#tlou2 workbench

[abbysthighs]

Her grip is almost as strong as mine…

[stargazingellie]

lazarus is risen

chapter one: prologue

hiii :)

i'm writing something on ao3 and wanted to post it on here too, so here's the first installment!! (teehee)

here's a summary:

After deciding to let Abby live, Ellie has returned to Jackson. But given everything she's lost, it no longer feels like home. She's sad, she's confused, and above all else, she is so, so very lonely. So when a group of strangers shows up and offers her a second chance, she might just take them up on that.

Ellie must decide between staying in Jackson – and living with the ghosts of her past – or leaving in search of new meaning. Whatever she decides, her choice will have far-reaching consequences – not just for herself, or for Jackson, but for all of humanity.

Or:

Ellie saves the world, maybe?

(ellie williams x reader, post-tlou2, useless lesbians, slow burn, cross country road trip, lots of references to greek mythology, etc.)

Prologue: A separate introductory section of a literary or musical work.

The clock on the wall read 10:49 p.m. – well outside the bounds of typical working hours, even for the lab’s most dedicated personnel. Fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling of the large room emitted a low hum and sent rays of unnaturally harsh light spilling over empty  workbenches, abandoned petri dishes, and one single, solitary figure hunched over a microscope.

He adjusted his round, wire-rimmed glasses and fiddled with the magnification lenses. As he did so, he took meticulous notes in a well-worn binder, from whose edges years’ worth of handwritten, detailed data threatened to spill. Lost in his observation, a sudden burst of static from his walkie-talkie jolted him back to reality.

“This is Red Team 1 to Dr. Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds, come in.”

Frantically, the man finished what he was writing, set down his pencil, and responded, “Go for Reynolds.”

“Sir, there was an incident in Quadrant 3. Daniels is compromised. We’re bringing him in now. E.T.A. 7 minutes, over.”

The man quickly began packing up the binder, taking special care to keep all of the papers neat and in order. “Copy that. Bring him to the same operating room as last time, over.”

“Copy that. Over and out.”

The man packed his belongings into a leather satchel and hurried out of the quiet laboratory. Rushing up stairs and around corners, he arrived at the operating room and began setting up the necessary equipment as he struggled to catch his breath. This was so much easier when I was young, he thought to himself. Just as he positioned the final syringes, two men supporting a third between them burst through the heavy double doors with a loud bang.

Familiar with the routine, the pair lay the patient on the table as each secured a wrist and ankle cuff. The patient, whose metal nameplate read Daniels, did not resist.

Dr. Reynolds hastily pulled on gloves as he stepped beside the table to speak with the patient.

“I’m sorry this happened to you, Daniels. You’ve been of great service to our cause. I just want to make sure – you still want to go through with this? We can just end it now if you’ve changed your mind.”

Daniels gazed back at the doctor, beads of sweat already beginning to form on his pale forehead. “Yes,” he nodded. “I still want to. I’ve only ever wanted to help, in any way I can. I hope it works for you this time, and if not, well, maybe you’ll still get some useful data out of it.” He gave a weak smile and blinked back tears, as if trying to convince himself of his own statement.

Dr. Reynolds placed a gentle hand on the man’s shoulder. “I hope so too. I really do.”

Turning away, the doctor picked up the first of several syringes he had placed in two neat, even rows on the operating tray. One row was full of a milky liquid, while the other row of syringes lay completely empty. Addressing the two burly men who had brought Daniels in, Dr. Reynolds asked, “Where?”

“Stomach, sir,” one replied.

The doctor turned back to Daniels and lifted the hem of his blood-soaked shirt, revealing a ring of teeth marks on his lower abdomen. He inserted the needle into the center of the bite and injected the contents of the first syringe. Looking at his watch, he waited thirty seconds, then used an empty syringe to take a blood sample from the side of Daniels’ neck. Three more minutes of waiting to allow for further incubation. Inject at the site of infection. Another thirty seconds. Take a sample. He repeated the sequence until all syringes had been injected or contained a cerebral blood sample, labeled with small, neat handwriting.

Addressing Daniels directly, Dr Reynolds said, “Okay, that’s the last of them. I know you’ve seen this process happen to others before, but I’ll remind you of what to expect. It’s just a waiting game now, and if you start to show symptoms, it should be within the next few hours. If the treatment works – and I do hope it does – you should remain in control of your body. If not, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He gave Daniels a comforting smile, a final squeeze on the shoulder, and gathered up the blood samples. “Keep me updated with any changes,” he said to the guards, and hurried back down to the lab.

