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kinfanfiction · 1 year

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Charlie Eppes x Fem!Reader - Chapter 3 - Clueless

A/N: I’m too proud of this idea tbh. Maybe I should’ve waited to write this chapter and I’m jumping the gun a bit here, but I like to place an initial reason for tension so I can build on it. I will be adding in a couple of OCs but they won’t be the main focus of the plot. If, when you get to that part in this chapter you think to yourself, “Isn’t this based off that one episode?” Yes, yes it is.

Side note, the ex I’m writing for the reader is based on my ex, so I’m keeping stuff vague cause bro was demented, but if y’all wanna make up stuff about dumb shit the ex in this story we can collectively make him the worst person ever and make her experience somewhat more detailed either as subtext or to address later in the plot. (Okay maybe not the worst, but like, fairly shitty.) As for the friends, they’ll basically be your run of the mill backstabbers.

I put my whole left lung into this chapter.

Unbeknownst to the two of you, you and Charlie had been spotted by the cherry blossom tree by two young students, Bowie and Daisy. They each took your Creative Writing and Charlie’s Applied Mathematics class, and they agreed the two of you had chemistry. There was a whole debate on campus over it. Some argued you were just colleagues who got along well, some said you must just be really good friends, and then there were those who genuinely believed you belonged together. Of course, most people knew to stay out of their professor’s personal lives, but not Bowie. They were the experimental type. Daisy, however, always tried to be the voice of reason.

They hid nearby and whispered to each other.

“They talk like old friends.” Bowie observed aloud.

“Don’t you think we should be doing something more productive with our time?”

“This is productive!”

“This is interference.”

Bowie shrugged, “We’re giving them the push they need.”

“What if we’re wrong?” Daisy crossed her arms, feeling unsure.

“Then our interference will ultimately mean nothing. They’ll laugh it off and move on. You don’t have to do this with me, but I’m still going to pull a Clueless on them.”

“Hmmm..... Well, it would be interesting to see the results of the experiment...” Daisy was leaning towards joining in on Bowie’s mischief.

“Yeah, yeah, I know you want in.” Bowie teased.

Early the next morning, you visited Charlie in his classroom. He had papers spread out everywhere and his blackboard was actively being covered in equations. He was listening to his music again, and was very focused. You walked up to the blackboard and inspected his writing, still it made very little sense to you. “What’s this?” You asked, and he jumped as you came into his line of sight, though he quickly regained his composure.

“What is with you and Larry always sneaking up on me?” He shook his head and took a deep breath.

You snickered, “You’re very easy to sneak up on.” You side-eyed him and flashed a cheeky grin. “So, what are you working on?” You questioned again, looking towards the board.

He looked at the board as you did, “Actually, Don has asked me to help him on a case. When I went home last night, he was there and I found a map of different crime scenes, all committed by the same person in different places around the area. I started calculating where he might strike next, and I guess Don realized I could be good help in solving this case.”

“Oh wow, so you’re a consultant for the FBI now?”

He nodded, “I am.” He spoke like he was proud, but also had something else he wanted to say but couldn’t.

“What’s wrong?” You asked.

He sighed, “I don’t think I can tell you, but just.. be careful, alright?” Charlie requested gently.

“I get the feeling that whoever you’re trying to catch is a pretty frightening person..”

Charlie nodded. “I really wanna help them get this guy before he hurts anyone else.”

“I’m sure you will. You have a brilliant mind.”

He gave a small smile, still unsure. “Thank you.” He thought quietly for a moment, debating on asking a question that hung in the air. “Why don't you come stay with us? Just until we catch him.. which should be soon.” He tapped his chalk on the board and examined his work. “Not that anything is incredibly likely to happen to you, but maybe just to be safe?”

You thought about his question. It wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to stay at the Eppes’ for a little while, you’d done it before. Besides, you lived and commuted alone, which theoretically could make you an easy target for any criminal. You looked at Charlie and nodded.

“Okay, good..” He sounded very relieved.

The two of you went to breakfast and since he couldn’t talk about the case itself, he instead talked about the mathematical formulas he was using to find the guy they were looking for. You listened quietly as you ate, not having much to add yourself.

As you walked to your classroom to prepare for class, you were met with a young student you recognized as Daisy Lewis. She took your Creative Writing course which wasn’t until later that day. “Morning Professor L/n! I was at the store recently, and I saw this perfume and it made me think of you.” She spoke as she handed you a small bottle. You were a bit taken aback by the gesture, since there seemed to be no occasion for it.

“Oh..! Thank you! That’s very sweet of you, Daisy.” You exclaimed with a polite smile. Daisy smiled back, and then stood there like she was waiting for something, and then you realized she expected you to spray it on yourself. Your eyes widened at the realization and you quickly spritzed yourself. “It smells wonderful, really, thank you.” You smiled awkwardly. Daisy stood there, trying to think of a way to stall you further to ensure that Bowie could sneak into your class and secure any unimportant piece of paper on or in your desk to use to forge your handwriting. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to prepare for a class.” You moved past Daisy and opened the door to your room just as Bowie had barely managed to slip away.

Bowie circled back and found their friend, and the two of them went to the library to come up with a good letter to leave for Professor Eppes to find. Once they were sure they had it, Daisy drew him out of his office to “Ask about an assignment.” While Bowie planted the note in his room, having previously sprayed the inside of the envelope with the perfume Daisy gave you.

Bowie subtly walked past Daisy to signal that the letter had been delivered. Daisy wrapped up her conversation with Professor Eppes and split. Charlie wandered back to his classroom and spotted the note. He took it and sat down. He recognized it as being what seemed to be in your handwriting, not analyzing it enough to realize it had been forged. He covered his mouth as he read, both surprised and confused. It was strange.. it didn’t seem like you. He thought about how you’d subtly distanced yourself from him over the years, could this be why? Had you begun to see him as more than a friend, and perhaps found him more intimidating because of that? He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think about it too much because he had a case to work on.

When each of your classes were over, and Charlie had made some headway in helping Don with his case, you arrived at his classroom door. This time you knocked, and he had a chance to hide the letter he’d received in the top drawer of his desk. You didn’t wait for any signal to enter though, you just walked in after a couple of seconds. You didn’t want to startle him again by simply appearing. “How’s the case going?” You asked, looking at the equations written on the board.

He stood next to you, just about to answer when he smelled the scent of perfume. The same perfume on the letter. He looked at you and let out a small sigh. How was he supposed to approach talking about the note? You clearly weren’t going to bring it up. “It’s going good, I’m making a lot of progress. Hopefully once I give Don what I’ve got he has a better chance of finding the criminal.” His words were somewhat hopeful, but his face had ‘distracted’ written all over it. “Can I ask you a question?” You gave him a curious look and nodded silently. He looked at you with a concerned expression and took a deep breath before speaking again, “Do you feel like you can tell me anything?”

The words caught you by surprise, “What makes you ask that? I tell you lots of things, don’t I?”

He hummed, “Mmm, sometimes I feel like you hide things from me, not that you have to tell me everything, but I guess I just wanted to remind you that you can if you want to. You know, in person. I’m not that unapproachable, am I?”

You furrowed your eyebrows, very confused at this sudden topic of conversation. “Unapproachable? Why would I think-” You shook your head. Had he found out something you hadn’t told him about while he was away or about some dumb shit you’d done in college? If so, who told him? “Where is this coming from?” You asked.

“Are you pretending not to know or do you really not know?”

“Know what?”

He sighed again, “I got a letter this morning.”

Your heart dropped, because apparently whatever you’d done was so bad someone had to deliver it to your best friend in writing? You’d never done anything illegal. (Okay, not anything extremely illegal). So what the hell was in that letter?

“What letter?” You sounded a little more panicked. He felt relieved when it was obvious you really had no idea what letter he was talking about. The relief showed on his face and he couldn’t help but laugh. “I knew it didn’t sound like you.” He went to his desk and grabbed the letter, and then an actual letter you’d written him years ago that he’d kept with him. You followed and watched him, looking over his shoulder trying to read the letter. He laughed again, pointedly, as he noticed the slight differences in handwriting. “Ha!.. I’m sorry, Y/n. This is a forgery.” You grabbed the letter from him.

“What? A forgery of my handwriting? Why? Who? What does this say?” You read it, and as you did, you noticed it smelled strongly of the perfume Daisy gave you. Then you laughed too. Not just a light laugh, you broke into uncontrollable laughter as the panic left you. “Wow, someone tried to pull a Clueless on us.” You said as your laughter finally began to fade.

“They did what?”

“Do you grade your students harshly, Charlie?” You questioned.

“I don’t think so, I think I grade fairly. Why?”

“We need to watch Clueless, as soon as you have the time, of course.” You insisted. “Let’s go.”

You both picked up your things and walked to your car again. “We have to stop by my apartment so I can grab what I need for the next few days.” You explained as you got in the driver’s seat.

“I don’t think I’ve gotten the chance to see your apartment yet.” He observed, a little excited at the idea.

“Well, you’re welcome to visit anytime.” You offered, “But let’s see if you like it first.” You chuckled briefly and then drove out of the parking lot.

The two of you quietly listened to music as Charlie thought about the case he was working on, and you thought about how he’d said it felt like you hid things from him. You knew from the way he worded it that he wasn’t just talking about the forged letter. You had been hiding things from him, of course, but you thought he was oblivious to that. Of course he also added the consolation that you didn’t have to tell him everything, but you thought perhaps it would be better if you did.

You arrived at your apartment and took the elevator. Charlie held his hands behind his back and looked up at the numbers changing as you went through each floor. Soon, you arrived at your level and you walked to your front door. You walked in and grabbed a back to fill with clothes, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, and all the things you needed for work for the next few days that you kept with you at home.

Charlie insisted he carry the bag for you after feeling how heavy it was, even if you said it was alright and that you could carry it.

“Let me do something nice for you.” Was his final argument, and you knew you’d do something nice later in return.

He put your bag in the back seat, and then the two of you drove to the Eppes’ home. “Evening, Alan.” You said as you walked in.

“Good evening Y/n. You staying with us for a few days?”

“That’s the plan.” You smiled.

Charlie dropped your bag off in the guest room. “I have to continue working on this case, but I’ll see you at dinner. You do whatever you need to do in the meantime, alright?”

You nodded and smiled, and then Charlie left. You got out your work and some headphones, and you listened to some Fiona Apple as you graded your student’s work. As you quietly graded, you thought about the day. You continued to contemplate on opening up to Charlie about what you’d experienced in high school, mainly because he seemed to blame himself for your emotional and physical distance from him. You knew that at the very least you would assure him that those behaviors had nothing to do with him.

A few hours later, Charlie knocked on the door. You didn’t hear him at first because of the loud music playing in your headphones, so he knocked again. After knocking twice and hearing no response, he slowly opened the door. Still, you didn’t notice. He could faintly hear the music blaring in your ears and he couldn't help but chuckle. He gently took the headphones off, which startled you. “Ah! Oh- Jesus you scared me.” You exclaimed, putting a hand to your chest and catching your breath.

He grinned knowing he’d gotten you back for all the times you’d startled him in a very similar way. “You’re gonna go deaf by fifty listening to music that loud.”

“What did you say?” You yelled.

He shook his head, “Very funny.” He rolled his eyes, and you grinned.

“I think headphones wouldn’t have the option to turn them up so loud if you weren’t supposed to.” You determined with a shrug.

“I don’t think that’s a very safe assumption.”

“Maybe not, but if I’m already gearing towards going deaf early on I might as well continue to blast my music anyway.”

“Sounds like flawed logic but hey, they're your ears. I guess it’s time for me to start learning sign language.”

“I’m surprised you don’t already know it, since you already know just about everything.”

“That’s not even close to true, I just know most things when it comes to math. I don’t know english as well as you, and I’m not good at reading people, or understanding why they do things, I just focus on calculations.”

“I’d say your calculations help you read people and understand why they do things quite well.” You argued.

His expression changed to one similar to how he’d looked after he read your forged love letter. “I don’t know... they haven’t been helping me understand you more. I’ve noticed how distant you've been with me ever since I came back from Princeton. I just can’t figure out why. Maybe it’s just because we’d grown up. I guess that’s what typically happens to friends as they get older, they drift apart. I just hate that it happened to us.”

Your expression softened, and your eyes filled with remorse. “I mean, I never intended for that to happen. Yes, there were years we had to spend apart, but I tried to help make up for that. We never stopped being friends, so we can’t have drifted that much.”

He clicked his tongue and looked down at the ground for a moment, “Sure, we never stopped being friends, but you changed, which is of course normal when you get older, but you seemed noticeably less comfortable around me. I don’t know why that always bothered me so much, I guess I’ve just always wondered if I did or said something to make you feel more guarded around me that maybe I wasn’t aware of?” He looked up and made eye contact with you, having finally asked the question that he hadn’t been able to ask until that moment.

You sat quietly for a moment, trying to accept the approaching conversation. You opened your mouth to speak, closed it, and then got up from your chair. You wrapped your arms around him and held him close for the first time in a year. He froze for a second, and then tenderly wrapped his arms around you in return. “Charlie, no. I promise you did nothing wrong.” You assured him softly. Tears welled in your eyes as you thought of the real reasons you’d become a more guarded person. You let go of him and sat on the guest bed and pat the spot beside you. He sat down and waited silently for you to speak. “I know I probably shouldn’t let these experiences stick with me for as long as it has, since I was only, what, like fourteen, fifteen?” You laughed, feeling a little pathetic.

“But after you left, I did my best to make friends. There was one guy that seemed really interested in everything I had to say. He was really kind at first and found ways to earn my trust quickly. I was young, and naïve, so I didn’t question his attention. I liked having him as a friend, and then.. he wanted to be more than friends. I’d never had anyone like me as more than a friend before, and figured that a first relationship might be fun. At first, it seemed like we were having a good time. He got me gifts, always complimented me, showed me affection, and ultimately made me feel special. A tactic of his that I didn’t notice until later, was that he was rushing to learn everything about me. I mean everything. He got me to be vulnerable with him, and then used details about my personal life against me. He’d poke at my insecurities, when I’d tell him my fears he’d use that to scare me, and overall he was just a terrible person who enjoyed making me feel horrible. So, finally, I left him. Then I was alone again.

“I tried making friends again, and I got in with this group of girls. I thought I found a good group, but I was wrong. They only wanted me to be their friend so they could do better in english. When I wasn’t around, they made fun of me just for having interests that didn’t align with their’s. They humiliated me, time and again. They’d waste my time on purpose by doing things like inviting me out somewhere, only to never show up. So, essentially, all that taught me was to be more guarded with people in general. I shouldn’t have let that apply to our friendship, but I guess when you came back I had a fear that maybe time had changed you and that you might hurt me. Hell, I don’t know why I thought that, you gave me no reason to. It was just my own fears.” You stopped talking and looked at him. His eyes were wide, like he was taking it all in. “I’m so sorry, that was a lot. I shouldn’t have said so much, I-” Then before you knew it, he was hugging you tightly again.

“Thank you for telling me.” He whispered. Then after a moment, he pulled away. “I just want you to know, I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you. If I do something that hurts you and I don’t realize it, please tell me and I’ll do everything to make it right. But I would never, ever, go out of my way to do something to harm you. You have been my best friend for the majority of my life. I’d have to be absolutely insane to ever do anything to jeopardize that.”

Then you smiled, and your whole body relaxed after feeling so tense while you told him everything. You sighed in relief, “Okay, enough with the heavy shit. Let’s watch Clueless.”

#david krumholtz #charlie eppes #charlie eppes x reader #x reader #numb3rs #y/n #fanfic #fanfiction #chapter 3

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famousfilmsfan · 5 months

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Criminal Case. Famousfilms edition.

Case #1. return to Slender

Chapter 1

Chief: Welcome new recruit. I’m Chief Schmidt, and welcome to the Crystal City PD, we got reports of a murder inside the neighborhood of Prepview. Go check it out with James he’ll meet you there

James is a brown haired man with black eyes.

James: Hey there, i’m James, your new partner, Jeeze what the hell happened to this guy?

The victim was a man with black hair and no…eyes. He was wearing a black suit with a yellow tie. His head was swollen and his throat was red, there was an envelope nearby that was open, and a package on the porch.

James: Hmm, okay this is anaphylaxis if I've ever seen it the victim's name is Davis Ramirez . But what's with his face..or lack of one? You think that envelope might be important? Then let's send it to the lab, and that package doesn't have any stamps, must have been hand delivered. Let's check it out

Kat: *panicked* officers thank God!

