TESS (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rationcards) wrote2013-07-23 10:58 am
rationcards) wrote2013-07-23 10:58 am
application
player.
NAME/HANDLE: Sirea
PERSONAL JOURNAL:warbreaker
ARE YOU 16 OR OVER?: way over and it makes me sad 8(
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
zombifiers | whole mad season @ AIM | wholemadseason@gmail.com
OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A
character.
CHARACTER NAME: Tess
SERIES: The Last of Us
CANON POINT: post-death
AGE: unknown; assumed to be late 30s or very early 40s (40 or 41 at the most)
APPEARANCE: 1 2 god when she stands next to Joel like this she looks like she could be his daughter...
PERSONALITY: Not much is known about Tess's early life -- about who she was before the world went to shit. And by "not much" I mean absolutely nothing. She's got a subtle twang to her speech that probably pits her upbringing somewhere out in the western US, but that's about all we have to go on. That's actually okay, though, because letting go of the past is one of the main themes in The Last of Us, and it resonates well in Tess's character.
Tess is truly a product of the world she lives in come present-day of the game, to the point where she's the master of her own domain. She's quick-witted and fierce, yet charismatic enough to command the role of a leader quite nicely. Whoever she was before doesn't matter at all, because now she's a top-rate smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, perched high on the top wrungs of the black market. She has contacts all over the city and has earned a high amount of respect from every single one of them. And for good reason.
As a businesswoman (and that's really what she is, at the heart of it), Tess is firm, stalwart, and professional. Well, professional by 1920s mafia standards, anyway, but that's actually pretty good considering the hellhole she lives in. The deals that she cuts with people are always fair, and so she expects the same kind of fairness from her clients and partners in return. So much of her personal philosophy in life is "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." It's only when she's double-crossed that that changes, and her view on things becomes more dog-eat-dog and eye for an eye. Or your life for a betrayal. You know, whatever.
It's amazing that people haven't learned over the course of the past twenty years to not try to screw Tess over, but the beginning of the game shows that stupidity is something that even an apocalypse can't weed out. There is a real sense of cold ruthlessness in Tess -- a lack of mercy that could have only been born from 20 years of surviving through the muck and scum and hell of this planet and the human experience that came with it. Her questioning methods involve physical beatings and torture, and she doesn't even blink at doubletapping a person in the face at point-blank range. If she feels that she's been duped or screwed over or threatened in any way, then it's lights out for the person on the giving end of those feelings. She's survived too long and been through too much shit to tolerate that kind of crap, and she has no patience for it anymore.
Death and murder are just the ways of the world now, and Tess does whatever she feels is necessary to keep herself alive. In her own words, "it's been that way for a long time." Throughout the course of the game, we get tiny glimpses of Joel's life during the early years of the outbreak -- setting up ambushes, killing innocent people for supplies, things of that nature -- and while it's unclear just how long he and Tess have been together, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that she was around for at least some of it. At the very least, we could probably safely assume that she dealt in that kind of shit on her own, apart from her time with Joel. There's a hardness about her that's very indicative of just how difficult her life had to have been at some point prior to the events of the game.
But things happen. And then they're over. And then you move on. That seems to be the general mindset that Tess (and Joel and a whole lot of other survivors) has about life. Dwelling on the past and getting caught up in despair are distractions that get you killed. If something's broken or has gone wrong, then you just keep moving forward until it's fixed. One way or the other. No matter what it takes.
Now, don't get me wrong. While it's great to think of Tess as some stone-hearted murdering badass who isn't afraid of anything, that would be a completely disingenuous view of her. Underneath all of those thick, hard layers of armor, Tess is not dead inside. There's still warmth there lurking at her core. There's patience. There's understanding. There's empathy. There's affection. It's just that Tess has learned to subdue and conceal these things, and she taps into them only at times when it's appropriate.
