May 12th, 2020
Tess arrives on the Barge. Having just been shot down by the military in Boston's Capitol building, she arrives grievously wounded. She is immediately mugged by William, who steals her backpack and loose items and leaves her for dead. Fortunately she is found by Bodhi Rook, who summons Tiffany Doggett. The two take Tess to the infirmary, where she is operated on by Dr. Harry Goodsir, saving her life.

Upon regaining consciousness, Tess is introduced to the broad strokes of the Barge, its residents and the communicators by Tiffany. Tiffany allows Tess to look at her communicator, which she uses to read content filtered to Wardens, including a message from William. She recognizes him from her mugging and decides to hunt him down when she is no longer bedridden. She isn't very impressed by the zaniness of the communications network.

She talks with Bodhi a bit (who mentions her to Hux) and also meets Dogma and sends him to get her communicator for her.

May 15, 2020
During her recovery, she spends some time poking around the network, including talking about shapeshifting monsters with Richie Tozier and resistance with Rose Quartz. Just casual conversations, you know?

May 16, 2020
Tess is discharged from the infirmary and stops to talk with Dr. Goodsir for a little bit. 

May 17, 2020
Tiffany checks in on Tess via her inbox as she recovers in her cabin and they talk a bit about partners. She later goes down for dinner and meets Hange, who shows her the Enclosure. The two discover their worlds share some similarities, and they talk a little bit about selflessness. Tess goes back to her room exhausted.

May 18, 2020
Tess runs into the Inquisitor, who tells her that she is on the lookout for Cal Kestis. Later on in the day, they run into each other again and Tess catches up.

May 19, 2020
When the Barge's flood starts causing trouble with inanimate objects coming to life, Tess doesn't want to take any chances. She touches base with Quentin Coldwater and learns about their plan to hole up in the Enclosure, and she heads over to introduce herself to Misty Day. En route, she runs into the aforementioned Cal Kestis.

May 21, 2020
When William makes a public call looking for his hat, Tess responds. The chase is on.

May 23, 2020
Geralt and Tess bump into each other (almost literally) in the gym. Tess thinks he's interesting, and potentially useful, given he's calm and has realistic thoughts about wardens –– and hey, he's not bad on the eyes, either.

May 24, 2020
Tess posts her first audio log to the network, asking for food recommendations. Hange and Tess talk vacations, Tiffany invites her over for cream puff swans, and she encounters Wolf, a fellow quasi-zombie survivor. Richie and Tess talk survival and MREs. Tess meets Double Trouble in the wardrobe area and gets some fresh clothes, as well as Bill Cipher, who jokes with her a little. She talks drinks with Billy Butcher, froyo with Michael, pickled garlic with Jedao, the Empire with Trilla, and chili hot chocolate and octopus with Fives. She also meets Jasper, who loses their temper and spills some details about Rose Quartz.

She also meets Arthur Morgan, who takes her for drinks and then to see the countryside and horses in the Enclosure. They get along smoothly right out of the gate, slyly talking about their criminal histories. Tess immediately clicks with him.

Tess also reaches out to the owners of the inmate bar, and she acquires an old iPhone out of it, which she decides to use for note-taking. She's brought to the secret bar by Freeza, an alien, and she has drinks with him and... Bill Cipher! She tells them that she used to smuggle and she starts getting ideas about starting up business again.

Later that evening, she runs into Callisto, a woman she's seen on the network. Callisto is interested in rebelling against the wardens; Tess isn't sure her goals align, but she does think Callisto is interesting.

May 26, 2020
Tess runs into new arrival Angel in the hall.

May 27, 2020
It's time to deal with the William problem. Tess strips down a drawer track from her dresser to use as a shiv and heads to the laundry room, where he meets up with her. They fight; they both walk away wounded, but she leaves with the upper hand and his knife. 

However, while Tess tries to patch herself up on her own, she realizes one slash wound needs to be closed up a little better than what she has on-hand. Despite having told Dr. Goodsir that she'd go to him if no one's life was in danger, she decides to just make do -- she borrows a needly and thread from DT, and convinces Geralt to stitch her up. She ends up hooking up with Geralt.

