rionaleonhart | Entries tagged with the mentalist

I posted a meme over on Tumblr, which I’m going to reproduce here:

Give me any two (or more) characters I’m familiar with, and I’ll tell you how they would cope in an ‘oh no, there’s only one bed’ scenario!

I got a good number of requests on Tumblr, and I had a blast with all of them. There’s a surprising amount of scope for variation in an ‘only one bed’ situation, and it’s interesting to think about how different character combinations would react to it! My responses exist on a spectrum from ‘general thoughts’ to ‘tiny ficlet’.

( Danganronpa: Makoto Naegi and Mukuro Ikusaba )

( FFVII/FFVIII: Cloud Strife and Squall Leonhart )

( Silent Hill 2/Death Note: James Sunderland and Light Yagami )

( Final Fantasy X: Auron and Jecht )

( Final Fantasy VIII: Seifer and Zell )

( Ace Attorney: Ryunosuke and Kazuma )

( Danganronpa 2: Hinata and Koizumi )

( Pandora Hearts: Oz and Elliot )

( The Last of Us: Ellie and Jesse )

( Lost: Sayid and Jack )

( Ace Attorney: Edgeworth and Gumshoe )

( Doctor Who/The Mentalist: the Ninth Doctor and Patrick Jane )

( The Good Place/Doctor Who: Michael and the Master )

( The World Ends with You: Joshua and Neku )

( Final Fantasy VII: Barret and Cloud )

( Final Fantasy VII: Barret and Tifa )

( Lost: Jack and Kate )

If there are any characters you’d like to see confronted with a one-bed situation, feel free to make requests in the comments!

About a week ago, I posted an unfinished fanfiction meme to Tumblr, and I thought it might be fun to play here as well!

Name a canon you know I have at some point enjoyed, and I’ll dig up and post an excerpt from the unfinished fanfiction I’ve almost certainly got lying around. (If you name something I don’t have any unfinished fanfiction for, I may write a few lines on the spot. We’ll see!)

I’ve posted this before, many years ago, but don’t worry about avoiding canons that were requested back then; I’ll just try to dig up something else.

Here are the excerpts I posted in response to requests on Tumblr:

Cinder_Quill: For the fanfiction ask meme: any unfinished stories about DN Angel?

This was tricky! But I dug through an old notebook, and I managed to uncover a tiny paragraph. This was from a Kingdom Hearts/DN Angel crossover I have zero recollection of contemplating, in which Kingdom Hearts Riku is talking to Daisuke. Both Riku and Satoshi are self-loathing teenagers who are intensely in love with someone they feel they don’t deserve, and I have a lot of emotions about them.

“Maybe it’s not my place,” Riku says. He glances in Satoshi’s direction. “Or maybe I’m just… projecting or something. I don’t know. But I think you’re important to him.”

academicgangster: Ace Attorney for the unfinished fanfiction meme?

Here’s a snippet in which Apollo and Athena stay up working too late and end up accidentally falling asleep on each other.

( Ace Attorney unfinished snippet: Apollo and Athena. )

futuresoon: Danganronpa!

I took this to be a request spanning the entire Danganronpa series and dug up a little Danganronpa 2 snippet. Major Danganronpa 2 spoilers under the cut.

( Danganronpa 2 unfinished snippet: Hinata and Komaeda. )

wyomingsmustache: Okay so I know it's been well over a decade since you've written anything Top Gear related but I was showing my roommate an episode the other day and telling him stuff about my Top Gear fandom days so now I am curious if you've got any bits and pieces leftover from back when, so for the fanfiction meme, Top Gear? (And if you don't, completely understandable)

We’re really getting into the deep lore here. Here’s something… mildly weird and dark? By Top Gear standards, at least. Because apparently I decided I should write two crossovers between Top Gear and Silent Hill. But Silent Hill is in Wales, for some reason.

(I know the reason. It’s because this was also going to be a crossover with Torchwood. It’s probably for the best that it never got finished.)

( Top Gear unfinished snippet: the trio unknowingly approach Silent Hill. )

doreyg: Death Note for the unfinished fanfic meme!

I responded with a Death Note/Silent Hill snippet I’d previously posted on this journal. So it wouldn’t just be material I’d already posted elsewhere, though, I also uncovered a few lines from a notebook (a regular non-death notebook):

In another world, you might have been someone else. Nothing special, but enough. Light Yagami, an ordinary man with an ordinary life.

But this is the world you’re in, and you’ve become a god.

tweetymcbastardface: Waterloo Road. Do it.

I can’t believe anyone would do this to me.

( Waterloo Road unfinished snippet: Tom/Izzie/Lorna. )

And that’s all the unfinished fanfiction requests I received on Tumblr! Feel free to request a fandom in the comments here, and I’ll see if I have anything lying around for it, or, failing that, I’ll see if I can scribble something down.

November is just around the corner, and I'm not ready for it!

Since 2009, I've tried to write a little every day during the month of November. I'm not attempting National Novel Writing Month; I just have to write at least a hundred words of fiction every day, on any project. It's a small amount, but I don't have any active fic projects at the moment, so I don't know what to write!

Therefore, I'm turning to you guys.

Tell me a fic concept you'd like to see me write, and I'll attempt to write a few lines of it.

If you're not sure which fandoms I'm familiar with, the fandom list on my AO3 account is probably a good place to start. If you have multiple ideas, feel free to make multiple requests and I'll pick which one(s) to write.

There are a handful of things I'd personally prefer not to write - e.g. suicide, sexual content involving characters under fifteen, Teddie from Persona 4 - and I'm hopeless at smut, so you won't have much luck requesting specific sex acts; it'll just end up fading to black. If you're not sure where my boundaries lie, though, you're welcome to suggest your idea anyway; I can always just opt not to write it.

We don't have to know each other well for you to request a ficsnippet; I'm sorely in need of fic concepts for the coming month, so you'd be doing me a favour! So long as you accept that a) there's a chance I won't write your idea and b) my writing may be a bit rusty if you request something I haven't written before or haven't revisited in a while, go ahead and request whatever your heart desires.

And here's the final instalment of these posts listing my ten favourite characters, in no particular order!

For anyone who missed them, here are the previous instalments: one (Elena Fisher, Joshua Kiryu, Squall Leonhart, Light Yagami), two (Ellie of The Last of Us, James Sunderland, Jeff Winger).

