#mallory x michael

[beastsovrevelation]

An endless list of favourite ships: Michael Langdon x Mallory (American Horror Story: Apocalypse)

[inevitablemoment]

Chapter 4: Trying To Know Somebody I Never Met

Mallory fills Ellen in on what has happened in the past few years.

[7-wonders]

Requiem

Michael Langdon x Reader (Mad Love Act II, Chapter XVI)

Summary: It's all led to this, and now, you have to face off against Michael to get your world back.

Word Count: 6.3k

A note from the author: This chapter is so, so dark. Sorry? Also, this chapter relies a lot on the she/her pronouns this story was first started with btw. (more notes at the end)

I noticed when posting this that it looks like the previous chapter didn't load a lot of tags. If you got tagged in this and are like "wait how did we get to the fight already?" you missed the last chapter! Click on the Mad Love Masterlist to read Chapter 35. :)

Content warnings for this chapter include graphic depictions of injury and death. Reader discretion is advised.

Mad Love Masterlist

Mallory warned you prior to leaving your room that the residents of Outpost 3 were all dead, murdered at the hands of Ms. Venable and her poisoned apples (you try not to dwell on your own poisoned apple experience). All the preparation in the world doesn’t prepare you for the shock of seeing two dead bodies, those of Coco and Dinah, in the large foyer of the Outpost. Shock turns to revulsion as one of Mallory’s friends and other witches yanks a knife out of Coco’s skull with little more than a wince. When she stands, she points the knife at you.

“She gonna help us?” she asks warily.

“She is.” Mallory turns to you, pointing first to the woman with the knife and next to another woman standing near the stairs. “This is Queenie and Zoe.”

You wave sheepishly. “It’s nice to meet you two.”

Zoe smiles kindly, but Queenie just appraises you with a look that says she doesn’t trust you. You can’t say that you blame her, though you wish she didn’t have a reason for this reaction. Mallory leaves your side to kneel in between the two dead women, and you watch as she takes a deep breath and breathes out onto Coco’s face before repeating her movements with Dinah.

It takes mere seconds for the two to shoot up, gasping for air and trying to get used to once again inhabiting a body.

“Welcome back,” Mallory says.

“What just happened?” Coco asks, her elaborate hairdo impressively staying put after all of that.

“You died. And now, you’re no longer dead.”

“Oh.” She frowns, rubbing at the spot where a knife sat moments ago. “Fuck, that sucked.”

“Are you going to explain why you tore us from our afterlives?” Dinah snaps, standing up.

“It’s time to fix this entire mess. To defeat Michael, we need all the help we can get.” Mallory eyes Dinah specifically. “From both of you.”

“You’re on your own with that shit,” Dinah declares. “I’m not here to defeat anyone.”

Maybe it’s not your place, but you feel like you can help to convince Dinah. You take a step toward here. “Please, I really think that—”

“How can any of you defeat me, when I’ve already won?” A voice, so familiar to you that it could be your own, comes from the stairs.

You almost don’t want to look at him. If you don’t, maybe you can remain in this stasis where you’re simply preparing to undo the apocalypse, instead of being faced with the reality that you’re about to fight your own husband, the man who, despite all of the horrors he’s committed, remains your love. When you do tear your eyes away from Dinah, you see that he’s not even taking notice of your presence. No, he only has hate-filled eyes for the Supreme.

Michael’s changed into a blood-red jacket, which makes it obvious that he was expecting this showdown to happen. Ms. Mead stands off to his left side, ever the small, imposing bodyguard. Mallory steps forward, along with most of the group. You can’t bring your feet to move, so you remain back with Dinah.

“You haven’t won,” Mallory says. 

“Perhaps you haven’t noticed the state of the world.”

Queenie scoffs. “At least the world can be saved. Unlike your bitch ass.”

Michael smirks proudly. “The seventh seal has been broken. Wormwood has fallen from the sky and turned the rivers to blood and fire. The bottomless pit has been opened and my swarms of locusts and scorpions have ravaged humanity. The world has been remade in my father’s image.”

When he speaks like this, of biblical imagery and prophecy, he turns into a person you don’t care to know. He turns into the Antichrist.

“Almost.” Mallory smiles. “Pretty sure he didn’t imagine a world where there were still witches, so you failed there.”

Michael finally takes in the full group, and his haughty demeanor falters when he sees you. Softly, he utters your name. “What are you doing?”

You swallow thickly, willing your voice not to shake. “I think you know.”

“I do. You’re going to betray me?

Mallory tries to grab your arm as you move in front of her, but you can’t be stopped now. “This is not betrayal. I’m doing this because I love you, and I can’t bear to be faced with the monster that you’ve become any longer. Now, we have a chance to save the world, Michael. Help me undo this mess.”

“Michael,” Mallory gets his attention once more. “Your father never commanded you to end the world in this way. Jeff and Mutt, the two that ran Kineros, were the ones who thought a nuclear apocalypse was the solution. They controlled Ms. Mead and gave her the commands to tell you that this was Satan’s plan. Satan was just happy to take credit when he realized that you were going to cause anarchy.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Michael says.

“Is it? They told me so themselves, when I went to Kineros to ensure that Coco would be in this Outpost.”

He rolls his eyes. “This is such an obvious lie, I’m a little offended that you would think I’d fall for it. Right, Ms. Mead?”

Michael looks to his left, expecting to be backed up, only to see Ms. Mead with a look of bewildered shame on her face.

“Ms. Mead?”

“They—I do as I’m programmed,” she stutters. 

You gasp at the revelation. Satan didn’t come up with the plan to end the world like this? All of this could have been avoided?

Instead of being faced with the same reckoning, a look of absolute murder appears on his face. “I’m going to do what I should have done that day in the Murder House and kill you all personally.”

“Mallory,” Dinah calls, walking towards the Supreme. “You raised me from the dead so that you would have the power of voodoo on your side. But if you know anything about who I am, you know that the only choice I’d pick would be the winner.”

She comes to a stop just before the stairs, bowing her head respectfully. Michael raises a hand out to her, ready to welcome another acolyte. You throw Mallory a panicked look, but she’s barely holding back glee.

“You’re half-right, Dinah,” she admits.

“She needed the help of a powerful voodoo queen,” a deep Southern voice says. You turn and watch as a tall woman with long braids struts up to Dinah. “But that ain’t you, sis .”

“The former Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau,” Mallory whispers into your ear.

“To release me from hell, Mallory promised Papa Legba the darkest and most corrupt voodoo queen’s soul for mine. You’ll serve him well in my place.”

“You’re a fool, Marie Laveau,” Dinah spits. “You would have done no different if you were queen.”

“No!” Marie says, before disappearing in a puff. 

Not even a second later, she reappears behind Dinah wielding a machete. When Dinah turns to face her, Marie brings the machete down in one swing on her throat. Dinah gasps and screams as blood begins to gush out of her neck, falling to the floor and bleeding out in a matter of seconds. Nobody else seems to be affected by this, but you feel a little faint, and you hold onto Mallory’s arm to keep from collapsing.

“Out with the trash!” Marie declares. “Give Papa my regards.”

Michael, apparently having enough of this, nods to Ms. Mead. The android removes her hand to reveal a machine gun hidden underneath it. Though you want to say something along the lines of, “What the actual fuck?” Zoe says a word in what you assume to be Latin before you can.

Instead of shooting, Ms. Mead begins to shake and whir mechanically. Mallory uses Michael’s confusion to usher everybody back towards the open fire, where you watch as Ms. Mead explodes and sends Michael flying over the railing. He lands harshly on the floor below, staring in horror at Ms. Mead’s head next to him.

It’s only a matter of time until his horror turns to rage, and Queenie scrambles forward to grab Ms. Mead’s machine gun hand. When Michael rises, she rises with him, gun trained on his chest.

“Sorry about your little toy,” Queenie says before placing her finger on the trigger.

Michael turns to be met with a firestorm of bullets, more than enough to kill even the Antichrist. You scream in horror at the sight, his blood spattering against the wall as he falls and comes to rest against it, very obviously dead.

“Michael!” You try to stand, wanting to save him even though he probably (definitely) deserves what’s just happened to him. Before you can, Mallory pulls you to her.

“This won’t keep him down,” she assures you. “He’s too powerful to be truly killed. But this will buy us time.”

Though you don’t know if you believe her, you need to in order to keep from emotionally collapsing, so you nod. 

Queenie walks to Michael’s body, kicking his foot as she checks to make sure he’s dead…for now, at least. “Do we need his hair or something for this? Because I’m more than happy to rip off a chunk of it.”

“No. The spell only requires that we have something personal of his.” Mallory smiles at you. “And we have the most important person in his life here with us. As long as you’re still in?”

You force yourself to look away from Michael, closing your eyes and taking a couple of deep breaths to recenter yourself. Finally, you look at her again. “Of course, I’m still in.”

“Good. Have you picked a time that will work to stop him?”

“I think so,” you confirm. After some internal deliberation, you think that the best way to get through to him is going to be when you had the big fight about the poisoned apple, before you stormed out and got yourself kidnapped by the witches. He wasn’t too powerful or too far gone with his father’s plan yet, but you were both in love with each other—albeit, you hadn’t actually realized it at that point.

“Alright. I’ll need you to focus on that, okay? Then I’ll say the spell, and we’ll be able to go back in time. We just need somewhere safe to cast the spell, somewhere with a large tub we can fill with water.”

You definitely found a room like that when you were exploring the Outpost your first couple of days here. “Okay. Follow me.”

Everybody stands, but hesitates when they remember the issue of Michael. If he’s going to come back to life like Mallory says, shouldn’t there be some safety measure in place to buy you more time?

Queenie sighs and rolls her eyes, realizing that she should probably be that safety measure. “Go,” she urges, readjusting her grip on the gun to ensure she’ll be quick to the trigger when Michael rises again.

Mallory darts forward to hug her quickly. “Thank you.”

“Enough with the sappy shit.” Even as she says that, you can see the affection in her eyes when she looks at Mallory. “Go!”

You do as she says and hurry up the stairs. Before you turn the corner, you allow yourself a moment to meet Michael’s open, lifeless gaze.

The hallways are much less of a maze than they were when you first arrived here, but the layout is still unfamiliar to you. After leading your group down what you thought was going to lead to the door you were sure contained the room with the tub, you’re met with a dead end. 

Sheepishly, you look over your shoulder at Coco. “I think I’m a little lost. Isn’t there a room with a really large washtub for laundry around here?”

