tendrils
Series Metadata
Listing Series
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circumnutation by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
30 Sep 2023
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Summary
“Ellie,” she says, a gentler version of her usual command but no less firm. “You can’t just drag him away. I need to talk to him first.”
The little girl–Ellie–rolls her eyes in a gesture that looks far too old to be coming from such a small child, but she releases him, though she tugs on his shirt when he looks back to Marlene, partially sure he’s having a stroke.
“Come play with me after, okay?” She asks with the same sense of command Marlene speaks in.
Before he can say anything at all in response to that, she’s scampering off around the corner.
He looks back to Marlene, begging for her to make some kind of sense out of this. Marlene smiles a little wryly–a smile that looks a little tired at the same time–and gestures for him to sit. On slightly halting legs, he does.
“That’s Ellie,” Marlene says, unnecessarily. “And she’s your new assignment.”
(after joining the fireflies, tommy is brought in for a special assignment) (the assignment, as it turns out, is a 4 year old ellie who's being raised in the fireflies)
Series
- Part 1 of tendrils
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Summary
Of all of the things in the entire goddamn world he could possibly have guessed for what Tommy left behind in the box, a kid would never have made the list.
Especially a kid with a goddamn knife.
The girl popped up the moment they finally managed to get the crowbar just right to crack the lock open, and her battle cry startled them almost as badly as the glint of steel in her hand. He’d grabbed Tess entirely on reflex to yank her back, and he barely registers the one hand she has fisted around his shirt as they stare in disbelief at the kid who appeared like the world’s worst magic trick.
“Hey!” He snaps as their surprise Jack-in-the-Box waves her knife around wildly, looking far more likely to stab her own eye out than come anywhere close to hitting him or Tess. “Knock it off.”
“Funk you!” The little girl cries, waving her knife with more fervor even as she struggles to try and get over the wall of the box. He darts forward to grab her when she tips over with a squeal, horrified without meaning to be at the idea of her landing on her knife.
The moment she’s safely on her feet, however, she’s back to being stabby.
(joel finds tommy's note) (and then he finds a whole lot more)
Series
- Part 2 of tendrils
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Summary
“Tommy would let me have it,” she says, the sentence a taunt if he’s ever heard one. She might not be wrong, really. He can absolutely see his younger brother finding his child playing rabbit thief funny enough to let her get away with it, even if he would make amends later by replacing it. That was always Tommy’s way, after all, causing a ruckus and then doing his best to make up for it later.
Joel wonders how his little brother will make up for leaving him responsible for his child, and the thought frays his patience, already worn thin by being stuck on the road to wander at random.
“It’s not yours,” he tells her, grabbing the rabbit by its ears and yanking it out of her grip. It’s harsher than it should be, he knows, but this entire situation is poking around something that’s settled in more and more the closer they’ve gotten to where Tommy was last seen.
We don’t get to keep what isn’t ours.
(joel and tess go to find tommy and return ellie) (and of course joel feels nothing about it at all)
Series
- Part 3 of tendrils