#❀ ˚ ↬ montenegro angela : answers.

[hodginspodgins]

what are some of your hodgins headcanons? -miz

oh miz, you know the way to my heart. here are some hodgins headcanons for you:

-first of all that man is so bisexual to me

-he absolutely keeps so many creatures in home, probably in the basement because angela does not want to see them

-he and michael vincent play minecraft together :) hodgins specifically enjoys making redstone machines

-i don’t care what the show says, hodgins regularly visited zack at the asylum (i know they address it for a little bit but i think it’s more important to hodgins life than the show portrays)

i also have headcanons in reference to the thing that happens in season 11. and i cannot say anything about it because my partner is still on season 9!!! raaagghh!!! i’ll come back to it once they get there though :)

thank you for the ask ❤️❤️

[hclyrevivals]

❀ ˚ ↬ 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐞 : wrapped meme song number twenty four for @theybolted angela & temperance ( heaven )

angela was still unsure of what to do with everything here. honestly, she was just trying her best. michael vincent being here was the only piece of the puzzle keeping her sane. and having her best friend. she didn't know what she would do if she didn't have temperance by her side. it was hard enough being away from everything she knew. and angela was the kind of person who was good at change. but this? it wasn't the kind of change she needed. the kind of change she wanted to ever know. "it's hard enough being human when you throw something like this our way." she said, holding out a cup of coffee for her friend.

[fadingmadness]

[ janel parrish ] i just saw that ANGELA MONTENEGRO arrived in mystic, ct ! they're THIRTY-THREE and a CANON character from BONES. however, you might want to check first because while they've been here ONE WEEK they DO NOT BELIEVE they have been here their whole lives. make sure to make them feel right at home

[colinfisher22]

1. Dispite my blog name it’s actually Clark

2. Hodgins

3. Sweets

4. Daisy. At the beginning I didn’t pay much attention to her, but after Lance died I came to appreciate her more and my second time watching the show I liked her a lot.

5. Ripley the dog in 4:3, and the tiger in 8:4. Animal death already hit me hard, but seeing Brennens reaction made me cry both times.

6. Physically? Like in a fight? Fisher and pelant, I doubt either of them have ever seen the inside of a gym, and neither seem to care very much if they live.

7. Max dying, if it were up to me he would have lived

Bones Ask Game:

1: Favorite Squintern

2: What character do you relate to the most?

3: What character would mesh with your real life friends the easiest?

4: Was there a character that you weren’t sure about at first that grew on you?

5: What death made you the saddest?

6: What character do you unrealistically think you could defeat? How?

7: What one plot point would you change?

[ladyriot]

Angela Montenegro for the character ask! -mix

• How I feel about this character

I really like Angela! I think she edges into my top 3 Bones characters. They did personify the free-spirited bisexual artist stereotype, but it works. At least they rounded it out with tech knowledge and just as much loyal dog, will bite you if you even try to hurt my friends energy as emotionality, so that she does feel like a genuine and well-rounded character.

• All the people I ship romantically with this character

Hodgins is fine. He's there. I think their swingset date was very cute and they work well together. I'm also a very loud brengela girl. Especially in the first 3-5 seasons, but even later, they just had so much chemistry and some of the most compatible lifestyles and worldviews. They don't need to shed their unconventionality for marriage and babies if you just put them together... it would be so easy. Also Angela needs to teach Brennan how polyamoury works. It's basically canon. And this might be niche, but she should've hooked up with that one delivery girl who Hodgins and Zach were fighting over. I ship that.

• My non-romantic OTP for this character

This is hard! Canonically, her friendships with Bones, Zach, and Sweets are all very dear to me. And she just should be best friends with Hannah. Like, come on. Kindred spirits to the absolute maximum.

• My unpopular opinion about this character

Have you ever seen the non-Tumblr opinion of Angela and the other Bones women? People seem to hate them, so it's basically unpopular to like them at all 😂

But a less cheating answer is that I honestly don't care if she's "overpowered" in technology. That Pelant story got so annoying by its end that I was glad for it.

• One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I love her in roller derby. More roller derby!

