#Onondaga Lake
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International Rabbit Day
International Rabbit Day is celebrated on September 23 of this year. A day for the rabbits or bunnies as to bring awareness about the plight they are facing. Rabbits are the long-eared, short-tailed mammal with fluffy soft hair which is not only pets but are killed for various other reasons. The International Rabbit Day is observed as to promote, protect and care for the rabbits both the domestic and wild.
“The raccoons, foxes, beavers, chinchillas, minks, rabbits, and yes, sometimes even dogs and cats that are killed for fur are not very different from your beloved dog or cat. They all have eyes, ears, and hearts. They all experience pain when they are physically maimed. They shake with fear when they experience terror.” – Jane Velez-Mitchell
History of International Rabbit Day
International Rabbit Day was founded by The Rabbit Charity from the UK in the year 1998. The day will usually be observed on the fourth Saturday or Sunday in the month of September. The aim of the Charity is to protect abandoned or unwanted rabbits and provide them with permanent shelters. Celebrating the day for bunnies will promote and educate all sort of people about the threats faced by them. Rabbits can be kept as a pet as they will be a good companionship to the humans. Rabbits are usually referred as a symbol of fertility or rebirth. They have long been related to the spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. The habitat of rabbits includes grasslands, meadows, woods, deserts, and wetlands. Rabbits usually live in groups, and the European rabbits are the best-known species. They live in the underground burrows, or in the rabbit holes. More than half of the world’s rabbit population lives in the North America. Most often people think that rabbits are quiet and reserved pets, but any rabbit parent will tell you that the pet rabbits have a lot of personalities and offer lots of companionships. When rabbits are happy, then they will jump and twist which is called as the binky. Bunnies are very expressive and sensitive mammals that do all kinds of quirky and endearing behavior. On the other side, rabbits are harmed for medical and cosmetic testing, hunting, eating, fur farming and, casseroling. Thus, International Rabbit Day aims in providing some awareness about this charming little bunnies.
How to Celebrate International Rabbit Day
The best way to celebrate International Rabbit Day is you can adopt a bunny if hadn’t owned one. If you already have a bunny, then take some extra time to spend with those lovable pets. Bring awareness to the people near you about the plight of the rabbits.
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#Trelleborg#Sweden#wildlife#rabbit#hare#animal#nature#flora#fauna#travel#original photography#vacation#summer 2020#Syracuse#New York#2019#International Rabbit Day#fourth Saturday of September#23 September 2023#Onondaga Lake#USA#InternationalRabbitDay
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Onondaga Lake
I recently read an incredible book, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. In one of the chapters, she writes about Onondaga Lake. I cried and had to write some kind of apology for how we, humans, have hurt native peoples and mother nature.
Forgive us for caring more about progress
than your preservation
For taking your beauty
and twisting, abusing you
into
a form unrecocognizzable
My…
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#braiding sweetgrass#chemicals#forgiveness#hurt#mother nature#native peoples#onondaga#onondaga lake#onondaga people#poem#poetry#reconciliation#Robin wall kimmerer
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(via Friday Feelings: TGIF I am Running!)
#Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham#Tracy Higginbotham#Onondaga Lake#Syracuse NY#CNY#running#women who run#Friday Vibes#TGIF#Weekendvibes#January#sportsgirl#newyearresolutions#healthy#inspiration#motivation#NYS
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Gotta love that view…
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The Onondaga claim that the United States violated a 1794 treaty, signed by George Washington, that guaranteed 2.5 million acres in central New York to them. The case, filed in 2014, is the second brought by an American Indian nation against the United States in an international human rights body; a finding is expected as soon as this year.
Even if the Onondaga are successful, the result will mostly be symbolic. The entity, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has no power to enforce a finding or settlement, and the United States has said that it does not consider the commission’s recommendations to be binding.
“We could win against them, but that doesn’t mean that they have to abide by whatever,” Mr. Hill said in an interview.
The 2.5 million acres have long since been transformed by highways and utility lines, shopping malls, universities, airports and roller rinks.
The territory encompasses the cities of Binghamton and Syracuse, as well as more than 30 state forests, dozens of lakes and countless streams and tributaries. It is also home to 24 Superfund sites, the environmental detritus of the powerhouse economy that helped central New York thrive during the beginning and middle half of the 20th century.
Most notorious of these is Lake Onondaga, which once held the dubious title of America’s most polluted lake.
Industrial waste has left its mark on Onondaga territory, leaving the nation unable to fish from its streams and rivers. The history of environmental degradation is part of what motivates the Onondaga, who consider it their sacred responsibility to protect their land.
One of their chief objectives in filing the petition is a seat at the table on environmental decisions across the original territory. The other is an acknowledgment that New York, even if only in principle, owes them 2.5 million acres.[...]
Some Native nations have been willing to drop land claims in exchange for licenses to operate casinos. But the Onondaga say they are not interested in cash. Nor are they interested in licenses to sell cannabis or operate a casino — which they consider socially irresponsible and a threat to their tribal sovereignty.
There’s really just one thing that Mr. Hill says would be an acceptable form of payment: land.
The Onondaga insist they are not looking to displace anyone. Instead they hope the state might turn over a tract of unspoiled land for the nation to hunt, fish, preserve or develop as it sees fit. One such repatriation effort is underway: the return of 1,000 acres as a part of a federal settlement with Honeywell International for the contamination of Onondaga Lake.
The United States has not contested the Onondaga's account of how the nation lost its land. Indeed, the lawyers representing the United States in the Onondaga case have centered their argument on legal precedence, noting that courts at every level — including the U.S. Supreme Court — rejected the Onondaga’s claims as too old and most remedies too disruptive to the region’s current inhabitants.
To the Onondaga, the logic required to square these contentions seems unfair. Why should the United States be allowed to steal their land and face no obligation to give some back?[...]
In New York, [...] Native people were not considered to have standing to sue on their own behalf until 1987.[...]
In 2005, the Onondaga filed a version of their current claim in Federal District Court in the Northern District of New York, naming as defendants the State of New York, its governor, Onondaga County, the City of Syracuse and a handful of the companies responsible for the environmental degradation over the past centuries. A similar case filed by the Oneida Nation was, at the time, pending before the Supreme Court.
But just 18 days after the Onondaga filed their petition, the Supreme Court rejected the Oneidas’ case. The decision referenced an colonial-era legal theory known as the Doctrine of Discovery, which holds in part that Indigenous property claims were nullified by the “discovery” of that land by Christians.
The “long lapse of time” and “the attendant dramatic changes in the character” precluded the Oneida nation from the “disruptive remedy” it sought, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority decision.[...]
[L]awyers for the Onondaga used the rejection as the premise for a new argument. They contended that the U.S. court system’s refusal to find in their favor proved that they could not find justice in the United States.
The petition filed before the international commission amounts to the most direct challenge of the United States’ treatment of Indigenous people to date in terms of human rights — and the first to apply the lens of colonialism.
“What the Onondaga litigation is doing right now is to force a political dialogue with the colonial occupier,” said Andrew Reid, a lawyer representing the Onondaga, adding that a favorable finding could prompt a political conversation about the United States’s treatment of native people on the world stage.
