#i died and went to heaven and got revived three times over

[viyprospektt]

huh? no i don’t have a favorite what are you talking about

[teacupwrites]

As Above, So Below

Before this starts, let me establish a few things so the story is easier to understand. Y/n is kind of an Overlord? She’s a deer demon, though I can’t decide between a Reeve’s muntjac and a reindeer.

This is just an experiment to see if people would be interested in this, I just rlly liked the concept. And if you do like this and want more, do tell me! I love hearing feedback on my stories.

That’s all! Enjoy the story!

Yours Truly, Blood x

Part 1 Part 2

Overlords. Sinners rising up to power in a way only few could do. There were plenty littered across Hell. The three Vees, Carmilla Carmine, Zestial, Alastor, Missi ZIlla, Rosie. All of them hovering above other sinners knowing they could kill with ease.

Until that same sinner revived later, of course. No one could die in hell, unless wielded by an angelic weapon. Of course though, not everyone owned Angelic Steel, and not everyone was going to be quick to use their precious buys.

When you died, you were…kind of an Overlord? When you first arrived in Hell, you panicked, and ran and fled until you ran into your father. He greeted you with open arms, introducing you to all of his friends.

You were one of the few people Alastor genuinely cared about. 

When you were alive, you were all he cared for. His wife died when you were born, ascending into heaven peacefully. The cannibal taught you everything, how to cook, how to sing, how to dance, how to play each instrument he knew.

When you turned eighteen, he confessed to you his sins, his murders, every little bad thing he did. The man wanted badly for you to pick your own destiny, and be able to choose to join your mother in heaven.

But you refused. You loved your father so, and took after him. You aided in few killings, though mostly you took his hunts and made them into beautiful dishes you sold to unaware guests.

Cooking was always one of your biggest talents, as well as writing. And when Alastor introduced you to the hotel, you had offered to be the one to help with advertisement and to cook for the guests.

In which there was none, but you never spoke about that.

When your father found you, it took him a while to let the others know you existed. The first friend of Alastor’s you met was Rosie, the cannibal Overlord. 

She was basically an aunt to you, someone to step in as your mother despite your father having no romantic desires anymore. She taught the cello, and introduced you to the different ways that demon meat was cooked compared to humans.

Then Nifty, who was basically your little sister. She was crazy, but sweet, and always spoke fondly of you whenever you hung out with her. Though sometimes it was frightening to suddenly walk in and have her all over you. But you still loved her.

Then finally, Husker. The grumpy bartender. The first time you met him, he was forced to babysit you whilst your father left for an Overlord meeting, and Satan did he ignore you.

But eventually, your pokes, prods, and pleads managed to break down his walls, and he cared for you like you were his own, despite you being a fully grown adult. 

And after about seven years of being in Hell, he allowed you to speak to the hotel. At first, they were extremely suspicious of you and your potential powers, though with one, simple action, you gained their trust.

It was a night out, when Vaggie and Charlie went up to speak to heaven, and everyone but Alastor was going out. He trusted you, and allowed you to go and keep a close eye on the group to make sure they didn’t get too wasted.

Though when Angel got tangled up with Valentino, you snapped. Angel was like a younger brother to you, he was fragile, kind, and sweet. And when you saw pink chains clutched to his wrist you wanted nothing more than to rip that moth’s vocal chords out.

Your antlers grew, your eyes grew a staticy red, your claws sharpened, as well as your teeth. When you hovered behind Angel, there was a ring formed around you by guests who stared in horror.

That night, Valentino learned a very valuable lesson, as did everyone else in the club.

Don’t mess with the daughter of the radio.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

“I swear toots! I told you I’m fine!” Angel protested, pushing away at your prodding claws as you checked over him for any injuries. “He didn’t even touch me!”

You glowered down at him, ears pinned down to the top of your head as you continued to look over him despite his insistence.

“That rancid pest had chains on you,” you hissed, finally leaning back with your hands propped up on your hips. “That moth is lucky I didn’t rip his wings off of his back.”

Angel gave a thankful smile, using his facial expressions rather than words to show his gratitude.

“Fine, fine,” you sighed, finally turning away and leaving him alone. “I should probably make dinner.”

With that you pranced over to the kitchen that your father brought out of thin air with a snap of his fingers, claiming to a protesting Vaggie that at the time you were to be trusted with making them food.

“Seriously though,” you began, grabbing your cookbook and flicking through the thick pages. “If you need anything, you know I could overpower Valentino. Even if I’m not the biggest fan of conflicts I will not hesitate to help.”

Grabbing a wooden spoon, you gestured with it as you glanced over to Angel who wobbled over to the couch like a recently born fawn.

“Don’t get yourself involved with him,” he replied, plopping down onto the seat with a heavy sigh. “I don’t need you to get the Vees on you just because of some stupid mistake I made.”

You hummed in reply, though decided not to argue further. Instead, you got to cooking, dishing up some pasta and beginning to pound in some pork. Despite needing to multitask, you handled it very well as you switched between stirring and then checking on the chicken.

“She’s gonna be on you for weeks,” Husk called from the bar, his tail swishing behind him. “Seriously, mama bear over there worried about Nifty for a week because she scraped her knee.”

You shot the bartender a glare, ears pinned back. But even with your intimidating glance, Husk knew very well you would never willingly bring harm to him. Despite being in hell, it wasn’t in your nature.

“Not true,” you replied, feeling your ears flick in amusement as you fixed up the lemon pasta. “She broke her leg, it wasn’t just a scrape.”

Before Husk could snap back a witty reply, there was a gush of wind that rolled through the hotel, causing everyone to look over. And standing there in the door way was a figure you recognized by heart.

“Papa,” you breathed, giving a joyous smile at the radio demon who strutted in with confidence. “Glad to see you home.”

Alastor immediately made his way over to you, glancing over the bubbling pot of pasta you continued to occasionally stir.

“Good evening, my little fawn,” he greeted, wrapping an arm around you in a warm embrace. “What is it you're brewing up tonight?”

“Lemon pasta and schnitzel,” you stated proudly, grabbing an oven mitt to pull out the carefully made pork, serving bits onto plates whilst flicking the oven off and sliding the pot of pasta off of the burner. “Wanted to make something different tonight.”

Alastor hummed in reply, patting your back once more with a charming grin.

Before the both of you could continue your conversation, the door slammed open once more. 

Everyone whipped around to see Vaggie and Charlie walk into the hotel, and as they did, you immediately knew something was off. However, you just tried to ignore it, quickly serving up a plate of both the lemon pasta and pork onto a plate, going over to Charlie with your signature smile.

“Good evening, Charlie!” you chirped, holding out the plate to her. “How was He-”

Before you could even try to offer her the plate, it was knocked from your hands, the contents falling onto the floor in a wet slop of once delicious food. Your ears pinned back, and static emitted from your overall figure as she trudged past you and upstairs.

But after a moment, you gained your composure, ears returning to their original stance as you looked down to the mess. But before you could lean down, Nifty was quick to dart over and wave you away as she offered to clean it up herself.

With a sigh, you accepted, and turned to Vaggie. Never before had you seen her so devastated, and heartbroken, so of course it had you confused.

“Something happened,” you stated, and she also brushed past you. “I’m guessing the meeting didn’t go well.”

“Not much of a surprise,” Alastor called from where he had sat himself at the dinner table, curling up his pasta with his fork.

You shot your father a quick glare, before whisking over to Vaggie once more. With a gentle, yet firm grip you turned her around, and guided her back to the table, sitting her down.

“I don’t care how upset you may be with Charlie, or how much you don’t trust me,” you began, having Niffy quickly serve her a dish of your cooking. “You both need to eat, and you will eat.”

You sighed, stepping away from Vaggie and getting both Niffty and Husk a plate, setting them down in their assigned seats before finally letting yourself eat as well. Though your natural instincts made you want to wait, wait till Charlie had her fill.

The silence that followed was deafening, with the air so thick with tension that it could be cut with a knife. The only sounds that sounded throughout the dining room was the soft clatter of forks against plates.

“What happened?” you inquired softly, breaking the awkward silence that sat across the table. “I’ve never seen Charlie so upset before…”

Vaggie paused, which was when you realized she hadn’t taken a single bite, only poking at her food every now and then. Her one yellow eyes trailed up to you, and she sucked in a deep breath.

“I’m an exterminator…I’m a fallen angel.”

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

The upper levels of the studio, although luxurious and much more relaxing, always stunk. The stench of sex and sweat stuck to every wall, and it made Velvette cringe and curl up on the floor.

But when she had been scrolling through Sinstagram and saw stuff about Alastor, she couldn’t resist coming up to where Vox and Valentino were to tell him about it. 

It was no secret that Vox had an obsession with the radio demon, and to say it was bad was a bit of understatement. The TV headed Overlord had begun to ignore his business, his partner, but most importantly…his child.

Axial was a bit of an accident, and no one, not even Vox, knows how exactly he was made. He just kind of…popped out of nowhere. The Overlord heir was a lot more reserved than his father, but their powers were matched.

Velvette strutted into the main lobby of the upper levels, brushing off her skirt whilst wincing.

Upon the leather seats, there were the three of them, Valentino, Vox, and Axial. 

“Velvette,” Vox greeted charmingly, fixing up his slightly crooked top hat. “How are you this lovely evening?”

A devilish smile crossed the influencer’s lips, and she came forward, and quickly connected her phone to the TV. After powering it on, her phone screen was then cast to that of the TV.

The three Overlords turned to it, eyes glued to the screen a lot like a moth to a flame, which was ironic because of Valentino’s demon type- but that didn’t matter.

“Turns out not only is Alastor back in town,” Velvette began, grabbing the remote and scrolling down and pausing upon a picture that made Vox tense up, his digital gaze hardening. “But he also has brought along a daughter.”

Thanks to cameras and peeking eyes from other demons, social media was blowing up with Alastor’s little carbon copy. It was for sure his daughter, the same hair, same eyes, same ears, same style.

“He has a FuUucking daughter?!” Vox exclaimed, shooting up from his couch to gesture at the screen in disbelief, voice lagging out. 

Velvette smiled mischievously, standing back a few steps as she witnessed the baby man of an Overlord yell and screech at the TV like a bird with broken vocal cords. She even went out of her way to record the session.

And as she did so, she caught something in the corner of her eye. 

When she shifted her candy cane gaze over to Axial, she couldn’t help but silently study his expression. Unlike his father, his red and blue eyed gaze trained on the screen with features that showed curiosity, amazement, and…adoration.

Velvette grinned with malice, stopping the recording and jumping back onto Sinstagram with new motives in mind.

This is going to be very…very interesting

[cakerybakery]

Lilith dropped her bag off at the front door and called out.

No one responded and she wandered up to her and Lucifer’s bedroom. No one there either. She plugged her phone in to charge. It died sometime during her nap and she hadn’t had the chance to plug it in.

She was a little miffed about her trip to heaven. Who fell asleep on the beach all night? She must have needed the rest more than she thought. At least she didn’t burn. Although, maybe that was because she was in heaven. But she spent one night and day on the beach and Adam’s sidekick tells him that Adam is dead, Charlie apparently has a hotel, and she’s being kicked out?

Obviously “big bro” Adam was just being a dick and going back on his word. How could he possibly die? When the fuck would Charlie have time to start a hotel?

Whatever. She’d touch base with Lucifer and let him know she was back early. If she could find him.

She searched the whole castle and paused by a window. Was that a new hotel? Fuck, they put that shit up fast around here.

Lilith fetched her phone and checked her- “THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE MESSAGES?!? What the fuck Lucifer. I was gone a day. It’s only- that can’t be right. Why does this say February?!? I went to heaven in August! This thing has to be busted. There’s no way I slept for six months.”

She went down to the entrance and attached to the door was a note she missed.

“Lilith,

If you’re seeing this we’re at the Hazbin Hotel. Hope you’re well my darling.

Hugs and kisses,

-Lu”

“What. The. Fuck?!?”

She looked up the hazbin hotel and stormed all the way there.

There was chaos when she got there. No one even seemed to notice she was there. Instead they were trying to stab some sort of flying box. What were they called? A drone? She wasn’t really up on new technology.

She plucked Lucifer up from the chaos and he gave an excited shout before wrapping her up and a big embrace. They toppled over as Charlie tackled them.

“MOM! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Where have you been??”

“Heaven? I was only gone for two nights, sweetie.”

Charlie and Lucifer pulled back and shared a confused look. “Mom, it’s been seven and a half years.”

“What.”

“We tried texting and calling and I must have left hundreds of messages and emails. We assumed you didn’t want to talk to us.”

Lilith fished her phone out and showed them the hundreds of missed everything that were still pinning her phone. “I thought it was just broken.”

Charlie gasped, “you missed so much! I started a hotel. We fought heaven and won! Adam died! He revived this morning!”

A hand grabbed Lucifer from her and helped her up. “You drank a Marvin’s Mai Tai didn’t you?”

Adam looked more like her with his horns and sharp eye teeth than she had expected he could have. It was kind of cute how he was carrying Lucifer like luggage.

They got buzzed by the drone again and Charlie took off after it.

“Told you to stay away from that shit. Not sure what’s in it, but I figured that’s what happened. Had some of the girls watching over your ass for the last seven years.”

“What the hell is going on around here?” She asked him, ducking as some tiny sinner zipped by on top of the drone.

“Bitch, you think I know? I just got here too. Let’s let the demon freaks handle, whatever the fuck that is, and I’ll pour us some drinks from the bar.”

“Give me my husband first.”

Adam looked down at the mildly amused king of hell he was still carrying and then tossed him at Lilith. “Sorry, he’s just so fucking tiny. I forgot he was there.”

She caught him and kissed him before putting Lucifer down. They exchanged more kisses and promised to catch up before she let him go have fun playing with the sinners- wait was that a fucking exterminator??

“How much did I miss?”

“A lot, Lil. I should get this out of the way. I did try to kill your kid. There was a whole thing. Shit got fucking fucked for a few months. She’s got a hell of an arm on her through.”

Part of her wanted to strangle him. But Charlie seemed… okay?

“I need a fucking drink.” She sighed and sat down at the bar.

“Mai tai?”

[stillness-in-green]

I felt like the plf war was rushed

1.Plf advisors getting hype but no payoff

2.Only miruko, Momo, and Kirishma got time to shine

3.Machia got defeated to easily

4.The war felt more like a raid

I don't know if I feel like it was rushed, per se--it's by far the longest arc in the story so far by number of chapters, and would be even if you cut off the Tartarus jailbreak and the entirety of the hospital aftermath. What it absolutely does feel like to me is unbalanced.

You note that the "war" feels more like a raid, and you're right. As a caveat, it's worth keeping in mind that "Paranormal Liberation War" as a name for the arc in question is entirely an invention of the fanbase. To the best of my knowledge, the reasoning for the name was that big action shonen series like BNHA (Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, etc) always have a war arc, so what we were seeing in the lengthy, mass combat confrontation with the PLF had to be HeroAca's equivalent. It's not a term that's in the manga itself, however, not called as such by the characters, not referred to as such by Horikoshi or his editors, not even namedropped in chapter or volume titles. If it feels like a raid, that's probably because that's what it was intended to be.

And that's the problem, really. This arc shouldn't have been about a couple of raids; it should have been about a war.

(Below the cut: a bunch of fired-up complaining. Uses some harsh language, and talks about both injuries and deaths we did see and some we logically should have.)

From the outset, we were told that the resources Shigaraki had amassed were "on par with, or even stronger than" the resources of the hero-saturated society. Yet, we're expected to believe that a force that strong is so easily taken down by a single coordinated set of raids? Yes, the heroes had the benefit of surprise, but there's just so much that doesn't work for me.

First off, and to get this out of the way, it's ridiculous that the heroes even had the benefit of surprise. The MLA had an unknown number of hero double agents. They had people in the government; they had people in the infrastructure. This is an organization that had been living undercover completely unsuspected for multiple generations--how did the HPSC ever manage to carry out a massive, country-wide investigation on such a secretive group and coordinate multiple simultaneous, comprehensive raids without a single person finding out and alerting the higher-ups over a period of only three and a half months?

When exactly did Hawks have time to go and revive Best Jeanist--which he tells us he did personally--such that none of the bugs and micro-cameras he was covered with picked up on it, and both he and BJ could be back in the positions they needed to be in for the raid to begin?

How did Skeptic find out about the raid such that he only discovered it at the last possible second and not minutes, even hours, before it kicked off? How did hundreds of heroes (and even "hundreds" is being conservative, given the fact that they had seventeen thousand people to detain) close in on the villa without anyone from the PLF noticing, either Skeptic with his information network or mundane precautions like people on watch?

Even granting the heroes their surprise advantage--which I don't want to--if the advisors were all supposedly "stronger than the average hero," why didn't we see any of them winning? Okay, yes, Hose Face beat Midnight, but he had every possible advantage in that "fight"; I hardly count it as some big impressive defeat that shows us that the villains were holding their own.

