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illneverrecover · 2 years

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forever young pt 2 (m)|ot7 bts

➛pairing: zombie!BTS x scientist!reader // side focus Seokjin x reader ➛genre: zombie!AU, apocalypse!AU, technically idolverse!AU, loosely inspired by Warm Bodies. Humor, action, eventual smut ➛word count: 3397 ➛rating: M ➛warnings: graphic descriptions of violence, descriptions of gore (hopefully not too graphic), mentions of death, cursing, dubious science, poorly timed jokes. will add to warnings as additional chapters come out. ➛summary: Creating the world’s first immortality serum has been your greatest scientific feat - until it was stolen and sold on the black market. Oh, and also it turned whomever injected with it into the living undead. Whoops. ➛notes: I’m kinda embarrassed at how long it took me to get out a part two, but life has been in the way. Between moving, career woes, and flying to L.A. for Permission to Dance, it’s been a crazy few months. I originally planned for this installment to be a bit longer, but with how I have the scenes broken up, it was going to end up being a monster - so I decided to split it. This means either a long third chapter, or mayhaps a 4th chapter (or an epilogue) to wrap up the story. This is edited, but unbeta’d, because I need instant gratification. Thank you to my possum clique for motivating me and basically being the main reason I got this done. You guys are the absolute best. 🖤 Also, bonus points to anyone who picks up on who Dr. Choi and subject A3 are based on. I was a bit in my mysme feels while working on this. 😉 ➛tagging: @erotikkook (from the fic exchange!), @ditttiii @thatlongspringnight ➛song: Have We Met Before - Sarah Barrios and Eric Nam & Epilogue: Young Forever - BTS

Ch.1

“So what have we learned about the undead?”

Dr. Choi nods excitedly before moving into the center of the conference room, eyes bright. “So much, actually. We were able to get several samples to come back with us for research purposes - some of them even came voluntarily,”

The director's eyebrows furrow as he glares at the young doctor. “What do you mean, ‘voluntarily’? This is an outbreak - they are all mindless, flesh eating-”

“But they aren’t! That’s what I’m here to explain.” Dr. Choi interrupts.

The director looks irritated at the chastising, but doesn’t speak on it. “Continue, then.”

Now that he knows he has everyone’s focus, Dr. Choi begins to speak. You try to pay attention to what he was saying, but honestly find yourself distracted by his appearance. He was truly selling the ‘mad scientist’ aesthetic; fire engine red hair shining and disheveled, neon yellow and grey striped glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. He was young - probably younger than you, though you’ve never confirmed - but his reputation as a researcher had preceded him. He was supposedly a genius.

By the time you refocus, he’s in the middle of a spiel. “-we’ve found three types so far, though we’re still investigating this more, as we believe there’s likely a trickle down effect.”

With a click, an image pops up on the screen behind the animated scientist.

A surprisingly handsome face of a young man awaits, his skin pale but not mottled; his eyes such a rich brown they almost looked red, which was framed by long, silvery hair. He looked… normal.

“This is subject A3. A3 was directly injected by one of the vaccines that became available on the black market. Not only does he still use his frontal cortex, he also speaks, makes decisions, and is capable of rational thought. He’s the one who actually came to us,” he pauses then, seemingly satisfied with the gasps of the crowd, “Voluntarily. Said he knew something was wrong and wanted to help.”

Dr. Choi lets that sink in, before going to the next slide.

“Here, we have B26. B26 was bitten by someone who was injected, which infected her in turn. She has some motor function and a baseline of rational thinking, but not as much as those in category A. She is easily influenced by others, and seems to be controlled by her hunger more than the previous group as well.”

Your eyebrows tighten, mind racing. He hadn’t mentioned the feeding status of category A. Realistically, you know that they would have to eat to survive as an organism - whether a living or undead one, the basic instinct is hardwired into humans. But since Dr. Choi didn’t mention it, did it mean they didn’t need to eat as much? Or could control it better?

“And finally, here’s the one that the director has been waiting for - bachelor C17.” The projector whirs and a ghastly image floats on the wall. It was completely different from the others, a haunting shell blanking staring on the screen. “This is what we’ve all been picturing since this all went down.”

A zombie. Truly undead, mindless, former human.

“He’s the worst of what is out there. No rational thought, no communication skills. The current running theory is that this type is formed when someone is bitten by the previous type similar to B26. We can’t know for sure without trials since he can’t speak, but it’s the logical conclusion.”

Silence stretches out over the room.

The director clears his throat, shuffling papers nervously before shifting his gaze back. “So what… what does this mean?”

A cheshire grin breaks on Dr. Choi’s face, and you can’t help but notice how handsome he is, despite the situation.

“I was hoping you would ask me that!” he exclaims, pushing up his glasses with a single finger. “It means that we have different types of the undead, depending on how they were infected. Which also in turn means that if we’re going to fix this, it’s not going to be easy. We won’t be able to just create a vaccine or a cure all, since there’s different stages. At this point, we don’t even know if the other stages are even treatable…”

His brow pinches for a moment, a slip of the assured mask, before he takes a deep breath and seemingly soothes himself. “But! We have plenty of willing volunteers, and a few that are so flesh hungry that they have no idea what's going on. With them, we can figure it out.” Dr. Choi proudly grins, nodding at the other scientists.

“And, with a few more of you, I think we can do that even faster. We could really use some of you from research, and some geneticists as well. If you’re interested, please let me know.”

You’re not sure what’s said after that, the room breaking out into a cacophony of noise as everyone speaks at once. There’s an underlying current of tension that seems to be rising, and it makes you feel like you're going to crawl out of your skin. This is your fault. Well, kind of your fault. And the least that you can do is put your nervous energy to use and help fix it.

Standing abruptly, you move to the front of the room, sliding past bodies until you see the fire engine hair of the man you’re looking for.

“Dr. Choi? I’d like to volunteer for the research team.”

Her. Always in the back of his mind, even when he’s hungry, even when he’s scared. Her. Her.

You.

The memories play like a reel in his mind, snippets forming a montage of the most beautiful person Seokjin has ever seen. If he closes his eyes, it’s almost like he can feel the softness of your skin underneath his touch, taste your mouth on his own.

He needs to find you.

It took some convincing to get the guys to agree to continue with the original plan of going to his brother’s restaurant, but they eventually caved. It was hard to miss the logic of having a safe place to hide out from the prying eyes of the public and regroup. Seokjin knew they needed a plan, but wasn’t sure how to bring it up.

“We need a plan,” Namjoon sighs, resting his head back against the soft leather of the couch. They were all in various forms of draped in the sitting area of the bar at the back of the restaurant, far away from any window or door that could expose them.

Seokjoong had been nowhere to be found when they arrived, and Seokjin tried to ignore the pang that rang in his chest at the discovery. He was safe, he had to be. If there was anything the Kim brothers shared other than their questionable sense of humor, it was practicality. His brother had always had a plan B, always a pulse on an active escape route.

A common trait acquired after years of living with their parents.

“Can’t we just… go find her? I feel like our memory powers will kick in and then we can just follow them to her.”

“Memory powers?” Yoongi snorts. “What, so we’re gonna sniff her down like a bloodhound? What is this, Homeward Bound?”

Jimin rolls his eyes, leaning forward to stare at the blond. “No!” He pauses, pulling a plump bottom lip in his mouth. “Well, I mean, I guess technically? But when you say it like that, it sounds stupid.”

Seokjin hears the faint whisper of “because it is stupid” before Namjoon clears his throat. “Actually, I think there might be something there.” With his knitted brows and his jaw ticks, the classic Namjoon brainstorming face blooms in full effect. “Think about what we know - we know that when we eat the brain of someone, we acquire their memory. But it also seems we pick up something else as well, something deeper.”

He lets it sink in, eyes scanning the room. Namjoon was always good at getting the guys to see where he was coming from, a mixture of logic and empathy solidifying in the perfect delivery, just like a leader should.

“We pick up their language, their knowledge, their emotions. It’s like we absorb this small piece of them and it becomes a part of us. Based on what we all… experienced back in that alley... it leads me to believe that if we came across or interacted with someone from her life, it might activate some more memories that will show us the way.”

Nodding, Seokjin claps a hand on his thigh. “It makes sense to me. Well, nothing that’s happened really makes sense, but it’s as good a theory as any that we have at this point.”

Comfortable silence settles over the group as they contemplate what has been presented. It was logical, in the way something is logical in the middle of the zombie apocalypse - meaning that mostly, there was no reason not to.

“I don’t really get it, but I just really need to know that she’s safe,” Jungkook murmurs, meeting Seokjin’s gaze. “I want to protect her. She seems important.”

“She’s a scientist.”

All eyes flick to Taehyung, who looks surprised to peer up from picking his nails to find all the spotlight on him. “What? I pay attention. We all had the same flash of memory from this guy we ate. Don’t you remember all the white coats, the beakers, sealed glass rooms with all that equipment… they’re scientists. I think that guy must have worked with her or something.”

Namjoon blinks. His mouth opens, briefly, before closing.

“Whoa, Taehyung. Damn!” Hoseok laughs, the sound echoing around the empty restaurant. “You’re a genius.”

A smug smirk pulls at Taehyung’s lips, his chest swelling with pride. “I’ve been trying to tell you guys this for years-”

“But what kind of scientist? Do you think…” Jungkook swallows, doe eyes wide. “Do you think she could help us?”

Seokjin isn’t sure what he means at first - what kind of help could they possibly need? - but realization sinks in after a moment.

Help with their condition.

There’s a part deep in his gut that bristles at the thought, as if he was well into the acceptance phase of the grief process wheel of his new undead life. But that’s preposterous, right? They were artists, idols - kings at the top of the modern world who wanted and asked for nothing. Why wouldn’t he want to go back to that?

Yes, Seokjin thought, shaking his head. Why indeed.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Yoongi drawls, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Even if she’s not the type of scientist that can help, she might know someone who does. Either way, it gives us another reason to find her.”

As if they had even needed another reason.

Seokjin suddenly stands, barely able to hide the bounce in his step. “Well, then let’s get going. Who knows where in the city she’s located, and the sooner we find her the better.”

“Does this mean we’re going with my plan?” Jimin perks up, eyes bright at the possibility of receiving praise.

All eyes fall to Namjoon, a habit that was long ago formed and wouldn’t be shaken by anything as minor as the living undead taking over.

He takes a deep breath, eyes closing briefly before he swipes a palm down his face, nodding to himself. “Yes. Why the hell not?”

It was as good of a vote as any.

“So, what do you have so far?”

You were following an intern as she chased down Dr. Choi, asking questions at the speed of light. You knew he was giving a brief to the volunteers the next morning, but your burning curiosity (and possible guilt) couldn’t stand the thought of waiting.

“You saw what I have so far. There’s a bit more nuance to each subject level but that’s about it.” Dr. Choi pauses his march to grab at a clipboard on the wall, scanning it before tapping something onto his watch. “We’ve taken samples - blood, sputum, urine, follicle - but nothing has been processed with them yet. Still testing out batches and possible antidotes.”

You nod, mentally going through the process you’ve done millions of times. This next phase was an important one, and it was exactly your in.

“Dr. Choi, I work in the virology department and have been working here for 6 years alongside Dr. Han and Dr. Soo. I volunteered already, but I’d like to ask to be assigned to the task team who’s trying to create a cure. I think my expertise-”

“Whoa, slow down there, Angel. I know who you are and I’ve heard lots about your areas of expertise,” he smiles at you, though you swear you catch his eyes dragging down your form through the glint of his glasses. “You’re in. That’s exactly where I want you.”

Relief floods your veins, and you shake loose a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “Thank you.”

The young doctor gives you a wide grin, mischief dancing on his face. You couldn’t help but feel that there was something that Dr. Choi knew, but wasn’t sharing. He gave off a mysterious air about him - like he’s guarding a secret, but he’d tell you if you amused him enough. “I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team and show you around.”

The afternoon passed quickly once you were shown your new work space - a cozy desk in an identical all white lab to the one where all of this started. It reminded you of Kihyun, and had you wondering where he was. You had been so preoccupied with the outbreak that you had forgotten he hadn’t shown to work that day, and it’s been radio silence since.

Luckily, your thoughts had been interrupted by the introductions of the rest of the team, several other scientists from the virology floor present, alongside some fresh faces you hadn’t seen before. After hearing the alphabet soup of titles that followed each of their names, though, you were assured that you had a quality team to work with.

The only problem now - was where to begin.

“So, do we need to go over the rules again? Or are we good?”

An exasperated sigh tickled the back of Seokjin’s neck, Hoseok so close that Seokjin could almost swear he could taste what he had for lunch.

“I asked ONE question, and suddenly I’m not good!” he whines, shuffling over a step to stand beside the elder at the bar.

A chorus of giggles came from the couch occupied by Jungkook and Taehyung, and a familiar feeling bubbled in Seokjin’s heart. It was nice to see a flash of them back to their normal selves - all of them, he notes with a quick sweep of his gaze. Even Yoongi was getting back to his normal sarcastic remark quip speed, the initial effects of the virus almost all but forgotten.

If it wasn’t for the brain in the teal cooler on the floor between them though, it would’ve felt like a normal day out with his brothers.

Jimin clasps a hand on Hoseok’s shoulder, nodding once before meeting Namjoon’s stare. “We’re good, hyung. We will stay close, stay quiet, and be quick and stay hidden,” he ticks off on his fingers as he speaks, left with a single pinky raised. “Oh, and watch for the signal.”

Jungkook giggles. “Safety first, safety second, coolness third.”

Namjoon gives a nod of affirmation, scanning each of their faces before continuing. “Exactly. We have to be careful. We’re faring better than some of the others out there, but we’re still not… human. We have to keep a low enough profile to be able to follow clues.”

“So, don’t be perceived, and don’t get killed, basically.” Taehyung jokes, a weak smile on his face. He doesn’t like showing it, but Seokjin knows just how much of a worrier Taehyung is - how anxious he must be.

While it was Namjoon’s job to lead all of them to battle, it had always been Seokjin’s unofficial role to help boost morale; to keep them happy even during the darkest of days. He always brushed it off as the rightful duty as the eldest, but the truth of it is that he couldn’t stand to see them in any kind of distress. Because of this, he had learned subtle ways to cheer them up. You know what they say - when you do your best work, they won’t even be sure that you did any work at all.

“We won’t get killed, Taehyung, because we have a list of rules.” Seokjin winks, bumping the shoulder of the younger man to get him to meet his stare. Ignoring the leader’s groan of annoyance, he continues. “And also, because we’re going to do this together. And we’ve gotten through all the shit life has thrown at us as long as we were together, with a 100% success rate.”

The boxy grin Taehyung rewards him with is genuine as chuckles break out over the group. Satisfaction builds in Seokjin’s gut, and soon his cheeks are wide with a smile of his own.

“He’s right,” Namjoon says, ruffling Taehyung’s fluffy mop of curls. “We’ve always gotten through things together. And that’s how we’ll get through this, now.”

Another pang resounded in Seokjin’s chest, though this time he could name it as it passed through him, recognizing the familiar vice around his heart.

The love for his brothers. The bond they share.

He could feel himself grow sentimental, briefly considering sharing his emotions with the group - before Jungkook popped his head around a corner, calling them with a collective shout of “hyung”.

“I think this also might help us get through it,” he chirps, opening his hand to show a key and electric fob dangling from a ring around his pointer finger. “Literally.”

Jungkook’s triumphant laughter has them all excited and on their feet, Seokjin grasping the key to take a closer look. “Oh shit - for the town car? Where did you find this?”

Seokjin knew his brother usually drove himself to work, and only utilized the family driver when he was extra busy, planning to meet with family after a shift, or when he was entertaining someone important and wanted to show off. Darting around Jungkook, he headed for the office without awaiting the younger’s reply.

“Was it in here?”

“Yeah, I found it on the hook by the door and I remember seeing the town car outside, so I figured we could use it.”

Seokjin quickly takes stock of the room before him, scanning until he sees the familiar family calendar hung up on the wall. Rushing over, he looks for the dates, trying to confirm something that he was already suspecting. “It looks like Seokjoong was going to meet up with our parents later this evening, and was going to send the car to bring them here. Since his car isn’t around, maybe he decided to drive to them when everything went down.”

It was the logical conclusion. His brother wouldn’t want his family to be in danger in any way, and it would be faster and more secure to go to their country home than to stay in the city. Relief floods Seokjin’s veins, and he leans his head against the wall for a moment to collect himself before turning back to Jungkook.

“Good find,” he praises, following him back into the hall. “It will definitely get us there faster and safer.”

Jungkook gives him a wide grin, clearly satisfied with the praise. As they rejoin the rest of the group, Seokjin holds up the keyring again for them to see.

“Looks like we’re on our way to meet our dream girl,” he sings, jangling the key obnoxiously while the others groan.

“Don’t forget the whole ‘finding a cure for being a zombie’ thing, too.” Yoongi adds, observing the eldest sharply. There was something going on with Seokjin - something that only he seems to be picking up on - and it was only a matter of time until he got to the bottom of it.

Rolling his eyes, it was Seokjin’s turn to scoff as he marched towards the back door of the restaurant. “Yeah, that’s what I said. Let’s go, I’m driving.”

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transdemigod · 3 years

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Cutting Yourself Off from the Entities: A Comprehensive Guide

I am once again overanalyzing the Magnus Archives for fun. This topic is super interesting to me, and I haven’t seen it explored as much as other theories, so here we go.

So, you’ve pledged yourself to one of the Dread Powers, but decided that you’ve had enough of terrorizing others. Not to worry, there is a way out. Melanie King did it and lived all the way to the end of the series!

