#i feel like saint snow is gonna win

[ophelian-darling]

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬.

𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 : Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto and Kento Nanami - gn reader.

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 : Their Obsession was too much to handle, and you find yourself growing impatient with their acts of dandling, till you had enough. 

TW : Implied Kidnapping, Physical and Verbal/psychological abuse, Blood & Injury.

enjoy ♡

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐮 𝐆𝐨𝐣𝐨 :

Days passed like a vision through the glass, slow to come and quick to go, without even a faint image of them or a smallest fragment of memory, as if you were looking into someone else's life, not your own. The horizon blended now into Satoru's eyes- you were no longer able to see the real extension of a natural blue, instead looking through his irises, faux felt and fake friendly, non-stop and ad nauseam. a smile would paint itself across his features and a kind touch would cosset your hands, attempting to mimic a color of romance.

"Whatcha Thinkin' of, Babe?" He asked, a honeyed voice softening his words, already knowing what was in your head; wanting a sweet lie out of your tongue. You hated his voice- no, everything about him, from his stares, the contorts and shapes of his face and the many shades of his affection; one minute, sugar and honey drip off his tongue, in Hopes of aiming at the moon and winning your trust, the other all of his sweetness is poisoned and laced with venom, intentions of wounding your ego into submission. At times, to him, you were Valentine, Babe, Love and Dreamboat; just as you were the useless, pathetic, whiney and liar, depending on his mood.

The horror of him was his eyes, they were softly in a cruel way, no effort of smiling or laughter could coffin the rage and Mania you were too aware of. You were always on alert, counting your sins and thinking of ways to redeem yourself, mentioning Kissing back, twisting your lips with pink lies, thanking him for his gifts and wearing a gleeful expression on your face. 

"Aww Satoru! you spoil me, I don't know what would've happened to me if you weren't around!..." 

You felt maggots crawl under your skin, rushing forth to your brain while you struggled to keep your smile. The more the hours fly, the more your cover of ardor cracks. a thin string of bitterness lining from beneath your nail right into your heart, stitching more into a scornful crimson slowly. 

Just how dare he- take you against your will, fondle and caress you as if you were a mere housecat and call himself a saint for bothering to look after you, while you don't remember asking or consenting for any of his attention? During so many times, including the moment as of now, you'd imagine him bleeding, cascades of red contradicting his snow complexion, pieces of glass needling his eyes that you hated with all Satan's grudge to heaven. You are sure no single speck of a tear would warm your eyelid if he dies, it was what he deserved.

"You okay, Love? something is off with you" Concern painted his face, while his blues remained ever unsettling. 

Your mouth clinged into a straight tight line, no longer able to remember the supposed smile. a harsh retort died on the tip of your tongue, leaving the room to even a harsher, short-lived silence to stretch. 

His thumb traced on your cheek, before he stood up "I'm gonna make you a cup of coffee to lift you up a li'l, stay here while I'm in there" 

Of course you're staying here, where else would you go?! Moving an inch without seeing his face was less likely than seeing a green sky.

The string of your heart sewn itself thicker. As memories of him puppeteering you flashed unwelcomed, the scornful thread darned into a ferocious rag, veiling any sense of your heart, caging it with a hating aviary. You carried yourself up, heading to the kitchen absentmindedly, guided by the heavy feeling in your chest. He didn't tire himself to look around- not like you could do anything, wrapped around his digits to control. 

An unknown tune he hummed caroled the small kitchen, his hands moving around to prepare the mugs and the coffee, too immersed in his own realm of thought to discern your motives. 

If you ever got the chance to recount this exact moment, you would say that it happened so fast that your mind didn't settle on one image: did you shatter the mug on the top of his head or the back of his neck? You don't remember, yet the anamnesis of your muscles retained the surge of Adrenaline, a slow motion second of your hand grabbing the porcelain cup and breaking it on his skull. you do recall he said something- things. a series of slurs that were too filthy, every curse and insult in the scripture. 

The crimson rag was torn off from your heart, a delicious feeling of revenge drugging you in a lucid Catharsis. your fingers twitched, your body braced itself for whatever beating it was about to receive. Oddly enough, he continued groaning and grunting, holding his head in both his bloodied hands. 

Dark red seeped through his white locks, oozing down his neck, sullying his shirt and tinting his fingers and hands. For the first time, his strange blues held an emotion different from insanity, a glassy layer over them, just a tad bit up from his usually static stare. his eyelids wept with red as he stared at you for a moment, saying nothing, before heading -as it seems- to the bathroom, a trail of red spots on the floor marking your deed.

𝐒𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐮 𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐨 :

In your dreams, the sunrises and sunsets were sin crimson, dark as Abel's blood. You'd see Suguru and yourself, sitting on a shore, its sea so transparent, hued with the cinnabar rays casting from a cloudless sky. You often look forth into the puce red horizon and not to him, rarely ever locking eyes with his. One time, as you remember from a shattered vestige in your awakening, you rotate your head to the side to see him staring at you; a half erased smile contouring his lips, Black eyes mirroring the skyline that stretched to no end in sight. Twice or thrice, he'd say something, a trail of meaningless letters sliding down his composed voice. You don't retain on his words exactly, but your name was amongst them; during a glib talk of his, your name rolls down his tongue with his usual calmness, scripting your dreams as such almost always ever since you were tied to him.

"Something in your mind, Dear?" The calmness- you can hear the smile in his inquiry without looking at him, drumming through your skull in an image of him in your dreams. You looked up from your lap, noticing that he was stitching something up, the needle struggling to remain still in his fingers. Of course, he was anything short of a tailor as much as he was short of a lover, wanting to be something he can't be but insisting anyway like the stubborn cockroach he is. 

You rolled your tongue across your teeth, only to let out a muffled 'nothing' as a response. you were really trying hard to not hurl at him, he was getting on your nerves for just his existence.

He chuckled, digging the needle into a red fabric "Something is in your mind indeed. I don't know what it is and why you look so upset, but I promise I'll make you feel better" 

You'll only make me feel better by choking on a dagger, Suguru.  you wanted to say, yet being completely aware that it'll have consequences- ones you were needless for. The numbness on your face is constantly pricking its presence across your flesh, swells and mounds that remind you of his black eyes losing their serenity, metamorphosing into a brutal night dark. His hands slapped and punched as equally as they billed and cooed, and your skin has grown hateful of both.

He does not appear as a human at all. in a vast space of thinking, you would theorize that he was not much but a parasite that sucked life out of everything beautiful, including love. his version of amour was twisted, burying care under Control and killing fondness to revive fervor. Cords you couldn't see snaked around your heart and soul, burning as they got tighter, paralyzing you with apathy that was leisurely altered to a pale hue of resentment, until it fully discolored to a dim rage.

It creeped its way to your fingers. you could hear Satan's whisper, planting the vilest of ideas in your mind; at least you had the luxury of hiding your thoughts and making them behind an expression you can't feel now- you're becoming him, a hollow shell of one face and multiple voices, already sensing the stitches of a mask, a dull one that a death face left more lineaments to remember. you were blessed with emotions unlike him, there's no way you'll melt into Suguru. 

"Darling I have a surprise for you, look!" He announced cheerfully, bringing the piece of fabric he's been working on to your attention. 

He raised the Obi belt in his hands, proud of his handmade sewing. you scanned it carefully: the silk is red candy colored with few golden flowers orienting it, not much skill or talent radiating off of this mimicry of a cloth.

"I intended to offer you this as a birthday gift, but I preferred giving it to you now. maybe it'll cheer you up a little, you've been really quiet lately…" the damn calm smile decorated his face again, this time a drop of what sounded like concern is mixed with it.

You took the thing from his hand, acting like you're inspecting it but in fact holding a cackle. how in hell's seven circles he expected you to wear this?! If Suguru thought with that little sense he always prides himself of, he'd see that he wasted such a gorgeous material on such a failure of an accessory. 

"Do you like it? I hope so…" there's an octave in his voice translated as 'please tell me it's the best gift you ever received', too bad it's ugly to give him the pleasure of hearing a compliment. 

"I've been working on it for weeks. I had to choose between red or pink, deciding to pick the former because I thought it would look better on you… I'm nothing of a tailor, but I did my best" he rubbed his palms together, as if an imaginary balm coating them. he laughed a little "I gave myself a lot of needle pricks, but it was worth it-" 

"It's awful" 

You didn't have to look up to see his face.

"What?" He muttered, completely not seeing this coming. 

"It's terrible, I hate it" a joyful spark twinkled throughout your body as you said so. the smile that you tried so hard to repress curved itself on your lips. you felt you could add more fuel to the fire.

"The color is dull and this silk looks cheap, but that's not why it's ugly. I bet a child can sew an Obi belt better than you do. this thing should go back where it belongs, the trash." 

The silk wasn't cheap at all. you silently praised whoever produced it as the fabric resisted between your fingers. for a second, you considered just throwing the belt at his face, but you already teared it up a little, imagining that you were tearing Suguru apart between your fingers, the very same Suguru who was standing in front of you, ghostly pale and owl eyed, uttering not a word.

Red ribbons rippled through the small space between your hands and feet, forming a pile on the floor and resting in place. your heart clenched in excitement, a reaction that replaced the usual fear of him beating you senseless in such situations. you awaited for his hand to fly, for his voice to raise, but none came. 

His gaze froze. He apparently couldn't contain how his present ended up being nothing more than some piece of garbage that had to be disposed of. Suguru opened his mouth then closed it before turning his heels around and exiting the room. bringing back your eyes to the remains of the belt, it now jumped to you that there was something written on the back of it. 

𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢 :

It is agreed upon as a human truth, that Shackles do not necessarily form as chains- For it merely requires a key to be freed from. but in most absent minds, the understanding of captivity and freedom were abridged in crime and punishment or torture (always coming first as physical in most thoughts), yet there is a sort of abstract bindings; way more restraining than tangible ones and with no limit of their ability to fetter the prisoner regardless of how strong is their will to break free, or how far their access to the key goes. mind games have proven themselves to be more effective throughout history, even in the simplest circumstances. What is more, playing on the strings of sentiment: romanticization of bonds -no matter how abusive they were- such as parenthood, friendship or more formally formed ties; marriage. 

There is this magical thing about marriage : it is a golden cage, a caressing shackle perceived as a warm nest in a vision of a romance, colored as red and pink, planted as roses. a cuff that priests call matrimony, poets call union and goldsmiths call rings- you name it; it's still a menacle, whether spouses consented to it or not. 

Kento was the typical man with the ordinary ambitions of immersing in a job (best if it paid generously), owning what is enough and settling down. To him, marriage was the ultimate expression of love, more than a mere ring, a wedding or flowery vows.

"I do have for you a love so dear that I drink from what your lips touch, I breathe when your lungs exhale, I slumber on where your skin embraces the mattress; one of both life and death."

- Your adoring one.

Engraved in red, the words slided over your heart's veil, forgotten in a memory of a cold rib. Satan lured Adam with an apple, so how would sugary words find any trouble deceiving? 

"You're making me worried, Sweetheart…" sotto voce in the nature of a Dove's coo; disgustingly fondling. 

Of course, a silver tongue cuts sharp in the same way it pours coquetry. life with Kento was seeing a moon and its dark side. under the beam of light, his lips mulls everything on you; kisses on your lips, cheeks and forehead blossomed, full rainbow ray of flowers were gifted to you, mostly red, attached to them little cards and billets-doux that enveloped letters of dalliance, arranged together and too sweet to the point it sickens you. The irony of his dimness was that he's more tolerable when he gnashes his teeth; wounds at your skin and soul, scolds and punishes in a parental manner. even for days, you'd hear the beast howling in your ear, ringing through the corridors of your head and it hurts to think.

Your eyes reflected in his figure, kneeling in front of you, not meaning they were drinking in the sight of him.

His thumbs brushed across your palms "Can I see your smile again? you look beautiful when you smile, you already are no matter how your face appears" nothing stirred up in you, emptiness of a blind man's face swam through the void.

"Please… sweetheart.." your composure nearly broke; a laugh dwindled within your throat. Does he think that you were a sole toy?! there to be played with, clothed and stripped to the colors of his whims, put on a pedestal at dawn and degraded at dusk?! it gnaws now on the branches of your chest, melts in your heart and fills your brain with a spiteful flow. 

"I've got something nice, just for you, I'm sure it'll make you happy" with that, he left quickly and returned just as, something in the outlines of a large flower bouquet behind his back. no surprise, he had a proclivity for flowers; for how red are roses, for how fragrant was jasmine and for how innocent were lilies. 

"I love you Sweetheart, never forget that!" as expected, roses. a pink posy of them.

You took the bouquet from his hands, glaring at the flowers in a burning grudge. for a flash of a glint, Medusa's serpents coiled between your digits, circling wrists, their skin flaying with yours. a bottle of somber tears shattered, impuring your core with loathing never imagined to be stored in your soul. With the swiftness of a sword out of its sheath, your hand flew high, landing the thorny plants across his face, over and over again, no drop of fear in you. Kento succeeded in grabbing your hand- not the one attacking him, squeezing your wrist to make you yield, but to no avail. your blood rushed hot through your veins, carving your mind with screams of violence and to hurt him more, that is when your fists balled and your ankles rose up sharply.

"Stop!" 

You would never. your hands had their own mind, they scratched and punched and grabbed to your heart's content, avenging you after so long of a macabre suffering. your shackles started to unravel, each movement of yours freeing the hollowness outside you. short minutes stretched forth like long hours until you were done- or like you were over with him for now.

a blur on your vision subdued, the faint image clearing line by line. Kento was on the floor, leaning on a chair and balancing his weight on a knee, right hand shielding over his face. you couldn't see the damage well through his fingers till he got up, still holding his face in his hand, silently giving you his back and leaving you to your own devices. as he left, you noticed red across the sides of his hands and arms; few cuts and swells distorting the fabric of his pale skin. 

[lovelybeesthings]

Stupid bunny ch 1? 2 3

Coriolanus Snow x reader

Word count: 1.8k

Y/n Ashwood was the daughter of a very powerful family that was a part of the structure of the Capito, the Ashwoods had been one of the few honorable families to survive the falls of the most powerful families. Y/N was a very sweet innocent girl who never had to survive by eating raw meat or scraps and didn't have to fight for a scholarship to attend the Academy.

Alongside her wealth she was a beautiful girl with long lashes, rosy cheeks Doe eyes, and plum lips, her hair was in bubble braids or in long curls her hair was silky smooth by the touch of it and her looks were ones of a saint, y/n was looked at as a white soft rabbit or a doll to some as her life seemed to be in the hands of her family.

As Y/n attended the academy it was inevitable she was popular she had the looks and the Brain which amazed her peers how can a girl who looks like a saint and fragile to touch look at such hordes of sights? Y/n had known of the Snow family as they were one of a higher class but close to the bottom she knew exactly of Coriolanus Snow his long curly locks and his charming looks.

There was also one more reason Y/n Ashwood knew of Coriolanus Snow she had been his fiance since the moment they were both been born the Ashwoods and The snows had set the engagement in motion when y/n was 7 years old she met snow on one occasion and it was breath taking she still remembers it the way he had walked toward her as she hid behind her mother he took her hand and kissed it introducing himself.

*Present day*

As our days with our distracts pass soon to the games I notice how Coriolanus looks at his distract trains Lucy grey I’ve seen her girl from distract 12 I see the way she build skinny pretty from her distracts condition but to me there’s no hope a performer in an hunt I say shell die in the first 10 minutes but the way I catch his eyes longing at hers every moment at her*

My trainee was a boy named Reaper his build was strong and what I’ve read he had even attacked a peacekeeper which betters the odds.

“Coriolanus!” *I say as i see him alone for once passing by as I say his name he turns his head as his eyes lock to mine* “y/n?” *I walk closer* “I’ve missed you it’s been so long it just seems your time has been consumed so much into the game you know my family’s gonna. Host another dinner party you should come!” *I say smiling brightly* “I don’t think so I-i have to see how to better Lucy’s chances” *I look at him and my nose crutches from his response* “you mean your tribute right?” *I say harshly* “Yes, is their something the matter y/n?” *he responds more in colder tone* “it’s-s just seems like your mind is more on the girl then the goal of winning I mean she’s not the strongest tribute and doesn’t seem that smart” *I say as my words drop with venom getting so hung up on my words I don’t notice his expression to get more pissed* “Y/n! I have to spend my time on her, okay? I don’t have the riches to pay for the academy I need to be on this scholarship you can’t even view my point as your life is handed to you” *he says coldly making me shiver and I realize where I went wrong* “Coriolanus wait-t I didn’t, I wasn’t trying to make it seem that way!” *I say as my face blush’s from the embarrassment and I try to resolve this small argument* “y/n just shut it I have to get back to Lucy” *I feel this utter poison in me as I grab onto his shirt as he begins to walk away* “STOP! Don’t leave me!” *i say as a demand he quickly turns and looks at me but his eyes cold his look disturbed with my existence* “you’re just a stupid bunny” *he says as his words feel like a ridicule*

I’m end it here cause I started to hate it 🥲 if you have any suggestions or anything just tell me plz

[high-voltage-rat]

In This Time or Any: A Mechquest and Dragonfable hero-and-reset-inspired spotify playlist

Shoutout yet again to @cyraen-ae whose encouragement in the tags was the reason I went through with posting this! tracklist (with youtube links for non-spotify users) and quotes below the cut!

1. Empire Now - Hozier

After all, darlin' I wouldn't sell the world / The way that things are turnin' / If it falls, I would hold on for all its worth / Future's so bright it's burnin'

2. Hero - Mountains vs. Machines

When everybody runs you gotta stand tall / Hit after hit you can never fall / If the stars come crashing / You'll be the one to catch them / Don't let go / You could be a hero

3. Go Get Your Gun - The Dear Hunter

We haven't won, and if we win, and if the morning light sets in / We've cheated fate again / And to those who die, please try to understand / That for those who die, we try the best we can

4. Battle Cry - Imagine Dragons

Stars are only visible in darkness / Fear is ever-changing and evolving / And I, I feel poisoned inside / But I, I feel so alive

5. Heroes (Reimagined) - Zayde Wolf

It's feeling like the sun's hiding / But we're gonna keep moving, surviving / No we won't go quiet tonight

6. Trapdoor - Casey Lee Williams & Martin Gonzalez

The pain it keeps invading / It's showing all over my face / Though I try to keep the hope alive / After all the things I've said and done / I don't feel like the chosen one / How will they see me if I lose my faith?

7. Still Feel. - Half•Alive

When I'm furthest from myself (Far away) / Feeling closer to the stars (Outer space) / I've been invaded by the dark (Can't escape) / Trying to recognize myself when I feel I've been replaced

8. CASTLE OF GLASS - Linkin Park

Bring me home in a blinding dream / Through the secrets that I have seen / Wash the sorrow from off my skin / And show me how to be whole again

9. Black Sky - WAR*HALL

Well it's all done / The silence stuns / A black sky will whisper: / "Your time has come"

10. Chasing The Sun - Billy Talent

And all that I've lost, and all that I've won / Don't mean nothing more when you open your eyes and they're gone

11. This Beautiful Life - The Dear Hunter

So let us force a smile and pretend that we're alive / Oh, but somewhere, none of this happened / The bullets removed themselves; life is beautiful

12. The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?) - Snow Patrol

What if this storm ends? / And leaves us nothing / Except a memory / A distant echo

13. If I Lose Myself - OneRepublic

You can feel the light start to tremble / Washing what you know out to sea, yeah / You can see your life out of the window tonight

14. Babylon - Barns Courtney

What planet are you on? / What constellation? / You're floating like a ghost / Out into the unknown / To the gates of Battleon Babylon

15. Just Breathe - The Unlikely Candidates

I have no memories / Just feelings lingering / Like a dog that's been kicked / So many times that he's sick / Bound to bite a hand and not know why

16. Pompeii - Bastille

But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all? / And if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like you've been here before?

17. Breathing Underwater - Metric

Out of place, all the time / In a world that wasn't mine to take / I'll wait / Is this my life? / Am I breathing underwater?

18. New Machines - Vinyl Theatre

Flooded in the sky / These secrets left untold / Scholars, lost to time / Ideas, overthrown / Secrets left untold

19. Deadmen - Saint PHNX

I’m drowning out / And asking why / My life is on repeat / I’m dreaming aspirations / Got no reason for defeat

20. Francesca - Hozier

Now that it's done / There's not one thing that I would change / My life was a storm since I was born / How could I fear any hurricane? / If someone asked me at the end / I'd tell them, "Put me back in it" / I would do it again

21. Ghosts - BANNERS

It's said and done, hard to believe / It's not dead and gone / I want to believe / All is well that ends well / But I just can't convince myself

22. Waiting Still - The Family Crest

Still you've got this empty cage / Oh your heart, oh your heart / Is it beating once again? / And the dark, and the dark / Is it speaking to you, friend?