Here's another thing: the MLA styled themselves as an army--they were demonstrably trained in troop tactics. When we saw them in Deika, even their nameless on-the-ground people were capable of coordinating with each other on the fly in response to the movements of the enemy, as we saw come up repeatedly:

Yeah, they were off-guard at first, but as soon as the advisors made the front line (which, you'll note, was immediately), that disadvantage really should have begun eroding. Certainly once Geten--Geten! The number one MLA member most willing to disregard collateral damage! And there he was being a proper leader!--got to the front and started yelling orders, we should have seen the PLF rallying, and I can't imagine any sensible justification for the tides not turning when a) Re-Destro showed up to occupy the highest-ranked hero on the field, b) a bunch of heroes peeled off to try to stop Machia only to get trampled for their efforts, and c) Trumpet got dug out.

You know who don't style themselves as an army, though? Heroes. Oh, they get some basic lessons in cooperation as students, but the extent of such lessons we see is stuff like "why it's important for heroes to have signature moves"--so that on group missions, their reputations will precede them and fellow heroes will already know their shtick. U.A. teaches the odd lesson plan that involves the kids fighting in groups, but there's a huge difference between you and 3 to 6 of your buddies fighting a similarly-sized group in a practice fight, or a handful of heroes teaming up to take down some criminal low-lives, and the mass combat scenario that was the raid. For heaven's sake, look at our closest other equivalent: the raid on the Hassaikai base. At every turn in that encounter, the heroes let themselves get split up and picked off, winnowing down their numbers. It's even explicit in the narrative that hero team-ups were, in the age of All Might, uncommon, and heroes are only just beginning to adjust to fighting in teams. The erstwhile MLA should have had the advantage there.

As to Machia's defeat, I think the big problem with it is not how it happened, per se, but the timescale involved. The plan itself was sound enough, and even with all the kids' efforts, it still took Machia reaching Shigaraki and not getting any new orders to follow to really do him in. Given what we can extrapolate about his movement speed, though, I just don't think the kids should have had time to set all those traps, especially given how much of that equipment would have had to be fabricated by Momo on the fly. I know she's gotten stronger and all, and good for her, but you're telling me that in the four months between Joint Training and the raid, she went from passing out because she created a bag of goodies and one (1) cannon to being totally fine and still able to coordinate her fellow students while cranking out 23 jars of sedative, dozens of feet of rope/cable, multiple fire-resistant coats, explosives they somehow had time to bury, and three cannons?

For fuck's sake, Jirou gave Machia's ETA as under ten seconds. Yeah, Mount Lady slowed him down, but "only a little"--how much time could she possibly have bought them, that the kids were able to to coordinate and enact everything that plan involved?

You guys, go read this post by @codenamesazanka. Machia is so fast. So unbelievably, incredibly fast. "Twice as fast as the fastest train in the world" fast. "Horikoshi clearly did not stop to think about the distances involved here" fast. Three miles in ten seconds fast. It would have been hard enough to square with the needs of the plot that the kids were sufficiently far from the villa to have the kind of time they needed to swing Momo's plan at all, but Horikoshi explicitly letting Machia get right on top of them before the kids even start just makes it completely impossible for me to credit. Machia clearly being slower aboveground than he is when burrowing does not make that much difference to my suspension of disbelief.

My other big complaint? More people should have died, for real. The PLF warriors would not have been holding back. They were ready and willing to kill anyone they came up against. The heroes did have to hold back, because heroes, as we're told over and over again, are not supposed to kill, no matter how dire the circumstances. That difference in ability to exercise force should have been yet another significant advantage for the PLF. I could write an entire list of characters that I think could have reasonably been killed during the raids. That wouldn't be to say that I think any individual, specific character on that list should have died, just that, based on the parameters as they were presented to audience, some number of them should have.

I mean, honestly. How did Horikoshi wanna show us Gang Orca's unmoving claw in the wake of Machia's passage and not have Gang Orca on the list of the dead? How did Fat Gun run right into a mass melee and still have enough fat left over afterward to survive getting trampled by a walking mountain? How did Thirteen survive not getting pulled out of the hospital basement when Shigaraki's Decay hit? How did Trumpet survive getting a staircase dropped on top of him? How did Gran Torino survive a fist through his tiny old man chest cavity?

I could go on and on, but it's not just about the deaths, either. I'm not saying that Kamui Woods necessarily should have died by swinging himself face-first into a blast of blue fire, but I am saying that he should have been out of commission for longer than three goddamn days. You bet your ass I'm saying that after telling us that Hawks' weak point is fire, making us watch him spend at a solid minute or more with his wings wholly enveloped in Dabi's 2000 degree flames, and having Dark Shadow exclaim that his back is completely burned away, Hawks should never have grown his wings back, much less so quickly that they were already visible under his shirt a single day later.

More deaths, more maiming--heck, even more retirements. I'm not saying I love that kind of thing in my fiction--I don't, actually. I think an overreliance on it is a sign of edgelordy nonsense. But the scenario that we had demanded to be treated with the kind of gravity that would have led to such an outcome. To set up a conflict like the raid and have the villains only barely be able to scrape a partial escape, to try to tell us that Shigaraki's victory in Deika granted him such a terrifyingly powerful force only to have them lose every battle they got into, to tell us this was a blow that shook Hero Society to its core, only to be so unwilling to kill or retire any heroes the audience cares about that Midnight is literally the only significant loss… It doesn't work. None of it works.

I don't have much to say on which characters did or didn't get a highlight. I think there were a few more people than you listed that got some good scenes--Tokoyami and Uraraka both got material I liked quite a bit; Dabi famously out-trended the U.S. presidential election on Twitter when he (literally) came clean, and Mr. Compress gave us some wonderfully interesting and characteristically opaque material to chew on. On the whole, though, adding more character moments would only have been dragging out the problem: the scale of the PLF's threat and the HPSC's chosen method of dealing with it are simply incompatible with the feeble "neither side truly won or lost" resolution we got.

And that's my rant on that--thanks for the ask!

[mel-the-fangirl]

Always You

Armie Hammer x Reader

Words: 3,372

This is just a self indulgent thing I wrote to get myself back into the swing of writing stuff. This is actually the first thing I’ve finished in a long ass time so it probably sucks but it’s something! 

DISCLAIMER: I am not claiming to know anything about what went on in Armie’s marriage, this is all fiction. I have nothing against his wife, once again, this is just fiction.

Please like, reblog or leave me a message! Thank you!

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The California sun beat down on you uncomfortably, matting your hair to the nape of your neck, but you endured it just so you could take in the house before you. The glare of the stark white wall made it hard to look at but you couldn’t help but admire the way the entrance arched around the front door.

Through the small wrought iron window on the door, you could see the courtyard, lush bushes and bougainvilleas of every vibrant colour dotting the perimeter.

You hummed thoughtfully. 

"Not up to your standards?" 

"Surprisingly enough," you spun on your heel and looked up at him. "These are exactly my standards." 

Your eyes traced his impressive height until you were gazing at the floor. 

"Right down to the hand painted tiles." you muttered, eyebrows raised

Armie laughed, throwing his head back, "Wait till you see the inside." 

The inside was even better. Natural, earthy tones were perfectly contrasted by the vivid colour of the Spanish tiles, everywhere you looked there would be a cluster of them in just the right spot.

He talked animatedly, his long arms swinging and gesturing all over the place. His blue eyes were bright and you moved from room to room trying to keep up with his huge strides. 

"This is your room." he stated, throwing open the arched wooden door with a flourish

You knew what to expect, of course. Ever since he came to you asking for ideas on how to design his new home, your shared Pinterest board was focused exclusively on Spanish Revival but seeing it in the flesh was a whole other experience. 

"Armie…" you trailed off, gripping his arm tightly

It was a dream come to life. A dream of a spacious, immaculately clean room with white walls and warmly coloured rugs, a giant bed with your recommended bedspread and number of pillows all in order (you couldn't believe he actually paid attention to the Pinterest board).

"Do you like it?" he asked you, placing his large hand on yours

"Like it? I fucking love it, Armie! Oh my god!"

You raced to see the bathroom and nearly died and went to heaven, if you weren't already there. 

A classic, tiled bathtub was tucked into an alcove that took up most of the far side of the wall. The drawers and the sink were all set in rich, dark wood and it all smelled vaguely like jasmine. 

"Oh, yeah," you nodded approvingly, already picturing yourself in the tub, overcome by bubbles. "Hell yeah." 

Armie looked at you with a goofy grin on his face, he reached out to squeeze your shoulder, "I'll grab your bags, why don't you hop in there? I'm making dinner, you just relax." 

"You said the magic words." you grinned back at him

He leaned down to kiss your cheek, his soft lips and the subtle smell of his aftershave caused your heart to skip a few beats. 

A feeling of dread began to cloud over the bliss that came before. You clasped your hands together tightly as he walked past you, he stopped at the door, the top of his head almost grazing the frame. 

"Y/N?" 

"Yeah?"

"I am so glad you're here." Armie winked at you and shut the door behind him, leaving you sucked in a whirlwind of your own increasingly frantic thoughts

You stared at the closed door, his kiss on your cheek still tingling. 

"Bath." you declared to no one in particular, hoping that once you were done, all your worries and anxieties would go down the drain with the suds. 

----------------------------------------------

You woke up with a start, the water in the tub sloshing around as you roused yourself from sleep, that bath must have really done the trick. Night had already fallen, it was pitch dark and only the scented candles you lit illuminated your surroundings.

Outside, the palm trees swung from side to side, back and forth in an erratic dance, big fat drops of rain fell noisily onto the ground, painting it in a silvery sheen. A full blown storm was raging beyond the French casement windows. How long were you out?

You ran your hand along the wall to turn on the lights but when you flipped the switch, nothing happened.

A blackout. Of course.

You dressed quickly in the dark, hoping nothing was inside out.

"Armie?" you called out, shutting the door behind you

As you walked through the house in the quiet darkness, with only the sound of your slippers on the tile and the pouring rain as your companions, you couldn’t help but feel a little scared. 

The longer you thought about it though, the more you were convinced that it wasn’t the fact that you were walking alone in the dark that was scaring you, it was the thought of being completely alone with Armie in his beautiful new home. 

You paused just a few steps shy of the kitchen. Frank Sinatra’s smooth baritone trickled out of the massive arched doorway.

“The stars are aglow and tonight how their light sets me dreaming.

My love, do you know that your eyes are like stars brightly beaming?

I bring you and sing you a moonlight serenade.” you heard Armie sing along

His voice was like velvet, rich and deep and soothing. Try as you might, you still found yourself drifting towards him. Don’t get it wrong, your heart was beating three miles a minute but you felt like you were on autopilot. Next thing you knew, you were standing in the doorway.

He moved with ease, swiftly reaching over to the spice rack and back to the pot before him. Entranced, you watched as he dipped a finger into his creation and promptly placed it in his mouth, he nodded approvingly and finally lifted his gaze to you.

Your breath hitched in your throat. You felt like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. 

Neither of you spoke. 

"So don't let me wait, come to me tenderly…" Sinatra continued to sing, seemingly giving you instructions.

Armie closed the distance between you until you were almost chest to chest. 

"Dance with me?"

"The power's out." you deadpanned, losing your train of thought as he wrapped your arms around you

"I know, that's why I lit candles. So, will you dance with me?" 

Wordlessly, you wrapped your arms around his torso. He swayed slowly, squeezing you gently.

You rested your head on his warm chest, smiling as he hummed along. This felt good, too good. Your heart tightened in your chest, desperate to hold on to this memory of you and him.

"Oh, shit. The soup." he cursed, pulling away just as steam began to rise from the pot on the stove

The illusion shattered like a porcelain statuette meeting a marble floor. You were brought back to reality and you felt very cold all of a sudden. 

"Y/N, take a seat. I'll bring it all over." he began ladling soup into a smooth wooden bowl

The dining table was long and rectangular, made from dark wood to match the rest of the items in the house. An elaborate candelabra stood in the middle, projecting all kinds of shapes across the room. 

"Now," he set a steaming bowl of fragrant soup in front of you. "Eat up. You're freezing."

"Thank you, this smells amazing."

You expected him to take the seat across from you or at the head of the table but instead, he sat next to you, his leg almost brushing against yours. 

"Hope it tastes as good as it smells." Armie remarked, watching you like a hawk as you took your first sip

"Mmm," you smacked your lips and smiled at his nervous expression. "It's good! Six stars, no joke. Don't look so nervous, Armie, it's just me."

He dragged his teeth along his lower lip and stirred his spoon in his bowl. You would never be "just you" to him, you never were. Something in his heart always made him want to impress you, be around you. It was one of the first things he and his ex-wife argued about.

But you didn't need to know that.

Clearly, this stormy night was going to be spent by candlelight. Romantic, sure, but dangerous. Both of your secrets and words left unsaid hovered over you like shadows, waiting to be revealed. 

Eventually, you settled back into your usual routine with Armie. Catching up, playfully critiquing his movies that you've seen, much to his embarrassment. Then finally, an opening to ask the question you've been dying to ask. 

You set your wine glass on the table, tracing the lip of your glass with your fingertip. "So, are we going to skirt around it all night, Armie? Or are you going to tell me what happened?"

He sucked in a deep breath, wiping both his hands on his lap. He’d been expecting that, of course. You two haven’t seen each other in a year but you never lost touch. When the news of his divorce broke out, you expected to be the first person he would call, but he never did.

“Well, Y/N, uh,” his long fingers scratched at the back of his neck, "I got divorced because I had an affair. Nothing physical happened but, well, you know.”

A year ago, Armie’s marriage had been slowly but surely falling apart, it was falling apart way before the word “divorce” ever crossed their minds but they both held on, for the children. Until, they couldn’t. When all sorts of headlines and far-fetched gossip made the rounds, he took it all, nevermind that his ex-wife had her own issues, all people wanted was to take a shot at him and he let them. He didn’t really care what anyone else had to say.

The trouble was, everything was different for him when you were involved. He hung his head low, keeping his eyes on his lap. 

“Chin up, Armand.” you reached over to brush your knuckles against his chin, “I didn’t come here to judge you.”

“What are you here for then?”

"I’m here for you."

"You've always been there for me." 

A moment passed. Two, three. Mere seconds but it felt much longer. When your eyes met it felt like you were finally seeing each other for the very first time. 

Armie’s palms had become slick with sweat and he felt a lump forming in his throat. He gulped down a glass of water to fend off whatever was going on with him.

"So, uh. How's that guy you've been seeing?" he casually draped his arm over the back of his chair even though he wasn't feeling casual at all.

"Well," you exhaled, smiling ruefully at him. "That's been over for months now." 

He was absolutely floored. His eyes widened to a size that could rival the bowl in front of you and his jaw almost hit the floor. You chuckled into your shoulder.

"Damn, Y/N. That's the second one this month." he clicked his tongue

"Armand, I don't think you're in the position to judge. " you looked at him meaningfully, cocking your head to the side

"Heh. Touché."

You ate in silence while trying to ignore the way your heart was trying to break out of your chest. Talking about your love life was dangerous territory. 

"Can I just ask you something though?" Armie put his spoon down and turned to you

"Look, I know I'm not exactly Dr. Love right now but, what's going on, Y/N? You know I’m always here if you need to talk."

He was so genuinely concerned, you could see it in the way he looked at you. It’s a shame he was the reason behind all your failed relationships. This really wasn't how you pictured telling Armie you had been in love with him since you were teenagers. In fact, you didn’t think you were going to tell him at all.

Before you could even stop yourself, the words came tumbling from your mouth. 

"I've actually been in love with one man my entire life." 

"Whoa! Whoever he is, he’s a lucky guy. To have the Great Y/N Y/L/N hung up on him." the corners of his lips were quirked up in a soft smile but you noticed that it didn't reach his eyes

"Oh, he was lucky for a while," you gripped the side of your chair until your knuckles turned white

"Everyone adored him, saw how talented he was. His life was picture perfect."

Why you were saying all this to Armie, he had no idea. It stung a little, knowing that you were hung up on someone else but he was definitely used to you overlooking him by now. 

"But he.. He's going through a bit of a rough patch now. He's.. He got a divorce," 

He squared his shoulders and weaved his arms tight against his chest, his eyebrows knitted together. 

Finally telling him the truth terrified you but you'd gone this far, there was no turning back. 

"Uh, yeah. He got a divorce and he hasn't seen his kids in months. It was so hard on him and he didn’t even talk to me about it but… I love him."

Saying it out loud was oddly therapeutic.

"I love him," you said louder, feeling the adrenaline course through your body. "I've loved him ever since I first met him. I loved him when we became best friends,"

"I loved him even when I had to sit and watch him marry someone else. I loved him when he told me he was going to be a dad and he cried on my shoulder because he said he was so afraid he'd mess it up,"

Armie uncrossed his arms so abruptly, the face of his watch clacked against the table. His eyes were wide, filled with questions. 

