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firewizahd · 2 years

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Ahem!! At last I've found someone else with sapphic rivals to lovers w101 ocs, we are an endangered species. That being said! I'm new to Iridian and Tabitha and I'd love to know more about them, can I have a rundown of their characters?? <3

Lol yes of course!! Thank you for asking! We sapphic rivals to lovers enjoyers need to stick together.

Tabitha Briarleaf is a Wizard City native, born to Life wizard Belgrim Briafleaf and Storm wizard Victoria Seaweaver. From a young age, she was regaled with stories from her father of the golden days of the Spiral, fighting fearsome creatures in far-off worlds and saving the common folk all around the Spiral with powerful storm magic. She grew up her whole life longing to be a Diviner, but it was Belgrim’s healing touch she inherited. Despite being incredibly deft at her craft, Tabitha was convinced she was far more suited toward a more offensive magic. So alongside her training with Moolinda Wu, she spent many extra hours at the Storm school, studying tirelessly to master the spells her mother rhapsodized about. However, most fizzled pitifully before they even left the tip of her wand.

Despite all this, she was incredibly skilled in Life magic— so skilled that when Malistaire rose up as a threat to the Spiral, she was the obvious choice to go up against his powerful death magic. Tabitha flourished in her role as the Spiral’s young savior, and when the time came to investigate the strange happenings in Celestia, she was once again the obvious choice. However, when she arrived, the strange new magic was discombobulating, and when she attempted to cast a Storm spell against a particularly fearsome opponent, the magic rebounded and severely wounded her. At least, that’s what everyone thinks happened. Nonetheless, She was no longer able to generate her own mana, the magic in her blood stunted and weak. Only concentrated mana potions keep her a functioning wizard, and to avoid wasting too much energy, she spends most of her time riding around on the back of her trusty battle havox Teacup.

Now, she spends most of her time in the Life school, relegated to “desk duty” where she tutors other Theurgists in the art of Life magic. Moolinda swears up and down that one day, she’ll take over as the next professor, but Tabitha can’t help but grow more bitter as time passes stuck inside the school.

Iridian Lionheart is also a Wizard City native, though most of her family were refugees from Dragonspyre. She grew up in Firecat alley with her father and mother, Valkoor Lionheart and Tatiana Battleshield, and her younger brother Morgrim. They were a close knit family of powerful pyromancers, with the exception of young Morgrim, who had an affinity for Death magic. Iridian was slowly but surely climbing to the top of her class in Fire magic when Malistaire began his reign of terror.

Tragedy struck the family when Morgrim was killed during the fall of the Death school, believed to be crushed under the building when it landed in Nightside. This inspired Iridian to work harder, channeling her rage and grief into her Fire magic, making it burn the hottest and brightest out of all her peers. Professor Flamea worked with her for as long and hard as she needed, and soon enough, she more than surpassed the top of her class. So when Tabitha suffered her accident, what better wizard to replace her than Iridian?

However, fighting powerful magic users all throughout the Spiral proved more challenging than showing up her classmates in the practice arenas, and Iridian found herself in need of more help than she could get on her own. So she turned to the former savior of the Spiral for that help.

Which puts us at the start of my fic (which is in sore need of an update)

#thank you so much for the ask!#wizard101 #w101 #wiz101 #wizzy101 #tabitha briarleaf #iridian lionheart #my ocs #tess answers #ask

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spacehostilityy · 9 months

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Out of curiosity, have you ever watched Seven Deadly Schmucks by the YouTube channel the Schmuck Squad? It’s really funny, plus their interpretations of various characters is pretty interesting.

I have not but now I will👀 I've heard abt it but I'm just never on youtube

#tess rambles #seven deadly sins #nanatsu no taizai #nnt #asks #tess answers

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bacarasbabe · 2 years

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WHATS UR OPINION ON ROSS FROM FRIENDS???

He's TRASH. Ross fucking sucks ass. I won't list all the reasons he's a pos bc there's plenty lists already out there and I agree with them all. The way relationships used to be depicted on screen are all major 🚩🚩🚩 and frankly, most still are. Bottom line, Rachel deserved better. We all deserve better.

