#Even as I think about another csi and another character from it

[courtoftheclueless]

You with Nick’s moles 🤝 me with Mac’s

I don't think people quite understand how much this man lives in my head

[bullet-prooflove]

A quick round up of updates on the blog including new characters added to the ASK LIST and a list of fics that went out last week:

New characters were added to the ask list this week:

Sean Archer

Jack Reacher

Jack Hodgson

AJ Chegwidden

Carlton Lassiter

New Fics:

Chicago Med:

The Only One (NSFW) - You're the only woman Sean has been with sober.

Big Heart - How it starts between you and Mitch.

The Morning After - Mitch makes a decision after the two of you spend the night together.

Fuckable - You and Mitch were never just friends.

The Study Part One: Courting Disaster - Dean realises Jack is courting you.

Sleeping Late - You sleep late for the first time in years. (Jimmy Lanik x Reader)

Chicago PD:

Make Me Forget - Antonio is devastated when he catches up with you after the op.

CSI Vegas:

Something About You - Trey has never been able to figure out how he fell in love with you.

The Equalizer:

Watch Me (NSFW) - You want Harry to see everything he does to you.

FBI:

Little Changes - Stuart notices when you start to make little changes.

FBI International:

Live Stream - You recieve a lead on Damian's location.

Ravaged - You find Damian in a bad way.

FBI Most Wanted:

Attention - Remy realises you need a little extra attention.

Fire Country:

Sunday Mornings - Luke takes your advice and carves out some time for himself.

Haven:

Burden - Dwight carries the entire town's burdens on this shoulders.

All Night (NSFW) - Dwight spends the night with you.

Law & Order:

Pushy - Cyrus has forgotten how pushy you are.

How We Met - Nolan reflects on your relationship.

Happy Birthday - Nolan doesn't celebrate his birthday.

Distraction - You distract Nick from work.

Law & Order SVU:

Say My Name - Joe needs to hear you say his name.

Marvel:

The Day We Met - Frank reflects on the path the relationship has taken.

Mayans:

Future Building - Riz builts you a house.

The Musketeers:

Memories - You and Treville have a lot of history.

Duty - Treville is bound by his sense of duty, even at the cost of your life.

Rubies - Aramis spends a momeny alone with you.

Love You More (NSFW) - Athos hates that he loves you.

NCIS:

In The Night Hours - Alden reflects on your relationship and how far you've come

Nothing I Wouldn't Do - There is nothing you wouldn't do for Nick.

NCIS LA:

At His Best - AJ only wants you to have good memories of your time together.

For Better, For Worse - Your sister Sissy causes problems for you Nik.

Numb3rs:

Invaluable - Ian stays the night.

Psych:

Coffee - Carlton knows something wrong from the way you take your coffee that morning.

Reacher:

Not What I Expected - You aren't what Reacher expected.

The Rookie:

Out of Your League - John has always thought you were beautiful.

Scars - John loves you and all your scars.

The Rookie Feds:

Lifetime - Brendon is building a life with someone else.

Climax (NSFW) - You think about Brendon on the day of his wedding.

Silent Witness:

The Backseat - You and Jack have an unusual meet cute.

Cursed - Jack is sure his car is cursed.

SOA:

Worship (NSFW) - Tig worships you in the bedroom.

ATF!Series Part One: A Rabbit You Don't Want To Chase - Stahl makes an unwelcome return to David's life.

Triple Frontier:

Break (NSFW) - Frankie forces you to take a break.

Yellowstone:

Bluebelle - Walker sings you a very important song.

Stop Thinking, Start Listening - Ryan hates seeing you with another man.

[coldflasher]

i was listing to your podcast episode and i was wondering if can you elaborate more on your autistic/(and i think?) adhd barry headcannon? i'm very curious to hear more.

Oh boy can I!

So take this with a grain of salt in that after being diagnosed I now see autism everywhere lmao (extremely ironic that so many autistic people literally develop a special interest in autism, go figure) but I actually think there's a LOT of textual evidence of behaviour that aligns with the diagnostic criteria!

Hyperfixations/special interests

Barry often exhibits signs of having what could either be considered hyperfixations and/or special interests throughout the show, including becoming incredibly hyperfocused on certain ideas or tasks, like catching the man in yellow, stopping various villains or metas of the week... Examples of long-term special interests would obviously be science in general, as well as researching the impossible (he had a blog about this and was known to run away from home or travel long distances to investigate these happenings. Incidentally, running away is very common in autistic kids and as I'm sure you'll agree, very appropriate for him as a character haha). He has a strong tendency to infodump about the science stuff. He also often fixates on solving situations and pushes the people around him too far because they're not as laser focused on the thing as he is (this becomes a biiig pattern for him later).

Social difficulties

When we meet Barry, aged 25, he has one friend that we know of, and that's Iris. Other shows will often have an ep or storyline where we meet a character's old friend who's back in town or whatever, but this never happens with Barry. His only friend is (on a technical basis) his adopted sister. He was bullied pretty brutally as a kid, allegedly because of his loud insistence on talking about his mother's murder and the mysterious man in the yellow lightning, but arguably even a traumatized NT kid would catch on pretty fast that talking about that loudly in public is not a great social move lmao. He does end up with quite a few long-term friends, but I'd argue that Cisco and Caitlin aren't particularly neurotypical either lmao so it checks out, we tend to attract one another.

At work, he works in the crime lab by himself, not interacting with other CSIs. He's hypercompetent at the actual CSI work but struggles hugely with the social demands of the work environment and with how to conduct himself in a professional capacity. The only work colleagues we DO see him interact with (at least until later seasons) generally seem to view him negatively. Captain Singh is visibly impatient with him, and Barry's constantly putting his foot in it with him. Chyre also doesn't seem to be a fan of him. Julian actively goes out of his way to get Barry fired. Even in just the first 2 eps of s1 he's repeatedly said things that his colleagues view as inappropriate and been scolded by Joe for "embarrassing" him by letting his mouth run away with him in an unprofessional manner (aka, difficulties adjusting his behaviour for various social contexts).

Strong sense of justice

Having an incredibly strong sense of justice and morality is a common autistic trait. People sometimes interpret this as "autistic people are inherently more moral than allistics", and that's not true, of course. What it does mean is that we're more likely to have a very strong sense of what we perceive as morally right or just, and it can be more difficult to get us to act in ways that go against those beliefs. It's also common for autistic folks to either be intense rule-followers OR to disregard rules that don't make sense to us (usually due to some social hierarchies that we aren't interpreting in the same way or just don't really register, or that don't make sense to us) and I think this definitely applies to Barry. He's incredibly focused on getting justice for people, and he's willing to break rules he sees as unimportant (like uh. Contaminating evidence by working on crime scenes he was involved in... being a vigilante in general... keeping metahumans locked up in his basement) but then he also gets Ralph fired from CCPD for (iirc) planting evidence, because he sees that as wrong and unjust, even though the perpetrator HAD committed the crime and there just wasn't sufficient evidence for a conviction. (Not saying he was wrong to get Ralph fired at all but there is a certain amount of hypocrisy there haha).

He also clashes really hard with Julian in this way, because (in my opinion) they're both autistic but it's presenting in very different ways. Julian is an "I'll follow all rules exactly to the letter autistic" (see him getting mad when Barry tries to leave work less than five minutes before his work day officially finishes) whereas Barry is an "I'll follow rules that I understand as important and that personally make sense to me, and ignore the rest" autistic.

Stimming

This is more true of season 1 Barry but he's a very fidgety boy. He's always messing with his hands and touching the hair over his ears. This is a small thing but a character detail I really love.

Motor function issues

In the first seven minutes of the pilot Barry has already crashed into multiple people. Enough said haha.

A lot of these traits get toned down in him over time, but he's often described as slow and shown to be clumsy, bumping into people and knocking things over. Whenever he doesn't have or use his speed they really emphasize how he struggles physically: he's described as running extremely slowly "even for a normal person", and when he plays baseball in s5, he's unable to catch the ball (he may have been playing this up to help hide his identity but it seems from the way Iris is sympathetic towards his struggles that he just genuinely isn't a good player).

There isn't much or any textual evidence of him having sensory issues or sticking very firmly to a routine (quite the opposite actually, this man is pure chaos) but that could be because of the novelty-seeking; autism and adhd symptoms often "cancel each other out" in some ways, and it's apparently quite common for folks with both to have one they skew more towards that kind of hides the symptoms of the other.

Here are a couple of ADHD things:

Time blindness

When has this man not been late for work? Before he got his speed he was always late. Even WITH speed he's late half the time.