You nodded, answering the most obvious one. Tears began to sting in your eyes and sobs spasmed in your throat uncomfortably. But still you went on. 

"I loved him even when… Even when I watched him build this beautiful life with his beautiful wife and children. Even when all I could do was stand by and try to be okay with knowing that I was never going to get to be with him the way I wanted. "

Your shoulders shuddered with each shaky breath you forced through your lungs. You didn’t dare look at him, you kept a hand over your eyes as you cried.

And like hell did you cry. You cried for all the lost time, the missed opportunities, the longing looks, the what if's.

"I… Jesus. All this fucking time, Y/N." he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose and screwing his eyes shut

Like he couldn't even stomach the sight of you. 

"I should've kept my mouth shut." you shook your head and got up

What were you thinking?

Did you honestly think it was a good idea? What did you expect would happen? That he would take your face in his hands, thumbs skimming lovingly across your cheeks? Did you honestly expect that he would finally press his lips into yours and everything would fall into place?

Just as you were about to leave the kitchen to dramatically pack up your things and see if someone was insane enough to give you a ride home in this storm, Armie reached up to grab hold of your arm.

“Don’t… Just,” he huffed, shoulders deflating, “Just don’t walk out, let’s-let’s fucking talk about this, Y/N.”

“We don’t have to talk about anything, Armie. Let me go and we can just forget I ever said anything.”

“I don’t want to forget, Y/N!” Armie suddenly exploded, rising from his seat

All six feet and five inches of him loomed over you. You had to crane your neck just so you could look him in the eye.

“Okay. Alright, let’s get this over with then.” you dragged the wooden chair back, its legs squealing noisily against the floor

You planted your hands firmly on the top of the chair, using it as a shield between you and him.

Armie regarded you with caution, “You’re not going to throw that at me, are you?”

“Can we get on with this?” you snapped

"Alright then," he ran a harsh hand over his face, "Why." 

"Why what." 

 "Why now!" he yelled, raking his hands roughly through his hair, “Why not back then when things were less fucking complicated!”

"It was too late, okay?! You were already with Elizabeth when I figured it out and I didn't wanna ruin things for you. There was never a good time.”

He stepped toward you, placing his hands on the chair next to your own, “We spent half of our goddamn lives together, Y/N! You never found a good time then?”

You looked at him. You've looked at him for half your life basically. His classically handsome face, the crinkles by his sky blue eyes that were present even when he wasn't smiling, the lines that were carefully etched into his tanned skin deepened as his brows remained pushed together.

"I didn't want to lose you! Okay?! You're fucking right, we spent half our lives together and there was no way I was going to risk going through the other half without you!"

"We could have spent the rest of our fucking lives together, Y/N. Right from the fucking start, that's what I'm trying to tell you. Right from the start, it could've been just you and me." he retorted, his voice threatened to crack

The magnitude of his words began hitting you, wave after wave. 

"We were both goddamn cowards. Now look at us," he threw a hand in your direction then at his chest, "Serial Dater and Divorced Cheater."

Silence stretched miles between you, neither of you had any more words to squeeze out of yourselves, you felt raw, exposed.

Your hand went numb from gripping the chair too tightly, you wandered over to the kitchen sink to hold it over running water but you ended up sitting on the floor with your head heavy in your hands.

To say that this wasn’t what you bargained for when you accepted Armie’s invitation to see his new house would be the understatement of your entire life. You turned his words over in your head about a dozen times.

Didn’t you get what you wanted? There it was, all laid out for you, what were you waiting for? 

Armie sighed, settling down on the floor next to you. He took your hand, the one that was just beginning to wake up, and massaged it in his.

“Can you look at me?”

You did as he asked, lifting your eyes to his. He was smiling, it was hard not to smile back.

“Hi.” he planted a kiss on the back of your hand

“Hi.” you replied, looping your arm through his and resting your head on his shoulder

The storm continued to sweep through and the wind shrieked outside but for the first time that night, you felt completely calm despite the big question staring both of you in the face.

“So now what?” you asked

“Now, I think I should reheat dinner.” he got up and extended his hand to you

Was he fucking with you? That really wasn’t the answer you were expecting but you tried not to let your disappointment show. Once your hand was in Armie’s, he pulled you to him, one hand cupped your cheek while the other landed on the small of your back.

“May I?”

His lips were just a hair’s breadth away from yours. You looked up at him, nodding almost imperceptibly but he didn’t miss a beat. He  kissed your cheek first, then your forehead, making your eyes flutter shut. You were so close together, you wondered if he could feel your heart pounding against his chest.

“Are you going to keep me waiting?” you whispered, hands already snaking around the back of his neck

Armie bent down slightly, nuzzling his nose against yours as he shook his head, “I think we’ve both been waiting long enough.”

[mukuaruuze]

African Myths and Creation stories

According to many African myths, the creation of heaven precedes the creation of earth and man was created before the animals. The sun and the moon are given high status, even seen as gods in some cultures and because all African societies depend on rain, it is also held in high regard.

The earth is a very important element in the many myths. It is regarded by many as a mother goddess who rules all people and gives birth to new generations of all beings. It is believed that earth conceals life, protecting it from drought and reviving it when the rains come.

All creatures are earth and none can live without her. Even the elements come from the earth, yet the earth itself is seldom worshipped. She is regarded as a powerful spirit, ruling over life and death, moving mountains, forests and all when angered. It is said that animals understand and obey the earth but that man does not.

Some African peoples believe that the spirits live in the sky and control the rain, while others believe in water spirits that control the rivers, lakes and oceans. There also exist African myths of spirits that inhabit rocks, mountains and trees, such places are considered sacred.

It can be good or evil....

In African mythology, Jok is the concept of the divine; it can be good or evil, one or many. Unlike Europeans, who believe spiritual beings must be separated, African mythology believes Jok is the unified spirit of all supernatural beings: God and the spirits, the gods, the holy ghost and beings from the otherworld.

African Religion believes in the existence of good and evil spirits and rituals play a very important part in African culture. Bad spirits are believed to cause misfortune and illness and many societies have spiritual professionals who communicate with ancestral spirits to protect against evil. Mediums enter into trance-like states, allowing a spirit to possess their body and use them to communicate or prophesy.

African religious practitioners undergo intense training and there are different roles of spiritual professionals including priests, rainmakers and healers, also known as diviners or herbalists.

Some African Religions even distinguish more than one spiritual essence residing within a person. In Nigeria, the Yoruba people believe that a person has at least three spiritual beings. Emi (meaning "breath"), is a vital force that keeps man alive. It resides in the heart and lungs and is fed by the wind. Ojiji is a shadow that follows its owner and awaits his return in heaven when he dies. The third being is Eleda, or spirit, which must be fed by sacrifices. These spiritual beings flee the body at the time of death and all await his return in heaven.

African Myths on Destiny

The Yoruba people also believe that a man's success or failure in life depends on the choices he made in heaven before his birth. Ori is the Yoruba god in heaven who supervises people's choices. Ori means "head" or "mind".

Even the gods themselves depend on Ori to direct their personal lives. Gods and men alike consult their sacred divination palm nuts daily in order to receive direction from Ori.

African Creation Stories

These stories are adapted from The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths. London: Heinemann, 1966.

A Fulani story (Mali)

HOW THE WORLD WAS CREATED FROM A DROP OF MILK

At the beginning there was a huge drop of milk

Then Doondari (God) came and he created the stone.

Then the stone created iron;

And iron created fire;

And fire created water;

And water created air.

The Doondari descended a second time. And he took the five elements

And he shaped them into man.

But man was proud.

Then Doondari created blindness and blindness defeated man.

But when blindness became too proud,

Doondari created sleep, and sleep defeated blindness;

But when sleep became too proud,

Doondari created worry, and worry defeated sleep;

But when worry became too proud,

Doondari created death, and death defeated worry.

But when death became too proud,

Doondari descended for the third time,

And he came as Gueno, the eternal one

And Gueno defeated death.

A Nupe story (Nigeria)

God created the tortoise (turtle), men and stones. Of each he created male and female. God gave life to the tortoises and men, but not to the stones. Noen could have children, and when they became old they did not die but became young again!

The tortoise, however, wished to have children, and went to God. But God said: “I have given you life, but I have not given you permTortoiseission to have children.”

But the tortoise came to God again to make the request, and finally God said:

“You always come to ask for children. Do you realize that when the living have had several children they must die?”

But the tortoise said: “Let me see my children and then die.” Then God granted the wish.

When man saw that the tortoise had children, he too wanted children. God warned man, as he had the tortoise, that he must die. But man also said: “Let me see my children and then die.”

That is how death and children came into the world.

Only the stones didn’t want to have children, so they never die!

An Efe story (D.R. Congo) :The Forbidden Fruit

God created the first human being with the help of the moon. God kneaded the body out of clay. Then God covered it with skin and the end God poured blood into it. God called the first human Baatsi.

Then God whispered into his ear telling him to beget many children, but to impress upon the children the following rule: from all trees you may eat, but not from the Tahu tree.

Baatsi had many children and he made them obey the rule. When he became old he retired to heaven. His children obeyed the rule and when they grew old they too retired to heaven.

But one day a pregnant woman was seized with an irresistible desire to eat the fruit of the Tahu tree. She asked her husband to break some for her, but he refused. But when she persisted, the husband gave in. He crept into the forest at night, picked the Tahu fruit, peeled it, and hid the peel in the bush. But moon had seen him, and she told God what she had seen.

God was so angry with humans that he sent death as a punishment to men.

A Nyamwezi story (Tanzania) :The Plant of Life

Shida Matunda created all things. After making the earth and water and plants and animals, he created two women and took them as his wives.

His favorite wife, however, died. Then Shida Matunda buried her in her house and remained at her grave watering it every day. After some time, a little plant began to grow from the grave. Then he was glad, because he knew that the dead woman would rise again. He did not allow his other wife to come near the grave.

But one day when Shida Matunda had gone out, the wife was overcome with curiosity and she stole into the house. When she saw the plant, she was jealous and cut it down with a hoe. The blood of the dead woman poured out of the grave and filled the house.

When Shida Matunda returned and saw the blood, he was much afraid and said: “You have killed your co-wife and thereby caused all men, animals, and plants to die.”

From Shida Matunda and the surviving woman descended all other humans.

An African-Cuban Creation Story:How Truth and Falsehood Got So Confused.

Olofi created the Earth and all things in it. He created beautiful things and ugly things. He created Truth and he created Falsehood. He made Truth big and powerful, but he made Falsehood skinny and weak. And God made them enemies. He gave Falsehood a cutlass [large knife], unbeknownst to Truth. One day, the two met and started fighting. Truth, being so big and powerful felt confident, and also very complacent since he didn’t know that Falsehood had a cutlass. So Falsehood cunningly cut off Truth’s head. This jolted and enraged Truth, and he started scrambling around on the ground for his head. In his scrambling, Truth stumbled unto Falsehood, and knocking him down Truth, felt the head of Falsehood, which he took to be his own head. His strength being truly awesome, a mere pull from Truth yanked off the head of Falsehood. Truth then put the head on his own neck. And from that day what we have had is a horrible mismatch: the body of Truth and the head of Falsehood.

African Bushmen Creation Myth

People did not always live on the surface of the earth. At one time people and animals lived underneath the earth with Kaang (Käng), the Great Master and Lord of All Life. In this place people and animals lived together peacefully. They understood each other. No one ever wanted for anything and it was always light even though there wasn't any sun. During this time of bliss Kaang began to plan the wonders he would put in the world above.

First Kaang created a wondrous tree, with branches stretching over the entire country. At the base of the tree he dug a hole that reached all the way down into the world where the people and animals lived. After he had finished furnishing the world as he pleased he led the first man up the hole. He sat down on the edge of the hole and soon the first woman came up out of it. Soon all the people were gathered at the foot of the tree, awed by the world they had just entered. Next, Kaang began helping the animals climb out of the hole. In their eagerness some of the animals found a way to climb up through the tree's roots and come out of the branches. They continued racing out of the world beneath until all of the animals were out.

Kaang gathered all the people and animals about him. He instructed them to live together peacefully. Then he turned to the men and women and warned them not to build any fires or a great evil would befall them. They gave their word and Kaang left to where he could watch his world secretly.

As evening approached the sun began to sink beneath the horizon. The people and animals stood watching this phenomenon, but when the sun disappeared fear entered the hearts of the people. They could no longer see each other as they lacked the eyes of the animals which were capable of seeing in the dark. They lacked the warm fur of the animals also and soon grew cold. In desperation one man suggested that they build a fire to keep warm. Forgetting Kaang's warning they disobeyed him. They soon grew warm and were once again able to see each other.

However the fire frightened the animals. They fled to the caves and mountains and ever since the people broke Kaang's command people have not been able to communicate with animals. Now fear has replaced the seat friendship once held between the two groups.

The Bushmen of Africa believe that not only are plants and animals alive, but also rain, thunder, the wind, spring, etc. They claim:

What we see is only the outside form or body. Inside is a living spirit that we cannot see. These spirits can fly out of one body into another. For example, a woman's spirit might sometime fly into a leopard; or a man's spirit fly into a lion's body. (Fahs and Spoerl 6)

[dopescotlandwarrior]

Sinners & Saints-Chapter Two

                  Special thanks to @statell​ for all your help

Previous chapters on AO3

Chapter Two

Claire emerged from a taxi in a tight black pencil skirt and black high heels as she walked into the upscale restaurant. She knocked on a door with a “espace de rangement” sign on display. The door opened to a nice looking man, impeccably dressed, and she could see her Godfather standing to greet her. He held his arms out for an embrace.

“My darling Bear, it is so good to see you alive and well.” He kissed both of her cheeks and looked her over for bruises. “Quite a scare you gave me yesterday.” He looked into her eyes, “did you arrange for the explosion? The news is reporting natural causes, a gas leak I believe.”

“Certainly not. I wouldn’t put the art at risk like that, besides, I could have done it in my sleep.”

“The news had video of you being rescued, quite terrifying. Do you know the man you were trapped with?”

“Yes, James Fraser. For twenty hours I laid on top of Jamie Fraser and found him to be quite charming and attentive.”

Javier Charvet laughed from his belly and looked at his men enjoying the humor. He pulled a chair out for Claire and sat down next to her. Someone spread a white cloth in front of him while Claire pulled a rolled canvas from her purse. Javier put white gloves on and carefully unrolled the painting where he could examine it under a high powered magnifying glass. He sat up and signaled to his man who left the room, presumably to initiate the transfer of the deed for the Italian property.

“Little Bear, what in God’s name is the Senator doing? I’m talking about his bid for governor announced today.”

“His what?”

Javier looked up with compassionate eyes. “You didn’t know. Has the bastard even called you yet?”

“Yes, yes, I got a call from Mary this morning.”

“And all this time I thought his name was Frank.”

“Mary is his secretary, like his right hand.”

“I know Bear, like I know what grades she got in middle school and that she is a lesbian. I was being sarcastic.”

Javier could see the pain on Claire’s face and backed off. “You must go, I understand. I will have the deed delivered to you in a few hours. Go out through the kitchen, Joseph is waiting to take you back.”

Javier Charvet was a best friend to Claire’s father until the day he died, along with her mother, in a car crash. He tried to get custody of little Claire, but her Uncle Lamb was a blood relative and the courts awarded custody to him. Javier continued to fight for her through the years they were in Egypt and South America, arguing it was no place to raise a young lady. Finally, when Claire was fifteen, the court let her decide where she wanted to live and she chose France with Javier.

Claire did not want to hurt Uncle Lamb, but she was ready to get out of the dirt and sleep in a regular house with indoor plumbing. The warm love and attention she received from Javier was an unexpected bonus and she blossomed under his care. Whenever he saw her, his face would light up and he would call her Claire Bear which was shortened through the years to just Bear. She stayed with Javier through graduate school, leaving for America when she was hired by University of Chicago. That was three years ago.

Claire sat back in the front seat and sighed. She was reeling emotionally after hearing Frank had announced his bid for governor. He never talked to her about it, come to think of it, he never talked about anything. Their relationship felt settled and comfortable from day one, like couples who had spent thirty years together. She couldn’t remember either of them doing anything romantic for the other and suddenly felt like crying her eyes out. What she needed was a day to be selfish and pretend she was someone else who wasn’t saddled with a flatline relationship. She directed Joseph to the retail district and blew him a kiss promising to find a safe way home. She wanted to be free for the next two days and that started with something fun and funky to wear tomorrow.

Javier assigned two of his men to investigate the Senator again. “Find out what projects have his support, who are the major players, who is backing his bid for governor. Find out what master he serves.”

