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imogenkol · 1 year ago

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Old Scars and New

word count: 3.3k warnings: blood, injury tending, disaster bisexual werewolf being cringe af tags: bandaging/stitching up wounds prompt

this is a slightly altered/updated version of my most popular piece of writing for this verse and thought I'd share it in my continued journey of rebuilding my relationship with my og works!

“Alright, who’s up first?” Nadya announced once everyone filed into the motel room.

Skye flashed a sly grin at the sight of Nadya putting her glasses on. “Ooh, are we gonna play doctor?”

Jayde rolled her eyes and dumped her bag onto the floor, barely holding back a wince. The scent of her own blood invaded her lungs and she already felt bruises forming, but the aches and pains were far from uncommon occurrences. She dismissed any concern. “I’m fine.”

Nadya ignored their comments and pointed at both of the siblings. “You two. Sit.”

“Are you going to tell me to roll over too?” Skye remarked.

At the same time, Jayde reiterated grumpily “I said I’m fine.”

The human threw them a stern glare. Nadya may appear soft and approachable most of the time – even meek to those who underestimated her – but the wolves quickly discovered that she had a hidden talent for intimidation when she wanted to. Jayde and Skye simultaneously took their seats at the edge of one of the beds without further protest.

Satisfied with their obedience, Nadya turned to Toby. “How are you feeling?”

“Right as rain,” he replied.

She made a spin motion with her hand. “Twirl.” He held up his arms and turned in one slow circle, showing her that he was unscathed. “Nothing’s hurting?”

“Nope.”

She concluded her thorough scan with a pat on his shoulder. “Okay, you’re good.”

Toby gave the sisters a childish smirk like he won a game and said “Ha.” Then sauntered over to a chair.

Well, if the game went to whoever got hurt the least, then Jayde would never win. She almost scoffed at herself because the competitive side of her that came out around Toby hated the fact that she’d lose anything to him. She even made a mental note to be more careful the next time they encountered hunters just so that she could rub her success in his face. Maybe that was his real motive – to try a tactic that would work on a toddler simply to get the reckless blonde to take better care of herself. Jayde wouldn’t put it past him.

Nadya addressed Skye next. “You got hit on the head pretty hard. How are you feeling?”

The young wolf widened her eyes. “I can see new colors now.”

Nadya laughed and fished out a small flashlight from her bag. “How about dizziness or nausea?”

Jayde watched on as Nadya carefully combed her fingers through Skye’s hair in search of any damage hidden in the light blonde waves. Skye kicked her feet like a little kid getting a check-up, but Jayde noted how her crooked smile evened out to something more… genuine.

Skye was rarely ever anything but mischievous, as if life were just one big joke to her. Of course, there were precious few moments when her serious self would shine through, where there were no jokes to be made and she acted fairly mellow, much to her older sister’s relief. Jayde was shocked to see that happen more often when she interacted with Nadya.

“I feel fine,” Skye answered, then flinched when Nadya touched the sore spot on her head. “Ow! But that hurts.”

“Sorry.” Nadya winced apologetically. “I don’t see any blood, at least.”

The tip of her finger tapped under Skye’s chin to get her to look up. It was then that Jayde noticed she had been chewing on the inside of her cheek. Skye went still as Nadya shined the light in her eyes. It felt like an eternity to Jayde. To see Nadya be so close to her sister, touching her in ways that Jayde longed for. The older wolf realized – with a hot flush to her cheeks – that she was jealous of Skye. That made her bite her cheek even harder as she forced herself to look down.

Nadya stepped away, allowing Jayde to finally breathe normally again. “You don’t have a concussion, but I suggest you ice that for tonight.”

“Sounds good, doc,” she replied with a wink.

Just when Jayde thought she might get over the momentary lapse in her emotions, Nadya blushed. It was subtle enough that she might have been able to convince herself that she imagined it, but her thoughts took what she saw regardless of rationality and ran.

The possibility had never occurred to her until that moment, but Jayde started to wonder if maybe Skye had feelings for the human, too. Jayde certainly couldn’t blame her if she did. It was Nadya, after all. This girl practically had Jayde wrapped around her finger the first day they met. The thing that ate at Jayde more than that were Nadya’s reactions to Skye. She wouldn’t have that hard of a time believing she also felt something for her. Her sister – in all of her annoying glory – was just as much of a catch.

The concept felt nearly unbearable to consider, but Jayde knew that she would never stand in the way of her sister’s happiness or Nadya’s. Especially if it meant Nadya would get to be with someone far more worthy of her affections. Deep down, Jayde has been looking for a good, rock solid excuse to let her go. This possible outcome might be the easiest to accept. That didn’t mean it wasn’t exceptionally painful.

Wallowing in a pit of her own creation caused Jayde to tune the rest of the world out until Nadya’s voice brought her back down to earth.

“Crap, I grabbed the wrong kit,” she grumbled as she sifted through her bag.

Skye gasped dramatically. “Language.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Nadya said with an amused scoff and backed up towards the door. “I’m gonna go back to the car. I’ll pick up some ice for your head on the way back, too.”

“Toby,” Jayde commanded with a purposeful glance. Despite being clear of immediate danger, she didn’t want anyone going anywhere by themselves. Not even to the parking lot.

He nodded in understanding and got up. “Yeah, I’ll go with her.”

Before they left, Nadya locked eyes with Jayde. For that single second, all of her worries were utterly nonexistent. “We’ll be back in a few minutes. Try not to get into any more trouble.”

“No promises,” Skye replied. Jayde looked to see that the devious smirk had returned to her face.

The siblings remained seated on the musty motel bed once Toby and Nadya disappeared. The comforter felt scratchy, but Jayde still balled her fists into the fabric and stared at the worn carpet underneath her blood splattered boots. Something metallic tickled the edge of her tongue and she sighed at the sting that shortly followed, releasing her flesh from her own vengeful teeth.

“So, what crawled up your ass?” Skye asked to break the awkward silence.

Jayde gave her a brief side-glance. “Nothing.”

“Right.” Her words already dripped with sarcasm. “You’re just acting like you have to take Old Yeller out back for no reason.”

Jayde felt a brief spark boil in her chest, but it died out as quickly as it came. She didn’t have the will to be angry or defensive. She only sighed again and forced her question out. “Do you like her?”

There was no hesitation in Skye’s answer. “Yeah, of course I like her.”

“No, I mean… Do you like her?"

Confusion twisted the younger wolf’s features as she blinked at Jayde for several moments. Jayde wordlessly begged not to make her spell it out. The question alone was already mortifying enough. As soon as her meaning fully sank in, Skye’s expression promptly turned incredulous.

“Forget it,” Jayde said curtly.

But Skye already jumped on it. “No, you know what? I do like her. I really, really like her. Yeah, I want her to have my babies.”

Jayde had to fight the urge to growl. “It was a genuine question, Skye.”

“And you’re a genuine idiot,” she fired back with no remorse. “I don’t want your girlfriend, Jayde.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“She could be.”

“She shouldn’t.”

Skye raised an eyebrow. “That’s not very progressive of you. You’re sounding like Miranda with that old world bullshit. Who cares if Nadya is a human? Just be careful not to break or bite her. That simple.”

Jayde shook her head. “It’s not that…”

The slow nod she saw out of the corner of her eye turned into a shrug as Skye leaned into her. “What if you’re wrong about yourself?” she whispered like a kid telling a secret.

They fell back into another prolonged silence as Jayde rocked back and forth anxiously. She wasn’t wrong about herself, but Jayde somehow still had the smallest bit of hope that she could become someone Nadya deserves. That if she tried to be better, she wouldn’t fight this so hard or put herself through all of this pain. She had it in her. Somewhere. Buried underneath dirt and dust. The best version would peek through the cracks of everything broken about her whenever that girl was near. Jayde just had to figure out a way to widen the fractures and reach through.

But she worried she would break herself even more by doing that.

After a minute, her lungs deflated once more in utter hopelessness. “I am an idiot.”

Familiar footsteps approached the room and Skye nudged her older sister with her elbow. “Chin up, sport.”

Jayde managed to give her a grateful look just as the others returned. Nadya held a small bag of ice in one hand and a different first aid kit in the other. She went to Skye first and handed her the ice for her head.

Guilt immediately flooded Jayde’s system for feeling so jealous. Nadya put in so much effort to take care of them all and Jayde had been worried that she wanted her sister over her. She needed to get over herself.

“Okay, you’re good to go. Just take it easy,” Nadya ordered.

Skye enthusiastically jumped to her feet while balancing the ice pack on top of her head. “Great, I’m gonna go get tacos across the street.”

“Don’t go alone,” Jayde called as she skipped towards the door.

She waved dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, buddy system.”

“You guys want anything?” Toby asked before he trailed after her.

“Just get me whatever you get,” Jayde said.

“Okay. Nadya?”

Nadya sounded slightly distracted as she prepared the kit. “Uh, what kinds are there?”

“Asada, pollo, carnitas.” When she took too long to ponder the options, he translated in a patronizing tone “Beef, chicken, pork.”

She looked up and fixed him with an exasperated stare. “I know what they mean, I was just thinking.”

Toby chuckled. “Any day now.”

“Get me chicken.”

He gave a casual thumbs up. “You got it.”

The motel room grew quiet again once it became only the two young women. The wolf took time to let the human’s presence calm the restless being within. She focused on how her air of crisp autumn spices encompassed her senses, even over the scents of the others. What fascinated Jayde was how her existence always broke through the most powerful things. Werewolves had an incredibly distinct and potent scent, so being around her pack should have masked the humanness of Nadya’s scent. But it didn’t. In fact, Jayde often sensed her before she sensed anything or anyone else. It was always her first.

“Your turn?” Nadya suggested softly, immediately drawing Jayde’s full attention.

Up to that point, she had completely forgotten about her injuries. “Oh, right.”

Nadya came directly to her, standing just inches away. Jayde stared up at her and waited, totally transfixed. “Let’s get a look at that arm.”

Jayde realized she needed to remove her jacket. She snapped herself out of her trance and carefully slipped out of it, grimacing as the fabric tugged at the graze on her bicep. Blood had mostly soaked into the jacket itself, but streaks of crimson still smeared across her skin and reached as low as her wrist.

Nadya bent down and adjusted her glasses to get a better look, but that furrow in her brow looked like it took too much effort. “Do you think we could move to the bathroom? The lighting sucks out here and I gotta get you cleaned up.”

“Yeah.”

Nadya followed closely behind as they entered the bathroom, but lingered over Jayde’s shoulder after turning the light on. “Hey, did you take a hit to the back?”

Jayde craned her neck to see why she looked so concerned, but couldn’t see much of anything. The strain of twisting only made her injured shoulder spike with pain. “Um, I’m not sure. Maybe? I remember getting punched or something.”

“There’s blood, Jay,” Nadya informed her, still inspecting the wound. “Take this off.”

Jayde felt her entire body flare with intense heat as Nadya tugged at her shirt. She hesitated for a few beats to let the embarrassment pass. It wasn’t like Nadya hadn't seen her without a shirt on before. Hell, she’s seen her naked. She’s seen her turn into a goddamn werewolf, for fuck’s sake. Jayde wanted to curse at herself for being so stupid.

She struggled to get out of the shirt on her own. It was enough that her shoulder felt as sore as it did, but now that she had been made aware of it, the wound on Jayde’s back stung like a bitch. As much as she wanted to hide her pain, she wasn’t able to stop herself from flinching when she tried to work one of her arms out of the ruined clothing.

“Here, let me –” Nadya reached to help, but then her pulse spiked in the wolf’s ears like a drum had been struck and she stopped short. “Can I..?”

“Sure, yeah,” Jayde stammered and braced herself as the human stepped into her space.

Nadya’s hands carefully gripped the bottom of the bloodied shirt and slowly pushed it up her torso. Jayde could tell that she tried not to, but there were still a couple of times where her fingers brushed up against bare skin. Jayde clenched her jaw tightly. Just those small, brief touches caused intense tingling to spread outwards from the places of contact. She shut her eyes and held her breath as her wolf fought to rise to the surface. A shiver raced along Jayde’s spine as she quickly dampened it. After a tense half-second, she felt the restless animal reluctantly retreat.

Despite nearly losing control, Jayde didn’t feel afraid. Maybe because she knew Nadya wasn’t in any danger. The wolf only wanted a glimpse of her, but the last thing Jayde wanted was to cause any potential fear. She certainly didn’t want to think up some shitty excuse to explain why her eyes started to glow.

