#{she- like emily- should not be spying on people as much as she does}

[flowercrxwned]

Eve is horrified at the things going on in Heaven right now. She backs away from her fountain slowly and tried not to think about what her former husband, his angel, and one of her distant children are doing.

[accirax]

Disventure Camp All Stars Power Ranking (Round 18)

Get in, losers, we're going to the Motel.

In case you haven't seen my previous power rankings, the Power Ranking Format is essentially a way of ranking how well each player is doing in the game. However, given that there will be no elimination this episode, we're doing something a little bit different. Instead, @venus-is-thinking and I will be discussing who we think will be rooting for who in the finale episode! There will be spoilers for last week's episode (obviously) and its power ranking, so make sure to read that first if you don't want to be spoiled on how I ranked our last boot. If you want more clarification on the rules, that first post will help you out as well. Furthermore, I'm going to be spoiling the preview for next episode, so if you want to go in TOTALLY blind, save this for later. Let's go!

Recap - Connor's Elimination

Current Score: 76 acquired/113 total

(Points versus @venus-is-thinking: 27 acquired/38 total)

Who would've thought that Grett would be the last player actually voted out of the game? Okay, I did, back when I thought that Grett would be voted out at Final 4, but not when she was voted out at Final 5! I still can't believe that it wasn't Riya.

This is another elimination I already talked a lot about in my initial thoughts, but I'm happy with when and how they chose to eliminate Connor, just unhappy about the surrounding characterization of Jake in particular. Although Connor is overall a likeable guy (barring the potential anti-union stances), from a gameplay and in-universe wealth standpoint he absolutely did not need to be in the finale. I should've counted his broken leg as more of a death flag than it was, and put him at #3 (given that it was never going to be #4).

But hey, maybe I was conditioned to believe that it wouldn't matter much after Yul also injured his foot and I talked about it for weeks for it to ultimately not matter at all! Alec, watch the fuck out for the Yellow Boy Leg Curse.

Trailer Analysis

Given that there's no elimination in this episode, I'm really just going through the trailer to point out things that I think are fun as opposed to any real game logic :D

Awww, glad to see that neither of them are too upset about their eliminations. At this point, at least.

Winners on the right, please B)

They are literally so clingy throughout this entire trailer. Love them <3

It's very interesting that this does seem to be an in-universe filmed event. I wonder what Kristal wants from all the competitors.

Okay, actually relevantly to the ranking, could this possibly be Riya's bench? I wouldn't expect that Yul would root for Riya, given that they hate each other, but it's not like Yul liked the others. And, Riya at least didn't vote for him to go home in his boot episode. It could just be an interview about Riya, but then I don't know why Fiore would be there and Grett wouldn't.

If he's out here being fatphobic again...

Ooh, it'll be fun if they take some time to explore Grett's relationship with Ellie as well as with Gabby in a post-S1 landscape! This one goes out to the GabGreLlie(?) shippers.

OLD PEOPLE DOMINATION!!!

Oh my god, I forgot they were on the same tribe at the beginning.

Hang on, is there a challenge going on this episode? If so, what for?

Lake and Ashley being friends feels so natural. I know that Ashley has already talked about having little sisters in the past, and Lake absolutely feels like she could use a supportive older sister figure. It's like Rosa...! Again.

Another classic Alec/Tom duel. I'm assuming this has something to do with the challenge-looking thing that's going on?

This too, maybe? I'd say that Hunter was somehow helping Emily and Trevor with their plan to ruin the show, but Hunter should have no incentive to end Disventure Camp, especially when his girlfriend is in the finale.

"Daaaaaaamn, that's good shiiiiiit." "AAH! Kristal! Were you spying on us?"

Tom's feet, for free? (/j) On a more serious note, they're probably saying something heartfelt about Jake here.

"Power Ranking"

Following Venus' suggestion, I'm going to rank my people in terms of how confident I am in which bench they'll be on! It'll have no effect on my score-- we're scoring this round separate from the main competition, and even so it'll be a simple 1 or 0 points for if you get it right-- but it'll probably make the flow of the rankings better.

#1: Miriam - Jake's Bench

I see literally no reason why Miriam would be on the bench of anyone other than Jake. They're super close, with Miriam essentially having adopted Jake as her grandson. The only possible argument to the contrary would be if Miriam rooted for Riya in support of the Yellow Team, but Riya literally voted her out, sooo...

#2: Tess - Ally's Bench

(I know that Ally was on the Magenta Team and not the Cyan team, but Ally has an overall blue palette, so she gets blue.)

Similarly, I see no reason why Tess wouldn't root for Ally. The whole reason why she came to play again was to spend time with Ally and Hunter, and even if she didn't get to do that as much as she would've liked, she can at least show Ally her support by rooting for her in the finals.

The only path I see to Tess not rooting for Ally would be if Hunter decided that he was too mad at Ally to root for her, and Tess decided to join him in solidarity. However...

#3: Hunter - Ally's Bench

Let's be realistic. You don't say "we'll always support you 100%" or whatever Hunter and Tess said to Ally in the comeback episode and then choose to be petty and root for... Jake, I guess? When she actually makes the finals. Rooting for Jake specifically would just be fucking cruel. Double damage fr.

Also, Venus and I have been talking about potential scenarios for who the finalists might be able to choose to help them in the finale. There are pretty much four scenarios we've discussed:

Each finalist chooses one former competitor to help them, like what happened in Seasons 1 and 2.

Each finalist chooses two former competitors to help them, evocative of how this season has more competitors.

Each finalist chooses two former competitors to help them, but there has to be one from Season 1 and one from Season 2, to celebrate both seasons equally.

Everyone will be able to lend a helping hand to their finalist of choice.

In any of those scenarios, I think that Hunter will be helping Ally in the finale. He is her literal boyfriend, the person who should be closest to her, and he's really good at challenges. Tess will also likely help Ally in case of #2. That would be a nice way to pay off her finally getting to spend time with the two of them together!

#4: Tom - Jake's Bench

The only reasons why Tom isn't higher up on this list are just because 1) the other three are so obvious, and 2) Tom and Jake are still sort of in a weird zone. However, it's not like Tom has any reason to root for Ally or Riya pretty much at all. If he chose to sit on either of their benches, he could pretty much kiss any chance of a future relationship with Jake goodbye. Or, perhaps "not kiss" is more fitting to the circumstances.

I also find it pretty likely that Tom will help Jake in the finale. His greatest competitor for Jake's hand is Ashley, who's also a strong physical competitor from Season 1. However, Tom is basically a lock for Jake's bench, while Ashley still may wind up supporting Ally. Plus, I feel like the writers (and some of the fans) would love to have Tom support Jake, especially if it winds up leading Jake to a win. Regardless, I have high confidence that Tom will be rooting for Jake.

#5: Aiden - Jake's Bench

Although Aiden and Jake obviously didn't start this season on the best terms, by the end, they became really good friends. Plus, it's not like Aiden is rooting for Riya, and I can't really see why he'd root for Ally either. Especially when Ally was the one who flipped to take him out of the game.

Aiden has the most likelihood of being on Jake's finale team if Jake is forced to pick one Season 1 character and one Season 2 character, although it's possible he could even make the team in a vacuum if Ashley is on Ally's team. A Jake/Tom/Aiden teamup is possibly even more appealing than just a Jake/Tom teamup. This is the last one that I think has almost 100% chance of success.

#6: Lake - Jake's Bench

While Lake and Jake didn't interact pretty much at all in the main season, there have certainly been seeds sown to lay the groundwork for Lake supporting Jake in the end. Most importantly, she was the one advocating to Aiden that Jake deserved a second chance, citing that she saw a lot of herself in Jake. We also had Lake and Jake form a quick connection in the premiere with Jake saying that he enjoyed Lake's writing. That feels like it could have been put in there intentionally to preemptively explain why they would gravitate towards one another.

Also, with no Cyan players remaining, I wouldn't be surprised if Lake is essentially just here to support whoever Aiden chooses to support, which I expect to be Jake. As the cherry on top, she's shown hanging out with Ashley a lot in the trailer, who is very pro-Jake even if she doesn't ultimately wind up on his bench. I find this to be pretty likely.

#7: Grett - Ally's Bench

Although Gabby and Riya worked together for much of the game, I expect that Grett will still be on her "no forgiveness for Riya for voting with Yul" grind, and therefore not be on Riya's bench. And, similarly, while she did wind up working with Jake near the end of the game, she was working with Ally for longer and more closely. Both Jake and Ally wound up uniting to take Grett out, so I think that lands Grett pretty solidly in Ally's camp.

I could also see that they had Grett clarify that she held no ill will towards Ally in her elimination just to make it clear that Grett didn't feel at all betrayed by her. As one of the strongest players of the season, Grett would also make a great assistant to Ally's team, should she choose to accept it. Just watch out that you don't get out-sabotaged again this time, Grett...

#8: Gabby - Ally's Bench

Gabby is mostly here to hang out with Grett. If Grett is taking a no-Riya stance, Gabby would support her all the way. It's possible that she could wind up on Jake's bench through Tom/to support a S1 player, but... that feels like it's valuing Gabby's relationship with Tom over her relationship with Grett, which was not the moral of this season. I just have to be right that Grett would choose to support Ally!

Please let me be right that Grett would choose to support Ally.

#9: Connor - Riya's Bench

Okay, let me preface this by saying that I do NOT think that Connor has once again relapsed into his Riya simp phase to genuinely support her. I think that the twinge of pain he gets any time he moves his ankle would be enough to remind him that that's a terrible idea. I simply think that Connor will join Riya's bench for strategic purposes. There are a lot of strong reasons why sitting on Riya's bench is the optimal choice for Connor.

Number 1: choosing between whether to sit on Ally or Jake's bench could have disastrous results at this point. If he chooses to directly support one of Ally or Jake over the other, it might make it more difficult for them to work together. The safest move is to remove himself from that fight entirely, and choose Riya to NOT choose Jake or Ally.

Number 2: Seeing Connor on Riya's bench could give Riya some sort of psychic damage, whether it's Season 2 loser flashbacks or through confusion as to why Connor is "still there stanning her." You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Number 3: This gives Connor the opportunity to be an anti-helper for Riya. If Riya's bench is mostly unoccupied, then she may be forced to select Connor as her assistant. Even beyond any deliberate sabotage he tries to throw her way, forcing her to wait while he hobbles behind on his broken leg could eat up a lot of time. It would all be deliciously karmic, especially as a bookend to Connor's arc by having him defeat Riya by deliberately screwing up her endgame, again.

#10: Ellie - Ally's Bench

Gabby is here for Grett, and Ellie is here for Gabby. I know that Ellie and Ally have had, like, negative amounts of screentime together, unless you count every time I've mixed up which name various other characters were saying. But otherwise, like, who else?

No way in hell Ellie is rooting for Jake; she's the OG Jake hater and nothing this season has changed that. I did initially think that Ellie could support Riya as a fellow villainous winner, but would she really value a member of the alliance that almost drove her and her girlfriend apart that she hardly talked to over hanging out with said girlfriend and supporting a young artist who needs the money to support her career? I think not.

Please let me be right that Grett would decide to support Ally so that I'm also right that Gabby would decide to support Ally.

#11: Alec - Riya's Bench

Given how, uh, terribly these two's relationship ended, it may come as somewhat of a surprise that I think that Alec would still "root for" Riya in the end. However, Alec and Riya just had such a connection this season that I feel like it would be wrong if he didn't wind up tied to her in the end somehow. Then again, he didn't wind up rooting for Fiore in the Season 1 finale, so maybe he will just pick, like, Jake or whatever at random.

I'm more confident that Alec would be on Riya's bench in the case that Riya needs two assistants, S1+S2 specific or not. I could totally see Alec and Connor conspiring together to be the only two assistants available to Riya, so that no matter who she chooses she's going to get someone who's actively working against her. The plan still works if she only needs one assistant, obviously, but I think it packs more of a narrative punch if Alec and Connor could do it together.

#12: Ashley - Jake's Bench

So, obviously Ashley is going to pick either Jake or Ally, and she's only this low down because it's a little tricky to figure out which one of them it is. You might be surprised to see that I ultimately decided to have her pick Jake based on the way I wrote this post, but the truth is that I wrote the post that way because initially, I also thought that I was going to have Ashley pick Ally.

That was because, under the possibility of S1+S2 helpers, I didn't really see who Ally could possibly pick up from S1 other than Ashley. However, that specific scenario is dubious enough as is, and once I realized that Grett could fill that S1 slot for Ally, Ashley felt a lot less locked down. I could also see that (in the S1+S2 situation), if Jake picks Tom really quickly, Ashley could volunteer to join Ally's team from Jake's bench, swapping sides like Rosa did to support James. (Because you can never pass on an opportunity to make Ashley Rosa.)

I just feel like, after making such a statement to Jake about being proud of him and wanting him to succeed, and after them working together in the comeback challenge, it would be really weird for her to not wind up on Jake's bench in the end. Plus, Ashley was Jake's friend first. Those are just the facts.

#13: James - Jake's Bench

Much like Ashley, James winds up this low because I can't tell whether he would root for Ally or Jake. It's not going to be Riya. Obviously.

The argument for Ally is that I feel like the writers have been... lowkey pushing that Ally and James are closer than I at least thought they were? When the Magenta team initially formed, he seemed really excited to be on the same team as Ally and Hunter, saying that the team was stacked. Also, in this greeting from about two months ago, James said that he was rooting for Aiden or Ally to win. Of course, that was from a while ago in the competition, so James' opinions might have changed. But, if he sticks to his word, he would be rooting for Ally.

However... is he really going to pass up the opportunity to sit with Aiden AND Lake just to support Ally? Notably, I do think that greeting may have been from before Aiden and Jake became friends, and I can believe James rooting for Jake much more if he's doing it through the lens of supporting Aiden's friend. I also don't know how James feels about Ally's descent into villainy. As someone who became more heroic over the course of his season, I could see James being disappointed (on the level of being a friend, not just in her "character development") in what Ally has been doing, and not want to support that behavior.

Also, we see James hanging out with Ashley, Lake, and Miriam in that one scene, who are all people who I, at least, have determined will be supporting Jake in the finale. To the extent that the former campers have already determined who they're rooting for and have sorted themselves into factions because of it, that may be an indication that James will be repping Jake.

#14: Yul - Riya's Bench

"Seriously? You're making me pair with curry girl?! Gross!" That's my Yul impression. I don't like it either, Yul, but you don't like anyone and nobody likes you. Thus, my only real lead is that Yul would want to support a villain winner, bolstered by that scene of him sitting for an interview with Connor, Alec, and Fiore.

Yul also did wind up rooting for Riya in the Final 2 of Season 2 eventually, although he initially supported... Aiden? In the Final 3? Wait, I totally forgot that Yul ever supported Aiden. You really threw your support towards our GT king, Yul? Anyways. He does have a past history of rooting for Riya, although their relationship probably got worse throughout the course of All Stars. I really don't know with Yul.

#15: Fiore - Riya's Bench

As I described to Venus, Fiore is really tricky because she has, like, a 2/5 good reason to support any one of these people in the finale.

Jake is from her season and the one she was trying to appeal to, but he's also an idiot and didn't side with her in the end. Ally was trying to protect Fiore from Hunter, at least, but they never became particularly close, and Fiore left the game throwing her under the bus. Riya is a villainous #slayqueen that was once close with Alec, but she also left Alec much worse for wear and screwed Fiore over in that one challenge to win the reward. I don't think Fiore will be particularly happy with rooting for any of these finalists.

Thus, I think that Fiore will probably just be hanging out with Alec, who I've pegged as supporting Riya. I could also see her stanning Riya as a statement about wanting villains to win, much like Yul could, and to further complain about how more people should have helped her in the Season 1 finale.

It might seem like putting Yul and Fiore on Riya's bench would ruin Connor and Alec's plans, but I don't really think it does. First of all, for Fiore at least, if she's united with Alec, Fiore might be another rotten pick for Riya. And, even if she would genuinely help Riya to win, Alec and Connor being two terrible choices for Riya's team only further forces her to work with Fiore (a child) and Yul (Yul). Those are also terrible teammates! Riya can be taken down by her own lack of a social game in either situation.

And that's everyone! Here's how I've laid out the teams, ordered in terms of how likely it is that I think they could be an assistant to whoever they're supporting (which sort of crosses over with how confident I am that they'll be there):

Jake: Tom - Ashley - Aiden - Miriam - Lake - James

Ally: Hunter - Tess - Grett - Gabby - Ellie

Riya: Connor - Alec - Yul - Fiore

I guess, in the end, the teams wound up pretty even, with one extra person for Jake and one person missing for Riya. I kinda thought that Ally would have fewer, but picking up the Grett/Gabby/Ellie trio does a lot.

This was a really fun and unique power ranking to write, so I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it! I feel like DCAS has been at its best when it has the most of its characters in the episode at once, so let's hope that this is another fire episode. And, no matter what, my overall score ain't gettin' any worse!

[zalrb]

PLL 2x16 Review - As Per Anon Request

Watching this recap. I totally forgot Hanna maybe killed Lucas, lmao.

"I just can't see Lucas being that violent." I love it because Lucas was acting weird, yeah, but all he did was lift a box. Knocking him off the boat was valid because she had no idea what he was going to do but I love that they're condemning him as working for A with no actual proof and not freaking out that Lucas could have potentially drowned.

"Hanna, that's lake water!" "How did that get in there?" "Her bag was outside, we were all in here." "WELL LUCAS WASN'T. MAYBE HE WANTED TO FINISH WHAT HE STARTED." LMAO, Spencer, you don't KNOW it was Lucas. You've been wrong about this before. A LOT. She is hilarious.

Like, do you guys still think Christmas has something to do with any of this?

Also, Hanna knocked a boy off a boat, fell into the lake herself, had to swim to safety and her mom isn't there? Their parents don't care? We don't see Lucas' anxious parents? How is Caleb feeling, he LIVES with Lucas. Even if they lied about how he got into the lake, their parents would be called, rofl.

Also, I totally forgot what happened to their therapist. Is she just gone now? That storyline had no resolution.

"There are FOUR bedrooms in there with actual beds in them!" but Caleb and Hanna chose the couch, lmao.

"They both know how great of a guy" he's a predator, Aria.

Aria involving Holden in her lie and not even telling him and then being surprised when he actually asks her out.

"What? Lucas? Who cares." Mona, you're terrible.

"You didn't hear this from me, but the administration doesn't think tiaras and orange orange jumpsuits are a good fit." "She's NOT giving up the crown." Mona standing on business.

LMAO A terrorizing Hanna with a running sink and a little row boat floating in it is hilarious but pretty fucked up. She's the one who is consistently tortured.

I also love how no other student had been in the washroom all that time.

But why is she just standing there looking at it? Leave the washroom? Turn off the sink? DO something?

"WE HAVE ALWAYS TOLD EACH OTHER THE TRUTH." You were literally spying on her, Caleb.

"Am I doing the right thing?" "Yes!" No, you're using someone to run into your predator ex.

LOOK AT ALL THE BLIND PEOPLE. Omg. One of these days, Jenna's blindness will not be a polite device, lol.

"You're looking for Jenna? I know here." There's only one blind girl named Jenna.

"I think Maya could be bugging out for a hundred of different reasons that have nothing to do with A" you need to have that energy a lot more with the people you accuse, though.

Although it probably does have something to do with A.

"It sucks being the girlfriend who knows too much" but Hanna, you don't know anything. You just keep getting tormented by a random person or group of people.

Emily asking Aria for her fake ID to give to Aaya and Aria just looking at her like

"I look nothing like Maya."

"5'2 and brunette. So is she. It's fine." Emily, don't piss me off. That's why your facial expression is the way it always is.

"Meanwhile, I'm home alone and Lucas is out there waiting for me." YOU DON'T KNOW THAT.

Do NOT slow mo Aria and Ezra. But I gotta love that his facial expression is this during the angsty slow-mo

Rosewood Joe.

I'm sorry but Mona's breakdown about how she doesn't wear sweater sets but she bought sweater sets because Christmas broke up with her is gold because it's giving

They have a lot in common. They both live in fucking L.A. and they both love fucking plants, like, I love fucking plants but I can’t name all the fucking plants. Like FUCK. I need to go study fucking plants?? Because I will go study some stupid ass fucking plants. But I like plants!

Some of you should get that reference, you made me watch that show.

Not Spencer being a better friend to Mona than Hanna in thirty seconds even though she hates her.

LOL. This look

Aria, you were not subtle.

It's just funny because he basically looks like what Ezra would look like in high school, which is probably the point.

When I lived in a house, I don't think I just chilled on the stairs. It's uncomfortable.

Oh my goddddddddd there's someone in Hanna's houseeeeeeeeee. Obviously it's Lucas.

"You were just going to run away?" No, Hanna, you threw him off the boat and then left him. Apologize.

But seriously, Lucas, you fucked up with Caleb.

I just feel like I would be pissed off if my friend hit me with a paddle into a lake and then left me. I don't know.

"So, someone else showed up at the greenhouse when we set that trap for A? It wasn't Lucas?" NO SPENCER. So CALM THE FUCK DOWN next time.

A STRIKES AGAIN. WITH CHINESE FOOD.

This show is so unserious.

