#agatha: a tale of three witches

[smashpages]

Andrew MacLean is the creator of Head Lopper, which began as a self-published comic before migrating over to Image Comics about a decade ago. The series is about legendary swordsman Norgal, a.k.a. the Head Lopper, and his companion, the severed head of Agatha Blue Witch. If you were curious to know more about Agatha back when she was a witch who had a body, then he's got the book for you: Agatha: A Tale of Three Witches.

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[vidalswife]

The Raven & The Witch

Word Count: 2,104

pairing: agatha harkness/rio vidal, salem timeline.

Summary: A young witch is a witch alone, the journey to power is a long one, and many fear what they do not understand. Agatha Harkness is a witch many fear. Only at eighteen did she make her mark, and in-grave her reputation on those of the world. She was outcast, isolated, and ostracized. A young witch with no friends, no family, meets a girl in the woods as she attempts to discover the secret of a raven, which has been tailing her for months.

author's note: as the days have been passing, ive been wondering on agatha and rio's past. when rio said, "how long has it been agatha" followed by, "since you got your hands on the darkhold and hid behind all that dark magic?" it started to make me think about their past. so im writing rio and agatha in salem, depicting a young (not underage) love, and how it lead to their current hatred of one another. im estimating the length of this fanfiction to be up to eight chapters. there will be smut within the fanfiction however there is none in this first chapter. minors, DNI. i hope you guys enjoy it! <3

When a young witch turns eighteen, she is allowed into the Witch’s Ward. The Ward is not a simple place, it is a maze inside of an enchanted library, and it leads to the ancient books of magic that fuel a witch and her knowledge. In a single pre-established coven there must only be one witch permitted per the year, and as the case with most covens are, they usually have more than one witch whom on her eighteenth birthday is ready to ascend. The maze inside of this ancient institution is most known for its merciless challenges and low survival rate. Sometimes three, maybe four witch-kin will enter, and none will return. Other times, many will enter, and only the one will return. Once a witch survives The Ward, she no longer will face challenges within it, and it will be open with all of its knowledge to any that can survive. Witches of all kinds dream of beating The Ward, but few have actually done so.

There is a tale of a young witch, bright for her age, and powerful among her coven. She was the sole victor of the maze.. at least for a moment. You see, soon after she emerged victorious from the race into Coventry, another witch surfaced. The established coven had never heard of this happening before, so they did the best they could to determine a new admission. They deemed the witch with the least injuries the strongest, and decided that she would be their new sister, but what was to be left of the other witch? She had survived as well, but they could not push back her entry for another year, there were more witches who would grow and age. The answer came to the coven just as quickly as they had decided their winner. On one formidable and dark night, the young witch who had suffered most, filled with vengeance and hatred, did not let her adversary achieve victory over her, taking the matters of ascension into her own, corrupt hands.

By the morning, the witch who was deemed the weakest emerged as part of her coven, with the other young girl gone, and never seen again. For many years the sisters searched for her, or a sign that she had been alive, but there was no sign. The weaker witch became one of great renown, a symbol of darkness, of all that a witch should try not to be. Witches around the world thought her a witch killer, a murderer, and a maniac. They ostracized her, abandoned her, and ran in fear from her. The coven’s leadership couldn’t bear to outcast or kill the witch, as she was the daughter of their most honored, and were not entirely sure what had happened that night. So, they instead ignored her. It was a lonely road for a witch all alone, until of course, she wasn’t alone.

_______________________

Agatha woke with the sun, its immense warmth flowing through the unshaded window of her chamber. Her body squirmed and began to stretch, as her eyes fluttered open. Her hair was a disheveled mess, and she wore only her undergarments. Her room was quite empty, except for some books and a small wardrobe.

She looked around in disappointment at her stockhouse, a subtle sigh escaping her lips. She was no stranger to loneliness, for the last year she had been the outcast of her coven, and witches alike. They all thought her a monster, but they didn’t know. They’d never want to know the truth, and she’d never tell them. If she were to be believed a witch killer, she would be deemed so.

But of course, it was hard on a young girl to face isolation, so inside, she burned, and faded. More and more with each day the young brunette found herself tempted to fall away from witchkind.

She would follow the same routines, waking with the early morning light, looking around her depressing chambers, dressing, dining, being avoided, attending the ward for a lesson, dining, undressing, and then falling to slumber with the rise of the moon. She never dared try anything new, not until she saw the raven atop the chimney of her mother’s station. It was a small, dark creature, but the longer she stared, the longer something seemed different. The laughter of young children skewed her mind away from the animal, as she watched them play with the witches her age. She scoffed, turning in the opposite direction, and retreating to her chambers. She didn’t notice that the raven watched her as she paced away.

The next few days were the same as always, wake, dress, dine, shun, lesson, dine, undress, and slumber, except the raven seemed to follow her. At first she was unsure if it was the same winged animal as before, but its brown, humanlike eyes were impossible to mistake. It followed her into the next week, and it began to arise anger in the witch. What bird dares mock her? What creature dares to follow and disturb her?

The raven became a symbol of frustration for Agatha, a reminder that she was alone and peculiar.

It followed her for months, brown eyes staring into her soul at every chance.

On the eve of her birthday, she decided that she had enough of the raven and it’s foolishness. She would get rid of it for good, and finally be at peace, without those beautiful brown eyes watching her at every turn. She waited inside her chambers, eyes glued to the raven which stood motionless across from her abode. It for once, did not have her in its eyesight, and she reveled in the fact that she would finally outsmart the desperate creature. The bird rose from its spot, flying off into the treeline. Agatha thought it odd the raven did not watch her on this night as it did many nights before, but she was too overcome with pride to think it anything but a coincidence.

The next morning, she woke with the sun, a warm smile entrancing her lips. Today she would conquer the raven, and then, maybe things could be different for her. She reached for the woven bag that lay atop her wardrobe, placing her spellbook within it. She wanted to be prepared for her battle with the bird. Knowing that the forest was typically warmer in the spring months, she dressed in a thinner fabriced skirt that surpassed her ankles and a white long-sleeved button down blouse. She did not wear shoes, as it was un-witchlike to walk in a forest unless barefoot. Her dressing may be looked down upon, seeing as she was expected to a lesson later that afternoon and may not have time to redress, but she must be comfortable when she faces her opponent. As the bell sounded to commence dining, she set off towards the treeline, her woven bag thrown over her shoulder, and her hair free to the wind.

As she met the entrance of the forest, she looked up to the height of the trees, wondering if she would find the raven in its nest. Agatha turned her head, making sure her coven could not see her. When she deemed it clear, she stepped into the everlasting ecosystem of trees, bushes, and plants.

Her plan was clear, she would track the raven, kill it, and then return to her lesson. The brunette looked around before slipping her bag from her shoulder. She pulled from it her spellbook, opening it to the page illuminated by a string between parchment. On the page was an incantation that was supposed to help her find the bird. Agatha read it over multiple times, memorizing the pronunciation and chant of the spell.

‘Venator factus est venatus, anhelitus invenias quo capis, et te ad raptorem capias’

With a deep breath, she looked ahead to the ensemble of green and then closed her eyes as she began to recite the incantation, “Venator factus est venatus, anhelitus invenias quo capis, et te ad raptorem capias.” She inhaled, repeating, “Venator factus est venatus, anhelitus invenias quo capis, et te ad raptorem capias.”

A warmth spread in her body, and she opened her eyes, in which a flash of purple was clear. She knew the spell had worked. Almost immediately, a path was found. It had no markers, yet Agatha knew exactly where to go. She wrapped around trees and boulders, stepped over a fallen greenery, and walked up a short incline in the terrain. She focused only on the raven, her mind filled with nothing but the image of its obnoxious brown eyes.

The spell led her to a creek. It was dark, and looked green from the reflection of the treetops, but not only that, there was another person. She was floating in the water with her eyes closed. Agatha noticed her hair floating atop the water’s surface, almost depicting a root-like symbol. Her eyes trailed down to her face, she looked angelic and not only that, she looked asleep.

That wasn’t the only thing she noticed about the other. Her body was uncovered, and she was naked. Lily pads covered her breasts, and the water was far too dark to see much else. This sent a rising heat to the brunette’s cheeks, and she was sure they were red. The witch contemplated leaving and acting as if she didn’t see a thing in the woods, but it was too late. Almost as soon as she began to think such a thing, the woman in the water spoke.

“Enjoying the view?”

Agatha’s cheeks were as hot as the sun, she couldn’t move anything in the moment. Her brow furrowed as she noticed how the woman’s eyes remained closed, begging the question of how she knew of her presence.

The stranger chuckled, and Agatha debated casting a spell on her. Something about the woman felt familiar, she couldn't place what, but she could feel that this was not their first encounter. Agatha began to speak, sighing as the words came out, “I was just looking for a raven— and you happened to be in my way.”

She took note of how the stranger’s lips curled in a smirk, and how her brow furrowed, “Looking for a raven? How come?”

Agatha realized she probably sounded crazy, and she felt a need to explain. “I’ve been tracking this bird– it won't stop following me, and my spell led me to you” in almost an instant, the witch’s hand flew atop her mouth. She realized her mistake and looked at the woman in the water with ferocious, squinted eyes. She didn’t know what to say, but she hoped the stranger would deem her insane and drop the interaction.

To the brunette’s surprise, she didn’t.

Instead, she watched as the woman opened her eyes and stood in the creek. The lily pads fell from her nipples and she stood in front of the witch completely naked, water dripping down her neck, breasts, and stomach. Yet, this wasn’t what Agatha was most concerned with, instead, it was her eyes. They were brown and beautiful, like the raven’s. In fact, Agatha was sure her eyes were the same as the raven’s.

The brunette’s eyes remained locked onto the brown eyed girl. They did not falter not once, not even as the stranger began to rise from the water and inch closer to Agatha.

They were only a breath apart, the woman’s eyes still captured by the other pair. Agatha spoke, aware of their closeness, “You’re—” but she was cut off.

The stranger’s lips were on hers, and she cupped her hand on the witch’s cheek. Those beautiful brown eyes disappeared behind her eyelids, and so Agatha’s eyes shut too. She hesitated at first, but as the time grew, she became filled with hunger and desire.

Their lips clashed together and the woman’s other hand was now wrapped around Agatha’s waist. The witch’s hands wrapped around her neck, one ending up buried in her wet hair.

They only parted when their lungs couldn’t deny the need for air anymore, and when they did, their eye contact resumed as if it never faded. Agatha only stared at the woman in shock, but then, she smirked.

“I knew you’d come, Agatha” she said, which resulted in a head tilt from the witch.

“Who are you?” she asked, biting her lip as her eyes trailed from the stranger’s eyes to her perfect figure.

“I’m Rio Vidal.”

Agatha smirked, crossing her arms.

“You’re a green witch, aren’t you?”

