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#i had more thoughts and points to make but i'm so brain fried sorry
fluffydice · 4 months
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A major problem I think people run into when looking at terusai that might make them dislike the ship is that if you don't have an understanding of their development throughout the series, the relationship is going to seem overly shallow. Teruhashi and Saiki are not static characters, nor are they simple. Both of their growth comes from learning that they are just humans at the end of the day. Teruhashi genuinely starts to like Saiki (and all their friends) because she realizes she's not above it all like she originally thought. Saiki is attracted enough to gasp, but only when she shows this true self of hers! If you stick them together when they're still in their early characters, of course it's going to seem forced. Learning to let characters grow, especially in comedy animes, is hard for a lot of people, especially when it's not an 'in-your-face' kind of thing.
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rkvriki · 12 days
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˚୨୧⋆。˚ ⋆ enhypen obliviously in love
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hi.......lmfao i keep disappearing i swear i'm alive but my isnpo has been going down the drain but i got this cute lil idea also to take a break of all the smutty things i've been posting lolz... anyways hope you enjoy this one !
make sure to leave feedback and reblog! my requests are closed and my talk box is always open so lets talk!
WARNINGS ! none really i think?? this is just not my best work im sorry </3 word count: 1.9k a/n: sorry that some of them, mainly hee's, are smaller than others, my brain isn't functioning and i had a writer's block during this and if it's not goo it's bc i quite forced myself to write this bc i wanted to post sth :(
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୨୧ LEE HEESEUNG ! - trying to hold your hand and failing
you and heeseung met through mutual friends in your first year of college and you became almost inseparable ever since then. in the beginning of it, you would only be together when the whole group was, but as time went by and you both started feeling more than just platonic feelings you two started hanging out alone as well. it was usual for heeseung to walk you to your apartment after classes and today was no different. you two walked side by side, the sun almost setting behind you. it was mostly quiet except for the background chatting and the small talk you two would make about something you saw. you could feel heeseung’s hand brushing against yours from time to time and you were internally cursing him out for not holding your hand already. after a few moments of silence, you heard heeseung sigh as he gained courage to hold your hand. his hand got closer to yours but- oh! a light post came between you two. needless to say heeseung was a blushing mess while you laughed at him.
୨୧ PARK JONGSEONG ! - confronting you about it
anyone had to be really blind to not notice the romantic connection there was between you and jay. it was so obvious you were both in love with each other, it was almost painful how one of the sides didn’t notice. that side being you. it’s not like you didn’t like jay romantically, because you do. a lot. but you felt like he just saw you as a best friend he tends to protect a lot. jay didn’t really show it, but he gets really frustrated when he tries to make a move on you in a subtle way, only for you to put him in the friend zone, but it’s all unintentional. every time someone tells you “jay totally likes you.” you’re quick to dismiss them because he would never see you like that. even though you’re the one saying it, it breaks you inside. until one day, you’re both in a diner, sharing fries and a milkshake and you can see jay fidgeting nervously and bouncing his leg repeatedly. “you’re restless, what’s going on?” you ask him, worried. jay sighs heavily and props his elbows on the table, staring at you with a serious expression. “look, i don’t know if i should just give up, because at this point you have to be pretending not to know.” he says “T-to know what?” he laughs at that. “that i like you, dummy.”
୨୧ SIM JAEYUN ! - tries to kiss you and fails
as childhood friends you and jake were always expected to end up dating by your fellow family members. you would always brush off any comments about you two (deep down you wish they were true) while jake just smiled like a fool while looking at you. it was no surprise when jake told his friends he liked you. it wasn’t hard to notice how he felt about you, seen the way he looks at you with glimmering eyes as he took in every word you say. he has never really tried to hide how he felt about you. he wasn’t ashamed of it and couldn’t wait for the moment you realized he liked you, because deep down he knew you felt like him too. it’s funny to him how he’s always making flirty comments and giving you kind of romantic presents and still you just thought he was playing his role as your best friend. but still, even though it was all funny and entertaining to watch, jake was tired of waiting and he decided to just directly show you how he feels. so that’s how you find yourself sitting in the park bench with him as layla plays around. jake takes a quiet deep breath as his hand comes up to brush your hair from your face, making you face him. he takes that as an opportunity to lean down. you, thinking he was gonna whisper something, turned your face to the side, making him bump his head against you. he starts laughing at you, making you confused. “you can’t really see it, can you?”
୨୧ PARK SUNGHOON ! - misunderstanding gone right ?
no one who knew you two understood how in hell you and sunghoon weren’t a couple. it was so obvious you both liked each other but still none of you seemed to do anything about it. you two were your class’s representatives so you two were almost always together and it wasn’t too hard to notice the lingering touches or stares you shared. but something the other students didn’t know was that you two had actually talked about your “feelings”. one day sunghoon almost overheard you telling your friend you liked him. “you like me?” he had asked “no! no, i don’t like you, sunghoon.” you answered trying to play it off. he nodded, his lips pursing. “good, then because i’m in love with someone else.”. it was something along those lines and you two had never talked about it again, but the tension never left. it felt heavy on you and it was painful to spend time alone with sunghoon so you settled that you were gonna tell him the truth. “remember that day you asked me if i liked you?” he hummed as he stopped in his tracks. “well, i lied. i like you, actually. i don’t want things to get awkward because you don’t feel the same but i needed to be honest.” his eyes widened as he stared at you like you were crazy. “are you kidding me? i only said i didn’t like you because you said you didn’t like me.” you gasped and pointed an accusing finger at him “why did you lie then? you said you were in love-” “hey! don’t put the blame on me now you lied too.” “well, we still can fix it right?” you said laughing making him do the same.
୨୧ KIM SUNOO ! - “PFT! who would ever like me?”
you and sunoo weren’t the closest people ever but you two spent a lot of time together since pretty much all of your friends were mutual. still, that fact didn’t stop you from developing a silly crush on him that quickly turned into something more serious the more you got to know him in the very few times the two of you were left alone after a group hangout. no one knew about it except for your best friend. you never told sunoo, not because you were afraid of rejection or him being rude because with how sweet his personality is, he would’ve rejected you in such a friendly manner it would make you think he’s reciprocating the feelings, but because no one like him would ever like you, he was way out of your league. so, confessing was definitely out of question, no matter how much your best friend would insist you would simply not do it. but in reality, it wasn’t really like that. one day you were hanging out with sunoo and your best friend at a cat cafe when suddenly in the conversation you said something along the words of “who would ever like?” and bold sunoo, was not afraid to hide his sincere feelings and answered with “i do.” he smiled while you looked up blushing furiously. your best friend laughing maniacally. “w-what?” sunoo chuckled at your reaction. “i thought i made it quite obvious that i liked you, silly.”  oh! who would’ve guessed!
୨୧ YANG JUNGWON ! - heard you liked “someone else”
you and jungwon had met each other in sophomore year of highschool and it was safe to say there was a connection instantly that was more than just a platonic one. you two quickly became attached at the hip. if jungwon said he was going somewhere it was sure that you would be here two, if you were being invited somewhere they could already expect the “can jungwon come along?” question, and vice-versa. it wasn’t strange when people came up to either you or him and asked if you were dating each other and it honestly shocked everyone when you both would always answer no to it, even your own girlfriends found your “friendship” strange. they did not find the idea of a boy-girl friendship weird or impossible to exist but they just couldn’t see your dynamic as friends so it was bound for them to question you. you heard the question so many times you decided to just tell them “fine! yes, i like him so, what?” you saw their shocked faces but they weren’t looking at you. you looked behind you seeing jungwon behind you. when you locked eyes he was quick to turn his back and walk away making you panic. a few days have gone by after that and you decided you needed to talk to him. “i’m sorry i didn’t tell you sooner. i didn’t want things to get ruined by this.” jungwon stared at you “who even is tha guy?” he asked making you look at him as if he had three heads. “what?” you asked “what what?” “jungwon the guy is literally you, i thought that was settled already.” jungwon stayed silent before laughing like a maniac. “if you’re here to make fun of me you can-” jungwon shut you off with a kiss, making you relaize where things went wrong.
୨୧ NISHIMURA RIKI ! - i don’t even know how to word this one
let’s settle one thing. you two knew you both liked each other. romantically. you just don’t bother on labelling it or directly showing it to each other. everyone around you found your dynamic honestly weird but to you two it was more simple than people put it to be. it all started when you were really oblivious about ni-ki’s feelings for you so he decided to hint that he liked you more than a friend. like one time you were walking to his house and he just shoot “you look cute.” but you didn’t quite hear what he said, distracted by a dog “what did you say?” he sighed “i said you look like a fruit.” “riki that does not make sense, but whatever you say.” and he started gradually getting bolder. “i can’t get this song out of my head.” you told him during class “i can’t get you out of my head.” oh! that was new information for you “thanks…?” at this point you were acting dumb for him and he couldn’t take it anymore so he got even more straightforward. during one of your daily walks you were rambling about a flower you saw on the way and he just let you talk as his hand sneakily grabbed yours, making you stop talking and falter in your steps “what?” he asked as if it was nothing “n-nothing!” he smiled as he kept walking along with you. after that day he noticed a change. a good one. and that’s when he realized you had realized so he decided to just get to the point “is it weird if i kiss you?” he asked when you were eating lunch in the school garden. you put your drink down and turned to look at him. “honestly, riki? yes. do i care? no.” so with that he grabbed your face, kissing you as he smiled against your lips.
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tetsunabouquet · 1 month
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Not A Prank - Eren Yeager X F!Reader
You waited at the entrance of the amusement park and you couldn't help but feel like you were being pranked. Because why would Eren Yeager ask you to meet him at the entrance for a date? I mean, you did understand the logistics, his car had broken down last week so you knew he couldn't pick you up just like you knew Eren and Mikasa had broken up last month- the girls at college wouldn't let anyone forget Eren was single. However, why he asked you out was beyond you. You were friends, sort of. Being Sasha's cousin, you've been dragging her and Connie out of trouble since you were kids, generally being the only braincell of the trio. You often were invited to group outings with their friends, but having gone to a different high school it wasn't until college that you actually became part of the group. Eren was a nice guy, even though he could be quite the hothead. Speaking of hot, Eren certainly qualified. As he approached you, his hair was pulled up in the man-bun only the seldom individual could pull off and look hot, his shirt having a v-neck and showing glimpses of the chest that had all the girls drooling, wearing the leather jacket you knew Connie had given him his previous birthday. He smiled to you, "I hope I didn't make you wait too long." "Not at all," you lied. Honestly you didn't knew if you were waiting for a minute or an hour- the anticipation had been agony. He guided you into the park with a grin, children's laughter and the screams of teenagers and adults filling the air. "I really am sorry my car broke down. The line at the Roc Bird's probably hours long at this point," Eren groaned softly and you looked at him, a small smile lingering on your lips. "Ah well, the Formule X never has that long of a line. How about we go there before we buy something for lunch?" Eren grinned from ear to ear, looking at you with such delight that you were surprised. It was such a happy, fond look that all of your musings how Eren couldn't be serious about liking you were discarded. As the two of you walked to the red rollercoaster, Eren nudged you. "You're studying my face like it's exam time. What's up?" "Ah well, I am just surprised." You said, embarrassed, "I didn't expect you to have a thing for me, really." Eren's green eyes softened and your heart skipped a beat. "Well, we haven't been that vocal about it, but Mikasa and I have been growing apart since graduation. Before we knew it our hearts were already moving on. " He scratched his neck, trying to find more words to properly confess his feelings. How in the attempts to ignore Mikasa and Jean's ever growing closeness he started distracting himself with his friends, allowing him to get to know you better. How he'd always noticed you were pretty, but had never noticed you had common ground in things like your shared love for amusement parks or a similar untamable spirit. "Well, suppose I'm a lucky gal then, huh?" You teased lightly, nudging him back. "About as lucky as this guy over here," he said and you smiled broadly at Eren who gave you a moony eyed grin that made you dizzy. "I hope you'll still like me if I end up with my spit flying at the speed." Eren chuckled at your slightly flustered but playful demeanor, "Of course I will. I'd love to see it captured on photo." You looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Are you seriously going to look at how the ride's pictures come out?" "Yes, and I will be buying our photo. Our first shared humilation, is there a better way to start a relationship?" You laughed at the thought, knowing photos taking during the ride were the worst kind of photos- even worse then the stiff faces you had to pull for your ID pictures. "It certainly would be a bonding experience, like wearing matching onesies. Even better if we wore them to class." "Now you really sound like you grew up with Sasha and Connie." You giggled but you couldn't deny they were responsible for part of your brain being fried. "You better get used to it if we're going to date," you told him. Eren tugged a lock of your hair behind your ear. "I think I will.".
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wachtelspinat · 2 months
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Heya~
I often find it very difficult to find the right words, so I apologize in advance if any of what I have to say sounds dry or wrong, but I write it from the heart, I promise🧡
I know how you feel now and how much you get lost when that realization comes along. I learn art all my life, but I don’t succeed anywhere. No matter how long I try to do it, I still keep thinking “well I’m not good enough”. To be honest it scares the shit out of me every day, because if I’ll give up here… well there’s nothing I can do for life than. When I was in school, I was desperately clung to every fandom I had as my last hope to get rid of bad thoughts and I found those two silly characters that stole my heart immediately so of course it’s weird to say but since then Overwatch has become my “home”. It was not the perfect game but it was fun until Ow2 was released. Even if my love for OW is died, I understood that Junkrat and Roadhog took a much more bigger part in my live that I could ever imagine. I thought it was stupid, like come on that’s just a characters from the old and dead game but it turns out they’re not just characters, but in a way, my family or friends that helped me go through a lot of dark times, so it’s okey to love them deeply even if they are not real~
I always wondered, why do I make art? Is it what I really like and enjoy? Is it cost all the struggles and tears? But I found you and I fall in love with your arts immediately. I could have a really bad day in university but then I remember how I just go to your page to rewatch, for only gods knows how many times, your works. I love everything about them, how you can build a perfect shape with just one line, how many expressions and ideas your works have. Your knowledge of the anatomy is just… freaking olympic🤌🏻✨ you gave me the second breath in my path of an artist because looking at your works I was wondering if I ever be able to achieve such a high level and here I’m speaking not only about arts with Junkrat and Roadhog, I speak about every single one that I could find🧡 and I understood that art in general have much much more power in it that anyone thinks. It gives hope, inspiration, safety, emotions and so on~ even without knowing it, you can make another person’s life a little better.
All I wanted to say is - you are a fantastic person, highly talented and hard working. I’m sure everyone who follows your work will support every of your decision. I just wanted to say a big thank you from myself personally for everything you do🧡
hey ! i'm really sorry that it took me so long to respond, last week was just hell on earth. the sheer amount of words you put into this hit me right in the heart, and what you said made me tear up even more.
having a really hard time here to form my words, not only because my brain feels so fried, but because your ask is so sincere and i don't think i can possibly thank you enough. it's so weird, there is this constant battle in my head that everything is futile and trivial and i'm having a hard time seeing some kind of point behind my actions (not only art related). on the other hand, i know that WE give meaning to something. that it's the small things that tends to move mountains. i don't know if i'm making any sense here. point is. by telling me that - in my opinion - my irrelevant art has given you sth, if it's just a smile, new energy to try sth yourself, inspiration... you are shaking my world. and i'm grateful for that in a way i cannot describe.
and seriously, i don't know why we make art. because as you mentioned yourself it is always connected with doubts and despair. before i entered graphic design school back when i was super young i thought drawing was me. the one integral part that made me so ~special~. just to learn that a bunch of people draw, all around the world, and they often draw even better than i could ever achieve! in the last months of being in university i relied a lot on defining myself through my art again. because it immensely helped with my self-concept when everything around me just felt like i wasn't good enough. i'm kind of re-learning again that doing art is not the one thing that defines me. because i tend to heavily lean into that. it is after all the one thing i actually like about myself.
so yeah, thank you so much for reaching out. i love your art and the love you put into it, so i'm hoping that - despite the struggles we all share while being creative - you continue to draw, as so will i <3
(and junkrat and roadhog, man... yeah they're not just characters, they stopped being just characters from a game a long time ago for me. i know i'm a broken record at this point BUT their codependency and independency, the balance between grit and gross and sweet and off-kilter, sweat, tears, blood and some ice-cream on the side, begrudging and thankful - it seems stupid to me too because i know most people just see these comic relief mad max rip-offs but every time i think about their dynamics and some of the stories i've read in fan works it grips my heart and i think "holy shit i love them so. much." - i'm still not done drawing them by a long shot i think, it just feels like i've reached a dead end of some kind? because with little time at hand and even less energy left i struggle to form my thoughts into drawings. but i'm working on that. i'm working on doing some kind of tribute, like a zine with my art from 2016 up to today and some more stuff i've yet to draw (had this idea since 2022 and i've just recently learned SO MUCH about zine making and printing and i finally started putting the first files together). because that feels right, like a proper "here look at this i hope this explains why i love them so much")
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thera-daydreams · 2 years
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ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ᴏʟᴅ ʟᴀᴅʏ ɪꜱ ᴀ ᴡɪᴛᴄʜ
ᗢ jujutsu kaisen x scarletwitch!reader ᗢ
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13. madness
Chapter Index & Synopsis
warning: will contain spoilers from the jjk manga and the latest mcu movies/comics/shows (particularly wandavision, loki, spiderman: nwh, as well as content from doctor strange in the multiverse of madness). once again, this will contain heavy spoilers—you have been warned. angst, cussing, cursing, murder, disturbing themes, & swear words will be here, too. trigger warning as well for wanda's depression and suicidal behavior. so... hi, all! it's been what, 6 months? before i say anything more, here's an ultra-mega-super-duper-long-almost-25k-words chapter—practically a whole story in itself—to make up for my long absence and silence here on tumblr. this was weeeeeks in the making and i'm brain fried as i publish this. honestly, i may never edit or beta this because of how ridiculously long it is, lol. anyways, enjoy! 🥰
(word count: 24,958)
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(previous chapter)
The rumbling and shaking continued in the darkness the eight jujutsu sorcerers were in, throwing them off balance. Before they knew it, the darkness ripped open into a... well, it looked like they were somewhere in outer space? But there were pillars and pieces of debris floating around, some objects defying the laws of gravity.
Suddenly, a roar resounded from behind them. Their heads snapped to the direction of the sound, where they found... a ribbon-like monster chasing a young girl wearing a denim jacket and... Dr. Strange in a ponytail?
Just like before, when they were watching and then got sucked into the TV (particularly into the last two episodes of WandaVision), everything felt real. Like a 3D—no, a 4D film. Maybe 6D, even. Yet it was only a glimpse into the past, thus they were still physically unaffected by the events despite them being able to feel and experience it realistically with their five senses.
It was different from the holograms they watched with Loki and Dr. Strange with Spiderman—other pivotal events of your universe that didn't include you.
"Strange looks... strange... doesn't he?" Geto blinked, confused as the duo got closer to their point of view. The Ribboned Creature was destroying everything in its path as it attempted to attack weird-looking Strange and the girl with him. The two individuals being chased went through them like they were ghosts, and so did the angry Ribboned Creature.
"And who's the new kid?" Toji raised one fine, curious eyebrow. The others shrugged.
"Dunno, Toji-san," Yuuji replied. "But that ribbon monster seems to want to get her."
"We should probably follow them," Nanami logically suggested as the Ribboned Creature, Strange-with-a-ponytail, and New Girl got farther away in the distance.
The other seven males nodded, running after the monster and the duo it was chasing (albeit, with some difficulty due to the lack of gravity, the floating debris, and the mess of space-time in the Gap Junction). They jumped and ran, momentarily stopping when Ponytail Strange and New Girl stopped.
"Hey, are they speaking Spanish?" Yuuji asked out loud, overhearing the conversation between them. Choso, beside him, had question marks all over his head.
"... What is... Spanish...?" the cursed spirit thought to himself quietly.
"Uh-huh," Megumi muttered to Yuuji, looking back-and-forth warily between the relentless Ribboned Creature and its victims.
"Well, anyone of you know what they're talking about!?" Toji huffed out, crossing his arms. "'Cause I don't."
"Hehe. Sorry. The only Spanish I know are pick-up lines for the ladies!" Gojo nervously laughed, scratching the back of his head. Geto mimicked the exact same action with a guilty look and a grin.
"... Yeaaaaaah, uhhhh, I didn't really listen during second-year Spanish class with Yaga either. Oops," the long-haired male admitted.
Megumi and Yuuji sighed loudly at that. Best friends, indeed. Gojo and Geto were probably slacking off together that time in their highschool days.
Eventually, all heads turned towards the only reliable person in the room (... or space, since they weren't exactly in a room).
A vein popped on Nanami's temple as all eyes slowly turned to him hopefully (Gojo's and Yuuji's eyes were practically sparkling). The blonde exhaled loudly in exasperation as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "You expect me to know Spanish?"
"We knooooow you do, Nanaaaamin," Gojo stated in a sing-song voice.
Another vein popped up on the blonde's temple. "Stop calling me that."
"You know, you were the only one who got perfect marks under Yaga's Spanish class when you were in second year," Geto chuckled, feeling nostalgic for a second. "You were a damn miracle. That man couldn't teach Spanish for his life."
Relenting, he sighed, "... Fine. I'll translate."
Ah, Nanami Kento. Always so reliable and competent. "Thank you, Nanamin!" Yuuji danced around beside him.
Boom!
They watched (while simultaneously continuing to run and follow the duo) as Ponytail Strange's powers glowed an icy blue as he fired shots at the Ribboned Creature.
"Weren't his powers, like, orange...? Or am I colorblind now?" Gojo yelled, beginning to doubt his Six Eyes after everything he's seen about your Multiverse.
"This guy must be like those other versions of Spiderman. Like that Sivan—Syra—the hell was her name again... the other self that Loki smooched..." Toji muttered to himself.
"Sylvie. The blonde female variant of that Loki guy," Megumi finished for him. "You're getting old with all those memory lapses, old man." Toji rolled his eyes at his son, pinching the boy's ear as they ran.
"So this Ponytail Strange is a variant of the Dr. Strange we've seen before?" Yuuji tilted his head in question.
"Probably," Geto and Gojo chorused.
"What are they saying now?" Choso curiously asked as Ponytail Strange and New Girl conversed in rapid-fire Spanish. Ponytail Strange pointed at something far ahead.
"He's saying that it's that book that will kill the monster," Kento translated from Spanish to Japanese for the other men. Multilingual King.
"Book?" the others questioned.
"The Book of Vishanti!" New Girl shouted, as if answering the spectators watching them, when she recognized the mystical item from afar.
"Jump!" Ponytail Strange shouted as they encountered a gap in the floating concrete. With that, the eight jujutsu sorcerers also jumped high, too, roughly landing on the sloped piece of floating concrete. "Hold on!" Ponytail Strange told his female companion.
"Shit, this feels like a fight but we're not technically a part of it?" Geto muttered to himself as he slid and landed on solid ground. Ponytail Strange and New Girl did the same, too. Unfortunately, seconds after, the Ribboned Creature caught up to them, roaring in anger as it pierced the new Strange's thigh with its sharpened ribbons. Ponytail Strange was able to encapsulate it and restrict it with some concrete and magic, yet only for mere moments as his injury spread further through his leg.
"Sheesh. That looks nasty," Gojo cringed, taking a glimpse of the Sorcerer Supreme's wound.
"Real nasty," Yuuji followed with a disgusted face. "Must hurt a lot. Poor guy."
