#(Alsi was the last one to join the group

[soulsxng]

🎥 Alsina

@thewolfisawake | 🎥

When she agreed to let her introduce her to the Eszenra's, after her own family had essentially cast her out, she hadn't expected to be met with a Claim so...large. Most Vasyrus traveled alone, or in pairs. Maybe groups of three, or occasionally four. Her family was even considered odd, in that they tended to travel a set path. Each smaller Nyra Claim meeting with another at what were more or less set intervals, to trade information and such.

She had heard the Eszenra's were especially strange in how they traveled...or, more accurately, how little they traveled. Maybe it was because there was already seven of them. Eight, on occasion, considering her uncle had mentioned that it wasn't uncommon for him to travel with them, as well.

...So Alsina herself would make nine. Would they really be willing to do such a thing?

While her uncle spoke to his friends-- evidently the elder two Eszenras, Temiron and Sevinya, a young man approached her. His wings thrumming in a way that was meant to be disarming. Likely because her own were buzzing behind her in a far more anxious drone.

"I know you are nervous, but...try to relax. I have yet to hear the full story, so I admittedly do not know yet what ails you. However, I can assure you that whatever it is, all of us will do what we can to help you...for however long you choose to stay with us."

"...If I'm allowed to stay with you in the first place, you mean. That is what my uncle is discussing with your...parents, I assume?"

"Hm? No, they discussed that a few days ago. If anything, they are already working on the plans for how to help you. Or catching up. Morastalla has been close with my parents a long time now, so they have a habit of getting carried away talking when he is with us. It may take a while, so...why not let me help you settle in? My name is Sivel."

He went on to point out each person, and teach her their names. Tell her a bit about them, and what she could expect from them. Patient and kind, when she still had trouble settling down, and sharing stories with her to help calm her down. Ranadi did the same, when he came over-- and Nesimah, shortly after.

Soon, Naya and Quella joined them as well, and before long, Alsina found her own voice joining with theirs. Sharing stories and experiences of her own. Talking about anything and everything that came to mind.

Though she seemed to click best with the first two that came over-- Sivel and Ranadi-- they were all easy people to get along with.

Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad. Perhaps her family forcing her away had turned out to be something good, after all?

She supposed only time would tell...but at least now, she could be hopeful.

[autoplaysdigimon]

Character Analysis: Mimi Tachikawa and Palmon

When I was a kid, I had some weird ideas about gender.

I fully bought into that “not like other girls” thing. I wasn���t interested in makeup, or clothes, or boys in the same way that the other girls seemed to be (HMMM). I didn’t like shopping, I didn’t care about being pretty, and I preferred being friends with the boys because they were doing fun things like playing Pokemon, and that’s for boys because the Pokemon toys are shelved in the boy’s toy aisle. When I was a kid, there were only two kinds of girls: those who conform to femininity entirely, and those who reject it entirely. In my mind, the spokesmodels for these two types of girls were Mimi and Sora.

This led to a whole Thing where I figured that femininity is terrible and weak and I shouldn’t strive to be like that at all. My friends, the Boys, don’t like feminine things or feminine people, and I wasn’t like that, I was cool, like them! I played Video Games and didn’t wear nail polish! I didn’t always want to gossip or go clothes shopping! In the cast of Digimon, I very much hated Mimi, and wanted to be Sora. I hated pink, I hated fashion, I hated her. 

For the longest time, I tried to get into sports. Mostly it was soccer, because that’s what they play on Digimon! (Alright, it was because that’s what Davis plays specifically. leave me alone) And it killed me that I wasn’t good at it. I didn’t understand the rules even though when I joined up they told us they’d explain the rules and they didn’t (>:[) and I wasn’t fast at running, or competitive enough to be any good. Also I was hit by the ball a lot and developed a fear of it. It ate me up for the longest time, because if I wasn’t good at sports, I must be girly, and I can’t be that, I’m not! I play the Games and everything!

It took me a long-ass time to unlearn all that gender fuckery. I embraced being girly somewhere in the teens I think, and look what happened - I’m unathletic, I like shopping (but will only barely tolerate it if it’s clothes shopping), I’m taking more of an interest in changing my appearance, sometimes I will put on A Make-up, I fucking love pink, I’m a gossipy little bitch, and I never stopped playing video games. Hell, if you’d told me as a kid that I’d end up running a blog about video games, I’d probably ask what a blog was, but I’d be proud of that. I still am.

