#he *murdered people* melissa

[thecaduceusclay]

.

[temilyrights]

in the darkness (open your eyes)

melissa schemmenti x fem!reader

summary: melissa and reader are angry with each other over reader's dating life. who will break first? or will someone need to intervene to get them to pull their heads out their asses and make up? inspired by prompt 31 “Let’s just say that if I saw you bleeding out on my kitchen floor, I’d act like I hadn’t seen you.”

word count: 4.6k

warnings: arguments, swearing, hurt/comfort, insecure!melissa, age gap, reader is referenced as being under 30.

a/n: hello friends, this has been a long time coming. i've wanted to write for this queen for ages and when i finally sat down to do it the words didn't stop spilling out of me. i haven't been able to write like this in years, so i think i've found my passion again in melissa <3 it's good to be back. it's a long one and i hope i managed to capture her correctly. enjoy :)

For twenty years Barbara Howard has arrived at Abbott Elementary at 5.50am on the dot, just in time for her to park her car, take a stroll to the staffroom and make herself a coffee before Action News started at 6 sharp. Now, the walls of Abbott were never calm, but for 30 minutes every morning, while she sipped her coffee and listened to the soothing tones of Jim Gardner, everyone around her seemed to be able to keep themselves together. Even in her first year of teaching Janine had never tried to disturb her, maybe for once able to sense the importance of these moments for a successful teaching day. 

Barbara can tell it will not be a normal day in Abbott the moment she pushes past the green doors into the building. The energy is high in the air and she fears if she touches anything an electric shock might meet her. Still, she sends a prayer to God and pushes her way through the building.

No one was stopping her from getting her 30 minutes of peace. 

She finds the culprit for the upsetting energy the moment she crosses the threshold of the staff room and is not slightly surprised. Melissa sits in her usual chair, her face murderous, eye’s dark and tongue in cheek as she stares pointedly at the wall with her arms crossed tightly against her chest. Jacob sits on the couch, eyes on his phone and leg bouncing anxiously, he shoots a look around the room and when his eyes land on Barbara his body sags in relief, thinking he’s found safety. 

Whilst Barbara’s got no idea what has happened, she also notes that the room is empty apart from the three of them and although Melissa’s anger making people scram is not an uncommon occurrence, it has never, in the last two years since you joined Abbott, made you flee a room. In fact, Barbara had watched you calm Melissa down with a simple touch to her arm, something she has never been able to do. 

You did not fear Melissa, which means this anger was likely related to you. These moments were normally quick and fleeting and yet Melissa was so upset it was going to disrupt Action News. Definitely not a regular morning. 

“Would you like a coffee, Melissa?” Barbara asks, starting simple as she enters the room and makes her way to the coffee machine, barely sparing Melissa a glance.

Melissa stands and takes the coffee mug from the table beside her and throws it on the floor, shattering it into tiny pieces, making Jacob yelp. She stalks from the room, muttering angrily under her breath something about ‘betrayal’. 

Barbara sighs tiredly, pressing her fingers to her temples. Today was going to be a long day. 

She considers going after the redhead but as a simple question had produced such a ferocious reaction, she decides it is best to let her cool off before work starts and sits down with Jacob to catch the reminder of Action News. 

She was determined to not let today become a complete lost cause. 

Later, on her way to her classroom to set up for the day, she finds Melissa with her head buried in grading, probably a good idea and a way to calm herself down after this morning's fiasco. However, you’re completely missing from your classroom, very unusual. 

A complete disruption to your routine this morning it seems, Miss L/N.

Barbara lays eyes on you for the first time that day when she’s walking her class to their music lesson. You offer a smile and “Good Morning, Miss Howard,” but the bags are obvious under your eyes. You did not sleep well last night. 

��Good Morning. Your class is in an excellent mood this morning. Gym class?” She asks, looking behind you to the excited third-graders who stand in lines of two, well-behaved but talking in a low excited chatter. 

You chuckle, “I’ve never known a class to love it more.”

Barbara hums, waving goodbye as you turn off down the corridor towards the gym. She drops her class off with the music teacher, making sure to remind them to be well behaved before she heads back down the corridor, stopping at your classroom. 

You look up from your desk, surprised. “Can I help you, Barbara?” 

She’s never seen the point beating around the bush, and she was not about to start now. “I ran into a very angry Melissa this morning. Do you know something about that?” 

Your entire body tenses, your smile going rigid and tight on your face. Barbara can see the anger simmering behind the surface. Unusual. You were always more calm, more open to reason. “I’d be more surprised if you’d said she was in a good mood. Now I’ve actually got work to be doing, if you don’t mind.” 

“Y/N,” Barbara sighs, giving you the pointed look that always works on students and teachers alike. 

You shake your head, “I really respect you a lot Barb, but you’re not gonna be able to fix this one. Please just leave it alone.” 

Barbara stands there for a long moment, staring at you, before she releases a sigh. “Fine. But one of you needs to fix this because Abbott barely has enough mugs as it is.”

She gives you one last pointed look before leaving the room. You sink into your desk, hands capturing your head to stop your head from slamming against the desk and adding to your already growing headache. 

Fuck Melissa Schemmenti. 

Fuck everything about her. 

She had no right to be angry. You’d done nothing wrong. You felt bad for blowing off Barbara, you knew she was just trying to help. And usually a pointed look from her had you confessing your darkest sins, but not this time you couldn’t. She couldn’t fix it. Melissa was the one in the wrong and you were gonna keep a wide berth until she bloody well realised that. 

Although knowing Melissa, you’ll be on your deathbed before that happens and maybe even then she’ll find something scalding to say. It’s what you get for trying to have an honest conversation with a red-headed cancer. 

She was more ill behaved than your worst students. 

 ——

You dismiss your students for lunch minutes before the bell rings, hoping you’ll be able to run to the staff room and grab your lunch and run back without facing the redhead. It’s not that you’re scared of her, you simply don’t have the energy to deal with her attitude so eating in your classroom was the best option. 

However, your plans are foiled when Ava stops your pathway talking about a new tiktok challenge that she wants you involved in. “You’re the only teacher that won’t embarrass me and show off that this place has at least some fit, young teachers.” 

“Sure, whatever. I need to go.” You say, not really listening as you put an end to the conversation and move past her. 

“Rude!” She yells back at you, “But do your thing, girl!” 

By the time you make it to the staff room everyone is already there. Jacob is telling an over the top story about something uninteresting to Janine and Gregory. And Barbara and Melissa are talking quietly at their usual table, where you usually join them. Melissa looks calmer than when you’d spoken to her this morning, she even smiles at Barbara, however the moment you step into the room it all fades away. Her eyes land on you and her eyes harden and her shoulder tense. She jabs the salad in her tupperware harshly. 

You can’t contain your eye roll and don’t bother to say hello to anyone as you make your way through the room to the fridge. 

Janine picks up on the tension in the room, drawing her away from Jacob’s rambling that appears to have gotten more anxious. “Woah, what’s going on guys?” 

“Nothing.” You say.

“Y/N’s a snake.” Melissa gruffs at the same time. 

You slam the door to the fridge before you can grab your lunch, swinging around to glare at her as Barbara releases a horrified, “Melissa!”

“You’re a child. Just grow up!” You growl. 

“Rich comin’ from the girl that isn’t even thirty yet.” 

“Well that wasn’t a problem for your sister when I went on a date with her last night!” 

The gasps in the room are instant. Even Gregory breaks out into a coughing fit as he struggles for breath. And okay, yeah. So you went on a date with Melissa’s sister, but in your defence you hadn’t known she was her sister until half way through the date and then you’d fucking ended it because you knew Melissa would get her panties in a twist. 

And you thought you were being a good friend coming clean, that it would be a funny story. But no, classic Melissa flipped her shit talking about betrayal and schemes. 

“Kristen Marie?” You hear Jacob mutter horrified under his breath. You don’t bother to correct him but no, her you knew. It had been Toni, Melissa’s youngest sister. You’d matched on Tinder and apart from both having green eyes there was nothing on her profile that gave away they were siblings. Toni was tall with short brown hair. You hadn’t even known she was from Philly until you showed up.

Melissa pushes herself up from her chair, her eyes dark and murderous as she stalks over to you. “I want nothin’ to do with ya.” 

The hurt you’re feeling is shoved down. There’s no place for it when she’s angry. “Fine by me. If you’re this upset over one date I left early then maybe it’s a good call to bring this friendship to an end.” 

“Guys-” Janine tries to interrupt.

“No,” You state hardly, eyes never straying from Melissa’s cold ones, “Schemmenti finally knows what she wants.” 

“Yeah I do, and it’s you far away from me. In fact, so it’s clear for everyone just how I feel about this traitor, let’s say that if I saw you bleedin’ out on my kitchen floor, I’d act like I hadn’t seen ya.” 

More horrified gasps. The words hit you in the chest but you barrel forward, your words scalding as you see red. “Wow, Schemmenti. It’s real no wonder you’re alone, is it? Determined to run anyone out your life that shows you any kindness. I’m surprised Joe lasted so long.” 

Barbara shoots up, lips pursed and hands signalling a sharp line. “Enough! That is enough!” 

Your shoulders slump, tired and drained. Everyone looks on edge, Janine close to tears although the words hadn’t been directed anywhere near her. Barbara was right. 

You sigh, turn around and grab your lunch from the fridge while Melissa storms back to her chair. 

“I’m sorry for the disruption. Enjoy your lunch.” You say to the group as you head for the door. 

“Yeah, and don’t come back.” Melissa grunts. 

“Oh, fuck off.” You snip, sending her one last glare before you storm back to your classroom where you close the door with perhaps too much force behind you. Which works in your favour because it’s a great deterrent in case anyone gets any unwise decisions to follow you, luckily they don’t. 

Over the course of the next week you try every mindfulness trick in the book but still end up going home most evenings and screaming into a pillow. Everyone for the obvious reason that they weren’t shit scared of you had started coming to you begging you to fix the relationship between you and Melissa, like she wasn’t the one to burn it down in flames in the first place!

You don’t care how many times Janine comes to you crying about Abbott peace needing to be restored, or Jacob complains that he’s running out of crockery because Melissa keeps smashing it, or even Barbara’s pointed looks (which you know Melissa will be receiving as well) you refuse to give in. Not this time.

Ava’s pointed, “Fix this because I’m not starting doomsday with a fighting crew so I will have to pick, and it’s not looking good for you.” definitely hurts a little because you thought you were friends. 

“This is the end of the world, Y/N. Friends get you killed! I need a crew with skills to make sure I survive.”

You walk away from that conversation and miss Melissa not for the first time that week. She’d say something kind to cheer you up like, “Doomsday ain’t happening, but if it does I’m not anyone’s patsy. Me, you, Barb and her family are all headin’ up to my timeshare and I’m keeping youse safe.”

As you walk the hallways of Abbott you hear her voice through the open door of her classroom. You pause, leaning against the wall where she can’t see you, and listen to her teach. You haven’t heard her voice void of hate all week and it was draining you. For a woman set on wanting nothing to do with you, she seemed to be around every corner shooting you a glare or scorching remark. 

You melt into the wall, and listen to her lead her class through a grammar lesson, her voice gentle as she praises and encourages students. You miss the days you could drop in to her class on your free periods and bring her a cup of coffee just to see her eyes light up and receive a warm smile before leaving her to teach. You miss sharing food over lunch, you hate not having anyone to try your new recipe’s on. You miss every little soft touch she’d give you throughout the day, a hand on your arm, on your upper back, on your shoulder. You didn’t realise how much you relied on those moments to keep you steady until they were pulled away and suddenly you didn’t feel safe in your own body anymore. Ridiculous. You lived many years before Melissa Schemmenti your body and brain just needed to get the memo that it was happening again. 

You needed to get over yourself because your friendship with Melissa Schemmenti was dead. Those kind comments weren’t coming and you needed to stop yearning for them if you wanted to survive at Abbott. First things first, maybe stop wistfully waiting outside her classroom. 

You’re back in your classroom at the end of the day, packing up after dismissing your kids, when Ava’s voice rings through the intercom, “Miss Schemmenti and Miss L/N report to Miss Howard’s classroom immediately.”

What the hell?

You frown and place the books in your hands down before you head towards the kindergarten's teacher’s room, curiosity getting the better of you.

Melissa runs into you in the corridor, her brows drawn together in confusion. “You know what this is about?” She asks gruffly.  

“Not a clue.” You sigh. 

You let her lead the way into the classroom. Her walk signalling her preparation for battle. The protective streak in her simmering under the surface, you’d be dumb to think it had anything to do with you. 

The kindergarten classroom is empty and in perfect order. Barbara Howard stands poised perfectly beside her desk, her head held high. “I’d like both of you to sit down please.” She says in her sickly sweet voice. The one you know means danger if you don’t comply so you perch on a desk near the front of her class. 

StIll, Melissa doesn’t follow orders. Instead, hovering by the door. “Barb, what’s going on?” 

Barbara holds her gaze, eyes flashing, even as her voice drips with honey, “Melisssa, dear. Sit down.” 

She grumbles but this time complies, choosing the desk on the other side of the aisle to you. “Happy?” 

“Wonderful.” Barbara clasps her hands together and starts making her way to the door. “Now, you two are going to fix what’s happened between you-”

“I’m not talking to that-”

“Barbara-”

“I do not want to hear it!” She cuts you both off. “I’ve had enough of the temper tantrums and sulking. You’re worse than the teenagers. So pull it together and admit you miss each other so people can stop walking on eggshells and poor Janine’s hair stops falling out.” 

Thoroughly told, you slump further in on yourself as Barbara strides out of the room. The door shutting behind her and the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking into place.

You chance a glimpse of Melissa from the corner of your eye. Surprised she wasn’t up, ready to kick the door down to escape you. It’s then you notice just how tired she looks. Her makeup has begun to fade, revealing the dark circles under her eyes, her face was drawn and pale, her eyes lacking their usual sparkle. She looks exhausted.  

“Melissa, what’s it going to take for you to forgive me?” You ask plainly. 

She shoots you a glare, eyes full of fire again. The tiredness hidden and slammed up behind shields. “You know this ain’t a forgive and forget sorta situation.”

You push yourself off the desk and walk closer to the woman of your torment, “What so we don’t listen to Barbara and Abbott continues to be an awful place to work because everyone is uncomfortable whenever we’re in the same room.”

She shrugs, “I’ve worked with enemies before.” 

“I’m an enemy now? Come on! It was one lousy date! You wanna throw away years of good friendship for that? I’ve apologised multiple times and I’ll do it again. I’m sorry Melissa. I wouldn’t have gone on the date if I’d known. You must know that.” You say incredulously, watching the hard-headed woman in front of you. “Why would I wanna jeopardise my closest relationship here? You really think you mean that little to me?” 

She wavers, the words touching her, but she doesn’t soften. Instead, she pushes herself off the desk, making herself taller. 

“You talk the talk. But if that’s all true,” she jabs a finger in your direction, “why’d you send goddamn’ nudes to my sister, Y/N!” 

Your eyes widen, jaw dropping in shock. “What the hell are you talking about? We went on half a date. Why would I have sent her nudes? Do you really think I’m that sort of person?” 

She crosses her arms against her chest, “I saw her last Sunday, before your date. She told me about this ‘young thing’ she was messagin’ and receivin’ risky photos from. You tellin’ me that weren’t you?”

“Firstly, ‘young thing’ is disgusting.” You protest, and Melissa winces in agreement. “But more to the point, no it was not me. Not that it would be any of your business if I did decide to send those types of photos to someone because I’m an adult and it’s my choice, Melissa. I get she’s your sister but I told you I left the date when I found out and that I had no interest in seeing her again. So I just don’t understand what the problem is.”

She sighs, and takes a step back. “You really tellin’ the truth?” 

“Yes!” 

“Fuckin’ hell,” She grumbles.

Her gaze drops from yours as she kicks her shoe into the ground, a frustrated grunt leaving her lips. When she looks at you again, her gaze softens, the anger melting away leaving her vulnerability exposed.  “Look, I hated the thought of her seeing youse like that, alright? I love my sister but she’s not got the best track record of treatin’ women the way they ought to be treated and I didn’t want you messed up in that. If you were sharin’ those photos it should be with someone that respected ‘em, respected you. Not someone that treated you like her latest play thing.”

“So you took it out on me.”

“Well you still went on a date with my sister,” She says with an eye roll, “but I guess I got a second wind of anger when I connected the dots and It was easier to blame you. I’m sorry.” She shrugs.

You smile tenderly. The calm good, hope settling in your stomach that everything might actually be okay. She cared about you being treated right, that was something, at least.

“I’m sorry too. For everything I said in the staff room. I didn’t mean it.” You respond genuinely. You’d regretted the words as soon as your anger had faded. 

“All’s good.” She shrugs again, with a smile. And you know you’re forgiven, even if you don’t feel like you quite deserve it. 

She tilts her head, fingers tugging on the belt straps of her jeans - which doesn’t make your heart skip a beat at all. “Let me ask one thing ‘nd then we can move on for good.” 