Hajime Hinata, Danganronpa 2

Who is this character and why do you love them? A lot of my favourite characters are ordinary people struggling to cope with a bizarre and terrible situation, and Hajime Hinata is a great example. He's a very normal person in the midst of a colourful cast, but his relative groundedness means he interacts well with everyone else, without those interactions becoming overwhelming. He could easily have felt bland, but I don't think he does at all. Hinata has enough personality to feel real and present; he's compassionate, he's sarcastic, he's insecure but unafraid to speak his mind. He genuinely likes and cares about most of the people he's trapped with, but he's naturally struggling with the paranoia of the situation, which is a fun internal conflict. He also seems like he has a mild crush on everyone he interacts with, which is a trait that always delights me.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I ship Hinata with pretty much everyone, but particularly Komaeda, Koizumi and Kuzuryuu. Hinata and Koizumi, both strong-willed and relatively level-headed, would probably have the occasional argument, but I think they could ultimately work out well and be very cute. Kuzuryuu is short-tempered and clashes with everyone else at first, but he and Hinata build a mutual respect over the course of the game, which I think could form a strong foundation for a relationship. Hinata and Komaeda would work absolutely terribly, but that's the fun of it. Komaeda adores Hinata and expresses it in horrifying ways; Hinata, appropriately horrified, spends every second he's forced to be around Komaeda wishing he were anywhere else. It's great.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Probably Humanity's Hope, an AU inspired by The Last of Us. Hinata has to deal with zombies and Komaeda, and frankly Komaeda might be worse. Their dynamic is always a lot of fun to write; I love the way Hinata finds Komaeda simultaneously repellent and fascinating.
Are there any similar characters you love? Danganronpa protagonists tend to come from a similar mould, and I love all of them. I've also generally got a weakness for ordinary, good-hearted, slightly sarcastic teenage boys who love their friends and go through absolutely horrific experiences. Bonus points if they cry. Other examples include Sean Diaz of Life Is Strange 2 and Keiichi Maebara of Higurashi: When They Cry.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Some of the characters on my favourites list are more-or-less unique characters who won me over as individuals; some are just great examples of character types I have a particular weakness for, and Hinata falls into the latter category. He'd be slightly wounded to hear that, given that he has a lot of issues about being ordinary and not really standing out. Sorry, Hinata. You're still a standout character in my heart; you don't have to be unique for me to like you enormously. I realise that this probably isn't making you feel any better.

Patrick Jane, The Mentalist

Who is this character and why do you love them? Patrick Jane is a cheerful, playful, affable façade stretched thinly over a terrifying void. Sometimes he's brightly arranging a picnic. Sometimes he buries a man alive. Sometimes he's just being cheerfully obnoxious. Sometimes he kills someone in cold blood. He sleeps in the room where his family was murdered, under the calling card of the murderer, drawn in their blood, which he's never had cleaned off the wall. He's fucked up. I think he's fascinating.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I firmly believe that Jane is in love with his entire team - Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt - and also with Hightower, for good measure. But he'll never admit it to himself. If he accepts that he's in love with them, that also means he's forced to face the fact that Red John could hurt him by taking them away.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Compass Points, a fic exploring my conviction that Jane is in love with all of his colleagues. This fic still gets a handful of kudos every month, even five years later; I was pleased to realise there are a lot of Jane/everyone fans out there!
Are there any similar characters you love? The Ninth Doctor of Doctor Who. Externally playful and cheerful, deeply traumatised, scarily ruthless, kind of dead inside. Develops very intense attachments to specific people and is prepared to go to alarming lengths for them.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I think Patrick Jane was a more interesting character than The Mentalist was prepared to handle. I ended up dropping The Mentalist at the end of season six, when it became clear to me that the show was set on maintaining the tone 'oh, Patrick Jane, what a scamp' and I wanted 'oh, Patrick Jane, what an absolutely horrifying man'.

Yuna, Final Fantasy X

Who is this character and why do you love them? Yuna is one of the few characters on this list who isn't a complete psychological disaster, although she's on a quest to sacrifice herself for the good of the world, so she's still got a fair few issues to deal with. I'm often drawn to weakness in characters, but I really admire Yuna's strength. She's a little awkward, but she's brave; she's determined; she's prepared to fight against everything she believed in when she finds that it was founded on false principles. She wavers sometimes (which is a good thing; wavering is interesting!), but she's always prepared to grit her teeth and push past her doubt and her fear. And, below all the impossibly heavy responsibilities, she's just a teenager; she wants to have fun, she wants to spend time with her friends, she wants to live. She's been my default icon on here for fourteen years.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I like Tidus/Yuna a solid amount - I think they work well together - but I wouldn't say I actively ship them. The character I ship Yuna with most might actually be Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII; I once saw someone mention that Noel of Final Fantasy XIII-2 looked like he could be Squall and Yuna's kid, and I found the idea deeply intriguing. They aren't from the same world, of course, but I think Squall and Yuna would interact interestingly. Squall's afraid of relying on others because he thinks it's a weakness; Yuna, who travels with guardians and fights by summoning, has always viewed others as her strength.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Binding Contract, a Final Fantasy VIII/Final Fantasy X crossover in which Squall is Yuna's guardian-for-hire.
Are there any similar characters you love? Possibly Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena? They're different in demeanour, but they're both compassionate and brave and unshakeably determined; they both have a tendency to take more responsibility upon themselves than they should; they're both prepared to throw themselves away for the sake of others.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Of all the characters on this list, Yuna's the only one who didn't establish herself as my favourite the first time I experienced the canon. At first, my favourite Final Fantasy X character was Auron, but I came to appreciate Yuna more and more on later playthroughs.

And that's it! My ten favourite characters of all time, or at least the closest I've ever managed to get to a definitive list. I've enjoyed talking about them!

A couple of people have asked if they can borrow this format to talk about their own favourite characters. Borrowing this format is welcome and encouraged! I'd love to hear other people talk about characters they love.

A few times over the years, I've tried to pin down my ten favourite fictional characters and have quickly given it up as an impossible exercise. I love so many characters! How can I possibly narrow it down?

At long last, though, I've actually managed to put a list together! The key was imposing a rule on myself: characters only qualify if I've loved them for at least ten years, so I can be sure that this is a long-lasting affection and I haven't just been blinded by something new and shiny. Sorry, Jack Shephard; you might have been a contender if I'd watched Lost when it first came out.

Fun fact: only one character on the final list has never intentionally killed anyone, and half the characters on the list are outright murderers, which I'm going to define as 'have intentionally killed someone who posed no immediate danger to them'. (Possibly more than half. There's one weird borderline case.)

I'm going to post a little writeup for each of the characters on my 'favourite characters' list, probably in three parts: one post with four characters, two posts with three. Here's the first set!

I'm not posting these in order of preference (I could not possibly pin down an order of preference); the four characters in this post are just the four whose writeups I finished first, and I've listed them in alphabetical order within the post itself.

