#and I think if there was any part of Rio that was ever human

[humanelemental]

Also there’s something to be said about the fact that not only was Agatha able to make Death fall in love with her, she makes RIO feel all those pesky human emotions. Like I can actually see Death being a sort of loving figure in a very detached kind of way. I think that’s a pretty common interpretation in certain schools of writing. But to annoy Death? To make her angry? To make her care so deeply that she feels the kind of passion and heat needed to be the kind of furiously devoted we saw in episode 2? To be able to cause Death joy???? To make her smirk, and smile and laugh at your silly little antics????? To be the one that Death yearns for and the one Rio remembers how to touch oh so gently and the one who can move Death’s cold black heart with your tears? That’s something else y’all. I don’t know if the writers set out to write the love story of a generation, but I truly think this is it.

ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW RIO IS LITERALLY ONE OF THE OLDEST BEINGS EVER???? SHE IS THE OLDEST OF THE RELATIONSHIP

literally the first green witch ever

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 8 part 7

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ep9 [1][2][3][4][5][6])

more Oz references! fury of the elements, one very pissed ex, same thing.

god but how much I love rio going feral?! it's so stupid I'm giggling and kicking my feet about it. you'd think a very old, very wise being would react like a grown ass adult after a breakup, especially because it was such a long time coming. but does rio go home to process things quietly? noooooooo she summons a whole storm and sits on a roof waiting for agatha to come out of her basement, so she can be an ass about it. if they were humans rio would be slashing agatha's tires and smashing windows and throwing rotten eggs at her house drunk at three in the morning, and you know what? good for her!!! she's been fucking trying to work things out in a mature responsible way, and it was never going to work, agatha was never going to grow up. so fuck it. agatha wants to be immature? we'll show her immature! I support my girl going full petty and unhinged, let her cry and scream and eat a whole ice cream tub and then throw it all up, let her piss all over agathas' rhododendrons, my girl has earned it.

AND she's brought her favorite soul-reaping orchid with her! she's like, I'm gonna do it! this time I'm gonna getcha! I will drag your ungrateful ass to our son kicking and screaming if I have to!!!!

...girl. we both know you ain't. like agatha is literally about to die and you still won't reap that soul without her consent. absolute loser behavior.

and agatha... well, agatha never backed off from an immaturity showdown. oooh she's gonna out-toddler you for sure.

but it's so interesting that the Road didn't give her her powers back. tbh I don't think she ever lost her powers at all, seeing as she's first and foremost a succubus and that power works just fine, if alice's fate is any indication. it's more like, three years under the spell completely drained her battery and she desperately needs to feed.

and agatha wasn't planning on joining the Road at all, as far as she was concerned it didn't even exist. like with lilia, jen and alice the Road gave her not what she asked, but what she needed all along: her prize was that moment of closure with nicky

so rio cannot kill people, she can only make them wish they were dead, and I just realized, her special talent is also being fucking annoying, just like agatha

by the way, rewatching wandavision I realized that his name is JOHN, not herb! I'm so sorry I've been calling you the wrong name this whole time, my guy. ALSO MOVE OUT OF THAT NEIGHBORHOOD DEAR LORD

same goes for you two. harold you have a daughter!

(omg a literal harold, they're lesbians.)

agatha sees the fire moon and it reminds her of alice. she draws a circle for the expelle hoc malum protection spell she's learned from her. she had a coven only for a day and look how much they've gotten under her skin.

rio gives an incredulous sigh. are you calling me "evil"? it's like, we've been over this!

I know that baby and I love you, but also you're very much sitting on a rooftop cackling like a maniac. how can these two be both so tragic and so so fucking ridiculous at the same time.

it's like, she's absolutely right, she's no villain and she's no demon, agatha should stop treating her like one and punishing her for it. but also... stop begging her to, for fuck's sake. rio, my love, have some dignity. stop chasing. you did a dramatic exit half an hour ago, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE

agatha trying to exorcise her ex wife with a spell: clownass behavior.

rio blowing the circle away with a kiss: also clownass behavior.

but is she wrong????

lilia's turn to come in handy!

I'm sorry but... a whole sink? she threw a whole sink at her head?? this scene is so fucking hilarious, like I know some people found rio ooc but to me it makes perfect sense. I'm just sorry she didn't throw a toilet.

GO HOME, RIO. it's okay, we're gonna put up a picture of agatha in your living room and throw poop at it until you feel better or smth, it's gonna be okay, you let it all out.

^^literally rio

jen's moment: vulnus ab aqua curare.

I don't think it's going to help you much though, babe. remember when agatha kept poking wanda with a stick and got her ass kicked to oblivion in return? she's been poking DEATH for two hundred years. what did she expect???!?!

THAT IS THE HOTTEST SOMEONE HAS EVER LOOKED, DEAR LORD

and considering that rio chooses an outfit for each soul she reaps: this is what she chose for agatha??? girl, be for real!!!

aaaand she gets kicked into a wall a moment later. after her devastating sexy ass walk with the high slit dress and all. complete loser behavior.

(also hilarious: agatha's laundry hanging there the whole time)

billy came back to save agatha (awww) but not before conjuring a cool wiccan costume and doing a very dramatic entrance (awwwwwwww). literally her son.

I agree tbh

agatha's face when she realizes billy is choosing to give her magic: this is the first time someone does it willingly. and sure he is super powerful (she drained poor alice in a second), but I keep imagining a world were agatha is an important, cherished member of a community, maybe playing the vital role of teacher and knowledge keeper, and the community willingly donates magic in return, all together and on a regular basis, like people donate blood, so that no one dies and she doesn't starve.

look at how the beam changes color, and just how happy she is to finally eat. it's just the way she was born, you know? I hate that evanora turned it into something horrible when it didn't need to.

oh god, that stupid outfit again. that is agatha's "I'm such a scary merciless bitch and I don't care about your feelings" outfit. as if.

and then she realizes she's killing billy. look at her face, a moment ago she even said how good all this power feels. she could easily take it all. but of course for billy she has to stop.

so, can agatha actually control her powers? well, it's complicated, isn't it? she definitely couldn't when she was very young. possibly she never sought to learn how to as time went on.

(thank you for your patience, everyone, I'll update more regularly from now on. and you all know what happens next entry.)

go to episode 8 part 8

[l-artemisia-del-secolo]

A couple of requests

"And this is our red witch?"

You were yanked out of your ordinary environment. You were yanked out of your house. And where were you teleported exactly?

Crawling out of fire was never a pleasant experience.

"Agatha!…" Fuck, you were getting angry. "Agatha!…" You could feel fireball forming in your palm.

"Hey! Is Harkness the only one who deserves your attention?"

You turned around as quickly as you could. That voice was familiar. That tone was close.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Out of the trees silhouette emerged. not even a second, a fleeting instant - you recognized her immediately.

"You've got something on your shoulder." Shoulder, really Rio? You shrugged, too close to your neck.

"Don't."

Oh, you didn't sound confident, Rio noticed. Rio smirked. Of course she did. Centuries you were apart and she still could read you like an open book.

____

"Did you miss me?"

You almost jumped. You forgot whether it was voice of your nightmares or dreams.

Well, the voice sure was as sultry as you remembered it to be. Not only that. You remembered all too well her obsession with a very specific silhouette, with open skin, with accent on her arms.

Rio knew you were looking at her. You were thinking about her.

You tried to keep your eyes focused on her. But it didn't work. Suddenly you stopped.

"Why are you here?"

You didn't allow Rio to get closer. Golden was your protective halo.

"Because of you." Rio was always straightforward. Even after all these years. "Not that easy to track you down. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the affort with the cover and protective spells. Clearly you were thinking about me, baby. Just not in a way I want it."

___

"I'm fine."

Of course, you were not. Your clothes was wet with your own blood. Shard of glass was bigger than you thought. And sharper, clearly sharper.

"I could…"

"Jen, I'm fine."

You let others move faster, you let them out of your sight. Potions were not good enough in this situation. You couldn't heal yourself, the only other option was… no, it wasn't an option.

You couldn't focus on the road. Pain was too much, tension was too much, moving was too much. Your own body wasfinally betraying you. You groaned.

"I definitely like this sound. But not in this circumstances."

Rio appeared just in time to help you keep the balance.

"I'm fine."

You were not strong enough to fight her hands on you.

"Yeah, I already heard that."

