s hand maidens ran to meet him, helping him get her into a soft bed with clean white sheets. The warmth of the stronghold felt like a hot bath. Taishiro thanked the two young ladies, “I can see to her from here…please watched for the healers and bring them in straight away when they arrive.” The two girls promptly bowed, running off the castle entrance. He stood over his precious one, carefully removing her boots as she opened her eyes.

“I can do that…I’m alright.” She started, sitting up slowly. He turned his face towards her sharply.

“No, you will do no such thing!” His voice was stern, but his eyes were kind. “Please…” His voice softened, “let me take care of you there is no shame in it.” Taishiro begged, cupping her face in his hand. His eyes, that rivaled the dawn…when he looked at her like she had no choice but to allow him to help, only sitting up to hand him her winter cloak. He was gently washing the wound with hot water when the healers were brought in. She recognized their faces, the sweet elderly women that had all greeted her upon arrival. The three of them wore thick grey cloaks with dark yellow hoods. They inspected her, with warm eyes and gentle hands.

“She has some bruising…and my what a terrible hit to the head, you are indeed lucky your Ladyship!” One of them marvelled. “Thankfully we arrived when we did, but it doesn’t look like it’s infected.”

Another of them was shooing out Taishiro, “Taishiro we cannot work with you lumbering over us! Go wash yourself of that rancid blood, it isn’t as though she were upon deaths door!” Taishiro looked over (x), trying to think of some kind of protest. She smiled, the colour had returned to her face, and her eyes were sparkling again.

“I’ll be fine, go tend to yourself and..” She winced a little as the third of the women began tending to the wound. “If it would make you feel better I am hungry…we can have our picnic indoors.” His heart swelled with relief at the sight of her, and her laugh as the old woman shoved him out of the roon made him feel as giddy as he had felt that morning. She was alright, she was safe and hadn’t been taken from him. Taishiro removed his armour with some difficulty without Tamaki, but he made sure to leave it in organized pieces on his workbench so that it could be properly cleaned and maintenanced.

The bath, though he did not want to admit it was indeed what he needed. He scrubbed away the drying black blood and rinsed out his soft golden locks. Too long he thought, it had already been too long away from her. “I just want to hold her…chase away any fears that remain.” His face burned in embarrassment. He sensed that perhaps there were more fears clinging to him than to her, but she had always been better than him at hiding away those sorts of uncomfortable feelings. Taishiro put on another fresh tunic and some loose pants before making his way to the kitchen. By the time he returned with steaming bowls of soup and fresh bread that was still warm the three healers had finished their work. Taishiro, leaning over to offer his thanks as they all pinched his cheeks and ruffled his hair as doting as any grandmother would be before heading out.

Her head was bandaged, but her sweet voice that drew him near, and her touch on his hand as he sat by her side. It was all he needed to feel the dark fears that gripped so tight finally loosen their hold as she pressed her forehead into his. “I am so sorry…” He whispered. “I shouldn’t have sent you out alone, you were so scared...” She shook her head, still smiling as she closed her eyes, feeling his touch and listening to his ragged breaths. His heart was still racing.

“I was…but as soon as I saw you, it chased those fears away like a candle to shadows.” She kissed his cheek, her lips lingering as she rubbed his back. “You don’t need to worry, or be afraid my love…I’m here, I am still here…” She wrapped her arms around him as he pulled her close, tears rolling down his cheeks as he drank in her presence, taking her touch to memory as he silently wept.

#fatgum #mha #taishiro toyomitsu #bnha #fatgum x reader #fanfic #anime #bnha fanfiction #fanfiction #writer #mha fantasy au

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budderdomo · 9 months

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My Paint Tool Sai Brushes/Painting Process Tutorial!

Explanations and Examples down below

Disclaimer: long post

Hello! I wanted to first thank everyone for liking/reblogging my most recent art piece (the Darkiplier one) It has become my first post with over 1000 notes which is just insane for me. I just wanted to do something to thank you guys for that.

Anyway, this post will be divided like this, so scroll to the title if you want specific things

Introduction

Brush textures/shapes for download

Overall process -> Terms and Definitions

How I use each brush (+ examples) -> Sketch -> Lineart (only do this sometimes) -> Rendering -> Textures + Post Processing

Conclusion

Introduction

This post is mainly for me in the future to look back on how my painting process was. My process changes ALL the time, sometimes I use lineart, sometimes I paint, sometimes I don't use textures, sometimes I have 100 layers, sometimes I have 1. It just changes depending on the piece. There is no "correct" way to do art. Do what you want!

Second of all, I feel I should point out you don't need fancy brushes or many brushes to make good art. I painted this piece with 1 brush.

That's right, 1 brush (it was the P A I N T brush shown in main). I didn't have a sketch, I didn't have any lines, I started with big shapes and went from there.

Third of all, I use Paint Tool SAI (the first one). So this will be specific to that program. I'm sorry, it's just what I know how to use.

Brush Textures/Shapes

You may see in my brushes that there are textures/shapes that don't come with the standard SAI program. I tried to find the links for you to download them yourself.

Arrow: https://www.deviantart.com/digikat04/art/Custom-SAI-Brush-I-265506547

All texture brushes: https://painttoolsaibrushes.splstc.com/painttool-sai-textures/

For some reason I can't find where I got marble pt. 2 or chalk so here's the png files. (You can convert them to .bmp files) (Hopefully that works!)

Chalk : Marble pt. 2

Overall Process

Before I go over my process I'm going to define some terms I'll be using and what I mean by them:

Flats - base colors

Rendering - Includes shading, lighting, small details, and texturing to define a form

Blending - mixing two separate colors together

Reduction - Once you've made a line/shape, reduction is the act of erasing part of it -> At the bottom of my brushes (in the images up above) you can see a checkered box which makes your brush transparent. I use the erasing brush to Reduce the red circle.