(@zinzinina lmao the discourse continues)

#ross can go eat shit #love that my opinion was asked tho haha 💕#tess answers

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withclawsandsympathy · 2 years

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Hello!! It’s transgenderisms101 from AO3!!! Just wanted to say again how much I loved your writing and your characterization of everyone, horror is one of my favorite things and combining supernatural with it is just SUPERB!! 💕

AHH thank you thank you!! Your timing on my fic was impeccable— I was racing to upload the chapters once I realized you were reading along as I was going! (I had to delete every pesky indent one by one because my computer was not cooperating lol).

I also love horror, and really any flavor of horror slots so nicely in with canon spn. I have two other spn fics with horror elements on my ao3, but unfortunately Benny isn’t in either of those. I need to write more of him!

#monstermoviebearbenny #thank you again sm for reading!!#Tess answers

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blood-of-ink · 2 years

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oh hey you’re back !!! :D (not to pressure, just good to see you’re alive)

This is possibly the cutest ask I have ever gotten

#tess answers

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elliespuns · 2 months

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They made passports in TLOU?? I mean, how come Ellie has one? She was born after the outbreak? That doesn’t mane sense, does it?

If you look closer, it's a Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) passport. It's not the usual passport you have to travel with. This is basically to order people around to make them obey you, to send them someplace you want to send them, etc. It's not like, 'yeey, I have a passport, now I can leave this fucking place.' Unless you were ordered to go someplace, the passport was pointless. You still had to play by the rules. It was dictatorship again in the quarantine zones when the people got used to living in the post-apocalyptic world. That's why Joel and Tess had to show their passports at the gate to "identify" themselves, yet they still had to 'run away' from the QZ.

Here are all their passports.

#the last of us #tlou #ellie williams #ellie tlou #joel miller #joel tlou #tess servopoulos #tell tlou #tlou game #the last of us game #the last of us part 1 #tlou part 1 #tlou passports #elliespuns answers

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incorrectsibunaquotes · 1 month

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Why are people so gagged over Nina lately she ain’t all that 🤡

I mean she’s not my favorite character by a long shot, but she was definitely a great one. So for some people she is “all that” 🤡

Anyway stan Nina, and all the other characters because they’re all great and worthy of hype!!

#like personally i don’t have as much emotional investment in her but I’d still die for her #the same way some ppl don’t get the hype about patricia or alfie or other characters #all of the kids are great in their own way and ppl respond differently to diff characters #just like someone might not think your fav character is all that either #that said when live for one character is used to disparage another character that’s not good either #but I’m not seeing that from anyone rn about any particular character so…#tess answers #ask #house of anubis

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dr3adfulpenny · 11 months

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Hello💕

1.Fav benvi moment?

2.New headcanons that you have after this season?

I am just going to say for season 4...honestly the sex scene at the end, althought the 'I love you' is a close second. Just how excited and hopeful Devi looks and how tenderly Ben is holding her and kissing her---the love is REAL here

I don't even know where to start but the main one is I do think they are in it for the long haul, despite the difficulties of high school-to-college relationships. There will definitely be hurdles and they might even break up one more time (for a bit), but I think they are both so sick of wasting time when it comes to each other that they will fight with everything they have to stay together.

#nhie spoilers #never have i ever spoilers #benvi #nhie #nhie meta #tess answers

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firewizahd · 2 years

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omg gently touches hands enemies to lovers sapphic wiz ocs gang.. me toooooo

all of our ocs should hold hands i think 🥰🤝

#wizard101 #w101 #wiz101 #wizzy101 #tess answers

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aggro-cucco · 1 year

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Hey, so you know what would be funny? Imagine if Jak and Ratchet started talking about guns, which are their favs, which are the strongest, worse, etc... And then there's Sly just there like 👁👄👁

(Unless I'm remembering it wrong, he never uses a fire weapon... except turrets to defend Murray a couple times, but yea xD)

Nerd Talk

And some bonus Geek Speak

#my art #answered ask #sly cooper #ratchet and clank #jak and daxter #rivet and kit #keira #tess #carmelita fox #playstation move heroes

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bacarasbabe · 2 years

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Ok I have two for the meme thing:

1. Maul

2. Vader

Send me a character and I'll tell you what I'd text them

1. Maul

So so so so many options for Maul. Had a hard time deciding between being horny and being a shit. This is what I landed on.

