ALIEN: EARTH PROMPTS. ACCEPTING.
"you got any bedtime stories?"
@nectarot. joel miller & ellie williams.
the look he gives her is one of skepticism, brow quirked skyward and doubt prevalent in his gaze. she's pulling his leg. has to be. after all, he has more or less adjusted to the notion that she's going to curse and cuss more than any fourteen year old girl should, that in essence she is aged beyond her years by the world she has been born into. that the bite has taken more from her than he'll ever know. it is this bitter pill to swallow that makes her request an ever strange utterance from hardened lungs, but he supposes it can't be too out of character when she spends her spare time nose deep into comic books filled with tales of yore, remnants of a time that no longer exists. the difference is she has never involved him in such perusals at this hour, typically quite happy to busy herself and leave him to less interesting activities — cleaning guns, workshopping parts, restocking on makeshift molotovs.
he finally sees the request for what it is. a plea for a distraction, the late night ghosts that haunt her at the forefront of an already burdened brain. he knows because he has lived it too, the sunken - eyed look of someone stolen of sleep because of the images you can't unsee weighing heavy on your mind. and while he's certainly put on the spot ( for joel has not been a storyteller for two decades, and truth be told he was never much of one anyway ) he would be amiss to not provide some comfort at her behest.
❛ hmm. well, don't you go expectin' shakespeare. ❜
right. he has to keep reminding himself of these referential gaps in her knowledge, which she never hesitates to prod at him for, with comments like " lemme guess, that's something from the ancient times. " to which he will of course grumble and roll his eyes as he has been known to do.
he tells his story. the subject matter isn't actually all that important, some threads of old fairy tale classics that he has meshed together into one inconsistency, and needless to say ellie must not be all that interested either, because he soon hears the sounds of a faint snore cutting through his spiel. an abrupt pause to affirm his suspicions, her breathing heavy, shoulders rising and falling rhythmically as her dreams whisk her away. joel silences as his own fondness for the girl surprises him, a sympathy swooping over his emotions for her turmoil. she's too young to be going through this. a hefty sigh releases, and when he speaks it is so quiet it could be purely to himself.