And rewatching this series, I’ve decided that Mimi and Palmon are my favourites from this season.

Everything that irritated me about her, back then and now, is the fault of the dub writers. Every time they wanted to fill in a dramatic silence with her complaining about missing sales or chipping a nail or ruining her complexion, every time she was silly and vapid and stereotypically girly, it was unnecessary. While the others were trying to find shelter or food, she’d say something that implied that her priorities were about her appearance, not survival. The dub writing really did her a disservice, and that’s a real shame because she’s such an interesting character. There are also a few times where Mimi or Palmon are the butt of an undignified joke, and it’s pretty cool. Not every feminine character gets that!

Was she really representative of Sincerity, or should they have left her as being Purity, like in the original? I think Purity as a concept is very different outside of Japan, so they were probably not going to be able to leave it the way it was. She seemd to be sincere in the same way that Applejack is about Honesty, in that she just has a hard time lying. Is she sincere in a positive way? Eh, sure, she’s good at apologies.

I like seeing characters who exist on a spectrum, instead of being written as a list of aspects. Mimi’s was always about her selfishness and self-preservation instincts against her opposing desire to see everyone safe and happy. She never really wants to fight, hence her splitting from the group in the last arc. Typically, her complaints that aren’t about surface-level things are about why it has to be them, why her. She doesn’t want to be saving the world, she’d just much rather have the world not need saving in the first place. In a way, you could say that her complaints about how much her feet hurt and how she was going to mess up her hair are what she chooses to focus on, rather than air out her real concerns. Plus, she does grow up at least a little during her time in the Digital World.

But occasionally, she’s a girl of Action. When she really needs to, she can be a badass, and that’s everything every girl needs to see. Stereotypically feminine and not put at odds with her competence!

(And let’s be real here for a second, if I was a Digidestined kid, I would ABSOLUTELY be Mimi. I’d complain about getting dirty, about hunger, the heat, having to fight, just the same as her. Hell, she was my avatar for the longest time because I almost physically resemble her!)

(Also because, when that shot came up, I was also playing with my hair in the exact same way. It’s a sign!)

Her relationship with Palmon is interesting. In the first episode, when the In-Training Digimon fail to take down Kuwagamon as they are, all of the Digimon are physically struggling against their partners to get back to the fight except Tanemon, and Mimi merely asks her if she feels the same as the others. Does this speak to Palmon sharing Mimi’s preference for non-violence, or did she pick up on this trait of Mimi’s this early on? In the second episode, Palmon asks...

...which, okay that’s a pretty obvious trait of Mimi’s, let’s be fair. But it does show that Palmon has been analysing Mimi at least a little.

Palmon was very often on the same wavelength as Mimi. She cried when Mimi cried. When Mimi was upset at something, no matter how small, Palmon at least looked to be sad as well, possibly just out of wanting Mimi to not be sad. The biggest rift between them was in the Princess Karaoke episode, where Palmon’s eventual disapproval of how Mimi was acting was the final straw in convincing Mimi that she was in the wrong. It took Palmon a long time to figure out that maybe, just maybe, they weren’t the good guys in this situation. The Japanese version has a throughline where Palmon tells Mimi that she hates her, tells her again in her dream, and then tells her that she loves her at the end of the episode, which is exactly what Mimi needed to hear every time. (The dub doesn’t have this, but it does have Palmon telling Mimi that she’s a spoiled brat instead, which is still pretty heckin’ harsh.)

It could have been any of the pairs in the situation of the final episode, where one doesn’t want to say goodbye so they run away, deciding to just never see them again. It could have been Kari and Gatomon, not wanting to say goodbye so soon after meeting for the first time. It could have been TK and Patamon, because they’re the Young Ones who don’t know how to face their emotions yet. It could have been Tai and Agumon, because shows like this like to have the important events happen to the front-line main characters. But it wasn’t any of them, it was Palmon who couldn’t face saying goodbye, and Mimi who nearly didn’t get a proper sendoff for closure.

