Thatguyinastore

ArcRift

It was hard for Joel not to smile in the presence of both his daughter and former partner. They were two people who- needless to say, he'd grown quite the bond with. They were pretty much his family... or, in Tess' case, the closest thing he had to family after everything went to shit. Hearing her voice again, calling him the codename they'd settled on... it was nice. It was one of those little things that Joel would never thought he'd miss, until he actually heard it again.

"Yup," Joel nodded, his grip around Sarah's hand tightening a bit as he spoke. "This is her." When Sarah asked if they were a "thing", though, Joel seemed taken aback for a brief moment. The man blinked, and then slowly shook his head. "No... no we're just..." he paused to look back at Tess. "...friends, is all."

It was then that Joel turned to their new "ally." The taller man who was almost unnaturally thin. He hadn't eaten in a while, clearly. He was practically skin and bone. Normally, it was a sight that Joel would have straight up ignored. Suffering was something that everyone went through, after all. But with his daughter's overwhelming positivity shining in his life once more? He couldn't help but at least feel a tad empathetic. His expression sunk a bit as he spoke - and that sinking seemed to turn into something resembling confusion once he'd heard his words.

"What do ya mean?" Joel asked as he took a step forward - a hesitant one, at that. It wasn't even rare to find someone who didn't know about the cordyceps. They had literally destroyed society, after all. It was just flat out something that never happened. No matter how sheltered someone was, or how closed off - they weren't something that people just... didn't know about. Joel didn't exactly seem angry or anything... just hesitant. Suspicious, even. "The cordyceps... they took out-" he paused suddenly, remembering once again that Sarah was here. This caused Joel to glance down to the floor for a moment. He didn't know if he had the guts to tell her how bad the virus had truly gotten. She'd died before she got to see the devastating effects that it had on the entire world. The amount of people it had wiped out... God. He didn't want to put the burden of that kind of knowledge on her. Not yet.

"They hurt a lot of people."

He furrowed his brows, then, when the man had given his name. All Might? That was a strange one. Sounded almost like something outta one of Ellie's comic books. Still, there was a lot going on at the moment. He couldn't go questioning people on their names. Maybe later, should they have some down time... and figure out what the hell was going on.

@TheElenaFisher @ProfSpacecakes @cadesmith

ArcRift

Ellie

Location - The Daily Planet
Mood - Confused and Slightly Relieved
Status - Healthy and Unharmed
Interactions/Mentions - @Cloaked @Starmaker

---

Okay, now that made Ellie raise a brow.

"Multiverse Hero...?" Ellie couldn't help but repeat the phrase out loud. She snickered, then, at the mere thought, before crossing her arms, "Pff... what are ya, some kinda comic book dude or something?" Not gonna lie, that did sound cool, though. She also couldn't help but agree with Sage about how shiny this place was. It was pretty much what drew her to the building in particular, after all. Like Sage, it reminded her a lot of a comic book. This whole city did, really.

She nodded, then, when Jed offered to let him come with. The idea of someone more her age coming with her put her mind at ease. Especially since he was a supposed "Multiverse Hero". Not that she didn't think she could handle herself, should this dude get hostile and/or weird. But... still. The backup was always nice.

ArcRift

Gotham City: Alleyways

Interactions: @cadesmith

---

"Servicing a customer, huh?" the masked figure asked as she continued to allow her legs to dangle from her seated position. That alone didn't really seem to be any cause for concern - but the other things mentioned did. The... weirdly specific yet also pretty vague thing about taking away love aside, the whole "neck pain" thing didn't exactly sound too welcoming. But... unfortunately, it was all too normal for Gotham City.

"Prooobably should'a mentioned the neck pain first," she mused while beginning to stand up. She climbed up on the railing with surprisingly good balance, before sort of just... stepping off and falling onto the dumpster. She landed into a crouch without much fan fair, before promptly climbing off and approaching Saibh. "Here," she said, standing behind her. "Lemme see your neck."

@cadesmith

ArcRift

"AW, SHIT!"

It seemed like Negan just couldn't catch a break, could he?

Even after he'd fucked off and gone his merry way. Even after he decided to stand in his own corner without a damn sound while these morons went and played with each other's balls and compared dick sizes, he was being fucked with. For what had happened this time... well, it wasn't as bad as Lucille being taken by some walking puppet advertisement - but it was pretty damn close.

Ultron's shot to the wall? The one that had just been used to demonstrate how hopeless their situation was? Yeah, see. That hadn't just dissolved or anything. No, no. It had literally reflected off the damn thing entirely, and redirected itself all the way to the other end of their little prison. And what else did it strike but Negan's fucking shoulder? The shot had - luckily - not been enough to even reach his skin. But he felt the heat nonetheless. And, on top of that, the damage had been done.

