#looked into the new VA's profile

[swan2swan]

Oh they did it

You sick geniuses, you Did It

[ronearoundblindly]

Lease

best-friend!roommate!reader x Steve Rogers

*This was a totally random and spontaneous idea. Not edited. Light language (so we can get *the joke*), pining, light angst, hurt/comfort, and fluff. This work is for all ages! WC ~2k

Sam Wilson introduces you. Both your parents were veterans and active at the VA, so you practically grew up there.

At first, you’re reserved, a little formal, but very nice. Oddly enough, Steve just likes that you don’t hound him with questions about his military service and how it was different based on the decade, etc. You are just…around to listen.

He finds himself filling any (comfortable) silence between you with stories. Stupid things. Things that don’t have to do with the VA or his past or even his present, which is entirely work as Captain America.

Steve gets to a point where he is itching to live off of Avengers Campus, but he doesn’t want to live alone.

One day he finds you hunched over a laptop and grumbling, “why is everything so fucking expensive?”

A sentiment which, of course, he frowns at.

“Sorry,” you shrug, a look of sincere apology on your distraught face. “I didn’t realize it, but apparently, I’m poor with my measly three-thousand-dollar-a-month budget for an apartment. Now I have to find a roommate, and—“ you start wagging a finger at him sarcastically “—I don’t know if you’ve noticed there’re some real weirdos out there. It’ll take me longer to find a safe, stable roomie than it takes to—“

“I can move in with you.”

Steve almost gasps at how fast the words fly out of his mouth.

“Well, not ‘move in’ to your current place. I mean. I can—I would be willing to live with you. Sorry! That sounds bad. You’re not bad. I meant…you know, anytime you want to chime in and stop me would be helpful.”

You remain silent and smirking.

“Right. Okay. So…think about it? Or not, that’s fine.”

“Let’s talk figures, Rogers. The square-footage just doubled, and I need to rework the budget.”

Moving in is shockingly uneventful. You’re easy to get along with, when not suddenly up on your high horse about something, and Steve is easy to get along with under the same circumstances. You push his militant rigidity to the brink on purpose, but never too far.

Things sit out in the wrong place, but it’s never dirty. Stuff doesn’t always get returned promptly, but if he asks, you’re on it.

There are two bathrooms, thank mercy.

He has random and odd hours. You work nine to five, mostly. It’s the perfect level of independence without loneliness for Steve.

Sam and Natasha stop by regularly or ask you both out for drinks or to fun, new places.

One time, when Nat is ribbing Steve to go talk to a cute girl ordering at the bar, he panics and takes your hand in his on the tabletop.

“How can I do that when my date is right here?” he grits playfully through his pearly white teeth. “Leave it alone.”

Each word is punctuated by a shift forward and a slight tilt of his head.

Natasha is unamused and instantly grabs your other hand (which was holding your drink) to pull you toward the dance floor.

It’s awkward for multiple reasons. You’d pay a whole month’s rent to know what Sam and Steve talked about after you left.

Sam takes a different approach, luring—or attempting to lure—Steve into setting up just one dating profile online.

“You don’t have to put photos,” Sam assures, “and you can stick with your first name only. I swear to you, man, this’ll be good for you. Get you out there more. Help me out here, Tagalong!”

He turns to you for support. To be fair, you did quite literally tag along with your parents for years to the VA, and it stuck. Why it sticks as a grown-ass adult? You’ll never know. You just don’t mind Sam Wilson saying it because he means well and never uses it in public.

“Uh, nooooo.”

Sam’s face falls. “What?”

You look at Steve and grimace, clicking your tongue. “He’s not ready for that,” you conclude.

Steve jumps out of the chair, arms wide with victory.

“THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING!”

“I know you told her to say that,” Sam shouts back.

“Did not,” Steve barks.

“He did not.” You lean against your bedroom doorframe. “I just think it’s obvious.”

That makes Steve deflate a little. “Wait, but…I’m not that bad.”

“Oh gosh,” you fake with a huge smile, “look at the time! Gotta be off to bed…”

The men keep fighting albeit muffled from your side of the wall. The only part you can make out before giving them privacy is Sam, whining, “but you actually like bubble baths and walks on the beach, dude. You’re gonna be money on there.”

“Hey, why do you not, ya know, date?”

You look up from your breakfast, stunned because that came out of nowhere. You’ve lived together over six months now, and Steve hasn’t asked for one iota of personal—well, romantically personal—information.

Twiddling your fork around, you think.

“I always imagine what my parents would think of him, any guy I’ve ever considered being with longterm, and…I was just never proud to say ‘here, here’s the one,’ I guess.”

Your parents have been gone for years. You value their opinion anyway.

“Mhm,” Steve hums, “the one?”

You take a bite of food, straightening your back, tossing a dismissive hand in the air. “Yeah, if you believe in that sort of thing.”

He’s quiet for a while.

“So you’re waiting for the right partner?” Steve finally mutters, and he watches your noncommittal gesturing intently.

That was a ‘yes.’

Natasha knows. Sam knows. Steve suspects but won’t admit to anything. You are kind and unreadable.

You’ve always been kind, so there’s no discernible difference to signal you have feelings for him in return. He can’t bring himself to be anything less than a gentleman at home and makes absolutely no moves to find out.

He stays out in the living room a lot more, all hours, hoping you’ll mention staying in for a movie, praying you’ll be tired enough to fall asleep on his lap on the couch.

He’s in way too deep.

What Steve suspects is that it would be too awkward to start anything while living together, but he doesn’t want to leave you in the lurch for rent or a roommate. He also desperately doesn’t want to move out. The status quo is comfortable.

He loves being comfortable with you.

The stress of not telling you, while needing to make some sort of arrangements should telling you blow up in his face, starts to wear on him.

Steve is a pro at compartmentalizing his life, so it’s when he’s stuck at the apartment without any missions, a handful of meetings, and a team that all have lives for two long months that he cracks…in the least attractive way.

He’s messed up his sleep schedule with worry and playing innocent, and out of the not-so-blue, a horrible, vivid nightmare hits him. Steve isn’t even on the mattress anymore by the time he figures out there wasn’t carpet like this in Germany and the desk chair he grips is not a motorcycle.

“Rogers,” he hears. “Rogers, can you look at me?”

The dark room is somehow hollow and stifling all at once. His head turns slower than his brain tells it to.

Steve blinks.

“Do you know where you are?”

“Hey, sweets,” he husks from a dry throat. “What…”

“Can you tell me where this is?” You step closer and pry one of his hands off the mesh to cradle in yours. “Where are we, Rogers?”

“Home.” He swallows. “Our home.”

Your smile doesn’t reach your eyes, but you nod like he’s done well.

“Okay, Steve, I’m going to get you some water. If you want—“ your fingers smooth over the back of his hand, nudging the other to release the chair “—you can sit on the bed.”

You don’t leave. You don’t even get up from the floor.

He doesn’t notice he’s clutching your hands, shaking slightly until long seconds go by.

“Yeah. Okay.” Steve lets go, otherwise unmoving, contemplating how he ever thought the semi-rough industrial carpet felt the same as mud.

You carefully hand him the water and rub his back, using your nails to trace invisible patterns. He can’t remember what he was so scared of a minute ago. He only knows he’s sweating that empty kind of confused.

“What’s that supposed to do?” he asks absently.

You shrug. “Eh. Back scratches just feel good.”

Steve’s mind remains blank as he sips his water.

: We need to renew the lease soon. Like this week.

Steve has stalled as long as humanly possible; he is officially not being a gentleman now. He is a coward.

: Talk about it when I get home?

: Could you at least tell me if this is a hard NO on staying here or just some concerns/questions? : I don’t get why you’re being like this.

Steve gets it, but he hates it.

: I’ll be back tonight. Should I pick up food?

: ffs : Fine. Whatever you want.

Steve also hates when you’re mad at him…which has been happening more and more.

He’s been distant, he refuses to let Sam or Nat come around for fear they’ll play match-maker and ruin the whole thing, and he is about to ruin the whole thing anyway.

Because he is not smooth. Because he is not prepared. Because he’s built up this perfect and amazing, sweep-you-off-your-feet moment.

And he bungles it.

“Out with it,” you command, haughtily yanking your portion of food from the countertop beside him, heading for the dinette.

“I want to be with you,” he blurts.

“Thank god,” you sigh, settling in your spot. “So we’ll go down to the office and sign in the morning. I don’t want there to be an issue if you’re off to wherever for who-the-hell-knows how long on the date the thing expires.”

“No, I…” but Steve’s voice is too quiet.

“There’s only a tiny window where they’re open before I have to head to work, so let me physically sign first, right? Then I gotta go.”

“Sure,” he slurs.

“Steve?” You turn to see him staring down at his food. He’s still across the room. “Are you okay?”

“I said I—I meant that—“ he huffs out his breath and taps his fist on the counter “—I meant that I’m an idiot,” he finishes softly.

Approaching with that beautiful, open-hearted kindness that haunts his days and soothes his night, you cross to him, scratching his back just the way he’s grown to crave.

“Think you might be hangry,” you chuckle.

He cannot do this. Steve is hanging on by a thread until the graze of your hand slides down his forearm to take his plate, and he spins.

He’s thought about kissing you so many times, he mapped out the angles he’d have to hold himself at, how far he needs to lean to get to you, the care to take wrangling in his strength and sheer excitement.

Steve Rogers is good at planning, at least, this part.

Gentle pecks of his plush lips to yours leave gaps in contact that let you whimper, and he fears you stopping him. He presses, wrapping his arms around you and molding your bodies together. The linoleum of the kitchen floor makes sticky sounds beneath your shuffling feet, squeaking once you hit the adjacent wall.

The force of that knocks your frozen arms into his chest, and painfully, Steve relents to step away, but not far. He bites his bottom lip and tastes the balm from yours, his head tilted in shame but fiery eyes watching you from beneath long lashes.

“Oh,” you breathe out. “Oh…you meant…”

Steve’s tongue darts out hungrily.

“Yeah.”

[Main Masterlist; Light Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

They're soooo cute!!!!!!

[adobe-outdesign]

Kung Fu Panda 4 Rewrite Thing

Been chewing on this movie for a while now and wanted to take a shot at improving it. Some parts are a bit rough but I think this gets the general idea across.

As a rule, I'm trying to keep most of the characters and elements/plot beats in place rather than spinning things off in a completely unrelated direction. I also am aware of the restrictions placed on this movie, such as an unwillingness to rehire high-profile VAs and runtime limitations. This is just meant to be a "what if" kind of thing. That said:

We open with a stylized sequence of Po telling the story of his and the Five's latest battle. As it ends it's revealed he's at the grand opening of Mr. Ping's brand new bigger, better noodle shop location, talking to the customers.

As one of them asks where the Five are now, Po explains that they got summoned to their own individual missions, but they'll be back soon.

(Yes I am still having them be MIA, as Po needs to be alone with Zhen for part of the movie. However, they'll only gone for the first part of this rewrite and for a very specific plot-related reason.)

(The thing with Po needing to give up his title of Dragon Warrior makes no sense for multiple reasons, so let's just drop that plot point entirely. I get that it's meant to tie into the "change" moral, but I'd rather have Po imparting this lesson onto Zhen instead of learning it himself, as otherwise it undermines the character growth he had in 3.

Also, Po isn't carrying the staff around with him constantly in this rewrite, as it looks a bit silly and isn't plot relevant here.)

A messenger shows up to report that the Jade Palace is under attack. Po decides to rush over just in case Shifu needs backup... which he does, because he's being kidnapped in a small one of those magic-proofed cages from the actual film.

(Shifu being kidnapped was tossed around in the writing room originally and I want to keep it in this rewrite because it A) gives Shifu something to do, and B) I want to allow Zhen to openly be working with the Chameleon in order to help flesh out her character and avoid the lackluster plot twist, meaning she'll need new leverage against Po later on.)

The figure behind the kidnapping appears to be Master Elephant, which confuses Po as he's been missing for several months. Right as he's about to land a finishing blow, the figure shape shifts into Master Chicken, throwing Po's attack and resulting in him getting a bad head injury. He does his best to pursue the attackers, but can't keep up. Dismayed, he returns to the Jade Palace...

...And finds Zhen trying to steal something, using the commotion outside as a distraction. Po fights, but he's still badly injured and can't give it his all, resulting in Zhen being able to slip away with her prize—a dust bunny from under the furniture. Po is baffled.

(Side note: I would probably redesign Zhen so she actually looks like she matches the other characters' style, but I digress.)

Feeling dismayed, he returns to the noodle shop, where both his dads work on treating his wounds and comforting him. As Po explains what happened, Mr. Ping mentions that customers have been circulating rumors about a shapeshifting sorceress in Juniper City. Po decides that that's where he needs to go, promises his dads he'll be safe, and leaves.

(I'm cutting Mr. Ping and Li's subplot, because as much as I love them they don't really add much to the plot. It also feels like it goes against Mr. Ping's characterization in KFP 1 and 2 in particular.)

This is where we can have the scene of the Chameleon vs. the crime bosses. This can mostly stay the same except one of the bosses attempts to attack her when she shape shifts, causing her to retaliate with a magic-based attack. She also needs to straight-up kill the guy to establish her and her sorcery as a legit threat.

Po arrives at the Happy Bunny tavern to look for a ride to Juniper City. As he talks to Fish and Chip, he notices Zhen nearby doing some black market trading with Granny Boar to obtain a white feather. Po confronts her and she tries to run out with the feather, causing the boar family to pursue in a big fight scene.

