#tess thread;

[savingthrcw]

"You should train." Joel was going to be pissed but she didn't give a s.hit: he had chosen to keep this girl in this world, he had chosen to keep the girl in his damn house, he owed Ellie all the chances he could give her to survive on her own. "At least some more shooting and self-defense, but not taught by men. They don't have the first idea of how a woman should use her body to inflict maximum pain. Is that something you'd be interesting in?"

@immunityfcrged

[scftlightz]

@everseens gets  a  closed  starter  !

"  can  this  day  end  already?  "  words  summed  his  entire  mood  as  the  day  rolled  like  a  wheel  of  occurrences  after  occurrences.  the  most  that  stuck  out  to  him  was  the  sharp  curiosity  of  a  dark  haired  persistent femme  that  didn't  understand  what  they  were  asking.  he  played  the  dumb  pawn  shop  owner  but  his  observative  nature  was  the  best  wingman,  that  way  he  could  shift  his  own  position  to  be  the  safest  spot  possible.  his  safe  spot  was  now  compromised  as  he  lingered  behind  the  extra  company  that  tagged  with  tess, unknowingly.  he  was  familiar  with  the  abandoned  shop  she  slipped  as  it  was  an  old  friend  who  once  had  it  running.  slipping  through  the  backway  using  a  window,  jensen  stayed  crouched  until  he  met  her  halfway,  stopping  once  he  heard  her  footsteps  approach.  in  a  swift  motion,  the  coach  wrapped  his  arms  around  the  frame  before  pulling  them  into  the  same  hiding  space.  "  when  i  tell  you  to  leave  it  alone,  you  should've  left  it  alone  now  you  have  two  meatheads  following  you.  "

[ireallymisscoffee]

@theirs1n sent an ask and got a ramble in return

the  apartment  was  dark.

the  hum  of  the  city  outside  —  constant  generators,  barking  orders,  distant  shouting  —  it  all  faded  behind  the  old  cinderblock  walls.  joel  sat  at  the  table,  one  boot  off,  the  other  halfway  unlaced.  a  half-cleaned  pistol  sat  beside  a  cracked  mug  of  something  that  had  gone  cold.

he  didn’t  move.  hadn’t  for  a  while  now.  not  since  they  got  back.

tess  was  somewhere  behind  him,  pacing  in  that  way  she  did  when  she  didn’t  know  what  to  say.  joel  didn’t  blame  her.  it  hadn’t  been  supposed  to  go  that  way.  the  kid  —  young,  too  young  —  hadn’t  made  it.  caught  between  a  bullet  and  a  bad  call.  joel  hadn’t  even  learned  his  name.

he  stared  at  nothing.

blood  under  his  fingernails.  dirt  on  his  neck. not  his.  didn’t  matter.

“you  clean  the  rest?”  he  muttered,  voice  rough.

tess  didn’t  answer  at  first.  he  heard  the  soft  drag  of  her  jacket  hitting  the  back  of  a  chair,  the  creak  of  worn  wood  as  she  sat  across  from  him.

a  long  pause. then  she  said  it,  quiet  but  firm.

"it's  okay,  you  know.  to  be  sad."

he  blinked. slow.

his  jaw  twitched  —  not  because  he  was  about  to  cry,  but  because  she’d  hit  a  nerve  and  they  both  knew  it.  he  didn’t  answer  right  away.  didn’t  look  at  her.  just  ran  a  tired  hand  over  his  face  and  sat  back,  staring  at  the  ceiling  like  maybe  it  held  something  more  important  than  the  truth  right  in  front  of  him.

his  eyes  didn’t  leave  the  ceiling.  he  exhaled  through  his  nose  —  tired,  heavy,  like  his  ribs  ached  with  it.  “don’t  got  time  for  sad.”  the  words  came  out  flat.  practiced.  like  they’d  been  said  before.  like  he’d  said  them  to  himself  a  hundred  times  in  the  dark  long  before  today.

“sad  don’t  change  what  happened.”  he  paused,  jaw  working,  then  added  lower  —  almost  a  whisper,   “doesn’t  bring  ‘em  back.”  he  wasn’t  even  sure  who  he  meant  anymore.  his  fingers  curled  against  the  table.  calloused,  stained,  shaking  just  slightly.  not  from  fear.  not  from  grief.  just  from  the  weight  of  carrying  it  all  too  long  without  letting  it  go.

he  didn’t  look  at  tess,  but  he  felt  her  watching  him  —  like  she  always  did.  “can’t  afford  to  fall  apart.”  and  it  wasn’t  a  warning.  wasn’t  a  threat.  just  the  plain  truth  of  how  he’d  survived  this  long.  then,  softer..   “somebody’s  gotta  keep  movin’.”