23. A New Mission - Josh Whitehouse (no YT available)

The slightest realignments and my legs will fall beneath me / I've not even come to clock it and I'm facedown in my feelings / Thinking, "Where on earth am I? Where did my companions leave me?"

24. No Goodbyes (Friends Forever) - Fitz and the Tantrums

There's no goodbyes, just hope to see you soon / Will you recognize me? Will I recognize you? / Go through the things you gotta do / There's no goodbyes

25. You're Somebody Else - Flora Cash

Well, you look like yourself / But you're somebody else / Only it ain't on the surface / Well, you talk like yourself / No, I hear someone else though

26. Sons and Daughters - The Decemberists

Take up your arms / Sons and daughters / We will arise from the bunkers / By land, by sea, by dirigible / We'll leave our tracks untraceable now

27. May I Come Home From My War - Kelly Jones

Spending lost days, all the time I never get back / Trying to solve the ways of my mind and my make up

Note: a number of these songs are seemingly written with romantic love in mind, but I primarily chose ones where that love can still be interpreted as platonic and familial. I feel that the glue that binds the MQ/DF story together is the love and community that the Hero is a part of, so it was an inextricable part of my song choices.

[rhyaxxyn]

OC in 15 Tag Game

thank you for the tag @spideronthesun

this was so fun to do--especially for Bahro (though I did include dialogue tags/action lines). Altars in the Sky is still unfinished, and Bahro isn't a main character yet, but i adore him. sooooo, without further adieu--15 lines of dialogue that showcase the personality of Bahro Vestre best >:)

“Alone, I cannot win,” Bahro admitted. He pointed his claw blade at Heather’s throat. “But a vestre never enters a war without its pack."

“Whoever you’re talking about,” he reminded her. “She ties us together. She’ll be a part of both of us. Someway, I’ll never be without you.”

“From when he was a toddler.” Bahro grit his teeth. “You and Clairwyn have placed the wellbeing of our empire in the hands of a creature with one foot in the pew and the other in a madhouse.”

He admitted nothing important. “I would be too possessive, wouldn’t I?” 

He argued, “She is not our young.” Bahro could feel his anxiety prickling within his chest. Soon, Raivun would intervene. “The Niedostepny will provide if it must.”

“Half a foot further than nearly,” he admitted. “We’re a little closer to almost. But it would be blasphemy to say myself or my saints are the same likes of gods.”

“Because I want you to see more of the snow,” he admitted. “They won’t let you stay on Sidereus much longer. I wanted you to see my home before they make you see worse.”

“I’ve let so many children die,” he whispered against her sternum. “So much blood, Heather... So much blood.”

“I wish I could make you happy here. I don’t think you were meant to be without the sun though.”

“Heather thinks you are good. Even if you are so cruel, and so disquieting. She thinks we’re all good, and I hate it—because I cannot believe her still. I love her. Hours of endless night spent at her side, teaching her about Sidereus, watching her read me like her native language, and I have fallen in love with her.”

“She’s the first thing in milennia that I want for myself. Everything else, I have given up for you, and Lohvy. My faith, my home, my hope, my freedom. All I wanted was Heather.” He laughed. “And I lost her too—because I lose everything. Except for you and Lohvy, but you two could lose me if duty demanded it. Yet I still can’t hate you for anything. You’re my family, and I take your blows like hugs.”

“Down her,” Bahro went on. “In the foot, her leg. Just make sure she can’t make the jump.” 

“There’s no power in a name. Not for the divine.”

“I'm not a Saint, Marzanna. Nor am I a priest. The only faith I have left lies in you and Lohvy. You are my guiding light. You are my religion--and you are my sister. For you, I would do anything.” 

"Quinn, if you let Kraigyn come back and take her again--I'll fucking kill him. I don't give a shit that you're her Soul Guardian. I will kill Kraigyn, prophet or not."

I'm gonna tag: @xxxtosoxxx @wintherlywords @cowboybrunch @thegrievingyoung and open tag for any and all who have an OC they wanna post about!

[severalsmallhedgehogs]

I’m Going To Talk About the Five Gods

Specifically the Penric and Desdemona novellas. If you follow me for fic, know that they were the inspiration for the Luxon’s whole vibe in Memory. Maybe mild vibe spoilers for Memory underneath? Definitely some spoilers for Penric’s Mission and Orphans of Raspay. But I have to talk about this. Fair warning there is no structure I’m just talking

Ok so there’s The Mother, the Father, the Son, the Daughter, and the Bastard, okay? I love the Bastard. I love how when two children of one of his saints got kidnapped by pirates he went “Ok how do I fix this? Penric and Desdemona are out at sea, they’ll immediately instinctively protect the kids, let’s get them kidnapped by the same pirates and that’ll work itself out. :) Also Penric will light some metaphorical fire in that temple while we’re at it.”

I still think about that little moment in the Cedonia trilogy when Penric opens the Father’s offering box and finds a ton of money in there and is like “oh someone wants to win a legal battle huh” and later he starts to suspect that the Father borrowed him and Desdemona for this fake treason charge stuff. I’m imagining the Father going “Ok I’m gonna borrow these two a little for a long game, but I’ll make sure people are donating enough money for them to take out of the offering box ok? ok”

Or the story about the Daughter’s temple in Limnos, and a group of occupying raiders getting struck by a plague from the Daughter. “Or a really angry woman poisoning the well.” The really angry woman poisoning the well could be argued as the plague sent by the Daughter. The Bastard’s Order’s motto is “The gods have no hands but our own.”

There’s also the situation in Lodi, with Penric grieving people he couldn’t save and expectations he couldn’t meet, and Chio grieving the demons she’s seen destroyed. The Bastard basically pushed them together and was like “You two will understand each other really well. Comfort and spiritual counsel both ways. Go”

Even Penric getting Desdemona (the demon who lives in his head and lets him do magic) was probably arranged by the Bastard. The person Desdemona was with last wanted to take a different route to town. Penric was late leaving for a ceremony. And as a result Penric came across the previous person as she was dying, and Desdemona jumped to him. Her previous person thought of Penric as the “Bastard’s last blessing.” The Bastard is the god of accidents and mischance, by the way. All disasters out of season.

And don’t even get me started on the guy who just wants to sit beside a river pretending to fish, and kind of offered the Bastard companionship and a place to just sit around because he figures the Bastard doesn’t get offerings like that very much. And the Bastard went “That one. I love that one. I’m gonna make him a saint so my order will pay for him to sit around and take naps on the riverbank and occasionally do a little work for me.”

I love how these gods kind of nudge and arrange things, mostly. And then also appear in dreams and be like “You did good. Also I see you’re worried about snow. No rush, just don’t stay here more than three days ok”

I have a lot of feelings about the Bastard in particular but that’s its own post and it’s late

[pandalandalopalis]

Devil May Cry Wolf - Matt Murdock x Mutant Reader [Chapter Eleven]

Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Story Synopsis: The first time you jumped, it was 2014 and you were nine years old. You were in the back of your parents’ car — then you were in New York, standing on the street … and it was 1992.

The second time you jumped, it was 1998 and you were fifteen years old. You were heading back home to Saint Agnes after school had ended — and then you were knee-deep in snow, in Russia, in 1970. Outside a Red Room facility.

The third time you jumped, you were twenty-five and had spent ten years training as a Red Room agent. Ten years training your body to use your mutation. Jumping in space was easy — jumping in time was not. But you did it. After ten years, you did it. Now you have to live with the trauma.

Five years later, killing is still the only thing you know how to do, and the only thing you do best. In 2016, a vigilante named Daredevil stops you from killing a man who attacked you. He tells you that you can do better. You think maybe he’s right. But in 2017, Matt Murdock is in the darkest place in his life. When you show up to save him, he’s not exactly grateful. And when he finds out that you’re the best friend he grew up with in Saint Agnes that disappeared almost 20 years ago — things get even more complicated.

You’ll have to drag Matt out of the dark while being jaw-deep in it yourself. And you’ll have to try your best to do better — when Matt is trying his best to do worse.

Chapter Synopsis: You and Matt go to Frank Castle to tell him about Russo. You remember something strange about your past. Matt tries to cheer you up.

Read it on AO3

Part 2 - Chapter Eleven: Masks

1997

Matt found you sitting on the steps to the back entrance of the school. It was the weekend, so nobody else was there. You had been asked to meet here. 

You were crying.

“I thought he liked me,” you said through your tears, and the words laced hot shame into your cheeks. You felt so unworthy of anyone and everything. 

Stupid Peter Thompson and his stupid handsome face. He was a boy in your class that you had a crush on — he had kissed you behind the school yesterday, but today he told you that he wanted nothing to do with you.

“He’s not worth it,” Matt said. “You’re the best person in this school and if he doesn’t see that, then he’s blinder than I am.”

That made you laugh, just a little bit. Then you felt sad again. “I wasted my first kiss.”

“He’s a jerk. That doesn’t count.”

You couldn’t help it. You smiled.

Matt held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

You hesitated. “I can’t. I—” It was so stupid. You sighed. “I twisted my ankle.” It’s why you were sitting on the steps instead of running away and hiding.

Matt seemed to consider you for a moment. Then he began collapsing his white cane and hooked it on his belt. He turned and knelt by the steps, his back facing you. “Get on.”

You were taken aback. “. . .You can’t carry me.”

“Who says?”

“Can you even lift me?”

“I’m gonna pretend like that didn’t sound like an insult.”

You rolled your eyes in amusement. When Matt didn’t move, when it seemed like he was serious about this— you shifted your weight forward, careful not to put any on your injured ankle. 

Matt helped you get on his back. You wrapped your arms around his neck, and when he stood, he put his hands under the inside of your knees and wrapped your legs around his waist to support your weight.

Then he began walking.

Matt could hear her heartbeat still at a raised level. She was still thinking about that guy.

“It’s not your fault that he did this,” he said softly.

“Feels like it is,” he heard her mumble by his ear.

“Well, it’s not,” Matt repeated. “You’re a thousand times better than that guy. You shouldn’t let an asshole like him get to you. If you do, then he wins.”

You did hate losing. “You’re right,” you murmured. 

You wrapped your arms tighter around him, and pressed your cheek to his shoulder. You felt his grip on you tighten a bit in response.

And there it was.

A flutter.

He felt her nuzzle her cheek into the crook of his neck.

“Thanks, Matt,” she whispered.

And his heart beat louder for no one else to hear but himself.

Present Day

It was not difficult to teleport both you and Matt back to that secret bunker Castle liked to hide in.

As per usual, your teleporting didn’t make a sound — and therefore didn’t alert that-man-who-was-not-Frank-Castle typing at a computer.

You teleported to stand behind him, leaning your head over his shoulder.

“What are you looking at?” you asked.

The man startled, giving a surprise shout and throwing his hand over his chest. “You again! How do you keep getting in here?!” He turned fully in his chair, this time catching Matt in his vision. “And who is that!?”

“What is it, Lieberman?” came a gruff voice, walking out from the hallway that fed into the large sphere of a space that was the bunker. He stopped when he saw you. 

You gave him a little finger wave.

He looked annoyed. “What do you want?” He began entering the main circle of computers, and stopped again when he finally saw Daredevil.

It was hard to explain the flash of emotions that went over Castle's face. More annoyance, surprise — and maybe even something like fondness.

“You found him,” Frank said.

You smiled and nodded.

Matt’s head turned to you. “You went to Frank Castle to go looking for me?”

“No,” you answered. “He was just the one to tell me you were dead.”

Castle walked past the two of you to lean against the table next to the other man — Lieberman. “And I’m glad to hear that you aren’t, Red.” Dead, that is. “Now get the fuck out of my bunker.”

You saw Matt’s mouth quirk upwards. “So you found the man responsible for your family’s deaths. And you didn’t kill him.”

Castle cringed. “For fuck’s sake, Red. Is that why you’re here? I didn’t kill Billy Russo because he didn’t deserve to die — didn’t deserve the easy way out. Not because I buy into your ‘no-killing’ bullshit.”

“It doesn’t matter why you didn’t do it. You didn’t do it,” Matt said simply. “You didn’t kill him.”

Castle’s cringe deepened. “Shit, Red. If that’s all you had to say, you really didn’t need to come here to say it.”

“We didn’t come here for that,” you cut in. “But we did come here because of Russo.”

“Okay,” Castle said, crossing his arms. “What about him?”

“Well, he tried to fucking kill me tonight,” you said casually.

Castle paused at first, like this was the first he’d heard of Russo running free from wherever he was probably arrested to. But then he simply exhaled through his nose and shook his head. “That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”

You understood his sentiment, because you felt it, too. Russo was old news. Castle got his revenge. He thought his life was done with that. He’d washed his hands of it, so to say.

“It isn’t just ‘her problem’ when now the man responsible for your family’s murders is running around the city,” Matt interjected. “Are you gonna let him be responsible for more deaths? More families lost?”

Castle rolled his eyes. “Oh, spare me the moral lecture, counsellor.”

“Oh shit.” Your surprise came out in giggles. Castle had figured Matt out. You composed yourself and touched Matt’s arm. “Sorry. I shouldn’t laugh.” Although it was funny.

If it mattered to Matt that Castle had figured out his secret identity, he must have trusted Castle enough to be discreet, because he didn’t say anything to acknowledge it. 

“I am done dealing with Billy Russo,” Castle growled. He pointed at you. “You fucked him, you deal with him.”

Matt’s mouth parted into an expression of confusion. “Wait,” he said, “is he talking about—”

You gave an annoyed sigh. “Yes.”

“Really?”

You pointed at Matt. “Hey. You know how careful I am when it comes to men I sleep with. I was wrong about him.” You crossed your arms and looked back to Castle and Lieberman. “I fucking hate being wrong about people.”

He in fact did know that this was something she was careful about. She’d explained it to him once, why she’d sometimes bring women home for a one-night-stand, but never men. Women were, in her words, ‘less likely to pull shit’ for someone she’d only known for a couple hours. If she was going to bring a man home, she needed to know him. Vet him. Be sure that he was not the type to pull something. It wasn’t exactly a ridiculous precaution.

Although sometimes it worried him . . . exactly why she needed to be so thorough.

But the bottom line was: She thought she knew Russo. For him to turn out this way — it betrayed her, too.

“What exactly did you do to him to piss him off this much?” Castle asked her.

“Well,” she began, “after you sliced his face into ribbons, he was just lying there, and so, I just, y’know, carved the words ‘Child Murderer’ into his chest.”

Lieberman sputtered.

“With my knife,” she added, as if that wasn’t clear.

“Holy fucking shit,” Lieberman sputtered more.

Matt smiled to himself. Murder was off limits — but pain and suffering? Mutilation? Some people deserved that. It was on the table. So long as they weren’t dead, so long as she wasn’t making that call (as it wasn’t hers, nor his, nor anyone but God’s call to make), then anything else goes. One can still make their point — without killing.

Castle gave you a smile of disbelief accompanied by a bark of laughter. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”

“Look,” you began, “normally I’d take Russo on myself. But someone hired him to kill me. He was just glad to do it. I need to know who it actually is that wants me dead. That means tracking down Russo and getting that information out of him. But the thing is — right now we’re dealing with a child trafficking situation.”

Castle stilled, like a predator scenting blood.

“All of our time and effort is going into tracking down the people who are doing this and stopping them. We can’t spare any time or effort going after Russo, or trying to figure out who wants me dead and why.” Your tone was even, but strong. Castle wasn’t your friend, and you honestly didn’t know if he cared if you lived or died, but he had a heart. He had children, once.

“Child traffickers?” he repeated.

You nodded.

He sighed. “Fine. We’ll keep an eye out for Russo.” He gave another sigh, and shook his head. “He’s probably planning on coming after me, anyway.” Castle gave you a look, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. “How’d his face look?”

“Fucked up,” you answered with a grin.

Castle seemed satisfied with that answer. Then he said, “Next time you want to talk, just call me to set up a meeting. Stop showing up here.”

You tilted your head. “Why would I do that when I know exactly where you’ll be?”

You could hear the slight amusement in Castle’s voice as he spoke. “Makes Lieberman nervous when you keep showing up here unannounced like that.”

“Would you stop saying my name— I still don’t know how you got in here.”

“Fine,” you said with a small laugh. You handed Castle your phone. He took it and put in your number, then gave it back. “Call me if you find anything.”

Castle gave you a nod, and you understood then what it meant. He wasn’t your friend, but there was a time where you served in the same unit. Fought next to each other. Had each other’s backs. That kind of thing didn’t just go away.

And for a moment, the two of you were just soldiers again, being given a mission to carry out. To do whatever it took to complete it.

You nodded back.

The moment passed. You turned to leave, Matt turning with you.

“Hey, Red.”

Castle’s voice had the two of you turning back.

“Stay outta my way.”

Matt just smiled. “No promises, Frank.”

Frank exhaled through his nose in a small chuckle. You continued leaving with Matt, getting into the corridor before disappearing.

You were a child again.

You were walking home by yourself, back to Saint Agnes. And as you walked next to the alleyway just before the church, you let your hand run across the chain-link fence that separated you from it.

Sounds. A scuffle.

You stopped.

Peering through the chain-link fence into the alleyway, you saw two figures pressed up against the side of the church. One figure had the other figure pinned against the wall. The figure that was pinned was half slumped over, their face turned in the opposite direction and concealed by shadows.

The first figure pulled the second figure to them for a moment just to slam them back against the bricks. There was harsh whispering, but you couldn’t make out what they were saying over the sound of your heart pounding in your ears.

You let go of the fence and took a small step back. The action made a noise.

The first figure’s attention snapped to you.

A fox.

The figure wore a fox mask. 

With one hand still pinning the other figure to the wall, the fox figure pressed their finger to the mouth of the mask.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

You stumbled backwards, fear lacing into every point of your body, threading your heart into your throat and ears and puncturing your lungs that heaved with frightened breaths. 

Whether it was the fox figure’s attention on you or the scuffling sound your feet made as you prepared to run, the figure pinned against the wall noticed. And right before you could finally gather the courage to move, their head turned out of shadow and toward you.

They wore a mask, too.

It was a wolf.

You startled awake with great heaving breaths, your every limb shaking with an intenseness you hadn’t felt in a while and you clawed at your sheets to get out and you jumped out of bed and stumbled a few paces, letting yourself disappear from Avengers Tower and reappear in your own apartment—

You miscalculated slightly and found yourself knocking over a chair and falling to the floor. You scrambled to get up, your mind running a mile a minute—

That’s not possible.

That’s not possible.

What was it about that memory that fucked with your head? Why were you only remembering the second figure now? You always thought that your child mind had warped the traumatic memory into something else — a mugging that you saw as something much more monstrous. Maybe you did remember the second figure, but that mask didn’t mean anything to you. Until now.

Was the fox mask real? Was the wolf mask real? Did you really warp that memory or had you just been telling yourself that for years and years and years because it haunted you in a way that you couldn’t understand—

You finally made it to the drawer with your mask in it and roughly pulled it open all the way— the drawer fell out of its place and its contents spilled out and scattered as you were left holding the handle.

You dropped the drawer —not caring if it was broken— and you picked up your mask.

It wasn’t the same.

You let yourself fall onto the floor, finally pulling in a sharp breath of relief. 

The mask in the dream and your mask were not the same. They were both wolf masks, but they had different designs. Were made out of different materials. Your mask was wood — carved with care, with knicks and chipped paint from the wear and tear of vigilantism. You only saw the wolf mask from your dream for a moment, but it was more like a full-face helmet than a mask, the face smooth material, covering the skull where your own mask was ridged carving, simply flat and meant to cover your identity only. 

But even as you breathed, both hands still gripping your mask, that fear was still there.

It’s just a coincidence, you told yourself. Your wolf and the figure’s wolf.

It’s just a coincidence.

It’s just a coincidence.

It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a coincidence.

You reached for the pill case rolling around on the floor and popped a couple in your mouth.

Strange fucking coincidence.

Having returned to Avengers Tower, you left your bedroom to head to the kitchen to have some breakfast. 

Steve was the only one there as you padded in. It looked like he was making pancakes.

He gave you a smile when he noticed you walking over. “Morning,” he greeted. “Coffee?”

You nodded and sat at the kitchen island as Steve poured you a cup. 

“How do you take it?”

“Black,” you answered. 

Steve hummed, like that answer was interesting. He handed you the mug. “Y’know, how someone takes their coffee says a lot about a person.”

He was right. Maybe you should have asked for milk and sugar. “Well how do you take it?” you asked, flipping the attention off of yourself.

“Milk and sugar. I never liked black coffee but it was very hard to come by milk and sugar when I was a kid and especially during the war. Now I don’t have to drink it that way so I don’t.” He smiled.

You looked behind him to where he was preparing the pancake batter with all its ingredients. “Is that why you’re putting the whole fruit basket into your pancakes?”

Steve chuckled. “As a matter of fact, yes, it is.”

You nodded and sipped your coffee. You stared down into your mug, tapping your finger on the edge.

