#unfortunately they're also bulky in appearance

[meditating-dog-lover]

Leg massager

I just ordered an expensive foot and leg massager. It better be worth it

[bison-appreciation-club]

So I am aware that I am the only person making Edward II content as far as I can see, bUT if you are writing/drawing my guy then here is some advice from a MASSIVE Edward II nerd:

let's discuss Edward's appearance in excessive detail (yay)

Ok so. The basics: he had blond curly hair that reached his shoulders, parted in the middle in the style of the time. And a beard. Or at least he does in his effigy, in which we can imagine he is 43, his age at the time of death.

I mean. Let's take a moment to appreciate his hair. It is A Look that I want to emulate with all my heart ands soul. Just me? Fine.

In earlier depictions of him he is clean shaven. For example, this drawing of him when he was accepting the title of Prince of Wales from his father

look at my little guy (literally little, because the picture turned out tiddly and I don't know why). Lmao. Anyway, here are some more pictures of Edward II.

I sometimes see people say that this is a young Edward III, but as this was produced in 1326 I doubt it. I rarely see drawings of royalty before they become active in politics, which Edward III at the tender age of 14 had not yet become. So it's more likely that this is just a very youthful looking Edward II.

Again, this is probably Edward II. It's not specified, but it was produced during his reign so we can safely assume it's the man himself.

ok, so those are some drawings of him, what next?

unfortunately we don't know what his eye colour or complexion was. I'd imagine his eyes were probably blue or grey as it's quite rare to have blond hair and dark eyes. Also (and yes, I am looking too deeply into this, but shush), both his parents had dark hair, so for him to have lighter coloured hair would suggest a lack of pigmentation in hair and eyes, which would also lead to poor eyesight. (I can confirm this because I have the same problem. Both my parents have dark brown hair and dark eyes but I am blond and blue eyed as the pigmentation in my hair and eyes didn't develop as quickly as normal - it's common for white people to be blond when born and then for their hair to darken, but with me this is happening much more slowly than it did for my parents. As a result my eyesight is so bad that I can't buy glasses frames thick enough to contain the lenses lmao.)

here are what some of Edward's contemporaries had to say about him (quotes taken from Kathryn Warner's excellent blog)

"tall and strong, a fine figure of a handsome man"

"fair of body and great of strength"

"of a well-formed and a handsome person"

"one of the strongest men of his realm"

(To be honest the fact that he was super hot seems to be his only redeeming feature in the eyes of the monks.)

Edward enjoyed 'unkingly' activities such as digging ditches, thatching roofs and doing blacksmith work, so we can imagine that he was really strong (the quotes back this up). His father, Edward I, was six foot two so Edward II would have been pretty tall too.

So, in conclusion, if you're writing/drawing Edward II give him awesome hair. Give him dirt under his fingernails. Give him muscles. For the love of God don't turn him into the Braveheart version.

(also, when I look up references to the muscular structure most of the drawings that come up look like they're on steroids. don't put Edward on steroids. The strongest men in the world don't have ridiculously defined muscles. They just look 'bulky' or 'barrel chested'. So yeah :).)

Hope this helps!!! If not, at least this has been an excuse to ramble about Edward II.

[zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u]

All of Garu/Karu's collars so far

Which one is your favorite?

Bonus: and how come they change? Are the outfit makers manufacturing a new collar and replacing his gemstone(gemstones?) each time? And especially for cowboy Garu (which by the way, he & Eiden got their outfits in a random shop, so it wasn't provided by Aster for once)... the gemstones changed to spikes too. Whats going on xD

Some interesting facts (and bonus theorizing):

Forgotten Fruit, Binary Starlight, and Stampeding adventurer are customized (although N & R are also different).

Ethereal Guardian, R, and N are the only ones without a leash/something dangling off the collar.

Much like Quincy, Edmond, and Olivine, it is a little unclear which gem was his actual gemstone and which are... decorative? However, that slightly contradicts with canon because Gramps found him with broken gemstone pieces. It is possible that Gramps fused the broken gem pieces back into one, but that doesn't explain the other blue gems that appear on the rest of the collar that sometimes are missing (Forgotten Fruit) or suddenly change shape (Stampeding adventurer). We can reasonably assume that at least the center-most gem that is always circular was the original or very close to the original.

It's also very interesting how people react to the collar.

No one is trying to steal Yakumo/Rei's ears or Edmond/Quincy's hands, which also look like accessories. Blade's "gemstone" blends in with his outfits if you don't look at it closely. And obviously no one is going to steal Dante or Kuya's eyes lol. In general, most people have not reacted to the other member's gemstones. But Olivine is interesting.

