#anyway stan 1999

[punkeropercyjackson]

Genuine advice for people who joined the Batfam fandom because of fan content and are too scared to get into actual comics or not sure where to start:Please don't buy a single word 'Fuck canon!' people tell you about ANY Batfam member and i do mean ANY.They're lying to you to get you to sanatize them and deprive you of deserving to know what they're actually like because their peabrains can't process multilayered characters and relathionships in favor of bigoted stereotypes and writing that's insanely insulting to them and if you're a minor especially,they're lying to you about whatever they say about shipping the male members with eachother not being in*cest or ped0 too-Bruce has been Dick's adoptive dad since Dick's debut issue,he legally adopted Jason and Duke too,Damian's his bio kid and with Tim it's a bit more complicated but it's very much canon that they see eachother as father and son and Tim has lived at Wayne Manor at several points in canon and would be brothers regardless of anything else due to this but they also use that exact word to describe their dynamic and so does everybody else

This applies to Cass being their sister too because Bruce adopted her after they formed a dad-daughter bond a while into her being Batgirl but as Stephanie has a mom she lives with and has never seen Bruce as a parental figure nor he her as one of his kids,you're freegame to ship her with Tim or Cass and in fact i highly encourage doing both.Batfanon stans are once again doing mass lying(damn they should get a different hobby)by saying the four male Robins are the 'core' ones.Stephanie has been included in Robin stuff for a long time now and Duke dosen't get the same treatment due to antiblackness so THAT'S an actual 'Fuck canon!' moment so you should make it six Robins and know that the intention with only four is always misogyny and whitewashing(also just saying but those fanarts are always ugly anyway,they make them look like shitty anime boys instead of themselves)

Dick is an almost perfect eldest sibling and the other Batkids deeply appreciate him for it,he was Tim's Robin and him and Cass are his favorite siblings,Duke is Jason's favorite brother and vice versa but he's also extremely close to Cass,none of them make Damian go through 'normal youngest sibling treatment' because none of them are normal so they grew a sense of basic decency and Damian's closest to Dick and Stephanie and Stephanie's a canon csa victim so kindly keep your paws off her with your 'date all of your s/os siblings' jokes because she has self-worth and class,thanks

Ignore the original Red Hood and The Outlaws run and anything to do with Jason and Roy friendship in fandom and read the original Teen Titans run,New Teen Titans,Arsenal 1998,The Titans 1999,Green Arrow 2001 and Outsiders 2003 if you want to understand Roy too or at least ask around blogs centered on him for context.Ignore Tom Taylor's Nightwing run and Teen Titans 2003 and Batgirl of Burnside and anything by Devin Grayson(she's quite literally done irreperable damage to Batman lore and i wish i was kidding).Read Robin 1993,90s Young Justice,Batgirl 2000,Batgirl 2009,Red Robin,Son of Batman and literally everything Duke's in which i can provide a reading list for instead and i'm working on a megapost of all the Jason media that's actually good so new fans don't waste their time.I'm genuinely saying this to be helpful because 'fandom isn't activism' is a puratical priviliged phrase that should've never existed just like Batfanon shouldn't either

[mayadoesfandomstuff]

Sometimes when I think back on Gravity Falls I just find it funny that, even if we've never seen Mr. and Mrs. Pines before except maybe their arms on the first episode, we just know that they're actually a bunch of weirdo but pretty good parents:

They named their kids Mabel and Mason which aren't really the most common twin names in 1999 because they weren't like those other parents who'd name their kids Jennifer or something as Alex said. He even confirms they're pretty counterculture.

Instead of sending the twins to his probably decent father for vacation to get fresh air, Mr. Pines sends them to his (obviously) criminal uncle in a weird tourist trap in the woods that obviously scams people.

Mabel gets to wear one of her dad's souvenir work shirts for her pajamas and I find that wholesome.

Dipper's mom used to put him in a lamb costume when he was still a toddler and he does a little dance which is embarrassing but also pretty cute honestly. He didn't seem to have issues with this until he reached "maturity" age.

The twins had matching Halloween costumes since they were basically toddlers and they seemingly put a lot of effort into them so that means that they're very open with the kids and their creativity and most likely helped them with their more complex outfits or that they're willing to spend extra cash on giving their kids cool matching outfits that they enjoy

The mail the kids send them say so much about how positive their relationship are with their kids.

Dipper blatantly explains in a postcard sent to them that there are cryptids in the town and even begs them for weapons. Mabel straight up excitedly wants to send their mom a video of her shoving gummy worms up her nose.

This probably means they're open-minded enough to let their kids do these weird things and for their kids to even share them with them with little hesitation.

Even with Mabel being initially upset that their parents wouldn't let Waddles stay (Honestly in another perspective is understandable because how are you going to care for a farm pig in suburban California? It might take a lot of work and it's probably not the best conditions to keep an unconventional pet when you're not used to it. Like we all know Waddles is great but practically speaking it's a lot to ask someone to let their kid keep a farm animal.), we know that they probably let Waddles stay anyway after Stan forces Waddles on the bus home.

They celebrate every holiday because Mabel wants to.

Some other observations on how the twins act that could clue us in on how their parents are. These are more headcanon-leaning but yeah.

Mabel's wonderchild personality filled with sparkles and rainbows definitely show that they didn't suppress her weirdness.

The scrapbooking also adds to the idea that Mabel was definitely allowed to be super creative.

Dipper's unhinged mystery solving behavior (honestly forgot how unhinged he really was until I rewatched the show this year) definitely shows that they probably didn't suppress his weird tendencies either.

Dipper, despite his child-aged pettiness (which is normal mind you), is able to handle intense social situations and could even find the appropriate words even when things are a little too complex. The standout example I could think of was learning of the true extent of Pacifica's abuse and how he's able to find a way to give her the courage to stand up against it. Definitely the most headcanon leaning but I do think that this could also be influenced to a more open household.

The twins truly don't have bad blood between them which means that it's possible that their parents had raised them in a relatively healthy (or at least healthier than others) environment. At the very least, if there was favoritism, it wasn't obvious to cause them any resentment for each other.

I could add more but that's all what's in my brain right now.

[film-noir-nosferatu]

∆ MORE UNDER CUT... [INCOMING DATA ENTRY]... RECIEVE? [Y/ N] ∆

>>> [Y] SELECTED.

... "MYSTERY TWINS" - 6.6.2020, late teenage Dipper and Mabel, back in the little forested, bizarre, alluring, Gravity Falls. Ford and Stan are doing very, very well. They are aging well, and very happy. They made up for their lost time... it's like they were never apart, finally. The twins, both sets, are thriving. Mabel has a thriving Etsy business, and Dipper has applied for 6 colleges, got accepted into four, and sought out by two. He has his own Journals in development. They both moved out as soon as they could, and share their own space in Gravity Falls, downtown, not far from their grunkles newly built shack at the waterfront. They go sailing all together. Soos is still the same, and Stan couldn't be prouder. The shack is still standing, and it's like they never left. Wendy is getting hitched in the fall, she never saw that in her future. Dipper was guaranteed to be her best man. Pacifica has been dating Dipper for a couple years, now. It's getting serious... both of them feel that, but neither of them have said it, yet. Bill is still out there, waiting for--

THERES NO BILL. EVERYTHING IS JUST PEACHY! AND REMEMBER KIDS, WE'LL MEET AGAIN, RIGHT WHEN THINGS SEEM THE BEST THEY'VE EVER BEEN, I'LL BE THERE. YOU CAN BET YOUR *EYE* ON IT. SEE YOU REAAAAL SOON!!! GET COMFORTABLE.

∆ -- A-anyway, w-what was I saying? Ah, things are all swell, after all. After all these years, it's still us against the worlds.

For Alex. An incredible, beautiful mind. A cool guy. And a handsome man. I was always in love with Dipper, lol. Happy slighly late 25th birthday post, to Mason "Dipper" Pines, and Mabel Pines! (August 31st, 1999) I'm three days off, September 3rd, 3 AM... and a triangle has three sides.

∆ https://thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com/ ∆

To see this post and my Instagram art account, click the three triangles: ∆ ∆ ∆

<<< See Art Masterlist? Click here >>>

[iiikaruz]

New CH episodes have made me officially decide to stop caring about the actual cast of the show </3 (/hj but i wish it was /j)

Anyway would you like to share some of your headcanons/scenarios for the side/minor characters ? It always makes my day 💚💖(/nf)

dude i feel you on these new episodes. wtf is going on over there. anyways, i’ll gladly dump this 10 ton stack of headcanons on you that i wrote down!! Marie Antoinette: 

loves hyperpop and 90s house music. she’s so slay (i have a playlist lol)

into european weirdo cinema like Gaspar Noe’s but she also likes chick flicks (her fave films are Climax (2018), Daisies (1966), and But I’m A Cheerleader (1999).)

frequents on lolita forums and goes to really shady places just to get cute lolita items.

has absolutely mastered voguing. super into ballroom culture.

has a pet borzoi (those groovy long-nosed dogs.) her name is “Vanille” and Marie loves her dearly.

wants to study fashion. she especially loves Vivienne Westwood and Moschino.

Jesús Cristo:

is a juggalo, and he indoctrinated Van Gogh into it as well.

says “it is what it is” at any minor inconvenience.

had a mental crisis at 13 as a product to the stress of living up to his clone father. similar to joan’s breakdown in s1e3 but 10x worse. he tries to ignore it when people bring it up.

designated driver on any road trip. for some reason.

into bands like The Cure whilst also bopping to Cypress Hill.

his fave video game is Parappa the Rapper.

accidentally punching holes/nails into his hand is a common occurrence. seems like it just keeps happening, so he’s learned to just roll with it. he’s also a pretty good nurse bc of it.

Marilyn Monroe:

is always down for the school play. BUT she usually just does script-writing and tech. 

into conspiracy theories and video essays. (all gorgeous gorgeous girls love video essays).

is a dedicated Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani stan.

SO “COQUETTE LIZZY GRANT DIOR RETRO” in her fashion choice.

she also gives “elle woods from legally blonde” vibes. straight A student right here.

CERTIFIED GIRLBOSS <3

Thomas Edison:

is obsessed with American Psycho (2000). he has a poster in his room and he’s weirdly obsessed with Christian Bale (very 🍎🍉🍊 of him, but he always excuses it with “oh no, i just idolize and worship him. there’s absolutely nothing gay ab it.” he’s lying.)

also he’s SUCH a pretentious film bro. he has a whole library of stupid film facts shoved in the back of his mind (im totally not projecting).

he only listens to: 80s new-wave stuff like New Order, Oingo Boingo, Beastie Boys, & Talking Heads OR Lana del Rey. There is no in between.

he worked (past-tense bc that shit is GONE in 2023) at a blockbuster video store next to the mall and he liked being a total bitch to people about it (example: “you really rented this shit? this movie sucks, dude”)

after getting unfreezed, he was ECSTATIC over how easy pirating movies is nowadays.

Napoleon Bonaparte:

member of the speech/debate club and he is THE WORST TO BE PAIRED WITH. he’s foaming at the mouth the moment someone gives a rebuttal he didn’t think of. some meetings end in him trying to beat up someone. 

into 80s rock like Metallica and Black Sabbath. he has an electric guitar. he also FUCKING LOVES ABBA AND JAMIROQUAI. like… too much.

unlawfully good at Just Dance. he absolutely fucks it up on the dance floor.

adores fantasy films like Conan (1982) and The Never-Ending Story(1984). he’s so lame/ pos.

he bakes really well. that’s all he’s got going for him.

he either found his napoleonic military uniform at party city or at a thrift store with Marie Antoinette; his story changes depending on who he’s talking to.

he cut his own hair when he was 14. the following conversation after he did so was with caesar, and it was just the haircut scene from fleabag . he then continued to keep his stupid haircut to what it is now.

is a hopeless romantic. he can make up entire love poems & sonnets in his head about a girl he’s crushing on, but literally cannot talk to people without sounding like a douchebag unless he’s super comfortable w/ them.

Ivan the Terrible:

is an avid deftones, sewerslvt, & duster listener (i, unfortunately, ALSO have a playlist.)

spends his nights scrolling on 4chan and arguing w/ people. him & topher have accidentally argued w/ each other AT LEAST 5 times.

literally refuses to take off his ushanka in any weather. it doesn’t matter to him if it’s 90 degrees, that thing is staying ON.

kins Travis Bickle and Shinji Ikari. i mean, just look at this dude and how he presents himself. average NGE & Taxi Driver enjoyer/ hj.

fave video games are Postal 2 and osu!. he plays osu! phenomenally, to the point where it’s impressive. (pls put that energy into a job or something).

and yea that’s all the energy i have to write this down :]

[2nd2ndalto]

what if there were two (side by side in orbit)

__

***NB there are two parts to this chapter since it was too big for one Tumblr post!!***

__

I started writing this fic a year ago to the day!! It's hard to fathom. And it's still not done! Haha, sob.

TW for Luke being a huge dick. In canon, I don’t have particularly strong feelings about Luke & I feel there’s a lot of potential nuance to his character. But for my X-Files purposes, I just needed a bad guy. My apologies to any Luke stans.

__

Chapter 6 (part 1 of 2)

(chapter 5 here)

April 1999

“Nico, look what arrived,” Will announces, bouncing back into the office.

Nico looks up, hopeful. “Is it my new three-hole punch?”

Will looks thrilled enough that it just might be the three-hole punch.

“Even better,” Will says. He pulls up a chair next to Nico and begins attempting to open a cardboard box. Smaller than a bread box, probably the wrong shape for a three-hole punch. Damn.

Nico watches Will struggle for a good thirty seconds before snatching the box away, grabbing a letter opener and easily slitting the packing tape. He hands the box back, one eyebrow raised.

Will just grins like an idiot. “My hero.”

There’s yet another box inside the first, and Will, very sensibly, hands it over before he can try breaking into it.

“Oh. It’s a… camera?” Nico says, confused. The X-Files already has a camera. It’s been serving Nico well for years. He’s rather attached to it, honestly. The little device has seen better days, but it’s small and sleek, fitting in his coat pocket and into the cradle of his hands like it was custom made.

“It’s a digital camera,” Will says, taking the box back once Nico’s cut the tape.

“Oh –”

“So you don’t need film! Plus you can take a photo, and see it right away on the little screen.” Will looks delighted.

Nico nods in recognition. “Yeah, Frank’s got one of those. That’s cool.”

Nico doesn’t think he’s ready to retire his film camera yet, despite its sometimes-reluctance to power on and the little piece of electrical tape holding the battery door shut. But maybe Will can use the new camera. He seems intent to try, anyway. Prodding at it for a moment, Will manages to turn the thing on, then aims it at Nico, pressing a button. The camera makes a fancy little digital beep.

“Hey,” Nico protests, scowling. He tries to shove the camera out of the way, but Will’s already lowered it to his lap, poking at the buttons.

“Aww,” Will exclaims. He turns the camera to Nico and yes, sure enough, there’s Nico on the tiny screen, looking blindsided and five-o’clock-shadowed.

“Amazing. What a time to be alive,” Nico says, flat. “Now delete that immediately. I know you can, I’ve seen Frank do it.”

Will shakes his head, trying and utterly failing to maintain a straight face. “No can do, this model doesn’t have that function.”

“Fuck you,” Nico complains, reaching for the camera. But Will pulls it away, fumbling and almost dropping it. Will’s eyes go wide as he catches it just before it smashes to the floor. Nico snorts.