Me: You after Kenobi rocked ur shit on Coruscant 💀

2. Vader

I'd send this video to Vader with the text:

Me: This you bro?

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdqNQFMp/

I feel like both of these texts would get me killed lol. Worth it 😌✌️

#star wars shitpost #sending memes to star wars characters #tess answers #cornbreadastrology #maul #darth maul #vader #darth vader #star wars

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mariatesstruther · 8 months

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I honestly don't get why Maria was so anti-Joel oh he's a horrible person he's done horrible things he can't be around us, but accepted Tommy fully to the point he's the father of her child when both did the same things, ran with the same people and all of that.

I mean I love the character, but that confuses the hell out of me. Why's Tommy accepted but Joel damned?

okay, so… this response took me like half hour to write. my wrists hurt, my jaw is clenched, my brain is hot. i love u anon thank u very much for this chance to vent about just why my girl maria has been so misunderstood. let’s go

i personally think this is where many people fundamentally misunderstand maria’s perception of joel. she’s not cautious of him primarily because of tommy or anything tommy has said, in my personal opinion—she’s cautious of him for and because of ellie

ive said this on my blog a few times and i think so have @steeb-stn and @clickergossip (and maybe @liveandletcry23 and @bumblepony i have a shit memory so tagging just in case) so im gonna tag them to credit their words and ideas about maria as well, but the FIRST time maria sees joel, he’s with this rando twelve year old girl who he is seemingly so protective over that she cant even be sniffed by dogs who are just trying to detect infection, which would be good for ANYBODY. that’s his first strike for untrustworthyness, because why the fuck wouldn’t he let this girl be tested???—we know why, of course, but maria doesnt. shes working on the very limited info about joel/ellie’s relationship that she has from just her own observations, and i think we need to remember that as we go through analyzing why she moves how she moves

shes knows from tommy at this point is that joel had a daughter, but it is definitely not this little girl. so why the fuck are they so close. what have they gone through. are they okay. is ellie okay. is their relationship safe for her??? THAT’s what she’s thinking about, in my opinion, while shes staring joel down at that dinner table. she’s reasonbly suspicious, and i can’t blame her for it.

i had to cut this it’s literally maybe my longest post ever so. heres the cut

ALSO, it’s not like she’s a straight up bitch to joel like some of y’all seem to make it out to be??? she never says or implies that “they can’t be around” or anything like that. she offers them clothes and food and supplies. she sets them up in a house. before dinner, she gives them a personal tour (which, to be fair, she did because she was probably trying to keep an eye on them and figure out more about whether or not ellie is safe, but who wouldnt???? i know tess would! and yall would love her for it!). tommy literally says to joel before they leave that there will always be a place for him and ellie in jackson—you cannot tell me you believe he said so without already have maria’s green light for joel and ellie to stay

ALSO, i wanna consider some other things that i haven’t seen many ppl talk about. on that walk she takes with tommy and joel and ellie, she makes it sound like tommy has been with them for at least years AND she maintains the confidence to say that residents in jackson stay off the radio—i could totally be wrong, but it seems to me from the look tommy and joel share right after that it’s obvious tommy has been talking to joel BEHIND MARIA’S BACK???? did no one else catch that??? am i misinterpreting big time??? id assume because theyre married and from the way tommy talks about jackson that he’s been in jackson for at least 3 years maybe, and we know that he only stopped radioing joel a couple months before the show’s main plotline starts, so timeline wise there had to be some overlap of tommy still radioing joel from/around jackson. idk if anyone of my mutuals has thoughts on this but i personally think it’s important to point out, because it establishes that maria likely doesn’t know or think tommy and joel kept in contact, at least not as recently as up to some months ago. she knows that tommy and joel are close, but at the same time, she doesn’t think tommy really knows or talks to joel anymore, either. so how is she supposed to extend him any trust as tommy’s brother????? how and why would she give this man any benefit of the doubt???? it wouldn’t make any sense. she’s more practical and discerning than she is naive and kind, and y’all can think what y’al want about that but i love her for it. it’s very necessary for a woman like her to be the way she is