[katebeckets]

💝 + Bones, i prefer whichever is easiest for my friend <3

helloooo okay I'm using this to explain myself hehe but the way I made this playlist was by choosing songs for the different characters. I wanted to share which song was inspired by which character, but feel free to ask more. hope you like it (accompanying gifset here). <3

temperance brennan

stay (featured lyrics) - pin down your heart, put out the flame, don't come any closer but don't move away when he sees me safe all i've ever known another beginning

cam saroyan

armor (featured lyrics) - all the unforgettable, incredible ones that came before me / brought poetry, brought science / sowed quiet seeds of self-reliance / bloomed in me, so here I am this is why we can't have nice things king of anything i can do better than that

seeley booth

fortress (featured lyrics) - there are things I thought I could rise above / there are things I thought I was better than / and a coward might call it a conscience / and a liar might call it the truth / nothing could ever make me more frightened than the thought of hurting you epiphany silhouette

zack addy

tolerate it (featured lyrics) - I notice everything you do and don't do / you're so much older and wiser and I / wait by the door like I'm just a kid creep i'd rather be me monster

angela montenegro

king of the lost boys (featured lyrics) - don't you worry 'bout the "why," those answers come in time, so leave your heart to wander heart on my sleeve feminomenon

lance sweets

saturn (featured lyrics) - I'd give anything to hear you say it one more time—that the universe was made just to be seen by my eyes uneven odds hope for the hopeless everything else

jack hodgins

what you own (featured lyrics) - don't breathe too deep, don't think all day / dive into work, drive the other way / that drip of hurt, that pint of shame / goes away, just play the game holding to the ground the minnow & the trout unwell

[anthrofreshtodeath]

Please imagine Rizzoli boys night (Jane, Frankie&Frost, Tommy) with honorary guest Booth. It’s a Steelers vs Pats night and they’re loud and rowdy. This is where Angela Rizzoli meets Booth and immediately adopts him. Angela R insists if Jane can’t get her act together and remarry Maura, the least she can do is give her poor mother a useful, appreciative son. (She immediately apologizes to Barry, he is the current one and only useful and appreciative Rizzoli son)

Brennan and Maura, meanwhile, are on their way out for an exhibition opening at the MFA of interesting archeological finds. Brennan’s mildly interested in the sports and the regional war proxy being enacted in the Isles living room, but much more interested in lively conversation with Doctor Isles. They leave the house in their fancy dresses, pointedly ignoring the marriage talk going on.

The game is a riot, it’s a close one, they all have fun and the living room is a wreck by the time Brennan and Maura get back. Maura takes one look at Jane and Booth arguing over who looks better with the lampshade on their head, and drags Brennan upstairs by the hand to her bedroom. By the time the bedroom door shuts emphatically (Maura would never slam), the living room is silent. Booth and Jane stare at the stairs as if there’s an answer to what they just saw and then stare at each other.

They scramble to clean the room and then the two of them have a hushed, urgent videocall with Angela Montenegro back in DC, desperate to figure out if their respective ex-wife and not-girlfriend are currently hooking up as they speak.

When Maura finally turns around, Brennan asks her, "what is so urgent? And private?"

"It's all a ruse," Maura tells her, only a little guilty that she's dragged Brennan into her divorce shenanigans because mostly she's exhilarated, giddy like a school girl with the prospect of both ribbing Jane and having new friends. "They look way too comfortable in my living room. So, I thought I'd make them uncomfortable by bringing you to my bedroom."

Brennan gets that toothy, crooked, I-am-beginning-to-understand-the-humor-of-this-situation smirk. "Oh..." she draws it out, "so that they think we're having intercourse."

Maura winks, purses her lips. "Exactly."

Brennan laughs, then blinks. "Are... are you insinuating that we should have intercourse?"

Maura gifts her a straightforward explanation of the plan, one she'd want if she were in Brennan's shoes. "No. We're going to wait in here long enough to make them sweat, and there we're going to go out there and obtusely answer any desperate questions they come up with."

Brennan quite likes the camaraderie as well.

