#tess dombegh

[starbuckscommitmentissues]

Made a discord for fans of Seraphina/Tess of the Road duologies!

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group D Round 1

[image ID: the first image is the book cover of Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman. it depicts the silhouette of a dragon made up of a dark, mountainous town. a figure stands below the dragon, facing it. the second image is of Heart, a Thai man with short black hair, wearing a blue shirt. end ID]

Tess

Tess is a wonderful, nuanced depiction of a girl who has been betrayed by a man and by the religious patriarchy she lives under, and is judged by everyone for it, including herself. But she’s a deeply hopeful and curious person, and the story she walks on is one that allows her good nature to blossom and unfurl even when her society would rather condemn her. Other things to know about her: she’s a science nerd in a medieval context; she named her child after a storybook pirate; on her sister’s wedding night, she broke the nose of her sister’s brother-in-law; she tries to fight colonialism; she’s a friend of funky little dragons; she has a male alter ego with a rude name; her half-sister is a saint.

Heart

Look, I just got a give a shout out to my special son! He's the first ever deaf love interest in a Thai drama AND he's gay. I love him so much okay and I just want people to see him please

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

Soooo these are just the ones I need to run the preliminary round :) I'm actually missing quite a few if I want to have something for every contestant + the honorable mentions...

i've decided any submissions without a description won't be included, or mentioned. I can't really introduce people to a polyship if I can't describe them. If your submission is in this list, please help me! It doesn't need to be a long description! Just something that explains their dynamic a bit! Examples:

about a canon submission:

Not only do they live through an incredibly complex and co-dependent youth together, they come out of it on the other side and heal and raise a kid together.

about an implied canon submission:

The interactions between the three of them throughout the story mode and other dialogue sources throughout the game at least imply it. The dynamic between the three's personalities makes it clear they've at least known each other for a super long time, and that them being in a polycule wouldn't be too far-fetched.

(these examples aren't necessarily from contestants, again, i want to describe the mentions as well.)

As for the prelim round ones, I'll wait until tomorrow night, and whichever is still missing a description will be auto eliminated.

I know some of these have been described to me in asks before the nominations even went live, but there's too many asks in the tag and I simply can't look through all of them to find them, that's why I need your help, please!

So here are the full lists of stuff i'm missing, under the cut

Needs description:

-Miw/Neo/Shin (3 will be free)

-Camina Drummer/Michio Pa/Josep/Serge/Berthold/Oksana (The Expanse)

-Cinrak the Dapper/Queen Orvilia/Loquolchi (The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper)

-Zahava/Akila/Terrence (This Planet Needs a Name)

-Mairwen/Rhun/Arthur (Strange Grace)

-Zoe Benson/Madison Montgomery/Kyle Spencer (American Horror Story)

-Nacho/Ana/Sebastian (Somos Tr3s/We Are Thr3e)

Needs Image:

-Camille/Nyra/Dendro (Muted)

-Syenite/Innon/Alabaster (Broken Earth)

-Dianda/Simon/Patrick (October Daye)

-Jack Rossi/August Bateman/Rina Medina (The Wicker King)

-Turtle Heart/Melena/Frex (Wicked book)

-Breq/Mercy of Kalr/Seivarden/Ekalu (Imperial Radch)

-Cinrak the Dapper/Queen Orvilia/Loquolchi (The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper)

-Cinnamon/Marie/Klaus (Will Do Magic for Small Change)

-Pyrrha/Commander Wake/Gideon The First (The Locked Tomb)

-Travis/Gable/Margaret (Campaign: Skyjacks)

-Storm/Helen/Mira (Love and Luck podcast)

-Zahava/Akila/Terrence (This Planet Needs a Name)

-Mairwen/Rhun/Arthur (Strange Grace)

-Enrique/Hypnos/Zofia (The Guilded Wolves)

-Taylor/Theo/Josey (3 - Hanna Moskowitz)

-Tess Dombegh/Jacomo/Margarethe (Seraphina)

-Nacho/Ana/Sebastian (Somos Tr3s/We Are Thr3e)

[mysterycharacterflowers]

Congratulations to the bouquet of blue and purple daisies, desert lilies and black tulips!

The identity of the bouquet of poppy, zygopetalum, echeveria, dandelion, yucca, twinspur , lotus, tagetes, ursinia, purple hyacinth and hibiscus is...

Therese 'Tess' Dombegh from Tess of the Road!

Round 2; A bouquet of poppy, zygopetalum, echeveria, dandelion, yucca, twinspur , lotus, tagetes, ursinia, purple hyacinth and hibiscus Vs A bouquet of blue and purple daisies, desert lilies and black tulips

If you know who they are, or you are pretty sure of it, please don't tell until this poll has ended!

