#and just like that hundreds of lives are saved

[em1989ts]

𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆

five hargreeves x reader

word count: 1.7k

part one. part two.

summary: after discovering your husband cheated on you with his brother's wife, you run off to a different timeline using the subway, only to find a deli crowded with a familiar face.

author's note: this is my first fic that i'm actually posting lol, if anyone sees this i'll be totally shocked

“Just leave me alone, Five.”

You were speed walking down the steps into what looked like an abandoned subway, desperately trying to avoid the man you thought you knew, who was currently right on your tail.

“Not until you talk to me, y/n,” he pleaded, swiftly trying to catch up. 

“There’s nothing to discuss, Five,” you said in a cold manner. 

You just couldn’t speak to him. Not after what just happened in the living room with him and Diego. After what was just brought to light. 

You wanted to laugh, you really did, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to do so. 

Why would you hear him out? Why would he believe he had a right to explain himself? How could he? A marriage of over half a century, down the drain. And for what? 

Seven years with her.

Lila. 

His brother’s wife. The mother of his brother’s children. The child of the couple he assassinated. 

It made no sense. 

You angrily sped up and quickly got onto the train that was stopped at the station. It’s white light making you more stressed than you already were. 

The doors shut in his face. Just a couple more seconds and he would’ve been on this train. You would’ve been stuck having to hear him try and save face until the next stop. 

Sometimes the universe lets you win. 

But why not this time. 

You stared at him through the window of the subway car doors. He looked at you pleadingly. You looked at him disappointedly. 

Who was he, because he sure as hell wasn’t the Five you had known since you were thirteen years old. Stuck in the apocalypse with nothing but ashes and him.

 You had thought it was fate. You and him were meant to be stuck together, meant to be there for each other. Even after everything that’s happened. Apocalypse after apocalypse after apocalypse. 

The subway started to move. You stayed standing, staring at him with daggers in your eyes until he was out of sight. He didn’t chase after the car, he knew it was pointless. He knew he’d never get you back. He didn’t deserve you. 

Once the outside of the train was completely dark and all you could see was your own reflection in the window, you turned and took a seat. Hands in your lap, looked straight ahead, drained. 

What were you supposed to do now? Where would you go? 

Maybe this train would take you to a universe with a Five that could never dream of betraying you the way your own did. 

The lights shone over you as you were deep in thought. You had no idea where this train would take you, when it would take you. 

Suddenly, the car slowed to a gradual stop and the doors opened. You wanted to stay on, maybe pass by hundreds of stops until you actually got off the train but you heard footsteps passing by the station. 

Something in the back of your mind told you to get off at this stop, that you would find something important. 

You stood and slipped through the doors. As soon as you turned your head to scan your surroundings, that’s when you saw him. 

How could he have gotten here before you? 

Five was casually walking towards a set of stairs when he saw you and stopped in his tracks. 

You glared and felt a flame arise in you as you stomped over to him. 

“I told you to leave me alone, Five. What the hell are you doing here?” you pointed an angry, accusatory finger in his face but he just grabbed your hand and gently held it in his. 

You were confused, he seemed different. Less guilty. More sentimental. 

Your anger faltered as he stared into your eyes with an admiration you were already starting to miss. 

“y/n,” he said sincerely, “it’s been so long.” 

Of course he wasn’t your Five. You had just jumped onto a multi-dimensional subway for Christ’s sake. 

“Come on, follow me,” he said as guided you towards a stairwell. 

As you descended and turned a corner, warm glowing lights filled your sight. A warming, comforting sense of nostalgia flooded your senses. You looked up and read the lights on the sign, Max’s Delicatessen, as the Five you stumbled across led you inside. The sound of a familiar vintage tune filled your ears. 

Immediately, you felt all eyes travel to your frame. Every single pupil in this room belonged to a Five. The man you never wanted to see again. Each one of them looked at you with a shocked and astounded expression.

 The Five still holding your hand paid no attention and directed you into a booth seat. 

