WAY DOWN WE GO.

hello, hello, hello, -how low? a plot-driven tess servopoulos from tlou.

[2ndaughter]

AND I'M FEELING LIKE A VILLAIN, GOT A HUNGER INSIDE .. ONE LOOK IN MY EYES .. AND YOU'RE RUNNING CAUSE I'M COMING .. — a plot-driven tess from tlou by bri.

[2ndaughter]

AND I'M FEELING LIKE A VILLAIN, GOT A HUNGER INSIDE .. ONE LOOK IN MY EYES .. AND YOU'RE RUNNING CAUSE I'M COMING .. — a plot-driven tess from tlou by bri.

[everyroute]

we didn't know that the sun was collapsing . . . 'til the seas rose & the buildings came crashing- . . . + MULTI MUSE BY BRI. TWENTY1+ ONLY.

[002shot-arch]

starting to hate my url again lmfao

[silvers-death]

𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍 that you know looks more like 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙 now, i'm the life you chose, and ALL THIS TERRIBLE DANGER john & isabelle.

[denkryn]

it’s the finger tattoos for me…

[casanovawrites]

random sentence prompts  ━ from various tv shows, part 18

you don’t have to believe me right now, i just need you to promise me that if things get bad, you’ll put an end to things before it goes too far.

anytime you say that we’re fine, it means that we’re not fine.

some stains you can’t wash clean.

she’s mean. and hot.

not every story gets a happy ending.

am i too damaged to be with somebody?

when i have something good, i feel compelled to ruin it.

there’s a nightmare happening under my skin.

fear is something that lives inside us. just like hope or joy or love.

there’s some hard choices coming, and no one here seems willing to make them.

i don’t know. and that is fucking terrifying.

how is it that you get to fuck everything up and still have everything, always?

oh, i’m sorry, did i hit a fucking nerve?

we were a safe space on a bad day.

i didn’t think that i could find myself unless i left.

i hate sappy movies. i find them torturous. 

people leave because they find something they like better.

i really don’t like who i’m becoming right now.

don’t get involved in other people’s bullshit. that just gets in the way.

no one in their right mind would want to be with the person you’ve become. 

i washed down a bad day with sex.

why are you so competitive?

you have so much you haven’t dealt with.

i’m really sorry that i fucked your life up.

do you, like, prey on people’s whose lives are already falling apart?

i think you should probably go find yourself a new hero.

it’s safer for you to stay away from me.

being around you right now really messes me up.

don’t ever fuck with me. i will know.

is there any point in fighting it? 

i’m wide awake. i’ve never been more awake in my life.

you asked me out. you know, just saying.

you’re a sucker for a sob story.

i like you, but you’re scary though.

i’m not betting my life on your fucking hunch.

stay alive, you piece of shit.

i stayed because you were hurting, and now i’m hurting. 

you wanna thank me? bury your old self and don’t look back.

what’s the point of being friends if we can’t be friends?

i like you a lot better when you’re not yelling at me.

we’re all gonna fucking die.

i’m the person that when i get too close to someone, i push them away, and i don’t trust myself not to do that to you.

that other night is how i know i lost myself for a minute.

no wonder your family’s a fucking mess.

i’m not planning on dying here tonight, so shut the fuck up.

so you led a pig to shit, and now you’re surprised you made a mess?

i’ve gotta get back to my family.

i want you to be just a little more thoughtful sometimes.

what do i do wrong? why is it so fucking hard to be in a relationship with me?

we can’t sit here hoping for the best.

you met your match. she’s as strong as you are. can you handle it?

i’m so into you, and i can’t handle it. i don’t want to feel this way.

i don’t need a fucking reminder of what’s at stake. 

if this is the end, then i want it to end with you.

my heart’s belonged to you since the moment i met you.

you’re the love of my life, for as long as that life may last.

it’s not your fear that feeds the forest, it’s hope.

what starts in chaos ends in chaos. 

i’m your friend, and i’m not going to let you treat me like shit too.

i have come at it from all the strength that i have.

i don’t want you in my bed anymore.

i don’t need you. i just want you. so, no pressure, or anything like that. 

look at me, i’m disappearing.

you need to work on your own shit. you have deep wounds, and i don’t know who hurt you, but somebody did.

you don’t love me. 

you got people out there that you care about?

today was intense.

since we already did the time, we might as well do the crime.

even your friends think you’re bad news.

you know me more than anyone else in this entire world. you’re my best friend i’ve ever had.

you’re not a waste of time.

how hard is it to be faithful to someone you’re in love with?

every good thing in my life ends up broken because of me. 

i hurt everyone and everything i touch. it doesn’t matter what happens to me anymore.

what is your thing? what’s going to make you happy these days?

it smells like stress sweat in here. is it me?

all i do is give you fucking space.

everybody fucking wants something from me, and it’s exhausting.

we don't have time for this. 

you don’t know how to do nothing.

i’ve had a fuck sandwich of a week.

no one is ever going to love you because you’re incapable of loving anyone but your fucking self. 

what about you? what do you deserve?

that’s shame. you have to address that.

love? i don’t even like myself right now, like at all.

it’s okay, you know. to be sad.