You leaned against Rio's shoulder. You didn't want to owe her anything. You were close, dangerously close.

Not now, not after everything. You were losing yourself on the road. You almost closed your eyes.

It was enough for her to barely wave a hand. Wound disappeared in an instant. You inhaled sharply and immediately pushed Rio away.

"You shouldn't have done that." Your whisper hit her harder than any trial. "It doesn't change anything."

"I know."

___

This coven was the worst thing you could imagine. Lunatics, has beens, humans, teens. But the worst thing - your ex-lover. You forgot at what point fucking death was a good idea.

Of course you were flooded with memories, with emotions, with tingling in your body. Fuck. You hated it here. Road was never even supposed to exist. You were not sure what spell chose you, but sure as hell Rio influenced it.

"We need to move quicker. Do you understand the meaning of this word." Agatha's voice was annoying as ever. You praised gods for living without her disturbance for so many years. Nothing was fine, while Harkness was around.

"Thief." You muttered. "What did you say, dear?" Lilia was close. Semblance of a companion at least. You bond appeared such a long time ago. "Nothing". You caught Rio's glance. Thief would be a too generous word for Death.

___

All the walking, all the fighting, all the arguing. Those witches were everything but the coven. Still rest andfire were universally accepted. Stories of the old glory were never part of your routine. You needed a practice of protections spells, you needed to think.

The last thing you wanted was to be a part of the old memory between women who hated each other. You tried to change path, but everything was too loud, as if the road itself amplified the voices.

"You took him!"

You've never heard Agatha like this. You yourself caused many cries of agony, but this one was different.

"He was never even yours." how did Rio manage to stay calm and distant?

"He was always mine, I created him."

"You cheated. And you know you cannot cheat me."

That was true. You were cursed while trying to do exactly that, while trying to live a life of pretended normalcy.

___

Of course you knew about history between Agatha and Rio. You were jealous at first. Even of the memory of them together.

But Rio managed to calm you down. You met ages after that affair. There was no reason for you not to believe she was yours. After the fight with Agatha something changed. Rio wasn't with you anymore. On her own she was wondering the woods,for brief moments appearing during vital moments.

You knew this Rio once, not for long.

"You're letting Agatha have all the fun." You didn't have to cheer her up. But… you cared. And it was betternot to upset death itself.

"More fun for her, more bodies for me. It always worked that way."

"Even with Nicholas."

Silence was awkward and not welcomed. You sat near her.

"You were the only one who refused this deal."

"And still you stayed."

Painfully soft. Painfully obvious. Painfully full of affection.

"It wasn't enough, was it?"

"It was always too much."

Of course, it was. It was Rio, all about Rio. Even now she wanted to grab you, to possess, to devour. You could practically feel the struggle in her mind. But she chose to be tender.

[rita-repulsa-ke]

a tentative peace

"You can't run from Death forever, Agatha."

"You know, when other people say that, they're generally just revealing themselves to be weak cowards, willing to accept being the toy of higher powers. And then there's you, my obsessed stalker."

"It's still true. When they say it, when I say it. Death comes for everyone in the end."

"The end?! Try every other day! I'd love to see Death the way other mortals do, exactly one time. Instead, I have to deal with you popping up every time I turn my head."

"You love seeing me. You love me. You adore me."

"Ha! I want to never, ever see your face again. But you know what, Rio? I'd settle for this. When I die, you can come and get me. Until then, I'd like to stop running from Death. I'd like to be able to do other things, without my psychopathic ex-girlfriend showing up every few days to try and ruin my life."

"Hey, you admitted I'm your girlfriend."

"Ex!"

"That's still something, for you. You know I'm not going anywhere, Agatha. I'll be with you forever."

"Then I can and I will run forever, if I have to."

"You were going to anyway. You were always afraid of what I am. That was part of the thrill, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Rio, I was always going to run from Death. The difference now is that I want to run from you."

"…Ags…"

"What? We can still fix this? I still love you? Or is this one of those days when you get fed up and try to kill me? We both know you can't! It isn't my time, it would be a defiance of the natural order, that concept you love more than you ever loved me—"

"I gave you more than I have ever given—"

"You gave me nothing!"

"…Maybe today is one of those days when I try to kill you."

"Good. Suits me."

"…"

"Well? Come on then. You can at least get a few good hits in and maybe so can I. I've been working on a new spell—"

"Tell me about it?"

"About the spell I'm going to use to try and cause you paroxysms of anguish?"

"Yes. Did you invent it?"

"Yes—well, technically no, it's modified from a tome by one of the older Sorcerer Supremes, but the way she wrote was so incomprehensible that it's like the way people used to write recipes, no measurements, more of a guide than anything, so I had to adapt quite heavily and then it's meant to work on spirits, not whatever you are, but I think I've got a version that should be generally applicable to all supernatural—hey. Aren't we supposed to be fighting to the near-death?"

"I like listening to you talk about it, though."

"…Ugh. Gross."

"I mean, do we have to?"

"Have to what?"

"Fight today. Can't you just finish telling me about your spell of unbelievable agony and then get distracted by realizing there's a way to do it better or differently, like you always do?"

"…I do not always do that."

"No. Only most of the time."

"…Fine. Just this once, though. I don't want this to become a habit. And only because it is a really interesting spell."

"…You're going to try it on me when you think I'm not paying attention, aren't you?"

"Probably. I mean, what's the point of having invented it if I don't get to try it out?"

"All right. I'll even let you. But you have to sit down and finish telling me about it first."

"It's not really fun if you let me."

"I'll pretend to act shocked by your sudden, completely unexpected betrayal?"

"Are you any good at acting?"

"I'm great at it. I act human all the time."

"Yes, but you're terrible at that."

"What?!"

"When was the last time you took a breath?"

"…Oh. I forgot again. I can't believe you all have to do that constantly."

"You see what I mean?"

"Well, if you time it right, I really will be surprised to suddenly go from pleasant conversation to—not yet!"

"No? But you were just getting lulled into a false sense of security."

"Too early. Your timings all wrong."

"It isn't and you know it. You just don't want this to end."

"…I don't. A little more? Please?"

"Sure. Where was I? The Sorcerer Supreme's instructions. So I took the general guidelines of what she'd written, which was a really interesting treatise on torturing spirits, she was not one of the nicer people to hold that position and—spiritus coruscent!"

"Oh look, betrayal."

"…That isn't hurting you, huh?"

"Doesn't seem to be. Very pretty effect, though. All these little sparkles."

"Where did I go wrong…"

"Hey, Agatha."

"Mm?"

"You know what does hurt?"

"What? Oh, yes, I see, you have a knife. Very original."

"It gets the point across. …Get it?"

"…I'm sorry every day that I ever taught you what a pun was."

"You're about to be sorry for more than that."

"Wait, wait, wait!"

"Why?"

"…Help me diagnose what went wrong with the spell first?"

"The agony-inducing spell?"

"That's the one."

"So you can make sure it induces agony on me next time?"

"Yes—hey, there's no need for that! I have organs there!"

"You'll heal. I promise. It isn't your time, remember?"

"But consider—if you help me fix the spell, you get to sit around and watch me tinker with magic instead of us trying to kill each other. Wouldn't that be better?"

"…Okay."

"Good. Great. That's settled then. And no one even had to get stabbed."

"You know you're such a coward when you're losing?"

"What makes you think I'm losing?"

"…what?"

"Nothing. Now, going back to first principles—"

Go read the Ritual of the Rose, now up to Chapter 3, for more Agatha/Rio ex-girlfriend shenanigans or The Present for something angstier

[lostfandomwitch]

Fanfic Perview: Not a Full Plot (yet)

This was crazy.

They were hardly work colleagues let alone compatible in any other respects but not even those annoying thoughts had stopped her from making what was sure to be a massive mistake on her part.

But hey, maybe if she got it (whatever it was) out of her system now it would give an answer to the buzzing kiss her, kill her question fogging her mind more and more as the two continued working together.

So here she was.

Standing at the stove making breakfast for dinner whilst the most annoyingly attractive woman Agnes had ever met snoops around her living room.

More than a few bread slices were lost to the blackness causing toaster when Agnes becomes more than a little distracted attempting to keep the wondering fed in her sights.

"What about this one?"

Agnes humed a curious "huh?" While munching on one of the finally cooled strips of browned bacon.

"For the movie side of this, not a date breakfast dinner with a movie date you've asked me over for." Rio answers, holding up the chosen DVD case a little higher.

