Tess

She/Her

Bass Guitarist / Band: CRITCAL SWITCH

Lives out of a custom painted band van with her bandmate, Junwar. (Tess is really proud of her paint job: very much punk rock style.) The band's top song of their career so far is currently "Crit Dis," which blew up between their exposure on a talent based TV show (they didn't win) and buns using it in this one meme that Tess thinks is hilarious. Another song that got popular from its debut in a movie was "Another Fuck King Love Song." It was sold on the special edition version of her singles compilation album SUGAR x VICE. And while things have been slower than Tess would like lately, the band has seen some success through collaborations with other bands.

Tess' dream is to enter and win a battle of the bands against her former bandmates, who she had a falling out with due to a few members deciding to go solo.

[ Personality ]

Now see... Tess can be nice enough when she wants to be. She's usually in a decent mood. And it's not like she goes out of her way to hurt people. But she's tough, loves to cuss, and doesn't put up with crappy attitudes. She's petty enough to either pour drinks on people, spit in their food, or blatantly ignore them / ice them out if she finds them obnoxious. In the very least, yes, she can put on a good stage or customer service face when she has to. It gets her through rough gigs or slow periods when she needs to do part-time in retail (music shop) to pay the bills. She's a 'professional,' okay? She just cringes at the thought of some things like pretending to like some people to keep the peace or befriending someone just to get free stuff. Regardless of her temper, Tess values transparency. So she's the type to forgive and move on... as long as it's not about something done behind her back.

She has a few fans, but not all for the reasons she'd prefer. Particularly, the media has the habit of painting her as way more ruthless than she really is after that time she was caught on camera kicking the teeth out of a bun that tried to steal her underwear backstage. (Steel-toed boots.) Or the time she hit someone with a bat for breaking into her van while she was sleeping. Or stabbed a bun in the tongue with her fork when they tried to lick her without invitation. Or blasted some private investigator point-blank with two cans of spray paint for showing up and not minding her own damn business at 2-o-clock in the morning... Small lawsuit aside, Tess is always happy on occasions where people recognize her for her music first. She's mostly fine with signatures and taking pics with people. (Just don't be creepy about it.)

As a band member, Tess has always been more of a team player. All she really wanted was to share the spotlight with her best mates and make enough money doing what she loves to treat herself to gourmet eats once in a while. But the drama with her old group really left her with battlescars she's still healing from. She's doing her best to find a new crew who she meshes well with; she likes making new sounds. 

Sadly, she can't seem to let go of her grudge. She acts like she has something to prove to the one old friend who secretly accepted a contract to join a big studio without her, called Tess the weakest link when she found out, absolutely lied that Tess threatened them, and made a whole dramatic spectacle of it by trying (and failing) to get a restraining order against her.

Tess has not tried to make contact with her old band again yet, and she has improved greatly as a musician since then. Maybe someday her personal progress will be enough for her. But today? Today she wants to rub any success in her old mates' faces.

[ Side Facts ]

- Outside of her band, some of Tess' first friends when she vame to the Burrowgatory were Sajjita and Raz, among a circle of other newbies. They were a party crew that heavily explored their vices and preferences together. Gradually they grew apart though as they each found themselves. Tess knows some of Sajjita's secrets and of Raz's so-called 'fall from grace' as a contributing member of society. She doesn't talk to Sajjita much these days out of guilt... But Raz? They do talk sometimes, yep. Tess is sympathetic to how he got where he is, and low-key approves of some of his newfound willpower. She just doesn't trust that she won't become collateral if she joins his destructive rebellion.

- Despite her reputation and usual aesthetic preferences, Tess unashamedly likes some things like stupidly cute stationary, stickers, pencil toppers, decorative pens, palm-sized squishy toys from gatchas, and key chains. She actually has fun sending letters.

- She also likes watching/reading romantic comedies as much as she likes watching horror and anything with racecar driving.

- She grew up with some racecar demons who lived in a junkyard. They taught her to repair vehicles, so she's fairly good at that. It saves her a lot of money when she does her own van maintenance. She also helps fix Var's scooter sometimes at a discounted rate, since they're buds. They like talking about cars.

- Goes clubbing, mostly for the music! Her face isn't as widely known, but she does get recognized once in a while.