#halfincubus

Um, this sounds like the best sort of random?? 

Okay okay okay, bear with me, but I’m thinking historical au. I’m thinking it’s the early 1950s and Beth’s a switchboard operator in a loveless marriage with Dean. Rio’s a WWII veteran, struggling to pull his life back together after the war. He had been stationed out in the Philippines which a quick Google tells me is where many Latino men were stationed during the war, and was injured in a way that makes it hard for him to easily find work after the fact. 

Rhea has recently left him, and he’s struggling and ends up working in a few shady dealings to get himself on his feet, but he has to make A Lot of Calls - to Rhea and Marcus, to new business associates, and everyone at the switchboards knows his voice, because um, his voice is p great. 

Beth knows it through other people - likes it - but doesn’t exactly think much of it. She mostly just likes working, being out of the house, away from Dean, the kids now all in school, but one day she’s Rio’s operator, and they have a brief joke and something startles awake in her not because his voice is sexy (although, y’know, part of that), but maybe just because he asks about her day, and Beth can’t remember the last time Dean did that. 

Maybe after that she gets him a lot, and they develop a sort of repertoire with each other in the brief moments before she patches his calls, and maybe Beth starts to know this schedule - knows that every second day he calls his ex-wife at 4 to talk to his son, knows that every Sunday after church he calls his mother three towns over, knows that he has meetings with some of these guys on Tuesdays at 10 or Thursdays at 12 - and maybe she starts to feel prickly with energy at those times, eyes fixed on the little lights of the switchboard so that she can make sure it’s her that answers, not Ruby or Mary Pat or Phoebe, and - - 

And then maybe she overhears him - accidentally of course - talking about a criminal! act! and well - - 

you’re the same trash as me so i’m gonna answer all of them!

Send me a ship and I’ll tell you…

- Who is the big spoon? ever since cassie got pritkin back she has been the big spoon. it’s a subconscious, protective impulse she has; she’s afraid to let go.

- Who initiates sexts? cassie does it to get out of training. if she distracts him she won’t have to run any more laps, right?

- Who is the better cook? pritkin. he cooks garbage health food for the most part, but occasionally cassie can get him to make something truly indulgent. he’s surprisingly good at it, for being such a health nut.

- Who always suggests pizza? cassie. she claims their last pizza date was ruined by dragon interference and has been trying to get a redo.

- Who hogs all the hot water? we all know it’s cassie. we all know.

- Who initiates hand holding? cassie. pritkin is always surprised.

- Who is the first to apologize? boy, these two are stubborn as hell. but they also are both the first to admit when they’re wrong. mostly.

- Who gets drunk and wants to declare their love? PRITKIN. he used to be a maudlin drunk, but ever since he got back he’s just a lovey-dovey drunk.

- Who is the worst when they’re sick? cassie, i guess? but mostly she just complains that pritkin is making her drink that kale garbage when all she wants is comfort food.

- Who cries over romcoms? cassie.

- Who insists they don’t need directions? pritkin is convinced he’s the only one that knows how to get anywhere.

- Who screams when they see a spider? cassie does, and it’s frequently followed by her accidentally shifting the spider to antarctica.

- Who has their partner as their phone background? cassie caught a rare shot of pritkin smiling and likes to show people as proof that he’s capable of it.

- What do they argue about the most? pritkin says cassie needs to rest more and take better care of herself. cassie says that if that were true, he’d let her sleep in instead of going on their morning runs.

- Who gets the most jealous? CASSIE IS THE MOST JEALOUS TO EVER JEALOUS OK she practically has a permanent grudge against all waitresses and baristas because they FLIRT. TOO. MUCH. 

- Who is the most competitive? pritkin, for sure. 

- Who never remembers to hang up their towel? for such a fastidious guy, pritkin really is a giant slob.

Oh, yeah! The prospect of Rio re-gaining Beth’s trust and manipulating her affections is totally upsetting! It doesn’t seem to be going that way, at least? If anything, it seems like Rio’s really desperately trying to prove to both her and himself that she doesn’t mean anything to him, while Beth is the one trying to manipulate the fact that she knows she does to both save her life and put him where she wants him. (In Rio’s case, he just seems to be straight-up strongarming her, as opposed to manipulating her). 

Ah, I’m sorry it’s bumming you out! I’m hopeful the ep will recontextualise the sneak peek at least. :-)

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COME INTO MY ASK AND FREAK ME OUT ANY TIME YOU WANT THIS IS GREAT NEWS a;knbdslgkbfg

@halfincubus - DUDE that is an excellent theory asjbvsldg trent was in the promo pictures for 3.01

whhaaaaaat? like. she went back to westchester with the intention to stay there for good? no!!! no. no no no.

i already knew, seeing naomi in the promo pictures, that episode five was gonna kill me. i’m not prepared for exactly how much i’m gonna be murdered – i’m feeling some pre-angst at the moment. 

god, i can just imagine that things are gonna seem great and comforting with naomi and rebecca will be lured into a false sense of security. but that’s just when naomi’s gonna spring audra levine on her. i can practically hear the ‘well that whole california thing didn’t work out so you can move back here and stop kidding yourself’ speech.