24! Black. safe space for my miller family brainrot and maria stanship. of the firm belief that tess is still alive. ao3: mariatesstruther currently writing: nothing. everything. something.
just a reminder yall that buying the tlou 2 remaster AND STREAMING SEASON 2 is supporting neil, which is supporting israel and its genocide against palestinians!
i love the tlou world as much as anyone else, but financially diverting away from anyone/thing/company supporting israel is one of the simplest and easiest ways palestinians have asked us to help. i hope we all consider boycotting the remaster and pirating s2
@liveandletcry23 (joseline hernandez voice) your every wish is my command
okay so im thinking like tommy maria and talia are out on a patrol sometime down the line in my fear of heights verse
something goes wrong and they basically get ambushed by some desperate men looking to steal their food and weapons and probably worse
tommy and maria both push talia out of the way and try to handle things because, as good as shes gotten with her gun, theyre both the type to take the lead in a dangerous situation like this one
so its tommy and maria against maybe three/four dudes. tommy takes out one with a quick shot, maria takes out the other with swift throw of her axe, and they take the third one down together, tommy rushing him when he tries to shoot at talia and maria knocking him out with a pistol whip to the head
tommy moves to check that talia didnt get shot; he turns his back just soon enough that he doesnt see another raider coming out of the bushes a few years away, pointing at his back with a pistol. maria doesnt think, she just moves. tries to get tommy out of the way
and then sheâs down
she hears talia scream and tommy shout and then another shot, but shes in too much pain to make sense of what any of that means. sheâs on the forest floorâwhen did she get on the floorâand her side feels like its on fire. someone is groaning out a panicked âfuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuck,â right next to her ear, and itâs annoying the fuck out of her. she wishes they would stop
âstop, maria, stop, just breathe. i got ya, just breathe. fuck! talia, gimme, your fuckinâ jacket!â
ah. itâs her. she stops. suddenly tommyâs face is above her, but itâs sort of not his face: itâs more warped than sheâs ever seen it. his mouth is turned down in a frown so deep, the corners of his mustache are almost at his chin. his brows are furrowed so close together that he looks like he has a unibrow, nose and forehead tenseâit reminds her, suddenly, of squidward tentaclesâs house. maria snorts at the thought, then groans and wincesâthe fire comes back anew, and she tries to push away the hands that press down on them, making things burn worse.
âfuckinâ stop, maria, let me see!â
âowwwâ!â maria tries to stop her pained groaning by gritting her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut, but barely finds reprieve.
âkeep your eyes open, maria,â talia says, somewhere on her left. maria hears her bag rustling frantically, and takes a second to thank every god out there upon remembering that talia has a knack for emergency first aid. sheâs panicking as she speaks, a little, but she gives maria good advice: âjust keep your eyes open, okay? itâs just a graze, itâs just a graze! youâll be okay, but you need to stay awake. donât pass out.â
maria heeds her directions, looking up into tommyâs grumpyface once again. she feels him press down, and the fires grow worse. her hands comes up to clench like claws around his wrists, as she groans, âfucking ow, tommy! shit! motherfucker!â
âdonât motherfucker me! what you were fuckinâ thinking? takinâ a fuckinâ bullet, like a goddamn fuckinâ idiotâ!â
âthatâs really not helpful right now, tommy,â talia tries, somewhere right above them now. it doesnât stop maria from responding, of course. nothing wouldânot even a bullet would, apparently.
âare youâ? are you seriously fucking mad at me right now?â
âyouâre goddamn right iâm mad at you right nowâ!â
âguysâ,â
âtommy, he was going to shoot you!â
âso what, you gettinâ shot is a better solution?â
âguysâ!â
âiâm fucking fine! you heard talia! itâs barely a graze!â
âyouâre bleeding onto my fuckinâ hands right now, maria! please, i love you, but shut the hell up!â
âwhy donât BOTH of you shut the hell up? are you two serious right now? she needâs fuckinâ stitches!â
I also imagine that Tommy would be triggered at this point. Because here is Maria on the dirt ground bleeding from the side and he keeps blinking back in time to Joel on his knees, Sarah's blood all over his hands, his niece dying in front of him because he was just a minute to late.