James: Wow ma’am calm down, this is a crime scene

Kat: And that’s my fiancee in that bag! What the hell happened?!

James: Oh uh, Miss you should stay put so we can question you.

Kat

Kat: What the hell happened? I got a call at work and I come to find this?!

James: Ma’am we’re doing our best to solve this, now did your fiancee have any enemies?

Kat:..none that I knew of.

James: are you sure?

Kat: yes i’m sure!

James: Hmm she isn't telling us the whole truth

The body

Janet: Hey there i’m Janet, the coroner for our precient. And let me tell you, whoever killed this guy really had it out for him.

James: How so?

Janet: Well he died of anaphylaxis due to a peanut allergy he had but there was nothing in his stomach, but there were vapers of it on his face, so he was shot in the face with it. The suddenness made him panic and didn't have time to react.

James: Great the killer didn't even touch the victim, no leads.

Janet: Actually, I got the dust on his face tested, and only one brand uses the exact formula, ‘Jonas Peanut Brittle’

James: So the killer eats peanut brittle, good to know.

(Info; The killer eats peanut brittle.)

The package

James; Okay let's inspect this package. It says it’s from Bryan Deville. What is

He tries to open it but red paint gets splattered all over him and a note is revealed.

James: Ugg, i’m gonna need to change my clothes, wait what's this? ‘Prank’d ya -Bryan’

James: Well, annoying or not this Bryan must have known the victim we should speak with him…after I changed my clothes

The envelope.

John: Hey there rookie, i’m John the forensics expert of the team. Let me tell you this envelope definitely has some surprises

James: Like what?

John; First off I found traces of peanuts in the paper, so it definitely had something to do with the murder, but there was something else. The envelope was purchased at a stationary store at the mall. So the killer had to get it there since they don’t have a website

Chat with Bryan

Bryan: Hello there officers how can I help you?

James: Well you can tell us why you decided to Prank Davis Ramirez with a paint bomb.

Bryan: Oh that, he was retiring from Fazbears so I decided to play a joke on him. Wait did he call the cops on me for a joke? That’s classic him.

James: No sir he was killed earlier today

Bryan: Oh my god. Honestly i’m not surprised

James: Whys that?

Bryan: He wasn't particularly liked in the company, he was a very…critical person, very angry, Pestered everyone about every tiny detail, he even scolded me for the brand of fake snow I used during the holidays. He said a child might eat it. Who would eat fake snow?

James; Anyone you think may have wanted him dead?

Bryan: Not really, it sucks he’s dead though.

The store

James: This place is creepy, where's the attendant? Oh, you found clues? That torn photo looks strangely out of place, and look this rack has the same type of envelope the killer must have taken it from there, let’s see if they left anything behind

The photo

It shows Davis yelling at a black cat animatronic

James: Is it me or is this guy yelling at Charlie the Cat from the Barnyard Bash?

James: Okay, I’m looking on the website it says our victim owned it…wait you want to question the animatronic in the picture? Alright if you think it’s necessary.

The rack

James: Hmm there’s a postcard here, it’s addressed to the victim. ‘Death is something you can’t escape such as death or a cheesecake that has curdled both of which always turn up sooner or later’ what the hell? This is utter nonsense. The part of death seems like a threat, let’s send this card to the lab, our profiler will get to the bottom of it.

Charlie the Cat

James: Okay we’re at the restaurant. Uh. Hello Charlie? Mr…. the cat?

Charlie: Uh, how can I help you?

James: We’ll we’re here because your owner has died.

Charlie: Died?

James: Oh crap you’re a machine, okay death is like when you loose battery but you can’t recharge it and-

Charlie: I know what death is, that’s a stereotype.

James: Oh good that was like the birds and bees talk. Anyway did you have a good relationship with your owner?

Charlie: He was alright I guess, he was here a lot but wasn’t ‘here’ you know, in his own head a lot. Mumbling to himself too, the craziest thing

James: Okay then, uh call the station if you have anything else

You both leave

James: Okay uh. That was super awkward.

The postcard

Russel: Hello there detective I’m Russel the stations profiler, and I must say the postcard is quite interesting the handwriting shows whoever wrote it definitely wanted the victim to know who it was, the bold letters and perfect lining show it’s an educated mind

James: Okay. And what is the quote?

Russel: The quote is from famous children book series. ‘Series of unfortune events’ so your killer definitely reads that good.

James: Good to know.

Info: The killer reads Lemony Snicket.

James *sighs* Okay this whole day has been a mess, a man with no face is killed on his porch, we have a distressed fiancée, a less then upset former coworker, and a robot cat. The only thing we’re missing is a clown and it will be my worst nightmare

James: Yeah your right, we do know the killer eats peanut brittle and reads children’s books, but it could be anybody and-

Chief; James, detective drop what your doing there’s been a break in at the victims home!

(Should I continue this?)

#thefamousfilms #fnaf 6 #mcfnafverse

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owen-not-carvour · 2 years

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one of my favorite aspects of spies are forever is literally the Way that curt and owen’s relationship is talked about within the show. because it’s so interesting how they do it!! it is never actually outright said that curt and owen were together. (the most direct it’s said is when tatiana says “it’s no easy task burying your ex-lover returned from the grave to kill you”) hell they never even actually say that curts gay!! you just understand that they were and he is bc of doing this and the double meaning of Partner!

over time i’ve seen people not like spies bc of how ambiguous curtwen’s relationship is,, but at the same time. y’all it takes place in the 1950/60s! that’s the way it Has to be!! historical context is so important to spies and i love that sm bc curt and owen lived in an era where being gay was a crime so if the agency ever knew that he was, he'd be gone for good,, he was terrified of the idea that his secrets would be outed... so that’s why the secret about their relationship was one that only owen and curt knew.

in the show, curt and owens relationship is probably one of the most important parts of the show.. it’s super important because of owens reveal and the staircase scene,, secrets and all,, and it’s curts biggest secret. it’s why his guilt for owens “death” is So Much, and yeah it’s why he’s So broken up about it.. also it’s important for owens side,, “that secret died the night you left me for dead” and all,, owen feels betrayed and angry (completely valid,, just not valid in the way he Dealt w that). they meant so much to each other and that fall hurt them both so deeply.

it’s honestly incredible how, despite their relationship being so important to the show, they never explicitly say that curt and owen were Gay And In Love™️, but it’s still made obvious throughout the show, and is only made more clear as the show goes on (doing this, “my... partner”, ex-lover line, The Staircase Scene, the flashbacks, etc) that they were, and i’ve even seen some people who missed that part entirely on their first watch too!! which i think is incredible bc like.. they wrote curt talking about owen as his partner because that’s true and wouldn’t raise suspicion.. but it means more to him than anyone else even knows (unless you know that you’re looking for it ofc and thats how people missed it) and that’s also exactly the Point of why their relationship is talked about that way too!! it’s like this because their relationship is Not supposed to be the most obvious thing in the show... they had to keep it covered and secret, so that’s why curt talks about it the way he does, without actually saying it. i just think that that’s super awesome how it’s such a major part of the show but they never Say It. it just adds to the like. period piece-ness of it (??) and i Love that so much omg.

i love all the details in spies so fucking much. both the important ones like this and the less important but still Interesting ones that just add something else to the show,, like the dma sharpening a gun before somebody’s gotta do it (bc ????) or how the code barb gives tatiana during one step ahead is 2878,, and that’s just curts name on a keypad!!

spies just. it’s all so fuckin good man wow.

#like we knew this but i just wanted to say it again bc it adds So Much to the show like honestly #this is one of many rambles like this..#im working on a chimera one too but that one is taking forever to compile lol #but fr this show is so detailed #i’ve seen it 110 times #and every time i watch it i still pick up something new #and. honestly idk if it’s me being Stupid or what #but it’s still incredible #spies are forever #agent curt mega #owen carvour #curtwen

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adultswim2021 · 9 months

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Tasty Twosday (Tuesday)

Assy McGee #16: “Showdown in Magic City” | June 9, 2008 - 12:30AM | S02E10

Hey gang, long time no queef. I was back yesterday, and I actually sat down to watch+review this episode, but I wound up rage-quitting because the Adult Swim app wouldn’t let me rewind the episode to check on some very important detail. Oh well.

Also, I need to really apologize again. I am being targeted by harassers who think it’s funny to take my Tuesday posts (which, I’ve established, are rare because of my work schedule) and titling them stuff about “Tasty Tuesday”. There is nothing tasty about this day, this post, or this episode. In fact, it’s repugnant.

In this one, Assy and Sanchez investigate a Miami crime syndicate who are targeting jai alai players in Exeter. They wind up getting a little more than they bargained for when they sniff around their Miami turf. Sanchez is kidnapped, and they leave behind his mustache with his whole upper-lip attached. Gross! The ending involves a daring rescue and Sanchez’s disgusting disfigured face.

This one has a couple of moments that are at least somewhat funny; the theme song suddenly having lyrics is great. Actually, that’s it. That’s the only thing that’s great. Damn. Sad, but true.

EPHEMERA CORNER:

The Boondocks: The Complete Second Season (June 10, 2008)

Okay I’ll do the AI thing for this, because I really struggle with talking about DVD sets I never owned. Just go look up a review, sheesh:

The Complete Second Season of The Boondocks on DVD is a must-have for fans of the show. The season features all 13 episodes, as well as bonus features such as deleted scenes and commentaries. The episodes are just as funny and thought-provoking as the first season, and the bonus features are a great addition. Overall, this is a great DVD set for anyone who enjoys The Boondocks.

This did not mention the two originally-unaired-on-Adult-Swim episodes. Those are on there.

MAIL BAG

So, I saw the Venture Bros. finale over the weekend. I binged the last couple seasons as a refresher, as well as watching the seasons 1-4 and season 5 recap videos. Season 5 would’ve been good to watch again, but you know. I really liked it! I watched an ILLEGAL COPY because I knew I was going to buy the blu-ray eventually. But guess what? It’s sold out at all the places that still carry new blu-rays! So I ordered it on amazon like I should have, and it says it won’t come for AN ENTIRE MONTH. What the hell? I guess it’s heartening that the blu-ray is selling so well. But damn!

do you like assy mcgee better than axe cop

I haven’t seen a TON of Axe Cop. But, yes.

are you gonna do more Tasty Tuesdays in the future? That was fucking weird.

I need to reiterate that Tasty Tuesday is being forced onto me by some malicious trolls who hate me and they hate you and they hate our freedom. I’ve recieved many threatening letters from them telling me that if I make posts on Tuesday that “it’s over for you” referring to me. This is a twisted game they are playing. I would call it “twisted Tuesdays” but I don’t wanna give these FUCKERS ideas.

I think my ideal tasty tuesday is spaghetti, steak, and a handburger. I eat all of that before 2PM and I also have a full-fat coca-cola while on my work shift. Then I just snack all night. Nilla Wafers, pretzels, you name it. Happy Tasty Tuesday, Adult Swim 2021!

Wow, what a spread, sounds good to me. But, I refuse! I will not participate in this custom because it simply isn’t real and it’s being perpetrated by enemies.

Are you going to do tasty tuesday again? I've seen some weird stuff on this website but this particularly is pretty bizarre imho

Okay, I’m convinced that the person whose hacking my blog and making it say “Tasty Tuesdays” on my Tuesday posts is the one writing these Mail Bags. Fuck you, pal. If you are just a fan/best friend, I’m sorry.

what is tasty tuesday? say it! say IT!

NO!

Will we get an update for Tasty Tuesday I wonder>

>_<

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #assy mcgee

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adamwatchesmovies · 1 year

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Point Break (2015)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Without a doubt, this remake of Point Break is attempting to capitalize on nostalgia. Nothing about the original screamed “this won’t endure” but they’re remaking everything else, so why not? It also looks as though this 2015 film is trying to get some of that Fast & Furious money by turning its focus on the stunts and other “extreme” aspects of the story. This is a critical mistake which makes the film shallow, cold, and dull.

Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) is a former motocross star and polyathlete (meaning he will master any sport from surfing to skydiving) training to become an FBI agent. He thinks he’s figured out the MO behind a string of peculiar crimes: a group of eco-warrior/extreme athletes are attempting a series of element-based challenges to reach enlightenment, a portion of which is dedicated to “giving back”, hence the crimes which end in ludicrous charitable acts and donations. When Johnny begins infiltrating the group, he befriends their leader, Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez). As they grow closer together, their bond threatens the entire investigation.

Strictly speaking, this is a retelling of the 1991 film. The characters share the same names and key plot points are there. In so many ways, however, this is like the Bizarro World version of it. Screenplay writer Kurt Wimmer simultaneously simplifies and overcomplicates the plot. Achieving the next level of meditation by dropping out of a plane after a high-altitude heist? It’s ludicrous even before you get into the details of the Ozaki 8 challenge/ritual. None of the extreme tasks are obvious things like “skydive out of a plane to conquer air” or "climb a volcano to understand fire". Instead it has to do with the direction you’re going, whether someone’s done it before and how dangerous the stunt is. The entire quest loses all credibility when we’re told the man who dreamt up this path of extreme wisdom died not even halfway through!

Though it may sound as though I’ve spoiled things by telling you that Bodhi is the mastermind behind the crimes Johnny Utah is investigating, I haven’t. The central mystery is so shallow you figure out everything this movie has in store minutes in. Even if you haven’t seen the original (as I had the first time I saw this). We don’t even get a single red herring to throw us off, so you’ll grow bored waiting for our hero to figure out what we did early on. Not helping are the bland characters. It’s as if no effort was made to differentiate anyone at all. Everyone has the same demeanour, the same kind of dialogue, and nearly identical tattoos. We don’t even get different ethnicities among the characters to help us figure out who’s who, which becomes impossible once the stunt sequences come in. You think at the very least the one woman with a speaking role, Samsara (Teresa Palmer), will get a little bit of a fleshing out by virtue of being the love interest but she gets maybe two scenes to herself and is so not in this movie you could’ve cut her out and changed nothing at all. How is it this movie lasts nearly two hours?

To be fair, Point Break does have one redeeming quality: the stunts. It's hard not to be impressed as characters race down mountaintops, dive out of planes, surf on waves, etc. They’re the kind of thing you’d never dream of doing so getting to see them shot this well is appealing. With that said, this picture suffers greatly on the small screen. When I saw the wing suit sequence in theatres, in 3D, it was mind-blowing. Not enough to warrant a recommendation or to make the movie memorable, but it still made me go "wow!" On my TV? Forget about it.

Say what you will about Keanu Reeves - who I think is good when he’s well cast - but he’s a manic overperformer compared to everyone in this movie. There’s no charm or excitement to be found in this remake of Point Break. It’s a film which struggles to justify its existence. There’s no way anyone will remember it down the line. (On DVD, April 26, 2019)

#Point Break #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Ericson Core #Kurt Wimmer #Rick King #W. Peter Iliff #Edgar Ramirez #Luke Bracey #Teresa Palmer #Delroy Lindo #Ray Winstone #2015 movies #2015 films

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gaybitch · 3 years

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not to project or anything but i think the reason why will wears his glasses seemingly at random is bc he does EXTREMELY need them but they give him a headache

#me 🤝 will graham: horrible astigmatism but glasses give me headaches so ill just go about my day blind as fuck #plus i think the idea of will being blind as hell is funny. everyone standing at a crime scene and all will can see is shapes and colors #anyone: wow will look at this crime scene detail...#will: oh yeah thats.. youre definitely showing me something.. yeah #hannibal

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inamindfarfaraway · 3 years

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Reformed Gotham Villains TV Show Idea: Ex-Rogues (One Hell of a Long Post!)

Credit to @iceberg-lounge-staffmeme for the original premise: Oswald Cobblepot has gone straight along with some other Gotham rogues he’s hired in the now legitimate Iceberg Lounge, all of whom are social pariahs.

I’m expanding on this to say that several of the city’s ‘A-list’ supervillains are rehabilitated. This was made possible partly by Bruce Wayne’s donations to Arkham making the institution a productive rehabilitation centre (I know, unbelievable), and him bettering the city in general. Every ex-rogue goes to therapy. They all have PTSD if not C-PTSD due to their tragic backstories, something that happened while they were rogues or both, and some have other disorders beside. Realistic mental illness representation! Relapses will probably occur, but they will be portrayed as natural and fixable and no one will return to evil. They’re just trying to keep their and their friends’ lives safe, stable and free from costumed drama of any morality. However, their crimes are forgiven by a select few and forgotten by none. And this is Gotham - there’s always drama. The most infamous villains leaving the scene has opened the door to both more obscure and brand new villains’ ascensions. Don’t you think that would be cool? A break from the same old Gotham rogues featured again and again in adaptations? New characters with their own backstories and themes? ‘Cause I think it has great potential.