Most notably this can be seen in her interactions with Ellie. Tess starts out by telling Joel, "she's just cargo." Joel seems to take that to heart and more or less treats Ellie as an object to be transported (for the first few hours of the game), but Tess never stops treating her like a person. Tess is the one that gets Ellie up and running when soldiers start piling in and chasing after them. Tess is the one to get eye-level with Ellie and ask her -- like she was an adult -- what the plan is. Tess is the one who answers Ellie's questions, and Tess is the one to ask her own about Ellie as a person, too. And Tess is the one who keeps Ellie close and gets her out of Joel's way when Joel is too butthurt and filled with manpain to tolerate the situation. It almost seems like Tess's attitude towards and treatment of Ellie is born from some innate maternal instinct, though unfortunately she doesn't live long enough for that theory to be explored.
As far as her relationship with Joel goes, like most things in The Last of Us, it's one that's built on and shown through subtleties. It's obvious that she trusts and respects him implicitly, and there are times where they don't even have to speak aloud in order to communicate. Just a simple look or a nod of the head is enough. Joel's a great business partner, and Tess is more than happy to carry him around like a blunt weapon. But there's more to it than that. There are little things that break through the surface to betray a more intimate connection -- things like Joel gently cleaning her wounds and Tess constantly thinking about and referring to them as a singular "us." However, things like love, devotion, and emotional dependency are the fastest way to get a person killed, and so Tess just simply isn't going to use those words. But there is something there -- something warm, familiar, and comforting in between jobs -- and she isn't in denial about it. And when push comes to shove, she refuses to let Joel be, either.
By the end of her life, Tess hints that she does feel at least a tiny bit of remorse for all of the shitty things she's done over the course of her life in order to survive. She looks at Ellie as a chance for her (and Joel) to make something good out of it. If Joel could get Ellie to the Fireflies, and if a cure could be made, then maybe it wasn't all for nothing. Maybe then no one else would have to die the way she did, and maybe no one else would have to live the way that she'd lived.
And there at the end of it all, we see this tough-as-nails character nearly reduced to tears over all of the things she'd done and what she still had to do. She pushes away the man that she (won't say she) loves and turns to face death head on.
Because things happen. And then they're over. And then you move on. And she knew that Joel had to get his butt in gear before it was too late before he was trapped there with her forever.
Tess is more than just a smuggler -- more than a criminal or a killer or a badass. Tess is a human being who only does what she feels she has to in order to get by. She's a woman with thoughts, feelings, and needs of her own. And her behavior -- no matter what it is -- is always genuine. For all of the brutality and violence, Tess is always honest, both with herself and with the people around her. And because of it, she is arguably one of the most realistic characters in video games today.
ABILITIES: Nothing too fancy. Tess is a normal human with no supernatural/inhuman powers. From what we see of her in-game, she has an extensive knowledge of/proficiency in the use of firearms. She's also fairly stealthy and is very adept at unarmed combat. More than anything else, Tess has a good head on her shoulders and natural leadership qualities. They're what really keep her alive.
POSSESSIONS: The clothes on her back. A 9mm pistol with only two shots left. A flashlight. A gas mask. Her backpack containing: a change of clothes, a few cans of food, a bottle of water, a book of matches, a pack of batteries, a small notebook, and a pile of ration cards.
samples.
JOURNAL ENTRY SAMPLE:
((ooc: I figured instead of doing a typical intro post sample I'd get creative and make up a possible in-game scenario. Let's just say for funsies that Tess has been around for a while and comes home to find that something's been unexpectedly stolen from her room.))
AUDIO;
You know what? I consider myself to be a reasonable person. I try not to ruffle anyone's feathers around here -- at least not too bad. So imagine my surprise when I come home from a hard day's work to find that someone broke into my house and stole my shit while I was out.
Whoever it is, you got three days. I want it all back. You bring it back safe? Water under the bridge. We can forget this whole thing. If it doesn't come back? Well.
The city's a small place. I'll find you one way or another.