May 28, 2020
When the Joker asks why people went to work that day, Tess replies that she didn't, and they chat for a little bit.

May 30, 2020
Tess wakes up to a morning announcement from the Admiral; she and Arthur Morgan have been permanently paired together as inmate and warden. She has mixed feelings on the subject; upset over having someone with direct authority over her for the first time in her adult life, angry for having revealed anything to him for such a low price, and curious about what he knows. She heads over to his cabin to look at her file and talk plans.

She also meets Dancy Flammarion, an odd duckling with obvious experience with survival; Tess takes her to lunch.

May 31st, 2020
Quentin invites Tess over; they talk about Boston and Tess gets to eat pineapple for the first time in twenty years.

June 1st, 2020
Tess sees an invite to a séance and jokes around about ghosts with the poster only to end up summoning Betelgeuse to her –– she isn't exactly graceful about it, but she learns something about not taking supernatural things seriously.

June 2nd, 2020
New warden Nadja arrives to much chatter; Tess is initially wary of her, but is too intrigued at the prospect of trying make-up to stay away. 

June 3rd, 2020
Tess hangs out with Billy Butcher and shoots the shit with him, and then later has a chat with Tiffany in the gym.

June 6th, 2020
Tess runs into Demona in the library and they talk about clothes and genocide. (Like you do.) Richie Tozier has a question about TV and Tess goes back for more conversations about things she hasn't known since she was a teenager. Hey, he's good conversation. Michael, on the other hand, digs a little deeper.

June 8th, 2020
Tess reaches out to Misty to find out what she knows about Arthur; she also gets an earful of advice about redemption out of it.

June 10th, 2020
Betelgeuse texts Tess (and everyone else) at some ungodly hour, and they have another minor tiff. No matter: Tess has business to attend to, so she hits up Dr. Goodsir to talk about Arthur and William, under the guise of having stitches removed.

June 11th, 2020
Tess answers Lawrence's question about whether anything is real; the question's real annoying, but she's intrigued by Lawrence himself and what he claims to be true. She ends up getting Arthur to snag her a bottle of whiskey so she can go drinking with Lawrence.

June 15th, 2020
Tess has a chat with the Joker in the dining hall, and a very brief conversation about armies with Freeza.

June 19th - 20th, 2020
When the power is flipped on the Barge, Tess is given her own item to open doors and has her room flipped to be a warden's room, as well as being given her gun back. The inmates are a little excited, and Tess asks what everyone plans to do with it. Amongst others, she meets Rawne, who is making bootleg alcohol; Tess helps him package it up and offers to split the stash to store half of it in custodial. She also gets $1 million dollars USD in cash from Bill. Betelgeuse has taken over the lounge, so she goes to visit him to take a few bottles under the guise of karaoke.

Arthur reaches out to her to touch base and get his guns back; she agrees to hand them and his journal over in exchange for the privilege of keeping her gun when this is all over. He agrees, and they get each other up to speed on using pistols and revolvers.

She also pokes a little fun at Misty and says hi to Geralt.

June 21st, 2020
The Barge has been flipped into a mirrored form –– the object is for inmates to be corrupted to achieve graduation, and Tess, a hopeful Firefly who wants to see the world fixed, refuses to knuckle under, even under the application of torture. Her Warden, Arthur, is a man of no honour and a whole lot of cruelty, and she maintains an overall chilly relationship even with well-meaning wardens like Misty or grouchy ones like Geralt, but it's not all bad. She has a boyfriend, William, and he's sweet to her. She has friendships with Billy (Startrekker), Bodhi and Quentin, and she's a member of Callisto's Amazon girl gang, with fierce sisterly relationships with Tiffany, Madelyn and Trilla.

June 22nd - 25th, 2020
Barbara Gordon arrives in the midst of the flip; Tess greets her. Tess discusses sanitary food practices with Eddie. Tess talks with Callisto about the Amazons' celebration plans, and coordinates a small plan with Tiffany to get materials to make fireworks. The Amazons have a bonfire that night.

June 26th, 2020
After a terse conversation with Misty and struggling with what Arthur showed her in the torture booth, Tess breaks her silence on it to William. Later that evening, she breaks free of the mirror.