Persistence - How well the brush can create a new shape/color on top of pre-existing colors (If the brush blends a lot on top of other colors it has low persistence)

"Hard" vs "Soft" brushes - How well defined an edge is on a brush

Stabilizer - Turns trembly lines into smooth lines

So, I draw a different way each time. My canvas size is normally between 2500 pixels and 4000. I usually do around 3000 though. In general for my paintings I usually do

A sketch

Flats

Hue Shifts

Lighting/Shadows

Brighter Light/Deeper Shadows (Highlights/Ambient Occlusion)

Smaller Details

Texturing

Post Processing

For my bigger compositions, I make thumbnails. And for my "comic book" style I use lineart and layer modes (like multiply, luminosity)

How I Use Each Brush (+ Examples!)

Sketch

I have 2 sketch brushes. "pencil" and "sketch" For most of my life I have been using the default pencil brush on size 1. But recently I have been using this softer "sketch" brush on size ~20 or so. Either way works, but I find that the "pencil" brush is easier for linework and the "sketch" brush is easier to blend into paintings

"Pencil" : "Sketch" examples

Lineart (opt.)

Nowadays I don't use lineart that often, but if I do it's with my "Softlines" brush. It's great for both very thick and very thin lines. I lower the opacity of my sketch and put lineart on a new layer on top of it

"Softlines" brush examples

Flats

With lineart I seperate each new color with a new layer. For painting I'm now using one color as an underpainting color and working on top of that layer. So I render one thing at a time while working on the same layer.

I lower the opacity of the sketch and create a new layer under my sketch. I use my "pencil" brush to lay out the underpainting color and "blur" for hue shifts. And then I reduce it to the silhouette using my "sketch" brush (This gives a softer outline)

Rendering

This would take way too long to explain every step of how I do it. So I'll explain how I use my brushes in this step.

"Arrow!!!" - I use this brush for laying out intial shapes, big areas of color, shading, lighting. The arrow shape has a point on the end that's really great for triangular shapes. It's not very good at small details because of the texture applied to it.

"Sketch" - I use this brush during the rendering as well. It's great for small details that you want a softer look of. It has a high persistence so it's great for working on the same layer.

"P A I N T" - This is a brush that's good at very many things. It has higher blending than "sketch" or "Arrow!!!" and it's shape is square. Great for blending, general painting, small details, reduction, etc.

"blur" - great for gradients or to smooth something out a lot

"Gaussian" - is a gaussian blur. Great for making things out of focus or fuzzy

"square TEX" - texture brush that has high persistence with some blending

"metal TEX" - texture brush with high blending and a spread shape.

"speckle TEX" - texture brush for kind of a sparkly look. High persistence

"water TEX" - texture brush that works kind of like a glaze. You can use for flair/fun

example

Post-Processing

Typically I use more filters for this. Paint Tool Sai has sliders to change hue, saturation, brightness, contrast, luminosity, and color deepen. So I tend to mess with those. I also add effects like chromatic aberration

The tutorial I follow for chromatic aberration in Paint Tool Sai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thmaephD9Ec&t=169s

I also add particles like dust and other objects.

Finally I use my Gaussian blur to make things out of focus/motion blur

Conclusion

I hope this helps! I feel like I'm at a point in my art journey where I'm good enough to give advice. So hopefully this helps someone out there with their art journey! Obviously I have a long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of where I've come. I remember watching speedpaints and tutorials trying to become better at art. So I kind of want to add to that cycle for artists. :D Have a great day!

#paint tool sai #brushes #art tutorial

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egyptologylessons · 2 years

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Making Offering to Amun-Ra - Rock Inscription at Wadi Hammamat Pharaoh Seti I (1290–1279 BC), 19th Dynasty, is making a offering of papyrus 𓇅𓏤𓆰 “w3ḏ” plants to the state god 𓊹 “nṯr” Amun-Ra. The god is identified by his hieroglyphic title and his double plumed 𓋛 crown. Inscription: Seti I (𓊪𓏏𓎛𓁣𓇌𓌸𓈖) “stḥy mri.n-ptḥ” ‘Seti, Beloved of Ptah’ Menmaatre (𓇳𓏠𓁦) “mn-m3ˁt-rˁ” ‘Enduring is the Maat of Ra’ Amun-Ra 𓇋𓏠𓈖𓇳𓏤𓎟𓇯𓋾𓋆 “ı͗mn-rˁ nb pt ḥk3 w3s.t” ‘Amun-Ra, Lord of the Sky and Ruler of Thebes’ Wadi Hammamat is a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern 𓋁𓃀𓏏𓏭𓈊 “3bty” Desert 𓅱𓂝𓂋𓏏𓈊 “wˁr.t”, about halfway between Al-Qusayr and Qena. It was a major mining region and trade route east from the Nile Valley in ancient times, and three-thousand-years 𓆳𓊪𓏏𓏤𓆾 “rnp.wt 3000” of rock carvings and graffiti make it a major scientific and tourist site today. The wadi contains many carvings and inscriptions dating from before the earliest Egyptian Dynasties to the modern era, including the only painted petroglyph known from the Eastern Desert and drawings of Egyptian 𓂋𓐝𓎀𓀂𓀭𓏪 “rmṯ” reed boats dated to 4000 BCE. 📸 kairoinfo4u - Flickr 𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬𓋹𓎬 @egyptologylessons 𓋹𓊽𓋴𓆖𓎛𓇳𓎛 © 𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁𓊁 #Ancientegypt #ägypten #egyptology #egypte #egitto #埃及 #مصر #egipto #이집트 #wadihammamat #rockcarving #setii #amun #seti #amunra (at Wadi Hammamat) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoINAbSu5LU/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#ancientegypt #ägypten #egyptology #egypte #egitto #埃及 #مصر #egipto #이집트 #wadihammamat #rockcarving #setii #amun #seti #amunra

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squishy-teeth · 3 months

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pt 4000 of me spending like 20 hours on a gay ass oc drawing that only like 2 or 3 people have any context for 💜 i love u Beelzeblade i love u Megatron i love u ocxcanon i love u doomed gay people

bonus no-mask-Beez that i quickly traced from the original drawing just cuz i wanted to see what he'd look like. cover up girl!!!!!!!!

