#CRIMINAL how little one-on-one interactions they get in canon they would have one of the best and funniest dynamics

[goldiipond]

don and emma best friends. one of my greatest truths

[waywardxrhea]

Heart's Desire - a Spencer Reid one shot

pairing: Spencer Reid x BAU!fem!reader (no use of y/n)

word count: 9.58k

When working a serial killer case in Tennessee, you become the bait for a violent unsub whose victims all match your description. When going after the man you collapse and are rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

a/n: so yes, this is a Reader one shot, but it is super niche so...whoops? this honestly was just a super self-indulgent fic for me to write because i can't say i have ever seen the heart condition i had presented in the media and i really wanted to explore how Spencer may interact with it, so here we are! this is my first time writing for the criminal minds fandom, so shout out to my bestie who helped me out with coming up with case details and smaller plot points that have been incorporated into this little one shot!

content: fluff (oh how i adore the fluff in this one!), multilingual Reader, secret relationship, implied smut (if you squint lol), insecure Reader, Reader fits the victimology, graphic description of canon level violence, Reader is bait for the unsub, protective Spencer, mentions of jealous and possessive Spencer, language, medical emergencies, small medical inaccuracies (no AED on the scene - i had to do it for the drama don't judge), crying Spencer.

(not my gif), CM dividers by @firefly-graphics , EKG dividers by me

“Good morning, beautiful,” you heard Spencer’s sleep ridden voice mumble from behind you as you began to stir awake with the sun that was filtering in through the curtains of Spencer’s bedroom. The two of you had just gotten back from a case the day before and you were utterly exhausted. All you wanted to do was sleep in, and although he had bought blackout curtains for this exact reason, the sun still somehow managed to slip through, which you cursed the manufacturer for every time…

You flipped around in his arms to face him and sent a sleepy smile at him before mumbling, “Bonjour mon amour.” 

“Oh so it’s a French morning?” Spencer asked with a quiet chuckle as he took your hand in his and kissed your knuckles.

“I was debating between that and Italian, but… French usually gets us to where I would love to spend this free day with you,” you replied with a smirk before leaning up to kiss him.

After a few slow and loving kisses, Spencer pulled away for a brief moment to rest his forehead on yours and say, “You know since we just got back from a case out of state that took so long to solve, the odds of the team getting called back out are significantly lower than if-”

And then your phones started ringing. 

“What were you saying about the odds being low?” you muttered with a sigh as you turned back over in the bed and grabbed your phone off of the nightstand. You heard the automated voice on the other side tell you that there was a case the BAU was requested to work and that your presence was requested as soon as possible. 

As you sighed and closed your eyes briefly while you tried to sink back into the pillow, Spencer noted, “Well I did say the odds were low, not zero…” You couldn’t help the smile that slipped onto your face at the comment as you laughed and lightly hit him in the bare chest with a throw pillow. 

“‘Never tell me the odds,’” you told him as you reluctantly began getting out of bed, sitting up on the edge and stretching to wake up your tired muscles. 

Spencer positioned himself to where his legs were on either side of you and wrapped his arms around your torso before kissing your neck and mumbling, “No matter how many times you quote Han Solo at me, it’s not gonna stop me from telling you the odds of things, you know that right?”

“I know, I know…” you told him with a giggle as you toyed with his hands that were clasped in front of your stomach. “So how far apart do we have to leave again so they aren’t suspicious?” 

“Well your apartment is about a thirty minute commute from the office while mine is twenty depending on traffic, so you'll leave ten minutes after me,” he reminded you as you both began to get up and untangle yourselves from each other. “I have an extra go-bag packed for you in the closet as well as a few outfits so you aren’t wearing the same clothes you came home in yesterday.”

“You’re the best, Spence,” you told him quietly as you both made your way into the bathroom to get ready for the day. 

As you jumped into the shower to take advantage of your extra ten minutes, you thought about your relationship with Spencer. You two had started dating about a year after you joined the BAU and out of fear of getting in trouble, like two teenagers you hid the relationship from your teammates. Your transfer from Homeland Security was prompted when your interrogation and hostage negotiation tactics landed you on the BAU’s radar and you very quickly became fast friends with the whole team. So with the guise of being your usual friendly self, it truthfully hadn’t been too hard to hide the relationship from your friends. And while Spencer was hesitant about hiding a relationship from a group of people like the BAU team, your fear of being let go as the “more inferior” member out of the two of you was what convinced him to keep it a secret. It also prompted him to lecture you on your clear inferiority complex, but that was neither here nor there. 

“I’ll see you there, drive safe,” Spencer told you before kissing your cheek as you wrapped yourself in your towel to dry off while finishing your routine. 

“You too,” you replied, giving him a peck on the lips before he began walking out of the restroom and apartment to head to headquarters. 

When you got to HQ, you yawned as you made a beeline for the break room for some much needed caffeine. When you got inside, you cordially told Spencer and Derek, “Good morning you two,” as you poured your coffee, creamer, and sugar into the mug you always had on your desk. It was your parting gift from your Homeland team that was in the shape of the sun and what prompted your nickname from Derek. 

He laughed as he watched you and Spencer prepare your coffees, telling you, “You know Sunshine, I think with how much creamer you put in that you may have Pretty Boy beat on sugar consumption.”

“Ha ha very funny,” you told him with a playful roll of your eyes as you turned to walk from the break room and into the bullpen. 

As the three of you ambled into the area, Hotch emerged from his office and announced, “Sorry to call you all in so soon after getting back from a case, but this one is something we aren’t taking lightly and needs to be stopped because the unsub is escalating quickly.” So after a quick briefing on what he knew of the case, Hotch told you all to be prepared for wheels up in thirty. 

When the plane landed in Tennessee later that afternoon and you stood up from your perch, you stumbled a bit when you felt your heart give an irregular stutter in your chest. “You okay, kid?” David asked you with concern in his eyes after seeing the brief moment of panic flit across your features. 

“Yeah, fine, just feeling a bit off after that flight I guess,” you replied, taking a deep breath and straightening up which seemed to do the trick as your heart began beating in a regular rhythm once more. 

“You know, I wouldn’t say I blame you if you were a bit anxious,” he told you as you both exited the jet and started making your way to the black SUVs awaiting your arrival. “It isn’t every day we get cases as violent as this one, especially when the victims…”

“All look like me?” you supplied quietly when he trailed off at the end of his sentence. It was true that when you began going over the pertinent files on the flight that all of the unsub’s victims shared many of your physical features, and while that did alarm you, you knew that your team would have your back during this case no matter what. You placed a small smile on your lips as you told him, “I’ll rest easier when this guy’s behind bars.”

“That’s the spirit,” he told you with a warm smile as you loaded into the SUV, your bag at your feet and your case file in your lap as you continued to read over what all the unsub had been up to in the last couple of months. 

After you all got to the local police precinct and got settled in and assigned tasks, you made your way to their break room for another cup of coffee, only to be followed in by Spencer a few moments later. As you both made your drinks, you casually turned so you were leaning on the counter and watching over the office as Spencer asked, “Are you okay?”

“You know, Dave asked me the same thing, I’m starting to think you guys are more worried about me than I am,” you told him, your lips covered by your cup in case anyone you couldn't see was watching. 

“I always worry about you,” Spencer told you softly as he stirred his sugary drink. 

“And I, you, but for now we need to work on getting this guy in cuffs and it won’t happen if either of us get distracted,” you said with a sort of finality in your tone, determined to make sure you conveyed a sense of confidence or else you too may fall victim to worrying about yourself instead of working the case. 

As you walked out to the desk where you were allowed to set up, Penelope ran past you, almost toppling you over as she shouted, “Hotch, I found out how he’s luring the victims!” 

“How?” your unit chief asked as she made his company. The team had barely been here a couple hours and the locals' work was already being combed through and missing clues were being found. 

“Dating apps! On every victim’s phone was a dating app and she had planned a date with a man from there. None of the men’s accounts were the same and none of them had common pictures, but the unsub always used the same lines when chatting the women up!” she told him in a rush as she showed him pages she had printed out while doing her dive into the womens' phones. 

Spencer emerged from the break room with his coffee in hand, saying, “Well based on that knowledge we can assume that dating apps have a significant meaning to him.” 

From her place nearby, JJ spoke up, saying, “Every victim had her left ring finger severed off, maybe his wife cheated on him using one?”

As Derek walked into the room with David hot on his heels, he added, “And turns out they also had their ovaries taken out by the unsub.”

“As well as their cervix glued shut with industrial sealant before their genitals were mutilated,” David supplied, his head shaking as he handed Hotch the ME reports. 

A scoff huffed out of your chest before you mused, “So he feels slighted by his ex wife and has decided that in order to pacify that anger he does what he wishes he could to her to the victims…” 

“Do we know if any of the victims was the ex wife?” Derek asked. 

“Nope, all the victims are single women who have been on dating apps for quite some time and none of them have an active or otherwise marriage license under their name,” Penelope replied. 

“Good work everyone, let’s get to work finding this guy,” Hotch said. “Find out all you can, I want to give this brief before nightfall.”

“Yes sir,” you all replied before once again splitting off into your assigned tasks. 

Right as the sun began to set that evening, Hotch called everyone together and the team began giving the locals the brief on the unsub. Hotch of course began the brief, informing the locals, “The unsub is a caucasian male in his mid thirties to early forties who we believe to have a medical background in surgery and likely just went through a rough divorce." 

You were the next to speak, announcing, “We believe he was cheated on by his ex wife, which is what triggered the break and the murders. The victims all share common features which we assume are also shared by the ex wife.” As you said this, you clicked the remote in your hand and on the board behind you popped up the faces of the victims. 

With the slightest tremor in his voice, Spencer was the next to piggyback, saying, “The victims have all been found with mutilated genitals as well as their left ring finger cut off. The unsub also took the time to use industrial glue to seal the victim’s cervix shut and to cut out her ovaries.”

Derek was next to speak, adding to Spencer’s statement, “The cause of death in all the victims was prolonged blood loss. This tells us that he's performing these rituals while the victim is still alive.”

“He’s tech savvy, enough so that he is able to create difficult to trace profiles on dating apps on which he seduces victims before murdering them,” Penelope said sadly. 

JJ was next, telling the team, “The only evidence that he’s left behind are the bodies in secluded dump locations and as of right now we do not know where the victims are being killed.”

David was the last to speak, rounding out the brief with, “All of this combined leads us to believe that he is a very calculated and dangerous individual who needs to be found before he strikes again.” When he was done, Hotch dismissed everyone to begin their search with this new information. 

“Hey chief?” came a voice from the front of the office a few minutes later. Both the local police chief and Hotch looked up at the young man expectantly before he replied, “There’s been another victim…”

“He’s escalating again…” Hotch mumbled as he ran a hand over his chin. “There was a lot less time between victims. We need to work faster.”

“Yes sir,” everyone replied before attempting to double down on their work. 

As they all began working, the gears in your mind began to spin and when you finally formulated a plan, you approached Hotch and said, “Sir, I think I may have an idea on how to catch him.”

“How?”

“We do a sting. Penelope makes a dating profile for me on one of those apps and we use me as bait,” you told him, never breaking eye contact to convey that you were serious about the idea. “If we can get someone inside then we get our guy as well as possible evidence for half a dozen murders.”

Hotch sighed before saying your name warily. “You know how risky that is.”

“And that risk is something I am willing to take in order to stop this guy. If we don’t do this then there may be another victim tomorrow, maybe two,” you said. Squaring your shoulders, you added, “I agreed to take this job in order to help people. I fit the victimology. This is how I can help.”

A few moments of silence passed as Hotch seemed to weigh his options before he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he said, “Fine. I’ll think through the details. I want everyone well rested tonight before we start planning tomorrow. You and Garcia share a room at the hotel so she can start making that profile for you.”

“Yes sir,” you replied with a small smile and a nod before heading off to find Penelope so you two could head to the hotel and begin. 

“So are you on one of these apps normally?” Penelope asked as the two of you sat beside each other on the hotel bed, laptop and phones in hand to create this fake profile for yourself. 

