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cold is the water by marceltheshellwithflipflopson
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
27 Jul 2023
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Summary
After escaping David, Ellie falls into the lake outside the resort and develops hypothermia. Joel tries to keep her alive.
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
02 Oct 2023
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Sheep Ranch on the Moon by TomeOfTheForgotten
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
22 Jun 2023
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Summary
Jackson’s resident sheep farmer is known across state lines as the most reclusive man in all of Wyoming. And Joel likes it that way.
That is until one summer, a Boston foster program busses out a batch of city kids to Jackson. Joel isn’t fond of the idea, but reasons that he could use the help. The coyotes have been picking off this year’s flock, and the barn needs to be patched up. For some free labor, he can handle one uptight city boy for the summer.
But they send him a girl instead.
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AU: Ellie’s summer foster program ships her to a ranch out in Jackson where a gruff sheep farmer is losing his flock to coyotes.
Series
- Part 2 of Alternate Universe Series
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
31 Jul 2023
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waiting in the waning light by paladoris
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
21 Apr 2023
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Summary
The girl was gone.
The thought simmered, a persistent thing. It had been weeks since he’d returned to the apartment, a bloodied Ellie in tow. When they’d got up the next morning, she was gone.
He hadn’t thought much of it. People come and go in the QZ. He assumed she would turn up, some cobbled-together tools in hand and ready to work the next job. She hadn’t.
Series
- Part 3 of caring in an uncaring world
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
25 Jul 2023
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a half-step to the left by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
26 May 2023
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Summary
It’s not that Ellie means to stalk the couple she catches lurking in the shadows at 1 in the morning after sneaking out of her dorm because sitting in the room alone was making it hard to breathe, but fellow curfew-breakers can hardly expect privacy. All’s fair in love and rule-breaking or whatever their English teacher said in one of the rare classes when they were learning something not related to FEDRA policy.
And there’s something in the way the man holds his hand out to help pull the woman up over a crumbled brick wall that she just can’t look away from.
There’s a gentleness there despite his size and obvious strength that makes her breath catch for just a second. It’s too far for her to hear what they’re saying, but the woman says something with a little half-smile and presses her hand to the man’s shoulder, and the casual affection of the gesture fills her with a nameless want.
So, trailing them at a distance it is.
(AU in which Ellie follows Joel and Tess around and meets them with no Fireflies involved)
Series
- Part 1 of a half-step to the left
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 65,146
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Comments:
- 478
- Kudos:
- 3,336
- Bookmarks:
- 914
- Hits:
- 64,517
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
02 Jun 2023
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jail(baby)bird by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
01 Jun 2023
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Summary
“983,” the guard calls, clanging a baton on the bars of the cell. He doesn’t bother to look up, very busy tracing out the state of Texas in the lines on the wall. He’s found four of them so far. He’s trying for a fifth. “New buddy.”
He does exhale through his nose at that, slightly amused to find out what new victim they’re offering him this time. He doesn’t have a great reputation with his “buddies,” the fuckers attached by handcuff to their cellmates to make it harder to escape, a standard practice in FEDRA prison. He’s gone through four now, each and every one of them trying to pull a power play by picking a fight.
It hadn’t gone well for any one of them.
“Try not to kill this one too quickly,” the guard says, and there’s a certain amount of anticipatory glee in the man’s voice that sets off a quiet alarm in his head.
He lifts his head, needing to see what makes this new inmate so special.
And looks right at a kid who can’t be older than 14, absolutely swamped by a prison outfit meant for someone about three sizes larger.
A girl, in the middle of a men’s prison.
(an AU in which ellie and joel meet in a fedra prison)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,140
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 128
- Kudos:
- 3,021
- Bookmarks:
- 595
- Hits:
- 24,121
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
01 Jun 2023
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Summary
An influential member of Jackson just brought in a lone survivor who speaks of their holy prophet: David, cruelly slain. The survivor seeks to resurrect David’s holy message, right here in Jackson.