okay, so back to your question. back to why joel is “damned” and tommy is “accepted.” let’s talk about joel for a sec

y’all like to babygirl and idolize the absolute fuck out of this man

we know that not only was he a smuggler, but he killed and tricked and took advantage of people, shamelessly and brutally. we know that tommy did so too. maria knows that tommy has done the same things. maria also knows that tommy left that life because he couldnt do it anymore, and joel continued because he could

point blank period!!!!! yall can argue with me all u want but tommy left that murder life and joel did not. im not saying this makes either brother good or bad or better than the other, i love joel sm and i think both of them have an undisputed capability to do unspeakable things in order to survive. but tommy got to a point where he hit a limit, whereas joel doesn’t seem to have one. this is at least my personal interpretation of their conversations in the game and the show

tommy DID join the fireflies, which we all know now is not any fucking better than whatever the fuck joel was doing—the difference is the reasoning, though, and considering tlou is all about reasoning and the why, we need to consider the reasoning behind tommy’s decision: he wanted to do something better, something good, something he thought had a purpose. we all know now that the fireflies are bullshit, their purpose is bullshit, and they’re willingness to kill a child for the sake of the “cure” is it’s own entire paradox of bullshit. but they were a rebel organization fighting fedra, who fucking suck, and probably had somewhat of a better reputation back when tommy was interested in joining—or maybe they didn’t, to be fair, i don’t know! the point is, tommy went to them seeking some sort of better purpose, some type of redeption; in joel’s own fucking words, “tommy’s what we used to call a joiner. had dreams of becoming a hero... wants to save the world.”

tommy is idealistic. he’s romantic. he’s optimistic, almost to the point of being fucking naive. thats why he enlisted in the army, thats why he enlisted in the fireflies—he wanted to feel good about himself and the world he was living in. he needed it to have some light at the end of the tunnel for all the bullshit to make sense. and yeah, he was wrong both times in joining up. we know that, joel knew that while it was happening, and tommy knows that in retrospect, too. i think jackson is the first place he really found true, real purpose—not the kind that is propagandized to you and goes up in smoke, but the kind that is well and truly earned. that’s why he is so loyal to jackson and to maria—they finally gave him was he desperately spent his life searching for

and im just saying, from maria’s perspective, she’s someone who lives for purpose. she lives for jackson and for it’s people and for it’s future, and she has to maintain some sense of idealism in the face of all that fucking ugliness to be able to mentally live im and run a place like jackson, to believe that it’ll work. i think that idealism she has, she sees reflected in tommy’s desperation to be a better person who’s fighting for a better life. she sees that need for redemption and goodness in him, that need for things to be fucking worth it, and hears she hears it in his story. she gets to relate to him with this in a way she doesnt GET TO RELATE with joel YET (we STILL HAVE TIME PEOPLE. WE HOLDIN OUT STRONG FOR THE JOEL AND MARIA BEST FRIEND AGENDA)

but to continue, THEN maria spends YEARS with tommy, getting to know him, getting to know his guilt. just like tess with joel, she’s sees the worst and the best of him and gets to fall in love with all of it. so of course there’s gonna be a bit of a bias and a blindspot, towards him—just like any of are other characters have weak spots for the people THEY fucking love

so that’s i guess why i think tommy is “accepted” by her, i guess, and there’s honestly way more them and their romance that i could make a whole separate post about but i’ll leave it there for now. back to joel and why he’s “damned,” which i don’t think he is

again, from what maria knows, he made an active CHOICE to stay in the lifestyle of smuggling and murdering and QZ bullshit, even after tommy chose to leave—and idk what y’all imagine joel and tess to be doing in those many years on their own, but it’s not fuckin picking flowers, for me. they’re dangerous, dangerous people—more dangerous that fedra, and more dangerous than the fireflies, if we’re being fucking real about it. and we LOVE tess and joel for this, or at least i do