Here is the summary, though I’m sure a full explanation will be more satisfying:

To escape the Buried, lose yourself to the emptiness. To escape the Corruption, kill what loves you. To escape the Dark, give yourself to the sunlight. To escape the Desolation, choose kindness. To escape the End, cut yourself off from dreams. To escape the Eye, blind yourself. To escape the Flesh, give up control of your body. To escape the Hunt, tear out your teeth and claws. To escape the Lonely, bind yourself to others. To escape the Slaughter, remove your emotions. To escape the Spiral, destroy your voice. To escape the Stranger, make yourself known. To escape the Vast, trap yourself in a small place. To escape the Web, give up your autonomy.

The rest is under the cut. Let me know if you have any ideas that you think I missed, I would love to discuss theories.

We know for sure that the way to escape the Eye is to gouge your own eyes out. The other entities have less information, but we get a few clues here and there. In the season 4 Q&A, Jonny and Alex joke about leaving the service of the Stranger by running naked through the streets. They also mention that the Desolation can be left by an act of true altruism. With these details, as well as other details in the rest of the canon, we can make a list of criteria that must be satisfied for an act that will cut someone off from each of the 14 Entities.

Firstly, it isn’t enough to just stop feeding your god. Daisy and Jon both tried to abstain and ended up wasting away, and it is implied that they would have died if they had continued. Dying is certainly one possible way to escape the service of a Fear, but we’re going for living out the rest of your natural life here.

Secondly, there has to be some sacrifice made that relates to the specific power. This is where the Desolation’s explanation kind of falls apart; doing one good act doesn’t stop you from just continuing to be destructive, so the act must also include giving up the thing that ties you to your Entity. In the Stranger’s case, one could argue that exposing yourself does count as giving up your anonymity, and there are several Stranger avatars that seem to thrive on being unknown. My theory is that each Entity has a draw of some kind, a power that it gives its followers, which you would have to completely give up if you are to leave it for good. Jon mentioned that the blinding has to be permanent, so I’m assuming this applies to the others as well. Basically, the avatar who wishes to leave must give up something that one who does not wish to leave would never want to.

Third, the change can be physical or symbolic. Obviously blinding yourself is a very physical change, while committing acts of altruism or making yourself known are less so. Some of the Entities will have pretty clear parts of the body that connect you to the power, others will need a bit more of an explanation. In special cases where a person gets their power from an artifact or a Leitner, destroying the thing would probably be enough to cut them off from that power. And of course, if you are as lucky as Georgie Barker and manage to completely get rid of your fear, that would probably be enough to cut you off from them as well.

So, here are my explanations for what you would have to do to cut yourself off from each of the 14. I’m basing it on examples we get in the series, the few rules I have decided to set, and what would seem thematically or symbolically appropriate. Realistically, each individual would have their own personal journey and each avatar is different, but it’s more fun this way.

The Buried- The draw of the Buried is a little difficult to narrow down, we’ve heard about restfulness, the comfort of enclosed spaces, the desire to be a part of the earth, etc. The thing Buried avatars seem to dislike the most is wide open spaces, though I don’t know how that would translate to something you can change about yourself. How would a person cut themselves off from the earth? You could move to a place that is very open, but you could also just leave. I’m not sure if there is a way a person could give up the concept of space, so I’m probably going to have this same problem when I get to the Vast. Probably the only thing you could give up that makes sense is the type of space the Buried is tied to, so you’d have to keep away from enclosed spaces. However you’re supposed to do that, I have no idea. This one is just going to have to be a less satisfying answer, unless I find another idea later.

To escape the Buried, lose yourself to the emptiness.

The Corruption- Most people who get into the Corruption get filled with bugs, and we know from Jane that it is appealing because you have a sense of belonging and purpose. The Corruption focuses a lot on toxic love, and I think communities specifically because the things we think of as infections are multitudinous: insect hives, bacteria, fungal colonies, etc. Even in the case of that one guy with the beetle wife, it was implied that there would soon be many more beetles. So, I think to stop being fed by the Corruption, you have to get rid of the infection in whatever form it takes. The one woman in the statement about the cult ended up leaving, but she wasn’t a full avatar, so I think that would require a bit more drastic action. If Jane had wanted to leave, she would probably have had to kill every worm inside of her. Knowing what we know about her, she would never want to do that, but she also had no regrets about becoming the Hive. Someone like John Amherst would have to get rid of all the diseases inside of him, so it might be as simple as a hospital visit and getting pumped full of antibiotics. If you got hollowed out by bugs, you might have to fill in the space somehow to be able to move, but I’m sure you could find a way. Maybe some help from the Flesh? It does seems to be in opposition to the Corruption in many ways, so that would work thematically.

To escape the Corruption, kill what loves you.

The Dark- Another abstract one. What’s the opposite of blinding yourself? The Dark, aside from the literal definition, includes things like weird science and unknowable things that lurk in the dark. Seeking knowledge would be a good opposite to darkness, but that’s not making a sacrifice or a permanent change. It’s not very clear what avatars of the Dark would hate to lose. Manuela Dominguez describes hating the light, how traditional divinity and knowledge are unnatural as opposed to the dark state of the world. This might be another location based one. Apparently, the sunniest places in the world are in northern Africa and the southwest parts of America, so moving there might do it. There isn’t an easy permanent change to make, but committing yourself to being in the sunlight as much as possible would probably work. Change your sleep schedule, move somewhere sunny, just avoid the dark in general. Maybe even start worshipping the sun; that would be in opposition to the cult following the Dark has.

To escape the Dark, give yourself to the sunlight.

The Desolation- We know it’s an act of altruism. I think it might need some adjusting, though, to make it more of a sacrifice by the person who serves the Desolation. This fear is all about sacrifice and loss, so it’s a bit tricky to think of something a Desolation avatar could give up when they’ve already committed to giving up everything. Well, everything except themselves. Many avatars, like Jude Perry, have shown themselves to be selfish, but I don’t think even they would be opposed to going out in a blaze of glory. No, the hardest thing for them would be to settle down and live a prosperous life. This one probably would have to be continuous effort instead of one grand sacrifice. It doesn’t fit with the others, but it does fit the theme of the Desolation. Yeah, I’ve just gone in a big circle. Altruism does make the most sense. Just make sure that selfless gesture counts. It’s not a real choice if you don’t mean it. I guess that would be really difficult if you’re used to burning everything around you, so maybe it’s more of a sacrifice than I thought.

To escape the Desolation, choose kindness.

The End- We actually already have a canon answer for this one: lobotomize yourself. Adelard Dekker found an End avatar that was killing people with carbon monoxide through their dreams, and he stopped him by cutting through his pre-frontal cortex- the part of the brain that lets you dream. It’s implied that this didn’t completely work, but I think the reason for that is that the avatar was not the one to make the choice. It’s emphasized again and again that serving the fears is all about personal choice, so it makes sense that any attempt to cut someone off wouldn’t take if the person hasn’t decided to give up their connection. The End is associated with dreams in most appearances, so I believe that a person who chooses not to dream would no longer be bound to it. Oliver Banks could see those whose deaths were coming in his dreams, which directly led to him becoming an avatar, so if he had decided to stop dreaming, that would be it. This procedure might be a bit difficult, I can’t imagine performing your own lobotomy would go very well, but I’m sure getting someone else to do it would count if you were the one to make the decision. Of course, Terminus would still have you in the end, but that will happen no matter what you do.

To escape the End, cut yourself off from dreams.

The Eye- This one is already answered. The draw of the Eye is the power to watch, so you have to give that ability up. Simple, straightforward, and definitely fits the theme.

To escape the Eye, blind yourself.

The Flesh- Oh boy, this is a weird one. We have dysphoria, consumption, body horror, I can’t say this one sounds very appealing. But it must be, or else it wouldn’t have people serving it. A lot of the draw to serve the fears could be interpreted as dishing out what you can’t take. You don’t have to be afraid of being watched if you do the watching, you don’t have to fear harm if you harm them first. Maybe the appeal of Flesh is making others share that fear that you are nothing but meat. I don’t think it’s really possible for people to give up their corporeal form, unless it’s metaphorical but I have no idea what that could mean. I think those who serve the Flesh thrive on being “more” than others. More body parts, more mass in general. You could go on a diet or become a vegetarian, which I think the writers may have joked about once? I want a more concrete solution, though. Diets are easy to break. You can’t fully give up food without dying, so I guess you could give up the control of food. Giving up your sense of taste would be interesting, but I’m going to keep it more general. No easy answer for this one either.

To escape the Flesh, give up control of your body.

The Hunt- People are drawn to the Hunt by that deep, primal desire to chase and attack. Humans have both predator and prey instincts inside of us, so you would have to completely leave the predator behind to escape the Hunt. I think a good way to do this would be the get rid of your teeth, or nails, whichever you use to cause harm. Daisy was able to temporarily leave behind her power in the Buried, but as soon as she got out, she started starving. I think this is a good argument that you could partially cut off your power by using a power that opposes it in some way, but you would have to give up a part of yourself to make it stick. As soon as she had the freedom and ability to hunt again, that was when the urge came back, and she eventually succumbed to it. Getting rid of the parts of your body that do harm wouldn’t completely stop you if you were dedicated enough, but it’s the choice to do so that matters. This one is a bit more of a symbolic choice, and you could probably do something else to your body that would prevent it from hunting, but I am going with the cooler option.

To escape the Hunt, tear out your teeth and claws.

The Lonely- Probably all you have to do to escape the Lonely is just…be around other people. I’m sure this is easier said than done, but there are lots of ways to commit to other humans. Get married, join a club, make a blood pact and permanently bind yourself to another human. The possibilities are endless! This one, I think more than the others, would require a bit more of a continued effort. I know that the whole point is to make one drastic, permanent change, but the Lonely feels like something that’s easy to relapse into. Maybe it’s the depression metaphor, I don’t know, but I don’t think this one has as easy a solution as the others. It’s hard work forcing yourself to stay connected to others, and it’s something most people in real life struggle with. Giving up any of these powers is a difficult choice, which is the whole point. Life is hard, and we have to make tough decisions. Anyway, I’m okay letting this one be a bit more abstract.

To escape the Lonely, bind yourself to others.

The Slaughter- This one is very similar to the Hunt in terms of actions, so I think the solution might be similar as well. Destroying your weapon would fit well, but it is just way too easy to pick up something else and continue hacking and slashing away. To give up violence entirely, you might have to destroy a significant part of your body. For the Slaughter, I think we should go with a less physical act. The opposite of violence is healing, so maybe become a doctor? You would have to really commit to helping others instead of hurting them, and that is too easy to go back on. I think the sacrifice made here would have to be emotion. Anger and the desire to hurt would go away if you couldn’t feel anymore. I don’t know how you would do this, except through drugs, but that isn’t permanent. There is probably a part of the brain you could destroy that causes emotion. It’s not the same as the prefrontal cortex, which we destroyed back in the End section, so at least it’s not the same solution twice. Honestly, the drugs could work if you did them long term, it’s about the choice anyway. However you do it:

To escape the Slaughter, remove your emotions.

The Spiral- The draw of the Spiral is the power to lie and deceive. There are many ways to do this, and there are probably just as many ways to stop yourself from doing it. However, there is one way that I think fits very well and is absolutely a permanent change: destroy your voice. This is actually the first one I thought of because even though it’s not technically the only way to stop yourself from lying, it fits very well thematically. Michael as the Distortion calls itself the Throat of Delusion Incarnate, so what better way to break yourself off from the same power then by tearing out your throat? It’s not perfect, but I like it so much that I’m going to pick it. I don’t know how one would go about destroying one’s voice, except with very careful surgery. Or screaming for a very long time.

To escape the Spiral, destroy your voice.

The Stranger- We got our answer to this one in the Q&A. Run naked through the streets, and make sure to engage with everyone who talks to you so that you can’t hide. Utterly terrifying. It makes perfect sense though; we heard from the Not!Them that beings of the Stranger hate losing their anonymity. Whether by switching skins, tricking the mind, or looking so generic that no one can remember your face, being known is antithetical to the Stranger. There are probably other ways to go about losing your anonymity then running around naked. You could get up on a stage somewhere and pour your heart out, or publish an autobiography. Basically anything the Eye would like. As long as you are putting yourself out there in a way that you can’t take back, you should be able to successfully cut yourself off from that uncanny fear.

To escape the Stranger, make yourself known.

The Vast- This one might actually be easier than the Buried, because it’s not purely spatial. It includes things like longevity, our insignificance in the face of a massive universe, and large scary things in general. A Vast avatar would hate to be enclosed, but they would also hate to be made responsible. They enjoy making others afraid of their insignificance, but what if they were important to the universe? What if the world was actually very small, and they fit neatly into it instead of being lost? There’s a lot of different ways to go here, so narrowing down one sacrifice might not be the best answer. I can’t really think of any one action that makes a person feel as though the world is small and trapping them. Giving themselves to the Buried would, probably. A direct contrast is the easiest answer.

To escape the Vast, trap yourself in a small place.

The Web- Avatars of the Web are manipulators, through and through. There are so many ways to manipulate a person that no one action could prevent you from doing that, so this one would likely vary a lot between individuals. That movie director who had people puppet him in his own house comes to mind, I think giving up your freedom like that is a good way to do it. Being paralyzed wouldn’t stop you if you used your voice to control others, and giving up both would suck, but if that’s what you need to do, then I guess it’s your choice to make. Maybe all you would need to do is let someone else tell you what to do, and fully trust them. That would be difficult, coming from the Web where everything is tied together and you know how easy it is to manipulate you.

To escape the Web, give up your autonomy.

#tma #the magnus archives #the buried #the corruption #the dark #the desolation #the end #the eye #the flesh #the hunt #the lonely #the slaughter #the spiral #the stranger #the vast #the web #tma entities #tma analysis

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allthefilmsiveseenforfree · 3 years

Text

Dear Evan Hansen

You may have seen some ~online discourse~ about the film Dear Evan Hansen, an adaptation of the 2016 Broadway musical, and you might have wondered what all the hubbub is about. I mean, it’s a feel good story about a senior in high school, Evan Hansen (Ben Platt), who has some pretty severe anxiety and depression. While trying to fulfill an assignment from his therapist to write a letter to himself, his letter gets picked up by another student, Connor (Colton Ryan) - and later that day, Connor kills himself. Connor’s grieving parents and sister Zoe (Amy Adams, Danny Pino, and Kaitlyn Dever) are desperate to learn more from the boy they think was Connor’s best friend - after all, Connor’s suicide note was a letter addressed to “Dear Evan Hansen.” And, as you can imagine, Evan tells them about the unfortunate mistake and sits with them in their grief as they struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Just kidding! He lies to them, repeatedly, elaborately, expansively for months, constructing an entire false friendship with Connor that never happened, and ingratiating himself into the wealthy nuclear family he never had, in large part because he wants to get into Zoe’s pants! THIS IS THE PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY. Oh, and it’s a musical so there is a lot of singing and crying and singing WHILE crying and sometimes crying and not singing at all. But the #inspiration, you guys.

Things I liked:

Pretty much everything but the story and Ben Platt’s performance. The supporting cast is stacked, and all of them do a great job at elevating material scraped directly out of a diaper worn by someone who just chewed their way through a copy of the DSM-5.

A couple of the songs are damn catchy - “Waving Through a Window” and “You Will Be Found” are standouts for a reason - and here’s the thing, Platt sings them well. But as you’ll discover, there’s a lot more to a movie musical than just singing your part.

Stephen Chbosky, the man behind every deep thought I and a lot of people in my generation had in 2006 after he wrote The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is a pretty good director. I particularly enjoyed the fanvid-type cuts in “Waving Through a Window” in conjunction with the lyrics, and his use of interstitial shots to flashbacks (and sometimes flashforwards!) is a neat little bit of shorthand that I thought was used sparingly enough to be effective.

Amy Fucking Adams. She’s holding on so hard, so desperately to the idea of who her son could have been, rather than the reality of who he was, and she is full of such deep pain that is masked by an almost endless supply of patience with Evan and relentless positivity. All this made me want was Enchanted 2 even worse than I already did.

Super into everything Zoe wears - the costuming department did a great job, and now all I want to do is live in mom jeans and baggy sweaters.

Did I Cry? I teared up a couple of times because I’m not a completely heartless bastard and when Amy Adams offered Evan Connor’s college money, my heart broke for the lie Evan had thrust upon her, and Julianne Moore’s song got me good, because she’s just a single mom to Evan who is doing her goddamn best.

Things I hated more than the time I dropped a frozen gallon container of fruit cocktail on my pinkie toe in my parents’ garage and it turned black and I thought it was gonna fall off:

Ben Platt is 28 years old. He originated the role of Evan Hansen on Broadway, so in many respects it makes sense that he plays the role in the movie, except for the one kinda sorta important thing where he looks like a wizened old crone standing amongst a sea of children doing his best twitching, cringing Hunchback of Notre Dame impression. If you want someone to convincingly play 20 years their junior, hire Paul Rudd. Otherwise, please don’t ask me to believe that this supposed 18-year-old has crow’s feet.

And that twitching nervous energy is a huge part of the black hole at the center of this film - he’s playing to the cheap seats and walking through the halls of his high school like a wet chihuahua. It’s an excruciating acting choice to watch - he doesn’t just have anxiety, he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown seemingly every second of every day. Like honestly, where is only-mentioned-never-seen Dr. Sherman, because this young man’s meds are NOT WORKING DR. SHERMAN.

There’s such a lack of self-awareness on behalf of the writing, directing, and performance by Platt. There’s one song, “Sincerely, Me,” that offers the only glimpse of commentary about what Evan is doing, by pointing out the malicious ridiculousness of him writing a series of fake emails as proof of his and Connor’s friendship.

Also what high schoolers email this much?? I know this was written in probably 2014 or so, but has a bitch never heard of a text? Even a DM? This whole plot is constructed around the premise that high schoolers are just constantly, constantly emailing each other.