The next day, Claire woke up excited to walk the Louvre. She straightened her hair and added some makeup before jumping into one of her new sundresses. She looked into the full-length mirror and giggled at the strange reflection. The top of the dress was fitted, connecting at the back of her neck leaving her shoulders bare. The skirt had yards of soft fabric that fell just below her knee and a studded belt. The dress was sunshine yellow with silver studs. Nothing could be farther from the tailored suits and conservative colors that filled her closets at home. She smiled and almost skipped out of the hotel to catch a taxi.

Jamie sat at the hotel pool sipping his coffee, and quietly losing his mind. The team spent seven hours yesterday pouring over every art theft attributed to Casper… again, and they had nothing. He took a deep breath and started making phone calls to those he served feeling like he would explode any minute. He had checked the airlines and knew there were no flights to Chicago until tomorrow, so she was still in town most likely. He exhaled and ran a hand through his hair. Fuck it, he thought, let's see if lightning will strike twice. He made his way to the Louvre.

Claire drifted happily through the museum walking close to the Virgin of the Rocks to examine the brush strokes. She jumped when someone spoke to her from behind.

It’s obvious there was a second hand, don’t you agree?”

Claire spun around to see Jamie Fraser smiling at her. There was initial surprise and happy excitement in her face which she covered quickly, turning back to the painting.

“I do not agree. I have always advocated a single hand and it’s the crazy conspiracy theorists who lead people down that road. You should know better than to comment on fine art, Mister Fraser.”

Jamie looked confused by her comment. “I beg to differ madam. I have an art degree after all.”

Claire giggled at the hurt look he concocted, “what kind of degree?”

When she turned back to him and looked up at his face, Jamie nearly forgot to breathe. “Nothing like yours and may I ask how you are allowed to walk the streets of an unsuspecting Paris? How many cars collided watching you walk down the sidewalk, hmmm?”

Claire was laughing at his charm and feeling flattered. “Suppose you do Paris a favor and walk with me?”

Claire looped her arm in his and they walked, admired the paintings, sat and discussed, joked and flirted for hours. Jamie’s knowledge of the masters was surprising and made for stimulating conversation. He had a profound appreciation for the art and artist, much like her own. After four hours they called it a day and went to find a sidewalk cafe for refreshment. Claire watched Jamie look through the three menus at the table and decided to be brave.

“Come on, handsome, this place is too boring.” She spun in the other direction as the wind caught the ample fabric of her skirt and teased it up until she could get a hold of it. They heard a loud crash as a driver struck a parked car and suddenly Jamie’s arm was around her waist pulling her along.

“I rest my case madam. Where is it we are going for more exciting refreshment?”

Claire was laughing at Jamie and feeling bad for the driver, “it’s close and you will love it because they have beer and volleyball outside. It’s quite popular in America.”

Jamie could not get the image of Claire’s legs out of his mind but dedicated himself to being less flirty with her. With a last look at her backside, he let his eyes follow the curves to her feet.

“I can’t believe you can walk the Louvre in heels.”

“I bought flat sandals for today but kept running into walls, so I went back to what I’m used to.”

“Thank God they don’t accentuate your statuesque figure, or perfect posture,” said rolling his eyes, making her laugh again.

She was so easy to talk to, and joke with, Jamie winced remembering her disarming banter in the Louvre that made him a slave to her enjoyment.

“Listen, Sassenach, I am sorry for the flirting, I lost my head with a very pretty girl, who is engaged to be married. I promise to behave like a gentleman while we have a beer and then see you home safely. Right after this…” He pulled her to him and stuck his nose against her neck breathing deeply and releasing her instantly with a happy grin. “You smell like heaven lass.”

Claire was stunned by the cascade of feelings elicited by Jamie’s hug and the feel of his skin against her neck. When he released her she almost fell over, reaching for his arm to steady herself.

“That’s quite alright, it is a lovely scent.”

They entered a dark bar with a rousing crowd who were drinking the afternoon away. The beer was reviving while they talked about their time under the rubble and the mouse that ran up her leg. He asked about her lecture, fascinated by her travels to bring the love of art to the masses. She had been in more countries than he had and entertained him with anecdotes. Sitting in a booth gave her the freedom to look at his face, shoulders, and arms. He was dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt that did little to hide his massive biceps and chest. She was careful to look discreetly until the second beer arrived which made it harder to pretend.

“Let’s watch the volleyball for a while, Sassenach, then I’ll see you back to your hotel.”

The fresh air helped to clear Claire’s head and she chose a team to root for. The game was fast and fun and she lost herself in the competition, slapping Jamie’s leg at times when her team scored. She didn’t notice how quiet he had become.

True to his word, Jamie was polite and attentive for the rest of their time together. Inside, he went to battle with the part of himself that wanted a girl like Claire and would be ruthless to win her. His decent side won, and he dropped her at her hotel before kissing her forehead and thanking her for a memorable afternoon.

Claire smiled and waved goodbye. Her glass face always gave the observer a look into her true emotion and Jamie saw her confusion and her interest. He needed to get out of Paris, first thing tomorrow. Go home to Scotland and forget about this time with the Sassenach. It felt like he lost a piece of himself today, a piece that remained with her. It made him feel empty inside.

Claire ordered food in her room and sat on the terrace, thinking about Jamie, Paris, and Frank. If he had given her his cell phone number, she would have called him and talked about her crazy feelings and desire for him. He mentioned the name of his hotel several times that afternoon. She tried to resist the seduction that played on a continuous loop in her mind. If only…

Jamie opened his eyes in a dark room when he felt his bed move and was instantly awake. He smelled her perfume and rolled toward the scent as she turned on a light. She was removing her shoes and then her belt and looked like she might join him in bed.

“Your dress lass.”

Claire twisted the button under her hair and pulled the dress over her head letting it drop to the floor. He pulled her to him and kissed her like his life depended on it. The kisses were sweet and long, building the fire she craved. For the next hour, he felt each curve, tasted every part of her, and pushed himself into her wet softness when she begged him to.

Claire walked naked to his room refrigerator where she stashed a bottle of champagne and a bowl of fresh strawberries. She pushed pillows against the headboard so Jamie could sit up and then straddled him, handing him a glass and placing a strawberry in his mouth. The ground rules were unspoken yet they both knew not to ask or comment on what this was. It just was.

“How is it you move through my door, room, and refrigerator without making a sound lass?”

“I’m a cat burglar,” said with honesty

Later Jamie led Claire to his outside patio with the lights of Paris spread far and wide. He danced with her, naked, holding her close, with a promise of more. Claire was very aware she was dancing with the enemy. The man was obsessed with bringing her down and his life was dedicated to that pursuit. None of it was lost on her so she lived each second with him. They made love once more and he gripped her to him as they fell asleep.

Claire looked up at Jamie’s window before getting into her cab. She would not see him again unless she made a mistake and he caught Casper. She wondered if she could walk away from stealing art for a man like Jamie. The answer was moot. It was the only thing that made her feel alive.

Later, Claire walked to the front desk to check out of the hotel. On her way to the exit, she felt someone pull her back and looked into the eyes of Jamie Fraser. He reached into her purse and pulled her phone out, punching in his contact information. He kissed her soundly and stroked her cheek.

“I still owe you a life Sassenach, and as I said, I’ll be the first one there.” He disappeared into the throng of people leaving the resort and Claire dropped into a couch to slow her racing heart.

Landing at O’Hare airport did wonders for popping the pink balloon Claire was in. She looked out at the familiar sights of home and Jamie Fraser was reassigned to the distant memory file in her mind. Like so many Sorority nights in her past. She felt strong and ready to tackle the remainder of the semester. When she saw Geillis she quickened her step and hugged her friend like her favorite puppy. The two women chatted while waiting for luggage and then heading home. When Claire walked into her townhouse Paris no longer existed. She was back.

Jamie had to get out of Paris before he lost his mind. Another failed attempt to catch Casper and a stunning girl left her mark on him and then disappeared. He made haste getting back to his farm in Scotland where the demands of the land would pull him back to normal. He assigned his top man to wrap up the investigation at Sotheby’s auction house and the report was waiting in is outlook when he got to Scotland.

The explosion was caused by a gas leak, the vault video was disabled by some sort of bright light beam, there were no fingerprints unaccounted for, and the handlers were questioned but added no clues. One female handler said she left the vault for a couple of minutes with Professor Beauchamp to find the audio technician and heard the auto-locking door to the vault slam behind her. As usual, Casper left no leads to follow and disappeared with a Rembrandt worth thirty million dollars. He had nothing.

Claire and Geillis wrapped up the semester in the final month. There were graduate dissertations to evaluate, term papers to read, and final exams to grade. It was a busy month and both looked forward to a summer off. Geillis would spend two months in her pool by day and the clubs by night. Claire would be away most of that time, lecturing, appraising, promoting her book, and stealing art.

She knew she had been in the game too long. Statistically, she was on borrowed time as a thief and when she was caught, she would lose her freedom for the next twenty years. Aside from quitting, she took every precaution including secure communication, the best VPN, encryption security, and a code translator that was owned by Javier because he commissioned the program. There were no back doors installed in the programming, verified by the best security experts in France. He named the program Tom, and no one knew why. Tom was installed on Claire’s home computer and on Javier’s, no one else would use it, see it in action, or ask questions about it. Claire’s heart jumped when she saw the message and she sent it to Tom. Thirty-six seconds later she read the message from Javier and smiled.

“Easy Peezy,” she said out loud as she sent a coded RSVP and agreed to the terms, one point five million in gold. The compensation received for her service had been routed to several off-shore accounts in the beginning and her wealth grew at a staggering rate. Cash felt like an anchor that would sink her in an investigation so she switched to valued properties that would be harder to discover. The gold would be kept in a bank vault locally and used for catastrophic expenses in the future, like hiring a team of defense lawyers. It would cost her two or three hundred thousand just to get it to Chicago, but she would pay it.

Her cell phone played Frank’s ringtone and she felt a boulder in her stomach.

“Hello darling, just touching base about this weekend. Do you have plans for us yet?”

“No Frank, you have not been home since the break started so I will consider you still gone until I actually see you.”

“Alright, fair enough. I have been invited to a private island, owned by a billionaire. The people that are funding my campaign have asked me to go. It almost sounds like a rite of passage kind of thing.”

“Well, best of luck with the upcoming test of manhood, or whatever it is.”

Claire trapped her lip between her teeth and was grinding on it as Frank talked. She was so mad at him and hurt by his estrangement. This was the time of year he spent in Chicago but he was still in Washington with his high-powered new friends that filled his calendar with things to do and people to meet. She tasted blood in her mouth and went back to her packing. Her flight to Germany left in twelve hours and it would be a tense few days once she got there.

Claire paid the admission to the Johannisburg Castle, host to the Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh exhibit. She played with the micro camera hidden in a broach and pinned to her sweater, the remote was deep in a pocket of her trousers. With luck, she would have clear pictures of the employee badges, the security cameras, and the exhibit hall by dinner. Tonight she would finish her fake statue of King Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun’s grandfather who guarded his tomb for millennia before it was discovered and plundered by archaeologists in 1922. The statue would not stand up to scrutiny, but she just needed a few minutes to get out of the building.

Claire plugged a USB into the back of the pendant and downloaded the pictures onto her laptop while the last coat of gold paint was drying on the little statue. She launched her graphics program and got to work, creating an employee badge that would pass at a glance.

Claire noticed the incoming handlers would have their badges scanned before coming into the castle. When leaving for the day, they were scanned to ensure none of the treasures were going home with them. Each piece in the collection was tagged with a liquid that emitted a dose of radiation high enough to be outside the normal range but low enough to be safe. She would skip the scanner and leave through the ceiling, like she came. By midnight, everything was ready, by tomorrow night at this time she would be one and a half million dollars richer.

Claire laid in bed, but sleep would not come. She reached for her phone, launching her contacts. For the hundredth time since leaving Paris, she looked at Jamie’s name and brought the whole evening back to her mind. It was such a sweet sadness that filled her, and each time she did this Frank became less and less important. In her dreams, she slept in Jamie’s embrace all night.

[laceymorganwrites]

On with the show

Word count: 2, 181

Pairing: Nikki Sixx!Kuroo x reader

Warnings: mentions of drug abuse, swearing, mentions of cheating and overall asshole behavior, description of childhood abuse, description of a disgusting apartment, mentions of sex

Taglist: @varia-venus 

General taglist: @astrooliver

Tetsuro knew what he wanted. And he´d get it. No matter what.

He had been desperately trying to make it in the metal scene of Tokyo but to no avail. Rock n roll was dead, hard rock and anything remotely close to metal even more so.

It was unfair and he felt like a ghost. Tetsuro wanted to be seen. He wanted the acknowledgment of others to replace the void in his heart that came from the neglect in his childhood.

Well, it was more than just neglect, but he was way too sober to dive into that right now.

Growing up when pop and safe lyrics poisoned the radio stations and he wanted to rip out his hearing organs every fucking time, he felt like an outsider.

Maybe he was born into the wrong time. It was so unfair to him.

Nowadays everyone could do and be whatever they wanted, so everyone told him.

But in reality, nobody wanted heavy riffs, smashing drums or high pitched screams. Nobody cared about rock n roll anymore, it was dead. Sure modern artists tried and failed to revive it, but whatever shitty music they made, it was a fucking sin to compare it to rock.

Heavy didn´t mean autotune, heavy didn´t mean lyrics being written by twelve different people, heavy didn´t mean censored.

Everyone preferred staged and picture perfect boy groups, it made Tetsuro sick to his stomach. They could all suck it. He hated fake people so much, it made him rage.

Without any friends of his age, he snaked his way through various bands and played gigs in almost every club in Tokyo.

Tetsuro was a loner, a loser with an ego way out of perspective. He didn´t care that he couldn´t play bass, he did anyway. He wanted to be like his idols, wanted to be the savior of heavy music.

But all he was, was a little kid with too much free time.

Other kids his age would go to college at this point, not Tetsuro though.

He moved out of his dad´s place as soon as possible, his mom having divorced him back when he was in middle school, leaving him with scars and a broken home.

His dad was an asshole, emotionally manipulating and abusing him. Like any abuser, it wasn´t always bad. There were good times, he took him to all the concerts he wanted to go to. He didn´t yell at him when he found weed in his bag.

Instead he brought home so many women, Tetsuro couldn´t even remember their faces, let alone their names. Every day he was told what a slob and disappointment he was, why he had to make the life of his dad so hard, that it was no wonder his mom left.

Like a fucking idiot he went looking for her, only to be left with nothing but a broken heart.

So, he tried everything to gain the approval that he never got in his childhood from bad influences.

He quit school, worked his ass off to get a guitar and then auditioned for whatever band needed someone right now.

For about thirty minutes to an hour, he felt like someone important, like the rockstar he always wanted to be.

He felt invincible.

Still, no band ever stuck with him, they just kicked him out every time they found out he either fucked their sister or girlfriend, had consumed all of their alcohol and drugs or stole their money.

Tetsuro met Koutaro in a diner after he broke up with his most recent band.

Koutaro was a drummer for his own band at the time and fuck did he fit the job description.

His energy was off the charts and they hit it off instantly, soon their legacy as the terror twins was born.

And fuck did they own that name.

Tetsuro had plans, he wanted to be at the top of the rock n roll scene, wanted to have the band that everyone talked about, the band that sold out clubs every night.

And he´d have it.

He´d have it at the cost of losing everything.

They found Keishin through an ad online.

He was older than them, but very promising. ´Loud, rude, aggressive guitarist´, if that didn´t sound absolutely perfect.

Now, all they needed was a singer.

Yuuji didn´t have the ambitions that Tetsuro had, he was in a band to get laid.

He could sing good enough, but never went past the point of singing for a shitty cover band, why should he make an effort anyway?

Every night he could get all the girls he wanted and they were hanging on his every word.

He felt like a god.

At first he didn´t want to audition for the band, they were all losers who looked the part, fucking weirdos in platform boots, high heels and make up, not to mention the gruesome hair.

But then again, Koutaro did let him sleep in his van when Yuuji was kicked out by his parents…

The least he could do was go to one of their jam sessions.

He took his girlfriend at the time with him because she had a car and would drive him everywhere.

Yuuji didn´t earn much, the band was his only income, making him just one of many starving artists.

He wasn´t with her because he loved her and she knew it, she wasn´t either.

She was with him for the sex and the fame, he was with her cause she had money and would buy him things, mostly clothes.

When he arrived he was met with a bunch of losers and regretted everything.

The apartment was small, barely fitting all the instruments.

Tetsuro greeted Yuuji when he arrived, eyeing his girlfriend in an annoyed way, he hated entitled girls like her.

Everything about her screamed: ´I´m better than you´ and she didn´t hesitate to tell them that Yuuji only deserved the best band and that they sucked.

