#she just got a bit too into playing what's the time mr wolf-

[smallestgalaxylemon]

MILGRAM • Deep Cover

[yeta-drewit]

Wednesday teacher au.

Ive been watching too much Abbot Elementary and I’m obsessed with Wednesday so we are combining it.

Idea- Wednesday is new English teacher at Nevermore after getting kicked out of her last school. During her first months of teaching some of the students disappeared so she decides to solve the mystery behind their disappearances. With the help of Enid her neighbor and colleague, Wednesday would play detective while trying to keep her job and uncovering the history of Jericho and Nevermore.

Wednesday

-English teacher

-Still an author just that she saw that there was a growing number of illiterate people in America so she decided to partake in the “horrible education of the English language”. It’s her first year at Nevermore after she attacked a fellow teacher in her last school. Morticia and Gomez got her the job with Weems.

-Both Enid and Wednesday are dorm mothers of Ophelia hall, in this universe Ophelia hall is the biggest dorm so it’s divided between West and East Ophelia. Enid is the West Ophelia dorm mom and Wednesday is the East Ophelia dorm mom. They live in the dorms, their rooms are right next to each other.

Enid

-yearbook teacher and social studies.

-Has a degree in politics and sociology. She is a government teacher with a little bit of culture and history of outcast sprinkle in there, she also does the yearbook (this mirroring her gossip blog). This is her 2 year, she used to work in California but she left after she refused an arranged marriage to a pack member. She left her pack after something inside her telling her she is needed somewhere with other people, other packs. (I’m basically making her wolf tell her she needs to be gay somewhere else where Wednesday is)

Bianca

-PE teacher, coach for fencing and swimming.

-She does a lot of sport classes like fencing and swimming, etc. she also coaches the fencing and swimming teams. This is her 3rd year too. She has won best teacher of the year for all the 3 years so she is the most popular and loved teacher, one would say the queen bee of the teachers. She wants to become the future principal of Nevermore. She is also a dorm mom.

-Wednesday and Bianca have fake beef because both of them want to become the future principal, so they constantly fight over who is better.

Yoko

-History

-She got bored being a student at Nevermore so she went to college and became a history teacher just to yap about her gossip from different decades. It’s her 3rd year working there. She is married to Divina, they fell in love their first year teaching and pretty much u-hauled that relationship, like the good lesbians they are.

Xavier

-art teacher

-Hates being a teacher, but it gives him a steady income while he pursuits art. Just like in the show he and Bianca dated, they started dating their first year of working there but broke it off during the summer before the 3rd year.

Tyler

-Normie and outcast relationships

-I felt it would be ironic he is a bigoted racist killer who happens to teach about the history and culture between Normies and Outcasts.

Eugene

-Animal teacher

-He teaches about mythological animals as well as normal animals, from history to anatomy of them. He is obsessed with werewolves and does try to hit on Enid. This is his first year teaching. He is the club advisor of the bee keeping club.

Ajax

-Health teacher

-Did some hard drugs in college and decided he would instead teach kids not to do drugs or anything bad he did. He did not give up on weed so he goes to work high sometimes, most of the time, he is surprisingly good at convincing kids not to do drugs though. They call him Mr D for dude.

Divina

-Biology teacher

-Married to Yoko. Idk what else.

Kent

-Custodian

-He just works there.

[quill-pen]

I know we’ve talked a bit, but … (chin in hands) do Wolfy or Emm have and secret little fantasies their wives have to kind of work to get out of them? They can be sensual or even wholesome (like for dates, courting, etc.)

Ooh, excellent question, and I would have to say, yes. Yes they do. Emmrich's is more spicy, Wolf's is more wholesome.

We've already mentioned Em liking the whole "professor play" thing, but that was/is his secret fantasy, professor and student roleplay. Guinevere does have to work to get it out of him, maybe get him a little drunk. He's kind of ashamed of it until she comes along. He's a professional. He's not supposed to look at/think of students like that (and he absolutely does not--never has), but even the idea of roleplaying that with someone... what does that say about him?

"It says you've got a streak of naughty in you, my dear professor. A pinch of forbidden dirt--a little badness. The wicked in me likes that quite a bit."

The evening G'iney shows up in his campus office in a slutty little school-girl uniform is when he both knows there's no turning back and that he's perfectly safe to indulge with her.

Wolf, however.... We've talked at length about how he was treated by past girlfriends. Used, teased, bullied because he wasn't "bad enough", "macho enough", "too needy", "too sensitive". This man, secretly, just wants to be spoiled, cared for, babied. Not all the time, and not in the way that he needs a mommy-wife to clean up after him, cook, tell him what/how to do, etc. But in a way that he can come home from a hard day and just have someone to curl up with, maybe lay his head in her lap, and vent his emotions to without judgement. Someone to hold him at night when he has a bad dream instead of rolling over with exasperation to leave him to calm himself and try to go back to sleep on his own.

But he's the tough guy, the "bad boy", Mr. Chip-on-his-shoulder. He's supposed to be unflappable and not need such tenderness. He's supposed to give the tenderness. After all, it's the man's job to always be the giver, right? So he's been told. His father was never a giver, and he certainly doesn't want to be his father.

Until Bess. Who is happy to both validate his giving roll and cater to the side of him that longs to be a receiver. The hurt little girl inside of her recognizes the hurt little boy inside of him. They'll help heal each other together.

It takes him a while to be comfortable and safe enough to tell her. But the kicker is, when he does, Bess already, mostly, knows. And when he thinks back over the entire time they've known each other... she's been taking care of and spoiling him since the beginning. And she hasn't mocked him once.

[willfrominternet]

Been a while since I posted here but I got a ping about this post where I talked about what I expected from Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor and their adventures with Ruby Sunday. After watching the season, I think I was right in saying the Doctor should be fun and their adventures should be fun.

This was, by all measures, a season which hearkened back to the first years of the Modern Era. It felt like watching Chris Eccleston and Billie Piper all over again. Both Chris and Ncuti played Doctors coming from great trauma and wanting to escape it, even if they did it in different ways (with Nine having to learn to rediscover love and Fifteen openly embracing it.) Both of them also had to face trauma at the end of their first season (in Chris's case, his only season): Nine dealt with the return of the Daleks, nearly losing Rose, and having to sacrifice himself just as he was starting to recover, while Fifteen had to cope with how death followed them everywhere, regardless of their longing for peace, positivity, and fun.

Ruby was very much just a normal girl like Rose, and I think her unexplained magic abilities don't take away from that. Rose also underwent a transformation in her second (and final) season, where she got locked in an alternate timeline and (sort of) became the Bad Wolf. I believe we'll therefore learn more about Ruby's abilities and see her character transform in her second season, as well as learn about Mrs. Flood and how she plays into the Doctor's timeline. (Early thoughts: River, another child of Amy and Rory, the Rani, another pre-Hartnell Doctor, a future Doctor, etc. etc. etc.)

Anyway: This season was definitely fun, but brought back the philosophical and historical bits which originally made Doctor Who at least somewhat educational and thought-provoking. I think this was what was missing from Moffatt's and Chibnall's runs on the show: It became more centered around the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey lore and less around tying the history/sci-fi to current issues. (The Capaldi era actually did this somewhat well, but I'm biased because I love Capaldi.) Here's the ranking of episodes from best to okay:

Rogue

Dot and Bubble

73 Yards

Boom

The Devil's Chord

Space Babies

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death

This first season did, in my opinion, feel too much like a taste of Doctor Who, or a "Season 1A." Series 7 was like this too, where we had so much left unresolved and underdeveloped after those first five episodes. (Not that the rest of Series 7 was much better, IMHO.) At least this first season for Ncuti felt a little more full, but now I'm even more excited to see what happens to the Doctor, Ruby, and whoever Varada Sethu will play in the next season. Perhaps that was the twist all along. Damn you, Russell! Damn you, Disney Plus!

Was this the finest season of the new incarnation of the show? No, but I would certainly give it a solid B. The writing was quite good, the acting was phenomenal, and the general vibe of the show definitely gave the impression that Doctor Who was back, baby. But the development did feel a bit rushed, and there were certain parts of the Doctor's character left over from previous incarnations which I thought they would have processed differently. Plus, I view other seasons of the show (Series 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10) more favorably. Call it bias, call it favoritism, call it nostalgia.

Whatever. Point is that Ncuti and Millie had a lot to prove in this semi-reboot of the show, and RTD had to show he still had his stuff, and by golly, they did it. I - as well as plenty of other long-time fans - haven't been this excited about the show in a while, despite how the season ended. And you're telling us we've gotta wait now for Christmas and then some time in the middle of 2025 for more? It's like I'm a high school fanatic raving mad in the middle of my bedroom again. What a wild feeling.

[liauditore]

Heya! If you feel like it, you had mentioned in the Gem Scott and Etho minor plot doodles post that people could ask about some characters from your traffic x arcane au, so...

I request a small blurb (or however much you feel like talking about) for 1-3 of the following characters' roles in/from your au:

Skizz, Ren, Cleo, Pearl, any one of the non-lifer hermits.

This can totally come after Joel (or not at all), but figured I'd prompt! It seems like a fun au, and its fun to look at au characters and why they are the way they are.

yessss of course!!

two other ppl asked about pearl right after I posted that so I'll be drawing her next and skipping out on talking about her for now. I think I ended up making her role a little too packed in my head anyway so it might be good for me to think a bit more before I commit to anything.

I have no idea how to content warning this so. The usual arcane themes (gang violence, sex work, drug use, etc) under the cut.

Skizz is an enforcer, inspired by the poe poe thing on Hermitcraft right now lol. He's his usual lovable oaf self, very much the local "Mr Policeman" all the Piltie kids think is fun and cool. However he is still an enforcer and from time to time will do scary stuff, like share work stories where he's injured and killed civilians and laugh the whole way through. Despite his reputation as a meat-head, he's got quite a few friends in academia, including this AU's Tango and Impulse. I imagine that if this was a fic/show we'd see him the most from Jimmy's POV, since this AU's Jimmy is a Zaunite academy student and that would make him and Skizz's relationship. Nuanced, I think, is the word to use.

Ren I'll be honest I initially thought about as a joke but it stuck. He's a failed proto-Warwick who got the wolf features and super strength and so on but is also just some guy. Most people just assume he's Vastayan. He has no memories of his life pre-experimentation but he's also pretty happy with where he is, since he gets a ticket to topside via working for Cleo.

Cleo is the topsider referenced in Scott's post. When she was young, Cleo tried to help a revolutionary group of Zaunites, which lead to the deaths of many Piltovans including her family. Driven by a desperate need to right what she's done, Cleo becomes a councilor with a desire to improve people's lives her way this time. She makes frequent trips down to Zaun and it's on one of these trips when she meets a young Scott, who she sees herself in. Scott's betrayal of his group of friends was very much his own doing, but Cleo definitely made him more comfortable doing it and afterwards provided him with the resources necessary to become a chem-baron. Through him, she believes she's earned some control over Zaun and she wholeheartedly believes Scott's leadership will lead to a better future.

As for the non-lifer hermits, there are a few I've thought about!

Beef is a pretty well-established chem-baron who runs casinos in both Zaun and Piltover. He's originally from Noxus and met Etho during the Noxian-Ionian invasion, despite the rough start the two have since become friends and he's the reason Etho ends up in Zaun in this AU at all. He claims he's retired from his days of battle, but those who have crossed him know he still packs a punch.

Zedaph isn't exactly a chem-baron but a Zaunite menace regardless. Known for his love of puzzles and messing with chemicals other people are too scared to look in the direction of, he plays a similar role to Singed when it comes with supplying Shimmer and gadgets to anyone who pays him enough for it. Despite his shady past (and present) he ends up endearing himself to Impulse, Tango and Skizz and ends up being more or less adopted into their group.

Doc is very similar to Viktor in the pre-Arcane lore. The children of Zaun tell scary stories about him and the bunker he lives in, daring eachother to go in as tests of courage. Doc himself isn't exactly the dangerous sort, though, just very grumpy and dramatic. He has a passion for all things technology and spends the majority of his days making synthetic limbs, weapons and other gadgetry. He hates the chem-barons and their goons can pry his tech from his cold, dead hands if they want a piece. Luckily for Doc, his reputation and Vastayan appearance frighten potential extortioners away.

False is pretty much just ESMP False. The sisters' father was a Piltovan merchant, their mother a Zaunite prostitute. The older False ("our" False, technically), is a retired enforcer now taken over her father's business. She campaigns for peace between the cities, but also further militarization of Piltover in response to increasingly violent attempts at revolution by Zaun and potentially hostile forces like Noxus. The younger False (ESMP False) spends her days stealing her twin sister's identity for various nefarious purposes -- many of which involve her job as a hitman, one of the few in Zaun that can get close to Pilties others can't lay a finger on. The sisters are estranged and the older False denies the younger's mere existence, in fears it would destroy her life if people found out. Both are good friends with Ren and he hasn't figured out that they're two different people yet.

Skizz and Cleo I will definitely explore more in the future, the rest are more or less world building and side plots.

[gryfflepuffinthetardis]

The Fox

Season One Masterlist

Machismo

Natural Born Killer

Summary: There is an unsub killing families of a mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter in Maryland and Virginia who were thought to be on vacation before being found dead in their homes.

Warning: References to the death of children; Talk of unchild-like behavior; Mention of Emily Prentiss; Reference to Season Twelve Arc, Zoe being kind of mean to Garcia

"You will catch the fox with cunning and the wolf with courage." — Albanian Proverb

Doctor Thomas Fuller wrote, "With foxes, we must play the fox."