Elena Fisher, Uncharted

Who is this character and why do you love them? It's strange to think back on it now that Nate and Sully have won me over, but, back when I played the first Uncharted game, I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters. I liked Elena a reasonable amount; I disliked Sully; I was uninterested in Nate. But then Elena kicked her kidnapper out of a helicopter, and I went from 'I like you okay' to 'I think you're wonderful'. And, having won my heart, she made me like everyone else through her interactions with them. She's bold, she's adventurous, she's playful, she refuses to take any shit, and she elevates any other character she's around. She reminds me a little of my sister-in-law, actually.
Do you ship this character with anyone? Elena/Nate is one of my absolute favourite pairings of all time. When I try to think of pairings I ship, my mind will usually go to them first. They play so well off each other, they have fun with each other, and I love how much Nate admires her. I really like that the games allow Nate to show vulnerability around Elena, too.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Familiar and Strange. I enjoyed Uncharted 4, but I was hoping it'd focus more on the established characters rather than newcomer Sam. This fic envisions how Uncharted 4 might have played out if Elena had been more involved from the start.
Are there any similar characters you love? Teresa Lisbon of The Mentalist is very like Elena, I think. I was actually half-debating whether to put Lisbon or Elena on this list, but another character from The Mentalist was on the list already, and I thought it made sense to keep it to one character per canon. (Yes, I'm talking about Patrick Jane. I don't know why I'm trying to play coy. Of course I'm talking about Patrick Jane.)
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Elena poking fun at you while you play Crash Bandicoot is my favourite moment in the entire Uncharted series, and I think Naughty Dog should come out with a full-length Elena Fisher Mocks Your Videogame Skills Simulator. I can tell you right now that it would be the best game ever made.

Joshua Kiryu, The World Ends with You

Who is this character and why do you love them? Joshua Kiryu is an obnoxious little shit who causes problems on purpose. When I first met him, I hated him; I just wanted Shiki back! But Joshua was just so unapologetically and gleefully awful that somehow he ended up winning me over. He's so much fun!
Do you ship this character with anyone? I'm a big fan of Neku/Joshua in which Joshua spends the entire time driving Neku up the wall. Neku's feelings for Joshua are so complicated and interesting.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Select Player Two, in which Joshua drags Neku into another round of the Reapers' Game. It is a blast to write Joshua being as annoying as possible at all times.
Are there any similar characters you love? Like Joshua, Beatrice of Umineko: When They Cry gleefully launches herself into ensuring everyone has a terrible time. There's also Nagito Komaeda of Danganronpa 2; Komaeda isn't quite as intentionally awful as Joshua, but he definitely inspires similar 'holy shit, why are you like this and why do I have to put up with you?' feelings in the people around him.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? My current laptop is named Joshua, after Joshua Kiryu, because it's tiny and silver and pissed me off the moment I met it. It made me jump through so many hoops if I wanted to save files onto the hard drive by default instead of onto the cloud!

Squall Leonhart, Final Fantasy VIII

Who is this character and why do you love them? Squall Leonhart was the first character I ever really connected with. As a deeply socially awkward thirteen-year-old, I was shocked to discover this character whose inner thoughts were just like mine; he didn't want to hurt other people, but he didn't know how to talk to them. I felt that this game understood me, and I wasn't used to feeling understood.
Do you ship this character with anyone? Squall/Zell was the first pairing I ever wrote fanfiction for, at the age of thirteen, and I'm fond of it to this day. There are echoes of Squall/Zell in Ryuji/Joker, Yu/Yosuke and Prompto/Noctis, all of which I ship enormously. Apparently I have a weakness for pairing the quiet protagonist up with his energetic, loyal, compassionate friend who very openly admires him.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? With These Signs Upon Our Souls, a Final Fantasy VIII/Final Fantasy XIII crossover, in which the characters of Final Fantasy VIII become l'Cie. It's the longest continuous story I've ever written, and I'm proud of myself for finishing it. (It's 26,000 words, which I know isn't actually that long in the grand scheme of things, but it's long for me!)
Are there any similar characters you love? Other characters who are socially inept in a way I find relatable include Noctis Lucis Caelum of Final Fantasy XV and Mark Corrigan of Peep Show. I also love Lightning of Final Fantasy XIII; I find her brand of social ineptitude less personally relatable, but I do think she's generally very similar to Squall.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? If you were planning to erase my memories of every fictional character I'd ever loved and you were only letting me keep one, that would be a weird thing to do, but I'd keep Squall. I don't think I'd consider him my favourite character of all time, but he's definitely the character who's most important to me.

Light Yagami, Death Note

Who is this character and why do you love them? Light is a terrible kid who discovered an untraceable murder method and decided to kill off all the criminals to make the world worship him, and somehow I find everything about him enchanting. I love watching him come up with convoluted plots that screw over everyone around him, himself occasionally included. I love watching him firmly convince himself that he's totally, totally justified in the terrible things he does. I love that his ego will never let him resist a challenge or an opportunity to rub his victory in someone's face. I love the tiny hints of warmth that we occasionally catch glimpses of - his love for his family, his fondness for Ryuk - and I love that, even if that softer side exists, it's not enough to stop him from going too far; he's absolutely prepared to bury it if he has to.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I ship Light Yagami with himself, hard, in every possible variant. Light interacting with another version of himself in dreams or visions? Perfect. Light encountering an actual duplicate of himself, and the two of him attempting to seduce and murder each other, because they can't both be gods of the new world but they can't just write 'Light Yagami' in the Death Note? Magnificent. Light just masturbating while thinking about how great he is? Beautiful. I apologise for posting yet another entry about Light Yagami masturbating.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Shackles, in which Light and L are toxic soulmates. 'They're both in love with each other, but they will not hesitate to destroy each other' turned out to be a fun dynamic to work with! I'm pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastically this fic was received, too; the Death Note fandom is remarkably active, considering that the canon ended over a decade ago.
Are there any similar characters you love? It's actually hard to think of anyone like Light. Light's not the sort of character you usually see committing atrocities. He's not an outcast, he hasn't had a hard life; he's a golden boy. He's smart, he's polite, he's popular; he's used to being praised and admired. He works hard, but he knows he'd still beat everyone without really trying. And, because he's gone through life without ever truly being challenged, he assumes he can murder thousands of people and get away with it. (EDIT: Wait, Akechi! Goro Akechi from Persona 5, particularly the expanded Royal edition, is very Light in both appearance and personality.)
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? It can be tricky to talk about liking Light Yagami, because some parts of the fandom can interpret 'Light is my favourite character' as 'I think Light was right'. No! Light was wrong! Everything he does is terrible! That's why I love him so much! I keep getting his musical song 'Where Is the Justice?' stuck in my head, because it's a banger, but it doesn't feel great when I catch myself singing 'where is the justice when the guilty all go free? why don't we lock them up and throw away the key?'

One sure sign I'm getting really into a show is that I start getting up earlier in the mornings, so I can watch an episode before work. I'm getting really into Person of Interest. I've almost finished the first season; I've just watched episode twenty-one, 'Many Happy Returns'.

I love that Reese delivers every single line in a low, manly growl. It's a lot of fun trying to picture him having a mundane conversation. I don't think he's capable of saying anything in a way that doesn't sound dramatic.