If you think you're walkin' away from this clean, you are sorely mistaken.
THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE: test drive meme!
NAME/HANDLE: Sirea
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
warbreakerARE YOU 16 OR OVER?: way over and it makes me sad 8(
CONTACT:
OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A
character.
CHARACTER NAME: Tess
SERIES: The Last of Us
CANON POINT: post-death
AGE: unknown; assumed to be late 30s or very early 40s (40 or 41 at the most)
APPEARANCE: 1 2 god when she stands next to Joel like this she looks like she could be his daughter...
PERSONALITY: Not much is known about Tess's early life -- about who she was before the world went to shit. And by "not much" I mean absolutely nothing. She's got a subtle twang to her speech that probably pits her upbringing somewhere out in the western US, but that's about all we have to go on. That's actually okay, though, because letting go of the past is one of the main themes in The Last of Us, and it resonates well in Tess's character.
Tess is truly a product of the world she lives in come present-day of the game, to the point where she's the master of her own domain. She's quick-witted and fierce, yet charismatic enough to command the role of a leader quite nicely. Whoever she was before doesn't matter at all, because now she's a top-rate smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, perched high on the top wrungs of the black market. She has contacts all over the city and has earned a high amount of respect from every single one of them. And for good reason.
As a businesswoman (and that's really what she is, at the heart of it), Tess is firm, stalwart, and professional. Well, professional by 1920s mafia standards, anyway, but that's actually pretty good considering the hellhole she lives in. The deals that she cuts with people are always fair, and so she expects the same kind of fairness from her clients and partners in return. So much of her personal philosophy in life is "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." It's only when she's double-crossed that that changes, and her view on things becomes more dog-eat-dog and eye for an eye. Or your life for a betrayal. You know, whatever.
It's amazing that people haven't learned over the course of the past twenty years to not try to screw Tess over, but the beginning of the game shows that stupidity is something that even an apocalypse can't weed out. There is a real sense of cold ruthlessness in Tess -- a lack of mercy that could have only been born from 20 years of surviving through the muck and scum and hell of this planet and the human experience that came with it. Her questioning methods involve physical beatings and torture, and she doesn't even blink at doubletapping a person in the face at point-blank range. If she feels that she's been duped or screwed over or threatened in any way, then it's lights out for the person on the giving end of those feelings. She's survived too long and been through too much shit to tolerate that kind of crap, and she has no patience for it anymore.
Death and murder are just the ways of the world now, and Tess does whatever she feels is necessary to keep herself alive. In her own words, "it's been that way for a long time." Throughout the course of the game, we get tiny glimpses of Joel's life during the early years of the outbreak -- setting up ambushes, killing innocent people for supplies, things of that nature -- and while it's unclear just how long he and Tess have been together, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that she was around for at least some of it. At the very least, we could probably safely assume that she dealt in that kind of shit on her own, apart from her time with Joel. There's a hardness about her that's very indicative of just how difficult her life had to have been at some point prior to the events of the game.
But things happen. And then they're over. And then you move on. That seems to be the general mindset that Tess (and Joel and a whole lot of other survivors) has about life. Dwelling on the past and getting caught up in despair are distractions that get you killed. If something's broken or has gone wrong, then you just keep moving forward until it's fixed. One way or the other. No matter what it takes.
Now, don't get me wrong. While it's great to think of Tess as some stone-hearted murdering badass who isn't afraid of anything, that would be a completely disingenuous view of her. Underneath all of those thick, hard layers of armor, Tess is not dead inside. There's still warmth there lurking at her core. There's patience. There's understanding. There's empathy. There's affection. It's just that Tess has learned to subdue and conceal these things, and she taps into them only at times when it's appropriate.
