#debt headcanons

[wisenedup]

Debt AU where Bill bullies Ellie into brushing her teeth while they’re traveling together

[wisenedup]

Debt AU, the thought to leave Ellie with Tommy wouldn’t really cross his mind, plus he’d only come to Tommy to find out where the Fireflies would be. By the time they reached the dam, they’d have been through so much he wouldn’t even really consider it. Ellie, at this point, is the last person he has left. He never really had anyone except for Frank and Joel and Tess, and they’re all gone now. And even then, his relationship with Ellie is unlike anything he’s had since before the outbreak.      With Frank- Frank was a loose canon, way more reckless than Bill liked. He had to worry about Frank so much, because even before running off with his shit and getting bitten, Frank was doing dumb stuff. A lot of their relationship was Bill fighting to not let Frank kill himself from dangerous stunts. Frank was great with a bow- but it was Bill’s traps, Bill’s barricades, Bill’s caution that kept them safe.      With Joel and Tess, it was mostly business. He cared about them, though, and did consider them friends- just maybe not openly. Tess was scary but dependable, a rock in the shitfest the world has become. Joel had done enough for Bill that Bill was risk himself getting that battery he’d been too scared to go after for months.      With Ellie, it was... something else. She has a thirst for life he hasn’t seen in anyone in years. As big a brat she is, there’s something infectious about her personality. Her often dry humor, the gusto with which she tackles the days. She has a will to live, not just to survive but to thrive, and he’s not sure how to deal with that, having lost his own will long before the outbreak. Even more disorientingly, he has to look out for her but she looks out for him in return. There’s a trust between them that’s not built on pre-CBI feelings, like his relationship with Frank, and not built on business strategy- Tess and Joel would lose the supplies he provided and he’d lose the stuff they provided if either of them fell.  He doesn’t have anything to go back to except an empty town- and probably LOTS of work if he ever makes it back; the idea of repairing the barricades alone makes him want to cry, never mind resetting traps, clearing fences, if someone got in... The idea of leaving Ellie on her own scares him as much as it scares her.

[wisenedup]

Debt AU, Bill would arm Ellie before they even left Lincoln. Aside from having nothing left to lose if she turned on him... he knows how scary it is to be defenseless, to rely on others for support. By the time they reach the school, he's already grown a grudging respect for her. Sympathy- she’s just lost Joel, who knows what other shit she’s seen in this world- would bolster that, so he’d make sure she had some way of defending herself besides that little pocket knife.      It takes a while for him to show his affection aside from snide comments about “Don’t get killed”, but he grows attached to her pretty quickly.

[wisenedup]

Debt AU stuff

debt au where Ellie reads the comic she stole from Bill in private and then makes her ‘endure and survive’ comment and hes just like ‘wait a fuckin second— did you steal my shit’ 

:( debt au where ellie has to find out joel was a hunter through bill

:(((( debt au where bill thinks ellie is asleep and lets out tears hs been holding back for weeks; for joel, for frank, for himself, for all the shit life has lobbed at him and everyone  he gives a shit about

Joel doesn’t die but he is seriously wounded, to the point Bill needs to travel with him and Ellie to make up for the slack.

Various causes for Joel and Ellie to stick around(the truck needs additional repairs, one of them gets too hurt to travel, Bill is injured and needs extra help around town for a couple days, whatever) and Joel talks him into coming along.

Same as above except Bill makes the choice to like, ask if he can come along but in the most “I don’t actually like you guys dont get the wrong idea” way possible.

Joel is dead and Bill, sensing the trap, backs up and drives around Pittsburgh.

Joel is alive and they get an argument about ‘that’s obviously a trap Joel turn the fuck around’.

Bill wins and they go around Pittsburgh.

Joel wins and they head into town.

The trap is sprung and Joel spits “don’t say anything, Bill” before Bill can open his mouth

Joel is dead. The ladder on the truck breaks after Ellie, Sam, and Henry have climbed up. Ellie hesitates before jumping down with Bill. Bill is shot holding the gate open for her.

debt au where Bill gets really quiet and sad when Ellie makes the stalemate pun because thats what happened with him and frank pretty much

DEBT AU WITH BILL REALLY TORN WHEN THEY GET TO THE FIREFLIES AND HE FIGURES STUFF OUT, ULTIMATELY HES A GOOD MAN AND HAS OTHER PPLS’ INTERESTS AT HEART BUT ELLIE IS THE ///ONLY/// PERSON LEFT IN THE ENTIRE WRLD WHO HASNT LEFT OR DIED ON HIM AND ITS WITHIN HISP OWERS TO SAVE HER LIFE, PLUS HES SCARED OF NORMAL PEOEPLE AND IF THE VACCINE WORKS WHAT WILL HE HAVE LEFT, AND IF IT DOESNT WORK SHE DIED FOR NOTHING

“Don’t get killed up there.” “Thanks, Bill.” Debt AU where they have this exchange every time Bill boosts her onto something

Debt AU where Bill and Ellie stay in Lincoln for several days so Bill can get supplies together and board up and further booby trap the town. Bill taking Ellie to his other safehouses and [tensely] sharing goodies with her; the electronics he’s been hoarding, tasty treats.

debt au where Bill checks henry and sam and ellie for bites after they get to safety

Debt AU where Joel dies before they reach the schol and isn’t there to pull Bill out of the panic attack he almost falls into when the battery is missing. Ellie has to take charge instead 