Po and Zhen manage to escape, Zhen stashing the feather. Po threatens to have her sent to jail, but Zhen confirms she's working for the Chameleon and can lead Po to her so he can rescue Shifu. Po dislikes this situation, but has no choice but to agree.

(Unlike in the actual film, I would make it so her lair is hidden in some fashion; magic that keeps it camouflaged would be appropriate for a chameleon, or it could be underground or hidden behind something. Regardless, it should be impossible to locate without Zhen's assistance.)

On the boat ride over to Juniper city, Zhen says that she has to "obtain" one more item from the local history museum or she'll be in big trouble with the Chameleon. Po doesn't like this detour, but once again has no choice in the matter.

Po asks why Zhen would want to work for someone so obviously evil, and this is the point where Zhen admits she was adopted by the Chameleon and we get her backstory.

(I would establish that the Chameleon has an actual name, but only Zhen uses it. It shows that Zhen is closer to her than most, not quite seeing her as a mother but not fearing her enough to use her preferred title. Also, the Chameleon's the only KFP villain without a proper name and that bothers me.)

The backstory can be the same, but the part about her living on the streets and meeting the Chameleon for the first time should be merged into a single flashback.

Zhen says that Po couldn't understand, but Po reveals that he's also adopted, and that he probably would commit some noodle-related crime if his dad asked him to. Still, Zhen insists that people don't change, and that includes her.

They arrive at Juniper city (Po is impressed at its size but he very much is not acting like he's never seen a city before). Zhen covers up her muzzle and tucks her tail under her clothes so she won't be recognized.

Zhen is ready to break into the museum, but Po says that he's got this and goes up to the guards to tell them that he has some official Dragon Warrior business to take care of and will need to borrow some ancient artifacts.

Unlike in the actual film, everyone ready acknowledges him as the Dragon Warrior. The guards are more than happy to loan him whatever he needs... until Zhen's tail pops out and the guards recognize her, prompting them to attack.

During the scuffle, Zhen uses a chi blast to knock back one of the guards, but almost gets taken out by the other guard coming up behind her. Po defends her but gets mildly injured as a result.

After the fight, Po asks about the chi move and Zhen states that the Chameleon taught her the basics.

Zhen confirms that the Chameleon is a master of chi, and that the sorcery she uses is a specific type of chi manipulation.

(The reason I'm connecting chi to her powers is that it makes them feel a bit less out of left field, and helps 4 feel like a logical progression from 3.)

Zhen admits that she's not very good at using chi, but Po points out that it took him years to use chi in battle. He also compliments her on her kung fu, and she confirms she's self-taught.

(In this rewrite, Zhen is good at fighting but not quite at the level she is in the actual movie. This is to address the issue of who taught her if the Chameleon doesn't know kung fu.)

He takes a moment to give her a few pointers, which causes her to ask why he took that blow for her earlier, figuring there's a catch. Po just says it's the right thing to do, but Zhen is skeptical, figuring he only did it because he still needs her to lead him to Shifu.

The reminder of Shifu prompts Po to move on, and they grab the item Zhen was after, a 500 year old set of blades, then run for it.

Po and Zhen arrive at the Chameleon's lair, and Zhen shows Po how to get inside and tells him where Shifu is being held. She says that she'll take the items to the Chameleon, which will distract her while Po breaks him out. Po thanks her, and the two separate. Zhen warns him of booby traps on the way out.

There are indeed booby traps, such as those saw contraptions from the actual movie and a bunch of guards. It takes Po a few minutes, but he eventually gets through them.

Po finds Shifu being held in a dark room. Shifu is glad to see him, but warns him to be careful as the Chameleon's likely not far away. Po explains Zhen's distraction and moves to free him... only for a cage to fall down and trap him as well.

"Shifu" is then revealed to be the Chameleon in disguise, who slips through the bars via shape shifting into a mantis and thanks Zhen for her help. Zhen apologizes to Po, who's naturally upset ("I mean, I know you were evil, but I didn't think you were THAT evil").

Zhen hands over the three items she collected, and it's confirmed what they are: a dust bunny that contains a clump of Tai Lung's fur, a feather from Lord Shen, and a pair of blades once wielded by Kai.

Po mistakenly interprets this as the Chameleon being a collector of kung fu memorabilia and tries to chat about the Jade Palace's collection, much to her bafflement.

The Chameleon explains that a trace of a person's chi remains long after their death, and demonstrates by doing The Tongue Thing on Kai's blade, stripping its chi, and immediately taking his form.

(As you may have picked up on, this rewrite removes the spirit world elements entirely. While they are really interesting, I think cutting them is the best option because:

1. There is so much plot involved with bringing Po's old enemies back that you could make that an entire movie in and of itself. It's hard to do it justice when you're cramming it in around the edges of this movie.

2. It makes the Chameleon too similar to Kai in terms of abilities.

3. Having her rely on stealing other's kung fu makes her come across as weak despite being a powerful sorceress.)

Po asks her if her goal is to take over China, but she says no; she just wants to end the practice of kung fu for good, and prove that sorcery is the superior option. To prove it, she has Shifu brought in.

While having your chi stripped does not remove one's kung fu abilities in this rewrite, it is still removing part of one's life energy and thus weakening them severely for a period of time—ergo, Shifu is still unable to fight at his best. Still, he manages to hold his own.

Instead of using kung fu, the Chameleon relies on the brute animalistic strength and inherent abilities of the forms she takes, switching whenever she's loosing to keep her opponents on her toes and even transforming into Shifu himself for a period. She also uses a few chi-based attacks.

Just when it looks like Shifu is about to win the fight, she uses her tongue to strip the chi from the fur clump, taking the form of Tai Lung. Shifu is so shocked and distraught that he fails to attack, allowing the Chameleon to land a serious blow.

She returns to her original form and states that when the blood moon has risen, she will battle and take down every master in the middle of Juniper city, where everyone can learn just how useless kung fu and the people who teach it are. She leaves Po in his cage panicking over Shifu, who's unresponsive.

Zhen follows the Chameleon outside, where we get the "does the blood moon always rise so slowly" gag. Noticing that Zhen looks troubled, she asks what's wrong, and Zhen talks about how Po encouraged her to do the right thing. Even though she's been told that kung fu masters are elitist, selfish people, she couldn't see any of that in Po.

(Side note: I want to establish in this rewrite that while the Chameleon will claim up and down that Zhen is only a pawn for her to use, she does care about her to some extent, even though probably loathes the fact she does. For example, when talking to Zhen here, she might pick some rubble out of her fur or something to show there's a teeny tiny bit of actual affection hidden there.

The reason for this is that all other KFP villains have had an emotional anchor—Shifu for Tai Lung, Shen's parents for Shen, and Oogway for Kai. The Chameleon being abusive but having some real love for Zhen and Zhen struggling with her gaslighting adds a lot more depth to both of them.)

The Chameleon finally reveals her backstory, which should be told in a hyper-stylized way à la the flashbacks in KFP 2 and 3. Just like Zhen, she grew up on the streets as an orphan, broke and starving. She admired kung fu greatly and wanted to learn it, but everyone turned her away for having no money to pay for lessons.

One day, she found a shiny jade amulet on the streets that someone lost, finally giving her a much-needed break. She is able to use that money to enroll in classes.

The problem was that while the money changed her financial status, it didn't change the way people saw her. Her master still considered her a lowly gutter rat and treated her as such, verbally insulting her and beating her down during training sessions. It's very much like how Shifu treated Po in KFP 1, except worse, especially because the Chameleon is a small and fragile animal.

Finally, during one training session she became too injured to move. Her master told her to quit and started to walk away, only for her to grab his leg with her tongue to trip him up. However, at the peak of her self-loathing, she instead discovered her chi stealing abilities and transformed into him. It's not shown, but it is implied she killed him.

As the flashback ends, the Chameleon shifts into Zhen and tells her that no matter how much you change, you can't change the way other people see you. Siding with Po, she says, will only get her hurt. Zhen nods and unexpectedly hugs the Chameleon, telling her she knows, and runs off.

Cutting back to Po, we see him frantically trying to break the bars of his cage. Zhen comes forward and drops down on her hands and knees, apologizing for everything. Po says that she came back, and that's what matters.

She reveals that the "hug" was actually just a way for her to get the key off of the Chameleon, and she uses it to unlock Po's cage. Po runs over to Shifu and he and Zhen heal him with chi, and we get a callback to the "I'M NOT DYING YOU IDIOT" scene from KFP 1.

However, while Shifu's not dying, he is very badly injured and can barely walk on his own. Po asks how they can take on the Chameleon and her army with just three of them, but Zhen holds up the key and suggests they get an army of their own.

Running downstairs, Zhen reveals where the other masters are being held. To Po's shock, the Furious Five are among those captured. Tigress confirms that the summons they received were traps laid by the Chameleon, and she already has their forms.

Also down there are the other crime bosses, as it feels like they just disappear in the actual film after their scenes.

Zhen only manages to unlock the Five's cages before before the Chameleon snatches the key back with her tongue, revealing that she knew Zhen was lying to her. Behind her, her army assembles.

Tigress confirms that that the Five will take on the army, and Po faces off with the Chameleon one-on-one. She strips the feather and uses Shen's form to fly up and take the upper ground, trying to kick a cage onto him. Zhen helps deflect it, and the Chameleon tells her to stay out of the way. Po and her continue to battle.

Despite Po's best attempts at blocking it, she does finally stick him with her tongue. He grabs it and throws her a distance in her fragile base form, injuring her but still giving her some of his chi in the process.

The Chameleon takes on Po's form next, and we get a fight similar to the one in the movie, though once again with her using less kung fu and more magic and physical attacks.

She mentions how she was rejected and tries to tell him that he should be on her side, because a bit fat panda like him must have been treated just as badly as she was. Po denies this, but Shifu admits it's pretty accurate. Po says he's not helping.

Po admits that she has a point, except she forgot one thing, and we get a callback to the "I'm THE big fat panda" moment from KFP 1.

The two attack at the same time. As the dust clears, it's revealed that neither are doing great—Po has gotten a lot of little injuries and the chi stealing has weakened him. The Chameleon is struggling to shapeshift at all, with the attempt causing her pain, and instead settles for trying to blast him. Zhen steps in and manages to redirect the attack back at her.

The Chameleon takes the blow and ends up back on the floor as a parallel to her flashback. Zhen reaffirms that she disagrees with her worldview—people can change, and she's going to prove it. If the Chameleon wants get to Po, she'll need to get through her first.

The Chameleon kind of laughs this off at first before realizing she's dead serious. She states that Zhen isn't even good at fighting, but Po disagrees, giving Zhen a confidence boost. The Chameleon struggles to her feet as if readying an attack, everyone braces themselves... and she surrenders, too injured to fight and unable to bring herself to hurt Zhen.

(There are a few reasons why I think her surrendering makes for an interesting defeat here:

1. There's no spirit realm portal to yeet her into in this version;

2. There's only so many times Po's enemies can be yeeted directly into the spirit realm before it gets old;

3. It adds character depth, and;

4. It ties back nicely in to the theme of change and that it's never too late to do the right thing.)

Zhen helps the Chameleon up, Tigress does the same for Po, and Monkey does the same for Shifu. The five reveal that despite being exhausted, they still managed to wipe the floor with the Chameleon's army, which Zhen thinks is incredible. Po introduces Zhen to them formally, and Shifu asks if they can save the introductions for after they get medical treatment.

Later on, Po (carrying the staff Oogway gave him) approaches Zhen, who's sitting under the peach tree by the Jade Palace. He asks her if she's doing okay after everything that's happened. She says she's alright, but is pretty scared of what's going to happen next, given that the Chameleon's in jail and she has nowhere to go.

Po reveals that him and Shifu have been talking, and he plans to open a new school as part of the Jade Palace that will offer free kung fu lessons to anyone who's interested in learning. Zhen asks if there are any spots open, and we end similar to the actual movie, with her training alongside the five.

the credits still end with the Jack Black cover of Baby One More Time because it slaps

[cumulo-stratus]

Communication Issues

(GIF NOT MINE)

Plantonic!BAU team x french!reader

Description: reader is from France and lived there until he was 11/12 and then moved to america and his first language is french. He also has a little bit of an accent. Basically reader is new to the team and it is their first late night back home on the jet with him. And basically they learn that when hes tired he reverts back to his mother tongue.

CW: possible swearing, I can't think of anything else

A/N: I'm thinking of making a series about this, like just funny scenarios related to the reader being French, if y'all have any ideas let me know! Also reader is gonna be loosely based off me when im rly tired cus i get kinda giggly/floppy/goofy. ( also sry it's short)

French, translation

3rd person POV:

after a hard, and long case the team was very ready to go home. They had found a 9 yr old girl and rescued her from a man holding her in his basement to torture her. And even though it took the profilers almost 3 full days with almost no sleep to find her. To say they were tired was understatement. It was almost 2 am when they trudged onto the plane, all tired physically and emotionally. Y/N was the last on the plane and decided to take the couch to get some sleep. Just as he was sitting down Reid plopped down next to him. (Y/N and Reid liked to sit next to each other so they could read together)

“Désolé reid, je veux lire avec toi, mais je suis trop fatigué pour ça” (sorry reid, i wanna read with you but im too tired for that) you said to him, slightly slurring your words. “Huh?” Spencer looked up at you with a small crease between his eyebrows. The switch in language caught the rest the rest of the team off guard as well (evidently by the looks on their faces) you peered at them just as perplexed and asked “Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas?” (Whats wrong?).