“One of the best things about digital cameras,” Will is saying, continuing to keep the thing out of Nico’s reach, aided by his unfairly long arms, “is that you can take as many pictures as you want!”

Nico smirks. “Because you can just delete the ones you don’t like?”

Will freezes, looking hilariously caught-out, and Nico laughs. “It’s cool, anyway,” Nico says. “I heard the Bureau was getting them.”

Nico regards Will for a moment, his partner now carefully lining up possibly-artistic shots of the mess on Nico’s desk, the empty coffee maker, his own shoes.

“Wonder how long before the Bureau writes up a new policy about agents not using the cameras for personal photos,” Nico muses aloud, thinking of all the possibilities. Not possibilities for him. But maybe for others. It’s his job to think of what other people might do, okay?

Will binks in confusion for a moment before turning abruptly, adorably pink. Nico laughs, pretending his own face isn’t also warming.

“Oh god,” Will says.

“Exactly.”

Something seems to occur to Will. “Hey, now we can take pictures of us together!” he exclaims.

Nico sighs. He somehow didn’t see that coming, though he probably should have. “Because we couldn’t have done that before?”

But Will’s already scooting his chair up next to Nico, leaning in while he holds the camera out in front of them, lens aimed in sort-of their general direction. “Say cheese,” Will says.

Nico tries to look as unimpressed as he can manage. It turns out not to make any difference anyway, because when Will checks the camera, it’s captured a blurry shot of the wall behind them, a flash of gold at the bottom of the frame that might be Will’s hair.

“Damn it,” Will frowns, shamelessly deleting the image. “We need to get closer.”

“Not sure that was really the issue,” Nico mutters to no avail as Will comes in even closer. Nico’s gotten accustomed to Will’s lack of personal space over the months, has gotten to appreciate it, mostly. But this happens so fast and somehow Nico finds himself unprepared – for Will’s arm, tight around his shoulders, Will’s warm cheek suddenly smushed against his.

His whole body warms; tingling heat accompanied by the sudden, intense desire for more, aching like an open wound. Nico’s desperately hoping it doesn’t show on his face, when Will snaps the picture.

Will’s touch is gone just as fast – too fast – as he moves back, flips the camera to look at the photo. Something softens in Will’s expression, and he doesn’t speak for a moment.

“What?” Nico asks, nervous about it now.

“We look –” Will shakes his head, smiling. “It’s – just a good camera.”

Nico reaches for the camera and Will passes it over. It is a good photo. There’s Will, beaming like an idiot, looking somehow thrilled to be pressed up against Nico. And Nico looks… content. Maybe a little harassed, but happy. He’s not smiling, but there’s a quirk to his lips. A warmth in his eyes.

And the weirdest thing is – they don’t just look good individually. They look good together. Like the two of them add up to more than the sum of their parts. It’s as if, seven months ago, there was a Will and a Nico. And now there’s a them. How did that happen, without Nico realizing?

“I’m gonna print that one,” Will says, a bit softer. He takes the camera back.

“Sure,” Nico agrees, as cool as he can. “We can put it right next to the picture of my fish.”

Will looks pleased. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Nico turns back to his desk, shuffling papers unnecessarily.

Will stands, glancing at his watch. “Oh, it’s almost five. Wanna walk me to the train?”

More often than not these days, they leave the office together, deep in conversation – lingering first in the lobby, then making their way to the metro station where they finally part ways and Nico heads back to the parking garage.

“Um.” Nico clears his throat. “I was going to stick around, actually. Some Fridays I grab pizza from that place on F Street, pull some old files.” He’s not sure why he’s suddenly feeling awkward about it. But he supposes he’s never mentioned it to Will before.

Will blinks, surprised.

Nico shrugs. “You know. Try looking at things with new eyes. See if I can find anything I’ve missed.”

“Oh –”

“You don’t have to stay,” Nico adds quickly, because he suddenly realizes that he would like the company, but he definitely doesn’t want Will to feel obligated. “I’m off the clock. It probably sounds stupid, but I just kind of like hanging around here when the building empties out. It feels –”

“Spooky?” Will grins.

Nico rolls his eyes. “No, nerd. It’s – relaxing. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. Go home,” he adds, tossing an eraser at Will and turning back to his desk. “We’re done for the day.”

“No, I get that.” Will doesn’t make any move to leave yet. “I’d like to stay, actually. But –”

Nico’s quick to shake his head. “No, go enjoy your Friday night. You don’t have to–”

“No, I was going to say I would stay, but my little brother’s in town with his band. We’re going out for dinner. But next week? If we’re not out on a case?” Will asks, suddenly sounding nervous.

Nico gives him a dry look. “You wanna stay after work. Put in unpaid time. In the spooky basement.”

“Yup.” Will beams at him.

Nico rolls his eyes. “Fine. Next Friday, I will permit you to stay late and do work you’re not being compensated for. Happy?”

“Thrilled,” Will grins, plucking the eraser from the floor and tossing it back. “I’ll even cover the pizza.”

It becomes a routine, after that, nearly every Friday.

And before too long, case research begins bleeding over to Nico’s apartment, which isn’t far from the Bureau, after all. Somehow, Nico’s not surprised when that begins to evolve into something more; Nico putting on a movie, in disbelief that Will’s never seen it. This, inevitably, leads to Will falling asleep on Nico’s couch, Nico draping a blanket over him before heading to his own bed.

And if Friday nights begin leading to Saturday morning coffee, before Will heads back to home… well.

::

Will’s sprawled on the couch with a book when the apartment door clicks open. He raises a lazy hand to wave at his sister. “There’re leftovers in the fridge if you’re hungry. How was your date?”

“Lovely, thank you,” Kayla answers happily, kicking off her shoes and joining Will on the couch, shoving at his feet until he moves them out of her way.

“What did Luke want?” Kayla asks, reaching for the remote.

Will frowns. “Luke? Luke who?”

“Luke Castellan. Luke your ex.”

Will makes a face. “He’s not exactly an ex.”

“Well, he’s an ex-something,” Kayla mutters, beginning to flick through channels. “He called. Did you not see the message?”

::

Coffee is what Luke wants, apparently, and mid-morning the next day, Will excuses himself, vaguely telling Nico he has an errand to run.

Leaving the Bureau and walking up Ninth Street, he feels guilty about the white lie. And maybe a little guilty that he felt the need to lie in the first place. There’s no reason for it, Will reminds himself firmly. Luke is a colleague, same as Nico. The coffee meeting is about a case, ostensibly. It’s all on the up and up.

Nevertheless, waiting to cross the street to the coffee shop, all Will really wants to do is turn back the way he came. There’s a chilly breeze, and he pulls his blazer tighter around his shoulder. He wishes he’d brought his coat. He wishes he was back in the Bureau basement.

When Will pushes the door open at the Starbucks, Luke’s already sitting at a table by the window, all lanky height and tousled brown hair and dark, smoldering gaze. And okay, Will can admit to himself that it was attractive, once upon a time.

Luke stands, pulls Will in for a handshake, just a little too friendly, looking just a little too pleased at Will’s arrival. Waiting at the counter for his coffee, Will feels more than a little like fleeing, not entirely sure why.

“I heard about your reassignment,” Luke is saying once they’re both seated. “Field work, hey? How’s your spooky partner?”

Will cups his coffee with both hands, warming his cold fingers. “It’s been great, actually,” he says lightly. “Nico’s an excellent agent. We’ve had some really interesting cases.”

Luke grins. “Yeah? Aliens? I think I heard something about vampires.”

Will feels a sharp flash of annoyance, not in any mood to joke about a job he’s become very fond of, nor the partner he has very similar feelings for. Never mind that the maybe-vampire case almost culminated in Will losing that partner, permanently, something that continues to eat at him in quiet moments. “We’re just solving cases. No different than what you do.”

Will can hear the irritation in his own voice, and surely Luke can too. Luke holds up one hand in surrender. “Okay, okay, take it easy Will. I was just kidding.”

“What do you want, Luke?” Will asks, abruptly finding himself completely devoid of patience.

Luke looks surprised, but quickly recovers. “I wanted to get your input on a case, actually.”

The no need to be rude about it seems unspoken, but Will can’t find it in himself to care. The truth of it is that he doesn’t really like Luke Castellan, whatever they had together a couple of years ago aside. But if this is purely about work, Will supposes he can live with that. He takes a deep breath. “Sure. What’s the case?”

Luke reaches for his bag, extracting a file. “It’s a local case. Alexandria PD, they want our help on a serial killer profile. Three murders in the past six weeks. Victims vary in age, race, gender. No known connections to each other.”

Will frowns, feeling his shoulders relax a bit at the now-familiar feeling of sinking into a new mystery. “I take it there’s some kind of pattern?”

Luke raises an eyebrow. “The point of entry. Or rather, the lack of one.”

“What do you mean?”

“First victim, college student. Killed in her ten-by-twelve cinder block dorm room. She was found with the windows locked and the door chained from the inside. Second guy was found in a maintenance shed. Again, locked from the inside. The last incident, yesterday, was the top floor of a high security office building. Nothing at all on the security monitors. Janitor spoke to the victim minutes before the murder, didn’t see or hear a thing out of the ordinary.”

Will considers. “Suicides?”

“Each victim was found with their liver ripped out,” Luke informs him. “No cutting tools used.” Luke opens the file then, pulling out a photo and pushing it towards Will. A gory mess of someone’s midsection. Will raises his eyebrows.

“The killer what – used their bare hands?” Will asks, pulling the file closer for a better look.

“As far as we can tell, yeah.”

Will surveys the bloody evidence, impressed despite himself. “Physiologically that’s… pretty improbable. This sounds like it could be an X-File.”

Luke leans back. “Let’s not get carried away. What I’d like from you is a look over the case histories. Maybe come down to the crime scene. See what you think about a profile.”

Will glances up to meet Luke’s gaze. “Do you want me to ask Nico?”

Luke shrugs, seemingly trying for unconcerned. “If he wants to come along and give you a hand, sure. But just make sure he knows this is my case, Will. The thing is – our section leader’s all tied up with another investigation at the moment, and I’ve been given clearance to run this on my own. If I can break a case like this one, it might just be the bump up the ladder I need. And who knows? If you can help, maybe it’ll be your ticket out of the basement.”

::

Nico seems willing enough, his eyes lighting up at the mere mention of the extracted livers. Will smiles to himself. They’ve reached a point in their partnership where Will knows exactly what will get his partner going, and it warms him a little every time he’s able to provide it. Even if it is in the form of manual dissection.

It’s a short drive to the crime scene, a glass-fronted six-storey office building on a block lined with several other such buildings.

“No balconies, no fire escapes,” Nico notes as they approach the entrance, glancing up at the shiny exterior, glinting in the early afternoon sun. “And those windows don’t open. Can’t imagine it would have been easy to get to the sixth floor from the outside.”

The place does seem particularly secure, Will thinks, as they pass through two different checkpoints just to reach the elevators. He takes note of the security cameras in the lobby and the elevator.

All’s quiet on the sixth floor when they arrive, no sign of Luke or his partner. The office where the murder occurred is a far cry from their office at the Bureau. Besides the fact that it’s currently a crime scene, it’s impressive; vast, with floor-to ceiling windows and a desk that Will’s pretty sure is worth more than all the furniture he owns. If he and Nico had this kind of space in the basement, they could add a sofa. Maybe a stationary bike.

“Just think how many filing cabinets you could fit in here,” Will murmurs.

Nico grins. “Right? I could finally take my cryptid art collection out of storage, start a whole gallery wall.” He spreads his arms out in front of him.

“Wait – what?” Will laughs, but Nico just waggles his eyebrows, immediately getting to work. He pulls out a camera (not the digital one, Will notes) and evidence bags. He drops to a crouch, a close inspection of the carpet around where the most recent victim was found. Will takes in the dried blood, soaked through lush, sand-colored carpet, yellow plastic evidence markers scattered over the room like fallen leaves.

A moment later Nico turns to glance up at Will, brow furrowed. “You said there was nothing on the cameras, right?”

“Yeah,” Will agrees. “And there was a security guard right outside the door.”

Nico chews on it for a long moment, thinking. “This is definitely an X-File. Why didn’t they just send a consult request straight downstairs?”

Will shrugs, ignoring the flash of guilt. “Luke and I knew each other at the Academy. I’m sure he just felt more comfortable approaching me.”

Nico, unfortunately, is an excellent profiler, when it comes right down on it. Normally Will doesn’t mind much, having that intense gaze directed at him rather than any given murderer. He tries not to give it too much thought, but the truth is he usually likes the attention. Right now, however, he could do without it. Nico rises, watching Will a little too intently.

“And I make people… uncomfortable?” Nico guesses.

Will grimaces. “Look, Luke likes to play by the book. He thinks your methods, your theories –”

“Are spooky?” Nico’s lips quirk.

“You know how people are.”

Nico holds Will’s gaze a moment longer, all big dark eyes and long lashes, just long enough for Will to feel butterflies stirring in his stomach. Honestly. Does Nico know what he’s doing?

“And Luke…” Will shifts awkwardly, wishing he didn’t always have to be so obvious, an open book. “He wanted to make sure you knew this is his case.”

Nico rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, I know. He thinks it’ll be good for his career.”

Nico huffs dismissively and Will feels a rush of fondness. He’s known Nico less than a year, but he’d never call him competitive, nor does he seem to have any interest in climbing the corporate ladder. He’s truly just about the case. Finding answers. Solving the puzzle. At the very least, it aligns nicely with Will’s own moral code, and at the most, it endears him deeply.

Will glances toward the doorway, checking to make sure Luke hasn’t arrived yet. He lowers his voice. “Luke likes to come out on top. You know the type. But it’s not as if we really have to work with him. We’ll just take a look at the evidence, give our expert opinion and then move along.”

Nico nods. “I can live with that.”

“You’re the expert,” Will adds under his breath, aiming a light kick at Nico’s shoe.

Nico laughs, low. He looks pleased. “I already knew that,” he says, kicking Will back.

“Agent Solace is right in here,” comes a voice from the hallway, and they both turn.

“Will,” Luke grins, striding into the room. “Sorry I’m late.” He reaches out to shake Will’s hand, his gaze lingering just long enough to make Will take a step back. He’s sure Luke does want their help on his way up the ladder, has no doubt that that’s exactly what prompted this meeting. But he’s getting the feeling the other man may have other intentions as well. And Will is very much not interested.

Will clears his throat. “Not a problem. We just got here ourselves. Luke Castellan – Nico di Angelo.” He gestures between the two men.

The two shake hands. Nico watches Luke even as Luke turns away, a slight furrow to his brow.

“And this is my partner, Annabeth Chase,” Luke adds, as a serious-looking dark-haired woman enters the room, her gaze thoughtful. She brightens as she catches sight of Will.

“Agent Solace,” Annabeth extends her hand. “It’s good to see you. How are you enjoying field work?”

“I’m loving it, actually,” Will smiles. “I didn’t expect to run into you here.”

Will hadn’t realized Annabeth was partnered with Luke. He briefly worked with her at Quantico before she was transferred to Violent Crimes. She’s a consummate professional, almost always more knowledgeable than anyone else in the room. Just her presence is reassuring.

“Nice to see you again, Agent Chase,” Nico says.

Annabeth nods, a small smile. “You as well. I was pleased to hear you’d be able to offer your expertise,” she tells Nico. “I suggested to Agent Castellan that this case might be in your wheelhouse.”

Luke clears his throat. “Annabeth, they’re purely here as consultants. At least this time.” He offers Will a winning smile that Will doesn’t return. There’s the slightest crease to Annabeth’s brow as she flicks a glance between them.