She hadn't expected the hissed curse that spilled from Agnes's lips when the spell hazed detective noticed the title in Rio's hand.

"Not-- how'd you find -" Agnes stammers, making a lunged grab for the movie case.

Rio grins curiously as she easily dances out of reach prize still in hand "Oh come on. I'm not going to snitch as I think the kids say these days." Lady Death assures her. "I think it's cute really something to break up all this dull action bravado trash you keep trying to hide behind."

Agnes's pouting glare didn't waver at the insult intended dig at her meager dvd selection. "It's not like that's a happy ending movie anyways." The detective reminds turning back to watching over the cooking bacon crackling away on the stove.

"Still a love story." Rio points out.

"Some of the songs are catchy, alright. Just pick something else while I start scrambling the eggs. " Agnes barks, nudging the refrigerator closed with her hip after digging out the meager carton of eggs.

"Nope, I want to watch this one." Rio pushes back enjoying the creeping blush coloring her mind muddled lovers cheeks.

"Please," Rio adds, then needing to physically bite down on her tongue with a force that had she been human would have bitten through it to keep the begging "My love" from finishing out the asking.

Ask note:

Should I keep going?

[sleepystarryskies]

Wait wait wait wait what are your AAA thoughts?? Pls pls pls share 🥺🥺🥺🥺 I have so many I will trade you

★ i’m not the best with abbreviations but i’m hoping this means Agatha all along?!?! so i will ramble about that and hopes im not embarrassing myself!!

I am planning on doing more descriptive headcanons for the characters so they’ll be coming at some point!

I am a firm believer in Rio vidal being a flip with a regressor lean! She enjoys being a caregiver because it gives her the opportunity to care for someone and not just to lead them to their death. She loves how her little looks at her like she hung the moon and the stars and not in fear that she’s only there to take them away. It also reminds her that she is more than her job, and shown through Agatha, she can build bonds with people and craves that human connection. I think her little is Agatha, and the only reason she has a regressor lean is due to Agatha not regressing much (will talk more about later!)

I think she regresses however to cope with all of the loses. No matter how good she may be at hiding how she feels, her job affects her more than anything else every could. Every time anyone sees her they scream, or cry, or beg for something from her, and she so desperately wants to be seen as more than well, Death. Regressing for her is a chance to distract herself, she always remembers who she is, of course she does, but it gives her the chance to not think or make hard choices for a while, and switch off while someone else takes care of her. I feel like she regresses really young.

Agatha to me again is a flip (whats new) with a heavy cg lean. After losing Nicky, that maternal part of her is empty and she wants to look after someone. Let’s pretend Rio and Agatha reconnected and we’re lovers again (they 100% were, this did happen i was there!). Getting a chance to have someone dependent on her gives her a reason to keep going, motivates her too get out of bed, too look after her little and in turn, look after herself. It fills that hole in her, and she loves the connection she gets from it, with everyone either disliking her or avoiding her, the strong bond she gets from this dynamic is unfathomable to her.

However, i do think that with everything she’s gone through, she would regress sometimes. She was born into a family that never wanted her, her mother didn’t love her, and made it clear to her. I feel like Agatha would regress at some extent throughout the majority of her life, and only once she has Rio as a support does she happen to slip infront of her. Back before everything happened with Nicky, the regression to caregiving ratio was pretty equal, but after they fell out, she pretty much pushes that part away completely. And when they reconnect, Agatha only regresses when she’s suppressed for so long she physically cannot stop herself from slipping, and then shes pretty young.

I’ve only ever really thought about those two, but i could see Jen as a cg, very very doting towards her little. She is huge on routines, and if anyone ever has a sick little she has a remedy for everything and anything! I see Alice as a regressor, to cope with the trauma of losing her mother so young, and then hiding away for most of her life after that. And i think Teen/Billy is a difficult one, due to the obvious, soul switch mid life?? But i could see him being a regressor, to live out a childhood he has no recollection of!

please feel free to send me asks for Agatha all along, or any rambles and thoughts you have in would love to hear from anyone!!!

[lost-inthemeadow]

Till I have no choice but to do us part - Agathario

Summary: A 4 part rewrite of episode 9 of Agatha All Along because we deserved so much better than what we got

Features Agatha Harkness and Rio Vidal

Chapter one: I stray not from the path, I hold Death's hand in mine

Word count: 2691

Alone in the woods, accompanied only by the corpses of the women who were once her family, Agatha Harkness trembled in the cold of the night.

After her coven had attempted to execute her—having nowhere else to go—she settled down under a tree by the river and tried her best for her sobs not to be too loud, afraid of any nearby animals hearing her.

She was supposed to be dead, gone, forgotten; her power—the one her coven was so scared of—had once again made her the villain. It was not her fault nobody ever bothered to teach her how to control it. From the moment she was born, her mother had been convinced that her existence was a mistake, a sin; all she knew she learned by herself, relying on books and ancient spells.

Now she was all alone, without a coven or anyone to care for her, and it was nobody's fault but her own. Still, under all the guilt, Agatha could not stop thinking about how good the other witches' magic had felt and how unsatiable her need for more was, being now more powerful than she ever had. It was a feeling that terrified her tremendously, but with the recent events, she swore not to let herself near another witch again.

As the sun rose once more, painting her dress with its yellow light, a nearby bush alerted her that she was no longer alone in the vast woods. Agatha sat down immediately, dreading the idea of fighting a wild animal, but instead, she saw a human figure emerge from the receding darkness. As the person approached, the sunlight lit them more and more, first revealing a long and beautiful green dress, then a pair of delicate hands, and then a face. The young witch had to shake her head, for the first thing she saw was a mere skull, but as she looked again and her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she found herself admiring a beautiful lady, with eyes as bright as the moon that looked at her lit with curiosity.

Lady Death herself—the mysterious figure—was hesitant at first, not wanting to scare the young woman away. But there was a certain pull, a certain need in her chest that urged her to get close and investigate why this young witch was alone in the woods, surrounded by so many corpses.

"Hello, little one." Death spoke her first words directed at someone who still breathed in decades. Her voice was soft, and her lips curved into a smile. "Say, what reason could you have to be alone in these woods at this early hour?"

“I could ask you the same."

"I've come for them, of course," she said, glancing at Agatha's breathless companions.

"For them?"

“It's my job to take them to the other side," Lady Death concluded. "Are you responsible for this mess?"

Agatha nodded, unable to look the woman in the eye as she did, ashamed of her actions.

"I like it. It suits you," she said with a complicit smile. Agatha couldn't help but look back at her, expecting everything but the answer she had received.

Lady Death had lost her heartbeat centuries ago—when the duty of death was bestowed upon her—but the moment she saw Agatha's big blue eyes staring at her, the faint feeling of the blood-pumping vessel appeared in her chest again, making it impossible for her to stay any longer.

As Death walked towards the shadows again, ready to collect the souls of the coven, Agatha stood up, quickly cleaning the dirt off her dress.

"Wait!" she called out.

"Yes?" Lady Death stopped for her.

"Will I see you again?" Agatha also felt that same pull in her chest.

"Eventually, everyone will," was the last thing Death said before disappearing into the last bit of night.

After tending to the corpses, Agatha moved deeper into the forest, for the leaves and the dirt were now her home. Try as hard as she did, she could not stray too far from the clearing where she had met Lady Death, afraid she would miss her when she returned.

But a week went by, and she found herself alone every night, sitting under the same tree by the river, waiting for the bushes to alert her of the enchanting presence again. She understood then that Death would only come if she were needed.

Initially, she tried with a decaying owl she found while scavenging, but quickly realized the victim had to be freshly dead, so the next night she offered a skunk she had extinguished that afternoon. Both nights she perked up her ears and squinted her eyes, waiting for the figure to emerge from the bushes, but, once again, she never did.

That's when the young witch finally understood that, if she wanted to see Lady Death a second time, she'd have to offer a human for her to take. The idea brought chills down her spine, but still, she made her way to the nearest settlement and found herself a victim. A simple potion was all she needed, having lured the man to the forest with her beauty.

Under the tree, as the river sang its usual song—with the stiff corpse waiting—Agatha waited impatiently, almost wanting to scream to the moon to call Lady Death to her. It was not until the sun started its trip in the sky that the bushes again rustled, making Agatha shake like the cold of the night never had.