#transformers oc #oc x canon #maccadam #gay gay gay #the horrors #i spent like 23 hours on this my brain is fried

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teastyun · 3 months

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i’m crying because i got a writer’s block in the middle of writing an academic paper with a maximum of 1200 words,, meanwhile i just finished sevika prompt pt. 2 with 4000 words of pure smut?? academic weapon turned into erotica author help

#jules bawls her eyes out

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simp-ly-writes · 6 months

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Suits, Ties, and Thus Spies (pt.5)

Pairing: Spy!Task Force 141 x Handler!Reader

Summary: Will John make it out- will your team arrive in time for the mission? And with some unexpected guests to greet you in it all- they all bring forward memories you did best to hide away.

Warnings:4000~ words, light swearing, blood, highly suggestive scenes and trauma. A/N: are we having a good week? Masterlist | Taglist Request | edited.

Forced into the backseat of a black car you pound back on the door- begging for it to release you yet the sound of tires screeching against the pavement has your head filing back into the seat behind you as you slip to the other side without your seatbelt. You tug the band over your shoulder, snapping it at your waist as you feel the coldness of the glass against your face- watching as the city whips past.

Your heart drops for a second, realizing that you were leaving your car at the agency. A groan escapes you- just another reason to hate the people around you. Samantha was driving you to the airstrip as you looked at her with betrayal. Shaking your head and focusing in on a folder set with more information about your targets set in the seat in front of you. Reaching towards the folder, you slip through the various images, documents, and mission logs. Agent Beetle you had sent ahead of your arrival had already made great progress- tracking down members related to the kidnappers and a series of locations where the princess might be housed currently.

The car turns hastily as you curse out- wishing that you were in your own car about to fly your own plane yet management had to say otherwise after your inability to follow company guidelines… fuckers, is all you could think as yet another turn was taken. Samantha was driving like her ass was on fire and you couldn’t help but take down the divider to check and make sure. Gripping the wall as she sped down the now gravel road, she had a vice grip on the steering wheel, lights on bright as tree branches threatened the paint job.

She takes a quick glance at you through the rear view mirror, shaking her head and eyes filled with tears yet never speaking a word as the car suddenly stops- a private jet awaiting your control as the door opens with an automatic release and you are being thrown out- the keys hitting your head leaving a dull ache. Stumbling up from the ground while dusting off your suit, she boards your luggage onto the plane before giving you a mocking salute. The dirt kisses your face as the tires grind into the earth- the car joining the setting sun in the distance.

Weighing the keys in your hand and looking around- you shrug and roll your shoulders before making your way inside. Much to your surprise, Ghost is already waiting for you inside. His long legs rest in the aisle as he leans back in the chair, absent-midedly staring up at the star-studded ceiling without acknowledging your appearance but based upon the twitch of his boot. He knew you were here.

Giving him a playful wave hello, he nods his head once in acknowledgement before going through his own mission debrief resting on the chair beside him. The black-metal briefcase dazzling in the setting sun's rays. Ducking into the operations space, you ready yourself in the pilot's seat, flicking on the various lights as you warm up the engine. The plane roars to life as you set your headset on- testing communications to receive a very giggly Samantha in reply- trying to lighten the evening mood.

You hear footsteps coming up the aisle as you turn around- expecting to see a skull-face on your own. Soaps and Gaz’s features meet your own with mutual surprise before they tackle you into a hug. Not thinking for a moment you return the gesture before the wheels turn lightly from underneath you all. Cursing out you stomp back on the brakes and turn back with a guilty smile as they laugh in reaction before settling themselves in for the flight.

Your fingers tapped against the dash, there was only so much daylight left and you had to get wheels up in 10. Starting to pick at your nail polish once more- a frantic set of boots come to a fault by your side. You only find a back as you turn to face them as they move to operate the seat beside you. Confusion coats your features- unknowing of who lied on their report to be qualified in operating a plane. John smiles at you yet his eyes speak of unknown horrors that you acknowledge with a small sob escaping from your lips.

A soft smile falls upon your own features, eyes welling over as you extend a hand, silently asking if he was alright. Taking your hand in his own- he offers a light squeeze before dropping it and settling into his own headset. Samantha cheers in both of your ears yet you both play no mind to her excitement. Price moves the microphone closer to his mouth, “Load of shit those trials were- the fuck- trauma they try and instil in you lot.” You can only chuckle out to his crude words breaking your cries as John takes control of the flying gear and starts the take off procedure as you dab off your eyes from the handkerchief of your suit.

“Hello, this is your Captain Daniels and Price speaking, he is readying ourselves for take off. If all passengers could please strap themselves in and pour a drink- we have seven scheduled hours in the air for tonight.” You can distantly here Soap groan out as Gaz ever-so kindly asks him to, “Shut the fuck up.” Shaking your head at this interaction, Price cocks his head over to you- his own smile growing and the prior events of the day being set to the back of the stove.

Clouds paint your peripheral vision as you take control of the flight. Price has fallen asleep beside you as you drift through the sky. Samantha had long fallen asleep at her desk as your mind wandered, wondering where Whitby had been sent, how Charlotte and Handler Jacobs wedding plans were going- she really did try and hide that engagement ring from a spy out of all people. Jason was probably messing around town for the night, celebrating being the only one in the organization who actually worked the nine to five as your external trainees were scheduled for space clearing the next morning.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Simon asks, taking the small seat behind you as he shook Price awake and overtook his seat, taking control of the plane as you rubbed your wrists- sore from the handling. “What are you doing up?” You reply with another question as he slowly turns his head to you. “Couldn’t sleep. I ask again, what's going on?” He pressures, eyes staring through the open airspace ahead of you both.

“Work like any other time,” you reply with a yawn, “S’all I do.” “Well that's shit,” he responds in a blank tone that has you sitting upright. “Not really, I mean, it's a pretty great job minding all the strings attached,” you say, looking at the side of his mask. “But no vacation? No PTO?” he asks, legs shifting below as he revives word from a nearby communications tower to make a turn in response to an emergency flight coming near.

“Nope,” you respond, popping the P sound as you start to close your eyes. “Vacation is drinking after hours and hooking up with whomever will forget about you in the morning.”

