Monsters are real. Ghosts are real, too. They live inside us.

[In the very early hours of the morning--so early that the sun hasn't risen yet--a paw bats at Reid's communicator, turning it on.]

Don't play with that, Ellie.

[Reid picks up the communicator, making the video shake and wobble until it stabilizes with him putting it aside on a table.

In the dim light provided by the moon coming from the window, Spencer Reid lies curled on a couch, a fussy Eevee in his lap, continually pawing at him and twitching her ears irritably.]

I get it, I get it, you're tired. But you can't fall asleep if you're squirming everywhere.

[She makes a pained noise, the noise only children too tired to fall asleep make. He scratches behind one of her ears with one hand, holding something obscured from the camera in his lap with the other.]

Just breathe, okay? Here--

[He knows how to calm his fussy Eevee down.

( Cut for embedded video. )

As the music flows, the Eevee slowly calms down, her ears perking and her eyes drooping. As he continues, she rests her head against the edge of the couch, closing her eyes.

When he's finished, it looks like she's asleep, and the sun begins to peak over the horizon, light filtering through the window. He carefully moves the Eevee from his lap, shifting out of the camera frame whilst rubbing his eyes.

When he's turned away, the Eevee opens her eyes again, blinking out at the sun, and she starts to glow. Slowly, the glow drowns out her entire form, and when the glow fades, she's an Espeon.

Then the Espeon turns to look at the communicator's camera, her double tail lashing side to side, and she gives something that looks very much like a smile.]

[Well, sort of accidental. Reid doesn't know about it, but Missy totally turned it on on purpose.

At first, all there is is smoke, and the sound of coughing.

And then there's light, and for those who are familiar with it, Violet from outside the Violet Gym. Missy felt the need to televise this because LOOK LOOK HER TRAINER GOT HIS FIRST BADGE EVERYBODY! 8D

While Missy is chattering about how awesome the battle was and how proud she is of Reid and how she wants to ride a bird now and on and on, Yang looks ready to collapse, Reid is cradling Elle in his arms because she's already collapsed, and Reid is doubled over in a horrible hacking coughing fit. Missy flies circles around him with his Munna (who is being ridden by a Litwick) and a Yamask, and after about a minute of straight coughing, the Yamask starts to grumble and floats right at Reid, pressing one appendage to his back, another at his throat, and forcefully straightening him while massaging the esophagus.

The coughs stop immediately, and Reid gets rigid at the unexpected contact. After a couple more moments, the Yamask releases him and floats back into the ring of undamaged flying Pokemon, grumbling about how he should just be like everyone else and go into a gym with massively over-leveled Pokemon next time.]

Uh, thank you, Amanda. You see, guys, this is why I teach you about physics. He was more experienced than me and had stronger animals, but taking advantage of thermodynamics--

[Elle paws him in the chest. Less lecturing, more going to the Center.]

Oh, right, sorry. [He starts approaching the Center, and his new badge gleams on his shirt.] While the nurse is looking at you both, I'll get something to thank you.

[And he is still blissfully unaware of Missy broadcasting the whole thing.]

If you feel like your character should be on this, just comment to let me know! This isn't necessarily exhaustive.

( CR Chart under cut )

[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.]

And no, I don't mean the one in the BAU.

Updated 1/12/13

( Cut to save your reading lists. )

If you have an idea for a plot, please either PM me or post here, because I love CR and I love plots. Everything from light and fluffy to dark and depressing (and let's face it, Reid attracts abusers like flies, so it's probably realistic for him to get beaten up at least once a month) is welcome.

Or else if you just need to contact me and you don't want to use PMs for whatever reason, this is a convenient post to use.