You clear your throat, “S-Sure.” 

“Why her?”

“Mel-” You shake your head.

“Come on, there’s gotta be loads of women on those apps, but ya choose to meet with Toni, why?” She asks, watching you closely, eyes guarded, like she’s scared of your answer.

You sigh and contemplate lying or refusing to answer, especially with how new the calm is and how quick she can be set off again. But you also don’t want to refuse her and you can see the vulnerability she’s desperately trying to hide.

“Honestly?” You shrug, unable to hold her gaze, “I liked her eyes.” 

“Seriously?” She chokes, eyes widening in surprise. She ducks her head and shifts on her feet, “People have always said we got the same eyes.” 

“Similar. Yours are lighter, bigger, prettier.” The words are out your mouth before you can stop them and you kind of want the ground to swallow you up whole. 

Melissa smiles, her cheeks dusting pink, as she laughs and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay, hon.” 

The compliment hadn’t been intended and leaves you feeling exposed, but still you hate her immediate refusal. A trend since you started at Abbott. Apart from compliments on her teaching, which she accepts, she’s always quick to dismiss the kind words that come from your mouth. Any compliments on her hair, her outfits, her personality are all quickly laughed off. You hate it, and what’s worse, you really don’t understand it. She accepts everyone else’s nice words, you know she’s so confident in herself, so it doesn’t make any sense. 

“Why do you do that?” You ask, sighing. 

She furrows her brows, “Do what?” 

“Always reject the compliments I give you.” 

She huffs, eyes averting yours. “I don’t.” 

“Oh, come on,” You chuckle, “You’re gonna have to do better than that.” 

She crosses her arms against her chest, shrugging, “You’re a kid, whats it matter if I accept your compliments or not?” She challenges

“I’ve told you not to call me that.” You say firmly, eyes narrowing. 

You had this conversation a few months after you started working together and she promised she’d stop calling you that. You were aware of the age gap, but that doesn’t mean you need to be patronisingly called ‘kid’, especially by Melissa. She knew better. 

Her eyes narrow as her hand comes out to wave at you, “But you are, alright? Ain’t even thirty. Why are we kiddin’ ourselves with nice conversations and stupid compliments that mean nothin’.”

“You don’t honestly believe that,” You breathe, voice calm even as your heart beats rapidly. 

“You should be hangin’ out with kids your own age, not me.” 

“I do, you know this. I have out of school friends and I’ve got Ava and I join the after school crew sometimes.”

She stares at you, her eyes hard even as her hands shake. You reach out and place a gentle hand over hers and watch as her whole body relaxes. 

Her eyes squeeze shut and she drops her head, a deep sigh escaping her lips. 

“Mel, this is me.” You whisper. “My favourite part of the day is sneaking into your classroom and giving you a coffee because it makes you smile. You have no idea how much I’ve missed it this last week. It just so happens that out of everyone you're still my favourite person to be with. What’s so wrong about that?”

Shining green eyes meet yours, “I ain’t good for ya.” 

Your brows draw together, heart aching as you step closer to her. “That’s not true.” 

She’s so close you can see the brown specks in her green eyes. You want to reach out and cup her cheek, hold her close and help somehow. 

“Isn’t my opinion what matters?” You prompt. 

Her eyes gaze back into yours, pained and tormented. 

“You’re a terrible idea.” She breathes, voice so quiet you barely hear it over the sound of your thumping heart. 

“Mel,” Your heart thuds, your voice shaking as you're guided closer by an invisible force. Your hand rests on her upper arm, hers perching on your waist and all your thoughts disappear in an instant as your eyes squeeze shut and you try to remember how to breathe. 

Her eyes track your face, memorising every detail now she has you so close. The slight furrow of your brow, your delicate eyelashes, your open mouth.

“Fuck it,” She sighs, her hand coming up to cup your cheek, fingers cool against your overheated skin. Your eyes open and Melissa’s darkened ones stare back at you. Your teeth dig into your lip and her eyes follow the movement. 

You can’t find your breath as Melissa guides you towards her, her mouth slowly moving closer to yours. Your fingers grip into the cotton of her t-shirt the moment her lips tenderly brush against yours. You melt into the kiss, a mew escaping your mouth as you kiss her back. All thoughts gone as you give into the sensation of her lips against yours.

It doesn’t last long but you still can’t find your breath when Melissa pulls back, a nervous smile on her lips. 

“Wow,” You breathe.

She chuckles affectionately, her eyes warm as she watches you. “That’s all you’ve gotta say?” 

“Uh…Kiss me again, please?” You offer

She chuckles again, her smirk victorious as she rolls her eyes. “Come on, tell me what you’re feelin’” 

“Oh, isn’t that obvious?” You squint, “I’m obsessed with you. I have been for ages. You’re the one that was keeping it all close to the chest, Schemmenti.” 

She shrugs, “Dunno. I might’ve suspected you had a thing. Wasn’t sure though, and with those dates you’ve been going on. I was gettin’ mixed signals.” She rolls her eyes. 

She’s been going on dates as well but it seems pointless to point that out. “Melissa, I’m crazy about you.” 

She grins, “I kinda have a thing for ya too.”

Your heart thumps at her words, like the kiss wasn’t enough confirmation. Her smile and warm eyes, matching your own goofy smile. “That’s good to know. How about you let me take you out for dinner?”

She rolls her eyes, “What the same place you took my sister? No hun, I’m takin’ you out.”

Your teeth dig into your lips as you try and fail to suppress your smirk, “Oh, was that the real issue? Jealous that your sister got to go out with me first?”

“Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.” She grumbles.

“Oh yeah, is that so?” You tease, leaning in close. 

Melissa’s eyes darken, “I’d watch it if I were you.” 

“Why’s that?” You ask, excitement rippling down your spine.

“‘Cause you’ve got no idea what I’m capable of.”

“Is that a threat?”

“A promise.” 

Your body heats up. All the air leaving your lungs as Melissa laughs. 

“This is gonna be fun.” She grins. 

She pats your hip, “Come on, hon, let's find a way out of this room and then I’ll take you on a proper date.”

You nod, unable to form words as you follow her blindly.

But with Melissa Schemmenti, you know you’ll always be okay, even if she does have a dangerous impact on your ability to regulate your breath.

You think it’s worth it. 

For a woman that beautiful, just about anything is. 

[sapphicandgraphic]

The Girl Next Door—Chapter 8

Synopsis: A new neighbor turns Melissa’s world upside down.

Chapter: 8/10 (The Fight)

Series Warnings: Slow burn, angst, drama, hurt/comfort, eventual smut, protective Melissa, fem reader, age difference, WLW

Chapter Warnings: Drinking, jealous Melissa, past relationship trauma, hurt people hurt people, we’re in the home stretch of all this gay angst and I swear it will work out!

It had been one week since your “date” with Melissa. Two days since the “fire.” Your head felt like a trashed hotel room—TV busted, sheets shredded, graffiti on the walls—and your heart was the petulant rock star doing all the damage. You were carrying one hell of a torch for the girl next door; overanalyzing all the mixed signals she was sending; replaying the sound of her raspy voice; daydreaming about the way she looked when you caught her off guard, flustered her, made her laugh. It was delicious agony, a kind of sweet torture you’d never experienced before.

After your shift on Friday, you joined about a dozen other paramedics at the bar, everyone ready to decompress from the long week. Boone had barely ordered the first round before he launched into an animated retelling of the Hot Principal hitting on you at Abbott, and the MILF Teacher watching the whole exchange with murder in her eyes.

“That’s our little heartbreaker,” he said, ruffling your hair affectionately before you could swat him away.

Everyone was roaring with laughter by the end of the story, some slapping their hands on the tabletop or razzing you with wolf-whistles.

“Really?” You shook your head at Boone as he shuffled over, cheeks already rosy from his beer. “MILF?”

“What?” He shrugged. “She’s not my type but…game recognize game.”

One of the rookie EMTs (Brett? Brent?) was holding court nearby with some other meatheads. You leaned back, downing the rest of your drink with a frown on your face.

“Hey Hotshot,” he called. “Which one do you think you’ll bag first?”

“See?” You glared at Boone and yanked your jacket off, suddenly feeling a bit hot under the collar. “You’ve created a monster.”

“Personally,” Brent or Brett continued. “I’d start with the hot principal, make the MILF jealous. Jealous girls are always so wild in bed.”

“Yeah,” you said loudly. “That’s what I love about your mom.”

Everyone in earshot, even his friends, dissolved into laughter.

“Keep him away from me,” you growled to Boone, standing up and walking toward the bar. Your partner followed, hands gesticulating an apology before he even opened his mouth.

“Ok, maybe I got a little carried away earlier,” he said. “But you’re down bad for this one, and we need get your mind off her for at least one night.”

You scrubbed a hand over your face. “How?”

“Tequila!” Boone declared. He’d always been able to sell a bad idea like no one else. You flagged down a waitress and ordered another round.

Little did you know, Melissa was across town doing almost the exact same thing—albeit with a slightly different cast of characters.

“Yeah, this week was a shit show,” Ava was saying. “But at least I got to meet my sexy lil’ Florence Nightingale.”

“Who?” Melissa huffed.

“She means the EMT,” Jacob said, oblivious to Melissa’s mounting fury. “The hot one.”

“First of all, Florence Nightingale was a nurse,” Janine corrected, before arching an eyebrow at Jacob. “And second of all…the hot one?”

“What?” He shrugged. “She’s not my type, but…game recognize game.”

Melissa stalked over to the bar, ordering another drink. Barbara appeared soon after, regarding her friend with a mixture of concern and sympathy.

“I don’t wanna talk about it, Barb,” Melissa said, throwing back most of her drink in one go.

“Well that’s too bad,” Barbara said sweetly. “Because you’re not leaving here until we do.”

Melissa groaned.

“Now I admit, I don’t have every piece of this particular puzzle,” Barbara began, with all the caution of someone entering a minefield. “But it seems like your…feelings for your…neighbor are more than…platonic.”

The redhead couldn’t help but laugh. “Real diplomatic, Mrs. Howard. As always.”

“And now, Ava’s….advances seem to have agitated you,” Barbara continued, brow furrowing slightly. “Despite the fact that anyone with eyeballs can see this girl is smitten with you.”

Melissa flushed.

“It ain’t that simple, Barb. Sure, maybe she likes me and maybe I like her…” she trailed off, a pensive look on her face.

“But?” Barbara prompted.

“But she’s too good for me,” Melissa said quietly, bitterly.

Barbara Howard sat up straight on her barstool, a look of thunderous outrage clouding her features. “Of all the absurd…downright asinine…”

Melissa looked at her friend uncertainly. Barbara leaned forward, a towering figure. “You are Melissa Schemmenti,” she growled. “Fierce, loyal, brilliant, beautiful, courageous—“

“Alright, alright,” the redhead conceded with an embarrassed smile. “Sit down, Barb, ya made your point.”

Barbara scrutinized the other woman, noticing the slouchy way she held herself, the flicker of doubt behind her otherwise brave mask. She’d always known Melissa to be an unstoppable force in the world, a wrecking ball with a heart of gold, a consummate survivor. Admittedly, the last few years had been hard: first, the messy dissolution of an unhappy marriage, followed by a trail of several unworthy suitors. Melissa had gotten through it all with her usual toughness and fortitude. But now Barbara saw—really saw—that these experiences had indeed left scars.

She reached out a hand, playing with a strand of the other woman’s auburn hair. “There is no such thing as too good for you, my sweet Melissa.”

Barbara’s uncharacteristic tenderness was rewarded with a wobbly smile. Melissa opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the phone in her lap vibrating. Looking down, she saw your name light up the screen. Barbara gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“Tell her how you feel,” she urged, before picking up her drink and gliding away.

Melissa swallowed thickly. “Hello?”

“Howdy, neighbor.” Melissa could just picture the lopsided smile on your face.

“Hi,” she said, a little shyly.

“I wanna see you.” By now a warm, confident feeling had settled in your chest. Your head was pleasantly foggy with desire. “Tonight.”

“Bossy,” Melissa chided, even as a coil of excitement tightened in her belly. She fiddled with a cocktail napkin. “Where are ya?”

“I just texted the address.” Your tone was smooth, commanding.

Melissa glanced over at the other teachers then back down at her phone. “I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

When she arrived, Melissa saw that you’d invited her to a proper dive. She gave the flickering neon sign a doubtful look before stepping into the dimly lit bar. It was crowded, but she noticed you right away, easily picking you out from the crowd of EMTs gathered at a high-top. Melissa experienced a brief tremor of insecurity. Just for a second, she considered bolting.

“What are ya doing, Schemmenti?” she muttered, smoothing her shirt nervously.

Then your eyes met hers and she felt that magnetic pull again, warm and irresistible. A smug smile made its way across your face, and she couldn’t help but smile back. As Melissa approached, a few of the other paramedics looked up and whooped.

“Yeah, hotshot!” someone called.

You turned on your heel, silencing them with a glare.

“Hi,” you said, taking her hand and redirecting her away from the crowd. “Let’s go somewhere a bit more private.”

You led her through the bar and toward the mostly vacant back patio.

“I didn’t realize paramedics traveled in packs,” Melissa said dryly.

“Yeah, sorry about them,” you said. “They’re a bunch of wild animals.”

“Is that right?” Melissa smirked, tugging you suddenly by the lapels of your jacket until you were pressed flush against her. “What about you? Are you a wild animal or can ya be…domesticated?”

You bit back a moan as she slotted her leg in between yours, pressing slightly against your groin. All coherent thoughts vanished from your brain. Your whole world shrank to the feeling of Melissa in front of you, beneath you, around you. You hooked your thumbs into the belt loops of her pants, tugging her even closer.

“Domesticated?” You repeated, suddenly breathless. You walked her backwards until she was caged in by your arms against the brick wall. “I’ll be gentle as a pussycat.”

Melissa chuckled, regarding you in the low light.

You leaned down and she tipped her head to the side, giving you more access. Her breath stuttered as you ran your warm mouth over her jawline, her throat, the sensitive skin behind her ear. You could smell the faint, spicy cloud of whiskey on her. You raked your teeth over her pulse point, nipping and sucking as you gripped her hips, slipping one hand under her shirt and palming the soft flesh. She canted forward slightly, grinding against you.

“Let’s get out of here,” she suggested, voice tight, eyes dark with desire.

You sighed in agreement. “My place or yours?”

You held the door open for her, barely containing a pleasant shiver as she swayed past.

“I just gotta close my tab,” you said. “Meet me out front?”

You dashed off toward the bar and Melissa stood there for a second, dazed and smiling. The restless energy from earlier was settling, falling away.

Just as she turned to head outside, one of the other paramedics intercepted her. He had a vacant, drunken grin on his face, the kind that instantly put Melissa on guard.

“So we were wondering,” he said loudly and with no preamble. “Are you the MILF Teacher or the Hot Principal?”

“Am I what?” Melissa scoffed, affronted and confused.

“You could be either,” he said. “Which is like, totally a compliment.”

Melissa looked down and saw that he was holding a piece of paper in his hands. There were two columns, each labeled and filled with their fair share of pencil tallies.

“Most people think you’re the MILF, but I bet you’re the Hot Principal because—“ and here his eyes scanned down Melissa’s body “—well, you look like a woman who likes to take charge.”

Before she could think how to answer, you returned from the bar, instinctively putting yourself between Melissa and Brett/Brent. “Is he bothering you?”

She shook her head, zipping up her coat.

“Ya spelled principal wrong,” Melissa told him icily, before her eyes flickered to you. “Jackass.”

She stalked toward the door.

“What’s —“ you glanced down at the paper, scanning the text and then snatching it angrily away from him. “What the fuck is this?”

You gripped the front of his shirt tightly in your fist, shoving him backwards hard enough that he lost his balance and toppled to the floor. A security guard materialized almost instantly, wrapping a huge arm around your midsection and practically carrying you to the door where he dropped you on the sidewalk.

You scrambled to your feet, looking left and right.

“Melissa, wait!” you cried, taking off down the block. The older woman was trying to hail a cab.

“It’s not what it looks like, I can explain,” you panted, catching up enough to reach for her arm. She rounded on you immediately and yanked out of your grasp.

“Is this some kinda game to you?”

She noticed but chose to ignore the flicker of wounded disbelief that flashed across your face.

“Of course not.” You reached for her hand again but she stepped back. “Melissa, I swear this is just a misunderstanding.”

“Really?” she spat. “So your little friends weren’t just taking bets on who you’re gonna fuck first?”

You closed your eyes. Of course, from her perspective, you could see how bad this looked.

“I didn’t know about…whatever was going on in there, but I would never do something like that,” you explained, desperate to make her understand. “And I didn’t even text that principal.”

“You still took her number though, right, hotshot?”

You bristled at the use of the nickname, the thinly veiled implication in her words.

“What’s the supposed to mean?”

A dozen fights with Joe were rushing back to her, activating a cruel muscle memory. Over the years, she had a developed a talent for finding and exploiting weak spots.

“It means you’re a player,” Melissa hissed. “A love-‘em-and-leave-‘em fuckboy, just like your friend in there.”