Jack Hotchner (even though Hotch had stated he didn’t want his son to have the same name as a serial killer but chose the name of one of the most infamous) was born October nineteenth, 2005, exactly nineteen days ago, the first (known) child of the BAU since Zoe and his birth had been far less scary than her own, twenty years ago. He was finally meeting his BAU family. He seemed to be so sleepy as Hotch held him.

"He's so gorgeous." Zoe said, showing a whole new side to her.

“Thank you.” Haley said, beaming with pride.

“If you find baldness and wrinkles attractive.” Spencer said.

“Look at his little witty bitty nose.” Garcia cooed.

“He is so cute. Cuter than I ever was.” Zoe said.

“Zoe, you were a cute little baby.” Alexander scolded his youngest.

“No. Zarah was the cute baby. I was the baby that everyone was concerned about and the stillborn.” Zoe deadpanned.

“Briefly! They resusitated you! Before I had a heart attack at twenty-one. And I mean, yeah, you said your first word at six months old and by nine months, you could speak full sentences. And by three years old, I found out Rossi let you interview Ted Bundy.” Alexander had to agree that Zoe did cause quite a bit of worrying with her unchildish-like behavior and fascination with true crime and serial killers.

“Well, he was being executed in January.” Zoe deadpanned like she didn't see what was wrong with that.

Garcia changed the subject as Morgan approached and JJ looked at Zoe, incredulously, “Don’t you want one of these.”

“Mm. I’ll just stick to practicing.” Morgan snarked.

"Zoe?"

Zoe looked at Garcia with an initially incredulous look that slowly formed into a deadpan look which usually meant Garcia was being unintentionally insensitive. In this case, the man who killed her mother got off on killing both pregnant women and their unborn fetuses

Elle came over and said, "Congratulations.

"Thanks. She's amazing. I'm a little terrified." Hotch said.

"Rightly so." Zoe said, obliviously, adjusting the

"Zoe." Alexander scolded his youngest.

"What?" She asked, still oblivious. "Shush! He'll get cold! Speaking of cold, colds in newborns are not usually serious but it can develop into more dangerous conditions if left untreated. A fever of 100.4 or higher under three months is considered an emergency and should go to the hospital. And babies can suffocate in unsafe sleeping positions, the safest sleeping position until age one in on their backs, this can refuse the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome by up to forty-five times and gravity makes it harder for spit up to enter their airways, which can prevent choking. And infants have a higher percentage of body water than adults and since they can't communicate their thirst, they're espeically suspceptible to dehydration.

Spencer nodded in approval, not realizing how horrified they were making everyone else. Haley looked espcially horrified.

"Are you trying to give us both heart attacks now?" Hotch deadpanned.

"Maybe." She said. "Ever heard of paternity leave?"

"Zoe."

"What? I was last BAU child, and I was a disaster." Zoe said.

"You'll be fine, Haley." Alexander reassured her. "I raised two girls who were too smart than any baby should be that their age."

"We should get going." Haley said, seeing Elle had cases in her hands.

"A pleasure seeing you, Mrs Hotchner." Spencer said, formally.

Haley put baby Jack back in the stroller and rolled him into into the elevator.

"Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?" Hotch asked Zoe.

"What?" She asked, incrediously.

Elle handed out the files with a heavy sigh.

"Bad?" Hotch asked.

"The worst." Elle said.

They arrived to the briefing room where Gideon had put up the photos of the crime scene and victims on the board. "Crawford family. Murdered three days ago."

"I saw it on the news." Morgan said, entering.

"They were found in the basement of their house." Gideon said.

"Bags packed for a vacation they never took." JJ added.

"Reporter said it was a murder-suicide? The father stabbed them all and then shot himself?"

"That's the conclusion Maryland State Police came to. The gun was found next to the father, he had gunpowder residue on his right hand."

"That's usual. Two different weapons in a murder-suicide." Zoe noted, frowning. She personally knew a person or two connected to a murder-suicide... or attempted one.

"And now you must have some compelling reason to think that Chris Crawford didn't off his family?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah. Another murdered family, the Millers, found a month ago." JJ said and put down a photo of a family. "The mother, Reese Miller, her two children and her new husband. Again, they were found in the basement, and like the Crawfords, their suitcases were packed for a vacation."

"Both cases, the bodies were discovered five days after their vacations were supposed to have started." Gideon said.

"Yet the coroner determined that they had been dead only twenty-four hours." JJ added.

"So, for four days both families remained in the house." Spencer noted.

"Location of the bodies in both cases, the basement. That indicates a level of organization." Gideon said.

"With a quick but disorganized application of overpowering force." Morgan added.

"If these aren't murder-suicides, someone's doing a damn good job of making them look like it." Spencer said.

"Possibly this man, Eric Miller." JJ said, holding up a mugshot photo of a man. "Biological father of the Miller children. Arlington PD issued a BOLO for Miller after the bodies were discovered."

"Ex-wife Reese Miller had a restraining order against him for domestic violence." Gideon said.

"When did she get remarried?" Morgan asked.

"The week before they were killed." JJ said.

Morgan sighed and said, "Violent husbands believe their wives and children are property. Reese Miller getting remarried possibly made him snap."

"I don't know." Zoe muttered, her instincts told her it was just too easy.

"Well, the Virginia cops finally located Eric Miller last night responding to a drunken disturbance at a motel, where Miller had been hiding out." JJ said. When they found him, they discovered blood on his black leather jacket. It belonged to his children."

"Was any of his DNA found at the Crawford house?" Morgan said.

"No." Gideon said.

"Did he know the Crawfords?" Morgan asked.

"If he does, he's not saying. In fact, he hasn't said a word since his arrest." JJ said. Spencer picked up the suspect's photo and raised his eyebrows in surprise at the look of the thuggish-looking man. "The Arlington PD have asked us to interview him."

"Oof,  if anyone could apply overwhelming force, he's your man." Spencer commented.

"I want you and Zoe to find out. Talk to him." Gideon said,

"You-you want us to, uh, talk to him?" Spencer stuttered.

"Yeah, you've both done interviews before with other agents running point. You can do it together." Gideon said.

"Yeah, the last time, I was up close and personal with a criminal, he kicked my ribs in while saying some very inapporate words in Russian. This should be fun." Zoe deadpanned, causally.

"You interviewed multiple serial killers and cult leaders since you were three." Alexander deadpanned. "You spoke to Ed Kemper multiple times that you had such a rapor that he often complimented your intellect."

"And bombers and arsonists and kidnappers and terrorists. What's your point?" Zoe said with a defensive tone at the mention of the example.

"Did she just say terrorists?"

"Well, it wasn't so much an interview as them punching me and shouting at their professional torturers." Zoe said, again with that casualness.

—————————————————————————————

Spencer awkwardly fumbled with the door handle as Zoe watched before he finally opened it.

"You know, a door." She snarked.

He gave her a look before turning back to Eric Miller.

"I'm Doctor Spencer Reid and this is Doctor Zoe Noble-Valdez. We're from the FBI." He said as he opened the door for Zoe and closed it behind her.

"We'd like to ask a few questions, if you don't mind." Zoe said with a polite smile.

"You two got something you wanna ask me?" Eric spoke in a gravelly voice, "you look me in the eye, and you ask."

Zoe sat down as Spencer took his bag off and followed suit, sitting next to Zoe.

Spencer cleared his throat and looked through the file, "Three days ago..."

"You're not looking at me." Eric said.

Spencer looked him in the eye, still anxious and spoke, "Three days ago, the Crawford family was murdered."

"Is that right?" Eric said, passively.

"Did you know them?" 

"What are you getting at?" Eric asked in a soft voice that Zoe recognized not only from that of roughened criminals but of her own. The kind that foreshadowed a danger in them. The want to be intimidating to survive.

Spencer opened the file and took out a photo of one of the Crawford family's bloodied hand from the morgue, peeking under the sheet.

"They were killed in the exact same way that your family was killed."

"And?" Eric asked, "I've been slapped around all night by every cop in Virginia. What makes you think a damn photo is gonna scare me?" 

Zoe noticed he was cynical that they would actually get anything done. And as she knew from his profile, he had a long history of violence that stemmed from his childhood of near constant abuse, added in that he was an African-American in Virginia where at best he was two times more likely to be pulled over just for driving and his ex-wife, her new husband, and his children were found dead and he had their blood on him. From the look at it, his injuries weren’t just from the brawl but agitated police too.

Spencer looked down thinking and Eric hit the table abruptly with his handcuffed hands, making Spencer flinch. Zoe, however, didn't react at all, she just looked at him with the same professional, near apathy, she almost always had. "Is that what this is about, hmm?" He was getting angry.

Zoe didn't see sociopathy in him though, she saw hurt only caused by the heartache of a parental figure. She remembered that look from her childhood when Alexander would talk about Zelena. She remembered that look during the amount of the investigation for her sister after she had come back in her dad's eyes. The look in her dad's eyes when they told him that the kidnapping of Zarah Noble-Valdez had been marked a cold case. And every day since. The grief of a father.

Zoe briefly glanced down at Eric's handcuffs hands. They were brusied from throwing punches and... he was still wearing his wedding ring.

"You think I'm crazy? You think I suddenly snapped and I slaughtered my own wife and kids?" His voice broke with rage and mourning and exasperation. "You think I did this? Huh?" He slammed his fists back onto the table, making Spencer flinch again, albeit less violently as Eric furiously stood up. "IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK!?"

The guards restrained him as he stood up, making Spencer stand up, more out of fear of being attacked as his professional facade cracked as Zoe remained as calm as ever, staring up at Eric with no fear, showing more how that prison had traumatized her than at first glance. She had learned not to flinch long since before that, now it wasn't even an instinct to flinch.

Then Hotch, Elle, and Alexander came in, "Mister Miller, sit down now."

"IS THIS YOUR DADDY!" Eric shouted.

"Actually, I'm her's." Alexander said, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder. “Agent Alexander Noble. Don’t you dare yell at my daughter.”

"I'M DONE TALKING TO YOU PEOPLE!" He shouted.

Zoe finally spoke, speaking as calmly as she usually did, a stark contrast to Eric's emotional screams just a moment ago, "We don't think you're crazy. We work with the Behavior Analysis Unit, we're trained to study the neurological reasonings of criminals. We are psychological profilers." Zoe nodded at Spencer, "Doctor Reid, here, is extremely socially awkward... like there's socially awkward and then several levels up there's Doctor Spencer Reid."

"Zoe." Spencer hissed.

She looked at him and nodded at Eric like, do your thing, superbrain.

"You don't have to talk. Just listen.” Spencer said, “on the—on the occasions you assaulted your wife, you were intoxicated, once the effects of alcohol wore off, you were overcome by feelings of remorse.”

“Which indicates that it’s less of what you truly wanted and more of habitual tendencies you picked up as a child.” Zoe added.

“I’m gonna tell you this just one time, you two shut your mouths!” Eric shouted at them.

“Genetic factors contribute to alcohol stress interactions. Your-your mother was an alcoholic, and she was often too drunk to stop the beatings that your father gave you."

"I think we should stop this." Elle suggested.

"They're not finished." Hotch said.

"They know what they're doing." Alexander said.

"Age six, you were orphaned to a family where the abuse continued, only..." He faltered slightly before continuing, "this time it was sexual."

"None of this was your fault but they made you feel like it was and like you were crazy if you even considered otherwise." Zoe said.

"You both shut your mouths or I'm gonna rip your faces off!" He snapped.

Alexander tensed, giving him a glare at the threat against his "surviving" daughter.

"The abuse continued well into puberty..."

"You became an angry young man, history of violence, drugs, and drinking." Zoe added.

"But my..." He glanced at Zoe, "but our one concern is, Eric, did you or did you not continue the cycle with your own children?"

Eric who had been on the verge of tears this entire time, seemed to be on the verge of breaking down now as he looked at Spencer as if the thought both horrified him but had been one he thought about much too often.

"I never laid a hand on my children. YOU HEAR ME!?"

Spencer nodded and said softly, "I hear you."

"You can't imagine what I saw." He still wasn't opening up. "You can read what I've been through but you can't understand the pain."

They were almost there, Zoe could see it. They just needed one more push. If there was one thing she understood more than criminals or mental health, it was pain caused by trauma and the darkness it inflicts upon someone.

Zoe took a deep breath and leaned forwards, placing her intertwined hands on the table. She spoke calmly but her words were filled with horror and trauma. "My twin sister was born in a hospital three days before me because a deranged madman, that my parents were chasing down, threatened to kill my newborn twin sister, forcing my dad to flee with her, and he kidnapped my mom while she was still in labor with me. He tortured her for days while she was still in labor and then he killed her, just because he could. Because he knew she would put her unborn child with no life above hers. He got off on that kind of thing. Killing pregnant women, letting their fetuses slowly die inside them. My dad found her barely alive with multiple axe wounds to the chest and I had to be delivered via emergency C-section before I died in her womb. Fifteen years later, my dad was a highly esteemed FBI agent and an UnSub who had become obsessed with me kidnapped both me and my sister and put us in different locations. So we would cooperate, becuase he knew we were smart enough to fight back but if the other was on the line, we wouldn't. We'd take whatever he did for the other. I certainly did. He killed people in front of me, he tried to brainwash me, he tried to break me. I managed escape after nearly a year but my sister hasn't been seen since. Every time I look in the mirror because I am nearly identical to her. I see my reflection and all I see is the fact that she's out there and all I have to keep me going is my twintuition that she's still alive which doesn’t exactly appeal to those who aren’t twins or the cold case intuitive or the police, still bound, still gagged, still tortured, waiting to be saved despite being marked a cold case two years ago, and I'm trying to get justice for other families before they end up like my sister, like your wife and kids, to appease my guilt of being the 'lucky' twin. I do know trauma, sir. I do know pain and darkness and heartache. I have been pushed to the brink by murderers and rapists and arsonists and professional torturers. I have been cut, stabbed, burned, starved, drugged, psychologically tortured, physically tortured, and beaten within an inch of my life. I have had every charge of assault committed onto me more times than you dare to believe because of nothing but sheer sadistic enjoyment, they weren't compelled to do it because of a mental illness, they were just sick in the head and misogynistic. I am trauma. I am pain. I am darkness. But most relevantly, I am not like most cops, I don't assume because you're a scary black man with a bad past of abuse and violence that you committed the crime, or that you're about to, while it's not great you were found with the blood on your jacket, you may still be innocent. I know people that are living proof of breaking the cycle of child abuse." Hotch and Alexander. "I just need to hear your side of the story. Your word may allow us to get justice for your children and while we cannot bring them back, we can stop any more children from dying.”