“Dont worry guys I’ll talk to him” said spencer with a little giggle at his new friends antics. Morgan gave spencer a little knowing look and eyebrow wiggle at his conversation with Y/N, despite having no idea what they were saying. “Mon biche, tu parle français maintenant, pas anglais.” (Darling, you’re speaking french right now, not english) says spencers with a small smile. a look of understanding dawned your features and you said “je suis?! Oh c'est pas grave, Oh, tu n'as besoin que de me comprendre de toute façon.” (I am?! Thats okay, you’re the only one who needs to understand me anyways) you say with a wink ad a giggle. Spencers cheeks went red and emily gave him a questioning look. “Y/N, tu fais quoi?” (y/n, what are you doing?). you just gave him a mischievous look before putting your head on his shoulder and snuggling into him to fall asleep. The rest of the team got bored of making fun of the pair and began their own conversations or trying to sleep. But after a minute or two the team heard and hushed but strict “shhhhh!” coming from their resident genius. “You guys are so loud! hes asleep!” said spencer’s while he gestured vicariously to the sleeping figure drooped over his left side. “hush up pretty boy, your little boyfriend over theres out cold dont worry about it.” said derek with a teasing smile. spencers cheeks turned even more red than before if hat was even possible and started stuttering about the sleep man not being his boyfriend. “okay, okay, hes not your boyfriend,” said derek with his hands up in surrender after spencer kept spluttering on about y/n not being his boyfriend.

(small time skip)

As the plane landed people began packing up their things and getting ready to get off the plane. But y/n and Spencer had moved and when the team looked over they found the two agents passed out on top of each other and snoring lightly.

THE END

[alpaca-clouds]

Greek Mythology and the Thing often overlooked

I have recently been thinking a lot about mythology adaptions in media, especially with the new season of Blood of Zeus being out, me finding out some interesting things, and also me reading into Greek history.

Within Western Circles it is pretty universally accepted, that everyone can use Greek Mythology as a free for all, because it is white, European culture, and we were the ones doing the colonialism and stuff. So while a white person using Japanese mythology for example can be quite iffy, it is totally fine if anyone uses Greek mythology. Because it is like part of the western canon.

Buuuuuuuut... It is kinda a lot more complicated than that, right?

The issue is, of course, that Greece is part of Europe, yes, but the Greek myths are not that widely known because Greece went around at some point pushing their gods on everyone, who would listen (like Christians do), but rather, because the Romans took those gods and myth, while they colonized Greece, and then popularized the stuff. And more than that, because later on the British Empire found those stories and was like: "Oh, this is a neat thing to build our idea of white superiority on. Hey, hey, Greece, nobody said that you are white, did we?"

Because, let's face it. In most of Europe for most of the time the Meditterrean people were not considered to be white. Including the Greece. And I mean, I kinda knew that, but I never really thought about this until recently.

The moment I actually thought about this was actually, when I was looking through the VA profiles of Castlevania, found out that Theo James was actually Greek, and went like: "Oh, that is actually really neat." And then I was like: "Why though?" And then I went: "Ooooooh."

Same happened when I realized that Blood of Zeus is actually written by Greek writers. (Mind you, I still am not a huge fan of the series, but still, I think this fact is neat.)

It is in general something I am realizing more and more. How our discourse about colonialism often lacks a lot of nuance in those regards. And because of that the discourse about stuff like cultural appropriation does, too.

Especially as cultural appropriation is already such a big, complicated issue, that is far from Black and White.

Still, considering the history, I do not think that it is fair to look at Greece in the same way we do look at the actually colonial empires like Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium and Germany for the most part. Because their history is quite a different one and a lot more complicated.

[trasheatingcrybaby]

LOTS OF NYCTOPHOBIA PROGRESS!!!

I'm working on my own webseries, "Nyctophobia"!

New character profiles were just added, we're growing an absolutely insane little community full of fanon lore, ships, debates, random, polls, and more! We're looking for the following!

☆VAs

☆ARTISTS

☆ANIMATORS

☆STORYBOARD ARTISTS

☆BACKGROUND ARTISTS

☆MUSIC COMPOSERS

The series follows Boxxie, a quiet creature who's an amnesiac afraid of the dark, and their friends as they try to overcome Boxxie's fears and avoid being hunted down by a certain Shadow hunter... more details are in the server!!

[tikitsune]

Platonic!SWF 2 x VA!Reader

Part 1

Next |

Word count: 1k

Warnings: I don't know how the real world works apparently

Notes: I finally gave into my temptations and made one despite the fact that I have zero experience writing for real people. Lemme know how it goes.

I'll be honest, it's mostly gonna be JR, Bebe and Tsubakill, with half Mannequeen/1Million and not so much of LadyBounce, Wolf'Lo and Deep n' Dap.

Ling looked up from her phone. "Hey, Kristen. You said we wanted another person right?"

Kristen looked at her in confusion. It was about a week before they had to send in their member count and while she satisfied the team requirements with five, it couldn't hurt to have an extra person for safety.

"Uhm.Yeah. Why? Do you have someone?"

Ling went back to staring at her phone and scrolling through something. "Yeah. Just a sec. Any minute now."

Whatever it was that Ling was waiting for drew the rest of the people in the studio in. Audrey and Emma briefly stopped their playful banter about a tik tok dance to look at their oldest member. Latrice took out an earbud from where she was working on a choreograph. Kristen walked over to where Ling was and peered at her screen. She was staring at the Jam Republic 'Meet Our Artists' page. Over and over again, each time, reloading the page.

She eventually scrolled to the name she was looking for. [Name]. Upon further clicking of the profile the name to pop up was '[Name] Zhang'. Below that was a description of her accomplishments in dance.

"Yes!" Ling nearly shouted, pumping her fist. "Guys, meet my sister, the potential 6th member of the Street Woman Fighter 2's Jam Republic team."

She turned her phone to face her other team members. They all came to crowd around her to look at her phone. "Wah! She looks so young!" Audrey, the youngest in the group, looked quite interested in a potential younger member.

"She is. She's 19 and just transferred to a Cal State from Community college in Cali." Ling looked at her sister's picture. "She's working towards a major in theatrics and the best part is... She's a voice actor."

Emma looked a bit perplexed. "If she's a voice actor, how is she in Jam Republic?"

Ling only smirked. "She is a choreographer and a voice actor."

Kristen smiled at the older girl. "Well, can we see a video of her dancing? I don't want to exactly say now but I want to see her skill level first."

Latrice butt in. "Wait—. Does she go by any pseudonym or something like that?"

That brought everyone's attention back to Ling. "Uh. Yeah. I think she goes by Sino in the show biz. Like she uses [Nsme] Zhang as her dance name and everything else uses Sino."

Latrice looked excited. "You mean the Sino who choreographed some of the Descendants 3 dances at 15? The one who helped with the live action Mulan fight scenes?"

Everyone was taken aback by Latrice's excitement as well as the supposed new information. "Let me ask."

Ling opened her phone contacts and clicked on a contact named 'the talented 🎤'.

"Yup. According to her, that's it." Ling looked up from her phone.

Audrey looked at Ling. "You must be so proud of her to do that at such a young age."

Ling smiled at their current youngest member. "I am."

Everyone could hear the pride in Ling's voice. Her eyes lit up again before she opened YouTube on her phone and showed them a short of what seemed to be [Name] dancing a choreography to 'Boyfriend' by Dove Cameron. It was quite the sexy song and somehow it fit [Name] very well. Her moves were very flowy but held a lot of energy. Her sultry expressions worked well, making her seem older than she actually was. [Name] finished in a floor pose before she got up, giggling a bit and the video cut.

Everyone collectively awed at the adorableness that was displayed at the end of the video. “Yeah. I’ll add her if she wants. Do we need to get her a plane ticket as well?”

“No need. She’s at the University of Seoul as a student exchange student for the semester. Going there for theatrics, dance and, surprisingly, foods." Ling looked at her phone again.

It rang and she picked up. The screen showed [Name], seemingly in bed. "Hey, Ling Ling. What's up?"

[Name]'s voice was soft, but rough. She was supported by a red covered pillow, her hair was thrown in a messy bun that rested on her head and her phone seemed to be propped against the head end of the bed frame. Her sleepy, half-lidded eyes were framed by round black glasses. "Hi [Name]. I'm with the girls here."

Ling panned the camera, each member waving at the screen.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Hey."

"Hiii!"

"Hello to Kristen, Latrice, Emma and Audrey, I believe." [Name] looked up, trying to remember each member's name by face. When she got confirmation that she was right, she smiled a soft smile. It took a lot for everyone to not 'aww' at her cuteness.

"So, is there a reason you are calling me…" She seemed to look slightly to the upper left corner of her phone. "... at 06:15 in the morning? Like I can understand a text but a call?"

The girls exchanged glances and a chuckle. "Uh yeah. That would be my fault." Kristen said.

[Name] raised her eyebrow, "Mmm. And why is that?"

"Well I was wondering if you would like to be a part of our group for Street Woman Fighter 2. While 5 people is enough, it would make me feel better if we had another, you know?" Kristen looked a bit shy as she spoke.

[Name] pushed the bridge of her glasses up her nose as her face contorted into a contemplating look. "On what days? I have three classes on Saturday and that's it."

Due to [Name] being an exchange student, she didn’t need to take the necessary classes that most Korean students must take and it just so happened that her classes/lectures were all on the same day. Theatrics first thing in the morning at 08:00 and would span out for 2 hours. Food started at 13:00 and again ended two hours later. Dance would not begin until 18:00 and go till 20:00. (I must preface this by saying that I have never been in an exchange program before so not all of this is accurate. And yes, I use military time, if I have to do math for the ‘normie’ people, then you can do math for me.)

“Mhm… We don’t know yet actually. We can just catch you up on things when you’re not here.” Ling propped her phone on the studio mirror and sat back.

[Name] rubbed her eyes behind her glasses before pushing up the frame. “Yeah, sure.” She yawned.”My apartment building was rented out for people so i can only assume that would be for the competition. So tell them not to worry about the room placement for me.”

She scrubbed her hand over her face, brought her book in front of her before looking at the camera. “All right, If that’s all, I’mma get back to reading.”

“Nah. All good here, sis, thanks. Love you.” Ling picked up the phone as everyone waved behind her.

She ended the call, smiling at her two worlds meeting.

[tummyisyummy]

Black clover Oc and stuff MASTERLIST

Levi

Clothing reference

Levi and Yuno doodles 1

Levi and Yuno doodles 2

Profile

Levi in alt outfit

What does Levi love

Levi has my favorite design ig

What I like most about Levi

Levi fear

Giana is his friend trust

What does Yuno and Levi talk about

Mathew

Mathew first appearance

Mathew clothing ref

Mathew and his girl

Profile with Spotify playlist

He has my favorite concept

Cowboy outfit and comic

Mathew fear

Fav food

Mathew in funeral clothes

Random things

Not like him

Mathew having aunties

Mat and mai

Ziya

Ziya clothing ref 1

Corrupt

Mimosa and Ziya

Ziya halloween fit

Profile

Love interest

Ziya is fearless lol

Best memories

Pro gardener

Deer Ziya

Royal

Random tings

More Ziya lore

Ziya cooking

Yanira

Cowboy fit

Random tings

More appearances

Theodora

Clothing ref

My angel

Age n stuff

Fear

Best memories

Parents

In armor

Random tings

Holding vas

Can’t sing

No friends

Random stuff

Vasilios

Outfit ref

My angel

Age

Bad dad

Maid

Random

Vas being weird

His friends don’t like him

Fear

Dahlia

Fears

Ran

Profile

Fren

Painting

Clara

Hoodie look

New Gen au

Things about Anala and Caleo

Dornozel kid drawings

Others

Relationship chart

New gen nozelxdorothy kid

New gen facts

New gen appearance

Moodboard 1

Moodboard 2

Voice claims

Art tips

How I choose refs

Stupid stuff

John ward fuegoleon

Why is there more fuegoleon ward

“Why are u insane?” “idk”

Bc captains as Greek gods and goddesses

Charlotte as Athena

Nozel as Poseidon

Fuegoleon as hepatitis A

Appreciation stuffs

Meme love

People love Ziya :D

The people love levi

Levi and Giana fanart by artistic-endchamber😎

The people love my art

Questions/prompts(these are always open)

Oc ship questions

Oc outfit prompt

Oc ask game

Yellow heart questions

In character ask game

Oc ask game

Request my ocs

Birthday art

Dahlia1

Levi1

Ziya

Mathew

Group special outfits for future illustrations

Modern/tech wear

Christmas fits

Birthday fits

Group artwork

Levi,Ziya,Mathew tech/modern wear

Dahlia,Theo , vas tech/ wear

The girls tech wear

[lukkabloom]

Fun facts abt residents & castle trio according to Ikevamp Radio (ヴァンなま) Part 6

Episode 23: It's backkk!!

(I decided to put timestamps so ppl can watch/skip certain sections if they want to)

So apparently Morishi has officially taken over Makki’s role as MC as Makki is nowhere to be found haha.

