#themetaphorgirl

The idea for this was, literally, "Aaron’s hoodie being passed around like a healing balm." It was @themetaphorgirl's prompt, and I love her for it, because if there's anything I love, it's when the person that's usually the whumpee becomes the caretaker, even in the short form. Honorable mention comment goes to @fragolinaa, who said, and I quote: "Alex calling him Aaron is the equivalent of showing a glock"

Spencer

“I’m tired,” Spencer mumbled against Aaron’s side. It was Friday night, and they were at another one of Derek’s football games. Aaron knew the rules of football against his will, having been Derek’s roommate the year before, but it seemed that no matter how many times he tried to explain them to Spencer, it wasn’t sticking.

That, or Spencer couldn’t get over why a sport about passing and running had to be so violent. He didn’t like it when they tackled one another, which was every play, and he really didn’t like it when Derek got tackled. 

OK, so this is inspired by the amazing @themetaphorgirl ‘s PSOLC ( Criminal Minds AU) as we discussed a situation with Hotch and Emily in the same class and she gets a better grade than him, though he put in way more effort. I haven’t written in aaaaaages, so 1m super rusty, but I had fun and feel like I nailed Strauss’s character

“ Did you hand in your essay OK, Bubba?” Alex asked Hotch as she sat down at the table, deftly readjusting Spencer’s tray once she had put hers down too.

“Yeah, thanks Birdie. Once you looked through it for me I typed it up and printed it, then I handed it in last week.” he replied, stirring raisins into his oatmeal.

Emily’s head jerked up, eyes wide and her spoon halfway to her mouth. She quickly regained her composure.

“Uh, Hotch, what’s today’s date?” she asked.

“It’s the 22nd, Emily. And yes, it is the date our 2000-word  essays are due in for Strauss. The essays she assigned us last month that are worth 40% of the semester’s grade.” he replied, shaking his head and frowning at his classmate’s disorganisation.

“Oh, I knew that, I do actually listen in class sometimes, Hotchner! And it’s no biggie! I’ll write it in French and Chapel.” Emily responded nonchalantly, her eyes reflecting her panic and stress. «  We’re studying the present indicative of first group verbs and adjective agreements, which is obviously very difficult, but I’ll make it work » she announced, trying hard to sound convincing but failing miserably.

“Alexandra Catherine Miller, room-mate extraordinaire,  what can you tell me about the leitmotifs in To Kill A Mockingbird? Just asking for a friend!” she asked Alex, eyes wide, fluttering her eyelashes and smiling, tilting her head to the side.

“Oh, that’s easy! I read it when I was 7, but the main themes are…”, Spencer interjected, gesticulating wildly, his eyes shining with excitement, as Alex placed a finger on his lips to quieten him.

“Sorry, Emily, but I really can’t help you now. I asked you if you wanted help when Hotch asked me to look through his first draft, and you told me you had ‘almost started it’, so you’re just going to have to face the consequences” Alex answered, a sympathetic look on her face. 

« But if I don’t get an A, I’m going to fail! And Strauss offers no make up tests or extra credit! I hope you’ll come to my funeral as Strauss is going to eviscerate me. » she replied, biting her lip as she realised just how much of a challenge she had to face.

Hotch muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “you made your bed, now lie in it”.

Penelope looked aghast.

« Well, I am so glad I only have Strauss for debate. She sounds like the kind of person who has a favourite child! » she shared, shuddering at the thought of having more classes with her most terrifying teachers. 

Just before the bell for second period rang, Emily dashed into class, almost tripping over Chris Callahan’s legs and narrowly avoiding crashing into Kate Carter’s  neighbouring desk before flinging herself into her assigned seat towards the back of the class, clutching several sheets of rather crumpled notebook paper. 

Ashley Seaver smiled sympathetically at her before resuming her chat with Jordan Todd about the new crime series with the hot male lead that they were both obsessed with.

The final bell rang, cutting their conversation short. The class fell silent immediately.