It was silent as everyone but Alexander looked at Zoe in horror and shock at her words as she stared down Eric with intense eye contact that said as much as her words did.

She had sympathy and remorse in her eyes but she kept her facial features calm and professional. Eric could see it. The darkness that infects someone's soul when someone is mercilessly cruel to them even though they had done nothing to deserve that. The darkness that corrupted an innocent life. The pain that remains. The scars that remain on someone's soul long after the physical wounds heal and the physical scars fade. Yet there was light. It was like light shining through cracked glass but it was there because she resolved to remain a good person who was pure at heart but remained a warrior on the outside to keep from getting hurt again.

"I found them like that." He confessed, he dropped his head down as he finally allowed his tears to fall, "Dead. Bloodied." He looked up as his voice broke, "My babies. My sweet, little babies." The guards let him sit back down, "I-I was crazy out of my mind. I didn't know what to do. And I knew the cops were gonna blame me, and they have."

Alexander was behind his daughter again, pulling her into his chest as a hug, holding on tightly to his last baby as if fearful someone would rip her out of his grip.

"So you ran?" Spencer asked.

“Of course he did, his wife had a new husband and the kids had a new father, he had a history of violence including assaulting his wife while intoxicated, they were divorced, he had their blood on his jacket, he has a history of violence before he even met her and he’s an African-American, he's three-point-five times more likely to experience police brutality than white people. Even if the evidence hadn't been stacked against him, he'd be the first one they'd suspect. It's his natural instinct to run from the police even if he didn't do anything wrong. That's why they never caught the Zodiac Killer. They drove past him, assuming that the Zodiac was a black man."

"So what have I got now?"

"You have your innocence. For the sake of your children. I believe that they, at the very least, deserve the truth." Spencer said and he closed the file.

"I can't get the image of my dead children out of my mind." Eric said as Alexander's grip tightened around the only daughter he had left, "Ty, my little boy, he was clutching a-a piece of paper. I think it was a drawing. May-maybe a painting. Please, I'd love to know what he painted, Doctor Reid, Agent Noble-Valdez."

Zoe nodded and followed Spencer out of the interrogation room, walking quickly past him, trying to swallow the emotion she had been holding back down until she nearly walked into a wall, catching sight of herself in the mirror. Of the image of her sister.

Spencer, Hotch, Alexander, and Elle caught up with her, her father pulling her along to walk with them.

"Interesting interrogation techniques." Elle told the young geniuses, "What did you two hope to accomplish?"

"Well, he was closed off, defensive, hostile." Spencer explained. "I needed a way in."

"And you?" Elle asked Zoe.

"He didn't believe we understood his pain, only that we knew of it. He's right, we can't understand his pain, we can only understand our own. He needed to hear my pain. My past. My trauma. He needed to see that I understood pain, that I sympathized with his pain by explaining my pain to him so he could sympathize with me. He needed another broken soul of abuse, trauma, and assault to empathize with him."

"He's suffered a breakdown, but I don't think he killed his family and I know he still loved his wife." Spencer continued as Zoe refused to look at them.

"Why do you say that?" Hotch asked.

"Even though, they were divorced, he still wore the wedding ring." Spencer said.

"And he never said 'ex-wife', he said 'wife'."  Zoe added, "And the murders were meticulous and organized depsite the disorganized force.  That is due to some aftermath to a  delusional, possibly. That man has no delusions. He's been the jail, he's hurt, he's broken, he's a cynic. A realistic cynic. Like I said, police will naturally blame him, he's a black criminal with a history of violence. Any crime he's committed are disorganized and violent in the moment. But he's not broken enough to kill his kids."

—————————————————————————————

Spencer, Alexander, Elle, Morgan and Zoe sat back in the office, staring at the whiteboard with the crime scene photos on it as Gideon stood in front of it, staring at them.

"I believe the UnSub had control over this family. He may have separated each family member. He tells the mother, 'If you scream, I'll kill your children'. He tells the children, 'If you cry, I'll kill Mommy'. The suspect found a way of restraining them without leaving marks." Gideon said, turning back to the team.

"Based on lividity, the ME estimates that the father was the last to die."

"Which means he witnessed the whole event." Alexander said with a heavy sigh, he reached over and stroked his youngest daughter's hair. He wasn't sure he could take that.

"If he did spend time with both families, he must have known he had the time to spend with them." Morgan said.

"Because he knew they were going on vacation." Spencer added.

"Look at travel agents, relatives, work colleagues, contract workers, children's tutors." Gideon said.

The speaker phone beeped and Hotch's voice spoke through it, "Gideon, we've been looking into the Crawford financials."

"Allison Crawford spent way more money than Chris could afford." Garcia said, "They were in major debt."

"And Chris Crawford wrote a number of cheques for a series of visits to a therapist." Hotch added.

"She had two cell phone accounts. One of them billed to a separate address in Southeast Washington, D.C." Garcia said.

"Did you get that?" Hotch asked.

—————————————————————————————

They kicked open the door of the address, very loudly. Hotch and Elle shouted, "Federal Agent" and Morgan shouted "FBI".

The place was a mess but it was familiar. It was familiarly messy. Her mind immediately went to noting a note of neurodivergence. It was the kind of mess her father would create when he would slip from his medication or when the depression would be too much, if he hadn't had Rossi, or Gideon or their significant others, it would be a lot like this.

"It's the cleanest thing in here." Elle said, referring to a blue dog bowl.

Gideon went to a framed drawing on the wall and he took it down.

"What's that?" Elle asked.

"It's a child's painting. It's a colonial house. Mom, dad, two children out front holding hands." Gideon said.

"And a big dog." Zoe noted.

"I think this is the Crawford house, it's signed by Emily.

"Strange." Spencer mused.

"Yeah, Eric Miller said he found his son clutching a painting." Zoe said. "He wanted to know what was on it."

"What was on it?" Elle asked.

"His son's blood." Gideon said.

"Well, I can't tell him that." Zoe said, irritatedly.

There was a sound of nearby clattering and then the sound of presumably Morgan kicking down a door, followed by the barking of a large dog.

"Hey! Hey, don't shoot the dog!" Zoe shouted, running down the hall.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, easy..." A voice said and whistling, calling the dog over.

It was a big man, standing where the shadows covered him.

—————————————————————————————

Zoe say next to Gideon in the interrogation room across from the man they apperhended, Frank Fielding who Zoe deduced had Bipolar disorder.

"Why am I here?" Frank asked.

"I think you know why." Morgan said.

Frank pointed to the drawing, laying on the table, "That's mine.

"The colors indicate a self-confidence with an outgoing personality. It shows an above-average intelligence. The child that painted this was left-handed. Emily Crawford was left-handed." Gideon deduced.

Morgan tossed a paper wad to Frank and Frank instictively caught it with his right hand. "You're not."

"How'd you get the painting, Frank?" Zoe asked and Frank slowly put the paper wad on the table. "Did you forget to take your meds today, Frank? For a severe manic-depressive, that's not good. My dad has it too."

"They make me feel wrong!" Frank protested.

"Wrong enough to kill the Crawfords?" Morgan asked.

Frank looked up and then back down. He seemed... hurt.

"Frank?" Zoe asked.

I-I did a-a bad thing." Frank stuttered.

"What did you do?" Zoe asked.

"I shouldn't have gone to the house. Allison told me not to. I would never, never hurt Allie. She's the only family I've got." Frank said.

"Family?" Morgan asked.

"She's my sister." Frank said, his voice broke as he repeated, "She's dead. She's dead." He was clearly in mourning. "He killed them. Chris did. I know he did it.

"What bad thing did you do?" Zoe asked, gently.

"The rule was, I was never supposed to go to the house. That was the only rule. Allison said if Chris saw me he would never let me see her again. He was gonna lock me up in the loony bin." Frank said. "He never liked me.

"You went to the house."

"She said she couldn't visit me any more. I just wanted to see her. Seeing Allison made everything better. But they cut my phone off that day. The day I went to see them, they cut my phone off!" He started to get angry, "I never would've gone to the house if they hadn't cut off the phone!"

Behind the glass, Alexander said, "Sounds like Zelena's family." Some hadn't liked him very much due to his disorder.

"There's no way this guy could've gotten into the house without a key. Knowing how Chris Crawford felt about his brother-in-law, do you see him having one?" Elle asked.

"No." Hotch said.

"Frank, you went to the house. What did you do?" Gideon asked Frank.

"It was dark and cold. I went around to the side, to look through the window. My breath steamed up the glass and I wiped it clean. And I could see them sitting down for dinner. I saw Emily and Sam... and Sam was crying. I guess he was in trouble."

"Did you see Allison?" Gideon asked.

"Yes. She was saying grace over the table and then... she looked up and saw me and she mouthed something at me. I think it was, 'Get the hell out'. So I left."

"Did Chris see you?" Gideon asked.

"No, he wasn't there, but a friend was at the head of the table." Frank recalled.

"You said, a friend?" Morgan asked.

"I saw someone." Frank nodded.

"What did this person look like?" Morgan asked.

"I didn't see their face, but tiny, really tiny."

"White or black, Frank?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know, but..." Frank said.

"What?" Morgan said, urgently.

"The hair, it-it-it was red." Frank recalled.

It wasn't Chris at the table.

If Frank saw them that day, it wasn't Chris Crawford at the table. She wasn't saying, "Go away." She was saying, "Help me."

Frank seemed to realize this too, "It-it wasn't a friend."

"Frank." Zoe said, gently.

"It wasn't a friend at all. It was him. He's the one who killed them." Guilt overcame Frank at the realization he could've helped.

"Frank."

"I-I-I-I..."

"Frank..." Zoe said, getting up, sensing a meltdown.

"No! No! No!" Frank started to hit himself in the head.

"Frank, stop." Gideon said.

"Frank, Frank." Morgan said.

Quickly, they pushed Frank against the wall and Hotch came in to help.

"No, No! No!"

"Frank!" Zoe grabbed onto Frank's arms, shouting louder than the team had heard before. "FRANK! CALM DOWN! CHILL THE EFF OUT!" She pushed him against the wall, her being the youngest, still really a child, at barely twenty years old, calmed him down slightly, enough to look at her in shock as she spoke loudly on the verge of yelling, saying each word slowly but not in a patronizing way like most people did but so it could sink in and calm him down, "Calm. Down. You hitting yourself in the head is not going to do anything. There was nothing you could've done. You didn't know. We can still catch that bastard and give Allison, and Chris, and Emily and Sam the justice they deserve and keep this bastard from hurting anymore families. He will pay for what he did to your family."

He started to sob, brokenly.

—————————————————————————————

Frank was committed out of fear of further self-harm and possible suicide due to the realization and him not taking his medications.

"Both families had a dog and both houses had a dog door." Morgan said, pointing to the board."

"Fielding said that the person he saw was small.

"Yeah, well, in order to get through that door, you'd have to be five-four, tops and real thin." Zoe said, shrugging but didn't say anymore as that was classified.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Gideon quoted.

"Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character. Whoever did this isn't."

"Sherlock Holmes was based on a real person." Zoe said, "We can be pretty sure he's probably found himself another family by now."

When they left the room, Zoe was holding Emily's picture, looking at it.

"You okay?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, just... I know an Emily." She said.

"Oh."

"Doctor Joseph Bell." Zoe said suddenly.

"What?"

"The person Sherlock Holmes was based on. Gideon read them to me when I was a kid. This guy's no Moriarty." Zoe said. "And isn't that quote just behavioral profiling in a nutshell.

—————————————————————————————

"He's been looking at those pictures all morning." Elle said, referring to Gideon. She looked at Zoe at her desk who was staring at pictures of Emily Crawford's drawings with headphones on, somehow simutaniously lost in thought and fully focused "And so has Zoe."

"Well, I sure hope they see a connection, because I've checked doctors, lawyers, travel agents, tutors, contract workers... I got nothing." Morgan said.

"Why target those families?" Elle asked.

"Well, to know that, we have to know how." Hotch said. "Reid, tell Zoe to pause her audiobook."

"Why do I have to do it?" Spencer frowned.

"Because last time Morgan did it, she nearly broke his wrist." Hotch deadpanned.

Spencer took a piece of Dove chocolate—Zoe had gotten him a giant bag for snacking since he often forgot to eat and threw it at her, it missed by a foot but her hand still shot out and she grabbed it. She looked up and he motioned for her to take her headphones off. She did so.