Most of the guys ignored that, Koutaro being too busy greeting Yuuji very loudly and bathing in nostalgia.

Keishin was tuning his guitar, not really paying attention. He told them beforehand that he was in it for the long haul and that he´d leave immediately if they weren´t up to his standards.

Yuuji´s girlfriend sat down on their dirty couch, eyeing them with a critical eye and crossing her arms.

As soon as the first note hit, it felt like magic.

Tetsuro couldn´t describe it in any other way, it was overwhelming and he felt a sense of euphoria, a distant feeling of happiness he never knew.

Everything fell into place, it just felt right.

It wasn´t long before their legacy was born, before Tokyo either hated or loved them.

And the band liked their haters more.

Yuuji and Koutaro moved in with Tetsuro in his tiny apartment, barely spacious enough to house only one person, let alone three.

But they didn´t have money, it was the only way.

Their place was a mess and soon to be the place to be when it came to parties.

Of course the noise complaints kept coming, as did the bills, but they never paid.

The apartment was infested with bugs and cockroaches, Koutaro made it a habit to burn them with hairspray and a lighter.

The fridge didn´t work, neither did the warm water. In fact hardly anything worked the way it should.

Their bathroom was a mess, as was their kitchen and living room.

The boys were too lazy to clean, not that they knew how to, or had the money to buy the utensils.

It was horrible.

When Tetsuro thought back on those times, a shudder overcame him.

How were they manage to survive those circumstances?

Drugs really did wonders…

He remembered not possessing a trash can and just throwing the trash out of the window in their backyard where it would eventually pile up and earn them more complaints.

Hell, their neighbors thought someone died there.

Fuck, they were such idiots and that wasn´t even the worst part.

The ´band house´ as they lovely called it even though it was really just an apartment that was way too small and dirty beyond anything, soon became the place to be when it was about parties.

All of it was so ironic.

They did absolutely everything to be cool, accepted and in the scene.

Including but by far not limited to: hosting parties with about 50 people in an apartment meant for one, Tetsuro setting his leather jacket on fire to prove how cool and edgy he was, Yuuji fucking literally everyone´s girlfriend and Koutaro making a girl squirt all over a fruit bowl that just appeared mysteriously some day.

They were a gang. A gang of fucking idiots.

And they were proud of it too…

Proud of fucking everything that they shouldn´t, then sticking their dicks in burritos to hide the smell of another woman from their girlfriends, proud of cheating and lying and being loud and rude and obnoxious.

They felt like the absolute kings, like the peak of the scene when icons were sniffing cocaine on their couch.

Idols they looked up to.

Idols that would hate them eventually.

Now that he had you in his arms it all felt so surreal to Tetsuro.

Everything that he did, it felt so… unfair in some way.

He didn´t deserve you, he pushed you away so many times after all, but you always stayed. You were persistent and stubborn.

Tetsuro was convinced you were the best thing in his life.

Fuck the band, fuck the fame, fuck the money, the fake friends, the drugs especially.

All he needed was you.

He couldn´t even remember how you two met, it was all a blur.

Were you a groupie in the beginning? He didn´t know.

What he did know is that you were always there, like some sort of angel.

Maybe you were.

Perhaps you were sent from heaven, or more likely hell, to escort him there.

Whatever it was, he was glad you were there.

If you weren´t, he´d be dead by now.

Actually, even with you, he should be dead.

Thinking back on his youth, he always felt sick to his core, they were such a bunch of idiotic losers.

What they did to the girls was unforgivable, hell, who the fuck had a routine when it came to fucking girls that were in a relationship?

They did.

They only had one bed in the apartment and they took turns, when they were done with one girl, another came through the window, already undressing.

And the worst thing was that they were proud of it, they felt like kings.

After all they recorded an album in four days, renting the cheapest studio they could find with money they stole.

It was a mess, but it was fun at the time.

That was before everything went to shit.

And it was already on the verge back then.

Tetsuro always wondered why you were even with him.

You knew damn well that he was never home, always touring and doing fuck knows what there.

Of course it wasn´t that bad anymore, but before you made things official, he was the biggest asshole one could imagine.

Even after you got together, he still was.

And still you stayed with him.

Did you simply feel responsible for him or was there something more? Did you stay because you always believed in the good in him?

It was a silly thought and yet it was all he had, all he wanted to believe himself.

Thinking that you thought there was good in him left made him feel better about himself.

Were you an angel on his shoulder or a distant dream?

A vision from his drugged up days that was so persistent it stayed throughout everything.

Tetsuro learned that thinking too much never led to good things, it mostly led to more self doubts.

However if he didn´t think about it, he thought he could never show his gratitude the right way.

After everything you´ve been through, after everything you fixed in him, he didn´t want to imagine a life without you.

You surpassed being a mere human, you were his savior, you were the one who called the ambulance all those years ago, the one he saw when he woke up and the one he saw after the second OD.

For him you were always there and he never questioned it, to be fair, he didn´t care about anything in his youth, it was all temporary to him.

Anything that wasn´t scared him, though he couldn´t help but be the edgy fuck that chased those fears, facing and fighting them. Though he´d much rather kiss you.

A faint smile painted his lips as he pulled you closer to him, doing just that, a satisfied hum leaving his lips.

Life like this was nice.

Life without drugs, without toxic people in it, a quiet life he never knew he always wanted.

Life with a love he never thought he deserved.

[lamortexiii]

Cryptic Mystic: In the End

To bounce off of the previous blog posting, I thought it would be fun to just hop right on into the topic of what happens after we die. After all, we just finished talking about souls and a bit of astral projection last time. From transcending to another place/dimension to reincarnation, there truly is a lot to cover when you start diving into the many beliefs and ideas that surround death and mortality/immortality. But what differentiates the scientific facts from myths and stories of olden days? For those who believe in one defined means to an end for us all, how do you know for a fact that what you believe is true? Have you ever questioned what is life after death? Hell, is there a life after death? Or maybe… it’s something else… something so obscure that our tiny human brains are nowhere near possessing the capabilities to understand it. In the end, readers can decide for themselves what is more likely to be true, or maybe… the answer to this cryptic question has been right in front of us all along? Maybe it is a combination of what we know but do not yet understand. Let’s talk shop, shall we?

Death. Happy for some, a time of joy and celebration for others, but likely a time of sadness and grief for most. Some welcome death with open arms, while yet others fear their mortality. The numerous speculations on what happens after we die is overwhelming. There are far too many ideas and beliefs that people hold in this regard. I’ll briefly cover a few of the more popular beliefs as to not make this blog super lengthy - because, ya know, your attention span and whatnot. 

Scientifically, there are two types of death: clinical death and brain death. Clinical death is characterized by major organ failure (e.g. heart, liver, kidneys, etc.) until the body is completely rendered of functioning and the individual is officially pronounced dead. In brain death, solely the brain stops functioning, but the other organs within the body continue to work within their normal capacities. Creepy fun fact for you: the heart can beat for up to 30 minutes on its own after all brain cells have died. Once the heart stops it’s adios amigo. The remaining major organs that were barely hanging on have now lost blood flow, and life has ended. More creepy death fun facts: the gastrointestinal tract can live on its own for up to 3 days, and the complete decomposition of a body takes roughly 30 years! Crazy science stuff. 

Now let’s take a look at some common beliefs and speculations of what happens when/after we die. Again, I want to remind you, readers, that in my eyes there is no right or wrong answer here. I am a firm believer in everyone having their own beliefs and respect all of them regardless of how obscure some naysayers may think that they are. I enjoy hearing stories from followers that help to further broaden my thought processes. If you ever have an interesting story or want to chime in with your thoughts please feel free to leave a comment here or shoot on over to Instagram and we can rap about it. 

The belief that we transcend to another realm/dimension has been around for thousands of years and has been studied for decades. There is a lot to uncover here between recent scientific discoveries and human belief. Many people believe that many other dimensions exist, however, scientific exploration hasn’t fully found the golden answer to if and what these other dimensions may contain if they do indeed exist. We know that Earth has at least three dimensions: space—length, width, and depth—and one dimension of time. Modern physics posits that there is at least a fourth dimension of space, but that we can’t experience it. Maybe we can? Maybe we do but just haven’t put a label on it? Maybe the odd phenomena that happen across the world that people describe as being ghosts, aliens, and other paranormal activities are actually from the next dimension or another. There has been speculation that extraterrestrials come from another dimension through a portal that is already here on Earth rather than from the sky (outer space). 

Give me an R! Give me an E! Hell, this word is too long and I’m not going to put you through reading a silly cheer for 5 minutes. Reincarnation - yet another commonly held belief of what happens when we die. For those of you who may have never heard of reincarnation, here is the quick and dirty version of the definition. Reincarnation posits that when we die our spirit/soul/whatever you want to call it, moves on to a new host. This host could be a human baby that is born the very second that you die OR you could possibly find yourself reincarnated as an animal, tree, flower, or any other living thing that you can find on Earth. Interesting concept indeed.

My favorite belief, that we go to Heaven or somewhere similar, is one that is believed by millions of people across the world. Wouldn’t it be nice to die and go to another world/place where nothing can do you harm, and just live out the rest of your existence in peace? Well, if you can believe it then it may just happen that way - or maybe not. I am fairly certain I have mentioned this in previous blogs, but religion can be thought of as a coping mechanism for that which we do not know or understand; the human way of putting a label on something to make ourselves feel better or like we are a part of something divine and much greater than us. Which, in all actuality, we very well may be a part of something divine and much greater than us, however, it is my personal opinion that we honestly have no fucking clue about the extent to which that is. 

Now, this next one I threw in here because I personally found it to be interesting. In 2017 I was having a conversation with a friend about mystical things such as portals, extraterrestrials, etc. My friend informed me of a research video on YouTube about a company called CERN. He described this Swiss company as having built a circular-shaped machine that when you throw something into its core it disappears. However, other items have come through this machine and into the room from… wherever the other side is? Basically, these people have created a portal and no one knows about it. You’re welcome for the information. Within this research video, the guy who was describing all of this stuff went on to talk about how China had gifted the statue that sits in front of the CERN building. This particular statue is reported to represent the end of time and hell on Earth. There is a whole mythical background story about this statue - you need to check it out. The irony between the statue and this machine they made is uncanny. It made my jaw drop. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I haven’t been able to find the YouTube video again, so I am not sure if it got taken down because the guy exposed something that was supposed to be secret, or maybe I just suck at YouTube searches. Either way, I encourage you to do some digging on this one, because this type of information could potentially support the whole soul/spirit transcending into another realm/dimension belief. I am not a physicist, so I could be explaining this all wrong. You’ll just have to check out their website for yourself and see what it’s all about. → home.cern

There is also the belief that when we die nothing happens. We are dead and it is the end of who we once were. This belief is often held by Atheists and some Satanists if we’re using labels. However, many people believe this who aren’t subscribed to a religion or don’t want to necessarily put a label on who they are/what they believe. This is the grim reality of our existence. Maybe it all means… nothing… Now isn’t that depressing. 

Then there are near-death experiences, which brings a whole different perspective into the mix. People all over the world have encountered near-death experiences. Many report shockingly similar experiences and stories. Some say they see a white light and follow it to a place of peace. I have heard people say that while they were legally deceased they found themself in a field of flowers or floating within the cosmos. A common theme found within these individuals is that once they have had their near-death experience, they aren’t afraid of death anymore - they welcome it with open arms. One woman on a documentary that I watched even went as far as to say that she didn’t want to come back from where she was and was disappointed when she was revived. These experiences could possibly support the theory of transcending to other dimensions or that there is a “heaven.” I can’t explain it, but I still find the information interesting to ponder upon. 

Our mortality is evident, but what really happens when we die? These are just a short collection of ideas and beliefs that have been around for ages, however, there are many more to consider I’m sure. What do you think? Or should I say: what do you want to believe? Ultimately it’s your choice. Whatever brings you peace, serves you well, and is the right answer for you is what I advise you to turn to. This flesh and blood will decay for each of us one day - it’s inevitable. It is for this very reason why I say live life to the fullest. Regret nothing. Do what best serves you. Do what makes you happy. Take chances. Above all else - be the best version of yourself that makes you happy.

Cryptic Mystic Blog by PsychVVitch

www.LaMorteXiii.com

[ma-gic-gay]

Death had always been a finite concept. For both of them, presumably, but especially for Carly. Death was something she had to deal with far too regularly for her tastes (comes with the territory when you have a habit of marrying mobsters), despite her hatred of it.

Shootings, she could handle. And did, shockingly well. Despite the fact she couldn't handle being in a stable situation for more than a day, she was great in a crisis.

Of course, the fact she had Jason there was helpful. She felt unsafe, she called him and it was like she had her own personal body guard. It was, in a very strange way, nice to know he wouldn't hesitate to kill for her and has done it repeatedly in the past.

The deaths of the people who tried to kill her (or him, especially him- she prayed those bastards got the worst treatment they could) were the only ones she could handle.

It's a bit ironic she got killed from a shooting, three hours and twenty three minutes after Jason died, in a weird way. She always said she'd kill for him (realistically she knew he'd lose his shit if she ever did that because he's overprotective and hasn't taught her how to use a gun), and that's exactly what she did. He got shot right in front of her, she grabbed his gun while he was yelling at her not to and shot the person.

Slight problem though, she too got shot. Whoopsie daisies.

Getting shot fucking hurt. She was in and out of consciousness when she was at the hospital and no one would tell her about Jason's condition. They were married, for fuck's sakes, why the fuck wasn't anyone telling her how her husband was doing?!

Eventually, someone (probably Monica, she can't remember) told her he was dead. They got to him too late, they said, he'd been doa and their best efforts hadn't revived him.

After hearing that, she couldn't live with herself. He got shot because Vince was trying to shoot her and off he went to be her hero and make everything okay and he got killed. One phone call and he was at the Metro Court, hanging out with her and keeping watch when he noticed Vince in the parking lot and went out there to confront him. Vince pointed a gun at Carly and, of course, since Jason's a self sacrificing person, he died.

Which meant she was directly responsible for his death and that rocked her to her very core. She'd failed him. After twenty five years, she failed him. Even he'd have to admit this one. There was no spin on this (and she'd heard some strange ones over the years) for how she'd be able to live with herself after she failed him. It wasn't like she'd done something stupid, no, she got him killed. Carly knew he'd do something, especially since Vince was a dick, and she told him. Did he deserve to know? Yes. But only after she'd reassured his overprotective streak she'd be fine and he didn't have to kill anyone else for her.

According to something she'd heard from the doctors, in whatever fucking limbo this was, Carly had died of a heart attack. Likely brought on by stress. Bullets were fine but hearing of Jason's death killed her.

Yup, makes sense. Well, she'll be able to apologize for all of eternity once she gets to wherever she's going. Even after he forgives her (which, she's being honest, will happen as soon as they see each other), she's going to apologize and apologize.

Ooh, she gets to see Sonny and Morgan too! Her son and husband and best friend for all of eternity. What could be better?

There's something that vaguely looks like an angel and she notices it drags her up. Huh, guess she's going to heaven. Makes sense, Carly's a fairly good person. She's not a terrible one.

Except when she gets there she only finds Morgan and Courtney (Courtney, oh how she missed her), no Jason anywhere. Where the hell was he? Avoiding a party, probably. She has got to get him to go out more, especially now that nothing can probably happen. What are the rules of death?

"Where's Jason?" Carly asks after greeting the pair. They stare blankly until she asks again, "Where is he? He's here, right? I was told he's dead!"

Courtney's the first one to be stunned out of her shock. "Carly, he, um, didn't make the cut."

"For what? Give me that list, I'm adding his name at the very top. Where the fuck is he?" She exclaims. He's here, he's got to be here.

"You're aware of his job, right?" Is she aware of his job, of course she is!

"Yes, Courtney, it's why we got married. Where the hell is he? Or Sonny, or Mike!"

"Mike's taking a nap and Sonny's not dead." What?! "Or, if he is, he didn't make the cut either." Didn't make the cut for what? Carly will scheme, steal, seduce, lie and cheat go get those two up here with her, where the fuck are they?

"Because of Jason's job and the amount of people he killed, he didn't make the cut to heaven. He's in hell." Is it possible to die twice? She might just do that. He's in hell, which is a place for bad people! Her hero is in hell.

She's gonna kill someone. "I'm not perfect! None of us are perfect, I killed someone! Why the hell aren't we down there? He died defending me!"

"Shocking," Morgan says dryly. "Jason killed people for a living. He was a mobster."

"And I'm an accessory to all of that! I lead the mob for a week or two!" Carly exclaims. "He's a good person, we know that."

"We're not in charge of the decisions, Carly," Courtney attempts to comfort her best friend. It's a nice attempt. "That's for people with a lot more clout than us. If it was up to either of us, I promise he'd be here but you'll never see him again."

