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[stand_unshaken]

 

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[vaccination]

[First thing's first: Ellie grabs her journal and tucks it into her backpack. She looks at Arthur, brow furrowed.]

Did you look at it?

[She would have.]

[stand_unshaken]

Jesus. No, I didn't. [And if that's the attitude she's bringing, he's going to be leaving pretty quickly.]

[vaccination]

Then you're better than Tess. Or me. I would have looked.

[Look, it's a compliment. Ellie isn't sitting, clearly unsure as to what to do now that she has her journal back. She still wants to retaliate--old habits--but knows it's better to just. Let it go.

Easier said than done, but she's trying. Ellie takes a deep breath.]

... thanks. She wouldn't have given it back to me without a fight.

[stand_unshaken]

I got my own journal I don't want people lookin' at without my permission.

[So. Do unto others, etc.]

I know she wouldn't have. She woulda antagonized you at the very least.

[vaccination]

[Huh. Cowboy does journaling.]

Yeah? She take yours yet?

[Maybe he's off limits. Tess clearly likes him, and more importantly, seems to respect him to some degree. It's why Ellie asked him to get her journal back.]

[stand_unshaken]

Yeah. I let her look, after we got paired. I had her file, seemed fair enough to let her have a look at my own past.

[vaccination]

That makes you about two hundred percent nicer than the people she was used to at home, I bet.

[Joel would never if he bothered to keep such a thing. And never would Ellie, so Tess fucking stole it.]

[stand_unshaken]

I bet it did. I didn't want folk back home lookin', either, but she's different, ain't she?

[He takes a drink and shakes his head.] Gotta be honest with her. If I want her to be honest with me, I got to.

[vaccination]

You make it sound easy.

[There's something pretty major she's keeping for Tess--thank god she's smart enough not to write that down in her journal. It'd fuck her up. Fuck Ellie up too, talking about it. Trying to explain.]

[stand_unshaken]

It ain't. I look like the kinda guy who regularly opens up about his feelings? [He shakes his head.]

Maybe I just understand parts of her that need understandin'.

[vaccination]

Looks like Tess' luck didn't run out after all.

[Maybe this cowboy guy isn't Joel 2.0. He'd never say anything like that.]

[stand_unshaken]

[He turns to her, eyebrow raised.]

Now don't tell me that's a compliment.

[vaccination]

[There's something close to a laugh under Ellie's breath.]

Maybe I'm just getting worried about coming off as more of a fucking asshole than Tess.

[She's just constantly stressed and teetering on the edge of a meltdown. It expresses itself in different ways.]

[stand_unshaken]

Hmm. [He turns back to his drink, swirls it a little just for the pleasure of seeing the liquid slosh around.]

You did earlier on. You let her get to you like that, you'd best hope for a nice inmate.

[vaccination]

Yeah, well. Shit's complicated with Tess in a way that's not a warden-inmate relationship.

[She's not sure if it'd be more or less complicated in the fallout of telling the truth, but she's nooooot fucking going there.]

[stand_unshaken]

Yeah. But the warden-inmate relationship's pretty complicated, period.

[vaccination]

Cooperation is key and all that bullshit.

[stand_unshaken]

Bullshit, but here it's pretty damn true. You're banking on 'em for something big, but it's their life on the line, too.

[vaccination]

Maybe some of them will be less of a dick, with that in mind.

[TESS.]

[stand_unshaken]

Wouldn't count on it, kid.

[vaccination]

Just the optimist in me, I guess.

[She has to have SOME hope people can change if she's going to get her deal.]

[stand_unshaken]

[He snorts and shakes his head.]

Oh, sure. Coming from your world, I bet you was raised an optimist.

[vaccination]

I wasn't raised one, but... I was, I guess. Getting bitten and not turning into an infected does that.

[Since he knows that much anyway.]

[stand_unshaken]

Yeah? Did it give you hope? [It could have gone both ways. Seeing everyone around her get bitten and infected, being the only person not dying of it.]

[vaccination]

For a little while.

[She shrugs a shoulder. It was the happiest she could ever recall being, even on the road, even facing danger every day. Her life would have meant something.

Even if that meant a much shorter life.]

Tess isn't the only one upset things didn't work out.