[0azrae7]

you ever go back there sometimes? the corners of his eyes crease behind the mask and it's impossible to tell whether he's smiling or wincing. tongue wets drying lips and he sucks in a breath. well now, that's a daring question — isn't it? but it's agonising to think about. he can no longer imagine the scent of his mother, or the crooked laugh of his brother. what he'd give to smell beth's baked goods, again. a lump forms in his throat. to feel joseph's weight in his grasp. an involuntary, frantic chuckle leaves him, and he shoots her a cautious glance as though he hopes she hadn't heard it. shit — it's been a while since one of those slipped out inappropriately. it aches because... none of those losses happened post-outbreak. life had been so cruel to him, already.

          " i think about 'em all the time, " he tells her gruffly. his voice is stiff, like he's holding something back. isn't he always? still, he doesn't specify who. " 's what they deserve. " to be remembered, even if he can't anymore. to live on, in some way or another. he meets her gaze, then, holding the severity of the flames between them in his. " what they deserve. " a plea. don't forget them. he wonders — if she can still remember every detail of their faces, the ones she'd lost, like he yearns to. there's a lengthy pause as he considers her. " you ev'a think about what they'd want you to 'ave? a place t' call home. somewhere safe... " do you ever feel like you don't deserve it?

[002shot-arch]

if tess wasn't well-skilled in the art of ignoring her own off beat reflexes to the grief she carries down in the depths of her rotted core- her head might've snapped his way- might've furrowed her brows at his chuckle... but she understands it, and instead of pointing it out or drawing her attention to the source, all that is given in response is the clasp of her hands in her lap, rubbing together with one tense drag after the other. the writhe of a heart doesn't stretch and pull to any code. it just bleeds and bleeds. makes the air passing through lips and into lungs feel a helluva lot more like soot. she's laughed in the face of it a time or two or twenty too. she sure as hell ain't nobody to judge.

“ how the hell d'ye live like that? ” it's a blunt question from a blunt woman but she asks it so casually for someone who cannot comprehend how anyone could live with their head six months, two years, a decade or even twenty five years in the past. she didn't glance his way at the sound he made, but her head lifts now, profile half-concealed by the shadows of the dancing flames. tess can't see herself but she'd thank the fire if she could. vulnerability isn't something she thinks she wears too well. hardly fuckin' wears it at all. a singular bow of her head in nod followed by a misshapen excuse for a snort escapes. it's not funny, not at all. no, it's made in irony. “ guess you're better at rememberin' than i am. ” isn't it sad—— she's refused to think about them for so long that she can't even remember the things they deserve. perhaps it isn't sad. perhaps it's selfish. her hand lifts, brushing the back of her knuckles across her eyebrow. “ c'mon now. you really think i ever listened to joel? ” a wise-ass until the day she, too, meets the dirt. it's about more than just the empty place joel left behind but talking in halves feels safer.

[002shot-arch]

APRILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

[002shot-arch]

tess is still my bbg but i am so deep in yellowstone brain rot i genuinely cannot think about anything else even if i tried

[0azrae7arch-deactivated20250927]

@002shot asked: " past lives are dangerous places to revisit. "

ghost stares into the flames ahead, the fire burning away to keep them warm as they rest for the night. he thinks about how tess now has a place to call home. jackson, somewhere she can turn to in her time of need and they'll reliably welcome her in with open arms. somewhere she can potentially start a future. and yet, here she resides, recruiting ghost for his assistance with an unrelated task on her to-do list. " i'm surprised you chose t' leave, even if it's for a short time. " to leave at all was a risk, given how one may never return. " you not plannin' on makin' a life there? like you used t' have... " past lives are dangerous places to revisit.

and he supposes she can say that and get away with it. because the loss of her family was akin to the losses everyone else suffered. partner, child, brother, sister, mother... father. whoever it may be, there's a majority that lost them during or after the outbreak. simon didn't. maybe he's blessed for that — free to make his choices without the burden of familial consequence. or maybe it's a curse. can barely recall what he'd had. can recall what family feels like even less so.