Anyways we literally have 3 special guests in this video Horie Kazuma (Comte’s VA), Kamio Shinichiro (Faust’s VA), and Kijima Ryuichi (Charles’s VA) bc they’re celebrating Comte’s JP route release & the start of Act 2 of the game

Kijima & Morishi gives off the same vibes lol

Morishi introduces Faust’s character profile. The four start talking abt how if there was a person like Faust irl, they would not want to be friends w him even when he is good-looking

(38:00) There’s a new (?) segment called “Faust & Charles, What would you do?” where you (MC) are placed alone w Charles/Faust in a certain situation, and then the VAs will say the line out

The situation for Faust’s is… “you are falsely accused of stealing an art piece in a museum and are feeling down. Watching you, Faust says something to you. What does he say?” the options that the audience votes for are 1. “If you are feeling guilty for your crimes, I’ll listen to what you have to say… Haha, I’m kidding. If you continue to look so down, I’ll bully you even more” 2. “I know that you are innocent, but your struggling expression is  nice, too” 3. “It’s cheap! It’s cheap! The tuna’s cheap! Miss, if you have time to contemplate, go buy our tuna!” If the people can vote on the correct answer, the VA will say the line, but if they choose the wrong line, Horie will say the line instead (not as Comte but as a random dude)

(41:20) Option 2 was chosen, and it was not the correct, so Horie said funnily lol. Kamio says that the viewers are kinda dumb (baka)

(42:58) Morishi has Kamio say Faust’s line, so he says line 1 anyways

So apparently, there’s a second situation haha. Setting #2 is “It’s been around an hour deciding which glasses would fit you the most. You can’t decide which one would be the best. Faust says one thing while watching you struggle. What does he say?” 

The options are 1. “It's cheap! It’s cheap! The squid’s cheap! What about you use the squid-ring-fries as your glasses?” 2. “What about it? It’s one possibility to match glasses with me” 3. “How long are you going to ponder on for? Your face will not change, so just be who you naturally are” 

(45:34) The chosen line is… the third one!! Kamio says it yayy!!

(46:24) Onto Charles’s situation #1!! “An illness? It might be the flu… You’re not at your best and you zone out for a bit. Watching you, Charles tells you something. What does he say?” 1. “Are you okay? Here, come on my bed. Lay down, I’ll give you a hug… I’ll warm you up.” 2. “You’re sick? Then I’ll catch it for you. Get better soon” 3. “Why’re you catching a cold! If you have the time to catch a cold, you should finish making this sashimi!”

Horie will be reading the line if the audience chooses the incorrect one. (I feel like Kijima will be reading the legit one either way lol)

(48:30) The chosen one was… the first one!! Which was the correct one, therefore we get good voice lines :)) 

(49:13) Horie says the sashimi line haha

(49:45) Situation no 2 is “You’re eating out with Charles. You casually say ‘What really is love…?’ Replying, Charles says something. What does he say?” 1. “Hmm… I don’t really know, but is it love when I want to eat you? I don’t mind if you take a bite off of me.” 2. “What is love? Why don’t you try to find the answer… with my body.” (OMG I CANT THERES NO WAY I TYPED THAT lemme wash my hands and eyes) 3. “What is love? I don’t know. Go ask Nishino Kana or something! You wanna see me so much that you’re shaking? Then I’m shaking all year! I’m dying from the cold in the summer!” HAHAHA

(51:17) the correct answer was… answer 1!! Which was chosen as well

(51:57) Horie’s version AHHAHAHH he says line 3 he’s so funny

We get more lines from the two VAs since we got them correct (ignoring the mistake on Faust’s first one) (53:02) Faust says “Hmm? You have good instincts. I’m more curious about you. I’ll adore you like a guinea pig, so just roll around on my palm.” (53:57) Charles’s line “I had a feeling you were able to understand me. From now on, let’s spend a lot of time together. And then… you can love me even more”

(58:39) “I love yu” segment woooo. It’s a conversation between Faust and Charles, so no Sebas or Comte. (Wait they have baths at the castle?? Why am I surprised at this point)

Charles: “Doctor~ Would you like me to wash your back?” Faust: “I’ll be leaving” Charles: “Wait! Wait! Since we're together, let’s hang out.” Faust: “...How many times have you done that when I’ve been bathing? There are others who are willing to spend the night with you or hang out with.”

Charles: “Sigh, I had a feeling you were going to say that, so I’ve hidden the Doctor's clothes. If you leave the bath, you’ll be out naked” Faust: “Doing something without my permission… Well, the only people living here are men, so a single towel would do. I’ll be leaving.” 

Charles: “Wait! I got a message from Lord Vlad. He said ‘It’s the first time this castle’s bath-situation will be released. Be nice to the young ladies across the screen’” (So Vlad’s like Sebas that he can break the 4th wall… hmmmm) Faust: “‘the ladies across the screen?’ Oh, so that’s what that means. That old goat has finally gone senile, hasn’t he?” (the way Faust calls Vlad an old goat “じじい” is way ruder than I thought he says in Eng) Charles: “Kings are a bit different than us, so I don’t know what he’s saying either.”

Faust: “By the way, Charles, I smell a hint of blood on you. Did you attack someone today?” Charles: “I didn’t attack them! I just bit them and made them feel good.” Faust: “to feed off of them as an act of service…” Charles: “To me, that’s the same thing as an act of love. When do you feed off others, Doctor?” Faust: “When I feel like it, I’ll look for an opening and bite. That’s all. If they have interesting traits, then more the reason” (“interesting traits” may not be a good translation. Faust said 捕食対象 which is like traits of prey, kind of?? A bit difficult to translate)

Charles: “I’m curious what kind of person the Doctor's attracted to…”

Charles wants Faust to flirt w the audience or else he’ll sell Faust’s clothes out (Charles doesn’t know there’s an audience he just says ‘there’s someone out there that might be interested’) they say their lines (1:02:25) Faust & (1:02:57) Charles

Charles asks Faust if his glasses don’t cloud over the bath. Faust: “that’s a taboo question”

(1:09:20) Kamio: “Are you guys stupid??” LMAO when the audience doesn’t get the answer right

(1:22:44)”I love yu” segment w Comte & Sebas! The theme of today’s episode is “Teach me Comte! Secrets of an adult!”

Sebas: “Hmmm… I thought I heard a conversation from another bath that was not ours… Was that my imagination?” Comte: “You’re spacing out. Is something the matter, Sebas?” Sebas: “Right, I’m sharing a celebratory bath with Comte today, but to think I’ve been wondering about other people’s bathing situations…” 

Comte: “Celebratory? Is there something worth celebrating?” Sebas: “Of course there is! Congratulations on your route release, Comte.” *clap, clap*

Comte: “Route release? That’s an unusual word. What do you mean by that?” Sebas: “What are you joking about? You were happy when we were celebrating the other’s route release! Finally, the Comte’s secret is to be revealed, and I’m so dyungyun excited.” 

Comte: “Was there ever so much excitement concerning myself?” Sebas: “Yes, yes. Your past, for example.” Comte: “Born a noble, grown as a noble” Sebas: “Your relation with the pureblood, for example” Comte: “Oh, Vlad, right? He is an old acquaintance of mine.” Sebas: “Your previous relationships, for example” Comte: “Haha. Relationships, huh? A past lover once or twice. Something everyone is familiar with”

Sebas: “It’s as if you’re answering, but we’re not gaining any information, Comte. This just makes me more curious about your route”

Comte: “My past aside, I want to cherish the time that we spend in the mansion.” Sebas: “Of course. It’s not the mansion without you, Comte. Moments of kindness, moments of strictness, not forgetting the punishments on the residents when they’ve done something bad. What you would expect from the mansion’s papa.” Comte: “Haha. It’s not like I was planning to become a papa. The residents are filled with those who have strong characters.” Sebas: “They are unique, you can say. However, there are other moments where you show your ‘papa-ness’”

Comte: “Like when, for example?” Sebas: “According to my observations, when you send her a mountain of dresses and you’re caring for her, your ‘papa-ness’ is at its max” Comte: “I-is that so? I’m the one who brought her here to the 19th century. It bothers me sometimes. But being called a ‘papa’ gets me.”

(1:27:35) Sebas’s line (1:28:14) Comte’s line (i usually dont translate these lines cuz they’re so long sorry)

(1:29:10) Sebas calls Comte an “adult celebrity”

Another new segment called “Butler Skill: Improvement Lesson” where everyone will practice certain skills, which in this episode, is improving the skill of drawing. Morishi will draw Horie, Horie will draw Kijima, Kijima will draw Kamio, and Kamio will draw Morishi. They will try to draw each other as cute as possible. Presents each other’s drawings at (1:32:47) 

Good night voices start at (1:43:35) with Sebas, Comte, Faust, and Charles in this order

[senka-mesecine]

Can't stop thinking about being the nurse that tended Barnes after he got his face injury. How would he react to being taken care of? 😫 (And of course she would have a little crush on him, I mean com on, how can you not 😳 )

I know this might be impossible but can he be soft? 👀 or at least look at her softly? Once? Maybe? 😆

💟💟💟

The Bandaged Man From Ia Drang.

Robert Barnes x Reader.

@woman-with-no-name

-

-"Over a thousand stitches and a Cranioplasty."-

Doc explains in stride swapping through his result notes fresh from the lab.

-"Hard to believe that he still has a face left."-

-"Will he be alright, doctor?"-

You ask in a hopeful huff, bracing your pace. So much to learn, so little time.

-"Oh, he'll be alright. He'll live."-

The doctor shrugs matter-of-factly, keeping his thick rimmed, bespectacled stare glued to the documents he was diligently swapping through, speaking stoically, like this was merely a fact of life and around these parts, it was. Disfigurement. Bodily trauma. Amputation. The other week, a kid walked out of here with a glass eye. -"He'll have to live with it too."- He adds, looking at you briefly, like he was trying to illustrate what sort of patient profile you'll have to contend with. -"As for the psychological consequences ---"- He trails off, assessing his own words way before he ever uttered them, doing a sharp turn on the corridor and halting in front of his office. The phone was ringing out incessantly from somewhere down the lobby. The squeaking sound of wheels as new patients were being carted in by the minute overtaking the hallway. The VA facility was in chaos. -"Very changing. Highly questionable. For now anyway."- He finishes his train of thoughts, snapping his notebook shut. A likely case of PTSD with this patient, you think. That was the case with almost all of them. -"Administer painkillers, nurse. He might not want it, he might fight it, but do it anyway."- The orders were clear and you nod. While you weren't there for the operation yourself, they said that the guy had a plate installed as a replacement for a missing part of his skull; that they shipped him back here to base for recovery from Japan where they barely, for the lack of a better word, stitched him back together, previously having been shot at least seven times. Genuinely, it was shocking he survived transportation to anywhere altogether. -"Lorazepam if he gets volatile."- The doctor points a finger at you, wiggling it for emphasis. -"Does he get volatile?"- You ask carefully, putting your own bit of emphasis on the word does. While you were ready for anything the last thing you wanted was someone to deck you in the face while you're there attempting to change their sheets. -"Calm so far. Taking it like a champ. Not a peep out of ---"- Distracted, the doctor peeks back into his notes again only for his face to snap back up, towards you. -"Barnes, Robert."- He states quickly and curtly, his hand on the doorknob. The phone has stopped ringing; someone somewhere has answered it.

-"Never seen anything quite like it."-

You here the doctor murmur as he opened the door to his office, crossing the threshold, seating himself at his desk, immediately immersed in his work, talking more to himself than you at that point.

-"But unpredictable complications do happen. And once they do, he'll be fit for Section Eight."-

He adds, finally, mulling over paperwork and files, eyes glued to his desk.

A knot tangles in your stomach.

-

Man was pushing forty and a surplus from the Korean war.

A survivor from the battle at Ia Drang Valley.

His record was so impressive you find yourself reading through like it's a highly engaging novel, thinking it's a genuine shock this man was in one piece as it were. Shot several times. Damaged nerves. Probably Neural damage to boot. Fractured skull. Notwithstanding minor injures that would've been considered major and even life altering to everyone else, but beside such an onslaught on wounds, having torn ligaments, broken ribs or a broken nose almost seemed like a minor thing in comparison to everything else. He doesn't speak either; the Doctor made it clear he could. He didn't lose vital functions in that regard, Robert Barnes simply refused to, until a raggedy shout snaps you out of reveries and you jump to attention. First time you've heard his voice since he was admitted. Somehow, you know it's him. You've heard every patient's voice in this ward a hundred times over, but this one's different. This one's new. Has you running down the hallway, halting next to his bed out of bed, immediately fearing the worst; that his state has worsened and that he was going into shock. -"Medic!"- He's still yelling when you stop above his bed, trying to asses any signs of stress and trauma in his eyes visible through the slits of his bandages, finding him fully aware and cognizant. Awake and aware. You're taken aback. -"Get me a smoke."- He gives you an order and you're stunned for words. Five full months of being verbally nonresponsive and this is what you get out of him. Get me a frigging smoke. You momentarily aren't sure if you should be profoundly endeared, amused or annoyed. -"That isn't allowed in here. You know that."- You asses as calmly as possible, checking his vitals. Pulse fine. Heartbeat regular through the stethoscope. For all intents and purposes, he was good and not in shock, rambling. Fully lucid and cognizant. -"Get me a smoke, girl."- He tries again, this time harsher in intonation, his thick accent which you could immediately pinpoint as something Southern, something Louisiana, the Carolinas, Tennessee or Texas comes through loud and clear.

You relent.