[benoitblanc]

001 murdoch mysteries and 003 peggy carter 💖💖💖

murdoch:

favorite character: EMILY GRACE LOML

least favorite character: the garlands tie. dear god i hate the garlands

5 favorite ships (canon or non-canon): murdoch and julia, brackenreid and margaret, emily and lillian, george and edna, & honestly probably henry and ruth because they crack me up. i have no idea what watts' love life is up to right now i'm super behind

character I find most attractive: emily emily emily

character I would marry: george crabtree light of my LIFE

character I would be best friends with: also emily, but i really just want to be friends with all of them. i think my runners-up are jackson and julia

a random thought: "do pigs have a soul then, sir?" is one of the funniest lines to have ever been uttered on television. i know emily is my favorite character but george is by far the best character and he has been carrying this show on his back for the last fifteen years

an unpopular opinion: i don't know how unpopular this is but murdoch seasons 1 to like 11 were absolute peak and i miss them. i feel as though the later seasons have been a little too soap-opera-y for my taste. 6-8 is by far my favorite period of murdoch because they balanced the personal drama with the mysteries/history/cool scientific gadgets really, really well

my canon OTP: jilliam still makes me feral to this day

my non-canon OTP: okay i hate that this is my answer but cora posted a gifset of watts and pendrick interacting from the most recent series and i've gotta say they would make a great and completely unhinged couple

most badass character: julia!

most epic villain: obviously gillies. moriarty who?

pairing I am not a fan of: i'm not that against them but i don't think that george and effie mesh very well as a couple. bring edna back you cowards

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): i don't necessarily think they screwed violet up because she's so interesting and a type of character we really don't see very often on tv, but i wish her writing was a bit more consistent. then again i am two full seasons behind so maybe they've improved with her writing

favorite friendship: GEORGE AND MURDOCH

character I most identify with: definitely emily

character I wish I could be: also emily

peggy:

how I feel about this character: I LOVE HER SO GODDAMN MUCH. seriously, though, i still cannot get over how real she feels, especially for the protagonist of a spy-fi show set in the '40s. she is such a mess of contradictions. she loves with such abandon and it terrifies her. she does her makeup while her world falls apart and gets into fistfights while falling in love. she is so human

any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: that's actually a hard one. i have never in my life made the ship peggy carter slash daniel sousa my entire personality. that has never happened to me. must suck to be that poor shmuck, though. the damn thing's been retconned THREE TIMES

my favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: JARVIS. JARVIS JARVIS JARVIS. holy SHIT i love their friendship. they're my second favorite dynamic, romantic or non-romantic, from anything ever, only beaten by ten and donna from doctor who

my unpopular opinion about this character: she is without fail MUCH more interesting as a character whenever steve isn't in the picture. the difference between the first and last episodes of what if is actually mind-blowing

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: season three and happily ever after with daniel i think she should have gotten to say fuck

send a fandom, ship, or character!!!

[smittenroses]

Hi! This may sounds weird, but can I get some Martha and Vera hcs (separate) with a s/o who's always sleepy and falls asleep even in the most unexpected situations? While decoding a cipher or right before a match starts, for example. If not then just feel free to ignore this;;

Vera and Martha with a s/o who has narcolepsy 💤

Vera Nair || Perfumer

Vera lives with the risk of forgetting everything within a few hours if she overuses her perfume and has even forgotten who she is completely on some days. However nothing prepared her for when you first informed her of having narcolepsy

first she was really confused, since she didn't understand what she should do in those sorts of situations

but eventually she went to Emily for help on the topic, and in an attempt to try and remember as much as she could... she restrained herself from using euphoria for a few days as she read the material.

sure, she felt like complete and utter shit for those few days, but she was proud of herself given that even after she started using euphoria again, she was able to still retain all the information needed, and this began some... interesting behaviours.

Whenever she noticed that you were asleep at the beginning of a match, she'd do her best to find you first, and given that she had grown used to surviving, she was significantly stronger than she was when she first joined the game, and thus a few times you have woken up with her carrying you on her back, or even decoding with one hand while you're on her back.

"It's a good workout!" She'd say with a smile whenever you'd apologise, though she would always shrug it off and comment about that if you can't help it, that the team should do their best to work around it, not against it.

Vera does her best to be a team player, but sometimes she does forget, especially in a kite so there will always be a system where if Vera indicates she was found first or is decoding, someone else will go and find you.

you sometimes tend to be a bit guilty whenever you fall asleep during games, so in return, you help Vera with making new perfumes (while wearing a mask), but she appreciates any time she gets to spend with you.

Martha Behamfil || Coordinator

Martha grew up to be the perfect spy, and at this point she had forgotten her own name, however when you first showed signs of narcolepsy, she immediately grilled you on everything she wanted to know, including things such as when you were most likely to fall asleep, what tended to happen when you felt it coming on [if you did], etc.

She combined the information with her own research, usually being spotted reading a book on neurological conditions while doing some sort of exercise. Martha is a health buff and is defiantly more buff looking than she is in game

Given that she hates the idea of leaving people behind, like Vera, she will carry you whenever she notices that you're asleep in a game, however, she won't carry you all the time. Knowing that she should be ready for any type of situation, she learnt how to hide you amongst things such as rubble, grass, etc, so then if she needs to kite the hunter for a while, she knows that you won't be in direct danger.

A woman of many talents, she prepares many things for many situations. She carries bandages, adrenaline, and even extra shoes should the ones she wears into match breaks, however she begins to carry things such as [safe] stimulants in the case you need to be woken up immediately.

of course she had asked about it first, and the two of you practiced the procedure of waking you up if need be as the games can go south super quickly, and sometimes it might just come up to be that you'd need to escape on your own. You couldn't put yourself in danger if that was the situation.

Outside the games, she drills into you a set schedule of naps and bedtimes, sure, she can be strict with them, but she wants to try and put you into a pattern where your body won't fall asleep in matches and sure, while it might not completely work, it was something that could work in your favour.

Also, she makes you your own custom pillow and blanket in order to make you more comfortable. This woman can crochet faster than your grandma with such precision that you'd think that she was some type of cyborg. She chalked it up to having a lot of time to practice while at the manor, might as well use eternity to learn the skills that she always wanted to.

eventually she began to take naps with you, something the other rescuers joked about, but in the end they understood that she was just trying to help you in her... solider way.

[chat-noir-always-here]

Debunking “Adrien is perfect”

  To voice a rather non-Marinette-like opinion of Adrien: He’s not perfect. He’s never been perfect. He has, in fact, been riddled with flaws from the very beginning. Part of the reason Chat Noir gets hate is because he serves to exaggerate Adrien’s flaws and make them more obvious, destroying the perfectionism façade. And the sooner Marinette tosses the “I love the perfect Adrien” filter in the trash where it belongs, and starts actively recognizing and acknowledging his faults, the better off the endgame relationship will be.

 Long post is long and I don’t like cuts, cuz i’ve lost a few posts in the past using them. Please filter the tag “long post” I use it for walls of texts like these. 

First of all, flaws are just one of the many things that happen when someone either learns something the wrong way, spends too much time in the wrong environment, lack any decent role models... really there are a plethora of causes. What i mean is character shortcomings aren’t necessarily reasons to hate the character themselves. They’re more or less internal obstacles put there to be overcome in order to portray character growth. Of course spending an exaggerated amount of time with these characters without seeing them overcome particular shortcomings is frustrating it does not necessarily mean they will never be redeemed or developed and are/were deserving of hate.

 Except for Gabriel. That creature belongs behind bars.

 Most of Adrien’s flaws come from his toxic home situation:

The Miraculous Wiki puts Adrien at fifteen. Meaning Adrien has only been actively leaving the house (for public school and the occasional social get-together) for about a year. His fourteenth birthday was one of the earliest episodes and im assuming his fifteenth birthday happened off screen between the s3 finale and the new york special.

Regardless the majority of his life was spent in isolation and his only company was his immediate family, Nathalie, Felix and Chloe. None of whom are particularly good role models except for Emilie. Maybe.

He’s rather overworked for a 14 y.o. boy. On top of school, he has fencing, piano and Chinese lessons. This leaves him with very little time for himself. 

He lost his mother. In Feast, Adrien expresses Emilie was a source of joy in his life--”Only Mom can make me laugh like that.” Felix marked the one year anniversary of her disappearance.  Worse still, we’re led to assume all Adrien knows is that Emilie disappeared. Did she abandon him? Was she kidnapped and killed? He doesn’t know. He has no closure regarding her absence. 

On top of losing his mother, his only remaining parent is an emotionally manipulative and abusive prick. Gabriel has denied Adrien a birthday party, threatened to take Adrien out of school just because he can, never lets him have friends over for any reason, hardly ever makes time for Adrien and only once in a blue moon will actually sit and eat a meal with the poor kid.

And on top of all of this he’s not out of the woods yet. He’s still living with his abusive father. He’s still not allowed to see his friends outside of school much. He’s still got a packed schedule. He still doesn’t have closure regarding his mother’s “disappearance.”

Looking at it like this paints Adrien in a rather sympathetic light.

 Marinette doesn’t know Gabriel is Hawk Moth either, but she does understand Adrien is lonely, isolated and in need of a source of love and comfort. She also understands to some degree that his heart is delicate, so she constantly handles him with kid gloves and looks on him with a perfection filter. 

We see how Mari reacts to upsetting Adrien in Malediktator when she softly whispers an apology after Adrien expresses his sorrow over everyone celebrating Chloe’s departure. She’s seems pained and distraught over causing him to be upset. Thus the reason Marinette calls Adrien perfect isn’t that she never sees any of his flaws--she just cannot acknowledge or process them under these conditions. Shes too busy trying not to hurt him. She also has shown some signs of having extreme anxiety, which messes with ones head and makes it difficult--nearly impossible--to think straight. She wants to be the source of love and comfort he desires (and already is in a way) so his faults go unprocessed.

But what are Adrien’s flaws?

1. He has trouble standing up for himself. 

He’ll take a stand for others.

 He stood up to Chloe on Mylene’s behalf in Horrificator and on Marinette/ Cheng Sifu’s behalf in Kung Food. He stood up to Lila in Oni-chan and Ladybug. He stood up to Gabriel in Simon Says--but as Chat Noir, not Adrien. 

There have only been two-ish instances of Adrien, not Chat Noir, standing up for himself. I say -ish only because he was kinda standing up for Lila in the first and Chloe in the second. 

First in Volpina he stood up to Ladybug for how she handled the situation with Lila. He personally believed she handled the situation poorly (which she did--there were/are serious consequences for that. still) and although he was kinda wishy-washy in conveying that it was only because he was scared of sounding too much like Chat Noir. Her partner. Her chief-of-staff. Who can and will call her out on such behavior. 

Second in Malediktator, when he more or less told Marinette she was wrong to be happy about Chloe leaving. Granted this was partly him standing up for Chloe, but aside from her—he, Adrien, was deeply upset chloe was leaving on such bad terms and made sure Marinette understood that. 

Abused children tend to be somewhat submissive/agreeable/etc. They have trouble speaking out when they’re uncomfortable or don’t want something or think a particular action is wrong. Usually because they are anticipating some kind of punishment for speaking out or afraid of offending the other person to the point that said person wants nothing to do with them anymore, or both.

 For Adrien to fix this particular flaw, he needs to prioritize himself and his own wants more. However he also needs someone who doesn’t chastise him for doing things he likes, tending to his own needs and setting boundaries. Kagami is not that person--she’s actually quite demanding of him and cold. Her understanding of relationships isnt great either, which is why these two really aren’t that great for each other. 

2. He puts his faith in the wrong people

  Adrien’s fucking household is about as toxic as it can get (please don’t take this as a challenge, S4). On top of his immediate family consisting of his abusive, toxic, terrorist father, there’s his cousin Felix. Felix who squished cheese under Adrien’s pillow, stole his phone, pretended to be him and sent an outrageous and awful video to his friends. 

 There’s also his mother Emilie whom, despite his love and adoration of her, lied to him for who knows how long and messed around with a broken miraculous to the point it forced her into an indefinite coma and left Adrien at his father’s mercy. There are theories that she did this for her family but nothing concrete or canon has been proven--all we know is that Emilie had been having frequent dizzy spells while she was still awake and using the peacock miraculous, and that she anticipated her fate and Gabriel apparently promised to save her.

There’s Lila, as well. “She’s not dangerous. She just craves attention.” Wrong, Adrien, she’s very dangerous. She is conspiring with your father to spy on you, attempted to get Marinette expelled from school, tricked you into leaving Ladybug alone with a supervillain whom she personally requested to kill Ladybug, pinned Marinette against a bathroom wall and almost got her akumatized, actually got Marinette akumatized and nearly cost you both the Ladybug Miraculous and TIkki. She isn’t just dangerous she is an actual threat, whether or not she is the future Hawk Moth who sent Timetagger after you when you were children with time-sensitive powers. Adrien has a slightly better understanding of that after the events of Ladybug and Oni-chan, so hopefully he will be on his guard at least in regards to Lila.

 The reason for Adrien’s overly trusting nature may lie in the fact that literally everyone closest to him, everyone for the first thirteen years or so, was toxic and/or a liar. You know what happens when you can’t trust anyone around you? You live with it. You accept all these bad people as they are, without making any effort to establish healthy boundaries. Adrien certainly lived with it--how’s an abused, isolated boxed-and-sheltered son supposed to know what healthy boundaries are when he’s lacking any healthy connections? I bet he can just barely endure all the anguish but he can’t stand to be alone so he just tolerates it. Not to mention the most guilty is his father. Where else is he supposed to go?

Like a frog sitting in a pot of water, you don’t realize you’re in trouble until the water is too hot. So you just accept it--all the bad feelings--you accept it, live with it and it still hurts but you rarely complain. Because anything is better than being alone. 

I think Adrien understands, deep down, that the love he is clinging to, the love provided by his relatives, isn’t really there. But if he looks at it too long and lets this knowledge sink in he’ll lose it. He really did lose it in Chat Blanc-- just that sky-crashing-down-on-him realization that he didn’t have his fathers love, hadn’t had it for a long time, just completely ruined our boy. 

 Of course the knowledge is there. It’s literally right there in front of his face and it’s only a matter of time before he is forced to turn and look and face the music. At which point I hope Marinette knows who he is and has a plan to save him otherwise Chat Blanc is just going to happen again. 

3. Yes, he takes the flirting too far sometimes

No--that doesn’t make him toxic.

Yes, Adrien overreacted to Ladybug never showing up in Glaciator. He shouldn’t have been upset with her in Frozen for not accepting the rose. He should have told her the damn truth about being forced to leave the city at the same time she was in the New York special. 

 However, he also apologized for overreacting in both Glaciator and Frozen. And again, abused kids live in anticipation of punishment for their mistakes. Adrien’s father has taught him that the slightest mistake can result in loss of freedom or trust, even if its circumstances beyond his control. And he now understands that Ladybug isn’t going to blindly punish him for being honest with her, which he now knows to do. 

 He makes mistakes, apologizes for them, and learns from them. That’s not fucking toxic--it’s natural, human and allowed. 

 He’s flirty and suggestive, yes, but the minute she signals she doesn’t want it or isn’t feeling it he stops. He has had immense trouble with not flirting with her, despite her telling him she isn’t interested multiple times. That much is true. But he truly and deeply cares for her and he would never force himself on her and it isn’t because he knows she’ll kick his ass if he does. It’s because unlike the vast majority of his family, he’s actually a decent human being. 

 He has even begun to “flirt platonically,” toasting their partnership and friendship rather than offering a romantic relationship she can never say yes to. If that isn’t the most soft and respectful fluff I don’t know what is.

 4. He is leading Kagami on

Did he cheat? I’m actually not sure. Thomas is being vague in his tweets and won’t give us a decent answer (because he likes “watching fandom burn”--i mean MOOD but clarify please). 

 Here’s what we know and have observed: 1. Chat Noir told Ladybug “I have a girlfriend” 2. He immediately followed that up with “It’s not good at all. I just said that to make you jealous”  3. He allowed Kagami to kiss him in the new york special 4. but he has trouble telling girls not to touch him--been a problem since episode one. Yes its generally cheek kisses chloe gives him but sometimes its not and he looked downright uncomfortable in a lot of cases of physical contact with her and with Lila 5. he seemed rather comfortable with kagami kissing him--except he did say no to her kissing him in the finale 6. but he’s also trying to move on from Ladybug and be with Kagami  7. If he were in a relationship with Kagami, he’d likely keep it a secret because both of their parents are controlling of them and may not allow it 8. His understanding of relationships and girls is kinda dreadful due to not having his mom around for advice and his father’s general lack of a concept of what healthy romantic relationships and boundaries are, and, as Nino put it, not being able to understand signals very well

Adrien’s current relationship status is up in the air. I’m about eighty percent certain he’s dating Kagami--but there’s still that twenty percent chance he’s not.

 Putting aside the question of whether or not he and Kagami are official, Adrien’s been attempting to move past his feelings for Ladybug. Which--won’t sugarcoat it--he kinda sucks at. At the same time, Kagami is aware he is in love with another but lacks the understanding that his moving on will take time. 

 The main issues here is that Adrien knows who he wants but can’t have her. Kagami is a wonderful person herself and he wants to get to know her better, but they aren’t really a good match and they are both going to get hurt in the end (Love Victor anyone???). Until that happens we are going to have some questionable moments in the show, and we just need to remember that Adrien is a child with a poor understanding of relationships, and not an evil person. Kagami doesn’t necessarily have a great understanding of them either--”Your indecision hurts me Adrien,” “Adrien you and I are perfect for each other!”--and she has flaws of her own she needs to unlearn. 

 For the time being, Adrien is leading Kagami on (it needs to be said--even if they aren’t dating he’s flirted with her, given her roses etc.) I say leading her on because, no matter how much Adrien believes Marinette is just a friend and they weren’t flirting in New York, loyal boyfriends who wish to be monogamous don’t dance with other women.

 Or look this happy when that other woman touches them

Does this make Adrien a deceitful and hateful character? No. Does this make him an unworthy character? No. It makes him an abused child with little to no concept of healthy relationships. 

Also Adrien’s friends, including Marinette, have no reason to believe he is dating Kagami. They know he is interested in her and she in him, but as Nino said, Adrien has a hard time picking up signals and understanding their meaning. Not to mention the boy is fifteen. Flirting skills, understanding boundaries, and other relationship concepts are a challenge even for ordinary fifteen year olds in healthy environments to grasp--case in point: Marinette.

Adrigami and Lukanette are simply not going to end well. The Love Square is the endgame and ultimately both Lukanette and Adrigami are going to fall apart to make that happen--I knew that going into the possible Adrigami and Lukanette  territory that the finale created.

 Kagami is a strong, intelligent person--she’s likely going to be the one to end it given what we’ve seen. I don’t like to think about what might happen then--she may be akumatized and Chat Noir would feel rather guilty and may not be able to fight her. But they will both come out of it with something they needed--Kagami will understand (as Marinette needs to) that Adrien isn’t her perfect soul mate incapable of making mistakes. Adrien will understand relationships better. 

 Its unfortunate that this has to happen in order for Adrien to learn due lessons, given that he actually does have someone who can talk to him about girls and relationships and loyalty: Nino.

 Given what Nino wasted no time in scolding Mari for spying on Adrien and Lila when she confessed doing so in Chameleon, as well as how he treats Alya, I undoubtedly believe Nino would be the one to come out and say “You can’t dance with Marinette when you’re with Kagami.” 

 Assuming he is with Kagami. 

In conclusion: Adrien is flawed but not deserving of hate. He is a traumatuzed child stuck in a toxic household who lacks proper mentors. Marinette, Alya and Nino are out of the loop about his potential relationship with Kagami. And Marinette and Kagami both need to acknowledge Adrien is imperfect. Nino and Adrien need to do guy talk like two seasons ago. 

Also Marinette probably has some intense anxiety issues. But more on that later.

[illusorygardens]

…dishonored x ff15. jessamine is sylva, corvo is titus, daud is ravus, emily is luna, billie is an armaugh, wyman is noctis, alexi is nyx, and the outsider is… idk an old astral or something.

low chaos for everyone because as much as i would LOVE to explore all of the consequences of high chaos (especially with the identity symbolism and the absolute moral depravity of the situation as a whole) i’m not feeling those vibes for this au?

man, imagine having “God Is Bad And We Can Prove It. Also If You Use Magic, You’ll Be Killed” people in a “The Gods Are Great And We Can’t Exactly Prove It But If You Use Magic, You’re Royalty” world.

anyway, titus is chilling in lucis and casually spying on the empire while carefully poisoning people against the empire and disappearing people when he meets sylva and they instantly recognize each other.

but when titus is rolling around as general glauca.

titus and sylva are just like “well this is happening i guess” and then there are rumors of general glauca and queen sylva getting together and they both just flat out lie about it.

and then sylva gets pregnant and they’re both fucking psyched about being parents again that they don’t even give a fuck that they’re doing it like this. Again.

and again! there’s rumors! especially because nobody outside of the king’s inner circle, sylva, and besithia know what glauca looks like! and because sure ravus has sylva’s coloring, he does not look like her outside of that.

regis, cor, clarus, and weskham: so titus is there something you have to tell us?

titus, sipping his coffee and grinning like a madman from a video of ravus taking his first steps: No.

and then weskham introduces his niece, who unfortunately fell into his custody after her parents were killed by daemons, whose name is valentina armaugh. she’s got a blind eye (that she was born with) and a prosthetic arm (from the accident). titus is not entirely impressed by the fact that billie is here, but then she starts bothering him every time he’s in altissia to talk to weskham.

and then ravus admits he’s daud, and titus basically says that ravus could use some more friends, maybe valentina should meet him. he doesn’t even say that he’s ravus’ father. he still Denies it, but he definitely acts like it.

anyways, whalers 2.0 but this time they’re nobility.

then luna is born and has to put up with daud as her older brother and billie being her honorary cousin. she’s also more than happy to relearn swordsmanship from titus and ravus.

she is also, approximately, 70% deadlier. sylva is longsuffering.

galahd falls and nyx is… sort of suspicious about whatever the fuck is going on in tenebrae because she’s seen this shit before. this has the lord protector and empress jessamine written all over it.