First, let's talk about the bouquet of poppy, zygopetalum, echeveria, dandelion, yucca, twinspur , lotus, tagetes, ursinia, purple hyacinth and hibiscus

Meaning and why these flowers were chosen: Poppy, for fertility, remembrance, strength, hope, resilience, sleep, and peace. When we meet her, she is stumbling through the wake of her trauma--including grief for both herself and her dead child— without any real goal of recovery, trying to cope through substance abuse, but over a long hard walk she gradually uncovers her inner strength Zygopetalum, for fertility and spiritual connection between people. Fertility is relevant because her pregnancy as a young teen overturned her life; spiritual connection, meanwhile, doesn’t apply in a soulmates way like would be typical for this flower, but instead as a moment of profound enlightenment that she experiences and later relates to someone who very nearly understands. Echeveria, for endurance. She’s been through a whole lot, curled up in a ball, got back up and kept going. Also because it’s one of a few plants called hens-and-chicks, and she was a mother. Dandelion, for determination, joy, and youthful thoughts. She’s just a teenager with big dreams, a love of stories, a history of tomfoolery, and a not irreparably broken soul. Yucca, for new opportunities, loyalty, and purity. She has to leave home to find hope; she is a good friend, or at least she’s trying very hard; and she’s certainly not ‘pure’ by her conservative quasi-Christian mother and culture’s standards, but whose fault is that and what does that mean anyway? Twinspur, for fidelity and friendship. She reconnects with an old friend and tries to accept who they are, their journey, and what they’ve done despite the rift in her since she last knew them; she also ends up befriending/befriended by someone she justly punched in the face before, so there’s that. I also chose this flower by its name because she’s a twin; that’s also complicated. Lotus, for spiritual growth and transcendence. She went looking for it, with her friend who was far more interested in it than she was at first, and she certainly found it even the transcendence suffered for it. Tagetes, for faith (and use in religious contexts), creativity, jealousy, and loss. Religious faith is very important to people in her life and was formative, in an abusive manner, to her in the childhood she’s only partly left; her mother clung to fundamentalist religion in a time that had seen a lot of change, and because of this shamed her all the more for her perceived transgressions against polite society. (After experiencing that, she wound up trying to combat religion-backed colonialism and generally being unwilling to let others be hurt with religion as the weapon like it was for her.) Creativity is a central part of her mind—she pranks, she explores, she lets herself become enveloped in possibly silly ideas and fascinations. Jealousy is something she has for those with more privilege getting into situations not unlike hers and getting away with it, and for those without her knack for getting into trouble (and thus getting, in this case, unjustly punished); in other words the jealousy is for her siblings. The loss part is probably clear by now—loss of her child, loss of faith of varying kinds, loss of social acceptance. Ursinia, for temptation and innocent love; she fell for a man not the least bit worth it. Purple hyacinth, for playfulness and regret; connected in this case since her playful, adventurous nature was a part of what she was shamed for, loosely speaking, when her pregnancy came to light and with the aftermath. In other words, she was too much to be considered a good girl to begin with. Hibiscus, for youth, first love (little good though it did her), and the shortness of life; she was a child giving birth to a child who didn’t survive.

Description: A young woman—eventually admirable, never despicable—with a bad reputation kept small, a self-sabotaging streak that can’t compete with the actual sabotage other people deal to her, and quite a lot of self-loathing her parents don’t care or know to help her process. Desperately needs to be told that what she went through wasn’t funny, actually, but doesn’t know that until it’s actually said. The daughter of a lawyer and a miserable housewife, and it shows. Wildly eccentric when she’s not forcing self-effacement; gets more philosophical as she goes, and unlearns the hatred she was taught for her supposedly sinful body. Once constructs an alter ego whose name is a crude joke, but completely accidentally on her part. Chaotic good

Check their post here

Now, let's talk about the bouquet of blue and purple daisies, desert lilies and black tulips

Meaning: Desert lilies (redemption, resurrection) Black tulips (strength, elegance) Blue/purple daisies (blue: loyalty, trust, peace; purple: thoughtfulness, having fun, unity) Why these flowers were chosen: The desert lilies and black tulips symbolize his outside demeanor, someone intimidating and poised. (Plus, desert lilies are often grown in the desert, where the character resides.) On the other hand, the daisies show who he really is inside, being loyal, thoughtful, and caring. Plus, all the flowers match with his main color scheme! Description: A man in a very high position of power, with a reputation for being ruthless and willing to do anything to carry out his work. Because of this status, he's become very aware of himself and the fear that surrounds him, to the point of breaking his typical mold to lighten the mood (in his own, very cringey way) when things are looking glum. You'd be surprised to find out how thoughtful and genuinely kind he is; you'd also be surprised to find him at a local card game tournament, just less so. Seriously, he never shuts up about it. He has a big heart for those he cares for, though he acts practically heartless around those he doesn't. He has a terrible sense of humor and is the purest definition of a nerd, but he can still pack a punch when needed. He's even transgender (headcanon)

Check their post here

[hungryblueghost]

"She still held sorrows, but she was not made of them. Her life was not a tragedy.

