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tourettesdog · 1 year

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DPxDC Prompt where Jazz has known grief for a while now. The soulmark on her left arm has been faded and blackened for over a year. She’s had time to mourn, but nothing can scrub the reminder from Jazz’s arm or erase the choking memory of air escaping her lungs when it faded.

She never even got to meet them.

When Danny dies in the portal, Jazz thinks she might just be destined to a life of loss. Danny is still here, he’s still alive in some way, but Jazz can’t help but wonder what Danny’s own soulmate has gone through. Her brother’s soulmark is still there too, but it’s sickly green and scarred over by the fern-like patterns of his deathscar. She can only imagine a mark to match her own on his soulmate.

Danny hopes his soulmate will move on. Jazz tries not to think about it and she does her best not to press the issue, letting him grieve in his own way.

Fate is a strange thing, however, and their world is turned on its head when Jazz’s soulmark begins to blaze the same, sickly green as Danny’s.

Jazz becomes obsessed with finding out how, while Danny dares to wonder if he gave up too soon.

Tim hasn’t had a good night’s rest since his soulmark bled green. He’s done research, exhausted every outlet he has, but he can find no history of a mark like his.

He can only assume his soulmate is dead. Survival does not coexist with the excruciating pain he felt coursing through his veins, so much so that he thought he would die alongside them. The mark taunts him more than anything.

Though when Jason Todd resurfaces, clawing his way back into Gotham in the same way he clawed himself from the grave, Tim’s eyes are drawn to the sickly green mark on his forearm.

[I kind of went buckwild with this idea and wrote several different branching ideas attached to it, so they go under the readmore.]

Mental image of Jason just being in one hell of a funk, and Tim awkwardly approaching him like "Look, I know we have our issues but there was a day I felt like my entire body was on fire and being torn to pieces. My mark's been this sickly green since... I'm pretty sure they're gone. Like I don't know how they wouldn't be, even though it's still there-- in a way. So like, I get it."

I imagine something going wrong in Amity-- bad reveal-- and Jazz and Danny have to upend their lives over it. Jazz was trying to find out what her returned soulmark might mean within the ghost zone, following whatever information she could-- but now they have to leave everything behind and it feels like grieving again.

Danny's still trying not to get his hopes up that his partner's mark would have returned just cause Jazz's has. But he's frustrated, and now feels guilty that his slipup led to them having to leave their home.

Jazz keeps telling Danny it's not his fault, that they mightve never found anything out anyway, but it still eats at him.

They move to Gotham cause it's got enough ambient ectoplasm to help Danny.

But then Danny notices something ghostly about Red Hood and starts getting close to him. He doesnt bring up ghost's right away, but tries to slowly broach the topic. Eventually Red Hood shows Danny his odd soulmark and Danny just about passes out from the adrenaline rush of seeing Jazz's mark in that familiar sickly green.

Danny doesn't know how to approach the situation without compromising either of their identities.

He even shows Jason his own mark. Jason can't quite make it out with the deathscar through it. It kinda looks like the crow Tim has, but it could also be any kind of bird and Tim usually hides his. Birds are common-- he should know.

Seeing as Phantom's called himself a ghost, and it might not even be the same mark, Jason doesn't think it's a good idea to tell Tim and give him some false hope. (Though the coincidence of another strange green mark has his mind lingering on it). Phantom's said it himself that he's been dead for awhile and he's sure his soulmate has moved on.

But Danny can't stop looking for a man with Red Hood's build and Jazz's mark.

And the more Jason hangs around Phantom and gets hints that they're very alike (and that Phantom is more alive than he lets on), he starts trying to figure out how he can get another glance at Tim's (usually-covered) soulmark to see if they're as similar as he thinks. (For shenanigans too, maybe Jason doesn't even know that Tim's mark is green now; maybe he's only ever seen a photo of it from before he started covering it).

Bonus points if Jazz somehow becomes friends with Tim Jazz being like "Oh hey my friend Tim invited us over for dinner, wanna come?"

For one hell of a chaotic, maximum fuckery reveal:

Everyone's in long sleeves/jackets for one reason or another (temperature or comfort) at dinner Danny feels Jason's ghostly bullshit right away though and will not stop Staring at him. Jason can't feel it back since his senses aren't as strong and Danny's much more muted while he's human. Danny's trying to subtly spill shit on Jason or in some other way try to see his mark. It backfires on Danny and his mark gets shown instead Cue Tim freaking out and Danny, in his infinite wisdom, blurting out about Jason's mark

Then when they all realize they just accidentally all had their identities outed, AND now have to discuss the reality of two of them being halfdead/having died

- Alternative identity shenanigans:

Tim and Jazz being friends and he sees sees her mark and just gets thrown through the emotional ringer. But he doesn't think he can come out and tell Jazz about Jason because her finding out he died and somehow came back could have some serious ramifications and risk their identities.

But he also thinks Jason deserves some happiness and Jazz is a great person who Jason would get along with easily.

And Tim just can't stop thinking of his own mark now, for the first time in a long time. It just consumes his thoughts, and he eventually decides to introduce Jason to Jazz.

But Danny tags along and he and Jason immediately recognize each other's ghostly bullshit and Tim's plan of slowly introducing the two gets immediately sidelined

Tim shows Jazz his own mark, trying to gauge what her reaction will be if he lets her know they have the same situation going on with their marks-- only for Jazz to just like almost wrench his arm out of his socket to get a better look at it because she'd never forget Danny's mark, nevermind the color.

- Another scenario (cause I wasn't lying when I said I went Buckwild):

Danny tries to lay low in Gotham, but his obsession eventually has him sticking his neck out.

The bats are suspicious of Phantom and want answers. Jason is out of the loop a bit and independently starts befriending Phantom after Danny catches whiff of his ectoplasm

The bats eventually catch Danny with some acquired Fenton tech. The tech is more harmful than the bats expected and in his mad scramble to escape Danny's sleeve gets torn and Tim gets a glimpse of a familiar mark in that mess of green lichtenbergs. It's a sight that haunts him, marred by ectoplasm dripping from Phantom's wide-eyed face and down his shoulder.

Tim keeps trying to find Phantom to talk to him and apologize but he's gone off radar.

Jason's heard about what happened but keeps quiet about what he knows when Phantom still comes to him to talk. He can tell Phantom is more hesitant to be around him, but is glad he's still willing to meet him.

But Jason does want to actually see the soulmark for himself. So he starts talking about his own and they show each other theirs

And while Danny likes being friends with Red Hood, he is aware he has connections to the bats and that getting too close to him could put him in danger. But he sees Jazz's mark on him and feels physically ill because how can he deny telling Jazz about it just because he's afraid?

And Jason could tell Phantom about Tim's mark, but how can he tell him after what happened between the bats and Phantom, and when it would compromise their identities?

Jazz, throughout all of this, has been stressed out worrying about how to keep her little brother safe and make sure the bats never hurt him again, while she keeps unknowingly befriending the bats, starting with her coworker Babs.

Nevermind Tim just thinking his soulmate is a full on ghost in this situation.

#dpxdc #dpxdc prompts #dpxdc crossover #dogprompts #soulmates #as always feel free to pick for parts you like and don't like if you use the prompt #especially with the branching options

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hbyrde36 · 3 months

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Times Like These

(The Anniversary Edition)

Link to anniversary post

Now with amazing FANART 😱

When Eddie finds himself back in his living room, staring down a very alive Chrissy Cunningham, after just having bled to death himself in the middle of a nightmare world, he was rightfully very, very fucking confused.

-Or-

What happens when the new guy, who only just got inducted into the fucked up world of monsters and mayhem, gets stuck in a time loop and finds himself responsible for saving everyone?

Chapter 1: The Hell Loop

WC: 2,902 | AO3 link

Eddie could hardly breathe past the blood that was flooding into his mouth, threatening to choke him before he even had the opportunity to bleed out. He tried to keep it together for Dustin’s sake. The last thing he wanted was for the kid to get hurt or have to see something like this, hence the cutting of the rope, but traumatized was a hell of a lot better than dead, so he couldn’t regret either of the choices he’d made.

“I love you, man.”

Eddie forced the words out, coughing and sputtering

“I love you too.” Dustin replied.

Eddie couldn’t see anymore, but the tears in the younger boy's voice were hard to miss.

It was the last thing he heard before he died.

Dying didn’t hurt, quite the opposite actually. Eddie could pinpoint the exact moment he passed on, because it was the same moment the pain stopped. He found himself floating away into an unfamiliar blackness and couldn’t even bring himself to be scared. He was too relieved at being free of the agony and guilt.

Before he could do much more than wonder where he was floating off to, a loud almost overwhelming rushing sound hit his ears. Instinctually, he tried to cover them to drown out the noise, only to realize he didn’t exactly have a body right now. No ears to cover, no hands to do it with.

With that frightening thought his eyes shot open, -oh thank fuck he had eyes again- and his feet hit solid ground. Inexplicably, he was back in the trailer. He looked up to find that the ceiling was intact, and Chrissy Cunningham– whole, and alive, was standing just a few feet in front of him, looking nervous and jittery.

“Are you sure you have it?”