You didn’t have access to milk or sugar, either, for a long time. In the Red Room, coffee was a luxury, and when you got it, you got it black or you didn’t drink it at all. So you got used to it. Coffee was something that helped you stay awake when the nightmares were too terrible to face. It felt like taking the time to put in milk and sugar would just slow you down — there were times where even watching the coffee brew felt like a lifetime. 

It’s just the way you had always done it. Coffee black.

But maybe you didn’t . . . have to do it that way anymore. Like Steve said, you weren’t in the war or the Depression anymore. It was the future and milk and sugar were available in abundance. 

You took another sip. Considered your current situation.

Russo. The whole thing was still pissing you off. 

“Something wrong?”

You looked up at Steve, forgetting for a moment that you were being observed and you needed your mask on at all times. 

But then you decided. What the hell. It didn’t have to be the whole truth but you could say something. Maybe it would feel cathartic. “I have this ex,” you began. “He came back into my life recently. We had a good relationship,” —the sex was very good— “but our lives were going in separate directions so we broke up.” You were discharged from the military; he was not. “It was very amicable, neither of us had hard feelings about it. But recently . . . I found out some . . . not so nice things about what he’s done, and the kind of person he is.” Fucking child-murderer. “And it . . . does not feel good that I was wrong about him.”

You were always so so careful. You were never wrong about people. You could not afford to be wrong about people. Billy Russo slipped through the cracks and you wanted him dead because you let him touch you and fuck you and he turned out to be a fucking murdering piece of shit that got his best friend’s family killed.

Steve had leaned his elbows onto the kitchen island as you spoke. When you were done, he nodded thoughtfully. “How long were you two together?”

“Mm. Off and on, for about a year.”

He made a sympathetic noise. “That’s a long time to think you’ve known someone.”

You leaned back in your chair with a sigh. “Yeah.”

“Have you talked to him about it?”

The sounds of Billy Russo screaming bloody bloody agony as you carved into him and his words, ‘I would’ve done it for free, but there’s something just so satisfying about getting to kill you for money’ came to mind.

“It . . . wasn’t a very good conversation,” you answered.

“Well, I’m sorry,” Steve said. “Sometimes . . . people aren’t what they say they are. Or they change. But it’s not your fault that you were wrong about him. That’s on him, not you.”

You nodded, although you didn’t really believe him. The words were nice to hear, though.

Steve gave a sympathetic smile and turned back around to his pancakes. A few minutes later, he turned back and put a plate in front of you.

You looked up from the multicoloured breakfast pastry to Steve, a little flutter in your chest. “Thanks.”

He smiled back. “No problem.”

That evening, you teleported to Matt’s apartment, very much ready to go out and punch some people to get your mind off of Russo and anything and everything that had to do with that. But when you got there, Matt was still in his lawyer suit and tie.

“You’re gonna get blood on that white shirt,” you said by way of greeting.

His head tilted. “We’re taking the evening off, tonight.”

You couldn’t stop your perceivable disappointment. “I didn’t think vigilantes could have a night off.”

“Sometimes,” he answered. “I’m taking you out.”

That surprised you. “What?”

“With Foggy and Karen, we’re going to Josie’s,” he explained. “Look, I know you’re upset about Russo—”

That prickled at you. “Upset is a strong word.”

“—so I want to cheer you up.”

Some warmth bloomed in your chest. You crossed your arms as if you could hide it.

“I’m gonna kick your ass at pool.”

Matt grinned. “You can try.”

He could tell she was smiling back at him. Could tell that the offer made her happy. 

She was gone for a moment— and then she was back, changed into something less vigilante and more casual. 

She hooked her arm through his. “Lead the way, Murdock.”

You had hung out with Karen and Foggy a few times before, but it was hard to get together with everyone’s busy schedules. At first it had been awkward between all of you — you hadn’t exactly had the best first impression with Karen and Foggy, what with Frank’s story about your time in the military, then them only really seeing you as another vigilante that was keeping Matt in that life when they didn’t exactly approve. But you all found a way to get along. You liked Karen and Foggy. Despite their rough patch, they were good friends to Matt, and they were fun to hang out with.

After you all had a few drinks, you were in the back, playing pool. You had claimed Karen for your team, so it was you and her against Matt and Foggy.

“You play like a blind man, Murdock,” you heckled him after his first miss of the night.

“I am blind; what’s your excuse?”

You snorted and lined up your shot. “I mean you play like a blind man without all your extra senses.” You made your play and was successful at your turn.

Matt put his hand over his heart. “Ouch,” he deadpanned.

You gave him a grin. Foggy was next — his turn was unsuccessful. Then Karen went and played spectacularly. 

You cheered and threw your arm over Karen’s shoulder. “You see, I knew I liked her for a reason.”

Karen giggled and Matt lined up his shot. He played and had a good turn.

“Matt,” you said, arm still around your strawberry-blonde teammate, “would it be weird if I asked Karen out?” You were aware of the history between them.

Matt opened his mouth to answer, but Foggy beat him to it.

“Yes!” The Nelsen in Nelsen & Murdock exclaimed, although his tone was more jokey than serious. “The three of us already hang out and let’s be honest — it’s weird. If you two dated and the four of us hung out — doubly weird. Tripley, even.”

This made Karen laugh harder. You looked at her. “What do you say? Do you need me to fight for your hand? I fought in the gladiator pits of Ancient Rome, you know.”

As was usual whenever Y/N said something outlandish, Matt could feel Foggy looking at him for confirmation, as he was the only person who could tell if Y/N was lying. 

Matt gave him a nod.

Foggy’s head snapped back to Y/N. “You fought in the gladiator pits of Ancient Rome?!”

You raised your eyebrows at Karen, still waiting for an answer.

Karen bit her lip. “I’d love to say yes — but unfortunately I am straight.”

You gave a dramatic sigh. “My condolences.” Then you snapped back into gear. “Now what do you say we kick these boys’ asses at pool?”

“Hang on,” Foggy spoke again, “you cannot just drop that you fought in the gladiator pits of Ancient Rome and not give us any details!”

“I’ll tell you what,” you said, taking your arm off Karen to lean on your pool cue, “if you win, then I’ll tell you about how I helped assassinate Julius Caesar.”

Foggy’s head whipped to Matt again, who was thoroughly amused at this point. He chuckled and shook his head. That one was a lie.

The game was pretty tied and it was Matt’s turn again. Time for some executive maneuvers.

You began mouthing to Karen to move the ball that Matt was aiming at. Karen only covered her mouth with silent giggles. Your mouthing became more insistent.

“You know I can hear that, right?” Matt said, still leaned over to shoot.

“You were meant to!” you quipped as a cover-up. “I’m psyching you out.”

Matt shot and did well, then walked around the table to where you were standing. He stood close in front of you, only his pool cue separating you as he held it with both hands. “Are you trying to cheat?”

You grinned. “Yes, obviously.”

She used to cheat when they were young, too.

“Remember when we were kids, and Father Lantom used to tell us that there are no winners in cheating?”

“That sounds like something losers say.”

His eyebrows raised and he felt like his grin couldn’t possibly be any wider. “Is that so?”

“Yep.”

“Alright then.” He leaned in closer to her face, whispering, “It’s your turn.”

“Okay,” she whispered back, and gave her cue a little twirl on her way to the other side of the table. 

He followed her over there. He waited until the moment she was going to shoot — and shifted his weight to bump into her. 

White ball in the pocket.

“Hey!” Y/N exclaimed as she straightened, although he could tell it was feigned outrage.

“What, you can cheat and I can’t?” Matt asked.

She put her hand on his shoulder and, through giggles, she answered, “Yes! Exactly!”

“Okay, I’ll give you a second chance,” Matt said, putting down his pool cue. “But you gotta do it with one arm behind your back.”

Giggling evolved into laughing so much your sides hurt as you let Matt pin your nondominant arm behind your back. He helped you line up your shot, then leaned back to let you shoot, his hand still pinning your arm.

Miraculously, you managed to sink one ball.

You did a little jump and let out a cheer. Matt held his hand out with a wide grin, and you clasped your hand into his.

“You didn’t think I could do that, did you?”

“No, or else I wouldn’t have let you try.”

Foggy and Karen had resigned themselves to the bar to get a drink, watching Matt and Y/N banter at the pool table.

“They really are each other’s best friend,” Karen murmured.

“I’d be offended,” Foggy replied, “but I know all the shit Matt went through because she disappeared. And . . . She is the only person in his life that didn’t choose to leave him.”

Karen’s head snapped to Foggy.

“Yeah. Sounds bad when I say it out loud, huh?”

A moment of silence passed between them.

“Do you think that they know?” Karen asked.

“Know what?”

“That they smile at each other like they’re each other’s favourite person in the whole world.”

Matt and Y/N didn’t even seem to notice that Foggy and Karen had left. They simply continued to play just the two of them, with varying degrees of cheating.

Foggy shook his head. “Nope.”

“How long do you think we’re gonna have to suffer through this,” she gestured to the two of them over at the pool table, “until they realize?”

He sighed. “A while.”

“It’s not your fault you were wrong about Russo,” Matt said unexpectedly as he lined up his shot. 

Whatever cheating you had planned faltered. You leaned your back against the pool table next to Matt, staring at the wall. “It is, though,” you confessed. “I should have been more careful.”

You heard the balls clacking as Matt carried out his turn. Then he turned around to lean against the pool table like you were. “You couldn’t have known.”

“He had issues.” Major ones.

“Everyone has issues.”

“No, he was. . . .” You shook your head rather than explain the shit that Billy had told you about his childhood. He was a terrible fucking human being and a waste of good air but it still wasn’t your place to talk about that stuff with someone else. No one deserved to go through that, not even him. Your eyes found the floor. “I thought he was nice. I thought we were similar.” He had grown up in an orphanage, too. “Although maybe that should have been my first clue.”

“Did you love him?”

“Fuck. God, no,” you said immediately. What a shitshow that would have been. “I may have been wrong about him but I wasn’t that wrong. For that I think I would have killed him.”

Matt chuckled.

“No, it was just sex,” you explained.

“Then why does it bother you so much?”

Something in her changed, then. Her heartbeat picked up and her skin got hot. The wood of the table creaked, just loud enough for Matt to notice, as her grip on it increased.

He waited. For an explanation. If she wanted to give one.

Instead, she downed the rest of her drink and said nothing.

“It’s not your fault,” Matt repeated after a moment of silence.

You were trying to will your heart to stop beating so loudly and painfully in your chest. Trying to keep the bile from leaving your throat. The alcohol tempered it, somewhat. “You said that already,” you murmured.

“That’s because I meant it.”

You looked up at him. 

“It’s not your fault,” he repeated a third time.

You hadn’t realized how close he had gotten to you. His hand was placed on the edge of the table next to yours, but on the inside, so your arms were crossed and his shoulder was brushing yours.

Oh.

This was weird.

Not the being close to Matt or touching him or anything like that.

What he said . . . the way he said it, you. . . . 

It made you want to believe him.

And for the first time, you . . . felt . . . better about something traumatic that had happened to you. 

Not . . . numb.

Comforted.

He felt her heart rate begin to slow.

“Do you feel any better?” he asked softly.

“Why would I feel better, you won’t even let me win at pool,” she deadpanned, although he could hear the humour in her voice.

It felt . . . more genuine than the humour she used to cover up when she was hurt. 

Matt smiled at her. “If I let you win, how will you learn?”

She stood straight and pushed at his shoulder. “Turn around.”

“Why?” he asked as he did so, facing the pool table now. 

Matt was forced to readjust his weight as Y/N jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. His hands instinctively grabbed under her thighs to support her.

“Now take your turn,” she said.

He ignored the fact that it was actually her turn. “What is the point of this?”

“It’s fun.”

“Remind me how this is fun?”

“I didn’t say it was fun for you.”

Despite his words, Matt was smiling. She was giggling in his ear and it felt so much like the old days — reminding him of everything he had lost and gained again, and it just, it just—

She was here. That’s all he asked for, and that’s all he wanted from her. 

She was here. That was enough.

Karen looked over and almost spit out her drink. “Oh, my God.”

Foggy turned his head to look over at Matt and Y/N again, who were apparently trying a piggyback version of pool. “Oh, they are going to be insufferable.”

Karen giggled. “We have to tell them.”

Foggy shook his head. “We can’t. We gotta let them figure it out on their own. Unfortunately.”

They clinked their glasses together in resignation, and waited for Matt and Y/N to notice that it was just the two of them.

A few nights later and you and Matt were running across rooftops, hiding from the gunfire of a group of human traffickers. They were one of the groups that whoever was running this trafficking ring was outsourcing to — there were no kids involved tonight to free, just answers to obtain. On who was signing their paychecks.

You two were a little over your head on this one. You didn’t expect so many of the members to be there — and be armed.

“We need to pick one and draw them away to interrogate,” you said to Matt, trying to be heard over the gunfire.

“The one smoking the cigar in the warehouse,” Matt said, and you could picture the man in your mind, “he was the one giving orders. If we draw away his men, then we can come back for him.”

“I’ll draw them away,” you said. “If I teleport right, I can make it seem like both of us are running away. It’ll draw away enough of them that you can take care of whoever’s left and beat the shit out of Cigar Guy to get some answers. Then when I’ve led them far enough away, I can just teleport back to the warehouse to meet you there.”

Matt nodded. “Good. Do it.”

You teleported ahead, letting your footsteps fall heavy enough to attract attention. You heard shouts and the sound of the men beginning to pursue you.

The teleportation trick of appearing to be two or more people was not one you did often —it could be exhausting going back and forth enough to seem like more than just yourself, strategically placing your jumps ahead of blind spots to make it more seamless— but it wasn’t difficult to pull off. Soon, you had the host of men following you over the rooftops.

Up ahead, you could tell the space between the buildings was too far for you to jump yourself. If you could clear that and pretend to hide there, the men would have to get down the previous building and up to the rooftop of the next. That distraction could give Matt enough time to get answers out of Cigar Guy.

So, looking back to make sure you were in the men’s blind spot, you jumped— both physically, and teleportationally. 

But you miscalculated.

By one inch.

If the building had been in normal condition, this would have been fine. You would’ve landed with the ball of one foot literally on the edge of the rooftop, but you would’ve been able to use your momentum to propel yourself forwards enough to make it.

But. The building was old and crumbling, and when the tip of your foot pressed down on the very edge of that rooftop, it cracked and gave way.

You fell— your masked face slamming onto the edge of the rooftop on the way down. You heard it crack— you kept falling until you managed to grab the edge of something—

With that sharp stop in momentum coupled with the damage that had been done to it— your mask slipped off your face and fell down, down.

You didn’t realize you had made it all the way to the docks. There was a bit of running water separating this building from the last. You watched as your mask fell into it, sinking down, being washed away.

“Fuck,” you hissed. Your nose and eyes stung from the impact of hitting your face. 

You had really liked that mask.

You teleported away from your watery doom and onto the fire escape of a building nearby. You spotted a clothesline and yanked the multicoloured scarf hanging from it. You shuddered when you put it on. Still damp.

When you teleported back into the warehouse, the few men that had stayed behind were unconscious on the ground. Matt was walking back from Cigar Guy, who was tied up and spitting blood and profanities. 

“Well?” you asked as you turned to match Matt’s pace walking out of the warehouse.

“We have a lead.”

“Good.”

Outside the warehouse, Matt paused. “What are you wearing on your face?”

You took this opportunity to grab hold of his arm and teleport the two of you 

back to his apartment. You placed his hand on the kitchen island to give him an anchor and gave him a second to adjust before saying, “Miscalculated a jump and lost my fucking mask.” You pulled the scarf from your face as you spoke, cringing at the slight damp fabric and tossing it aside.

Matt took off his helmet and ruffled his hair a bit. “It’s good timing, actually.” He walked over to the side of the room and picked up a box from the floor. He put it on the table. “I had this made for you.”

A grin pulled at the corners of your lips, warmth spreading in your chest. “You had something made for me?” you asked with a teasing lit.

“Just open it.”

Still smiling, she pulled at the taped edges and then opened the top of the box.

Her smile dropped. Her heart rate increased noticeably.

“What?” Matt asked. “You don’t like it?”

It was the same mask. 

The mask from your dream. From your memory. Your eidetic memory forced you to remember every detail of that mask you saw twenty years ago and it was 

this 

one.

“I had Melvin make it for me,” Matt began explaining when she was still silent. “It’s a carbon nanotube-based alloy that he promised to be near-indestructible. The helmet design will offer you some more protection.” When she only offered him unsteady breathing in response, he murmured, “Y/N?”

Her lips pulled into a smile that didn’t match her emotional physicality. “It’s great, Matt. Thank you.”

But he could obviously tell something was wrong. “What is it?”

You knew he would just keep asking, so you decided to explain some of the truth. You took a deep breath before speaking. “I’ve seen it before. Occupational hazard of being a time traveller, I guess.”

Matt’s eyebrows pulled together. “What do you mean? Have you . . . met yourself wearing that mask?”

“Not exactly, but. . . .” You sighed again, and tried to shove it to the farthest corner of your mind. It didn’t really work. “Probably best not to look into it. I don’t deal in paradoxes, you know.”

You felt like you were going to throw up. There was so much about this that you didn’t know, and that made you so fucking uneasy. The danger of paradoxes had always been something you had been aware of, always had been a possibility that you took care to avoid. Because you didn’t know what would happen if you caused a paradox — didn’t even know what would happen if you came face-to-face with yourself, past or future. 

But there was something else, too. Something about that moment, something about that memory. Something that was eating at you but you didn’t know how to place it.

Why were you even there?

It was the most serious he had heard her speak in a while. There was no humour or casualness in her voice — not even faked for his benefit. 

It was the first time he considered the reality of what it was like to be a time traveller. There was so much . . . unpredictability attached to it. So much even she would be unable to understand. 

It scared her.

“I can have Melvin redesign it, if you’d like,” Matt offered softly. 

“No,” she said, closing the box. “It’s okay.” The smile she gave him this time seemed just a little bit less forced. “I do like it. Thank you.”

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

“I won’t know until I know,” she said, not really answering his question. “I’ll deal with it then.”

That night, when the nightmares came, you dreamt of bright lights and metal arms — and a fox, wandering in the shadows, watching your every move.

Next Chapter

A/N: I would love to hear you guys' theories on what's going on and how the story is going to progress. Let me know what you think! :)

Tag List: @stupidiout100 @coff3e-and-biscuits @caswinchester2000 @waywardsister1111 @ummvengers @asongofmarvelanddc @1971marauders @krazy-katt-lady @flowercrowns3438 @takethee @lov3vivian @burn-crash-rqmance

[nebulablakemurphy]

Miss American Pie

Chapter Two: The Perfect Partner Project

Warning!: This series features a romantic Yelena Belova x Fem!Reader pairing. Please keep scrolling if that’s not for you. 💜

Summary: After you’re freed from Dreykov’s control you team up with Yelena and Natasha to take down the red room.

Chapter One : Chemical Subjugation

“I thought you had a jet?” Yelena cocks her head to the side, as you approach the decrepit helicopter.

“I asked for one.” Natasha mutters, under her breath.

“This isn’t a jet.” You add, the closer you get, the worse it becomes.

“I realize that!” The man who’d been standing with his back to you whips around to defend himself. This must be Natasha’s friend. “But you know what you didn’t give me? Time. Or money. I’m not made of jets.”

“Aww, he’s sensitive.” Yelena coos, “I see why you keep him around.”

“I’m not sensitive.” He protests.

“Of course not,” you smirk.

“Listen you-“ he breaks off. “Who are you again?”

“Y/N Y/L/N,” Yelena introduces you, climbing aboard. “She’s my partner….” She shrugs, “you name it really.”

“Partner works.” You chuckle, joining her in the cockpit.

“If you say so,” Yelena waves a dismissive hand. Getting a feel for the controls.

“Wonderful,” the man acknowledges your title.

“Thanks for the ride, Dick.” You salute him through the front window.

“It’s Rick,” he calls back.

“I know.” You give him a thumbs up. Waiting until he turns back to his conversation with Natasha. Taking the opportunity to lean down, kissing the top of Yelena’s head.

She cranes her head back to see you.

You nuzzle your nose against hers, until an exaggeration throat clearing tears you apart.

“We don’t have time for this.” Natasha, of course.

Yelena scowls at her, “yeah, yeah.”

Breaking Alexei out of a maximum security prison using only an earpiece, stowed inside of an action figure is a terrible plan. Nearly as bad as using him for information on how to locate a facility that’s impossible to find, run by a man who’s too slippery to kill.

That doesn’t stop you though. Generally speaking it’s going well. Until one of Yelena’s shots triggers an avalanche.

“Woah.” She marvels at the scene before you, her masterpiece. “Now this would be a cool way to die.”

“Yeah,” you holler back, sarcastically, over the chaos.

“You were getting no where with your tiny guns.” Yelena points out.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” you remind her.

“Fast is better. Solves problems.”