Actually, let's talk about Olivine & Garu's gems! Olivine can and has occasionally hid his piercings/gemstone. Most people's reactions are sexualizing Olivine and his gemstone blends in with the piercing setup. Garu's is off his body and hypothetically he could stash them anywhere, even a pocket or necklace. But nope, they're on this giant dangerous-looking collar that is difficult to hide and difficult to steal (which is why most people start out with trying to kidnap Garu himself). Most average/ordinary people don't seem to notice this insignificant-seeming wolf yokai displaying a bunch of bulky gems around his neck. But Kolt recognized right away what it actually was. Lone Wolf had a very negative reaction to the collar. And the townspeople in Desert of Dusk thought the collar was expensive jewelry that they could steal. Out of everyone, we're seeing more and more how much it makes G/Karu an unfortunate target. Whereas people's main reaction to Olivine's gemstone/piercing setup is lust. This is very fascinating!

(If any Yakumo fans read this far- did the other serpent yokai/villagers have reactions to Yakumo being born with a gemstone?)

[mk-writes-stuff]

OC Interaction Game

Rules: describe an OC, then describe how they would interact with the OC(s) of the people who tagged you

Thanks @somethingclevermahogony and @illarian-rambling for the tags! I love this game

C’s OC: (As of the start of Book 1) Narul is a 23 year-old slave at the Palace of Labisa, the Great City by the Lake. He is a forestfolk, a person or group of people who have been mutated or altered by the effects of wild or ambient magic. His birth mother was a priestess, his father is a mystery. He was adopted by an enslaved woman as an infant, thus how he ended up in the servitude of King Hutbari. He is a giant of a man, literally, at just a hair under nine feet tall. He is additionally quite bulky, much much larger than even the biggest human. He is so large that the door into the slave quarters had to be reconstructed just to fit him as he grew up. Aside from his size he is also just a bit rough in appearance, hairy and broad, picture a DnD Dwarf, just sized way up.

He is inhumanly strong, a fact that causes him a great deal of distress. Because of his size and strength, Narul has the potential to be quite dangerous to normal humans, as he has been repeatedly reminded of since his childhood. Narul has a great deal of anxiety around his body and his potential to accidently hurt others, as such he is quite timid and careful. He has a tendency to mumble when he talks, which unfortunately due to his low voice, often makes it sound like he is growling.He is a gentle person, he likes flowers and abhors violence. He cries relatively easily and gets easily anxious or overwhelmed.Despite all of this he is fiercely loyal and kind. He doesn’t talk much but loves to listen to others. 

His fatal flaw is a healthy dose of self-doubt and self-loathing. Narul hates his body, it scares him, and he believes that it scares others. He is often self-deprecating, though not in a joking way. He feels an intense jealousy towards those around him that are able to live normal lives and pursue normal relationships.

Katie’s OC: Elsind is a 20 year old changeling whose true form looks like a mannequin wrapped in raw meat with five fins ringing its face, and who can transition between a solid and liquid state. They change their disguise frequently (they can only do people, not animals) and use the pronouns of whatever face they're wearing. As a person, Elsind is anxious, easily flustered, cries a lot, and is overall very kind-hearted, despite working as an assassin for a rebel cell. She ended up in that line of work because she wants revenge for what the nobility of her home put her through - kidnapping her at thirteen to serve as a court freak. He thinks if he can assassinate his target, he can earn his courage back and be more than another discarded toy of the ruling class, even if the idea of killing someone makes him sick. Indeed, classism is where Elsind gets very passionate, as well as talking about romance novels. They long for love, even if they think no one would accept a changeling without a disguise. I would also say she's chronically unlucky. If anyone is going to slip in the mud in his nice new dress, it's Elsind. All I have written down on their character notes is "eager to please, easily overwhelmed, great combo of traits," which is pretty much Elsind's deal.

My OC (created by my lovely gf): Nellie is a clone in her mid-twenties, although she’s only been out of the vat for about six months. She’s reasonably tall and pretty skinny, with pale skin, short black hair, and narrow red-and-gold eyes, which she usually hides behind sunglasses. Nellie is a sweet, kind, and empathetic woman who cares very deeply for others and wants to help, to the point where she sometimes struggles to put herself first. She also has a deeply traumatic history of abuse by her genetic donor that still troubles her deeply and gives her struggles with intimacy, as well as an addiction to mindsplit that she’s trying to shake. She longs for a simple, happy life - a good job, a nice place to live, good food, and the chance to live as her true self (Nellie is a trans woman) is all she’s really looking for (and maybe a partner one day if the opportunity arises - she’s met a friend who’s cute but he’s also a clone of Belladonna’s dad so she’s a bit uncertain). Nellie also has empathic magic, although she hasn’t trained it much, which she mostly uses to see how others are feeling and help them where she can.

