#why was he talking about curing death? is he god or something?

[meowmeowsaul]

im starting to think house md fans are just lying about stuff that happens in that show because no way that doctor is just that horrible. but also the least believable thing to me is that house and wilson don't become a couple.

[one-idea]

Is there anything out there yet about a Nika worshiping cult trying to capture Luffy. Because there should be.

Maybe the crew comes a cross an island and the people are way to friendly. It’s giving Zoro flashbacks of Wiskey Peaks and he’s already starting to warn the crew not to trust these people.

But they’re so nice. Offering the crew food (Luffy’s sold)

and taking about a treasure hidden on the island (Nami’s all in as soon as money is brought up)

There are beautiful women who are more then excited to watch Sanji cook (Sanji’s suspicion is gone instantly)

Usopp’s with Zoro, always be cautious. But then they start complimenting the Sunny and Franky is proud to tell them about his baby and Usopp gets roped into talking about his inventions and then people are complimenting him(“come on Zoro-bro lighten up.”)

Brook is entertaining while Sanji cooks, both wrapped up in the tasks and the women around them.

Chopper’s been distracted by all the people complimenting him

The only people still on guard are Robin, Jinbei, and Zoro (no matter how much sake they put in front of him he’s not going to drop his guard. Not when the people seem really focused on his captain.

Robin is indulging the crowd but her eyes are sharp waiting for the Betrayal to come. It’s how she survived for so long and she’s not losing her crew.

Jinbei’s been around for a while and while he starts to drop his guard. (His captain and crew seem content to enjoy themselves, relaxing might not hurt) he hears some whispering of Nika in the crowd. He can’t pin down who is talking or what is being said but he’s not letting his guard drop until he knows their intensions.

Zoro is staying pretty close to Luffy as he watches over the rest of the crew. One of the villagers hands Luffy a drink and he downs it without thinking. And then he starts choking.

His hand goes up to his throat and he can’t breath. There’s no air making its way in. Zoro’s attention is immediately on his captain. Holding him up and trying to figure out what is wrong. The crowd starts to push in towards them and Zoro is quick to draw Wado Ichimonji holding Luffy close with his other hand and calling for the crew.

He can’t draw Sandai Kitetsu yet, she’s screaming for blood and he is to but he can’t give in to that impulse until Luffy is safe with another crew mate and they know what’s going on. It’s the same reason he doesn’t draw Enma who calling for the death of anyone threatening their king. Wado Ichimonji is protective of Luffy, loyal as Zoro and while she also wants to kill anyone who harms their captain she’ll wait until Luffy is out of harms way before demanding blood

The crew quickly gets between the crowd and their captain. Chopper quickly realizing the Luffy’s been poisoned.

Robin demands the antidote, already holding several of the leaders with her devil fruit ability. But the leaders laugh and tell them that there isn’t one. Why would they give him something with an antidote when they were trying to free Nika.

The crew starts to spiral at the first part, there has to be a cure! But then the second phrase registers. What do they mean free Nika?

Jinbei asks, more demands an answer. He can hear Luffy’s struggling gasps getting weaker and weaker and the whole crew is ready to burn the island down if they stop.

The leader smiles and goes on a tangent about how they have waited for Nika and they know he resides with in their captain. And that their prophecy says that to free Nika they need to kill his host.

Right now Nika is suppressed by his hosts consciousness but if the host life is put in danger, if he is about to die Nika will come forward and keep the body alive. They want to bring Nika forward. If they wounded Luffy then Nika would only stay in command until the wound healed. But an incurable poison. Nika will be in control for the rest of time. The sun god will return. And all it will cost is the life of their captain. They should be honored that they get to witness this glorious moment.

The strawhats are losing their minds. They can’t be serious. That’s not how devil fruits work. If they don’t give them the antidote right now they will all die!

Jinbei cuts through all the yelling and tells them they are wrong. He’s seen Luffy at deaths door before and Nika didn’t awaken.

But just as he finishes his sentence. Luffy’s body spasms and he goes rigid before his body goes lax and he fall deathly still. Zoro still has a hold of him and has to witness/feel the whole event as he called out “Luffy!” Alerting the rest of the crew.

For a moment everything is still. Then Luffy’s eyes snap back open but they are a different color. His hair turns stark white, his clothing changes as well. But it’s not like Wano. There is no laughter, no Joy. And isn’t it haunting to look at joyless Joyboy.

He rise up out of Zoro’s hold. He barly looks at his crew and when he does there is no warmth in his eyes.

This is a god that is furious at his host just being taken from him.

This is my base idea. From here I think I would have the crew go on a quest to find a cure for Luffy.

All the while Nika is standing there in Luffy’s place once they leave the island Nika is back to being Joyfull but it’s different from Luffy. They have to stop the god from running off (how do you contain freedom?) he’s laughing and bouncing around but he’s not Luffy. He knows all of them because Luffy thinks of them none stop but it’s that second degree of knowing someone, like meeting a friend of a friend. All of the warmth and love Luffy shows his crew is missing because Nika isn’t Luffy.

[imaniwriting]

Season 2 rafe when he has to leave his love reader to go live somewhere else because if wards 'death' and so he calls insomnia!reader at night and talks with her ti make her go to sleep and the pouges listen in on there conversation because they were accidentally hiding in his room?? Sorry if it doesn't make sense 😭

(Some requests got deleted and i don't remember them well enough to still write the imagine)

𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 (requests are open)

Warnings : swearing

Summary : when rafe left, you realized that it wasn’t the pills that cured your insomnia it was rafe

Genre : fluff

Ever since rafe left you could not sleep. It wasn’t that you weren’t tired, no rather the opposite every part of your body begged for rest but your brain didn’t grant those wishes.

Only now had you realized that Rafe was the reason you slept so good. The way his arms were wrapped around you or the way you were close enough to hear his heart beat was the reason you could sleep.

But now all these things were gone, his scent, his kisses, his hugs maybe never coming back. You hit your head against the pillow hoping that maybe something in your head would move and you would fall asleep. But it didn’t and you were left to stare at the ceiling.

Then your phone started ringing making you flinch since it was so quiet only the sound of the waves hitting shore. “Fucking hell” you groaned sitting up in your queen sized bed.

You picked up your phone and put on your glasses the one you only used when it was night since you didn't like the way you looked with them.

You picked up the call with a smile after seeing the callers id and not long after Rafe’s face popped up on the screen “hi” you breathed out after seeing him smile at you through the screen.

“You have your glasses on!” He exclaimed laughing when you just stared at him he apologized and stared at you through the screen. “God i fucking miss you already.” He admitted he would never do so in front of anybody else but you were different.

“He’s whipped” whispered JJ from his place in the walk in closet the pouges all were stuffed into when they saw rafe entering the room. Sarah nodded she knew her brother he would never in a thousand years admit affection for someone.

“So what are you doing Mr. Cameron why are you still awake? You asked curiously while laying back down on her bed. Rafe shook his head “im awake because i know you can’t sleep and that you most likely wont until i help you to” he explained getting comfortable on his bed.

“Well i would love to tell you, you are wrong but sadly you aren’t.” You replied sighing. ”didn't know y/n needed help sleeping” john b piped up leaning his head against the wall. Even though he was nervous about the whole being in Rafe Cameron’s closet thing he found it quite amusing.

“Did you at least try and take your pill’s?” He asked softly seeing the tired look on her face. “You just want me to fucking tell you that I can’t sleep without you do you Rafe?”

“Maybe” he said smiling slightly you were the only person that could read him. You let out a yawn which made Rafe smile harder he knew that this was the first stage now he only had to tell you random stories about his life before you and you’ll sleep.

”dude this is actually impressive” whispered Pope making JJ frown at him “what the fact that she starts getting tired?” He asked making pope shake his head “well not exactly that but it takes a lot to make a insomniac sleepy by just talking to them” he explained

“Baby, how was your day?” You asked running your hand through your hair. And with that Rafe started talking about how he missed you and how his day looked like without you. At the end you were fast asleep and the pouges were also trying not to fall asleep. It was after all almost 3 am.

“Good night baby i have to take care of something” rafe whispered hanging up and then he stood up walking over to the walk in closet already knowing what was waiting on him on the other side.

[atopvisenyashill]

@amethyinst wait let’s TALK ABOUT IT bc everything you’re saying is CORRECT and OBVIOUS, and i wasn’t expecting it to be SO OBVIOUS and YET i feel like it gets really glossed over!

the “harsh journey across barren wasteland” thing is practically jumping off the page here, down to bran losing rickon & osha early in the journey and dany losing doreah early in hers, & the kicking off point being a fight between several factions of what’s left of drogo’s khalasar & dany’s, and the final sack of Winterfell being this kind of three way issue between what’s left of the iron islanders, the stark loyalists theon left alive, & ramsay. dany & bran really escape death here through like, oodles of luck and quick thinking from the people around them.

but ALSO you have dany currently on the dothraki sea and bran in the far north, and both of them are just kind of looking away when meat of a questionable source is given to them. and i think there’s something more here, in that dany shows up to qarth & it’s an oasis in the sea, only every door is shut in her face and the warlocks are there ~lurking. meanwhile you have bran showing up to the far north hoping for a miracle cure to his legs and to get all the magical answers he seeks only to get some very shitty answers from the cotf while bloodraven is ~lurking. this is why i think there’s a chance bran is leaving the cave p quickly in twow - like dany in the dothraki sea, he’s going to have an extended journey where it’s just him (and maybe Summer) using his warging abilities and trying to get his body to the wall. probably doing a lot of reflecting, and possibly learning the wrong lesson as he reflects!

and there’s a lot between hotu & the cave too - learning the old gods are just greenseers, seeing with his own eyes that the first men sacrificed people to fuel their magic, seeing his father talking about jon, seeing lyanna & benjen spar. meanwhile dany is having visions that include her brother talking about tptwp, her father yelling to burn everyone,and the “false wizards” who try to trick her. both of them being shown but not quite processing that all their visions are linked to their own history. there’s the elusive, suspicious way the warlocks & quaithe speak with dany, always in riddles, and bloodraven is equally suspicious and cagey. but they’re both learning, they’re both progressing in their magic, and they’re both really struggling with placing where ~the line is morally when it comes to how they use their magic - but look at their mentors lmao, they have the world’s shadiest teachers.

and YEAH everyone loves to talk about the targaryen connection & jon and dany both being born towards the end of the rebellion, but i think it’s glossed over that both dany & bran are kinda In The Shit when their parents get murdered during a succession war and have to go underground or get killed. dany’s fondest memories are the ones from when she’s bran’s age and younger, with willem darry there to care for her (like the ONLY capable adult she ever interacts with 😭). and you have osha, who like willem darry isn’t really a sworn sword type, they’re just very loyal people who were close at hand and did what they could for the children in their care. there’s something that links them when it comes to, idk exactly how to phrase it, but physical trauma & their magic coming in, basically. both of their childhoods whittling their support systems down until they’re alone - only when they’ve experienced physical traumas & lost everything can they access magic on a stronger scale. and the fact that they both reach for it sooo readily! jon doesn’t want anything to do with it, he’s spent nearly every book actively running from it, but dany and bran turn right into the arms of their magic as a refuge.

they’re also just both clearly the prophecy children lol no offense to jon (or tyrion for that matter) but i think even IF jon or tyrion or aegon (or euron 💀) manage to get a dragon, the capital p Prophecy Children are dany & bran as the last dragon and the last greenseer. and they’re so much THERE too - bran looks like an andal & dreamt more ~andal-ish dreams but inherits the legacy of the first men’s magic after being disabled and socially de masculinized bc of that disability, while dany looks a consummate valyrian but she’s a girl and inherits the mantle of last dragon after every man in her line fails. everyone wants to be THEM but they are the only ones capable of that power - and that’s a good thing but also a very bad thing.