Palmon and Mimi’s relationship was shown to be very strong, very trusting. For Palmon’s words to be the point where Mimi realised that she was being selfish, she must have valued Palmon’s opinion of her a lot more than she realised. She was happy enough for Joe, Tai and their partners to think that she was selfish, but Palmon was where she drew the line and snapped out of it. The fact that Mimi was inconsolable in the final episode when she (nearly) didn’t get to say goodbye just shows this further.

I think my favourite thing about Palmon is that she Digivolves into Togemon. She’s this cute little flower girl, and then she’s a fucking huge cactus who’s ready to throw down in every way imaginable and will punch a dude in the face. Also dumb plant jokes. And she’s a little bit dumb of ass, but that’s okay.

I don’t know, I just like them both. They’re also #aesthetic goals, if I’m honest. Palmon’s an adorable little fucker, I had to restrain myself from posting every Palmon face I thought was cute. I’d go ahead and say that she’s in my top 5 favourite Digimon. While Mimi’s voice acting was pretty good, Palmon’s was fantastic, and I could listen to her talk all day. She had random voice cracking moments and that one time she laughed I physically made squeeing noises. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, she is PRECIOUS.

Plus, Palmon wearing Mimi’s hat? ADORABLE. I like to think that, after the hat fell off the tram at the end, Palmon found it and kept it.

The last thing I want to say about Palmon is that is her name derived from Palm, like palm trees? Should it be pronounced that way???? They don’t in the dub, but they alsy like to pronounce “Dramon” very wrong, so maybe we shouldn’t take their word for it. Maybe it’s correct anyway, because she is, indeed, a pal.

TL;DR GIRLS GOOD

[jeichanhaka]

And Carried Me Away: Ch. 3

A/N: Just a reminder, this fic is a sequel to My Life Had Stood, so it's best to read that first so you're not confused/lost.

Chapter 1|| Chapter 2|| Chapter 3|| Chapter 4|| Chapter 5|| Chapter 6||

Chapter 7|| Chapter 8|| Chapter 9|| Chapter 10|| Chapter 11|| Chapter 12||

Chapter 13|| Chapter 14|| Chapter 15||

Chapter Three:

-Flashback-1998-

"Who are you?" Alsie demanded the stranger as he entered the private classroom - which was more of a unused storage room than a classroom. The school had deemed it her own private study after deeming it necessary to accommodate her and her propensity to interrupt her teachers. Though it wasn't her fault they tended to teach straight from the textbooks, many of which were too dated to reflect current knowledge.

She'd even said as much to the principal, and then the superintendent, but neither were willing to accept her point. Nor had either wanted to lose her as a student, which had as much to do with Mary Schmidt's money as it did her intelligence.

"You're Allison, right? Allison Schmidt?" The stranger asked instead of answering, picking up one of the texts Alsie had taken from the local library. "...quantum mechanics, interesting. Um..."

"Go..." Alsie, irritated by the stranger, was about to growl at him to eff off or tell her his name when he started talking about quantum theory. She paused, intrigued. Her eyes followed him closely as he neared, switching from quantum theory to psychiatry as he did. She listened as he talked about the brain and the ways to control it and memory. "...who are you?"

"I'm..."

x

"...Elsie?" William Reid approached his daughter, having called her name a couple of times he was concerned by her sudden lack of response. He reached out for her instinctively and froze when she tensed. Though he'd immediately realized his folly, the moment he touched her arm she recoiled. "...I'm sorry. I..."

He took a step back, tensing himself as he expected the thirty-three year old to shift into an alter, likely Emmie, at the touch. A few moments passed before he realized the shift hadn't happened. His brow furrowed, staring down at his daughter's tensed form. Though it was obvious she was extremely uncomfortable, the fact that she hadn't shifted to Emmie or Ana made William sigh in relief.

During her nine week stay in the hospital, Alsie had gone through multiple sessions with Dr. Freeman, her psychiatrist. As well as a therapist after Spencer convinced her it'd be helpful. The result being that Alsie had finally accepted her diagnosis and was getting her D.I.D under control.

"...sorry." Alsie mumbled back, still a bit skittish. "I'm working on not being so..." She swallowed and took a deep breath, her eyes averted from William. "Sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." William immediately replied, his gut clenching at the apology. "It's the Crawfords' and Linnet's faults. What they did..." He clenched his jaw, unaware of and unable to moderate his angry voice until he notice Alsie tense up again. His eyes widened when he saw her flinch and touch her right temple. "Elsie, I..."