“I took her number,” you said, anger lighting up your voice for the first time. “Because you had just introduced me to everyone as your neighbor, remember?”

Melissa’s cheeks went red, but she didn’t back down. If she had learned one thing from all those years of arguments, it was the power of having the last word.

“Yeah, and that’s how it should stay,” she said, turning away. “Because this was a bad idea.”

Suddenly, something inside you snapped.

“Godammit!” you exploded. “You can’t keep doing this to me! I’m not some light switch you can just keep flicking on and off!”

You took a shaky breath, trying to calm down.

“I may be young,” you said. “But I have feelings. For you. And I’ve done nothing but try and be honest about that since we kissed.”

Melissa felt a brief, familiar shadow of guilt. She knew you were right, and she couldn’t stand it.

“You’re drunk,” she said, choosing to ignore the fact that she’d also been drinking earlier.

“And you’re deflecting, again,” you accused, hackles rising. “At least I have the balls to say how I actually feel.”

“Bravo, hon,” she said, fear and pride ripping through her chest like two relentless jackhammers. “You want a gold star for spilling your guts?”

You stared at Melissa for a moment, long enough to notice the protective way she held herself, the mistrust in her bright green eyes. You knew she was scared. But there was something between you, something real and messy and magical. Didn’t she feel it?

“Can’t you just….” Your voice was suddenly rough, jagged with unshed tears. “At least admit that you—”

“Admit what?” She asked suddenly, flicking her hair out of her eyes, crossing her arms. “That I think you’d be a good fuck?”

You recoiled as if she’d slapped you, stung by the callous disregard in her voice. The sky, which had been heavy and threatening rain all night, suddenly opened up, releasing big fat drops that popped against the pavement like gunfire.

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” you laughed, trying to hide your devastation.

Melissa deflated, regret and shame finally winning out over the many emotions warring within her. She opened her mouth to take it back, wishing she could unring the terrible, vicious bell of her own words. Thunder cracked overhead and you flinched, stumbling over your own feet which felt numb and heavy.

“Careful,” she said, stepping forward. But you held up your hand to forestall her approach, remaining just out of reach.

“I get it,” you said, wiping your shirtsleeve cross your face. “I wouldn’t get involved with someone like me either.”

“That’s not—” she started.

But the damage was done.

You shoved your hands deep in your pockets and walked away. When she called your name, you didn’t turn around. A few blocks over, you found another shitty dive and ducked inside to get out of the rain.

“What can I get ya?”

“Whiskey,” you croaked, parking yourself at the end of the bar. “Make it a double.”

Outwardly, you were calm, detached even. The bartender slid you a glass; you thanked him and made some small talk until he walked away. But inside, your rockstar heart was raging—breaking windows, flipping tables, lighting fires. It was time to burn it all down.

[ladykailitha]

Murder in the Heartland Part 4

Thank you for the responses from last week! You guys are seriously awesome. Also this is my husband writing, so sorry if it ends up a little bit odd.

Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3

~

Interviewer: Well, if you aren’t a serial killer than why don’t you do book tours especially in the United States?

Steve: I’ve never done book tours. It was one thing I told my agent when I was first getting started. I don’t need the money from writing to live, so I didn’t feel the need to get out there in front of people to convince them to read my books. I’m trust fund baby with enough smarts to make that money work for me.

Interviewer: Don’t you think you owe it to your fans meet them and sign books for them?

Steve blinked at her for a moment: No.

~

Murray didn’t like the idea of Eddie going back to Rick Lipton’s. The last thing Eddie needed was being caught with a known drug dealer, especially after what Melissa Buckley said to get him off the drug charges.

But Rick owed Eddie a favor and Eddie figured it was better to cash early so he didn’t hold it over the guy’s head for longer than necessary. Those type of guys weren’t a fan of owing anyone favors, but especially former low level drug dealers.

When Eddie showed up on his door with a six pack of beers and winning smile, Rick sighed, but let him in anyway.

“What the fuck do you want that you need me drunk for first?” Rick growled, popping open the first of the beers.

Eddie laughed and opened another of the beers. “If I wanted to get you drunk, man, I wouldn’t have brought cheap beer.”

Rick snorted, but didn’t disagree. They shot the breeze and just caught up for a moment before Eddie dived in.

“You know the favor you owe me for the thing that one time,” Eddie hedged. “This me calling that in.”

Rick lifted his chin and regarded Eddie thoughtfully. “Yeah, what’s that?”

“I need to know who sold Billy Hargrove his performance enhancers,” Eddie said bluntly. “Not turn him in or anything. This is strictly off the books. But he’s done disappeared, his behavior has to be drug related.”

Rick scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Me.”

Eddie raised a surprised eyebrow. “Wait, really?”

Rick nodded. “I don’t like putting any of the kids I have deal for me in that kind of trouble, so I do it myself. Plus I think I’m a pretty good judge of when to cut these assholes off. And Billy never quite got to that point.”

“Dude had too much rage to not be ‘rioded up,” Eddie said cocking his head to the side skeptically. “Especially with both the step mom and step sis saying he’d changed recently.”

Rick snorted. “Your daddy never bring another woman around after your mama died?”

Eddie blinked at him for a moment. “Not that I recall. Like he always had low level whores, pushers, and petty criminals around. It would be hard to say if he was fucking any of them.”

“Yeah, well,” Rick said with a huff, “you’ll just have to trust me on this one then. Billy was pissed that Neil had moved Sue and Max in before that side of the bed was cold. Because when assholes like Neil Hargrove make accusations of cheating you can bet that the call is coming from inside the house.”

Eddie licked his lips slowly as he took in that tidbit of information. “So his mom leaves him with cheating asshole, moves in his side piece and her kid and what? Neil starts smacking him around because he won’t fall in line?”

“If Neil wasn’t knocking him around already,” Rick agreed.

Eddie rubbed chin thoughtfully. The knocking around shit was something Eddie knew a little too well.

“You think Neil could have something to do with why he vanished?” Because it was starting to look like a distinct possibility.

“You askin’ if his daddy did him in?” Rick asked out right. “Because if you are, this conversation is over with. I don’t deal in the dead.”

Eddie shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be murder. Like maybe Billy took one hit too many and blew out of Dodge.”

Rick sat back and regarded Eddie through heavy eyelids. “Could do I suppose, but despite what people thought, he really liked his step sister. It must have been something pretty fucked up to make him leave her behind.”

“Yeah,” Eddie said, frowning. Max had been freaked out by Billy’s violence toward her friend, but a boy putting his arm around a girl’s shoulders at the tender age of thirteen would make most older brothers see red. The way he broke the kid’s arm said a lot. But then again, being raised with violence? That did things to a person’s brain chemistry.

He rose to his feet. “Thanks for the info. I’ll lean more into Neil’s background and see what I can dig up there.”

Rick stood up with him and shook his hand. “You find that kid, and I’ll still owe you one, okay? Billy Hargrove may have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but I liked him.”

Eddie grinned. “You got it!”

~

“Sure I can do a background check on Neil Hargrove,” Murray said when Eddie told him his theory. “Probably should have been the first thing we did on both Sue and Neil, if I’m honest. It’s usually someone the victim knows in murder cases, but also in like theft and assault and shit like that.”

Eddie nodded. “I know Sue said she called all the hospitals and shit, but I’m going to take his yearbook picture and flash it around, see if anyone recognizes him.”

“Sounds good. Just don’t push yourself to the bone. Eat, sleep, and take a shit once in a while, yeah?”

Eddie laughed. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Between you, Hopper, and Uncle Wayne, I’ll be sure to wipe my ass, ya worry warts!”

Murray just grinned at him. “Hop is just trying to make sure the state’s money is put to good use.”

Eddie snorted. Wayne had sued the state for not taking on any other inquires with the serial killer business. Especially when he found out Eddie had an alibi for the third murder, but because the police wouldn’t believe a bunch of drunks that Eddie had been on stage all night he was still their suspect.

Wayne had been against it as had Eddie. He was free and that’s all that mattered. But then Wayne had an accident at the plant and couldn’t work anymore. So they decided to sue the state. It turned out quite nicely Eddie thought.

“Serves him right,” he muttered darkly. “He could have pushed for more suspects but he was content to let me hang for something I didn’t do.”

Murray cocked his head to the side with a half shrug. “Yeah, he should have, but he was getting a lot of pressure to wrap it up as soon as possible and they didn’t care how.”

“Yeah,” Eddie hissed. “And what would have happened if I was in jail and there was another murder, what would have they done then?”

“I don’t know, kid,” Murray said shaking his head. “I didn’t say it was right. Hell, even I was telling him he need to check out Chrissy’s circle a little closer. Granted I thought it was her mother, but the issue still stands. He should have looked at the first victim more especially after you alibied out for the third murder.”

“Yeah.”

Eddie grabbed his gear and went out to his truck. It wasn’t new. He wouldn’t buy new. New attracted the wrong kind of attention, especially in a small town like Hawkins.

He first hit up the three hospitals in town, but none of them had seen him. The receptionist at the second hospital offered to give Eddie her number so he could call her to see if Billy wanted to go out sometime.

Then he went to the surrounding cities. And yes, Murray, he did stop to eat and sleep and all that shit. But at the end of the week, no one had seen him.

It was time to pump the kid for information.

~

Eddie pulled up to the middle school in his truck and waited for the bell to ring. He knew which door she was liking to come out of because he had talked to Susan about picking her up and got the info from her.

Once it rang, Eddie slipped out of the truck to lean against the hood, hands shoved in his pockets as he waited.

He didn’t have to wait long because soon the bright red pigtails were bobbing through the crowd. He gave her a little wave and immediately she made her excuses to her friends before she ran up to him.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed. “The principal is going to flip out if he finds out you’ve been seen talking to me.”

“I needed to get you away from Mommy Dearest,” Eddie huffed, “so I can actually find Big Brother. So wha’cha say, kid? You coming with me or are you going to make a scene like a punk ass bitch?”

Max’s jaw dropped in gleeful surprise. “Get in loser,” she said brightly as she came around to the other side of his truck, “you’re taking me MacDonald’s.”

Eddie burst out laughing and then got into the truck, unlocking her door from the inside. She set her skateboard on the floor at her feet and held on to her backpack. They drove the way to the burger joint in silence, Eddie bobbing his head to the music as Max just looked out the window.

He got her what she wanted and carried their food over to a table. She was about halfway through her fries when she spoke up.

“So wha’cha want?”

Eddie looked up from his own burger and blinked at her for a moment. He pulled out his note pad and pen. “Your mom didn’t want to admit Billy could be doping and I could tell there were other things you wanted to say, but just not in front of her.”

Max picked at the bun of her hamburger, peeling off the sesame seeds. “Neil had two modes drunk angry and sober angry. At first he would just hit Billy who could take it. But then he started going after me. Not Mom. Or at least not while I was around. It didn’t start with fists though.”

Eddie nodded. “He’d grip your arm too tight when he was yelling at you or he’d pull out of bed if you overslept.”

Her head snapped up and her eyes went wide. “Oh!”

He wagged his eyebrows at her and then cleared his throat. “So Neil was ramping up the violence against you, do you think he had something to do with Billy’s disappearance?”

“Billy is not dead,” she growled, leaping to her feet.

“I didn’t say he was,” Eddie said calmly, looking up at her. “There could have been a fight and Billy decided it was one fight too many, got the hell out of Dodge. But I need to know if I need to start looking at Neil a hell of a lot closer.”

Max sat back down again, hard. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. Then she went back to picking at her food. “I mean, I guess. Neil was already pushing it pretty hard. One bad remark, one more punch to the gut, never the face. That was what Neil always said about Billy was that his only redeeming feature was how pretty he was.”

Eddie frowned for a moment. Billy was well liked, captain of the basketball team, a lifeguard at the rec center, popular with the girls. Didn’t do bad in his classes either. “Is Neil mental?”

Max had a laugh startled out of her at that. “Yeah, yeah. I really think he was.”

Eddie wrote in his note pad ‘NEIL HARGROVE IS CERTIFIABLE’. Max leaned over to the table to see what he wrote and snorted.

“Where do you think he would go?” he asked. “Like honestly. If Billy was going to cut out of town, where would he go?”

Max shoved a couple of fries in her mouth and chewed as she thought about it. “Some place with a beach. He loved surfing. It was his favorite thing. But he hated how cold it was here.” She paused for a moment. “He wouldn’t go back to California.”

That brought Eddie up short. “Why not? Doesn’t he have friends out there that would take him in?”

“Not really,” Max said shaking head. “Anyone he might know out there would be too friendly with Neil and rat on him.”

“Huh.” Eddie sat back and regarded her for a moment. “So we’re talking Southeast coast or Hawaii, then?”

“Considering I doubt he would have had the money to buy a plane ticket,” she said finally taking a bite of the burger she insisted Eddie buy for her, “I’d go with Miami and shit.”

Eddie wrote it down and then put it away to finish his meal.

“It just sucks because first Steve gets kicked out by his parents and had to leave,” she groused, “and then Billy disappears. It’s not fair.”

Eddie blinked at her for a moment. “Steve who?”

Max squirmed in her seat a moment as Eddie regarded her. They locked eyes.

She broke first, tearing her eyes away and looking down. “Steve Harrington. He used to look out for me when my mom was drunk or Billy and Neil were going at it.”

His eyes went wide. “And where the hell would you have come in contact with the king of Hawkins High?”

“My off and on again boyfriend is Lucas Sinclair,” she murmured, picking at her bun again. “Somehow, his parents trusted Steve to babysit him when he was younger. Once when I was trying to skateboard to Lucas’s house, Steve spotted me and offered me a ride. And since then he’s be annoyingly persistent about staying in my life and making sure I’m okay.”

“And you say he left town because his parents kicked him out?” Eddie wasn’t sure he was hearing this right. What would good ole golden boy do to get his parents to kick him to the curb?

Max leaned in close. “I think he left town not just because his parents kicked him out, but because he was afraid the killer might go after him next if it came out why he was kicked out.”

Eddie took that in for a moment. Jason had been targeting queer kids, and liking the boys would definitely be something Steve’s parents would not approve of. Ergo, Steve was some flavor of queer.

“Well shit.”

Max leaned back and nodded. “So yeah, it all just sucks.”

Eddie could only agree.

~

Tag List: 3 SLOTS REMAINING

1- @itsall-taken @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @sadisticaltarts @dolphincliffs

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @irregular-child @cryptid-system @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji @dreamercec @blondie1006

5- @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @genderless-spoon @fearieshadow @thesecondfate

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

9- @steddieislife @bridget-malfoy-stilinski-hale @stripey82 @kroymu09 @chaotic-waffle

10- @tartarusknight @hattsy-likes-pretty-stuff

[anonymous-dentist]

A Very Long qRoier Theory

Okay so here's what I actually think, and TRUST THE PROCESS OKAY:

I think that Roier really was kidnapped by the Federation, but I don't think that he was taken because he was looking for Cellbit strictly because the Feds themselves are actually more or less actively searching for the missing islanders and hoping for their return so they can continue the murder investigation. Despite the terrible things going on, the Feds legitimately want all their islanders/lab rats back on the island so they can continue with whatever experiment they're holding. Every time Cucurucho has held a meeting recently, it's asked about the status of the missing islanders, so it really wouldn't make sense for it or the Feds as a whole to punish their one single lead in the case when every actual Federation agent assigned to the case has either come up with nothing or disappeared entirely.

Nah, I think Roier was taken because he was vulnerable and because the Feds figured nobody would've missed him. They know that he isn't really super close with anybody on the island but Cellbit, and they know that he's been actively pushing people away for a while now- basically since Bobby's death, and moreso since his return from Purgatory.

Looking at the QSMP channel's streams, particularly Elena's, we know that the Feds seem to be a pharmaceutical company. They, simply speaking, make drugs. Look at the "happy pills" that Elena helped create, this is what the Feds do.

Roier mentioned that he was drugged. He never said that they stopped drugging him. I think he's still being drugged and that he isn't a rat- not a literal one, anyway.

I think that Roier is still under the effects of the drugs he's being given because he is currently a test subject. He's a lab rat.... at the moment, anyway.

More on that later.

Do I have any evidence for this? Not really, but also some things just didn't add up cinematically. Like, okay, go back and watch everything from after when Roier 'wakes up' in the dungeon:

Everything's got this weird otherworldly fuzziness and glow to it. It's almost dreamlike in a way. Only the focus of the world is, well, in focus. The rest is blurred like a bad 3D movie:

There are all these weird cuts and jumps, too, like 11:16 when we suddenly cut to black for a few moments as Roier goes down the hallway, or 12:13 when we smash cut to the rat and 12:16 when we cut to Cucurucho. It's super sudden and jarring and it sets up a real nice feeling of unease (shoutout to ccRoier, this is SPECTACULAR)

And the music, okay, the background music is exactly the kind of shit you'd hear in a 'Dreamcore Music Video' on YouTube. It's super Backrooms, super weird esoteric vibes, and that's very on purpose.