As you sat down, you took in your surroundings. The Fives behind the counter preparing food, the Fives taking orders, the Five delivering food, the Fives whispering at tables. 

There were so many of them, what was this place?

The Five sitting across from you looks in your eyes with a knowing look.

“It’s not often we get one of you around here.” 

You shake out of your confused thoughts and reply, “And what exactly is this place?” 

Before you can get a reply, a waiter Five comes up to the table and places two mugs of coffee in front of you and Five. Before he leaves, he places a couple cups of creamer and packets of sugar next to your mug. 

Without answering your question, the Five in front of you smiles and says, “We keep those in the kitchen and not on the tables since it’s really rare to see you.” 

You give him an annoyed look. 

“Can you explain to me what’s going on?” 

“Right,” he sat up a little straighter and took a sip of his coffee. “You hopped on a subway that took you to an alternate timeline. That timeline just so happens to hold a place where us Fives come after we’ve stopped trying to fix the problem.” He largely gestured to the room full of alternate versions of your husband. Ex husband. 

You stared at him for a few seconds, your brain rattled with questions, before you spoke. 

“Stopped trying? You mean trying to save the world?” 

“Stopped trying to fix the broken timeline,” he replied matter-of-factly. 

“The broken timeline?” you repeated in confusion. 

“There’s only supposed to be one, and I’ll bet you can guess who shattered the original timeline.” 

Before you could reply, you heard a bell as another Five yelled out, “We did.” 

Five made a disapproving yet knowing face as he called back, “Why you always gotta wreck shit, Brisket Five?” 

Brisket Five shrugged at him then winked at you before returning back to his work. 

“Okay . .” you started, trying to come up with the right questions, “So, our existence is the cause of the broken timeline. Is that why there’s constantly an apocalypse?” 

“Precisely,” Five responds, before gesturing to the framed pictures on the wall. “By the way, check out the artwork. All the different ways we made our universe go kaboom.” 

You stare at the photographs on the wall, noticing both familiar doomsday and entirely unique ones. Once your eyes reach a certain point along the wall you notice some framed images of you. Different photos of you and Five, living your lives together throughout the timelines. 

The Five across from you notices your curious glimpse. 

“I mentioned we don’t often see you around here,” he explains. “It’s because it’s rare that you survive your timeline.” 

You quickly turned back to him in response to his statement. You don’t survive? How many of the Fives in this room have lost their y/n? Has the Five in front of you lost his? 

“What do you mean?” 

“You and I will always meet, in every timeline throughout the universe. It just seems that fate doesn’t always take our side,” he says solemnly as he looks down at his mug. 

A Five piped up from the booth behind you, “My y/n was killed by the Swedes back in Dallas.” 

Another from a couple tables away said, “Mine died in the apocalypse, but we had a good thirty years together.” 

The Five in front of you looked up at you and said, “In my timeline, the Handler shot you and you died in my arms. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” 

He gave you such a genuine look. Like he’s felt shame and guilt for so long, his apology was heartbreaking. How could these Fives care so much about you, while your Five forgot all about you. 

“It’s okay,” you looked at him truthfully and took his hand in your, “I’m sure none of your y/ns would ever blame you for their fate, but they would for giving up. They’d want you to keep going, stay strong and do what it takes to save your family and the world. That’s what they loved most about you.” 

You felt bad placing blame on him but you didn’t understand how the man who has spent his whole life prioritizing the safety of his family and overcoming countless obstacles and stopping at nothing to save his family could just give up. Sure it was tiring, but that was the life the two of you lived, together. 

He smiled at you so lovingly it crumbled your heart. 

“Y/n, the doomsdays will never stop coming. The only way to end this constant cycle of saving and destroying the world is if our family ceases to exist.” 

Your heart slowed its beating as you stared at your interlocked hands, contemplating. 

You hated to admit it but he made sense. Whenever your family is all together, everything goes to shit. People always die and the world will always end. 

Before you could respond, you heard the door swing open and a tense tone fell over the deli. 