Representatives for the State Department declined to be interviewed and did not respond to requests for comment. But in legal documents, the United States contended that the Onondaga’s central claims have been rejected in prior cases; that they have had “abundant opportunity” for their case to be heard; and that they are merely unhappy with the outcome. It also contended that the commission has no jurisdiction, given that the bulk of the nation’s losses took place two centuries before it was established.
“The judicial process functioned as it should have in this matter,” the United States wrote in legal papers.
15 Mar 24
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‘Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth. Environmental despair is a poison every bit as destructive as the methylated mercury in the bottom of Onondaga Lake. But how can we submit to despair while the land is saying “Help”?
Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationships with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. It’s not enough to grieve. It’s not enough to just stop doing bad things.’
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
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Onondaga Nation Celebrates First Land Return of 1,000 Acres in New York's Tully Valley Following Legal Settlement https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/onondaga-nation-celebrate-first-substantial-land-return-with-1000-acres-of-new-yorks-tully-valley-won-in-legal-settlement/
In a rare moment of return for East Coast Native Americans, the Onondaga Nation has had 1,023 acres of ancestral land in New York state returned to them.
The land in the Tully Valley includes the headwaters of Onondaga Creek, more than 45 acres of wetland and floodplains, and approximately 980 acres of forests and fields.
The agreement is a result of the March 2018 Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) settlement between the Natural Resource Trustees and Honeywell International, Inc.
Honeywell, manufactures of household appliances like air conditioners, were found to have been polluting Onondaga Lake in the Tully Valley, Central New York, for almost 100 years, and it had begun to spill into neighboring Onondaga lands.
They have settled on orders to pay $5 million dollars to the Natural Resource Trustees, give the 1,023 acres of land over to the Onondaga, restore several hundred acres of polluted area, and construct 18 projects related to conservation and recreation, of which 7 have been completed.
“It is with great joy that the Onondaga Nation welcomes the return of the first substantial acreage of its ancestral homelands. The Nation can now renew its stewardship obligations to restore these lands and waters and to preserve them for the future generations yet to come,” said Onondaga Nation Chief Tadodaho Sidney Hill.
For the Onondaga people, Onondaga Lake and Onondaga Creek are sacred. They are considered living relatives, central to the Onondaga worldview and spirituality, the tribe detailed in a statement.
Secularly, the cold waters of Onondaga Creek support a small population of brook trout, a population which may be fully restored with proper stewardship. The wetlands, floodplains, forests and fields are home to wildlife such as great blue heron, songbirds, waterfowl, hawks, bald eagles, frogs, bats, and other mammals including white-tailed deer.
“We look forward to drawing upon the Onondaga Nation’s expertise and Indigenous knowledge in helping manage the area’s valuable wildlife and habitat,” said Sect. of the Interior, Deb Haaland.
It’s more common now than ever that tribal nations are recovering rights to use their ancestral lands as they always had, but for tribes in the super-developed Mid-Atlantic region, these opportunities are rare.
However as the Onondaga point out, recent world-wide land surveys have shown that 80% of the world’s biodiversity is currently located in areas stewarded by indigenous peoples, or lands contested as such, despite the fact this amounts to less than half the land of the planet.
As such, they are keen to show what indigenous stewardship can bring to the biodiversity of America’s East Coast, and the current plan with state officials is to turn the Onondaga Lake and Tully Valley into a wildlife sanctuary, but one with ample opportunities for recreation, as Honeywell were ordered to construct many boat launching sites along the lake and rivers.
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 27
c.15 AD – John the Evangelist. The Gospel of John makes several references to "the disciple Jesus loved", and to "the Beloved Disciple", including references to special priviliges that Jesus gave to this relationship, not granted to other disciples. This is taken by some Biblical scholars as evidence that Jesus had a relationship with this disciple which was at least emotionally intimate, and possibly sexual. In medieval Northern Europe, there was even a long-standing tradition that he and Christ were the bridal couple at the Cana Wedding Feast.
It is not clear whether this "Beloved Disciple" was John himself (although it could have been), or someone else possibly Lazarus.
In any event, there are suggestions from elsewhere that John may have had a same-sex relationship with another, his scribe Prochorus, after Christ's death. Prochorus later became bishop of Nicomedia, and in turn, formed a fresh relationship of his own with a younger man, Irenaeus.
1846 – Ezra Allen Miner, more popularly known as Bill Miner, was an American bandit, originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who served several prison terms for stagecoach robbery (d.1913). Known for his unusual politeness while committing robberies, he was widely nicknamed the Grey Fox, Gentleman Robber or the Gentleman Bandit. He is reputed to have been the originator of the phrase "Hands up!" Legend has it that Bill Miner admonished his cohorts to fire their guns when in danger of capture but "do not kill a man".
Miner was born Ezra Allen Miner in Vevay Township, near Onondaga, Ingham County, Michigan. He never legally changed his first name, but regarded William Allen Miner as his true name throughout most of his life. He was arrested for the first time in 1866 in San Joaquin County, California and served time there. He then formed a partnership with Bill Leroy to rob a stagecoach. Leroy was caught and lynched, but Miner escaped. He was later caught for another robbery in Tuolumne County, California and was released from San Quentin in 1901.
After his third prison term, Miner moved to British Columbia in Canada, where he adopted the pseudonym George Edwards and is believed to have staged British Columbia's first-ever train robbery on September 10, 1904 at Silverdale about 35 kilometres (22 mi) east of Vancouver, just west of Mission City.
Miner was eventually caught after a botched payroll train robbery near Kamloops at Monte Creek (then known as "Ducks"). Choosing the wrong car, they managed only to rob $15 plus a bottle of kidney pills that Miner picked up off of a shelf. Miner and his two accomplices, Tom "Shorty" Dunn and Louis Colquhoun, were located near Douglas Lake, British Columbia after an extensive manhunt. A posse surrounded them while they were lunching in the woods. Miner presented himself as George Edwards and claimed that he and his cohorts were prospectors. The officer in charge of the posse suspected he had encountered the nefarious train-robbing gang and challenged the claim, putting them under arrest.
Dunn attempted to fire at the police and was shot in the leg. He gave up quickly after being wounded. Colquhoun was disarmed by an officer standing nearby and Miner never drew his weapon. Miner's arrest and subsequent trial in Kamloops caused a media spectacle. Apparently the most damning evidence against him was the bottle of kidney pills that Miner had picked up during the Ducks robbery. Upon his conviction, he, Dunn and Colquhoun were transported by train to the provincial penitentiary in New Westminster. By that time, Miner's celebrity status had risen to the point that the tracks were reputedly lined with throngs of supporters, many of whom expressed satisfaction with the fact that someone had taken the very unpopular CPR to task.
While serving time in the B.C. Penitentiary, Miner escaped in 1907 and was never recaptured in Canada. He moved back to the United States, becoming once again involved in robberies in the South at Gainesville in 1909. There, he served more prison time, and escaped twice.
He died in the prison farm at Milledgeville, Georgia, of gastritis, contracted from drinking brackish water during his previous escape attempt.Researchers Mark Dugan and and John Boessenecker contend that Miner was the only known homosexual outlaw in the American "Wild West." In his younger days, "Miner, who had a slender, girlish figure, no doubt was a target for sex-starved older and stronger convicts." Later, they claim, he lured young men into crime and preyed on them sexually. Whatever Miner's sexual preference, the only evidence of Miner's homosexuality surfaced in 1903 when the Pinkerton Detective Agency stated that Miner "is said to be a sodomist and may have a boy with him."