“So, Agent di Angelo, what do you think?” Luke asks, light. “Does this look like the work of little green men?”

“Gray,” Nico says, deadpan. His expression doesn’t change, but Will knows him well enough to take in the slight tensing in his posture. He feels its echo in his own jaw.

“Excuse me?” says Luke, still smiling.

“Gray,” Nico corrects. “You said green men. The Reticulan skin tone is actually more of a dark gray. They’re notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers, due to iron depletion in the Reticulan galaxy.”

Luke’s smile falters. “You can’t be serious.”

“Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for on Reticula?” Nico asks, just this side of impolite. “Excuse me.” He turns, crossing to the other end of the room.

Luke looks sour at this, but makes no comment. Will lingers near Luke and Annabeth, all three watching Nico. He crouches at the wall across from the desk, pulling out tweezers and extracting something from the carpet, then glancing to a vent cover near the ceiling. He pulls over a chair, climbing on it and proceeding to dust the vent cover for prints.

Luke frowns. “What the hell is he doing? That ventilation shaft is maybe six by eighteen inches. Even if someone could squeeze through it, it’s screwed in place.”

Nico walks back towards them, holding up an evidence bag. Inside, just visible, is a thin metal thread. “Well, something came through there.”

::

Will’s at the Bureau early the next morning, but when the door of the basement stairwell falls shut behind him, he can see light already shining through the door of the office.

“Come take a look at this,” Nico says as Will enters, not turning from where he’s hunched over a lightbox.

“What, not even a good morning?”

Nico’s head shoots up. He blinks, wide-eyed and bemused, taking a minute to focus on Will. “Hi?”

Will laughs. “Hi.” He hangs his coat and crosses the room, pulling up a chair.

“This is the print I lifted from the vent cover yesterday,” Nico says, tapping a slide on the left. “These others are from an old X-File. I’ve found records of nine murders, Alexandria and surrounding area, undetermined points of entry. Each victim had their liver removed. Prints were found at nine of the ten crime scenes.” Nico sits back so Will can lean forward over the table, squinting at the prints.

“Nine murders,” Will says slowly. “Luke never mentioned…”

“He’s probably not aware of them,” Nico says. “Didn’t do his research. These prints were lifted before he was born, in Fort Hunt.” He taps the right side of the lightbox, five sets of prints. “And these two others were lifted probably before his mother was born.”

Will frowns, peering at the small type on the sheets on the lightbox. “Wait – the dates on these are 1939 and… 1909?”

“Yup. And fingerprinting was just coming into its own in 1909, so there’s not a lot of print evidence from that time period, but I found records of two other murders that year that sure sound similar.” Gingerly, Nico hands Will two handwritten reports, the paper brittle under protective plastic sheets.

Will sits back, scanning through the text; neatly handwritten records from some agent who’s likely long dead, a voice back echoing through the decades.

“Thirty nine year old woman, found dead in a room locked from the inside,” Will reads, frowning. “Cause of death, blood loss, major trauma to victim’s abdomen, liver appears to have been forcibly removed.” Will shakes his head, bewildered. “That’s bizarre.” He double-checks the date at the top of the page – May 3rd, 1909. “Do you think the murders this month were copycats?”

Nico shakes his head. “Not copycats. Each fingerprint is unique, right? The prints I lifted yesterday are a perfect match to the ones in 1909 and 1939.”

Will frowns. “How, though?” He returns his attention to the slides on the lightbox, now looking more closely. “And why are the prints so long?” Each one looks stretched, elongated. Not like any prints Will’s ever seen before. At first he’d assumed the records of the historical prints were somehow compromised. It’s not unusual for decades-old files to be damaged in some way. But as he looks closer, Will realizes none of the text on the slides is stretched, only the prints. Including the ones from the office building yesterday.

“Not sure yet.” Nico shrugs. “But these murders seem to occur in clumps, over the decades, right? There have only been three this year. I’m betting that means we can expect at least a couple more missing livers.”

“So we go to Violent Crimes and present a profile saying these crimes were committed by what – someone who’s over a hundred years old, yet still capable of overpowering a healthy, six-foot-two businessman?” Will asks, doubtful. He’s not questioning the evidence, or Nico’s research. But it’s a lot to wrap his mind around this early in the morning.

Nico grins. “And the guy should stand out in a crowd, with ten-inch fingers.”

Will laughs. “You know, Nico – this is incredible, but – I don’t know how much further we’ll be able to follow this line of inquiry. Bottom line, this is Luke’s case.” Will’s gut twists uncomfortably. He can already anticipate Luke’s reaction to this theory. ”He was pretty clear on that.”

“Not a problem,” Nico says. “Our X-File dates back to 1909. We had it first.”

Will glances back to the lightbox, his gaze drifting out of focus, considering.

“Look, how about this,” Nico says. “We have our investigation, and they have theirs. Never the twain shall meet.” There’s a spark in Nico’s eyes. Curiosity and discovery, a little manic. It’s become harder and harder to resist with each passing month.

Will nods. “Sure. I can get on board with that.”

Nico beams, radiant and inconveniently adorable.

Will laughs, glancing back to the report in his hand. He hands it back to Nico and crosses to his desk, in sudden need of a little space. “Hey, how’s your profile coming?” he asks.

“Actually,” Nico says, “I was thinking maybe you could take a crack at it.”

“But you – you’re the profiler. You’re the expert –”

Nico shrugs, apparently unconcerned with this. “Yeah, but Luke and Annabeth came to you for help. It makes sense for you to do the write-up.”

“I – don’t know if I can –” Will begins, awkward.

“Of course you can, Will.” Nico’s smile is warm. “You’re an excellent writer and you’re great at analysis. I’m always impressed when I read your field reports. Why don’t you give it a shot and then we can talk it over together?”

::

Will pushes back from his desk, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Okay,” he says. “wanna hear what I’ve got so far?”

Nico turns, grinning. “Always.”

Will rolls his eyes and begins reading aloud. “After careful review of these murders, I believe the killer to be a male, twenty-five to thirty-five years of age, with above average intelligence. His manner of entry has so far been undetectable. This may be due to his superior knowledge of the inner structure of buildings and duct works, he may be hiding in plain sight, posing as delivery or maintenance workers.

“The extraction of the liver is the most significant detail of these crimes. The liver posessess regenerative qualities. It cleanses the blood. The taking of this trophy is the transferring act for the killer, to cleanse himself of his own impulses.

“As the victims are unrelated and we cannot predict the next, we must utilize the fact that a killer will not always succeed in finding a victim. When this occurs, a serial killer may return to the site of a previous murder, hoping to recapture the emotional high. Given this, I believe our best course of action is to target these sites.”

Will sighs, tossing his papers on his desk and raising his eyes to Nico’s. The look on Nico’s face catches at Will’s heart. It’s not just approving, but fond. Proud.

“What?” he laughs, self-conscious.

“It’s good. I think you nailed it,” Nico says. “You left out the part about the killer being over a hundred years old, though. And being able to travel through vents.”

Will laughs. “Well, I don’t think Violent Crimes is quite ready for that. But it’s like you said – they’ll do their investigation, and we’ll keep looking for… alternate possibilities.”

They regard each other for a moment, Nico’s gaze still fond. Open. It makes Will want to give him more to smile about. Makes him want to keep Nico’s attention, his approval. It feels like a stupid impulse, childish. But then –

“Hold on,” Will says slowly, his memory suddenly catching up with their conversation this morning, with the bits and pieces of his profile. “There was another case – it could have been 1909 –” and Will’s up and heading for the file cabinet in the corner, the one where Nico keeps newspaper clippings, old magazine articles. Nico follows, watching as Will feverishly flips through folders in a bottom drawer.

“I was going through this stuff, when you were away sick a couple of weeks ago,” Will says. Where did he see it?

“Here!” he says, triumphant. He rises, newspaper clipping in his hand. “I don’t think the story about the death was even meant to be saved, the clipped article is about a geomagnetic storm. But there’s a little article on the back.” Will turns the paper, reading aloud, “a seventy-two year old man and his forty-five year old son were found dead in their home, apparent victims of an animal attack.”

Will scans further. “It says… both had significant wounds to the abdomen, no other trauma to the bodies. It doesn’t mention anything about missing livers, but –”

“But maybe it wouldn’t, if it was assumed to be an animal attack and it wasn’t investigated any further.” Nico’s eyes are alight with interest as he carefully takes the yellowed clipping from Will. “Yeah. This fits. And the dates line up perfectly.” Nico looks up, beaming. “You’re brilliant.”

Will snorts, but he can feel himself blushing. “I learned from the best,” he manages.

“So that’s – that’s five murders in 1939,” Nico says, his gaze going unfocused, the clipping loose in his hand. “And six in 1909.”

“I wonder if there are more,” Will says.

Nico nods slowly. “That’s definitely possible.” His gaze shifts back to Will. Will can almost hear the gears turning. “Wanna head over to the Library of Congress? I bet we can unearth a few more missing livers. Whoever finds the most buys dinner?”

Will laughs. “As appealing as that sounds – I think we need to present our profile to Violent Crimes.”

::

Luke and his team seem to be in agreement with Will’s profile, and that evening finds Will and Nico in the parking garage under the building where the last victim was killed. They’re in Nico’s car – a newer-model black sedan, shiny-clean and freshly detailed. While Nico’s always happiest in his own car, Will privately prefers the Bureau fleet cars. Although snacking is technically permitted in Nico’s car, he gets twitchy about crumbs.

So far, the stakeout has been profoundly unexciting. Will shifts, stretching. His stomach rumbles, and Nico quirks an eyebrow. Will sticks out his tongue.

Then, sudden in the silence of the parking garage, there’s a clanging and scrabbling in a nearby ventilation shaft. The agents glance at each other, alarmed. Will scrambles to sit up straight, then quickly and quietly follows Nico out of the car, both of them drawing their guns. Every little movement seems loud and resonant in the mostly-empty space.

“Call for backup,” Nico says under his breath.

The scrambling noises continue. A rat? Maybe a squirrel? It sure sounds like something bigger.

Will retreats a few steps, quiet as he can. “Position ten requesting backup,” he says into his radio, never taking his eyes from the ventilation shaft.

Will’s jaw is tight, heart pounding. He’s finding situations like this more harrowing ever since Nico’s near-exsanguination in St. Ambrose, his anxiety rising off the charts at the drop of a hat, a fierce thread of protectiveness running through it all. It’s only been a couple of months, though, he reminds himself. Things like this must get easier in time.

Nico creeps in closer, calm, focused, dress shoes quiet on the concrete. When he’s within a few yards of the ventilation shaft, he raises his voice to yell. “Federal agent, I’m armed. Proceed out of the vent slowly.”

Still half-expecting a rat or a stray cat, Will’s eyes widen as the hatch at the bottom of the duct is kicked open and a young man emerges. He slowly stands and turns, holding his hands in the air.

There’s the slam of car doors and the sound of footsteps, then the chatter of radios and voices as agents approach from the other end of the parking garage. Will slowly lowers his gun.

::

“He doesn’t look any older than thirty, does he?” Will murmurs to his partner. “You think he’s our guy from 1909?” They’re seated side by side in the darkened observation room. The man from the ventilation shaft is on the other side of the glass, so far cooperating with a lie detector test.

Nico grimaces. “If he is, we should ask him for his skincare routine before they lock him up.”

Will bites down a laugh.

The door to the observation room opens, Luke and Annabeth quietly filing in. Luke automatically takes the single empty chair. Will glances up to see something like disbelief flicker over Nico’s face. Nico quickly stands, offering his chair to Annabeth. She shakes her head. Nico, stubborn as always, remains standing next to her, propping himself against the wall at the back of the little room.

Will rises after Nico, quirking an eyebrow at Annabeth. She rolls her eyes and sits. Will joins Nico at the wall, bumping their shoulders together. Nico bumps back. Will stumbles and Nico snorts, grabbing his arm. Luke turns to give them both a disgusted look and they fall silent.

The man on the other side of the glass – Eugene Victor Tooms, apparently – answers the examiner’s questions in a slow, dreamy monotone. He’s slim, dark-haired. Unobtrusive looking. He’s employed by Animal Control, he says, and his story is that he was in the vent for work-related purposes.

The examination continues, running first through the usual biographical queries before pivoting to questioning about the recent murders. Tooms denies having killed any of the victims.

“Are you over one hundred years old?” the examiner asks.

Luke shifts in his chair, brow furrowed. “That must be a control question.”

“I had her ask it,” Nico murmurs.

“No,” says Tooms.

“Have you ever been to Fort Hunt?” the examiner asks.

“Yes.”

“In 1939?” the examiner asks.

“No.”

“Are you worried you’re going to fail this test?”

“Yes. Because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

::

“He passed with flying colors,” the examiner tells the four agents in a conference room afterwards. “Either we’re not asking the right questions, or your suspect didn’t kill those people.”

Nico reaches for the readout, frowning over the results.

Annabeth nods. “I just spoke to the maintenance department at the building where we found him. They confirm that a strange smell was reported earlier in the day. Makes sense that Animal Control would be there investigating.”

Luke lets out a breath, frustrated. “Fuck. It’s a dead end.”

Will peers over Nico’s shoulder at the polygraph report. “Still doesn’t quite explain why he was there so late at night – crawling up an air duct, by himself. Without alerting security,” Will muses. Nico glances up, a quirk of his eyebrows in agreement with this assessment.

Luke shakes his head. “Will, he passed the test. His story checks out. This isn’t our guy.”

“No, Will’s right,” Nico says.

Luke turns his gaze on Nico, his expression dismissive. There’s a buzz of frustration under Will’s skin. It’s clear to him that Luke’s not going to put any stock in whatever Nico’s going to say, and he hasn’t even spoken yet.

“He lied on questions eleven and thirteen,” Nico says, tapping the readout. “His electrodermal and cardiographic responses are almost off the chart.”

Luke steps closer, just a little too far into Nico’s personal space. Will’s aware of precisely what constitutes Nico’s personal space at this point, not to mention who’s permitted to breach it. He feels the incursion as if it’s happening to his own body. Will pushes down an overwhelming, visceral desire to shove Luke out of the way.

“Was number eleven the hundred-year-old question?” Luke asks, hard. “Because I had a reaction to that stupid question too.”

“Can I see?” Annabeth asks mildly, reaching for the report.

“I don’t need you or that machine telling me this guy was alive in 1909!” Luke says, his voice rising.

Annabeth lowers the paper slowly to the table, shooting her partner a supremely unimpressed look. “Luke –”

“He’s the guy,” Nico says, obstinate.

“We’re letting him go,” Luke retorts. “It’s my case. It’s my call.” He turns to leave the room. “You coming, Annabeth?”

“Give me a minute,” Annabeth says, calm, and Luke rolls his eyes, the door slamming shut behind him.

The three of them stare at the door in silence for a moment.

“Nice guy,” Nico says, dry. “Seems like a real joy to work with.”

“He’s… stubborn.” Annabeth frowns. “He’s usually not quite this bad, honestly.”

Nico huffs. “You think I set him off?”

Annabeth gives him a wry smile. “It might have been mutual.” She pulls out a chair. “Can we take a closer look at these numbers?”

::

“Hey, you beat me here,” Nico says, opening the already-unlocked office door and beginning to pull off his coat. He glances at the clock on the wall. It’s not even 8:30, a good half-hour before Will usually appears. Will’s bent over his desk, scribbling into a notepad, coffee at his elbow. The coffee maker on the counter is half-empty. As Nico moves further into the office, he notices Will’s used one of his mugs, the one Frank got him for Christmas last year that says Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Nico smiles, opening his mouth to comment on this.