“Me? No, I don’t trust them for this exact reason,” you replied, shuddering as you thought about the poor women who thought they were simply going to meet a new man but paid with their lives and dignity. 

“Oh I see,” Penelope said before instructing you to find a specific type of photo in your camera roll that the unsub may find attractive. “Are you dating at all?”

“Oh, uh, not really,” you said, trying to pace your words so they didn’t seem panicky. “This job takes up a lot of my time and all so it would be hard to find time for a relationship between cases.”

“You have an excellent point, but you can’t let something like that hold you back! You deserve all the happiness in the world!” she told you cheerfully as she continued typing away at the laptop. “What are your interests?”

Smiling inwardly at how the subject turned from your dating life you told her, “Reading, rom coms, coffee, patisseries, art, the occasional drink.” As you thought for a moment, you added, “Ooh, make sure you put ‘not looking for anything serious.’ I think that’s something that may trigger the unsub into choosing my profile.”

“Smart!” she replied before selecting that option on the profile. “We should do this more often! Maybe when this is all said and done we can make you a real one and I can just do a background check of the person before you go on a date!”

You laughed lightly as you told her, “Let’s make sure I survive this case first then we’ll go from there.”

The next morning came and went as the team tried to track the guy to no avail, so right before lunch, Hotch gathered everyone around and announced, “Okay, this unsub is proving hard to find by other methods, so we’ve decided to pull a sting. We can’t just sit around waiting for our surprisingly extensive list of divorced surgeons to make a move.” He motioned to you and Penelope and said, “These two worked on creating a fake dating profile that the unsub may fall for. The plan is to get him alone and our resident interrogator will pull a confession out of him.”

“Wait what?” Spencer asked immediately, his eyes wide. “Is it a good idea to send her in when we know the unsub is escalating?”

“It’s the only lead we can get right now,” Hotch told him. “If we don’t do this tonight then we may risk another woman dying at his hands.”

“Yeah, and it may be her,” Derek said a bit sharply, the idea of sending you into the belly of the beast not sitting right with him either. 

“Not if we’re all on our A-games when it goes down,” David said in an attempt to calm the younger men down. “If you’re so concerned, we can send you into wherever he asks to meet her so we can have eyes on her the entire time." He chuckled before adding, "Derek, not you Spencer, no offense but you do tend to stick out like a sore thumb in certain environments."

“But-” Spencer tried, but was cut off by Hotch. 

“No buts, we’re doing this. Tonight. Garcia, activate the profile.”

“Yes sir,” she replied quietly before opening up her phone and clicking a few buttons. “It’s done.”

“Good.” He turned to you and said your name to get your attention. “Just make sure you reply to any account that may fit the profile. Garcia will run a trace on it to see when it was created since we knew he makes a new account for every victim.”

“Yes sir,” you replied, nodding your head as you pulled out your phone and got to work. While you scrolled through the app and took a seat in one of the secluded offices to eat your lunch, you were startled by another presence entering the room without knocking. “Geez Spence, you scared me!” you scolded him, clutching your chest in a vain attempt to slow your racing heart. 

“And you’re scaring me,” he told you as he shuttered the blinds to prevent any passersby from seeing the two of you in there together. As you sat your phone down on the table, he covered your hand with his and asked sincerely, “Are you okay with this plan?”

You nodded. “It was my idea. We need to get this guy before another innocent woman dies.”

Echoing Derek, he asked, “And what if that turns out to be you?”

You scoffed humorously before deadpanning, “And you really think you’d let that happen?” After he floundered with his words for a few seconds, you kissed him gently before saying, “I trust that if anything goes sideways you’ll be there to save me. You always are. I just need you to trust me and my judgment on this one. Do you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you, it’s just-” he tried, but you cut him off with another kiss. 

“Just trust me, love,” you told him once you pulled away again. 

After you said this, your phone pinged with a notification that caught your attention. You picked it up and saw that there was a new message in your dating app’s inbox. “Hey beautiful, you look like you are in need of some company. How about you meet me at Monroe’s tonight and we see where this goes,” Spencer read with disdain in his voice. He cringed before saying, “Please say that’s not what I sounded like flirting with you…”

You laughed, telling him, “No, the poetry you quoted at me was much more romantic than that line.” You placed one more quick kiss to his lips before telling him, “I’m gonna have Penny run this profile and we’ll see if it could be our guy.”

Turns out there was a high chance of it being your guy, seeing as the profile was created just hours before and yours was the only account that he interacted with. So after a chat with Hotch about the plan to get this guy to confess, you got dressed in a little black number and silver heels, finishing your look with the most effortful hair and makeup you had done in a while. When you emerged into the precinct you saw that Spencer was the only one in the immediate area. “Where is everyone?” you asked. 

“Getting the gear ready and briefing the police. I got the distinct honor of greeting you,” he told you with a warm smile as he drank in your appearance. His eyes darted around the room to ensure the two of you were alone before he wrapped you in his arms and kissed the top of your head, mumbling into your hair, “Tu es magnifique.”

“Merci beaucoup,” you replied, feeling a heat rush up your neck and into your cheeks at his words. No matter how long you and Spencer had been together, whenever he flirted with you, especially in any of the different languages you spoke, you still got flustered. 

When Spencer’s arms quickly untangled themselves from your embrace you rightly assumed that the team was emerging into the offices once more. Hotch called out your name before asking, “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” you replied with a nod, smoothing out your dress before joining the team near the door. 

On the way to the bar in the taxi you were assigned to take, Hotch went over the plan once more, detailing to you that Derek was already at the bar to keep an eye on you in case things went sideways, that you are to attempt to get any sort of confession out of the unsub, and if you can get information on where the killings were happening that would be even better. You had a plan in mind to attempt and get inside his head and get him to confess without even realizing it, so as you walked into the bar you feigned confidence as you walked up and sat on a barstool to wait for the unsub to approach you. 

Derek sat across the room behind you to your left, near the door, and his soothing voice came through the in-ear you had, saying, “All right Sunshine, if things go sideways you just say the word and I’m all over this guy.”

“Just trust me,” you told him quietly as you took your first drink from the water glass that the bartender handed you with your drink. 

“I believe I’m supposed to be meeting you here?” came a voice from beside you a few minutes later. 

You turned toward the voice and smiled in greeting. He did fit the profile, strikingly actually. You noticed a tan line on his left ring finger and how his hands were slightly cracked and dry, perhaps from surgical scrubbing at his job. You offered out your hand for him to kiss as well as your name before telling him, “I believe so. And you’re already nearly half a drink behind, so why don’t you catch up, handsome?”

“I think we can make that arrangement,” he said after kissing your knuckles.

"That was smooth, remind me why you're single again?" JJ asked with a quiet laugh through the in-ear.

You kept your facial expression in response to the comment neutral as the unsub ordered his drink from the bartender. When the two of you began talking, the team kept their ends of the coms silent as you worked to get what information you needed from the unsub. 

During the conversation, you almost dragged out what you wanted from him, but he always skirted around it. You knew he was your man though, that was plain as day when he spoke about his ex wife who he told you moved off to California to be with the man she cheated on him with. During the conversation, Penelope informed you quietly that she had found record of the woman as well as IDing the man sitting across from you as Doctor Samuel Costner, who specialized in abdominal surgery.

After another paced drink from you and a couple more for him, he stood behind you and wrapped his arms around you, his hands splaying out over the tops of your thighs as he asked, “How about I take you back to my place and show you a good time?”

Bingo. His place. One of the things the team couldn’t figure out was where the unsub lived, otherwise it would have been much easier to locate him and the possible murder site. With this information in mind, you leaned back into his embrace and told him, “I like the sound of that.”

The silence from the team was broken as Spencer’s voice asked, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“As long as we tail them it should be fine,” you heard JJ tell him. 

“We have his name now though, can’t we just have Garcia dig into where he lives and go from there?” Spencer countered.

“And go in with what suspicion? We need evidence that he’s killing there in order to step onto the property,” JJ replied.

“But this is a controlled scene, if she gets in the car with him we can’t control what happens in there. What if we lose the truck on the backroads? This is too risky, I’m-”

“Reid sit down and trust her,” you heard Hotch scold him, a finality in his voice. “What we need is a location and she’s getting us exactly that. Now sit back and let her work or else I’m pulling you from this case.”

“Yes sir…” Spencer eventually said. 

“Remember the signal,” Derek mumbled as you and the man made your way out of the bar and to his truck. 

A nearly thirty minute drive took you to a farm that had vast amounts of pastures and trails hidden within the woods as well as a large picturesque barn that looked just like they all did in the movies. “So this is where you live huh? It’s beautiful…” you breathed as you looked around, trying to take in any specific details you may need to relay to the team in case they weren’t able to tail you. 

He nodded as he pulled up in front of the barn, putting his hand on your thigh as he said, “Family owned and operated since the 1800s. And while I don’t do much of the labor around here because of work, I am still the proud owner. Maybe you could be too one day.”

“Oh yeah?” you asked in your most alluring voice as you slightly widened the space between your thighs, the gesture making you feel filthy, but if this was how you caught the unsub then so be it. 

The kisses that he gave you started off innocently enough, but soon turned aggressive and you cringed inwardly at the fact that you knew the team was listening to everything from their end of the coms. You didn't even want to think about what was going through Spencer's mind - the man had a reputation of being jealous and possessive sometimes when you two went out and guys flirted with you.

Before you knew it, the unsub was coming over to your side of the truck and opening the door. He pulled you into his arms and asked, “How about we go for a roll in the hay?” You giggled innocently before agreeing, subtly eyeing the black SUVs that had begun to creep onto the outskirts of the property line with their headlights out. They followed you. Good.

So as he took you deeper into the barn and to an area that was lined with tarps that had seen better days, your eyes began scrutinizing every little thing that could be evidence that he had killed those women here. And you found it as you eyed a corner of another tarp that seemed to have dried blood on it. 

Right as you were about to sneak in your code word to the team to signal you had what you needed, you heard Spencer’s distinct voice shouting, “FBI, hands where I can see them!”

“Shit!” the man shouted before jumping off of you and darting away, the large knife you had somehow not noticed before dropping to the ground as he sprinted off. 

“We’ve got a rabbit!” you shouted, tossing off your heels and beginning to run after him. “I’m taking the back exit, someone go around the side!”

“On it!” JJ called as she began running around the other side of the barn to cut him off. 

When you ran out of the door you saw him leave out of, you were met with a wooden fence that he had jammed in the few moments you were distracted. Not wanting to waste any time, you opted to climb the fence, jumping over and landing awkwardly on your feet. When you did, you felt your heart give an irregular stutter in your chest before starting to beat rapidly. As you stood up, you began to get light headed and it felt like cotton filled your ears as you faintly heard a commotion around the corner of the barn. Heat seemed to fill every part of your body and your vision started to tunnel as you gasped for air, stumbling around to try and steady yourself on the side of the barn before your body gave in and collapsed. 

“Stay down!” JJ sternly told the man as she pinned him to the ground and cuffed him. “Samuel Costner, you’re under arrest for the murder of six women.” 

As JJ recited his rights and escorted him to one of the police cruisers that had emerged on the scene, Spencer looked around and asked where you were. “Didn’t she say she was going out the back?” Derek asked. “I didn’t see her come back around…” 

Panic filled Spencer’s body immediately and he began quickly making his way around the barn with Derek hot on his heels. What if Costner got to you in desperation before JJ arrested him? What if you were bleeding out behind the barn? He had to get to you quickly. 

When he rounded the corner and saw you collapsed on the ground, he shouted your name before sprinting over and feeling for a pulse. After a few seconds and some quick math, he said, “Her heart rate is 238 and she feels clammy… She’s not bleeding that I can see, but she’s hardly breathing. Derek!”

“On it!” he shouted, pulling out his walkie to dispatch an ambulance to the location. “They said it’ll take about twenty minutes to get here.”

“She might not have twenty minutes!” Spencer snapped as he watched your now frail body and how you were losing color quickly. With a strength that Derek didn’t know he had, Spencer lifted you into his arms and began carrying you to one of the SUVs, telling him, “Get one of the officers to give us an escort, we’re taking her!”