[gaddaboutgriffon]

Ok I didn’t recognize most of the characters (largely because I watch cartoons more then mainstream tv) in the top 10 so I’ll give you the top 100 that the OC I answered as maches best with.

Abby Sciuto (NCIS): 92%

Nymphadora Tonks (Harry Potter): 91%

Amanita Caplan (Sense8): 91%

Penelope Garcia (Criminal Minds): 91%

Alice Cullen (Twilight): 89%

Angela Montenegro (Bones): 89%

Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter): 88%

Lady Sybil Crawley (Downton Abbey): 88%

Goh Peik Lin (Crazy Rich Asians): 88%

Damian Leigh (Mean Girls): 88%

Chloe Sullivan (Smallville): 88%

Sam Button (The Perks of Being a Wallflower): 88%

Patrick Stewart (The Perks of Being a Wallflower): 88%

Jules Vaughn (Euphoria): 88%

Clarisse McClellan (Fahrenheit 451): 88%

Lilo Pelekai (Lilo & Stitch): 87%

Nomi Marks (Sense8): 87%

Riley Blue (Sense8): 87%

Robin Buckley (Stranger Things): 87%

Wanda Maximoff (WandaVision): 87%

Fox Mulder (The X-Files): 86%

Sabrina Spellman (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina): 86%

Juliana Crain (The Man in the High Castle): 86%

Amélie Poulain (Amélie): 86%

Lily Iglehart (Sex Education): 86%

Miriam Maisel (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel): 86%

Jo March (Little Women): 85%

Ambrose Spellman (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina): 85%

Toni Topaz (Riverdale): 85%

Ally Maine (A Star Is Born): 85%

Ruby Tiffany Sparks (Ruby Sparks): 85%

Keeley Jones (Ted Lasso): 85%

Eric Effiong (Sex Education): 85%

Ciri (The Witcher): 85%

Mindy Chen (Emily in Paris): 85%

Rapunzel (Tangled): 85%

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice): 84%

Guinan (Star Trek: The Next Generation): 84%

Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls): 84%

Anna (Frozen): 84%

Nairobi (Money Heist): 84%

Jasmine (Aladdin): 84%

Rose DeWitt Bukater (Titanic): 84%

Mozzie (White Collar): 84%

Jean Milburn (Sex Education): 84%

Ola Nyman (Sex Education): 84%

Kinsey Locke (Locke & Key): 84%

Cassie Thomas (Promising Young Woman): 84%

George Weasley (Harry Potter): 83%

Phoebe Buffay (Friends): 83%

Jadzia Dax (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine): 83%

River Tam (Firefly + Serenity): 83%

Ed (Cowboy Bebop): 83%

Patrick Jane (The Mentalist): 83%

Mercedes Jones (Glee): 83%

Kiara (Outer Banks): 83%

Mulan (Mulan): 83%

Marie Kreutz (The Bourne Identity): 83%

Daisy 'Skye' Johnson (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.): 83%