Organizational issues

He's always standing people up, forgetting about commitments, showing up late... again, this could be because he's juggling so much in his personal and professional lives, but...

Impulsive behaviour

From the NHS ADHD criteria:

excessive talking (see the infodumping and getting himself into trouble at work by going off on inappropriate tangents)

acting without thinking (see literally everything he's ever done in his life. how many times have the people around him torn him a new one for taking a risk or doing something stupid?)

little or no sense of danger (again. see literally everything about him. the man runs around the city in a red suit saving lives with little or no thought towards the risk or potential costs to himself).

So yeah, I clearly have spent a lot of time analysing him and his behaviours lmao, tune in soon for my "Rogue Air" episode where I will monologue for an hour about autistic Leonard Snart

[dinovia-grant]

Writer Asks

I was tagged by the dearest of all dearhearts, @cassiopeiasara

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 53, but full disclosure, I haven't yet moved everything I've written to AO3 yet.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 885,181 (but honestly, OBaaT Georg is an outlier, and maybe shouldn't have been counted...)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Currently? Ever? Currently, it's SuperCat and, more recently, Guiding Light/Otalia. Stupid unfinished WIP that has haunted me for 15 years...

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? These are all SuperCat, btw. One Bridge at a Time, At the Pleasure of the Hotel de la Paix, Uncharted (part 11), At Sea, and (the shocker) Steel Blue.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, as many as I can. I've been known to respond to some years after they were written. Comments are the lifeblood of my writing. One comment at the right time can inspire so much. Sometimes, even the completion of a lingering unfinished story...

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Easily, my tears ricochet (Mirandy). My wife (Lisof9) and I took a vow decades ago (pre-dating, even) that we would always write happy, hopeful endings where the couple is together.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Everything else? See above. That doesn't mean there isn't angst. My wife taught me everything I know about chasing characters up burning trees and then lobbing grenades and feral raccoons at them. She also taught me about cliffhangers.

8. Do you get hate on fic? Once. A long time ago on an ER fic, of all things. I didn't write a word for two years after that.

9. Do you write smut? Yes. I'm kinda known for that. It is sometimes even requested, meaning the prompt is given to me because it requires smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Hmm... Not really? Let me explain. One of my SuperCat stories mentions Emily Carlton from The Devil Wears Prada, and one of my Guiding Light stories has a brief cameo from a character on Saving Grace. The only true crossover I've ever written was wacky. It was Star Trek: Voyager and CSI: Miami. Decide for yourself: Wackiness. It's short.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not sure I understand the question. You mean plagiarized.? There was a rash of that happening in the early 2000s, I think, but my readers always let me know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I'm not sure. Probably.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Oh, absolutely! My wife should be considered my co-writer in everything because I have been known to pick her brain when I'm stuck. I've also co-written in the Guiding Light/Otalia fandom and in the L&O: SVU Casey/Olivia fandom.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? Oh, lord love a duck. SuperCat is certainly my once-and-future obsession. I've been writing them for over seven years at this point and, at last count, have 10 WIPs in the works for them.

My OTP Prime, though, is B'Elanna/Seven from Star Trek: Voyager because that's how I met my wife.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t? Hide Beside Me (Guiding Light/Otalia) has haunted me for 15 years, but remember when I said comments were the lifeblood of writing? Someone commented on it last week which revived my interest in finishing the story. I have a draft for chapter 32 in my WIPs folder right now because of that. I hope I finally get to check that one off my to-do list.

16. What are your writing strengths? Research, capturing character personalities, dialogue, and romance.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Fight scenes and the fact that I'm so slow as a writer.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Actually, I have a plan to write an Astrid/Raphaelle story in French when I feel I'm up to snuff in French again. I can't wait. I love that ship.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Ever? Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Buck/Wilma, on my handwriting practice pad from school. I was 10. Published in a 'zine? A Star Trek: The Next Generation Worf/Deanna story. Published online? Xena, Warrior Princess.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Currently, there are two:

Queen of Hearts, (ST:Voy, B/7), because it was a love letter to the woman who is now my amazing wife.

One Bridge at a Time, (Supergirl, SuperCat). I'm proudest of this one because it took me seven years to write, came in at 310+k words, and I finished it. I never gave up on it. It was always in my mind. And now I'm working on a sequel to it. :)

I tag anyone who would like to answer it. Although, I would be interested in reading the answers from @shaych03 and @fewthistle if they'd like to participate.

[addictedtostorytelling]

Hi! I love your meta and how beautifully you write about GSR, I would like to know what you think about this, do you think Grissom and Sara would have been good parents? Why do you think the show didn’t allowed them to have a geek baby?

hi, anon!

thank you for your kind words!

i have got a big, ol' meta that covers my thoughts on potential gsr parenthood here, if you're interested.

i also have another big, ol' meta that specifically covers my thoughts on how they would have reacted to experiencing an unplanned pregnancy during their "secret dating" phase in s5-s6 here, if you're interested in that one, as well.

the tl;dr version is that while i think grissom and sara would be kickass parents were that particular life choice one they ever decided to make together, i also don't think they would necessarily ever be likely to make that particular life choice together, just given their respective characters and backgrounds.

grissom is—prior to his retirement—highly career-driven, meaning he might not want to put his focus on parenthood rather than work. he likewise has some pretty sizeable hang-ups regarding his own capacity to nurture and be unselfish, his age, his social deficits, etc., all of which might cause him to question his potential fitness as a father.

there's a line from another show i love from a character facing down the prospect of first-time fatherhood that i can absolutely see grissom saying (in so many words): "if, for nine months, you're hearing how this is gonna change your life, and ‘you've never loved anything like this’ and ‘my god, the love!’ and ‘nothing is gonna be important anymore’—it just never felt to me like i was someone who had the capacity for those feelings. plus, you know, i-i like what's important to me. i want it to stay important. i wanna be able to do it well."

meanwhile, sara has her own considerable hang-ups regarding how she was raised, her family and personal history of mental illness, her social deficits, etc. that might cause her to feel similarly unequipped for motherhood. she is also in her twenties and thirties—i.e., prime childbearing years—very career-minded, like grissom, so she might not be inclined to step away (even temporarily) to have a kid.

maybe if grissom and sara were to experience an unplanned pregnancy at some point, they would (under very specific circumstances) consider the possibility of having a child. ditto for maybe a one-in-a-million type scenario where they encountered a kid in the system who needed fostering or adopting.

however, i think nine times out of ten, they'd opt not to have a kid—and especially not if "nature never came to bear" or if one was never put directly into their paths.

that said, since i personally find the idea of them as parents very intriguing—the issue is one that pushes a lot of fun character buttons for both of them, butting up against their hopes and fears and senses of self in some very complicated and interesting ways—i have written a big, ol' geek!baby fic, where they find themselves dealing with an unplanned pregnancy in an au version of s8.

i call it the happy accidentsverse, and if you're interested, you can read that fic series here.

as for the issue of why the show never pursued a "grissom and sara have a kid" storyline in canon, i think there are probably multiple reasons why they didn't.

more discussion after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

__

to my mind, probably the biggest reason why we never saw a "grissom and sara have a kid" storyline in canon is that, particularly in the earlier seasons of the show, the showrunners tried not to focus too much on the characters' home lives.

though they would show the occasional "off the clock" scene here or there or every once in a while toss in some kind of love interest- or family-centric story beat, anthony zuiker and co. wanted the majority of the show's focus to be on the job—on the cases the csis investigated, the goings-on at the lab and in the field, the team's interactions with each other as colleagues, the team's interactions with other law enforcement professionals and people they met in connection to their cases, in the politics of the department, etc.

they were much stricter about this policy even than other procedurals of the time.

that's why we saw so little of grissom and sara's romantic relationship actually play out on screen—because tptb never intended to offer us anything more than just a small window into their personal lives outside of their careers.

and while of course grissom and sara having a kid (whether through sara getting pregnant or them deciding to foster and/or adopt) would definitely affect their working lives and could allow for some interesting storylines centered around the lab and in the field—for example, how might sara deal with the physical and emotional requirements of her incredibly demanding job while pregnant?, how might grissom and sara have to change their workaholic habits if they were to try to become foster or adoptive parents?, how might having a kid in the mix affect both grissom and sara's willingness to face the dangers inherent in their profession?, would becoming parents change the way they responded to certain cases?, etc.—that kind of storyline, just by its nature, would also probably require the show to spend more time at home with grissom and sara than the showrunners and writers ever really intended to.