“I’m sorry ‘bout that,” Simon responds with sincerity. “I mean… don’t you guys go through the same shit?” you ask, voice starting to become more gruff from the lack of sleep. He is silent for a few moments, picking the words as you open an eye- concern starting to raise as you thought to have crossed a line. Beginning to open your mouth to apologise he responds, “Yes… no. I mean… some of us do have people waiting at home for us… Gaz and Soap have an on and off girl- but at the end of the day, it's a job. You work your hours- get fucking bloody and wash it all off before heading to bed.”

“That's the thing though… about jobs like ours, you never really wash it all out. Just what can’t be seen on the front…” your voice drifts off as you turn in your chair, trying to make yourself comfortable in the upright position. Ghost does not speak further, only humming yet that sound is all you need to understand he knows your words on a personal level. “Why be so personal now, Handler?” Ghost questions, the words slipping as part of him uses your tried physique to gain an answer.

“I could ask the same to you, Agent,” you tease back, “....and maybe I am just doing my job in the end too, using everything I’ve got…” you fall asleep soon after, soft snores exiting your mouth as Ghost turns to look at you once with soft eyes before addressing Samantha's report request. His gruff tones are like honey on your ears, drifting you further into a dreamless abyss.

You are shaken awake as the plane begins to descend. Price had retaken control as you swear out, pausing from asking if he wanted any assistance from the glare he sent towards you. “I let you sleep for a reason,” he responds through the headset as you stretch yourself awake and feel for your water bottle, taking a large drink. He speaks up once more, “we have no fucking clue what we are doing once we are out of the sky.”

“Did they not give you all a report?” you question, body now more respondent. You watch as he shakes his head, the tires scratch under pressure as the plane jumps a handful of times before becoming stagnant on the arstrip. “Had us work to the location of the plane from an unknown location. We had to use Whitby and Charlotte as our handlers to find our way back to you- they said it was comms and finding training and as you can see- we all passed with flying colours.” Rolling your eyes you speak back, “Good to hear my sass is rolling off on you all.”

You listen to him chuckle before locking the plane for any further motions, he helps you up from your seat with a hand as you grace him with a thankful smile- embarrassed from your jelly-like legs. Soap, Simon, and Kyle are all waiting in a convertible, your bags stuffed into the trunk as you all drive into the city, the wind whipping through your hair, the sun beginning to rise against your face as you voice out directions from the passenger's seat.

The private estate sits atop a cliff casting over the sea below. Its deep blue waters invite you into their depths as you lean over the balcony, listening to the waves chase their way up the rock face to only fall back into itself. Light summery pop songs play through the radio as you think about the cold weather back at home as you bask in as much sun you can- praying that you can maintain a tan as a cough sounds from behind you. Pivoting on your heel your eyes go wide to see a barely buttoned linens-shirt in front of your face. The light white material blowing with the breeze as their salmon shorts tease a smile from your lips. “Hello love,” Whitby responds while pulling you into a hug.

“Do you even work anymore?” you question out to the man, “I-mean. You were scheduled to be with the Americans this week- what changed?” “Solved it online, a few late nights of security footage here, a few voice-changed phone calls there and the president didn’t know any better about the corruption boiling underneath her feet.” You shake your head before following in step with the Agent as his arm drapes its way over your shoulder. Leading you towards the gardens with a smirk as the 141 team look towards him with utmost confusion.

Johnny calls from the outdoor shower- already having explored the beaches from down the road ahead of your mission start time. “You do look good in swimwear but why are you here man?” Whitby cocks his head to the side before responding, his hand casting gentle rubs to your side. “I also made a… request-” you shove his side. “Well- erm more of a demand that I refuse to work with any other handler too- perks of being the best,” he boasts as you shove him off of you. His smile dips as he whispers sorry as you roll your eyes and take a bow.

“Glad to know you love me only for work,” you tease- starting to make your way back inside the villa as Whiby darts back over, pulling at your waist as you both fall into an outdoor couch. “You know it's not like that… I mean fuck- I even prop-” you cover his mouth with your hand as he kisses it teasingly. Shaking your hand off with mock disgust, everyone around you stands still and walks closer. “You are engaged?” they ask, worry coursing through their features as they think back to your… quite possibly flirtatious moments Whitby's in the company history that was more than well known throughout the ranks.

“Oh heavens no! Definitely one day but, duty comes first,” You say, hand on Whitby's knee as a light apology yet he already accepted your decision years ago but that did not mean the offer didn’t hang over both of your heads as did everyone else in your life know not to come in between in beside the playful banter your teams were generally known for. Simon huffs out as your mind darts back to the conversations you shared last night, you watch as he walks back inside the house- Soap trailing behind with a towel wrapped around his shoulders. Price sits across from you both as Gaz resumes sketching out the landscape of the hills and orchids just off in the distance.

In the night, you and Whitby settled into a room together. Singing softly to the lyrics coming off your phone. Brushing your teeth and doing your skincare in the mirror, steam from the earlier shower was still present within the room, warming your skin as you leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of his face.

Whitby smiles leaning forwards, slipping his glasses back on while placing his arms at either side of you and lifts you atop the countertop. The cold stone drew goosebumps across your skin as Whitby's light caress from your hand, to your shoulders and resting on your neck as he squeezed lightly, bringing your lips back onto his with a moan. Your hands squeeze at the towel around his waist as you pull back, breathing heavy as your foreheads rest against one another, taking in air as your breathing starts to become more rapid.

You feel his hand cup your cheek, making its way to your hair as he massages your scalp. You hum out softly, eyes closing as Whitby leans forward once more, taking your lower lip between his teeth in a playful bite. You feel the towel drop as he shivers, hands dropping to your thighs in an instance. Your eyes snap back open, gaze starting to look down before you are being lifted and carried into the bedroom- thrown on the bed as he stalks up to the bedside. Going on his hands and knees as he climbs over to you as you playfully back up, racing towards the headboard as he shoves you down- trapping both of your wrists between one of his hands- his legs locked around your waist as you huff out and try to blow the hair out of your face.

