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reesdomain · 2 years

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10 Reasons why I will defend Joel’s choice. Cause I’m bored so why not?

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! IF YOU DIDN’T PLAY THE GAMES BEWARE

1. The vaccine wouldn’t “work” in any sense of the word. I don’t care that Druckmann said it would, which if you ask me is just a convenient plot hole cover. One thing I appreciate about the show, is how they dive into the history of the cordyceps infection/outbreak and just how unique it is. The doctor we see at the beginning whose immediate advice is to bomb the city, shows just how grave the outbreak is period. Especially since no cure or vaccine had been made before. Mind you, this woman had to have at least 25-30 years experience in the field and her opinion obviously held weight.

For something this grave, you would need advanced technology and advanced expertise to even begin to create a “vaccine” for it. The fireflies med team was literally made up of a bunch of amateurs. We come to find out Abby’s father had at best two years of experience that I believe were in undergrad and definitely not a residency. It also needs to be pointed out that general doctors and surgeons do not account for every field in medicine. Specializations exist for a reason. I don’t think there was a single virologist or even neurologist in that room, yet they were attempting brain surgery? The other subjects died most likely because they were being operated on by the equivalent of “Grey’s Anatomy doctors”. Not because they HAD to die.

2. Even if we entertain the thought that they would somehow be able to pull a vaccine from Ellie. How would they “save the world” or “save millions”? I get that in fiction anything is possible. But with the world they created in the tlou 1, it’s just hard to imagine in this context. There’s a matter of manufacturing what would need to be hundreds of thousands of vaccines just to start. Which need significant resources. Then there would be distribution. How will you spread these vaccines around? What about language barriers? Do the fireflies have translators that can travel? Mind you, the fireflies are a terrorist organization. Do we really think they would not try to get a political leg up from this? People try to make them out to have a noble cause, but do they really? Or do they just want to save what’s left in an attempt to have power over what’s left?

3. Ellie’s immunity is pure luck. A mutation that prevented the cordyceps from taking over her. Much in the same way some people are allergic to seafood or nuts but a good chunk of us aren’t. Hell the mutation doesn’t even prevent her from being attacked by the other infected. The only thing it ensures is that she doesn’t become a “zombie” in affect. Which brings me to my next point.

4. What’s the rush? Ellie herself said she had plenty of questions for them. Which we know why they didn’t let the poor girl even get the chance to ask them. But Ellie’s immunity is something that seems more logical to study and get an understanding of before immediately jumping into surgery. What is it about her blood or body chemistry that prevented the infection from overtaking her? Soon as she got there, she was on the table without even the chance to say goodbye. Which once again, reaffirms the fireflies were taking desperate shots in the dark.

5. Informed consent went out the window. People keep saying what Ellie “would” have done or chosen for herself. Even Abby. The thing is we’ll never know. Because they took that choice from her. Marlene shouldn’t have even bothered to tell Joel what would happen. But she was a selfish dirtbag who wanted him to validate her. She knew what they were doing was wrong and I honestly think she knew nothing would come of it. Her pathetic attempt at trying to “reason” with Joel was her way of soothing her own conscience. Also they took Joel’s supplies and walked him out without it and the reward they promised him. They were never going to make good on their word.

6. You have cannibals, child rapists, slavers, and all the likes running around doing whatever they want with no care in the world. Not much world left to save when humans will always manage to be the biggest threat to other humans and forms of life. Regardless of a shared enemy or objective.

7. Abby’s father was a coward and a hypocrite. When posed the question of whether he would do what they did to Abby, he was silent. Now unlike those who don’t value consent, we know that anything other than a definite yes is a no. Abby’s father would have likely took the same course of action as Joel ( albeit not as a good lol) if Abby had been immune. And this is even with Abby giving her hypothetical consent to go ahead with the surgery. That should tell you everything you need to know. If “saving millions” was not so important for the surgeon to sacrifice his own daughter, than it was ridiculous to hold anybody else to the same standard. Also I like how Abby had her opinion on what SHE would do as if that mattered. Funny how taking someone else’s life and loved one was fine until it was her dad. But I try to give Abby credit for her redeeming qualities.

8. The “world” is owed nothing. A lot people don’t like to admit it but it’s the truth. Since the beginning of time earth has moved in cycles. Species come in and go out all the time. Humans are no different though a lot of us have tricked ourselves into believing so. For all we know the cordyceps was just the next step towards a new phase. Notice how in the show they are connected through channels and more receptive of one another. The remaining uninfected humans are most likely just fighting against inevitable change.