Her eyes light up, and she lightly pushes you to keep you moving.  “Yes! We’re super close.” It’s going to take a bit to get used to her actually being helpful, you think as you follow her directions. “We’re going to go down this hallway here. Now, the weird little junction up ahead? Take a left and then it’s the third door on the right.”

Now you know where you are. “Thank you! I found it my first time going through the Outpost, but I haven’t lived here for eighteen months like you.”

You’re just about to turn left at the junction when a man appears from the other side of the hallway, jabbing a knife into your abdomen before you can even be surprised at the sight. You cry out, the pain sharp and sudden as he pulls the knife out of you with nothing but malice on his face. When he looks up at you, his scowl is replaced by a horrified shock.

“Oh my god, I thought you were—” He sees Coco, standing just behind you. “She was supposed to be you !”

Your shaking hands try to press down on the wound, but blood rushes out through your fingers, and your knees go weak as you crash into the wall. Down the hall, you can hear Mallory scream your name. She runs for you with Zoe hot on her heels.

“What the fuck did you do?” Mallory yells to the man, landing next to you on the floor and gently pulling your hands away so that she can assess the damage. By the way her lips start to tremble, you assume it’s not good.

The man that stabbed you ignores her, instead focusing on Coco. “You ruin everything!” he yells at her, lifting the knife once more.

Coco pushes him over the railing before he can do any more damage. He screams the whole way down, and Coco peers after him. “Sorry?” she calls with a grimace, no love apparently lost.

“This is…a lot of blood,” you note, watching your black dress becoming even darker from the rapidly expanding bloodstain. You’re also in a lot of pain. Fuck, you didn’t think being stabbed would hurt so much.

“It’s okay! It’s alright!” Mallory soothes; you can’t tell who she’s reassuring, herself or you. “I’m going to fix this. I’m going to—I’ll heal you, and then you’ll be fine.”

Your heart is pounding from a mixture of fear and adrenaline. For the first time since your arrival to this Outpost, you’re truly scared. This is a different fear from when you were worried about Emily and Timothy being executed, or when you realized that Michael wanted to have a child with you. It’s even different from the fear of knowing that you and Michael would be on opposing sides now. This is primal—this is terror.

Mallory’s hands hover over your abdomen as she begins to chant in Latin, eyes screwed shut in concentration. Nothing happens, and as the seconds tick by, your entire body starts to go cold. It’s like somebody’s taken a syringe of ice water and injected it right into your veins. You become more faint than before, and decide that laying flat will probably be the best way to rid yourself of this feeling.

“Why isn’t this working?” Mallory cries in frustration, catching your head and placing it in her lap. Tears begin to build in her eyes as she tries the same breathing technique on you as she did Coco and Dinah to bring them back to life, to no avail. You cough wetly, and when you wipe your mouth, your hand comes away red.

The realization hits you then: you’re dying. The overpowering cold, being unable to sit up anymore, the faintness—your body is beginning to shut down against your will.

“Mallory, I’m scared,” you admit.

“I know. I’m sorry. I promise I’m trying.”

“I know.” You smile at the repetition even as you begin to feel so, so tired. Maybe if you close your eyes and rest for a moment, you’ll be able to get enough strength back to help you fight to stay alive.

Your eyes barely close before Mallory starts shaking you. “No, no, please don’t close your eyes!”

Marie Laveau appears at the far end of the hallway you first ran down and yells something to Mallory, but you can’t quite make out what she says over the rushing in your ears. Mallory takes one of your arms and Zoe takes the other, both working together to pull you down the hallway. You watch dizzily as Coco runs to Marie, your vision warping as the two disappear around the corner.

Mallory continues trying to heal you once they have you in the room where you’re meant to go back in time. Her hand, soaked in your blood, runs over your forehead comfortingly as she becomes more frantic in her chanting. Even Zoe tries to help, pressing down on your abdomen in the hopes of slowing the bleeding as she joins Mallory in spellwork. It’s becoming more difficult to hold on as you become weaker, the two taking turns making you open your eyes again.

“Please, please, please,” Mallory begs any and all forces beyond her power that might be listening.

“I’m sorry,” you mumble, the effort to produce sounds near herculean.

“Don’t apologize,” she says sternly through tears, earning the smallest of laughs from you.

“Yes, ma’am.” Your hands shake as you feel around for Mallory’s, and you weakly squeeze when you find them. “I love you, Mal. I’m so happy I got to see you again.”

“Stop saying goodbye. I’m going to bring you back, this isn’t goodbye.”

For now, though, it is, and you both know it. When your eyes close this time, they don’t open again, and you feel yourself being dragged down, down, down, away from consciousness and life itself.

With your last remaining strength, you become introspective. You have so many regrets, so many words that you’re going to leave unsaid. You wish you had gotten the chance to actually complete the spell and go back in time, sure that you would have been able to change Michael’s mind. You want to thank Queenie and Zoe and Coco and Marie for their help, for believing that you can help fix the mess the world has become. You wish you could—

•••

Michael has had enough of witches on this Earth, he thinks as he blows Queenie’s head clean off her shoulders after coming back to life. She had been distracted by a body falling from two floors up—whose body it was remained a mystery that Michael didn’t care to solve—providing Michael the element of surprise. Even if she were still prepared, it wouldn’t have mattered. He’s too powerful for anything to stop him now.

Maybe he was naive to believe that a simple nuclear bomb or two could kill them. No, he was definitely naive. After all, Mallory knew that the world would be ending, and soon. That was more than enough time for her to gather her chosen forces and figure out a way to survive. He knows now that his path, the one that Satan had created before he had even created Michael, was always meant to lead to this. In order to truly inherit this new world and rule Hell on Earth, he must eradicate the remaining witches with his own hands.

But what to do with you? You’ve chosen your side for this battle, and it’s not his. He nervously hopes that you’re simply mad at him after how your last conversation devolved into a fight, that Mallory reached you at a vulnerable time and used that to her advantage to recruit you. Once he defeats the witches, you’ll come back to him and he’ll concede that he was perhaps wrong to bring up the idea of having a child at such an intimate moment. Still, seeing you standing in solidarity with the witches hurt, which is likely what the Supreme was planning.

When Michael makes it up the stairs, the reanimated voodoo queen blocks the hallway that he knows you and the witches have gone down. Grabbing a pouch off of her belt, she pours a powder into her hand and spreads it in a line in front of her with a chant.

“You shall not pass,” Marie declares with a smirk, wiping her hands of the powder. Michael juts his hand forward, prepared to rip her heart out of her chest, but an invisible barrier stops him. “You’re dealing with the HBIC now.”

He smiles ruefully. “Clever,” he admits. “Normally, that would work.”

He’s about to show that voodoo magic is no match for him anymore when his blood runs cold and his heart drops. At that same moment, he becomes aware of sobbing coming from far behind Marie. Though Michael’s never felt anything like this before, he can feel the certainty of what it means down to his very core: something’s happened. Specifically, something’s happened to you.

“Let me through,” he demands. Marie falters, taken aback at the fear in his eyes. “Marie Laveau, if you value your second chance at life you’ll let me through.”

She recovers from her hesitation with a haughty laugh. “Nice try.” 

Michael makes quick work of her with a simple snap of his fingers, snapping her neck and sending her right back to the Underworld. He’s just about to clear the barrier and figure out just what is going on when he feels a presence behind him. Rolling his eyes, he turns around to face this distraction as well and comes face to face with Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, who was with you when he was shot. Surely she must know something about what’s going on.

“What’s happened?” Michael asks. The knife that Coco was prepared to stab him with goes limp in her wrist, and she gapes at him. “Where’s Y/n?”

“She was…Brock…” She weakly mimes a stabbing motion.

“No.” He feels sick at the mere implication. “No!”

Coco now the least of his worries, he runs down the hallway, the whole time hoping that it’s a mistake, that Coco misinterpreted what she saw, that the cold emptiness now residing in his chest is simply a fluke. The sobs that become more clear as he nears the entryway, however, don’t do much to reassure him.

“Mallory!” Michael gasps. 

The Supreme is on the floor with you in her lap, and for a moment, Michael can delude himself into thinking that you’re okay. The excessive amount of blood on the floor—your blood—and the unnaturally limp way that your hand is lying force him to face the obvious. Michael’s knees give out, and he falls to the floor harshly.

Mallory looks up at him, forgetting that they’re meant to be enemies right now. “She got stabbed, and—” a sob rips from her chest, “my healing spells aren’t working. And neither is Vitalum Vitalis. It should be working, Michael, I’m the fucking Supreme.”

“Okay. Um, let me…” Michael’s brain is fighting a war between shutting down from the agony of this situation and kicking into overdrive to figure out how to get you back. After a moment, he thinks he might have an idea. He tries to pull you out of Mallory’s arms and into his own, but she refuses to loosen her hold on you. “Mallory, I need to hold her.”

While he does need to be able to touch you for the spell, he’s not really asking for that purpose. He feels that he might soon lose his grasp on sanity if he can’t hold your body. No, he needs you as close to him as possible, to try and capture the warmth of your body so that he might remind himself that you’ve only just left, that he can still get you back. Begrudgingly, Mallory allows him to hold you, but she still keeps one of your hands in hers.

He’d like to say that it looks like you’re sleeping, comforting himself with the platitude most mourners claim upon seeing a body. He’d be lying, though, because he knows what you look like when you’re sleeping. The way that your face scrunches at the smallest sensation, how your eyes move under their lids and your mouth forms silent words when you’re dreaming particularly deeply, the intermittent light snoring that you swear you don’t do. If you were simply sleeping, he’d play the prince to your Sleeping Beauty and wake you with a kiss, revealing your amused smile and your fond gaze.

Now, there’s none of that. You’ve been dead for mere minutes, but already the signs of death are here. Your face is as slack as all of your muscles now are, making your cheekbones more prominent and your mouth hinge slightly open. A sallowness has started to take over your skin, and he finds himself tracing the apples of your cheeks in a futile attempt to coax blood back to the surface. He even swears that he can feel your body growing colder, just like he feared.

It takes Michael some time to remember what he’s meant to be doing. All of this grief and pain will hopefully be for nothing, so long as he can hold himself together for a little bit longer. He takes a deep breath, hesitating for a moment before dropping his forehead against yours. Tears are threatening to fall, and when he closes his eyes to try and hold them back, it only hastens their arrival. They roll, hot and thick, off of his face and onto yours, and he wipes them off with a silent apology.

Finally, Michael slips into a dissociation as he begins to walk between the realms of living and dead. He’s done this more than a few times now for varying reasons, becoming pretty adept at finding a soul and bringing it back to the living plane. The hardest part by far is always calming his mind enough to be able to attempt this in the first place; the fact that he’s been able to achieve it in this circumstance is a small miracle. 

