TDM: Mega Throwback Edition!

[polymods]

✖ TEST DRIVE MEME

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island you find yourself on is a tropical paradise. The hair is heavy and humid, and a thick flowering jungle encroaches on the white sandy beach. As far as mysterious islands go, it could be a lot worse! Maybe there’s a bar with some Mai Tais set up here somewhere…

As you walk towards the jungle you become aware that something is moving in the bushes. Some sort of animal, probably - maybe your mind goes to jaguars, or monkeys. What comes running out onto the beach, though, is not remotely mammalian: it’s a dinosaur.

Just a little one - it’s about the size of a small dog, running along on its hind legs. Aww, he’s kinda cute if you ignore the sharp teeth and claws! Lucky for you it’s busy chasing something else and soon darts back into the bush unless you do something to grab its attention.

Listen closely and you’ll find that sometimes you can hear sounds that are distinctly mechanical. Whatever this place is, it at least sounds like it’s inhabited by something possessing intelligence. You could definitely go and find out. Just be careful!

Or maybe you think, hey, I’ve seen this movie, I’m staying on the beach! You could, but unless you’re good at diving for fish you might have a hard time finding food.

Notes:
1. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.

2. These prompts are a jumping off point - how they affect your character and their development is up to you.

3. The people on the island are normal humans unless otherwise indicated. The dinosaurs are animals and can be killed. I mean, good luck with that, but.

4. Have fun!

---

Ⅱ. CRETACEOUS PARK
CW: Dinosaurs! Violence, possibly against dinosaurs!
The jungle is thick and it takes a lot of effort to move through it. You’ll have to crawl under vines, climb over felled trees, and just generally pay a lot of attention to your surroundings. This is the sort of situation where having someone with you certainly makes things easier. Occasionally you will hear animals calling, and you’re bound to see some of them eventually. Maybe you’ll luck out and spot a herbivore like one of the armoured dinosaurs, just chewing on plants and not likely to attack you unless you piss it off. Maybe you spot something about your size with a decidedly less vegetarian diet and you have to decide between hiding or trying to scare it off.

Eventually in your wanderings you come across an unusual sight: a dirt road. It cuts its way through the trees and ferns, and to the south you can hear what is probably a familiar sound: engines. And shouting.

It’s getting closer.

Suddenly there are cars and motorcycles rushing down the road toward you - try not to get hit! One of the cars slows and a guy with a ragged blonde beard hangs out and tells you to get in the back. At close to the same time a truck slows and another guy tells you to climb aboard and grab a gun.

Why would you need a gun? The answer presents itself almost immediately: big daddy T-Rex is stomping its way down the road towards you.

You can escape with the first car, or pitch in and try to shoot the dinosaur with the second. Or you could try and prevent them from hurting the animal entirely, or just run off into the jungle by yourself. Better decide quickly, though. That T-Rex looks hungry.

Notes:
1. You determine your level of dino encounter! And what kind - nobody is going to get on your ass if you pick one from the Jurassic period instead of the Cretaceous. It’s a magic island for crying out loud.

---

Ⅲ. SETTLEMENT
CW: Kidnapping.
Whether you throw in with the humans or maybe stumble upon it by accident, you wind up at their encampment . It’s definitely the safest place to be - there are high walls around a series of small buildings mostly cobbled together from wood and tin. But there’s cots, and food. Outside the perimeter wall are tripwires and very basic motion sensors that will alert the settlement if any sizable animals are prowling around.

You’re informed that mostly the dinosaurs leave the camp alone - too much effort for not enough food.

While you’ll be welcomed the first night, as soon as morning rolls around it will be made abundantly clear that you’re going to be expected to pull your weight. Pitch in with the cooking or cleaning, or if you have some mechanical skill you can help fix up some of the rattling vehicles parked around.

From what you can gather, this is just one of a few different settlements on the island. Some of the others have small farms, and if you can drive you will be asked if you’d mind running over a delivery to one of these.