but jackson is not a place where people get by with smuggling or backstreet deals or threats. it’s not supposed to be that place. we all LOVE jackson in fics and hcs and aus because it’s literally a place where joel and ellie finally get to breathe and not worry about their safety/survival first. and you know who keeps jackson that way????? MARIA. AND HE BEING FUCKING PICKING ABOUT WHO JACKSON LETS THE FUCK INSIDE

so yall just expect her to by YIPPY SKIPPY when joel, THE JOEL THE SUPER SMUGGLER MURDER COWBOY, strolls into town????? WITHOUT TESS, WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MORE PERSONABLE AND REASONABLE ONE???? what????? she’d be crazy not to at least try to be a little intimidating, to make it clear to joel that he will not get away with any of that qz bullshit here. she’d be naive not to, and maria is anything but naive

and i know most people don’t like her for that “a bad reputation doesn’t mean you’re bad” “not always, at least” line, but i actually think it really fits so well in establishing that she’s not afraid of joel, not afraid of challenging him or making him own up to things he’s done. it’s just so so cool to me, i just can’t hate her for that????? she’s establishing with him that she knows what tommy knows about his time in the QZ, and she’s letting him know if that joel shows up here in jackson, there will be fucking problems for him. which i think is a completely fair warning????

so let’s continue. let’s talk about The Scene, the one with her and ellie, the one with the “tommy was following joel” line. ONE thing i’d like to point out about this scene—MARIA IS THE ONE TO TELL ELLIE ABOUT SARAH, NOT JOEL. AND THAT IS A BIG BIG BIG REASON FOR WHY SHE WARNS ELLIE NOT TO TRUST JOEL COMPLETELY

we know what joel and ellie have gone through, at this point, but maria has barely any idea. she sees that ellie has this fierce protectiveness and lots of secrets when it comes to her and joel, which like—can we all be fucking objective here for a second. this can SO easily and SO reasonably be interpreted as something sketchy going on between joel and ellie that maria should be concerned about.

(slight tw about older men-younger woman relationships bc im gonna be personal for a sec, its quick) we don’t know maria’s past or what she has seen or been through, but personally as someone who has been in a situation where an older man has taken advantage of my naivety in the past, i am now extremely hyper vigilant when it comes to young girls around older men in my personal life today. ellie and joel’s situation and how it looks would raise MJAOR red flags for me personally, if i was in maria’s position. that’s just a personal perspective have that really affects the way i view this scene (end tw)

and so maria finds out that joel has kept the fact that HE HAD A WHOLE ASS DAUGHTER from ellie?????? WOULD THAT NOT BE SUS AT ALL TO YALL???? i mean we know why joel doesn’t tell ellie, as gameplayers and watchers of the show, but again. maria is operating on the info she has right in front of her, which is that joel has been omitting maybe the biggest fact of his life from this young girl who is willing to defend and trust him with her entire life, even after she finds out she’s being lied to. this is alarming

so at this point, she’s questioning joel’s intentions with ellie, and in my opinion, it’s not at all unreasonable for her to do so. she then continues to press, because the red flags are flying and she wants ellie to be crystal clear on the kind of man she’s traveling with (“there are CLEARLY things you don’t know about joel” — “so then you understand my concerns”)

AND THEN ELLIE. BLESSED SMART AMAZING ELLIE COMES IN WITH THE DEFENSE—“and tommy did it too, are you worried about him?”—which like, i love this line. i love this moment. i think because i go so hard for maria a lot of y’all think i’m blind to when ellie is making points, but i 100% cheered her on when i first watched this scene, like i’m sure y’all did—because it’s true! it’s fair! if maria is going to judge joel for those things, she needs to extend the same judgement to tommy

the thing is, it’s still fucking true that, as i said earlier, tommy left that life. both the smuggling, and the fireflies—he chose to stop, while joel didn’t—he was smuggling literally up until the day him and tess found ellie, so. there’s that. she continues to judge joel and not tommy because she knows for sure that tommy has changed. she doesn’t know joel enough yet to see that he has changed, too

so then, the dreaded line: “tommy was following joel.” let’s talk about it.