What the actual fuck?

“Holy shit, Chrissy! You’re alive?!” Eddie gasped.

Her face twisted up in confusion, a feeling Eddie was also becoming intimately familiar with. What was this? Some life-flashing-before-your-eyes-on-the-way-to-the-grave bullshit? But he was already dead, he was sure of it, so that could only mean…

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” he blurted out.

Why he was apologizing to some visage of the past that probably wasn't even real, he did not know, but it felt appropriate.

She’d been through a lot.

“You’re probably not alive, actually, if you’re here. Since I'm, y’know– dead, and all.” He continued, letting out a frankly deranged sounding laugh as he began to pace around the room.

“But why are you here?” He mused, thinking out loud.

It could actually be her, he reasoned. She was dead too, right? But that would mean they wound up in the same place and that was absolutely ridiculous.

A sweet little thing like her?

Guaranteed one way ticket to the good place.

And Eddie?

Well, he never had any doubts about where he was going to end up.

The realization hit him like a Mack truck, stopping him in his tracks.

“Oh my god, I’m in Hell. This is Hell. I ran away. I ran– I didn’t even try to help you and then I fucking died!” Eddie let out a painful sob as he dropped to his knees on the floor, hands covering his face. Now that he was back here, having to face her again after what he’d done, It was all hitting him at once.

His voice shook as he continued rambling. “Right in front of Dustin too… and- and now this is my Hell. I’ll probably have to watch you die, over-and-over-and-over again.”

He felt the air shift, heard the light footsteps as Chrissy took a few hesitant steps towards him.

“Watch me die?” She said, voice cracking, sounding so, so small and scared. “Eddie, please… you’re kind of freaking me out.”

Shit, he really couldn’t stop fucking this up could he?

Even if Hell-Chrissy wasn’t real, he still felt horrible for scaring her. None of this was her fault. He rubbed at his face hard and took a deep calming breath before looking up at her again.

She wasn’t looking at him anymore though. She was rigid, staring straight ahead at something he couldn’t see, only the whites of her eyes visible as they rolled to the back of her head.

He jumped to his feet, every instinct in his body screaming at him to run, again, but fuck that. He was already dead, probably, and none of this was real– he was almost sure none of this was real, but maybe he could still try to help her.

Music had snapped Red out of it, maybe it would work for Chrissy too.

Eddie raced to his bedroom, snatching his Walkman off the bed before sprinting back to the living room. He knew it was pretty fucking unlikely that the head cheerleader of Hawkins High was a secret Metallica fan, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

He gently placed the headphones over her ears and pressed play, the volume loud enough that he could just make out the sound of the opening riff to Master of Puppets.

It didn’t work.

He hadn’t really thought it would.

He forced himself to watch as her body began to float.

Listened to the sickening snap as each of her arms and legs were twisted, and broken.

Stood frozen, a silent witness, unmoving until her body dropped to the floor like a ragdoll.

He didn't even scream.

He’d tried, and he hadn’t let her die alone. It was all he could do.

Hell or not, Eddie wasn’t keen on hanging out with a dead body if he could help it. So finally, he let himself go, grabbing his keys off the counter, and rushed out to the van.

–

Eddie drove slowly, aimlessly around town, at a bit of a loss for what to do next. It was a far cry from the way he’d peeled out of the trailer park and sped down the road on the night of Chrissy’s actual death, heart racing like a trapped rat desperately seeking shelter from a predator he couldn't even see. This time around he just felt numb.

Not knowing what else to do, he decided to follow his previous course of action. If he was right in assuming that he was being made to relive his greatest hits from the last 7 days, at least this way he knew he’d get to see Dustin’s face again. He drove towards Lover’s Lake, already dreading spending another night at Rick’s.

–

The morning after a sleepless night found him back in a boat, hiding under a tarp, and clutching tightly to the neck of a broken beer bottle. The numbness had faded hours ago, leaving the door open for anxiety and terror to return in full force. In short, Eddie was freaking out.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he’d left Chrissy's body to grow cold on the living room floor, but the second he heard the voices outside the boathouse he went into panic mode, just as he had the first time, unsure of what or who might be coming for him.

Would it be more visions from the past? Or had the devil finally sent his minions to collect.

A few confusing moments, and a jab to the ribs with a fucking wooden oar later, Eddie was, for the second time in his life, throwing Steve Harrington violently against a wall and shoving a jagged edge of glass close enough to his throat that one deep breath would draw blood.

He stared into the other boy's eyes from inches away, and he wanted to drop the bottle. He remembered every single thing Steve and the others had done for him as he faced down the worst week of his life, but this could very well be Hell.

And that might not be the Steve he’d come to trust.

The one he’d come to know wasn’t the same stuck up asshole he remembered from high school, who had proven time and time again that he was a good guy.

And he couldn’t afford to be wrong.

“Eddie! Stop!” The thing that looked like Dustin shouted. “Eddie, it’s me, it's Dustin. This is Steve, he’s not gonna hurt you. Right, Steve?”

Eddie, wanting to believe it so badly, actually did lower the bottle a little, only to accidentally drop it to the ground, his only weapon shattering at his feet.

He fisted a hand into the front of Steve’s shirt.

“What are you doing here man, what do you want from me?”

Steve dropped the oar, all the breath whooshing out of him at once. “Dustin and Max wanted to find you. I’m just here to keep the little shits safe, I swear.”

Eddie caught movement out of the corner of his eye as Robin and Max began to approach from the side cautiously. Right, they had been there too, he'd almost forgotten.

“We just want to know what happened, Eddie. We wanna help,” Max said.

It was the earnestness in her voice that got him, that made him finally break and move away from Steve, allowing Robin to rush to his side.

“You won’t believe me,” Eddie said, barely recognizing the sound of his own voice with the way it trembled.

He was sure they wouldn't believe it. If it even mattered, if they were even really here, if any of this was even real.

He was still pretty convinced this was all just some form of divine punishment, and only happening in his own head, after all.

It wasn’t about what happened to Chrissy. He knew they would believe that, they had once already, but whatever else was going on here? This deja vu flashback thing or whatever it was? They had no reason to trust he was telling the truth about the fact that he was dead– or had died temporarily? Or that this had all happened to him before.

It was, admittedly, unbelievable.

So, he made a choice. He didn't tell them that part. He told the same story he had the first time around and they in turn told him a very short history of the Upside Down. It didn’t hit so hard this time, since he’d already heard it all once before, but it was still wild to think about everything this group had been through. He couldn’t believe it’d all been happening right under his nose.

Despite himself, he watched Steve through most of the explanations. Eddie had been so focused on his own experience at the time that he hadn’t paid much attention to him after the attempted throat slashing. He looked dejected, sad, already resigned to the fact that the monsters he’d been protecting these kids from for years now were back, again. Eddie sympathized.

The week flew by in a blur of blood, sweat, and tears, events unfolding in the exact same way that he remembered, and he never said a word about it to anyone.

He kept expecting it all to end somehow.

On the rare occasion that he fell asleep, he thought for sure he would wake up from this nightmare either back in his bed after having the longest most fucked up dream of his life, or somewhere– else, preferably on a fluffy cloud after having served his penance for petty crimes.

Unless god actually did hate the gays… then he was fucked.

It wasn’t until he and Dustin were alone, after fortifying the trailer and getting his guitar set up that he decided– maybe he’d been an idiot to just keep going along with the script like this. It’d been days without so much as a hint of fire and brimstone, so either he'd been sold a bill of goods his whole life about what Hell would be like, or, this was really happening.

Again.

At this point, neither possibility was a particularly good one. If he’d been somehow sent back in time and given a second chance, he had absolutely screwed it up.

Fuck it, he might as well tell Dustin now at least. See what happened.

“Alright, uh, listen, I have to tell you something– and I’m not sure you’re going to believe me but I swear I’m telling you the truth.”

Dustin laughed, bright and incredulous as he checked the plugs on the amp one last time. “After everything we’ve been through the past few days, and the shit I’ve seen over the last three years, do you really think there’s anything I wouldn’t believe?”

Ok, kid had a point.

Eddie took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.

Here goes nothing.

“I’ve been through this before, all of it, with you guys. For a while I thought I was in Hell, y’know? Doomed to relive Chrissy’s death over and over again, and between you and me I’m still not totally sure that isn’t the case, but then you guys found me in that damn boathouse just like before, and everything else has happened exactly like I remember, and I-”

His speech was cut short by Dustin screeching, “Are you serious right now?! You have to be fucking kidding me! I can’t believe you… you’re in a time loop and you didn’t say anything?!”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open, eyebrows raised up nearly to the bandana he had tied around his head. “Wait, you believe me?! Just like that?!”

Dustin put his hands on his hips, in a gesture that was eerily reminiscent of a certain babysitter that Eddie definitely hadn't developed the habit of staring at at every given opportunity.

Not the time!

“I wouldn’t say, just like that.” Dustin said, snapping his fingers. “If it was anyone outside of the party I would think they were crazy, but this is you we’re talking about. And like I said, after everything? This is not that hard to swallow. I mean, why would you make something like that–”

Dustin stopped abruptly, his entire demeanor changing on a dime as if he’d just discovered something awful. Belatedly, Eddie realized his mistake.

