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 she’s 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. she’s on the forest floor—when did she get on the floor—and her side feels like its on fire. someone is groaning out a panicked “fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuck,” right next to her ear, and it’s annoying the fuck out of her. she wishes they would stop
“stop, maria, stop, just breathe. i got ya, just breathe. fuck! talia, gimme, your fuckin’ jacket!”
ah. it’s her. she stops. suddenly tommy’s face is above her, but it’s sort of not his face: it’s more warped than she’s 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 tense—it reminds her, suddenly, of squidward tentacles’s house. maria snorts at the thought, then groans and winces—the fire comes back anew, and she tries to push away the hands that press down on them, making things burn worse.
“fuckin’ stop, maria, let me see!”
“owww—!” maria tries to stop her pained groaning by gritting her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut, but barely finds reprieve.
“keep your eyes open, maria,” 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. she’s panicking as she speaks, a little, but she gives maria good advice: “just keep your eyes open, okay? it’s just a graze, it’s just a graze! you’ll be okay, but you need to stay awake. don’t pass out.”
maria heeds her directions, looking up into tommy’s 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, “fucking ow, tommy! shit! motherfucker!”
“don’t motherfucker me! what you were fuckin’ thinking? takin’ a fuckin’ bullet, like a goddamn fuckin’ idiot—!”
“that’s really not helpful right now, tommy,” talia tries, somewhere right above them now. it doesn’t stop maria from responding, of course. nothing would—not even a bullet would, apparently.
“are you—? are you seriously fucking mad at me right now?”
“you’re goddamn right i’m mad at you right now—!”
“guys—,”
“tommy, he was going to shoot you!”
“so what, you gettin’ shot is a better solution?”
“guys—!”
“i’m fucking fine! you heard talia! it’s barely a graze!”
“you’re bleeding onto my fuckin’ hands right now, maria! please, i love you, but shut the hell up!”
“why don’t BOTH of you shut the hell up? are you two serious right now? she need’s fuckin’ stitches!”
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 it’s pretty clear it’s just a graze and she’ll obviously be okay) and waiting to be pissed until after they’re back in jackson and she’s all patched up, which is more along what i imagine joel would do. either way he’d be pissed bc he wouldn’t know how to handle that trigger/fear
but yeah i def feel bad for talia 😭 homegirl is trying to patch up a bullet would and these two are bickering 😭 im just imagine maria to have a CRAZY high pain tolerance bc of her chronic pain thing too, so she’s on the floor but still basically like “its just a GRAZE tommy will you stop FREAKING OUT”
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 weren’t 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 tommy’s gone through and been genuinely like “woah, youve been through a lot. maybe take a break. maybe settle down. maybe talk about that more, or it’ll weigh you down.” tommy’s 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 it’s okay to stop to process, because that’s the type of person maria is
maria is the type of person to stop and ask someone, in the middle of an apocalypse, “who’s been cutting your hair?” 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. that’s what maria’s character is all about
@mariatesstruther this is such a BEAUTIFUL analysis of both these characters. I know I don’t have to tell you but the whole “Maria’s terrible because she mistrusted Joel” rhetoric really bugs me. It means you’re missing out on the “There’s more if you need it” 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 isn’t having to fight tooth and nail to survive. I think it’s 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 don’t always get the chance to care for people the way Maria wants too.
Also co-signing everything you said about Tommy ☺️
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.
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 reasons—anna is working there as a line cook, and the plaza’s owner has allowed both of them to stay for as long as they need. tess is their general manager, and maria is the owner’s 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 she’s engaged and set to be married at the plaza, but her fiancé is actually a douchebag and tricking her into thinking he loves her so that he can steal her and hank’s 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 🫶🏾
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 help—including her, tess, and her father. point is, the girls love maria. they’ve always loved maria. so theyr’e Not Fucking with this Fiancée 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: they’d been messing around with tommy’s 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 corner—ellie crashed into maria so hard, she’d been knocked into the wall behind her, the folder full of papers she’d 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.
“jesus, girls. mira por donde vas!” 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 joel’s chance to give sarah a better future to go straight down the drain he’d just fixed.
but then he’d heard her start to laugh. and it was the most glorious giggle he’d ever heard. maria smiled up at tommy from the ground, papers fallen around her like snowfall and bringing out the sparkling white of her teeth—he’d fallen head-over-heels in love with her right then and there.
“ma’am, are you alright?” he asked, reverently taking the small, perfectly-manicured hand she’d slipped into his and pulling her up gently. “i am so, so fuckin’ sorry for that—i mean, uh—i apologize for them. think the girls got a lil’ too carried away.” 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.
“no, it’s fine, i’m just fine. no need to be sorry,” maria’s still laughing by the time she gets up, smiling right up into tommy’s face and—wow, is she beautiful. he doesn’t remember ever being stunned by anyone this much in his whole life. she’s 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, she’s a confusing yet dazzling combination of intimidating and adorable. tommy feels the heat of her hand in his even after she lets go. “i may have needed the laugh, honestly. thanks, girls.” 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.
“sorry for knocking the shit out of you, lady,” 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. “i wasn’t watching where i was walking, anyway. my fault,” she insists kindly, then turns her attention back to tommy. he finds he likes being under the weight of her sharp, pretty brown eyes. “the real problem here is that i don’t recognize you guys, and i recognize everyone. are you new? i’m maria. maria moreau.”