Everything - and I mean EV-ER-Y-THING - about Evan’s relationship with Zoe is so creepy and disturbing that with a soundtrack change, this could easily be a horror movie. He attempts to get her to like him by describing to her all the things her brother noticed about her - oh wait, I’m sorry, all the things HE noticed about her while he was skulking in the shadows following her around for years, watching every move she made, and it ends with him singing repeatedly “I LOVE YOU” because following a girl around and never having a conversation with her or knowing her at all is love, right? This was clearly written by the same people who chose “Every Breath You Take” as their wedding song because Sting is hot and they never actually listened to the damn words.

And it gets about 10 billion times worse when Zoe goes to Evan’s house alone, takes him up to his room, and sings “I don’t need reasons to want you” and that was the moment I was that person I hate in a movie theater and I pulled out my phone to Google who wrote the music and lyrics to the musical (we were in the back row of the theater no one was behind me THIS WAS AN OUTRAGE EMERGENCY) and of motherfucking course it was written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, 2 men who heard about meeting an actual human woman from a friend one time but otherwise are unfamiliar with the concept.

Lastly, enormous serial killer vibes from Evan sending unlabeled flash drives anonymously through the mail with no note in an attempt to right his wrongs. That’s not catharsis, that’s how the next installment in the Saw franchise starts, with Evan in a Billy the clown doll mask showing up on the screen and asking if you want to play a fucking game.

Also, I know it’s not possible for the narrative to justify this in a way that could be satisfying based on Evan’s actions, but what is with this thing where single working-class mom Julianne Moore is turning down rich people’s money for Evan to go to college? Like, obviously we can’t have that happen in the movie but in real life, fuck your pride! Take those rich people’s money!

I also know how movies work but nothing annoys me more than a giant group of high schoolers all getting beeps and boops to indicate text notifications all at the same time because I don’t know a single person under the age of 55 who keeps their ringer on. That shit is on vibrate AT MOST, and I feel like that’s a millennial thing.

The emotional climax of the film is obviously Evan’s WAY TOO LATE confession, but the idea that it’s prompted by Connor’s family suddenly getting a lot of internet hate is, frankly, laughable. If Sandy Hook taught me one thing, it is that no tragedy is immune from trolls who live only to cause other people devastating emotional pain on the internet. That shit starts day 1. Apparently no one involved in this production has ever been on Twitter?

Also it feels like there should have been a dog somewhere in this movie and there was no dog, so points off for that too.

Perhaps Dear Evan Hansen isn’t nearly as deep as it aspires to be. Perhaps it’s a morality play, a simplistic message of “Don’t lie, kids, lying is bad!” Major studio movies wrap themselves up with a nice bow at the end so everyone can feel good about themselves and leave with a happy ending, but the moronic cruelty on display here makes that feat feel impossible. We’re left with Evan in an orchard, reading Connor’s favorite books and staring into the big blue sky with all the self-actualization he’s earned now as a lil treat. And if Evan Hansen looked like an actual 18-year-old, it would be a lot easier to extend more empathy to him and his not-fully-developed prefrontal cortex, but it’s a little harder with this fully-grown, weathered man who was old enough to remember seeing Liar Liar in theaters.

Dear Evan Hansen,

Get some actual help and a haircut and maybe you can grow up enough to have an actual healthy interaction with any other living person, ever.

Sincerely,

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

#121in2021 #dear evan hansen #dear evan hansen review #dear evan hansen 2021 #ben platt #amy adams #kaitlyn dever #julianne moore #colton ryan #danny pino #movie reviews #film reviews

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drummergirl231 · 3 years

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Hey DG! Been following ur blog for a year now, and i love your positive support to this fandom :)

Do you think Apritello in 2012 was in any way abusive/toxic looking back not that the show is over?

I don’t think this myself at all, i just wanted to know your opinion on this claim because i trust your judgement.

Oh wow, thank you so much! Sorry I’m not really active on this blog anymore (though I’m still around and still compulsively check it lol). But I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my past posts! (My apologies for my lack of gifs in this post; my Apritello gifs aren't on this computer.) As for Apriltello being toxic or abusive, I wouldn’t label it as such. They certainly had their moments where each of them said or did the wrong thing, but they’re teenagers who have no idea what they’re doing, romantically or in life in general. But they learn and grow as individuals over the course of the show, and in doing so, they grow closer together.

Let’s start with Donnie. One of the major complaints I’d hear about him was that he once kinda wound up stalking April back in Season 2, which we all agree wasn’t healthy for either of them.

Now, disclaimer/PSA: Ladies, if a guy is following you around without your consent, do not try to rationalize it. You don’t know what’s going on in someone else’s head in real life. If someone is doing something that makes you uncomfortable, don’t gaslight yourself, or try to justify his behavior, or try to see it from his perspective (which you can’t be sure of anyway). Just get away and stay safe.

With Donnie, he’s a fictional character, so we, the audience, did get to see things from his perspective, and he wasn’t following her with creepy intentions. He wanted to talk to her and patch things up, but he wasn’t totally sure how to approach her, and used that time hopping from rooftop to rooftop trying to figure that out. What he should’ve done is figure that out from home while giving her space. But he’s a teenager who grew up in isolation from the world, not even watching as much TV as his brothers, and he's learning how to socialize for the first time. It doesn’t make his behavior correct, but it makes it easy to forgive so long as he learns and grows from it, which he did. Besides, there was an alien race after April. Keeping an eye on her wasn’t a completely terrible idea. He should’ve just gone about it differently.

Another complaint I’d hear about Donnie was that he still wanted to protect her, even after she’d learned to fight and control her powers, like in her fight with Shinigami, for example. To which I offered the counter-argument: what kind of jerk would Donnie be if he just stood there and didn’t care that the woman he supposedly loves was getting her butt handed to her? The writers needed to show Donnie distressed over April being hurt, but they also needed to have Raph hold him back, because it really was April’s fight. His desire to protect her wasn’t because he thought she was weak or incapable. It was simply because he loves her and hates to see her hurt. A third complaint I’d hear against Donnie was that his feelings persisted a long time. One blogger even referred to Mikey’s crushes on multiple girls as the most “realistic,” out of the turtles’ romances. It may be more relatable to that particular blogger, but it’s not unrealistic to have feelings for one person that persist a long time. I had a huge crush on a guy friend from 5th grade through 10th grade, and that crush resurfaced briefly during my senior year. Some feelings can’t be switched off at will, so what matters is how you handle those feelings while you have them. And while Donnie didn’t always know the best way to handle them, he was a teenager, perfectly entitled to his mistakes, and not toxic or abusive towards April.

Now it’s April’s turn. This teenage girl lost her mom under mysterious circumstances at a young age, then lost her dad (multiple times throughout the series) to an alien race that was ultimately after her so they could terraform the planet. She lived alone a lot of the time, and still had high school, extracurricular activities, and massive secrets to keep. That’s a lot for a minor to deal with. Now add having a big mutant turtle friend awkwardly crushing on you. Would any of us have known how to handle that at that age? Most of us didn’t even know how to handle crushes on fellow humans at that age. For much of the show’s earlier seasons, Donnie’s flirtations and near-confessions came at times when April was up to her eyeballs in chaos she didn’t know how to handle.

She got a lot of crud from fans in particular for kissing Donnie right after he’d told her he understood he was making her uncomfortable and he’d back off, especially because Donnie said after the kiss he understood nothing and he was even more confused than before.

As a fan, I love the kiss. As a grown-up, I gotta say it wasn’t the best decision she could’ve made in that moment. Actions may speak louder than words, but for someone like Donnie, words would’ve been a lot easier to understand. I think what went on in this scene was that April finally realized she did have feelings for Donnie. She wasn’t ready for a relationship with everything going on, but she didn’t want Donnie to give up on her just yet. At the start of the next episode, a still-confuzzled Donnie tried showing off in front of her again (“Check me out, April!”) and she ignored him and walked right on past, further confusing Donnie and irritating the fans. But I think April was trying to overcorrect. Maybe even she thought the kiss was going a little too far, and she was trying to make sure Donnie knew she didn’t want a relationship yet. April’s biggest crime as far as Apritello goes was just not verbally communicating with Donnie. She was young and it was a weird situation and she didn’t know how to handle it.

But after that moment, things did change between them. They really started getting closer as friends, which became a wonderful foundation for them. Donnie started to relax around her a little more, which helped her relax around him, and her feelings were allowed to develop without pressure. They care about each other, protect each other, fight for each other, and respect each other. Things were awkward between them at first, and they did inadvertently hurt each other here and there, but they just needed to grow up a little. I mean personally I don’t think anyone should even date before their prefrontal cortex reaches maturity at age 25, but I don’t think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could ever go on that long. lol

#apritello #long post #tmnt 2012 #tmnt donnie #tmnt april

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elfwoodfae · 3 years

Text

“Nightcall” Harrison Eo Wells x reader.

Chapter-5

Warnings: smut, please don’t read if you are under 18.

Author’s note: I hope you all like and enjoy this. It was honestly probably the hardest chapter to write and I’m still a little insecure about it. I didn’t want to break Eo’s character. Let me know what you think.

Gif credits to the owner, I found this one on google.

It was almost eight when Caitlin picked you up at your house to go out. It would be a relaxing night out with the girls. The plan was to go to a bar and have a few drinks and catch up about life outside of work.

Once you both made it to the bar and Iris arrived you all settle in a table and decided to order some drinks. Even though you had decided not to over indulge you felt like you needed to relax after such a hectic week.

After the first round of shots you started to loosen up. Iris was telling you all about how amazing Eddie was. He was a very cute guy you had to admit, but not really your type. You preferred brunettes.

“So” Iris began as she and Caitlin redirected their eyes to you.

“So?” You continued waiting for them to speak.

“Don’t play dumb! What was that with Dr. Wells this morning?” Iris finally said.

“I promise you both it was nothing.” You said trying to defuse the situation.

“Come on, we see the way you looked at him.” Iris kept pushing.

“And I have seen the way he stares at you from time to time.” Caitlin commented. Yes he would look at you but for an entirely different reason, only to make sure you didn’t slip up.

“I just… I don’t know.” You said honestly looking away.

“Hey, is okay to like Dr. Wells, I don’t think the age difference is a big factor.” Caitlin tried to cheer you up. You honestly wished you could tell them the truth. Which was that you did liked him. More than liked him. Far more than just physical attraction. You used to admire him, look up to him. You wanted to be by his side, reassuring him that he was a good person when the particle accelerator had exploded and almost everyone had turned their backs to him.

You wanted to make him feel good again, to make him smile. The truth was that you had feelings for him, even if it was a painful truth to admit to yourself.

“I just don’t think now is the right moment to pursue a relationship with him.” You said honestly. “Plus I don’t even know if he likes me back.” You concluded trying to get their minds off of it.

“But you will never know if it could have been something, maybe he does.” Caitlin said. It didn’t look like they were letting this go.

“You guys is just, he has been alone for so long, I honestly don’t even think he has ever had a relationship again after his wife died.” You commented.

That made you think, had he ever had a relationship with anyone after? Was he seeing anyone? Not that you cared but just out of curiosity.

“That is true, I have never seeing him with anyone or heard him mention anyone since I started working for him.” Caitlin added.

“Exactly, maybe he is not interested, I’m sure there had been plenty of women interested in him.” You said as you rolled your eyes. Gaining a knowing smirk from Iris.

“You know why don’t we change the subject, speaking about an unreciprocated love is making me feel down.” You said as you made your way to the bar to order the next round.

One too many shots later you found yourself getting into your apartment. Deciding to change and get ready for bed you made your way to the bathroom, but while passing by the window you looked outside, trying to see if by any miracle he would be somewhere looking at you. It was very silly actually, you should not be caring or having these thoughts. But you honestly couldn’t help it.

After getting ready for bed and laying down you stared up at your ceiling lost in thought. You did like him a lot, it was just so hard and so wrong. Looking for your phone and looking up a picture of him from the internet you looked at every detail of his face. His nose, his hair, his lips, his eyes, those were your favorite. Your drunken mind wondered what it would feel like to kiss him. Would he be sweet and loving or rough and passionate?

Maybe you were taking this too far, maybe you needed to let him go, in your heart. Having these feelings for him and having to put up with him and what he was was just too much, it wasn’t going to end good for you.

With that thought in mind you fell asleep, maybe tomorrow your mind would be clearer.

When morning arrived and you made it over to Star labs you had a raging headache. You really hoped it was a quiet day. After entering the cortex and noticing Cisco there alone you asked him about everyone else. Apparently Barry was at CCPD, Caitlin was with Dr. Wells, he had been invited to speak at a conference and you were honestly happy for a calm day without the tension of his eyes on you following your every move.

The day remained calm, nothing really happened, no meta attacks, no crazy crime. It was just a normal relaxing day were you and Cisco decided to do inventory of the multiple discarded tech that was laying around. Making sure nothing was missing. Last thing any of you wanted was another Captain Cold incident.

Once the afternoon came and you decided to make your way home, as you made it almost to your car your phone started to ring. And of course it was Wells.

“Hello” you picked it up.

“Y/n, are you still at Star labs?” He asked.

“I’m actually about to get into my car. Why?” You asked him. Suspicion growing in your mind.

“Would you mind bringing me some papers to my house I forgot on my desk this morning?” And there it was. It was honestly probably the last thing you wanted to do right now, you still had a light headache and were looking forward to go straight home and relax.

“Can’t you come and get them?” You asked rolling your eyes. He could come, get them and be back in his house in the blink of an eye but no, he wanted you to do it for him.

Had this been before you wouldn’t have even thought about it twice before rushing over and helping him, being mindful of his condition.

“You will make me do all of that in my condition?” He questioned you.

“Ha ha! Good one Harrison, good one.” You said with annoyance.

“I’ll go and get them to you.” I’ll be there soon.” You finished the call, arguing with him about it wouldn’t get you anywhere.

Once you made it to his house with the papers in hand you knocked on his door, he had good taste, his house was very modern and styled to perfection from what you had been able to see from the outside. As he opened the door in his chair and invited you in you gave him the folder. You had never been inside the house, at least not further than the entrance.

“You know you could have done that trip in a second but instead you decided to make me do it for you.” You told him with mild annoyance. He turned around in the chair to look at you as you walked into the house.

“You never minded doing them for me before.” He responded.

“Well yes that was before. Lots of things I didn’t mind before.” You told him as you looked to the side taking in every detail of the house. He only stared at you, trying to decipher the meaning hidden behind you words.

Once you both made it to the living area he got up and walked over to the bar cart serving himself a drink, signaling at you with his glass offering you one.

“No thank you. Do you need anything else?” You asked harshly.

“Someone is in a bad mood.” He commented, that was the last thing you needed, for him to be playing games as if he wasn’t the reason of half of your problems.

“You are my bad mood.” You said before you could hold your tongue. He only raised his eyebrows at you.

Sighing you looked at him. “Actually a drink would be nice.” You said as you ran a hand through your hair.

He handed you over a glass as you drank a big gulp out of it.

“Why are you staring at me?” You questioned him. As he looked at you while leaning against a nearby table.

“I am just wondering what has you so stress out.” He said as if he wasn’t adding to that stress himself.

“You are kidding right?” You said as if it was supposed to be the most obvious thing in the world.

“I don’t believe I am y/n.” He said, his face serious but relax. You scoffed.

“I despise you.” You said while taking a sip of your drink.

“Now that’s not true.” He counteracted you.

“Actually you know what? I wish I did. I wish I actually despised you.” You said, getting fed up with his games.

“I wish I despised you, I wish I did, before all of this I actually admired you.” You continued, maybe this was what you needed to actually confront him and get it over with, maybe that way your mind would finally forget about him, even if your heart didn’t want to.

“I used to look up to you, want to help you and support you when everyone turned their backs at you. I wanted to make you feel better and make you see that it wasn’t your fault. That it was an accident what happened. I wanted to be with you. I liked you so much. I used to feel happy when I came into the lab because you would be there. And what I honestly wish for the most is that I had never found out, that you had never told me.” You finished while simultaneously finishing your drink. You turned around and left the glass in a nearby table, before giving him a chance to reply you told him before walking away.

“Thank you for the drink.”

As you made it to the door you felt a gush of wind behind you as he gently grabbed your arm to turn you around.

“I wish you hadn’t found out either.” He said, he was so close to you you could smell his cologne, so masculine. It matched him perfectly.

Trying to yank your arm out of his grasp you looked away, feeling emotional and vulnerable, you could feel the light pressure behind your eyes of tears wanting to form. He noticed it right away, letting go of your arm to grab your chin gently lifting your head to make you look at him. You avoided his eyes, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much he affected you.

“Look at me.” It wasn’t a question, and the dominant tone of his voice make you look up at him stubbornly.

“I despise you.” You told him once again.

His face softened as he lifted a hand to rub your cheek gently, “We both know that’s not true.” He whispered so softly that if there had been any other noise in the house you would have missed it.

You wanted him to kiss you so much.

“It’s not a good idea.” He said as if he had read your mind.

“Then let me go, let me go and forget we ever had this conversation in the first place.” You said as you closed your eyes and tried to collect your thoughts.

He moved closer to you, breathing you in. You raised your hand and placed it on his chest, not making enough pressure to actually push him away.

Lowering his mouth he softly connected your lips to his. You didn’t pull away, enjoying the feeling you had only dreamt about.

He broke the kiss only to kiss you again, this time more intensely, grabbing the nape of your neck and burying his hand in your hair.

He bit down on your lower lip, making you moan into him as he pried your mouth open, finding your tongue and caressing it with his own, tasting the alcohol in your mouth. His kiss became rougher, as his hand found your waist and squeezed it hard, trying to feel your skin through your clothes. His mouth broke away from yours to travel down your jaw as you moved your hands to his hair, pulling and running them through it.

“Tell me to stop.” He whispered against your skin.

“Tell me stop before it’s too late to go back.” You knew what he meant. He was asking you to stop before you could betray everyone you cared about any further in a way that would never be reversed.

But you didn’t want him to. You didn’t care in this moment about the consequences of tomorrow.

You grabbed his face and kissed him giving him your answer.