“Oh, got it!” Derek stuttered out before barking orders at an officer and getting into the driver’s seat of the SUV. 

“What’s going on?” JJ asked as she quickly jumped into the passenger seat while Spencer got you and himself into the back seat. 

They took off at a rapid speed, Derek intending on cutting the ride to the hospital in half at least as he pushed the pedal into the floor as far as it would go. 

“I don’t know, her heart is racing though and we found her collapsed,” Spencer told her, his own breath beginning to come in rapidly as he began to panic. 

“Spence, look at me,” JJ told him gently which prompted him to look up at her. “We’re gonna figure it out. She’ll be okay. What do we know?”

As he ran his thumb over your jaw in a way of soothing himself, Spencer rattled off to JJ, “Well obviously she was in a state of stress during the sting, but even a panic attack wouldn’t cause her heart to beat this fast, panic attacks top out at about 200 beats per minute. She’s usually good at controlling her anxiety anyway, especially under pressure like this… He couldn’t have drugged her at the bar because she got all her drinks directly from the bartender and she was cognizant of what she was doing and saying the whole time. As far as I know, at her last doctor’s appointment she was given a clean bill of health…”

“Well not being drugged is good, we can work with that,” JJ reassured him. She checked the map on her phone and said, “We’re almost there, just hang in there.”

When you arrived at the hospital, Spencer carried you in and placed you on the stretcher that was waiting at the triage door. “What happened?” a nurse asked as a doctor walked up while the team began placing EKG leads all over your chest. 

“We’re FBI. We were working a case and she was chasing down a perp. I didn’t see her come back from where she said she was going and I found her like this,” Spencer replied as he began following them while they pushed you into a room, JJ and Derek hot on his heels. 

“Any significant medical history?” she asked as they began plugging the wires into machines which immediately began blaring with alarms. 

As Spencer began rattling off your medical history, two of the nurses escorted JJ and Derek into the hall to clear some space for the medical team. After two nurses got IVs started in your left arm, another came running in with some syringes and vials of medication. As they began preparing the medication, the doctor looked toward Spencer and told him, “We’re about to give her a medication that’s going to stop her heart.”

“What?!” he shouted, his eyes wide. 

Calmly the doctor continued, saying, “It’s got a super short half-life so it’ll only be for a few moments and then her heart should go back into a normal rhythm. It’s a very routine drug. She may feel sore afterward but that is to be expected.”

And so a pair of nurses worked together to quickly administer the medication and sure enough for a few moments he watched the monitor as your heart stopped and Spencer could practically feel his own stop too. The tension in his shoulders eased up slightly as your heart returned to a normal 88 beats per minute but then alarms started blaring again within seconds as the EKG suddenly looked like a toddler was scribbling on the monitor. Spencer knew that rhythm from a book he read one time and knew that it was deadly if not treated quickly. In a blind rage, he shouted at the doctor, “You said that medication would help! Look what happened! I want a different doctor on her case right now and-”

“Get him out of here and call a code blue!” the doctor called before shouting orders to the rest of the team, two of which began trying to escort Spencer from the room. 

“You can’t just-!” he shouted in frustration before he felt a hand on his shoulder that squeezed gently. 

“Let them work,” came Derek’s voice from behind him. 

When Spencer wrestled himself out of the nurses’ hold and watched them go back into the room and close the door that now had a blue light above it, both JJ and Derek saw the dangerous look in his eye, but JJ was the one brave enough to ask, “What the hell was that about Spence? You can’t just yell at the doctor like that! He was trying to help!”

“Him trying to help sent her into v-fib and now her heart isn’t working!” he retaliated, running a hand through his messy hair. He watched in horror as another group of nurses came running up with the crash cart and darted into the room. He tried to hide the tears in his eyes as he turned away and stalked off down the hall, unsure of what to do with himself at the moment. 

“Spence!” JJ called after him, about to follow him, but was stopped when a gentle hand grabbed her forearm. 

“Let him go,” said David as he too watched Spencer’s retreating form. 

JJ sighed in frustration and said, “I just don’t know what’s gotten into him! Why would he yell at them? Yeah I’m worried too but that was a whole other level. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him that mad.”

“Just think about it from his perspective,” David told her vaguely before encouraging the two of them to meet the rest of the team in the waiting room. 

Once the pair of them parted ways, David sighed and took off in the direction he saw Spencer going. When he found him a few hallways over staring out a window into nothingness, David cleared his throat and asked, “How long has this been going on?”

“From the time I found her with her heart beating that fast it’s been twenty-eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds give maybe three minutes from the moment she took off after Costner. It’s been two minutes and forty-eight seconds since that doctor sent her into v-fib and effectively made her heart useless as a pump,” Spencer mumbled.

“That’s not what I meant, kid,” David told him, a small smile playing on the corners of his lips. He leaned his back against the window and said, “I know love when I see it.”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Spencer said, his back straightening as it clicked in his mind what he was implying. 

Now David chuckled as he said, “Don’t lie to me, kid. I see the way you two look at each other. The way you joke around together. You’re relaxed around her.” He paused for a moment before adding, “And between you and me, I’ve seen you two sneak off together when you thought no one was looking.”

Spencer cringed at the last bit, but couldn’t help the small smile that graced his lips at the thought of you. “We’ve been together for just over a year,” he said softly, the smile growing wider as he remembered your anniversary a few weeks prior. That smile quickly faltered though when he remembered what was happening in that hospital room a few halls down. 

“She’s going to pull through,” David said gently, his hand landing on Spencer’s back, giving him a gentle pat. 

When he said that, Spencer’s phone started ringing with a call from Hotch, who told him, “She’s stable and resting, they gave her a sedative so she doesn’t overwork herself again. The rest of us need to finish up at the scene. I trust you can get your paperwork done on the jet later. Call with updates please.”

“Yes sir,” Spencer replied, a tinge of hope in his voice at the words. 

“Well?” David asked expectantly when Spencer hung up.

“She’s stable!” he told him, the tension in his shoulders leaving as he exhaled deeply. 

“Then go to her!” David said, a smile on his face. 

“I-I will!” Spencer said, turning to take off toward the room he left you in. Before he could leave the older gentleman’s presence though, he asked, “David?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t tell Hotch.”

“It’s not my secret to tell,” he replied with a nod before he answered his cell, presumably with his own call from their unit chief.

The wait for you to wake up took longer than Spencer would have liked, and by then they already had to move you out of the emergency department and to a cardiac monitoring floor to make room for more emergencies. When your eyes finally fluttered open in the early hours of the morning, you cringed at the bright light coming from the window before orienting yourself to your surroundings. You were in a hospital room that much was clear, and beside you was Spencer, with one hand in yours and the other holding up what looked like a map that you assumed was a medication insert. Only Spencer would be reading up on whatever medications they may have given you for whatever you ended up in here for…

“Spence?” you whispered to get his attention. When his hazel eyes flicked away from the pamphlet and met yours, you could see how they instantly flooded with tears as a smile made its way onto his face. As he gently threw his arms around you, you asked, “What happened?”

“When you ran after the unsub you collapsed and your heart was beating extremely fast. I got you into the SUV and Derek drove you here to get treated,” he replied, his voice muffled by your hair. You could hear this disdain in this voice as he added, “They gave you this medication that stopped your heart and was supposed to put you back into a normal rhythm but it ended up making things worse. You went into an even deadlier heart rhythm and they had to shock you. No CPR thankfully, but the nurses said that if that first shock didn’t get you back they would have had to…” He pulled you impossibly closer as he whispered, “I was so scared. I thought I lost you…”

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m right here,” you whispered, your voice thick with emotion as you attempted to comfort him by rubbing soothing circles into his back. That was a lot to take in, but you hated seeing Spencer so upset and that was your biggest concern at the moment. 

You cleared your throat, but before you could ask what was on your mind, there was a knock at the door and two people came in, a nurse and a doctor of cardiology. The doctor sent you a warm smile and said, “It’s good to see you awake Miss, you gave the ED team a real scare last night!” 

“It was the doctor down there that caused such a fuss…” Spencer muttered, which earned a squeeze of your hand that warned him to be cordial. 

“Yes, that’s actually what I came up here to talk to you two about, er, you Miss.” He glanced down to your hands and didn’t notice a ring, so he asked, “And what’s your relation may I ask? Are you okay with him being here for this?”

“He’s my boyfriend and yes he’s allowed to be here. If I don’t remember something that big brain in there will,” you said, a quiet laugh leaving your lips. 

“Okay, great!” the doctor said as he clapped his hands together. “So when you came in, you were in what we call SVT which they treated with a medication called adenosine since you were unresponsive. It’s a fairly routine drug for emergent SVT conversion. When they gave it to you however, it threw your heart into V-fib which essentially caused your heart muscles to quiver instead of contract. In my years of experience, I’ve only ever seen one condition that would cause that medication to make your heart react like that.” He motioned for the nurse to hand the two of you a piece of paper as he continued, “What I think may be going on is called Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. It’s a condition in which the conduction system in your heart misfires and sends you into SVT. Luckily enough it’s easily treated with a heart ablation surgery, but you will have to go through the steps of a formal diagnosis before going through with that as this is just a guess. Do you have any questions for me?”

You looked at the doctor for a moment, your eyes wide as you shook your head no, unsure why you did it, but in your state of shock you didn’t know what else to do. You were sure whatever research Spencer does on the condition would answer any of your later questions anyway. Through the ringing in your ears you of course heard Spencer’s muffled voice asking the doctor as many questions as he could think of after reading through the education packet, but you paid no attention as you thought of the implications this might have on your job and life as a whole…

What felt like only a few moments passed in the fog of noise and chaos in your brain before you were gently pulled back to reality by Spencer’s soothing voice as he called out your name to get your attention. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” he asked when your eyes finally met with his concerned ones. 

“Too much… I don’t wanna think about it right now…” you whispered, a tear slipping from your eye as an array of emotions blasted through your body. He pulled you into a hug and rubbed your back, not pushing the topic further for the moment. 

Wanting a change in subject, you cleared your throat and focused on work, asking, “Did we get him? The unsub?”

As Spencer pulled away and tried to discreetly wipe a tear from his cheek, he laughed incredulously before saying, “All thanks to you.”

“Good. At least he’s put away now,” you said, relaxing as much as you could into the stiff hospital bed. 

Spencer looked at you and shook his head in disbelief as he said, “Only you could be told your heart stopped practically twice and that you may need surgery to fix it and you’re still more concerned about if we caught the unsub or not.” 

“What can I say, I was passionate about putting that one away,” you said, forcing a small smile on your face. 

Spencer for the first time in a while was at a loss of words for what else to say on the subject, so instead he simply whispered, “I love you,” before leaning forward to place a chaste kiss to your lips. 

The two of you quickly broke away from each other when you heard a squeal and something hitting the floor behind Spencer. When you both looked over to identify the sound, you saw your team standing in the room holding various gifts as well as your go-bag and some palatable food for breakfast. “You two! I- We- You-!” Penelope stuttered out as her eyes darted from your face to Spencer’s and back. She quickly crouched down and picked up what turned out to be a pack of makeup removing wipes before asking, “When did this happen?!”

“My man!” Derek said with a sly smile on his face as he went over to clap Spencer on the back.

“I- We can explain!” Spencer said, a bit of desperation in his voice as he watched Hotch place his get well balloon down on the table before walking out of the room. 

Spencer took one look at the returning terrified look on your face before starting to stand up to go after Hotch, but stopped when David placed a hand on his shoulder to stop his movement. “I’ll deal with it in a minute, kid. You stay with her.”

After a few moments of tense silence, you managed to say, “Surprise?” as Spencer once again resumed holding your hand. 

JJ laughed quietly as she sat down on the couch in the room, asking, “Like Garcia said, when did this happen?”

“Just over a year ago,” Spencer replied, squeezing your hand as his smile once again appeared. 

“A year?!” Penelope and JJ asked at the same time, their eyes wide in shock. 

David laughed and shook his head before asking, “And how did anyone else not notice?”

