It's finally here and finally (kinda) formatted! Everything has a gender-neutral reader unless otherwise specified, and bodily descriptions are avoided at all costs. Longer lists are hyperlinked. Enjoy!
Clarice Starling/Will Graham (eventual Clarice Starling/Hannigram)
A/N: Clarice Starling decides to find Will Graham, the only other person who's been in her shoes with Lecter. This is a slow burn for sureeeee, idk I felt inspired. you can imagine any mix and match of these characters but i was mostly inspired by the books and Manhunter (1986)
A gruff hand scrubs across scarred cheek. Picking at the healing flesh. His shoulders draw taught at the sound of clumsy feet on the sand. Someone small, from somewhere landlocked given the unsteady gait. He takes another pull of his beer and jerks his arm in a wave like motion.
"I know you're there, get it over with."
The footsteps stutter. "Mr. Will Graham-?"
His whole body slumps as he drains the rest of the beer, not turning at the voice. "…who's asking, kid." The sand shifts before the steps resume. They're mindful enough to not block his sun. Instead standing beside him. Clutching a jacket much too heavy for the weather. The bottle sits between his legs, and he goes back to his smoldering cigarette instead.
"Mr. Graham, I'm Clarice Starling-" He raises his hand. Exhaling behind his shoulder.
"Did Jack Crawford send you?" She shakes her head vigorously. He can see the sweat beading on her forehead, pleather loafers sinking in the sand as the Florida heat beats on her back.
"No- Mr. Crawford- he-"
"Spit it out."
"He doesn't know I'm here." He finally looks up at her. The scar on his cheek is ugly. The flesh is fading to white, but the pink is angry and Clarice feels pity in her mouth.
"…that's new."
"I have an absurd ask, especially given your background, Mr. Graham, but I'm-" She bites the word. His head tilts. The last time someone sat out here with him was when Crawford dragged him back into a case that nearly killed him and ended with a divorce.
"…you've seen him." He manages. "
Yes- Mr. Crawford sent me to speak to Dr. Lecter."
"Jesus H. Motherfucking Christ, Jack."
"He thinks- he thinks I'm at the academy, I thought I'd be able to get away for maybe a day or so. No one, will tell me what happened to you, just that…."
"I'm a drunk who lives in Florida? And doesn't respond to postcards?"
She lets him sit with his assessment. She doesn't fidget, only shifts on her feet as they sink in the loose sand. He gets more uncomfortable quickly, as men often do. "Mr. Graham, you're an incredible profiler, no one can beat your work. It's not even a competition."
"Kid-"
"Starling. Clarice, Mr. Graham, I cannot solve this case on my own. And Dr. Lecter seems to still have a lingering fascination with you. It is selfish of me, I will admit, but I don't want anymore of his focus on me than I already have."
"Kid-"
"Mr. Crawford doesn't need to know, hell, I don't need to know, but another girl is going to die, Mr. Graham-"
"He's got you on Buffalo Bill? As a trainee?"
"Do you have an assumption about me and Mr. Crawford?" She rolls her eyes.
He finally looks up at her and finds himself a little startled, though his face doesn't betray him. "If you're asking if I think you slept with Crawford to get here, I'm the last person who'd buy that. Especially if you're already disobeying his orders." He looks at her up and down, squinting at her hair, the tilt of her nose, the pursing of her lips. "Besides you're not his type."
She scoffs softly, more of a horse chuff than anything. "You're not exactly a rose either, Mr. Graham-"
"Will. Mr. Graham is my father, and I'm sure you can pathologize that's not a positive."
ohhhhhh this SLAPS! will here is giving a really good combo of both petersen and edward norton, and it works really well. i can hear jodie foster's clarice perfectly in my head here.
Hi Bonsoir!! May I request some Manhunter (1986) Will Graham headcanons? It can be general headcanons plus some x fem!reader platonic ones too. I would love to know how you interpret this guy!! :]
Will Graham Headcanons
AUGH I'm so sorry these are kind of short. I may come back and expand them as more ideas come to me.
Why does he look like a wet cat here? Oh wait. He always looks like that.
Divider by @/pixopix
The contrarian. He's always got the opposing viewpoint lined up for you when you come to him for advice. You're afraid of moving to Pennsylvania? He'll come back to you a few days later with a typed list of all the fun things to do in the town you want to move to. You're not sure if you should leave your shitty partner? Here he comes with a pen and paper to make a "pros vs cons of staying with x" list- heavy on the cons.
More of a pessimist than a realist, though he likes to say he's the latter. Always looking for angles and ulterior motives. Never really shifts out of that investigative mindset. If you're another investigative type, he'll go back and forth with you for hours, just postulating.