1932 – On this date Fritz "Fred" Klein the Austrian-born American sex researcher, psychiatrist and pioneering Bisexual rights activist was born (d.2006). He's best known as the inventor of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid. He was also a pioneering bisexual rights activist, who was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement.
As a self-identified bisexual, Klein was surprised at the lack of literature on his sexuality in the New York Public Library in 1974. He was inspired to place an advertisement in a New York City alternative newspaper the Village Voice and founded a ground-breaking social and support group for the Bisexual Community called Bisexual Forum.
He devised the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, a multi-dimensional system for describing complex sexual orientation, similar to the "zero-to-six" scale Kinsey scale used by Alfred Kinsey, but measuring seven different vectors of sexual orientation and identity (sexual attractions, sexual behavior, sexual fantasies, emotional preference, social preference, lifestyle and self-identification) separately, as they relate person's past, present and ideal future.
Klein published The Bisexual Option: A Concept of One Hundred Percent Intimacy in 1978, based on his research, the world's first real psychological study of bisexuality. He also co-authored Man, His Body, His Sex in 1978, and published Bisexualities: Theory and Research in 1986 and Bisexual and Gay Husbands: Their Stories, Their Words in 2001. He published a novel, Life, Sex and the Pursuit of Happiness in 2005.
1973 – Wilson Cruz (born Wilson Echevarría) is an American actor known for playing Rickie Vasquez on My So-Called Life and the recurring characters of Junito on Noah's Arcand Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery. As an openly gay person of Puerto Rican ancestry, he has served as an advocate for gay youth, especially gay youth of color.
Wilson Cruz was born in Brooklyn, New York to parents of Puerto Rican descent. His family eventually moved to Rialto, California where he attended Eisenhower High School, graduating in 1991. At age 19, Cruz came out to his parents as gay, first to his mother and then his father. While his mother was initially hurt and shocked, she eventually accepted the news. His father, however, threw him out of the house, and Cruz spent the next few months living in his car and at the homes of friends. He later reconciled with his father.
After coming out to his parents, Cruz went to Hollywood to seek work as an actor, intending to be open about his sexuality from the beginning of his career. In 1994 he was cast as Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, a troubled gay teen, in the short-lived critically acclaimed cult classic TV series My So-Called Life. In one episode (entitled "So-Called Angels") drawn from Cruz's own life, Rickie comes out to his family, who throw him out of the house.
Cruz works with and advocates on behalf of LGBT youth, especially youth of color. He has volunteered his time as host for the Youth Zone, an online community at Gay.com for LGBT youth. He was the Grand Marshal of the 1998 West Hollywood Gay Pride parade and the 2005 Chicago Pride Parade. In 2008, he was the keynote speaker at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Lavender Graduation and Rainbow Banquet honoring graduating LGBT students.
Cruz joined the board of directors of GLAAD in 1997 in order to assist the organization through a leadership transition, and joined the staff of GLAAD in 2012 as a National Spokesperson and Strategic Giving Officer.
Rowland in his army days
1990 – Died: Chuck Rowland (b.1917) was a founding member of the Mattachine Society. He was active with ONE Inc. and founded the short-lived Church of One Brotherhood. Upon retiring from twenty years of teaching in 1982, Rowland founded Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles.
Chuck Rowland was born and grew up in tiny Gary, South Dakota. He recognized he was homosexual at an early age, and after reading a sympathetic series of articles in a pulp magazine, concluded that, if millions like him existed, they could be mobilized. At the University of Minnesota in the late 1930s, he was active on campus in support of the loyalists of Spain and other causes. While in grad school during 1939–40 he returned to Gary as a substitute for the spring term. On a weekend visit to Minneapolis, he met Bob Hull, a U of M undergraduate. The two had a brief romance, lived together, and became lifelong friends.
In 1942, Rowland was drafted into the army. Due to a severe injury, he stayed stateside during the war. While enlisted, Rowland became a charter member of the American Veterans Committee, a liberal alternative to the American Legion. After discharge in March 1946, he showed his talent as an AVC organizer, but his active support for veterans’ bonus legislation, which the group disparaged as “handouts,” led to his being “canned” by the AVC by 1947.
While in the AVC, Rowland noted that those he knew to be communists were some of AVC’s best organizers. “I was just carried along with this feeling of liberalism and the horror of the [anti-communist] reaction that was setting in,” he said, “and my feeling was that we had to move farther and farther to the left, as a result of which I got into the Communist Party.” Rowland returned to Minneapolis and headed the CP’s Midwest youth division.* (His value as an organizer trumped any chance of being expelled under the party’s unwritten anti-gay policy.) Rowland recruited Hull into the party, and the two contemplated Rowland’s childhood dream of organizing homosexuals.
In 1948, he quit the CP and move to Los Angeles, followed by Hull. There, at a labor school, the two met a teacher, Harry Hay, who also had done some thinking about a homosexual organization.
Harry Hay was developing a blueprint for a homophile support group, but before he could show it to them, Rowland and Hull moved to Mexico in the summer of 1950, intending to relocate permanently to avoid anti-Communist witch-hunts. They returned by fall, however, and received Hay’s completed prospectus, which they eagerly shared with Hull’s new boyfriend, Dale Jennings. The three met with Hay and his lover Rudi Gernreich on Armistice Day 1950, and eventually formed the (necessarily) secretive Mattachine Society and its public nonprofit, Mattachine Foundation.
Mattachine members clockwise from top:
Chuck Rowland, Konrad Stevens,
unknown, Bob Hull, Jim Gruber
Rowland immersed himself in ONE Inc., writing for its magazine and directing its social services division. In 1954 he proposed that ONE open a guidance center staffed with gay counselors to mentor the waifs who found themselves alone in a new city. The project foundered, but Rowland nevertheless reported to ONE that in 1955 his division provided job placement and/or vocational counseling for nearly 100 people.
The early 60s saw Rowland involved in a possible FBI blacklisting (as both Red and gay), a failed business partnership, a dependence on intoxicants, mounting debt, and eviction. Finally, following the tragic suicide of his friend Bob Hull in May of 1962, Rowland returned to the Midwest. That summer he was hired as a credentialed high school teacher in Iowa. Obtaining his master’s degree in 1967, he chaired the theater arts department at a Minnesota college.
Upon retiring in 1982, Rowland returned to Los Angeles from his “exile,” as he put it, while admitting to “some worthy accomplishments” and meaningful relationships. In late 1982, with Jim Kepner and ex-Mattachino Martin Block, Rowland founded Celebration Theatre, billed as “the only theatre in Los Angeles dedicated exclusively to productions of gay and lesbian plays.” Kepner hosted its debut in the late spring of 1983, in his National Gay Archives.
Having been hospitalized in March 1090 with prostate cancer that proved to be terminal, Rowland “moved to Duluth where a former student fixed up a handsome apartment overlooking the lake,” according to a Kepner-penned obituary. “He spent five happy months among students and relatives….” Chuck Rowland died December 27, 1990.
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People’s Flag Wars 2: Round 3, Bracket 4
See the symbolism below.
The unnamed flag was made by eth317.
City flag of Syracuse, NY titled The First Light flag is the official flag of Syracuse by Eric Hart.
Symbolism: “Through the use of simple color and shape the First Light flag shares a complex story of our people and personality, our geography and weather, our past and future, and our relationship to our surrounding area.