9. Joel was not the only person killing to survive. Both in the game and in the show it is bought up almost as if Joel was doing it for thrills or something when that was not the case. Especially in the show. The last episode tried very hard to infantilize Tommy in comparison to Joel. “Tommy was just following Joel.”

I’m sorry, but Tommy “ex war veteran who can’t accept he’s now a communist” Miller is not some little boy who was forced along by his big brother. He was a fully grown man who was fine with killing even before the outbreak and was in his element after. The fact that Maria even tried to pull that out her ass made me disgusted with her a bit. Especially since she too was no stranger to killing. “Those people tried us.” No I think the cute indigenous couple was right. Their group had just threatened what as far as they knew, was just a man and his little girl traveling with being shot to death or mauled by dogs.

10. When it was all said and done, Joel became an even older man and tried to change and become better. He tried to leave the mess of the past behind him and tried to mend things with Ellie. Despite how she treated him, he never stopped loving her and never regretted his decision to save her. Even as he was dying, I’m sure he only thought about his other babygirl being safe. He got an unfair lot and did the best he could it with it. Lord knows other people in that universe fell into deeper, unnecessary forms of depravity that Joel for the most part steered clear of.

#tlou #tlou hbo #joel and ellie #joel miller #cordyceps #dystopian #pedro pascal #joel and tommy

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neotriobrainrot-reborn · 11 months

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Because I am legally insane about Mushroom Girl, here is a fanmade moveset for her!

Also, imma call her Rosary for namesakes.

Epithet: Fungus

Description: Allows her to create fungi with a variety of effects, but at a cost

Consume(passive)

As an effect of her epithet that’s been there before she even knew she was inscribed, her hands act as a fungi of sorts in a general sense (with some differences). As soon as she makes contact with anything organic, it’ll slowly rot as if it’s being eaten alive while recovering some of Rosary’s HP/STAMINA proportional to how much of the target it consumes. And it will continue to rot until she stops making hand contact. Everything organic, from plant life and trees, to actual living creatures (including humans) will suffer from this effect. Because this is a passive part of her epithet, she can’t turn this off. This is a part of her epithet that she hates, and the only way she has been able to alleviate it is by putting on thick gloves to avoid contact.

The speed in which objects will decay depends on the size. While plant life would decay quickly, it’ll take a lot longer to decay something like a tree.

[This is mainly from the definition of Fungus, which is “Any of a group of spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter, including molds, yeast, mushrooms, and toadstools”]

Sweet Poison (passive)

Another passive side effect of her epithet is that she can’t be harmed via poison/venom. In fact, her body will actually convert poisons into painkillers, slightly reducing the damage she’d take from attacks.

[Funnily enough, the inspiration for this actually came from the grasshopper mouse. It’s essentially resistant to poison that would kill animals 100 times its size, and actually converts the toxin into painkillers.]

Cordymon Zombie

Rosary summons a bright pink fungus that will orbit around her finger. By pointing at a target(summons) and clicking her thumb in a finger-gun gesture, she can shoot the fungus towards her target, which will explode in a puff of spores upon contact. After some time, the summon will not only fall under Rosary’s control via a summon-fungus springing out of the summon’s head, but the fungus will transform a summon into a slightly but significantly stronger state.

It’s to note that this only works on summons, and it has a size limit. While it would work on stuff like Sylvie’s sheep extremely well, it wouldn’t do much to a summon like Graham. This also doesn’t work on anything that isn’t a summon, like a person for example. At best, shooting this at a person will only give them a sneezing fit for 5 seconds.

The move is also light in weight, which means that someone with even a small wind based attack can blow the fungus away before it can even make contact, effectively making them useless.

[Inspiration is obviously the cordyceps/zombie-ant fungus lol]

Oyster Club

She can create a small clutter of blue fungi with white poke-dots and with eyes that looks like a cartoon doodle in her hand. Upon hearing someone’s voice enough times, it can mimic the person efficiently with great accuracy and clarity. Unfortunately, the Oyster summons can only store 3 copied voices at a time, and if a 4th one is collected, it forgets the oldest stored voice.