How Nellie and Narul would interact: I think at first Nellie would be a bit intimidated by him because he’s huge. But with her empathy magic, I think she’d quickly realize he was actually a very sweet, anxious man, and she’d no longer find him scary. She’d be happy to talk to him (I think she might kind of hope the creeps would steer clear of her if she spent time with him, but regardless she’d be happy to just because he seems nice) and would be fine talking if he wanted to listen, although I think she’d feel like she was running out of things to talk about because she’s still figuring herself and her life out. If he ever opened up to her, she’d understand the feeling of being different very well - she’s only just recently been able to start living a normal life now that she’s out from under Narcissus’s thumb.

How Nellie and Elsind would interact: I think they’d get along great! They’re both very kindhearted people with awful pasts due to their natures (Elsind being a shapechanger and Nellie being a clone). Nellie doesn’t want Narcissus dead particularly, and would certainly never want to kill him, but she wouldn’t blame Elsind for wanting their abuser dead. They both have similar view on the world (classism bad and nobility kind of sucks), and Nellie would love to hear all about Elsind’s romance novels - she’s just starting to read herself, so she might ask Elsind if he has any suggestions. She would be happy to befriend Elsind despite her being a shapeshifter, so I think they’d both benefit from this friendship, since both of them could definitely use a friend.

This was a fun one! I hope y’all like the answers, lmk what you think :)

@kaylinalexanderbooks @rkmoon @writingsfromspace want to play?

[doomxdriven]

Lyric probably got tanba the ugliest, thickest Christmas sweaters they could find as a gift so that he can finally put some fucking clothes on

Tanba stares for a few moments at one of the atrocious looking sweaters Lyric had just presented him. Holding that bulky, fuzzy, Christmas-themed fashion atrocity within his hands, all Tanba could think was that this was probably the ugliest piece of clothing he had ever set his eyes on. Glancing over at some of the others, they looked to be about the same.

If Tanba was anything, however, he was open minded, and that's why the very next thing he did was strip off his original top (if you could even call what he normally wore a top) in front of Lyric and then slide into that monstrosity of a sweater.

"This might be the WORST thing anyone has ever gifted me, Lyric," Tanba said with a bright grin, looking down at the monstrosity that now adorned his upper body, "but in that, it's-so-awful-it's-good kind of way."

Tanba can be seen taking the sweater off after humoring it for a few more moments, handing it off to a double of himself that had appeared out of nowhere and would quickly vanish soon after with the sweater in hand, along with all the others Lyric had likely gotten him.

"Not, it's-so-awful-it's-good ENOUGH for me to actually wear any of those around, goodness gracious no, terrible fashion sense is a Samurai's department," Tanba, his tone and overall demeanor exuberant, continues, "but they're VERY neat; I'll be sure to hang some of them up in my castle somewhere, or maybe put them in fancy display cases!"

Tanba, who by this point is standing there with his upper body totally bare, reaches over and puts one arm around Lyric's shoulder in a friendly (and unfortunately personal-space defying) manner.

"Thanks a whole lot for those, though! At the end of the day it's the thought that really counts, and I'm sure you put a whole lot of thought into those, things. This is why you and me are great friends!"

Tanba, after somehow producing an entire bar of gold in his free hand (that also had a bow tied around it, like a present), hands that precious metal off to Lyric, adding, with no small amount of cheer, "Here, you deserve this, too, Merry Holidays, Lyric!! Go buy yourself something neat!"

And then? Then Tanba's gone, vanished, into a cloud of black feathers, leaving Lyric to their own devices and their shiny bar of Holiday gold!!! // @lunarscaled

[optimusphillip]

OptimusPhillip Reviews — Transformers: Vintage Beast Wars Wolfang

Beast Wars has been getting a lot of love lately, and I for one am happy to see it. Between Kingdom coming out in 2021 and Rise of the Beasts coming out later this year, it's clear Hasbro is aware of how much fans love this unusual era of Transformers history. But the most surprising of these throwbacks has got to be the expansion of Transformers: Vintage from just G1 to include original Beast Wars toys. And we'll be looking at one of those today: Wolfang, the Maximal who might have actually been in the show, if not for budget restrictions forcing them to use Tigatron instead.

Beast Mode

As his name suggests, Wolfang transforms into a wolf, and quite a bulky wolf, at that. He reminds me of those excessively muscular dogs you'd find in Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Admittedly, most of that bulk comes from the fact that he has to turn into a robot, and the sculpted muscle is much more subdued. But regardless, he's got some unusual proportions going on. I don't really mind, though. He still looks plenty wolfish, and the added bulk just makes him look really powerful, rather than deformed in any way.