…but that drautos guy is oddly like the lord protector? he runs the glaives in the same way he ran the watch? so she shrugs her shoulders and heads on over to lucis because nobles are weird enough to do the corvo and jessamine thing again.

titus looks at nyx.

logically, favorites shouldn’t be played.

…but fuck man, it’s mayhew again. she was one of the few competent people in gristol… she’s probably one of the only competent people titus knows. he wants her as his second in command.

(she gets there. eventually. even if there’s some transphobia thrown her way.)

also. noctis. who is old enough to declare that gender is dumb and they don’t have one.

nyx points out that she’s pretty sure that’s a loophole in the prophecy.

noctis: prophecies are also dumb. i’m gonna elope with a pretty girl and live in the woods forever.

[saladbroth]

please explain why you think Emily wasn't a great mum (other than not supporting the band because obviously that sucks🤔

hi! let me start off by saying that i don’t think emily was a bad mum or a bad person, and that i don’t want to dismiss anyone who thinks differently from me, because opinions are valid and warranted, considering we don’t know that much about her. but. there are things that rub me the wrong way about emily, and how she’s seen in the fandom at times.

we don’t know much about luke and emily’s relationship outside of the fact that she did not support him with his music, and that he loves her very much. which is fair, because children do tend to still love their parents, despite what happened between them (i can personally attest to that). however, her not supporting his music is very much one of my issues with her. luke lives and breathes music, it’s basically his soul, his guitar is literally attached to his soul. emily doesn’t accept that and likely dismisses it. and, okay, do i understand her not wanting him to get in over his head? yes, obviously, he’s still very young after all. but the way she went about it is wrong.

dismissing and disliking harmless hobbies, talents and interests a child has is not a great thing to do, and we know that luke is extremely attached to making music. so when emily doesn’t accept that and doesn’t support him with it he’s obviously hurt. if you look at the lyrics of unsaid emily, they fought. a lot. and loud and very emotional. which shows that this was a regular thing, and that emily regularly critiqued and probably dismissed the thing her son absolutely loved doing.

and in the end, luke runs away. for over seven months. and he doesn’t come home, despite missing person posters, despite going to spy on his parents, despite living in a studio on what was likely not a filling or healthy diet because i doubt the band made much money. and luke is stubborn, but not stubborn or prideful enough to stay away that long without good reason. staying away for that long takes dedication, and something really bad to happen. 

my main issue is that i often see people talking about emily as if she always loved luke without fail, and that unsaid emily is sort of a redemption arc for her. she obviously loved him, but she also didn’t love him enough to not drive him to run away. i don’t think she was a bad mum, but she did not understand her son, and she did not attempt to, i think.  unsaid emily is not showing how she always loved him, at least not more than any normal mother would. it’s not there to show that this was all a big misunderstanding, or that luke was just a child that overreacted. i don’t want to see her redeemed, because with all of the fighting, she drew her 16/17 year old son to run away, and stay away. and obviously none of them knew he was going to die. but he did, and he did so thinking his mother never supported him or loved him enough to support him.

also. the kind of fighting they did, and the fact that he ran away for such a long time strongly suggests luke has some kind of trauma. and that takes a long, long time to process, which he has definitely not had. it’ll take months or years until he does so, so obviously he still loves his mother, and obviously he’s going to think he needs to repair it in a way. he might still think so later.

unsaid emily is about closure for luke, and not for emily. it shouldn’t be the thing that makes her accept that luke lived for music, she had 25 years to do that. she wasn’t a great mum just because she accepted it 25 years too late, which is something that absolutely grates my nerves, similarly to ‘redemption arcs’ for alex’s and reggie’s parents. they sucked. they shouldn’t get redeemed because they changed their minds after their sons deaths, because they should have accepted them long before, or taken steps to divorce. i’m not talking about mitch here, because we don’t get to see much of him, which i also don’t like, but it’s not something i’m getting into here.

again, anyone is entitled to their own opinion, but as someone who has somewhat similar experiences with their mum, and is only now starting to realize how traumatizing and impactful some of it was, 7 years after the fact, i don’t like emily. and i don’t want her to be redeemed, i want to see her own up to her mistakes and admit that what she did was wrong, and that no amount of acceptance after the death of her son can change that. 

[number-one-micoverse-fan]

tell me abt micoverse

it's this super awesome webcomic by a very dear friend of mine whomst i love and respect very much!

the main character is Milo Sumney Junior and he's trying to find out what happened to his biological father he's being raised by his bio dad's two friends, Dan Fuller and Jake Pierly next door to them lives Milo's best friend Cody Bridges and Cody's dad, Dominic Bridges (Cody helps Milo look for what happened to his bio dad)

sometimes they are joined on their adventures by Tegan Butter, who is nosy and tactless but means well and honestly people need to stop being so mean to her (people who say mean things about Tegan are not real micoverse fans this is a Fact)

anyway! on top of the mystery of what happened to Milo's biological dad, there also seems to be something haunting Milo and Cody! a spooky shadowy monster that's showed up a couple times now! :O

and my pal em, the super cool friend who makes Micoverse, does tons of cool art on the side too! there's tons of aus and non-canon stories like Spy AU, Curious Behavior, Mind Games, Little Ghost, and so much more! she also has a patreon where you can get Bonus Content and see pages a week before everyone else!! it's super fun and you should totally support her!!

there's a great community of people who love micoverse and we make fan art and fan fiction and have theories and little angst parties and it's really wholesome and fun!

so if you like found family, spooks, mysteries, a dash of angst, and plenty of sharks then micoverse is for you!!!!!!

also micoverse just makes me really happy

i'm so proud of emily for all the hard work she does and how she makes sure she has a page up every week

she works so, so, so hard you guys and it's really inspiring and she's so talented and creative and fun

i watched micoverse go from idea to comic and it's amazing to see how far she's come, i love the characters so much it aches and i'm so happy for em and that so many people love what she does

micoverse is familiar and wonderful and mysterious and it breaks my heart even while i love to death

please read micoverse

it's really good and em has created something so wonderful

[rhys-writes-sometimes]

Music Worth Making Part 6: Finally Free

Requested: yes actually lol

Warnings: Luke’s birthday is in this chapter, so sadness, but I think that’s it (other than bad writing of course)

Series Summery: When the reader’s life is ripped away from them, they’re distraught. But with her two best friends and three certain ghosts, maybe the afterlife isn’t so bad after all. 

Chapter Summery: You and the band play at your first gig.

Word Count: 3,233

A/N: Aaaa I’m so sorry this took so long! I was in a bit of a writing slump, and then school started. Also, I was trying really hard not to cry writing Luke’s birthday scene, so I have no idea how I’m gonna get through Unsaid Emily. Anyway yeah I hope you enjoy!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Masterlist

______________________________________________________

“How can we die if we’re already dead?” Luke asked, locking eyes with you.

After what happened in the gym last night, you decided you needed a little time alone, to process everything. Whatever it was had scared you, badly. 

You poofed into the Molina’s guest room, where Danny was staying. Wincing when you landed on your bad foot, you limped over to the window seat and sat, looking out at the street below. It was such a neighborhood. It was hard to believe that anything bad could happen here.

And yet, it had.

You gasped as the memory of the club came rushing back to you. Not the fun you had, but before that. Seeing the man who had killed you floating above the table. The Club had somehow made you forget that your host was a murderer. 

Sometime around 9 am, you decided to go check on the boys. They had been hit with the jolt too, after all.

“Y/N!” Reggie called out as you appeared in the studio.

“Where’d you go last night?” Luke asked from his chair. 

“I just needed some time to think.”

Luke nodded once, knowing from your tone not to pry.  “Uh, hey, we were gonna go to a cafe, you wanna come?”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah sure. Sounds fun.”

Luke narrowed his eyes slightly in confusion, but grabbed your hand and teleported to the cafe. 

-----

“Oh, great angle, yeah,” Reggie said as the lady snapped a picture of her food. For some reason, you, Alex, and Reggie were all sitting with this lady while Luke was standing at the counter. 

“Is this what we’re here for?” Alex asked, his voice showing that he was regretting all of his life decisions. “To watch people take pictures of food?”

“It’s fun!” Reggie defended himself. “Watch this, people never stop looking at their phones.” He began to move the woman’s food around the table. She looked around in confusion before leaving the cafe. The three of you chuckled. 

“Plus, Luke said something about this place being a hot spot for music industry people.”

“Boys!” Luke said, sitting down in the chair the lady had just left. He glanced at you before continuing: “and, uh, Y/N, being a ghost definitely has it’s privileges. I just wrote our names on the playlist for tonight.”

“I’m getting a little worried about him,” Alex said, speaking to you but loudly enough so that the others could hear him. “He keeps forgetting that Julie quit the band.”

“And that she’s gonna come back!” Luke protested. “Just as soon as she knows we have a great gig.”

You bit your lip. You knew how stubborn Julie was, and she was pretty mad at the boys.

“But if she doesn’t come back, let's not forget we do have somewhere else we can play,” Reggie said, noticing the look on your face. “And eat pizza.”

“Dude, I know, it was awesome to be seen by lifers at Caleb’s party-” you flinched. “-but we got this with Julie. We don’t need him.”

Pain flared through your body again, almost making you fall out of your seat. It was getting worse; it felt like being stabbed again.

“It’s that same thing again,” Alex said, rubbing his side.

“Just like yesterday!” Luke added. 

“It feels like that time I was fixing my amp in the rain,” Reggie said. You stared at him.

“You shouldn’t… okay,” Alex started, giving up. 

“Look, do you think something’s wrong with us?” you asked, to no one in particular. 

“Yeah, yeah, we ate 10 pounds of pizza yesterday without a stomach. I’m sure it’s just our bodies working through it,” Luke said, although there was a hint of worry in his voice. 

“So we’re just gonna forget about getting back at Trevor?” Reggie said, desperate to change the subject. “That jerk stole our music!”

“And he has to live with that guilt. It’s like what Julie said, we have a new band, a new sound, okay? That’s what we should be focusing on.” Luke leaned back in his chair, looking at the three of you. 

Alex suddenly sat up straighter. “Isn’t that Willie?” he said, walking out the door. 

Reggie smirked. “Well, someone’s not focusing on our music.” You gave a small laugh. 

“Hey, Y/N, are you okay?” Luke said, leaning over the table towards you. 

“Oh, oh yeah, I’ve just got a lot on my mind right now,” you said, giving him a small smile. 

He leaned back in his chair, chewing his lip. He knew you weren’t being completely honest, but he didn’t push it. 

-----

“We’re sorry

So sorry

We’re super-duper, crazy stupid

Sorry!”

The boys sang as Julie walked into the studio.

“In case you missed it, we’re all really sorry,” you said, walking over to her. 

“Yeah, I… I got that part.”

“We’ve been here for like, three hours,” Alex said, high-fiving Reggie.

“We almost sang to your little brother.”

“He comes in here a lot. Mainly to use the bathroom.”

“It’s not our favorite part of the day,” Alex whispered. 

“But, Julie, it wasn’t okay that we flaked on the dance last night,” Luke said, getting the group back on topic. 

“We know we let you down,” you said, moving to stand with the boys. 

“And none of us wanted to disappoint you,” Alex said quickly. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to us since we became ghosts.”

“So, in hopes that you’ll rejoin the band, we booked a new gig,” Luke said, nervously handing Julie the flyer.

“A mega important, life-changing gig,” Reggie smiled. 

“Oh, okay, check it out. Tons of managers go here to listen to new bands. All we gotta do is blow them all away, and we’re living the dream.”

“So, this means a lot to you, huh?” Julie said coldly. “Kind of like how playing in front of my entire school meant a lot to me.”

“Sounds like sarcasm… I’m starting to think our plan isn’t working,” Reggie muttered to you and Alex. 

“Look, we know we messed up,” Alex started. 

“But, we need you in the band,” Luke finished. 

“Of course you do. Because without me, no one can see you guys playing.” You looked at the ground in shame as Julie spoke. “You know, I thought that the music we were writing was special, but you’re too obsessed with your past to even care.”

“I do care!” Luke protested. “Our band has a real chance at greatness, and I’m not gonna let that get away from us again!”

“Uh-huh. Right. So then why did you bail on me to get back at Trevor? I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause there’s only one thing you care about, Luke Patterson, and that’s yourself.”

She turned and stormed out of the garage. “Y/N, are you coming?” she called out. You glanced at the boys apologetically before following your best friend. 

-----

Julie sat on the couch, quietly scribbling down answers to her math homework. You sat in the chair next to her, sketching on a piece of paper you had found. 

“You uh, you got a second?” Alex asked as the boys poofed in. Julie ignored them, turning on the couch so they wouldn’t be in front of her. You stared at the paper you were holding. 

“Oh my gosh, she can’t see us anymore!” Reggie exclaimed. Alex gave him a look; Reggie muttered “oh.”

Alex sat on the arm of the couch. “Julie, please.”

“I already told you, I’m done with the band,” she finally spoke. 

“Yeah, we know, alright? But before you decide that forever, we just… we wanted you to know that Luke isn’t as selfish as you think he is.”

“Yeah, you’ve got him all wrong,” Reggie spoke up. 

Julie scoffed and went back to her homework.

“You remember that song ‘Emily’? Can we at least show you who that’s about?”

-----

You never thought you would be spying on a ghost boy, but here you were. The four of you had walked to a house not too far away from Julie’s, and were peering through the front window from a distance. Luke was sitting on the counter, his eyes red from crying, watching an older couple move around the kitchen. It was Luke’s parents house.

“So, Emily’s his mom?” Julie asked, peering out from behind a tree. 

“Yeah. Yeah, Luke comes here a lot,” Alex said, crouching behind a chair. 

“He thinks we don’t know but, we’ve been following him,” Reggie admitted. “All he does is just, hang out like this and watch them. They never really do anything, though.”

“They’re having cake,” you noted. “That’s something.”

“It’s a… it’s a birthday cake. For Luke.” 

A tear slid down your cheek, matching the boy inside. 

“I never knew Luke was hurting this much,” Julie said.

“Yeah. It’s even worse because when he died, he… left on bad terms. You know, his parents didn’t want their 17-year-old to be in a rock band, so… he just left.” Alex said softly. “He never got the chance to make up with them.”

You watched as Luke blew out his birthday candle. His parents relit it and blew it out together.

“That’s why Luke was so angry,” you guessed, tears falling freely. “If Trevor had given Luke credit for writing all the songs, then…” you trailed off.

“His parents would have known his dreams were worth chasing,” Reggie sighed.

“They would have been so proud,” Julie said, her voice breaking a little. You looked over at her and saw that she was crying, too. 

Alex stood up. “We know how bad it hurts when someone that should’ve had your back… completely lets you down. We never meant to make you feel that way.”

“Julie, we love our band,” Reggie said, still crouching behind a plant. “And Luke does too. Please give us another chance.”

You looked back at Luke and his family one last time, noticing a bouquet of flowers on the island. You smiled to yourself. They were dahlia’s, Rose’s favorite.

-----

“Marching on proud

Turn it up loud

‘Cause now we know what we’re worth,” you and Julie harmonized.

Luke suddenly appeared in a chair. “Whoa,” he said as the music died out. Then he smiled. “Julie.”

She smiled back at him. “Grab a guitar. We got work to do.”

“What made you come back?”

“I realized how important music is to all of us. And we’ve lost so much already. We can’t lose this too.”

“Thanks,” Luke said quietly. Julie smiled at him. “Alright, boss, where we at?”

Julie smirked, taking pride in the name. “Oh, and by the way, happy birthday.”

Luke looked a little stunned, and he glanced at you. 

“Happy birthday,” you said quietly, smiling at him.

A slight blush creeped onto his cheeks. 

Julie laughed slightly. “Let’s go from the pre-chorus.”

Alex smiled. “One, two three four!”

-----

“Guys, are you sure? She’s probably just getting dressed or something,” you said as Luke, Alex, and Reggie stopped outside of Julie’s door.

Reggie smirked. “Which is why I’ll be doing this.” He stuck his arm through the door and knocked on this inside. 

You heard Julie chuckle as she called out: “What are you guys doing?”

Reggie stuck his head through the door. “We’re being classy,” you heard him say. You and Alex pulled him back. 

The four of you walked through the door.

“Why are you still here?” Luke asked. “We’re going in like, twenty minutes.”

Julie sighed. “I lied to my dad, so…  now I’m stuck in my room all night.”

“Yeah, but, we were just at the venue! I mean it’s packed, like, VIPs, managers…” Alex trailed off. “It’s kinda crazy.”

“What are we gonna do about my aunt?” Julie asked, sighing again. “She’s right downstairs.”

Luke walked over to her window, smirking as he opened it. “You’re not taking the stairs.”

Julie shook her head slightly. “Okay. Let me get dressed. I’ll meet you guys there.”

The guys all poofed out, but you stayed behind for a minute, admiring your best friend’s room. It was just so… her.

“Y/N?” Julie asked, making you jump slightly. 

“Oh, sorry, I’ll leave-” you started, but Julie cut you off. 

“No, it’s fine.” She walked over to the trunk of her mom’s clothes, pulling out a leather jacket and turquoise romper.

“So,” she started. “What’s the deal with Luke?”

You felt your face go red. “Huh?” you sputtered. “I don’t-”

“Oh come on, Y/N,” she said with a smirk. “Everyone can see the way you look at him. And the way he looks at you.”

You shook your head. “Even if I did like him, which I’m not saying I do, there’s no way he would like me back.”

Julie rolled her eyes. 

“Really Jules! I mean, look at me!” You gestured to yourself. “I’m a mess, inside and out.”

Julie walked over to you and let her hands hover over your shoulders. “Y/N, you are one of the most beautiful people I know. Inside and out,” she smiled. 

“You really think so?” you asked. 

She nodded. You smiled. “Thanks, Jules.”

“Anytime,” she said, smiling back before putting on her outfit for the night. 

-----

“Next up, Dirty Candi,” announced the MC. 

“Am I too late?” Julie said, rushing over to where you and Flynn were standing. 

“Too early,” Flynn said, staring at the stage where Carrie was standing.

“Hope you all came to have a great time!” she said in a peppy voice. 

You glanced back and forth between Carrie and Flynn a few times. 

“Dirty Candi? How’d she get on the list?” Julie asked.

Flynn scoffed. “Her daddy probably made a call.”

You saw the way Flynn was staring at Carrie, trying to hide behind disgust. You smirked to yourself, but didn’t say anything. 

“I like this!” Flynn said, examining Julie’s jacket. “Pretty flower.” 

“Thanks. It’s a dahlia. My mom’s favorite.”

The three of you fell silent as Carrie started to sing. 

“Whenever I walk in the room

All the focus on me

The way I talk the way I move

They all want on my team.”

You rolled your eyes; it was clear that Carrie was just bragging about herself. Although you had to admit, the song was catchy and the dance moves were pretty cool. 

The guys appeared behind you, smiling as they watched the routine.

“The party don’t start ‘till I walk in

I’m stealing all the attention

Don’t get me started on mentions, yeah”

Suddenly Alex was on the stage. You and Reggie looked at each other in confusion, but Alex looked just as confused as you did. 

He quickly got over his confusion however, and he started dancing along with Dirty Candi. You laughed at his antics, making Flynn look at you in confusion.

 “Oh, it’s the guys,” you explained. 

Alex poofed back off the stage. 

“You having fun out there?” Julie asked him, laughter in her voice.

“It’s not my fault it’s my… it’s my feet.”

Julie scoffed, smiling at him. “Yeah.”

Alex grinned. “Put me back in, coach,” he muttered before appearing on the stage again.

You were thoroughly enjoying watching him dance around on stage, walking through Carrie and obviously having the time of his life. 

When the song ended, he hopped around in a little circle. “You’re making me blush,” he said, pretending the audience was clapping for him. Four members were.

He poofed back to you guys. “I um, I was just doing that for you guys.”

“Mmhmm. You can stop smiling now,” Reggie said playfully. 

“I’m not gonna lie, that was… kinda good,” Julie said. 

“Yeah.” Flynn scrunched up her nose. “I forgot why I hate her so much.”

Carrie walked up to the six of you, although to her it only looked like Julie and Flynn. 

“Hi girls!” she said brightly. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

Flynn turned to Julie. “Now I remember.”

“If you’re looking for Nick, he didn’t come,” Carrie said coldly.

Julie stepped up to her. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Okay, looks like we’re closing out the night with one more group,” the MC announced. “ ‘Julie and the Fat Ones’.”

You, Alex, Reggie, and Julie all looked at Luke as Dirty Candi laughed. 