The two of them successfully got the shirt over Jayde’s head with minimal pain and discarded it on the floor. Meeting Nadya’s gaze after that felt far braver than facing any hunter. She had this look in her warm brown eyes that Jayde couldn’t quite decipher. However, the physical effect in Nadya’s body was more obvious. Being so close, Jayde sensed it all.

An erratic heartbeat. A clipped breath caught in her throat. A blooming scent that tempted Jayde nearer.

Those were not things she noticed in Nadya with anyone else, Jayde realized.

“I’m going to, uh…” Nadya motioned awkwardly, finally just shuffling behind her again.

Jayde cleared her throat to banish her own nerves and brushed her tangled hair over her shoulder. “How’s it looking back there?”

“This is pretty deep,” she murmured and began to clean it. “You really didn’t feel this?”

Jayde tensed at the incredibly cold sensation of a disinfectant wipe against her hot skin, but she still gave a half shrug. “I remember being hit, but that’s all.”

“Well, you got lucky. It could have punctured your lung.”

Jayde set her hands on the edge of the sink and watched Nadya’s reflection carefully through the mirror. “Yeah, I feel lucky.”

“That better not be sarcasm. Not when I’m looking at all these scars.” Nadya scolded as she got the stitches ready. “It looks like you should be dead ten times over.”

“It’s because I should be.”

They briefly shared a look. Nadya’s expression remained unreadable. Not that Jayde had the time to properly study it before she went back to work.

She didn’t say anything while she made a few sutures — being too focused on her task of mending a werewolf — but then Jayde saw her brown eyes peek over her shoulder again. “I’m really glad you aren’t, by the way.”

Jayde exhaled an almost whispered response. “Me too.”

A bandage was carefully placed over the newly stitched wound, but Nadya lingered behind her. Jayde wondered if maybe she had spotted another wound that hadn’t quite traveled through her nerves and up to her brain yet, but then felt an incredibly delicate sensation tickle her lower back. It took a moment for her to realize that it was the tip of Nadya’s finger trailing over what had to be one of her scars. Jayde froze in place, not having a single clue how to react.

“How many are there?” Nadya’s voice sounded distant.

Jayde gripped the edges of the sink so that she wouldn’t fall over as the girl traced another sensitive mark. She was afraid that the slightest movement would cause her to stop. “I’ve never counted.”

A soft hum echoed in the bathroom. “I guess you’ve got a couple more now. Which reminds me…” Nadya pulled her hand away, but before disappointment twisted an invisible knife in the werewolf’s chest, her palm rested on her hip and turned her around.

The human’s sudden willingness to touch her in ways that could be considered intimate left Jayde’s mind in a utter stupor, stirring her inner self once more. She didn’t know what to make of it. Or what to do. She knew what she wanted to do, though that remained a line Jayde felt she shouldn’t cross.

Nadya went to work on the laceration that cut through her upper arm and Jayde found herself thoroughly fascinated with the process. The human’s eyes were so focused, making sure each and every stitch was up to her standard. The way her brows knitted in concentration — the thin frame of her glasses resting on the bridge of her nose — replaced Jayde’s heart with a pair of fluttering wings. She could stare at her for hours.

Nadya finally glanced up while she wrapped her arm. This time, her blush was entirely noticeable. “What?”

The question made Jayde realize she had been smiling. She quickly looked away, though she couldn’t fully wipe the expression from her face. “Nothing.”

“Okay,” Nadya said slowly, confused amusement written on her face. “Well, I’m all done.”

Jayde nodded as she cleaned the mess up. As soon as the kit was packed, Nadya gave the wolf an unsure look and turned to leave the bathroom. On impulse, Jayde caught her wrist to stop her. A small gasp escaped Nadya’s lips at the unexpected touch, but she still waited expectantly.

“Thank you.” Jayde caressed the smooth curve of her wrist with her thumb. For the first time, she didn’t try to hide it. She wanted Nadya to feel her gratitude. “For taking care of us.”

Nadya’s features softened into an absolutely stunning smile. “I like taking care of you.”

It took everything Jayde had not to pull her in. She yearned to feel Nadya against her. Longed to brush their lips together. To hold her close and swallow every breath. Feel all the ways she could get her heart to race. Instead, Jayde’s fingers went slack and Nadya slipped out of her grasp, leaving her alone in the bathroom with the ghost of her contact still prickling across the surface of her skin.

tag list (ask to be added or removed!): @adelaidedrubman @florbelles @marivenah @simonxriley @shegetsburned @voidika @kyber-infinitygems @statichvm @inafieldofdaisies @socially-awkward-skeleton @aceghosts @jillvalentinesday @risingsh0t @unholymilf @thedeadthree @cassietrn @jackiesarch

#oc insp: jayde thatcher #oc insp: nadya bishop #oc insp: toby cortez #oc insp: skye thatcher #ship insp: woven and thatched #insp: the lodge #oh look the gang's all here #this is the whole pack btw #well... the whole pack up to a certain Event and then a couple more join the picture #i love how i sift through my older writing being like 'ugh god this is unreadable garbage' and it's never as bad as i expect it to be #but the perfectionist in me feels a lot better when i fix certain parts that bugged me #i mean nothing will ever be perfect in my eyes but i sure do like feeling proud of my work #and i feel like i've really improved since then #anyway jayde is cringefail at the beginning and slightly less as the story goes on because self awareness only gets you so far #I actually got a commission of this scene that is like INCREDIBLE #the artist wanted to animate it and I was like FUCK YEAH #anyway maybe I'll whip it back out again now that I've posted this if ya'll wanna see

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bravewolfvesperia · 10 months ago

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/ so regarding my previous post about Yuri's Cresty verse, here's the breakdown that led me to what I'm using and what I'm determining to be the most likely storyline based on canon events:

Flynn's event with Tear. Flynn is chasing Tear under knight orders for leaving the Outer World, which they are both from (so they presumably are not supposed to be in the Inner World if they come from the Outer World).

Tear states she's chasing someone who is going to basically do terrible things. From context and knowledge of her canon, we can assume this person she's chasing is Van. This is also supported by the fact that there was a 3D model of Van that existed in the game's files that never got released (obviously it may not have been, but at this point we don't have those answers so I need something to work with for this).

In the event, Flynn mentions the Four Greats Trees protect the Inner World, and these trees later become a major plot point that ties into Yuri's appearance (who is also on this side at this time for canonically unknown reasons. If they know each other and are both on that side though, my assumption is that they were traveling together).

In the event, Flynn mentions a "friend" of his which is obviously Yuri. Yuri, who had been MIA the entire game (which is highly unusual for a Tales gacha, which leads me to thinking it was because they had plans for him, thus instead using Leon earlier in because it's always one of the two who shows up early into Tales gacha), gets mentioned in this event, but... why, unless it meant something? Why would Yuri be not-quite-namedropped for no reason?

^ Because he was in the next event. This would imply Yuri, Flynn's friend, is also from the Outer World, and if people from the Outer World aren't supposed to interact with the Inner World, it's very likely they came together, or else why would Yuri be there and Flynn not be going after him to stop him? Flynn himself mentions he shouldn't be interacting with the people in the Inner World (he's "originally" from there but is evidently not anymore, i.e. moved to the other side at some point), so if Yuri was out on his own, why would he not be going after him too to stop him? Since he only mentions Yuri as his friend and gives us no indication that he's chasing said friend, instead chasing Tear, Yuri being in the following event leads me to think he's not going after Yuri because he went there with Yuri.

Going off this, this means before Yuri was condemned, they probably left the Inner World together for whatever reason (which I say because Yuri is clearly not also a knight in this verse, in contrast to his first/starting Asteria storyline).

Yuri is on his own without Flynn in the very next event, meaning it's likely not much time has passed if any between these two events. I say this because Kanata's group is in Flynn's event but not at all present in Yuri's, which means there's no progression of Kanata's group's story (which the events follow their main story progression, i.e. Yuna isn't in earlier events because they aligned with the main story's progression). This means we can't say there's a jump in the timeline of these events that makes it seem odd. It doesn't, and these could have been happening simultaneously for all we know. That would mean Yuri was probably off somewhere waiting for Flynn, as he is not a knight and it's not his duty to catch Tear. Flynn possibly heard she was around and went after her, and Yuri stayed back and waited.

Could also be that Kanata's group was meant to run into Yuri after he'd been condemned, thus they made it a point not to include Kanata's group in any capacity in Yuri's event.

On that note, is it meaningful that he met Jade in this event (who he was "on the side of" in the little flower shop rivalry, and Jade was familiar with Asbel due to chapter four, making it unlikely that Asbel and Yuri would be enemies. Add to that the fact that Sophie is with Asbel and knows Kanata's group, as does Asbel, the only somewhat outlier in this event is Spada, but since he and Asbel also know each other pre-event story, a little less so? It could be possible the event was, in some sense, getting Yuri a support system that could pop up later in the main story when he did get condemned), who very pointedly did not care Kanata's group was a group of transgressors? Maybe!

Skip ahead to the chapter with the Four Great Trees, chapter ten. These storylines are a bit far apart, meaning there's ample time for Yuri to have been condemned and for his personal storyline to change/be somewhat altered/etc.

Milla basically mentions that the loss of the Four Great Trees would be highly detrimental (and iirc would kill everyone in the Inner World). Her current mission in chapter ten is to protect the Great Trees that protect the Inner World. My guess is that the Outer World would be in danger as well without the Trees, but even if we go with not, it's reasonable that Flynn would want to protect his former home. If we assume Yuri and Flynn are best friends in this verse too, there's no reason for Yuri not to be involved in helping (and for all we know he might have also come from the Inner World and moved to the other side at one point as far as canon goes).

Tear basically implied the person she was chasing was going to do something highly terrible, and if we assume it's Van, that also fits right into Van's own home game storyline. If we guess he's working for Kasque, that adds another layer onto why he'd be destroying the Trees - because that's Kasque's goal. Why would both of them be doing that if they weren't working together? Given Van's canon storyline in Abyss and his Asteria storyline in Eden, it's really not odd at all that his story would be similar here if he thinks he's going to work with Kasque to make a better world, even if that means erasing what already exists and starting over (because the Vision Orbs suck now and people have become overly and dangerously reliant on them).

Assume Tear told Flynn all of this. If Flynn was traveling with Yuri, he would've told Yuri all of this.

When we see Yuri again in the main story, for the first time since his event, he's a transgressor. How did that happen? My guess is based on whatever Flynn told him, Yuri chased after Van and stayed on his trail. If we assume Van realized this somehow, well, Van's not stupid. He could have come up with a way to get Yuri involved in something that would open up the probability of him being condemned. Whether Yuri committed an actual crime or not, Van could've set him up so that the likelihood of him being condemned was extremely high.

Obviously we if go by that, Van's plan worked and he was condemned, but he escaped and I would assume continued going after Van. If we assume Van's goal is to destroy the Four Great Trees (likely for Kasque), those are the trees that protect Flynn's (and possibly Yuri's? regardless he would act for Flynn!) former home, the Inner World. Of course he's going to keep chasing Van even as a transgressor.

If we base off the oopsie what's Yuri doing here when the tree he's at gets destroyed, we can assume it's a misunderstanding and that Yuri was there trying to protect it but got there too late. Van probably destroyed it and could even have been in that scene, but we weren't shown it because the chapter wanted to stop at a cliffhanger before bringing us into that conflict.

Milla sensed the destruction of the tree. We can probably guess the main group was going to head over there next. If that happened, it might have been possible that they ran into Van and Yuri (and Lloyd's group? Depends if they stuck around, but Kanata, Misella and Aegis would have probably recognized them from chapter five).

Another takeaway we can glean from this is that people in the Outer World also probably use Vision Orbs, as Yuri is presumably from the Outer World but got condemned in the Inner World (which is where he was between the time we first see him and the time he had a Stain of Guilt). Basically, the fact that he got condemned makes me think he must have originally had a Vision Orb like everyone in the Inner World. The reason Vicious never had one is because his birth/existence itself was a sin, so he just always had his sin.

Additionally, if Tear is from the Outer World, Van is too if we go by this plot thread. If Van is helping Kasque because he believes it's better for their world, that tells me that, based on Kasque destroying the trees, if Van is too, Van is well aware of the Vision Orb problem. That would imply the Outer World has the same Vision Orb abuse problem/that they have and use Vision Orbs.

As a side note, Repede had MA audio files in the game before shutdown that had gone unused. This indicates that, as only SSRs had MA voice lines, that Repede had an SSR coming up (up to that point he only had an SR, which didn't come with MAs). This would line up with the timing of Yuri's introduction into the main story. Due to this, Repede will be with Yuri in his Crestoria verse.

