#to die because of your job. and you had no idea. what could you do? it was your job.

[wandascosmic]

Would you write something where Wanda and reader just have like a slow morning. They don’t have anywhere to be and reader just wakes up to see Wanda staring at her and it’s just so sweet. Feel free to add your own ideas too!

slow mornings (request)

wanda maximoff x fem!reader

summary: in which you have your first day off in a year, and you and your wife decide to spend it in the best way possible.

word count: 733

tags: unedited, fluff, meet-cute, business major history, domestic wanda and reader, soft wanda and reader, slow mornings with our favorite couple, wanda has a staring problem

Wanda must have looked crazy, staring at you, her wife, for the past 20 minutes. Just watching your chest rise and fall in a slow, rhythmic state as you slept peacefully. Devoid of all the stress that usually plagued your face at your high-stakes job working as a company’s CEO. 

Wanda never wanted to leave, she felt completely content, having been married to you for the past five years, she never wanted it to end. 

Watching your expression, she reflected on your relationship’s history. 

You had met Wanda fresh out of college, during the first week of the master’s program you two had both been accepted to, one of the most competitive in the country.

Wanda was focusing more on the management portion, while you were learning more analysis topics. 

Sprinting as fast as you could to your most important class which you were unfortunately already late for since the bus got delayed, you accidentally bumped into a redhead on your way, dropping both your books and hers in the process. 

Widening your eyes, you ran back towards the figure. “Oh, my god! I’m so sorry, I really didn’t mean to do that. I’m just stressed and–” 

The figure gave you a reassuring smile, causing every word that wanted to come out to die in your throat. “It’s okay,” she said, her voice silky smooth as she handed you your books back. “I’m Wanda.” 

Nodding, you wordlessly took your books back, confused as the figure gave you an expectant look. “Um, oh! I’m Y/N. Studying business analysis.” You held out your hand for her to shake. 

“Nice to meet you,” Wanda responded. “Business Administration.”

“Wow, that’s– wow.” You acknowledged, seeing as that was the best program your school had to offer. Should you even be talking to her?

Wanda laughed. “It’s nothing. My greatest accomplishment is my coffee job on the side, with my twin brother. Want one?” 

“Um– what?” you asked.

“A coffee,” Wanda smiled. “Have you heard of Sokovian Sweets? Down the street?”

“Oh! Oh, yeah, I love them. They have the best hot chocolate,” you said in recognition. 

“Thanks,” Wanda nodded. “Pietro’s working the shop today, come on!” 

Wanda grabbed your hand and began to lead you in the direction of her and her brother’s store. 

“Um I really shouldn’t–” you protest. 

“Don’t worry, it’ll all be worth it!” Wanda reassured, never letting go of your hand. 

And it all was, because 4 years later, she became your wife. 

Wanda smiles as you begin to stir, slowly coming to your senses. 

With your eyes still closed, you reach towards your wife, grabbing her hand and squeezing it tightly. 

“You know, it’s rude to stare,” you say, feeling a pair of green eyes watching you. 

“Can’t help it,” Wanda shrugs. “It’s called appreciating your wonderful wife.” 

Turning over to face your wife, you slowly open your eyes and greet her with a smile. “Hi,” you say softly. 

“Hey,” she responds gently, giving you a kiss on your forehead. 

“How long have you been awake?” you ask, moving to rest your head in the crook of Wanda’s neck, to which she immediately responds with her arm around your waist. 

“Not long, I spent most of it admiring you.” 

“You know, 5 years of marriage and I don’t think you’ve ever lost your ability to flirt with me in new ways every morning.” 

“It comes pretty easy when you’ve got a pretty wife in bed next to you,” Wanda responds.

You hum, closing your eyes as you feel yourself relax in Wanda’s arms. “What are we doing today?” you ask. 

“Well, Pietro wants me to drop off some cookies at the coffee shop later today, but we don’t have to, I can just get Sam to pick them up since I made them last night.” 

You laugh. “Oh, yeah, forgot Sam owes you for nearly burning down your kitchen last month.” 

Wanda groans. “How can someone mess up French onion soup that bad! He burned the broth somehow!”

 You kiss Wanda’s cheek. “Let Sam know, I have my first day off all year and I want to spend every minute of it with you.” You wrap your arms around Wanda’s waist and snuggle into her chest, dozing off once more. 

“You got it,” Wanda agrees, kissing the top of your head before texting Sam, and going back to sleep alongside her wife.

[zaine-m]

first responders arcane AU.

they get a call about a man about to jump off a bridge.

The paramedics arrived first Viktor immediately gets on the ledge with him and tries to talk to him about his mental state. Jayce is shitting his pants with fear, what if Viktor falls, what if this guy pushes Viktor off. The rest of the first responders don't know what to do and are just preparing possible rescue if he jumps but he gets mad when anyone else tries to come close.

After a bit of talking the man still decides he wants to die and Viktor offers his hand saying "you wouldn't want to die alone, would you?". Jayce is running in circles trying to find something to do to stop this.

The man looks at Viktor and asks "why would you do that?", "nobody should be forced to go through these troubles alone". He finally turns around and begins to climb back onto the bridge.

Jayce runs to Viktor full sprint and lifts him over the railing, "oh my god, never do that again. There are procedures. You could have died", "eh, this method has never failed me before" "...what do you mean before?"

Jayce finds Viktor later that night smoking, "you shouldn't be doing that, you know with your lungs and all"

"eh cancer would take at least 5 years to develop then another year for it to kill me and by that time... I'd already be gone"

Jayce pauses and looks deep into Viktor's eyes, staring off into the night.

Viktor continues "I... yeah... don't tell Heimderdinger. He only let me take this job because I told him my health was improving"

"god, I'm so sorry. I had no idea"

Viktor puts out the cigarette on the pavement "no point ruining your lungs too... I wasn't worried today because I knew it didn't matter. I die on some bridge or I die in a hospital, either way i died without making any impact on this world, nothing for people to remember me by"

"Viktor, what you do every day matters. All those people will remember you"

"I spend half of my time assessing colds and checking in on old people"

"And the other half you spend being there for people on their worst days. They might not remember your name but they'll remember seeing your face and knowing that someone was fighting for them to live. And I'll... I'll make sure your name is remembered" Jayce places a hand on Viktor's cheek, "I'll never forget your name Viktor"

"Thank you, Jayce" Viktor closes his eyes softly as he sees Jayce begin to lean into his face. The kiss they share is soft and gentle in a way that makes Viktor forget the dread of his diagnosis and want to stay in that moment forever

[l0v3r666]

Mc inserts x TWST characters

(basically non-yuu pairings I think about instead of my inbox :p)

Ignyhide vice!Mc x Jamil Viper

Mc is probably twisted from one of the little demon goons, and it makes your contrast with Jamil charmingly obvious. You’re both vices in the basketball club with an outside connection to your wardens (you figured a physical activity’ll ward Idia’s eye away) and you both hate your jobs to a comedic degree. The connection is actually really sweet and subtle!! Atleast until book 6 when Mc is complaining about their ego trippy boss while basically eating out of Jamil’s hand, feeding him information like the layout and hierarchy of styx,, as Idia’s super exclusive assistant it’s only fair to give your guests a full tour!

“geez! And he just gets so flippy-floppy, yknow? He’s got this thing about energy drinks now so I’ve been diluting them, it’s such a pain!”

“It might just be a defect with housewardens. Have you ever heard of the incompetency theory?”

Card soldier!Mc x Malleus Draconia

okay picture this- Mc is comepletely wasted and coming off the high from a holiday party that was totally killer. You wander into the woods past campus and find yourself at a little abandoned cottage, it’s like 100% cozy enough to chill in before stumbling back to the dorms. You continue heading there for pregames/drunken shenanigans, meeting up with some hot guy that hangs around sometimes. You’re fully blindsided when your “little buddy” is kicking heartslabyul ass during a spelldrive tourney..

“Yoooooo, Mally, you must be really fun at parties. Want ta’ go with me?”

“I can’t say I’ve ever been invited to a “rager” before, but it sounds.. enjoyable. I accept.”

Ignyhide freshman!Mc x Deuce Spade

You’re a shaking mess during your first track meet. It’s a graduation requirement to take at least one gym class before the end of freshman year, and you’d rather die than take flight class with all those scary seniors!! Your vice had enough sense to convince you into not dropping out, he’d said that “track is low stress!” And “you’ll enjoy it” >:( you can’t believe he’d lie to your face like that!! (Is this the AI revolution??) You guess it’s not too bad though, you’ve even started strength training with a new friend. He’s a little short tempered, but it could be a lot worse.

“hey, I had no idea ignyhide kids were into track! I thought it’d be too much sun,,”

“We’re not vampires. I wouldn’t clown on you for the tea in your thermos, so lay off.. heh, there’s totally a dormouse in there.”

Scarabia housewarden!Mc x Leona Kingscholar

It’s pretty rare to see Leona of all people in your reserved pool chair, but plenty of weird stuff’s happened during your senior case study. You’re this close to getting your big shiny diploma- and a little rest now and then won’t hurt anybody! Savanaclaw’s housewarden has only had his position since last year, and you’ve held yours through all four. After knowing of each other for so long, it’s only logical that you’d become good friends! (Not that he calls you that)

“So you’re graduating, huh? Hope that brat you chose’ll fill your shoes, you’ve worked pretty hard.”

“awh, you’re such a sap,, I’m sure you’ll like Kalim, he’s no idiot. I promise to visit whenever you decide to graduate, but it’ll be a lot easier if i get that job in the castle!”

Octavinelle sophmore!Mc x Jack Howl

Poor Jack has to deal with everyone else’s business on top of his own education, when does he get a break? That ramshackle prefect’s looking for leads on how to beat those twins in the water, and only one face comes to mind. You’re his coworker at his temp job, and you owe him a favour (atleast from your perspective, he doesn’t hold it over your head) because with your grades Azul’s got it out for you. He’s begging for you to help him out- and who are you to deny those puppy eyes?

“Jack you can’t tell him! The housewarden’ll make me quit, I need this job! :(((“

“woah, it’s not like I’m gonna blackmail you.. what kind of guy do you think I am?”

Savanaclaw freshman!Mc x Epel Felmier

You’re lost, stressed and so confused in your first year :( it feels like everything is going wrong all the time!! It’s probably like 10x worse because you’re very tall and so built, but nobody cares to peer up at the cute giraffe ears on your head! You’ve been challenged by so. many. seniors. (and you win against all of them, you’re no pushover) but you’re tired of the beef. Epel just thinks you’re the coolest person in the room, and is always saying he wants to get freaky fridayed with you. But he doesn’t get the struggle!! Atleast Jack cares enough to tell him you’re just not liking it at school, and it makes Epel kick into action- he’s not letting you drop out, so please wait until he transfers!!

Pomefiore Junior!Mc x Rook Hunt

You’re convinced that Rook c. Hunt is the worst guy in all of twisted wonderland (C for creep)! And it SUCKS because he went from your rebellious savanaclaw boytoy to.. whatever he is. (How’d you miss the warning signs when you were tongueing him??) You can always see his stupid bob in your peripheral- but you’ve rationalized that if you watch him, then he only sees what you want him to see! It’s keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, just until graduation. And it does work, until you realize you’ve given Rook an inch that he’s turned into a mile. You’ll probably never get rid of him now, but what’s the point anymore?

“Ah, mon cher! You always enchant me with your passionate gaze, I’m honoured to be the object of your attention!”

“uh.. sure thing, hon. Whatever you say.”

Diasomnia Senior!Mc x Idia Shroud

You’re a highly educated noble from the mysterious land of Briar Valley. You are poised, weirdly formal, and utterly incompetent with your newest area of study- contemporary technology. You’ve tried to convince yourself that it’s pointless, they don’t even use it at home! But if you want to travel anytime before the collapse of human civilization, it must be done. you’re insatiable with your thirst for knowledge, and completely enamoured with having first hand experience with every era of mortal tech. It also happens to be almost impossible to revive your “Kno-Keya” once it has decided to die. That is where Idia Shroud comes in.

“In exchange for the revival of my electronic mailing device i am willing to offer an extensive dowry befitting of your station and technological necromancy skill. Will it suffice?”

“I literally only charged your phone, uh.. WOAH, A DOWRY?? I don’t have the space for five horses!! I’m totally not prepped for the marriage route, I haven’t seen the wiki yet!”

[myceliacrochet]

URGENT: 4yo Little Girl and Her Family Malnutritioned and Freezing!! (Sham and Moneer al-Anqar -- Skills Series: "Easy Piece First")

Reblog if u answer pls tysm!🩷

There's no shame in that! In this series, I'll be sharing some tips to help us keep going strong, carrying these families throughout this brutal winter of extermination. With each post I'll be highlighting a family in desperate need.

Easy Piece First

Whether we're working at a job, making commissions, working on posts, or doing other tasks, mutual aid for genocide relief can be overwhelming. The stakes are through the roof, and sometimes the people who most want to help are the people least able to. Often I freeze in place, overwhelmed with emotion, unsure of where to start. Depression, anxiety, and AuDHD don't help!

So I hope this skill is of use to you. I call it "Easy Piece First" because that's what helps me remember it, but it's definitely not a new idea.

I started this post with the easiest small step accessible. For me, that was writing down Moneer's current blog tag (@sham-moner) in a new post. This was the easiest for me because it required no decision-making and could be done in a few seconds. Then I filled in the other parts that don't take much thought -- the GoFundMe link, the vetting, and some tags.

For other posts, sometimes I'll be making art that is unrelated and then I'll think of a post to go with it.

Lazy and Heartless, or Focused and Strategic?

Everyone is different, but trying to force yourself to start with the hardest part first (what some people call the "Eat That Frog" approach) can actually make things take longer for some people. Using "Easy Piece First," I was able to get more done with my time, and with less trouble. This makes my efforts more sustainable long-term.

On a related note, I actually take a lot of measures to not walk around with my chest constantly hurting for Palestinians anymore (though there's nothing wrong with doing so). My chest was aching at all times for months until I converted some of my worry into action and some of it into self-care -- so I could actually get more done for Palestinians, who do not need my tears but my labor.

This winter is a marathon, and we gotta see it through to the end.

Take care of yourself so you can get more done and keep helping people long-term.

Do not give yourself a heart condition.

Give Palestinians labor.

That's how I'm keeping myself out of the hospital and maximizing what I can do for people, but we all have our own strategies.

But that's enough about us -- let's talk about these two amazing kids.

Moneer and Sham

Palestinians are just regular people. That's the horrible reality. It's the exact same as if people from your own background, even your own family were getting tortured and killed.

Like, Moneer is a 19yo who had recently started university when the genocide began. Sham is 4, Mohammed is 16, Rana is 21, and Rasha is 22.

What were you going through when you were 4? How would you have felt if you saw people getting blown up at that age? What if your house was blown up and all your toys and friends were lost, and you had to live outside in the winter, scrounging for moldy bread and polluted water?

What if you lived with the smell of rotting bodies when you were 4? Did you know what that smelled like as a little kid? I still don't know what that smells like. I didn't really know what death was at that age. She does.

This small child is in critical need of food and water!!

She is starving!!

Sham will die this winter without more donations!!

This is a call to action for an extremely urgent campaign!!!

It's been 2 days, and it was 2 days before that! This is far too long!!

Moneer is still recovering from major surgery. He is in a lot of pain and is also malnutritioned and in need of clean water and warmth.

Moneer is very close to his family and dearly loves his mom, Amani (39). Amani is in a lot of danger because she has asthma in a dusty massacre zone without treatment. It's killing Moneer to watch his mom go through this.

Drink some water, take a rest, and keep putting one foot in front of the other, using whatever tools work for you.

We are not letting these kids and their family die this winter!! We can do this!!