Now that he’s in the so-called in-between, he begins his search. Every single soul has a signature to it, so as long as he knows who he’s looking for, he usually finds the rest of this process to be pretty straightforward. Since your soul is so near and dear to him, he’s expecting this to take a couple of minutes at most.

A minute passes, then another, as he tries to track your soul down. Michael begins to grow concerned; considering you just died, he shouldn’t be having to search this hard. There’s a complete lack of you anywhere, and he begins to shake as he’s faced with the increasingly likely potential that your soul is gone. But how? Why? With a chilling clarity, he knows exactly what’s happened.

His father has become displeased. Whether he’s had enough of your and Michael’s collective disobedience over the years—Satan holds a grudge like no other, after all—or your declaration that you would never bear Michael’s child or be the perfect wife that Satan had planned for you to be. He’s had enough, and now, he’s taken this opportunity to make good on the threats he first warned Michael about during the poison apple saga. He’s made sure that you’re out of the picture for good. If Michael knows Satan, he’s probably already picked out some girl back at the Sanctuary to be wife number two, and this time, she would be the most devout, demure Satanist who would never even think of going against Satan’s will.

But Michael doesn’t want another wife. No, what he wants is to lay here on the floor and die right along with you, following you into whatever afterlife you’ve found yourself in in the hopes that he can continue to love you there. How can he ever be expected to love another person that’s not you? What kind of a life is there for him to live if you’re not here to share in it?

“Is everything okay?” Mallory asks, reminding him that there’s another person in this room, one who’s going to feel her own devastation at this news.

“I can’t find her. My father…” He chokes on his own words, unable to actually say the fate that’s befallen you. Instead, he can only cry.

Mallory picks up on the context clues, and her face drops. “So that’s it? She’s gone?”

The nod Michael gives her is the most painful movement of his life. When Mallory collapses, he also forgets the pretense of enemies and allows her to fall against him. It’s mainly for his own benefit—were he not using Mallory for support, he would be in a heap on top of you.

They remain without words for a while. Distantly, he’s aware of Zoe talking to Coco down that damned hall, the two wondering what to do now. He hopes that they come up with an answer, because he has no clue. In his opinion, there’s nowhere else to go from here. Though he may not have physically died, his life has ended along with yours in this room.

“Were you telling the truth?” Michael asks finally, making Mallory look up. “About Jeff and Mutt?”

He almost doesn’t want to know, but before he can change his mind, she nods. “All they cared about were themselves. They were fed up with minor inconveniences—having to wait for coffee, traffic woes—and wanted to ‘wipe the slate clean.’ They thought that they could reshape the world to how they wanted, and they used a vulnerable Antichrist to do so. Ms. Mead changed her tune from magic to fire and blood because Jeff and Mutt were feeding her the commands.”

He so badly wants her to be lying, but even if he couldn’t sense her truthfulness, he has his own memories to rely on. How suddenly Ms. Mead suggested that world destruction was preferred to world domination (and that the two cokehead idiots would be the guys to talk to about that) had always seemed a little odd to him, but he simply went along with it, believing Ms. Mead to still be his trusted advisor. This revelation simply makes Michael cry harder until he’s almost matching Mallory’s earlier sobs. She puts her free hand on his shoulder in comfort. Though he appreciates the gesture, nothing can bring him comfort.

All of this pain and death and destruction has been for naught. Michael spent years chasing his father’s approval and doing terrible things, things that made him so sick to think about that he forced himself to compartmentalize them in order to not drown in his shame. He’s shirked friends, love, and basic morals, only to find out that his father didn’t even care if the world ended this way. No, all Satan wanted was power and sin, which he got in spades these past eighteen months. 

“How were you going to stop me?” he asks.

Mallory hesitates. “We…we were going to go back in time. There’s a spell that I found when searching through the coven’s grimoires to help with your Cordelia issue. I practiced it a few times before the bombs dropped, trying to figure out the right way to do it. Y/n was going to be both your personal tie and the one convincing you to stop the apocalypse. She had a time in place where she thought that you would be most willing to listen, to change your mind.”

It’s a smart plan, and it probably would have worked. After all, you likely know (knew, he’s reminded harshly) him better than he knows himself. As he thinks about the what-ifs, Michael realizes that this doesn’t have to be something that never happens.

“So, if you and I were to go back in time together, then we could change all of this?” Michael asks.

Mallory gapes at him. “You’re willing to give all this up?”

“What, this empty, decimated kingdom that I don’t even want?” 

In the eighteen months since the apocalypse, Michael had found that he was not suited for being a ruler—he didn’t like the pomp and circumstance, nor did he like people fawning over him. Still, he pretended to be the cold, uncaring king of this “New World,” because he thought that was what Satan wanted, that he was fulfilling the destiny that he was born to.

Now, there’s nothing left to fight for. The world didn’t even need to be ended, let alone in this way. He’s been nothing but a pawn to people his whole life—the Satanists, the warlocks, the stupid fucks that ran Kineros, even Satan himself. He’s done. Done with this stupid, useless path he’s taken, done with hurting everything and everyone, and done with bowing to the whims of anybody.

After all, what has he got to show for any of this? He’s been a good little soldier, doing unspeakably horrific acts and acting like he wasn’t affected, like he wasn’t the Michael that he was before the apocalypse. How did Satan reward him? By ensuring that he would never get back the one person in his life that he has ever truly loved, and who had ever truly loved him. 

“I can’t—I can’t live a life without Y/n. There is nothing without her. What do I need to do to help you?”

“Promise me,” she says. “Promise me that you will not use this second chance to end the world once again.”

“I just found out I ended the world for no reason, Mallory. A world that I was slowly coming to love, before Cordelia informed me that I needed to speed up the apocalypse plans I had been led to believe were created by my father. Before I was upset by people trying to convince me that blowing everything up was a bad idea.” Because of course, Satan would take credit for those plans if it meant that he would be closer to getting the complete chaos it would create. “Why would I try to end it again?”

Mallory searches his face for a moment before nodding. “I believe you.” 

She’s known him for long enough now to know his tells, and she sees none of them. Right now, he’s too much of a wreck to even consider trying to lie, not that he was planning on it.

Mallory slowly stands, but not before kissing the back of your hand and laying it gently on your chest. “Come on.”

“I’m sorry,” Michael whispers to you, kissing your forehead. “I’m so, so sorry. I’m going to make this right.”

It takes strength he didn’t know he possessed to lay you down and let go of your body. Even as he walks away, going against every instinct and leaving you on the floor, he can’t take his eyes off of you.

Mallory climbs into the large washtub in the corner of the room, flicking her wrist and filling it with water. Michael follows her in, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation of sitting in wet clothes.

“Think of a time that you believe it will be easiest to completely stop the apocalypse before it goes too far,” she instructs.

There are many times in the past two years that Michael can see as a good time to stop the apocalypse. First, he’s tempted to go back to the beginning of this mess, when the witches killed Ms. Mead. Plans for the end of the world hadn’t even been drawn up yet, and he would have the added benefit of having Ms. Mead back. Plus, you wouldn’t have gone through the trauma of being kidnapped and forced to be the Antichrist’s bride.

It’s incredibly selfish, but the more Michael thinks about that avenue, the less he wants to take it. While it’s unfortunate how you came to know each other, he wouldn’t trade the way that you and he fell in love with each other for anything. But on the practical side, he wouldn’t have the influence that he has over important people and organizations were he to go back that far, and he needs that if he’s going to have enough power to keep the world from ending altogether. That’s off the table, then.

He wishes that you had told Mallory of your idea before being fatally wounded, because he probably would have agreed with your assessment. If it was any time after you moved in with him, he was already so in love with you that he could easily be swayed. What makes the most sense?

Finally, Michael has it. The time where he can be most effective at changing the fate of the world and ensuring there will not be an apocalypse by his hand, can remain powerful enough to not be usurped as Antichrist (for he’s sure that Satan will be very displeased by the change of plans if he finds out about Michael changing fate), and can still have you.

He opens his eyes and nods. “I have it.”

“Okay,” Mallory says with a hopeful smile. “Focus on that as hard as you can, place us both there.”

It’s all he can think about now, but he does as she says and recreates that time in his head. The sights, the sounds, the smells. How your hand felt in his, and the brightness of your smile. The possibilities that, at that time, seemed endless. Mallory holds her hands out and Michael takes them, feeling their magic bouncing off of each other like sparks from two exposed wires.

“Balneum infinitum. Dona salui conductus.” Mallory repeats the chant two more times, the water bubbling around them furiously and turning darker with each word.

Michael knows even without Mallory’s instruction that he’s needed to say the last part of the spell, and what that last part is. Just before they submerge themselves under the water, their voices join together to cast the most important spell of their lives.

“Tempus Infinituum.”

•••

Endnotes: Wow. I thought this would be a particularly tough chapter to write, but as I got going, the story flowed easily. I think because I've had this scene stuck in my head for so long! My FBI agent is definitely concerned by how thoroughly I read those "what happens to a body after a person dies" articles.

ALSO the Jeff and Mutt thing is canon!

Anyways, I'm gonna go watch some cute animal videos to feel better. Take care of yourselves, alright?

@ajokeformur-ray @iamavailablesstuff @narwhal-swimmingintheocean @nsainmoonchild @redroses07

@xo-angel-ox @littleangel4996 @iamlivingforturner @thatonehumanbeing05

@codycrazy @love-on-the-murder-scene

[strawberrybobamilk]

GTA Protagonists x Reader Scenarios - Spending Halloween With Them

TW: Language, suggestive ending

Claude

Halloween isn't his favorite holiday, but will have lots of fun in decorating the house, eating sweets and bingewatching movies with you anyway.

Tommy

Likes watching classic 80s horror movies with you and dressing up as the villains from those movies.

"Trick or treat motherfuckers!"

Carl

He doesn't care how old you both are, he'll happily go trick or treating with you. He'll refuse to go dressed as a ghost, vampire etc though, as he thinks they are "too generic and unoriginal".

You: "What will you dress up as then?"

CJ: "A Ballas member. Nothing is nastier than them"

Toni

He'll go trick or treating with you, dressed up as a bloodstained killer butcher.

You: "Er, interesting choice, but why?..."

Toni: "Trust me, you don't wanna know"

Victor

Will surprise you with a pumpkin pie with cute spider decorations.

"Thought it would be a nice Halloween treat, darling"

Niko

He personally never really cared about Halloween, but definitely won't say no to candy corn! Also expect Roman, Mallorie and Brucie to come visit, all dressed up in various wacky costumes.