The show varies in tone and has sitcom elements, but is overall a serialized drama.

The title card is ‘ROGUES’ being written in large, jagged, erratic, blood-red letters against a black background, a pause, and then ‘Ex-’ typed before it in much smaller, neat white standard font. I can picture a promotional image with the characters doing mundane tasks in the Iceberg Lounge’s lobby, but their shadows are their villainous selves.

Every main character has two leitmotifs: their normal one, and their villain identity’s that’s mostly restricted to flashbacks to that time, flashbacks even further back as foreshadowing and allusions and discussion of what they were like then now. If the villainous one is heard in the present, it means that part of their past is haunting them or even that they’re acting kinda similar. Unless the leitmotif rearranged triumphantly and heroically, in which case they’re applying a skill, tool, piece of information, etc. they only have because of their criminal activities for good.

The ex-rogues are a very close and protective group. Interpersonal relationships vary, but whether two individuals mesh that well or not they’ve overall got an unshakable solidarity and understanding. Once you’ve tried to kill each other enough, a certain tension leaves the relationship, you know? They’ve seen each other at their lowest points. They casually joke and tease themselves and one another about their supervillain identities and activities, which would be irritating at best and triggering at worst from anyone else. Through flashbacks we watch their dynamics evolve from enemies and rivals who happen to have a common enemy to a weird, messed up, weird found family. The Iceberg Lounge crew are the prime example of this, being the core cast. Yet possibly not Gotham’s weirdest and most messed up found family! *meaningful look at Batfam*

The timeline is left vague to avoid such difficult questions as “Wow, they must have racked up a massive body count in those decades of evil, can they seriously be allowed to live among normal people?”. I can already see the giant, meticulous blog posts and videos by fans who’ve attempted to pinpoint dates using tiny scattered details. This is a warning - I’ll preemptively salute your dedication, but the series will ideally be deliberately written to foil you. It operates on comic book time. I will tell you Harley, Ivy and Victor were the first to reform all in a relatively short timeframe (motivated by love or selflessness) and Oswald, Eddie, John and Waylon (motivated by cruelty and/or pride, and Waylon couldn’t make lasting progress until his regressive condition could be reversed) came later. Selina wound down from anti-villain to anti-hero to fully heroic gradually. Plus Nora has been in suspended animation for seven years, previously the same age as Victor. The Batfamily is Bruce as Batman; Dick as Nightwing; Barbara as Oracle; Jason as Red Hood (a violent, ostensibly aloof but ultimately reliable vigilante rather than a crime lord); Tim as Red Robin; Cass as Black Bat; Steph as Batgirl; a teenage Damian as Robin; and Duke as the Signal. The implication is you could be watching a parallel show about the Batfamily in this continuity every episode and there are many ‘crossover’ episodes with it.

Oswald is the group’s de factor leader and responsible ‘dad friend’, often the exasperated straight man. He operates the Iceberg Lounge, which has earned a reputation as a safe space for the marginalized, including former criminals and criminals of necessity. That’s a big demographic in Gotham. His intimate knowledge of the criminal hierarchy and network helps him discern who to trust and defend, and who will only mean trouble. It’s taken him years and profuse effort to convince Batman it isn’t a facade this time; now Batman and Oracle sporadically consult him for his underworld intel and brilliant strategic thinking when they’ve hit a complete dead end in a case. No matter what you need, he knows someone in the city who can provide it. You know how one of the canon Penguin’s most terrifying trademarks is, totally untraceably, manipulating the lives of anyone who offends, annoys or hurts his feelings, even in the smallest and most unintentional way, into ruin and a premature end? Now he does the good version of that. Did you flash him a genuine smile in school, make amiable small talk to him once? Do anything to make him feel like a person with worth? Boom! Debts paid, dream house, dream job, won the holiday you’ve always wanted, your favourite cafe opened right down the street, all equally untraceable. The same service is done for his surviving victims and victims’ families. Still creepy, but the way he sees it he’ll always be creepy - might as well use it to benefit others. He’s trying. He records a journal of acts of human kindness. The Iceberg’s Lounge is the ex-rogues’ favourite hangout, and frequently hosts their game and movie nights in his penthouse. With enough of the social validation he’s always yearned for, he’s much less temperamental and insecure. He donates a significant cut of his income to animal preservation charities and projects, especially bird-related ones, and is the doting owner of a flock of pigeons in a luxury enclosure. He dislikes being called the Penguin, it’s just the insult it was to him as a boy with extra shame. His friends may call him Ozzie.

Harvey Dent is the nightclub’s company lawyer. His services are also available for free to anyone who needs a lawyer, he continues to protest Gotham’s corrupt justice system and he gives legal advice to underprivileged and marginalized young people. He’s the same kind, just, honourable guy he is usually; the main changes are he finds it easier to healthily express and process anger and negotiate with and stand up to his alter. Bruce Wayne is his best friend, they hang out and collaborate a lot. He feels immense debt toward Bruce for standing by him through his fall and recovery. He and the rest (his alter included) have a deal that they’ll do their absolute best to stay out of legal trouble, and if they get into it and it isn’t their fault or at least not worth the punishment they’ll receive he’ll come to their defence. He’s an excellent orator and the group’s reliable moral compass. Two-Face is more relaxed and rational due to Harvey letting out a fairer portion of their anger. He still has a bad habit of property damage. A key catalyst for his improvement was therapy that respected him as an independent, redeemable personality instead of treating him like a disease to be eradicated. He’s cynical, standoffish, unfamiliar with vulnerability and has little filter, but despite his complaints about them he values his friends far more than himself. He dislikes Bruce in person, but is grateful to and admires him objectively, will tolerate him and would save his life if he had to. He and Harvey are actual friends. Borderline brothers eventually, although their tastes and attitudes continue to clash. Harvey doesn’t forgive Two-Face anything he’s done, neither does Two-Face ask forgiveness of anyone, but they understand each other in a way no one else can. Two-Face was born a protector alter. He slowly went off the deep end and became a persecutor, but that benevolent protective instinct has been salvaged. He feels constant, immeasurable self-loathing with his new conscience, but unable to harm his body for Harvey’s innocence releases it onto external targets and through non-physical self-destructive behaviour. Harvey feels a lot of guilt and shame himself and they both struggle with self-harm. They still flip a coin to make trivial decisions sometimes and fiddle with it when uneasy, but a regular heads and tails one. The scarred coin has been donated to Gotham Human History Museum’s Rogues’ Gallery (heh heh). It’s forbidden to them because it to them offers a moral dichotomy of choices, not merely a trivial one, therefore giving a 50% chance they’ll feel obligated to act immorally. They did get plastic surgery on their burn scars, but its main goal was to reduce the scars’ painfulness and inconvenience and the left side of their face remains permanently disfigured. This was a choice to reflect how their mental scars and problems didn’t just disappear when they went straight. Their left eye’s vision is better after surgeries, but below average.

Victor Fries creates decorations out of ice and frost for the Lounge and sells ice sculptures. When not in use, the freeze ray is stored in a hidden safe he alone knows the code to and Selina alone could open without it. He enjoys these jobs and they provide a decent income, but his passion is an aerial, enlarged version of his freeze ray he’s designing, the Ice Restoration Ray (IRR). He hopes it will be able to rebuild the crumbling polar ice caps and cool the warming atmosphere. This global concern is a notable departure from his past where he only cared about Nora and himself. Wayne Enterprises’s medical department is developing a cure for his wife’s terminal disease, Victor having willingly granted it her cryogenically preserved body. Bruce supports his project and has sworn to fund the finished design’s construction. Don’t let his unemotional exterior and detached mannerisms fool you, he’s a kindhearted romantic. He doesn’t mind being called Mr Freeze. Pronouncing Fries like the fried potato strips, on the other hand…

Selina Kyle is a waitress at the Lounge. It’s an open secret among the ex-rogues that she took the job to keep an eye on Oswald and the others with records, but she grows to genuinely enjoy it and their company. She was never insane or sent to Arkham; has never killed (she quips she only ever hurt rich gits’ pride and Batman’s feelings); was a thief, didn’t rob anyone who couldn’t manage without the item and outright returned a couple things of particular sentimental value; and aided Batman and/or fought worse rogues on numerous occasions. All this and currently being Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend means there’s a palpable divide between her and the other ex-rogues. She doesn’t agree with ever being considered a villain, for starters. Her arc is navigating how her identity of so long was inextricably linked to her moral ambiguity and solitude. Who is Selina Kyle without selfishness as a defining trait? Without the exhilaration of crime and no definite commitment to any faction or type of relationship? A pretty fantastic person, it turns out. A person society could admire and respect. But the real ex-villains in her circle have society’s eternal condemnation, so what does that mean for their friendship? Should she leave them behind and prioritize her own advancement? The old her would have. But she ultimately decides to continue serving at the Lounge and spending time with the group because she loves them more than her reputation to the same snooty upper class she used to rob… and ‘cause she’s, barring her impulsive streak and milder thrill-seeking behaviour, the most levelheaded and practical ex-rogue after Oswald. And literally the only one who hasn’t been committed to an insane asylum. They need her.

Waylon Jones is a chef in the Lounge kitchen. Hey, you live poor and homeless as long as he has and have a heightened sense of smell, you develop an appreciation for food. He’s also desperate to distance himself from his infamous cannibalism, which he only did in his crocodilian mental state. His condition gives him green scaly skin, claws and pointed teeth that have made him a persecuted outcast his whole life, but its true nature is far worse than scaring those around him. It’s progressive, slowly consuming his mental processes and further mutating his features when left unchecked. His natural intelligence is average but was formerly reduced to stupid and almost totally animalistic. After reforming, Jonathon Crane invented a drug that keeps the progression at bay. He gives it to him free. Waylon resents his condition deeply. Losing his humanity and higher thought irreversibly is his worst fear. He may be poorly educated, but he’s very clever in a practical, unconventional way. He’s timid, unconfident and mistrustful around strangers and quick to get defensive, used to being perceived solely as a mindless beast or evil freak, and unconditionally loyal and loving to those he trusts. A job that keeps him out of the public eye is perfect. Brushing off his friends’ offers to find him somewhere to stay, he insists he’s fine in his shelter in the spacious underground caverns below the city. This is half because he doesn’t want to cause any more trouble in the society above he knows won’t ever accept him. The other half? Waylon is a champion of Gotham’s homeless population, of the forgotten and abandoned. His shelter is a haven for a community of them too. There have been countless forceful relocations of the homeless, and the police will need to get through him to try it again! He detests being called Killer Croc, but doesn’t have the energy to protest it and risk looking aggressive.

Pamela Isley runs an organization that replants trees, rewilds spaces and opposes deforestation. Her bond with plants makes it very successful, telling her precisely what the flora (and ecosystem by extension) in an area need. Bruce Wayne is the organization’s first and biggest benefactor. She lives in a flat near the Lounge with her girlfriend Harley. They’ve been dating since they were criminals. She doesn’t mind being called Poison Ivy, and happily accepts Ivy as a nickname.

Harleen Quinzel is a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum again. She champions better mental healthcare and public destigmatization of mental illness. Well, they all do, but for them it’s more on the side. She’s slightly rankled to be called Harley Quinn - nobody’d called her that before the Joker, so she associates it strongly with him and her time as a criminal - except by her fellow ex-rogues and the Batfamily, who’ve followed her recovery and she can trust accept that part of her. I’ll call her Harley for convenience. She typically wears a ponytail, a compromise between her pre-insanity tight bun and villainous childish pigtails. Maybe with pink and blue streaks?

Jonathan Crane reversed his fear toxin to produce a new line of anxiety medication that he anonymously sells to Wayne Enterprises, getting the money with none of the credit. He chose this, aware nobody would ever trust a chemical compound ‘the Scarecrow’ made (please do not call him that, by the way). It has less dangerous side effects and better results than any previous medication. He has a mental health information and advice website too. As well as suffering from generalized anxiety disorder before he decided to master fear, and PTSD then and now from his childhood, his toxin attacks were responsible for many cases of anxiety disorders, phobias and PTSD. I mean, the initial idea behind the fear toxin was to show others how he felt all the time. So he really feels a need to give back to the mentally ill. A former teacher, he has a soft spot for children and is skilled at engaging with them.

Edward Nygma is an exceptionally skilled private detective. He also sometimes collaborates with the Bats, who he greatly respects. Prior to his current job he created a popular puzzle game app, a last hurrah for his obsession with games and riddles. He helped John set up his website. A doctor of computer science and nerd genius nerd extraordinaire not totally over his problem of equating his worth and intelligence, he most enjoys the company of his fellow intellectuals and kinda keeps himself to himself more, alternately awkward and reserved and defaulting to his cocky facade in social interaction with normal people. He’s still pretty lonely, not that he’ll admit it. He takes being referred to as the Riddler nonchalantly.

The Joker is dead. He died three years before the show begins. How exactly is never explained (letting you fill in whatever seems most apt to you, my personal headcanon is Alfred kills him) due to being ubiquitous knowledge, but it was very cathartic. The anniversary of his death is almost an unofficial civic holiday, nicknamed Joker Day. The ex-rogues have arranged to annually hold a mock funeral for him. They give comedic eulogies about how little they’ll miss their dearly despised and the countless ways he was an awful person, a different head speaker stepping forward each year in rotation, and bury a biodegradable dummy of him beneath a creatively hand-decorated plaque. The idea is to get it off their chest so the rest of the year they needn’t spare a thought to him. Having had to inhabit both Arkham and the Gotham underworld with him and know him personally, they have a wealth of stories. Harley’s always declined because the scumbag’s given her so much baggage she wasn’t ready to verbalize it before a bigger audience. The Season One episode “Joker Day” involves her volunteering to be head speaker of the fourth Joker Day. Suffice to say, it gets… emotionally intense. After deconstructing his whole character, paying her disrespects magnificently, explaining how her and them overcoming the worst in themselves to live well and happily is the ultimate insult to his memory with his obsession with nihilism and corruption, and knocking the dummy into the grave with her bat hard enough to decapitate it, Harley spots Batman on the rooftop above them, clapping along with her friends. She waves. “Batman! Why don’t you come down? I bet your Joker stories are the best in the world.” He simply quirks his mouth in a smile and says, “Maybe next year. I couldn’t follow that speech.” But besides Joker Day episodes (in the last one, Selina invites the Red Hood to speak in her place and he agrees enthusiastically, reckoning he was more of a villain than she ever was) and a few references here and there, the show doesn’t dwell on him. *cough* The Joker is overexposed and overrated. *cough*

You’ll have noticed the name Wayne comes up a lot. Yeah, Bruce is an important side character. He’s the idol and ‘big good’ of the whole city. The group’s opinions on Batman are… diverse, but even the minority who aren’t themselves indebted to Bruce will defend him on principle and their friends’ behalf. It’s a running joke that the next person foolish enough to kidnap or threaten the billionaire will have absolute hell to pay. This inevitably leads to the episode where a major villain does kidnap Bruce, and the Batfamily get some unexpected allies on their rescue mission…

Wayne Enterprises cures Nora early on. I mean, Victor probably would be less pacified if it still seemed hopeless. The cold open is extended to a montage of the couple becoming friends, falling in love, getting married, that establishes not only their healthy, committed relationship but that they have their own whole lives. They’re successful in their respective fields and have lots of friends. Nora’s parents died previously of natural causes, but Victor is close with his. They watch movies and have in-jokes and plan holidays. And then Nora starts to get sick. And it turns out to be terminal. She loses her job and falls into depression as it worsens, pushing away her friends and giving up all activity. “I need more time,” she begs brokenly. When Victor decides to invent his crysostatis chamber to buy her more time, it’s the first thing in months that puts light back in her eyes. “I can give you more time.” His boss Ferris Boyle order the project shut down out of callous miserliness. Victor goes behind his back to save his wife and we fade from a POV shot of her being anaesthetised to the title screen. Her revival is at the beginning of the episode. Though naturally concerned about her husband’s condition and crushed their physical relationship is dead, she’s overwhelmingly glad his suit is sustainable and she’s permanently cured. She thought her life, and their life together, were over, and as she puts it knowing they aren’t is “all [she] needs”. She ecstatically walks and runs around the room after having been bedridden for weeks and leaps into Victor’s arms. They hug. Nora remarks she’s pleased the suit at least makes Victor strong enough to lift her effortlessly. She’s crying, Victor’s been crying the whole time. Bruce is sobbing inconsolably - when Selina remarks it’s out of character, he replies he’s been wanting to cry about their love story ever since he learned Mr Freeze’s motivation, but couldn’t because he was Batman. It’s exactly as beautiful as you’d expect such a long-awaited reunion to be. Then Victor’s smiles falters. He asks for the two to have some privacy. Alone, he explains just what he’s been doing in Nora’s hibernation. No omissions, no sugarcoating. He was a supervillain. He funded his technology through crime and has innocent blood on his hands. She deserves to know, and hear it from him. They’re both tearful once more, for different reasons. She reacts how a sane person would: disbelief, betrayal, fury, heartbreak. He’s resigned to it. “If you can never trust me again, let alone enough to be my wife - if you never want to see me again, you can go. I wanted you back so you could live, not so I could have you.” She goes. The rest of the episode is Nora’s acclimatization to her new situation and her husband’s strange yet charming friends, who attempt to comfort and get to know her. Selina in particular takes her under her wing. Nora goes to an ice rink so early it’s deserted and unmarred, and skates for the first time since her diagnosis. While she puts on her boots, we see a flashback to her in the doctor’s office being told she’ll never do it again, and she struggles to stay composed, but cutting to her home she’s distraught and defeated in her husband’s arms, her trophies gleaming on the mantlepiece. Then the moment her boot blade touches the ice, a beautiful, stirring instrumental of bittersweet pleasure overtakes the previous silence. She’s amazing. She halts and holds her arms out in her triumphant finishing pose - shot from behind, an applauding audience and camera flashes appear in front of her before fading to just her, exhausted and free and alive, alone on the silent, frozen expanse. By the denouement Nora has cooled down enough to talk to him again. She expresses her gratitude for him preserving her life and acknowledges he sincerely loves her, but says she doesn’t know what to feel about him and she’ll be keeping her distance for the foreseeable future. “I need more time.” “I can give you that.”