i don’t love this line either, tbh! i think it’s a weak defense on maria’s part, and a weak line on the tlou hbo writers part—probably my least favorite line of maria’s overall. but i do get why she says it, and i kind of think i get the purpose??? i think????

it reminds me a lot of joel’s line, earlier, about tommy being a “joiner,” and i think it’s funny that, as opposite as joel and maria like to think they both are to each other, the way they describe tommy is pretty much the same. tommy is a “joiner” to joel and a “follower” to maria, and in all respects they both love and hate him for it. idk where i’m going with that exactly, just something interesting to think about in terms of the joel and maria best friend agenda

but i also think this line get’s taken out of context a lot, because the full line is “tommy was following joel, the way you are now.” maria says this line to lead into her main point, the really fucking important line in this scene: “be careful who you put your faith in. the only ones who can betray us, are the one’s we trust.”

WHICH IS TRUE. IT IS THE POINT. AND WHEN JOEL LIES TO ELLIE, HIDES SOMETHING FROM HER YET AGAIN at the end of the season/game, IT BECOMES A THEMATIC CLIMAX POINT THAT CONNECTS BOTH OF THE GAMES

maria is not saying this to “damn” joel—and i personally don’t think she is “damning” joel in the way you imply here, as there’s definitely potential for them to develop a relationship in s2 once she has more information about the truth of how he thinks of ellie. i think she’s warning ellie not to trust joel, because she doesn’t trust joel, at the end of the fucking day—and that’s about it. she trusts tommy in a way that she can’t quite trust joel yet, and why would she, at this point? it would make no sense for her to

so y’all can blame her and hate her for her distrust all you guys want (btw not necessarily talking to you, anon, ive just gotten some very nasty asks about maria from others so im talking to them rn!!!!!!!), but i’m sorry—you can’t tell me that it doesn’t at least make sense. she’s MARIA. she’s MADE OF SENSE

#WHEW #DO MY THUMBS HURT #i cant even be bothered to tag this fr #maria miller #asked and answered #joel and maria best friend agenda #tommy miller #joel miller #tess servopoulos

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artbytesslyn · 12 days

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what's a meal that you enjoyed recently!

oughhh my wife makes a really good cabbage stew with slanina and homemade cheddar bread

#i think we’re making it again tonight #cartoon chomping sound #sarmale is my next answer #tess talks

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mr-m-murdock · 1 year

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hiii i loved your work with natasha and i can’t believe you’re into tlou/tess too! could you pls write tess x f!reader where they’ve been a thing for a while (years even, maybe) and reader admitted her feelings long ago but tess couldn’t do the same. not because she didn’t feel it, but beacuse she had lost so much and she was scared of losing reader too. they both join joel and tess gets infected. and it’s during those final moments when she finally tells reader what she felt for her all along.

are you lonely?

| tess x fem!reader |

warnings: I mean it's all there. Tess dies oop. ANGST because you know who I am and I refuse to change. Also some blood/gore(?)

a/n: she's so bisexual it's crazy. also I didn't rewatch the scene for this so the dialogue will be wrong

She'd never really said it out loud. Not back to you: not when you'd whispered it to the back of her head in the middle of the night, that you loved her and you weren't going to stop any time soon. Not when you were crouched side by side behind a sorry excuse for a wall, white-knuckled hands clenched around each other. Not when you'd laid your head on her shoulder and let it go walking off into the air between you on unsteady legs, a new-born colt of an idea.

And you were okay with that. You were okay with the fact that she loved you by handing you spare bullets, by holding your gaze, by shifting close to you in bed. You wanted her, so you'd take her in any form. Each kiss was rare and new and every touch on your spine as she walked by or grip on your shoulder as she pulled you to look at her: you held them all close to your chest and let them remind you of how good you had it.