Running his hand down your lower back he sped you away to a room, his bedroom you assumed, and he slowly moved you to the edge of the bed, kissing you and moving his hand down to your butt cheek and squeezing it as you groaned into his mouth.

Moving your hands to the bottom of his sweater, digging them inside to feel his skin, warm and soft, feeling his muscles under the skin. He started to unbutton your shirt. Button by button as his mouth traveled down your neck, kissing and sucking at the skin making your head drop back and your eyes roll back into your head.

Taking off your blouse his hands roamed through your back looking for the clip to get rid of your bra. Once he found it he got rid of it and roamed free the skin of your back, kissing you lower and pushing you back until you fell back into the mattress. He moved down kissing the valley between your breasts while kneading the soft skin and kissing the softness of them hard enough to leave a mark.

His hands reached down to remove your pants and underwear together, leaving you naked to him. Placing himself in between your legs he took of his own sweater and unbuckled his pants, moving down to kiss you.

Your hands moved over his back, feeling his skin before moving to his hair to pull him back to look at you, the hunger in his eyes made you feel the slick growing between your legs.

Kissing him hard you moved your hand down his stomach to touch him. Moving it inside his pants to grasp at his hardening cock. He groaned breaking the kiss to bury his head in your shoulder.

“Take them off.” You breathed out. Desperate to feel more of him.

In a flicker of lighting he was on top of you again, naked while kissing you again, trying to devour you and memorize the feeling of your lips on his.

Running his hand down your body his fingers quickly found what they were looking for, rubbing against your entrance covering themselves in your slick as he groaned at the feeling of your wetness. His thumb moved over your clit vibrating against it.

The feeling was electrifying. It was far better than anything you could have dream off. The vibration he caused made your back arch against him while breaking the kiss and moaning hard into the air.

While his thumb vibrated against you his fingers moved over your entrance again, he pushed one in, working it around you, feeling you and preparing you before adding another to stretch you out for him.

He kissed your neck and sucked on it, leaving a mark and biting on it while you pulled at his hair in pleasure. You were getting close, he knew it, he could feel it in the way you tighten around him, he moved his finger to add more pressure to your clit, making you gasp and close your eyes as the wave you had being building washed over you. Moaning hard while your body tensed he helped you ride it out.

Kissing you once again your hands found his shoulders as you pushed him back to straddle him, sitting on top of him as you lowered your head to kiss him, his hands instantly found your butt as he squeezed you while you grinded your hips against his, feeling the wetness of your orgasm rub against his cock, making his eyes half lidded and his mouth part open in pleasure.

Circling your hands around his shoulders and neck you moved up enough to grab him and move the tip of his cock to your entrance. Feeling the delicious pressure of his cock against you. Your head fell back with a moan as he squeezed your hips hard enough to leave the skin red and bruised when you started to sink down onto him slowly as his face broke down at the sensation, his mouth opening and his eyes closing as you could feel the air leaving him at the feeling of you sinking down on him.

Time felt like it had slowed down completely while you sank all the way down, feeling him stretching you open, sliding in so deliciously slow you could die satisfied just by the feeling of him entering you for the first time over and over again.

Once you were fully seated on him, he grabbed your hair with one hand and moved your face down to kiss him while his other hand moved your hips up. Trusting down slowly you started to move on top of him, raising yourself and sinking onto him again, moaning into his mouth while he guided your movements. Building up a pace you started to pant while feeling yourself ready to come again. His hand left your hair to squeeze your breast as he kissed your chest and the softness of it, bitting it and licking as you rode him.

Your pace speeded up and while the angle didn’t allow him to touch your clit with his thumb it didn’t stop him from vibrating all of him under you, giving you the vibrations in the best way possible, every time your hips met you could feel yourself loosing a bigger part of you every time. You were so close, he knew it, he wanted to feel you squeeze him hard and see you come undone on top of him. Riding him, moaning for him.

“Harrison.” You breathed his name as you felt yourself getting closer and closer.

“Harrison,” you moaned his name once more and he knew instantly what you needed, in the blink of an eye he switched you over placing himself in between your legs and moving your thigh over his hips, allowing them to connect again while he entered you in one hard trust, vibrating all over you, bringing you closer to the edge as his pace speeded up and he growled like an animal at the feeling of you. Your eyes closed and your mouth moaned out his name once again as your walls squeezed him, trapping him and never wanting to let him go.

Coming all over him while his pace faltered at the feeling of you coming over his cock. He grabbed both your hands in his own and interlocked your fingers with his, moving them over you head as he brought your bodies together impossibly close while kissing you, groaning into the kiss and feeling himself getting closer. He sped up his pace once again and buried his face in your neck, bitting down on your skin to muffle the moan escaping him as he came deep inside of you.

You both laid there. Unable to move or utter a word. There was nothing you could say. And he didn’t know if he wanted to hear whatever it was you could say, afraid it would break this moment. Your hand moved over his back to his hair as you ran it through it. His face settled in your neck, breathing you and enjoying this moment, both of you silent as you looked up at the ceiling, not wanting to say anything. Only wanting to enjoy the feeling of him still buried into you and his hands interlocked with yours. Everything else could wait until tomorrow. Consequences could wait until tomorrow.

@mintchipcupcake

@yetanotherwells

@saltykidcreation

@twilightlover2007

@austarus

#the flash imagines #eobard thawne fanfic #eowells fanfic #eowells x reader #harrison wells fanfic #harrison wells x y/n #the flash fanfiction #eobard thawne x reader #harrison wells fanfiction #harrison wells imagine #harrison eo wells x reader #harrison eo wells fanfic #smut #harrison eo wells x reader fanfic #harrison eo wells imagine

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wowitsel · 3 years

Text

meeting the team

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

masterlist

Summary: You and Spencer have a big age gap, and when you meet the team, they have some things to say.

Fem! Reader

Word count: 1.5k

WARNINGS: age gap relationship (13 years), arguing

Category: angst to fluff

As you close the clasp on your necklace, you’re finally all dressed and ready for dinner with your boyfriend’s infamous team. You and Spencer had been dating for 7 months, although both of you had been very hesitant to let each other meet the important people in each other's lives, because of the obvious age difference between the two of you. With him being 33, and you being 20, there was bound to be some judgment from some people. Because everything went relatively smooth with your friends and family, you were feeling pretty confident heading into this dinner.

As you walk out of your shared room, you see Spencer standing near the front door, holding the car keys in his hand. He silently hands them to you while he says, “Can you drive? Please bub?”

“Fine, but you owe me. You know you're not the only one who hates driving.” You replied as you kiss him on the cheek and rush out the door.

“Well then, thank you, sweetie. Now hurry! We’re going to be late!” He tells you.

You chuckle at him, get in your car, shut the door, then start driving.

+++

You finally arrive at Rossi’s “mansion”, a whole five minutes late. You were not fazed by this, but it was safe to say that Spencer was. You moseyed out of the car, not in any rush, but then he nearly shouted, “C’mon! We’re already late Y/n!”

“Hey, calm down Spence. I’m sure we’re not the only ones late.” You said to him, but it was safe to say that you were very wrong.

+++

When the two of you walked in the door, you saw all the people that Spence had told you about, Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia, and Alex Blake. All the eyes were on you. And you knew exactly why. Your age gap wasn't exactly a secret, seeing as you looked around your own age, but you had assumed that Spencer had told them about it.

“Welcome, Reid! And umm…” David Rossi said as he struggled for a name.

“Uh, It 's Y/n.” You said awkwardly as you went to go sit down at the table.

“Well I’m David Rossi, It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, I know… Spencer told me all about you guys.”

You could cut the tension with a knife, but nevertheless, JJ propositioned you and Spence, “So, Spence, Y/n, do you two want some wine?”

When Spencer declined, everyone was quick to comfort him, remembering his past with addiction, but then you had to decline: “Umm no thanks. I’m underage”.

“Don’t you think you’re too young for Reid?” Morgan inquires.

“You can’t even drink yet. Are you sure you should be dating him?” Hotch asks.

“Shouldn’t he be with someone closer to his own age?” JJ questions.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the questions, you burst out, saying, “Hey! I’m 20, not 16, I'm plenty mature, and I’m not some teenager who will always act irrationally.”

“Actually babe, the prefrontal cortex, which deals with emotional reactions, isn’t fully developed until 25-” Spencer stops when he sees the look on your face.

There is an overwhelming silence that ensues until Blake decides to break the ice, and try and diffuse the tension: “So, Y/n, where do you go to college?” Assuming that you went to college because of your age.

“Actually I didn’t go to college.” You reply.

You take a deep breath, and then begin to go on a long rant about the elephant in the room: “Listen, I can hear what’s going on inside all your guys’ heads right now. And I get it. You’re thinking, ‘How wrong could this girl be for Spencer Reid? She’s 13 years younger than him, and doesn’t have any fancy degrees.’ And you're right about all those differences. But you’re wrong about me being wrong for him. Yeah, I may only have a high school degree, but I’m smart enough to know what Spence needs, and It’s me, and I also know what I need, and It’s him. So think what you want about our age gap, but we love each other, and nothing you do, can stop that.”

The room seemed like a sauna, seeing as you were fuming, steaming with anger. You quickly pushed your chair back, and stormed out of the room, heading to your car. You knew you were being childish, and overdramatic, but you couldn't help yourself. You knew that you were just proving their point, but that didn’t change anything. You just sat there and sulked in the car, until you heard the door open.

Spencer came and sat down in the car, and you two just sat in silence, which he then broke when he said, “You know we have to talk about it eventually right?”

“Yeah, I know. Just sit with me here for a while.” You sighed out.

+++

When the two of you got home, you both got ready for bed, and then, had some serious pillow talk.

“I’m sorry for all of that at dinner, bub. I was just so angry and emotional. I guess that just proves their point.” You admitted to him.

“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for. They were the ones out of line. You were right.”

“Thanks, Spence.” You told him with a small smile.

“What happened after I left?” You inquired.

Having an Eidetic memory, he recited exactly what he said to the team after you had left:

“Are you guys kidding me? I finally bring my girlfriend to meet you guys and all you do is berate and integrate her? I love that girl. She understands me. She knows what I need, even when I don’t even know. And she does this without being a profiler. She’s just that amazing. Yes, we may have thirteen years between us, but that means nothing to me. Did you guys even notice how much happier I became 7 months ago? Did you even care enough to notice? You guys have to learn that you don’t know everything about me and my life.”

After he told you what he said, you were sort of shocked. Spencer was never the person to loudly lash out in anger. Granted, he wasn’t the best at hiding his emotions, but when angry, he tended to be more serious and quiet than loud.

He told you, “I just got so mad at them, bub. You are my life and my everything. I just wanted them to like you, but then they were being so rude to you, baby, I couldn’t handle it.”

“How did the team react? You curiously asked.

“They were pretty shocked, I’d say. It was out of character for me, I guess.” Spencer replied while running his fingers through your hair.

“Well thanks for defending me. I love you” You said as you slowly drift off to sleep.

Spencer looks down at you sleeping and smiles to himself. He is reminded why he said all those things to his team and is reminded of just how amazing and happy you make him feel. He gives you a kiss on the forehead, before drifting off, himself.

+++

The next day you decided you were going to bring Spencer lunch, you knew that you would have to face the team, but you and Spencer desperately need the time together.

As you walked into the BAU headquarters, you felt a sense of dread upon you. But that all went away when a certain Penelope Garcia saw you. She rushed over to you, pulled you in a hug, and profusely apologized for everything that had happened last night.

“I am so sorry for last night. You seem like such a nice girl, and aghhhh I can't believe we said those things. I’m so sorry, again.” Penelope blurted out.

“Hey, It’s ok. It’s not like it was you were the one saying those things right?” You replied very wearily.

“Yeah… well, either way, I am so sorry!”

You then see Spencer at his desk and decide to head over there, but before you can, the rest of his team corners you, and bombards you with apologies.

“Hey, I'm really sorry about that.”

“You didn’t deserve any of that”

“You really make Reid happy, and that's all I really want”

Those were some of the many things that you heard. You weren’t sure what to do. You weren’t sure if you could forgive and forget. But then something in you clicked, and you knew what to do.

“You know, I was really upset, but you guys are Spence’s family, so I really want to get along. So why don’t we start over?” You said as the team looked at you, a bit confused.

“Hi! I’m Y/n. Dr. Spencer Reid’s girlfriend.”

+++

So, from that moment on, the team made it a priority to get to know you, for who you really were, not just from their predispositions about you.

It was going well. And everyone was happy.

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid angst #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid oneshot #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x y/n #criminal minds fanfiction

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mosylufanfic · 3 years

Text

Color My World (just paint it with your love)

For the Killervibe Gift Swap, a gift for @ava-has-a-closet-murderboard. Eventually I hope to get everyone a gift but it’s going real slow, y’all!

You see in color when you meet your soulmate AU. (Also obviously Ronnie died the first time and didn't come back as Firestorm, sorry Ronnie.)

Title from the song Color My World by Petula Clark

Color My World (just paint it with your love)

When Ronnie died, the world went grey in an instant.

Even as Caitlin screamed his name, she knew it was hopeless. Just the same as the world had exploded with color between one blink and the next the moment she'd met him, it reversed the moment his heart stopped beating.

For years, Caitlin assumed that Cisco saw the world in the same shades of grey as she did. She knew he was friendly and flirty and went on dates, and well - he was Cisco, after all. So she always expected to see him come rushing into the cortex one day, looking around at everything and seeing the colors after having met the person he was supposed to spend his life with.

So when she walked into his lab one day to find him comparing two apparently identical swatches, it was a surprise - but it wasn't.

"Cisco!" she cried, and he whirled to face her, stuffing both swatches behind his back. "Are you seeing in color?"

"Um, I - what? No. I was - comparing - um." He sagged. "Yes."

"You met your soulmate! Who is it? When can I meet them? What's their name?" She realized he wasn't looking as excited as people usually did in that first flush of color and love. "What's wrong?"

"I haven't met anyone new."

"Well, of course you have, you're seeing in color -"

"I met them years ago."

"Years? You've been seeing color all this time? You never said anything."

He nodded. "Sorry. Yeah."

"But when? And why didn't you - why aren't you - what happened?" Dramatic, overblown scenarios raced through her head, taken from cheesy cable movies with titles like "Soulmate to a Serial Killer.”

"Nothing happened, exactly. It's - " He looked away. "They're my soulmate, but I'm not theirs."

She goggled at him. You heard about those things, of course. Small percentages. Sad stories whispered behind hands. But knowing Cisco was one of them - "How do you know?"

"They'd already met their real soulmate when I met them."

She shook her head, attempting to wrap her head around it. "Are you sure? Have you told them? Have you talked about it at all?"

"Yes, I'm a hundred percent sure."

How could the universe be this cruel? Warm, laughing, loving Cisco, to be matched with someone who wasn't matched to him. To watch from the sidelines as they built a life with someone else.

It was almost as horribly unfair as losing your soulmate. No - no. More unfair. She'd at least had a life with Ronnie, no matter how short it had been. Cisco never had that with his soulmate, and never would.

"Why didn't you ever say anything? I always thought - "

"Because I didn't want you looking at me exactly the way you're looking at me right this very moment. Like I just told you my puppy has cancer."

She tried to rearrange her face. "I'm just -"

"Caitlin, it's fine. It happens." He shook his head a little. "I'm sorry I kept it from you."

"Who else knows?"

"Barry. And probably Iris."

"Has he met them?" A flush of - jealousy? she didn't know what to call it - washed up her throat.

"No, he doesn't even know who they are. Just that they exist." He shrugged and tossed the swatches on to the table. "Couldn't exactly keep it from him when we were designing suits together."

She said very quietly, "Did Ronnie know?"

He shook his head hard. "No, he didn't. No. Not even a suspicion. Look, I don't talk about it because there's nothing I can do about it, and there's nothing you can do about it, either. A soulmate is a soulmate, right? Even when they're not."

She reached to put her arm around his shoulder. "Cisco - "

Gently but firmly, he shrugged her hand away. "I've come to terms with it. It's just the way things are."

She swallowed hurt. "But you've been dating. Haven't you?" He had an app on his phone, and sometimes he would take it out and swipe through photos. She'd thought it was a regular app that just set you up on dates with other people who hadn't met their soulmate yet.

"It's a different kind of app. We all know the score. Nobody's on there to meet their soulmate. Just to find a good time."

"Is it just people who are - " She floundered. There was a term for people like Cisco, but to her mind, it was nasty and rude.

He said it anyway. "Third wheels?"

She made a face. It sounded even worse now that she knew it applied to him.

"Most of us, yeah. But there's a pretty good number of people who - uh - " He looked at her sidelong. "Who lost theirs."

"Oh." She couldn't imagine seeking anyone out after Ronnie. "Really?"

"Yup. I mean, they're not dead just because - well, anyway, if you ever wanna - you know. See the app. You can."

"Thank you,” she said. “But don't try to distract me. How long has it been?"

"A few years," he said. "Look, it's just a thing about me. Like having brown eyes and vibes and a rockin' fashion sense. Can you do me a solid, as a friend?"

"Anything. Of course."

"Let's never talk about this again."

Painted into a corner, she bit her lip. "Okay. If that's what you want."

"It's what I want."

Of course, she hadn't gotten the chance to ask the question that burned the most. Who was it? Who could possibly overlook Cisco?

But she'd promised.

She thought about it, though. She thought about it a lot, in her cold bed, in her grey house with all the colors she couldn't see anymore. At her kitchen table, set for one. When she opened up her phone and looked at the last picture Ronnie had sent her, a selfie with a particularly gigantic donut.

In black and white, of course. Like everything else, all the pictures of him had drained of color when he died. It made everything sting worse. She'd seen his face in color from the beginning, but now she couldn't remember the exact shade of his eyes or the different tones of his hair.