You tended to keep a pack of Marlboros in your pocket, not for yourself, but for all the men here who needed the relief of tobacco but technically couldn't leave the ward to get some themselves. Sometimes it was chewing gums. Sometimes magazines. Sometimes cigarettes. You provided whatever you could off the record. Some of these men would go home without an arm or a leg. Least you could do is get them something to divert them from their suffering. Prevent them from falling into a state of desperation and depression. Suicidal tendencies.

-"Go on! Now light it."-

He shoots you another order once you press the cigarette between his lips, profoundly damaged by scars to the point you imagined just talking to you alone must've been a painful order. You fish the lighter out of your uniform's front pocket, lighting filter in his mouth held together by bandages, watching the tip engulf in a pillar of smoke. -"You reject every attempt to make you more comfortable, flat out refusing to do as much as talk and the first thing you ask for in months is a cigarette."- You quip, not unkindly, but more as a statement of the obvious. His eyes move to look at you and you take that as an omen signifying you needed to clarify yourself further and that you weren't reproaching or preaching morality to him. -"I think it's a good sign, actually. I'm glad for it."- You add, daring to chuckle. Something vaguely entertaining about the mummy smoking a Marlboro, wrapped from the top of his scalp nearly halfway down his chest.

-"And a mirror."-

He interjects, surprise you. Stark blue eyes give you a glare.

-"Excuse me?"-

You question.

Once he gives you further details, you decide to stand your ground.

-"I can't get you a mirror. Sorry."-

You explain, apologetically; last thing you needed was for him to smash it and use the shards to cut himself. Self-harm. Or worse. The Doc's words about Section Eight come to mind as a warning, looming over your head like a dark cloud. -"Not before your scheduled check up with the doctor. He'll remove your bandages himself. Give his assessment then."- You say, not liking his silence, feeling the need to say things and enlighten the situation to him purely break the tension. Truth of the matter was, the state of Barnes's face was grizzly and you didn't want you to see it before it was time for him to see it. You were already majorly breaching protocol and breaking authorization by supplying him with tobacco in the first place. -"Y'all little girls carry around those compact mirrors in your pockets. I know you do too. In fact, you have one on ya right now."- You remarks and your breath hitches in your throat. How did he know that? Sure, he could possibly tell by the dent in your uniform's pocket seamlessly reflecting a vaguely round shape on the surface to any outside observer, but that's way too big of a guess to be just a guess. You supposed these Marines had their ways, causing you to unwittingly hand him a tiny compact mirror that appeared so tiny and fragile in his otherwise scarred hands as he unhinged the lid. You freeze up, paralyzed when he starts fidgeting with his bandages, pulling them apart to check what's underneath; this has never happened to you in your medical history so far --- so being as stiff as a rock to the degree you couldn't even move to even consider giving him a tranquilizing shot. The layers of pure white gauze reveal a zig-zag pattern of scarring running from a nearly mangled left side and disappearing somewhere beneath the embrace of the bandages still left unmoved and unloosened. -"It doesn't look bad."- You manage, finding your own voice shaking as you observed, reaching for the mirror so he couldn't be inspired to be curious any more than he already was. Unbidden, Barnes's fingers coil around yours and he squeezes, hard. Hard enough to cause you gasp. Lorazepam if he gets volatile --- the doctor's words ring out in your mind like a bell.

-"S'that mean you'd want one yourself? Or your own pretty face?"-

He practically growls, his eyes wide and unblinking.

Shockingly blue.

You gulp nervously, feeling he deserved honesty. That he was too smart to be swayed by empty platitudes. Was easy to comfort him, you figured, and throw around sagely advice when you weren't the one with your physical description altered for life.

-"No, sir."-

You confess and only then does Barnes relent and let go of your hand.

Cigarette still lit in his mouth in a flurry of messy bandages hanging off his face.

-

He's done nothing in the months after that.

Nothing but look at himself in the mirror.

It's become a regular routine ever since the Doctor officially removed his bandages and the layers of gauze protecting Barnes's skin became thinner and thinner with each passing week; he's been through a Psychological evaluation that stated this was a coping mechanism. That Barnes forced himself to, as he called it, accept the reality of things. That he wasn't going to run from what he looked like now. That he's going to face it head on and get used to it like someone gets used to a new skin. You don't know why on earth you memorized the notes of someone's psych-check, but you supposed you did, finding something oddly admirable in that. Most patients here tended to loose their minds over far smaller injures and here Barnes was, ever the stoic. Even the pain-killers. He tended to reject them whenever he could even though you could tell he was in unbelievable pain, having a bullet practically removed from his cheek and his skull. How he endured you couldn't comprehend. -"You know ---"- You address him on one occasion, feeling you had to, a twinge of regret haunting you for being a little too bluntly honest last you told him that if you had a choice in the matter you wouldn't want you have a scar like his. He was far too mentally unbalanced then to hear those words and you've made a bad call. -"This might sound weird, Mr. Barnes, but it doesn't look as terrible as you think, considering the circumstances and the severity of the injury."- You trail off and the speak up, careful in your delivery. Now that you saw him whole, nose and eyes and mouth and hair and cheekbones, you could assess shockingly enough that he was one of the rare few men with an injury like that who looked...well...handsome. You allow the complement you've been mulling over for weeks slip through the precipice of your mouth freely. Without censorship. -"God blessed you with such exemplary features it's hard to mar them."- You say, watching Barnes turn from the open infirmary window where he was having a smoke, looking at you head on. You figured you deliberately used so much purple prose because it felt like a shield against him; was hard to just say you're a handsome man. Handsomest I've ever seen. In spite of everything. -"You're speakin' in tongues like a preacher, girl. Give it to me straight an' simple and cut the bullshit."- In spite of the profanity and him cocking his head to the side tauntingly, you interacted with him frequently enough to know he was joking and teasing you for your delivery riddled with fancy epithets, like you were beating around the bush and avoid the point.

You're caught.

You decide to be upfront.

-"You're so good looking nothing can really ruin it."-

You say, openly. Was pure honesty too.

-"'S that part of your bed-side manner? Makin' rounds? Lyin' to these sorry cocksuckers 'round here to raise their morale?"-

He leans towards you like he was measuring you in ways you couldn't understand, testing if you if you'd pull back your statement or not.

-"No."-

You stand your ground, firmly. You'd almost dare say the scar, still red and angry around the edges managed to do the miraculous job of enhancing him, if that was at all possible.

-"I really mean it."-

You add.

-"You sayin' that 'bout me then? You find me easy on the eyes, ma'am?"-

Barnes's voice comes through as a deep rumble, his eyes never matching the severity of his tone yet something in his gaze --- there was undeniable softness there.

-"I do."-

You smile into your own chin, feeling the blood rushing into your cheeks.

[cauterizedpod]

It's been quite some time since I made a real update here and I wanted to come on and talk about what happened last year and the future of the project, which is very promising.

(read more added as things start a little heavy before they get better)

Last year I had to put production on sudden, complete hold because my mother became very ill and I became responsible for her entire life very rapidly.

This left her nearly blind on one side with complete blindness on the other. My mom is very dear to me and seeing her like that was extremely difficult for me. I'm incredibly fortunate with how strong she is and how hard she has worked to recover and I've been beside her the entire time, gradually giving things back to her as she could handle them.

And as I've handed things back to her, I've been able to pick up parts of my own life I had to set aside. And a big one of those things was this production.

In January, I picked the show back up and began tearing it apart. Took everything back down to the foundations and rewrote everything from scratch. Reconnected with my cast and crew. My musician and VA for Kadin moved to LA and had to leave the project, so I spent a month reviewing probably 2000 profiles to recast the role. I'm very, very lucky to have found Jaiden Azakai and he's since composed the new theme for the show as well as an original song for the first episode. (And I CAN'T WAIT to share it!)

The whole first season is written out and it's being chopped up and fleshed out into episodes now. Once I finish the current episode I'm writing, I'm going to be moving back into production again. If everything goes to plan, I'm looking to release the first three episodes in April of 2025, the anniversary of the original release.

Keep an eye out and know the fire is still burning ❤️‍🔥

Thank you everyone for being so patient with me while I've been figuring out how to breathe again. It's still a lot a little stressful for me to be online, but I've got so much exciting news to come soon and I really can't wait to share it.

[broadcastbabe]

You would agree, they are perfection. I’m still adjusting to their spherical fullness and weight. The nipples are ultra-sensitive and always seem to tingle, as the surgeon warned they would as I recover. Paying a top specialist means the scars are almost imperceptible, tucked on the underside. My wardrobe always gravitated to clinging low cut numbers, so this new enhancement has given me a whole new fashion profile. We marvel at the difference as I model each old dress to see it transformed into the “va-va-voom” look that tweaks our arousal… yours from the vision of me, mine from your adoring hungering gaze. I can’t help but tease you by tugging at the neckline, stretching the fabric taut to expose the orbs rounded splendor, rubbing the tingle that persists at the tips. My smile is inviting and encouraging to indulge in a closer look and feel, before we step out to dinner for a public showing of the pliant investment we have made in our sex life..

[protege-not-protagonist]

Criminal Minds: The Protégé Chapter 10

Blurb: While the team works on the case in the Appalachian Mountains establishing theories and defining a profile, Spencer throws himself into working the victimology of this new Unsub killer. But it is not enough to distract him from the emptiness he feels in his life, especially after his mother's recent episode. rather than stay at home and face a night of quiet reflection, Spencer reluctantly decides to attend trivia night... who knew it would be the first and last time he would be hesitant to go.

Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Audience: 16+ mature audience for depictions of violence and sexual references

Author's Note: if you see a trigger warning that concerns you, you can scroll to end and I'll have a brief description what happens. And how to read around it. TW: violence, crime scene depiction, This case mentions sexual assault, kidnapping, decapitation, Necrophilia, slight body horror (as previous chapter)

Spencer's Appartment, Arlington, VA, 7:50PM

Spencer rubbed the bridge of his nose and inhaled. Done. He had gone through them. All 562 profiles of the unsubs. He just focused on their status in the past 5 years, since that was when Grace had noticed the upward trend. Of those, 32 had died in that period. A few had died of old age, been executed, or died in prison fights. But disturbingly, 19 of those deaths had suicide by overdose or heart complications listed as cause of death in the last.

And even more concerning was that there was a starkly clear victimology. All were unsubs that had been killing and caught when they were adolescents or very early twenties. All had antisocial personality disorder, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, or both. All were having medical treatment administered to them in either psychiatric facilities or prisons. And, they were all people who shouldn't have died in care, all under 30 and not profiled as self destructive.

Spencer wished it was hard to believe that someone could've gotten away with it for that long. But he knew they weren’t exactly people that would be missed. People would think that no one would care or even that they deserved it, and that is why this killer had been so successful. It was why 19 had died before one person had thought twice about a 20th. One random FBI agent who answered a phone call meant for him.

Now they had a base number of victims, they needed to further narrow down the remaining living unsubs with the victim profile. It would help them figure out who was likely to be next. They also had to correlate employee records with the facilities these unsubs, well actually, victims, had died in. If there was a common person, they had to be the killer.

He shuffled the papers back into the neat stacks on his coffee table. Squinting around at the rest of his room, reached for a floor lamp's switch; it was starting to get hard to see. He stood up from his armchair and felt his legs protest. The light level in the room told him it was a later than he thought it was. How long had he been working on this? He looked out his window at the park outside. It only had a few joggers and dog walkers trailing around the pathways.

Spencer enjoyed the new view and the convenience of the location. He had been in his new apartment for 1 year, 8 months, and four days. But it still wasn’t the same. He missed his old home.

He had left it out of necessity, is what he told himself. It was practical. Now he was home a lot more, he needed the spare room as an office space. He also originally needed the two-bedroom apartment if his mother wanted to stay with him on day releases. Not that she could now.

But no matter how he reasoned it away, it didn’t change the fact that the real reason he moved was because he didn't like the fact that Cat Adams knew where he lived. It was the fact that she and had used his apartment and neighbours in her plans twice now. Max had pointed that out to him. And once she had; he hadn't felt safe there anymore.

Spencer never used to worry for his safety, if anything, his job proved that there was no point in worrying; if someone was determined enough, nothing could stop them. But with her it was different. For the first time, he could not shut the worry out. His home had felt... tainted.

It was a shame. He had spent longer in that apartment than anywhere else in his life. But perhaps the change was good. He was leaving that life behind; a new environment would help him separate himself from his past.

Much to his disappointment though, the walls here were still white. He hadn't got permission to paint them yet. Spencer appreciated that in design theory, the lighter coloured walls help reflect light and make the place feel spacious and airy. But other than a vitamin D boost, for him, there were no more benefits. He needed the comfort of a dark, cosy place to retreat to at the end of long days. Surveying space he nodded with contentment. He had done his best to dampen the impersonal-ness of the ‘clean chic’ aesthetic. His bookshelves lined the walls of the living space. Framed yellowed schematics and watercolour botanical prints cluttered the walls. His dark wooden furniture added the illusion of a comfortable age. Dark curtains and earthy tone rugs tied it all together. It was impressive how similar it was to the old the place.

But now there was the spare room. The room with a plainly dressed bed and his spotless work desk. The empty room.

He would have brought his own house if he had someone to share it with. But that hadn’t worked out and the more empty rooms he had in his life, the more lonely he supposed it would feel. Max was great, but when they finally had that third date, and then a fourth, and then a 15th, they both found that they were great, but just as friends.