And again Maria throw herself in front of him because he was not paying attention, he was too late again and she's bleeding from her side, and she's gasping from pain. And Tommy is just in his head, spiraling as the two images start to superimpose on one another. And suddenly he's shaking and he can't breathe and now Talia's got two people she has to deal with.
ok yes Tommy panicking like the injury is much worse than it is and Talia has to get him in order, "Tommy, she's talking to you because she's okay, but none of us will stay okay if you don't get it together. Say you get it and help me move her."
And he's like doing his best to get his shit together. Low key i feel like he wouldn't be able to be pissed until after.
Like Talia is finally able to get him get it together and they get Maria back to the clinic in Jackson. He's silent and supportive through getting Maria all checked out and good to go. He walks her back home and they end up fighting in her living room. Maria is expecting a lecture from him and it starts that way but then Tommy starts to unravel and talking about how he's always too late and he's not gonna be able to keep her safe.
im torn between tommy not being able to emotionally regulate in the moment bc of his ptsd triggers and getting upset in the moment (once itâs pretty clear itâs just a graze and sheâll obviously be okay) and waiting to be pissed until after theyâre back in jackson and sheâs all patched up, which is more along what i imagine joel would do. either way heâd be pissed bc he wouldnât know how to handle that trigger/fear
but yeah i def feel bad for talia đ homegirl is trying to patch up a bullet would and these two are bickering đ im just imagine maria to have a CRAZY high pain tolerance bc of her chronic pain thing too, so sheâs on the floor but still basically like âits just a GRAZE tommy will you stop FREAKING OUTâ
and then after a deeper convo about him being triggered sarah (maybe she knew at this point that she died and he watched, but not exactly how), she understands more why he freaked the way he did
I really love where this is going. Like this is a pivotal point in Tommy and Maria's relationship that leads to them having deeper conversations. Like I just don't believe that Tommy got to process any of this with Joel and now Maria is giving him the space to do so.
Also, I am so here for the comedic relief of Talia just being like "Not my circus, not my monkeys" once she gets back to Jackson. Girl deserves a break.
You write this for us @mariatesstruther and I'll love you forever!
@ameerawrites oh 100%! i definitely that for tommy, a lot of his trauma and triggers werenât worked through until after he got to jackson, away from both joel and the fireflies. maria was probably one of the first people since tommy left joel to hear what tommyâs gone through and been genuinely like âwoah, youve been through a lot. maybe take a break. maybe settle down. maybe talk about that more, or itâll weigh you down.â tommyâs always been a soldier, fighting for something or someone or some cause, and i think he sees himself that way. i think he sees himself as someone who must always keep going, and maria is the first person to tell him itâs okay to stop to process, because thatâs the type of person maria is
maria is the type of person to stop and ask someone, in the middle of an apocalypse, âwhoâs been cutting your hair?â like it really matters, because it does: self-care matters, self-reflection matters, taking care of ones insides and outsides and being matters, even and especially in a world that seems hopeless. thatâs what mariaâs character is all about
@mariatesstruther this is such a BEAUTIFUL analysis of both these characters. I know I donât have to tell you but the whole âMariaâs terrible because she mistrusted Joelâ rhetoric really bugs me. It means youâre missing out on the âThereâs more if you need itâ in the dining hall and the let me take you on a tour around this place that I helped establish to provide some shred of normalcy in the apocalypse and Ellie come to movie night so you can see what it means to be a teenager that isnât having to fight tooth and nail to survive. I think itâs things like this that made me envision her as a social worker in the modern AU. I know she would be a dope ass lawyer but I know they donât always get the chance to care for people the way Maria wants too.