Megumi's eyes were stuck to the Ribboned Creature. "It's gonna get out," he mumbled, a foreboding feeling running through his veins. "They can't win this, can they?"
"... Unlikely," Nanami answered back, not very optimistic. Just as he said that, Ponytail Strange yelped out. His wound was getting infected by dark magic.
"It's too strong! I can't hold it!" Strange yelled, shaking as he attempted to keep the monster in the magical circular cage he made. All of them gazed in horror as the monster began breaking its way out.
As he came to this realization, Sorcerer Supreme Strange slowly turned to the new girl—whose name was America Chavez. The gazes of the eight jujutsu sorcerers watching them skimmed over to America, too.
"What's this dude planning?" Toji raised a brow.
"... I don't think it's gonna be anything good," Choso's lips pursed. Indeed, the Cursed Spirit was right.
"I'm so sorry," Sorcerer Supreme Strange began, hesitant. "But this is the only way." With that, the man began extracting the young girl's power for himself. The jujutsu sorcerers were surprised.
"Oh no, why... why would he..." Yuuji felt sympathetic for the girl. She looked to be just around his age. Maybe even younger. Megumi felt the same, too.
"Wh—What are you doing!?" America shrieked as she was lifted up into the air. Slowly, her powers were siphoned out of her.
"I can't let that thing take your power. You can't control it," Stephen told her, trembling as he took the girl's abilities while simultaneously holding the monster back. "But I can."
"But we're friends!" America cried out. "You're killing me!"
"I know." Stephen shut his eyes tight. "But in the grand calculus of the Multiverse, your sacrifice is worth more than your—"
Stab!
One of the creature's ribbons went through Ponytail Strange's heart.
"Damn," Toji commented, arms crossed. "I guess he kind of deserves that, though?"
Ponytail Strange fell to the ground, almosr lifeless. America, now free, set her eyes on the Book of Vishanti. She quickly ran towards it, hopping over multiple pieces of floating debris to get to her destination. Behind her, the jujutsu sorcerers followed. Right before she could obtain it, however, the Ribboned Creature got a hold of her four limbs. The jujutsu sorcerers stopped in their tracks.
"Crap," Yuuji's eyes looked frantically around them. "Is there really nothing we can do to help her!?" Beside him, Megumi was thinking the same, but didn't let his nervousness surface visibly to his face.
Nanami shook his head, "... Unfortunately, no. Like everything we've witnessed, this is the past, remember?"
"It's already happened and we can do nothing to stop it," Geto added. Before he could say anything else, the creature roared, scaring America. Out of instinct, her powers activated. Eyes glowing bright blue, a star-shaped portal appeared around her, acting like a vaccuum—sucking everything around them into it. With his dying breath and remaining magic, Ponytail Strange sent out four spinning blasts to cut away America's restrictions. America (and the monster) were thrown into the portal. Ponytail Strange was sucked into it, too.
And as much as they hated it and tried to avoid it, the jujutsu sorcerers watching were thrown into the portal as well—spinning and spinning as they fell.
"Oh shiiiiiiii—" Gojo shouted, voice echoing through the portal.
Before they knew it, they all awoke on the floor of... a bedroom in the New York Sanctum? And they were in a pile on the ground, too (with Toji, unfortunately, on the very bottom with Gojo being on the top, squishing everyone else in-between).
A tick mark appeared on Toji's jaw at the weight on his back, "Get. Off. Now." The men scrambled to their feet. Then they heard wheezing and huffing from the bed in the room. Their eyes widened.
"Whoa. That's the Strange we know... right?" Megumi pointed out. His eye then twitched as he turned away. "He sleeps naked?"
"Who doesn't?" Gojo, Geto, and Toji chorused.
"... I did not need those images in my head," Nanami rubbed his temples, disgusted at the visuals involuntarily implanted into his brain.
"Perhaps he just does not sleep with a shirt on," Choso offered, head tilted. "But were we... watching his dream?"
"Uh-huh, looks like it," Yuuji deduced. He then whistled. "You know, I never realized Dr. Strange was that fit and built." The pink-haired boy glanced at his teacher. "He could give you a run for your money with those biceps, Gojo-sensei."
The Strongest looked offended. "I look much better than this guy, excuse you!"
"Heh. Dunno, Satoru. With those grey streaks in his hair and that awesome beard? Kinda gives me silver fox vibes," Suguru teased his best friend.
"Have you seen my hair!? It's all practically white—" Gojo protested, running his hands through his hair wildly. "I am the epitome of a silver fox!"
"Nah, without a good beard, you're not," Toji scoffed in the corner. Suddenly, a mouth popped out on Yuuji's cheek as they all watched Strange grab his broken watch and get dressed for a wedding.
"Where the hell is Granny." It was a statement, not a question from the King of Curses.
"Dunno. We haven't really seen mom since... that scene of her in her isolated cabin in the woods..." Yuuji frowned. "I wonder how she's doing here in her past. And in the real world. I've almost forgotten what she was doing since we last saw her in our world."
"Getting groceries," his older brother reminded him.
"In the middle of an incoming snowstorm," Kento sighed out heavily.
It was silent as they waited for Strange do to whatever he needed to do. The Master of the Mystic Arts walked for a few blocks, constantly fidgeting with his cufflinks. It was only when they were inside the chapel, familiar names scrawled on a fancy calligraphy canvas outside the large wooden doors of the entrance, that they realized what exactly Strange was there for.
"Oh my god, is he attending his ex-girlfriend's wedding!?" Gojo exclaimed dramatically.
"Well, this ought to be a sight," the Zenin clan deserter snorted. "What was that woman's name again?"
"Christine...?" Megumi answered his dad, unsure. "Forgot her last name though."
"Oof, this is gonna be awkward," Geto cringed beside his best friend. "Brilliant neurosurgeon and awesome superhero but doesn't get a love life."
"He did have to make sacrifices for his... lifestyle," Nanami quietly commented. Of course, as a jujutsu sorcerer, he could relate. At the blonde's remark, everyone else—at least, the adults of the group—sobered. The life of a jujutsu sorcerer was not forgiving. Time would be spent either fighting, recovering, teaching, exorcising, and the like. Romance? You were lucky if you had a partner that knew, believed, and accepted the life of having a jujutsu sorcerer as their lover. You were even luckier if you were able to sustain a long-term relationship, get married, have kids, and grow old.
Normally, that was not in the books of being a jujutsu sorcerer. Death rates and chances of injury were always high. It was always a gamble as you could die at any moment.
They watched the entire wedding silently.
ᗢ▪︎ᗢ
"Look. Truly, I'm just glad that you're happy," Stephen finished, congratulating Christine on her wedding day.
"I am. I really, really am," Christine brightly smiled at him, looking angelic in her simple yet classic, white wedding dress.
"Good," Stepehen nodded, doing his best to hold back his own tears. Right person, wrong time, indeed. Perhaps in another life... in another universe, it would have worked out between them.
"Are you?" Christine asked.
"I'm happy."
"Good. You deserve it."
With that, Christine left Stephen to his own devices.
"... What a load of bullshit." It was Toji who spoke and it was the first time any of them spoke since the wedding proper an hour earlier. His arms were, again, folded against his chest.
"Tell me about it," Geto snorted. "Clearly, he is not happy."
"He's heartbroken as hell. Anyone can see that," Gojo snickered.
Before more jabs at the ex-neurosurgeon could be made, screams and crashes were suddenly heard from outside the building they were in. Strange, plus the jujutsu sorcerers, ran out to the open balcony on... whatever floor they were... to see cars and street poles being thrown everywhere by... whatever invisible threat there was.
"Finally, some action," Sukuna popped up on Yuuji's cheek once more as Strange flew down. The rest of them jumped down the building, too. Thankfully, despite not having their cursed energy, they landed without a hitch.
"Yo... isn't that the girl from Strange's dream earlier?" Yuuji pointed out as Strange used a spell to make the invisible monster... well, visible.
"It was invisible to the naked eye...?" Choso thought out loud. "A cursed spirit?"
"Perhaps," Nanami observed. It was a huge, slimy, tentacled monster bigger than any cursed spirit he's ever encountered, though (well, maybe except for that one giant cursed spirit Aoi Todo fought during the Night Parade of Demons). It had one big eye, too, scanning its surroundings for its target. The girl.
America Chavez.
Strange—and Wong, later on—finished off the monster by stabbing out its single, huge eyeball from on top of one of New York's buildings.
"Giant monsters, I can clearly handle," Strange stared at Chavez closely. "But what bothers me is that last night, you were in my dream."
"That... wasn't a dream," America explained. "It was another universe."
The eight jujutsu sorcerers spectating stilled at her answer. They followed Wong, Strange, and America into a nearby pizza place, wanting to hear more of this girl's explanation.
Stephen huffed, tired of all the questions being directed to him and the lack of answers he was getting. "Now why was that octopus trying to eat you?"
"That thing was trying to kidnap me," America cut in. At their questioning looks, she let out a deep exhale. "It's like a henchman who works for a demon. All we knew is that they wanted to take my power for themselves."
"What power?" Strange's brows furrowed.
America paused, "I can... travel the Multiverse."
"Prove it," Strange challenged.
"That's neat," Geto nodded to himself. All of a sudden, the scene shifted to all of them being on a rooftop. America, Wong, and Strange knelt down, with America uncovering a dead body.
Strange's dead body. Or at least, the variant of him who was Sorcerer Supreme and had a ponytail. The one who died before their very eyes.
"It wasn't a dream," Wong breathed out in shock at seeing the decaying corpse. "That means..."
"Dreams are windows into the lives of our multiversal selves," Strange concluded, wide-eyed.
"Holy shit," Gojo blinked at the declaration. "Does that... apply to our universe, too?"
"... Maybe. Probably?" Geto's eyes were wide, as well. "But that's... it's outrageous. Crazy."
"That was his theory," America gestured to the dead Ponytail Strange.
"So that recurring nightmare where I'm running naked from a clown..." Wong trailed off.
America shrugged, "Somewhere out there, it's real."
"That's sick," Yuuji gaped, both awed and terrified. "I had a dream I got married to Jennifer Lawrence on a beach a few years ago. Megan Thee Stallion was the Maid of Honor! That's true in another universe?" He ran a hand down his face. "Man, that me is living the life, sheesh!"
The rest of them were speechless.
"There could be more creatures coming after her," Wong whispered to Strange.
"The power is dangerous enough in the hands of a kid," Strange replied in a hushed tone. "Imagine if a real threat acquired it."
At their words, the young girl with them became nervous, beginning to back away. Noticing this, Wong assured her. "It occurs to me, young one, that we don't know your name."
"... America Chavez," she answered reluctantly.
"Miss Chavez, will you come with us to Kamar-Taj? You'll be safe there," Wong formally offered as the reigning Sorcerer Supreme.
The jujutsu sorcerers watched as Strange buried the dead Strange with a ponytail... under a bunch of rocks and bricks on the rooftop apartment.
"Won't that, like, smell?" Megumi's face was contorted in disgust.
"Or attract some cursed spirits or something...?" Yuuji scratched his head. "But then again, they don't have cursed spirits in their world..."
"They have terrifying monsters which could be considered as curses, though," Toji remarked. "A ribboned monster? An octopus with one giant eyeball? Hm."
"The creature that killed him," Wong asked, referring to Strange's alternate self. "Did it have the same markings as the octopus?"
"Runes," Stephen stated. At the familiar term, the jujutsu sorcerers' ears perked up.
"Like what Mom and Agatha used?" Yuuji clarified to the other older men, who all nodded.
At Strange's reply, Wong exhaled. "This isn't sorcery."
Stephen's eyes widened slightly in realization. "It's witchcraft."
"Do we know anyone who's faced such a thing?" Wong inquired to his friend.
Stephen paused. One familiar person came to his mind. One he'd fought alongside long ago in the battle against Thanos along with other notable superheroes. "... I think I might."
The jujutsu sorcerers stilled. It was so very faint, but they swore they heard a chime mimicking the theme song of WandaVision in their minds.
Right as Strange finished saying his sentence, they felt the scene before them shift. Suddenly, they saw a familiar-looking woman whose back was turned to them. She was softly humming a song, mixing up ingredients in the metal bowl with a large, wooden spoon.
"Mom...?" Yuuji gasped out first.
You turned around with a smile as you grabbed some baking soda from a nearby cabinet, but did not hear them. You were dressed in a simple outfit—a plain, long-sleeved white top, some faded jeans, and a navy blue cardigan with some flour smudges here and there.
"Y/N..." the older jujutsu sorcerers (ahem, Geto, Gojo, Nanami, Toji, and Choso) breathed out, as if in relief at finally seeing you once more.
"Finally!" Sukuna exclaimed loudly, making Yuuji wince at the volume of his voice. "It's been too damn long!"
You looked you, but...
"She looks a bit different, don't ya think?" Gojo tilted his head, rubbing his chin as he tried to pinpoint what exactly was different.
"Maybe it's the hair color?" Geto pointed out.
"... Happier." It was Nanami who spoke out loud. All eyes glanced at the ex-salaryman. "She's happier. You can see it in her eyes."
They, again, grew silent as they watched you smoothly glide around the kitchen with experienced movements—similar to how you would in their world. In the bakery-café you owned.
"You're right," Toji hmphed. "I wonder why."
They got their answer in the form of two young boys running into the kitchen and dipping their hands in the chocolate mixture you were stirring.
"Chocolate!" Billy yelled happily.
"Hey! What did I say?" you teasingly scolded.
Tommy pouted, "But we couldn't wait."
You raised a playful brow at your children, "Buuuut, what did I say?" At your reply, your twins rebelliously ate the chocolate mix that they managed to sneak on their fingers. Your eyes widened as you laughed, "Oh?" With a loving pinch of their naughty faces, you ushered your kids to the sink. "Go wash your hands!"
"Aren't those two... dead?" Choso asked out loud, referring to Billy and Tommy.
"Supposedly," Nanami answered him. He looked around closely. "And supposedly, this place is gone. Vision Residence disappeared when the Hex disappeared."
They all blinked.
"You're right, Nanamin!" Yuuji blinked. "Whoa, you're so observant!"
"It's part of my job. And my Cursed Technique," Nanami bluntly replied, adjusting his glasses (just like any cool and badass anime character).
"But he's right... this is the Vision Residence... exactly like it, except for a few extra knick-knacks here and there," Geto murmured, touching the kitchen counter.
The scene before them slowly changed to night time, with the twins dressed in their pajamas and getting into bed. It was an extremely familiar scene, making them feel déjà vu as they watched it.
"A family is forever," you spoke to Billy and Tommy gently. "We could never truly leave each other even if we tried." You stroked their heads.
"Hasn't this happened already?" Yuuji scratched his head in confusion, hearing the dialogue and your conversation with your kids. "Like, in WandaVision? I feel like I've watched this already in the finale."
"Hm," Gojo hummed, his head tilted as he watched you tuck the boys in snugly. "Except that Y/N's in her single mom era here. For some reason."
"Where the hell is that robot?" Sukuna asked, very loudly.
"No idea," Choso answered his fellow curse being.
You sweetly give your children a goodnight kiss on their foreheads, whispering, "Love you." They giggled at the sensation, making you smile. The sorcerers smiled, too, seeing you happy. You were about to say something else when the scene cut abruptly. So abruptly.
ᗢ▪︎ᗢ
Your eyes snapped open, the smile on your face slowly fading as you realized that it was just a dream. Again. The jujutsu sorcerers, too, realized that you had been dreaming. You slowly sat up from your bed, the silence in your new home almost deafening except for the soft chirping of birds outside. In your bedroom, you were alone. Somehow, despite the warm sunlight filtering through the curtains on your windows, the air was chillier. The colors around them seemed a little greyer... duller than it was in that vibrant, joyful dream. You tightened your flannel robe along your torso, adjusting a stray strand of your hair behind your ears.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Oh, you were still alive. And awake. You placed a hand over your beating heart, exhaling.
The jujutsu sorcerers realized that this woman—the lonely woman who woke up from the dream and not the happy mother in that dream—was you. The one they knew. The version that they had watched over the past couple of... hours? Days? Weeks? How long has it been? They didn't know.
"Mom..." Yuuji sadly whispered. "So it wasn't real? Mom was just dreaming about Billy and Tommy?"
"So it seems," Megumi replied, feeling pity for you (for what probably felt like the hundredth time). You didn't deserve this pain at all. "It's never gotten easier for Y/N-san, huh?"
Now, they were transported to a lovely apple orchard, with countless, fragrant trees spaced out almost evenly. Not so far away was the new humble home you'd made for yourself after self-isolating, with a dozen or so sheep running past the jujutsu sorcerers.
"Sheep...?" Gojo blinked, seeing you quietly herd them away to some wooden fences. "Neat... I guess? Didn't think she'd be the type who's into sheperding."
"She's taken up gardening, too. So this is where it began," Toji observed as you diligently snipped away at some overgrown tree branches. He and the others were aware that gardening was one of your hobbies (and why Charmed Coffee & Confectionaries had such a gorgeous display of healthy plants all over the area and outside the shop—heck, the mini-garden you had on the rooftop of your building was a tourist spot itself; Geto could recall Mimiko and Nanako taking a lot of selfies there during that time they first came looking for him after you saved him).
"Apples?" You—and the jujutsu sorcerers—turned around at hearing Strange's voice. Hands in his tailored trouser pockets and a friendly smile on his handsome face, he almost looked like he was about to ask you for a date at the park in this very place.
"... Eventually," you replied, straightening yourself. The jujutsu sorcerers watched as you handed him the small branch you'd snipped off. He sniffed it, nodding and impressed.
"It smells—" He began, only for you to subtly cut in.
"Sweet?"
"I was gonna say real," Stephen chuckled. Your lips curved at his remark as you took the branch from him and tossed it away to the pile of branches on a picket box on the grass.
"Oh, it's all very real. Thanks." Then your smile disappeared, replaced by a sad and remorseful look. "I knew sooner or later you'd show up, wanting to talk about..." You paused. "Westview." It was a word you hadn't said in so long. The spectators also felt like it's been forever since then after they'd seen the other things that happened in your universe—Loki, Spiderman, and more. You breathed out deeply, pocketing your hands in your jacket. "I made mistakes. And people were hurt—"
"But you put things right in the end, and that was never in doubt," he assured. "I'm not here to talk about Westview," Strange informed you. This alarmed some of the jujutsu sorcerers.
"Hey. Wait, wait. Hold up." Geto crossed his arms, glowering at the Master of the Mystic Arts. "You mean to tell me this guy knew about Y/N and what happened to Westview? And didn't bother to show up or do anything about it? Like, help her? Against that nosy Salem witch with the crazy get-up?"
"Same thoughts," Gojo huffed. "The nerve of this guy! The audacity!"
"Then what are you here for?" you inquired, appearing confused.
"We need your help," Stephen quickly answered. You gave it a few moments of thought, walking to make your decision. Strange followed behind you, hands pocketed from the air, as well.
"Oh, so now he asks for her help?" Gojo and Geto chorused, rolling their eyes in annoyance with Strange.
"... No one was there for her when she needed them the most," Choso quietly added.
"Yeah," Yuuji frowned in disapproval.
"With what?" you finally responded, strolling along your orchard with Strange beside you.
"What do know about the Multiverse?"
Your eyes slightly widened as you shared to Stephen what you knew, "The Multiverse... Viz had his theories." Ah, finally a mention of your late synthezoid husband. "He believed it was real. And dangerous."
"Well, he was right about both," Strange disclosed. "We found a girl who can somehow travel across it. But she's being pursued."
Your head turned to him seriously, worriedly, "Pursued by who?"
"Some kind of demon. One that covets her power for itself," Strange answered in a grave tone. "We've taken her to Kamar-Taj, and we've got our defenses. But we could use an Avenger."
Avenger. Huh. That was a title you weren't called ever since... what, the Lagos Incident? The fight against Thanos? Both good and bad memories were associated with it. "There are other Avengers," you reminded him, raising a skeptical brow.
"Yeah, but given the choice of the archer with the mohawk and several bug-themed crime fighters..." You chuckled, amused at his joke. "Or, one of the most powerful magic-wielders on the planet, it's an easy call. Come to Kamar-Taj." His eyes gave such a pleading look. Strange then smirked, "We'll get you back on the lunchbox."
"He's using aaaaaall his mystical silver fox charms to sway her, isn't he?" Gojo pouted, like a child stomping his feet because his mother didn't give him candy.
"You forget that he was a very respected genius neurosurgeon who was probably extremely wealthy and, for the record, attractive," Nanami deadpanned, also inwardly irked at the fact that Strange knew about Westview all along. "I get the feel that this perhaps isn't the first time he's persuading a woman to get what he wants from her. He's got an ego that rivals Stark."
"Not gonna lie, used to do that to women, too," Toji commented, making Megumi quietly groan.
However, it was your next remark that made all of them—except Yuuji, who didn't catch on, at first—that made them freeze in their tracks.
"What if you brought America here?"
The jujutsu sorcerers saw that Strange had noticed your words, too. He was almost rendered speechless. But he played along with it, "... Here?"
"Yeah," you shrugged. "I know what's it's like... to be on your own... hunted for abilities you never wanted," you suggested, continuing to stride forward. You really did relate to the girl. The question was...
"How does she know so much about... America?" Megumi's eyes were wide. The rest of the guys had the same expression. Their hearts pumped blood faster through their bodies, adrenaline rushing in their veins.
They couldn't believe it. No. It wasn't possible.
"She could have just read his mind... right?" Gojo murmured, refusing to believe it. "... Right?"
"But she said she put the magic behind her already," Nanami cut in, hazel eyes narrowing at you as you didn't face them or Strange. He continued to reason out, "And I'm pretty sure the Master of the Mystic Arts wouldn't appreciate anyone prodding around his mind and reading it. It's likely he has defenses for that in place."
Toji, Geto, Choso, and Sukuna (the only deranged one who was getting excited about the whole ordeal) chose to be silent, just watching.
"What? Huh? What's happening?" Yuuji's gaze frantically moved from person to person. He didn't understand. But the rest of the jujutsu sorcerers had no words to say as they stared at the scene unfolding before them. "What's wrong?"
Strange stopped walking.
"I can protect her," you promised, only to notice that Strange was no longer beside you and that he had the most disappointed and regretful expression on his face.
Ah, you realized.
You made a slip of the tongue. Oh well. At least you tried. It would've been too easy if Strange was just able to hand you America right then and there. The predator got too excited there, losing the chance to seize their prey in a one-shot kill. Now, the thrilling chase was just starting.
"... You never told me her name, did y—"
"—No."
"Mm."
His voice was far colder now, and he answered instantaneously. Harshly. "No, I didn't." He was about to leave, only for you to speak again, back turned towards him (and the viewers). Antsy and nervous, the jujutsu sorcerers waited for what was going to happen next.
There was an ominous feeling in their gut, something they usually felt when they were dealing with extremely difficult cursed spirits or powerful enemies. The fact that you were the reason why they were feeling like this was... unnerving.
They didn't realize that unintentionally, they were holding their breaths.
"You know, the Hex was the easy part," you divulged quietly, slowly lifting your right hand from your pocket. "The lying... not so much."
With a small wave of your hand, the peaceful illusion of the apple orchard dissolved as the reddish-black fog of your Chaos Magic seeped through your fingertips once more, revealing a desolate wasteland with lifeless trees and scarlet skies. No traces of life were present—not one sheep, not one bird, not even a single ant was alive. In just a blink of an eye, everything down to the molecular level had been altered.