The shoulder of his leather jacket? That leather jacket he'd kept in pristine condition since the fucking world ended? It now had a hole in it. Right there. A small hole, clear as day, surrounded by the singed marks that signified a burn.

Yeah... this crossed a line.

"Excuse me!"

The words had been shouted from Negan's end of the cage, and directed at the robot himself. Negan was far beyond questioning the weird shit here, let alone being intimidated by them. He was tired, and he was old...

And most importantly, he was pissed.

"Now..." Negan acted calm as he approached, lackadaisically swinging dear old Lucille to-and-fro with his careful steps. "I don't know what kind of fucked up, comic book world you come from..." the man stopped once he was close enough to Ultron. Not in beating distance - but close. He turned and pointed to the singed mark on his shoulder, clicking his tongue. "But this?" Negan shook his head. "This is just downright unacceptable."

Negan leaned back, then, and whistled. Not that tuned, slow whistle from before - more of an impressed sounding whistle. Only it came off ten times more mocking thanks to his expression and body language.

"You may think you look cool, swingin' around y'er fancy lasers and firin' 'em at people. But the bottom line is..." Negan clicked his tongue again, and held out Lucille. She was pointed at every other person in the cage - one by one. "There's a looooottta competition 'fer biggest dick in this here cage..."

Negan stepped forward again, now finally in striking distance of the metal man. He may have stood a whole head taller than him, but Negan looked into his beady red eyes all the same. And all he did was smirk, snicker, and then open his mouth,

"And so far?" Negan looked Ultron up and down, as if sizing him up. A few moments of this past, until he finally met his gaze with Ultron's once more. "Well, so far? Even that white-haired pretty boy's got you beat."

@ClownTown @TheRealMonaMona @SomeMekBoy

ArcRift

Ultron's diagnostics scan had revealed that... well, he hadn't been hacked. No one had control over his systems. It was more like he was being blocked out. Some kind of signal jammer, perhaps?

@ClownTown

ArcRift

Joel continued to hold onto his daughter as tight as he could. God, he forgot how pure she was. She hadn't had time to be corrupted by the new world. It was like looking into the last bit of flickering light in a world full of darkness. That same bit of shimmering pureness he'd seen in Ellie, when he'd held her in his arms. That was all he could see in Sarah as he held her again.

"It's alright, baby girl..." Joel reassured her as he continued to slowly rock back and forth, burying her face as close to his chest as he could. "It weren't your fault... ain't none of it..."

Joel continued to reassure her of this as he continued to hold onto her. He loved her so much. Already, he'd gotten her back, and he knew right now that he wouldn't let anything else happen to her. He couldn't let anything else happen to her. They were both gonna make it out of this. They had to.

They continued like this for a while, just Joel relishing in seeing his daughter again after these twenty long years. All those Goddamn years without Sarah in his life. He was already forgetting how he'd managed to do it for so long. He supposed that a good part of it was losing what had made him human. It was how a lot of people in their world coped, after all.

But the sudden rattling of the glass cage had been enough to pull them back into reality. Some... well, Joel didn't know what to call it. Some damn robot thing had punched the case, causing the glass to violently trash and shake all around. It instinctively made him grab onto Sarah, holding her close to his shoulder and patting the back of her hair to calm her down. Even if she wasn't worried by it - Joel was. For her sake entirely. The robot seemed pretty pissed, too. What kind of shit had they been locked in here with?

Once the robot seemed to calm down, though, Joel turned back to his daughter. Once more, he cupped her face in both his palms.

"Sarah," Joel said, his tone gruff yet obviously caring and soft. Old habits died hard - and now, those conflicting habits were showing themselves at full force. On the one hand, he had his overbearing sense of protectiveness of his daughter. And on the other? Well, the other was that jaded, cynical old man that twenty years without her had built. "I want you to listen to me, okay?" he gave her a moment to reply, before continuing. "No matter what happens, you stay by my side. Got it?"

Once she gave her reply, Joel would nod, before finally standing up. It was then that the man turned to face the many, many denizens of the cage. He scanned around the area with his eyes, until they finally settled on the one he'd seen. It was the one he'd seen before Sarah. The other one who didn't make it.

Tess.

"C'mon," Joel said to Sarah as he offered her his hand. He'd managed a smile, too. Aside from his times with Ellie and his brief time with Tommy, Joel couldn't name the last time he'd smiled at all. "There's someone I want ya to meet." And then, he guided her over to where Tessa was. She seemed to be talking to some frail, shorter man. He had sunken in eyes and skin. The guy looked like he hadn't eaten in days. He'd have been mistaken for infected by someone less attuned. Joel just thought he looked sick.