Will clears his throat. “Yeah. I had an idea and –”

Will’s voice, wet and wobbly, is a jolt to Nico’s solar plexus. “Will? What happened?”

“Sorry,” Will shakes his head, wiping at his cheeks as Nico approaches his desk. “It’s nothing really. I um – I thought I’d see if I could get in touch with any of the family members from the 1939 murders –”

“Oh –” Nico begins, an automatic understanding.

“Yeah.” Will gives a wet laugh, another swipe at his face. “I’m fine. I really am. Just, one of them – Nolan Campbell – his parents are still alive, both in their 80s. They live in the UK now, which is why I thought it would be okay to call them at eight in the morning. His mom was really lovely. She wanted to tell me all about Nolan. So she did.”

Nico shifts so he’s sitting on the edge of Will’s desk. “It was good of you to listen.”

Will lets out a long breath. “What else could I do?”

“Yeah.” Nico’s fingers itch to reach out, and before he’s completely thought it through, they have – a quick squeeze to Will’s forearm that makes his heart stutter. It gets a smile from Will, though, and that’s what counts.

Will shakes his head. “I don’t think I got any new information.”

“That’s not what matters,” Nico says immediately.

“I don’t know if Reyna would agree. Definitely Octavian wouldn’t.”

“Well. Fuck Octavian.”

“I hope they don’t keep too close an eye on our long distance usage. My dad – he would always get all bent out of shape about that.” Will makes a face.

“They don’t even notice,” Nico says. “Fucking Bureau probably spent five grand on staples last year.”

Will laughs, blue eyes sparkling up at Nico. His eyes are even prettier when he cries, Nico realizes with a jolt, bright blue and shining. Really not fair. Nico looks hideous when he cries, all splotchy and wild-eyed.

“He was a musician,” Will says.

“Who – the 1939 victim?”

“Yeah. His mom said. She was telling me how relieved she was that he wasn’t drafted – he had some kind of heart condition. And then he went and got murdered anyway.” Will takes a shaky breath. “She might be sending us a Christmas card. And I said I’d call back if – when we manage to solve the case.” Will carefully tears the corner off the sheet he was writing on – a name and phone number – pinning it securely to the bulletin board at the end of his desk, taking care to push the pin in all the way.

“He was murdered sixty years ago,” Will says, soft. “You’d never have known it, listening to his mom.”

Nico swallows. “Yeah. Those things stick with you.”

Will takes another deep breath, a little steadier now. “Sorry,” he says. “I guess I’ve been crying at work a lot lately.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s okay to have emotions.” Nico clears his throat. “Personally, I try to avoid them whenever possible, but I’m not exactly a model of mental health.”

Will smiles, lopsided and fond.

Honestly, Nico’s still hasn’t quite recovered from all the talking they’ve done in the last couple of months. He’s definitely never had a working relationship anything like this; emotions so close to the surface, heart-to-heart talks about work and family. In the aftermath, he finds himself feeling raw and exposed. Weirdly healthy, though. Oddly grounded. Though he still hasn’t figured out how to start those conversations in the first place, and he’s not convinced he ever will. Luckily, he’s got Will.

Will tilts to the side, bumping his arm into Nico’s leg where it’s still resting on Will’s desk.

Nico watches him for a second more before – “I have a job for you.”

Will’s lips twitch. “Yeah? Other than the job I’m already doing?”

“Remember that Polish bakery we found on Indiana Avenue?”

“This is a baked goods related job?”

“Yes,” Nico says, firm. “It’s a beautiful morning. You probably got here before it was light out. I want you to walk to Indiana Avenue and get a box of those poppy seed strudel things.”

Will snorts. “Weren’t you just criticizing my choice in breakfast foods like, a week ago?”

Nico regards Will solemnly. “Desperate times, Will.”

He has such a fucking ridiculous desire to lift his hand, brush his fingers across Will’s cheek. He can almost feel the rasp of stubble under his fingertips, can almost imagine the quirk of pink lips.

Quelling that urge as best he can, instead Nico plucks Will’s glasses from where they’re sitting on the desk, sure to keep his fingers away from the lenses. Breath held, heart pounding, he leans in, places the glasses carefully on Will’s face. Because that doesn’t quite count as touching, Nico decides. Nico’s stomach does a frankly impressive backflip as he gently pushes the glasses up the bridge of Will’s nose with the tip of his index finger.

Will’s smile softens into something that makes Nico’s insides turn to mush.

And – It’s just a crush, right? It doesn’t have to be a big deal. God, it’s been a long time since Nico’s had a crush on anyone. That must be why it feels like this with Will. Why it feels like more.

“I can’t tell if you’re trying to distract me or get rid of me,” Will says, still puffy-eyed, but looking pleased.

“The sad truth is, you may never know for sure,” Nico says, sliding off the desk before he does something even stupider.

Will shakes his head, one more wipe at his face, and then he stands, bumping Nico on his way to the door. “Fine. And who’s covering breakfast?” he asks, eyes sparkling now in a way that makes Nico’s mind settle and his heart swell.

“You’re buying,” Nico says, deadpan.

::

And Will does feel lighter after the walk outside. Calmer. As much as Nico sounded like his mother, telling Will to go get some fresh air, he may have had a point.

“Good, you’re finally back,” Nico says, as Will returns with the pastries. “Come take a look at this.”

Will glances at the clock on the wall, laughing. “What do you mean, finally? I don’t think I was even gone for half an hour.”

“Oh.” Nico looks up, bemused. “Seemed like longer.” The new, shorter hair looks good on Nico, Will notes privately. It makes his face look younger, makes those big, dark eyes look even more dramatic.

“Any amount of time I’m gone is interminable,” Will teases. He drops the box of pastries on his desk, crossing the room and pulling up a chair to see what’s got his partner’s attention. He bumps his chair up against Nico’s and a brief battle ensues, but Will can tell Nico is far too eager to show him what he’s found to be much of a contender. He settles for nudging his chair up against Nico’s and peering over his shoulder.

Nico turns and shoots him a sweet smile, quick, his face inches away, and Will’s stomach flips. He frowns to himself, determinedly focusing on the prints in front of them and not the scent of Nico’s hair; rain-washed stone, something sharp and fresh.

“Okay, check this out,” Nico’s saying. “These are the prints they took from Tooms at the station last night, and these,” he taps the other side of the lightbox, the elongated prints, “are the ones I lifted from the vent in the office building two days ago.”

Will nods. “Okay. But they’re not even the same shape. The ones from the office building don’t even look human.”

“True, but now, look at this.” Nico raises an eyebrow at Will and then zips across the office to his laptop, his chair making a neat beeline on the linoleum. Will, not trusting his coordination or his probably-1960s-vintage chair, stands and follows, squinting at the screen over Nico’s shoulder.

“Here are the prints, side by side, and – voila.” Nico hits a few buttons, and the prints taken from Tooms last night stretch out, familiar elongated ovals. “A perfect match,” Nico announces, eyes bright.

Will blinks at the screen. “What the fuck,” he says flatly.

“I know!” Nico exclaims.

“But how–”

“No idea,” Nico shrugs, thrilled by it.

Will gazes at the screen, trying to wrap his mind around any logical explanation for this. Nico’s hunched over the laptop, carefully making small adjustments to the images, fiddling with the brightness and contrast. Will lifts his hand up in front of his face, considering the whorls of his own fingerprints. “Can you print out that fingerprint comparison?” he asks Nico.

“Yeah, sure.” Nico clicks through a few windows and a second later the printer on the counter hums to life. Will crosses the room to collect the sheets as they emerge.

“Oh. Fuck,” Nico says suddenly, fumbling in the pocket of his jacket, draped over the back of the chair. Will hears the buzzing of Nico’s phone as he extracts it.

“Di Angelo,” he says. Then, “Okay, we’ll be right there.”

“Where –” Will begins as Nico stands.

“Another missing liver,” Nico says, grim.

Will shoots a longing look at the abandoned box of pastries. He folds the printed sheets carefully into quarters as he follows his partner out of the office.

::

“This is it, right?” Nico puts the car in park, glances up at the large, brick-fronted house they’ve just pulled up in front of.

Will double-checks the address he’d written down in their rush out of the Bureau. “Yup, 247. That’s the right one.”

They exit the car, and Nico leads them up a tree-lined drive, then wide stone steps. The front doors stand open, yellow crime scene tape standing out against dark, polished wood.

“Nice place,” Nico comments, glancing around as they step inside. “Maybe this guy likes high-end livers.” The floor is shining, immaculate hardwood, reflecting a crystal chandelier overhead.

“Think I could fit my entire apartment in this entryway,” Will says under his breath. He and Nico follow the sound of activity and voices through the entryway into a vast dining room.

“Let’s run a check on liver transplants in the next twenty four hours,” Luke is saying as they enter. “Maybe this thing is black market.”

Annabeth looks skeptical. “Luke, the way the liver was ripped out – can you really imagine it being of any use as a transplant?”

“Look, at this point I’m willing to give any theory a shot.”

“Now you’re speaking my language,” Nico says as he and Will approach.

Luke turns, a reflexive scowl as he catches sight of Nico. “I’m willing to give any sane theory a shot. Sorry, Will,” he says, pointedly turning away from Nico, “but I only want qualified members of the investigating team at the crime scene.”

“I asked them to come, Luke,” Annabeth says, frowning.

“What’s the matter, Castellan? Worried I’m going to solve your case?” Nico asks, cool. He goes to walk further into the room and Luke steps in front of him, blocking his path. Nico raises an eyebrow, not backing down.

“Luke, we have authorized access to this crime scene.” Will cuts in, trying for cool and collected, though his heart is pounding in his throat and all he really wants to do is turn and run back to the car. He moves to stand beside Nico. He can feel the tension radiating off his partner. “A report of you obstructing another officer’s investigation might stick out in your personnel file.”

Before Luke can respond, Will grabs the sleeve of Nico’s jacket, physically pulling him over to the corner of the room where the collection of evidence markers is densest.

“I could have taken him. He’s only like, a foot taller than me,” Nico mutters. But he follows willingly enough.

Will snorts. “Yeah, but I’m willing to bet he doesn’t fight fair. Let’s just have a look around and get out of here. The two of you are making me nervous.”

“He started it,” Nico grumbles.

“I know. Let’s just… try to get along for a bit longer.”

Nico rolls his eyes, bumping his shoulder into Will’s. Will fights a smile, mouthing be nice.

Nico mouths back, hand to his chest, who, me? and Will laughs, too loud. Grinning, Nico walks over to the fireplace, a close examination of the mantel.

Will scrubs a hand over his face, taking a second to steady his breathing. This collaboration is already starting to feel like a terrible idea. Will has always hated conflict, always shied away from it. Austin was the mediator, at home. Will was the one who’d avoid the situation altogether if he could manage it. He still prefers it that way.

“You okay, Solace?” Annabeth asks, low, walking over to join him a moment later.

“Yeah,” Will sighs, glancing over to where Luke is speaking to a police officer a few feet away. “I’m fine. Just – want to get this case dealt with.”

Annabeth shakes her head. “I’m sorry he’s being such an ass. I’ve never seen him so territorial before. We really do appreciate your help.”

Will nods, tired.

Luke joins them a moment later. “So, what do you think?”

“Well,” Will says. “It sure matches the profiles of the previous victims – liver extracted, no obvious point of entry.”

Luke’s nodding, brow furrowed, his gaze on the chalk outline.

“Actually – Nico found some prints you should take a look at,” Will adds, remembering what he and Nico were doing before they were interrupted with the news of yet another victim. “The prints taken from Tooms last night matched –”

“Okay, but this isn’t Tooms,” Luke interrupts.

“It’s Tooms,” Nico announces, his voice unexpected at Will’s shoulder.

“We cleared Mr. Tooms last night,” Luke says, his voice tight.

Nico shrugs. “There’s a vent over the fireplace. The vent cover was removed, and I found metal threads on the mantel, same as the crime scene at the office building.” He holds up an evidence bag. “And I’m pretty sure the prints I just lifted from the vent are going to match, too.”

“What the fuck are you saying, di Angelo? That the killer came through the fucking vent?”

Nico just quirks an eyebrow and heads for the door, thankfully electing not to antagonize Luke any further this time. Will begins to follow his partner out, feeling a headache starting to throb between his eyes, a knot of tension in his shoulders.

“You leaving too?” Luke asks, catching up to Will in the entryway.

“Yeah. Like I mentioned, Nico was doing a print comparison, evidence from the other crime scenes. Here, I can show you.” Will fishes the printout from his pocket, unfolding it and offering it to Luke.

Luke just scowls at the paper, though, seemingly reluctant to even touch it. “What the fuck is that?”

“These are Tooms’ prints.” Will taps the paper. “And these are the ones Nico lifted from the third crime scene.” He indicates the elongated prints.

“Your partner doesn’t even understand elementary print collection,” Luke says, disbelieving.

“I know they look strange, but they’re a match –” Will tries.

“You can go ahead and tell your partner to leave those prints alone,” Luke says with finality.

Will lets out a breath, sharp. “Look, Luke. You’re the one who asked for our input on this. Why bother if you’re going to block our investigation at every turn?”

“I’m not blocking your investigation,” Luke says, his voice rising. “Your partner’s got a screw loose. Did you hear those questions during the polygraph last night?”

Will’s in no mood for further argument. “I’m going back to the office. I’ll check in with you and Annabeth later,” he says.

Luke scoffs. “You know, Annabeth said di Angelo was a good agent, that we’d stand a better chance of solving this thing with him on board. So far, all I see is the two of you slowing us down.”

“Luke, Nico’s been working his ass off on this case. He’s found evidence of historical murders with the same MO –”

Luke doesn’t even seem to be listening. “Di Angelo had a decent reputation, back when he worked for Violent Crimes, but he’s lost his marbles working down in that basement.”

Will opens his mouth to protest, but Luke continues –

“You know, maybe it is for the best, that we’ve got the two of you on this case. Maybe your department needs to be exposed for what it really is. Octavian’s wanted the X-Files shut down for years.” Luke pauses. “He’s a buddy of mine, you know.”

Will blinks, a chill running through him. “Are you threatening us?”

Luke hesitates. When he speaks again, his tone is slightly more conciliatory. “Just trying to give you some friendly advice, Will. Give it some thought.”

Will shakes his head, turning to leave.

“Hey,” Luke says, sharp, a hand on Will’s shoulder. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”

Will jerks away from the touch. “The victim’s, Luke.”

Will fully expects a (completely justified) rant about Luke’s behavior on the drive back to the office. Nico’s uncharacteristically quiet, though, shooting Will an appraising look as he eases himself into the passenger seat and then flicking the radio on low. Will closes his eyes, tilting his head against the cool glass of the window.

::

“You okay?” Nico finally asks as they let themselves into the basement office.

“Headache,” Will says, short, dropping into his chair. He rubs at the bridge of his nose.

Nico hums in understanding. He digs in a drawer for a moment. “Tylenol?” He shakes the bottle at Will.

“Please.”

Nico tosses the little bottle across the office, a neat shot that should have landed directly in Will’s outstretched palm. Will fumbles it and sighs, dropping out of his chair to crawl under his desk.

Nico laughs, but when Will surfaces again, the other man is on his feet, a sympathetic look on his face.

“Where are you off to?” Will asks, blearily looking around for his water bottle.