narratively speaking, catherine having a school-aged kid to start out the show is one thing, while grissom and sara having a newborn or a brand new foster kid and becoming first-time parents would be something else entirely.

in catherine's case, her being a mom to an older kid from the get-go is a much more lowkey deal, not only because a kid at that age can mostly exist in an off-screen capacity except for in episodes where her presence is plot-relevant but also because it's an already-established fact.

catherine is a mother—and an experienced mother, at that—from the very first time we meet her; it's part of both her personal and professional identities from day #1. the baseline is there. there are no questions about it. no big blanks to fill in. she's already made the life-changing decisions. she's already entrenched in that role.

the same would not be true if grissom and sara were to have a kid.

because they were "first timers" (and especially because they had seemingly never aspired to parenthood previously), the show would have to answer questions with them—depict grissom and sara making the huge, life-altering decisions; reckoning with big emotions; figuring stuff out; working through their fears and hang-ups; adjusting to a monumental change in their lives; drawing together in new ways; changing and developing as characters and as a couple; establishing new patterns; etc.

the groundwork would need to be laid where the audience could see it being laid in real time, you know?

and laying that groundwork would require showing lots of private conversations between grissom and sara, trips to the ob's office or talks with the social worker, painting the nursery or putting up a swing set, making childcare arrangements, changing their lifestyle, etc.

my sense is that tptb never really wanted to go there.

that much focus on grissom and sara's home life would have been too distracting—too much of a serialized personal storyline that required attention in every episode, regardless of the "case of the day"—for their tastes.

now.

in theory, the "keep the focus on the job, not the home" rule is one tptb could have considered breaking, had they really wanted to.

after all, it was just a production choice, not actually any kind of hard and fast rule, so if they'd decided they wanted to go the "grissom and sara have a kid" route, they could have done so.

there's always the old flannery o'connor maxim: "it's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. you can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with much."

however, another reason why i think they never chose to go the geek!baby route, beyond the "it goes against our sense of what our show is actually about" thing, is that, frankly, within the universe of the show itself, the timing for grissom and sara was never right.

grissom and sara don't even get together as a committed couple until s5/s6, so, barring a major deviation from what is now canon, they likely could not have had a child at any point prior to 2005/2006, just to start out with.

then their relationship remains a secret until the end of s7/beginning of s8, meaning that between 2006-2007, they're definitely not looking to have a kid and probably would be pretty averse to having one even were they to experience an unplanned pregnancy, just given the potential fallout where their jobs are concerned.

they would have to "come out" as a couple, and one or both of them might end up getting fired over it.

fast forward, and between s8 and s9, sara experiences a mental health crisis that eventually culminates with her moving away from vegas for the better part of two years from 2008 to 2009 while grissom remains behind—and by the time she's stable and moves back to vegas circa 2009/2010, grissom is then living abroad, and they're only seeing each other once a month via transatlantic commute.

back in the day, when sara first turned up in s10, i know there was some internet scuttlebutt that maybe at some point it would be revealed that in-between the events of episode 09x10 "one to go" (when last we'd seen them) and episode 10x01 "family affair" (when sara returns to vegas to "temp"), grissom and sara had had a "secret honeymoon baby."

however, such a revelation was never made—timeline-wise, it would have been a tight fit anyhow, as, within the universe of the show, episode 09x10 "one to go" takes place in january '09 and episode 10x01 "family affair" takes place in september '09—and neither did grissom and sara ever have a kid at any subsequent point.

with sara living in the states and grissom not, the likelihood that they would ever decide to expand their family steadily diminished as s10, s11, and s12 rolled on, both because they were getting older and because their marriage eventually ended up on the rocks.

cue the whole divorce debacle of s13, a few solid years of misery and loneliness in the interim, and by the time grissom and sara get back together/remarried in 2015, sara is forty-four years old and probably peri- or even full-on menopausal, and she and grissom are living a nomadic seafaring lifestyle, so the likelihood of them either having a biological child or fostering/adopting is incredibly low.

again, there was some speculation among fans—based on previous comments from showrunner anthony zuiker regarding his ideas for grissom and sara's post-"immortality" life at sea—that when the reboot rolled around, we would eventually get a "in the six years since we last saw them, grissom and sara have had a kid" reveal.

no dice, though.

s1 of csi: vegas ran its course with no secret boat babies anywhere.

all of the above being the case, there just weren't even that many points during the show's run when it would have made logistical sense for grissom and sara to have children together.

they were always either in a state of having to keep their relationship a secret for the sake of their careers or else of living apart from each other, and by the time they finally got all their shit together and were living in the same place on a full-time basis, sara was nearing the end of her prime childbearing years and they were living the kind of lifestyle where fostering/adoption would be next to impossible.

narratively-speaking, parenthood just was never in the cards for them.

of course, it's worth stating, the writers could have maybe swung a geek!baby storyline in the later seasons had they wanted to if they had just made the choice to move grissom back to vegas along with sara between s10 and s15. he wouldn't even have had to appear on-screen. sara would have just needed to reference him occasionally in dialogue and be shown to take phone calls from him at times, a "i'm meeting grissom for our first ultrasound appointment" here, a "he's been at home painting the nursery all morning. he put little ladybugs up the walls" there. they could have done a whole pregnancy storyline that way, and it would have given sara something to do during seasons when she is otherwise criminally underutilized. then maybe if they were lucky, they could have gotten billy to come back for a guest spot when it came time for the baby to be born. but, alas, such a storyline would have required them to imply depth, which is something they had no idea how to do.

—which brings us to the last big reason why i think the showrunners never had grissom and sara have children:

because, ultimately, they just never felt it was right for the characters.

as stated above, both grissom and sara have plenty of reasons, both individually and as a couple, based on their backgrounds and predilections and development, why they might never choose to pursue parenthood.

while there are certain very particular scenarios were i can imagine they might set those reasons aside, overcome their hang-ups and fears, and decide to "go for it" re: having kids, i also think it would take a lot of narrative work to get them there—that thread would be something the writers would have had to really develop, requiring more than a few "acts of god" and major plot interventions to make the idea seem feasible.

they could have done it if they really wanted to.

but in the end, i think they didn't feel any compelling need.

grissom and sara have been an unconventional couple from the get-go, and their development has been circuitous and unstraightforward. there have been many setbacks for them along the way and strange turns. they've definitely not done everything "by the book."

for them to have a somewhat "untraditional" happy ending—at least by primetime, network early 00s flagship couple tv standards—makes a good amount of sense.

they're not the "white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a dog" norman rockwell family, and i think tptb are very okay with that outcome.

they like the image of this middle-aged couple that found immense fulfillment in each other and in their shared work (whether as csis or conservationists) and never felt the need to look outside of those things in order to be happy.

that's not to say they might not have written things differently had some of the production realities of the show been different along the way—like, say jorja fox had never left the show during s8 and grissom and sara had been able to get married in vegas as planned while both still working at the lab or that billy had come back to the show with jorja between s10 and s15; maybe in those cases, they might have eventually decided to go for the geek!baby storyline after all—however, all things as they were, i think they were generally pretty comfortable with how things ended up in regards to grissom and sara remaining childless.

they had explored the notion of "csis as parents" as much as they cared to with catherine, warrick, and russell.

they didn't want to go there with grissom and sara.

and who knows? maybe there were other outside factors that influenced their decision to that end, like actor preferences or the difficulty of including infant actors in a complicated production such as theirs, etc.

suffice it to say, i think the showrunners' decision to keep grissom and sara childless was probably a multifaceted one.

the good news is, regardless of how things turned out in canon, we as fans can always play around with the geek!baby concept as much as we want to and in as many different permutations as we like.

i certainly have a lot of fun in my accidentsverse, imagining grissom and sara facing both the challenges and rewards of parenthood, and i know a lot of other fan authors who have their own takes on that idea, as well.

anyway.

rambling now.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[mrbensonmum]

TV Show - CSI: Las Vegas II

It feels good to be back in Las Vegas. I recently tried watching CSI: Miami, and even though it's a good series, I couldn't quite get through the first season. I think it was too stylish for me, with too much weird color grading and sometimes too much "look how stylish we are in Miami."

Now we're dealing with the night shift in Las Vegas, and just the neon lights and darkness at night give us a completely different vibe, even though most of the filming took place in and around Los Angeles.

We're currently on episode 16 of season 1, "Too Tough to Die." The characters have moved past their initial uncertainties and are settled. We've also seen recurring characters like Bobby (weapons specialist), Mindy (fingerprint expert), and Terry (bone specialist) several times already.