Vetting: GazaVetters #8

@opencommunion @beserkerjewel @deepspaceboytoy @rhubarbspring @eryuditely @lesbianmaxevans @malcriada @turian @sxpph0 @rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world @neptunerings @dykesbat @halalgirlmeg @userpeggycarter @minosbull @hamstertross @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness-blog @definitelynotafox @kaleschmidt @jaylung101 @captainsaltymuyfancy2 @timetravellingkitty @sun-and-moon-side @kahin @greenmossyrock @northgazaupdates2 @irhabiya @theparanoid @steep1253o @victoriawhimsey @dirhwangdaseul @cruzwalters @ladycelebrianofimladris @tamamita @50seagullsinatrenchcoat @deathlonging @nconiku @briarhips @kaislittlecorner @mahoushojoe @sar-soor @rhubarbspring @pcktknife @sawasawako @feluka @anneemay-blog @ralfocups

P.S.: I have several people waiting on me for posts. I am so sorry -- I will get them finished and published as soon as possible.

@soft-sunbird Thank you dear friend🥰🩷 I love you. You're doing so great

Check out the comments for many ways to help!

[axolotl4days]

Batfam au angst :) also leading into (platonic) yandere batfam

What if Jason wasn't the first kid to die :)

And what if Damian wasn't Bruce's only biological kid :)

Au idea I'm simple terms: what if Bruce had a daughter in his early years of batman, who went missing and dead, but then years later reappeared and was found again, Bruce and the others won't make the same mistake twice.

Author's note before reading: Please keep in mind I'm new to this fandom, so I don't know much about what's canon. I simply get creative ideas really easily and have decided to share them.

If anyone else likes this idea, feel free to rewrite or add onto the concept, if you do please tag me I'd love to see what others do with this concept

I'm picturing reader to be the same age as or potentially slightly younger than Damian, but no specific ages are mentioned

Damian POV:

It was a day like any other, awful, Damian had to go to school. He didn't hate school, just the people there, loud, annoying, nosy.

He went about his day the same as always, reading in class and working on his work, until suddenly the principle came to class abruptly saying they had a new student, which the teacher promptly assigned to sit next to Damian. Great.

The teacher also informed him that he would be the one to show this new student around. So Damian braced himself for the extra annoying questions about him and his family, after all that's what people always want to know.

But to his suprised? This girl didn't care about any of that, simply asking questions about the class and school. She didn't even ask if he was really a Wayne, she looked a bit suprised but it wasn't the usual suprise most people had, and she didn't ask him any questions about it so it didn't matter.

As he showed her around he found out that they had the same classes, he heard her sigh of relief, but when questioned she said she was glad because it ment she wouldn't be alone in any of her classes and she'd have someone to turn to.

As the day went on they would go to class and work on classwork, it seems his new classmate was a lot smarter than the rest of them and he didn't have to constantly help her with work.

At the end of the day he made a mental note of a new acquaintance.

Later that day

"Ah, Master Damian, welcome back. How was your day at school?" Alfred asked, greeting the young boy

"It was alright Pennyworth, we had a transfer student today, but she seemed to be quite intelligent unlike the rest of those peasants" Damian replied

"Oh? A transfer student? In the middle of the school year? How odd."

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, her name is Y/n." Damian said, but after saying her name he noticed Alfred looked pale

"Pennyworth? Are you feeling ill? Do I need to inform father?" Damian asked

"No no, I'm quite alright, it's just, I... used to know someone with that name, so I was suprised to hear it. That's all." Alfred replied, but he still looked pale

"If you say so. I'm going to head to my room and work on schoolwork before it's time for patrol" Damian said, and he was gone without another word

Alfred's POV:

'Calm yourself Alfred. It's a normal name that anyone could have, besides, it's been 20 years. Even if it was her she wouldn't be part of the young masters class. Still... I should inform Master Bruce, incase he mentions this classmate' Alfred thinks to himself before heading to the batcave.

There he finds both Bruce and Tim, working on the computer, searching for sightings of criminal activity, recently rumors of a new villain with unknown powers had started to arise, so it was the batman's job to keep Gotham safe

"Ahem, apologies for interrupting, but I need to borrow Master Bruce for a moment" Alfred says

"Did something happen Alfred?" Bruce asks

"No, not necessarily, it's nothing serious but we need to talk" Alfred replies

Bruce gets up and follows Alfred out of the room

"What is it Alfred? You look like you've seen a ghost." Bruce states

"Apologies Sir, as I said, it's nothing serious, however Damian informed me of a new classmate at school today" Alfred starts

"In the middle of the year?" Bruce comments

"That's what I said, however that isn't the point, I simply wanted to let you know before hand, incase the young master mentions this classmate infront of you.." Alfred pauses

"That's it? Why would you need to inform me of that" Bruce asks confused

"Well you see. He said that her name was... Y/n" Alfred states, and Bruce becomes just as pale as he is

"I see.... did Damian tell you anything else about this.... classmate?" Bruce asks

"No, he did not. But simply stated he'd keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Alfred said

"I understand." Bruce said with a deep sigh

"Are you alright Master Bruce? I know it's been a long time but-"

"I'm fine Alfred. I just... I'm fine. I need to head back to work now, we still don't know what this new villain is capable of, or what they're after." Bruce says, turning away

"Alright sir, if you insist. Please take care of yourself."

Alfred says, but he knows how Bruce is

The patrol went on as normal, and so did school. Nothing particularly interesting happened it was a week like any other, Damian and y/n would work on schoolwork together during breaks, since y/n joined late she had a lot of work to catch up on but she didn't have much trouble and Damian helped her when she did. The two had even become friends, turns out they had a lot in common, and some classmates tried to joke about how they were like siblings, but the two didn't mind. The jokes did make Damian aware of how... familiar y/n looked. He pondered the idea of her being a child from a one night stand, but the timelines didn't match up so he brushed the thought away, thinking it was a coincidence that she looked so much like Bruce. But nothing out of the ordinary happened of note, not until one fateful patrol where Damian made a discovery

Y/n POV:

Y/n didn't know where to go after waking up again, it was clear so many things have changed, and her dad taught her well. She needed more information before she made any decisions.

Unfortunately this ment she had no place to stay. After all, she couldn't go to an orphanage, she wasn't an orphan and she didn't have any documents or a story on where she came from. She knew better than to go to the police, what would she even say to them? So here she was. Sitting under a bridge hoping she won't get sick. But she was strong, she'd do what she'd have to in order to understand the situation better. Even if that means sleeping under a bridge like a troll, even if it means only eating the food provided by the school, even if it means-

"Hello there. Are you alright?" A voice asked making her jump

She turns to see, some sort of vigilante. She had heard in passing about how her dad Batman wasn't the only vigilante in Gotham anymore, so she figured it was one of them

"Oh um, I'm alright" she replied, she hadn't planned to meet any of them, she knew she might meet batman, which she kind of hoped for because then she could get some answers, but this was new territory this was- wait a minute why does he kind of look like Damian?

"Are you sure? Your sitting underneath a bridge at night, kids shouldn't be out here like this you could get hurt. Or worse. Why aren't you with your parents?" The vigilante (Damian) said, after recognizing his classmate, assessing the situation

"It's... complicated" y/n replies, before wondering how much she should tell him "I... can't really talk about it, but I can't go back home.. not yet at least, and I don't have anywhere else to go, so I've just been here" she states, hoping she didn't say to much

The vigilante just stays there for a moment, not saying anything, and she wonders if she said to much or if he thinks she's a criminal

"I see. In any case, you shouldn't be out here alone, the streets of Gotham aren't safe, however if you insist on staying out here may I suggest somewhere that isn't so easily spotted? You wouldn't want to be attacked. I know a few places that are safer than.. this" The vigilante says offering a hand

"Oh, uhm" y/n thinks for a moment, weighing her options "I'll take you up on that offer, it's not great down here" y/n replies, taking his hand

The two go to a more remote, slightly cleaner area

"Here we are, even if it's temporary this would be a better place for a shelter than where you were before. I don't know what's going on, but if you need assistance, im willing to help" the vigilante replies

"Thank you, you've really been more than enough help and I appreciate it a lot. If I need anything il let you know....."

"... Robin. My name is Robin." Robin says, noticing her pause

"Robin... thank you for the help, good luck with the rest of your patrol" y/n says

"Of course, you be careful now, always keep an eye out." Robin says, before leaving

'Phew.... he's gone. That was definitely him, and he definitely recognized me. Now what. He didn't say anything so they're definitely still doing the secret identity thing. I guess I'll just have to play it cool and hope he doesn't say anything at school. If any of the teachers find out I'm definitely gonna get investigated and then my whole plan will be thrown out the window.' Y/n thinks to herself 'Maybe this is a good thing, if he's Robin, it's likely that dad's still Batman too, which means I might run into him. What if he doesn't recognized me? What if he does recognize me?? What if- what if he didn't miss me.... no, no! This is dad, of course he missed me but it's been... so long... what do I do if he doesn't want me back...' y/n starts to worry about before she falls to the floor and starts to cry

Which, unbeknownst to her, Damian saw, he doesn't know why she's crying or why it makes him feel so... protective but he knows somethings up, so he goes off and reports what he knows to Batman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aaaaand cliffhanger! Mwahahahaha

I would have kept going, and I know exactly what's coming next, but I've been typing for awhile and I have no idea how long this post is, and I don't want it to be too long

So I'm stopping it there,

This wasn't supposed to be this much but my creative brain decided to run with this idea, so there's gonna be a part 2 soon

Also I've decided to call this au

Batman Dead Daughter Au

Because.... idk what else to call it and if I'm gonna make a part 2 and potentially more depending on how this goes, I'm gonna need something to refer to it with.

As I said before, I'm extremely new to the batman stuff

Pretty much all of my knowledge comes from youtube and tumblr, so bare with me if things are out of character

I've also never written fanfiction before, it's always just been in my head, so the writing is probably a bit funny

Yes I'm a writer in the making but I haven't actually gotten to the writing part

And fanfiction is a bit different

Hope yall like the concept tho

Again, feel free to write your own version of this if you want to, just tag me so I can read it too lol

[dunsbar]

the magnus archives is a podcast about the horrors of having a job

[nanaslutt]

Can we get a part 2 of when reader asks satoru and suguru if they fucked before

of course ml!! tysm for asking <3

part 1 here~

contains: fem reader, fluff, crack, choking, hair pulling, anal sex (gojo gets fucked) spanking (geto spanks gojo once), dirty talk, overstimulation, dacryphilia if you squint, dare i say sub satoru, sub/dom dynamics if you squint, suguru and reader are competitive, u tag team gojo together

MINORS AND AGELESS BLOGS DNI

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔

“so, when we’re you guys gonna tell me you’ve fucked before?” you asked, raising your eyebrows

gojo froze in place, pausing his efforts to get a towel to clean you up, he slowly turns to you, faux innocence on his stupidly pretty face, a big hand coming to rub the back of his neck

both you and geto stare at him, a smirk plastered on sugurus handsome features, heavy hand holding up his head, awaiting his response,

“now what on earth put that idea in your pretty little head?” he questions, hand falling on his hip sassily as he does an absolutely awful job lying

“oh i don’t knoww,” you drawl, pretending to think, “maybe geto telling you he was going to fuck you like it was the most normal thing in the world,” you scrunched your nose, shrugging

“but what do i know!” your eyebrows raised, suppressing a smile,

“nothing, you know nothing,” he replied, wiggling his finger back and forth in front of him like a child

“don’t tell me you forgot satoru, you might hurt my feelings.” geto teased, from his place between your calves, tilting his head to the side, “i know we were a little tipsy, but you told me i was an unforgettable fuck.” he pouted, faking offense, “you weren’t lying to me were you?”

satoru’s hand still on his hip like the sassy man he was, his mouth just flopping open and closing like a fish out of water, trying to think of a quick retort but failing to come up with anything, because the raven haired man was right

he was a truly unforgettable fuck

“now my feelings are hurt, he didn’t say I was an unforgettable fuck..” you pouted, crossing your arms over your bare chest,

“your mouth almost sucked the soul out of me,” he echoed from the hall

he had taken the opportunity of getos attention on you while he was ‘consoling’ you to slip out of the room, walking back in with a few damp towels, “course you’re an unforgettable fuck, way more than that monkey brained freak,” he hisses at geto, sitting next to you on the bed, using the warm towel to wipe his cum from your cheeks,

“oh? really?” geto let his head fall from his hand, landing against your knee, squinting his eyes at satoru while the blonde continued cleaning down your body, wiping up any fluids the two men had left

“think i remember making you cum..how many times was it again? 4? you were shooting blanks before i was even done with you” he smiles, rubbing your knee fondly with his strong hand while staring at gojo challengingly,

gojo looks away from your breasts, staring back into geto’s deep brown eyes,

“n they only made you cum once..” suguru mumbles into your knee,

“woah! woah, okay, I didn’t know i was competing with you in the first place!” you defend yourself, front half of your body shooting up, making gojo sigh as you accidentally knocked his hand back, “‘s not about quantity anyways, it’s about quality” you said smugly,

“n toru here, said I almost made him die so id say my quality is michelin star,” you proclaimed, narrowing your eyes at him before gojo pushed ur torso back down,

“i’m surrounded by a buncha babies jesus christ,” gojo shakes his head, pulling your leg out of sugurus grasp to access your leaking cunt better, pressing the harsh cloth against you and wiping you as gently as he could,

“sorry,” he winced for you in sympathy when you groaned out a protest, trying to close your legs on his hand at how painfully sensitive the rough towel made you feel, “anyways, you’re both good in bed, kay?” he continues,

“when suguru fucks me, it feels like my fucking guts are getting all messed up to make room for his stupidly big cock,” looking up through his lashes at sugurus smug expression, then back down to focus on what he was doing before making eye contact with you,

your arms still crossed over your chest, “n your throat squeezes me so fucking good i thought i was seein the pearly gates,” hand coming up to pinch your cheek, discarding the towel somewhere on the floor, standing once more to look for someone’s shirt on the floor he can put on,

“ ‘fucks’ as in you’ve had sex multiple times?” you stared in disbelief between the two of the large men, before settling your eyes on suguru

continuing your teasing you spoke up again, “and my compliment still sounded better,” you challenged him, a smug looks gracing your features

“you think so?” the raven haired man scrunched his eyebrows together, before turning his head to look straight at gojo’s supple bent over ass as he picked up a shirt and started to pull it over his head, “well, only one way to be sure which of us is really better.” he says to you quietly before standing

coming up behind gojo and grabbing his raised arms, preventing him from putting on his shirt, “hold that thought satoru, we’re in the middle of a little debate right now” yanking the shirt from satoru’s hands and throwing it back to its prior home on the floor,

“think you can help us? hmm?” he whispers, right into the shell of his best friends ear, sending goosebumps down his neck, “we’ll make it worth your while.”

