leftinbasketforfbi | 3rd Study Done Β Video/Action for Mio Ψ

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3rd Study Done Β Video/Action for Mio Ψ

[He doesn't like going on the network. Like, he really doesn't like going on the network. Unfortunately, he has to move past it right now because SCIENCE and also his munna is sick.

So when the feed starts, Reid (who is wearing HUGE glasses today) is sitting with his back against a tree, taking a break from all the traveling with Mio. Yang the Absol is curled up next to Reid's leg, staring at the communicator. In Reid's arms is the most sad-looking munna ever, and its face looked a little green. It's a sick, sad munna.]

Um, hi?

[Reid cradles Flora the munna carefully, readjusting the glasses on his nose.] Right. Uh, for those of you who don't know, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid. Not that--you don't have to call me that. Spencer or Reid will work fine.

[As you can probably tell, Reid is not good at talking to lots of strangers.]

It's come to my attention that no one's ever formally gathered data about arrivals and departures from this place, and in hopes of finding a pattern that could lead us to being able to better predict who might come and go, I put together a survey. The more people who contribute, the more useful the results will be, so any spare moment you could use to fill it out would be appreciated.

[He switches to text briefly to provide a link to the survey.]

This, um... isn't exactly my realm of expertise? That is, my specialty is largely theoretical and practical applications of knowledge, not setting up studies, and without any kind of possible beta testing, this study isn't exactly what I would call formal. So really, any suggestions on how to improve it or any help from people experienced with correlational studies would be helpful.

On a more personal note...

[He glances down, his glasses hiding his eyes, and he shifts so the munna is more visible on the screen. The poor thing looks utterly pathetic--she's not even hovering.]

Flora has been very sick since she hatched. Does anyone know what might be wrong with her?

[She'll tell you what's wrong with her. She's living off a steady diet of nothing but sleep terrors and nightmares. Reid, you really should see someone about that.]

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[Man, Reid, your dex is blowing up, isn't it?] Your survey idea must be pretty popular.

[She wonders if she has to fill out the survey too--or, at least, if she should even though she's traveling with him--but there are more important matters at hand]

How's Flora? Did you get anything that'd help?

[Yes. Yes, it is. He doesn't know why this keeps happening.] Um, I guess so. Maybe people are just excited for the possibility of answers?

[Filling it out would be helpful, yeah. He doesn't know everything about you.]

Well, I found out what the problem is. [He purses his lips, looking down at the munna and avoiding looking at Mio.] Turns out munnas eat people's dreams.

[Mio stops short at the news, feeling a crushing guilt]

Eats... dreams? [Good lord no wonder the poor thing is sick. She doesn't know if Flora's been snacking on her nightmares too, but even with just Reid alone it's no wonder the thing's sick as a dog.]

I-is she going to be okay? What are we supposed to do?

I... I'm not totally sure. [He runs a hand through his hair. He really, really doesn't like acknowledging the side effects of all the various traumas he's suffered, but this... it's never directly affected another person like this before.] Apparently, she tried eating all of them so I wouldn't remember what they were and I could sleep easier. She might have been doing the same for you--have you been forgetting dreams more than usual?

[He rests a hand on the unhappy munna's back, still frowning.] I convinced her to stop trying to eat them, but I think it'd be a good idea to go to the PokeCenter in Violet to see what alternatives there are. Maybe she can eat animal dreams instead of human ones.

[She chews on her bottom lip, ripping lightly at the skin in anxiety.] I think so. A few times, lately...

[She can only imagine the poor munna having to eat her dreams, the memories of her hands around her neck, or the spirits--

Mio shivers and crouches down, wrapping her arms around her knees.] ...I'm really sorry. [It's not all Mio's fault, she knows that, but she still feels responsible] We can go to the Center the second we get into town. I can get us a place to stay while you take care of her.

Don't be sorry. I should have checked if munnas had special care needs before I took the egg. It's not your fault. [In a way, he means that more to say that it's not her fault she has nightmares. It's not her fault that she's been hurt.]

If... yeah, that sounds like a plan. You can come meet me in the Center afterwards? I don't know if this would take a while.

[He gives a soft, nervous laugh, starting to rub little circles into the base of Flora's 'neck'.] Hard to believe that most people take care of six of these guys at once.

[She would argue with him on that, that it's her fault and no pretty words would make it otherwise.

Him asking her to find him again afterwards makes her feel better, and as Yami nudges her she sits back on the ground, petting the jewels on her pokemon's back.] Okay. I'll do that then.