[just1alien]

Don't it taste like holy water? Ao3 version

Agatha Harkness x Female Reader

Warnings: Slow burn; Smut; Oral; Reader receiving.

Manthing and minors are DNI.

Hope you can enjoy it as much as I did while writing it.

Do you have suggestions? Requests? You can tell me everything, dear. But make no mistake, always be polite around here, understood?

...

“It's a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Agatha's eyes narrow, a hint of defensiveness in her voice.

“You sound like you're implying you know me somehow?”

“Precisely. I was sent here to help you to control yourself. Recently, you made quite a mess with Wanda.”

“That woman is insane! Everything that happened was her fault! She scoffs. Wait! Sent here? I don't remember calling for help from anyone.”

“Oh, the coven sent me, darling.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Of course they did, I'm sure they're all so worried about me. The lot of them can shove it, especially the so-called, 'High Council'. I don't need any help, thank you very much.”

“I think you do, Agatha.”

“And what makes you such an expert, hm? Do you know anything that's happened? Or do you just want to judge the book by its cover?”

“Perhaps I am an expert, or a treat. What do you think?”

“A treat?”

She laughs, a small smirk forming on her lips.

“Are you trying to be a flirtatious little temptress, dear? If so, you're doing a quite terrible job.”

“So full of yourself.”

“Oh please, honey. In my over three hundred years of being a witch, I have never once not had someone pining over me. I know I'm beautiful, and I'm smart enough to know it. You're no different, you just won't admit it yet. How old are you again, love? Surely no more than mid-thirties, if I'm being generous.”

“Oh, trying to play the mentalist, charming. But make no mistake, I'm not here to flirt. As I said, I was sent by the coven. Check it if you want. Now, are we going to get out from this forest?”

She lets out an exaggerated groan, throwing her head back dramatically.

“It appears I have no choice but to get out of this wretched place, then. Let us go. But I have a few conditions.”

“What conditions, Agatha?”

“One, absolutely ZERO flirting from either side. Two, I don't do anything I deem beneath me. Three, my familiar, Señor Scratchy, is non-negotiable. Are we clear?”

“Very clear, 'miss zero flirting'. You were so certain that I was here to tempt you. Shame on you.”

“Shut it, smart ass.”

She turns around, walking towards the edge of the forest.

“Follow me and don't fall behind.”

“Yes, mistress.”

I pointed out the last word, just to see her reaction.

“You heard it. Now, can we please continue walking?”

“Oh, we'll be continuing, but first we're going to discuss your choice of words.”

She grabs you by the chin, bringing your face right up to hers.

“Let's get one thing straight here, darling: you do not call me, 'mistress' ever again. You hear me? Do I make myself clear on that one?”

I left a loud chuckle escape from my lips.

“Oh, Agatha. Very intimidating.”

She growls, letting go of your chin.

“Don't make me regret this decision to bring you along, darling.”

She resumes walking, looking back over her shoulder.

“You better keep up if you know what's good for you.”

“Sure.”

The forest begins to clear, a beautiful village appearing before you. A smile forms on Agatha's face, her eyes lighting up.

“Ah, I'd almost forgotten how pretty this place was.”

“Beautiful, indeed.”

I said, admiring not the village itself, but her smile.

“Come, let's pay my old cottage a visit.”

She starts walking down the cobble-paved road, admiring the scenery. Despite the fact she can look as young as she wants, you remember that she's likely three hundred years old. This village is likely the world she first lived in. Her hometown. And she's seeing it for the first time in centuries. It's no wonder she is so enamored by it.

“Please, lead the way.”

“Ah, that I will.”

Her cottage comes into view not too far down the road. It looks like a fairy tale house that could come right out of a story book. The outside is made entirely of dark oak, with a thatched roof. A small herb garden is in the front of the cottage, with many plants and flowers you don't even recognize. The porch has two cozy rocking chairs, and a hammock sits idly hanging to the side by the front door.

I came closer to the herbs, analyzing them.

“Interesting...”

Agatha comes to stand beside you, a prideful smile on her face.

“Ah, my collection of ingredients. I have a few that are my finest, such as the Devil's Ivy, or the Deadly Nightshade. I also grow things on a less... Deadly side. Such as the Basil, Lavender and Catnip.”

“Catnip? Are you a cat person, Agatha?”

My tone was playful.

She rolls her eyes, but you can see a small smile on her lips.

“No, I actually like rabbits the best. Speaking of which, you've yet to meet my familiar, Señor Scratchy.”

A little rabbit comes hopping over to you, circling your feet curiously and sniffing you.

“Hello, little one!”

I said, touching his fur.

Señor Scratchy tilts his head up and makes a soft grunt, rubbing up against your leg.

“See, according to him, you can trust on me.”

I gave her my best smile.

“Don't think that little move won me over yet, love.”

She kneels down to Scratchy, petting his head and scratching behind his ears.

“Such a sweet little boy, yes? Oh, who's a good bunny, yes you are, yes you are! Hmm? Should mommy give you a little snack? Yes? You deserve it, dear.”

She opens the door as Scratchy runs in, and gestures for you to follow her inside.

“Thank you.”

I entered, watching my steps.

The inside of her cottage is just as beautiful and magical as the outside. The furniture looks old, but well taken care of. A small fire is lit in the fireplace, and the smell of herbs hangs in the air. Everything about the cottage is homely and comforting. Despite being 300 years old, Agatha clearly takes great pride in her home. In one armchair by the fireplace, Señor Scratchy has curled up into a little ball. He is clearly not used to getting visitors.

“Cozy, for a murderer witch.”

She smiles, sitting down on her old-fashioned chair, putting her feet up.

“Of course, darling. Just because I enjoy a good hex and curse doesn't mean I don't also like a comfortable home. I enjoy the finer things in life.”

Agatha's eyes roam over to you, a knowing smirk playing at her lips.

“I'm guessing you wouldn't know about that. You clearly don't enjoy the finer things.”

“Where is that coming from? Trying to push my buttons?”

I seated on the other chair, waiting for her to answer me.

“And if I am, what are you going to do about it?”

Agatha leans back, resting her head on her interlocked fingers. She's clearly enjoying teasing you.

“What a teaser. Some may say you're desperate for attention.”

I locked my eyes on her.

She laughs, letting her head roll back against the back of the chair

“What then? Does it excite you? Does it bother you? Hmm?”

She looks back over at you, her eyes raking over your body, slowly.

“Unbelievable, Agatha. Anyway, now that you're having me around, I need a place to rest.”

She raises an eyebrow, a devilish look in her eyes.

“Oh? So you'll be staying with me? My, my, how intriguing. Perhaps you won't be too much of a bother after all, darling.”

She stands up.

“Come along, I'll show you the guest room. I'm sure you've had a long journey.”

“Thank you very much, Agatha.”

I followed her.

“No need to thank me, it's my pleasure, doll.”

She leads you down a small hallway past a bathroom and down to the guest bedroom.

“Here we are. This should have everything you need to freshen up, and the bed is plenty big too. I'll be in the kitchen, should you need anything.”

She smiles politely, but you sense that she is hiding another motive.

“Doll? Do you like using pet names on strangers?”

“Ah, it's a bad habit. What can I say? I enjoy giving attention.”

She steps closer to you, bringing her arm up to gently stroke your cheek. She gazes at you intently.

“And besides, you are quite the cutie-pie. Those luscious lips are just so... Biteable.”

“I thought you were the one who said 'no flirting either side'. Can't control yourself near me?”

She brings her mouth up to your ear, her breath brushing your lobe.

“Darling, I've never been able to control myself when I see something I like. I take what I want, and you are looking rather... Delicious at the moment.”

I tried to control my breath with her proximity, her perfume filling my nostrils.

“So demanding, Agatha.”

She gently brings your chin up towards her face, her lips inches from your own. She murmurs slowly.

“I can see your heart is beating fast, my love. Are you nervous, hmm? Or perhaps... Excited?”

“Or bothered by your boldness.”

“Oh, I'm sure you are.”

She moves a finger up to your lips, trailing lightly over them.

“I can feel how soft those lips are, how tender. It would be such a shame if no one got to taste them.”

She leans in closer, and you can feel her breath gently tickling your skin. It's clear she is about to kiss you. Your body and mind are screaming at you to stop her, but in your heart you know you want it.

“Back off, Agatha. I'm not one of your girls.”

I said harshly, entering her guest room.

“I'll see you on the kitchen, ok?”

She frowns.

“I was so close to having a taste, how disappointing.”

With a resigned huff, she turns away and starts to walk towards the kitchen.

“Suit yourself. I'll be in the kitchen, doll.”

I gave her an annoyed look before shutting the door.

After I changed myself to something comfortable, I met her on the kitchen.

Agatha is stirring a pot of stew over a blazing fire, wearing a simple black dress that's quite flattering on her. Her hair is tied up into a loose ponytail, and her feet are bare.

“Well, look at you, doll. Getting changed into something, comfy, were you? Is that a hint from you, perhaps?”

Agatha smirks, raising a suggestive eyebrow at you.

“What are you doing?”

I asked, ignoring her teasing.

“Oh, I'm just making a little something for dinner, that's all.”

She grabs a ladle from a nearby shelf, scooping the stew into two bowls. Handing you one, she takes her own and sits down at a small, round wooden table in the kitchen.

“Come my love, let's eat.”

The stew looks absolutely divine, smelling of beef and vegetables. She eats quite elegantly, a trait of her upbringing, no doubt.

“So you like to cook.”

“Hm? Oh, yes I do. I find cooking quite enjoyable, it relaxes me. I don't do it very often, but I can hold my own when it comes to making a good meal. You should taste this stew. I guarantee you'll find it delicious. It's quite the recipe, I learnt it from a very kind witch about... Oh, a hundred years ago now.”

She gives a chuckle, as if the span of a hundred years are only the blink of an eye to her.

She was beautiful and interesting. When you were assigned to take notes by her actions, you were aware it would be difficult not to get drawned by her.

"Hmm, the stew tastes marvelous!”

I said, eating with content.

As good as the stew was, her smile was even more enticing. You found yourself entranced by everything she did, from the way she picked up the bowl with her slender fingers, up to how she brought every spoonful to her plump lips. Her tongue would always dart out in the briefest of moments, licking away every stray drop. It was driving you mad.

“I'm so very glad you enjoy it, love. Perhaps I might just have to give you more of my cooking. We can make a great team, you and I.”

“Now you're ok with my company? What changed your mind?”

She lets out a chuckle, shaking her head.

“I never said I wasn't. You're quite charming, even if you've got that sharp tongue. I've grown quite fond of talking with you. Even if you try to deny it, I know you've been enjoying my company.”

She shoots a sly wink at you, her spoon dipping back in for more stew.

...

After we ended the meal, I found myself looking around her book colection.

“Fascinating.”

I said quietly to myself, unaware of her presence in the room.

She lets out a small hum of approval, placing a hand on her hip.