[rowenasamuel]

thinking about tess making it to jackson, about how after she's allowed herself to settle, find her footing- she and ellie are in the bathroom, giving ellie a haircut, all short and shaggy and easy-to-handle. and once ellie's done, wagging her head like a puppy as brown hair floats in the humid air, she sticks a hand out for the scissors and says 'your turn' (which only terrifies tess a little bit) and tess looks in the mirror and considers, for the first time, that she doesn't...have to cut her hair. that she is allowed the vulnerability of growing her hair out, that in jackson there will not be people who could grab her by the ponytail and yank her into an alley, that there are no people who could use her hair against her like in the boston qz. so for the first time since her teenaged years, tess shakes her head and smiles at ellie and says 'i think i'll let it grow' and heals a part of herself she hadn't quite realized was so scarred and buried away.

[fcrtnite-a]

continued  ·  TESS & DEAN  ·  @aquamanandfriends

tess’ jaw dropped to respond, but she couldn’t find the words. because what if dean was right? maybe deciding to finally use her abilities to help people wasn’t enough. she wasn’t a hunter like sam and there was a learning curve with the training. her contributions to their last case was mediocre at best. “look, you don’t want me here. i get it.” tess replied in a raspy tone, trying to conceal the disappointment. “if i’m getting in you and sam’s way and not helping enough with the visions, drop me wherever. i’ll hitch back home."

[atlasnolan]

closed for: @thewildrosebriar

where: sharky’s halloween party

"Hey, you! Pretty lady--" Atlas waves his hand to get the woman's attention, nodding when he thinks that he's secured it. "--Yeah, you. Help me out a second."

She looked like she was smart which made her the perfect candidate for his question as he asks it while doing a slow 360 degree spin to show off his costume in full.

"Do you know what I am? Costume wise."

[seccndchances]

@signcfthetiimes (Tess & Joel)

Tess placed a beer in front of the other before taking her own place across from him. "So." There was a pause as she took a sip. "Did you regain your white picket fence life here?" She questioned earnestly. Tess knew the death of the perspective children had changed the way they viewed the hell they were trapped in. It was one of the few connection that brought them together back during the early days of quarantine. Plus he was the only one she could tolerate. "Spouse, Kids?" She wanted to get to know the second life they lived, after all. It shaped who they were just as much as their own reality. She just wanted to catch up on all she knew.

[santiagodeleons]

santiago 📲 tess.

Santiago: I haven't seen your little friend skulking around the pub in a while. Santiago: Has he finally gotten the memo? @thewildrosebriar

[jaspermorgan]

˚⋆𓇼˚｡ 𝑪𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑬𝑫 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹 @thewildrosebriar

— TESS’S APARTMENT, CRYSTAL COVE CONDOS ; EARLY EVENING

Jasper had taken the day off work, as he would once in a blue moon, to finish the book that Tess had let him borrow: The Waves by Virginia Woolf, which was one of her favourites. He’d been slowly reading it over the last few weeks on his short lunch breaks, to wind down before he went to bed, and generally whenever he got a free moment between the endless list of daily jobs to get through.

Jasper had met Tess the day she moved into her apartment. She was struggling with carrying some boxes and with no one else around to help Jasper jumped in and offered a hand. He had commented on the collection of books in the first box he’d taken from her and the two got to chatting about literature for what felt like hours. She was also a fellow Brit, which made Jasper reminisce about home.

From that moment, a bond was forged and Jasper knew that they would end up being close. What he didn’t anticipate was the little wisp of attraction he felt towards Tess. She was a very beautiful woman, with kind eyes and a lovely smile, and with a lot of common ground with him- very much his type in all aspects- but she was vulnerable, in a new place with nobody she knew, so he couldn’t let that little feeling bubble up into something more. Not yet.

As he knocked on the door of her apartment, Jasper hoped Tess would be home. He purposely picked the evening to stop by as it was when people were more likely, but never guaranteed, to be home. He listens to the chatter further down the all way as he brushed his finger over the pages of the book repeatedly, waiting patiently for Tess to answer.

