#she'll tell the serial killer who kidnaps her

[sortasirius]

"Ghost of a Second Chance" and the Haunting of Eddie Diaz

Okay I finally have some semblance of cohesive thoughts on this episode, so here goes.

Long ass post below:

First of all, the stalker/kidnapping situation was, in fact, harrowing. 911 always knows how to pull off a good twist, I had no inkling that she HADN'T been kidnapped by her husband until Athena figured it out.

The theme of this whole post is, essentially, that I love the way 911 handles past trauma. It's messy and difficult and often not a linear path to healing. We see that with Maddie and with Eddie in this episode in particular, with foreshadowing for Bobby as well.

Sorry I just love seeing them work a call, like these are my emotional support firefighters <3

I'm also loving this arc with Hen and Karen, they're such good parents and are fighting so hard for Mara. And to have Denny be the one she talks to first? To have him be the one that she opens up to? They've raised him so so so well.

Chris is the best and I love him.

And so...Eddie.

"Not too late. We can turn around and leave her now."

Yeah alright, throwaway line meant to be a joke. Sure. But we really don't know Marisol like that. We haven't spent enough time with her to know that he doesn't actually feel this way. Hell, the last time we had a scene with her he was asking her to move out and grinning from ear to ear when she agreed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that...he's just not that into her.

And here we are, with Chris and Marisol walking ahead of him, and Eddie looking into a store to see Shannon's literal doppleganger folding some shirts.

Immediately, we get scenes of them together. Laughing, kissing, looking at one another, but there are a few things that I find interesting here, first and foremost how these shots are colored.

They're washed out, not fully black and white, but sort of greyscale. I saw someone else talk about how they're colored this way because Eddie doesn't remember them clearly anymore, and I have latched onto this, it makes perfect sense.

I do think part of him is terrified of losing these memories, clinging to them in a way, and seeing this woman in the store sort of brought them all to the surface, giving him something to almost cling to.

"You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Yeah haha, just saw the double of my dead wife in the store, no biggie.

I have to laugh.

When Maddie realizes that Catherine never told her that she was with her husband, you can really tell that this call is dragging up a lot for her, which goes back to my point on how well this show portrays non-linear healing. Even though she left Doug in the woods and moved on with her life, even though she has Jee and fought her PPD and won, even though she's married to Chimney, a part of her will always look over her shoulder expecting to see him there. She's come such a long way, but trauma like that doesn't just go away, it's something that she'll battle forever.

I'm also loving the look into the broken foster system for Hen and Karen. They want to do right by Mara, but how can they when they're not given all the information, when they weren't told about Tyson because Deirdre wasn't allowed to tell them?

I loved Amir's scene with Maddie and I'm DEPRESSED that he's going to try and kill the love of my life Bobby.

Eddie just LURKING outside this store to see mirror Shannon...boy...

Sorry but the "do you trust me?" YOU'RE SELLING HIM A CANDLE GIRL HE DOESN'T KNOW YOU.

"Well then you have no reason not to trust me." Spoken like a true serial killer lmfao.

Unfortunately Eddie Diaz is in the depths of delusion and this corny line worked on him.

You have to admit it is so fucking funny that he's on the brink of cheating with a sales associate trying to sell him an ugly ass keychain who looks like his dead wife who asked him for a divorce approximately 37 seconds before she died. Like that is peak comedy and I won't pretend otherwise.

"It's me, your husband?" Chim I know you say this to Maddie 400 times a day and I love you for it.

"Tell me about the woman in the passenger seat of that car."

He's so open with her, so unafraid to see her as she is, the good and the scary, and he loves her anyway, just as she loves him. Sorry I'm just emo about them.

I genuinely could not tell the difference between blonde Shannon and bangs Shannon. I had a meltdown through that entire scene thinking that he was fucking Kim. But it's fine because he was just fantasizing about fucking his dead wife while carrying a conversation with his girlfriend.

Eddie Diaz let me study you.

I find this idea so fascinating, the way he’s clearly looking at their relationship with rose colored glasses, how he remembers the positives only, not the fights, not the arguments, not the fact that he ran away from her twice when he enlisted in the army. He only remembers the good sex, the smiles, the laughter, even though that was a tiny part of their relationship, nearly negligible at times.

This isn’t the first time Eddie’s done this either, he’s talked before about how their relationship was “magic” when it definitely wasn’t.

Overall, I find this a really interesting look into grief, into how we remember the best parts of people we loved, how we can be so willing to forget the things that didn’t work, the anger and the fights.

Eddie has never really dealt with Shannon's death, he’s pushed it to the side for Chris, keeps going even when he feels like he’s going to break apart. And now it seems like it's finally caught up with him, like meeting Kim tore it all open again, and he's haunted by Shannon again, by his guilt for how it ended and what he wished he had done differently.

OBSESSED with Buck tackling this guy like yes himbo king use those football skills.

AND Dad reflexes Chim I truly am living.

I feel like Vincent has no idea that she brought Tyson to see Mara, and I feel like that will come back into play later.

Domestic Buddie and Chris scene <3

Look not to be a total shill for Buddie (who am I kidding we all know what I am) but there's something so...weirdly intimate about Eddie just knowing their pizza order. And it's their order, not just Buck's, like Eddie would be joining them if he wasn't meeting "Marisol."

They are seriously family shaped and I love them.

Jee and Chim and Maddie GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

Now, for the elephant in the room: Kim and Eddie going on a date behind Marisol (and Buck’s) back. Look, I know I’m in the vast, vast minority here, but I don’t hate a cheating arc in fiction. It happens in life, more often than most people want to think about, and it makes for an interesting storyline. But at this point, Eddie hasn’t really cheated (even thought I was CONVINCED he had with that flashback lmao). He’s toeing a dangerous line, yeah, but having dinner with Kim isn’t inherently cheating, even though he is lying to Buck and his real actual girlfriend.

It’s fascinating to see him be okay with this but his “catholic guilt” stands in the way of him having sex with his girlfriend because she was a nun once. I think him seeing Kim like this really hammers home the point that he doesn’t even really like Marisol. He’s certainly not committed to her in any meaningful way, or he wouldn’t be entertaining Kim.

And let’s not forget, he’s lying to Kim too! He told her he was single and he’s not!

Kim isn’t Shannon, she will never be able to fill that void that Eddie is still desperately searching to fill, because no one can fill that void, not even Shannon.

The theme of the episode is, in its way, stalking. The overall plotline of Kyle stalking and kidnapping women, Eddie sort of following Kim around, even Karen making that offhanded comment that she felt like a stalker. But it feels like Eddie's guilt and unprocessed grief over his relationship with Shannon is stalking him in a way. He believes that their relationship was perfect, that if he could just find the right woman, everything would be fixed, he wouldn't have to grieve her anymore. But that's just not how things work, and I don't believe that there is any woman, not even Shannon herself, that could fit on the pedestal that Eddie has created for her.