All of the wolf parts are cast in gray plastic, with a really nice fur texture sculpted all over, and a little bit of white airbrushing on the paws and the underside of the head. The nose is painted black, which is accurate, and the eyes are a solid green, which is less accurate, but it fits the Beast Wars aesthetic. Aside from that, the only other color comes from exposed robot parts. It looks alright, but I feel like he would have benefited from some more white, to really get across the look of the wolf.

Being a first-year Beast Wars toy, the articulation in this mode is very limited. Ball joints in the hips and hinges in the knees are all you get. The forelegs are permanently sculpted in a stalking position, which combined with his muscular appearance and the snarling expression, does give him an imposing look. Unfortunately, this means the leg joints aren't good for much in this mode... unless you want to make him pee, weirdly enough.

Conversion

Wolfang's transformation is not what I would call clean. In fact, a lot of the beast mode just kind of detaches and hangs off from the robot. The arms don't even attempt to hide on the wolf's underbelly. The head splits in half to form some shoulder pads, and the wolf shoulders form a pair of hip skirts, but the front legs just hang off the biceps and have nowhere to go. The hind legs actually transform quite cleverly, though. The lower legs of the robot fold out from the flanks of the wolf, and the wolf legs actually form the shins. I also appreciate that the integrated accessories don't have to come off for transformation. No partsforming today!

Robot Mode

In robot mode, Wolfang is looking rather stocky, not unlike his wolf mode. Like I said in the conversion section, most of the wolf parts just kind of hang off of the robot, but some of it actually kind of works as armor. I wish there was something that could've been done with the wolf's front legs, though. They're at least on ball joints, so you might be able to remove them, but I don't think that really fixes the problem.

Wolfang's head design is interesting to say the least. The helmet almost gives me Rhinox vibes, with the crest and the mohawk, but the weird part is definitely the gigantic chin-piece. His lower jaw just juts out half an inch from the rest of his face. It's a rather funny look, but it does actually serve a purpose.

As a first-year Beast Wars toy, Wolfang has a mutant head feature. In this case, it's a giant visor that flips down over his robot face, in an attempt to give him a wolf-man appearance. A lot of the detailing is washed out by the black paint, but the hackles do go a long way to selling the idea. This also explains the giant chin, as it forms the lower jaw of the mutant head. Honestly, as mutant heads go, I like this one. The visor effect plays well with the wolf kibble "armor" he has going on, almost making him feel like a knight. That said, if it doesn't do it for you, you can always just pop the part off and give him a more normal-looking head.

Beast Wars was a huge leap forward for Transformers articulation, and Wolfang does benefit from that. The neck is on a ball joint, with a little bit of wiggle room in all directions. He has ball-jointed shoulders for universal motion, bicep swivels, and 180 degrees of bend at the elbow. No waist articulation, but the hips are also on universal ball joints, and the knees have 180 degrees of bend. Not only that, but all of the wolf kibble is adjustable, meaning that it doesn't restrict his movement as much as you'd think. As a result, he can assume quite a few poses for a 90's action figure.

Going around to the back, you'll find Wolfang's "hidden weapons". The tail pulls out to become a gun, and the rest of the back comes off to form a giant shield. The shield requires a bit of transformation to get ready. There's a small square that flips around to reveal a handle, which I can't tell is supposed to lock out, or just float there. It looks like there's a catch, and the instructions seem to show it folding out farther, but all I've managed to accomplish in trying to flip it out that far is creating a massive stress mark, and the point at which it stops does feel natural, even if it doesn't lock anywhere. Rounding out the accessory loadout is a pair of anchor missiles that can either fire from his gun, or store in his back, giving him some belly spikes. The missiles don't fire very far, maybe a foot at most, but compared to the missile launchers on G1 reissues, I'll gladly take it.

But now is where we get into the problem with this release. Apparently, a softer plastic was used for the missiles on this version, presumably for safety reasons. Unfortunately, the missiles were cast from the same mold as the figure's biceps, and now those are made of the same, softer plastic, including the clips that hold the elbow joints in place. As a result, the forearms pop off very easily. The left arm holds together alright on mine, but the right arm wants to come apart every time I straighten the elbow. Mileage may vary, of course, but this seems to be a somewhat widespread issue. It's a shame, but because it involves the missiles, I don't know if Hasbro had any choice here (aside from retooling).

Final Thoughts

Wolfang is about what you would expect from a first-year Beast Wars figure. A couple interesting tricks and a lot of kibble. That said, the heavy armor aesthetic means he wears the kibble very well, and his use of the mutant head gimmick actually makes him feel more characterful. The weapons are well-integrated and play well with his design. The only issue I can't forgive is the elbows. Being a non-show character, I don't expect there's a lot of nostalgia out there for this figure compared to most of the other Vintage releases, but I still think he's a good toy, and would recommend him to those curious. At the very least, he's probably a better use of your money than Retrax.