While watching, I noticed my brain often tried to draw parallels to Dr. House, but it's not that simple. Sure, there are definitely similarities, as difficult cases need to be solved by a team of specialists in their field. But the approach is entirely different because we're in forensics, not medicine.

What I like the most, which is often handled through allegorical storytelling in Dr. House, are the different philosophical approaches Grissom explores in a quiet moment. I mean the quotes he often inserts. I especially liked his explanation at the end of "Unfriendly Skies" when the team sits together discussing how they would have acted. No one even thought about the victim and just went along with what the witnesses/perpetrators said. It's something I always try to keep in mind—that when confronted with an absolute situation, it's rarely, if ever, actually absolute, and there's always another perspective. I think it's a very important message!

But of course, CSI: Las Vegas also offers the messages that a Dr. House series does, just, as mentioned, not quite as allegorical but on a much more direct path. It's not always focused on Las Vegas either; it can be applied generally, especially when it comes to theft or dealing with other people. Sometimes you might think that the murders are just used to convey these messages, and what happens around them contains the actual message.

Unfortunately, Catherine is still a bit exhausting, and I also don't really like the whole storyline with her husband or ex-husband. It's just not my thing! Sure, she's supposed to represent the strong, mature woman who made it out of the casino world in Las Vegas, and she does that pretty well, no question. But the attitude she displays toward Sara or Warrick in this case is just not okay.

Fortunately, the hostility between the police and CSI has also been set aside again. It's happening more and more often that the team addresses the officer or detective at the crime scene by name and sometimes even chat a bit. I find that very pleasant, and it gives you the feeling that you're watching a very large and well-coordinated team.

The truly tragic figure in all of this, even though you might not know it yet, is among all the Warrick and Grissom drama. Warrick because he also made it from the bottom to the top as a CSI and can continually assert himself with his insider knowledge of Las Vegas. He's an important part of the team. But his fate is already sealed, even though it will take about six more seasons.

Grissom, on the other hand, because his mind can increasingly understand or comprehend less and less of what's happening around him. He feels less and less at home in this world or can understand why people are capable of all these acts, even though he loves the world itself and everything that keeps it moving (humans are not really needed for this; the world does fine without them!).

[frazzledsoul]

So let's talk about my favorite arcane subject... historical TV ratings! In this case, historical Gilmore Girls ratings in the aughts.

As a reminder, everything discussed here will be in the 18-49 demo preferred by advertisers. Also, the WB/CW were less universally available than the other networks, so their numbers were lower.

2000-2001

In the debut season of Gilmore Girls, the highest rated show was Survivor, with a demo rating of 16.9.

As you can see, all WB shows are towards the bottom of the chart. Gilmore Girls had a 2.5 demo rating, 8th in the network and 127th total out of 157 shows. The top rated show on the WB was 7th Heaven, with a demo rating of 4.4.

So respectable but not a smash hit.

Why was the show on several times a week? Well, it originally aired on Thursday, during the same time slot as Friends (5th ranked with a 12.6 demo rating) so the network wanted to give it another shot. During that first season, they used to air a recap after the first half of the show in case people switched over after watching Friends.

2001-2002

The highest rated show overall was Friends, with a 15.0 demo rating.

Ah, season 2. Jess Mariano enters the scene and the show starts to develop its core identity as Love Triangle Central. It rises to third ranked on the network (bested by 7th Heaven and Smallville) and 115th overall and goes up to a 3.23 demo rating.

Oh, the power of a bad boy who can read. He will transfix many for decades to come.

2002-2003

The highest ranked show overall was CSI with a 16.1 demo rating.

Season 3 is the last season we have Jess full-time and the only Literati season. We also briefly enjoy the company of Twilight Dad. The show maintains it's popularity but nothing much changes: it's still outranked by 7th Heaven and Smallville, goes a little lower in rank overall to 121th overall, and maintains a 3.23 demo rating.

Gilmore Girls: Beginnings was a time slot where they aired episodes from S1 on Sunday nights. The show was not yet syndicated and streaming didn't exist yet: you couldn't buy DVDS until 2004. This was the only way to see old episodes. Even so, it wasn't that popular.

We lose the boyfriends at the end of the season, and things take a turn for the worse.

2003-2004

American Idol was the top rated show with a 10.7 demo rating.

Season 4 is the season of Single Rory, who ASP tells us we should adore more than the boyfriends.

Unfortunately, ASP also chose to give her scintillating plotlines about urine mints, arguing over a study tree, and begging for attention from a guy she meets in the laundry room. Lorelai's time is mostly taken up by Jason Stiles and his fascinating insurance saga. The viewers were bored. The show slipped to 6th in rank on the network and 128th overall, lost almost half of its viewers, and went down to a 1.7 in the demo rating.

ASP regrouped, brought the boyfriends back in, got rid of Jason, and finally hooked Luke and Lorelai up. The episodes near the end of the season are considered some of the best of the series. The show allegedly was close to getting canceled.

Quality wise, I think there are a lot of nice episodes here and there, but overall the season drags because there are far more interesting things going on with the supporting characters than the mains. Jess is as emo as he ever is and his hair is fabulous.

2004-2005

The top rated show for the year was American Idol with an 11.1 demo rating.

The show was on an upswing in season 5. We have to put up with Dean for a while, but Rory's attention strays (again) to yet another bad boy who can read and Logan brings a lot more energy and more interesting storylines to the show. We also have the glory days of Luke and Lorelai as a couple.

The show rises to #1 on the WB, finally outranking 7th Heaven and Smallville. It ranks 120th overall and the demo rating goes up to 2.0. The show's ratings will never be as high as they were during the Jess seasons.

Jess is not in season 5, as he was busy moving to Philly and becoming awesome. Milo shows up on American Dreams as yet another bad boy, yet his fresh-faced love interest in that show seizes the moment and not only fucks him but runs away with him, too. Meg Pryor at least knows how to take advantage of her opportunities.

American Dreams had slightly better ratings than Gilmore Girls but because it was a network show (and had insanely expensive music rights) it was canceled.

2005-2006

The top rated show (again) was American Idol with a demo rating of 12.9

Oh, season 6. The season of disappointment, thwarted dreams, and Jess Mariano reinventing himself as a hipster dreamboat.

The show remained popular, tying for first place in the network with Smallville and Beauty and the Geek (the reality show version of The Big Bang Theory). The demo rating stayed at 2.0 and the show ranked 110th overall.

Supernatural (the show Jared is most known for) debuts in 5th with a 1.6 demo rating. It will become quite the phenomenon over the next 15 years and spawn many stans of its own.

Milo's show The Bedford Diaries isn't too popular, but he also films the Rocky sequel and is cast in Heroes. He's on to bigger and better things, as is Jess, who is now a stable, successful author and business owner and hotter than ever, while Rory is stuck in a holding pattern of indecisiveness and bad decisions. Oh, well. The population of Philly awaits, son. Start your slut era in style.

2006-2007

Y'all will be shocked to find out that the top rated show of the year again was American Idol again with a 12.3 demo rating.

Oh, season 7. The new writers tried, I guess. ASP had pretty much destroyed Luke and Lorelai as a couple and also set her sights on almost every other character, too. So we're left with a devastated Luke, the specter of Christopher on the horizon, and Rory once again embroiled in love triangle drama.

The WB and UPN had combined into a single network, so the show has more competition, but I think a lot of people just gave up.

The show went down to its S4 series low of 1.7, ranked 4th behind America's Next Top Model and Beauty and the Geek. It ranked 122nd for the year and was canceled. There were negotiations for a 13-episode season 8 (with Matt Czuchry as a regular cast member) but they fell through. I think if that season had happened, Luke and Lorelai would have gotten married/had a baby and Rory and Logan would have been endgame. We would not have seen Jess again, because Milo was too busy elsewhere.

Heroes was the 7th ranked show overall that year and the top rated show on NBC. It has a demo rating of 6.4, over three times as high as Gilmore Girls and almost twice as high as Gilmore Girls at its height. There was a ton of water-cooler chat about the show during that time: it was pretty much everywhere.

There's been a lot of chatter on this site about ASP having big plans for Jess in S7, that she was going to have Rory cheat on Logan with Jess again and Milo only said no because he hated the new writers. There's never been any indication any of that is true because why wouldn't he move on to another job with more money, prestige, and attention? It was wise of him to leave and better for both Milo and Jess in the end.

So what have we learned here, other than that Frazzled has weird hobbies? Well, mainly that season 4 almost killed the show, the show's glory days truly were the first three seasons, and that I was not alone in rage quitting the show in 2006. All good lessons to keep in mind.