"All right, we know organised killers are often skilled workers with above-average intelligence." Morgan said, getting up from his chair as Zoe unwrapped the chocolate, "A high birth status, and in most cases, male. In the workplace, he's socially confident. And with women, sexually competent. Every offence is pre-planned. Targeting the victim is almost as pleasurable as the actual kill. These guys, they're meticulous. It's a compulsion. Everything has to have its proper place. They do exhaustive amounts of research on their victims. They watch their every move. Every last detail is observed. Everything has to be written ever so neatly in a book or possibly a journal. Like when the kids are coming home from school, when Daddy will be home. Playtime, suppertime, bath time, bedtime. Plan the work, work the plan. This is the way that he maintains control. It's also how he personalises his target. So, nothing's left to chance and absolutely nothing is left out of place. Ever. So, he plans the work. And when he's good and ready, he works that plan. He takes great pride in his job." He sat back down. "I think the workplace has to be the connection."

Gideon came up to them, holding two pictures of a house they had found one with no color in the Crawford's house and one with color they had found in Frank's possession.

"Both are by Emily. Painted months apart. This one... is full of color, life. The one I found at Emily's house has lines, dimensions. No color. I believe Emily was coerced to make this."

"It's a point of view." Zoe realized, kicking her wheelie chair over to him to take the colorless picture, too lazy to get up. "It's his point of view. It must be where the killer stood and just watched the family."

She gave the picture a rather disturbed look, like she was remembering something unpleasant. She was. So Alexander took it from her, she shook her head and rolled back to her previous spot.

Hotch spun a wedding ring on the table, "each of the dead husbands was missing his wedding ring. This is the UnSub's trophy."

"He targets a family because he lost his own." Alexander realized. "For a few days, he gets to play daddy."

"And he can do whatever he wants because no one's gonna come lookin' because they're supposed to be on vacation." Morgan added.

"Let's get forensics to check the inside of Chris Crawford's clothing. The suspect may have worn the father's clothes to..." Gideon scoffed at the word, "Complete the fantasy."

"But why kill them?" Elle asked.

"'Cause the fantasy can't last." Zoe said, darkly.

"What did you say about Miller having no delusions?" Hotch asked.

Before Zoe could reply, Spencer spoke in automatic monotone 'And the murders were meticulous and organized depsite the disorganized force.  That is due to some aftermath to a  delusional, possibly. That man has no delusions'."

"Zoe, you saw it."

"When the delusion breaks, it can anger them. Make them kill."

"Do we know anything that actually helps us identify this bastard?" Elle asked.

"Wait a minute," Morgan said and looked at a picture of the deceased Crawford family. "Chris Crawford worked for the I.R.S. and Reese Miller was a secretary at the GAO."

"That makes them both government employees."

—————————————————————————————

Zoe and Spencer went to Garcia's lab to assist her.

"We've got to stop meeting like this, Reid. People will talk." Garcia teased. "But then, talk is cheap."

"Yeah, I hear H.R.'s considering another sexual harrassment meeting based off your banter with Morgan alone." Zoe deadpanned.

She pulled up a chair with a big bag of chocolates in her lap.

"Talk's not cheap when you're talking to a therapist. The Crawfords made twelve weekly payments to the Applewood Family Center. What about the Millers?" Spencer asked and took a chocolate that Zoe was offering him.

Garcia brought up the Millers' bank records, "No, nothing here."

"How about pharmaceuticals? No one gets therapy these days without a healthy dose of medication." Spencer said.

"What're you implying, Reid?" Garcia asked.

"That everyone is medicated." Spencer said, blankly.

Garcia just looked over, "Did you just make a joke?"

"No." He said, blankly, "Statistics. They show that..."

"Reid, next time, just say 'yes', okay?" Garcia interrupted.

"Well, he's right before you so rudely interrupted him. After I was kidnapped, Dad tried to make me do children's therapy and but I instead defied everything the therapist said and Gideon's wife suggested PTSD medication."

"You were kidnapped when you were twelve?" Garcia asked, aghast.

"I don't remember any of it. And it's not the time for me to remember it." Zoe said, sharply as if trying to drill that into their brains and she didn't want to talk about it.

"Now, medication normally requires a reimbursement from the HMO and since she works for the government like we do, we share the same health care provider." Garcia said as Zoe took out her phone and started to hack Garcia's computer as ease.

"Are you hacking into the government's HMO database?" Spencer asked. "Is that legal?"

"Of course not. We'll both go to prison and you'll be someone's bitch." Garcia said. Oh, how she will regret that in twelve years. As a certain someone really rubs that in.

"Really?" Spencer asked, blankly.

"Mmm. If that ever happens, I think you'll feel like the bitch yourself. Having been to prison myself, I know you wouldn't last a week, Garcia. That's why you took this job. They don't allow unicorns." Zoe deadpanned and then she slapped Garcia's hands.

"Hey!"

"I'm a medical doctor, Garcia, unlike Mister three-PhDs here. I have access." Zoe said, typing on her phone and it brought up the HMO database on Garcia's computer.

"How'd you do that?"

"I hacked into your computer." Zoe said, blankly.

"When?" Garcia asked, seeming floored.

"Uh, like twenty seconds ago." Zoe said, "You are aware I'm the one who caught you and made the profile when you were a criminal and goth, right?

"No! How'd you do that so easily?"

"I'm a better hacker, I guess. And who do you think was the technical analysis before you? Only you get paid and as I was a child, I was not. I know these computers as well as a UnSub's mind. Look."

Zoe had been controlling the computer remotely and Garcia saw it and chose to let go for the time but to complain about it at length to Morgan later.

"Good call, Reid. Mrs. Reese Miller, Diazepam."

"Who prescribed the meds?" Spencer asked.

"Doctor R. Howard at the Applewood Family Center. Let's find out what he looks like. Here we go." A picture of a woman came up. "Doctor Howard isn't a 'he'."

"Thanks, Garcia." Zoe said, sarcastically.

"Well, how about I hack into your file!" Garcia said, pettily and then attempted to but like with most of the FBI files, they were wiped clean. "What!? How!?"

Zoe patted her on the head and walked out of the office. Spencer watched her walk out.

—————————————————————————————

Hotch, Morgan, Alexander, and Gideon went to Doctor Howard's place of work and learned the the UnSub's name was Karl Arnold.

"Of course." Zoe sighed.

"What?" Spencer asked.

"He was the child therapist I went to. He had me draw houses but there was something off about him. So naturally I sassed and defied him as much as I could. I kept drawing upside down houses or ones from books or H.H. Holmes' murder hotel. " Zoe said.

—————————————————————————————

Zoe met up with Gideon and Morgan at the next family's house, the Dunkins, on her motorcycle. The SWAT used a thermal camera to see into the house through the closed curtains. "We've got three adults and two children sitting at the dining room table. They moved in, stealthily and they kicked the door in.

"FBI! FBI!"

Jackie, the young daughter ran into the mother's arms and the mother cried, "He's got my baby!" The father was all bound and gagged.

"Ma'am, is he alone?" Morgan asked.

"Yes, he is!"

"Where's the basement?" Gideon asked.

"Under the stairs!"

Zoe took off running even when the lights went off, Karl's doing no doubt. She opened the door beneath the stairs and walked down without the flashlight. There was enough light coming through the window from her. Gideon and Morgan soon followed

"Karl? Karl, it's the FBI." Morgan called through the darkness.

He nearly jumped when he shined it on Zoe's face.

"What the... why didn't you have a flashlight?"

"Don't need it." She said, moving through the darkness of the basement.

Suddenly she clicked the flashlight on and spun around, shining the light on Karl Arnold who shushed them as he swaddled the baby, smirking.

"Karl, why don't you give me the baby?" Zoe said, calmly, approaching as she was the smallest, youngest, and less intimidating-looking, it had been years since she saw him. She saw him when she was twelve but he had creeped her out so she left to return to Harvard where her best school friend had helped more than any therapist had, and you couldn't really argue with her because she was held captive for eight months

 "Karl? Please."

Karl glared at her as she approached slowly, side-stepping, he recognized her but she had to try.

That's odd, she noted, the baby wasn't crying. Her eyes darted down and she spotted him smothering the baby. He was suffocating him.

"Karl, get your hand off the baby's mouth." She said with more authority, a note of danger in her tone.

He slowly did so and the baby started to cry.

"Okay, good. Karl, look at me. I'm gonna put my gun away... and I want you to hand me that baby." She said gently as the baby screamed and cried. 

Karl slowly stood back up as Zoe holstered her gun at the same speed and held out her arms, approaching slowly. "Give me the baby."

Then he got a deadly glint in his eyes and threw the baby at them.

"NO!" Zoe screamed and caught the baby as Karl went to fight. He brandished a knife at Morgan as Zoe handed the screaming baby to Gideon and she took out her gun.

BANG!

The bullet grazed Karl's neck.

"The next one stays in you." She threatened.

"You look familiar." He said with a somewhat mockingly curious lilt of his voice.

"Stay there."

"Have I treated you before?" He pretended to remember, "Xiomara or are you Zarah? Both left the house in February of 2001, didn't come back home to your FBI daddy."

"Shut up." She growled.

"You showed up eight months later, thinner and paler than you were before, cut and bloodied but your sister... never found. You never accepted that she was dead because of you."

Morgan slammed Karl against the wall by the throat, "You move or say one more word to her and I will break your neck."

—————————————————————————————

Zoe arrived back at the BAU before them in time, to set up the board just as Gideon had asked and wait for them.

Morgan angrily clutched the chained Karl's arm as they directed him out of the elevator.

"How'd you get here so fast?" He asked.

"Motorcycle."

"You shouldn't ride a motorcycle. They're death machines." Karl said with mocking sincerity.

"Shut up!" Morgan hissed at him, yanking him past Zoe who followed.

He was friendly to everyone he saw as if he hadn't just tried to smother a baby but they all stared at him. When he got to the glaring JJ he asked, "How are you?"

"Keep it moving." Morgan said, pulling him past JJ and Zoe and Gideon stopped

"Did he say anything?" JJ asked.

"No." Gideon said.

"Nothing helpful." Zoe said.

"Can we tie him forensically to the other crimes?" Gideon asked.

Negative on foreign DNA. He must've washed Crawford's clothes." JJ sighed.

"Then we'll need a confession." Zoe said.

"Can you get one?" JJ asked.

"Did you do what I asked?" Gideon asked Zoe.

"Yeah. He won't be able to help himself." Zoe said and went to join Morgan.

—————————————————————————————

Zoe and Gideon sat across from Karl in the interrogation room while Morgan stood.

"Emily Crawford was a very talented and gifted girl. Her brother Sam, a bright, energetic child. You watched them from the yard for days, maybe even weeks. You learned everything about them. You studied their every move and then you wrote it all down." Gideon said but Karl seemed more interested in staring at the board Zoe had set up.

"May I have a glass of water?" Karl asked.

"Something wrong?" Zoe asked with no politeness in her voice.

"No, I'm just thirsty."

"Water, please." Gideon told Morgan.

Karl held up his shackled hands, "could you remove my shackles? I'm clearly no threat to you."

"Do you think we're stupid? They stay on. You just killed two families and were about to kill another and you threw a one-year-old baby at us." Zoe scoffed.

A uniformed officer handed Morgan a cup of water and he placed it in front of Karl.

"You chose families that reminded you of the one you lost." Gideon said as Karl drank his water.

"You stalked them. You bound them. You terrorized them. And once you knew if they weren't seen soon, people would get suspicious, so you killed them, one by one, making the dads watch so they would suffer, watching their families leave them like you did. " Zoe said, "We have your journals. Your serial killer memoirs. You aren't the only one who learned about me during our sessions, even at twelve I was a pretty damn good detective."

"It's my job..." Karl sighed, "to write everything down. To get to know them. I can't help them solve their problems without knowing background. And I make home visits... sometimes without their knowledge because people lie. You, of all people, should know that."

"Yeah, well, you're supposed to talk with them until they understand their emotions and open up to you, you don't stalk them. Sometimes people aren't aware of the psychological trauma and toxicity families can inflict on one another." Zoe said.

Gideon held up a picture of the Miller family and then of the Crawford family.

Karl nodded and looked pointedly at the first family he had killed, "Eric Miller was a terrible husband and father. Allison Crawford hemorrhaged money her husband didn't have. It can strain any marriage."

"That doesn't mean they had to die." Zoe said, darkly.

Gideon held up a picture of Karl with his wife and his kids, he got a somewhat annoyed look in his sociopathic eyes like, are we really bringing my family up? Isn't the psychology of what I did and its connection to my family close enough.

"On the surface, this looks like any family, USA. Two parent households, two kids, a boy and a girl. If you look a little closer, you'll see their body language tells a different story." Karl seemed to be increasingly annoyed at them pointing out the flaws of his failed marriage, "the woman and children are distant from the man. Their smiles are stiff. Their eyes are frightened. Every hair is in place, wearing their Sunday best, their own private hell being memorialized on film."

"Eric wasn't perfect at being a husband but he grew up with constant abuse from his biological and foster parents. That normalized violence in his subconscious mind and only came out when he was drunk. Sure, it's a shitty thing to do but that's what therapy is for. Not with therapists like you, good ones who didn't murder people because he judged them. He never hurt his kids. He loved his kids and because of you, not only did he grow up with constant abuse and feeling no love but he's forever traumatized with the images of finding his son and his daughter's bloodied bodies. You put him through what you went through but worse. Your children are still alive but you hurt them with your obsessiveness and need for control." Zoe monologued, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

"What about your mother? You never had a mother figure."

"I don't hold a family hostage to make up for the mother who died because of someone like you."

He looked at the photos and squirmed uncomfortably but not from what he had done but from what Zoe had done... with the pictures.

"You okay?" Gideon asked.

"It isn't right."

"What isn't?"

"YOU'VE GOT THE PICTURES MIXED UP!" He screamed. "The one in the middle. That is Sam Crawford's. It should be Ty Miller's! You need... to swap them. You need to make it right."