Céline (Before Sunrise): 83%

Ada Shelby (Peaky Blinders): 83%

Max Mayfield (Stranger Things): 83%

Claire Colburn (Elizabethtown): 83%

Annie Reed (Sleepless in Seattle): 83%

Emily Gardner (The Big Sick): 83%

Annie Hall (Annie Hall): 83%

Maeve Wiley (Sex Education): 83%

Ekko (Arcane): 83%

Sophie Sheridan (Mamma Mia!): 83%

Kaylee Frye (Firefly + Serenity): 82%

Donna Paulsen (Suits): 82%

Remy (Ratatouille): 82%

Veronica Fisher (Shameless): 82%

Willy Wonka (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory): 82%

Waverly Earp (Wynonna Earp): 82%

Princess Fiona (Shrek): 82%

Augustus 'Gus' Waters (The Fault in Our Stars): 82%

Marianne Sheridan (Normal People): 82%

Love Quinn (You): 82%

Rosie Mulligan (Mamma Mia!): 82%

Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter): 81%

Meredith Grey (Grey's Anatomy): 81%

Inara Serra (Firefly + Serenity): 81%

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park): 81%

Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean): 81%

Ariadne (Inception): 81%

Maxwell Klinger (M*A*S*H): 81%

Thea Queen (Arrow): 81%

Darlene (Mr. Robot): 81%

Richard Castle (Castle): 81%

Martha Rodgers (Castle): 81%

Han Lue (Fast & Furious): 81%

Gisele Yashar (Fast & Furious): 81%

Lane Kim (Gilmore Girls): 81%

Sookie St. James (Gilmore Girls): 81%

Genie (Aladdin): 81%

Claire Randall (Outlander): 81%

Xiomara Villanueva (Jane the Virgin): 81%

Summer Finn ((500) Days of Summer): 81%

Frenchie (The Boys): 81

Statistical character personality test. take the linked quiz from the perspective of your character, then select 5 - 10 results from the complete matches list that you feel resonate with your character the most

Amy Elliott Dunne (Gone Girl): 92%

Magneto (X-Men): 91%

Raymond 'Red' Reddington (The Blacklist): 91%

Dr. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs): 90%

Lorraine Broughton (Atomic Blonde): 90%

Lex Luthor (Smallville): 89%

Loki (Marvel Cinematic Universe): 88%

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth): 88%

Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock): 87%

Barbara Kean (Gotham): 86%

Tagged by: @imprvdente thank you!

Tagging: @deathtransformed (Gem!), @qceensofkings, @luposcainus, @the-last-doppelganger, @respondedinkind, @tcbefearless (Irene), @sarcasticsnackpack, @cardigansandearlgrey and you!

[sweets-gun]

Bones ppl what’s your favorite episode. Mines The Doctor in the Photo

[tevantarlos]

Hi if you’re still taking requests for fanfics, I would love to see Hodgela on a date maybe a carnival or a nature walk where Hodgins sees bugs and gets excited.

Hello, @mystical-moss and thanks for your request. Sorry it took so long. I'd planned to write a ficlet, but it turned into a one-shot. Hope you enjoy.

[asphyxiatedredherring]

Omnisexual Temperance Brennan (aka bones aka Joy) and bisexual Angela Montenegro (aka Angie aka Pookie Noodlin) icons when? 😕

But seriously please? I'll give you a very platonic bear hug

I'm sorry it took so long!! But here you go!

[arizona1x1-a]

tag dump

[hclyrevivals]

ღ * ➜ ( janel parrish , cisfemale , thirty-three , she/her ) it seems like angela montenegro might be making a new home in mystic, connecticut. a canon character from bones , angela was seen walking down main street. while they arrived one week ago , they do not believe they have been here their whole lives.

❀ ˚ ↬ full name : pookie noodlin pearly-gates gibbons angela montenegro

❀ ˚ ↬ relatives : michael vincent, npc son ( few months / just under a year )

❀ ˚ ↬ sexuality : bisexual

❀ ˚ ↬ shipping : selective , * likely will only close for a jack hodgins

❀ ˚ ↬ occupation : freelance artist

[bones-imagines]

Being booths younger sister and Jared's twin sister and flirting with Angela?

- you were visiting because jared had gotten in trouble and you caught wind of it

-booth told you where he was and you made him allow you to get into the jeffersonian

-when you got inside you meant to see jared

-but then you saw angela and literally stop in your tracks for a second

-needless to say you walked up to her and you started talking

-and talking

-eventually you realized you actually needed to find jared and asked her if she knew where he was

-she brought you to brennans office (apparently thats where everyone talks about their problems??)

-as you opened the door to the office you looked back and flashed her a smile

-she smiled back 

-it was hard to keep your composure for the rest of the time you were there

-before you left you got her number

-you guys texted a lot after that

-eventually she asked you to meet up for a brunch ™ date

-thats when you found out shes bi

-the rest is just history i guess

[jacensolodjo]

“You know, all those jokes that I made about Santa ruining Christmas, I suck.”  

[olindabell]

The Knight and the Necromancer ch. 2

chapter 2/?: The Start of the Adventure – read on ao3 or below

fandoms: bones x dungeons and dragons

pairings: seeley booth x temperance brennan, jack hodgins x angela montenegro, lance sweets x james aubrey

summary: when a cannibalised skull is thrown from a bridge in waterdeep, necromancer temperance brennan and paladin seelie booth are tasked with assembling their adventuring party and hunting down the prime suspect, the lich gormogon.

warnings: general fantasy violence, angst, slow burn, description of dead bodies.