I'm delighted by Reese, pretending to be an unconnected stranger, sitting next to his ex-girlfriend's husband in a bar and having a friendly chat with him. To assess him, or just to torture himself? Either way, it's terrible decision-making and I'm a big fan. (At first I was going 'why does this friendly chat feel so intense? does Reese want to bang this guy?'; I suppose I still can't necessarily rule that out.)

I always love the parts in this show where someone attacks, Reese drives them off, and the person of interest is left going 'wait, what the fuck, I thought this guy was just my driver/my client/some guy, why is he suddenly my bodyguard?'

Reese getting attached to a baby and then absolutely losing his mind trying to protect her is great.

It's nice to see the moments when Reese and Finch show they're coming to care about each other. Finch helping Reese when he's shot, Reese staying with Finch when he's drugged. (And refusing to exploit the opportunity to get information about Finch, even though he's been trying to learn more about Finch all this time.) Finch giving Reese a home for his birthday!

Am I slightly shipping Carter/Fusco? Is that what's happening here?

This show needs to stop shying away from letting Reese murder people in cold blood. It keeps going 'oh, this is John "Murders People In Cold Blood" Reese' and then going 'wait, but what if he actually didn't do the murder?' and, I'll be honest, Reese is a character who makes more sense with a couple of cold-blooded murders under his belt.

It's essentially the opposite of the Mentalist problem. Patrick Jane murdered several people in cold blood (which was fascinating!), but the show treated him like he wasn't a murderer, rather than really taking the time to delve into the consequences. Person of Interest absolutely treats John Reese like a murderer, and he's definitely a killer, but the show is strangely reluctant to have him commit outright murder.

I've had a complicated relationship with Doctor Who. I absolutely loved the Ninth Doctor's series in 2005, but the show was never really what I wanted it to be again after that, and I watched in increasing dissatisfaction for the next seven years before it finally occurred to me that I should probably just stop watching.

Even if I mainly associate Doctor Who with frustration, I did really enjoy that 2005 series, and I haven't rewatched it in a very long time; I made a brief effort in 2013 but only got through the first two episodes. It's time to revisit the Ninth Doctor's run at last! We're up to 'Father's Day', which had me in absolute floods of tears when I was sixteen, although I managed to hold it together this time around.

I was worried that the Ninth Doctor's series wouldn't hold up, that maybe I got frustrated with later Doctor Who because I was longing for some imagined golden age that never really existed. But I'm enjoying it! On the whole, I think it strikes a fairly good balance of being dark and interesting while still being suitable for kids, although there's the occasional unfortunate moment where the writers go 'what do kids like? farts, right?'

I really like the 'World War Three' scene between Mickey and Jackie while Mickey's preparing to launch a missile at Downing Street, where Rose is trapped. Jackie says, 'I could stop you, you know,' and Mickey says, 'Then do it,' and they just stare at each other for a moment. Mickey doesn't want Rose to die either. But, with the world at stake, he can't choose to spare her under his own power; he needs someone to stop him.

If this series of Doctor Who came out today, I think Doctor/Rose would be a considerably less popular pairing, or at least a more divisive one. I'm glad it came out at a time when I could happily immerse myself in that ship without fear of judgement. Look, sometimes you just have to ship the bitter, traumatised alien with the young woman who helps him see the universe through fresh eyes, regardless of centuries-wide age gaps.

The Doctor and Rose touch each other a lot more than I remembered! They're constantly holding hands or putting an arm around each other. I also didn't remember how weird and claustrophobic their relationship could be; it particularly struck me in 'The Long Game', after Cathica leaves.

Doctor: That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you and me.
Rose: Yeah.
Doctor: Good.

There's something a bit unsettling about their dynamic. It's no wonder I liked them so much. Rose/Ten never worked for me, though, and I wonder whether it's because their relationship felt cuter and clearer-cut, without the discomfort and ambiguity of her dynamic with the Ninth Doctor. (I might be misremembering Rose's interactions with the Tenth Doctor, though; it's been a while!)

The Ninth Doctor is extremely screwed up! He's so angry, constantly pushing people away, constantly dismissive of everyone who isn't Rose; he values their lives, but he rarely values their input. I still find it fascinatingly horrifying that, with the loss of Gallifrey still raw, he picks Rose up and immediately shows her the destruction of her own planet. Trying to inflict his own trauma on her, so there'll be someone who understands him.

(I wasn't sure what icon to use for this post, but, thinking about it, it's got to be Patrick Jane. He and the Ninth Doctor share a lot of qualities: they're both energetic, compelling, dismissive, prone to connecting very strongly to a select handful of people, externally cheerful and absolutely dead inside.)

What a strange, interesting series. I'm glad to be revisiting it at last.

More Psych! I've just finished the first season.

I feel a disproportionate number of the women Shawn or Gus are interested in end up being involved in murders, although I suppose between them they manage to be interested in just about every woman in this show.

I was really hoping that the culprit in the convention episode, in which George Takei appears as himself (and is the most incredible sport), would just be George Takei.

I enjoy the opening scene of 'From the Earth to the Starbucks', where Lassiter confides in Shawn at a bar and Shawn is just so uncomfortable. 'Shit, Lassie's in a really bad way; I guess I've got to be... nice? H... how? Just... compliment his looks a lot?'

Kind of shipping Lassiter/Juliet. I was pretty delighted when he tried to escape her at the speed-dating event and ended up cornered into sitting down, and then they just spent six minutes in awkward silence.

Gus, watching a sex tape featuring a man and a woman, is clearly focusing on the man ('This high-def plasma really makes a difference. I can see the beads of sweat on his neck. Look at his hair!') and then asks Shawn, 'Do you make noises like that?' I'm just saying.

I'm delighted by Shawn and Gus running in terror from the 'haunted' sorority house in 'Scary Sherry'. I really enjoy male characters being huge cowards, particularly when they tend to be cocky in non-scary situations (see: Patrick Jane).

Shawn had a sincere moment of emotion about Gus! He started saying 'I know if anything happened to Gus, I...' and couldn't handle finishing the sentence! I am increasingly invested in this relationship.

I love that Shawn and Lassiter were both rushing to rescue Juliet, and she just ended up rescuing herself. Even better: she physically extricated herself from the situation but was in an extremely unsettled psychological state and needed someone to gently take the axe away from her.

I am here for Gus being trapped and terrified in a creepy mansion. Sorry, Gus.

My heart broke slightly at Lassiter awkwardly trying to join in with his colleagues' socialising at the end of the episode and not knowing how.

'Scary Sherry' is probably my favourite episode so far. I feel it's the first time the show has really gone 'yes, this premise is ridiculous and we're having fun, but these characters are also human beings and we can dig into their feelings'. I wasn't sure whether I'd end up having emotions about Psych, but here we are!

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/510414.html

A long time ago, I posted here to say 'should I watch The Mentalist?' and half the comments said 'NO, WATCH PSYCH INSTEAD' and I went 'screw you, I'm watching The Mentalist.' One might wonder why I bothered asking the opinion of my flist if I was just going to ignore it.