I guess it takes some practice, and not all of them need special care. At least, I hope not. [And not many people probably have the amount of trauma they have, but Mio doesn't say that.] But it's important to keep a balanced and varied team.

[She sounds more like she's reciting a line from a book though and there's a hint of a smile] ...That's what I was told, anyhow.

[Seeing that ghost of a smile makes him smile back instinctively. He doesn't say it often, but he likes smiles--he doesn't get to see them often enough in his job. He had never realized how true that was, though, until he met Mio.]

That's what I've read, too. I guess there's something to it, then. [Reid gives a soft laugh, continuing to stroke Flora.] I'm still getting around to considering all this as strategy. It feels more personal than that, you know?

[Mio turns her head to watch Yami thoughtfully.] Yeah, I guess you're right. But I want to win too, so I don't want pokemon that aren't going to be helpful. [There's a pause.]

..Does that make me sound cold or something? [She looks back to Reid, expression worried]

What? No, of course it doesn't. You don't have to have an emotional connection to animals you've never met.

[Reid will go with her to catch Pokemon. Thinking strategically, he knows that he should get some more too.]

[A nod of confirmation, and a little relief. She reaches out to gather Yami onto her lap, stroking at his jewels.] I never had a pet before. We were always moving, so I never got the chance. There were stray cats in the village sometimes, but it wasn't the same.

Do you have any pets, Spencer? [Might as well take the time to satisfy some of her curiosities about him]

A pet? [He gives a soft, somewhat nervous laugh, looking down at Flora and Yang.] N-no, never. Animals don't like me much. Or, at least, they don't like me much back home. I've never had a pet before, either.

[Reid doesn't look like the type of person who'd deal well with normal pets nayhow, though he looked to be getting alone well enough with his pokemon. Mio looks to his hands briefly; she hasn't seen any indication, but...]

Are you married, or have a girlfriend or something?

[Oh, whoa, unexpected question.

His eyebrows go up and he gives a small nervous laugh, but that's the only arguably negative response he has to the question. He shows her his hand, a small sardonic smile on his face.] No, no. I have no significant other to speak of. I'm sort of married to my job instead.

[He rests his hand on Flora again.] Am I right to say that you're single too? [He's curious, to be honest. He highly doubts she has any kind of boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse, but as he's come to realize, some worlds are very different from his own and he doesn't necessarily know everything about them.]

The FBI, right? Behavioral... thing. [She's heard him say it to others, though she didn't think to ask much about it herself.

At his own question her face turns bright red and she quickly shakes her head] N-no! No, I mean-- Yes, I'm single. I'm really not interested; I don't like people.

[Mio pauses, then shakes her head again, slower this time] ...No, I guess that's not right. It's more... I don't know how to talk to people, or connect to them.

The Behavioral Analysis Unit in the FBI, yeah. I, uh, track down dangerous criminals by getting into their minds and understanding how they work. [...The nightmares might have something to do with that.

[Reid shifts awkwardly, averting his eyes.] Well... I was sort of like that too when I was fifteen. It gets a little better with experience.

[Mio looks to him then, not voicing it but there's an obvious, 'ah, so that's why you have those dreams' sort of expression. She understands, though, so she can't really say anything.

Track down dangerous criminals. Like murderers, she bets.

Like--]

All adults say that, though. [Mio pauses, then changes the subject]

What about your family? What are they like?

[Serial killers. Serial rapists. Cannibals. Child abductors. Terrorists. Organized crime. Reid deals with the worst kinds of people.] Not all adults were there, though.

[At the question about his family, he doesn't think of his biological family. He thinks of the BAU.] Kind of strange? But in a good way. I could spend forever talking about them. I have six teammates, and two of them have children, one of which is my godson. [He smiles. It's a big, real smile. Nope, it doesn't occur to him that Mio was probably talking about biological family. Besides, he only considers his mother as real honest biological family, and he doesn't like talking about her.] His name is Henry. He's going to be three soon.

['Teammates' throws her off a little and she has to quickly review her question. She had asked about family, right? She knows she did, so why-

It takes until Reid mentions Henry for it to click, that he's talking about the group he considers his family, even if they aren't blood related. It's nice to see him looking so happy and calm, but Mio can't help a stirring of jealousy.]

They sound really nice. [She means it sincerely, squelching the jealousy immediately.] You mentioned one of them I think, when you first arrived. His name started with an M, I think?

[A pause and she adds, a little hesitantly since he hadn't answer it correctly the first time and she's sure there's a reason for that] What about your parents?

[He does look happy and calm. More than he has for a while.