"Well, at least it's nice here with you guys"

Johnny

For him this day is more like an excuse to wear vampire fangs (he secretly has a thing for vampires).

"Damn you look hot, can you keep those on next month too? Or even better, forever?"

Luis

Will make his club serve pumpkin flavored cocktails to celebrate.

"Come over here and have a taste Y/N! It's free for you, like always"

Huang

Will buy more candy than usual during october. He says it's in order to ensure they have a good stock of them for october 31th, but you know it's just an excuse. Will wake up feeling sick on november 1st.

You: "I told you to not eat so much candy Huang!"

Huang: "Urgh, it's not the candy Y/N, it's... something that's not the candy, okay?!"

Franklin

He'll just chill with you and watch horror movies together.

"Alright let's do this, gotta use my Vinewood+ subscription somehow!"

Michael

Similarly to Franklin, he will (DEFINITELY) watch horror movies with you, but only the older ones.

"Ahhh, the old classics, the newer ones focus too much on jumpscares and gore"

Trevor

Loves Halloween, its spooky and gritty atmosphere, and will carve pumpkins with you already by september 1st. Just don't ask him why do those pumpkins have "questionable" holes.

"It's called a pumpkink sweetcheeks"

[melodymunson]

AHS, Michael Langdon, Duncan Shepherd, Xavier Plympton, Jim Mason, and Andy Dolan masterlist

My fics for Cody Fern and American Horror Story

Jim Mason x reader- drown in this love

Jim Mason x reader- nothing fucks with my baby

Jim Mason x reader x Duncan Shepherd x Michael Langdon x Andy Dolan- Adopting a pet

Xavier Plympton x reader x Montana Duke- wild side

Xavier, Montana, and reader attempt to have a drunk and high threesome at his apartment but when the reader fails to have a major orgasm and when the sex is less than expected, Montana steps in to finish off the job.

Michael Langdon x reader x Madison Montgomery- bad romance

Michael, Madison, and you are a couple at the outpost. All that is standing in their way is the coven of witches. When Michael catches you and Madison in the act he teaches you both a lesson you won't forget.

Duncan Shepherd x reader- birthday surprise

You decide to try and find yourself a good summer at Camp Redwood with your good friend Xavier despite the threat of Mr. Jingles. When you happen to stumble upon Brooke and Montana in the forbidden cabin, a wild night for you and Xavier ensues.

Xavier Plympton x reader x Montana Duke x Brooke Thompson

You decide to try and find yourself a good summer at Camp Redwood with your good friend Xavier despite the threat of Mr. Jingles. When you happen to stumble upon Brooke and Montana in the forbidden cabin, a wild night for you and Xavier ensues.

Duncan Shepherd x reader- forever and always

You meet Duncan at a charity fundraiser and after winning a date with you, he takes you out. Soon after you start dating him and go on many dates together, falling in love before you get your happy ever after with your one and only Prince Charming.

Jim Mason x OC multi-series Heart of Novocaine

Jim loves to party and has a drug problem but when he finds out that his best friend has a drinking problem, he decides to get help for both of them. He is in love with her. The problem? She already has a girlfriend and he has a girlfriend too. Are they a match made in heaven for each other or are they just another lesson in each other's lives?

Duncan Shepherd x OC multi-series Strangelove

Duncan and his girlfriend Rose have been together for going on two years. They care deeply about each other. She has a secret though that he doesn’t know. Their relationship will be put to the test and their boundaries will be pushed. Will they be able to stay together or will their relationship start to unravel?

Duncan Shepherd x OC multi-series Another life

(Inspired partly by Eli Roth's/Keanu Reeves movie Knock Knock).

Duncan and his girlfriend of almost 3 years have their relationship put to the test when she goes away on a trip and Duncan is left at home until he receives a visit that will change his life forever. Crossover with American Horror Story Apocalypse and the Outpost/Michael Langdon.

Michael Langdon x reader multi-series Waiting For a Girl Like You

Michael is a player and reader knew him when they were kids. You go your separate ways and later cross paths again in college. You can't help but feel an attraction towards him. He ends up becoming your Italian tutor and you both come to know each other again. The problem? Michael is a fuckboy. Will your and Michael's rekindled friendship turn into something more or will you stay friends/FWB?

Surviving the Apocalypse- Michael Langdon x OC witches series

Who will survive the apocalypse? Its the end of the world. Michael, Coco, Gallant, Mallory, Venable, Mead, 2 witches Harmony and Scarlet, among others are some of the lucky few to survive. Or are they? They will be tested and pushed to their limits. Michael must test those left alive in outpost 3 but will he be able to resist temptation?

Andy Dolan x reader (abandoned wip)

Andy and reader had a tumultous and often complicated relationship and neither wanted things to end. They dated for almost 4 years but never married and even had a kid together and it was a girl named Opal.

Duncan Shepherd x reader x Emily Nelson (Simple Favor crossover oneshot).

Reader is best friends with Emily and dating professor Duncan. One night they decide to take their relationship to the next level with Emily once reader reveals her true feelings for the other woman.

Michael Langdon x reader oneshot- If I was Your Vampire

Michael Langdon x wife reader x Mallory oneshot (WIP)

Michael and you are married and in the outpost 3 together. When Mallorys true intentions and identity are shown she gets exposed and Michael and you make her pay.

@langdonss

[lovelybishop]

Character/Fandom List

(Updated February 5th, 2023)

*I DO NOT WRITE FOR CELEBRITIES.

*Strikethrough means currently not accepting requests for said character/fandom

*If you see a character that is not listed, please ask! I’m sure I write for that character, I just forgot to put it on this very long list!

*If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

—

DC Extended Universe

Suicide Squad (2016) / The Suicide Squad (2021)

Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man, Christopher Smith/Peacemaker, Cleo Cazo/Ratcatcher 2, Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Robert Dubois/Bloodsport

Birds Of Prey

Dinah Lance/Black Canary, Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress, Roman Sionis/Black Mask

Fear Street Trilogy

Cindy Berman, Deena Johnson, Heather Watkins. Christine “Ziggy” Berman*,Kate Schmidt, Nick Goode*, Ruby Lane, Samantha Fraser, Simon, Tommy Slater

*Please specify which actor

The Last of Us (HBO)

Joel Miller, Tess Servopoulos

The Good Place

Chidi Anagonye, Eleanor Shellstrop, Janet, Jason Mendoza, Michael, Tahani Al-Jamil

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Movies

Ajak, Alexei/The Red Gurdian, America Chavez, Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Christine Palmer, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Darcy Lewis, Doctor Stange Variants, Drax the Destroyer, Druig, Gamora, Gilgamesh, Hela, Hope van Dyne/The Wasp, Ikaris, James “Bucky” Barnes/The Winter Soldier, James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine, Jane Foster, Jimmy Woo, Katy, Kingo, Lady Sif, Loki, Makkari, Mantis, Maria Hill, May Parker, Melina, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Nebula, Nick Fury, Peggy Carter, Peter Parker Variants, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Phastos, Phil Coulson, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver, Sam Wilson/The Falcon/Captain America, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Sersi, Shang-Chi, Sharon Carter, Sprite, Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Thena, Thor, Tony Stark/Iron Man, T’Challa/Black Panther, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Valkyrie, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, Vision, Wanda Maximoff Variants, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Wong, Xialing, Yelena Belova

Disney+ Series

*This list is for characters who have not appeared in any movie (with the exception of Captain Carter.)

Agatha Harkness, Bruno Carrelli, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, Joaquin Torres, Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Layla El-Faouly/Scarlet Scarab, Madisynn King, Mallory Book, Marc Spector, Mary MacPherran/Titania, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Maya Lopez, Mobius, Monica Rambeau, Nikki Ramos, Peggy Carter/Captain Carter, Ralph Bogner/”Pietro” Maximoff, Star-Lord T’Challa, Steve Grant, Strange Supreme, Sylvie, Taweret

Agents Of Sheild Series

Melinda May, Grant Ward, Daisy “Skye” Johnson/Quake, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons, Lance Hunter, Bobbi Morse, Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie, Lincoln Campbell, Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez, Deke Shaw

Netflix Series

*I plan on watching all Marvel Netflix Series. Though Because Matt Murdok was in No Way Home and She-Hulk, I still will write for him.

Spider-Verses

The Amazing Spider-Man

Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker/Spider-Man

Into the Spider-Verse

Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman, Miles Morales/Spider-Man, Olivia Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man

X-Men

Alex Summers/Havok, Bobby Drake/Iceman, Charles Xavier/Professor X*,Ellie Phimister/Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Erik Legnsherr/Magneto*,Hank McCoy/Beast*,James “Logan” Howlett/Wolverine, Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix*,Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler*,Marie D’Ancanto/Rogue, Nathan Sumers/Cable, Neena Thurman/Domino, Ororo Monroe/Storm*,Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver, Psylocke*,Raven Darkholme/Mystique*,Scott Summers/Cyclops*,Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Warren Worthington III/Angel*

*Please specify which actor.

Free Guy

Guy, Millie Ruck, Walter “Keys” McKey

The Office

Jim Halpert, Pam Beesly

Wednesday

Ajax Petropolus, Biance Barclay, Enid Sinclair, Gomez Addams*,Larissa Weems, Marilyn Thornhill/Laurel Gates. Morticia Addams*,Tyler Galpin, Wednesday Addams, Xavier Thorpe, Yoko Tanaka

*Please specify which actor.

Star Wars

Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, Bix Caleen, Bo-Katan Kryze, Boba Fett, Captain Phasma, Cassian Andor, Cobb Wanth, Din Djarin/The Mandalorian, Fennec Shand, Finn, General Hux, Han Solo, Jyn Erso, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme Amidala, Poe Dameron, Princess/General Leia Organa, Qi’ra, Reva Sevander/Third Sister, Rey, Rose Tico, Zorii Bliss

Stranger Things

Dustin Henderson, Eddie Munson, Eleven Hopper, Jim Hopper, Jonathan Byers, Joyce Byers, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Michael Wheeler, Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Will Byers

*I do not write for Billy Hargrove

[nrgs929]

Introduction to the next story:

Victor x reader

From a series:Better call Saul & Breaking Bad

summary:You were one of the new enemies of Chicken Man and his men.

Warnings:18+ / Sex/Mention of scenes of blood, injury, dismemberment, etc / genitals /Pictures of underwear

note:The events of the story may be strange, but this is what the writer wants, so read and enjoy...