Never see him again? Oh hell no. "Is there any way to get sent down to hell with him?" This is impulsive and reckless and Jason wouldn't encourage it but she's got less care. She needs to see her best friend again, goddammit."Some paperwork I can file, some people's husband's I can seduce?"

"Someone can submit you for reevaluation."

"Great! Is Emily here?" Emily hates her, she'll surely want to help!

"Somewhere, yeah. Why?"

"Emily hates me. Can't blame her. Anyways, look, I want to help her write my reevaluation. I've ruined a lot of lives."

"Which Jason has always helped you feel better about."

"That's because he's my best friend, Morgan."

The next few weeks are spent making sure every single one of her transgressions is on the list and resubmitting her,,, whatever the hell it's called, Emily never gave details.

So it's really not a surprise when she's dragged down to hell by some gross creature, waving goodbye to her son and Courtney and sister in law (that's a weird thing to think about).

And when she gets there, it's just like a darker version of heaven. It's the same fucking place (away from the fire), just more her color palette. Weird.

"Excuse me, where's Jason Morgan?" She asks the creature who dragged her down here. "I was informed he'd be down here."

A shrug is all she gets in response. Well then, she's able to roll with the punches and searches up and down for him, eventually finding him in a room without decorations or anything but basic necessities.

She's got some decorating on her hands.

Carly walks right through the half opened door (he really didn't lock it? Weirdo) and gets the response of, "Get out."

"Don't expect me to start knocking just because we're dead," she quips, a smile on her face. Knocking is overrated. He looks normal and as he registers what's going on, he gets all squinty.

Once he actually realizes it's her, she's already half attacked him in a hug that he reciprocates. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Little bit of bargaining, Emily's assistance and voila! You'd be amazed at how many bad things I've done. Everyone sends their love, of course. Are there any stores down here? This room is so boring," she changes the subject.

"No, I mean why are you dead? You're supposed to be alive."

"I died three hours and twenty three minutes after you. Heart attack. Monica told me about you dying. No one else would." That was a very bad time when he was dead and she wasn't.

"Does this mean-"

"No, you are not responsible for my death. If anything, I'm responsible for yours. I'm sorry, more than you'll ever know," Carly tells him, eyes welling up with tears.

"You're not responsible. I got shot. It happens." Way too nonchalant for death.

"Because you were defending me, like always. Seriously, take a nice vacation off of that and start using your survival instincts. I don't have Emily to help me this time if I need to transfer afterlives."

"I was defending the business."

"Bullshit. I told you Vince threatened me and you already planned to kill him. You saw your opportunity and instead of shooting him, you got shot and died. This is my fault, 100%, and I will not let you make me feel better about this. You could've patched things up with Britt, hung out with a bunch of people but no, you had to die protecting me. Take a week off of being my hero, please."

"I'm not going to do that. The last time I thought about it, you took over the business."

"Well I can't just ask you to forgive me, so take a day off."

"You'll get kidnapped. And I don't hold you responsible because it was my choice to defend you and my choice to want to kill Vince."

"You're overprotective and it's nice but not when it kills you."

"You spent twenty five years running off every woman in my life because you were convinced they'd hurt me, you hated a ton of people because they did something to me and you almost committed several felonies. And I'm overprotective," he rolls his eyes.

"Not the point, first off and second, you've killed and kidnapped for me. In a very fucked up way, it's sweet. And you totally ran off the men in my life!"

"How did I do that?"

"By being the only person I can depend on. I don't know, look, they've all- except for Sonny, most of the time- hated you because you intimidated them. So you did the same thing, just not on purpose."

"Then it's not the same thing."

"How did we get so off topic? I'm sorry for being the reason you're dead. Do you forgive me?" Strange sentences.

"You're not why I'm dead, I made that choice-"

"You chose to die?"

"I meant the choice to jump in front of you."

"Which was instinctual, you've always protected me."

"Might have to do that even more down here. There's some real creeps."

"I really don't think they'll care that much. But okay."

"Vince is here."

"No revenge."

"He killed you and I'm just supposed to sit here and ignore that he did that?!"

"Maybe we can talk this all out."

"Carly, what part of this aren't you understanding? He killed you. I hurt him, that's how this works, so he knows better than to mess with you."

"Or we could go shop for decor. I'll pick out nice stuff, come on let's go!"

"I'm not going shopping. I'm planning revenge."

"It'll be safer if you're there with me."

"I hate it when you're right."

"Love you too."

"Love you."

The end fuckers :)

oh it's beautiful. thank you for this

[ronoken]

Take Tour Shot - Part 4

This is the end of the first section, kinda like a pilot for this idea. I have the next one thought out, as well as the introduction of our proper villain, but I want to know what you think. Is this worth continuing? What would you like to see? Let me know.

For reference, here are parts one, two, and three.

*** 

Gina circled the block and hid behind a van as she frantically tugged at the mask on her face.

“Why doesn’t this come off?” She whisper-shouted. “I need to change back. I can’t have anyone see me like this! I can’t… How do I change?”

Annie was beside her, leaning against the van. She was watching Gina’s mini-breakdown and laughing to herself. “Geez girlie, you really like ta get bent out of shape, ya know that?”

“Tell me how to get this off!” Gina yelled.

“Okay, okay! Geez. Just say giddy up again. It’s magic, and magic responds to verbal commands.”

Gina kept tugging as she said, “Giddy up.”

There was a flash of light, and Gina nearly fell over as she found herself back in her regular clothing. She steadied herself along the side of the van and looked to Annie.

“That was… That was a monster. I just fought a monster!”

“Correction, you beat the mashed potatoes out of a monster. Shot it in the head, too.” Annie pointed out. She patted Gina on the shoulder. “Nice job for your first outing. I figured we’d just shoot at some tin cans and take a run, but you really outdid yourself.”

“I could have died,” Gina said. She was shaking like a leaf.

“But you didn’t,” Annie pointed out.

“No thanks to you,” Gina shouted.

“Excuse me? All thanks to me, missy. Without those fancy powers, you would have ended up monster chow. Yer gentleman down the street, too.”

“He’s,” Gina started before trailing off. “He’s just a friend.”

Annie stared for a moment. “A friend,” she parroted back.

Gina was too shaken to catch the sarcasm in Annie’s voice.

“I should get home,” Gina said, mostly to herself. She glanced to Annie. “Um, if my mom sees you…”

“Don’t even worry about it,” Annie said dismissively. “Yer the only one who can see or hear me, seein’ as how yer wearin’ the charm. Think of me as a guardian angel.”

Gina stared.

“Helpful spirit?” Annie offered.

Gina grumbled under her breath and started walking home.

“What was that?” Annie asked.

“I said, it’s awfully convenient that the minute I get a magic charm bracelet, my neighbor turns into some metallic monster that only I can defeat.”

Annie shrugged. “Look, I don’t make the rules, missy. If the magic chose you…”

“A carny chose me,” Gina corrected Annie as she slinked behind her neighbor’s house and into a dark backyard.

“If the magic chose you,” Annie continued, “then there was a darn good reason. Maybe it knew it was time. Maybe it knew this was comin’.”

Gina paused and glanced to Annie. “Is that how it works?”

Annie shrugged. “Beats me, partner. I’m not a sorceress.”

Gina slipped into her home through the back patio door, which was still unlocked. She had planned on just heading up to a well-deserved shower and bed, but was stopped cold by the sight of her mother frantically screaming into the phone.

“She’s five foot, brown hair, glasses… OHMYGODGINA! She, yes. She just walked in. Thank you, officer.” Gina’s mom hung up and charged her daughter, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Gina’s mother, Dr. Mosey, shouted as she sobbed against Gina’s shoulder.

Gina, still dumping adrenaline, gave her a trembling hug back. “I, God, mom, I’m sorry. I just, when the monster, um, when I saw it, I, um, I ran to get away?”

Dr. Mosey pulled back to look her daughter in the eye. They were roughly the same height, as tall genes had never quite run in their family. “And you didn’t think to call me?”

“I thought you were at the lab,” Gina meekly offered.

“I was nearby when the commotion started, and when I went to check on you, you weren’t there, and…”

Dr. Mosey hugged her daughter again. “I just can’t lose you, too. You’re all I have, sweetheart. I was so scared. God, I was so scared.”

“It’s okay, mom.” Gina hugged her again, firmer this time. “I’m okay, really. I promise.”

Gina could tell her mother had just come from work. Dr. Mosey (Susan to her friends) tended to mix casual with professional, and by that, I mean she wore acid-washed jeans and a wrinkled purple tee shirt under a snug, yet open, lab coat. It was her mother’s signature lab look. It also explained a lot of Gina’s own fashion sense, or lack thereof.

And before you judge? Look, lab work is grueling and takes time and I think you’d want the people who need to critically focus on diseases and cellular structures to be comfortable, or would you prefer they be distracted by some stiff, formal business attire? This isn’t an office, people. It’s chaos in the form of $500,000 worth of analyzing equipment crammed into a space the size of a teen’s bedroom. That lab has more empty energy drinks and discarded pizza boxes than any dorm room you can find, and…

Sorry. Back to the story.

“Mom, I promise, I’m fine. I just… Did you see it? The, uh, the monster?”

Gina felt her mother nod against her.

“I saw it,” Susan said. “I saw it.”

“What was it? Do you know? I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that, and…”

Susan kissed Gina’s head. “Honestly, I couldn’t 100% say. Something like that, well, I’d want to run some tests before saying one way or the other.”

Gina let out a small snort. It was exactly the kind of answer she expected from her mother.

They stayed like that for a few moments, each just glad that things had calmed down. The moment passed when Gina felt a tired yawn escape her. Susan patted her on the back and said, “Why don’t you head to bed, okay? I doubt we’ll see anything like that again tonight. Whatever it was.”

Gina was in no position to argue. She was exhausted, confused, and most of all, she felt gross. A hot shower and some warm sheets sounded like Heaven.

“Yeah, okay. I, um, I love you. Do you have work in the morning?”

Susan nodded. “I’ll be gone before you’re up. You good to make yourself breakfast, kiddo?”

Gina nodded. She usually was.

“Then head to bed. Let your mother worry about things for a while, okay?” Gina’s mom kissed her forehead before shooing her up the stairs. Gina nodded in agreement as she yawned again.

“That’s… Yeah. I, um, I’m glad you’re okay. I love you,” she said.

“I love you too, sweetheart. Now, get to bed,” Dr. Mosey said.

Gina headed upstairs as Dr. Mosey stood in the well-furnished room. As soon as her daughter was out of earshot, she collapsed into her husband’s old blue recliner, buried her face in her hands, and wept.

***

Gina finally got a moment to herself when she removed the charm bracelet. Like magic, Annie disappeared from her side, and the bathroom was blessedly quiet.

The silence and privacy gave Gina a chance to finally reflect on what had happened. She stood in the steady stream of hot water and stared off into space as the fight replayed itself in her mind. She thought about Andre and how frightened he looked. She thought about how close she came to dying, the ghost lady who was egging her on, the whole superhero thing, ghosts, life…

Gina only snapped out of it when the hot water heater ran out of hot water to give. She quickly rinsed off and headed to bed, grateful for the day to be over.

As she lay buried in her comforter and dressed in her freshly washed pajamas (which consisted of some boxer shorts from Target and an old, faded PJ Harvey concert shirt her mother had tucked away in the back of a dresser), she held up the charm bracelet and lazily twirled it between her fingers.

Finally, after some internal deliberation, she slid it back on.

She didn’t hear anything immediately, but she did notice the room was now glowing with a faint, blue light.

“Annie?” Gina asked into the dark of the room.

“Yeah?” Annie’s voice quietly replied.

Gina kept her eyes on the charm. “You’re, um, you’re dead, right?”

“Ah yep. Passed on in ’26.”

“What was it like?”

Gina patiently waited.

“…Well, I suppose you could say it was a relief. I was sick for a while, an’ the doctors could never get what was wrong with me quite down. Said it was anemia, but I was never certain.”

“How old were you?”

“I was sixty six. I’d just moved back to Ohio after doin’ a lil’ revival tour and, well… Life happens, I reckon.”

Gina lay in silence for a bit. Outside, the muffled sound of the EMT vehicles pulling away could be heard.

“Did it hurt?”

Gina’s voice was quiet, even in the stillness of the room. She felt something gently press on her shoulder. When she opened her eyes and looked, she saw a glowing blue hand.

“No, sweetie. It didn’t hurt. It felt like, well, like when you’ve been runnin’ and runnin’, and all you wanna do is rest, but you feel like you just can’t stop, but when you finally do… You just let go. The world gets all soft around the edges, sounds slip away… It was like falling asleep.” Annie let out a small laugh. “And then I woke up tethered ta that there charm. Guess I did a lil’ too well at runnin’, seein’ as how someone decided I should keep it up.”

“Should I take you off for bed?” Gina asked. She was trying to keep her eyes open, but they were so heavy, and she was so tired.

“Don’t you worry yourself about it. I’ll be here when ya wake up.”

Gina didn’t answer, as she was already slipping away due to exhaustion. She only mildly registered her comforter being tucked up around her as she finally drifted off to sleep.

[natsubeatsrock]

The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 26 (Zeref)

Is Zeref a villain?

Wait, no. That's not the right question. 

That makes it seem like I'm saying that Zeref didn't do anything wrong or that he isn't responsible for any of the bad things that happened in the series in his name. Make no mistake, that's not what I'm asking. What I am asking is if he did what he did for bad reasons.

Now, one complaint about the end of Fairy Tail is that it shifted focus from the big evil being Zeref to Acnologia. I mean, that series was setting Zeref up to be the villain, only to trick us into seeing that the real villain was Acnologia. The shift in focus from one bad guy to another is bad writing, right?

To be fair, I don't know that Fairy Tail handled this in the best ways. However, the idea that the big evil force isn't the one that we thought it to be isn't one unique to Fairy Tail. This is a fairly common twist in fiction, in general. One really popular theory about the Kanto Region Pokemon games is that the actions of Crime Boss Giovanni are really to make up for making the legendary Pokemon Mewtwo. It was even the angle that the Nuzlocke comics went with. (Yeah, like that Nuzlocke.)

Of course, that's based on the precedent that Zeref was trying to do something good. Was he though?

Only kind of, I guess?

Zeref was interested in the study of life and death in response to his family dying. Out of this study, the R-System and the Eclipse Gate were theorized as possibilities. After some wacky stuff happened, Zeref accidentally gained eternal life. He turned to the creation of the Etherious, which would eventually lead him to revive Natsu. However, his purpose in that was to create a way to kill himself. Sometime afterward, he got involved with the plan to defeat Acnologia and volunteered Natsu to help complete his goal.

I would say that Zeref had four main motivations for his actions, three of which are found in this explanation of his backstory: defeating Acnologia,  reviving his brother, and ending his own life. Defeating Acnologia was an ultimate good. I don't think that's something that needs to be argued for. Presentation, introduction, and necessity aside, it's hard to argue that Acnologia wasn't a bad guy, even if he did what he did for not terrible reasons.

Was it ultimately a good thing to want to bring Natsu back? Considering, I started writing the first draft of this post not too long after watching FMA: Brotherhood, I should feel a bit conflicted. Of course, this series is about rewriting Fairy Tail and not a discussion of the rewrite of FMA 2003.

In Fairy Tail, Zeref gets warned that what he is doing is wrong repeatedly by the elders around him. The reason he ends up cursed is that he was trying to bring people back to life. However, it would be foolish of me to argue that bringing Natsu back from the dead didn't result in good things happening, especially towards the end of defeating Acnologia.

Now, should he have been trying to kill himself?

Here's the thing. I'm not pro-suicide (as if such there is such a thing). I've had my struggles with suicide, as have many people I know. I believe that you ought to seek help if you have those kinds of issues. 

Nonetheless, I feel like this isn't the same kind of thing. Zeref's longing to die comes from a place that few, if any, could compare their situations with. He can't die and has been alive for hundreds of years. That's not to say that I don't think that there are things that can be latched onto from Zeref's situation. I don't know that it's entirely wrong for someone who can't die to want death.

What I do think is wrong is how this was written through the series. The simple facts that Zeref made Natsu (his brother) into the thing that would eventually destroy him and sent him into the future as a plan to help kill Acnologia make sense, given that he gave him away as a part of his ultimate plan to die. But if he's also responsible for the Etherious, I'd assume that he would have come up with some of them throughout his time, maybe he would realize the futility of sending his "one true hope" 400 years away. At least, he could have made the Etherious that would be members of Tartarus in between that gap using the extra knowledge he learned from recreating Natsu.

Though, this is getting a bit away from the main question: Was Zeref doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons? So far, the answer has only been kind of. The stuff he created ultimately achieved bad things, but I don't think that trying to defeat Acnologia or bringing his brother back were bad things. Wanting to die may be a bit more questionable, but it makes sense for him to want death.