[pillow-anime-talk]

reaction to his s/o’s death.

request: hi! how would moriarty the patriot characters react to his girlfriends death? sorry my english is bad becaues it’s not my language. if you don’t want to do it, dont do. have a nice day/evening😁

# tags: headcanons; current relationships; romance; drama; angst; death and blood mention; pregnancy and cancer mention too; suggestive

includes: female reader ft. sherlock holmes, jack renfield, james bond, fred porlock, george lestrade {mtp}

author’s note: hiii, thank you so much!

— SHERLOCK

↘ Your death was sudden. Sherlock was not prepared for it at all. He wanted to spend time with you that day at your favorite cafe on the corner of one of London’s streets. He wanted to eat apple pie with you, drink some coffee or tea with honey, and at the end take a walk along the park, talking about plans for the coming weeks.

↘ Your smiling face and eyes full of love, which shone even more at the sight of sweets, were muffled after a short while by the screams of the barista and customers, as well as gunshots, probably the most ordinary pistol. This day was going to be great, but it ended with a shooting by a madman.

↘ The sight of your body covered in blood and your blurred eyes was something indescribable to the man. After everything, the only question left was: Why didn’t he take you somewhere else? The feeling of guilt overwhelmed Sherlock Holmes like nothing else.

— JACK

↘ Just a few hours earlier, you were teasing each other about what to have for dinner, and a little after five in the evening, when you and your dog went for a short walk around the tenements, Jack heard many screams. He quickly put the newspaper he was reading on the table next to his cup of coffee, and then went to the huge window to see what had happened.

↘ The man could only see the galloping horse, the driver shouting incomprehensible words to God, your dog – Sharon – curled up under… you lying in a pool of blood, dirt and mud.

↘ That was when Jack cried for the first time in ten years, since your wedding.

— JAMES

↘ Together with James and William, you went to fulfill a mission; it was a simple task. Talk to the suspect, make a deal, possibly admit guilt and consider the punishment for the sins that the person was supposed to have committed.

↘ At first, everything was going well. Harold Stein, a German who came to London five years ago, was a human trafficker, who he brought from Germany. Pimping was a huge crime, so the three of you decided that there was no other punishment for the man than to hand him over to the police. And it was probably these words caused him to become so furious and disapproving. In an instant, the flash of a knife was within your sight. You quickly jumped away from the criminal, and then, with the will to fight, you wanted to stop him by saying that nothing would improve his situation.

↘ Your good spirit and aversion to aggression caused the knife to move towards you in an instant, and the next thing you felt was cold in your hands and toes. Looking down at the knife stuck straight into your chest, you just laughed. Flying bullets, fights, and poison had never defeated you… it was just a knife. Seeing this, James went into a rage, and even the calm and powerful William couldn’t stop him.

— FRED

↘ Fred understood the concept of death, he had dealt with it for a very long time, especially working for the Moriarty brothers.

↘ However, he never understood and never would understand the concept of the death of someone close to him, beloved, so precious. You were so young, so beautiful and had your whole life ahead of you; you wanted to write, sing, dance ballet, you wanted to open your own café, start a family with Fred in the future, have a pet and a garden where you would grow your favorite vegetables for salads or dinners. And yet cancer, for which a cure had not yet been invented, took you away from Fred in half a year.

↘ And although he had seen your life fading away for the last six months, at the funeral he could not hold back his tears and emotions; even Louis, even his mother, even God himself could not calm his suffering soul or soothe the longing that was visible in his gaze when he kissed your forehead for the last time in the coffin before placing it in the grave.

— GEORGE

↘ To George, you were a real princess, real Queen. And when you got pregnant with your first child, your husband couldn’t have been happier; a beloved woman, a home together, a long-awaited baby that would bear his surname, and also plans for the future like a secure old age and a group of grandchildren around the two of you sitting in old armchairs. Could it have been more beautiful?

↘ It certainly could have been... different. George had many enemies, but when you entered a relationship with him, you knew what to expect. So for five years you lived quietly, not sticking your neck out too much, enjoying being his life partner and future mother. However, everything changed on that one rainy night, when your beloved stayed at work longer than usual, wanting to finish some paperwork. And that’s when someone broke into your apartment. At first, they took what seemed valuable and expensive; your necklace, pocket watch, a bottle of red dry wine, a cigar, your grandmother’s rings, and also gold in small bars. And you would probably have survived that night if not for the instinct that told you to wake up and check if your husband had already returned.

↘ Instead of George, however, you saw a stranger who, upon seeing you, immediately attacked you with a vase standing on the dresser. In a moment, you found yourself on the floor with a terrible headache and spots before your eyes. The only thing you could think about was your husband and child in your belly. Unfortunately, your beloved returned too late and the sight he found was worse than all the nightmares he had dreamed of throughout his life. Guilt, anger, sadness, mourning, a desire for revenge… And in all of this, emptiness and loneliness...

[asurius]

Wukong used to trick people into coming onto his mountain by transforming into something they want and then eating them…

…There’s a sitcom just waiting to happen there with a frequent traveler who just will not fall for anything he transforms into.

Handsome man? Nope. Ok fine, that’s fine. He’ll get them next time as a beautiful woman!

Nooope. Didn’t fall for that either. Well shit. Ok. Maybe they’ll feel the need to help a small helpless child!

Nope. No. Didn’t even glance at them. Wow ok. Gotta respect the ruthlessness, but that doesn’t help him. Ooh maybe material goods!

A beautiful silk outfit way out of their budget? Nope.

Jewels and necklaces? Nope.

A literal chest filled with gold. NO.

One time the traveler passes by and he’s just transformed and he’s raging about how this one for sure is going to be able to fool them and.

“Is uh. Is this a bad time?”

“JUST GO.”

“Oh alright then, hey chin up I’m sure you’ll get me next time!”

“DON’T PATRONIZE ME.”

Wukong knows he could just kill them at anytime but that would mean they win. And he can’t have that. He’s going to trick them to coming on to the mountain one way or another!

It becomes more like a game than anything. He and the traveler actually do talk a good bit, with the traveler always on the road and not leaving it and Wukong trying to find any excuse to convince them to just step off the path onto the mountain. Wukong is fishing for hints about what he could use to fool them and the traveler likes to hear about what the rest of the mountain is like and Wukong realizes he actually likes talking to them a good deal.

The other monkeys on the mountain start taking a liking to the traveler too after awhile (mostly the younger ones who don’t know any better) and befriend them because hey this human keeps being ‘allowed’ to pass by so they’re cool right?

Wukong has to toss in the hat at that point because DAMNIT he’s not gonna make the little Suns sad. (Plus he sorta likes them too it’s really not often that he meets someone so otherwise powerless who manages to evade him but he’ll take it to his nonexistent GRAVE before he admits it) So he gives out a warning to the other demons on the mountain that this human is cool, they get a pass so don’t mess with them.

So all is well but then two things could happen here, either the traveler stops coming by the mountain or they actually do come up the mountain.

If they stop showing up then Sun Wukong actually gets annoyed because what the hell! He just gave them special privileges and now they’re not gonna use them? RUDE. No no they are going to use them and that’s FINAL. He makes it a point to track down the traveler and convince them to come back one way or another.

If another demon has captured them because they thought they could use them then they are getting an ass whooping because that is HIS human how dare you.

If the traveler is sick or gods forbid, died? He is PISSED. No no they did not survive all that time with him just to be brought down by something else!

If it’s a sickness then he is searching high and low, and will raid the celestial realm for a cure if he has to, because that is NOT how he loses his human.

But if they died due to something else like a bandit attack or something else? Oh those bandits, demons, or whatever else it was is DEAD. Worse than dead. And he grieves for longer than he wants to admit.

However, if his traveler stops coming by the mountain because of say…an arranged marriage or something like that? Big oof for the wedding party. Because he’s taking his traveler bride/groom. He didn’t give them permission to get MARRIED. And he’s definitely not letting them marry someone else! This of all the non-sickness/death related reasons pisses him off the most though he’s not sure why initially. But the idea of them being with someone else like that sets his blood boiling.

If the traveler actually come up the mountain in search of him though then Excuse him hwat. And they’re just like

“You weren’t down at the road I got worried.”

“????What the fuck????”

“This area has tons of demons! You weren’t there and I was concerned.”

“I have so many questions right now- I’M A DEMON?? I’ve been trying to eat you!”

“Yeah. But I know you.”

Sun Wukong is flabbergasted because what. What the fuck. How dare they be concerned for him. He is the strongest demon around no one could ever be stronger than him, how could they even- they were concerned for him? They care? It’s a strange feeling to be cared for like that. The other residents of the mountain are all so sure that he’s the best and could never falter and when he does disappear for a bit they assume that he simply forgot them for a time because he was following his impulses. They don’t mind because they know he’ll come back in his own time but. Someone actually being worried for him? That’s a new one…it feels kinda nice actually.

He starts not-so-subtlety suggesting they stay on the mountain because well if they’re gonna be worried over something so trivial then they should just stay up here with him and see that he’s fine. He has everything they would ever need and then some anyway! He could actually give them all those things he tried to tempt them with in the beginning.

