#Tess Shepard

[headinstars-art]

Random Mass Effect sketches, part 3

Did a couple of screenshot redraws today, while replaying ME3 and preparing mentally for the final mission. Never ready for it, never T_T

[headinstars]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition 16/∞

Attican Traverse: Krogan Team + photomode

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

Oh, well, birthday wishes don't count if you don't have a cake.

Crimes of the Heart (1986) — dir. Bruce Beresford

[theoscarsproject]

Crimes of the Heart (1986). Three southern sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

Any movie starring Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek and Diane Keaton as sisters is automatically a 10/10 in my heart! Unfortunately, it's otherwise a bit of a mess. It feels overly convoluted, and while it's focus on the way grief can shape a life is a compelling throughline, it's not as sharply felt as I wish it was in this. 6/10.

[babygirlthor]

get puppied idiot

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Watching

CRIMES OF THE HEART Bruce Beresford USA, 1986

[pixeldolly]

Walden BACC #972

Mary: “Check out Mrs Calhoun! Who knew our Mayor still had the moves?”

Tess laughed softly, feeling her good mood returning. She was determined to enjoy her wedding day!

Tess: “I think she may have had a little too much champagne.”

Abby was too busy having fun to notice the amused glances the other guests were giving her, or her daughter sneaking a photo with her phone.

Eleanor: “Have you got any honeymoon plans?”

Tess: “Not really...we took a few days off work, but we’re just planning to spend them at home. Maybe have a nice date in Mistvale?”

Eleanor: “That’s fair, Oliver and I did the same.”

Tess: “How are you feeling, Ellie?”

Noticing the angle of Tess’s gaze, Eleanor patted her enormous belly fondly. She was due any day now, and she looked it.

Eleanor: “Can’t complain! Well, I could, but what I mean to say is that there aren’t any issues. Can’t wait to meet this little one!”

Tess smiled, a little sadly: she would never get to experience motherhood for herself.

The party continued well into the night, but around 2 AM the guests were starting to think about heading home. Most of them had work in the morning, after all. 

Hayden couldn’t wait to get her new wife all to herself.

Hayden: “The limousine awaits, my dear.”

Tess: “You hired a limousine? It’s a ten minute ride to our place.”

Hayden: “Yes, and we’ll be spending those ten minutes in style.”

Hayden may have instructed the driver to take the scenic route through town.

Oliver: “Have fun! And once again, congratulations!”

-----------------------------------------

OKAY SO has anyone noticed that someone was conspicuously absent from the ceremony?

Maybe Julius, Tess’s oldest friend?  

I completely forgot to invite him, and only realised after taking all the pics.  🤦 Since I wasn’t going to redo everything, just pretend he was at a symposium or something and couldn’t make it.

Sorry Jules, this one’s on me. 

[t-is-for]

First social club gathering ☕️🏖️

via kaysharps May 23, 2024

[spryfilm]

Blu-ray review: “Crimes of the Heart” (1986)

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in May 2024 🌈

🌈 Good morning, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Farzana's Spite - Felix Graves 🧡 Archangels of Funk - Andrea Hairston 💛 How It Works Out - Myriam Lacroix 💚 Queer History A to Z - Robin Stevenson, Vivian Rosas 💙 Queerceañera - Alex Crespo 💜 Second Night Stand - Karelia Stetz-Waters, Fay Stetz-Waters ❤️ You Can Call Me Cooper - Cali Kitsu 🧡 Gooseberry - Robin Gow 💛 Grand Slam Romance - Ollie Hicks, Emma Oosterhous 💙The Witches of Silverlake - Simon Curtis, Stephanie Son 💜 Drawn to the Enemy - Barbara Winkes 🌈 The Truth of Our Past - Heather Leighson

❤️ Infaust - T.D. Cloud, Ambi Sun 🧡 Garner for Gold - Catherine Labadie 💛 The Z Word - Lindsay King-Miller 💚 Snake Charming - Genevieve McCluer 💙 The 7-10 Split - Karmen Lee 💜 Loving Jemima - Sienna Waters ❤️ The Potion Gardener - Arden Powell 🧡 A Swift and Sudden Exit - Nico Vincenty 💛 The Worst Ronin - Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Faith Schaffer 💙 Murray Out of Water -Taylor Tracy 💜 The Guncle Abroad - Steven Rowley 🌈 The Weight of What Was - Pip Landers-Letts