"It's your fault too." Alsie spat, massaging her temple. The tell-tale signs of a migraine were already starting to rear their heads. She took in a few calming breaths, attempting to forestall the headache - the pain of which she'd learned was at times a precurser to a switch to an alter. Whether it was a trigger or just a sign of a switch, neither she nor her therapist knew for certain, but abating her headaches seemed to help avoid an identity shift. "...you spent years acting like I never existed. You...you and her..."

William flinched, the venom in his daughter's tone scathing. Though it wasn't the anger being directed at him that cut him as much as the way Alsie referred to Diana. Her. The emphasis placed on that one word spoke volumes. It was evident that Alsie placed so much more blame on Diana than on him, though both he and Spencer had tried to convince her otherwise.

"Elsie, we've been through this. Your mother...she couldn't help it that..." William rubbed his forehead, exasperated and wishing that Spencer was here. Though, he conceded quietly, it was better that Alsie's twin brother wasn't here. The first and last time Alsie had disparaged Diana in front of Spencer, the latter had immediately defended their mother.

The argument that had resulted still felt surreal now, just remembering it. It was the first real sibling argument between his children, and William caught himself imagining what it'd have been like if Spencer and Alsie had been raised together. So caught up in imagining a 'what might have been' scenario, William had failed to notice how serious the argument had escalated. It wasn't until Spencer had retorted the biting: 'don't you talk about my mother,' with emphasis on the word 'my', that either man had realized it'd gone too far.

Upon hearing it, Alsie had immediately blanched and gone silent, her eyes widened into saucers. The look on her face horrified and distraught, while betrayal and pain gleamed in her eyes. Then the way she had spoke afterwards, telling them to both get out in an uneasily quiet voice, had scared both him and Spencer. Enough that though they obeyed it and left the room, neither could leave the hospital.

Later that night Alsie was discovered trying to kill herself.

"...why hasn't Spencer brought her to see me. Or me to see her? Or even a call? Or letter? Or anything?" Alsie mumbled, her tone sounded accusatory at first but William detected the wobbliness of it as she continued. If that wasn't enough, the swallowed back sob she gave afterwards clinched it, and William's eyes widened.

"Elsie, it's all right. Ok? I'm sure it's just a matter of scheduling. Your mother loves you and..." William grabbed his daughter's hand, trying to reassure her. Instinctively he wanted to hug her like a father would, but he knew it would be disastrous. Especially now.

"But why...?" She whispered, squeezing his hand back. Tears fell silently from her eyes. "Spencer said he'd bring her...he promised. Why hasn't he?"

"I don't know." William admitted, growing annoyed as he thought of his son. He hadn't been there when Spencer made the promise, but he'd expected his son to follow through on it. Or at least tell one of them the reason why he couldn't. Even if Spencer didn't want to talk with William, he could still explain why to Alsie. If there was something wrong...if Diana had a bad reaction to finding out the truth, the least Spencer could do would be to explain it to Alsie. Or to Dr. Freeman if Spencer thought Alsie might take it badly.

Alsie, catching the bitter bite to William's tone, squeezed his hand tighter. Her thoughts drifting back to the question she'd asked herself constantly since finding out Jemma was alive. '...will I be a good mother? Will I...? Or will I hurt her?'

'Have I already hurt her?' Alsie bit down hard on her lip to keep from blurting that bit. Her heart jumped into her throat as she thought about Linnet and how he knew what name she and James had picked for Jemma. How he had named Jemma Jemma, rather than picking some other name. A more common one. 'Did I...? Ana...Emmie...did one of them...did they tell him...? Did...'

"Elsie? What is it? What's wrong?"

"...dad? Can...can you do something for me?" Alsie spoke, her voice shuddering. Her lips quivered as she gazed up at him, waiting a moment before shifting back down to the pile of photographs on the hospital bed. She picked one up, and handed it to William while mumbling her request.

Before he could reply, the hospital room door opened and in stepped Spencer.

0Quantico:

Cam waited quietly beside the round table, her heterochromatic eyes glancing at each of the BAU members as they entered and sat. She greeted each succinctly, with a small wave of her hand and head nod.

"Let's get started." Hotch shut the door as he entered, his own gaze taking in the team members present. Aside from him and Cam, there was Morgan, JJ, Tara Lewis, and Garcia sitting around the table, their expressions ranging from confused to curious. "Alsie's discharge is today, so Reid and Rossi won't be joining us."