“In my defense, I thought it was an unspoken rule not to profile each other,” JJ mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“It’s not profiling if it’s obvious,” David said with a chuckle. He leaned over and placed a kiss to the top of your head before telling you, “Rest up and get to feeling better, you scared us all.”

“Yes sir,” you replied, huffing out a laugh as you watched him exit the room followed soon after by the rest of the team who gave you their well wishes too. “Well I guess that cat’s out of the bag now…” you whispered, pulling your blanket closer to your body as your anxiety began to creep in. 

“Hey, we’ll figure it out,” Spencer reassured you, his eyes flicking up to the heart monitor and noticing that your rate was beginning to climb. He squeezed your hand as he said, “Right now we just need to focus on figuring out if you have that condition the cardiologist mentioned. Dave is talking with Hotch and I’ll talk with him soon too, okay?” 

He gently lifted your chin and mumbled, “Deep breaths, sweetheart…” You simply nodded in response as you closed your eyes and tried to breathe in time with him to calm your racing heart and mind. 

After a few moments, Spencer reached over you and grabbed the pack of makeup wipes and took one out, starting to bring it to your face, which prompted you to ask, “What’re you doing, Spence?”

“I’m helping you take your makeup off,” he replied simply as he began to gently run the wipe over your jawline. “I know you hate when you get acne from your makeup when we're busy with cases…”

“I can do it, love, I’m sure you’ve been up all night and you need rest too,” you told him, gently grabbing his wrist to stop his movement. 

“I don’t mind,” he told you with a small smile on his lips. “This gives me an excuse to admire your beautiful features…”

You could feel yourself blushing as you mumbled, “You’ve had my features memorized intimately since around two months into our relationship.”

“And I’ll never tire of your beauty,” he told you as he coaxed your hand off of his wrist and began gently working the makeup off your face. 

“Je t’aime, Doctor Reid. You always know how to make me feel better,” you whispered a few minutes later when the last makeup wipe was discarded. 

“I love you too, sweetheart,” he replied, placing a gentle kiss on your lips once more. 

When you were cleared to discharge the next morning, the rest of the BAU had already flown back home. Hotch offered to send the jet back to get the two of you, but knowing that they could be called out on a case, Spencer declined, also citing to him, “People with unstable heart disease and arrhythmias have the risk of deadly episodes while in the air due to the pressure changes within the cabin as well as the lower oxygen levels and higher risk of dehydration, not to mention the added stress both physically and emotionally.”

“Is that your way of telling me you’re just renting a car to get back?” Hotch asked and the pair of you could practically see him pinching the bridge of his nose as he asked this. 

“Yes sir,” Spencer replied shortly. “If anything comes up feel free to call. We’ll both get our paperwork done before coming back to the office.”

“Thank you,” he said simply before hanging up. 

Since he hadn’t wanted to leave your side, Spencer hadn’t gotten the chance to speak with Hotch about your relationship and over the phone it was hard to tell what the annoyance in his tone was over… As you began to think about those implications, Spencer glanced over at you before taking your hand in his and saying, “You’re working yourself up again…”

“I’m just scared is all…” you mumbled as the pair of you followed the rental car agent to the car you would be taking back to Virginia. 

Once you were both in the car after Spencer inspected it for cleanliness, he took your hand in his and kissed your knuckles, reiterating to you, “We’re going to figure it out. David said he thinks Hotch will come around, and if you’re worried about your heart, we’ve already got your appointment scheduled for when we get back home. Whatever happens we’ll take it on together like we always do.”

“Thank you, Spence,” you whispered, tears welling up in your eyes once more. You felt like you had done more than enough crying in the past few days, even though there had been more than one occasion when Spencer had rattled off some facts about crying being a great form of stress relief. 

Walking into headquarters a few days later, you tugged at your shirt uncomfortably as you and Spencer stepped into the elevator together. You had been to the doctor the day before and they had attached you to a 24-hour heart monitor that they would use to aid in your diagnosis, and you’d be lying if you said all the wires didn’t cause you to be filled with an overwhelming feeling of insecurity. 

Taking note of your shifting, Spencer asked quietly, “Would you like to wear my jacket?”

“And give Hotch another reason to let me go?” you rebutted, your voice breaking at the end. 

“That’s not going to happen,” Spencer reassured you as the doors to the elevator opened and you two walked out and toward the BAU offices. 

It definitely felt that way though when the first thing you heard when emerging into the bullpen was Hotch calling both of your last names and saying, “You two, my office.”

Feeling like two teenagers caught in the act, when Spencer closed the door behind him, he immediately started rambling. “Hotch, please I can explain, we-”

“I don’t need an explanation, I need you to sign these forms,” your unit chief said, handing the both of you a packet of papers that you began reading even though the papers shook with the tremors in your hands. 

“If you just give me a second to-” Spencer tried again as he took the packet but didn’t so much as glance at it. 

“Sign the papers,” Hotch said, ignoring Spencer’s pleas for him to listen. 

“But-”

“Spence, read it,” you said a few moments later after you had read the summary of the form on the front page of the packet. 

At your words, Spencer finally looked down at the packet in his hands and within moments had it read, his mouth opening a little in shock as he asked Hotch, “Wait…you’re not mad?”

“Oh I’m mad. I’m mad that you two would keep such a secret from us, not only because I thought we functioned as a family here, but also because of how much your relationship played a role in that Tennessee case," Hotch told him sternly. "Seeing as even I never noticed before now and up until that case, it has never interfered with your work, I asked around and came up with some forms that should appease the higher-ups if for some reason this relationship were to get out to other teams.”

“So if we sign these forms then we’re both allowed to stay on the team as long as it doesn’t interfere with our work?” Spencer asked, slightly breathlessly. 

“Correct,” Hotch replied, the corners of his mouth almost tugging up into a smile. “We can’t afford to lose either one of you from this team.”

“Well that’s a relief…” you mumbled as you grabbed a pen out of the cup sitting on his desk and signed the paper in the appropriate places. 

“No more secrets, okay?” Hotch asked sternly as he eyed the two of you, pointing his own pen at each of you in turn. 

“No more secrets,” you both agreed, giggles flying out of both of your mouths as you looked at each other after saying the same phrase. 

“So when’s the wedding?” Derek asked with a chuckle as the two of you emerged from the office once everything was filed away. 

“Once we get her heart situation figured out because I know she’ll want to go to Europe for the honeymoon,” Spencer replied as he pulled you close and placed a kiss on your forehead. The statement made your heart leap in your chest and you began to think of excuses to tell the cardiologist about what caused that reading on the monitor. 

So with your job at the BAU still secure, you took a seat at your desk across from Spencer’s and sipped at the decaf coffee JJ had bought for the break room, completely grateful for the team, but even more so for Spencer. You weren’t sure how you would navigate this crazy and unpredictable life without him.

[shakirawastaken]

dsmp if... they were spiderman

i love spiderman just like every other bitch out there

dream: - do not be surprised if he comes out one day and claims hes a demigod and superhero and a wizard - cause if its anybody its this guy fr - if he was spiderman he wouldnt have the main and basic color scheme - hed go green like everything - green is the main color like the evermore green and black/white as the accent colors - his string also wouldnt be normal spider string i feel like itd be neon ish like miguels from the movie - he would also avoid telling you that he was spiderman till the very last moment - he would wanna keep you safe the best he can - would nEVER swing by your house - but he keeps an eye out on you when he knows ur out and about walking - but when you eventually figure it out? boy oh boy - cornering you in the street and pushing you into an alleyway - spiderman poses in front of you, hanging from his web - gives you upside down kisses???? sign me tf up - hed also get himself just the right amount involved in the crime he fought - he knows how to balance his life out, and he knows how important it is to be able to balance his life out like that - hot as spiderman  sapnap: - a reckless spiderman - leans vigilante  - out of all of them he would be the one with the suit closest to the spiderman - but im not feeling the blue - marroon and black or some other brighter color - a rash spiderman - fights crime like no business, but kinda makes a mess along the way - its okay bc the people love him - loves loves LOVES arguing with cops - tells you almost immediately after becoming spiderman bc he has to tell someone - breaks every canon event - trash talks every criminal out there - but is nice to every citizen he sees - likes webshooting your wrist to the counter or something so you cant leave or go out or smth - forces you to spend time with him :) - likes to keep out of interacting with people as spiderman  - but will use it as argument bait in day to day life - makes a hammock out of webs and lays there between two buildings - overall 7/10 spiderman

george: - is barely spiderman but when he is hes darn good at it - he leaves a lot of the petty crime to the cops - only goes out for the big stuff - dark navy blue suit with black accents - stays in the shadows/on top of buildings - doesnt interact with anyone if he can help it - the more secretive he can keep the better - he told you a fair amount of time after he went out as everyones crime fighting superhero - but he doesnt like to talk about being spiderman  - and youre fine with that, as long as he stays safe - he swings to your window every night after hes done being spiderman - hed rather be with you than someone else after the hard night hes probably had - has a habit opening your window without knowing and jumpscaring you accidentally LMFAO

karl: - oh he LOVES BEING SPIDERMAN - hes the spiderman to be on every cereal box and phone cover and talk show - loves taking pictures especially with little children in their own spiderman costumes - after he captures and ties up every criminal he leaves a little goofy aah note for the cops to laugh at - unlike sapnap he has a great rep w the cops  - he told you after he “test” ran it - actually he just showed up with the mask on and you were like “SPIDERMAN OMG LET ME CAL MY BF” - and then spidermans phone was ringing and you were like - “what” - “im spiderman!” - “WHAT” - his suits like - i feel like it changes color in the sun - its one of those suits - and hes the only one out of all to have an assistant ai thing in his suit to lead him through crime - he might be a more light hearted spiderman but he still deals with the same dangerous crime

quackity: - this guy loves to swing - he will put his headphones on and jump off the nearest building - mona lisa by dominic fike - soars to the ground and then swings up at the last moment - swings to the beat of the music to relax - he has the normal suit i think - but he has his hair comin out of the suit like pavitr  - loves to take you swinging - even if you may find it terrifying - he likes the feeling of sharing with you his favorite activity - fights crime like no ones business - he told you like a few months after being spiderman - he just jumped down from the ceiling  - “? what” - “spiderman!” - “...what” - yeah  - idk all i can think of is that quackity likes to swing around the city just for the heck of it - “WOAH ITS SPIDERMAN” “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” 

wilbur: - has a black suit like miles - tommy is his guy in the chair LMFAO - in his ear like “SWING LEFT I MEAN RIGHT I MEAN LEFT” - mutes tommy half the time - leaves you little messages in web on the walls of the house - “love you!” but its in spider web - actively holds a conversation with the people hes fighting - “so hows your day?” *PUNCH* “hows ur kid doing?” *OBLITERATES* - uses physics and shit to his advantage cause hes not that built - another one whos hot as spiderman - never EVER brings you out as spiderman - EVER - will bring tommy tho - cause tommy annoys him into doing - “BIG UPS WILBUR!!” “SHH TOMMY” - is spidermans biggest fan even though hes spiderman - “they will never suspect spidermans biggest fan as spiderman!” - smart ngl 

guys all i can think about is spiderman its a dilemma an issue a problem  sorry for the short headcanons i had to get my thoughts out of the way!

[gwaaaaar]

breaking my silence...

whoever told me the second half of death note was trash... YOURE WRONG YOURE WRONG YOURE WRONGGGGGG 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣 MELLO AND NEAR ARE WORTHY SUCCESSORS TO L YOURE JUST A STAN!!!!

near... sweet jesus baby they didnt deserve you !!! I was so pleasantly surprised to see how distinct he was despite people calling him "white haired L". LIKE hes a lot more cautious than L but isn't above being a sarcastic little shit and actively causing problems... i read a fan translation and he uses a lot of cuss words to refer to certain people he dislikes. I dont know if thats in the official translation as well but i do like the visual of this 7 yo saying "asshole" and "dickhead". I know hes 17-18 and this is average teenage behavior but gah hes so cute and moe and make little "vrooooom" noises when playing with his toys... 🥺 cant help but stan. Hes in his zone unbothered...