"Hey, Tess." Joel said to the woman, still managing his smile all the while. Judging by the girl that was with him, it was probably easy to see why. Joel had told her about Sarah, of course. They were partners for so long... how couldn't he, right? They never brought it up, and she never saw any pictures, but Tess knew about her. She was a smart girl, so she could figure it out. But one question did remain... Did she remember what happened? Getting bit? Getting shot? Joel figured that it wasn't best to question her on it. It was best to just leave her be for now. "I see you've been makin' friends." Joel mused, gesturing to All Might.

@cadesmith @TheElenaFisher @ProfSpacecakes

World of Light

Ellie

Tostarena Town
Rank 1
3/10 EXP

@TruthHurts22 @DracoLunaris @TostarenaGang

---

Amidst the blistering heats of the quaint little tourist sight was someone no one from our group of otherworldly heroes knew just a yet. A smaller, younger girl - one who was perhaps extraordinarily... unremarkable compared to the others. She had no special abilities (aside from her advanced hearing - which was really more of a technique than anything), and all she had on her in terms of weapons was a dinky little pistol. Effective against other humans and infected alike... but no so much against the kinds of foes this group was used to facing.

The girl in question was named Ellie. She'd been here for a while. How long, exactly? She wasn't sure. Being honest, it wasn't exactly something that she kept track of. This was due in part to the fact that she... really didn't think anything was wrong here? Call her crazy - but she really just didn't find any issue with... well, any of this. One would consider it weirdly out of character for her, had anyone here actually known her. After all... she pulled guns on grown men and women alike during her time. You had to do what you had to do to survive, right? And survival meant never letting your guard down. It was something Joel had taught her. That, and making every shot count.

But before, Ellie was defending Joel. She was making sure that he didn't die after that injury he'd suffered way back when. Now, though? Well, now he was fit as a fiddle. In fact... she'd argue he'd never been better. Happier, either. Had you told Ellie that Joel would have not only learned to smile, but also crack jokes? He'd grown a lot since they'd met, that was for sure. They both had. And at the end of the day... that was something that Ellie appreciated more than anything. She'd been more than happy to grow alongside what was essentially her father figure. They'd both helped each other open up. To learn to love again. To... well, to care about others.

He'd been gone a bit, to be fair. But Ellie knew how long these supply runs of his usually took. The materials they needed were getting more and more scarce by the day. So... it made sense that he was gone for a while, right? She trusted him to look out for himself. He'd been in this game a lot longer than her, after all. And if she could make it on her own for this long? Then she trusted that he could, too. Hell... he'd been the one who'd saved her ass from that David fuck when he was the one with the major injury. This? This was nothing. Just a supply run, that's all.

And during Joel's time out, Ellie had decided to go out and explore shit on her own. The world was a lot bigger than the community she'd grown up in, after all. Her cross-country adventure with Joel had shown her that more than anything. Everywhere you looked, there were small communities. Each with their own set of rules and standards for living, of course. A majority... well, they weren't exactly friendly, to put things bluntly. Quite the opposite, really. Quite a few of those struggling survivors were more than willing to blow your head off if you so much as looked at them wrong. Hell, they'd do it anyways a lot of the time. Some of them just needed a good reason, after all. A lot of psychos were out there.

But she was happy to report that this place wasn't one of them. At least, it really didn't seem that way. Ellie had made it a point to avoid major cities during her time out. Too many infected were there, and a lot of the good spots had been more or less cleaned out a long time ago. The smaller cities and more open areas were the smarter places to stick to. A lot more breathing room, and a lot less infected. It was a tactic that had worked so far, too. Perhaps a bit too well, though. Ellie had hardly run into any infected at all. She was sure she'd heard a few things... but the fact that her chamber was the exact same size since she'd set out was a miracle in of itself. But that was a good thing, of course. Less infected meant more of a chance for Ellie to relax.

And here in Tostarena Town? Ellie did indeed relax.

The town was such a nice little spot. And one with very friendly faces, too. Ellie had made sure to keep her distance, of course. The room she'd managed to score was a nice one with only one bedroom. She kept her shit with her at all times, and always made sure to check three times a day to make sure nothing had been stolen. But other than that? Life was pretty good here. The boney residents always laughed at the puns from her joke book, which was a plus. The music was nice, too. She'd used her time here to brush up on her guitar skills - something that Joel had taught her to do in the first place. But when she wasn't singing and playing for the town's residents, she was busy enjoying the local food, as well as the music.

It was during one of her days here that everything changed, however.

It started with the sound of the train pulling in. Ellie had gotten used to it running by now. After all, it wasn't totally abnormal to get some old generator working to power things like that. Repairing old cars to their former glory was something that people did all the time, even long after everything went to shit. So it happening to a train wasn't exactly weird. Besides... weren't those things powered by like, coal? She'd never bothered to ask, nor had she taken the time to step in and look for herself.

But it was the people that stepped off that seemed odd to her.