———————————————————————

almost two hours later and the three of you were still in the same room, on the same bed,

gojo on his back, suguru fucking his cock right into his prostate as you face gojo, bouncing on his overstimulated dick, a thick ring of yours and his combined cum on the base of his overstimulated cock,

“c-cant cum anymore p-please- haaah- fuck please!” gojo whimpers out, thrashing his head back and forth on the sheets as fat tears drip down his face, making his cheeks shine under the light, “‘s too much ‘m too sensitive, ohmygodd” he drags, curses spilling from his lips one after another, his hold on your grip sure to leave nasty bruises as his hips fuck into your warm cunt without his brains permission,

“not till you tell us who’s better,” geto emphasizes with a heavy thrust, hand coming up to choke you out while he gives gojos poor hole the meanest treatment,

“‘s me right? ‘ve made you cum inside me so many times.” you slur, voice strained from getos rough grip on your throat

“bold of you to think that was your doing,” geto scoffs at you, “cmere,” he pulls your head back to press your lips together, other hand interlacing with gojos on your hip

satoru whines underneath the two of you, watching you makeout and feeling your cunt pulse around him because of suguru’s expert tongue work in your mouth had him spiraling

your hands coming up to grab geto’s wrist while he hums into the kiss, biting your lip between his teeth and pulling on it, letting it go before he chases after it and connects your lips once more

“‘m gunna cum again- please fuck- nggghhh i c-cant cum again,” gojo whines, squeezing getos hand and your hip for support as he’s falling into yet another orgasm and fast,

suguru pulls away from the kiss, releasing his grip on your neck as he pushes your lower back down twords gojos chest, “yes you can,” he growls

the raven haired man grabs your hair by the roots and pushes your face into satorus, “help him through it baby,” not needing to be told twice, you grab gojos cheeks with both your hands and slot your lips against his,

“mmmmph- mmm- can-t- p-please i-“ his protests being cut off by your lips, not letting him catch a breath

“got you, cmon” you comfort him in between your assault on his lips, geto reaching between his bestfriend and your body, finding your neglected clit, and rubbing sloppy circles on it, helping you get closer to your own high

“right there with you,” geto grits his teeth, resisting the urge to squeeze his eyes shut and tip his head back, so he can watch the show unfolding in front of him,

“gonna fill up this tight ass while you cum inside them, okay? and you’re gonna take everything we give you, right?” geto’s hips losing their rhythm, teetering on the edge of his own orgasm

gojo just whimpers into your mouth, hes trying to speak, he really is, but it’s all too much, he’s completely fucked out

“need to hear you say it satoru,” he emphasizes with a mean thrust, fucking impossibly deeper into his tight hole,

getos hand rubbing sloppily on your clit almost becomes too much, “yes! yesyes please ohmygod- gonna take it- shit-“ gojo’s whiney voice gets out just before he feels your cunt start to squeeze him,

“toru! fuuuuck me!” you whine, the blondes hips mindlessly fucking up into you helping you ride out your high as he cums so fucking hard, bordering on painful as spurt after spurt of his warm seed fills you once more,

and he’s gasping, barely coherent broken moans of both of your names on satoru’s tongue

geto not far behind you as he stills, balls deep inside gojos ass, the last push he needed seeing the two of you cum all over each other,

“yesssss fuuuuck” he clenches his teeth together hard, toothy grin emerging on his face, finally letting his head fall back, eyes following suit, rolling to the back of his head, “take it f-fucking t-take it.” fucking each rope of his cum deep into gojo’s ass

all three of you bask in the aftershocks of your intense orgasms, core clenching and unclenching around gojo’s length as you finally come down, picking your head up from gojos neck and smiling at his current state,

he was sniffling and gasping, red faced, tears decorating his lashes, making them look like glitter, he appeared more fucked out than ever

geto behind him slowly pulls out his softening cock, and gojo lets out a long groan of overstimulation when he does so, digging his fingers into the fat of your sides and wincing, “fuck, please don’t move yet, might pass out if you do” he says to you, his poor dick crying for relief, still snug inside your pussy, twitching every so often against your walls

you giggle, peppering kisses all over his face, he lets his eyes shut, finally relaxing a little as he relishes in the feeling of your soft lips on his skin,

suguru coming around to sit by his head

when you stop your assult of kisses on his porcelain face geto grabs gojos cheek furthest away from him and makes him turn his head into his thick thigh, “so,” geto starts, rubbing his thumb on gojos cheek, “who was better?” he asks, cocky smile finding home once more on his face

gojos eyes shoot open, looking at him slightly panicked, squeezing your upper thighs for support before he speaks, looking back between the two of you,

“i….im afraid if i don’t answer we will never leave this room.” he gulps

geto confirms his fears, tilting his head to the side, face sporting the fakest smile of comfort gojo has ever seen, “you would be absolutely right.”

[ridingthatd]

○o｡ MASTER TOJI

○o｡ tojixfem!reader, nsfw, heavy smut, master toji, toji is kinky, possessive toji, old days toji, filthy toji

toji fushiguro. toji fushiguro was a known master, a master who's job was to go after wanted man-woman whether they're bad or not, his mission was to kill them brutally and get their head to whoever paid him to kill them- their head as a proof, a proof of what he's capable of doing.

toji is known for his cold and calculating personality, which makes him intimidating- he does not hesitate to use his immense strength and powerful cursed techniques to defeat his enemies.

but then there's you- you who has him in your gentle little hands, your soft hands that always try to release the knots on his back- but always fail because of how small they are, compared to his muscular board back.

toji adored you- adored everything about you, from your long crazy curls, to your plumpy thick thighs that he always love to leave his marks on. you drived him to break a line he never thought he would break, he was a jealous- possessive man with you, he wants to be the air you breath everyday, he wants to be the only reason why you smile, the only person who can see it, who can hear your sweet giggles- your hideous laugh that he would die for,

he was such a jealous man, he wants you all for himself, he doesn't want anyone to be part of why you're happy other then him- toji knows and he's aware of how mentally deranged that is but it was very much how he truly felt.

he such a possessive man, that he wouldn't let you pleasure yourself- he doesn't want the sweet honey that comes out of your cunt go to waste, he only wants you to cum on his huge cock or his tongue, squirt on his face as you stroke your wet cunt on his nose- ridding it as he licks-coat your pinkish asshole with his spit.

it even got to the point where he made you a dildo to the exact shape of his cock, so you can pleasure yourself with it while he's gone to a long mission- he would always use it to stretch your ass to, while he pounds inside of your cunt, making you pass out from being to stuffed in both of your holes by his cock.

it's been a whole two weeks since toji last saw you, and it got him into a bad temper- a really bad one- he only could receive letters from you, telling him how much you missed him and your sweet cunt needed your master.

today was the worst day so far for him- and it's like you knew that, because as soon as he made to the cabin he was staying in, he received a letter from you, and it was heavier then usual like it contains something- toji frowns confused on what would his sweet angel send him.

his cock harden poking out his kimono, eyes dark as he clenchs your red wet panties, he looked at what you wrote in the letter and he shudders, wave of pleasure hitting his body, making his thighs shake and his balls to release his seeds, cumming- cumming untouched.

~ dear master.

I know that you have been having a really hard time so I decided maybe I should send a little gift of mine, sorry for the mess on the panties, I couldn't help but squirt on them as I imagine you being here with me while I fuck my ass with the huge dildo of yours.

from your dear y/n. ~

"little fucking slut" he groans out as he grabs the wet panties to his tongue and suck-lick on your sweet cum as he free his leaking cock stroking it hard- tugging on it fast.

his cabin was filled with his pathetic moans- his mind is blank, drugged on the taste and smell of your panties- he was filthy for you, so filthy that he places your panties on top of his cock- stroking his cock with it, using your left wetness as a lube, he can't help but jerk his hips up- to lost in pleasure as he spills his hot seeds in your panties, moaning out your name.

he lays on his bed- this was the best orgasm he had in those last two weeks, he looks at your ruined panties and slowly smirk at the idea he had in mind.

you stare at tojis letter and the suprise he left you- eyes widen as you take a look at the red panties you sent him- not even red anymore it was filled with his cum, clearly showing you a sign that he very much enjoyed your gift.

~ dear y/n.

my love, I was very pleased with your little gift, I expect you to be spread wide open as I make my way to our house tomorrows afternoon, don't forget to plug your sweet ass with the dildo. enjoy my suprise.

from master toji fushiguro. ~

toji came as he promised, as he makes his way toward the door of the bedroom, hands placed inside of his kimono- while his cock was raging hard more than ready to breed his little filthy slut.

and here he finds you- on the bed spread wide open, your poor little cunt was wet and drenched with your sweet honey, twitching- clenching around nothing craving the cock of her master-

you clearly came from having his cock dildo shoved fully up your little hole as he told you. such a good girl.

"my poor little baby did you cum from having this pathetic of a dildo up your little ass?" he coo at you as he strokes your curls out of your face- your fucked out face, you had been waiting for him for awhile now.

and his cock has also been aching for you for awhile now.

₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ end ₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ

[literalgrill]

Do NOT Support Hard Drive On Patreon

You might see friends today suggesting you support Hard Drive on Patreon today. You know, the funny video games version of The Onion? As a journalist, I will firmly tell you DO NOT GIVE THEM A DIME.

The CEO has pushed out all former staff that have built the site up to its current greatness and has been pushing the use of AI. The staff begged to have a Patreon before basically all being pushed out, but the idea was refused until now, when it will only line the pockets of a single person instead of hard working writers.

I know they might have provided laughs before, but Hard Drive is a shell of what it was once. Let it die and support the people who actually made those moments of joy possible. Don't believe me? Check out what former employees are saying below:

Kevin Podas: Okay you know what, I would feel bad saying nothing about this, so here goes:🚨SAVE YOUR MONEY🚨

We passionately advocated for a Patreon at Hard Drive & were aggressively shot down. The talent & people who built the site were pushed out. To see this now is beyond upsetting. For the past few years or so I put a lot of myself into this website. I pitched a ton of jokes, got over 120 articles published, & met a lot of great people. I'm sure if you've been following me for some time you could easily see this.

However, there is a lot of misinformation. I was eventually promoted to Managing Editor of the site & was ecstatic. Grateful for the opportunity. Felt like all of my hard work in the comedy mines was finally paying off. But things took a turn for the worst, & each day there were new surprises that affected our livelihoods. These were all very avoidable surprises, mind you.

A patreon was going to be our hail mary, but alas, for some reason, the power that be did not want it. Causing us to leave a dream job behind. "At least we did all we could," we consoled ourselves afterwards. I put a lot of myself into this project. I pitched all sorts of ideas that could have helped-- we all did. Merch collaborations, Patreon-integrated YouTube content, so much more. And most of them were shot down out of sheer stubbornness and nothing more. To see lie after lie spread, and multiple big publications and YouTubers that I am a fan of promote this Patreon under these pretenses is incredibly upsetting. There are so many receipts.

Please share this and consider pulling out if you've already put money into this. On Hard Drive using AI, also from Kevin Podas: I can't personally confirm that part aside from some of the recent header images for articles on both Hard Drive and Hard Times are being made with AI. As far as writing, it's been mentioned in the past, but I personally do not know. Maybe others do, maybe not. MORE From Kevin Podas suggesting the owner denying a Patreon being set up earlier cost an artist a job that was replaced by AI: We had a social media person who was awesome! He made the images until this AI implementation. He had to leave because ad revenue was low and a Patreon was aggressively refused.

Luca Fisher: at the risk of burning some bridges, i have to back up kevin here. i've only been part-time, in-and-out of hard drive since i got in last year, but i can corroborate that management doubled and tripled down about not hosting a patreon/crowdfunding and that many other suggestions and ideas, including mine (and ones much smarter than mine!), were shot down in really long, apocalyptic threads of everyone left on deck desperately trying to come up with ways to keep the lights on. managerially it has been messy and sad

i've written for multiple publications that have long since died, ones that were in the process of dying, and ones that, in this case, are soon to be put in the ground. it is sad and sucks every time. i don't know what could have been done differently, but i do know that a lot of great writers and content creators were left shorthanded and unhappy by the way things have gone. and it is sort of puzzling to see the sudden championing of patreon after we were all told plenty of times that it couldn't work and we should move on also, just to add my own personal two cents here, i was really disappointed by the shuttering of many different article sections on the site over the past 6-8 months. i understand cutting corners in a deficit, and i know it had to be done. that said…

all in all, i'm really sad to see this all happen. i don't fault anyone, if only because i don't really know enough about how this all can happen to make sense of it. games journalism is in a sad, sorry state, and will likely no longer be a thing in the next decade

VideoSealMan: I'm gonna say this because I think I deserve to. For months, MONTHS on end I was bugging Hard Drive management about a Patreon. Often I got ignored for a week+, but when I actually got a response I was encouraged to - of all things, write up a Google Doc pitching the concept I did it regardless. I wasn't the only one trying to sway management on a Patreon, but so fiercely was I fighting for it that last night, I was accused of making this comment directly by the CEO! With no evidence whatsoever! After I'd been gone for over a month.

I vouched so hard for Patreon because I wanted all the writers and creatives working with Hard Drive including myself to get paid better. When I actually got a response, the idea was often shut down. Eventually due to the state of my company, my pay was cut for a second time I confronted management alongside a couple other important figureheads at the org and told them that if we couldn't do a Patreon - I could no longer financially justify staying there. The answer was still no, so I left. Baffled at the decision, but whatever.

It is unendingly frustrating to know that myself and many other people who put their soul into Hard Drive LEFT because of management's absolute refusal to compromise on a Patreon, to then see them launch one anyway a month later and get over 1000 people pledging money. I'm seeing a lot of things float around about greed and people being fired. No one was fired. Everyone who left, left because they were sick of management's decision-making. And honestly, management is a lot of things but I would not call them greedy. (From my experience.) They did genuinely make an effort to pay people as much as possible. I found the pay very fair for a while. I am not disputing that I was paid what I was owed - yet management frequently feels the need to remind critics of that. Lmao, yes. I was paid what I was owed. No one is disputing payment. You did the bare minimum a business owner should do and paid everyone their due, very well done. I make no allegations of greed, cheating or foul play. I make allegations of poor management and incompetence that has fucked over other people.

Basically the only people left at Hard Drive have been there for about 2 months. They will reap the rewards of this successful Patreon I and so many others passionately fought for for so long. We will not see a dime.

I do not know the new people at Hard Drive, But I feel bad for them. They were haphazardly thrust into Hard Drive's workplace with little to no explanation on how anything works, or given any context on the state of the place. Even now managements feeds them half-truths and misinformation about other people's grievances. I am broke and have been for a while. I had to move out of my flat in Reading and back with my family because of how little money I was making. This has basically doomed my flatmate to moving back in with abusive parents, which is something I feel guilty about every day. If we had gone with the Patreon I worked myself hoarse over back then, this could have been avoided. Some of my other good pals could also not have been fucked over.

It was a bad judgment call, but it's not a crime. It's just management getting it wrong.

So should you give to the Hard Drive Patreon? I don't know! I don't think any of the new people working there to patch up the holes left by the recent mass exodus have any bad intentions. Maybe they deserve it! But it is not the same site you knew a year ago, or even a month ago. Myself and many people who were there far longer than me and did far more for it than I did are all gone now because we could not deal with management's terrible decision-making and dogass communication any longer. That's what you should know, imo

I had an agreement in place with management that I would receive the next 8 months of revenue from the Hard Drive YT channel from my leaving in November. This was a deal I appreciated, and thought was very fair on management's behalf. So far, the deal has been honoured for 2 months. However as of last night I was removed from the Hard Drive Slack without warning, and as an editor for the YouTube channel. This means I no longer have any way of verifying how much I am owed, I just have to take their word for it. I'm sure management will make their own statements full of half-truths and weird language on the many cases being brought against them - I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt if some of the screenshots I've seen of them talking about me are any indication lol

To management; I do not want to talk to you. I want you to DM me a screenshot of how much I'm owed every month and then send me the money per our agreement until June, then we can go our separate ways. Do that and admit to your mistakes, and maybe you can recover your reputation! That's it from me, lol. If they pull out of the deal and fuck me over I'll have more to say, but most of what I know is other people's stories of incompetence and poor decision-making, lol. I genuinely get no pleasure out of doing this; I do not think management is evil - I just think they're really bad at what they do and it's cost other, more talented people, lol. You should believe the writers imo

One last thing I wanna say btw, management did often stress that no one should try to make Hard Drive a full time thing. They were transparent about that, and that is fair. I was working on it because at a few points, I was lead to believe we actually were doing a Patreon. Many other ppl have similar stories of being strung along by management changing their minds and stop-starting shit every 2 weeks. We all made the fatal mistake of overestimating our manager - who would tell you one thing one day and something totally opposite the next week lol

Hunter R. Thompson:

I'm not your dad, but speaking as a Hard Drive writer, I don't know that funding Hard Drive on Patreon is worth it

The driving talent on the back end—behind the kickass site I joined in 2019—have peaced out over the years as the site's been (in our view) increasingly mismanaged. Mismanagement like, not setting up crowdfunding before the ship sank and all its best crew failed; or publishing a screenshot of Andy Ngo pedojacketing a trans writer, complete with her deadname; or a disgruntled ex-writer getting falsely accused of shit-talk, by actual staff. I'm grateful for the writing I've gotten to produce for HD (and will forever be kicking myself for not writing even more, in the four years I've had to do it!! i'm a dumbass!!!) but it is very much no longer the site I signed up for.

I don't want to resign as a contributor altogether, because I'm open to the idea of the site recovering and bad practices being retired as finances level out-- it would just be dishonest for potential backers to not be Aware Of The Circumstances, I think.