Nora is a side character of similar relevance to Bruce. She gets her own arc of reclaiming her life, adjusting to and reasserting herself in a radically changed Gotham. The love of her life becoming a serial killer and crime boss is a huge blow to her positive outlook and view of humanity, causing her to be haunted with the fear that every good person is a just bad person waiting to happen, of what she could have done if she’d lost Victor and getting justice for them both was up to her. Would she have been the same? Or worse? Her new friendships teach her to trust again and show her that good and evil are choices we make, not fixed states of being. She’s a champion figure skater. She rises right back up to take her crown in the next championship. “The standards must have gone down while I was on ice!” She gets along best with Selina, Bruce, Ivy, Harley, Harvey and Waylon. She and Victor rekindle their bond, platonic and eventually romantic. He isn’t the man she married, he can’t undo that. But maybe he can be a better one. Knowing she’s okay makes him much more sentimental and generous. I just want them to go to the winter fair on a date and have a snowball fight, okay? For them to sit in an igloo and Nora to check her phone and confirm it’s below freezing, so after evaluating the risk, Victor removes the hand of his suit, she pulls off her glove and buries her hand in the snow to cool it down and they hold hands as long as they can. For her to breathe on his helmet and draw a heart in the condensation, followed by ‘I’ and ‘U’ on either side, in lieu of a kiss. For Victor to make her hot chocolate exactly how she likes it on a sleepless night. For Nora to discover his suit’s exhaust jets expel hot air, so if the positioning is right he can still give warm cuddles! When she learns of his crimes in her first episode, she throws her wedding ring at his feet before leaving. The culmination of their relationship arc is them having a wedding vow renewal ceremony, with her reaccepting the ring. I just want them to be an actual happy couple! Is that too much to ask?

Talia al Ghul is a recurring character. She remains an assassin, but is an anti-hero who becomes wholly independent of her father’s abusive power in a debut two-parter in which she’s the protagonist and wins a League of Assassins civil war between her and Ra’s. Bruce and her are on good platonic terms. Selina respects (and is quietly intimidated by) her competence and experienced motherliness toward Damian and Jason. Throughout the two-parter Selina is seemingly outshone by the old flame at every turn and feels insecure, until a heart-to-heart. Talia opens up that the upbringing that made her so insanely competent came with a boatload of mental issues, and she respects Selina’s resilience and courage when she’s so keenly, overtly aware of her flaws and weakness. “Under my father, there was no trying, no points for effort. Only success or failure. Perfection or utter inadequacy. It’s made me formidable, but… if I couldn’t be sure I’d succeed at everything I do, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Passing that fear onto my son is my greatest regret. I doubt you can fail him more than I have. But you? You try. You make the effort knowing you may fall short. Today you’ve been so uncertain of your skills, even your worth, and I’m sorry for adding to that, yet you keep trying to help and make a difference anyway. You know the power of your best without needing it to always be the best, and therein lies your strength. I admire that. I admire you.” So they bond over thinking love was conditional, with Selina always feeling unworthy and Talia holding onto her worth to her father by a thread. The episodes involve flashbacks to Talia’s nightmarish childhood training and finally one of her subjecting Damian to the same (albeit with genuine love and tenderness between sessions), only to realize it and take him to his father. The climax is Talia, Batman, Robin, and Catwoman fighting Ra’s al Ghul together, telling him he won’t be hurting anyone - least of all their family - again; Selina is content to mostly play support, assured of her place in the family and unique strengths. Talia and the Gotham City Sirens subsequently have girls’ nights when she’s in town. She visits more often for her family and friends, but still not very frequently. Being that awesome is busy work! She’s considered an honorary ex-rogue.

Not all the homeless children in Waylon’s underground shelter have parents around, whether because their parents/former guardians are dead or in prison or abandoned them or got separated from them some other way, like during the process of immigration. Waylon is especially close to and protective of these kids, since in my canon his mother died when he was born (baby Waylon was too big), his father immediately took off and after raising him horribly his aunt disowned him when he was sent to juvie. He isn’t letting them feel alone in the world like he did. There’s a main group of three or four kids that get the most focus, for time’s sake. Though it takes him some time to call himself it upfront, he is their dad in everything but blood. They’re referred to as “his kids” by everyone including himself even before that. He has a subplot of coming to terms with the reality that the streets, or retired sewer tunnels but same difference, are not the proper environment for the kids however much he loves them that ties into his greater arc of learning to how live amongst other people and taking the place he deserves in society, which both culminate in him getting a home on the surface and actually adopting the main kids. The rest he struggles with saying goodbye to and trusting new guardians with, but ultimately lets them go to good, Wayhe Foundation-approved homes.

Harvey and Two-Face have an emotional support animal, a black and white kitten, with that half ‘n’ half face cats sometimes have who’s blind in her left eye, named Schrödinger (Schrödie for short). They adore her. Her presence and affection are so grounding and soothing she can help them out of dissociation, flashbacks and panic attacks. Feeding and cuddling her add extra stabilizing routine to their day. It helps that Two-Face could never bear to harm her, not even emotionally. Funnily enough, he adopted her. When their therapist suggested a pet might be beneficial, while Harvey was willing to consider it he thought it was beyond stupid; they had enough responsibilities, including each other, without a needy, annoying animal thrown into their complicated lives. But weeks later they’d been having a bad day and he switched in to find his alter had entered a cat shelter. He was leaving… when he saw her. The nameless kitten’s family had left her behind moving house. Whether the abandonment was deliberate or accidental the staff didn’t know. She was obviously unhappy in the shelter, but nobody had adopted her yet, often at least partly because of her disability. To this day Two-Face can’t say what came over him. Him being asked his reasons and deflecting is a running gag. The truth is he saw everyone had left her behind and wanted to show her they shouldn’t have, that she deserved love and care. Harvey awoke the next morning to the sound of purring and a weight on his lap, better rested than in ages. Selina’s black cat Isis is a maternal figure to Shrödinger.

John and Harley get along swimmingly. They connected over their common interest of psychology while villains and he is practically her father figure. They can often be seen having psychology talks and their ability to analyse their friends’ mental states and issues off the cuff kind of freaks the others out, who agree Harley at least is scarier as the uncompromisingly honest and precise psychiatrist.

Waylon, John and Oswald are good friends, each having known lifelong social rejection. John and Oswald can talk birds for hours.

Oswald conversely relates to Selina for the opposite reason: they were both caught in the middle between abiding the law and breaking it, being ‘civilized’ and basely selfish; they had more ground than the others to go straight, with his business long being partly legitimate and her merely a thief with strict standards. He empathizes and tries to assist with her high society drama. His arc involves unlearning his classism and habitual arrogant veneer - faults Selina is more than happy to rid him of, having a rough, destitute background herself - and the lingering mess of self-esteem issues linked to them.

Harvey’s arc is him overcoming the guilt complex, negative self-image and instinct to suppress his ‘problematic’ emotions and deny his suffering he internalized during his abused childhood and learning to not feel responsible for everyone else all the time. These flaws were reasons why Two-Face got as bad as he did and the basis of his resentment toward the dominant alter, since Harvey had refused to take any action about their father’s abuse or tell anyone he had DID, depriving Two-Face of his own identity and independence; so their relationship improves parallel to their respective individual growth. He’s a cool uncle to the Wayne children. Dick, Barbara and Jason knew him before the accident. Two-Face’s arc is him becoming more empathetic, attuned to others and mastering healthy coping mechanisms for his rage, basically figuring out who he is besides the anger he’s only allowed himself to feel for most of his existence. He doesn’t do so well with Bruce’s kids and hates the awkwardness of switching in in their company. Until he turns out to get along great with Jason and Damian. Harvey has a chance encounter with his heartbroken, estranged ex-wife Gilda Gold, who’s embittered that he didn’t tell her about his DID through years of friendship and marriage and tired of waiting for him and holding out hope just for him to relapse again and again. It goes badly. (“I showed you all of me. I trusted you with all of me. Even the parts that were messy and painful, and that I was ashamed and afraid of. But you had a whole other person in your head, who could have seen and heard things I meant only for you, and I had to find out not from you or him or anyone I knew, but the news because your alter was going on a fucking killing spree! I didn’t know what was going on! I barely even understood what DID was! And you weren’t there. I felt like I didn’t understand you, or know you, at all.” Harvey protests, reaching for her hand, “No. You knew me better than anyone -” She recoils in cold misery. “But not well enough. I know it’s always been worse for you than it is for me, but I don’t think it’s good for us to keep this cycle going. If you couldn’t even trust me then, how can I possibly trust you now?” He stutters and can’t respond. She walks away to avoid breaking down in front of him, with a final “I’m sorry”, and he falls to his knees.) This launches a relapse arc for the duo that climaxes with them attempting to steal their scarred coin back and the others staging a forceful intervention in the aforementioned Rogues’ Gallery (“How did you know I’d be here?” Harvey asks. “Two of us are psychologists and all of us have intimate experience with mental illness,” deadpans John, “it’s a miracle your relapse even got this far.”) Interestingly, while he goes along with it out of desperation and despair Two-Face is the more lucid and reasonable in this arc - Harvey is in control for most of it, slips first and drags his alter down with him, and the theft is his idea. This role reversal horrifies them both. Once they’re detained, Harvey theorizes it means they’ve reached an equilibrium of moral potential. Now he isn’t ‘the good one’ and Two-Face isn’t ‘the bad one’. They’re just two deeply messed up people free to do whatever they choose. That autonomy, and trusting themselves with it, is terrifying, but they agree it’s worth it and infinitely better than giving themselves up to chance. They subsequently stop coin flipping for good and throw the scarred one into Gotham Bay.

Eddie’s arc is being repeatedly smashed in the face with humble pie and then learning to accept hugs.

Harvey, Two-Face and Selina are the only ex-rogues to know Batman’s secret identity, and the Batfamily’s identities by association. Harvey’s known for many years, and just told Two-Face recently when between Two-Face’s internal growth and their support system he could take the gamble that he wouldn’t or at least couldn’t use the information wickedly. The resultant shared experience of constant, painful and/or hilarious dramatic irony brings the three closer. Eddie specifically knows the Signal’s secret identity. He tells no one, but is on friendly terms with him.

Waylon and Harvey are ‘I blacked out and next thing I knew my body had gone on a murderous rampage’ besties. Harvey is the best at getting through to him in his crocodilian mental state. In return, remember that relapse Harvey has? Waylon is the one who ends the museum fight by restraining him with a hug, his stony expression melting into empathetic sorrow as Harvey’s pleading rant that he needs the coin dissolves into hopeless sobs. Harvey can sew well - an entire wardrobe of half ‘n’ half clothes doesn’t make itself - and adjusts Waylon’s clothes to fit him and makes his homeless friends new clothes.

Victor and Pam are close friends. We see the history of this friendship and how it influenced their lives unfold through flashbacks. In the present of the episode, the group and Bruce are fighting for the the building and activation of the IRR, design finally perfected, that authorities fear will be weaponized maliciously. First they were just two jaded misanthropes stuck together in Arkham. (“Humans are the worst,” mutters Pam. Next to her, Victor’s frown deepens. “I emphatically relate to your sentiment.”) Then they bonded over their shared heartache, and helped each other rediscover their empathy and humanity. (Victor slumps miserably in the cafeteria, his words more a soliloquy than addressed to the metahuman poking at her food on the opposite bench. “As sharp as the sting of a loved one’s death is, the limbo my wife must be preserved in sometimes seems worse. So close, yet so far. Alive, but cut off from any kind of life she might have with me or choose for herself. A hollow existence of imprisonment, loneliness, darkness and cold, when she has the capacity to outshine the sun.” Pam doesn’t appear to be listening. Her eyes are trained on Harley’s exchange with the Joker across the room, as she’s manipulated into doubting herself and returning to him. Then suddenly she speaks: “I… relate to your sentiment.” Her voice breaks. When Victor realizes she has romantic love for Harley, he urges her to “Go to her. Harley may or may not reciprocate your feelings, but what she most needs right now is a friend.”) Later he’s delighted to hear the women get together. They really became a duo once Victor got into environmentalism. After a new low point in his villain career with Nora’s location left unknown in his lair’s destruction, he fled to self-imposed exile in the North Pole. At least he could be in peace with the pure, eternal beauty of the ice and snow, untainted by the greed and callousness of… what was wrong with the ice? Why were the ice sheets so small? They shouldn’t have been cracking nearly this rapidly at this time of year! He earned his PhD in cryogenics, he knows ice, the North Pole should not look like this! These were the most majestic sights he’d ever seen, he’d dreamed of showing Nora them. This would not do. He stormed back into Arkham. (“Dr Pamela Isley! I request your assistance! I have dramatically underestimated the severity of the global warming crisis. Your expertise is botany, but you have a thorough knowledge of climate science, do you not?”) Though surprised he could be invested in something besides Nora, Pam was pleased to have an ally and downright gleeful to have someone who will sit through her intricate presentations on climate change’s causes and effects. Victor’s ‘zap the ice caps back to their right size’ plan impressed her, but she pointed out it would never get off the ground. It’d be next to impossible to acquire such a large amount of resources. And even if he didn’t get caught before it was assembled, everyone would assume it was a superweapon and it would be shot down. It really was a shame how his criminality undermined his noble cause and stripped him of trustworthiness and effectiveness - what? Stop looking at her like that! Soon they both go straight explicitly to aid their environmental agendas. The episode ends with the IRR beginning construction and the rogues having a celebratory dinner. Victor thanks Pam for supporting him through this. She thanks him for showing her friendship when she didn’t think she was capable of it and it’s clear the feeling’s mutual. “A toast,” he proposes, Nora smiling at him in pride, “to humans not being the worst.” Pam laughs, getting a comparable look from Harley. “Now that’s a sentiment I emphatically agree with.”

Victor, Pam, Waylon and Oswald are the ‘I was outcast and by, and fundamentally isolated from, the rest of humankind due to physiological characteristics and believed all humans were inherently and inescapably bad, therefore lashed out in anger unable to accept that I could be loved’ gang.

The ex-rogues invent the game ‘It’s Called Commitment, Dammit!’ They take turns recounting the most embarrassing, absurd, or difficult experience they’ve had or knowledge they’ve learned purely for the sake of their villainous ‘gimmick’, concluding with the titular exclamation to rationalize their actions. The funniest, most compelling story wins. There are other games with this system, ‘Coolest Batman Fight’, ‘Most Humiliating Defeat By Batkid’, etc.. These stories a running gag, often heard in part with no context.

