#qz baby ellie verse

[seethesunny]

Me? Tackling more QZ baby Ellie ideas again?

Yes, it's true it's happening!!

Because it's one of my dear friends' birthday, and she deserves the entire world. Have an amazing day, @oliviassunrise, and I hope you enjoy this little thing written with so much love.

[justagalwhowrites]

Re: my last comments about wanting to reread Lavender.

Have you ever thought about any differing OG Lavender-verse where Joel does get over his shit a little quicker? I’m still mad at him for *spoilers* being mad at her for not telling him about the thing. Like it’s so reasonable that she was going to but *things* got in the way. And what she went through to TRY to keep everybody safe… ugh. It’s telling how traumatized he is that he couldn’t get it together but I think sometimes he was too hardheaded.

Also, I never thought about it but as you say in the AU he’s her everything. That’s me & my now husband. He was older (6 years, not crazy) and my first and only. Now 16 years later and married and still very happy, maybe I appreciate that story element bc I relate ❤️

Hi Bestie!!

I'm going to go in reverse order kinda because part of this reply is gonna be REAL long lol!

That's so sweet with you and your husband!!! I'm so happy that you can relate to that and that you found that with him, that's so lovely <3

Spoilers for Lavender below the cut!

So there were a few points where things could have diverged in the OG Lavender-verse. The big one being, Doc doesn't lose the baby. He would still be traumatized as fuck and their relationship would be rocky but they may never fully break up (or, if they did, it wouldn't be for as long because Evie would force them to see each other and they couldn't keep their hands each other if they had to be around each other often.) Their relationship would have been ROCKY though and I'm not sure it would have lasted as Evie grew closer to adulthood.

There were some other points where things could have been different, too. The first time Doc leaves the QZ and it's just her and Joel and they run into raiders on the way back? By that point, Joel was kind of at this tipping point. He was so shaken by the near loss of her - and they'd just slept together the night before and had been in such close proximity for more than a day by that point - that he was very nearly ready to try to get her to give him another shot. Her freak out about the raiders - and her snapping and telling him that Sarah's death was NOT on her - pushed him the other way. Now if they'd gotten back together here, I'm not sure it would have stuck for long? She may have latched on tighter and not let him pull away when he started to devolve again but otherwise, he'd still be coping with a lot of the same trauma brain shit he was otherwise and it would have taken its toll.

Another time was after McCarthy comes to the QZ, when he finally knows everything that happened during the outbreak and feels so guilt ridden about it all. If they'd had sex that night, they'd have been together again at least for a while. But trauma brain Joel would have come along to ruin the party again.

The big thing is, the QZ was an inherently retraumatizing place to be, especially for Joel (the militarized power, being surrounded by death, etc.) and his brain going "HEY CARING ABOUT SOMEONE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS WILL LEAD TO YOUR DEATH" would, at the very least, make their relationship's survival a constant fucking struggle. The reason it sticks later is a combination of things. 1) He's at this unique point of "she's leaving and you will never see her again, you are losing her, this is the end" that forces him to admit just how much he cares about her in spite of trying to push her away for so many years. It also forces him to realize just how desperate he is to keep from losing her. He can't live without her, proximity (or lack there of) won't change that for him. 2) They're forced to stay together and work together to get Ellie to where she needs to go, so things that might normally force distance can't. She can't run to Andrew, he can't run to Tess, they can only turn to each other and they do. 3) They end up in Jackson, which is a far more healthy environment than the QZ, and - outside of shit like KC and stuff with the fireflies and a few blips along the way - the trek west is relatively peaceful compared to QZ life. Yes they're under threat and cautious and it's a struggle to survive BUT you're not being held at gunpoint by agents of the state and burning the bodies of dead children on the regular, a vast improvement over QZ life (and obviously major triggers for Joel.) This gives Joel some emotional space to come to terms with his trauma and start to heal and recover, pulling him out of this cycle of constant retraumatization. It's like with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. QZ Joel could never make it past that first level, when he constantly felt like his life was at risk he can't do the bigger work of healing and self actualizing. All his emotional energy is spent on survival. Once he has the space to do it, he can start to heal and be a partner to Doc.

ANYWAY I know I basically wrote a super long novel here lol! I hope it makes sense (and know that my interpretation is NOT the only valid one!!! It's definitely OK to be like "nah I think if they'd done x differently it would have worked.") I definitely get sad about all their lost years from time to time but I'm so glad they found their way back to each other in the end.

Thank you for reading and for reaching out!! Love you!!!

[reyofluke-ocs]

OCs DESERVE BETTER / RE-REINTRODUCING: Ashley Williams (TLOU) FC: Alycia Debnam Carey

“You have no idea of the things I have done for Ellie. To make sure she was safe and healthy and as comfortable as possible in this shithole of a world. So believe me when I say, if I even think you’re going to hurt her, I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your myself. Clear?”

Anna Williams had another kid before Ellie, a little girl she named Ashley. Vaguely, Ashley can remember hanging out with Anna in the makeshift clinic or being babysat by Marlene. When Anna dies giving birth to Ellie, little 4-year-old Ashley makes it her life mission to look out for her baby sister, even if they have different good-for-nothing fathers. Sure, Marlene looked over them as best as she could, but Ashley practically raised Ellie. From a young age, there was nothing she wasn’t willing to do to for Ellie’s health and safety, including doing various favors of all sorts for different members of Boston QZ - extra rations, medicine when Ellie was sick, getting Ellie out of severe punishments, smuggling, etc. Nothing was off limits for her baby sister.

As a result of helping with some smuggling operations, she had run into and heard of Joel and Tess, but never spent any length of time with either of them until Marlene was contracting them to bring Ellie to the rest of the Fireflies. Ashley refuses to be left behind - if she was willing to either die or become infected alongside Ellie before they knew she was immune, there was no way in hell she was letting some strangers go off along with her whole world.

