#tenelope

lkjlklkjlkj listen. Fiona the hot lawyer was on another show I loved with another main character I was convinced was queer, and I shipped them, too.

Jeananne Goossen is very hot and very shippable and she and Emily have a million percent banged. I feel like they're probably too similar personality-wise to have anything long-term, but they're just similar enough to be attracted to each other and to have acted on it. Plus it's pretty much lesbian culture that a lot of our lifelong friends are people we were interested in / banged at some stage first, lol.

Tenelope is so ❤️🌷🌹🌻❤️ yes I like very much!! Each of them has met their match in each other and Luke wouldn't stand a chance against them as a DUO. They're both flirty, bantery, smart and clever as all hell, and just different enough from each other that they'd be stronger together.

For Tara: I'd say as a black woman, Tara is inherently carrying a lot more than most of the others have to deal with. They all have their traumas, but no one else on the current team carries the unique burden of being a black woman in a system that's both violently antiblack and misogynist most of the time. Also, there's trauma, and there's, uh, "saw the kids' bodies at Sandy Hook and counseled their parents" trauma which is CANON for Tara. I think the narrative breezed by that one ENTIRELY too fast.

Tara comes across as someone who compartmentalizes to a higher degree than anyone else on the team and I'm not convinced it's healthy or that she's just so strong she can handle it. I think she's had to be the strong one shouldering the brunt of the burdens her entire life (and no one has given her the safety to be anything else). I think her family slotted her into this role, I think her exes slotted her into this role, and I think even the BAU slots her into this role of being "the strong one" sometimes, too. I will say that what I initially didn't love about Tara and Rebecca is that it felt like Rebecca was doing the same thing to Tara, expecting her to bear the brunt of all the discomfort and pain the Sicarius case stirred up for both of them.

Tara deserves a break from being the strong one all the time; she deserves someone who makes her feel absolutely safe in her softness and vulnerability, and she deserves to be protected, too, instead of always being the one to protect others. Penelope is good at recognizing that just because you are strong doesn't mean you should have to be. She can tell when someone just needs softness and a gentle place to land, and she's quick to meet them there with a warm blanket and tea and the quiet assurance of her presence when she knows words can't fix it. She's so emotionally intelligent and she'd be able to read Tara so well, she would absolutely recognize when someone needs to take some of the weight of the world off of Tara's shoulders even if Tara doesn't specifically ask her to.

For Penelope: There's a seriousness and a gentle intensity with Tara that would soothe away what's kind of an unacknowledged but significant insecurity for Penelope. Penelope full well knows she's funny; she knows she's witty and joyful and ebullient and a lot of people rely on her sunshine. They know they can turn to her when they're having a bad day and she'll make it better. However, I would say it's fairly canon that she worries deep down people don't take her seriously, because she has to reinforce pretty often that she can be colorful, glittery, cute, and whimsical while still also being a fucking genius who is extremely competent at what she does. Her softness and cuteness are a hard-fought-for and hard-won choice she makes actively in the face of the world around her being soul-crushingly violent and grim. Penelope for sure worries she's only useful as comic relief sometimes and that people don't really take her seriously.

You know who would always take her seriously, though? Tara. Tara easily matches Penelope as far as emotional intelligence, and she would see through the jokes and the flirty banter and the cutesiness straight to Penelope's brilliance and the way her optimism is active resistance. Tara looks intently and listens intently and I like the idea of her being kind of reverently in awe of Penelope, just always giving her her complete rapt attention in a way that not a lot of people do.