Agree, and you’ll be handed the keys to what sure looks like a 1970s era Cadillac. The mulleted gentleman who has asked this favour of you hands you a piece of paper upon which a small map is drawn, along with written directions. A note at the bottom reads, “don’t look in the tunk.” You think he means ‘trunk.’

“Package is in the trunk,” this gentleman confirms. “Don’t open it, sunlight’ll mess it all up.”

With that he sends you on your merry way. Best to take along a buddy for safety!

Partway through your journey you will come to realise that whatever is in the trunk is making a banging noise. You can ignore it and keep driving, passing the keys off to the people at the farming settlement, or you can pull over and investigate.

If you choose the second option, you’ll find that your ‘package’ is a person. Not a human one - this person has scales and huge, bulging eyes above small nostrils. They’re bound hand and foot and gagged, staring up at you with terror.

Well, jeez. Now what?

Notes:
1. If you open the trunk and discover the Crazy Frog-esque figure within you can continue on to the settlement and deliver him as promised. If you choose the former, the people at both settlements will be angry and turn on you unless you can spin a very convincing lie about your prisoner escaping.

2. If you choose to free your froggy friend, they will indicate that you should follow them through the jungle to their home.

3. If you skip the delivery mission, you can still stay at the camp. It’s very bare bones, but there’s food and cots and bathrooms at least.

---

Ⅳ. REPTILIANS
Whether it’s because you’re led there, or because you find it by accident, you find yourself in a village - the houses are smooth stone, curving elegantly under sprawling vines and beautiful blooming flowers.

Upon your arrival several humanoid lizard people emerge from their homes and watch you, silent. One of them, stooped and wizened with age, moves to stand directly in front of you. When they speak, you realise that you can’t hear them with your ears; they communicate through telepathy.

You are welcome to stay in our village if you pass our Test of Bravery.

You’re half expecting that they’ll make you fight a velociraptor or something, but no - this village elder leads you and your companion both to the center of the village where there are several large flat stones ringed around one much larger stone. You’re both instructed to sit. More of the reptilian people approach, watching you.

Tell us a story of your bravery, the elder tells you.

You’ll have to dig into your memories to find a moment where you think you acted bravely, and then you’ll have to tell everyone assembled about it. You might be tempted to embellish a little bit, or to outright lie.

But if you do…

The moment you start fudging the truth, a different memory will play out just above the large center stone like a hologram. This memory paints you much more poorly: it's one of your most cowardly moments. Definitely not what you wanted to share with a village full of people.

When either your story or your memory is finished, the village elder will look at you with their strange eyes and pronounce whether or not you’re allowed to stay.

Notes:
1. Whether or not you are allowed to stay is not based entirely on how brave you were - how you react to having to share (willingly or not) these stories also plays a part. For example, if you ran away from a fight but in the present you don’t try to justify it with bullshit reasons, you will still be invited to stay.

2. The Reptilian village is a blend of nature and advanced technology. Frankly, it’s a nicer place to stay than the human settlements. They have a lot more creature comforts, like nice deep baths and soft beds.

---

Greetings, prospective Travelers! Welcome to the POLYMYTHOS test drive meme and thank you for your interest in our game! We invite you to use this TDM to explore but one of many, many islands within the Endless Isles; use it as an opportunity to introduce and familiarize yourself with the game, form connections with other characters, and just have some fun. (Perhaps while also getting some solid samples together for your application! Apps are always open!)

Use the prompts provided below as-is or feel free to write your own set within the environment detailed in each. You're even welcome to access the network via your character's ScryWatch. While there will be some inevitable changes, TDMs may count as game canon and some islands may be revisited in the future. Be mindful of your surroundings -- you never know how you and your fellow Travelers might affect this place in the long run.

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

[puntificates]

'Talk on the road.' Is it as simple as that? They'll just... get in the car and go?

Maybe it is. Ellie is nodding as if on auto-pilot, and even if it may not seem like she's really absorbing any of this (because who the hell would, right?), she's getting enough of it to obey. Before she has time to second guess herself, she's rounded the Cadillac and sliding into the passenger's side, dropping her backpack between her feet.

