#maria: i am from new york bitch????? cuss away

[mariatesstruther]

For the WIP game:

You've got me intrigued with the "maria and ellie" fic. Do you have a snippet? Is it canon compliant or an AU?

Also, I don't see the Christmas fic?!?!?! Maybe because you don't consider it a WIP yet because I know you've been sick.

I hope you're feeling better 💜

hello ameera 🥰🥰🥰 tysm, i am feeling better 🫶🏾

im glad you’re intrigued with this one! i was actually just working on this! i do have a draft, although very unedited because i’m terrible and don’t autocapitalize when i’m drafting, so be warned. it is a show/canon-compliant fic (haven’t decided if it’s a one-off or maybe the start to a whole mariaellie thing) in which ellie and maria have a meaningful one-on-one sometime shortly after ellie and joel get back, right after the end of tlou 1. i just really wanted a fic centered around the beginnings of the relationship between these two, especially addressing their conversation about joel from 1x06, because ive rewatching tlou2 gameplay and got struck by how close they seemed pre-joel’s death. i think plot-wise, it could also be an interesting start to a story about ellie finding her place in jackson under a mentorship program maria is piloting to help newcomers get acclimated to jackson. in this au, i’d imagine maria would want to mentor ellie, but ellie would need some serious convincing. here’s some snippets, i hope the it’s not too rough!

joel sending ellie to talk to maria:

“youre just too pussy to go over there and talk to her yourself,” ellie grumps, huffing down onto the couch to start pulling on her converse.

“that may be true,” joel says dryly. he doesnt look up from his stupid fucking carpentry book as he continues, “but i’m sending you anyway. have fun.”

“yeah, yeah, asshole. fuck you.”

“and try to watch your language.”

“oh, my bad! screw you! how’s that?”

-

maria talking to ellie:

“tommy told me yall had a hard time out there,” maria tries, attempting and failing at subtlety. it was always easier to her, both naturally and due to her career, to be more direct—but direct with ellie doesn’t always go well, in her experience. so she tries something different. “and that maybe you didn’t have the best time in school before, so. i get it.”

“yeah, well,” ellie snarks, and maria knows already that subtly isn’t the way to go with her, either. “tommy’s an asshole, and he has a big fucking mouth. you guys should find better shit to do than gossip about me and joel.”

jesus, this kid, maria thinks. the tone of her voice, honestly, is hilarious. despite herself maria barks out a laugh. “i have a feeling, ellie, that maybe you and i have the wrong impression of each other.”

“you mean you have the wrong impression of joel.”

“maybe,” maria says, which she can tell is more than ellie was expecting. “i admit, i have a lot of unresolved… feelings, i can say, about joel. i’m working on them. i’d prefer if we could focus this conversation on you and me.”

ellie seems uncomfortable at the prospect, shifting in her chair and fiddling with her long sleeves in her lap. “there isn’t really a you and me to think about.”

“there can be, if you’d like,”

“not if there’s shit between you and joel,”

“how i feel about joel has no bearings on how i’m going to treat you, ellie, and he knows that.”

“but it should. it has to. he’s my—“ ellie stops herself suddenly, cheeks going red and jaw locking in familiar tween-aged embarrassment. “he’s mine.”

“he is. and tommy’s mine.” maria decides to respond in the same way, putting things into ellie’s terms instead of her own, as juvenile as those terms sound to her ears. she’s realizing now, frankly, that this girl is quite the master at leading conversations, whether she realizes it or not. maria can’t help but wonder if it’s something she got from joel. “but they’re also each other’s, whether we like it or not. can we both agree on that?”

“i guess.”

“then it seems to stand to reason that we’ll be quite present in one another’s lives, right? whether we like it or not?”

ellie doesn’t seem to respond too well to the rhetorical questions, immediately bristling at maria’s leading on. “don’t fucking patronize me.”

“i’m not trying to, ellie. i’m trying to propose a proposition to you.”

-

thats’s what i’m giving for now! and i do have the xmas fic on my wip list, i just don’t have much drafted to post, at this point. it’s been hard to do anything this week on account of being sick, but i’m feeling better and writing more this week! hopefully i’ll have something soon, but i’m going to knock out the few wips i have on ao3 first.

@bumblepony ur ask is coming next bae i totally forgot i had one more thing to add to my catching fire au before i move to mockingjay!

#asked and answered #maria and ellie #my writing #ty ameera!!!!!! #hope u like! this one will def be for u! #it is very Not Alone verse coded #this is not the fun snippet of this fic ig but the fun part makes zero sense without explanation #but theres a part about cussing that i think youll rlly like ameera #ellie: fuck sorry i keep cussing in front of u my fucking bad #maria: i am from new york bitch????? cuss away #like youre from boston ellie ive been expecting worse tbh