Jeremy Kaplowitz: i truly don't want to start shit, but feel compelled to say: i want to see Hard Drive succeed w/o resorting to throwing former writers & editors, myself included, under the bus. surely there's a way to save the site without building it over the corpses of those who left. my $0.02 i don't blame anyone who wants to sign up for the HD patreon and i support the website, but that includes those who worked on it for years, have complaints, and don't deserve to be treated like bitter assholes like this kind of stuff is just objectively true, meanwhile there's these new writers who joined the site after i left (meaning, in the last ~3 months) claiming people are liars. decide for yourself if you care, but this is what happened! [Quotes this Tweet]

Seth Finkelstein: Writing for Hard Drive has been a privilege the past few years, and it makes me so angry to see people I looked up to get jerked around behind the scenes. The amount of grenades the editors jumped on our behalf is immense, and I don't think the way they're being treated is right.

Other Bits On AI: We do know for sure however that AI art has been used by the site. Its fucking owner confirms it here:https://twitter.com/MattSaincome/status/1743040541603123622. Seems the owner pushed AI written articles as well! TayFabe: My vaguetweet is making the rounds & these made me apoplectic. - owner regularly lobbied using ai. Once he tested it & said ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. - ai images were used on the site & socials w/o consulting the team or disclosing it publicly I found the ai bit relevant to include bc 1) it illuminates a stark change in HD's current direction & leadership, 2) ai images have previously been used on the site and (since deleted) ig posts, 3) ai content fucking sucks, and repeatedly pushing to use it is a telling quality The "handful of writers who chose to leave" includes 2 editors-in-chief (both cofounders who wrote a combined total of >1,000 articles & defined the voice of HD), & at least 3 other editors. These guys put in WORK since 2017, so cool to be corrected by ppl who joined in Nov 2023 [Link to mentioned vague tweet from post.] More from TayFabe: owner continuously lobbied for using ai in every possible way. No one else wanted to do it, but he kept on, saying ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. Also, ai images were used on the site & socials without public disclosure or consulting the team.

The owner has responded now multiple times in a private discord... Thank you for people sharing screenshots! First Screenshot:

Kevin's Response: He banned me from the server for speaking out, so no, I didn't see it. And he gave no indication of a timeline, it was just "we'll do one when *I* say so" and gave every inclination he was totally against it. It bred an environment that pushed our hands to have to leave. Screenshot Round Two:

Kevin's Response: "Starting one in 3 months" is an absolute lie. He denied it, I have screenshots and others who can confirm. No timeline was given. Just "this is what it is now" and like, I couldn't live off of that. I wanted to do more but he was allergic to good ideas from others around him.

Matt, owner of Hard Drive, responds publicly on Twitter.

Matt: Kevin, the patreon launch was delayed because I didn't think it would work. Everyone is happy that it did work. Everyone who left the site because we didn't have money to pay for creative content which didn't revenue is welcome to return home. But unclear why the hostility.

Hard Drive paid out literally every dollar it had, then a bunch more, to creative people who worked on the site. When we ran out of money, we couldn't pay anymore. We did our best.

Kevin: Right, and my point of this thread was that it was completely and totally avoidable. This is reasonable to be upset about. How could I have been any more clear?

Matt: If we knew with 100% certainly that the community would have supported us via patreon, we would have done that. We didn't know. We had tried 4 years ago and got no support. We were wrong this time. We did our best to figure it out. We paid all the money we could.

Kevin: So you knew with 100% certainty this time? Or you took a leap of faith?

Matt: It was a last gasp panic effort after ad rates got cut in half on january 1st due to seasonal spending changes. We didn't know it would work. We were embarrassed to ask for support. We wanted to figure it out.

Kevin: Every site has a Patreon. Every YouTuber, comedy group, etc. But you insisted that nobody cared about Hard Drive. Which is wildly untrue. I know you see that now, but again, I think you can see why I and many others are pretty upset. A last ditch panic effort was long overdue. A couple more things from Matt:

It was about the size of the hole we needed plugged budget wise, the time I had left of personal resources, and the past data I had about us trying a patreon (which turned out to be a bad indicator). I didn't think the Patreon would help us fast enough. I made a bad estimation

aka "if we make $1000 more dollars a month via patreon, which would be 10x what we got last time, we will not solve any of our problems. If instead we try to plow down path B, we might make it out in time." That was the thinking. I chose the wrong path, but didn't mean to Kevin also retweeted this comment from the user Matt was responding to: So you're saying that you're bad at running the business, didn't listen to any of your employees until after they were forced to leave their jobs, and now you're going to get more of the money from the Patreon that was their idea in the first place? Matt's Response: Respectfully, I made a mistake delaying the patreon decision. But keeping a comedy site alive for 9 years is not easy, there are lots of potential ideas, and think overall we've done a good and honorable job. Will leave this thread in peace now to allow people their space.

Sorry for linking to Elon's hellsite (derogatory), but sources need links so...

[with-my-calamitous-love]

HE SAW FOREVER SO HE SMASHED IT UP

katsuki bakugou x reader

the times bakugou broke your heart

heavily inspired by mbobhft

1) the denial

“are we breaking up?”

“…yeah.”

“oh.”

his reasons made sense. he had a job, a goal, a burning drive to prove himself as the best. he was burnt out, his fingers worked to the bones. he couldn’t give you not just what you wanted, but what you needed. and that killed him more than it did you.

it made sense. the gears turned. the writing was on paper. like almost everything he did, it worked out. of course it worked out for katsuki bakugou- he’s the best.

it wasn’t all that set in stone for you, however.

he could have given you a million more reasons before the tears spilled. “i’m an asshole.” true. “i don’t treat you right.” fair. “you deserve so much fuckin’ better, [y/n.]” yeah, he was right.

but you always liked to challenge the acceptable.

at first, it didn’t hit you as hard as you thought it would. you walked through your room, too numb to pay mind to the tears that rolled down your cheeks, and silently packed up his sweaters into a box. the necklace he gave you, the ‘k’ pendant, came off your neck like a butterfly lands on a branch, knowing that its death is inevitable and doing nothing to stop it.

at night, you cried, and cried, and cried. you called him about 27 times. he never answered. he texted you to make sure you were okay, but your tear-blurred eyes kept you from seeing the keyboard clearly. you left him on seen and prayed that he was worried, prayed that his heart would explode at your lack of an answer, prayed to god that he would come over just to check on. suffice to say your prayers were left unanswered.

you thought he’d call. but he didn’t. but your soul remained devoted, eyes glued to your phone screen and hands shaking. he has to call. he has to tell you goodnight. he has to tell you that you’re an idiot. he has to tell you he loves you. he’s going too, idiot.

right?

2) the anger

if he wanted you dead, why didn’t he just say?

your heart burned for anger. for salvation. for revenge. you knew katsuki bakugou knew anger well, but he had no idea the way your soul flared like a whole new depth of hell.

you laid in bed, awake, eyes excruciatingly drive from crying your tear ducts may as well have been burnt off. memories of him haunted your brain while your fists tightened.

you regretted giving him your heart. your love. your late nights and early mornings. your fights, your passions, your 2ams and your smiles. you hated the way you let him draw the laughter out of you, how he showed parts of himself to you he had never shown anyone.

and those little things that made up your love, he was going to use on someone else. you knew it.

he was going to cook them his special fried rice his mom taught him how to do. he was going to teach them how to punch because he doesn’t want them to get hurt- something he did for you. he was going kiss them how he kissed you, love them in a way that should have only been you.

but he shouldn’t. in fact, he should look back at what you had, and regret every. single. thing. he did to let is end. he should regret everything he didn’t do to keep you. he should burn alive from guilt. scream. cry. fight for his life while his body is doused in gasoline. attempt miserably to tear the fire off his skin while it burned him to a crisp. he should die screaming.

he should deserved it, after all. because he heard your screams, and put his headphones on.

3) the bargaining

please. you wailed. who do i have to talk to? what do i have to do to get him back!?

you suddenly thought of so many scenarios in your head, scenarios fuelled by false hope. things you’d do to kiss him one last time, to hold him, to love him and be loved by him. you’d dry the ocean water. you’d turn stones into gold. you’d bring him to heaven and back. you’d get out of bed. you’d compromise more. you wouldn’t forget to kiss him. you’d love him. you’d love him so much harder. please.

suddenly everything seemed possible. if someone answered your calls, if someone made a deal with you, you’d offer up everything. you were sure you’d place everything on the line for him. you want it all back- his yelling, his snark, his nicknames, his attitude, his everything- no, your everything. you’d pluck out your own eyes for his red ones, or your heart for his heroic soul that loved you brighter than anyone else. being loved by katsuki bakugou was something you wouldn’t trade for anything- turns out you couldn’t trade it either.

4) the depression

everything smelled like him. your sheets blossomed into his sweet, burnt scent, the one that he’d leave behind whenever he slept over simply because he left you. all your jackets felt like his chiseled arms, wrapped around you as if you’d be gone in a moments notice. his voice was everywhere. the songs on the radio, the words you read on your phone, and the memories that played like your favourite movie soundtrack.

you wondered if he knew you couldn’t get out of bed. sometimes you imagined him calling your ass lazy, and then dragging you out of bed with a kiss to your forehead and a breakfast he cooked for you. maybe then you’d rip off the sheets and face the day. but right now, your bed was the only place you could mourn.

it was cruel, in a sense. letting you fall in love with him only to leave. letting you fall in love with his stupid smug smirk, his laugh, his teasing, his anger, his unreasonable handsomeness, his millions of pet peeves and trigger words, his clinginess, his distance, his days and nights, ups and downs, his hate and love all tied into one. he made you love him, knowing you would never get to love another katsuki bakugou.

5) the acceptance

acceptance was bakugou realizing how badly he fucked up.

part 2 soon!

[copperbadge]

So, I got tagged in a post, and I wrote a bit of a novel in a reblog in drafts, and then I realized that probably it wasn't for the best to post up All That Nonsense when the OP was just making a funny post about Wikipedia's fundraising. And it is a funny post! So I'll link here to the post and where I was tagged but I decided to put my thoughts here. Please take this as a hint to be respectful of OP and the person who tagged me both :)

I will say my initial reaction to seeing Wikipedia selling merch AND asking to be in your will was "Well, they're trying something." It's just such a weird topic to bring up, it's hard to be graceful about it, so I think what they were doing was probably the best you can do.

And the response did make a lot of the points I'd make about making a will and such. In fact, FreeWill is what I made my will with and we recommend them to our donors.

There was a study that came out a decade ago or more, so my numbers probably aren't accurate, but the statistic that knocked me back was that most donors who leave surprise large bequests (gifts to charity in their will) give an average of $17 a year during their lives. So there's likely a reason that Wikipedia is targeting users and not huge donors.

It's an ongoing issue that most people also don't document their bequests. By all means, leave money to charity in your will, they will be happy to have it, but they will be even happier to know ahead of time.

Perfect example, THIS WEEK we got a check for six figures from a woman's estate. It was an eyebrow-raising amount of money for us. My boss, who handles both "eyebrow raising money" and "gifts from dead people", immediately went to look her up in our database.

Which she is not in. We had no idea this woman existed. Never gave to us before.

Had we known she was leaving us this money, my boss would have made sure she understood how grateful we were and like, bought her lunch a couple of times a year, and when she did pass we would have known who to reach out to in order to offer our support.

Instead, he came to me and said, "I have a name and an address," and I set to work to find out why she gave and who we could thank. I found her obit, but she didn't die of anything related to our work. Using information from the obit, I confirmed none of her family were in our database either. I looked up her second husband, mentioned in the obit, and his obit said he died of lung disease, which told me that this gift is because she lost her husband.

This helps because I knew from her obit that they had a blended family; they didn't have any kids together but they each had kids when they married, all of whom are now like, my age. So we want to thank her kids but we want to make sure her stepkids, who lost their dad, get a specific kind of outreach as well. I told my boss their names and he said one of the husband's kids was listed as the executor of the will, but there was nothing (surname-wise) to indicate they were related. I found contact information for that person, and my boss was able to reach out to her. She didn't realize we didn't know about the bequest, and now she and her siblings are talking to us about their dad and their own health while her stepsiblings, whose mother left us this very generous gift, are getting condolences and thanks and getting to say how she will be thanked in our documentation.

And I mean, that's why my job exists, to fill in those blanks. We just...would really like to have told her thank-you while she was alive.

SO! The moral of the story is: please consider leaving money to charity in your will if you can, use FreeWill to make your will (they will also help you document your gift) and let the charity know you're leaving them an estate gift. Not only will you maybe get cool swag but especially if it's a concern close to your heart, you'll get to build your relationship with the charity.

[ihrthoney]

typing this laying in bed forcing myself to sleep but my brain wants to write so headcanon format it is.

thinking about ak!jason who has no idea that after his ‘death’ that you went insane looking for him. but you were no detective, you weren’t in the police field, you were just jason todd’s girlfriend.

but you damn well did everything you could, from begging bruce, to sneaking into offices, looking for nightwing, anything.

you taught yourself to use a gun to search places alone. jason would scold you for doing such a thing for him but you didn’t care, not when you knew he was alive.

you didn’t know.. but your gut feeling told you he was. a body was never found, nothing. you refused to believe it.

“you didn’t find anything? no pieces of his suit? no blood? nothing!?” you screamed and cried at batman, desperate, grieving.

“i’ve looked-“

“no! you didn’t! because if you did look everywhere you would’ve found something! all this technology and you still couldn’t track the location?”

“it’s not that simple.”

“right, because you aren’t the greatest detective in the world”

you tried to distract yourself with work but it was no use, not when you came home opening the spare bedroom door to your mess of a room. papers everywhere, maps, pictures, you would’ve seemed insane to any normal person.

you were exhausted, too many dreams of him in front of you but that’s all it was. dreams.

one night, you felt someone push your hair behind your ear. instantly, like jason taught you, you grabbed the knife under your pillow and went to slash at the intruder but the knife made a thud as it hit the floor.

a hand, gently, wraps around your wrist.

you blink your eyes awake, taking in the person in your home.

jason.

no. it’s another dream.

“you’ve gotta be quicker than that, sweetheart.”

you don’t speak, still taking in what’s going on. the light from the moon just barley shows his face.

“hey don’t cry baby, it’s okay.”

you back away, unable to take another hallucination.

“no.. this isn’t real. you can’t be here. i haven’t found you yet.”

“i’m right here, baby.”

shaking your head, you back into the corner of your bed, making yourself as small as you can.

“no, i have to find him. i have to find jason!”

“look at me, sweet girl.”

you can’t tear your face from your arms, so he softly pulls your face up with both hands, wiping your tears,

“i’m right here. i’m not going anywhere ever again.”

the closer he is, the more you notice the difference in his features.

the j on his face, the scars, but his eyes,

his sweet beautiful eyes still look at you with love.

“i’m so sorry.” you give in, real or not, you hug him.

he hates it, after everything he’s been through he can’t take the affection. but for you? for you he’d do anything.

so he lets you cry into him, squeezing him tight, even if he can’t be the jason you loved, he holds you all the same.

sobbing into his chest, “i tried so hard to find you”

“i know you did sweetheart, i saw the room. but it wasn’t your job to find me.”

“don’t say that, you’re the love of my life. i would rather die than stop looking.”

“you did good.”

“i didn’t. you still had to find me.”

“i’d climb out of my grave and crawl back home to you, i’ll always find you.”

“please don’t let this be a dream.”

“i’m right here.”

he holds you until the sun rises, rocking back and forth slightly. he’ll tell you about it all later, for now, he just wants you close.

edit: i will be making this into a fic later ;p

[ofbatsandballads]

turn me into something tragic

jason todd x fem!reader

word count: 1.6k

warnings: slight suggestive thoughts from reader, brief mentions of Jason being hurt

a/n: been listening to the secret of us by gracie abrams and “let it happen” just feels so much like what falling in love with jay would be like. so here’s a song fic!

divider credit: saradika-graphics

You’re in deep. You wish you weren’t because this whole longing thing sucks. But you’re here now—so it goes, you guess. It’s not like you have any other options. You can’t just quit your job at the Robbinsville Public Library because there’s a very handsome man that always shows up from one to four in the afternoon. You can’t uproot your life and your ability to pay rent because he smiles at you whenever he returns his books, because his voice makes your chest feel warm when he asks if you can put a copy of Emma on hold for him.

No. You just need to suck it up and stop thinking about Jason fucking Todd.