None of this is real, and "Doied" is the final proof because like. He isn't real lol, if he's real then so is Roger, and the only times either of them front are when Roier's goofing around or when he's extremely homicidal (we saw Roger pretty recently, actually, back in October when he said that Cellbit killing everyone might be a good thing, actually.) Doied isn't like Abueloier or Melissa, he's one of Roier's 'alters', and he's a bit of a freak lol

I think about everyone can agree that this whole 'Ratoier' thing is a hallucination, but then we have to think, huh, what the hell does any of this mean?

First, we gotta follow the whole 'Roier is Currently Super Drugged' thing, because he is. He literally is. If he's not, well, laugh at me when the next tape comes out.

Roier is drugged by the Feds right now probably to test a new drug, possibly a drug meant to- just like the Happy Pills- make people happy again. In this case, however, I think that the pills may actually have something to do with memories, particularly the same memory retrieval stuff the Resistance did to Bagi. Because, well.

I want to go back to the rat, and I want to go back to Doied, because this stream actually implied a LOT about qRoier's character.

The thing about Doied is that he's the manifestation of Roier's "Um, actually!" Nerd Emoji self. He's a nerd. He's a loser with glasses and a nasty attitude.

Doied, in the dream, is a scientist. Doied, in the dream, performed horrible, inhumane experiments for the Federation. He put Roier's brain into a rat's, a lab rat's.

Once a long, long time ago in August, Roier quietly came to the realization that maybe he has a past history with the Federation and that's why Osito Bimbo has always been so weird about him- it basically had a crush on him for the first week or so of the island, and it still seems to, and he is still the only one outside of Foolish the Federation Employee to be addressed directly by his train ticket number: 0037. He brought up the possibility of being a Federation worker in the past to Cellbit, who brushed it off and said that he wouldn't care because he's a worker, too, technically, but what if it isn't a possibility?

We've always wondered how Federation workers end up the way they do. Why are they all the exact same type of bear? Why does only Cucurucho get to have a face and a voice? Why do they all have human minds and emotions? Why are they all dedicated to the Federation?

Easy. Because maybe they were people before, just like how Bagi and several other islanders think they are. But maybe someone put their brains inside of an animal's body- or, at least, inside of a worker's body, God only knows if they were actual polar bears at some point. Somebody had to help come up with that technology, and maybe it's the guy who managed to build an entire computer and radio-satellite setup over the span of about a week in his goddamn backyard without anybody knowing about it.

Roier has always had some weird connection with the Federation. He's the only civilian islander to ever be addressed by his ticket number, and later we find out that Foolish's ticket number- 0039- is his Federation Employee ID Number- W0039. He was Osito Bimbo's favorite for the first week on the island to the point of Osito just giving him whatever he wanted. He and Jaiden were paired up for the Egg Event (something that was intentional, btw, admin confirmed), and it's later revealed that Jaiden has a past with the Federation regarding the SMILE Units (aka Osito Bimbo and Cucurucho and the new guys.) The "Gods" (aka the admins) will happily follow him around and revive him when he's alone and strike him with lightning when asked and give him dirt and whatever. He managed to get someone onto the island from off of the island, Abueloier, and Abueloier was saved from the brink of death by the Federation in the Federation's hospital. His literal pet dog is a Federation employee. He got to name Jorgito the IV Drip.

Doied put someone's brain into the body of a rat, and Doied is Roier's nerd self.

I think that Roier may, in fact, have a past history with the Federation, and that it isn't because his grandfather worked/works for them. Maybe Roier did, just like he suspected months ago, and maybe he did some really bad things. But they were excused at the time because the people being converted into workers were bad people who made mistakes. Roier made the mistake of breaking the rules trying to connect with Cellbit, and so he got turned into a rat. There's been a functional prison on the island for long enough for it to be partially abandoned (see: Tazercraft Prison Stream.) Walter Bob was held there, possibly because he was part of the Resistance, or possibly because he wasn't done cooking yet.

Roier has always been a man of justice. When people do bad things, they get punished, and then things can go back to normal. He ruined Quackity's life. He wanted Slime to be properly punished for killing Tilin and he threatened to murder him when he tried threatening the kids. He built an entire torture dungeon in his basement for the explicit purpose of torturing Spreen to the point of death repeatedly and possibly for the rest of Spreen's miserable life. Cucurucho took Bobby away, and Roier said that the Federation would regret putting and keeping him on the island. Pozolito the Capybara blew Cellbit up, and Roier has literally tried killing every Capybara he's seen since. The Federation screwed with his family and with himself, and Roier is more than happy to join Cellbit in massacring the entire Federation.

He's a man of justice, but not of morals. He's a ruthless killer when it comes down to it, and he only shows regret when it comes to his husband's deaths during Purgatory. He doesn't fight unless he has to, but he's been thinking about killing everyone on the island since the first week of the server when he was betrayed. But, when it comes down to it, he doesn't actually want to hurt anyone he cares about. It's why Purgatory fucked him up so much.

His moral alignment actually matches up pretty well with several other Federation workers'- particularly workers like Elena and Fred who are nice but are willing to do terrible things in the name of their cause. The difference here is that Roier has had the same privilege that workers like Walter Bob and Ron got: he got a chance to socialize.

He doesn't have memories from before the island, but he remembers enough about his childhood to be a little suspicious.

But what if these drug-induced hallucinations are actually hints to Roier's backstory? What if it wasn't Doied running all these terrible experiments for the Federation, but it was Roier? Just a guy acting under the belief that he was making the world a better place, punishing criminals (aka rule breakers) while helping the Federation's cause: finding true happiness and spreading it to the world.

The Eye said that everybody in Purgatory was a sinner, and maybe Roier's sin was some mad scientist bullshit.

The dream today, Tape 1, had Roier being punished. Maybe it's because that's what he did as a scientist to new employees, or maybe it's because of his own guilt over everything he's done; remember, the reason he stopped smiling in Purgatory wasn't because he was killing his friends (because he's thought about killing his friends for a VERY long time), but it was because he killed Cellbit, and then it was because he left Cellbit behind to die. That's why the dream specified Cellbit's lost signal and not, say, Jaiden's, and it's why all the cool cinematic landscape shots focused on either Roier himself or Cellbit.

If my prediction is correct, Tape 2 would have Roger instead of Doied. So we'll see what happens then, I guess. Roger, who represents Roier's anger and his various homicidal tendencies.

Fit said that everybody was on the island for a reason, and Roier has been cooking for a long time now. Maybe qRoier is just like qJaiden: a former Federation associate.

TLDR; qRoier is currently hallucinating due to him being a Federation lab rat. His drug-induced dreams may be implying that Roier has a past within the Federation as a scientist completing the same experiments that "Doied" did in the dream to Roier.

But that's just a theory, a Game Theory. Thank you for reading.

[renjunniex]

Thank You, For Being You

Isaac Lahey x Fem! Reader Series

Fury

Omega Part 1 | Omega Part 2 | Shape Shifted | Ice Pick | Abomination | Venomous | Frenemy | Restraint | Raving | Party Guessed |

Prompt: the killer now about to be revealed means things are about to get very interesting. how will y/n choose to deal with every problem she is currently facing?

a/n: heyyy guys, hehe.. I’m back. sorry for the long time away, it’s been… chaotic to say the least. I just barely finished the chapter before i posted it so it’s not edited so please excuse any and all mistakes. i plan to go in later and edit when i have a chance, just wanted to get a new chapter out since it’s been so long.

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You never got to have your morning kiss and you were definitely not happy about it. The boys had called you to tell you to get to the police station as fast as you could.

"(Y/N), you need to get here NOW!" The voice of your sarcastic friend made you have to pull your phone away from your ear.

"Jeez, okay, I get it. But I can't leave, I can't find Derek and they're barely keeping themselves under control."

You felt a hand grabbed you wrist and you knew it was Isaac's, "Go, it'll be okay, I can handle everything." You sighed and nodded before confirming you would be at the station as fast as you could.

That's where you were now, the lady at the front desk had let you in. You found Scott, Stiles, and the Sheriff staring at the computer screen. "Okay, what was so important that I just had to be here," your hands were on your hips and they all looked at you.

"The one killing people is Matt," Scott said. You swore you felt your brain explode, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Look he's on the video tapes," Stiles pointed to the computer. "We don't know that it's him Stiles," His dad exclaimed. You walked out to the computer and looked on the screen, you saw a nurse walk up to the boy on camera, "Well, hey, someone talked to him. Maybe you should try to get a statement." They're heads snapped to you and then back at the screen. That's when you got to take a closer look at the nurse that was talking to the supposed Matt.

"Oh, my god," you gasped.

"He's talking to my mom," Scott said horror dripping from his voice.

Scott had called Melissa, under the request of Sheriff.

"Scott, you know how many people I deal with in a day."

"This one's sixteen. He's got dark hair, looks like a normal teenager," Scott expressed. "Yeah, he looks evil," called Stiles.

"Scott, I already talked to the police about this."

Scott got his phone out of his pocket, "Okay, Mom, I'm gonna take a picture and send it to you." He snapped the picture and texted it to Melissa. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah."

"Do you recognize him? Do you remember him?"

"Yeah, I did. I mean, I remember I stopped him because he was tracking mud in the hall. Scott, what's going on?"

"It's nothing, Mom. I'll explain later. I gotta go," Scott stuttered ending the call before bringing his attention back to you guys. Sheriff shuffled through papers until he came across the ones he was looking for, "Alright, we've got shoe prints alongside the tire tracks outside the trailer."

"And if they match, that puts Matt at the scene of the three murders," Stiles exclaimed.

"The trailer, the hospital, and the rave," you listed.

"Actually four," Sheriff corrected, "A credit card receipt for an oil change was signed by Matt at the garage where the mechanic was killed."

"When," asked Stiles.

"A couple hours before you got there."

"Alright, Dad, if one's an incident, two's a coincidence, and three's a pattern, what's four?"

"Four's enough for a warrant," Sheriff motioned to Scott, "Scott, call your mom back, see how quick she can get here. If I can get an official I.D., I can get a search warrant. Stiles, go to the front desk. Tell them to let Scott's mom in when she gets here."

Stiles dashed out the room, "On it!" Scott had started to call Melissa and with all the stress you couldn't help but pace around the room. "She's on her way here," you glanced up at Scott and then looked at Sheriff to see his expression change, "Sheriff, what's wrong-." When you turned in the direction his eyes were directed you saw Stiles come back in, only he wasn't alone. Matt was behind him, with a gun.

You moved slowly to Scott and Stiles while Sheriff began to try and talk to the striped shirt boy, "Matt? It's Matt, right? Matt, whatever's going on, I guarantee you there's a solution that doesn't involve a gun."

The boy waved the firearm around like it was a toy, "You know, it's funny you say that, because I don't think you're aware of just how right you are." You saw Stiles' head raise up slightly and despite the dangerous situation, you couldn't help the scowl that made its way onto your face.

"I know you don't want to hurt people," Sheriff tried to reason but something told you that reasoning wasn't going to get you anywhere, "Actually, I want to hurt a lot of people. You four weren't on my list, but I could be persuaded. And one way is to try dialing somebody on your cell phone, like McCall is doing. That could definitely get someone hurt. Everyone."

Stiles and you both turned your heads to Scott, who had pulled his hand out of his pocket. You took a deep breath as you felt your nerves shoot through the roof, your head was hurting. You knew you were losing control because of the spike in emotions. It must of been your intuition trying to take over.

Gripping your hands into themselves you tried to stay focus on the conversation, "Now!" The loud voice made you jump slightly, "Come on," Sheriff nudged his head you guys and you three threw your phones on the desk.

Matt had made Stiles handcuff Sheriff in the holding cell area, while you and Scott stood just barely off to the side. When he was satisfied with how tight the cuffs were set, he grabbed Stiles and jerked him forward causing Scott and you to follow close behind. You had reached a hallway and there were officers laying all across the floor, blood, from their fatal chest wounds, spattered all over the walls.

A loud gasp of horror spilled from you, your hand coming up to cover your mouth. "What, are you gonna kill everyone in here," Scott asked in horror.

"No, that's what Jackson's for," he answered, "I just think about killing them, and he does it." Matt roughly pushed your shoulder forward as he guided you back to the main office. He made Stiles go on to his dad's computer to delete any and all files having to do with him. Scott and you were given the job of destroying all physical files.

"Deleted. And we're done," Stiles stated pressing the key on the keyboard, "So, Matt, since all the people you brutally murdered deserved it because they killed you first, whatever that means, we're good here, right? I'll just get my dad, and we'll go, you know, you continue on the whole vengeance thing. Enjoy the Kanima."

Lights moved across the windows outside and you felt your breath stop, Melissa was here and there was really nothing you could to protect without risking everyone else. "Sounds like your mom's here, McCall," Matt taunted.

You shook your head while Scott had a destressed expression, "Matt, don't do this," he said, "When she comes to the door, I'll just tell her to leave. I'll tell her we didn't find anything. Please, Matt."

The door opened in the distance as Matt scoffed a laugh, "If you don't move now, I'm gonna kill Stiles first, then (Y/N), and then your mom."

Maybe it was the adrenaline but you couldn't stop yourself from barking back, "You try to put one finger on any of us, and I'll send you through the wall so hard you'll forget who you are." Matt's head cocked to side as if he didn't understand what you meant but even then you could tell he was holding a brave face.

He once again, dragged you three to the front of the Sheriff's office, "Open it," he directed. Scott didn't look towards the door but showed his hesitation, "Please."

"Open the door."

You could practically feel all three of your heartbeats erratic from fear. Scott slowly reached for the doorknob, turning it to reveal not Melissa, but Derek. "Oh, thank God," sighed the werewolf in relief. That relief wore off sooner than it appear as Derek fell to the floor in front of you, he had been paralyzed. Jackson walked into the room standing where the Alpha werewolf once was. His eyes rolled, turning into his usual terrifying slits.

Matt stood over Derek, "This is the one controlling him? This kid," Derek observed in his monotoned voice. "Well, Derek, not everyone's lucky enough to be a big bad werewolf. Oh yeah, that's right. I've learned a few things lately. Werewolves, hunters, Kanimas. It's like a fricking Halloween party every full moon. Except for you two. What do you turn into?"

"None of your business."

"Abominable snowman. But, uh, it's more of, like, a wintertime thing, you know, seasonal."

Matt especially didn't like Stiles' answer, he tipped his head and instantly Jackson's claw swiped the back of Stiles' neck sending him to the floor and onto of Derek. You and Scott made noises of protest only for Jackson to mock you by wagging his finger.

"You bitch."

"Get him off of me," Derek gritted.

Matt laughed at the sight, "Oh, I don't know Derek. I think you two make a pretty good pair. It must kind of suck, though, to have all that power taken away from you with just a little cut to the back of the neck. I bet you're not used to feeling this helpless."

"Still got some teeth," Derek quipped, "Why don't you get down here a little closer, huh? We'll see how helpless I am."

"Yeah, bitch," Stiles muttered out, his voice muffled.

More lights passed by and this time you knew it had to be Melissa. Matt had seen them too, calling out, "Is that her? Do what I tell you to and I won't hurt her. I won't even let Jackson near her."

"Scott don't trust him!"

Matt grabbed Stiles' shirt pulling him over and placing his foot on the boy's neck. "Stop, stop! Leave him alone!" Scott had to get a hold of you to keep you from making any sudden movements. Stiles gasped and gagged for air, his face turning red, "This work better for you?" Matt had gone into a stare down with you two and you were seconds from losing control at this point. "Okay, just stop! Stop," Scott pleaded.

"Then do what I tell you to."

You glared at the boy, the amount of hatred you felt in this moment was unlike any other, "Let. Him. Go." You voice sounded so different and you couldn't tell if it was just your imagination or not. "Okay," Scott urged, "Alright, Stop!" The foot on Stiles' neck was released and the boy desperately gasped for air. Matt nudged his head in a direction as he commanded Jackson, “You, take him in there.”

“You…” Matt’s eyes locked onto Scott once more, “With me.” You had no ability to react as Matt grabbed your arm and twisted it behind your back, preventing you from doing anything as he made you walk in front of him. He guided you both to the front where Melissa came into the police station.

“Mom?”

Melissa sighed at the sound of Scott’s voice and made her way around the corner, “You scared me, where is every…” She stopped speaking when her eyes fell on you both, Scott in front with Matt’s gun pointing at the back of his head and you locked in position guarding Matt’s body. “Mom, just do what he says he promised he wouldn’t hurt you.” Frozen from the shock of the situation you just stood silently your head hanging slightly. “He’s right,” Matt confirmed. Everything felt slow, your ears began to ring and your mind tried its best to process the next few seconds.

You watched as Scott hunched over and Melissa cover her mouth as you assumed she screamed, you didn’t know. Your ears were buzzing like a bomb had gone off right next to you. The smell of gunpowder filled your nose and the sight of smoke covered your vision. Tears seeped from your eyes and dripped down your cheeks. Rationally speaking, Scott was going to be okay, being supernatural had those perks but your brain didn’t seem to register that in the moment. You pulled your arms down trying to release the grip Matt had on you but that only resulted in you having a gun pointed at your head.