“Coffee. I think you need it.” Nico says simply, a squeeze to Will’s shoulder as he walks past, collecting his coat at the door.

“God, yes,” Will groans, dropping his head heavily to the desk. “Have I mentioned how much I love you?” He’s tired and muddled and the words are out before he realizes what he’s said. He freezes, head to the wood of his desk, feeling his face heat.

There’s a pause across the room, then a huff of laughter. “I’ll be right back,” Nico says, his voice softer than before.

::

Will’s mostly recovered his composure by the time Nico returns with the coffee, flipping through files with (finally) a pastry on a paper napkin next to him. When Nico hands over the Dunkin’ cup, Will accepts it gratefully, taking a small sip and then several gulps after determining the temperature is below-scalding. He glances up to see Nico watching him, something soft in his gaze.

“What?” Will laughs, self-conscious. Nico shakes his head, smiling. A second later Will feels Nico’s touch at his wrist, making his stomach lurch pleasantly; a brush of fingers over bare skin.

Will blinks up at the other man.

“Didn’t realize it was formal Wednesday,” Nico says, his voice catching lower than Will expected.

“Oh,” Will laughs, flustered, glancing down to the silver cufflinks he put on this morning. “Those were my dad’s. My mom gave them to me when I was in Fort Worth.”

“Nice,” Nico murmurs. They gaze at each other for a moment, heat buzzing in the air between them. There’s something unreadable in Nico’s expression. Something thoughtful, maybe resolving. Something warm.

Will glances away, suddenly eager for a change of subject.

“You know, I think I’d like to see if they’ve got the autopsy report yet – from the victim at the office building,” Will says.

Nico nods. “Yeah, good idea. You gonna head upstairs?”

“Yeah.” Will stands. He supposes he’ll have to. He’d prefer to avoid interacting with Luke as much as he can, honestly. But he at least can pretend to be a grown up about this.

“You won’t be offended if I don’t come along?” Nico asks, dry. “I’m not sure my presence would be appreciated.”

“No, you don’t have to come.” Will makes a face. “Look, I’m – I’m sorry about Luke. I didn’t have any idea he was going to be… the way he’s been.”

Nico shakes his head, dismissive. “Definitely not your fault.”

::

Will takes the stairs up to the second floor, giving himself a bit more time to mentally prepare. The gods must be smiling on him, anyway, because when he reaches the Violent Crimes section, it’s quiet, Luke’s cubicle empty. Will rounds the partition to Annabeth’s, knocking softly on the dividing wall.

Annabeth’s head rises at the sound.

“Hey, do you have a minute?” Will asks.

“Yeah, of course,” Annabeth smiles. “Here, pull up a chair. Luke just left for lunch.”

“Oh,” Will says, “that’s – that’s good to know.” He hopes his relief isn’t too obvious. But it probably is. He can feel the throbbing in his head decrease by a couple of degrees.

Annabeth’s lips twitch. “Yeah,” she agrees. “I was just going over the autopsy report from the third victim –”

“Oh, perfect. That’s mostly why I came up here.” Will grabs a chair from the corner, pulling up next to Annabeth when she shifts to make room.

“It’s odd,” Annabeth’s saying, thoughtful. “What do you make of this?” She flips to the third page in the report, the toxicology screen, tapping a line with her finger and pushing it over to Will.

Will reads it over, frowning. “They found… evidence of an unknown sedative compound. That is odd.”

“Yes. It looks to be something that was ingested very shortly before the victim’s demise.”

“So something administered by the murderer, maybe?” Will asks, scanning down the rest of the page.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Annabeth agrees. “No obvious site of administration, though, and the perpetrator doesn’t seem to have used any substance that the tox screen recognized.”

“Anything similar on the previous autopsies?” Will asks.

“Nothing so obvious,” Annabeth says. “There were some wonky tox results on the first victim, but nothing as specific as this. And you know what else is strange,” Annabeth continues, flipping a couple of pages, “there’s no one living at the address Tooms provided at the police station.”

“Sketchy,” Will says. “Was it an old address, maybe?”

“That’s what I thought too,” Annabeth says, “but there’s no record of him ever living in that apartment, or any others in that block. I checked with the building management this morning.”

There’s an uncomfortable knot in Will’s stomach, growing. Luke’s positive that Tooms isn’t the guy, but there are just too many coincidences to ignore. He thinks back to his long-distance call this morning, a mother halfway across the world still mourning her son decades later.

“Hey, back at the crime scene, you mentioned some fingerprint evidence,” Annabeth says.

“Yeah,” Will says slowly.

“Not ready to share with the class yet?” Annabeth smiles.

Will sighs. “No. It’s not that. Just –” He glances around the cubicle farm, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone nearby. “I – I don’t want to cause problems. For Nico.”

Annabeth’s brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

Will grimaces, wondering how much he should share. The idea of getting some of the weight off his chest is tempting. And he’s not worried about Annabeth reporting everything he says to Luke.

“Luke… doesn’t like Nico. Obviously,” Will begins. He chances a glance to Annabeth, who looks sympathetic. “And I know that Octavian isn’t a big fan of Nico’s either, or of our department. Luke – he mentioned something earlier, at the crime scene. He kind of alluded to being friends with Octavian, that Luke would report back to him, if he thought Nico wasn’t… handling things the way Luke thought he should,” Will finishes, awkward. He really doesn’t like the feeling that he’s trying to tattle on Luke – never mind that Luke just threatened to do the same to Nico. But he’s feeling nauseous and exhausted about the whole thing. It feels a tiny bit better telling Annabeth.

Annabeth taps her pen on her desk, a twist to her mouth. “Well,” she says finally, “last I checked, Octavian didn’t have any friends.”

Will breathes out a laugh, nervous.

“I won’t tell you not to worry about it, but I think Luke’s mostly just blowing off steam, to be honest,” Annabeth says. “I don’t believe he has a closer relationship to Octavian than anyone else in the department. And Luke certainly isn’t Nico’s supervisor, or yours.”

Will feels that impulse he always does, to smooth things over, to reassure that he’s okay. “Thanks, Annabeth. That’s – good to hear. And look, I know this is Luke’s case, and I definitely don’t want to be the one to step on his toes, or to be responsible for bringing Nico into a situation where he does the same thing –”

“It’s not just Luke’s case,” Annabeth interrupts. “It’s our case.”

“Oh.” Will frowns, diverted. “He – he said something about your section leader being involved in another case, so Luke was running this one on his own –”

Annabeth’s eyebrows rise higher and higher as Will stammers out this sentence, and Will feels himself going red with realization.

“Oh shit.” Will presses a hand over his mouth.

“Yeah,” Annabeth agrees, unimpressed. “Our section leader is away, yes. So Luke and I were asked to lead this case.”

“He – he didn’t – specifically mention that,” Will says haltingly. “I’m – I’m sorry, Annabeth. I didn’t mean to –”

Annabeth’s already shaking her head. “You know what? Don’t worry about it. It’s not entirely surprising to me. But I’m glad you mentioned it. Even if you didn’t mean to.”

Will lets out a breath. “This is why they keep me in the basement,” he mutters. “So I can’t embarrass myself by talking to my colleagues.”

Annabeth lets out a laugh. “Really, don’t worry about it. I’d love to hear about the fingerprint evidence, though. If you feel comfortable telling me.”

“I showed the prints to Luke this morning – I don’t know if he mentioned…” Will trails off as Annabeth’s mouth twists into a frown.

“He didn’t,” she says.

Will sighs. “Okay. I’ll give you the run-down, then.” Will is hesitant at first – because Nico’s findings are honestly bizarre and as much as he’s gotten used to bizarre in the basement, up here in the noonday light shining over the cubicles, he knows that things tend to fit better into boxes. He and Annabeth have similar backgrounds – medicine, science. There’s no reason for her to accept something that doesn’t seem to make any sense.

“That’s incredible,” Annabeth says, something like wonder in her eyes. “I’d love to have a look at the prints later. Have you thought of any explanation for them being elongated like that?”

“It’s weird, right?” Will agrees, excitement growing with such an easy reception. “I’d thought of some disorder like Ehlers-Danlos, where the skin has increased elasticity, but this is extreme.”

Annabeth nods. “Maybe… I wonder if there could be an extreme manifestation of that disorder, something that’s never been documented. Or maybe some condition that would cause a rapid increase in collagen. If Nico truly thinks the murderer is accessing the victims through the ductwork… something like that might make sense, right? An extreme variant of a disorder that causes hypermobility?”

“Definitely,” Will agrees.

Annabeth’s phone buzzes on her desk. “Oh shoot, I’ve got a meeting in five minutes,” she says, distracted. “I’d love to talk more about this though, and I’d love to come have a look at the prints.”

They both rise. “That would be great. Any time,” Will says, sincere.

“Walk with me down to the main floor?” Annabeth says.

“Sure.” Will stands, following Annabeth out of the cubicle maze.

“Hey, it was good talking to you,” he says as they enter the stairwell. It really was. Will feels as if some of the weight’s been lifted from his shoulders.

“You too,” Annabeth smiles. “I always liked our chats when I was at Quantico.”

Will catches sight of the cafeteria sign as they exit the stairwell at the main floor. “Oh, meatball soup today,” he says. “I better go tell Nico. He gets grouchy when he misses meatball soup day.”

“I’ve never tried the meatball soup,” Annabeth says. “Is it good?”

“Well.” Will makes a face. “It’s –” He shoots a quick look around the lobby. “To be completely honest, it’s pretty mediocre. But Nico was so excited for me to try it the first time I just – I didn’t want to disappoint him.”

Annabeth smiles. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.”

::

Nico’s very interested in the updates from Annabeth, and he and Will discuss matters as they take the elevator to the eighth floor, and as they make their way through the cafeteria line and then through their meatball soup. They’re in the stairwell, heading back down to the basement when Will remembers – “Annabeth mentioned that Alexandria PD checked out Tooms’ apartment, looks like it was a cover. No one’s lived there in years.”

“Well that’s suspicious.”

Nico’s quiet as they reach the basement and unlock the office. He crosses to his desk, digging for a file. “What was the address of Tooms’ apartment?”

“Um – an apartment building on Carrington Place, I think,” Will says. “I can’t remember the number.”

Nico considers the file for a long moment before looking back to Will. “I have an idea,” he says, slow.

“When do you not?” Will grins. He shifts to sit on the edge of his desk.

Nico ignores this. “103-66 Exeter Street.”

“What’s there?”

“Well,” Nico begins, “I was looking through the historical files, while you were upstairs earlier. One of the victims in 1909 was killed at 66 Exeter. Another was killed two blocks away. 66 Exeter was the address listed for one Eugene Victor Tooms in 1909.”

“Interesting,” Will says. “That’s got to be… what? A grandfather? Great-grandfather?” He’s beginning to feel the tell-tale post-lunch desire for a nap and it feels difficult to force his brain into mathematical calculations.

“Possibly,” Nico allows. “But what about the prints? Prints from 1909 are a match to the ones taken yesterday.”

“That could be genetics,” Will says slowly, though he’s not really convinced himself. “It might also explain other patterns, the sociopathic attitudes and behavior. It begins with one family member, who raises the next, who raises the next…”

Nico looks skeptical. “Could be.”

“Do you think Tooms is living in the building on Exeter?”

“I think someone is,” Nico says rather mysteriously. He stands from his desk, a familiar glint in his eye. “Wanna go for a drive?”

::

Will lets out a jaw-cracking yawn as Nico parks on Exeter Street. He hears Nico snort beside him. It’s a brisk, sunny day, a nice change of pace from the dim basement and the stiff tension at the murder scene this morning. Will takes a deep breath of spring air as he steps out of the car, taking a second to turn his face up to the sunlight. As much as he’s grown to love the cozy basement office, he does sometimes miss having a window, the opportunity to follow the passage of the sun across the sky over the day.

Will looks over to see Nico watching him, a small smile on his face.

“Beautiful day to solve a murder,” Nico says.

It’s a short walk up the block to number 66. The street is filled with derelict buildings, some boarded up. None look habitable. They climb the cement stairs together. The entrance to the building was probably pretty at one time, two tall wooden doors with little crescent windows at the top. Now, though, one door is missing entirely, a pane of glass broken in the one still standing.

The building is dark once they leave the front entryway and both men reach for their flashlights. Will takes a moment to scan the hallway, blinking as his eyes adjust. The place is dilapidated, but it doesn’t look to be in any immediate danger of collapse. They pause, checking the numbers on the dusty doors. Down the hall there’s a skittering; some variety of small animal, probably.

“This way,” Nico says, muted in the dusty hall, and Will follows. They near the end of the hallway and the door to 103 swings open at Nico’s touch.

It’s a small apartment, bare but for some debris around the edges of the room, filtered sunlight attempting to penetrate a dirty window on the far wall. Will crosses the room to scan a small bedroom off to the side, the smaller room in a similar state, the single window boarded up. The whole place smells sour, something rotten catching at the back of Will’s throat. He suppresses a shudder.

He can’t help glancing over his shoulder, squinting into every corner, though he’s sure the room is empty. It feels claustrophobic somehow, closing in. Will’s back in the main room of the apartment quickly, reluctant to linger.

“Nothing in the bedroom,” Will says, his voice coming back to him in the empty space.

“Look at this,” Nico says, quiet. He’s in the corner, his attention on a battered mattress propped up against the wall. He tucks his flashlight under his arm and pulls on latex gloves.

Will approaches, donning gloves as well. Together, they shift the mattress and lower it to the floor, careful not to stir up too much dust.

“Jesus,” Will murmurs, blinking at a hole in the wall that had been hidden by the mattress.

Both men approach the opening cautiously, but the floor surrounding it seems solid enough. There seems to be a ladder inside, leading to somewhere below. Nico crouches and presses on the wall around the opening, testing the integrity of the plaster. He grabs a hold of the top rung of the ladder, gives it a shake. It doesn’t budge.

Nico turns, quirking an eyebrow. “Spot me?”

Will grimaces, but takes a step closer. There’s a creeping feeling here, visceral and wrong, something he can’t quite put his finger on. He opens his mouth to voice this to his partner, despite the fact that he doesn’t think he can explain why this feels like such a bad idea. He’s well aware that “I have a bad feeling about this” isn’t scientific in any way.

But before Will can think it through any further, Nico’s through the opening, a nimble climb down to whatever lies beneath. Will hesitates, wondering if it’s more prudent to stay above in case he needs to call for backup, or an ambulance if the ladder isn’t as sturdy as it looks. But the bottom appears to be only a story below, and Will sighs, turning to follow his partner down. He finds his footing a moment after Nico, who automatically reaches a hand out to steady him as Will misses the last rung.

They pause, casting flashlight beams around the dark space they’ve found themselves in. The smell is worse down here; damp and mildewy. Something rotting.

“Looks like an old coal cellar,” Will says, low. There’s no reason to keep their voices down, not really, but, there’s a strange, pressing feeling, like they’re being watched. Or stalked. Will flicks his flashlight back on, his other hand brushing the gun at his belt, just making sure.

The smell of rot grows stronger the further in they walk, the air cool and clammy. The ceiling is low enough that Will has to duck to avoid pipes. Clinging cobwebs catch on their hair and the concrete floor is cracked and uneven. The close atmosphere combined with the stench and the pounding behind Will’s eyes is making him queasy.

At the far end of the cellar there’s a bend in the building, what looks like it could lead to a room, or a hallway, but it turns out to be more of a nook, plaster crumbling to the floor.

Nico approaches for a closer look, cautious.