Most notably this can be seen in her interactions with Ellie. Tess starts out by telling Joel, "she's just cargo." Joel seems to take that to heart and more or less treats Ellie as an object to be transported (for the first few hours of the game), but Tess never stops treating her like a person. Tess is the one that gets Ellie up and running when soldiers start piling in and chasing after them. Tess is the one to get eye-level with Ellie and ask her -- like she was an adult -- what the plan is. Tess is the one who answers Ellie's questions, and Tess is the one to ask her own about Ellie as a person, too. And Tess is the one who keeps Ellie close and gets her out of Joel's way when Joel is too butthurt and filled with manpain to tolerate the situation. It almost seems like Tess's attitude towards and treatment of Ellie is born from some innate maternal instinct, though unfortunately she doesn't live long enough for that theory to be explored.
As far as her relationship with Joel goes, like most things in The Last of Us, it's one that's built on and shown through subtleties. It's obvious that she trusts and respects him implicitly, and there are times where they don't even have to speak aloud in order to communicate. Just a simple look or a nod of the head is enough. Joel's a great business partner, and Tess is more than happy to carry him around like a blunt weapon. But there's more to it than that. There are little things that break through the surface to betray a more intimate connection -- things like Joel gently cleaning her wounds and Tess constantly thinking about and referring to them as a singular "us." However, things like love, devotion, and emotional dependency are the fastest way to get a person killed, and so Tess just simply isn't going to use those words. But there is something there -- something warm, familiar, and comforting in between jobs -- and she isn't in denial about it. And when push comes to shove, she refuses to let Joel be, either.
By the end of her life, Tess hints that she does feel at least a tiny bit of remorse for all of the shitty things she's done over the course of her life in order to survive. She looks at Ellie as a chance for her (and Joel) to make something good out of it. If Joel could get Ellie to the Fireflies, and if a cure could be made, then maybe it wasn't all for nothing. Maybe then no one else would have to die the way she did, and maybe no one else would have to live the way that she'd lived.
And there at the end of it all, we see this tough-as-nails character nearly reduced to tears over all of the things she'd done and what she still had to do. She pushes away the man that she (won't say she) loves and turns to face death head on.
Because things happen. And then they're over. And then you move on. And she knew that Joel had to get his butt in gear before it was too late before he was trapped there with her forever.
Tess is more than just a smuggler -- more than a criminal or a killer or a badass. Tess is a human being who only does what she feels she has to in order to get by. She's a woman with thoughts, feelings, and needs of her own. And her behavior -- no matter what it is -- is always genuine. For all of the brutality and violence, Tess is always honest, both with herself and with the people around her. And because of it, she is arguably one of the most realistic characters in video games today.
ABILITIES: Nothing too fancy. Tess is a normal human with no supernatural/inhuman powers. From what we see of her in-game, she has an extensive knowledge of/proficiency in the use of firearms. She's also fairly stealthy and is very adept at unarmed combat. More than anything else, Tess has a good head on her shoulders and natural leadership qualities. They're what really keep her alive.
POSSESSIONS: The clothes on her back. A 9mm pistol with only two shots left. A flashlight. A gas mask. Her backpack containing: a change of clothes, a few cans of food, a bottle of water, a book of matches, a pack of batteries, a small notebook, and a pile of ration cards.
samples.
JOURNAL ENTRY SAMPLE:
((ooc: I figured instead of doing a typical intro post sample I'd get creative and make up a possible in-game scenario. Let's just say for funsies that Tess has been around for a while and comes home to find that something's been unexpectedly stolen from her room.))
AUDIO;
You know what? I consider myself to be a reasonable person. I try not to ruffle anyone's feathers around here -- at least not too bad. So imagine my surprise when I come home from a hard day's work to find that someone broke into my house and stole my shit while I was out.
Whoever it is, you got three days. I want it all back. You bring it back safe? Water under the bridge. We can forget this whole thing. If it doesn't come back? Well.
The city's a small place. I'll find you one way or another.
If you think you're walkin' away from this clean, you are sorely mistaken.
THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE: test drive meme!