The way that Shannon has kind of haunted Eddie's narrative from the moment she died, how she looms over every relationship he has... he's always chasing her memory, but not her true memory, he's chasing the memory that he's creating for himself. The beautiful one where they never fought, he never ran, she never left. But that memory doesn't exist, and it never has.

Eddie is looking for something that he’ll never be able to find. He’s looking for a woman that can be the mother that Shannon was to Chris, but with a partnership that doesn’t make him want to run away…or panic…or cheat.

Where is he going to find that? I think we all know he’s already found it, just not with a woman.

I’ll be so interested to see what this turns into. I love the idea that Buck or one of the others meets Kim and she looks nothing like Shannon to them, because it would be so unsettling for everyone to basically be like “what are you seeing in this random woman that makes you think of your dead wife?” What’s the fallout going to be? Eddie is obviously not well, he’s spiraling and will likely hide it from everyone, just like he tried to hide his struggles with PTSD from everyone as well.

He’s such a fascinating character, and I think the way the writers are bringing up this catholic guilt storyline now could be really compelling if it leads to a larger realization. Marisol is a red herring, we don’t even care enough about her to learn her last name, but she’s a catalyst for Eddie’s guilt at being with someone that brings up his feelings about religion, about what’s “right” and “wrong." And I feel like this could lead to a larger realization.

Maybe even about the man who is more of his partner and parent to his son than any of his girlfriends have been.

[starry-blue-echoes]

Oh I had. A thought for the Cinderella Rewrite AU. Because now there's a girl out there who is extraordinarily pissed at Yukako, right?

Well that's great for Yoshihiro Kira who is trying to find people willing to distract the Morioh Gang from hunting down and finding his son. And this girl already has a grudge against one of them? Perfect Enemy Stand potential!

There are so many ways this plotline could go which is amazing. Does the girl learn the error of her ways or remain stubborn, becoming a shadow archetype to Yukako, someone unwilling to settle her feelings in a healthy way? Does Koichi beat her or does Yukako? Does this happen on The Thursday? If so, does Yukako reluctantly drag in someone like Hazamada to help or does she try to go it alone only to fail and need the help of, say, Joseph or Tonio?

Speaking of which, if it isn't on The Thursday, where is Yukako during All Of That?

OOOOOOOOOOO THAT'S A FUN IDEA TO GO WITH AND A GREAT WAY TO TURN THIS INTO A THREE SECTION ARC 👀👀👀

While I have no idea what her Stand could be, I LOVE the idea of her being turned into a Stand User and getting involved in The Thursday. Maybe she ends up teaming up with Terunosuke in the kidnapping of Koichi and it sorta skews how everything goes. What her Stand is will definitely impact how things are going, but with how we've created her there are. So many possibilities and I'm not sure which would be best. I do think it should be more inclined to trickery than straight up power but other than that I've got nothing

ANYWAYS tho, as for how this ties into things and redirects them: maybe the girl (also, we really need to give her a name don't we) was set up to work with Terunosuke, but under the condition that Koichi and Yukako were hers. Teru does his thing and kidnaps Koichi and Tomoko, but he ends up passing Paper Koichi off to the girl

Josuke, Okuyasu, Yukako and Yuya are all going to temporarily be together and chasing after Terunosuke, but maybe somewhere during the chase the girl ends up jumping them and goads Yukako into a fight. Yukako tells the others to go on ahead and keep chasing after Teru and that she'll catch up later. It only after they've left that Yukako learns Koichi is actually here. I'd imagine their fight is a lot of chasing and shouting, and personally I really like the possibility of Tonio and Joseph getting involved, though I'm not super sure how

Koichi definitely gets freed at some point, and when he joins the fight there's a noticeable difference in the tide. After all, out of the four of them Koichi has the 2nd most combat experience (plus, Joseph's gotten a bit nerfed because of his age) and isn't afraid to pull his punches if he genuinely believes he's in danger. He's had like. Three near death experiences at this point, two of which could be argued were just flat out death, plus who knows how many other fights where his friends were in danger. Koichi knows what's at risk here and he's not going to let anyone else get hurt if he can help it. (Now, he's not going for lethal shots, but he's definitly aiming to hurt)

and maybe that's how Tonio and Joseph get involved? For safety and potential back up, Koichi and Yukako ended up running to Tonio's since it was the closest place and Joseph just happened to be there (Shizuka is fine tho, she's Jotaro at the moment), and they end up getting wrapped into things

for the resolution of this, I'll admit I really want to play into the fact that this girl has no IDEA what's actually going on or how much is actually at stake here, and how her ignorance to it has consequences. She's far from blameless of course, she did do some really fucked up shit in the past and now, but she also had no idea she's gotten involved with serial killers who are looking to do far worse than high school bullying. She'd been so wrapped up in her own little world of getting revenge that she hadn't thought to think Hey Maybe The Weird Picture Man With The Arrow Doesn't Have My Best Interests At Heart

Now does this mean she gets off scott free? No, and to be honest given the amount of property damage and kidnapping and manipulation she's done she's definitely going to be on the Foundation's radar, double especially because she's a User who was again, working for a known serial killer (albeit unknowingly)

but finally, after weeks and weeks of all of this happening, she finally gets to see how there's more to this world that her immediate circle and there are going to be concesuqences for her actions

[no-goodbyes-no-regrets]

Written for @tarlosweeklyprompts prompt of the day: Love

Aimée (AO3)

Aimée is pronounced kind of like "eh-may" and it's French for beloved. So yes I cheated a little with today's prompt.

----

"Dude, if that husband of yours doesn't get here soon, we're starting without him." Nancy said, before popping a chip in her mouth.

"Carlos is always very punctual. It's annoying." Iris commented.

It was the first official 126 hang after they got married a few months ago, and the first they invited Iris to.

TK liked her now he'd gotten to know her better. She'd been Carlos' best person at the wedding and they'd discovered she and TK had a very similar sense of humour.

They'd joked about Carlos having a type and the blushing stammering mess he'd turned into had made TK fall in love with him even more.

"Maybe he got kidnapped again." Mateo suggested, earning him a glare from just about everyone in the room. "What? It's possible!"

"Carlos did not get kidnapped, ok?" TK insisted, though the thought was always in the back of his mind whenever Carlos was home later than planned. "I'm sure he's just running late. I'll call him again."

He pulled up Carlos' contact and hit call, thankful it actually rang and didn't go straight to voicemail.

"Hey baby." Carlos answered after what seemed like hours.

"Baby where are you? We're all waiting for you."

"Put him on speaker." Nancy insisted and TK did as she asked. "Reyes if you're not here in 10 minutes we're starting without you and eating all of your chips."

"You always do that already anyway." Carlos deadpanned. "I'm just walking out the door now. I'll be home in 20 minutes. 25 tops."