Opposites did attract, but ultimately there was just too much difference between their worldviews. He had baggage. A lot of it. And it was not that she didn’t care. No, it was the opposite; she cared a lot, but she was too confrontational. She saw his baggage, and she wanted it gone; she wanted to free him from it. Max saw it as if all of that trauma really was just bags and suitcases that she could toss away from him like a commercial airline baggage handler, if she tried hard enough. But she didn’t understand that some things can’t be fixed. Some things can’t be undone. Some things, in the end, you just had to live with and learn to live around.

He also felt that they wanted different things out of life. Max wanted to live a life filled with excitement. She was eager to explore the world, but Spencer craved stability. He had had enough adventure. He wanted to settle down, take life slowly, and savour it. And so that was how it ended. They followed their respective paths. Max found herself in bustling New York, working at the MET. Meanwhile, Spencer settled into a cozy apartment, its walls filled with books and the gentle hum of a fish tank, finding solace in teaching. Or, he was trying to.

Spencer padded across the room and flicked the light switch on, and stared back at the pile of papers on the coffee table. He couldn’t do much more work without Agent Matthews or Garcia now. He needed something to do. Staying here looking at the spare room was only reminding him that there were people missing from his life. He needed to get out. Staying in and reading was nice. But lonely. And he didn’t want to feel alone tonight. Not after the weekend, he just had.

He checked his watch; 7:52pm.

If he left now, he could still make it to the trivia night his colleagues had openly invited him to months ago. He didn't usually like bars, or competitions, or beer. But they had tried multiple times to convince him he would enjoy himself. The concerned smile that Grace had given him earlier that morning flicked to his mind. He recalled her subtle encouragement to try a new experiences; new people and new hobbies. Was trivia a hobby?

Surprisingly, he felt himself move towards his keys, as if his subconscious was urging him to go. If there were empty rooms in his life, he supposed they would stay empty unless he took the initiative to meet new people and tried new things. He grabbed his wallet and phone and walked to the door while he still had the courage. He turned the doorknob and stepped out into the hallway, pulling up the navigation app on his phone. Trivia. He was going to trivia night, a social event, and he was going to meet people. And if the past week was any indicator; meeting new people wasn’t too bad.

Central Police Station, Harrisburg, PA, 7:00 PM

Rossi walked down the halls to of the police station with Dective Garner following close behind the meeting room. Simmons was pinning up the map on the case board. Luke was scribing down points on the whiteboard as Tara told him what they had learned from their interviews. JJ was in the corner examining the sheets the victims were wrapped in from the boxes of evidence. Grace was missing. He looked down at his watch. She was late for the debriefing. He sighed, but knew she would be in soon; she would be late cause she had found something.

‘Well, what have we got, cause victimology is not really giving us anything other than young, female and in the forest? Not too picky as far as I can tell. We’re going to have focus more on the Unsub. What did the scene tell us?’ Rossi asked.

Simmons shook his head, ‘Well he is knowledgeable of local area, looking at these sites this active zone where the bodies are being dumped placed is 1.38 square kilometres, that’s not even a square mile but the comfort zone, is a lot bigger, here-‘ he drew a circle around the three points.’-As Detective Garner and Ranger Debraun noted this active zone was not accounting for the terrain. If we adjust to account for the mountain right in the middle of the whole thing, the active zone is more like 13 square miles. If he had to walk there using the trails from access points near roads while carrying a body… it’s just unlikely.

‘So there’s two possibilities, theory one, is that he lives somewhere in this comfort zone and uses a shallow boat to travel the waterways after killing them. Theory two, he lives in the forest, and has multiple secluded areas to hold and kill victims and then dumps them in sites closest to the area he killed and held them in.’

Tara stepped up to the map and added a point to the board. ‘Our interview found that Hope was abducted from the surrounding forest on this road. Now that we know for sure the stretch of trail that Hope was abducted from and the disposal site, we can narrow down that range that this hideout might be in.’

Rossi nodded. ‘Good, good, tomorrow morning we can get out there with some of your men, Garner, and search the abduction site.’

‘Absolutely,’ the detective nodded.

Rossi paused and furrowed his brow. ‘Detective Garner, does the phrase “your friend trips under the hill” mean anything to you?’

The detective frowned. ‘No, sorry, should it?’

‘When we interviewed Jenny, she said sometimes in the days after the abduction she heard a man call her name and sometimes she would hear that phrase.’ Tara explained.

‘The Unsub returned to taunt her?’ Luke questioned.

Rossi shook his head stoically. ‘No, we believe he was trying to lure her too.’

‘She didn’t tell us that,’ the detective frowned.

‘She thought she was imagining it,’ Tara explained. ‘She thought people would think she was crazy.

‘Are we sure that it was the unsub?’ JJ asked Tara. ‘I don’t know who would even speak like that. It sounds… theatrical.’

‘I’m convinced it wasn’t a hallucination that she heard. She would still be experiencing them if they weren’t real, conditions that cause those symptoms are long term and don’t go away without treatment.’ Dr Lewis explained.

‘I’ve got Garcia researching that phrase as we speak. Hopefully, we can find what it’s referencing.’ Rossi nodded and moved on. ‘What about the morgue JJ? Where’s Grace?’

JJ let out a little huff and shook her head, still unable to believe how the interaction had gone. ‘Oh boy, the morgue was something. Grace got in a verbal sparring match with the M.E. It was like watching a high school debate club, but there were no real arguments, just intellectual snark. I had to break it up, but Grace is still there. She’s hovering over the M.E. while they do a dissection.’

‘Grace, verbally sparring?’ Dr Lewis frowned.

JJ shrugged, ‘I don’t know. Something got into her. M.E. made a comment about how she does that talking thing… And she went straight for the metaphorical jugular. Anyway, I got a lot of information I wish I could erase from my brain.’ she paced across the room to the board and wrote, “Necrophiliac” on the board.

‘Oh, gross.’ Luke groaned.

‘So this guy, still waiting on DNA to confirm it’s the same one, seems to keep the victims for three to five days before killing them and then keeps them for one to three days after death and that’s when the sexual assault occurs. Then he washes and wraps the victims before disposing of them. As far as we can tell, only superficial wounds from scuffles are sustained while they are alive. But the newest victims, Grace believes, show a deviation. She seems to think they were killed before decapitation and then drained of their blood. And this is where things get weird.’

‘You mean it wasn’t already weird? Simmons asked.

JJ grimaced before continuing. ‘One of the new victims had a needle mark from where the Unsub externally filled their bladder-‘

‘-What?’ Rossi asked out loud. The room was filled with confused and disgusted faces.

‘Jesus.’ Detective Garner shook his head. ‘Who even does this?’

‘Well, I’m not sure about the whole bladder thing, but I know that there is some familiar behaviour,’ JJ also wrote: Remorse? ‘I’ve been looking at the evidence here in the meantime. The sheets, the way he wraps up the victims, it’s like a shroud, it’s not just spread over the body, it’s properly done. The way he wraps up the victims and places them somewhere scenic, at the creek. That’s an indication of remorse, it’s shows an amount of care, an amount of shame. It’s a burial ritual.’

‘Yeah, as much as care someone who chops of heads and desecrates bodies can have.’ Detective Garner scoffed.

There was a short tap on the door. Grace's smiling face met them as she opened the door. ‘Did I hear someone say burial ritual?’

Stern faces met her and Rossi raised an eyebrow. Her face dropped a little, assuming a more neutral expression. ‘Right, well sorry I’m late, but I have some great news, some perplexing news and some details for Garcia to look up for our victim IDs when the briefing’s over.’

‘Start with the great news.’ Rossi waved her in.

She nodded and skittered over to the map. ‘I know where the victims are most likely being held and killed.’ She held out her hand for JJ to pass her the marker. ‘So, I called around to see if we could get our lab results flagged as a priority, and well, mainly DNA, to confirm it’s the same guy. Toxicology is still slow, entomology also not finished and the sample we took from the bladder has only just been sent-’

He held up his hand gently stopping her. ‘Grace… What do we have?’ Rossi prompted.

‘Oh um, particulates from the fingernails. The samples were tested before, but only for the DNA of the attacker. I asked a friend of mine back on the second floor to look at the preliminary mass spec, but for grit. He found pure Anthracite Coal in all victims’ samples.’ She grinned widely, clearly proud of herself as she used the marker to draw some dotted lines on the map.

Rossi watched her with interest. He had talked to her about convoluted answers. To Grace’s credit, she had gotten better in the past few months. He knew if she was drawing; she was taking time to gather an explanation with a visual aid. But he supposed he knew of her diagnosis, so he understood. The rest of the team had not quite figured it out yet.

‘So, they were killed in a forge or factory or what… what is Anthracite Coal mean? Are there different types of coal?’ JJ asked.

Grace turned to answer, but surprisingly, Detective Garner cleared his throat.

‘Ya girl here is saying the victims were killed in a Pennsylvanian coal mine. Anthracite is the highest grade coal there is, highest carbon content, rare as well. In America, it is only found in this state.’ The team looked at him with puzzled looks. ‘What? I thought everyone knew that? Anyway There is a problem though, it doesn’t fit the geoprofile. All the mines are further North East of here, quite a ways actually.’

‘Yes exactly, but those are currently operating mines,’ Grace enthused. ‘I suspect this one is old and abandoned. I’m not an expert geologist, but as an archaeologist, I know a thing or two about stratigraphy. The Appalachian mountains, although separated by rivers and valleys nowadays, were once a continuous range before the ice age. Because of this we can look at known deposit on the other side of the river in Dauphin county and assume the layer that was compressed into coal was one deposit before the river separated it-‘ she drew a dotted line over the river and along the mountain and straight through the unsubs active zone. ‘-Theoretically, the coal that ended up in our victims’ fingernails should be at the same elevation as the Dauphin county mine. Which places the abandoned mine on this ridge and within the unsubs’ active zone.’

Detective Garner paused briefly before stating, ‘Considering Jenny's testimony, we can place the abduction right on the outskirts of the active zone. But we found her on the other side of the mountain, which disproves the theory of his lair being in that zone. You cannot abduct someone without a vehicle and drag them either fighting or unconscious up a mountain for two miles. Hold them captive in a mine for five days. Then carry their body three miles down the other side of the mountain. It’s not physically possible. The bodies would suffer more damage from being dragged and manhandled.’

Grace nodded. ‘You are right, detective, I would normally agree. The average distance someone can carry a body is 300 meters or a hundred yards. And if we think he is probably using the river to transport the bodies away from his lair, the place he kills them must be closer than 300 meters from where he keeps a boat. As you said, it looks impossible since the river is on the other side of the mountain. But it is actually possible if the unsub isn’t going over the mountain at all.’

‘There has to be a tunnel under the mountain.’ Rossi realised. It was the only thing that made sense.

‘Exactly, modern mines in the area are open cut, but prior to the 60’s mines were underground. And if this mine is old enough to be forgotten about. It’s got to be Civil War era or before. I also read that this area has a lot of history with the Underground Railroad, which I know was not actually an underground railroad, but it involved a lot of secret passages through the mountains, and also the logging industry sometime would help smuggle people out on rafts through the river systems. Sometimes loggers would create tunnels that would lead to riverside log stations so that logs didn’t have to be dragged over the hill. Point is, this unsub lives in those mountains, and probably has his whole life, his family probably also has deep roots here. Both mining and logging are the old back bone industries here.’

‘How long did you spend reading?’ Dr Lewis asked.

‘Just the plane ride here…’ She shrugged.

Rossi raised an eyebrow. He noticed her busy with something on the plane and had wondered what it could be. She had seemed so focused on it. Obviously, whatever it was, had been helpful.

Simmons nodded and thought for a moment. ‘Is there a possibility that there’s a map of these tunnel systems or survey of the mineshafts?’

Garner shook his head. ‘Not that I know of. Anything old like that, there’s a chance it doesn’t exist anymore. Records like that just aren’t kept. The police records here only go back as far as the 50s. We’ve had a few disaster level floods in the Susquehanna area way back. If something like that existed, I’m not sure if it would have survived.’

‘Survivorship Bias.’ Grace murmured in thought.

‘Do you mean natural selection?’ Rossi asked, prompting her to speak up.

‘Uh no, Survivorship Bias is the likelihood of material culture surviving based on preference. Basically, the more important, impressive, and popular something is, the more likely it is to be preserved over mundane things. If a map did exist and has survived, it will be because someone thought it was worth preserving. If we want to find a map we need to think of who might’ve thought that the map was important enough to preserve?’

There was a moment of silence as they thought collectively.

Simmons lit up. ‘It could be in Union Army military intelligence documents. Do you have a civil war historical society here in Harrisberg, detective?’

‘Yeah, one of the sarges is in it. I’ll go get him to phone them make inquiries.’ Garner nodded and left the room.

‘That could take a while. Do we have anything more to add to the profile than local-necrophile-head-hunter-mountain-man at the moment?’ Rossi asked.

‘I’m sorry to ask, but what’s with the bladder? We see wacky cranked up to 11 every day here, but this is just next level.’ Dr Lewis asked.

‘It a first for me,’ JJ folded her arms. Simmons and Luke nodded in agreement. The team all looked at him.

‘Hey, I may be old, but this is new for me too.’ Rossi held his hand up. ‘How did the dissection go, Grace?’

‘I’m not sure yet, still waiting for tox screens. But this is the perplexing news I had. The dissection confirmed that victim Four’s bladder had been filled externally and drained, naturally. Whatever it was filled with caused hemorrhaging, but there were no caustic burns or lacerations. So at least it wasn’t acid, which I have seen before, but not in the bladder, it was-’ the room collectively winced and Grace stopped her sentence. ‘-awful. But whatever it was caused the victim to bleed a lot. They, uh-would have urinated blood. The level of medical sophistication required for it doesn’t really agree with the ‘feral’ mountain man profile, but DNA confirms it’s the same guy. And it’s too bizarre to be unrelated.’