Also co-signing everything you said about Tommy âşď¸
Tagging @bumblepony and @liveandletcry23 in case they still want to chime in.
Another commission by the wonderful @miranhas-art of an AU where Knight Tommy stumbles upon Witch Maria's hut in the forest and they have a wonderful adventure.
not me tearing up in this restaurant rn because itâs my first time going out to eat alone and itâs also my 30th birthday and like itâs amazing lmao
okay WAIT an eloise at christmastime x tlou au in which tommy and joel miller work at the plaza hotel to support their niece sarah, who gets to live at the plaza in exchange. ellie lives there too, for the same reasonsâanna is working there as a line cook, and the plazaâs owner has allowed both of them to stay for as long as they need. tess is their general manager, and maria is the ownerâs daughter, a law student at columbia who stays at the plaza to help out her father when she has the time
the plaza is owned by hank moreau, a hotel mogul who made a legacy being the first black man to own and manage the plaza through his longstanding hospitality company. he employed anna, joel, tommy, and tess at the plaza when he took-over, both as a thanks and as recognition for their hard work at his other hotels for years
okay so the actual plot: maria is coming back in town because sheâs engaged and set to be married at the plaza, but her fiancĂŠ is actually a douchebag and tricking her into thinking he loves her so that he can steal her and hankâs money. sarah and ellie find this out somehow, probably hear him bragging about his plan to his buddies over poker as they sneak around in the adults-only area if the hotel. and theyre like!!!!!!! absolutely!!!!! fucking!!!!! not!!!!!!! we NEED to stop this guy!!!!!
exposition and maria/tommy first meeting under the cut đŤśđž
sarah and ellie have known maria for years, since they were both little girls that had just moved into the plaza and maria had invited them both up to her penthouse suite for snacks and movies. she told them all the best places to hide, the best days to get free food from the banquet and the days to avoid, as well as who to go if they ever need helpâincluding her, tess, and her father. point is, the girls love maria. theyâve always loved maria. so theyrâe Not Fucking with this FiancĂŠe Asshole or this farce of a wedding
they also know that tommy is in love with maria, has been basically since the moment the two met, which was just a few weeks before that first sleepover. sarah and ellie were there to witness it all: theyâd been messing around with tommyâs tool cart as he went through rooms and lame parts of the hotel to fix shit. sarah had sent ellie flying down the hall with it right as maria had been walking around the cornerâellie crashed into maria so hard, sheâd been knocked into the wall behind her, the folder full of papers sheâd been holding flying all over the place
tommy, sarah, and ellie had all winced at the crash. at that point, they were all new and nervous to be there, and they knew who maria was by name but had yet to meet her. still, without knowing who she was, all of them knew fucking around in front of the guests was the number one way to get kicked out of the plaza.
âjesus, girls. mira por donde vas!â tommy had immediately gone over to where she was on the floor, offering her his hand, expecting her to be pissed and for his and joelâs chance to give sarah a better future to go straight down the drain heâd just fixed.
but then heâd heard her start to laugh. and it was the most glorious giggle heâd ever heard. maria smiled up at tommy from the ground, papers fallen around her like snowfall and bringing out the sparkling white of her teethâheâd fallen head-over-heels in love with her right then and there.
âmaâam, are you alright?â he asked, reverently taking the small, perfectly-manicured hand sheâd slipped into his and pulling her up gently. âi am so, so fuckinâ sorry for thatâi mean, uhâi apologize for them. think the girls got a lilâ too carried away.â the last part had been expressed pointedly over his shoulder at ellie and sarah, who were standing shyly by his cart with childlike embarrassment on both their faces.
âno, itâs fine, iâm just fine. no need to be sorry,â mariaâs still laughing by the time she gets up, smiling right up into tommyâs face andâwow, is she beautiful. he doesnât remember ever being stunned by anyone this much in his whole life. sheâs got long, beautiful locs with loosely-curled hair at the ends, falling long down past her waist like rapunzel. wearing a short pink blazer dress and matching heeled loafers, sheâs a confusing yet dazzling combination of intimidating and adorable. tommy feels the heat of her hand in his even after she lets go. âi may have needed the laugh, honestly. thanks, girls.â she directs the words to ellie and sarah kindly and genuinely, and tommy feels himself immediately warm to her as he watches the anxiety on their faces ease from over his shoulder.
