marchflower
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Recent works
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priest of nothing by marchflower for ayeleye
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
19 Nov 2025
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Summary
Silence falls, echoing, around them. Sarah cries quietly. Joel hesitates, then chucks the remainder of his slice over the wall into the river and scoots across the tailgate, gathers her up against him. Sarah tucks her face into the crook of his neck and shudders. Joel runs a hand up and down the delicate ladder of her spine, buries his face in the sweet bed of her curls. She’s paper thin in his arms, fever bright and sticky sweet, at once both the little girl he once knew and the woman she’s becoming. The world is moving too fast for him; Sarah keeps pace with it so easily, and he’s -
Well, he’s forever falling behind.
“I love you,” he says again. He closes his eyes, swallows. The things he’d do for her are innumerable and unchanging. She has to know. “I can’t - I can’t promise you that I’m always going to get it right, baby girl, but I promise you I’m always going to try. More than I did tonight. Okay?”
Sarah whispers, “Okay.”
*
Joel's metamorphosis, twenty years in the making: from a father to a man turned inside out by grief, and back again.
*
for the whumptober prompt “painful transformation”
Series
- Part 2 of Whumptober 2025
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beneath the weeping tree by marchflower
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
31 Oct 2025
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Summary
She leans into the pain, gasping, till it centers her, till her mind clears, till the ghosts of her childhood - as brief and tempestuous as it was - are shuttered away.
Still though, their words echo dimly in the far corners of her mind. This is what happens when you get close to people, they say. This is what happens when you let your guard down.
She shudders, pushes off of the wall. The thermos tumbles from its perch and falls the long way to the ground, banging tinnily against a rock or a tree root or something. Ellie curses and wipes her hair out of her eyes, leans over to see where it landed-
-and freezes, her breath suddenly cold in her chest.
At the edge of the woods, cloaked in the sage lace dripping from the boughs of the sheltering cottonwoods, something is watching her, its eyes gleaming luridly in the electric light of the coming storm.
*
There is something in the woods outside of Jackson.
*
for the prompt "non-human whumper"
Series
- Part 1 of Whumptober 2025
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Tags
Summary
“I mean-” Ellie licks her lips, swishes a bunch of pieces aside with the flat of her hand. “I mean, do you think, like, old women think Joel is attractive?”
A pregnant pause swells to fill the garage. Then Dina snorts and claws upright on the couch. She sways dizzily. “Oh, for sure.” Ellie squeaks, and Dina goes on, voice sing-songing, “And not just the old ones.”
Jesse says, slowly, bravely, “If we’re being honest, I think Joel’s attractive.”
Ellie falls backwards onto her ass, grunting at the impact. “Oh my God-”
“Tommy too,” Jesses adds, and Ellie throws a handful of puzzle pieces at him, shrieks:
“What?!”
*
Ellie discovers that Joel might be Jackson's most eligible bachelor. Shenanigans ensue.
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blueberry alley by marchflower
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
23 Jul 2025
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Summary
Ellie slides into her place and picks up her spoon. “What’s this?”
“Porotos granados,” Tommy replies. He sits beside her, squeezing her shoulder as he passes. “Our mama used to make it. She was from-”
“Santiago,” Ellie volunteers. Tommy chuckles.
“Si, Santiago,” he agrees. He says it with a little lilt that’s so different from his normal drawl that it makes Ellie giggle. It’s still weird to her, how sometimes Tommy and Joel switch so easily from one dialect or language to the next. She doesn’t even mind when they talk Spanish around her to keep her from knowing their business. She likes the rapid fire cadence of their words, the way the vowels sound like sugar melting over hot coals on their tongues, the way Joel sucks his teeth and hisses, how Tommy’s voice goes higher when he’s joking. It’s weird sometimes to look around at all the ways her family doesn’t match each other and yet love each other so much. It shouldn’t make sense - they shouldn’t make sense - and still, they do.
*
Ellie's first year in Jackson, told through dinners and lunches and midnight snacks and egg sandwiches.
Or:
Food as a form of love.
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planets of the universe by marchflower for Nandorluna
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
09 Jul 2025
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Summary
Mateo loved his dad. He loved more him than he’d ever loved someone else before. It was sort of strange, because he didn’t always know Dad or Mom, and sometimes he still looked at his family and wondered if there was really a place for him in it, after all. But the one thing he’d never doubted, not from the first night that Dad had tucked him in - before he was even Dad, when he was still just a stranger- was how safe Mateo felt with him, and how much he felt like he could love someone who made him feel that way.
*
In a continuation of the story Nandorluna told us in her saga, Go Your Own Way, Mateo Miller grapples with growing up, fitting in, and figuring out what it means to be part of a family.