TK frowned at his phone.

"The station is only 15 minutes away. Where are you coming from?"

"Lexi's place. She uh... had something for me I had to pick up. Something I needed."

"Like what?"

"Just... stuff. I have to go. I'll be home soon. I love you."

"We love you too, Carlos!" Mateo called out, making the rest of the gang laugh.

"I don't think he was talking to you." Iris pointed out. "He's not married to you, he's married to TK. He is TK's heart. He told me himself."

"I know, I was just joking. Though I guess I do love him? As a friend I mean. He is one of my best friends."

TK tuned the rest of the conversation out and continued to stare at his phone. He opened his text thread with Carlos and typed and deleted similar versions of the same text a few times.

"You ok bud?" Nancy was standing next to him and he realised he hadn't even noticed her getting up.

"Yeah... No... I just... He's lying to me." TK stammered. "Not even three months into our marriage and he's lying to me."

"You don't know that. Let's talk this through. Who is Lexi? Is that someone he works with?"

"Yeah... she's his partner. They've worked together for years. She was at the wedding. She danced with Marj."

"Ok. Do you have her number?"

"Yeah... but I can't just call her."

"Why not?"

"Because... she'll tell him and he'll think I'm checking up on him because I don't trust him."

"Isn't that exactly the case?"

"No. I trust him with my life." TK vowed.

"But...?" Nancy prompted.

"But... I can't help but think about the last time he told me he was going somewhere and then he ended up bound and gagged and drugged in a serial killer's kitchen."

"So, just call her and tell her you're worried."

"No... I can't."

"Just do it dude. I came here to have fun with my friends, not to watch you mope around all night."

"I'm not moping!" TK protested and Nancy just raised an eyebrow at him in reply. "I'm just... worried. Paranoid?"

"Oh you're definitely paranoid, but if you don't call that Lexi person, I will."

TK rolled his eyes but knew her well enough to know she would take his phone and call Lexi. He pulled up her number and hit call.

She answered almost right away, as if she'd been waiting for the call.

"Hey TK."

"Lexi, hi, sorry for disturbing you but uhm... is Carlos with you?"

"No he left about 10 minutes ago. Didn't he call you?"

"No he did, he did... I was just... I don't know... I didn't know he was going anywhere after his shift."

"It was kind of a last minute thing. But I promise you he was in one piece when he left here and he was going straight home."

"Right. Ok. Sorry for bothering you..."

"It's fine. I'd be worried too after what he got himself caught up in last time he was home late." Lexi told him, sounding like she'd rehearsed the line or at least already repeated it a few times.

"Yeah... I just don't want to be a widower before we even make it to three months."

"Don't worry, he's fine. He's kind of a dumbass but he's fine."

"A dumbass? Why? What did he do? What happened?"

"He made me promise not to say anything... but you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You'll see when he gets home."

"Right..."

"If it was something bad I would have told you, TK. You're my friend too and stupidity does not trump loyalty."

TK smiled.

"Alright. Have a good night Lexi."

"Thanks. You too. And when your husband gets home, please call him an idiot from me."

TK promised he would and they ended the call.

"See? Nothing to worry about." Nancy said. "He's probably picking up some kind of anniversary present for you. You two are the kind of people who would celebrate your wedding anniversary every month."

TK bit his lip, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it.

They rejoined the rest of the group and TK did his best to try and keep up with the conversations around him, but his mind kept drifting to Carlos.

About ten minutes later his phone rang and Carlos' name flashed up on the screen.

"Oh gross, you have him as husband ❤ in your phone?" Nancy commented after glancing at his phone screen.

"Shut up." TK mumbled before answering the call. "Carlos? Where are you?"

"Coming up in the elevator right now. Do you want to meet me in the hallway?"

"What? Why?"

"There's something you need to see before I come into the house."

"Why are you being so secretive? What did you do?"

"Did you get his name tattooed across your heart, Carlos?" Nancy yelled over TK's shoulder, who shoved her away as he got up. "What makes you think he doesn't already have that? And that it's across his heart and not somewhere else?"

Nancy made a disgusted face and everyone laughed as TK went to slide open the door.

He was confused for a minute until he saw Carlos coming around the corner. And he wasn't alone.

"Oh my god. Hi you!" he dropped to his knees. "Who are you? What is your name?"

"Her name is Aimée. It means beloved in French. She needed a place to stay for a while."

"Oh really? Are you coming to stay with me and Carlos? Do you want to come to work with me tomorrow? Or are you going with Carlos? Oh am I getting kisses? You are so sweet! Yes you are!"

"Did you buy a dog?" Iris asked. The whole gang had gathered in the hallway where TK was currently being licked to death by a very affectionate brown and white pitbull.

"No, I just kind of took some work home with me." Carlos told her. "She's a K9 officer. A police dog. Only her handler got shot and she needed someone to look after her while he recovers." he explained when the look on her face told him she didn't understand.

"They just let you take police dogs home with you? I have the wrong job." Mateo commented and bent down to greet the dog who had noticed the other humans and their cuddle potential.

"Not exactly. But her handler is one of my training officers from when I first joined the force as a rookie. He asked me to take her while he's out of action."

"But why the lying and the secrets?" TK asked, letting Carlos pull him to his feet and greet him with a kiss.

"You know the dog just licked his face, right?" Iris asked, looking mildly disgusted, and Carlos just about managed to stop TK from making a comment about Carlos having had 'worse' things in his mouth than a little doggy drool.

"That's ok. I don't mind." he said quickly.

"You really love him don't you?" She asked, still not over the kiss she'd just witnessed. "I mean I love you and I love Dylan... and I love dogs too... but I wouldn't kiss one."

"Well that's where we're different." Carlos said with a grin and kissed TK again for emphasis. "Wait, who is Dylan?"

"My boyfriend." Iris said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Keep up babe." TK patted his chest and focused on the dog again. "Aimée come here girl. Come."

"She's very sweet and well behaved when she's off duty. Well on duty too. I got some of her stuff from the station but her food and everything is at Frank's place and he lives on the other side of the city... So I just borrowed some stuff from Lexi from her dog." Carlos explained. "That's why I was at her place."

"So why was she calling you a dumbass?" Nancy asked.

"I wanted to surprise TK... she told me not to because of what happened last time I wasn't honest about where I was going..."

"She was right. I was worried when you were being all weird. And you're a terrible liar." TK told him. "But you're kind of cute so I think I'll keep you around." he joked and bent down to pick up Aimée's lead and took her into the loft, Carlos and the rest of the gang following behind.

TK made a beeline for the fridge to find a snack for Aimée, all while talking to the dog and calling her the best girl over and over.

"I've got treats and food for her in this bag." Carlos said, holding up a plastic bag. "And her bed and favourite toy are in the car."