The flashback episode “Welcome Back, Dr Quinzel” shows us paralleled sequences of Harley’s three first days at Arkham Asylum: as a newbie doctor trying to appear undaunted by the asylum’s version of normal; a patient lost to herself laughing madly, attacking the guards and graphically swearing she’ll avenge her and “Mistah J”’s arrests; and reformed veteran doctor truly in her element and respected by patients and staff alike. In the first she befriends her mentor and guide Dr Joan Leland, who closes the section with a warm, encouraging “Welcome to Arkham, Dr Quinzel”. In the second Joan is put in charge of her treatment and (not that Harley registers it in her insanity) destroyed to see her like this, solemnly saying the title phrase to her when Harley is restrained. In the third they cathartically reunite as equals and hug. Harley thanks Joan for never giving up on her, and Joan returns that she has herself to thank more than anyone for getting her life back. Harley also becomes a similarly kind and supportive mentor to an overwhelmed new therapist.

A Gotham City Sirens girls’ night out episode. Set when they’re criminals, Pam hates all humans except these two and Harley is still dating the Joker, to explore their relationships at that stage of their lives and Harley’s attitudes to her abuse while it was ongoing. The three women have each had a bad week. Selina got arrested, which, like, never happens, to her embarrassment. Pam was unable to stop the oldest trees in Gotham being cut down and is keen to plant new trees and fertilize them with the men responsible’s corpses. And Harley lost a fight with Batman that left her ribs “a little banged up”, so it hurts to laugh. She casually blames herself for losing and getting the Bat’s attention and the incident is why she wants a night away from the Joker. (“You know how he gets when Batman beats him! He’s been all…” “Homicidally furious?” asks Pam. “Terrifyingly obsessive?” deadpans Selina. “Huffy!” is what Harley comes up with. The others exchange a worried look.) The best friends only see one way to blow off their steam, a Sirens tradition: joint crime spree! At the start Pam asks Harley to lay off on the explosives for tonight because she’s extra conscious of carbon emissions and Harley, despite loving explosions, agrees, a sign of their friendship. Most of the episode is antivillainous hijinks, like museum and clothes’ store heists and attacking a cop they catch threatening to shoot a black boy. Selina does her best to prevent casualties of innocents and not in self-defence. The group conflict is Harley refusing to accept she’s being abused, no matter what evidence and arguments the others present. This plot thread builds up to the climax - their demolition of the construction site on top of the felled ancient grove. After an episode of deflection from and downplaying of the topic of the Joker and her own emotions, Harley splinters at their needling and vehemently denies she’s an abuse victim, simultaneously brutally, skilfully taking out a squad of security guards. “How stupid and pathetic do you think I am? I’ve studied abusive relationships, for God’s sake! If I was bein’ abused, I’d know and I’d fight. You see this? *knocks out a guard* I’m a fighter! I’m an adult, I’m tough and intelligent and capable, and in case you forget, a motherfucking badass! I thought you saw that. That’s why I love you, and these girls’ nights! I get to be, all of me, and trusted. Respected. But apparently, you think you know me and my life better than I do!” Pam protests that her situation is the Joker’s fault, not hers, but Harley can’t hear it. She whips around to reveal she’s crying. “Is it so hard to believe someone could love me?” Pam inhales sharply, stung. “Is it so hard to believe someone could love you without it hurting?” she asks gently. Harley trembles, clenches her hammer in a death grip and screws her eyes shut. She impetuously decides to bring the building site down her way, both to prove her power to her friends and push them away in a projection of her self-hatred. Her way is throwing all her many explosives at a central support pillar and shooting the most potent one to detonate it. Big boom. Several people die; and Pam’s vines burn as thick black smoke pours into the sky, Selina and Pam respectively watching in horror. Harley grins desperately against the flames. Pam declares girls’ night over and storms away. Selina offers to let Harley stay with her, but Harley laments that she almost killed her and insists she’d just be trouble, then snaps, “Just leave! That’s what you do best, right? You doesn’t have to pretend you’re something better for me of all people.” Selina flinches. “Got me there.” Alone, Harley begins to chuckle. It grows to shrieks of maniacal laughter as she clutches her chest and crumples to her knees, gradually combined with wheezing, coughing and sobbing, visibly forcing herself to keep smiling. Her agonized hyperventilation calming down replaces the credits music. The last sounds we hear are her ringtone and a faint, shaky “Mistah J? Can you c-come pick me up, please?”

I don’t think the show should have many legacy villains who reuse an older villain’s gimmick. However, I do have an episode in mind for a second Scarecrow. This Scarecrow is a former abused henchman of John far cleverer and more ambitious than his boss credited him for. He’s tweaked his fear toxin recipe to be the most potent yet (and work on Pam and Harley) and got upgraded gear. He is targeting John specifically, and hunts down his friends to cause him pain. John is incredibly guilty, which every attack worsens, because the citizens and his friends’ suffering is the direct result of his evil actions. He invented the base toxin, he himself even pushed a low-level henchman to supervillainy! But his rampant remorse paralyzes him, too afraid of making things worse; of course, Batman gets trapped or otherwise delayed somehow by the Scarecrow’s overarching plan and it falls to him with his total immunity to fear toxin to save the day. The final nail in the coffin is Harley getting gassed. Her eyes widen and she backs into the wall, shaking her head and mumbling, “No” repeatedly. She tries to act defiant, unresponsive to John’s efforts to ground her, and protests against whatever threat she’s seeing, but her tone is pleading. He reaches toward her. She instantly flinches away and falls to the floor in a trembling, hyperventilating ball. “Okay, okay! J-j-just go easy on me this time…” It’s obvious who she thinks she’s talking to. John is aghast. He quickly sets into cool, orderly, murderous rage. Oswald had figured out the Scarecrow’s hideout and was going to send it to Batman (and the non-indisposed vigilantes) right when he got gassed. John does so for him, but proceeds to take body armour, a gas mask just in case and a gun in preparation to drive there himself. The Scarecrow floods his lair with fear gas upon detecting him. He moves through it, implacable, unwavering, and corners and terrifies the terrorist. “I’m going to make you wish Batman found you first.” He proceeds to beat the crap out of his imitator using his trademark underhanded, manipulative tactics (e.g. he steals the Scarecrow’s weapons after he runs out of bullets). During the fight the Scarecrow unmasks him, but he seems mildly inconvenienced at worst. At last Scarecrow II is helpless. John sees his petrified eyes and severe flinching away from his abuser, even shot exactly like Harley’s, reminding him how horrible it is to both feel that and cause it in someone, and throws the scythe aside in horror and disgust. After handing his successor over to the Bats, he gives him a sincere, non-justifying apology, tells him that he understands his pain and from one Scarecrow to another, it isn’t worth it. His friends are furiously concerned. He downplays both the accomplishment and the situation’s seriousness, claiming the rush of adrenaline and hysterical strength stop him feeling a thing. “Oh, wait,” he says, still apparently calm, “it’s wearing off.” He faints into Edward’s arms. In the hospital, he’s given the revised fear toxin antidote just to be safe. He wakes up with Harley clutching his hand. She congratulates him and he downplays it again, but thinks twice. He reveals his resistance didn’t apply to the new strain in such large quantities - he was hallucinating the entire time since the mask came off. How could he keep going? His worst nightmare is losing his friends. The first people he’s cared about and have cared about him in most of his life, who “taught me there are things stronger than fear.” The more their screams rang in his ears, the sharper his focus and righteous drive became. That’s how he held back from killing again, because he wanted to prove the old him was dead. The Scarecrow II recovers in Arkham and reforms, though he never forgives John or joins the group to all their understanding.

Selina initially lacks faith in her and Bruce’s relationship. She was on her own for too long, hurt and disappointed him over and over, did everything she could to claw out her place in his family… it seems unbelievable that he could forgive and love her after all that. That she could be worthy of love. A part of her remains proud of the years of hard, painful work she did to build her emotional walls, and can’t accept it’s time to tear them down. In the same vein, she struggles to think of herself as a worthy mother to the Batfamily kids. The episode “Cat Among the Robins” has her join the Wayne siblings (minus Duke) on a special mission. Her relationships with all of them are explored, but most of all Jason. The stressed, troubled young man tries to stay professional, exaggerating his coldness and throwing himself into the mission as a distraction from a rough patch in his and Bruce’s relationship. Her and Jason’s insecurities are compared. Her afraid to be a mother, him afraid to be a son. She keeps wanting to talk to him, but doesn’t get the chance. The intro is a flashback to Catwoman minding a young Jason, freshly Robin, on a rooftop. She’s sitting, he stands. They’re quickly endeared to each other. He dramatically relates the night he met Batman, the audacity of his tyre theft impressive even in Selina’s book. (“You have a way with words, kitten. You could be a writer someday,” she says. Jason’s eyes are starry. “You think so? So does my English teacher! Well, she hasn’t actually said the writer part, but -” he whispers proudly in her ear - “I’m pretty sure I’m her favourite student.” Selina ruffles his hair, and her every word brings him closer to seemingly exploding with joy. “Why wouldn’t you be? I remember school at your age, my teachers would have killed for a kid like you. You’re gonna do great things when you’re bigger. Listen, when you’re rich and famous from your epic novels about a brave young hero vanquishing evil, don’t forget to dedicate one to me. For being your inspiration.” “Deal!” Jason offers her his hand and they shake.) The end has them alone on a rooftop again. Jason is preparing to jump off the edge - “I was right.” asks Selina softly. He falters. “What?” “You’re bigger and you’re doing great things.” He turns to face her and removes his helmet for the first time, face unmistakable yet a far cry from the blissful boy she used to babysit. He sighs and smiles weakly. “Well, I had good inspirations.” She talks him through his worries (literally what I just said about her relationship with Bruce but familial rather than romantic) and assures him. Their framing and positions are reserved from the flashback, him sitting and her standing. “Being hurt and lonely isn’t who you are, it’s what stops you being who you are. And Jason Todd,” she concludes crouched down to his level, taking his hand tenderly, “who you truly are, and will always be in the hearts of those who love you… is a massive nerd.” He bursts out laughing. “You laugh, but all your books are still in your room.” “I know,” says Jason, smiling fondly in remembrance of Bruce’s gesture. Then his expression is clouded with dawning realization. He scrambles to his feet. “Oh my God, I never finished 1984! I died halfway through! Can’t even remember what happens, now I’ve gotta reread the beginning, dammit…” Jason picks up his helmet and hurries to the edge again while Selina shakes her head in amusement, only for him to suddenly double back and hug her like the mother and son they are. He whispers, “Thank you.” She strokes his hair. “Anytime, kitten.” Yeah, she doesn’t need to worry about being good mother material.

Pam and Harley marry at some point, around the middle. The proposal episode, “Pamela and Harleen”, is set on their dating anniversary, the one that marks their relationship outlasting Harley and the Joker’s. Some previous anniversaries having been ruined by other supervillains, Bats and police and sheer circumstance, they’re eager to make this day perfect. Of course, life has other plans; but together they make the best of it. The ending is finally a picturesque, peaceful romantic moment as they watch the sunset over Robinson Park. Pam looks over to see Harley down on one knee, holding out a gold ring with a flower of rubies on it. She flushes and raises her hands to her mouth. Harley says, getting a little choked up, “I’ll be honest, I drafted and redrafted a big speech for this a dozen times. But in the end I gave up. As someone who’s made a living out of breaking down and clearly articulating even the strongest, deepest, purest, most layered feelings there are, I don’t have the words to say how much I love you. So I thought I’d just show you instead. Dr Pamela Isley, do you wanna marry me?” Pam puts on the ring and takes her hands. “Dr Harleen Quinzel…” She pulls her to her feet. “I really, really do.” They hug and Pam unconsciously causes growth spurts in plants all across Gotham. The wedding ceremony takes place in Pam’s personal botanical garden. They both wear clothes that reference their classic villain costumes: Pam a gorgeous, elaborate dress self-constructed out of foliage and flowers complete with a flower crown, Harley an alternating red and black suit with diamond embroidery that the Dent system made with pink and blue plaited pigtails. Ivy grows a bouquet in the moment and Selina, the chief bridesmaid/maid of honour of Harley, catches it offhand with her Catwoman reflexes. Bonus if Bruce is there with her. Extra bonus if Bruce is there as Batman, who the brides give a special “inbatation” as thanks for sparing and saving their lives and supporting their rehabilitations when they did not make it easy for him. Pam selects Victor to be her best man and he squeals with delight. His heartfelt speech makes Nora (pre-official reconciliation) warm up to him a little and she compliments it and his new friendships near the end at the party. He offers her a dance “for old time’s sake”. She hesitates, then takes his hand and smiles. “Not just for that.”

The episode right after the Harlivy proposal has them telling everyone the news and starting wedding prep over about a week. It’s all very heartwarming and fluffy, but also, known to the audience but not to them, Harley keeps narrowly missing assassination attempts while they’re together (they do get a little suspicious, but are too caught up to dwell on it and, well, bad things happen a lot in Gotham). The mysterious would-be assassin seems to have a very deep, personal hatred for both of them, and just gets more motivated the more she sees how nice, happy and in love they are. It turns out that years ago her husband was thoughtlessly murdered in front of her, by not Harley but Pam. She was already distrustful of redeemed supervillains and thought they were let off easy. Seeing an engagement ring on Poison Ivy’s finger at their celebratory dinner in the cold open - seeing murderers and terrorists enjoying the very happiness, security and love they callously stole from her and countless other innocents - was the last straw. She wants to give Ivy the exact same grief and trauma she gave her. In the climax she gives up trying to be subtle and just corners them in an alley, sprays Pam with potent pesticide that briefly incapacitates her, cuffs her to a fire escape and aims a gun at Harley point blank. The couple sympathize and empathize with her upon hearing her story, which of course only makes her angrier - how dare they be so kind and understanding as if it makes up for everything they’ve done? Her grievance against them is so salient that they They manage to talk her down, Harley in particular with her psychological ability, arguing that: murder feels shitty, even if it’s someone you believe deserves to die; your first murder always feels extra shitty and you will miss the part of yourself that it takes afterward; the ‘right back at ya!’ style of revenge seems wonderfully just and cathartic, but the risk of recreating your trauma is your own PTSD resurfacing enhanced by guilt; and the penal system is still, you know, bad. Initially she holds fast and scoffs that they should have thought of all these great arguments against killing people before they became supervillains. But the more they sway her, the more her merciless facade cracks until she breaks. “No! You don’t get to ruin my life and then ‘save my soul’! You don’t get to be the heroes here! I’m the one in control!” “Yes, you are,” rasps Pam. “Our lives are completely in your hands. Harleen has a loaded gun pointed at her, and I don’t need to tell you how afraid I am. It’s up to you to pull that trigger… or not. It’s up to you to save yourself.” The widow looks between their pleading expressions, her hand shakes and the gun clatters to the ground. She promptly runs out of adrenaline and crashes, processing that she spent a whole week actively and wholeheartedly trying to kill another human being. Harley gives her the number of “the best therapist I know”, who turns out to be Joan Leland. She never forgives them, but can begrudgingly empathize with them somewhat and chooses to focus on her own life and wellbeing. Meanwhile, Harley and Pam are reminded that for all their progress, the consequences of their past choices will never fully leave them alone; what they can control is how they deal with them and how they behave going forward. They’ll probably never balance the scales, but any good they put into the world is worth it. In that dinner at the beginning, they toasted to “things being perfect”. At the end, sharing some much-needed alcohol, they toast to “being better”.