“And clearly creates new ones.” You jerk your chin toward the mountain.

“Get us out of here!” Natasha’s voice blares through the headset.

“I’m on it.” Yelena assures her. Moving into a better position for extraction. “Watch the side window.”

At her request you shuffle to the main ship. The prison guards are still putting up a fight. Inmates running in every direction.

“Alright, Natasha’s with us.” You confirm, once she’s secured her place on the black hanging rope. “Circle between the walls on your left to grab Alexei.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Yelena snarks, steering the plane away from another explosion.

“You’re doing a great job.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“Fine,” you huff. “The spot is tight and the angle is bad. I don’t know how you’re gonna pull this off.”

Yelena is silent, processing the information. “Lie to me a little.” She amends.

“You got this.” The blinding wall of white threatens to swallow Alexei whole. You’re holding your breath too as the rope moves past the metal bridge he’s standing on.

“Well?” She yelps, impatiently.

“I don’t know. I can’t see.” Once the snow and ice clears, you spot two figures carefully scaling the rope. “Yelena?”

“Hmm.” She hums, expecting the worst.

“I knew you had it.”

“Yes,” Yelena sighs, before falling into easy laughter. More invested in this than she will ever admit.

————————————————————-

Unfortunately, entertaining as Alexei may be, he has next to no information about Dreykov.

Instead he drawls on and on about how the man wronged him. Stuck him on that “boring mission” in Ohio. Then tossed him in jail and threw away the key because of…hair? A party?

You weren’t entirely sure. You excuse yourself to the vacant seat beside Yelena. Giving her thigh a reassuring squeeze.

Full lips twitch up into a grin.

“Tell us where the red room is.” Natasha grumbles.

“I have no idea!” He shouts, and then in Russian. “Why don’t you ask Melina?”

“Mom Melina?” Yelena whips her head around.

“We thought she was dead.”

“You cannot kill a fox that swift,” Alexei sucks in a breath.

You choke on your own saliva.

“Ew.” Natasha winces.

“What?” The man shrugs. “She was the master mind. His architect.”

“Are you telling me that Melina works for the red room present day?” Natasha leans closer.

“Yes,” he nods. “Remotely, outside Saint Petersburg.”

“I don’t think we have enough fuel for Saint Petersburg.” Yelena decides, after checking the needle on the gauge.

“We’ll make it.” Alexei waves away her concern.

“Ok,” Yelena mutters.

You look over at her.

“We’re not going to make it.” She mouths, with a shake of her head.

You smirk, closing your eyes and relaxing into the seat. It’ll be nice while it lasts.

Before long you’re falling into a controlled crash, at the Saint Petersburg city limit.

“So,” Yelena jumps out onto the dirt. “Are we there yet?”

“No, you will know when we are there.” Alexei begins snorting like a pig.

——————————————————————-

You take a seat in the chair opposite Yelena inside Melina’s humble abode. Her pigs can be heard carrying on out in the yard and Alexei’s early snorting makes perfect sense now.

Your eyes dart around the three women at the table uncomfortably as noises continue erupting from the bathroom. “Everything alright in there?” You bellow, loud enough for your voice to carry down the hallway.

Another groan is the only response.

“Let’s drink,” Melina’s voice breaks the tension. She fills each of your shot glasses in turn.

“Thanks,” you raise the clear liquid and toss it back. Feeling it burn it’s way down your throat before going back for another.

After a moment a clunking from the doorway calls your attention.

“It still fits.” Alexei announces, having stuffed himself into his old costume.

Melina whistles, with a slow clasp as he approaches the seat at the head of the table. “I never washed it once. Come eat.”

He hums a tune under his breath, reliving days gone by. “Look at us, family back together again.” If you didn’t know better you’d think it was sweet, he seems…happy.

“Well,” Melina swallows, dishing mashed potatoes onto his plate. “Seeing as our family construct was just a calculated ruse that only lasted three years, I’m not sure we can use this term anymore.”

“Agreed,” Natasha perks up. “So here’s what’s going to happen-“

“Reunion then.” Alexei offers instead. “I want to say something right off the bat.” He says to the woman who’d once been his wife. “You haven’t aged a day. Just as beautiful and supple as the day they staged our marriage.”

Melina moves closer, “you got fat, but still good.”

“I just got out of prison,” he confesses, “I have a lot of energy.”

“Ooohooo.” The older woman exhales.

You can’t help the bubble of laughter that forces its way from your chest. Covering your mouth with your hand as Yelena takes another shot.

“Please don’t do that.” Beside you Natasha looks physically ill as she protests. Swallowing down her disgust she begins again. “So listen. Here’s what’s going to happen.”

“Natasha don’t slouch. You’re going to get a back hunch.” Melina flicks her fork in Natasha’s direction.

“What? I’m not slouching? I don’t slouch.”

“Eh, listen to your mother. Up! Up!” Alexei joins in.

“I told you, I don’t want any food.” Yelena pushes her plate away.

“Eat a little something Yelena, for God’s sake.” Melina says, piling food onto her plate.

Yelena groans.

“Are you kidding me? Stop it all of you. This is ridiculous.” Natasha bites out.

“Me? I didn’t do anything. That’s not fair!” Yelena argues.

“It’s true, she’s just sitting there.” You shrug.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Natasha roars, effectively silencing the room. “You’re going to give us the location of the red room.”

Melina purses her lips, avoiding the topic. “It’s like when you told them they could stay up to catch Santa Claus.”

“That was fun!” Alexei recalls. “Look out girls, he comes down the chimney. And when the cookies are gone you know he is there.”

Melina clicks her tongue.

“What? I want them to follow their dreams, shoot for the stars girls.”

“No good.” Melina disagreed.

“Killing Dreykov isn’t a fantasy. It’s unfinished business.” Natasha looks between the two of them.

“You cannot defeat someone who commands the very will of others.” Melina says, softly. “You never got to see the culmination of what we started in America. After the perfect partner project was rejected, we took a different route.”

“The perfect partner project?” You repeat, racking your brain. You’ve heard that somewhere before.

“Why’d Dreykov scrap the project?” Natasha’s voice cracks like a whip.

“I don’t know.” Melina’s eyes dart down to her plate.

You can see that she’s lying.

“That’s when we turned our focus to chemical subjugation.” Melina continues, “the control is so profound that when the subject is instructed to stop breathing. They have no choice but to obey.”

Yelena shakes her head. Perfect lips turned into a frown. Hazel eyes glistening with tears as they meet your own.

“That’s enough.” You warn the older woman, seeing the expression. The last thing you want to do is cause her anymore pain.

“No.” The blonde insists. “Tell me more about the partner project.”

“Yelena, we don’t have to do this.” You shake your head.

“Yes, we do.” Yelena slams her fist against the table in frustration.

“The extraction was messy to start. A high profile missing children’s case in North America. But the bond was very strong. Enhanced through targeted conditioning and subliminal messages. Until something happened that Dreykov did not anticipate.”

“What happened?” Natasha wonders.

“The girls became…attached.” Melina’s mouth twitches, “so they were separated.”

“Do you know who they tested on?”

Melina’s guilty eyes land on you. “I am sorry.”

“No,” you suspected, maybe. Somewhere in the back of your mind. You spent the first six months in the red room under solitary confinement. Rapidly and rigorously conditioned in a matter of weeks instead of years. Preparing you…for her. The teenager girl you couldn’t stand, the woman you eventually came to love.

“You,” Yelena laughs, although it’s not particularly funny. “Us.”

“Yelena-“ you reach for her hand across the table.

“Don’t,” she snaps. “Don’t tell me that it will be ok. They stole your life because of me. I never asked them to do that. I never asked for you!”

“I know.” You assure her. None of this was ever her fault.

“That’s right, because you know everything. Don’t you, Y/N?” Yelena scoffs, her hands balling into fists on either side of her dinner plate. “You know what I think. You know what I feel. Look at you. Ready to come out of your own skin because I am unhappy. Prepared to move mountains, prepared to start wars.”

“Like you’re any better.” You challenge, she knows you like the back of her hand.

“That is my point!”

“I’m sorry that this happened.” Alexei interrupts. Surely gearing up for a ‘father of the year’ speech. “But we are here now. All together! Wasn’t that worth a few years of-“

“Shut up!” Natasha growls at him. “You are an idiot.”

No response.

She moves her attention to Melina, “and you’re a coward. You’re a coward. And our family was never real. So there’s nothing to hold on to. We’re moving on.”

“Never family, huh?” Alexei throws up his hands. “In my heart I am simple man. For a couple deep undercover Russian agents I think we did pretty great as parents.”

“Yes,” Melina nods her agreement. “We had our orders and we played our roles to perfection.”

“Who cares? That wasn’t real.”

“What?” Yelena’s voice breaks.

“That wasn’t real.” Natasha repeats for emphasis. “Who cares?”

“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that. It was real. It was real to me. You are my mother!” Yelena all but sobs. “You are my real mother, the closest thing I ever had to one. The best parts of my life were fake.” She pauses, drawing in a steadying breath. “And none of you told me.”

You swipe at the tear that escapes your eye. Traitorously running it’s way down your cheek. It was never fake. Perhaps arranged, but never fake. The way you want to wrap her up in your arms, protect her from her own sadness. The way your heart breaks in time with hers. That is real. It has to be.

She turns back to the woman who she considered a mother. “Those agents that you chemically subjugated around the globe…that was me too.”

Finally she addresses Natasha, “and you. You got out. It is impossible to escape. Are you going to say anything?” A pause. “No.”

She pushes her chair from the table, taking the bottle with her as she stands. Turning her back in the four of you.

“Yelena.” Natasha calls after her. Guilt eating away from the inside out.

“No.” Yelena dismisses her a second time. Moving into the next room and closing the glass doors behind her.

You look down at the plate of food in front of you, now lacking any appeal.

“I had no idea.” Melina whispers, wringing her hands.

“I’ll go to talk to her.” Alexei offers, rising to his feet.

“About what?” You hum, “how you handed her over to a life of pain and suffering at the age of six? How you experimented on her? How you didn’t come back for her? Yeah. I’m sure that’s just what she needs right now.”

With that you excuse yourself, back out to the front yard. Slowly circling the perimeter of Melina’s cottage. Not looking for anything in particular. Just killing time until someone produces information about how to get to Dreykov.

The blinding light that appears moments later catches you off guard. A team of men exit one of the three circling planes. Since you couldn’t find the red room, this is the next best thing.

—————————————————————

Waking up is disorienting, coming to from a tranquilizer always is. It’s bright, almost blindingly so. It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust. You attempt to use your hands to cover them, only you can’t move your hands.

Leaning up as much as your restraints will allow you discover that you’re strapped to an operating table. And you’re not alone.

“Yelena?”

“Miss American Pie,” she drawls from a similar position. Neither of which gives you much chance to escape whatever fate awaits.

“You’re not allowed to die mad at me,” you grumble.

“I’m not mad at you.” She blinks slowly, as the surgeon marks a clean line at the perimeter of her hairline. “I’m just mad.”

“Yeah,” you let out a laugh, turning back to the light above the gurney. “Me too.”

“You are my perfect partner.” She murmurs, while gloved hands busy themselves with preparations. “I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.”

There’s a beat of silence between you. Acceptance…peace. “I love you, you know.”

At this Yelena smiles. A genuine, happy, smile. “I know.”

Something to remember her by.

The syringe at your neck releases a sedative into your blood and you fall asleep. One last time.

—————————————————————

Dying is peaceful, gently rocking in the ocean. Then swaying more violently, giving you the urge to be seasick. Your body should move with the force of it. But something holds you steady, something warm.

“Yelena?” You croak.

“Not quite, but there is resemblance, huh?” A different voice greets you.

“Alexei?” You realize, pushing yourself into a sitting position.

“That’s a girl, up you go.” He says, clapping a hand against your back.

“What happened?” You ask, “where’s Yelena?”

“Still inside,” Melina confirms. “Brought you here so you’d be safe.”

“Natasha?”

“They’re coming.”

You sigh, ready to jump out the open door of the hovering chopper.

“What are you doing?” Alexei demands.

“Going to find them.”

“Wait! Y/N, wait.” He pleads. “There’s something I must tell you. I tried to tell Yelena but I don’t have earpiece.”

“What?” Your brows furrow.

“Never mind that.” He shakes his head. “The point, is you were right. What you said about Yelena. We complete our mission, we move on. But losing her, losing my girls is my biggest regret.”

“I’ll tell her, don’t worry.” You give his shoulder a squeeze.

“Please let me finish.” He stops you again. “She carried your unconscious body through burning building, through explosions. This is not easy, you are very heavy.”

“Oh, Alexei!” Melina scolds him.

“Not that.” He amends, “you know what I mean. It is dead weight.”

You nod, “sure.”

“I look at you together and I see true love and I am happy. You are family now, and this time…we are going to stay together. We’re not leaving without you.” The older man says, helping you onto the metal grate of the falling red room.

Not a second later an explosion rings through your ears, sending Melina, Alexei and your get away vehicle spiraling to the ground.

“It’s the thought that counts,” you’ll make a new plan.

You run toward the flames and gunfire. “Yelena!” You call out, searching the surrounding area.

“Y/N,” Natasha finds you. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t find Yelena.”

“I thought she was with you.” The woman frowns.

“Well she wasn’t!” You bite out, fear and frustration getting the best of you.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find her. You go-“ the red head pauses. Her eyes focused on something behind your head.

You turn to follow Natasha’s gaze. Finding her. Yelena. The wild, unpredictable, firecracker of a woman. On the wing of the jet with Dreykov inside.

“Yelena! Stop!” You rush over, realizing what she’s about to do. Her staff poised at the propeller.

She pauses at the sound of your voice.

“He’s not worth it.” No one is worth it. Not when she is the cost.

Yelena smiles, eyes alight with mischief, “I love you, you know.”

“I know.”

Natasha tries to reason with her. “Don’t do it!”

“This was fun.” Yelena tells her sister, jamming the propeller and effectively destroying Dreykov’s jet. The force of the explosions sends her backwards, hurtling towards the ground with the remaining pieces of the red room.

“Put your pack on and jump.” Natasha tells you. Rushing for the nearest parachute. “I’m going to save my sister.” She dives head first over the edge, without putting on her harness.

“Not if I get there first,” you challenge. This would be a cool way to die.

Chapter Three: Bye Bye

[thenatashapulleyuniverse]

thoughts on natasha pulley's new story "the eel singers"

these 30 pages have singlehandedly ripped me apart and live rent free in my head.

spoilers below

“They were an accidental sort of family. She had used to work for Mori, hired out by the local workhouse, but one day he just hadn't taken her back there and now she lived in their attic. She had said she was happy to adopt them both permanently, if they remained polite and quiet”

Going crazy. I love Six so much.

Thaniel scolding Six and Mori on the angel Gabriel and the virgin Mary. Mori saying “But do me a favor and run away if some demented stranger tries to come unto you with his holy spirit.” THANIEL MAKING A FIST AT HIM. IM DEAD

The second footnote...was this a reference to the titanic??? Is Mori going to be alive to witness that event???? BRO

“The light was honey-colored and full of home.”

brb gonna scream

DRUNK SIX!! AHHHHHHH

the WHAT CHART????

THE SIGNIFICANT THINGS THAT MIGHT HAPPEN TODAY CHART IS A THING. A REAL AND CANON THING.

The bombing making experiments...with icing...all of them doing this as a family…i want to tear myself into pieces

As this is pre-pepperharrow...angst! No communication whatsoever!! Thaniel still believes he isn’t enough for Mori!!! I’m going to throw myself into oblivion!!!!

“It didn't mean that he was in love only that he was being polite”

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

“Thaniel [was] grateful when he could be for anything. He wasn’t, generally.” literally shut up you stupid hopeless man

The both of them close under the blankets….Thaniel doing anything to make Mori feel better...crying in the library rn

Why the angst natasha...literally what for...I mean I love it but I also just want to seem them happy

New thaniel lore dropped. He worked in service. (That adds on to: Gamekeeper’s son, worked at a locomotive’s factory as a ledger’s clerk, telegraphist home office, clerk at foreign office, music composer)

Six looking at all the adults around her laughing: weird.

For people being controlled by some other worldly being that eats memories, it’s very hospitable.

“Mori laughed, and Thaniel’s heart hurt…” listen this story had more laughs and smiles than watchmaker and pepperharrow combined.

WATCH ME NOT HAVE HYSTERICS LOOK

DO YOU FEEL IMMORTAL ALL THE TIME

There are some spots in the world where Mori’s clairvoyance just doesn’t work...what if...bedlam was also a place like that hm? Possible AU??

I like that Natasha remembered to include the thing about Mori’s accent.

“[Thaniel] always thought he was getting pretty good [at Japanese] but then someone told him about politics and all his brain would come up with was that he'd like octopuses”

LMAOOOOHJSAFJK

Okay so mori HAS a kimono with him.

Not the casual mention of Mori’s older brothers going to war. ;-;

WE GOT ONE KISS*

*forehead kiss

Not thaniel feeling ashamed and like a child and thinking mori is just doing this because he has to. Not the pain...what the fuck man

MORI STARTING A SNOWBALL FIGHT!!!

Six: I am absolutely...not going to do that

Me: smart girl. Intelligent. The biggest brain. How does it feel carrying all the brain cells in your family?

“All white people look a bit lunatic albino trollish so it's hard to tell when that's particularly the case”

Mori you get me. I agree

Thaniel, sleepwalking: wait go back...we forgot our shoes.

MORI AND THANIEL BUILDING A SNOWMAN* TOGETHER

*snow spider

Mori’s grandmother beheading one of her sisters in the name of honor...girlboss

Six jumping over the gate...girlboss

Six winning the card games...i love her so much

Mori and Thaniel fall asleep holding hands.

Okay hold on a second...hold on T-T

The caretaker in regards to Mori: We haven’t see one of you in--oh a thousand years...Since the saint came

Okay so you can NOT JUST DROP THIS ON ME. THIS IS PURE WATCHMAKER LORE WHAT DO YOU MEAN SINCE THE SAINT CAME?? JESUS CHRIST??? WHOOOOO

Six saving the day basically!!

“I went wrong, at the workhouse” “Six you seem exactly right to me”

Crying shaking

Once again I’m impressed at how seamlessly this story fits into the watchmaker timeline.

Now theory time!

So this “thing” that’s taking their memories was in the water and snow, not the eels or the people or the singing. It’s as old as the vikings, hence the song being super old english. We can assume the people it’s taking have probably been there for years?? Well they probably lived their normal life span, but they are being fed off from.

I think the “thing” is a spider-like creature living under the water. The water looked dead and deep with several things in it that show that people and animals drowned under it. And the spider shape is explained by the snowman mori and thaniel made.

There are other spots in the world Mori mentioned, but do they also work like the Fens? Russia, the himalayas, these are notoriously cold places, just like the fens. So a thing that can shut off Mori’s clairvoyance is related to cold places

This brings me to my Bedlam crossover AU, where Thaniel and Mori take up Merrick’s offer to join him in Bedlam, only to discover that Mori’s clairvoyance is shut off. But not in the eel singers fashion, more like on and off like a light switch.

Also the caretaker mentioning they haven’t had a clairvoyant since the saint came like lady im going to go insane what the FUCK DOES THAT MEAN

Anyways, I loved this short story. It was more humor and Mori-Steepleton family shenanigans than horror and I wholly appreciated that.

[lumosinlove]

Relic Keel

(warnings in tags)

PREVIOUSLY ON RELIC KEEL

Marlene got into college and hasn’t told Dorcas because she’s scared of how she will react.

Lily and James had sex and obviously like each other, but Lily is scared to have attachments on Hogwarts when they’re going to college soon.

Leo and Logan question each other about their pasts without much progress. Logan finds out that Leo hopes to own The Lion restaurant one day, and that his father’s death has something to do with “The Voldemort.”

Saint and Sirius talk about leaving the island and how they met when they were eleven years old. They have sex and avoid more difficult topics.

James and Lily meet at the Gryffindor Club as promised. Lily tells James that she doesn’t want anything tying her to the island, that she hates the fake boundaries that Hogwarts has and that James isn’t crossing them as much as he thinks he is. James understands, even though it hurts.

Saint and Sirius are cleaning the Potter’s pool when James arrives with Remus and Luke. Remus and Sirius have a tense moment in the kitchen, Luke and Saint argue, and Sirius finds out that it’s Remus who sails the Wolfsbane every morning—Remus thus finding out that Sirius notices.

Logan returns to the Carrows to hand over his money and stock up on Crucio. We find out that he works for them in the hopes that they will help him get Finn out of Saint Clair, only the Carrows are angry with him for using their Crucio—they say that Logan owes them now.