Six-Pointed Star: Symbolizes the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee, of which the Onondaga Nation plays a central role. It symbolizes the six historical names by which Syracuse has been known: Salt Point, Webster's Landing, Bogardus Corners, Milan, South Salina, and Cossits' Corners (not incl. Corinth). It is the sun, a guiding light. Its central placement on the flag marks Syracuse's central location in New York State.
Mirrored triangles: Symbolizes the hills of Onondaga. The word onoñda'gega' means, "people of the hills" in the Onondaga language. The left triangle is the hill westward toward Hiawatha Lake. The right triangle is the hill eastward toward Thornden Park. The space between the triangles is the Onondaga Valley.
Star set between triangles: Symbolizes the sunrise over the Onondaga Valley.
This is described in a line from Syracuse University's Alma Mater, ". where the vale of Onondaga meets the Eastern sky." Represents a new day, a bright future, and good fortunes ahead.
Orange Star on White: Symbolizes our history of using the sun to pull white salt from our salt springs. It also represents the sun warming us during our cold, white winters.
The Chevron: Symbolizes the Roman numeral "V" indicating the five Syracuse Common Council Districts. It also represents "The V-Sign," international symbol for peace and friendship.
Three Distinct Triangles: Symbolic of the city's past, present and future. The left triangle points to the past. The central triangle points to the present. The right triangle points toward the future. It represents Syracuse across the ages. Syracuse: for now and forever.
Orange Symbolic of: The Sun, Regeneration, Restoration, Courage, Passion, Creativity
Azure Blue Symbolic of: Onondaga Lake, the Erie Canal, Perseverance, Intelligence
Navy Blue Symbolic of: The hills of Onondaga, Trust, Loyalty, Industriousness
White Symbolic of: Salt, Snow, Peace, Purity”
Kairouan, Tunisia is a flag proposal by Gargari.
Symbolism: “It shows a camel with the city's name calligraphically written on it. I made this choice because the name literally translates to caravan, or military column. The colours green and yellow are taken from the current coat of arms of the city. Also taken from there is the dome of Kairouan's great mosque, which also represents the camel's hump here. The additional colour purple is used for lines not part of the calligraphy but vital for making it look like a dromedary. The colour represents the wealth of the history of this noble and old city.”
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New York ratified the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States on July 26, 1788.
#Buffalo#Port Byron#Onondaga Lake#Syracuse#former Temple Adath Yeshurun#Catskill Mountains#Onondaga Creek#Niagara Falls#American Falls#New York#ManhattanN#US Constitution#New York City#26 July 1788#235th anniversary#US history#original photography#travel#vacation#tourist attraction#architecture#cityscape#landscape#USA
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Parkway Power by Citizen of the Galaxy
Via Flickr:
North/west bound train SECN heads along the aptly named Onondaga Lake Parkway between Syracuse and Liverpool NY on 5 July 1996 behind clean CN SD75I duo 5628-5636.
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(via For the Love of Sports: Kayaking Inspiration)
#kayaking#onondaga lake#syracuse ny#Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham#Tracy Higginbotham#women and sports#female athletes#women athletes#thursday thoughts#thursday vibes#thursday morning#outside life#yolo#water adventures#summer fun#summer sports
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“[Rachel Carson] wanted her readers to take warning and take action, not just revert to contemplating (with either pleasure or depression) the inevitable end of life.” And No Birds Sing: Rhetorical Analyses of Silent Spring, ed. Craig Waddell
“There’s no ‘we’re fucked’, it will get better or it will get worse.” Lovett or Leave It Podcast
"Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth. Environmental despair is a poison every bit as destructive as the methylated mercury in the bottom of Onondaga Lake. But how can we submit to despair while the land is saying "Help"? Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. It's not enough to grieve. It's not enough to just stop doing bad things." Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Talking about it makes it seem like giving up might be the cool thing to do, and it’s definitely not. It’s a betrayal of the future. It’s a betrayal of the past too! It’s also a betrayal of the present. Don’t give up! We are only past saving when we believe we are past saving.” youtube video “Is It All Hopeless?”, Hank Green
“If Carson had given over totally to apocalyptic rhetoric, she would have forsaken her scientific outlook on life. There may be no completely happy endings in the master narrative of scientific research, but neither is there a scene of total destruction. There are, as in tragedy, the signs of rebirth and continuance. The work continues, the search goes on.” And No Birds Sing: Rhetorical Analyses of Silent Spring, ed. Craig Waddell
"We could take the path of fear and despair. We could document every scary scene of ecological destruction and never run out of material for a Haunted Hayride of environmental disasters, constructing a shocking nightmare tableaux of environmental tragedies, in rooms carved from a monoculture of invasive plants, on the shore of the most chemically contaminated lake in the United States. […] What could such a vision create other than woe and tears? Joanna Macy writes that until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it--grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
“We need all hands on deck, and there’s a lot of deck.” Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
“Say these words when you lie down and when you rise up,
when you go out and when you return. In times of mourning
and in times of joy. Inscribe them on your doorposts,
embroider them on your garments, tattoo them on your shoulders,
teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies,
recite them in your sleep, here in the cruel shadow of empire:
Another world is possible.” “V’ahafta”, Aurora Levin Morales
#is this what the kids call web weaving??#putting links to the video and poem in the reblog please reblog the version with those#silent spring#rachel carson#and no birds sing#craig waddell#braiding sweetgrass#robin wall kimmerer#hank green#lovett or leave it#rabbi danya ruttenberg#aurora levin morales#mary emma’s posts
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Everyone come to liverpool ny for christmas, we have *checks notes* scary two mile light show along the water
Anyway, for the non-new york and upstate folks, this niche event is called Lights on the Lake, and (as of 2023-2024) its a 2-mile-long drive-thru christmas light show through Onondaga Lake Park ❄️
#new york state#upstate new york#new york#nys#ny#upstate#central new york#liverpool new york#new york traditions#christmas#?#a little late i know
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Ch. 20: One’s History
[Story Masterlist] // [Aitana’s Masterlist]
Fandom: Criminal Minds // Pairing: Spencer Reid x OFC
Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @averyhotchner @foxesandmagic
If you’d like to be a part of Aitana’s taglist, please let me know!
Aitana peered out the conference door and quickly whirled away when she saw the last of the team coming through, her wide eyes a sign that she'd nearly been caught.
"Who you see, spicy sprinkles?" Morgan was smiling with bemusement as the brunette hurriedly made her way to her seat beside Penelope.
"Just Prentiss, Hotch and Rossi," Aitana said, "And, uh, I don't know about anyone else but does it seem like Prentiss is a bit...unusual?" She had tried her best to ignore the subtle signs, mind her own business as she often said to others. She didn't know Emily enough to know if what she was seeing was truly unusual for her but in the end, her concern got the best of her.
While nobody answered her straightaway, Aitana was skilled enough to notice the subtle shifts in the others' faces. Penelope was the only one who didn't know how to hide her agreement. Seaver being the only one who was completely in the dark, looked around much like Aitana had. Before anybody could answer her, because Aitana was sure that Morgan had a thing or two to say, Hotch strode into the room with the others.
"Let's get started," he quickly said as they gathered around.