June 28th, 2020
Having woken up from her altered memories, Tess spends two days figuring out what to do and ducking her warden. Eventually he catches up with her, and they have a spat, resulting in Arthur's memories being jogged.

July 1st, 2020
Some of the other residents are struggling with their own memories; Tess talks to Trilla.

July 2nd, 2020
Frustrated, Tess asks the Barge residents what anyone is doing. She ends up having a small spat with Demona, prompting a future struggle.

July 3rd, 2020
Tess seeks out Arthur to check in on how he's doing, and though she's glad that he's mostly back in his right mind, she feels oddly challenged by the task of comforting, and conflicted about what he'd inflicted on her. She decides to leave that concern for another day, and the two agree to split up and scour the Barge for clues. He tells her to be careful and she jokes that she always is.

She does get another clue in the form of a magic 8-ball with a message, so Tess hunts down Hange to figure out what her map is about. The map shows which rooms have yet to be converted. The two end up in the cybernetics lab, where they get the last clue to pass on to William, Misty and Rhys. Something happens along the way and Tess ends up killed. Tess doesn't remember what.

Arthur is informed of her death by his journal and picks her up, taking her to the infirmary, where he, Harry and Tiffany revive her.



July 4th, 2020
Tess wakes up in the infirmary disoriented and upset; upon learning that the Barge has been reverted back to normal, she decides she wants to be done with the whole affair and insists on being allowed to leave the infirmary. Arthur takes her back to her cabin and looks after her for a couple days. They have a bit of a heart to heart, and she has a minor meltdown and admits she feels she's been taking advantage of him. They also discuss her plans, and whether she'd try to make warden and get a deal of her own. Tess isn't sure, but she's willing to try.

July 5th, 2020
William drops by Tess' room to return her backpack, as promised, and they have a bit of tension negotiating who they are and who they were to each other. Tess goes over the maps with him and explains how she smuggled Ellie out of Boston with Joel.

July 6th, 2020
Bored again and on the last leg of her death toll, Tess picks a couple little fights on the network, including needling new resident Crais and reminding Tiffany that they aren't sisters. She also talks to Joker about cops, and reaches out to Double Trouble, who also died in the Mirror Barge.

July 7th, 2020
Tess chats with Warren Kepler about Chinese take-out and then goes and pays Billy Butcher a visit with a bottle of booze in tow. No way to celebrate survival like knocking boots, right? Meanwhile, Arthur confronts William about the raid on his cabin, and then he turns to Tess about his burned photographs. Tess doesn't believe they've been burned and promises to get them back, but Harry convinces William to return them first.

June 9th, 2020
Tess jokes to William that it's apology hour; they talk for a little and spat a little.

July 12th, 2020
Determined to keep busy, Tess jumps right into making plans for her bootleg ring. Bill tells her that the speakeasy was lost in the Barge's restructuring, but Freeza isn't so sure it's gone. Tess tells Rawne that it might have been lost, but begins making plans to hide the bootleg where it won't be as easily found. She settles on sending it with Lawrence.

She also takes a moment to welcome Loki to the Barge.

July 14th, 2020
Before Tess can get the rest of the booze moved out of custodial, Arthur finds the stash. He doesn't seem to suspect her, however, and Tess goes about helping him with custodial until they get into a little tiff when Tess gets bossy. Tess immediately makes arrangements with Rawne and Lawrence to move the remaining stash out of maintenance and into Lawrence's room. Then she's off to have a drink with Cloud, and she mentions having smuggled Ellie.

July 15th, 2020
Tess goes back to Arthur to make nice, and they talk a little more about Dutch. Tess invites Arthur out to the enclosure as a peace offering, and he takes her on a treasure hunt, where they talk about the world outside the Quarantine Zone, cell phones and being outdoors.

July 16th, 2020
Bill finds the Brew and meets with Tess to talk arrangements. They agree that there is no functional economy on the Barge, especially for inmates, but that if they get the population hooked on booze, they'll be able to establish something once people are reliant on the supply. Afterwards, Tess updates Rawne on the bootleg situation.