          " some of 'em deserve t' be revisited, " he says, prodding at the blaze with a stick. watches as the end of it burns and crumbles. maybe he likes to dig up his family from time to time. his past self. to hold his mother's skeletal hand or to see his brother's silly, crooked jaw. to see the wedding ring, timeless, on beth's finger. he sighs. " 's not right, t' pretend it never happened. no matt'a how painful. past lives made us who we are. they deserve better. " / meme.

[002shot-arch]

the fire crackles and smokes. the heat of its flames warms her hands, her feet in their boots, her face as it curls behind the top of her jacket. but there's something deeper too — the warm transcends. swears she can feel it past skin and bone right through to her innards. straight to that damned place where her beating organ rests in a cage with several bolt locks. one she so desperately tries to keep hidden from all light. maybe it's the conversation and not the fire at all. if you asked the people from her past they'd tell you tess is stone cold. its worked out alright for her in terms of reputation, but the truth's buried somewhere between stone cold and terrified to be anything else. survival makes a fool out of everybody once & awhile.

“ i don't need to make a life anywhere. i got a life. thought you might know a thing or two about that. ” the words aren't spiteful. in an interesting turn of events she even says them with a crooked excuse for a smile. there's a comfort she finds in ghost that tess can rely on. thinks she sees a bit of the past in him when she can't see much of anything else. HOW ABOUT THAT FOR SOME HYPOCRISY? the past being a dangerous place to revisit and yet, she sought him out for a reminder that there are still things with fleshy limbs she hasn't lost. she settles back against the log. dispels a breath through her lips that she can see in the cool air.

“ but i'd have to be pretty fuckin' stupid to turn my back on jackson forever. ” the age of time creaks like old wooden floors under heavy feet. she isn't getting any younger. though the fight in her hasn't dwindled. there are things in jackson, people in jackson, who tess thinks this life would have to pry from her cold dead hands for her to abandon. OR MAYBE IT'S THEIR HANDS.. she can't think too much about being cold or dead these days. “ y'know, sometimes i— ” she hisses at her own vulnerability. “ that's the only way i think i survived. joel ain't the first person i lost. i think it'd be a damn miracle if he's the last. but i don't go there. couldn't. would'a lost my mind. ” her thumb presses against her eye as if it could meet her brain inside somewhere. “ you ever go back there sometimes? in your mind. i dunno. guess jus' to see if you still can. ”

[madsway]

I KNOW THE WORLD CHANGED YOU AND MADE YOU INTO THIS .. ME? I'VE BEEN LIKE THIS A LONG TIME —— AN IND. MADISON CLARK BY BRI.

[kisswithatear]

[tloufans]

[002shot-arch]

i fly home on tuesday and i have a 4.5 hour layover so i may take my laptop out then but otherwise i will be back here officially on wednesday evening. 😇

[002shot-arch]

--- @croftborn said: i'm still standing, which is an improvement on the last time you saw me.

branches of evergreen sway loosely in the fall wind. dawn has been kinder to the city than dusk as the chill begins to spread at nightfall's darkened abyss. there are many things the moon is only privy to, holding secrets the sun just doesn't bestow the power of bearing, but damn— tess can't deny how much those first rays of morning sun make her feel brand new again. as the months go on, they'll have less and less of its appearance. gotta take all you can get outta life's little pleasures.

“ funny. i was thinkin' the same thing. ” she cradles the words in a cavern mouthed smile. looks lara over with an impressed nod. there's a part of her wondering when the ground will cave beneath her feet. everything she's done and everything's she worked for hangs on one fragile little string over the lions den: do not get caught. not on the edge of the wall with her backpack full of supplies that could guarantee at least another two weeks to a months worth of survival. not on her first step or her five thousandth step into the pittsburgh qz. not with her hands in her pockets, her head down low, or her mouth getting her into trouble she has no damn business being in. do not get caught means do not get caught. ever. and there's always some voice lurking over her shoulder telling her it's just a matter of a time. sounds a whole lot like her own voice. maybe it's the lack of sleep. but only the purple hue beneath her eyes shows any sign of that. nobody gets to see her sweat.

nodding to the forest at the end of the field just a ways from the bleak, towering walls of the qz, tess ventures towards. there's at least an hour yet before fedra soldiers switch shifts into the day patrol if her estimation is still worth anything. then again, the last few weeks have been packed full of surprises she was by no means prepared for. she's used to a few dents in her plans at this point. hell - tess is still trying to wrangle her mind around losing out on the maybe-maybe-not-ships up in maine. if food came in the form of disappointment, she'd stave off her hunger for months. if only it fuckin' worked that way. the last thing she wants is to find herself cornered by some fedra idiots simply because she wasn't diligent enough on their change in patterns. it'd be more than just a knock to her ego. “ you goin' in or out? ”

[arsuf]

The Last of Us  ▪  [10/?]