You know the reasons, and they come down to this: Tess is scared. Well, maybe that's not the right word. But she's not a brave woman, and neither are you. Infected and FEDRA and smuggling: all of it rewards cowardice, the refusal to reach out and make something for fear of the break and the loss.

And Tess has already been broken, God knows she has. To anyone else she'd be half a person: a shell and a pair of steel-toed boots crowning something much worse. You've seen her cut out a man's tongue with a razor blade. She's rage and preservation. She's survival. And if survival means she has to stay silent when you tell her you love her, when you kiss her and hold her like she doesn't deserve, if that means that she has nothing to lose anymore: well, that's just fine. That'll be how it is.

You let her do it her own way. You didn't want more. You didn't need it. You heard more in her silence than she could ever say out loud.

Which is why it comes as such a shock, your heart making a plunge for your belly like there was suddenly space for it, when Tess pulls back her shirt and the bite, bloody and cruel, glistens on her neck. It jolts you most that she managed to hide it from you, oddly enough.

You don't feel anything for a second except the vertigo of surprise.

"Oops, right?" Tess says. And she's talking to Joel but she's looking at you. You, standing halfway behind Ellie, silent like you never really are, but there like you always are right where she needs you. She lets her shirt go and it pulls back but you can't stop seeing it, the red, the deep marks of teeth. It's not hit you yet.

It's going to. You can feel it coming.

"Take her to Bill and Frank's," Tess starts, and Joel is moving, shaking his head. "Yes, Joel, please. I need you to say yes. Listen to me."

"No," Joel says. Tess takes a step towards him and he flinches away. She stops, hurt twisting in her face. It's gone in an instant, but you feel it too, like it's leapt bodies. It's taking root behind your eyes, unshakeable. Pain in the back of your head. Pain in your chest, constrictingly tight. Tess's voice is loud now, still low and rolling off the high walls but you can't hear the words, can't make out anything at all.

She begins to move around, spilling shit everywhere, noise so loud it grates and you know, you just know her hands are shaking, even though they never do.

You used to be so good at reading her silences. You never needed words.

She's still now. She must switch tack because you feel it the instant her gaze lands on you, even though your vision is unfocused, holding her as a blur of a dark red shirt metres in front of you.

"I'm sorry," she says, and it doesn't rip through you quite like a surgical saw but it comes close. You blink and blink until your eyes are clear and sore. You can feel the way your hands are tight around the straps of your bag, nails digging into skin, matching her blood for yours. "There are things I wanted to say."

"Tess, don't do this to her," Joel says roughly.

"Fuck you." Comes out sharp. You watch it fall from her lips like you have a thousand times before. "Let me have this. If you won't listen just let me have this, goddamn, Joel!"

Joel goes silent.

Tess looks at you. You are crushingly heavy, a two tonne weight on the flex of your lungs. After everything, all she can do is look at you. The two of you tried so hard, for what? For what fucking purpose? And Tess just looks at you and breathes, hands by her sides.

"Joel?" she says. Talking to him. Looking at you. "Please. Save who you can save."

The light is coming in through those large windows behind her, low and yellow and it's like a wash-away. Like the time you saw the forest for the first time in four years, Tess standing beside you with her shoulder barely brushing yours. It's stupid, and you should be breaking down, maybe, saying something like you used to be so damn good at, but all you're doing is standing and staring. And all you want to do, a desire all of a sudden, is take her face in your hands and hold her there.

Joel grabs your wrist, Ellie by the loop on her backpack, and bolts for the door.

Ellie is yelling and your feet are moving, faster and faster and you're running looking back, a bad technique but you can't take your eyes off Tess and her yellow light. You hear it, seconds before your front foot crosses the line between inside and out.

"I love you," she says. You turn front-on and run.

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notes: not tagging people because I think most are just here for the Marvel stuff, but if you want to be tagged for The Last of Us, message me and I'll be delighted to add you 🌸

#tessfic!#tess x reader #tess x you #tess servopoulos x reader #tess servopolous x you #the last of us fanfiction #fic!#the last of us #tlou #tess servopoulos #tlou tess #written fic for anon #anon cuties #m answers

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