[ilkkawhat]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 🤍

aw ��� thanks for sending this to me

Half Past Midnight: My first fic I wrote after a...idk how many years it was hiatus, right at the start of me falling back in love with CSI again and creating things for it; I took such a deep dive into Nick's head and part of what I did in writing this was watching only Nick's parts on a loop, in the dark, with headphones on and I distinctly remember a point where it really got to me and I gasped for air and spooked my dog (don't worry he was okay just startled lol) It was also the first fic I started playing around and including my own headcanons in there

Last Breath: I just...have a lot of good memories from writing this fic. It was probably the most interactive, like I would go so far as to say it was almost even like a collaboration because so many people pitched ideas (the idea for the fic as a whole was straight up handed to me on a silver platter) and made the fic better for it, and I also really got to know my Stokes children OCs in doing this fic--I did do a handful of fics for them before this, but I feel like I really hammered down who they were and it won't be the last fic on this list but I do also have the sequel (First Flight) to use as a chance to cover things I missed in the first one and explore more universe altering headcanons. It was also my first like, longer fic at around 64k word count wise, and right now my longest completed fic lol

Atrophy: I swear this list I'm just going off of fics that I have distinct memories of attachment to; this one I started writing on my way to a wedding and brought back an OC I created back when I was a teenager. After the wedding I had to go to this university for a class paid for by my job and I spent the car rides there and back brainstorming, and even writing in between classes (and if I recall...even during class at some points shh.) Its sequel Agony is uh, giving me some challenges and I regret a lot of things like maybe pushing it out so fast and then losing steam and wishing I did some things different/toned it down, but Atrophy I still feel mostly good about (though man imagine if I went as hard on it as I am with Agony as long and drawn out as it is lol) and the ficverse as a whole is definitely a favorite of mine

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Surprise, another Grave Danger fic. I wrote this during a pretty rough time and just remember being proud of myself for doing it, and wrote it all within a week and the ideas and words just kept...flowing. It felt like I was truly in my element when I wrote it and helped me remember why I love writing so much.

Specimen Stokes: God I know this fic also went off the rails like Agony did where I worry it became like...too much and should have held back a little (no pun intended) but I will never forget the day I ran out of work to go start writing a one shot in response to an anon who I don't even think technically asked for it as a fic, it was like "choose between these scenarios" and as I started to think about it I just...couldn't help myself. Like Atrophy I have sequels in mind and all sorts of things I want to do and I swear I actually have the rest of this fic installment planned out it's just...writing it lol. And taking the plunge into making it sci-fi and twisting the characters in the AU has been a blast and I feel like a great amount of my creativity has shown through in this fic, the edits and stuff I made for it, and the ideas I have coming up.

[unitchiefs-blackbirdphoenix]

It irritates me how tons of comments under videos or any promo for cm:e are filled with people asking for Reid and Hotch (sometimes even Morgan and Gideon) instead of talking about the characters and actors that are still on the show.

You and me both, anon! The actors in the season 16 cast are just as amazing, and probably more notable in other things outside of CM and CME (Paget in comedy, Aisha in talk shows and comedy, AJ in Final Destination and The Virgin Suicides, Joe as a veteran actor, and Adam in CSI and Magic Mike).

This cast alone is already well-known on their own, so there’s already more recognition for them and they really don’t need Matthew or Thomas’ help with promoting the show. Plus, the storylines would be terrible for either character. What are we going to do for Hotch’s character? Another Scratch arc?? We put Reid into another traumatic storyline that makes no sense for his character? Idk why the show wants to even bring Gideon up again when he’s already dead (I’m ignoring the whole Rossi-Gideon thing as a reason, too).

Anyway, I really love seeing the cast lineup for s16 because it could’ve been the potential of having limited number of people on the team that gets their spotlight but for some reason, Erica Messer (and ig Breen Frazier too) want to focus on the white male characters rather than the diverse cast of women and POC for personal storylines *sigh*. However, I do think the season was a step up from the last few seasons with cinematography and procedural storytelling. But yes, this cast was absolutely incredible and worked so, so well together. I think there’s so much to develop with their characters and I wish we get to see that more.

[everybuddiewantssome]

20 questions for fanfic writers!

Tagged by @aintgonnatakethis 💙

How many works do you have on AO3? 46

What's your total AO3 word count? 213 147

What fandoms do you write for? My big two are stargate (any and all. Mostly sg1 and sga though) and csi. Though my ao3 says my most posted fandoms are smallville and spn, and that's technically correct, from the svnatural crossovers. There's a couple other shows thrown in there too but we won't get into my whole writing history and future rn

Top 5 fics by kudos:

The thing about a fantasy (csi, G, CathRick)

Beautiful disaster (sga, sg1, T, Gen.)

Keep me safe (sg1, G, Sam/Daniel)

Take me back into your arms (sg1, T, Sam/Daniel)

Morning person (sg1, G, sam & daniel)

Do you respond to comments? Not always, but no that if you've left a nice comment I'm grinning like an idiot each and every time I read it. I love them.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I feel like I don't write a ton of angsty ending so I might have to say so much for normal (also my 6th fic by kudos). It ends basically how spn starts, so yeah.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Oh so many but I think the ultimate one has to be take me back into your arms. Nothing like a reunion after coming back to this mortal coil

Do you get any hate on fics? Thankfully no (knock on wood)

Do you write smut? No siree. Not my wheelhouse

Craziest crossover? I basically started by writing crossovers, but the wackiest is definitely the Jason Teague & Dean Winchester are twins fic. Thanks @morrison-the-ii once again

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I hope not!

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge, but I'd allow it!

Have you ever co written a fic? I've bounced ideas with various people, but never actually wrote with anybody

All time favourite ship? I'm not sure tbh. My unhinged svnatural SamLois era was very fun and am still much a fan of Sam/Daniel fics. But one it always seems to come back to writing for me is the brotp between Sara and Nick. They're such a great dynamic to work with and I truly missed writing all csi but especially them so much. Bonus answer Clois, but I don't think I've wrote anything for them. Or at least not anything beyond a ficlet

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I have this saving hope doc I've had for over a year that was meant to be a role reversal of the series finale (meaning its Alex because I like to be even more depressing apparently). The doc is still empty to this day and I honestly think itll stay that way but let's be real nobody wants that anyway I know I really don't 😭. Could also say csi road trip fic but I'm damned and determined to write that one

What are your writing strengths? Characters and dialogue. I love characters and I always feel like I have a good grasp on each of them and can keep them in character as much as possible

What are your writing weaknesses? Any kind of creative descriptors.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language? I doubt I'd personally try it, but I mean if you want to, I don't see a reason not to

First fandom you wrote in? First fic I ever started was Resurfacing (csi, M, gen.) First fic I posted however was the original version of hear it from me (svnatural, G; Clois & Sam)

Favourite fic you've written? Do you know how hard this is? I might have to go with special occasion (svnatural, G; gen.) Just because of how excited I was for that idea combining the best of both worlds. But another one I'm proud of for some reason is just maybe (we'll be alright) (sgu, G; TJ/Young). I don't often feel great about my scene setting and emotion but I like to think I hit the nail on the head with that one

Tagging (no pressure): @sga-owns-my-soul @jencsi @ilkkawhat and @space-helen

But please also feel free to jump on if you see this!

[denimbex1986]

'Tom Ripley returns. Disturbing character born from your pen Patricia Highsmith Despite its numerous adaptations for the big screen, it deserved to have its own television series. after it happened alain delon, Matt Damon, John Malkovich anyone Dennis HopperThe character returns to the screen thanks to Netflix. This time the player Andrew Scott The performance of Scott, who is tasked with giving life to an immoral, blackmailer, fraudster and psychopathic murderer in the version that is nominated to be one of the TV series of the year, is at the same level as his predecessors. This actor was already responsible for reinterpreting the evil Professor Moriarty in the Sherlock version. BBC starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Shooting the entire season in black and white is a risky and elegant artistic decision that underlines the classicism of the story. This is the new version netflix There are pure moments HitchcockA wizard of suspense who once made a great adaptation of another Highsmith novel. Strangers on a train.

At the beginning of the story, Tom Ripley is hired by a person. American millionaire so i go Italy He is looking for his son, from whom he received the revelation to devote himself to art. Painting, sculpture, literature… but he doesn’t seem to be good at any of them, so the ruler plans to send his friend to persuade him to settle down and return home to help run the family. business. When she gets there, Ripley, who is not much of a role model, finds herself fascinated by the bohemian life and will fight tooth and nail to protect this paradise that has fallen upon her without eating or drinking. If in White Lotus the landscapes, art and buildings of Italy shine with their own light, in Ripley they shine with wonderful black and white photography. That’s the way it is after all Federico Fellini He knew how to portray us Sweet life in Rome.