Rossi frowned, unsure what to make of that information. ‘Well, bizarre and unknown, we will handle with care once we get those tox screens. For now, we focused on we know: The way he’s wrapped the bodies and isolates the victims, holds them for days, speaks to some kind of fantasy. What kind of fantasy?’

‘This guy almost seems like a Power Rapist to me, but it’s warped to where instead of losing confidence when a victim rejects him, he takes the resistance out of the equation by killing them. Then afterward he is ashamed or has some expression of grief in the way he disposes of them.’ Luke observed.

Rossi nodded in agreement. ‘That’s good, I think you’re right, but then there’s the decapitation, which is not typically a remorseful thing to do to a body.’

Tara looked up at him with a pensive expression. ‘Usually I would agree, but I think what we are seeing here is an expression of frustration that he cannot socialise with these women. During the pandemic, the cases of overkill, particularly beheadings rose. We’ve found theres is a clear link between isolation and this kind of dismemberment.’ Dr Lewis put forward. ‘Everything we’ve seen so far suggest he is a very socially inept individual. Perhaps it’s not so much the heads, but the faces he can’t look at while he commits the sexual acts after. I personally believe we are dealing with a young individual severely isolated, very agitated, and experimenting with his desires on victims his own age.’

‘No social skills, like being a feral mountain man.’ JJ pointed out.

‘Do feral people have clean linen though?’ Simmons asked. Pointing to the evidence box JJ had been going through.

‘You’re just going to gloss over the fact that you’re actually entertaining the idea that they exist?’ Luke raised an eyebrow.

‘Well, although a lot of folks from Appalachia think it’s pretty offensive and stereotypical to suggest there are wild people living in the mountains, the legends persist, which suggests there is some element of truth. Of course, I'm not talking about insane myths like cannibal cults and skinwalkers, but there could be some eccentric hermits out there. This team has come across, like, two, no wait, three unsubs that some might call feral people. So I thought it was a fact that feral people exist,’ Grace added. Then frowned, walking over to the evidence table. ‘But Simmons is right. Feral people don’t have white clean linen, usually.’

‘Well, not all the sheets are white, this was victim one’, unlike that others its old and discoloured there’s also a label on it this. It looks like a nordic language.’ JJ pointed to the evidence she had unboxed earlier that evening.

‘IKEA? So like stock standard and untraceable.’ Luke guessed.

Grace peered at the label. ‘No, these aren’t from IKEA, if they were, they’d actually be more traceable. IKEA is not as generic as you’d think. There are only 51 IKEA stores in the country, only three in the state. Fun fact, the franchise is headquartered in right here in Pennsylvania. This is because of the high percentage of German heritage in the area, which is important because Germany highest consumer of their goods. Actually, the first IKEA in the US was opened in ‘85 in Plymouth, about two hours away from here.’ Grace said distractedly. The room went quiet, and Rossi couldn’t help but smile as Grace continued examining the sheets, oblivious to the fact that all eyes were on her. ‘The font and condition of them say early 90’s at least. I don’t recognise this brand. But JJ's right the text is definitely Nordic, maybe Danish?’

'How?' Simmons asked in bewilderment.

‘How what?’ Grace raised her head and realised the team was focused on her. She looked around nervously and glanced at Rossi, her face asking if she had zoned out.

‘That was the most numerical facts you’ve given about a topic off the top of your head, and about IKEA of all things? Why?’ JJ asked curiously.

Grace simply shrugged. ‘I just really like IKEA.’

JJ chuckled and then asked, ‘Ok, Grace, what’s the address of the police station here?’

‘Why would I need to remember that? It was in the case brief.’ Grace said with a frown.

With a little snort, JJ shook her head. ‘Case and point Grace.’

The Laureate bar, West End, Washington DC, 8:04PM

‘Dr Reid! You made it!’ the table of familiar faces called out to him, beckoning him over. He made his way through the tables in the function room at the back of the bar. He glanced at the leader board and saw their team name’s "You’re Going George-down" was fifth. But the first team "The No Bodies" was a head by a significant lead. The previous winners of other weeks were listed on a white board behind an older woman who paced with a hand-held microphone. The No Bodies didn’t win every week previously, but they certainly had a few.

‘Sit here.’ Dr Brandwrith, The Creative Writing Professor, pulled out a chair next to him. ‘We’ve finished round one, which was ornithology. We’re about to start round two, the topic is 15th century literature, and we’re being slaughtered. The Le Morte d'Arthur, is about all I’m familiar with.’

‘God look at them, they know they’re winning, look you can see the smugness in their eyes.’ Dr Martin, the head of the modern history department, cried, eyeing the table of five in the corner. A little white board place marker showed they were The No Bodies. They didn’t look to be gloating or intimidating. ‘It had to be one of their topics. I can not lose to an Egyptologist again!’ Dr Martin lamented and took a long swig of his drink.

Spencer scrutinised their opponents. The No Bodies was comprised three men and two women. Two of the men appeared to be in a deep discussion, dressed in simple button ups, one with a tie. The other man was significantly younger, probably early twenties in a collared tee and khakis, hand intertwined with a young woman at the table, but he completely focused on the baseball game playing on the screen behind them. The young woman was chatting animatedly with the other woman, who sat with her back to Spencer. All he could see from here was that her hair was red, and she had a green flannel jacket slung over the back of her chair.

He surveyed the other tables. Despite the tie wearing man, The No Bodies were the most casually dressed people in the room. Surprisingly, he recognised a lot of faces. Many were academics from various institutions. He even spotted a prominent judge at a table with people dressed in smart suits.

‘Well, luckily I happen to be pretty knowledgeable on the topic, I grew up reading it,’ Spencer told his colleagues trying to keep the wistfulness off his face as memories of his mother reading to him surfaced. ‘But 15th century literature is not a topic I would have thought would come up in bar trivia.’

‘That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. This isn’t just any trivia, Dr Reid. This is Triv-atholon. The bar owner was an Ac-decathlon champion in highschool, he missed the fact that there were no competitions or social events like mathleetes and acdec for adults. So he made these trivia nights to be hard for people who wanted to be challenged.’

‘I never did decathlon in school, or trivia. How does it work?’

Dr Nguyen, the political sciences professor, leaned across the table.

‘Well, we are mid season now. There’s 20 games per season, one game a week. A team has to be signed on from the start of the season to enter the tournament, you can have up to six members per game, but you need at least four to compete in a game other wise you forfeit that week, team members also don’t have to be consistent, they can be anyone as long as they don’t play on another team.

'At the start of the season, each team submits their team name and four topics of expertise. Then each week there’s a game with three rounds, each round is 10 questions from the one of the submitted topics. One point for every right answer. And at the end of the game, the top three teams get leader board points and at the end of the season, the team with the most points wins the tournament.’

‘What do you win?’

‘Well, firstly, bragging rights. Secondly, they get personalised jackets, their team name on the trophy and $200 gift voucher. But most importantly, they get free drinks at the close of season party.’

A bell dinged repeatedly, and a hush descended up on everyone in the room.

‘Okay folks, question one, round two, here we go, the chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch was finished and published in 1490 by Marti Joan de Galba, but who originally authored the text?’

‘Ugh that’s the Tyrant in White, I know it actually was a knight. But the name escapes me.’ Dr Brandwrith said.

‘Joanot Martorell.’ Spencer whispered.

‘How do you spell that? Write that down don’t let them see it.’ Dr Nguyen shoved a pen and paper towards him.

_________________

‘And the score after the second round, still in the lead with 17 points, are The No Bodies. In second place, real dark horses now, You’re Going George-Down with 15 points and in third we have the Matter Babes with 14 Points-‘

‘We got a secret weapon now. You’re going down this time Smithies!’ Dr Martin, a few drinks in, jeered at The No Bodies.

‘Did you not hear the score?’ one of the older men smiled. Spencer noticed he had an eye of Horace’s tie pin. He must have been the Egyptologists.

‘Well, it’s not really a secret once you announce it.’ The red-haired woman turned around in her chair.

Spencer blinked. She looked to be around his age, with freckled pale skin, wire-rim glasses perched on her round face framing her smiling eyes. His brain catalogued a lot of things when he saw her, but the immediate thing he noticed was that she was pretty, very pretty. He would go as far to say she was beautiful, but Spencer reserved that term for after he had observed their nature. She slid the glasses off, laying them on the table, and scanned him from head to toe with an inquisitive look on her face.

‘You didn't bring your pet encyclopedia this week? If she's coming, you might actually stand a chance,’ Dr Nguyen called back.

‘My grad student couldn't come, but I wouldn't count your chickens yet, Nguyen. Seven points down and we still have a few tricks up our sleeves.’ She said. Spencer was left stunned by the confident and playful smirk she shot him before turning back to her table.

‘Okay folks let's start round three, the topic is; The History of Material Culture Generated by Popular American Spectator Sports.’ The hostess announced.

There was a collective murmur.

The younger woman at The No Bodies table nudged her partner, who was still engrossed in the game on the screen behind him.

‘It’s your sport round, babe.’ She smiled at him.

‘No, mine was about the history of sport merch.’ He sighed.

‘That’s what people like us call Material Culture babe,’ she whispered.

‘OH YES FINALLY!’ the young man’s fist pumped. He quickly retracted his fist with a murmured apology once he realised all eyes were on him.

‘For half a point each, in what year was the first baseball card ever produced and by whom?’ The hostess read the first question.

‘Oh my God, we’re screwed!’ Dr Martin slumped on the table.

‘We can make an educated guess.’ Spencer consoled. He thought hard about everything he had gathered from conversations with Derek and Rossi. ‘Well, the product was probably tobacco and baseball reached international popularity in the late 1800s, so let’s say 1870, and Camel cigarettes.’

_____________

It was incorrect; it was actually a sporting goods store, but the year was close, 1868. And that the closest his team got to answering any of the questions from the round. The No Bodies won the night, much to the dismay of his colleagues. After hearing the final scores, his team members shuffled towards the bar.

As he went to follow them, he tried to walk in between two tables at the same time as the Red-haired woman from the opposing team. Both accidentally blocking the path, they made awkward eye contact and apologised. They both stepped to the left and then to the right and laughed nervously at each other. Eventually, he stepped back and let her through in front of him.

‘Good game?’ He cleared his throat. ‘Not really sure if we say that in trivia.’

‘We can if you want.’ She smiled. ‘It was a good game.’ She held out her hand to shake.

‘I uh, I-’ he scrambled for words that were running from him the longer he looked at her.

‘Oh no, that's ok.’ She retracted her hand and offered him a smile. ‘I get it. I got a few friends who don’t like handshakes either.’

He didn’t know if it was audible but a sigh of relief left him. She understood? He followed her up to the bar and was getting ready to search for his teammates when she turned back to him.

‘So you’re Dr Reid, Right? I can see why they wanted you to come.’

‘I can see as well.’ He nodded. ‘And I can see why Dr Martin was particularly worried. The No Bodies are quite a formidable team.’

‘Well, you should remind Dr Martin’s that’s it just a game,’ she laughed. It was a wonderful, contagious laugh. And all Spencer wanted to do was hear it again. ‘We’ve just had a good start to the season and a few new minds. That’s all. The No Bodies are pretty harmless.’

Spencer saw an opportunity and opened his mouth before he had time to regret it. ‘Unless your name is Polyphemus.’

There was a tick of silence before she erupted in that beautiful room brightening laugh.

‘I love a good Greek Mythology reference. So does Jess-‘ she pointed at the other woman from her team who was currently passionately kissing her boyfriend. ‘-Oh they are really celebrating huh, sorry you had to see that. But want to know something funny? Jess is a Classic Historian, her boyfriend’s name is Troy.’ She grinned at him.

He chuckled now. ‘Nominative determinism, that is funny. So your team consist of an Egyptologist, a Classicist, a Sport enthusiast, yourself and… I heard you’re a member down? Your grad student? Should I be worried about them?’

‘Oh yeah!’ she nodded. ‘Luckily for the other teams here, she’s my part time grad student. She has a job that means she has to travel a lot. She’s really good at general knowledge and Vikings. Can I buy you a drink?’ She asked.

‘Oh uh, no,’ Spencer replied. ‘I don’t usually-‘

‘What about a soda? That's what I'm getting. I have to drive home,’ She suggested.

‘You don't have to buy me one,’ he hesitated. ‘Not that I have anything against you buy-‘

‘-I want to buy you a drink,’ she interrupted, ‘So we have an excuse to converse longer. Sorry if that’s forward…’ her sentence petered out.

'Oh?' She wanted to talk? To him? After a moment, Spencer finally agreed. ‘You know what, okay, I'll have a soda.’

She glanced back up at him with a smile and flagged down the bartender.

‘So, grad students, you must be a doctor too,’ he said, leaning forward on the bar with intrigue. ‘What kind of doctor?’ he asked.

‘I'm a doctor twice over. Archaeology and Anthropology, I've also studied anatomy, but I’m a forensic anthropologist,’ she replied. ‘And I haven’t lost you, which is a good sign, not going to have to explain that I am I?’

Spencer’s brow furrowed in genuine interest. ‘No, no, fascinating,’ he encouraged her.