Lady Death was intrigued, wondering what kind of impossible favor the young witch would ask of her, so she approached again. "Is this for me?" she asked, pointing at the dead man.

"Yes. You are Death, are you not?".

"I am. What is it you wish in exchange for this gesture?" she asked.

"Only to see you, m'lady."

"To see me?"

"I figured you needed the company as much as I do."

Lady Death smiled faintly, getting even closer to Agatha. "Speak your name, girl," she ordered.

"Agatha. Agatha Harkness."

"Well, Agatha, I thank you for this offering," she said, removing her hands from her dark green cape. Lady Death offered an empty hand, from which sprouted a beautiful Bearded Iris. "Can I?" she asked, and when Agatha nodded, Death's gentle hands placed the blossom in her hair.

"You are a witch, too!" squealed the young woman.

Seeing Agatha's bright smile warmed Lady Death's newly placed heart, so she made a bed of flowers for her, filled with astounding shapes and colors. They sat down together as Death told the young witch about each and every kind—having never had the chance to discuss her love for them before—until the sun tinted the whole forest alight. By then, her neverending task called for her again, and she disappeared into the bushes like she had that first night. This time, Agatha did not dare to ask if they would meet again, for she would make sure they would.

Every day she would slip into the town at dusk, determined to find a new gift for Death. First, it was the man who dared put his hands on his wife, the woman who tried to poison her daughter, and the two siblings who benefited from the poor's ingenuity. But then she took the old lady who sat alone in her house, the town's widow, and the farmer with only his crops to keep him company. With each kill, Agatha became increasingly enchanted with the art of taking lives, and her daily hunts became not only a treat for Death, but for her as well. Every night Lady Death would come to collect her gifts—each time earlier than the one before—and they would spend their time together laying in a freshly made bed of flowers by the river, where they would talk each other's ears off for hours. They bonded over their wrongdoings and deepest desires, enjoying the opportunity to be fully themselves in each other's company. Agatha told her all about her coven, her awful mother, and that surprisingly good feeling she got every time she claimed a life. Death would talk about her victims, the way she enjoyed staying for a little while when a widow wailed at the corpse of her husband, and the flowers she loved creating.

Lady Death grew fond of Agatha's curiosity, tending her queries with detail and care. She adored looking at the stars while letting the young witch into her secrets, appreciating the attentiveness she was given in return.

"Do you take animals?"

"They don't need it. Only humans have trouble crossing."

"Can you bring people back to life?"

"No. My job is the exact opposite."

"But you can create life," said Agatha, signalling at the flowers around them.

"I can, but only for you," Death replied, causing Agatha's cheeks to burn.

It was not until seven sunsets later that Agatha had been brave enough to ask for Lady Death's name.

"I don't suppose I was ever given one," replied the green witch with a furrowed brow.

"Whatever do you mean? Everyone has a name!"

"I must be the exception. I've had many nicknames, but never a name of my own."

"Well, we cannot allow that to be."

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Why, we find you a name, of course."

And so she did. Agatha named her companion after the river that sang its symphony for them every night. From that moment on, Lady Death was not defined only by her duty. She was now Rio Vidal. She was someone. She belonged to someone.

That night, after Agatha made the name official by carving their initials in the tree they both so loved, Rio decided it was time to show herself, to reveal the form she feared Agatha would despise. Lit by only the moonlight, the skull Agatha thought was just her eyes tricking her that first night was in front of her again. Even without skin or muscle, the young witch could see Rio was nervous, so she took the time to trace every bit of bone with her fingers with the utmost care, offering a bright smile.

"Beautiful," Agatha said, taking Rio's face into both hands. Rio went back to her human form just in time for Agatha to join their lips together in a kiss that felt a thousand times better than taking a life ever would. The river beside their flower bed sang its song as they both gave in to each other, and the forest became the first witness of the time Death fell in love with a mortal.

Though the corpses were no longer needed, Agatha still took a life for her lover each day. Eventually, she had to move to a different settlement to find her victims, for her usual one had run dry. And find new victims she did, as a coven of seven witches dwelled near the next settlement she wanted to torment. She remembered her promise not to get near another sister in the craft again but was still overjoyed when she told Rio how the screams of the youngest member filled the air of the autumn afternoon as she took her power for herself.

“Does power feel as good as it looks on you, my love?" asked Rio, running her finger up and down Agatha's bare arm.

"It feels amazing," replied Agatha, her eyes closed as she enjoyed her lover's touch.

"Tell me more about this coven you found. Do they know it was you that took their sister?"

"They do not. She had been sent to gather in the forest, they did not see me take her."

"In that case, we will take their power for you, tomorrow after dawn."

"Will you stay the whole night this time?" asked the young witch, hope mixed with moonlight lighting her eyes.

"Not only this time. My duty is important, but I have no home besides your arms."

"We will have each other. We will be okay," replied Agatha.

The following morning—hands joined—they made the trek down their beloved river—stopping every few minutes so Agatha could pick the flowers Rio grew for her—until they found the witches' encampment. Before splitting up, Rio put all the blossoms together in a beautiful crown that Agatha made sure to wear, then she watched as her lover ran to the other witches—panting and huffing—to start with her deceivement. As the witches inquired about the reason for her troubled state, she apprised them about her coven having been murdered right in front of her eyes by a horde of angry townspeople, and her miraculous escape. The fellow craft practitioners clothed and fed her, offering her all their empathy and comfort.

Rio appeared after Agatha finished her broth, bony form deployed, and all the witches fell to their knees at the sight of her. They dared not look into her eyes and instead rested their foreheads on the dirt, so Agatha followed their lead.

"Fear not, for I have come not to take, but to notify," Rio announced. "Your youngest sister, with hair like corn and skin like syrup, is now with me. Her fret for her coven was so strong that I had no alternative but to come and bear the news to you."

She allowed them a few seconds of shock before she attempted to leave.

"Oh, almighty lady," called the eldest member, not daring to remove her face from the soil. "Is there anything we can offer in exchange for her life? Is there any deal you will take to bring our sister back where she belongs?"

"What is done is done. She is now mine," stated Rio.

"Please, ma'am. We will do anything."

"Look at me," Rio ordered, and all six witches obeyed. "The only way to bring your sister back is to trade her life for another. The balance must be maintained," she stated, her head tilted slightly.

The ruse worked perfectly, for all six of them took only a few seconds of exchanged looks before deciding that the life of the new, stray witch that had only just arrived mattered the least among them, and they all blasted Agatha simultaneously. The young witch received their magic with open arms, ensuring to take every last bit of it.

As their bodies decayed and their magic was drained, Rio's cackle filled the forest, enjoying the view as much as Agatha enjoyed the magic. "Yes, my love! Take it all!" she screamed with a malicious grin.

When Agatha's knees gave out, weak from the blast, Rio was there to catch her. The young witch's hands trembled, but her lips were curved in the biggest smile.

"How did you like that?" asked Agatha.

"I've never seen anything better," Rio replied, lost in the trance of her lover's beauty.

"Take care of this mess," Agatha ordered. Rio obeyed instantly, leaving to guide the witches to the other side.

From then on, Agatha and Rio spent their days hunting for witches to trick, finding new ways to give in to their lust, and loving each other like no other couple in history ever had. It was not every day they were together, for Rio's duty called for her every few days, but they cherished and made use of every second in which they were.

When autumn came to an end and the weather started to cool—despite witches usually living in open settlements—Rio grew the biggest willows, and with them, shaping them to her will, she built a crooked cabin for the two to spend the winter in. However, when the snow melted and spring came, they could not part from it. Death and love danced in harmony as they turned the place into their home, making it a sanctuary for all things they held dear. Unable to rip herself from her lover's embrace, Rio stayed longer each time, even if it meant more days absent, and she gifted Agatha the most beautiful garden to tend to while she was away.

[feal-the-grinch]

Why did Agatha continue to kill witches after Nicky's death, knowing she would probably see Rio, the woman who took away her son, every time she did ? (Spoiler: I'm just writing my thoughts, and they destroy me. Agatha and Rio's dynamic is something else, and these last episodes did NOT help. If anything, they just created more questions.)