“Eddie, why would you think you were in Hell? Did you… “ The kid trailed off, and when he spoke next his voice was thick with unshed tears. “Do we lose? Did you…die?”

Eddie sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “Shit, I didn’t think– I guess there’s no way to tell you I might be repeating time without admitting it. Yeah, I… died. As far as Vecna, I have no idea. I was gone before Steve, Robin, and Nancy got back.”

Before he could respond, the Walkie in Dustin’s hand came to life, with Robin’s voice crackling through the small speaker. “She’s in, move on to phase 3. Over.”

“Guess that’s it. Time’s up.” Eddie muttered.

Dustin bit his lip as he looked at Eddie, eyes questioning and full of fear.

Eddie shook his head, silently answering the unasked question. He didn’t want Dustin to tell them, or try and stop this. It was too late. He refused to risk the kid, or somehow make things worse by changing the plan this late in the game.

Dustin squeezed his eyes closed and pressed the button on the handset to reply, “Copy that, initiating phase three. Over.”

Eddie gave the kid his best reassuring smile as he pulled the guitar strap up over his head and with shaking hands began to play, knowing there was no time to waste.

Bleeding out wasn’t any more fun the second time around.

Eddie had given it his all, fighting tooth and nail against those flying leeches, but there was no use. There were hundreds of them, and only one of him. Just as he had the first time he took off on that bike to lead the bats away, he’d known the fate he was resigning himself to. The difference this time was, he actually had a sliver of hope.

If the impossible happened once, maybe it could happen again.

“Sorry, kid.” Eddie said, choking back blood as he watched Dustin limp towards him. “Didn’t notice the leg last time–“ He paused, panting, trying to catch his breath. Talking had already become difficult. “Shouldn’t have cut the rope, s’not like it stopped you.”

He forced a smile, trying so hard not to let it show on his face just how much pain he was in. Not that there was much point, the kid had eyes. He could surely see the red ruin Eddie’s body had become.

Dustin sobbed openly and it broke Eddie’s heart.

“God damnit, Eddie!” He shouted, shaking his head and pounding the ground with his fist. “Promise me if you get another shot at this that you’ll tell me. Tell me as soon as you possibly can about the time loop. Please! We have to come up with another plan.”

Eddie wanted nothing more than to be able to scoop the boy into his arms and comfort him, might have tried anyway but he couldn't move. “What if you don’t believe me?” He choked out.

“I'm adopted,” Dustin blurted out through his sniffles. “My mom only told me last year. No one else knows, not even Steve, but… I trust you, Eddie. I’d believe you without it, but if you need to, tell me that and I’ll believe you.”

Eddie nodded, or tried to, and felt Dustin’s hand slip into his.

“I love you, man”

“I love you too”

Chapter 2

Thanks to @penny00dreadful for being the best beta, friend and cheerleader.

Shoutout also to @theheadlessphilosopher @withacapitalp and @hitlikehammers for the help and encouragement to do this.

Tagging a few friends that expressed interest or I think might be interested? I am ALWAYS happy to tag or remove - just let me know!

Taglist: @hitlikehammers @pearynice @cranberrymoons @thoroughlycollected @blubblesandink @finntheehumaneater @brbsoulnomming @estrellami-1 @hellion-child @mentallyundone @manda-panda-monium @spicysix @kikidoesfanfic @dreamwatch

#steddie fanfic #time loop #pov eddie munson #stranger things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve harrington/eddie munson #steve x eddie #steddie fic #fanfic #hbyrde's anniversary project

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clacefe · 11 months

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Secrets whispered at dawn

Thomas M. Shelby x OC (hinted at)

Summary: Tommy reflects on how he probably shouldn't be thinking about another woman so soon after Grace's death.

Warnings: Depression, angst, pining

Word count: 544 (she's a short one)

A/N: I've returned from the land of the dead to bring you this angsty piece about one of the many characters that'll make me voluntarily go down on my knees.

Thomas Michael Shelby watched the sun rise through the net curtains hanging from the impossibly large window in his home office.

The sun got caught in the sliver of smoke that rose from the cigarette in his right hand, a china cup of Earl Grey brought in by a maid whose name he didn’t bother to learn remained untouched in front of him.

He absentmindedly thought he should remind the maids that he didn’t need anything in the morning. Other than a cigarette, or three.

These days he didn’t need much to function, really. Just a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of whiskey and perhaps some brown opium; to keep him calm.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Tommy knew that the random gaps in his memory was the consequence of his continued sleep-deprivation and general amount of stress. But he didn’t care. Or rather, he couldn’t afford to care about that at the moment.

His wife had died in his arms not even three weeks ago and here he was in his ostentatious leather chair, already thinking about another woman. Even in a gangster’s book it was considered immoral. He felt like he was metaphorically spitting on Grace’s flower-adorned grave.

And he had loved Grace. Once. Back when he still lived in Watery Lane in a house that was never silent, unlike Arrow House. It was there in that cramped bedroom that he found love after France.

But after she came back from the Americas something had changed between them. They still made love, acted like husband and wife, but deep down he knew he didn’t love her. Not anymore. He’d kept Grace around of course; she was a good companion and the mother of his child. He’d rather have eaten a bullet than let his son grow up without his mother.

Turns out he didn’t need to take that bullet, considering someone else did it for him, namely his former wife.

It made him think he was too dangerous for anyone to love. Anyone who dared get close to him either ran for the hills after seeing the danger or ended up in a casket buried 4 feet deep.

It was why he pushed everyone away, kin included.

And yet, she didn’t care one bit. She still waved at him with a merry hello each time he passed her, a great contrast with the dreary Small Heath. It baffled Tommy to this day how a serious man like Henry Briggs could have such a ray of sunshine as a daughter.

It’d always been that way, even before he got sent to France to fight in the mud. And secretly, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself, it made his day just that bit better. It made him think of something else than just business, or men fighting for their lives in the trenches.

Each time she opened that lovely mouth to speak to him, his hands balled up into fists with his nails leaving crescent marks in his palms, just so he didn’t touch her. Or take the basket filled with fruits and vegetables he’d seen her carry sometimes.

She made him feel like a sliver of the old Tommy, from before the war. And it scared him.

#thomas shelby #tommy shelby #peaky blinders #peaky fookin blinders #tommy shelby x reader #thomas shelby x reader #thomas shelby x oc #tommy shelby x oc

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differenteagletragedy · 2 months

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Baxter was a big believer in fate. Fate, magic, things happening when they were destined to happen, the universe letting things fall into place in its own time. In his darkest moments, it kept him sane, and in his brightest, it made him happy.

But then he lost you. And now he doesn’t believe in anything anymore.

It had been years since he'd put you in the ground -- which meant years since he'd last seen your smile, since he last held you. Your scent had lingered in the home you shared for a while after, but that was long gone now too. There were days when it felt like the thin gold band on his left ring finger was the only thing that tethered him to the earth. Without it -- without the tangible proof he could see whenever he wanted that you'd been here with him, that you'd loved him enough to promise him forever, even though neither of you had known how short "forever" would be -- he wasn't sure where he'd be.

In that time, he'd tried different things to soothe himself. He'd left all your belongings out, and when it didn't work, when seeing your toothbrush in the bathroom and your clothes in the closet tricked his brain into thinking that you'd come home, of course you'd come home, he boxed everything up and stuck it all in the guest room. Seeing his apartment back in its original state just reminded him of how lonely he was before you came back to him though -- after a prolonged panic attack and untold hours spent sobbing on the floor with your things strewn around him, he realized that didn't quite work either.

He tried visiting your grave regularly, bringing flowers and keeping it neat. He tried spending time with your friends and your family, and going to places that you loved and listening to your favorite songs ... nothing did the trick. Nothing soothed the ache you'd left him with.

Eventually, Baxter decided that he'd hurt long enough. It wasn't that he wanted to forget you, he'd never want that, it was that he simply couldn't survive if he continued living for someone who was dead.

Practicing breathing and grounding exercises he'd learned in therapy, he started by going through the boxes in the guest room. He carefully selected items -- the photos, some keepsakes from the wedding, a shirt of yours that he'd let himself hold onto if things got bad again -- and the rest, he took to your mothers.

He didn't renew his lease. He sold his car, he quit his job. And he left.

Baxter was nearly 40 when he met someone new -- someone that stoked a fire deep inside of him that he'd been sure had long been extinguished. He'd lived on the east coast for a few years by then, picked up a new career that didn't have him dealing directly with love every day. He lived in a one bedroom apartment, having lost all hope of needing a guest room, and now he wore his wedding ring on a chain around his neck.

It was difficult at first -- of course it was, falling in love after all this time. He'd made phone calls to Xavier, who remained his best friend, as well as Jude and Scott, desperately looking for some perspective. It was Jude who finally managed to get through to him. You'd want him to be happy, he'd told Baxter. You wouldn't want him to be alone.

For a while, he was scared that he was replacing you, that somehow you'd see what he was doing and be upset with him. He was careful not to do the same things he'd done with you, to almost not show the same side of himself that only you had known, but that didn't work. He was, for better or for worse, still himself.

