hello hello! i’m em & i’m here to slide in with my oc bby, tessa ! lowkey dying from finals rn so i could only get out a v messy summary of who “tv series canon” tessa is -- under the cut. she obvs isn’t as established as some of the other canon characters, but i hope to build her up through headcanons, ask memes, plotting, etc., so pls bear with me <3 that said, pop in my dms for plotting (i’m begging u) or hit that lil heart button & i’ll pop in yours!
tl;dr: need a Mom™? need a moral compass? need a control freak military snob to make fun of? tess is ur gal!
biography
past + season 1:
Originally from Alpha Station, Tessa belonged to a military/law enforcement family on her father’s side. Basically every male family member worked in the Guard.
Her father had a pretty high rank (Major) and a pretty big ego. Tessa, being his only child, was not only fully expected to join the Guard but also to be the best in the Guard.
Well, Tessa joined. But she wasn’t the best--by far. She struggled a lot at first but, through a combination of having her ass whooped by her father & whooping her own ass, she grew to be pretty skilled.
She eventually got promoted to Lieutenant, the youngest ever. Though everyone believed it was because of her well-known father, and that was probably true. But they also couldn’t deny that she was a damn good shot, so that was that.
Tessa and her parents survived the Exodus, and afterwards, Tessa continued her Guard duties in Camp Jaha, leading search parties for other survivors.
season 2:
On the ground, Tessa continued to follow orders and, engrossed in her military mentality, initially felt fearful and distrustful of the Grounders. However, she was sympathetic towards the Delinquents because she recognized that they were still part of the Sky People, who she was trained to protect.
After the alliance between the Coalition and the Sky People was established, Tessa, with others of the Guard, worked alongside Grounder warriors. During this time, she slowly warmed to the Grounders and came to believe that they too were humans worthy of saving.
She was part of the plan to take Mount Weather, became captured by Mount Weather guards, but ultimately survived.
season 3:
Now increasingly tolerant of Grounders, Tessa sided with Kane during the Arkadian Civil War. However, she continued to remain amongst the Guard in order to spy on Pike for Kane. Once her betrayal was found, her father was furious for her lack of loyalty and discipline, discharged her from the Guard, and more or less disowned her. Afterwards, she fully joined Kane’s force and, later, the war against ALIE.
season 4:
After ALIE’s defeat, Tessa returned to Arkadia to help prepare for the looming Second Apocalypse.
Tessa was granted a place in the bunker. However, her mother was among the few who voluntarily joined Jasper outside the bunker and died when Arkadia was hit by Praimfaya.
season 5:
In the bunker, Tessa was able to understand Octavia’s creation of Wonkru but protested her initiation of the gladiator-style fights. Due to Tessa’s protests, she was, ironically, forced to participate in one of these fights--but succeeded.
Eventually, Tessa joined the others in cryo-sleep on Eligius IV.
personality
Okay, basically, I just wanted to attempt to create someone who was steady & level-headed amidst all of this morally gray messiness going on. Because of her military background, Tessa is disciplined and relies on feeling like she has utter control over all situations. I think she’s been able to cling on to her morality for this long because a large part of her can’t let go of the past...of her life on the Ark, of order, of society. She’s reliably empathetic, but also overly idealistic. She has this protector/martyr/”save as many people as you can” mentality that makes her an easy target. She’s probably managed to keep herself alive for this long due to sheer luck. Obviously, her choices come at a cost--so I’m excited to explore this more.