So as for my muse, what all that leads me to for his story goes like this:

Yuri and Flynn left the Outer World together when Flynn got an order to pursue Tear, someone who had fled their world to the Inner World.

Flynn and Yuri split up when Flynn has some idea of Tear's whereabouts, as it's his order to capture her (and again, presumably not Yuri's).

Yuri waits around for Flynn to get back and ends up doing a job on the side for the flower shop, thus meeting Jade, Asbel, Sophie and Spada (thus he has now interacted with people from the Inner World as well, which it's possible he doesn't care at all about that so for my muse's sake for specific clarity, he doesn't).

Flynn gets back and informs Yuri of what he learned from Tear and the danger Van would be bringing by destroying the Trees.

Flynn, being a knight, has orders to tend to and can't freely chase after someone, but Yuri, not a knight, can; so Yuri chases after Van and splits up with Flynn to do so while Flynn presumably searches for a way to deal with Van and Tear in an official capacity - i.e. Van is the problem that they need to tend to, not Tear, and he would probably be trying to get her a pardon for leaving the Outer World since her goal was to chase down her brother who also left the Outer World, and for nefarious reasons that could be threatening to the Outer World itself (there's less canon clarity in if the Outer World would be destroyed along with the Inner World, but based on Flynn saying the Trees protect the Inner World and based on Milla's information on how it would affect the Outer World, it's likely the result would be the same on both sides, unless the Trees just don't protect both sides?).

At some point between the event and when Yuri shows up in the main story, Van realized he was being trailed and worked to set up a situation that put Yuri in a situation that would highly likely end with him being a transgressor. It works, but Yuri gets away and continues trailing him. Van reaches the tree that he ends up destroying before Yuri can stop him. Yuri is spotted by Lloyd's group, but leaves without an explanation.

From this point on my muse's story is entirely my own but is still based on what I've deduced from the above and continued past this point.

Since Yuri left, he'd be on his on his way to the next tree to prevent Van from destroying it. At some point during this time he's spotted by regular citizens who see he's a transgressor and recognize his appearance from the rumors about him, which have been twisted into a poor man from a poor area breaking into a noble's house and killing the noble for his stuff.

The real story was that Van set up a situation where he leaked "information" to bad actors in Zaphias that endangered Flynn and their home (in this verse still Zaphias/the Lower Quarter). Yuri was fed this information by someone working for Van so that he would "find out" about it and take action. At the time he's not aware he's being fed this information as a means to get the two "informed" parties together. However, due to Van's information, the other side, nobility, is planning to target Flynn and then the LQ, so Yuri has to deal with him either way. Van basically trapped Yuri in a situation where he had to do something about it and had no time to go searching for Flynn to warn him (because not just Flynn, but the LQ itself would have been in danger as per the nobility taking action against them when the informed party via Van talked to them).

Yuri had to kill the noble in question but was caught doing so because Van hired someone to "warn" the finder that an assassin was coming. Van had planned everything out to ensure the highest probability that Yuri would be condemned and dealt with by Enforcers, getting him off Van's back for Van to continue his mission.

Back to Yuri being spotted and recognized, he has Enforcers on his ass again and runs across Vicious (situation can vary depending on mun circumstance for any of the main cast). Vicious likes dealing with Enforcers and so helps being all fuck why not, resulting in them talking about how Yuri got his Stain of Guilt. Yuri's home (the LQ specifically) and Flynn are still in danger though so he refuses to die without doing something about Van. Vicious wants to test that and gives him his Blood Sin, which Yuri survives and accepts his sin because it was a sin he got believing he did the right thing to protect what he cares about, and he knows he cares about genuinely good people and that he's putting down bad people.

When discussing their next moves from there, seeing as usually people with a Blood Sin stick with Kanata's group, Yuri says he can't stay with them because he has to keep pursuing Van. After discussing why with Kanata's group, they determine Yuri is just doing the same thing they and Milla are doing, which is trying to stop Kasque from destroying the Trees, leading to them finding out that Van is as well and that Yuri was trying to deal with that same issue.

This leads into Yuri asking why Kanata's group is trying so hard to protect people despite being transgressors, thus protecting the very people who condemned them. It's been about two to three weeks since Yuri was condemned and has started to become very jaded by it, and he's also curious of their intentions/reasons.

Yuri agrees with Kanata's goal of changing the world's system because of how badly unjust it's gotten and decides to help him, but so that they don't end up separating only to aim for the same goal of protecting the Trees, Yuri decides to try to help by making Kanata's path easier and preventing more innocent people from being condemned in the meantime of Kanata trying to change the system.

This results in Yuri destroying Vision Centrals in various towns, making it a point to destroy every single one he comes across and hunt down the rest. Kanata's group and Milla are both handling the Tree situation, and Yuri doesn't want to interfere and get information between them confused if Yuri is doing the same thing on his own. It could also lead to Van using that against them, which Yuri prefers to avoid.

By doing this, Yuri is preventing people's broadcasts from showing up on any VCs that have been destroyed. That means fewer people are able to see the broadcasts and thus fewer people can participate in condemning people, and for Enforcers to show up, there needs to be enough agreement among the masses that a person deserves to be condemned. If the majority don't agree, Enforcers won't show up. The fewer people who can see the broadcasts, the fewer people can "vote" for condemnation, thus preventing more strangers from making assumptions about potentially skewed stories and killing innocent people.

Eventually Yuri determines that what he's doing is dangerous enough to possibly really get him in a mess that could get him killed and that he needs to be stronger if he's going to deal with Enforcers, EX Enforcers, Assid and Forte, and possibly Kasque and still Van (especially because if Van finds out he didn't die and is still out there, he might consider him a serious threat and go after him). This leads to him talking with Vicious about evolving his Blood Sin, which he ultimately does.

On that note, Yuri's Blood Sin is Abyssion and his evolved Blood Sin is the unlocked form of Abyssion.

At this point that's everything I'm solidifying for this verse and anything else is kinda up in the air. Some of it will also depend on any official content released in the future that continues the story in any capacity (novels, potential future drama CDs, anything Rays might do with the cast or its Recollection Mode, etc).

I'm still undecided if Yuri will have found out that Van manipulated his entire condemnation into happening, and it's less important than the rest of this so it's more of a side thing for me right now. I might just consider it one thing to get to during threads and stuff.

yeah i rly fuckin' thought this in depth and continued to mull over it for a few days just to work out what really happened for my own sanity and for my muse's verse. yeah. yeah i really did that.

#{ muse info + headcanons }#/ yes i rly thought this through once i started to put the pieces together and was not accepting defeat.#edit on the font size: fixed it but it still seems to be having issues with block errors but whatever. /

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oftoska · 11 months ago

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R/esident E/vil verse.

Some official notes about Malcolm's verse in the R/esident E/vil franchise.

Following the timeline of the games, Malcolm's date of birth has been re-adjusted to 1970 to compensate for age differences.

All notations of Malcolm's past history remain the same, including his birth and living arrangements on his family's ranch in Texas until he was 5, where they relocated to a ranch in Giles, Virginia.

At 18 he enlisted in the Navy with the goal of joining the SEALs, which were still relatively new at the time. At 21 he was re-assigned to a special team under orders from the Pentagon where he worked adjacent to A/lbert W/esker. They had little personal interaction, however Malcolm's skills were noted.

The offer to join UBCS was extended in 1996. Still contracted by the military, Malcolm met with S/ergei V/ladimir under the recommendation of W/esker and began working for Umbrella's specialized Biohazard Countermeasure team. He was assigned to Team Charlie.

Official Umbrella files have him marked as Missing in Action, Presumed Dead following the R/accoon C/ity incident.

Interestingly, he was flagged as a person of interest for the Tyrant project in high classification files - meaning only those with high clearance could see such notes.

Under an alias, Malcolm worked as a freelance private military contractor, using his skills against B/OWs for specialized, high-paying jobs. In 2011 at the founding of the D/SO and after several adjacent run-in's with the American government, Malcolm was formally hired as an operative.

#re verse.#metas.

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petitsdieu · 8 months ago

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Sometimes she feels like their hair — auricomous, honey, warmth. Coquettish and coaxing, even when she doesn't mean to be. She's so distinctively Four; she's so distinctively like the other Victors from Four. The good, the bad...

She's been shell-stuck in obdormition. She tingles where she's most unbudging. Every lift comes twofolds of slip. It's exhausting. If it shows, well, she's rarely been one to care to hold it back. Her face too telling. Attempts only reserved for times she thought her life depended on it. Even than, she's never been a good liar.

Her gaze falls to the seam of him ⸺ and it's seamless. Metal to skin, it melts lovely.

❛ It looks good— ❜ The Capitol with all its misses and misgivings, has some wins of its own. Medical advances still astound her.

❛ You're not in any pain, right? ❜

[ SHOWN ] for receiver to purposefully reveal their scars for sender to see @petitsdieu

peeta wasn't ashamed of his scars , there were days when he wished he could just blend in again , but the sound of his capitol appointed prosthetic leg against the gravel road was always a reminder of who he really was. but there was no shame in showing it , he just had to remind himself that scars prove he's still alive. hands work at his pant leg , rolling it up gently , showing where the metal stops and his skin starts again. " they took away most of my scars after the first games. couldn't really fix this one though. " shoulders shrug at the thought and eyes look back up to the other. " it was hard to get used to , especially in the snow. fell a few times just walking out of my house ; thankfully no one saw though. "

#capitolmutt #* filed under — ( verse ) ( interactions ) ( games )#* filed under — ( verse ) ( games )#ik i read somewhere you're rereading the books but still so happy to see some book peeta worked in!!

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petitsdieu · 6 months ago

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( c ) 𝒇𝒕. @godstrayed

There's a glint of her dinner knife under a billowy sleeve. Her tremble-grip holds it to white-knuckles. Where bone folds at the seam. Where her sanity gets a little lost. Where she's a little less than herself from before and something distorted and strange.

There's a man ten years plus her that's been breaking her off from the crowd. Coaxing her towards the nearest existing hall. He touch-touch-touches her to her edge. One more hand on the cheek, forearm, shoulder is going to push her right off. The only one that doesn't sick scoop her belly out is the one that came out of the games with her.

He thinks himself deserving because he's been promised her company. One half of the calf-love couple only. He's displeased to see Billy make an appearance, at first, but revels in the idea of him knowing he's dipping his fingers into someone else's presumed honey.

"Don't worry, she's in good hands." The man says, that plastic Capitol grin, all Caesar-like and shiny artificial rows of teeth. "She's been telling me all about your time together. Touching, truly."

She hasn't been saying much at all.

#godstrayed #* filed under — ( verse ) ( interactions ) ( games )#* filed under — ( verse ) ( games )

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paradise-in-k4 · 13 days ago

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Index - Blog Tags

The search function is enabled for easy searching. Most of the tags are marked below for easier searching, but not all of them since there’s a 30-tag limit.

RP Tags

#muse: (first name) - The character that’s talking or a main focus of a post.

#rp meme - RP memes that you can send to my ask box.

#rp muse - Muse bios.

#rp event - Event master posts that are meant to be the lore hub for any events I host.

#rp promo - Reblogs of other RP blog starter calls and promos.

#rp starter - Posts intended to start a thread with another blog. The other blog in question will be pinged and tagged.

#crack - Crack RP posts.

#crack rp

#the timekeeper spins in chaos

#dash commentary - In-character/OOC commentary on someone else’s post. The blog in question will be added in the tags.

#the muses respond - In-character ask responses from a muse.

Lore Tags

#universe k4 - Scarlet Gensokyo Beyond the West Mountain

#universe l1 - The Canon Verse

#parallel satellite incident notes - Lore-related posts about the Parallel Satellite Incident and its progression.

#poll your own adventure - Larger semi-scripted RP plots where you as a collective roleplaying community make decisions that influence some of this blog’s RP events. Sometimes features a Y/N self-insert for one of your characters.

#choose your own adventure

#file two - Posts relating to an original detective-themed magical girl project called “File Two: An Unexpected High School’s Impromptu Study Circle for Aspiring Detectives & Magical Girls”. It might cross paths with Touhou and other fandoms.

#this week in gensokyo… - Weekly summaries of what happened with me on this RP blog. They probably won’t happen every week. Posts on Friday afternoon/evening if it does happen.

#someone’s magic item - Posts about a particular possession or an item that someone holds that’s canon to this blog.