"Alright," Aitana cleared her throat, slightly flustered when she saw Emily. Her last intention was to talk behind people's backs-that was so high school and Emily didn't even deserve that. "Okay, so Molly Grandin, 25 years old, has been missing approximately 24 hours." Penelope flicked on the television behind them. "Her car was found abandoned in a strip mall parking lot."
"Syracuse police chief just called me to tell me that 4 months ago another woman, Gail Langston, also 25, went missing," Hotch remarked, letting everyone know how the case truly landed on them.
Penelope switched the pictures around to show the first victim. "Gail's body washed up 3 days later in Onondaga Lake. She'd been held captive, her hands and feet smashed, and then she was stabbed to death."
"Her car was found in the same parking lot as Molly Grandin's," Hotch said.
"Other than abandoned cars, what makes them think it's the same offender?" asked Emily.
"Umm, both women packed a bag with enough clothes and toiletries to last them for the weekend, and in both cases, the bags were found in the car along with their purses and cell phones," Aitana explained. "Which means that if the unsub is sticking to the same M. O., Molly only has 36 hours left."
"Let's go. The plane awaits," Hotch said, prompting the others to start gathering their things to leave.
~ 0 ~
As soon as the plane took off, the files were opened and discussions began. As far as they knew, and that Penelope knew, there was no connection between Molly Grandin and Gail Langston.
"But that doesn't mean they didn't have much in common," remarked Aitana. Her file remained closed on the table between her, Emily, Spencer and Seaver. She'd already gone over it extensively after Hotch presented the case to her. "Take a look at their school records." Spencer hummed in agreement beside her. He was already doing that.
"It's in their way of being too," Seaver remarked, though it appeared she hadn't meant to based on her widened eyes.
Emily, who sat beside her, nudged her to keep going. "What's the first thing that jumps out at you?" she prompted.
Seaver took another look at the photographs in front of her. She knew it wasn't Emily's intention to put her on the spot. She had to learn and Emily had been kind enough to make herself her overseer. "Um, their body types are both small, but it's not just physical. They both shy away from the camera and clearly don't enjoy being photographed. Both easily overpowered and controlled." Everyone around them seemed to agree with the comments which made it easier for Seaver to breathe again.
From her seat, Aitana half-smiled at her. She understood the feeling.
"Well, at 25 they'd be much older than most undergrads at S. U," said Rossi, roping the subject back to what Aitana had originally mentioned.
"Aitana was right, their college transcripts are littered with incompletes and missed semesters," Spencer said, closing his copy of the file.
"It can tie back to their backgrounds," Aitana said, leading Morgan to speak up about that.
"They're both from blue-collar backgrounds with no scholarship. Must be hard to keep up while working a full-time job. So going to a private school could have been worth it for appearances' sake."
"If the unsub met them on campus, he could be another student," Seaver tried her hand at another deduction.
"He may not be a student. He might be an employee," Hotch said. "Janitorial staff, security. Uses a similar background to bond with the victims."
"They both packed bags to go away with him for the weekend. That trip's romantic," Rossi pointed out. "Yeah, he's not just getting to know them, he's dating them."
"Well…" Aitana sheepishly cocked her head to the side, soon earning all eyes on her. "I've done my fair share of road trips in the past. It's not always romantic, Rossi. Based on what was found in those bags, there's nothing really that screamed 'romantic getaway'," she made a gesture with her hands. "To me, it looked more like a casual roadtrip with a friend."
The others took in her perspective with nods, definitely leaving that up in the air as they went further through the case.
~ 0 ~
While the others went off in their respective assignments, Aitana was left to handle the sorting of which family members to contact from the two victims.
"Hey," she heard Seaver come into the conference room. She brought coffee for the two of them. She was a little embarrassed to admit that she didn't really know how to help in these moments. She wasn't yet equipped to go out in the field and moments like right now where Hotch instructed her to stay put left her feeling even more like an outcast.
"Oh, thank you," Aitana grabbed her cup and took a sip. It was slightly stronger than what she was used to but, not wanting to make Seaver feel bad, she said nothing about it.
"Is there anything you need?" Seaver asked, cautiously slipping into the seat beside her.
"Umm, not really," Aitana shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just going through the victims family members, deciding who to give a call."
"They're interviewing Molly's ex-boyfriend right now," Seaver said.
"Yeah, but I don't really think he's the guy. I've read the reports," Aitana leaned back in her chair for a moment. "His whole lifestyle reads incompetent to pull off such an elaborate scheme here."
Seaver nodded. "You seem really good at this for someone who's kind of new," she remarked, eyes widening slightly when she realized how her comment could be taken. "I mean...not that I would expect you not to—"
Aitana chuckled. "Don't worry. I have my moments, bad ones too. If you'd been here right at the start, you would've seen how I was during my first press release."
"But it ended well," Seaver said, remembering the story that Morgan had told her not too long ago. "How you made everybody see that the unsub might not have been dating them was really good, especially when you suggested that the romantic getaway could've just been a regular road trip."
"Honestly, stuff like that just comes to me sometimes," Aitana shrugged, almost flustered with the praise. She was really still learning and she was always honest about it, perhaps too much sometimes. "It really is just experiences and believe me when I say that my experiences haven't always been the best."
Seaver's smile was wry when she responded, "You know what my experiences were like."
Aitana nodded, her smile saddening when she remembered the flashing headlines she would read back in her college days. "As dark as those times were, use them to make something good now. I mean, they hurt you so you might as well find something useful about them."
Seaver's expression said she had already tried that. "It doesn't always work. I feel like what I went through is just my pity story, you know? It's why I changed my name. Nobody would take me seriously if I had my father's last name. My experiences would be disregarded."
"Not here," Aitana said plainly. She looked around and of course there was no one else in the room with them. "You know, before I came here, I was in Witness Protection. I actually met these guys 6 months into the program. That whole case ended up with me being kidnapped because I was stupid and I wasn't even able to thank them for saving me afterwards. Everything that I had to go through in that case, everything that I went through that got me into WPP in the first place, was all swept under the carpet when I was shipped out to another location. It had to be for my own survival."
Seaver's eyebrows knitted together as the shock of the story fully etched over her face. "How long were you in the program?"
"Almost 3 years. You know the massacre in D.C.? The lot of D.A.s and judges? I was there, and I saw things…" Aitana shuddered, "All of that was terrible and I had to live like I wasn't always thinking about it? Like it never happened, because I had to think about myself and my survival. The criminals who were responsible knew that I was a witness and they wanted to kill me. I had to live for almost 3 years always looking over my shoulder."
"That must have been terrible," Seaver said. She couldn't decide what was worse then, living in paranoia or living with the entire truth out for everyone to judge and ridicule you.
"It was," Aitana nodded. "It messed me up, it's still messing me up, but I am taking baby steps." She smiled lightly. "Just ask the others. Baby steps to reconstruct my life, to...become a good liaison and a good profiler. I'm learning and understanding that I won't always get things but I'm also learning to be proud of myself when I get things right...just like I did in the plane."
"That's a really good mentality," Seaver remarked. "I really hope I can learn some of that."
"Baby steps," Aitana reminded, making Seaver smile.
"Right…"
"Baby steps. It works," Aitana promised. Seaver would have to take her word for it in the meantime.
As it turned out, Hotch returned from the interview with a clear opinion that Molly's ex-boyfriend was absolutely not their unsub.
"But he was abusing her," Seaver said, still holding onto Molly's file that she'd reread several times that afternoon.