Logan heads over to Saint Clair to watch Finn from afar, and swears again that he will rescue him.

part iv

Remus closed his eyes, soaking in the morning sun and the salty air. The wind pushed his hair back as he tightened the rigging, catching the wind. Sometimes his sails felt like his bare hands. Like he finally had something to hold onto, even if it blistered his palms. The sea made him feel alone, in the best way. Usually, it felt like people were always around. He couldn’t go anywhere without running into at least two people from school, or his parents’ friends. Yes, he’s excited for college, no, he’s not sure exactly yet, yes, he’s still sailing, yes, he’s still obsessed, yes, he remembers learning at Gryffindor Club, sure, I’ll tell my mom you say hi.

Solidarity was less exhausting.

The wind buffered and he sighed as he slowed down. he looked back towards Shack Beach. Saint had said they saw him every morning—that Sirius saw him every morning. He wondered if Sirius was watching now.

He couldn’t see anything from this far away. Part of him wondered if he could make this island disappear completely, just for a moment. But it was dangerous to stray that far. Even The Cradle, the small U of islands just off of Hogwarts’ southern coast, was pushing it. Remus huffed out a laugh as he managed the ropes to come about, back towards shore. If that wasn’t a metaphor, he didn’t know what was.

Things on Hogwarts had become complicated in what felt like overnight, even though Remus knew that wasn’t true. They were older now. They didn’t just care about summer vacation. There was college to think about, and then jobs. Hogwarts wasn’t the dream it once was. Remus wanted to see mountains, and huge cities, or snow—and not just for a week on vacation. He wanted to belong somewhere because he wanted to be there, and not just because he had grown up there. He was tired of knowing everything there was to know.

He tied up his Wolfsbane on autopilot, stroking his hand over the side before tugging his shirt over his head and jumping straight into the water. It was cooler from the night, but it was what Remus needed. He held his breath as he found the sandy bottom, his eyes closed. For a moment, he didn’t have to be anywhere. He got to enjoy the ocean and its predictable changes.

When he came up for air, he remembered why he loved this island. That still didn’t mean he didn’t want to leave.

“Are you headed to the museum, sweetheart?” his mother said when Remus came down to the kitchen, freshly showered. He preferred to let the salt linger all day, but he figured he should be fresh for his first day of work.

“Yeah,” Remus held up his keys. “Just looking for some coffee first.”

His mom held up a mug for him, laughing. “Ask and you shall receive.”

Remus smiled. “Thanks, mom.”

“How was it this morning?”

Remus poured some milk into his cup. “It was good. Sun’s going to be strong today. Went near The Cradle—not too far, don’t worry.”

“You know me too well,” Hope laughed, whisking some eggs into a lather. “Well, it’s pizza night. We’re ordering in so, if you want to have some friends over and take it to the den, that’s fine with me. But don’t complain if Jules crashes the party.”

Remus nodded. “Actually, I think we’re going out. If that’s all right?”

Hope nodded. “All right, sure. Be safe, though. Who, uh…”

“James and Luke,” Remus sighed. “Mom—”

“I wasn’t going to say anything—”

“It’s not Luke’s fault,” Remus continued anyway. “His dad, I mean. He didn’t know.”

“I know that,” Hope sighed. “But…Even I can see that boy’s hurting and I barely see him at all.”

“Then shouldn’t he be with his friends?” Remus said.

Hope raised her eyebrows at him, and Remus raised his own right back.

“All right, all right,” Hope said. “You’re gonna be late, I’ll see you later, baby.”

Remus knew he should take the car his parents had given him. He knew he should get used to driving, knew his dad wondered why it just sat in the garage. But here, on the island, Remus liked his bicycle. He liked the warm breeze. It reminded him of being out on the water.

Which, in turn, now reminded him of Sirius Black.

When Remus remembered Sirius, he mostly remembered bruised cheeks and nasty looking cuts. He remembered the hushed way people used to whisper about him, and how, even when he was loud, grinning and well-liked, he was still from Salazar. Sometimes he had eaten lunch surrounded by people, and sometimes he had eaten it alone with his brother.

Remus didn’t understand this island. Was Sirius really so different because he was born a few miles South rather than North? It made no sense—only it did, but only because it was all Remus had ever known.

The Hogwarts History Museum was a pride of the island. Remus knew it well from school trips, and from his own interest. He’d spent many Saturdays there as a kid, gazing at all of the small models of ships and dreaming about what it would be like to sail them, wishing they weren’t trapped behind glass—feeling a little like he was trapped behind glass. A ship in a bottle.

“Hi there, Remus,” Layla smiled at him, green eyes kind and skin a rich, dark brown against the pale pink scarf in her hair.

“Hi, Layla,” Remus smiled. “Having a good summer so far?”

“Sure,” Layla shrugged. “Lots of time here. I saw you win the sailing race last Sunday, congrats.”

Remus smiled. “Thanks. It was real fun. Sorry I beat your brother, though.”

“Oh, Lyle doesn’t mind,” Layla waved a hand. Her nails were painted pink, too. “Don’t worry about it.”

Remus had been friends with Layla since they were little, competing for best in class usually. She was wicked smart and mellow. Remus could always use some mellow, good conversation—especially with James being James and Luke being…well, whatever Luke was now. Layla liked history, and her family owned the museum, which meant Layla told tales that were, albeit tall, fun to listen to.

Remus leaned against the desk, looking around. “This place never changes, huh?”

Layla laughed, clicking a pen. “History doesn’t tend to change that much, R, and so neither do we. Unlike the world out there.”

“I don’t know about that. Nothing ever feels too different out there,” Remus laughed, too. “But I guess you’re right. I’m glad you’re here, though. Or else I’d be sitting behind this desk by myself.”

“I’m glad you’re here, too,” Layla nodded. “What made you take the job?”

Remus snorted as he rounded the corner, picking up his name badge where Beatrice, Layla’s mother and the museum curator, said it would be. “Don’t pretend we didn’t see each other here when we were little all the time. Not to mention at Gryffindor Club. You, obviously.”

Layla raised an eyebrow. “Me and your mom.”

Remus winced and Layla laughed.

“C’mon, we both know you’d be out on your boat all day if it was up to you.”

Remus laughed. “Fine. But seriously. You’re a perk.”

Layla nodded, rolling her eyes with a smile. “Just a couple of history buffs, I guess.”

Remus shrugged. “There are worse things to be.”

The day was pretty slow. A few tourists here and there, taking photo behind the cardboard cutouts that made you look like you were dressed as a sailor, or a pirate.

“Are there really pirates here?” one little girl had asked Layla.

Remus had smiled when Layla crouched down and whispered to her, “careful, there’s one there,” and pointed at Remus.

When lunch rolled around, Remus expected Layla to pull out a bagged sandwich like him, but instead she scoffed and picked up her bag.

“Come on. We have to get out for a bit.”

Remus shrugged. “All right, where to?”

“The Lion, of course,” Layla replied. “It’s the best food on the island.”

“The Lion,” Remus repeated slowly. “You mean—in The Hollow?”

Layla gave him a look. “Oh, you’re not one of those are you?”

“One of what?” Remus said. “No. I’m not, I just… c’mon, you hear things.”

“Hear things? You’ve never been?”

“Once,” Remus swallowed, thinking of the fight. “It didn’t really go well.”

Layla just shook her head.

“History is just one great field of stories, Remus. You’ll never get to the truth unless you listen to them all.”

And so Remus found himself riding alongside Layla on their bikes and right through Gryffindor. The Hollow didn’t have a sign or anything, but you knew when you were in it. Remus almost wished he had been able to see some sort of line to cross, but everything was just suddenly different. Low houses with open doors, people gathered together and laughing. Kids running with surfboards over their heads, towards Shack Beach. It had seemed even more vibrant in the dark the night of the party, even through the tinted windows of Luke’s car. String lights hung over cookouts, and music blasting from speakers. It had smelled amazing, and Remus would have to say Layla was probably right about the food. 

The Lion was just as bright as everything else. It was bustling with lunch-goers, and the doors were flung wide, letting the heat right in. Remus looked around at the people. Some tourists, obviously. Some not. Hollows. Some of them smiled when they caught Remus’ eye, and some narrowed their eyes.

“Hi, Leo, babe,” Layla said as she slid onto a stool at the counter.

There was a blond boy behind it wearing a tank top and a snapback. He smiled as he set some shrimp down in a frier. “Hey, Layla, babe, ça va?”

“Just working. At least I’ve got Remus for company now.”

Remus smiled awkwardly when Leo fixed his blue eyes on him. He really didn’t know what he was waiting for. Something terrible to happen?

Leo only held out a hand. “Leo, nice to meet you.”

“Remus,” Remus said, and took it. He tried not to look at the rainbow bracelet on Leo’s wrist for too long, but he could tell Leo had felt the way his hand tightened. “Yeah—you, too.”

Leo touched it briefly, like an old habit, as he pulled away, giving another smile to Remus.

It didn’t necessarily mean Leo wasn’t straight, but on such a small island, Remus tended to notice these things. He and Luke had figured each other out pretty fast around sixteen. They’d kissed. Once. And then winced, laughed, and shoved each other in the pool. Sometimes Remus wished he and Luke had worked. He didn’t see any other boys coming his way. Leo was smiling at him like he knew what Remus was thinking.

“What can I get you two?” Leo asked.

A boyfriend? Remus thought wistfully.

“Two of your specials, please,” Layla said. “Re, you’re going to lose your mind it’s so good.”

“What’s your special?” Remus asked.

Leo shrugged, but he was grinning. “Like a chef ever gives up his secrets—”

Leo had stopped mid-sentence, eyes going over their shoulders towards the door. Remus turned to look, and a moment later, a brown haired boy was slinging a backpack down carefully between his feet and taking the seat beside Remus.

“Well, look who’s back,” Leo said to him.

The boy glanced at Remus and Layla, then gave a small shrug. “Yeah.”

Leo snorted. “Yeah,” he parroted. “You’re just hungry.”

The boy shrugged again.

Leo sighed, and gave Remus a look that said, can you believe this? before turning back to the stove. “This is Logan guys. Apparently he doesn’t talk today. Three specials. Coming up.”

~

Logan didn’t recognize the boy sitting at the counter. He didn’t recognize the girl either. Then again, he didn’t recognize many people. He didn’t know anyone. Except Dorcas—if that even counted. And Leo. If that counted, either.

The Felix was heavy in his pack, wedged protectively between his feet, and he wished the strangers would leave so that Leo would talk to him. He hadn’t said two words that weren’t him making sure that Logan liked his food, and asking him where he’d been.

Logan was a little annoyed with him for asking that question. It wasn’t like Leo didn’t know what Logan did. Then again, Leo didn’t know why Logan did what he did.

“You guys get the new madness exhibit up yet, Layla?” Leo was asking the girl with the scarf in her hair. “The one you were telling me about.”

The sandy-haired boy looked up from his food. “The madness exhibit?”

The girl—Layla—cocked her head. “Remus, you…you don’t know?”

“Know what?” the boy—Remus—replied.

Layla sat up a little, looking suddenly awkward. “Your mom donated almost everything we have. I mean…it is your family that’s famous for…”

Remus raised his eyebrows. “Losing their fucking minds?”

Layla winced. “Well, yeah, okay, poor choice of words on my part. But madness isn’t always a bad thing, you know. People say people are crazy all the time. Sometimes they’re just extraordinary.”

Remus looked back down at his food. “My family’s not extraordinary, believe me.”

“Usually extraordinary-ness belongs to one person, I’d say,” Leo said. “My mom’s pretty extraordinary. Doesn’t mean I am.”

“You want to stay on this island, don’t you?” Logan found himself saying. Then, he felt his neck heat and he turned down to his food.

“What’s so extraordinary about that?” Layla replied at the same time as Remus said, “You do?”

Leo just laughed, rolling his eyes at Logan. “I’m with Layla on this one, guys, sorry.”

“What about you, Logan?” Layla asked. “I want the museum after I go to college. At least I think I do. Leo wants The Lion, Remus wants to sail the world…” Remus blushed at that, and Layla’s eyes were very green. “What do you want to do?”

Logan found it strange that they were treating him like that. So normally. Logan knew his necklace was on display. It was easier than explaining why people hadn’t seen him around and pretending to be a tourist. That lead to questions. Being abandoned didn’t. And he was. He was abandoned. People didn’t ask. Most probably thought he had just aged out. People didn’t ask. It was better that way. Logan didn’t have any answers. All he had was the memory of that last night with Finn. Finn had returned to their room, eyes wild and voice urgent.

Come on, Lo, wake up. Wake up, Logan, we have to go. Now.

Logan had felt helplessly awake in the first weeks of being out. He was still sorting through what that meant.

Logan swallowed. “I don’t know. I’m—looking for someone first.”

Remus sighed and mumbled. “Aren’t we all.”

“You are?” Leo asked softly.

Logan nodded. “Or, not looking. I’m just…I’m waiting for someone.”

He knew where Finn was, but Logan knew that he could wait forever and he wouldn’t come. Logan had to take what he wanted. It was a lesson he was learning fast.

“Oh,” Remus replied. “Um…cool. I hope you find them.”

Logan just nodded.

“Well, we should head out,” Layla said, rising. “Gotta get back to work.”

“Sure thing, just pay up front,” Leo smiled. “See you later, Layla.” He nodded at Remus. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” Remus smiled back. “The food was great.”

Logan watched Leo watch them leave, then snort. “That guy looked more spooked than a horse with a snake.”

“Isn’t that what Gods are supposed to look like?” Logan replied.

Leo shrugged. “Usually you can’t see their eyes behind their aviators.”

Logan laughed a little. “Right.” he looked back down at his food, realizing he had begun picking his fries apart, rather than eating them.

“I’m looking for someone too, you know,” Leo broke the silence.

Logan did. Only, he hadn’t thought about it like that. Leo’s dad and Finn. Leo’s dad was probably dead. Finn wasn’t.

“I hope you find him,” Logan replied. “Your dad.”

The Lion was in full swing now, the lunchtime rush loud and boisterous. Leo had a tank top on, and Logan thought he looked a little tired. Sleeplessness showed easily on his skin.

“Do you have to run?” Leo asked instead of responding. “And hide? Like, from the police?”

Logan sat up, instinctively looking behind him. “I assumed I would have to. But…it hasn’t been that difficult.” He laughed a humorless laugh. “I guess I keep overestimating how much people actually care about me. Maybe I should have learned something by now.”

“Maybe you’re just looking at the wrong people,” Leo said quickly, and looked up with a smile, a small one, then down again. “I know a few others who got out. They don’t seem to have trouble, so, you know, if you needed a job or something, you could work in my mom’s workshop. With me. Or here. I’m sure Celeste and Pascal would be all right with it.”

Logan felt taken off guard. “Oh. I…” he thought of the powder packets in his bag. Of the Carrows. How much do you think you owe us by now?

Others? he wanted to ask. What others? 

“Just think about it,” Leo said, and turned towards one of the stove tops to check on some boiling water.

“Yeah. Okay.”

They sat in silence for a long moment.

“It’s a boat,” Leo began suddenly, answering Logan’s yet unasked question. The Voldemort. What his father had been looking for. It was almost like Leo was thanking him for telling the truth about his situation. An eye for an eye. A truth for a truth. Logan sort of liked that consistency. “Was a boat. In the eighteenth century.”

“Oh,” Logan said.

“Biggest story on Hogwarts,” Leo said. “Ten thousand pieces of gold, all fallen to the depths of the ocean just off of Hogwarts’ shores…and never seen again.”

“But if it’s just off the shore…”

Leo smiled a little, shaking his head. “But you have to know where off the shore. Otherwise, you have a whole circumference of miles and miles of open water to work with.”

“And your dad figured it out?”

Leo shrugged, expression closing off a little. “He thought he did.” He cleared his throat as he put an order on the counter for a waiter to take away, and ripped another piece of paper down from the line up to look at. “The Cradle. You know it?”

Logan shook his head.

“It’s a sort of…horse shoe shaped cluster of islands, just off of our southern tip.”

“Salazar,” Logan said quietly.

Leo nodded. “Salazar.”

“Your dad was a treasure hunter,” Logan said slowly. “He was looking for a treasure.”

“Yeah,” Leo said, flipping a crab cake in sizzling oil. “He was.”

“And did he find it? Do you want to find it?”

“I don’t know,” Leo whispered, busy hands stilling. “He never came home.”

Logan nodded.

“He wanted to find it,” Leo said softly. “Really badly. And I… I feel like I should.”

“And was he close?”

Leo glanced up from his knife. “Yes.”

“Leonardo,” a voice came suddenly, entering the restaurant. “What does your mother feed you, you gorgeous specimen?”

Logan froze. He knew that voice.

Leo rolled his eyes, and looked at the newcomers. “Fuck off, Saint. Hey, Sirius.”

“Hi,” a second voice came, and it was closer, almost beside Logan at the bar.

Leo’s eyes caught on Logan’s again, probably meaning to introduce him, but he stopped instead.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asked.

But Logan just shook his head, and then the newcomers—Saint and Sirius—were leaning against the bar. Logan felt the breath beside him catch just as his own had, and he turned to look.

Logan thought the boy standing beside him looked different. Older. More muscular. Squarer jaw. But the same. Same eyes. Same shock of blond hair. Same warm, brown skin.

“Logan?” Saint breathed, his eyes disbelieving.

Logan went to open his mouth, when Saint’s arms were around him suddenly.

“It’s Saint,” he said softly, just for Logan’s ears. He squeezed him tighter. “God, you’re here.”

“Saint?” Logan whispered into his shoulder. No one had touched him like this in what felt like forever.

“Yeah,” Saint said. He pulled back and raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

Logan shrugged. “I…yeah, okay.”

“Knutty,” Saint’s serious expression morphed into a grin. He leaned against the counter, keeping his palm on Logan. “Handsome as ever.”

Logan blinked at Saint, then at Leo. “Knutty?”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Don’t listen to a word he says.”

“Oh, Logan already knows not to do that,” Saint laughed. He tapped his cross necklace. “We’re practically brothers.”

“Oh,” Leo blinked. “Right.”

The other boy—Sirius—looked just as taken aback.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Saint called in a sing-song voice, looking at Sirius. “Order for us, won’t you? And get us a table? Logan,” Saint nodded towards the door. “Come hither.”

Logan was so thankful to see Saint, he nearly tripped while getting up. A familiar face. A familiar anything. Saint had gotten out almost seven years ago. He’d been there one day, in his bed, in classes, in the courtyard, and gone the next.

“Sweetheart?” Logan asked, glancing back inside at the dark-haired boy, Sirius.

Saint just put his hands on Logan’s arms, eyes more intent than Logan had ever seen them, then on Logan’s cheeks. “Holy shit, how did you get out?”

Logan felt his heart slow, then speed up. He swallowed dryly. “Finn. How did you?”

Saint ignored the question.

“Finn,” Saint repeated, nodding. “Of course. When?”

“About a month ago. And he—he’s still in there,” Logan said. “He’s…And I’m—”

“I hear you,” Saint said. He jerked his head over to the table. “Not now. Let’s get back.”

“Saint?” Logan asked again.

Saint rolled his eyes. “Leave it alone. For now.”

~

Saint hadn’t been ready. He hadn’t seen Logan in nine years, but he’d know his face anywhere. All eyelashes and sad, green eyes. A smile he wore with Finn only. He looked spooked now, and tired. They’d sat at the bar, watching one of Leo’s shifts go and another one come, then moved to a table. Watching it get dark outside now, Saint wondered where Logan had been living for a month.

He eyed the backpack that Logan held so protectively close, and thought of the way Dorcas did the same thing.

Saint had a bad feeling.

“So, how’d you two meet?” Sirius said, gesturing between Logan and Leo with a fry when Leo brought over more water.

“Party,” Leo shrugged after a moment of hesitation. “Shack Beach.” He jerked his head at Saint. “You two were there, judging by Sirius’ shiner. Could hear that fight at my house, probably.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “I didn’t start it.”

“True,” Saint said, wondering how he had missed Logan that night. “Some God—albeit a beautiful one—thought we were selling Crucio.”

Saint flicked his eyes over to Logan. Sure enough, he blushed.

Saint cocked his head. “The horror. Dangerous stuff.”

Leo looked at Saint quietly, and glanced at Logan, then back to him. Saint nodded. Got it, it said.

“Well, would you look who it is,” said a deep voice from behind them, and then there were two strong arms around Saint and Sirius. Pascal placed a loud kiss on each of their heads.

“Eck,” Sirius laughed. “You smell like grease, old man.”

Pascal Dumais laughed. “Grease that feeds you, maybe. And who’s this?”

“Dumo, meet Logan,” Saint said. “Logan, meet Pascal. He owns the Lion with his wife, Celeste.”

“The most beautiful woman in the world,” Pascal said, accent heavy. “Logan, it’s nice to meet you.”

Saint watched Pascal eye Logan’s necklace.

“We were together at Saint Clair,” he supplied.

“Maybe not so loud,” Logan said harshly. “Saint.”

“Oh?” Pascal said, and squinted at Logan. “Who are you with now, mon cher?”