The Five across from you held your hands a bit tighter as he glanced up at the Five that had rushed in.

Your Five. 

☕︎

part two.

[demonio-fleurs]

rewatching one piece episode 1119 has me thinking a lot about sabo + his emotions

like. you can see in the episode that what happened to king cobra genuinely affected him. he wanted to save king cobra, and he was obviously upset at his inability to save king cobra. and we know from the manga that when he is a stowaway on the ship back to lulusia, he thinks back to king cobra's dying words and has a pained expression.

yet... to dragon and ivankov, he tells them he is okay with what happened if it fuels the flames of the revolution. he keeps a straight face, despite shaking a bit, and does his best to seem unaffected by what happened.

and then i think back to dressrosa, when koala called sabo after he reunited with luffy, and how sabo didn't cry when he saw luffy, but cried after when talking to koala.

and then i remember how young he was when he was named chief of staff. what a heavy burden that is on the shoulders of someone so young. how he has probably forced himself to be strong, to show no weakness or vulnerability because weakness and vulnerability can be used against him and he is responsible for the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people. how he has probably tried to model himself off of dragon, who is stoic and doesn't easily show his emotions. or kuma, who after suffering a massive loss threw himself harder into his work, pushed himself further to achieve their goals.

and it makes me wonder... if we'll ever get to a breaking point with sabo. if something will happen that will just make him snap and lose that mask, that strength he hides his vulnerabilities behind. and i wonder what that would look like.

[southernsolarpunk]

so since I've basically seen all the seasons at my house now I've got a decent understanding of the micro-climate of my yard, and i need to document it somewhere so here goes:

front yard gets scorched. straight up. it doesn't really let up until 2-3 pm so i need full sun drought tolerant plants in the front area. (i dug some swales to redirect runoff from the foundation of the house, so its a little more moist than it was when we first moved in) this can be slightly mitigated by planting a couple dwarf trees in the very front area of the yard but that'll only help a little. i got a hardy hibiscus 'dark mystery' (Hibiscus Moscheutos, native perennial) that i plant to take cuttings of next year that has been loving the heat. This area i also plan to plant a bunch of milkweed (current varieties I'm planning to get are sandhill milkweed [asclepias Humistrata] green milkweed [Asclepias Viridis] Purple milkweed [Asclepias Purpurascens]) I'm also planning to get some native ornamental grasses to place around the entire property (including the front yard) some other plants i planning to plant are cardinal flower (Lobelia Cardinalis), liatris (liatris Spicata), Gaillardia (Gaillardia Pulchella), prairie sage (artemisia Ludoviciana), mountain mint (pycnanthemum muticum). more to be decided after i put this wave in. (definitely want some bee balm)

right side of the yard (by the house) is dark, cool, wooded, and wet. the rhododendron i put in was doing great until my brother in law took a lawnmower to it. :( but at least i can replace it. this is also where i have my feijoas (he also ran over them but they bounced back). probably will just add some rhododendrons & hydrangeas. i need to look up some more native shade plants for this area.

left side of the yard (by the house) gets even more sun than the front yard. i want to get a green house eventually (i have to replace all the windows in my house so I'll repurpose those for it) so this is probably the best place to do it.

backyard is large, part is dry and sunny, and towards the back is wooded. this is where i plan to put the fruit & nut trees i want. i need to thin out some of the less mature trees because they're extremely dense at the moment. (got a battery-powered chainsaw. i would have just borrowed my stepdads tools but hes convinced i would break them if i used them. :/ but at least now my father-in-law can borrow mine if he needs it) in the center of the backyard is where i have 2 12x4 gardens beds, and in the future i plan to add 2 more. this is where i have a lot of passionflower maypop plants, i transplanted some to the fenceline but i want an archway trellis as well. (i have watched probably over a hundred gulf fritillary caterpillars turn into butterflies, they're everywhere) the right side of the yard is where i plan to put the taller fruit & nut trees, (wont block sunlight) but i also want to get some dwarf fruit trees to place around as well. also this summer i saw lightning bugs in the backyard (!!!!!!!) so i plan to put in some grasses around an area that's like 12x12 ft across that dips down a few feet. (this area literally looks like a dried up small pond) i looked up how to use clay to create a natural lining for a pond, so this area will be good for lightning bugs, frogs, toads, salamanders, etc. this is in the lowest part of the yard, so its an optimal place for it.