[Inspiration came from a YouTube video called “Five Minutes of Blue Oyster Mushrooms Talking”]

Golden Agaric

Upon summoning a golden fungus similar to an Agaric fungus on her head and saying the phrase “Golden Agaric, impart your wisdom!”, the summon takes control of Rosary’s brain. This appears useless to any witnesses, but the fungus amplifies her 5 senses and her reaction speed, allowing her to fight beyond her own capabilities. Unfortunately, she relinquishes all control of herself to the summon, and while the summon is generally more pragmatic when it comes to helping her, it’ll do what it thinks is best for her. Fortunately, this only lasts for five minutes

[Funnily enough, this move was entirely inspired by the magic conch in that one SpongeBob episode. Is it goofy? Yes. Do I love it? Also yes]

Weakness

All of her summons are extremely flammable, and like her summons, she’s extremely weak to heat based attacks. She’s a lot more susceptible to a heatstroke than the average person

Let me know what ya think. I had fun writing this!

#ee mushroom girl #epithet erased mushroom girl #fungireborn.post #epithet erased

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quaranmine · 8 months

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Book Reviews with Quara

Since I keep talking about audiobooks, now I want to do a sort of mini book review of the books I've read since starting to "seriously" pick up reading again last year. Also I just like typing about things. I'm skipping Fire Season by Philip Connors and Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams because I've spoken about them already. Keep in mind I am not super-super critical of reading material; generally if I enjoyed it I'm giving 5 stars. If I disliked it though I get a lot more critical because then I want to start analyzing what didn't work for me. Now go forth and learn about what my reading taste is when I'm not reading/writing angsty mcyt fanfic!

Books I loved, aka 5 stars:

Cold Storage by David Koepp

This was the first book I checked out from Libby and it was a banger. I am still trying to replicate that high tbh. When I gave my mom access to my library card in Libby (her rural library has nothing and my city library has everything) I made her check it out too. The narration on the audiobook is fantastic. My mom raved about the narration and basically says she doesn't want to check anything out that wasn't as good--regularly her reviews to me are "good narrator, not as good as that Cold Storage book" lmao. You may know David Koepp as the guy who wrote the Jurassic Park screenplay. This is his first novel.

It's about a mutated fungus that is a sci-fi version of the very real Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which is more commonly known as the zombie-ant fungus. In this book, a version of Cordyceps can infect all lifeforms, including humans, and has been locked away deep in a former US military vault that has since been sold and converted into an underground storage facility. The plot follows two unlikely protags who work in the storage facility, as well as the two retired military people who are the only ones to have seen the fungi in action, as they try to prevent it from being released into the world. It's funny, horrifying, and gory.

They are making a movie of this book. The release date is tentatively 2024, but I worry about it because I have heard so little news on it. They did do filming though. I have high hopes because they cast Joe Keery as a main character, which I think is perfect casting for the guy in question. I have low hopes because they cast Liam Neeson, a white man, as a character who was originally Hispanic and (as I just noticed while writing this) changed the character's name to be more white. Ugh. Who is Robert Quinn and what did you do with Roberto Diaz???????

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

What if you got kidnapped and woke up in a parallel world where everybody knew who you were, but they think you're someone else? What if you're just a quantum physics professor, but this other version of you is a successful theoretical researcher? What if your wife never married you in this universe, and your son was never born? How do you get back home? This book is constantly pulling out interesting new questions, twists, and places to explore. Also I liked that while it does feature romance pretty prominently, it's about a guy who just really loves his wife of 15 years and wants to see her again. I just like it when men love their wives.

Also, a fair amount of Goodreads reviews poke fun at this author for having way too much fun hitting the enter key on his keyboard, but since I listened to the audiobook I never had to deal with any annoying formatting choices lol

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

I feel like we all know about this one already, tbh. If you don't, heavy tw for child abuse and eating disorders. Tread carefully. It's worth it though if you are confident you won't get triggered. If you haven't read it I recommend the audiobook specifically because Jennette narrates it herself and that gives the book so much extra. It was a 6 hour audiobook and I was gripped by it all day.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

BACKWARDS TIMELOOP BABEYY!!! This one was great. It's about a Mom who witnesses her teenage son kill a man. Every day she wakes up in the past again until she can solve why this happened, the mystery leading up to it that entangles her family, and try to prevent it. First she ways up the day before, then two days, then three, then a two weeks, then a few months, then a few years--until her son hasn't even been born yet. I enjoyed it. Also a plus for British accent narrator (can you tell I'm American....)