Of course, there is one thing that does make him more of a villain than an anti-hero: his views on humanity. While he was alive, he had seen humanity fail over and over. His one romance was incredibly short-lived (pun not intended, I swear). Just as he was starting to get hope in humanity, the events of Tenrou caused him to throw that aside. He even goes so far as to say that true humanity has died a long time ago.

And this shift changes things. Zeref went from only trying to help kill Acnologia and himself to trying to destroy both Acnologia and humanity as a whole. He even says as much in his war declaration to Acnologia.

Though, there may be a reason for this change that isn't just about humanity being rotten. Natsu was asked point-blank by Zeref to kill him in Tenrou and he refused. He only concludes that he ought to destroy humanity after the first time skip and part of that may have started off the back of Acnologia supposedly destroying Natsu and other important members of Fairy Tail. Could it be that part of his will to die changed when it became clear that Natsu wouldn't kill him?

Actually, not really. He still does stuff to make Natsu angry enough to want to kill him. He sent his little gremlin (whatever that thing Oba had) to accompany the guild member who sapped Wendy's magic ability. He took the Book of E.N.D, stopping him from completing the mission that Igneel had given him. He even tried to kill Makarov with the explicit purpose of trying to get Natsu mad.

Why would he want to destroy humanity, kill Acnologia, and die? The idea that humanity has no value is fairly fatalistic. However, this feels like there's no plan to rebuild. If Zeref feels that the entire human race is imperfect, why wouldn't he also believe that he is the only one who should be able to rule over all of them? After all, he seems to have the ability to recreate life from the dead. 

Stuff like this is why I think of Zeref as a tragic villain. He was given several bad hands and couldn't have played many of them well even if he wanted to. It's easy to see why he ended up the way he did. 

At the same time, he is a villain. He does terrible things. Many of his actions aren't justifiable. There are good alternatives to what he wants to do. Often, doing literally nothing is a better alternative to whatever action he did in canon. It results in a lot fewer dead bodies in a lot of cases.

That being said, a lot of terrible actions committed by him or in his name aren't his direct fault. It's not his fault the Eclipse Gate wasn't destroyed after the Eclipse Project succeeded. It's not his fault the Tower of Heaven was created by slave labor, especially and notably by children. It's not his fault people used his demons in his stead. Heck, the Curse of Ankhseram (as far as canon is concerned) is considered a curse, as in not something he put on himself.

Will I change things about Zeref? Not a whole lot of things. Some things are worth changing regarding Zeref, but many involve other things surrounding Zeref. Much of what I want to do with Zeref is clarify and provide context to his canon goals and actions. Zeref as fans know and love him (?) is going to stay very similar to his canon iteration.

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19  | Part 20  | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25

[leavesdriftinginthewind]

Back to rant about Supernatural AGAIN and probably for the last time with my own written words. I’m actually devastated that the show ended the way it did. The last two episodes felt so rushed and weird and maybe that was because of Covid but everyone said they didn’t mess with the last two episodes too much between March and September so I guess those eps were just going to be awkward and feel out of place and disconnected from the rest of the show regardless of the pandemic. But I funneled so much love into this show for almost 8 years, and I’ve put so many people onto the show because I loved it so much, and I jokingly told all those people that if they ever felt like they wanted to quit after season 8 they probably could but now I feel seriously about quitting. My boyfriend is on season 10 right now and I felt pretty good about watching it with him through the end but now I don’t want to. I want to just let him finish it on his own. I probably won’t, but I WANT to, and that’s HEARTBREAKING to me.

And I’m so upset because two characters that the fan base loved so passionately, Cas and Dean, both got fucked over so terribly in the last 3 hours of airtime. Castiel never really knew he was loved by ANYBODY he loved (minus maybe Jack, who I think did an okay job of showing how much Cas meant to him). Dean basically shat all over the poor guy for years now and while Sam and Cas got closer Sam never really told him how much he meant to him, either. And I really truly believed that maybe we would get to hear how much Dean loved Cas, even if it WAS just platonic, and even if WE were the only ones who got to hear it, but NO. HE NEVER REALLY ADDRESSED HOW SHATTERED HE WOULD BE AFTER CAS DIED ASIDE FROM THE 30 SECONDS AT THE END OF 15.18, THE 15 SECONDS OF DRUNKENNESS WE WITNESSED IN 15.19, AND THE RUSH TO THE DOOR WHEN LUCIFER PRANKCALLED HIM. And THAT PRANK CALL was the last we EVER heard from Misha. I thought when they did THAT that we MUST get Cas back SOMEHOW but NO. Castiel deserved more, the character revived the show and helped make the fan base so passionate and helped DRIVE the show for the last 11 years, but we got no resolution for him. We didn’t get Dean telling him how much he appreciated him and loved him (EVEN IF IT WASNT ROMANTIC I DONT EVEN GIVE A SHIT IF IT WAS BUT DEAN DID LOVE HIM IN SOME WAY) and we didn’t get Sam giving Cas one last hug and telling him how thankful he was that Cas was on this ride with them for so long, we didn’t get anything. We got the tiniest crumb of acknowledgement that he wasn’t just rotting in the Empty and that’s IT. Bullshit

And DEAN. My sweet broken boy. He always thought he’d go out on a hunt and I so desperately wanted him not to. And I so thought that after years of character development of Dean realizing there was more to life than hunting and Sammy, of realizing there were things to live for, and after Cas TELLING HIM SO BLUNTLY HOW AMAZING A MAN HE WAS AND THAT HE DESERVED LOVE AND HAPPINESS, I thought that he’d GET that. I thought he’d get to live a happy life, especially after Cas so lovingly died for him. But NO. He went out on a hunt without ever getting to live happily for longer than a few weeks and without any of his found family he so carefully put together. And if he REALLY had to go out on a hunt, fine, but he DESERVED to have a funeral SURROUNDED by all the people he helped and all the people that loved him that were still alive. He DESERVED to have Jody and Donna and the girls and the hunters that respected him and anybody he saved attending the funeral to pay their respects and Sam DESERVED to have those people there for him. Dean did not deserve to die and have only Sam and a dog there. He had more in this world than his brother and that was a MASSIVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND PLOT DEVICE TO THE WHOLE SHOW but you’d never know it by watching the finale. And the fact that we never got to see Dean reunite with his loved ones (minus Bobby) in heaven is absolute bullshit and I understand that Covid maybe limited some of that but COME ON. If I could let hundreds of people a week go play Minigolf in a pandemic I’m PRETTY SURE A TV NETWORK COULD HAVE SAFELY FOUND A WAY TO LET DEAN SEE HIS PARENTS AND HIS DEAD FRIENDS AND C A S again, and claiming otherwise is honestly Grade A fuckery.

And honestly Misha and Jensen and Jared deserved better. The writers knew the majority of people would be dissatisfied with the ending. They told us so. Jensen didn’t like the ending. He told us so. Why did nobody think “hm maybe we should work out some way it could be satisfying to at least A FEW MORE PEOPLE, INCLUDING OUR LEAD WHO DEDICATED 15 YEARS OF HIS LIFE TO THIS.” Misha acted his ass off in 15.18 and it was beautiful and tragic and I cried like a bitch, and Jared and Jensen acted their asses off for nearly two decades and made me cry countless times, including this trash heap of an episode. I SOBBED for my boys that I loved so deeply, and I sobbed for them because I loved the characters and I loved the actors. And I feel TERRIBLY knowing that all three of them probably saw the reactions to the episode last night and today and are probably wondering why they poured so much of their lives and hearts and souls into this show and these characters for people to just be so upset and hurt and they’re probably wondering what they could do to try and make it better and honestly Jensen and Misha are probably wondering if they should have fought their endings harder and that makes me so sad. I have nothing but love for these men and for their characters and they just deserved BETTER. They deserved better from the writers and they deserved better from the showrunners and they deserved better from the execs and they deserved better from the network. And I’m sad that I’m so viscerally disappointed in a show I’ve loved for so long.

[tvdversefanfiction]

Origins of Magic

“The Originals” Fanfiction Series

Warnings: I do not own the rights to the television series “The Originals”, “Vampire Diaries”, or “Legacies” and do not own any of the characters within the TVD universe, I am making no profit from this and have no intention for this fanfiction series except for readers to enjoy.

15+ Mild to Strong Violence, Strong Language, Witchcraft, sexual scenes, and sexual references.

F/F, F/M, M/M, Other.

CHAPTER THREE HERE

Chapter Four - Between Heaven, Hell, and New Orleans

After a decade living in the afterlife Klaus Mikaelson and his brother Elijah had found a version of peace living together in a dream like version of the Abattoir in New Orleans with their loved ones which included; Camille O’Connell, Hayley Marshall and most surprisingly a grown up version of their youngest sibling Henrik Mikaelson. The option of seeing Henrik as anything but a child was new to both Klaus and Elijah and not only did it please them but it helped lift some of the weight of the guilt Klaus had carried for a thousand years for feeling responsible for his youngest sibling’s death. Noticeably missing through their family reunion after life, with the addition of honoree Mikaelson Hayley and the former psychologist bartender Cami, was the Mikaelson’s treacherous parents Esther and Mikael and their deadly aunt Dahlia, after all this was the brother’s version of heaven not hell. Although Klaus managed to find ways to check up on his daughter he never worried too much about her, knowing she would and eventually did find her way in the world making her prouder than he could ever have imagined being, allowing for him and his brother Elijah to be at peace with their deaths. The only problem is the living were not at peace while the two Mikaelson brothers remained dead leading to a trio of powerful witches casting a wicked spell snatching Klaus and Elijah from their heaven, bypassing hell and returning them to the land of the living, right to the city of New Orleans. “I knew hell was on hold!” Klaus stated as he woke up on the ground within the Lafayette Cemetery, sitting up to see Elijah stood above him, looking equally confused as to how they wound up there. “I am not too sure this is hell Niklaus, in fact if I were to take guess I’d go for, well I would say somebody with a heck of a lot of power just brought us back from the dead.” Elijah replied to his hybrid brother, as Klaus quickly rose to his feet. “Hope,” Klaus uttered, automatically fearing the worst about his daughter. “Hope does not know anything about me and yet I am here!” The now adult Henrik stated, as he appeared from behind a large gravestone. “I do not know what has brought us all back brothers, but I can tell you with certainty it is not Mikaelson magic.” “Actually brothers…” Rebekah announced as she vamp sped her way into the cemetery, confronting all three of her brothers, ready to admit her truth. “It was definitely Mikaelson meddling I just so happened to use a different source of magic to get the deed done.” Klaus, Elijah, and Henrik stood there in shock, surprised by Rebekah’s actions, unsure of why she had brought them back to life, fearing the answer would be far worse than it was. Meanwhile Rebekah turned to face Henrik, instantly feeling a connection with him but having only seen him as a child, not being able to work out his identity. “Who the bloody hell are you?” She asked, not knowing it was her youngest brother all grown up.

As the hours went by and the world around him continued to live Klaus Mikaelson began to slowly realize that there was no going back to the place, he had been for a decade of what he considered bliss. He had grown used to the place he and his brothers Elijah and Henrik had come to think of as a form of heaven and was at peace with himself for the first time ever but now he was back in New Orleans, a place that was once his home had now felt like nothing more than the thing blocking him from a much better fate all because his sister Rebekah Mikaelson missed them too much, something that would have touched Klaus if he was not so furious about it all. “You mean to say that there is literally nothing bloody wrong and yet you pull us back from death to what check in?” Klaus shouted at his sister within the compound, as he, Rebekah, Elijah, and Henrik stood by the empty fountain. “You died with the hollow inside of you how was I supposed to know you were not suffering an eternity in some kind of hell?” Rebekah snapped back at her brother, while Elijah and Henrik decided to just stand there and watch how the fight played out. “You were supposed to move on with your life like everybody else, you spent so long trying to get rid of me and then when you do you stop at nothing to bring me back!” Klaus continued to argue with his sister. “Yes, I for one would like to know how exactly you managed to bring us back and who exactly helped you.” Elijah told Rebekah, somewhat alarmed at the possible measures his sister went to bring them all back. “It was nothing bad Elijah I just called in some favors from old friends and they were more or less happy to oblige.” Rebekah replied, telling a half-truth to Elijah. “Well I for one am glad to have a chance at living once again just keep the werewolves from me this time around.” Henrik chimed in, only to be met by frustrated glances from his siblings, forgetting for a moment his brother Niklaus was a werewolf/vampire hybrid. “So, I admit I was rash and I will more than likely regret this decision sooner rather than later but I just hated the idea of everything moving on….Freya’s got a kid, Davina and Kol too and Klaus…your daughter…she’s getting married…how can you not be here for that?” Rebekah informed Klaus, shocking her brother by the admission his daughter was now engaged. “She’s engaged?” Klaus responded with a soft smile, genuinely happy for his daughter Hope. “Yeah to Caroline’s daughter…I guess Hope is better at getting the girl than you brother.” Rebekah teased him. “So, we are back here for a wedding? Seriously Rebekah I have come to expect this carelessness from Kol and Niklaus, but I thought better of you!” Elijah complained to his sister. “Also, if this is your logic why not bring back Hayley as well as us?” “Trust me I was all up for resurrecting every single person I ever lost but it was hard enough sale for the two of you.” Rebekah answered Elijah, before turning to Henrik. “Not sure how you wound up alive again and all grown up…that is giving me a headache trying to work out.” “If you did not rope my daughter into this ressurection party of yours just which old friends did you persuade or threaten?” Klaus wondered. “Please tell me it was not Bonnie Bennet she has already stopped my death once before and was quite honestly very righteous about it.” “The kind of magic which would resurrect two original vampires and possibly the hollow would have to be that of a great darkness, a Black magic darker than even our aunt Dahlia’s.” Elijah suggested, as he began realizing the truth. “Oh, Rebekah please tell me our lives are not owed to any of them….”

Although Rebekah was under the illusion the ressurection spell had worked perfectly with the delightful addition of her youngest brother Henrik, Annabella knew better in fact Henrik coming back was not the only thing that went awry with the spell that Bella, Kayne and Rose had cast, in fact as the Black siblings were about to realize very quickly the spell they had done together had caused all kinds of chaos with more awaiting not only them but the Mikaelson’s too. “I cannot believe we did not get the hollow one of you witches must have done something wrong!” Rose accused her siblings, as Rose, Kayne and Bella walked into a luxurious hotel room within New Orleans. “Who is to say you did not mess up? I mean you are hardly the wonder witch of the family!” Kayne snapped back at his sister. “Not gaining the power of the hollow are the last of our worries, I fear something is wrong, I can feel it in my bones I just cannot get my head around what.” Bella warned her siblings, eager to determine the extent of the damage from the spell the three of them cast. “You worry too much Annabella,” Kayne responded, dismissing his older sister’s worries. “The only thing we messed up on was bringing back the Mikaelson’s and getting nothing out of it!” “Speak for yourself Kayne, I for one struck a deal with Rebekah from the very beginning I may not have the hollow, but I am sticking around here until I get something else, I want.” Rose revealed to them both. “Of course, I first have to work out something that is really going to make Rebekah’s life a living hell.” “So, you had a back up plan all this time?” Kayne furiously shouted at Rose. “Guess I am fool for thinking you actually cared for either of us…you have not changed one bit!” “Oh, please you already said yes the minute Rebekah asked anything for the man who would rather be dead then be anywhere near you!” Rose cruelly taunted her brother, before turning to Bella. “And you…what do you get now that Rebekah’s got her use out of you? Yeah, that is right you will go back to hiding from the rest of the world.” “Can we please just stop attacking each other for one second so we can work out the amount of damage we have caused with that god damn spell?” Bella shouted, eager to get her siblings to stop fighting with each other and her. Suddenly, the sound of a loud knocking noise coming from their hotel door had stopped the three siblings in mid fight as they looked among themselves trying to figure out who would be knocking on the door; Bella fearing it would be a newly revived Elijah issuing an polite warning about leaving New Orleans, Kayne fearing he would be reunited with Klaus and Rose hoping it was anyone or anything that would get her away from her family. “I guess I will get it then,” Rose said as she walked over to the hotel room door. “Honestly, you would think neither of you were all powerful witches…” As Rose swung the door open neither her, Kayne or Bella could prepare themselves for who stood in their doorway ready to greet the bewitching siblings. “So, you are the witches who have went and screwed up death!” Katherine Pierce greeted the three siblings as she stood within their doorway, Bella instantly realizing in that moment they had brought back more than just Klaus and Elijah. “I just wanted to say thanks for old time’s sake before I get the hell out of this city…which if I were you guys I would do the exact same before Klaus gets pissed and decides to kill the lot of you!” “Katerina Petrova?” Bella managed to say, while still in shock from Katherine’s arrival. “How exactly did we screw up death?” A clueless Kayne asked the female vampire. “Wow, you did not even mean to do it did use?” Katherine laughed at them. “In that case I’d highly advise getting the hell out of here before Mikael arrives…. oh well I’ve done my good deed for the century…it was good seeing you again Annabella.” Before Bella could muster up anymore words and before Kayne had any chance to ask Katherine any questions about her claim about him and his sisters screwing up death, Katherine Pierce had already vamp sped out of sight all too eager to get as far away from the chaos that was most definitely about to follow. “I guess you were right Annabella,” Rose said as she turned to face her sister. “Just one question in what way did we just screw up death?” “In a really bad way…” Kayne said with a look on horror on his face, which caught his sisters’ attention as they turned to look at what he was staring blankly at, only to see their brother Magnus Black was now stood in the doorway.