Zoe recalled Clara's OCD and how Karl's matched up with the symptoms just as she previously theorized.

Gideon stood up and pointed to the picture of Sam Crawford's corpse's child-like foot. "This one here?"

"What the hell have I been trying to tell you?" Karl scoffed as if they were the insane ones when he held families hostage, pretending to be their "daddy" to compensate for the marriage he screwed up.

"You're right. They're switched." Gideon admitted with more calmness than Karl. "This is Sam Crawford's foot with the Miller family. But how did you know that, Karl?"

He looked at Zoe who gave him an innocent look. She had switched them, knowing he would have the near uncontrollable urge to correct them. He had confessed to the crime because they had no concrete proof that he had killed the Crawfords and Millers as he was going to do to the Dunkens. So he explained as they recorded him.

"And I watched them for a number of days, always at night. Saw how they lived. How they loved. I would keep them apart... until the last night. Till the last supper. Then I would bring them one by one. Down to the basement." As he spoke J.J. switched the photos on their board, according to the serial killer's confession, "The youngest first." He looked at Zoe, who had been the youngest of her family before it got messed up. "The father last."

"Why, Karl?" Morgan asked.

"So he could see..." His voice broke but not out of remorse but out of hurt of the ending of his family, "What happens to families when the head of the household... isn't strong. Wives wither. Children perish." JJ and Gideon started to pack up the crime evidence. "But me? I'm an excellent father.

"One family member isn't the strongest. There is no Alpha. They're strongest together. Strong where they're weak, Karl. Omegas don't last long alone but as a pack, that's how they're at their strongest." Zoe said.

—————————————————————————————

Hotch had found tapes of more than the two families, not only were there the Miller family, the Crawford family, but also the Ness family and the Linford family, and the Kegan family.

In a rusted box were the trophies...

They all sat at a table that the box laid on and Gideon emptied the box onto the table, revealing eight wedding rings. Six families they weren't aware of. This comes out to thirty-two victims if he kept the same M.O., and half of them were children.

—————————————————————————————

*Sorry, this is super late to my like zero fans of this work but I like this story and Zoe will evolve as a character and so will her relationship with Spencer... very slowly. At first, I was nervous about this chapter, I guess because of the content, this was the first Criminal Minds episode that really affected me because I had watched crime shows before but like, Lucifer, the Flash, etc. When kids were in danger, they always survived in the end but I guess that's one of the things that makes Criminal Minds different. Then I had to email my college because I hadn't been accepted yet and by the time he had accepted me, it was too late to enroll so I took another class at community college and then that class started but then a few weeks in, I was dropped because the financial aid study thing I was taking, general had been recently dropped and I had like no warning about it. Then we decided I'd just do other things for class like online and then the Mothman Festival came up and I had tickets to go see Watcher Ghost Files Live and that was just a few days ago. I've continued writing, I'm almost done with Unfinished Business and then I just forgot I hadn't been posting them. *

[ihonestlycanttellyou]

DoL PC: Onyx the Depraved

My main save and menace to society playthrough! >:]

Cut because it got longer than expected. :p

General

Defiant, Vengeful Sadist, Drooling Masochist, Notorious Slut/Whore/Show-off/Scrapper, and Considered a terror; despite all this, still kinda liked in town.

Would be a Notorious Allfather too but the feature's not really there. :p

Beautiful, Lustful, and Asphyxiophilia traits.

Literally thrives on sick depravity, it's his favorite food.

Lives at Bailey's orphanage but never pays him, prefers to just stomp him and his goons once a week.

A bully at school but his looks and attitude make him very popular despite his more... unsavory actions.

Sending Leighton to the pillory is his favorite past time.

Celebrity chef, Bartender, Adult Shop Attendant, Model, and Brothel Star.

Got a parasite once and was never the same. Now a father of many many many slimes.

Was always an incubus but gained the Cow TF at the farm.

Escaped Remy's secret farm after becoming the farmer's prized cattle. At first, he hated his forced hybrid nature but he loves what being made into a bullboy did to his body; he's super buff and produces milk now. Score!

Escaped prison but lowkey misses pushing the other inmates and even the guards around.

His "types": older men, rich women, brats, and horrific otherworldly beings.

Somehow remembers the names of each of his slimes but not his human children.

Relationships

(Love Interests)

He, Robin, and Corrupt Sydney are bestfriends! :]

Knows about Kylar's obsession and bullies him for it, would probably only gain interest after learning about Kylar's "daddy issues". *

Fucks around with Whitney. Onyx likes the three F's: fighting, fucking, and funds; Whitney provides all three.

At first, he started working for Alex purely to spite Remy but started to genuinely like the guy as a friend.

Thinks Avery is a huge brat, wants to collar and fuck him until he stops whining about his weak standing among the other rich bastards in town. He does like getting $2K just for looking good though so he'll keep Avery around.

Has never met the You are being Hunted trio, so no opinion on Eden, Black Wolf, or Great Hawk.

*He'd love the depravity and really play into it.

(People of Interest)

Hates Bailey but would totally hit it at any given chance.

Has an oddly deep respect for Briar despite her literally being diet Bailey, not even he knows why.

Protects Darryl when working as a Bartender in her club but is mostly indifferent to her.

Absolutely fucking terrified of Harper, that dude literally altered his brain chemistry for one and then tried to take him back to the farm after he escaped.

Indifferent towards Laundry and Mickey but appreciates their business.

Oh boy, where to start with Leighton. Well- [CENSORED FOR PUBLIC SAFETY]

Only knows Niki from the studio, likes them by not by much. If he knew they worked on the farm, he'd flip.

Would charge at and trample Remy since he likes bulls so much, it'd be cathartic for Onyx despite him seemingly enjoying being a bullboy.

Credits Sam for his success as a celebrity pastry chef, still mostly indifferent towards her.

First met Wren in prison and thought he was cool, thought he was awesome when he actually went through with sabotaging Remy during Blackjack. All that admiration flew out the window when he had to suck off all of Wren's friends for his clothes back. >:/

Loves Sirris as a teacher and boss, lowkey wants to make another "sex-ed" video with him.

FUCKING HATES MS. RIVER, He is a complete delinquent so she targets him a bit. He thinks it's funny when she passes out from his antics with Whitney though.

Wants Doren biblically, even more so if she's actually a werewolf like the rumors say.

Hates Mr. Winter, bastard left him in that stupid pillory like five times. Intrigued by his interests in medieval punishment though.

Thinks Mason is kinda hot, not his type.

Never met the others.

Lookbook :D

Everyday Look x3, School, Swimming, Formal, Athletic, Sleep, and finally the Brothel fit, babeyyy!

His tattoos: a horned skull on his chest, "Paradise" beneath his pierced bellybutton with an arrow pointing downstairs (okay fine, it's canonically Size Queen but let! me! have! this!), and ofc a cattle brand on his left asscheek.

[bucky-bucky-bucky-bucky]

I’m rewatching the teen wolf movie bc I hate myself and here are some of my thoughts:

First of all, I love the show. I started watching it from the very first episode way back in 2011. I was 15. And I was immediately in love / obsessed with the show. I’m 28 now and I still love it. But this movie is heinous. It’s a disservice to the characters, the actors, and the fans. I still wear my BHHS lacrosse sweatshirt proudly, but goddamn this movie is bad. If anyone cares, my feelings and thoughts are below 🐺

Did they think that we didn’t know who the guy in the black hood was? did they think we couldn’t tell? Did they think that we didn’t know it was Harris? In his first scene, they showed only the bottom half of his face- and it’s so obviously Harris. Then he starts talking, and it’s SO OBVIOUSLY HARRIS. Like did they think it was going to be a big surprise? Did they think it was a reveal??? At least change his voice a little or SOMETHING. Be so fr. When I watched it the first time, he was standing there in his very first scene and I said “oh, Mr Harris is back”. And then at the end they acted like it was some sort of reveal? I know that characters didn’t know, but it was extremely obvious to the viewer.

Why did Scott not become a vet? He deserved to be a vet!!!

Why tf does Derek own a garage? And he’s also an arson investigator? And he has a son?? This man’s like makes no sense. Who tf is his son’s mother? Why don’t they reference her even a little bit? So weird.

Stiles would never abandon the jeep tbh. When he went away to his FBI internship, he left it to Scott. And at the end of the show, it was stiles who had it. He’d never just ditch the jeep.

Mason is too smart to be a cop. I said what I said.

Allison comes back from the dead with red nails because she died with red nails. But if she came back to life exactly as she was when she died, does that mean she came back to life as a teenager? She died at age 17. And if that’s the case, it’s weird that she and Scott are together at the end. Cause he’s 30. It makes no sense honestly.

Why tf can Parrish not find a woman his own age? He was flirty and weird with Lydia when she was still in high school and in the movie he’s sleeping with Malia who he was friends with when she was 16-17. Very cool and normal.

I’m glad they brought the nogitsune back because it’s my favorite villain from the show, but obviously it doesn’t hit as hard without Stiles.

Eaddy Mays’s triumphant return as Victoria Argent- she serves so much cunt. I love her so much.

One of the only slays of this movie is that Melissa is a doctor now.

This movie is two hours and twenty minutes long and it somehow feels they didn’t do anything in that timeframe. Like obviously there’s a plot that moves along but it just doesn’t feel like anything happens for some reason?

In what universe was it Scott’s fault / Scott’s pack’s fault that Harris got sacrificed? It was the darach who did that- not Scott or his friends. Harris’s motive makes literally no sense. And wouldn’t have the darach known that Harris lived? Wouldn’t her rituals have failed because she needed three of each sacrifice for them to be successful? And since Harris lived, that means that there were only two sacrifices in his category. The nonsense is so strong with this movie

Scott playing in the lacrosse game is so hilarious, this man is thirty

Why do all of Harris’s lines at the game seem to be very poorly mixed ADR? Who edited this? 💀

Why the fuck did Derek have to die- and why did he have to burn alive? Truly he deserved so much better. He went through so much shit in his life and he shouldn’t have fucking burned to death. He deserved a nice quiet life with his kid. And to that point: I do not believe that he would’ve chosen to leave his son like that. Plus, Eli had to watch his dad burn alive! What kind of bullshit is that!

And tbh, the sacrificial death should’ve been Peter. I love Peter, but homie needed a redemption moment after the many many years of bullshit and schemes and double crosses. They should’ve made it so that Peter was there at the nemeton with them at the end. He could’ve stepped up to save Derek and Eli in that moment to show that he’d grown. Sacrificing himself- not just to save others, but to save his family too- could’ve been his redemption. But noooooo. They just had to kill Derek. Trash.

[spiritussancto1]

Multilingual

 Wolfstar microfic--wordcount:1028

Remus Lupin could speak to cats. They had volunteered to babysit Harry so James and Lily could have a well deserved night out, having barely left the house since his birth. Their large tabby cat was sitting on the windowsill when they arrived, surveying them curiously through the window. Sirius hadn’t had much experience with cats. The Blacks would never have allowed anything so cuddly and independent under their roof. Lilly’s cat Hieronymus had been a present from James.   “Our first love child!” James had crowed when Lily lifted the kitten out of his box, and he was indeed very cuddly with them. He’d never had much interest in the rest of the marauders, getting occasional scritches as he went about his Important Cat Business(tm).

  Remus and Sirius were flopped on the couch, having finally gotten baby Harry down when Hieronymus hopped up, trilling, and settled between them purring gently. Remus stroked him absentmindedly.   “I know, right? I’ll work on dinner as soon as my legs work again. God I’m knackered.” Remus sounded it.   “What is for dinner? You sound like a man with a plan.” Sirius hoped Remus had a plan. He was far too tired to do more than order pizza.

  “Hmm? Oh I dono. I was talking to him.” Remus was petting Hieronymus and staring vaguely into space   “You do that a lot. Does he talk back? I always suspected he had a bit of kneazle in him.” Sirius reached out to stroke an outstretched paw. Hieronymus flexed his claws and pulled his paw under him, yawning. Sirius pulled his hand back, slightly hurt. Remus had his whole arm resting along the fuzzy warm body.   “That wasn’t a rejection,” Remus said, having seen the flicker of hurt cross his face

  “No? What was it then?”

  “He just doesn’t like his paws being messed with. You can pet him. He likes you”

  “How do you know?” Sirius asked, genuinely curious

  “Well cats don’t relax like this around people they don’t trust, do they? My little man here knows you’re good people.” Remus was rubbing the cat's soft warm belly. Hiero had rolled half onto his back in the liquid way of sleepy cats. Sirius stroked his cheek and got nuzzled in return

  “I think i understand him a bit better now, having spent so much time around you as Padfoot,” Remus said

  “What does that mean?” Sirius was only feigning offense on principle. Cats versus dogs. Of course the only other cat he knew was Mrs Norris and she was a cunt.

  “Nothing! Just, when we’re together at the full moon, we kinda talk, don’t we? I mean you’d remember better than me but...we’re pack. We understand each other, you know?”

  Sirius did know. When Padfoot ran with the Wolf sometimes they wrestled and played. Sometimes they hunted. Sometimes they....Sirius wasn’t sure what to think about some of those times and resolved yet again to just let them be what they were. 

  Whatever the marauders were doing, whatever form they were in, they understood each other. The Wolf needed to be in control. Needed to lead and protect and provide. Sirius could see traces of Remus in the Wolf, traces of the Wolf in his friend, though he would never say it. Dogs, rats, and deer were not equipped for human speech so they’d all gotten extremely good at charades, which was a large part body language, a large part context cues, and only occasional vocalizations. It was a skill you picked up over time but it was much easier to understand Prongs than Hiero, despite the cat being far more expressive.