“ Pass your essays up to the front now. Some of you have already handed them in, but I needn’t remind you that is no guarantee of a good or even a passing grade. “ Strauss announced, shooting a pertinent look at Hotch.

“Miss Carter and Mr Callahan, how many times  have I told you that there’s no PDA in my classroom?” she scolded, glaring at the offending students, who were holding hands.

“And no, don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical! Get out your grammar books, page 82 and complete the sentence parsing that we started last class. There is no need to talk.” she announced, having gathered all the students’ work in a pile on her desk.

The class got to work and their teacher turned her attention to the papers in front of her, scowling at some and shaking her head at others, that she liberally annotated with her red pen.

Two weeks later

“ Well, on the whole, I was disappointed with your essays. As Juniors, you really should have mastered these basic concepts by now. You do realise, if you go to college, your professors will make me look like a Disney princess. I have a feeling that college might not be the right fit for everyone here” Strauss declared, casting a disapproving look around the class.

“However, there was one standout essay that I gave an A to. I had to take some points off for presentation, but the student in question provided some excellent analysis. It’s the only A I have given so far this semester. Emily Prentiss, I did not expect work of such caliber from you. » she continued.

She then proceeded to return work by grade.

«  A valiant attempt. Mr Hotchner, but you should definitely ask Miss Prentiss for some pointers for the next assignment » she said, handing Hotch his paper that had a big red B+ on it. 

He shot Emily a dark, murderous  look, but she just grinned and thumbsed up when their eyes met.

As the bell for lunch went, Hotch uncharacteristically shoved his books and papers haphazardly into his backpack, pushed his chair against his desk with more force than necessary and stomped out.

Emily was smiling broadly at their usual lunch table, chatting to Penelope about hairstyles as Hotch arrived, slamming his tray down.

Alex looked over at him with a concerned look, but he just prodded his mystery meat violently, eyebrows knitted tightly together.

«  Hi Hotch! Are you still hung up over your grade from Strauss? I’m sure I can help you do better next time » she said sweetly.

«  Just how did you get an A? » he questioned angrily.

Rossi looked up from his mashed potatoes, intrigue written all over his face.

«  Emily! How did you do it? Strauss hardly ever gives A’s! Please teach me your ways, you… witch! » he exclaimed.

«  I’ m just naturally brilliant, I guess. Perhaps I should request a transfer into the AP class. And don’t ‘Emily’ me! » she replied smugly.

« That’s a great plan, Emily. Except a) there are no places left in the AP class, and b) your last grade was a C minus, I believe? » Hotch declared.

She sighed and returned her attention to her plate of food.

@themetaphorgirl thank you for letting me do this, it was really fun! It also kept me busy since I was bored af.

Also it is REALLY GOOD that I’m a lesbian or else finding stuff for the guys outfits would have been a lot harder.

Keep in mind that I am not a model, my body is not perfect, I’m simply just having some fun :)

So this is Spencer, and also IT IS REALLY HARD TO TAKE GOOD PICTURES BY YOURSELF. Spencer’s was probably the easiest, next to Alex, because their stuff is pretty close to my actual style. They all just get jeans for pants because that’s what I have on hand haha.

Penelope’s was HARD. I don’t have a lot of colorful clothes, so I just put on one of my sister’s white frilly dresses, and it was also too big for me, and it was just an interesting experience all together. I tried to just overcompensate for the outfit by going berserk with my hair. Also my mom said I looked like Cindy Loo Hoo, so that’s great.

Hotch. Idk what to do for him, he’s boring when it comes to his clothes. I’m under the impression that he pretty much stays in his uniform most of the time anyways, so it makes some sense I guess.

Emily’s was almost as hard as Penelope’s, because I am not very equipped for her style. I don’t have Doc Martens so you get Converse haha. That Apollo 11 tshirt was the closest thing I had to a vintage band tshirt. Also, me wearing the rainbow and lesbian pride flag bracelets for Emily’s outfit is not an accident...