[hilsonamore]

OKAY SO HOLD ON HOLD ON HOLD ON-

I’m only on season 5 episode 12, but who am i kidding, i basically already know how the show ends-

Okay so, currently foreman’s part of a study that’s doing trials testing for a new possible cure for huntington’s disease and thirteen is partaking in the study so she’s an actual patient there. But, some of the people in the study are on a placebo drug (why!?!?!!??!) and thirteen is one of them, but she’s not supposed to know and neither is foreman. Unfortunately though, foreman found out and he wants to try to change her into the real drug, something that might actually help her. (Also, they’re already together by now)

He talked about this with chase but chase told him it was risky and reckless and he definitely shouldn’t risk his career for this, so foreman ended up going to house for advice on what to do.

And house- house the little shit, he’s all like:

“You might delay the onset of symptoms, give her an extra year, maybe three. She’s still dead before you’re 45. The question is, are those few years worth risking your life in medicine?”

“No”

“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Thank you”

“You’re welcome…”

“Unless you love her”

“If you love her, you do stupid things”

PEOPLE DO STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE, I DONT REMEBER THE EPISODE BUT YOU KNOW THE ONE, where house and wilson are observing the surgery of that woman who is willing to transplant part of her liver to her husband to save their marriage, and house turns to wilson and is like “people do stupid things for love”…i think that’s the one.

And about the whole “are those few years worth risking your life in medicine?”…

My guy literally faked his death just to run away with wilson who only had 5 months left and literally tossed his career in medicine into the abyss…the two most important and certain things in house’s life were his career and his relationship with wilson, and wilson was still more important, he was more important to house than the one thing that literally made him him.

Not only did he give his career up, he gave up his life, literally because now everyone thinks he’s dead and he can’t even practice medicine anymore, and wilson didn’t even have half a year left. House would give anything for that one plus year-

God i feel sick to my stomach, if anyone dares call them best pals i will personally choke them to death (lovingly, but not really)

[gallusrostromegalus]

So for AEIWAM, how does the whole Ukitake thing work? I’m still fuzzy on how it was in the manga (and that’s not even touching the ‘epilogue’/Echoing the Jaws of Hell why are these arc names like this) but wasn’t he essentially reverse faith healed-slash-possessed for death? I see you keep mentioning gods so like- what does that whole situation make him?

I need you to imagine a Self-Propogating Cryptocurrency Mining Computer. Whenever it's hardware starts to burn out, it creates a little man to build it a new machine and port it's memory over, keeping the machine alive and solving equations.

In An Elephant Is Warm And Mushy, that's God.

I may need to back up.

If you're not familiar with how Cryptocurrency Mining works, essentially, a computer thinks very, very hard about how to solve an extremely complicated equation, and when it solves it, it gets a little bit of money (or it gets a receipt saying that it has money that uh. nobody will accept, because the money aspect is a scam but the math, at least is real).

Anyway, thinking very, very hard like that runs through the computer's hardware- it's especially hard on the graphics cards. So eventually, if it want to keep solving equations, it needs new hardware. But a computer can't replace it's own parts, and this Ultra-complex, reality-generating God-computer is no different.

So when it starts to get old and degraded, the God-Computer does a neat little trick: it builds itself a programmer. That programmer learns all about the God Machine and how it works and the way it's powered- it moves souls through three planes of existence- each enormously complicated question is representative of the shape of a lifetime- each time a soul completes it's life and is reborn, the God Computer gets a little burst of extra energy. The larger and more complex the soul and longer and richer lifetime, the more energy the God Computer gets. So for the last millions of years, many, many generations of God-computer have made the universe richer and more complicated to generate larger and more complex souls to power themself (themselves?) further.

The programmer learns all about how the God-Computer works, and sets about building the next Generation of God-Computer to keep the universe running.

Due to a slight miscommunication, the programmer is colloquially known as the "Soul King" this time around.

Anyway, the Soul King was doin' his thing, when he happened to start chatting with a cool guy online and agreed to meet up with him. And it was fun! They hung out, Soul King showed him the true nature of reality, they stayed up late eating junk food and talking bullshit, good times. Later, The Soul King's cool friend from the internet said he had some other friends who wanted to meet him, and Soul king thought "BALLER. SLUMBER PARTY!!!" and told everyone to come on over!

-and then the new guys beat the shit out of Soul King's buddy and dismembered the Soul King for parts to sell as part of an organ-harvesting scheme!

Whoops.

Now, Soul King's buddy DID manage to get up and stop one of the organ thieves, the guy absconding with his hands, and tackled him off the Balcony. One of the psuedo-god hands (the one with the power of stagnation) fell into the Spirit World,took the name "Mimihagi" and became a minor kami because he's really bad at this Witness Protection thing.

Eventually, some parents with an extremely sick kid came to the hand's shrine and asked him to save the kid, and Mimihagi went "Well, I can't cure him, but I can hang out in his body for the next few centuries and prevent his disease from getting worse with constant effort?" and they said "...Please?" and Mimihagi said "Yeah OK.

-And ever since then Ukitake has had the left hand of The God Machine's dead repairman living in him and (mostly) stopping his super-tuberculosis from getting worse, like a benevolent tapeworm!

:)

The God-Machine is still dying this whole time, BTW. Might want to do something about that.

(the best part is, that of the three-to-five-and-a-half living pieces of the Soul King, Mimihagi is actually probably the least weird and definitely sanest of them)

[sillygoosealert]

Can you write about Smoke finding out his significant other has been harming herself and has been depressed for sometime but would try to hide it from him so he wouldn't worry?

They’re just Cat scratches I swear

Tw self-harm by cutting, pretty self-indulgent as my own experience but also like this is pretty much everyone’s experience combined, hope whoever sent this is okay, I hope you all are doing okay

Tomas angst, you might die at the end if I'm Feeling Silly

You're training with Tomas in a black long-sleeve

An odd choice considering you're training at the Shri-Ru-Yu but he doesn't question your fashion choice

Afterward, he tries to take you to the hot springs so you don't rot after training

You decline and insist you want to just go to bed

‘How come? We never hang out anymore, did something happen?’

A grim expression covers your face and you excuse yourself to bed

after you train you don't even shower, you just sleep

You sleep a lot, its like you hate being awake

So he desides to get you a sweet treat to cheer you up

That's how he cheers up, little acts of service

He gets you a small cupcake with pink sprinkles

But when he gets to your door, he hears muffled crying

It's like you're sobbing into a pillow

Afraid you are hurt- or something worse, he rushes in

The sight before him is horrific, blood-smeared across your arms and thighs

You're shaking harshly too

He goes over to the bed confused

‘What did you do?!’

Then he notices the razor blade in your hand

And then you notice he noticed the razor blade

Then you start crying even harder

And then he has to put the cupcake down

Then you drop the razor blade, nicking your thigh in the process

And then he has to quickly grab it, putting it on a flat surface to get it away

‘What happened? Why did you.. why didn't you tell me?’

You start to babble incoherent things, curling into a ball and sobbing

Maybe you're having a crying spell

He crawls into bed with you, wrapping an arm around you to pull you in

‘What happened? Talk to me..’

You just cry into him, blood-smearing onto his uniform

Now he's holding you close while rubbing your back

‘Baby I don't know what to do, let me clean you up, please’

You calm down enough to nod and let him drag you away to the bathroom

Its so much worse is good lighting

The cuts are close and long, covering the majority of your thighs

They are sloppy on your arms, not as close or neat

He's shaking with you

And crying

You're both crying a lot

Then he starts a bath

‘I'm going to clean you up, okay? It's going to be fine..’

You don’t know who he’s really saying that to

He places you into the bath, the water lightly changing its shade

‘Gods.. why would you do this? I would have helped you through it.’

‘I’m sorry’

That’s all you say, the time he spends bathing you is spent in silence

The world is cruel and incredibly unfair, you both knew that

But how could someone like Tomas, who has experienced it firsthand, continue to go on when you couldn’t?

He lost his family because he was supposed to, and he still wakes up every morning and lives

But you weren’t like him.

Something neither of you could quite grasp

But that made him scared

What happens when it gets bad again?

Who’s going to save you from the disease that is death

Though, you could also call his love for you a disease too

But that is something he wants no cure to

He cleans your cuts with tears and sobs

Then drys you off without a word

Holding your arms with a firm grip, he stares into you

‘I won't be telling anyone. But I hope you know you aren't going to be leaving my sight anymore.’

You nod your head quickly ‘Okay’

Then he places his head on your thighs

‘You can't leave me. Not yet, not soon..’

Then you run your fingers through his hair, his slightly bloody hair

He doesn't wrap your wounds, letting them heal on their own

But he does take you to bed and lays on top of you, making sure you can't leave

‘Why didn't you tell me?’

‘You have enough on your plate, you didn't need to stress about this.’

‘I want to worry about you, to remind you that I care. I'll always care’

‘Thank you..’

‘I love you’

‘I love you too’

Silly 🎀

[comma-tose]

I think the whole thing about Fiona being Felix's favourite is really interesting solely because from her perspective she wasn't. Like at all.

When Felix betrays them and steals the money not only does he talk to her as if this is a lesson he's teaching her, saying that this is the only way to make her understand not to trust anyone, but the last thing he tells her to do is to take care of Sasha. Not to look after herself or to stay safe, but to protect Sasha.

It's also especially interesting with the gifts he gives both of them. Now obviously gifts aren't equivalent to love but the intentions behind it do matter. His gift to Sasha was freedom from harm and from the worst kind of consequence (death), his gift to Fiona was limitations, endangerment, and being forced to stick to his teachings.

Both of Fiona's gifts are a lesson, literally restricting what she can do and putting her at risk so that she sticks by Felix's teaching that she can always talk her way out of more situations than she can shoot her way out of.

He gives her a sleeve pistol sure but he only gives her a single bullet, and then later on when they find his stash she gets an elemental upgrade to the gun and one more bullet. But the upgrade is rigged to burn out after each shot, increasing the risk that Fiona will just get killed by any of the bandits or creatures roaming Pandora. Athena is the one who has to give Fiona bullets and to modify the gun, to remove the elemental burnout which was intentionally added by Felix as "training wheels", despite the fact Fiona has always been a better shot than Sasha, as said by Sasha herself.

And then you get to what he gives Sasha, while at first both Fiona and Sasha think it's just a sentimental pocket watch, it gets revealed that it's literally built to bring Sasha back from the brink of DEATH. And if you go by Debt or Alive, it's a watch containing an ancient alien crystal (god knows where he got that), that is supposed to repeatedly heal any injury Sasha gets and bring her back to life if she dies.