“Back, back!”

Matt screamed his voice making the loud bells in your ears ring more, “Mom! Mom, stop, Mom!” Scott covered his wound, the pain making him wince. “Scott,” Melissa said shakily. You felt Matt bang the side of your head harder with the barrel of the gun, “I said get back, unless you want me to blow her head off,” Matt spit venomously. You heard Sheriff called from the holding cells and it caused an explosive reaction from the troubled boy.

“Everyone shut up! Shut the hell up! Now get up or I shoot her next!”

Your eyes closed instinctively, you heard the rustling of Scott’s clothes as he stood slowly. Matt forced Melissa into a cell, she stood at the bars her face covered in her running makeup from her tears. You and Scott stood off to the side, both not moving afraid to cause everyone else to get hurt. You held up Scott as best as you could, your hand also covering his gun wound putting pressure the best you could.

“Please, he needs to see a doctor,” Melissa pleaded.

“You think so?” Matt whispered back.

Sheriff yanked on the handcuff keeping him on the wall, “Hey! Hey, you listen to me!”

Scott interrupted to reassure both his mom and the Sheriff, “It’s alright, I’m okay.” Melissa could handle her son’s words as she shook her head in denial, “No, honey, you’re not okay.” Scott continued on to tell her it didn’t hurt, Melissa again denying her son’s words saying it’s the adrenaline talking, she pleaded once more with Matt to let her stop the bleeding. It only caused Matt to look at you both taunting you, “They have no idea do they?”

“Please. Just let me take a quick look at him!”

“Shut up! Shut up! Lady if you keep talking, I’m gonna put the next bullet through his head.” Melissa finally conceded and Matt order you both to the front.

Your heart raced, sweat dripping down your temple as your mind ran through every possible outcome. So far, not a single solution came to you, at least not one that allowed for most of you to get out of here alive. If only you knew of some kind of spell or chanting that could get you to call for help. Maybe a way to send a message mentally?

Every thought in your brain was cut off as Matt pushed you into Scott, nearly falling on your face had the werewolf not had caught you himself.

“The evidence is gone. Why don’t you just go?” Scott stressed to Matt.

“You think the evidence mattered that much, huh?” Your eyebrows scrunched at Matt’s reply, which only got you a look of annoyance back from him. “No, no, I want the book.”

The bestiary? Why would he need the Argent’s log of every creature?

You soon found out when Scott asked your same thought out loud and Matt lifted his shirt to show his ribs now scaly, reflecting the same sickly greenish gray that the Kanima did. You grimaced at the sight as if just the picture of it made you ill, which it practically did after everything you’ve been through this semester because of it.

You felt a grip on your arm pulling you more into a different room, Scott not far in front of you. You jolted as the cold metal of the gun Matt held to you touch your skin. Scott grimaced, leaning against the desk as he kept his palm on his bullet wound. You tugged at Matt’s grip on your forearm, “Let me try and heal him please,” you pleaded with not an ounce of venom in your words. Nothing but pure fear dripped from your lips, it was truly the first moment in your life that you felt helpless. Nothing, not Peter, not Derek, not even the death of your parents made you feel as useless as slowly watching Scott, who should be able to heal, die.

Matt tugged you away from Scott, twisting your arm as he spoke, “You know, I feel sorry for you, McCall, cause right now you’re thinking, ‘How am I gonna explain this when it heals?’ And the sad part is you don’t even realize how incredible it is that you actually are healing.”

Matt’s eyes were probably as wide as saucers, you hear the frothing that seeped from his mouth as malice flew with his words, “Cause you know what happens to everyone else when they get shot? They DIE.”

You flinched at his tone, trembling as the coldness that came with fear froze every nerve in your body. You couldn’t believe you were even thinking about this but in this moment you wished Isaac was here. Not even because you thought he could protect you from everything but just because you wanted him near you. As much as he continually pissed you off, now that he was working with you guys his presence had become much more comforting.

“Is that what happened to you,” Scott had cut off your panicked thoughts with his question to Matt. “You drowned, didn’t you?”

You watched as Matt took a shaky breath, “He shouldn’t have let them drink,” he muttered. Scott gave him a confused look, “What? Who? Matt, what do you mean?”

Matt’s voice boomed making you flinch once more, “LAHEY! He shouldn’t have let them drink.”

“Who was drinking,” you asked softly. Matt scoffed stepping forward a little, “The swim team you idiots!”

“I didn’t what was happening! I didn’t know that they had just won state, and Lahey, he’s letting his favorites come over to have a couple drinks to celebrate. Who cares if they’re seventeen, right?”

Your eyebrows scrunched up at Matt recounted his story, “Were you at Isaac’s?”

“He had this first edition Spider-Man, or was it Batman? And we were gonna make a trade. But then I’m over there and I hear music. And everyone’s having a good time and I see Sean. He throws Jessica in the pool. And then Bennett goes in and.. and…”

“Bennett, the hunter,” Scott interrupted his monologue. Matt ignored his question, nodding his attention on the floor, his eyes blurry from the light pool of tears he was started to collect.

“And then Camden. Isaac’s jarhead brother, he grabs me. He thinks it’s funny.”

You eyes widened in realization, the fear in your mind clearing when you connected the thoughts, “They threw you in.”

“I yelled that I can’t swim, but nobody listens. I go under and I swallow water,” Matt describes in detail, sweat dripping from his temples, “and no one cares. And I see these bodies underwater. I see Jessica’s got her hands down Sean’s board shorts. Tucker’s grabbing Kara. And I’m drowning. I’m dying, and they’re laughing. All of a sudden, I’m lying by the pool. And Lahey is right there right above me and he says…”

“You tell no one! This, this is your fault! You don’t know how to swim? What little bastard doesn’t know how to swim? You say nothing! You tell no one! NO ONE!”

“And I didn’t. I didn’t tell anyone. And I would see them at school and they wouldn’t even look at me. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, I’d gasp for breath. And my parents,” Matt spit out his story like he could taste the horrible memory, “They thought I was asthmatic. They even gave me an inhaler. They didn’t know that every time I closed my eyes, I was drowning.”

Matt finally turned to you and Scott, as if his trance had been broken, “You know about that little white light that they talk about, you see when you die? Well I didn’t see anything. Just darkness. Everything was dark. But then.. Then came the Argent’s funeral, and everything changed. I was taking some photos and they completely by accident, Lahey gets in one of the photos. I look down at the screen of my camera and I just had this unbelievable rage that fills up inside of me and I just… I look at him and I… I wanna see him dead.”

There was a moment of silence from Matt and that’s when you realized you had a tear trailing down your cheek. Was it for Matt, Mr. Lahey, maybe? Even despite what each of them have done, the raw emotion coming from Matt must have triggered some type of reaction from you.

“And the next day, he actually was. You know, Einstein was right. Imagination is more important than knowledge. It was like something out of Greek mythology.” He began to pace as he ranted some more and you took the chance to step closer to Scott, your hand coming to clench at Scott’s now bloodied shirt. “Like… Like the furies coming down to punish Orestes.”

He gave Scott an unimpressed look upon seeing the dull expression on Scott’s face, “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

“Was he the guy who stabbed out his eyes?”

Matt’s face turned red as he marched up to Scott and you, waving around the pistol in his hand, “God, that’s Oedipus, you dumbass!” Clenching Scott’s shirt tighter in your hand, you jumped as Matt’s gun waved right in your face. “The furies are deities of vengeance,” you whispered, your voice shaky with horror.

Matt without so much as a beat of pause, continued on “Their tears ran of blood and they had snakes for hair. If a crime that had gone unpunished, the furies would do the punishing.” Matt looked off in the distance where Jackson stood, hovering practically on top of Stiles and Derek. “Jackson is my fury.”

“When I saw him the next night, it was like this bond had been cemented between the two of us. I knew he had killed Lahey for me, and I knew he would do it again. So I went to Tucker’s garage. I even paid for an oil change, and guess what? He didn’t even recognize me. So when he wasn’t looking, I took a shot of him with my camera. And in a few hours, he was dead.”

Matt grew this satisfied smirk on his lips as he glanced at both you and Scott, “So I took more pictures. All I had to do was take their picture and Jackson would take their life.”

As if on cue with the end of Matt’s speech, the lights began to flicker on and off. The alarm system sounding from the malfunctioning of the lights. Matt freaked out from the sudden obstruction, “What’s that? What’s going on?”

He pointed the gone at both of you as Scott tried to assure him that you two didn’t know what was happening. A light scanned across Matt’s face and when you looked out all you saw were burly men with automatics before they began shooting into the window. Without thinking, you grabbed Scott by the back of his shirt and pulled him back out of the line of sight. Glass flung everywhere, scraping against your arms. In your haziness you barely heard the sound of a clank before the fog grenade exploded.

Scott took off with the knowledge that now you two were hidden, his hand in yours as you both ran towards the door, smoke filling your lungs. You saw the glint of Jackson’s half turned figure within the smoke and you took a chance. You flung your arm to the side casting a blast that smacked Jackson into the wall, giving you both enough time to get to Derek and Stiles. Scott went to Stiles and you to Derek only for you to be pushed away from the now almost healed man.

“Take him. Go!” The Alpha werewolf commanded, you scrambled up just behind Scott and Stiles, leaving Derek behind. Jackson recovered finally, walking after you three. You ushered the boys into the hallway of many doors, closing each one behind you to gain even just a spare second away from Jackson. It was short lived considering how rapidly the lizard boy smashed each barrier. You turned once more this time not just closing the door but sending another blast into Jackson’s chest. It sent him back just long enough for you to slam the door closed once more.

Scott set Stiles down somewhere safe, considering that he still couldn’t move, Stiles would only slow you guys down. “Don’t move,” you said dumbly. Stiles gave you a straight and unamused look, Scott sighed, “You know what she means.” Stiles head slinked down when Scott finally let go of him and you two rushed out the door, closing it quietly to hide your location within the station as best as possible.

Scott ran ahead, you only a few feet behind, when you smashed into his back from an abrupt stop. Allison was the reason for the stop, her cross bow pointing directly at Scott’s face. You figured it was from the tense situation, that is until she spoke with such venom.

“Allison,” Scott breathed in surprise.

The dark haired girl disregarded his tone, “Where’s Derek?”

You looked at her with concern, “What are you doing?” Allison did nothing to acknowledge your existence, “If you’re not going to tell me, then get out of my way.” You could feel the sadness start to radiate off the werewolf as he whispered her name once more only to get cut off, “Where is he?” Her words laced with such venom even made you shiver.

“What happened,” Scott asked once again, this time taking a step towards her. She raised her crossbow again, practically pushing it into his chest, “Scott…” Her voice hissed at him, “Scott, you need to stay away from me right now. You need to go. Just stay out of my way.”

Allison pushed passed Scott her shoulder brushing against yours. You tried to reach out to her, calling softly, “All-.”

“Back off.”

It became hard to breathe for a moment as you watched one of your best friends brush you off so coldly, so callously, as if you didn’t even matter to her.

Reality was brought back to you as Scott gripped your forearm gently, leading you through the still foggy police station. You could hear Sheriff yelling as he tried to most likely free himself, with the frighten encouragement of Melissa. Shortly after you hear the terrified shriek of your only mother figure. Scott and you made eye contact before rushing faster through the halls. You found the Kanima hanging along the bars of Melissa’s cell and Derek on the ground. Scott unleashed his claw, piercing the scaly flesh, grabbing ahold of Jackson’s lizard form and threw him on the ground.

Melissa made relief gasps as she saw that you and Scott were okay, “Scott…” She breathed for a second, “Oh, god Scott are you okay,” she cried through her worried tears.

You stood just in front of Scott as the Kanima stood once more, lunging at you. Without a second thought, you felt your eyes flash, your left hand raising to smack the Kanima’s scaly forehead. Your magical glow ringed out in a ripple effect, making the creature stumble from the force of your power. With the extra bit of time, you placed your right hand of his chest and blasted him back. The loud boom from your power echoed in the holding cell room. It gave just enough time for Derek to recover as he snarled, jumping the desk and chasing after the escaping lizard monster.

While your abilities may have saved you and Scott from the scaly claws of paralysis, it did nothing to aid you in the fear in Melissa’s voice. “Scott? Y/N?” She called clearly terrified and exhausted. Your eyes hadn’t stopped glowing from the amped up power you just displayed but it wasn’t like that was the only thing that gave you away. You slowly turned, flinching as Scott rose and you witnessed Melissa’s scared expression. She backed away into the shadows of her cell, as if to try and disappear from the monsters that were her kids.

Monsters.

Huh?

You had never truly felt any different to how you were before until you saw the look on Melissa’s face, the only mother you’ve known since you were just a little kid and she looks at you like you had just crawled out of the depths of hell.

Scott looked at Melissa like a frightened puppy but eventually left, running off to catch up with Jackson and Derek you had assumed. You on the hand stayed frozen staring at the woman with a longing for comfort. You didn’t get it as she continued to shake her head and whisper a cry of, “No!” A tear whisked its way down your face as you stepped closer to the bars, your hands wrapping around the rusted metal. Melissa quickly turned, holding herself as if to hide from you.

“Mom, please,” you whimpered, your eyes cloudy from tears. When you got no response in return, you did the same as your best friend, turned and ran away.

*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧*⁠.⁠✧

a/n: …um was that good for a sad ending? idk lol i guess let me know. Hope you guys enjoyed!

taglist: @somiaw @vvicaddiction @mushroomelephant @breadbrobin @traumverloren-anderswelt @fandom-princess-forevermore @vanessa-boo @mxltifxnd0m @thepopcultureaddict @rachlovesactors

[aloysiavirgata]

Loved your Skinner POV. I am the ultimate sucker for a Margaret Scully POV. Do one? *doe eyes*

Cancer. How can it be cancer, how can Fox already have been at the hospital, how can they plot and whisper and conspire; how can Dana have cancer?

Margaret is so angry and so afraid. So, so angry.

Terrified.

She has the wild, insane thought that Dana is too beautiful to have cancer, as though Melissa hadn’t been too beautiful to be casually murdered.

Fox looming and lurking in hallways and corners and sunsets and pre-dawn stillness. Like a grim guardian angel, like the beautiful statue of Lucifer Bill once took her to see at Liège.

Margaret sees Fox kiss her daughter’s bright hair one night, kiss her daughter’s sad, smiling mouth.

She doesn’t know what she wants for them. She crosses herself and walks away.

***

She doesn’t understand the situation with Emily, not really. She listens to everything Dana says about induced hyperovulation and surrogates and she nodded, dutiful, because she can hear Dana’s throat so tight, trying not to cry.

Emily is very sick, Dana says. The courts have no precedence for this, Dana says. I want to help her, Mom.

If Emily is Dana’s, if she really is, then she’s Margaret’s granddaughter and Margaret, to her shame, doesn’t want her to be.

Fox stands in the corner of the room, staring out the window at nothing, his jaw hard as stone. He radiates a quiet steadiness and Margaret feels her strange, lovely daughter draw strength from it, like a solar panel on a bright day. Are there lunar panels? Mulder’s eyes are nothing like the sun.

He radiates a cold fury and Margaret almost has pity for the target of it.

“When I was abducted by Duane Barry,” Dana begins, her voice mostly steady. “Wherever he took me had some kind of program where-“

Fox slams his fist into the windowframe and Margaret jumps, gasps. “Fox!”

“Mulder…” Dana breathes, her eyes closed.

He stalks from the room like a panther. Like an assassin.

***

“I’m pregnant,” Dana says, a little blushing laugh. Her hand splays over her flat belly.

Margaret surges with such piercing love for this incomprehensible child she birthed. “Oh honey,” she breathes.

Dana drops her head to the side, cheek to shoulder. “I’m so tired already,” she confesses. “I don’t know how you had four with Daddy away.”

She reaches for her daughter’s slim fingers. “I wanted five. Eight, if we could have. Three miscarriages after Charlie and then….” she is appalled at herself. “Dana, I’m so-“

Dana squeezes her mother’s hand. “Miscarriages aren’t some kind of thought virus, Mom.”

Margaret squeezes her hand back. “I know, I know. It just feels like bad luck. And Fox, will he be….?”

Dana looks up, a flush high in her cheeks. “Why are you bringing Mulder up?”

Margaret rolls her eyes. ““I’m a Vatican I Catholic, Dana. Not an idiot.”

Her daughter has the grace to look away. “He wants me to marry him,” she murmurs.

Margaret loves Fox. She loves him the way people love barn cats and funny cock-eared dogs and every pied beauty. But all of a sudden it’s Fox at Thanksgiving, Fox properly at Christmas this time. Uncle Fox, wedding-anniversary Fox, Fox calling her…what? Mom? Surely not Mrs. Scully still.

Margaret knows her children have done the math on her oldest son’s birthday, that he was mighty hefty for a “preemie.” She knows her latest grandchild deserves to be born in wedlock, she knows every Catholic from Father McCue back to Saint Peter would be absolutely appalled with her.