  “Yeah, I think I get you. We’ve all gotten good at body language”

  “I think it’s more than that. Maybe it’s a werewolf thing. I can...almost hear him. Like I can hear you during the moons.”

  “Is that hearing?” Sirius was thinking about the subtle head gestures, the way his friends' bodies tensed or relaxed, a look that carried the same meaning as a sentence. 

  “Dono what you would call it but...I feel you. I understand you,” Remus said slowly, as if he was just now puzzling out what he understood. He met Sirius’ eyes and he understood too. A deeper communication than words. A familiarity with Remus’ heart and mind. A bond between them that carried far more insight than language. Love swelled in Sirius and he blinked a few times

  “Dumbledore claims that words are our most inexhaustible source of magic,” Sirius knew he was changing the subject but it all felt a bit raw at the moment.

  “Yeah well, Dumbledore doesn’t turn into an animal. I think there is a bit of magic to it though. I noticed when I was around the other wolves. I think they were influencing how I felt about them but they didn’t mean to, if that makes any sense. Connecting like that, sharing emotions, it’s just what they do.”

  “Is it like legilimancy?” Sirius remembered Walburga rummaging through his mind and felt an icy finger trail down his spine. He tried to keep his uneasiness from showing. Remus never talked about werewolf magic if he could help it.

  “No...maybe a little? It’s in the same family of magic but it’s not done maliciously. Or at least no more than words are intentionally malicious. It’s more...honest. Werewolves don’t really hide things from each other. Not feelings anyway. It’s more like a cultural difference. Like you know how deaf culture can seem kinda blunt if you’re not used to it? Sign language isn’t rude, it’s just different”

  “When did you learn sign language?” Sirius was absentmindedly playing with Heiro’s tail, marveling that even after all these years, Remus surprised and amazed him with his insight, an instinctual understanding of magic and people that was subtle and deep.

  “Oh I didn’t. There was a bloke at the home had gone deaf as a little kid. He showed us how to swear in sign.” Just then Heiro decided he’d had enough of Sirius’s fiddling and swatted his hand, giving a low meow of warning and irritation

  “The first words learned in any language throughout time. As it should be”

[sixteenth-days]

18 & 29 for the ask game?

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

oh fuck man this is hard there's so many. uhHH. there's a lot of parts of fta i think are really good, though a lot of them are more than one line. this one mr. wolf is maybe my favorite:

There’s something in the air here that sets my teeth on edge and makes them sharp. It makes my fingers itch. There’s something sticky under my fingernails. (Pause) False. It’s good False isn’t here. False and her eyes. (Pause) What did Scar say about my eyes, again?

also one from just the other day but for something prosier i am actually really happy with the last line of i bet you never expected me, originally i had a few more lines after this but i cut them and im REALLY happy with the result i just think it hits really good.

He rolls his eyes upwards so he doesn’t have to look at the camera. The studio lights are blinding. “I don’t believe you.”

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic.

went digging through the Notesapp Folder where i do all my work and found this bit from a fic that will almost certainly not be properly written but IS pretty fun. if written it would be an au of chuubos marvelous wish-granting engine where instead of a complicated machine theres a hole. in the ground. that you throw diamonds into

“Huh,” Pearl said. “That’s… weird.” “What’s weird?” “Have I got pupils?” Grian blinked. “What?” “Look,” she said, tugging him around to face her. Her eyes were two flat slates of silver, ringed with white. “Have I got pupils?” “Nooooo,” Grian said slowly. “Are you… supposed to?” “Well, I did last time I checked!” “Grian,” Mumbo hissed anxiously. “You don’t think this is some sort of Wishing Pit side effect, do-" “Of course not,” Grian said. “The Wishing Pit never has unexpected side effects.”

i also found this bit from the start of. a season 6? 7? fic, which i think was gonna be mostly abt grian and jimmy's first post-evo meeting at mcc? i honestly dont remember most of what i had intended for this one

Xisuma: Heads up, everybody, Scott’s going to be stopping by to hand out invites to the next MCC! Xisuma: He said he wanted to talk to False, Ren, Cub, and Iskall, but anybody who wants to say hello, feel free to swing by spawn. Grian glanced up from his phone, eyebrows raised. “Who’s Scott?” “Oh! I forgot you wouldn’t know,” Mumbo said. “Scott- Smajor is his actual, like, legal name, I think, but everybody calls him Scott, I don’t know why- he runs this big championship event that’s made up of a bunch of little minigames, with lots of people from different worlds competing.” Grian hummed thoughtfully. “I like minigames,” he said. “Oh, you’d probably have a grand time, honestly,” Mumbo said. “Too rich for my blood, personally, but Scott had said he was looking for more hermits to play- it was just False and Ren last time. Want to go say hello?”

[that-pineapple154]

Pineapple's Furby Masterlist

⭐🌙⭐

1990s Furbys

King Noodles Ink'Squeegee of the Spiders

~ he/they ~ witch's cat Noodles was my first 90's furby. His hobbies include watching scary movies, making s'mores, trespassing, and staring off into the distance and pointing to get other people to look at absolutely nothing. He is a friend to all 8 legged creatures and a loyal friend to all

Patchfoot the Pirate

~ he/him ~ giraffe Patchfoot is my one and only amputee furby. His right foot was in pretty bad condition when I got him so I removed it, and plan to eventually make him a prosthetic. He loves to be outside, and is very photogenic. He would also like to remind you to not eat random mushrooms you find on your walks through the woods

Prapai

~ he/him ~ Leopard Prapai is a suave buisness man who knows what he wants. And what he wants is shiny objects. He also enjoys playing a lil mini golf in his free time

Mr. Bowie

~ heehee/him ~ Jester You know the Goblin King from the movie Labyrinth? That's his role model. Mr. Bowie thrives in some good chaotic energy, as long as he stays neat and clean

Brad Grady (Grady)

~ he/him ~ Graduation He's gay. Need I say more? Oh I do? Okay. Well he's also an English and Furbish professor, doing his best to teach humans and furby's each other's languages. In his free time he likes to consume poetry. I mean that in the literal sense... Apparently its the best way to gain more knowledge

Chappell

~ she/they ~ wolf Chappell, unlike the singer she'd named after is actually mute. They work just fine but cannot talk. It's all okay though cause she finds other ways to communicate. They are a lover of music and literature, and loves to spend time with her girlfriend, Vinnie

Lavinia (Vinnie)

~ she/her ~ snowball Vinnie is "The Key Master", though the key to what, she refuses to say. She spends most of her time with her girlfriend, Chappell, and is typically the one who plans their dates. She loves to sew and has a huge interest in the supernatural and Victorian buildings. She'd love to someday live in one.

Sunbleach

~ any pronouns ~ racoon Sunbleach, who also goes by Sunny and Bleach, is a furb who loves to pursue his hobbies. You'll often find her at a desk drawing, designing, or fixing things. They also have a strange fascination with guitar picks, though they're to small to play any of mine.

Furby Babys

Eggwhite Puddling

~ she/her ~ Snowy Eggwhite may be a girly girl, but she sure knows how to change a tire. Her favorite smell is gasoline and lawn clippings, and her favorite movie is Cars. She also really loves cute and brightly colored things

Tartar Merengue

~ she/they ~ Snowy Tartar is a furb with an appreciation for alt fashion. They love the color black, and have even considered dying their hair that color once or twice, though she'd never actually do it. Her hobbies include staring at books and trying to make the words make sense, and giving up to go read a graphic novel instead

Furby Booms

Tinsel

~ he/him ~ furbacca Tinsel doesn't say much, but he loves to sing. Don't tell anyone but despite being based on Chewbacca, he hasn't watched more than the first 3 Starwars movies

Castiel De'Lolbit Extravaganza

~ he/they ~ zigzag stripes Cas is a lover of all things horror. He'll play horror games and watch horror movies right before bed and never gets nightmares, though sometimes he does get a bit paranoid. He also loves collecting rocks and crystals to display

Furby Connects

Kei-doh

~ he/him ~ magenta Kei-doh is a huge fan of baseball. The Redsocks and the Tigers are his two favorite teams, but he'll watch just about any game. He likes to play baseball too. He hits well, though he isn't a very fast baserunner. He doesn't mind though, cause its all just for fun

2023 Furbys

Ebeau

~ he/they ~ Coral Ebeau's just a fun loving guy. He's just a silly lil dude, doin silly lil dude things. He totally doesn't engage in illegal activities like jaywalking... Nope. Not at all

Capone

~ any pronouns ~ purple Capone doesn't like to talk about what he does. And most people probably don't want to hear about it either. I mean what kind of monster would literally take candy from a baby? Capone. That's what kind

Ghidorah Glitterbomb

~ she/her ~ tie-dye Though being incredibly powerful and gifted in the art of magic, Ghidorah doesn't use it much, instead preferring to save her skills for important things like putting on good fireworks shows, or giving candy back the babys Capone took from

Boroax

~ he/they ~ aurora furbealis Boroax is a fun loving guy with a love for anything space related. He may or may not be an alien himself, but they will neither confirm or deny it. His favorite thing to do in his freetime is watching christmas lights and staring into street lamps

Furblets, Buddies, & Happy Meal Toys, Oh my!

Toothpaste, Oyster, Taylor, & Boston

~ they/them, he/they, she/her, & she/they ~ 2023 furblets These lil guys would love to be in a band, but they can't agree on what genre of music to perform in

Wiggles

~ he/him ~ 2005 Happy Meal toy He's very quiet, but that just makes him a better listener. He loves to people watch and silently judge from afar

Carlton

~ any pronouns ~ furby buddie He's seen some things and done some things...

Amarillo

~ they/them ~ furby keychain They're tired, and they want to take a nap

⭐🌙⭐

Thanks For Reading ^^

[ragnar0c]

I’m getting Deja vu….

WE 100%ed EO3HD!!

(Technically I had last month, but you know… Overlord squid…. I’m still salty abt it.) As planned I’m going to scream about my guild and builds. So very long post.

You’d think since I used the same exact party as I did on my ds that maybe this post would be shorter. WRONG. I have OPTIMIZED THEM AND ADDED NEW MEMBERS. Switch Ragnarok>>> DS Ragnarok. On switch they do a lot more damage, and definitely have more tricks up their sleeves.

Mainly, I noticed wolf howl did crazy numbers and that each member, save Hana could cast an ailment. Then… caved in and tried a wildling for the first time and added a few other members. Which I’ll explain as we go on.

Anyway guild rambles GO!!

Alope

This run Alope gets the shield!! Sorry Hana, Alope needs the stats more than you!!

My thoughts on her are kinda the same. Early game she wasn’t as good as I remembered on ds… She would suck, but when everyone else was struggling she’d land a confusion or take a hit… OR SOMETHING!! She came in clutch. Always!! Even if it was the craziest shit!!

She’s got a few more play styles besides b.vow+ charge +hit. Dropped wild swings, and some points in otori.

Instead, I’ve maxed crushing blow, she’s almost guaranteed to land confusion on something in battle if she doesn’t kill it before then. Paired with Hana’s WOLF HOWL makes her do numbers!! Also maxed freezing blow, I think she does 2k more against certain bosses compared to her ds counter part.

She’s subbed ninja, and I used it to make her a sort of phys dodge tank + double damage. Which I think I did on ds, but I really went into it the dodge tank this time. She’ll spawn DuAlope (her clone) and use otori on her, while DuAlope uses flight… Kinda makes the enemies with multihits not a problem… Also decided to also get her the reflexes skill. So TP regen WOOOOO.

Thinking of retiring her for the luck boost, but part of my strat with her is that she’s real slow. If her AGI is over 80 she’ll be crazy fast. So Idk.

Ignis

I got the parry skills early for him. AMAZING DECISION. Second stratum I had a rough patch with everyone except him… and he covered for them while they made up for their mistakes. AND HE PARRIED A WHOLE LOT…

I skipped a few skills i got him on DS (Vigilance, Shrug off) to max his defense ones and get farmer skills. (Persistence at a higher lvl, safe stroll, to market, lullaby)

He still makes exploration so easy for me, and can still take that nap that lets me get a free turn against abyssal god. He’s really good, but… I’ve notice he does nothing a lot more on my switch. Alope can soak most physical damage, Hana can predict a lot of the elementals, and I have a whole other hoplite I’ll get into later.

I don’t use him as much as I should 😭

Tank

Mr. I’m the lowest level early game to Mr. first to hit level 99 🤪

His skill tree was/ always IS SOO MESSED UP the first half the game. Had to rest him, thought I ruined him. NOPE. He’s good!! The best even.

He’s what you expect, he’s an arbalist gladiator. He kinda mows everything down. The discovery of wolf howl + ailement changed his numbers a LOT. He can almost two shot superbosses.

I invested points in smoke bomb so he can land blind… Fun to do on turns where it’s too risky to attack or b.vow.

Hana

All the big numbers? They are thanks to HER AND THE WILDLING I USE.

Early game, Hana was. Well, Hana. She actually fumbled a bit more than her ds counterpart. (Missed a lot more). As she leveled up, she evened out .

Hana has… Quite a lot of points to spare. Basically after level 70 she just has like 30 skill points to kill. Initially, I was against getting the prophecies (I mean I have two hoplites). So I invested it in wolf howl bc I saw it increased attack by a lot when an enemy was ailed.

So now Hana has like. 4+ play styles. Old reliable elementals with limit scrolls, Meteor, Wolf howler, and… I caved in and got the prophecies (Volt and ice for now, but plan to retire her so she can get fire too). I realized with her and Alope I could block all physicals and elementals… and I would be able hit harder without a hoplite.