“Ah, my beloved library. This is where I spent most of my time whilst I lived here. This room is... Well, for a lack of a better word, magical.”

She comes up beside you, running a finger delicately across your back and making her way up to your shoulder. She leans down until her lips are at your ear, her voice lowering just slightly.

“Tell me... What do you like to read, darling?”

“What are you trying to get from me with this teasing, hun? I'm not so easy, Agatha.”

“Of course you're not, love. But I can make you so very easy if I so wanted.”

She steps closer behind you, her front pressing up against your back. Her hand traces a path up your shoulder and into your hair, stroking gently. Her voice drops even lower, the words practically whispered in your ear.

“I could have you begging for my touch, darling. One flick of my wrist and all your resistance would be gone. Oh you would look so very pretty beneath me, begging for every little mercy...”

“A-Agatha. Stop it!”

“Oh please, I know you want it.”

She tugs your hair lightly, pulling your head back to rest against her shoulder.

“That's it, love... You know that if you let me, I could have you screaming my name in no time... Begging me to go harder...”

I felt my knees going weak. It was hard to breathe.

She chuckles softly, tracing a finger down the line of your neck and onto your shoulder.

“That's it, darling... Relax for me... Give into it... Give into me... You know you want to... Your heart is beating so fast, your knees so weak... Your body knows what it wants...”

“From my point of view, you're the one begging, Agatha.”

She laughs lightly, bringing her hands down to rest on your hips. She begins to gently roll her abdomen along the small of your back, her breath hot in your ear.

“Is that so, love? Maybe I am the one begging, but you're the one practically melting in my hands."

She presses kisses along your jawline, leaving her mark on your skin.

“I know I'll have you begging much louder soon.”

I turned back to face her, feeling my desire along my inner thighs. She was evil.

She smiles, holding your chin with her fingers to make you look at her. Her thumb brushes gently across your bottom lip, her eyes searching yours

“Darling... What naughty things are you thinking about? I can see it in your eyes... Such sinful, beautiful thoughts...”

She tucks a stray lock of hair behind your ear, her fingers tracing down the side of you face and gently cupping your cheek. Her voice is low and silky, so smooth to the ear.

That's it, she's on my mind. Falling into her game, I started to tease her too.

“I see you're still hungry, Agatha. Perhaps you wanna taste some dessert.”

I pushed my dark green nightgown up just a bit.

She lets out a chuckle, her eyes hungrily devouring your exposed skin.

“Oh darling... You're so very naughty. Showing me a glimpse of your body... You're trying to tempt me, aren't you? You're craving my touch, aren't you darling?”

She takes hold of your hips, pulling you close and pressing her body against you. You can see the want in her eyes, the desire within her starting to spark just from the sight of your skin.

“I want your warm tongue elsewhere, Agatha. I want to see the great witch on her knees.”

“Oh, you are so very bad aren't you love?”

She purrs, her mouth moving to kiss at your neck. She starts to trace a path down, her lips working along your skin and leaving small red marks.

“Me, bad? Perhaps you'll see...”

“That is what I love about you, darling... You're so naughty and so very sexy...”

She continues leaving marks on your skin, her mouth eventually reaching the hem of your night gown. Her hands come up to play with the smooth, silken fabric, rubbing it between her fingers and teasing your sensitive hips.

I was using her book shelf to keep me from falling.

She presses you up against the bookshelf, pulling away from your skin for a brief moment to look up at you. There's nothing but pure desire in her dark, lusting eyes.

“Darling, you're not going to last very long if you keep standing... Let me help you.”

“No...

I walked to her couch, feeling her eyes on me.

“You're are the one to kneel, remember?”

“Well I'll be... Who knew you had such a dominant side, doll?”

She smiles, sauntering over to the couch and kneeling down by your legs. Her hands gently come to rest on your knees, beginning to move up your legs under your night gown.

“Are you going to treat me well, love? Or am I at you mercy?”

She smirks, her eyes gleaming with dark desire.

“Oh, sometimes you like to give in, hun? Wonderful. Now, taste me.”

Her smirk turns to a seductive grin, her hands moving up your inner thighs.

"You really are a bad girl... But then again... So am I.”

She gently presses her head against your thigh, leaving a small bite. Her mouth works its way up your leg, eventually reaching your heat and pressing her hot lips against you, giving you a few soft kisses.

I intertwined my fingers between her hair. Her soft, messy hair.

I arched my back with her move...moaning softly.

She begins to move her tongue deeper between your folds, moaning softly herself from the taste of your dripping heat. Her hands begin to move up your body, gently caressing your quivering abdomen and eventually reaching your sensitive, needy breasts.

“You're so very beautiful... So very... Perfect..."

“I want you between my legs until I be satisfied. Are we clear, Agatha?”

“Well, when put that way darling, how could I ever say no?”

She laughs, gently biting at your inner thigh.

“Don't worry love... There will be more than enough of me left to please you tonight...”

“Finish your job down there, darling. Hush.”

“Oh, so very demanding... Let me have a little more fun first. I want to worship your body, darling.... You deserve it.”

She places a delicate kiss on your belly, working her way up up your body and eventually reaching your mouth.

"Oh darling... Your mouth.... Your body... So very delivshous...”

I felt my own taste on her mouth. It made me gone mad.

“Stop teasing me, now. Go back down and do it, Agatha. I can't take it anymore.”

She gives a smirk, looking into your eyes with a dangerous lust

“I see... So you're desperate for me...”

She begins to pull down your night gown, removing your underwear slowly and giving you a few more kisses.

“Very well... As you wish, my love...”

She lowers herself down, her breath tickling your heat.

“Ready, darling...?"

“Please, Agatha. Just...d-do it.”

She smiles, her voice a seductive whisper

“As you ask darling... Enjoy....”

Her lips meet your heat, and she begins to devour you with hunger. Every inch of you is consumed with her attention, her every movement being dedicated to giving you the most pleasure... It's almost overwhelming just how skillful her mouth is.

“You taste so very good love...”

“I'm...close...keep...doing it....”

My naked body was on fire, desperate to release myself on her mouth.

She moans at your words, knowing that you're right there on the edge. Her mouth works even harder than before, pushing your ever closer to the sweet release.

“You're almost there, love... Almost there....”

I rolled my hips, feeling her tongue work harder unti I came all over her face.

She works you through every wave of pleasure, lapping up ever drop that you give her. When the last of your orgasm has faded, she sits up, a huge smile on her face and her chin glistening with your juices. She gives you a satisfied smile.

“God, darling... You have no idea how delicious you are....”

“Oh, yes, I know. That's why you were on the ground, praising me.”

“That you did, love. My my, you're very demanding...”

She wipes her mouth with her arm, gently sitting up beside you and bringing a hand to your face.

“Are you happy now? Did I give you enough pleasure, darling?”

“Oh, Agatha...you can be so sweet, hun? I need to rest now.”

I picked up my nightgown and panties, walking to the guest room, still naked. I turned back to watch her following me.

“Have sweet dreams.”

She smiles, watching your retreating form as you walk towards the guest room and admiring the way your behind moves with your steps.

“Rest well, love. I hope you dream of me.”

“Oh, I will.”

She gives you a smirk, biting her lip as you close the door behind you. The moment you're out of sight, she lets out a small laugh, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair.

“And oh what dreams they will be....”

[linkspooky]

What ongoing manga series are you reading currently? Any book recs besides the ten you share often?

Every year at the end of the year I do a summary of every single manga I'm reading in Jump Currently. However, I can give you a brief one:

DanDanDan

Sakamoto Days

Kagurabachi

Hunter x Hunter

Ichi the Witch

Undead Unluck

Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi (please don't get cancelled)

Astro Royale

Witch Watch

Bungo Stray Dogs

Choujin X

My current favorite manga to read on a week to week basis is Undead Unluck, my favorite to read on a monthly basis is Bungo Stray Dogs.

If you want more book recs I'll just give a list because I'm too feverish to write out full paragraph long reccomendations.

Goth by Otsuichi

Black Fairy Tale by Otsuichi

Confessions

Girl Interrupted

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostevsky

Three Days of Happiness by Sugaru Miaki

Stephen King the Shining

Hakata Tonkatsu Ramens Light novel Series

Snow Crash

The Catcher in the Rye

A hero of Our Time by Mikahil Lermontov

Sekai series by Nisioisin

Fate Strange Fake because I'm rereading it for like the 4th time

Any detective novel by Seishi Yokomizo

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings Series that's like 15 books long

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Grotesque Natsuno Kirino

Journey Under the Midnight Sun Keigo Higashino

I've read all these within the past 11 months and I reccomend all of them.

[3lix13]

AGATHA puts a curse on corporate comics - support indie comics creators on Kickstarter! Still 8 days left to back Andrew MacLean's AGATHA: A Tale of Three Witches: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewrmaclean/agatha-a-tale-of-three-witches

[popculturebuffet]

Superhero Wedding Valentine's Day Special II: Hulkling and Wiccan (Empyre #5 and Empyre Aftermath: Avengers) (Poll Winner)

Happy valentine's day all you happy people! And it's time for my now annual valentine's day superhero wedding spectacular! For those not here for last year's event: despite not having been married (and being currently single), I love wedding episodes, so last year I had you fine folks pick a superhero wedding for me to review. Last year it was an overwhleming tie between Spider-man having to stop Doc Ock and Aunt may's wedding, cumilating in a nuclear explosion on a canadian island and Kitty Pryde and Colossus diasterous failed wedding.. leading to Gambit successfully stealing it for Rogue. And since that event was a successs, one of my only polls I both coudl complete due to scheduling conflicts and that got plenty of votes, I decided to do it AGAIN this year. And while we got a clear result (gestures above) this race was even tigther. While last year was a very clear tie between the two winners with nothing else coming evne remotely close this year…

Yup this year's winner was only by one vote with every patreon putting in a good fight.. and my person choice of yellowjacket and the wasp.. doing horrible because in hindsight maybe I shoudl've thought past the fact Hank and Jan are two of my faviorite characters.. into the fact their marraige ends in utter tragedy and abuse, with Janet moving on from it and Hank never forgiving himself and trying to atone for it quite a bit. Especially against three popular couples. LIve and Learn.