July 19th, 2020
Arthur and Misty talk, and Arthur asks if he's a bad person for not offering Tess his deal. Misty assures him he isn't. Tess congratulates Hange on Betelgeuse's graduation, and tells Rose to enjoy her own.

July 21st, 2020
A now-ex-CIA agent named Allison arrives on the Barge, and under the influence of a Barge flood prompting people to tell the truth or else, Tess is very candid with her. It's a no kids, no boyfriends kind of place. Later, she heads off and plays Truth Chicken with William.

July 22nd, 2020
When Cloud needs extra people for another kitchen shift, Tess ribs him about his ability to get people in line for the job.

July 23rd, 2020
Bill Cipher is gross.


July 25th, 2020
Ellie arrives. It does not go gracefully. Tess encounters her in the hallway and confronts Ellie about what's happened since they parted ways. They're cautious with each other until Ellie admits what happened to Joel, and then it gets caustic and they brawl. Tess realizes Ellie is serious and decides to walk for the time being, leaving Ellie alone.

Ellie takes to the network later; many people remark on her bloody nose. William sees and approaches Tess; she goes to his room and argues with him and punches him out, too. Arthur sees Ellie and talks with her for a bit, and then catches up with Tess that evening and lets her vent. Tess takes Arthur to Joel's apartment in the Enclosure, intending to burn it down, but she holds back, finally admitting what Joel was to her and why the whole thing upsets her. They end up drinking together instead.

July 26th, 2020
Mildly hungover but ready to make some measure of peace, Tess goes back to Ellie in the morning and chats for a bit.

July 29th, 2020
Tess meets Pagan. He is crazy. She also gets herself into a mild debate with Randel over what the people on the barge can do to help people in ports they visit, and though some other Barge residents agree with her point, she realizes how jaded her worldview is by comparison.

July 30th, 2020
Tess talks with Callisto about roman candles. The Admiral also makes a pairing post; when Tess sees that some wardens have been given multiple inmates and others none at all, she sends Ellie a message with "suggestions". That quickly devolves into a spat, and in a pique of frustration, Tess asks Lawrence to give Ellie a hard time.

Aug 1st, 2020
Tess gets drinks with Butcher in the lounge and chats with him about Ellie. Later, she brings Ellie pudding as another peace offering.

Aug 6th, 2020
On the network, Tess jokes about keeping her figure. Steve chimes in and that conversation veers through a number of topics, ending when Tess finds out Steve is with Pagan. She pals around with Bill Cipher and Nadja, and FILL MORE OF THIS OUT LATER AAHHH

Tess takes Ellie to the hot tub and they talk for a bit; Ellie is notably uncomfortable seeing Tess's injuries but Tess doesn't bring it up.

Aug 8th, 2020
Tess talks with Cloud about her new hobbies.

Aug 15th, 2020
Tess goes for a walk with Pagan Min; he discovers she is carrying a pistol, and she gets video of him in a dress because she is an asshole.

Aug 16th, 2020
Tess shows Ellie the not-blackmail video of Pagan in a dress.


Aug 21st-26th, 2020: Rumbling, Rattling, Rolling
The Barge is breached and turns into a prison train hurtling around a frozen Earth. Tess has been on board the train for twenty years, having arrived with her sister Allison after murdering Tess's shitty then-boyfriend. Within the first year she finds herself pregnant with Ellie, who she raises with Joel and her sister. She's supported by friends on the train, including Arthur. Tess keeps her head down and focuses on survival. 

Tess goes about life on the train. She soothes Ellie on sleepless nights.


Aug 27th, 2020
Tess isn't particularly happy about what happened, but she pulls up her socks to deal anyway, going on an Enclosure outing with Arthur that has her riding with him for the first time. Ellie, on the other hand, is upset by her first breach, and Tess tries to keep lines of communication open. She's also surprised to find out that Ellie considers her train life with Tess better than her childhood at home, but she says nothing. She touches base with Allison, too, and they talk about their parents. She catches up with Billy Butcher, too, telling him that it was fairly normal for her.

Aug 30th, 2020
The Admiral announces new pairings and Tess is right there to give Ellie advice, whether it's welcome or not. Either way, she gets right back to socializing: talking rehabilitation with Rawne and hobbies with Zhao.