She didn't ask Cisco anything more, but she did go down a rabbit hole of research. One-sided soulmate was the technical term they used in social science surveys. OSS for short. She looked at reams and reams of statistics, quantitative and qualitative and longitudinal studies. Some of the OSS's said they were happy, some were depressed, some simply accepted it. Surprisingly, the stats on their overall mental well-being weren't all that different from people who were with their soulmates, or still waiting to find them.

Some one-sided soulmates spent their lives alone. But others dated and slept with and sometimes even married others like them.

She gave into curiosity and read the research on people who'd lost soulmates. She found the stats there very much the same. A little more depression, maybe, but there were a surprising amount of people who did just as the one-sided soulmates did - dating, sleeping with, marrying people they met.

Sometimes those people even found a second soulmate.

When that particular revelation popped up on her screen, she dropped a full cup of coffee and completely ruined her keyboard.

The day everything changed was just a regular day at first. The Flash and Vibe were out investigating a sketchy warehouse, and Caitlin was trying not to fret while reading yet another study on people who fell outside the soulmate norm.

"Cisco!" she cried as Barry whooshed them into the cortex, almost doubled over trying to support his weight. "What happened?"

"Got my bell rung," he slurred. "Ow, dude, ow, gentle - "

"The guy knocked him into a concrete pillar," Barry reported, settling Cisco onto the edge of the bed.

"No, don’t lay him down. 'll take care of him. You go get changed." As he whooshed out, she gloved up quickly and checked Cisco's pupils. They were the same size, and he denied any nausea or dizziness, but she’d still have to monitor him for signs of a concussion. She set her penlight down and gasped.

"What?"

“You’re bleeding.”

He wiped his face and blood smeared across the back of his hand. “Just a bloody nose. I’ll be fine in a minute.”

She tsked and pressed a square of gauze to his nose, gently feeling its shape. It wasn’t broken. “Are your teeth okay? Your tongue?”

“Mhm.”

“Don’t lean back! Just breathe through your mouth.” After holding it a few minutes, she checked, and indeed, the blood had stopped its flow. She let him straighten up. "How's your head?"

"Could use an aspirin."

"You got it." She turned away, but before she pulled her gloves off, she looked at the blood smeared over the fingertips and soaking into the gauze.

Against the light grey of her gloves and the white of the gauze, Cisco's blood showed scarlet.

At first, she thought she’d been mistaken. It had just been the blood, not anything else.

But then the sprinkles on the ice cream he brought her the next day showed up vividly blue and pink and orange against the rich brown of the treat. And the chips and guac she shared with him the day after that were pale yellow and brilliant green.

Color seeped back into her world a little at a time, mostly following Cisco. It was so different than before, but so wonderful at the same time. She'd forgotten how vivid red could be, how lavender was so delicate, how green was so rich. Sometimes she would just sit and stare at whatever had lit up today.

He noticed, of course. "What's wrong?" he asked one day, as the sunlight filtering through the skylights in the cortex picked out rich highlights in his hair.

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"You were staring."

"There was a - a bug on you. But it flew away," she added hastily as he swiped at his hair.

It wasn’t like it had been with Ronnie. Then, it had been instantaneous, like a finger snap. Not this slow bloom of color, spreading outward from Cisco like watercolors soaking into paper, until every corner of the world had a different hue and shade. But Cisco wasn’t Ronnie, and she didn’t want him to be.

She worried about it sometimes. Did this mean Ronnie hadn't been her soulmate? That she didn't love him anymore? But she knew he had, and she knew she did. She would never stop.

It was just that she was one of the lucky very few who got a second soulmate.

And then the thought followed: what if Cisco's mystery soulmate was her?

She turned it over in her head, as carefully as an antique china plate. The facts fit. She had been with Ronnie when she and Cisco had met. She even remembered them telling him about their first meeting, over dinner or something. She struggled to remember his reaction, what he'd said or looked like, but couldn't.

And when Ronnie had died and the color had drained from the world, she'd told him that too.

She pressed her fingers to her eyes, watching the newly colorful starbursts behind her lids. "Oh, Cisco," she murmured to his past self. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I never saw. I know you couldn't tell me, but I wish I'd realized you were hurting."

Watching her with Ronnie must have been torture for him. Watching her after Ronnie died - that must have been torture in a different way, her loss of color confirming every day that he wasn't her soulmate.

But it was going to be different now. If they were soulmates, he deserved to know.

And if they weren't -

Her stomach pitched uneasily at the thought.

Her heart thundered in her chest as she made her way down to his lab. She'd kept this secret for a month now, clasped to her chest. And he'd kept it for years. This was going to change everything,

For the better?

She hoped.

He was head and shoulders into the souped-up treadmill Barry used to test his speed, a tool box open next to him. "Hey," he called out as she came in. She never could surprise him. Was that a soulmate thing, a Vibe thing, or just a Cisco thing?

"Hi," she said brightly, almost shrilly. She swallowed hard and perched herself on the edge of his table, wiping her sweaty palms on her favorite skirt. "What are you working on?"

"Oh, just tuning this old girl up. How about you? What brings you down here?"

"Do I have to have a reason to come down here?"

He peered at her over his shoulder. "No, but you sure look like you do."

She wiped her palms again. "I was just thinking."

"Uhoh," he said cheerfully, turning back to the treadmill.

"About your soulmate."

Although he didn't say anything, all the cheer sucked itself out of the room.

"About, um, when you met them, and how long it's been, and -"

"Caitlin," he said in a heavy voice. "You said you wouldn't talk about this anymore."

"I know, I did, but I'm just curious - "

"You promised," he said. "You made me a promise."

"I - I did - "

He straightened up again, crossing his arms, resting the greasy wrench against his shoulder. His brows loomed heavy and serious. "So why the hell are you breaking it now?"

Okay, this wasn't broaching the subject like she'd thought it would. "You should put that wrench down," she said. "You're getting grease all over that shirt."

"Subject changed appreciated, but why - "

“And I like that shirt," she said. "I like that color on you. “It’s very flattering.”

He dropped the wrench on his foot.

When the clanging and the yelping and the jumping up and down and the checking that his foot wasn't broken had all died down, he wiped his greasy fingers on a rag, getting the fingers greasier. "So," he said levelly, "you met someone. That's great. That- that's awesome. What's their name?"

Oh. She hadn't expected this.

"Cisco," she said. "It's you."

He looked up, pain filling his eyes, and probably not from his foot. "No, it's not."

"It is," she insisted. Oh, wow, she hadn't expected him to be this stubborn about it.

"No," he said. "No. You met someone and you didn't realize, that's all. I don't know why you think it's me, because we've known each other for years, and it's never been me before." His voice cracked.

She reached out to take his hands. "But it is. I've been seeing in color for a month now. Just a little at first. But now it's everywhere. And it started with you. Cisco, it's you."

He shook his head slowly. "How?"

She shrugged. “I’ve been researching. Did you know it's a whole field in social science? The study of soulmates. Amatology. It's so much more complicated then everybody thinks, Cisco. We always hear how you know in the first moment, and it's just that one person, forever, and - and that's not accurate! You can have more than one. And you know somebody for years before they become your soulmate. And that's what happened to me. With you," she added firmly.

He was pressing his lips together. "It was - " he said, then stopped. Swallowed. Took a breath. "It was the first moment with me. The first color I saw was the gold of your engagement ring."

"Oh," she breathed.

He swallowed again. There were tears in his eyes. "I've loved you for years, Caitlin, so I need you to tell me right now. Swear to me you're sure, and you're not screwing with me, and you - " His voice sank to a whisper. "And you absolutely know I'm your soulmate."

"I'm sure," she said. "I'm not screwing with you. I absolutely know that you're my soulmate, Cisco Ramon. And you know why? Because I don’t want it to be anybody but you."

He kissed her, hard, pulling her close. She had half a thought for her meticulously selected outfit, then mentally consigned it to the rag bin and kissed her soulmate back.

When they had to come up for air, he rested his forehead against hers. "I never wanted it to be anybody but you, either," he breathed.

"Even when - Ronnie?"

He nodded. "Because he made you happy. I wanted that more than anything else."

She traced the lines of his face, the arch of his brows, the curve of his lips. Dear and familiar and beautiful. "You're going to make me happy too."

FINIS

#Cisco Ramon #Caitlin Snow #killervibe #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #killervibemonth #killervibemonth21 #soulmate AU #the flash

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darlingpetao3 · 3 years

Text

House of W (Multiple!Wells x Reader, Chapter 2)

Rating: T

Summary: After having to deal with the deaths of an infinite number of Harrison Wells in the Multiverse, you, a magic-wielding meta, have a breakdown and unwittingly create a happy, fictitious sitcom life with some of your favourite men. In a world of comedy and cameos, can Team Flash and an out-of-town magician break through your powers to save you? And what if you don’t want to be saved...?

Tag List: @fandomdancer @bluesclues-1234 @pinkdiamond1016 @crissymadlock @ensign-tilly @disneyoncerlover815 @marvel-lady10 @thecaptainsgingersnap @noctvrnalmoth @alexxlynn @dontbedumb3 @heyl0lwhatsup @ryou-cosmos

PROLOGUE | CHAPTER 1

Birds tweeting, sun shining…

Big strong arms around you.

“Well, well, Wells,” you say with a scratchy morning voice and twist your body around in bed to see who’s got you in his grasp. Ah. “Good morning, Harry.”

“Good morning, (Y/L/N),” the scientist replies. You just love how strands of his hair stick up in place. Harry arguably has the best bedhead.

“You know dear, since we are married after all, don’t you think it would be more acceptable to call me by my first name?”

Harry chuckles and pulls you closer against him.

“You do raise a fair point. (Y/N).”

“That’s more like it.”

He kisses your nose. Shortly after he does, it starts to feel itchy. You feel like you’re about to sneeze. It wiggles and wiggles until—

“Achoo!”

Suddenly, Harry, who had been clad in his silky pyjamas is now- oh my.

“(Y/N), did you just sneeze my clothes away?”

You can hardly answer the Wells in your bed because you’re so enthralled by his lack of clothing under the sheets.

“Happy accident?” you offer innocently. Harry shakes his head and smiles as if to signify that you’re up to your old antics again.

“Come here, you,” he says and pulls the covers over you both.

* * * *

The scene is really quite comical.

Harry walks briskly with his long legs into work at S.T.A.R. Toys Manufacturing Inc. as you try to keep up with quick little steps and a clipboard… while H.R. trails behind you like a maniac with a tray of coffee.

“(Y/N), I believe you have some explaining to do,” Harry speaks to you over his shoulder. “Can you remind me why you’re at work with me? And why the numbskull, too?”

“Handsome numbskull!” H.R. jokingly clarifies. Harry rolls his eyes.

“I told you, honey,” you begin, “I decided it would be best for me to get a job instead of sitting around the house. Plus, an assistant here was the only position available. I thought that was terribly convenient. We can spend more time together now, isn’t that wonderful? As for H.R., I hired him as my assistant!”

“My assistant has an assistant?”

“Don’t question it, honey,” you tell him and pat him on the cheek. Just then, two young employees walk up to you. They look rather familiar, but you can’t place why at the moment.

“Good morning, Mr. Wells,” the pair greet Harry. “And Mrs. Wells. ...And Mr. Wells.”

“Ah, good morning Garcia. Runk,” Harry answers. “I trust your projects are coming along?”

“That they are, Sir,” the young man called Runk replies.

“We should have them finished and ready by end of day,” Garcia, the young woman, adds.

“I’m glad to hear it-”

“-Well done, chaps!” H.R. interrupts. “You’re all doing such magnificent work. All for the children.”

“All for the children,” Garcia and Runk agree.

Harry clears his throat and whispers to you, “I think assistants to the assistants should be seen and not heard.”

“I’ll have a little chat with him,” you tell your handsome boss husband. “Now, let’s build some toys!”

* * * *

After a long day at the factory, you, Harry, and H.R. all return home. The delicious scent of dinner greets you as you walk in the door.

“Mmm, I wonder what Sherloque and Nash are cooking up!” you think out loud.

“I hope it’s nothing French,” Harry says semi-bitterly.

“H.R., can you go see what they’re up to in there, sweetie?”

“I most certainly can, dearest!” he responds then disappears into the kitchen. You are sure to take this opportunity to have some more one-on-one time with Harry on the couch. As you sit, he sets his briefcase down on the coffee table and removes from it a small rocket ship. After turning it around in his hands, Harry hands it to you.

“I’d been working on this today,” he says.

“Oh Harry, it is so groovy. You do such fine work.”

“The idea came to me in a dream.”

“You make dreams come true for children every day.”

Harry turns to you. “I think I’ve always wanted kids. But I guess it’s never happened for me.” He looks into your eyes. “I think I’d like to have one with you someday, (Y/N). How do you feel about that?”

“I feel… I feel…” Your nose starts to wiggle again. “Achoo!”

“(Y/N), are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“Oh, yes, I’m completely and totally, whoaaaa!” You stand up to get a better look at yourself, finding that your tummy has a noticeable roundness to it.

“Are you…?” Harry asks. The rest of the Wells men come rushing into the living room.

“Qu’est-ce qui se passe?”

“I heard another sneeze!”

“Jumping juniper, (Y/N)’s pregnant!”

They all group around you in a half-circle to admire your belly and to declare their delight at the very abrupt surprise.

“Is this really happening?” you ask all of them, falling deeper and deeper into your happiness.

“I couldn’t imagine a better life with you,” Harry says and punctuates his final word with a kiss. Everything about this moment just seems… so much more colourful and vibrant.

And perfect.

~ ~ ~ ~

Barry had urgently messaged Cisco and Caitlin to meet him back at the Grand Central City Auditorium, where they had just seen Zatanna’s magic act. The plan—what very little of a plan he had—was to race to find Zatanna, the Mistress of Magic, and ask for her help.

Word on the street was that Miss Zatara’s act wasn’t mere illusions. People have said that she really does possess a special magical power. And if this was the case, she was their only hope to retrieve you from whatever world you’ve gotten yourself into.

They say sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

Well, now Team Flash is going to fight magic with magic.

It took a bit of making a scene inside the venue with the security guards for Zatanna to finally come out of her dressing room to see who was causing the commotion.

“Hi, excuse me, what’s going on here?”

“Zatanna? My name is Barry Allen,” your brother introduces himself. “I was at your show tonight.”

“Flawless,” Cisco can’t help but add.

“Sure,” she says, probably very much wanting him to get to the point. “How can I help you, Barry Allen?”

“We have a bit of a magical issue. My sister has gotten herself into a situation. We need your help.”

Zatanna’s big round eyes squint slightly, but whatever she sees in these three strangers surely isn’t threatening.

“Your sister, you say?” The Mistress of Magic always did have a soft spot for family. “Where is she?”

“You better come with us and see for yourself.”

~ ~ ~ ~

“Wow, this is quite the setup,” Zatanna says, taking in the Cortex upon her arrival. “Now, you said that your sister is broadcasting her own sitcom?”

“That’s right,” Barry confirms. “I switched on the TV earlier, and there she was in black and white. But the weird thing is that her set looked almost identical to her home, except not because her real home exploded-”

“Yeah, that’s the weird bit,” Cisco pipes up sarcastically. “Definitely not that she’s married to four different versions of the same man.”

“What?” Zatanna looks entirely confused. “Okay, you guys are going to have to catch me up.”

“No problem. The episode is streaming online. On repeat.”

“Cisco, pull up the show on the monitors,” Barry orders. The engineer does so, and the crew proceeds to analyze the sitcom episode.

“This man... or these men, rather—you said they died?” Zatanna asks the room. The rundown the gang gave her on the way to S.T.A.R Labs was quite rushed, so naturally it would only generate more questions.

“That’s right. I saw them disappear before my eyes,” Barry confirms. “They sacrificed themselves for us.”

Zatanna hums in thought. “Whether they’re truly dead or not, she must be using an incredible amount of magic to create this world and broadcast this across the airwaves.”

“Guys!” Caitlin raises her voice. “We have an incoming broadcast!”

The monitors change after a bit of static. Now, instead of the episode Team Flash was watching, a brand new jingle comes through the speakers.

“Is this…?” Barry starts.

“She released Episode Two!” Cisco cheers. Everyone in the room shoots him a look. “What? I’m invested.” As they watch the new episode, they take frantic notes, searching for any kind of clues.

“Look!” Barry points at the screen to the familiar faces.

“How did Allegra and Chester get in there?” Caitlin wonders.

“They have a guest-starring role…” Cisco notes, possibly with a hint of jealousy.

“And who are they?” Zatanna inquires.

“They’re our friends,” Barry clarifies. “At least, I think they are. They can't be illusions, can they? Created by (Y/N)?”

“I’ll call them and see if we can hear their phones ringing in the show,” Caitlin suggests. As she attempts the call, the rest of the team stands and stares at the screens hoping for some form of ringing sound. This episode seemed to be styled more in the Sixties, so it was unlikely that they’d actually see Chester and Allegra pull out a cell phone.

Nothing. No sound.

They must not have their phones on them…

A little while longer passes, with even more analyses by Team Flash and Zatanna studying your power on screen. Once in a while, she’ll ask Barry for background information about you. Which brings her to ask the all important question:

“How did (Y/N) get her powers?”

Barry goes on to explain your origin story, which coincides with his own. It was that one fateful night where Barry was in his CSI lab at CCPD, and so were you. You had stopped by to see how he was doing after the whole debacle of Iris getting her laptop stolen and Eddie saving the day instead. (To Barry’s credit, he tried really hard to catch the criminal, he just wasn’t fast enough). But you were checking up on him when the Particle Accelerator exploded and sent a wave of extraordinary, uncontained power across the city. You saw the lightning in the sky and tried to get Barry away from holding that metal chain, but in doing so, you also got caught in the crosshairs of the accident. Your brother fell into the shelf of chemicals as the lightning struck at the same time you knocked over a box of evidence—stolen ancient crystals from the Central City Museum.

Zatanna takes in the story silently, nodding in the right places. She’s deep in thought when a voice comes from the entrance to the Cortex: “Hey guys, what’s going on in here?”