...And unzipping it, though there's nothing in it she needs to fetch - just milling through its contents for a moment to give her something to do that isn't staring awkwardly at Tess. This is fine... yeah? Just two girls going on a road trip. One of them isn't dead or anything. Normal... totally normal.

Does she say something? ...Does she apologize? Does she tell Tess about Joel? Jesus, Joel - that thought puts a pit in her stomach, and next thing she knows, she's doing the awkward staring thing anyway. Fuck.

[dog_eat_dog]

Cars are great places for these conversations, Tess reasons. It sure seemed to work that way as a teenager: some level of privacy, a set destination, and a mutual understanding that eventually both parties will be able to exit the vehicle and walk away from it and whatever hideousness needed to go down. Who hasn’t had an ugly conversation in a car? A break-up, a confession, an argument?

A kid who grew up after the outbreak, Tess reminds herself, but it’s fine. She settles into the driver’s seat and pulls the door closed with a snap and closes her eyes for a moment. The enclosed space does its thing and she wills herself to be collected in it. She’s the adult here. (Adults, famous navigators of death, you know.)

“We don’t have to talk about what happened back there,” she says, firm. She’s taking herself off the hook. Ellie isn’t: “Did Joel get you out safe, or are you dead too?”

[puntificates]

Ellie's expression turns a shade of incredulous despite her best efforts to remain Calm and Collected (she is neither of these things). Is Tess really going to just breeze on past the fact that she's... dead? The fact that she's acknowledging it at all - 'what happened back there, - the look in her eyes... it all tells the tale for her. She knows. Remembers.

'Are you dead too?'

...Okay. Jesus. Yeah, Tess definitely remembers.

Ellie's not sure if she would be so cool about it in Tess's place. Is this stoicism in the face of mortality impressive or depressing? Maybe Ellie'll figure that one out later once this conversation is done with. There's a good deal she'll be thinking about when all's said and done, she figures - might as well start tallying up a list.

"--I'm okay. We're both okay," she's pushed everything aside for the moment, decided it's more important to reassure Tess that the sacrifice she'd made hadn't been in vain. Wasn't, even months later. They hadn't gotten where they were going yet, and it had been a long, long road to get close as they were - but they're going to see it through. Is that any consolation? Christ, she can't imagine it isn't going to be the most comforting thing to hear after everything. "It's... a long story, I guess, but we were headed to Salt Lake. There's supposed to be some Firefly hospital out there."

Which said they were a long way from Boston, and also said Joel had done - was doing - as Tess asked. Suppose this is the most concise way of putting both those points, because they have to drive it home: what Tess did wasn't for nothing... right? It meant something, even if Ellie still doesn't feel good about it all these months later.

[dog_eat_dog]

"Salt Lake City?" she repeats, somewhere between surprise and doubt. The Fireflies could be anywhere, but that far?

She tries to wrap her head around the distance between Boston and SLC, and the dozens of hours it would take on the I-90 and I-80 at speed limit. Couple thousand miles, isn't it? It'd be daunting even with a vehicle, if even possible. How many cars are stranded on the highway? How many blockades are set up? How many dozens of QZs went dark over the years, and now flank the highway as massive ghost towns, or bastions of Hunters and would-be revolutionaries living with whatever they could scavenge?

Just the thought makes her stomach twist. She doesn't love being outside of the QZ. If there's anyone who can do it, she's sure Joel can. He knows what's out there. He knows how few people make it those distances. But the idea of putting months on the road feels dark and foreboding just the same, tough for even survivors of their calibre. Months, though, months--

She twists in her seat to look at Ellie, searching her face. How long has it been?

"How far did you get before..." She has no idea what to call this. "Before you wound up here?"

[puntificates]

All those questions Tess had in her head might've been unanswerable a few months back, but they're not anymore. There were a metric shitton of obstacles in their path; the winter barely behind them was among the hardest - and not even because of blocked roads, abandoned QZ's or the Infected. They're still alive, right? That's supposed to feel like some kind of accomplishment.