Muse-Specific Perspective Lore Tags

#the gensokyo chronicle - Background lore notes on relevant roleplaying events that happened during interactions with this blog that aren’t necessarily specific to one character, as well as background information about other worlds that she is informed about from any such travelers, and from willing helpers like the Armored Fairies. Written from the perspective of Hieda no Akyuu unless a witness report is attached.

#armored fairy’s report / armored fairy brigade - Lore posts about the Armored Fairy Brigade and their adventures in incident resolution with others both in and out of Gensokyo. Their reports are sometimes shared with Hieda no Akyuu.

#kirisame print shop notes - Written blog lore in the form of long(ish) writing, which is usually background material for my muses and personal lore while not necessarily being very detailed or specific about specific places. Written from the perspective of Marisa Kirisame.

#second grimoire of marisa - Marisa’s second ongoing volume of spell card and special skill speculations, open for anyone and everyone regardless of fandom. She’ll even try to get it turned into a spell card by filling in the missing blanks!

#aya’s bunbunmaru news coverage - Headline posts written under the context and perspective of Aya Shameimaru for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper.

Mun/Miscellaneous Tags

#the mun responds - Answered asks intended for me as the mun to respond. Call me Cupcake the Mun if you want.

#ooc - Miscellaneous posts that aren’t RP related and instead related to me the mun posting.

#the portfolio - Master posts full of links.

#the lost word incident - Stuff about Touhou Lost Word, which is a focal point in structuring my multiverse despite being a “non-canon” game.

#you didn’t see me use the wrong blog no no no - Self-explanatory.

#break time best time - Posts made during break time at work. They might be of less quality, but only sometimes.

#tales from suzunaan - Posts containing OOC work-gained wisdom, random thoughts, or comments. Sometimes silly or useless.

#mun is okay don’t worry - Random rants about stuff. Don’t worry people, I’m still okay here.

#i art sometimes - Art posts. Varies between WIP posts and finished art.

#the madoka experience - Puellaposting 101 because of personal brainrot.

#kosuzu and patchouli’s book club - Personal reviews about anime/manga that I watched recently.

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owedfavors · 1 year ago

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the hand that brushes across her cheek una catches, though her fingers do not close tightly about the other's wrist. her grip is firm enough, lasts long enough, only for her to place a data chip in pris's open palm. ❛ I thought you might care to explain this. ❜

despite the choice of words, una persists under no delusions: pris will not care to explain, nor would una wish her to. she merely informs her, in their own way, that she knows, she sees. not that their games are ever subtle, not when there's no need for concealment.

neither is there need for explanation, really, not when the matter is already taken care of, as the contents of the chip serve to prove. problem averted before it materialized. not pris' best work, though creative, at least. with a gesture towards the quarters through the door against which pris leans, una adds, ❛ go on, take a look. I'll wait. ❜

no, she cannot name it, whatever it is that nags at her. perhaps it is merely one more game brewing on the horizon. regardless, she'll leave the matter until it clarifies in her vision.

She'd expected some sort of defensiveness--the unimpressed glare, a flat denial. Even the turnabout questions. It hits her, for the barest moment, how much she misses her Commander. It's cold comfort, that even the similarities between these agents of an Imperial monstrosity and the people she cares for cannot make her forget. there is no safety, here, and nothing of her home.

Pris bares her teeth. It even approaches a smile. She'd practiced in the mirror, glad that her double didn't seem to avoid cameras the way she might tend to.

"I know what you look like when you get a bone between your teeth." She leans in. Close enough to reach out and touch, to risk brushing a hand across the other woman's cheek and reach, try to see just how much suspicion she is under.

"And I know you don't feel the need to walk me home like some simpering Imperial suitor unless you want something."

It's perhaps too much to hope that there's something else going on; that some other puzzle has caught Una's eye. She only needs time, a few days at most for the ion storms to rebuild in intensity. But lately it's hard to feel as though luck is on her side.

#fateprotected #fateprotected:001 #⤷ file / interactions.#⤷ verse / mirror | to hold‚ as 'twere‚ the mirror up to nature.#mirror pris and una playing games with each other was truly inspired thinking from us #I'm obsessed with it #the answer to pris's 'how much suspicion is she under?' is: she knows something's up but can't define it #and so frankly isn't too fussed about it yet #una vc: I'll figure it out by the time it becomes a problem #asdlfkj

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wizardfigurine · 3 years ago

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on ARGs and the degradation of a genre

the last post i reblogged made me think a lot over how ARGSs have evolved and changed. im very specifically talking about how many people believe they've become derivative and cliche (mainly based off local 58). if you look at newer args through the lens of them being an alternate reality game, they dont hold up well. the main criticism ive seen of these works is that theyre intentionally making themselves creepier and dont hold much substance.

im putting the rest of this under a read more, its gonna be hefty. also unstructured. keep in mind this is all my personal opinion. if you think the walten files are revolutionary, no ones stopping you. im generalizing

there are 2 reasons i think args have become so stereotypical, and why it's so easy to spot one nowadays.

firstly, and like most obviously, theyre extremely popular now. back in the 90s args had never been heard of, and if you saw someone saying something on the internet you were way more likely to believe it or turn it into a mystery. you dont even have to go that far back. take poppy. people were not well-versed with the idea of unfiction, fucking game theory thought she was a part of the illuminati. it was strange if you weren't part of the unfiction niche. regardless, this rise in popularity has also lent itself to more people wanting to dip their toes in the arg waters. this has advantages and disadvantages. hell yes! people are being creative and want to share their stories in this interesting way but also... they don't indulge in the genre enough to create something new.

and thats where most newer args fail. they have lost the interactive aspect, which is crucial!! in my opinion they've even lost the alternate reality part as well as an example, we can look at neurocam. which is an exemplary arg and i think checks all the necessary boxes. it took place in real life and integrated an alternate reality into our own. it also had a wonderful game/puzzle aspect! the audience had to fulfil each task to understand more of the story. they were a key piece of the game, not a bystander or viewer. if you want a more popular example the same goes for cicada 3301. even though that was more puzzle based, less so focused on a coherent storyline.

though alternative reality games dont have any strict guidelines! every new work defies the genre and molds it into something new. plus, its fucking hard to create global treasure hunts if you dont have the resources. so many works leaned more into the alternative reality rather than the game. namely alantutorials or daisy brown. they presented an alternate reality in our own, and involved the audience through interaction and real time events. daisy brown frequently responded to youtube comments and alantutorials had significant bouts in upload times to show a realistic passage of time.

in comparison, local58 was fairly different. it told a story, and it merged the plot into our own reality, but it was not interactive. its huge success can be owed to this fact. it was easy to digest, and most videos were released at the same time. the viewer didnt have to consciously be a part of the story, they could sit back and take in the horrifying news of this alternate world. though i dont want to downplay local58 because its production quality is amazing and the storyline is well thought out. in other words, it did earn its recognition through creativity and clever story-telling, but it also flattened a lot of the greater aspects of an arg.

after local58 got popular, args started becoming far more mainstream, and everyone was interested. who wouldn't want to present a story they've been dying to tell in this new format that could include the audience?

i don't blame any artists, but most people are not willing to sacrifice tons of money for elaborate filming locations or props to create a realistic arg. but everyones got an editing program and a few spooky pngs right.

in that sense historical analog horror is super easy. you set it up as a found tape of something that happened 40 years ago, you edit your story together however you like and it turns out great. but you have lost all sense of alternate reality or interactivity.

another thing i forgot to mention was social media type args. no clue how to classify them but think the sun vanished or sexygirlmax2019. these sorts have remained as interactive as ever, so why are random twitter args also not living up to our standards?

either

a) the person is just trying to get popular and has no real story to tell

or b) the concept of an arg is so popular and played out that it's becoming increasingly difficult to create something good

i havent thought much about this but i do recognize the issue of seeing random morse code on twitter and knowing that its about to be some dumbass arg trying to piggyback off more popular ones.

plus, due to the nature of the genre, if you are creating something realistic and well made, its gonna take a long fucking time to get noticed. i think theres dozens of great args that never got recognized because of how realistic they were, or how long it took for the story to be properly set up that they flew under the radar.

WHATS MY POINT HERE.

args that are cropping up nowadays are not args. they tell great stories and are pretty good in their own right but they arent alternative reality games. call it unfiction, webseries, analog horror, whatever. i think all those labels would fit far better. but thats really why we're seeing such a downgrade of well-made or creative args, because they are no longer that, they are just stories being told in a very similar format

my second point is that the rising popularity of args has also become its downfall. its easy to recognize one nowadays and this has caused for its main appeal to die out.

ARGS AS A CONCEPT ARE COMPLICATED MAN. LOTS TO THINK ABOUT!

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hong-kong-art-man · 3 years ago

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Rise Or Fall? The Complete Understanding Of Metaverse From The Philosophical, Cultural, Scientific And Social Perspectives

There are many recent popular films on ‘Metaverse’: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Free Guy.

Technology company WayRay promotes its new kind of 'human world' as this: humankind has long been fascinated with a different reality—a different plane of existence, a different identity and a new perspective. To interact with a different reality might have been a dream decades ago, but now it is as real as the phone you are holding today. The technology is now mature enough, and we can all reach into the ‘Metaverse’.

What exactly is a ‘Metaverse’? It was said, “The meta-verse ('Meta’ + ‘Universe') is a virtual ‘reality space’ on the internet where a user can create a ‘human identity’ to live, interact and play, as well as experience things that he could always do in the real world." Metaverse will be another globe running parallel to and circumventing the existing world. The term came from a science fiction Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson in 1992 and the story depicted a virtual world on the internet that has buildings, roads, parks and shopping malls in which we could enjoy ‘a collateral life’.

It was pointed out Metaverse has 8 characteristics: (1) living under a virtual identity (2) getting along with new virtual ‘co-beings’ (3) instant and spontaneous movements by you commanding your extended identity in the virtual environment (4) an ‘as-if-real’ immersive experience in the virtual world (5) doing the great things which are humanly impossible for you to try in real life such as flying and roles transforming (6) the self-functioning economy of Metaverse by which you can become rich (7) vast supply of fascinating games and contents; and (8) co-building a ‘post-modern human civilization’.

Metaverse was made possible by scientific achievements. The advent of new technologies like 5G or 6G mobile network, Web 3.0, AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality) solved many technical problems. The necessary equipment to operate Metaverse is expensive and includes special headset, personal computer, mobile phone, web, projection and kiosk. The ‘money’ transactions there involve innovative softwares like De-Fi (Decentralized Finance), IPFS (Inter-planetary File System) and NFT (Non-fungible Token). Mark Zuckerberg announced that ‘Meta’ (formerly known as Facebook) would soon file patent applications for a number of useful devices such as a pair of ultra-sensitive gloves to make 'Meta' bodily experience almost real. Can you afford all these?

Perhaps I am old, if not senile. The real world is already burdensome enough on a daily basis. My sure horror will come from the additional labour and toil associated with consuming a few hours per day on living in another artificial Metaverse. I get enough, if not more than enough, friends. Why should I meet more virtual people in the disguise of different identities and a lot of them may be crooks? I, nevertheless, envy the energetic ones who can handle two lives and two worlds.

I ask around to find out my friends’ interest on Metaverse. A said, “Communication technology simply makes people unnecessarily busy!” B said, “It’s cool! I want to be a powerful KOL or KOC in such a brave new world.” C said, “If I can make lots of money there, why not? I’m planning to buy some lands there.” D said, “I will be horrified when my 22-year-old girlfriend in Metaverse turns out to be an 80-years-old man!” E said, “Would it be lawful or immoral to attend a drug party in Metaverse?” F said, “How exciting it will be since I can hold a big concert there in the face of Michael Jackson?” G said, “I will transform myself into the most gorgeous girl there and attract loads of boyfriends!” H said, “I am afraid of sexual harassment. An English female beta tester was once groped by a stranger on Horizon Worlds!”

There is a famous philosophical story (莊周蝶夢)(Zhuang Zhou & Butterfly)of our ancient scholar Zhuangzi(莊子)(about 369 to 286 B.C.) that every Chinese knows. Zhuang dreamed that he was a butterfly. He suddenly woke up and found he was still himself, solid and human. He was puzzled and left us with his great theory of Taoism. “Am I really a man that dreamed of being a butterfly or whether I am a butterfly dreaming as a man?” This great Chinese thinker tried to challenge what we took as real might be unreal and what was unreal might be real. Perhaps he was the first one who inspired us on virtual reality thousand years ago. The French philosopher R Descartes (1596-1650) said, “No certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep.” The development of Metaverse as the popular ‘second reality’ will lead more people to pursue a hot debate: can young people in the 23rd century choose to live in a virtual world of butterflies and refuse to live in a human world?