“oh, shit,” tommy can’t 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 maria’s 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. “we really are so, so sorry, ma’am, and didn’t mean to disturb your day. we don’t do this often at all, i promise ya. i just needed to watch them the girls while i took care of an emergency repair, so—,”
“jesus, cowboy, calm down,” maria cut him off immediately, voice amused and her smirk melting into a pleased, charmed smile. to tommy’s 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 he’d already picked up. “i told you already, i needed a laugh. don’t worry about it.”
“so i won’t have to worry about your father comin’ to my door and firing me for nearly knockin’ the head off his daughter?” tommy’s 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 tommy’s cart in it’s collision.
“not if i have anything to say about it,” maria says, her tone light but serious. she gives him a long, pointed once-over that he can’t help but interpret as flirting, a blush heating up his face before he can control himself. “i really don’t recognize you at all, cowboy. i was right about you being new, wasn’t i?”
“yes, ma’am.”
“what’s your name?”
“tommy,” 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.
“tommy,” 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. “you don’t have to worry about a thing. i think i’d like to keep you around.”
and she had—well, 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 prep—and 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 father’s hotel, so he held his tongue. she left. then she comes back with a complete douchebag of a fucking fiancée, set to be married at the plaza on christmas
and it’s 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, there’s an inexplicable sense of peace in Tommy’s isolation. When he tromps through frozen larkspur meadows and runs his hand along rough gray limestone peaks, there’s nothing—no one—dragging 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, there’s an inexplicable sense of peace in Tommy’s isolation. When he tromps through frozen larkspur meadows and runs his hand along rough gray limestone peaks, there’s nothing—no one—dragging 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 reasons—anna is working there as a line cook, and the plaza’s owner has allowed both of them to stay for as long as they need. tess is their general manager, and maria is the owner’s 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 she’s engaged and set to be married at the plaza, but her fiancé is actually a douchebag and tricking her into thinking he loves her so that he can steal her and hank’s 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 🫶🏾
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 help—including her, tess, and her father. point is, the girls love maria. they’ve always loved maria. so theyr’e Not Fucking with this Fiancée 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: they’d been messing around with tommy’s 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 corner—ellie crashed into maria so hard, she’d been knocked into the wall behind her, the folder full of papers she’d 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.
“jesus, girls. mira por donde vas!” 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 joel’s chance to give sarah a better future to go straight down the drain he’d just fixed.
but then he’d heard her start to laugh. and it was the most glorious giggle he’d ever heard. maria smiled up at tommy from the ground, papers fallen around her like snowfall and bringing out the sparkling white of her teeth—he’d fallen head-over-heels in love with her right then and there.
“ma’am, are you alright?” he asked, reverently taking the small, perfectly-manicured hand she’d slipped into his and pulling her up gently. “i am so, so fuckin’ sorry for that—i mean, uh—i apologize for them. think the girls got a lil’ too carried away.” 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.
“no, it’s fine, i’m just fine. no need to be sorry,” maria’s still laughing by the time she gets up, smiling right up into tommy’s face and—wow, is she beautiful. he doesn’t remember ever being stunned by anyone this much in his whole life. she’s 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, she’s a confusing yet dazzling combination of intimidating and adorable. tommy feels the heat of her hand in his even after she lets go. “i may have needed the laugh, honestly. thanks, girls.” 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.
“sorry for knocking the shit out of you, lady,” 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. “i wasn’t watching where i was walking, anyway. my fault,” she insists kindly, then turns her attention back to tommy. he finds he likes being under the weight of her sharp, pretty brown eyes. “the real problem here is that i don’t recognize you guys, and i recognize everyone. are you new? i’m maria. maria moreau.”
“oh, shit,” tommy can’t 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 maria’s 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. “we really are so, so sorry, ma’am, and didn’t mean to disturb your day. we don’t do this often at all, i promise ya. i just needed to watch them the girls while i took care of an emergency repair, so—,”
“jesus, cowboy, calm down,” maria cut him off immediately, voice amused and her smirk melting into a pleased, charmed smile. to tommy’s 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 he’d already picked up. “i told you already, i needed a laugh. don’t worry about it.”
“so i won’t have to worry about your father comin’ to my door and firing me for nearly knockin’ the head off his daughter?” tommy’s 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 tommy’s cart in it’s collision.
“not if i have anything to say about it,” maria says, her tone light but serious. she gives him a long, pointed once-over that he can’t help but interpret as flirting, a blush heating up his face before he can control himself. “i really don’t recognize you at all, cowboy. i was right about you being new, wasn’t i?”
“yes, ma’am.”
“what’s your name?”
“tommy,” 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.
“tommy,” 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. “you don’t have to worry about a thing. i think i’d like to keep you around.”
and she had—well, 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 prep—and 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 father’s hotel, so he held his tongue. she left. then she comes back with a complete douchebag of a fucking fiancée, set to be married at the plaza on christmas
and it’s up to sarah and ellie to stop the motherfucking wedding
for my mariatommy lovers, specifically @ameerawrites @bumblepony @clickergossip and @liveandletcry23