Then, Stephen Strange and the jujutsu sorcerers turned around to see you. Their gaze moved from head to toe, your once-regal and superhero-like Scarlet Witch robes visibly darkened—now a gradient alternating from black to red—and corroded... corrupted, glass-like cracks on the tight bodice originating from where your heart was located, like a metaphor for all the heartbreak you'd been through in this lifetime. Your tiara, too, looked different from the last time they saw it—its two tips pointier and its composition much more hollow. Your half-arm gloves from before had turned into full-on, darkened sleeves which extended to your fingers, which they noted had been stained an inky black. Just like Agatha's before.
The Darkhold floating beside you explained everything.
Even the way you physically appeared had changed. Your hair was longer than when they last saw you, your eyes and cheekbones sharper, lips and lids painted darker, and even the way you held yourself in poise and manner oozed confidence.
You looked downright evil, yet also hypnotizingly and irresistibly a hundred times more attractive.
"Oh, fuck yeah!" Sukuna suddenly cackled, ogling you shamelessly through eyes and a mouth on Yuuji's cheek. On the other hand, Yuuji had the opposite reaction, his face the epitome of horrified and betrayed.
"N-No... it can't be," the pink-haired boy stammered in realization. "Mom's... the demon chasing America? She's the one w-who... killed that other Strange?"
"Yuuji," Nanami placed a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. "... Don't... overthink it. Remember, this already happened in the past." However, the blonde was unable to take his gaze off of you. Like the others, his eyes were trained on you. Even he couldn't believe what was happening.
"The Darkhold," Strange's eyes widened at seeing the book.
"You're familiar with the Darkhold?" you asked curiously.
"I know it's the Book of the Damned," Strange coldly replied. "And that it corrupts everything and everyone that it touches." He gestured with his head to your surroundings. Your territory and domain. "I wonder what it's done to you."
"The Darkhold only showed me the truth," you countered as if nothing was wrong. "Everything that I lost can be mine again." You sounded like you truly believed what you were saying.
"What do you want with America?" Stephen's brows furrowed. "What do you want with the Multiverse?"
"I'm going to leave this reality... and go to one where I can be with my children," you announced calmly.
"Wanda, your children aren't real!" Strange attempted to convince you but to no avail. "You created them using magic."
"... That was a fucking awesome way to say it," Toji scoffed sarcastically, still stunned at what was occuring. "Like she's gonna change her mind at this point."
You knowingly and coyly smiled at him, intentionally twisting his words, a sly glint in your eye, "That's what every mother does."
Were they frightened or aroused hearing and seeing you act like such an enchantress? They had no idea.
"By magic, does she mean that episode in WandaVision with the bed and her and Vision having s—" Gojo began, only to be interrupted by his best friend.
"Yes. Yes, she does, Satoru," Geto sighed out. But he wouldn't lie, he could see himself in this darker side of you. It was jarring him. The déjà vu was real.
You clasped your hands together, beginning to circle Strange, "If you knew there was a universe where you were happy, wouldn't you want to go there?" You stared up at him, almost tempting him. But Strange was a man of steel will.
"I am happy," he said, making you raise a fine brow in bemusement. Strange was a man of steel will, but like in Toji's words, he often said a load of bullshit. Obvious lies, duh.
"I know better than most what self-deception looks like," you hummed playfully, aware that he was lying to not only you, but himself. The way you were looking at him had Strange sweating and nervous (so were the jujutsu sorcerers who had a big fat crush on you).
"... Honestly, I would've folded if she looked at me like that," Satoru tilted his head towards you as he addressed his fellow sorcerers. "And I'd instantly marry her. We'd be a hot couple, eh?"
"No thanks," the others replied, instantly shutting him down. Yuuji was a bit kinder, though, but still savage.
"I really admire you, sensei, but I don't want you to be my stepdad," the pink-haired boy awkwardly grinned out, scratching his head.
"I'd be the awesomest stepdad, excuse you!" Gojo cried out, only for Strange to speak again.
"Wanda, what you're doing is a flagrant violation of every natural law and if you take that child's power, she won't survive!" Strange nearly shouted to you in anger.
Instantly, the smile on your face vanished. "I don't relish hurting anyone, Stephen." Then suddenly, you shrugged. "But she's not a child!" you scoffed without a care in the world, both eyebrows high on your forehead as you gave your excuses to Strange. "She's a supernatural being! Such raw power could wreak havoc on this and other worlds! Her sacrifice would be for the... better good." You shrugged offhandedly.
Your words made the jujutsu sorcerers somewhat... sick. They realized that they'd heard this conversation before, with Stark and Cap after the Lagos Incident and during the Sokovia Accords dispute all those years ago. And in America's place, it was you, instead.
To Cap, you were a kid.
To Stark, you were a so-called weapon of mass destruction.
Maybe Iron Man had a point. Not a hundred percent on the dot and definitely not in how he chose to go about it—confining you and putting you in solitary internment—but he knew what you were capable of.
You were dangerous.
And he was absolutely right.
"Well, you can kiss the lunchbox goodbye because that's exactly the kind of justification our enemies use!" Strange argued, making you inwardly snort. Intimidatingly, you stepped closer to him, staring him straight in the eye—daring him to make the first move.
"Is it the one that you used? When you gave Thanos the Time Stone?" you calmly yet bitterly challenged back at his remark. You knew that he knew what he did to you. What he did to Vision. The memory was painfully fresh in your mind, Thanos ripping out the Mind Stone from the head of the person you loved the most after he used the Time Stone to easily reverse your sacrifice.
"Oh shit," Geto muttered, shocked. "Didn't expect that from her."
Clearly, Strange's face showed his guilt, "... That was a war. And I did what I had to do."
You were not convinced by his reasoning. Actually, you were unimpressed. "You break the rules and become the hero," you mocked, knowing about what happened with him and Spiderman, erasing memories and all with the Runes of Kof-Kol he was told not to use. You were merely rubbing salt in the wound; he was oh-so self-righteous wasn't he? "I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair."
"Mom's... she's... she's gone psycho," Yuuji whispered, wide-eyed at your attitude and demeanor. "But... Dr. Strange did break a hella lot of rules... especially with erasing people's memories of Peter Parker... but Mom..." Yuuji's eyes became downcast. "I never thought she'd say something like that."
The others looked at the boy with pity. After all, he had always seen you as his strong, powerful, yet kind mother. For that image of you to be crushed... it must have definitely hurt a lot.
"What happens now?"
"Return to Kamar-Taj and prepare to hand over America Chavez by sundown. Peacefully," you stated your terms firmly. You then gave him a tiny smile. It didn't give them any reassurance, though. This smile of yours was darkly mischievous and triumphant, not the smile they loved to see. "After that, you will never see me again." You turned to leave, using your magic to store the Darkhold safely away from view, only for Strange to speak again.
"And if we don't?"
You stopped in your tracks, looking back at him one more time. "Then it won't be Wanda who comes for her. It will be the Scarlet Witch." It was not a threat. It was a promise.
"Hohoho, this is getting interesting," Sukuna almost giggled. Giggled. Out of excitement. If the King of Curses was this happy, it was an omen that bad things were to come.
ᗢ▪︎ᗢ
The scene morphed to all of them being in Kamar-Taj, with Wong—the current presiding Sorcerer Supreme—pacing the room quickly as an urgent meeting was held between various master sorcerers.
"The Scarlet Witch..." Wong murmured to himself anxiously, before declaring to the others. "The Scarlet Witch is a being of unfathomable magic. She can rewrite reality as she chooses, and is prophesized to either rule or annihilate the cosmos."
"Wait, what?" Yuuji exclaimed.
"Rule or annihilate, hm?" Sukuna chuckled darkly. "Interesting. Very interesting. More... more! I want to see mo—" Itadori slapped the noisy mouth on his cheek.
"Now is not the freaking time, Sukuna!" he huffed.
"Then what Agatha said before was true," Nanami pointed out, tense. "That her power exceeds the Sorcerer Supreme and that—"
"—It's her destiny to destroy the world," Toji finished grimly. "Well, goddamn."
"Suspend all teaching at once!" Wong ordered. "Kamar-Taj must now become a fortress!"
The jujutsu sorcerers then watched in surprise as the entirety of the temple and its dozens of residents swiftly prepared for battle, gathering weapons and artillery, even summoning the masters from the other two sanctums of the world: Hong Kong and London.
"... That's... an entire army," Megumi spoke out, breathless.
"Isn't an army of fifty or more wizards, like, too much for one person?" Choso wondered, scratching his head. "Overkill, that's the word, right?"
"We've seen what she did to Hayward's soldiers before," Toji reminded the other man. His green eyes narrowed, though. "But they are sorcerers, too, so we could give 'em some credit, at least. Maybe Strange can talk his way outta this and Y/N will agree. Maybe. And that Chavez girl will be fine."
Gojo rubbed his face with his hand tiredly, "God, you know what? This is reminding me of that time when your smartass declared war on all of us, trying to get Yuuta for Rika." The silver-haired sorcerer glared at his best friend, who only scowled at the memory of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. Geto didn't verbally reply, inwardly still trying to... not be so hateful of... monkeys... damn, he really should stop calling non-sorcerers monkeys.
When all preparations and precautions had been made, the small army of Eldritch magic sorcerers the stood guard on Kamar-Taj. No space was left unprotected outside. The jujutsu sorcerers were also waiting for your appearance.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock!
Exactly at sunset, just as you had vowed, dark, billowing clouds appeared from the distance, slowly engulfing the entirety of Kamar-Taj and hushing the surroundings into silence. It was as if the sun had been dimmed and the area had been separated from the rest of the world. It was eerily silent, yet it felt like they were hearing ghostly whispers around them, too.
Yuuji shivered, even in his hoodie. "This is... kinda creepy."
"Reminds me of Coppola's film when Dracula signaled his arrival to London in a ship," Nanami murmured, eyes scanning the clouds to check for any sign of you. The others were doing the same, too.
"You mean the one with Winona Ryder? You always did like her in highschool, you emo," Gojo turned to him, momentarily distracted by his remark. Nanami only quietly sighed, mentally calming himself down and choosing to ignore the older man.
Suddenly, a red light appeared from the foggy clouds, making way to show you floating. Waiting. But surely you didn't think they'd so easily hand over America, right?
"Choose you words wisely," Wong whispered to Strange. "The fate of the Multiverse might depend on it."
Strange, beside him, felt like his shoulders became a ton heavier. "Right." He nodded. "But no pressure, right?" Wong only gave a nod.
As Stephen used the Cloak of Levitation to move towards you, the jujutsu sorcerers felt a pull to him, too. Soon enough, they found themselves floating nearby you and Strange in the sky, too. For Gojo, it wasn't weird since it felt similar to when he used his Infinity. For the others? It was startling to be in the air.
"Bruh, I'm flying?" Yuuji was in awe, then he grew solemn again, seeing your serious face. "This would've been fun if Mom was... Mom."
"All this for a child you met yesterday?" you thundered, glaring at Stephen.
"Wanda, you are justifiably angry," Strange began, trying to calm you. "You had to make terrible sacrifices—"
"I blew a hole through the head of the man I loved," you sharply interrupted, a hint of your past pains showing through. Your tone nearly made the jujutsu sorcerers wince as the image of your crying visage destroying the Mind Stone reappeared in their heads. "And it meant... nothing. Do not speak to me of sacrifice, Stephen Strange," you criticized spitefully. Then, your gaze grew softer as you moved towards Strange, leaning... closer, closer, and closer, until you both were face-to-face like that time in the apple orchard.
It was a fuming Satoru who immediately made a childish comment. "Are they gonna kiss or something? Why's she standing—er, floating so close to him!?"
"Shhh," Geto elbowed him. "Just listen, Satoru." But even the long-haired man (and a few others) was a teeny bit envious of how comfortable you seemed being so close to the Master of the Mystic Arts. That tiny green monster of jealousy in them grew even more when your gaze at Strange became tempting. Seductive, almost. Just like how Agatha had attempted to entice you to voluntarily surrender to her your powers back in Westview.
"If you give me the girl," you purred to Strange much like a beguiling siren would. The man visibly became much more still as he retained his composure. Whatever the Darkhold had done to you, your entire being and behavior were the epitome of alluring and captivating. Right before their very eyes, you were literally bewitching a man (... or six men, specifically, whose Adam's apples were bobbing as they swallowed at the sight of you). "I'll send you to a world where you can be with Christine," you offered, knowing exactly which buttons to press.
"... She's giving iconic Disney villains a run for their money," Gojo cleared his throat, pulling his collar and trying to cool himself down. "Or better yet, Satan himself, making deals like this and everything."
"Intelligent and beautiful, yet also powerful and manipulative," Geto thought to himself, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to distract himself from the memory of you being so... villainous and obsessed with your motives. The passion you exhibited was quite exhilarating, especially to that side of him who used to want to change the world. Perhaps you two weren't that different, after all. Was he terrified of you? Yes, quite. Was he also attracted? Very much, yes. As strange a combination that was. (Ryomen Sukuna, inside Yuuji, was fully embracing that feeling the five other grown jujutsu sorcerers were silently experiencing).
"... Kinda hot, can't lie," Toji hummed out making Megumi beside him cringe.
"Ew, Dad," the younger Fushiguro almost gagged.
Strange did not falter, though, declaring, "The full might of Kamar-Taj stands against you. Do not dare to enter these sacred grounds!" The jujutsu sorcerers had to give it to Dr. Strange, mentally applauding them for being able to resist you. If it were them in his place... well, that would be another story.
"Defensive positions!" the Sorcerer Supreme had commanded to his army from below.
At his defiant words, your shortened temper flared. "You have no idea just how reasonable I've been," you gritted out, all traces of your enchanting persona gone.
Stephen scoffed, retorting, "Book of the Damned, calling yourself a witch, conjuring up creatures to abduct a kid, I don't exactly call that being reasonable!"
"Sending those creatures after her instead of myself was mercy," you reproached, the glowing red balls of energy keeping you in flight flashing brighter with your aggravation. "And in spite of your... hypocrisies and insults," you condemned him harshly. "I have begged you to safely... Get. Out. Of. My. Way." Strange had a bad feeling about where this was about to go.
He definitely did not choose his words wisely, did he?
Geto was really getting déjà vu of himself at hearing you. Sukuna was even more thrilled. Toji, honestly, was impressed. Gojo was just stunned. Nanami and Choso, too, were simply speechless. Megumi and Yuuji only looked horrified. This was the same woman that gave them free food and dessert in her cute little shop? The same woman who would draw cute squiggles and chibi characters on cookies? The same woman who would patch them up when they were wounded? The same woman who gave almost all of them a second chance at life?
They couldn't believe it.
You continued your monologue, anger simmering as your voice turned lower in volume," You have exhausted my patience. But I do hope you understand that even now, what's about to happen...." You gave Strange a hateful, you-made-me-do-this-stare. "This is me being... reasonable."
Your words sent chills down their spines.
With that, you fired a blast of Chaos Magic at him, only for it to be blocked by a now-visible protective magic barrier spanning the area of Kamar-Taj. As Strange flew back down, the jujutsu sorcerers landed on solid ground once more. They stared back up at you outside the barrier.
And even in the distance, they saw that you had become very, very, very pissed off. Seething through your teeth.
"Uh-oh," Gojo exhaled out anxiously as he stared up into the sky. "She's angry."
"No shit, Sherlock," Geto scoffed beside him. "She's fucking livid." Despite not being in the actual battle itself, they could practically feel everything else, including the terror in their hearts as you charged towards Kamar-Taj once more, blasting the shield in different areas with multiple hexes simultaneously (something new they had noticed).
"Reinforce the shield!" Wong yelled out. Even as more sorcerers came to strengthen the barrier, the jujutsu sorcerers could still feel the quaking of the fortress at your blasts. The impacts had grown to be that powerful.
"Whoa, whoa," Yuuji balanced himself with the help of Nanami. The foundation of the building continued to shake.
Realizing that physical attacks were useless, you stopped, instead changing your strategy. Strange immediately noticed this as he saw you scanning the army of sorcerers.
"She's trying to get into their heads," Stephen told Wong, who grumbled.
"Sorcerers, fortify your minds!" he shouted. Honestly, the jujutsu sorcerers felt like they were also being reminded, too. They were getting a bit too distracted by your... change in demeanor. Still, you continued to look for an unfortunate victim. Surely, there had to be one newbie, right?
And you were right.
There was one, indeed, still so apprehensive and vulnerable. There he was. And he knew you were looking at him. You were locking eyes with your helpless target.
Bullseye.
Wide-eyed, the jujutsu sorcerers watched as your astral form appeared right behind one of the younger sorcerers, like the Devil tempting to consume the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Your physical body, effortlessly awake, floated outside the shield, smirking wide. You astral form only had to whisper one thing for everything to crumble down into pieces.
"Run."
Goosebumps arose on their skins as your prey grew rattled, sprinting away in fear and creating a hole sufficient enough for you to breach in. He had bumped into multiple other sorcerers on the way, too, further weakening the shield. That was when you started channeling more of your Chaos Magic to create another blast.
"Oh fuck, should we run, too?" Gojo asked, yet his legs were already beginning to move. After all, he didn't have his Infinity or his Limitless with him. Right now. And even if this was the past, this was literally, like, a 6D experience.
The blast you shot hit the ground beside them before they could react, knocking them off their feet like the many Eldritch magic sorcerers nearby.
"Oh shit, shit, shit! Get up, Satoru!" Geto grabbed his best friend's shirt as he himself got up from the ground. Toji had Megumi tossed over his shoulder, with Choso doing the same for Yuuji (who had somehow lost his left shoe). Nanami was holding said missing left shoe as he urged the others to run behind Strange near the entrance of Kamar-Taj.
Their reflexes and battle instinct from all their years living in the world of jujutsu had kicked in. But this time, the enemy was you. At least, it felt like it. When they were all near Strange, they took a glimpse of you.
Mercilessly shooting down sorcerers as you charged towards Kamar-Taj, swatting them away like flies with your psionic energy, toppling structures and towers, tossing stone and huge debris everywhere—all while simultaneously defending yourself with an energy shield. You were multitasking offense and defense like it was nothing, reducing Kamar-Taj to ruins in no less than five minutes since the shield was down.
It was chaos.
"Magic on autopilot," Yuuji's eyes were wide.
Right at the entrance, their memory of you as they ran with Wong and Strange was you landing down onto the ground, creating a pulsating wave of energy that decimated any remaining survivors. There was one—screaming and bawling as he crawled on the ground. Without even batting an eye, you waved your hand—literally erasing him from existence with Chaos Magic.
"Holy crap," Yuuji was terrorized. Utterly terrorized. "Did she just... delete that guy out of existence...?"
The others were stunned, as well. But Sukuna? Sukuna was having the time of his life watching you being so cruel and heartless. They didn't even bother telling him off as he openly roared with laughter. It seemed fitting that the King of Curses would laugh so jubilantly, with several fires raging around them, burning bodies into ash and crisp, nothing but sheer blood and destruction at the hands of the Scarlet Witch.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS IT! THIS IS WHAT I WANTED! THE STENCH OF BLOOD! DEATH! RAGE! FEAR!" Sukuna nearly split his sides in delight. "THE SCARLET WITCH SHALL BE MINE! MINE, MINE, MINE!"
However, much to your surprise, ten Masters of the Mystic Arts bravely... or foolishly... appeared before you through their signature yellow-orange ring portals, poised with their swords; ready to fight. Ah, yes. These were probably the best of the best they had aside from Stephen Strange.
But their best would never be a match for you.
"You dare go against me, sorcerers?" you declared in a booming voice, one fine brow raised and one hand glowing red.
Already highly perturbed at the slaughter you had just executed, the other jujutsu sorcerers could say nothing. As you spoke to the Masters of the Mystic Arts, it felt like you were addressing them, too.
What had become of the sweet woman they knew?
"You are a threat to this world, Scarlet Witch," one of the Masters answered spitefully. "Therefore, we must eliminate you!"
For a few seconds, you were silent. They—including the jujutsu sorcerers—anticipated your reply. Suddenly, you chuckled. Darkly. With it, a matching smirk.
"You are more than welcome to try." It wasn't a threat. It was a taunt. A promise, even.
With that, the Masters of the Mystic Arts charged at you with their swords and magic, only for you to forcefully toss them into the air and slam their bodies into the broken ground. This time, instead of using pure magic to kill them, you even incorporated your magic into skillful hand-to-hand combat, something they hadn't fully seen since what, that time you fought Proxima Midnight in Scotland?
In even more shock and horror, the jujutsu sorcerers watched you move swiftly and fiercely, slicing the Masters with their own swords. With one, you even mind-controlled to slice his own head with his own weapon. The red psionics wrapped around the decapitated body—with you using it as a shield against the other Masters. It was an... effective technique, as grotesque as it was. The corpse had two swords in its abdomen, puppeteering it to kill the other Masters even as it was spurting out fresh blood from its severed neck. As you discarded the body, you expertly dodged and evaded the other Masters charging towards you, snapping their necks or manipulating their bodies to destroy one another.
"Holy mother of..." Gojo gulped, flinching as you crushed a man's skull with your magic. The blood splattered on your face, yet you were unfazed. Behind you, the last Master attempted to inflict some damage, only for him to die the most gruesome death of them all with Chaos Magic as you snapped your gaze to him.
Bones and limbs twisted and broken, screaming in agony, until he was nothing but a mangled mess that exploded into nothing but blood.
"Shit, that's..." Geto's eyes were wide open. Now he was really wondering what would have happened if you got involved with the jujutsu world before Yuuji came along. If you... no, if the Scarlet Witch interfered when he was alive... with you siding with Yuuta and Rika, the Queen of Curses...
He would have been fucked. Kenjaku wouldn't have even had the chance to steal his body because after all this, he realized that you could just delete him out of existence. On a whim. That was how great your power was and you weren't even a jujutsu sorcerer.
You were so unassuming and "normal" on the outside that he would have deemed you a monkey. He would've deemed you a scum of the earth... if he had met you before you met him in that fateful day in your shop. And he would've been so stupid because of that because even without cursed energy, you possessed and mastered something that the Multiverse itself was in danger from.
Chaos Magic.
Yeah. It dawned onto Geto that he would have been really doomed.
And despite all of Masters you sent to their deaths, you looked remorseless. Your eyes lacked the soul and warmth and shine that the jujutsu sorcerers adored. Instead, you were a mindless killing machine with only one mission in mind: to make your children yours again.
"Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful," Sukuna nearly purred and groaned as you mindlessly magicked away the blood splatters on your face. "Fit to be my queen, to rule the world alongside me..."
The others couldn't look more disturbed at what you had just done. Was this how... bad the Darkhold's influence on you was?
As if nothing had happened, you stepped towards the main entrance of Kamar-Taj, using the witch's eye to locate your target. America Chavez. The jujutsu sorcerers momentarily found themselves with the girl, and with her, they could hear unearthly whispers—in Sokovian—as you taunted her. Scaring her. You knew exactly where she was. And you were going to get her.
Hide-and-seek was over. It was time for the chase.
Then your intimidation tactics abruptly stopped as you opened your eyes, and the jujutsu sorcerers were now darting their gaze between you and Strange. You gave them man an unamused look, questioning him silently. Daring him.
"You want the girl, you'll have to go through me," he boldly declared.
You accepted his challenge. "Fine."