❤️ The Amazing Alpha Tau Pledge Project - Lisa Henry, Sarah Honey 🧡 I Met Death & Sex Through My Friend, Tom Meuley - Thom Vernon 💛 Malicia - Steven dos Santos 💚 The Sins on Their Bones - Laura R. Samotin 💙 SLUTS: Anthology - Michelle Tea 💜 You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian ❤️ Death's Country - R.M. Romero 🧡 Cinema Love - Jiaming Tang 💛 The Brides of High Hill - Nghi Vo 💙 Emma - Jenna Kent 💜 Wish We Were There - Lionel Hart 🌈 A Troublemaker in Her Eyes - Genta Sebastian

❤️ I Make Envy on Your Disco - Eric Schnall 🧡 Lavash at First Sight - Taleen Voskuni 💛 Queer Power Couples - Hannah Murphy Winter, Billie Winter 💚 In Repair - A.L. Graziadei 💙 A Heart Divided - Angie Williams 💜 Long After We Are Gone - Terah Shelton Harris ❤️ The Queen of Steeplechase Park - David Ciminello 🧡 Lunar Boy - Jes Wibowo, Cin Wibowo 💛 Hot Boy Summer - Joe Jiménez 💙 Sunhead - Alex Assan 💜 The Summer Love Strategy - Ray Stoeve 🌈 Into the Mouth of the Wolf - Erin Gough

❤️ The Girl in Question - Tess Sharpe 🧡 The Lost Erwain - Mariah Stillbrook 💛 Starfire - Naomi Hughes 💚 Adrift - Sam Ledel 💙 Shanghai Murder - Jessie Chandler 💜 April May June July - Alison B. Hart ❤️ A Bone in His Teeth - Kellen Graves 🧡 Cabin Fever - Tagan Shepard 💛 Don't Be a Drag - Skye Quinlan 💙 The Ride of Her Life - Jennifer Dugan 💜 The Redemption of Daya Keane - Gia Gordon 🌈 Nearlywed - Nicolas DiDomizio

❤️ The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 🧡 The End of Time - Trudie Skies 💛 Silent Ones - Melissa Polk 💚 Prime Time Travelers - Neil Laird 💙 My Darling Dreadful Thing - Johanna van Veen 💜 The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields ❤️ Spitting Gold - Carmella Lowkis 🧡 Last Chance - Claire Highton-Stevenson 💛 Road Home - Rex Ogle 💙 Only for Convenience - Shannon O'Connor 💜 Linus and Etta Could Use a Win - Caroline Huntoon 🌈 Finding Molly Parsons - Alyson Root

❤️ Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding - Maia Kobabe, Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier 🧡 See You Next Month - Jamey Moody 💛 Until You Say My Name - Tatum Schroeder 💚 Disembark - Jen Currin 💙 True Love and Other Impossible Odds - Christina Li 💜 Flyboy - Kasey LeBlanc ❤️ Thirsty - Jas Hammonds 🧡 Hands Off - N. Slater 💛 Flooded Secrets - Claudie Arseneault 💙 The Deer and the Dragon - Piper C.J. 💜 To Be Loved - Frank G. Anderson 🌈 Snowblooded - Emma Sterner-Radley

❤️ Blood Remains - Cathy Pegau 🧡 Blood on the Tide - Katee Robert 💛 We Were the Universe - Kimberly King Parsons 💚 Loyalty - E.J. Noyes 💙 Spirits and Sirens - Kelly Fireside 💜 Clean Kill - Anne Laughlin ❤️ The Worst Perfect Moment - Shivaun Plozza 🧡 Oye - Melissa Mogollon 💛 Here for the Wrong Reasons - Annabel Paulsen, Lydia Wang 💙 Exhibit - R.O. Kwon 💜 Experienced - Kate Young 🌈 Parenting with Pride - Heather Hester

❤️ Road to Ruin - Hana Lee 🧡 Meet Me in Berlin - Samantha L. Valentine 💛 The Advice Columnist - Cade Haddock Strong 💚 where lost & hopeless things go - Bryony Rosehurst 💙 Pit Stop - Ellis Mae 💜 The Switchboard - Christina K. Glover ❤️ In the Shallows - Tanya Byrne 🧡 Have You Seen This Girl - Nita Tyndall 💛 Another First Chance - Robbie Couch 💙 The Only Light Left Burning - Erik J. Brown 💜 Keepers of the Stones and Stars - Michael Barakiva 🌈 A Little Kissing Between Friends - Chencia C. Higgins

[captainwaffles]

This may be unpopular with the tiny Legend by Marie Lu fandom but I don’t care.