She gets to mix and match so much now, and she caters to all the team offense, defense, support… she’s kinda the glue…!! More so than on ds!

Enid

Okay, Enid is one that hasn’t changed much. I had tried to mix attack monk skills in their tree. Bc attack monks are good and I wanted to spice up the guild. But uhm it was not Alope and Tank level good. (To cut them slack, Alope is only good bc there are two of her and her defense is higher. Tank? Sorry Arbalists are s tier… Comparing them isn’t fair.) Enid would get in Alope’s way a lot, which is kinda funny to imagine.

So at the half way point, we swapped Enid back to his natural state. The over powered speedy monk sovereign. Realistically, it makes sense given their character arc I had planned…

Only difference I can think of is… I finally see the use in full heal. Regular healing when Alope regularly sheds 846 hp? NO. Full heal her, it costs less!! (EO1 taught me that) Also, Enid has… quite a lot of skill points to spare. Which I’d put into idk Monarch March, or Guard order. But I… don’t know. I feel bad for leaving their fist skills behind. I might invest in Kikoken for the ailment… and fist mastery if i retire them.

Okay lighting round:

These 4 members I used when I didn’t feel like dealing with certain bosses with my main party. Their skills were junk at the time. (Anemone first try, Alraune first try, Kraken first try too.)

Caspian: The legendary hoplite ninja. Not to clone herself, but to dodge tank the hell out of everything and infinite regen tp. I think I used her for all first the super boss fights on switch, save for Abyssal God. She kinda makes Ignis look bad, Ignis can take more hits than her, but like. It doesn’t matter. She’s not getting hit!! She does what Alope does, but deals less damage. Decided to just make Alope do the work, or have these two work together. (They are unstoppable)

Ryouta: I really wanted to try attack monk. So I made him. HE’S VERY GOOD. Mainly used him when Alope and Tank were working on 9 smashes and Front Mortar. He did wonders against the 3 bosses listed above. But once Alope and Tank got their skills, I kinda benched him. Will feed him strength books and will see how long that lasts tho!! He’s not the 3 play style type guy like the rest, but hey! Being simple is in character for him!!

Ezra: Double action zodiac. Used him mainly bc Anemone… Also I wanted to use him to see if he could compare to Hana. But Uh. I don’t know what I was expecting BAHAHA. He’s still really good, just not against Elder, Kraken, or Abyssal God.

Izem: MY PRIDE AND JOY… DO YOU SEE HIS ATTACK??? THAT IS FROM COUNTLESS SLAUGHTERS OF THE ABYSSAL GOD WITH THE MAIN GUILD…! He hits very hard now, and I hardly use him compared to the ds version of his build. I used him against Kraken (5 ringed sword) Anemone (warriors might). But he’s so frail you need a hoplite staring him dead in the eye. I’ll work on it. I need one more AG kill to max his weapon and I’m thinking of taking him to do it with the guild.

OKAY LASTLY….

Smiley

TBH… I didn’t like wildlings before her. The class’s designs rubbed me the wrong way. (No black people until the class is offense, or rooted in the wild 😟 and they are almost always naked I just make black EO ocs now *sigh*) They’re clunky early game… I can’t imagine using one a whole run tbh. I only started actually using her post game. I saw a friend chose another class portrait for their wildling and put a spin on it… So. Now we got a clown wildling!

I didn’t think I’d like her, but after giving her some personality and seeing her ailments land so often… I decided to add her in Ignis’s place more often. Her debuffs (Primal drums, ailments, eagle eye) ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGER… She and Hana like quadruple the guild’s attack.

I’m adjusting the Abyssal god team to fit her on it… If she does her magic with Hana… Alope and Tank’s attacks reach 5 digits. Every other fight is so short I can’t even meet the circumstances to land the 5 digits…

Sometimes she misses or whatever, but I forgive her. She’s great.

So uh…

…

Playing HD made me pay more attention to the surroundings and enemy designs… Also gave me access to a lot more scenarios and characters for my guild… 🥹 Sometimes were as cool as my first times!! I’m really happy I got to 100% eo3 twice the same year. With the same party (yet different). AKDJDKAK Okay end blog post— if you got this far…. UHHHH love you. K bye.

[unforeseen-idiot]

Shovelwarewolf Season 3

Oh boy the season where things got really interesting, an actual antagonist with a face and everything?, a new location for our favorite angry werewolf?, ALIENS! Excellent season in my book and lets get into why.

E.T the Extra-Terrestrial: Great opener, I love the theme of this season being infamously bad games fits well with Biffalo's whole schtick. I love the back and forth they have with each other. I love the scene where Ivan resolves to get out of the pit, fails once and tries again, and then fails a second time and then rages, just felt really real.

Super Man 64: Another great episode, the Martha bit was maybe a little on the nose, but I still find it funny. I love SWW's commitment to this three-hole punch bit, it starts out as a regular SWW threat, but the fact that he keeps building on it slays me. I love SWW's dramatics in this episode. Plus we get more evidence on the Star Fox Adventures theory.

Night Trap: Ah yes, the game that would turn everyone into serial killing rapists according to the government. Solid episode, like the CDI Zelda games, the dialogue makes SWW's quips even better. I love that Biffalo finally acknowledges the whole glass shattering thing, and his random story about eating a run-over waffle. Gotta love SWW's total pettiness with the vase. He also gave a pretty solid "Reason you suck speech" to that weird general guy. Plus this is the first time we've actually seen Ivan playing a game as a human since Mortal Kombat Mythologies just thought it was cool. And of course the ending twist with Bubsy, so good.

Bubsy 3D: Oh my what a terrible game, it actually hurts thinking about playing it. This is a pretty ok episode, its best parts are in the beginning when we get Biffalo's true motives (seriously he wants to take pictures with kids someone stop him) and the ending when he's so pissed about losing his custom Bubsy Playstation. Plus his utter glee at Bubsy is pretty funny. We also get a solid cliffhanger at the end.

Link the Faces of Evil: Oh what an excellent sequel to last season, the dialogue is only funnier with the slam poetry, reused cutscenes, and SQUADALA WE ARE OFF! I love this episode so much it has great one liners and an acknowledgment of Susan (I remember watching the episode and thinking the exact thing when he said it). I also Love the Shawshank tribute and the chase through the dessert that ends with him being abducted, it probably made no sense to people at the time, but it's so freaking funny.

The Grinch: We've now arrived at the season finale, it's pretty good I like the animations for Mr. Wolf. The setup is decent, not revealing too much of the aliens yet while still giving us a plausible way for him to play games (of course his coma dreams involve shovelware). I know it was meant to serve the Grinch parody, but SWW without a lab coat or otherwise just looks wrong. So Cindy Lou Rareware is a neat character, but she reminds me so much of this girl I knew in middle school it's a little jarring. The ending always makes me feel a little hopeless, like dang the guy is just stuck.

Music:

Season 3 Opening: Oh what a great intro. The strings in the beginning and the banjo, folksy style really sell the creepy vibes of Buffalo Bub and the season's setup.

Season 3 Transformation: It's pretty good, I like the guitar in it. It doesn't really do a whole lot but it serves the purpose very well.

Demented Furry: Excellent villain theme for Biffalo. It gives off a great mistrusting and creepy feel that goes great with our Bubsy obsessed hillbilly.

Demented Furry (Choir Version): Same song, but with a slower piano and an awesome sounding choir behind it. Very foreboding.

Live or Die: Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. This song man. THIS SONG! It goes so freaking hard. The metal guitar riffs, the brass, the synth it all comes together so well. I never paid much attention to it until now and I fell in love. It completely creates a great climatic tension to a very tense scene.

Mr. Wolf: It's a Grinch parody. Does a great job especially when coupled with the animation. The singer is so petty with lines like, "Someone should through you back in a 39 and a half foot hole" like dude that probably traumatized him, lay off.

Couch Gag: This is a pretty good one, just Biffalo Bub being Biffalo Bub and playing with action figures (I feel like AJ improvised these, not in a bad way just that this feels like stuff he'd come up with on the fly). The last one was honestly so real, like you'd think that you'd make your "if you're watching this I'm dead video" a little funny to lighten the mood, but I mean, it would probably just bum me out too.

So ye overall, I love the season, great set, great tension, great villain, and horrible games. It also sets up a very good season coming up.

[runawaycarouselhorse]

@magicofthepiper told me about the Maple Town Road Safety PSA being subtitled (this one by LonelyChaser and Kineko Video!), I torrented it, and it is so precious. I guess that leaves one last PSA to be found and subtitled! The Fire Safety one was subtitled before this one by a different fansubber. ^^

فلم وثائقي نادر جدًا (لم يعرض على التلفاز و لم يتم بيعه على أشرطة, فقط وزع كفلم للعرض في المكتبات و المدارس) عن سلامة الطرق (سلامة مرورية) بشخصيات مدينة النخيل و أرنوبة و دبدوب تم ترجمته. ^^

It is such a cute little story, with Bobby Kumanov (Bobby Bear)'s triplet brothers, Kin, Kon, and Kan visiting Palm Town, left under Patty's care. It's cute watching her try to be a "big sister" for them. They're troublemakers as always, crashing into her and Rolley while disembarking from the ship (and having the nerve to blame them for not catching them, "we could've been hurt!")... running into traffic and having a hard time understanding cars and road safety.

An officer helpfully explains to them how to safely cross... after one of the boys nearly gets hit by a car and gets in a fight with the driver. ^^;;; (The officer tells them both off.)

Palm Town is really more of a city. Maple Town was very rural and cars were a much rarer sight there. The boys get all grumpy from being taught so many rules, they don't feel like exploring Palm Town anymore, content to just eat ice cream from Mr. Cocker's place, until he offers to let them ride in his car. There, they change their tune, and complain about rule-breakers, fff.

When they realize the car ride was a sneaky way of teaching them about road safety, the boys are very annoyed! They even tell Patty, very meanly, she's not even their real big sister, anyway!

Patty's so done with them, she tells them to go home if they'll talk like that. They demand Mr. Cocker stop the car or they'll jump out. He stops the car and they run off, Patty still fuming, while Rolley tries to get her to go after them. She doesn't want to because they were so mean, but Rolley insists that as their big sister, she should responsibly watch them until the end... their mother entrusted her dear children to her! What if they got in an accident?! Imagining that immediately makes Patty want to go find them.

I really like that Maple Town and Palm Town don't mind having Patty be in the wrong like this. She's not idealized, she acts like a real child and makes mistakes, in Maple Town more than Palm Town, as she does grow up a little bit...

After being prompted to think about what might happen if the boys got in an accident, Patty relents, afraid for their safety. The sun starts to set, as Kin, Kon, and Kan wander through the streets, regretting leaving Patty. They blame and fight each other, but stop out of hunger.

This part really feels like a regular episode, just wholesome stories, childhood experiences, and life lessons.

They're still good boys and help Lamb Sheep's grandmother cross the road when they see her. ;3; Mr. Cocker stops for them and smiles in approval at their good deed, Patty and Rolley arrive, clapping for them as they've found them, and the boys are shy.

Kin, Kon, and Kan apologize to Patty for earlier, promising to be good from now on. She tells them they're already good enough... which prompts all three to, once again, demand food. Popcorn from the Sheep family's popcorn vendor!

This was adorable and sweet. ;3; I was also so happy to see my favourites from Palm Town, the cat brothers! I thought they'd include Gretel Wolf (Wilde Wolf) instead because Kin, Kon, and Kan were here, but no, we got to see the cats play catch (... a bit too aggressively, ending in Gunta nearly getting hit by a car going after the ball!), but it's nice to see them have fun.