Smirking down at you. He takes his glasses back off and sets them on the nightstand before gently brushing the hair out of your face, leaving a featherlight kiss to your temple. “Now do tell me… Handler,” He speaks out to you in a breathy tone as you clench your thighs together. “...what are your commands for me tonight?” he teases.

“Well if you would let me go, maybe I could do a better job at that,” he hums out in contemplation, your breath hitching as he shifts his body weight still hovering above your lips. Your lips start to feel dry in anticipation, “not the answering I was looking for, love.” You roll your eyes before he switches positions, flipping you to face him- his face hovering over your own yet he does not connect his lips to your own.

“Tease,” you groan out, wiggling your legs, trying to escape from underneath him. He lets go of your hands as they trace the muscles of his lower stomach, down to his abs thoughtful yet just before your hands can drift deeper he distracts you with his lips against your neck as your back arches, hands falling to grip at the bedsheets. He whispers to you, “I ask again, what is it you desire tonight?”

“I desire for you both to put some fucking clothes on you horny fucks,” the voice startes you both- bodies going still and blood going cold as Whitby covers your body with his own as he starts to pull a gun from underneath one of your pillows. You crane your head to see over Whitby's shoulder, eyes going wide to see red-hair glowing underneath the moonlight. Their green eyes search your own with distaste before curing up into a smile seeing Whitby's ass.

“Looking truly peachy tonight, Whitby,” Agent Beetle teases as you shove the agent off of you, picking up and slipping on the shirt Beetle throws at you with a whistle. Whitby remains on the bed, face red as he racks his mind for the best way to not embarrass himself further. You open the closet, offering the other agent a pair of pants as he hardly covers himself and makes escape to the bathroom.

“Do I want to know how long you were standing there, Agent?” you press, hands now feeling around the closet for bottoms as the female Agent sits down at the foot of the bed, eyes trailing around the room. “Not too long, Handler of Dick,” she teases further as you press your face into a pair of pants, shaking your head and letting out a silent scream before placing them on. Whitby had yet to return from the bathroom as you both listen to the shower turn on with a raised brown before you show the female agent towards the kitchen for a late cup of tea.

“I have a 87% accuracy rating to where the Princess could potentially be held from intercepting a call,” you nod your head, “2 sugar- one milk, right” “correct.”

“Anything else?” you press. Beetle looks at you, taking a slow sip of their drink, “yes, I managed to speak with them briefly while they were being moved. No signs of serious physical injury and they smiled at the mention of your name- something about their knight in shining armour or maybe that was Whitby…” their voice trails off in contemplation, eyes replaying the conversation. “No, actually it might have been Jacobs- well that part does not matter! What matters right now is why you were about to go down on an Agent who is not supposed to be here, Handler?” they rebuttal as you take a small sip of your own, setting it back down on the counter.

“Can a person not have needs?” you ask as they send you a deadpan look. Your face falls into your hands, groaning out, “Not you too…” “How is this me too?” Beetle questions with a knowing smile. Gossipers- the whole lot… you swear to yourself before picking conversion back up- trying to save what little face you have left.

“I already said no… but that does not mean we both do not love one another. I’ve already told him, multiple times at that to find someone else- to-to move on from me yet he never does and I never do either. I love him, I know that but…” you exhale a deep breath, the floor creaking from down the hall as you both pause. Your shoulders tense before dropping as Whitby places a kiss to your shoulder and steals a sip from your drink. You watch as he does this, maintaining eye contact yet as you peer deeper in- you only see understanding. He has been listening…

He moves away, placing the cup back down before messing through the fridge for a late night snack as you playfully shake your head, Beetle clearing their throat- drawing your attention back to your previous conversation. “But as I was saying, it was one of my final missions before getting promoted and it went tits up. We became swarmed and I was the only agent left on the premises. Aggressors were everywhere, Police were moving up the stairs and I was blocked into a corner- underneath a table. One of them managed to get through my jacket. I strangled them, reaching towards the gun and just as I fired… the bullet continued and hit a civilian. I didn't notice at the time, my body filled with adrenaline and the need to escape yet as I looked back, church bells ringing- I…” you start to quietly sob as Whitby wraps an arm around you for support as you lean back into his embrace. “I killed the groom on what was supposed to be his happiest day, I made it his last and… it's the guilt. Knowing that I took that away from someone that I cannot allow myself to have the same.” You fail to even out your breathing as Whitby begins to glare over your head at Beetle for making you into this state.

“That’s why I can never be anything more with anyone… no matter how much I may want to… I deserve to be in this pain for giving it out to someone undeserving-”

“Daniels-” Beetle speaks out softly as you shake your head. “It's s'alright agent,” you say while blowing your nose. “We have a princess that I can hopefully save the next day and a man I can fall into bed with later that night and I am okay with that… as long as he is.” you say, hands now tracing patterns into his arm as he leans down, pressing a kiss to your forehead as his arms tighten around your form a bit more snuggly.

“As long as I’m with you darling, in any way,” Whitby states. “Let's go back to bed now, Beetle, there is a room across from ours, I think we have awakened the rest of the house- best we all get some good rest.” You look down the hall, seeing the various lights lit underneath the doors before holding Beetle's hand gently- giving it a squeeze and dropping it. Both watching as she turns into her room as you both do the same.

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and-claudia · 1 year

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Against All Odds pt.6 (Joel Miller x fem! reader)

Warnings: more angst

word count: 4000+ (sorry this one wasn't as long, this ep is more about Bill and Frank so there wasn't a whole lot to work with and I wasn't sure what to add either)

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gif not mine

We walked along in a deafening silence for about two hours, no one daring to say anything. We stopped to eat, but none of us seemed to actually have an appetite. It wasn’t until after our short break that someone finally spoke up.

“So how much further do we have to go?” Ellie asked.

“We’ll try to go another hour then finish the trip tomorrow.” Joel said, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

“Get to the river and stay there for the night?” I asked and he only nodded.

He began walking without another word leaving me and Ellie to follow him. Once again, we were thrown into silence. We made it to a clearing beside the river as the sun began to set, making the shadows of the trees around cast us into darkness.