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

This one was fun. I checked it out because it was longish and I had to drive like 8 hrs roundtrip for a work trip, so I listened to this the entire way. It's about a (Canadian) woman named Mallory who was a police detective in the modern day, who gets attacked while out for a jog in Edinburgh, Scotland. The attacker strangles her and she goes unconscious. When she wakes up, however, she finds herself in someone else's body--in the Victorian era. She's now a 19 year old housemaid, and has to adapt as quickly as possible to avoid suspicion. She quickly finds out that she works for a man named Dr. Duncan Gray, who is a medical examiner. And there's a person who's been murdered in a very similar way to how Mallory herself was attacked. And she's quickly finding out that the person who's body she's in was not well-liked.

My favorite part about this one is the emphasis it has on early forensics in Victorian Scotland. Dr. Gray is a fantastic character and it is so interesting to see him doing his lil cutting-edge forensics research (which Mallory, being educated in modern times, wants desperately to help him with.) Also the narrator, while being Canadian, does Scottish accents for all the Scottish characters. I'm not the best person to ask as someone who isn't Scottish but I thought the accents sounded pretty good lol

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

My mom recommended this one to me. It's also a lot of fun. The title is, mostly, accurate. Ernest Cunningham (protag) is a writer, who mostly creates how-to books for mystery novelists he sells on Amazon. No, he doesn't write mysteries, he just writes the how-to books. But he's very well-versed in the "rules" of how to write a classic mystery! He promises that, as the narrator of this story, he will always be an entirely reliable narrator. The book itself is obviously fiction but within the narrative of the book, it is being told like a nonfiction account of something that the main character is writing down. This book is sort of a bottle mystery--strange murders while everyone is snowed in at a ski resort during a family reunion, anyone? The main character is funny and breaks the fourth wall often. I am convinced that there is a separate audiobook specific version since the narration within the book references it being an audiobook. The main character will be like "so, you probably realize this isn't the real killer, since we still have 4 hours of the book left to listen to" lol. I almost want to check out a print copy of this to see if the text is different.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

First one on the list that I didn't listen to as an audiobook. Honestly, I probably read this book in 4 hours flat. Three of those hours just dead-focused while on a plane (with the book's hold expiring as soon as I landed and took my phone off airplane mode.)

I don't really know how to explain this one. I don't think I understood what it was about until I actually got like 4 chapters in and then I couldn't stop. It's just off-the wall ridiculous. There are talking cats. There are dolphins that want to unionize. There is a volcano lair. There are explosions and assasination attempts. There is a reasonably bleakly accurate capitalist picture of what "villainy" means in our world. There is a poor main character in over his head as he learns he's inherited all this from an uncle he never saw. This book is like...satire comedy. Comedy and outlandish but you're also depressed about billionaires a little while reading it.

Books I thought were Okay (3-4 stars but actually I gave both these 4 stars I think)

The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong

The second book to the book I mentioned above. Honestly, I remember very well what the first book was about (i typed the summary by memory) but I have trouble remembering specifics about this one. It's a bit too long as well, at 14 hours. I don't have anything bad to say about it, I just didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first one.

But honestly I do remember it was still a good time. I just really like Dr Gray as a character and the setting, early forensic science focus, etc. These books are also setting up to be an EXTREME slow burn romance between Gray and Mallory, which I don't mind. (Literally by book 2 the most we have is that she thinks he's attractive, so at this rate it will take us 3 more books to get anywhere lol.) I will be checking out the 3rd book when it is released this spring.

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moines

Also a book that suffered from being too long. It's a 12 hour audiobook but I think that it could have been 8 or 9 hours and gotten the same point across. My mom recommended this to me. It's narrated by Daisy Ridley, who does a good job. I enjoyed it, but I also started to feel like I really wanted it to be done?

Also unsure how to describe this one. Slightly-contrived-but-cute plot about how a bag switch up in a gym connects two women's stories. One is a, frankly quite annoying, American woman who married rich but has now been completely cut off from her money (and even passport) by her ex-husband who's cheating on her with a younger woman. One is a British woman with low self-esteem and a bad job who is struggling to keep her family afloat while her husband suffers from severe depression. I think my favorite was a side character named Jasmine who brought light to every scene imo.