He starts to rub his knee half-consciously. He has to do that a lot during their breaks--while he can walk fine, he did get shot in the knee some time ago, and all this travel in the humidity can get uncomfortable.]

Yeah, Morgan. He's a pretty protective guy, but... [Reid chuckles to himself, smiling fondly.] Well, sometimes I think kicking down doors is his favorite part of the job. He's much more, you know, physical than I am. [And he's not built like a pipecleaner with eyes, so yeah.] We got into a prank war before I came here, so I thought this was an escalation at first.

[His smile disappears when she mentions his parents, though he tries to hide it. He's really, really bad at hiding his expressions. He averts his eyes again and starts running a hand through Yang's fur.] Well... well, my mom's really the only one I talk to. She's pretty sick, so I don't get a chance to much. My dad's not in the picture. [Although in recent years, William Reid has been tentatively trying to reconnect with his son. Reid isn't totally sure how he feels about that.] I didn't have any brothers or sisters, either. So really, it's sort of me, my team, and my mother when I can visit.

It'd have to take a lot of work for him to have made all that up. [An impressive amount of work, really.] Who was winning?

[She almost apologizes when she sees the smile disappear; given her own reluctance to speak of her family she knows what it's like to not want to talk about them. But he answers her question anyway and almost smiles. That sounds sort of familiar.

She already mentioned it vaguely in her survey, but Mio figures she should say more since he did] I'm the same. My mom's gotten really sick... She's in the hospital now. My uncle took in me and my sister, and he's supposed to be our guardian until further notice.

My dad... disappeared, when we were really little. Mom said he died, but... [But given her own experiences in the forest, while she knows he must be dead, Mio now has a better idea of what actually happened.] I don't remember much about him. Mayu said she could remember a few things, but mom never talked to us about him, so we only know him through a few photographs we have.

I was, actually. I had taken all of his electronics with audio functions and recorded myself screaming in his ear. [A little juvenile, yes, but fuck it, it was funny.] It's been a while since I did that, though, so I thought he was building up to something big to get me back for it.

[Reid hesitates, then shies away from sharing anything about his father. It's even harder to talk about now than it used to be, if that's possible, since he's so conflicted about his father's occasional letters and cards and phone calls. He doesn't want to risk talking about it to anyone else before he knows exactly how he wants to respond to it.] I sort of got into college when I was twelve, so I didn't have to worry about having a guardian when my mom was sick. [Sort of. Kind of. She was sick a long time before he went to college.] I don't have any living uncles or aunts, either, so it's really just me and my mom.

[She gives Reid a strange look, like that was the alst thing she'd expected to hear from him, but it amused her anyway. She made a small noise like a laugh] Remind me not to start up anything like that with you.

--Twelve!? [She can't help but blurt it out, starting in surprise as she looks at him quickly] I haven't even thought about college--

[It hurts, actually, to think about the future and knowing Mayu won't be included in it, it makes her chest ache and a sense of anxiety and panic sets over her] ...I haven't really thought of anything for back home, really... I just have my mom and uncle. [No mention of her sister then.] I don't know what they expect from me yet.

[He has a sense of humor, okay? He smiles at her, a clearly mischievous light in his eyes.] Well, someone should have warned him that MIT graduates have a history of going nuclear.

Yeah, twelve. [He's used to that reaction. He glances up at her, but he's not surprised that she didn't mention her sister. He has a sneaking suspicion that something happened to her. He's guessing she's dead, and he thinks that her death has something to do with Mio's trauma.] Well, you don't need to know just yet. I think that you can be forgiven for not thinking about home when you're in a place... well, somewhere like this.

[He hesitates, stroking Flora's back. He just wouldn't feel right to be traveling around with a teenage girl and not at least try to look out for her long-term well being. He instinctively treats her like an adult, but... well, she's still fifteen.] But... well, just because you're here doesn't mean you should miss out on education. If you... well, I could try to fill in the gaps while you're here. [Because believe it or not, he can explain things in an understandable way. He just needs to be told what's understandable.]

[There's a look of puzzled amusement--She has no idea what MIT is, though she can guess it's the college he graduated from (or one of them?? How smart is this guy?).]

I guess. I'm not really good at anything, so it's not like I can pick from skills I have, when I don't have any. [There's a soft, self-deprecating laugh, but she doesn't seem bothered by it. It was still so strange to think of herself as someone separate from her sister now.

Reid's offer startles her and she looks to him with wide eyes] Huh? What, really? I-I can't ask you to go through all that trouble!

3rd Study Done Β Video/Action for Mio Ψ

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