His gift to Fiona was a gun with two bullets that he intentionally rigged to burn out to "teach her" to not use it too much (on Pandora of all places???), and his gift to Sasha was the cure to death itself. No matter how grateful Fiona was that Sasha had that when she needed it there must've been some moment where she realised the difference in the gifts they were given and it probably didn't make her feel great.

Something else interesting is when Vallory says that Fiona was Felix's favourite. Both her and Sasha look shocked. Now I don't think that's because either of them assumed Sasha was the favourite or anything, just more that they had no idea that Fiona was supposedly favoured by him. And why would they? I made a post on here a while back about how Fiona is the only one with a bounty in that family, and that she's the one taking the blame for things more. So considering how she's put in that position why would they ever assume she was the favourite?

He seems to treat them both very differently, with him pushing responsibility onto Fiona, putting her in a position where she is made responsible for taking care of Sasha and prioritising her, with his gifts being lessons that endanger Fiona's life when they're rigged to fail. And his treatment of Sasha being more protective, rushing out of the caravan to get to her when the deal goes wrong leading to him getting shot, making sure she has someone taking care of her, and giving her the ability to defy death and just walk off any injury.

That's not to say he didn't love them both because he did, even if some of the stuff he did was dumb as hell. But I think it raises the question of whether Fiona was the favourite because he loved her more or because she was just the one he thought could take more responsibility and didn't need protecting as much. Someone he didn't have to treat like the child they were as much.

Bearing in mind this isn't to argue that she wasn't the favourite because she was, that much was confirmed by both Felix and Vallory. It's more that I doubt Fiona believes that she is, who would after all that?

[strobichie]

just sae.

♡⸝⸝ summary: poor you decided to replay ddlc, but something seems wrong... why is monika sae?

little note: bachira is sayori, rin is natsuki, and isagi is yuri!!

your perspective:

i had recently gotten a new computer, there are so many things i still need to work with and customise to my liking.

so, to cure my boredom, i'm installing ddlc again and replaying it!

my favourite character is natsuki, i absolutely loved how adorable and relatable she just is. she reminded me of one of the kids i babysat.

after installing the win files i extracted them all and started the game up, as usual, i see the 4 dokis on the main screen on startup.

i entered my name of choice and started the game ---

wait, bachira??? FROM BLUE LOCK??

why was he sayori? not gonna lie, his sprites are really cute, but how..??

i re-checked the website i downloaded the game from but it displayed the 4 dokis there and there was nothing wrong..

huh, why am i being scared?

i should be grateful, honestly.

i've been blessed by the gods above!! for once i'm fucking lucky!

no way was i gonna pass up the opportunity to interact with my favourite anime characters especially since they somehow ended up in my favourite childhood game..!

i wonder who natsuki, yuri, and monika would be, though?

this is interesting! as i progress even more reading the dialogues and clicking on the chat box, after a few minutes of suffering i finally got to the literature club with bachira!

"seriously, a girl? way to be a killjoy." rin... RIN?!?!?!?!?!

OH MY GOD RIN IS SO HOT? HIS ATTRACTIVENESS SCALE WENT TO 100 TO 1000 SO QUICK!!

wait.. could that mean ---

ISAGI IS YURI!! YES!! MY FAVOURITES ALL IN ONE ROOM!!

i hope monika is kaiser or even better, anri..!!

gosh this got me feelin' so giddy and chipper in the early fucking morning..

i skipped a few of the dialogues, and abruptly stopped when a certain person came into view.

...sae? really?

what an eyesore. i hate sae, of all people, why sae?

sure he was similar to monika, but only in appearance. kaiser or anri could have been able to fulfill this role.

i sighed in annoyance, at least i have rin and the others...

i continuously skipped many dialogues and had finally gotten to the part where sayori, or in this situation bachira, hangs himself..

right, this was a horror game after all. did i really forget about the main plot?

i stared at the screen with an obvious frown. rin and isagi are next..

and the person behind all this was saeshit. ugh, seriously... well, good thing i can just delete his files at any given time.

progressing through the story even further, i got a special poem and cringed at the 'drawing'. it was bachira hanging in a humorous manner.

this was unfortunate.

i clicked on the chat box endlessly, wanting to speedrun to the moments of all my favourite characters deaths..

seeing rin crack his neck and isagi stab himself looking like a crazed maniac broke my heart. good things don't last.. this will probably be the last time i'll ever be able to play this version of the game.

then, here sae was, fuck was he smiling for?

"let me take a quick one of rin's cupcakes, these such are really good for a brother so shitty and nasty." i scoffed and gritted my teeth in anger, sae was clearly the asshole in their brother-ship.

i was met face-to-face with sae, i pursed my lips and stared at my computer screen.

"it's nice to talk to you even if it's by a dialogue box." is this even real?

"i know that you're thinking: is this legitimate? to answer your question, yes it is. i became self aware after everything in that god damn manga and anime called blue lock, i felt sick and tired of not being able to show up in the manga after a long period of time. somehow, i found a way to break the barrier between the fictional animanga world and reality as you call it." that was a mouthful. he was pretty talkative now. my burning hatred for sae cooled down a bit as he spoke more ---

"i found this 'cutesy romance horror' game and it had all the things i needed in order to cross over to the real world. this version of the game only exists on your desktop, {user}. is {user} even your name? are you even a girl?" he shot me a confused expression.

"honestly, i don't care anymore. even i started falling in love with you. i thought i wasn't capable of love, just like the original character monika, i fell in love with you." this sent a shiver down my spine, i sweat-dropped and continued reading his dialogues.

"you read that right, i love you. even if i'm not real, i love you. i won't ever let you leave me. i'll kill you even if you think of it." he coldly stated and i opened my file explorer, ready to delete his character file --- huh.. why couldn't i delete it?

"i'm disappointed, why would you wanna try to delete me? i love you, you should be grateful i love you." but i hated sae, i hate him!

"i've been practicing for a while, i think i can finally break the laws of physics and rules of nature between our worlds." uhm, does he even know what the fuck's he saying?

"i'll see you soon, goodbye {name}. i love you." HOW DID HE GET MY NAME? DID HE HACK INTO MY COMPUTER BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK..?!?!?!

i was scared shitless, jesus christ, just what did he mean by all that? i force shut down my computer and rolled to my bed covering myself in my blankets. time to go back to sleep after that eventful experience.

short little fic, should i make a part two?

finally made a part 2!

[randomfoggytiger]

Gethsemane, Bill Scully Apologia, and Maggie the Emergency Contact

Dialogue and Play-By-Play Analysis:

Bill: "I picked up the phone when they called Mom. I thought you could use a change of clothes."

Scully: "Thank you... where's Mom?"

Believing her cancer is still a secret, Scully automatically places Bill's importance below her mother, wanting to talk freely with Maggie (without Bill.) Bill sees and understands this; and is hurt that she still won't open up to him despite being here, now, for her. As of yet, he doesn't act on that hurt.

Bill: "I didn't tell Mom what happened...."

Scully: "...But I'm okay. Luckily."

Bill: "You're not okay, Dana."

Scully: "I told Mom not to tell you."

Bill: "Why?"

Scully: "Because it's very personal. Because I don't want sympathy."

For all of the just criticism against Bill later in this arc, here he is holding back his anger (an expression of his hurt) and listening, really listening to his sister. He keeps quiet, giving Scully room to fully explain herself; and even sympathetically locks eyes, giving her his full attention.

Another thing of note: he is staring at Scully with the exact look of sympathy she wanted to avoid. Mulder and Maggie know her enough to acquiesce to her "I'm fine"s; but Bill is her life-long peer, and siblings can't hide truths from each other as effectively as they can their parents or partners.

"You think you can cure yourself."

Bill realizes that his sister never told her own family-- him-- about her cancer because she does, even now, believe she can cure herself. He's stunned, shocked, even appalled; and that leaks into his voice, coming across as judgmental.

Scully doesn't deny it, caught; and sighs, frustrated, that he divined and overly-simplified something she hadn't expressed to anyone and probably would not have been able to without a beautiful speech prepared ahead of time.

"Mom tells me that you've gotten worse. That your cancer's gone into your bloodstream."

This explains why Maggie told Bill in the first place: she cracked under the strain Dana's edict of secrecy put her under, watching her daughter slowly die without any apparent attempts to circumvent that death or even to bond over their shared tragedy. Bill became her only recourse... and Bill spilled the beans (as he does, again, in A Christmas Carol.)

Scully is shaken by his bluntness, unable to shy away from the truth spoken so baldly to her face.

"What are you doing at work getting knocked down? Beaten up? What are you trying to prove-- that you're going to go down fighting?"

Scully: "Now, c'mon Bill--"

Scully is deferring back to an old sibling dynamic: Bill misunderstanding, or only understanding enough to feel she's acting out of turn; and her attempting to draw him away from his preconceived notions. In this case, however, he's right; and she's avoiding the truth of that (subconsciously.)

Bill stops her by slapping down the clothes, getting her full attention.

"Y'know what Mom is going through? Why do you think I didn't tell her when they called?"

"What should be doing?"

Bill: "We have a responsibility-- not just to ourselves, but to the people in our lives."

And he's absolutely correct here: Scully has been so focused on work and its promise of a cure that she's forgotten to give space to those suffering alongside her.

"Just, just because I haven't bared my soul to you or to Father McCue or to God, it doesn't mean I'm not responsible to those important to me."

Here Scully reveals she thought emotional distance and soldiering on was her way of protecting her loved ones from her burdens, providing them strength in the face of her worsening health. In reality, it worsened their fears and burdens; and furthered their isolation... except for, ironically, Mulder, who wasn't ready to face the implications of her impending death, anyway.

"To who? This guy Mulder? But where is he, Dana? Where is he through all this?"

Bill is less right here: from his perspective, Dana has (once again) wrapped herself up with a man whose authority and work ethic supersedes Bill's love and concern for his sister-- another in the pattern of their late father and Daniel Waterston and Jack Willis. Bill isn't stupid: his above reproach also reveals he knows Mulder knows about Scully's cancer; and the fact that her partner did and still left her alone to deal with it to "pursue his career" while Bill hasn't been able to be there to support her at all eats away at him, makes him hate the man. (And still he's civil when he meets Mulder, even talks with him in terms he believes a workaholic will understand-- "Let's keep the work away from here"-- only getting rough when he misinterprets Mulder's blank face in response-- "Let her die with dignity.")