If/when It gets adopted into a show or movie, I want there to be some changes

First off, I really think Day and June should be older. when I first read the books at like 11, 15 going to 16 didn’t feel weird, but now? I’d say 17. I know then being young adds a little more impact, but it feels to unrealistic and some of the scenes in Prodigy will be less weird.

Aiden needs to be closer to Junes age if they wanna keep that weird romance thing. I know it’s good for the plot but it doesn’t have to be like a six seven year age gap

I’d say Tess and Eden can stay around the same age, so we can still see the cruelty of the Republic on younger kids.

And then this one is purely personal, but I always pictured Ollie as a Samoyed and not a white German Shepard, and I think that’s just cuter

Also make sure Day is Asian decent, preferably Mongolian like the book said, and June is of Native American decent, also like the book said.

For me it’s really just the age.

Also give Pasco a boyfriend and Kaede a boyfriend and say Day kissed some guys along with girls

[tessaservopoulos]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by the ever lovely @oliviassunrise - thank you friend!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

521

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

as of today i have posted 1,189,141 words, which makes me feel insane!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

i have written for a lot of them, but the current three are the last of us (tess/joel), the hunger games (haymitch/effie), and fringe (peter/olivia).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

but home was a dream (one that i'd never seen until you came along) [jopper]

i am still looking (even when i look away) [kate/yelena]

this is home [philinda & philindaisy]

your heart is a masterpiece [melinda & daisy]

how everything still turns to gold [tessjoel]

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i do!! i'm terrible at it and usually very late but i cherish every single person who leaves me a comment.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

probably confined, where tess is captured by fireflies and has no hope of escape.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably my tessjoel summer anthology fic!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not usually? if i do i'll just delete it and move on, tbh.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do lmao it is a majority of what i write nowadays if i'm being honest?? i did kinktober and had an absolute blast, especially because i wrote some kinks i never had before.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i have! i've written plenty of marvel crossovers, but the silliest one was wayyyy back in my ncis days- i wrote a jenny shepard/bruce wayne crackship fic, haha.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so?? if i do i don't know about it lmao

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

back in my sons of anarchy days i used to rp gemma/clay, does that count?

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

i'm gonna be honest- i don't have one. i love each ship so deeply in the moment that it always feels like the all-time favorite! like right now, it's tessjoel. but two years ago it was jopper. before that, it was philinda. before that, riverdoctor. and so on, and so forth. i just love what i love, man.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Honestly, my maydaisy + avengers au that has sat unfinished since 2017 haha. i had such a great plan for it and then aos broke my heart and i got discouraged. i really should go back to it because melinda + the avengers is my favorite thing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

description. i have a very flowery writing style that lends itself better to descriptive scenes.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

starting too many projects for my pea brain to keep up with

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i've added bits and pieces of other languages to my fics before and it is always after intense googling, haha.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

NCIS, for my beloved jenny/gibbs <3

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

this is so tough!! i have been writing for nearly half my life now so i've written so much. but i really really loved i lost a part of me out there, a tessjoel time travel au borrowed from one of my favorite tessjoel writer's verses. i think it's some of my favorite writing ever. but also the jopper marriage law fic (my top kudos fic) is my absolute pride and joy.

tagging @wardenannie @sassymajesty @professortennant @wistfulwatcher and anyone that wants to do this <333

[headinstars]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition 15/∞

Priority: Earth + photomode

[halloweenvalentine1997]

A recommended list of books I own and read

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Fatal Flowers by Rosemary Daniell

Suicide Blonde by Darcey Steinke

The Prince of Lost Places by Kathy Hepinstall

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

Never Look Back by Alison Gaylin

If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I Am the Only Running Footman by Martha Grimes