I don't regret my decision to watch The Mentalist at all, but all the enthusiastic recommendations for Psych stuck in my mind, so I'm checking it out at last. Only took me a decade.

Riona: I'm not sure about Shawn. I think he's a bit too much of an arsehole for me.
Rei: He acts exactly like Patrick Jane. You love Patrick Jane.
Riona: Maybe I just don't like Shawn because he's not traumatised enough.

I've heard the character dynamics of Psych compared to Scrubs, and it was slightly weird to go in with the set of expectations that that creates. I wanted Shawn and Gus to love each other as much as JD and Turk do, and of course I was inevitably to be disappointed, because nobody has ever loved anyone as much as JD and Turk love each other.

'Turk, we're not married.'
'Dude, we're a little married.'
'I know. I love it.'

(There's a late Scrubs episode where JD says 'I love you more than Turk' to Elliot and I yelled 'NO YOU FUCKING DON'T' at the screen. While I do enjoy the implication that 'I love you more than Turk' is the most romantic thing JD could possibly say, that was absolutely, one hundred percent a lie. No question about it. I defy anyone to watch Scrubs and try to claim it was true.)

Given the JD-and-Turk comparisons I'd heard, it was a bit of a surprise that Gus plays the longsuffering straight man to Shawn's wackiness, whereas JD and Turk are both ridiculous and cheerfully enable each other in their ridiculousness (and JD would never delight in Turk's suffering the way Shawn does in Gus's). I am sort of shipping Shawn with poor longsuffering Gus, though.

Shawn and Lassiter's dynamic is also very different to JD and Dr Cox's. Lassiter genuinely seems to dislike Shawn; JD is important to Dr Cox, although Dr Cox would never admit it. Shawn enjoys pushing Lassiter's buttons; meanwhile, JD adores Dr Cox, craves his approval and pushes his buttons without intent, because Dr Cox is a man made entirely of buttons.

A cat features prominently in the fifth episode of Psych, and Zuko watched the episode in fascination for twenty solid minutes. Then the episode froze and he wandered off while I was restarting it, and I genuinely felt bad. He'd been enjoying the episode so much, and now he wasn't going to find out how it ended! Riona, Zuko is a kitten and he's not that invested in following procedural plots.

To be honest, I'm disappointed that the episode didn't end with Shawn deciding to keep the cat. I'm enjoying the show so far, but it was improved immeasurably by Shawn carrying a cat into all the crime scenes.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/510009.html

drawsaurus tagged me on Tumblr for a meme:

List your Top 5 Canon and Top 5 Non-Canon OTPs.

As the below was originally written for an audience that doesn’t read my Dreamwidth, it might occasionally restate things I’ve said in previous entries.

This is tough, actually! I ship pretty much everything on a low level; it’s hard to pin down the ships I have more intense feelings about.

CANON:

Nathan Drake/Elena Fisher (Uncharted)

These guys are so cute! They balance each other so well; they have such good chemistry! What a great adventure duo. When I saw I’d been tagged to do this meme, Nate/Elena was the first pairing that came to mind.

I love that Nate and Elena have fun together and they make fun of each other, but they also have moments when they’re vulnerable with each other. In particular, I love that Nate, the big action hero protagonist, is allowed to be vulnerable with Elena, and not just the other way around; Uncharted 3 is great for this.

The sequence in Uncharted 4 where Elena just mocks Nate’s videogame skills is my favourite part of the entire series. I would buy a full Elena Fisher Mocks You While You Play Videogames simulator in a heartbeat.

Jeff Winger/Annie Edison (Community)

The episode ‘Debate 109’ is the fastest I’ve ever gone from ‘I’ve never thought about this pairing’ to ‘I ship this with every fibre of my being’. Jeff Winger and Annie Edison have, by far, the most ridiculous chemistry I’ve ever seen in fiction. It’s absolutely absurd. He’s almost twice her age and I just can’t care!

I was not expecting them to kiss for real in the first-season finale, and I flipped out when it happened.

Mukuro Ikusaba/Makoto Naegi (Danganronpa)

THERE ARE CANONICAL IMPLICATIONS THAT SHE HAS A CRUSH ON HIM; I’M COUNTING THIS FOR THE CANON SECTION.

Danganronpa IF gave me a lot of feelings about Ikusaba/Naegi. I’ve got a huge weakness for redemption storylines, and Ikusaba sort of breaks my heart as a character who has the potential to be redeemed but never had the chance. I also tend to like pairing up cynics with the idealists who make them a little less cynical (other ships I have that fall into this pattern: Jeff/Annie, Sora/Riku, Satoshi/Daisuke, the Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler), and Ikusaba/Naegi is a rare example of that dynamic with a female cynic.

Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane (The 100)

In the early episodes of The 100, I got into the habit of referring to Kane as ‘Councillor Dickface’. I was very confused, during the second series, to realise that Councillor Dickface had at some point become my favourite character.

A lot of the canonical pairings on The 100 follow the formula ‘they have a couple of scenes together with some contrived furtive glances and then they make out’, so Kane/Abby, where they had loads of scenes together and loads of chemistry and persistently didn’t make out, really stood out to me. Taking the time to build the dynamic up made a huge difference. I had such intense feelings when they finally kissed.

One of my favourite parts of the buildup: Abby kissed Kane just by the mouth! And I love kisses by the mouth; they create such a strange tension. They’re halfway between a kiss on the cheek and a kiss on the lips: too intimate to be considered normal, not quite intimate enough to be unambiguously romantic. I rewound to watch it seven times.

Chloe Price/Rachel Amber (Life Is Strange: Before the Storm)

One aspect of Life Is Strange I really love is its portrayal of very intense, slightly unhealthy relationships between psychologically damaged teenage girls. There’s genuine love between Chloe and Rachel, but there’s also manipulation, and things can get a little dark sometimes, a little frightening. Sometimes there are beautiful moments: sharing earbuds on a train and watching the scenery pass by, a kiss on an empty street at night. Sometimes Rachel drags you out of school while concealing her real intentions and ends up starting a forest fire while you watch in helpless alarm.

I love that the Chloe/Rachel pairing isn’t overly idealised or included in the game to titillate; they’re humans, sharing intense experiences, and it’s complicated and beautiful and painful and interesting. Chloe/Max is also great, but Chloe and Rachel make this list because their chemistry is slightly stronger in my eyes.

NON-CANON:

Mike Munroe/Sam Giddings (Until Dawn)

Do I ship these two just because they look like Nate and Elena? I’ll be honest: it’s probably a factor. I was so thrilled when the two of them met back up after their horrible experiences, and suddenly they weren’t alone in this terrifying situation any more. I love that they’re clearly not close friends when the game starts – they just happen to move in the same circles – but they bond so intensely and become such a strong team over the course of this terrible night.