[disabled-dragoon]

hi, i just found out about a chair cane and it's really impressive (if it works of course), it's called the ta-da chair. from what i can see, the chair function is opened by one twist and it's pretty easy to close again too. i also like that it's not too bulky or obvious looking. i think only a few places sell it, and it's expensive, but as someone who has a hard time predicting when i'm going to faint, it's quicker than opening it up manually. looks like it's the only thing like it on the market so i thought i'd mention it. (the colour selection is decent, as well, if it matters lol.)

Ooh how interesting! Thank you, anon!

The price is certainly an issue, but I have provided links nonetheless. And some less "fancy" but cheaper seat stick alternatives if anyone is interested!

Ta-Da Chair:

Step2Gold: I think this is the original company but correct me if I'm wrong. They're based in Taiwan and it doesn't look like they ship directly, but they have a form to contact them and a map of their distributors in North America, Europe, North East Asia, South East Asia, Greater China and Australia.

And here is a link to the Step2Gold distributor map.

Outcessories: This looks to be a North American distributor of the Ta-Da Chair. Unfortunately, it appears they only deliver to continental US but if you are unsure they do provide contact details on their website.

Amazon: If anyone is interested, here is an Amazon link for a Ta-Da Chair.

Farm Cottage Brands: This is a UK-based distributor of the Ta-Da Chair. They don't solely deal in the chair, but the link provided takes you to the item. Again, I don't think they sell outside of the UK but you can contact them to confirm this.

Alternatives:

SwitchSticks US: Significantly cheaper seat cane at first glance, but unfortunately I don't know the shipping policies of this company. They are partnered with SwitchSticks Australia, however, which also offers seat canes.

MobilitySmart: A UK-based company that provides a range of seat canes and does offer international delivery! Unfortunately, international orders cannot be placed online but you can find instructions on placing an overseas order here. The colour options aren't too great, but the stick/style(?) options are!

Canes Galore: Another US based company that I genuinely cannot find any delivery information for so I apologise for that. You can contact them if you have questions. They do a small range of seat sticks, offering single legged versions and tripod versions. Not incredibly cheap but also not as expensive as the Ta-Da Chair.

AgingInPlace: This site provides links to a few tested and reviewed seat sticks. They even provide pros and cons lists for the sticks.

[slutsofren]

Danger Days Chapter 2: Kill All Your Friends

missed chapter 1? read here!

summary: things get thrown for a bit a loop at the dam when two strangers appear, revealing to be Joel, Tommy's younger brother and a young girl. their presence makes things a little tense but soon gets heated as danger follows them to thr power plant.

word count: 3,352

read on ao3 here

warnings: slight cursing, guns and well, canon-typical murder, hunter attack

notes: does anybody else look at joel and just wanna,,,, punch him in the face with kisses? just because he deserves it? no? only me? 

Humid. It was always fucking humid. The lot of you have been out at the dam for nearly a week with little to be shown as progress. Things in Jackson were doing fine, wonderful even, and then the power went out. Turns out one of the turbines busted, it’s taken you and the whole group working day and night to repair it.

You leaned against the wall, taking in the greenery that was slowly encompassing the whole hydroelectric dam. It was rather beautiful. You glanced over to David, one of the few engineers from the old world, was hunched over the table mumbling softly to himself looking over a rather poorly drawn map of the turbines, trying to figure out what was going wrong. Then glanced to the far side of the courtyard where Tommy and Maria were, both engrossed in some tense conversation. 

Whatever they were whisper-arguing about wasn’t going to be any of your business… until Maria finds you later on to vent at least. A little push off the wall and you grabbed your rifle before swinging it onto your back, groaning that your little break was probably over by now. Today you had guard duty. How fun.

You approached the duo, hoping to simmer down whatever was going on between them, likely both were stressed beyond hell for the turbine to come back on. Maria saw you first and put her hand on her face, rubbing away some tension. She said your name and pulled you into a half hug and you didn’t miss the small thanks she whispered in your ear for interrupting.

“Goin’ back on duty, want me to keep near the front gate?”

Maria nodded, “Sounds good. I’ll follow you in a minute.”

Tommy looked at you and gave you a friendly smile. Although you were casual friends with the man long before you met Maria, he knows where your loyalties lie but also knows you have his back on the field. When you first arrived at Jackson, bloodied and bruised, Maria didn’t trust you as far as she could have tossed you, but as things go, you both wormed into the others hearts through sheer sarcasm and your ‘take no shit’ attitude.

That’s when Tommy knew he was fucked being the only person between the two of you.  