Kirk Langstrom, aka Man-Bat, is permanently cured by John in a Halloween episode. Since reforming, John finds Halloween the worst day of the year because it’s the anniversary of many of his crimes and all his biggest-scale ones. He spends each one holing himself up in his lab to work on some massive project, neglect self-care, wallow in guilt and self-flagellate for the surrounding week, the apparent lost cause Man-Bat being this year’s. However, the main focus character besides Kirk himself is Waylon. He’s trying to enjoy his present and how much he’s gained; namely, people who treat him like a normal person, allowing him to finally see the appeal of the holiday where people treating you like a horrible monster is meant to be fun, which was previously just his everyday and very solidly Not Fun. He’s taking the orphan and/or runaway kids he takes care of at the shelter trick-or-treating and he’ll be damned if they don’t have a good time. Naturally, Man-Bat escapes. This is a horror episode! Kirk’s backstory is that five years ago he created his vampire bat DNA serum to try to cure his recently acquired deafness (“I just wanted to hear my family’s voices again…”), became Man-Bat, accidentally killed his wife Francine, got captured by Batman and couldn’t be released from Arkham because all cures developed until now proved to be only temporary. His first transformation and Francine’s death is the cold open. His children, Aaron and Becky, were placed in foster care and have not yet found a forever home (the Gotham social system isn’t that great). They befriend Waylon’s kids while trick-or-treating early on. They just want their dad back, especially Aaron who’s older, thus remembers more of their parents, thus is more traumatized. Waylon then bonds with Kirk over losing and struggling to recover their own humanity; agonizing, traumatic chronic transformations into an animalistic monster; and feeling like their pain and fear is all they are and they can never be anything else or make up for the mistakes that haunt them and blood on their hands. Though Batman and John do their best, it’s ultimately Waylon who’s able to reach the man inside the beast. This is also when he admits that his kids are fully emotionally his kids now because Man-Bat and another, actually malicious supervillain who breaks out of Akrham endanger them. Until now he’s denied that because he couldn’t trust himself with a parent’s level of responsibility for such fragile, innocent people. But by acknowledging and articulating his understanding of parental love him he can remind Kirk of his own for his kids, which is the final push that inspires him to fight through his animal instincts so he can help save both of their children and a number of other Gothamites from the true villain’s evil science plot. Kirk regains custody of Aaron and Becky at the end. He’s a minor recurring character from then on. Also, to come back to John, helping Kirk makes him realize he should just let himself live and stop obsessing over even his worst mistakes and that excessive self-punishment isn’t actually constructive or good for anyone.

Pam and John, the world experts on evil mind-altering chemistry, help Batman and the Signal finally cure the Joker toxin afflicting Duke’s parents. This is a show about happy endings. Duke, Elaine and Doug’s is long overdue! By the end of the episode it’s implied they silently figure out the Signal, who they like, respect and have bonded with over science and traumatic experiences with and who John says he would have loved to teach, is Bruce Wayne’s ward Duke. It’s the ultimate vindication of Bruce’s no-kill rule and unwavering belief in humanity to have the villains he spared not simply no longer hurt, but actively improve lives and the state of the world, even perform direct acts of kindness toward him and his own family. Dark, gritty hellhole Gotham that never improves much is a fine setting and atmosphere in Batman’s earlier stages. But after all these years of heroes struggling and fighting and sacrificing for it, I want to show that dedication has tangibly meant something. That it wasn’t in vain. From the Batfamily themselves to the ex-rogues to the ordinary citizens, things really have got and will continue to get better. The promise that started it all, the one a boy made on his parents’ grave, can be kept. I think this might be the most optimistic Batman story I’ve ever seen. I like that. Batman is an inherently optimistic character, so why shouldn’t his stories match?

The Court of Owls could be major antagonists later on? Like, its intricate underground conspiracy and need to control Gotham contrasts the protagonists’ desire to lead simple lives and leave all that kind of business, and their personal harmful means of control, behind. Its deep connection to Gotham’s history both mirrors the irreversible impact the protagonists have had on that history and contrasts their capacity to brighten its future. The Owls are essentially a thematic foil to the ex-rogues. As the ex-rogues learn to let go, they keep tightening their grip. Where the found family consists of unique, eccentric individuals encouraged to be themselves in the best way possible, the Court is conformist and stifling and its bonds toxic and emotionally distant. And it would be funny for the protagonists to not be intimidated by them whatsoever. “Before we get into our… disagreement, I’d just like to commend you on the appropriateness of your gimmick, what with owls being the natural predators of bats. I’m biased in favour of birds, of course.” A cult leader stands up straighter and her glare at Oswald intensifies. “The Court does not have a gimmick,” she snarls. Oswald spreads his hands genially. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. All the best villains have one - ” A hurled knife grazing his ear and nicking a few hairs cuts him off. He says under his breath, “No need to be rude about it.” Later in this plot arc, he smoothly outsmarts, humiliates and incapacitates a number of the Court’s elite members in a fight. “You know something about owls? They’re associated with intelligence and wisdom. In truth, their brains are so well adapted to their specific hunting methods and evolutionary niche, they leave little room for the human definition of intelligence. Owls often fail to solve logic puzzles. They mostly can’t be trained. They make fatal mistakes at a higher rate than other birds of prey. In their preferred context they’re extremely competent, but outside it? Due to their narrow, short-sighted focus, they’re really quite stupid. I did say it was an appropriate gimmick.” “For the last time,” the leader snarls, stumbling toward him, “we are the all-knowing, all-powerful Court of Owls! We don’t have a -” He unceremoniously knocks her out and rolls his eyes. “Oh, get over yourselves.”

Bruce and Selina get engaged partway through the final season. The episode contains a flashback to a classic Batman/Catwoman escapade ending with her betrayal and abandonment of him to a trap, mocking him for trusting her. We glimpse her regret, he doesn’t. (“You’re better than this!” he cries. Guilt flashes across her face and she turns back slightly, but hardens again. “If you really believe that, you aren’t quite the world’s greatest detective.” Her formerly playful voice is heavy and joyless.) She proposes to him at the end of the episode. He confesses he was actually thinking of asking her soon. She murmurs, “Guess I’m still a step ahead of you.” He smiles and they kiss passionately. “Guess you are.” They marry - a small, private, individualized wedding prior to their fancy public wedding that’s just a formality - in the series grand finale. Harvey is Bruce’s best man and they have a tearful hug when he accepts the proposition. Harley, Pam, Nora, and Holly Robinson are Selina’s bridesmaids, her sister Maggie her chief bridesmaid. Her something borrowed is a silver necklace Nora wore at her wedding; something blue is a sapphire brooch Bruce bought her years ago after stopping her stealing it the previous night; something old is a frayed ribbon from her mother, the only thing of her she has left; something new is a flower Pam grows for her to wear in her hair. Her speech examines in-depth how he broke down her fear of intimacy, apathy toward the world and other people, need to control every aspect of her life and filter it through her barriers, and overall made her a better person ready to face the unknown with her hand in his. The world’s two weirdest, most messed-up found families are united! Oh, and an evil conspiracy may reach its culmination and nearly kill them all. But that’s not the point.

The series altogether ends in a montage of the group’s ordinary lives and the positive impacts they’ve had: Victor and Nora snuggled on the sofa watching a news broadcast of the IRR expanding the North Pole; Waylon being a welcomed, comfortable guest at the adoptive home of a kid he’d looked after on the streets, whose parents he had to learn to trust in the earlier episode they were adopted in; an evidently depressed teenager managing to stagger out of bed to take John’s new and improved antidepressants; Harley and Pam at a nature reserve in Kenya with Harley cooing over hyenas and Pam regrowing removed forest; and an extended family portrait in Wayne Manor with Selina, Talia and Harvey as well as the entire Batfamily and their pets, among plenty more scenes. Over it the protagonists give a narration that imparts advice for self-improvement and a hopeful message to not give up on yourself, “because you’ll be amazed by what you’re capable of. Up to and including being happy and loved.”

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boldlyvoid · 3 years

Text

the guy at the rock show

she/they reader x Spencer Reid

request for @boba-king-iroh ♥︎

summary: Y/N lost their parents when they were 17, finding a new home and solace in Penelope Garcia and taking the Garcia name. They're the top forensic specialist in D.C, in a band and they drive a motorcycle... not to mention they are madly in love with the cute doctor who works with their sister.

warnings: fluff, mutual pining, getting together, love confessions, friends to lovers, idiots in love, PDA, secret relationships

word count: 5666

a/n: there will be a smutty part 2 eventually because I can't not do that

THE PLAYLIST THAT GOES WITH THEIR SETLIST IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN WHILE YOU READ

Read on Ao3 here!

Taking Garcia’s last name wasn’t something they had to think hard about, Penelope basically raised them; she was like a sister, a best friend and a mother, even a bit of a fairy godmother to Y/N.

They met when Y/N was 17, they were sitting at a support group for dead parents in D.C. Right beside the lovely, overly cheerful, always helpful, Penelope Garcia. At first, Y/N couldn’t stand her, wondering how a person like that could be running a group for mourning people, it made her sick.

It wasn’t until she heard Penelope’s story for the first time, knowing how similar it sounded to her own and how, actually, you can take your grief and turn it into something beautiful. After the meeting, they pulled Penelope aside and gave her a big hug and a thank you.

It was the start of a lovely friendship, one Y/N didn’t know they needed until they were smothered in all the love you could possibly imagine.

The age gap between them wasn’t too big, Penelope was 10 years older than them which meant she was always one step ahead of Y/N and full of advice. Be it fashion, boys, girls and everything in between. They bonded in a way that was unbreakable, they were each other's family.

Penelope even helped her get into med school before she eventually switched to forensic science. Taking on the FBI academy, unlike Penelope, and joining the bureau officially. Penelope was there for her every single step of the way, making her career possible. She loved her dearly and wanted Y/N to succeed more than anyone in the world.

Getting to introduce herself to people as Agent Y/N Garcia, not to be confused with technical analyst Garcia, was one of the best feelings in the world.

Not many people ever mistook them, however, for whatever Penelope was, Y/N was the exact opposite.

Y/N preferred all black everything, she didn’t enjoy partying or close contact or the in-your-face-ness of Penelope’s way of life, she loved her band and motorcycle and being alone. They were quote-unquote edgy, not just for effect, but because it was how they felt the most comfortable, it was who they were and they liked it that way.

They were possibly the best Forensic Specialist the FBI had, keeping her in DC for all the most important cases. Helping her avoid Penelope and the BAU team as much as possible. They were great people, she didn’t hate them at all, it was just a lot of energy that they didn’t have to give to 7 other people all day long.

Spencer was the only one she could tolerate. Rather, he was the one she wanted to spend the most time with, even more than Penelope. He understood Y/N in a way others didn’t.

He was also quiet, like them, he didn’t pick on them or call them mini Garcia, baby-baby girl, or infant as some of them started to call her more recently.

He called them Y/N, he talked to them about star trek whenever he was visiting Penny, and he respected their pronouns. Using both she and they interchangeably, when he spoke of them, unlike most people who only used she and her because it made more sense in their small brains.

However, she wasn’t the only one who got teased. Spencer did as well, almost more because he was around the BAU team constantly. She hated hearing them bully him, he didn’t even count it as bullying but it’s basically what it was sometimes.

They put him down, they didn’t clue him in on things, they called out his stims and didn’t let him finish his sentences, especially when it had to do with his hyper-fixations. He was the brightest light in the room and they just picked his brain till he wasn’t useful anymore, before trying to turn out the light. It made Y/N furious.

They got called Mr and misses genius when they were on a scene together, remembering the first time she ever had a case with the BAU which was also the first time she snapped at someone for being mean to Spencer.

Someone asked Spencer a serious question, to which he did his fucking job and answered. Giving as much detail as humanly possible, being the absolute genius he is and should be praised for, only to have Emily poke him in the cheek and say; “wow, he’s so life-like?”

“Well yeah, cause he’s a fucking human who deserves respect from the people who use his brain all day,” Y/N cursed under their breath from the crime scene, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Leaving the sweetest man on earth to find them later and give them a hug. Thanking them for all that they do, and appreciating what he has to offer. That’s when she realized she liked him, more than just the guy who sometimes sleeps on her couch because he’s friends with her sister.

It was difficult being surrounded by men unlike Spencer, specifically the older men in her field who didn’t understand anything outside of money, guns, and violence. The worst part of the job being the politics in the background; the hierarchy and ass-kissing all because she worked in the nation's capital.

They were sure it was probably better in a smaller facility, a local police station where no one knew her and they could finally have some peace and quiet.

But she’d miss Penelope, and Spencer too for that matter.

At first, they’d hide in their room when Penelope brought him over for movie nights or when he crashed on the couch after bringing her home drunk from the bar. In the early days, she worried that he was going to be her new boyfriend, taking all of Penelope’s free time and leaving Y/N with nothing.

But then he started coming over all the time just to hang out, sitting on the couch with nothing to say, being the third wheel while Y/N and Penelope spent time together. For the last 7 years.

Over that time they had many conversations alone, she learned that he was really smart, he was a lot younger than most of the team because he blew through high school by the time he was 13, and he was genuinely the sweetest man in the whole entire world.

One time, Penelope was running late when Spencer showed up at the door with chips and candy, ready to watch his weekly movie with his friend. Only she wasn’t going to make it home in time, and Y/N didn’t want him to have to go back to his apartment all alone.

“You can come in and watch it with me if you wanted to?” She offered, smiling softly. “What was it you picked for tonight?”

“It was Penelope’s night to choose, so you can pick instead if you want?” Spencer offered right back, walking in like he owned the place.

He was more confident now than he was in the beginning, but that was probably because he was 23 and she was 18.

Back then he’d barely look at her and sometimes he’d shake when they made eye contact or when she got drunk and hugged him goodbye after a long night with Penelope. He was like that with Penny in the early days of their friendship too, apparently, so she didn’t feel too bad about it.

He warmed up eventually, making her wait 7 years for him to do something about the growing feelings they both shared.

“You like Marvel movies right?” She bit the inside of her lip as she waited for his answer. Watching him walk around the kitchen for a bowl that he could put his snacks in.

“Yeah they’re great, I haven’t watched past the second Thor, I think the next one is another Captain America?” he’s all smiles as he joins her on the couch, closer than normal, as close as he’d sit with Penelope, but then again she was a cuddler and Y/N wasn’t.

Sometimes Y/N would come out of her room to find Spencer’s head on Penelope’s lap, resting on a pillow as she ran her fingers through his hair to soothe his perfect mind after a long day. A few times she’s walked in on him crying or even sound asleep in her arms. They had a friendship Y/N admired, they were each other's person.

They comforted each other in the exact way they needed it; Penelope giving him the physical touch he craved and he would often compliment her. He was always telling her she was the best and buying her gifts to show his appreciation, calling her the most beautiful and smartest person he knew. He knew that she needed to hear it, needed the reassurance that she was still a good person and he made her believe it.

It made Y/N love him more seeing how much he cared for her sister.

“The winter soldier is the best!” She gushed, sitting close so they could share the chips as she waited for the movie to load up.

He was very quiet when he watched movies, smiling and laughing at the right parts but typically he paid so much attention it was like he was a statue. Y/N spent more time glancing at him than the actual movie.

“Is there something on my face?” Spencer asked, nervous when he noticed her glance at him for the 100th time that night.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she panicked lightly, swallowing quickly before looking away.

“What?”

“I don’t know, I just think you’re fascinating,” she whispered because then she didn’t really say it, and it didn’t really count.

“Oh,” he smiled softly, leaving it at that and forcing his attention back on the movie.

After a while, Spencer started to get even closer. He put the bowl on the coffee table and sat back almost on top of her, reaching an arm behind the couch so that Y/N was right against his side. He had done it with Penelope before, confident in this little living room, almost forgetting it was Y/N beside him.

Y/N rested her hand on his knee, rubbing her thumb over his jeans in a soft little circle as she pretended to watch the movie. More concerned with Spencer’s breathing and the feeling of his hand inching towards their shoulder than anything else.

Then they heard keys at the front door. Pulling away from each other quickly to curl up on opposite sides of the couch and pretend they weren’t just cuddling.

“Hey, you still came!” Penelope cheered, a little drunk from whatever she was doing before.

“I’d never miss a night with the Garcia’s,” Spencer smiled at her, looking calm and collected as ever while Y/N turned bright pink.

“Oh, I love Bucky! Oh my god let me go change and I’ll come watch too!”

That was just the first time they ended up cuddling, certainly not the last.

—

It wasn’t often that Penelope was too busy to spend time with Y/N, rather the contrary. Sometimes Y/N had to beg her to leave her be at certain events. Like when their band was playing at any of the local bars and Penny started inviting everyone she knew to come and watch her sister play.

It was embarrassing, to say the least, but Y/N loved her support.

When Y/N peaked her head out to see the crowd before a show, normally Penelope was sitting in the front with a drink and at least 4 friends, cheering and chanting their name, ready to rock out to their covers.

Tonight she didn’t see Penelope at all, she knew she wouldn’t, Penelope was in London visiting Emily with Derek for the second time in the past year, leaving no one to come to the monthly show Y/N’s band put on, or so she thought.

Spencer came all by himself.