‘So, what kind of doctor are you?’ she inquired.

Spencer lit up with excitements as he replied, 'Like you, I’m a doctor in a few fields. Chemistry, mathematics, engineering.’ Then he shrugged, before saying the thing that usually killed the conversation. ‘But actually, I’m a criminologist and used to be a criminal profiler,’ he explained.

Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘Woah, I’ve got whiplash. Sorry, criminal profiler?’ she exclaimed, but he didn’t read any distaste. She was giving him her full attention. Fascinated, he realised. She was fascinated.

He smiled, ‘Well, I used to be. Now I teach at Georgetown and consult occasionally for, uh, law enforcement,’ he revealed.

‘That would be the FBI, right?’ She guessed excitedly.

He nodded, ‘How did you-’ he began.

‘Oh, I consult with them sometimes too. I work with a few people from there. But that’s work talk. I’m intrigued, because in my mind, mathematics, chemistry, and engineering don’t connect with crime,’ she pondered. ‘How did you end up there, Doctor Reid?’

Spencer leaned back, his gaze thoughtful. ‘I guess I just found my way there. Growing up, I found it hard to comprehend emotions and establish connections with people. I initially studied social sciences and psychology in order to develop a deeper understanding of myself and relate to others. But then I met a profiler and attended his guest lecture. Then I desired to comprehend what drives people to deviation. I found I was good at it, and my knowledge in other areas allowed me to think out of the box. Profiling is more effective when supported by a diverse skill set. And crime is as broad and challenging field of study there is. I’ll never be done learning. So that is where I’ve chosen to stay.’ He explained.

The bar tender deposited their drinks on the in front of them he looked it over before drawing toward him.

‘I am intrigued by your field of study, though. What made you choose forensics? It’s a highly specialised field of anthropology that few would specialise in. And archaeology, again, not much connection to crime on the surface.’ He looked at her expectantly.

‘Well, connections to things are everything in anthropology. Forensics was a way I could help the living. It’s a present history, you know? Examining 4000-year-old remains, it’s fascinating, tells us so much about where we come from, how people were and how we still are, but… what good does it really do? Whereas finding someone’s loved one and returning them home for proper burial? It’s tangible, it’s present and meaningful,’ she explained, passion infused in her words.

Spencer nodded along with interest. ‘Yeah, I felt the same with my job,’ he enthused.

As they continued their conversation, completely engrossed in each other’s stories, the noise of the bar seemed to fade into the background. He spoke passionately about his thesis, while she shared her experiences from various digs she had gone on. She told him about her students she had had through the years and how each one always fascinated her in just how unique their approach to things was. Likewise, he opened up about the different members of the BAU he had worked with, each bringing something unique to the team.

Time flew by as they spoke for over an hour, and he brought them another soda. He even broached the topic of his mother, telling her she was a professor of 15th century literature and how she was suffering from Alzheimers. Sympathetically, she related her own experience with her grandfather going through the same illness when she was younger. She revealed that she was also struggling with loss. Her father had recently passed away from cancer. Spencer expressed his condolences, and they shared memories and reminisced about favourite moments with people they loved. That is how they found they both enjoyed western films.

It was a surprising discovery, and a topic that seemed trivial, but it only deepened their conversation. She mentioned how she used to watch them with her father, and how she had been indulging in them lately to relive those nostalgic moments. He eagerly offered recommendations. She promised to watch them and then got enthusiastically lost in talking about the sociological themes that westerns often carried. Spencer watched her with a contented smile on his face as she asked him what he thought of the shift in themes with modern westerns. To her surprise, he admitted he hadn’t realised there were modern films that fell into that genre, leading to an engaging discussion and recommendations from her.

Time seemed lost in the enjoyment of each other’s company. Eventually he saw his teammates wave goodbye to him and support a worse for wear Dr. Martin out the door. She turned back to him and smiled.

‘Are you going to be coming regularly?’ she askedq.

Spencer paused for a moment, his mind racing. ‘I don’t know, I’m not usually into these sorts of occasions. But I’m trying to try new things,’ he admitted.

‘Well, I’m very glad you did. Did you have fun?’ she inquired, a playful smile on her lips.

‘Yeah, a lot of fun. Though I think the answer for question five round three was subjective,’ he chuckled.

‘I thought so too, but I won’t contest it, since we got it correct. Troy knows his stuff,’ she replied. ‘But I have no idea how we’ll handle next week. That was one of our submitted topics. We’ve had a pretty good run so far, but there’s still half of the season left to play. And now, I hear there is a pretty formidable opponent on the Georgetown team.’ She grinned at him.

‘Maybe, but he seems to have a weakness with questions involving sports. Are you here often?’ he asked curiously. Spencer leaned back, his gaze lingering on her.

‘Most games. I don’t go out much otherwise,’ she confessed.

‘Well, with the highest chance of seeing you being coming to trivia regularly, I suppose I will be a regular then,’ he replied.

The air felt charged with anticipation as they exchanged glances. Spencer stiffened, surprised at himself. His mind raced as he mentally berated himself. “Why did I say that? That was the corniest, stupidest thing I had ever said,” he thought and his face flushed.

‘I’d like that.’ She said with a hint of shyness in her voice.

Then, her phone rang, breaking whatever spell had been upon them. She wrenched it from her pocket, glared at the screen accusingly, then sighed.

‘I’m sorry I have to take this. It’s life or death, well probably death, considering my occupation.’

Spencer nodded. He hoped his bar stool would sink into the floor and take him with it.

‘Hey Avery, what can I do for you?’ she smiled into the phone. Her expression faltered. ‘Oh? Yes, that is unusual. Are you sure? I see. No, no, that’s fine. I can come over. Where was the scene?’

She grabbed a napkin and pulled a pen out of of her bag and scribbled something down, probably the address. ‘Uh-ha, and in what state of skeletonization are the bodies? Yeah? Better swing by home and get my coveralls on my way over. Okay, yes, see you there.’

She got up and Spencer frowned a little. His chest ached just the slightest. He had enjoyed the past couple of hours. Guess maybe he had enjoyed it more than-

‘If you’re not freaked out by that-‘ She slid the napkin across the counter to him. ‘Call me sometime. I hope to see you here again, Dr Reid. It’ll be nice for our team to have to a challenge.’ She smiled at him and left.

He was too stunned to pick the napkin up right away. Her Number? He thought she had written the address of the crime-scene.

He reached out gingerly, grabbed the paper, and turned it over, but one half of it stuck to the bar.

‘No.’ He whispered to himself as he pulled the napkin out of the small puddle of condensation left by a glass and cradled it in his hand.

Spencer was gutted as he examined the napkin. Only half her number was still visible, and the word above it had bled into inky stains. The word above would have been her name he realised. It was also then it dawned on him that she had never shared it with him.

He turned in his seat to see if he could catch her, but she was gone.

He heaved a deflated sigh and stared back at the napkin. He could try an algorithm to guess her name and apply a few forensic techniques to revive the precious symbols he had lost. And he would. He would try his best to recover them. But there was only one way to ensure he saw her again; he had to come to trivia night next week. And he would be there no matter what; that was a certain, sure and immutable fact.

------------

Next Chapter

Taglist: @bridgeoverstrawberryfields

Sorry this took so long. Hopefully, you liked it. What did you think of Spencer's love interest? Who is she? (for once, the reader probably knows more than Spencer)

If you love this story or even just like it, leave a comment, like, reblog, ask a question with Character Mail, will be posting some prompt for this soon so keep your eyes peeled. Any interaction is much appreciated and it really motivates me. Love you guys.

if you want to be added to taglist please comment on this post.

TWs:

Sexual assault, Necrophilia : I will try not to be graphic at all in this story, this chapter just has it mentioned as part of what the unsub does

Slight body horror : I will try not to be graphic here, but in autopsy it is found that unsub fills Bladders externally with a injection. then found that it injures the victim to a point where they bleed. Again not going to describe that more than I have too.

violence, crime scene depiction: cannon typical throughout this story

kidnapping: Unsub is implied to kidnap victims and hold them for a few days.

decapitation: this is part of the unsubs M.O.

[echoing-hearts-hazbin]

Hello there, fans! This is the profile of a famous (trying to be famous) performer in Pentagram City! Let's rock!

~~~~~

Name: Jean Yale (real name, prefers to not be called that, unless she deeply trusts you)

Other names: Echo Hearts (Stage name), Echo (her preferred name to be referred as)

Gender: Female

VA headcanon: Ibuki Mioda (Danganronpa)

Bio: When she was a human, her parents pressured her to become the perfect daughter. She was forced to achieve straight As, study instead of going out with friends, etc. She barely had time to be herself, wanting to become an idol. She was killed by being run over by a car on her way to university. She arrived in Heaven and thought she might be able to experiment with new things and find her new potential. However, things were too strict for her (but that was secretly a lie she told most). It felt like being alive with her helicopter parents again. Adam and his behavior didn't help the situation. She had enough and ran away from Heaven and ended up in Hell. Arriving in Pentagram City, she saw there were no restrictions. She found her new home at last. She did a makeover on her look. From innocent girl (left pic) to punk idol (right pic). She still has her wings, but they are black, and she hides them.

((To find out the REAL reason why she left, interact with her more.))

Likes: metal/rock/punk music, anime, lollipops (loves strawberry and cherry a lot), pocky, haunted places, chocolate

Dislikes: abusive jerks, Adam (because of him spilling the beans), too many rules (some are okay, but too many is way too much for her), Valentino (he would not stop flirting with her!)

Extra facts:

She speaks Japanese well. She made songs in Japanese. She loves anime.

When it comes to alcohol, Echo loves trying out new ones: sweet, hard, anything as long as she gets to be drunk later.

She is awed at the rumors of the radio tower, said to contain screaming souls. She's not really scared. She admires it.

Da Rules~

More information about oc stuff

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Make It Stop: Veterans Affairs Medical Breach 🥴

"An estimated dozen or more employees had taken a peek at the sensitive medical files, causing an internal investigation into whether they violated federal health privacy laws, according to the Washington Post."

"Additionally, officials at the VA notified the Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance campaigns about the breach, which entailed a contractor and a physician who are alleged to have reviewed those files for an extended period of time, according to the official report."

The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act makes it illegal to get unauthorized access to an individual’s personal health data. Violations of HIPAA can actually result in up to a year in prison and fines up to $50,000. 

Meanwhile, there are almost 400,000 individuals who operate in the VA medical system which supports over nine million veterans across the U.S.

OAN Staff James Meyers Monday, September 30, 2024

Multiple reports suggest that at least 12 Department of Veterans Affairs employees are reportedly accused of improperly looking at Vice Presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz’s medical records in July and August. 

“We reported to law enforcement allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed Veteran records. We take the privacy of the Veterans we serve very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes told the New York Post.

“Any attempt to improperly access Veteran records by VA personnel is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Additionally, Walz and Vance became the first pair of dueling military veterans running for vice president since 1996 when Republican Jack Kemp and Democrat Al Gore squared off. 

Vance had served in the U.S Marine Corps between 2003 and 2007, while Walz spent almost 24 years in the National Guard before retiring to prepare for a congressional run in the 2006 cycle. 

Walz has been called out by at least fifty Republican members of Congress, who claimed the Minnesota Democrat lied about his military record, including leaving the National Guard in 2006 before his artillery battalion was set to deploy to Iraq. He instead chose to pursue a career in politics.

Authorities uncovered the illegal activity last month during a routine review of the department’s high-profile accounts. 

However, it’s not clear whether the perpetrators shared data from those medical records with any outside groups. 

The report also stated that the people involved did not have access to disability compensation records, per the report. 

“We reported to law enforcement allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed Veteran records,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement to Fox News Digital, regarding the report. “We take the privacy of the Veterans we serve very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records. Any attempt to improperly access Veteran records by VA personnel is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.” 

[12am-motivation]

Hiya Mo~

A friend got me playing the Ikemen games again (Attention span is to blame at first lol) And I love this characters!!

I just finished Harrison's Route (Romantic) and I'm just saving up for the next route I'll do which is Alfons.

With Ikemen, I finished Gilbert with Dramatic and doing Silvio's (Planning to do his romantic). While one of my friends is doing Luke's Route, and because of that... I fell hard for Luke lol.

No joke, these games are so fun to read and the angst T^T

I hope you are doing well and hope we get to chat again ^3^

Tia!! It's so great to chat with you again~ Thank you for the ask! ^^

Sorry to disappoint you but playing IkeVil since about a week ago is actually the first time I've gotten into the Ikemen series 😭

I was looking for some new otome games to play (particularly this one anti-otoge that hasn't gotten an English release yet) then I remembered that one of my favorite seiyuus plays someone from IkeVil

Like wow these two are played by the same VA— the gap moe is real

Liam: I just thought that your mouth looked sexy when you're eating.

Kanata: do you like me, "frog"...? ( ´ ▽ ` )

Yeah so for the first 3 routes, I was interested to get into either Liam's or Harrison's story and of course, the bias got to me (plus the CW in Liam's profile was intriguing)

Not even 10 chapters in and I was absolutely HOOKED; I just wanna give him a hug :(

Have fun with Alfons' route when you get there~ I'm also really curious on how Jude's route is gonna go considering his Curse and his demeanor 😭

As for IkePri, I did look it up out of curiosity but I'm not sure what to think of it yet 🤔 I might get into it some other time? Luke seems like an interesting dude lol

There are so many LIs and I'll take my time trying to get to know all of them 😵‍💫