After dealing with minor shenanigans, this new job opens Ripley’s heart. Just as in France, the cliché was that aspiring painters would go to the Caribbean or some exotic island; Here our heroes fell I surrender to classical Italian art. Ripley was particularly impressed by this figure: Caravaggio. HE Baroque painter was as morally ambiguous as Ripleyand was even accused of committing murder during a fight.

Maybe the first two chapters may seem a little slow. The series takes its time to take us where it wants to take us, and that’s where it gets. Third part when the slowly developing intrigues begin to bear fruit in all their glory. There are these scenes great tension will leave the viewer glued to the couch even though nothing is happening not a single line of dialogue If I remember correctly, during a sequence that lasted about half an hour. From the moment the moment of crime entered the scene, The most Hitchcockian moments are coming. Inside PsychosisThe master of suspense managed to make the audience empathize with Norman Bates for a few moments after the legendary shower scene by showing us how the evidence of the crime refuses to sink to the bottom of the swamp. The Netflix series is full of moments like this, where the tension plays out when the killer thinks he’ll be surprised. Makes us empathize with the bad guywithout ever trying to justify or justify everything he did.

Black and white reminds us that we are in another time. Maybe it’s a step away from the technological sophistication of CSI. Ripley is not the perfect criminal, nor are the police immune from occasional screw-ups. with the crime scene. Even though we have a smart and determined investigator leading the investigation, we can’t help but smile when we see him do this from time to time. murder weapon right under their noses without realizing it. Some close-ups on the object serve to remind us of this. You will get the feeling that a part does not fit properly throughout the entire case, but That piece that completes the puzzle and allows the drawing to emerge in your mind in all its glory does not arrive until the last moment., in the scene that closes the series and when it’s too late to do anything. Caravaggio also fled Rome after the murder.

This may be considered a spoiler, but we should not forget this. Mr. Ripley’s talent It is the first of five that Highsmith wrote about the character. This An ambitious mini series that smells of awardsTherefore, it cannot be ignored that the aim of the platform is to adapt all the books of the character. It’s quite a wink that in the final episode, we get a cameo from John Malkovich, who has played the character in the past and here provides him with the documents that allow him to start a new life with a fake identity. art dealer in italyexactly the work that Malkovich did in the film in which he starred.

Black and white is not an unknown format for the person who made this adaptation. Steven Zaillian is an experienced American screenwriter and director whose work includes screenplays. Schlinder’s Listfilm Steven Spielberg The artist skillfully uses the absence of colors in his photographs. As in that movie, we have a scene in the TV series where color is used to highlight a particular object in the shot. How not? It was supposed to be red.

It is noteworthy that although audience data These are often one of the platforms’ best kept secrets, even here Ripley’s poor results were overlooked with a certain pride. Perhaps to attract the attention of an audience that cannot get enough of watching black and white TV series, but whose attention is attracted by baits consisting of comments such as “”.honey is not made for the bear’s mouth”. Let me briefly word of mouth does its magic and best of all, there will be another award, which will allow us to continue bringing the rest of the books to the big screen. Just watch it to see that these doubts about the chosen format are unfounded. One artistic decision This makes the series great. It’s a love letter to the monochrome format and the great classics, where the platform puts emphasis on quality and forgets that it’s not all about numbers. I doubt the final results will be this bad and that scribbled black and white might be the ideal way to go. To inform new generations about the novelist’s literary keys, One of the most important noir writers of the 20th century. Both Zaillian and Andrew Scott have already stated that they want a repeat, but for now we can say goodbye to new episodes until 2026. The wait will be long.'

[ovrarches]

Okay, but I love Thomas Du Motier as an acting persona name, it sounds elegant... and the du motier twins has a nice ring to it! :D I also love that they were in ~everything~ not only the Disney stuff, but your good old horror as well...establishing that range early, huh... and ngl, I'd be kinda into the idea of Alex actually having liked their work, the stuff he's seen, before meeting Thomas (though even if that was the case, it obviously wouldn't stop him from trying to ridicule it). Would make me wonder how Thomas regards Alex's previous work, though!

*Anyway*, I'm actually dropping in with a different question for this, do you think Burr/James/Angelica/... will have a place in this AU? 🤔🤗 (I, too, am invested deeply already 😂)

Thank you for asking questions about this half-assed au,.,.., I’m.,.,,,, ahhhh🥺

Du Motier twins is very cute and iconic….. Thomas loves that they went with a French vibe. And yea I also like the idea that Alex likes their work!! Like he’d do “research” to find some iconic catchphrases he can parrot to piss off Thomas, and then find himself accidentally chuckling along with the laugh track.

Hmm I think Thomas (film snob and hater of sitcoms and “fluff” roles AKA most of Alex’s filmography) did not have a high opinion of Alex when it was announced they’d been casted as the leads, but he did go and watch some of Alex’s later work where he featured as a main/recurring character (and not as corpse #3 on CSI Miami, or corpse #28 on Grey’s Anatomy, or CSI Miami again as corpse #1…)

But he’d have to acknowledge that objectively Alex is good: very expressive, memorable, and to put that much heart and energy into every stupid little role is… impressive, for sure. However… he also noticed there were many instances where Alex stole the scene even though it didn’t make sense narratively (and Thomas can guess that wasn’t the director’s choice) and then there’s the hundreds of background roles Alex still took on once he became more prominent that should’ve been “beneath him”, which Thomas sees as a foolish waste of time.

As for Burr/James/Angelica, they don’t have a solid place in the au yet but I’ve toyed with some ideas for them

Burr: B-list actor same as Alexander, was actually the first choice for Alex’s current role when the movie was first greenlit but he turned it down for another movie by a big studio that was guaranteed to be a box office success. (It does decently, but the jamilton movie is a surprise hit and garners widespread critical acclaim + nominated for numerous awards. Burr is totally not jealous 😐)

James: nepo baby indie film maker who is very influential within his genre and won multiple awards which has made him highly sought out by studios, but so far he’s refused to compromise his vision™ to appeal to the mainstream audience. His work has a lot of horror, philosophical, and religious elements and they’re the type of movies you have to watch twice to catch all the details. He and Thomas met way back when the twins were in The Shining (dir. James Madison Sr.) and Thomas has appeared in a few of James’s films since coming back

Angelica: famous singer who dabbles in acting, although most of her film industry involvement is cameos or being a part of a move soundtrack. I’m not sure if she’d play a role in the jam movie, maybe as a side character?

[040504210320092209191319]

ccan i be crazy for a second as a Detective Media Consumer

this post actually drives me nuts and normally i'd be like whatever everyone on the internet uses hyperbole but op clearly doesn't know much about the genre or archetype and the fact that a bunch of people who also don't know a lot about the genre agree with them is a littleee aggravating likeeeee

while they aren't wrong that plenty of fictional detectives are affiliated with law enforcement most of them are not

arguably the most influential ones aren't affiliated with law enforcement and hate cops, not just sherlock holmes

'all of them should be weirdos about-' they are. they are amateurs who enjoy mystery solving.

it's worth noting -- bc op brings up holmes in the tags of their og post -- that holmes popularizes the fictional detective archetype and that's why many of them are actually not police detectives

let's look at a few of them

philo vance: famously hated by the police, messes with investigations for fun

john dickson carr's gideon fell: another amateur detective, also annoys tf out of the police

edogawa rampo's akechi kogoro: literally a college student with a hobby (sound familiar?) who often runs circles around and deceives the police to get culprits off the hook when he feels like it

soji shimada's kiyoshi mitarai: an astrologer and college professor who gets brought cases by his crime enthusiast boyfriend, hates the police and nearly gets arrested by an officer for being disrespectful

seishi yokomizo's kosuke kindaichi: another amateur sleuth who's often underestimated by police investigators

yukito ayatsuji's kiyoshi shimada: a buddhist monk who solves mysteries part time because he's a mystery enthusiast

nisioisin's iichan: literal college student, solves mysteries because he happens to be there

nisioisin's jun aikawa: a freelancer in many fields who isn't solely a 'detective,' but isn't tied to any one organization or agency

etc etc etc

like yeah there are many detectives who are even p.i's that are often affiliated with or working with the police (L from death note, shawn spencer, etc) to act like they're typically written or portrayed like a cop character is so...??

when. a very clear, defining facet of the archetype is that they aren't part of the police force. and it's usually because these stories often feature officers as their culprits. like. .