âsorry for knocking the shit out of you, lady,â ellie says, and he cringes.
luckily, it only serves to make maria laugh once more, and the woman lifts a hand to wave away the apology. âi wasnât watching where i was walking, anyway. my fault,â she insists kindly, then turns her attention back to tommy. he finds he likes being under the weight of her sharp, pretty brown eyes. âthe real problem here is that i donât recognize you guys, and i recognize everyone. are you new? iâm maria. maria moreau.â
âoh, shit,â tommy canât stop himself from saying. he feels sarah and ellie both turn their eyes to him, instantly picking up on his nerves. he can see the amusement on mariaâs face at his clear and shocked recognition. he immediately goes down to start picking up her fallen papers, hands fumbling as fast as his words. âwe really are so, so sorry, maâam, and didnât mean to disturb your day. we donât do this often at all, i promise ya. i just needed to watch them the girls while i took care of an emergency repair, soâ,â
âjesus, cowboy, calm down,â maria cut him off immediately, voice amused and her smirk melting into a pleased, charmed smile. to tommyâs surprise, she drops right down to the floor next to him and starts collecting her papers beside him, uttering a small thank-you as he passes her the ones heâd already picked up. âi told you already, i needed a laugh. donât worry about it.â
âso i wonât have to worry about your father cominâ to my door and firing me for nearly knockinâ the head off his daughter?â tommyâs tone is joking and light, but there is clear underlying anxiety in his voice as he asks. the quip is said low enough that neither sarah and ellie hear, the girls talking behind them as they pick up the few tools knocked from tommyâs cart in itâs collision.
ânot if i have anything to say about it,â maria says, her tone light but serious. she gives him a long, pointed once-over that he canât help but interpret as flirting, a blush heating up his face before he can control himself. âi really donât recognize you at all, cowboy. i was right about you being new, wasnât i?â
âyes, maâam.â
âwhatâs your name?â
âtommy,â he responds as they both get up. at first, they end up just a tad too close, so he takes a polite step back as he hands her the last of her papers.
âtommy,â maria repeats back to him, and he feels a rush of something shoot up his spine, forcing him to stand up straighter and taller, at the sound of his name from her lips. she must notice, because she smirks at him knowingly as she holds her messy folder to his chest. âyou donât have to worry about a thing. i think iâd like to keep you around.â
and she hadâwell, her father had, technically. but maria had remained close friends with the millers and the williams for years, always treating sarah and ellie with gifts, stopping by the halls to talk with joel while he fixed pipes or by the kitchen to hang with anna while she did her prepâand always speaking, joking, and flirting with tommy every chance she got. they never became anything official; mostly because, according to joel and anna, tommy was always too chickenshit to ask her out. by the time maria finished her ADA training and moved out of state, tommy was surely in love with her but equally determined not to hold her back. he always wanted the best for her and believed she deserved far better than the maintenance man at her fatherâs hotel, so he held his tongue. she left. then she comes back with a complete douchebag of a fucking fiancĂŠe, set to be married at the plaza on christmas
and itâs up to sarah and ellie to stop the motherfucking wedding
for my mariatommy lovers, specifically @ameerawrites @bumblepony @clickergossip and @liveandletcry23
And though he is freezing, and though there are a million and one things that could kill him as he makes his way down into the valley, thereâs an inexplicable sense of peace in Tommyâs isolation. When he tromps through frozen larkspur meadows and runs his hand along rough gray limestone peaks, thereâs nothingâno oneâdragging him towards the pieces of his soul that hunt and torture and kill. He was always the kind of man who believed in fate; up here, Tommy feels closer to the soft hands of destiny than he ever has.