What you didn't expect was for you to be lured into a trap. Right as you stepped on a button on the floor, your surroundings morphed into kaleidoscopes and countless distorted reflections of space. The jujutsu sorcerers had also become trapped with you, watching as you stared at the infinite reflections of yourself in the Mirror Dimension.
".... Why is a creepy lullaby playing in the background?" Yuuji frowned. "Horror vibes."
"Yo, this is... well, this is reminding me of my time in the Prison Realm," Gojo gasped out. "But this is pretty spacious, isn't it? Prison Realm's pretty cramped."
All of a sudden, gigantic glass spikes shot out from around you, making you raise your arms to instinctively cover your body. Around them, too, but it was nowhere near the size of the shards trapping you.
"Shit, that scared me," Gojo exhaled, a hand over his rapidly beating heart. "And I stand corrected. It's very cramped in here now."
"And sharp," Geto added. "Watch out."
"Ya know, I'm kinda torn between rooting for Strange or Y/N," Toji commented, crossing his arms as he exaimined the glass. "Maybe I'm biased."
"All of us are," Choso pointed out. "It's Y/N, after all. And mind you, a lot of us aren't blameless either." By that, he was referring to himself, Toji, Geto, and Sukuna, specifically. "Technically, aren't we all killers here?"
"... He's got a point," Nanami replied coolly. "None of us are blameless." With that, it was silent amongst them, with only your slightly labored breathing to be heard as you tried to figure out how to get out.
You attempted to break free by firing a bolt of energy at the glass, only for it to continuously ricochet and nearly hit you. Changing your strategy, they watched as you stared at the broken reflection of your face and reached in-between.
Escaping just needed a bit of creativity and imagination.
And, of course, magic.
The scene cut to Strange trying to teleport America with a Sling Ring, only for it to break off and vanish into thin air. The jujutsu sorcerers flinched as they felt an unseen malevolent presence appear in the room, slamming doors shut like a vengeful spirit out for blood. Then suddenly, the guards protecting America were dragged down into puddles of water by a pair of very familiar arms.
"... The fuck?" Toji blinked, baffled.
"Reflections," Strange deduced, warning Wong and Chavez. "She's using the reflections! Cover them!"
The trio proceeded to grab blankets and cloths from around them, quickly covering puddles that remained from an earlier rain last night.
"Makes sense," Geto murmured, deep in thought. "Like in our world, reflections... or mirrors... can be portals to other dimensions. To domains."
They watched as America was about to cover another tiny puddle of water, but as she stared at it too long, an eye appeared.
"Ahhhhhhh!" America and Yuuji screamed at the same time.
Then, a bent arm with crooked, broken fingers suddenly shot out from behind her, like a zombie who had risen from the dead and from its rotten grave underground. This time, it wasn't only America and Yuuji who had screamed (or at the very least, yelped).
You emerged from the golden gong like something out of The Ring, indisputably twisted and deformed, skin split open in multiple places, limbs and neck snapped the wrong directions, and crawling on-fours and on your back as your disfigured bones popped back into place through the Chaos Magic running through your veins like blood.
It was at that very moment that the several jujutsu sorcerers present realized that the Scarlet Witch was a thousand times more terrorizing than any cursed spirit that they would ever face in their lifetime.
"Oh my God!" Yuuji exclaimed. "Ohhhhhhh my God!"
"The fuck is that?" Sukuna and Toji chorused out, watching your body be literally put back together again hideously.
"... I think... I think I'm gonna be sick," a pale, severely-disturbed Megumi unwillingly blurted out as he retched.
"That is... I have no words," Gojo stuttered. Was he disgusted at seeing the insides of your body all jagged up from breaking the shards of the Mirror Dimension? Was he terrified at seeing you come out of the gong like you were that girl from The Grudge? Was he shocked at seeing you reassemble your entire body so repulsively? Yes, yes, and yes. All of them were.
"Never really liked Pennywise anyway," Geto mumbled. He would definitely not be able to erase that image from his head. And he's seen his fair share of revolting curses. "What the actual fuck did Y/N just do to herself?"
"Well shit," Toji was unable to remove his eyes from you as you regenerated. He didn't exactly know what to feel.
The rest were too stunned to speak.
"You gave all those lives just to keep my from my children," you mocked Dr. Strange, walking towards him and his allies like you didn't just break all the bones in your body and fix it. You would've preferred to emerge out of one of the puddles so that you wouldn't come out so distorted, but they'd covered them all or weren't big enough for you to get out. So, the gong was the only option you had—even with how imperfect its reflection was.
"You took those lives!" Stephen yelled back, protectively putting America behind him. "You cannot be allowed to cross into the Multiverse."
"I'm not a monster, Stephen," you defended yourself.
"... Uh, wouldn't be so sure about that," Gojo scratched his head at your remark.
"I'm a mother," you added, stopping a few meters in front of America, Wong, and Stephen.
"Wanda, you have no children!" Strange argued, frustrated by your useless quest for your kids. "They don't exist!"
"Oh, but they do. In every other universe," you enunciated firmly. "I know they do. Because I dream of them. Every. Night." With that, you made a series of hypnotizing hand motions that summoned the Darkhold in front of you. From the Book of the Damned emerged a red mist of your Chaos Magic, and it showed everyone the multiple universes—countless—all containing you and your happy, peaceful family. "I dream of my boys," you whispered, eyes glazing with tears as you watched them grow up with you. "Of our... life together."
The jujutsu sorcerers gazed sadly, suddenly feeling sorry for you as they saw all the other universes that had you and your loved ones as a complete family. The highlights of the alternate universes were mostly Billy and Tommy.
In one universe, they saw you holding the newborn twins in your arms, singing softly a Sokovian lullaby as you rocked them to sleep. In another universe, they saw you clapping happily as you taught the twins how to walk, with them taking their wobbly first steps towards you. There was even another universe where you were simply helping the preschool-aged kids do some arts-and-crafts activities. There was one when they were in the last age they remembered, still kids, almost teens, but you three were running in the field and playing catch with them. In another, you were with the older, teenaged twins as they embraced you, telling you they loved you.
It felt like watching WandaVision all over again, but this time, a version of if it had kept playing until you and Vision grew old with Billy and Tommy. They also noted that in these alternate universes, sometimes Vision was there, sometimes other men were the twins' father, or you were a single mom. Either way, the you of every other universe was far more content and happy with her life. None of them had hurt and experienced so much pain that they were forged into the Scarlet Witch.
None of them. Only you. And God, wasn't that unfair?
"Mom..." Yuuji whispered, seeing tears form in your eyes. "So, all the other variants of her except... her... are happy?"
"Fate really is cruel, huh?" Geto remarked with a tone of pity for you. He frowned.
"If we were in her place, wouldn't we go crazy, too?" Toji muttered. He knew he would go crazy if he found out that in all the infinite universes, it was only in his universe that his life sucked before his first wife saved him and made him truly happy. What if... in other lives, he got to grow old with the love of his life?
Choso silently agreed. What if it was only in his universe that his brothers met their end? That he wouldn't be able to be with them? He'd be pissed, too. But that was a what-if he would never be able to answer.
Nanami was thinking how it would be if he found out that it was only himself that lost Haibara. What if all the other Nanami in other universes had a different destiny? What if Haibara survived? What if... what if...
"Every night, the same dream," you breathed. Then, right as you shut the Darkhold, a single tear dropped down you cheek. It was dark again, with no glowing red magic to illuminate the room. "And every morning, the same... nightmare."
America's eyes showed sympathy; she knew what it felt like to yearn for her family. Her mothers, specifically. Even Strange felt pity for you after seeing what you had just shown him. It truly was unfair. And he felt like he needed to apologize for you for his insensitive comment about you having no children because, it turns out, you did. Just not in this universe. But that didn't change the massacre you had just committed minutes ago. "... What if you reach them? What happens to the other you? What happens to their mother?" he asked, an ominous feeling in his gut for your answer.
Your expression darkened. Slowly, a miniscule yet sinister smirk curved your lip up, only implying one thing. Immediately, they knew your answer through your silence.
The next few minutes were but a blur, with a short-lived fight between you and Wong. The jujutsu sorcerers watched, once more in horror, as you restricted America and began siphoning her powers from her. In her fear, portals to the Multiverse were involuntarily opened.
Strange, in an attempt to save Chavez, flew towards her. You shot a single blast at him to deter him, however, something else happened.
He aimed wrong, still dragging America with him, but this time, into the multiple portals across the Multiverse.
And this time, the jujutsu sorcerers had been dragged along with them.
"Ooooohhhhh, shiiiiii—" Gojo's, Toji's, Geto's, and Yuuji's voices echoed as they got the full experience of travelling the Multiverse. From Kamar-Taj, they were literally flying into worlds with the Living Tribunal, outer space, an icy planet, quantum particles, an underwater space, a world where Stark Technology was prominent, hell itself, a jungle full of dinosaurs, a planet ruled by bees, a place where everything was cartoons and comics, another dimension where they were literally turned into blocks, then another were they became splashes of color, then a world where HYDRA succeeded, and a whole lot more they couldn't process in a blink of an eye because suddenly, they were on a rooftop in a random universe where a lot of things seemed more advanced in New York.
While Strange and Chavez conversed, the others were not too happy.
"Holy. Fucking. Shit." Geto held his aching, spinning head. The others also landed face first into the floor.
"We just travelled the Multiverse," Gojo gawked, then pointed to himself in realization, bewildered and shaken to the core. "I just travelled the Multiverse. Oh God, that felt like being in my own Infinite Void but worse somehow. Much worse."
"Ow," Choso groaned, rubbing the bump on his head (he had been protecting Yuuji's head, in turn, preventing him from holding his own head from the impact).
A grimacing Toji had done the same for Megumi's head, but his son was already in a corner puking his guts out in whatever pail he could find, just like Strange who was also retching from the motion sickness. Nanami, whose glasses were still miraculously on his face, was patting Megumi's back. Still, Kento himself seemed as if he was in a daze after the entire ordeal.
Yuuji was laid flat on the ground, eyes staring into the sky tiredly. "... I wanna go home really bad," he mumbled, dizzy from Multiverse hopping. "I want Mom back. The nice one. The one that gives me rice bowls and dessert out of nowhere and hugs me. I don't wanna be in her past. I just want the present... her. I don't care. I just want my mom."
"Me, too, kiddo," Satoru pulled him up, frowning. "Oi! Megumi-chan! You good? We gotta follow the girl and Strange!"
Nanami offered Megumi a yellow-and-black-dotted handkerchief from his pocket, which the spiky-haired boy gratefully accepted to wipe his mouth. "Y-Yeah. I'm good. I think. Blegh," he cringed at the taste of acid and vomit in his mouth.
The jujutsu sorcerers tagged along with Strange and America as they searched for the variant of Dr. Strange who guarded this universe's New York Sanctum, stopping by for some stolen pizza balls, crossing the road on a red light (also weird for the jujutsu sorcerers), and stumbling upon a Memory Lane free trial—which felt really meta with how they were practically experiencing your Memory Lane—only for all of them to stop in front of a huge statue made in memory of that universe's Dr. Strange. America asked the question they all had in their heads.
"If other you's dead, who's master of the Sanctum?"
With the way things were going, it appeared that the Karl Mordo of this universe was about to fight them, only for him to introduce himself and laugh, hugging Strange. "My brother! Come in! And tell me about your universe!"
Stunned, Strange awkwardly laughed, ushering America to follow the man into the Sanctum. After some quick pleasantries, Strange got straight to the point, mentioning you as they discussed current events through tea. Instantly, the jujutsu sorcerers' ears perked up.
"Our Wanda has the ability to conjure demons and monsters to attack America in other universes," Strange warned Mordo.
"So she has the Darkhold?" Mordo inquired, slightly leaning towards Stephen in question.
"You know of the Darkhold?" Strange asked.
"Oh yes. We have a Darkhold in this universe, too. I guard it here in this Sanctum," Mordo disclosed. "We would never risk a weapon that dangerous falling into the wrong hands."
"Damn right," Strange muttered.
"But if your Darkhold is anything like ours, I'm afraid she can do far worse than just summon monsters to come after you here," Mordo advised.
"Far worse? Hasn't she done the worst already in Kamar-Taj?" Nanami wondered out loud, the chilling memory of you crawling out of that gong sending shivers down his spine, like insects crawling on his skin. It was... extremely... disturbing.
"Who knows? If Y/N did some IT and The Grudge kind of shit, maybe she's gonna go The Exorcist this time. Or The Conjuring," Toji huffed out. "Maybe even Final Destination or something."
Funnily enough, the infamous Sorcerer Killer had no idea how right he was with his offhanded comment.
"What do you mean?" America nervously asked.
"There is a... spell contained within those pages," Mordo revealed in a hushed tone. "Corrosive to the soul. A desecration of reality itself." Whether it was for effect or if it was forbidden to speak about, the multiple candles in the room were suddenly blown out by a wind that came out of nowhere.
"Uh-oh..." Yuuji's eyes darted around. "I've got a bad, bad feeling about this."
"Dreamwalking," Mordo spoke out. "A dreamwalking sorcerer projects their own consciousness from their universe into another, possessing the body of an alternate self."
The jujutsu sorcerers froze at his statement. Gojo spoke out first, pointing at his ear with a befuddled expression, "Wait, wait, did I just hear this guy right? Possessing the body of an alternate self?"
"Dreamwalking...?" Geto quietly repeated to himself in shock. Nanami, who was beside Toji, sighed out.
"Turns out you were pretty accurate with your prediction," the blonde spoke to the ex-assassin, whose eyes were as wide as saucers.
Mordo continued, "They may puppeteer this unholy doppelganger and pursue their enemies from afar."
"That's scary," Yuuji exhaled, running a hand through his pink locks. "So what, Mom's really gonna go even batshit crazier?"
"Sounds like it," Choso answered back, listening intently.
"The possession is not a permanent link between realities. But in the fleeting time they dreamwalk, they can do irreparable damage to the universe they invade," Mordo divulged. "So it may not be a demon you face. It may be the Scarlet Witch."
"Why didn't she do that in the first place?" America asked, confused.
"Because that was her being reasonable," Stephen replied tensely, turning to Mordo as your warnings echoed in his ear. "What do you know about the Book of Vishanti?"
"The Darkhold's antithesis?" Mordo seemed unsurprised and calm. "It can give a sorcerer whatever power they need to vanquish their enemy."
"I need your help to get me to it," Strange requested, only to start feeling queasy. Very, very queasy. His brows furrowed as his vision spun, blurring.
Meanwhile, the jujutsu sorcerers grew bewildered as the scene in front of them began flickering back and forth. Now, they were seeing you restrain Wong with your magic in bits and pieces. Yet, at the same time, they were seeing America and Strange, as well.
"I'm sorry, Stephen." Mordo stood up, walking towards the staggering Strange, "But I hope you, of all people, understand that it is not Wanda Maximoff who threatens our reality. It's the two of you."
"Oh, God," Chavez whispered, losing consciousness.
"What was in that tea?" Strange stumbled, falling to the floor and dropping his teacup. "You son of a—" He tried standing up, but to no avail, seeing the teapot on the floor which glowed green. "The Sands of Nisanti..." he realized. No wonder he was so drowsy.
"What's happening? We didn't even have any of his tea!" Yuuji exclaimed, the scene still flickering between you with an unconscious Wong in Kamar-Taj and Strange with Chavez in the unknown universe.
"Please don't let us be thrown in the Multiverse again," Megumi prayed to whatever gods were there, knowing he might puke again. "Please, please, please."
"I'm only acting as you would," Mordo said, leaving. Strange closed his eyes, whispering one last thing.
"She's coming."
Before they knew it, the flitting scene fully morphed to you in Kamar-Taj, standing in the middle of multiple, brightly-lit candles forming a circle. You were performing some sort of witchy ritual, your hands gracefully executing a series of hand gestures which brought forth the Book of the Damned. Your hands glowed the misty, reddish-black fog of your Chaos Magic. All of them were mesmerized—like they were in a trance—as they observed such a... blaphemous ceremony.
"Hmm. This is quite entertaining," Sukuna finally spoke out once more, chuckling to himself as he watched you cross your legs, floating in mid-air with you eyes closed and your blackened fingers resting on your lap.
"Oh God, she really is a witch," Geto breathed out at the sight.
Countless glowing balls of reddish-black energy materialized behind you, connecting you to the entire Multiverse as you searched your variants one by one, trying to see which matched America's whereabouts. When you finally found it, you projected your soul to your target variant, traversing the Multiverse. The jujutsu sorcerers, too, watched with their very eyes as your soul traveled the neuron-like network of universes. They were transported inside the house—the Vision Residence—of your variant, arriving with a faint, echoing scream in the background. Now, they were right behind your variant, who was cleaning up for the night.
"Boys, it's time for bed," the variant of you reminded her kids as she took away the dishes.
"Can we have a little more ice cream? Please, please, please?" the twins begged. "A little more, please?" Alternate you shook her head.
"Hey, don't make Mom out to be the bad guy," other you gently chastised, making them pout.
"Awww, okay, Mom." Thankfully, Billy and Tommy were easily distracted by a game, allowing you to clean up in peace.
Or so you thought.
Alternate you stopped in her tracks around the same time the jujutsu sorcerers' heads snapped towards the empty staircase in her residence. It felt like somebody was watching them. Her. As jujutsu sorcerers and trained killers, they knew better than to underestimate the invisible.
"... Y/N is here, isn't she?" Nanami murmured, eyes trained on the staircase. Nothing appeared to there, but the air... it was unsettling. Like a silent monster hiding under the bed. Or in the closet.
"Even without my Six Eyes, she is seriously giving off crazy cursed spirit behavior," Gojo muttered with a shiver, then turned to one of the men with him. "No offense, Choso."
The cursed spirit just blinked at him, then shrugged wordlessly, as if telling the other man, "None taken."
They observed as alternate you mulled over the sudden, nerve-wracking atmosphere. She knew something was wrong. There was an unseen, foreboding presence with her. She hasn't used her powers in a while, yet even then, something primal in her was telling her she was being watched. Deciding not to think much of it—perhaps it was just an owl outside—she hesitantly stepped towards the kitchen.
As she did it, the sound of crickets outside faded away. The warm lights in the room started flickering strangely.
On. Off. On. Off.
She took a glance at her kids, who seemed to be unaware of what was happening. Dread filled her entire being. Was she going insane? Was she seeing things? As she headed to the sink, the lampshade installed above the dining table began swinging wildly by itself as it kept flickering on and off, its creaks and screeches amplified like nails on a chalkboard. Its angry flickers were making other you feel quite lightheaded, too.
Creaaaaaaaak!
Behind her, the jujutsu sorcerers were seeing and feeling—experiencing the whole thing—unable to describe what they were going through. What alternate you was going through.
When she turned to the other direction to try and ground herself, she saw herself in her own picture frame move. No, it didn't just move. Its head turned and the smile on its face vanished as it glared directly at her.
"What... the fuck...?" Toji said what everyone was thinking, bewildered.
"I've seen a hella lot of cursed spirits but this is just plain creepy," Gojo muttered, feeling cold.
"Damn right," Geto replied, covering his ears in irritation at the scratching sound of the lampshade creaking. "Ugh. That makes me want to claw my ears out."
Breathe. Breathe.
Alternate you was starting to hyperventilate in panic, a random burst of wind making Billy's and Tommy's bowls fall... sideways? Not vertically to the ground due to normal gravity, but horizontally to the counter, defying the laws of physics. She was hearing haunting, evanescent whispers in Sokovian, too.
All of which she understood fully.
As her vision began to tilt, she ran towards the sink to hold herself—to stabilize herself before she fell. However, her eyes caught movement on one of the dirty plates beside the sink. The peas on Tommy's used plate were rolling around on their own, sounding awfully like hard mables on stone.
Rrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrr.
Her head whipped to the right, hearing... ocean waves? In the unfinished cup of tea, she was seeing... roaring tides crashing against each other? Terror froze the blood in her veins.
Shhhhhhhhh. Shhhhhhhh. Shhhhhh.
Something was very wrong.
When she lifted her head, instead of seeing her normal reflection, she was met with you—her evil, deranged doppelganger. Your glowing, scarlet irises stared daggers into her entire being. Not even giving her another second to react, you entered her body—stealing its place and locking her soul away. She struggled against the invasion of her own body, writhing and screaming, eyes widened and limbs taut, but you were the stronger soul.
You'll take her place from inside her.
The jujutsu sorcerers could only watch in muted horror as the depraved, demonic-like spiritual possession took place. Finishing up the possession, your eyes glowed a brighter red before dimming back to its regular shade. You let out a small breath of relief, subtly wiggling your shoulders—as if testing out your new body. Strangely enough, it felt comfortable. Snug and fit—except for the wails of your alternate self in her own mind.
You'd shut her up soon enough.
Suddenly, your eyes met theirs for the first time, making the spectators watching the whole scene visibly flinch and hold their breaths unconsciously. A tiny smirk appeared on your lips as you turned away.
"Oh?" Sukuna, as a mouth on his vessel's face, sounded out in interest. He was the only one finding a sick sense of enjoyment in all of this.
"Did... Did she just... see us?" Yuuji cowered in fear, hiding behind Nanami and Choso. The other men couldn't answer him, also stunned.
"This... is very different... from her interview from that one Modern Family-themed WandaVision episode..." Gojo swallowed, traumatized at you breaking the fourth wall of whatever spell or illusion they were thrown into.
They may exorcise cursed spirits for a living, but the Scarlet Witch introduced to them a sense of dread that was unmatched. You were the stuff nightmares were made out of.
"Mom?"
You halted in your steps, hearing the two voices you've longed to hear for so long. But now was not the time. You couldn't face them now, could you? You had to look for America first. Still, your heart couldn't resist. "... Yes, sweetheart?" you shakily replied, unable to keep the emotion out of your voice. Suddenly, the fear in the jujutsu sorcerers' hearts turned into pity. In this moment, they suddenly wanted to give their condolences to you, now fully knowing how much you'd lost.
You were going to meet your children once again.
"Where are you going?"
Your heart clenched. "Just... to take out the trash," you lied, stammering. However, as they rushed and urge you to come to them, saying they'd show you something. You slowly turned on your heels as the boys asked you to hurry up, your eyes welling with tears as you finally saw them again.
Billy and Tommy.
Your twins. Your babies. The two beings whom you loved more than life itself aside from your late husband. The very beings which were perfectly half you and half the love of your life.
The began arguing on who would start, only for you to cut in, voice trembling with emotion, "Why... don't you both... start... it... whatever it is... together?"
"Okay!" your kids chirped, counting down.
"I wonder what they're gonna do," Yuuji asked, only to sweatdrop at what happened next.
"We like ice cream, like every child should!" the twins sang, off-key. You didn't mind (but some of the jujutsu sorcerers did). "And if you give us ice cream, we promise to be good!"
"Ugh," Sukuna and Toji groaned simultaneously in irritation.
"Definitely not singers," Gojo snorted, trying to push the horrifying memory of you possessing your alternate self into the back of his mind, only for Geto to elbow him.
"I think it's cute, so don't be rude," his best friend chided, his soft dad side coming out. "Mimiko and Nanako did something similar when they wanted candy."
"... Mom's crying," Yuuji suddenly pointed out sadly. Tears were flowing down your cheeks as you cupped the twins' faces gently, like you were touching them as newborns again.
Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to stay here with them. Just for a little while. You'd give them ice cream and talk with them. Yeah. That seemed like a good plan. Everything else could wait.