Once he reached the lab, Dr. Reynolds’ practiced hands created slides of the infected blood in a matter of seconds. He pulled out his binder of notes and began observing the samples under the microscope.

“Multicellular filamentous fungi present in all samples,” he muttered to himself as he excitedly recorded his observations. “But antifungal concoction seems to have made a small yet noticeable effect on subsequent samples.”

He continued to record his data until, about half an hour later, his walkie-talkie sprang to life again.

“Red Team 1 to Reynolds. Reynolds come in.”

Fearing (or rather, knowing) the worst, the doctor picked up the radio. “Go for Reynolds.”

“Daniels has progressed. You should come back up, over.”

Dr. Reynolds sat back in his chair and let out a defeated sigh. He wrote in his notes: Blood samples seem to indicate initial success, but subject still presents as symptomatic.

Back in the operating room, he didn’t need a microscope to know the treatment wasn’t strong enough. Daniels was rapidly declining; his entire body was covered in a sheen of sweat and, despite the strong cuffs, his right hand was twitching erratically. 

The doctor crossed the room to the operating table and gazed sadly down at his patient. 

“Hey Doc.” Daniels smiled weakly as his eye twitched. “Not in the cards for me, huh?”

Dr. Reynolds cleared his throat. “Well, as a positive, it looks like the treatment had some initial progress at the cellular level, but at the organismal level… we’re not quite there yet. I can give you a sedative to make this part more comfortable. Would you like that?”

Daniels stoically shook his head. “No, save it for someone who can put it to better use.”

The doctor gave a soft, sad, chuckle. “Always the valiant one, Daniels. Good man.” Turning to the two remaining members of Red Team 1, Dr. Reynolds said, “Please escort him to the Waiting Rooms.” The men gave a quick nod and wheeled the table back through the heavy double doors. Dr. Reynolds watched as they disappeared around a corner. Briefly losing himself in thought, his ponderings were once again interrupted by a call on his radio.

“Base to Dr. Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds come in.”

The doctor furrowed his brow. Base? They never call this late. Their usual administrative updates were never urgent enough to warrant a late-night page.

In his confusion, he managed to get out, “Uh, yes, go for Reynolds.”

“Doctor, report to headquarters ASAP. There’s someone here who needs to speak with you. It’s…  something you’ll want to hear, over.”

Taken aback by the strangeness of the request, the doctor simply replied, “Copy that, I’ll be there in ten, over.”

When he arrived at headquarters, he was quickly ushered into a small conference room. His colleagues sat on one side of the long wooden table, facing four armed guards. The researchers were all in various states of disarray, suggesting they had not been expecting this meeting either. Dr. Reynolds’ attention fell on the one person in the room he did not recognize; on the other side of the table sat a dirty, tired-looking woman whose cuffed hands lay flat on the table in front of her. 

Dr. Reynolds took the empty seat opposite the stranger and asked, “What’s this all about?”

To his left sat Dr. Martha Simmons, one of the organization’s lead mycelium specialists with whom he regularly collaborated. “She showed up at the wall. Insisted she speak with all of us. Wouldn’t talk until you got here.”

One of the guards spoke up. “We found this on her.” He tossed a knife bearing a clearly recognizable Firefly insignia on the table. “Usually we wouldn’t bring one of her kind straight to HQ, but she insisted she had information critical to your research. Seemed pretty adamant about it.”

Dr. Reynolds thought for a moment, then, glancing briefly at his colleagues, addressed the stranger. “Well, I’m sure we’re all interested as to what information you might have. Please, go ahead.” He sat back in his chair and gestured for the woman to speak.

A string of words fell out of her as if they’d been rehearsed many times before. “My name is Arielle. I’m from the Boston QZ. I’m part of the Fireflies – well, was – I know you guys don’t take kindly to us. But most of us are gone now. FEDRA and other groups and all that. I left the QZ when it started to get bad – well, it was always bad, but, you know, bad bad.” 

She realized she was rambling and cleared her throat. “Anyway… I headed south, hoping to find somewhere better. Tall order, I know. But the farther I went, the more I heard about some researchers still trying to fight this thing. Like, real scientists – not just wannabe, half-trained doctors like we had. Only these scientists hadn’t been having much success. People are saying you’ve been trying to come up with some kind of treatment from infected subjects or something.” 