BILL KNOWING HELL NEVER BE SQUARE WITH JOEL BECAUSE JOEL FUCKING DIED AND NOW HE LET THIS KID GET KILLED FOR SCIENCE THAT PROBABLY WONT WORK

and if it does work humanity will start to regain ground and that sucks because hes so afraid of normal people

Bill refusing to sleep the first several days he travels with Ellie, part distrust and part ‘I dont want this kid to see how violent my nightmares are’

[wisenedup]

More Debt AU stuff

:( debt au where bill is crying the whole time he’s carrying Ellie out of the hospital, apologizing to her, to the fireflies, to everyone 

between dazzling new heights of anxiety and emotional despair, and sharing a lot of his food with ellie, he drops a lot of weight, eventually becoming almost sickly thin

Debt AU where Ellie specifically waits until its been like four days since they’ve seen an infected before coming clean about her immunity so she can be like ‘when the fuck would this have happened then you dingdong we’ve been traveling together for weeks’ 

the first time he uses her name is also the first time he shows any concern for her ‘ellie, watch out!’

Bill, himself a victim of abuse and sexual assault, comforting Ellie after she kills David. he doesn’t say ‘it’s over’, he doesn’t say ‘its okay’- in his experience, it’s just beginning, it’s not going to be okay for a long time. he says ‘he’s gone, ive got you, hes gone’

he gives her her space throughout the rest of winter and into spring, he doesn’t try to act like nothing happened, he offers her quiet chances to talk about it

bill and ellie falling into an easy habit of teasing and messing around with each other, bill trying to be all straight faced and gruff about it

bill doing everything he can to put distance between them at first

bill wracked by nightmares about frank, about joel, wondering how long it’s gonna take him to get ellie killed

hes more than ready to dump Ellie at Tommy’s initially, but as they get close to his place, they get to talking and he realizes shes in such a similar place to him; everyone she knows or trusted is dead or left her, shes scared to be alone, to be with strangers

Bill knew tommy and Joel back from when they were hunters and joel almost killed him, and he and Tommy got along better than he did with Joel

tommy is amazed to see him, there’s light hearted jokes about how did you survive so long, what’re you doin’ out here, etc

it almost kills bill to have to tell Tommy that Joel is dead

bill teaches ellie various tricks to staying hidden, finding necessary supplies, crafting traps, etc

[wisenedup]

idk if you've posted a headcanon for this yet but how do you think the winter chapter would have changed with bill instead of joel in your au!!

ah!!! it actually depends!!some debt aus have aus where Ellie takes the fall into the rebar instead, and David tracks her down when Bill finally has to leave because the need for food is that desperate. that’s pretty much exactly why bill was so reluctant to leave her alone lmao he didn’t want to lose her. and then he does.regardless of who gets impaled, it goes a little bit better for them, because bill is less battleminded and more ‘what worse case scenario things do i need’, and has taught ellie more about wound care(which he learned from Frank, who had been going to school to be a vet)because of his cautiousness, there’s actually countless ways debt au could diverge from canon(not the least of which is how non-murderous bill is), but when things end up with ellie killing david- bill is there to comfort her. he’s a victim(doesn’t consider himself much of a survivor) of abuse and assault himself, and has been forced into similar situations. not specifically psycho cannibals, but similar stuff none the less. he avoids phrases like ‘its over now’- over 20 years down the line and hes still struggling with stuff he should ‘be over’- in favor of reassurances that he’s got her, that david is gonein the time after, he’s a lot more quiet and respectful. by the time they arrived at the university, they’d finally formed a friendship, but after the david ordeal he drops a lot of the bitter sarcasm he still kept up. he tries to help her deal with what’s happened, tries to get her to talk about it….. probably opens up about his own experiences to try and get her talking

[wisenedup]

“Lets gear up.”  Bill doesn’t specify just Joel. He’s not a part of the conversation where Joel tells Ellie to stand back, that she can’t have a weapon. “Maybe y’shoulda given her a gun.” He gains some grudging respect for her when she goes through the doggie door, into unknown and possibly very dangerous territory. It’s pretty impressive that she’d go in there all but unarmed- he may not even know about her pocket knife at this pint- and he knows what it’s like to end up defenseless in a situation. In Debt AU, he would be pretty quick to arm Ellie. She’s gonna need all the protection she can get now, and he can easily imagine what she’s going through- having a gun, a way to defend himself, would make him feel even a fraction safer, so he gives that to Ellie. Plus, now that Frank’s dead, Joel’s dead, Tess is dead, it doesn’t really matter if she turns around and aims that gun at him. He doesn’t need mistrust, not when he has nothing left to live for except a debt he can never repay.

[wisenedup]

various debt and ‘bill leaves town’ au stuff:

Joel doesn’t die but he is seriously wounded, to the point Bill needs to travel with him and Ellie to make up for the slack.

Various causes for Joel and Ellie to stick around(the truck needs additional repairs, one of them gets too hurt to travel, Bill is injured and needs extra help around town for a couple days, whatever) and Joel talks him into coming along.

Same as above except Bill makes the choice to like, ask if he can come along but in the most “I don’t actually like you guys dont get the wrong idea” way possible.

Joel is dead and Bill, sensing the trap, backs up and drives around Pittsburgh.

Joel is alive and they get an argument about ‘that’s obviously a trap Joel turn the fuck around’.

Bill wins and they go around Pittsburgh

Joel wins and they head into town.

The trap is sprung and Joel spits “don’t say anything, Bill” before Bill can open his mouth

Joel is dead. The ladder on the truck breaks after Ellie, Sam, and Henry have climbed up. Ellie hesitates before jumping down with Bill. Bill is shot holding the gate open for her.