Ellie feels Tess's gaze on her, but she's dropped her own eyes into her lap, playing with one of the straps on her backpack.

"Colorado." It wouldn't be long, now. It had been slow going between Joel's recovery from his wounds and the heavy snows, but they were doing what they always did - they kept going.

Still, this seems wrong somehow. Like there's a million and one things she should be saying, but instead - she's saying everything else. Maybe Tess doesn't want to hear it; Ellie hadn't gotten the chance to know this one near as well as she'd have liked before... before, but maybe the reason Tess and Joel had been so close was common ground. Like not talking about things that needed talking about. God, that would be really annoying.

"Tess? I'm really sorry about what happened, back at the..." Oh, man. She's stealing a tentative glance Tess's way, trying to gauge if bringing this up would only cause more pain than it was worth. If Tess is just as allergic to these talks as Joel is, well...

Guess she'll find out.

[dog_eat_dog]

There's a flicker of surprise on her face.

An apology?

For a moment Tess just looks at the Caddy's dashboard, lips pursed. Ellie seems so young to her. Fourteen, fifteen? Anywhere in that ballpark and it's still shorter than half of Tess's own lifetime, and she feels as though she's had two. Tess can't pretend to know the kid, much less if she's cut from the same cloth as career survivors, but it can't be easy, living with what happened. It'd be only human to be guilty.

"It's okay," Tess replies, finally. Soberly. "Shit happens. And I'm sorry it turned out this way, but I'm glad I did it. It wasn't about getting paid in those last few hours."

She'd already been bitten at that point. Fuck the guns, fuck getting paid. Getting this kid to the Fireflies was all that mattered. It had to be real, doomed like that.

[puntificates]

"Fuck that, it's definitely not okay," she says quickly, heatedly, before she can stop herself. It isn't okay Tess lost her life and they just left her back there to die, but at least Ellie knows better than to press it too much harder than that. Tess has literally just come back from the sad state of 'dead,' ​and that's got to be a mindtrip and a half... needling about it isn't going to do her any favors.

Ellie reclines into the seat with a huffed exhale, shaking her head.

"Is it super messed up I think I'm happy to see you?" It comes out with a kinda-sorta smile, as if her face can't decide if it should be mildly aggravated or relieved about all this. Jury's still out.
​
But... Tess literally died so they could keep going. She made Joel keep going. They might actually reach the Fireflies in no small part because of what Tess did - and it isn't just about that, is it? No; maybe the rest of it is too Complicated to think about for now.

[dog_eat_dog]

She raises an eyebrow at the outburst, but she gets it. There's a creeping dread in her, one that she's been outrunning for days –– if you dig into something too much, you have to face it, and if you face it, it might be too much to handy. A sigh slips out of her, but she nods.

"There's worse things you could be," Tess replies. Plenty of people could see her back from the dead and just want to put her back there, after all. She shakes that thought off, and she puts the key in the ignition and turns. They'll get on the road. Away from this place, at least for a little while. "You alone here?"

Is she responsible for the kid now?

[puntificates]

Okay. So, there's part of that Complicated rearing its big fat ugly head in that question.

Ellie fidgets in that way of a teenage girl uncomfortable with something she was asked and figuring out how she could, like, not answer it. But it's going to come out sooner rather than later; it isn't like Tess and Joel will just... not meet, or whatever. That would be weird. And maybe they should meet. Even so, she can imagine how much it's going to be a gut-punch, and Ellie isn't even sure how he'll take it.

Yeah; complicated.

"Joel's around." No beating around the bush, gotta rip off the band-aid, so on and so forth. "I just got here a few days ago, but he said he's been island-hopping for a while. Months, at least a couple."

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess isn't sure what to say to that. She keeps her eyes on the road as she shifts the car into gear, and she gives a soft hmm, one that could be anything: noncommittal, contemplative, wary. It's a lot of things.

"How is he?"

Months on, she's long since been locked away in his memories. Tess bets she's been brought up once or twice, if even that. The rules have been clear on that for a long time.