“Really?” Alex asked him.

“Yeah man, my handwriting sucks.”

Julie walked past Carrie onto the stage, the four of you following her. 

“Uh, hi, it’s actually ‘Julie and the Phantoms’,” Julie said, her voice coming up at the end of the sentence, making it sound like a question. 

“Okay,” she muttered when no one answered, and started to play the piano.

“Hearts on fire

We’re no liars

So we say what we wanna say

I’m awakened 

No more fakin’

So we push all our fears away”

You joined her, appearing on stage and taking the harmony line. The crowd gasped.

“Don’t know if I’ll make it

‘Cause I’m falling under

Close my eyes and feel my chest

Beating like thunder

I wanna fly

Come alive

Watch me shine.”

Suddenly, the boys appeared too, making the crowd gasp again.

“I’ve got a spark in me

Hands up if you can see

And you’re a part of me

Hands up if you’re with me

Now ‘till eternity

Hands up if you believe 

Been so long and now we’re finally free”

Julie smiled, letting you take the second verse. 

“We’re all bright now

What a sight now

Coming out like we’re fireworks

Marchin’ on proud

Turn it up loud

‘Cause now we know what we’re worth”

You smiled as Luke joined you.

“We know we can make it

We’re not fallin’ down under

Close my eyes and feel my chest

Beating like thunder

I wanna fly

Come alive

Watch me shine”

The five of you launched into the chorus again, Julie taking the melody. You dropped out, letting Julie and Luke sing the bridge.

“I got a spark in me

I got a spark in me

And you’re a part of me

And you’re a part of me

Now ‘till eternity

Now ‘till eternity

Been so long and now we’re finally free”

You smiled into your microphone as Julie nailed the high note, taking the melody of the chorus.

You grinned as the song came to an end, enjoying the adrenaline rush that came with singing in front of a crowd. You heard the crowd gasp again as the four of you disappeared, leaving Julie apparently alone on stage. 

“Thank you, we’re Julie and the Phantoms. Tell your friends,” she smiled before stepping off the stage. She immediately ran over to the bar area where you and Flynn were waiting.

You all squealed as they hugged each other.

“You were incredible! Both of you,” Flynn said, beaming at her two best friends.

“Yeah we were!” Reggie said as the boys appeared. 

You stood there in an excited silence for a minute more. 

“Hey, hey, whoever Carrie was trying to impress is coming this way,” Luke said suddenly. 

“Oh, it’s…” Julie trailed off as she turned around and saw the woman making her way over.

“She looks all business,” Alex said a little nervously.

“Wait, who should do the talking?” Reggie asked. Julie looked at him. “Oh, right.”

The woman stretched her hand out for Julie to shake. “Hi, I’m Andi Parker, and I’m-”

“Julie.” Andi Parker was cut off by Ray. 

“Dad!” Julie said in surprise. 

“It’s time to go.”

Tag List: @xplrreylo @ifilwtmfc @sunsetcurvej @yagorlemmalyn @caitsymichelle13 @phantompogues

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[swiss-cheeze]

Tick-Tock, Hook’s Afraid of an Ordinary Clock! || Spencer Reid

Requested: YES/NO: gender neutral please! So my request. Y/n has been working at the BAU for a while, and never ever had feelings for Spencer but more for Derek. One night is spent at a hotel and Spencer gets wasted as all hell which the team found unusual. That’s really all! Do with that what you will! Smut is fine too! You can add your own personal touches if you wish. Also would love some fighting between Spencer and y/n

Gender: none, they/them.

Warnings: insults, alcohol, normal CM case talk, verbal fight dialogue taken from Hook (1991), crap music talk.

----

“Eat your heart out, you crinkled, wrinkled fat bag,” you mumbled under your breath as Spencer finished his rambling of some unknown subject. Spencer stiffened at your insult, as did the rest of the team. You had just gotten back from a pretty bad case involving a team of family annihilators and where sitting in the nearest bar; throughout the whole case Spencer had almost made it his mission to speak over you, correct you, flick things at you, ‘forget’ you’re there, bump into you and more. God it was so annoying, and now? Now you've had enough.

“That was very ill-mannered-” Spencer started.

“And you're a slug-eating worm,” you said with a little more force matter-of-factly, cutting off whatever it was Spencer was going to say.

“You can do better than that pretty boy!” Derek said quickly with a grin as he nudged Spencer; you almost pounced on that man for taking Spencer's side rather than yours; Derek had always taken your side.

“You're encouraging this?” Spencer questioned quickly.

“Show me your fastball, dust brain!” you started again, “you paunchy, sag-bottomed puke pot!” Spencer's eyes widened three times the size they normally would be as the rest of your table sat quiet and watched.

“Damn!” Emily said under her breath with a grin as her eyes darted between the two of you; it was like watching tennis.

“You're a very poor role model for your team, you know that right?” Spencer shook his as he took a mouthful of his drink before a sly grin overtook his face, “I bet you don't even have a fourth-grade reading level,” a few of your teammates let out a little blow of air.

“Hemorrhoidal sucknavel” you said quickly.

“Maybe a fifth-grade reading level.” Spencer said even quicker.

“Oil-dripping, beef-fart-sniffing bubble butt” you started to really get into it, leaning over the table a little with a smirk.

“Aye there we go (Y/n)!” Derek said quickly, now he was on your side? You looked to Hotch who was smiling thinking that maybe you had another on your side.

“Someone has a severe caca mouth, you know that?” Spencer cut off your gaze with his words, as if he was bored.

“You’re a fart factory. A slug-slime sack of rat guts and cat vomit, a cheesy scab picked pimple-squeezing finger bandage!” snickering came over the table; but you weren't done yet oh no, “a week-old maggot burger with everything on it and flies on the side!” you grinned; many many words in that one insult. Spencer went to open his mouth but you cut him off, “you’re really just a substitute chemistry teacher” you winked.

“Come on Spence, hit (Y/n) back!” J.J. quickly intervened.

“Mung tongue” Spencer fired.

“Math tutor,”

“Pinhead,”

“Mother lover,” that one was a low blow on your end but you couldn't help yourself.

“Nearsighted gynecologist,” ouch Spence, Hotch snorted at that one.

“In your face, camelcake!” you shot back.

“In your rear, cow derrière!” of course Spencer came back even faster.

“Lying, crying, spying, prying ultra-pig!” Emily snickered at yours.

“Lewd, crude bag of pre-chewed food!” Derek snickered at Spencers.

“Guys maybe settle down…” Hotch said softly, this was starting to get a little out of hand.

“You man! Stupid, stupid man!” That was all you could give back as your mind turned blank, forgetting every word in the dictionary.

“If I'm a maggot burger, why don't you just eat me?” Spencer shot back, “you zebra-headed, slime-coated, pimple-farming, paramecium brain, munching on your own mucus, suffering from Spencer Reid envy!” laughter ensued as your face contorted to confusion.

“What the hell is a ‘paramecium’?” your voice held the question as Spencer pointed to you.

“I'll tell you what a paramecium is! You’re a paramecium!” everyone on your table stared at Spencer as he elaborated; “It's a one-celled critter with no brain that can't think!” and with that, your table cheered for Spencer as you sat sulking.

“Oh come on (Y/n), you should have known you would lose,” Derek said with a grin before following Spencer to the bar.

“He's drinking a lot tonight isn't he?” Emily questioned.

“Who, Derek?” J.J. guessed with a furrowed brow.

“No! Spencer!” Emily quickly concluded.

“He was a little harsh on (Y/n)” Hotch cut in quickly, “I’m just glad Dave and Garcia weren’t here to witness that,” you slammed your drink on the table and sent a glare to the three left at the table.

“I'm going home, i'll see everyone on monday,” you grumbled out before stalking off, your shoes made loud thunking sounds as they hit the wood flooring, your anger getting the best of you as you passed Spencer and Derek.

“Yo (Y/n) you getting a drink too?” Derek was about to order your normal drink until you slapped both Spencer and Derek on the back of the head.

“OW! What the hell-!” Spencer's back was to you but as he turned and saw you his anger melted into elation, “come back for round 2 (Y/n)?” Spencer questioned, the poor boy tried to act cool and lean against the bar but missed entirely and almost fell onto a rather burly looking gentleman. You huffed slightly as you turned to Derek.

“Make sure the substitute chem teacher gets home safe,” and with that you threw open the bar doors and walked your way home, it was only a block and you had gotten a ride with Emily anyway.

-

When you finally slumped home, chucked off your shoes and threw yourself onto your mattress you couldn't help but make yourself angrier with the new insults suddenly bubbling in your head.

“Who does that piss brain even think he is,” you mumbled into the air, “paramecium my ass…” you continued your grumbling into the atmosphere as you twisted and turned on the mattress before sleep finally engulfed you.

------

The work week started up again and before you knew it yourself and the team where needed in New Orleans because of a new range of sudden murders.

“Lets review please,” Hotch mumbled.

“The bodies cross gender and racial lines” Rossi started.

“The throat is slit with something very sharp but also clean, I get a funny feeling it isnt a kitchen knife though,” you mumbled as you looked at the photos closer trying to get a good angle on a printed piece of paper.

“Butcher?” Derek questioned, you shrugged.

“Could these be blitz attacks?” you heard Spencer scoff at your suggestion.

“If this was a blitz attack there would be remorse and blunt force trauma somewhere on the head,” Spencer said looking directly at you.

“Oh, i'm so sorry Doctor i didn't know my input was unwanted, let me just keep my thoughts to myself,”

“Guys,” J.J. sighed, “Garcia is going through the victims lives that we have already, I can talk to the family and see if there are any enemies?” Hotch nodded.

“Derek, I want you to join J.J. with the families. Rossi, Emily go to the M.E. together and have a look over the bodies and tox screens. (L/n), Reid and I will go to the police station and start on a geographical and victim board,” everyone nodded in agreement to what Hotch said. Except for Spencer. He just stared at you with dangerous eyes. You rolled yours in return before putting your headphones into your phone and playing music to drown out Spencer's overbearingly loud thoughts.

-

“Okay my lovelies, these first three victims all had the same job at the same court; they’re all a part of a Jury audience” Garcia explained as her fingers tapped on her keyboard through the phone.

“Maybe someone just got out of prison that was wrongly convicted and wanting revenge?” you questioned.

“Maybe, it would have to be something pretty big for them to come back,” Derek said, you nodded in agreement, “baby girl can you see if there are any people that may have been convicted by a jury with our victims in it?”

“Sure can sugar, PG out” the phone clicked off.

“Did you find anything from the M.E.?” Hotch turned to Rossi and Emily as he spoke.

“The pathologist said it was a clean cut without hesitation marks or remorse,” Rossi said.

“No drugs, no blunt force trauma,” Emily shrugged as she talked, “it wasn't a blitz.”

“Maybe planned?” you butted in.

“That’s what it seems like,” Hotch said, “Reid? Have you got anything? J.J.?” Hotch questioned as he looked to the respective people.

“The victims were killed in different areas but its places they frequented; house, bar, bar” Spencer started, “they’re all over the place is all, completely different areas,”

“Yeah, and the families weren’t much help either. One of the victims' families, uh, Emil Gosten? His family said they didn't want anything to do with the investigation because he's had previous death threats and calls and stuff,” J.J. shrugged as the room went quiet.

“Reid, (L/n) I know you two dont like each other but I need two of my sharpest minds to go back to the crime scenes,” Hotch sighed, you groaned but complied as you stalked off with Reid following shortly behind.

-

“Everything looks the exact same as it was left,” you sighed out as you placed a blanket back down on the couch. Spencer scanned the books on the shelf before pulling one out and starting to read it; completely ignoring you.

“Reid,” nothing.

“Reid.” again, nothing.

“Spencer,” nope.

“SPENCE”

“What!” he finally turned to you and answered.

“You couldn't give me some complacency and at least answer me when i talk to you?” you asked annoyed.

“Why would i?” Spencer asked with a bored tone as he placed the book back on the shelf, except he finally talked to you, “The victim is atheist, believes in the justice system…” he sighed and shrugged, “did Hotch just put us together to fuck with us?”

“Maybe,” you flopped onto the couch with a sigh as you rest your head on the backrest. That was until something caught your eye, “Oi genius!” you called out, Spencer came to your side as you pointed to the roof; there, above your heads was a piece of paper taped to the ceiling, “you’re taller than me,” you said quickly as you got up and started moving the couch.

“Woah what- what’re you doing?” Spencer jumped back slightly as you pushed the couch backwards.

“Well we’re going to push this back and then put a chair down for you to stand on so you can reach that note because it can possibly help us get to the unsub,”

“What why me?” Spencer questioned as he helped you push the couch back.

“You’re taller than me and have longer arms,” you walked over to the dining table and came back with a chair, Spencer was reluctant at first but eventually stood on the chair and plucked down the taped note; letting out a breath as he finally stood on the ground again. You plucked the note from Spencer's hand and opened it.

“A music note?” Spencer mumbled.

“Something like that,” you mumbled back, “see it's in the second to bottom gap,” you pointed to the gap to show where it was, as if Spencer couldn't see it already, “um, it would sound something like...um, dmm” you vibrate your voice a little to help Spencer understand, he nodded, “the only problem is there isn’t any clef; normally with music you have a treble clef, alto clef or bass clef. They basically determine what instrument can be played and how the notes are determined” Spencer looked genuinely interested while you explained your thinking, “this...its a singular note, maybe there’s more around?” you looked around the room and tried to desifre if there were any opened drawers or cupboards.

“Maybe there’s another one at the other location?” Spencer questioned, you grinned.

“It might be the unsubs calling card; ‘hey, this is my kill’ type thing!” and with that, you made a break in the case.

-

Spencer called the rest of the team about the break as Hotch allowed the two of you to go to the other victims houses and search for more music notes; low and behold you now had 3 music notes placed under the corresponding victim heads.

“You keep staring at that board as if it's going to give you answers,” Derek said with a grin as he walked into the room; the rest of the team had been called out to another dead body.

“Hmm? Oh I just…” you shrugged, “i just get this feeling about the notes; they have to sound something but we just don't know what yet” before Derek could answer you the shrill of the phone went off.

“(Y/n)?” it was Spencer on loudspeaker; he never called you by your first name.

“Yeah what's up Reid?” you called back.

“We found another note; the round part is under the last line with the stem going up to the second line at the top,” you nodded in response (not that Spencer could see you) as you drew the note on a piece of paper with a sharpener and placed it on the victim board.

“Anything else? A clef at all anywhere?” you asked.

“Um i'm not- i don't think so?” it sounded like Spencer was shuffling around a few things to get a better look, “we have another piece of paper!” Spencer called out, moments later you got a photo on your phone. Sure enough there was a treble clef.

“Spence get everyone back here; i know what the notes mean”

-

“Our unsub is using something called the Dies Irae,” you played the first few notes on your phone over youtube, “you've all heard this song over time just not exactly in an orchestra setting; Star Wars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, The Shining, The Exorcist and many many more,” you played a few other videos of the notes from a few of the movies as everyone nodded.

“I can hear it,” J.J. mumbled.

“Same,” that was Emily.

“Right, so...it was originally used with catholic’s; they used the music in their Requiem services-”

“Requiem services are basically putting the dead to rest,” Spencer cut in quickly so the team could understand.

“Yeah, it's basically a song for the dead to stay dead in a way? I think our unsub is using the Sweeney Todd method; killing his victims with a razor. One slice across the neck while in a private area except this dude isn't a cannibal” you grinned at the remembrance of the film.

“Cannibal?” Derek and Emily questioned.

“In the movie Sweeney Todd is a barber, he comes back for revenge on the man who stole his wife and child and kills people in his barber shop which is also above a pie shop owned by a woman named Mrs Lovett; when Sweeney starts killing they come together in order to bring customers back to Mrs Lovett's pie shop. Because it's set in 1785 meat was expensive so instead they used the dead people as meat to sell to customers” you realised how long winded that explanation was and apologized, “sorry that was..i think our unsub is a barber” was your final statement. Hotch nodded and moved to press a button on the phone in the middle of the table, but the phone started ringing instead.

“Garcia?”

“I think i found our unsub; Chris Gevette, he filed for divorce after he gave evidence of spousal abuse but it seems like his wife had every piece of evidence that would be able to put him in jail rather than her so everything was blamed on him for the abuse and the jury ruled him unable to keep any stable relationship”

“Garcia do you have a work and home address?”

“Sent to your phones now; barber shop and home” the phone clicked off.

“(Y/n) i want you to go to the barber shop with Reid and Derek. Emily, J.J. and I will go to the house; Rossi stays here in case anything else happens.” and with that you all ran to the SUV’s.

-----

“CHRIS GEVETTE FBI!” Derek shouted through the door, your guns were drawn and ready for action as Derek kicked the door in. You moved swiftly through the shop, finding nothing but dust.

“Guys!” you were now out the back as your partners came running, “it's exactly like Sweeney Todd,” you motioned to the stairs in front of you before looking behind you, “there's stars that lead down as well; there may be bodies in there like the movie too, you go down there and i'll go up.”

“(Y/n) let me come with you,” that was Spencer, he looked genuinely concerned.

“I've got this Spence. Go” you started your ascent up the wooden stairs while trying to stay as quiet as you possibly could, “CHRIS GEVETTE,” you called out to the door once you got to it, you could hear the bustle of footsteps and made the split decision. The door was kicked in by you as you pointed your gun to Chris who was now holding a razor to a woman's neck.

“Get away!” Chris screamed, he was frantic; trembling and crying.

“Chris! Chris it's okay, i'm a good guy, okay?” you slowly let go of your gun, “im holstering my gun, okay?” you said as you're-holstered your gun, “Chris i know about the divorce-”

“No you dont!” Chris called, the woman under the razor trembled as the razor cut into her neck slightly.

“I do! Chris, I know you were abused! I know it wasn't you that did the abusing! If you let her go we can help you get custody and instead send that bitch to jail,” Chris looked almost relieved to hear that, he contemplated that for a moment before slowly letting the woman go. She ran over to you as Derek and Spencer finally came up the stairs and started handcuffing Chris.

“We’ve got two other bodies in the basement,” Spencer said to you while you held the trembling woman, “there's medic on the way now,” you nodded in affirmation before starting to help the women calm down and walk down the stairs.

------

The jet finally landed back at the bureau as the rest of your team started packing their things from their desks.

“Um (Y/n)” a voice called, you smiled as you looked up to see the person you least expected.

“Spence?” you questioned; your eyes darted around and couldn't see any other team member in sight, “everyone left already. Sorry. I've been in my own little world,” you gave a tight smile as you continued packing some extra files into your bag.

“It-it’s just me, but um, I just wanted to congratulate you on your break in the case,” the comment from Spencer's timid and small voice caught you off guard so much that you froze for a moment as you stared at him. It all seemed to go quiet, and slow; the clock on the wall seemed to tick at an atrociously slow pace.

Tick…

“(Y/n)?”

Tock…

“Hmm?”

“I uh, i was-”

“Oh, yeah um-”

Pause.

Quiet.

“Thank you,” smile.

Tick…

“I was...was wondering, (Y/n)...”

Tock…

“Yeah Spence?”

“Would you...would you like to go...on a date...with...me?”

Pause.

Quiet.

“With you?”

“Well, I did...I did say ‘me’ I hope- just, just forget it” and the world went back to normal as Spence started walking away.

“No Spence, wait!” you grabbed your things and quickly darted off after him; plunging your arm between the elevator doors and stepping in quickly before they shut behind you.

“Just forget it (Y/n); forget i ever asked and we can just go back to-”

“I would love to go on a date with you”

Tick…

“Really?”

“So long as you don't call me a paramecium again”

Tock…

“I won't; as long as you don't call me a substitute chemistry teacher”

Pause.

Quiet.

“I won't”

“Then it's settled.

Tick…

“Message me?”

“Of course”

Tock…

Smile.

[reader86]

I enjoyed every moment of interaction Hordak with Imp. In my opinion, their relationship is similar to that of an older brother and a younger one. I don’t know, is it a fact or theory that the Imp is an unsuccessful clone of Hordak, but I agree with that. As a result of Hordak’s imperfect work on his own genome (probably due to the fact that his genome is defective), Imp doesn't develop, doesn't grow, doesn't talk, and has the intellect of a child. Nevertheless, the difference between the relationship of Hordak to Imp and Hord Prime to Hordak is so significant. And if Hordak is emotionally vulnerable, capable of affection and trust, then Hord Prime doesn't know how to love, has no affection (at least for the moment) and does not have compassion. But back to Imp. Imp serves Hordak for certain purposes (namely, internal espionage), but this did not happen immediately. I think when Imp was born, Hordak left him only because he is more like his brothers than anyone else on Etheria. He was a living representative of his species and then, as time passed, Imp became the only one for Hordak whom he trusted and who were in an emotional bond with him.

The first appearance of Imp. He sits on Hordak’s lap. Not on the floor, not near the feet. He jumps on Hordak without any fear and settles down there, very pleased with himself.

For Hordak, who is trying to match the gloomy imperious character of the Hord Prime, such an open manifestation of friendliness and affection is very strange. Especially in front of his subordinates, whom he wants to intimidate. It seems to me that everyone in the Horde thinks that this is his real son.

Imp is happy when he successfully fulfills the orders of Hordak.

Trying to be as formidable as an older brother

My favorite Hordak + Imp moment.

