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[vaccination]

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[vaccination]

[Ellie peers down at the screen. It takes her a moment to realize what she's looking at, but when she does, she laughs.]

What--how the fuck did this happen?

[Why is this dumbass handing Tess blackmail?]

That's disgusting, by the way. Yuck. I need to bleach my eyeballs.

[dog_eat_dog]

Right? The stupid fuck thought he could blackmail me, so I figured I'd turn it around on him.

[She chuckles and pockets the communicator.]

[vaccination]

Blackmail you with that, even?

[Seems like a bad idea.]

[dog_eat_dog]

Nah, he doesn't have anything worthwhile on me.

[Which isn't entirely true, but Ellie doesn't need to know that part.]

What are you up to today?

[vaccination]

[Ellie does wonder. But doesn't ask. She shrugs, picking up her backpack where it was by her feet and slinging it over a shoulder.]

Not much. I was just doodling some shit.

[Made up planets and stars and there might be a drawing of Cloud on a bike in there, somewhere.]

You?

[dog_eat_dog]

I'm gonna go get lunch with Arthur and then drinks with Butcher, hit the showers.

[She nods her head towards Ellie's backpack. The journal.]

You doodle a lot too, huh? You should compare notes with Arthur. He's always scribbling something in his.

[vaccination]

[That sounds awfully like a social life.]

The cowboy dude draws?

[It's... good to hear. Something very unlike Joel.]

[dog_eat_dog]

He does. Real nice ones, too. Animals and flowers and towns and that.

And he's not a cowboy.

[vaccination]

[Ellie files that information away. Something to talk about that's not... awkward.]

He sounds like a cowboy. Looks like a cowboy.

[dog_eat_dog]

So does damn near everyone from the South, it seems.

[Look at William, and at Lawrence. Alright, maybe not Steve, but––]

You know cowboy is a job, right? They herd cows.

[vaccination]

I bet he's herded cows at least once. And maybe walked into a saloon.

[Joel totally made her watch westerns. Not as cool as space or dumb car ones, but not terrible.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Okay, fair, but]

Only because he was fucking stealing them. He doesn't live or work on a ranch.

[vaccination]

[A little defensive of Joel 2.0 there, but Ellie won't say that aloud. As is the trend with Tess.]

So he's like... an outlaw? And now he's your warden?

[dog_eat_dog]

Used to be an outlaw. He sorted himself out before he got here.

[vaccination]

Phew. Don't wanna worry about my cattle being snatched in the middle of the night.

[A reformed asshole? Also sounds familiar. Ellie hates it.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess snorts.]

I did not remember you being such a smart ass.

[vaccination]

[They didn't know one another long, and Ellie was still reeling from not turning after being bitten, terrified, and freshly shoved into the care of smugglers. Her personality was a little repressed.]

It's about fifty percent of who I am.

[dog_eat_dog]

No kidding, it’s about half of what comes out of your mouth.

[ The other half is moping. ]

Point is he’s not a cowboy.

[vaccination]

Think he'd be more offended at that or me calling him an ex-outlaw or whatever?

[dog_eat_dog]

He knows who he is. It’s not that he’d be offended, either, just that it’s fucking obnoxious to hear over and over.

[vaccination]

Guess that rules out pardner, too.

[If you don't think she didn't pick up the ability to speak in a Texan accent after years of Joel and aforementioned Westerns, you're wrong.]

[dog_eat_dog]

That, you’ll have to try and see.

[vaccination]

Less derogatory than cowboy, I hope.

[Cowboy is cool, in her books. If patrolling wasn't an option and she could get out of shoveling shit for the entire shift, she'd want to work with the horses back in Jackson.]

[dog_eat_dog]

I’m pretty sure it’s just the same as saying dude or something.

[vaccination]

Isn't a dude like... a thing? A job?