not to mention that many of these characters are also meant to solve their crimes in unconventional ways, apart from the bureaucratic methods of a crime scene investigator - again they are Guys With a Hobby they're Mystery Enthusiasts and i'm sure a lot of authors find more freedom writing a private investigator than a cop because cops are supposed to wrap things up a certain way. they're supposed to be aiming for arrests. sometimes a detective doesn't want to do that. sometimes they want to solve the crime, lie to the police, and get the culprit off the hook bc they know the truth and don't think that the culprit deserves to get jailed and they dgaf if that's "right" or "wrong" in the eyes of the system

like i do think that a lot of more 'mainstream' media like criminal minds or CSI or whatever do portray a very different sort of detective but traditionally your fictional detective is a private investigator and their stories usually mandate that the police are incompetent, corrupt, etc in order to benefit the amateur sleuth who usually has poor rapport with them

it's definitely rarer to find detective media where zero cops are involved, i get it, but i think it's crazy to completely ignore that the entire genre originated from and is built off the backs of guys who cannot mind their own business to save their lives

[addictedtostorytelling]

I am doing a GSR rewatch and just noticed in Blood drops 1x07 that Catherine has a frame of mounted butterflies in her home (the same as in Grissom’s)

Do the creators ever address this, or do we think it’s just a very Grissom gift to his work wife?

(I also knew if anyone knew it would be you.)

hey, @bettielouwho!

there is never any direct discussion of how catherine comes by that particular piece of home décor either inside or outside of the show, and, unfortunately, the in-show evidence we have to make our own determinations on is scant.

i will say up front: on a doylist level, i do think the props department at csi often tended to recycle set pieces, so it's possible the shadowbox in catherine's home is actually a prop from grissom's office they moved over to fill space.

back in s1, the whole production team was still getting a feel for the characters, so they may have just gone, "well, catherine's a scientist, right? so what's something we could put in her home to indicate she is? oh, how about one of those butterfly boxes? we ordered about a dozen of them for grissom's office! we could mount one here."

however, on a more watsonian level:

from episode 01x03 "crate n' burial," we know grissom is in the habit of giving catherine's daughter lindsey birthday presents, as is nick; and, indeed, there is at this time some discussion of how it is customary for team members to "kick in" for these (lindsey) gifts.

the butterflies could therefore be a present from grissom to lindsey.

however, if not, the issue of whether or not grissom and the rest of the team also give birthday gifts to catherine herself remains unknown, as does, indeed, the answer to the question of if the team tends to celebrate the birthdays of its members with gifts as a regular custom overall.

much later in the series, during s6, sara floats the idea of grissom perhaps treating greg to an extravagant birthday "fantasy" in episode 06x22 "time of your death;" however, she does so in a highly teasing way, with no indication she is being serious.

moreover, when greg then tries to drum up support for grissom and/or the team treating him to a much more reasonably-priced birthday breakfast, catherine nevertheless still quickly shoots him down.

nowhere else in the early seasons is anyone else's birthday even mentioned, so it's hard to say whether or not team graveyard ever celebrates its members' birthdays in any way.

do they have cake in the breakroom when nick turns thirty? go out for drinks when catherine hits the big 4-0? or is their team culture (particularly during s1) such that they don't acknowledge one another's birthdays, much less formally celebrate them, much less do so with gifts? is "birthday breakfast" never actually on the table for anyone?

we're never given any direct indication one way or the other—just some small, rather ambiguous hints.

the facts no one in episode 01x08 "anonymous" seems to recognize grissom shares his birthday with paul millander's victims and in episode 02x13 "identity crisis" catherine (who by then has worked with him for 15+ years) seems only vaguely aware grissom's birthday is even in august suggest, at the very least, grissom's birthday is not one the team regularly celebrates, and particularly not with gift-giving.

and if they don't celebrate grissom's birthday, then it may also be the case they don't celebrate anyone else's (including catherine's), either.

however, it's also possible where birthday celebrations are concerned, grissom functions as the "odd man out"—i.e., due to his extremely private nature, he chooses not to make his birthday public, whereas the rest of the team (including catherine) does the opposite.

if so, then perhaps everybody else besides grissom does have regular birthday parties, complete with gifts.

of course, even given catherine seems unaware of grissom's birthday prior to s2, and even if the team doesn't customarily celebrate birthdays as a group, could it be possible grissom privately gives or has given catherine gifts for her birthday, christmas, or some other occasion?

again, the evidence is ambiguous.

from episode 04x17 "xx," we know grissom does give christmas gifts to sara seemingly yearly—and he doesn't give them to nick or hodges seemingly ever.

since grissom is discriminant in his gift-giving, we can infer there is most likely no kind of annual holiday gift exchange at the lab or among the team, or at least if there is one, grissom, again as the potential "odd man out," doesn't tend to participate.

we can also infer, based on the fact nick and hodges have not previously been aware of him giving gifts to sara prior to her making the revelation, grissom gives these gifts to sara privately, as a "just between him and her" thing.

on those grounds, we can perhaps speculate he might potentially do the same with catherine—i.e., he might privately give her birthday and/or christmas gifts or even may have at some point given her a kind of one-off gift to commemorate another occasion in the past (e.g., her being promoted to assistant supervisor or solving some kind of milestone case in her career or covering for him when he attended to some last-minute conference, etc.).

however, he also may not.

on the one hand, catherine has been his dear friend and field partner for decades, so the possibility definitely exists.

on the other, sara may simply be the exception to grissom's more general "no gifts" rule.

which wouldn't at all be unlike him, considering he always tends to give sara special treatment, even compared to catherine.

—which brings us to the end of our evidence.

based on what little we have to go on, it seems either team graveyard doesn't customarily celebrate adult team member birthdays and holidays as a group (and particularly not with regular gift-giving) OR at least that if they do, grissom tends to abstain from this custom, only making a very few quiet exceptions for himself, the one we know about for certain being sara.

never is it confirmed in canon that he gives gifts to anyone else but sara.

however, that's also not to say he doesn't or couldn't, particularly where catherine, who is his oldest friend, is concerned.

all of the above so, if you want to believe the shadowbox is a gift from grissom to catherine, then there is nothing in show canon or even "word of god" bts commentary to say it can't be—and certainly it does seem like a very "grissom" thing (and not necessarily a very "catherine" one).

of course, by the same token, since there is also nothing to specifically say the shadowbox is a gift to catherine from grissom, it's equally possible it may have come into her possession some other way (e.g., she may have taken an entomology class in college and mounted the butterflies herself or maybe another family member or friend who has an awareness of her interest in science gave it to her or maybe lindsey got it from a museum gift shop as a souvenir); it doesn't necessarily have to be a grissom thing, either.

headcanon rules here!

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[roseclaw]

Twenty questions for fic writers

Thank you to @jaimebluesq for tagging me! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 148 (not including WIPs and drafts) - and I have not imported my old fics from ff.net. Some of those fics are old enough to legally drink in the US.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,166,072 (plus another... 70/80k in my drafts :D I'll be posting a fic every day in December, so head's up!)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently exclusively writing for MDZS/The Untamed

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

No surprise here: Come Go With Me - I'm so happy the world loves my surfer au.

Chad versus the Kissing Booth - This was so fun to write!

Pretty in Pink - HSM wing!fic

First-Time Spark - this is a surprise, because no one comments on it. But it is a canon fic.

Peaches and Cream - XD a 5+1 fic that's all rimming (obviously rated E)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try! I am very bad at it sometimes. I'll be flailing at the screen in excitement and can only reply with a "thank you very much" which doesn't seem enough.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I wrote a first person pov fic where the character dies in battle mid-thought. :D

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I try to have most of them end happily these days. Or at least hopefully. The world needs more hope.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really. I have my ao3 fics locked down to users only. (Lemme know if you need an invite!) But shoutout to that one person who told me they couldn't continue with a fic because A-Yuan was not wangxian's child. Like. He's not their child in canon either? I'm not sure what you were looking for in a fic about JC?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

All sorts of smut :D Vanilla to kinky. Toys included.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

My most balls to the wall crossover was CSI: Miami, Stargate, Dr. Who, and Torchwood. :D It was so much fun.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge. I have noticed people picking out aspects of certain fics and using them as their own. I'm okay with that. That's flattering. (Also please write more silverfox!JC) Whereas stealing my words wholesale and having them read by ai on youtube is horrific and I wish a very "please die" on anyone who does that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. I did receive a comment asking if someone could translate one of my fics into Russian once, but I never heard from them again.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not a fic, but a series! Slayer'verse with @saekokato

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I'm not sure. I have a type, though. Like Rodney/Ronon, Chad/Ryan, Bob/Frank, and JC/NHS. I don't think I even wrote any Rodney/Ronon. Weird.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Sangcheng cyberpunk bodyguard au. My writing and interpretation of the characters has changed too much since I set it aside. However, I am cautiously optimistic that someday I will finish my winery au. Same with the Miss Fisher au.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Scene layering

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Not whole dialogue, but words and phrases. I played around with it in my Tortall/MDZS crossover. But NHS *needs* to say "Da-ge" and JL needs to say "Jiujiu." Period.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Online? It was Gundam Wing.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I've written a lot of stories, and a lot of the time it's "the next one will be better" but I still love my surfer au. Even though looking back at it, I can see how my writing has changed since. And I really like my western that it's in the middle of posting. It's such a juicy au that I was able to sink my teeth into. But it's not really a fan favorite. Whatcha gonna do.