Despite being wrong here, Bill still hits the mark; because Mulder did wander off on a quest. But Scully can't argue for Mulder without betraying her own reticence, her own need to keep Mulder in the dark for Mulder's sake-- because that would betray her feelings in a way that she doesn't want to discuss with Bill, especially after Mulder has consistently dodged that serious conversation for years now. So, she picks up her clothes and ends the conversation.

In-Depth Analysis

Maggie Was Scully's Emergency Contact

The hospital called Maggie when Scully was rushed in, unconscious; and while this doesn't outright disprove the theory Mulder might also be an emergency contact, it certainly fits in with the pattern of him being called to the hospital and let into Scully's room by Maggie and not the other way around (i.e. One Breath and Wetwired.) Furthermore, Mulder isn't alerted (that I know of) to a missed call from the hospital after his return to civilization, meaning the hospital didn't notify him at all.

Bill the Bully?

Is Bill a despicable figure? Most definitely... in a deleted Memento Mori scene-- which is why I think they cut it. Though his words are brusque, even cruel in their blunt honesty, Bill, apart from that scene, doesn't seem to willfully inflict or weaponize guilt against his sister, wielding it only as a reminder of how much her family is left out of her life, how much they want to be there for her and don't understand why she won't let them in. It's a fundamental difference in how they approach life; and both are forceful about their insistence on doing things their own way.

Scully is used to being everyone's source of strength (Maggie places her on a pedestal even above her brothers in Memento Mori), which hinders her from opening up or betraying her weakness. Being "the strong one" for so long turned into a fear of failing others; but this reticence has the opposite effect, ostracizing and distancing her family (and Mulder) in her struggles to keep them unaffected. Their divide grows as the years go on (though it seems an equilibrium of sorts has been reached after Emily, since she mentions them fondly in How the Ghosts Stole Christmas and indirectly in Millennium.)

Bill Is Right (in This Instance)

On its face, Bill's speech is unrelenting and out of left field... but is it, really?

Bill is told about his sister's cancer only when it has become irredeemably terminal. He arrives on land, either before or after Maggie's revelation, and finds the rest of the family ignorant and his mother having to shoulder that burden, alone, because his sister refused to let her tell anyone else the news-- meaning, Maggie has been suffering in silence the entire cancer arc, trying to abide by her daughter's terms for space and silence on the topic. However, Scully's definitive terminal diagnosis broke her; and Maggie, having no one to turn to support because Dana still refused to talk about it, finally confessed to her priest and reached out to her son for strength. Bill sees how hard this has been on her and tries to alleviate that burden by adopting his sister's methods: keeping Maggie in the dark as much as possible. It honors what he knows to be his sister's wishes and his mother's fears.

In this scene Bill is absolutely in the right. He and his sister, while not incredibly close, have no ill will between them; and he finds out that not only has she been slowly dying for months and sworn their mother to secrecy but she also still refused to tell him, even when he dropped everything to bail her and Maggie out with this act of kindness. This is wrong-- it is-- and his speech rebuking his sister is as deserved as Scully's are to Mulder whenever he acts only in stubborn self-interest.

Bill is hurt, Bill is grieved; and Bill drives that home, peeling back his sister's denial by exposing her true intent: "You think you can cure yourself." The ludicrous nature of her expectations-- cure incurable cancer and never tell a soul so she won't have to 'suffer' the shame or embarrassment of their sympathy or pity-- galls him; and he's right. It's Scully's struggle and her burden; but it's not just her struggle or burden: her family and loved ones are losing her, too, and that pain is just as powerfully frightening. Bill wants more from her than an immovable pillar of strength-- and that's a good thing. Maggie needed her to be "the strong one", and Mulder needed her to keep fighting; but Bill just wanted his sister to tell him the truth and let him in.

A last note: Bill grew up with Dana-- he knows her propensity to get lost in father figures and demanding authorities. He probably sees Mulder as another Daniel Waterston or Jack Willis, an extension of her undisguised adoration for their late father. He's naturally protective (as we see in Redux II, though grossly misplaced) and thinks Scully is losing that stability in herself the more engrossed she becomes in her work (ex. Gethsemane-Redux II and A Christmas Carol.) These fears and concerns are expressed in overbearing finger-wagging and anger rather than communication, a (sadly) common affliction in a family growing a more distant with time and lives necessarily apart.

Scully Believed She Could Cure Herself

Since Memento Mori, Scully's modus operandi has been to avoid, avoid, avoid the topic of her cancer (and the death of her father, her abduction, etc.) The following cases rarely touched on her illness unless she had a concerning diagnosis or needed further treatment, i.e. Zero Sum and Elegy. Radiation was likely ruled out as ineffective since the skirmish with Dr. Scanlon (and was a drain of her valuable energy and health without any chance of helping, regardless); so, Scully probably opted for more obscure treatments, buying time while she and Mulder chipped away at their work.

In the back of her mind, she believed, truly, that she wouldn't die: that her cancer could be tucked away from her family and cured before Bill or the others ever found out. As we know, Maggie bore the brunt of her daughter's edict of silence alone, finally caving when the cancer reached Scully's bloodstream. When Bill waits for an explanation-- staring at his sister's defiance and stubbornness and pure conviction that she's fine and that the family shouldn't be worried about her at all-- he figures out her blind expectation and avoidance-bordering-on-denial and says, appalled: "You think you can cure yourself." Scully dips her head, exposed and embarrassed.

The beginning of Gethsemane proves Scully was still denial: "my dying wish" she professes on the one hand only to reject the priest and shake her head at Bill with the other. No, Scully did not expect to die alone without her family there. When Bill demands, "We have a responsibility-- not just to ourselves, but to the people in our lives", she parries, "Just because I don't bare my soul to you or to Father McCue or to God." Scully thought she was doing her duty by keeping her loved ones in her thoughts while carrying out her solitary battle. When Bill strips her of her further excuses-- "Who? To this guy Mulder?"-- it peels back her hyper-focused perspective, reminding Scully that it's not just her and Mulder fighting the world.

She did her family and Mulder and herself a disservice by pushing them all away to "protect them", as she realizes in Redux II: being "strong" stripped them of the ability to support each other and was damaging in the long run. In this, Bill is undeniably correct. However, where Bill is wrong is that he doesn't see that Scully believes in Mulder's ability to save her, that by following him she is doing what is best for herself.

Her partner's fervor and hope give her strength; and his inability to break under defeat keeps her fighting even in her darkest hours (and does end up saving her life.) Scully put such faith in Mulder and his abilities and his theories that she kept council only with herself (as much as possible) to keep him going, to keep the weight off his shoulders (and her mother's and her family's) so that they could move forward as a well-oiled machine, ready to snatch the cure whenever they got their hands on it. And Mulder did get his hands on it... and then it failed.

She's dying; but it's not until the cure fails that the dam breaks: everything Scully had been fearing comes rushing out of her. She gives in, crying to her mother about her crumbling lack of faith-- because the miracle cure didn't work, because her months of waiting and hoping in private were all for naught, because she's going to die and there's no possible way to escape. But it's also freeing: she can own her fear, hold onto her mother, clutch Mulder's hand, cry with the priest, finally lean into and start to heal from the weights she's been holding on her back, alone.

And she prays: death is near.

Scully Wanted to Please Bill, Too

As she told Ed Jerse in Never Again, "There are other fathers."

The ouroboros twirls on and on in her personal life, goading her to both make a stand for herself and to placate Bill's expected reactions. In this situation, she did deserve his anger; however, this dynamic continues to play out in Redux II and A Christmas Carol, separate circumstances that are outside Bill's scope of understanding or perspective. After each confrontation, her brother always backs off and begrudgingly acquiesces his sister's boundaries; but it's easy to see why he clings to his late father's behaviors-- viewing them as the only way his sister will confide in him-- and why Scully automatically responds to-- albeit with more guilt than openness-- and rejects his methods.

It's an aspect of their relationship that fell to the wayside as the series barreled onward; but there are hints of resignation on his part after the events of Emily unfolded the way they did (silent support in the courthouse and true remorse in the church.) Scully, however, is locked in grief and unwilling to open back up, yet. We're never shown on-screen what happens next; but he seems to have caused her no further problems in spite of her professional and personal scares in the future (including almost being burned alive, an unexpected trip to Antarctica, job demotion, and getting gut shot all within the span of a few months.) Perhaps he gave her up for loss, perhaps he stayed close but distant, perhaps he withdrew from the drama all together. We'll never know; and, ultimately, it's up to individual interpretation.

Conclusion

This scene sets up the hinge upon which the cancer arc (and any future Scully family drama) twists and turns.

I don't believe Bill is bad, or even malevolent: he, like any other person in a family strained with distance and death, doesn't seem to blame Scully entirely or for long; and only wishes to get through to her somehow. We saw him bully her as a child but we also saw him gift and teach her how to use a bb gun. Scully, meanwhile, balks at and softens over Bill's bluster and overstepping, always effectively putting him in his place after courteously listening to his opinion. We saw her yell and shove him as a child but we also saw her gleefully play alongside he and Charlie.

In conclusion: like all sibling relationships, there are headbutts and there are fights; but it seems, at least by their conversation here and succeeding ones in the future, that any hitch or bump in the road is smoothed over, ironed out, or fixed before it becomes permanent. Bill makes excellent points that Scully takes into consideration, changing her future dealings with Maggie and Bill and even Mulder (namely, her willingness to open up in Detour); and Bill, having said his peace, supports his sister in her decisions the rest of this arc and later in S5.

That we know about.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

[thelovelylolly]

Let The Light In

Summary: 'Cause I love, to love, to love, to love you. I hate to hate, to hate, to hate you... Warnings: canon typical violence, mentions of death and throwing up, reader is described as smaller than joel, hurt/kinda no comfort, let me know if i missed anything :) Word Count: 1.3k Notes: OOOOOOOOO LET THE LIGHT INNNNNNNNN (i wrote this after a very sleep deprived and long week)

You loved Joel Miller, so much so you would follow him across the country to help him get a little girl to some Fireflies. You and Joel met in the Boston QZ and both of you fell for each other, you more than him. You knew he didn't feel as strongly as you or showed his emotions like you did, but you knew he loved you and that was enough.

Following Joel across the country led to you and him settling down in Jackson after the Fireflies let Ellie go, but you didn't believe Joel when he told that to her. You knew the Fireflies wouldn't let go of someone who was immune that easily. You wanted to believe Joel, you really did because that meant Ellie got to live.

But you knew he was lying about something.

That little seed of doubt was planted and only grew with time. You didn't tell Joel, you let it fester in your head over the course of a few months. Everything was good in Jackson, why would you ruin it? You had Joel and Ellie, and all of you had some stability in your lives now. You didn't want to ruin it with your doubt, but you knew it was going to come up some day.