[prorevenge]

The neighborhood remembers. The neighborhood punishes.

This is a story I've been sitting on for a few years now, and having discovered r/prorevenge a couple months ago, I decided it's finally time to let the world know what happened to a sociopath who dared to cross The Neighborhood.

To set the stage, I used to live in a big but not huge city, lets call it palmville. I lived near the corner of a dense suburb nestled between overstuffed apartment buildings, a river that smelled like diesel when at low tide, and two busy highways. I was a minority in this neighborhood and I caught a lot of heat for it, people didn't really like white people there, but enough of our neighbors were accepting of us that aside from a few disagreements between families and the beatings that came with them I didn't feel like I was in danger when leaving my home. It was a rough neighborhood, but it was my home, and it protected its own.

The Community Center was like a temple, and...lets call her A.M. was the priestess. In our neighborhood she was respected like a living deity, and her calm and understanding reflected her status. I never once saw her behave without a strong moral code.

And the final piece to set this stage, our former landlord. Short asian lady in all the stereotypical ways, kind and sweet. Our house was above my parent's pay grade and she knew it. She went out of her way to find house repair and maintenance jobs for tenants that were having money problems. She'd pay them by taking chunks out of their rent, often times a bit larger than how much the work they did was worth. Looking back, that was probably illegal, but that's irrelevant because she died. The circumstances surrounding her death were suspect, but none of the suspects play a part in this story so there's no need to go into detail on it.

Her sons, who wanted nothing to do with real-estate, took over the business. They couldn't make heads or tails of how she managed to float books with so much red in them and began dumping properties, ours was on that list. I harbor no ill-will towards them, and still wish them the best, but the guy who bought the house...enter the sociopath and today's victim.

This guy wasted no time in making our lives hell. His first action was to raise the rent. Apparently when the account changed hands, he was allowed to update the rent to modern pricing. We'd been there for several years and were paying below market even from the onset, so this was a huge blow by itself. The second blow came when he said that the rent had to be ready, in full, on the first of every month, no partial payments, no work to reduce it, no extensions. Full rent on the first of the month or an eviction notice on the second. This was hemorrhaging our savings, but we were surviving for the moment.

Meanwhile, A.M. had lobbied hard for the city to co-fund a revival project to renovate the entire aging suburb and she succeeded. One street at a time had conga lines of work trucks almost every day and people were getting old leaky pipes replaced, sinkholes in yards patched, fences repaired, paint renewed, it was an amazing thing, and an enticing thing for The Sociopath.

Being at the corner of the neighborhood, our house was on the last street on the list, and Sociopath wanted us out so he could relist the house after renovation. He never said this directly, but multiple conversations made his intent clear even for 10 year old me.

Random inspections, overhyping of minor problems with the house, even so far as trying to bring us up on completely false animal abuse charges because our cat was attacked by what we believe was a raccoon and he tried to claim we did it, yeah, because a vet can't figure out the difference between knife wounds and a mauling.

We read the writing on the wall and began preparations to move. We decided to move in with my oldest brother in a place I'll call banjoland. Most of us had moved except my other brother, who stayed behind because he still had a lot of social ties in Palmville and his new job meant if he cut corners, he could keep paying sociopath's inflated bills.

Well, despite his best efforts, he came up $20 short one month and sociopath jumped on it. he had 30 days. We made the 400 mile trip from Banjoland to Palmville to get the rest of our stuff and I can't say as I approved of my brother's living conditions, but I guess that's beside the point. The month passed rather uneventfully, I guess Sociopath figured he'd won so there was no need to burn the gas to drive out and gloat.

The neighborhood had learned what was going on and that was the first time I'd ever been back in that neighborhood where I didn't get a single callout, a single glare, a single racist remark. Everybody behaved reverently, it was kind of disturbing in all honesty, I guess people in lower incomes all know what eviction means and felt like I was having a bad enough time already.

Well, 20 days later he says it's time to leave. We still had a week left, but it didn't matter, we didn't have the money to try fighting it with a lawyer. A.M. descended from the heavens and bought us a couple extra days, but it was evident he really really wanted us out, possibly because the work trucks were now one street away.

The last time I ever saw the house I grew up in, workmen were throwing my childhood possessions into a large bin when we supposedly still had three days left to leave. Everything that follows is a collection of information I got through the grapevine and phone calls with people present at the events.

Immediately, Sociopath moved into the house himself. Why you may ask? People who owned the homes they were living in were getting the full cost of renovations comped by the city. He figured that by moving in himself, he'd be able to get this house he bought at liquidation price renovated for free and flip it.

A.M. was having none of it.

She explained to him that at the time the revival project was approved, that house was a rental lot, and they can't change the budget now. She then explained to him that the partial cost coverage that had been approved for the lot was in our name, not his, and he wasn't eligible for partial cost comping either.

He'd have to pay every penny himself, and since the entire neighborhood was getting a facelift, he was required to at least renovate the exterior, otherwise she'd see the house condemned as an eyesore or dilapidated or whatever the legal term is. He went really cheap on the renovations, basically put in new carpets and a coat of paint, this would later come to bite him in the ass.

He then began trying to sell the house in earnest. The neighborhood remembered what he'd done. There were vandalisms when nobody was there, and loud noises from the neighbors when people were there to look the house over, and anytime a prospective buyer asked around, they got the full stinkeye from anybody they talked to. They made sure he simply couldn't get that house sold at market value.

After three months of this, he lowered the listing price. Then a month later he lowered it again and finally got a bite. A.M. personally made sure he had to file every. single. piece. of paperwork before it changed hands. Every single part of the house had to be inspected thoroughly.

And that's when Karma herself caught up with him. In his hasty and cheap renovations, he'd somehow damaged the pipes.

Black. Mold.

A.M. remembered how he'd treated us and she decided to pay him back in kind. I never heard how exactly she pulled it off, but she managed to delay him getting the news about the black mold being discovered for several days, long enough that by time he did get the news he didn't have enough time left to try getting it cleaned or make a last ditch effort to save the house.

The house was condemned days later.

In their final act, A.M. and members of the neighborhood filed every single complaint and injunction they could and arranged for him to be compelled by the city to demolish the house immediately. A cost he had to pay out of his own pocket.

He tried to destroy a family and broke laws just to make some quick cash, and instead was left fighting a year long legal battle and ended up losing thousands.

The neighborhood remembers. The neighborhood punishes.

(source) story by (/u/TanyaSapien)

[imagine-loki]

Mad Predictions

TITLE: Mad Predictions

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 6

AUTHOR: inspired-snowflace 

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: “A freedom restrained the sun shall invoke, The gift from the plea a mother spoke, Purpose shall be bestowed upon your life, In form of one you should have called wife, A lover presumed dead shall be back, Now shall you truly pay for your attack.”

Ever since the fortune teller had spilt these words, Loki’s life was thrown into a hurricane. He dared to hope that after the attack on New York and the following arrest, things would get better, but these words seemed to point in an opposite direction.

Things would never remain the same, for better or worse.

RATING: Everyone

NOTES/WARNINGS: Mild swearing. Updates earlier on my tumblr!!

RECAP : The reader comes to now of Loki’s attempt to exchange her for the soul stone, which results in her gaining the soul stone’s powers.

The rainbow lights crowded around you and lifted you. You didn’t notice the tears falling from your eyes until they left your cheeks to join the vastness of space. The mixed rainbow colours reflected your feelings inside. Sadness, Bitterness, Betrayed, Disgust and above all, ANGER. You wanted to get back on Loki for doing such a thing to you. Not being able to deal with concoction of emotions, you morphed them all into one strong feeling of hatred and anger. You landed back on Earth at the exact same place that you left. A huge circle, of what you assumed to be runes, glittered on the grass around you in a bright orange, as if making mock of your visit to Vormir.

The scar on your head burned and glowed as such powerful emotions surged through you. You saw Bruce and Thor come out at the sight of you. The worry lines on their faces dissipated and was replaced by relief. But your anger clouded the observant side of you and the display of such emotions went unnoticed.

“Oh, Thank God Y/N!!!! Where have you been?? You were gone for 6 hours now.” Bruce exclaimed.

6 hours? Had it been that long? Well, Thor had once told you that time functioned differently on varied planets. But as of this moment, It didn’t matter.

You turned to look at Bruce and he slightly winced under your hot gaze.

“Lady Y/N!!! You… you… you were Asgardian!!!” Thor was deep in thought while all the memories returned to him.

Not answering either’s remark, you proceeded to ask your own question, “WHERE. IS. HE?”

“Y/N, Who.. who are you talking about? Thor, Is she really Asgardian??” Banner remarked.

You angrily stormed forward causing the grass at your feet to wither and die away. Their smiles of relief faded away when they saw your glowering eyes. They didn’t oblige you with an answer since they knew that whosoever you were targeting was to be saved from your wrath. Otherwise, the second option was painful death.

“I will ask this only once- WHERE. IS. THAT. BASTARD?”

You saw Bruce whispering in his comm.

Something along the lines of- “Uhh… Guys I know we haven’t discussed the protocol of this but now would be a great time to discuss Code Orange. In the living room beside the garden. Over.”

Thor and Banner both exchanged looks before jumping forward to restrain you.

Even with those guys clutching an arm each of yours, you waddled towards the door of the living room. All the while you screamed obscenities that if they were written, the rating would have to be changed to mature. And all the while Bruce and Thor tried to fruitlessly tell you stuff to calm you down. As you opened the door, you saw Tony climb down the stairs in full armour.

“Banner! What the hell is Code Orange? Damn! it is too difficult to take the stairs in full armour.” He screamed.

He paused when he saw you. Then after glancing at your captors, he said “Ohh… JARVIS ? Can you please retract the suit.”

This gesture calmed you down a bit.

“Where the hell is he? Call him and I shall spare you all!!” You screamed, not wanting to lessen your anger at all. But your tears betrayed you, searing your cheeks and falling to the floor. Steve, Nat and Hawkeye came down together in complete battle armour, ready to lunge at their target. They all seemed confused about seeing you restrained and crying.

“Ummm… What just happened?” Hawkeye asked Bruce while sharing an unsure glance at Steve. You were further enraged upon seeing Wanda levitate down, a burst of magic in both hands. For that meant that the only one remaining to appear was Loki.

“Come down you bastard!!! Fight me head on!!! You dare spit on the name of love!! Come down, you damned liar!!!Stop playing cowardice and face your death!!!” you screamed towards the stairs.

“Language.” Steve instructed.

“Oh Steve!! Good you weren’t here earlier. You would have almost dragged your holy ass to hell of you would have heard her loud words.” Tony said and was subject to a typical ‘shut up’ look by Steve.

“Y/N came back from Asgard. Thor says she is Asgardian. Umm… Not sure why she is hell-bent on murder though.” Bruce croaked what he could while holding you restrained.

“Who is the subject of her wrath?” Natasha enquired.

“Loki!! He and Y/N were courting.” Thor said with his eyebrows furrowed as if recollecting your past.

“Ok cool. So why don’t we let Y/N go? I would love to see Y/N punch him in his royal smug face. Media asks-we say ‘oops’. Two- Y/N, bad choice in men. Three- how about you take some anger management classes with Bruce? We cool now? Lets go grab some shawarma.” Tony said.

All of them had closed in on you from all sides. As your anger subsided, they stood around you in a circle. Just as things were about to get better, they hit a new worst. Loki entered.

He strolled into the like he owned the tower. This rekindled your fire of rage. You made an attempt to break free. This sudden move caught the avengers off guard. By the time he stood in front of you , you managed to free your hand. You raised it and turned it slowly, painfully slowly, counter clockwise, causing immense pain to surge through his body. He fell to his knees, screaming from the pain.

“How does that feel huh?? Feels good right?? Now fight me head on!! I will show you why you shouldn’t have messed with me!!!” You screamed, the tears flowing like tap leaks.

When the avengers recovered from their initial shock, they pulled your hand down causing the pain to stop. Yet he stated on his knees. Seeing him like that caused you to weaken. Now you were a bully, just like Thor and his friends, who never bothered to know the reason due to which he did things.

“Let me go.” You said sobbing heavier than before.

Sensing your weakness, the avengers let go. Your knees buckled under you and you mirrored his stance.

You wiped your tears away in an attempt to appear brave. You calmed your voice before speaking.

“Loki. I am willing to forgive you….” His eyes shot upwards in utter disbelief. Tears rained down them.

“Just answer one thing- WHY?” Your voice collapsed and you began to sob again. He continued to sob but didn’t oblige you with an answer.

“This is exactly what it is like when you miss the first fifteen minutes of the movie. You don’t understand the entire movie.” Tony muttered. You looked at him. One look at your face and his funny side disappeared.

“Ok… Listen up, Reindeer games. Since you are especially bad at understanding feelings, Let me tell you this- She is giving you a second chance. Answer her question, and chances are, she might forgive you.”

Loki made no move to explain. He just closed his eyes, faced heaven and muttered, “Oh Valhalla! Please forgive me.”

“Fine!! Then I shall explain!!” you said while sobbing all over again.

“I hail from Asgard. I was the daughter of a noble there. I was smart and got to take part in the royal meetings with my father. There I met him…” You said signalling with your chin at Loki. “We fell in love and started courting, or as we put it, dating. Then, he fell off the bifrost and people assumed he died. I wept and mourned over him EVERY SINGLE DAY. One day, he returned back and I was so happy! He told me to keep it a secret, but I was so happy to see him that I didn’t care! He stayed with me for eighteen days. He then took me to Vormir, where the soul stone lied. The stone requires a sacrifice of someone you love, by throwing them down a cliff. And then….” You touched the scar at the back of your head unable to spell it out. You heard Loki’s sobs getting stronger.

You let out a sarcastic laugh. “But he forgot that you are supposed to love the person you throw off the cliff and not the other way around.”

“But y’know some stones are kinder than some humans, or rather gods.” You said spitefully, your anger bubbling up as the main emotion again.

“The soul stone chose to revive me, gave me powers, wipe my memories and send me here. The rest… well you know…. is history.”

Steve lifted you up fragilely as if any moment you would break. Nobody made an attempt to lift Loki, not even Thor, who usually went soft on him. A glance was all that you needed to see that the avengers were staring daggers at Loki. You were pretty sure if their eyes could shoot lasers, Loki would have already died.

“Y/N, let’s go.” Steve said, leading you away from Loki. “Avengers, come along.” Steve said looking over his shoulder.

“Captain. You haven’t given your decision yet. Is he to be killed by a gun to the head or perhaps, be thrown off the tower.” Natasha said venomously.

“Your guns won’t harm him. My hammer will work. Unless, the lady wants to choose your latter option.” Thor said aggressively.

You couldn’t see Loki’s expression but you were pretty sure he would have felt hurt at Thor’s words. Loki had told you he loved Thor.

But he even told you he loved you, didn’t he?

“Let him be. I don’t care anymore. Besides, I heard that you bought Burger King, Tony. I think a celebration is due.” You said trying your best to change the mood along with the subject. Tony took the cue.

“Oh yes!! Guys let’s celebrate the acquisition of Burger King!!!! Y/N, and if you ask nicely I might even give you the recipe of the secret sauce.” Tony said trying to lighten the mood.

“Yes, man of Iron, tell us the recipe of the secret potion!!!!” Thor joined in.

You grinned and looked back at Thor. Your true intention was, however, to have a glance at Loki. He looked at your group with tears continuously streaming down his eyes, shock written all over his face.

“You guys and Burger King’s special sauce. Thank Gosh you bought Burger King, Tony, because they made half of their profits from you guys. ” Natasha said while rolling her eyes but with a playful smile on her face.

“Off to Burger King then!!!” Tony screamed.

“Wait!” You said. You slowly turned towards Tony to build the suspense. “Did you just climb down the stairs when you could have easily flown down with your suit?” You asked while raising an eyebrow just for extra effect. Though with your red eyes and sob lines, you were pretty sure it hadn’t worked. You didn’t want everyone to pity on you, so you decided to be strong.

“Dammit kid! I hate it when you are smarter than me!” Tony said, though his grin betrayed his words.

“Does that mean that you hate it the moment me and you are in the same room?” You quipped. The laughter of your friends echoed, shooing the bad feelings away.