Barry rushes to the two younger members of Team Flash, Allegra and Chester. “How did you two get in there? How did you get out?”

“Get in where?” Allegra wonders.

“Come on! In (Y/N)’s sitcom,” Cisco says. “Did she send out a casting call or did she just tell you that you got the parts?”

Chester and Allegra glance at each other with identical furrowed brows.

“You really don’t know what happened, do you?” Caitlin asks them.

“What happened?” they reply in unison.

Cisco stands up immediately. “I’ll get the popcorn.”

As he replays the footage, both of the ‘guest stars’ shake their heads in disbelief.

“Wow, nope, don’t remember any of that,” Chester says.

“No,” Allegra agrees. “One minute I’ve got my feet up in the Lounge, and the next I’m here walking into the Cortex.”

“Interesting,” Caitlin muses. “Interesting, but beyond strange. It’s like they’ve been mind wiped of the experience. We need more answers.” The rest of the episode plays out to reveal the big cliffhanger at the end.

“(Y/N)’s going to have a baby?!” Cisco shouts. “Oh man, things just got real. I wonder who’s the father... You don’t think (Y/N) would turn her show into a Maury episode, do you?”

“Zatanna, is there anything you can do?” Barry asks desperately. “This is getting out of hand.”

“I can cast a locating spell. All I have to do is say the words of what I wish backward for it to take hold.” Zatanna readies herself. “(N/Y) etacol,” the magician utters with her eyes closed. Everyone in the room stands silent in case making any kind of noise would ruin whatever spell she has cast.

They hold their breaths.

“I’m getting something…” Zatanna says eventually. “It’s like a signal of sorts. I can see it in my mind. And it’s coming from… here.”

“What do you mean, ‘here’?” Barry presses.

“Here. As in S.T.A.R. Labs.”

#reader insert #harrison wells x reader #harrison wells imagine #harrison wells fanfiction #harry wells x reader #harry wells imagine #nash wells x reader #nash wells imagine #hr wells x reader #hr wells imagine #sherloque wells x reader #sherloque wells imagine #the flash imagine #the flash fanfiction

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just-dreaming-marvel · 3 years

Text

Out Of Time ~ 124

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 7,320ish (I know... yikes)

Summary: Y/N tries to help Simmons and Daisy save Fitz, Mack, May, Director Mace, and Coulson. (Sorry, I hope it’s not too confusing as you read it. It’s a lot...)

“Okay… So… Let me get this straight…” Y/N’s mind was trying to comprehend everything that Simmons and Daisy had just told her. “Dr. Radcliffe created a Life Model Decoy—“

“LMD for short,” Simmons added.

“Right. He created an LMD of his computerized assistant… just saying that takes me back to Ultron.” A shiver went down her spine. “Anyway, and she went crazy, building more LMD’s to replace the team. She put those she replaced in what is called the Framework, some sort of computerized alternate universe where consciousnesses can live… Am I getting this right so far?”

“Yes,” Daisy nodded.

“And Aida, the crazy LMD, has replaced May, Coulson, Mack, the new Director, and Fitz. And to stop them, you blew up the base and now need to go into the Framework yourselves and pull the team out. Correct?”

“Basically.”

Y/N sighed, running a hand down her face. She was still dressed up for her date, standing in front of Simmons and Daisy who were both injured, with Yo-Yo standing beside them.

“Okay, where do you need me then?” Y/N asked.

“If we’re in there too long, our bodies will… give out,” Daisy said.

“Well, that’s the hypothesis,” Simmons clarified.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Y/N exclaimed. “You guys want to go in there knowing your bodies might give out?!”

“We have to get our team back,” Daisy stated.

“I know but just… I’m going in.”

“No. You need to stay about here and—“

“And what? Watch over your bodies with Yo-Yo? No thanks. You’ll have a better shot with me in there.”

“Yes, but we need you out here,” Simmons said. “The Government won’t be far behind looking for us and you can help stall them.”

“You realize I’m a fugitive of the law, right?”

“Do you realize we found you with Tony?” Daisy retorted. “Isn’t he suppose to arrest you on site?”

Y/N clenched her jaw with a huff. “Fine. I’ll stay in the Zephyr. When do you need to go?”

“Now,” Simmons answered.

Y/N watched as Daisy and Simmons set up everything and connected themselves to the needed equipment.

“Meet at the rendezvous right away,” Daisy told Simmons and they both laid down. “That’s where I programmed the backdoor to get out.”

Y/N stood in between the two beds. “Listen, you two,” she said, trying to hide her worry. “Living in there too long may kill you, but dying in there will definitely kill you, so… just be careful.”

“Remember, Y/N and Yo-Yo,” Simmons started, “even if our vitals are going haywire, do not—“

“Do not pull you out or wake you up,” Yo-Yo finished. “We know. It will cook your brains like huevos rotos.”

“Cause permanent damage to the cerebral cortex, test.”

“Just promise me you’ll get our guys back, okay?”

“I promise.”

Y/N watched with bated breath as they hooked themselves up and seemingly feel asleep. Feeling around in both their minds, Y/N could tell they were in the Framework though. Now it was only a matter of time.

~~~

“They missed you,” Yo-You said.

Y/N had changed and the two of them had been sitting in silence, watching their two friends, for who knows how long.

“I’ve missed them, too,” she replied. “I… I really didn’t want to leave.”

“They knew that. And they felt terrible for what had happened when you woke. They had many arguments with Director Mace about it.”

“I didn’t like that guy.”

“He grew on me,” Yo-Yo shrugged. She leaned back in her chair. “Where have you been?”

“I can’t say,” Y/N shook her head.

“Understandable. They never stopped searching, you know?”

“I figured.”

“They actually caught sight of you once. In South Africa, I think.”

“They wouldn’t be the only ones. I was stupid for staying too long in one spot.” Y/N silently watched her unconscious friends for a moment. “I was going to say that I can’t imagine what’s going on in there, but I kinda can. Falling asleep, walking up in a new world. It’s how I got here.”

“Except they’re walking up to a demon world.”

“Truth,” Y/N chuckled. “Very true… Do we have any idea where the others might be kept at?”

“No.”

Y/N let herself comb over Yo-Yo’s thoughts briefly. “You and Mack, huh? That’s…”

“Interesting?”

“I was going to say exciting. The height difference must be a real challenge though.”

Yo-Yo laughed. “I don’t let it stop me.”

“Never thought you did.”

“And you and Stark?”

“It’s complicated. Especially now.”

“I can imagine.”

“Honestly, Yo-Yo, I don’t know if you can."

~~~

“Agent Rodriguez!” A woman came jogging up to Yo-Yo and Y/N, who were still watching over their friends. “Agent—“ She came to a halt. “Agent Rogers? I thought—well, you should be—“

“On the run. I know,” Y/N responded. “You are?”

“Agent Piper, ma’am.”

“And what seems to be the problem, Agent Piper?”

“We’re running out of power. Keeping them plugged in is draining the Zephyr faster than we thought.”

“Are we cloaked?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Y/N took a deep breath, thinking over the options. “It’s going to be risky but I need you to uncloak the Zephyr.”

“What?” Yo-Yo questioned. “You can’t be serious? They’ll see us.”

“Just trust me and do it, Agent Piper.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Agent Piper responded, heading back to the controls.

“And please stop with the ma’am, it’s annoying.”

“Are you sure about this?” Yo-Yo asked her.

“No. But if anyone tries to take this bird down, I’ll take them down first.”

~~~

“Zephyr’s got 24 hours till it runs out of power,” Agent Davis, a man, informed.

“We can’t wait anymore,” Agent Piper chimed in. “We need to touch down and refuel.”

“Let’s not have this conversation again,” Yo-Yo said.

“Okay, we don’t know who we can trust at SHIELD and, the government, Talbot’s been trying to reach us. Maybe it’s time we talk to him.”

“Not an option,” Y/N said. “You’ve seen what they’re saying in the news. We’re lucky they haven’t shot us out of the sky. Not to mention that I’m on board and that if they turn off the Framework—“

“That thing’s draining all our power,” Agent Davis stated.

“Might be time we figure out a way to wake up Daisy and Simmons,” Piper suggested.

“Again, not an option,” Y/N argued.

“We must find something else to turn off,” Yo-Yo said.

“We already shut off all non-essential functions,” Davis stated. “Including the heat and the cloaking.”

“Why haven’t they shot us from the sky yet?” Piper wondered. “We haven’t been cloaked for almost a day.”

“Because I’m cloaking us,” Y/N stated.

“What?” / “How?” / “You can do that?”

“I’ve never released the amount of power I’m releasing for this long of a time, so I really don’t know how much longer I can hold it for.” Y/N turned to Daisy and Simmons, nibbling at her thumb nail. “They’re taking too long though… I think I need to go in after them.”

“No!” Yo-Yo exclaimed. “If you’re what’s keeping us safe, then we need you conscious.”

“It’s still only a matter of time before we have to land and I can’t hold it anymore. I can get in there and pull them out.”

“You don’t even know where the duplicate of you is.”

“What makes this world different, Yo-Yo? Why is it different than ours?”

“Simmons said something about taking a regret away.”

“So everyone has one regret taken away?” Yo-Yo nodded. “Then I have a pretty good guess where I’ll be.”

“You have no way of knowing if your powers will work.”

“If it’s basically a replica of our world, then I’m pretty sure they will. Besides, I’m not an inhuman, my powers are from sources much more powerful than some stupid computerized world. Now hook me up, we’re running out of time.”

~~~

Y/N gasped as she woke, immediately taking in her surroundings. She was in a casket, in the ground, inside of the Framework. She wasn’t surprised at all to find herself there, there was only two things she ever regretted. This regret Y/N had was one she always kept to herself, for reasons as to not hurt the ones she loved. She took a deep breath.

“Here goes nothing,” she whispered to herself.

She put her hands on the top of the casket and focused. The purple energy quickly glowed from her hands, blasting forward to free her from the ground. She crawled out of the hole, analyzing her surroundings. Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, just outside of Washington DC. Looking down, she realized she was in an old, warn out, military uniform. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the headstone. Turning to look at it she wasn’t shocked to see what it said:

Y/N Rogers

July 4th, 1918 to November 1945

A Hero Of World War 2

A Champion For Women

“Okay,” she whispered to herself as she stood up, brushing herself off, “If I were SHIELD, where would I be?”

Raking through her mind, it didn’t take long for her to come to a conclusion.

“The base.”

~~~

When Daisy woke up in the Framework, she was shocked to find out that here she was working for HYDRA, her powers weren’t active, she’s was still Skye, and that she was dating Grant Ward. HYDRA had taken over the world, SHIELD had fallen. Trying to find Simmons without the rest of HYDRA, she’s followed by Ward.

Simmons woke up in a mass grave of SHIELD agents, her Framework double having died in the fall of SHIELD. She eventually came across Coulson on her way to find Daisy. Here, Coulson’s a teacher teaching a HYDRA-approved curriculum that warns against the dangers of inhumans. Simmons tried to convince Coulson that he’s inside a virtual simulation, only to fail and have him call HYDRA on her.

When Daisy and Simmons finally met up, they tried to exit the Framework using a safeguard they created. They realized they were in over their heads in here and they needed back up. Unfortunately, Aida, the Director of HYDRA, blocked their way out. Ward then revealed himself to be a mole in HYDRA for the Resistance, out to protect Daisy since she’s inhuman.

On the run from a HYDRA attack, Simmons explains what happened with Coulson. This caused Daisy to go visit him, where he remembered her name. Ward took Simmons and Coulson to the Resistance, though he wasn’t so sure to believe the story Daisy and Simmons were telling. The Resistance is the remnants of SHIELD, led by inhuman Director Mace.

Daisy went back to HYDRA to find Radcliffe, hoping he could help them escape. But May, now a top HYDRA agent, gave her a new mission on the orders of Fitz, lead HYDRA scientist, and Aida, though she goes by Ophelia or Madame Hydra in the Framework. Daisy sent the information to Simmons on Radcliffe’s whereabouts before going with May to arrest Mack and his daughter Hope. May forced Mack to trick Daisy into confessing her true allegiance. Daisy gets placed in a cell and tortured. Mack, after him and his daughter are freed, joins the Resistance, having felt bad about what he did to Daisy.

Ward, Simmons, and Coulson find Radcliffe living in seclusion with Agnes Kitsworth, the woman he based Aida off of. Radcliffe explains that him and Agnes cannot leave the Framework since both of their real bodies have died. Fitz and Madame Hydra arrive. Radcliffe attempted to appeal to Fitz, though Fitz seemed to already know of the “other world” and believed that Radcliffe had enslaved Aida there. Fitz killed Agnes and takes Radcliffe as a prisoner, all while Ward, Simmons, and Coulson watch.

Ward, Mace, and Coulson then infiltrate a HYDRA “Enlightenment Camp” to free an undercover agent, Antione Triplett. They are tracked there by May, who uses a super serum to fight Mace. Coulson attempts to save one of his former students who he sees being held in the camp. Mace followed him into the building to help free all the other kids. HYDRA brings the building down with a missile. Entering the rubble to ensure Mace is dead, she finds him stopping debris from crushing a student, with Coulson and Tripp helping other children escape. May is horrified to find children being victimized by HYDRA. With the others having escaped to safety, Mace is crushed beneath the debris, dying in both worlds.

Through the vents of their holding cells, Daisy learns from Radcliffe about a backdoor he installed to escape that Aida is unable to disable. Turning on HYDRA, May sneaks a terrigen crystal into Daisy’s cell so she can gain her abilities within the Framework. The two women work together to escape HYDRA, with Daisy using her abilities to break Ophelia’s back.

Ophelia insists that Fitz, her lover, complete the work on their secret project, Looking Glass, after which her Framework body will no longer matter. Fitz then, with his very much alive father, becomes the head of HYDRA.

~~~

Y/N knew that it wouldn’t be smart to just appear in the base, so she showed up at a known SHIELD meeting spot. Appearing, she saw May and Daisy get out of an old car.

“I saw the building collapse on him,” May stated, getting out of the car. “I have the body-cam footage to prove it.”

“A building collapsed on who?” Y/N asked, worried.

Daisy spun around. “Y/N?” She questioned.

“You were taking too long.” The two women rushed into a hug.

“We tried to get back out to get your help, but Aida—“

“Stopped you. I got it.”

The three women pressed themselves up against a storage container.

“That’s not possible,” May whispered, staring at Y/N. “You’re Y/N Rogers. You died in World War 2, in the plane crash.”

“That, let me guess, my brother survived,” she responded.

They heard a security drone whirring near them and they pressed themselves up further against the storage container. May glanced around the corner to see the drone fly away.

“This is our window,” May stated.

The three then walked around the corner, Daisy leading the way. They were all on high alert, two of them now being considered terrorists. Daisy knocked on the red door of the building. A man quickly appeared, gun out.

“Get out of here,” he ordered.

“Hey! Hey,” Daisy exclaimed, hands up in surrender. “We are friends of the Resistance.”

“I know who you are. There’s chatter all over the police hand.” The man kept switching who his gun was pointed out.

“We weren’t followed. We were careful.” Then tires screeching were heard.

“Not careful enough,” May said.

Daisy and her quickly pulled out their guns. They took cover behind a trash can as those in the speeding car began shooting at them.

“Milkman, I have contact!” The man shouted into a walkie-talkie before getting shot down.

May and Daisy were firing back as Y/N pulled the man into the building.

“Come on!” She shouted. May followed.

“Incoming!” Daisy yelled, seeing a bomb thrown their way. She stood up and quaked it back into the car. She was shutting the door to the building as the car exploded.

“I’m going to be honest,” Y/N began, “I have not missed getting shot at.” Y/N began pushing large things in front of the door.

“He’s still breathing,” May said checking on the man. “But we’re gonna need to find another way to get out of here.”

“How long before HYDRA busts down the door?” Daisy asked.

“Not long. They’ll be following SOP for a hostile inhuman. Six teams to sweep the area. And if the hostile’s taken cover they’ll call in an air strike and sort through the rubble later.”

“Like what they did with the Patriot?”

“What I did. That air strike was on my order.”

“You didn’t know.”

“Doesn’t change what I did.”

“I’m sorry, who’s the Patriot?” Y/N asked.

“Director Mace,” Daisy answered.

“So, he’s…” Daisy nodded. “Oh, gosh.”

“May, you can’t blame yourself for their lies. Once you learned the truth, you fought back. That is what we need.”

“Daisy’s right. If more people see what you saw, they’ll probably start fighting back too.”

The three of you froze, hearing the HYDRA agents break down a door down the building. The three women hid, waiting for the agents to come to them. When they did, May jumped down on one from the ceiling, Daisy took one from the side, and Y/N appeared behind another, quickly knocking him out. The three HYDRA agents were quickly finished off.

“Three down,” Daisy whispered.

“Stop right there,” a HYDRA agent ordered, aiming at Daisy.

May and Daisy held their hands up, while Y/N’s hands slowly started glowing purple. Before any of them could do something, Mack showed up from the side, knocking the guy out with his guy.

“Mack?” Y/N and Daisy questioned. The three headed towards him only to freeze when he aimed his gun at May.

“Mack,” Daisy called.

“I’m here to help you,” Mack stated, “not the woman who held my daughter hostage.”

“May is the only reason I’m alive. She helped me escape. HYDRA messed with her head, but she’s fight back now.”

“How do you know she’s not lying?”

Coulson and a SHIELD agent ran in. Assessing the situation, Coulson stopped between May and Mack. Y/N was relieved to see her long time friend.

“Not a good time to be holding guns on our allies,” Coulson said.

“Alpha One, report in,” a HYDRA agent requested from outside. “What’s the situation down there?”

“We have to go, now.” Coulson slowly walked towards Mack. “Mack, I get it. These wounds don’t heal overnight. But for reasons I can’t fully explain, I trust this woman. And so should you.” Mack put the gun down.