this is just some basic plans for the future- i got a lot of seeds online so its not too break-the-bank expensive, and i get a lot of bushes and trees from etsy which can be great for saving money, despite the slight increased risk for mislabeled plants. i save money with this so i can get some nicer varieties of fruit trees that i really want (fuji apples, hosui pears, bing & rainier cherry trees).

my father-in-law really enjoys canning and preserving so I'm growing all the trees so i can give him some fruit to preserve (he lives in a very low-laying area, and a lot of it is swamp so he doesn't have as much room for fruit trees, his blackberry jam is amazing) also a guy my partner works with is into gardening as well (dudes he gave us so many peppers literally pounds of them) so i want to be able to return the favor with fruit. :) my mom and stepdad also have some fruit trees but I'm hoping to grow some that they don't have so we can trade.

ultimately i just want to grow as much food as possible and give it away to everyone who wants it, while also hosting the ultimate butterfly rest stop.

if you read this and enjoyed it, I'm glad! I'll post about these projects as i do them (which will be slowly) so i hope maybe this will inspire some of you :)

[heretherebedork]

I will genuinely be very sad if it turns out that Vee isn't the reincarnated Wad. I can't even deny it. The show is setting up so much to show that this about stagnation versus change and about fate and destiny and choice and how they intertwine and about the red thread of destiny connecting them and the green choice that brought them together and now has to come back and on top of that is showing us that there are people trying to keep them apart and the entire show started with San tying his soul to Wad's and what was Vee's speech about wanting people to move on after death and loss if not speaking into existence what Wad would have wanted for San? It's about a second chance, yes, and that's the joy of fated soulmates but they also have to be soulmates to fulfill that trope. Please. Please just let this be. Don't make this a Big Twist where Vee can't save San because San's promise to the goddess was specific or for all of that to not matter. This is about learning to change and grow and moving past the past but it's also about fate and soulmates and destiny and what it means when you mix the two, when you see that change is the opposite of stagnation but that tradition can still lead you to the right choice in the end if you let yourself grow.

I just want this to be soulmates. I want to see the powerful message of the story about change versus stagnation, about conservative versus progressive, about destiny versus choice in a story about chosen soulmates and how that turns itself into fate and how fate has to be chosen again and again in order for it to be fate but that still needs Vee to be Wad, it truly does, because otherwise it's not intertwining fate and choice.

The red and the green lose so much meaning if they're not being brought forward by the very concepts of destiny and choice. Just... let this be. Please. No big twist, no rug pull, just... a good story and good commentary and soulmates. Please.

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

Anyway I got notified that I'll be getting a nice $$ bonus from work today and I wish that I could celebrate with someone in a way that didn't just feel like obnoxious bragging. Like beyond the financial aspect, it's just nice to be recognized for good work and I actually feel... good?? about this job??

But it feels so silly to say I want to celebrate when I just got back from what felt like my first real vacation in a very long time and am doing cool comic con stuff this weekend and am scheduled for a new tattoo next weekend. I am already doing lots of things to try to make myself feel good! It feels selfish to want more!

But I guess even with all of that, there's just still a hunger for external validation from trusted sources. Will I ever grow out of wanting someone to be proud of me?

[lexalovesbooks]

I also really wish we could have seen the moments where everyone finally gets to talk to kihrin after his stunt at the end of the discord of gods and just read him (and presumably Janel and Teraeth and Thurvishar too since I’m sure they were all in on it) the riot act like Hey. what the fuck were you thinking? I know everyone’s reactions were priceless i know it

[britneyshakespeare]

you know someday i'm gonna feel so good when i have my student loans paid off

that ain't gonna be soon, trust me, but i think about it

[southern--downpour]

having upsetting thoughts about the “live” ending

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Honestly though, this (what Ashe is pointing out) is exactly why I don't think GW could possibly end well. There's no "talking it over" after all the bloodshed (especially bloodshed started by them, and especially bloodshed started by them that didn't have to happen).