From a short kid in goggles and a thick jacket (which, like, who the fuck wore jackets in this kind of weather?) to some floating... imp thing? It was definitely something weird to Ellie. Not like, alarming or anything. Just... they all rolled in at once off a train, almost like a gang or some shit. It was enough to give Ellie some bad vibes, was all. She'd been in the middle of singing her cover of "Take On Me" for a small crowd when the train had rolled in. It was one of her favorites - not just to sing, but also just in general. The lyrics really spoke to her, especially given the context of her own life. In a world like her's, you really had to take a chance and cherish every precious moment. Take that shit for granted? Well, you'll soon find yourself dead with nothing accomplished but pure survival. Ellie didn't wanna go out like that. She wasn't sure anyone did, really.

But anyhow.

"I'll take a raincheck on this," the younger girl had said as she placed her guitar down, much to her crowd's dismay. They really enjoyed her singing... which like, that was cool. She was happy that she could make people happy. But these guys? They were just giving her bad vibes all around. The last thing she needed were for these guys to pull out a shitton of guns and hold these people at gunpoint... either for supplies, or just because they felt like it. Both were equally bad in her eyes.

For now, Ellie opted to stay out of sight. She hung back in the town's center, a bit away from the train. There was a shop nearby that she'd backed away in, using her smaller height to hide a little bit behind the door frame. She may have looked weird, but that didn't matter to her. She just wanted to make sure these guys stayed safe.

So for now, Ellie crouched behind the door and closed her eyes, using her advanced hearing to focus on whatever these people were saying. Hopefully, it would give her some insight as to where they were going - and more importantly, what they were planning.

---

1,389 Words
+3 XP

ArcRift

Ellie

Location - The Daily Planet
Mood - Confused
Status - Healthy and Unharmed
Interactions/Mentions - @Cloaked @Starmaker

Ellie nodded slowly as Jed explained where he was from, pretending to know exactly what he was talking about. Sure, she knew what Florida was - but where she was from, there wasn't much difference between it and any other state. They'd all been destroyed and rundown for years. There really... wasn't much to go back to. Certainly nothing to tell each place apart - aside from certain destroyed landmarks. But... she didn't wanna worry this guy too much, so she decided to just nod along all the while.

"Yeah..." Ellie finally responded. "It's just... not really something I'm used to, I guess." She shrugged and adjusted the straps of her backpack. "Ellie." the girl introduced curtly. Short and simple - just how she liked it. Hopefully he wouldn't press further past that. The guy had offered for her to head back with him... which was... weird? He was just being nice, she was sure. But she'd only just met him. She could only assume that it was out of pity for how shitty she looked - which ironically just made Ellie want to decline it all the more. She was more than capable of taking care of herself.

Mere moments after her own, shorter greeting, they'd been intercepted by some newcomer. A pretty excited looking teen. He looked like he was her age, maybe? Probably a bit older. Honestly, exact age wasn't really something that Ellie was good at guessing. Hell, she wasn't really the best at guessing in general. Especially not when it came to the educated variety. He seemed pretty excitable... and nervous. It kinda reminded her of Sam.

Aaaannnd now she was gonna get bummed out. Shit.

"It's fine," Ellie responded to the other teen, holding up a hand. She seemed a lot more relaxed around him than Jed - mostly because, well, she was. Probably because, unlike Jed, this was someone she could relate to. She wasn't as openly anxious about her insecurities, but she understood having them. She hated intruding on shit she didn't belong in. Unless like... the people she was intruding on were assholes. Then it was fine to interrupt them. But still! This guy seemed nice, and definitely not like he'd meant to interrupt or anything.

"I'm Ellie," she stepped forward and offered him a hand to shake - another thing she hadn't offered Jed. Not any intentional rudeness on her part, or anything. She was just... more trusting of dudes closer to her age. Not very trusting or anything... but, well, in her experience, it was always the nice looking grown men who turned out to be the worst. The younger teens that were around her age were a lot less good at hiding their shitty intentions. It made it all the more obvious when they were planning shit - and all the less daunting to talk to them when they clearly weren't.

ArcRift

Ultron's nifty internet connection had provided a few things to him in the short time he had. For starters, he seemed to be in a city known as "Metropolis", with the location being simply known as "LexCorp." It was a company that primarily specialized in aerospace engineering - headed by a man known as "Lex Luthor".

Before he could learn much more, though, Ultron's optics turned to static. Within seconds, everything was gone. For the time being, it seemed like he'd been entirely shut out.

@ClownTown

ArcRift

Unfortunately, the woman from before was long gone, and there didn't seem to be anyone else present. However, there seemed to be several cameras surrounding the cage - each one pointed down at the various individuals locked inside. Maybe Grey could try communicating through one of those?

@Attesa