“Careful,” Will murmurs. “That wall looks like it might come down on you.” The source of the smell must be nearby. Will’s eyes are watering.

“No,” Nico says slowly, looking it over. “I don’t think it’s part of the building’s structure. Someone… made this.”

“What?”

“Look,” Nico takes a step to the side so Will can approach. The sight before them doesn’t make sense at first, revealed in increments by the twin flashlight beams. But as Will looks longer, he realizes it’s a mess of rags and bits of newspaper, somehow all glued together into a misshapen structure that seems to have become part of the wall around it.

“This is a nest,” Nico says, equal parts amazed and horrified. Still clad in latex gloves, he presses his fingers against the structure. The surface gives under his touch and then slowly regains its shape when Nico pulls back. Something green oozes out. Will leans closer, wanting a better look but not eager to touch. Then, he draws back suddenly, fighting down a gag.

“It looks like – the green stuff – I think it’s bile.” Will takes another step back. “How is that – do you think someone lives in there?” His brain is fighting to make sense of this at the same time as it’s screaming at him to run.

Nico gazes at the structure, an abomination of a paper mache. “I don’t think anyone lives in there so much as… hibernates.”

Will shudders. He’s not sure he’s ever wanted to get away from a place faster. He glances over his shoulder, convulsive, feeling more than ever that there are eyes on him. “Hibernates?” he asks under his breath.

“Imagine if…” Nico takes a step back from the wall and turns to Will, his eyes serious in the dark space. “What if some genetic mutation could allow a man to awaken every few decades? And what if he could sustain himself for that hibernation period by consuming human livers?”

The horror Will’s feeling is somewhat mirrored on his partner’s face, but there’s also that familiar look of amazement and discovery in Nico’s dark eyes.

“What would - what could the evolutionary advantage be? To such a mutation?” Will asks, trying for reasonable. He’s still half-trying to convince himself that this cannot be possible. But he can’t help but think of the bizarre, elongated prints. The unidentified substance on the autopsy report. The impossible points of entry. If those things can be true, why not this?

Nico pauses, his gaze drifting. “Hard to say. I mean, longevity, I suppose?”

“To what end? And what about… reproduction?”

“Yeah,” Nico says thoughtfully, seemingly not particularly put off by having this discussion in the crumbling basement of a lair possibly belonging to a genetically mutated serial killer. “Good point.”

“In any case”, Will says. “He’s not here now, but he’s going to come back. At some point.” He glances over his shoulder again, nervous. “Can we – why don’t we get a sample from this… nest.” Will grimaces, approaching the wall again and digging in his coat pocket for a sample tube.

There’s just so much of the green gunk, everywhere. He’s more aware of it the longer he looks, seeping out in gluey drips and congealed to a brownish yellow across the surface like some kind of horrible glaze. Will carefully collects a sample, dropping the little vial into his coat pocket. It definitely looks like bile, but… more gluey. Viscous. And bile doesn’t have much of a smell. But Will feels certain it’s related. He’s not usually so squeamish about possible bodily fluids, but this one just feels so wrong.

“We need to stake this place out,” Nico is saying. sounding much more certain than Will feels. His eyes flick to Will’s, maybe reading hesitation there. “You don’t think so?”

“No, I do…” Will says, gazing somewhat longingly toward the hole they climbed through, the path back to the upper world. “I’m just wondering how we’re going to spin it so Luke agrees.”

Nico’s brow furrows. “Since when do you care about Luke’s agreement?”

Will sighs. His stomach twists again, the memory of Luke’s threats just a few hours ago. If this was any other case, he’d be more than willing to follow Nico’s lead. But he’s more and more worried about Nico leading himself right out of a job. “Look, this is bizarre, and definitely suspicious. But you know how Luke is. He’s going to want something more solid to go on before he’s willing to admit you’re right.”

Nico doesn’t answer, turned away to examine the nest. Will tries again.

“Maybe we can run some forensics first. Or present it to Annabeth,” Will says, thinking aloud. “She’ll be reasonable.” His head is still pounding and the smell is really getting to him.

“This is reasonable,” Nico says, voice rising. “Look around you. You’ve got an oozing paper mache bile nest, a secret hibernation hideout at the suspect’s last known address. How much more reasonable do we need to be?”

Will blinks, a little caught off-guard by the intensity of his partner’s reaction. Nico seems to read it on his face.

“Sorry.” Nico shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to direct that at you. I’m just – it’s frustrating. This whole case just takes me right back to when I was working at Violent Crimes – I felt like I was never being taken seriously. Like I was some kind of joke.”

Will nods in understanding. “There are more than a few dickheads in that department. Clawing their way to whatever they think the top is.”

“Yeah,” Nico says, deflating a bit. “You’re right, though. We can try to get along before we try anything else. Let’s get some forensic evidence and see how that pans out before we investigate this site any further.”

Will nods.

“Hey, look at this,” Nico says suddenly, crouching and angling his flashlight downwards. Will peers over Nico’s shoulder.

There’s the glint of metal, and when Will looks closer, he sees a row of small objects lined up against the wall beside the nest. The horrible green substance has trickled out across the floor here, seeping into cracks, a gooey line partially obscuring most of the objects.

“They’re trophies,” Nico says, horrified.

“Fuck,” Will breaths out. “Are you sure?”

Nico glances up. “Yeah, I’d be willing to bet. We should take note of what’s here and compare it with the case files back at the office.”

“Should we just take them as evidence?”

Nico hesitates. “No. I don’t think we want him to know we’ve been here, if we can help it.” With a gloved fingertip, Nico gently prods at one of the objects; a tie clip, maybe, or a barrette. It doesn’t budge, glued to the floor with the greenish-brown goo. “We won’t even be able to move most of these without it being obvious that we’ve disturbed them,” he mutters. Then – “look at this one, on the very end.”

Will squints. The trinket is larger than most of the others, a shiny gold disc. It’s cleaner than the other items, too, like perhaps it was only placed there recently. “A pocket watch?”

“Pretty sure the most recent victim was missing a pocket watch,” Nico says. He nudges it. It’s the only object that seems to be completely free of gunk. “We should be able to get prints off it, too.” He fishes around in his jacket pockets, pulling out a notepad and paper. “Fuck, I forgot my camera.”

“Oh – I brought the new one,” Will says, reaching into his own coat pocket.

“Amazing.” Nico accepts the camera, snapping a few pictures before handing the notepad to Will. “Here. Can you take dictation? Your handwriting is better than mine.” He gives Will a sympathetic look. “And then you can move a little further away from the stench. You’re looking green.”

::

When Will arrives the next morning, he’s anxious and underslept, his head still lightly throbbing. He’d had the same dream over and over last night, each time he managed to drift off; vague visions of a man appearing in his bedroom, watching him in the dark. It had spooked him so badly he’d had to sleep with the light on.

He gives Nico a vague wave and a half-smile when he enters the office, hanging his coat and crossing to drop heavily into his chair.

“Everything okay?” comes Nico’s voice.

Will turns, making a valiant attempt to look more alive than he feels. “Yeah. Just couldn’t sleep.” He yawns hugely.

Nico hums in sympathy. “Coffee’s on,” he says, nodding at the little five-cupper on the counter, just gurgling out the last few drops to fill the pot.

“Yay,” Will says, rising instantly and making a beeline for the pot. “You want some too?”

“Yeah, please.”

“Hey, what do you think about this?” Nico asks when Will brings his coffee over, setting it carefully in the few square inches of available real estate on the desk.

Nico taps a file. “This is one of the victims from 1939. There’s a pretty thorough description of what the victim was wearing when she went missing. No photos, unfortunately, but it mentions a bracelet – gold with two small rubies.”

Will nods, remembering Nico’s dictation yesterday. “Yeah, that sounds like it matches up. I remember a gold bracelet. Can I see the camera?”

Will scans through the pictures Nico took at Exeter yesterday, finally finding the bracelet. “Too bad the light wasn’t better,” he muses. “But this could definitely be the one.” He turns the camera to show Nico, who nods, serious.

“Hey,” Will says, flipping through the photos more slowly now. “Nolan Campbell – the victim whose mother I was talking to – she said Nolan was wearing his dad’s class ring when he went missing. There were a couple of rings, weren’t there?” Will clicks back and forth between several poorly-exposed photos. “Do you think this could be a class ring?” he asks Nico, turning the camera again.

Nico squints at it, then takes the camera from Will, turning it slightly. “Yeah, that could be it. It was kind of half-buried in a crevice, remember? It definitely had that kind of signet shape.” Nico continues to poke at buttons, trying to zoom in, grimacing at the little screen.

“God, I’d love to get that ring back to his mom,” Will says, his voice going rough.

Nico looks up, a sympathetic twist to his mouth. Will shakes his head. He really doesn’t want to get back into that right now. “Did you find any other matches?” he asks.

“Yeah, one more.” Nico sets the camera down, reaching for another file. “There was a silver ring – one of the 1909 victims. No further description – so that could match. And then I was thinking about the article you found, about the animal attack –”

“Yeah, me too,” Will agrees. “Field trip to the library?”

Nico beams.

::

(here is part 2 of chapter 6!)

[marzipanandminutiae]

Top 5 cryptids

Loch Ness Monster. Loved Nessie so much when I was little because plesiosaurs looked very elegant and graceful to me. Also, she was a GIRL monster?!?!?! This was of critical importance- I loved it when there were specifically girl characters/historical figures/monsters/sentient trucks/etc. involved in anything. How did my parents not know I would grow up to be a lesbian? One of the great mysteries of our time. Anyway I spent Y2K- literally, December 31st, 1999 -researching Nessie on my family's big, clunky, wheezy computer. It's the first thing I remember researching online; I was six. So she retains a place in my heart, always.

Fresno Nightcrawllers. They're just. They're pants. Walking pants. How can you not love them? Crawl on, you funky little pants.

Mothman. I mean, he's a classic. We stan a legend in this house. Plus part of my family is from from West Virginia, so, you know. Appalachian Cryptid Pride.

Jackalopes. Definitely not real, but they make very cute taxidermy. I should get a taxidermy jackalope sometime.

Dragons. Yes, there are people who claim to have sighted bona fide dragons. Yes, recently. And you know what? I Choose To Believe.

[evilisk]

Monthly Gets: Reverse 1999 Edition

LostWord has become more boring than it already is (events now last three weeks instead of two, and it's been six months since we got any new characters that weren't those cowardly "Genic" units) so I'm into Reverse 1999 now.

I started this game in Patch 1.4. I started with Eternity and Bkornblume, slowly built up a party of regulars (An-an Lee, Balloon Party, Charlie, 37, 6, Jiu and Tooth Fairy). I think my account is in a pretty good place thanks to this patch.

Brand New:

Isolde: Got her in about 10 pulls (I had pity built up and I won the 50/50). I really needed a Spirit character, Isolde solves that problem. She's the last meta character I intend to pull.

Voyager: I was trying to get Shamane to solve my party's Beast DPS problem. I "lost" the pity to Voyager but this ended up being a happy accident, as Voyager was VERY helpful for the late July/early August Limbo. I got her all the way to R10 this patch.

Marcus: I used the leftover pity from trying to get Shamane to guarantee Marcus. I really wanted Marcus just because of how good she was in 1.7/Chapter 6's main story, even though I have no plans to get Vila.

Blonney / Horropedia: I randomly got them while getting Shamane/Voyager. Neither seems that good and I have strong attackers in both of their elements anyway, so I haven't touched them.

Other:

Maxed Out Eagle: I had her at R9 for a long time. Getting Isolde and her powerful debuff (which allows for easy Crits for Eagle) is why I ultimately got her to R10. It's great, Eagle is now a legit nuke.

R10 Tennant: I tried to fix my Beast DPS problem with Tennant, who I've always liked. Unfortunately, Tennant is just not cutting it as a DPS character. We still stan Tennant here, but it does suck that I *still* have a Beast DPS problem.

Insight 2 X / Zima: After this patch's Limbo, I decided to put some levels towards X and Zima. I'll eventually run into a fight where Voyager will have Afflatus disadvantage, so it'll be good to have a backup Sealer/Silencer.

Insight 3 Yenisei: Another character I leveled up to make my party more balanced. I got her in the last patch, but realized it would be good to have her, since she has Cleanse/Immunity (which has been a problem for certain fights).

Next Month Plans:

I'm just gonna save up for Kakania in 1.9. I'm not interested in any of the 1.8 characters or Lucy. If I have any leftovers I might go for Joe in 2.0? Since I still REALLY need that 6* Beast DPS character. I don't feel bad about not pulling for a whole patch, since 1.9 is gonna be giving us two free characters (one of them even works with my mid Eternity).

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I started looking up an old Comedy Zone lineup this week because I was writing a biography of Andy Zaltzman and wanted to see who'd done that with him, and then I fell down a small rabbit hole, and now I've accidentally taken screenshots of the Comedy Zone blurb in every Edinburgh program for the 24 years it ran (1991-2014 - I think, 1991 was definitely the first and I couldn't find references to it in later programs) and then made a list in text of all the lineups by year. I've done things like this before and usually there is at least some sort of point to it, but in this case it really is just autism, I saw a chance to make a list and I took it. It's not for any larger thing. But it might be kind of fun to look at?

The Comedy Zone was a thing where Avalon picked a few of its new people and had them perform as a mixed bill in the middle of the night throughout the Edinburgh Festival. As far as I can tell it was very frequently people who had not done a solo Edinburgh show before that year, but would do their first one the following year, so they were about that level of new.

I find it slightly interesting that I've heard of at least one person in all those bills, two or three in most of them. All four in 2000, 2009, 2011, and 2007. The 2007 thing I know in further detail from John Robins' Chortle blogs that chronicled his Comedy Zone experience from that year. Blogs that I highly recommend reading (archives exist from July and from August) - to anyone who shares my weird interest in Edinburgh Festival comedy history with a specific focus on the 00s, or to anyone who thinks John Robins is too intense now, and you would like some perspective on how much farther it used to go.

Anyway, I'm quite sure the number of people I've heard of in that list of Comedy Zone performers is disproportionate, compared to if you took a Fringe program from any of those years, made a list of all the comedians in it who had never done a full solo Edinburgh show before that year, and then took four random people from that list. The fact that Avalon could consistently pick which new people were most likely to go on to be famous (at least, famous enough for me to have heard of them, as a person in Canada in 2024), even though none of them were famous when they were first picked, is a sign that Avalon is a really really good judge of talent, and/or that there is truth in the conspiracy that Avalon secretly runs all of television. Possibly a bit of both. (My favourite example of that theory is this video, where they say at the beginning "Reds were made up mostly of Avalon acts" - no one in that video was particularly famous when it was filmed but there is a notable discrepancy now in the levels of fame from one team to the other).

The list is kind of interesting to read as a timeline of when people really kicked off their comedy careers, so it might be worth opening the link below for that. But really, I just made a pointless list of names for no reason and wanted to do something with it so I've stuck it here.