From the scenes we were shown (don't get me started on what we saw and what we didn't, because that's one of the things I'm the most mad about right now), there's no indication that Agatha saw Rio after killing her covens. Yet, it would make sense that she did. But then, why would she keep on killing other witches ? To gain more power, always in order to survive, no matter how much it hurt to see Rio again ? To curse Death endlessly for what she did to Agatha's own son ? That's torture, for both of them. It would be an incredibly cruel move on Agatha's part. Rio was doing her job. Not once did she desire to hurt Agatha.

Now, Rio knows she did hurt Agatha, she took the most precious thing her lover ever had. In my opinion, that's why Rio put up with Agatha's rage and hate for so long. She probably thought that it would pass, that Agatha would end up forgiving her. Rio's love for Agatha never decayed. Therefore, having the love of her life cursing her all the time, for the rest of her human (witch) life, must be torture for Rio. Yet, she endures it. Because she loves Agatha, even though Agatha can't see it anymore, don't care about it anymore. Agatha only sees her own hurt, and the fact that the great love of her life is the one who accepted to cause it.

Agatha did say, when she buried Nicky, that her heart was buried with him. Maybe it's at that point that any hope of her becoming a better person was lost. She wouldn't care about anyone ever again. Only her own survival would matter. No one ever had shown Agatha that having relations with other people could actually be a good thing for her, so she buried her only chance here and there, without even an afterthought. She had nothing more to lose (except a better life, even if it was without her son)(but she couldn't know that).

Therefore, continuing to kill witches was to accomplish that goal : survival. Killing witches means getting their powers, means getting always stronger. (Hence her coming into Wanda's Hex and trying to steal the Scarlet Witch's powers.) Seeing Rio ended up being a bonus for Agatha : she got to throw hands with the woman who took her son away from her. From Agatha's point of view, Nicky just disappeared through the night, she woke up and he was gone. But she instantly knew who, what, took him. She had somewhere to direct her anger and sadness, which became hate, because when was Agatha ever taught anything else. (With Rio and Nicky, she was taught something else, she was taught the opposite - love -, which probably made everything worse.) No matter how cruel it was towards Rio herself, it was all Agatha could think of doing, it was all she knew: throwing insults left and right, get people mad at her. (That's probably why she almost kissed Rio in ep 4 : after all that time Agatha spent hating Rio, Rio still loved her. It's something Agatha has never known. Yet, at that point, it didn't mean that much to her anyway. This moment only happened because of emotional she was, with Billy reminding her of her own son.) Screaming at Rio was an outlet for Agatha's own enormous and terrifying feelings, feelings that tear her apart when she sees Rio and/or is reminded of Nicky.

Now, I still don't have an explanation for these last episodes... still need time to process what happened, and what didn't happen. We still need so many answers.

[ladyohdeath]

so much care and love went into the designs of the costumes. and as many posts as i make about this i want to make a new one now about her crown, which as i said in my carrd in a recent update, she'll now have in every thread going forward unless she's hiding herself as a human on purpose.

and god, i just love this crown so much. i'm not as big of a history nerd as i want to be, so some of this dialogue is inspired by a tumblr post linked here to sort of talk about it. but seriously, one of the coolest costume designs marvel has done in a while.

if you think about it, really, the crown (as well as her whole character design) is as old as the universe itself. older than time as we know it. i used to compare it to tree roots, but i see now that that it's far more complex than that.

for starters, obviously we see that the crown is a series of shades that shows as black in some lights, green in others, but for the most part reflective of both. it's meant to reflect her two primary colours, and the cycle of life and death. i also very much headcanon that in certain lights it's almost invisible, in certain realms and places of existence it's dark as night. it very much matches her standard lady death outfit which has a similar vibe, with a design meant to feel old, connected to the earth, and in some aspects resembling tree roots, the circle of life, all of it intertwining in a specific pattern.

obviously in my last post i just talked about death being omnipresent, and i think that the crown is just as omnipresent, in being that it looks different from any angle, the same in every dimension. never changing, as death is always the same everywhere. i also really like the way that they designed the look to reflect early religious symbols, just another factor about it that makes it feel ancient.

the post says this, which i thought was super interesting:

It's a chitinous construct of thorns and spines flaring up like vertebrae when viewed from the side, rising out of her head (the spine is a symbol of Osiris, which feels relevant here, but also the crown of thorns on Christ's head) in a way that feels organic, yet eerie. The deep green shimmer on it, like the carapace of a scarab, and coming forward over her face like a pair of pincers or antennae, grasping over her skull as a set of hungry claws; but when you see it from above, it's like the jawbone of something with many, many teeth.

i really think this is meant to show the many sides of death, the good and the bad. when you look death head on, it resembles jaws, as though it's coming down at you from above. when you look to the side, it's shaped on a slope, with jagged sharp edges. it almost looks like a shark. but from the side angle it almost looks like waves, jagged and hard but flowing into a pattern. and all of it comes together at the top, every piece of it is very specifically designed, and i think that's the purpose of it.

there's more nuance here that i've yet to figure out myself, but i think that's part of the intent, as well as the obvious intent which is that it's meant to reflect early religious symbols like the crown on jesus's head. which is a super cool fucking detail i might add. when you look at it from the side or from the lower angle of the kiss you can see that it's not even really touching her head. like it's just always there.

you all also know i'm obsessed with vegetation, and the circle of life that rio really reflects in the leaves and flowers she trails behind her sometimes, especially when taking a body. i like to think that the crown operates in a similar fashion, and is ever-shifting, just the slightest bit. and if you look at it head on, and stare for long enough, you might see it shifting, growing very slowly then shortening again, not unlike, again, the roots of a tree. that's just my personal headcanon, though, and not something i observe when watching or looking at pics.

for the more technical side of it, while death can make the crown disappear at will, it is always there. it's very much a part of her, and doesn't move from her head. it's as unavoidable as death itself. it's also got a strange texture to it, the jagged edges sharp but smooth at the same time. i also headcanon that it's similar to obsidian, sort of a mythical version of it, not unlike the material of the black heart of her suit.

so yeah, that's it for now. i'll update this if the costume designer drops a pic of the back. long story short, i love the crown.

[chaifootsteps]

Sorry I feel like I’m the lone Rio person here in the sea of Helluva Boss (though I def do have my own issues with that too and how its creator handles criticism)

But I know you said that Carla would eventually travel back to Rio after being the least adaptable to the Amazon, and I was wondering how that happened, and in general how the kids would be in this AU? Would any of them live permanently in one place or the other, do they have struggles with either life since they were also raised with human items like Blu was? Would it be something discouraged? I can already see Eduardo going on a rant at how Blu “poisoned” them or whatever when the kids bring some sort of human technology up or something (“pet damage. Let’s hope we’re not too late”)

Oh god, don't apologize. I can't stress enough how much I love when people ask about my AUs.

Blu and Jewel share custody in this AU; the kids will either ride with Linda and Tulio as they commute back and forth or they'll fly with their parents, trading off at the halfway mark between Rio and Manaus. They usually spend the summers in Rio with Blu, and for the most part, they're pretty happy with the arrangement.

Tiago takes to the jungle like a duck to water and Bia struggles more with being separated from her dad than the change in living situation, but Carla really, really struggles with jungle life. Like Blu, she's a natural city mouse who's happiest when she's got her iPod close at hand and hot running water in limitless supply. Her siblings are fine with popping in to the Amazon outpost when they need a fix of human life, but all of Carla's hobbies, interests, and bird-career aspirations involve being in a big city, doing what Nico and Pedro do.

She frequently clashes with her mom over this, especially as she gets older. Jewel thinks she's never given life in the wild a real chance, that she's failing to see the beauty all around her, Carla's upset that Jewel's too preoccupied with what she wants Carla to be to care about the person she is. It gets bad enough that it eventually drives her to fly off and show up a few nights later at the sanctuary, hungry and bedraggled and tapping on the window. Blu feeds her while yelling at her, and she never, ever, ever tells him that she was nearly eaten by an owl.

(For the record, Eduardo's actually a lot gentler about the whole Carla situation than Jewel is, doing his best to find things about the jungle that engage her and reserving any frustrations he has for Blu.)

[badbatchposts]

🎱 🍓 🌵🔪🪲. I reblogged the ask game from you, so I wanted to be courteous and send you an ask! I'm honestly curious about these.

Thanks for the ask, friend! It's really nice to be able to reflect on some of these things!! Sorry in advance for the super long responses lol.