Hordak believes that, here it is, at last the portal will work, and Imp nearby also rejoices at his success. But then the portal machine explodes and Imp, feeling quite relaxed when no one is around, even makes fun of his brother. And notice how Hordak pushes Imp from the shoulder without any aggression (I would even say pretty gently). In general, Hordak never shows aggression to Imp as such. I see this scene like this: you are doing a serious job, and your little brother is spinning next. And when something doesn’t work out for you, and you are annoyed ... and confess who have younger brothers and sisters .. They like to see us unhappy, they can laugh and run mockingly from us, but they really do not wish us any harm. Kids just like to see our sullen face for some reason.

And then the demon copies the voice of Hordak “Useless”, and apparently represents himself big and formidable. It reminds me a bit of the moment when Simba was trying to learn how to growl like Mufasa.

Imp clearly does not like Catra and he does not hide his discontent. He tries to make her feel awkward, and also does not show any negative emotions when Hordak tortures Catra with his suffocating machine.

I think this is due to the fact that Hordak himself does not like Catra. Little spy more often saw Catra, heard and watched her actions and conversations, and he also knows about Hordak's vulnerable body, and I think Imp believes that Catra is bad. At least in his value system. He understands that Catra is ambitious and cunning enough to pose a real threat to Hordak's hierarchical position.

The first real interaction between Imp and Entrapta. I love the way they interact with Entrapta the same way. At first, he is furious as well as Hordak.

Then also embarrassed and interested in this.

And when he takes the screwdriver away from her, it’s more like as fun than threat and anger. Imp is insightful and immediately understands that Entrapta is not dangerous to them.

And of course, I as Entrapdak’s shipper, was very happy when Imp took Entrapta into the family circle and protected her and Hordak from the intervention of Catra.

Next time we see the whole “family” already in the 3 season. Both Hordak and Imp feel are comfortable with Entrapta. Imp agrees with Entrapta when she says that this was only the first test, and then protects and leads her away when he realizes that Hordak is too angry to reason sensibly and logically.

It is noteworthy that when Entrapta first sees Hordak without armor and he is angry and tells her to get out, there is no anger or aggression on the face of Imp. He is at a loss, but knows (I think, like Hordak) that she is not dangerous. Imp in his attitude to people relies on Hordak, but next to Entrapta he can show his own emotions, he is guided by his observations and knows that the princess cannot harm Hordak or him.

He only shows concern when Hordak falls.

Hordak doesn't eat soup prepared by Entrapta, but still, like a caring brother, offers it to Imp. I mean, he didn’t throw the tray away and didn't sent her to hell. Hordak, realizing that she makes it for him, does not want her work to be wasted. Of course, this does not negate the fact that Entrapta does not know how to cook, but all this is pretty sweet.

I like how Hordak and Imp look at each other in a silent question.

The beautiful scene where Hordak is surrounded by his associates, creatures whom he fully trusts and feels affection. And how Imp admires Entrapta and copies how she sits cross-legged.

And of course, this scene, beloved by all, when Imp kicks (!) Hordak, when he, in his opinion, did not speak well enough about the technical improvement of the armor.

This is all so significant for all three (+ Emily, of course). They all feel relaxed, comfortable with each other, Hordak allows himself to be vulnerable and grateful, Imp feels independent and confident, even when there are other creatures nearby, and Entrapta sees how much they appreciates her efforts and how it REALLY makes Hordak's life better.

In season 4, when they re-exist without Entrapta and their fraternal relations have returned to their usual rut. The demon makes fun of Hordak, but now Hordak is more angry, because losing a woman is a more personal problem for him than a broken portal. Imp also does not like Catra and copies the behavior and attitude of Hordak to strangers. For example, distrust, but also tacit agreement with the presence of Double Trouble.

I very hope for more interaction between Imp and Entrapta in the new season. This kid should get more screen time. And they must save Hordak.

[thenovelartist]

Her White Knight

It’s been 87 years... XD

This is a Secret Santa gift for @saijspellhart ! Hope you enjoy the MariBlanc (and that I did it justice) :D

...

Marinette knew this marriage was strictly political. She knew a princess’ job was to marry for the protection or political gain for their kingdom.

Or, in the case of Princess Chloe Bourgeois, her job was trying to pull the wool over her fiancé’s eyes.

In these marriages, it did not matter if the soon-to-be husband would be twice her age, no matter how desperately uncomfortable that made said princess. It had made Chloe uncomfortable, just as it made Marinette uncomfortable. However, unlike Chloe who had the power to manipulate whoever she chose, Marinette didn’t have much of a choice than to suck it up and bear it.

After traveling for days on end, she and her entourage had finally arrived at the castle, her new home. A pit of dread formed in her gut. However, she didn’t have a choice but to smile and march forward to the castle entrance, where several servants were waiting for her but not the man she had been sent to marry.

“Princess Chloe,” one of the men said, stepping forward before bowing before her. “We are so pleased you have arrived safely. Allow us to show you about the castle.”

She agreed, following the man as he led her around the place. It was beautiful, to be sure, but it didn’t make the uneasiness in her gut go away.

Eventually, the tour did come to an end in a meeting room upstairs, where her future husband happened to be. The butler introduced her as she walked into the room, then bowed and left her alone and unchaperoned with the man in front of her.

Her heart was racing so fast with nerves, and it didn’t help that the man silently stared her down with cold eyes and a stony expression.

“I remember your father commenting how chatty you were,” he eventually said.

Had King Andre said as much about Chloe? Marinette took a deep breath, hoping to settle some of the panic rising up in her. “Only with people I know well.”

His eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Marinette thought that he knew. How, she wasn’t sure. He’d never seen Chloe before now, so he wouldn’t know what she looked like. But she felt stripped bare by that cold, calculating gaze of his. And she couldn’t help but feel that if he hadn’t figured her out already, he would soon enough.

Crash!

Marinette whipped around at the sound of the shattered window, her heart pounding in fright. But in the next moment, someone grabbed her hand, yanking her back against them and putting a knife to her throat. She gasped at the sudden touch of a blade along her neck, panic making the world already start to disappear.

“Silence or I’ll kill her.”

The roar in her ears and beating in her chest only increased at the growly voice by her ear.

“Who are you?” King Gabriel asked, seemingly unfazed by the fact a man was about to kill her right before his eyes.  

The man scoffed, squeezing her tighter to the point she couldn’t hold back a scared squeak. “Of course you don’t recognize me,” he snarled. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Let’s just say this: Lady Emilie, second daughter of a duke. Do you remember her?”

King Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.

“No words to say about the woman whose life you ruined?”

Again, no response.

“Pathetic,” he spat in disgust. “So, just like you ruined hers and destroyed mine before you even knew of my existence, I’m here to finally repay the favor.”

The king didn’t even flinch. “And just how does a pathetic, no name bastard plan to do that?”

A growl rose up in the man’s throat as he pressed the knife closer to Marinette’s neck. “Considering you made me a bastard, you know part of my name. But I won’t grace you with my Christian one. However, you’ll want a name to curse when I make your life a living hell. So, from this day forth, you may curse the day Chat Blanc ever came into your life.”

In an instant, the man covered her face with a handkerchief, making it very hard to breathe. With every breath, she inhaled something that was both sweet and sour. A vile mix that made her gut churn.

“Bit by bit, I will destroy all the things you find valuable,” her captor spat, “since I doubt you have the ability to regard anything as precious.”

Her vision was beginning to blur, and her head was beginning to get light.

“And I’ll start with her.”

She tried her best to fight it, but it was no use, she couldn’t get away. Her gut was sinking faster than a stone in water. Was she going to die?

“And you think you’ll get away with this in my castle?” King Gabriel challenged.

The last thing Marinette heard before the world turned black was the man behind her chuckling, a dark, terrifying sound. “Watch me.”

…

Back at his hideaway, Adrien pulled the unconscious girl off the saddle, cradling her carefully in his arms as he marched towards his hideaway house. Marinette. The one love of his life. He’d been on his way to deliver his warning to King Gabriel when he saw her step out of the carriage.

He’d had to do a double take because, at first, he knew that couldn’t have been her. She wasn’t a princess. Yet, the resemblance was uncanny. So, he stalked her as she was shown around the castle. And the more he saw, the more convinced he was that this was his precious Marinette. How she had ended up in that position, he had no clue, but he was bound and determined to get her out of it.

So as much as he hated to scare her as he had, holding a knife to her throat and kidnapping her, he hadn’t had much of a choice.

The small house on the corner of his late mother’s family’s property only had a single room and a single bed. He laid the still unconscious Marinette on it before starting up a fire in the fire place. Fall was in full swing, and the nights were growing colder. Adrien was fine with it being a little chilly, but he wanted Marinette to be comfortable. She never did like the cold.

Once that was complete, he pulled some blankets over her. Once that was settled, he left to put his horse away properly. Hopefully, he’d return to her side before she woke up. He’d already scared her once; he didn’t want her to awake only to panic without him there to explain everything.

…

When Marinette awoke, she felt sick to her stomach. She closed her eyes tightly, fighting against the swirling in her stomach. Her head was spinning, too, making her want to do nothing but fall back asleep.

But… hadn’t something happened? She wasn’t in her own bed at her own home. Something had smelled funny…

She tried to force herself to open her eyes, only for them to slam shut when the light was too much.

“Shh.”

Long, lazy circles were being drawn on her back soothing her, coaxing her back into sleep.

“You don’t have to force yourself up,” a calm, sweet voice said. “Rest.”

And she nearly did just that. Until her mind started putting things together. Like the fact she didn’t recognize the voice. Or that she realized that she’d been traveling to meet the man that would become her husband.

Or that she’d been kidnapped.

Groggily, she opened her eyes, blinking them several times in order to focus them. She caught sight of a person sitting beside her on the bed, rubbing her back and shoulders.

“You’re awake?” the gentle voice asked. “Don’t force yourself. Sleep if you want.”

She looked up at the man’s face, spying a mess of blonde hair and a sweet smile paired with a gentle gaze. He looked so familiar. So… familiar…

“Adrien?” Her voice was dry and raspy, but it was enough for that smile to brighten even further.

“You know, when we parted and you told me that I was welcome to abscond with you when I was able to, this was not how I pictured it going.”

Her mind processed his words, taking a moment to fully register in her head. She scoffed, though she couldn’t resist smiling. “I didn’t mean it literally.”

He chuckled, reaching for a pitcher that was on the bedside table. He poured her a cup while she struggled to sit up. He helped her the rest of the way before offering her the cup. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to drug you. I know that it can leave your throat dry.”

She took the cup and drank, only getting half of it down before her stomach protested her drinking any more. She set it down on the table by the bed.

“But you couldn’t imagine my surprise when the ‘princess’ showed up,” he continued. “And all I saw… was the woman I had sworn I would marry walking up to be the king’s bride. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m desperate to hear an explanation.”

The soft look in his eyes had shifted, a blazing fire in them now. That smile was gone, along with any gentleness in his expression. But it didn’t worry her. After having grown up with this man, after having fallen in love with him, she knew that any anger inside him was not aimed at her. She also knew how to calm him down.

Actually, as far as she knew, she might be the only one who’s ever succeeded in calming him down. “You remember that we parted because I was one of the maids sent with your aunt when she happened to marry into the royal family of the closest kingdom.”

He nodded. “I never understood why you had to go,” he said with a snarl.

“I never did, either, but I couldn’t exactly protest.”

“You should have let me abscond with you then.”

“Adrien,” she cooed, taking his jaw in her hands. Instantly, she felt him melt into her touch. “You knew why I couldn’t let you do that. You were still in training to become a royal knight, and you did not need any distraction of me being your wife at that time.”

“I could have made it work.”

“Just because you could have didn’t mean you should have.”

“But then you wouldn’t have left!” he protested. “And you could have stayed put where I could have kept an eye on you, and you wouldn’t—”

“Adrien,” she gently interrupted, cutting off his impassioned rant. She rubbed his cheeks with her thumbs, hoping to calm him down some more. Slowly, he relaxed back into her hands. “Be reasonable.”

“I am,” he muttered.

“No, you’re not, and you know it.”

His gaze fell away as he let loose a frustrated growl.

She chuckled. “It wasn’t ideal, but us parting the way we did was better than me agreeing to your impulsive marriage proposal.”

“How is three years of torture better than­—”

“Because it would have put more stress on both of us, and you know it.”

“But—”

“Adrien.”

He pouted.

Marinette grinned, rubbing her thumbs in soothing circles on his cheeks again. “Always so impulsive,” she affectionately murmured.

He grunted but didn’t protest.

With a sigh, she continued her story. “As for why I ended up pretending to be a princess, well… it certainly wasn’t my idea.”

“Never would have guessed,” he sarcastically spat.

“I had a man I wanted to marry already,” she said, leaning her face closer to his. “I didn’t want to marry a king twice my age. But on that same note, neither did Princess Chloe. When her father told her that she was to marry King Gabriel, she refused. Then she was the one who came up with the idea to send someone as a replacement for her.”

“And that someone was you?”

Marinette cringed. “Princess Chloe hated me from the moment I came to the castle. She was probably thrilled to put this task on me.”

Adrien growled, sliding even closer to her so he could pull her into his arms.

The suddenness of his actions shocked her, but soon enough, she was melting into his embrace. And after a moment of just sitting there in his arms, she started crying, clinging to his shirt as though her life depended on it. When was the last time she’d held him? Three years? She’d been fifteen when she’d been forced to separate from him. Now, she was a fully-grown woman.

No matter how it was put, she hadn’t held him for far too long, especially considering that she’d loved him more than anything. And still did.

He clung to her, too. His own body wracking as he teared up, too. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered.

“I’ve missed you, too,” she returned tearfully. She hadn’t realized just how much until now when she was finally back in his arms.

And he didn’t seem too keen on letting her go.

That was fine by her.

After a little while of just holding him and being held, she couldn’t help but ask the question that had been nagging her. “Adrien.”

“Hmm?”

“You… you basically kidnapped me from the castle.”

“Yes.”

“Why? I mean… I understand why you pulled me away but… couldn’t you have taken me another way? You’re a member of the royal knights, aren’t you?”

Adrien tensed in her arms, slowly pulling away.

Which only caused her to worry. “Adrien?”

“I’m not part of the royal knights any longer.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “What? What do you mean?”

Adrien sighed but didn’t speak.

Marinette’s brow furrowed in worry.

“A lot of things happened when you left,” he eventually answered. “Including me growing tired of my status as a bastard child.” When he looked to her again, his gaze was icy cold and rock hard. There was no warmth in them at all. “It never leaves you, you know. It’s like bearing the devil’s mark. Once people find out, they mark you as the lowest of the low.”

Her heart broke at his words, ones woven with anger and bitterness.

“Mother always told me to ignore them. And so did you. You… you were the only person that actually treated me like a normal human. Not like a disgrace.”

“I’ve said it once,” she said, reaching out to cradle his cheek again, and he happily leaned into her touch, “And I’ll say it again: the fact that you were born out of wedlock is not your fault. It’s not fair for you to be saddled with that derogatory title.”

His eyes softened for a moment. “I wanted to believe you when you said that you weren’t the only one who believed that, but… that was my mistake.”

Something painful clenched in her gut. “Adrien—”

“I got more injuries from my teachers and squad-mates than in training or in combat.”

It felt like she’d just been hit in the chest because the air in her lungs disappeared in an instant. “Oh, Adrien.”

“And then my father—no, the man who sired me…”

Marinette blinked. “Your father—”

“He doesn’t deserve the term!” he snapped.

“Sorry, sorry,” she appeased. “I just… I didn’t know that you learned who he was. Your mom never told you, even though it was clear she knew.”

“He wanted her as his lover, then abandoned her when she was pregnant with me.” He growled. “But what did he expect to happen?” he shouted angrily. “Sleep with a healthy woman long enough and of course she’ll bear a child! He’s not innocent here. How dare he leave my mother to fend for herself!”

Marinette knew there was no breaking into his ranting. She could only hold his cheeks in her hands, drawing him forward enough to rest her forehead on his. She felt some of the tension leave his body.

“He could have married her,” he said, voice now weak. “Should have married her. Why did he leave us?”

His broken words wrecked Marinette’s heart. “I don’t know,” she said. “Only he knows that.”

Slowly, in that moment of silence, the words he’d spat at the king before he’d kidnapped her came back to mind. “Adrien. Your father… is he—?”

“The king?” he finished. “Yes. And no one I worked for or trained with insulted me more than him.”

“So, when you said you were going to strip him of everything…?”

His eyes locked on her. “It’s not just because he was cruel to me,” he clarified. “You know the state of the kingdom. It hasn’t changed since you left.”

She frowned. Yes, she did know the state of the kingdom. It was in a rough place for the common folk.

“His harassment was just the final straw,” Adrien finished. He then pulled away and his eyes grew hard. “And you won’t stop me, Marinette. I’ve made up my mind on this. I will see it through to completion.”

As she looked into those green eyes of his, she saw the fire blazing within them. She wasn’t sure how much she should push, or even if she could. “I’m just… hesitant.”

“You’re not the one making this decision, so whether your hesitant or not doesn’t matter.”

“For your safety.”

He scoffed, his smile bitter. “I’m a knight. My safety was never guaranteed.”

“It’s worse now.”

She was glad that bitter smirk fell away. “It doesn’t matter. What has to be done has to be done.”

She bit her lip, unsure just what she could say.

He glared at her. “Marinette, I know that look in your eyes.” He then took her chin, in his hands so ensure she couldn’t turn her gaze away from his. “There is nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise.”

“So I’m expected to just roll over as you impulsively—”

“It’s not impulsive,” he curtly interrupted. “Not this time. I’ve thought this out. I’ve planned it. I’m just doing what has to be done. For the sake of this kingdom, and that is overthrowing the current king.”

She sighed as she listened to his impassioned rant, unsure of what to say. “And you’ll take over for him, I assume.”

There was a flash of something in Adrien’s eyes, something that left them duller than before, like he’d cut off his soul from her. And that’s when she realized, that flash had been hurt. “Don’t you dare think I’m petty enough to try to take his throne for selfish reasons.”

“Oh, no, no,” she quickly assured, realizing just how her words had been misinterpreted. “I’m not. Not for a second. That’s not like you.”

“The fact I’m related to him by blood is of no matter to me,” he continued. “I’m doing this for the betterment of the kingdom, not because I care for the throne.”

“I know,” she promised, taking hold of his hands and squeezing them tightly. “I know you. I know that you’re not like that. I’m just worried for you and all the weight you’re shouldering.”

That fiercely cold gaze of his warmed, as though an ice had thawed out. Seems she navigated the hurt she’d inadvertently given him. “Trust me, Marinette. I have to do this. For you and me and everyone else in the kingdom.”

“Okay,” she relented. “Okay.”

…

Three days, she’d been living with Adrien in this small little house. She recognized it as the house on the corner of his mother’s parents’ property. After all, he did abscond with her here once before and almost convince her to stay with him.

He’d also kissed her more heavily that night than he ever had before.

Blushing hard, she shook her head to try to rid herself of the memory. Thankfully, he wasn’t here to catch her embarrassment. He was out again at the moment. There was a pattern during the day where he left for hours at a time, always returning before dinner but never telling her what he was up to, claiming it was for her safety. He admitted to talking to friends—that she assumed meant comrades or people he was working with, at least; she severely doubted he was doing all this alone—or writing letters, but that was all he divulged.

Everything about the two of them seemed new and fresh, like she was navigating a whole different relationship as opposed to the one they were in three years ago.

But then again, they weren’t the people they were three years ago.

That didn’t mean she loved him less. Every day they spent together reminded her more and more of just why she had fallen in love with him in the first place. Now, she just loved him differently from the way she did back then. Three days was enough to prove that he was still Adrien at his core, but unfortunately, as she’d learned, he was shattered. He’d always had a wild, reckless, impulsive edge to him. It was one of the things she’d loved about him. She’d nick-named him Chat Noir because of it, because he was like a cat: curious and always getting into trouble. He’d embraced the name, but only after she agreed to be his Lucky Ladybug.

But now… Chat Blanc…

She learned he called himself that because he was ready to wipe clean the slate of this kingdom and start over. He wanted nothing more than to overthrow the corrupt king and all the black-hearted soldiers who had done nothing but harass and abuse him. Abuse that had turned him from the boy she’d once known to a man who was crafty and calculating and constantly skeptical.

She couldn’t help but wonder if she could have stopped his transformation, but she couldn’t turn back time, meaning all she could do was to be here for him. And it worked, too. She noticed that no matter what feral state he marched into the house in, a touch from her could take the edge off the wild look in his eye.

The door opened, and Marinette spun around to face him. His posture was rigid, his shoulders set square, and his mouth tugged into a frown, just as he usually was when he returned from being out all day. So, just as she usually did, she shot him a smile. “Welcome home,” she whispered as she reached out to embrace him.

Instantly, he melted into her touch, practically collapsing against her before he had the good sense to embrace her back. “I love you,” he mumbled into her shoulder.

“And I love you,” she quietly returned.

This only caused him to grab on to her tighter, like she was his lifeline and he was a dying man clinging to it. It only made him worry for him more.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked, stroking his hair soothingly.

“I have you with me,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”

She felt her cheeks warm at his admission.

“One day, I’ll make you a queen,” he said. “And I’ll give you the world.”