A remarkably hard task, honestly. Especially when he shows up at one o’clock on the dot as always. The weather’s pouring rain today, a clockwork symptom of Gotham winters. You watch as he diligently drags his boots along the entry rugs, careful to not track water on the hardwood floors of the library. It’s sweet. He’s sweet—no. You don’t need to be thinking anything about him.

He walks up to your circulation desk, unzips his black leather jacket and places the books he’d been keeping safe from the rain on the old oak. He always returns them early. He must be a particularly voracious reader. It’s a trait you find ridiculously attractive. He reads all these classic romances, so he must have a good appreciation of longing and devotion and soul crushing love and what would it be like to be loved by a man like that—God, you need to stop.

“Hi Jason,” you greet him cheerfully.

“Hi,” he says quietly.

His voice is so pretty. It’s deep but not rough, and he’s got that lilt that all born and bred Gothamites have. He’s so soft spoken, whether by choice or nature, you don’t know. But it’s a beautiful combination, his tone and inflection. You could listen to him talk all day. You do listen to him talk for at least 30 minutes of each day you work.

“Your hair looks nice.”

It’s sheepish and it’s nearly a whisper, but it’s got your heart racing nonetheless. You’d cut your hair over the weekend, wanting a change. And if you’d hastily curled it this morning before work in a vain attempt to make it look extra pretty, then that was for you to know.

“Thank you,” you say, face growing warm, “Oh, your copy of Emma just came in!”

You reach into the cubby under your desk where you’d specifically placed the book once it was returned by a guy named Dick. You had asked how he liked it and he’d just said he didn’t get why his brother enjoyed these things so much. You didn’t talk to him much after that.

“Took ‘em long enough,” Jason mutters, shaking his head and causing little droplets of water to fall from his damp curls.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Most times people don’t wait over a month, but I got the sense that the guy didn’t really like it. Probably DNF’ed it,” you ramble as you push the book towards him.

Jason rolls his eyes.

“Some people have no taste,” he grumbles.

“Your taste is incredible.”

You don’t realize how horrible that double entendre is until you see the bright red of Jason’s cheeks. Oh, God, your inside thoughts are becoming outside thoughts. You really, really need to reel yourself in.

“I mean–I just meant–obviously books. Your taste in books. I have no idea about your taste otherwise.”

Yeah, that didn’t help. You want to crawl under your desk and die. Maybe the little old lady who works the morning shift will find your corpse when she clocks in.

“I–um–thank you?” Jason says, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

He looks pretty when he’s flustered. You wonder just how pretty he’d look if he was under you all flustered like that. Jesus Christ, you want to gag your own inner monologue. You take one steadying deep breath.

“I’m sorry. It’s been a day,” it hasn’t, but he doesn’t know that, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

He pauses, shifts his weight from one foot to the other. He looks to be contemplating something of extreme importance. Then a resigned look crosses his face and his shoulders drop as he lets out a deep sigh.

“No, nothin’ yet. ‘M just gonna browse.”

And with that he’s off into the stacks. Once he’s out of your sight, you drop your burning face into your hands and groan. Humiliating. You’re so embarrassed that you’re jittery. You toss Jason’s books into the cart of returns and decide to make your way through the library returning them. The work distracts you from your own social suicide, as do the headphones you’ve pulled over your head.

You’re wandering along, head bobbing to the playlist you’ve entitled “book return bops”, when you encounter the source of your sudden emotional instability reading peacefully on the ground. He doesn’t notice or acknowledge you at first. It gives you time to admire him.

He truly is pretty. The cloudy light from the window throws shadows on his face, accentuating the sharpness of his cheekbones, his jaw, his nose. He’s like an old Roman statue. A beautiful man that reads, is kind, and is built like a brick house. You’re doomed.

You wheel your squeaky cart into the aisle and start placing the books back in their rightful homes. Jason looks up at you, a soft smile blooming on his face as he watches you work. Little do you know that he stares at you the same way you stare at him.

You glance over at him and see that he’s reading Frankenstein. You drag your headphones to hang around your neck and interrupt the peaceful quiet that’s settled between you.

“I need to know what you think of that book,” you demand.

Jason raises an eyebrow, gaze roaming from you to the book in his hands and back.

“It’s one of the best novels ever written. And one of the most widely misinterpreted by modern media. It’s a little infuriating, actually, just how much every adaptation misses the point.”

You’re in love with him. End of discussion.

“Thank you!” you exclaim. “First of all, the Creature isn’t green and bolted! Second, he’s not the fucking villain! Victor is! How do you create something, knowing every step of the way what you’ve made, then abandon it altogether once you’ve given it life. It’s bullshit. He’s neglectful and obtuse and utterly unaccountable.”

You continue to rant about Frankenstein for a good ten minutes, allowing Jason to make annotations to your verbal essay. In your literary fire, you completely miss the stars that are dancing in the eyes of the pretty boy sitting on the floor. If you did see them, maybe you’d realize that you’re not the only one with increasingly absurd inside thoughts.

“Anyways,” you sigh, “you’re the only person I’ve ever spoken to who gets it. So thank you.”

“No problem. You’re the only person I can talk to about it,” he says, voice going quiet at the last part.

You cock your head and raise an eyebrow in question.

“Well, my best friend isn’t much for reading. He prefers building weird shit. And my…dad,” he chokes the word out like it’s poison, “he just reads fuckin’ history books. Not even the good ones. He reads stuff like the history of semiconductors.”

You laugh so loud that it echoes. You slap your hand over your mouth, suddenly conscious of where you work. You’re still giggling as you sit down next to him. You look over and feel any of the air you’d regained leave your lungs. He’s smiling at you, bigger and brighter than he ever has before. And the way he’s looking at you…it’s not at all dissimilar to the way you look at him. Maybe you don’t have to stop thinking about him after all. You steel your nerves and dig your fingers into the shelf behind you.

“Well, maybe I could get your number so we can book club it sometime. Just so you don’t have to talk about semiconductors,” you joke, nerves coming through in the slight shake of your voice.

His smile grows even bigger.

“Yeah, I’d like that,” he says as he hands over his phone to you.

As you punch in the numbers, you swear that you can see how it’ll all unfold. You don’t love him yet, but you will. One day you’ll love him so much you don’t know how it stays contained in your body. You’ll discover that he loves chocolate chip cookies and you’ll learn how to make them for him. You’ll learn he’s ticklish right under his ribs, that the muscle that joins his neck and shoulder is extremely sensitive to kisses.

You’ll have bitter arguments when he comes to pick you up for a date with a black eye or a busted lip or a bum shoulder. You’ll have a vicious screaming match where he finally tells you what he does at night. He’ll vanish for a week, then come back to find you curled up in a ball on your couch. He’ll never vanish again, he’ll make a home with you. You’ll worry every night he leaves your side. You’ll rejoice with every sunrise you watch together on your fire escape.

Jason Todd will turn you into something tragic, into a love-struck, devoted, messy version of yourself that you didn’t know existed before he walked into your life. And, just for him, you’ll let it happen.

[satxnsupreme666]

Angel of life, lover of Death: Rio Vidal x fem!reader

Masterlist

Requested by: @midnight-lestrange

Summary: For many witches and many people you were an angel, a life saver, a light in the middle of darkness, even a goddess you had been called, helping and saving so many witches and humans, always stopping them from facing death, you were known as the “Angel of life” everyone knew that if someone was fighting for their life, you would be the only one capable of helping them not to cross that line between life and death, bur for someone specifically, you had only been an obstacle, always interfering, stopping her from completing her job.

“Death” or Rio Vidal, as she had told you to call her, had presented herself one day in front of you, annoyed that you did not let her do her job and collect the bodies she so much wanted, she started to visit you more frequently, until the two of you fell in love, one day after you were brutally attacked and about to die, you woke up alone and wounded, you only knew, you were supposed to die, but you didn’t, waiting for Rio to come back, she never did, you waited for her for years, and she never came back, leaving you heartbroken and angry.

After many centuries, you see her again at the witches’ road, would she be able to explain what happened or are you going to keep her pushing away because of your anger and pain?

Warnings: Mentions of blood, injuries, reader getting hurt, mentions of a near death experience

Word count:  11k+

Author’s notes: In this story reader saves Sharon/ Mrs.Heart.

 Hello, so this is again a requested story, it was requested a few days ago, sorry @midnight-lestrange that it took me 6 days to write it, I already had the idea of how the story would develop but I had some days in which I could not even get up from bed, however, I was able to finish writing this, and I hope this is what you were waiting for, it has always been a joy writing your amazing ideas, thank you so much for sharing your incredible ideas with me and letting me write them!

I hope this is what you were waiting for @midnight-lestrange ♥️

I hope you like it! ♥️

If you enjoy, could you comment, like or reblog? it would help a lot really ♥️

Taglist: @midnight-lestrange  @eliscannotdance

“Help! You have to help her, please!” Yelled desperately a woman in front you, someone had knocked several times at your door in the middle of the night and even if you were sleeping, you always attended to a call for help.

Behind the crying woman with blood on her hands and part of her gown was soaked with the thick substance, the were to other women carrying a young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, her chest was covered in so much blood and a visible wound, that happened to look like a bullet wound was right there, at the level of her heart.

“She’s dying!” You did not want to lose any more time so you let them enter and guided them to place the wounded woman on a special bed on the other room, you quickly examined the girl and the wound and using your magic you could see what the bullet had pierced and how many damage had caused to her.

You started to cut part of the upper level gown on her to get more access to the wound, quickly analyzing what to do next, you put your two hands over the wound, applying pressure to it, after a couple of minutes the blood stopped coming out, you took your hands off her chest and placed the bullet you had retrieved on the metal plate next to you on the table with different bottles, the witches that had placed themselves a little farther from you on the wall to give you space were surprised, they had tried it, chanting conjures in Latin to stop the blood from coming out, but it had not worked out, they have heard of you, that you had saved countless witches from their death, but they had not believed it was true, until now, their only option left was you and after seeing what you had done, they could not be more surprised an grateful.

You noticed the unconscious woman starting to move a little, and you sighed, she was going to leave, she just needed time to rest.

“You actually saved her” The blonde witch said to you perplexed and you chuckled a little.

“What happened to her?” You asked the two of them, looking up from the unconscious woman.

“A witch-hunter attacked us, we did not know he had a shotgun with him” She said with a trembling voice, you nodded and sighed again.

“Is he dead at least?” The two of them nodded, proud of what they had done, and you smiled at them.

“Good, your friend is going to be fine, she only needs to rest for a couple of days, but she will be perfectly fine, just, keep safe next time, alright?” You gave them one reassuring smile.

“How can we pay you for this? You saved her! You actually did it, how can we thank you?” The shorter witch with black hair asked you this time.

“I don’t need material things; I will just ask two things from you” You replied looking at the two of them with a serious face and they nodded hastily.

“First, you are going to promise, that you will be more careful when roaming around the forest, alright” They nodded again quickly.

“The second thing is, you are going to let more witches know about me, that way if someone is fighting for their life, they can come to me and I will gladly help, alright? We as witches have to keep each other safe”

“We will do, don’t doubt about that” One of the witches replied back at you with a serious face.

“Thank you, then, you can take your friend back with you, or if you want to let her rest here, you can do it, whatever you prefer will be alright” You commented while taking the bullet from the metal plate and placing it in the trash bin.

“We have to take her with her family, they are going to wonder why we still have to arrive” The blonde woman said to you and you nodded, you walked back to sit yourself in a chair next to the wall and they came closer to her friend, you saw the way they both grabbed the unconscious girl on their arms and turned back at you again to say something else.

“Thank you really, you are really an angel as they say” You only gave them one final smile and you saw a blue cloud smoke surrounding them, after some seconds they had disappeared leaving you alone in your house.

Yawning you decided it was time to go back to sleep, tomorrow you would have to go back to the coven, to gather some more books, you went back to bed, without realizing that a black spot on the window of your house had been there since the two girls had knocked on your door.

You were rather known amongst witches, even famous some people had said, always saving witches on the verge of death, always doing the impossible.

For you it was normal to attend the calls of the witches who had been attacked, were sick or had had different accidents, you knew very well that people could show up at any hour at your home, so of course you were ready all the time.

During the Salem trials you had had a lot of work, groups of witches arriving at different hours of the day calling for your help because one member of their coven had been captured.

Helping thousands of witches had been a common thing through all your life, every witch and many witches were grateful that you had saved them, but you were not aware that you were making the job of some else a lot harder.

A loud bang on your window made you look up from your book, and you went to open the curtain to see which had knocked so harsh on the glass.

You saw no one and burrowed your brows, had they moved to the door? But no one had knocked again, at least not on the door.

With a confused expression on your face you walked towards your door and opened it, but as no one had been there it only made you blink several times, had you not been sleeping properly?

When you were about to close the door, you heard your name being called from afar, and saw two women carrying another witch with blood all over her shirt.

When they arrived at your door you noticed the open wound on her neck.

“Help her please” You heard one of the women pleading you, with eyes full of tears, you gave her a reassuring smile and asked them to follow you.

They placed the girl on the bed and examined quickly the wound, and after many times of seeing and helping witches, you noticed the way the wound had some traces of glass around the edges.

“Where did the piece of glass went to?” You asked them while inspecting the woman a little bit more, you were sure they had been the ones that removed the piece of glass off her neck, but you wanted them to let you know.

“We removed it” The green-eyed witch replied and you sighed.

“When something pierces the skin, you do not have to take it away, because whatever is stuck in there, most of the times is preventing the bleeding” You said to them with a soft tone on your voice, they started to cry more, but it was understandable.

After just some minutes working, the girl on the bed had stopped bleeding and there were no traces of injuries, her breath had stabilized and slowly she opened her eyes, the three of them hugged tightly and you started to clean your hands.

“Remember next time something like this happens, do not remove anything, alright?” You turned to them and smiled slightly at them, before you could say something else, you felt a pair of arms hugging you and you chuckled, you were used to some people hugging you after saving them, it was something usual.

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“You have to stop saving every witch that arrives severely wounded” the sudden voice made you jump; you had thought you were already alone?

Quickly you turned yourself around to look at where the voice had come from.

In front of you was sitting a woman, whose eyes were brown and big, with a stare that made you shiver, you had never seen her, such a beautiful face and elegant presence you would have easily remembered her.

You tried to say something, opening your mouth several times, but nothing came out of your mouth.

The woman who was dressed completely in black chuckled and stood up from your bed, she then proceeded to place herself in the chair where you had left your book, she took it and started to read nonchalantly the first pages.

“You really are something” Said the woman after some minutes of silence.

“Who are you?” You asked her while eyeing the brown-eyed woman.

“You can call me Rio, Rio Vidal” She stood up leaving your book on the chair, she then brought her hand to her hair and took something from there, then she placed that exact same hand in front of you and when she opened her fist, you were greeted with a small black flower on the palm of her hand.

“For you, my lady” She said to you with a smirk on her face.

You could feel your face starting to get warm and carefully you took the tiny flower in your hand, it had been such a nice gesture that you had not totally thought about the fact that a completely strange woman whom you had never seen was inside your house seeming to be so comfortable to had entered without permission.

“I should not be giving you flowers since you only keep stealing my job away, you are stealing my clients sweetheart, but, I’ve been dying to give you that for a while” The woman in front of you said and she started to walk around the room, examining what was on the walls and touching the small plants laying on some windows.

“The one I gave you is not going to die, so make sure you take care of it, alright?” She turned her head for a minute to look at you caressing the small petals of the tiny flower and she smiled.

“Thank you… Rio, I will make sure nothing happens to her, but can you tell me why am I stealing your clients?” You said in a soft-spoken tone, you did not know there was another healing witch, at least you had not heard of someone with the same powers as you.

Rio then came closer to you, so dangerously close that you could smell her scent, it was a sweet scent, a perfume you had never smelled, such a sweet scent that made you inhale deeply.

“You are the angel of life” She told you, still you were not understanding, you saw the way she took one strand of loose hair of your hair and brushed it to the side, her action only made you feel nervous.

“People call me the angel of death, angel of the night amongst other things” She said to you while looking straight into your eyes, analyzing you carefully, her intense stare making you feel nervous, and even after you had an idea of who she was, you did not dare to say something.

“I have also heard people referring to you as Angel of the morning” You slowly nodded, you were aware of the difference names witches call you, and some other women that were not witches, but you never actually mind paying attention to all these names, you just kept doing your job.

