[center][img]https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/thelastofusgame/images/e/ef/Ellie.png[/img] [h1][color=9e0b0f]Ellie[/color][/h1] [b][color=9e0b0f]Tostarena Town[/color] [color=9e0b0f]Rank 1[/color] [color=9e0b0f]3/10 EXP[/color][/b] [/center] [@TruthHurts22] [@DracoLunaris] @TostarenaGang [hr] 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... [i]unremarkable[/i] 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 [i]smile[/i], 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 [i]love[/i] 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 [i]seem[/i] 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 [i]too[/i] 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. [b][color=9e0b0f]"I'll take a raincheck on this,"[/color][/b] 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. [hr] [center][color=9e0b0f][b]1,389 Words[/b][/color] [color=9e0b0f][b]+3 XP[/b][/color][/center]