AND THE FACT HE CHALLENGES LIGHT IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE SO BLATANTLY... no mind games no time for light to make his next move just fuck it we ball. Also very fond of the scene where he drops hundred dollar bills off the SPK building. He's unpredictable just like Mello is but in a different way and its fascinating i love this guy. Also enjoy the fact that his flavor of justice is that he doesnt really have one hes just doing his job. The verbal beatdown he does at the end about how lights just a crazy serial killer... GET HIS ASS NEAR !!! Hes not pretentious and its just... its just good you know? L wasn't very pretentious but he does call himself justice sometimes and stuff along the like(?) Near drops all pretense... cant help but stan

Also really fond that he actually likes mello its just mello doesnt like him... I know canon never explicitly states their relationship with each other, like if its a brotherly relationship or not (altho isnt there some cain and abel parallels??? Not sure). But i really do see a siblinglike relationship between the two. Canon doesnt really put any angst on their relationship bc near doesnt care lolol, but the two do remind me of certain siblings that have a strained relationship because of the pressure put on one of them (or on both. Again fuck wammys house all my homies hate wammys AND WATARI!!! ME WHEN I GET YOU!!!) I really would love to see the two interact... and maybe just be happy by each other/pl. Because god it really terrible to see how much mello hates near and its not even nears fault :,). AND FUCK THE CHOCOLATE BAR HE EATS AT THE END TO HONOR MELLO???? STOPPPP IM GONNA CRY... near the man that you are... they dont deserve you baby...

And smello... mello mello mello... I've heard more positive things about him compared to near bc hes more "interesting" and i can see why people take that angle BUT. God they still undersell him so much??? I feel like hes one of the few characters to have a goal besides catching Kira (or not getting caught) because of his inferiority complex. I do not mean to undersell any of the other characters when i say this because theyre all very complex! They all have their driving goals and the like. Its just that i argue that Mello's is more persistent and that it is not centered around the conflict but rather himself. Even if he caught Kira perhaps he would still never be happy with himself because Near is always "going to be better" because of the shit he went through in wammys. Theres a whole discussion to be had abt the ethics of wammys house... but ill save that for another post wwww.

Mello is also someone that isnt pretentious about his idea of justice bc hes a fucking criminal. (BTW i love the two opposing sides of the successors... one that tries falling within the law but still doesnt give a shit and the other that doesnt give any shits at all and eventually helps the law.) And its so... I LOVE YOU RUTHLESS CHARACTERS I LOVE YOU CHARACTERS THAT STOP AT NOTHING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT.

And the thing is ... Mello does have his own sense of justice because its not as if he sacrifices innocent bystanders to get what he wants he just does what is necessary. LIKE ofc its fucked up that he kidnapped sayu (and traumatized her...), takada (and the stripping... but at least she got a blanket:,) honestly tho id blame that on the misogyny of the authors) and the director of the police im not about to be a mello apologist (yes i am/j). But a. He probably knew no one was going to get hurt in the first place because hes just that damn confident. b. His remorse for matt and soichiros deaths show that he doesnt intend on sacrificing anyone and when things go astray it saddens him a little. And c. THE FACT HE PROBABLY KNEW HE WAS GONNA DIE AND STILL SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO HELP NEAR... near would "win" but mello prioritized putting kira behind bars and while i cant guess his motive, from my end it does seem like in extension he prioritized doing the right thing, which would be to sacrifice his life and pride to help near get the final piece to catch mikami... wow what a man im so deathly ill

After typing all this, i must say... is L really as complex as years of DN fans have said?? I think im about to get crucified for this opinion, but legitimately is he??? I think he is complex most certainly just... maybe not as much as others have said... i might just be missing details about his past + lore from external media so maybe thats why i have this opinion. But i feel like the successors *are* toe to toe with him despite their split screen time... idk tho :3 this is just my thoughts meow

[intriq]

𓆩♡𓆪 dumbass [in denial]

content warnings: blood, injuries, mentions of knives, stabbing, violence, swearing, my shitty attempt at writing flirting

once again i am so fucking sorry if this is so non canon following that it pains you to look at

anyways im hoping i did jason justice and that this wasn't stupid or cringey at all, without majorly breaking jason's character.

song wrote to: GMFU - odetari & 6arelyhuman

theme: hurt/comfort, fluff [mayb]

Request by Apollo!

‎‎‎‎‎ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ‎‎‎╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ‎‎‎‎‎You and Jason often worked together.

Quite often, really. Ever since your start as a vigilante, you somehow had just found each other and started working together.

Jason was an ass, yes, but he was probably only tolerable because of his shitty personality because he was not shitty in appearance. Would you ever tell him you found him attractive, or had a thing for him?

No goddamn way.

You two often bickered and fought, hurling insult after insult after each other. But you two were still friends.

People often made remarks about how your interactions with Jason seemed to be borderline flirting, but you always scoffed at that. Jason? Flirting?

In what universe?

There was no way in hell that Jason would ever see you in that light. Much less flirt with you. He didn't seem to have a bone in his body that could stand being even just the tiniest bit nice to people.

However, today was one such day that you and Jason just so happened to not be working together. A rare occurrence, but sometimes you preferred the silence instead of Jason's incessant need to argue all the time.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

So far your patrol had gone smoothly, with Gotham being just a little more quiet than it usually was. But that was fine, it just meant you had to sit in silence for the next few hours you were patrolling.

You push yourself off the ledge of the building with one foot, leaping over the gap that marked an alley below you. And you land on the other rooftop with ease, landing with as much grace as you could muster. You did wobble, of course, but nothing too bad.

You continue this routine, leaping and landing between rooftops of various buildings. Sometimes you jump into the balconies of some poor fellow when you didn't quite time your jump correctly, but it was nothing more than startling some poor sleeping person in the middle of the night.

But after a few minutes, right as you were thinking of ending your patrol, you were surprised.

Well, surprised wasn't quite the right word to describe what happened. Ambushed was.

You'd been mid-leap when the attack came, colliding with the back of your knee just as you were pushing yourself off the ledge of another building.

The force of the impact had caused your knee to crumple, which sends you plummeting downward. And when you land, you don't land right.

You land face-first into the pavement, instantly knocking all the air from your lungs as pain instantly blooms across your entire body.

Your stunned for a moment, vision swimming from just the force of the fall before you attempt to push yourself up by your palms.

Only for the sound of someone landing behind you to resound with a dull thud, and when the footsteps stop just at your side, you don't get a moment to prepare yourself.

Because in that same moment your being hit over and over again. On your back, your legs, everywhere. You manage to roll over onto your back at some point, manage to land a kick right on your attackers knee to make them grunt in pain.

Your body is burning, muscles in agony as you force yourself to your feet. You force your body to respond to what you want it to do as you start fighting back, and your opponent just decides to say "fuck it" with the weapon because it was only slowing them down.

Slowing them down as in because it seemed to be just some metal pipe that took a lot of force to even hit you as hard as it did.

So suddenly your in a fist fight with some criminal who you recognize to be some sort of low level thug for this new criminal organization trying to form in Gotham.

You dodge some hits, but you wind up taking more hits than your dodging because the pain has your mind reeling, even as you try to focus.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

You weren't even sure just how long it took for that dumb fight to be over, because at one point more of the guy's buddies showed up. One had a knife, which cut you up pretty bad. You'd been stabbed a few times too, and were definitely in bad shape.

But you couldn't exactly go to a hospital, because it doesn't matter if there's laws for patient-doctor confidentiality, your identity would still get leaked to the press, and you wouldn't be able to have a normal life outside of being a vigilante.

So as your hand clutches at your side, growing warm with your blood that pools out of the deep gash there. Something that you were pretty sure was going to need stitches.

Your muttering curses under your breath, words that none would probably even dare to speak around their mother with as much confidence or attitude as you were. Your trying to think of just somewhere you can go to, because you definitely would not last long enough to get back to your apartment.

And the only person who is close by is Jason.

So you just say fuck it, he'll be a douchebag about you getting hurt on patrol, but he'd still patch you up. You hope.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

You practically stumble and hurt yourself worse when you land on Jason's apartment balcony, causing you to get winded as that burning pain shoots up your spine from the gash in your side being stretched with your movements.

The light turns on from behind the curtain of the sliding glass door in front of you, signaling that Jason had heard your painful landing on his balcony.

Somehow your still standing upright, until he opens his sliding glass door.

"The fu⎯ baby? The fuck happened to you?" Jason's eyes go wide the moment he sees the way your standing. Notices the way your clutching at your side, and how your costume is ripped and torn.

He takes special notice that the fact there's blood dripping from the side your clutching desperately at, because his eyes linger there.

"Nice to see you too, dumbass." You manage to get out, before pretty much just losing all strength you had to stand.

Jason does catch you⎯ for once.

"How the hell did this happen?" Jason asks, practically dragging your body inside his apartment. He rests you in the first seat closest to his balcony, which is his couch.

You let out a hiss of pain from the movement, and Jason just mutters something. You don't quite make it out, though.

"Got ambushed on patrol. Fuckers from that new group of wanna-be hotshot villains." You manage to groan out, chest practically heaving as you nearly pant from the pain that leaves a white-hot sting in every muscle of your body.

Jason's swearing under his breath, a string of curses that you can't quite make out either as he disappears for a few minutes before coming back. You didn't know whether to be surprised or honored he brought his entire first-aid kit to you.

Your eyes flutter, tempted to close them in just hopes it'd ease the pain. But you quickly open them again after a moment.

Jason's back in front of you again, and if you weren't in pain you'd make some smart-ass comment about him kneeling on the floor in front of you.

For once, Jason is weirdly quiet. Super quiet, as he's got some sort of wet towel in one of his hands to wipe some of the smeared blood off you. And in normal Jason fashion, he's not being gentle at all as he wipes the blood off.

Which only makes you wince, body jolting away. "For once in your fucking life, Jason, be a little gentle."

"Simply get a higher pain tolerance, fuckwad." Jason quips back, continuing to wipe the blood away, mostly from around the gash in your side that your still desperately holding. But he does take the hint and isn't as rough.

Now that most of your blood was wiped away from the cuts and bruises on your skin, Jason had a clearer view of the damage.

And boy, was there a lot of damage.

Jason sets the blood-soaked towel down somewhere to his side on the floor, still on his knees in front of the couch he'd just unceremoniously dumped you on.

The expression on his face isn't one you've seen before, so you don't really know what he could be thinking, nor what he's feeling. You just know his brows are furrowed, same way they get when he's frustrated or angry.

You don't even realize Jason had started cleaning the gash in your side until you feel the sting from the betadine Jason was using to clean the wound. Yea, it stung. But you didn't have the greatest tolerance for pain, especially not when you were exhausted.

So you writhe in pain, one hand practically gripping the couch cushions for dear life as you clench your jaw. Jason pauses for a moment when you do this, glancing up at your face with that same emotionless expression.

You weren't even sure just when that gash had stopped bleeding, though. Not that you could remember for just how long you'd been bleeding before you'd managed to get to Jason's apartment.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

Eventually most of your worser wounds were cleaned and stitched up, which just meant wrapping a bandage around the ones that needed it.

Of course, you had a bit of your energy back. Enough to be the smartass you usually were, but still just downright exhausted.

Jason was in the middle of wrapping up your stomach, shirt lifted just high enough to allow him to-do so, his hands brushing against the bruises on your stomach every now and then. Which didn't really feel pleasant, but that wouldn't stop the words that immediately fell from your lips. "If I didn't know better, Jason, I'd say you'd just want a really bad excuse to touch me." Once again, the smartass you returns. In all your flirty and teasing glory.

Jason's eyes narrow as he glares at you. He'd never been a fan of your remarks, as flirty and teasing as they were. It was what sparked most of your arguments, anyway.

"Shut the fuck up before I make you,"

That's all you get out of Jason in reply just moments later.

Before you can make a snarky remark back, Jason's already finished wrapping the bandage around your stomach, quickly gathering the supplies from his first-aid kit and bustling away. Leaving you alone for a few minutes before he returns empty handed.

"You were an idiot. Do you not keep track of your surroundings anymore?"