[puntificates]

Car's moving, and it sure does make her aware that they're stuck in this thing - together - for better or worse. Great. Cool. The girl's trip is happening.

Tess's got a killer poker face. Ellie has no idea what that ominous hmm means, but she's watching her sidelong with the gears visibly turning in her head as she tries to figure it out.

"Joel's... Joel?"

A statement as eloquent as it is helpful.

"I don't know, pissed off about being here, which... yeah, I think everyone is. But he's doing okay."

Joel would say he was fine even if he was impaled by a rebar, sooo he isn't exactly a trustworthy narrator of his own story in Ellie's opinion. At least she thinks she can tell when something's off, these days - and aside from definitely Being Irate about this impromptu vacation from life neither of them asked for, he seems... good.

"What about you? You... good? I mean... holy shit, Tess."

[dog_eat_dog]

Despite everything, she chuckles under her breath at that.

"Joel is Joel," she agrees, nodding. Extra Joel, she imagines, in the company of a little girl. She doesn't want to let her imagination get away from her, but if––when––they cross paths again, she'll know what's going on. He's her partner.

But is she good?

There is no good in this kind of life, but they're in a whole different place now. There could be anything ahead of her. She hasn't been so unprepared in years, and it takes work to keep on top of that.

"I'm just going to take this one day at a time," she replies. "And I'm going to be paranoid about this fucking bite for weeks at least, but I'll make do. You know how that goes, yeah?"

[puntificates]

Jesus, she hadn't even thought about it yet - how Tess had gotten bitten before the whole thing, how that had another layer on top of all the other ridiculous bullshit. The image of Tess lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood drove home that she hadn't died from the infection, even if that bite had been what led her there.

Whether it's polite or not, Ellie can't help but stare at Tess's neckline.

"Yeah. I do." And that was an experience she assumed she would never share with someone else. Is it weird? How this above everything else - above the boat ride with the Ferryman into an endless expanse of clouds and sky, even seeing living, breathing dinosaurs - really hits her with how completely out of this world being here is? Tess, bitten and not showing any signs of turning.

"How long has it been?" Since she was bitten, since she died. Since she woke up on Dino Fucking Island. This is so crazy.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess feels that gaze harder than any other. It makes her want to adjust the neckline of her shirt, but she keeps her hands on the wheel.

"Couple days," she replies. It was just a matter of time before they ran into each other, she supposed, but then again, being in the same place at all feels miraculous. They could have been anywhere, even worlds away.

It's not just a step above being maggot fodder –– it's a goddamn miracle. Better luck than she's had in years. She lets herself feel a curl of excitement. This could be good, even if there's no way out. She nods at nothing in particular.

"This shit is unreal, but I'll take it."

[puntificates]

"Then you're definitely good, right? Or, well... I mean, you're not turning."

Her bite had already been looking more gnarly than Ellie's by the time they reached the Capitol building; Ellie isn't sure if she's trying to reassure Tess or herself, but she's just repeating something they both know, anyway. Stupid. Is she nervous? This is dumb. It's weird, she's talking to Tess and it's weird.

But Tess had the right of it, didn't she? Just keep going one day at a time. Ellie'd gotten pretty good about that herself, lately.

"You could come back with me, when we're done with the drop off? Joel'll be back at camp."

Does she want to see him? Does she want time? Ellie's not going to pretend she knows what's best for either of them, but she feels obligated to make the offer.

[dog_eat_dog]

She nods. She's good. But boy, what a question, what a scrap of her future to look at head-on. Obviously I'll see him, she thinks, but there's a push and pull to her relationship with Joel that has her conceding ground when she's trodden too close to some line. Showing up on his doorstep in the morning as if they hadn't fought, dropping bombs or little hints and walking away –– isn't getting bitten and then going down fighting so he doesn't have to shoot his partner the biggest concession of them all? Hard to walk back in, after that.

She drums her fingers on the wheel.

"I'll see him," she agrees. "But you should break the news to him first."

Tess can imagine how that'll go, but it's better than blindsiding him completely.