---

‘Do you make a habit of waking people up at the crack of dawn?’ ‘I don’t have to answer that.’ Jameson Aubrezar yawned, a long, loud yawn, his orcish tusks on full display. Booth turned away, stifling his own. ‘Was that a yawn I just saw?’ ‘No.’ Booth’s jaw clenched. ‘Alright, yes, but I was working all night. You know, work? The thing we get paid to do?’

Aubrey chuckled. They were crammed into two little chairs in the foyer of Castle Waterdeep, chairs which were definitely made for rich pansies and skinny servants, not for a human and a half-orc, both in full plate and armed to the teeth, or the tusks. Booth tried to shuffle closer to the gnome sitting beside him and away from Aubrey’s strangely pointy pauldrons. Aubrey yawned, again, and this time, Booth couldn’t hold his in. Aubrey sniggered. ‘Shut up,’ Booth said, through the yawn. ‘I didn’t say anything!’ ‘Seelie Booth?’ A nasally halfling with skin like an old lemon called from across the foyer. ‘The Open Lord of Waterdeep will see you now.’ Booth sprang to his feet, Aubrey glumly trailing behind. Booth turned and said, ‘Stand up straight.’ ‘I’m tired,’ Aubrey moaned. Booth sighed. ‘Can you at least try and look like you enjoy your job?’ ‘I didn’t know when I signed up that I’d have you dragging me out of bed before dawn.’ The halfling cleared his throat pointedly, then knocked on the huge wooden doors leading to the Lord’s office. Booth made a motion like be quiet, then turned, plastered on his serious talking-to-my-boss face, and followed the halfling inside. Piergeiron Paladinson sat behind a ridiculously huge desk in a room made entirely of dark wood and glass. Behind the desk, windows overlooked the city outside, framed in thick, dark purple curtains held aside with gold cord. The left side of the room was crammed with thick historical tomes, while the right side sported two paintings, one of Piergeiron and another of a bloody battlefield, an alter to Piergeiron’s god Tyr between them. The room smelt faintly of pipe smoke and incense. The Open Lord of Waterdeep watched them enter with his sharp black eyes, his fingers steepled and elbows on the desk before him. He was draped in diplomatic clothes instead of armour, dark purple and white robes with gold trim and a red collar. Booth strode to the desk and held out his hand, and Piergeiron grasped it and shook it firmly. ‘Please, sit,’ the Lord said, gesturing to the chairs before the desk. Booth and Aubrey sat, armour squeaking. Piergeiron said, ‘So, this skull.’ ‘Bones completed a preliminary examination during the night,’ Booth said. ‘She found evidence of cannibalism, sir.’ Aubrey paled. The Lord said, ‘Is she certain of this?’ ‘I’m afraid so. Her assistant, Mage Zackryn Addlepatch, agreed with her findings.’ ‘I see.’ Piergeiron pressed his steepled fingers to his chin, his eyes fading into the distance, and fell silent. Aubrey raised his eyebrows. Booth gestured be quiet again. Aubrey rolled his eyes. Booth kicked him. It was a good kick, right under the greave, to the soft part of Aubrey’s ankle. The half-orc screwed up his nose but said nothing. ‘Well,’ Piergeiron said, ‘I was going to ask you to go to Asbravn, to help the Red Cloaks with that snake monster.’ ‘Send Flynn, he’s more than capable.’ ‘I want my best man on this, Booth.’ ‘Respectfully, sir, I believe whoever did this is a greater threat to Waterdeep than a monster miles away from here.’ Piergeiron narrowed his eyes. ‘You’ve heard the reports from Fort Morninglord.’ ‘I have, sir.’ ‘I haven’t,’ said Aubrey. Piergeiron studied Booth for a moment, then said, ‘Fine. I’ll ensure the Lords don’t get in your way, but you won’t have any official backup on this one, unless you can prove there’s a legitimate threat to Waterdeep. I take it you have a party in mind?’ ‘Yes, sir, I do.’ ‘Good luck to you then.’ Booth stood, shook Piergeiron’s hand and left the room, Aubrey scrambling behind him. ‘Now what?’ ‘Now,’ Booth said, ‘we get our people.’