Or night.

You were laying on your back, staring up at the ceiling. The pale blue moonlight came in through the windows, offering some light in the otherwise dark room. Joel was dozing off with his arms around your waist. His head was on your chest and your hand was in his hair, just like every night. But you couldn't sleep.

"Joel?" You whispered quietly.

He didn't answer.

"Joel?" This time, you said it a bit louder.

"Hm?" He hummed in reply.

"What happened at the hospital in Salt Lake?"

It was seemingly an innocent question to you, but Joel tensed up. His eyes opened and you felt him pull away from you. He turned around so his back was facing you.

"You already know what happened, sweetheart. Now, go to sleep," he answered.

"No, what really happened there, Joel?" You pressed for an answer, sitting up to look over at him. "I don't think the Fireflies would just give up Ellie like that."

He let out an annoyed sigh. "Do we really have to talk about this right now?"

"Yes, because it's been eating at me since we left the hospital that day," you said. "Just tell me, please."

He turned around to look at you, laying on his back and tilting his head up to meet your gaze. You could tell he was still hesitant.

"Please," you begged quietly.

"You don't want to know."

"I wouldn't be bringing it up if I didn't."

He sighed once again, his gaze turning to the ceiling. "You heard Marlene. The procedure to get a cure would've killed Ellie, and I wasn't going to lose another kid. I didn't know what was going to happen, so that's why I sent you to find a car after knocking out the guys in the stairwell. When I went back up to get her, I knew I was going to kill anyone in my way-"

"Joel-"

"So I killed them all, even the doctor."

Your mouth hung open as a shaky breath escaped you. You quickly cupped your hand over your mouth, muffling your, "oh my god."

You swung your legs over the edge of the bed, hunching over yourself. "Oh my god!"

Even if you didn't pull the trigger, you felt guilty. You didn't try to stop Joel or go with him, you followed his directions blindly. Maybe you could've stopped him and lives would've been spared, but now there was blood on his hands and some of it was on yours, too, for not trying to stop him. Could you have stopped him? Did he love you enough to listen to you if you begged him not to kill the Fireflies? You knew Joel could be ruthless and violent, but to this extent?

You thought of all the bodies he left behind, including Marlene's, and a wave of nausea hit you. You raced to your bathroom just in time to empty anything in your stomach into the toilet. You flushed it as you caught your breath, then rinsed your mouth out in the sink.

Joel had gotten of bed and was standing in the doorway, only his sleep pants on.

You gripped the edge of the counter and didn't look at him. "Have you told Ellie the truth? Or are you going to keep lying to her?"

He was quiet for a few moments before answering. "I haven't, but-"

"Christ, Joel. That's not for you to decide!" You yelled, spinning around to face him.

"I saved her! She was going to die!"

"She was fully prepared to give her life up for the cure because that's what she thought her life was for! You shouldn't have stopped her, it was her decision! You shouldn't have lied to her about what happened, either."

You both fell quiet. The air was tense around you two as you glared at him, then pushed past him to go back to bed. He quickly followed you and grabbed your wrist, turning you around to face him.

"Honey-"

"How do you know you didn't put us all in danger?" You quickly cut him off with another question, not wanting to hear his excuse or whatever he was going to say. "You murdered Fireflies, you murdered their leader. How do you know they aren't going to come for us?"

"You know I wouldn't let that happen-"

"But you gave them a reason to come after us. What were you thinking-"

"I was protecting Ellie!" Joel yelled, cutting you off this time. "I was protecting you! You don't get to argue with me about what I've done because you don't understand any of it!"

You looked at him in the moonlight, your eyes wide and glossed over with tears. For the first time since you met him, you were scared of Joel. You knew what he was capable of, but you never thought he would do this. And you never thought he would yell at you like this.

You took a shaky breath, tearing your gaze away from him so he wouldn't see the tears in your eyes. "I'm going to sleep downstairs tonight-"

"Sweetheart, I-I'm sorry-"

"Please, Joel. I need...I need some space."

Joel watched as you grabbed your pillow and a blanket from the bed. You started towards the door and were about to grab the doorknob when-

"I love you."

You froze at those three words. You turned around to look a him, a desperate look on his face. He never said those words, even when you had let them slip a few times here and there. You wished he would've said it, but you had come to terms that he was never going to say it to you.

Yet, he here he was, saying it as a last resort to make you stay.

Look at us, you and I, back at it again...

But it wasn't going to work.

"...I'm sorry, Joel, but it's too late for that."

With that, you opened the bedroom door and left. The door clicked shut behind you and Joel listened to the wood creaking as you went downstairs. Slowly, he made he was back over to his side of the bed and laid down.

The pale blue moonlight illuminated the room just enough for him to notice the wrinkled sheets where you were laying next to him minutes ago, before your relationship fell apart right before his eyes.

[yanderespamton78]

WHY ADI IS A GOOD CHARACTER AND NOT JUST AN EVIL SCIENTIST CHILD MURDERER

AAAAAAAAAA OH MY GOD YOU DONT UNDERTAND HOW WORKED UP I GET OVER THIS DEBATE YOU DONT UNDERSTAND ARARRARARRARRA also btw i watched sweet tooth ages ago so i might get some details wrong

(please dont take anything said here personally i am tired and angry and i get so sososo worked up over this debate since Adi is very similar to a character ive been obsessed with for a year)

so after being in a sweet tooth fandom for a bit i found that much to my surprise (and distain) adi is actually a thoroughly hated character, which was surprising after coming from a fandom where the "evil child murderer" character is one of if not the most popular. And i feel that a lot of the people who hate adi do just see him as "evil child murderer" BUT HES MORE THAN THAT!!!! I PROMISE!!!!! get out of that echo chamber and open your mind to a new opinion (please i spent like 40 mins typing this out)

so firstly, adi was actually just a really nice normal guy before the crumble. he was a sweet man, he was a doctor, he was dad material. not a psychopath. he clearly isnt insane or murderous by nature. We can see his love for Rani in the first episode when he starts freaking out and barging past people just to try to keep her alive even when he knew the odds werent in his favour. he clearly loves his wife more than the world itself and would burn cities in her name. This is a man who Loves His Wife. After the crumble we can see that Adi and Rani are living a semi normal life. we see that all Adi wants is some normalcy despite the horrible situation he's been put into. And all he really needs for that is his wife. Evidently the rest of his family is already dead even if its not mentioned so this man is already under a lot of stress, also knowing that if anyone finds out that Rani has the sick he's screwed. but you know what? hes coping. hes living. maybe he's sometimes forced to be just a lil bit sadistic but its fine its fine its okay because Rani is okay. When he first sees Gladys's research he is horrified and refuses to do the things asked. he loves his wife but even he stops at the idea of killing children (like a normal person). When whatserface (forgot her name) is killed by the horse he is horrified but you can even see a bit of Rani's sadistic nature with how quickly she is to be like "right welp hide the body it was not our fault :)" while Adi is moritified but still helps her because shes his wife and she loves him.

In fact, even when abbot kidnaps him he doesnt want to kill the children. Why would he??? He kills them because if he doesnt Rani will die and all he wants is Rani to be okay. Put yourself in his shoes. your whole life was flipped upside down in the crumble and then your second chance at a mostly normal life was also torn away from you. Now the person dearest to you in the whole world (and also the only person you still have) is about to die at the hand of Doctor Robotnik, who is also trying to force you to kill children otherwise he'll kill you too. Adi is visibly shook after having to kill roy. He didn't want to. He even says in his little voice vlog thing that he has done something terrible (iirc). When Gus comes along he is desperate to have a reason to spare him and when Gus talks he is overjoyed that he doesnt have to kill another child. Sure he's kind of forceful and aggressive but my man is under so much stress and has been for the past 10 years let him be pissy. AND his wife is okay (for now)!! woohoo!!! When he finds the cure he is overjoyed. Sure he ignores his wifes wishes but at this point he is numb to the killing. IT IS EXPLICITLY STATED MULTIPLE TIMES DURING THE SHOW THAT HE DOESNT WANT TO BE A DOCTOR BECAUSE HE STARTS TO BECOME NUMB TO THE DEATH. he KNOWS that this whole doctor thing will start driving him a bit cooky and tries to avoid it but he's forced into it. and that is why he doesnt understand the true reason behind Rani's crying and begging. He doesnt fully realise how she feels at this point due to what he's been forced to do and thinks its too late to go back

He goes back into his laboratory and everything's gone. burned away. AND his wife left him. here is when i feel you can really see where he snapped. Everything he has is gone now. the only thing he could ever need, and the person who he did all those terrible terrible things for, is gone. It cant get worse now. He starts spiralling and going down a desperate path to redeem himself. At this point he is completely insane and broken. He really thinks with all his heart that the only way he can fix what he's done ad get forgiveness from his wife is by killing gus. he thinks its the right thing to do. He's delusional. he seems like a hollow shell of himself by the last season but you can still see little sparks of his old self occasionally. he betrays Gus and team because he thinks its the only way he can redeem himself. the only way he can get Rani to forgive him. But at the last second RIGHT before stabbing Gus he realises its not right and he realises that he's become a terrible person that his wife would be ashamed of. HE REDEEMS HIMSELF. HE SAVES GUS. AND YOU LOT STILL SEE HIM AS THE EVIL CHILD MURDERER. DIEEEEEE

anyways TLDR i love Adi a lot and he did the bad things that he did because he was sad and desperate and loves his wife a lot and anyone who thinks otherwise can go suck toes

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

Hey.... Heyyyyyy.... How y'all doing.... take the Nimona headcanons that have been rotting in my notes app for the past four months

Ambrosius has kept track of the weirdest things he’s signed for a fan

At the very tippy top is a dinner plate a dog crate and a baby

And by baby I do mean living breathing crying baby

He tried really hard to find something else to sign but for some reason the parents were really insistent on it being their baby

And for some reason he did it

There are hundreds of photos of this infant with a signature on his forehead 

And that kid to this day will whip out his baby photos and show people that he was that baby 

Multiple knights (cough cough Todd) tried to recreate that situation but it didn’t have the same effect 

I feel like Bal gets really bad migraines (which kind of comes with the territory of using your head like a bartering ram) 

And when they do happen Nimona and Ambrosius do everything in their power to make sure that it doesn’t get worse 

I feel like Ambrosius is stupidly good at video games 

I have this little headcanon that books and games were kind of an escape for him

His own personal little oasis from being the golden child with a million expectations and responsibilities on his back 