Books I disliked (2 stars but after writing this review I almost want to make it 1 star)

Aurora by David Koepp

David I really believed in you after Cold Storage. But imo, this book isn't it. It throws away every interesting part of its apocalypse-level plot to focus on the characters. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a good character-focused plot, except I never connected with anyone in the book. I just kind of didn't enjoy any of them. This is a story that is supposed to be about a solar flare taking out all electricity and communications for most of the world. And it only covers like a few days after the disaster AND THEN TIME SKIPS LIKE 8 MONTHS UNTIL EVERYTHING IS HAPPILY SOLVED NEIGHBORHOOD UTOPIA STYLE. I'm sorry????? Assuming I can believe that this little suburban Illinois cul-de-sac has managed to set up subsistence farming in a few months and is living perfectly happily, why would you....not show me how that happened.....

Also the "everything fits together" character moment at the end felt unearned. I was like yeah, okay, I guess this slots together. But the author didn't earn that moment for me. Instead of connecting with the characters and the plot and getting invested I felt like I was just being....told that everything worked out?? Or told that this was an important moment instead of actually Feeling the moment? It's hard to explain but I was like ok great thanks let's all go home now.

Sigh. I just can't get over the whole "throwing away the most interesting part of your setting" part. Again. Why would you spend a significant time setting up the science and how much of a disaster the solar flare is and then not show any of the characters figuring out how to survive it long-term....?

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This book has such a high rating. It's very popular right now. It took me like 12 weeks of waiting for my hold to come up, and that's with the library having 7 copies.

It is, supposedly, about a smart octopus named Marcellus who helps an elderly lady solve the mystery of her son's disappearance at sea when he was a teenager.

In practice, it is about one minute at a time of Marcellus (the best part of the book) and extended sections of characters that I don't care about at all. I assume all the pieces of the story were supposed to come together later, but I was just highly bored. I was so bored that I DNF'd at 25% when my hold was up. I do not care enough to wait weeks to check it out again. Based on the one star reviews I read, the characters I didn't like did not develop into better people later and remained similarly annoying. Now, I don't need characters to be good people of course. But I do expect to be interested in them. I still don't know how the son's disappearance factors in because I felt like I heard barely anything about the supposed main character woman.

I feel vindicated because my coworker also checked out the book and told me a few weeks ago that she was at 50% and there still wasn't anything happening in the plot. I will ask her tomorrow if she finished it or not and if it ever got better.

Write an entire book for Marcellus the octopus and I'll check it out...

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

This book had so much potential. It's about a group of four women who were formerly assasins but are now retiring at 60. To celebrate retirement, they go on a cruise and then realize that they're the new targets for assasination, presumably because they know too much about the organization that used to employ them.

In execution....very meh. I actually had a Libby glitch on this one, where I think I missed about 1.5 hrs of narration total because the book skipped twice. I have no concept of which parts I missed. What I do know is that, the book was already so cobbled together before the first skip that I didn't realize I had missed anything until the end. Like sure, parts didn't make sense, but I was ready to accept that it was just Like That since the rest of the book was like that. After reading a bunch of reviews of this book I am convinced that there is NO way that all of its flaws can be explained by me missing a small part. After all, I did listen to 8.5 hours of it still.

The characters never felt their age to me. I felt like they either acted like they were 80 or 90, or like they were 20. It just seemed odd to me. The characters also felt very 2D, like the author wrote down three traits per person and called it good. There's a younger woman who appears to know the main character and conveniently helps the group, but I literally never figured out where their relationship originated or how they knew each other. Maybe I missed that too. By the end of the book I still didn't know who anyone was and couldn't remember which person was the main character. The plot jumped around to new locations constantly and often with little transition--this happened even on the parts where I definitely didn't get a skipping glitch. The main villain was a guy I literally had barely heard anything of til that point, although perhaps he came up in the 1.5 hrs I missed. They described the same painting in excruciating detail THREE separate times. It was...too feminist? Feminist in a contrived way where I have to be reminded every 5 minutes the characters are women? Like, I know, I am reading a story about women. Please don't mention it several times a chapter. There are ethical and moral considerations about their profession and chosen organization that never really get given the weight required. There was a love interest for the main character that I hadn't heard of once until he was introduced like an hour from the end--maybe I missed more about him in the parts I skipped? Unknown.

ANNND THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!