1991: Simon Munnery (as Alan Parker), Stewart Lee, Mark Lamarr, Chris & George

1992: Brenda Gilhooly (as Gayle Tuesday), Harry Hill, Al Murray, Andre Vincent

1993: Boothby Gaffoe, Woody Bop Muddy, Mathew Hardy, Mr Buckstead

1994: Julian Dutton, Dan Freedman, Kevin Eldon, Sean Percival

1995: Julian Barratt, Tony Burgess, Dave Gorman

1996: Can’t tell because it wouldn’t let me zoom in on the picture of the program, but definitely Brendon Burns was in there, possibly Ross Noble

1997: Chris Addison, Frankie Boyle, Neil Bromley, Noel Fielding

1998: Anton, Simon Evans, Gordon Southern, Dan Evans

1999: Dan Antopolski, Tony Law, Lucy Porter, Rob Rouse

2000: Danny Bhoy, Spencer Brown, Karen Taylor, Andy Zaltzman

2001: Rob Deering, Francesca Martinez, John Oliver, Karl Theobald

2002: Markus Birdman, Nick Doody, Gary Delaney, Ray Peacock

2003: Russell Howard, Matthew Osborn, Al Pitcher, Stan Stanley

2004: Tom Bell, Andy Bone, Steve Hall, Marek Larwood, Steve Williams

2005: Matt Grene, Russell Kane, Mark Olver, Isy Suttie

2006: Dan Atkinson, Lloyd Langford, Janice Phayre, Jon Richardson

2007: Barry Dodds, Carl Donnelly, John Robins, Joe Wilkinson

2008: Tom Deacon, Elis James (name misspelled in program), Nat Luurtsema, Henry Paker

2009: Jen Brister, Ed Gamble, Chris Ramsey, Gareth Richards

2010: Davey See, Ivo Graham, Josh Widdicombe, Naz Osmanoglu

2011: Hari Kondabolu, Iain Stirling, Paul Currie, Phil Wang

2012: Kieran Boyd, Hayley Ellis, Ahir Shah, Mark Smith

2013: Lucy Beaumont, Tommy Rowson, Carl Hutchinson, Matt Winning

2014: Steve Bugeja, Jack Barry, Alex Smith, Adam Hess

[gyllenhallelujah]

if there are no stans for ryan stiles (the acclaimed improv actor from the hit 1999 series whose line is it anyway?) left on this earth then brothers and sisters i am DEAD

[novellagg]

Yoon Eun-Jeong (윤은정)

── ✒️ Personal Information

Birth Name: Yoon Eun-Jeong (윤은정)

Birthday: January 2nd, 1999

Birthplace: Ulsan, South Korea

Ethnicity: Korean

Nationality: Korean

Height: 177cm/5'9"

Family: Father, Mother, Older brother (1995), Younger brother (2002)

Language(s): Korean (Native), English (Basic), Japanese (Basic)

Face Claim: Jeong Jinsoul (ARTMS)

── ✒️ Idol Information

Stage Name: Eunjeong

Nicknames: Jeong, Jeongie, Yeowang (Queen)

Agencies: Storybook Entertainment (2017 - present)

Training Period: 1 year (Oct 2017 - Oct 2018)

Position(s): Main Rapper

Her emoji is a giraffe (🦒) because she is the tallest of the group by far and has very long legs.

── ✒️ Misc Information

Her family has a siamese cat and a welsh corgi dog.

She loves travelling/exploring.

She is a lyricist.

She dislikes skin-ship/fanservice and hates aegyo even more.

── ✒️ About Eunjeong

Warnings: N/A

Growing up in a wealthy patriarchal household meant that Eunjeong was expected to shut up and go along with everything her parents said. One of those things being piano lessons. At the time she found them extremely boring, but as she grew older and developed an interest in rap/K-Pop, she realised her piano could be used to write music.

She hid her music-loving side from her parents, who she expected to disown her once she made it known that she had no interest in working for the family business. However, her dad had never wanted a daughter anyway, so all she got was a 'good riddance' before he stopped speaking to her altogether.

In November 2017, Eun-Jeong auditioned at many idol companies and was accepted by almost all of them. She accepted the offer from MISSMUSE Entertainment because they told her she was guaranteed to debut within a year.

Eun-Jeong is definitely a hot topic on stan Twitter, and not for good reason. Many videos of her sitting at award shows have been overanalysed to make it seem like she hates certain idols. Her straightforwardness also doesn't help, which often comes across as catty and rude.

[rahleeyah]

I know you turned off Twitter but I wondered if you saw Ainsley’s (actress who plays Jet) tweet? It’s not a spoiler but she basically was like “I know you’re all excited for the EO of it all but we’ve been working so hard on the upcoming episodes and stuff” and Chris liked it

And idk why it’s been bugging me but I guess at first I felt bad reading that because obviously everyone on all three shows work extremely hard and long hours for the product we get to see every week and I’m sure it may be annoying for actors who are not CandM to see us tweeting about EO and how excited we are because of the promo and being like… these fans have no idea how hard we work all the time grrr

But on the other hand a big part of me is like Ainsley stfu we are allowed to be BIGGG excited about EO possibly moving forward! We have waited literally her entire lifetime for something to happen between them and us being hype about it doesn’t demean the work you and everyone else on the shows do every week. Like honestly OC is good but it’s not really for me tbh I mainly watch it because I really like jet and bell and I’m waiting for any EO crumbs that may come our way like PacMan.

Anyways not sure why but I keep thinking about her tweet but it like… dampens my impending joy that I know we are more that likely going to get from the next SVU epi and that some of the actors are almost irritated by that. Like THE core couple of the show that’s been running since fucking 1999 may get together soon… why the fuck shouldn’t fans be freaking the fuck out?!! It’s one of the things that keeps us watching!

Also! Really love the new Mia story and can’t wait to devour the next chapter!! ❤️❤️❤️

I mean this in the nicest way I possibly can but: please chill down and cut Ainsley some slack.

That's literally all she said. Ainsley wasn't saying that it's not fair for people to be excited about EO or that people who are excited about EO have done something wrong. Ainsley wasn't trying to shame people for being excited about EO. This is Ainsley's first big TV show and it has been tumultuous behind the scenes with the constant shake ups in show runners and creative directions and the first arc of this season was frankly bad tho they are improving in the second arc, and thru all this the oc team has been trying really, really hard to do the best they can with what they have been given. The show is finding its feet and Ainsley is excited about it and she should be. She's allowed to be.

For every single person even tangentially involved in SVU/oc their mentions are constantly full of people asking them questions about EO when that really has nothing to do with them. Chris can't post a political take without someone asking to see his ass and Dani can't post a selfie without someone asking when EO are gonna kiss, and on and on it goes. If I was them, I'd be frustrated, not bc EO isn't important but bc people @ the cast and then treat them like they're nothing. But that's NOT what Ainsley expressed in this tweet. There's no frustration or complaining there.

Ainsley wanted to hype up the work her crew has done, that they're excited about, that they're proud of, and that's ok. She wasn't saying it's either/or, or that being excited about one negates the other. She wasn't passing judgment or minimizing EO stans.

The tl;dr of it all is simply this: if you can, try to shift your perspective on this so that it doesn't bother you so much, bc I genuinely think no harm was intended, and you may personally feel better if you no longer feel attacked.

[oraclekleo]

🌻

Hiii! 🥹

I’m Yiel, I’m 23yrs old. Born in 7th of Aug, 1999✨

I recently started getting interested in Astrology and Tarot and tho my account here has been around for a while, I’m fairly new here as a Stay (SKZ Fan) 🥹

I’ve been into Kpop since the pandemic started, mainly only stanning Astro. I was a very active Aroha (Astro Fan) back then, but life happened and I have to slow down but my love for them never changed a bit, knowing they’re the ones that saved me from going crazyyy when the lockdown started. A lot happened since, and its been quiet a sad time especially because of what happened last April. Which lead me to find comfort in Stray Kids, and Tumblr. And I’m honestly so glad I did 😭

I mostly listen to Pop, Pop-Punk, Rock, and Country Music. I’m also an aspiring singer hehe. I honestly love the mystery of what the future holds, maybe thats why I enjoy reading people’s interpretations of tarot readings and I have also started to study the tarot by myself and the help of the internet as well 🫶🏻

I found your blog whilst scrolling through #StrayKidsTarot 🥰 I ended up looking into one of your readings for Chan, and somehow, something clicked in my head and I immediately followed you, went straight to your masterlist. I can’t tell you how happy I got when I saw Astro in one of the groups you’ve read for 😭

In all of the accounts I followed, yours is definitely one of those that really seemed to be enjoying what they do and is knowledgeable about Tarot, also I find it amazing that you have Games and PAC’s too! 🥹

Through your blog, I see you as someone very dedicated and happy with what they do, and I think you’re an amazing person all throughout🫰🏻

Love and Light ✨

Hello and be very welcomed to my blog! 💖

Okay! First of all, you have used the sunflower emoji but I can't see which idol you would like the compatibility reading with. You have written such a beautiful and long message and that one information probably slipped out 😁 No worries, this actually happens to me all the time. You have mentioned Stray Kids and Astro and therefore I don't dare to assume you would want Yeonjun compatibility reading. You have followed the rules perfectly so if you sent me the name of idol you want to be shipped with, I'll do your reading, no problem. 😊

Now when the official part is off my chest, thank you so much for joining my little Tumblr family here. And yes, tarot is indeed my passion and I mostly do it for my own sake not for the popularity or such 😂 The fact I can share my interest with others is only a pleasant bonus. 😊

I got my first deck 17 years ago so it's something I'm into for quite a while. 😂 I'm always happy to hear it when somebody wants to start tarot reading themselves. It's one of the greatest hobbies! I often give suggestions on card interpretations here and I even still run the offer where you can practice with me where I will give a feedback to you and help in any way I possibly can 😁 So! Don't be shy to drop ask or message me anytime. I have already several apprentices. 😂

I'm truly happy you like the content here. I try to keep it diverse. I'm the type of person who would start get bored if only doing one thing again and again. That's the reason for games and interactive stories and Idols After Dark series... I like to keep things interesting for myself. If I haven't detoured like this, I might have completed my requests much sooner but maybe also never because I would lose interest in tarot. 😂

I am in deed dedicated but I'm also super organized and methodical 😂 You should see my charts and docs regarding tarot readings. 🤣

Anyway! Happy to have you here. Don't hesitate to interact with me anytime. I love to talk to my followers. Even about silly things. We had tea discussion, we had a villain discussion that gets ressurected once in while 😂

Be blessed! ✨

Kleo 🦄

[sharoscylla]

i don't have time to do any more tmnt AUs so here are some free ideas I had over the past day

GF/TMNT au where Stan is Splinter (AKA: Mutated Fighting Rat Man) and he's got four turtle sons (and a human son, Soos, obvis) I'm feeling like 1982-1999 are pretty much identical to how they go in GF canon but him and his turtle sons get mutated like in 1999 as well and the boys are roughly the same age as Dipper and Mabel. given the setting they're probably more likely to have cloaking amulets or whatever?

rottmnt movie AU where, when Casey gets sent back to 2020, Old Ass Leon gets sent back 550~ years and now he has to figure out 1 how to get to Japan from Pre-Colombian North America to help deal with the uhhh fuckin shredder situation 2 whether he even should try to change his own personal history in such a way since it was due to the direct influence of the shredder that his family was personally able to resist the krang for as long as they managed to 3 what he actually can be capable of changing without creating an unrecognizable world completely unlike his own

tmnt but they got mutated during like WW1. could be set in the 20s and have a combined Call of Cthulhu/Great Gatsby vibe tbh. i might decide to do this one later because it sounds cool as hell to me lol

kind of a body horror-focused reverse-mutation AU where the turtles in fact start out as humans and get turtled. i know this is what happens to jennika anyway but i am Envisioning It In My Mind and I would like to see it.

TMNT au partially inspired by Neil Gaiman's "Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?" where, upon having realized he has four turtle sons driven to grief-stricken despair about their places in the world, Splinter just fully invents bad guys and ninja cults (and dresses up as the shredder) just to Give Them Something To Do, it ended badly with one of the turtles dead, and the fic itself is taking place years later as the three surviving sons get together to try to make sense of their lives and figure out how to move past this.

kind of a mutagen bomb background where the event that mutated the turtles and splinter also mutated like 100,000 other people, so mutants are a fully recognized class of American citizen and it's also a lot harder to train your turtle sons to be literal ninjas when they are in fact fully expected to go to normal high school and do normal high school things. then again if you're allowed to have a passport as a rat and four turtles you can also travel to and from japan where your cousins and parents live lmao

the turtles are in their late 30s/early 40s but there's no apocalyptic wasteland or anything they've just been getting progressively weirder and weirder as the world moves on without making a space for them. mikey in particular is relating way too much to the Eve 6 guy. every time one of them moves out he ends up moving back in within a year because none of them has ever lived alone and the quiet is too much when they try.

another Dark Tower crossover, but what if Roland had 4 teenage mutant ninja turtle friends when he was a teenager. There's no way Susan Delgado dies in that timeline, there's too many child soldiers around for that to happen.

[rinskazuu]

more about me; find about abt my fav characters & my likes^^

if ur interested in greater detail, here's my carrd co: tighnar1s carrd

hello! my name is shen, short for shenyi, although i prefer you just stick with “shen”. i’m 20, my birthday is september 28 (04 baby), which makes me a libra! i’m an infp, last i checked anyway.. and i’m bisexual, still questioning, but mostly set on bi.

my username is actually just a mix of rindou haitani & kazutora hanemiya from tokyo revengers. my top 2 from tr🫶

my likes;

i do enjoy watching anime, i listen to kpop & i love to edit. i’m not toxic, i promise<3

animes! chronologically ordered; attack on titan, jujutsu kaisen, tokyo ghoul, demon slayer, bungou stray dogs, haikyuu, my hero academia, tokyo revengers, hunter x hunter, blue exorcist, record of ragnarok, kuroko no basket, the assassination classroom, and blue lock

i’d love to watch more but i have so many interests to keep up with

kpop groups; i’m not as into kpop as i was in 2021 but i guess i still find a little comfort in it. my ult group is nct, i also stan bts, txt, ateez, enhypen, seventeen, blackpink, itzy, red velvet, aespa & twice.

games; genshin impact (ar59), hsr (lvl64), valorant (peak g1, current rank unranked cus it's been a bit since i played), love and deepspace (lvl51), minecraft, and roblox

sometimes, i play wuthering waves, zenless zone zero, reverse: 1999, and the sims 4

favs;

attack on titan; armin, jean, reiner, porco, annie, and pieck

jujutsu kaisen; megumi, toji, choso, and nobara

tokyo ghoul; ayato

demon slayer; giyuu and tengen

bungou stray dogs; chuuya and ranpo

haikyuu; atsumu, semi, suna, kita, oikawa, sugawara, kuroo, akaashi, and konoha

my hero academia; kaminari, todoroki, and bakugou

tokyo revengers; rindou, kazutora, sanzu, mikey, mitsuya, chifuyu, izana, wakasa, inupi, shion, and hanma

hunter x hunter; kurapika and chrollo

blue exorcist; rin

record of ragnarok; hermes, poseidon, and hades

kuroko no basket; kise

the assassination classroom: rio and karma

blue lock: sae, bachiro, nagi, otoya, and karasu

genshin impact; i’m currently ar59, have been playing since august 7, 2022, and i’m a yelan main^^

favs are: xiao, itto, tighnari, ningguang, sara, ayato, diluc, childe, kaeya, zhongli, beidou, yelan & ei

honkai star rail; i'm currently ar64, maining acheron!

favs are: gepard, sunday, dr ratio, acheron, black swan, aventurine, jing yuan, and luocha

valorant; i peaked gold 1 but am currently unranked because last time i played, i played for like a week straight for at least 7 hours, and i burned out so bad.

favs are: reyna, sage, and iso

if you want to play, i’d love to! just dm me on instagram or on here just so i can share my uid & tag privately(and also know if im adding the right person back).

as i’ve mentioned before, i do edit! i’ve been editing since july 24, 2018. initially, i used cute cut pro. around march of 2020, i moved to vsp and then, august of 2020, i moved to after effects cc 2020. i’ve been using it ever since. my anime editing acc, on instagram, is @armevii. my kpop one, on instagram as well, is @rennjvn. i dont post on there much:( but i am active on my story. recently, i’ve been posting less cus again, i’m so invested in grinding on genshin.

about the ig pages, i did move from both those accounts to @tighnar1s, and i’m multi. you can still check out armevii and rennjvn for my old edits, but i am now only posting on tighnar1s.

my other hobbies include; writing & reading and sleeping. i think that about sums it up. hope you are all more inclined to enter my page^^

#shencasual; i rant a lot ':

#shenwrites; upcoming ideas! :D (requests and/or suggestions are SO welcomed, and absolutely contributes to my ideas)

#shenrecs; you need to read this.