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats:

Works: 2

User Subscriptions: 6

Kudos: 204

Comment Threads: 84

Bookmarks: 67

Subscriptions: 51

Word Count: 67,351

Hits: 4,652

I honestly have no sense of how these stats compare for the usual fanfic writer, but it makes me happy to see how many people have subscribed to my longfic, especially since I don't always get a ton of comments on new chapters. But it seems people are reading! And definitely more people than read my dissertation, lol.

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

I used to write a lot of original work in high school and early college, but then as things got busy--and as I convinced myself my writing wasn't good enough to be worth it--I largely stopped. I always felt guilty about it. I really enjoyed writing, but didn't think I was creative enough or had the right amount of stamina that it took to complete a long work, and I had this perfectionist idea where it felt like it wasn't worth doing if I couldn't be the best at it.

Then right as the new Bad Batch season came out this year I was struggling a lot with burnout and found that I was spending a lot of time thinking about the show, and decided that I might as well start reading some fanfiction--for the first time ever--and felt like writing it would be a nice creative outlet that might help me recover from my burnout. It really has been great, and some of what's made it so good is actually exactly the sort of things that used to make me think writing fanfiction wasn't worth it. Namely: it's not professionally publishable.

That is, legally, I will never be able to professionally publish and profit from any of what I write--it can only be posted and enjoyed. This actually just took so much of the pressure off. It doesn't have to be perfect--it doesn't even have to be very good, because that's not what it's for.

I started thinking of it more as an exercise for working on my writing skills (things like, okay, in this chapter I'm going to practice writing dialogue, or in this next one I'm going to work more on establishing an interesting setting). As a result, I'm now thinking more about the writing process and improving my storytelling, rather than worrying about trying to make it perfect or good enough to publish or feeling competitive or down on myself when I encounter writing that I feel is much better than my own. It's been really freeing.

All of this happened over ten years since I stopped writing in college, and the other great thing has been seeing that my writing skills didn't disappear. In fact, they've gotten better and grown as a result of the learning I did in the meantime. I'm now much better at envisioning narrative arcs, outlining, getting myself to write consistently instead of just waiting for inspiration to strike me, and a whole load of other skills. It's really helped soothe a part of me that worried that I had abandoned writing, that it was too late for me to "do" anything with it, or that I only would have gotten worse.

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

Parasailing in Rio de Janeiro with a Caipirinha in Your Hand

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I've been spending a lot of time researching historical kitchens on sailing ships and historical brothels for the Pirate AU that I'm working on. Once for an academic paper I was working on a novel that depicts a (non-sexual) human-animal relationship but through very intimate and erotic terms, and I accidentally googled a combination of terms that came back with information on bestiality while on my university's wi-fi.

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

The most recent thing I wrote for my Pirate AU (I'm skipping ahead SEVERAL chapters to inspire myself with the steamy bits haha)

“I hardly think I can get into much trouble here. Your crew have been perfect gentlemen.”

Hunter’s eyes glinted in the half-light of the lamps. Though he didn’t move, all of a sudden she was all-too-aware of how close he was, how easy it would be for him to reach out and touch her. “And what about me?” he murmured. “Haven’t you heard from the ladies in port? I’m a scoundrel. A very dangerous man. Maybe you ought to be afraid of me.”

Thanks again, this was a lot of fun!!

[riorangedeezguts]

(9> make em seethe, I'm playing with fire here lmao)

Okay, so your name's Rio Ranger...

But like... as in the term to arrange?

Just like how you rearrange your clothing with those of the deceased to appear more human for your liking? :)

Along with how you keeping switching those cards to rearrange your facial features and mimic a smile because you're physically incapable of making one yourself? :)

And how you keep arranging your pretty-boy personality to keep up with your father's standards? :)

Doesn't being referred to in such way make you feel more inferiorly inhuman?

(sorry this took so long to answer, anon! I've been thinking abt how I wanted to do it for awhile now, and I can safely say the ending is a bit disturbing lmao)

TW: a touch of body horror at the very end! (It's separated from the rest of the writing so you can't miss it, and the cut is for brevity since this is kind of a longer post. Enjoy!)

Tch. Look at the grating grin on this bastard...

"Hey, shit for brains! I'm the most human of all the dolls dad's ever worked on!" Ranger reminds you, flapping his expression cards against your forehead a few times in clear exasperation, as if to scold you the way a dog owner might lightly hit Fido with a rolled up newspaper. "Don't'cha know that means I'm the best of both worlds?" With a paper smile pressed to his lips, he goes on to explain why.

"First of all, I can't get sick and die like you losers, and even if the me standing before you became scrap metal, there's puh-lenty of backups for my code, my parts, my blueprints, my possessions... Dad's got alllllll of that junk on file in case something happens."

And yet, the doubt still creeps into his mind.

A masterpiece, huh?

What masterpiece constantly feels like shit?

"But I get it!" He exclaims, interrupting his own thoughts. "I get it! Really, I do! I'm sure it just gnaws you up inside knowing my dad loves me so much. Call me a gambling man, 'cause I'd bet big on you not thinking he was capable of it, what, with how stony faced he tends to be." Then Ranger pauses. "Say, whadda you think, bastard? Am I my dad's son?"

With the purposeful flick of his wrist, his mouth is no longer concealed by any cards, revealing nothing but the thin line of his lips behind them and the darkening whites of his eyes. Orange and yellow swirls of madness twist their way through the murk, pinning you in place beneath the weight of his gaze and the lack of a smile.

"The resemblance is uncanny, wouldn't you say?"

But something about the way you keep smiling at him says you expected this outcome. You think you've won, you cheeky bastard?

"What's wrong with being a bit inhuman, eh?" He asks tonelessly. He's asked himself this question a thousand times, because he is human in all the ways that count, isn't he? That's always what dad said.

"I'm a masterpiece with or without my humanity," he adds convincingly. You'd never guess he was trying to convince himself with those words too.

Why? It stings to question dad, but why?

Why was he made like this? Why does he doubt himself so much? Why aren't dad's answers ever enough? Every. single. time dad tells him the truth, and every. single. time Ranger squanders it.

He hates himself for it. But he hates you more.

"You're lucky your clothes are so damn ugly," he says to you at last, lazily eyeing you up and down once before turning on his heel to walk away, not even bothering to raise his cards as they hang dejectedly at his side. "You're not worth all the clean up killing you would require."

.

.

.

If only he could flay you alive.

Wear your frail, peeled skin like a mask, and see the look of horror in your eyes as the sight of your own face is the last thing you see. Skeletons can't smile back, after all.

But maybe, finally and at last, he could.

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 4 part 4

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ep9 [1][2][3][4][5][6])

agatha once again protecting billy with her whole body.

"I didn't think it was real! I thought it was me, that it's my fault that I can't keep a job, that everything I touch turns to shit! That I couldn't save her!"

The poison drips through (yes I love Succession). Generational curse, generational trauma. The pain of who knows how many centuries of parents and grandparents and great-grandparents times a thousand. It's like a boulder that you're carrying around on your shoulders, and you can't see it and you can't put a name to it, how could you? How can you possibly know why your mother drank herself stupid, why your grandmother abused her children? You were born yesterday and drank all that poison without knowing what it was, you let it take it over and you walk around spreading it to the world.

And amidst all the pain, alice only ever chose to blame and hurt herself and she was always gentle to others. her biggest regret is not having been able to save her mom! you know why alice never turned into a villain like agatha? because her mom loved her. as simple and as that. lorna was so ill-equipped to save alice, she didn't know what she was up against, she was in a world of pain herself. and she went above and beyond to show her child how infinitely precious and loved she was.

oh wow, I usually say I'm crying as a figure of speech, but I am crying for real thinking about this.

lilia who has lived so long and experienced her big share of suffering, knowing all too well what alice is going through. there's so much compassion in her voice

jen stubbornly refusing to care about anything but her own pain, which is actually a very human way to respond to trauma? it's like she's at a crossroads and it's up to her to choose whether she goes back to being the force of good she used to be, or whether she goes down agatha's same path. I say it's up to her because it ultimately is, but she was so lucky finding this coven and community at such a crucial moment. agatha didn't have any of it.

no! don't apologize, you beautiful, generous soul! the sense of guilt and inferiority complex is real

agatha's face when billy is attacked

she starts running toward him even before alice

but when she gets there she freezes and lets alice go check on him

when she sees he's fine, she sighs and collapses against the door, clutching her chest.

lilia is really starting to get attached to everyone, and throughout her life love and loss have always been inherently linked. she already knows she's going to lose them.

okay jen refusing to leave the circle is still funny, I'll give her that

through all this rio has been watching and studying agatha, she always does. she knows that her diabolically smart wife loves to be in charge and come up with plans. she's being encouraging!

look at how small alice is! she's been helping and consoling billy just a moment ago, despite being miserable herself.

first of all, that's hilarious, so jot that down. second of all, you know agatha is so relieved she has to put on a show instead of doing something icky like, idk, sitting in a circle and talking about their feelings. and look at rio at the drums, she's already put all the clues together as well

oooh, she's doing the thing! she's detectiving! agatha harkness ladies and gentlemen, her hobbies are women, murder and puzzles.

and who gives her the solution? who has had millennia to study and commiserate human love and grief? she says it and she looks at agatha so pointedly.