[savingthrcw]

She had been forced to wait, restless and useless, for many months before finally being able to follow Joel's tracks; traveling alone was harder, not something to be attempted when even walking could be an issue, so she hadn't had much of a choice, and she worried about Joel for once, who had likely given her for dead, not something she expected him to deal well with, and had a kid to look after. The most important kid in human history, too. Hadn't expected Tommy to be a part of the Jackson welcome wagon, and to find out that the Millers brothers and Ellie were supposedly enjoying this idyllic place. What happened to the cure? But the relief temporarily took over her questions when she spotted Joel's familiar figure not too far. Damn nice looking house too. "Hey, Texas," she called loudly, breaking into an actual smile as she ditched Tommy and sped up so she could finally reunite with him. Had never been apart from him for so long. "Am I looking at a porch?"

@fightfcrged

[fatescattered]

@magicxecustos / starter call

night spider crashes through the window, hitting the floor with a loud thump! her body's still reeling from scorpion's attack, victim to a strike of his tail; judging from the jolts going up her spine, it must be laced with something. his suit is clearly man-made, meaning there's an obvious weakness somewhere. tess curses herself for not being able to get close enough to inspect it.

" seriously? " she hisses under her breath when she tries and fails to push herself off the floor. whatever scorpion did to her, she'd likely be immobile for a few minutes ( if she was lucky ).

unable to move, she can only look over her surroundings. at first, she thought she'd been tossed into someone's apartment, but it seems to be more of a store than anything else. the trinkets and general aesthetic seem to hint at some type of occult shop. peter would've liked that.

" hi there – miss? " night spider calls out when she sees a young woman from the corner of her eye. " sorry for breaking your window. and probably a couple of other things. can you help me off the floor? i'm in the middle of chasing a criminal here. "

[get-snuck-up-on]

// Wait.. people are treating you like trash..? For what? You're generally a chill and kind person, that I've enjoyed interacting with. [Even if I haven't interacted with you recently due to me dealing with my own stuff irl]. Like I honestly don't get why people would antagonise you for anything. - Uz ; Yeva [Mod of formerly workerdroneyeva, now uzidoormanmp3.]

// YEVA MOD BESTIE!!! Heyyyyyy I've missed you so much...

Idk why people antagonize me either because I've made it clear that I just play a character. I've also been harrassed by people who blocked me, got sent suggestive asks (Cyn is a MINOR), and people are just blunt to me for no real reason. And for what?

I don't get it either. So thank you for sending this to me. The fact that you see me as chill and kind is so sweet ^^ I love interacting with you too, Uz!

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

Are you ever gonna touch on the hami khafi in your fic?

LMFAO i knew I wasn’t gonna get away with this 😭 I literally had such big plans for that thing, but I ended up forgetting about it for too long and by the time I remembered what I wanted to do with it, I was like 15 chapters past the place I wanted to implement it.

Long story short, it was gonna end up interfering with Eddie’s visions/powers throughout S3 while simultaneously protecting the rest of the group from most of the wack situations that were going down. Now, though it lives in the fic like a real honest-to-god HOA plot hole, up there with the tears of gold. At least I was able to make Kira get some use of it. But yeah no the hami khafi was not originally gonna be used as a shank but here we are

[fcrtnite-a]

continued  ·  TESS & DEAN  ·  @soughtserenity

“dude, the smell wafted towards me the second i got into this death trap three days ago.” tess argued and sniffed the stiff leather seat. “yeah, it’s something back here that’s got nothing to do with mua. see?” she picked up a empty chip bags and burger wrappers from the floor. “cleaning it out once in awhile might help, ya know.”

[leomlarson]

closed: @thewildrosebriar

location: tess's office

"So I, uh...don't actually know what I want to get out of this? Is that okay for me to say?"

Leo rubbed his hands anxiously over the top of his pants, afraid that he was already failing at something that, as his sisters had assured him, there was literally no way to fail at.

He was there at their encouragement — something about everybody needing therapy and something about it maybe being helpful for him after his breakup and something about 'if your insurance covers it there's literally no reason not to.'

"Sorry. I've never done this before so, yeah, a little nervous."

[fcrtnite]

continued  ·  TESS & DEAN  ·  @soughtserenity

“yeah, but everybody knows you can't make a proper grilled cheese using a toaster. the bread gets toasted and the cheese isn't melted in the middle. so then it's just a gross cheese sandwich.” tess rambled as they headed out of the store. she swiped the keys from dean and unlocked the doors. “and iron's can be cleaned, sam.”