But this new person was remarkably patient, and so respectful of you -- they'd found out about you early on, through conversation and through the ring he still wore around his neck. They were gentle and loving and kind, and Baxter felt himself giving into the comfort. To the happiness.

It felt strange, and he fought the feeling, probably for too long. But they stayed with him. They saw in him what you had all those years ago, they were able to look past his walls and his trauma and defenses, the at times pretentious and constantly terrified exterior and inside to the all the parts that were left -- and they saw beauty in those parts. They loved him even though he was broken.

One day, like it was nothing, Baxter woke up feeling lighter. Like somehow a fog that had, at this point, been around him for almost all his life had started lifting. He expected to feel scared without the familiarity of the weight on his chest, but he didn't. He felt free.

Alone in his bedroom, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, then got up and started unbuttoning his pajama top, getting ready for a shower. As he slid the shirt off his shoulders, he saw something glitter in the reflection of a mirror.

His wedding ring.

He paused, considering. Then he went back towards the bed. Kneeling, he reached under the bed and pulled out a box, then sat on the floor and opened up. Almost ritualistically, he ran his graceful fingers along the box's contents. A khaki shirt, worn for a day then carefully laundered and folded for a keepsake. An invitation for a wedding that was supposed to be the official start of the rest of his life before everything turned sideways. A cheap feather boa from half a lifetime ago.

As he looked over everything, that familiar ache bubbled up inside of him, but it was bearable this time. It didn't leave him doubled over and weeping -- it hurt, but it was ok, because it had to be. Because he had to keep moving.

With careful hands, he reached up and slid off his necklace. He put the ring in his palm, studying it. Remembering.

Then he put it in the box.

Baxter was ready to move on. Not to forget -- never to forget -- but to heal. To make himself into a person that you'd be proud of again. To open his heart fully to love, because from the beginning, that's all you ever wanted him to do.

#our life beginnings and always #baxter ward #baxter x reader #baxter x you #baxter x mc #baxter ward x reader #baxter ward x you #baxter ward x mc #RIP MC

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jamisonwritestf2trash · 7 months

Note

may i request sniperscout angst, specifically hcs about how theyd handle eachotjers deaths in a no-respawn au

SniperScout Angst Headcanons (No Respawn AU)

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Of course you can! Even though it breaks my heart because I love Sniperscout sm 😭 Also almost back to back Scout angst, what did this man do to you people?

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Uh, a little off-topic, but I feel like Sniper and Scout are Nick and Gatsby, I don't know. Is that weird? Like sure, we know Sniper talks to his parents, but I feel like his mom would be the only one to come while Scout planned the entire funeral. Anyway, on to the actual headcanons!

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Scout locked himself in Snipers van. Bearly eating or drinking, he won't talk to anyone. He just lays on the bed, holding on to anything that could remind him of Sniper. He's not even just heartbroken. It's more than that. It's like his soul was ripped out of his body. He just wants to be able to hold him one more time, to tell him he loves him one more time, to live the life they were supposed to, just one more time. He keeps his hat and sunglasses close at all times. He never let's them go, and no one is ever allowed to touch them. He even attaches his van keys to his dog tags.

Once he gets back to normal, or as normal as he could be after losing someone who meant so much to him, he's ruthless in battle. Every kill he gets is for Sniper. Everything he does is for Sniper. He also goes to either his grave or where his ashes are kept after every battle, bringing a gift of some kind to place next to him, and then telling him about the day he had.

"I really gave them hell to day Snipes. You should have seen it." He let's out a sigh and kisses the top of the urn/gravestone.

————————————————————

Sniper would also lock himself in his van. It's never been so cold, so empty, so forgin to Sniper. Scout had added a sense of life to the van, and that was extinguished the day he died. He misses Scout's jokes, his smile, his laugh, and just everything Scout did. He made the world brighter for Sniper. He really just feels lost. He's never really felt a pain like this. He can barely breathe most days, and if you thought he was quiet before, he's dead silent now. He took Scout's dogtags, and he wears them every day.

Eventually, he gets the willpower to join the battle again. He's never gotten more kills in his life. Blood has stained the field more than ever. He visualizes every enemy as the one who killed Scout. He pours all his anger and sadness into his job. He visits the grave/urn a lot, knowing this is the closest he'll be to Scout ever again, so he spends most of his time near the urn or grave.

"I miss ya more than words can say." He says. (He also kisses the gravestone/urn)

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OUGH HAPPY TIME BECAUSE I NEED TO ADD IT OR I'LL CRY!!! Basically, how they react if Medic brought them back (before being cremated or buried, obviously)

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Scout is immediately throwing himself on Sniper, holding him tighter than humanly possible. Babbling about how he'll never let him go again, tears flowing freely as he jokes that if Sniper ever pulls a stunt like that, Scout will be his cause of death. Scout probably smothered this man with jokes, kisses, and cuddles that entire night. He's so thankful he got a second chance, and he makes sure Sniper knows that Scout will never take a moment with him for granted again.

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Sniper runs up to Scout, asking him a million and one questions, all basically asking the same thing. Are you okay? And to Snipers relief, Scout is better than okay. Sniper is crying under his glasses, Scout only reaches up to pull them off and kiss his face. He hugs Scout so tight he knocks the air out of his lungs. Scout, let's out a soft chuckle, hugging him back. Sniper spends the night being the most emotional he's ever been. These two love each other so much it's insane.

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Uh, the end! Ough I hope you don't mind the happy ending Anon. I'm a sucker for sweet endings :,) I hope you guys liked this, and I feel really hyped, i think I'm finally back into writing again, I missed it. I think I wore myself out for a hot minute, but I'm back! Anyways, hopefully, at least one or two new posts after this :)

Love you guys, and thank you for being patient with me 💖💖

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 headcanons #team fortress headcanons #tf2 hcs #tf2 scout #tf2 sniper #sniperscout #speeding bullet

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happyandticklish · 2 years

Text

DHMIS Headcannons

No one judge me for making these, I’m already doing that myself so we’ve got that front covered

Red Guy:

Acts completely above it and like he doesn’t care, but in reality he cannot take tickling for the life of him.

Not the most ticklish out of them *looks directly at Yellow Guy* but definitely up there. Doesn’t laugh or squirm that much, it’s more of a curl up in a ball and try to muffle his giggles in his arms or shoulder type deal.

Fairly decent at holding in his laughter at first, and a lot of people think he’s not ticklish because of it. However, if you keep at one spot for long enough you’ll see his composure slowly crumble.

Very observant when it comes to this stuff, much to the annoyance of the others. Duck likes to act like it doesn’t affect him, and Red calls him out on it every single time.

Also, apparently he has teeth? So anyways, ticklish neck bites with Duck are a thing.

He’s super contradictory, because he himself can talk about the Thing all he wants, and will bring it up just to fuck with them, but the second someone else starts talking about it, he gets really nervous and fidgety and will attempt to subtly leave the room.

It’s his neck guys. That’s what you gotta go for. Don’t ask me why, the knowledge has simply been imported into my brain.

Will tickle Yellow Guy when the other’s feeling down and fucking demolish Duck just for funsies.

He has a blog for the Thing and Duck found it once, and he’s never been able to live that down.

Yellow Guy:

“What? Me? Ticklish? No, of course I’m not” followed by awkward laughs that are a dead give away. Spoiler alert, he absolutely fucking is.

Unlike Red Guy, he cannot sit still for the life of him when tickled and you’re liable to get kicked in the face or swatted by a stray arm if you try. He doesn’t do it on purpose either, he simply cannot handle it.

Despite this, he actually doesn’t mind getting tickled, and has shyly asked Red Guy to do it to him from time to time. He’s considered asking Duck before, but usually concludes that the ridicule he’d receive wouldn’t be worth it.

HOWEVER Duck is the one who tickles him the most. Usually because he’s being annoying, or to prove a point, or simply because Duck thinks its funny how susceptible he is to it (and maybe he likes how his laughter brightens the house and how happy he looks afterwards but we don’t talk about that).

As stated before, Yellow Guy is 100% the most ticklish out of their group.

Giggles before he’s even tickled, very weak to the whole “hover your hands over a spot” trick.

Tries to put up a tough front, key word being “tries”.

Tickles the others all the fucking time because he has no sense of self-preservation (Red Guy lets him, but Duck is this close to straight up homicide)

Duck:

Will swear up and down on his mother’s grave that he’s not ticklish and will inflict harm on those who try, with his friends being the only exception.

In my perfect world, Duck and Red Guy are dating (it’s totally definitely canon, don’t worry about it), and as a result, Red Guy is the only one who knows the extent of just how ticklish Duck is.

Yellow Guy tickles him often, but he’s never able to get very far before Duck nearly takes off his head. Red Guy has gotten more luck with it, and teases him with it constantly, coming up behind him to squeeze his sides or wiggle fingers against his neck. Duck will let out this panicked shriek that makes it sound like he’s being murdered and Red Guy will raise a brow, as if he didn’t just invoke that, like, “I don’t know what you’re getting so worked up about”.

Claims he hates being tickled lies.

Worst spot are his sides for sure, he can only handle being tickled there for so long.