He's not very good at playing with other people tho because he was always scared people would figure out who he was just based on his voice alone (and he’s not wrong for thinking that)

Nimona is also really good at video games (I mean she’s also half of the reason they were invented but that’s a long ass story) 

So because I’ve been away for so long I wanted to bless you with my friend's reaction to the movie

Just for some context tho it did take us months to finish because we all have work and school and we couldn’t see each other for a while so if I missed some stuff I’ll add it later

“Aw boyfriends” (When they were on the catwalk)

“Why are they so cute” “they’re literally my otp” and “they have cute banter” (The entire time before the knighting ceremony)

JB: “Oh she’s got Daddy issues huh” Me: “why do you say that?” JB “cause why else would she follow a man”(As they’re walking through the kingdom)

JB: “God what a fake fucking bitch I hate the way she talks” (As the director is scolding the knights)

“He knows him so well”(He hates freestyle jazz)

“It’s his boyfriend” “aw bae why’d you throw a smoke bomb at me” “look how frantic he is to find him” “he can’t shoot look at that face” (the entire subway/market scene”) 

JB: “I think this scene is curing her daddy issues and yours” (the alley scene)

(Same scene) KO: “why is he acting like it’s hurting him more?” Me: “Cause that’s his kid” KO: “wow this really is healing your daddy issues” 

JB: “What am I even watching?” “I fucking knew it she was such a fake bitch” (The squires video) 

“Oh my god he’s so embarrassing” “is he really jealous of a kid” “oh my god the director really doesn’t give a fuck huh?” “He didn’t say that out loud” “but does she?” “No” (Ambrosius freak out) 

JJ: “oh my god this is like Archane” Me: “shut the fuck up about Archane” (in my defense he kept mentioning Archane the whole time)

“If I could turn into a dragon I’d never turn back” “same I’d love to breathe cereal” (during the fight) 

“He’s so embarrassing why is he dying that dramatic” (proceeds to make fun of Ambrosius' “death” the whole time) 

“Did they really upload her confession to their version of YouTube” “is his account name really BalliSTAR?” “Why are they dancing?” “His username is Loins_of_gold? Why is he such a dork??” 

JB: “Awe nachos are totally their thing” “he remembered he’s allergic he still loves him!” 

JJ: “he’s a knight?” Me “have you been watching this movie with your eyes closed?” 

And then we freaked out about Ambrosius saying I love you and Bal not saying it back 

We said nothing when Bal pulled a sword on Nimona they kind of just sat shocked 

JB kept mentioning the flashback and after it happened all I said was “you wanted the flashback there’s your fucking flashback” while she sat in sad silence

They also just kept saying in shock “that’s her? That’s Gloreth” while I laughed 

We kind of spent the rest of the movie in silence until Bal and Ambrosius kissed at the end and then everyone collectively lost their shit

They lost their shit again when Nimona showed back up and JB went upstairs because even tho Nimona came back to life she was still sad

[darkdevasofdestruction]

Chapter 3 - Before The Day Is Over

"Michael?" the red haired beauty asked from the bed, where she was embroidering a dress. "Why did Gallant kill his grandma?" Langdon was sitting on the chair, writing tirelessly at his laptop. His fingers stopped typing, and he blinked for a second, thinking of a proper answer that wouldn't upset her innocence... Too much. "He has been lied to, and oppressed, by a person whom he deemed trustworthy family. His lonesome neediness brought him to desperation once he found out his beloved grandmother sold his life, for a slim chance of living, knowing very well that Venable's rules prohibited fornication." he watched with careful eyes as the woman garbed in grey rags - O, how he hated that unseeming outfit on her. While all the most worthless of pieces of stale meat were enjoying fine silks and royal treatment, she was forced to scrub the floor with her own delicate hands, and see to their every capricious whim. Her fingers tightened their grasp around the soft material of the dress, and her brows furrowed. "And... Why would she tell on her own grandson? Why would she bring him to the gallows herself and cut the rope holding the guillotine above his neck? Acting as judge, jury and executioner from the shadows, against your own family... That is..." she bit that plump, pink bottom lip of hers, and how enticing she looked. "Because, my darling - People are inherently evil. When a situation such as this arrives, where their lives hangs in by a thin thread of hope, they would trample over each other like cattle, just to survive." the blond arose from the chair, and with his hands behind his back, he slowly paced along the bed. 

"But you said you could take all of us, or none. The matter of empty spots was not a problem. And you refused to disclose any such criteria of choosing. They all thought they had advantages and disadvantages over one another... Yet you clarified it was not the age, nor the body that you analysed, but who they are as persons. Acts of betrayal and the impulsivity of revenge did nothing to aid their case nor secure a spot to the Sanctuary." Michael found himself smiling at her. He missed such talks with her so much. It wasn't that she didn't understand the reason for people's evil actions, but that none had any justification, except the fickle emotions tainting their ration. Humans were so easily... Corrupted.

"That is just the nature of mankind, my darling, there is little one can do about it. God - If there even is one out there - Created us in his image, though he cursed us all, because of a single mistake that the first generation did. Even then, the snake with the silver tongue was able to bewitch those two into sinning... But was it the snake's fault for speaking the words it was created to whisper, or Adam and Eve's fault, for listening and choosing to disobey their father? Likewise, it is the gun's fault that one man died from a bullet, or the person pulling the trigger?" Katrina tilted her head upwards, her eyes meeting his own voluntarily, for the first time since they've been reunited. "I would much rather die than allow any harm to come your way, Michael." she admitted in such a delicate voice, that Michael's smile only widened in disbelief. Such a bold declaration of selfless, pure love was something that she would be capable of vocalising. In a swift move, Langdon found himself sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands on her face, eyes wide in wonder, star-struck as though he was seeing Divine Providence, the same way a leper was cured by Jesus from his leprosy, and Lazarus was resurrected four days after his death. "I know, my sweet angel, I know." he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. "You have always been sacred." Michael reached for the needle and the dress, throwing them far away, in a corner. When the beauty attempted to protest, she was silenced by the man shifting his position to kneel between her legs, his hands holding her own.  "No, Michael, I-- I need to finish this dress before the Masquerade!" she whimpered. "I-I don't... I don't want to get punished for disobeying!" he could feel her trembling under his touch. "The last person who dared tell Venable that you are the leader here got... Severely punished." the fear she was so evidently displaying almost aroused him, were it not for the power trip of that wretch who dared terrify his beloved. "My love, what is there for you to fear anymore? Venable's word will mean nothing to you, once we've departed for the Sanctuary." he reassured tenderly. "Your beautiful fingers are bleeding, my darling. How many times have you pricked them, in you attempt at rushing the heavy work?" "Don't blame my incompetence on the work I have been assigned to do." she muttered, snatching her hands back and holding them to her chest. "Until the day that we leave, I have no choice but to obey the rules instilled, be them fair or not." "I will not allow you to do such a silly thing." the man chuckled, leaning closer to her. "You and I will go together to Venable's silly party, and you will be wearing the most beautiful dress there is, and your gorgeous hair will be let loose to dance around you every time I twirling you into my arms - All that, just to spite that self-important bitch who dared torment you." his voice, hushed yet dark, held an ominous tone to it.

Langdon's fingers gingerly trailed down, from her cheek to her jaw, and down to her neck, and to her cleavage, where he began unbuttoning the shirt-like dress with the colour of dust. She said nothing, though she needn't, as her cheeks were a shade of the deepest red. She felt the sash holding the apron over laxing and being set loose, and onto the ground. She felt so vulnerable, being unburdened by another, though she needn't be, as she had slept in his own shirt, just two or three nights prior. Why was it so different, so... Intimate, when another was doing it, looking so deep into her eyes, like a hawk watching its prey... No, rather, like an artist watching his most beloved masterpiece... His magnum opus. For Michael, the woman laying underneath him so timidly, like lamb with the softest, whitest fleece, was his salvation, the single spark of light in the endless pit of darkness, in which he felt himself succumbing like quicksand. She was that single, thin spider web string of silver hope on which he alone was clingy onto, like a man lost at desert, desperate for his oasis.

"Will you ever be able to forgive my unsightly behaviour, my love? I have been waiting so long... I have been pining so long... And search far and wide, agonising over the thought of having allowed you to be lost in this mayhem. I cannot bare living in a world without you, it is half a life, if even that much. Stumbling alone in the dark, without you was what most would describe as torment." his words were seducing, yet sincere. "I have wished to help you remember on your own, at the pace you needed for you to feel safe. I wished to earn your trust, naturally, and for you to develop your own feelings for me, the same as you did back then, when we were so young and impressionable, and so, so innocent." the man sighed, feeling his own arousal burning him hotter than the blight of hell, as though he was walking on brimstone. "But I cannot resist the temptation whenever you are around me. I feel suffocated with desire whenever I see your beauty, and my heart stops with love when those green eyes of yours gaze at me so tenderly. My whole body trembles with greedy concupiscence, just feeling your sweet perfume... And my skin immolates with every spot you touch." his body over hers, unveiled in the warmth of candlelight, the way God created them, Katrina's chest, glued to his own, could feel the rapid and uneven beating of Michael's heart. Her whole body felt incinerated with a hazy sensation of kindliness and heat, a sort of comfort that... Seemed to be transcend her into new planes of existence. "Michael?" she found herself whispering as she wrapped his slender arms gingerly around his torso, pulling him even closer to her, if that were even humanly possible. "Tell me something. Anything. I want to hear your voice." "I love you." the woman let out a soft gasp - She couldn't understand how, or why, but she could feel the honesty of his soul. "... Do you mean it?" she asked, wishing to feel the gentle caress of truth washing her in waves again. "I have loved you since the first time I saw you." he admittance was gospel. "Michael." she whispered. "My soul can... Feel... That your words hold candour. I cannot explain how or... Why... But I can feel it." Michael shifted his body so his own arms will be embracing his lover, one arm around her body, the other, serving as rest for her head. He leaned down to touch his forehead to her own. "As a witch, you were able to feel when people lied to you. It is a variation of one of the Seven Wonders, namely Divination. You are reaching new steps in your awakening, my love. Familiarity is helping you remember who you are." the adoration of his voice, praising and encouraging her so tenderly, made her feel as though she couldn't breathe, yet for once, it wasn't out of fear. It was an overwhelming sense of endearment and fondness. "Have we done this before?" the pink peonies in her cheeks glowed with heat, speaking so sinfully. "No." he smiled. "We were so young back then, and the world around us was dictating our every action. It is different now. It is just you and I, my sweet angel. Just you and I."