Saint watched Logan open his mouth, frozen, and was about to speak up when—

“Me,” Leo cut in. He looked down at the carrots he was chopping as he said it. “Me and my mom.”

Oh, Saint thought.

“Oh, Leonardo,” Saint sighed. “Un ange.”

“Not my name,” Leo said.

“I know.”

“Yeah,” Logan replied to Pascal’s still questioning gaze. “Yeah.”

“I see,” Pascal nodded. “Well, I’m happy you and your mother will have a helping hand now. I miss your father dearly, mon fils.” He smiled sadly at Leo.

Leo just nodded. “Yeah.”

“Him and his treasure, eh?” Pascal said. “A wonderful man. I miss going out on that boat of his.”

Leo’s smile was small, but fond. “Those were some of his favorite mornings.”

“Treasure?” Sirius asked.

“Black!” a new voice shouted. “Thank fuck.”

Saint looked up when Sirius did. James and Remus were barreling towards them from the dark outside.

“Good lord,” Saint said. “Rain, from Olympus. Water my crops, why don’t you.”

“James?” Sirius said. “What are you—”

James and Remus walked right up to their table—Remus looking slightly more reluctant. “We have a question.”

“How did you know we were here?” Sirius raised an eyebrow. “I mean, just…it’s a little out of your way, non?”

“Remus came here earlier, and when I told him—well, you’ll see—he said maybe you’d be here.”

Saint watched Sirius’ eyes narrow at Remus, confused. “Okay…”

“Well, it’s good to see you again, tweedle-hot,” Saint said to Remus. “Up close this time. We actually though you were going to sail right out of sight this morning.”

Sirius stepped on his toe beneath the table.

“Excuse me?” Remus choked out. “What the fuck did you—”

James blinked at Saint, then shook his head, as if to right his thoughts. “All right, setting every strange thing that comes out of your mouth aside for a moment —where is Dorcas?”

“Meadowes?” Logan chimed in.

James’ eyes turned on him. “You know her?”

Saint raised his hand. “I have the same question.”

“Well,” Logan hesitated. “Sure.”

“And she sells Felix,” James said, as if trying to confirm the information.

Logan narrowed his eyes. “Says you.”

James sighed. “I’m not here to turn her in, Jesus, I just have a question.”

“Do…” Sirius was looking at Logan. “Do you sell…”

“What kind of question?” Saint cut in.

Remus spoke up. “A does-she-deal-to-Luke type of question.”

Saint laughed. “Deveaux?”

“You know who Luke is, Saint,” Remus sighed.

“Well, yeah I do, Lupin, he tried to buy off me,” Saint shook his head with a tisking sound. “Turns out he’s a prejudice piece of eye candy. Who knew.”

“Come on,” James sighed, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses. “Please, Sirius, come on.”

Sirius shrugged. “We don’t know who Dorcas deals to. We’re not involved.”

“If you did would you tell us?”

Sirius smiled, just a little. “Probably not. But I really don’t know.”

James sighed, sagging away from the table. He looked at Remus. “Fuck.”

“What were you hoping to accomplish here?” Sirius asked slowly.

“We—” Remus said, then sighed, too. “We were going to see if she would agree to stop. If it was her, if she would stop giving it to him.”

“We’d pay her,” James added. “Obviously.”

Saint scoffed, and Logan laughed a little, too, from beside him.

“Obviously,” Saint mimicked.

“We just meant—” Remus began.

“We know what you meant,” Sirius said.

Saint popped a fry into his mouth. “If we’ll clean your pools for a few bucks, we’ll grant you three wishes, too.”

“Jesus, Saint,” James groaned.

“Mary. Joseph—”

James ran his hands through his hair. “We’re sorry, we misspoke. We’re just trying to help our friend. His dad got taken to jail, his mom pops pills all day and night.  That’s already draining what little money the bank didn’t seize and if he wants to do anything with his life he needs a straight head. Just—fuck, we’re just asking.”

Saint prided himself on gathering information, but most of that were things he didn’t know. Luke’s dad had got taken away. But the pills? The financial distress? All of that paired with that guarded snarl the boy always seemed to wear…it almost made Saint feel sorry for Luke Deveaux. He almost said so.

Instead, he said, while twirling the cross around his neck. “Wow, he must feel like an orphan or something.”

“All right,” Remus sighed. “James, let’s just go.”

“What does he look like?” Logan said suddenly before they could turn to leave.

James looked a him warily. “Um. Sort of blond-ish. More brown-haired, I guess. Big guy, built and tall and all that. Oh, he’s got this green spot in one eye.”

Logan nodded. James raised an eyebrow. Saint waited.

“How much will you pay me to stop selling to him?” Logan finally said. He rose as he did, slinging his backpack over one shoulder. “That’s a lot out of my pocket.”

“Logan,” Saint said, but Logan didn’t look at him.

James blinked. “I—oh. Oh, uh—God, what do you want? Two hundred?”

"One grand,” Logan said.

James laughed. “Dude. Who the fuck are you? No, I don’t have that much just—on me.”

“Logan,” Saint warned again, and this time Logan did look at him. Saint shook his head softly.

“Fine,” Logan said through his teeth, and held out his hand. “Two.”

James took his wallet out and handed over the cash.

“Thanks,” Remus said from a little behind James’ shoulder. “Really.”

Logan just nodded, shoved the bills into his pocket, and headed for the door.

“Pardon,” Saint sent a grin to them all, and followed him.

Once they were outside, Saint gave him a wack on the back of the head.

“Fuck,” Logan swore. “S—”

“You get out of that shit-hole and you go around selling Crucio? To Gods?”

“I—”

“I mean, seriously, what the fuck was that? Do you know how not careful that was?”

“I don’t even know who that boy is,” Logan bit back.

Saint blinked. “What?”

Logan looked out towards the ocean where they could hear the waves crashing against the shore. “He offered to pay, and so I told him what he wanted to hear. When his friend shows up hallucinating next, that’s their problem.”

Saint scoffed. “Fine, okay, clever boy. But you do sell Crucio.”

“Felix,” Logan countered. “And yes.”

“Crucio. And no.”

Logan shrugged. “I need the money.”

“For what?”

Logan looked at him and, this time, his eyes were hard. Desperate. “For Finn.”

Saint froze. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. “Excuse me?”

“If I can get enough cash, I can get Finn,” Logan said.

Saint stared at him, and then Saint laughed. Then, he laughed louder.

“You’re shitting me,” Saint said. “You think that?”

“What do you…”

“You think you can buy Finn out?” Saint repeated incredulously. “You think you can walk back in there and buy Finn out.”

Logan took a breath. “He—”

“Logan, Jesus Christ,” Saint snapped. “You walk anywhere near that place and you are never getting back out.” Saint pressed a hand to Logan’s shoulder and shook him. “Do you hear me?”

“I need to do something,” Logan shouted back. “I need to do something, I can’t just leave him in there, he’s everything to me.”

Saint shook his head. “He got you out. Don’t waste that.”

Logan nodded, eyes bright with tears now. “And you know he got punished for it. You know he did—”

“Stop,” Saint spat, glancing around, as if anyone could hear. “Don’t.”

“You could help me,” Logan said, wiping his nose. “Bash, you got out once—”

“No,” Saint said, and turned away. “No. And don’t call me that. Don’t you ever call me that.”

“Please,” Logan begged. “Please—Saint.”

Saint whirled on him again. “I am never going near there, and neither are you. Finn’s still in there, fine. But he’ll need to get himself free like us if he wants it bad enough.”

“I owe money,” Logan began, then his breathing hitched. “I owe them, I took some of it to see—to see Finn and…Bash—Saint—”

“Them?” Saint took a step forward. “Them?”

Logan pressed a hand over his eyes, but Saint walked forward and pulled it away.

“Logan,” he said lowly. “Tell me you didn’t.”

Logan closed his eyes, mouth twisting against his tears.

“Tell me, right now, that you didn’t let the Carrows tell you they’d help you. And that you didn’t believe them.”

Logan shook his head, not in negation, but in defeat. “I need him. I need him, I’m so…I’m alone.”

Saint pulled Logan against his chest and let him cry. The sobs heaved out of him for a long while, until the collar of Saint’s shirt was wet. Until Logan was breathing softly again, exhausted, and until his voice sounded shot when he spoke.

“You’re really staying with Leo?” Saint asked, more gently this time.

Logan nodded.

“I have a place, too. Here, in The Hollow. If you want.”

“With the others?” Logan rasped.

“What others?”

“How many others are out?” Logan said softly.

Saint shook his head, fingers in Logan’s hair. “Just me, that I know of.”

“You still wear it,” Logan said, pulling back to look at him. “The cross.”

Saint let his hands drop with a last touch to Logan’s hot cheek. “So do you.”

They were both silent.

“I’m sorry about Finn,” Saint said rigidly. “I know how much he meant to you.”

Logan’s brows pulled together. “He’s not dead.”

Saint nodded. “Right.”

“Saint…” Logan began, and Saint heard the almost B instead. “Would you—just thinking about it—“

“No,” Saint said, and then turned and went back inside.

Sirius, back at the table, looked at his face, and then at his wet shirt.

“Okay?” he asked softly when Saint sat down.

“Just dandy,” Saint replied, and looked towards the door. Logan was gone.

[edenmemes]

red dead redemption 2 starters

❝ in these books life seems so simple, but in reality… i can’t make head nor tail of it. ❞  ❝ listen to me. when the times comes, you gotta run and don’t look back. ❞ ❝ i ain’t afraid of dying. ❞ ❝ i’m still standing, which is an improvement on the last time you saw me. ❞ ❝ i still think about you. that was...that was quite a time. ❞ ❝ people don’t forget. nothing gets forgiven. ❞ ❝ your father would rather you did not do anything so foolish. ❞ ❝ forgiveness, well...it’s just an easy way of saying ‘i don’t care no more’. ❞ ❝ i know you like to hide behind the angry moron act, but it’s a thin enough veneer. ❞ ❝ when somebody doesn’t lie in this world and you don’t lie to them, then together you can achieve great things and destroy great powers. ❞ ❝ i remain a fool, and i’m sure i shall die a fool, but i’m trying very hard to be something like the man you deserve. ❞ ❝ i am always honest, maybe not always good, but i'm always honest. ❞ ❝ why you got that guilty look on your face? ❞ ❝ i trust i will not make a god awful fool of myself once more-- but somehow i imagine i shall. ❞ ❝ please don’t go to any trouble on my account. ❞ ❝ you ain’t gonna die. not yet. ❞ ❝ feels like things have changed...the whole world has changed. ❞ ❝ i feel like we haven’t spoken for days. ❞ ❝ we’re thieves in a world that don’t want us no more. ❞ ❝ we can’t change what’s done. we can only move on. ❞ ❝ just do one thing or the other. don’t try to be two people at once. ❞ ❝ we’re more ghosts than people. ❞ ❝ how can romance ever be silly? it’s all we have. ❞ ❝ vengeance is an idiot’s game. ❞ ❝ i don’t think we can go much further on the horses. ❞ ❝ i'm surprised we escaped at all. ❞ ❝ you’re...i was gonna say you’re like a son/daughter to me. ❞ ❝ you’re...i was gonna say you’re like a son/daughter to me...but you’re more than that. ❞ ❝ this is a new low, even by your standards. ❞ ❝ i do my utmost to avoid you. ❞ ❝ i thought the whole point was that this had nothing to do with you? ❞ ❝ i’m sorry to complain. it’s just so... ❞ ❝ i need you now...more than ever. ❞ ❝ face me to the west so i can watch the setting sun and remember all the fine times we had that way. ❞ ❝ do you ever miss home? must be hard, being so far away. ❞ ❝ you know, we’re gonna need to come up with a better story for that scar. ❞ ❝ there’s a good man within you...but he is wrestling a giant. ❞ ❝ you saved my life. you’re a good man. ❞ ❝ there’s only one of me. i don’t intend for them to know i’m coming. ❞ ❝ i thought you were trying to make me feel better. ❞ ❝ be loyal to what matters. ❞ ❝ you know, i don’t think i’ve ever seen you squeal before. ❞ ❝ i'm miserable. been a tough few days. ❞ ❝ i trust your judgement. always have. ❞ ❝ i'm just gonna...have a little sit down and...feel sorry for myself. ❞ ❝ i tried. in the end. i did. ❞ ❝ one day, folk will take orders from me...and trust me, it won’t be no laughing matter. ❞ ❝ here, take a drink of this. ❞ ❝ seems like there ain’t much else in this world except bastards, victims of bastards and the bastards who want to put the bastards in the ground. ❞ ❝ we’ll get off this mountain soon enough. ❞ ❝ i haven’t slept in three days. ❞ ❝ just thought you might’ve moved on by now. ❞ ❝ thanks for coming for me. ❞ ❝ you got sad eyes...like you’ve seen sad things. ❞ ❝ you always said revenge is a luxury we can’t afford. ❞ ❝ you don’t hire a saint to catch a sinner. ❞ ❝ you’re alive! oh, you’re alive! ❞ ❝ go. now. i’ll hold them off. ❞ ❝ are you okay? i mean you no harm. ❞ ❝ i'm nobody. ❞ ❝ what about you? you doubting me too? ❞ ❝ it’s enough to make a man drink. or worse. ❞ ❝ i knew not to trust, yet i had no choice. ❞ ❝ there ain’t no more time to talk. go. ❞ ❝ thank you, for your strength. it means a lot to me. ❞ ❝ firstly, we ain’t friends. don’t make no mistake on that subject. ❞ ❝ i'm so bored i’d rather be shot. ❞ ❝ it’ll mean a lot to me...please. ❞ ❝ you’re gonna sleep with your chest open if you ain’t careful. ❞ ❝ the bond we share, it’s the most real thing to me. i would kill for it, i would happily die for it... ❞ ❝ life is full of pain. but there is also love, and beauty. ❞ ❝ my pa used to say you stare into the fire long enough you can see the whole world pass by. ❞ ❝ whenever we happen to meet, you’re always helping people and smiling. ❞ ❝ do as you’re goddamn told. and shoot well. ❞ ❝ i guess he never outgrew his anger. kind of like you. ❞ ❝ some trees flourish, others die. some cattle grow strong, others are taken by wolves. some men are born rich enough and dumb enough to enjoy their lives. ain't nothing fair. you know that. ❞ ❝ you’re driven by powerful forces i scarcely understand. ❞ ❝ oh you fool. you sad, deluded fool. torn in two by different ideas of who you were, and it turns out you weren't neither of them. ❞ ❝ well, i think you’re as slippery as an eel in an oil slick, but still a man/woman. ❞ ❝ with you watching over me, i’d walk into hell itself. ❞ ❝ lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have. ❞ ❝ when i was your age, i fought. i saw death. i have killed. ❞ ❝ i wish things were different. but it weren’t us who changed. ❞ ❝ nobody’s taking anything from me ever again. ❞ ❝ some jobs aren’t for saving and some legacies are for pissing on. ❞ ❝ you're my favorite parasite... no, wait, ringworm's my favorite parasite, you're my second-favorite parasite... i lied. ringworm, then, rats with the plague, then you. ❞ ❝ just leave it to me. i can talk a dog off a meat wagon. ❞ ❝ forgive me if i slip and stab you in the face. ❞ ❝ this place, ain’t no such thing as civilized. it’s man so in love with greed, that he has forgotten himself and found only appetites. ❞ ❝ shut up...you know, you’re not very nice to me. ❞ ❝ the amount of hell we’ve raised, we’re owed some back. ❞ ❝ i haven’t done anything wrong aside of not playing the games to your rules. ❞ ❝ don’t let yourself get killed...for pride. i’ve seen it kill too many folk. ❞ ❝ when you fall, there’ll be a party. ❞ ❝ every day i didn’t kill you, is a day i saved your life. ❞ ❝ i can’t kill them all silently so, when they chase me, you go the other way. ❞ ❝ does this seem like a good time for sarcasm to you? ❞ ❝ usually i’m worse than the wolves. ❞ ❝ i don’t have to be careful. i have you as a friend. ❞ ❝ i wish i had acquired wisdom at less of a price. ❞ ❝ they’re chasing us hard, because we represent everything they fear. ❞ ❝ you know all that mattered to me was loyalty? it was all i ever believed in. ❞ ❝ never thought i’d say this but...it’s good to see you. ❞ ❝ we’ve all lived bad lives. we all sin...but i know you. ❞ ❝ i kill people. and maybe i should’ve killed you. ❞ ❝ ain’t you a sorry sight? ❞ ❝ your job’s starting the fights, it ain’t winning them. ❞ ❝ some big, loud mouthed bastard tried to rob me when i was out riding so i... well, you know how it is. ❞ ❝ there ain’t no shame in looking for a better world. ❞ ❝ i can hunt, carry a knife, and use a gun. ❞   ❝ ...is it too late for us? ❞ ❝ if the purpose of life was to be liked...it would be very boring indeed. ❞ ❝ i’ve been running for as long as i can remember. ❞     ❝ they turned me into a monster. ❞   ❝ i always wondered if i was unlucky...but maybe i’m just not very good. ❞ ❝ don’t kill yourself over pride. i’ve seen it kill too many folks. ❞ ❝ sorry if i seem a little desperate. i am a little desperate. ❞ ❝ if anyone gets close to me, they’re wanted too. and i can’t have you wrapped up in that. ❞ ❝ there’s all kinds of nasty people who want to speak to you. ❞ ❝ they won’t hear anything about you from me. ❞ ❝ tell me about you, darling and armed to the teeth like that. ❞ ❝ i also...found out some unsettling news about you. ❞ ❝ i don’t know how to say it...thank you. ❞ ❝ you...don’t like me much, do you? ❞ ❝ i can’t lie to you. i’m a wanted man. ❞ ❝ that’s quite a scratch you got there. ❞ ❝ take a gamble that love exists, and do a loving act. ❞ ❝ i’m seeing things a lot more clearly now. ❞ ❝ where are you? can you hear me? ❞ ❝ i think someone saw some wolves, not far away. you should watch out. ❞ ❝ guess all i got now is doubt. doubts and scars. ❞ ❝ it wasn’t me who went and shot him. ❞ ❝ will you dance with me? ❞ ❝ i like you. you’ve got a kind face. ❞ ❝ i’m not a good man. not usually. ❞ ❝ there’s a lot i should’ve done and even more i shouldn’t have done. ❞ ❝ you are a compulsive liar. ❞ ❝ next time, i’ll slit your throat myself. ❞ ❝ as long as we get paid or you get shot, i’m happy. ❞ ❝ i'm not designed for this snow. ❞ ❝ you don’t get to live a bad life and have good things happen to you. ❞ ❝ shut up you silly man and kiss me. ❞ ❝ who made you the messiah of these poor souls you’ve led so horribly astray? ❞ ❝ maybe it’s a sign. try to do the good thing. ❞ ❝ how many times do i gotta bury you? ❞ ❝ you are the only feller who could get half of their brain eaten by wolves and end up more intelligent. ❞ ❝ five thousand dollars? for me? can i turn myself in? ❞ ❝ if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging. ❞     ❝ we ain’t both gonna make it. ❞ ❝ i gave you all i had. i did. ❞ ❝ if we have to fight, we fight. If we have to run, we’ll run. if we must die, we’ll die. but…we’ll stay free. ❞ ❝ people call me lazy. i’m not lazy, just don’t like working. there’s a difference. ❞ ❝ i guess...i’m afraid. ❞ ❝ oh, i didn’t know i was talking to a lady. ❞ ❝ i don’t feel too good. ❞ ❝ you have finally lost your mind. ❞

[sam-blackbird]

What if episode 8 spoilers!

I wrote this while watching the episode and after, but I don’t stop the episode every time I had something to said because it would have been to long. (In fact that’s what I did so it’s really a long post, sorry!) Anyway, let’s began!

OMG there’s « Jeremy Renner » in the opening! *fangirling in Hawkeye/Clint Barton fan* Wait, about the opening, it’s different from the others, the ones from the previous seven episodes, right? OMG blond-haired-Natasha! *also cry in fangirl*

The Watcher talking about a reality which end and which breaks his (?)(we always assume that’s The Watcher use the he/him pronouns but as far as I’m not sure of it, I’ll use the they/them pronouns) their heart and guess what? I think this episode will break mine!

It snow… (Please tell me it’s not ashes (Maybe from the burning world?))

Holy- Natasha!!! My heart is tight and I feel bad and sad and now I want to cry, Marvel I hate you. Also, she looks hurt, Marvel I double hate you for that, stop playing with my feeling please!

*yell and screams* My little boiiii!!! (Hawkeye/Clint Barton just appeared on my screen) (and I’m really happy of it) (I hope he won’t be hurt, or I’ll became violent because no one hurt my little baby! Yes, I’m aware that he’s older and stronger than me but I don’t care, let me dream and cry, ok?) Also, excuse me, but what happened to his right arm? I’m not sure but if it’s what I think it is, Marvel you’re gonna have big trouble (and by that I mean my insulting you in French in my room, which isn’t that bad I think)

Good I love this action scene and this duo! And the Hawkeye cape is really stylish! I want the same! It seems so cool! Can we agree on the fact that that’s a cape of invisibility, like in Harry Potter?

