#this is about tess

[wardenannie]

Middle aged women just hit different, guys.

[multifariousmayhem]

maybe i am pulling a joel miller and being a hater™ but i really didnt like that ending for the second episode

me watching the last minutes:

what the fuck???

[gramarye]

playstation wife gf post trinity

[magnetic-rose]

at the end of episode 3 when joel and ellie are getting their supplies from bill and frank’s house, they find a box labeled “woman’s shirts.”

tess is the only woman they’re friends with, which means this box was for her. so whenever they’d go to the clothing boutique, they’d find something for her and set it aside for when she visited next time.

i just - they loved tess. they cared about her. they thought about her even when she wasn’t around. they’d go to their little boutique and pick out clothes for her that she could take back home to the qz. “paying attention to things is how we show love.” “i leave you all of my weapons and equipment, use them to keep tess safe.”

and bill talked a bit more about tess in his letter but we don’t get to fully see it:

“... and she decide you’re...”

also bill’s telling joel some wine pairing for food that he can share with tess, probably because one of bill’s love languages is cooking and he thinks joel should wine and dine her. how cute is that.

[cordycepspog]

There’s something horrifyingly beautiful about Tess’s final moments. In the midst of the most dire chaos, as she waits for her death to come rushing past so she can blow it sky high and give cordyceps a big fuck you one last time, one of the infected stops. It looks at her, really looks. Her own mortality is personified in this infected. It’s death that’s looking at her, and it sees her. She looks her own death in the eye, and the suspense is so high as it approaches. But then, it doesn’t bite her throat out like we all expect it to.

It kisses her. What’s more, it kisses her gently. And I think it was a brilliant choice on the writers part, because it reminded me that the infected aren’t supposed to be evil. Sure, they’re scary as hell, but really, they’re just trying to survive. They’re connected to one another, they can feel each other from miles away. They seek out and want to be close to their own kind, just like the human survivors do. And when they do find each other, they kiss hello.

And after so long apart from a loved one, someone you know and trust with every instinct in your body, wouldn’t you want to kiss them too?

[pettson]

maybe everybody moved on but i'm still here:

his reaction. his immediate reaction. is to PANIC. he is launching himself off that chair. like showing concern is one thing but the guy is ready to GO. literally a second ago he was barely even awake but he takes one look at her and goes from 0-100 in 0.2 seconds because someone hurt her. and the fact that tess knows exactly how he's going to react and knows exactly what to say to calm him down is just- i-

[ripe-beetle]

Completely forgot to upload this whoops :* Set 2!

Set 1 here!

[deancasforcutie]

The way Dean’s queer joy and revelation at others just being outside the stereotypical control images is also ours

Honorable mention:

[kentuckyfriedmegumi]

any ouran fans still out there

wip

[tesscourtes]

saw you had asks open, not a drawing request but wanted to know if there was any more story to your human bill’s punishment-for-weirdmageddon-is-to-turn-weak-human au, I really like it (sorry if you explained this a while back, I only just watched gravity falls😭I’m a late-comer to the fandom)

it’s just superepiccool to me, how are dipper and mabel about him being human now? Soos n Wendy, Stan and Ford? What was it like for them (especially Ford) when he just turned human? What was it like for Bill?

oh hey don't worry, I haven't really talked much about the details of the AU like ... ever. I just started reviving it because I got my partner into the show (they are also a new fan! yay, new fans! Funny enough I had no idea TBOB was coming out so the timing was mad exquisite.) and they have just been an amazing help shaping my messy thoughts and coming up with new, fun plots! It's also nice to know there's someone out there interested in it, so thank's for asking! Now that I read TBOB I want to change the premise a bit, but the core is still the same.

Let me tell you this AU is silly. I'm aware Billford is toxic and there are many corners to dive into to picture their messy relationship. But I kinda wanna keep the spirit of the show here and make it equally as fun as it is disturbing. Given that Bill canonically is trapped in endless Therapy gives me even more food to work with, he just out there being toxic and people repeatedly telling him to cut it out.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail because I'm actually working on the first comic chapter for this AU, but regarding the characters: Each of the Pines, as well as Wendy and Soos, are not happy seeing him, but individually grow more accustomed to him and with him. I guess going from "most accepting" to "least accepting", Mabel took it the best. I wouldn't say she was quick to forgive, but quick enough to give the guy a chance. And I honestly have to say that, although this is 100% a Billford AU, there's so many plot ideas for just Mabel and Bill and their amazing, chaotic shenanigans. Put these two together and the stories basically write themselves. Wendy is pretty similar, and the most chill in actually helping Bill figure out human stuff.

Naturally, Ford took it the hardest. I'm aiming for slowburn here, haha. They got to figure out some stuff that I'm so ready to put onto pages... Ford is a lot of emotions. Confused, angered, curious... Meanwhile Stan is Bills biggest hater. (There is a lot of bullying in this AU) He just keeps up with it because his Family makes him. He's very protective and tries to kick Bill out several times. Soos sticks with Stan, but he's also Soos and has a big heart, so in Bills eye, he's very gullible and a target he can mess with easily.