“We’ll stay here.” Joel declared.

“There’s no Infected here, is there?”

“No.” I tried to reassure the younger girl.

“Sometimes.” Joel said gruffly, contradicting what I had just told her.

“Rarely. Joel has only ever come across one way out here. We’re ten miles from the outskirts of the city. We will be safe, I promise. Joel and I will switch off keeping watch throughout the night.” I said.

“I’ll keep watch.” Joel said, leaning against a tree with his back to us.

I walked over to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, “Joel, you need to get some rest. You stayed up last night on watch. I can help watch.”

“No, Tess and I kept watch.” He snapped as he corrected me.

I sighed, “Joel, I know you’re hurting, but please don’t take it out on me. I had nothing to do with that. I’m sorry, I really am but we need to keep going. That’s what she wanted.”

“You’ve realized when she got bitten, don’t you?” He asked, looking forward still.

“No…” I hadn’t really thought too much about it.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out this whole time and I think I got it. The only time it could have happened was in that damn museum. And it got me thinkin’... maybe if I wasn’t so focussed on protecting you, then maybe we wouldn’t have gotten separated. Maybe that clicker wouldn’t have gotten her.”

I dropped my hand, “You- You’re not seriously trying to blame me for Tess getting bitten? Are you?”

He didn’t answer my question just turned around and squatted down to get his canteen.

“I am going to go fill my canteen. You and Ellie should probably do so soon or you’ll have to wait until the morning.” He said as I stood there stunned.

After he walked off I walked over to where Ellie was sitting and sat down near her.

“Dude, are you okay?”

I only raised an eyebrow in response to her.

“You look pale… oh please tell me you’re not gonna hurl again.”

I shook my head.

“Wait, what were you two talking about?” She asked realizing this had something to do with the conversation I just had with Joel.

“He’s blaming me.” I said quietly.

“For?” She asked clearly confused.

“Tess.”

“How?! It’s not like you’re the Infected who bit her.”

I just shrugged.

“Do you need to refill your water or can you wait till morning?” I asked wanting to change the subject.

“I can wait.”

I nodded, “Get some rest, we’ll get you to Bill and Franks tomorrow.”

What I didn’t mention though was that I had just made the decision to stay with them as well and let Joel go back to Boston alone.

After a while of trying to find a semi-comfortable, or more so tolerable, position to sleep against the tree I was leaning against I fell asleep. Despite what he had said earlier I had set a two-hour timer on my watch and had gotten up when it started going off, ready to take over watching out for our little group. But when I offered, Joel gave no answer and after a few attempts, I just gave up and walked back over to my spot to go back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, it was just after dawn and Joel was nowhere to be seen. I panicked for a second thinking he just left us, but I knew he would never actually do that, no matter how pissed off he was with me. I figured he probably went off somewhere to go to the bathroom or something so I decided to be productive and go ahead and refill our waters down at the river. I grabbed all three of our canteens and began to walk down to where the water was deeper so I wouldn’t get dirt in them.

When I got there I was surprised to find Joel there. I didn’t say a word or get too close. My plan was to refill the waters and that is what I was going to do.

“You’re up early.” Joel commented upon seeing me.

I only hummed in response.

“Did morning sickness wake you up?” He asked.

“Nope. I feel fine, Joel. Just refilling the water.” I said, closing one of them and grabbing the next.

“Let me get the last one.” He said reaching for it.

“I got it. I don’t need your help.” I snapped.

“Is the girl awake?” He asked after sighing.

“Ellie,” I emphasized her name, “is still asleep.”

He just sighed again before standing up and walking back to where Ellie was at. I finished up filling the last of the canteens before collecting them all and heading back as well.

3rd person PoV

Joel got back to where Ellie was now sitting against a tree, awake. He didn’t say anything to her just went over to his bag to grab a small piece of jerky to eat before they left for Bill and Franks.

“Do you want your jacket back?” Ellie asked, Joel had given it to her to cover up last night.

He shook his “no” before tossing her the pouch of jerky for her to take a piece as well.

“It’s not her fault.” Ellie said after a few beats of silence.

Joel gave her a weird look.

“Yn, she told me you blamed her for what happened to Tess. You can’t blame her for that. I don’t what exactly you two have going on, but you need to figure it out, and that means you need to realize that she didn’t get Tess killed, I get that you’re hurt but you can’t let that keep you from what you know you gotta do. I mean come on, man she’s having a baby, don’t you want to be there for her? For your kid?”

“You’re right, you don’t know what we have goin’ on, so don’t pretend to.” Joel said as he threw his backpack onto his back.

By the time Yn got back the other two had already gotten ready to go.

Yn’s PoV

“You ready for a five-hour hike?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t exactly have a choice do I?” I joked as I handed her her water.

“Let’s get going.” Joel said, taking his from me as well.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Ellie finally broke the silence we had been walking in since we left.

“I thought you said there weren’t any infected out here?” She asked.

“Rarely, why?” I answered her.

“What is he looking out for then?” She asked, referring to Joel.

“People.” He answered for me.

“Oh,” The younger girl nodded, “Are Bill and Frank nice guys?”

I could tell she was just as tired of the silence as I was.

“Frank is.” Joel replied causing me to crack a small smile to myself.

“How’d you get that scar on your head?”

That question made me cringe as I waited to see what Joel would answer. But when he gave no response, Ellie decided to press the matter.

“What? Is it something lame? Did you like fall down the stairs or something?”

“I didn’t fall down any stairs.” Joel snapped.

But that didn’t stop Ellie, “Okay, so what then?... ew don’t tell me y’all were doing some weird sex thing and it went totally wrong.” She said, cringing.

“It wasn’t a sex thing.” I said to her.

“Okay, well if you won’t tell me, I’m sure I can get Yn to. She clearly knows.” Ellied said.

Joel sighed, “Fine, someone shot at me and missed.” He said, which wasn’t a total lie.

“See, that’s cool. You shoot back?” Ellie asked.

“Yeah.”

“You get him?”

“No, I missed too. It happens more often than you think.” Joel said.

At this point, I reached up and gently grabbed Ellie to pull her back in step with me so she wouldn’t ask any more about what had happened.