Ellie never told Joel what happened at Silver Lake. Now that they’re settled in Jackson, Joel tries to be fine with that. He’d do anything to keep her safe, but when Tommy brings him news of a survivor stirring up trouble, truths are brought to light to prevent further bloodshed.
Tommy has no clue what’s going on and really wishes his brother would stop threatening to murder people.
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
27 Apr 2023
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Watching the Last of Us With My Best Friend - by Depeche Mode by joschmo
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV)
20 Apr 2023
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Summary
Ellie and Joel are less than a day out from Jackson, emotional wounds still raw, when Tommy rides out after them them. Maria found DVD's in Jackson, DVD's that can't be explained that will provide insight, change the course of the future, and cause multiple uncomfortable situations for everyone involved, now all they've got to do is get through watching them.
A "characters watch the show" story for the cast of the Last of Us, mostly to provide gratuitous emotional reactions to every scene and to create a "fix it" of sorts to the ending.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 51,823
- Chapters:
- 11/11
- Comments:
- 214
- Kudos:
- 1,060
- Bookmarks:
- 247
- Hits:
- 25,604
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
25 Apr 2023
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Summary
“Yeah but they don’t have the fucking balls to come in here after me, especially not if you’re here.”
“And what if I’m not, one day? I don’t live here you know, kid.”
“Ellie,” she corrects him, unaware that Joel already knows her name from the first night those kids were after her, “my name is Ellie.”
He waves her words away. “My point still stands.”
(modern AU where Ellie keeps finding her way to Joel's worksite)
Series
- Part 1 of alterations
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 56,826
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Comments:
- 281
- Kudos:
- 1,917
- Bookmarks:
- 559
- Hits:
- 33,872
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
21 Apr 2023
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Summary
First it was her parents. Then Riley, and then Tess. Sam and Henry came next. At fourteen, all Ellie knew was loss. She should be used to it by now- expect it, even. What she didn't expect was to become so fond and attached to the grumpy, emotionally-unavailable smuggler that's spent the last three months protecting her at all cost. Despite her initial doubts, they were in this together now. Or at least they were, until Ellie finds out Joel's plan all along had been to ditch her the very first chance he got.
Or: Ellie overhears Joel's conversation about leaving her & rather than agreeing to go with Tommy, she takes off to find the Fireflies on her own. But David and his group have other plans for her. Basically episode 6 & Ellie dealing with the aftermath of episode 8 (with some changes & angst).
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 43,863
- Chapters:
- 15/15
- Comments:
- 136
- Kudos:
- 898
- Bookmarks:
- 188
- Hits:
- 22,210
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
21 Apr 2023
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Summary
He doesn’t notice that one of her shoes is untied until a lace gets caught in a notch of a log as they pass, sending her down hard.
The momentum of her fall sends him thudding against a tree, and his eyes slam shut as he grits his teeth against the white hot pain that flares in his side.
When he opens his eyes, she’s facedown in the snow, still and silent, hands still at her sides making it clear that she didn’t even try to catch herself.
It speaks of so much trauma, so much unresponsiveness, that he feels tears sting his eyes at the sheer scale of what’s happened to her, of how small and useless he is to fix any of it, of how much he’s let her be hurt by his own failure to protect her.
But there’s no time for his own self-loathing.
She needs him, insufficient as he is.
(a fic covering joel taking care of ellie after episode 8)
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
16 Apr 2023
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Summary
Where Joel miscalculates the situation with David and the hunters, and Ellie pays the price. Ellie and Joel struggle to cope after Ellie is raped. Thrown into unfamiliar territory-- Will their bond grow stronger, or will the trauma tear them apart? Begins during the winter, and follows the pair into Jackson as Ellie grows up in the aftermath of the decisions that have been made for her.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 271,135
- Chapters:
- 86/?