I'm delighted with the winner though: Wiccan and Hulkling! It's our first gay wedding on this feature.. I mean it's our third overall but superhero gay weddings are suprisingly rare, and while there have been plenty this is easily the highest profile one. So join me undre the cut for a long explination of these two's love story, the nuptials themselves and one hell of a reception:

So for those not familiar with the happy couple, let's tell their tale: Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman had what they thought were entirely normal lives. Billy was raised by two loving jewish parents and became obessed with the avengers and Teddy had a loving single mom working in real estate. Then both discovered they had super powers: Billy could make thigns happen if he said it hard enough I.e. "PLEASEDON'TBLOWUPPLEASEDON'TBLOWUP" and while he struggled at first with that and being gay, a chance meeting with the Scarlet Witch helped convince him being diffrent wasn't so bad and to embrace what he was while Teddy found out he was green and could shapeshift, taking on human skin to fit in till some jackass he had a crush on abused that power and he decided "yeah fuck that. "

Both were recruited by Iron Lad in the wake of Avengers Disassembled. To make a long, poorly told story short: Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, once upon a time made two children with the vision… literally it turned out as her boys were both magic and were stolen by a d-list villian and made into baby hands

She had an entirley understandable mental breakdown from that and her husband turning emotoinless.. as well as the fact none of her friends thought "Let's get her therapy ya know?". She apparently recovered but brian micheal bendis didn't do his research, so she later had another break down when an old woman refused to let her just reconstruct her children. Like.. she wasn't breaking into another universe and stealing someone else's kids, Agatha. Comeon. And yeah comics agatha is an old woman it's a long story.

Thanks to Agatha Harkness assholery, Wanda had a mental breakdown again this time far mroe grandly because Brian MIchael Bendis didn't think that maybe this was a touch insesntive. And this was back when most of his writing was GOOD. This was the EXCEPTION.

Said exception lead to the deaths of my boys Vision, Scott Lang and Hawkeye. As you can probably guess all got better, but it still left a lasting impact. And anyone whose seen wandavision or int he multiverse of madness can probably guess why i'm telling this story, yet are a tad puzzled.

With the avengers gone a visitor for the future , Iron Lad, showed up with the avengers protocol, recurting people Vision had in mind in case the avengers fell.. which was a bunch of teens instead of old hands, but I find that clever: it's likely this is intended if shit REALLY goes south and most avengers past and present are gone. Iron Lad simply used it because what was left of the avengers woudn't listen to him.

As a result he gathered Billy and Teddy

Along with Patriot, the son of lost captain america Issaiah Bradley, a super soldier given tuskgee style experiments and lockeda way for decades. Turns out Iron Lad wasn't ENTIRELY up front as he was actually a young Kang the Conquerer, upcoming villian of ant man and the wasp and total prick. Iron Lad is one of Kang's many variants and this one is entirely his fault as he went to his young self to inspire him, to show him what he'd be and assumed naturally his younger not yet jaded, bored and longing for conquest self would be entirley happy to find out

He very obviously wasn't and gathered the team to fight him, also picking up Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott Lang whose mom and step dad were total pricks at the time and badly wanted to follow in her dad's footsteps and due to being around him and getting saturated in pym particles could turn giant. Together they fought kang, and Iron Lad had to leave after stabbing him but left his armor behind which became the new vision.

While the avengers tried to stop these daring new heroes because they were being kinda dicks at the time, they only grew, gathering new member Kate Bishop Hawkeye, who after being rescued by these lads at a wedding used her vast fortune to buy them a base, new outfits and new equipment.

It was soon after this Teddy and Billy found out shit was way more complicated than they thought: Billy found out he was the reincarnation of one of the Scarlet Witch's twins, something that was naturally rattling as it was exciting and found his brother, Tommy, who had a much rougher life but came to embrace his new family and joined the team as Speed.

Teddy.. had it even worse with his revelation as the super skrull came a knocking, burnt his mom, and Teddy found out the truth: his mom was his adopted mom, which once again gets complicated because the writer of the first run of young avengers, Alan Heinberg, did really well tying these two into continuity, but it also means there's a lot to unpack when your just saying it instead of putting it in a story. During the Kree-Skrull War, long story, Captain Mar-Vell, the first Captain Marvell and a kree soldier turned galactic hero met the princess of the shapeshifting Skrulls breifly. They had a quick affair, and rightly fearing for her child's life , his mom had her handmaiden take Teddy to his father. Said father was dead of cancer so she raised him herself. Super Skrull's natural reaction.. was to burn her.

Klrt ended up atoning a bit, playing Teddy to give both races shared custody, while Teddy remained on earth. Over all this he and Billy had fallen in love and were happy together with Billy's parents gladly taking his boyfriend in, having figured out he was gay (not so much he was a superhero) and warmly welcoming the boy. It's really sweet. The avengers realized they'd been dicks and decided to back off giving the kids full sponsorship.

Billy and Teddy were fan faviorites and it was easy to see why: While Marvel had gay characters before this , most either had to be hidden in plain sight (Mystique and Destiny) to get past censors, or were b-list characters that while great , didn't leave a huge impact (Northstar). While teen versions of the avengers, Billy and Tommy were still fairly high profile and depsite writer and creator Alan Heinberg being busy in CALLLLIFFFOOORRRNNIIIAAAAAA, the Young Avengers were kept pretty high up and a part of most crossovers from then on out in some form. Not only that the fact the two were gay , while something they had to deal with this being the early 2000's, was celebrated and a non issue for their parents, something that was rare in this kind of story at the time.

The two would stick around a while, and Tommy would eventually get his mom back during Alan Heinberg's long delayed The Children's Crusade.. which is kind of a mess and something best left for another time but in short, the twins reunited with their mom, who nicely lives in step with Billys adopted parent (Tommy's abandoned him so he's fine), and Dr. Doom killed cassie lang after bringing back her dad. It's a lot.

In the wake of this a new volume of Young Avengers by one of my faviorite comic book writers, Kireon Gilleon launched and the couple faced some issues despite getting engaged in the wake of Children's Crusade: Billy accidently summoned a dimenson hopping parasite named mother, forcing an all new iteration of the young avengers (Billy, Teddy and Kate along with Progidy, America Chavez, Teen Loki and Marvel Boy), to step up and take her out. The adventure was important as it asked an obvious question.. okay Loki did because who else: Did Billy .. wish Teddy into existance? I Mean his existance was pretty conveient: a struggling gay kid suddenly gets a handsome boyfriend whose also the secret son of captain marvel? He wasn't of course, but it was a good line to explore, the two eventuallyr econciled and peace was had.

The two would go on to be part of New Avengers, a book I loved by another writer I loved and the one who wrote these issues, Al Ewing. They worked with former New Mutant, Avenger and All Around awesome guy Sunspot as he took over former supervillian hive aim and tried to make it something good… by buyign them out as their traded like any company and most of them liked him better as a boss than whatever super villian took it over that week. The takeaway here is the two got an apartment, and Teddy got cemented as future king of space by taking up a cool as hell sword, but refused the throne for now.

This leads us, finally, to Empyre, the event the wedding's a part of.. as a massive twist mid story. It's also really one of the only lasting effects this event had, the other being the major catalyst for two future al ewing books: Guardians of the galaxy, which we'll cover the first arc of in May for obvious reasons, and SWORD which is awesome.

Empyre.. is as bit of a mess and one of MANY marvel events that feels like it's there JUST to be a marvel event. It's especailly hard to look back on after last year's Judgment Day, an event that truly FELT like it needed to be one, had massive lasting consequences for the x-men and nicely tied up writer Kireon Gilleon's eternals run, while telling a compelling story. As you can probably guess it's on my to do list. Empyre.. only is if I ever cover Dan Slott's fantastic four run which given i'm set to cover another disasterous run of his very soon, is thankfully getting pushed back.

Empyre is a long story: the short of it is Teddy united the long fueding Kree and Skrull empires, another thing that stuck ever since, and took them to earth to wipe out the cotai… which echoed history as the kree had done this before but the Coatai had decided thanks to that to wipe out all life.

Along the way Teddy ends up getting kidpanped and replaced by hisg randma who goes mad with power

Forcing the human torch and carol danvers to run , getting teleported.. to the happy couple's apartment, where Billy not only reveals the ruse (if not whose behind it as he dosen't know) as having dated Teddy so long he knows his facial tics to a t.. and because

Yup. Props to Slott and Ewing, and it's why I brought up him writing New Avengers: Ewing clearly loved the characters and made it a goal to give them a bigger place in the marvel universe with this event, and also snuck a gay wedding into one of the biggest events of the year. Kudos. Slott helped too, I guess. I mean credit where it's due he did co write it, I just feel this was likely Ewing's push aand Slott, being a progressive, gladly went along with it.

That leads us to issue 5 and to the actual nuptials. We won't be covering this one in full, as there's still a LOT of empyre stuff here. It's what makes covering some of the more mordern superhero weddings tricky as due to being written for the trade stories can often require an entire arc to get there. I got lucky with X-Men as whlie there was plenty of build up, the wedding itself was contained to one issue plus some bonus bits in the first issue of mr and mrs x. This one.. is smack int he middle of a massive and messy crossover event with 80 dozen tie ins. Thankfully the wedding itself is a short scene and the second wedding with a much larger crowd is contained to an aftermath issue. So after much ado let's GET to that wedding shall we?

We open Empyre #5 with Billy explaning it to Johnny and Carol.. who I"m not sure he'd even met before this, but hey, it's comics so the answer is "probably. At any rate he explains the two had an hour before Teddy left to become king of space. And as two 20 somethings at this point they used half of it already.

I see his point.. also we get a mildy gross bit of Carol apparently deying the eye thing despite the art showing it.. despite being at least twice his age.

Having learned well from his time under Roberto, aka sunspot, Teddy already had a crazy wedding scheme ready to go, including a special guest to precede over it:

Yup that's creator Alan Heinberg, a really sweet gesture.. and one he was well aware of. He and Jim Chung, who co created the characters did a short story for the marvel comics #1000 story staring the young avengers.. in the same outfits they'd wear to this wedding, placing it RIGHT AFTER said wedding. He was of course honored when asked about the cameo and I thoguht it was a sweet touch: he created them, he got them together.. and now he'd marry them, even if he wouldn't be writing it himself.

So surronded by their friends and brother, they marry and it's just.. utterly enchanting. To wrap up the whole doppleganger plot for you guys as it DOES tie into the aftermath issue as you'd expect: the whole connection thing isn't just beautiful poetry, but just as a percaution (Given the Skrulls and Kree asked Teddy to dump Billy already, yes really. ) Billy left a piece of magic inside his husband.. and thus they find the REAL teddy, bring him to the imposter, and said imposter turns out to be the queen of the skrulls, his grandma and someone who should've died when Galactus ate their homeworld. Teddy wins, they stop a doomsday weapon, the plant people are stopped and the evfent as a whole ends with Teddy as king of space. But since only a select few got to attend the first ceremony due to time constraints.. we get Aftermath, a proper wedding issue as the two get married again in front of more friends, Billy's parents, and of course their royal space court.

We open with Teddy visiting his grandma in jail. She explains how she's alive and became a kree infiltrator: she teleported out, leaving her daughter to die because.. well she kidnapped her own grandson and usurped him for power, she didn't have far to fall. She bided her time to try this scheme failled and does the usual villian thing of mocking teddy for his weakness.. before asking how his REAL wedding went.. thus we flash back to the other day

While Billy was happy with the small wedding.. he's equally happy with the huge rager, featuring tons of characters including those just fresh from the crossover, in case your curious why Wolverine and Spidey are wearing ff style uniforms. Which look dope by the way, they may of been for a fairly meehhhhh tie in but those outfits need to make a comeback. It's a nice spread.