"Didn't you say her handler got shot today?"

"Yeah..."

"That means she got shot at. So she had a rough day and deserves a special treat." TK reasoned and fed her some bits of sausage.

"Are you seriously feeding her the Kosher sausages you bought for your mom?"

"I didn't think dogs had to eat Kosher? Are dogs Jewish?" Iris commented, starting a whole debate between her and Mateo on how dogs fit into religion.

"She'll understand. And we can always pick up some more before they all come down next week. Or we'll just take her out to dinner somewhere." TK shrugged and held up his hand in front of Aimée's face. "Can you high five?"

"That's not exactly the kind of thing she's been trained to do, babe."

"That's ok. We can work on that."

Carlos watched TK explain high fives to the dog by taking her paw and touching his hand with it and feeding her sausage afterwards.

"You know you're going to have to transfer to the K9 unit now, right?" Paul asked and patted him on the back.

Carlos just laughed and thought of the transfer request paperwork he'd filled in after he got back from hospital and had picked Aimée up from the kennel. He'd tell TK about that later. When he's sure his request has been approved. And Aimée is officially theirs.

[mrs-weasley-reid]

ESCAPE IS MANDATORY

platonic Spencer Reid x geniusbau!reader | part 4 ↳ part 1 | part 2 | part 3

Synopsis: prison changed Spencer, and along with it were a couple of horrible choices you refused to tolerate, hence a threat to your years of friendship. But all of it disappeared as soon as an unsub threatened your life. Word Count: 2k+ WARNING: details of death, violence, kidnapping and infidelity. curse word(s). jerky spencer. A/N: I can't believe it has been over a year since I posted this mini-series (me just disappearing out of nowhere, lol). This draft has been sitting for a year. I never published it because it felt boring (I still do, somehow), but I wanted to celebrate the series reaching a year old HAHA! Anywayyyy, as usual, this might be heavy, so be mindful when reading.

Luther Gerard grinned maniacally, leaning against his seat, "Let me guess... sister? Oh, but she's too pretty to be related to you." His cuffed hand caressed your picture on the table, "Lover, perhaps?"

Spencer's jaw clenched, "Where. Is. She?" His palms were itchy, breathing steadily as he kept them flat on the table.

This unsub was unlike any other serial killer he had encountered. Luther Gerard, age 38, is an average plumber but one hell of a genius, almost as dangerously intelligent as Spencer, with 186 IQ.

Spencer would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. He was terrified to the bone. Because this time, the UnsUb had 83.248% outsmarting him, and the victim was you.

"Anyone wanna hear how I picked her up?" Luther glanced at the two-sided mirror, chuckling, "I'll take the silence as a yes."

He looked at Spencer straight in his eyes, "It was dim, but not too much. She was 40 feet away from the precinct entrance... 15 from you. She looked pretty mad when she turned her back, but she looked so hurt walking away. I can remember her tears. Oh, they were sweet and just a little salty. She knew I was there for her. She was going to scream for you. But what can I say? She was a second too slow. I was going to get your attention, but she looked so good unconscious in my arms."

"You sick son of a bitch—"

It took Luke, Matt, and three police officers to hold Spencer back. His face was red, and Luke swore he was breathing fire. His knuckles were white as he grabbed Luke's shirt and a bit of the skin on Matt's arm.

Spencer escaped from being pinned by five people with minimal struggle, grabbing Luther's collar to the point of suffocation. "Where the hell is she?! Tell me where!"

Luther laughed out loud, watching as Spencer crumbled into an angry mess. "Listen here, Dr. Reid... you can be a point smarter than me as long as you can, but she will always be two points dumber than me. She'll die in that fucking warehouse."

Emily barged into the interrogation room, "Reid." She gestured at Matt to take him out of the room, leaving Luke to get the answers they'd been looking for the past five hours.

Spencer aggressively shrugged Matt's hands on his shoulders, "I can walk," His voice grew a little softer than seconds ago, but his tone still crunched with anger.

As soon as the door shut, Spencer turned to Emily, "She's dying out there."

"You're not the only one who's worried. She's our friend, too, you know. But we won't find her if you let your emotions take over you." Emily took a deep breath, giving him a concerned look.

Spencer ran his fingers through his hair, "I'm not worried. I'm scared." He dropped his head, letting a cruel sigh pass his shivering lips.

Despite his attempt to reinsert himself in the interrogation room, Emily forbade him from coming in contact with the unsub for the rest of the evening. So, he stood next to JJ in the conference room, trying to save you in the best way he knew how: geographic profiling.

"I should've known," Spencer mumbled under his breath.

JJ turned to him, "Did you find something?" She scanned the board in front of them, hoping that she'd see what Spencer was seeing.

Spencer loosened his tie, "The victims. The location. I should've figured it out the moment we briefed about the case. It should've clicked." He guiltily looked at JJ, "I should've kept her safe."

"Spence," JJ spoke motherly. "None of us knew she was the target. You have to know that none of this is your fault." She gave him a kind look, something he knew well to differ whether it was out of pity or genuine compassion.

"But it is my fault..." He averted his eyes from her. He couldn't bear to look at anyone in their eyes, much less the thought of yours, filled with tears from his stupidity.

JJ's eyebrows gently knitted, "Did something happen the last time you saw her?"

— ✿ — ✿— ✿ ✿ ✿

2 days ago...

The afternoon's fifth hour barely struck, yet the sky was already dark. The lampposts around the precinct were enough light to at least keep you and Spencer from tripping.

None of you have said a word for the past three minutes. You even missed Emily's nod. Both of you were too occupied to care. You: with the obscene sight you just witnessed and the burning itch to smack the back of his head. Spencer: with whatever internal conflict he was going through after coming back from prison, he refused to talk to anyone about.

With every step away from the might as well named crime scene, your lips slowly unfastened. Spencer had barely clicked the SUV's key when you began.

"She's married."

"She's unhappily married."

Your eyebrows clashed, "That's not an excuse, Reid. Your wrinkly brain knows that."

"Can't you just mind your own business?" Spencer rolled his eyes, treating your conversation lighter than you wanted him to.

"I would have if only you did," You looked at him with utter disbelief. No amount of blinking would erase the sight forever etched in the back of your curse of a photographic memory. "Her unhappy marriage was her business. That was her and her husband's business."

Spencer was growing impatient with you. The signs were easy to catch. His knotted forehead. Thoughtless glare. Clenched hands deep in his pockets. An obvious Spencer-is-pissed-at-you special tell.

He straightened his back, "I was just helping her out."

"Holy shit—" You scoffed a baffled chuckle, "Are you hearing yourself? Adultery and sympathy are not the same, Reid. What the hell has gotten into your head?"