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 2,079
- Kudos:
- 3,416
- Bookmarks:
- 591
- Hits:
- 191,520
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
16 Apr 2023
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Summary
In the years following the outbreak of the cordyceps epidemic, Joel and Tommy's struggle for survival triggers the slow deterioration of their relationship. Follow them through the years as they flee their hometown, drift through quarantine zones, learn brutality and survival on the open road, and eventually find themselves in a city called Boston. -- Consistent with TLOU & TLOU2. Story is already fully written, with multiple chapters being posted at once as time allows.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 203,662
- Chapters:
- 32/32
- Comments:
- 56
- Kudos:
- 221
- Bookmarks:
- 127
- Hits:
- 13,370
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
10 Apr 2023
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Summary
A retelling of Winter and the aftermath. Chapter 5 edited.
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
05 Apr 2023
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Summary
The third time Ellie surprises him, as he’s looking through an abandoned office in Bill’s town, is when she starts sputtering air and he reaches for a weapon before realizing it’s just her.
“I’m trying to learn how to whistle,” she says, and goddamn, Joel thinks. This is going to be a long trip.
Or: An exploration of Joel and Ellie's relationship through the ways Ellie surprises Joel.
Series
- Part 1 of tomorrow will be kinder
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
04 Apr 2023
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memories feel like weapons (i miss who i used to be) by BarlowGirl
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games)
04 Mar 2023
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Summary
Joel pretends he doesn’t notice the toy robot go missing as soon as he and Henry look away. He ain’t going to interfere with Henry and Sam, but if Little Miss Sticky Fingers wants to give the stupid toy to Sam later, well, he’s not going to say anything either. The boy’s just a kid. They both are. And they don’t get to be just kids very often anymore.
Not his place to say anything, but he won’t stop Ellie either.
Or: Ellie steals stuff. Joel doesn't really care, but he notices. He also keeps giving her things. She spends a lot of time thinking about the things she owns.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 34,251
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 96
- Kudos:
- 1,058
- Bookmarks:
- 379
- Hits:
- 13,316
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
03 Apr 2023
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when a flower grows wild (it can always survive) by marchflower
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
29 Mar 2023
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Summary
She’s afraid of looking stupid in front of them. What did they just call her? Hardy, like those little flowers out there blooming in the snow. That’s what she has to be.
***
Ellie’s first night in Jackson is harder than she thought it would be.
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
03 Apr 2023
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Summary
An hour from dawn, just as Ellie catches the first strains of fluting birdsong, she hears that rustle again. She keeps her eyes squeezed shut and holds very still as Joel’s boots crunch their way over the six feet of dead grass in between their sleeping spots; as he breathes in once, noisily, like he wants to say something; as something heavy and warm drops over her body.
Joel’s jacket doesn’t smell very nice—like him—but it’s better than nothing.
Ellie goes through the stages of infection.
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
02 Apr 2023
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Summary
Joel hadn’t prayed in well over a decade. In fact, the last time he’d spoken to God was when his daughter was bleeding out in his arms. He’d begged him not to take her, and God had laughed in his face. Well, this time he wasn’t begging. He was going to find Ellie, and he swore to himself that this time would be different. That this time, his little girl would be alright.
Or, Joel finds Ellie in the snow and realizes that his heart can still break in so many different ways.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 12,981
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 65
- Kudos:
- 767
- Bookmarks:
- 173
- Hits:
- 10,335
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
02 Apr 2023
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Summary
Nothing can be everything to some people.
alternatively, Ellie can never tell if Joel cares about her or not.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,665
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 34
- Kudos:
- 303
- Bookmarks:
- 42
- Hits:
- 1,914
Bookmarked by strangerwhat
30 Mar 2023
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born upon the tide by helvetica_upstart
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
28 Mar 2023
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Summary
It’s Joel’s first two-day patrol, and he wanted someone there overnight for Ellie. Gave Tommy a list of instructions a mile long, and he wishes it was the type he used to get for Sarah— not too many sweets, don’t stay up late, don’t you dare smoke. Nah, for Ellie it was give her space waking up from a nightmare or you might get knifed and there’s broth if she can’t keep down dinner.
*
Or, a 3+1 about Tommy, Ellie, and trust.