Also, that’s a metal arm or a prothese that he have instead of his right arm?! Marvel please no! *screams and swear in French*

The three-arrows thing was cool!

*double scream in French when the robots hurt Hawkeye*

Touch him and I’ll kill you you robots! Yay! Natasha!

Wait a minute, I just think about it but where are the others? (I’m full of fear now)

A joke about him being disable? Ah. Sooo fun 😒 (no) Natasha saying that puns aren’t her speciality… Girl, no kidding?! Also, the « It’s Russia. Secrets were the national pastime. » is actually a good one! (Is that the ruins of Saint-Petersburg?)

« One‘s man dream »… You mean his stupidity and/or madness of values, right?

Oh sh¡T! Ultron dear, you’re a son of a Tony, and that’s not a compliment. Dumbass, if you erase the life on Earth, first of all that‘s not nice (thank you Captain obvious) and then, how can we have the wonderful Wandavison?! (Yeah, I love this ship, one of the only hetero ones I like)

Clint being worried for his family wasn’t something I needed today you Marvel!

Scuse me WTF?! He cut Thanos like a shitty piece of paper?! And this purple idiot let him a free access to the Infinity stones?! (Well, he may don’t think things were gonna happened that way but it’s a big catastrophe, like *scream in French*)

*swear in French* Ultron my dear don’t do that!!! *scream for the happy universes we saw* *cry for it* Also, Ultron might be a vilain but we can’t deny they’re (again I’m not sure about the pronouns) really good looking. I mean, their design is really cool and full of style and it’s sad it would bring us tears and desperation because they’re really stylish -I know I repeated the same think but I think it and my English vocabulary isn’t really good :C -.

And I was right to fear for the others :C

Ultron, peace isn’t destruction!

Did he just destroyed Earth?! *is shocked and don’t accept it* *my heroes can’t die, right? * (friendly reminder that Tony’s not part of my heroes)

And Asgard?! *still in disbelief*

*saw their favorites MCU characters disappear from the screen* No! Nooo! *cry for real and had to put pause to cry* (my heart is broken, why did you did this Marvel?!)

The Great Master is just like us, he watch what’s happening in disbelief because it’s so… absurd. It’s not happening, right? It’s just a nightmare and I’ll wake up soon, right?

What the f_ck Xandar?! Captain! *cry with joyfull tears* Please kick Ultron’s ass! Skynet, LoL, I understand that reference! (Am I that old?!)

Wait, I just realized but if Ultron had destroyed Earth, it means Maria -you know, Carol’s wife- is dead?! *gasp in pain*

« You can’t win. - I already have. » Dude WTF?! Let me have hope you son of Tony!

Crap Ultron broke the 4th wall and heard the narrator (aka The Watcher!)! We’re in danger! All the universes are in danger! Our mental health are in dan… Wait, I don’t have that one.

*deep breath with Natasha and Clint appears on screen*

Hey Watcher, maybe you could help them, no? I mean, the multiverse is in danger and they’re your last hope, remember? But no, it’s so much fun to watch them looking in all the boxes… 😒

Is that Alexei Red Guardian’s shield? You really want me to cry Marvel?! (oh no, now I’ve got « Bye bye Miss American Pie » stuck in head… Great, really)

*Clint talking about his low will to live* Me: same here bro! Not exactly for the same reasons but same here!

Watcher, stop talking just f_cking help them! That’s what you called « intervene » Watcher?! LoL seing them trying to talk to the duo Clintasha is the funniest think in this episode for now xD

Not this escalator xD *think about the scene with Steve and Bucky in it in Captain America: The Winter Soldier* *smile*

Francis?! WTF?! XD

How to kill Zola? With water xD Oh God I love Clint so much xD

« I’d like to order a pizza » LoL *die of laughing because it was unexpected* xD (See? She can make pun!)

Yes, a specific arrow! Also, don’t explain us you plan! If we know the plan before it happened, it’s not gonna work!

I’m love the trio Clint-Natasha-Zola actually!

Wait… Natasha holding Clint furiously reminds me of what happened in Voromir… *realization* NO! No no no no No! I see what you trying to doing here Marvel! No! I want them to live! Both of them!

*shock* *cry*

The « I don’t want to fight anymore » wasn’t something I needed Marvel! Why would you do this to me?! WHY?!

*also, sadly, we know that Ultron won’t die in this episode because we saw it in the end of episode 7 and it was after episode 8 I guess*

THEY DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT HAPPENED IN ENDGAME THOSE *incomprehensible swear drowned in tears* !!! I hope all the one who said that « it should have been Clint » regret it!

And the little smile! He’s relieve to leave and to join his family! *cry in pain*

Why do I still watch The MCU?! I know it’s painful but I still watch, why?!

Apart of that, can we talk about the beauty of this scene? The music, the light who goes on Clint…

Watcher, you sure you can’t do anything ?!

I’m sorry but I have to : Nat, you’re such a poser !

Wait, The Watcher is actually really badass and strong!

What the f_ck Steve?! Why became president?!

WTF?!

Wait, it’s already the end?! Ah, no. Fiou.

What the… That’s Strange. And by that I don’t only said that it’s weird, but also that that’s literally Doctor Strange from episode 6.

How the f_ck does he end up there!? No idea.

I love the ending music, god!

*enging credits* What the… The CNC and Film France helped?! *disbelief but also pride to be French*

And that’s it! Finished! One week to wait until the next one?! It’s gonna be sooo long (actually no because of my studies but you understand what I mean, right?)

[aritamargarita]

ATTITUDE || 008

HELLO LADIES & GENTLEMAN WELCOME BACK

bro i swear i space out my sentences in each chapter but tumblr be like “SIKE!!” sometimes

i full on named this attitude knowing full well they weren’t really in it anymore 100% but..HEY WHO CARES

by the way thanks for 80 followers already! road to 100 babey!

unsure if I’ll do more survivor series in ch 9 but we’ll see caus idek wth [name] would do. more requests possibly on the way after i wake up again-

BACKSTAGE; 7:17 PM

Today was finally Survivor Series after a rough week for the Alliance. Winning some and losing some, this was the final battle of the brands.

As you held the card for today, you inspected it thoroughly. You were happy you snatched one up so that you didn’t have to search for one on the walls again.

CHRISTIAN V. AL SNOW

TAJIRI V. WILLIAM REGAL

EDGE V. TEST

THE DUDLEY BOYZ (W/STACY KEIBLER) V. HARDY BOYZ

THE ONE YEAR IMMUNITY BATTLE ROYAL

IVORY V. JAZZ V. JACQUELINE V. TRISH V. MIGHTY MOLLY V. LITA

TEAM WWF V. TEAM ALLIANCE: WINNER TAKES ALL MATCH.

Not bad, you’d say. Notably there were a lot of unification matches..

Your attention directed toward the women’s championship match. It answers your question if it was the reason why Stephanie asked if you wanted a title.

You’d much rather wait your turn though. You thought it would only be fair to the other women who’d already been here longer than you. You shrug it off. If you did participate in that match, you were sure you wouldn’t win anyhow.

“Hey, [Name]!” A feminine voice calls out. You look to your right to see Torrie. “I’m shocked I’m seeing you here finally. Sucks that I can barely see you backstage now.” She frowned.

Torrie merely shrugged the thought off though and suddenly winked at you. “On the bright side, you may be seeing me more anyway. I’m gonna be doing a couple of favors..” After she nudged your shoulder suggestively, you gave her a look confusion. “You’ll see me later today I’m sure.”

“Favors...?” You repeat. You didn’t get it until you pieces it together. “Woah, woah. You don’t mean...?”

“Not for real.” She rolls her eyes playfully. “But I’m supposed to be heading to the WWF after this whole thing is over too. I’m sure Stacy is also coming. I think it’s only fair. After all, we are...or were the most popular girls in WCW.”

That was music to your ears. You wouldn’t know what to do without the both of them. At times you would feel more comfortable when they were around. “That’s awesome!” You excitedly say. “I remember when we were in a team. Don’t you?”

“Yeah, it was a while back wasn’t it?” She asks, reminiscing about the times that you two had. It sure as hell was truly fun. After she was done with accompanying Kidman, creative wanted her to do something bold.

It ended up with you two. Despite her debuting a little before you, you two clicked immediately. Just couldn’t stay away from each other.

You two matched outfits from time to time—(This was Torrie’s idea, as she loved wearing latex outfits and the idea)—and helped out in matches you two participated in respectively.

Unfortunately, since the division was slowing down in competitiveness, you two were split and pitted against other opponents in singles.

You both enjoyed it while it lasted though, and was glad your friendship had also lasted into coming here.

“Any guys...or girls—if you’re into that...I don’t judge—you’re interested in?” Torrie asks, nudging you again.

“Torrie. I will straight up bite you.”

“Jeez, so touchy!”

BACKSTAGE; 7:39 PM

This segment backstage was involving you, Debra, Stone Cold, and Kurt Angle seated on a couch.

Last week, you officially signed with the WWF behind cameras. Just to add to that, they wanted to mention it on camera too. The fans would be seeing more of [Name]. You had only peeked into the room earlier to find out that Vince wasn’t there. Debra being the saint she was, motioned for you to sit down. She was adamant about it, at the very least she could have someone who was sane in here.

You couldn’t refuse, so you did indeed sat down. Which is where we are now...

“Wow...!” You eagerly began. “I’m really in the same room as Stone Cold..this is awesome!” Acting as if you were on a sugar high, you continued to rant. “I’m like such a big fan! I’ve been—“

Kurt raised his eyebrow and interrupted you. “Hey, [Name]. Don’t get too happy. He’s not all that. You should be a fan of me. Did you know I won a golden medal...with a broken freakin’ neck?” He tells you.

You look at him in shock. “Oh! I didn’t know!” It was funny, you had nearly forgotten Kurt and Stone Cold were feuding in a peculiar way. Mostly to be Vince’s right hand man. When Kurt spoke up, you had memories about him spraying the whole Alliance with the milk truck.

Ugh. It was traumatic. You didn’t really like the rancid smell of it anyway, but 5 showers later and it was gone..!

The rattlesnake only scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Whatever. [Name], kid, don’t let him tell you who to be a fan of.”

You had a weird spur of determination from his words. He was like a life-coach you needed, but didn’t deserve. “Yes sir.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to say that?”

“Sooorrryyy.”

It went silent for a moment.

.....

Crack.

“What the hell was that?” Stone Cold asks, startled by a sudden noise. He turned his attention to you, holding a can of freshly opened soda. “....Just what are you doing?” The man was still paranoid, despite him dying down his reckless behavior.

The camera switched to you as you awkwardly shifted in your seat. “Sorry.” Now all the attention was on you. “I just...was thirsty.” The others look at you in confusion. You had literally gotten that can out of nowhere..

It got silent again, but then you started to drink, making loud slurping sounds. Who knows if it was by accident?

“[Name].” Stone Cold groaned out.

“...Yeeeees...?”

“Can you drink a little quieter..?” Debra politely finished, and you nod. Resuming your drinking, you sip more quietly.

After that debacle, the door opened and Vince came in, sitting next to Kurt. He seemed to be distressed..

“We’ve got to get along, guys.” He says, mainly referring to Kurt and Stone Cold. “We really do.” Since they both were with the Alliance before, they decided to come back to the WWF to give support and repay their original brand.

“I’d get along better if he left.” Stone Cold shaded, and Kurt looks up in confusion.

“Why me leave?”

“Why not?”

Going back and forth, there was a little knock on the door. In came Torrie. So this was why she said ‘you’ll see me later’. Veeeerrry cool. You notice how slightly fidgety she was.

“Hi!” She waved nervously. Shaking everyone’s hands except yours, she then clapped her own together. She looked at everyone but you. Because of your wicked betrayal, she was angry at you.

But it did not make sense why, as she and Tajiri (who was with WWF) in storyline had a thing going on. Oh well. Hurts your brain to think anymore.

“Mr. McMahon, can we continue our conversation from last time about my contract...?” She innocently asks.

You scowl. Damn, she took the opportunity. You should’ve spoken up earlier. With the way Vince reacted, that’s when you realized what she also meant by favors. Your face then was overcome with a ‘yikes!’ expression.

Once they left the room, Kurt and Stone Cold were arguing again over which one of them drove him away. In reality, it was mostly Torrie’s fault.

Debra looks at you, and the camera moves on to you two with the voices of the men in the background.

“I’m shocked you’re here, [Name].” She admitted, and you gave a small smile.

“Are you? I’m only signing here because the Alliance is a train wreck.” You admit, and the crowd had some buzz about your reveal. “I’m sure everyone saw what happened back at Invasion. I can only be grateful if you guys end up taking me in.”

The woman gave you a warm smile and patted your shoulder. “Well, you’re always welcome here. I’m sure no one minds.” Debra seemed to keep her cool despite the bickering from the others. You wish you could be as light-headed and calm as her. She then lowers her voice to above a whisper. “You didn’t hear it from me, but I’m sure Stone Cold is willing to mentor you. Don’t you remember when we first ran into you?”

Staying in character, you get overwhelmed with joy again. You were truly excited in general, but had to play it up for the camera. “Really?!” Only cause you were a face now, you had to be happier and cunning.

She nodded, winking at you and making a motion with her fingers. “Just a tiny bit, girlie.” She teases.

BACKSTAGE; 7:49 PM

At least this backstage wasn’t as huge as the other ones. You actually knew where you were going for once.

You’ve been thinking lately about the ideas you had before. You wanted to feud with certain woman, and you wanted to work with others. You didn’t mind at all, as you wanted to have some type of Extreme Rules match with Lita, some feud with Trish, hell, you didn’t even mind working with Jazz. As long as you had fun with it you’d absolutely love it. You even didn’t mind working with the men, but you’d just have to play the cards you were dealt with for now. Your storyline wouldn’t even become official until after Survivor Series.

That comment Jericho made about you and your crates hurt your feelings. You opted to just walk around for now, see if there was anyone else wandering. The match that you were interested in at first was Dudleys vs the Hardys. You thought that it was an interesting match to see, especially since Stacy is this ‘Dutchess of Dudleyville’ mess.

You were bored as the hallways ended up being pretty empty besides the occasional crew. Your eyes looked up to see Trish passing by you holding the women’s championship. You stop her in her tracks.

“Hey! You won! Congratulations.” You congratulate her and she gave you a bright smile.

“Thank you!” She lightly taps the center of the belt with her nail smugly. “This bad boy’s coming home with me tonight.”

“Must be nice.” You say, but then pause. “Can I hold it?”

Trish slowly nodded and handed it over to you. It sure would feel nice to have it. You handed it back to her quickly though because you felt if you held it any longer, you’d take it for yourself.

“Good job.” You gave a thumbs up.

Yeah, you sure as hell want that title. Down the road, you’d love to have it. You almost changed your opinion about it earlier.

You had saw Edge down the hall pacing around and literally jumped up at the chance to speak to him. Excusing yourself from Trish and congratulating her once more, you hurried up before he was out of your sight.

....

“So..you aren’t excited for your match?” You ask once more.

Standing across from you, Edge shook his head.

“It’s a lot of stress.” He admitted. “On the bright side, if I win that match and become a unified champion, I’ll keep my job. Otherwise, I’m outta here.”

“Damn.” You mutter. “Tough...” You hoped he won because he was a good wrestler and deserved to be here.

“Not only that. You know that Christian kinda..turned his back on me last time. Freaky situation.”

“Oh yeaaah!” You remember now. You never knew that’d happen. So much for managing the team.. “I recall seeing that. He’s got a belt on him too. Wasn’t on a televised match though..”

“Yup. [Name], I’d love to chat more but unfortunately, I’ve got a job to keep.” He rolled his eyes, and you pat his shoulder reassuringly.

“You’ll do fineeee.” You drawl out. “I’m sure you’ll win.”

BACKSTAGE; 8:30 PM

Later on, you were scheduled to do an impromptu promo regarding yourself. It was special to you because creative had completely come up with this idea in order to give you some depth early on. Your set idea wasn’t officialy done yet, but it was in the works. They wanted to test it to see if it’d work out. If it didn’t really take off, they’d drop it.

You would be getting your very own interview show. It would come in the middle of every SmackDown, as that’s what you were assigned to. You had to think up of a name, something cool and unique. Creative also told you to mostly indirectly mention it, but call out a few people.

You were seated in a chair and the background was a dark blue. As they send you a cue to continue, you gave a smile. You were currently shown on the titantron to the crowd and the audience at home. “Hi. I’m [Name], but you must already know.” You introduce yourself.

“I’ve been thinking lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll definitely have to teach some people here some manners.” You say, crossing your legs. “You’re nothing but a classless, cheap, expendable woman. I think you know who you are.”

Even though it was all kayfabe, you couldn’t help but to feel guilty over your words. You didn’t mean any of that at all..

To be specific, you were talking about Torrie. Since she did ignored you earlier, you decided to call her out. It’s probably what the people would’ve wanted anyway. Guess people love a good cat fight or whatever.

You didn’t say her name exactly as you let people speculate as to who it was. “But..let me not get ahead of myself here.” You give a simper. “I just want you to all be sure to tune in next time. There’s something special coming to SmackDown. Are you ready? I sure am.”

Leaving everyone with questions, you give a little cute wave as the camera fades away to black.

[rosethornewrites]

T and G rated fics I read this weekend!

This is all The Untamed/MDZS fics.

So I learned last week that I can only add 100 links. And I read over 100 fics 😬 so now this is gonna be two posts. Additionally, I’ll likely start posting these daily from now on. It just gets to be a lot.

Finished:

Tumblr Fics:

BEETOBER 2021 DAY 2 - EARRING, by @bloody-bee-tea

Rated T:

find a home in him, by makebelieveanything and nerdzeword

“Come on a-Cheng, let’s go,” she prodded, gently ushering him out the door as she handed off jackets to both boys.

“Why the fuck is he always doing stupid shit and making us run after him for?” Jiang Cheng complained as he shrugged into his jacket, Lan Wangji donning his own in silence.

“Wangji?” Yanli prodded gently. “Are you alright?”

“... what if we never find him?”

“We will,” Yanli said confidently.

or Modern AU where Wei Wuxian runs away from his foster home when he turns 18, and it doesn't end the way he planned.

My Brother's Keeper - Purple Years (The first stage of grief), by ArchiveWriter

Set after WWX plunges from the cliff after the battle at Nightless City. The ramblings of Jiang Cheng's mind in the first stage of grief, flicking back and forth between the past and then.

thank you, drunk me, by carmiemaybe (glazedlilies)

Or where Lan Zhan is confused at Wei Ying's behaviour after the previous, drunken night's events.

This Grave Will Not Be Mine, by Rana Eros (ranalore)

The Burial Mounds' claim to Wei Wuxian has been superceded.

Qinghe Jue, by Merinnan

Nie Mingjue promised to protect his brother. He wasn't going to let qi deviating and dying at Jinlintai stop him from keeping that promise.

With What Proof, by Preludian_Staves

"I know he did it!"

"What proof do you have?"

Meeting the Family, by sami (part of a series)

Wei Wuxian has a secret.

I’ll stick to my single-log bridge till it’s dark, by autumncolour

Can’t anyone give me a nice, favorable road to walk on?

Lan Wangji leaves the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian gets drunk. The night in Yiling is clear and dark, and full of thick, half-understood longing.

Love Me on the Sunlit Grass, by Eliza (second in a series)

Zizhen will always be there when Jin Ling calls in a panic about his uncle.

the mutability of survival, by tunnelOFdawn

All the ways Lan Zhan, Wei Ying, and Jiang Cheng could have died in canon.

i'll keep walking, by justdoityoufucker

Wen Qing died.

This, she knows; from the painful lick of flames to the unavoidable choking that came with the smoke to the wickedly satisfied grin on Jin Guangshan’s face before she closed her eyes the last time. She hoped, those last few moments, that it would be the end. Wei Wuxian would be free, and the last remnants of their family would be safe. She hoped that Wen Ning wouldn’t feel any pain, when the time came for him to follow her.

-

Or, the one where Wen Qing ends up in the past and fixes the future.

Rated G:

天涯之外 / beyond the world's end, by yuer (vintageblueskies)

"Wei Ying," Lan Wangji says, his voice cracks open in a way Wei Wuxian has never heard before. He crosses over to where Wei Wuxian is still sitting; Wei Wuxian starts to scramble up, but Lan Wangji just shakes his head, gets to his knees next to him. And isn't that something? The untouchable Hanguang-jun on his knees in the Burial Mounds, dirtying his pristine robes to sit next to Wei Wuxian.

-

or, lan wangji returns to the burial mounds

Song of My Heart, Mate of My Soul, by SakuraKage

The Gusu Lan are said to have an innate connection with music. The Gusu Lan are also said to love deeply – with their whole soul – so deeply that they seem to only be able to fall in love once.