#

Booth shouldered his way through the thick Waterdhavian crowds, past street vendors and loud merchants and nobles with their servants trailing behind. ‘Fort Morninglord have had undead wandering out of the Wood of Sharp Teeth for months now.’ He had to shout to be heard over the endless conversations, gull screeches and ship bells.

‘You think it’s related?’

‘Some of them had been chewed on.’

‘Oh, gross.’

‘And, two weeks ago, they sent some scouts in to have a look around. Only half came out, and they said they saw a man, seven and a half feet tall, thin as a skeleton, with grey skin, red eyes and teeth like a shark.’

‘Great.’ Aubrey closed a fist around the pommel of his sword

Booth stopped at the edge of a small circle of people watching a bard who sat on the edge of a fountain, plucking a quiet tune on his lute and reciting poetry in Elvish.

‘Sweets,’ Booth called. ‘You got a minute?’

The bard glanced at Booth but continued the poem.

‘You know what he’s saying?’ Booth asked.

‘You don’t speak Elvish?’

‘No, I speak practical languages, Common and Dwarvish. Not that flowery stuff.’

‘It’s the second-most spoken language in Faerûn.’

‘Do you speak it or not?’

Aubrey listened.

‘Mortals still worship his beauty as they watch his golden climb into the sky. But when he staggers away, old and feeble, from his highest point with weary horses, the eyes that were dutiful before, now turn away from him and look elsewhere. So, you, yourself, declining from your noonday glory, will die disregarded.’

The bard finished, bowed his head to the quiet applause, and thanked the few watchers who tossed coins into the hat by his feet. Aubrey turned his face away from Booth, hiding the rush of emotion there.

‘What was it?’ Booth asked.

Aubrey shrugged, then cleared his throat.

The bard came over, emptying the coins into his purse. He was a half-elf, his ears slightly pointed under a nest of dark curls. His face was boyish, and he carried himself with a spring in his step, an excitement contained beneath the surface.

‘Sweets, this is Aubrey, one of my men. Aubrey, Sweets is an … associate of mine.’

Sweets pointed to the medallion strung around Aubrey’s neck, a gold circle pressed with the image of a road leading into sunrise. ‘Lathander,’ he said. ‘You’re a paladin too?’

‘Cleric,’ Aubrey said.

‘It’s not important,’ Booth interrupted. ‘We’ve got a job, and I’m putting the party together. You up for an adventure?’

‘Depends how long it’ll take. There’s a flute player who keeps trying to steal my fountain.’

‘Not long,’ Booth said. ‘We’re hunting a cannibal.’

Sweets’ face fell. ‘Seriously?’

‘Are you in or not?’

To Aubrey’s surprise, Sweets looked over at him, then said, ‘Who can say no to adventure?’

‘Good man.’ Booth clapped him on the shoulder, causing his knees to buckle slightly. ‘Let’s go meet the others.’

‘Others?’ Aubrey asked.

But Booth was already striding away. Sweets patted Aubrey’s lower back and followed, leaving him to trail behind in blushing confusion.

#

‘And then, watch closely…’

Angelica leant over Jack’s shoulder, her tall tiefling frame towering over the dwarf. Jack pushed some of her long black hair out of the way, then gently opened his hand and blew across his fingertips. Tiny spores, glowing with faint blue light, rose from his skin and settled on the dead rat’s body. He muttered something in Dwarvish and made a shape resembling a triangle with his fingers, and, with a sound like pudding hitting the floor, the rat’s body bloated, collapsed, and began to disintegrate. Blue lacelike mushrooms sprouted from beneath its skin, unfurling into a network of soft, delicate fronds. ‘Cool, huh?’ Jack said.