If both Sam and Mike survive, the game ends on a shot of Mike clutching Sam’s arm like it’s the only thing keeping him anchored to the world, and I can’t get over it. It’s also possible for Mike to sacrifice himself to save Sam in the last few minutes of the game; he knows full well he’s going to die, but she’ll die if he doesn’t do anything, and he can’t let that happen.

I have a lot of feelings about these two, and I’ve always been sort of amazed they’re not a more popular pairing.

Mark Corrigan/Jeremy Usbourne (Peep Show)

I shouldn’t have actual feelings about these awful people, but somehow I do. These terrible, terrible men who incessantly ruin each other’s lives. They’ll never escape each other. They sort of hate each other, but they wouldn’t be able to survive apart. It’s the bond of knowing that someone else knows what an absolute mess of a person you are, knows all the worst aspects of you, and yet is somehow still willing to associate with you.

Patrick Jane/the entire CBI team (The Mentalist)

This may not technically be a pairing, but I’m listing it anyway. Jane is so casually flirty and tactile and intimate that I’m convinced he’s in love with everyone he works closely with: Lisbon, Van Pelt, Cho, Rigsby. (I love the episode where he buys all of them ludicrously expensive presents out of his blackjack winnings.) I also feel he’s in love with Hightower; it’s a shame she couldn’t be the boss for longer!

I really wanted to put this in the ‘canon’ section.

Noctis Lucis Caelum/Prompto Argentum (Final Fantasy XV)

I’ll happily ship all the FFXV boys with each other, but I’ve got a particular weakness for Noct/Prompto. Prompto falls intensely in love with anyone who’s even vaguely nice to him! There’s all the ‘I’m a commoner; he’s the prince’ insecurity! They’re both kind of useless with their emotions! Plus their interactions are just really, really cute.

Hajime Hinata/Nagito Komaeda (Danganronpa 2)

If I say I ship two characters, it could mean either ‘I genuinely think these characters would work together’ or ‘I think these characters would be a fascinating disaster, and I want to watch it all burn’. Hinata/Komaeda definitely falls into the ‘fascinating disaster’ category. I love that Komaeda adores Hinata (and all their classmates) and expresses that adoration by manipulating people into murder; he just wants to help everyone achieve their full potential! I love that Hinata is simultaneously repelled by Komaeda and sort of fascinated by him. Trying to keep Komaeda at arm’s length, trying not to think too much about him, never entirely succeeding.

(I’ve also got a soft spot for Hinata/Koizumi and Hinata/Kuzuryuu, which are slightly more functional.)

Honourable mention to Shay Cormac/Aveline de Grandpré (Assassin’s Creed Rogue/Assassin’s Creed Unity), which I considered, because I do ship it a lot, but decided against because the characters, er, aren’t from the same game and never meet in canon. I wrote a huge Sense8 AU for Assassin’s Creed once and accidentally landed myself with this stupid nonexistent pairing.

And I just remembered Arthur/Merlin! I need to stop thinking about ships, because I’m just going to come up with an endless number I regret not including.

If you're reading this and think it might be fun, I encourage you to steal this meme for your own journal! I'd love to see you talk about your ships.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/507365.html

At the time, the end of the third season of The Mentalist was by far the coolest moment I've ever seen in television. I'm still a little sad that it retroactively became less cool.

Wainwright never really made an impression on me when I first watched The Mentalist; I thought he was dull. On this rewatch, though, he's made me take notice in a handful of ways:

- I actually agree with Wainwright in his first episode, 'Ring Around the Rosie'. Jane's going, 'I'm pretty sure this guy over here is a potential mass shooter, let's follow him around until he tries to shoot people and then we can arrest him,' and Wainwright's response, both sensible and compassionate, is 'if we think he's going to commit a crime but he hasn't done it yet, maybe we could get him counselling in the hope of averting the attempt in the first place?'

- Wainwright going 'so hey you're a clinical psychopath' and Jane going 'well, that would explain a lot' is pretty great.

- According to the subtitles on the DVD, his name is spelt Wainright. What???? The entire fandom seems to ignore this and call him 'Wainwright', as far as I can tell (his tag's even spelt 'Wainwright' on AO3), and I'm inclined to do the same.

Spoiler blackout for the fourth-season finale 'The Crimson Hat'; highlight to read: - In trying to Google information about the spelling of his name, I stumbled across the fact that Wainwright is killed at the end of season four. What?????? I have literally no recollection of this; in my memory, Wainwright remained the unit's boss for the rest of the CBI era. Wainwright died less than a season after he was introduced and I forgot about it? Forgive me, Wainwright; I really must have been bored by you. It's probably just because I resented you for not being Hightower.

I've just realised I haven't posted my Offspring facts here! (Apologies to those of you who've seen these already.)

I know exactly two facts about The Offspring, and they are both incredible.

- The Offspring's lead singer, Dexter Holland, has a PhD in molecular biology; he wrote a 175-page dissertation on the molecular dynamics of HIV. (source)

- At his medical malpractice trial, Dr James Lilja, former Offspring drummer, gave CPR to a prospective juror who went into cardiac arrest. The judge had to declare a mistrial, because there was a chance the rest of the jury would be biased in favour of Lilja after, you know, seeing him save someone's life. (source)

This is the band with a music video in which molecular biologist Dr Dexter Holland drifts gently down on a hang glider, in tranquil silence, and then just yells MY FRIEND'S GOT A GIRLFRIEND AND HE HATES THAT BITCH. I never want to look up anything about the rest of the band members, because I'll be so disappointed if they're not all doctors.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/465583.html

Oh, hey, The Mentalist now qualifies as one of my major fandoms by my 'at least ten thousand words across at least three fics' rule! I suppose I should give it a 'my fandom history' writeup.

The Mentalist

I got into The Mentalist at the age of twenty-one, as a direct result of being into Derren Brown. All I really knew about it was 'a Derren Brown ripoff solves crimes with the actress who plays Veronica in Prison Break'. I posted an entry going 'hey, should I watch The Mentalist?' and all the comments went 'NO, WATCH PSYCH INSTEAD' and I went 'well, I've got the pilot of The Mentalist right here, I'll just watch a couple of minutes.'

I fell in love instantly. I was fascinated from the moment Jane wandered into a crime scene to make himself a sandwich. It's easily the fastest a television series has ever captured my attention. And, although I could definitely see the Derren Brown inspiration in Jane, I was surprised by how quickly I started to love him on his own merits. (And demerits.)

The Mentalist never entirely went in the direction I wanted it to - it had some fascinatingly dark ideas it never really followed through on, and I dropped it at the end of season six when I realised it was probably never going to explore consequences in the way I hoped for - but it did do some really interesting things, and I love the characters so dearly. Both Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon are amongst my all-time top ten fictional characters; Jane might actually be my all-time favourite character, bar none.