Lan Wangji knows these rumours. He also knows the truth, or close to it, as it has been handed down through the generations. Their connection to music runs far deeper than the other sects could dream. Every Lan heart contains a song, a musical piece that encapsulates the very fiber of their being, and it only comes to life under a specific set of circumstances. The parameters to unlock your heartsong are highly disputed, but the generally accepted condition to fill is … to meet your soulmate.

see your face, hear my voice in the dark, by arypls

Wei Wuxian is having trouble falling asleep but Lan Wangji is there with gentle words and soothing touches to show his husband he's no longer alone.

If I knew what safety looked like, by askanis

Beautiful, brave Wei Ying is waiting for Lan Zhan to tell her she cannot be all of who she is. She will listen, if Lan Zhan says this. If Lan Zhan even looks uncomfortable, Wei Ying will take this back and never mention it again. Will pretend that this is not her truth, perhaps until she believes it herself.

And Lan Zhan will never get to fully see Wei Ying for who Wei Ying is.

underneath the magnolias, by krizzlesandblues

Summer in Cloud Recesses means iced fruits sent by merchants, more practical trainings for juniors, with some of them catching up on their lessons.

But for the youngest members of GusuLan Sect, summer means classes under the big magnolia tree.

Word Up, Talk the Talk, by Larryissocute

It wouldn’t have been a problem (it really wouldn’t) if they weren’t best friends. Wei Wuxian doesn’t know what good deeds he did in his past life to be blessed with Lan Wangji as a friend nor does he know what evil things he did to be cursed with being only a friend to Lan Wangji.

Or the one where Wei Wuxian kisses Lan Wangji and then runs away.

Hai Shi — Sleeping Hours, by Saint Er (wwxsays_er)

It's right before bedtime, when a drunk Wei Wuxian shows up on Lan Wangji's door, and suddenly, this has now become Lan Wangji's problem.

In the Silence, by XianleDianxia

With his husband and son on a night hunt, Wei Wuxian is left to his own thoughts. His temperament is not as calm as Lan Wangji would like it to be.

intervention (how to convince your very gay brother that he, is in fact, gay), by okok29

"You guys hold hands all the time around campus and he takes you out to brunch every Saturday. He even brings you roses," Jiang Cheng emphasizes.

"Yeah, as bros do!" Wei Ying says cheerfully.

jiang cheng tries to forcibly drag wei ying out of the closet.

No Regrets, by Sarehz

Lan Zhan gives his forehead ribbon to Wei Wuxian as a sign of his love.

Look Down to Reminisce About My Hometown, by Nadat (one-shot series)

A collection of short stories following a Promptember list; will add tags and alter the rating as appropriate. It will be mostly live action show canon but I may borrow here and there from the book if something strikes me.

jin ling's uncles and aunts, by saheeli

jin zixuan invites all of jin ling's uncles and aunts to his birthday party. there are more than he even thought possible.

Helianthus, by tinykira

"Say, Lan Zhan. Do you know that when people die, they become plants?"

~

The Jingshi, which was formerly called as The Gentian House, is now also full of sunflowers.

Magical Marriage Ribbons, by starandrea

But consider this: the Lan forehead ribbons are magical, and the mountain knows it. (It takes Wei Ying less than a day after Lan Yi’s cave to realize more than just her wards consider him family.)

Or: If you’re accidentally betrothed to your classmate in a mostly legitimate life or death situation, how long can you wait to tell him before he finds out by accident?

their mothers sons, by silversshadow

In one world Jiang Fengmian gave Wei Ying more attention than he did either of his own children. In this world he can barely look at the child.

A series of short looks into a different timeline.

You blow me away, by silverclaw

Lan Zhan’s neighbour is playing a song that has been stuck in his head for ages. The neighbour just so happens to be the singer of said song and he’s supposedly laying low.

Echo Of My Heart, by ColdBloodedReptile

A short insight of Lan Wangji's thoughts during Dafan Mountain, CQL version.

And the scene in Jingshi before Wei Wuxian wakes ft Lan Sizhui.

A new score, by Lhaewiel

Wei Wuxian does not know this new score. It is evening, Gusu looks like a painting during this time of the year, with snow slowly falling down and covering the court outside.

Parallel Lines, by Sarehz

Wei Ying: Lan Zhan is going to break up with me!

Nie Huaisang: No, he's not. But please tell me in great detail why you think that.

Jiang Cheng: [Unfortunately sharing an apartment with Nie Huaisang and therefore has no choice but to listen] Please leave me out of this.

Why Wei Ying Shouldn’t Matchmake, by PrinceJakeFireCake

Lan Wangji is NOT jealous of Jiang Cheng. He’s just trying to figure out why Wei Ying likes him so much. Wei Ying thinks it’s great that Lan Zhan has a crush on his brother. (Hint: he does not)

to home, by Guinny (4 chapters)

'My Wei Ying,

It seems that we are winning the war. Wait for me. I will come home. I will come home to you. We will spend the rest of our lives in peace. Far from all of this. In a place that is quiet and there's only us.

Yours,

Lan Zhan.’

if you love him, never let go, by cloud_wanderer

three times lan wangji let go, and the one time he swore to never do it again

Hard to forget, by Lucky_Moonly

“Aiya sorry for interrupting what must be a very interesting read,” a boy who seemed to be a first year as well, cheekily exclaimed, before he smiled widely at Lan Wangji and he stepped inside the compartment. “But did you perchance see my pet axolotl? He’s black and he’s missing one of his front legs!”

in sickness & in flames, by talesfromthecryptid (2 chapters)

the one in which lan wangji has a cold and wei wuxian fusses over him and falls even more in love with him, something he didn't even know was possible but oh, it really is.

learning and the dead, by northofallmusic (tofsla)

In a small house of his own, after everything, Wen Ning works with his hands.

Unpredictable, by canis_m

If Lan Wangji had said a few more things while drunk in Qinghe.

Waited For Precious Moments Such As This, by Preludian_Staves

He would not trade these precious moments away for anything in the world.

Unfinished:

Rated T:

No Regrets, by AluraRose

Lan Wangji took a deep breath, centered himself, and swallowed his pride.

“I apologize.” He bowed low to Jiang Wanyin and held it. “I wish only to help your brother. I humbly request access, and give my word that I will touch nothing and speak to no one of what I see.”

“I can’t just let you in there!”

“Even to save Wei Ying?”

And suddenly the wind seemed to go out of the sails of Jiang Wanyin’s anger. “I can’t” he repeated more quietly.

In order to save Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji must first convince Jiang Wanyin to trust him.

Your Name On My Chest, by Director_XuanWu

Lan Wangji is the president, at the beginning of his second year on his first term.

Wei Wuxian, his ex fiancé, was dishonorably discharged from the military because of a well hidden scandal.

They meet again after 13 years. Lan Wangji will drop everything for him. Wei Wuxian will sacrifice himself for him again. What does it take to finally be together? Too many goodbyes, too many heartaches. Yet they conquer all.

Whatever it takes, by Moonlit_dewdrops

Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian are sent back to the past. This time, they can save everyone they love. They can make the right choices. They can learn to trust one another. However, everything comes with a price.

underneath your skin, by tardigradeschool

Wei Wuxian falls into the Burial Mounds. His body walks out.

White Flames in a Red Sky, by ZipZapZop

Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to run away in the middle of a snowstorm.

OR

Wei Wuxian needs help, but he can’t understand that for the life of him.

and so it goes, by doyeorem (pomellogranate)

"While a person is dead in one particular moment, they are still alive and well in all of the other moments of their life, because all of time exists at once."

-

In which Hanguang-jun is at Qiongqi Path, and instead of Jin Zixuan's death, he witnesses Wei Ying throw himself in the way of a punch from the Ghost General, and three swords - one of which is Bichen.

The Burial Mounds is enraged and offended, and many suffer for it.

Purgatory Divinity, by sinfulempire

"Your third and final mission is to rewrite history, Wei Wuxian."

In which Wei Wuxian, the son of the Heavenly Demon Empress, Cangse Sanren and the Celestial, Wei Changze has to rewrite history in order to prove himself worthy of the throne, however, this was a mission that he did not sign himself up for.

[WARNING!! WARNING!! System error, system erro-]

"What-"

Upon accepting the mission, Wei Wuxian found himself back in the past. He had returned to his 6 year old body accompanied by the system at the dingy streets of Yiling- far before Jiang Fengmian had found him and took him in.

Wei Wuxian was alone and surrounded by numerous hound dogs.

Rated G:

Coil Tightly, by Thunderstruck (Blueyed_Impala)

When Wei Wuxian stumbles across a shady pet store in the back alley of his new town he ends up leaving with a companion for life, and more than he bargained for.

Forced apologies, by Io_Palladium

Jiang Cheng confronts Lan Zhan after Wei Yings punishment and it changes everything.

[fruiitycas]

Hello, I would love to know about the dtscu; can you please enlighten me? ❤️️

oh of course i love spreading the good word of our lord taylor swift. the dtscu refers to the “destiel taylor swift cinematic universe” and is a collection of songs that ms swift has written that I think directly apply to destiel (its okay ms swift i saw your lyrics you can come out as a destiel shipper). i also tag destiel edits that use taylor swift songs/lyrics to make a whole collection of works that ppl have made that combine t swift w destiel. 

this is the link to the playlist with all the destiel songs in my dtscu. (more details under the cut)

some notable additions to the playlist: 

dont blame me (Echoes, love your name inside my mind / Halo, hiding my obsession //  baby, for you, I would fall from grace / Just to touch your face //  Don't blame me, love made me crazy / If it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right / Lord, save me, my drug is my baby / I’d be usin' for the rest of my life)

peace (And you know that I'd swing with you for the fences / Sit with you in the trenches / Give you my wild, give you a child / Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other / Family that I chose now that I see your brother as my brother / Is it enough? / ‘Cause there's robbers to the east, clowns to the west / I’d give you my sunshine, give you my best / But the rain is always gonna come if you're standing with me / But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm / If your cascade ocean wave blues come / All these people think love's for show / But I would die for you in secret / The devil's in the details, but you got a friend in me / Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?)

false god (Remember how I said I'd die for you? // They say the road gets hard and you get lost when you're led by blind faith //  But we might just get away with it / Religion's in your lips / Even if it's a false god / We'd still worship / We might just get away with it / The altar is my hips / Even if it's a false god / We'd still worship this love)

sparks fly

safe and sound

ivy (How's one to know? / I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones In a faith forgotten land / In from the snow / Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow Tarnished but so grand // Oh, goddamn / My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand / Taking mine, but it's been promised to another / Oh, I can't / Stop you putting roots in my dreamland / My house of stone, your ivy grows / And now I'm covered in you // How's one to know? / I’d live and die for moments that we stole / On begged and borrowed time //  it's a war / It's the goddamn fight of my life / And you started it / You started it)

this love (In silent screams / In wildest dreams / I never dreamed of this // This love is good / This love is bad / This love is alive back from the dead / These hands had to let it go free, and This love came back to me / This love left a permanent mark / This love is glowing in the dark / These hands had to let it go free, and This love came back to me)

cowboy like me (You're a bandit like me / Eyes full of stars / Hustling for the good life / Never thought I'd meet you here / It could be love / We could be the way forward / And I know I'll pay for it / And the skeletons in both our closets / Plotted hard to mess this up // Now you hang from my lips Like the Gardens of Babylon / With your boots beneath my bed / Forever is the sweetest con / I’ve had some tricks up my sleeve / Takes one to know one / You're a cowboy like me / And I'm never gonna love again / I’m never gonna love again)

there are also notable subsections: 

The Divorce Arc:

i wish you would (I wish you would come back / Wish I'd never hung up the phone like I did / I wish you knew that / I’d never forget you as long as I'd live / And I wish you were right here, right now It's all good / I wish you would / I wish we could go back / And remember what we were fighting for / Wish you knew that / I miss you too much to be mad anymore)

my tears ricochet (I didn't have it in myself to go with grace / ‘Cause when I'd fight, you used to tell me I was brave / And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed / Look at how my tears ricochet / And I can go anywhere I want / Anywhere I want, just not home / And you can aim for my heart, go for blood / But you would still miss me in your bones / And I still talk to you when I'm screaming at the sky)

i almost do (And I just wanna tell you / It takes everything in me, not to call you / And I wish I could run to you / And I hope / you know that every time I don't / I almost do)

all you had to do was stay

death by a thousand cuts

story of us (This is looking like a contest / Of who can act like they care less / But I liked it better when you were on my side // Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room / And we're not speaking / And I'm dying to know / Is it killing you like it's killing me? // And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now)

the other side of the door (tell me why you couldn't see That when I left I wanted you to chase after me? / I said leave but all I really want is you / To stand outside my window, throwing pebbles, screaming I'm in love with you / Wait there in the pourin' rain, come back for more / And don't you leave 'cause I know all I need is on The other side of the door)

come back…be here (this is when the feeling sinks in, I dont wanna miss you like this / Come back… be here)

The Widower arc/ Post 15x18:

haunted ( I know, I just know You're not gone, you can't be gone, no // Come on, come on, don't leave me like this / I thought I had you figured out / Can't breathe whenever you're gone / Can't go back, I'm haunted / You and I walk a fragile line / I have known it all this time)

marjorie (What died didn't stay dead / You're alive, you're alive in my head / What died didn't stay dead //  You're alive, so alive //  If I didn't know better / I’d think you were still around / I know better / But I still feel you all around / I know better / But you're still around)

Cas to Dean:

tied together with a smile (no one knows / That you cry; but you don't tell anyone / That you might not be the golden one / And you're tied together with a smile / But you're coming undone // I guess it's true that love was all you wanted / ‘Cause you're givin' it away like it's extra change / Hoping it will end up in his pocket)

innocent (Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything / And everybody believed in you? / It's alright, just wait and see / Your string of lights is still bright to me / Oh, who you are is not where you've been / You're still an innocent //  Did some things you can't speak of / But at night you live it all again)

enchanted (This is me praying that this was the very first page / Not where the story line ends / My thoughts will echo your name, until I see you again / These are the words I held back, as I was leaving too soon/ I was enchanted to meet you)

everything has changed (all ive seen since 18 hrs ago is green eyes and freckles and your smile in the back of my mind making me feel like i just wanna know you better now)

mirrorball(Hush / I know they said the end is near / But I'm still on my tallest tiptoes / Spinning in my highest heels, love / Shining just for you //  I'm still a believer but I don't know why / I've never been a natural / All I do is try, try, try / I’m still on that trapeze / I’m still trying everything / To keep you looking at me )

Dean to Cas:

untouchable (I know you're saying / That you'd be here  / But you're Untouchable / burning Brighter than the sun / Now that you're close / I feel like coming undone)

mine (You learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guarded / You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes // Do you remember, we were sittin' there, by the water? / You put your arm around me, for the first time / You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter / You are the best thing, that's ever been mine )

state of grace (So you were never a saint / And I've loved in shades of wrong / We learn to live with the pain / Mosaic broken hearts / But this love is brave and wild / And I never saw you coming / And I'll never be the same)

this is me trying (This is very specifically The Trap!Dean) (Pulled the car off the road to the lookout / Could've followed my fears all the way down / And maybe I don't quite know what to say / But I'm here in your doorway / I just wanted you to know / That this is me trying / I just wanted you to know / That this is me trying / They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential / And my words shoot to kill when I'm mad / I have a lot of regrets about that)

the archer (Combat, I'm ready for combat / I say I don't want that, but what if I do? / ‘Cause cruelty wins in the movies / I’ve got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you  // And all of my heroes die all alone / Help me hold onto you / I've been the archer / I’ve been the prey / Screaming, who could ever leave me, darling? / But who could stay? // Who could stay? / You could stay)

[just-another-nerds-little-world]

1-30 for the music asks please🥰💕 (if it's not too much🤣)

Thank you, it's going to be a long list, hope you are prepared. xDD

1:A song you like with a color in the title - Cross Gene - Black or White - Ha Sung Woon - Blue - Mr. Big - Green-Tinted Sixties Mind

2:A song you like with a number in the title - Bryan Adams - Summer of '69

3:A song that reminds you of summertime - YooA - Bon Voyage - BOL4 - 여행 - Winner - Island - Sandra - Heaven Can Wait

4:A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about - DuelJewel - Vamp Ash, a fromer friend with who the friendship ended badly, introduced me to DuelJewel with this song back then and everytime I listened to DuelJewel I was reminded of her and how she treated me. Fortunately today I can listen peacefully to DuelJewel without having bad memories coming back. ♥

5:A song that needs to be played LOUD - Cody Matthew Johnson feat. Suicide Silence - Subhuman (or short: Dante's Theme Song from DMC5) - Sandra - In The Heat Of The Night - Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer

6:A song that makes you want to dance - U-KISS - Neverland (my get-hyped song Nr. 1) - BTOB - 신바람 (my get-hyped song Nr. 2) - Oh My Girl - Dun Dun Dance

7:A song to drive to - Shaun - Bad Habits, Way Back Home - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue

8:A song about drugs or alcohol I guess I'm too innocent since I had a really hard time coming up with a song, but I found one. xDD - Nickelback - Bottoms Up

9:A song that makes you happy - Cross Gene - 비상 - TWICE - Alcohol-Free - Oh Hayoung - Don't Make Me Laugh - Sandra - (Life May Be) A Big Insanity

10:A song that makes you sad - VIXX - 손의 이별 - iKON - I'm Okay - IM - 미치겠어 (Sad Story)

11:A song that you never get tired of - Bee Gees - Closer Than Close - Sandra - Little Girl - Mr. Big - To Be With You

12:A song from your preteen years - Blue - Breath Easy - Owl City - Fireflies - Gareth Gates - Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)

13:One of your favorite 80’s songs Don't worry, I'll keep it short. xDD - Spandau Ballet - I'll Fly For You - Toto - Africa - Heart - These Dreams - Foreigner - Say You Will

14:A song that you would love played at your wedding I am forever alone and never going to get married but hypothetically, I would love this songs to be played. - Bryan Adams - Heaven - Robin Gibb - Juliet - George Benson - Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You

15:A song that is a cover by another artist - Heart - Alone (Orginial song by i-Ten) - Sandra - Everlasting Love (Original song by Robert Knight) - Kra - 雨音はショパンの調べ (Original song by Gazebo) - a-ha - Crying In The Rain (Original song by The Everly Brothers)

16:One of your favorite classical songs - Beethoven - Silence (Stille) - Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, Waltz of the Flowers, Swan Lake Op. 20: I. Scene - Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre - Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter (love all 4)

17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke - Bee Gees - You Win Again - Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars - a-ha - Slender Frame

18:A song from the year that you were born - Madonna - Frozen - Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing - Jennifer Paige - Crush

19:A song that makes you think about life - JJ Project - Tomorrow, Today

20:A song that has many meanings to you - Robin Gibb - Another Lonely Night In New York - Bee Gees - For Whom The Bell Tolls - Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good - a-ha - The Sun Always Shines On T.V.

21:A favorite song with a person’s name in the title - Bon Jovi - Joey - Gazebo - I Like Chopin - Robin Gibb - Juliet

22:A song that moves you forward - I'm sorry I don't think there is one...

23:A song that you think everybody should listen to - Bee Gees - For Whom The Bell Tolls - Robin Gibb - Another Lonely Night In New York - YooA - Bon Voyage - Whitesnake - Is This Love - U-KISS - Stalker - INFINITE - The Eye - a-ha - The Sun Always Shines On T.V. - VIXX - Scentist - Sandra - Little Girl - B.I - 해변 (illa illa)

24:A song by a band you wish were still together - Bee Gees - Rings Around The Moon (R.I.P. Maurice & Robin) - MEJIBRAY - 醜詠 - AND -Eccentric Agent- - Liberate, CODE「B」

25:A song by an artist no longer living - Robin Gibb - Boys Do Fall In Love - Talk Talk - Such A Shame - Linkin Park - Papercut

Rest in Peace

26:A song that makes you want to fall in love - a-ha - Stay On These Roads - Bee Gees - How To Fall In Love, Pt. 1; How Deep Is Your Love - Woo Jinyoung x Kim Hyunsoo - 설레고 난리 (Falling in love)

27:A song that breaks your heart - Bon Jovi - (It's Hard) Letting You Go - Linkin Park - Leave Out All The Rest - BOL4 - 나의 사춘기에게 - Sojung - Stay Here

28:A song by an artist with a voice that you love - Robin Gibb - How Old Are You? - Chanyeol - Wind Of Change (Original song by Scorpions) - Jennifer Rush - The Power Of Love

29:A song that you remember from your childhood - Michael Jackson - Earth Song - Robbie Williams - Feel - Bryan Adams - Here I Am

30:A song that reminds you of yourself - Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good

It's like the lyrics are written right out of my heart and soul.

Thanks again, it was fun. ♥