Introducing the characters:

mai Mallory:

〘Reddish-pink hair, bright violet eyes, an angelic face, sharp fangs, thin lips, freckles covering her face like stars, prominent hand veins, a jewel the color of her eyes, and tattoos decorating her athletic body〙

age:31ans

height:173cm

Skills and hobbies:Taekwondo player🥋, boxer🥊, swordsman🤺/Drawing and playing the guitar🎸

job:Hired killer

Immunity:Toxins/electricity/

additional information:She tried some training in the army because her mother was in the army+It has high endurance and immunity to electrocution+Since birth, she has immunity to toxins+Weapons expert+Sniper shooting skills

guitar🎸:

Sword🗡️:

Boxing tools🥊:

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Michael Monroe:

〘White hair with light purple shades, a violet right eye and a red left eye, a muscular body with tanned skin, teeth with sharp fangs, and hand veins〙

age:38ans

height:183

Skills and hobbies:Weapons expert and boxer🥊/Pianist🎹 and violinist🎻

job:Hired killer

additional information:He is responsible for May and her needs, and he is the one who provides her with tasks, but at the same time, he is her adopted brother, and they agree on everything+He was also trained in the army so he has combat skills and weapons skills

violin🎻:

piano🎹:

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Domestic animal🫣:

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

This was simple information about the characters either+Everyone knows the characters that will be mentioned in the first part, which will be released soon, including Tyrus, Mike, Victor, and Gus...🗿+You can put another name in place of Mai's name to live the events of the story😉

Until the next meeting🥀❤️‍🔥

[dontcxckitup]

@brokenthimbles cont. from (X)

Wendy smiled softly. She knew G was not pleased that she was going to be at Whitehall, but something told her he needed her and for the first time she felt this burning in her chest that she couldn’t shake. Memories of their meeting, North Ireland, her crash, blofeld…… so much and they’ve always made it through.

“I love you Gareth Mallory.” she whispered softly before she gave his hand a squeeze and made her way to the nursery to pack Michael Arthurs bags.

He watched her for a moment, smiling to himself. Really, he didn't deserve Wendy. She was an angel, despite her constantly claiming not to be, and the love of his life. If he lost her, it was as if his entire world went down.

Gareth followed her, grabbing one of the bag and opening the small closet to pack as many of their son's clothes as possible. Being an ex-soldier, he packed the bag fast and efficient. "What will we tell him?" he asked quietly. "We've never let him stay at his uncle's alone."

[coopermorrow]

American Horror Story Masterlist

This is my official masterlist for American Horror Story characters. I write for all the characters listed as well as others if it is requested. I will also write for their actors. For additional information, please refer to the post linked below.

This masterlist along with my others will be updated everytime a new story/fic is written or in the works of being written.

TATE LANGDON:

-none yet

VIOLET HARMON:

-none yet

NORA MONTGOMERY:

-none yet

LANA WINTERS:

-none yet

KIT WALKER:

-Comfort - Kit Walker x Reader

SISTER MARY EUNICE MCKEE:

-none yet

QUEENIE:

-none yet

MADISON MONTGOMERY:

-none yet

ZOE BENSON:

-none yet

CORDELIA GOODE:

-none yet

MISTY DAY:

-none yet

KYLE SPENCER (Pre and Post Death):

-none yet

DANDY MOTT:

-none yet

TRISTAN DUFFY:

-none yet

JAMES PATRICK MARCH:

-none yet

ELIZABETH/THE COUNTESS:

-none yet

KAI ANDERSON:

-none yet

WINTER ANDERSON:

-none yet

MICHAEL LANGDON:

-none yet

MALLORY:

-none yet

BROOKE THOMPSON:

-none yet

XAVIER PLYMTPON:

-none yet

MONTANA DUKE:

-none yet

HARRY GARDNER:

-none yet

[beastsovrevelation]

"I want a world without the hypocrisy. With the kinds of people who wouldn't just eat from the fruit of the forbidden tree but who'd cut the fucking tree down and burn it for firewood. I think you're made for that world, Mallory. I sense it in you."

American Horror Story: Apocalypse ("Forbidden Fruit")

[reallyintoscience]

tagged by @issylra, @hardly-an-escape and @mallory-x in the first line game that's going around!

Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

Well, here's some Sandman and then my extremely eclectic exchange-based writing...

If Only Grant a Name (Sandman, Dreamling, WIP)

The problem starts because Dream arrives early for his appointment with Hob Gadling.

Sky is a Marvellous Garden Tonight (Sandman, Dreamling)

Meeting with Hob Gadling is at once restful and stimulating. Hob is always pleased to see him. Dream has tried to test this, because he finds it difficult to believe. And yet, no matter how often Dream comes to him, and no matter what he is occupied with at the time, Dream receives that same smile, that same welcome.

Rest at Your Hearth (Sandman, Dreamling)

Dream finds he cannot settle to his work, after everything. He has much to do and no shortage of time to do it in, and yet he. Cannot. Does not want the walls of his home around him, cannot hold his concentration long enough for the more intricate tasks required for the rebuilding of his realm. He feels stretched and thin and empty. Certainly, he has not the frame of mind necessary to create new dreams or nightmares. Creation demands of him his entire heart, a trust in himself and his own nature that has never before been in doubt. Now, he questions himself, he hesitates, he paces, he scratches at the dry wells of himself and he cannot be long in a single place. He has had enough of being still. So much of his role is in stillness. He cannot. Settle to it.

East Side Drowning (Cass Neary Series - Elizabeth Hand, gen)

The Lower East Side in the late 70s was its own thing. 

The waterfront was something else again. I found my way there as if it was another inevitability, on the edge of the Hudson and in the shadow of the old navy. It was a haunted place as only the maritime professions produce; the kind of hauntings that come with transience, identity forged in the running from the past. The twin taunts of camaraderie and isolation, where you can be known by the face and never by the soul. So it was a fitting place for New York's underground to be, the best possible home for the desperate spit-slick glimmer of the cruising scene in those days. 

The Bodyguard's Legacy (Hitman's Bodyguard movies, gen)

Michael lay on the yacht cabin roof, catching some sun and tunes. Two weeks of determined and unavoidable practice made it easy to ignore Sonia’s screaming and Kincaid’s yelling, but—due to an unfortunate incident with a jackhammer in his misspent younger years—the steady thumping vibrations were another matter. He gritted his teeth and bumped up the volume on Tina Turner. Still, when he was suddenly drenched in the spray of a jet ski arcing to a halt next to the yacht, the distraction was something of a relief.

Okay, Then (The Wicked + The Divine, Baph/Dio, pre-Cass/Laura)

If there was one thing you could say about prison, it was that it gave us a lot of time to relearn our miracles. Carefully, of course. The system isn't set up for people like us, and they're jumpy. No one really knows what we can still do. Especially us. 

Re-in-vent the Revent (The Culture series - Ian M. Banks, Zakalwe/GOU Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints)

"Listen, pal, I still don't think that strictly speaking this is a great idea, but your skin and all," the ship said. 

"It's a terrible idea," Zakalwe agreed, trying to get comfortable. The explosive wrap was restrictive, that was for sure. "Which is why we're doing it. You don't win wars by not being terrible."

marvellous time (folklore - Taylor Swift, Holiday House/F)

Jerry closed the door on the last of her old art school friends, waving them off from the window as they piled into Selina's old Cadillac and drove away. She'd pretended all weekend not to notice the concerned looks they'd exchanged between them, the way Cassie had offered to stay another week, just to 'keep her company', the whites of her eyes showing when she said it. Brave and lovely. The way they stayed clumped together at night.

Meeting of Minds (Transformers G1 vs Star Trek TOS, gen)

"Captain, I'm reading a debris field, one parsec to starboard. Sensors indicate a large metallic mass of unknown composition."

"Asteroid?"

"Unlikely, Captain. The largest object's angular shape is uncommon in asteroids. Further, there is an anomalous energy signature."

Jim sat forward in the command chair. "Put it on screen, direct all sensors toward the object."

"Our sensors are operating at the furthest range possible and visual detail is lacking, Captain. There is, however, a 92.3% probability that we are looking at a starship of a type unknown to Federation databases."

I'm Sorry If (The Magnus Archives, Jon/Michael)

The statement Jon wants is missing. When he first took it from the subject he thought it was a lot of paranoid nonsense, but now he thinks it could have been one of the Stranger's and he wants to read over it again. The misfiling is frustrating. The tickling between the shoulder blades is unsettling. 

It's watching him again. Jon is starting to be able to tell, his power growing in what might be a natural progression or might just be sheer mortal panic. Or. Scratch the 'mortal' part, Jon might be a lot of things but people who get to call themselves mortal probably don't spontaneously heal from their monstrous injuries. Their injuries from monsters. Something like that. 

Apologies for re-tagging if you're already done it, and no pressure either way but: @lu-inlondon, @beholdingthegaytimes, @gabessquishytum, @blueberrymffn, @dancinbutterfly, @lostelfwriting, @seiya-starsniper, @ginjones, @ghostboyjules, @sans--seraph

[7-wonders]

(Michael's Version)

Michael Langdon x Reader (Mad Love Act II, Chapter XVII)

Summary: What it says on the tin: Michael's version.

Word Count: 5.6k

A note from the author: Certain phrases and sections may sound familiar, and that's because they are! We're back in the past, baby! This is it—our penultimate chapter. I have so many emotions about coming to the end of this journey, but I'll save them for the final chapter. Until then, enjoy, and as always, likes, comments, and reblogs make my world go round.

Mad Love Masterlist

When Michael Langdon opens his eyes and finds himself surrounded by white, he believes that he’s died.

In his mind, it’s a logical conclusion to come to. He and Mallory had tried a very risky, obscure spell, after all, one with no real precedent for safety. If it ended up failing, it certainly wouldn’t be a shock. And don’t people see a white light when they die? It’s then that Michael remembers that when he dies, he is most certainly going to Hell, and actually takes a proper look at his surroundings.

While he is looking at the color white, it’s because he’s lying on the floor and staring up at a white ceiling. Around him are bookshelves packed to the brim with a variety of both old and new books—books whose pages are imbued with magic that Michael can sense. There’s a large, mahogany desk covered with more books and spare pages sitting under a picture window to his left, the chair pulled back and waiting for its occupant. Waiting for him, because he knows now beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s in the library at Miss Robichaux’s, which can only mean one thing: the spell worked.

Michael scrambles to his feet, his hand going to rest on the desk so that he can feel the wood beneath his palm and confirm that this isn’t some mere dream or hallucination. His nails scrape along the grain, the wood firm and sturdy and real. An opulent, gilded mirror on the opposite wall garners his attention, and he hesitantly makes his way over to peek in the glass.