The other amazing Chinese ancient fairy tale protagonist is ‘The Monkey King’. It is based on the ancient story Journey to the West(西遊記) about a famous monk Xuanzang (玄奘) (602-664) who travelled on foot from China to India for the authentic Buddhist scriptures, escorted by Monkey King(孫悟空). This monkey was clever and rebellious. He acquired an immortal life and could transform him into seventy-two different identities in different situations at the same time. Riding clouds in the sky as a vehicle (Monkey King today will probably use Internet as his vehicle), he was able to travel 108,000 miles by a single somersault to meet friends. Would the Metaverse users dream of being a butterfly or Monkey King which were all old prophecies of ‘virtual reality’.

Many predict that your digital existence will become more important than your physical life. In the Metaverse, your life is fascinating with all that you can enjoy. But on earth, you may be lonely and miserable. Virtual life may be joyful. A real life can be sad. Nevertheless, the more humans lose themselves in a non-existent world, the more Artificial Intelligence technology will control us in future. I do not want to live in the virtual world because it will not give me a nice haircut! Do you? Happiness boils down to simplicity.

MLee

Chinese Version 中文版: https://www.patreon.com/posts/shi-kai-shi-huan-67507595?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare

Movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Trailer HK https://youtu.be/E7qroZ-IulA Acknowledgement – A Really Happy Film

Movie “Free Guy” Trailer https://youtu.be/_vBOPZBPOjo Acknowledgement-20th Century Studios HK

What is Metaverse https://youtu.be/ZhD0FtWSiRo Acknowledgement-BBC News

Metaverse development in Korea https://youtu.be/ov_SCy-cKJc Acknowledgement-BBC News

Metaverse – Virtual Teresa Teng https://youtu.be/rN2PNMGtn2Q Acknowledgement-TBV News

Spent 100 days in Metaverse https://youtu.be/mufeRQYgqZc Acknowledgement-Ryan Trahan

Metaverse Song 《元宇宙》歌 https://youtu.be/qwWL58XcIYA Acknowledgement-Leslie Tsang

#Zhuangzi莊子 #Xuanzang 玄奘 #Monkey King孫悟空 #Mark Zuckerberg #Neal Stephenson #Zhuang Zhou & Butterfly莊周蝶夢 #Journey To The West西遊記 #Free Guy #Snow Crash #Artificial Intelligence #Mixed Reality #Augmented Reality #Virtual Reality #Horizon Worlds #Decentralized Finance #Inter-planetary File System #Non-fungible Token #Everything Everywhere All at Once #Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

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mxgilray · 3 years ago

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Loki Season 1 Thoughts

Overall, I really liked this series. It has some issues without question, but I sincerely don't think it's the dumpster fire so many viewers on this site treat it as. Did it go how I expected? Not at all? Did I enjoy the heck out of it and look forward to it every Wednesday? Hell yeah!

Loki's Good Guy Personality

A big complaint many have had with it is how much Loki's demeanor has changed and how his emotional growth feels rushed or his personality is ooc. Truth is, he saw his entire future, saw what his angry, power hungry, I-work-alone persona would get him in the end, and it snapped him back to reality. He has always been shown to be quite emotional and craving attention and lacking in self assurance, it's just in the past movies he's masked it with violence and fake narcissism, and he's always been a secondary character so his perspective is rarely shown. But if you really pay attention it's obvious he isn't truly villainous; we all know that, it's largely why he has such a huge fan base.

Right after meeting Mobius, Loki got an infodump of his future, saw his parents both die, found out that free will means jack shit, and learned he's absolutely powerless in this realm. On top of that, this is 2012 Loki, fresh off of being under Thanos' control, suddenly being shown that the guy who controlled him is going to end up killing him. Frankly,, I think it all broke Loki. He was too shook up by it all and by the sheer helplessness he found himself in at the TVA that he let all his barriers down momentarily. Just long enough for him to open up to Mobius about his motivation and his lack of self confidence. And you know what I bet? Loki felt relieved after talking to Mobius. A weight was lifted, because he bore his heart to someone and wasn't rejected or laughed at or treated like a psycho. And after letting his walls down fully, Loki didn't feel the need to put all of them back up. He stayed guarded around other people, but he didn't need to pretend around Mobius. Mobius has seen under the mask, so Loki doesn't feel pressure to perform as an all knowing, all powerful God around Mobius. That freedom is life changing.

People who gravitate towards broken, pseudo-villain characters do so because we relate to their internal conflict, their mental illness, their need to fake it around everyone close to them. Their turmoil and depression and self destructive behavior are familiar and we see ourselves reflected in their actions. Now, when a person really truly let's their guard down, drops all their layers of facade, and embraces themself, they tend to change demeanor and even personality pretty drastically. It's jarring in real life, so of course when it happens to a fictional character who you usually relate to it is going to be jarring, maybe even more so because it feels like a change you yourself would never go through. I know this sounds bad and people might get at me for it, but...

I believe the issue here is that a large part of Loki's fan base doesn't want him to get better. They don't want him to move past his mental illness, to learn how to cope with anger and disappointment in healthier ways, to be happy. They like his damaged persona, they like the internal conflict. Maybe it's because they're still at that low place themself and feel like a relatable character is getting taken away from them, maybe it's because they don't understand how much being at peace with yourself can alter a person and to them it feels like he's been changed too much. To those of us mostly on the up and up from battling depression and mental illness, it's comforting to see Loki getting a chance to be genuinely happy and accepting of himself.

Sylki and Lokius

First things first, I'm not anti anything. Ship what you want, idc. Personally, I do not see the Sylki dynamic as romantic, but I get why people read it that way. I thought the series did a good job of showing unrequited love, namely Loki falling for Sylvie and Sylvie feeling zero romance towards him. This was aware of his attraction and in the end used it as a distraction so she could get the upper hand. The show played up the potential romance because we are viewing things from Loki's perspective and he's become smitten as a kitten. I do think in the long run they'll have a more sibling-like dynamic, one Loki realizes that you can feel extreme love and care for a person without it being romantic. I enjoyed how the show explored their relationship, though I do wish they hadn't had every character under the sun mention their moment on Lamentis-1 like it was some big deal to bond with someone you're about to die with.

I'm bitter towards the development of Lokius. It had a strong start in the beginning, and in ep 5 had some potential reignited, but then they had Mobius not know who Loki is at the end. I'm still hoping they're playing the long game with this ship and that it'll come to fruition partway through season 2. The chemistry is there, and Mobius knows Loki very intimately and isn't put off by his past. Loki also feels much more at ease around Mobius than he does around Sylvie. It's the comfort of a deep loving bond with Mobius verses the nervousness of a new crush that he feels for Sylvie.

I don't think Loki is quite aware of his feelings for Mobius, simply because it's based in friendship and mutual respect and isn't a hot and heavy lust. Plus, as soon as he was away from Mobius he was thrown into a near death experience with Sylvie and developed a surface crush during their heart to heart. Since Loki's still figuring out what genuine feelings are beyond anger and sadness, he sees the simplistic crush he has on Sylvie as love and the intimate bond he's been forming with Mobius as friendship. He doesn't understand his own feelings yet, but I think he'll figure it out next season. I mean, he was probably already rethinking his feelings for her after she kissed and betrayed him, mentally kicking himself for expecting her to not pull a Loki betrayal like he would've in the past.

The Time Variance Authority

I really like the concept of the TVA, the structure of it, the methods they use, the deeply fucked way they recruit employees, the cult like motto, shady Miss Minutes who is definitely playing her own long game, and the blind acceptance TVA agents have of the Time Keepers' will. It's all very well done... until your dig into the core, aka He Who Remains. They built up the idea that the Time Keepers created the TVA to prevent a multiverse war and that they created agents to enforce their will. Then the creating agents turned out to be fake, the Time Keepers were fake, I expected the reason for the TVA's existence to be fake to. It felt too simple to have it genuinely exist just to keep the multiverse in check. Why the anonymity, unless it's to keep from having agents target and prune versions of himself which.. songs like a decent solution. HWR made it sound as though the multiverse war was just a bunch of versions of himself screwing shit up, so why isn't the TVA's focus on eradicating every other variant of this guy? Sounds a lot easier and nicer than fucking with the free will of every other living being. So either Marvel made a bad call when choosing what HWR's motive was for creating the TVA, or he was lying about it all to cover up something sinister.

Overall Storyline

I'm fairly happy with the plot as a whole. There were some pacing issues and I think a few missed chances for deeper conversations between various characters. While I enjoyed the Loki variants, I honestly would've been happier seeing Tom playing most the variants (except Kid Loki and Classic Loki since they are clearly different age ranges). If there is supposed to be one sacred timeline, it seems off to me that Lokis would be allowed to vary so extremely without it causing a nexus event(an alligator, whose nexus wasn't that he's an animal who obviously can't do any magic much less command Thanos' army, but that he ate someone's cat) and not just in appearance but in life path (ie boastful Loki collected all the infinity stones but it wasn't till he had 6 that he caused a nexus event even though him gaining control of the Soul, Power, and Time stones should've each caused nexus events since on the sacred timeline he never interacts with those 3 and taking any one of them would've fucked up a lot of other timeline parts)

I love the display of Lokis raw power, and 2012 Loki coming to the realization that he's way more powerful than he ever thought. And it wasn't just Classic Loki who spent thousands of years alone honing his skills, 2012 Loki reversed time on a goddamn falling building! I also liked the small magic, the fireworks, the tablecloth blanket, Loki yanking Sylvie away from HWR with just magic.

As someone who is both bisexual and genderfluid, I would've really loved more concrete representation. The comment about there never being another female Loki hit me in the gut; it undermined the Easter egg "Sex: Fluid" on Loki's TVA file. With how big a deal Sylvie being female was made out to be throughout the season, I expected her gender to play a key role in taking down the head of the TVA, like it was foretold that only a female Loki could end it all or some shit.

I don't mind the idea of Loki finding love in a straight passing relationship. I don't even mind the selfcest all that much. It just feels so obvious to me that Sylvie is written as not having any romantic inclination towards Loki, while Mobius is clearly written as falling in love with someone he shouldn't and trying to maintain an heir of professionalism to keep from wrecking his bond with Loki. I really really hope they come through on season 2 and give Lokius the canon relationship and proper representation they deserve.

Mmkay I thinks that's all the thoughts I've got right now. If you've been feeling cheated or clowned by how things went this season, maybe my perspective of things can help ease your pain.

#loki spoilers #loki series #loki #mobius m mobius #sylvie laufeydottir #lokius #sylki #tva loki #time variance authority #marvel #mcu

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petitsdieu · 10 months ago

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Her entire body flinched; startled by the unanticipated burst. She hadn't realized how on the edge he was. How surface his calmish disposition was. His previous worries were seemingly less theatrical now. She considers the wound thoroughly. She had never pried of how he got it. Her mind swims dark. She feels guilty.

"It will heal." She begins by answering him. But doesn't know where to go from there. Hesitant to overstep. But more hesitant not to step enough. He is not her problem — she doubts he'd do her a similar favor — and yet, she can't let him slip without trying to help more. She wills herself to push forward.

She catches his shirt with a pinch. A tented formation stops the transfer of lint fibers to the freshly cleaned-out wound. But she doesn't effort to pull the shirt back down yet. Not without his greenlight. She unfrees her left hand to grab his. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She did not know his nervousness ran deep. Clearly, something is very wrong. Worse than she originally expected. Maybe someone did that to him. "Allow me to put a bandage on it. Please."

This was starting to make him on edge as he grimaced, unnerving him. He didn't like to feel vulnerable more than ever before, with a gaping wound in the hands of someone he didn't trust and sounding so... unsure. That didn't mean anything, however. There wasn't a single soul that existed he trusted. In fact, what if she intentionally was trying to make it worse? That started out as a thought as blues filled with nervousness trailed off then quickly festered into a full blown paranoid conclusion. After the poisoning incident of Dean Highbottom he didn't know who was going to be out to kill him in discreet ways, right under his nose, just in the same manner he had killed Highbottom. After the incident of Lucy Gray striking him with one of her snakes he didn't know who was going to be out to kill him.