"He's not sophisticated enough for this," Hotch stood in front of the evidence board they were beginning to build. Aitana had already posted the two victim's cases, of course Molly's was more extensive. "Rossi's interviewing Molly's father as we speak just to cover our bases but there's very little chance that Lyle Donaldson is the unsub."
"So where does that leave us?" Aitana gestured to the evidence board that didn't exactly contain as much as they would need.
"We'll need to be more extensive, starting with the familial interviews."
"I've already lined up Gale's family for tomorrow," Aitana moved back to where Seaver sat to gather up a few of her notes she left. "As far as the records say, Gale's mother and brother seem to live perfectly normal lives. Father died a long time ago. If they answer me, it'll most likely be honest."
"Hopefully," Hotch said, making her repeat the word in a sigh.
Spencer and Morgan were the only ones who had a major breakthrough in the case. The unsub was most likely a woman.
"So that getaway really wasn't really romantic," Seaver glanced at Aitana with an even more impressed face than before.
"There weren't any romantic clues left inside the bag," Aitana shrugged. She'd read over the items found in the two bags and nothing spoke of a date.
"It would also explain why there was no sign of sexual assault," Morgan said, "With an unsub this obsessed with control and power, it's usually part of the territory."
"It also coincides with what Gale's house had," Emily pointed her pen towards the evidence board that now held the pictures of Molly's home. "It looked like there was a female living in the other bedroom in Molly's apartment."
"But there was no record of her having a roommate," Hotch said. That was something they would've been told in the preliminary details. "So Molly must have wanted to keep it a secret for a reason."
"And she left in a hurry," Emily said, describing the state of the second room she'd looked around in.
Spencer strolled into the room with the details of their findings tumbling from his lips. "So, neighbors did see a woman coming and going from Molly's apartment over the last few months, but nobody saw her close enough to get a sketch."
"And let me guess, no one met her?" Rossi smiled out of sheer unsurprise.
Spencer agreed. "The best description we got was white female, mid-20s, light-brown hair, plain."
"All right, so we need to start over, go back over both Gail and Molly's cases and look at everything from the perspective of a female unsub," Hotch declared when all seemed lost. "Serrano, bring in Gail's family and ask about the women in her life. Prentiss, you and Seaver go back over to Molly's apartment. Find out what else she's hiding."
"Uh, actually," Aitana awkwardly raised a finger, a matching nervous smile resting on her face, "If it's not too much of a problem...I kinda want to visit Molly's apartment. Emily said there was a motto on the mirror?" She glanced at Emily for some affirmation.
The woman nodded her head. "Today I do, tomorrow I will," she repeated the bubbly note she'd found on the mirror in Molly's room.
"That's an affirmation and, uh, it's not a stranger to me...if you understand…" Aitana deliberately looked away from everyone until somebody would get what she was trying to say. Sometime after leaving WPP, she may have tried affirmations herself. The only question was if she'd done it on her own or with professional help.
~ 0 ~
The next morning, Aitana, Emily and Seaver headed for Molly's apartment to recanvass it. Aitana worked her way into Molly's bedroom and was surprised by how many affirmations covered the walls. She drifted towards the vanity desk, its mirror's frame completely covered in affirmations.
"She really was overdosing on daily affirmations," Seaver's remark startled Aitana into turning around. Seaver immediately flashed her an apologetic smile.
"Yeah, saying you're happy isn't the same as being happy," Aitana mumbled and turned back to the mirror, a big mistake given how Seaver could see Aitana's face through the mirror. She saw the grimace that fell over Aitana's features.
Even Emily saw it when she came into the bedroom. "There's nothing personal in the other room," she said, half intending on getting Aitana to look away from the mirror. She got the feeling that the more Aitana studied the affirmations, the lower her mood would be for the rest of the day. "Whoever she was, she left nothing of hers in the room."
"But not Molly's," Seaver pointed out as the room was very much intact. Most of the clothes were around, personal items…
"What if the Unsub turned the tables and asked Molly to come with her?" Aitana suddenly asked. She walked towards the bookshelf that was pretty much stuffed with books. "Like a-a getaway from home?"
"That's possible," Emily shrugged, "But then why would the unsub take her own things? That would've tipped Molly off."
"Not if she came back for everything else after actually kidnapping Molly," Aitana plucked a few books from the spine to catch sight of the titles. So far, each of them had been some sort of self-help guide.
"Hey, look at this," Seaver said from the foot of the bed. She'd found a journal underneath, one that was deliberately stashed away. "It's a diet journal."
Emily neared her side to skim over the pages. It was very detailed with what Molly ate each day. "Let me call Garcia," she whipped out her phone. "See if her spending reflects a disorder."
"Good morning my cherries!" Penelope exclaimed.
"Hey Garcia, can you look up how much money did Molly spend on food every week?"
Penelope popped the answer straight away. "30 bucks a week at the grocery store. Thai food every Friday. Yikes, she is worse than me! $8.00 a day for coffee."
"Can you go back a couple months?"
"Yeah. Back then the spending tells an entirely different story of the unhealthy sort. Lots of drugstore purchases, fast food places. Only a few dollars a week at the grocery."
"Carrots and hot sauce," Seaver remarked.
"And then 17 bucks at McDonald's."
"Binge night."
"Anything else in the journal?" Emily asked from Seaver.
The blonde shrugged. "It's intense. She recorded not only what she put into her body but what came out. Calories expended during exercise, and she weighed her bowel movements."
"Anorexia/bulimia," Aitana concluded with them and checked the shelves of books again. They made a lot more sense...as did the affirmations on the mirror.
"The last entry is 10 weeks before she disappeared," Seaver said, then called upon Penelope, "When did her spending change?"
"About 3 months ago. She got a membership at a yoga studio and started paying for cooking classes."
"A guide," Aitana said suddenly, heading back for the mirror. She cocked her head as she reread every affirmation again.
"What's that?" called Emily, having half a mind to pull the agent away from the mirror.
"A-a life coach," Aitana snapped her fingers. "We should find out if Gail Langston had a similar pattern before she was killed." She started plucking the daily affirmations from the frame, knowing that they'd already been pictured before, and headed out of the room leaving behind two puzzled agents.
~ 0 ~
As soon as Gail's family had been interviewed, Aitana made sure to bring the information over to the conference room. Unlike Spencer who had covered a white board with endless lists of potential origins of the affirmations, Aitana preferred to lay the actual affirmations on the conference table along with the titles of the books she'd found in Molly's room. She'd mixed in the affirmations that Gail would use as well.
"I'm still thinking it's a life coach," she murmured, though it was unclear if she was just speaking to herself. "A fake or not, but they could've believed it…"
Spencer glanced over his shoulder to see her rounding the table. She'd been doing it all afternoon as well as talking to herself which was why he didn't comment. He of all people knew that everybody had a different way of thinking so he wanted to give Aitana the same consideration he expected from others. Plus, she was always helping him out during his thought processes.
And it may have been nice to have someone around doing relatively the same things he was. Usually it was just him doing the puzzle breakdown. Aitana did love puzzles, after all.
"They weren't seeing a therapist," she was talking to herself again, "But Gail's family said she only spoke about expelling negative thoughts or visualizing her truth." She raised her head then, catching Spencer looking at her. She paused her train of thought. "What?"
