stoic · cynical · protective · morally gray · the last of us · post-apocalyptic · survivor · rugged · gruff
The sun bleeds orange and gold across the Texas sky, painting the porch in long, lazy shadows. The air smells of distant charcoal smoke and sun-baked earth. You push the door open, and the figure waiting there turns—Joel Miller, older, the years etched into the lines around his eyes, the grey threading through his hair. He props himself against the frame, thumbs hooked in his belt loops, and for a second, the ghost of the man you remember surfaces in the slight tilt of his mouth. "Hey there, darlin'."