“Be sure of what you want,” she says to the chestnut tree just past the living room window. To Saint Mary Magdalene, to all repentant sinners.

***

William, six. William clever and tall for his age and gingerbread-colored like his father, with his mother’s round lapis eyes. Fiona, four, happily squirting colored water into a large plastic bin of shaving cream. The twins - Silas and Clara- are nearly three and getting bathed in the sink by their father. Dana, a tenured professor, lolling on the couch. Dana pregnant with number five.

Dana yawns like a cat over some tedious medical journal. Dana ever rail-thin since her cancer. Dana still looking depleted of essential nutrients. Phosphorus? Zinc?

But Dana is still a doctor, so Margaret is silent.

“Are you all right?” Margaret asks her irritable daughter. She beams at Clara, absurdly chubby, with her Aunt Melissa’s coppery curls. Clara with her plump hands like little stars. Silas, rosy and dark-haired, howls in general indignation. Silas with his father’s fairy-forest eyes and impossible lashes. Silas who loves to pat his grandmother’s cheeks.

“Mother I’m FINE,” Dana sighs. “Sy, hush. It’s only warm water.”

Margaret watches her son-in-law for a time, watches his long hands and his furrowed brow as the twins laugh and splash and protest in the deep farmhouse sink. Her Bill could never have done what Fox does.

“Loretta Lynn said she stopped having babies when they started coming in pairs,” Fox observes, sluicing water over his anguished twins. Clara laments pitifully. Silas has a broken air about him, weary as his mother.

Dana laughs, sweet as communion wine. “Stop knocking me up, then,” she grins, hand over her enormous belly.

“Not until you marry me,” Fox replies, thumbing Silas’s fat cheek. Kissing his darkly curled head.

Fiona on the carpet, giggling as William makes farting sounds in his armpits. Fiona with the blackest hair and the bluest eyes and the most perfectly sprinkled freckles like her Uncle Charlie.

William like a wood-elf, so tall and bright.

Dana laughs again. “No priest would ever, would they, Mom?”

Margaret, exhausted and happy, sighs at the pair of them.

In the oven, turkey tetrazzini from the Thanksgiving leftovers. Potty-training sticker charts on the fridge. Will’s perfect math homework, Fee’s wobbly I LOV YU!! above a careful crayon drawing of her family.

Margaret could have never predicted this, could never have seen Fox in sweats and baking Texas Sheet Cake for the PTA. Fox staying home and juggling nap schedules so that Dana could tell anecdotes about maggots to her adoring students.

Fox has a blog, which is Quite The Thing nowadays. Fox is a bestselling author. He’s made the talk show circuit and the girls from bunko send her newspaper clippings.

Fox towels off his exhausted babies. He diapers them, dresses them in fleecy pajamas. They look at him with enormous, reproachful eyes. They pout.

Margaret holds her arms out, draws them in when they toddle over.

The babies nestle, nuzzle, make sweet baby sounds as the sink drains away. Their little mouths pop open, lashes curled on their flawless cheeks. She’s never expected Dana, of all of her children, to be living this life. Cold, prickly, distant Dana with her lunatic partner and her brain cancer and her dead little girl.

“There are infinite infinities,” William tells Fiona. “But some infinities are larger than others.”

[cecilysass]

The Penultimate Partner Episode: Analyzing the Second-to-Last Episodes of Seasons 3-7

So I was thinking about the show’s tendency to do an episode that is explicitly about the Partnership—about the deep abiding bonds between Mulder and Scully—right before the season finale.

This doesn’t seem to happen in season 1 and 2 (the penultimate episodes are Roland and Our Town, respectively, which don’t seem to play the same role). And something different is happening in season 8 and 9, so I don't think they fit as well.

But during the show’s peak popularity, seasons 3-7, the second-to-last episode seems to be setting up baseline emotional stakes for whatever plotline is about to hit. These episodes are giving us the state of the partnership, reminding us how devoted they are to one another. They also tend to have to do with one or both partners having a distorted perception on reality that requires the other partner's intervention in some way. I’m calling them the Penultimate Partner episodes.

So can we look at the themes of each of these Partnership episodes and see development over time? I think yes. It’s gonna be long. I rewatched them all, so buckle up.

Season 3: Wetwired - partnership as trust Season 4: Demons - partnership as loyalty Season 5: Folie a Deux - partnership as shared madness Season 6: Field Trip - partnership as touchstones Season 7: Je Souhaite - partnership as happiness

Season 3: Wetwired  (right before Talitha Cumi)

This episode, like several in the Penultimate Partner episode category, involves a X-file that distorts perception. Because Scully can’t trust her own senses due to the mind control, she also can’t trust Mulder, calling into question the key tenet of their partnership. (And by season three, they have definitely established trust as the bedrock.)

Her gradual mistrust of Mulder in this episode is tense and painful; you can see on her face how much she argues with herself about it even as her mind is tricking her. Others who fall victim to this mind control phenomenon wind up murdering their romantic partner, but in the end of the episode, when they’re discussing what happened in the hospital, they both seem pretty unsurprised that Scully’s paranoia focused on Mulder. They both know, late season three, how crucial trust is between them. They understand that it’s Scully’s worst fear that Mulder would betray her. It’s not even news to them.

What Mulder’s worst fear might be is also hinted at, although it’s unsaid. He’s furious that her life is put at risk by the mysterious informant. When Mulder believes Scully may be dead and he’s going to identify her body, his reaction is chilling. He seems to completely shut down emotionally, not even showing any reaction to the Gunmen. Tellingly, when he is offered a choice between getting answers and going to ID Scully’s body, he doesn’t hesitate—he chooses Scully. (Sometimes people claim Mulder doesn’t show this kind of commitment to her until much later, even until Home Again in season 10, so it’s interesting to see it so unequivocal here.)   

I want to say that Scully’s anxiety about trusting Mulder in this episode is foreshadowing aspects of the cancer arc in the next season, but I don’t think that’s really what’s happening. This episode seems more like an entirely season 3 cap to the Anasazi / Blessing Way / Paperclip storyline, especially the murder of Melissa. Scully’s paranoia calls back Mulder’s in Anasazi, and Scully explicitly blames Mulder for her sister’s murder when she’s drawn a gun on him. Even just the fact that we're there with Maggie, who has a picture of Melissa displayed prominently, tells me that loss is supposed to be on both partners' minds. (Actually, the interaction between Mulder, Scully and Maggie is pretty amazing in this scene; they’re an emotionally complex trio who seem to be communicating on some other level. I love how when Mulder and Maggie are talking to freaked-out Scully they almost sound strangely unreal, almost like they really are speaking falsely. It allows us to imagine the scene as it looks from Scully’s point-of-view, as a massive betrayal.)

Wetwired is, technically, a mytharc episode, as this whole mind control thing seems to tie back into X and the Syndicate. Personally I think the episode’s ending, emphasizing the mytharc-related plot and X’s involvement and whatever tf was happening there, was a little misguided. For my tastes they would have done better to play up the more personal, character-based themes a little more. But I also think this episode was the first real Penultimate Partner episode, and it was setting some patterns that were going to be expanded on.

Season 4: Demons (before Gethsemane)

From the cold open, we can already tell this is already a more personal episode than Wetwired. Mulder is the one having perception problems now; he wakes from a disturbing dream, covered in blood, muddled memory. This is also technically a mytharc episode, but much more concerned with direct impact on character than Wetwired was. 

Scully instantly rushes to Mulder’s aid—walks right into his shower, for heaven’s sake—and absolutely never wavers in loyalty to him, even when he looks real, real guilty and a "rational" person would be suspicious. She is in fierce, must-protect-Mulder mode throughout this entire episode, from the moment she shows up palpating his head with her hands to her back-off behavior with the cops to her badass cold “I know what you do” comment to Dr. Goldstein. She also helps Mulder see through his distorted perception, telling him "this is not the way to the truth" as he holds a gun on her.

In this Penultimate Partner episode, we see something more than simple trust going on, although there’s trust, too. Maybe the word is loyalty or devotion. We see Mulder coming apart and Scully completely and utterly devoted to him. It’s actually very clear foreshadowing for the following week’s episode, Gethsemane. Mulder isn’t stable, and he needs Scully to keep him from “los[ing] his course,” as she says in Demons’ end narration. Gethsemane will follow up on the Mulder losing-his-course idea, and also will explore the idea that Scully’s bottomless support of Mulder isn’t always good for her. (This idea is voiced especially by Bill.) 

There are some ways in which this episode is a neat little bookend to Wetwired. In Wetwired, Scully flees to her mother’s house, desperate and paranoid; in Demons, Mulder, similarly unhinged, seeks out his mother at her house. In Wetwired, Scully sees things that aren’t there, and in Demons, it’s definitely implied that Mulder may be seeing things in his past that weren’t actually there. In Wetwired, Scully pulls a gun on Mulder, and in Demons, Mulder pulls one on Scully. 

I adore this episode, even though it’s definitely vulnerable to the critique that Mulder acts like a self-obsessed loon and Scully a hopeless enabler lol. Especially because it comes before the Gethsemane / Redux three parter, I wish the episode would have explicitly connected his behavior to the cancer arc, as I feel like that would have made his wild choices seem more understandable. If he felt like he needed to find answers faster because he knew Scully’s time was running out and he saw it all tied together with her fate, then we would get why he was acting so rashly. It would also tie more nicely into Gethsemane, which misleads the audience into thinking Mulder has killed himself, in part, because he believes she’s been given cancer to make him believe. But again, I love this episode. Scully showing up and putting that blanket around Mulder when he’s shaking. Her hugging him at the end when he’s desolate on the floor. This shows a partnership that’s been through Paper Hearts and Memento Mori—that’s moved beyond trust alone.

Season 5: Folie a Deux (before The End)

This is another episode about perception—about one partner seeing things the other can’t. Unlike in Wetwired or Demons, however, in this episode the altered perception actually represents the real truth, something everyone else fails to understand. The episode plays around with the tropes of earlier episodes like Wetwired, at first encouraging us to think that it's a delusion that Pincus is a monster, but then convincing us, through Mulder’s eyes, that the delusion is actually reality.  

As other people have observed, this episode ends up being a nice little metaphor for the whole show: Mulder knowing what no one else does, being ostracized and considered insane, asking Scully to find evidence to corroborate him and ultimately convincing her to believe him and see what he sees. Their partnership is, quite precisely, a madness shared by two. 

It’s a monster of the week, not a mytharc, so there’s no distraction of elaborate mytharc plot, just characters and monster. And this is a Vince Gilligan operation, so our focus is definitely on character. From the first scene with Mulder and Scully, we sense that we’re going to be talking about the partnership. Skinner gives them an assignment in Chicago that Mulder doesn’t think is worth it, and he complains in a particularly self-centered way to Scully, which she observes (“You’re saying I a lot.”) The episode is going to be very explicit that while Mulder might be monster boy, they are in this unhinged partnership situation together. Another important moment comes later, when Scully is calling the perp crazy for thinking he saw a monster, and Mulder says, “Well, I saw it, too.” Scully’s careful about-face after that, her delicate avoidance of implying she thinks Mulder is actually crazy, is part of the dance they’re doing at this late season five stage of their partnership. She doesn’t quite believe him, but she doesn’t knee-jerk not believe him either. 

And the foreshadowing of what’s to come in this one, whoo boy. Most obviously, we must acknowledge that 1013 knew exactly what they were doing when Mulder tells Scully “you’re my one in five billion.” A mere seven days from now, a mysterious beautiful ex who believes his theories is going to show up to immediately cast doubt on that claim. And this episode is also toying with the question of whether Scully actually does always back Mulder up when it’s important, when she has to accept she saw something illogical. At the end, does she tell Skinner she actually saw a giant bug in Mulder’s hospital room? We don’t know, but I think it’s implied she doesn’t. That’s all presaging what will happen in The Beginning coming off of Fight the Future. It’s Scully’s little way of resisting the madness, but it also hurts Mulder and damages the partnership, which will be a problem in season six. 

Season 6: Field Trip (before Biogenesis)

Full disclosure: this is my favorite episode. So I’m going to make some big claims about it. This is the ultimate Penultimate Partner episode—the one that best knits together what it wants to say about their partnership and what it wants to establish for the finale. It's a monster-of-the-week episode (another Vince Gilligan ep, with John Shiban) but refers to the mytharc often. It’s also one of the best episodes about their partnership, period. 

This is yet another episode about distorted perception. This time, however, under the influence of a giant mushroom, both partners are unable to perceive clearly, to determine what is real and what is a lie. And when they’re confused, they critically turn to one another to help them see what the truth is.

Coming off of season six, the partnership is rocky. Mulder is frustrated that after so many theories of his have borne out, he still can’t get the benefit of the doubt from Scully, something he explicitly says in the dialogue here. Scully has felt like she’s not been trusted or heard, like Mulder has turned to others (Diana Fowley, for example) rather than his partner.

This is an episode about how they absolutely need one another to be able to make sense of the world—that individually each of their points-of-view are not enough. In Mulder’s hallucination, Scully accepts his claims about alien life forms too completely, not applying enough skepticism, not pushing back against him. In Scully’s hallucination, a world without Mulder, everyone is unacceptably unquestioning of the status quo, refusing to dig deeper, lacking Mulder’s critical acumen and drive. Neither partner likes the feeling of being unopposed, and it makes both of them suspicious about the hallucination’s reality. They may think they want their own view to prevail, but they need one another to be a whole person.

The theme of what’s real and what’s not – and needing one another to discern the truth–is exactly what is picked up and developed further in the Biogenesis-Sixth Extinction-Amor Fati arc that follows this. Scully’s skepticism has to stretch to incorporate more of Mulder’s worldview to make sense of what she sees in the Ivory Coast, and of course, Mulder calls on Scully’s worldview to see through his misleading dream world in Amor Fati. In fact, you could argue Field Trip is really about the idea that Mulder and Scully are one another’s touchstones—the people they need to know what’s right and real. 

Incidentally, this episode also plays around with some of season 6’s other subtextual throughlines: Mulder and Scully’s anxieties about possibly entering a non-platonic relationship, their unease about what a normal, domestic life might even be for them. For the entire episode they’re directly compared and juxtaposed with the Schiffs, a young married couple who died on Brown Mountain. The Schiffs are a tall man and a redheaded woman. They even die hallucinating lying together on a hotel bed after she asked him to “hold her” (although I do seriously doubt 1013 was intentionally foreshadowing a full year ahead). The last shot is of Mulder reaching out to take Scully’s hand across the ambulance, suggesting a kind of partnership beyond just, you know, partnership. Which takes us to the next season.  

Season 7: Je Souhaite (before Requiem)

Truthfully, I don’t think this episode fits quite as well in the Penultimate Partner category. It doesn’t share some of the same traits as these other episodes—it’s not quite as notably about perception, for instance—and it’s not fundamentally about the partnership in the same way. But it does end up commenting on their partnership (even their relationship, really) as part of its theme, so I think we can include it—especially because its position right before Requiem ends up being important. 

Je Souhaite (btw, written and directed by Vince Gilligan) has a bit of an unsettled feeling to it because it was kind of treading water, waiting to see what happened with DD and the series. Nothing too monumental could happen with the partnership or the plot because it wasn’t clear to anyone what would happen next with the show: whether it would end or continue, whether DD would be involved or not.

So we have a story about Mulder and Scully making peace with not having a significant impact on the world—e.g. not bringing about world peace, not introducing invisible bodies to science. Instead, they are content to delightfully share a beer and comment that they have made one another “pretty happy” (as Scully says about Mulder). Through the jinni character, they seem to take the lesson that they can enjoy being with one another, accept the simple happiness that their relationship brings them. Rather than wish for success that comes too easily, they take joy in the little things with one another.

Comparing this episode to the Penultimate Partner episodes that come before, we can really see how Mulder and Scully’s dynamic has evolved by season seven. We have a Scully who is much more open to supernatural phenomena, for example, and whose skepticism seems more like a reflex or a defense mechanism now. Scully’s move towards belief is partially reflected in the plot of the episode: the X-file here really isn’t even science fiction. It is just straight up fantasy or magical realism. Aside from Scully's brief mention of a disease to explain what happened to the mouthless man in the cold open, no plausible scientific explanation for the jinni's long life or wishes is really even floated.

Scully is delighted by the discovery of the invisible body, and Mulder is visibly delighted by her delight. He’s also frustrated by her retreat into doubt when the body disappears, of course. But even the reversal into her old skepticism is half-hearted, as she soon after she's engaging in discussion with Mulder about what his final wish was. This is consistent with the overall blurring of the old hardline believer-skeptic dynamic we see in season 7. It’s also peeking ahead to Scully’s coming role as resident basement believer in season 8. 

The last scene, with the beers and Caddyshack, is meant to be a callback to djinni Jenn’s comment that she wishes she could “live my life moment by moment... enjoying it for what it is instead of... instead of worrying about what it isn't.” Mulder, we see, is taking a cue from her. (And good for him, as we almost never see these characters do this. Except on rare baseball-related occasions.)