Dipper is not a fan either, he has a hard time adjusting to the triangle just getting to ... be there. He's suspicious for the most part and Bill has to try hard to get on his good side. But honestly he might be more upset with Mabel (and later on Wendy) for making friends with Bill so easily, even though he knows that's just their nature. I just recently started thinking about Gideon and how I'd like to include him, but nothing worth mentioning so far yet.

With Bill himself, one my favorite parts trying to portray so far is how he's dealing with his new mortality. He adjusts to the body fine, he knows how to navigate flesh, but he has a hard time accepting that it's his body. His new prison, essentially. If it's gone, he's gone. If he treat's it like shit, he feels like shit. Then we add the psychological aspect of things. And more importantly, we add Ford to the equation. When I tell you, that demon is experiencing psychological damage here, and it's fully his fault. TBOB really pointed out to me that I need to dive into his obsession with Ford. How do you even get a man you fumbled so bad, to even acknowledge you again?

I love yapping about this AU, thanks again for giving me the grounds to do so anon! I'm an insecure writer so it'll probably take another hot minute to choose which script feels best to draw out, haha. But I'm glad you seem to be up for the ride!!

[strangerhawke]

i’m suddenly thinking about tess. imagine arthur getting faroe back and years later he bumps into her, covered in many scars, a chunk of his ear missing, a cane in hand. he looks like a different person entirely but he smiles at her just the same. and she's like "how have you been?" despite the obvious and he goes "oh you know. i've been better in recent years. faroe is almost nine now"

and she'd like like "oh yeah i suppose she'd be coming up to that, right? or - wait, wouldn't she be older -"

and arthur just calls out "faroe darling! come say hello to tess"

and she just slowly loses her mind as she watches another man appears with faroe, faroe, the little girl she used to take care of who died years and years ago, stood here in the flesh, older and alive. so very alive.

and she looks at tess with this vague familiarity, like she knows she's a person she should know, but the memory just wont come to mind. and she's not the same little girl she helped to raise, but she is. theres a scar on her arm she got from falling over during one of her times in tess' care. her expression is guarded but theres still so much light that emanates from her. it was her. it was really her.

and arthur is rambling on about his companion and faroe's recent school results and she is just staring at this child who should not be alive who should not be here who should not be standing in front of her and smiling like nothing was wrong.

she doesn't know if its a miracle, or the result of devil worship, but at that moment, she doesn't care. she wraps the girl up in a hug before she can be stopped. and then they're saying their goodbyes, and tess has barely said a word, just staring after their retreating backs.

and when faroe turns to wave at her once more, she waves back, even as she wonders if she dreamt of the death of a child so powerfully it had become embued in her psyche.

[preservedcucumbers]

yes hello it's Dumb Meme O'clock. Technically she's right

[accirax]

maybe the real disventure was the permanent encampment this show set up in my mind along the way

[seventeenpins]

ok but have we talked about transmasc!joel?

transmasc!joel, who found out he was pregnant with sarah, way too young and scared absolutely shitless

transmasc!joel, whose boyfriend left him when he came out, his baby girl not even a year old

transmasc!joel, whose baby brother may be an idiot, but that kid loves him and always has, and he sure as hell won't hear a bad word about his big bro

transmasc!joel, who had always been a tomboy growing up, navigating being a whole ass adult with a fully developed brain, finding comfort in his gender identity while doing everything he can not to let the scars of his adolescence affect sarah, letting her flourish however she will

transmasc!joel, who gives sarah the BIGGEST hug (and tries not to let her see the tear in his eye) when she casually mentions starting a GSA at her school

transmasc!joel, who's the heartthrob of the cul-de-sac, but surprisingly private when it comes to his dating life. but from the few bored housewives that he's had encounters with all agree, he sure knows how to get the job done (whether it's the one he's hired for or not)

transmasc!joel, who sees a whole lot of himself in his adopted kid, and if ever Ellie decides she wants to try out a different name or pronouns, he'll be right behind his kid in a way no one but tommy was for him

[clairenovaking]

do you ever just remember how for so long, it was just joel and tess. just the two of them, depending on each other, through thick and thin, at the end of the world. tommy was gone, joel had lost sarah, tess had lost everything. they only had each other to rely on, and they did. they trusted each other, they were partners- in a sense, they were all the other had in the entire world. and joel had to walk away from tess, the woman he'd spent nearly two decades standing shoulder to shoulder with, taking orders from, putting his faith in, with only a teenaged girl she believed in in his clutches. do you ever just think about it!

[frannyzooey]

All of the time they spent together, all the miles they walked, all the nights they laid awake — do you ever think about Joel and Tess talked about?

The stories they must have shared, their tentative trust that turned into a relationship — how did those conversations go?