"This wound will what?" His heart pounded a little harder, still willing himself to sit still, stay grounded. Sane, maybe. But it sparked through him at once and pushed out ALL rational thinking– convinced she's trying to kill him. Coryo jolts the moment her hand is idled against his skin and her other is busy rummaging in her bag, arm swinging back to quickly grab for his shirt, jerking it back up over his bloody shoulder. "Then maybe you shouldn't go further with it." He'll rather risk losing an arm, as long as it's his to take. "It's fine, I will just figure it out another way."

#ofdrivensnow #* filed under — ( verse ) ( interactions ) ( games )#* filed under — ( verse ) ( games )

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ontheoddoccasioniwritestuff · 4 years ago

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The Sight of You (Spencer Reid x Reader)

Summary: Spencer’s disturbing dreams about his childhood bring him back to Las Vegas to face two of his childhood’s greatest enemies: his estranged father and his ex best friend.

AN: it’s a friends to enemies to lovers fic! Set in the episode “Memoriam” 4x07

Content Warnings: usual Criminal Minds stuff, mentions of child death, childhood trauma, descriptions of a dead body. Let me know if I missed anything!

Despite seeing Spencer around Pre-k, Y/N did not trot over to talk to him with their brightly coloured rucksack swinging vigorously and violently behind them. They walked faster instead once their parents had dropped them off. Spencer did his best to catch up to Y/N but lost them around the corner in the sea of students seeking their next class. He was meant to be one of them. Adjusting his glasses as they slipped down his nose, Spencer noted that he needed a new prescription before entering his own class and preparing to focus on a subject he was already well-versed in.

It was lunch time when Spencer finally found Y/N. They were sitting at the furthest end of the table in the canteen. But Y/N cowered away from him, his shoulders drawn up defensively.

“Are you OK, Y/N?” Spencer asked before getting to what was more significant to him: “Do you know when you will be free to play again?”

The next sentence out of Y/N’s mouth stung like a nettle. They stood up, their face contorted in their fit, and they pushed Spencer hard on the shoulders.

“Go away! I can’t look at you! You make me feel sick, you and your family!” They cried.

They went silent when Spencer was laughed at by those who heard what was said. Just grabbed their lunch and moved away, leaving Spencer spellbound in the middle of the canteen, heartbroken and with a new opening for a potential chess partner. Maybe that man they saw last week at the park would be kind enough to join him again.

But there was no replacement for Y/N, who now never said a word when they caught a glimpse of Spencer being bullied – only dithering about on the spot before fleeing the scene moments before a teacher would show up.

Spencer was hurt; that hurt warped into hatred when he was next out with his mother and father. They were at the shopping mall and had just bought Spencer his new glasses. Going down the escalator, he saw Y/N. They were smiling and skipping between their parents, a new pair of shoes shiny on their feet.

The second they spotted the Reids, Y/N ducked behind their parents. Spencer could still see their face: brow furrowed, eyes squinting, hands shaking now that nothing was holding them. Their parents didn’t seem to notice. They kept talking and walking even as Y/N stopped in time with the Reids stepping off the escalator.

Sudden footsteps running away was what dragged the public’s attention to a suddenly absent child.

“Y/N!” The parents called out as they chased after the four-year-old. They were quick past the Reids, not stopping to say ‘hello’.

Spencer kept his eyes trained after Y/N’s fleeing form, right until his mother’s face came into view. Diana looked saddened; she too was staring after the L/Ns. Turned to his father. William was composed but his eyes were turned down and watering.

For making his parents react like that to their mere presence, Spencer despised Y/N.

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

The burning hatred from adolescence staled once Spencer reached adulthood. The protective nature that spawned from it for his mother remained.

Which is why, when Diana Reid casually mentioned Y/N when asked about Riley Jenkins, Spencer froze up.

“You remember Y/N?” He said stiffly.

Diana didn’t notice her son’s change in tone, “Of course, you two were opposites but you got on so well. So sad what happened to them.”

The first guess was that she was referring Y/N’s repeated attempts at running away before Reid cut contact with neighbourhood gossip at age fourteen. He didn’t bother with a second attempt to understand what his mother meant.

“I don’t care about Y/N. I want to know if you remember Riley.”

“And I told you: Riley was a boy you made up.”

“No, Mom, he was a real boy who lived in our neighbourhood, and somebody killed him. And, I don't know, I think-- I think that dad might have had something to do with it.”

“He was real?”

“Yes. And...”

“He was on that little league team, too.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

The whole case was surreal - “case” being a very loose term.

When they got into his office, Spencer thought that perhaps things might simmer down a little. Unfortunately, as soon as his father spoke about their history of similarity in appearance, Spencer’s usual comfort of statistics and facts on the elderly and pets failed to conceal his abandonment issues.

William Reid was clearly affected by Spencer’s accusations, calling the idea of fitting the profile thus being Riley’s killer “absurd”. Furthermore, he was confrontational when asked for access to his files and demanded a warrant. Coupled with Lou Jenkins’ absolute certainty that William was not involved in Riley’s murder and Penelope asking him “you sure about this?” concerning invading the aforementioned files, Spencer was very close to snapping.

“I really wish people would stop asking me that.”

Then there was the envelope posted beneath his motel room door. Suspicious timing aside, there was a brand-new suspect basically handed over on a silver platter. One Gary Michaels whom Spencer couldn’t remember him but he couldn’t be sure that he didn’t know him. Uncertainty being the feeling he hated the most.

This man could fit the profile; his previous of exposing himself to a minor was a precursor to molestation. But that wasn’t what Spencer wanted to hear from the shady file slipped to direct his attention away from William.

Garcia reported back about his father’s drives, “No kiddie porn, no membership to illicit websites, no dubious emails, no chat room history.”

“What about his finances?”

Hotch joined the conversation, “We went back ten years. No questionable transactions that we can find.”

Spencer sighed while Emily decided to crack a joke: “Well, he did buy a ticket to see Celine Dion six months ago, but I think we can overlook that.”

“He’s smart. Is it possible he kept things under the table?” Spencer persisted.

“Well, of course,” Hotch answered, “But from what we can tell, Reid, he doesn’t fit the profile.”

“We can tell you other things about him, if you want to know.”

A peace offering on behalf of Emily. Clearly she had improved after her night out and subsequent hangover. Spencer gave the go-ahead and Emily listed her profile:

“He's a workaholic, he actually logs more hours than we do. He makes decent money, but he doesn't spend a lot of it. He has a modest house. He drives a hybrid. He doesn't travel much. He stays away from the casinos. Um, and according to his veterinary bills, he has a very sick cat.”

“He appears to spend most of his free time alone,” Hotch added, “He goes to the movies a lot, and he reads. And from his collection of first editions, it seems his favourite author is-”

Spencer interrupted his boss, “Isaac Asimov, I remember that one.” He pressed his lips together. They were right; William Reid did not fit the profile.

Garcia piped up once more, “He does have one other major interest. On his home computer, he's archived, like, a ka-jillion things on one common subject.”

“What?”

“You, kiddo. He's got, like, everything that's been published online. Every article you've been quoted in, pieces you've written for behavioural science journals, He even has a copy of your dissertation.”

“He's keeping tabs on you,” Rossi said, That's saying something.”

But Spencer smoothly dismissed this attempt to make excuses for his father, “Yeah, he googled me. That makes up for everything. I'm going to get some air.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

After getting said air, Spencer went to the local bar and began playing an computerised poker game. His paying attention was only to distract himself, clear his head with something he knew he could control. And thankfully, a chance interaction with a lady at the bar spawned the inspiration for a sporadic hypnosis session.

Doctor Jan Mohikian allowed them a session. Reminded of the limitations that a four-year old’s memory could provide, not including the bias he already had as a son and a profiler, Spencer lay on the couch. His feet hung over the end so that his head could be comfortable in a pillow. There was no time for self-consciousness with Rossi in the room observing. He closed his eyes and felt his hand be placed upon Doctor Mohikian’s body.

She spoke low and calmingly, “I want you to hold my wrist in your left hand. And if you should feel any fear, I want you to squeeze, do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Go back to the night you were just telling me about. You're at home, in your room. You can't sleep because your parents are arguing.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

His eyes were closed still, but the couch shifted into a bed. His bed. A floor below, the faint shouting between his mother and father was heard. There was someone else there too. A child wailing, and it wasn’t him.

Suddenly his father was at his side, touching his arm, saying, “I know you’re awake. Daddy loves you; you know that?”

Spencer didn’t want to be there, and then it was the following morning.

Putting his glasses, the room fell into focus. His mother was there, she didn’t see him because she was too busy looking out the window. Her body language told him that this was not a meltdown, but what she saw was distressing. She’d been crying. As she walked away into the house, she hid her face as if she knew Spencer was watching and she wanted to hide her reaction from him.

Spencer ran to the window the second Diana had left the room.

His father was in the back garden and burning clothes. A bloody shirt, a tiny cardigan, landed on top of the pile already set alight.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and wake.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

And Spencer was shocked out of the scene, back to the doctor’s couch and gripping her wrist with an iron grip. Rossi was by his side, bringing him back to peace with his voice.

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

Derek was clearly disturbed that Spencer was very set on his father being a paedophilic murderer as much as he had been that Spencer was taking something that was said after his mother’s fit seriously. He continued however to assist with Rossi in Spencer’s investigation.

As if everything else hadn’t been hard enough, the captain took some time to agree to holding William Reid in custody. Finally, he settled for twenty-four hours. William was as resistant to the questions as he had been upon the initial reunion. All he could say was that he didn’t hurt Riley. Spencer wore him down, getting him to drop the Gary Michaels bomb plus the threat that he “didn’t want to go down that road”.

Garcia’s search of Gary Michaels’ DNA on the databases brought to light that their suspect was dead. Buried across state lines, beat over the head with a pipe or bat, and the body was discovered in 2001.

“Maybe it wasn’t Riley’s blood on the clothes he was burning.” Derek was about to hang up when Garcia began to speak again, a new discovery ready for her team.

“Also, Todd found something in your father’s finances. There was a standing order for a therapist, specifically a child therapist from 1985 to 1995. I thought it was for Spencer, but William left when you were twelve, and these sessions continue irregularly after he left you!”

“Who was the patient?”

“One Y/N L/N. Local to North Vegas, born 1980 to Shelly and Finley L/N.”

Both Rossi and Derek looked away from the phone to Spencer and he knew. He knew he’d have to face another villain from the past – like a knight in one of Y/N’s stories.

“Still alive?”

“Yep, already pulling up an address. There’s a lot of short leases attached to this name. Lucky for you, they keep going back to live with their parents.”

Spencer wasn’t entirely sure that he could handle two bitter reunions in one day.

“We’ll send off the fingerprint while we visit Y/N. They could have been a potential victim of Michaels before he died. They might know something.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

It was a normal home in a normal neighbourhood. Spencer had never visited Y/N’s house. Their play-dates were always at the park.

“Hello, Mr L/N,” held up their badges, “I’m Agent Derek Morgan, this is Agent David Rossi and Doctor Spencer Reid. May we come in and ask you some questions?”

“Sure. My wife is uh out at work at the moment,” Finley opened the door wider and stepped aside for the trio to enter, “I’m the house husband as it were.”

Looking about the kitchen, Spencer spied several photos of an adult Y/N but very few of them as a toddler and even less as a teenager.

“You have a child, Mr L/N?” Rossi asked.

“All grown up now, Y/N,” Finley smiled with a nod. Then he squinted at Spencer, “You’re not related to William Reid by chance, are you?”

Masking his bitterness, Spencer said shortly, “He’s my father.”

Finley seemed in awe at the prospect, so Derek redirected the conversation back to the matter at hand, “What was Y/N like as a child?”

Nodding still, like a bobble head, Finley looked weary at the notion, “Troubled. They were very young when they withdrew into themselves. Used to run away from home a lot. I don’t know what happened, but Y/N never told us.” He then jumped to protect his child’s reputation at present, “They’re doing better now, went to therapy and they’re doing very well for themselves.”

“I’m glad to hear.” Rossi replied.

Finley continued his defence of Y/N, “They’re a published author, they write fantasy things for kids and young adults. We’re very proud of them.”

“Did Y/N know Riley Jenkins when they were a child?”

“Riley Jenkins, that’s Lou’s kid who died, right?” Finley sought confirmation and, when he had it, he spoke, “Not personally. I think they might have played at the park once or twice. Before he died, Y/N would play with anyone. But you… you know that.” And Finley gestured to Spencer, much to his disgust.

“Is Y/N in the area?” Spencer asked briskly.

“Well, they’re due for a visit in a few hours. They went on holiday.”

“They still live with you?”