-
Snapshots of Tommy's first year in Jackson Hole as he falls in love with a woman named Maria.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
And though he is freezing, and though there are a million and one things that could kill him as he makes his way down into the valley, thereâs an inexplicable sense of peace in Tommyâs isolation. When he tromps through frozen larkspur meadows and runs his hand along rough gray limestone peaks, thereâs nothingâno oneâdragging him towards the pieces of his soul that hunt and torture and kill. He was always the kind of man who believed in fate; up here, Tommy feels closer to the soft hands of destiny than he ever has.
-
Snapshots of Tommy's first year in Jackson Hole as he falls in love with a woman named Maria.
<3
a christmas present for my secret santa giftee, @dancingonmoonbeams <333333
okay WAIT an eloise at christmastime x tlou au in which tommy and joel miller work at the plaza hotel to support their niece sarah, who gets to live at the plaza in exchange. ellie lives there too, for the same reasonsâanna is working there as a line cook, and the plazaâs owner has allowed both of them to stay for as long as they need. tess is their general manager, and maria is the ownerâs daughter, a law student at columbia who stays at the plaza to help out her father when she has the time
the plaza is owned by hank moreau, a hotel mogul who made a legacy being the first black man to own and manage the plaza through his longstanding hospitality company. he employed anna, joel, tommy, and tess at the plaza when he took-over, both as a thanks and as recognition for their hard work at his other hotels for years
okay so the actual plot: maria is coming back in town because sheâs engaged and set to be married at the plaza, but her fiancĂŠ is actually a douchebag and tricking her into thinking he loves her so that he can steal her and hankâs money. sarah and ellie find this out somehow, probably hear him bragging about his plan to his buddies over poker as they sneak around in the adults-only area if the hotel. and theyre like!!!!!!! absolutely!!!!! fucking!!!!! not!!!!!!! we NEED to stop this guy!!!!!
exposition and maria/tommy first meeting under the cut đŤśđž
sarah and ellie have known maria for years, since they were both little girls that had just moved into the plaza and maria had invited them both up to her penthouse suite for snacks and movies. she told them all the best places to hide, the best days to get free food from the banquet and the days to avoid, as well as who to go if they ever need helpâincluding her, tess, and her father. point is, the girls love maria. theyâve always loved maria. so theyrâe Not Fucking with this FiancĂŠe Asshole or this farce of a wedding
they also know that tommy is in love with maria, has been basically since the moment the two met, which was just a few weeks before that first sleepover. sarah and ellie were there to witness it all: theyâd been messing around with tommyâs tool cart as he went through rooms and lame parts of the hotel to fix shit. sarah had sent ellie flying down the hall with it right as maria had been walking around the cornerâellie crashed into maria so hard, sheâd been knocked into the wall behind her, the folder full of papers sheâd been holding flying all over the place
tommy, sarah, and ellie had all winced at the crash. at that point, they were all new and nervous to be there, and they knew who maria was by name but had yet to meet her. still, without knowing who she was, all of them knew fucking around in front of the guests was the number one way to get kicked out of the plaza.
âjesus, girls. mira por donde vas!â tommy had immediately gone over to where she was on the floor, offering her his hand, expecting her to be pissed and for his and joelâs chance to give sarah a better future to go straight down the drain heâd just fixed.
but then heâd heard her start to laugh. and it was the most glorious giggle heâd ever heard. maria smiled up at tommy from the ground, papers fallen around her like snowfall and bringing out the sparkling white of her teethâheâd fallen head-over-heels in love with her right then and there.
âmaâam, are you alright?â he asked, reverently taking the small, perfectly-manicured hand sheâd slipped into his and pulling her up gently. âi am so, so fuckinâ sorry for thatâi mean, uhâi apologize for them. think the girls got a lilâ too carried away.â the last part had been expressed pointedly over his shoulder at ellie and sarah, who were standing shyly by his cart with childlike embarrassment on both their faces.