#quara talks books #my current book is mr penumbra's 24 hr bookstore by robin sloan and i'm not getting promising vibes from it 30% in #i'm gonna try to finish it but....the mc kind of annoys me #but i could live with that!#what i can't live with is the author's incessant need to talk about google constantly. there's a character who works for google.#does the author have a thing for google....?? why do they wanna **** google's ***** in this random presumably unaffiliated book????#also more product placement vibes like macbooks and kindles coming up a lot #like dude. please. stop. you promised me mysterious bookstore not megacorp tech worship #also the tech talk hasn't aged super well in this book imo #a bit amusing to read about people being very wowed by someone attending a party 'virtually' via webcam #in the post pandemic work from home era of zoom meeetings and teams meetings etc #also getting manic pixie dreamgirl vibes from main love interest #ANYWAY. stay tuned to see if I have to put this book in the middle or bottom tier (it's already missed its chance at 5 stars)

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jomiddlemarch · 1 year

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Turn and face the strange changes

“What you have to understand is, I have two lodestones, Ted and David Bowie, and at any given moment, it’s hard to say which is better suited to a world infested with zombies,” Beard said quite conversationally, as if they were making small talk at a small sort of place, like the produce section of a bodega or the snacks table at a PTA meeting, if Lauren’s descriptions of the latter venue were held to be accurate. “Also, I’m an ex-con.”

“Also?” Grace said.

“Ex-con?” Joel said. He narrowed his eyes, but Grace could tell that Beard’s disclosure was something Joel considered as a possible asset as much as a strike against the man.

“Who’s David Bowie? Is he related to Ted?” Ellie asked. She’d been hanging out at the other end of the mess hall, around the resurrected foosball table, which was why they’d started having what Grace would have called an “adult conversation” but now all bets were off.

“Oh, you sweet summer child,” Beard said.

“She didn’t know Linda Ronstadt either,” Joel offered.

“To be fair, there’s a good chance Ellie wouldn’t have known either without cordyceps or Fedra,” Grace said.

“I’m here, you don’t have to talk about me in the third person like I’m not,” Ellie said.

“Sorry,” Grace replied. Neither of the men appeared to be bothered by her remark.

“Whatever,” Ellie said and walked away, more a lope than a stalk, which was likely motivated more by Ellie sighting Araceli and Meg than by Grace’s apology, but Grace wasn’t about to argue with the relative lack of teen vitriol. She knew Ellie’s intermittent snappish retorts about inconsequential things were a good sign, that it meant she was having something that resembled a normal adolescence, but it could be exhausting and certainly Grace herself would never have been allowed to speak to her parents or any elder relative the way Ellie did.

“I’m only alive because of Ted,” Beard said. “I wouldn’t have left England except for him, but Jane and I weren’t speaking and he was so damn worried about Henry—”

“His boy,” Joel said. He didn’t mention Jane because he wouldn’t have wanted to be asked about Tess, Grace thought. Or maybe it was because Grace was sitting next to him, his arm draped across the back of her chair, and as often as not, she slept in one of his tee-shirts, while Jane was beyond any reach, any sea rendered uncrossable, even if she’d escaped infection and survived the aftermath. It was easier to talk about Henry, with Ellie laughing across the room with her friends.

“We didn’t find him,” Beard said. “Been looking for years. Jackson’s a breather for us, if you will.”

“Ted won’t give up hope,” Grace said.

“No. He has. He humors me, so we keep searching. We spent a few weeks with a Shakespeare rep troupe outside Chicago because we’d heard they had a young kid with them, but turned out to be a girl,” Beard said. “I would have made a fetching Mustardseed, but they were pretty invested in Hamlet. At least it wasn’t Lear, for Ted’s sake.”

“Why do you do it?” Grace asked.

“Because Ted won’t make it otherwise,” Joel said surprising Grace. Beard nodded and suddenly looked old and a little wise. Grace really hoped he wasn’t going to pivot and tell them how to make toilet wine. Have a little faith, dead-Lauren said. She had a soft spot for Beard, largely because of his willingness to read every Maeve Binchy in the Jackson library, alternating with their far more meager collection of Neo-Platonists.

“Ted’s broken,” Beard said, his lisp more pronounced, as if he were speaking some truth that required his purest voice to utter. “If he doesn’t have someone to push him and coax him and hell, coach him to keep going, he’ll stop. Lie down and die. He won’t ever let a friend down, so if I say we should keep looking, that there’s still a chance to find Henry, he won’t argue. He goes along and I go along and it’s something like a life. Sometimes it’s just the two of us and sometimes we find some people like yourselves to rest a while with.”

“How long do you plan to stay?” Joel asked. It was a good question and he asked it in a way that made Grace wonder about his own plans. Whether Jackson was home or Ellie or the three of them. Whether Jackson was a refuge or a pit-stop.