Alex! I’m definitely going for Alex’s fall wardrobe and not summer because I do not own any cute sundresses haha. Hers was easiest for me because it’s just what I wear every day. I am a librarian and you can tell. Of course though, the one time I need my hair to look red it looks brown. Lighting is weird. And the purple is kind of faded too. Oh well.

Wow, Hotch angst? And on Father’s Day no less? I have no shame.

So, this is the redone version of my The Only Exception Animatic I did in August. Keep in mind, I did draw this in like… two and a half hours so it’s more of pictures put together to music than an animatic (a storyboard with music I guess???) but I wanted to get this out for Father’s Day because I really do have no shame and I want people to cry.

I thought I could stop myself after Hypochondriac and Saved for a Rainy Day, but i had another cute idea and wanted to bring it to life. Thanks to Caitlin for letting me write this, and it may not be as perfect as her fantastic writing but I love it! Enjoy!

(I may have also gotten a bit carried away)

Penelope’s Plan

Word count: 2.3k

Rainy day crafts

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“My, Chocolate Thunder! I’ve never been in your room before! Let me guess, you’ve got a few football posters, and at least one sock on your bed right now?” Penelopeasked Derek, her left arm linked through his and her right arm tapping her chin inquisitively with a playful smile.

“Spencer Reid! You’re room!” Penelope exclaimed, dropping Derek’s arm and walking slowly to Spencer’s bookshelf, and looked around the barren walls and shelves of his side of the room. Derek went to stop her from speaking, knowing from the look on Spencer's face that he didn’t want anymore pity, especially one of the girls. Before Derek could stop her from the usual probing questions he got like ‘Where’s all of your things,’ or ‘You can’t even afford a proper blanket?’, she shushed Derek. “We need to decorate in here, stat! Tell me my dear boy genius, your favourite shows, books, colours, pets, everything!”

Once Penelope was satisfied with Spencer's answers, she flipped her new unicorn notebook shut and stuffed it into her small unicorn purse hanging by her side. “Alright kiddo, go back to reading your book. What do you even have enough time to read, anyways?” She asked curiously, the worn cover not providing her much insight.

Spencer picked to book back up, trying to find his previous page. “It’s War and Peace, I finally found it in its original Russian!” He smiled, proud of being able to find it in the library without Alex’s help.When Penelope nodded with a look of shock on her face, he presumed she had no interest if he started to explain it to her. So he turned his full attention back to the books, with the wonder of what she would be doing with this new found knowledge of him.

When Derek was done with his laundry, Penelope waved quickly to a zoned in Spencer and hastily pulled Derek out of the shared room, slamming the door behind her and continued to drag him to the library. Once sat down at a secluded corner, Penelope finally decided to answer Derek’s questions. “We need to make Spencer some crafts to decorate his side of the room. Now, throw me some ideas.” Penelope smiled, with her notebook out once more and her pen at the ready to start a brand new list. Derek raised a brow silently. Penelope groaned. “Come on. His room needs to be more Spencer! It looks like a hotel room on his side. It needs to be more like him if he’s going to be there all year!” She rambled her hands waving through the air as she talked.

“Alright, alright. Well, he likes books so maybe something to do with like, book pages? I don’t know. You should ask everyone else. And don’t give me that glare, baby girl! I’m just saying someone else may be a bit more insightful on how to help. My bet is on Alex.” Penelope’s glare dissolved, as she got the idea to go ask everyone in their little friend group. She stood from her chair, returned her notebook to her bag, and set off on her mission.

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She wandered for a bit, looking at all of their normal spots to find their friends. It was, afterall, a Sunday. Her first location, the amphitheater, was where she found Hotch and Emily with large textbooks open on their laps and stationary surrounding them. “Hello, my fine furry friends! I come seeking knowledge from all of my peers and hope you both can contribute!” The pair of juniors shared a nervous glance, before setting their textbooks aside for a moment.

“What’s up Pen?” Emily asked, and Penelope immediately smiled and retrieved her trusty notepad and sparkly pink pen.

She flipped the cover open while she spoke. “I need help finding ways to decorate Spencer's room. Poor thing doesn’t have a poster, decal, or even a picture that represents himself. So, and ideas?” She questioned, hopefully glancing between the two. They thought for a moment before sharing their answers.