“This place was originally build during the prohibition,” the SHIELD agent explained. “We have a secret tunnel out of here.”

“Lead the way,” Y/N said.

Mack grabbed the SHIELD agent from before and they all jogged towards the secret tunnel. Coulson moved so he was beside Y/N.

“Y/N? Right?” He questioned.

“You remember?” She asked.

“Little things. But you’re also known here. Not necessarily in a good light, but you are.”

“I’ve missed you, Phil.”

“Weirdly, I’ve missed you, too.”

“Y/N?” Daisy called. “Do you think you could just portal us there? It would be faster and safer.”

“And miss all this fun?” Y/N smirked. “You kidding?”

~~~

“Welcome to SHIELD,” Coulson said as the group walked into the base.

“So the secret base is the base,” Daisy said. “Probably should’ve guessed that.”

“I did,” Y/N said. “I just didn’t want to scare everyone.”

“Been looking for this place for years,” May said, looking around.

“I got to go find my little girl,” Mack stated, leaving.

“Thanks for your help,” Coulson said.

“Thank goodness you’re alright,” Ward said, coming towards them. “We’ve been combing the streets looking for you.” Y/N clenched her fists and they slowly began to glow purple.

“I can take care of myself,” Daisy responded.

“And you are?” Ward looked at you before noticing your hands. “And what are you doing?” He went to grab his gun but Daisy quickly stepped between the two of you.

“Woah, woah, woah.” She had her hands out. “Stop. Y/N,” she turned to her friend. “This is not the same Ward that shot you.”

“I shot you?” Ward repeated.

“Yeah,” Y/N responded. “I almost died.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“Y/N…” Daisy called. “Calm down.” Y/N looked at her friend and nodding, powering down. “Now, you want to explain the purple hands?”

“It’s complicated,” Y/N answered.

“How about we go take a look at that body-cam footage,” Coulson suggested. “Could really hep the cause.” May and Coulson left, leaving Ward, Daisy, and Y/N.

“Y/N and I are gonna go talk to Simmons,” Daisy said.

“She and, uh, Agent Triplett are on a recon mission,” Ward said, stopping them.

“Tripp?” Y/N repeated.

“Mm-hmm.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard in weeks,” Daisy smiled.

“What’d you need to talk to her about?”

“It’s not exactly—“

“She told me about the other world.”

“Ah.” Daisy nodded. “Right.”

“Is that what you believe?”

“Yeah. And I need you to trust me. I know a way for us to get back home.”

“By ‘us’, you don’t mean me.” Y/N stepped back, feeling the tension. “I guess I was holding out hope that Simmons was wrong and that you’d still be… the girl I knew… I’m glad you’re safe, Daisy.” Ward walked away.

“Well that was…. Weird,” Y/N said. “Do you want to tell me—“

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

~~~

Y/N and Daisy walked in as Coulson, Ward, and May had just finished the body cam footage of Mace’s death.

“Getting this footage out isn’t enough to make up for what I did in HYDRA,” May spoke up. “But it’s a start.”

“Changing people’s hearts and minds is great,” Daisy said. “But I know a way to destroy HYDRA for good. Remember the place Simmons and I were trying to find? Radcliffe told me where to go, how to find it.”

“The way out of this?” Coulson asked.

“Yes. If we can get there, all of our problems go away. We just— we need all the help we can get.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” May stated. “THere’s no magic bullet against HYDRA.”

“Yeah,” Ward agreed. “This footage is a close as it comes. I mean, people will finally wake up.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Daisy said. “None of this will matter in the long run. It’s— it’s… Coulson, this is the only chance to actually wake people up.”

“Maybe the only way to solve our problem,” Coulson replied, “is to solve their problem.”

“What does that mean?”

“Getting to Radcliffe’s coordinates right now is next to impossible. We need a way to divide HYDRA’s forces.”

“To save ourselves, we need to save the world,” Y/N said. “Well, I’m in. But I guess none of us really have a choice, do we?”

~~~

Using both Y/N’s and Daisy’s powers, a small SHIELD team broke into HYDRA’s broadcasting center. All their people hand their hands held up. Bakshi was sitting at his news anchor desk. Coulson, May, Y/N, and Daisy walked up to it.

“Heard you were looking for some enemies of the state,” Coulson commented.

Y/N and Daisy looked at each other with small grins. Coulson would always be Coulson, even if he didn’t remember everything. With a nod from Coulson, Y/N controlled all the people to stay in their seats. Ward tied Bakshi to his chair.

“Stay quiet and we won’t have a problem,” Ward warned Bakshi.

“May and Coulson are getting everything set,” Daisy told Ward and Y/N.

“We’re good to go out here. No one’s putting up a fight.”

“That’s because I told them not to,” Y/N explained. Ward looked at her, confused. “I have a variety of abilities. Just don’t plan on crossing me.”

“Yes, but we will,” Bakshi said. “If you think you can force me, Sunil Bakshi, to go on air and slander HYDRA, then you’re delusional. I am the most trusted voice in journalism—“ Daisy quaked him back so that he hit the wall behind him. “Just, uh, put it in the teleprompter, then.” Bakshi was scared.

“We don’t need you to say a damn thing,” Daisy said. “The facts will speak for themselves.”

~~~

Y/N waited by herself for Coulson to finishing filming his speech. She longed to know the truth about what happened to Steve, Bucky, and Tony in this Framework. She was just too afraid. With a sigh, she looked to the side and saw a HYDR computer. Y/N contemplated for a moment before finally giving in and searching.

Steven Grant Rogers

Born: July 4th, 1918

Died: December 6th, 2007

First super soldier created. Helped defeat HYDRA. After his sister, Y/N, crashed a plane in 1945, Rogers married Peggy Carter and helped found SHIELD.

James Buchanan Barnes

Born: March 10th, 1917

First HYDRA super soldier ever created. Alias is The Winter Soldier. Still in regular use. Currently under cryo.

Anthony Edward Stark

Born: May 29th, 1970

Died: dated unknown, during the fall of SHIELD

Former CEO of Stark Industries. Son of Howard and Maria Stark. Died trying to stop the fall of SHIELD.

After reading everything, Y/N quickly turned off the screen. She wanted it get out of this hell whole faster now. This was not the place she longed to be. She met up with Ward, May, and Daisy, right before Coulson entered the room.

“Well,” he began with a breath, “that’s that.”

“Let’s get out of here,” May stated.

Coulson noticed that Ward’s gun was on the table and he knew that Ward was planning on staying. “The Patriot would’ve been proud of what we did today.”

Ward and Coulson nodded to each other before Coulson walked out of the room, with Y/N following. May and Daisy were close behind. Ward began the broadcast, playing it on every screen.

~~~

Daisy stood by Y/N’s side as they watched the news from the base. Everyone in the room had their eyes on the screen. Madame Hydra had sent crews to take back control of the broadcast center. Y/N huffed as she watched people getting beat up by HYDRA agents.

“She’s not subtle, that Madama Hydra,” Daisy commented.

“Yeah, just look at her uniform,” an agent said from beside them. “It’s so crazy hot.” They both gave the guy a look. “I-I mean, if you’re into the whole ‘bad girl’ vibe. Not—not me. I’m just… making an observation.”

Just then, Tripp and Simmons walked into the room.

“Tripp,” both Daisy and Y/N gasped.

“It’s so good to see you!” Daisy laughed, pulling the man in for a hug.

“Hey… person I don’t know,” he said, hugging her back.

“Right.” Daisy immediately let go. “Yeah, sorry. I-I heard about your mission. Awesome job.”

“Thanks.” Tripp looked at Y/N, studying her. “I… do I know you.”

“You might have seen pictures,” Y/N responded, thinking back to the conversation she had with the real Tripp. That seemed like so long ago. “Y/N Rogers.” She held her hand out to shake his. “I worked with your Grandfather, Gabe. He was a—“

“Howling Commando.” He shook her hand. “I’m sorry, but shouldn’t you be dead?”

“Long story.” Y/N pulled her hand away.

“Tripp,” Simmons got his attention. “Do you mind if Daisy, Y/N, and I have a quick word?”

“Sure,” he agreed. He looked at Daisy. “You can finishing hugging me later.” He chuckled before walking away.

Simmons grabbed grabbed an arm from each of the other women, pulling them to the side.

“Aida’s building a body for herself in the real world,” Simmons stated quietly. “A human body.”

“She wants free will,” Daisy said.

“Which would allow her to unplug the Framework… killing us all.”

“Okay,” Daisy sighed. “We can still stop her. Radcliffe gave me the coordinates to the Framework’s back door.”

“Will it work?”

“According to him, all we have to do is pass through the exit point, and then our minds will disconnect from the Framework.”

“So we just need to get everyone there.”

“Which own’t be easy,” Y/N said, “with May and Mack having no idea what’s really happening.”

“Well, and Fitz had HYDRA guards around him at all times.” Y/N and Daisy shared a look. “What?”

“Simmons, we can’t reduce Fitz right now,” Daisy said. “There’s no time.”

“We can’t just leave him behind. He’s part of our team.”

“And the current head of HYDRA,” Y/N reminded them.

“The Fitz in this world wants all of us dead,” Daisy added.

“Guys—“

“I know that it’s not his fault, but that is the reality that we are living in. If we don’t get Coulson, May, and Mack out of here, Aida will kill all of them.”

“I can try to get Fitz, if the time is right,” Y/N offered. “But I can’t promise anything.” She shook her head slightly. “What I can promise is that we will find a way to get Fitz out once everyone’s safe. Okay?”

“Okay,” Simmons agreed quietly.

Daisy left quickly, realizing Mack was leaving. Y/N stayed by Simmons.

“When did you even get here?” Simmons asked.

“When May and Daisy were escaping HYDRA,” Y/N answered. “The Zephyr is almost dead. You guys were taking too long, draining the power. I had to jump in to see if I could help.”

“Thank you.”

~~~

Y/N found herself mindlessly watching Mack interact with Hope. She didn't even notice that she had been staring too long until Mack met her gaze. She looked away, trying to compose herself.

“Hey,” he greeted, walking up to her.

“Hey,” she replied. “Sorry about staring. I just… you two are a good pair.”

“Yeah.” He smiled softly, looking at Hope. “Have any kids of your own?”

“I… I should have… He… there was a big fight and I lost him before he was even born.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—“

“It’s no problem. Really.” She waved him off. “I’m… it’s still a little fresh.”

“Did you, uh, pick out a name?”

“Anthony James, or AJ for short.”

“That’s nice.”

“It is.” She nodded. She looked at Hope, thinking about how Mack will after to leave her soon. Even though she’s not real. “Just.. Mack, don’t wast any second. Every moment is precious.”

~~~

Y/N met up with Daisy and Tripp in the Director’s office. They were leaning over a map.

“Okay, so, Radcliffe’s coordinates should put it right about here,” Daisy stated, drawing a circle on the map. “DO you think you can fly us there?”

“No problem,” Tripp agreed.

“Great.”

“But what’s with this team of yours? A HYDRA agent, a school teacher, and a dad? Looks pretty bad news hears to me.”

“Trust us, I think they’re up to the task,” Y/N replied.

“Does this have anything to do with that other world Simmons was talking about?”

“She told you?” Daisy questioned.

“What can I say? I’m easy to confide in.”

“Okay. Yeah, you, May, Mack, and Coulson were all apart of our team in the other world.”

“So that’s why you were so happy to see me.” He smirked. “You and I,” he pointed between Daisy and himself, “we must’ve, uh, you know—

“Dated?”

“Sure. We’ll go with that.”

“Uh, no. Sorry.”

“Right. Me and Simmons, we probably—“

“Nope.”

“Agent May?” Daisy shook her head. “Y/N?”

“Sorry, Tripp,” Y/N smiled.

“Damn. And this is really a place you two want to go back to?”

“Easy, playboy. Right now, we have to round up Simmons and the rest of the team.”

“Doubt she’s back yet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I thought you two knew. Simmons left base an hour ago.”

“Where was she going?” Daisy asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Let’s go ask Coulson and May,” Y/N suggested. “Maybe she told them.”

The two women rushed down to find May and Coulson walking the hallway.

“Do you know where Simmons went?” Daisy asked them.

“No, sorry,” Coulson responded.

“She went to find Alistair Fitz,” May replied, like it was no problem.

“What?” Daisy questioned. “Why didn’t you come and tell us?”

“Because I don’t answer to you. Not here or any other fantasy word you three might have cooked up.”

“You told her?” Y/N asked Coulson.

“It came up in conversation,” he shrugged.

“How does the existence of an alternate reality come up in a casual conversation?”

“I’d like to think it’s because we were bonding, though I don’t really want to speak for her.”

“You’re really not helping,” Daisy said.

“Don’t worry. Melinda here said she’d keep an open mind.” May sighed.

“We can’t leave without Simmons.”

“She knows how to stay off-radar,” May stated. “I’m sure everything’s fine.”

~~~

The small team packed up the quinjet. And now the only person they were waiting for was Simmons.

“Hey,” Daisy went up to Tripp in the pilot’s seat. “We all good?”

“Ready when you are,” he replied.

“Yeah. We just can’t leave without her.”

Y/N was waiting at the end of the ramp. She was the first to notice Simmons.

“Jemma!” She exclaimed rushing towards her friend. “You okay?”

“I was trying to save Fitz,” she answered, clearly shaken up.

Daisy noticed blood on Simmons jacket. “Please tell me that’s not his blood,” Daisy pled.

“No. It’s… It’s from his father. I—I killed him.”

“That’s—that’s okay. Fitz’s dad is just an avatar. You didn’t kill anyone. You just made some ones and zeroes disappear.”

“But Fitz won’t come with us now. We’ve lost him.”