You roll your eyes at Jason's remark. "Oh, please. Don't scold me like your Bruce or something. You don't got the right to."

Jason forces himself to take a deep breath when you say that. You always knew how easily to push his buttons by simply just the mention of Bruce.

"Still. I could have been finding your dead body on my damn balcony, you idiot."

You only let out a tired laugh, though for only a moment as your laughter causes your side to ache. "I'm breathing right now, aren't I? Stop worrying so much."

Jason just clenches his jaw and remains silent, instead opting to just drop the subject. How else was he to convey that he was, for lack of a better word, worried about the sight of your bloody and bruised body suddenly slumping into his arms, on the one night he wasn't on patrol with you?

He didn't really quite understand why he was like that. Why he reacted like so. Maybe it was because you were his close friend, someone he didn't think was quite as intolerable as the others.

Perhaps that was it.

It was definitely just that reason, right?

‎‎‎‎‎ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ‎‎‎╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

[aingeal98]

How do you think Tim and Cass would get along?

Which is the better sibling pair: Tim and Cass or Steph and Jason - WHY?

plz just give me fluffy Tim and Cass working together okay I have read exactly two (2) comics and I have watched SOME young Justice and I have read so many angst fics all I want is for these children to be happy

Sorry it's taken so long to answer this, I got carried away and kept rambling haha.

Tim and Cass in canon is so interesting because it starts out with Tim being Tim, more than a little wary and judgemental because of Cass's past. But he actually owns up to this, apologises for his biases, and asks Cass if they can be friends. And they are! Fresh blood is where they're front and center, and in batgirl volume 2 he's the one most supportive of her, along with being the one in the family to reach out to her after Bruce dies and the one she clearly is closest to in Gates of Gotham. But what really makes Tim and Cass for me are all the little moments in canon where they're Batgirl and Robin and they're not even the main focus of the story, but their sibling twin menace energy is off the charts.

Just little moments of their teamwork really cemented their bond for me. To me it's like... More than any other batgirl and robin duo these two should be almost creepily in sync. Batman says "Team assemble." and they drop down from their various hideyholes in the roof with perfect timing. They could be having a fight that very day and not a single criminal would know if from the way they bounce off each other in combat.

But as well as that, they've seen each other at some of the lowest points in their lives, and been there for each other. The loss of Steph, Tim's dad, Cass getting brainwashed by Slade, Bruce's death. They never had to be the first priority for each other to still end up on the list of people to take care of and I kind of love that. The reassurance that no matter what happens with all the other important relationships in your life, batgirl and robin will always have each other's backs, in whatever way they can.

For me, they're the better sibling pair to Steph and Jason because Tim and Cass do actually have a solid arc you can trace through comics, even despite editorial having it out for Cass at certain points. There are comics and storylines you can pick up and see them acting like siblings even before Cass was adopted.

Whereas with Steph and Jason it was all about the potential, and still kind of is tbh. It's about Bruce projecting Jason on Steph and Steph dying as a result, it's about both of them being familiar with taking care of an addict parent, it's about both of them knowing how much a loaf of bread costs, it's about how they were let down by people they trusted and how Bruce (thanks to the writers) puts both of them down to uplift Tim, it's about their attitude to killing and to criminals and how death changed both their perspectives permanently but in very different directions.

But the issue is that they started interacting during the new 52 where all of Steph's history had been erased and Jason had been defanged off screen into a batfam member. And then from rebirth onwards they suffer from a similar issue a lot of batfam relationships do, where instead of developing the bond the writers just go yeah this is how they interact now. How did they get close? How come they trust each other? Idk, it just happened.

And this is not unique at all to Jason and Steph nor does it stop me from enjoying their interactions, but it does put Cass and Tim on top for me.

And now, for more fun Cass and Tim panels from Red Robin, featuring Cass vs technology:

(OK the last one doesn't look fluffy but you gotta understand fake murdering each other is their favourite form of enrichment)

They're unhinged your honor.

Thanks for the ask!

[gold-rhine]

In an ideal universe where your wish fulfillment came true... any particular characters (including npcs) you'd like Kaeya to interact with when he gets there?

by wish fulfillment i assume you mean "kaeya moves to sumeru". to proper answer, i need to explain my pet crack theory which is Kaeya and Candace are related. buckle up babes

ok, so, we know chlothar is one of kaeya's ancestors. look at this pasty ugly dude. he did NOT produce the hottest man in the game by in-breeding with other pasty khaenriah nobles from same bloodlines. and we know it had to be same bloodline or kid gets hilichurled.

where are kaeya's hot genetics are coming from??? the darker skin?? blue eyes, dark blue hair?? like they could've at least give him the same brown skin tone to match, but no. and genshin matches relatives OBSESSIVELY. hot genetics HAVE to come from somewhere.

sumeru is near khaenriah. deshret's civilization is connected to khaenriah in canon, we know for a fact some of the survivors became part of khaenriah. deshret's civilization was also highly advanced AND fucked with the abyss. it's all not crack, thats just stating canon facts. so like it doesn't seem to me as a stretch to guess that the khaenriah's noble bloodline originated from Deshret. like, a lot of ppl connected to the desert have rhombs in their pupils, which we know is the main visible sign of this bloodline. like, thats not precisely khaenriah diamonds, but its fucking close, ok?

and Candace is canonically a direct descendent of Deshret himself. Brown skin - check, blue eye color - check, dark midnight blue hair - check, hotness - hell yeah check.

if you catch my drift, i think khaenriah's main noble bloodline, the one that is not hilichurled, hailed from deshret. their only choice to get a normal, non-cursed kid was to find the descendants of the same bloodline who did not leave desert for khaenriah and so were not cursed, and it's Candace's family. booom babyy

so in ideal world, Candace and Kaeya realize they're distant cousins bc she's like Alberich? My aunt married some shady dude named Alberich, was that your dad? like all kaeya always wanted was to belong, and here he finally will have family that is not trying to use him OR repressed anger issue catholics. and nahida let even scara to redeem after he tried to murder her. kaeya could finally come clean and just live as himself.

and he would be so needed too, like the desert ppl are in turmoil process of integrating with sumeru, criminals are overrunning aaru village. and who keeps treasure hoarders in mond in check with nothing but three dumb sergeants and a smile? kaeya would sort that shit out in a month. seriously, i had to go to liyue to farm treasure hoarders, there are no roaming mobs of them in mond. kaeya would also be the best liason to akademiya, growing up with nobility and being used to political games as mond's spymaster.

after this premise, there is literally not a single character in sumeru it would not be fun to see kaeya interacting with. he and dehya are immediately besties, they met on a shopping trip where candace was helping him choose his new skin outfit, and this same evening drunk dehya is princess carrying him out of tavern. he can amplify cyno's horrible puns into a weapon of mass destruction and tighnari can't even hate him, bc he also made ppl stop eating poisonous mushrooms by spreading rumors that if you eat too much of them, their spores will grow inside of and mindcontrol you. its absolute bullshit, but it worked, goddamit. kaeya could solve kaveh and alhaitham's communication problems in one evening at a bar, but he wouldn't, bc he's a little shit and he thinks its entertaining to watch and he's curious how long its gonna take them by themselves, but he would give them trollish little nudges. also, in nilou's tropue he would finally have a proper bohemian scene to exercise his flair for dramatics and inspire several epic poems by being a heartbreaker.

tldr little desert village has neither rich nobility nor grand destiny he's supposed to fulfill, but it has ppl who will accept and appreciate him, and i think realizing that he doesn't have to choose between a coinflip of bad and awful and learning to live for himself instead is one of kaeya's arcs best possible resolutions

[hylianane]

I know it doesn’t have the same drama or canon-backing as the idea of Zoro being trained and even raised by Mihawk since young, but I’m still a little surprised that there’s practically no fan works playfully referencing the fact that Zoro was originally going to be a Buggy pirate. Walk with me here. Here’s how we could make this AU fall in line with Zoro’s final, canon characterization.

Yes, Zoro was hesitant to become a pirate with Luffy at first because being a criminal would limit his freedom of movement in his search for Mihawk. However, let’s look at the reason he ended up joining anyway: blackmail and the fact that Luffy was offering a real, tangible way to achieve his dream

Crazy thing is, Buggy is kind of the only other pirate in the East Blue who could offer him a similar thing. Though he would rather die than freely discuss his connection to Shanks, he is a pirate with connections (and a connection to Mihawk even this early in the story isn’t too much of a leap if we take in his interactions with Buggy and Shanks, as if they go way back). Buggy could very much use this fact to get what he wants. And what does the cowardly Buggy want? Protection, of course. Security in his place as the top dog pirate of the East Blue. A spot that the arrival of an upstart demon bounty hunter could threaten if he doesn’t play his cards right. And of course, his troupe could use a sword swallower.

Now, would Buggy be genuine in offering Zoro an easy way to reach Mihawk? Probably not. I mean, I’m sure he’d fail his way upwards into making it look that way so Zoro stays around, but what I’m getting at is that he wouldn’t have to be. Because Zoro, specially bounty hunter Zoro who only has himself to lose, can be just a liiittle bit naive. Because he has so much pride in his own word, he takes other, less deserving men at theirs. We see this when he expects Helmeppo, despite all his faults, to honor their deal. He’s genuinely shocked when the deal doesnt go through and he’s stuck tied up in ropes. We even see it a little with his blind faith in Luffy from day one. Yes, Luffy is a more than worthy Captain, but also for someone who had to be swindled into swearing himself to Luffy’s side, Zoro’s sense of honor and honesty led to him going to immense lengths to protect him before he really started to prove that, specially considering he’s someone who was already causing him way too much trouble within days of knowing him.

And mind you, it’s not like Buggy would give him no reason to stay loyal, either. His influence over the East Blue wasn’t anything to scoff at, and even though as a man he’s pretty corrupted, as a Captain he’s kind of brilliant. It’s a running gag how much the Buggy pirates are in love with him. He’s got wits and charisma and ways of gaining loyalty. He and Zoro wouldn’t be too bad a match.

And when Luffy does make his way to this Buggy Pirate Sword Swallower Zoro, and is taken in by his skill, determination and overall cool factor? Baby that’s the most exciting part about this. We’d get rivals to lovers Zolu but Zoro is dressed like a clown

[azulas-lightning-bolt]

fem mako… save me fem mako…

okay so I saw @jade-of-mourning’s post about how makorra would make bomb yuri and I am 100% in agreement so,, how I imagine tlok would go if mako was a girl.

I feel like this would totally affect mako’s backstory n stuff too because life on the street is rough for any kids but like. little girls with no one to run to surrounded by creepy criminal guys. not great! so not only would that add an extra layer of trauma, but I feel like it would also add dimension to mako+zolt’s dynamic when mako and bolin worked w the triads. like, instead of firebending gang leader who wants to shape a mini-me he found into his successor, it’s. hold on let me make another sentence. it’s a girl who’s learned to protect herself and a man she needs to defend herself from offering to teach her better. so there’s less of the straightforwardness of their canon interactions—mako knows she’s being exploited but is willing to play into it to take advantage of learning zolt’s skills and zolt knows she’s clever but wants her close. idk how fucked up zolt would be, but he could probably have some motivations related to trafficking as a backup should mako turn on him that would’ve been less viable with canon mako. idk. thoughts are thinking too quickly for me to type rn.