Ordinary people wouldn't have cared. Luke and Matt would disagree and judge Spencer's stupid choices but would've kept their mouths shut. Emily and David would spit a bit of advice on how morally wrong he was, but they would have minded their own business for the most part. Tara would've been disgusted but refused to get herself involved. JJ and Penelope would have been utterly disappointed and angry at him, but they wouldn't have missed a chance to make up with him.

You, however, felt nauseatingly repugnant. Years of friendship felt like a thin layer of ice loudly breaking. He knew most of your uninteresting and failed romance. How often has he lent you a back to bury your face on? The number of times he's caught not two but four of your short-term lovers shamelessly cheating. He knew well enough, too much even.

"You know what I think?" He chuckled evilly. And you knew then he was aiming for your throat. "I think you're just jealous because you don't have the aptitude to get over your dead boyfriend."

Your jaw dropped. You half-expected him to say those words, but it still surprised you. It still stung. Your tears were fighting to flow, but you had enough self-respect to not do it before him, not with his shitty attitude, at least.

You gripped the hem of your blazer, "You're a jerk. That's what you are." You took a sharp breath, biting the overflowing ache on your chest. "Come back when you've got something for the case."

A second didn't pass after you turned your back on him, and the tears immediately trailed down your face. You walked out of the parking lot as fast as you could. Crying in front of your childhood classmates felt more gratifying than in front of Spencer.

Wiping the unwanted tears from your cheeks, your feet came to a halt without warning. Something about the fifteen-foot distance from Spencer's back and the forty-foot gap from the entrance to the precinct left you terrifyingly vulnerable.

Your gears began turning.

Victims were awfully close to your build.

You're in your hometown.

And it clicked a second too late.

— ✿ — ✿— ✿ ✿ ✿

"Spence!" JJ gently shook Spencer back to reality. As soon as she knew he was back down to earth, she immediately spoke, "They found another body—"

Spencer flew out of the door before JJ could even finish speaking. He went to Luke, who was on his way to one of the SUVs. "Where?" He asked in a rush. His heart was beating right in his ear. A series of negative thoughts filled his head.

Luke had a few seconds to tell Spencer where the said body was but quickly interrupted Spencer's thoughts. "We don't know anything yet, Reid."

"But what if it's her?" Spencer snapped. He had little patience for anyone. All he knew was how important it was to see a body that's not you.

— ✿ — ✿— ✿ ✿ ✿

"Fuck!" You cried in a shattered voice.

Tears flowed nonstop down your face, along with your own blood dripping from the top of your horribly bandaged head. Luther Gerard was evil enough to let you bleed slowly to death.

Unbeknownst to him, you were the most stubborn person in the entire BAU team. You bled your way out of the place he locked you in, cursing the pain off your chest.

You have been loosening the barbwire wrapped around your feet with your bare hands for the past hour. Your hands and your feet had gotten skinned off from the sharp metal.

Hope was on your side, though, as you felt your left foot painfully slide off the wrap. You cried out in joy, holding your ankles tight as if the pain would immediately dissipate.

You wiped your tears off your face, smearing blood from your palm onto your skin. You laughed, already delirious from lack of blood. "I'm going to break your neck once I find you. Then I'll beat the hell out of Reid for taking his goddamn time."

— ✿ — ✿— ✿ ✿ ✿

Spencer felt relief wash over him as soon as he glanced at the lifeless woman being pulled out of the creek. It may have been messed up that he was thankful a different woman died, but he wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

He and Luke drove back to the precinct with a little less tense chests. They may not have found you, but the fact that you weren't the body they found meant one thing. You were still alive. That's all that mattered.

"We'll find her," Luke broke the silence between them, glancing at Spencer from his peripheral. "She's stubborn. She won't let anyone hurt her without punching back. She's probably on her way back to the precinct." He attempted to lighten the mood.

Spencer took a deep breath, "She better be." He looked outside of the car, biting his lower lip. "She has to escape wherever she is. It's mandatory. I'm not letting her die without finishing our argument."

— ✿ — ✿— ✿ ✿ ✿

It's been two days of searching every nook and cranny of your little hometown, but the team hasn't gotten anywhere in finding you.

Each member was exhausted, especially Spencer. He hasn't gotten a wink of sleep. He couldn't even if he tried to.

They were running out of ideas. But like every single case the BAU team had, you knew how to turn things around. Their wake snapped up as gasps echoed in the entire precinct.

The team rushed to see the commotion and almost burst into tears as soon as they saw you.

"Oh my god..." JJ whimpered under her breath as she clasped her mouth.

You stood there by the entrance, bloodied up and half-conscious. You held the door's handle tight, painting it with your dirty blood as it kept you up on your feet. They could barely recognize you from the mixture of blood and dirt on your face.

Despite your pitiful, bloodied state, you managed to show them your temper. "You better have caught that bastard." You growled weakly.

Your body was shaking from exhaustion. Just as you slipped out of consciousness, Spencer rushed to catch your body.

Tara called for a paramedic while Emily went to your aid. Luke and Matt went straight to work things out and give Gerard the worst news he's ever going to receive: it turns out you weren't as dumb as he wanted you to be.

Spencer gently wiped your face with his sleeve. He didn't care if it was his favorite shirt. All he cared about was how his best friend stubbornly stayed alive.

When Emily sat next to him to keep you off the floor, she saw just how much your friendship meant to Spencer. She squeezed his shoulder, "She's back safe with us, Reid. She'll be alright."

Her words prompted Spencer's sobs, tears trickling onto your face in hopes that it would wash the hell you went through for the past days. He quickly wiped them off, though. He knew well enough how you'd react to his 'filthy tears' coming in contact with your skin.

"Yeah, you better clean it off," You mumbled with your eyes closed, gripping the hem of his cardigan vest. You couldn't let yourself pass out, knowing you had a severe wound on your head.

Spencer choked a laugh, "Took you long enough. I thought I would have to save your ass." He sniffed as he let the paramedics transfer you onto a crash cart.

You scoffed, turning into a short series of coughs. "Just admit it. You can't figure things out without my brain power. Your brain's getting smooth, Reid. Prodigy no more."

The team couldn't help but roll their eyes at you and Spencer's banter, bouncing back faster than your recovery. Although they hated to admit it, they preferred the two of you that way rather than apart.

"I'm glad you're safe..." Spencer's voice became softer. Somehow, he couldn't stop himself from tearing up. This was the second time he'd cried nonstop. The first time was the love of his life's death.

He was glad this time wasn't due to someone important's death. He didn't know how he'd handle it if the person he could always rely on would leave him of this world.

As you were dragged into the ambulance, you gave all the rest of your strength to glare at Spencer. "Don't think you're off the record. After I deal with Gerard, you're next."

"Is it mandatory?" He sarcastically stated, jumping into the ambulance the moment you were settled in. He couldn't bear to leave you out of his sight.

reid masterlist | masterlist

[anneapocalypse]

On Leandra's Last Words

Warnings: discussion of the events of "All That Remains" in DA2, including murder, gore, body horror, and the death of a parent.