You left and went to go to your post, fanning out the jean jacket you were wearing to help relieve the humidity on your skin. The entrance to the hydroelectric dam was hellbent on attracting unwanted attention. For the near week you’ve been out here you had two bandit attacks, not to mention the ones back at Jackson, causing you to feel even stickier.

You found a spot up top the entrance to keep an eye out through the scope of your rifle, not noticing anything for another couple of hours, Maria not even coming by to her post. Just as you were going to call your shift, you noticed some slight movement across the concrete jungle of the remains of the power plant.

And some more movement.

Then more.

You grabbed your radio and phoned in, “Activity to the east. Two spotted.” The radio clicked and produced static until another click sounded.

Maria called back, “Eyes.”

“Noted. Out.”

With that, you knew exactly what to do. Everybody did. When it came down to it, nobody really did want a gunfight. When the code ‘eyes’ is spoken, it means shut up and watch. If the people pass, they go on their merry way. If they don’t, well, they typically don’t leave alive if they so much as hint at being a threat.

It’s unfortunate this is the way life is now but who are you to fight the changing tides.

You peek through your scope again, watching a dark haired man and a smaller woman work their way through the maze, figuring out how to cross the water. You took your eyes off the scope and began to watch them without the tool until they both began pushing at the gate. You grumble, “Contact made.”

Maria pops in behind you on your left and together you two and two more of the on duty guards on the other end of the gate point your rifles at the duo, revealing yourselves. The man doesn’t take notice until the girl points a gun at your companions then you and he backs off the entrance.

“Don’t even think about drawing your weapon! Tell the girl to drop hers. Now,” Maria shouts besides you.

The man backs up a couple steps, sticking his hand out to the girl, “Ellie, so as the lady says.”

She looks at him and puts her arms up in surrender, “Okay.”

Maria, still holding her rifle at the two strangers, says to the man, “Please tell me you're lost.”

“We didn’t know the place was occupied, we’re just trying to make our way through,” he points through the gate.

“Through to where?”

Then a deep voice picks up, “They're alright.”

You and Maria look away from the two down to the voice, seeing Tommy approaching the gate. “What, you know these people,” Maria asks him.

“I know him,” Tommy grumbles as he opens the gate, “He’s my goddamn brother.”

Oh.

You’d heard stories of the man before, of Joel Miller. From what Tommy has said before you recalled that the man was a bit of a brute, shut off from everybody after losing his daughter. He was a hunter and did some goddamned awful things in this world but quite frankly, who hasn’t? You know you have in the past to ensure your survival. It was something Tommy hated that his brother participated in but you couldn’t blame him, not after the shit you’ve seen and done.

Joel looked at his brother and his shoulders slumped, “Tommy.”

“Holy shit,” he said and moved past the safety of the gates and went straight to Joel, wrapping his arms around him.

“How you doin’, baby brother?”

Maria shot you a look that clearly stated she didn’t trust the man, despite being her brother-in-law, she heard the same stories you did. The man was a hunter, a murderer, even a smuggler. The very kind of people that don’t bode well with Jackson. With a sigh, you both put down your rifles and headed down to the gate to meet Joel and the girl, Ellie. She walked right up to the two men and you could faintly hear Tommy say, “You got fuckin’ old.”

“Easy - it’s gonna happen to you too,” Joel quipped.

Tommy took a step back, you watched how he shuffled on his feet and introduced Maria. “Be nice to her, she sorta runs things around here.”

“Ma’am.” Joel nods his head towards her. “Thanks for not blowing my head off.”

You roll your eyes at this from where you’re watching this all unfold, internally gagging at Joel’s whole ‘southern charm’ bit. Although he should be more grateful to you for not shooting him. Maria looks at Tommy beside her, “Would’ve been embarrassing, considering you’re my brother-in-law.”

An amused smile immediately hits your lips as you watch Joel try to absorb that information. He looks between the couple a few times before Tommy says, “We all gotta get wrangled up at some point.”

Maria turns to you and you lose the smile as she extends a hand for you to approach. “And this here is my second in command,” introducing you to Joel by giving him your first name and he nods his head, both of you deciding to not say a word to each other, silently sizing the other up. His eyes don’t leave yours but for a brief moment you swear his eyes flash down your body and back up as he lets out a low huff.

Oh, it’s on old man, you think.

Maria chuckles, noticing whatever the hell is happening between you two, and she turns towards the girl. “Ellie, right? What brings you through here?”

Ellie looks towards Joel for guidance, “Uh… it’s kind of a long story.”

Tommy immediately notices all the other eyes and ears watching this interaction unfold and puts his hand on Maria’s back, picking up the clear signal for some privacy. “Why don���t we bring ‘em inside?”

“Yeah, you hungry,” she asks Ellie.