Then, the scene changed once more as they were brought back to the original universe you were in, where your original body was floating in the middle of the circle of candles. They saw Wong's limbs restrained by your magic. However, one of the survivors, Sara, came up to him.
"You're alive," Wong breathed out. Sara nodded solemnly.
"Yes. But so many others were lost," Sara murmured regretfully. Wong then turned to your dreamwalking, vulnerable form.
"Set me free. I need to destroy the book," he stated, only for the woman beside him to shake her head, placing a reassuring hand on his cheek.
"No. It cannot be you." With that, Sara took out a dagger from her robes, tackling the Darkhold and stabbing it.
"Sara! No!" Wong cried out.
The jujutsu sorcerers watched, for the nth time, in horror as destroying the Darkhold burned Sara into ash, a sole tear the only evidence of her life. From the other universe, the scene before them flickered once more, between your possessed alternate self and your dreamwalking state. With the Darkhold destroyed, the connection severed and the spell reversed.
Flicker.
You roughly fell to the floor, dropping the porcelain plates and utensils you were going to use for Billy's and Tommy's ice cream. At the same time, they saw your once-dreamwalking body get blasted down to the ground in your original universe.
Flicker.
Hearing the crash from the kitchen, the twins came running to you. "Mom!"
Flicker.
"What happened!?"
Flicker.
Still, they saw you frantically get up, kneeling in front of the twins, flickering from one universe to another and attempting to sustain the possession... trying to stay with your boys.
Flicker. Flicker.
"Are you okay!?" they asked worriedly, helping you get up.
Flicker... Flicker... Flicker... Nothing.
"Billy... Tommy..." you panted, their concerned faces disappearing from your field of vision as you unwillingly returned back to your original universe.
"Y/N..." the sorcerers murmured, again sympathetic of your situation, no matter how twisted and fucked up it was. In a frenzy, you scampered towards the remains of the Darkhold, whimpering at its sorry state.
"No, no, no, no," you whispered miserably, holding the book up. It was gone. Dismayed, your lips wobbled as you became hopeless. The jujutsu sorcerers thought that this would be it. Your corruption would stop. The ink on your fingers grew fainter already, only tinges and traces of it left.
Suddenly, you glowered darkly.
And they stilled in fear once again as you slowly swivelled around to Wong. Before they could react, you had already thrown him to the ruins of Kamar-Taj, striding menacingly towards him.
"I need the Darkhold's spells," you demanded impatiently, playing no games and getting straight to the point. "You are the Sorcerer Supreme. Tell me what you know!"
"You'll have to kill me first, witch," Wong spat out spitefully.
Your eyes narrowed as his defiance, something Sukuna was very much liking. He chuckled once more before Yuuji slapped a hand over him again. The others were watching the scene anxiously, not knowing what you'd do next (because honestly, you were being unbelievably unpredictable in this obsessed state of yours). "Not you," you spoke out, raising one hand. "Them."
From behind Wong, four survivors were swept into the air, your Chaos Magic physically tormenting them and twisting their bodies painfully. Even their cries and wails of pain weren't enough to deter you. You would get what you want. No matter what it takes. You didn't care.
"Wanda, stop!" Wong pleaded, unable to see his students tortured. You didn't stop, cracking and popping your fingers even more to strengthen the pain they were feeling. "Wanda, please!"
"Goddamn, she's crueler here than with Kenjaku," Toji stated. He wouldn't be messing with you anytime soon after this. Not that he would. Ever.
"The Darkhold's clouded her reason so much," Nanami frowned. This wasn't you. You were taking out your pain and rage on these innocent wizards.
"... The Darkhold was a copy!" Wong relented. Instantly, with a wave of your hand, the torture and screams stopped.
"A copy?"
"Legend speaks of a mountain with the wretched spells you seek carved into its walls," Wong shut his eyes. He shouldn't he telling you this, but he had to. The guilt of so many lives lost were already weighing down on him. "It's there the Darkhold was transcribed. Mount Wundagore."
You paused. It was a vaguely familiar place to you. It was near Sokovia, and briefly, you could remember old folktales and legends there from your childhood. "Mount Wundagore?" you repeated to confirm.
"No one has survived the journey," Wong disclosed as you set the four survivors down—astonishingly, in a gentler manner—to the ground. But, from one of the corpses, you used your magic to throw an extra Sling Ring to Wong.
Mount Wundagore was your next destination.
"Perhaps we will be the exception," you stated darkly, accent thicker as you set your goal to the mountain.
Suddenly, the jujutsu sorcerers were teleported to where Strange and America were contained in an advanced research facility. They met 838-Christine... who consequently told Strange that he was 616-Strange... which led to them to wonder.
"What number is our universe?" Choso questioned out loud.
"I wonder that, too..." Yuuji eeplied, scratching his head. "All this Multiverse stuff is making my head hurt."
"Someone from my universe wants that girl," Strange warned 838-Christine, who refused to let him and America go. "And she's going to rip this place apart atom-by-atom until she gets what she wants."
"... That's one way to describe Y/N," Toji shrugged, turning to Yuuji... or the curse inside him. "She did beat ya up in your domain that time ya ripped Itadori's heart, didn't ya?"
"Tch!" Sukuna snarled, but didn't deny it. The other sorcerers and Yuuji himself were surprised, not knowing about the event.
"She beat Sukuna up in his domain?" Gojo questioned, hearing the juicy gossip. "Heeeey, when did that happen?"
"Sometime after ya told her that Sukuna ripped this kid's heart before he got resurrected," Toji shared, smirking at the memory, glancing at Geto and Choso. "Ya two weren't there yet, so it was just the two of us. But I'll tell ya what, seeing an old woman in a dark room with glowing red eyes and floating knives is something ya wouldn't wanna see. No wonder she came back in a good mood after beating the shit outta ya."
"She did not beat shit outta me, bastard!" Sukuna protested, growling. He refused to be humiliated by a man who didn't even use jujutsu!
Funnily enough, after everything that's happened, they could vividly imagine what Toji was describing.
They heard Strange continue talking, "So I don't care if you're from the Avengers or SHIELD—"
"We're neither," a voice interrupted from behind Christine. It was 838-Mordo, with...
"Are those a bunch of Ultron bots behind him?" Nanami recognized. "Like those Stark created when we saw the younger Y/N and Pietro."
"Seems like it," Megumi agreed.
"Well, what then? HYDRA?" Strange shouted. That was a word the jujutsu sorcerers hadn't heard since what? Civil War? WandaVision? They were getting really familiar with the history of your universe... or Earth-616, specifically.
"The Illuminati will see you now," Mordo announced.
"The Illumi-what-y?" Strange (and hilariously, Gojo and Yuuji) said out loud in confusion.
Before more explanations could be made, they were suddenly on top of a freezing, snowy mountain. Unfortunately for them, despite the upcoming snowstorm—actually, beknownst to them, ongoing snowstorm—in their world, they had removed their jackets, coats, scarves, and layers back in your home. Now, they were left helpless to the powers of nature, the icyness nipping at their skin.
"W-W-W-Where a-are w-we?" Yuuji chattered, hands by his shoulders. The other sorcerers were chattering, too, in the middle of the frosty temperature.
"I-I-I t-t-think this i-is M-Mount W-Wundag-gore?" Gojo replied, unsure and shaking. "F-Fuck, i-it's f-f-freezing o-out h-h-here!"
"W-W-We r-r-really sh-shouldn't h-have re-removed o-o-o-our c-c-c-coats," Geto sputtered, visible puffs of air coming from his mouth. No matter what they did, the strong winds were throwing snow in their faces.
That was when a golden-orange portal appeared before them, with you and Wong emerging from it, trekking the mountain shortly. When you arrived, you squinted, spotting a structure hidden by the fog up ahead. God, it was cold.
"You couldn't portal us up there!?" you exclaimed, skin flushing from how frosty it was. Still, the jujutsu sorcerers were surprised by the fact that your teeth weren't chattering like theirs.
"My magic can only take us so far," Wong huffed. "Masters of the Mystic Arts weren't meant to tread upon the forbidden grounds of Wundagore." You had no idea if he was just stalling or telling the truth, but you made up your mind. With a determined gaze, you used your magic to fly to the entrance of ruined castle, dragging Wong (and the jujutsu sorcerers) behind you.
"Aaaaaaand, we're flying again," Megumi muttered to himself, not looking at the steep height below them.
"Weeeee!" Gojo exclaimed. Damn. He really missed flying with his powers, too.
"That's one huge-ass castle," Toji commented as they flew closer to the decrepit stronghold.
"Seriously giving me Coppola's Dracula vibes," Geto remarked, staring up at the impressively foreboding Darkhold Castle.
You landed on the entrance of the former fortress, examining the many broken stone pillars and dust and snow that had accumulated.
"Eons ago, the first demon, Chthon, carved his Dark Magic into this tomb," Wong explained, swallowing nervously. You (and the jujutsu sorcerers) stared at the Satanic inscriptions glowing red on the walls—very similar to your Chaos Magic, which you were currently using as an alternative torch.
Crack!
You lightly gasped in surprise. Their heads quickly snapped behind them, seeing some rocks fall down from above. Nothing was there. False alarm. You all continued to roam the area as Wong spoke.
"There's no telling what soulless monstrosities lie within." He was looking up at a dark, hooded skeleton which had its arms and talons crossed like a mummy. Using your magic, you lit up four large cauldrons, which surrounded what appeared to be a...
"Is that... a sacrificial altar?" Geto asked out loud. "Whoa. Damn." Even his former cult didn't have anything as nefarious as that.
All of a sudden, roars resounded from behind them. From the shadows emerged monstrous, red-eyed, demonic creatures, the Knights of Wundagore. Prepared to defend yourselves, you flew on top of the altar for battle whereas Wong's Eldritch magic circles appeared on his hands.
"The fuck are those things?" Toji asked.
"No idea," the others chorused.
That was when each of the knights formed their claws into fists, resting it on their chests as they respectfully knelt down before you—pledging their allegiance to the prophesized Scarlet Witch.
"They've been waiting for me," you exhaled out, stunned.
"Look," Nanami pointed behind you in awe. The jujustu sorcerers turned around. At the same time, you did, too. And you came to a startling realization.
The chapter devoted to you in the Darkhold was real. The prophecy of the Scarlet Witch. There was a magnificent statue... of you. Old and ancient, but true. Made by worshippers of the Elder God, Chthon.
"This isn't a tomb," you concluded, chin raised higher this time at the demons kneeling in front of you. "It's a throne."
"... A throne?" Sukuna intoned, mind clouded with hunger and passion. Second by second, he was getting even antsier to meet you again. To claim you as his. For you to become his Queen. After a thousand years, he's finally found someone worthy enough to become his partner.
You.
But he knew he had competition. The five other men with him, although he saw them as insignificant sow, held affections for you as well. Gojo Satoru. Nanami Kento. Fushiguro Toji. Geto Suguru. Kamo Choso.
Ryomen Sukuna was eager to win among all of them.
The scene changed from the Darkhold Castle back to where Strange was. He was being escorted by Ultron sentient bots to in front of what looked to be a council.
838-Mordo decreed, "Stephen Strange. You are now called before the Illuminati. I, Baron Karl Mordo, the Sorcerer Supreme, do hereby—"
"Wait, wait. Karl?" Stephen laughed at his enemy, only for a vibranium shield to be thrown beside him. It boomeranged back to a woman. A very, very familiar looking woman. Peggy Carter?
"Isn't that Cap's ex?" Gojo whispered to the others. "Why's she Captain America?"
"She did sound pretty badass when Cap talked about her with Mom back then," Yuuji said, remembering the events right after the Lagos Incident.
"Captain Carter. The First Avenger," Mordo introduced.
"Blackagar Boltagon. Keeper of the Terrigen Mists. The Inhuman King."
"Blackagar Boltagard?" Strange repeated as a jab. "Hidigy hidithere!"
"Pshh. What is this, Game of Thrones?" Geto snickered. Even he found it amusing.
"Captain Marvel. Defender of the Cosmos." Instead of it being Carol Danvers, it was Maria Rambeau, Monica's mother.
"And the smartest man alive, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four," Mordo finished.
"Fantastic Four?" Strange was incredulous. "Didn't you guys chart in the sixties?"
"... Wasn't that the Beatles?" Megumi thought to himself.
"I'm sorry, is this a joke to you?" Maria asked, insulted.
"Well, there's a guy over there with a fork on his head," Strange pointedly looked at Black Bolt. "So, yeah, a little bit." Said man raised a finger over his lips, signalling Stephen to basically zip his mouth.
"Be grateful Black Bolt doesn't engage you in conversation," Peggy advised.
"Why, does he have bad breath?" Strange taunted.
"Huh. Sounds like something you and I would say," Gojo turned to Geto, who was impressed with Strange.
"Definitely. How... strange," Geto replied, making himself and Gojo laugh at their own jokes.
"You two are corny as hell," Toji shook his head. But he wouldn't lie. If he were in Strange's position, he'd say the same things, too. Heck, he used to do that with the Zenin Clan elders when he was younger.
They all listened as Reed explained to Strange the dangers of him in the Multiverse, telling him what incursions were and what their consequences were. Strange, however, had another priority.
"If it's incursions you're worried about, do you seriously think I'm a bigger threat than the Scarlet Witch?!" Strange asked quizzically, trying to convince them of the threat you posed.
"Oh, we can handle your little witch if she decides to dreamwalk," Maria arrogantly countered.
Gojo clicked his tongue disapprovingly, "Wouldn't be so sure about that, Captain Marvel."
"No. No, you cannot," Strange responded. "Not unless you give me the Book of Vishanti."
However, the members of the Illuminati disclosed that it wasn't the Scarlet Witch who was the greatest threat to their reality—or so they thought. That was when a man in a fancy wheelchair entered the room.
"Our final member. Professor Charles Xavier. One of the greatest telepaths alive."
Then, they were in the Darkhold Castle again. You were looking at a statue of a boy, touching it nostalgically. Somehow, it looked like one of your boys. Billy. But older.
"All these scene changes are seriously making me nauseous," Megumi quietly complained. He still hadn't recovered from being thrown across the Multiverse.
"You're wondering what happens now," you addressed Wong.
"No. That, I've already accepted," the Sorcerer Supreme replied. "But I do wonder, when you could force America to send you to any universe you want, why take her power for your own? You know it will kill her."
"For Billy and Tommy. To protect them," you instantly answered, as if it were that simple. You walked towards them. "In the infinite Multiverse, there's a cure for every illness. A solution to every problem," you justified. "I won't lose them again."
"The Darkhold's really clouded her reason," Nanami sighed. "There's no turning back."
"Why's Mom so... good in our world, then?" Yuuji inquired, not understanding.
"I don't know. But more things will happen for sure," Kento replied.
"Try as you might, Wanda, you cannot control everything!" Wong stated. Despite what you've done, perhaps there was a way for you to still see reason. To realize what you were doing was wrong.
"But I can!" you shot back, gesturing to the castle. "Look around you! It's carved. In stone. I was meant to rule everything." You eyed the grandiose statue that imitated your likeness. You were praised and adored even before you were born into this world.
"... Rule everything, huh?" Geto mumbled. "Interesting, indeed." He recalled wanting to do that once by eliminating all the monke—non-sorcerers.
"We can rule everything together," Sukuna cut in. Everyone else rolled their eyes.
"Not gonna happen, sicko," Gojo answered back, making the King of Curses scoff at him.
You shook your head dejectedly, "But that's not what I want. I just want my boys."
"At the cost of a child's life!?" Wong argued, voice raising. "Is there no peace in knowing that even though you can't be with the ones you love, there are worlds where you are together?!"
His remark hit the jujutsu sorcerers right on the nail. After all, in their field, they'd lost so many. But it was comforting to think that maybe in another universe, they were alive and well. You, however, grew enraged at his remark.
"Is that not enough!?" he shouted.
You lifted your hand and raised him in the air, whispering angrily, "No." You then proceeded to throw him off the castle without a second thought, startling the sorcerers.
You were gonna do it your way.
"Oh shit," Toji, Geto, and Gojo cussed.
"She threw him off," Choso gawped.
The next thing they knew, you were repeating the dreamwalking ritual once more and commencing the spell. This time, you had four loyal Knights of Wundagore to stand guard around you should something happen.
Now they were back in Earth-838's Vision Residence. They watched in terror as you possessed you other self again. You kissed your sleeping twins' foreheads and this time, you wasted no time, using your powers to fly off to where America Chavez was.
Meanwhile, Strange and the Illuminati were still speaking. Xavier showed Strange, and consequently the jujutsu sorcerers with them, a memory of 838-Strange's fate. They were on planet Titan, Thanos's home planet and where the original battle also took place in Universe-616. However, this time, a dead Thanos was in the corner, his own sword through his chest. Kneeling before the Illuminati was a repetant 838-Strange, his fingers stained black with the repeated use of the Darkhold.
"I shall miss you, my friend," Xavier bid him goodbye goodheartedly.
838-Strange nodded, forlorn yet ultimately accepting his fate. "... I'm ready."
It was how he died that surprised the jujutsu sorcerers.
A regretful-looking Black Bolt stepped forward, saying two words which eliminated Strange on the spot, "... I'm sorry." It echoed and echoed until the man was gone.
"Cursed Speech?" Megumi said out loud, stunned. "Like Inumaki-senpai?"
Gojo had already removed his blindfold, studying closely how 838-Strange had just... disintegrated. He shook his head at Megumi's comment, "It's similar to Toge-kun's ability, but also very different. Both are extremely powerful in their own rights, but Toge-kun's Cursed Speech... it also relies on the ability to command. This guy?" He pointed a thumb at Black Bolt. "This guy's voice is just plain destruction no matter what he says, it seems."
"Yeah. Even making a sound or grunting looks dangerous," Geto scrutinized, his eyes squinting.
"Thankfully, Inumaki-senpai can still speak in sushi ingredients, at least," Yuuji realized.
That was when multiple alarms began blaring outside. Loudly.
"The building's been breached," Reed stated the obvious, making Strange roll his eyes. All this useless talk made them lose precious time.
Now? You were coming.
"No shit, genius," the former neurosurgeon replied snarkily.
"Uh-oh," Yuuji felt shivers creep up his spine. "Mom... she must be here already."
"Status report on sentries!" Peggy ordered. Before them, several holograms displayed security footage at multiple angles of you, in your other self's body, breaking into the secure headquarters—practically multitasking with how many Ultron bots you were fighting and destroying in all directions. Oil covered you from head to toe, looking an awful lot like blood at first sight. The fact that it was only oil splattered across your face and clothes didn't make you any less terrifying.
"Stop where you are! Stop where you—"
Crash!
The Ultron bot was smashed.
"That is... wow," Gojo blinked, blindfold permanently removed and hanging on his neck now. He was gonna enjoy the feeling of not having oversensitive eyes since he didn't have his powers in this... memory realm of yours. "That is absolutely fucking terrifying and giving me Carrie vibes."
"Uh-huh. She's got Dracula, The Grudge, The Possession, and Carrie crossed off her list," Toji snorted, muscular arms crossed against his built chest. "Up next is what, Final Destination? The Conjuring? Evil Dead? I bet ya five thousand yen it's one of those and that a whole buncha' people are gonna die."
"... I bet you fifteen thousand yen it's all of those." It was Nanami, surprisingly, who made the remark. Everyone stared at the blonde ex-salaryman in shock. A huge grin appeared on the Sorcerer Killer's lips.
"Heh," Toji smirked. "Deal."
Gambling was always one of his vices no matter how unlucky he was.
Again, the jujutsu sorcerers got a good look at how well you actually incorporated physical combat with your magic. Hell, you even destroyed multiple bots in one go. Their last sight of you on footage was you with your arm outstretched with psionics, staring warningly into the eyes of an Ultron bot before crushing its head—losing all contact and sight of you once it did. The fact that they were Ultron bots, of all people, made you even more bitter. You only had terrible memories associated with the name. Terrible, terrible memories.
Perhaps it was why you were so vicious in tearing them apart.
Which was, ironically, what Ultron himself said that you would do to the Avengers of Earth-616. Look who's talking now.
"She's heading for the child," Maria said.
"Watch him. We'll vote on our return," Carter declared, she and the others immediately running out of the council room to give you a greeting. Only Mordo and Xavier were left with an exasperated Strange. He knew the Illuminati would be no match for you. Not without the Book of Vishanti.
"Stephen, should you manage to escape this chamber, you must guide America Chavez," Xavier suddenly declared when his fellow councilmen left. Hearing this, Mordo beside him was stunned.
"What the hell are you saying?"
"Save the girl and get to the Book of Vishanti," Professor X spoke.
"What? You have the book here?" Strange clarified.
"Yes, you built a waypoint," Charles answered kindly.
"Charles, we cannot trust him!" he exclaimed.
"I believe we can," Xavier smiled. Strange appreciated it. "Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn't mean they're lost forever."
At his statement, Gojo took a glance at the three men who exactly embodied what Professor X was describing.
Fushiguro Toji.
Geto Suguru.
Kamo Choso.
... You.
They didn't know how all this madness of yours was going to end, but they knew that whatever happened, it had consequently rippled down into a domino effect of you saving their lives and saving their world from the Culling Game.
"We will see what kind of Dr. Strange you are," Charles smiled, making Stephen nod appreciatively.
"Thank you."
Now the jujutsu sorcerers were looking at America and 838-Christine. Countless alarms were blaring in their ears, with more Ultron bots racing towards your location as explosions shook the building.
"Perimeter breakdown. All sentries engage. Intruder approaching," the bots repeated.
"Everybody out! Now!" Christine ordered to her colleagues and workers.
"It's Wanda," America realized in terror. You weren't gonna stop until you got her, huh? Immediately, Christine ran over to manually override America's biochamber restrictions. However, you seemed to already sense this, using your psionic energy to disrupt the communication technologies in the entire building.
"Ultron commands you to halt! Ultron commands you to halt!"
In the distance, they saw an Ultron sentry running into the explosion, only for its head to roll down the floor right after. You emerged from between two pillars, pulverizing the head with your powers without even looking at it.
"Shit, that one was personal against Ultron himself," Gojo whistled.
"Wait, has Mom been... barefoot all this time?" Yuuji blinked as you calmly marched your way into where America was.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! She's coming!" America cried out, utterly scared for her life as she slammed her hands on the bulletproof glass. Your face was emotionless—you were here for one thing only and nothing was going to stop you.
Even if these people tried to.
A woman landed in front of you with her jetpack and... vibranium shield? They saw your head tilt slightly in curiosity and slight familiarity. Instead of the typical white star on it, it was the Union Flag on it... and the woman wielding it... she was that woman on Cap's compass... Steve's first love. What was her name again? Ah, yes. Peggy. Peggy Carter.
After her was a man in a black suit and... was that a fork on his head? You didn't have a clue who he was but you were pretty sure he would be a hindrance to your plans.
The next one who flew down from the ground. She was very much like that woman you fought alongside with against Thanos, based on her uniform and powers. Captain Marvel. But... she looked familiar, too. Somehow. She resembled... what was her name? The last woman you spoke to in Westview and helped you... Geraldine. No, Monica. Your briefly wondered who exactly the Captain Marvel in front of you was before pushing the thought to the back of your head.
You didn't care. All you needed were your boys.
The last man was a man dressed in tight, blue and black suit and a number four emblem on his chest. He appeared to be the leader, based on how he was positioned in front of everyone—looking like he was about to negotiate with you. Impatiently, you kept glaring at all of them.