Among the guests are recent newlyweds themselves ben grimm and alicia masters, Robby Reyes ghost rider palling around with venom, the guardians of the galaxy including recent couple Noh Varr and Hercules, and the richards kids who are for some reason laying down next to each other stoned out of their minds. God I hope ti's just that

We also get a really nice moment from Cap as he admits their constant attempts to stop the Young Avengers was one of his greatest regrets. Granted it leads to registration coming up and thor quickly stops that with a drink for everyone: Skrullian Fruit Juice for Tony, Mead for THor and an american beer for Steve. The toast is not to the groom or the groom, but to the father of the groom, Captain Marvel, and it's a really touching tribute to their absent friend who they know would be proud if he coudl see this.

So we cut to Teddy also thinking about his dad: his mom tried calling him but he was you know busy and in space and likely failed before word of his cancer diagnoiss reached him. Carol however gives the two a nice congradultions in her predecessor and friends stead…. but soon has her own problems as Abigail Brand walks up to her. Abigail Brand is the former head of SWORD, basicallys hield but dealing with space threats, having been raised in space. It also puts her in my wheelhouse. She also works under Carol at Alpha Flight, SWORD'S replacement…. and is rightfully pissed at carol for going to the cotai without bothering to contact the giant space agency she runs.

And .. she's entirley right. I agree with all of it. The Coatai got in because the avengers ate the hummus as they later put it and Carol tended to just.. call on the avengers. Which was fine when she was just carol danvers and not head of an organzation DESIGNED to counter this sort of thing. Abby is told to back off by Teddy, as while he agrees she has a point this isn't the time or place and she leaves, quitting this bitch.

Carol agrees she had a point and while her friends all assure her "nah they probably woudl've sucked too", though at least Reed Richards agrees she has a point: the earths heroes have acted a bit too unilaterally and have to be better.

Billy however is more unnerved as he noticed something… in a group full of 50 or so avengers, the fantastic four, and the guardians of the galaxy.. everyone looked at Teddy. T'Challa helpfully guides his fellow ruler.

It's the highest compliment that Roberto probably TRULY dosen't have an actual plan to kill his friends.. incpaciate them or talk sense into them maybe, but it's clear he trusts them to rule wisely. Granted he probably has like.. 80 backup plans if they get overthrown but given he's currently living part time in the shiar empire where a regime change is called "Tuesday" I can't say I blame him.

With that Kate breaks out crying as she met them at a wedding.. and now this is happening. We get a sweet moment as everyone reunites.

Back in the present we get some more Empyre wrap up as Teddy rebukes his grandma but shows that while a kind just ruler.. he isn't soft. He lays into Super Skrull, who helped with the coup, for murdering his mom, slaps the guy and rather than give him the easy out of death.. he gives him the job as ambassador, to help save lives to make up for all those killed which he graciously accepts. General Glory, the kree equilvent refuses and agrees to a cell instead saying Teddy will need him.. and we flash forward as he indeed does as things are dire.. until the calvary arrives.

Welcome to SWORD.. a story for another day surely… but for now A toast to the groom to the groom to the groom to the groom , and to the other groom the other groom the other groom, may they always be satisfied and may some idiot not break them up. For now though this status quo has held, these two are happy and they rule over space, together.. as it should be. THanks for readnig and happy valentines day.

[glitterdragonthegreatprotector]

Dark Deception AUs

If you are outside of my mutual group, but you have AUs, just reblog this post with your AUs

@kollieflower:

Blight Take Over AU

Modern AU

Aware Lucky AU

@ani-shea:

Choatic Disbelief AU

Aware!Aladeux AU

Taba!Doug AU

Vessel!Doug AU

Maid bierce AU

Fungus!morgan AU

Wonderland AU

@ana-shelley:

Cartoon Calamities AU

@endstar:

Vampire Doug AU

Void Doug AU

Survivors guilt AU

Kid AU

Servant AU

Possession AU

Prophecy AU

Nowhere AU

Dream AU

Crazy Kingdom AU

Cat doug AU

Werewolf Doug AU

OBEY! AU

The Three AU

Rat Doug AU

Vampire Doug

Bad bitch Doug

Zombie Doug

Half god au

Beast doug au

The butler did it au/ring leader au

Forgotten protectors AU

Dragon AU

Demon games AU

Haunted past au

Violent child au

@glitterdragonthegreatprotector AKA mine:

Aware doug AU

Lucky x The Moon AU

Dark Tale of Deception: multiverse (it's the underverse but with dark deception help djjdjdje-)

Decay/fungus AU

Spectrum Malak AU

Answer of Hell AU

Fnaftale X Dark Deception AU

Gender bent Malak AU

Club AU

Shared custody between @endstar and @glitterdragonthegreatprotector:

Grief AU

Mourning au

Angel au

Mr. Goldstreets AU

Love virus au

Alien au

Lord Agatha au

Cult of the Man AU

The void experiments AU

Coraline AU

Porcelain Doll AU

Gang AU

Pirate AU

Monster mermaids AU

Actually friends AU

Mortal Eye TV show AU

Actor AU

Hanahaki Disease AU

Secretly a God AU

Freeing mortal slaves AU

Unlucky Lucky AU

Folklore doug AU

Forest protector Malak AU

Secretly business partners AU

Roommates AU

Therapy Doug AU

Is That a Fucking Baby?! AU

Maddened masochist AU

Witch Elise AU

Elise brings the End AU

Super weapon doug AU

Super villain doug AU

Puppet Doug

Warrior doug

Soul parasites AU

Immortal love and mortal lovers AU

Recently fallen AU

Death!Doug AU

Elise's boat ride AU

Anorea the pig AU

Bell Noose AU

@top-tier-tickles:

Dark Deception Tickle AU

Dark Inception AU (Swap Au)

Detroit: Deception AU

@duuskiiii:

Monster crossover AU

[solaris-girl]

100-ish classics and must-reads

solaris girl's list of 100 must-reads :-)

( bold = read. constantly updating!)

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 

1984 - George Orwell 

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

The Giver - Lois Lowrey

The Book Thief - Markus Zusack

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

The Stranger - Albert Camus

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Les Miserables -Victor Hugo

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemingway

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Catch - 22 - Joseph Heller

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

Our Town - Thornton Wilder

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

Candide - Voltaire

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate - Naomi Klein

The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe

Emma - Jane Austen

The Republic - Plato

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli 

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

The Tell Tale Heart and Other Readings - Edgar Allan Poe

Atonement - Ian McEwan

Sidhartha - Hermann Hesse

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

Their Eyes were Watching God - Zora Neal Hurston

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien

Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespear

The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom

Moby-Dick - Herman Melville

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I, Claudius - Robert Graves

The Pearl - John Steinbeck

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

Middlemarch - George Eliot

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

White Fang - Jack London

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

[chaand-sitara]

Chapter I

Once Upon a time, there lived three girls, Agatha, Absinthe and Sophie, all three of them had their own tales and they lived far far away in a village called Gavaldon.

All three of them were considered a freak, a witch and again a weird person in some way or another, but the girls found solace in each other, you see when Sophie's mother had left her all alone in the big world, a small little Agatha offered her company for all her life to her, and when the two friends saw the naive little Absinthe getting bullied for hiding her face, they saved her and made her their best friend too.

"Why do you hide your face?" little Agatha swatted Little Sophie's arm when she asked such question, Little Absinthe shrugged "I don't know, the orphanage said that when I was dropped as a baby, the mask was kept on my basket and they were told to train me to live with the mask all my life."

Now it had been years since that talk.

Absinthe, now a teenager walked towards the market to fetch some groceries for the orphanage when she saw the people who were dearest to her. "Aggie! Sophie!" both the polar opposite girls turned towards their third part, all the three girls ran to each other and connected their arms, making them whole.

"Don't you just hate this town Abbie?" Sofie asked her taller friend, frustrated by the treatment the town gave to someone who was destined for something greater.

"Well, neither do I hate, nor I love it, wish I could get out of here though, gets slightly boring here."All of them laughed at Absinthe's words as they walked towards the market.

As they reached the place, they all sat down on a bench to eat something and take a break.

Agatha huffed while looking at two of her friends "For the hundredth time, No!" Both the girls at each side of her sighed and then Sophie said "It won't have to be a whole makeover! Plus Absinthe and me will also do your hair! Come on Aggie!"

Agatha stared at her friends with disbelief "Still no!" Sophie then stated "We can do a cucumber eye mask! Help me here Abbie!" Absinthe nodded, adding on "and also pumice scrub for your pores?"

Suddenly two boys come near their table and one of them, of which Absinthe had no memories about, slams his hand on the table.

"Hey Ugly." Agatha and Absinthe waited for Sophie to respond, when she didn't, Agatha stated "Aren't you gonna answer them?" The boy scoffed and said "Not her, You!" which made the girls realise who the target was.

Then the boy again replied "Eric here says that you placed some witchy hex on him." then Sophie took the words out of Absinthe's mouth "Whose Eric?" then the boy behind says with disbeliefment "We've been in a same class for eight years!" then the boy at the front grunted "He said that you looked at weird the other day and now he is feeling itchy since then." Absinthe gave the boy a confused look.

"I believe that is a hygiene problem, not some voodoo witch magic, or something.?" and Sophie added on "Seriously? Lice, anyone?"

The boy behind, which was now guessed to be Eric added "Shut up!" Then Agatha snorted, which made the same person say something like "You three are just freaks! A prig!A freak and a pig!."

All three of them then acted to gasp and then fainted.

"Freaks!" Then the boys left, as they did, the three girls starting giggling and Sophie then looked at Agatha and smiled "I think Eric likes you." Agatha then snorted and replied "Wait.. Who's Eric?" Absinthe then also laughed "Yeah like, I am sorry, there is an Eric?" which made all three of them laugh again.

"Wait Agatha don't forget, you have to get some hemlock from Mrs. Fisher for your mom.". Agatha nodded and Then they all got up "I gotta get some green Fringe, I will meet y'all at Deuville's!" Agatha and Absinthe tried to stop her but failed.

Absinthe grabbed Agatha's arm and clinged to her. "Stay near me Abbie, all the time, got it? I will protect you." Absinthe nodded as they walked towards the market and saw everyone staring at them. "Aggie I don't like this." Absinthe whimpered.

Suddenly a man came behind them, which made Agatha swiftly grab Absinthe's arm and drag her behind her."You are the girl who lives in the graveyard, and you're the one who always hides her face, right?"

Agatha walked a little away from the creepy man as she replied "Not in the graveyard, but by the graveyard,and yeah she hides her face, so?" Agatha could feel Absinthe slightly shivering, Agatha knew Absinthe was not fond of new people, specially who talked the way the man in front of them was.