[puntificates]

"Oh, man... Great."

It's mumbled under her breath for her own benefit more than Tess's, dry and rich in sarcasm. Sure, she'll have a blast telling Joel that his partner is back from the dead. Yeah, no biggie! Not like she can already picture the look on his face and that firm, warning tone of voice he uses when she'd gone too far.

"He wouldn't let me talk about you. You know... after."

After she died. She had become a taboo subject, just like Sam and Henry after her. 'Things happen, and we move on.' Suppose this puts a pretty big wrench in those plans, but Ellie isn't bringing it up to rub salt in the wound - she just wants Tess to know it's not going to go too well, far as she can figure.

[dog_eat_dog]

"I know," she replies, a little terse. It's unfair to put Ellie in the middle of them, and she knows that, but she doesn't particularly care. She lost her life for this. Joel's life is changed for it. Ellie can do that much for them.

(Is it odd to feel relieved in some way, that her feeling that there was something between them was correct? Doesn't it mean something to be someone important enough to be locked away in his memory forever? Better than being forgotten entirely, she supposes. Oh, Joel.)

She stops the car at a crossing; it judders as she fails to downshift fast enough to match, and then stalls entirely. Fucking manual cars. Pay attention, Tess. She starts it again, shifting back up aggressively.

"Do you push his buttons with that?" she asks. "Bring up shit he doesn't want to talk about anyway?"

[puntificates]

Yeah, maybe that's fair. Maybe Ellie owes Tess a whole lot more than a few uncomfortable conversations in the grand scheme of things, and maybe she wouldn't complain if she thought about it in those terms. But her expression remains briefly sour as she mulls it over, fidgeting with the sleeve of her shirt for a minute.

The car stalls, and Ellie sends a brief side-long look Tess's way before answering as the Cadillac's engine restarts.

"It isn't like that."

The question gets under her skin a little, but considering the way things had been when Tess saw them last - maybe it's not a big shocker she might have that impression. Still... whether it's childishness or something else, it bristles at something a bit.

"It's not like I tried to piss him off," or hurt him (is that why it stings? insinuating she would do that, now she knows that's what it's really about?) "and I get there's reasons for the stuff he doesn't like talking about." Like Tess. Sarah. Henry, Sam. His ex-wife. Probably countless more people and things he'd lost in a world that doesn't exist anymore. That world was Tess's world, too, she reminds herself. ...Fuck.

"But it's-- I dunno. Complicated, I guess."

They've come a long way. It isn't something she's thought about a lot in those terms, remembering how stilted and brusque, how terse and dismissive conversations used to be. Hell, when Tess died - it had taken all but a hefty amount of begging and leveraging her own life against him to get him to agree to taking Ellie. But now?

ellie :'( i love her

[dog_eat_dog]

That sidelong look gets a flicker of a grimace. She knows she's not a great driver. She's not going to make apologies for it, but she knows.

"I'm not asking because I think you're being a brat about it," Tess replies, though that could very well be possible, in her mind. Don't get her defensive, she warns herself. "I'm glad you don't. I'm asking because if you bring it up to him when you know not to and normally respect that, he'll take you seriously."

i love tess so we're even... love this girl bonding happening rn :')

[puntificates]

"...Whoa, wait. Are you giving me Joel-pointers?"

Maybe she had been ready to jump on the defensive, but Tess's reassurance effectively kills that before it can really get started. There's something almost - or, wait, scratch that... actually downright funny about this all the sudden? Much as Ellie had gotten to know Joel during their cross-country trek, she's sure there's a hell of a lot more Tess's seen she hasn't. They worked together (and more than that, from what Ellie figures) for a long time, and their relationships to one another were totally different, right?

Oh no.

...Oh no. Now she's curious.

"Hey... so, how long were you guys partners anyway?"

love girl talk <3 they're so good

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess laughs under her breath despite herself; she's nudged the latch on the floodgate. She doesn't have even half of Joel's poker face, or a third of his hostility towards talking about herself, but Joel's business is sacred to him, and Tess feels protective of that.