“A month ago, they got a new flat in the city. But they’ve got their own room here, for whenever they need it.”

“May we see it?”

The wallpaper was barely visible beneath exam revision notes, posters of Fresh sheets on the bed and the clear space on the floor were the only tidy things about the place. It was a haven of organised clutter.

A chess set caught Spencer’s eye. It sat upon the windowsill, recently dusted. The pieces were not that of a classic set; each was painted prettily but with enough error to indicate it was a personal touch.

“You and Y/N were close then?” Derek was holding up a photo album. Upon inspection, the photograph the page was open on was of Spencer and Y/N dressed up for Halloween as Doctor Frankenstein and the Monster respectively – accurate to the book of course.

“Yeah, ‘were’,” Spencer turned back to the chess set. He didn’t bother to ask when his friends had figured out he knew Y/N.

Rossi decided to further test the waters, “You think that Y/N could have killed Riley?”

“Of course not. A four-year-old couldn’t kidnap, tie up, rape, and kill a boy their own age. No violent history that indicates they would ever do something like this. Do I think that Y/N knows something about what happened and my father is trying to keep them quiet? Yes.”

Rossi moved beside Spencer, picking up the knight. Except it wasn’t a knight. It was a wizard of some kind in purple robes.

“We’ll stay up here for a bit then go down once Y/N’s inside and settled,” He gestured with the knight to the window. Spencer blanched as he spied a cab at the end of the driveway. The trunk was open and someone was retrieving a suitcase from within.

Y/N appeared around the corner, waving off the cab and turning to the house. Mr L/N appeared on the drive and they met in the middle for a hug. Over Mr L/N’s shoulder, Spencer could see that Y/N had grown into their chubby childhood features. They looked genuinely happy.

He would have to go through with it, but he didn’t have to like it. And he couldn’t go hide in the bathroom like with his father.

The trio plodded down the stairs when the sound of the front door closing was replaced with a joyous gathering in the kitchen. It all changed when Y/N went to take off their jacket and caught sight of the three FBI agents standing in the doorway. Taking out his badge, Rossi led the way.

“Hello, Y/N, I’m Agent David Rossi, this is Agent Derek Morgan, and Doctor Spencer Reid. We’re looking into the death of Riley Jenkins, and we were hoping to ask you some questions.”

To the naked eye, very little changed about Y/N’s appearance. To the three profilers, there was a visceral reaction: Y/N’s right hand started trembling, the hard swallow, the dropping of their gaze from Spencer to the floor.

“OK,” They said, a great deal quieter than they had been with their father.

Rossi sat next to Y/N at the dinner table. Derek was beside Rossi; Spencer stayed standing. Mr L/N stayed in the kitchen, at Y/N’s request.

“Can you tell us what you remember about Riley?” Rossi began.

“Not very much, I don’t really remember much about school.”

“Oh, you don’t?” Spencer blurted, “Well, I do.”

Derek glanced back at him with a look that just screamed “shut the hell up”. It seemed to cut down Y/N’s resolve, their jaw quivering.

“Sorry, can you give me a moment?” They stood up quick, the chair legs scraping loudly against the floor as they walked just as fast to the kitchen. Through the open door, Rossi, Derek, and Spencer watched Y/N grab a glass from the open dishwasher. The water from the tap hit the bottom of the glass harsh, crashing out like a wave of the ocean hitting a cliff. Y/N didn’t seem to care. Their hand dripped water onto the surface as they chugged back some of the drink before returning to the table with a topped-up glass.

“Are you alright?” Rossi inquired, leaning closer to Y/N.

They answered wearily, “Fine, just feeling woozy.”

“You’re a writer?”

“Yeah, you’re a writer too. My mom reads your stuff before bed.”

“Bit of an odd nightcap,” Rossi said with a little chuckle.

Y/N shared that smile for the briefest of moments, replying “You’re telling me.”

From their pocket, they pulled out some painkillers, popping them back with a slug of water then speaking again. “I remember Riley was smaller than me. Still figuring out coordination, but he liked to play chase. I know he was killed; I didn’t find out how until I looked into it last year.”

“Why did you look into it?” Rossi gently probed.

Y/N rubbed two fingers back and forth across their head as they spoke, “I was back here, I felt sick so I went for a walk in the park, and I just remembered him tripping over while trying to tag me. No one ever told me what happened, just that he had to go away. I wanted to know what happened to him.”

“Are you sick often?” Derek asked suddenly, his voice soft to match Rossi. Spencer grimaced at the treatment Y/N was receiving but said nothing.

“Headaches and stomach aches mostly.”

“You get them whenever you come home?”

“I do. Figured I was allergic to something but never figured out what.”

That would have to be a very quick response, like a dog allergy. And coincidental, seeing as the symptoms didn’t start until they saw Spencer.

“Y/N?” called their father, “Can you come here a moment please?”

“May I?”

“Of course,” said Derek and Y/N was out of the room. Derek pivoted in his chair to include Spencer in his theory, “I think they know something, but they don’t know they know it. I think they repressed this memory like you did, Spencer. We should take him to the therapist, see if we can jog his memory.”

“You can’t be serious,” Spencer covered his face with his hands, dragging them down with irritation.

Derek was persistent though, “Spencer, like it or not, Y/N’s linked to this investigation. Put aside your differences for a moment, please.”

Spencer all but squawked, “Put aside my differences?”

“You have brought a lot of bias to this case. Let us at least pursue this lead.”

“Sorry,” Y/N interrupted Spencer’s retort, sitting back at the table, “He needed someone to get unhook the loft door. Mom usually does it.”

“That’s alright.” Rossi waved a hand dismissively. Once Y/N accepted that, he moved in with Derek’s suggestion, “You know, some people have strong physical reactions to memories, trauma. Maybe you’re not getting sick. You’re rejecting something.”

“Rejecting?” repeated Y/N. There was no doubt in their voice, more cautious curiosity.

Derek nodded, “A memory, repressing it, and your body has linked the physical responses to your home. We think it has something to do with this case, and we’d like to see if we can retrieve any memories you might have. Would you be alright to come with us?”

“Yeah,” said Y/N, though they didn’t sound too certain, “Yeah sure.”

The resigned, too tired look on their face, and Spencer felt a tug in his chest. A longing to see Y/N smile like they had when they first entered the house. He’d rather hate someone who was happy than someone who suffered the same as him.

Leaving the house, Spencer took a deep breath of fresh air.

“Spencer?”

He ignored Y/N’s voice for a moment, but he couldn’t disregard Y/N standing in front of him and speaking again, “Spencer, can we talk please?”

“I’m busy,” He said, already walking off as he pretended to call someone, “Hey Garcia.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

“Hold onto my hand, use it as an anchor, and squeeze when you feel fear.” Doctor Mohikian accepted Y/N’s hand on her wrist and their silence nod as they lay back on the same couch Spencer had been just hours before.

“I want you to think back to your childhood, back to when you were five. You’re at the park, your parents are on a bench watching nearby to keep you safe. What do you see?”

“Spencer Reid.”

Derek and Rossi glanced at Spencer, who did not react. They kept quiet so that Y/N could immerse themselves in the hypnosis.

“What’s he doing?” Doctor Mohikian continued.

“Teaching me chess.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

Sat on opposite sides of the table, Spencer and Y/N’s eyes were glued to the chess pieces that were neatly organised between them. Spencer was thinking strategy. He could not say the same for his companion Y/N. They reached a hand out and hovered over the pieces before finally selecting their last knight.

Their tongue clicked as Y/N trotted the piece on the spot.

“What’s this one again?”

“The knight,” Spencer recited, “It moves two spaces up, down, left or right, and another step perpendicular to the first direction.”

“Brave creatures riding into battle,” Y/N narrated before continuing their clip-clopping to its new position, “Pawns in the game of war.”

Spencer didn’t understand how they were coming up with this whilst playing. Well, actually, he did. Because Y/N was clearly not playing to win. They were playing for the best possible story.

“Where do you think this story will end?” Y/N asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re lying,” said Y/N, pushing back the sleeves of their white cardigan, “Come on, you can tell me, with your magic powers.”

“It’s not magic. It’s logic.”

“That’s magic to me,”

Narrowing his eyes, Spencer decided that he should give his friend the information they sought: “I see checkmate in fifteen moves.”

“See? Magic! The gift of sight!” crowed Y/N, clapping their hands together. The cardigan sleeves fell back in place as they did so. Spencer felt his cheeks heat up; he dropped his head so he could smile in privacy while Y/N began to decide their next move.

“How’s your mommy today?”

Shrugging, Spencer said, “Better than normal. But that means a bad day is around the corner.”

Y/N nodded solemnly. “Do you want another ice cream? I got more birthday money.”

“No thank you.” Spencer moved the piece but was immediately intercepted by Y/N, “You’re getting better.”

“Fank you.”

“You’ll have to wait longer to beat me though.” And he snatched Y/N’s knight away, just as planned and much to Y/N’s dismay.

A new voice from their left spoke, “Hey you’re pretty good.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

Y/N’s grip tightened on Doctor Mohikian’s wrist, “Someone’s with us.”

“Who do you see?” Doctor Mohikian asked patiently.

“A man. He’s asking us if he can watch us play, listen to the story.”

“Do you want him to stay?”

“No,” Y/N flinched, “But Spencer keeps talking to him. The man won’t go away.”

“It’s OK, it’s OK, you’re safe, Y/N.”

Y/N flinched again, this time letting out a whimper, “He’s on the floor.”

“Spencer is?”

“No, the man.”

“What’s he doing on the floor?”

“He’s,” Y/N began panting, their face tensing and body jerking, “I can’t get to him. There’s glass in the way and the ground is shaking.”

“Y/N.”

“I can’t look, I’ll be sick! Whenever I see them, sick.”

“OK, you’re going to wake up in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”

Their eyes snapped open with the click of the fingers and Y/N leapt out of Doctor Mohikian’s couch. Their head aimed over the bin by the door and they retched. Nothing came up but their stomach continued to squeeze up

Spencer fidgeted in his seat, trying his best not to look at Y/N. The choice words of the session, three in particular, wrapped around his head.

“Floor”.

Y/N had seen Gary Michaels inside, somewhere that wasn’t the park.

“Glass”.

A window, Y/N was watching what Gary Michaels was doing.

“Sick”.

“Go away! I can’t look at you! You make me feel sick, you and your family!”

“Them”.

It wasn’t just Michaels in the room alone. They had been a witness to his murder.

Derek’s movement to help Y/N took Spencer out of his analysis. Sweaty, Y/N was led back to the couch, the bin between their legs, head lolling forward. Spencer tried to move beside them for questioning, but Y/N winced and began heaving again. He felt that ache in his chest again. He was causing this and nothing he could do would change that. Not until they both knew what happened to Riley and Y/N got help through it.

“What did you see, Y/N?” Derek asked as he replaced Spencer’s spot beside them.

With watering eyes, Y/N looked at Spencer, “The man we played with, he was on the floor. His head – thank you.” They accepted the water from Doctor Mohikian, gulping some back, “It was smashed in.”

The three agents left the room, Doctor Mohikian following after Y/N left to get some air.

“It’s logical to assume that Y/N tied that sickness, that repulsion because of what they thought they saw your mother be involved with, to you and your family,” Doctor Mohikian evaluated.

Interrupting again, Spencer stammered his way through his analysis, “That’s why they avoided me. They associated me with being ill. It’s probably also why they ran away so much; they had to get away from this horrible feeling they had associated with their home.”

Doctor Mohikian shook her head, “We won’t be able to use this in court, I told you when we started.”

Derek’s phone started to ring. As he answered, Spencer somehow managed to slip away for long enough to find Y/N. They were leaning against the ramp’s railing in front of the practice, their body lifting and slumping with each deep breath they took. Against his better judgement, he moved toward them.

“Y/N? Can I have your number?”

The breathing slowed again.

“I need it to call you with an update on the situation as soon as we get one.”

Without looking up, Y/N pulled out their phone and handed it over to Spencer. He punched his number in a new contact, using this time to gather the courage to maybe say something else. The hurt and pain went beyond him now. Y/N was suffering and had been much longer than he had.

“Thank you, Y/N,” Spencer said quietly, hoping that his didn’t add to the illness, “I hope you feel better soon.”

Their head still down, Y/N croaked, “You too, Spencer.”

“Spencer, get over here! We got a match on a print on Michaels’ body!”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

“What makes you think Gary Michaels killed your boy?”

“He admitted it,” Lou Jenkins said, as monotonous as he had been for the last fifteen minutes of the interrogation.