Trusting neither Joel nor Tess, despite previous run-ins with them, Ashley is completely prepared to either either kill them or grab Ellie and ditch them as fodder for infected at a moment’s notice. For so long, it was just her and her sister against the world - and then gruff, hardass Joel Miller starts fulfilling the missing father-figure Ashley always told herself the sisters were always better without. And maybe, she begins to realize that she doesn’t have to take every aspect of Ellie’s wellbeing as her responsibility.

tagging: @guardiansofheroes, @stanshollaand, @foxesandmagic, @hiddenqveendom, @arrthurpendragon, @cas-verse, @eddiemunscns, if anyone wants to be added/removed let me know!

[seethesunny]

Posting a snippet under the cut of how this starts. Yeah the angst and messiness of their relationship shines more here

Writing anything and it devolving into heavy hurt/comfort like. Who's surprised anymore

[seethesunny]

2, 22, 12! :)

Hi thank you so much for sending these! 🫶🏼 I've had so much fun with it.

2. A piece you're proud of and why

So, to not give the same reply again and again, I will go with this: The QZ baby verse where Ellie is Tess and Joel's daughter.

I wrote it as a one-shot first the past year, but I was soon craving more of it, so y'all can expect more in 2025. I have a half written thingy in my drive to post soonish.

I was really proud of sangfroid since I took my time with it, as I wrote it and let it sit in my drafts for months, then polished what was necessary and decided to share. I guess it got my vision across, and I was really proud of the characterization. Writing Tess is a delight and even more when it comes to exploring motherhood since she had never had a kid before, and her relationship with Joel wasn't as close yet.

12. A concept you'd like to develop next year

The Joel and Ellie are estranged years but exploring that dynamic with Tess included!

I've been meaning to write the dance scene with her in it for months, and I want to develop more of Tess and Ellie's relationship in my writing (maybe write fics that revolve solely about them), and with the upcoming new hype around tlou 2 I've been coming back to it lately. I'm a Tess fan first and foremost, so if I'm tackling tlou 2 that feels like my call.

22. An idea you had that didn't make the cut

@kokureno and I have this idea that we labeled as the Christmas exes au, and you can imagine what the plot is with those details.

Basically Tess comes back to her hometown for the holidays, their families have been friends for years so logically Joel is there too, for reasons there was only one bedroom and of course ONE BED and it's a longfic about how they get back together. It sounds very simple, BUT the yearning and longing don't make it easier, especially with how they ended their relationship.

Sadly, this year had me too busy to properly give it enough justice, and it hasn't been completed yet. I have the start and even an epilogue, so maybe next year I can share it when it's time 🤞🏼

[seethesunny]

5, 6, 25!

5. A scene you enjoyed creating

The whole father's day thingy I posted in the family collection 🥲 it was me just having so much fun especially surrounding dialogue, and it's always a delight to write twins verse au <3

6. A scene you struggled with

From what I've posted I don't think I struggled with it if it ended up posted? like publicly? I tend to avoid posting what makes me struggle lol

But I do think it took me a while to figure out how I wanted the Ghost!Tess fic to go- in exactly what direction to aim, since she's a ghost Joel can see but not everyone else, which fuels the angst more.

25. A scene or image that lives rent-free in your head

From what I've written? The nightmares in the QZ baby Ellie verse because I love a good dream sequence and you can expect MORE and maybe even mooooore messed up I'm gonna go nuts <3

From other people? The vampire!Tess fic written by @clairenovaking has been living inside my head since October and I fear it's only gonna get worse, it got so bad it had me rewatching scenes of Annie Wersching as Lily/Lilian Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. I'm normal about vampires okay.

[reyofluke-ocs]

OCs DESERVE BETTER / REINTRODUCING : Ashley Williams (The Last of Us) FC: Katelyn Nacon

“You have no idea of the things I have done for Ellie. To make sure she was safe and healthy and as comfortable as possible in this shithole of a world. So believe me when I say, if I even think you’re going to hurt her, I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your myself. Clear?”

Anna Williams had another kid before Ellie, a little girl she named Ashley. Vaguely, Ashley can remember hanging out with Anna in the makeshift clinic or being babysat by Marlene. When Anna dies giving birth to Ellie, little 4-year-old Ashley makes it her life mission to look out for her baby sister, even if they have different good-for-nothing fathers. Sure, Marlene looked over them as best as she could, but Ashley practically raised Ellie. From a young age, there was nothing she wasn’t willing to do to for Ellie’s health and safety, including doing various favors of all sorts for different members of Boston QZ - extra rations, medicine when Ellie was sick, getting Ellie out of severe punishments, smuggling, etc. Nothing was off limits for her baby sister. 

As a result of helping with some smuggling operations, she had run into and heard of Joel and Tess, but never spent any length of time with either of them until Marlene was contracting them to bring Ellie to the rest of the Fireflies. Ashley refuses to be left behind - if she was willing to either die or become infected alongside Ellie before they knew she was immune, there was no way in hell she was letting some strangers go off along with her whole world. 

Trusting neither Joel nor Tess, despite previous run-ins with them, Ashley is completely prepared to either either kill them or grab Ellie and ditch them as fodder for infected at a moment’s notice. For so long, it was just her and her sister against the world - and then gruff, hardass Joel Miller starts fulfilling the missing father-figure Ashley always told herself the sisters were always better without. And maybe, she begins to realize that she doesn’t have to take every aspect of Ellie’s wellbeing as her responsibility. 

tagging: @guardiansofheroes, @stanshollaand, @foxesandmagic, @hiddenqveendom, @arrthurpendragon, @cas-verse, @eddiemunscns, if anyone wants to be added/removed let me know!