He was sitting in the front, at a table with a bowl of pretzels and a ginger ale, not interested in the drinking or the socializing, just there to support Y/N. It made her feel giddy, like a schoolchild seeing their crush at recess.

It was so nice of him that it gave her butterflies, and normally that didn’t happen. They could go on and play a show in front of ten thousand people and feel nothing, but the second Spencer Reid was there to cheer them on, they were a mess.

“What song are we doing first again?” Y/N asked Evie, their lead singer and best friend outside of work.

“Who are they?”

Y/N was taken aback, “What?”

“You’ve never been nervous, who came to see you?” Evie clarified her question.

“No one, for fuck sake, I thought we left all the profilers at home tonight?” she sighed, shaking the nerves out of their body as they jumped up and down lightly.

They paced back and forth for a few minutes to wear down the nerves but only managing to make herself sweat to death and discard the leather jacket she always wore on stage. She walked in a circle aimlessly, remembering the setlist in their mind and how the spotlights typically made it so they couldn’t see the crowd anyway so it’s not like she could fuck up by making eye contact with him.

And it’s not like it was the first time he had seen her play, Spencer comes every month with Penelope, he liked a lot of the music they covered from when he was an emo teen in university. They’ve bonded over it before sharing albums and records back and forth, but she was still scared shitless at the prospect of him caring about her enough to come alone.

Especially when he hated being in situations like this in the first place.

It was their turn to go on, the manager of the bar gathering them and telling them to go on and so Y/N started walking towards the stage door, only to be pulled back harshly by Evie’s cold hands.

“Don’t forget your sticks, god who do you wanna fuck so bad it makes you this stupid?” She placed the drumsticks in Y/N’s hands, “get it together.”

“Sorry, it’s the guy in the sweater vest, front row,” they whispered in response, putting their head down and heading to the stage before she could tease them about it.

“The Forensic Lyricists are here once again folks!” The Manager introduced them to the crown, “get ready for them to dig up some classics!” Always the same dumb joke before every show.

Opening with crushcrushcrush by Paramore, thank god she remembered, it was an easy song to play as they warmed up and pushed the nerves away. They could play it in their sleep, with their eyes closed, and so that's what they did.

Eyes closed, mouthing the words as the adrenaline of the night took over the anxiety and made them go insane, like most nights. They didn’t need drinks or drugs to feel hyped at most shows, all she needed was a smile from penny and a good luck text from Spencer.

Playing by memory until she felt more confident and then getting into it. “They taped over your mouth, Scribbled out the truth with their lies, your little spies…”

“Crush, crush, crush, crush crush two, three, four!!” Y/N sung backup for each chorus, finally getting into it.

“Nothing compares to, a quiet evening alone! Just the one, two! of us who's counting on! That never happens, I guess I'm dreaming again.”

They tried their hardest to push the images of that night on the couch with Spencer out of their mind as they sang along, trying to harmonize and cover the backup for Evie as best as she could.

“Let’s be more than this now!”

She always took the bridge, as the drummer and the most passionate one, it only made sense. Y/N always got the crowd on their feet, roaring along as they jumped to the beat.

“Rock and roll, baby, Don't you know that we're all alone now? I need something to sing about. Rock and roll, hey! Don't you know, baby, we're all alone now? I need something to sing about! Rock and roll, hey! Don't you know, baby, we're all alone now? Give me something to sing about!”

“Nothing compares to, a quiet evening alone! Just the one, two! of us who's counting on! That never happens, I guess I'm dreaming again, let’s be more than, noOoo!”

She had a crush on Spencer fucking Reid and one now noticed as they tried their hardest to focus on the words when all that came to mind right now was his body heat and how good he smelled and how nice it was that he came to support them.

“Nothing compares to, a quiet evening alone! Just the one, two! of us who's counting on! That never happens, I guess I'm dreaming again, Let’s be more than this, more than thiiiiiis, oooooooh, mmmmmmhmmm,” she sang the ending of the song along with Evie, their harmony sounding more perfect than any performance before.

Critics always said the performance is better when you mean the words you’re singing. With that, they accepted their crush on Doctor Spencer Reid after 7 long years of knowing him. They pushed through nerves so that they could go and see him after and do something about it, now that Penelope wasn’t home to tease her for it.

Leading right into Dear Maria, Count Me In. Their bass player, Kat taking the lead for her favourite song. Being an all ‘girl’ punk band was her idea, and now they all enjoyed taking turns singing their favourite songs in front of mostly strangers, once a month.

Every single song made her think of Spencer in some way as she remembered the rest of the set, it had 5 songs in total and each one included at least one reference to something she knew about Spencer.

It was hard to not think about him while he stood at the edge of the stage with everyone and bopped his head along to the beat, a smile growing on his face as he also noticed the little references to them in the songs.

The Rock Show by Blink182 was going to hit a little too close to home as she sang the words all but to him, making eye contact with him as he moved to the best spot to see them play, much like Penelope would do every time.

She didn’t realize how much this song actually represented her life before tonight, starting to sing her song alone while Spencer watched. Deciding on the spot to dedicate it to him in the most fucking obvious way possible, taking her chances because he must have come for a reason.

“Hanging out behind the club on the weekends. Acting stupid, getting drunk with my best friends, I couldn't wait for the summer and the Warped Tour, I remember that it's the first time that I saw him there!”

Spencer was smiling then, noticing the lyric change as they made eye contact, nodding along as he watched. Genuinely enjoying himself and the show, it was lovely to see. She couldn’t help but smile against the mic as she sang and played. Wondering how his face will change with the next verse she watched him from the corner of her eye.

Her bandmates turning to see her as they played their guitars, nodding in agreement at the lyric change, they knew what she was up to. It wasn’t the first time they used the stage to bring someone home with them.

“He's getting kicked out of school cause he's failing. I’m kinda nervous, cause I’m sure all his friends hate me! He’s the one, he'll always be there, I took his hand and I’ll make it I swear,

“Because I fell in love with the guy at the rock show! He said what? and I told him that I didn't know. He's so cool, gonna sneak in through his window. Everything's better when he's around. Can’t wait until my parent goes out of town, I fell in love with the guy at the rock show!”

Spencer’s smile was priceless, it made them even more confident to sing all the words, wanting him with zero shame, it’s not like anyone who knew him would know about this.

“When we said we were gonna move to Vegas I remember the look your mother gave us 17 without a purpose or direction We don't owe anyone a fuckin’ explanation”

“Black and white picture of him on my wall, I waited for his call, he always kept me waiting, and if I ever got another chance I'd still ask him to dance, because he kept me waiting!”

“I fell in love with the guy at the rock show! He said what? and I told him that I didn't know. He's so cool, gonna sneak in through his window. Everything's better when he's around. Can’t wait until my parent goes out of town,”

“I fell in love with the guy at the rock show!” She had never been this passionate while playing this song in all the years they had played it together.

Her bandmates taking the lead singing, “with the guy at the rock show!”

“I’ll never forget you,” she sang in the middle of their chants, “I’ll never forget you, I’ll never forget you, I’ll never forget tonight, I’ll never forget tonight…”

She shot a wink at him before turning back in her seat to face the drum set the best way. The last two songs were Evie’s and Kat’s, she covered the backup vocals, making the occasional glance towards Spence as she thought of him.

Counting down the minutes till she could go see him.

Come a little closer by cage the elephant, an obvious title with lyrics that would clearly bring every memory of brushed hands against lower backs as they slipped past each other in crowded rooms, lingering as long as possible before they were gone again. Goodnight hugs when Penelope was already asleep and he could hold her a big longer and tighter, resting his head on her shoulder while she rubbed his back and breathed him in. And that night on the couch, not to mention all the mornings she walked in on him sleeping peacefully, brushing the hair out of his face, softly, in the hopes he didn’t wake up.

“Come a little closer, then you'll see, Come on, come on, come on, Things aren't always what they seem to be… Do you understand the things you been seein' Come on, come on, come on! Do you understand the things that you've been dreaming… Come a little closer, then you'll see! Come a little closer, then you'll see!”

And even when he did she had a coffee ready for him when he sat up and smiled, giving them a few hours alone before Penelope would wake up. Talking all morning about star trek and dr. Who, smacking his knee as he made jokes that genuinely made them laugh while trying to keep her voice down so they didn’t wake Penelope.

Not many people made her feel like that in her life.

“Come a little closer, then you'll see! Come a little closer, then you'll see!” Staring at him, enticing him to do it the next time they had the chance.

The intro to I’d Do Anything by simple plan was one of her favourites to play, smiling wide as she began to drum as her best friends sang the words.

Waiting for the chorus to sing the words at Spencer, really sending the message, he wasn’t dumb, not in the slightest, he would get it. He had to, she had already been so obvious there was no turning back now.

“This could be the one last chance to make you understand,”

Her arms were starting to hurt as she played along with the most energy she has had in years, playing like a teenager whose parents just died and she needed to hit something, once again. It was freeing, playing with what she could only imagine was love in her chest instead of anger. It’s how she was supposed to play.

"I’d do anything Just to hold you in my arms To try to make you laugh Cuz somehow I can’t put you in the past I’d do anything Just to fall asleep with you Will you remember me? Cuz I know I won’t forget you,"

Focusing on the drumming and ignoring the lyrics as her bandmates covered the lyrics, letting her go hog fucking wild on the drum set, almost kicking the chair out from under herself as they kept going. Joining for the chorus again before beating the shit out of her drum set.

I close my eyes And all I see is you I close my eyes I try to sleep I can't forget you Na na na And I'd do anything for you Na na na Naaaaaaa

“I’d do anything!” She closed her eyes as she pushes the words past her vocal cords, again and again, passionately playing the drums as her hair flew all over the place, worried she might break the sticks as she played.

“Cause I know I won't forget yoooou!” She plays the end of the song, snapping the left drumstick in half before throwing the right one into the crowd, right into Spencer’s hand, sending him a wink before saying goodbye to the crowd.

Sweaty as hell from playing the drums, they brushed their long black hair back behind their ears and in a low ponytail so it would fit under her motorcycle helmet on the way home. Putting their leather jacket back on and heading into the main bar to find Spencer.

“Hey,” he smiled as she walked towards him, the drumstick now resting in his pocket as he approached her.

“I can’t believe you came here all by yourself?” Y/N laughed slightly before pulling him into a thank-you hug.

“I wouldn’t miss it, I’ve been coming for a year now, it’s always a great time,” his smile was perfect, his teeth were so white and straight and she wondered how they’d feel against her neck.

“It’s been that long?” She pretended that she didn’t notice, biting their lip as he ran the calculations in his mind.

He nodded with a soft, pressed-lipped smile, the Spencer classic. “Yep, it’s been exactly 14 months straight now.”

“I know you don’t like bars and loud noises and people you don’t know, or germs which makes this like a nightmare of yours I guess because of the close proximity of people and the germs being spread as everyone screams in a crowd,” she ranted before he was pulling her into another hug, “so this means a lot to me,” she finished her thought beside his ear for only him to hear.

“Anytime,” he whispered as he held her, his arm on her back and chin resting on her shoulder.

“Did you need a ride home?” She offered, thinking about how nice it would be for him to wrap his arms around their body as he sat behind her on Patsy, her motorcycle.

“Yeah, unless you wanted to go to your place and watch another movie? I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting,” he spoke just loud enough to be heard over the music.

“Yeah, I’d love that, it’s been lonely while Penny’s gone,” a smile erupting on her face as she got the reference, “come on then.”

She took his hand in hers, interlocking their fingers and dragging him backstage towards her locker. She had a space to keep her things for practice and other shows she did during the week, keeping an extra helmet and jacket in the locker for nights like this, however, normally it was a cute stranger. Not the man she’s been crushing on since she was a teenager.

“Oh, you brought Patsy,” Spencer’s face went white.

“Did you not want to ride her? Come on, everyone wants to ride her at least once,” Y/N teased him as she put the helmet in his free hand.

Her bandmates staring at her with proud smiles as she took the guy from the rock show home; the one in the sweater vest from the front, the one who was the most into the whole show, they both gave Y/N a wave and a smile as they slipped out the backstage door.

They walked out to the parking lot, still hand in hand with their helmets in the other. Stopping at her dark purple Suzuki GS650 GT, it was her most prized possession because it used to belong to her parents.

She put her hair in the right spot before putting the helmet on, sitting down and starting the engine, revving it for everyone in the lot to see as Spencer put his helmet on and threw a leg over the seat, nervous as ever.

He fit behind her perfectly, just enough room on the seat for his chest to press against her back as he placed his hands gingerly on her hips. It made her laugh.

“You’re going to want to hold on better than that pretty boy,” she teased him before revving the engine once more, kicking the kickstand up and speeding out of the parking lot.

Spencer gripped her tightly as she took off down the street, taking the longest route possible to her home. She didn’t hit a single red light for at least 5 blocks, zooming through traffic as Spencer squeezed the life out of her.

He felt amazing, his hands were so big as he fully wrapped around her, reaching around completely so his right hand was on her left hip and vice versa. He was so close she could feel his heartbeat against her back.

He was nervous, he flinched every time she turned and held on even tighter somehow.

So she did another lap of the block, around the park’s bend so she could lean the bike as far as possible as Spencer’s fingers dug into her hips fiercely. Breathing deep enough that she could hear him over the engine, but he wanted her to keep going. Not ready to let go of her yet, this is the closest they had ever been to each other.

When she finally pulled into the parking lot of their apartment complex, they bumped over the curb and his hand grazed Y/N’s boob, he pulled back so fast it was barely there, she just shook her head and laughed. Parking the bike and putting the kickstand back down.

Spencer let out a sigh, relaxing against her as he rested his chin on her shoulder again.

“Have fun?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” he laughed, his voice deep and dry from breathing with his mouth open, it was cute.

He got off first when his legs were finally able to work again, still vibrating from the rev of the engine he walked like Ariel when she got her legs. It was priceless, no one has reacted like that after getting a ride from them, not even Penelope.

She took her helmet off while still on the bike, shaking her hair out of the ponytail as provocatively as possible before getting off. Spencer’s jaw fell open once more as he watched, breathlessly, just as she expected.

Either he liked them before and never told them, or he was going to start now.

Either way, it excited Y/N to their core, taking his hand once more and leading him inside, this time they could be as close as they wanted to and no one was going to walk in on it. She stopped at her locked apartment door, looking at Spencer as softly as possible so he’d know her feelings were real.

“I know this will cause the teasing we already get to skyrocket, so if you wanted to keep it between us, I fully understand,” she whispered.

“Is that what you want?”

He was so sweet it made her heartache, never before had anyone made her feel like this; like she wasn’t in control of her body or mind, like an override in the system her brain and heart chose Spencer and there was no stopping them.

“I just told a whole bar of people that I’m in love with the guy at the rock show before taking you home in front of everyone,” she laughed, “I don’t care if people know, I just hate when they tease us, they belittle everything we do like we’re 17 forever, it’s not fun for me.”

“I hate it too,” he pressed his lips together awkwardly once more, “I’d like to keep you to myself for a while.”

She cupped his face in her hands and pulled in, pressing her lips against his as they both tried to repress their tightlipped smiles. Finally, finally kissing after all those years staring at each other's lips while they explained something, passionately as ever with the most attentive ears.