Head scratches from Red Guy usually end in tickly fingers running over his neck and back, and he has to hold himself back from giggling like an idiot throughout it.

The biggest ler out of the group, and the meanest too. He’ll use teasing like it’s a fucking weapon, and is scarily good at finding the tactics that works best for each of them.

The only person who can make Red Guy blush (though it’s difficult to tell, even then, for,,,, obvious reasons)

#dont hug me im scared #tickle headcannon #red guy #yellow guy #duck #duck x red guy #dhmis #tickling #headcannons #this is what ive spent my time on instead of tickletober #i will be doing the prompt for today eventually just #not #like #TODAY #but it was a really good fucking prompt so i will absolutely be getting to it

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mail-me-a-snail · 5 months

Note

explain your silvervance playlist

let's get to it! this got very. very long. tumblr only allows 30 images per post so expect a part two :3

⭐1.) twin skeleton's (hotel in nyc) - fall out boy

the silvervance playlist kicks off with vance's post act 1 theme--the song that follows him out of the grave and into the next life with johnny in his head.

johnny's engram saved vance; kept his head together even if chunks of the merc's brain matter were slipping through his chrome fingers, in a manner of speaking.

when the relic saved vance's life, it marked him for death, too. jackie might've taken the bullet for him, but death is gonna find vance one way or another.

⭐2.) hysteria - muse

johnny resides within a new, uncooperative body, hates every second of it, and decides to make it vance's problem.

johnny himself has come back to life after 54 years of not-so-eternal death; didn't even know he was dead until he was walking upright again, until he was shocked back to consciousness. but it's not a real life--it's not even his to begin with.

⭐3.) come a little closer - cage the elephant

vance runs through johnny's memories; he gets to see night city's infamous rockerboy for who he really is, who he always has been: a liar, a faker, someone who claims to hate control but wants it, anyway. seeing his memories is as invasive as johnny seeing vance's--but johnny, surprisingly, says come take a look. see who've you've got in your head.

they're in this together, now. there's no going back.

⭐4.) infidel zombie - the dickies

with the theft of the relic and the revival of arasaka's public enemy #1, the megacorp is sending its best out to hunt them down.

after having escaped arasaka thus far, vance is on high alert. it doesn't help, either, that takemura--one of their best guard dogs--will only vow his service to vance as as long as they rescue hanako--the very face of arasaka itself.

⭐5-7.)

meanwhile, johnny and vance are still fighting over ownership of the latter's body. johnny wants one thing, vance wants another, and both of them hate this sense of dual autonomy. but little by little, they're becoming more alike.

my body is a cage - arcade fire / this body means nothing to me - shrimp / mark on you - the mountain goats

⭐8.) psychotic opera - small leaks sink ships

hellman gives them the low-down: vance isn't gonna make it with johnny still in his head. the best he can do is die comfortably.

but alt offers them a possible solution--find her where she resides in mikoshi, deep in the heart of the very tower vance had sworn he would never go back to, and she just might still be able to separate them.

this is the point of the playlist where vance realizes separation may be more painful than what would inevitably happen otherwise. he doesn't understand yet why he feels this way. only that johnny has been with him for some time now, enough time that being without him would feel...odd.

⭐9-10.)

they both have their own regrets about their respective lives, conjoined as they are now. they mourn for what could've, should've been. they mourn for what'll never happen--for the world, maybe, or maybe what'll never happen between them.

what was it johnny said? this is why you don't bring back fallen warriors: sooner or later, they're gonna see everything they fought for's turned to shit.

wish i knew you - the revivalists / all these things that i've done - the killers

⭐11.) granite - sleep token

but things aren't all that bad. vance falling in love with johnny was as inevitable as it was wholly consuming; he had never realized how lonely he had been until the ghost had come along. johnny is one of the only people in the city who understands what it's like to pass through it daily, to never feel your feet on the pavement, to just keep going.

even if the alt cunningham (or an engram of her), has offered them a solution herself, a very small part of vance is afraid it won't work. this is arasaka they're talking about; they'd need a miracle to undo the damage the megacorp has done.

he is afraid of dying.

but if that is how he can be with johnny--

--then he'll take it, even if it's in death.

✨12.) ordinary love (extraordinary remix) - U2

THIS. THIS IS IT. this is THE silvervance theme song. you'll recognize these lyrics as being the title of their fic series. ordinary love is just. it's the song that illustrates how much love johnny and vance have for each other.

vance doesn't want johnny out. he wants both of them to get their lives back--to live the life that was taken from them, together.

⭐13-15.)

in my head, these songs are intercut with various missions. they take place, chronologically, after my fic poltergeist (ie, vance and johnny have established the rocky foundations for their relationship). i think the lyrics speak for themselves.

rain - sleep token / slowly spilling out - saint motel / chokehold - sleep token

part 2 here

#asks #silvervance #WHOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE #this got so fucking long help me #can you tell im normal though. be honest

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crumbleclub · 1 year

Text

I think the part of Mike that would have died in the Fox and Kit AU wouldn't have been, like, a one dimensional state, but he would have pretty big chunks of certain aspects of who he was. Kit Mike would have taken most of Michael's ability to feel fear, as well as most of his hope and most of his ability to depend on others.

A lot of that is why he would try to save the living Mike if his life was in danger.

The final moment of life for ghost Michael was watching the culmination of everything he'd ever done wrong end in the death of his little brother. Things literally could not get worse. In the span of a moment, Michael's self image went from an unnurtured kid who doesn't understand why his life is so unfair to "I am literally the worst possible human being on the planet." While Evan was in the hospital, before the Mikes had seperated, the view was that he had fucked up so badly that could never possibly do anything good. There was no going up from that rock bottom. No matter what, Michael was destined to be horrible and every action he took would end in the suffering of someone innocent, just like Evan.

For ghost Michael, that was the end.

But living Michael?

He went on. He started to clean up the mess. He couldn't bring the dead back to life, he couldn't undo the pain Evan had endured, or that his father's victims had suffered through, but he did try to help. He visited the graves, he went to the Fazbear locations, he figured out what had been done and researched how to stop it. He mellowed out, he kept to himself, he wasn't hurting anybody else.

And ghost Michael was there, the entire time. Watching.

There was a version of him out there, trying to fix things. Someone who was kind and brave and trying so very hard to do the right thing, someone kit Mike could have been, but would never be.

Both editions of Michael are filled to the brim with self loathing, but kit Mike thinks fox Mike is destined to do good where he had failed. He's not as scared, and he's older, smarter. He's learned from his mistakes in a way the thirteen year old version of himself couldn't really hope to understand. They go through situations where the living Michael is making choices, and the Michael who died is watching, knowing that he would have run away back there, or that he would have said something a little too mean to that person, or that he would have somehow screwed that up.

The only good thing he could possibly do is protect this new Michael, so he does.

I do think a Michael who had been scooped would be able to see ghost Mike, but it might start with a near death experience before that. Maybe the prior situations where ghost Mike tried to keep him safe were ones he would have managed to get out of anyway, but not this time. The cold hand that grabs him, half in earnest to protect, and half in fear and the residual instinct of a child saying protect me, I'm scared, is the only thing that saves him.

It's not until they go back home that night that Michael sees him, but I have trouble working out how he'd react. I think there'd be an initial freeze response, but after that is more complicated.

Kit Mike can definitely see the ghost kids. Seeing Evan is really hard for him, because it's his fault and Evan is scared, but I do think the latter would show himself sometimes. They haven't really fully worked through anything, but there are little shows of I see you, I know you're there on either side. Kit Michael doesn't really know how to say that he's sorry, but he's there every time fox Mike has said it. He leaves little things, toys, at the grave and at the diner when no one is looking.

He can see the other ghost kids, too. Some of the MCI kids aren't much younger than he is. They talk, sometimes. Maybe they even play games. I don't know if Evan told them what happened, but I don't think they see him as much of a current threat. He's essentially tethered to the other Michael, and they've not seen him do much other than follow him around like a lost puppy.

Now that I think about it, that might prevent the scoop, actually. Elizabeth and everyone else who'd fallen victim to Circus Baby and co might not understand that Michael had grown into his father's face, but a recognizable younger Mike who's right there, explaining it to them, pleading for them not to hurt his only chance to do some good? They may or may not believe him, but, either way, I think kit Mike would manage to stop it. If this is after fox Mike was able to see and hear him, he could straight up just... tell him what he's seen going on.

I think that the existence of kit Mike would sort of force Michael to evaluate what he once was. As much as he hates it, it's really hard to quell the instinct to comfort and protect when faced with a scared kid promising you that you aren't going to mess up this time, because he's been watching and you've been doing all the right things that he never could.

#fnaf #michael afton #mike's actual writing #fox and kit ghost au #fox and kit au #evan afton #cc afton #elizabeth afton

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wonderlandleighleigh · 2 years

Text

(a bit of a Supernatural crossover, and a follow up to the last fic)

Joel may be a pain in her ass, be he is, at the end of the day, very easily manipulated.

“All I’m saying,” Midge says. “Is that I really just...need your help.” She’s casual about it. A little pouty. A little enticing. “It’s going to be easy, and at the end of it, you’ll be rich, it’ll save your club, and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“No deal,” he tells her.