"A while," she replies. A while could be anything in this world, especially when people become as thick as thieves with as little as a single life-or-death moment, so she clarifies: "Coming up on a decade. I was friendly with Tommy before he left, so I met Joel through him."



[OOC: Whenever I write Tess I change the ~Joel & Tess Lore Dates~ depending on whatever the Joel player is feeling, but these days with TLOU2 having specified that Tommy left around 2027-2028, and Tess being implied to have known Tommy personally would mean Tess knew Joel going back... 6-7 years minimum? Or something! I'm super flexible but that's my thinking for now lmao here's hoping Druckmann makes it a lil more clear in HBO TLOU.]

[puntificates]

"Oh, ten years is definitely enough time to get the good dirt."

Ellie is a connoisseur of many things, and Details About Joel is one of them. Maria had filled in some of the blanks back at Jackson, and Joel himself had started steadily sharing more and more as of late - but who's got the juiciest bits but someone in Tess's place?

"So, here's what I figure." She's a diplomat, clearly, and so she's willing to negotiate instead of simply making demands. "We can do a one-for-one. You ask me something, I ask you something... and we keep it between us girls. You in?"

Obviously her interests spread far beyond Joel - Tess is one big question mark to her and Ellie would really like to get to know her better, especially now they're stuck in this weirdo place together, whatever that entails. Nothing like a friendly back and forth, right? What's the worst that could happen?

[ ooc: oh gosh, sorry for backing you up into lore-???-territory! I didn't even think about that, but for what it's worth that rationality sounds totally fair based on what we know. super excited for the HBO series too (excited, nervous... yeah)! it would be so awesome if we got more background on the pre-TLOU timeline, so many cool things could fit in that period! ]

[dog_eat_dog]

"Am I in?" she repeats, wryly. "Yeah. Let's do this."

It's an easy decision. Smuggling comes-–came?––more naturally to her than anything else in life; she can't picture herself in a world that didn't end. With no normal adult life to speak of, it all ends up divorced from reality. She could imagine herself as lawyer or a movie star or a mommy blogger, it's all equally unrealistic.

But trade like that? How many hours has she spent getting herself the best deal possible, cashing out as much as possible on the barest of luxuries?

She intends to make out like a bandit here.

Tess takes her eyes off the road to look at Ellie.

"How did Marlene get her hands on you? What's the story there?"


[ooc: Omg, no need to apologies, all good! I just like to yap about it because her backstory is so wrapped up in hints/word of god/whatever stuff that everyone interprets it different. and hell yeah, I'm pumped for the HBO series -– I think we will get more pre-TLOU stuff, there's been some [eye emoji] set shots that seem to imply some international stuff, even?? tess and marlene's leaked audition scripts had some interesting details? very wild stuff.]

[puntificates]

Maybe Ellie might as well be diving into a shark tank with a bunch of juicy fish tied to her body, but you know what? Sometimes you gotta make sacrifices if you want to get something good. She doesn't have anything to hide... (Okay, that's absolutely a lie - but whatever. Don't burst her bubble. She can TOTALLY do this.)

So, there's a non-committal shrug of her shoulders in response to the first question; it's an easy enough one to answer.

"She knew my Mom back in the day." It makes her briefly think of her backpack and what few possessions she has now lost to her. Mom's letter, the switchblade - she really hopes they're safe wherever the hell they are. "So I kinda knew her from around."

'Around.' It's a long story and the details wouldn't be particularly interesting to Tess, she figures. That works.

"What'd you do before? Before the outbreak happened."

Ellie isn't sure how old Tess was when it all went down, but she's kind of curious what life was like for her - and why she eventually ended up a smuggler. Was she like Joel, someone who had lost everything? Or had she slowly gravitated toward that line of work for personal reasons?


[ ooc: Whaaaat, I have been out of the loop on the HBO deets this sounds... super promising?! I wish they would just give us a nice big hefty chunk of goodness from that whole time period, it would easily make for its own show, game, DLC, what the heck ever!!! ]