“I don’t need the world,” she countered. “I just want you.”

“But I want to give you everything,” he said, his body tensing as he stressed his point. “You deserve it.”

She scoffed. “I don’t deserve—”

“Yes, you do,” he quickly interrupted. “You very much do.”

She sighed. “Adrien, just be careful in the process. I much prefer to have you in one piece than you tearing yourself to pieces in order to give me something. You are the treasure. Not anything else.”

His arms tightened around her, but she barely noticed, not when his lips found the spot where her neck met her shoulders. She gasped in surprise as he laid a long, lingering kiss there.  “And that’s why I’ll give you everything,” he whispered against her skin, making her shiver. He then pulled away just so that he could see her face, but his embrace never loosened. “Because no one else thinks of me as highly as you do. So mark my words, I will make you a queen. All you have to do is marry me.”

Her heart was pounding at his previous action, but her mind was still lucid enough to process his words. This again. Ever since she came, he’d been begging for her to marry him. She’d always paused him with a “Are you sure this is good timing, Adrien?”, uncertain about a lot of things. They’d only just reunited and he had so much to deal with at the moment, but she could see it wasn’t stopping him from repeatedly asking for her hand. “Why are you so insistent?”

His eyes narrowed, the green orbs growing cold. “Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Because you have a lot on your plate right now.”

He shrugged. “Marry now, marry later; what difference does it make? I severely doubt there will be a time where I think I don’t want to marry you, so why not now?”

She sighed. “You’ve always been persistent.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” he challenged. “I love you, Marinette. I always have and always will. I want to be able to come home to you as my wife. Is that too much to ask?”

After a moment of thought, she shook her head. It came as no surprise to her why he was so persistent on the marriage issue: he was born out of wedlock, after all. She remembered that first night that he’d kissed her so heavily back when they were young that she was worried about how much he wanted of her, particularly since she felt terrified to give him everything. But he had assured her that he wouldn’t. Out of respect for her, of course, but he also said he would never take the risk of making a child out of wedlock. “I’ll never saddle my own children with the derogatory title I’m damned to carry.”

“Why do you want me so badly?” she asked. “That you’re so impatient to wait.”

His eyes darkened, a look he’d only had once before as far as she remembered. Her gut spun itself into knots instantly at the raw desire swimming in them. “I want you as my wife,” he said. “That does not change. You’re my greatest treasure, and I want to protect and provide for you. I want to give you the world. But…” He leaned forward so as to press a kiss to her forehead. She felt his nose rest on the crown of her head, not pulling away. “I am a man who currently happens to be living with a very beautiful woman who I love and adore with every ounce of my being. And my self-control is weaning.”

Blood positively rushed to her face. “Uhh…” Her voice had gotten very high pitched. “You… You want… me…” She couldn’t help it. Instantly, she buried her face in his neck.

He chuckled. “I’ll always respect your boundaries,” he purred, gently stroking her hair. “Trust me that much, but I want… want to know I’m allowed to touch you and hold you and kiss you freely and unrestrained. And eventually, when you’re ready, claim you as mine.”

His words shot jitters through her. And not bad ones, either. “Adrien…”

“But, in the end—” He forced her out of her hiding spot against his chest. “—I do want you as my wife, and all that entails. Not just the physical intimacy of it.” Again, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, then began a trail down her temple to her cheek. “So please, Marinette, be my wife.”

Her heart was racing wildly and her stomach was in knots she wasn’t sure would ever come untangled. He continued his ministrations, gently peppering her face with kisses.

And then when he pulled away to look her in the eye, her heart nearly shattered at his earnest expression. His eyes wide and raw, allowing her to see his soul within, past all the anger and pain he bore. One of a little boy who just wanted affection. Wanted someone to care for him. And she…

She had always wanted to be that person for him.

“Okay.”

His eyes lit up in excitement. “Is that a yes?”

She smiled, her heart thumping in her chest and butterflies flapping excitedly around in her stomach. “Yes.”

Instantly, he smashed his lips against hers, kissing them over and over and over again. Time seemed to stop as reality faded away, leaving only him and her together. Her knees were two steps from giving out on her as he stole her breath straight out of her chest time and time again.

How odd that when she was fifteen, this level of physical affection had her on edge, but now, it excited her to her very core.

Before she lost herself completely in the haze of bliss, brought on by his unending barrage of kisses to her lips and cheeks and neck, an assault that wouldn’t end even after he shoved her up against the nearest wall and began running his hands up and down her sides, she couldn’t help but think that the joy on his face that appeared the moment she’d said yes reminded her of the dorky kid she’d once known. The one she’d fallen in love with in the first place. He actually looked… happy.

I want to see you happy again, she thought as their session continued, Adrien flat out picking her up and carrying her to the bed, just like that time three years ago, only to continue pressing marks on the skin of her neck and collarbone. I want to see you as that curious Chat Noir and his bright, boisterous smile again. And if that means standing by Chat Blanc’s side for now and weathering through all the pain and suffering and anger, fighting it off with you, then I’ll gladly do it. Because more than anything,

I love you.

[whump-town]

See, How The Most Dangerous Thing Is Love

Where you go I'm going So jump and I'm jumping Since there is no me without you

She can’t stop running and, like an idiot, he keeps chasing. 

warnings: i don’t think there is anything to warn against which seems odd... considering... but I did use some weird fucking metaphors and I don’t know if they make any sense... 

Hotchniss

If the tension between Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss wasn’t apparent upon their reunion following Elle’s leave, it was painfully clear after Tobias. Eggshells be damned. He inquires around her compartmentalization, tone dark, and judging where JJ had just meant to build a bridge. He had aimed to tear one down. To remind her just how out of place she is in this unit.

There can only be one lone wolf in the pack.

“You came off of a desk job--”

She narrows her eyes, feet shifting. He’d come out of nowhere, as she’s finding he often does, and that just aggravates her even more. She’s a trained spy and Interpol agent, he shouldn’t be able to sneak up on her. The shield she throws between them does nothing when he already has his own firm in place. Feet planted in preparation for her attack.

Her revenge is sweet.

It starts with the way her back draws tight as a bow.

“No, stop. Stop. All right everybody right now-- what’s my worst quality?”

The flip of her dark hair, drawing the limp branch of a tree towards her chest. Poised ready to strike out towards him and the tight coil of childish glee derived from mischief in her chest. Her words the fiery snap of its release, the edge catches his cheek to leave an open, jagged wound. “You don’t trust women as much as men.” The room’s attention lays in the silence of that lashing. Their eyes watching the dark crimson of his blood trickle down his cheek.

And he wipes it away. Unflinching as he powers on. He can see it in their eyes, the way they keep looking back at the wound on his cheek. Thinking about the words and their implications. How they each drew back and laid into him with their strikes.

He can see it in Emily, the way she awaits her second chance. She’ll draw that branch back again. There are more branches, he suspects, in her forest of mistrust and impatience with him. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t have a few branches of his own he’d like to hit her with.

It is only in the most fundamental way that they trust one another.

“Don’t get me wrong, Johnny.”

A drop of sweat runs along his hairline and down the back of his neck. The heat of Alabama in August is worse than Virginia and even stripped of his suit jacket, the weather is insufferable. The rickety old pisshole of a house groans under the weight of the four adults standing in the attic. With no draft and dust covering every visible surface, it smells like something’s crawled up here and died. He suspects, if he were to look hard enough, he’d find that to be true.

Johnny and Mark Wrights have been murdering and raping teenage girls from the local high school. Grown men covered in grim and old denim-- the epitome of the white trash that comes to mind when they set out to solve these kinds of cases. It makes Hotch feel a deep shame for being raised anywhere near the south. Now, as he stands pinned to Johnny’s chest, the heavy scent of pig shit and sweat covering the man, he feels deep condemnation for the south.

He wants to get as far from this town as possible.

Prentiss’ gun is steady. As far as agents to come to have his back, he’s lucky that it’s her. Her brows raise a fraction when she steps into the room, surprised that it’s him. It takes him off guard that she’s choosing empathy with these men. She repeats her earlier statement. “Don’t get me wrong, boys,” she shakes her head and her eyes flicker to Hotch. “That’s my boss you have there.”

Johnny digs the barrel of his gun into Hotch’s face, the metal biting his flesh. He’s antsy. Emily must see that… surely, she must know that she won’t be able to talk her way out of this.

“Now,” she smirks. Her inflection has risen to nonchalance as if talking to a friend. Her shrug of indifference makes his chest feel dangerously tight. “He’s a dick,” she informs them. “Makes my life a living hell.” His eyes glued to her index finger. She’s talking and moving and if she’s distracted him with her words then she’s distracted the Unsubs too. “He’s got a little boy at home though,” her eyes flick to him.

He’s hit with a sudden understanding.

“So…” he watches her back once again. A bow, bending to snap. He ducks, this time, when her branch comes flying back at his face. Throwing his weight to the side, he takes Johnny by surprise, and before he can blink there are two quick shots that ring the end.

For a stunned moment, he’s laid out on his back. His eyes are on the ceiling just breathing and shaking.

She comes to stand at his side, offering him a hand up.

He takes it.

“Don’t,” she says before he can thank her. Her eyes are dark. She’s displeased. Not only with him and the stupidity that got them in this mess, to begin with, but for the girls. Emily had wanted to bring those girls justice. To sit at Johnny and Mark’s court hearings. To drink herself numb and to see them thrown in jail so they’d never see the light of day ever again.

Executed in the attack of some rickety old house just isn’t the same.

He nods his head.

They part ways.

But he can see her back.

And she sees his hands.

She lashes out and he pulls scabs apart. He agitates old wounds. His thumb works across his finger, picking at a scab, and then he draws blood and she watches as he dumbly looks down at his hands. As if he’s confused at why it would bleed.

A serial arson typically leaves little room for emotional collateral but, of course, he makes an exception. He digs his thumb into his finger, rubbing back and forth, voice breaking, and attention split as he makes connections that no one else sees. Gideon steps to his side, calming Hotch and stopping the trickle of blood over his callused hands. Holds his own hands over the wounds.

She sees that day, the scars that litter his ledger. The scabs… Aaron Hotchner is an open wound. He can’t let anything go. Won’t let the wounds heal. He needs the pain the way she needs the bows. She hates that she’s starting to understand this man that she hates so passionately.

Hearing him shout, the pain in his voice as he tears viciously after Evan Abby makes her falter. There he goes again, picking at wounds that should have healed. Who exactly is he saving? It’s not Abby. The man is a walking corpse, riddled with cancer. Watching as Hotch sinks into Morgan’s arms, his dread and hopelessness bringing him to his knees.

The blood falls down his hands.

But he picks at a wound that makes her bow and all is right, once again, in their little world.

“I want you on that plane with me.”

She finds him on a bender a few days later. The case is solved but that doesn’t mean she feels any better about the way that they left things. A boy swept up in their carnage-- “the boy brought me this last one. Didn’t even ask him to.” She sits down one barstool away from him and wonders if he’s thinking about that too.

But he’s scratching. Not at his hands but at the tumbler he twirls lazily around, mesmerized by the amber liquid in it. He throws what little is left into his mouth and grimaces, not at the taste but at the scab he’s just pulled free. She watches the blood fall.

He gets good at stopping her attacks.

“There’s nothing we could have done,” he breathes, the hurt in his voice the only reason she doesn’t shoot him down with a scowl. For some reason, he takes the seat across from her and pushes a coffee to her. She looks at the mug and then at him. His head dipped, eyes on the sludge he’s calling a peace treaty.

She wraps her hands around the mug. The effect of the warmth is immediate. “I know,” she admits, sipping at the liquid. God, that pisses her off. He always makes the coffee perfect. She can’t even make her coffee the way she likes.

He hums, shaking his head. “I think…” he glances at her and looks out the window. “I think I’m still trying to convince myself that.” The soft admission is so… unlike him. Where is the gruff push? The fire in his eyes. She finds only hard truth. Standing rooted where he is, he frowns with something he can’t convince himself isn’t worry.

Where does she go? Tonight, he will go home and find it empty. Which is fine because he can’t be around Haley and Jack on a night like this. He is no husband. No father. He needs to remind himself of the emptiness that is Aaron Hotchner. The pain and the torture. He’s not meant to be a father and he pushes his father’s legacy a little harder each day he pretends his marriage is a happy one.

If she can not get lost in these faux realities… What does she do?

Him. She does him.

For a month he convinces himself that he can fix the little pieces of his marriage but finds his hands covered in the jagged wounds of the glass carnage. As it turns out, some things simply refuse to go back together. He bleeds and bleeds and Emily, of all people, comes to mend his aches. Moving him away from the fragments, forcing him to let go.

The sex is harsh. He’s rough and she lets him. Urging him on with the roll of her own hips, his hair gripped tightly in her hand. They’ve hurt one another gravely and to know his weaknesses makes her that much better at drowning out his pleasure. She’s surprised to find that his mouth isn’t just good for smart ass remarks.

It sparks something deep within them both.

“Garcia thought she heard…” JJ tightens her mouth, forcing her smile down. She glances over at Garcia, the two sharing smiles that can’t be hidden. For the first time in a while, Garcia came with them on a case. Meaning their usual splitting of the rooms didn’t work so Emily, instead of rooming with JJ, roomed with Hotch.

Garcia smirks at Emily, “I just heard someone up last night.”

Emily knows exactly what they heard. She feigns innocence none-the-less. “Late?” she asks. “I was in bed as soon as we got back.” Which is true because she had Hotch pinned to the wall with a hand down his trousers before the door could swing completely shut behind them. It didn’t take long for him to flip the script and have her on the bed. “I doubt it was anyone from the team, weren’t you all exhausted?”

Garcia accepts that as an answer. For now, that’s reasonable enough. It’s rather silly, is it not, to assume something is going on between Hotch and Emily, of all people. They really sell their pitch with the heated, just under their breath, argument that they have only an hour later. Though it isn’t to save face but because he’s an asshole sleep-deprived and she’s, truly, exhausted for the same reason. JJ and Garcia both feel rather stupid for having thought the commotion the night before could be them.

Six months later, it happens again.

“We were arguing,” Emily offers with hefty-sigh. She’s not just selling her role. Lately, they’ve had to repeatedly come to a heated, uncomfortable debate. Their relationship, what it is and what is really isn’t, is being questioned. Are they enough to power through the last year? Should they be something that makes it through the next?

She rubs at her eyes, careful to keep her hair brushed over her neck. While she’d checked and double checked this morning for any marks on her neck, Hotch has been rather nippy (in all sense of that word) and the last thing she needs is explaining some rogue hickey he’s placed. Unlike him, she doesn’t have a high collar to hide behind.

JJ raises an eyebrow but says nothing. The two of them are going through something, the whole team has noticed. Though, if they’re honest, they don’t suspect the rocks and tumbles of a relationship getting onto its feet. They’re waiting for one of them to snap. Whether it be Emily, who will likely pack up her belongings and leave. Regardless of her love for the team. Hotch… well, he’s losing his grip on his so solidly built and reinforced shields. His pain and discontent are slipping through his armor.

“Arguing?”

Emily sighs, nodding. “He’s an asshole,” she mumbles. “What do you want me to say?” Her tone, tense and defensive, raises a little more attention than she meant it to. Lowering her head, she digs her fingers into her temples. She’s not sure if it’s better or worse that Hotch notices immediately as he walks into the room. There’s a tense moment, the two of them just staring at each other, before he clears his throat and jumps right back into the problem at hand.

The case always comes first. Their relationship after every other conceivable thing.

It makes sense, for them, until it doesn’t.

“This isn’t what you signed up for.”

Up until that moment, he’d considered himself hiding fairly well behind his scowl. Aaron is safely nestled where Hotch can’t hurt him and, what scares him even more, is how protected he is from Prentiss. Because Emily might have tears streaming down her face right now but he knows he’s looking at Prentiss. From the steel in her dark eyes to the conviction that feels, and is, so misplaced.

He swallows around the stupidity that tries to come fumbling out of his mouth. Something sentimental, foolish. “I don’t understand,” he manages. It has taken him his entire adult life to admit to that. To find the courage to say when he doesn’t follow and all for what? To sit here, at her hospital bedside, and grit out the confession. He can’t fucking say I love you but he can consume the poison of letting go.

To succumb where he should fight.

“Please,” she whispers, softly. But she hadn’t been the other half watching. Unable to do a damn thing while her screams, the muffled sounds of her body hitting the walls, had filled his head. He’d listened as Cyrus beat her. In a way, no he didn't sign up for this. No one in a relationship wants every thought about their partner to be about the end. Will it come soon? Leaving one partner to grieve the other longer than they knew each other? To answer to that mourning call-- what is left when all you are is taken? What parts of him are really her?

“If it’s what you want.” he rasps.

She turns her head, barring to him the sight of the bruise that takes up the right side of her jaw. That’s answer enough.

Dave takes her home from the hospital that evening, wondering what exactly it is that’s happened. He noticed the two of them today. He’s not stupid. “How are you feeling?” he asks, looking over at her on his passenger seat. Getting hurt happens but this is the first time she’s ever had to call someone to pick her up. Dave knows, in that way a parent knows that the silence of their children spells encroaching doom, who was supposed to drive her home tonight. One might call it, also, parental intuition.

She doesn’t lift her head from the window. Doesn’t even look at him. “Fine.”

Dave knows Hotch will answer with the same answer Monday when they return from the office.

Calling the two of them tense is an understatement.

Emily returns to work and they steer clear of her. The whispers follow her weary body around like a cloak. That she can manage. That is nothing.

It’s his absence that she feels.

Her coffee tastes odd. She’s grown used to the way that he makes it. Too strong and with no creamer but no matter what she does it just doesn’t taste the same. He’s even ruined tea. His mouth always tasted of Earl Grey or the bitter remnants of his coffee. Now, even smelling Earl Grey twists a knife within her. One she buried herself.

He’s fucking everywhere.

It’s driving her mad.

The worst part is that he’s not there.

In her bed, she rolls over. Throwing a leg over where his hips would usually be. She finds nothing but soft, used cotton. Not even the pillow carries the lingering scent of him.

His sweater hangs over a chair in her room but it’s absent of his warmth. She’s worn it too often and now she can’t even bring it to her face to pretend he’s here.

Nightmares plague her sleep and she wonders if this is penance for breaking his heart or if he’d just kept them away.

She watches, one night, as her nightmares crawl out of her ears sneer right back at her.

“Where’s Hotch?” Emily falls into step with JJ.

The blonde shrugs, “I called him twice. He’ll just have to meet us here when he wakes up.”

Though she falters, body stiffening and pausing, she tries to carry on unbothered. Seemingly unbothered by this progression. Hotch never lets his phone go to voicemail.

She’s the one that finds him four hours later. Lying supine, unresponsive in a hospital bed. The doctor’s words roll right off her, she takes in only that he will, eventually, be okay. And she wonders what it would have been like to really lose him. Not to just yearn for him but to not even avoid his eye in the hall. To hover with her finger over his contact and for there to be no possibility that he’ll answer.

Dead.

He could have died.

Stupidly, foolishly, she takes his hand. His eyes crack open and she pretends she doesn’t see his immediate relief followed far too closely by the pain. Physically brought on by the wounds of both her hands and Foyet’s.  “I almost lost you,” she says.

He closes his eyes when she kisses him but when they pull apart he grimaces. Consciousness is painful, miserable. Her hand clutched by his, he manages a few weak breaths. Each one builds the strength to speak. “You can’t lose what you never had,” he answers, a moment later. By the time the cruelness of his truth has hit her, he’s slipped back under the drugs. His hand limp and clammy.

He’s right, though.

They both knew where he was coming in. The ins and outs of his embrace. That he’d pull her in and push her away in the same breath. Afraid, too afraid, to try at this again and, yet, he’d tried. He might not have had the strength to manage love but he’d held her through the nights. He knew her favorite foods and was never shy about tearing her apartment apart for missing the heating pad if she needed.

And what had she done for him?

She’d tricked him. Lured him in with the lies that she could do this. But she’s still drawn tightly. A bow that lashes out. Hurting others before they have a chance to hurt her and, as a result, she’s killed him more than Foyet could have dreamed.

Mostly, what he means is that she never allowed herself to have him. She never had him and, yet, she misses him every step of the way.

They have one another one last time.

She settles her hips over his and looks everywhere but the agitated, raised scars across his chest. He’s not cleared for strenuous activity but if he can’t have her, can’t feel her lips moving up his jaw and her fingers snaking up his side he’s certain that will kill him far sooner than any strain to his body. He’d rather die by her hand anyhow.

After that, there is no more, but it lingers thickly in the air.

She’s still Emily when her name comes out of his mouth. She still watches his lips, wondering if she were to capture them with her own if they would still taste the same. He looks for her first when things get dangerous and it’s his name she wakes up crying.

Haley dies. Emily puts distance between them but he still looks for her first.

“Please,” she places her hands on his chest. Forcing his body away even though just the feeling of her palms pressed to his chest sends yearning straight down her spine. “Aaron,” his name comes choked. “Please, if you knew me, if you had any idea of the things that I have done you’d run. I need you to run, don’t you understand that?”

He looks down at her, mouth open. Can she not see him? That he is a man made up of scars and scabs. A wound that bleeds. He picks and pokes and he bleeds all over everything. “I don’t run,” he says. He hadn’t run from the carnage of his marriage. Can’t she remember picking him up after that whole affair. Digging the glass from his hands where he’d stabbed and ripped himself to shreds to catch the falling debris of a life he thought he still had.