The song that's so irrevocably linked to Nicky's memory, the song that she's been desecrating and using as a means to kill. A mother took it and poured all her love into it and made it pure again. Agatha has to live with that now, and you know that's going to take root inside her and affect her no matter what

this whole performance is patti going I might be singing backup again but watch me be a total diva about it

I LOVE YOU PATTI LUPONE

you'd think that alice should sing lead vocals here, seeing as it's her trial and her mom's song and all. WELL THINK AGAIN

the massive ego agatha has, honestly. you gotta respect that.

the feeling when you are the only normal person in a group of total hooligans. did I already say how gorgeous sasheer looks in that outfit? no I didn't. you are an apparition, sasheer.

but I want the song to have its own separate entry so hold on tight, brb

go to episode 4 part 5

[bitchkay]

Do you have any drabbles or short fics for Robin playing with his human siblings? 🥺

Kitty deserves more attention, and so do ur sillies

I dont😔👊🏽💔

But I also haven't opened google docs in so long--

I haven't progressed on alot of wips simply cus I dont want to--

Like I'm like "I wanna work on this" then I open the doc and go "no, I actually dont"

The fics will however be let out of the vault eventually💯

I did start a wip a while ago about pregnant sex-- i know, but I stopped cus I dont know how to make it not sound weird like I really wanted to touch upon pregnancy hormones a d what it was like being pregnant with Halo compared to what it was like being pregnant with the twins and I started doing a bunch of research about it and what's normal, abnormal, and like the nuances about arousal during pregnancy even from the husbands side of the ordeal and how emotions can really be on high during the second to third trimester

There also another I started kinda on the whim a little bit ago that's like angst/hurt comfort which is more about the complications during the pregnancy w the elder twins and Rio reacting to everything that's happened so much so fast after the birth because the pregnancy w the twins was miserable and not the best experience cus it was a high risk pregnancy mostly in part due to being pregnant with twins especially fraternal twins and it being your first ever pregnancy on top of them being twins, so the birth was not an easy or fast process, I also did a bunch of research on the complications that can happen during birth and the circumstances if one was to die during birth, you definitely do live but I needed to know the extent of how much pain I can put you through, I also searched a bunch of medical terms and recovery processes for after a complicated birth and recovering from surgery, it's pretty much Rio working through his emotions cus yeah he just became a dad but you were also unconscious for a scary amount of hours and did a lot if the post birth bonding without you there next to him, it's a little darker than stuff I usually write but one of the reasons I love my little au so much is I be doing some goddamn research on shit I will never experience(I don't wanna be pregnant ever in my life)

☝🏽☝🏽Would you believe that either one of those wips I mentioned are probably rn 4-5 paragraphs tops, maybe 3 excluding the dialogue

Theres also "Boys will be bugs" (which I haven't started yet) which is pretty much Theo playing outside in the dirt cus he likes dirt and bugs, Theo loves bugs, like he loves bugs, yeah, hes autistic, he has a per caterpillar he cant wait til turns into a butterfly and set free

And then there's "Two pairs of twins" I think I started it idk I don't think I did, but it's about the dynamics between the oldests and the youngests, the elder twins and the younger twins, Adephagia and Gulliver watching the toddler Dylan and Eliana pretty much like damn I can't believe we're 16 apart and making a joke about neutering their dad because they cannot fathom the idea of their parents ever having sex but also, I touched on this in Prince and Princess but cus they're getting older they're more distant than they once were, they're still close but they're now burdened with more responsibility and stress because they're the oldest and one of them would one day succeed their father on the throne but because of you and your magic of dear lady vane until one of their manifest ancient magic it's not clear who exactly would be taking the throne. Talking care of their baby sisters is kinda like how they bond, you know? they're just regular siblings and not heirs to a throne, also the girls are really cute, they fight over who looks more like who cus Dylan and Eliana are also fraternal twins💀

Theres also another idea in my head that simply just have not written down but it's been in my noggin since I posted Prince and Princess and it like the other side of that like it takes place on the same day but kinda from Halos perspective like it goes through Halos day while the elder twins are getting fired for their first adult sized royal finery and like it kinda just introduced Halos little crush on Thoma, nothing comes of it cus Thoma is obviously way older and known her since she was born but it's just innocent little schoolgirl crush, you know how it is shes 14 and Thoma is nice to her kinda like how young girls would have a crush on their teacher, Halo helps him out with some of his tasks and stuff, just like how in prince and princess there was a Theo and Atlas cameo, there would be a Genesis w the younger twins cameo, I think that would be cute♡

I love that you feed my braid worms and I can rant about my sillies, all I be doing nowadays maladaptivly daydream about them

☆𝕋𝕙𝕣𝕖𝕖'𝕤 𝕒 𝕔𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕕, 𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕣'𝕤 𝕒 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕪 + 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕪 𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥

[highfunctioningflailgirl]

I didn’t have the time (yet) to write anything new for Holoween, but since it’s okay to repost old stuff and I didn’t want to NOT post anything today, here’s a ficlet from my Whumptober 2020 series that may suit the bill. At least I think it’s got some spookiness along with some humor, and our holos once more save the day.

What’s A Whumpee Got To Do To Get Some Sleep Around Here?

Hollow-eyed, Rios crossed the bridge to drop into the pilot seat. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Hospitality Hologram shimmering away, but he was too tired to voice his chronic annoyance with that particular crew member, and he secretly had to admit that he was grateful for the cup of tar-black coffee he found steaming within reach. He took a sip of the scalding hot liquid, desperate for a caffeine kick.

“Got any sleep?”

Rios hadn’t even seen Raffi, slumped as she sat in the navigator’s seat. She swiveled around to him with hanging shoulders, her curls wilder than ever, the rings under her eyes so dark they looked like bruises.

“No,” Cris sighed. “You?”

It was a rhetorical question, really, and Raffi huffed, pointing at her face. “Do I look like I slept?”

Fact was, none of them had slept in three days - except for Picard, who was out like a light in his quarters after the EMH had insisted on dosing him with a narcotic, worried about the old man’s heart. Sleep deprivation, he’d lectured them, could kill, and Rios was starting to believe him. Only that he was close to killing someone. Anyone, honestly. After nearly seventy-two hours of being trapped, with an offline engine, in a cosmic phenomenon that was somehow affecting their brainwaves, Rios was suffering from a very short fuse.

The most enraging part: While Raffi, Picard and him - the only human crew members on board at the moment - were turning into zombies, the holograms remained completely unaffected. Bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed, they zipped through La Sirena’s decks, running system checks and analyzing scans and fiddling with the ship’s engine, driving Rios crazy with their limitless energy and chipper mood.

Too bad that a hologram didn’t die when you choked it with your bare hands.

Rios threw a murderous glance at Emmet, the hologram currently slumbering in his seat in front of the tactical controls. He was the worst to bear, falling asleep in an instant as soon as his code told him he was sitting and no hostile activity required him to be awake. Feet propped up on the console, head tipped back and mouth open, he was currently snoring obliviously. And as a hologram, he didn’t even need to sleep.

Rios’ fingers involuntarily curled into claws.

“What is the nature of your psychiatric emergency?”

The EMH had materialized beside him and, hands in his pockets, was studying him with professional concern.

“You heart rate is elevated, your blood pressure is climbing, and your cortisol output-”

“Deactivate!”

“But Captain, I am…”

“Deactivate!”

The hologram disappeared with an affronted poof.

“Nice,” Raffi commented sardonically, chin propped up on a weary arm. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

Cris meant to roll his eyes, but it would worsen his headache, so he left it. Scrubbing his hand across his face, he tried to knit a clear string of thoughts together in his increasingly unreliable brain.