"Mhm.. You know everyone, and I mean, everyone thinks You are a witch, and you what we used to do to witches in Gavaldon? We used to burn them." Agatha scrambled more away from the man as she said "You have a nice day buddy."

Suddenly the man pulled a knife and pointed at Agatha "We don't want witches in town, do you hear me?" which made them nod their heads, not wanting to anger him more "It is a threat to the people of Gavaldon-" suddenly the man stopped speaking and fell on the floor as both the girls watched him fall, then they looked up and saw "Sophie!"

"You know, I don't think there is any decent person in Gavaldon." Absinthe sighed and rushed towards Sofie and gave her a big hug "You guys okay, You okay Abbie?" Absinthe nodded and Then started to leave "I have to go guys, or else the warden will not spare me! See you all later, please get me any good adventure book from the Deuville's!" both the girls nodded as their third half left.

[kationella]

SFGE Headcanons

Royals are trained in politics and self-defense from the moment they can talk since there is a high probability they will end up as orphans in their fairy tale.

There are some parents who don't get close to their children until AFTER they have graduated, since there is a chance they could end up as a plant or die in their fairy tale. This is way more common in Evil, where Good's winning streak left a lot of broken Evil families behind (either your child died young or your parent died as the finale of a fairy tale).

In a way, Rafal's intervention in the Tale saved Sophie's life, since she would have ended up dead once they graduated and she became the villain of Agatha's story. But since you can't intervene in a fairy tale's course without suffering the consequences, the Storian went "a life for a life" and killed Rafal. Suck it, old man.

While at Good they have an equal number of male and female students (because of the One True Love thing), at Evil two thirds of the students are girls. This would explain why they have three towers for all their students instead of four like Good. Gotta keep up with the witch demand 😂

Nah, but an in-universe reason could be that magic is easier for females than males. This would also be why we see girls using it the most in the books while boys rely on their swords or talents.

After the Tale of Sophie and Agatha they stop trying to match up people at Good and simply admit them according to the goodness of their souls instead of trying to have an equal number of girls and boys.

[justanothersong]

Complete, alphabetized Watchlist for 2022!

Note: Since I alphabetized, this is no longer in order.

Interesting to see what I repeated (a LOT) and what was new...

Top film repeats: Clue; Mr. Right

306 Hollywood*

31*

A Fish Called Wanda*

A Ghost Waits*

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

After the Thin Man

After the Thin Man

Agatha Christie’s Murder With Mirrors*

Ali Wong: Don Wong*

Alison’s Birthday*

Archer, Season 1-2

Bad Milo*

Batman

Batman

Batman Returns

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice

Beyond Evil*

Big Trouble in Little China

Black Christmas (74)

Black Roses*

Blades*

Blithe Spirit (2020)*

Bloody Birthday

Bluey S1-3

Bluey, Seasons 1-3

Bob’s Burgers S1

Bob’s Burgers S2

Bob’s Burgers S3-4

Body Count (86)*

Brooklyn 99 S1-3

Brooklyn 99, S1-8

Cars 3*

Cat Hospital, Series 1*

Cathy’s Curse*

Class Action Park*

Clerks

Clue

Clue

Clue

Clue

Count Dracula (1970)*

Crazy, Not Insane*

Creature (1985)*

Creepshow

Creepshow 2*

Crimewave*

CSI, Seasons 1-4

Curtains*

Dark Knight of the Scarecrow*

Dead & Buried*

Dead Dudes in the House*

Dead Heat*

Dead Space*

Deadly Blessing*

Deadly Manor*

Death on the Nile*

Death on the Tyne*

Death Ship*

Demon Wind*

Dial M for Middlesbrough*

Dirty Rotten Cleaners S1*

Eat Local*

Ed and His Dead Mother*

Elementary, Season 1-2

Elementary, Seasons 3-4

Encanto

Encanto

Event Horizon*

Fallen (1998)*

Family Guy S2-3

Family Guy, S1

Family Reunion*

Fantastic Four (05)

Fear (1990)*

Fifty Greatest Horror Movies You’ve Never Seen*

Flesh Eating Mothers*

Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi*

Fright Night (1985)

Fright Night (1985)

Fright Night (Remake)

Garfield Halloween

Get Smart*

Ghostbusters

Ghosts (BBC), S1-3*

Ghosts (US) S1*

Grabbers*

Grandmother’s House*

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Harry Wild, Season 1

Hell Night*

High Spirits

Hot Fuzz

Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania 2

Hotel Transylvania 2

Hotel Transylvania 2

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

In the Mouth of Madness

Inside Job, S1*

Into the Abyss*

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Last Night in Soho*

Leprechaun

Leverage S1-2*

MASH, Season 1-3

MASH, Season 4

Medium, S1-3*

Meet Cute*

Men at Work

Mickey’s Christmas Carol

Mindhunters*

Mirror Mirror (1990)

Monster Madness*

Moon of the Wolf*

Mr Right

Mr. Right

Mr. Right

Munchies*

Murder By Death

Murder on the Blackpool Express*

Mutant*

My Mom’s a Werewolf*

New Tricks, S1-3*

Night Court, Season 1

Night Court, Season 2-6

Night Court, Season 7

Night Court, Season 8-9

Nightbreed*

Office Uprising*

One Dark Night*

Our Flag Means Death S1*

ParaNorman

Pet Semetary

Phantasm

Pledge Night

Popcorn

Preacher, S1*

Prince of Darkness*

Psych S1

Psych S2

Psych, Season 1-4

Psych, Season 5-7

Pupper Master*

Rabid (77)*

Red Lights*

Red Notice*

Return to Oz

RIPD

Rise: Blood Hunter*

Roadfood, Season 1*

Rosemary & Thyme S1-3*

Russell Howard: Lubricant*

Russell Howard: Recalibrate*

Salem’s Lot (76)

Santa Camp*

Scanners*

Scream

Scream (2022)*

Secret Passions / Her Haunted Past (1987)*

Secret Screams*

See How They Run*

Shakespeare & Hathaway, S1-4*

Shaun of the Dead

Sherlock Holmes (09)*

Sister Boniface Mysteries, S1*

Skinner*

Slaxx*

Slice*

Spaced Invaders

Spookies*

Studio 666*

Subspecies*

Tacoma FD, Season Three

Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight

Tales From the Darkside

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time*

The Addams Family S1*

The Beyond*

The Blob

The Bob’s Burgers Movie*

The Brokenwood Mysteries, S8

The Brokenwood Mysteries, Series 1-7 (7*)

The Changeling*

The Chill Factor*

The Cleaner (UK), S1*

The Conjuring

The Conjuring 2

The Cursed*

The First Power

The Golden Child*

The Gray Man*

The Horror Show*

The House By the Cemetery*

The Incredibles

The Initiation*

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane*

The Lost Boys

The Lost City*

The Monster Squad

The Mummy (1999)

The Omen (2006)

The Prowler*

The Relic

The Skeptic*

The Sleeper*

The Thing

The Thing (2011)*

The Vagrant*

The Video Dead*

The Willoughbys

The X-Files, Season 1

The X-Files, Season 2

The X-Files, Seasons 3-4

Tig Notaro: Happy to Be Here*

Tourist Trap*

Tremors

Trick or Treats (1982)*

Trick R Treat

Trilogy of Terror

Urban Legend

Useless Humans*

Valentine

Wanted

Wellington Paranomal S3, 1-4*

Werewolves Within*

Wes Craven’s Mind Ripper*

Wes Craven’s Summer of Fear*

What We Do in the Shadows, S4, E1-5*

What We Do In the Shadows, Season 1

When the Walls Talk: The Whispers Estate Documentary*

Witchboard

Witchery*

Witchtrap*

Wolf

Wolfman’s Got Nards*

Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein

[thenightling]

So what the Hell does Disney’s Hocus Pocus have to do with The Sandman?

 Some people have questioned why I have shared Hocus Pocus content to my “Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman” Facebook group. It’s not just because it is Halloween related and Halloween aesthetics turn up a lot in The Sandman.  It very much all has to do with the Hecate.  

In Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman we have the Three-in-One, the Triple Goddess.  Hecataea (goddess(es) of witchcraft and magick, who also doubles as The Fates, and The Furies AKA The Kindly Ones.     

Back in 1969 DC Comics introduced “The Three Witches” as the hosts of one of their horror anthology comics.   Cain, Abel, Lucien, Eve (The Raven Woman), The Mad Mod Witch (Fashion Thing), Destiny, and The Hecateae all started as hosts for the old horror anthology comics.  Cain hosted The House of Mystery.  Abel hosted The House of Secrets.  Lucien hosted Tales of Ghost Castle and the three Witches (Hecataea) hosted The Witching Hour.

Here the Maiden, Mother, and Crone used the “Modern” names of Cynthia, Mildred, and Mordred.  To reaffirm that these are their new names, they tell these names to Morpheus in issue 2 of The Sandman.  Cynthia’s look was likely loosely inspired by Sabrina the Teenage Witch. 

Three witches, or “Weird sisters” was a image popular in literature and folklore soldified thanks to the cultural influences of the likes of William Shakespeare with his own Weird Sisters.

The maiden, Mother, and Crone turn up a lot in pop culture, often unnoticed.   

ere are the Wyrd Sisters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

Granny Weatherwax (Crone), Nanny Ogg (Mother), Magrat Garlick (Maiden).  

Disney’s Gargoyles The Weird Sisters are   Luna, Phoebe, and Selene (a moon theme which is common with the three in one.  Waxing, full, and waning.)

Though the age distinction isn’t there it’s still a representation of the Three-in-One.  They are never separate and they function as one.  They also tend to appear the way they want to be seen or the way people expect them to be.  For example, when Demona was looking at them, they were a set of elderly female gargoyles but that is not how MacBeth saw them.

Sabrina and her aunts.   This one might be a bit of a stretch but you have three witches who are rarely apart so you have the trifecta and Sabrina, herself, is clearly the maiden.  Though the Netflix Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ironically uses the aunts to pay homage to DC”s Cain and Abel I’ll use the sitcom version here.

In the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina The Weird Sisters are literally Prudence, Agatha and Dorcas.

The Addams Family features it, but it might be pure accident.   You have Wednesday (Maiden), Morticia (Mother), and Grandmama (Crone).

Now we have the Hex Girls from Scooby Doo.  I Love this little “Eco Goth” band.  Not quite the conventional Maiden / Mother/ Crone however you could argue that Thorn is the Crone in this instance, Dusk is the maiden, and Luna is the mother. I pick these roles for purely superficial reasons here since Dusk has the child-like pigtails and Thorn is clearly the most dominant / leader and I perceive her as the oldest.      

There are the sisters of Charmed.   Not quote Maiden / Mother / Crone but definitely meant as a trio of witches who aren’t complete without the others.  