So, in the past year I've played Dragon Age II, uh… four times, and in the hindsight of Inquisition, something about a certain quest stands out to me.

In the Act II main quest "All That Remains," the protagonist's mother Leandra Hawke is murdered by a serial killer, a man named Quentin who targets women with features resembling his late wife over the course of several years, and attempts to use blood magic to stitch their dismembered body parts together to recreate her. Leandra's face is the final piece, and poor Hawke has to see their mother's head with another women's eyes attached to this re-animated Frankenstein's monster. Quentin's death breaks the spell, and Leandra dies in Hawke's arms. Before she dies, Leandra comforts Hawke, telling them that she'll get to see their dead father and sibling again, and that she is proud of them.

How exactly Quentin performs this gruesome ritual isn't detailed, and for story purposes, we do not need to know. We know that he uses blood magic, that he calls demons to possess the bodies of the murdered women. This is likely how he is able to reanimate the patchwork body he reconstructs. In the battle that ensues, Hawke and their party have to kill three desire demons called "Possession of Alessa," "Possession of Ninette," and "Possession of Leandra."

What matters for the purposes of the game is that what Quentin does is unusual but basically plausible within the parameters of the universe, and a gruesome example of the more sinister capabilities of magic.

We do know that, at least in the context of Kirkwall and probably the southern Circles as a whole, Quentin's particular form of necromancy was at least somewhat novel. In a secret letter to his "friend and colleague," accompanying a delivery of forbidden books, First Enchanter Orsino writes:

Your last letter was fascinating! You have proven me wrong, once again, by doing the impossible. I shouldn't have doubted your resolve, and I hope you will keep me apprised of further progress.

Necromancy, the act of calling spirits to possess the bodies of the dead, is taboo in the south, but is not particularly groundbreaking in the grand scheme of things. Raising the dead is a common tactic for blood mages in the south. In Nevarra, necromancy is not only a highly respected school of magic, but one integral to Nevarran society and culture. It is suggested that in Tevinter, necromancy is not uncommon and may not even be considered a form of blood magic; it is Dorian's specialization and can be learned by a mage Inquisitor. So the mere act of calling spirits into the bodies of the dead, it is unlikely Orsino would have called "doing the impossible." The breakthrough seems to be that Quentin was able to Frankenstein the bodies of his victims into one, and perhaps to compel the spirits possessing them to act as one. (Orsino does the same with the bodies of dead Circle mages during the final battle, though the result is a lot uglier.)

By the time Hawke catches up with Quentin, Mharen and Ninette are long dead. That Hawke finds Ninette's dismembered hand back in Act I suggests that Quentin did not bother preserving the whole bodies of his victims, but instead took the parts he wanted and discarded the rest. Hawke finds a note in Quentin's lair about using quicklime to preserve a victim's feet, and being displeased with the texture, so we know he had means of preservation. Alessa, the woman Hawke finds kidnapped by Gascard du Puis, is also dead by the time Hawke arrives, and is named in one of the "Possessions" Hawke fights, but as her body appears to be intact, it's unclear if Quentin used any part of her body (which might just be a development oversight).

Leandra, however, is Quentin's last victim, only just taken, and it is her head Quentin uses, so when she speaks to Hawke at the very end, she appears to be alive. If Anders or Merrill have accompanied Hawke, they will remark that only Quentin's magic was keeping her alive, and apologize that they cannot help Leandra.

At this point, when we look at this scene, I find it almost certain that there is a spirit in Leandra's body at the very end.

Leandra has been beheaded. The demon possessing her body has been defeated and the mage who cast the spell is dead. By all rights, she should be dead already, and there should be no last words for Hawke to hear. Unless some other magic is at work.

I see two possibilities here.

First, we might have a situation like that of Wynne in Origins. When Wynne should otherwise have been killed by a demon during Uldred's rebellion, a spirit of faith which had followed Wynne for most of her life joined itself to her, and kept her alive. In fact, this spirit was able to keep Wynne alive for another decade, when she would send the spirit to save the life of the templar Evangeline, sacrificing her own life. While the spirit sustained Wynne's life beyond its natural end, so far as we know Wynne's own soul never left her body; the spirit came to her at the moment she would have died, and kept her alive. While a spirit can possess and animate the body of a dead person, they can't generally prevent the body from decaying (see: Justice and Kristoff's body), so I think it's safe to say based on her extended life that the real Wynne was still there.

A spirit could have come to Leandra at the moment she would have died, and sustained her just until Hawke could arrive, allowing her the chance to say goodbye.

The second possibility, which I think is as likely or more, is that Leandra is, in fact, already dead by the time Hawke arrives.

In various forms since DAII, we've seen that spirits may sometimes take the form of a person who has died, in order to carry out some sense of that individual's purpose. We have Cole the spirit taking on the form of Cole the human boy killed by templar neglect. We have the spirit who appears as Divine Justinia, guiding the Inquisitor through the Fade and helping them to regain their memories.

Hawke and Leandra seem to have a had a difficult relationship at times. Just how difficult depends on Hawke's dialogue choices and personality, and of course every player's own experience is going to color how they read Hawke's mother. In particular, Leandra seems to blame Hawke for their younger sibling's death, placing on her oldest child the responsibility for the family that might otherwise have fallen on Malcolm.

And what are Leandra's last words to Hawke? Exactly what Hawke needs to hear in that moment. That she's going to a better place. That she's proud of Hawke.

It is entirely possible that those are Leandra's own words.

I think it's also very possible they are the words of a spirit, perhaps of love or compassion. Maybe they're the words Leandra wished she could say before she died. Maybe they're simply the words the spirit knows Hawke needs to hear.

Crosspost. Originally posted on dreamwidth on 02/10/21.

[thetaoofbetty]

I agree with your theory. I find it way more likely that Tabitha finds out what Betty is doing and confronts her of course Betty doesn’t listen. Tabitha tells Jughead and this is how their conversation starts. Regardless of how it goes, Jughead tells Betty he wants to help her with the investigation. I obviously could be wrong, but I’m looking forward to the episode.

i don't actually know what other people are saying. i do think when tabitha finds out, she'll confront betty because she cares. she's showed concern over betty's choices from the start of their friendship so i'm not sure why she'd stop because jughead is back in town.

i also think betty would do what she wants anyway. the list of people who have a shot at getting her to stop and think about what she's doing when she's set her mind to something pretty much looks like this:

we know they're going to work together, they've already said as much (no jugheads allowed, etc) so i can see him offering her an alternative plan or maybe he has a lead she doesn't know about yet and it gets her to try another track. but i don't really think anyone who cares about her is going to be thrilled she's using herself for bait (also, raise your bughead hand if you called it long ago that she was going to use herself as bait? 🙋‍♀️ i know a bunch of us did).

i feel like i say this a lot but i really think betty needs to hit a breaking point and i've said i think that jughead is going to be part of that. she's not been silent this whole time for fun. she's not opening up to anyone because the person she opens up to hasn't been available. she's still not said a word to anyone that we know of about being kidnapped or that the serial killer is still out there. that's...incredibly sad.

betty thinks she's a lost cause and there's only one person i can think of that this show has shown trying to convince her that she's not. and if they're in each other's orbit, well. they don't have a great history of staying away from each other for too long.