"It was history, and it was hers."

—Rachel Hartman, Tess of the Road

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

Book Rec

Happy Friday, friends! *vine voice* Back at it again with another book recommendation, this time for a few of my all-time favorite books. Okay, shall we? Great, let's go. :)

Titles: Seraphina, Shadow Scale, Tess of the Road

Author: Rachel Hartman

Genre(s): Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, High Fantasy

Order: I recommend reading both Seraphina and its sequel, Shadow Scale, before Tess of the Road, but you don't necessarily need to. However, Seraphina DOES come before Shadow Scale, so I'd say you shouldn't start with Shadow Scale.

Length: Seraphina: 528 pages, Shadow Scale: 624 pages, Tess of the Road: 544 pages

Summaries:

Seraphina: Seraphina Dombegh, a music prodigy with a deadly secret, must navigate political intrigues and rampant prejudice as she works to uncover a sinister plot that jeopardizes her country's fragile peace.

Shadow Scale: Now, finding herself at the center of a tangled web of alliances and complexities where one misstep could mean all-out war, Seraphina travels across multiple countries and realizes that danger is around every corner--and even in her own mind.

Tess of the Road: Tess Dombegh, "fallen woman" and disgraced pariah, flees her home and, disguised as a man, sets out on a journey to rediscover who she truly is.

Awesome Things in These Books

A large, diverse cast of characters

Innovative worldbuilding, interesting languages, and a fleshed-out religious structure

Dragons! Dragons who are neurodivergent!

Deals with some really pertinent and heavy themes

There's a culture where the absolute peak of boorishness is to not ask someone's pronouns when you meet them (and the language has six or seven sets of different gendered and non-gendered pronouns)

Lots of LGBTQ+ representation

Disabled representation as well (a main love interest in one book as well as multiple other characters)

Lyrical and poignant writing

Feminism!!

They have real wit and humor

Genderfluid dragon-esque beings who build intricate mechanical devices and also steal

A healthy and adorable polyamorous triad

Content Warnings: while there's not much that I can think of to be concerned about (trigger-wise) in Seraphina or Shadow Scale, Tess of the Road handles a lot of potentially upsetting stuff including suicidal ideation, sexual assault, miscarriage, religious trauma, child abuse, PTSD, and depression. Just be aware of that before you read, okay? ❤

Anyways, I think all of these are wonderful books and I hope that, if you read them, you enjoy them too! Feel free to message me or drop something in my ask box if you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat. :)

[glisselda-of-uplands]

i spent a little too long on this bad meme just to say i’m back, but... i’m back!

[incorrect-seraphina]

Tess: What do you call an elephant that doesn’t matter?

Seraphina:

Tess: An irrelephant.

Seraphina: I didn't ask.

[specks-of-time]

just gotta say, in terms of nicknames alone Tes’puco does give Dirtyhands a bit of a run for his money

[imagine-lilareads]

TESS OF THE ROAD, SPOILERS!!

[sdombegh]

Rachel Hartman characters as Parks and Rec gifs

Od Fredricka

Eskar

Glisselda

Tess

Orma

Blanche

Seraphina

[foughfaugh]

On an unrelated note, teaching myself to draw is going, um...better, I guess?  I’ve improved, although you wouldn’t know by the overall quality of my art lol

It’s Tess!  Someone else please draw her, too.  Please.  I need Tess fanart.  She deserves it.

[treehousereads]

“let me alone, I want to be a pirate” (my new favorite YA genre)

Lila Bard of A Darker Shade of Magic by V E Schwab

Inej Ghafa of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Tess Dombegh of Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

[starbuckscommitmentissues]

No one:

Claude from Seraphina:

[darlingtons-voyster]

Imagining Glowing by the Oh Hellos as a Seraphina song is causing my soul to astral project someone wanna feel that with me

[themodethecitythesoul]

new facecast for Seraphina Dombegh (of Rachel Hartman’s “Seraphina”, “Shadow Scale”, and most recently “Tess of the Road”) is the lovely Isabella Gomez, shown below:

(icon @woolenpacks)

for one reason, and one reason only.

(gif @anissa-grace)

thank you for coming to my TED talk.