“No, we haven’t,” Y/N said, shaking her head. She rested her hands on her friends shoulders. “We will figure something out. But first, we have to get back to the real world before Aida makes us disappear. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Y/N and Daisy guided Simmons into the quinjet and Tripp took off.

~~~

The quinjet landed on the roof of a steel mill. Everyone armed up and headed out, leaving Tripp with the quinjet. May led the way into the mill.

“Just up ahead,” she stated.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Y/N said, cautiously surveying the area.

“Nothing about this disgusting world feels right,” Simmons stated. “It’s hell. A digital hell.”

“Radcliffe said the back door was in a public fountain, not some creepy steel mill.”

“If only the exit beacon I brought to this world worked, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Yeah, well, if we’re gonna get out of here,” Y/N said, “this is our last chance.”

“Found the location,” Coulson called to them.

They quickly followed him. He led them to a pool of molten steel.

“This can’t be it,” Daisy said.

“Uh, the coordinates lead right there,” May replied.

“Into a pool of molten steel?” Coulson wondered. “You think Radcliffe gave us bad info?”

“Radcliffe’s a prisoner at HYDRA,” Daisy said. “He’s got no reason to lie.”

“Maybe someone else found it and took it,” May suggested, getting annoyed.

“The back door is part of the Framework’s digital infrastructure. It can’t be moved.”

“But it could be concealed,” Y/N spoke up. “What if Madame HYDRA discovered the back door and built this place as a way to prevent people from passing through?”

“Wait a minute,” Mack interrupted, confused. “What is this back door everyone keeps talking about? I thought we were here to take out Madame Hydra.”

“Let me guess,” May started, “no one told you about the other world.”

“The other world? What?”

“So what does this mean for us?” Coulson asked, ignoring Mack and May.

“It means Aida’s won,” Simmons stated.

“You seriously believe that there’s some magical back door that will transport us to another world?” May wondered.

“It’s not magic, May. It’s science.”

“Then where’s your proof?”

“We just have to trust Radcliffe,” Daisy said. “He said when a person passes through the back door—“

“That they wake up on the other side. This is what you really believe?” May asked Coulson.

“Admittedly, it doesn’t sound great when you say it like that,” Coulson admitted.

“You lied to me,” Mack said to Daisy.

“Mack—“

“No, don’t try to talk your way out of this. You’re a damn liar. My daughter looks up to you, and for what? SO you can bring me out here on some wild goose chase?”

“Daisy was only trying to help,” Simmons excused.

“How?” By taking me away from my kid? What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Mack pointed at Y/N. “And you? You’re willing to let me feel the pain you felt. That’s… that’s cruel.”

“Mack, you don’t understand,” Y/N began. “It’s different. So, diff—“

“No it isn’t.”

“Hey, guys, maybe we should start thinking about a plan b,” Coulson tried to cool everyone down.

“Glad you’ve finally come to your senses,” May said. “We need to get out of here.”

“Actually, I was thinking we might try to find another way through the back door. I still believe Daisy’s right.”

“Wake up!” Mack exclaimed. “There is no back door, just like she’s not Moses about to take you to the promised land."

“That’s it,” Y/N whispered. “Daisy, quake it.”

“What?” Daisy questioned. “What do you—“

“Quake the damn thing, Daisy!”

Daisy held out her hand and quaked the pool of molten steel. It revealing the backdoor beneath it.

“HYDRA!” May shouted, as bullets came at the group. “Take cover!”

The small team took cover. HYDRA started shooting more and Y/N caused them all to drop to the ground, unconscious. Daisy went back up to the platform and quaked the steel again, uncovering the backdoor.

“It’s real,” Coulson said.

“It could be a trap,” May suggested.

“The time for doubting’s over. We’re going back to our world.”

Coulson got up from where he was hiding, heading to the platform across from Y/N, Daisy, and Mack. Unknown to the team, HYDRA agents were below them. Shots were fired, hitting Coulson.

“Coulson!” Y/N screamed, quickly appearing at his side. She had watched him die once, she couldn’t bear to do it again. “We have to get you up.”

May and Mack began firing at the lower agents as Y/N helped hoist Coulson up.

“This feels oddly familiar,” Coulson grunted, blood covering up his chest.

“Sadly, it is,” Y/N replied.

“You were there… I think I remember that…”

“We need to get you patched up,” May said, coming from behind.

“No, it’s too late for that. Help me to the edge. It’s the only way.”

“Daisy!” Y/N shouted. “The door!”

“On it!” She replied, quaking the door open again. May and Y/N helped Coulson to the edge.

“Hey, come with me,” Coulson told May.

“How can you be sure it will work?” She asked.

“I can’t. Guess it’s gonna be a leap-of-faith type of thing.”

“It’s not that simple for me.”

“Yes, it is… Just follow my lead.”

Coulson pushed himself away from Y/N and May, falling back into the door. He disappeared, causing a wave to ripple out through the Framework, showing that it wasn’t real.

“They were right,” Mack whispered. “It’s not real.”

“Go May,” Y/N urged. “He’ll be right there when you wake. And we won’t be far behind… Go.”

Giving Y/N one last look, May took that piece of faith and jumped. Y/N sighed in relief. Two down, just 5 more of them to get through.

“Simmons, you’re up!” Daisy shouted.

As Simmons headed towards the platform, a gun cocked behind her. She looked back to see Fitz pointing a gun at her. Radcliffe was handcuffed behind him.

“Hello, Jemma Simmons,” he greeted. “Seems you finally found me.”

“Fitz—“ She tried to rush towards him.

“You don’t get to say my name! Not after everything you’ve done.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” Simmons shook her head. “Aida, she took you from me, and I cam to rescue you.”

“So you kill my father? Right after he tells me that he loves me, you murder him in cold blood as I listen.”

“I am so sorry,” Simmons cried. “I was an accident.”

“Nothing that you’ve done has been an accident! You want to destroy this world! To destroy me! You want to destroy the woman that I love!”

“That woman is lying to you! None of this is real! She’s not real! Aida’s just a robot yo and Radcliffe created.”

Outside the small room Fitz-Simmons was in, Y/N was wondering what was happening. So she slowly walked over, ready to attack.

“Her name is Ophelia,” Fitz defended.

“It’s name is Aida,” Simmons responded. “Artificially Intelligent Digital Assistant. And stop making excuses for it!”

“She’s right, Fitz,” Y/N cut in, bringing the attention to her. “Radcliffe, Simmons, and Daisy have all told you the truth.”

“Y/N?” Radcliffe quietly wondered. “Wow, they really called in the big guns.”

“Please… Fitz,” Simmons pled. “You have to wake up.”

“Get on your knees,” Fitz ordered Simmons.

“No.” Fitz shot Simmons in the foot causing her to fall to the ground.

“You don’t get to touch her!” Y/N screamed freezing Fitz in place. “You don’t.”

“Let me go,” he growled.

“Fitz, listen to me,” Simmons begged. “I love you.”

“And you mean nothing to me.”

Suddenly there was a gun shot. Y/N turned to see that Radcliffe was out of handcuffs now and had shot the agent with them. He pointed his gun at Fitz and took Fitz’ gun away. Radcliffe looked at Y/N and she let her hold on him go. Radcliffe hit Fitz on the side of the face, pushing him towards the door and the platform.

“This was never my intention,” Radcliffe stated. Y/N quickly went to Simmons, helping her up. “The Darkhold corrupted my mind. Please, don’t blame yourself.”

“Go,” Simmons nodded at Daisy. Daisy quaked open the back door.

“It was all my fault.” Radcliffe pushed Fitz through the back door. Simmons caught Radcliffe before he fell in too. “Bringing Fitz here was the only way I could truly save him. I know I can’t make everything that happened in the Framework right, but at least— at least this way, Fitz gets to be his old self again.”

“Simmons,” Y/N called. “Go.”

Simmons nodded, limping forward and throwing herself through the doorway. That left Mack, Daisy, and Y/N.

“Now it’s your turn,” Daisy told Mack. “You said it yourself, this world is not real. And in the real world, you’re in danger right now.”

“What about Hope? Is she in danger?” He asked.

“No,” Y/N answered, appearing beside Daisy. “Things are different there.”

“Different? How?”

“Hope… she isn’t alive in our world. I’m so, so sorry. I… I don’t exactly know what happened. It’s not something you talk about.”

“No, no. That— on, the doesn’t make any sense. She’s alive here. Why would it be different there?”

“Aida,” Daisy answered. “She made changers in this world to keep us from fighting back. So fixed your biggest regret.”

“Then I’m staying.”

“Mack—“

“I don’t want to live in a world without Hope.”

“But it’s not real,” Y/N argued. “You saw it with your own eyes it’s a computer program. All of it. Even hope.”

“She laughs at my jokes. We watch movies together. And when she’s sad… when she’s sad, I hold her. So, she’s real to me.” Mack looked back in the eyes. “If you had the chance to be with AJ, would you stay?”

“I know the truth, Mack… And I know that AJ is safe where he is. Loved and protected. Here…. Here’s not that. Here’s not real.”

“I have to stay.”

“I understand,” Daisy replied. “And I know how hard this is, but you have people who really care about you,” she began crying, “who love you very much.”

“Tell them I’m sorry.”

“Mack, please… I don’t want to lose you.”

“Good luck. Both of you.”

With a deep inhale, the two women looked at each other, both shedding tears. They turned away from Mack. Not wanting to force him into anything. Daisy grabbed Y/N’s hand, quaking the door open as they jumped together.

next chapter >

I know I said that Agents of Shield would end with this chapter, but that ended up not being the case. We will see our Agents of Shield team for the last time in chapter 125 and Infinity War will start in chapter 126.

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

If you want to be added to the tag list, please dm me or send in an ask.

#agents of shield #agents of shield x reader #aos x reader #Phil Coulson x Reader #the avengers x reader #avengers x reader #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #marvel x reader #Avengers #avengers imagine #tony stark x reader #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader

129 notes · View notes

sophiainspace · 3 years

Note

💫 for that ask deal. Coldwest or whoever you're feeling I guess!

It took a wild heart to tame mine

And it took a wild heart to charm

Now a wild heart’s gone and floored me…

Who wants a love that makes sense anyway?

- ‘Wild Heart’, Mumford & Sons

Complicated Feelings

(Ficlet - Iris West/Leonard Snart)

Joe: Anger

“That man is a murderer!” her dad yells.

It’s almost funny that he still thinks he can frighten Iris away from the guys he disapproves of, as if it’s any of his business. It’s the most irritating version of ‘scared straight’ Iris ever heard of. The fact that she has a bad habit of being attracted to guys her father has personally arrested, is neither here nor there. And it didn’t even help when Iris dated his partner, so it’s pretty clear no guy is ever going to be good enough for Joe West’s (twenty-eight-year-old) little girl.

Still, this is a fairly extreme reaction, even for her dad. He’s currently standing in the West family living room, his face screwed up in such rage that Iris is a little concerned he’s about to burst a vital blood vessel.

Iris rolls her eyes.

This is apparently a mistake; her dad just gets louder. “Are you even taking this seriously, Iris? I’ve personally arrested that guy! Twice! In two different decades!” He shakes a disapproving head. “You wanna come with me down to the station right now? I’ll show you his damn record. Then you can decide if that’s the kind of man you wanna date.”

On the sofa, Iris folds one leg over the other. When she speaks, she tries hard not to match her dad’s volume. Getting quieter is an old trick, that sometimes calms him down a bit. “I know what’s in his record, Dad.”

“How?” her dad demands. He loses a couple of decibels of volume in his curious tone, which is a good sign.

Iris makes a really good attempt not to look smug. She probably fails. “He showed me.”

“He WHAT?”

Iris rubs her ears pointedly, and shrugs. “He helped me break into the CCPD archive building one night. I needed to look at some Santini records for a story I’m working on.” She gives Joe an innocent smile. “Don’t worry, Dad - it was just the archives. I’d never break into the main precinct. I’m not that dumb, and Leonard sure as hell isn’t.”

When her dad rubs a hand down his face and slumps into the seat next to her, Iris knows she’s won. Joe sighs. “Okay. We’ll come back to you breaking and entering right into police property in a minute.”

“Sure, Dad,” she says cheerfully.

He turns his head to look at her. The anger has drained away, leaving real fear in its place. There you are. Iris can deal with worry. As long as her dad is honest about his motivations, she can handle him. “Baby girl, are you really sure about this?” Her dad takes her hand. “I know, I know - you’re a grown-up…”

Progress. Iris nods. “I am, and I can make my own decisions about who I spend my time with.”

She carefully avoids the word date, just as she has for the past five weeks.

“Even terrible damn decisions like Leonard Snart,” her dad mutters.

Iris raises an eyebrow.

Joe sighs in defeat. “I’m just scared for you, baby girl.”

Her poor dad. He keeps trying to keep her out of danger, and it’s a losing battle. Iris squeezes his hand, almost sympathetic. “I know. I promise I’ll be careful, okay? Besides.” She aims a warm smile at him. “It’s not serious. This thing’ll probably be done in a week or two. So you don’t have to worry, okay?”

Lifting Iris’s hand to his lips to kiss it, her dad nods. “So that’s two of you with a thing for criminals,” he mutters.

Iris doesn’t know what that comment is about, and she doesn’t ask. She’s almost glad when the conversation moves on from Leonard Snart. Even if it does turn to Iris’s criminal behaviour, and whether her dad is obliged to report her. Iris has to fight a smile for the whole of his lecture, knowing there’s no way he’s turning her in. When your daughter is the light of your life, ‘scared straight’ will only ever be an act.

Barry: Concern

In the middle of the Cortex, her best friend worries at his lip. “You know he’s a killer, right?”

That really is everyone’s excuse for keeping her from seeing Leonard, isn’t it? Iris folds her arms. “No, Barr. I’d managed to miss that fact entirely. Thanks so much for pointing it out.” She pulls back on the sharp tone when he gives her a look. “And he hasn’t hurt anyone in a long time. Not since that deal of yours. You know, the one that had you saying you could see the good in him? It’s almost like you were trying to reform him.” She shoots him a smug grin.

Barry chuckles, glancing away to the Flash suit - and something strange crosses his face. It would be almost imperceptible to anyone else. But Iris is not just anyone.

Oh.

“Barr,” she asks, stepping carefully around from behind the desk, “you’re not jealous, are you?”

Barry looks back at her with a smile that, if she doesn’t look too closely, is hardly tinged with sadness at all. “Why would I be jealous? I hate to break it to you, Iris, but I got over you a while ago.”

Iris she doesn’t mention the alternative option. If Barry isn’t going to acknowledge the obvious, it’s best if she doesn’t.

But when she thinks he’s not looking, Iris gazes at him. He’s staring at the Flash suit again, his eyes so sad it’s going to break her heart. How long has the poor boy been in love with Leonard Snart?

It seems to take Barry a minute to make it back to the here and now. “I’m just a little concerned, that’s all.” He lays a friendly hand on her arm. “You’ll stay safe, won’t you, Iris?”

Iris matches Barry’s too-cheerful smile, like fake flowers in summer, with one of her own. “Of course I will. Don’t worry, Barr.” She turns away to the door.

When she reaches it, she spins on her heel to get another glimpse of him. Barry is back to staring into empty space with empty eyes. Iris knows he won’t want her pity, but she can give him something. “I’m just having fun, okay?”

He glances back at her. “Are you?” he asks, a little too softly.

Iris tosses her hair over her shoulder. “Of course I am. Did you really think Leonard Snart would want things to get serious?”

She walks away without looking back. Best not to give Barry a chance to call her bluff.

Leonard: Love

“I hope you’re aware that all my friends and family have very complicated feelings about you.” Iris drops her weekend bag on the hotel room bed, winking at Leonard.

The man himself is stretched out on the bed like a big, lithe cat. One leg folded over the other; hands linked behind his head. It’s just the sort of cocky, lazy pose that’s designed to get Iris hot. She’s not going to tell him it’s working already. “Is that right?” he purrs. He pats the bed next to him.

Iris jumps on greedily, falling into his arms. His kiss is warm and inviting, a delightful welcome-home even in the bleakly familiar mid-budget hotel surroundings, with all the identical fixtures and fittings as every other hotel they’ve stayed in, every weekend for the past five weeks. “Mmm,” she murmurs against his lips - so soft and gentle it surprised her, when they first started this little fling. So far from what she’d expected. But by now she’s learned that Leonard Snart always defies expectations. “I’ve missed you.”

“Not like I’ve missed you.” His voice is so sincere, it scares her a little.

But no more than she can handle.

“So.” Leonard lazes back against the headboard, lifting an arm so she can snuggle in against his side - and she never says no to that offer. She wriggles into his embrace, sighing out all the stress of the week as she listens to Leonard talk. “Tell me about these complicated feelings your people have about me. I might be kinda flattered.”

“Kinda?” Iris raises an eyebrow. A full-of-himself criminal winks back at her. “Well, let’s see. The whole of STAR Labs found out that I’m sleeping with you, all at once - alcohol was involved, and no, you’re not getting that story.” Leonard grins, but lets her continue. “Cisco said he could not in good conscience talk to me while I was dating a supervillain who’d once kidnapped him, and slammed his lab door, and then he had to come back for half his stuff, and then he said maybe if you apologise, he’ll think about being okay with it.”

“An apology, huh?” For a moment, Leonard looks as unsure as Iris has ever seen him. Then he shrugs. “Guess that can be arranged.” He sneaks her a little smile when he thinks she’s not looking. “If it’d make you happy.”

Iris hums and kisses him again, just a light touch of her lips on his. He makes the cutest happy noise - it’s enough to set her heart fluttering in her chest. “It might,” she murmurs. “Hmm, who else… Caitlin was tight-lipped for a few days, but then she admitted she thinks you’re hot, and Frost turned up to say that, if she dated men, you’d be pretty high on her list too, and a few other unsettling things along the lines of you go, girl, so I think I’ve won them over.”

Leonard throws back his head and laughs. He looks too beautiful for words when he does that. “Well, these sound like complicated feelings with acceptable resolutions.” He reaches out a hand for her face, stroking her cheek, a touch of concern on his face. The fluttering in Iris’s chest kicks up a gear. “So that can’t be all of it, if everyone in that goody-two-shoes hero store found out at once.”

Iris’s gaze drops to the blanket beneath them. “My dad and I had a fight for the ages,” she admits, with more of a wobble in her voice than she intends. “Worse than when I dated Lee Tarrant when I was sixteen, and he was a coke dealer.” Leonard’s snort is delightful, persuading Iris to entertain him a little more. “In the end I distracted Dad with something else… and now you might have a standing invitation to the weekly West family dinner.” Iris pats a horrified-looking Leonard on the back. “Cecile and Jenna are your way in. Bring Jenna presents. Not stolen ones. My dad will love you in… maybe a week or two.”

Leonard lets out a disbelieving snort.

“Okay, a month might be more realistic,” Iris admits, attempting a grin. She’s a little worried at the distant look that’s turned up in Leonard’s eyes.

“Go on,” he says softly, as if he needs thinking time. “Anyone else express complicated feelings about yours truly this week?”

“Just Barry.” Iris feels the way Leonard goes still against her, but she doesn’t draw attention to it.

Leonard makes a quiet little hmm sound. “Don’t tell me the Flash wants me dead too. Even when I’m fucking his best friend, that seems out of character for our beloved hero.”

Iris gets the sense she needs to tread carefully here. “No, he wasn’t mad. He was a little worried, but mostly he seemed kind of… sad.”

“Is that right?” Leonard’s eyes are a deep, dark mirror of Barry’s, back in the Cortex.

So there is a story there. But Iris is not going to push for it now. She just leans in and kisses him, one more time.

When they finally part, Leonard is gazing at her like he’s seeing her for the first time. She smiles… and he clears his throat. “So. West family dinner, huh?”

Iris snuggles back in under his arm. “Yep.”

“With your dad and not-stepmom and baby sis.”

Damn. He’s really thinking about it. “Yep.” Iris holds her breath.

“…And Barry.”

“Of course.” Barry is a non-negotiable, if Leonard cares about her. Whatever complicated feelings those are, she hopes she’s worth getting past them.

(When did she start hoping she was worth anything to him?)

Leonard makes an oddly thoughtful sound. “And I never have to go anywhere near STAR Labs?”

Iris lets out the breath she was holding. “I give you a couple of months before you’re dying to, just to annoy them all and play the dashing not-at-all-hero while you’re at it… but, no, that is not required.”

Leonard licks his lips, clearly hiding a smile. He rolls them both over, ending up on top of her. She giggles and lets him stay there, just for a minute. Leonard murmurs, “A couple of months, huh? Is that how long you think this thing is gonna last, Iris?”

Her heart is doing that flip-flop thing again. There’s a strong, gorgeous man above her, his muscled, careful arms either side of her head, and - oh, fuck it. She wants to keep this. “Well. I guess that depends.”

He tilts his head. “I’ll bite. Depends on what?”

In a graceful second, Iris has switched their positions, straddling him. His eyes darken with lust. Iris wants to hold onto that look for as long as she can. Maybe a whole lot longer than two more months. “On how long I can keep you interested,” she teases.

Leonard winks at her.

The next kiss leads to another, and another…

Iris lies beside at him in the afterglow, just enjoying his arms around her.

As his beautiful eyes hold her gaze, he asks her, “What are you thinking about?”

She and Leonard have told each other a lot of lies during the past month or so. Iris has told herself even more.

It’s just a fling.

One more weekend, and we’ll call it quits.

We’re just having fun.

I’m not in love.

But Iris is done with the lies. “Complicated feelings,” she replies, cupping her boyfriend’s cheek. “And I don’t mean my friends’ feelings.” She meets his trusting gaze. “I mean mine… and yours.”

His laugh, surprised but delighted, is everything she could need in an answer.

#coldwest #leonard snart #iris west #my fic #I am so sorry that I’m incapable of writing coldwest without a pining Barry Allen #it’s a permanent trope now and I shall have to learn to with it #I think I have all the prompts I can answer already now so they’re closed but thanks for the ones I have!#ficlet #the flash fanfic #none of us can queue this alone

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