“Starving,” the girl groans. You smile a bit, feeling pretty amused at this whole thing. From the stories you’ve been told about Joel it seemed very unlikely he’d be traveling with a companion, much less a child.

Tommy steps aside as you walk back through the gate first, Maria and Ellie behind you. “False alarm. They're friendlies,” you shout, walking further in the power plant leading the group. You take a quick glance around at the other scouts on shift, watching them watch the newcomers. Everybody was on edge, everybody was wary. The fact Tommy and Maria were letting some strangers in, in the midst of repairing an essential component to Jackson functioning properly, was not going past anybody.

You can hear Maria as she explains the stares and the heavily armed posts to Joel somewhere behind you, “We’ve been dealing with raids. Lots of bandits in this area.”

“It’s been quiet for a few days,” Tommy adds on, explaining why they answered at the gate so aggressively, as if it was any consolation of almost killing his brother and the girl.

“What the hell are you doing here? I thought I’d find you in Jackson.”

“Been trying to bring the plant back to life,” Tommy explains.

This time you chime in, “We had it working before, but one of the turbines went south about a week ago. Been tryin’ to fix it up.”

Tommy adjusts his rifle on his shoulder. “We have electricity Joel… had. We’ll get it running again.”

Ellie runs past you, approaching a few of the horses. “No way! You guys have horses.”

“We got a whole lot of ‘em,” Tommy tells her. You watch as she puts her hand on the brown and white one, petting it softly.

Beside the horse is Cherry, one of the few horse wranglers in Jackson, she was kind and sweet, pretty young too all things considered. She was tall and bulky from years of shoving heavy loads of hay, sometimes you’d wonder what it’d be like to get tossed around by her. She’s kind of notorious for winning hand-to-hand combat scenarios in the training hall. Not that you ever went.

Cherry tells Ellie about the horse and they get to talking about the animal. You also hear Charlie over your shoulder asking Tommy for help with one of the iron shoes on another horse. You take a few steps back then marching towards the warehouse, settling against the wall next to Earl and he gives you a brief nod acknowledging you. He’s sweet, you think, you’ve never spoken to him much but you recall he’s one of the maintenance men around Jackson. Thankfully he’s the silent type and you don’t have to try and make polite small talk with him.

As you both lean against the wall quietly, you begin watching both Ellie and Joel and how they’re assessing the environment. Ellie seems very excited petting the horse and talking to Cherry but Joel looks on edge, mirroring everyone else. He catches you staring and looks away slowly, now watching Ellie talk to Cherry about going riding later on.

Maria and Tommy make their way towards you and you push off, walking up the stairs and opening the door, you faintly hear Maria talk to Earl about heading back to Jackson. The door creaks open and you let Tommy, Joel, Ellie, then Maria into the warehouse until both your and Maria’s radios crackle. “Maria, we’re in the control room. Steve’s about to start it back up. Do you wanna come check it out?”

Maria sighs and mumbles back to you, “I’d rather eat with Ellie.”

You stifle a bit of a laugh at her candor in front of the others and Tommy interjects, “It’s my turn anyway. I’ll go.”

Joel then volunteers to go with his brother, telling Ellie to go with you and Maria but not before flashing you a look that says something akin to ‘try something and I’ll hunt you’.

Before Ellie could protest, Maria pulls her along. “C’mon, Ellie. Let’s give the boys some space.”

The three of you are relatively quiet leading back to the office room where the food was. Ellie kept looking over her shoulder, likely for Joel. You started wondering how he came across her, doubting any possibility she was his daughter. Tommy would have known if that were the case.

You gave a look over at Ellie, now seeing her a little closer. She looks slightly gaunt, likely hasn’t eaten in a few days you suspect which worries you a bit. No kid should have to go without.

“When was the last time you ate,” you ask her.

She ponders for a moment, “Before we got here I was pretty sure that the next squirrel I saw I was gonna eat.”

You and Maria raised your eyebrows at her admission before gently laughing as you reached the room. Maria pulls out some jars of fruit and a container of jerky from underneath and hands it to her, “Here, eat some of this. We have better options back in Jackson but while we don’t have a full service kitchen out here, this is the best we got.”

“That’s okay! I’ll eat almost anything at this point,” she openly admits. You take notice in how expressive she is, likely warming up to you and Maria now.

The three of you get to talking, making idle chatter over a few opened mason jars and a hefty supply of jerky. The more you talk with Ellie, the more you grow to like her. She’s got a mouth of a sailor and sarcasm that’d turn any old man running. 

Wonder if she’s annoyed the hell out of Joel, you muse. Now you sit, chewing on fruit and imagining how easy it’d be to get under his skin. You’re torn out of your thoughts when the lights suddenly turn on, “Thank the damned stars! I’m ready to get out of here. Everybody is driving me up the wall.”