âno, itâs fine, iâm just fine. no need to be sorry,â mariaâs still laughing by the time she gets up, smiling right up into tommyâs face andâwow, is she beautiful. he doesnât remember ever being stunned by anyone this much in his whole life. sheâs got long, beautiful locs with loosely-curled hair at the ends, falling long down past her waist like rapunzel. wearing a short pink blazer dress and matching heeled loafers, sheâs a confusing yet dazzling combination of intimidating and adorable. tommy feels the heat of her hand in his even after she lets go. âi may have needed the laugh, honestly. thanks, girls.â she directs the words to ellie and sarah kindly and genuinely, and tommy feels himself immediately warm to her as he watches the anxiety on their faces ease from over his shoulder.
âsorry for knocking the shit out of you, lady,â ellie says, and he cringes.
luckily, it only serves to make maria laugh once more, and the woman lifts a hand to wave away the apology. âi wasnât watching where i was walking, anyway. my fault,â she insists kindly, then turns her attention back to tommy. he finds he likes being under the weight of her sharp, pretty brown eyes. âthe real problem here is that i donât recognize you guys, and i recognize everyone. are you new? iâm maria. maria moreau.â
âoh, shit,â tommy canât stop himself from saying. he feels sarah and ellie both turn their eyes to him, instantly picking up on his nerves. he can see the amusement on mariaâs face at his clear and shocked recognition. he immediately goes down to start picking up her fallen papers, hands fumbling as fast as his words. âwe really are so, so sorry, maâam, and didnât mean to disturb your day. we donât do this often at all, i promise ya. i just needed to watch them the girls while i took care of an emergency repair, soâ,â
âjesus, cowboy, calm down,â maria cut him off immediately, voice amused and her smirk melting into a pleased, charmed smile. to tommyâs surprise, she drops right down to the floor next to him and starts collecting her papers beside him, uttering a small thank-you as he passes her the ones heâd already picked up. âi told you already, i needed a laugh. donât worry about it.â
âso i wonât have to worry about your father cominâ to my door and firing me for nearly knockinâ the head off his daughter?â tommyâs tone is joking and light, but there is clear underlying anxiety in his voice as he asks. the quip is said low enough that neither sarah and ellie hear, the girls talking behind them as they pick up the few tools knocked from tommyâs cart in itâs collision.
ânot if i have anything to say about it,â maria says, her tone light but serious. she gives him a long, pointed once-over that he canât help but interpret as flirting, a blush heating up his face before he can control himself. âi really donât recognize you at all, cowboy. i was right about you being new, wasnât i?â
âyes, maâam.â
âwhatâs your name?â
âtommy,â he responds as they both get up. at first, they end up just a tad too close, so he takes a polite step back as he hands her the last of her papers.
âtommy,â maria repeats back to him, and he feels a rush of something shoot up his spine, forcing him to stand up straighter and taller, at the sound of his name from her lips. she must notice, because she smirks at him knowingly as she holds her messy folder to his chest. âyou donât have to worry about a thing. i think iâd like to keep you around.â
and she hadâwell, her father had, technically. but maria had remained close friends with the millers and the williams for years, always treating sarah and ellie with gifts, stopping by the halls to talk with joel while he fixed pipes or by the kitchen to hang with anna while she did her prepâand always speaking, joking, and flirting with tommy every chance she got. they never became anything official; mostly because, according to joel and anna, tommy was always too chickenshit to ask her out. by the time maria finished her ADA training and moved out of state, tommy was surely in love with her but equally determined not to hold her back. he always wanted the best for her and believed she deserved far better than the maintenance man at her fatherâs hotel, so he held his tongue. she left. then she comes back with a complete douchebag of a fucking fiancĂŠe, set to be married at the plaza on christmas
and itâs up to sarah and ellie to stop the motherfucking wedding
for my mariatommy lovers, specifically @ameerawrites @bumblepony @clickergossip and @liveandletcry23