Derek’s quickfire was on Jenkins instantly, “You beat a guy with a baseball bat, he's going to admit to a lot of things. How do you know he was the right guy?”

“I know. He approached another kid in the neighbourhood.”

“And how do you know that?

“I was told by a concerned party.”

“Who? Another parent?”

Jenkins leant back in his chair, “That's all I'm going to say on the subject.”

“Who was it?” Spencer suddenly spoke up.

Caught off guard at his interjection, Jenkins awkwardly parroted himself, “I told you that's all I'm going to say on the sub—"

Reid slammed his hands on the table, getting right up in Lou’s face, “Who was it?”

The door opened, Detective Hyde appeared, “Agent Reid?”

“Do not interfere with this interrogation, detective,” shouted Spencer, “This is not your case anymore!”

Once again, he was cut off. This time, by the arrival of his own mother, Diana, and her admission of guilt: “Spencer, it was me”.

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

Of all the things this case had brought him, Spencer least expected to be sitting in a room with his mother and father together for the first time in years. To have Diana explain to him how she was involved in a child’s murder was also up there with the unthinkable.

But he stayed quiet and listened to her confession.

The reveal that she had seen Gary Michaels playing chess with him and Y/N, that she and got a feeling that something was wrong before anything had even happened, opened the story. Lou Jenkins’ involvement was next on the menu. Two days after the chess game, he drove Diana to Michaels’ house, disclosed his history of child abuse, and demanded she leave while he went into the house.

Upon reaching the point where she entered the house, Diana struggled with her words. William reached over and took her hand.

She described seeing Lou with the bat, standing over the body, slipping in the pool of blood, finding Y/N standing in the window and their face, their little face as innocent as the white cardigan that covered their shoulders and absorbed the blood from Diana’s hands as she shook their shoulders.

“And the rest... It's all dark after that.”

William continued for her. Diana came home and brought Y/N with her. Eventually he came to understand what had happened and decided that nobody could ever know.

“You were burning her bloody clothes,” Spencer concluded.

His father nodded, “But the knowing, you can't burn that away. It changes everything.”

“You paid for Y/N to go to therapy.”

William didn’t seem surprised that Spencer knew this, going straight into explaining: “They went into a dissociative fugue state after seeing what Lou had done. When Diana brought them home, they were just stiff. I asked them for their home number, to call their parents, but they started screaming and throwing up. We had to take them to the police station.” He mopped his brow with a handkerchief, “They needed help, but their parents couldn’t afford it. And they didn’t know what had happened. I couldn’t drag another person into this, Spencer.”

“Is this why you left?”

“I tried to keep us together, Spencer. I swear to you, but the weight of that knowledge, it was too much.”

“You could have come back. Could have started over.”

“I didn't know how to take care of you anymore. When I lost that confidence, there was no going back. What's done is done.”

“At least now you know the truth,” Diana made an effort to smile at her son

Choking on his words and the overwhelming remorse he felt, Spencer refused to look at his parents any longer, “I was wrong about everything. I'm sorry.”

And William said something that Spencer had been waiting for, for a long time, “I am, too, Spencer.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

All of this was repeated when Spencer walked with Y/N through their old park the following day. Filling the final gaps in the memory would hopefully bring some respite to them both. Or at least maybe something to start the recovery process, easing Y/N’s sickness and Spencer’s pain.

“I’m sorry for my behaviour during this case,” Spencer sniffed, “When you said we made you sick, back when we were four, I thought you had seen my mom during one of her episodes and thought she was a freak, like everyone else.”

That stopped Y/N in their tracks, their hands coming up to cover their mouth, their eyes misty, “Oh Spencer, I’m sorry too, I’m so, so sorry I caused you so much pain.”

Spencer’s hands rushed up as if to create belated damage control, “It’s ok! I hurt you too. I made you sick.”

“That wasn’t your fault though.”

“It wasn’t yours either. We were kids.”

Almost pedantic, stropping, like a child again, Y/N moaned, “It’s all been such a waste. We could have been friends all this time!”

“We can be friends now,” Spencer pushed his hands down into his pockets to stop them flailing about anymore. His sentence was phrased more like a question.

One that Y/N gladly answered, “I would like really that.”

Sitting in the reply for a moment, Spencer followed up on his concerns, “How are you feeling? I mean, are you feeling sick again?”

“A bit, but I can handle it.”

Spencer could not see any changes in their behaviour from the day before. So obviously they were lying about that. But he didn’t protest. The lie meant Y/N wanted to stay with him, which was good - Spencer wanted that too.

They kept walking, only in silence for half a minute before Spencer broke it again, “I read your books last night.”

“Yeah?”

“‘The Siege of the Lost Faiths’ in Rogue’s Mask, that was our first game of chess.”

“It had by far the best narrative,” Y/N dragged their shoe a little on the grass before coming to a stop, “Do you still play?”

“All the time.”

They nodded over to where the old chess tables still stood, “Fancy a game before you go?”

Spencer grinned, “Just promise that this is the only setting where we’ll be on conflicting sides from now on.”

“Promise.”

Brushing the debris from the table, they both took their places opposite each other. From Y/N’s bag was revealed a box, spilling their painted chess pieces across the board. Remembering how they had stood in Y/N’s room, Spencer helped to set up the match. They took their seats opposite one another. Y/N was the green side, Spencer the purple.

Spencer moved first. After a second’s deliberation, Y/n moved their pawn.

“Isn’t there a story with this one?” Spencer said, an implicated teasing in his tone despite his shyness.

With an equally bashful eye roll, Y/N started their new story, “First begins the battle with the royals on both sides sending intrepid messengers to meet and pass along their deeds.”

Spencer took Y/N’s pawn. As he lifted their piece away, he spoke quietly, “One not as intrepid as the other.”

A gasp dropped from Y/N’s smile. He had never joined in the narrative telling before, always too taken up in the match to invest in whatever story they spun.

“He’s not a coward,” They said, still smiling, much to Spencer’s delight, “Prisoner’s dilemma, he just couldn’t trust the other with his life.”

“Did they know each other before this battle?”

“Yes,” Y/N moved a knight across, stealing Spencer’s pawn, “They were brothers who once shared a crib and now they share a grave.”

Throughout the game, Y/N continued the story with Spencer asking questions just to hear them talk more. The maturity of the stories had grown just as Y/N’s voice had. They knuckled their eyes a few times, but they didn’t complain about the headache.

“I know what endings you like,” Spencer moved his rook, “Checkmate in five.”

Y/N didn’t seem to mind that little dig, “This’ll have to be a short story instead then.”

Spencer’s next sentence got away from him, trailing off the closer he got to the end of it, “You could write an anthology series, if we see each other again and play more games.”

Where Spencer’s voice disappeared, Y/N’s returned with invigoration, “That’s not a half bad idea, Spencer.”

The checkmate never came. Y/N diverted the ending into a draw.

“A peace treaty has been forged by the survivors, because too many lives have been lost to justify this violence anymore. If only they realised sooner that no blood had to be shed for peace to rule the lands.” And they smiled at Spencer, clearly chuffed as they leaned back in their chair, “Bit of an upgrade from the horse noises, I’ll say.”

Spencer rotated the purple knight – the illusionist – between his thumb and forefinger, “I liked the horse noises.”

“You should have said during the match! I’d recreate them, for you.”

One by one, the pieces were placed back into their box until the last piece remained in Spencer’s palm: the knight or Soren the Illusionist, distractions and deceptions but he loved the tricks that delighted most of all. Just like Spencer with his magic tricks but a little to the left. The character was always one of Y/N’s favourites. Some solace away from the pain of thinking of who he was based on.

Y/N pushed Spencer’s hand away, closes his fist around it, “Keep him. He was made with you in mind anyway.”

The information sank in and Spencer’s nose wrinkled with the little smile on his face as he cupped the little Illusionist, “I’m Soren?”

Nodding, Y/N confirmed, “You’re Soren.”

“But what about your set though?”

“I can always make and paint another knight,” and Y/N tilted the piece upside down in Spencer’s hand, revealing the signature on the underside, “You and him are the originals, it’s only fair you stay together.”

In a moment of pure instinct and nostalgia, Spencer clicked his tongue as he twisted Soren in time with the noise. Y/N let out a burst of laughter that dragged the air out of Spencer’s chest.

“Hey, do you wanna get dinner tonight?” He said, running out of breath very quickly as a result.

It had a similar effect on Y/N, “I thought you – don’t you have to get back to Virginia?”

“I have time for dinner. For you.”

---> ---> ---> ---> --->

The bookstore was packed but the breath of the patrons was held as one. All eyes were watching the mini stage where a crouching figure lifted their head up slowly. A jump as the tension broke with the figure leaping up to their feet with a bang.

Y/N pushed up the brim of their cap. Snatching a deep green hoodie from the purple trunk – silver constellations painted on the sides – they swung it over their back before picking up the page where they had left off.

“Nasima looked up at Mason and said, ‘Well that was just unnecessary.’”

A burst of laughter shot through the pre-teens in the front row, spreading to the adolescents sitting further back who had grown up with the author’s other works, finally reaching the adults at the back where Spencer was fiddling with his cane. He adjusted the sleeve of his costume absentmindedly. He was just like everyone else in the room: captivated by how Y/N was so immersed in their reading.

They had just mimed kicking down a door, plus sound effects from their mouth. Swapping back and forth between the two conflicting characters arguing with one another, changing between the hoodie and the cap with every other line of dialogue and taking both off for the role of the narrator, it was certainly a workout.

An exaggerated breath was drawn into Y/N’s lungs, flopping over in a melodramatic state, which caused another laugh in the audience.

Spencer’s nose scrunched up as he grinned. He knew this was part of the scene; he’d seen Y/N rehearse this story in their sitting room. It was so much better to share this with an audience, for their reactions to fuel Y/N’s energy.

Y/N finished the short story A Battle of Bent Truths with a flourish, leaving the rest of the anthology for their audience to read in their own time. The kids were up on their feet first. Some of them were jumping up and down as they applauded with the rest of the shop. Y/N gave a big grin as they bowed, sweeping their cap off for extra drama.

There was a book signing and a photographer that followed, and Spencer waited patiently at the end of the queue, thankful that the store allowed him to bring a chair along with him. He was happy to entertain his godson and friends with a few tricks to pass the time.

“Another one please!” Henry jumped up and down when Spencer revealed his card.

A minor commotion arose by the photographer’s backdrop. There was a teenager was crying; she was clutching her copy of Untold Tales of Human Nature. Y/N was holding their shoulders, rubbing gently and speaking softly. Only half paying attention to his next trick, Spencer kept an eye on Y/N as they hugged the teenager, looking near tears themselves.

“Spencer?” J.J tapped him on the shoulder and Spencer realised that Henry was looking a little mad to have lost his godfather’s attention so easily.

“Sorry, Henry, can you pick another card please?”

When they reached the front of the queue, JJ went up first and took Henry and his pals up to see Y/N. They instantly recognised JJ and welcomed her with a tight hug. Henry was delighted to see his favourite babysitter and show them off to his school friends, boasting that they had read to him before today.

“They read me bits for bedtime, Mommy!”

“I know!” JJ tickled his cheek, “I read them to you too.”

“Who do you like better?”

“Mommy,”

Y/N gasped, dropping to their knees which made Spencer wince, “Henry, you wound me!”

Rossi approach next, knowing that once Spencer got to Y/N, they would not be left alone.

“You really know how to captivate an audience,” He kissed them on both cheeks, “Though don’t take offence if I don’t use the same tricks at my readings.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it! Thank you for coming.”

Y/N then caught Spencer’s eye and began meandering over to him with a smile they were desperately trying to stifle. Spencer rose from his chair, meeting Y/N in the middle.

“Hi, Spencer.”

With his free arm, Spencer flaunted his cloak, “Who is Spencer? I’m Soren the Illusionist!”

Giggles from his godson, his godson’s gang, his co-workers and friends, they almost caused Y/N to lose their composure. They held on just long enough to continue the banter.

“Oh, forgive me, you look so much like my boyfriend.”

“Hmmm, he must be very handsome,”

And Y/N burst into peals of laughter, waving their hands about, “OK, stop, stop, stop, I can’t.”

“Hey!” Spencer pretended to take offence, pouting as Y/N brought him into a hug.

“Don’t worry,” They kissed his cheek between giggles, “You are so very handsome.”

“To think you were once sick at the sight of me.”

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds x reader #my writing #r: gender neutral #wc: 5k+

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