“Exactly, me too,” she smiled wider as she pulled back from him, unlocking the front door and pulling him inside for that movie he mentioned.

tag list: @shemarmooresfedora @spencers-dria @spookyspence @reidsfish @manuosorioh @mochionly @samuel-de-champagne-problems @jswessie187 (dm me if you want me to remove you)

#spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid self insert #spencer reid request #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine

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booksinsteadofdrugs · 3 years

Text

the cast of shadow and bone. was. perfect.

alina was straight out of the books. jessie portrayed her stubbornness, naivety, and confusion incredibly. from the way she denied her power at first, to the moment where she took it back from the darkling and claimed it hers. jessie mei li is the sun summoner, and we couldn't have asked for a better one.

malyen was even better than the malyen we've seen in the books. archie did a fantastic job with the character (he needs to be praised more considering his character is one of the most unnecessarily hated characters of all time and he was given hard time by some fans from the moment he was cast for the show). he was brave, loyal and charming the whole time. they added depth to his character with those keramzin flashbacks and both jessie and archie turned malina's bond into something more pure and more sweet. archie's acting was also one of the highlights of this show for me. he was just perfect.

i believe ben barnes was born to play the darkling, and no. i'm not being dramatic. he's captured the darkling's intimidating, manipulating yet charming nature so well. he wasn't just trying to manipulate alina, he was also manipulating the audience to think he is just a misunderstood man, paying the price of his ancestors' crimes. he was the best casting choice i've seen in a long time. the fact that he's older than anyone in the cast adds more layer to the darkling's image, i believe. in every scene he screams authority. from his posture to the way he's spitting out the words, we can see that ben has been working hard on this character. and personally, i'm so grateful for that.

the crows. they. were. incredible. i have no words. amita suman is literally the inej that everyone imagined while reading the books. she managed to capture every little detail about inej. especially seeing how her faith was affecting her decisions when it comes to killing was amazing. and the way she didn't hesitate to kill when kaz was in danger. and her admiration for alina. god, i just love inej so much. freddie did a spectacular job with kaz. he was incredible. i remember seeing inej and jesper flinching and turning their heads when alexei was shot, but kaz stood their like a statue, not moving an inch. without blinking. because he already knew what was gonna happen. also, i loved how he constantly denied believing alina was a saint until he finally did, and it was for inej. the way freddie always watched amita in scenes, always making sure she's nearby made me smile like an idiot. he had a purpose in every scene, he was never just standing there for show. that's the kaz brekker we know. he always has a plan and freddie portrayed kaz's confidence, his cunning nature and his faith in his crew so well. jesper was incredible. i could feel how much love kit has for his character from the way he played with his guns to the way he walked, he was literally just having fun with his character. i loved how tense he looked in ravka sometimes, not forgetting his character's abilities. he portrayed jesper's playful nature amazingly and it was a delight seeing him in this character. he made me laugh countless times throughout the season, and i can't wait to see more of him (especially with wylan) god, i love him so much.

nina and matthias. their chemistry. dude. i can't even speak. i feel like all the people who complained about danielle not fitting the nina image they had in their mind owe danielle an apology. because she was just perfect. i know i've used this word so many times but there's honestly no other way to describe it. danielle and calahan were literally shining together. the sexual tension was so tense. they were impeccable and netflix, i'm begging you, please give them more scenes in the next season. they made me scream, they made me laugh, and they made me cry. calahan portrayed matthias's superstitious and innocent personality so great. and the way nina was constantly flirting with him to make him embarrassed, they were literally the book helnik. i love them so much.

zoya. my queen. i wasn't expecting her to have this much screentime anf i was scared they were going to use her as a background character since she didn't have much part in the first book but wow, sujaya made sure to steal every scene she was in. she was always fierce, ambitious and gorgeous the whole time. you just can't stop yourself from adoring her. and she portrayed zoya's character development so beautifully. especially in the last scenes. i can't wait to see her more in the next season, especially with nikolai. c'mon netflix, speed things up if you have to. i want to see them together.

genya and david were great too. especially in the scene where we see genya with her new kefta gave me chills. knowing what she had to do to get it was intense. daisy was great as genya, her movements were always elegant, and we could sense the injustice that happened to her considering the few scenes she was in, especially without being explained clearly. luke pasqualino is a comedic genius. i loved seeing his awkward yet adorable david portrayal so much. especially his uncomfortable silence after genya says "see you at the fete". his uncertain movements and the way he raised his finger before speaking was hilarious. i loved their stolen glances at the winter fete. i need more of them, like, right now.

and also i wanna thank the writers for making ivan and fedyor gay. they were the couple i didn't know i need it. the way fedyor was feeding him was so cute. it even made me feel bad for ivan at the end when jesper shot him, although i didn't care for him in the books at all.

long story short, this cast made the characters even more likeable than the books. which is so rare considering all the horrible book to screen adaptations. they were all perfect. and they earned my gratitude for taking time to read the books, and do their job so well.

they did justice to leigh's work and i can't be more proud.

#shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone cast #jessie mei li #archie renaux #ben barnes #amita suman #freddie carter #kit young #sujaya dasgupta #danielle galligan #calahan skogman #daisy head #luke pasqualino #julian kostov #simon sears

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a-simple-gaywitch · 3 years

Text

Composed of the Elements

Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary: When a case takes the team to (Y/N)'s home town, her best friend Spencer helps her leave all the baggage behind.

Title Song: Sweet as Whole, Sara Bareilles

Word Count: 2705

Warnings: high school bullying, brief mentions of a case, smoking

“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” -Oscar Wilde

You walked into the bullpen with a coffee in one hand and your phone in the other.

“Morning, (Y/N),” your best friend, Spencer, called from his desk.

“Morning, Spence.” You sat down at your desk. Before you could get settled, JJ announced a case.

“We’ve been called in to a small town in Indiana,” JJ said, clicking on the slide projector.

“Wait. When you say small town…” you said, feeling your body tense.

“We’re going to (L/N)’s hometown,” Hotch confirmed. After going over the details of the case, he said, “Wheels up in thirty.”

Spencer reached for your arm, but you were up and moving to the bullpen before he could catch you. He watched as you grabbed your bag from your desk, ignoring Morgan’s attempts at conversation. Your usual peppy, outgoing self was gone, replaced with a stranger.

When the team gathered on the jet, they discussed the case together. You sat at the back of the cabin, staring out at the clouds, tapping on the table in front of you.

“Hey.” You looked up to see Gideon sitting in front of you. “Are you okay?”

You shook your head. “I never thought I’d be going back there. I thought I could leave and never look back.”

“Hey, I know it isn’t easy, but we need your help. You know this town and the people in it. That can help us.”

You sighed and stood up. “Fine.” Walking over to the team, you said, “One thing you need to know about these people: they don’t like outsiders. At all.”

“What do you mean by outsiders?” Hotch asked.

You scoffed. “Anyone who isn’t born and raised in the town. Even if you’ve lived there for years, if you weren’t born in Newton, you’re not to be trusted. You’ll see first-hand when we meet with the local PD.”

“What about the victims?” Derek asked you.

“I knew both of them in high school,” you said, flicking through the file. “But I don’t know what anyone has been doing with their lives.”

Spencer couldn’t help but notice the sadness in your eyes. Despite his aversion to touch, he reached out and rested his hand on top of yours. You were his safety net. He loved you, as more than just his best friend.

When the team got to the police station, you stuck to the back of the group while JJ and Hotch made introductions.

“Detective Miller,” Hotch said, holding his hand out. “I’m Agent Hotchner. You’ve already spoken to Agent Jareau. This is SSA Gideon, Dr. Reid, SSA Morgan, and SSA (L/N).”

“Wait. Little nerdy (Y/N) (L/N)?” the detective said, finally noticing you. “Wow, who would have thought you’d come back to Newton?” You swallowed hard, keeping your eyes down.

“Do you have a place we can set up a case board?” Spencer asked, noticing your unease.

“Sure.”

“Did you know the victims well?” JJ asked him.

The detective nodded. “We all do. Kelly’s my son’s teacher. Julia and I dated in high school. Our kids are friends.”

“Does everyone in town know each other well?” JJ asked as she helped you pin the crime scene photos to the board.

“Of course. We’re like a family. When your town only has 300 people, you have to look out for each other.” You couldn’t hold back your scoff. “You have something to say there, (Y/N)?”

“She’s Agent (L/N) to you,” Gideon interrupted. “JJ, Julia Coleman’s family is here.”

“You look different,” Detective Miller said to you as you worked late to help nail down the profile. “You look good.”

“Detective Miller-”

“Come on, you can call me Tim.” He stepped closer to you. “You don’t have to be so professional.”

“Excuse me,” you said, though it was no more than a whisper. You slipped out of the room and stood outside the precinct, leaning against the wall. You pulled a small box out of your jacket pocket.

“Since when do you smoke?” Spencer asked you, coming up next to you.

You lit a cigarette and took a drag before saying, “Since high school.” Seeing Spencer’s concern, you said, “Relax, I haven’t for a while. It’s only when I get really stressed.”

“You know, each cigarette takes about seven minutes off your life.”

“If it’s seven minutes I don’t have to spend with Timothy Miller or anyone else from this damn town, then I don’t care.”

“What did he do to you?”

You shook your head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Come on, (Y/N), it’s me. Talk to me. Please?”

You looked at your best friend’s pleading eyes and sighed. You put out your cigarette and said, “You know I didn’t have a good high school experience. After my mom died, my dad moved us to his childhood home. I moved schools halfway through the first semester. I was the weird new kid who wore all black with braces and clunky glasses and was way too into Stephen King books. I was an easy target.” You cleared your throat. “Julia and Tim were my biggest tormentors. When they dated, it was worse.”

“What do you mean?” Spencer asked.

You chewed your lip. “Tim asked me to the prom when he and Julie were on an off period of their relationship. I got so excited, like an idiot. I mean, I knew he didn’t like me in that way. After all, why would he?” You laughed, but there was no joy behind it. Spencer felt his heart clench at how you saw yourself. He thought you were the most beautiful, amazing woman to ever exist.

“But I thought at least I’d have a friend, you know? I rented a dress and did my hair, all that stuff. Tim said he was going to pick me up. He never came.” Your eyes burned with tears at the memory. “The worst part was, my dad didn’t know there was anything going on. After-after my mom died, he gave up. When he wasn’t working, he was drinking and smoking.” You shook your head. “Tim just brought all those feelings back.”

Spencer reached out and wiped the tears off your cheek. “You didn’t deserve any of that. No one deserves that.”

“Carrie was my favorite book in high school. I wonder what that says about me.”

“Why don’t we head back to the hotel?” Spencer offered, holding his hand out to you. “Rest might help us with the case.”

The next morning, the team discovered there was another murder. Misty Lincoln had been killed in the same way as the other two victims. Spencer was graphing the geographical profile while you sat at the table, staring at the crime scene photos.

“You see something?” Hotch asked you.

“I’m not sure. Uh, could I- could I take like two hours? I think there might be something that’ll help us in my dad’s old things.”

“Sure. But you’re not going alone. Take Reid with you.”

You knew better than to argue with your boss. “Yes, sir.”

When you and Spencer got into the SUV, your fingers started tapping the steering wheel as you drove, letting muscle memory guide you. You pulled into the parking lot of a storage facility. Spencer followed behind you as you passed row after row of storage units. When you finally stopped, you flipped through your keychain until you found one you were looking for. You hadn’t spoken to Spencer since getting in the car back at the station, and he was starting to worry.

After you opened the door to the unit, you looked at Spencer. “After my dad died, I moved all his stuff here. I got rid of some stuff, of course. What would I ever do with an old couch that had more cigarette burns than upholstery?” You ran your hand over a white garment bag. The golden lettering was faded, but Spencer could still make out the word bridal, and what he could infer was the word boutique from the few remaining letters. “Some things I just couldn’t get rid of.”

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Spencer asked you, picking up a picture at the top of an open box. You were between who he could only assume were your parents, and you all looked happy. You looked just like your mother. The small you, who couldn’t be much older than 8, clung to the woman’s side. Your father had his arm around your mother’s waist. It all looked very domestic.

“Sure,” you said, digging through a box at the back of the unit.

“Why have you been acting so different since we got here? I mean, you’ve been acting so meek and timid, which isn’t you. I once heard you threaten a cop that you would, and I quote, ‘shove your foot so far up his ass that he would taste the mud on your shoe.’ What’s going on?” He set the frame back on the top of the box.

You shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess… I spent so long trying to distance myself from this place and when I came back, I was back to being a scared little 15-year-old.”

“But, you’re not, (Y/N). You’re strong and confident.” It was then Spencer heard you sniffle and noticed you were crying. “(Y/N)?”

You wiped your face. “Sorry. It’s just… I worked so hard for the image of me that you all see and-and I’m just so afraid that being here is going to erase all that. I worked so hard at the Academy to form an identity that wasn’t this and-”

“(Y/N), (Y/N), hey,” he said, taking your hands in his. “Breathe. Our image of you is not going to change just because your old tormentors are here. I- uh, we, the team, we love you. You’re our family. I think Garcia would riot if Hotch ever tried to get rid of you.” You chuckled at that and it made him smile. “Now, how about we get out of here and work more on our profile?”

When you got back to the precinct, Hotch asked you, “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yeah.” You pulled an old yearbook out of your bag. “All the victims are from the same graduating class, and they were all in the same extracurriculars. Look.”

“We’re ready to give the profile,” Gideon said after flipping through the book.

Your team gathered the police department to deliver your preliminary profile.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that our unsub can only be a local,” Spencer said. “He-”

“There’s no way,” Officer Miller interrupted. “No one in this town would do that. Besides, why would I trust this walking stick insect over the people I’ve known my whole life? You’re wrong, Stick-Bug.”

“How dare you,” you said, stepping forward. The rest of your team stepped away. They knew what was coming. No one would say it, but they all knew how you and Spencer felt about each other. “How dare you talk to Spencer that way. Captain Bell invited us here to help you find out who’s murdering members of your community. You have no right to talk to my family that way.”

“Your family? These people are your family?”

“A family is anyone who makes you feel loved, and by that definition, yes. These people are my family. And if you ever talk to any of them like that again, I will bring your life crashing down around you with one simple phone call.”

“Oh, look who’s finally got a backbone,” Tim laughed. “Little (Y/N) thinks she sounds all big and threatening.”

“It’s not a threat, Timothy, it’s a promise,” you said. “And I’m sure Captain Bell would take you off this case if I told him you have a conflict of interest. I’m sure he’d love to know you’d had an affair with one of the victims. You and Julia never could stay away from each other, could you?”

Spencer fought a smile at seeing you return to yourself, as well as seeing Timothy’s face pale. He chewed the inside of his cheek, trying to think of a way to thank you.

The case was finally over. Like always, Spencer had been right. The unsub was a guy from your graduating class who felt the women from your class shunned and mistreated him. Thankfully, you were able to sympathize with him and get him to come in without any extra violence.

Hotch was giving the team the night in the hotel before heading back to Quantico in the morning. You were flipping through the channels on the hotel’s TV, already in your pajamas by 8:30. You finally settled on some old reruns of Friends when there was a knock at your door. You groaned and extracted yourself from your blanket cocoon and trudged over to the door.

“Spence? What are you doing here?” you asked after opening your door to reveal Spencer, still in his work clothes.

“Come with me, I want to show you something.”

“Spencer, I’m in my pajamas-”

“That doesn’t matter. Just, come with me. Please?”

You tugged your old sweatshirt on and followed Spencer down the hallway, to the elevator.

“Where are we going?” you asked him.

“It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise?”

“You trust me, right?”

“Of course, I do, Spence. You know that.”

“Okay well,” he covered your eyes with his hands and guided you forward. He dropped his hands and said, “surprise.”

You were standing on the patio of the hotel’s restaurant, the tables had been pushed to the side and lights were strung up all around.

“Spence, what’s all this?” you asked as he gently pulled you to the center of the patio.

“A way to say thank you,” he said. When he saw the confusion on your face, he said, “For sticking up for me at the precinct. I know it must have been hard to stand up to Detective Miller. And-and I remember you telling me that you don’t have many good memories here, and then I thought about your prom story, so…” He held his hand out to you as music started playing. “May I have this dance?”

You smiled and took Spencer’s hand. He rested his free hand on your waist, and your free hand rested on his shoulder as the two of you gently swayed to the soft music coming from the patio’s speakers.

“How’d you pull this off?” you asked him.

His smile was a bit sheepish. “Morgan and Garcia helped me pull some strings.”

“Of course they did. Garcia is the all-powerful puppet master.”

Spencer laughed as the two of you continued to dance. When Spencer heard you sniffle, he stopped and pulled away.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He brushed a tear off your cheek. “Did I do something wrong?”

You shook your head and smiled at him. “No. It’s happy tears.” When you saw that Spencer still looked confused, you explained, “I never thought I’d have someone in my life who cares about me this much. I mean, look at all this. You did this just to make me happy.” You rested your forehead against Spencer’s and wrapped your arms around his neck, your fingers playing with his hair. Spencer’s arms wound around your waist, pulling you closer.

“Of course I did. I love you. I-I mean, I care about you. Because you’re my best friend and-”

“Spence,” you said, stopping his rambling. You pressed a soft kiss to his lips, lingering for just a moment.

Spencer’s brain, which usually worked at three times the speed of the average person, slowed to practically a halt. You had just kissed him. The girl he’s been longing for just kissed him. She kissed him . You were about to say something to him when his brain finally caught up and he kissed you back.

When the two of you pulled apart, you said, “Well, I guess my prom was worth the wait.”

Spencer smiled at you and kissed your forehead before continuing to dance with you.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." -Anais Nin

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #x reader #criminal minds

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