They were in Jack’s lab, a long thin room crowded with glass cases containing glowing flowers, brightly coloured funguses, chittering insects and flowers that waved in non-existent winds. The room was bathed in the blue light of the enchanted candles dotted around the room.

Angelica nodded, masking her disgust behind a big smile. ‘Yeah, so cool. Shouldn’t we get going though?’

‘Get going where?’

Angelica sighed. ‘Lunch, Jack. You promised.’

His face moved through several emotions – confusion, scepticism, realisation, then fear. ‘Oh, shit.’

‘You forgot?’

‘The skull, and then the teeth marks.’

Angelica raised her eyebrows.

‘And Zack needed my help with–with his notes!’

‘Seriously?’

‘And Cam’s going to be here soon–’

‘You got distracted by a dead rat!’

‘It’s a new spell!’ Jack waved his hands at the mushrooms. ‘I just learnt it.’

Angelica rolled her eyes. ‘Let’s just go. Maybe we’ll have time to drink half a cup of tea.’

She turned to leave, but the lab door was blocked by a beautiful half-elf, her dark hair cut in a sharp bob, wearing a tight yellow and black dress.

‘Oh no,’ said Angelica.

‘Oh, yes,’ said Camille. ‘Duty calls.’

#

The sun was high in the clear spring sky; light poured through the glass ceiling into the lab. Temperance stood on the platform, the skull mounted on a stand, frowning at a set of white glyphs hovering in the air before her. Zack perched on his stool by her side. She ran her fingers softly over the surface of the skull, feeling the barely perceptible grooves left by the cannibal’s teeth. She knew what the results meant – the glyphs were incapable of lying – but they yielded no motives, no suspects, no leads, only pure facts. She closed her eyes, searching for something, anything, that would tell her more about this man and how he died.

‘Mage Brenwynn?’ Zack said.

Temperance said nothing.

‘Mage Brenwynn, they’re here.’

‘Who’s here?’ she muttered.

‘Bones!’ Booth yelled from across the lab. ‘Found anything?’

She jumped out of her reverie and turned to see a crowd of people hovering at the edge of the platform steps. Grimjack Hodgemoss, the dwarf druid, bearded and stocky and surrounded by a cloud of mushroom spores, and Angelica, the tiefling bard and resident artist, her skin the colour of bronze and her horns as jet black as her hair. Camille Saeroyan, the half-elf sorcerer who ran the Waterdhavian Mage’s Institute, stood to the side in one of her smart dresses, her posture perfect as always. Another half-elf with a lute strapped to his back – Lancelot Sweetwater, a bard and one of Booth’s crime-solving consultants – lounged with his hands in his pockets next to a tall but thin half-orc wearing the blue cloak of a City Watchman – Jameson Aubrezar, only recently recruited to Booth’s team of associates. And Booth, at the front of them all, grinning and puffing out his polished gold chest plate.

Camille stepped over the wards and muttered the enchantment that permitted access to outsiders. ‘Don’t touch the remains,’ Bones said to Booth.

‘Why’re you singling me out?’

‘You’re impulsive.’ She pulled off her gloves and waved at the glyphs in the air, which drifted to the side of the platform.

‘So,’ Booth said, ‘did you find anything?’

‘Yes, actually.’ She pointed to the glyphs.

‘Come on,’ Booth sighed. ‘We both know I can’t read that.’

‘I used an enchantment that highlights markings, one that Angelica invented to restore degraded artworks,’ Bones said. ‘I took a magical mould of the teeth marks.’

She took a sprig of sage from her component pouch, scrunched it in her fist, and drew a square in the air with her thumb. A white screen appeared and hovered over the obsidian slab. Bones waved the glyphs over to the screen, where they dissolved into two images, side-by-side comparisons of enlarged teeth marks.

‘Oh, that is not good,’ said Camille.

‘Someone explain, in Common, if you don’t mind,’ Booth said.

‘This skull was gnawed on by two different people,’ Bones said. ‘This cannibal,’ she pointed to the teeth on the left, ‘has some kind of implant in one of his canines. The other has … unique dentition.’

‘Unique?’

She hesitated. ‘It seems that the second cannibal has a full set of canines.’