I’m not gonna go through everything in tlok for the sake of not yapping for 12 hrs like i did in my 100yr war mako post but through the four books in the context of makorra i imagine it would go:

b1: weirdgirl firebender who’s a control freak becomes the avatar’s best friend. she’s totally not in love btw. and there’s literally no jealousy at all when asami befriends korra either cause they’re just chill. just friends, how friends are, yk. amon is a freak but part of her is relieved he took zolt’s bending. thought the thought of her getting her bending taken away feels like a part of her autonomy being taken and that’s terrifying so she’s relieved when he fucking dies.

b2: from what I recall team avatar is more split up during b2 and do you know what that means. so much pining. it smells like a forest with the amount of longing bro. then mako gets arrested and prison as we all know is such a friendly environment for women so. more trauma. then harmonic convergence happens at that is absolutely when makorra realize they’re in loooove. then vaatu happens and it’s like ohhh shit I’m in deeeep.

b3: new airbenders yay! mako is distracted from korra a little bit when she and bolin meet their long lost extended family, until dear old grammy says that korra would make a fine husband for her granddaughter if she were a man. and cue gay panic cause DOES SHE KNOW???? HOW??? I’m being intentionally vague cause I last watched this show like five years ago and I don’t remember the timeline at all but bear with me. airbenders in ba sing se are freed, krew makes their way over to zaofu to meet opal. this is cool it’s fine. lin is literally mako’s mom and she’s still worried the whole time they’re on zaofu. korra is kidnapped. prison for mako and bolin (again). m+b search the desert for korrasami, it’s all mostly the same except more. yk. gay pining. korra is poisoned but the girls have a girl moment on air temple island after Jinora gets her tattoos :3

b4: korra travels for a while, before returning to rc. then she’s gone again to the swamp. kuvira attacks zaofu, korra defends, and then she’s back. mako and asami are. yeah. blah blah blah that one episode of makorra reminiscing gets really gay, kuvira tries to take over rc, mako lightning-zaps the mech and almost dies and then BOOM. they kiss after the battle. and the lesbians win once again as makorra walk into the spirit world hand in hand.

if you’re wondering why this was written so disjointedly it’s because I kept getting distracted mid-sentence. and I also hate how the romance was dealt with in canon, but it’s such a big part of b1 (my favorite book minus romance) and the repercussions lasted throughout all four seasons so obviously that I physically cannot bring myself to rewatch it. and girls are so. thank u lychee ur really super awesome and cool for drawing makorra as girls because I think they would’ve worked out in canon if mako was a girl. sorry I’m really sick rn and I’m a little out of it lmao 😭🙏🏼

[moongothic]

You know people often talk about how Crocodile is a "mafia boss who has tons of connections to other criminals in the underworld for running all his criminal businesses" and like

Does he???

Because like??? Yes, he did run ONE secret criminal organization, and he did need at least ONE connection to acquire the Dance Powder for causing the drought in Alabasta, but like

Crocodile's whole deal is that he doesn't trust anyone and thus he doesn't interact with anyone. Like his funny little criminal organization was functionally ran by Robin since she was the one doing All The Interacting and the Actual Working, Crocodile was just giving out orders for Robin to pass on (though yes people did know the Mysterious Mr 0 was The Real Boss of BW, not All Sunday). So to me it sounds so unlikely if he actually had like tons of personal connections, because surely he wouldn't actually trust anyone for doing any criminal business with them, right??

Not to mention, being an underground crime boss with a massive network is like. Doflamingo's thing. Like that is literally Doflamingo's whole deal, he was the one running a ton of criminal activies across the globe ranging from slavery and drugs to the SMILE production. So it'd just be weird if Crocodile was also meant to be a crime lord of similar caliber when at best he'd be a Budget Mingo. Like Doflamingo already occupies that role in the story, would we have needed two former Shichibukai to be crime lords?? (Yes you could argue Crocodile could've become Doflamingo 2 had he gotten away with his plans (and thus Doflamingo could've been like, a way for Oda to show what the Strawhats helped stop from happening to Alabasta), but again, his goal is and has always been to gain military power, so?? Why bother with dealing with other criminals??)

Like I just genuinely don't remember the idea that Crocodile has connections ever being brought up in canon? Like, I could be just forgetting something, but the closest thing I can remember was Chapter 1058 mentioning Cross Guild was "getting funding from shady organizations", but keep in mind, this is probably more due to Buggy's own fame than Crocodile's new involvement. Like Buggy's Delivery was already doing mercenary work all over the place, so while the mercenary work changed into marine hunting with different branding, it doesn't mean whatever connections Buggy already had made suddenly vanished, just that they now have more

And the one last thing is that like. In Punk Hazard we see Ceasar Clown show off his new weapon of mass destruction, Land of Death, to a ton of crime lords all over the world. Amongst the people there's plenty of randos we can't recognize, but then there were also Pekoms and Tamago, as well as Kid, just tuning in to the show. Considdering Crocodile is supposed to be interested in weapons of mass destruction (unless he lost interest in them), if he had any criminal connections then surely he would've also been amongst the people watching Ceasar's presentation, right? And if he was, surely Oda would've shown him to us, right?? But no, he's not there

So like???

Is there something I'm forgetting, some canon lore drop that does actually confirm Crocodile has tons of criminal connections???

Or is this just. Fanon that people don't realize is fanon?? Somekind of a fandom mandela effect??

[cyb-by-lang]

One of the things I find fun when writing is the ability of body language and relative heights and sizes interact with the way that certain characters will automatically leverage that against each other.

The canonical heights of the CYB main cast are here, but let's just put that out again, with the Bats included.

In height order (with a bit of rounding):

Bruce: 6'2"/188 cm

Jason: 6'1"/185 cm

Obito: 6'0"/182 cm (he's technically just under 6', but whatever)

Kakashi: 5'11"/181 cm

Minato: 5'10"/179 cm

Dick: 5'10"/178 cm

Kei: 5'8"/173 cm

Stephanie: 5'4"/162 cm

Rin: 5'3"/160 cm

Tim: 5'2"/157 cm

Hayate: 5'0"/152 cm

(Jiraiya's actually the tallest humanoid cast member, at about 6'5"/191cm and tied with Ra's al Ghul, but he's not here for his ability to spook people.)

Putting aside the fact that some of these statistics are total bullshit for reasons (Dick being way too tall for an acrobat/gymnast IRL, the shinobi all being underweight if you go by the databook, etc.), a lot of these characters will try to weaponize themselves and their appearances.

I mean, Batman's whole Thing is instilling terror in Gotham's criminals.

Almost all of the Bats have lifts in their boots to make themselves seem taller, which has the bonus effect of occluding their identities that little bit more. The shinobi use masks, long coats, their creepy uniforms, and killing intent for the same broad reasons.

(One of the many reasons the Bats had trouble connecting the Red Hood to Jason is that, at the time he died, he was 4'6"/137cm tall and built entirely differently. Puberty hit him like a truck at the same time the Lazarus Pit did.)

Bruce looms. So does Jason.

Kei, whose sense of scale is fundamentally broken by Isobu's existence, dismisses that intimidation attempt except to note that it happened.

Hayate is half Jason's size and would lose any real wrestling match between them, but can pick up Tim without issue and lug him across the city.

I try to keep this kind of thing in mind to inform how the characters physically interact with each other and the environment. While, obviously, several characters have disproportionate strength for their nominal human status, mass, leverage, and speed are aspects of their body language and their choices in combat.

It's also even more fun to subvert that by, say, having someone like Rin pick up Bruce and move him two feet to the right if he gets in the way of her lecture.

(Rin's used to being loomed over and doesn't find it special.)

[somany-fandoms-solittle-time]

ya know what..... Kalim is one of those sunshine characters that naturally interacts and "befriends" so many characters. It's always the sunshine characters that I'm drawn to put in a giant poly-hole where basically everyone is in love with them. It just makes sense.

Kalim x Silver: He's always waking Silver up in class and tries to help is drowsy spells. They're also just one of the few genuinely sweet guys on campus so it's pure fluff. A bonus advantage is that since Silver is a Trained Knight (or on the road to be) he can protect Kalim from assassination attempts.

Kalim x Ruggie: Eat The Rich w/ a twist. My precious hyena boy DESERVES to get married to a sincere Sugar Daddy (or as my gf and I like to say, Sugar Bestie™). He's worked hard enough and Kalim is one of the few upper class individuals that would NEVER use his money or status to control, manipulate or abuse another. He just wants to help out and the endless positivity would not only bring Rugs outta his comfort zone but would also impact those in his hometown A LOT.

Riddle x Kalim: Not a favorite, but I get it. Two kids from wealthy families (one more wealthy than the other) who were kinda isolated from the "regular" world and gotta figure shit out for themselves away from their former caretakers. Obvi, very different contexts and personality but that's what helps them depend on one another. Even when they can't relate, they can Listen and Grow together.

Floyd x Kalim: ARE YOU KIDDING THEY'RE ADHD BUDDIES?!?!? Not only can they relate with similar neurological issues, but their common interests can be a safe zone for them to bond. On top of that, even with their reckless personalities and their overall lack of forethought, Floyd is STRONG and could protect Kalim from any pushback or consequences. They're also both raised by Extreme Capitalist (even thou we don't exactly know what the Tweels parents DO) so the business sense and exposure to the darker side of things probably wouldn't be too much of an adjustment for either side.

Obvi Jamil x Kalim: I know not everyone likes this ship (and considering the dynamic and difference in power/status I TOTALLY get it). Even if the relationship is seen through platonic soulmates, brother-like, or just a 'we-were-stuck-together-for-years-and-now-we-don't-know-how-to-live-apart' sitcom kinda vibe they'll ALWAYS be linked together. Besides, an angsty, complicated childhood friends to lovers story with repressed mutual pinning is a guilty pleasure of mine lol!

Whoever he gets paired with, regardless of if it's a ship that has an anchor in canon interactions or PURELY fueled by fanon crack, there's a billion tropes to work with before even having to dip into AU or Crossover. Kalim is a COMPLEX CHARACTER with so many random lore drops and info that has so much potential. Even when people are writing or creating fan-produces with a more 2d version of his character, he's still lovable!! He's one of the few reoccurring characters in a cast full of obnoxious, weird, arrogant, awful, annoying, egotistical, pigheaded teenage boys with the power of NUKES.... And isn't completely terrible.

Lemme reiterate, that I LOVE so many characters in Twisted Wonderland but boy do these kids get on my nerves. They're all little assholes in some way or another, but there's a range between "okay, pretty standard high schooler" to "IDC IF YOURE TRAUMATIZED NO AMOUNT OF BACKSTORY CAN EXCUSE YOUR ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR!!!!! YOU'RE A FUCKING INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL WTF" and Kalim is a lot chiller. He's irrational sometimes and often does things without thinking it through.... But he's also a kid who's allowed to make mistakes and grow now that he's away from the bubble he grew up in. He can interact with people of all walks of life and get that perspective.

And depending on who he's paired with, romantic or otherwise, it's fascinating and heart wrenching and awe inspiring to watch him grow through the lens and experiences of the other person(s).

.........thank you for coming to my Ted talk 😌

[eligobrrrrr]

Hi babes, I hope you're having a good day! For your ask game:

🐱 and 🦐

HAHA GET BOOPED BACK >:)

Anyways, Hi Chris! (Is it ok if I call you Chris?)

🦐 - tell me about a character or story that is giving you shrimp emotions right now

omg SO, I'm still very emotionally invested right now on Thurak, my dearest half-orc barbarian cus I'm still working on his story and properly writing it down, maybe do some comics on events I consider happen in-game but don't happen actually cus they're innately tied to his backstory (So character interactions, fights and stuff)

So Imma just write down a short-ish summary of his backstory just because I have to let it out somehow, it is consuming my brain like a tadpole (I am also severely breaking canon on some parts, probably)

Draft of Thurak's backstory under the cut

So Thurak was born in the surface (probably Waterdeep), son of a human man and an orc woman, they were happy as a family... for just 2 years.

