Bad Things Happen All the Time
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Listing Series
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If Only We Were Pirates by Bumblepony
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
03 Sep 2023
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Summary
Joel knows something’s not right the moment he walks into their shitty ass apartment. He drops the bag of food he’s carrying into the chair by the door and scans the room.
“Tess?” there’s no response. Then he sees the note pinned to the wall over the couch by a hunting knife. He can’t help but scoff when he sees it. Who the fuck pins notes to the wall with knives nowadays. It's fucking ridiculous. He strides to the couch and rips the message from the wall.
It reads, “You and your bitch have stepped on one too many toes, and now it's time to pay up. If you want to see her alive again, come to the docks tonight at midnight, alone, with all of the pills from your last run. If you don’t come, she dies. If you bring anyone else, she dies.” Then it’s signed, Robert.
TLDR: Tess gets kidnapped, and Joel goes and rescues her.
Series
- Part 1 of Bad Things Happen All the Time
- Part 4 of A Life Lived
- Part 25 of Tess and Joel Stories
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Dancing On Glass by Bumblepony
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
09 Sep 2023
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Summary
“Ellie…… Honey. Can ya show me your wrist? I wanna make sure it’s doin’ ok.” Joel asks as he carefully pushes himself away from the wall, keeping his tone even and calm. Ellie immediately pulls her arm to her chest and looks to him with lost, shining eyes.
“Joel…” She keens his name, and he can feel the world drop out from underneath him.
“Show me,” He begs, his voice cracking with the strain, praying he’s wrong, that it really is just a break. But when she pulls up her sleeve to show him the bite, he can’t control the “No, No, No” that just keeps echoing from his lips.
IE: After getting separated from Tess, Tommy, and Riley during an easy job because of an Angry Mob, Ellie gets bit, and Joel has to deal with failing again.
(AU where Ellie and Riley never get bit in the mall. Joel finds them at 10 and 12, and they become part of his smuggling crew with Him, Tess, and Tommy. It's now four years later.)
Series
- Part 2 of Bad Things Happen All the Time
- Part 3 of A Life Lived
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Forever Hold Your Peace by Bumblepony for two_birds_alone_together
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
14 Sep 2023
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Summary
He’s standing in the Statehouse, Tess in front of him.
“I mean… our luck had to run out sooner or later.” She says, pulling the neck of her jacket to the side. The bite seems to pulsate as he watches the tendrils moving under her skin into her neck and face. He looks into her eyes, and they’re gone, replaced by fungus plates. Her mouth opens, and mycelium creeps past her lips. “I, I never ask you for anything, not to feel the way I felt.”
“No,” He begs.
“Not to– Shut the fuck up ‘cause I don’t have time.” She moves to him, grabbing his arms, her body now covered in fungus. He wants to pull away from her, but she’s drawing him in.
“Joel, save who you can save.” He hears as her mouth covers his. She tastes like dirt, blood, and Tess, it’s intoxicating.
He screams.
IE: Joel dreams of Tess at different points of her life, both real and imagined. The taste is intoxicating.
Series
- Part 3 of Bad Things Happen All the Time
- Part 24 of Tess and Joel Stories
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We're Only Going So Far by Bumblepony for bucktooth (deervsheadlights)
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
17 Sep 2023
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Summary
“I’m not ready,” she cries.
“Welp, I’m sorry to say, but we don’t always get to decide when we’re ready for stuff. Sometimes, life just happens,” he comments, flipping his hand around in a careless gesture.
“Don’t you think I know that? For fuck’s sake, my whole life has been stuff just happening to me. It’s not fair.” She stands up and clenches her fists at her side. Joel puts his mug down and pushes away from the counter.
“Ellie, who told you life was fair?” Joel asks, and Ellie can feel a spark of anger in her gut explode. She shoots forward, flinging herself at Joel. She starts pounding on his chest, and he stands there and takes it.
IE: Dying in your sleep isn't how anyone expects to go, not in this world, least of all Joel... and yet.
Series
- Part 4 of Bad Things Happen All the Time
- Part 2 of A Life Lived
- Part 23 of Tess and Joel Stories
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Muscle Memory by Bumblepony for Ameerawrites
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
24 Sep 2023
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Summary
“Well, kid, it looks like you got a case of hand, foot, and mouth disease,” Joel says while pulling the sock off her other foot and verifying that, yes, the spots are there too.
“What you say? Nose, ear, and tongue disease?” Ellie asks, her arm now flung over her head on her makeshift pillow.
“No hand, foot, and mouth.”
“Elbows, knees, and toes?” She says, a little twist of her lip being the only thing that gives her away.
"Har har, you're hilarious."
IE: Ellie gets sick a week out from Kansas City, and Joel has to take care of her.
Series
- Part 5 of Bad Things Happen All the Time
- Part 1 of The In-Between Places