“Well, you could make him one of those calendars with a new word a day or something.” Emily shrugged, thinking of the things Spencer likes.

“You can just ask him what he wants.” Aaron nodded, eyes drifting back to his books. Emily gave him a slight shove. “You know the kid, he doesn’t ask for anything. He would just deny that he needed anything.” She retorted, thinking back to the many times he had done that very thing.

Penelope nodded, and scribbled the viable suggestion next to Emily’s name, and added an ‘N/A’ to where Hotch’s name was listed. “Alright, off to the next friends! Thank you my favourite band of heroes!” Penelope thanked, and turned out of the amphitheater and back to the main campus.

“We need to get her drug tested.” Hotch announced to Emily.

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Out in the soccer field is where she went next, and Penelope found JJ running drills alone while Blake and Rossi sat on the bleachers, talking and occasionally glancing over to a determined looking JJ. When they saw Penelope approaching, they sat up straight. When she reached them, she sat in front of them on a cold seat. “JJ! Sorry to interrupt Jayje, but this is important!” Penelope yelled to her blonde friend who grabbed a battered pink water bottle from beside her duffle bag and made her way over to the bleachers huffing and puffing. Penelope looked over to James and David with a worried expression. “Two hours,” James clarified to an exasperated Penelope, “And she only took a break when we asked her to, which was around an hour ago.” He explained, and hushed as JJ reached them.

She crashed into the empty seat beside Penelope and took another long drink. “What’s wrong? Is everything ok?” She questioned, her breathing returning back to normal and an expression of concern overtook the exhaustion. Penelope laughed.

“Of course, Jayje. Well, mostly.” Penelope turned her attention to all of them as one and continued. “I only just saw the dorm room of Dere-Bear and our little genius, and the lack of any flair from Spencer’s side of the room made me a new type of sorrow. So! I’m going from friend to friend looking for ideas to make for his room to add a little flair of him to his room!” She explained, a big grin on her face.

“You could make him one of those folded book sculptures?” JJ threw out, wiping some sweat off of her forehead.

“Hand drawing him a poster of a band he likes would be something he’d like, right?” James asked, looking to David who was nodding.

David thought for a moment while Penelope hastily wrote down the ideas, her pink pen scratching and scrawling on the page. “I’m sure the kid will like anything you do for him. Not like he has anyone in his life to make gifts like you do, Garcia.” David shrugged.

Penelope finished her quick note taking and once more closed and put away her notebook. She smiled and said, “Thanks for the help guys! I’ll keep you in the loop!”. She skipped her way off the soccer field, and JJ returned to the soccer field to continue her practice.

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Alex sat in the library, reading a book and sneakily snacking on some of the pop-tarts she kept hidden in her desk. She heard the faint and growing sound of footsteps, so she closed the drawer with the secret snacks and went back to reading her book as normal. The doors opened, and Penelope’s eyes swept the library before her eyes found Alex at the main desk. Once she had her eyes set on her target, she walked with determination to a now amused looking Alex. She rested her elbow on a pile of old books waiting to be organized and announced, “Alex! Just the gal I was looking for!”.

Alex set her book down, noting the page as she did so. “What do you need, Garcia?” She asked, sitting back in the comfortable office chair.

“Well, our dear Baby Genius has no evidence of him even living in his room, and we need to spice it up a bit!” Penelope spoke enthusiastically and quickly of her grand idea once more to the person she thought to be the most helpful.

Alex stopped to think for a moment, processing Penelope’s words. “So you want my help?” She asked curiously, her mind already thinking of some small ideas.

Penelope nodded with a grin, and grabbed her trusted notebook and sparkly pen, and answered Alex’s question. “Well, of course! I do have some other ideas as well from the rest of our squad, but I bet you’ll have one really great idea! So, bounce some ideas!” she rambled on.

Alex had many ideas, but then the right one hit her. She smiled at Penelope and sat up. “I think I’ve got the perfect idea.”