Adelaide (Crone), Auntie Whispers (Mother), and  Lorna (Maiden) from Over the Garden Wall.  This one is hard to spot until you realize the connection between Adelaide, Auntie Whispers, and Lorna.  Once you make the connection and realize the family bond and magick which binds the three you start to see the Maiden / Mother / and Crone aspects in their depictions.    Adelaide being the older sister, Auntie Whispers who is the mother figure for Lorne, who is the innocent maiden possessed by an evil spirit.  

Another trio is The Witches of Eastwick though not quite Maiden, Mother, and Crone, it felt worth a mention.

Marvel attempted it’s own version of “The Witches” with Jennifer Kale, Satana and Topaz.  

Though speaking of the Virgin Mary one could argue that it was actually a a subversive triple Goddess mention at the end of Goethe’s Faust Part 2.  When Faust ascends to Heaven we get this line:  (Translation from A. S. Kline)

“Virgin, Mother now, and Queen, Goddess, grant your mercies!“

and

“Here, grows to reality: The indescribable, Here, is done: Woman, eternal, 12110 Beckons us on.“

The Norns (Marvel’s depiction of the three Fates).

And now to Hocus Pocus.

In Disney’s Hocus Pocus you have The Sanderson Sisters.  A bungling group of witches who feel like they came crawling out of a horror anthology comic book with their antics and dark humor. Sarah is the Maiden, Mary is the Mother, and Winifred, The leader, is obviously the Crone.   (Note: Queen is a more polite alternate name for the crone aspect of the traditional three-in-one).

With Hocus Pocus, though I cannot prove it, I strongly suspect The Sanderson Sisters weren’t just inspired by the traditional Maiden, Mother, and Crone, but rather specifically the version from DC’s The Witching Hour comics, which in turn were used as the Hecataea in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

[zafirosreverie]

You frowned when you got to the town. Maybe you were in the wrong direction, maybe you had turned wrong in some exit. You checked the address again, making sure it matched the writing on your forearm.

Like everyone, you knew soulmates existed. And finding them wasn't that difficult, not when you could write something anywhere on your body and it would reflect on the skin of your soulmate, wherever they were. Everyone around you had their bodies covered in ink, communicating with theirs.

But you didn’t.

You had tried to communicate with your other half, many times, writing down simple questions, like their favorite food, their favorite color, their name. But nothing. You never got an answer.

You also didn't get a message from them. It was like they were ignoring you on purpose. So you had stopped trying.

Until one day, while you were taking a bath, you saw it. It was a simple line, scrawled in the cleanest and most beautiful calligraphy you had ever seen, but it seemed to have been written in a hurry. Three words that stopped your heart.

Westview. Agnes. Help.

You spent that entire afternoon trying to find everything you could about Westview, which was difficult because it seemed like they didn't want anyone to find the place. Still, you managed to find a page with the address and the next morning you were on your way.

When you arrived in what appeared to be a ghost town, you couldn't help feeling uneasy. If your soulmate was here and in trouble, you really had to act fast.

"You better be cute, Agnes" you murmured, walking into town.

____________________

Agatha gasped, desperately searching the house for a pen. She didn't care about the mess she caused, Agnes would clean it up tomorrow, she had to hurry. She knew she had little time.

She had managed to break Wanda's spell temporarily, but she was barely able to get out of her bedroom before she felt Agnes regain control of her. She had to ask for help before she lost herself again in her own mind.

When she was younger, even before her trial in Salem, Agatha had heard of soul mates. She had tried to search for hers, but she had never gotten an answer. She spent years thinking about that, that the supposed other half did not want to know anything about her, that it would have been easier to face everything if she had someone by her side. It took her a while to realize that perhaps her soulmate hadn't even been born yet.

By the time the messages began to appear, Agatha had already resigned herself to being alone for the rest of her long existence and she didn’t know how to react to the fact that, indeed, you were finally in this world. And you were looking for her.

She ignored you, out of fear and confusion. She didn't know you, but she cared about you. And she didn't want to drag you into her chaotic world of black magic. It was a different feeling for her, caring for someone other than herself, but soulmates belonged to each other, and Agatha was a woman who took care of her belongings.

But now, she needed you.

When Wanda caught it in her mind, Agatha could feel a part of her fade away. The part of her that controlled magic. Therefore, you were the only hope for her. You were her other half, after all. Hopefully, you could break Wanda's spell, even if you weren't a witch, even if you were a mortal, the part of Agatha that lived in you would be enough.

She just hoped that, unlike her, you wouldn't ignore her.

____________

It took you only a few minutes to find Agnes's house. After all, it was the only one who seemed to be inhabited. It seemed strange to you that the woman lived alone in an abandoned town.

"Please don't let her be a serial killer" you thought as you approached the door.

You knocked on the door and only a few seconds later you heard footsteps. You gasped when a woman opened you up, with a huge smile and the cutest face you've ever seen.

But it was her eyes that caught your attention. Not necessarily the brilliant blue that adorned them (although that was beautiful too), but the pain that glowed in them. The woman was smiling, but her eyes were telling you a completely different story.

"Agnes?" you asked carefully

"It's me" she nodded "Can I help you, hot stuff?" she winked at you, making you blush.

"Uhm ... I'm Y/N" you introduced yourself "And you ... I think you called me."

___________________________________

You woke up when you felt an itch on your arm. It took you a second to remember where you were.

Westview. Agnes. Help.

You had been in Westview for a week. With Agnes, for a week. The woman had looked at you in confusion, but when you showed her your forearm, she had smiled at you, saying that she didn't know what it meant, but that you could stay with her until you found out.

It had seemed strange to you that she didn't remember asking for your help. Maybe you got the wrong Agnes. Maybe this wasn't your Agnes.

You confirmed your suspicions yesterday when you drew  a small heart on your wrist, and it had not appeared on hers. You had gone to sleep early, with a broken heart and the decision to leave in the morning.

However, your arm was adorned with new words.

Basement. Books. Red. 35. Agatha.

You frowned. Well, you were already here. You left the guest room and went down the stairs in silence, trying not to wake Agnes. It took you a while to find the basement door, but you did.

You gasped a little when you came down the stairs. The walls were made of rock and there were strange black vines all over the place. Creepy, but beautiful at the same time.

Okay. Basement ready. Now the books.

You walked to a bookcase, opening it carefully. You coughed a little at the dust and quickly scanned the spines. They all seemed to be taken from some fantasy tale. There were some potions, others of enchantments, rituals, etc.

"Oh my god" you whispered, feeling the excitement rise in your chest.

Books, check.

Red.

You quickly took the one with the red binding and you would have it on page 35. (another check). You ran your eyes over the page a few times before shrugging.

"It doesn't seem hardt" you said to yourself.

It took you a while to find what you needed, but you were soon at work in front of an old cauldron. For some reason, it felt like second nature to you.

__________

You tiptoed into Agnes's room, holding the small vial protectively against your chest. The instructions were clear, but that didn't mean you weren't nervous.

Carefully, you sat on the edge of the bed, watching the woman sleep for a moment. She was beautiful.

You sighed before bringing your hand to her face, caressing her cheek. With the other hand, you prepared the jar. Agnes woke up when you nibbled lightly on her chin.

"Honey, what are you-"

You didn't give her time to finish the sentence. You took advantage of that moment to empty the contents of the jar into her mouth, causing her to choke and sit up suddenly, coughing.

You jumped up and looked at her as she tried to compose herself. You prayed that it worked, because if it didn't, you'd be in serious trouble.

"Agnes?" you whispered, approaching her carefully when she froze.

The woman didn't answer, but she raised her face to look at you. You gasped at the intensity of her gaze, which was no longer filled with pain, but with relief and gratitude. The woman smiled at you and held her wrist up for you to see. There was a little heart in it.

Agatha. Checked.

[wondereads]

Personal Review (06/19/22)

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Two full series reviews in a row? I have been doing an awful lot of rereading from my childhood lately. SFGAE is one of my favorite series, and I even recently got to meet the author and get my books signed! There are some books I prefer to others, but they all have a special place in my heart. This one is a doozy; I tried to keep it brief, but I can go on for quite a while with these books. I'll try to avoid major spoilers, but read past the first book at your own risk!

The School for Good and Evil 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

In the first book of the series, the isolated town of Gavaldon lives in fear of the School Master, a mysterious wraith that steals two children between the ages of 12 and 17 every four years to attend the School for Good and Evil where graduates become fairy tale characters. Everyone expects beautiful Sophie to be taken for the School for Good and surly Agatha to be taken for Evil, but things are turned on their head when they switch places.

I love this entire series, but I don't think anything will beat the first book for me. The story is fast-paced with developments being thrown out left and right, enough that it isn't dragged down by the worldbuilding with tons of new concepts and characters being introduced. Also, this book is very funny with all sorts of jokes, quips, and absurdities. While the plot is engaging and unpredictable, the true core of these books is the characters. Everything contributes to the ultimate development of each character as Sophie and Agatha slowly but steadily change as the story progresses. As someone who read these books as they were released, it is possible to view the first book as a standalone and stop there, but doing so leaves a lot of gaps in terms of the characters and their relationships.

I will admit that it's hard to like Sophie in this one. Her constant selfishness is frustrating, but there's a lot more to her than a spoiled 'princess'. One thing I really liked about this book is how Sophie and Agatha deal with jealousy towards both each other and the people around the other, which was complex with no perfect solution. In a story where they could easily have been made enemies forever, it takes a twist.

A World Without Princes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sophie and Agatha thought their fairy tale was closed, but a wayward wish catapults them back into the Woods, which has changed significantly. Rather than Good versus Evil, the ending to their tale has sparked a conflict between Girls and Boys. Leading the Girls is the mysterious, sinister Evelyn Sader, but the leader of the Boys presents a far bigger problem—Tedros.

While there are still things I enjoy about this one, it is my least favorite of the series. That is mostly because literally every problem could be solved if Sophie, Agatha, and Tedros sat down and talked for literally two minutes. While the plot is just as interesting as the previous book, there's an overload of miscommunication, deception, and just outright ignoring what people are saying. However, I do think it's important that this book remains in the series. In the first book, Agatha believes Sophie no longer needs her. In this one, it's Sophie's turn to fear that Agatha will leave her behind. The role reversal is critical to their characters, especially in seeing how they react differently to the same situation.

This is one of the books in which the coven, Sophie's roommates and proper witches, Hester, Anadil, and Dot, really shine. Compared to the melodrama that is the main three's relationship, their snide remarks and outside clarity are sorely needed. Also, this book deals with a lot of questions about gender and sexuality that are very intriguing but not explored to their full potential. That may have to do with the fact that this book was released in 2014 when gay marriage was just barely legal, so maybe neither the author nor the audience were ready for that quite yet.

