#driftersverse

Currently weeping over this art by @looshelle, commissioned by @bumblepony of Drifterverse Maria and Tess.

I've had a pretty intense few weeks (well, longer, but this week was particularly stressful) and this just healed my soul. Thank you so much to both looshelle and bumblepony for this - I mean, look at how good this is, the colours, their expressions! It's so undoubtedly them.

We were so denied by not having seen Maria and Tess interact. I'm sure they would've clashed but ultimately come to respect one another, and eventually become very good friends. I love exploring their gradual friendship in Drifters and I'm such a sucker for any Tess Lives narrative which brings these two together.

for my beloved @hypnotisedfireflies I have knitted Tess and Joel, in their Sioux Falls era from Drifter's Dawn. We've got knitted guns, we've got backpacks full of treasures, we've got long mauve skirts and bloodied knuckles, and I had SO MUCH FUN making these.

Tess and Joel in Jackson by @kenobiwanx

“They were my pills, too. If you were anyone else …”

“You’d what?”

A ghost of a smile touched her lips. “I’d send you after them.”

He returned the smile, but it was awash with the guilt he’d always helplessly, hopelessly, love more than her. Joel wanted her angry and unforgiving. It sustained him. Tess knew what it was to want to hurt at the hands of the one she loved most. They gave one another everything. Most of the time, it wasn’t pretty. But that was what they were.

“Next time – ”

“You can’t lie to me,” she swiftly countered. “I’ll take the rest Joel. But not that.”

It was just pointed out to me that we passed the 2 year anniversary of Drifter's Dawn 2 days ago. I can't believe I've been writing these morons solidly for two years.

Driftersverse is now around 600k long and includes 20 fics in the series (and that's not including all the other TLOU stories taking place in their own universes, like IO and MM and LOC!)

Thank you to all of you who've read a little or a lot; who've encouraged me throughout with comments and reblogs, art and asks, bookmarks and recs; thanks to those who've come and gone but especially to those of you who have been with me the whole time. I appreciate it more than I can ever say. THANK YOU! xxxxxx

I'd hoped to finish After the Zero Hour before the end of the month, but I started a new job which has claimed most of my brain power! This one is not going to make it across the line.

So here's a little snip of where the second chapter goes ... Back to a familiar location in TLOU, though some 12 years before it appears in canon.

How the Breakers Roar