There was always the question of Ellie’s arm, about the potential she held within her, and what it would take to release it. At least, it was a question for Grace. She was pretty sure Joel had answered it for himself, in a way he could never risk altering.

“The truth is, of course, that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time,” Beard said. Once upon a time, this man had coached a professional sport team. It boggled the mind.

“Bowie,” Joel said. Beard smiled as broadly as Grace had ever seen him.

“But really, how long?” Grace pressed.

“Well, you don’t serve regular English tea in your coffee-house,” Beard began.

“No one can get it anymore,” Grace said. Protested? Was she trying to encourage them? Are you? dead-Lauren said. They’re a pair of odd ducks but then, that’s all that’s left.

Joel said nothing, stone-faced as he was wont to be when something mattered too much or not at all.

“You mistake me, milady,” Beard replied. “It’s a point in your favor. Ted hates English tea. Won’t drink the stuff to save his life, which has never actually been a situation we’ve found ourselves in, but I’m still confident of the outcome. He’s less offended by the herbal tisanes and the chicory and he likes the cider. You’re short on mulling spices but who isn’t these days?”

“Who indeed?” Joel said, playing it straight, making Beard laugh.

“I knew you had it in you, friend,” Beard said. “You can call me Willis, but don’t let it get around. There’s an urban legend I’m trying to nurture about being called Beard since I was born—”

“How can you start an urban legend these days?” Grace asked.

“With impunity. Fedra helps,” Beard answered.

“How?” Joel said.

“They told so many lies, people’ll believe anything, especially if it’s inconsequential and reminds them of when the world wasn’t this version of shithole hellscape,” Beard said. “We all do our part.”

For @tessa-quayle who wanted more of my zany/cracky Ted Lasso x The Lasso of Us crossover AU but with Coach Beard as a featured player

#the last of us #ted lasso #crossover AU #joel/OFC #grace yang MD #joel & ellie #found family #angst #post-apocalypse #humor #tw: child loss #if you thought you caught a reference to laiqualaurelote's amazing fic #all the men and women merely players #you'd be correct #ted's antipathy to tea #friendship #coach beard/jane

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mhaccunoval · 2 years

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i was trying not to but i AM ruminating on joel and tommy’s relationship...

as i’ve said before. you KNOW joel had to have elder sibling syndrome his entire life, and honestly probably of his own volition. like it doesn’t FEEL like, to me, their parents forced him into a young parent role; he’s just naturally a protector and tommy’s his baby brother so, obviously, he’s going to pull that scamp out of scraps and other trouble he probably got himself into (they grew up in the 70s and 80s, no matter where you place tommy’s birthday, so they were definitely messing around as 70s and 80s kids/teens do). and, naturally, he definitely both chastised and teased the shit out of tommy for it, especially when it was an especially stupid scrap/situation tommy got himself into.

but they both lived and they learned, joel backed off, let tommy be his own (adult) man but still kept him close because. well. that’s still his baby brother, that’s still his best friend. and, given the first episode, they probably got closer after sarah was born— tommy becoming ““cool”“ uncle tommy— and even closer after joel’s wife left. stayed where joel’s ‘till death do us part’ was supposed to and gave back the support and protection that joel’s given him their entire lives.

and later after the cordyceps outbreak, joel trying SO hard to make sure he radioed in and was safe, now back to being overprotective of his baby brother in this expansive dead zone of a country full of ravenous fungal zombies.

THEN there’s 1.06/kin......... he’s FINALLy sure that tommy’s alright because he’s yelling to him and squeezing the ever loving hell out of him— probably harder than he’s ever squeezed him, even if they were huggers when they were young. and he’s so delighted to see him and to have a hot meal for the first time in ages— only to find out this woman he’s with is his wife and having his child. like i can only imagine that deep down there was a spark of anger in not having been told sooner, as scanty as communications seem to be (plus any frustration in finding out about the commune’s communism, etc etc). and then there’s the bar scene and the hostilities between them. only for the trust to be reinstated once they’ve calmed down and joel is pouring his heart out about his fears and shows he trusts his baby brother and his care enough to want to leave ellie in his safety. plus there’s when joel told ellie to leave him there and go back to tommy’s, which she obviously refuses as harshly as she refused to stay inthe commune in the first place, but nevertheless there’s that deep down knowledge that his younger brother is a good and capable man, who probably WILL make a fine father (if you push past joel’s own trauma around fatherhood).