He blinked and quickly shifted his gaze to the white board where he should have been staring at in the first. He felt a heat rush up the back of his neck out of embarrassment. "Nothing, sorry, you were just…"
"Was I talking out loud?" She scrunched her face. "I do that a lot when I think...like this…" She made a gesture towards the table covered in 'puzzle pieces'. She stuck a fingernail between her teeth. "I do it all the time with my puzzles at home. Angel doesn't like it very much."
Spencer awkwardly cleared his throat. "He, uh, doesn't?" He turned around to see her shaking her head.
"He says it's annoying," she shrugged, looking unperturbed like she was used to it. "And weird."
"It's not," Spencer assured her, leaving behind the whiteboard for a second. "There's actually a misconception when it comes to the idea of talking to yourself. It's mostly because of how it's portrayed in the media. Usually it's always the weird characters talking to themselves but there's plenty of studies that proves self-talk actually helps the brain perform better."
"Really?" Aitana eyes him suspiciously. "Or are you just saying that so I don't feel like I'm weird."
Spencer nearly rolled his eyes. "You are not weird." She should leave that to him. He was always called weird. "There was one study that had participants reading instructions following through with them. Those who read the instructions out loud had a higher concentration and better task performance in the end. They were able to focus better and their end result was much better than those who didn't read out loud." Aitana's eyebrows raised with curiosity. Spencer came around the table to stand beside her, now gazing at everything she'd set up. It was well organized with even her own notes on the side. She had perfect handwriting in comparison to his chicken-scratch on the board (and every other paper he wrote on). "Talking out loud is a sign of high cognitive functioning."
Aitana side-glanced him with a teasing smile. "Are you saying I'm super smart? Because I would definitely take that to heart coming from you," she chuckled.
Spencer should know better than to take that remark as anything beyond what it was, a simple remark, yet his face felt incredibly warm again. Aitana's soft laugh helped ground him again—when did he leave the ground again?
"Hey," Emily's call helped solidify his grounding. She and Rossi were coming into the room. "How's it going?"
Spencer strung back into action, taking a stride back to the white board. "Today I do, tomorrow I will" doesn't seem to have a particular source or author. It's found in pretty much every self-help book—I read 22 of them today—all touting the same basic 3-part plan."
Emily folded her arms over her chest. "Let me guess, phase one is positive thinking, visualizing goals."
"That's to work up the courage to get to phase 2—taking real steps to achieve said goal," Rossi took his own guess which was perfectly correct.
"Gail committed to school, got grades like never before and Molly gave up her obsessive food journal and started eating better," Aitana remarked, "That had to be done with more than just motivational sayings. I would know. I didn't read those 22 books Reid did this morning but I did over the course of the last 2 years." She purposely avoided their looks at her revelation. When she felt at her lowest after leaving WPP, she sought out every possible solution to help pick herself up. That included some mediocre self help books. "Some people can benefit from a book alone but others-" maybe like her, "-need more."
Emily agreed there. "Maybe that's why the unsub moved in with them. She could offer support and encouragement day and night. She'd be around to watch Molly's diet or Gail's study habits."
Rossi nodded. "At first her methods worked. She gets to be the hero, the savior. She's a pure narcissist, so helping her victims is only about gaining their appreciation and dependence. The more her victims gain confidence, the less they need a full-time cheerleader. And that's when her motivational plan goes completely off the rails."
"Phase 3 is normally about maintaining the tenets of the program independently," Spencer tapped against the white board, right over the 'Phase 3' title. "But her program doesn't end. She holds them captive, destroys them physically."
"She's the motivational speaker from hell," Aitana gazed down at her table. This woman was a psychopath in the making.
~ 0 ~
The profile to be delivered was one of those rare types that held more exact information. Every detective in the room took dutiful notes while the team described who they would be looking for.
"We're looking for a white woman in her mid-20s, most likely blue collar and local to the Syracuse area," Hotch said. "She probably has a job that puts her in the role of caretaker, such as a masseuse, a nail or hair stylist, personal trainer."
"Women feel comfortable opening up to her about their personal lives, revealing details about their insecurities that she later uses to manipulate them," Aitana spoke just a bit strained. It was hard not to feel a special type of anger towards this woman taking advantage of people who were at their lowest.
"Do you think she tries to pass herself off as a therapist or a counselor of some sort?" One of the detectives inquired.
"That's doubtful," Rossi answered. "Her narcissistic personality wouldn't allow her to listen to anything that didn't revolve around her for more than a few minutes at a time."
"It's hard to learn anything when you always need to be the expert," remarked Morgan.
"We don't think she's capable of getting a degree of any kind," Spencer clarified.
"Wouldn't she need some kind of certification for the jobs you're talking about?" The same detective rightfully wondered.
"She would, but she's a master manipulator. She probably talked her way into many jobs before they realized her credentials were fake."
"So check gyms and spas, salons, yoga studios for employees fired in the last 2 years," instructed Hotch. "We need to I. D. this woman as fast as possible if we want any chance of finding Molly Grandin alive."
~ 0 ~
When Rossi took another go at Molly's father, it was revealed that both women had been to the same hospital for treatment.
"Garcia, both families released their daughters' medical records. Have you gotten access to those yet?" Emily asked as soon Penelope had answered their call. Aitana, Spencer and Seaver all crowded around the phone on the table.
"Yes!" Penelope exclaimed. "Both women went to the same hospital but for different programs and at different times."
"Maybe the unsub works at the hospital?" Seaver suggested, thinking it was one of the few logical reasons.
Aitana had to shake her head. She didn't think the woman would go in that route, much less be able to. "Even if she conned her way into a job, I doubt she'd last long enough to get close to patient files."
"We were off on our profile," Spencer decided the more he thought things over. "She doesn't find her victims by chance like we thought. She hunts them."
That was a game changer, leading Emily to ask, "Garcia, does Syracuse General keep their surveillance footage of the entrances and exits?"
"Oh, in this age of black market pharmaceutical drug trade, you betcha. I can get you that!"
Emily's cellphone rang in her pocket. "Excuse me," she said very quickly when she saw the ID on her screen. Her leave was almost a sprint.
Aitana and Spencer watched her leave with similar looks of concern and curiosity. They could see her through the window (not a very good hideout for her) having a conversation that somehow involved her checking her phone screen for a second. She was all types of fidgety which wasn't like Emily at all. As soon as Emily was done, she happened to glance at the window. Aitana and Spencer quickly dove their attention to the same desk. When she returned, they only focused on the incoming security feed that Penelope had for them.
"Now, Molly and Gail had different doctors, but both went to Syracuse General pharmacy. Assuming they were stalked, you know, 10 to 14 weeks before their disappearance, I went ahead and started with footage from when they went to get refills, which falls right into that time window. " Penelope explained as they saw the first victim, Gail, walking down the pharmacy hallway. "Behold-Gail Langston, July 3rd. See that woman a few steps behind her with the large cup of coffee?" Indeed there was a brunette woman following not too far from Gail, the latter completely in the dark about it. "Check this out. A few weeks later, there she is again. The same woman is following her. Creepy."
"Wait a second…" Aitana leaned closer to the screen, eyes squinting as she got a better look at the woman, "Is she...is she wearing the same—"
"Scar as Gail?" Penelope finished for her. "Yup!"
"Did this woman follow a similar pattern when she was stalking Molly?" asked Emily.