Favourite character: No secrets here; it's Patrick Jane, the smug, charming, cowardly, petty, childish, playful, loving, guilt-ridden, horrifying, fucked-up moral disaster of a human being. Poor Teresa Lisbon would have been my favourite character in any other show, because I love her; she just has the misfortune to share screen space with my possible favourite character of all time.
Favourite pairing: 'Patrick Jane/the entire Serious Crimes unit plus Hightower in some weird asexual denial-ridden unspoken arrangement' is not technically a pairing, but I don't care; it's my answer. I wish more people wrote fanfiction for it, although I realise it's a fairly specific desire. I'm very pleased that I've been writing so much on the theme lately.
Number of words written: 15,636.

Snippet: The CBI team have a picnic, to make up for the TERRIBLE EPISODE where Jane goes 'let's have a picnic!' and they NEVER GET TO HAVE THEIR PICNIC because there's a murder. I always sort of wanted to expand this and post it properly, but I suppose there's only so much you can do with the concept 'everyone has a nice picnic'.

( The Mentalist unfinished snippet. Team picnic, 2009. )

The other unfinished Mentalist fics on my computer: the Silent Hill crossover, which I've already posted as my Silent Hill unfinished snippet, and the Final Fantasy XIII crossover where Jane's family turn into monsters and he just keeps them locked up in his house. It's a concept I like, but there's no market for a Mentalist/Final Fantasy XIII crossover, alas. FFXIII has such interesting ideas, but crossovers with it are so inaccessible; there's so much jargon involved (l'Cie, fal'Cie, Cie'th, Focus...). Actually, might as well post what little I have of that here as well.

( The Mentalist unfinished snippet. The Mentalist/FFXIII, 2012. )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/465042.html

'I really need to write a Hightower instalment for my Jane/everyone fic,' I said in my entry two hours ago. I didn't write this entire thing in two hours, but apparently I gave myself the kick I needed to finish it!

Previous Compass Points instalments: Point Five (Van Pelt), Point Two (Lisbon), Point Four (Rigsby), Point Three (Cho).

'Riona,' you say, frowning, 'what's the sixth compass point? Point One is the centre. There's North, South, East and West; that's four more. What's Point Six supposed to be?'

That's an extremely good point and I'm going to need you to shut up.

Title: Point Six
Fandom: The Mentalist
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jane/the entire team, but mainly Jane/Hightower in this instalment
Wordcount: 1,800
Summary: Hightower knew she was letting herself in for trouble when she took on this assignment.

( Point Six )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/464502.html

Some points I've enjoyed a lot in this rewatch of The Mentalist (I'm nearing the end of the third season):

- Jane underlining his refusal to pay a perfectly legitimate speeding ticket by crumpling it up and eating it.

- Jane always, always says 'thank you' in response to polite gestures, just as people do in real life. It makes me realise how rarely we see that small, everyday politeness in television.

- Jane's cowardice has always been one of my favourite traits of his. What a rare quality in a lead character! If he's threatened, he'll either become very submissive or run away and hide; he's absolutely not prepared to stand his ground if there's a risk of physical harm. It's sort of hilarious when he switches in an instant from 'oh no, dangerous man, hide hide hide' to 'ha, my colleagues have captured the dangerous man, now I can safely emerge and taunt him.'

- Everything about the twisted relationship Jane has with Red John. The show's actually more explicit than I remembered about the pseudo-romantic component: 'It sounds like he's jealous, Patrick. It sounds like he wants to take away everything and everyone that you care about. It's a form of love, you know?' And there's that 'happy anniversary' card Red John leaves Jane in a later episode, isn't there? I thought at first that Jane's fixation was one-sided, but Red John seems to return his terrible feelings. Well, their feelings aren't exactly the same - it's 'you're my entire purpose in life and I'm going to kill you' on one side and 'you're fascinating and I'm going to see what I can shape you into' on the other - but on both sides those feelings are dark and obsessive and fascinating.

- It's an interesting detail that, after the second-season finale, in which Red John strokes Jane's shoulder while Jane is bound to a chair ~~and it's hot~~, Jane starts taking petty revenge on anyone who touches him unexpectedly. (Here's a strange and wonderful fact I was not previously aware of: Simon Baker voices Red John in that second-season scene.) I'm glad Jane still has no qualms about touching other people himself; his casual physicality is a quality I've always loved about him (and half the reason I 'ship him so much with all of his colleagues). Just kiss your boss's boss on the cheek; that's normal. Hug her to hide from a suspect and then leave your arm draped around her shoulder for way too long. It's not like she's going through a divorce and this is really inappropriate or anything.

Hightower is by far the best agent-in-charge in The Mentalist, and I'm really sad the show continued to cycle through characters for that role rather than sticking with her permanently. Still, at least she gets an interesting storyline. I love the scene in 'Red Queen' where Jane holds her at gunpoint. You're his friend and his colleague, Hightower, but he is absolutely going to abduct you if there's any chance you can lead him to Red John.

(There are a couple of scenes in The Mentalist where I go 'wait, why is Jane acting like that, this doesn't fit with my understanding of his character' and then I realise there's a Red John connection and it all falls horribly, perfectly into place. I love how Jane switches from charming and playful to flat-out terrifying whenever Red John is involved.)

'Red Gold', where Hightower goes out into the field to work a case with Jane, is great. I wish we could have had more episodes like that. She and Jane have so much chemistry.

I really need to write a Hightower instalment for my Jane/everyone fic.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/464145.html

This is a sort of companion piece to Fighting the Tide; I couldn't decide whether I wanted to write about Jane being psychic or Lisbon being psychic, so in the end I wrote both! (And, yes, both fics took me six years to finish.)

Title: Synchronised Drowning
Fandom: The Mentalist
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,700
Summary: Lisbon develops psychic powers. Jane's mind isn't a good place to be.

( Synchronised Drowning )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/464042.html

And here's Cho! Previous Compass Points instalments: Point Five (Van Pelt), Point Two (Lisbon), Point Four (Rigsby).

Title: Point Three
Fandom: The Mentalist
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jane/the entire team
Wordcount: 1,700
Summary: Cho likes to be direct. Jane doesn't.

( Point Three )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/463164.html

I'm so happy to be writing more Jane/everyone fanfiction. The best ship.

Here's the next instalment in what I'm now calling the Compass Points series. Other instalments: Point Five (Van Pelt), Point Two (Lisbon). Chronologically, Point Two precedes Point Five, but Point Five was written to be read first, just to make things confusing. This follows Point Five in the chronology, just to make things even more confusing, if you thought you could rely on the numbers in the titles.

(I was really expecting I'd write the Cho instalment before the Rigsby one! I couldn't work out which angle to take with the Rigsby instalment, and then it suddenly hit me.)

Title: Point Four
Fandom: The Mentalist
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Jane/the entire team, Rigsby/Van Pelt
Wordcount: 1,900
Summary: Van Pelt has some disconcerting news for Rigsby.