"What's going on? Something tells me this isn't to plan a surprise party for Alsie and Jemma..." Garcia piped up, alert to the less than exuberant feeling to the meeting. She was one of the more confused of the group, since unlike the others she knew the meeting wasn't for a readied case, unless it was an emergency one that just cropped up.

"No." Hotch affirmed, addressing the group. "And this isn't an official case. Fitzgerald?" He turned to Cam, gesturing for her to speak.

"...Ok." Cam mumbled, swallowing almost unnoticeably while noting that the expressions of the rest of the BAU had grown concerned. Morgan, JJ, and Garcia each thought of the times during the years when Hotch had called such meetings. The redness around Cam's eyes increased the concern gnawing at them. "I...I know I was only ever a temporary member, and you don't have to help but..."

"It's all right, Fitzgerald, you can sit down." Hotch reassured the younger agent, continuing for her when it was obvious she was unable to herself. He turned his gaze to his team, making sure their attention was on him. "A few weeks ago, Greg Linnet asserted to Fitzgerald, that one of his victims was her mother. He had taken a locket with a photo of the woman and a young Fitzgerald as a trophy."

"...What?"

"My god..."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Are we sure Linnet's telling the truth?"

"That's why I called this meeting. Fitzgerald has asked us to investigate Linnet's claim, and find out if there is any truth in it." Hotch explained while Cam sat down, looking more nervous than any of those present had ever witnessed her to be. "This isn't an official case, so it will have to be done on your own time, but..."

"I'm in. You don't even have to ask." Garcia chirped up.

"The only reason we were able to find Jemma was because of Fitzgerald bringing us the case leading to Linnet. So of course we'll help." JJ said, while Morgan and Tara Lewis nodded in agreement. Cam started to open her mouth to insist they didn't owe her, only for Morgan to head her off.

"We do owe you, and your old team, for helping to find Jemma." He insisted, understanding from what he knew about her personality what she was going to say.

"...thank you." Cam replied instead, feeling the sense of unity and family that the BAU team was known for, and what had both attracted her to the team but also made her anxious back when she first joined years ago.

"Where do we start? Re-interview Linnet?"

"That should be a priority, yes, to gauge if he is telling the truth or just trying to get under Fitzgerald's skin. But first, I think we should look more into the woman he identified as Fitzgerald's mother." Hotch spoke, opening up the folder Cam had brought to him earlier. "There wasn't time yet to make copies of all the information in the file. But the victim went by the name Violet Brant, according to what Linnet told Fitzgerald and what the original investigation team discovered."

"...it was a fake name." Cam piped up, growing more comfortable - partly due to feeling the BAU family vibe, and partly to being able to focus on the facts of the case. After her original team's fatal accident, she'd gone over their open cases. The connected homicides that eventually led to Linnet had been one her team leader had obsessed over, and so had she after his death. Enough that she knew all the victims names and details in the reports. "That much was discovered by those investigating at the time, but they weren't able to find out her real identity."

Hotch was about to continue where Cam left off, but was interrupted by his phone ringing.

He glanced at the display, reading the name and number which appeared. His eyes widened slightly. "Yes? What...? Yes...Yes...you're sure...? Yes." He listened for a few more moments before hanging up. Surprise lingering in his face.

"Hotch?"

"What is it? Is something wro...?"

"New Jersey police just found the body of a woman who'd gone missing from New York a little over two months ago." Hotch replied, continuing before his team could ask him to elaborate. "She had been raped and enucleated. Using an identical method to James'..."

"What...? But..."

"It has to be a copycat. Some fan who heard about the case." JJ replied, shaking her head in disbelief. And revulsion. Of all the criminals an unsub could copy, they had to choose James.

"Were we invited in?" Tara asked, while the others insisted they had to investigate either way. The victim being transported over stare lines gave them the authority to do so despite what the local law enforcement thought. Though if the copycat had only one victim, it'd be more difficult to get an okay.

"We were." Hotch pressed a few keys on his phone, dialing a number.

A/N: My plans for this fic have changed since I first started brainstorming for it before finishing part one (My Life Had Stood). Because of this it is taking a bit longer for me to write. (There're some major revelations that I plan on having happen.)