Tagging: anyone else who'd like to play!

[wench-and-jezebel]

Dark Angel Reaction: Shorties in Love

Jezebel (@typicalopposite) reacts [with occasional asides by Wench (@scripted-downfall)]

Yaayyy! She’s back! 💕  [SHE BACK!  So is OC and Herbal and Sketch :)]  And she’s getting flirted with

“I’m not into pampering”  Unless Logan isn’t spoiling me enough.  Or is trying to be independent when I don’t want him to.  Or doesn’t have his world revolving around me

[Max, shut up; you've always gotten your insight into men from OC, wdym]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️

Oooohh ahhhhhh  [Truly a beautiful representation of the opening song]  ☠️☠️☠️ it fucking kills meeeeeee

Uh oh, nooooo

Jam pony and Max in the back like 👀👀👀  [tbf I'd be watching them pretty 👀 too]  I WAS

OC you dog ☠️ I saw you check her out when she bent over

Diamond talks in 3rd person too

Max is like DAMMIT LOGAN

Bruh why

WHY IS SHE GOSSIPINGGG

Is this poetry ever mentioned again?  Or was that just an unnecessary act of rudeness we are supposed to overlook  [Not for the most part, I don't think.  There's an unrelated mention of poetry in s2.  But that's, again, not about Logan and more about Max's jealousy]  Writers explainnnn

Mennnnn

Blech

Awwww

NOOOOO THE GIGGLE

[Max being weirdly understanding]  Right!?

This is sickeningly adorable  [I KNOW!  I love her!  Both hers!]

Ma’am.  No one is watching you.  You ain’t gotta look so… Like you’re looking

☠️☠️☠️☠️ “Pee outside.”  I mean… You did just kinda bust up into his house.  But I’m still ded

I love it so much

[Max, wtf was that stance??? The most awkward way to stand ever]  What the hell

This woman and her strange way of standing and sitting and holding guns  ["I'm gonna go home and chill out" *but first I'ma sit here randomly on the table*]  And not look at you.  Angstily.  Like… LIKE.  SHE WENT THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO SIT ON THE COUNTER

[Okay, apparently the poetry did come back.  Didn't get much better though]

BRUHHHH She gon die  [You're gonna jinx her]  She is jinxing herself

This is too adorable I cantttttt

DIAMOND NOOOOOOO

🤣🤣🤣  Sketch  [This is the best Max ever acts with him, wtf?]

[MAX WHAT IS THAT ARM DOING]

*sigh* That went well

[Why is she like.  Actually smiling these days.  That's so out of character?]  🤣🤣🤣

They had to make her likable this ep so when she inevitably gets Diamond killed it won’t justify OCs rage

– – – 

Jezebel: OMG I LOVE OC SO MUCCHHHH

Wench: I KNOW

Jezebel: Diamond is being sus af and I hateeeeee it 🥺🥺🥺 but shes also talking about the future and doesn’t ma’am know that’s a sure fire way to get ded?!  I know they went through this massive technology apocalypse but she has seen tv at some point in her life. That’s like rule number one: don’t plan out your future… or you won’t have one

Wench: I thought rule one was don't do the deed in a horror film.

Jezebel: SHE BROKE THAT ONE TOO

Wench: OH SHIT SHE DID

Jezebel: GAHDAMMIT WOMAN

Wench: alskdfj

Jezebel: I also love sketch and herbal! Even tho the latter had like 1/8 of a line… And Max isn’t god awful just like semi awful mainly with her bitchy snatching of the poem book.  Oh, and Logan’s “so they were making out?” MEN 🤣🤣🤣 whyyyy

Wench: I knew you’d comment with that :)

Jezebel: And really that’s all I got for midpoint… Yet another not much has happened minus the BIG main thing to happen episode

Wench: On with the show!  Literally!

– – –

[Fancy flip]

Ughhhhh DIAMONDDDD DONT DOOO IT [tbf, btw, *Max* is kinda acting sus af]

SHE DONE DONE IT DIAMOND WHYYYY

well shittttt  [She lives nonetheless]

[I think he's in CSI]  He looks familiar  [I’ll look him up later]  

YOU COULD HAVE DONE THAT THE WHOLE TIMEEEEE?!?  This is why people don’t trust you woman

[Also, James Cameron and the "dyne”s again aslkfdj  The Terminator was Cyberdyne; Alien was Hyperdyne; now we've got Synthedyne]

Why’s his apple logo upside down? ☠️  WHY’S IT UPSIDE DOWN?  [Probably because they didn't want to deal with an actual computer?  Or maybe they used to be upside down.]  ☠️🤣🤣🤣

🥺🥺🥺🥺 Well god dammmmit  [I was so sad when I found out about this first time 'round]

Bruhhhh

Yes the hell it is selfish ma’am ☠️  “Imma die. So imma go win back the one that got away and make her happy for the last little bit of time I have… then die on her… and make her life miserable. Cause that’s fair”  Wot.  WOTTTTT???  WOOOOTTTTTTT?!?!?

[OC.  MY DEAR.  STOP QUITTING YOUR JOB.]

OC 💔💔💔💔

Boo!!!! You don’t deserve thissss

I don’t write original characters but I’m about to make her one

[Max, I think you could show some compassion]

Sketchhhh

Bruhhhhh I can’t evennnn

Does she know she’s contagious  [No, I don't think so]  Ok good  [Again, my memory is spotty on 1 episodes (except 17), but I don't think so]  I didn’t want to not feel bad for her dying, for OCs sake ☠️  [Yup]

[The dude's neck brace ☠️]  I know ☠️☠️☠️ Ma’am has some ridiculous feet strength  [Neck brace dude got taken out AGAIN]

🥺🥺🥺🥺

[I'm sorry but I love Max's hair.  Should not be the focus of the scene, I know.  But it's just.  So fetching.  With that Hazmat suit]  Seeee?  SEEEE???

NOOOOO.  IM DONE.  DEAD.  [Next episode’s worse]  I CAN'T 😭😭😭😭😭

Yusssss get ‘em!  [Serves the dude right for being an asshole to the guy who tried to get him to put on the suit]

[Oh shit I forgot that line and damn but it's a good one 😭]  IT ISSSS!!!!  [That scene was very Doctor Who hospital ep, if you remember that one.  With Cassandra and the plague carriers?]  YESSSS

IS SHE THINKING ABOUT LOGAN OR FUCKING ZACH??? BLECH  [asdfkljasdlfkjaldskfj I hate you for mentioning him]

Ye you do get over your first love ☠️

[RESPECT HIS BOUNDARIES MY WOMAN!  Also, she just said Man of Letters]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️

[I could never.  I might die]  Ma’am you did.  [Shut up.  You still haven't read my poetry, actually.  And also, I haven't showed poetry about someone to that person]

BITCH READ IT OUT LOUD!  WE’RE TRYING TO KNOW

[Bitch]  wot.  Wot.  WOT?!  [You just read his intimate poetry.  And just.  Leave?]  WHAT!?!?

Ma’am.  Shut up with the circlessssss.  And explain THE nonsensical HOOPLAH I JUST WITNESSED.  I-  I JUST- WHAT?!

– – –

Jezebel: I… nope I ain’t got nothing else on that! But backpedaling to OC! She didn’t deserve that ooooh my goddddd.  Shit Diamond didn’t deserve that!  Sector guy TOTALLY deserved that!  And… I really don’t know what else to say this episode was very clean cut ☠️☠️

Wench: True!

Jezebel: The real question is tho… Are we prepared for this next episode?

Wench: I am… I've seen it six times :)

Jezebel: You would, angst queen