"Wanda, stop," Reed appealed, voice level—calming and nice. "You've possessed an innocent woman but you can still do the right thing. Let her go." He stepped forward slowly, a hand subtly raising up. Suddenly, you felt like a dog or a bull that was to be tamed by its owner. It annoyed you. "Please. I have children of my own. I can understand your pain," he pled, not wishing for a fight.
The jujutsu sorcerers observed you, who seemed to be in deep thought. Your face was blank, void of any emotion that signaled what you were about to do. Then, you spoke words that made the blood freeze in their veins. "Is their mother still alive?" you asked in a hushed, low volume.
"... Yes," Reed replied. He felt that he was finally getting you to reason. That you would stop this madness.
He was wrong.
"Good. There will be someone left to raise them," you added chillingly, the neutral expression on your face making you even scarier.
"... Oh, shit," Suguru cursed, hearing your statement. He briefly wondered if it was him in Reed's place, telling you about his own daughters, then you just brushing off his condolences like that.
Reed sighed, then turned to his teammate. "Wanda. Black Bolt can destroy you with one whisper from his mouth." Right as he said it, the Inhuman King opened his mouth—no sounds, just a warning.
You only stared at him, unfazed. "... What mouth?"
And just like that, it was gone.
Like his mouth had never existed in the first place, only plain skin replacing where it used to be. They didn't even blink once—there were no mind tricks here. His mouth had vanished at your will. They gasped.
"Mmmph!" Panicking, Black Bolt touched his face, trying to feel his mouth—the greatest weapon he's ever possessed. He screamed, only for it to be muffled within him and consequently, explode his brains inside out. His head grotesquely deflated. Blood dripped from his nostrils as he crashed to the floor.
The jujutsu sorcerers who had seen the entire ordeal were frozen to their feet, flabbergasted and frightened. They couldn't understand it. Their brains couldn't even comprehend it.
"Wha—" Gojo's mouth was agape. So were the others. "She just—"
"She... She..." Geto pinched himself. Was he dreaming? No? What?
"... The actual fuck?" Toji cussed in disbelief.
You just made someone's mouth disappear, on a whim, right before their very eyes. Even in the jujutsu world, no one—or not anyone they knew of—could just... do that unless it was an illusion.
This was real. This was your reality-warping in action once again.
Next was Reed, who tried to attack you. But you ripped Mister Fantastic into shreds, using his stretchy abilities against him and tearing him apart until his head ballooned and popped. You didn't even look affected as you killed two of this Earth's so-called mightiest heroes in less than ten seconds. Without breaking so much of a sweat.
"Y/N just turned him into string cheese!" Gojo exclaimed. "What the hell?!"
"... I now wonder if this is even her true potential," Nanami murmured. The other sorcerers looked at him in question.
"What do you mean?" Geto asked.
"Since she's only dreamwalking and she's not in her own body," Kento explained his thought process. "It would make sense if there's some sort of restriction on her. A limitation."
"You mean to say that she's not at her full power yet? After doing all that?" Toji's eyes widened.
"Maybe. Just maybe," Nanami replied, turning back to your fight against the female members of thr Illuminati. "It's just my thoughts."
Your eyes flared red as Captain Marvel and Captain Carter engaged you ina 2v1 battle. One was throwing energy blasts at you while the other was throwing a vibranium shield. Debris and concrete were flying everywhere as you tossed statues at your opponents. However, as a result, dust had flown up into the air around you, obstructing your vision. Peggy used this as a window to tackle you down.
But you had also been trained by two of your world's fighters. Black Widow and Captain America—with your late best friend slash sister being much more ruthless than the latter, practically handing over the training she got from the Red Room to you.
(Perhaps you could be an honorary Black Widow at this point. Hell, technically, you were already a widow after Viz died, weren't you?)
You were able to swiftly roll back from being tackled, glaring at Captain Carter.
"Haven't you had enough?" you grit out to the woman.
"Oh, I could do this all day," Peggy replied confidently, spitting out blood from her mouth. Her reply made you recall the blonde friend you once had. Wherever he was now.
But right now you couldn't care less about them. None of them mattered. Only Billy and Tommy. With that, the jujutsu sorcerers watched you imbue your magic and psionics in your hand-to-hand combat, reminding them of that time you fought Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight. Yet this time, you weren't on the defensive.
This time, you were very much on the offensive.
"... Damn," Toji nodded, impressed as he observed your movements as you threw Captain Carter across the room. You had astounding reflexes and agility. "That was pretty badass."
Whirr!
Captain Carter threw her vibranium shield to you. With your psionics, you easily caught it and prevented its impact, instead swinging it back to her with much more force than she did.
Whirr—
It sliced her cleanly in half, exactly where her midsection was. She could only let out one small gasp of shock, her upper body and lower body falling to the floor—blood and organs spilling out. The light in her eyes instantly dimmed, crimson gurgling from her dead mouth. Her bloody, stained shield implanted itself to the wall behind her. You? You only stared at the body, eyebrows ever so slightly furrowed—the only mixed reaction you've given to all the slaughter you caused.
For a moment, you thought about Steve. Just for a moment. It disappeared very quickly, the Darkhold's whispers of encouragement in your ear. You were very close to getting your children. Just a little more.
"... Holy shit," Gojo stared at the bifurcated cadaver in front of them, still so fresh. "She cut this lady in half with her own shield. Half! Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit."
"Fucking brutal," Toji muttered. "But I'm not one to judge." Sure, he's an assassin, but that was one real clean cut there and admittedly, one of the most savage methods to murder someone. Very... Final Destination.
"... I'd rather not stare at it," Nanami inwardly shuddered, turning to look at your thinking face, instead. He was already hiding a sick-looking Megumi behind him and a frightened Yuuji, too.
Your other enemy, Captain Marvel, emerged from the wall you'd tossed her in, blasting extremely concentrated energy at you. For a moment, they saw you in your original body, hair flying around and your face scrunched up in concentration as you released even more of your power in your alternate self's body. As a result, you began sucking in Captain Marvel's energy blast and her power, too, her uniform breaking and fading away.
"Raaaagh!" you yelled as you overpowered her, blowing her away to a large statue. You quickly used your psionics to wrap around the statue, pulling it down until it crashed onto Captain Marvel, appearing to kill her. You'd taken a lot of her power, after all. Maybe you'd rendered her useless, just like a normal human. Again, you didn't care. Not your priority.
"She's just slaughtering everyone who comes in her way," Choso spoke out, more and more shocked at getting to know the seemingly sweet woman he's known.
Meanwhile, Strange was purposefully riling up 838-Mordo, cunningly using the latter's anger to fight and get out of his restraints. (Honestly, it reminded them of how Gojo would piss enemies off, too. What was it with smartass genius sorcerers and their overly huge ego?)
Finally, you had arrived right behind where America was contained. She had punched a small hole into it, amazing Christine, but it wasn't enough to set her free. They gazed at you—barefoot, limping, bruised, bloodied, and covered in oil—in horror for what you were about to do next.
"Enough!" a voice called out.
You snarled, your hand glowing red once more at the person who dared interrupt your goals again. It was a bald man in a wheelchair. He raised his right hand to his temple and his left hand towards you.
Suddenly, it transported all of them—including the jujutsu sorcerers—into the mind of 838-Wanda. 838-You. They winced, seeing glimpses of you, the original one. You were screaming in pain, for the first time since Agatha, getting your mind forcefully invaded and broken in. It was shaking the dreamwalking connection, making you feel nauseous. Like a huge migraine or headache pummeling your head.
"Aaaaagh!" you wailed, eyes still shut.
"Mom! She's—" Yuuji gulped, looking at you in concern. The others had the same look, too. "She's in pain." Despite what he'd just seen you do, seeing your pained, crying face still hurt him. A lot. It always would.
Then, your original self vanished from view. And they found themselves in... somewhere. It was all white everywhere, except for a broken concrete structure and a single, standing door in the middle. It was completely silent, except for Charles's footsteps. The door creaked open. He entered it, the jujutsu sorcerers following curiously behind him. In front of them were a bunch of fallen debris, with some random knick-knacks here and there. On the bottom center was a pitch black hole.
"... Is that WandaVision playing on that TV over there?" Nanami asked, pointing.
"Oh. You're right. It is WandaVision," Gojo answered in wonder. "That 1950s-themed one in black and white, yeah? Where she was in a wedding dress?"
"Uh-huh," Megumi said, frowning. "I don't like this place. Really damn creepy."
"Creepier than any of your missions?" Geto asked.
"Yup."
Right as he answered, a hand shot out from the pitch black hole, making all of them flinch along with Charles.
"Shit. Thought it was going to be the Grudge Mirror Dimension all over again," Geto placed a hand over his beating heart.
"This is not good for my blood pressure," Toji scowled, cracking his neck.
"... Never knew you were such an old man," Gojo snickered, only for the black-haired middle-aged man to give him the finger in response.
"Help me. Please," 838-You whispered, trying to reach her hand out more from where she was stuck.
"Wanda Maximoff. Your mind is being held hostage by your alternate self," Professor X explained. At that moment, the debris over her began to teeter over, trapping 838-Wanda even further below.
"Uh-oh... again..." Yuuji said, concerned as sirens began ringing in the background.
"Grab my hand!" Charles ordered. "Perhaps, if I can pull you from under the rubble, the spell will break!" Panting, your other self was able to slightly squeeze her head out, but only until her shoulders. The rest of her body was still trapped.
"Hey... look," Megumi pointed behind them with wide eyes. They all pivoted backwards, seeing an ill-boding, crimson fog approaching them. Professor X froze. The blaring sirens turned into hushed, feminine whispers in Sokovian, chanting, echoing in their ears.
They saw a flash of your original body back in the Darkhold Castle, cold sweat on your forehead, with you looking... less lively than before while you regained control over your other self's mind.
838-You was terrifyingly pulled back into the darkness, like she was being dragged down to the pits of hell once more.
Scream!
Then, they all flinched as a pair of elongated, sharp talons with blackened tips wrapped around Charles's entire face. A monster with cracked, chalky skin, bloody red eyes and decayed, pointed teeth throughly ripped it open in two different directions.
Back in the research facility, Professor X's actual body slumped down lifelessly, blood dripping from his eyes. Your eyes dimmed down into their normal color as you stared coldly at the man's corpse. However, you then saw that Chavez and 838-Christine were gone. As they reunited with Dr. Strange, the jujutsu sorcerers stared at one another. Sukuna was the only one chuckling in amusement.
"Heh. This oughta be the best thing I've ever seen," the mouth on Yuuji's face grinned wide. "Heh!" It was confirmed in his head now. Ryomen Sukuna, King of Curses, saw you as his partner. His equal.
"... That... monster... was Mom, wasn't she?" Yuuji quietly asked, spooked as his eyes darted around skittishly.
"Yeah," Nanami answered somberly. This time, you did look like an actual cursed spirit—eyes, skin, teeth and claws. It only happened for what, five seconds? But the appalling image was imprinted in their heads.
"She snapped his neck?" Megumi clarified. His father shook his head, eyes narrowed.
"No. It looked like she did, but she didn't." He glanced at Megumi. "She ripped it open with her bare hands."
"Damn," Choso muttered.
Funnily enough, they were only speed-walking behind America, Stephen, and Christine as they searched for the waypoint to the Book of Vishanti. But when you—looking like a zombie—forcefully opened the metal doors that the trio had closed, angry red eyes staring into them, something inside them told them to run, too, even if this was the past.
It was a 6D experience, after all.
So when you blasted the storage room with your powers and a stray computer screen knocked Gojo over the head, they were shocked. They were lucky enough to not be harmed during the Battle of Kamar-Taj, but that was proof that anything happening here—in spite of it being in the past—could physically affect them.
"Oh shit! Satoru!" Geto cussed, dragging his best friend out of the way.
"What—" Gojo was shocked. Yes, he didn't have his powers, but he was affected.
"Sensei! Did it actually hit you!?" Yuuji exclaimed.
"Y-Yeah, holy crap..." Gojo blinked, rubbing his head as he processed what was happening. "Ow? That hurt. A lot." A rapidly-forming bruise on his skin was evidence that he had been hit.
"Then I think we should all run, too! Now!" Nanami shouted—for once, raising his voice in alarm as they stared at your terrifying form in the doorway. Right as he said that, Strange was warning America and Christine.
"Go! Go, go, go, go!" Stephen urgently yelled. The jujutsu sorcerers followed after them, running as fast as they could from you—even overtaking Chavez, Strange, and Christine.
When they looked behind their shoulders, you were there—bloodied, limping on one leg, stepping on broken glass shards and debris with no shoes, blasting away doors and blockages.
"I feel like I'm in a horror movie!" Yuuji cried out as he ran. "You know, being chased by a crazy killer in a stinky tunnel! I love Mom but crap, I really wanna pee right now!"
"Me too! Holy shit!" Gojo yelled. "I've seen too many fucking jumpscares today from Y/N!"
Christine was able to close a door before you could pass, though. They staggered to a stop, hearing only the drops of water from the river above them.
Drop. Drop. Drop.
"Why the fuck did we stop?" Toji whispered harshly. "Shouldn't we continue running?"
"Same thoughts," Geto muttered, listening intently for any sign of you.
"She's here. Somewhere. Probably gonna pop out of nowhere," Gojo said with a nervous frown. "So just keep your eyes peeled. She won't lose America so easily."
Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.
"Where did she go?" America whispered, scared.
Snarl!
You came out out of the shadows, the dim, flickering lights of the tunnel blinking over your red eyes.
"I swear, for a fucking moment, I saw that monster in her face," Gojo rubbed his eyes. "Not kidding. She looked a hella lot like Valak just now."
"... I saw it, too," Megumi swallowed quietly. "Her face... it was all cracked and decayed... and her teeth..."
"It was pointy. All of them," Choso murmured, watching you approach America.
"... So her appearance right now, it might be an illusion, too," Nanami deduced, moving back slowly with the others. "Her face might not be... well, as nice as we know it to be."
"The Darkhold's taken Y/N's pretty face, too? Well, shit," Geto snorted. However, when they looked at you now, it looks like you'd "fixed" your face to be normal again. "Thank God she destroyed the last one last time."
No wonder you were so good at fooling them you were an old woman when they first knew you. You could fix up your face, body, and surroundings any way you wanted.
"I warned you," you told Strange lowly.
"Other Wanda, if you're in there," Strange's hands lit up orange. "Hold your breath." He then proceeded to make river waters crash down on you, giving them time to run to the waypoint.
Fortunately, 616-Strange was able to open it. And it took them back to where Supreme Strange and America were first running from the Ribboned Creature. In the center was the shining Book of Vishanti. They all jumped down into the Gap Junction, the Space Between Universes.
"Really shiny up close, isn't it?" Gojo whispered in awe.
"Yeah," Geto and the others exhaled.
"Give me what I need," Strange murmured, taking the Book of Vishanti carefully from its seat.
"I think we're forgetting something," Yuuji scratched his head.
Their eyes widened. "They didn't close the damn door!" Nanami yelled and turned around, only for America to be literally dragged by the hair with red magic.
"It wouldn't have made much of a difference!" Gojo argued, eyes wide. "She can blast it open anyway!"
You were extremely pissed from being drenched in river water. This had to end now.
Christine cried out, running to America, only for Strange to stop her and protectively place a hand in front of her. Strange fired a blast of Eldritch magic at you, only for you to absorb it with your free hand and deflect it back to him and Christine, sweeping them off their feets. Tragically, the backlash also hit the Book of Vishanti, burning it to ash.
"Shit!" the jujutsu sorcerers cussed, ducking to avoid the violent blast.
You lifted America's struggling form from the ground with one hand, annoyed. Instantly, you took over her mind—as evidenced by her eyes glowing blue and her going limp. You manipulated it to open a random dimension in the Multiverse, using your magic to restrict Christine and Strange then toss them into the portal.
Wasting no time, you once more controlled America's mind to open a portal to your original universe. And there it was. Your own body, sitting cross-legged in the air, surrounded by sanguine wisps allowing you to dreamwalk. With a dark smile on your face—now that you were finally getting what you wanted—you tossed America into the portal. Then, in your original body, you opened your eyes—ceasing the dreamwalking spell.
As the portal slowly closed, the jujutsu sorcerers ran to the other side where original you was. And their last vision was 838-Wanda falling to her knees tiredly, finally in control of her own body, no matter how battered you caused it to be.
"My boys..." 838-You mumbled worriedly, levitating back to the entrance of the waypoint to the Gap Junction.
Behind the terrified America, the anxious jujutsu sorcerers watched as you wordlessly stared at the girl as you stepped closer, like you were wondering what to do next.
"... She looks different," Megumi pointed out, squinting. "The same, but really different?"
"Mom looks... sick," Yuuji frowned. He's frowned probably more than a hundred times today, seeing how your life played out.
"Yeah. It's the crazy look in her eyes," Gojo answered quietly, noticing the darkened bags around your eyes and that your skin tone had become ashier—like the Darkhold was physically (and mentally) making you ill. Your hair was wilder, messier.
You truly did look insane. Even the way you were staring at America, like she was some sort of prey; it wasn't like the normal you.
"The isn't what your children would want!" America weakly told you, only for you to ruthlessly throw her onto the sacrificial altar of the Darkhold Castle and pin her down. You circled her like a predator, the jujutsu sorcerers watching uneasily. You stopped right behind America's head, your blackened fingers mindlessly stroking the cool stone of the altar. You gave America an emotionless smile.
"They'll never know," you replied offhandedly, sending chills down their spines.
"Maybe not," America shot back. "But you will."
For a few seconds, you appeared to contemplate your whole decision. Like a glimpse of your kinder, uncorrupted self had shone through. Then, the scene rapidly changed to Strange and Christine, who had become stuck in a bleak universe where an Incursion had happened. They met... other, other Strange... who seemed a lot more sinister than all the other Strange variants they'd met. He had a longer beard, and his skin—ashy and pale, almost lifeless, like yours. This... Sinister Strange possessed a Darkhold.
"Careful. The Darkhold exacts a heavy toll," Sinister Strange declared, refusing to give 616-Strange the Book of the Damned. His words resonated through the jujutsu sorcerers, remembering how much you had changed. "Not just on its reality, but on its reader."
Eventually, the whole conversation took a dark turn, with a third eye ominously appearing on Sinister Strange's forehead.
"Ew. Reminds me of that damned Prison Realm," Gojo cringed as the two Stephens broke out into a fight made out of musical notes. It ended with Sinister Strange falling off the Sanctum, dying when he fell through the pointed entrance gates.
Then, they were momentarily back at the Darkhold Castle, seeing Wong suprisingly alive and trying to climb up. On the other hand, you had spread your arms to the side, beginning to siphon America's powers from her body. She screamed in agony as your hands and the sacrificial altar below her glowed crimson.
Strange, now holding the Darkhold, was attempting to execute the dreamwalking spell with the help of Christine.
"While I'm under, I need you to protect my body in case they attack me for trespassing," Stephen disclosed.
"Who's they?" Christine and the jujutsu sorcerers chorused.
"The souls of the damned." With that, Stephen summoned multiple candles from around the Sanctum, beginning to dreamwalk.
"Okay...? But doesn't a version of you have to live in that universe so that you can dreamwalk into them?" 838-Christine asked, confused.
Stephen peeked an eye open, "Who said they had to be living?"
That was when the jujutsu sorcerers found themselves where Supreme Strange was buried. Thunder rumbled from around them. His hand shot out as he rose from the ground, bones cracking as he opened a portal to Mount Wundagore. This time, it was Geto who was severely disturbed.
"I don't... like this," he muttered, looking away instead as he briefly recalled what Kenjaku had done to him. Up to this day, he still felt violated. Possessing a dead man's body? Yeah. He didn't have the greatest experience with that.
And the jujutsu sorcerers were back in Mount Wundagore, shivering in the icy cold. However, from Supreme Strange's corpse emerged dark, skeleton-like spirits.
"Stephen Strange!" they snarled, attacking him. "Possessing a dead body is forbidden!"
"Forbidden!"
"Trespasser! Trespasser! Trespasser!"
"Cease your dreamwalk, or face the eternal consequences!"
Weirdly enough, three of the spirits turned to them, making the hairs on their skins rise. The three approached them, hissing. "Trespassers! Trespassers!"
"Into the wretched memories of the Scarlet Witch!"
"How shameful!"
"How deplorable!"
"Sinners, sinners, sinners! All of you, who destroy the cursed!"
They were stunned. No beings in your memories had ever interacted with them. Yes, they experienced everything with their senses, but this? This was new. And were they... talking about cursed spirits? Were the souls of the damned cursed spirits, too? Vengeful ones?
Thankfully, before the souls of the damned could do any harm, Stephen was able to overpower them with Christine's help, using them as makeshift wings. They were all transported to the Darkhold Castle. Your head snapped towards Strange, stopping the ritual to get America's power.
"Dreamwalking, you hypocrite!" you screamed. Scornfully, you threw a blast of Chaos Magic at him, only for the souls of the damned to eat it up like dinner. You threw another blast at him, but he dodged it, directing the souls to you. They swarmed at you like bees, chanting and cackling. And for once, it was you who was frightened and wide-eyed, caught like a deer in headlights.
"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!"
"Those things are scary," Yuuji winced, seeing as Wong restricted you in another magical ball along with the souls of the damned. "Kinda feel sorry for Mom."
Strange set America free, encouraging her that there was only one way to defeat you. At that same moment, you released a powerful blast of energy, escaping the souls and the magic restriction you were in. You paced towards Strange, throwing a ball of Chaos Magic at him, which dissolved his dead body like acid.
Well, at least until a roaring America Chavez landed a solid punch at you, creating shockwaves all over Mount Wundagore.
"Damn, that kid packs a punch," Gojo and the others were impressed.
"I'm even more shocked Y/N's still standing after that," Toji added. "Her durability's out of this world."
America stared at her fist in shock, then looked up at you confidently, "Uh-huh."
You were cradling your jaw, mania in your eyes as you madly smiled back, panting, "Mmmhmm—agh!"
America landed three more punches and a kick to your stomach, opening a portal that nearly made you fall into the boiling, lava-filled pits of Hel. Yes, Hel.
"I'm amazed by how durable she is but now Y/N really looks like she escaped from a mental asylum," Geto commented, arms crossed. "She looks insane! And not in a good way!"
"... Huh. It looks like Vecna's lair behind her," Yuuji pointed to the portal, shrugging. "Just saying."
Balancing yourself once more, you slowly—terrifyingly—turned back to America, a murderous glare in your eyes as you stopped being the punching bag. If looks could kill, America would've been dead long ago. You overpowered the girl, blocking her punch with your magic. The portal to Hel closed.
"I can't beat you," America realized, then closing her hand into a fist. "So I'll give you what you want." With that, she landed another strong punch at you, opening a portal. The jujutsu sorcerers watched, aghast as you lifted America by the neck with one hand, strangling her.
Just like what Agatha did to your Billy and Tommy.
Just like what Thanos did to Vision.
Unbeknowst to you, you had become the very thing you hated. The very person you despised.
The jujutsu sorcerers, on the other hand, witnessed your downfall. All of it.
"What was the saying?" Gojo murmured, remembering how you faded into dust during The Snap. "You either die a hero..."
"... Or live long enough to become the villain," Geto finished, looking at his surroundings. At the same time, you realized where you were. And you saw your boys, sitting on the couch, watching TV and eating popcorn peacefully.