[bondsmagii]

I assume you almost got kidnapped at least once in your life and escaped in the weirdest way possible

kind of. I mean, I don't know if it could count because I didn't actually realise he was trying to kidnap me at the time, but like. the whole night was kind of weird, if I'm honest.

basically I was 16 or so, and a friend and I were out in Belfast. we were pretty drunk, and we'd been planning to go somewhere (can't remember where now) but something had happened and we could no longer go, but we didn't want to go home, so we just stayed hanging around in the city centre drinking. we got chatting to a homeless guy for a while and shot the shit for a few hours and shared our drinks, then wandered off somewhere else.

at some point we get talking to this dude who's probably like, late 20s/early 30s? he's a drifter who says he's travelling around the whole of Ireland and just going wherever he likes, which interests me, because that's something I'd always wanted to do. so we're chatting away and I start getting... Vibes. he's kind of weird. now bear in mind I'm pretty drunk, but my friend Caoimhe is really drunk, and I'm a bit worried about her because here's this creepy guy and here's my drunk female friend, and yeah, do the math. so I'm keeping an eye on him and making sure he doesn't separate me and Caoimhe, but he doesn't seem to be interested in her, so like. that's good, I guess.

instead, he's really trying to persuade me to run off with him. like straight-up just telling me to come with him, he has a tent, we can just chill out together and travel, etc. not gonna lie, I'm a bit tempted. my home life was shit and I was looking for a way out anyway, so like, in my drunken mind this seemed like a cool idea. so what if he's a bit creepy? I'm sure it's fine. it occurs to me that he's kind of walking really slowly as he talks, and gradually leading me off, and at this point Caoimhe -- very drunk, might I remind you, and trailing a little behind -- decides she's tired and doesn't want to walk anymore. she sits on the floor and refuses to budge. my companion tells me to leave her, she'll be fine, let's just go on an adventure!, and finally I'm like lmao. no. I am not leaving my friend alone in the middle of a city, drunk, at like 1am. that was what got my alarm bells going -- not that he wanted me to run off into the middle of nowhere with him (he was headed next to one of the really remote Western counties, I think Mayo or Galway or something?) and live in his tent despite only meeting him half an hour ago, but the fact he wanted me to just abandon my friend. I thought this was a top dick move so I was like nah and went back over to Caoimhe, where we spent the next three hours trying to find a) a bathroom that was open and b) someone to give us a ride back out into the sticks because there's like three buses that go even remotely our way and none of them stop within 15 miles of home or run at that time. ultimately we called my dad because we figured he hated me anyway, while Caoimhe's mam and stepdad were on pretty good terms with her so best not rock the boat.

so anyway. strict kidnapping? not really. not a very interesting escape either. but definitely I almost wandered off with a serial killer and the only reason I didn't get nerfed was because Caoimhe decided to just sit on the floor like a giant toddler. thanks Caoimhe (sincere).

anonymously make an assumption about me and i’ll confirm/deny it

[crockettmarcel]

Would you like to tell us about Birthright? 👀👀

birthright is very loosely based on this fic and tiny love, and is essentially the product of me watching too much criminal minds and then thinking "what if sarah was like her father?"

(tw for murder + kidnapping. kinda disturbing bc. yknow. inspired by crimmy minds)

she's got pretty much the perfect life, at least from an outsider's perspective - a job she loves and is good at, a beautiful girlfriend who thinks the world of her, the sweetest daughter, and even the cute lil house in the suburbs

but she just. isn't happy. none of it is satisfying her

and then after everything goes down with her father, she starts feeling even worse. she's snappy with ava, stressed all the time, and just. going through it a bit

so she leaves work in the middle of the day, drains her bank account, then buys a shitty little car and drives west until it gets dark

she makes it all the way to Des Moines, where she spends the night in a motel. it's all uneventful at first, but then on her second night there, someone tries to rob her while she's walking from a corner store to the motel. i haven't worked out the details yet, but the person ends up dead (I'm thinking she either killed them with their own weapon, or managed to push them in a way that they hit their head hard enough to die. either way, it was an accident)

anyway, she doesn't feel how she thinks she should about it. if anything, she feels good. it takes her a couple of days to process what happened and her feelings towards it, but she realises that she's been suppressing a lot of things for a long time

seeing her dad for the first time in 20 years and accidentally killing someone allowed those things to come to the surface

anyway. sarah realising she IS just like her father, and becoming a serial killer

(also I know it's more complicated than just that but. that's it in simple terms)

meanwhile, ava's losing her mind back in Chicago. she has no idea why sarah left, or where she went, and lolly's distraught bc she misses her mom

ava ends up tracking down Crockett, and he becomes a part of ava and lolly's lives (he's thrilled to find out he has a daughter!!)

sarah's travelling the country killing people, and ava and crockett are coparenting lolly

at one point, sarah realises she misses lolly. it feels too risky to go back to chicago though, so she kidnaps a child that looks like lolly. she doesn't hurt her (she'd never hurt a child), but when it becomes obvious that this child won't fill the gap where lolly should be, she leaves her somewhere where she'll easily be found. this happens a couple of times (she's also still killing) before sarah decides that her best bet is just to go back to Chicago and get lolly

so she does!! she kidnaps lolly at the Christmas market, and they drive off together. lolly thinks she's going on vacation with mom, so she's thrilled, and sarah's happy to have her baby back. ava and crockett don't even suspect sarah

i'm not entirely sure where it goes from here, but sarah does eventually get caught (I'm thinking of slipping in a cheeky lil criminal minds crossover hehe) and all she says to the police/FBI is that she wants to see her daughter

also she's obviously not Exactly like her dad, bc she does care about lolly and love her in her own way (whereas robert literally didn't/couldn't love anyone) but she's close enough. she didn't feel bad about the people she killed, and she didn't feel bad about taking the children from their families (although she had no interest in hurting the kids in any way). she only let the children go when she realised they weren't as "good" as lolly and she had no need for them anymore

[sociopath-analysis]

Sociopath Profile: Rikako Ōryō

From the anime series Psycho-Pass Season 1 (2012-2013) and its manga adaptation Inspector Akane Tsunemori (2012-2014) Voiced by Maaya Sakamoto (JP) and Brina Palencia (EN)

This high school girl looks like a sweetheart. She has the love and adoration of all the students. A talented artist and a model student. She scores high on all her marks. Including her Psycho-Pass rating which is a 472! The second-highest rating on the show!