“I need you, to stop saving so many witches, leave some of them to me so that I can come for them, alright?” She said with a big smile, waiting for you to agree and make her job a little easier, she then came closer to you taking the little flower on your hands and witch a flick of her hands she converted it into a pin hair.

“It will look better this way, trust me” You saw her placing her hands on your hair and a soft click was heard, Rio then separated herself from you a little to have a better view of the way you were looking.

She knew she had come to make a deal with you, hoping that you would agree to get her some bodies and souls to collect, but she did not actually mind if you did not agree at all.

“There, aren’t you a pretty thing” She said to you smiling, her seducing smile made you feel weak to your knees.

“Out of all the things that I have seen and encountered, certainly I never expected for death to come unannounced at my home to try and seduce me” An even bigger smirk formed on her face and without saying anything else she went to take a seat on the same comfortable chair, taking the book and opening it on the page she had left.

“You are going to have a lot of work today” She said nonchalantly while turning the page with the thumb and crossing her legs loosely, making herself more comfortable, you were sure she was not going to leave anytime soon.

You chuckled and shook your head, but before you could go back to sit comfortably, another loud knock on your door made you prepare yourself, ready to continue your job, giving one last glance at Rio you noticed she was really entertained reading the book on her hands, so you went to answer the door.

In front of you was a woman, a human one and you found yourself surprised, how did a woman, a non-witch had found her way to your home?

She did not seem to have any physical wounds but her skin was painfully pale, there were visible green and purple veins around her neck, the way she was gasping for air and how her hand clung desperately to her chest, these were signs of a poisoning, and it was clear the poor woman was not about to say something, it would physically impossible for her.

You went to help her stay still, and helped her to lay down on the bed, she was looking at you with such a desperate stare, how had this woman the physical strength to arrive at your home in such a bad state? The human villages were located really far away.

“You don´t have to actually save her you know? She is not even a witch” Rio commented without even looking up from the book.

You were not about to agree with her, even if she was not a witch, she needed help, and you were not about to deny the help to someone who had arrived at your house looking to be helped.

After several minutes, you had been able to stabilize her, and her breathing was normal, she started to clear her throat and you handed her a glass of a beverage you had done in merely seconds, she gladly took it and drank the whole glass.

You eyed the woman curiously; you still had no idea how she had found you.

“I came here to make a deal with you sweetheart, why would you not let me do my job?” Rio said to you while leaning a little on the chair, what confused you was that the woman seemed not to have heard her.

“Thank you so much, you have no idea, I thought I was about to die” The woman on the bed commented and took your hand in hers.

“She really was going to die; you should have let her die” Rio said again nodding and you tilted your head to look back at Rio.

“I don´t know how to pay you back, I thought you were a myth, we never thought someone as powerful as you really existed!”

“Oooh, a legend” Rio behind the two of you started to move her hands, you were sure the woman in front of you could not see her, and even if you had wanted to laugh and rolled your eyes, the crying human was still looking at you with a hopeful expression.

After the woman had calmed down and told you how she would tell the other about you, that many women on her village had heard about you, the things that were said about you, that many did not believe you were a witch but an angel, you just listened to her while Rio commented something from time to time from her seat.

After she finally left, and you advised her to be careful you closed the door behind you.

“Looks like you have some fans out there” She was grinning and you went to stand in front of her.

“How did you find me?”  You suddenly asked her, you were full of curiosity.

Rio straightened herself and seemed to be deep in thought but quickly she went back to her original position, her back resting on the chair and with one hand on the book.

“I kept coming here because there was this feeling, a call if you will, something kept bringing me here, the feeling that someone was about to die brought me here the first time, I saw when you helped the first girl that had been attacked, remember? The one with the knife on her stomach?”

She asked you remembering everything so vividly, you nodded, of course you remembered that girl she was one of your sisters of your coven, they always liked to taunt the men around the village that liked to get drunk.

“Well, I came because I knew, or at least I was sure her time had come, I had even prepared a long speech to take her with me, but…” She stood up from the chair and tossed the book aside, it landed on the table with a thud and before you had the chance to scold her about tossing the book, she came up to stand in front of you, her fingers grabbing your chin in a firm but soft grip.

“You saved her” She finished her sentence, and she lifted your chin to look for a second your lips, she licked her own and you felt yourself getting warmer.

You tried to remove your face from her grasp but she did not let you go, her long fingernails painted in black scratched softly your skin.

“Every time I have been here, waiting on that exact same chair, waiting for one of them to die, you always manage to save them, how do you do it?” She asked you, curious written all over her face and that was when she finally removed her hand off your chin, she took a step back looking expectantly at you, waiting for an answer.

“I don´t know, I just do what it feels correct” You simply replied and it was true, you also did not know how you were able to save them.

“Would you mind if I stay for a little while?” She asked you again with that beautiful smile and her perfect brown eyes, you nodded and she started to walk towards your room.

“Out of every room in this house, your room is the only one I had not seen, at least properly, would you give me a tour?” She asked standing on the door that lead to your room, she had that smirk that characterized her and you laughed, you were excited, not everyday Death herself would arrive at your house to flirt with you.

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You really loved the way Rio´s hands felt against your skin, the way she caressed your skin in such a delicate way made you feel so loved, even after some months of her being constantly near you, you were still afraid of saying how you truly felt.

Months of her being near you whenever someone came to ask you for help, to save them and stopping them from dying, Rio being there with you all the time, not minding at all, and always waiting for you to finish.

“It has been so long since you asked me to let someone die” You said to her one day when you two were laying on the grass, she was caressing your cheek softly, her being on the side of her body and you laying completely on your back looking at the sky, she was as usual dressed in black.

“I figured you were not going to do what I said” She replied with a smile on her face, and you looked at her with a shy smile.

“And I did not want to make you feel uncomfortable” She mentioned and you frowned your brows, Rio saw the way your brows contorted and put her elbow on the grass with her chin on her hand.

“My job is only to take those who are dead, not to be the cause of their own death, those are the rules, never to interfere in the process, only to take them when their last beat of their heart is given, only when their time finally comes” Her free hand came to your hair to brush a loose strand and placing it behind your ear, an idea crossed your mind.

“Are you going to be the one then to take me away when my time comes?” Your question made her tense, you saw how her shoulders visibly tensed at your question, and she quickly sat up, pressing her legs to her chest.

You did not understand why her sudden change, and sat as well, getting closer to her, and you took one of her hands in yours.

“What´s wrong?” You inquired, wanting to know what was going on, she gave a slight squeeze to your hand and looked at the sky, for a brief moment she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before turning her body to the side to be sitting in front of you, she took your two hands in hers and looked straight into your eyes, her brown eyes, full of concern, yet you did not know why she was so worried.

“I love you” Your heart skipped a beat, you had been waiting for her to say those words to you, that you could not contain the happiness growing in your chest, a big smile forming on your face,  due to the happiness you were feeling, you had not noticed the way Rio´s eyes filled with tears.

“I love y-“ Rio was quick to put a finger on your lips, preventing you from finishing your sentence.

“Don´t say it please” She said begging you, and you did not understand why she was saying those things to you.

“Please let me” You were begging her and she shook her head, she had fallen for you, so hard, she was scared, she was scared because loving you meant she would have to see you when your time came, and she would not be strong enough to actually face it, she could not see you die, she did not want to.

“Please let me” You begged her again, she the guided your bodies so that the two of you were laying again on the grass, she was again looking at you, looking at your lips and she leant in to get closer to your face, she looked back to your eyes and finally she nodded.

“I love you” You finally said to her, and she could not help herself, she pressed her lips onto yours, to capture your lips, it was a soft kiss, and the first of all of the many kisses you were going to share, when you needed to take some air you separated your face a little from hers and noticed she had her eyes closed.

“Loving me will only ruin your life” She commented with a sad tone, you did not believe that, and you did not understand why she was saying that, so you pressed your right hand on her cheek.

“Then, let me ruin my own life, I don´t mind, I love you, deeply, please let me love you” Even though she had so many thoughts on her head, she felt so contradicted, she could not deny her feelings, she could not help but be with you, even if you were the complete opposite from her, she did not want to let you go, so she gave in the feeling, pulling you closer to her, to taste your lips one more time.

The memory was fresh in your mind even if it had been so many centuries ago.

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“Where are we going Agatha?” The teen asked the older witch who had suddenly said they needed to make another stop right in the middle of the street, he had to hit the breaks so suddenly he feared his car would need some repairing later. 

“To visit an old friend” Had he heard correctly? An old friend? Did Agatha have actual friends? Or was she being her usual sarcastic self? At this point he was not even sure.

The witch opened the door and got out before closing properly the door, the teen went after her walking closer to her.

“Sorry Agatha, but with an old friend you actually mean, a friend friend?” He asked warily eying her slowly, she turned her head to look at him and squinted her eyes, deciding on not to say something back, she decided to keep walking until they reached a pretty house of two floors.

When the door opened you could not believe who was in front of you.

“Agatha?” The older witch smiled and could not help but get happy when she saw you, she had not seen you in years, you quickly opened the door fully and hugged the older witch, her strong grip around your body made you remember all the times centuries ago she had held you when you were completely alone and felt hopeless, she had been the one to help you come out of that dark place you had fallen, always making sure you had eaten and had drunk enough water, you knew she was known as the witchkiller, but she had been so kind towards you, stepping to help you when you had no one, when you had wanted to die, she could really be an amazing mother.

“Sweatheart, how are you?” Agatha asked you with a soft voice, caressing your shoulders and looking at you with so much softness, the teen could not believe what he was seeing, was Agatha really showing affect for someone else?

Agatha had been the one who found you wounded, she had felt sorry for you, she helped you to heal and showed you how to cast different protection spells, she had been your mentor, she was older than you and had taught you many things, she was aware of who were you, and only having dedicated yourself to heal others you had forgotten that your magic was so much powerful and could help you to do many more things apart from healing and saving lives.

After some time of being with her you finally opened up about what had happened, that you should have died and how the Death had made you fall in love with her only to leave you.

“I am fine, it is so good to see you again! I cannot believe you are actually here” You commented while looking at her with a big smile on your face.

The teen could actually not believe what he was seeing, how did you and Agatha had become friends? Were you the only that did not hold grudges against her? Even with so many questions on his mind, he was sure of something, you must be someone so special to have Agatha treating you this way.

She stopped for one moment to place her hands on your face, softly caressing it, you lent into her soft touch.

“It is really good to see you again” She felt guilty, and it was a feeling she was not used to, but when it came to you she left herself feel, after all, she had been your mentor for years and you had become someone really important to her, she felt  protective when it came to you, but after every single thing she had done, she had to leave or otherwise, the people looking for her would have gotten to you.

She still remembered that day when she had to leave, she had cried, she had sobbed so hard but the two of you knew you had to part ways, and even after all these years, she couldn’t help feeling sad about had things had turned out.

“I missed you so much y/n” She said in a whisper and you saw the way her eyes got glossy, you felt you own eyes fill with tears and you pressed yourself against her one more time.

How much you had missed the woman who had been the closest to a “mother”.

The teen behind you closed the door as quietly as possible but still it made you look at him, separating yourself from Agatha, you looked at him with curiosity and Agatha placed her left hand on her pocket while her right hand moved to your back.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude” The boy in front of you commented while rising his hands on the air, he was shocked Agatha was capable of actually treating someone with so much softness and respect, and someone who reciprocated the feelings, it was obvious Agatha meant a lot to you as well as how much you meant to the older witch.

“It´s ok” You chuckled and he seemed to relax, you had so many questions and Agatha sensed your mood, they still had some hours left before they had to get back to her house to leave for the road.

“What do you say, do you have an hour so we can catch up?” She asked you and you nodded.

“Let me go to make some tea, alright?” She did not want to let you go, but she knew she had to, so she took her hand off your back, nodding slightly, you couldn’t contain the immense happiness you were feeling so you threw yourself to hug her one more time before finally going inside your house to the kitchen to start preparing some tea.

Agatha and the teen looked where you had gone through the hallway and Agatha wiped some tears off her face, the teen was completely touched, she was a whole different person, a completely different person that did no seem to be the “witchkiller”.

Agatha noticed the way the teen was looking at her and quickly composed herself.

“Not a word about this, you hear me?” She then proceeded to straighten her hat and started to walk to the same direction you had disappear, he only nodded and tried to hide his laugh, after all it was not common to see Agatha acting all caring all the time.

The two of them followed to your kitchen and Agatha proceeded to sit on one of the chairs of the kitchen countertop and when you turned yourself around to look at the two of them you saw the way the boy was moving nervously.

“Hey, you can come sit here as well, don´t be afraid” You said with a smile to him and he smiled back, he was not afraid of you anyways, he came next to Agatha and you motioned for him to sit, he took the chair and sat there, you chuckled at the teen and Agatha only rolled her eyes.

“Do you want tea or coffee?” You asked the boy while pouring the tea for Agatha, you had prepared the tea for her just they way she had liked you centuries ago.

“I uh, tea would be fine” He said and straightened himself feeling a little bit proud for actually being noticed.

After you placed the cups for them on the counter, you also sat in front of them, you were feeling happy.

“So, are you going to tell me, what brought you here Agatha?” You gave her a big smile and she cleared her throat after taking a sip of her tea, she sighed and put the cup back on the plate.

“I came here because I felt you, I do not know why, but three years ago I did not feel you here, I sensed your presence, I wanted to come see you before-“ She took a deep breath.

“Before walking the witches´ road” You gasped and quickly took her free hand in yours.

“What, why?” You asked worriedly and you saw the way her eyes went to look the cup of tea.

“Someone stole my powers; I need them back and the Salem seven are after me” The teen could not be more surprised; Agatha was showing something more than just pride!

“Oh Agatha” You squeezed softly her hand.

“You came to say goodbye, right?” She nodded slightly.

“Take me with you” She hastily looked up to see you with pleading eyes,

“No” She straightened herself in her seat, you knew she was about to scold you like she had done several times in the past.

“Please, you know me, you showed me how to protect myself, you trained me really well, please nothing will happen to me, let me walk the witches´ road with you, do not push me away again, please?” Agatha felt conflicted, you were an amazing, incredibly intelligent and strong witch, but the road was harsh, cruel, she knew if someone would walk down the witches´ road and would come unscratched, that would be you, but she did not want anything to happen to you.

“Please, I promise to be careful” Agatha then sighed, and nodded, she would try to take care of you at least, it had been so long since she had seen you, and she really could not say no to you. “Fine, but you will be careful, I do not care that you are old enough, you will be under my protection, alright?” You nodded happily, the teen could not hold it anymore, so he asked.

“I am sorry, but who are you?” He could not believe it, someone had mentor you? And that someone being Agatha Harkness? You laughed at his confused tone.

“I am y/n” And his eyes went even more wide.

“Wait, are you the one that every witch called-“  You interrupted him before he could finish his sentence

“The angel of the morning?” You asked with a grin on your face, slightly rising your right eyebrow.

“It has been so long since someone called me that” Agatha laughed at the expression on the teen´s face.

“That is right teen, you are in front of a legend” She commented after taking another sip of her tea, the teen was so excited and he could not wait to ask you several questions, it would be a long journey, you thought.

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“She is not breathing! Can´t you do something?” The teen asked you with tears on his eyes, you were not sure if the road would allow you to, but you had to try, his pleading eyes broke your heart, and your heart also was breaking, you could not let this sweet old lady die because of something that had gone wrong, you knew what the song said “If one be gone, we carry on” but you had to at least try.

You nodded and pressed your fingers on Sharon´s neck, trying to look for a pulse, it was faint, but you sighed when you found one.

“Hep me taking her there” You quickly asked them and pointed at one neat place on the side of the road.

You only wished your powers worked down there on the road, you placed your hands on her neck and a white light started to emanate from your palms, Alice, Lilia and Jenn had worried looks on their faces, they were not sure what you were doing, they were not even sure if you could actually save her, they did not even know what was going with her, they had made sure she had taken the potion so they were completely confused.

After some minutes, the woman laying on the ground started to groan and her breathing came back, you sighed, deeply, and finally you felt yourself relaxing.