yet i also can’t stop thinking about the post saying that we got to see the side of joel that tommy knew/feared. like tommy was the first to get a glimpse at the power that joel possessed and i can only IMAGINE how terrifying that was. like, yeah, circling back to what i said about pulling tommy out of scraps, joel probably punched quite a few kids in their youth, kicked some asses for messing with his little brother but. the rage and power that fills him in the apocalypse is. far BEYOND just an accentuation. and, frankly, i think if (though more likely When) tommy hears about david’s town and the hospital he. he won’t be surprised. in knowing what joel’s capable of and having already seen even a fraction of how much he cares for ellie (the fuel for raging fire). he’s seen the way that joel would claw his way out of hell, battered and bruised, if it means protecting one of his daughters and. i can’t begin to think what conflicting feelings that could create inside a person. like here’s his older brother, the one who’s protected and loved him his entire life, being a double-edged sword of care & love & support on one side juxtaposed by an almost Monstrous side that will hyperfocus on doing WHATEVER is necessary to protect aforementioned daughters. it’s a woven tapestry of morals and memories and feelings, spattered with blood, yet at the same time there’s a shimmering element worked into the wool fibers that is difficult NOT to love

#pant rambles #TLOU.posting #I WAS GONNA GET BACK TO THE TLOU PIECE I STARTED YESTERDAY BUT.#i spent like half an hour being a mad man over This

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64bitgamer · 2 years

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quakebeats · 6 years

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chat posts don’t allow for comments in reblogs so: Infections can spread very rapidly, especially stuff like CBI where people don’t know what’s going on and infected victims are bitey. CBI presents with a fever at first, escalating to violence before the infected loses total control of their bodies, so freshly infected CBI victims are either 1) going to stay home because they don’t think they need/don’t want a doctor, and will possibly bite their families as their aggression escalates, 2) they’re going to go along with their daily lives and have contact with tons of folks on the street, at work, etc(Jimmy the neighbor is a good example of this; it’s likely Joel was called over by Jimmy’s family, who Jimmy likely killed/turned before chasing Joel home), or 3) they’re going to go to hospitals, where it’s gonna spread like wild fire because of all the comings and goings and many people. No one knew because like, CBI is just a mutated strain of Cordyceps, a real life fungus that zombifies insects. If something like that happened in real life, it could take people a while to notice/realize. It starts out as fever and aggression; hospital admissions rising, lots of rioting, etc. Concerning, but ‘zombie fungus’ isn’t gonna be most peoples’ first guesses. It was in the hospitals because infected people ended up there, their fever and first stages of aggression hinting them to something wrong but not knowing what. It’s not a botched antibiotic or experiment or chemtrails; they’re super clear about it being Cordyceps Brain Infection, a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. There’s no real canon explanation about how it made the jump to humans or how humans first started contracting it, but the newspaper in Joel and Sarah’s bathroom speculates that it spread via crops infected with mold.

It’s likely that the government/military knew something was up, given how quickly they’re there to set up borders around Joel’s hometown, but the general population didn’t know much at first, which is why the Miller family is so clueless about it and there’s such a panic and disarray in the prologue. Eventually the general population was clued in, as evidenced by the state of Bill’s town; Lincoln residents were given orders to evacuate town, there are posters around town telling people to leave, and a large trailer with a ‘get the hell out’ sign around a month after Texas falls.

At some point in the game, I believe one character or another mentions how it started out in the South but spread everywhere pretty quickly. There are other questions that could be answered and I know some people who are familiar with pandemics/diseases/etc that are unhappy with some of the things about CBI(such as how mushrooms tend to spore when disturbed so spore-choked rooms probably wouldn’t really happen, how Ellie would probably contract CBI by breathing in spores because immunity doesn’t give her total invulnerability and the amount of spores she breathes in would overwhelm her immune system, Joel would probably have been infected many times over with stuff like breathing in spores while moving the clicker caked onto the office building door or punching infected while he has open wounds, etc), but most of those answers are unnecessary to the story/essence of the game, or would complicate gameplay/mechanics/story, and all together TLOU does a good job of giving us all the answers we need and leaving us with the right questions. Neil Druckmann’s directing/writing style is to give people enough information that they can draw their own conclusions on various things and the information he does and doesn’t give on CBI is a pretty great example of that.

#this is actually fucking cool!#thanks for all the info #the last of us #submission #txt

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