Sept 4th, 2020
After hearing from William that Tess died trying to fix the barge, Ellie tries reaching out to Tess. Tess is a little surprised, given that Ellie seems to want to avoid her, but she goes with it. Ellie's cageyness with her feels upsetting, though, and she's struck by the notion that Ellie might be hiding things from her the same way Joel might, so she takes Ellie's journal.

Sept 6th, 2020
Billy found something weird in the inmate showers. Tess teases Allison. 



OK I KNOW I HAVE A LOT TO CATCH UP ON

Bill goes on a spam-a-thon on the network, and Tess asks him about the future of the Brew. He offers her a partnership if he or Freeza ever leave. While Tess accepts it, she knows she shouldn't, but she decides it doesn't matter if it may not ever even come to pass. Tess reaches out to Arthur to let him know what's going on with the Brew, but she gets cold feet over a text response where she can't really read his reaction. They end up getting lunch and talking about Starbucks instead, and Tess feels somewhat unsure about broaching the topic again to avoid making him angry.



Nov 00rd, 2020
The Admiral sends in VIPs; Tess switches in and out with Marlene, and Ellie switches in and out with Joel. Marlene talks with some of Tess's people. Tess braces herself to see Joel and heads out to see him; they have a spat.
William reaches out to her to talk and she rebuffs him at first, but they end up going to lunch.

Nov 21st, 2020
Annoyed by Marlene's posts all over the network, Tess posts that "Marlene is a bitch" and leaves it at that. She talks with Ellie and bonds a little, offering her crash space if ever needed, jokes with Pagan, talks about Maeve with Lawrence, and meets up with Arthur to chat. She also chats with Tesla's VIP, Watson, about pandemics. She gets a Thanksgiving invite from Misty. That night, she gets drinks with Hange, and they talk about partners and wall security.


Nov 23rd, 2020
As the VIPs head home, Tess comes across Steve wandering the halls covered in bloody tears. She wipes his face clean with her handkerchief, only to have Yunlan run into the two of them. Not wanting Tess to have the blood, he tries to take it from her and ends up having to frisk her up against the wall, where he discovers the gun. He takes it from her and contacts Arthur. Meanwhile, Tess turns around and reaches out to Bill to immediately dump the blood sample, meager as it is, and is on her way out when Arthur calls. They argue, but ultimately Arthur gives her the gun back.

Nov 27th, 2020
Needing an outfit for the Thanksgiving party, Tess invites Pagan to dress her and they chat in the wardrobe. She broaches the subject of Pagan getting his shit together and he doesn't take it well.

Nov 29th, 2020
Despite all of the chaos of the blood affair, Tess goes to Misty's Thanksgiving Party; she has a fantastic time, chatting with Loki, chatting with Tiffany, sharing kitchen space with Bucky, eating with Arthur. She also has a minor tiff with William. Tess also makes a drunken request to the Admiral before heading to bed.

Nov 30th, 2020
Tiffany finds the Admiral request, and she and Tess have a laugh over it. Tess checks back in with William. He meets her at the Brew and they talk about Emily. Later, when the pairings for December go up, Tess sees that Pagan and Ellie have been temporarily paired for the month and messages Ellie about it. Yunlan does the same, shedding light on the blood affair from his own perspective.





Dec 3rd, 2020
Butcher and Tess break their silence; Tess approaches him in the chapel and they talk a little about what happened. 

Dec 5th, 2020
Tess chats with Annie about gas masks. And still frustrated about the Yunlan debacle, Tess reaches out to Steve to talk about what happened.

Dec 6th, 2020
Pagan messages Steve and they talk about Tess a bit.

Dec 10th, 2020
Tess gives into an impulse: invisible due to a flood causing invisibility, she breaks into Yunlan's room to retrieve her handkerchief (and scope out what he has while she's at it.) He comes home before she finishes and they end up in a fight, leaving him battered and unconscious and her with a broken arm. She immediately informs Arthur, who marches her to the infirmary to see Tiffany, who disagrees with Yunlan breaking Tess's arm. Arthur, on the other hand, is more upset at Tess: she was supposed to go to him instead of charging ahead on her own. Recognizing his anger, Tess offers to give him some space. Arthur checks his communicator and talks to Yunlan, who runs over his side of the story, and asks Arthur to get his things back. 