[SPOILERS BELOW; SPOILER-FREE VERSION HERE]

One thing that you wouldn’t see at a first impression is that she’s a prolific serial killer who uses her victims’ bodies in her personal art sculptures. She is inspired by her father’s art, who was against violence. You can see that she clearly missed the point and very much enjoys the horrible violence that she commits.

She manipulates the other girls in her school either by seducing them or kidnapping them to use them in her sculptures and show them off to the world. She is shown to be quite charming and magnetic, but it never really shows the true extent of who she is. Her superficial charm only works to a point.

Shimotsuki: Her eyes...are sometimes blank.

And since the only person she cares about was her father, she feels no remorse for any of the innocent girls that she brutally mutilated. She tries to get as much attention as she can with her gruesome sculptures. While she says she wants to honor her father, she has no genuine talent at creating ideas, taking all of them from her father and Makishima.

On another point of lack of remorse, she gets chased down by the mechanical dogs for eventually losing Makishima's interest, she gets her hand caught in a bear trap and caught on the wrong end of Senguji's shotgun. What does she do? She smugly tells him that she isn't safe from Makishima and he'll share her fate once he no longer sees use for him. She has no remorse for the violence she committed, only telling her killer that she'll be in her position eventually.

You too will be discarded when Mr. Makishima gets bored of you.

Defiant to all, she shows to be one of the worst criminals on the show.

Female Sociopath List

[balillee]

spoilers if you were planning on watching the boys (if you haven't it's a good show, and i recommend, just watch out for literally all of the trigger warnings online)

tws for mentions of sa, nazis, zoophilia

i love the subplot about a-train in season 3. he's so desperate for positive attention and to be the a-train that the public loved in season 1, but there is no way to get that back. he can't run without giving himself another heart attack, and so instead of running and doing superhero shit like he used to, he's trying to 'help local black communities', which goes awfully. he's delusionally out of touch, and his attempts to stop blue hawk from overpolicing his home community is pathetic. not to mention that it wasn't even a-train that noticed it, it was his brother who brought it up, and since his attempts to buy the respect of homelander were a colossal failure (because that man respects nobody), resulting in the death of supersonic even though he could have actually stood up to homelander and done something about him, he switched tactics because he craves love and respect that he'll never get.

he takes no direct action against him (mainly because he can't, but also i'm not sure that even if he could, that he'd be bothered to), and instead drags blue hawk to this community centre with a bunch of black people there, including his brother. blue hawk gives the world's worst apology speech ever, and as soon as the crowd calls him out for his right wing, 'black on black crime' supe lives matter bullshit, he goes haywire and starts literally attacking the crowd, and a-train does literally nothing.

you know what happens? a-train's brother has his spine snapped. he can never walk again. his pathetic attempt to gain good publicity by abusing the black lives matter movement (which he'd done an episode prior with the show mocking the kendall jenner pepsi advert, which was fucking golden), has cost him the mobility of his brother, which was his only real tether to reality outside of the delusional celebrity world.

then you take a character like ashley who i genuinely never expected i'd find so fascinating. ashley used to be meek and easily pushed around, but the more that vought has broken her, the more she begins to withstand her own humanity for the sake of her job. that, and the constant fear of homelander doing to her what he did to stillwell very likely still lingers, so any chance she gets to feel powerful she gets drunk off of it, because if she doesn't have the feeling of power, she only feels complete terror.

it's even more fascinating when you see the way she copies homelander despite her fear of him. she steals his exact line, 'is your idiot brain getting fucked by stupid?' because she sees homelander as the person with all the power, and if she mimicks that, then she should have nothing to be afraid of. even her sex life gets infested with how much vought has destroyed her psyche. she owns a fucking homelander branded strap-on and keeps it in her desk at work. no normal functioning person exists the way ashley does.

but then maeve gets kidnapped by homelander and black noir, and when starlight comes knocking to find out where she's been taken, ashley cracks for just a moment, and all you see of her is someone who is terrified out of her mind that if she says anything about where maeve has actually been taken, she'll die, and all of the awful things she's let slide will have been for nothing. she's a glorified pr manager for a serial killer - her job entails telling homelander which communities he vibes with the best and how to keep his public image up. if ashley lets even one incident slip, then she's completely fucked. she reverts to her coward state, asserts her position as ceo of vought international, and tells starlight to fuck off. what strong leadership, right?

and of course, following stormfront getting outed as a literal 1900's nazi, and then her suicide, and then homelander going full anti-cancel culture makes him the most popular with white men in the rust belt. who would have thought. he was grown in a test tube with no actual family, and his only socialisation he had was been spoonfed american propaganda, which turned him into an uncontrollable, murderous narcissist* who utilises any form of bigotry he can to demean others. he abuses a-train's physical health, the deep's absolute uselessness and his zoophilia, starlight's femininity and her existence as a SA survivor, maeve's sexuality and her hypocrisy, and he even demeaned stormfront before she told him the truth- and those are only the supes. if they're not a supe, he doesn't even need to bother trying at all. he could lazer eye them to death and they'd never be a problem ever again, because vought would just sweep it under the rug for him.

more on stormfront, too, she was actually weirdly similar to a-train, narratively at least. a-train is physically useless and so to gain the respect of others abuses and takes advantage of the black lives matter movement to try and gain popularity, in the process only mocking himself and getting people hurt even more. stormfront, however, paraded around as some white, meme-savvy pop feminist to hide the fact that she was a literal eugenicist. she was so awful that even homelander was continually disgusted by her nazi rhetoric, but whether or not that's his actual opinion or if that's just the american propaganda talking, i'm not sure. homelander's just as racist but he's an american racist, doesn't buy into the whole master race thing, and whenever she started fawning over him being blonde and blue-eyed you could physically see him become uncomfortable. he doesn't want to lead the 'master race', he is the 'master race'. he believes he's a god. that's where they differ. -and that's his own wording.

such a fascinating show that covers all types of social issues. and i do still wonder why white boys think that this show isn't mocking them in any capacity, because it is. all it does is mock them. they're just stupid and don't think that politics should be in tv, film, music, art, comics of any kind - the difference is when it's actively pro-leftist politics and ideas, it's too political, but when it's anti-right wing, they're too stupid to notice.

*want to mention here that narcissism is not an inherently bad thing, because i know people may want to take it that way. it's a disorder, and not much can help that. it's just that this fictional guy, from this fictional tv show, happens to be the absolute fucking worst. not my fault.

it still baffles me that no matter how much the boys makes commentary on white supremacy, capitalism, systemic oppression and celebrity culture, that people still think it mocks both the left and the right. watch that scene with blue hawk in the community centre and tell me, straight to my face, that the boys is a centrist show.