She held her hands up as if to say, No judgment. “I mean, I don’t know the first thing about mushrooms, so I’m sure you’re doing everything you can. But I figured, if a treatment isn’t working when it’s made from people where the fungus thing, like, completely takes over, then… what if it was made from someone where that didn’t happen?”

She looked expectantly at the scientists in front of her, as if she thought some collective moment of realization would ensue.

“Ma’am,” Dr. Reynolds started. “What you’re suggesting… It's a nice thought, but we as humans have never dealt with this particular mutation of this particular kind of microbe before. There’s no reason to believe that someone would be… or even could be…” Dr. Reynolds trailed off and threw his hands up in defeat, unsure of how to best let this woman know she was living in a land of delusion.

“No, no, listen to me,” she insisted. “I’m not – I’m not crazy. Listen, I have every reason to believe it. Seeing is believing, right? Well, I’ve seen it. With my own eyes. A couple years ago, there was this girl. She was bitten, but nothing happened. It just scabbed over. I’m telling you, I didn’t believe it at first either. But it’s real. She’s real.”

Dr. Reynolds sat forward with interest. Dr. Simmons shook her head in disbelief. “Ma’am, if that’s true, then you’re suggesting… what, exactly?”Arielle, visibly frustrated with the lack of immediate understanding, pressed her palms together in front of her chest and took a deep breath to collect herself. “I am… suggesting that this girl is immune. And I am telling you that I know where to look for her.”

[whxtedreams]

My The Last of Us Collection

Below is a collection of my collection of the last of us. I have also listed below where I bought all my collectables. I will add the link if the product is still available (eg. can’t list an ebay link since there was only one to buy)

I have decorated and made this little space my own and i’m still in the process of decorating, so please be kind.

Flora x

Before

During

Now

(waiting for products to arrive)

List of Collectables

Ellie & Joel Statue - EBGames Australia

Firefly Dog Tag & Ellie's Pun Book - Etsy

My book edition is Post Outbreak

The Firefly dog tag is fully customisable; mine has my real name and D.O.B, so it will not show the other side.

Joel's Mug - Etsy

My edition is The Mug and Coaster pack.

Joel's tape for Ellie (Working) - Etsy

My edition is the one with the Audio and it makes me cry. It's a 10-minute conversation between Joel and Ellie on her birthday.

Ellie Art - Etsy

artist is taking a break and is not selling anything at the moment

American Dreams - Dymocks

or pretty much any major book store

The Games

PS3 Joel Rare Edition - eBay

TLOU2 Speical Edition

I got this on day one release; I assume you can get this on eBay?? Came with The art book, small box and collector game case

PS4 & PS5 Part1 games can be found at pretty much any game store

The floor and wallpaper

Found the prints on Etsy, can easily just print photos but I wanted high quality.

For some reason, the purchases didn't save to my purchase list on Etsy, but just search:

Vintage wallpaper

brick wallpaper

dollhouse flooring

I drenched the floorboards with a spray bottle in a mix of water, cornflour and a mix of red, burgundy and rust food colourings. (I am a cake decorator, so I have these colours on hand, surprisingly) The cornflour gave the floor a dusty old look. I am also waiting on artificial moss to cover the floors and walls, too!)

I also drew the firefly symbol, so that's why it's messy.

Things I'm waiting on

Mini workbench for Joel, mini coffee thermos, mini guitar, Joel's watch, photo frames for Joel's shelf, mini butterflies, mini fairy lights, The last of us Window, mini playing cards to scatter, victorian rug (that i will distress), mini baseball bat. (I swear I looked at a golf club for ten minutes for the lol but just couldn't) mini shotgun

Special Mention

My Joel Shirt lol. - Etsy

I wanted the dark chocolate one but they were sold out when I got it for Christmas, I have the black version

(I am wearing shorts, I swear) (I also have a Mandalorian version with Pedro)

So, yeah... That's my work-in-progress collection. I also have a Mandalorian collection and I might make a post about that too later.

[rotisseries]

this is so not related to tlou2 plot but oh my god I'm fascinated by the workbench they actually SHOW the modifications being made??? insane

ajsjfjfjsjfgd yeah

[daincrediblegg]

You ever accidentally move on after having fully explored an area and... feel the icy hand of death upon you???

[migstheruler]

The LASt of US 2

TLDR: Dark Uncharted aka Last of US+ Kill Bill + fallout 4 weapons crafting = This rhomping good time. 