Gone is the red, velvet dinner jacket and the dramatic eyeshadow. No longer does his hair tumble past his shoulders, and his eyes are devoid of the cold, disinterested glint that he had trained himself to carry at all times. Now, Michael stares at himself as he was, all those months ago. He’s fresh-faced, though a little exhausted, and he can see only worry and excitement in his eyes. His hair is curly and falls to just past his chin, the ends barely brushing his shoulders if he shrugs. The black bomber jacket slung over the back of the chair is obviously meant to complete his ensemble of a black t-shirt, black jeans, and Docs. 

For the first time in a long time, he recognizes the person in the mirror.

Now that it’s obvious that he’s back to a time before the apocalypse, his mind is already three floors down to where you surely sit. Logically, Michael knows that he should take a moment to assess the situation, perhaps test the parameters of the spell, and see if there are any limits on time or what he can and cannot do. He couldn’t care less about that though, not when he’s back in a world where you’re alive and well.

He throws open the door, so eager to reach you that he rushes out into the hallway without looking and runs right into somebody else. Both parties begin to fall backward, but Michael wraps his hands around his accidental victim’s upper arms and pulls them both upright.

“Whoa!” Zoe Benson exclaims, on the way to the library to return the book in her hands.

“Sorry.” The apology comes easily to him; surprising, considering how long it’s been since he’s had to apologize for anything.

“You’re good!” Zoe assures him, without any of the hate or malice that a witch who just faced off against him in a battle to reverse the apocalypse would be expected to have. “Are you looking for Y/n and Mallory?”

Michael knows exactly where you are, but he nods anyway, if only because you’re being referred to in the present tense.

“They’re hammocking in the backyard, which is a relief. Mallory needs someone to tell her to relax, and none of us can convince her.”

“I’ll make sure to convey the coven’s thanks, then.”

Zoe smiles. “You do that. I’ll see you around.”

Michael nods, waiting until Zoe actually makes it into the library to nearly run (more cautiously, now) down the stairs and towards the backyard. He pauses at the large French doors, taking in the scene before him. You and Mallory share a hammock under a canopy of wisteria trees that are trying their hardest to hold onto their blooms. Where before, Michael had been the one to rouse you from your nap, you’re now sitting up and embracing Mallory. The Supreme catches his eyes over your shoulder, and she smiles in tearful relief.

His feet carry him to the hammock almost unconsciously. Were it not for that, he would still be standing in one spot, stuck in the wonder of this moment and basking in you being alive once more. Now, Michael puts a shaking, hesitant hand on your shoulder, unable to wait a moment longer before touching you, yet wary of ruining this moment. Your skin is warm under his grip, and he can feel your muscles flex as you turn to look at him. When you smile at him, easy and free and nothing at all like the small, pained ones he had had to force out of you for eighteen months, he lets out a breathless, disbelieving laugh.

“Hi, my love.” He almost can’t get the words out, so choked up with emotion that they nearly become lodged in his throat.

“Hey,” you greet happily, completely and blissfully unaware of the nearly two years of literal hell he’d put you through. “How’d it go?”

Michael doesn’t respond at first, instead sitting on your other side on the hammock so that he can bring you into his arms and enjoy the feeling of you alive once more.

“Everybody’s in such a hugging mood today!” You wink at both him and Mallory and grin. “Not that I’m complaining, of course.” 

Michael hums, but otherwise remains silent. After a moment, you speak again. 

“Geez, was it really that bad?”

Yes, he wants to say. I had the worst nightmare, one in which I was a terrible friend and husband, in which I betrayed everyone I’ve ever known and ruined your trust, trust that I had worked so hard to gain. I dreamed that I destroyed our lives, everybody’s lives, and became a monster. I thought that I lost you, only now I know that I didn’t, because you’re here and happy and alive. I’ve woken up, back into the dream that I didn’t know I was living in until I lost it.

Instead, he says, “No, it was only mildly frustrating. Just…feels like I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Co-dependency isn’t healthy, sweetheart.” Tears spring at the pet name, and he has to shut his eyes to keep them from falling.

“Indulge me for just a bit. We are on vacation, after all.”

You laugh. “I’m on vacation. You’re on a research trip.”

“Since my research hasn’t really yielded anything, how about we make the next few hours before we have to meet Dinah a vacation for both of us?”

“Are you asking me out on a date, Michael?”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

You radiate joy, and Michael is so happy to be basking in it once more. “Then I happily accept.”

“I have a couple of things to give you for your protection, Michael, in case Dinah tries to cross you,” Mallory says. “Will you come with me while I grab them?”

He’d much prefer to never leave your side again, but he knows that there are matters that need to be discussed in private, so he begrudgingly nods and disentangles himself from you.

“We’ll be right back,” Mallory assures you.

“Don’t worry, I’m just fine out here!” To demonstrate this, you kick your feet up and lay back down on the hammock, smiling at the heat of the sun on your face once more. 

It’s one of the most beautiful sights that Michael’s ever seen in his life, and it makes it all the more difficult for him to leave. Mallory ends up having to tug him to her, transmuting them both so they’re in her bedroom.

“This was a really good time for you to pick,” Mallory admits as she pulls a key from her pocket and walks into her closet.

“I can’t believe it actually worked!” Michael exclaims, running a hand through his hair as he tries to take a moment to process everything that’s just happened.

“I wish I could say that I had faith in us, but it was really 50/50 on what I thought was going to happen.”

“What now? Do we have a limited amount of time here? Are there things that I can or can’t say and do?”

“When I first started practicing this spell, it was difficult for me to stay in the past for very long. It got better the more I attempted it, but the longest I managed to stay was two hours.” Mallory reappears, holding three familiar items. “Even then, the entire time it felt like there was a rope tied around me, constantly trying to tug me back to my time. I don’t feel that at all now.”

“I don’t, either.”

“I think it’s because we cast the spell together. After all, who on Earth is more powerful than the Supreme and the Antichrist?”

The answer? Nobody, unless one of the divine forces decided to step foot on the mortal coil.

“So you don’t think there’s any danger of us being pulled back to our present before I’m able to meet with Papa Legba tonight?” Michael asks.

“I don’t. As for your second question, there are no ‘rules’ as to how you need to act. At least, I don’t think there are. Just…remember that we’re in a very crucial time right now, and that everything you do tonight that differentiates from the original timeline will have an effect on the outcome we’re trying to achieve.”

Michael nods. “Try not to fuck up too badly, got it.”

“Hey, things can’t go as terribly as they did the last time we were here,” Mallory points out cheekily, laughing at Michael’s scowl. “C’mon, you kind of deserve it.”

“I do,” Michael concedes with a sigh.

Mallory hands Michael a box of Cuban cigars and a pouch of mandrake with her right hand, her left holding the lethal-to-Michael charm away from Michael to prevent any accidents. Before he can take them, she grabs his wrist and waits until he looks at her again. “You’ve got this, alright? I have faith in you.”

“Thank you. None of this would be happening without you—you’re the reason I have a second chance.”

“You can thank me after tonight.”

This time, it’s Michael who uses his powers to transmute them back to the backyard. You’re still in the hammock and idly scrolling your phone, only looking up when you hear the air near you shift.

“Back so soon?” you ask.

“Try to sound a bit less excited, yeah?” Mallory teases, holding the charm out for you to take. “Here, this is for you to hold on to tonight. Papa Legba shouldn’t try anything; he’s an honorable being who typically doesn’t take what has not been explicitly given to him. Still, it never hurts to have a little extra protection.”

“It’s pretty,” you note, holding it out to show Michael.

Mallory puts her hand out to stop you. “It’s a charm to protect you against beings that are not of this plane, as well as those descended from said beings. I think you’d prefer not to zap Michael to Hell.”

You pretend to think for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. He’s too cute to get rid of.”

Michael can’t help himself from blushing at the compliment. He’s always been easily flattered, especially when you’re the one doing the flattering. Before anything else can be said, a younger girl appears at the back door. “Miss Mallory? Miss Zoe’s looking for you, somethin’ ‘bout a book you have.”

“Thank you, Abby, I’ll be in shortly.” When the girl runs back through the house, Mallory sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “Duty calls, I guess. Try not to have too much fun tonight.”

“No promises,” you say cheerfully.

Before she goes, Mallory pulls you into a hug. “I love you. Be safe, alright?”

“I will. I love you too, Mal.”

Mallory looks at Michael just before she ducks inside, her expression reiterating everything she previously said—that tonight is crucial, that every move he makes now matters, and that she has faith in him. Then she’s gone, and Michael’s turning back to you.

“I was thinking hotel first so that we could freshen up. Does that sound good to you?” Michael asks.

“Sounds perfect. I wouldn’t mind a shower right now.” Your nose wrinkles. “I smell like airplane.”

“I don’t think that’s a thing you can smell like,” Michael says, holding his hand out for you to take so that he can transmute to the hotel.

“Says you.” You grab Michael’s hand, and he squeezes just for the small joy of feeling you squeeze back.

The curious thing about going back in time, specifically to an event that he’s already lived through, is that it feels a lot like being an actor in a play. The motions and words are familiar, and Michael has to put in a bit of effort if he wants to say or do something different than what he already said or did. The deja vu here is strong and recurring, and it takes him a second to get over the feeling time and time again—deja vu about the deja vu; who else can say they’ve experienced such phenomena?

Still, there are more positives in repeating this time than just the obvious one of, y’know, being able to change his major mistake. He’s also able to remember to take everything in, to simply watch and not miss what he once believed to be mundane. 

He’s able to fully enjoy the delight that you display upon finding out what his surprise is, as well as feel proud that he knows you so well. He’s happy to follow you around while you indulge your curiosities, watching you as you stop at each stand and peruse the offerings. He admires how much thought you put into what gift you’ll be buying for Kate as thanks for watching your cat.

(He’s pleased on your and Mallory’s behalf that you’ll have the third member of your trio back, even though you’ll never know that you were missing her.)

It’s thrilling to be walking hand in hand with you once more, to enjoy your closeness and being in love. Michael’s perfectly content to be pulled along by you, to answer your questions about what he thinks about this or that item, to allow you to feed him a beignet. This time, he doesn’t waste a moment of opportunity and kisses the powdered sugar off of your lips while feeling your smile. 

This trip truly was perfect before that fateful meeting, and to get to relive it is a gift. He falls easily into his “role,” parroting those familiar lines about the beauty of New Orleans and your potential grad school options while basking in long-forgotten normalcy. When you stand up, Michael has to hide a smile, knowing what’s coming next. You turn back to him with your hands cupped around something.