Penelope dramatically groaned. "You guys are ruining the ending! Here's Molly and the stalker on November 8th." Sure enough, the same woman was right behind Molly...with the same handbags. "What do you know? She went shopping. They're carrying identical purses. And then 15 minutes later on their way out…" Molly and her stalker walked side by side in conversation.
"So she stalks them, copies them, and uses it to strike up a conversation," Spencer concluded.
"We need to ask the families if they recognize her," Seaver said, glancing specifically at Aitana. The brunette agreed and went to start that task before they would leave the precinct.
~ 0 ~
Later on, when Hotch practically ordered them to go to their hotel and rest, Aitana and Emily decided to take the first shift.
"The families are going to be coming in tomorrow morning," Aitana was saying as their elevator opened up to leave them on their room floor. "Hopefully one of them will recognize the woman."
"Wouldn't stop us if they didn't," Emily offered her an encouraging smile. She'd been doing this for far too long.
"I hope we catch her soon," Aitana's jaw tightened the more she thought about the unsub. "It sickens me that she's been manipulating these women. As someone who went through something similar…"
"It makes things personal," Emily nodded, understanding her completely. She'd had her own cases like that, perhaps even right now.
Aitana stopped by her room door, eyes falling for a second. "I tried that whole daily affirmation thing for a while," she confessed. "I thought maybe repeating them to myself each day would make a difference but...it didn't. All those self-help books...nothing worked."
"Everybody has to try their own solutions," Emily said, resting a hand on Aitana's arm. "Not everything is going to work for everybody. The important thing is that you found something that worked."
"Did I?" Aitana laughed lightly, and quite humorlessly. "Because every now and then I have my moments…"
"That's normal," Emily assured.
Aitana had to remember that constantly. She met Emily's gaze, the latter seemingly becoming distant even in the middle of a conversation. It certainly wasn't Emily. "Are you alright?" Aitana found herself asking. She'd already tried that once and it didn't work out. Time was passing and nothing seemed to be getting better with Emily which only made Aitana even more concerned. She needed to ask because maybe, just maybe, Emily might confide in her and she would be able to help.
Emily, however, nodded her head. "Of course, just tired."
"But—"
"Have a good night," Emily was quick on her toes and left before Aitana could even finish her question.
With a sigh, Aitana had no choice but to go into her own room and forget about whatever was troubling her friend.
~ 0 ~
By morning, Molly's ex-boyfriend had gone missing with only his car left to be found in a parking lot where both victims' cars had been found. Neither family of the victims had recognized the potential unsub, leaving the team with little to work with again.
"She's got Lyle too," Emily said, having no doubt about it. "She's too obsessed with power and control to work with anyone, especially somebody like Lyle."
"He's dominating and violent, just like her," agreed Morgan. "If anything, she sees him as a threat. But why take him now, with all this heat?"
"She's not done with Molly yet," Hotch concluded, moving around the conference table and using the landline to get ahold of Penelope. "Garcia, Dr. Weingold at Syracuse General sent us an extensive list of female patients in their mid-20s that match our profile. She's most likely local, raised by a single parent or in foster care."
Penelope was right on it. "Ok, narrowing it down!"
"This unsub likes familiar places. Look for extended family or previous addresses," added Spencer. "Did any of them grow up near Onondaga Lake?"
"Ok. Wait, wait. Here's one that might fit. Jane Gould!" Penelope said, leaving a slight pause to follow as she no doubt pulled up the woman's record. "Her grandparents had a house near Maple Bay, which is where Gail's body was found."
"Are they still alive?" asked Rossi.
"No. They died when Jane was in middle school."
"There's a possible trigger that could've manifested throughout the years," remarked Aitana. "Are the grandparents' house currently occupied, Garcia?"
"Yeah. Water and power all paid up."
"That's the one place she got attention from a parental figure. She feels at home and in charge there," Aitana deduced and judging by the looks from the others, she wasn't that far off.
"I'll send you an address. I'm calling up her photo right now," Penelope said but a few moments later, she was panicking. "Oh, lord. Oh, lord. This is her! This is the creepy stalker woman from the surveillance video!"
"Bingo," Seaver mumbled under her breath. At least now they were sure of who they were going for.
In a short amount of time, the team had gotten ahold of Jane's files from her doctor.
"So Dr. Weingold opened Jane's files. She can't release details, but she said there honestly aren't many," Penelope started going through the file, "Jane never admitted to being a cutter, let alone what triggered it. She started acting out after she lost her grandparents. Arrested for vandalism, removed from 2 foster homes for destruction of property."
"Desperate attempts to get attention," Seaver concluded, "Is that why she started cutting, another cry for help?"
"Cutting is about control, similar to anorexia. It's common in teenage girls who feel like they have no control over their lives," Aitana said, once again going back to her original deduction, "Her grandparents' deaths were probably the trigger. The loss of parental figures at such a young age turns your world upside down."
"There's a lot of pain, but no outlet," Morgan agreed. "No one's in charge."
"And both Molly and Gail can relate to that," Aitana once again felt the sickly feeling in her stomach. Jane manipulated both of them. "Jane used them to convince herself she's important. More than that, she thinks she's a selfless savior. What a b—"
"Serrano," Hotch cut in, startling Aitana.
The woman quickly looked down, face flushed with embarrassment. She couldn't let the case be that type of personal for her. For that matter, she would watch herself as they went to Jane's home.
It was a cabin-like home that was empty of anybody except for Lyle's corpse. Jane killed him not too long ago."
"After a confrontation like that, she'll want to go someplace familiar, someplace she feels in control," Emily said as the group left the cabin.
"What was around here again?" Morgan asked, and Aitana headed for the car to gather their map again only for Spencer to know the answer on the spot.
"A lake!"
Aitana stopped in her tracks and turned sideways, playfully rolling her eyes at him. "How about I call Hotch to let them know we're going to the lake?"
Spencer, none the wiser about her, merely nodded his head. "Yeah, thanks!"
They piled into the SUV and drove for the lake as quickly as they could. On the way there, Aitana called in the precinct for more backup. If they weren't fast enough, they might end up searching for another corpse.
"There, there!" Emily was suddenly shouting in the passenger's seat, pointing ahead as they were coming up to a bridge.
Morgan came to an unceremonious stop, barely avoiding an officer's car in the process. They quickly scrambled out of the car and looked below to the lake. Jane was holding Molly's body in her arms, about to let her body drop into the lake. Hotch and Rossi were already on the scene below trying to coax Jane into letting Molly go.
Suddenly, Molly whacked Jane and made an attempt to swim for it. Two officers went for the water and managed to grab Jane before she could reach for Molly.
"We need to get Molly to the hospital now," Aitana said, not waiting to hear anything else and simply rushing down for the lake. She saw to it personally that Molly was taken care of and brought to the hospital. Only then would she be able to call it a day.
#ocappreciation#fd: criminal minds#criminal minds#spencer reid#spencer reid fics#spencer reid imagines#criminal minds fics#criminal minds imagines#spencer reid x oc#cm#cm fics#cm imagines#oc: aitana serrano#fic: against all odds
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In a rare moment of return for East Coast Native Americans, the Onondaga Nation has had 1,023 acres of ancestral land in New York state returned to them.
The land in the Tully Valley includes the headwaters of Onondaga Creek, more than 45 acres of wetland and floodplains, and approximately 980 acres of forests and fields.
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