"Billy... Tommy..." you breathed, only for them to scream in fear at the sight of you.
"Mommy! It's the witch!" the twins screamed, dropping their bowl of popcorn and running over the sofa.
"What. Have. You. Done," you hissed to America, tightening your hold on her neck as your hair flew wildly around your head.
"Damn, Y/N, this isn't you," Gojo muttered, shaking his head.
"Mom!" the twins shouted as your other self came running down the stairs, all washed up and changed into new clothes, but still scratched and bruised. She moved in front of the twins protectively, one hand glowing red, but it was clear she hadn't mastered her powers and didn't use them very much, judging by the terror and apprehension painted on her face. Her powers were primitive in comparison to yours.
"Wait! Boys!" you cried out desperately.
"It's okay, it's okay," 838-You assured them.
"I'M YOUR MOTHER!" you asserted viciously, chucking the couch to the wall. "Get away from them!" You then proceeded to fling your other self to the corner, making the jujutsu sorcerers wince at your cruelty. Other you screamed as she was thrown into a cabinet of books. She fell roughly to the floor.
"... That's how delusional she's become from the Darkhold?" Choso blinked, feeling pity for your variant. She's been through much over the past day.
Seeing what you did to their mom, 838-Billy and 838-Tommy ran down the stairs, hurling toys and multiple items at you. "Mommy! Get away from our mom!"
You blocked their throws with your arms, trying to appease and calm them with a gentler tone, "Hey—boys—stop!"
"You're not our real mom!"
"Please—please—"
"Get out of our house!"
"Wait, boys, stop it—"
"You're not our mom! Get out! Go away!"
It was when they threw a whole scooter at you that your patience snapped.
"STOP IT!" you screeched in a shrill, earsplitting volume, eyes hysterical. They all flinched in fear. Even the jujutsu sorcerers grew silent. They'd never seen you scream like that before.
Afraid, the twins retreated to the opposite side of the staircase. Slowly, with a joyful smile, you approached them, reaching out to touch their faces with your very hands after so, so long.
"Please don't hurt us," Tommy begged.
"Please," Billy sniffled, scared for himself and his brother.
Their words made you freeze in your spot. "... I would never hurt you," you assured them in a whisper, shaking your head. "Never." A single tear dropped to your cheek. "I would never hurt anyone. I'm not a monster."
Slowly, their young, terrified eyes peeked behind you, looking at their beaten, whimpering mother. Their eyes turned back to you, telling you it was a lie.
It was all a lie.
And everything came crashing down to you in realization, their gazes harsh as you slowly detached yourself from the influence of the Darkhold.
Murderer. That was what the souls of the damned labeled you as.
Monster. That was what these children saw you as.
And they were right.
"I'm—" you stammered, stepping back from Billy and Tommy. The jujutsu sorcerers watched as your pale, chapped lips began to tremble, more tears falling down your cheeks.
Oh, God. What have you done?
"... I-I'm sorry," you barely choked out, shaking as you placed a hand over your mouth. Other you tried to get up, only for her to stumble down helplessly. She was too injured and exhausted.
"Mom!" Billy and Tommy ran to her. Not you. "Are you okay!?"
"Hi! Hi!" she breathed out, touching their faces. "I'm okay. I'm okay."
Those were the exact same words you told your Billy and Tommy when they were running to you when you closed the hole in Westview during the fight against Agatha. To save them. And their father.
Seeing this, you sobbed, a hand over your stomach. Empty. Void of your children. Your twins. Your babies. To everyone else, it wasn't real. But to you? It was real. It was real to you.
The jujutsu sorcerers watched as you fell to your knees, crying at the familiar yet different sight.
"How long has it been since WandaVision?" Geto asked the others, crestfallen seeing you.
"A few months, perhaps? Maybe a year?" Nanami answered mournfully.
"You think... you think that maybe, Y/N had postpartum depression?" Suguru murmured.
"... Yeah. Likely," Toji replied, gazing at your kneeling form, clutching your stomach.
"Then she's no different to all the mothers in Japan who've lost a child," Nanami said. "And out of grief, brought to life cursed spirits." It wasn't uncommon. They'd exorcised many cursed spirits like that. Miscarriages, stillbirths... a mother's pain and suffering was unlike any other.
"... What is grief, if not love persevering?" Choso repeated to himself the words your late husband said to you.
"Unfortunately, love is the most twisted curse of them all, neh, Gojo-sensei?" Yuuji wiped his tears, sniffing at seeing you cry.
Gojo was quiet for a few moments, "... Yeah. It is."
All this madness and chaos, born out of your love. You had so much of it to share and spare, yet received none because all your loved ones were gone. The Scarlet Witch, born and forged, was just like a cursed spirit.
And your curse? It was love.
Your alternate self stood up, cautiously approaching you. The twins tried to stop her, but she assured them it was fine. You couldn't find it in yourself to look at her out of guilt and shame. You'd wrecked her world, her home, and her own body. It was unforgivable.
Then, she reached out to you, touching your cheek. Who else was there to comfort you... but you?
"It's okay," the jujutsu sorcerers heard from around them. It was your voice—no, it was your variant speaking to you. Telepathically. "I've had nightmares... over past few weeks... but they're not nightmares, are they?"
You slowly opened your teary eyes to look at your other self, so same, yet so different.
"They were your life. What you'd lived. What you've gone through," she told you mentally. Mirthlessly. "And while I was having those nightmares, you were having dreams. Dreams of my life. What I've lived. And all the happiness that was unfairly stolen from you. While you were possessing me, I also saw what you've seen from our other alternate selves. Their happy lives, too. I can't imagine how much pain you're in, being the only one who's gone through so much. The only one who's been deprived of a loving life."
You were silent, staring at her sadly.
"I'm sorry. For everything you've had to endure alone—" she murmured in your mind, her warm hand calming you. "Mother. Father. Pietro. Vision. Billy. Tommy."
You pursed your lips, tears welling in your eyes once more.
"I forgive you," she whispered. You stared at her—so good and kind. Capable of forgiveness. What you once were before you became... this. Then, finally, she spoke out loud as she removed her hand from your cheek. "Know that they'll be loved," she announced, reading your mind. Your only question to her. Your only wish—telling her to take care of them.
From the sidelines, listening and watching, some of them had silent tears fall down their faces. It was a painful goodbye, just like the one you had with Vision and your children. This time, you had to let go. Again. America closed the portal, bringing you back to the Darkhold Castle. You cried, knowing what you had to do next. You levitated towarda the sacrificial altar, kneeling down, hands glowing a misty, reddish-black. This time, you would be the sacrifice. Then, they saw in your face, the same exact expression you had when Thanos snapped his fingers.
Staring up at the sky hopelessly, waiting for death to come and take you once and for more. But as much as you wanted to, your Chaos Magic wouldn't allow you to die.
Not when you were the Scarlet Witch.
The Darkhold Castle began shaking. You allowed America and Wong to return to Kamar-Taj, leaving you alone with Stephen, who was still dreamwalking in his other self's corpse. They saw you slowly turn to him, repentant. This time, it was sincere, unlike that time in the apple orchard.
"I opened the Darkhold," you whispered regretfully. "I have to close it. No one will ever be tempted by the Darkhold again."
Strange slowly nodded at you. And inwardly, he was right about you. He knew that deep inside, you were a good person. Just hurt and lonely. He knew that as always, you would set things right in the end. And he never doubted that. Just because one has stumbled and lost his way doesn't mean that they're lost forever. Professor X told him that. And it looks like you were able to read his mind.
With your powers, you made the Darkhold fall, taking it down with you in it. Before they could be hit, the jujutsu sorcerers were suddenly teleported afar to a cliff overlooking the crumbling castle, their last sight of you being a blast of red.
"Mom—" Yuuji whispered worriedly. Suddenly, they were with 838-Christine and Strange. The former neurosurgeon woke the unconscious woman up.
"... Is it over?" she asked, concerned.
"Yeah," he answered.
"Is America okay?"
"She's on her way to get us."
Christine swallowed, "... Wanda?"
The jujutsu sorcerers' ears perked up. Strange, sadly, shook his head. "No." At that moment, though, the Darkhold beside them burned into ash from red flames.
"So she destroyed the Darkhold in every universe," Strange realized.
"She did the right thing," Christine smiled.
"Yes. She did." Strange smiled back.
The consequent scenes they were seeing now all seemed glitchy, but then they saw you—in another universe—destroy the knowledge and contents of the Darkhold. You absorbed the entity chained in the main Darkhold: Chthon, the primordial god of chaos. Somewhat like Cthulhu. A Lovecraftian beast.
"You do not possess me, Chthon," they heard your voice declare as you absorbed the god. "I possess you."
None of them knew that something was chained and sealed within you—something that that ancient and dangerous. It was almost ironic: like mother, like son. Chthon was sealed within you while Sukuna was stuck inside Yuuji.
Then they saw snippets of you with Agatha... then Loki... and other individuals. The glitchy flashbacks with you ended when a hole appeared in the now-empty space they were in... and a feminine hand dragged them out one by one.
Thankfully, it didn't have talons or crooked fingers. They knew it was you who'd come to save them.
The sorcerers were back in their world; in your living room, specifically. You—the present you they knew as Y/N L/N—were staring at them with an unreadable expression. Were you angry? Were you pissed? Were you sad?
"... I'm not angry," you told them all quietly, reading their thoughts and everything they'd seen. "You've seen it all. What I've done." You chewed your lips, suddenly averting your gaze. "But what matters is that you're all okay and in one piece. Whatever... spell Agatha put in that flash drive had gone bonkers and dragged you all into it." They were silent as they stared at you, still processing those last few scenes of you they were able to see. "I'm sorry—"
Ding dong!
Your doorbell rang. Sighing, you walked away from the jujutsu sorcerers and opened the doors (thankfully, you'd magicked up the heater and everything else in the house before dragging the boys out of the television screen). You blinked at the person at the door, wrapped in lots of thick layers but still shivering from the blizzard outside. Did he... travel all the way from the grocery shop to here?
"You... uh... d-dropped y-y-your keys," Higuruma stammered from how freezing it was outside. He handed you your keys. Wide-eyed, you immediately let him in, worried about how long he's been in the cold.
That was when he saw the guys in your living room, all scrutinizing him and wondering who he was and how he knew you.
"Who the hell are you?" It was Sukuna who spoke... as a mouth... on Yuuji's cheek. He wasn't supposed to hear or see anything since he wasn't a sorcerer, but the jujutsu sorcerers were only shocked when he tilted his head at Yuuji in question.
"Attorney Higuruma Hiromi," he introduced himself, unintimidated by all these men glaring at him. He's had worse, facing criminals and all. And right, he also sees those weird spirit thingies. He always has since he was a kid. In the corner, you sighed, leading Higuruma to the kitchen to offer him something warm to drink. You popped your head back into the living room, eyes boring into the speechless jujutsu sorcerers.
"I'll talk to you boys later."
At least they were back home again...?
(to be continued)
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Author's Note: Hi, everyone! It's been a while! Sorry for being gone for so long and being inactive, even in answering my asks. Thank you also for your patience. After my very draining and somewhat hectic slash traumatic semester last June, my body basically took a break. Mentally, physically, and emotionally. All I did was rest, do nothing, and catch up on sleep for a month or so. I also went home to visit my dad, spending time with my family and looking for other ways to earn extra income from other gigs because I need to save up on allowance. Then... after that and currently, I'm working on my thesis because dang, I'm halfway through college now! Wow! Still, I tried my best to really write the entire DSMOM2 accurately inbetween my short breaks—so that was almost 2 hours of dialogue plus brainstorming for the JJK men's reactions. I hope you understand! And thank you all so much for your overwhelming support! I can't promise when the next updates will be, because time flies so fast and I'll have to move away from home, into a dorm, in less than a month since my 3rd year of uni begins again. It's hella stressful, but I'm 2 years away from graduating as a speech-language therapist! 🙏🥰
[TL ; DR: Got burnt out from school, took a vacation and mental health break + social media detox, gonna become a junior college student soon, could really use some extra money from writing these fics. I love writing and it's emotionally fulfilling, but physically and time-wise, really exhausting. 😅]
If you can and wish to, please support me on my Ko-Fi here! Thank you so much to whoever would like to help me out more even if writing is just my hobby! I'd appreciate it a lot. ☕️
Reblogs, comments, hearts, constructive criticism, and any kind of interaction are much welcome! Thank you for 1100+ notes on this fic. I've never imagined it would get so far. I'm hoping to publish it on AO3 if I find time. Also, I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter and even just the DSMOM2 film! See you next time! And please don't spam my inbox about when the next chapter will come out. You can ask, but a reminder to please ask nicely and don't be demanding! 🤨‼️
(For the taglist, I'll try to keep up with all the requests to be added but I've kinda lost track, hehe. Just comment in this chapter if I forgot to add you or you would want to be added or if you've updated your name/URL. 💗)
taglist: @vampireindistress @sparklingmallow @gummy-dummy @haleypearce @artemishunter18 @torasshu-sama @thewordfae @nanamin-pointo @whoreuc @simpinsimpleton @sache41 @osiris1rhi @crzyinluve @dame-sunflowers @thirstyfangirl @yuh-tears @vespertio @butyfigers @fiona782 @t-misaki @jihaegguk @revenge-of-the-bucket-demon @beeframon @simpforporcoandlevi @unkn0wn2024 @dibhachu @todaywasafairytale07 @vishousmate @tangoogle @lyralibra @fleurwritesitsblossom @deviljoonie @pearlstiare @moss-murin @surhii @senjuasuna @njisano @marbleii @sheitsme @kiyosato @moonchild-artemisdaughter @shadowyknightbeargoth @yuki-chan23 @akuri-shinsou @tellatoast @nako-ley @depresso-404error @siriusblackrunmeover17 @lovely-maryj
@tojidilfs @ikisstoga @sleepydang @fall-myriad @friedtyrantthing @bl6o6dy @fandomfangirl006 @lovely-maryj @marycarabell @bealiz13 @lowilaufeyson @eva-616
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thyandrawrites · 1 year
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I kinda noticed that Toya's quirk would actually still be enough to make him a hero.
I mean, even ignoring Aoyama and Midoriya's "borrowed" quirks, the hero course still shows the children hurting themselves with their quirks: Kaminari fries his brains, Mineta bleeds if he takes too many grapes, Iida self-multilates to make his engines stronger, and Bakugo's quirk hurts his hands during his fight against All Might.
Toya's still an effective fighter even with his burns. And we have been shown that heroes have equipment to lessen the strain on their bodies (Midoriya's gloves, Aoyama's belt, and Bakugo's outfit storing his sweat).
And now I keep rethinking Toya's backstory with this in mind. Enji had the money to get Toya accomodations, had been a hero long enough to know about support equipment. Did Enji make a concious decission to give up on Toya instead of trying to accomodate him?
I agree with this and I'm gonna expand on this in a sec, but first I think I should make a distinction between quirk downsides and quirks that are incompatible with the body. Uraraka, Bakugou, Kaminari etc just experience the downsides of pushing themselves too far, but their bodies sustain their quirks. I think a better example are Aoyama and Deku. A brilliant meta a while ago (I'm sorry but I don't remember who op was) pointed out that all the examples we have of bodies that "reject" their quirks are always the result of some kind of artificial tampering of quirk biology. Deku and Aoyama have quirks that have been passed on to them but which were not initially theirs, and Touya's is the result of an eugenics experiment. At the beginning of the manga Bakugou explained that quirks are just another extention of the body, so it makes a lot of sense to think in terms of trasplants and compatibility, you know?
Anyway. That said, I also agree that the strain on Touya's body could've absolutely been lessened with support items. Think of Deku's gloves and leg bracers, or Aoyama's belt. Said items wouldn't nullify the strain, but they would make it manageable.
And that's precisely why I think Enji didn't even consider them as an option.
What Enji wanted was not to make Touya a strong hero. He wanted a heir who could be stronger than All Might. Early on his career, around 20, Enji realized he could never accomplish that goal on his own because all his stronger moves left him on the verge of heat exhaustion. He then proceeds to see overheating as the "weaknesses" that gets in the way of getting to number one, and marries Rei in a last ditch effort to craft an heir who can combat it with frost. Specifying this is important because it sheds light on his actual intentions.
When Touya manifested his quirk, Enji knew he had no frost. The reason why he trained him anyway is that Touya's fire burned hotter, and as such he brought more brute strength to the table. At first, Enji thought that would be enough to beat his rival in terms of sheer power levels. Remember, All Might has the power of 8 people (including himself). He's a superhuman. But Endvr didn't know that. He knew that All Might was ridiculously op, and that the key to besting him was just packing a stronger punch—nevermind that it was literally impossible.
Now, Touya did pack a much stronger punch than Enji.
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It's even depicted with a fist and all. Hori is not suble.
For a handful of months, Endvr then forgets his initial goal of a fireproof heir. Remember, Enji overheats when he launches his special moves.
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He even says that Prominence Burn is not a move he can fire off multiple times.
That's why he backed away from his ambition so fast and entrusted it onto his children. Enji cannot rely on the power of his flames alone. To put it in simple terms, during the time he needs to cool down, All Might is free to keep fighting and widen the gap between them further. And that's without counting that the big blows in Endvr's arsenal are limited. One big Prominence Burn, saved up for the one-hit-K.O.s, and a handful of less strong supermoves. Then it's all over because his lucidity and coordination rapidly worsen and get in the way of a victory. If Endvr doesn't want to be out for the count within five minutes of fighting a big bad, he needs to pace himself. We're shown this in how he saves his big blows for sure hits.
But unlike him, Touya doesn't need to build up heat and release it all at once to launch a big attack. His son has the output to fire off those type of blows like it's nothing. Suddenly, Enji thinks he found a workaround to breach the gap. The bridge metaphor:
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If Touya doesn't need to hold back the way his father does, Enji reckons he can also shorten that insurmountable distance. During the time Enji would "waste" cooling off, Touya could pose a real challenge to All Might's superhuman prowess.
So Enji trains him in that sense. His ambition flares and blinds him. He forgets that the reason he needed an heir in the first place was because bigger heat=bigger heat exhaustion. After he sees a way to finally reach his lifelong goal, he becomes obsessed with it and overlooks the dangers.
Instead of keeping an eye for heat exhaustion, he puts all his money on teaching Touya how to open a fight with finishing blows, to bulldoze through any fight and win his one-sided rivalry that way.
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That's the only reason for not teaching Touya how to cool himself off. He wasn't counting on him needing to. This whole strategy hinged on Touya's fire burning hotter than ever, on firing all the one-hit-K.O.s Endvr couldn't.
Are you still following me? Good, because here's where reality crashed down on him.
In his ambitions of glory, Enji didn't consider that Touya might've inherited his "weakness" to fire exhaustion. So when he sees it not only reflected in his son, but also amplified by Touya's much stronger fire output, it's the end of the line.
Please note, Enji didn't need Touya to make him a strong hero. He needed a strong enough weapon to overpower his rival. Quirk support items could've helped Touya better cool himself down, that's true. But that doesn't mean anything to Enji, because he was aiming to get a supersoldier that didn't need to pace himself or hold back in the first place. He already tried that route himself and experienced first-hand that it wasn't enough to best All Might. What he wanted was a perfect weapon with no "weaknesses".
The truth is that he never cared about Touya's wellbeing. That was just the excuse he used to justify replacing him. When he discarded him, he wasn't safeguarding him against harming himself, but just looking elsewhere for a better puppet to entrust his idea of success onto.
Enji wasn't interested in creating accommodations for him because his goal was never centered around Touya. He just used him as a receptacle of his ambitions, but none of this was ever about Touya, or about letting him maximize on his potential. It was always about Enji crowning his goals. Touya was just a tool for him to achieve them—something easily thrown aside and forgotten when it didn't measure up to Enji's expectations.
So in other words, Touya was already doomed as a failed pet project when he was born with a body that can't sustain his quirk. It's not that he wasn't strong enough, or smart enough, or had enough resources to excel. It's that his father didn't see him fit for factors entirely outside of Touya's control. Factors Enji should've anticipated when he mixed together two incompatible quirks, but for whom he rejects accountability
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finalmoment · 10 months
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i'm the anon who sent the befriending ask.... i am very very curious about more of your thoughts on the complexities of csa. i was thinking about this the other day because i was reading far from the tree and
[The perpetrators in the Horace Mann scandal] were wounded, confused people trying to figure out how to function in a world that taught them their homosexual desire was sick […] someone whose core being is deemed a sickness may struggle to parse the distinction between that and a greater crime
i'm not sure i agree with the line of reasoning in this paragraph (i think often perpetrators are not "confused" so much as "desperate") but i do think incidences of csa, especially as relating to homosexuality, do often occur due to the way society has treated gayness (in a way that makes it "safer" to experiment across a large power differential)
hello!
discussion of csa and homosexuality and criminalization
one of the things i was thinking of as i wrote that post that i didnt include because this thought process isnt fully...processed...is that many of these crimes are contingent on certain ideas we have now about crime and the effects of actions. a lot of the causality we take for granted now did, at some point in the past, have to be learned... an understanding of it did not come intuitively to the people causing or experiencing it. i find the language of "excuses" sort of unhelpful and limiting, so i don't want to put too fine a point on whether something is Wrong even if the person doesn't Know They're Doing Wrong or have An Intent To Hurt. these things are fuzzy and not the topic of conversation to me... what matters is that like, articulations of why something wrong change from period to period as knowledge grows. so like, now we would say that child abuse is bad because you're causing indelible harm to an immature psyche at a stage when this harm will form the basis of their interactions with the world. but at a certain point in the past the explanation was more along the lines of "you shouldn't have sex with a teenager because sex before marriage is wrong and bad and you cant get married to a teenager" [well, you could also do that, and many people did].
so with that out of the way, i also have to wonder how much of a role... homosociality and the kinds of relations it favored and enabled played a part in the tendency towards relationships with a wide age gap. there's the reason in the quote you mentioned and which i went over in my post, that an ethical-but-illegal act gets conflated with an unethical-and-illegal one due to their shared illegality. that's one thing. but also i wonder if it was...accepted practice in some fashion to clock younger gay men, effeminate teenagers and noticeably limp-wristed dandies, and fold them into a circle of homosexual activity (i make it sound very depraved nkdjfskf) via seduction or whatever. like there's a difference to me between making out with someone much younger than you because otherwise they might try to kiss their classmate and get hatecrimed and...grooming with the intent to isolate and abuse. i'm not saying it was always innocent or that there weren't predatory gay men but there's a noticeable discrepancy between isolating abuse and drawing someone into a circle of relative safety and normalcy from a young age.
i don't know much about this topic and i am basically just applying my reasoning and imagination to it. which is also what i did in my original post so im pleasantly surprised to find corroboration, and it's a very interesting quote for sure - i agree that it's desperation in general, and the confusion is more likely to arise from (for example) having had similar experiences in their own past and reproducing them due to a lack of framework.
thank you for the ask! im sorry if it stops making sense at any point im very sleepy and we just watched perfect blue so my brain is pretty fried. if you dont want me to have answered this ask publicly let me know and ill make it private!
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pollyna · 2 years
Text
On this queer house (and I'm sorry for the running comments? annnd it got shippy lol):
Class '86:
Wolfman: gay but when the kids start using the moronsexual name he starts to identify with that because he married Hollywood, didn't he?
Hollywood: gay and he would like to say to his husband that he's the moron, not him, get it?