( Point Four )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/463077.html

I've been reading my old reaction posts during this Mentalist rewatch, and I'm surprised to find I mention 'shipping Rigsby/Van Pelt in the first season! I don't have any recollection of being invested in it; it actually frustrates me a little, because I find it the least interesting aspect of Van Pelt's character. Although I suppose her going 'look, Rigsby, I like you, but we can't be together because there are rules against fraternisation and I will one hundred percent choose my job over you every time' is pretty interesting. Maybe I lost all interest when they got together in canon; it wouldn't be the only time that's happened (see also Will/Emma in Glee, which I dropped the absolute second they kissed).

I love the shot in the opening of 'Miss Red' where Lisbon and Jane walk up the boat side by side, him on the dock, her on the deck, and silently reach the same conclusion together. On different levels physically, but absolutely on the same level in their thoughts.

I've now finished the first season in this rewatch! Things I love about 'Red John's Footsteps':

- 'Please understand something. I have a very deep personal interest in this case. I'll do whatever it takes. I will have you framed for murder; I will torture you; I will kill you myself if I have to. Whatever it takes.'

- Jane sitting in that chair, listening to Rosalind play Bach's 'Prelude', in the knowledge that it's exactly what his family's killer used to do. Connecting with Red John across time by putting himself in the same moment. There's such a strange intimacy between Jane and Red John. They respect each other; they admire each other; they want to get under each other's skin, into each other's heads. Always locked in this close, slow dance, knowing that it ends with whoever's leading breaking his partner's neck.

- Lisbon of Jane: 'If he does anything wrong, if he jaywalks, shoot him.'

- Jane's heavy breathing when he's investigating the farmhouse, knowing he's close to Red John.

- 'What if Hardy had killed you right here?' 'Then he would have led you straight to Red John.' 'You'd be dead.' 'But you would have Red John.'

- And then, when he loathes guns, when he's firmly established that he'd throw away his own life for the sake of the case, Jane killing their best lead to save Lisbon. If you'd asked him beforehand whether he would cut off a potential line to Red John to save Lisbon's life, he'd probably have said no, but it was a spur-of-the-moment decision and he values Lisbon more than he realises. I love him standing frozen for a few seconds and then throwing the shotgun away as if it's bitten him.

The Red John episodes can be a bit frustrating because you go 'yes, well, I know very well by the end of this we won't actually have caught Red John,' but I do love what a terrifying mess Jane tends to be in them. The moment he recognises Red John's style of killing, everything about him changes; he's focused and determined and prepared to do whatever it takes, no matter how immoral, no matter how horrifying. Everything that makes him human just falls away.

Strange that I've never written fanfiction exploring that dark side of Jane, come to think of it. I don't really have any ideas. Maybe Jane and Lisbon go on a charming, playful murder roadtrip together, torturing suspects in an effort to reach Red John, and at some point Lisbon looks back on what she's been drawn into and goes 'holy shit, what am I doing? How did I end up here?'

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/462824.html

I can't believe I finally got around to writing the prequel to Point Five! I conceived of this fic eight years ago. (Probably not canon-compliant, given that I started writing it before 'Red Dawn'.)

Title: Point Two
Fandom: The Mentalist
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jane/the entire team
Wordcount: 1,700
Summary: Lisbon's starting to suspect that Jane might be in love with someone in the team. Or possibly everyone in the team.

( Point Two )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/462462.html

More of The Mentalist! I started this rewatch four days ago. I watched one episode on the first day, two on the second, three on the third, four today. This is not sustainable. I can't just keep increasing my watching pace; I've got things to do!

(I'm glad I rediscovered it now, though. I'm preparing to move house, which is stressful, and it turns out that The Mentalist really calms me down.)

There's so much that's great in 'Flame Red'. It's the first episode in which it really becomes clear that Jane isn't just 'playful exterior, tormented beneath'; he's 'playful exterior, tormented beneath, genuinely horrifying below that'. I love Jane going 'look, I thought this went without saying, but you know I'm absolutely going to murder Red John when I catch him, right?' and Lisbon going 'uh, just so you know, I'll arrest you.' I love Jane cheerfully extorting a confession by threatening to burn a man alive.

Also, this isn't to do with how terrifying Jane is, but this exchange was pretty great:

Rigsby: Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Cho: No.
Rigsby: How do you know you’re not?
Cho: I was thinking how I wish I could go back in time and have sex with my eighth-grade history teacher, Miss Huffaker. Is that what you were thinking?
Rigsby: No.

All I really remembered about the episode 'Red Brick and Ivy' was that the writer was too eager to go 'hey, that was a joke just then! did you get the joke?' after every joke and it frustrated me. That still holds true, but this time around I was struck by the dynamic between Jane and Sophie Miller, his former psychiatrist. I wouldn't say I 'ship it, but Jane kissing her at the end of the episode really intrigues me.

I think what I love is the fact that he kisses her right by her mouth. A kiss on the cheek, a kiss on the mouth: these are gestures with clear meaning attached to them. What does a kiss by the mouth mean, if it's with someone you're not already in a romantic relationship with? Too intimate to be entirely normal, not quite intimate enough to be unambiguously romantic. It hovers in this weird, awkward, ambiguous space and I love it.

The flashback to Jane thanking her for helping him when he's leaving the hospital is also intriguingly weird. They're standing waaaay too close to be normal, but there's no sense of movement to suggest that they're pulling apart after a hug. So it kind of looks like they've just kissed, but presumably they haven't, unless Dr Miller is a fantastically unprofessional psychiatrist.

I'm so intrigued by weird almost-intimacy, and Patrick Jane is a great character for it, because he's very tactile and inclined to be overfamiliar and cares very intensely about the people he's close to, but he also has enormous 'if I fall in love with someone I'm betraying my wife and also they might get murdered' barriers to making actual romantic gestures.

He's so screwed up. It's so good. I've said before that Patrick Jane is a candidate for my all-time favourite fictional character, and that still absolutely holds true.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/462114.html

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Riona

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Entries tagged with the mentalist

I'm Tying Him To The Bed.

There Are Over 150 Files In My Unfinished Fanfiction Folders.

Are You Gonna Do It Or What?

Ten Favourite Characters, Part Three.

Ten Favourite Characters, Part One.

I May Be A Danger To Myself And Others.

You're A Very Violent Young Woman.

Heard About Pluto. That's Messed Up, Right?

Act Natural.

I'm Always Coming Out Of Someone's Television Emotionally.

Show Me How To Lie.

But There's Tacos There.

Fanfiction: Point Six (The Mentalist, Jane/everyone)

He Has A Gun And He Pointed It At Me. He's Very Rude.

Fanfiction: Synchronised Drowning (The Mentalist)

Fanfiction: Point Three (The Mentalist, Jane/everyone)

Fanfiction: Point Four (The Mentalist, Jane/everyone)

The Slow Fall.

Fanfiction: Point Two (The Mentalist, Jane/everyone)

Not To Boast, But I Am Quite A Well-Known Horrible Tragedy.

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