“Here, hold out your hands,” you instruct.

Michael does as asked, dutifully waiting for you to deposit your prize into his waiting hands. A fat firefly lazily buzzes around, and he smiles at the sight as it bumps into his hands over and over again. He glances up to see you looking down, not at the firefly, but at him, with a grin on your face. After a few moments, the firefly finds its way out of his hands and back to the others in the grass.

“You should try and catch one!” you suggest.

Where before, Michael allowed the buzzing of his phone alarm to stop the fun, now, he simply silences it and gets up to join you. He’s not very good at it, and he misses more times than he’d care to admit, but it’s worth it for your laughter and encouragement. Plus, it is pretty satisfying to finally catch one and hold it up for you to see.

You and Michael leave the open-air market ten minutes later than he was originally planning on, but it was more than worth it. The walk to Dinah’s studio is short, made even more pleasant by the sky lighting up as the sun sets and the warm, slightly muggy air.

“Did you have fun?” you ask.

“I think I’m supposed to be asking you that, since I’m the one who planned the date. But yes, I did.”

“Good. I did too.”

“Then I call this date a success.” 

You’re happy with that answer, satisfied to walk in companionable silence. Michael, on the other hand, is wracked with guilt now that there’s a moment of quiet amidst all the chaos that he’s found himself thrown into since the moment he opened his eyes in the past.

“I’m sorry,” he blurts out.

“For what?” In this time, you believe that there’s nothing for him to apologize for. For Michael to be able to live with himself though, he needs to apologize.

“I know I’ve been…off since we saw Cordelia. And I know that you were really shaken up by the Cooperative meeting that I took you to.” You look at him in surprise, and he shrugs. “What? I notice things.”

“I was shaken up,” you admit. “It was scary hearing that you want to end the world so soon, and that there are concrete plans for you to do so. Scarier still knowing that your father’s watching your progress.”

“I know, which is why I’m sorry.” 

I’m sorry that I hurt you in so many different ways, he thinks, mentally apologizing for the things he truly wants to say sorry for. I’m sorry that I killed everybody you ever loved, and that I became someone you would have hated were you not forced to love me. I’m sorry that I got you killed, and that I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

“Things are going to be different from now on.”

There’s a hope in your eyes that Michael doesn’t feel like he deserves to have directed towards him. “Really?”

He nods, wanting so badly to reveal his hand, but being unable to do so. Instead, he hopes that you know how sincere he is when he says, “I promise.”

You’ve reached Dinah’s studio, the Voodoo Queen throwing open the door impatiently before Michael can get his hand on the handle.

“You’re late.” Dinah levels Michael with a glare. She’s not that upset, he knows, not when she’s got an extra hundred thousand currently sitting in her bank account.

“Sorry, we got lost,” he lies. You turn your face into his shoulder, coughing to hide your laugh.

“Mhm. Let’s go, I got places to be after this.” She walks towards the back. “And lock the door behind you!”

Through Dinah’s dressing room is another, smaller room—where she conducts her real business. There are candles on various surfaces throughout the room, and the main table, ringed with four chairs, is covered with a red cloth.

Michael pulls out a chair for you to sit in and makes sure that you’re comfortable before pushing you toward the table and taking his seat next to you. You watch Dinah move around the room in a whirl of colors, gathering the last items needed for tonight’s ritual. Your head tilts curiously when she pulls out a match and strikes it into a flame, and he braces himself against yet another bout of deja vu.

“It’s a part of the ritual,” he whispers in your ear, feeling you nod.

Once all of the candles are lit by Dinah’s own hand, the voodoo queen sits down in the chair on his other side. She studies you harshly for a moment, making you squirm under her scrutiny, before looking at Michael. “You sure that you want your honey in here to meet Papa? After all, she’s nothing but a pretty little mortal.”

He smirks. If there’s one lesson he can take away from those eighteen long months, it’s that you’re so much more than that. You’re determined, unflinching in your morals, and willing to face down any of your fears to do what’s right.

“I assure you, she can more than handle herself.”

You smile nervously at Michael, and he winks at you in what he hopes is a comforting way. His eyes are drawn down to your lap, where your hands are shaking. While Dinah grabs one of his hands to start the ritual, he uses his free one to hold one of yours. Your smile softens, and you mouth, “Thank you.”

She turns his hand so it’s facing palm-up, and takes a deep breath in before beginning to knock on his wrist. After she does so, she places her wrist against his briefly before swiping up a bottle of liquor from the table. The amber liquid is poured into a copper mug, and Dinah brings it up above her head in order to pray to it.

“Papa Legba,” she begins. “Ouvrier barrier pour moi agoe.”

This chant is repeated twice more, but it only takes her invoking him the second time for the shadow of a tall figure wearing what looks to be a top hat to rise against the blank canvas of the wall. As Dinah chants for the third and final time, a cold wind sweeps through the room and brings with it an echoing, deep laugh and the sound of bones clinking together.

Michael hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Papa Legba before this night. He heard plenty of stories, of course, but Papa Legba was notoriously hard to get an audience with, even when one was the Antichrist. 

Like many demons, Papa Legba looks like a normal man at first glance. He appears carrying a cane and wearing a fine suit, a top hat decorated with tiny skulls and feathers atop his head. A necklace made of beads and claws rests around his neck, and his long cloak sweeps along the floor. That’s where the human similarities end. White paint covers the top half of his face, and his blood-red eyes look upon the trio assembled before him with delight as he grabs the cup from Dinah and drains it.

“Dinah Stevens! Calling upon me so soon after our last…chat, eh?” He looks down at a couple of cigars sitting on top of a decorative silver plate and hums. “Mm, lucky for you that I cannot resist Cuban cigars, Mambo.”

The empty cup is discarded for one of the cigars, which he holds to his nose in order to properly enjoy it before scratching one of his nails against the end and lighting it. The cherry glows red as he takes a couple of deep puffs, the air growing hot around you as the shadows surrounding him morph in that distinct, sentient way—the shadows of souls now belonging to Papa.

Papa Legba takes a seat in the chair next to you, stretching out languidly. You scooch your chair closer to Michael, and he fights the urge to wrap his arm around you.

“The Antichrist – and his little wife!” Papa Legba greets, his voice echoing and layering on top of itself. 

Michael nods in a show of deference, and you do the same. “Papa Legba,” he says. You jump slightly, his “otherworldly” voice surprising you.

“I am sorry that I could not attend the wedding festivities, mes chers.” He grins at both of you, his gold tooth glinting in the candlelight. “A little drama with your papa, you see. But the entire Underworld was very much abuzz at news of the nuptials, I assure you.”

“We appreciate your well wishes.” You remain silent, choosing instead to smile and nod in agreement. “I assume you know why I asked Dinah to facilitate this meeting?”

Papa Legba shakes his head, but the smirk on his face gives off the feeling that he knows exactly why he’s here. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“You’ve abandoned your post,” Michael reminds him before deciding to go off-script. “And I’m guessing you have ulterior motives beyond becoming bored with your function.”

Papa laughs. “Ah, you’re a smart little Antichrist! Correct, this is the outcome I was hoping to achieve as a result of my actions.”

“Well, you certainly got my attention. Why go to all this trouble?” Michael already knows the answer, of course. But everybody in this room has a part to play in his plan, even though they don’t know it.

“The lords of Hell are not too pleased with the current plans. Ending the world?” He tuts and shakes his head. “Now, that just takes all of the fun out of everything. Who will barter with me when the only souls left on Earth are devoted followers of Satan or half-dead?”

“So you’re the messenger.”

“I’ll confess, I have been sent by my fellow demons to attempt to sway you. For some reason, they think that I am the best public speaker.” He puts a hand to his chest as if he’s touched by the sentiment.

“And how are you attempting to sway me?”

“My dear boy, I am here to convince you not to start an apocalypse.”

This is the moment where it all went wrong. Michael let his anger get the best of him, his need to please his father ruling his emotions and actions. Briefly, he thinks of the butterfly effect, which you taught him while learning it in a class last semester. The belief is that every choice, and every action, no matter how big or small, can set a person on a hundred different courses. He’s seen the course that was taken when he lashed out. Now, he’s choosing rationality, and he’s excited to see what course that leads everybody down.

“You’ll be happy to learn that it will take far less convincing than you originally thought,” Michael says. Next to him, you gasp.

Papa Legba looks simultaneously surprised and pleased. “Really?”

“Recently, I’ve been made aware of some new developments regarding my father and the nuclear annihilation course that we’ve been working on. Now, I’m interested in exploring other avenues.”

Papa Legba’s red eyes are so focused on Michael that it’s even beginning to make him feel a little uncomfortable. “So I may tell my friends that they will get to play with their food for the foreseeable future?”

“Yes, I would say that’s a pretty accurate statement,” Michael says with a nod.

“You have just made many of the legions of Hell very pleased, young master.” His gold tooth glints in the candlelight as he grins, pulling a card out of thin air and presenting it to Michael between his long fingers. “You may call upon me whenever you need so that my friends and I may help you achieve your goal; we are at your disposal.”

Michael takes it gratefully. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you.” Papa Legba stands and takes the last cigar off of the table with him, sliding it up the sleeve of his coat until it disappears. “Until next time.”

With a gust of wind that blows out all of the candles and the clinking of bones, he turns and melts into his shadows. Shortly after, the lights overhead flicker on, bathing the room in reality once more. Dinah rolls her neck with a groan, taking a moment to collect herself after the strain of the summoning.

“Well, I guess you do have some sort of a spine,” she declares, standing and smudging the symbols she had made at the doorway. 

“A backhanded compliment, but one that I’ll take.”

“Are we done here? I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve got places to be.”

Michael rolls his eyes. She truly is just a terrible person, apocalypse or not. “Yes, we’re done.” 

You’ve been silent since Michael revealed that he wasn’t keen on ending the world, and you remain that way now. Michael gently pulls you from your chair, and you follow him dazedly, letting him handle the goodbyes as you digest everything that’s just happened. Michael can’t blame you in the slightest; he knows that it seems like a jarring and sudden change, especially when the plans to bomb the world are so concrete and detailed.

About halfway down the block from Dinah’s studio—Michael thought that a walk in the cooler night air might do you more good than transmuting—you finally find something to say. “What the hell was that?”

“I told you that things were going to be different.”

“I assumed you meant, like, that you were going to try and push off zero hour a little bit more!” You finally look at him, cautiously and hopefully. “What about your plan? You’ve wanted to end the world for a while now. This is what you and the Cooperative have been working towards since before we even got married.”