I played The LAst of Us on PS3 and if I recall correctly, it was the last game on the ps3 I played/ beat before I got my hands on my PS4. I remember playing into the wee hours of the sunday morning in shock and awe at what had just transpired. 

Sony’s state of play May 27, 2020, gave us a nice slice of what we can expect for the last of us 2 (TLOU2). 

In this piece, I do not talk about any of the online leaks and have done my best to avoid any information found on the internet about this upcoming game. 

Several years later........

This is going to be a dark story.  The image above is pretty haunting and indicative of the tone set forth.  

Traversing:

Open worldish + horseback riding, taking my back to that ole town road. 

The director stated, there are open world sections of the game where you can explore the ruins of Seattle for optional quests and items to aid Ellie in her quest. Ellie can traverse via Horseback, boat or en 11 the vast environments of Seattle. 

When questing, Ellie has new traversal options available to her from climbing, jumping, and surveying to alter, change, or even avoid engagements with her enemies. Ellie can now swim, something  she could not do in part one. 

“Revenge is a dish best served cold” 

The Enemies:

the WLF: One faction of enemies you will face in TLOU2. The second faction of human enemies you will face are the Scars. Sadly, I didn’t get a good image of the SCArs based on the video. However, based on the video it seems like both factions are at war against one another. 

Of course, clickers and more (below) are coming back, and apparently, there are new versions we have yet to see!!

Give me those sweet upgrades babi, coupled with a workbench system where you can customize your weapons should be great of gamers like myself that like to explore and search every nook and cranny for items. (Below) 

Two things from the image above:

1. PS Vita making a cameo. 

2. The descendant was playing Hotline Miami which was pretty cool touch. (I actually played Hotline Miami on my PS Vita as well) 

Ellie acts as a pretty stealthy killer, who has been tarnished by the realities of her surroundings. She kills pretty indiscriminately and is pretty nimble in the battlefield, able to dodge and weave oncoming enemy attacks only to riposte with a machete. 

Sneaking is going to be a big part of the game given Ellie’s size. She can choose to sneakily pick off her enemies one by one or use her environment to decimate her enemies.  

Sidenote: you can’t hear it but Ice Cube’s “It was a Good Day” playing in the background as Ellie is prowling her target is pretty poetic given she may or may not be on a path to murder this person. 

TBT to when Joel threw a monkey wrench into everything..even though I can’t say I would of acted any differently. 

Releases on June 19, 2020. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=eML5icfq5VM&feature=emb_logo

[grimsdottir]

To those who played TLOU2: You know that workbench in the abandoned apartments? You know the one that is an obvious trap. Did you fall for it?? Let me know if you did so I can laugh at you. 

[collinnmckinley]

TLOU2 review. *SPOILERS DUH*

DISCLAIMER: These are my opinions and do not have to cross with anyone's. Everyone with their own and I respect them, I hope you do with mine. I will try to keep it short even though the thoughts will be all over the place and I might go off tangents sometimes. Also SPOILERS!!

This game had me go through a lot mentally, I cried, I laughed, I was angry, but mostly I was upset a lot of the time. And I will explain why later on. 

The Last of Us part II was one of the most, if not THE most, anticipated game for me. And I was over the moon when my best friend got it for me. I was happy that I would get to see and play as my favorite characters. But that happiness didn’t last long as the story progressed. But before I delve into the story and talk about the cons I want to talk about the goods and pros of the game.

I wanna start with the graphics, and the visuals of the game. This game has one of the most beautiful visuals and environment details I've seen in a current gen console. Also me having PS4 slim and saying this doesn’t do justice, imagine the game in PS4 Pro with maximum settings. The character models were amazingly crafted, I can’t say this enough but just look how amazing Joel looks here;

Also Maria, Tommy, Ellie, they all looked amazing! God help me because I still can’t get over how beautiful and amazing they all look. And I will keep saying amazing because it is true.

The mocap and voice acting; it is only fair to say that the actors did a perfect job to bring these characters to life and I respect them so much for it, and the animation that came with it was just fantastic. I applaud the animation team for the amount of work they’ve put into this game and I will never get over the fact that it was all made in a computer. It didn’t feel like mo capped at all, it felt legit and real, it felt like I was watching a movie not playing a video game. 

That brings me to the point; this game felt more like an interactive movie than a video game. 60% of the time I was just sitting there bored out of my mind, either because of this reason or that the game gets dragged too long because of the unnecessary gameplay or encounters. Yes it might be a bit too easy to just let the player walk into what they’re supposed to walk to but an encounter every 5-7 minutes? It just gets repetitive and annoying at one point. 