Very tactile. Winds the telephone cord around his hand while he talks. Spins pens in meetings. Curls his toes in his dress shoes sometimes, just for a ground. Sleeps with one hand curled in the sheets or latched on to one corner of his pillow if he isn't holding Molly. If he ever took up origami, the house would be littered with tiny creatures.
Huge reader and lover of logic puzzles. When he can't get his mind to stop racing, the first thing he turns to is a novel or a battered pocket-sized compendium of sudoku puzzles. And not the easy ones, either. If he has a long flight, it's guaranteed that he'll spend it hunched over the tiny foldout tray, pen in hand, or leant against the window with a book propped up against the seat in front of him. The more his mind has to work to understand something, the less likely it is that he'll wander down a mental path that he doesn't want to see the end of.
Stays away from true crime books and t.v. because it just feels like an extension of work to him. You wouldn't settle in at the end of a long day working retail just to watch three hours of shopping infomercials. It's just self-torture at that point.
DnD didn't really take off until late in he was in his thirties, but he enjoys it vicariously through his son. Takes it very seriously when the kid needs help building a character. Reads the rulebook front to back so he knows what the kids are talking about when they recap sessions to each other. If pressed, he'd chose to be a cleric. The rigid moral compass and adherence to a singular creed are appealing to him, as is the focus on healing and helping teammates instead of taking the lead. He'd be hard pressed to choose an alignment, though. He'd like to believe that he's a Lawful Good, but if he's being honest, he'd consider himself more of a Lawful Neutral or a Lawful Evil at best.
Oddly good at fishing. It's the one "quiet" activity that he enjoys. He'll sit at the edge of the family dock for hours, eerily still, and he always comes back with something. Perhaps it's his silence that attracts them- the way that he seems to become part of the scenery the longer he sits there. If you ask, he'll just shrug and give you a faint smile. "Guess I've just got the knack for it."
Very rigid with his schedule, but he doesn't tell anyone else about his plans. He'll lay out his entire day while he makes coffee- even if it only involves patching a fence or scraping the sailboat or going to the store. It's very rare that he actually goes out with you if you try to do something spontaneous. He doesn't like to deviate from the status quo. He'll do things early in the morning, like meet you for coffee, if you manage to call him the day before and put the idea into his head.
I like to think that half of his wardrobe is chosen by him and the other half is chosen by Molly. He puts together all of his work and travel outfits (those dreadful ties just can't be Molly's idea), but when he's at home, he's restricted to the other half of the closet. He had enough freedom to pick the color and style of his shorts, but if not for Molly, he'd be wearing the same exact t-shirt with them every single day. She supplies the hawaiian prints and the graphic tees.
Always available by phone, even at odd times. You'll call him in the middle of the night just to talk out a theory for a case, and when he picks up on the fourth ring, it sounds like he's outside. There's wind blowing over the phone's speaker, and his voice sounds oddly far away.
"Can't sleep?"
"...'M workin' on that turtle enclosure."
It's spoken with firm finality, like he doesn't want you to pry. He should know better by now.
"So you can't sleep."
A long pause, followed by a grunt and a sigh. He must have sat down in the sand.
"...No. What d'you need?"
"Tell me about the turtles."
"What?"
"Tell me about the turtles, and then I'll tell you about my case."
It always goes the same way. He's eager to hear about cases, despite his insistence that he never wants to return to the bureau. Even the slightest chance of delving back into that mindset is enticing to him. So, you call him when you're stumped, and in exchange for giving him something to chew on, he has to tell you what he's been up to. It's the closest the two of you ever get to proper correspondence, but your friendship is more solid than some of your most intimate relationships. You know his habits like the back of your hand, can pull him out of his own mind when he needs it, and he's your ground for everything.
Tags: Fluff, steamy/mildly NSFW content, mild language, making out, wandering hands, pre relationship, post canon, ash defects AU, pet names, accidental love confessions, i wrote out this WHOLE thing with fem reader in mind and then ended up using literally no bodily descriptors so uhhhh *shrugs* reader pronouns are do/not i guess, no use of y/n, long-ish read, one shot
Summary: You make the mistake of unknowingly riling up your favorite android, and he must close that positive feedback loop. He must.
A/N: Combined with part of a request from @c-bug98: "I was thinking the reader has a pet name for one of the crew members and Ash gets jealous..."
hello my beloved friend! (and fellow manhunter enjoyer)
do you have any interest in an unfinished SOTL/Manhunter crossover focusing on Clarice and Will :3
Uh HELL YES any and all Thomas Harris stuff! :D
And if I may also stick a mention on here my friend @spookywriter14 has a hefty list of HCs for the concept!!!