“No, that’s not what I want. What I want is a life with you. I want us to actually travel the world together. I want us to experience new things. I want to watch you chase your dreams. I want to develop dreams of my own.”

It’s the first time Michael’s admitted that last sentence to anybody beyond his thoughts in the middle of the night. Even before the end of the world, he watched with envy as you and your friends and fellow students went about your lives, excited for futures and possibilities that seemed endless. Somewhere along the way, he realized that he wanted that for himself, that he wanted to be more than just the Antichrist. While the original meeting with Papa Legba forced him to put that want to the side in favor of accomplishing what he believed to be his destiny, this do-over has afforded him another chance to discover his own dreams.

“Did you know that my father isn’t even the one who picked out the current apocalypse plan?” he asks.

“He’s not?”

Michael shakes his head. “I recently found out that it was the two idiots at Kineros who built the new Ms. Mead. They hacked into Ms. Mead and planted the idea, convincing a vulnerable, naive Antichrist that fire and blood were the only ways to end the world and make Satan proud. All because they were pissed at minor inconveniences and wanted to ‘wipe the slate clean’.”

As Michael says this, he makes a mental note to kill those two. What? He’s still the Antichrist, after all.

“All Satan wants is to win this millennia-long, metaphysical chess game that he’s playing with God. He doesn’t care what I do, so long as I get him some ‘wins’. And Papa Legba was right. If I were to end the world, Satan would win…for a time. But then the rules would be changed, the board reset, and where would that leave me? I’d have done all this, ruined our, and everybody’s, lives for nothing.”

“So this is real? You’re not ending the world anymore?” you check.

“Not ending the world anymore,” Michael confirms. “We’ll find some other way to sow chaos, I’m sure. In due time. For now, I’m happy to wait and—”

He’s cut off when you throw yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling his lips to yours. In the eighteen months he’s just lived through, he can’t remember the last time you initiated a kiss. Now, he eagerly reciprocates, kissing back and hoping that you can feel all of his apologies and promises through his actions. He hopes that, from now on, he’ll never have to go more than a day without kissing you again.

When you pull away from Michael, there are tears running down your face. His heart twists at the sight. How had he not known that you were in so much fear about what was going to happen, that you and Mallory were working behind the scenes to try and find a way to change his mind? 

“Thank you,” you say, lifting your hands up to wipe your face clean; a futile task, since you keep crying from relief. “Thank you so much.”

“I love you.” Michael’s earnest in his declaration, never wanting you to forget this fact…or to give you a reason to. “I’m so sorry. I never meant to scare you in this way, to cause you this anguish.”

“I know. You were just doing what you thought you were supposed to do. But you’ve changed, and I’m so proud of you for that.” You always know just the right thing to say, the right way to encourage him. He’s so thankful to have that back.

“I love you,” Michael says again. He’ll say it every hour for the rest of his life, if it means you’ll smile at him the way that you currently are.

“I love you, too.” He kisses you again, there under the streetlights on a beautiful, fall night in New Orleans, and is reminded that there are so many things to love and appreciate about humanity.

Michael may not make it to Heaven when he dies. But right now, in your arms, he’s found the closest thing to it. And nothing will ever make him give it up again.

•••

@ajokeformur-ray @iamavailablesstuff @narwhal-swimmingintheocean @nsainmoonchild @redroses07 @xo-angel-ox @littleangel4996 @iamlivingforturner @thatonehumanbeing05 @codycrazy @love-on-the-murder-scene

[thefvrious]

⭐

MULTIMUSE MEME: Send a " ⭐ " and I will list muses I would be interested in throwing at yours, or potential muse combinations if you are also a multi. If you like any of the suggested combinations, you are welcome to come plot or start interactions with them.

remus lupin x isabella blackwood arawn kodiac x gabriel mccormick janessa spade/leila mitchell/lila anderson x yvonne beaumont remus lupin/fenrir greyback/lestat de lioncourt/louis de pointe du lac/jude cruorem/holter grosvenor/aspen crawford/veena razdan x michael fitzpatrick maverick mckenzie/hannibal lecter/nevada mallory/brody everhart x alejandro valdez

[rose-and-thorn-fanfics]

number 76 for the fic writer asks in regards to Mary Prays The Rosary For My Broken Mind (AHS APOCALYPSE)

76. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of “Mary Prays The Rosary For My Broken Mind” Michael Langdon x Fem! OC?

Ok, so I was initially going to make Prim friends with Mallory instead of Emily, for more conflict later on in the story when the witches arrive (which I haven’t written that part yet). But I decided to go with Emily because it was easier for her to interact with Emily than a Grey like Mallory. I also considered Michael killing Primrose after they have sex. But I think he likes her (in a manipulative kind of possessive way) enough now that she isn’t innocent and she submits to him. Also it would be more interesting to have her live long enough for the witches to come and challenge Michael. Like it gives opportunities for the witches to see Primrose as a “poor victim with magic potential as a witch” and try and destroy Michael and save her only for them to find out she’s loyal to him).

[naturecoaster]

Inverness Fine Arts Festival Promises Fun for All Ages amidst 86 Fine Artist Booths

Don’t miss the Inverness Fine Art Festival November 2-3 in this charming, historic downtown venue, featuring fine art, music and entertainment, interactive activities for all ages, a commemorative turtle for each attendee to decorate as they see fit, live art, student art, and - best of all – eighty-six fine artists showing and selling their creative wares. The Inverness Fine Arts (IFA) Festival is one of Central Florida’s premier juried fine art shows. It is renowned for its commitment to promoting artistic excellence and innovation, drawing thousands of enthusiasts and collectors from all over the world. IFA Festival was established in 1971 and serves as a vibrant platform for artists to showcase their medium: paintings, sculptures, jewelry, clay, fiber, photography and many more. For artists, there is a generous prize pool of $10,000. Bring your family to the Inverness Festival of the Arts. There is plenty to do for all ages. Image by Michael Pate. Explore the 2024 Inverness Fine Arts Festival November 2-3 The IFA Festival is set in historic, small town Inverness, and creates a fun and engaging atmosphere for visitors and art enthusiasts of all ages to enjoy. Witness a stunning array of fine art created by talented artists from around the nation. Then take some home. Come and shop for the perfect piece to make your home or garden uniquely special and meet the men and women who create the art you love. Immerse yourself in a world of creativity. The 2024 Inverness Festival of the Arts features interactive art activities and fun for all ages, including two paint-by-number 4 x 8-foot murals. One will be painted by children 4 years through middle school ages. The second paint-by-number mural will be painted by high school children and adults. Just stop by the paint-by-number mural and add your flair to the scene. Together, we make art fun! Kids of all ages will be able to help paint by number the Inverness Festival of the Arts mural. Two murals will be available. Image by Diane Bedard Free Cooter Turtle Mini Sculpture for Every Visitor to the Festival! Everyone will receive a free resin turtle toy to decorate at home upon entry to the festival. If you feel creative, visit the “paint the turtle” interactive art booth where art teachers and assistants will help visitors paint or decorate with markers their own masterpiece. Inverness Arts + Culture Alliance also presents, back by popular demand, the community painting of an aluminum Florida Cooter turtle sculpture!  Two 3-foot turtles will be custom painted by anyone who comes to the booth. The painted Cooter turtles will be auctioned off at a later date, with 100% of the proceeds to benefit future events like this one. Also returning to this year’s festival is the Community Weave. This popular event allows anyone, who comes to the Weave Tent, to participate to the creation of the 2024 Community Weave. The 2003 Community Weave can be seen on display at the City of Inverness Government building. Don’t Miss the Mallory Square Juggler and Live Musical Entertainment. Jean Morabal, a talented 19-year veteran circus comedy juggling act known as “Now That’s Blue” will be entertaining at this year’s festival, direct from Mallory Square in Key West Jean will perform three 40-minute comedy routines at 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm on both days of the event. Be sure to check out the entertaining acrobatics,10-foot unicycling, hat manipulation, knife juggling, and LED juggling. And…need we say more? Jean Morabal is a multi-talented acrobat, juggler, entertainer who will be entertaining visitors to the 2024 Inverness Festival of the Arts. Live music will be at the fountain on Courthouse Square also. Image courtesy of Jean Morabal Facebook. Live musical acts will be performing at the fountain on Courthouse Square - 10 am, 12 pm, and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday - Betsy Garter, Tower Tunes, and a surprise performer guaranteed to make your ears happy, and your feet want to move. Local Students Show their Works for Awards The Citrus County School Zone booth will present fine art from Citrus, Crystal River, Lecanto, and Seven Rivers high schools. It is always amazing to see the talent that Citrus County high school students create in this stand-alone tent! The School Zone is located in front of the Old Heritage Courthouse Museum. Student art will be juried by former graduates of Citrus County high schools and awards will be presented at the Old Courthouse on Sunday. Child discovers art at Inverness Festival of the Arts by Michael Pate. Used with permission. Make and Take Your Own Clay Art New to the Festival is an interactive Clay Art Project inviting attendees to create their own masterpiece out of air-dry clay. What would you make? A manatee, an eagle, your brother, a replica or the courthouse, or a drinking cup? Visit the Interactive Clay Project and knead your vision under guidance. An artist will be present to guide new clay modelers through the process. Inverness Fine Arts Festival is the Place to Shop for Art Bring the family to Inverness to shop for treasures from each of the eighty-six fine artist booths around the historic Inverness Old Courthouse Heritage Museum on November 2 and 3 from 10 am to 4 pm. You will find everything from traditional oil paintings and landscapes to modern sculptures and garden accents – there is truly nothing as rewarding as buying art directly from the creator IMHO. The Inverness Festival of the Arts offers visitors a slower pace, where patrons can take time to visit with artists. Image by Michael Pate. The weather should be magical. The area is charming and intimate, while being outdoors. There are parks, theatres, restaurants, and shops all around the courthouse square for your exploration. There will be fun entertainment and engaging activities for all ages, including children of all ages! Think, “Let them make art!” Parking and admission are free and each visitor will receive a free unpainted Cooter turtle as they enter the Festival. See you there. Read the full article

[tryan-a-bex]

Oh that is perfect for you, @mallory-x !

Apparently Michael Gough was cast as Destiny and me as Delirium for the next season of The Sandman! (Michael Gough was the Toymaker last time the Doctor met him, and I was playing the Sandman soundtrack while editing my Fuckboi Dream chapter outline.)

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challenge -> you’re starring in a movie with the last person you saved in your camera roll and the last song you listened to is the title.

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