She deflates, sinking into the realization that her love is the worst thing for him right now. It’s a drug to him and she’s given him far too much. “I know,” she says, a tear slipping down her cheek. “Because you never know what’s good for you.”

His fingers ghost over her cheek and holds her face in his hand. “You let me decide what’s good for me,” he whispers. “I can protect myself, Emily.”

Not against this, she thinks. Not against her. He’s never known when to pull away and when to fight harder. It’s going to get him killed.

But it’s her laying on the ground, impaled, gasping for breath.

Hotch sees her blood all over Morgan’s hands. The hitch in the younger man’s choked breath as he recounts what happened. Attempting and failing to keep the details straight as he tells Hotch, in great detail, what happened. The way she’d lost reality for glimpses. Asked for him. Called out for Aaron, not Hotch, but Aaron. And Hotch doesn’t know what to say when Morgan rises to his feet and challenges-- “What the fuck was that about? What did you two do?”

But it’s fine because JJ comes out and places Morgan right back into his chair, silencing him with seven words. All hitting a little harder, too solidly across his shoulders. “She never made it off the table.”

Emily Prentiss never let herself love Aaron Hotchner but that never stopped him. And, in the end, she’d been there. Through Foyet, she’d been there. Where was he when she needed him?

He sends her to London with JJ, his goodbye rushed, and guilt.

She’s in London. He goes to Afghanistan. Neither make it home entirely alive.

She should have known. 

Admittedly, she is a little wine drunk. Tipsy, really. Inhibitions lowered in the warmth of Dave’s living room. She’s missed them all so terribly that the ache of their absence being lifted has left her exhausted. She’d been in a near daze when she’d taken her wine and moved to the couch. Leaning into Dave’s side when he’d taken the seat beside her. While Jack and Henry recount the events of every day she’s missed according to their greatest accuracy.

Their silly little stories are well worth the soft laughter it draws from the others.

“Where are you going?”

So now, as she stands and leaves Dave’s side cold-- she’s not sure what she was expecting to find in the depths of his eyes but the fear is startling. “Water,” she says, holding up her empty glass. “Water and to pee, I’ve had way too much wine.” She tips the glass and winks at Jack. Trying her best to lighten the mood she hadn’t realized she’d tank just by standing.

Garcia peels herself from the chair she’s sharing with Morgan, ignoring the way he seems to startle at the aspect of losing her pressed into his side. “I’ll join you on the bathroom run, pumpkin,” she says, collecting her glass and Morgan’s from the table at their side. “Another drink, my chunky hunky?”

Morgan smirks but shakes his head, “no thanks, Baby Girl. Someone has to be sober for the drive home.”

As good as that plan sounds, Hotch still grunts. The room’s attention shifting to their leader. He’s been startlingly silent, even for him, all afternoon. Seemingly tucked away from every encounter they’ve had amongst themselves. “You’ve all had too much to drink to drive home,” he says. “You should… calls cabs.” The strength of his interjection leaves his voice as Emily meets his eyes. He lowers his gaze and with it, the point of his statement.

Dave does not fail to notice this. Clearing his throat, he agrees. “I’ll go call your cabs.” He stands, rubbing a hand down his face. Fingers working into the creases of his lips. “Aaron,” he nods his old friend over. “Give me a hand?”

That sets about the motion of the room.

Emily’s making her way down the hall when Garcia catches her. “What is it,” Emily asks, playfully. She waits for Garcia to catch up to her, holding out her hand for what she’s expecting to be a trip full of the secrets of her and Derek’s relationship. Something good. A win.

“Can you make him stay?”

Emily desperately wants to pull from Garcia’s hold. Her grip is intense, desperate. She tries to pull away from Garcia’s hold. “What?” she asks softly, looking over her shoulder for some help. “Who? Who needs to stay?”

The desperation in Garcia’s eyes is unsettling. She lowers her voice even more pulling them closer. Her voice breaks as she says it. Tears swelling and running against the mascara over her eyelashes-- “Hotch.” She clenches her teeth, showing the most self-restraint Emily’s seen since they stepped foot in this hall. “He left us,” she breathes, sadly. “A month after you were gone. I went to his office--” her eyes dart as she speaks. “I started bringing him coffee every morning to cheer him up.”

Emily swallows thickly around the guilt that creeps up. Her death had broken them. She’d known that, of course. She just hadn’t considered Hotch. Brave and strong and it’s so hard to tell when he’s hurting. Then to bare her lie? Another cross on his back. More weight on his shoulders.

“I went in--” the tears fall as Garcia’s voice shakes. “He wasn’t there. He’d cleaned his office up and you know how he is.” That big oak desk is always littered with paperwork. One side to the other. He stacks it everywhere. Leaving pens from one end of the room to the other. You can’t even sit on that old couch of his without getting stabbed in the ass by a pen he’s lost. “Clean,” Garcia whispers. “He just left, in the middle of the night. By the time we came in, by the time we could find him he was already over there. Afghanistan.”

The word makes Emily’s chest tighten. What the hell could he be doing over there? That station is always looking for profilers but it’s a death trap. Hotch had said it himself, warning her when they’d sent her the special request. They’ve been operational for five years and gone through seven profilers. All of which have died. No one makes it out of that station alive.

And he’d gone.

“Why would--” she doesn’t even want to finish the question. Doesn't want to put the truth into action. Admit that she knows exactly why he did it.

At least over there he’d die a hero. Leave his son a flag and another parent to bury.

It’s faster than anything he could swallow over here.

Garcia squeezes Emily’s arm, bringing her back to the present moment. To the thing in question. “Can you bring him back,” she whispers frantically. “Can you make him stay?”

Emily doesn’t honestly know. Has she ever been able to make him do anything? “Garcia, I--” Her mouth snaps shut as the man in question steps into the hall. His eyes dart between them and Emily feels rather like a mouse caught in a trap.

He clears his throat and scratches uncertainly at the beard he’s let grow back in. “I was just…” he looks at Garcia and then back at Emily. Clearly caught off guard. “Dave-- I… You’re, ah, the hotel is close to me. I thought I’d save you the cab fare if you wanted to ride back--”

“Yes.” Emily nods, far too quickly. “Thanks,” she says, looking anywhere but at him. “I’d, ugh, I’d appreciate that.”

Hotch looks between Garcia and Emily, before nodding and ducking his head. He leaves the hall, with a slightly awkward nod and steps out. Hands going to his pocket. Hiding.

“Will you try,” Garcia whispers.

Emily watches him walk away. The apprehension in his hesitant movements. His hand scratching at the back of his head until he can hide behind the shield of Jack’s eager talking. Sinking down beside the boy on the couch and hiding himself there. “I don’t know,” she admits, honestly.

The only person that can pull him from the ledge is Hotch and she’s seen him toe it once before.

Packing things up is simple enough.

Hotch stands towards the edge of the hall, Jack slowly falling asleep in his arms.

“Sleepy,” Emily asks Jack, running her fingers through his soft brown hair. Jack shakes his head but doesn’t raise it from Hotch’s shoulder. Hotch has wrapped him in his jacket rather than choosing to fight the boy into it. It’s more a blanket. She pulls it up around him a little better. “You’re not tired,” she asks. “I am. I can’t wait to get to bed.”

Jack smiles but doesn’t admit to the exhaustion weighing his little bones down. “Are you gonna sleep with us?” he asks. He looks down at her with the soft of his father’s. Same impossible depth is hidden behind light brown iris’. It breaks her heart to see the turmoil within him.

Emily frowns but she’s not forced to tell the little boy no. Instead, Hotch’s hand comes to the back of his head. Cupping his neck as Hotch turns to face her. “You don’t have to do anything,” he clarifies with an all too familiar look in his eyes. Mischief. A plan. “We do have the guest room. With clean sheets. You could come home with us.”

Home.

To a real bed.

“I…” she can’t force out the polite no her mother has solidified in her mind the answer to be. No because that’s not fair or right or-- she really wants to sleep in a normal bed.

He bumps her shoulder, “just say yes.”

She looks at him and then at Jack. It’s not a hard thing to want to go home with the two of them. After Foyet, she’d spent many nights camped out on their couch. Waiting for father or son to wake in a panic. He’d done the same in the hospital after Doyle, sleeping on an uncomfortable little cot just so the first thing she saw each time she woke up was someone she knew.

Now it’s different. The dynamic has changed. While he might not know the course of the night has changed, she does.

She just doesn’t know it’s a futile battle.

There is no use fighting over stupid things like sleeping. He tucks Jack into his bed and meets her in his room. She’s already pulled on his shirts over her head. Refraining, forcing herself from burying her face in the material.

It doesn’t stop her from curling into bed beside him. Pressing her face into his shoulder and focusing solely on his hand slipping under her shirt. “You tired…” he asks. She shakes her head. He hums as he thinks. Dragging his thumb over her hip bone, stroking the soft skin. “First crush,” he whispers, ghosting his lips over her neck.

She laughs at that, twisting in his grip to tilt her hips across his. Settling closer to his chest. Drawing her hand up she draws against his skin. “This girl named…” she taps at his chest as she fails to remember the girl’s name. “I can’t remember her name,” she admits, faintly. Blushing. “Does that surprise you?”

Hotch’s eyes have slipped shut, his face turned into her hair. He hums, scrunching his eyebrows. “Surprised about what,” he asks softly. “That you can’t remember her name or that it’s a she?” He pulls her closer, wrapping an arm around her hips.

Emily just… looks at him. He hasn’t even opened his eyes. He’s not even going to comment? She bites her lip and lowers her head back down. “What about you?”

“None. It’s… I’ve only ever--” he blushes, averting his eyes. “Only Haley and you.” He clears his throat… “That’s why I always tried,” he whispers. “Why I tried so hard…”

“It’s not like I didn’t try,” she defends, pulling away from his embrace. “I was trying to protect you from this whole mess. You’re the one who didn’t know when to stop.”

“I don’t know where you get off blaming me,” he says, pulling himself away. He sits up in the bed, turning himself so she can sit and stare at the wall of his back. Little scars marking up his back as he places his arms on his knees. “You ran, Emily. Every single time, you run. Not me.”

Neither look at the other.

“I’m sleeping on the couch,” he announces. “Stay. Don’t make me explain to Jack why you’re not here in the morning.”

She stays where she is. She turns this over in her mind. His words are an open palm slap to the face. She sleeps in his bed, holding onto his pillow and burying her face into the scent. She doesn’t leave but only because she doesn’t want to have to walk past him. This feels like winning so she stays. She eats breakfast with them in the morning, playing and laughing with Jack like she always has.

Like she always does.

“I leave Thursday, if you care.”

She says nothing which is perfect because he’s not sure he can handle anything she might think of.

She knows, without having to be told, that they blame her for not being to keep him here. And, maybe it’s her fault, because she didn’t really try, did she? She did what also does, she hurt him. Now she’s sitting here all alone, wondering what she could have done differently.

Everything.

“We’ll see you when you get home.”

She stands at the back of the group, watching the other’s pull him into hugs. Dave holds Hotch for a long moment, speaking softly so only the two of them can hear what’s being exchanged. Hotch pulls away from that hug with tears falling down his cheeks. “Don’t make me bury another son, Aaron. Please be careful.” And that’s when he sees her.

Derek pushes her forward and she feels all of them watching as she makes her way to him.

“I didn’t think you’d come,” he confesses. He doesn’t care that the others are watching. They know enough. They’ve always known.

She feels guilty and she should. “You told me goodbye,” she reminds him. He’d kissed her right before they sent her to London with a packet of new names and passports. To be someone other than Emily. For a second chance. “It--” she looks away. She’s running, again, she knows. And she has to stop running. “It was the only thing that kept me alive, Aaron. I couldn’t let you leave without having told you the truth--”’

He glances up and back to her. Just for a moment, he wonders if the others should be hearing all this but--maybe they’re past all that. Pretending is how people get killed, they learned that with Emily, and he really doesn’t feel like being their repeat.

“I love you,” she confesses. “I know you love me, you always have. I’m sorry that I keep--” fucking it up. “I love you and I need you to come home, okay? So I can stop running.”

He doesn’t believe her. He wants to believe her but everything about Emily Prentiss always hurts and he knows it’s stupid to trust her. “Okay,” he says, afraid anything more will send her for the hills before he can even leave the country. And like an idiot, he bends his neck into her touch. Letting her rise up on her toes to kiss him. “I promise,” he whispers.

Jessica gets the call at midnight. The Bachelor finale had ended hours ago but she’d been sucked into some History channel rerun about ancient Mesopotamia. It’s the haze of the light hour, the warmth of the undertones of sand, the steady deep voice narrating, and the blanket curled around her shoulders that puts her to sleep. She doesn’t stand a chance after the day she’s had.

The call comes at 12:34 and the urgent ringing of her cell-phone makes her heart kick painfully at her chest. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes with one hand, she accepts the call without looking to see who it is. Not that her tired eyes would have recognized the caller anyway.

Not serving as a soldier, the process for notifying the family of any health changes requires a different take. For Aaron Hotchner, it’s put into the FBI’s hand. He’s their tool after all, not the US Army’s.

“I’m sorry to wake you, ma’am,” the voice offers.

Jessica scowls at the formality, sitting up on the couch and desperately searching for the remote. She kills the screen and the room is bathed in silence, aiding her ability to understand and think about what’s going on. “Ugh, can I help you?” She pushes her hair up out of her face, searching the ground and coffee table for a spare hair tie.

“I’m calling in regards to Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. I understand this number is supposed to be the personal line of Jessica Brookes? You’re his emergency contact--”

He deployed in October. Giving her only a week’s heads-up. He’d had the decency to look ashamed of himself, of the state of being he’s caused for them all. She’d understood his situation. Losing his friend had broken him irreparably and he’d wanted to talk about that even less than he had Haley. At least he’d warned her, she knows he hadn’t extended his team the same courtesy.

The man on the line goes on. Something about moving bases and a promise to get back to her as soon as possible.

“Thank you for your service,” the man concludes.

Jessica blinks, frowning at the phrasing. Aaron wasn’t serving. He was punishing himself. This was penance.

“Goodnight.”

She sits back on the couch, eyes vacantly taking in the wall in front of her. He’s on his way home. That’s good but she can’t help but… he’s hurt. Hurt enough for them to discard him back here. How bad is it?

Emily can’t deny her horror.

His eyes move to the blanket. To the empty space of where his limb once was. “It’s… It’s just a leg,” he whispers. He blinks heavily once, twice, and sighs softly as he fails to keep his eyes open. Humming, he parts his chapped lips but can’t find any more words. He’s too tired. “Could be…” his voice slurs and he exhales a heavy breath. “...worse.”

Emily wants to hit him but she’s done being defensive. She’s tired of being the first one to pull away. For once, she just needs to be the one that holds onto a hug a little longer. That lingers. “You could have died,” she whispers thickly. Gently, hesitantly she touches his hand. To her surprise he is the one to move, intertwining their fingers. She sits by his side, eyes glued the empty part of the bed. The nothing of where his leg is supposed to be. Does it really matter that much, though? A single leg?

Not to her. She’s had months to pretend. Every night she has escaped to a new reality with him. Come up with every variety of reality that might occur. What she’d do if he’d come perfectly fine and how they’d have kids and he’d never wake in the middle of the night with nightmares because she’d kill his monsters. How she would cope if he came home horribly disfigured or entirely different. Would it matter? They’d still be Aaron and Emily.  

“I’ll never walk again,” he informs her. His head is tilted into the pillows, casually watching his news wash over her. He wants to know if she’ll stay if he can’t go. If all these years were about the chase, would she stay if he can no longer follow?

She sits down in the chair pulled up to the side of the bed. People have been in and out all afternoon but she’s the first one to receive this news. The other’s don’t really matter because he knows the script, can imagine how each of them react. Garcia will cry. JJ will too but not until she’s leaving. Dave will take it well but he’ll utter something strangely sentimental and sober with the realization that walking was never the priority of Hotch coming home. Morgan and Reid are his wild cards and he doesn’t want to tell them at all. But that’s just not how this works.

“At least you won’t go running off on me.”

He knows what she means, the implication and the diversion. With a huff he raises an eyebrow, “I’ve never been a runner, Emily.”

Emily.

No, she supposes, he never has. “If you can’t run,” she says, heart skipping around in her chest. She feels it pulsing in her throat, tossing itself around in her stomach. “If you can’t run then I won’t run.” She stands, swallowing thickly around the swell of fear in her throat. He watches her, looking up at her as she hovers for just a moment. When she kisses him there are no sparks. Something cold, icy runs it’s fingers into the grooves of her spine but she’s not gripped by any startling realizations.

It’s too late for that.

But he tastes like Aaron and to a girl who’s never had a home in one place, she’s only ever running. Here, against him, she knows what people mean they say a person can be a home. Because she wants to curl into him and forget the edges of Emily. Aaron. It’s always been Aaron.

It surprises him that she stays. She waited until things got hard.

“I’m going to have to go to physical therapy every week.”

She shrugs, “I’ve got a library of books waiting for me to read them. I’ll tackle my reading list.”

“I can’t walk,” he reminds her.

She raises an eyebrow, “so? I didn’t love you before because of your ability to walk.”

“Emily--” he needs her to understand this isn’t as easy as she’s making it. Using the bathroom, showering, sex isn’t even going to be easy. She can’t just brush it off like it’s not going to bother her. It’s bothering him! “Emily, I can’t hold your hand when we go downtown. I’m going to need your help taking a shower and getting to the bathroom. I’m going to have to look for a new apartment because the one I have, there’s no way I can work a wheelchair around in it. It’s-- I’m not the same! We’re not the same!”

She knows. Yesterday she asked Morgan to rig up something in the bathroom. She spent hours with Morgan trying to put a handle or a rail in beside the toilet without ruining the wall. Ordered a shower chair last week that Morgan is probably putting together right now. Garcia and JJ are looking for apartments with larger floor plans because she doesn’t want to be presumptuous and assume he’d want to move into a house with her. But she’s waiting for the right time to bring it up.

“Maybe that’s for the best,” she says. “That we’re not the same. I’m different too.” Does she need to create her own list? Dedicating it all to words for him to comb over. She can’t sleep through the night. Even though it had been a wooden stake that had “killed” she can’t hold a knife. Her hands tremble, this weakness she can’t explain. Her abdomen is just scars, riddled with ugly skin hardened by trauma. Is he prepared to see that?

“Look at me,” she says, squeezing his hand. “It’s been me and you for years. You’re the only thing I really know. So, I’ll take you as you come. However you come. You loved me when I ran, I can love you with a little baggage.”

He frowns, trying to find an out. Not or himself but for her. But she’s unwavering. “Baggage,” he finally caves. He smirks, shaking his head. “Of all the words in the language you know and you pick baggage?”

She cringes, shrugging, “I didn’t really think about it. It just came out.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

She smiles, “you love it.”

He hesitates for a moment but nods, “I do.”

[365days365movies]

February 2, 2021: Pretty Woman (1990)

ALL RISE FOR THE KING AND QUEEN OF ROMANCIA!

First, we bow to the Actor King of Romancia, Richard Gere. Gere is a DYNAMO of romantic movies, having starred in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Sommersby, Autumn in New York, Chicago, Shall We Dance?, Runaway Bride, and of course, Pretty Woman. He was crowned king of this fictionation both because of his film prowess, and because DUDE HAS DATED A LOT OF FAMOUS PEOPLE GODDAMN

Second, we bow to the Actress Queen of Romancia, Julia Roberts.

Roberts’ resume is equally romantic, including films such as Notting Hill, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Eat Pray Love, Steel Magnolias, Mystic Pizza, Runaway Bride, and of course, Pretty Woman. She was crowned queen of this fictionation because, I mean...it’s Julia Roberts, man. Who else was gonna be queen, Meg Ryan? She’s too busy ruling the Holy Romance Empire.

Yes. Yes, I will be visiting the Holy Romance Empire soon.

Anyway, one of the advisors to this great land was the now sadly passed Garry Marshall, a seasoned romantic movie director, responsible for The Princess Diaries (and its terrible sequel), Beaches, Runaway Bride (shit, should I watch this one?), and those bad holiday romance movies from the late 2000′s. You know, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day? Yeah, that’s the guy.

Marshall was appointed an advisor of Romancia because of his role as director of the film...you know.

Enough navel-gazing; let’s get into Pretty Woman, shall we? I, for one, am looking forward to venturing further into the land of Romancia! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

We start at a party where...George Costanza?

Huh! Phil Stuckey (Jason Alexander), a lawyer and kind of an asshole, is romancing women at a party, held on the behalf of Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), a businessman from New York. However, he’s currently in California away from his unhappy girlfriend back east, who’s feeling a tad neglected by the constantly busy Edward.

Meanwhile, on a less-than-great side of town lives Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), a prostitute working the mean streets of Hollywood. Making her way to the red-light district, she enters the Blue Banana Club (which is...a name, that’s for sure), where she finds her roommate Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo). Laura’s unfortunately spent their rent on drugs, during the height of the cocaine epidemic in Hollywood.

The two meet each other on the street, where Edward’s lost, and struggling with Phil’s stick-shift Lotus Espirit. She offers to give him directions for money, and he reluctantly accepts. She gets in, and guides him back to his hotel. As he struggles to drive, she displays her knowledge of cars from back home. He then offers to drive the car for him, and also shows her prowess as a driver. Which...is pretty neat.