Yeah so turns out a criminal organization (specifically the Iron Ring) had an eye on them and Thurak got snatched very young because of that. When he was about 2 years old he was brought to Skullport in the Underdark where he was raised by one of the high commands of the Iron Ring, a male drow whom is currently unnamed. He was tasked to raise him and turn him into an useful asset for them

This drow was his father figure growing up, teaching him how to speak and how to read (So Thurak's main language isn't common, is drowidic and undercommon), acting as a somewhat loving parent for him

His father introduced him to the concept of an arena the Iron Ring had to get him interested, slowly manipulating him to make him believe that he wanted to participate, and when Thurak was older his father started to get him to train to actually go into the arena

And Thurak did it ever so eagerly, becoming and absolute beast and somewhat of a star in there, earning the title of 'The Skullcrusher' (Because he was/is able to do that)

The Iron Ring is known in the Underdark for their slave trade, and in my version they use this arena as a showcase for some of them

His father actively tried to keep him away of all this slaves, mostly out of fear that they would undo all the hard work he put into manipulating him when he saw their condition (cus he lied to Thurak telling him that every warrior chose to be there)

Unfortunately he couldn't stop him and he became friends with someone there, and, well, Thurak told his father about his friend, father went "Not in my watch" and to be a lil bitch he arranged a deathmatch between the two of them

Thurak is alive so you can imagine how it went

Back at home he returned to his father absolutely fuming, basically screaming at him how he could let something like that happen, how dare he let something like that happen, father just responded like "Take it as a little lesson, don't get close to those people, now now, join me for dinner," Thurak was obviously enraged by this, still screaming at him, so his father threatened him that if he didn't behave he would throw him with the rest of his "friends" as he put it

Thurak snapped at him, almost punched him, got stopped by one of his father's bodyguards and he was, in fact, thrown with the rest of the slaves, telling him that he was very disappointed of him and to take this as his punishment. Thurak went from living in luxury to the slumps basically

He was bitter and angry and sad, he had, so many conflicting emotions at that point. There he met more of the fighters, and they slowly but surely started making a break out plan

Some time of planning passes (could be months could be a couple of years) and with Thurak's knowledge of the arena both in and out they managed a plan to break out and leave Skullport and the Underdark for good

Long story short, they succeeded, not everyone got out but most of their team did

So they returned to the surface, becoming something akin to a caravan, travelling from city to city, Thurak became one of the main protectors, he had to put to use that strength for something

They unfortunately were in Baldur's Gate at the time of the Nautiloid snatching, so Thurak (and other people from the caravan) got taken

This is some in-game event notes (This is Thurak as a companion stuff basically):

Very minor notes, his main objective would be to find the other people who got snatched, slowly finding out along the way that for some god forsaken reason the Iron Ring got somehow involved with the cult of the absolute (through the underdark slave trade)

His 'final boss' would be his father basically, still working on that interaction

He canonically is a wild magic barb and there are some lore stuff that made me point to his magic surges being probably netherese magic

Mostly cus Skullport is built atop netherese ruins and the tadpole probably awaken some residual power Thurak was carrying with him

SO YES, that is all my notes from Thurak's backstory

He is making me go absolutely mental I love him sm I need to do more stuff with his story (as in write, art, etc.)

Anyways thank you for the ask! I love talking about my silly (sometimes not so little) guys!

[creative-soul-22]

Madame Leota for the Character Asks #’s 2,4, 10, 23, and 37! 🥰

Hi @jedimasterbailey !

Thank you for these amazing asks! Let's go

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

Harriota! I'd love to see their interactions, their relationship...

But also I'd love to see more of her interactions with William Gracey!

And PLEEEEAASSSEEEEEE we need Madame Leota and Travis interactions! Imagine how cute it would be if Travis showed her his toys and carried her around in this way too big crystal ball! That's why I'm writing "Madame Leota babysits" at the moment.

And of curse we need to expand that "she was once popular but then Hattie trapped her inside her crystal ball and tables turned" trope!

I headcanon a scene where Leota stays with a royal family. So, as she arrives, she walks down the hallway of a huge ballroom to meet the king and there is an Orchestra playing and a choir chanting "Leota! Madame Leota!" as she walks towards the king.

Ahhhh damn just give a Haunted Mansion prequel called "Leota"!

4. "I know you don't believe in yourself but I do." (please correct me if I misquoted that line, I've only got the German version so far)

It's not only so beautiful but there is also SO MUCH to it! And this scene is so painfully cut short it's almost a crime.

Harriet runs right to Leota when the teams sees that Harriet isn't powerful enough to ban Hattie and when the stakes are getting high. They know they are dead without Leota's help. Keep in my mind: this after the scene in which Ben opened about his grieve for Alyssa. It's after the scene Harriet opened about her sisters and how she feels like isn't a real medium. So, at this point, nobody believes in Harriet, not even Harriet herself does (Ben and Bruce didn't believe in her from the very beginning). And then, just right then, Madame Leota says right this. She believes in her. The one and famous Madame Leota who Harriet has been looking up ever since. Madame Leota trusts Harriet so deeply that she is able to free her that she even begs Harriet to do so. She, Madame Leota, begs. It's more than just Leota's approvement. It's her way of honoring, respecting and acknowledging Harriet's power. It's her picking Harriet up and put her on the same step Leota is standing on. Harriet no longer needs to look up to Madame Leota, she is now equal with Leota. And of course it's a very cute Harriota moment because it's just them at the séance room and they're tender with each other...

I'm still not over how short cut it was! It's an important moment for both Harriet's and Leota's character because it shows how Harriet had gone from "I'm qualified. Bonafied. Certified. And I can get rid of what died." to "I need your help, I can't do this alone!".

Also it shows how Leota had gone from "I can show you what happened but it will cost you $3." to "Please, set me free so I can help you." While we see Harriet more often in the movie and her change is shown throughout the movie (living room scene), Madame Leota's change comes out of the blue because she has criminally little screentime. Character changes are great but PLEEEASSSSEEEE show them to us! They are a process, not a switch!

10. Best moment on screen

The scene when she and Harriet defeat Hattie together with Ben. It's Harriet and Leota stepping up to the true greatness of their characters: Harriet being finally able to use her full powers, Leota being finally able to face her greatest fear: Hattie.

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they taste like?

Madame Leota would be a Febreze Ocean candle.

37. What they really think about themselves

Ooh I think Madame Leota blames herself for a lot of things that happened in the past. I'm sure she blames herself for not being able to reach Eleanor Gracey, for Hattie being around and therefore William Gracey's death. She also thinks she was so stupid to keep holding séances every night just to have more money against her gut feeling. Also she thinks that being stuck inside her crystal ball sucks but that she deserves it as punishment. Because inside the crystal ball, she is never happy. She never smiles. She only smiles when she's outside the crystal ball and Hattie is defeated. That's when she's happy again. And then she is able to look at the bright side of things: "It's actually quite spacious in there" (she also says that to calm Harriet down who is extremely worried).

Ahh thank you for letting me rant about my favourite lady at the moment!

ASK ME MORE OF THESE!! ALSO FOR OTHER CHARACTERS, I HAVE A LOT OF FAVOURITE CHARACTERS!!

[bfdifan26]

Do you have any familial hcs for the burner characters?

TYSM FOR THJS Ask Yes i have a few

thjs one is less of a legit These Two Are Related headcanon and more of just how i view their dynamic, but i think limey and kit are like. they are the absolute peak of the ‘annoying little brother and cool older sister who teases him all the time’ trope. she makes fun of him a lot and he also messes with her but i think if anything bad happened to limey kit would scream and cry for a billion years she sees a single scratch on him and she goes WHO THE HELL and she asks her badass killer criminal jaywalking gf to go hunt down whoever hurt her little brother. he cant know about this though because he would abuse the hell out of it. he like shows all his dumb friends a bike or car or something and he’s like yeahh.. i already know how to drive it… and kit is like What the hell are you doing with that you turd. thats kit and limey to me

this second one is important to me. i like to think spraypaint and hanger are sisters mostly based off the fact that they’re both made out of metal and i also think them growing up together would make sense in terms of them shaping eachother as people, with hanger being someone who gets pushed around for a living and spraypaint being someone who does the pushing. they’re like that one post about how their sibling used to chase them around with a knife for hours. but i also think hanger is Super protective of spraypaint. they have a very strained relationship yeah but they absolutely care about eachother and show it when they Really have to. also i think this headcanon is pretty funny because their pretty much only canon interaction so far is spraypaint stabbing and killing hanger on accident

and lastly tissues and record to me have a grandparent and granddaughter thing going on. tissues to record is that one really distant relative you never see but when you do they always have Some weird shit going on that you get dragged into like halfway across the country. if the context called for it tissues would totally be like wow look how tall you’ve gotten. also tissues definitely spoils record and gets her allll the expensive shit she could never ask her parents for for no reason other than Granddaughter :-). this headcanon is largely fueled by a show i love. i wont elaborate

[master-skywalker-01]

Ahsoka: A Return to Star Wars

Ahsoka Tano is my favorite Star Wars character, she’s Filoni’s best addition to the Star Wars cast, and as she is his baby, she's mine too. I was worried for how the new show would treat her, but having seen The Clone Wars movie, tv show, and Rebels, I trusted Dave Filoni. It was rightly placed trust. Watching this show, for me, felt like watching the prequels again. The lightsaber fights we’re fast paced, the characters held an air of mystery, and Thrawn was perfect. 

Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati are the most interesting new characters since Lady Tano herself. Introduced with little dialogue, Baylan makes it clear they are neither Jedi nor Sith. He refers to them as something more when speaking with Shin, saying “You, I trained to be more”. Baylan, once on Peridea, loses interest in the Jedi and thrown, revealing to his apprentice that he searched for something greater than what Thrawn and the Great Mothers could offer. 

He gives Shin a choice near the end of the show, to turn Sabine and Ezra over to Thrawn, take her place in the coming war, with a silent offer to stay written between the lines. Shin, of course, less trained and less trusting in the force and her master, chooses to join Thrawn. A fight ensues between her, some night troopers, and our Jedi Padawans. 

Which brings me to Sabine and Ezra. Neither had been my favorites in Rebels, I had attached to Ahsoka, Chopper, and Hera. In this new show, I love these characters. Sabine, struggles with trust, the force, her feelings towards Ezra, and finding her footing with Ahsoka. She slowly does and by the end uses the force through trust. Erza, in my opinion, was hard headed, and slightly annoying in Rebels, but in Ahsoka he’s funny, light-hearted, wiser, and much more like Kanan than I was expecting. His interactions with Huyang were wholesome, and the twin emitter to Kanan’s was a good touch.

Hera, Chopper and Jacen. My little Syndulla family hold the number two spot in my heart. Hera was snappy, strong-willed, open, and a great mother. Jacen was Adorable, and alot like his father, I would love to get to know the force sensitive, half twi-lek more. And as always Chopper was the greatest little criminal, snappy, and funny. 

Now, moving to the namesake of the show, Ahsoka. When she was introduced, she was an annoying, stuck-up, fourteen year old. She wasn’t liked much by the fandom, but Dave Filoni, as always, had a plan and slowly, with the audience, Ahsoka would mature, she gets two lightsabers, listens to Anakin more, faces hardship, and eventually left the Jedi order. As she grew after Order 66, Ahsoka became clouded and unbalanced. We watch her grow more fearful and secluded as she ages, even as she aids the rebellion, and it all comes to a head in Ahsoka.

Ahsoka fights Baylan and Shin much like Anakin fought Obi-wan, pushing forward attacking, even force-chocking and throwing Shin. Ultimately, as it had been Anakin’s, Ahsoka’s brute force is her downfall (literally). She loses the fight, and is knocked off the cliffside by Skoll, into the water. In the water, Ahsoka is pulled into the World Between Worlds where she finds Anakin, there to teach her one last lesson, live or die. Then, Hayden Christen, Anakin Skywalker himself fights his apprentice for the 3rd time.

This fight was beautifully choreographed, and executed, it was quick, fierce, charged, and all around an amazing duel between master and padawan, as is the Star Wars tradition. Just this was incredible, and I wasn’t ready when we went to the unknown regions for the first time in canon history.

Peridea was the last thing I expected, and even though we’d left our main Star Wars galaxy, everything was still so Star Wars. The Great Mothers, The Chimera, The Night Troopers, Morgan becoming a magical nightsister. I was blown away, yet everything gave me the same feeling as the 1977 classics, and the 2000’s prequels. This is how Star Wars is supposed to feel in my mind, and Ahsoka did it perfectly. 

All I can hope for now is two separate stories, Dave Filoni’s, Heir to The Empire movie to be about our regular Galaxy with Hera, Ezra, The Mandalorians, and Luke. Then a different story, on Peridea with Ahsoka, Sabine, Shin, and Baylan, in Ahsoka season 2. That would be the perfect way to continue this amazing love letter to Star Wars and the Star Wars fans. 

~Leia-Marie Jones~