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That saturday was perfect for Penelope's plan, as it was a rainy and quiet day. She had been plotting since Tuesday on her master plan. She made them all a group chat. And asked who wanted to help her with some arts and crafts. She got a yes from all but David and Hotch (it isn’t that they didn’t want to help, it’s just that they insisted they were terrible at crafts) so she had a separate mission for them; to distract Spencer.

On that rainy Saturday morning, the plan was going perfectly. David and Hotch made up a story about how they needed to run into town to the bookstore for some book Hotch needed, and asked if anyone would like to join them. Spencer, being his book loving self, instantly agreed while everyone politely turned them down all with their own excuses.

“Oh, I’ll leave the books to Pretty Boy.’

“I have to finish that math assignment with JJ.”

“I would love to, but I picked up an extra library shift.”

So they set off into the town, and made sure to let Spencer ramble his heart out. And they took him out for ice cream just so the crafters had enough time to get everything done.

Meanwhile, everyone got started on their projects. Penelope had an extensive, almost obsessive collection of craft supplies, and some old books free to mutilate if anyone needed them. They all got their hands working, and by the end of their rainy day craft session, everyone was covered in purple glitter from when Derek dropped the glitter shaker in front of the hair dryer being used to dry some paint. But alas, they all had completed their gifts and now just had to place them for when the boys got back from their distraction trip.

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Spencer opened the door to his dorm room, clutching an armful of books and an empty bowl with some melted ice cream remainaints. “Derek! You wouldn’t BELIEVE how many books are in the store just beside the craft shop! David let me get so-” He cut himself off as he went to dump his books on his bed.

The first thing he noticed was the cluster of people in his small room. Penelope with Derek on his respective bed, JJ and Emily on Spencer's bed, and Alex standing beside his priorly barren wall. “Woah…” He mumbled to himself, looking to his new decorations. A miniature replica of the TARDIS made of popsicle sticks and adorned with blue glitter sat on his bedside table. A small piece of paper with a purple glittery book leaned against the TARDIS. A homemade Lerner&Lowe poster was taped to his headboard, and on his bookshelf was a book flipped with the spine facing in. But instead of regular pages, they were folded (slightly crooked) to look like the Death Star. And the thing that took up the most space was a tree made from construction paper taped on the wall. But on each branch there was a name of someone in their friend group, a short message, and a picture of them. The top of the tree had the words ‘Our Family’.

Spencer’s eyes were watering as he finished taking all of it in. Dave and Aaron stood behind him, resting on the sides of the doorframe and watching like everyone else was. He sniffled, and wiped his eyes quickly. He was overwhelmed, but in the best way. After taking a moment to collect himself from the shock and awe, everyone stayed in their room for the rest of the day until supper, just hanging out before they had to regroup in the cafeteria for supper.

Penelope was glad her plan had the desired effect, and everyone was content with seeing Spencer happy.

hung pictures of patron saints up on my wall to remind me that i am a fool. tell me where i came from what i will always be, just a spoiled little kid who went to catholic school

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

So I guess officially, probably around 12-13 when I started writing Teen Titans fanfiction on like, otp shrines and stuff. Not sure I was even aware of FF.net yet. I didn’t start posting there until 2005, when I was 13/14.  But before that, I had participated in sort of fanfic/rp on Dibbuns Against Bedtime starting around age 11. And before THAT, I’d been making up stories and drawing little fan comics for Sailor Moon and the Powerpuff Girls with my friends when I was like, 7. 

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

Having written this much for this long, that’s hard to remember. I can’t think of any one compliment that stands out right now, but I know that the compliment I always most love to get is when someone tells me that my writing inspired them to write. Not even like, “I started writing because of you”, but like, “After reading this it made me want to go work on my own writing project.” To me, that’s a HUGE compliment. If my writing got your creative juices flowing, that’s a huge deal to me. I know what is like to be in a writing funk and then read something that makes me feel like, I NEED to go write right now, and to hear that my writing can induce that in others? It makes me really happy.  48) What’s your favourite trope to write?