I put the 'bi' in 'bitch'.

Wait says the yellow light, twinkling in between. 

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

The eight-year-old segment of Il Dottore could typically be found in a place typically reserved for people three times his age: in the laboratory, cold and dim with the few lights glaring off the stainless steel examination tables. 

In his corner he puttered away with his notebooks, the occasional gear or bolt as he taught himself how to assemble the machines that his older selves would one day recreate. In all the times you’d seen him, he’d seemed accepting of his existence as a slice in the original Zandik’s life, if not content; the main at this point in the past had been something of a prodigy, you discerned, limited only by those around him in his village who saw his early ideas as pure blasphemy.

Of course, this was before you’d grown curious about the little boy. Before you’d proposed to the Dottore now in charge that perhaps the child would enjoy activities catered to other kids his age. And when you’d seen firsthand the type of fate he was doomed to live out as an outcast, whether a flesh-and-blood human or a mere puppet frozen in time, you’d resolved to ensure the young Zandik had as happy an existence as you could procure him - the other segments’ scoffing dismissals be damned.

But the little Zandik had gone back to his life as it had been before meeting you the moment he set foot in the lab with his other selves: studying and scribbling away research proposals and tinkering with projects older Akademiya students could only dream of. The segments paid him barely any mind unless he was meddling with their own experiments, and more often these days, Dottore forbade you from taking him into the city. They needed extra hands for making the Elixir, he reasoned, and the eight-year-old segment rarely, if ever, fought back. 

Like he knew better. 

A collection of cute moments spent with the Segments and the original Zandik.

♡ the eight-year-old segment

♡ the eighteen-year-old segment

♡ the twenty-five-year-old segment

♡ the thirty-five-year-old segment

♡ the forty-five-year-old segment

♡ the sixty-five-year-old segment

♡ the original zandik

Ramsay being fan of NIN is so apt, i definitely agree and Closer is such thramsay song it's ridiculous. Tbh a lot of NIN songs have atmosphere tones appropriate for thramsay, so it's easy pick. I havent listened to the other songs you mentioned tho!

I love more non-vocal eletrical disquieting music for thramsay, especially from LORN (ohhh how do i fuckin love LORN 🫠) and Blanck Mass.

Here's my messy ass thramsay playlist if you're interested.

If i could pick three top songs from it, they would be:

Weigh Me Down by LORN: for the general vibe and dark lyrics that really encapsulates Theon's POV in thramsay, it hints of resentment brewing but also a sense of giving up to the torture inflicted.

Run by IAMTHEKIDYOUKNOWWHATIMEAN: this one is weird.. disquietingly imbalanced tune that sounds ridiculous at first but now i can't stop listening to it. Perfectly describes the absurdity and horror in thramsay that slowly melts into uneasy familiar tune. Hotline Miami has amazing ost but Run is the one i consistently listen to.

⊹ standing too close. like just barely not touching. why are their shoulders breathing on each other??

⊹ conversations that sound normal but feel like foreplay. “pass the salt” has never been so loaded.

⊹ one of them says something flirty and the other freezes for 0.2 seconds like “oh.”

⊹ eyes dropping to lips and then—back up. with effort.

⊹ holding eye contact just a little too long. like... are they gonna kiss or duel??

⊹ unintentional physical contact that lasts one second too long and now they’re both broken

⊹ a hand on the small of the back. that’s it. that’s the tweet.

⊹ tension so thick that other characters start noticing like “hey are you two okay?” (they are not)

⊹ “accidental” sleepovers. “oh no there’s only one bed.” yeah. suuuure.

⊹ biting back a smile. biting back a moan. biting anything really.

⊹ one of them walks away and the other has to physically restrain themselves from watching the hips

And I love that Hardison’s rebuttal was, “Hear me out. Two words: Eliot Signal.”

And I love that Parker knew that when Eliot dies he wants his body to be eaten by wolves. I love that Hardison made their new base a brew pub because he knew Eliot couldn’t resist. I love that Parker measured his head for his inevitable robot body, and that when it comes to relationships she immediately includes him with her and Hardison. I love that Hardison made him Mr Punchy, and the hyper-energetic Japanese energy drink commercial, and that he made up the song Two Good Ol’ Boys Behind the Wheel for them. I love that Parker heard him out when she wanted to kill the mark and trusted that he really would have her back, like he always does. I love that she asked him to teach her how to love food because he loves food. I love that Hardison loves him so much that even though he trusts Eliot to protect him, he doesn’t want to see him get hurt because of him, but he also doesn’t ask him to consider stopping.