Recent series
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Whumptober 2025 by marchflower
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
20 Nov 2025
- Words:
- 36,092
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 2
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Whumptober 2024 by marchflower
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
30 Oct 2024
Summary
Whumptober 2024 fics & prompts in order:
pale through pathless ways - race against the clock
dust before the dreams gone cold - sunburn
lady lazarus - not realizing they’re injured
some unimaginable bird - sleep deprivation
starved in desert wild - starvation
a quartz contentment - childhood trauma
the death of myth-making - emotional angst
leafmold paradise - nightmares
enough of dying species - recovery
- Words:
- 93,600
- Works:
- 9
- Bookmarks:
- 10
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like sticky pearls by marchflower
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
20 Oct 2024
- Words:
- 25,420
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 23
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little girl found by marchflower
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
11 Oct 2024
- Words:
- 23,054
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 13
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out of the mouths of babes by marchflower
Fandom: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
01 Sep 2024
- Words:
- 62,281
- Works:
- 4
- Bookmarks:
- 53
Recent bookmarks
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Summary
“You can scream if you want,” Joel murmured. “Hell, that’s probably more convincin’. But I need you to listen first. Can you listen? You ain’t too scared to do that?”
Tess swallowed hard. Her breath rasped in her throat and her skin prickled all over. She was reeling from his speed and strength. He could do whatever he wanted. He was strong enough and fast enough to do whatever he wanted and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop him. The hubris of thinking she could actually have gotten herself out of the trap was staggering. If she was quiet, if she could be still, maybe another chance would open up. But the fight would not leave her body.
She loathed herself for it.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 26,881
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 66
- Kudos:
- 91
- Bookmarks:
- 13
- Hits:
- 1,197
Bookmarked by marchflower
02 Nov 2025
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Sweet Dreams by stumblingaway
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
19 Oct 2025
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Summary
“Woah.” Ellie’s face is inches away from her window when Tess looks back, her gaze fixed on the deer. “They’re so big.”
“There’s a whole lot of things bigger than them,” Tess snorts.
“The only animals I’ve seen are birds and dogs.”
Right.
Joel rolls down his window and she’s hit with a blast of cold air to the face. She’s thankful, actually, as the roar of the wind fills the car, drowning out any of the kid’s attempts at further conversations. He rolls it back up once the sun has started to set, the insects beginning their evening songs.
Tess, Joel, Ellie, and the rare occurrence of sleep. A Tess Lives story.
Written for Whumptober Day 18: Dystopia
Series
- Part 4 of Whumptober 2025
Bookmarked by marchflower
19 Oct 2025
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Tags
Summary
Joel looks back at her, oozing guilt, uncertainty. He knows
he's wrong, he knows he should tell her the truth, he knows
that this is too big. Too important to lie about...But Joel is Joel is Joel, and Joel is a father before he's
a good man.He can't lose her, can't hurt her, even if it's for the
best. He'd rather protect her, feed her pretty lies, not
ugly truths. Live in a fantasy with her than reality
without her.He'll feel guilty about it as long as he lives. It'll eat
him up inside like maggots gnawing through his bones, but
he won't regret it.He won't.
So he makes the selfish choice. The choice he knows is
wrong, because a life without Ellie is too dark to
comprehend.I swear.
(A full rewrite of TLOU s2) (In script format)...
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For you, I would paint the sky blue by Springs_a_changing_me
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
18 Nov 2025
Tags
Summary
Joel’s meandered over behind the counter, looking underneath the warping cabinetry and opening anything that isn’t locked. He sighs when he sees the industrial sized coffee machine, rusted metal glinting in the light streaming from the tattered ceiling tiles.
She squints to see the lettering on one of the remaining menus, tilting her head and rolling up on the balls of her feet to get a better view. “What’s a…fra…puk…seeno?”
“Frappuccino.” He corrects her without a second thought, sighing through his nose when another cupboard reveals nothing but a rotted mouse in the back corner. He shuts it closed and keeps moving.
“Frappuccino.” She tests the word on her tongue, quiet and uncertain. Each syllable rolls around uncomfortably between her teeth. “What is it? Coffee?”
He shrugs. “Technically. But I wouldn’t call it that. It’s real sweet.”
“Ah. Not real coffee.”
“Not real coffee.”
TLDR:
Ellie’s new life in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, told through the art supplies she’s gathered and been gifted over the years (Featuring the many wonders of Barnes & Noble).
Bookmarked by marchflower
25 Aug 2025
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it's so good to see your face (welcome home) by CatherineA
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
14 Aug 2025
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Summary
“Marlene was going to tell me about my mom.”
The silence that stretches between them is long, but for once, Ellie doesn’t feel the need to break it. Tommy can fill it or not.
The couch creaks as Tommy sinks back into it, but Ellie’s gaze remains anywhere but on him. The sun sets so early in the winter—it’s so dark—but she can still make out a stain in the rug, only half-hidden under the coffee table.
“Marlene knew your mom?”
“Best friends, apparently.”
“Ellie,” says Tommy, and the seriousness in his voice has Ellie’s head snapping up. The intense curiosity in his eyes is unnerving. “Who—what was your mom’s name?”
It clicks for Ellie, then. Her mom knew Marlene. Marlene knew Tommy…
***
Or, the one where Tommy's and Anna's paths crossed in Boston.
Bookmarked by marchflower
14 Aug 2025