Midge considers. “What if I fuck you? I mean, just once, but-”

That, for whatever reason, has his attention.

She suffers through an unpleasant night in his bed, and at one in the morning, drags him to the middle of a crossroads in Queens.

Drivers license goes in the tin with grave dirt and cat bones, and is buried in the dust, and Joel waits, while Midge stands a ways away against a tree, smoking a cigarette.

It’s Crowley who shows up and Midge mutters a curse under her breath. This may not work as well as she hopes.

“So...” Crowley drawls out. “You want me to bring Lenny back to life...and make you his manager so you can make money off of him.”

“Yep,” Joel says confidently.

Crowley thinks this over, before glancing behind Joel to Midge. He smirks a little and shakes his head. “Ten years, your deal comes due. You understand?”

“Sure,” Joel shrugs.

He doesn’t...quite understand, and Crowley knows it, but all of this is so hilariously wild, that he’s clearly enjoying himself too much to care.

Watching Joel kiss another man is quite the experience, and he’s flummoxed by the experience, he completely forgets about Midge and drives off without her.

Crowley shakes his head as he approaches. “A dirty trick, worthy of any demon, Miriam.”

She shrugs innocently. “Don’t you remember? Jews doesn’t believe in hell or the demons who live there.”

The demon chuckles and shakes his head. “If you wanted Lenny back, you could have made that deal. Not dragged your ex into it.”

“I could have,” she concedes. “But I want more than ten years, and I never did get back at him for fucking his secretary.”

“And as an added bonus, Lenny will never keep him as a manager,” Crowley adds. “And he’ll likely lose his club and die penniless when his time is up.”

“Maybe Lenny will take pity on him.”

“He won’t.”

“Oh, well.”

Crowley watches her carefully. “You know, you weren’t this way when your grandfather was still around.”

“I wasn’t this way until Lenny died,” she tells him.

“Sure he’s gonna like the new you?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” she shrugs. “Either way, he’s not dead anymore. For now. And that was the goal. What happens from here is all free will.”

“Always a fun show,” Crowley smirks. “You’d better run along home. You’ve probably got a very confuse comedian waiting on your couch.”

She nods. “See you around.”

“Oh. You most certainly will.”

He disappears, and Midge heads back towards civilization.

And Lenny.

#fic #crossovers #Midge x Lenny #creepy Midge #Oops #tmmm #Crowley(SPN)#Sorry Joel #sorry everyone who was expecting fluff today

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mask131 · 2 years

Text

Deadly fall: Baron Samedi

BARON SAMEDI

Category: Vodou religion

Baron Samedi (which is French for “Baron Saturday”) is without a doubt one of the most famous figures of the Vodou religion, but do you actually really know who he is? Popular media keeps using and reusing his name and appearance for everything and anything. Let’s take a look at the Baron’s real identity.

Already one popular misunderstanding is that Baron Samedi is not a god. In the Vodou religion that is only one God, the big G true God that made the world and rules over it. Baron Samedi is part of a group of powerful spirits known as the “loa”, mistaken for the “gods” of Vodou because they receive sacrifices and are at the center of rituals. While they all were inspired by gods of African cultures, in the Vodou religion they are rather entities half-way between saints and spirits that act as intermediaries between the human beings and the real big G God (Bondyé).

Baron Samedi is the loa of the dead : he is the head and leader of an entire “family” of loa called the Guédé, who are the spirits of death and fertility, lust and morbidity, forces associated with the passing into the afterlife, the ancestor worship, and the guarding of history and heritages. Baron Samedi himself is a force of death usually roaming between the world of the living and the one of the dead: he welcomes the souls that arrive in the underworld and acts as the master of the dead. He is the one that makes sure all the corpses rot so that nobody can bring them back as zombies, he can be met at cemetery crossroads and it is said that the oldest grave of a male deceased in a cemetery is dedicated to him (people put special crosses or a black top hat on it to consecrate the grave as the Baron Samedi’s grave).

But Baron Samedi is not just a force of death, as everyone presumes. The whole point of the Guede, as I said earlier, is that they mix the forces of life and death in one bizarre package, and as a result Baron Samedi, master of the dead, is also the giver of life. He is a loa of resurrection who is often called to help those that are dying or near death, to offer protection or healing: for you see, only the Baron Samedi can accept someone into the afterlife, by “digging their grave”, and so if he refuses to dig someone’s grave for one reason or another, this person won’t die. That’s how, by making offerings to or making deals with the Baron, you can heal grave wounds or cure mortal diseases: his powers are so great he can undo curses and fight off evil magic. What is offered to appease, please or thank the Baron Samedi range from cigar and rum to black coffee and grilled peanuts; but of course nothing beats a good “riding” ceremony where humans offer themselves as “rides” to allow the loa to enter the human world through their bodies (a sort of holy possession ritual).

Baron Samedi has two great loves in life (beyond his own wife, Maman Brigitte, another loa of the dead) : alcohol and tobacco. The Baron is always seen with either a cigar in his mouth, or a cup of rum in his hand, or both! He is known to be a quite obscene spirit that constantly swears and loves to make filthy jokes, and while he is married, he still doesn’t hesitate to seduce or chase down human women for sweet and passionate love. In terms of appearance, the Baron Samedi originally was depicted as a living, talking, moving skeleton – though with popular culture and media adaptations it became common to depict him as a black man with a skull painted on his face). He wears a top hat, a tail coat and sunglasses (all black, of course), plus cotton plugs in his nostrils: this whole outfit is actually an evocation and a mimic of the way male corpses are prepared for funerals in Haiti. Whenever he speaks, it is with a nasal voice.

As I said before, Baron Samedi has a family; his lovely wife is Maman Brigitte, a female and foul-mouthed loa of death often appearing as a white woman ; and together they have an adoptive son, Guede Nibo. Once he was a handsome young human man, but after his brutal murder his spirit was adopted by the loas of death – he is now a leader of the dead and a great healer like his father, appearing as black-dressed, effeminate dandy, or even as a nasal-voiced, lascivious cross-dresser. There are also, among the Guédé family, several other “Barons” that are either Baron Samedi’s brothers, either minor incarnations of him – sometimes they’re colleagues, sometimes they’re the same. The three most notorious of them are Baron Cimetière (Baron Cemetery, guardian of cemeteries and protector of graves), Baron La Croix (Baron The Cross, a more suave and sophisticated version of Samedi who is prone to philosophizing about death) and Baron Criminel (Baron Criminal, who is the dreaded spirit of the first murderer to have ever been sentenced to death).

- - - - - - - - -

For a more sinister and less funny bit of trivia… Baron Samedi is an integral and prominent part of the Haitian Vodou (before it spread elsewhere, like in Louisiana and the like). And he is also tied to the grim political history of Haiti. One of the most infamous names of Haiti’s history is François Duvalier (aka “Papa Doc”), who started out as the elected president of Haiti in the late 50s, but quickly became an oppressive and tyrannical leader using many dictatorial elements ranging from death squads to personality cults. Said personality cult heavily included elements from Haitian folklore, mythology and religion – and one figure Papa Doc especially liked was Baron Samedi. He uses subtle elements to make himself quite similar to the Baron – the two most notably being that he wore dark glasses and spoke with a nasal voice during public speeches and important appearances.

Now Duvalier is long dead, and the Duvalier regime, while outlasting Papa Doc through his son, the just as feared and reviled Jean-Claude Duvalier, is over – but the “President for Life”’s connection to the Baron Samedi left its mark, and as a result even today the Baron Samedi is seen, perceived and used in the context of “secret societies” and the shadiness of politics.

#deadly fall #baron samedi #vodou mythology #loa

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travelling-on-the-octopath · 2 years

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Okay but like CF!dmcl angst tho... Dimitri being so sure that Claude is going to outlive him since Claude has such a high sense of self-preservation and thus letting himself not worry as much about him... how it must have felt like getting the news that the Alliance has fallen and that Claude has been confirmed dead (because of course he isn't spared here lol)...

(OR, Claude IS spared, and has to live knowing that he can't do anything to help Dimitri else he drag the Alliance back into the war, after working as hard as he did to keep them safe... maybe plotting a bit of vengeance himself across the border once he hears of Dimitri's inevitable death [now without Byleth's god hax to bail them and The Gard out of trouble 👀]... thonks...)

Ooh see this. Another avenue for Fallen Claude. Like a gravely injured Claude not quite being spared, but not hunted down either. Getting the hell out of doge to regroup and plan a next move with Dimitri--

Except he'd failed, and the moment he can stand on his feet again, he learns Dimitri, and the Kingdom, have fallen.

A complete, utter loss like that? That breaks someone.

So! I think Claude should get to plot and scheme and be a little vile. Assemble whatever is (if there is anything) left of the anti-imperial Alliance forces, the Adrestians that can't stand what their emperor is doing/has done, and the vestiges of a kingdom who only fell once their every last hope was slaughtered. I think he should get to bring those people together, should they exist, and promise them a second chance at getting their homes back.

If they're willing to break a few self-imposed rules to get there.