We continued to walk along the path until we came to an old convenient store gas station on the side of the road. I remembered the palace. It was used to stash supplies on runs.

“Wait here. I gotta grab some stuff I stashed.” Joel said, walking closer to the entrance.

Neither Ellie nor I listened and continued to follow him.

“Why do you have stuff stashed here?” Ellie asked Joel.

“You ask a lot of goddamn questions.” Joel grumbled.

“Yes, yes I do.” Ellied replied causing me to bite back a laugh, “But you didn’t answer the question.”

“We leave supplies on routes so if we’re running low on something, we can-” I began explaining but was cut off.

“No way!” The younger girl exclaimed.

I turned to see what has caught her eye. It was a Mortal Kombat arcade game.

“You ever play this one?” She asked as she messed around with joysticks and buttons on it.

“I never did, but my brothers would sometimes.” I said, stepping up beside her.

“I had a friend who knew everything about this game.” She said.

“Really?”

“Yeah! There’s this one character, Mileena, who takes off her mask and she has monster teeth and then she swallows you whole and barfs out your bones!” She exclaimed.

“Well, that’s a lovely mental image.” I teased before turning around to see what Joel was getting into.

“Do you remember where you put it last time?” I asked genuinely since he seemed a bit confused.

“Yes, give me a minute. I’m just zeroing in on it. It’s been a while.” He said.

I putmy hands up in surrender.

“Well then while you zero in on it, Ellie and are gonna look around.” I said.

“It’s all been picked over already. You know that.” He said.

“You never know.” I said as me and Ellie began to look around.

We came up to an open doorway and she hesitated before looking up at me.

“You think there’s anything bad in there?” She asked.

“Not besides grumpy butt behind us.” I said referring to Joel and his attitude.

That made her laugh before she walked through. We walked into a smaller room that just had more debris on the ground. Ellie kicked a piece of cardboard out of the way to reveal a hatch on the ground. We both eyed each other before squatting down to open it.

We got it open but before we could investigate Joel was calling out to us.

“You two good?”

“Yeah!”

“We’re fine!”

We yelled back. Then we turned back to the opening we had just found. It was pitch black and we couldn’t see anything inside of it.

“How deep do you think it is?” She asked.

I shrugged before grabbing a piece of debris and dropping it in. It quickly hit the ground so it wasn’t too deep.

“I’m going to go down there.” Ellie said, already taking off her bag.

“No, you’re not. I’ll go. You stay here.”

“You have precious cargo. I’ll go. Look I’ll flip that trash can over and give myself an escape route.” She said.

“Joel is going to be pissed if I let you go.” I said.

“Then you didn’t let me. I bluntly ignored you and went anyways. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Before I could react she had jumped down into the floor. It was only about a minute later I heard the gasps of an infected.

“Ellie, get out now.” I said quietly but loud enough for her to hear.

“It’s stuck. It’s fine.”

“I don’t care, get the fuck back up here.” I said sternly but she ignored me.

By the time I was able to stand up, drop my bag, get my gun ready, and jump down, Ellie was already crouching in front of it. Sure enough the infected was stuck under rubble. I watched as Ellie stabbed it in the head with her knife.

“Okay, if you’re done playing with that thing, can we go? Joel is going to freak if he finds out you got that close to one.” I said.

She sighed and stood up before walking back over to me. I could hear Joel calling our names as we climbed out using the trashcan. Ellie went first and just as I climbed out Joel stepped into the doorway of the small room.

“What the hell were you two doing down there?” He asked.

“Looking.” I said, before standing up and grabbing my bag.

“Picked over, my ass.” Ellie said as she stepped passed Joel, proudly showing off the box of tampons she had managed to find down there.

“You find the stash?” I asked.

He nodded, “Left the rifle there too. It’s almost out of ammo and I don’t think they’ll have any for it. Practically useless now.” He said.

I nodded.

Then without another word, he turned around to walk out. I followed behind him. Soon we were walking again. The silence took over.

There wasn’t really much to see this far from a QZ. It was now mainly just land. There was an occasional abandoned car or building but other than that it was just nature. It was nice to listen to, but it was also boring. The last time I had walked through here Joel and I were talking the whole time practically now he had barely said anything to me the whole time since we left the QZ.

Up ahead there was a pretty big hill, I remembered it from last time. There was a plane crashed on top of it. I didn’t particularly like looking at it. Although you couldn’t see anything, you just knew everyone died on that plane. It was eerie to see it.

“You ever fly in one of those?” Ellie asked.

“I never did, no.” I said.

“A few times.” Joel said.

“So lucky.” Ellie said in awe.

“Didn’t feel like it at the time. Get shoved into a little seat, pay $12 bucks for a sandwich.” He said.

“Dude, you got to go up in the sky.” Ellie said, cutting him off.

I had to admit that she was right. It was pretty cool. You never see planes like that flying around anywhere anymore.

“Yeah, well so did they.” Joel said, nodding to the crash, before truing and walking down the path.

“Way to be an ass about it.” I mumbled.

As we continued walking, Ellie continued to ask questions. I answered when I could and listened when Joel would speak.

“So, everything came crashing down in a single day?” The young girl asked.

“Pretty much.”

“Basically.”

Joel and I said at the same time.

“How? I mean no one was infected with Cordyceps, everybody’s fine, eating in restaurants and flying in planes. And then all at once? How did it even start? You have to get bit to be infected, then who bit the first person? Was it a monkey? I bet it was a monkey.”

Her last comment made me laugh a little.

“It wasn’t a monkey. I thought you went to school.” Joel said

“FEDRA school. They don’t teach us how their shitty government failed to prevent a pandemic.” She explained.

“To answer your question, no really knows. There are theories but no one knows with 100% certainty that it came from this or that.” I explained.

“The best guess is that the Cordyceps mutated,” Joel began, “Then some of it got into the food supply. Probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere, all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal,... pancake mix…”

I caught the way his face dropped at the mention of that last one.