Morning had arrived faster than expected, and Langdon's eyes shot open, his head tilted to the side. A velvety curtain of scarlet hair was draped all over the beautiful woman cuddled so peacefully in his arms. She hadn't woken up yet. It was the sole night when she hadn't been tormented by nightmares. Michael was satisfied with the outcome. Not only was his sweet angel sleeping so tranquil, but the events of the night kept replaying into his head, making his smile in delight. Every new expression that he's never had the privilege of witnessing before, and every honeyed thrill she sang to him made him shiver with lust and greed. What a sinner he was, indulging in every one of his hedonistic desires, with the woman he cherished endlessly - She made him feel insatiable, forever hungry, only for her. Though he wanted to spend more time bathing in her restful grace and feel her chest going up and down with every breath she took, to feel the soft crimson locks around his hand and he idly plays and caresses it...  He had work to do. So much work, that ultimately will lead to the supreme climax of each and every one of these worthless urchins dying a most painful death. They deserved it. They were all tainted. Disgusting. Predictable. 

They were all so flawlessly human.

Michael carefully got off the bed, admiring the way his beloved looked, swallowed in his dark, disheveled shirt, the blanket only half draped over her body, and he went to get ready to leave the room. He got off on tempting and toying with all these idiots. She was going to be safe in his room - After all, who'd dare sneak in? Except for the dumbass couple whom he indirectly seduced into searching for his well-written words and finding out the regulations on their own, and encouraging them to sin.

Whilst away, Langdon's door was kicked open, and from inside the room, the red haired Grey squealed in fright, jumping to her knees, wrapping her body instinctively with the blanket. Squinting her tired eyes, she saw Miss Mead and Venable, along with two other large, muscular women who served as henchmen. 

"You know the regulations, Grey." Venable spat, even more disgust, as it was Langdon she was fucking, and not one of the many survivors. "A smart person learns from other's mistakes, they say. Evidently, your spot as a Grey, along with your blatant disregard for the rules, proves that you have earned your spot here for your sheer stupidity." how could they know? Who told them? Who spied on them so shamelessly, like disgusting lechers? "Take her."

At once, the two henchwomen stomped by the bed and one slapped the ant's face so hard that she fell back on the bed, while the other one buried her meaty hand into the cascade of crimson hair, and with inhuman force, she dragged her off the bed. She wasn't allowed to get up and walked  by herself properly - Instead, the first one grabbed her other arm and they roughly got her to the punishing room, where she was thrown to the hard ground. "Do we kill her, Miss Venable?" "Not yet." the woman tapped her cane next to the pitiful form of the woman shaking violently with fear, her face wet with tears rapidly falling down. "Did you think you were smart? Shamelessly seducing and opening your legs for the Cooperative man, thinking he would bring you to the Sanctuary? You are a disgrace for womankind." Katrina looked so tiny and insignificant, huddled into the wall, hoping to just disappear from the world. "Do you know who told us?" the girl shook her head. "You should." Venable smiled venomously. "Langdon." "He didn't." Katrina spat in a tone low and harsh. Venable laughed mockingly. "You shouldn't delude yourself so desperately, stupid girl. Accept reality. Your plan failed, and Langdon abandoned you. In fact, he is pushing for a death sentence, all things considered. Perhaps you hadn't performed to his satisfaction." the three other women laughed tauntingly. "Stop lying. I can sense your lies from a mile away. I know it wasn't him." were it not for her new-found ability, the frightened lamb would have never dared, speak back to a person of authority... But somehow, she had faith and certainty that Michael hadn't betrayed her. Last night was genuine - All of it. Every little thing they did, every declaration, every confession - They were all sincere. Were it not for Michael, she wouldn't have had courage. She wouldn't have seen any meaning in protesting or fighting back. Loneliness was dark and depressing, and solitude was her greatest pain for so long, something beyond her control, something that eats away at her very soul, little by little, eroding at her very core. Michael was different. Michael knew her. Michael was SEEING her. Michael loved her.  "Delusional whore." Venable spat with anger. "Miss Mead." she called out her right hand's name. "The whip."

The burly woman smiled with sadistic glee as she took the black whip into her hand, and with extreme precision and accuracy, she cracked it against the expensive cashmere of Langdon's shirt hanging shapelessly from her body. Venable felt such perverse satisfaction, imagining the Cooperative wretch having flesh being torn from its bone from the repeated whipping, though the annoyingly pitched shriek from the sobbing ant was beginning to get on her nerves. "If you want this to stop, tell us what you know of Langdon." "Nothing! I know nothing! We j-just met! Wh-Why would h-he disclose c-clas-sified information t-to some G-Grey?!" the tortured soul stuttered in searing agony, but the torment went on, and on, and on, with more degrading comments and humiliation. "Stop! Please, stop! I can't take it anymore! It hurts! Please, I beg of you, stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" but she was so lost in her own personal hell that she didn't hear the door opening, Venable and Mead leaving, letting the other two henchwomen finish the job. "STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!" her broken shriek that rawed her throat so much that it bled. And then it all stopped.

Only her distressed, broken weeps were echoing through the small, blindingly white room - For how long, she was unaware - But she heard her name being called, by the velvety voice of her lover, who was standing in the door frame, eyes wide with shock at the carnage painting the room like a religious mural. "My love?" though she was unable to move or look at him, she felt comforted by his presence. "What did they do to you?!" Michael rushed to her side, angrily stomping on the discarded leg of one of the torturers, and he fell next to his beloved. He wanted to throw his arms around her, but seeing his shirt being torn to ribbons and shreds. Her flesh was painted red, slashed and abused by the leather rope of the whip. How dare they commit such an atrocity? Didn't they know such folly deserved eternal torment in the deepest pits of hell? Had Dante Alighieri written Inferno for no reason? "I-It hurts so much, Mickey, it hurts so much. I f-feel so weak, I... I feel like -- Like I'm dying." she finally dared twist her aching body to hide in his arms, her fingers holding onto and wrinkling his coat with decrepit strength. "My darling -- Look at me. Look at me." he placed his hands on her pale cheeks, looking at her exhausted, sweaty face, hair aimlessly sticking to her face. "Remember how you healed me, my love? You can do so for yourself. Let me help you." her breathing was ragged and hot, gritting her teeth in sheer agony as Langdom gingerly removed the scraps of black shirt from her body, leaving her bare and vulnerable before his devilish eyes. "Do you trust me?" his hands held hers, giving them a reassuring squeeze, his lips almost touching her own. His whispery voice sent a shiver down her spine. "Venable said you were the one who betrayed me." she replied, a pained vibrato in her voice. "She said you were using me for your own lecherous needs, and that you have abandoned me." "And do you believe her?" the man frowned, feeling wrath taking over his senses. "No." Kat smiles delicately. "I knew she was lying." she continued, taking a few deep breaths to keep herself awake. "It only reinforced my trust in you." the man captured her lips, tasting like salted caramel from all the tears, distracting her from the slight sting of guiding her hands over her body. 

"Good." he muttered, his lips moving along her jaw, and to her neck, in trails of romantic kisses. "It was Andre." he admitted the truth, gazing lustfully through hooded lids at the lewd and salacious imagery before him, an angel covered in blood, smearing it all over her body, like a temptress succubus attempting to seduce him. "He was jealous on us." he continued, inhaling a sharp breath, arousal heightening his senses. "The other two were told on, by him also. Nearly died." with each trace of her wounds, they would heal rapidly, until no sign of whip, nor scar existed on her soft flesh. "Venable cooked and fed him his lover, who cheated on him. If he cannot have sexual gratification, no one is allowed to know bliss." "Fool." Kat moaned, feeling her strength returning, bit by bit. "Will you take him with us?" "Not even in his dreams." Michael scoffed, and once all of her injuries were healed, he brought her into an embrace, uncaring of the blood stains on his expensive, elegant clothes. "Nobody who hurts my sweet angel should hold any hope of living." he scoffed, taking off his coat and wrapping her in it, like a blanket. "Let us return to my room, sweetling." he picked her up in his arms with ease, only to realise his mistake, as he exposed her to the eviscerated bodies of the henchwomen, body parts splattered everywhere.  "Wh-Who did this...?" the girl whimpered, bewildered and unable to comprehend what she was seeing. "You did." he smiled tenderly at her. "No, I -- I couldn't have! How could I?" she gasped, looking in disbelief. "There is a limit to the pains a delicate angel like yourself can endure. You must have been so desperate to make it all stop, that your innate powers acted up on their own to protect you." he explained, swiftly stepping out of the accursed chamber. "Will you ever have it in your heart  to forgive me for not being there to protect you?" he placed her on the bed, his eyes desperate and sorrowful for his failure. "What is there to forgive, Mickey? You were not there - I know you would have intervened. I know you would have saved me." she smiled tenderly at him. "Would I be too daring, were I to ask to wear your shirt instead? I love the material of it." Michael chuckled, amused, as his nimble finger unbuttoned his shirt and helped her dress it. "May I... Also... Ask for one of your rings?" Michael looked down at his hands, and picked the smallest one he had, before gingerly slipping it on her thumb.  "You used to wear jewellery every time we met. Rings and bracelets and necklaces..." his nostalgic smile seemed to afflict her also. "But my favourite accessory of yours have always been..." with a swish of his wrist, he created a flower crown made out of black roses, and placed it on top of her head. "Flowers." "I really love flowers." she smiled bashfully, looking down as her fingers delicately traced the ring on her thumb. "Thank you, Michael."

Doomsday was approaching at an unexpectedly fast pace, and the Halloween Masquerade that got everyone so excited was knocking at their door. Venable thought she was being smart, she thought the poisoned apple plan was her own witty idea. If she cannot be saved, no one else can. If only she knew she was the one being played, and the tale of Snow White was going to have a tragically fatalistic tale - For everyone but Snow White, that is. The ugly hag was going to get painfully dismembered by the Prince, and she will never get the chance to harm his beloved Snow White princess. The seven dumb dwarves can die, for all he cared - None meant anything to him. It was only her. Only his angel.

"Would you like me to tell you another one of the angel and demon's adventure, my sweet flower?" the man asked, getting in bed next to his beloved. "No." she turned to him, her palm placed on his bare chest. "I want you to tell me of our adventures, instead. No more metaphors or allegories. Just us. Kat and Mickey." Michael looked at her, and he offered a boyish grin, engulfing her in his arms. "I would be delighted to!" he felt so giddy, like a child being gifted a puppy. "It all happened so long ago, when we were young children, and you found me in the forest..."

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