The way the narration leaves it "open" too at the end of GW just comes across as "it failed". It feels like... a kind of pointless story?

And I know some people might think that since Dimitri personally isn't as deeply affected by losing Matthias and so might be willing, that's still no good if his people and closest allies aren't. Rodrigue and Sylvain wouldn't be so forgiving, and I do think Dimitri would follow suit because that's his father (Rodrigue)'s closest friend and one of his own closest friends' father.

Add that to the fact that they have Sreng to deal with still (and I imagine sooner or Sylvain would figure out that Leicester had a hand in provoking Sreng to attack Faerghus) on top of losing Matthias and I imagine all the stress and aggravation wouldn't bode well for Leicester as far as Claude's thinking of things working out goes.

I just really can't see where GW goes afterward that would be "good" or works in Claude's favor at all. Maybe that was the intention and it was meant to be a route with a completely tragic ending, but apparently there are players who think it would end well and whatnot and I just can't see that happening (both from Faerghus' end and from Adrestia's end, the latter of which Claude discussed within GW itself).

If their intention was for a totally tragic ending, like yeah, I can see that... but as always the writing muddies the waters to make it sound good while something bad is happening. It keeps trying to have a positive spin on bad things as if they're just afraid to commit to a fully bad ending.

[7-oh-ta1]

When I see ppl hating on king rhoam i start blacking out and seeing visions

[evilkitten3]

having some thoughts on itachi and radicalization and how people can do the most horrific shit imaginable while fully believing it's the right thing to do and police states

[hopecomesbacktolife]

crying weeping. this book was phenomenal. 100/10 magnificent and soooooo intense and vast and searingly intimate and heartbreaking and swoops of joy and I just. Katherine x Zera 5ever I love them so much

(possible spoilers in the tags even though I redacted the most spoilery bits)

once I’m a bit more coherent I plan to write an actual legible review (a glowing one, of course!) but I had to scream about all my feelings for this book here 😭❤️

[transjohnnycash]

Ah. The grieving

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

oh my god i'm so in love with all the fic ideas you talked about, but especially the last two with the castles kidnapping matt in like a friendly and well-meaning way. it's so funny to me and also the dynamic here would be absolutely excellent. never realised i needed a pro-crime hyper-competent maria castle in my life but apparently i do???

the dynamic in those, but especially the christmas one, is fucking hilarious. i love it so much. i'd write it tomorrow if i had the time

like the castles are treating this like one of those times where you pick up a puppy out of a cardboard box in a kmart parking lot and like, it's a little scrawny and underfed and feral and yeah, it probably would have been smarter to pick one out of the shelter where at least you know they've been checked out and have their shots and everything, but you know, the kids wanted one so bad and it's christmas, and it's cold and the poor thing's probably going to freeze to death in the cardboard box, so you bring it home, and suddenly it's in these new and unfamiliar surroundings and it keeps trying to skitter out the front door every time it opens, so maybe you have to keep it in a back room or tied up for a while and you hand feed it treats until it stops trying to run away and like, you know eventually the puppy's going to warm up to you as long as you treat it right and when that happens you'll have a happy new member of the family that you can probably shove felt reindeer antlers on for the family christmas card

meanwhile matt's treating this like a fucking kidnapping

[arcaneyouth]

god i fucking hope this rover thing pays off.

[clownpassing]

um lately i have been feeling so weird because my life w jonathan is great and we have nice things and money is never an issue anymore but then like.. i don't know i still feel hollow and empty and lonely and being with him doesn't really make me as happy as it once did and we are getting into arguments a little more often and i can't help but find myself getting defensive instead of trying to calmly work things out