‘Teeth like a shark,’ Booth murmured.

‘You have a lead?’ Camille asked.

Booth sighed. ‘More of a hunch that Bones just confirmed.’ He turned to face the party. ‘I know everyone has work to do here, but I’m taking this case, and I’m not getting any help from the Lords or the City Watch because some lizard monster is more important. I get to choose my people, and I choose everyone here.’

‘Are we going on an adventure?’ Jack asked, nearly bouncing on the soles of his feet. Angelica rolled her eyes.

‘It shouldn’t take longer than two months,’ Booth said.

‘Two months?’ Sweets cried. ‘But my fountain!’

‘I’m in,’ said Aubrey.

‘Me too,’ said Jack.

‘If he’s going, then I’m going too,’ said Angelica.

‘Same here,’ sighed Sweets.

‘I would like to go on an adventure,’ said Zack. ‘Even though my strengths are not physical.’

‘If all my best mages are going, then I guess I’m coming with,’ said Camille.

Everyone turned to stare at Bones.

‘What about the lab?’ she said.

‘The lab will still be here when you get back, sweetie,’ said Angelica.

‘And we’ve all got enough adventure leave,’ said Camille.

‘And we can’t do this without you,’ said Booth.

Bones took a deep breath. ‘No, you most certainly cannot.’

#

Booth knocked on the door to Bones’ office, his gauntlet harsh against the wood. ‘Come in,’ she called, in her lilting elven voice. Booth ignored the familiar skip of his heart at the sound.

She was crouched in front of a bookcase, pulling out stacks of leather-bound tomes stamped with runes and held shut by buckles stained with verdigris and rust. ‘I have a question,’ she said.

‘Shoot.’

‘No, I don’t want to shoot you.’

‘It means ask, Bones, just ask me the question.’

‘Oh.’ She stood and faced him. A white lace-up shirt was just visible under the black leather coat worn by all necromancers at the Institute, the collar sticking up lopsided. Booth had a sudden urge to reach under her coat and pull the shirt down–

‘The other cannibal, the one with the tooth implant.’

‘What?’ Booth flushed, then said, ‘Oh, that guy. What about him?’

‘He’s here in Waterdeep, isn’t he?’

‘He’s probably long gone by now. Why?’

Bones picked a sheet of parchment off her desk. ‘While you were preparing to leave, Jack swabbed the groove made by the implant and ran it through a series of ritual spells. The implant is a diamond. Were there any witnesses at the bridge?’

‘Two. They both described a half-elf with brown hair, maybe in his twenties.’

‘Combined with the diamond implant, that might be enough for Angelica to cast locate creature on him.’

‘As long as he’s close by.’

‘Yes. But you think he’s left the city.’

‘Anything’s worth a try.’ Booth nudged the stack of tomes with his boot. ‘What’re these for?’

‘I’m bringing them.’

Booth gaped. ‘All of them?’

‘Of course. You said we could be gone for two months, I need reading material.’

‘Surely you can find books on the road, in libraries or something.’

‘These books are the most detailed accounts of spellcraft in all of Faerûn, there are no books like them.’

‘But you’ve read them before!’

‘Books are very important to me, Booth. I’m bringing them.’

‘You can bring two.’

She shot him a glare. ‘Five.’

‘Three, and that’s all we’ve got room for. You’ll tire the horses out within the first mile.’

She continued to glare, then relented. ‘Fine, but only because you asked.’

Booth blinked. ‘What does that mean?’

She simply dropped three massive tomes into his arms. ‘Those can go out to the wagon. I have to finish packing. I’ll see you in the morning.’

As he staggered out of the lab and round the back to the stables, weighed down by the books, Booth’s mind ran circles around what Bones had said. Where was the emphasis, on the ‘you’ or the ‘asked’? I didn’t even ask, I negotiated. Does she think of me … like that? Does she think of me at all?

But when he reached the horses, he banished those thoughts from his mind. ‘Adventures are dangerous,’ he said to himself. ‘There’s no room for distractions.’

One of the horses whinnied.

‘Exactly, Muffins.’ He let the books thud into the wagon, then left Bones to her packing.