“Can we send her back somehow?” You turned yourself to look at Agatha and she nodded slightly, of course she knew, after all, you were sure Sharon was not a witch, so the rules of the road did not apply to her, at least not fully, Agatha went back to where the door had been minutes ago and you looked back at Sharon, her breathing was normal.

Everyone was shocked, how had you done that? Alice, Jenn and Lilia were sharing confused looks, had you just brought someone from death? Or had you only stopped her from actually dying?

“Who are you?” Jenn asked you looking between the woman on the ground and you, the teen placed his hands on your shoulders and looked at the other witches in front of you.

“She is-“

“The angel of the morning” Lilia interrupted the teen, and he pouted, he had wanted to say it, but Lilia did it before him.

“Wait, I thought you were a myth!” Alice came to stand closer to you.

“My mother even wrote a song about you” Alice said to you, you were aware of the song, you had listened to it several times.

“You saved my mother once, you saved her from dying!” Alice commented looking at you, you remembered that day, the day you had saved Lorna Wu from actually dying.

“Yeah, that song is amazing, is one of my favorites” The teen commented moving slightly to the sides, he could not contain the excitement he was feeling.

“So you truly are real” Lilia came to kneel in front of you and Jenn did the same, they all had heard stories about a witch who had been named “The angel of the morning” by humans, and the nickname actually just stuck, from many more witches calling you that, until one day, you simply vanished, no one heard from you again, you had disappeared, leaving your legacy become just a myth, a legend amongst witches and people, no one knew what had happened to you, vanishing with the wind, witches said you had tricked so many times death that finally you had been taken by it, if only they knew what truly had happened.

“You were the only one capable of tricking death” Lilia repeated, and your hand trembled a little, remembering the person whom you had fallen in love with, Lilia sensed your state and took your hand in hers.

“Alright put her in there, we can send her back to her small little house, she will be fine” Agatha said moving her hand in the air.

“We will be needing another green witch” Agatha said out loud.

“A real one this time” Jenn suggested looking directly at Agatha.

“Mi, mi, mi” Agatha responded her in a way of mimicking her voice.

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“For you, my lady” You could not believe what you were seeing, or more specifically, who you were seeing, in front of you was your former lover, offering you another small flower, she was moving the tiny flower on her hand, waiting for you to take it, unconsciously you took carefully the flower off her hand, and when your fingers brushed the skin of hers, it made you shiver, but at he same time, the pain you had thought had been completely forgotten, came overflooding you, the tears quickly forming in your eyes, and you decided to leave, you did not want to be there, you were not strong for that, so you started to walk to the other side of the road, holding the small flowers on your hands.

Agatha looked at Rio and then at you, she pressed her lips together and shook her head.

“Thank you, Vidal, you could not have done a better appearance, you better stay away from her, you hear me?” Agatha pointed at the brown-eyed woman covered in dirt, pointing at her threateningly, but Rio was not going to listen to her, instead, her eyes followed were you had going, and Agatha then flipped her coat and started to walk towards you, she was worried of how you would react or how you were feeling.

You did not dare to look back, too many emotions, too many thoughts roaming inside your head, you had not even notice when Agatha came to your side, taking your arm on her hand, making you jump, you quickly turned yourself around to look at her and your heart felt relieved when you saw it was her in front of you.

Before she could ask you how were you feeling, you threw yourself at her, hugging her tightly and pressing your face against her chest, she shushed you softly and started to make circles on your back with her hand, soothing you, she could feel your distressed, your pain, and she did not know how to help you to ease it.

“Why is she here?” You sobbed hard against her, and she for once in her long life did not have the answers.

“Why is she doing this to me? She left me, she left me there alone, you found me on the ground, dirt all over me, I was bleeding, I was alone, and she was nowhere to be seen, I waited for her for years, and she never came back” Your words were breaking her hear, she knew everything that you had been through, the state she had found you in, the wound in your chest and neck, how long it took you to heal your pounding wounds, neither you nor her knew why the magic was not working, why the potions did not work, why you had to wait months for the injuries to heal by itself naturally, she knew since the first months of your healing journey, that you were longing for someone, that you were always waiting for someone to appear on your door, but after months of waiting, you realized that whoever you were waiting for was not going to arrive.

The day you had completely broken down, you had told her everything, sobbing hard on her arms, since that day, she became protective of you, and decided to take you under her wing.

Seeing you again in this state as she had seen you centuries ago, made her get even angrier at the “green witch” that had made her own way to the road.

“I am not going to let her hurt you again, alright?” She whispered in your ear and you nodded softly against her neck.

After some minutes have passed you finally calmed down and you separated yourself from the older witch, she wiped your tears off your face and rubbed your shoulders lovingly.

“Everything is going to alright, ok?” She said to you in a reassuring way, and you nodded, you trusted in her.

The sound of steps getting closer, made you straighten yourself a little bit and Agatha game you one more smile before walking behind you to talk to the other witches.

“Alright, nothing to see here ladies, we have to keep walking down the road to the next trial, alright?” She moved her hands to show them they had to keep walking, Alice and the teen went quickly to place themselves to your sides and Jenn and Lilia started to walk slowly behind you, leaving Agatha and Rio at the end.

“Are you alright?” You heard Alice asking next to you, and you gave her a sad smile, the teen placed his hand softly on your shoulder and you nodded.

“I will be alright, thank you” You replied back to the shorter witch, Alice shared a worried look with the teen.

“Listen, I do not know how you made it into the road, but you better stay away from her”  Agatha whispered to Rio, just loud enough for her to hear, the way her voice sounded did not match her smiling face, she had a threatening tone on her voice.

“She called me; I just came” Rio replied with an angry tone on her voice, and Agatha could not help but laugh.

“Now? After all these years? What about the other times she called you and you never showed up?” Agatha hissed back, the two of them walking behind the group, if they saw them from afar, it looked as if they were talking friendly.

“You do not know what happened, you have no idea what I had to do, it hurt me more to leave her than you know” For once, Agatha was not sure if the woman next to her was saying the truth, but she could not risk you getting hurt again.

“If you make her cry one more time, I swear Vidal, I do not care if I have to fight Death itself to protect her, you hear me?” Rio laughed, if only Agatha and you knew what she had done to protect you.

｡ ˚ ︶︶✩︶︶ ₊ ˚ ︶︶✩︶︶ ｡˚

“A long time ago, I loved someone and to be honest, I never stopped loving her, I had to disappear from her life, I was forced to, forced to never get close to her, forced to stop seeing the love of my existence, not having the chance to have a final word with her, I did something I was not allowed to, leaving me scarred for eternity” She said out loud turning her head slowly to look at you, you could see the tears that were threatening to fall down her face, and you could not take it, you could not take the sight, her words, what she was saying, you did not want to accept it, so you did what you knew very well to do, you stood up, and walked far away from them, tears were falling from your eyes.

You were covering your mouth with your hands, trying really hard not to cry out loud, trying hard not to make a scene and show everyone how hurt you were.

You felt a pair a hands caressing your back slowly, and then you felt the way these hands on your back made their way to your lower back, suddenly surrounding your waist with a strong grip, you knew very well the owner of the pair of these strong arms, she held you tightly on your place making you cry harder, and without any more strength in you, you left yourself sob in her embrace.

You let yourself leant into the touch of the woman you had craved so much for so many years, you let the woman who had left you centuries ago heartbroken hold you into her arms, her soft touch against your waist made you remember all the times she had held you close to her.

“I love you” Rio whispered in your ear and hearing her saying those words you had missed so much made you feel suddenly a wave of anger.

You turned yourself around hastily and took a step back from her, you noticed when you looked at her, the tears running down her face, and even if it broke your heart to see her crying, your anger was stronger.

“You don’t get to day those things! You don’t get to say how you still love me! Don’t you see? Don’t you see what you did to me?”  You accused her, pressing your finger onto her chest, she only looked at you with more tears running down her face, she did not find the courage to say something.

“You left Rio, you left me alone, I was hurt, physically and emotionally, I begged for you to come back for me, I begged you to take me with you, I begged for you to come and get me, and you never appeared, I waited for you for centuries and you never came back for me!” You had yelled at her, the pain you had been enduring came back flooding and overwhelming all of your senses.

“Can’t you see the way I loved you, can’t you see the way I still love you? I love you! It’s ruining my life! You are ruining my life, I should have taken into account what you told me years ago, it could have saved us a lot of pain” Your words were cruel, you were hurting her, but if only you would let her explain everything to you, then she saw your sad expression changing into an angrier one.

Rio couldn’t stand the way you were just accusing her; she couldn’t stand the angry look on your face directed at her.

“Don’t you think I wanted to go back? Do you really think I left just because I wanted to?” You blinked several times, and before you had the time to keep fighting with her, you realized the scenery around you had changed, there was a misty forest, fog surrounding the entire place and to your right there was a shack, a shack you had thought you had left behind centuries ago.

“Looks like the road has the next trial ready” The teen said coming behind you, all of the other witches were looking surprised at the entire place.

“Looks like…” Agatha started to say thinking of the word she best described the place”

“Like home” You finished the sentence and Rio and Agatha quickly turned their heads to look at you with their brows furrowed, Jenn, Alice, Lilia and the teen, quickly realized the next trial would be yours.

You didn’t want to think anymore, you did not want to feel anymore, you just wanted to get at the end of the road and wished for this to finish, so before anyone had the chance to say or do something else, you walked straight to the entrance of the shack and opened the door, you quickly entered and were greeted by your old home, you were being greeted by your old life.

Everyone followed after you and entered behind you, their clothes had suddenly changed to the ones according to the era, 1700, where witches had their own black gowns, the teen looked at his clothes and realized his clothes were completely black as well as everyone, it looked as if all of you were attending a funeral.

You walked closer to where the bed in which you used to attend women and witched was placed in the middle of the room, and on the wall, you could read what had been written on there with what looked to be blood.

“How did you trick death?” The teen read out loud, feeling unnerved at what he was seeing. On the other wall there were more phrases written in red “You should have died that night”, was the same phrase that was constantly on your mind.

And you knew it, you knew you should have died that night, that  night were you had arrived home and some witch-hunters were waiting for you, you did not know how they found your home, but there they were, your things scattered all over the place, your books torn apart, the bed had been flipped over, the chairs broken and the wooden pieces were all over the place, every petal and flower Rio had given to you that were in different vases and pots had been torn apart, before you even had the chance to fight back, the attacked you, you could only close your eyes and felt the pain they were inflicting in you, you knew there was so much blood, you could feel your clothes getting wet with the thick liquid.

The door suddenly closed, with a harsh thud making everyone flinch.

You saw an envelope on the white bed in the middle of the room and walked closely to it, taking the envelope on your hands you proceeded to torn the white paper out of it and read it out loud.

“Something unfair was done, cheating faith involved, the blood destined to be shed erased, repairing what had to be done needs to come”

Your brows knitter together, not understanding, but when Rio snatched the paper out of your hand and read it again, she crushed the sheet of paper, shredding it to pieces, and everyone turned their heads to look at her with annoyance.

“Why did you do that? That is our clue!” Jenn said at her and Rio shook her head vigorously.

“No!” Rio yelled with a furious expression on her face, making everyone in the room felt silent.

“Wait-“ You said to everyone rising your hand.

“I should have died that night” All of the witches looked at you, Agatha and Rio started to get worried about what the road wanted them to do.

“That night the witch-hunters attacked me, I knew I was going to die, I waited for death to come to me, to take me, and it never happened, I bled, a lot, I felt asleep thinking I was about to die, and the next day I woke up, with the wounds still fresh, I tried to heal myself but I couldn’t, and then Agatha found me in the middle of the forest, she also tried to help me and heal my wounds with magic, but it did not work, I had to wait months for them to heal naturally” You said recalling the memories.

“Cheating faith, cheating faith” You said again, trying to think what could have happened, you had not done anything that night to try and save yourself.

“I remember seeing you” You said to Rio and walked closer to her, she had more tears streaming down her face, she seemed guilty.

“I saw you there, I remember watching you, you were yelling, but then you disappeared and I never saw you again” You explained to the brown-eyed woman, everyone in the room was looking expectantly at her and she found this opportunity to finally tell you what happened.

“I was there, the night you were attacked, If I had been there earlier, if I had gone with you that night to the village, if I had stayed with you or at our home I would have seen the hunters arriving, I would have stopped you from entering, but I was not there, I was outside, doing my job, when I came later I saw the windows broken, the door opened, and you were laying in the ground, there was so much blood, you were choking on your own blood, I tried to stop the bleeding, I tried to heal magically your stab wounds, but I couldn’t, I was not being allowed, I sensed the air, the air getting thicker, the fog forming around us, I had to do my job, I had to take you with me, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t see you dying, I did not want you to die, I knew it is what I should have done,  but I went against the rules, I broke them, I did not know what was going to happen, but I let you live” Her beautiful brown eyes were full of sorrow and pain, Agatha was crying behind you, the teen was covering his mouth with his hands, Alice could not believe she was in front of Death herself, Jenn had taken a seat on a chair near her and Lilia realized why she felt so unnerved with the presence of who they thought was their “green witch”.

“You saved me? From dying?” You were looking at her with surprise on your face, how had you did not realize what had happened.

Rio nodded and pulled you closer to her, her grip around you tightening.

“I could not let you die, I decided to let you live even if that meant breaking the rules, due to my choice I was punished, forced not to get near you again, I was afraid of what could happen to you if I got near you, and so even if it hurt myself deeply not being close to you again, I decided to sacrifice my happiness in order to let you live a peaceful life” The hot tears falling down her face made you wipe them off her skin, her words made you happy, they lessened the pain, she loved you, she never stopped loving you, finally you threw yourself at her arms, your arms around her shoulders and her own arms gripping your waist protectively, how much she had missed feeling you this close to her, your body against her made her feel complete.

Several minutes passed, you and Rio had not separated from each other, and even though you felt content, you knew what had to be done.

Slowly you separated from her to look into her brown orbs, smiling at her, she loved your smiled, she had missed you entirely.

“We still need to pass this trial” You commented, and she grimaced, closing her eyes.

“No! I am not going to do it!” She yelled, you had never seen her lose control of herself before.

“Sorry, but do what?” The teen asked confused.

“The letter said that what had to be done needs to be repaired” and when you said the last thing everyone understood.

“No way!” Agatha came to stand next to you, she would not let you die.

“Isn’t there any other way? There has to be something else, right?” Alice came closer looking at Agatha, there was no way they would let you die.

“Didn’t we all cheat during Agatha’s trial? There has to be for sure something else we can do” Jenn commented and stood up from her seat to stand next to Rio and you.

“We are not going to let y/n die right!?” The teen wondered out loud looking at every witch on the room.

“No boy, we are not letting her just die like that” Lilia could not actually believe what the road was asking for, it was simply not fair, you, a witch who had saved so many lives, who had helped so many people through the years? She knew the road was cruel, but never had imagined something like this.

The mere thought of you actually dying made everyone feel a pang of awful pain in their chests, Rio seemed to be the most affected one, she was not going to let you die.

You knew that was the only answer, so you let yourself enjoy the feeling of being back in the arms of the woman you loved.

“C’mon, we have to think of something else!” Agatha yelled desperately, everyone had taken a  seat in different places, you were sitting in the floor with your back on the wall, Rio was sitting next to you with her head on your lap, you were caressing her hair and she was touching softly your legs, she wanted to enjoy every bit of you now that you had let her stay close to you.

“What’s that sound?” The teen suddenly asked, and everyone lifted their heads to look at the ceiling, but the cracking sound seemed to be the one of glass about to break, behind you was a window with cracks forming in it. Rio helped to stood up and the two of you looked at the window, before the glass shattered, you pushed Rio to the side she fell down onto the floor and the other witches came rushing to her side to help her, a big piece of shattered glass was able to reach your neck, and you felt the thick liquid starting to go down your chest.

“Y/n!” Agatha asked while walking closer and slowly to you, she touched your shoulder slowly and tried to turn you over to have a look at you, Rio stood up quickly and went to check on you and was able to grab you before your body collided against the floor, Rio was horrified, you were trying hard to breathe, gasping for air, you were clinging onto her clothes and Agatha covered her mouth at the sight.