I think Claude should go back to Almyra and become a fucking terror. Everything still hurts him, when he's treated like shit, but now instead of using that as motivation to make the world better....it's reasoning to become a person that can tolerate it not because he's overly resilient and kind, but because he's willing to backstab and threaten and spit venom just as they are.

I think Claude should get to use his heritage as a trump card as he announces plans to drive out the Empire by force. Because of the boy left in him, he gives her one shot and one shot only: retreat, or be felled by the axes and claws of the Almyran army.

She would call it a bluff.

Claude would give the go ahead, and hundreds of thousands of little dark shapes soar over the Throat.

They're given express instructions to stay the fuck away from civilians and to preserve buildings--especially the castle in Fhirdiad.. The streets Dimitri would talk about walking through when if he ever made it to his coronation.

Claude would wonder if Dimitri had had an inkling about the war, or if there was another battle he'd been fighting without Claude knowing a thing.

The Empire is, frankly, trampled. They were worn thin from the original war, and overconfident because their enemies and either bended the knee or had their throats slit.

Claude knew this. Hit them where it hurt the most. Pried out the Empire's rule from Fódlan root by root, leaf by leaf. He had to step in to take her place when they were quashed, which hadn't quite been the goal, but it was certainly an inevitability.

Dubbed the Two-Faced King, Claude's reign was either loved or hated. He was the man that broke the Empire's control in half, but he also caused more strife and destruction when all they had wanted was peace. As time went on, it became clear that the progress of the Empire as it was would have caused far more destruction than Claude's reign--rebellions had already started breaking out by this point--and Claude's name became less synonymous with cruelty and more with tenacity.

There are rumours, of course, of Claude having a strange, bony lance perched above his throne in Almyra, and his being sighted wearing a heavy fur cloak whenever he had to arrange meetings in Faerghus. Some see them as spoils of war. Should he have any friends left, they would never ask any questions about them. How he had even gotten Dimitri's things...If he'd gone through the trouble, after all this, it was best to let him have those things in peace.

For Claude, they're protection against the nightmares that tell him what life would have been like if justice had had even a slightly greater chance at prevailing.

He doesn't know if Dimitri would have liked this world he's created. Claude wished he had the luxury of caring outside the walls of his room and the realm of this dreams.

#oh WOW this got out of hand #I've been sitting on Crimson Flower!Dimiclaude thoughts for quite some time now #mix that with the unactualized dark!dimiclaude WIP #and we get. this.#anyway. might turn this into a full-blown fic. might not #thank you for breaking my heart first thing in the morning 💔💔💔#fea-and-fehf-headcanons #s responds #fe #fe3h #dimiclaude #fallen claude au (the remix)

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spotsupstuff · 2 years

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Now that we saw the finale, we know the reasons why lbd wanted to clean up the world,and I wonder..I wonder how macaque would react to the death of lbd in your skullplum?

PHEWWWWWWW aight lets see -cracks fingers-

TLDR; depeshioumn, mourning n ur typical chinese honoring the dead

White Bone Spirit's motivations in Fruit Twins are different than in canon. That is smth i can't really,,, change, because her Canon motivations become pretty much solved Because of her relationship with Six Ear which happens before she ultimately breaks beyond repair (aka the idea that the only way she can reach what she wants for the world is thru destroying it). Xiaotian in canon proves her wrong by pointing out the positives of life and that the world is worth to keep alive because of people one cares about and for the experience of being cared for

Effectively, Six Ear does the exact same thing except millenia before Xiaotian is born. So with that solved, the canon finale doesn't really,, matters to this au. Just wanna settle that real quick

Now to the actual death part...

WBS dies two months after the end of FT!s3. What the plan IS right now is that after the final fight, Nezha takes her up into the heaven to be judged by the Heavenly Court for her crimes against the mortal realm and the celestial realm. But! Shes already dying so they end up just kinda shrugging n keepin her locked up in some kind of room until she finally fades away so they dont gotta really do much of any work about this. It's a tad complicated why she's fading but basically WBS died in FT during The Journey like she does in the book and then she came back thru a spell that worked only cuz as a Jing she "should be granted justice" against Sun Wukong but he suffers no consequences for killing her, therefore she manifests herself back to deliver the justice herself. Stuff happens in the finale that break her logic supporting her claim this is "justice" what she's doing and so the spell breaks right along

She ends up dying in Six Ear's arms. On request of SWK to Nezha, Nezha brings her down into the mortal realm to live off her remaining time with Six in his kwoon/factory-turned-house. Her memories start slipping before she dies so it's all sad cuz at some point she, all concerned, strokes Six's face and asks him what's that big scar on the right side of his face doing there and by the end of her life she just straight up does not remember him at all

So Six ends up mourning for a long time, probably washes the dress that was left behind after her body turned to flakes and hides it somewhere in one of his closets. He ends up distancing himself from the crew except Sha Dali cuz he has to attend therapy, he's still struggling with the "addiction" he had to WBS' light, prolly drinks a lot- that kinda kush

Eventually he bounces back thanks to Sha Dali being there for him n also cuz he still has Clementine there who he loves way too much to not try and get out of his grief at LEAST for Her if not for himself

Long term-wise, he will probably forever miss WBS. Even years after her death he stays in love with the idea of her and what she used to be before everything went wrong, though he does end up recognizing how much hurt she has also caused him after she was let out of her grave by the Bull family. His lowkey obsession/hung-upness about her ends up creating some rifts between him and Clem that they will have to deal with thru communication, since Six has way wider variety of experiences with Baigu than Clem

To say the least, he ends up burning incense n leaving food at a shrine he builds for her either in his home or somewhere nearby where he can attend to it

#Spot says stuff #skullplum #fruit twins au #i realized that like this its either impossible or gon be hard as fuck to have xiaotian connected to wbs in any kind of way n im PISSED #FUCK i played myself AGAIN. i just cant stop XBOXING

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mwolf0epsilon · 2 years

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Whumptober Day 9: The Very Noisy Night

Prompt: Caught in a Storm

Summary: From the moment he'd brought him into the CC quarters back on Kamino to join his batch, Cody had sworn he'd do what was best to keep his little CT brother safe and sound. Braving the storm to bring back something of great sentimental value, was part of that commitment. Everyone deserved to have something to remember their lost batch brothers by.

[Cody goes above and beyond his brotherly duties to bring Rex one of his deceased brother's pauldrons. It's a arduous task that could end in his death, but Cody is nothing if not a stubborn man.]

THIS STORY IS ALSO ON AO3

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Ryloth's five moons were known for subjecting the geologically diverse Outer Rim planet to some rather intense weather phenomenons. The hot and humid landscapes giving way to intense rainstorms and sandstorms, depending on whichever location you found yourself in.

For a clone in full armour and tight body-glove, it was a miserable experience getting caught in either one. Suffocating even.

Most troopers ill-equipped to handle the rapid changes, with the ARFs and ARCs being the least bothered by the kicking up of mud and dust, or the potential lugging of waterlogged equipment. And, while Cody was more vastly prepared for the treacherous walk due to his extensive training as a CC, he too could understand the amounting frustration his boys were no doubt feeling.

This planet was a hellhole. A ruined mess that had been, at some point, something beautiful no doubt. Prior to war ravaging through. The constant shifts in weather didn't help paint a prettier picture.

The 212th were to depart soon. The 187th would take their place and keep a handle of any Seppie stragglers that might try to cause trouble. Packing up and leaving behind medical aid and food rations was the current priority on his list. Or rather, it should be.

Cody had something else entirely on the mind. Something of a more personal nature...

Before they had made it planet-side, a small legion of clones lead by Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di had been attacked while defending their positions until aid could arrive. They had all gone down fighting, having made a brave last stand against Separatist forces.

Among them was a clone captain named Keeli. One of Rex's batchmates. His closest brother in fact. Word of his passing had cropped up in the GAR channels and he knew his vod'ika had been struck with the news rather hard. So Cody intended to do something that could very well get him killed.

He would leave the packing and aid efforts in his troopers's hands, and he'd go out and bury the bodies himself. The commander would also bring back a pauldron so that Rex could take a piece of his brother with him wherever he went, as was tradition among the closest of vode.

The problem would lay in surviving the storm that was to come...

Natborns might call it stupidity. Throwing one's life away to bring back a keep-sake. But Cody didn't much care for what natborns thought. The lives of clones were seen as expendable and virtually worthless unless they were lost to war. They barely had time to mourn their dead before they had to march towards another battle. Immortalizing the memories of their brothers in any way (be it by a still living vod carrying a piece of their armour or tattooing their chosen name on their bodies), was the most selfless and loving thing one could do to honor the dead.

The clone army was a patchwork of mismatched armour pieces, paint-jobs and inkworks. They were a quilted together culture. Unique despite their outward similarities.

Keeli and his men would be remembered. Their grave-site would one day be overgrown with lush vegetation, but the people they defended would sing songs and speak of gratitude and selflessness, until their names were part of their history as well. Immortal posthumously

The vode would whisper the names until the end of their times. And Rex would wear that pauldron with pride and wish goodnight to the older brother he'd loved. He'd live on for Keeli. Cody would make sure of it.