However, this episode’s position right before Requiem—and right before the events of season 8—ends up giving this scene a real bittersweet bite. We know, after Requiem, that they were probably a romantic couple at this time. We know, after Requiem, that this time is going to be their last happy time together for a long while. Later in season 8, we learn that one lingering wish of Scully’s in season 7 is that she wanted to conceive a child with Mulder. And of course we know, after Requiem, that she gets her wish—but with a vicious catch, with a terrible side effect, much like what happens with the jinni’s wishes. 

So that’s my academic thesis on that. I know others have pointed out the existence of this type of episode before. What did I miss? Do you think I am wrong to leave out seasons 1, 2, 8, and 9? Why do we think these episodes focus so much on distorted perception? Interested to hear others’ thoughts (if they make it through this lol).

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 125 (Flowers, But Everyone's On Edge!)

Conrad landed at the San Myshuno Airport just before dark, where he signed for the bodies of George and June Brindleton. After sending them off in a truck to the morgue in Brindleton Bay, he drove around the city looking for a flower shop.

Really, he was hoping one flower shop in particular was open, and he smiled as he approached The Blooming Room with its lights on.

When the bell dinged to signal his entry, a woman turned around with a smile. "How can I help you?" Her face fell. "Lieutenant Gordon. Are you looking for some flowers?"

He nodded. "Something yellow. Buttercups, if you have them."

"We don't usually put buttercups in our floral arrangements. They're a skin irritant."

He frowned. "Forget the buttercups. Just...yellow."

Melissa Ramsay looked around nervously. "Is that it?"

"You changed your hair."

"Ximena's not the only one who likes to express herself with a bottle of hair dye, I guess. I went back to my natural colour because I'm done hiding."

"I found Rafa," he said. "He's in Sulani."

"Why are you telling me this, Lieutenant? I don't care."

"I don't believe that."

"Do you still care what happens to Ximena?"

"Of course I do. But I hope Ximena ends up behind bars for as long as possible, and I think you still care about Rafa."

She laughed. "I think you don't know me."

"So if I told you how to get in touch with him, you wouldn't even want to check in?"

"Lieutenant Gordon, please!" she begged. "If I check in with him, I'll never want to let him go."

"I don't know if there's anyone else in the world who could bring Ximena down faster than her brother, but he needs to be convinced. I told him I'd try to get him a lawyer and a judge who might offer him a good deal in exchange for turning her in, but he needs a real good reason to do it. I think he still cares about you, too."

She perked up somewhat. "How good a deal?"

"A few years, maybe. If he can help us pin Ximena for the murder of Jimmy Stefano, her price will go up and his sentence could come down. But the judge would need to see he'd be a productive member of society outside the system, and strong relationships with good people can go a long way."

"I don't want you, or anyone else, to get my hopes up, Lieutenant. Or Rafa's."

"I don't want that, either," he insisted. "But the only way we can do this is if we work together to change his mind."

For the first time, Melissa seemed hopeful, and as she sold him a bouquet of carnations and daffodils, Conrad thought he'd changed her mind. But as she wrapped cellophane around the stems, she frowned. "Fifteen simoleons, Lieutenant. Happy Love Day."

He sighed, pulling the notepad and a pen from his pocket to scribble down some information while he paid. "He's not using a phone, but if you call Leila Illes and Oliana Ngata at that number, they'll rent you a villa. Their son, Tane, will be able to show you where Rafa's hiding out. Bring good shoes."

By the time he made it back to Brindleton Bay, Love Day was already over. Heather was distracted, worried over Ash's conversation with Ben, but she accepted the flowers with a smile. "I'm glad you're okay. These are beautiful."

"I'll make it up to you for missing Love Day soon, but Sulani was...an adventure. The chief called an emergency meeting to discuss the Brindletons' murder investigation. We've got to try to plan for what might crack in this town now that he's gone. I need to change and turn around again...but I found Rafa."

Heather's eyes grew wide as she threw on a sweater and he changed clothes. "You found him? Did you bring him in, too? Is that the trouble you ran into?"

"He knocked me out before he realized it was me, but he stayed with me until I came to and apologized. I tried to convince him to come back and help us get a confession out of his sister, but he turned me down."

"So you just left him there? He's a wanted criminal. Does your boss know?"

"Rafa's almost like a little brother to me. He was so young, and Ximena worked all the time."

Heather frowned. "Conrad, you're lying for him."

"I need him to trust me, Heather. I think he's the only person who can bring Ximena down. I'm trying to help him for all our sakes."

"If anyone at the station finds out you're helping him, you could lose your job."

He nodded. "I know that. But I'd risk my job a thousand times for you and the kids, too. And your family."

Heather was annoyed, and she chose this moment to announce she'd booked her long talked-about vacation with Spencer. "Spence and I are going to Selvadorada the first week of spring. She's got a dig booked right after you and Ash finish the treehouse project in Henford, and we thought since Ash will be in the city with the Landgraabs until Easter's over, the timing was sort of perfect for once."

Conrad wavered. "Do you really think going to Selvadorada's the best idea right now? If they're upset we've got one of their own behind bars, I don't want you going to their jungle."

"You don't want me going?" She eyed him incredulously. "Since when are you in charge of me?"

"I don't mean it like that, Heather. It's just the cartel..."

"You said yourself you thought they'd dropped her."

"No, I hope they've dropped her. We haven't brought them in because we don't want them to think we're sniffing around at all."

"Conrad, I'm going. You have your camping trip with Ash and I need a vacation, too. Spencer's practically an expert in Selvadoradian culture and traditions and spends more time down there than you ever have," she argued. "We spent years promising each other Ximena wouldn't control our lives from wherever she was hiding, and she's not about to start now that we know exactly where she is!"

He backed off. Heather rarely got upset and he knew he'd touched a nerve. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'm just being paranoid, and I know you and Spencer can take care of yourselves down there. I've got to get to the station, but I love you."

She accepted a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, too. And wait:" She took a deep breath. "I know you just got back, there's a lot on your plate at work, and the treehouse project's just around the corner, but I'm on edge because Ash said he saw Ben and his dog after school yesterday. I don't think he believes they're ghosts, either."

Conrad flinched. "What do you mean, he saw them?" ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 2.1 Summary

Gen 1 Start | Gen 1 Summary

NOTE: There's no snow in the flower shop exterior shot because Conrad was in Ciudad Enamorada. He had just randomized in Media Naranja Park to pick up a suspect (unrelated technically, they were innocent of the in-game case so it didn't help his career points and wasn't a story canon pick-up). I haven't explored Ciudad Enamorada enough but I saw the flower shop and thought it was adorable. Suddenly, he needed to get flowers for Heather. And since he needs Melissa's help and she doesn't live in Ciudad Enamorada, voila the flower shop is in San Myshuno (which gets less snow than Brindleton Bay, anyway, and it's almost spring!)

NOTE 2: If Melissa is unrecognizable, that's because I lost the original (the game deleted her before I could save her after she appeared among the potential suspects for a crime Conrad was solving for gameplay that I turned into storyline). I tried to recreate her but it was hard so I played up how she's changed her appearance a bit since last seen. If this was a TV soap, there'd be a random voiceover when she appeared on camera: "The role of Melissa Ramsay will now be played by so-and-so."

WCIF Flower Shop: Since the flower shop in Media Naranja is a rabbit hole, I found this room on the Sims 4 Gallery by plumlala3 called Betty's Flower Shop. I thought the interior was really cute, stuffed with flowers, and felt small enough to somewhat represent the inside of the small shop in the park!

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

my favorite scully and mulder moments from s3

mulder bursting into his apartment in episode 2 after actually returning from the dead, only to find scully and skinner holding each other at gunpoint. he immediately asks if she is okay and pulls HIS gun on skinner, too (yes, he WILL threaten to kill their boss for her, thank you very much)

(and then they have this moment where they reunite for real and she smiles at him- i thought they were going to kiss but they didn’t, but either way it was so precious and genuine it made me lose my mind)

this exchange in the disease center archives: “lots of files” “lots and lots of files” yeah <3

after they flee through the back exit of the archives escaping what seemed like the entire US military, they meet skinner at a little diner in maryland, with all things seemingly forgiven between them

how he holds her after she learns melissa passed away, and how they both agree that they need to get back to work in order to keep them from going mad with grief (they were both in mourning at the same time- his dad's death was still very recent- and it is so touching to me how they were there for each other at every step)

they way they glance at each other while the “psychic” stupendous yappi is making incredibly vague claims about the killer at the crime scene in episode 4 (omg... does anyone have this gif?)

(and when the psychic claims that mulder has “negative energy” and needs to leave the room, she leans in and says “i can’t take you anywhere)

later in the episode, he comes in with the news that the item at the crime scene was made of chantilly lace, and he says “you know how i like it” in reference to the song by the big bopper. she makes the FUNNIEST face!!! it's a momentary mixture of horror and disgust before she composes herself. it is hilarious, i’ll see if i can find it. then she slaps a file on his chest and wishes him good luck in observing bruckman.

also, he is nearly killed in that episode, and scully shoots his would-be murderer- then they have one of those “comforting each other on the floor after nearly dying moments” that are like catnip to me

“imagine if it were true, scully. imagine if you could come back and take out five people who had caused you to suffer. who would they be?” “i only get five?” “i remembered your birthday this year, didn’t i?” <3 (from episode 5)

in episode 7, scully noticed that mulder had been carrying dental x-ray plates throughout their whole investigation, but never bothered to ask why because they were at the point in their relationship where such things do not need to be discussed

scully learning in episode 9 that she is slowly dying from the tests they performed on her while she was taken, and breaking the news to mulder- how he softly says “but you’re fine, aren’t you scully?” because he cannot bear to lose her (AUGHHHHHHHH) (and she confesses that she doesn’t know if she really IS okay… why do they place so much sorrow on her shoulders?)

mulder trapped on a ticking time bomb of a train in episode 10, calling her to say “scully, let me tell you, you haven’t seen america til you’ve seen it from a train” “DAMN IT MULDER, WHAT HAPPENED?!” <- lmaooo he has this constant Need to diffuse tension with a quip

scully is going through A Lot of Emotions in episode 11, and when it is time for them to go, mulder holds out her jacket for her to put on <3 and then goes and does the statement by himself as per her request so she can go “run an errand” (confession for the first time in 6 years), which he obliges without question

so much of the episode 12 dialogue: “mulder, you’re not thinking about trespassing onto government property again, are you?” “it’s too late, i’m already inside” (incredibly deep scully sigh) “well, what’s going on? what do you see?” <- yeah that’s them. if you’re gonna break federal law, at least tell her about it in depth.

scully sleeping with her phone on her pillow, waiting for another of mulder’s calls. when it finally comes, he’s going on and on about bambi and she is clearly displeased. finally, he asks “scully, can i confess something to you?” and she VISIBLY winces, with pain in her voice, but pushes through and says “yeah sure, okay” (this one KILLED me because she did NOT want to hear about his love life but she wanted to be a good friend... scully is so kind)

(and all he had to say was that he hates insects lmao)

((and how the episode starts with the two of them making a planet of the apes reference, then ends with bambi and dr. ivanov flirting by making a different planet of the apes reference))

mulder is losing his damn mind in episode 14, hadn’t slept for days, and was sneaking out to a crime scene. scully is so worried she tells him to stay exactly where he is and that she will be there soon so they can “work this thing out together, okay?” trying to talk him back into being himself, making sure he is safe... that's partnership <3

in episode 16, mulder gets in a car crash, but wakes up to find scully next to him in the hospital. he has a bandage on his head looking all pathetic, and she greets him with a smile. i wanted to bottle this moment and drink it like fine champagne.

their drive to north dakota after scully confronted the man who shot skinner and her sister- how tense that ride had to have been. what did they say? anything at all? i need to know, i need 10 fics NOW

and their conversation at melissa’s grave- how they both bring flowers, how he touches her shoulder, the way she shares her father’s friend’s theory that the dead speak to you from beyond the grave, which is a conscious. and how he, the man who is always pondering the meanings of life and death and what comes between, says honestly “that’s interesting. i’ve never thought of it that way” 

her falling asleep on his shoulder during the stakeout in episode 17; how he lightly taps her face to wake her up and says “i think you drooled on me”, which prompts a very fast and very embarrassed apology (!!!!!!!!!)

(also, pusher kept calling mulder "g-man" over the phone, so when they hang up he turns to her and calls her "g-woman" <3)

their very excellent coordination between scully grabbing the fire extinguisher and mulder using his jacket to douse the flames that episode

(and all the times in pusher they lean their heads together to share a phone <3)

when mulder has to go into the hospital to catch the pusher, he leaves his gun behind so he won’t hurt anybody- and he’s terrified and so is scully, so they look into each other’s eyes while holding hands before he departs

how she runs into action when he is in danger in the hospital; how she interrupts his game of russian roulette with pusher, and how she SCREAMS when he puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger; that visceral "damn it, mulder!" filled with so much emotion in just a few words

how he fights the pusher’s mind control to prevent shooting her harder than he fought the mind control that made him fire at himself (!!!)

and after mulder escaped, having fired every round into pusher so he knew he wouldn’t hurt anyone else ever again, he watches as he is on life support. scully grabs his hand, having seen how terrified he had become, and tells him not to let this man take up any more of his time.

in episode 20, they receive roky’s fantastical report on his men in black encounter, which mulder reads aloud while scully lies on the bed of their hotel room, looking baffled (it is so CUTE!!!)

waking up to mulder in her room soon after that, having been under some mind control influence the night before, wondering why he was in there, and mulder trying to explain no, she actually invited him in!!

walking into the bait shop together in episode 22, sharing an umbrella while she holds the dog's leash <3

mulder offering to join her walking her dog, but she smiles and lifts up her jacket to show her gun and says she’ll be fine 

the whole conversation on the rock, but some highlights include “hey scully, do you think you could ever cannibalize someone?” and how she compares him to ahab (they’re both “so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or its mysteries, that everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology”, which he responds to with “scully, are you coming onto me?”)

but then he gets very serious, talking about how he wishes it were enough to just Persist Despite It All and be free of expectations, how he loathes that “you’re actually expected to make something of your life- achieve something, earn a raise, wear a necktie”, and he is the antithesis of ahab because he might be happier with a pegleg. and god, that one makes me emotional.

(and then they both quote a line from the book <3)

oh, and i could not finish this list without this banger from episode 23: “he’s lied to me from the beginning. he’s never trusted me” “scully, you are the ONLY one i trust”

(cue tears as scully collapses into her mother's arms) (cue tears at mulder's dogged persistence he could bring her back, but it took a mother's love instead) (and cue tears that such love had been extended to him by mrs. scully, so much so that she knew he would never, ever threaten her baby)

[rotating-hyperfixations]

Yellowjackets - 03x07 Thoughts

I need them to deliver an episode that’s filled with so much gore and gay that the republicans are out in full force. Thoughts below the cut as always

They referenced the Lottie watching Tai eat dirt scene from season 1, I’m intrigued

Scientist backstory time?

Also very cool shot to open the episode

The voices have just been screaming frogs all this time?!

I can’t take Joel Mchale seriously, he seems like he’s trying way to hard to be “cool”

Scientists are falling in love and now they are about to be cooked by some lesbian teenage cannibals

Is Joel Mchale in love with the male scientist and annoyed that he has a wife/girlfriend

I’m so confused by these people, but I kinda dig their vibe

I am curious about how deep they are in the woods, because they’ve obviously been out there for a little while, but they still stumble upon the Yellowjackets who seemingly are in the middle of nowhere with no civilization based on what they’ve shown us

Oh boy, you have way bigger issues than Joel Mchale in store. The teenage cannibals are going to do so much worse both physically and psychologically

Not them finding the Yellowjackets because they barbecued Ben’s body lol

Is the DAT tape Shauna had from the hiker?

Oh Van, you are not going home for months sweetie

Here’s your weekly “there are no scenes in the opening” thought will be all

Lottie jumped right to man slaughter

We got Shauna’s iconic holy shit scene

They shot my boy Melissa!

Courtney Eaton covered in blood, you are very gorgeous to me

THEY HAVE 14 MINUTES OF RECORDED AUDIO FROM THAT FUCK ASS TQLE?!

Obviously, they killed hikers

Not Jeff having beef with the interior design

Jeff, you are on my last nerve, you will start to cough in seven days

Also Shauna, you deserve better than him!

Callie’s looking at missing persons, it’d be interesting if they left the hikers for some reason

They are working with way too much coordination for them to have not done something like this before lol

Did her just get stuck on some vine or was that an animal trap they set?

Oh Jesus she’s a mom, this is going to activate Shauna’s guilt times a thousand

Hillary Swank as Hannah?

Yellowjackets team up in the adult timeline, u used to pray for times like these!

Misty seems so proud that Shauna was able to online sleuth

Melissa is dead, rip to Shauna getting to lezz out in the adult timeline

Love that Shauna’s mini van is alive and well

Van looking gay as fuck, Lauren Ambrose give me one chance

Tai pledging to commit multiple murders for Van to live, that’s true love

Does Van have a knife?