“We have to help her! Jenn can’t you make a potion or something!” The teen yelled and walked closer to Rio and you, Agatha kneeled next to you and tried putting her hands on your bleeding neck, trying to stop the bleeding, Rio tried to do the same, using her magic hoping her magic would be enough to heal you, but it wasn’t working.

“No please! I am not letting you die, I won’t do it, I don’t care about the consequences, but I am not taking you!” Rio was trembling with fear, why was the road so cruel? What made her heart ache more, was when she saw you still had the small flower on your hair, the same one she had given you when she first met you centuries ago.

“Listen I don’t care if I never get out of the road but I am not letting her die here!” Agatha suddenly said, her hands were tinted red.

Alice, Jenn, the teen and Lilia looked at each other and nodded understanding what they were feeling and what they would actually do, they agreed with Agatha, they were not just going to leave you there.

“I don’t care anymore, I don’t even know what is going to happen, but y/n is not dying here” The teen said and walked closer to the three of you kneeling in front of you.

Alice, Jenn and Lilia felt the same, so they also walked towards you.

“There has to be something else, there has to be another way!” Alice yelled feeling desperate at the amount of blood covering your chest.

They did not care about breaking the rules of the road, about the envelope saying that you needed to die.

“If you broke the rules once, we can do it, all together right?” Agatha inquired looking into Rio’s eyes, all of them were around you, circling your dying figure, but after they could actually think of something else, a door opened, you gasped taking a big gulp of air in your lungs, Rio quickly brushed your neck with her hand and there on your neck, there was no trace of any type of wound.

“What happened?” You said clinging onto Rio´s clothes, you could finally breathe.

“I am not sure, I don´t know” Rio replied to you still not believing what had happened, one moment you were fighting for your own life with a deep gash on your neck, and the other you had no trace of that wound, Rio did not care and pulled you closer to her body.

“You are fine, you are fine!” She started to laugh, she could not actually believe what had happened, but what mattered was that you were fine, that you were alright that you had survived.

The other witches were as shocked as well, they could not comprehend what had happened, how did the wound disappear? You were not bleeding anymore.

Rio separated herself from you and helped you to sit down on the floor, the next thing you felt was Agatha engulfing you in a hug as well, and you let her hold you.

“I am so happy you are fine; I was so scared” Agatha did not care about the others seeing her act this way.

Agatha pressed a soft kiss to your forehead before moving away a little and the teen was the next one that hugged you, Lilia, Jenn and Alice decided it would be a good idea to hug you at the same time, Jenn did not even care the amount of blood surrounding you, they were just happy that you had survived.

“Guys, the door is opened, we passed the trial” You announced happily when you noticed the opened door on the other side of the room.

They did not care at the time, they still wanted to enjoy the feeling, Agatha was smiling softly at you and Rio had not let go of your hand the entire time, she was looking at you with so much love, and was not planning on letting you go any time soon, she swore to herself, she would do whatever it took to protect you, and she knew she would have all the time to have a proper talk with you, right now, she just wanted to enjoy the feeling of your hand in hers.

Agatha for her part was looking at the ceiling in a more thorough way, and she noticed the way some of the colors on the wooded planks did not match the entire color, and after tilting her head to the side, she saw what was written in there.

-Leave behind all traces of selfishness, sisterhood defies disobediences, working as a unit will grant you openness- If she had known that what it would take for all of them to unite and work together onto agreeing for the first time on the same very thing, which had been protecting you, well, she would not have believed it.

 So, what tied together all of them was not the main goal of getting to the end, but it was actually you, one more time, the great legend of the “Angel of the morning” had saved many witches at the same time, she still had to talk to Rio about not hurting you again and threaten Death itself not to hurt you again, but she would have the time for that.

[all-purpose-dish-soap]

28 / 1.7k / soap soulmate au, part 5

...

Soap stares at his name where it's inked across your skin. You should be his enemy. He's sitting across from you, your interrogator in this dimly lit weapons closet. You refuse to look at him. But his gaze bores into you anyway, intense on your eyes, your lips, the cuts and bruises on your face. He wants you. But he can only have you once you've given him the information Captain Price needs.

"Tell me where Alejandro is," he says. "That's all you need to do."

A muscle in your jaw twitches when he mentions Graves' name, but you bite your tongue. You won't let him shake your resolve like he did in Las Almas. You should've killed him on sight.

"What Graves is doing to Alejandro--you know it's wrong." Soap’s gaze is steady. You're so close. He wants you so badly it hurts. "He's not a good man.”

"You have no idea what kind of man he is," you say.

"I know exactly the kind of man he is," he growls. "I saw what he did to the people in Las Almas. He called them dirty cops and had them executed when they said they didn't know anything. Innocent people. In front of their families. Their children." Soap's hands curl into fists on the table between you. "He's not the kind of man who deserves your loyalty."

Your cuffs clink as your arms flex against the chair. "You wouldn't understand."

"You're right. I wouldn't." Soap's knuckles pop, his voice low and dark. All his life he's waited for you. Now Graves--fucking Graves, who betrayed Soap and his team and tried to murder them all--is somehow the one keeping you from him. "I don't understand what you see in that bastard."

You say nothing, eyes trained on the far wall.

Soap's shoulders tighten. "You're just a tool to him."

"I’m a soldier. I choose to follow orders. So do you.”

"You're following his orders. You think that makes you a soldier, being a weapon? No. Makes you a damn dog."

You say nothing.

Soap grips the table until it creaks. "You think he cares about you.”

"It doesn't matter if he does or not."

"It does so bloody matter. You’re no’ some pawn he can just throw away." God damn you. He wants to grab you with both hands and shake you. To hell with this interrogation--he's got half a mind to lock you down somewhere padded until you get it through your skull that you're not worthless. He scowls at you. "You're better than this. You have to be."

Cold irritation seeps through your mask. "Am I?" Soulmate or not, he doesn’t know you.

At the look on your face, Soap's scowl deepens. He's going to kill that bastard, and he's going to do it slowly. "What about Graves is more important to you than the innocent lives he took? Does that mean nothing to you?”

"Orders are orders."

Soap's voice drops to a dangerous pitch. "Look me in the eye and say that.”

You don’t. You tell yourself it’s because he has no power over you. He can’t tell you what to do.

Soap crosses his arms. "'S what I thought. You're bluffing."

"I'm not."

"Bullshit. Graves is nothing but Shepherd's lapdog. Gettin’ paid to commit goddamn war crimes.”

"Shut your mouth," you snap. "You have no idea what happened--"

You stumble on the next syllable and go silent, realizing suddenly that you're looking him in the eye.

Johnny's a man of impulse, and it takes all the self-control he has to keep himself in place the moment you lock eyes. The pull he feels to you right now is overwhelming. You're in reach. He leans forward. Those brilliant blue eyes of his see all the way down into your soul. They’re just the same as you remember--eerily vivid, pupils blown, with his jaw set hard.

"What happened to what, darlin'?"

You shift, skin prickling. You want to cross your arms over yourself and clap your hand over the soulmark on your neck. "You don't know what happened in Al Mazrah."

"You were ambushed."

You nod, remembering that night of the mission. You've seen your squadmates die before. It's a hazard of the job, part of being a mercenary. But that night--seeing so many Shadows gunned down before they could so much as draw their weapons--it still haunts you.

"Shepard didn't know. It wasn't like we-- it was supposed to be a simple transport mission."

"It was a black bag op."

"That's what Shadows do. We take missions people don't like. Someone has to step in where you military dogs won't."

"Where was Shepherd when it went tits up, hm?" Soap's lip curls. "No air support on an illegal op. He left you to be killed. And now he needs someone to blame. It's not gonna be him taking that bullet. It's gonna be you."

"Captain Graves can handle it."

Soap lets out a rough sigh. Your insistence on Graves is rubbing him raw. You could have died on that op two months ago. And then what? He'd have never met you, only found your name later in stone on some memorial somewhere. The thought makes his chest go cold and his blood run hot. It could still happen. If he can't tear you away from this bloody mercenary work, you'll never be his. Christ. He can't let that happen. He won't. You're not going back to the Shadow Company. He'll tear Graves into pieces before he lets that happen.

He fixates on your soulmark again. Why can't he focus on getting the information Price needs? All he can think about right now is the scab on your lip, the way your pupils dilate when you look at him. Your body wants his even as you're spitting venom. The fire in you matches his own, and he wants more.

"Graves isn't here," Soap tells you. "And I'm not takin’ chances. You’re not going back to Shepherd, and you’re sure as hell not going back to Graves. You're mine."

You pull on your cuffs, hating the way the possessive note in his voice makes your stomach flip. "You don't get to decide that."

"Neither do you.”

"Isn't a matter of choice. It's a matter of what you’re gonnae do about it."

You swallow and watch his gaze track down your throat. He's close. When did he lean in? Why aren't you pulling back?

No, you tell yourself, you’re not scared. You’re in control. You lean a millimeter closer. "You can't keep me here."

His eyes brighten, gaze so intense it warms your skin. "Careful, darlin'. You don't want to throw down that gauntlet."

"And you expect me to tell you whatever you want to know? Fuck my career, fuck my squadmates?"

"If you weren't so damn dense, I'd--" He mutters another string of curses in that thick Scottish accent, standing from his chair and pacing the tight room. "You don't understand what I'm offerin’. You don't need them. You have me an' mine."

He circles around to your side of the interrogation table and kneels next to you, his expression an open plea for you to listen. You stare down at him with your heart suddenly in your throat. You can't backpedal. You can't look away.

He searches your face. Even roughed up, even pissing him off, you're beautiful. Damn it, he's going to do something stupid if he doesn't control himself.

He keeps his voice low and even. "You were expendable to them. You're expendable to Graves. You're no' expendable to me." He reaches up to you, and you go still. His hand is hot on your skin. His grip is surely strong enough to break bone. But only his thumb drags along your lip. His eyes follow the motion. "Your loyalty should be for people who care about you. I'm on your side, ya wee shite. Just tell me how to get to Alejandro and I'll get you out of here. I'll make sure you're safe. That's all I need to know."

You stare down at him. Your heart beats in your ears, and his pulse hammers with yours. You can feel it through his thumb against the sensitive skin on your lower lip.

Johnny wants you so badly you almost give in. He thinks he's telling the truth--that he'll protect you. But he doesn't know any better. You're not who he wants you to be. You're not soft. You're not good. Why does he act like he can see something redeemable in you?

Being his soulmate doesn't guarantee you a goddamn thing. Promises don't afford you any more protection than you've already given yourself. You know that very well. People aren't reliable. Soulmarks don’t fix everything. They’re just ink.

Whatever he sees when he looks up at you makes something cold and sharp settle in his chest. His throat constricts. He's pushing, he knows he is, and it's the wrong move with you. He's never been this desperate for anyone.

"Darlin'. Don't do that. Don't shut me out." His voice wavers just like his resolve. He'd protect you to his last. You refuse to see that, and he can't make you.

You look away, pulling away from his hand. "I don't trust you."

Johnny's stomach drops, and he digs his fingers into the metal chair to stop himself from digging them into you.

You want him. He can see it in the set of your shoulders, how tight you hold yourself when he's close to you. You want him despite yourself, and you still refuse. It doesn't matter how rational a decision it should be to accept his help. There's something else happening in your head that's keeping your walls up, and he's starting to realize it's not just Graves. It can't be.

He watches you for a long moment. He doesn't want you to hurt, but he's not stupid enough to believe you'll soften up and come around with time. You're a soldier.

Finally, Soap stands. If you don’t tell him what he needs to know, you’ll remain a hostage, and won’t be able to have you. He won’t accept that.

"Fine," he says, pushing his way out the door. "We’ll do this the hard way."

...

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / [part 5] / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10 / part 11 / part 12

more Soap / masterlist tag

[lustlovehart]

Dang over 700, that’s impressive congrats!

If you still have requests open, maybe we can see/hear more about Sebek? I love the idea of him as a swamp monster tsundere dumping flowers on MH! Reader and find him fun~

Summary: Humans are pests. They’re the reason Malleus has fallen from grace, and why Lilia is no longer in his prime. He hates you, and everything your job stands for. He hates the way you’re not like them. He hates how you’re too kind. He wants to hate you, yet he can’t at all.

Warnings: Tiny bit of Tsundere Sebek, He thinks about 💀 you (he changes his mind dw guys!!), Mentions of his monster crimes, Little tiny hint of obsession, Implied human eating, Sebek sketch at end!

Your feet are dipped into the water, ripples cascading off where the limbs land, tranquil and cold, the shadows of the trees just further enriching the experience.

The one thing that isn’t relaxing about the water however, may as well be the guardian of the swamp, who’s practically breathing down your neck.

“Well human? Have you had your fill of this sacred marsh? I will not have you linger here longer than necessary! I only allowed you in to show the true essence of beings like us.”

Despite what leaves his mouth, you have a striking feeling that he won’t throw you out.

Because, that’s the fourth time he’s said that, and he’s yet to drag you out.

Through the close proximity, you place your palm on his face, softly pushing him away in your annoyance, yet like a magnet, he attracts himself right back to you, finding his place in the area to be right by your side.

“I’ve drowned many of your kind, don’t push me away so carelessly…!”

“Have you drowned me yet?” He stutters for a moment, racking his brain to find a suitable excuse as to why that is. He stops when you lean back on the grass, looking up at the sky as you lay down.

But to your dismay, he finds one.

“My liege wants you alive, so we must do what he wants.”

“You want the best for him right? What if the best for him is getting rid of me?” You’ve once again stopped any retort on his tongue, your eyes fluttering shut. Your feet continues to dangle in his waters, breath steadying as you let the sound of dew drops falling into the marsh invade your ears.

In your slumber, you don’t notice the way Sebeks scaley face is centimeters away from yours, trembling inhales. You’re right. Getting rid of humans is the best for his liege, for… all monsters really.

His clawed hand reaches up towards your throat, his nails scratching a line in your skin. Webbed fingers tremble, he could, he really could…

He could help everyone.

…

His hand falls, his forehead falling onto yours. His skin is rough, but he takes care in placing his head softly on yours to not wake you up. His palm follows in suit, laying itself on your throat, cold blood feeling the warmth of your mortal body.

And your heart. He remembers reading about human hearts, how they’re important to they’re bodily functions. Without it, you’d die. It’d be easier than killing you himself. He doesn't know which is better, for himself. He could take pride knowing he rid the world of one more wretched monster hunter, or he could rest in comfort knowing you passed in peace.

Sebek doesn’t notice the way the plants have emerged from the water, taking hold of your legs. There’s a particular branch that caresses your face in a certain manner, one completely inappropriate for a human. His mouth hangs up, immediately ripping the wood from your flesh. He throws the twig away, his head turning when your visibly stir at the motion.

He’s not well versed in human care. He's read about it, but obviously he’s never acted upon it! His hands fumble, if he’s correct, one of the quickest ways to knock a human out is to hit them really hard…! But… He doesn’t wanna do that—

Ah, you’re asleep again.

Sebek carefully lifts himself from your body, water dripping onto the grass from his hair. He slowly backs himself into the water, the only part visible being his head, before entirely disappearing into the murky water.

He realizes something in the comfort of his pond.

He… He wouldn’t need to kill you if you just… never left. Neither would you ever disturb the peace of any other beasts.

Under that water, he ties a knot, petals floating above the marsh at his bouquet. As well as a hand, that drops deep down. A coworker of yours. He’s unsure why you’re the only one he’s not too keen on consuming, yet he can so easily do it to those you know.

It doesn’t matter. They’re the same. Taste the same too.

…

You awake to a lonely sight, Sebek gone from the scene. Though, your chest feels heavier than usual. You look down, and an array of different plants and greenery fill your vision. It’s wrapped in flimsy wood bark, moss tying the piece together.

There’s a note hastily inscribed.

Human, leave soon.

Even without reading the message you know it’s Sebek. You assume it’s from his human hatred he writes such mean words.

In truth, that’s part of it. You’ll never know the other is him not wanting to see the corpses at the bottom of his home. Or maybe you will. Especially when you notice a shiny pendant gifted inside the flowers. Assuming it to be a sweet gesture from Sebek you smile at it. Such a happiness slowly fades when you feel a certain familiarity with the necklace.

… You feel like you’ve seen this before.