“You eat enough of it, it’ll get you infected. So the tainted food all hits the store shelves, around the same time Thursday. People bought it, ate some Thursday night or Friday morning. Day goes on… they started to get sick. Afternoon, evening, they got worse. Then they started bitin’.”

“By that night, everything had fallen to shit.” I added as the memories came flooding back.

Joel nodded before continuing, “Friday night, September 26th, 2003. By Monday everything was gone.”

I wiped the few tears that had slipped out off my cheeks as we continued to walk.

“Makes a lot more sense than monkeys, I guess…” Ellied said, clearly unsure of what to say to all the information she just received.

We continued to walk and I knew what was coming up.

“We’ll cut across the woods here.” Joel said painting to the tree line.

“Why? Isn’t the road easier?” Ellied questioned.

“Yeah, it’s just… there’s stuff up there you shouldn’t see.” Joel said.

“Well, now I have to see.” She countered.

“I don’t want you to.”

“Too bad let’s go.” She said walking out ahead of us.

“Ellie!” Joel called to get her to stop.

“Joel, just let her. She’ll have to learn at some point.” I said gently grabbing his arm only for him to pull it away from me as he followed Ellie down the path.

She was a few yards ahead of us as we walked along quietly. I kept my eyes glued straight ahead not wanting to see what was coming up beside us.

“Well, whatever it is, I think it’s gone!” Ellied called back to us. She stopped short and turned to her side to see what was in the ditch there. The pit was filled with human bones. Ellie turned to us for answers.

“About a week after Outbreak Day, soldiers went through the country sides, evacuated small towns. Told you you were goin’ to a QZ and you were… if there was room. If there wasn’t.”

This time I was the one to walk away without a word. I walked down the path trying to get away from the sight before us. Although I wasn’t from a super small town, my town wasn’t huge. I couldn’t help but think about if we hadn’t of ran that night would me and my family met the same fate as all of them.

The rest of the walk was spent lost in my own thoughts. Finally, what snapped me out of it was seeing the fence to Bill and Frank’s appear in the distance. I smiled knowing I would be able to sit down and rest my feet soon. When we got to the gate, Joel punched in the code and it unlocked for us. We walked down the road and up to their house. The first thing I noticed was the flowers out front were wilting, Frank would never let that happen.

It was quiet… too quiet. Joel called out both of their names but there was no reply. My heart began to race.

“Wait here Ellie.” I said as Joel and I both went to look for them.

As we walked around I knew what was going on. There was a thick layer of dust covering everything, food in the kitchen was rotting, their garden was being overrun with weeds.

“Joel…” I said, voice cracking.

He turned to me and shook his head, “No. They are here somewhere. Let’s just check their room.” He said, stepping away to try their bedroom door. It was locked.

“Joel… look around, they’re not here. They haven’t been for a while.” Saying it out loud made my heart break.

Before any of us could say anything we heard something at the front of the house. We both rushed up there to find Ellie sitting at a chair reading a letter.

“It’s from Bill.” She said, grabbing the envelope and reading off who it was addressed to, “To whomever… but probably Joel.”

Joel took the letter and scanned over it. I watched anxiously as Joel read the letter. His face was unreadable. He didn’t say a word when he was finished, he just held it out for me to take.

My eyes scanned over the words over and over as if they would somehow magically change. They didn’t. Bill and Frank were gone. I let that set in and read the rest of the letter. The was a “P.S.” at the very bottom.

“I know you know where the keys to my truck are. Take it.”

I laughed sadly as I read it causing Joel to give me a weird look.

“He wants us to take the truck.” I said showing him what I was talking about in the letter.

I saw the faintest of smiles appear on his face. But just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, and so was he. He turned on his heel and walked out of the house. I sighed and dropped my head.

“Hey, why don’t I walk you down to the old shops, there might be some salvageable clothes down there. We can grab some, bring them here, wash them, take a shower and get cleaned up before Joel and I figure out the next move.”

“Yeah, sure.” Ellie said.

“Alright, come on.” I said as I stood.

We walked out of the house and I could see Joel just standing at the edge of the yard, thinking. I let him be. He needed time to process, the least I could do was give that to him. It didn’t take long to get down there. Frank had fixed them up pretty damn well and there was actually a decent amount of stuff left behind. I told Ellie to pick out two sets of clothes to bring with us as I did the same. I tried to find leggings that would stretch hopefully once I began showing as well as shirts that would be big on me. Hopefully, we’d be done traveling before it got too bitter cold out. I also grabbed a handful of clothes for Joel to look through as well.

“You were gonna stay too, weren’t you?” Ellie asked, suddenly appearing beside me causing me to jump slightly.

I sighed, “Yeah. For the baby. It would’ve just been easier.” I admitted.

She nodded, “I think he’ll come around eventually.”

I gave her a grateful smile, “Are you ready to head back?” I asked.

“Almost, I wanted to show you something I found, just in case you wanted any of it. Come on.” She said, turning and walking away to a different area.

She led me over to a cardboard box. I gave her a weird look but opened it. Inside there little baby onesies. I felt my eyes begin to water a little. This was really happening, I was going to have a baby.

“Shit, you okay?” Ellie asked clearly worried she had done something to upset me.

“Yeah, I’m fine… it’s just kinda hitting me that I am having a baby… like there’s going to be a small human here in a few months… that’s insane.” I laughed, “You pick out 3, I’ll pick out 3, they’re small enough to fold down pretty small in my bag.” I said.

Ellie nodded excitedly. We both stuck to fairly neutral ones. Once we had those we gathered up everything and walked back to the house. When we got there Joel was sitting at the table, letter in one hand and a glass of some type of alcohol on the table beside him.

“What’s all that?” He asked upon seeing our small haul.

“Extra clothes. I am going to wash them, then I figured we could shower, regroup and figure out our game plan.” I said.

“Sure.” He gruffed, reaching for the glass.

“Let me go start these, then I’ll show you where the bathroom is.” I said to Ellie.

Once Ellie was in the shower I went back to where Joel was.

“I grabbed a few things that I thought might fit you as well.” I said as I took a seat beside him.

He nodded.

“What do we do with the kid now?” Joel asked.

“We take her with us.”

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