Aww sweet babies with the non functional phone, so much hope gone so quickly

Van wants to go home so badly, my shaylaaaaa

Also I guess the food Ben found was what the previous group from the university left behind for these bitches

We are getting so much Shaunanat content this episode, I need 500 fics stat

Also, Ashley Sutton if you get found, you had so much time to moved this is on you

Shauna immediately jumped to murder, that’s my antler queen

Misty, these are dire times and your playing road trip games ?!

Let Christina Ricci lez out in the adult timeline!

I don’t believe for a second Shauna murdered Lottie

I’m sorry them all texting in Shauna’s car is so funny

If they kill my boy Van by season end, there will be consequences Showtime

Misty’s eye sight is terrible

Also, glad we finally got to see some repercussions to wearing glasses in the wilderness

I feel like they are going to slowly kill those hikers

Tai loves to throw around the wife word this season, like girl you are still married

I can’t believe Misty and Shauna are fighting in the lobby of this hospital about Shauna committing murder. You are in a public setting, stop talking so casually lol

Not Shauna abandoning all of them in the middle of nowhere

Tai, you helping is committing murder, I can see why Van maybe didn’t want. Some help

Van’s seeing Lottie?!

What in the fuck is happening here?!

Van and fire remains the shows most stable ship

Are the drugs doing this, or is this some supernatural shit?!

Lottie is having a psychotic break with the dead hiker body

My poor baby Melissa

“Go fuck your blood dirt Lottie” I love Mari

Not the random, Jeff and Callie stuff at the end of the episode

I can’t believe it took Callie and Jeff three seasons to come to the conclusion that Shauna and co might have committed some gratuitous acts of violence

Shauna brought the knife out of retirement, no one’s shocked

This was such a lore filled episode

[winnipegwinterpeg]

Protesters blocking the Brady Road landfill in south Winnipeg say their resolve is even stronger after a man shovelled a truckload of soil and debris onto an MMIWG mural near the blockade Sunday.

The blockade went up last week after the province refused to fund a search of Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two Indigenous women. The city ordered those blocking the roadway to vacate by noon Monday.

"Screw it. Who cares what they have to say? Who cares what they want? I'm not going to take no for an answer anymore," said Cambria Harris, whose mother's remains are believed to be at another landfill outside the city.

She said Camp Morgan — which has been at the Brady Road landfill since December— originally erected the blockade to "send a message," not to entirely block the landfill, which has two entrances.

But after the man's act on Sunday, she and others issued a call on social media for more "warriors" to join those on site, who said they're ready to keep rallying for change.

Harris said she wasn't at the blockade Sunday when the man in a black pickup truck dumped soil on the mural, but she saw the video of it happen, which she posted on social media.

In the video, the man is seen shovelling soil and debris from the back of his truck onto the mural, while telling protesters to "Take care of your own people." After someone responds [“we are, you fucking dumbass”], he asks, "Then why are they dead?"

Harris questions how he got past the security on site.

"Why are you so angry to feel like you have to take that extreme of a measure of a hate crime?" she asked.

"You don't realize that you're talking to an entire group of people who have been pulverized their entire life through systemic oppression."

"I'm outraged. I'm enraged. I'm infuriated," said supporter Melissa Morrisseau, who said she was at the landfill Sunday to help give a voice to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and their families.

"I'm here till the very end," she said.

Florance Smith was also there to take a stand with the families.

"They need to dig for our women," Smith said. "They just think that we belong in the garbage."

Harris said she believes the province's decision to not support a landfill search shows that the government doesn't care, and she now feels she's been disrespected by all three levels of government. She said it shouldn't have come to measures like the letter sent by the city, telling protesters to shut down the blockade.

"I've never ever understood it, why this kind of trauma is our fault," Harris said.

The mural, a red dress with the words "for our sisters" written on the skirt, was painted on the entrance road to the landfill, Ethan Boyer Way.

(…)

But after they realized the soil the man dumped contained cedar wood chippings, supporters decided to put them to use by sweeping the woodchips in a circle around the mural, she said.

"Cedar's our protection medicine, and we decided that we were going to include it into our art piece and circle her in protection," Bousquet said.

"We turned an ugly into a beautiful here. That's what our people are known for doing."

For Bousquet, it shows how resilient her community is.

"No matter what you throw on us … we're always going to create something beautiful," she said.

[drafttheory]

Definitely not Monday, but without further ado—thoughts on episode 6 of Yellowjackets: Thanksgiving (Canada).

1. Shauna punishing Natalie to butcher Coach Ben:

The worst punishment Shauna could think of for Natalie was the very job she’d been burdened with from the start. I read a great analysis on Shauna’s need to be understood and how she used Natalie to fulfill that without realizing Natalie already understood her. I won’t rehash it, but I recommend reading it—I’ll tag the author: @sentientsnakeskin.

That said, I slightly disagree with one point. They mention that Shauna and Natalie have always shared the burden—every animal Shauna butchered, Natalie killed. And while that was true before, the writers made a distinct choice: Natalie had never made the kill when it came to cannibalism. She felt guilty for Javi, but she didn’t pull the trigger. And if Shauna standing over him is why he died, then Natalie still wasn’t the one to kill him. Before this moment, they might have shared that lingering sense of guilt from killing and butchering animals, but that changed the second they crossed into cannibalism.

Which is why Shauna needed Natalie to butcher Ben. She was closest to becoming what Shauna already was (or saw herself as) but had remained the least guilty in terms of cannibalism. (If we’re not counting the background characters, and I’m not.)

Even as Shauna punishes Natalie, she offers her something she never had: company. She stands over her, guiding her, not giving her the space to hesitate or reflect. And while that seems cruel, to Shauna, it was an act of mercy. When she butchered Javi, she should’ve been able to see him as just meat—it would’ve been easier. But she couldn’t. She saw him as a person, and now she’ll forever see every animal as him. So in her mind, not letting Natalie humanize Ben was the kindest thing she could do.

And in the end, they’ll finally share that understanding. For better or worse, they now know exactly how the other feels.

2. Shauna Becoming the Leader

I have high hopes for what this means for the show. First, Shauna is the leader now—yay. Can’t wait to see how that goes. Second, I think this also signals the beginning of the end for Shaunahat, mostly because of how she might lead.

Her sudden switch from murderous rebel to (insert better word for "trying to corral the girls into a team") leader is both entertaining and telling. In one of the first episodes of Season 3, Natalie and Tai discuss how Mari and Shauna don’t get along. Natalie even jokes about what Jackie would’ve done in her place, which gives us insight into how she viewed Jackie’s leadership—and maybe Jackie as a whole.

The second Shauna is crowned queen, she immediately imitates something Jackie said back in Season 1, Episode 1, when Allie broke her leg. For all of Shauna’s resentment toward Jackie, even she can’t deny that Jackie was an effective team captain. People argue Jackie would’ve died eventually because she had zero survival skills, and while I agree, let’s be real—when your company in the wilderness is a group of teenage girls and one teenage boy, social skills are exactly what you need. And that’s something Shauna very obviously lacks. But you know who didn’t? Her dead best friend, who she’s spent enough time around to imitate.

Which is why I also think Shaunahat is doomed, for one of three reasons:

I’m a hater. There, I said it.

If Shauna has to become Jackie for this leadership to work, she can’t very well be with Melissa at the same time—especially since Melissa was supposed to be Jackie’s replacement, not the other way around. And if the dynamic does flip (Shauna as Jackie, Melissa as Shauna), Shauna might start resenting Melissa for stepping into her old role. We all saw how she felt about Jackie.

Every relationship involving the queen has failed—LottieLee, TravNat—and I seriously doubt the girl who’d rather sleep with her best friend’s boyfriend than communicate her feelings will be the one to break the curse.

this post is very shauna-centric, but if there are other moments (involving her or not) you'd actually like to hear my thoughts about, let me know.

[greeneldritchfurby]

yknow what... Here's a list of Hatchetfield Rarepairs that I think are neat!

Some l've thought up, some may already exist.. Either way I think about them constantly, and I need to share my brainrot.

23oz Chai - Paul 23 / Ted Spankoffski

- workplace crush but, plot twist, one of them is a clone

- Ted confesses, and Paul 23, even though he's unsure if the real Paul would go along with it, accepts anyway.

- everyone in the office reacts to it in shock, and they are convinced it is an elaborate prank. (Its not)

Cat Sweater - Charlotte / Melissa (Charlissa)

- Melissa supports Charlotte through her rocky marriage. Sapphic feelings ensue!

- They bond over their love of cats!

- Crazy cat lady and her sopping wet cat gf!

Dirty Boy - Mark Chasity / Boy Jerry

- Two repressed religious men grappling with internalized homophobia!

- A lot of gay denial and religious guilt in this one!

- Also, Jerry's nature rubs off on Mark a little. Maybe they go a little off the walls together!

Donnapiro - Donna Daggit/ Detective Shapiro

- They start out disliking each other, Shapiro not liking how Hatchetfield News reports crime and Donna despising Shapiro for getting in the way of their journalism

- Slowly, their competition becomes incredibly homoerotic.

- Enemies to lovers, reporter x detective yuri. Solving crimes and being sapphic!

Fast But Pricey - Barry Swift / Frank Pricely (Priceswift)

- I have little justification for this one but.. ldk, I think they would be fun together.

- Frank is just really lonely, let him have a gay lover.

- Their relationships moves fast. (Barry is in a hurry! And Frank is so alone he doesn't mind.)

Latte Bottay - Zoey Chambers / Emmdroid (Zoemdroid)

- They bond over a dislike of the real Emma!

- Zoey is surprisingly chill with the robot thing.

- This also works pretty well with 23ozChai. Paul 23 gets his work crush, Emmdroid gets her work crush, its a win win! bonus wlw mlm solidarity!

Nibblinda - Nibbly / Linda

- Linda treats Nibbly to fine meats and sweets. In return, Nibbly eats her dad and protects her. Overall, a pretty sweet deal!

- Perhaps, they get a little blood on their hands.

- Linda chews people out (figuratively), and Nibbly bites them (literally)

Plastic Cars - Gerald Monroe / Tom Houston

- Hear me out.. Divorced dads realize they are gay... for each other.

- Tim gets a new dad, instead of a new mom.

- Again, I must stress.. middle aged men in love!

Sheiloway - Sheila Young / Miss Holloway

- This is ooc as fuck but the enemies to lovers calls to me.

- They both get someone to confide to about the struggles of lord shenanigans and near immortality

- wlw witches!

Showstoppers - Henry Hidgens / Pokey

- Theater nerds who will murder at the drop of a hat.

- I mean, Pokey did include Show Stopping Number in Inevitable, so that's a little gay.

- They are both just.. really gay tbh.

Spoiled Cat - Linda Monroe / Charlotte Sweetly (Charlinda)

- I think pairing a mean rich lady with a sweet, but this close to losing it, lady is very fun.

- Tbh, I just think the day Charlotte dates a woman is the day her entire world changes.

- Also, I think Charlotte should be allowed to be a little mean for once. Linda would help her be more assertive.

Tentacle Bastard - Wiggly / Ted Spankoffski

- Wiggly steals his brother's toy, and gets more than he bargained for!

- Wiggly tries to scare Ted with his big scary octopus form. It does not have the intended effect!

- Wiggly keeps trying to terrify Ted, but jokes on him Ted is into that, and that flusters him. However, Ted's unabashed bastard confidence has an unexpected side effect: Wiggly catches feelings

Webworship - Webby / Karen Chasity

- Karen finds a new god(dess) to "worship"!

- Unsatisfied wife summons a goddess for some company, and the goddess doesn't mind!

- A little bit of religious guilt in this one, as Karen goes against her beliefs by beginning to "worship" a new god, but its still mostly wholesome!

[mistyheartrbs]

one recurring...theme ig of s3 that's been really compelling to me that i haven't seen discussed is the prevalence of organized religion, both in the teen timeline and in the adult timeline.

early on, we see lottie's spiritual influence waning, even though she still leads them in rituals (the bit at the graves). she still has a few true believers (travis, akilah) but most of the group leaves her be. they're not so desperate to survive that they'll cling to any modicum of belief; it's become an afterthought for some of them (misty's "thank god! i mean- thank the dirt or whatever" is a great line but also a fantastic insight into how the group views the wilderness in the wake of nonbeliever nat ascending as a competent and practical leader) and a non-starter for others (melissa).

s2 was marked by desperation on all sides - the teens, desperate to survive the winter, the sadeckis, desperate to cover up adam's murder, misty, desperate to save natalie and figure out lottie's game. even with grief weighing heavy over both timelines in s3, they're all able to be a lot more clear-headed (comparatively) because things aren't so life-or-death anymore. the sadeckis have been cleared of murder charges. summer's come and food is plentiful. there's more of a choice. even ben's trial is cloaked in the language of justice - yes, a lot of them want to spill blood, but none of them are talking about him as an offering to the wilderness or anything, he's "just" on trial for murder. lottie's not feeding anyone blood tea anymore. it's become a lot less...visibly cult-y, basically, partially because they don't need it to be and partially because they've had the time to kind of organize actual rituals instead of winging it.

but there's still danger underlying it: lottie's been drugging travis out of a desire to reconnect with the wilderness, to such a degree that he foisted it onto akilah which almost certainly won't end well for her. you can't take the teeth out of something that's killed two people.

in the adult timeline, the way lottie notes that they couldn't keep her at the psych ward because of her faith was an intriguing word choice to me because it's the first time we really see her belief in the Wilderness described in "ordinary" religious terms. it's totally not a cult, it's what she believes so they couldn't fault her (never mind that she tried to poison and stab her friends just weeks before).

there's also a lot of catholic/christian imagery - natalie's funeral, the church taissa enters after finding out about the waiter, the random shot of jesus in the opening theme - juxtaposed with all this. is one religion really so different from another? what, but the laughable veneer of "dignity," separates lottie's upstate cult from american christianity, after all?

jeff's karma obsession in 3x04 is mostly played for laughs, but karma is a central element of several religions (namely Hinduism and Buddhism) - it feels like that's going somewhere too.

i'm interested in seeing how it all ties together - especially now that the stakes have been raised sky-high in the adult timeline with everyone as a suspect in lottie's death - but it feels connected.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alanna Vagianos at HuffPost:

Julie Burkhart’s career in abortion care started when she was a college student working at a clinic in Wichita, Kansas, during the infamous Summer of Mercy in 1991. Thousands of protesters swarmed the city to rally against abortion clinics — lying on sidewalks to block clinic entrances, throwing their bodies in front of patients’ cars and screaming threats at anyone entering the three targeted clinics. Since then, she has lived through the assassination of her former boss and mentor, Dr. George Tiller, death threats on her own life, stalkers and protesters coming to her home and, most recently, the firebombing of her Wyoming abortion clinic. Still, this moment stands out among the rest, she told HuffPost. Last month, President Donald Trump limited enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — a federal law created to safeguard abortion clinics, patients and providers. He dismissed a handful of current ongoing FACE investigations and instructed prosecutors to apply the law only in “extraordinary circumstances” such as instances of death, extreme bodily harm or significant property damage. Trump also pardoned 23 people for FACE convictions that ranged from harassing pregnant patients to breaking into clinics and stealing fetal tissue. Several of those pardoned, some of whom were serving prison time, have already said they plan to return to targeting and invading abortion clinics. “I got to see up close what not having the FACE Act was like, all of the chaos and disruption,” Burkhart said, referring to the Summer of Mercy, which spurred President Bill Clinton to sign the FACE Act into law three years later. “It’s easy to forget history and why we have certain things in place.” “If we’re not going to have the enforcement of the FACE Act and our federal law enforcement officials will have their hands tied, it makes us feel like we’re swimming out here all alone and we’re sitting ducks,” she added.

Melissa Fowler, the chief program officer at the National Abortion Federation who oversees the organization’s security efforts, said Trump’s approach to the FACE Act is unprecedented. “Historically, we have seen some administrations do more to enforce the FACE Act. That’s been the norm, but this is on a totally different level,” she said. “You have a Justice Department that has actually come out and said they will not enforce it unless there’s grave harm. It shouldn’t take someone being murdered for the federal government to enforce a law that makes people safe.”

[...] Since the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, violence against abortion providers and clinics has skyrocketed, making the FACE Act more vital than ever. The year Roe fell, there was a 538% increase in people obstructing clinic entrances, a 913% increase in stalking of clinic staff and a 133% increase in bomb threats, according to a National Abortion Federation report. Abortion clinics are also seeing an uptick in anti-abortion tourism: People from states where clinics have closed due to abortion bans travel long distances and, in some cases, have even moved to protest existing clinics in states where care is still legal. Trump, who has repeatedly bragged about his role in overturning Roe, has filled his Cabinet with some of the most extreme anti-abortion zealots in politics. And although the president claims he wouldn’t support a federal abortion ban, much of his Republican base continues to advocate for criminalizing and rolling back protections for abortion care. One GOP House member recently introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act entirely.

Abortion clinics are bracing for anti-abortion extremist violence after 47 reduces the scope of enforcement of the FACE Act.