The Deer Leap by Martha Grimes

The Old Contemptibles By Martha Grimes

The Anodyne Necklace by Martha Grimes

Help the Poor Struggler by Martha Grimes

And Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Watching You by Lisa Jewell

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

The Truth about Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

A Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell

A Demon in my View by Ruth Rendell

The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

The Doll Master by Joyce Carol Oates

Night Gaunts by Joyce Carol Oates

The Female of the Species by Joyce Carol Oates

Pursuit by Joyce Carol Oates

High Lonesome by Joyce Carol Oates

I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan 

The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Over Tumbled Graves by Jess Walter

Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Lost Souls by Lisa Jackson

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark

Southern Cross by Patricia Cornwell

Dead Run by Erica Spindler

Carrie by Stephen King

The Shining by Stephen King

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

The Stand by Stephen King

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Right Hand of Evil by John Saul

A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne

The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman

Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett

The Third Twin by Ken Follett

Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison

When Shadows Fall by J.T. Ellison

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Turn of the Screw & Daisy Miller by Henry James

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

Petals on the Wind by V.C. Andrews

Garden of Shadows by V.C. Andrews

My Sweet Audrina by by V.C. Andrews

The Cutler series by V.C. Andrews

The Logan series by V.C. Andrews

The Hudson series by V.C. Andrews

Ruby by V.C. Andrews

Pearl in the Mist by V.C. Andrews

The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag

The Elizas by Sara Shepard

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Wait for Me by Sara Shepard

Nowhere Like Home by Sara Shepard

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

A Spy in the House of Love by Anais Nin

Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Summer by Edith Wharton

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule

If You Really Loved Me by Ann Rule

Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule

Every Breath You Take by Ann Rule

The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh

Slenderman by Kathleen Hale

Breaking Blue by Timothy Egan

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

[searyyn]

Margulis Lawson, Tess Shepard and the Illusive Orokin

[diaphanouso]

💚, 🖤, 💗

Thanks for the ask, friend! 😊

💚If you had to trade lives with one of your OCs, who would you pick? Maybe Aries Shepard, because it'd be pretty sick to be an N7 biotic in a turian-human cabal going on a historic mission while developing sexual tension with a sexy, nerdy turian during midnight kitchen talks. Or Athena Shepard so I could go to a fancy biotic training camp and ALSO engage in some *~i n t i m a t e~* dancing with a sexy turian (basically anyone's life that is generally good and would allow me access to sexy turians). I also think it'd be fun to be Agent Miller from my goofy spy story, specifically after she starts the trope-y business with her partner. No turians in that one, though, so it's not the top choice

🖤 Do you and your OCs have any backstory elements in common? I didn't think I had an answer for this one at all, but I do! Sometimes I do weave details from my life into some of the characters in my flash pieces:

"Golden Hour in the Silver State": Tess, the young main character, spends her childhood in Vegas and harbors fears of tetanus and the animatronic statues at Caesar's Palace. Some people were afraid of quicksand as kids, I was afraid of statues and tetanus, lol

"Exposure Therapy": Christopher, the MC's patient, suffers from arachnophobia. I wouldn't consider mine as severe/debilitating as his, but all the anxieties and fears he describes come from my own 😅

"The Blood of Others": Horror story set in DC, MC takes the metro to Penn Quarter at night in the summer—that's straight from some of my own DC summers over the years, including the horrid mosquitoes, soupy air, and walking around Penn Quarter at night with friends.

💗 Share a single sentence from each of your WIPs that you think best describes the relationships you most cherish in real life. I don't really make a distinction between online friends and "real-life" friends; besides, it's been so long since I've seen my "real-life" friends face-to-face that there's virtually no distinction other than history, lol. ANYWAY, these aren't from WIPs but oh well:

Twenty-One Seconds: "Looking out into the crowd of bantering, impassioned nerds she’d been lucky enough to call her friends, her heart ached with love for all of them."

Honeysuckle/Title TBD: "And here they are, approaching the entryway and beaming, come to hug her so hard that her back pops, offering to take her luggage upstairs, asking when she last ate something—her frustrations fall away in the face of her parents’ affections, so well-meaning and usually-on-the-mark."

Ask me!