The Last Ever After 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Agatha and Tedros are trapped back in Gavaldon while Sophie finally has her happy ending with Rafal. Or rather, that's how things should be. But Sophie can't stop doubting her choice, and when Agatha and Tedros come back to fight for their best friend she wonders whether there might be room for three people in a happy ending after all.

I read these books as they came out, and this one was supposedly the end of the series before the next three were released. It works very well as the final book, providing a lot of answers and settling the relationships between Sophie, Agatha, and Tedros. They finally figure out a dynamic that works for them and solves Agatha and Sophie's insecurity problems. Agatha thinks she doesn't deserve a true love, Sophie thinks she's nothing without one, and both problems get solutions. Even Tedros gets some closure from his past trauma. It also has a very satisfying ending that wraps up this arc very nicely.

One thing I didn't like about this one is how little the plot twist is foreshadowed. It's a very important twist that puts a lot of the first and second book into a new perspective, so I wish there had been some more hints to it throughout the series (especially considering the end of the first book). I did like the introduction of some famous fairy tale characters, especially since they either are a part of the main characters' past or their own decisions reflect the main trio's mistakes.

Quests for Glory 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Agatha and Tedros are finally ready to rule Camelot, but a coronation gone wrong puts them in a precarious situation. On top of that, their classmates' fourth-year quests for glory, a trial necessary for graduation, have all gone off the rails. Is it just coincidence, or is someone targeting their class?

The first part of this book drags a little, mostly because the main characters are stuck in a pretty bad rut. Agatha in particular is very obviously depressed, so it takes a lot to spur them all into action. However, there is a lot of interesting worldbuilding. The previous three books all take place at the School, so this is the first one where we really get to learn about the Endless Woods and the various kingdoms in it.

Despite this being a book about magic and fairy tales, the most unrealistic thing is how quickly the characters trust Rhian. I kept saying he was too good to be true, and look what happened. The plot itself was very clever. Compared to Rafal, who was more grand and obvious in his Evil, it was a good idea to have a more manipulative, subtle villain in this arc.

A Crystal of Time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sophie is Rhian and Japeth's captive. Tedros and their classmates are locked in the dungeon. Agatha is on the run. Merlin is nowhere to be found. With Evil in charge of Camelot, one with mysterious ties to previous villains, it seems the only way to unravel their future plans is to look into the past.

This is the longest book of the series at ~680 pages, but it doesn't drag at all. There's always something happening. I especially loved that although the situation is somewhat similar to the dilemma in The Last Ever After, Sophie makes completely different decisions, really showing her growth as a character. While she still makes mistakes, her choices really reflect her development, and as someone who is an Agatha girl through and through, I loved Sophie in this book.

If there's something these books are, it's complicated. The way the truth isn't revealed up until the very last second works especially well in this book since the truth of the matter could potentially solve everything. This book is also wonderfully emotional; that final scene with Dovey made me tear up and gave spectacular closure to her story after Lesso's death in the previous arc.

One True King 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Tedros has one last chance to win back his father's throne; a contest planned by Arthur before his death in which Tedros and Japeth must pass three trials. But with a hundred kingdoms on Japeth's side, can Tedros really beat him and complete each task?

I was about halfway through this one when I predicted it would be an 8 or 9 for me. It was a lot of fun to read with a great plot, but it didn't blow me away like the first one did. There were a lot of really well-done elements, such as what the tests actually were, how the characters manipulated them to win, and Japeth and Rhian's backstory, particularly Japeth and Aric's relationship. The ending was very clever, and it was finally Tedros' turn with the brain cell. However, the very last five or ten pages absolutely destroyed me and boosted this book up to a 10.

I won't lie—I bawled my eyes out when this was over. Not only was it a bittersweet yet perfect ending, but it was also the true end to the story of Sophie, Agatha, and Tedros. You know characters are well-written when it hurts to finish their story. In my opinion, this book perfectly rounded out their character arcs and provided a satisfying, if gutwrenching, ending. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Rise of the School for Good and Evil 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Two hundred years before Agatha and Sophie arrive, Rhian and Rafal rule over the School for Good and Evil. The school then is very different from the school now, but things begin to change with the arrival of a student: Aladdin.

Chainani mentioned that he was trying a new writing style for this book, and it definitely shows. For young reader books, SFAGE books are very flowery in terms of writing. RoSGE is much more simple and straightforward, and I would actually say this one feels more young reader than the others, which toe the line between young reader and YA in my opinion. I am not a fan of prequels since I know how they end, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It managed to keep me on my toes and made me think maybe I don't know the story as well as I thought. I'm looking forward to the sequel (three guesses as to the name)!

However, there were some things that irked me. For example, I really wish Aladdin hadn't ended up with the princess. I know that's how his story goes, but one can always hope. Also, I wanted just one of Rhian or Rafal's relationships to work out. Yes, I know that them keeping the balance relies on their love for each other and them falling in love with other people messes with that balance, but these are the first on-page gay relationships we've seen except for Hester and Anadil (and Dovey and Lesso for us believers), so I wish they could have ended happily.

Bonus!

The School for Good and Evil is being adapted as a Netflix film! It is slated to be released Fall 2022, and I highly encourage everyone to go check it out. I would literally die if we got all six books as movies!

The Author

Soman Chainani: Indian-American, openly gay, also wrote Beasts & Beauty: Dangerous Tales

The Reviewer

My name is Wonderose; I try to post a review every week, and I do themed recommendations every once in a while. I take suggestions! Check out my about me post for more!

[3lix13]

Process for working up the AGATHA piece - Still time left to back Andrew MacLean's AGATHA: A Tale of Three Witches: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewrmaclean/agatha-a-tale-of-three-witches

-support indie comics creators on Kickstarter!

[candied-peach]

ao3: “daily routine” rating: T genre: hurt no comfort!!, unhappy ending (sort of?) warnings: sui (virgil dies but comes back to life), overdose, food description: A week in Virgil’s life.

On Monday, Virgil bakes with Patton. They make chocolate chip cookies, because they're Patton's favorite. Virgil wears his own purple plaid apron over his hoodie and Patton's apron has a pun about dough on it that makes Virgil laugh when he sees it. Patton just grins at him impishly, raising his hands in a familiar, innocent gesture. When the dough is finished, Patton dabs it on Virgil's nose and he goes cross-eyed looking at it, giggling as he tries to lick it off. Logan comes in just in time to tell him the dangers of ingesting raw cookie dough and Patton points out that, as Logan himself would say, they're metaphysical, so what harm does it do? Logan goes pink and just requests jam thumbprint cookies next. Virgil grins and nods, already setting out Logan's favorite Crofter's flavor on the counter for later.

On Tuesday, Virgil ventures into the Imagination with Roman. The setting is fairy tale picturesque and Roman's conjured up two horses for them to ride. Virgil's never ridden before, but he's not about to back down from a challenge, not when it involves Roman of all people. He figures it out by the time they reach the village, although he lags behind. The Imagination has turned him into some kind of wizard, complete with pointy hat, and Roman can't help but laugh at him. Virgil snarks he looks like a Disney prince and Roman beams and thanks him for the compliment, making Virgil facepalm into one half glove. The dragon witch's arrival is a welcome intervention and he finds himself fighting side by side with Roman, adrenaline painting his throat and burning his veins. The dragon witch is defeated, gurgling her last (well, sort of) on a heap of broken rocks until she sits up, dusts herself off, and thanks Roman for another well-planned adventure. She eyes Virgil when she says it, and he goes red.

On Wednesday, Virgil sits on the window sill in Logan's room with a book. Logan's room is one of his favorite rooms to be in, and he feels privileged that Logan has allowed him in his inner sanctum. Bookshelves line the walls, and everything is in its place. Logan types vigorously on his laptop, something to do with Thomas's schedule, as Virgil curls up in the window sill, reading an Agatha Christie mystery. It's one that he's read before, but that just makes it more fun, puzzling together the little clues sprinkled throughout the text. The peace and quiet settle his perpetually racing heart and unsteady breathing, and he only stirs when Logan reluctantly announces that it's lunch time. He promises to come back later, making Logan smile until his eyes crinkle.

On Thursday, Virgil watches Pixar movies and snake documentaries with Janus, each sitting on the opposite end of the couch. He sits stiffly but he doesn't hiss or snarl or make shitty comments. They're learning to get along better, scraping rough sides against each other in an effort to heal. Virgil comments something about Disney and it makes Janus laugh, pressing a gloved hand to his mouth. Patton peeks in on them, squeals, and suddenly, Virgil finds himself loaded down with a drink and a bowl of popcorn to share. He doesn't mind when he and Janus's fingers brush in the popcorn bowl, the feel of Janus's gloves almost soothing. He laughs at the screen, watching a snake try to eat an egg almost as big as it is, and Janus pretends to scowl at him.

On Friday, Virgil sits up with Remus, watching shitty B horror movies and cryptid sightings on his laptop. Remus laughs too loud and Virgil shushes him, all too aware that it's nearly three in the morning and the others are asleep. Remus grins toothily at him, showing off pointed canines, and suddenly their popcorn bowl is filled with fake blood. Virgil just rolls his eyes, and the blood disappears. He makes fun of the dead girl on screen, pointing out how quickly the killer would have been caught in the real world, and Remus joins in, shoulder jostling against Virgil's in a friendly camaraderie that makes Virgil feel warm inside. The next documentary is about Mothman and Virgil snickers at the flickering footage, which is obviously someone dressed up in a poorly fitted costume. Remus jabs him with one pointy elbow and they dissolve into a wrestling match for ten minutes until Remus thumps off the bed and they both freeze, waiting for someone else to wake up.

On Saturday, Virgil opens his medicine cabinet and takes every bottle of pills he can find, his hands shaking and the glass of water chattering against his teeth. The pills are bitter but he swallows them doggedly anyway, chewing the last of them and ending up with chalky grit spread across the flat of his tongue. He drinks the rest of his water and curls up in the middle of his bed, waiting. The weekends are his and the others respect it. It doesn't hurt that he's locked his door, as always. He doesn't make a sound as his head fogs up and his vision clouds, although he does grimace at the pain writhing in his stomach. For a sinking moment, he thinks he's miscalculated. But darkness beckons him and he drowns in it, letting his body sag into the mattress.

On Sunday, Virgil wakes up like nothing happened, though his stomach still twinges throughout the day. He comes down for dinner, pale and slightly sweaty, and Patton asks him if he feels all right. He nods, twirling his spaghetti around on his fork, and claims that he feels a little sick, that's all. Roman immediately asks him if he's contagious and Logan scolds him, making Virgil laugh into the crook of his elbow. He promises that he's fine, all too aware of Janus's calculating mismatched eyes resting on him. But after a moment, they pass and Janus tells Remus to stop adding deodorant flakes to his spaghetti. Remus claims they add flavor and Janus just sighs, massaging his forehead with one hand. It feels like just one more dinner with his family and Virgil smiles, his secret safely tucked away in the back of his head, where no one will ever find out.