Arthur messages Tess asking for the things back in exchange for the handkerchief, and she agrees. Things are tense and they agree not to talk, but he brings her dinner that night.

Dec 11th, 2020
Yunlan turns to the network to figure out getting his laptop fixed; he's vague about what happened, but he tells Bucky. He also talks to Tiffany about what happened.

Dec 12th, 2020
Feeling sassy, Tess and William poke fun at Archer on the network. Later, Tess meets Norton in the lounge and they talk about emotionally unavailable men and men that are too emotionally available.

Dec 15th, 2020
Pagan finds out about the arm break; he reaches out to Tess to chat about it, and they break the ice on their prickly relationship.

Dec 16th, 2020
With Tess struggling with her arm still in a sling, Butcher offers to help. Tess tells him about Yunlan but gets frustrated with the situation and excuses herself.

Tess posts to the network about the life boats, prompting some interesting conversations with wardens about the state of things, with Bill about how much anything can be fixed here, and with Norton about what happened with Yunlan. Norton turns around and talks to Yunlan about it a few days later, showing him the conversation. Ellie and Cloud both run into Tess in the dining hall and ask about the sling; both turn around and talk to Yunlan. Cloud gets a bit of heat and Ellie asks him to throw her in Zero next time.

Dec 17th, 2020
Tiffany reaches out to Tess about the arm, and they talk a little about Yunlan. Tess opens up a bit about Arthur. Cloud gets back in touch with Tess to follow-up about Yunlan.

Dec 19th, 2020
Tess eventually folds on Arthur, breaking the silence by slipping a picture of them under his door. They hug and talk it out.

Dec 23rd, 2020
When Tup asks a lot of questions about Santa Claus, Tess informs him that Santa is not real.

Dec 26th, 2020
Archer sends out invites to a New Years' party; Tess is initially interested but backs out when she realizes it's being held outdoors at night. Gertrude posts to the network about doing experiments with the Barge's engine room, which Tess plays along with until Larry messages her privately to check in.

Dec 28th, 2020
Tess spends a decent part of her week casually stalking Yunlan.

Dec 29th, 2020
Pagan reaches out to Tess about hiding a body; Rawne was killed by a new inmate. She gives him some timely advice about striking before the new guy gets a warden, and Pagan asks her to hide his contraband if he gets killed. Tess agrees and turns around and lets Arthur know so he can give her an out, and lets Ellie know to keep an eye out –– for Pagan's own good. And, because she's nice, she reaches out to Rawne to give her condolences on the murder.





Non-Canon Threads

• William and Tess on the Truth Meme
• Aerith on the TDM

Baker Street and Memes

• Joel and Tess
• Joel and Tess ft. headaches
• Joel and Tess ft. depressing
• Bill and Tess ft. supply run

 

Tess's first encounter on the Barge made a lasting impression –– William mugged her as she lay dying, robbing her of what little she had. Although some old ration cards and duct tape don't mean much to her here, it's the principle of the matter, and she firmly intends to make things even.

Bodhi found Tess bleeding out in the laundromat and called for help. Tess isn't sure what to make of him so far, given the chaos of their first meeting, but she'll be sure to follow up with him, if only to see if he feels she owes him anything.

Tiffany was part of the rally to save Tess's life, and she explained the gist of life on the Barge, as well as use of the communicators. She also left her communicator in Tess's hands to look through, giving Tess brief access to warden filters -- while Tess was too disoriented to make complete use of it, it did direct her to William.

 

The doctor responsible for saving Tess's life. Seems kindly enough, but time will tell whether he can be a trusted ally.

A man from small-town Maine who dealt with some sort of monster as a child and then again as an adult. The monster causes hallucinations. Frankly, Tess is just relieved that there are some people who are both grounded in the real world and have experience with horror shit.
 

Means well, but seems pretty naive -- she's thousands of years old and Tess doesn't get the impression she's all too grounded for it.

Coming soon.

 

Coming soon.