#shengenshin; shen talks a lot abt genshin

#shenhsr; shen talks a lot abt hsr (surprise)

#shentr; shen also talks a lot abt tokyo revengers (MANGA SPOILERS, will be warned:>)

#shenanime; me talking abt any other anime ':

[alister312]

What Do We Canonically Know About Gregory?

“I must say, I don’t think I belong with these rogues. I attended school at Yardale and had a 4-0 grade point average.”

Gregory may have only ever appeared as a secondary character in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, but years after the film, the SP fandom still loves him. However, with such a disproportionate ratio of screen time to fan appreciation, what is fanon versus what is canon can get confused. Therefore, today I’d like to go through everything we canonically know about Gregory, with some light personal speculation based on the canon.

To start, I’ll state that what I am taking to be canon is everything that happened in the movie, along with South Park Studios wiki page about him (as close to an official wiki as I can get).

In the very first scene Gregory appears in, we learn a few concrete things about him.

Firstly, he can ice skate and it seems he’s relatively talented, as he mentions doing jumps earlier. Second, he introduces himself as “Gregory” and mentions he has just transferred from Yardale where he had a “4-0 grade point average”. His fandom wiki page mentions that Yardale is meant to be a portmanteau of Yale and Harvard, though I haven’t found anything to back this up. If it’s true, though, it speaks highly of his intellect. Whether it’s true or not, it’s clear that intelligence, or perhaps education generally, is important to Gregory, if he tells others his grades before even his last name. This tracks for later in the movie, when he and Wendy smile at one another when Garrison says that there’s “a lot to learn today” before class.

The value that Gregory places on intelligence and education are likely why he seems to only want to interact with Wendy. He tells Stan that he and Wendy spent time “talking of memories past”, which probably involved her frustrations with being one of the few more mature (and therefore “intelligent”) kids in her grade. Gregory quickly loses interest with Stan when he mentions that he’s gone to see the Terrance and Phillip (T&P) movie, saying a simple “Oho!” before leaving to talk with Wendy more. Considering they’re the only ones who didn’t wear T&P shirts to school, he obviously sees Wendy as his only intellectual equal.

Despite this, Gregory readily joins in with the others during “It’s Easy MMMkay”. He does have a line about how he doesn’t think he should be there, yet he sings and dances throughout the song/rehabilitation. He even laughs with the other kids at the end of the whole thing! In fact, I’d say this song is the time when he is the most similar to the other kids. It’s possible that the song and dance components brought that out in him.

This sequence is also the only hint we ever get towards Gregory’s parents, and not even that in depth, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Mr. Mackey tells all the students at the beginning that “[their] mothers insisted they be taken from [their] normal schoolwork and taught not to swear”. Therefore, we can reasonably say that 1) Gregory at least has a mother and 2) she believes in good manners. Based on how poshly Gregory conducts himself, I’d go a step further and say that his mother (and perhaps dad if he has one) places a heavy emphasis on manners, especially if she’s willing to pull him from schoolwork (something he has previously demonstrated to be of great importance to him and likely his parents as well).

Now, let’s get into political Gregory, another key canonical component of his character. The first instance we see of this is when Garrison makes a comment about all the mothers being on their periods, a lame explanation as to why they’ve arrested T&P. Wendy whispers something to Gregory and he feels compelled to share what she told him (“Wendy and I think that was a sexist statement”). It’s unclear why Wendy didn’t say it out loud herself, but my guess is that because Garrison is a sexist, she assumed she’d be dismissed and hoped Gregory would be taken seriously. If this is the case, then Gregory is aware of the privilege he holds and is keen to use it to uplift and bring attention to those oppressed.

Since we’re talking about political Gregory, let’s circle back to the idea that Wendy is Gregory’s only intellectual equal at school (in his eyes at least). For most of the movie, only they (and arguably Christophe) demonstrably understand the political nuance of the Canadian war and what it implies. When the declaration of war is announced, Wendy and Gregory appear to be the only students who are scared rather than confused. Even when Gregory tries to explain why this is wrong, what he says goes over everyone’s head except for Wendy.

However, while they’re mostly on the same page, there’s a few differences in what exactly they seem to take issue with. During Gregory’s recess soapbox speech, he seems to fixate on how this is an issue with America as a country (“The American government thinks it has the right to police the world. Your government is going to kill two Canadian citizens, an action condemned by the UN. Home of the free indeed!”). These lines tell us that Gregory is not American (“your government”). This is further confirmed when he uses kilometers as measurements later in the movie. Additionally, his direct accusation of the country and sarcastic tone at the end indicates that he doesn’t think very highly of the U.S. at all.

Wendy, meanwhile, seems to focus more on freedom of speech and censorship, suggesting that she is not quite as radicalized against America as Gregory is. After she speaks, Gregory starts talking again, although we don’t get to hear what he says because Stan (the current audience perspective) is distracted. However, based on the fact that Wendy asks Stan what he thinks afterward, I think it’s likely that Gregory is explaining why he feels so strongly and why others should too. This could connect back towards his potential want to use his privilege to educate and uplift others.

I believe Gregory is able to accomplish this to an extent! While it’s Kyle (along with Stan and Cartman) who puts out the call for others to meet for La Resistance, when Gregory shows up with Wendy, he says that others are coming. Considering he’s new in town and has no friends besides Wendy, how would he know this? I think that, once he and Wendy learned there was a resistance group, they went and convinced others to join. Only two kids leave when they learn there isn’t any punch or pie, so the rest are actually dedicated to the cause. Considering how uninterested they were before, it makes sense that somehow Gregory was able to get through to them.

Even if this is what Gregory wants, however, it’s obvious that he struggles at being patient with anyone who isn’t as informed as he is. He is impressed by Stan and the others’ willingness to try, he is quickly frustrated at their lack of experience. He has enough manners in him to ask “May I?” when it’s revealed that Stan’s plan is useless, but not enough patience to wait for a yes before he takes over the La Resistance meeting. While this could be seen as rude or snobbish, it’s evident that Gregory has already spent a lot of time researching, likely already planning to do something himself. How else would he so intricately know the layout of the base where T&P are being kept or the exact window of opportunity during the USO show?

Gregory’s song, of course, says a lot about his perspective on the world. For starters, despite his pessimism about America, Gregory does seem to believe in freedom. He is not just fighting to dismantle– he is fighting to improve. Also, religion seems to be a rather heavy influence for him. Not only does he invoke God when talking about fighting for freedom, but he claims they are all “blessèd” and ultimately “only the righteous” will stand. Often, the connotation behind righteousness is a religious one, or a moral one which can stem from religious teachings.

Another tenet of Gregory’s belief seems to be the idea that sacrifice is admirable, necessary, and inevitable when fighting for freedom. He describes various potential and graphic scenarios where they die for the cause, but these are meant to be inspiring rather than scary. Additionally, he implies that these are not hypotheticals (“when you all get shot”, “when they torture you”, “that’s the way it goes / in war you’re shat upon”). Gregory definitely takes revolutionary work very seriously, but he also seems to romanticize the idea of being a martyr. While that paints him in a slightly naive light, he is at least willing to be hands on and isn’t scared to be a part of the body count (switching from “for though you die” to “for though we die”).

The way Gregory acts throughout the whole of the La Resistance meeting and later in the film (when he realizes Stan and the others failed) really shows that Gregory has a lot of self confidence, which can manifest as arrogance. It’s not as if his confidence is unearned– he is clearly very competent and experienced when it comes to revolutionary work. However, Gregory does automatically assume others can’t handle dangerous or complicated tasks (and is unsurprised when proven right). I don’t think he realizes that he is coming off as pretentious, considering how unfazed he is whenever people get annoyed with him.

In fact, the only time Gregory seems truly offended is when Wendy vocally renounces him, saying “Fuck Gregory, fuck him right in the ear!” This isn’t the first time she’s looked at him angrily or the first time he’s been “insulted” right to his face (earlier when Cartman called him a “fucking faggot”), but this is the first time it upsets him. Why? I think it’s a combination of two things. First, he doesn’t seem that great at picking up on subtleties. He couldn’t tell when Wendy was annoyed with him, or when Stan was, and he’s not great at being subtle himself. Second, either Gregory doesn’t consider faggot to be an insult or Wendy’s opinion is one he actually values, especially when compared to Cartman. Both of these are possible, though the latter is more likely.

Is it possible for Gregory to overcome his arrogance and dismissive mindset when it comes to others? It seems so! The way he praises Stan for volunteering and seems impressed when he finally understands the heart of the issue (i.e. freedom of speech) suggests that Gregory grows to like people as long as they are trying. He even entrusts the very symbolically important role of La Resistance banner holder to Butters, despite the fact that Butters trips when he holds it. This could even connect back to why Gregory is so into Mr. Mackey’s rehabilitation– he appreciates when others put in the effort to better themselves and the world around them. This is likely why he praises Christophe (calling him an expert), as Christophe is shown to be a very dedicated and determined individual, even if he’s misotheistic (contrasting Gregory’s positive tone towards God) and prone to toilet humor (the “buttfor” joke).

So now that we know all there is to canonically know about Gregory, what are the core components of his character? He places a lot of his own worth in his intelligence/education and expects others to as well. I’d argue that his high expectations of hyper competence tie into this as well. All of that contributes to his slight arrogance and inability to truly connect with others who aren’t on the same level as him, with Wendy and Christophe (and perhaps Stan by the end) seeming to be the only ones who have his respect. Despite this, Gregory uses his privileged standing to advocate for others and speaks out against (and actively fights) injustice. He has very strong (perhaps Christian-inspired) morals and isn’t afraid to sacrifice himself for what he believes in.

[thehotboxsocial]

Lil Wayne Features

Cannon (Remix) [Drama feat. Lil Wayne, Willie The Kid, Freeway & T.I.] (2007)

We Takin' Over [DJ Khaled feat. T.I., Akon, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman & Lil Wayne] (2007)

Duffle Bag Boy [Playaz Circle feat. Lil Wayne] (2007)

Make It Rain [Fat Joe feat. Lil Wayne] (2006)

White Girl [Juvenile feat. Lil Wayne & Birdman] (2001)

Gettin Some (Remix) [Shawnna feat. Ludacris, Too Short, Lil Wayne & Pharrell] (2006)

Codeine Dreaming [Kodak Black feat. Lil Wayne] (2017)

Ride Out [Murder Mil feat. Lil Wayne, B.G. & Beanie Sigel] (2001)

Rich N----z [Juvenile feat. Lil Wayne, Mannie Fresh, Turk & Paparue] (1998)

N----z In Trouble [B.G. feat. Lil Wayne & Juvenile] (1999)

Bullet Wound [Gucci Mane feat. Lil' Wayne & Young Scooter] (2013)

Lost [Gorilla Zoe feat. Lil Wayne] (2008)

4 Minutes [Juvenile feat. Lil Wayne, B.G., Mannie Fresh & Turk] (2001)

I Know [B.G. feat. Lil Wayne] (2000)

Demolition Pt. 1 [Gudda Gudda feat. Lil Wayne] (2009)

Bands A Make Her Dance (Remix) [Juicy J feat Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz] (2012)

Hustle Hard (Remix) [Ace Hood feat. Rick Ross & Lil Wayne] (2008)

Ain't It Man [Boo & Gotti feat. Lil Wayne] (2003)

U-Way (Remix) [Youngbloodz feat. Lil Wayne] (1999)

Luxury Tax [Rick Ross feat. Lil Wayne, Jeezy & Trick Daddy] (2008)

Screwed Up [Trae Tha Truth feat. Lil Wayne] (2007)

Stand Up [Lil Scrappy feat. Lil Wayne] (2008)

Gangsta Muzik [Fiend feat. Lil Wayne] (2009)

Get It All Together [Birdman feat. Lil Wayne] (2005)

Let The Thugs In The Club [Mack 10 feat. Lil Wayne & B.G.] (2001)

Ball [T.I. feat. Lil' Wayne] (2012)

Bend It Ova (Remix) [5th Ward Weebie feat. Lil Wayne] (2008)

Dem Boys [Willie D feat. Scarface & Lil Wayne] (2000)

Playin It Raw [B.G. feat. Lil Wayne, Turk & Juvenile] (1999)

Forgot About Me [Scarface feat. Lil Wayne & Bun B] (2008)

Truffle Butter [Nicki Minaj feat. Lil Wayne] (2015)

Roger That [Young Money feat. Nicki Minaj, Tyga & Lil Wayne] (2009)

Stand Up [T.I. feat. Trick Daddy, Lil' Jon & Lil' Wayne] (2004)

Take Kare [Young Thug feat. Lil Wayne] (2015)

Flossin' [Outta Control Ballers feat. Lil Wayne] (1998)

Shawty Say [David Banner feat. Lil Wayne] (2008)

Kryptonite (Remix) [Killer Mike Lil Wayne, Big Boi, Busta Rhymes & Bubba Sparxxx] (2006)

Batman (Remix) [LPD Poody feat. Lil Wayne & Moneybagg Yo] (2021)

Breakin' My Heart [Little Brother feat. Lil' Wayne] (2007)

Kitten [Kash Doll feat. Lil Wayne] (2019)

dl        yt

An official document of Wayne’s prolific 3-decade run will yield hundreds of songs so consider this humble compilation a work in progress. Much like how Noz has done 100-packs on Young Thug, Future & Chief Keef, Wayne deserves the same treatment but in at least 3 volumes. I’m thinking something like this: 100 for features, 100 mixtape/beat jacks, 100 from his officially solo/Hot Boys/Stunna albums at minimum. 

I’ve actually contemplated doing all the work myself but I don’t have the time to get too passion projecty right now. Maybe someone can take these 40 foundation features and build until we develop a crowd sourced multi-volume best of Wayne library. Just don’t be one of those Wayne-really-got-started-in-2005 ass minions and neglect his Hot Boys era shit! And while I’m using exclamation points also please stop ranking his full-lengths on twitter! Leave the album ranking to the Jay-Z stans!  Wayne’s output is so scattershot across so many years for all that and being an Album Artist is boring anyway! But being the greatest rapper of all time is exciting!!

Bonus Beats: Lil Wayne R&B Features

Soldier [Destiny's Child feat. T.I. & Lil Wayne] (2004)

Can't Believe It [T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne] (2008)

Turnin' Me On [Keri Hilson feat. Lil Wayne] (2009)

Roll Call [Ciara feat. Lil Wayne & Lil Jon] (2009)

Freeze (Po Pimpin') [Aniyah Rachelle feat. Lil Wayne] (2009)

You Know What [Avant feat. Lil Wayne & Jermaine Dupri] (2005)

So Good (Remix) [Electrik Red feat. Lil Wayne] (2009)

Ride On [TQ feat. Lil Wayne] (1999)

dl         yt