The wicked winds lashed out ferociously. The sand scratched his paint. The mud tried to suck him in. The hot air and high humidity made the trek a torturous affair. The landscape tried to get him lost. But Cody was like salmon in the way that he navigated all the way back to where death had claimed his kin. Intuition, or perhaps instinct, drove him there.

The bodies were decomposing quickly due to the intense weather. The smell of rotting flesh and glimmer of bone beneath liquefying meat were an assault on the senses. Made his stomach turn.

One by one he buried them all. Jedi and clone rendered equals in death.

Once the task was done, Cody walked away with the pauldron in hand and threw up the contents of his stomach in a ditch. He washed his hands and the pauldron in a nearby stream. Marveled at the sight of fish swimming by carefree. Despite the storms, despite the hostile fauna, despite the war, this wasn't too bad of a resting place.

He hoped he would survive the journey back to his boys. Hoped the next storms he'd brave wouldn't take him out. The duties of an older brother, an ori'vode, were ones he was committed to. Just as he was married to his duties as a soldier.

The future was bleak and he was sure one day he'd be the one wearing a brother's armour in place of his own pieces. But perhaps when the war ended it would all be worth the ache of constant loss.

#Eps Writes #star wars #the clone wars #whumptober2022 #commander cody

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dangerous-realms · 1 year

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🚸- They see their children //Ragnar

For this

Now Rhaghver may not be the father of the year for many reasons. But their still his hatchlings and he loves em, even if their criminals or dead he loves em.

So there are many reactions to seeing them in various stages. Including his dead ones.

Egg-

"Who's a cute egg? You're a cute egg!"

Man baby talks his not yet hatched children. He knows they can hear their papa's voice as the eggs wiggle in response to him talking to them. He loves to visit his egg bound children, fascinated by the little heart beats he hears within the confines of the hard shell that protects the life inside it.

Hatchlings-

"Heh, you're such a cute little thing."

The man loves seeing his children hatch, proud of the strength their little bodys have as they break out of their egg. Hearing their little crys as they awaken in a new world. Holding their small bodys as they grip one of his fingers and bring it to their mouth because their hungry and cold.

Crawlers and toddlers-

"Quit touching that. Put that down. No, you can't eat that. Get that out of your mouth."

His children are menaces at these ages, their curiosity of the world is boundless. Hence why he keeps an eye on them by bringing them into his office and using a capture spell to create a circular playpen to put them in. Though this is when their mother's aren't around, be it because they left him after laying the egg or just abandoned him to rear the kids on his own. But sometimes when they free roam under his watchful eye he has to step to make sure they don't eat stuff their not supposed to.

School age-

Oh thank the gods they can go to school now

The tired papa of many many children loves it when he can just send them off to school to learn, because at some point it becomes difficult to keep an eye on them and their younger siblings. He's proud when they say they make friends and get good grades. It also gives him time to himself and possibly a women if he doesn't have a partner at the time.

Preteens to fifteen year olds-

"Okay, what did you do now that I need to remedy somehow?"

His preteen and mid teen children tend to be very troublesome, often getting into shit and getting into fights with other kids as hormones run high. Probably because they think he has some high expectations of them since he's the emperor of the Daevelum Empire. And while he does have expectations for his children he doesn't make them so high that their impossible to reach. Just that they get good grades and don't die doing something stupid.

Eighteen and up-

They grow up to fast...

At the age of eighteen is when Rhaghver give his children money and a place to live so they can start their own journey of life. He'll miss them like all hell he knows it's important for then to spread their wings and leave the nest to start their own lives. Making names for themselves and starting their own family's.

Dead-

Ragnar does have dead children. Those children are ones who either died during battle or of natural causes as they don't have the longevity of an Evoline. He becomes really somber on the week he takes off to go and visit all their graves. He hates that he wasn't able to do anything to prevent it, it's not like he can extend their lifespan. He can't bring them back from the dead no matter how powerful his magic is. Though while he has accepted this fact, it does hurt to know the the children he watched grow up are now on the other side where he can't see them.

#☐ answered ask ☑#◇ask game◆#muse: ragnar/rhaghver #☆the birth of a new star – headcanons★

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deyondwashere · 2 years

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Let’s Talk Graves (Part 2/3)

(Purple text means it has the chance to be changed or deleted)

Role in story

Y'all ready for this? This could get real incoherent real fast because I'm just gonna babble.

Relationships

Within the Transformation, Graves mostly keeps to himself. Id say the people he is closest to is the Ophelia Family (Ace, Mona, Desdemona, and Cecilia). A quick refresher, the family is the top of the top, literally the most important people you could talk to within the organization. In his old concept (more on that later) he was somewhat of an uncle to Mona and Cecilia. He was a little younger then Ace and he had spent the majority of his life with him so he thought of him as a brother even though Ace is a "only child." Since then I have changed his concept though. Now instead of being in his Mid-30s he's about 17. I'm still trying to play with the idea that he still calls himself an uncle to them but I'm not sure if it's gonna stick.

Graves has a older sister that I imagine is about 25. Her name is Melody, that's her nickname atleast. She's called that because she can sing like, really well. No like, really really well. She has the ability to make the words she sing become reality. Of course there are limitations, one thing she can do however is heal dead bodies. She can't bring them back to life, but she can restore their corpse. She can't do it to someone who is overly decomposed though. Graves and her have a deal. If she helps him with dead bodies coming in, then he'll revive their brother. Who died of "natural causes" a few years back.

At his time in the lab, there was one subject that particularly interested him. James. A boy with the powers to make vines with poisonous thorns. Of course everyone had interesting powers but James interested him for a different reason. He wasn't in control of himself- a spirit was. The spirit that gave the vessels their powers are called guardians, and normally when this guardian tries to take control over the vessel without permission, it makes the vessel go feral. Attacking anything and everything like a rabid animal. A subject went feral a few years back and that's how the 4 of them got out of the lab. So either James allowed his guardian, Lucas, so take over, or he was on the verge of going feral at all times. Graves takes “special” interest in James during Crystals.

The Transformation

Graves decided to join the transformation sometime after his brother died, he was maybe about 9-12. He got word from someone that they were hosting an experiment. It had to do with creating some sort of "weapon" using biological beings. Combining souls to create them. Graves, being incredibly interested in death (even from a young age) was instantly hooked. He was able to get to the human world and instantly began rising through the ranks because of his high level of skill and his impressive hold on his powers at such a young age. By the time he was 15, he was already beginning to get eyed by the Ophelia Family themselves. Once his first expirment was closed due to a lack of subjects he began working for the transformation full time. After some time he was scouted out for another big experiment, for most this would seem absolutely impossible, or completely out of their range. However graves wasn't "most" people. He almost instantly took the job. What was it you ask? Nothing too important, just create immortality.

Graves decided to start at the bottom, with plants. Since he wasn't quite ready to take on live human souls, he decided that "live" would have to be his starting point. If you've ever been to Graves' house, then you would know that in his backyard he has a huge compost though because his garden is always dead or dying. That compost pile started from those plants that he killed at the beginning. Try after try and he couldn't get them to come back. He eventually got fed up and decided to move to wild mice or other rodents. That was the other ingredient in his compost pile. He found the work awfully boring, and a pain to clean up. So eventually he requested a human subject. His request was granted and from then on he very rarely got to test on traitors to the transformation or people who were dying. Is his times of need he would resort to picking the homeless off of the street. He was and still is a sick individual, perhaps some would blame it on his childhood.

Childhood

As stated before, Graves is from the Amilian world. He spent the first few years of his life there. I can probably do a world building post in the future but for now just know that The Amilian world functions as a monarchy with a clear divide between the poor and the rich. Within the poor, many of them are part of the transformation. It's like a virus, and that world is where it's rooted. They prey for the weak and vulnerable to build their cause. At this point, they've lost the reason of why they started it and now they're just in it for power. One has to wonder how it got this bad Graves' family was well off, held in high regards for their history of incredible powers. As you can tell, him and his sister were no exception to the pattern. If you've ever watched The Owl House, I imagine their house sort of worker like the Blight family, but with no hope of redemption. His father was working most of the time, maybe coming home once a month. His mother was around but something about her was always vacant and absent. Graves described his mothers eyes as "the same as roadkill, dull and empty." This left their 3 kids basically home alone. Melody was the oldest, Graves was the middle child, and Zm9yZ290dGVu was the youngest. Graves was quiet and never interacted with anyone, he was in his own world. Meanwhile, Melody and the youngest had a relationship that was... less then ideal. She believed that it was his fault that their life had gone to shit. She never let him leave her sight and even at some points getting quite physical with him. One day, out of the blue, the family came out with the news that he had died of "natural causes." Melody felt absolutely awful about it, now regretting her past choices. (Fun Fact! The inspiration for this story line was the song "You are a Useless Child" by Kikuo) She almost immediately turned to Graves to bring him back, he refused. He was fully capable of doing so, but he didn't want to. She begged him and said she'd do anything. And so that's how they struck up a deal, she helps with his expirmemts, and he will “eventually” bring him back. God knows if he will pull through with his promise.

Morals

Speaking of god…let’s talk his beliefs shall we?

Coming soon lmao

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