It really felt like an interactive movie with so many cutscenes and unnecessary story telling, it was just plain bad. Sometimes I would be tempted to just skip the cutscenes because of how bored I was getting but then again it was my first play through and I don’t like missing anything (although in this game I would’ve like to miss a lot). I think they forgot what made the first game so good.

The game play was exactly the same as the previous one, plus you are able to crawl, swim and dodge. To think these were innovative is a bit dumb on their part. Before the game came out, or when the gameplay trailer released they were boasting how much better the game play is from the first one, showing off the new workbench. Which btw was very annoying to use, unlike the first game this game took most of the time because of the damn animation. “Oh we want to make the game better, how do we do that? I know let’s add sick animation on the workbench to drag the gameplay time.” I know they were trying to make it realistic but it’s just another one of the unnecessary elements.

I think we’ve started with the Cons already so might as well continue. The game tries and forces you to see each character’s perspective that you end up playing, which are Ellie and Gabby. I still don’t understand why they were trying to force us to like Krabby Patty. She killed Joel and so she’s the bad guy for me, end of the story. NOTHING she did had changed my mind about her, literally nothing. 

The game was supposed to be Joel and Ellie’s story, about Joel’s redemption, about how fractured their relationship gets after the truth was out, and about how they bond all over again when Ellie starts forgiving him. But all of that was sent out of the window when Debby and her gang were brought into the picture. Ever since they were introduced, nothing made me care about a single one of them, on the contrary every character died made me a little happy inside. They wanted to introduce a new character but they introduced ONE TOO MANY The only characters I cared about besides Ellie and Joel were, Tommy, Jesse and Dina. Jesse didn’t have that much screen time but I liked his character because he wasn’t a bullshit one like Debby gang and wasn’t forced for me to like him. 

The fucking sex scene didn’t have to be there, noone wanted or needed to see it and I feel so bad for the actors who had to participate in it all.

The whole Gebb arc was so forced. It made me angrier the more I played as her. Her arc was supposed to be some sort of redemption road for her because of her actions, but it made me hate her more and more. I swear I tried to understand her, like her, see what she saw and why she did what she did but no, nothing could change my mind about her. She couldn’t let go of her anger because she didn’t grieve, she dragged her friends across the country to take her revenge. Not all of her friends agreed with her, because they knew deep down she was wrong, even one of her friends later on said something similar to Gabey at the end of her arc. 

The ending: It was so bad. At first I thought of it as a bittersweet ending, because they gave us that scene where Ellie talks to Joel and she says she wants to try and forgive him. They  almost made us think the game was good and the ending was justified, but it wasn’t one bit. Ellie didn’t get her revenge, Gebby didn’t die, and Ellie just lost everything and everyone while Abby didn’t. And in the end, Geb didn’t even matter in the story. What was the point of inserting her in the story if she didn’t matter anymore, they just ended her arc there (and I hope for their fucking sake they keep it that way). The more I go through the ending the more I hate it. It wasn’t justified at all for Joel sake, but then again it was Ellie who had to come to terms with his death and grieve on her own. In conclusion it sucked.

The game advertisement was so bad. They made us think that Joel was alive the whole game, they made us think that Joel will be our companion the whole game. And the whole time Neil Druckmann was laughing at us in the background. Its false advertisement for the players to buy the game because they know if they exposed even a little bit of the story people will boycott ND and not gonna buy TLOU2, and honestly can you fucking blame anyone?. A scummy move them ND tbh and I will never forgive them for it.

I wonder what the writers were on to write this shitty narrative story killing off one of the most beloved characters in the game like that. They wanted to make an example out of Joel with death. I get it, but this wasn't the way to do it. the more I think about it the more I think it’s so stupid and the shittiest narrative any game has had so far. And for the sake of the fans I just hope to god they don’t make another game or a dlc for the series after how they ended it. 

My conclusion: I was upset most of the time playing this game and didn’t have a good experience for more than 18 hours of it because of what I stated above. it was a grindy experience for me, and my head hurt most of the time because I felt the game like a chore rather than a game, because of how much they kept on stretching it from unnecessary encounters with the enemy to unnecessary amount of cut scenes. Also playing as Dabby made everything 300 times worse for me and I hate her. :)

My rating is 3.5/5, would not recommend buying it full price.