“We need to get away from here, Raff,” he said darkly.

She blinked tiredly. “I know.”

And it was true. What had felt like a weird anomaly three days ago - their impulse and warp drive dying suddenly, then the insomnia - had escalated into a dangerous crisis. In spite of incessant work, they hadn’t been able to bring the engines back online, and they didn’t need the EMH’s lectures to point out the consequences of sleep deprivation. They felt them.

Physical exhaustion was the least of it. Cris could get past the headache, the soreness, the nausea and the dizziness. But the tricks the insomnia played on his mind were an altogether different thing. He could no longer concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes, and his short term memory had gone to fritz. It was bad enough that the tiredness was affecting his eyesight, causing the EMH to suggest reading glasses and almost getting his programming wiped by an infuriated Cris. But now he was starting to see things.

Hallucinations. They were a well-known but nevertheless deeply disturbing side-effect, and Cris, all too familiar with the phenomenon from his breakdown after the Ibn Majid disaster, was once more stalked by demons he thought he’d laid to rest. Captain Vandemeer had visited him in his quarters when he’d been staring into the darkness last night, sleepless, but too exhausted to remain on his feet. The top of his head gone, blood and brain matter dripping from the ceiling, Vandemeer had looked at Cris with opaque eyes, and it had taken half a bottle of Pisco to make him disappear.

Rios punched a button on his holographic controls.

“Ean!” He barked. “Status report!”

“We’re still offline, Cap’n,” came the instant reply. “But Enoch thinks he may be on to something. There’s a pattern of sub-photon waves that seems to be targeting the temperature sensors with galandrion radiation, effectively-”

“Only the bottom line, Ean,” Cris cut him off. His brain had shot down after “sub-photon waves”, unable to process anything more complicated than a spaghetti recipe.

“Bottom line?” Ean repeated. “We’re working on it, Cap’n.”

“What Ean means,” Enoch picked up, flickering into existence on the bridge with an avid expression, “is that we think we’re close to solving the problem. Now, if the scan check that I reprogrammed to include sub-photonic and pseudo nano-neurologic patterns reveals that not only the temperature sensors but also the newtonian reverse weight-speed effect of-”

“Callate!”Cris shot up from his seat. “Shut the fuck- Jesus!”

He’d closed up to the ENH in two strides, right fist pulled back to punch, and he’d managed to rein himself in only at the very last moment. He shook out his arms, trembling, trying to get rid of the tension and the shock he felt at his near loss of control.

Eyebrows raised in innocent wonder, Enoch cocked his head.

“Captain?” he asked kindly. “Would you like me to re-activate Emil? I am sure he could provide you with a sedative, if you’d like.”

Rios shot around again, blood boiling. All of a sudden, the bridge’s ambient lights felt too bright, and the cluster of stars visible through the panoramic window seemed to move forward, speeding up, threatening to attack and swallow La Sirena.

“Emmet!” Cris yelled. “Deflector shields!”

The ETH jerked awake and blinked at his screens in confusion. “Que? No veo nada.”

Raffi had gripped the arms of her seat and was looking at Rios in alarm.

“Babe,” she said anxiously and got up. “There’s nothing out there. You have to… Here.” She grabbed his arm and tried to lead him back to his chair. “Here, sit down.”

“What?!”

Rios glared at her. Raffi’s face looked strange all of a sudden. It… reshaped. Her hair shrank back into her skull, getting shorter, smoother… white. Her skin brightened, nose widening, her eyes morphing from brown to blue. Stubble appeared, and her clothes… his clothes… a Starfleet uniform with a captain’s badge.

“Sit down, son.”

Vandemeer. Intact, smiling paternally, he gently led Rios to his seat and sat him down.

Then, still smiling, he lifted a phaser, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Rios screamed, and he was still screaming when the EMH put a hypospray to his neck and cut his strings.

XXX

“Coffee, babe?”

Rios blinked a veil of deep sleep from his eyes. When his vision sharpened, he saw Raffi’s hand in front of him, balancing a cup that smelled of heaven.

He sat up and stretched before he took the coffee, looking around his cabin. He felt rested, and, to his surprise, he heard the familiar hum of La Sirena’s impulse drive propelling the ship through space at cruising speed.

“We’re back online?”

“Yes. Three days ago.”

“Three days ago?!” Rios almost spilled his coffee. “How long was I out?”

Raffi smiled, but there was an uncomfortable edge to it. “Three and a half days.”

“Dios.”

He racked his brain, memory creeping back in. Memory - and shame. Scratching his beard, he looked at Raffi with unease.

“It was pretty bad, huh?”

“Pretty.” She nodded. Then she placed her hand on his arm and rubbed it gently. “But you weren’t the only one. I cracked a few hours after Emil put you out. He says I was trying to open the cargo hatch to take a walk.”

Cris lifted astonished brows. “Good idea.”

Raffi’s worried face softened into a chuckle. “Not one of my best. I’m glad your holos were there to stop me. They’re not entirely useless, you know?”

“Right.” Cris smirked. God, he hadn’t felt this rested in ages. “Not entirely. But please don’t go and tell them I agreed with you on that. Enoch will never stop rubbing it under my nose.”

As if on cue, the EMH materialised at the foot of Rios’ bed.

“Captain Rios,” he said. “I am pleased to see you awake! And your brain waves have returned to a normal pattern. Now, if I could ask you to meet me in sickbay for a thorough scan of your neural-”

“Deactivate!”

Raffi smiled as the hologram begrudgingly dissolved.

“You ready to come back to the bridge, Captain?” she asked Rios, the twinkle back in her eyes. “Or do you need more sleep?”

Cris swung his legs from the bed.

“Sleep is overrated,” he said sardonically and headed off to take a shower.

[stonegearstudios]

On the Ruins of Giants: Devlog

It's research :V

Well, first devlog after the proper announcement, and no nice art to go with it, lets see if this gets even 1/100th the reach XD

Actually been a pretty good week for mechanical work, part of that was on abilities, for which I've taken some inspiration from New Vegas' perks, as you can see above, but there's more, here's a brief rundown.

So, first, good news, the lovely art I got from @bedupolker arrived safe and sound, there's really nothing like holding real art in your hands.

One of the things I was thinking about what how to name the little nice, regular human names felt like they didn't fit the setting, but given that I expect up to 95% of my prospective players to be human, they need to be properly pronounceable.

Eventually I decided that (traditionally) mice would have three letter names, which dated back to the lab days. Back then all the test specimens were assigned a three letter code. Randomly generated some up to see what I got.

Rio, Mip, Gap, Kul, Moy, Bek, Ivl, Qyy, Cev, Dno, Ceh, Erx, Pul, Fio, Pla, Ani, Usi, Vga, Nul, Nju, Pwo, Evs, Onk, Ryp, Eul, Ocb, Epd, Iby, Mva, Ikl, Quk, Nbl, Qel, Ojy, Juf, Tyh, and so on.

Be interested to hear what people think of that, or what names they come up with.

Let's see, I also was focusing heavily on character creation, what is the minimal amount of other work I need to do to make a basic character?

One of the big parts of that was working out V1 of the health system. See, I want the mice to feel fragile, emphasis the danger of the world they're in. But also, to my shock, it turns out players really hate being one shot. Who could ever guess that :V

So, I started batting some ideas around, what I've settled on for now is what I'll call a segmented health bar. There are three different things you could call health. 1: your actual health, the thing that goes down when you take a claw through your meat bits, it is the last to be damaged but also the hardest to heal. 2: Armour, it acts as ablative HP, but can be damaged and costs resources to upkeep and repair, Red Markets is one of my inspirations overall. It's taken off second 3: Luck, the ability or just dumb, well, luck, to turn a hit into a graze or miss, goes down as you're worn out, but all it needs to come back is a decent nights sleep. It's taken off first.

None of these bars individually are very big, but they provide layered defence, especially with this last rules. When a bar is "broken" (Depleted) then damage doesn't roll over to the next, except with rare, very powerful and telegraphed attacks. This is a small safety net to keep a moderately attentive player from ever getting one shot.

Now, I could keep going, I meant to talk about character building and ideas for abilities I had, but I think this is long enough for today, so we'll do those another day.

One foot in front of another, till we reach a playtest doc. Follow me if you wanna see when that eventually happens.