He asks how much she makes in her profession, as the two roll up to his hotel. As they begin to part ways, he asks her instead to accompany him into the hotel. She’s about as charmed and gawky as I would be going into a sick-ass hotel like that. The elevator in it has a FUCKING SOFA INSIDE, YES PLEASE

Edward’s a little embarrassed by her gawking, but they quickly get past it. Edward’s graveyard-still complacency is contrasted by her manic pixie energy. Not that she’s a manic pixie dream girl...I think. It’s more of a “rock-and-balloon” relationship deal. When Vivian busts out the condoms (she’s a “safety-girl”), Edward instead says he wants to “talk.”

During this talk, it’s revealed that his girlfriend has officially broken up with him, leaving him conspicuously single. He asks if she can stay the entire night, and she agrees for a price, to which he gladly agrees. They spend the night getting to know each other, although Edward is doing business during much of it. And she’s watching TV, and it gives off these kinda weird daddy-daughter vibes (not kink-shaming, mind you), and it’s...mildly uncomfortable.

This quickly progresses into her beginning to seduce him, and the two presumably have sex. We cut away just before anything happens, though. Afterwards, Edward takes a shower, as Vivian falls asleep, taking her wig off for the first time.

The next morning, Edward talks to Phil about an upcoming business purchase, when Vivian walks into the room. He’s ordered breakfast for them. ALL OF THE BREAKFAST. Seriously, everything on the menu. Motherfucker, do you KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE ROOM SERVICE IS? WE GET IT YOU’RE RICH

He reveals just how rich he is, noting that he buys companies on the brink of failure, and then sells pieces of the companies he buys. Vivian equates this to a chop-shop, which seems extremely accurate. On another call, Phil tells him that it would be better if he had a date. And it looks like...he already has one.

Yeah, Phil “hires” Vivian to be his girlfriend for a week. For $3000, she accepts, and I feel just a little icky. And yet...I dunno, we’ll see. He’s doing this purely to avoid romantic attachment, which is a little weird, but understandable? Maybe?

At this point, we get one of the most iconic scenes in the film, as the uptight women at a Rodeo Drive store tell her to leave, like assholes. They’ll get their comeuppance, though. OHHHHHH, THEY’LL get it. This compounds when the hotel manager, Barnard “Barney” Thompson (Héctor Elizondo), questions her presence there. And while it seems that he’s going to kick her out, he actually helps her out with an outfit.

Meanwhile, Edward’s business deal begins to go somewhat south, until Edward takes advantage of GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION. Anyway, Vivian goes to a local department store, where Barney��s friend Bridget (Elinor Donahue) helps her out with a cocktail dress. When she heads back, Barney acts like a bro once again and teaches her proper etiquette, Emily Post style.

Edward heads back to the hotel, where Vivian is waiting for him. And she looks cuuuuuuuuuuute. Edward thinks so, too, and they head to the corporate dinner. There waitselderly businessman James Morse (Ralph Bellamy), and his grandson David (Alex Hyde-White). We get a taste of just how vicious of a businessman Edward is, and Vivian makes a much better impression on the Morses than Edward does. Also, Eddie’s kind of a sociopath, huh? Or, at least, he has some sociopathic tendencies. I dunno his pure emotionlessness is rubbing me a weird way.

After the dinner goes VIOLENTLY south, the two begin to relate to each other a bit more. He notes that he prefers not to bring emotion into business, although he apparently does like Mr. Morse. He also notes that his father died a month ago, but it doesn’t appear to affect him much. Still he heads downstairs to get some air. Later, Vivian gets the bellhop, Dennis (Patrick Richwood) to help her find him, and she does. He’s playing piano like a GODDAMN MANIAC HOLY SHIT! Just like, “Don’t mind me, I’m just playing an operetta to PUT THE KNIFE FEELINGS TO SLEEP IAMTHEZODIACKILLER.” This manic performance is followed by the two just...fuckin’ on the piano. They just FUCK IN THE LOUNGE RIGHT ON THAT PIANO JESUS CHRIST GUYS

The next morning, post-musex, they go to get outfits together, in which Gere buys a massive set of outfits, and we get the first makeover montage this month! He also flashes even more sociopathic flair with a clothing store owner, goddamn. And that’s...when we get the song.

I mean, we had to get this song in here at some point, right? She also engages in the most iconically HUGE moment of the film. You know what I’m talking about, and it’s beautifully cathartic, my Lord.

Meanwhile, at work, Edward’s starting to...lose it, I guess? As Phil’s encouraging him to close in on Morse for the kill, Edward’s beginning to grow a heart. And may I note that he’s been in this relationship for TWO DAYS. Jesus, buddy, you’ve really never had a meaningful relationship, huh? They eventually go to a polo match for business reasons, here Phil finally meets Vivian. Vivian also notices that none of the high-society people here seem like, well...friends.

Turns out that David Morse is one of the polo players, and Vivian starts to speak with him. Phil, meanwhile, notices this, and suspects her of being a corporate spy. And Edward, like an ABSOLUTE ASSHOLE, tells her that Vivian’s a prostitute. Phil LITERALLY IMMEDIATELY GOES AFTER HER, and solicits her like a fucking CREEP.

This obviously very much upsets her, and she chews Edward out back at the hotel. And the argument that follows IMMEDIATELY puts me on Vivian’s side, because Edward’s being a sociopathic douchenozzle. Goddamn. She rightfully wants to leave, and he just lets her. And here’s the real kicker; she doesn’t take the money.

And that’s when Edward sincerely apologizes to her, as best as he can. And yeah, he’s a little sociopathic, but I can see that the dude is trying? The two make up, and once again open up to each other. Edward starts to realize, in turn, that he legitimately has feelings for her. And we head into the third act of the film.

The next day, Edward leaves work early to go on a date with Vivian, and Phil asks if the date is with “the hooker.” And Edwards flashes him a look that’s just...knifey. I’m still not convinced he isn’t the Zodiac Killer. He takes her to an opera in San Francisco, before which we get this scene.

Adorable. God, I love Vivian. Also Dennis and Barney are the best, and they’re super fucking invested, and I am HERE for it. Their date to the opera is...sublime. Understand, my girlfriend and I watched this entire film together, and we’re both in love with Vivian and the opera after it. Imma take her to the opera on a date one of these days, I swear it.

That night, they play chess together, and Edward actually takes the following day off. He also actually sleeps in a bed for once, instead of going to work. And this is when my girlfriend the following phrase:

Is he sculpting her, or is she sculpting him?

OK, that fantastic question is one of the reasons we’re together, but also a very interesting point. Lemme explain here. This is very much a Pygmalion story in a few ways. While not a straight adaptation by any means, this film is definitely taking a few ideas from the Pygmalion trope. See, if you don’t know, Pygmalion’s a Greek myth about a sculptor who falls in love with his statue. It’s been adapted multiple times throughout the history of the arts, but the most prominent version of this was the stage musical My Fair Lady, famously adapted into a film starring Audrey Hepburn in 1964.

And again, a lot of adaptations of that, too. While Pretty Woman isn’t explicitly an adaptation of either work, the themes are still present in the work. So, yeah, it’s a good point. In this version, she’s changing him as much as he’s changing her. The sculpture is sculpting the sculptor. Which is cool.

And then, as we had that cute little revelation, Vivian tells Edward that she loves him. And OH FUCK. It’s the last day. And when he says he doesn’t want this to be the last of them together, she takes it as romantic. But when he essentially proposes making her a beck-and-call girl, putting her up in an apartment and hooking her up with dresses...she’s understandably not interested. She says that, as a little girl, she dreamed of a white knight that would sweep her off her feet and take her away. But Edward isn’t that knight.

Have I mentioned how much I love Vivian? Because Vivian’s fuckin’ fantastic, Jesus Christ.

Edward decides to leave, and says that he’s done all he can at this point. He leaves, and she’s shattered. Kit, meanwhile, comes to visit her at the hotel, and she admits that she’s fallen in love with him. While Kit’s initially worried about it, she says that they could maybe settle down and buy some diamonds and a horse. I also love Kit.

Meanwhile, at the meeting with Mr. Morse, Edward turns the tables on Phil and his yes-men, and asks to speak with Mr. Morse alone. Phil’s gobsmacked by this, but agrees. Once they’re alone, Edward admits that he no longer wishes to buy his company and destroy it. Instead, he wants to help him rebuild his company. And Morse agrees, telling Edward that he’s proud of him.

Phil, EXTREMELY irritated by this, and decided to make his way to talk to Edward at the hotel. And that’s when he finds Vivian. FUUUUUUUUCK. As expected, Phil tries to r*pe her, and that’s when Edward shows up, and BEATS THE FUCK OUT OF HIM.

Edward tells Phil off, calling him an EVEN BIGGER sociopath than he is, and kicks him out. Friendship ended with Phil. Now Vivian is his best friend. But despite this, Vivian still realizes that their relationship, at least the one she wants, seems impossible. Conceding, and on his way back to New York now, Edward pays her, and tells her to call him if she ever needs anything. 

But he asks her to stay one more night with him, not because of money...BUT BECAUSE OF LOVE. And she replies that she can’t...and they part ways. Vivian goes to say goodbye to Barney, who still rules. He calls a cab for her, and says that she can visit them anytime. My girlfriend says that she would leave me for Barney, and I agree. I agree so much, because she deserves the best, and the best is Barney, and I could never BE Barney. 

I could never be Barney.

It’s over now, as the song in the background says, and Edward laments his lost relationship as the thunder rolls in. Vivian decides to finally go to San Francisco, and finish high school, inspired by Edward’s love and faith for her. She passes that faith onto Kit as she says goodbye. Fuuuuuuck, man, this goodbye hurts as well.

Edward goes to the lobby, and talks to Barney one last time. AND BARNEY TELLS EDWARD WHERE VIVIAN WENT, LIKE A GODDAMN CHAMPION. WHY CAN’T I BE AS PERFECT AS BARNEY????

He makes his way to her apartment, and buys flowers from a woman with a Cockney accent, WHICH IS A MY FAIR LADY REFERNCE! HOLY SHIT! He arrives in a white limo at her place, overcomes his fear of heights and climbs a fire escape in a metaphorical tower to rescue his princess. 

THAT’S HOLLYWOOD, BABY! And it’s Pretty Woman as well. That was a very heartwarming film, and I’m very glad that I watched it! Is it perfect? Ehhhhhhhh, see you at the Review.

[rosexjulika]

Hi everyone, I have watched miraculous since 2015, but I am new to the fandom. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. This is my first ever fan fic so please leave some criticism below because I don’t really know what I am doing. Enjoy!

Today was a normal Thursday afternoon for Marinette who had finished her homework and had nothing to do so she was brain storming about Hawk Moth to find out his identity. Marinette was thinking hard and she had the thought, “Hey Tikki, do you think that if Master Fu was able to make a senti monster for himself, then maybe hawk moth could accumatize himself and Hawk Moth could be Gabriel Agreste after all?”

Tikki responded, “No probably not Marinette, but that’s a good thought.”

Sass chimed in, “Actually, back in Tebet when they still had the butterfly miraculous one of the really immature monks wanted to fly. So they took the butterfly miraculous and my miraculous and created the akuma and detransformed from the butterfly miraculous to just mine accumatized themself. They flew for a couple of minutes then they used my power to go back so no one would know and they wouldn’t get in trouble.”

“Woah! So does that mean Gabriel Agreste really Is hawk moth?! This whole time we could have solved it! Master Fu would still be here and Chat Noir and I would have been done fighting him so long ago! This is a disaster! A disaster! A disaster!” Marinette yelled in frustration.

Tikki quickly tried to calmed Marinette and told her, “It is very sad that Master Fu is gone, but yelling won’t bring him back. What you need to do is investigate this further, it’s what Master Fu would have wanted.”

“I know Tikki you are right. So what should I do?”

Tikki replied, “Maybe you can transform into ladybug and spy through the windows, and Marinette do NOT use this as an excuse to be able to use your powers to spy on Adrien, do you hear me?”

“That’s a good idea Tikki and I promise I won’t.” Marinette answered. So Marinette decided to do just that and left soon after for Gabriel Agreste’s mansion. Marinette remembered how upset Chat Noir was when she told him her suspicions before, so she decided to wait until she could be positive.

Marinette arrived at Gabriel’s house as ladybug and was peering through the windows and saw Gabriel touching a portrait of his wife. Suddenly as he touched a portrait of his wife he started lowering into the floor. Ladybug was confused and knew she had to investigate further so she made a plan to come back that night when Gabriel was sleeping and sneak in.

It was now 2 AM and Marinette transformed into ladybug and headed over to Gabriel’s house. Ladybug found Gabriel’s bedroom window and saw him sleeping so she knew the coast was clear. Ladybug found an open window and snuck in. She managed to find the room Gabriel was in before and started playing with the portrait of his wife. Ladybug figured out that there seemed to be some buttons. She tried a bunch of combinations and eventually she got frustrated and pushed them all at once. Then the floor below her started moving down and she was suddenly in hawk moths lair. Ladybug was confused and scared, but she knew she had to keep her composure or she might wake someone up. She took some pictures and left before anyone could notice and went home.

It was the next day and Marinette knew she had to tell someone. Since Alya now knew Marinette’s secret identity Marinette told her asap. Alya at first didn’t believe her, but after Marinette told her about the book he had with the miraculous’ and showed her the pictures she took Alya was forced to believe her. Alya thought they should gather some more evidence so they could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, so she said to Marinette, “We should still do some more investigating and gather some more evidence so people will be forced to believe us. I have some security cams and I could bring them over to your house and we could have a sleepover. Then in the middle of the night you can give me my miraculous and we could both transform and go over there and set them up.”

“Good idea Alya. Be at my house by 8 PM so we can discuss when to leave and make sure we have a rock solid plan.”

That night Alya had arrived at Marinette’s house with camera’s to set up at Gabriel’s house. They decided that at 2 AM they would leave for Gabriel’s house and would set up the cameras and check them after someone was accumatized so that they knew that he would have had to transform.

It was around 2:30 AM and Marinette and Alya were at Gabriel’s house as Ladybug and Rena Rouge setting up the cameras and a thought crossed Rena Rouge’s mind that she had just blurted out “W-what if Adrien’s in on it?”

Ladybug responded, “what do you mean? Like he helps his dad with being hawk moth? Adrien would never do that, r-right?”

Rena Rouge said, “But I mean, think about it. It’s almost always someone Adrien knows and was around, so what if he is telling his dad to accumatize them and what if he just pretends that his dad is horrible to him so no one suspects it. And the accumatizations only started happening when Adrien started to go to school.”

Ladybug said, “Rena Rouge that’s craz- OMG IM IN LOVE WITH A SUPER VILLAIN!” Ladybug’s eyes started to tear up and as Ladybug was wiping away her tears they heard someone from the room above and suddenly Gabriel was coming in there. Ladybug wasn’t sure of what to do, but she remembered Alya was Rena Rouge, “Rena Rouge quickly use your illusion so that it looks like we aren’t here then we can sneak home.”

Rena Rouge replied, “you know I’m already on it, girl.” Rena Rouge quickly did this, but just as they were about to leave they heard Gabriel say, “Dark wings rise!” Suddenly it was Hawk Moth standing there.

“Rena Rouge I think we should stay so that we can see what he does”

Rena Rouge replied, “Good idea, but we need to be really careful.”

As they were standing there hidden in the illusion they heard Hawk Moth start talking to himself, “Emily I don’t know how much longer I can do this. Sometimes I think I will never defeat Ladybug and Chat Noir and I’ll never get you back. Life is horrible without you. Please just come back to me.”

Rena Rouge said “When he says Emily does he mean-?”

Ladybug chimed in, “I think so.”

“Adrien’s dead mom?” They both said at the same time.

“I can’t believe this! Poor Adrien! Is this even more of reason t-to that Adrien is helping his father Rena Rouge?”

“I think so. Are you going to be ok?” Rena Rouge asked.

“I, uh, I think so.” Ladybug’s voiced trailed off as they heard Hawk Moth quietly weeping and both couldn’t help but feel kind of bad for him. “Rena Rouge since Gabriel just transformed I think we should quickly remove the cameras so that I can tell Chat Noir asap. We’ll need to be sure we are Really careful so that we don’t mess up the illusion.”

“You didn’t tell him yet? Damn, girl, you’re crazy. It’s a little risky, but whatever you say boss.” Rena Rouge joked.

“I didn’t tell him because last time he seemed so upset so I wanted to make sure he was hawk moth for sure, ok?” Marinette said quickly.

“I’m not judging, but don’t you think he’ll be mad?” Rena Rouge replied.

“I, uh, I’m not sure. Anyway let’s just take the cameras,” So they quickly and very carefully removed the cameras.

When they arrived back at Marinette’s house, Marinette was worried because she didn’t know how she would tell Chat Noir. Her and Alya were exhausted from their stressful mission so they went straight to sleep and Marinette decided to worry about it in the morning.

It was the next morning and Alya had just left so Marinette started thinking of how to tell Chat Noir. Since her Chat Noir had patrol in a couple hours she figured that it would be a good time tell him. She made a plan to tell him that hawk moth was Gabriel then show him the footage and see how he reacts. If he reacts poorly she will wait to tell him her theory about Adrien, but if he reacts well then she will tell him then.

It was a couple hours later and Marinette was about to meet up with Chat Noir. She was nervous, but she knew to had to tell him. Marinette transformed into ladybug patrolled around Paris until she found him. “Hey bugaboo” Chat Noir teased.

“Oh, uh, hey kitty.” Ladybug struggled to say.

“Is something wrong?” Chat Noir asked.

“Well...” Ladybug was struggling because she was afraid he might be mad that she didn’t ask for his help.

“‘Well’ what? You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Ladybug knew she had to say it, so she just blurted it out, “Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste. Please don’t be mad at me for not asking for your help I only started investigating like a day and a half ago. I didn’t want to tell you because last time I told you it might be him you got so upset and seemed so relieved it wasn’t him. And- “

“It’s ok.” He interrupted. He didn’t show it, but Chat Noir felt crushed inside, but he also didn’t believe it fully. “Why do you think it’s him though?”

“Well I, uh, I kind of saw him transform-“

“What?! How?! That’s crazy!” Chat Noir interrupted in deisbelief. “Like you just saw him transform in broad daylight, or-?” He questioned.

“Well not exactly. Basically so you remember feast the senti monster we fought a while back, right?”

“Uh, yeah? But what does that have to do with this?”

“I was thinking that if Master Fu could make himself a senti monster then maybe Hawk Moth could accumatize himself and it was Gabriel Agreste after all. I was talking to the kwamies and one of them actually confirmed it. So I went over to there mansion and I spied on them and I saw him go into his secret lair and I knew I had to investigate further. So I came back that night when everyone was asleep and I snuck in and I was able to get into the secret lair. I wanted more proof so I talked to Rena Rouge and we used her security cameras and caught him transforming and uh, yeah.” Ladybug said fast to get it over with.

“Woah, so Gabriel Agreste really is Hawk Moth?” Chat Noir felt utterly crushed. He thought he might cry, but just as he was about to Ladybug started talking again.

“That’s not it.” She said.

“What do you mean that’s not it? There is more?” Chat Noir asked.

“I have reason to believe his son may be in on it too. I can’t exactly tell you why because it would compromise my secret identity and I shouldn’t even be telling you this, but know him in real life. I never would have thought he could be a super villain and I am still not entirely sure, but there is some evidence.”

“I’m sorry what? You think I’m a super villain?!” Chat Noir burst out hurt.

“What? No? I said Adrien Agreste you need to get your ears checked Chat Noir.”

“No, no, I heard you right. How could you think I’m a super villain?! Plagg claws in...”

“WHAT ARE YOU DO- omg A-a-a-ad-adr-adrien-“ Ladybug was shocked and didn’t know what to say. “Well I uh, I guess you’re probably not helping your dad be Hawk Moth are you?” Ladybug felt pretty bad, but the evidence was pretty damming so she did have a reason too suspect him.

“No I, uh I’m not- wait you said we know each other in real life? Who are you then?” Adrien was thinking back to trouble maker and it hit him... sorta. “Are you Marinette? It you couldn’t be sure she looked like you in that ladybug costume a while back, but I saw you two together back when she was Mini Mouse.”

Ladybug covered her mouth and laughed nervously for a second and answered, “well, uhm, heh, you, uh, y-you got me. Heh heh..... heh”

“Wait, what???” Adrien was very confused.

“I guess I owe you the same courtesy. Spots off.”

“I knew it! You are Marinette! So the girl who I’m in love with is Marinette. You know it’s funny actually. I started liking you when you convinced my dad to let me go to New York. It was the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.” It was starting to get late and the sun started to set and they sat down next to each other.

“Well Adrien I have like you since you gave me your umbrella. I thought I made it obvious, but you are just utterly oblivious. Like I basically told you by accident back at the wax museum, like how did you not know???”

“It’s not my fault! I didn’t have any experience with people other than Chloé up until a year ago.” They sat there in silence for a little while just enjoying each other’s company when suddenly they both leaned in for a kiss. It felt like no one existed except them. Adrien still felt crushed, but he knew it would be ok as long as he had his lady.