Maria throws a loose grape at you, “Thanks a lot, asshole.”

“Anytime,” you wink.

“How long have you two known each other,” Ellie asks you both. 

You pop a piece of fruit in your mouth, “Just two years. She was already married to Tommy when I arrived.”

“Can’t believe you’re married to his brother,” Ellie groans. “Joel is such a grump, can’t imagine how the other one is.”

Maria nods and smiles, still eating some of the peaches. “Oh, trust me. Some days I want to strangle him. Didn’t expect to ever meet Joel, if I’m bein’ honest.”

“I couldn’t recognize him, not even by that photo,” you say mindlessly, reaching for your canteen and drinking water.

Ellie picks her head up a little more, “Photo? What photo?”

Maria gets up from her seat and walks to one of the duffle bags in the other room, she searches around before she pulls out a photo and when she returns, hands it to Ellie. She gestures to you, “Her and Tommy went down to Texas about a year ago, he wanted to see what was left of his and Joel’s old life and scavenge what they could.”

“We didn’t find much,” you continue, “Tommy didn’t think he’d ever see his brother again, it was like his way of saying goodbye so he took this photo of him and a couple others.”

“Who’s the girl,” Ellie asks looking at the picture.

“Sarah.” You shift in your seat, not feeling entirely comfortable with this conversation anymore. 

Maria finishes your sentence, “She was his daughter. She didn’t survive very long after the outbreak.”

Before you could try to steer the conversation in another direction, a loud siren echoed through the hall as shouts filled the warehouse.

“Bandits,” someone shouted as gunshots rang out.

You stand up and push Ellie behind you, looking for your rifle. It was too far away, tucked under one of the abandoned desks. “Fuck,” you shout as you see a handful of hunters enter the room.

Drawing the two handguns strapped to your thighs, you begin to take shots at them, not exactly hitting them where it was vital but enough to make them stumble and drop. Maria grabs you by the shoulder, “Let’s go!”

You retreat backwards into the closed off manager-type office and from the corner of your eye you see a man rise from the other side of a broken window and take aim at Ellie behind you. You whipped around and shoved against her with an ‘oof’ just as you hear something whizz past you and hit the wall above the two of you.

Hovering above Ellie, you keep her head down with your right hand, abandoning the gun beside her as you and Maria take alternating shots at the invaders. “Move, Ellie,” you tell her, lifting yourself up to give her room to maneuver into the office while shielding her.

Maria shuffles into the room after you and the girl, “There’s more coming in. We can’t take all of them.”

“Shit, okay,” you look around frantically. You were running low on bullets now, the rest of your spare ammunition was left in your backpack. In an entirely different area. Your eyes searched around the small room and you got Maria’s attention, together you pulled a nearby table into the office, barricading yourselves. 

“Under the table, now,” she yells at Ellie then looks at you.“Guess we’ll have to wait for the men to save us,” she says a little bitterly.

Together, the three of you hid. Waiting for the echo of bullets to cease after what feels like a lifetime.

Faintly, you could hear the familiar voice of Tommy yelling and a gruff one responding, likely his brother. You released the breath you had been holding onto as the last gunshot rang out. Between you and Maria, Ellie had her hands over her ears and she slowly lowered them until jumping up and shouting “They’re all dead!”

Maria rose to her feet as Tommy and her called out for each other, “The kid’s with us!” She jumps out the shattered window and runs to her husband as they check over each other.

You help Ellie out the office room the same way and Joel looks over her the same way as she recalls the attack.  “Joel, oh, man…,” Ellie begins talking so fast that she’s out of breath. “They were coming in from every direction and they were both like ‘we gotta run’ and so we dove over these tables and this huge guy blasts in with a shotgun-”

“Slow down, slow down. Listen-,” Joel cuts her off. He puts his hands on her shoulders and looks her in the eye, “Hey, hey, are you hurt?”

“No!” She looks at you, “She protected me!”

Joel follows her gaze and you look him in the eye, cocking an eyebrow at him. 

You’re not really competitive, you don’t really like attention either, but there was something about Joel fuckin’ Miller that really got to you. Maybe it was the way he seemed to be mindful of everything, maybe it was the way his eyes roamed over your body, maybe it was the fact he was unfortunately making you squirm where you stood as his hardened glare seemed to see right through you, asking you to try him.

Whatever it was, his hardened stare made you quiver ever so slightly. You took a few very mindful steps away from the man, walking towards Maria and Tommy when you caught the tail end of whatever he was saying to your best friend, “- to talk.”

It seemed like that was not what Maria wanted to hear as her already pale face grew paler and her signature scowl etched back across her face.