Heartwarming and wholesome, like any episode of Maple Town. ^^

[penguin--person]

Would you be willing to show more alík I love them so much they r very cool n so are you

thank you!!!:D!!!! i rlly appreciate it!!! alík's toyhouse is here if you wanna see more images of her, most, if not all, of them are there!! here's some of my fave images of her tho:3 more stuff about her under cut

she's sooo silly goofy... she's got a whole escape au !! she dates sanya in it and she joins tsar and arthurs shitty band and she does the worst screamo ever dude. she goes AUURHGHRRGHGRRRR!!!!!!! TITS AND COCK!!!!!!! and the club goes wild. they love her. despite her visible mutation, she does Not get reported! one reason is, people rlly like her screamo. its very "I WILL FUCK YOUR GIRLFIREND AND YOUR MOM" and also "I AM GOING TO TEAR YOU APART (detailed gore description)" "LIFE SUCKS SHIT BUT YOU SUCK DICK SO WHAT" , its not like "ohh life sucks ass", which most of the bands at the parties play. not rlly depressing. so, people dont report her, bc she spices the place up:3 also like, some people are sorta scared of her . wolf moment. shes not intimidating on purpose shes just like that. and also like if they try to report her she just runs away. n the gang then deals with it

about her dating sanya: shes got a whole arc about that !! sanya "handholding ?!?! who do you think i am ?!?!" x alík (describes in detail how she would fuck your mom) hehe... its like. so. okay. how will sanya deal with the realisation that shes into girls, that shes into a mutant, a dangerous one, one that cannot hide, one that sergei will report if he sees, one that sergei won't accept because she's a girl (tho alík could just go "yeah man im a boy" and sergei would believe her) (hes sergei hes a slav guy in his late twenties hes gonna be at least a bit homophobic), one that sergei won't accept because she's mutant, one that is objectively dangerous, one that she rlly cares for and wants to be safe. but one that she can never have a normal life with. how will alík deal with liking a girl so cute and awesome and cool, and how will she deal with never being fully accepted. how will she deal with being loved but not as much as she needs, but as much as sanya can? how will she deal with all the homophobia bullshit for the first time ever? how will she deal with being called a girl . its sooo. theyre so 'violence - against me' coded... heres their playlist

she beats yura up all the time. she acts like tsar is a stray pup and likes to throw him around. battle buddies with ivan. has a bit of a crush on yana.

its. man. i sometimes think about like, sanya taking alík and yura to hang out at her place. n sanyas sooo happy shes like "hi sir mr sir hi mr sergei thank you for having me:)" wagging her tail happy to be included while sergeis calling the containtment services on her . messed up

shes soooo shes so shes so shes so. she loves calling herself a dog bc it makes her seem 'tamer' than if she calls herself a wolf. if she calls herself a dog, shes obedient, something that can be loved, tamed, trained, that can be accepted. but if shes a wolf shes dangerous, shouldnt be here, and has to be put down.

shes sooo . god. and i havent even touched her friendship with zt001 . fucked up. she has a prey drive. shes still got wolf instincts. she can't stand to be human but she can't stand being in her wolf form either because she only has it associated with experiments and pain and she can never just run around and get sticks. would other wolves like her? would they take her in, or would they cast her away, too? i dont know man. shes so wild. definetly not human but only sometimes wolf. she loves being a wolf but shes not a wolf shes a human but shes not because shes a wolf. its like jerrys hallway in seinfeld or some shit. it should not be but it is

shes goofy tho she doesnt think sex is real she thinks its one big joke. she hunts down rats and such to eat. shes so normal. shes not a 'she' in any way that matters to her. its so normal

also her name is like. so. alík is czech. alík is some kinda dog name here - or, maybe it's not! maybe i just messed up and its not a dog name at all. either way its a masc one, shes got a Boy Name. my mutant is gnc af. and she didn't choose it ! the scientists gave her that nickname. its like if they started calling her "max" or some other popular dog name. its degrading. but its hers, and, its the only thing she has. so she takes it.

her real name doesn't matter. doesn't even have one in a meta sense. if she were to give herself a name itd be rastislav or some shit like that

thank you very much again for the ask!!!

[waitingx2xdie]

Darcy had her eyes on Nora from the MOMENT she entered the coffee shop. They didn’t get many NEW customers, in truth. They lived in the suburbs with a steady stream of regulars. Who would go out of their way to travel to WHITE PLAINS, WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK when NEW YORK CITY was an hour's drive southbound down I-87. Only tourists they got were people passing through from Maine, Vermont & Canada. And nobody on a road trip stopped for very long or took the time to CONNECT with the locals, instead using White Plains as a convenient rest stop and to grab a quick bite for the road. Perhaps she’d also, deep down, recognized Mrs Carpenter from her Freshman year? “There we go. That’s better. You should smile more often. It’s TOO TRAGIC to keep a smile THAT PRETTY from the world.” A snort and she looked down, blushing as her former teacher CALLED OUT her shameless flirtations. “You see those girls?” A nod across to former classmates. She waited for Nora to turn her attention over toward them before wiping down the counter and leaning over it with her elbow. “You see me talking to them or you?” Fingers inadvertently, subconsciously began to twirl around her hair as she smiled with just a HINT of teasing mischief behind it. “Jerks will be jerks, more like.” She let out an exhausted exhale. “Fucking douchebags.” A catcall came as if summoning the DEVIL ITSELF. ‘Hey, Darcccyyy, where’s that cherry pie, baby girl?’ A roll of her eyes and tilt of her head toward the ceiling. 

“Give me one sec…” Two quick cuts and she lazily spooned another slice of cherry pie onto a second plate, dumping it like WASTE IN THE LANDFILL. A quick walk over to Scottie and she slid it across to him. “That’ll be $5.75.” He shifted to the edge of the booth, pulling the plate over toward him where he reached out to grab a HANDFUL of her ass. ‘Just put it on my tab, bab--’ Quick SLAP and his dumb man-child friends let out dramatic ohhhhs as Darcy walked away, returning to the SANCTUARY of her former teacher. “Ugh. See what I mean? Creep… Dale would do something about it if he wasn’t our biggest customer.” Another sigh. “Those people are my only friend, my boss, and that douche over there. Ronnie is our boss's cousin, sells cigs to Scottie on the DL. He’s also a jerk.” Short PAUSE as Nora turned the topic back over to Cheryl. “Uhh… Yeah… Some kinda lion or wolf or wolverine? Scratched her up pretty bad. Told her to get checked for infection. Had a REAL bad reaction to it last night.” Eyes fluttered back to Nora, stomach warming, butterflies released like doves at a wedding, fluttering around inside her intestines, she smiled. How QUICKLY Nora chased away all that stress… “That depends. Our reputation precedes us here at the Skyline Cafe. As for MY cherry pie…” She bit her, eyes dipping, measuring up Nora SHAMELESSLY now, her clit throbbing, heart fluttering. “There’s been a few lucky girls. None of them measured up though. Why do you ask? Wanna test your own luck?” Brow WAGGLED, tongue pushing into her canine. “Didn’t take you for a lez.” AND YET. AND. YET.

"Well, after I have a taste, maybe I'll leave a review."

Speechless. Speechless. And then she smiled. And then she laughed. And turned those lusty hazel orbs back to the older woman. “Someone’s confident~...” She was playing with her hair again. (When had that happened?) “Ahh, I see~ Well, how about this…” Tongue was playfully performing tricks behind her teeth before pressing against the GAP between them and she was pulled out her notepad and pen. “You take this…” Hands scratched on her number and ripped the page out. “And the next time you want it HOT, give me a call, and I’ll be sure to have one ready for you when you drop by~....” Fingers VERY EXPRESSLY tucked the page into Nora’s BREAST POCKET, hand lingering for longer than it maybe should have. And it hesitated EVEN LONGER when Nora dropped the unexpected BOMBSHELL. “Wait…” Heart dropped out of her chest like a boulder crushing all those little butterflies as it anchored itself in free fall RIGHT in her gut. “You’re with someone?” Darcy wasn’t okay with that. She didn’t know WHAT this was, or at least, what it was GOING to become. She’d already signed up for something at least explicitly CASUAL, but… There had to be a line drawn somewhere, right? If Nora was going to sleep around casually, she PROBABLY shouldn’t have been cohabiting with someone else she was sleeping with… Unless… “You guys in an open relationship?” Heart still ACHED. Shit. Was Darcy getting herself in over her head? 

“Right. Right.” It took a few minutes for the CREAM to click and she shook her head of all the cobwebs and confusion. She had been WAY too forward. WAY. WAY. WAY. Too forward… And now… Now… Dear God… First. Cream. Game face, Darcy, game face. Hands fumbled with the can, heart racing and she initially squirted the cream back onto her own palm. “Shit!” Hushed whisper as she quickly snatched a napkin to clean her hand up and tried again, making sure the nozzle was pointed AT the plate, squirting a nice helping of cream on the cherry pie. “There we go…” A drunken sigh and she forced a smile. “One cherry pie with cream. That’ll be 5.75?” Move over to the kitchen to douse her hands in water and finish cleaning up the cream and she returned for another napkin to dry her hands. “So, where were we, Tim, right? That was his--...” She’d been TRYING to shift the conversation away from SEX, at least until she knew she wasn’t intruding on some happy home; shielding herself from inevitable HEARTBREAK. (Wait, heartbreak?) “Oh, I… I’m sorry…” Only people who wanted to suddenly drop the topic of their son only had TRAGEDY behind the reasons. Darcy had no idea WHAT. Maybe she’d lost custody? Or he emancipated himself? Or they had a fight? Or he was living with his--... Right… That was why she never had Mrs Carpenter in her Sophomore year… Her husband had died in a horrible accident and… And she needed to cut down on classes to focus on being a mom in the absence of a second parent… Darcy was getting a BAD feeling about this… Yeah, he was either in a hospital, asylum, foster care, or… Thank GOD Darcy hadn’t seen the news four months ago…

“Had?” She allowed Nora to SHIFT the conversation, besides, by this point the initial SHOCK of the potential of Nora having a main squeeze back home had passed on by. Or maybe Darcy just… Didn’t like seeing pretty girls counting tiles. (Yes, she was doing it again.) “That’s my number in your pocket. Something tells me my little crush isn’t past tense, yet.” Lick of her lips & she smiled, snorting in amusement, red creeping up her cheeks to ears. “I. Plead the fifth. Though, it IS worth noting that you’re the only one who ever caught me, sooo… Maybe subconsciously I was?” Darcy’s, uhh… relationship? With Fran wasn’t so CUT & DRY. Honestly, maybe if it HAD been, she’d still remember her full name. “Fran was… bicurious. I guess TECHNICALLY we both were, but I… I knew… I knew… I was just in denial because of my dad. You know how it is. Fran & I, we’d sneak away, and have a 'lil harmless fun. Then she got a boyfriend and that was that.” Words spoken with a simple & dull cadence. A sign of just how detached she was from the experience. Though, in a way, Darcy was aware that her LACK of heartbreak at being used as a bicurious stopgap for a straight girl only provided further evidence that her CURRENT heartbreak at the mere SUGGESTION that she was going to be Nora’s BIT ON THE SIDE was… Well… Yeah, DARCY WAS IN WAY TOO DEEP…

'Maybe I just don't like seeing pretty girls counting tiles.'

Hazels drifted back to the countertop she'd been ANXIOUSLY TAPPING AWAY AT before the blonde brought over her coffee. A subconscious smile tugged at lips. She really wasn't used to being so shamelessly flirted with. Sure, since Eric passed away, she 'd had a few conversations with guys who were clearly interested in her. & Lately, she'd been getting a lot... CLOSER to Kat Jennings. But, it wasn't like the workaholic was quick to toss compliments her way. Even when she was drunk, she still refused to acknowledge the growing attraction between them. There was something... Sort of REFRESHING about how blunt the waitress was being. Only other person who had been so in her face about wanting to have sex with she had been HER OWN SISTER. Suffice to say; That didn't have the same effect. (she couldn't say it had zero effect, though) "Is that a general rule of yours, or am I special again?" A not-so-subtle way of asking the girl if she flirted with EVERY pretty girl she met. ( why did she even care? ) ─ "Boys will be boys, I suppose." There was the taste of something BITTER on her tongue. Was she judging him, or was she jealous? A little of both, perhaps. Not that her own mind would allow her to process that information. Nora wasn't the sleep around with random people type. She didn't usually get jealous in general. Yet... Lately... The winds had been changing .

Nora's age & inexperience had never been MORE OBVIOUS . She really didn't know how to navigate this conversation. It wasn't that she wasn't ENJOYING THE COMPANY . Hell, she was enjoying it more than she should be. As a widow to a man she'd devoted her life to under the watchful eye of God nearly twenty years ago? She'd sure turned her gaze elsewhere as of late. Not only to a new man, NO . That would be sinful enough. She' d turned it to not one, but two people of the same gender. (three if she were being completely honest, which she never would be) & What was even WORSE than that? This one was young enough TO BE HER OWN CHILD . Luckily for her, the other seemed too distracted by the liquor in her system & her own RAMBLING-ONS that she hadn't called her out for how shitty she was at this whole flirting thing. (wait, was she trying to return the flirtation?) ─ "I... Have no clue who those people are." Soft chuckled, she shook her head & took another glance at the little heart. It almost felt like A WASTE to drink it now. "Did you say she got attacked by an animal?" That didn't sound good. If there was some wild, carnivorous animal prowling the streets, she really shouldn't be walking home alone... Not with DEATH looming at her doorstep. "How many critics do you have testing your cherry pie?" Were they talking about pie or that sweet spot between those creamy thighs? Wait. SWEET SPOT? What the hell had gotten into her lately... She was gonna have to say extra prayers tonight before bed . "Well, after I have a taste, maybe I'll leave a review." The implication was... GLARING . Tongue swept across lips.

"You could say that." She'd blame the pie being pushed before her for the way she'd wet her lips, not the thought of TASTING the young girl's... Oh God. Screw extra prayers. She was gonna have to go to confession & say 3 rosaries after tonight. (she wasn't even catholic, she just felt she needed it) "Usually I like it HOT ." Emphasis on the word, voice deeper than intended. "But I've got someone waiting for me back home, so we've gotta make this A QUICKIE ." Two people were waiting for her, actually. & They were going to be freaking out the whole time Nora was away. They'd probably already tried to text or call her, but she had her phone tucked away in her purse. It was HER TIME to go next so... Kat should be SAFE . "Yeah. I'll take some cream." Small smile at the poor fumbling mess of a girl. She couldn't tell if it was the alcohol in Darcy's system, or if she was blushing. Either way, it was cute. ( cute? )

Bringing up Tim was a bad idea ─ Sometimes these memories just slipped through the cracks. Was the worst when it was in public. She felt like EVERYONE was watching her. Waiting for her to BREAK . (they weren't right?) At the very least, Darcy was. Shaky breath & a forced smile as she pushed back all of her emotions, but could she really hide it? Nora had always worn her heart on her sleeve. "I'd rather not talk about it." Keeping this CASUAL was for the best. She already had enough people emotionally involved in her life. She needed someone she could go to who didn't KNOW everything. Someone she could ESCAPE from the pain with. "So, about that crush you had on me. Is that why I kept catching you making out with girls all the time? Were you trying to make me jealous?" SHE'S TEASING . (of course she is, the girl was a freshman at the time & she'd been 32) That said, it had always felt... Weirdly coincidental that almost all times she ran into Darcy outside of class, the girl was getting her smooch on with Francine Bernard. She'd just assumed she was her girlfriend. Maybe she was? A crush didn't mean you couldn't date someone.