Sundown: bi
Chipper: bi
Slider: bi even if thought he was straight for the longest of times (did know u were that old, Ronnie)
Iceman: gay/homosexual/gay (the day he comes out to Ron he would liked to answer: and during summer the sand is hot. Something other earth breaking truth I should made aware of?)
Goose: queer (he serenades them and leaves them with a broken heart, and then Carole comes around and his brain fries once and for all)
Maverick: the bi king
Cougar: he's probably gay but he's repressed af so he says he's the most heterosexual person on this and other planets (I read too many past!cougar/iceman where he breaks iceman's heart to not be of part)
Merlin: not enough informations on him but after surviving being Mav's backset he will probably reconsider half of his life
Jester & Viper: they're tired dads™️ nothing else is required by them, that's says more than anything else.
People around the '86 class:
Carole: bi
Charlie: bi? (me🤝charlie: questioning her sexuality)
Class '22(?):
Rooster: bi (the tale wants that Bradley realised he was bi while putting milk in his cereal, at the tender age of 13, obtaining to spill milk everywhere and on his uncle Tom's uniform too)
Hangman: gay (the day he did coming out with Javy he presented himself drapped in rainbow flag because he had to make an entrance. He was fifteen and Javy was still asleep. The cuddle a lot after because Javy was still sleeping Seresin.)
Coyote: he's the tired bisexual of the group for the love of god someone should give this man a break
Phoenix: greyro bisexual (she is the dangerous thing Halo sleeps with. Who needs a knife or a gun when she is there)
Bob: aroace (his&Phe queerplatonic relationship is life. Apparently in this language is known as the ay-ay spectrum bc you can't pronounce the a someone should give bob the maracas to play as introduction when they ask him his sexuality)
Halo: aro lesbian (Phe says she kisses her in the softest and more determined way someone has ever kissed her)
Omaha: biromantic asexual (flying as backset with Halo give him time to talk about shit he isn't really comfortable talking with everybody around)
Payback: gay (when he was five he asked his mom if he could fall in love with a plane because they were absolutely the best thing ever. Now he thinks the same everytime he looks at Mickey)
Fanboy: pan (his granma ironed the the flag for his first pride because don't you dare going around with that thing all wrinkled)
Harvard: greysexual homoromantic (his bio on Instagram says, Harvard graduate, medical doctor, Naval aviator, my other half snors)
Yale: gay (he's a big fan of ds9 and most of his photos have a quote of the tvshow expect from when he postes about Harvard, than is poetry. It's nauseating, the entire squad hates and loves it.)
Fritz: raging bi with a little application for older people that everybody in the NAVY knows about (see his crush on Admiral Kazansky)
People around the '22 class:
Cyclone: he's bi but he won't let anyone knows because he's not weak
Hondo: pan (his wife made him a patch that he wears for all June and it has the dagger squad insigna in but it isn't in black and white but in blue, pink and yellow)
Warlock: queer (he says the term fits quiet well with him and honest to God Navy is already hard enough without him having to question his own label. His cat is the most affectionate creature this planet has ever saw and sometimes he takes her to work because it's a good antistress and leaves Cyclone and his problems out of his door)
Penny: bi™️ (she meets Charlie, at someone point along the line, and they have a sort of rebound night because of Maverick but it stops being about Maverick 0.01 second after they kiss.)
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(Strap in, this might get long🥲 I'm a rambler 🫶🏼)
I just read "Heat" and can those two get ANY cuter???😍💓 Thanks for explaining their names and as long as you want to do the glossery I'd 100% read it! I absolutely LOVE the WereRoomies girlies and I'd love to get to know more about them! Especially Moss and Autumn!
I get what you mean about Changbin and Autumn literally just being fine and doing well together😭✨ They're literally so so so cute! I also wish for their eternal happiness🤧 But I'm sure their playful banter and relationship dynamic as an Alpha with Omega Tendencies and vice versa would make for some very funny and cavity inducing stories!😂💖
Did you write anything about how the rest of the pack reacted to Changbin being marked by Autumn instead of the other way around?
Was Changbin nervous after knowing the pack, minus Chan, would now know of his Omega Tendencies? How did he go about it? How did the pack react to it?
Sorry if these seem like obvious questions😭 I've only read those 2 Changbin Instalments and maybe 2 or 3 Minho instalments (That I might re-read🤭) I can't remember (I'd been on your blog for awhile I just never spoke, I was to afraid to cause I didn't understand much🥲💔) roughly the same amount of Chris instalments and the Hyunlix instalment🥹
If the pack was really shocked by the new info I can picture them turning to Chan after realizing he seemed unfazed and he'd just be like "Yeah I knew" *Shrug* and go back to playing with Pretty's thighs, which he 100% was already doing😂
This took place before Moss arrived right? After she got was introduced and found out about Changbin and Autumns dynamic, how did they react? Btw I LOVE LOVE LOVE Moss🥹Not more than Hyun and Lix do but I ADORE them seriously!!! They're so amazing and so cool and I kinda wanna see them take care of Lix and Hyun some more🤧✨ Only whenever you're ready tho!
Literally trembling with excitement for the Jisung and Seungmin Instalments! You? Writing about 2 of my biases? After I was already blessed with the Hyunlix combo, my other 2 biases?? You're a god send and I may or may not worship the little lizard in your brain🛐✨
- 🦁
hehehe i'm glad you liked heat 🥰 writing changbin in those.... situations was just a lot of fun. can't wait to read your thoughts on "The Love I Always Dreamt Of" 👀
i'm hoping i'll be able to get to seungmin's and jisung's stories soon sjkdfhsdkjf
i don't recall ever writing about after the pack finding out about Changbin's tendencies and/or mark :O i have a vague idea that i might've talked about it in an ask but i could be remembering wrong.... but anyway, i'll leave some thoughts under the cut!
i think Changbin's tendencies were very obvious to everyone in the pack, even if no one explicitly said anything. they kind of just... accepted Changbin as he was. that's Chris' pack philosophy, after all. to have a safe space, y'know?
with that being said, i have a feeling that the majority of the pack wouldn't really be surprised by autumn marking Changbin. mostly because, by that point they had been together for a while, and i'm sure their dynamic is more than obvious to anyone that takes a good look at them sdkjhfskjdf. i like to think that Changbin wears his mating mark proudly.
maybe he waited until all pack members were sitting together and randomly went "EVERYONE. I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY..." and showed the mark hahaha Autumn would blush, and everyone would mostly just congratulate them.
i'm sure more than one was super shocked that an omega could mark anyone at all, and if they inquired about it Autumn would've been just like "idk i just... did it".
Moss would absolutely love seeing their dynamic, btw. i'm sure she almost had stars in their eyes when she first saw them interacting with each other and when she was the mark. Moss is all about being unconventional, so i feel like they would engage both Changbin and Autumn to ask them about it.
my brain is a bit fried rn so this is all i can come up with, but i'll take it into account for a possible future instalment 👀 or one of those fluffy drabbles we've been talking about~
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miseribusiness · 1 month
Text
| Content warnings |
Alcohol, drug use [Weed], drug paraphernalia, suggestive content [No NSFW], Mentions of previous death, mentions of coerced murder and unethical medical malpractice.
If you find that any of this content may be triggering, do not scroll forward. Read at your own discretion. This content includes original mlm characters referenced to be in a polyamorous situationship.
Curse had severely underestimated the severity of the news he’d receive regarding how his brother had died and how Evil was linked to his death as the lab had claimed. He thought he’d give evil the benefit of the doubt, perhaps Avery had died seeking him out at the lab's request rather than being outright murdered? He’d talked to evil, had encountered him and worked with him, watched him fly through the ranks, and the whole entire time something, call it intuition if you must, had told him that Evil was not what he seemed, and that the lab hadn’t divulged the truth. In the end, Curse was right, but his assumption was wrong, and getting the news from Evil himself was gut wrenching, especially when supplied proof and after Mavis had owned up to the murder of the eight.
Evil had not been involved with the death of the eight in the first place. He had only been 14 at the time, trapped in cryostasis at the hands of his godfather until approximately 100 or so years later, where he’d awoken to the news that his whole life had been uprooted nearly a century ago by somebody he’d been raised to trust. Evil had been fooled, so had his mother, and so had everybody else. At the time of Avery's death, followed by 7 others in a similar time frame, Evil had yet to be awoken. Mavis confirmed this, even giving Curse the handwritten order he received to get rid of Avery and the others. Curse had forgiven him in his mind already, having read through the letter many times by now, the yellowed paper still clasped in his shaky hand as his other hand grips a glass filled with a sweet alcoholic beverage. If anything, Curse appreciated Mavis, as he made sure Avery died peacefully. He experienced no pain, as did most of the eight. He tried his best to make sure they didn’t suffer, that their deaths were not prolonged, and he succeeded. For that, Curse appreciated him, even wanted to thank him, but that didn’t remove the rage that clawed at the depths of his mind, rattling the barred off ends of his brain that he refused to acknowledge, imprisoned in the dark and hopefully to remain there. He knew Mavis was well intentioned and that he had no way out of it unless he wished for there to be a brutal execution of every person he’d been assigned to kill, followed by many more, but that didn’t change the fact that Curse was so very hurt by the truth.
He finishes his drink and requests another, followed by a plate of bread and fries and fruit slices to satiate his hunger and prevent himself from drinking to the point of unwavering nausea and a blackout, but part of him- if not all of him, was tempted to give into a thoughtless rest, with no care in the world. He indulges, focusing on the new drink passed to him as he graciously thanks the bartender. He was still angry. Perhaps a rage room was in order, another time when he was sober and in the right mindset to wield a weapon. He wouldn’t want to harm his friends. The idea of it made him ill.
Curse hardly even notices Vi as he sits beside him, having walked into the bar with his fingers crossed in hopes that Curse wasn’t attempting to drink himself to death. He was much more composed than that normally, but this wasn’t a situation where Curse had the ability to be normal. He was thankful when he saw that Curse had even requested something to eat to prevent himself from getting ill. “Hi.” Curse turns to him, blinking away tears. “oh- Violet. I'm sorry, hi- I didn't notice you.” Vi purses his lips, shrugging his shoulders. He didn’t mind the lack of acknowledgement, Curse was too polite to ignore people typically. If he were to ignore somebody, or worse, yell at them, they very likely have caused him serious grievance. “ ‘s fine, been too long of a day. How..how are you holding up?” Curse furiously wipes his eyes, avoiding eye contact at all costs. Truthfully it was hard to really see if he were making eye contact to begin with, as his eyes simply gleamed in purple and dark green hues once the light reflected off the black surface, much like a cat eye stone. He’d been told his eyes were beautiful because of it, that they were captivating and such a pretty feature. He agreed, he liked his eyes, they were his most prominent feature all together. Vi liked them too, he didn’t know how to verbalize that. His head would race a mile a minute about how handsome curse was, how pretty he looked under any lighting, in any emotional state. He looked especially good covered in blood and when he put up a good fight. “I’m…I don’t know how to answer that. Mavis killed my brother. My mom and dad vented to him and he held me at my brother's funeral. He told Ione that he was a lovely guy and that Ione was right to love him. And yet, he killed him. Im so fucking angry right now and yet all I can think about is how much pain Mavis had to have been in knowing he had to lie to everyone’s face. I don't know how he could live with himself after, I don’t think I could.” Curse is aware of the heavy hand pressed to his waist and how close Vi has gotten. If you had told Curse that he’d find solace in the arms of one of the men who kidnapped him at the start of all of this absolute anarchy, he’d be livid. Perhaps he is livid. No, he’s not, he hasn’t been for a long time, not since his little crush on Koga and Midas began a long while ago.
“I broke his nose once.” Curse stills, his train of thought screeching to a halt. “You broke his nose?” “ uh-huh. Yeah, he was pissing me off, and- and yeah I did do some stupid shit, I don’t exactly remember what, but I know I deserved the lecture but you should've heard Blake. He was egging me on. Having intrusive thoughts and then having an asshole possessive ghost mirror those thoughts is so, so hard to ignore. He was like ‘knock his fucking lights out vi, you know you want to’ and I gave in after like, thirty seconds of bitching. Knocked his ass flat. I broke my hand, too.” Curse is laughing, it sounds like music to Vi’s ears not because he's so hopelessly in love with him, but because he feels better, or at least well enough to laugh. It’s also probably because he’s in love, he has been for a while, but he hasn’t acknowledged it. Why would he? Koga and curse were in danger, and with Neve to look out for, he had no reason to pursue a romantic relationship with either of them, and he wasn’t exactly the best person for either. The power imbalance was there in the beginning, Vi had been Koga’s handler within the confines of the lab until they organized an escape and kidnapped curse from his home as leverage, and of course Vi having impulsively snatched up Neve from the nursery, it meant that there was a power imbalance and way too much going on to even consider a relationship. Perhaps there was a chance now, or maybe in the near future, because now they’re all free. “I was curious about where the nose bump had come from. It’s crooked now I think. I asked him about what happened at some point and he was like, ‘Don’t worry about it’, but he looked mad just remembering. It's funny knowing it was you.” Curse has moved his hand over Vi’s on the bar counter. Their fingers lock together, a comfortable silence between them blooming like a warm blanket with the music and the bustling of people in the bar being their background noise. It was comfortable, peaceful. Curse doesn’t want the moment to end yet. He turns to Vi, swiveling slightly on the bar stool as he looks up, making eye contact with him. “Can I get you a drink? It wouldn’t be fair to make you be the sober one while I’m here getting cross faded.” “Cross faded?” Curse can’t hide the growing smile on his face as he takes Vi’s hand and pulls it into his hoodie pocket, completely unaware of how Vi’s heart pounds in response. There's a small glass jar inside, a recognizable label glued on top paired with a lighter and a wooden case that Vi recognizes as the box Curse uses to hold a glass pipe, blown to look like pink and blue flowers. Weed paraphernalia, his favorite. “Well, I think I’ll have to take you up on that offer. Can’t let you be the only one to have fun, yeah?” Curse is beaming at the approval, immediately requesting a drink sweetly from the bartender for Vi, releasing Vi’s hand to move the food he’d ordered between them, offering Vi a breadstick. He obliges, taking a bite with a satisfied hum.
Vi and Curse are together in the bar for another hour, totaling Curse’s time to around 2. The change of scenery is pleasant, the air being fresh and cool and soothing hot skin, the trees are in full bloom as tomorrow marks mid spring. They are to the side of a park trail, concealed by trees and brush, working their way through a considerable amount of weed. It’s comfortable and warm, Vi’s lungs swell to hold onto the smoke, and he hands the pipe back to Curse. He exhales, warm and comfortable as curse holds the flame of his lighter to one end of the pipe, inhaling as well. It's a routine, one that does not get old, especially not as Vi’s hands roam and settle on the expanse of Curse’s hips and stay there. “I have ‘n idea.” Curse mumbles. “Yeah? What’s that?” Without warning, curse takes his free hand and hooks his thumb under the collar of Vi’s band tee, pulling him close. It’s a kiss, but being frank, Curse is shotgunning smoke into Violet’s lungs, and Vi can’t even think anymore. He moves with pure instinct and desire, leaning over Curse and laying him amongst the grass with his hands trailing beneath his hoodie, smoothing over his waist. There is nothing but love in his touch. Pulling away from the prolonged kiss, smoke billows from Vi’s lips and he takes in a breath of fresh air. Curse is smiling, happy and just as in love as vi is.
“Midas?” “Yes, Audrey?” They don’t need to say it, the way they melt into each other's touch and give into the piercing desire sinking into their bodies says ‘I love you’ better than their words could define.
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a-lonely-dunedain · 9 months
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23 with Margim and Celeair?
ok sorry my brain was fried for the last few days BUT i finally was able to Do Something with this one!
this is the "Fun" Celeair Goes to Isengard AU, where Margim has to go undercover in her old Mordor armor to try to rescue him. still not 100% sure where I want to go with this one, but Lothrandir is involved and we might get to see him and Margim being friends at some point maybe if I ever write anything else here.
“Did they hurt you?” My question was redundant, the answer is clear enough just from the sight of him. None of his wounds seemed grievous, but the sight of blood and bruises on him told me he had been beaten cruelly before I found him. There is fury welling up in my heart at the thought.
Celeair does not know how to fight, he is a staunch pacifist and I know he would not so much as raise a hand against anyone –even men and uruks as evil as these– so any injury he received from them would have been nothing but cruelty for cruelty’s sake. This place is much too akin to Mordor.
“A bit… I do not think anything is broken, at least.” I suppose that is technically good news, though it is of little comfort to me. “I did not fight back, so they had little reason to hurt me… though, evidently, they did not need much reason.” he adds quietly, looking down at the bruises on his arm. I quickly glance around to make sure we are still alone. The guards have not returned yet. I produce a small bundle of food that I had managed to smuggle out of the guard house, and quickly pass it through the bars to Celeair.
“I cannot stay long,” I whisper, “it’s too risky to be seen speaking to you. But I will find a way to get you out of here, I swear it.” This is not the first time I have made such an oath to him, but I pray it will be the last. Celeair simply nods at me, no trace of doubt in his eyes. I wish the same could be said of mine.
“I suppose we’re lucky you still held onto that armor, I did not think you would have any further use for it.” he observes, ever the optimist.
“We would be luckier still if I never had a reason to don it again…” I mutter solemnly. Just then I hear heavy footsteps coming from further down in the cells, one of the uruk guards is heading this way. “Someone is coming,” I whisper quickly, reaching into the cell and holding his hand for the briefest moment, “I must leave for now, but I will be back as soon as I can.” I feel a light squeeze on my hand from him before I let go. 
I walk away, swiftly as I can without seeming suspicious, fighting the urge to look back at Celeair. 
As I exit the dungeons, head down and hood drawn, I consider my next move.
I heard some other prisoners escaped only a few days ago. That is both good news and bad news at the same time. Good news, for it proves that escape is possible, and that the eyes of the Wizard do not even see the entirety of his domain. But bad news, as it means whatever gap in the ring’s defenses they exploited has surely been filled by now and I will have to make my own. The task will only be made more difficult by the heightened security following the escape, but I do not have time to wait for it to die down. Or more importantly, Celeair does not have time. 
He will not last long here, and I have no doubt that the wardens intend to work him to death. 
I might need to throw around my weight as ‘Emissary of Mordor’ a little to see if I can get him a lighter workload. It would be a risky move, as I must avoid drawing too much attention to myself or else someone might start asking questions and realize I'm not a real emissary at all, but I need to buy us a little more time. There are few here who would be bold enough to question the authority of a Black-Númenorean –how I detest using that title– but even one person discovering the ruse would spell doom for both of us.
This whole situation is all too familiar in all the worst ways.
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fra080389-2-me · 2 years
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I'm not the kind of fan who cry "retcon" every time we have got some new information about established events or characters. For example, even thinking in my opinion the entire Enji's father backstory was unnecessary, I don't think it's a retcon, because it was just an update about something we no had real information on, not a change.
But the last "fixes" Hori is doing to cover his plotholes really reek of retcon or at least they open up more questions than answers. For example: "the hospital was in fire when Touya escaped because Sunflower did it to cover the traces, Touya's flames were too weak"... uhm, so Sunflower wasted his time to burn the hospital when Touya was still in sight in opposite to just capture the kid again? And how Touya was in able to escape in the first place if his flames were so weak? Frankly, the kids of the hospital could escape to the flames anyway, you didn't really need to put up a weird exposition to make Touya "innocent". He was literally escaping from the dr Frankenstein lab there, it isn't weird if he just burned everything in panic, that would not make him diabolical, the problem is we don't see Dabi worried about collateral victims later, so why it was so madly important to say that? People really think no kid was killed/hurt during the war arc? The half of the city crumbled.
About the "When Touya died" fix-it... personally, I think Hori just needed to accept he forgot Rei wasn't supposed to be at home at that point, and leave it at that. She was clearly at home when Touya asked to his father to go at the Saeko peak, and moreover Shoto was scar-less when Enji talked about the immediate "after". The problem wasn't that one line, the entire chapter doesn't work if Touya "died" after Rei was hospitalized and not before. So what we are supposed to think, that the "and you didn't go" wasn't so relevant, because Touya didn't burn at death that day after all, that Touya just kept to go to the Saeko Peak waiting for Enji even after that day for... what, months, how if nothing was changed , even after his little brother was burned and his mother was hospitalized? That Enji, with no Rei there to keep an eye (badly) on Touya anymore, just... let him to run free without to put someone else onto his ass? That... not only ruins the dramatic narrative timing, not only makes Enji to look even stupider, but puts a shade on Touya too... that means even before to be "brain fried", he cared only about his relationship with his father and what was being denied to him, sparing no thought about the suffering of his mother and siblings. It makes him to seem a real asshole and no, at this point the fact it was a kid isn't much of a justification, he was thirteen, that is old enough to see others and old enough to rethink to his own priorities in a situation like that. If really Rei burned Shoto when Touya was still at home, that would mean he saw the wholeness of what happened to Shoto first hand when he was still "sane" and still thought it was a good idea to "kill the little puppet" to hurt Endeavor.
"My death wasn't enough for my father change"... yeah, and your mother's insanity and Shoto's suffering weren't enough for you to change, apparently.
Sorry, but... I stand convinced it would make MUCH more sense if all that was happened AFTER his "death" and that the characterization of ALL the family would benefit from that, no matter what the author thought (and forgot, just to try to go back to the initial idea) at the beginning.
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cheesesteakphil · 2 years
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What did you think about the update?
LORD ALMIGHTY I LOVE IT. It was everything I expected an MORE!!
In case the spoiler tag isn't working, I'll put my thoughts under a read more too just to be safe :)
My main hope was that I would be able to grow more of a fondness for Shelda, as the amount of content she had main game wasn't really substantial enough for me to get a real liking for her, but the DLC absolutely ammended that for me and now I think she's definitely one of my top favorites.
I genuinely wasn't expecting the big developmental arc that Chandlo goes through but it was really good to see! It really adds more depth into his concern over Snorpy and how to deal with it, and I loved how deeply impactful his conversation with Shelda was (and an added bonus to get a peek into how he interacts with Floofty, since they have all known each other since they were kids, but Snorpy's insistence that he doesn't talk to Floofty was the main reason for the two not having any real interaction base game)
Triffany was another surprise, as it expanded on her already established evasiveness at conflict and my GOD do I relate with that so much. Freezing up and just wanting to step back into the shadow and get on with stuff instead of stepping up to take charge? Near identical to how I work in heated situations too, it's nice to see they didn't try to change that about her in the new content.
We all know my stance on Floofty. I was already over the moon that I was getting any new content for them to begin with, but listen. I need you to understand. I played the game in the mindset of Orlifa (my Journalist/Scientist student OC) and LET ME TELL YOU. THE AMOUNT OF SHIT. THAT FITS INTO HOW I HAVE THOSE TWO INTERACT. BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I HAVE SO MUCH ART FUEL FROM THIS DLC BAYBEY.
As for the gameplay content, I did not expect the quests from the letter system to add such a substantial amount of work, some of those quests are fucking DIFFICULT! (FUCK THAT ONE THAT MAKES YOU LUNCHPAD YOUR WAY UP TO THE VERY TOP OF FROSTED PEAK. I SPENT. 2 HOURS. DOING THAT.)
But I am SO in love with the variety of stuff you get to decorate your hut, and I've been calling it since the first trailer came out. I cried the MOMENT Filbo was like "hey here's your new hut I hope it can be home for you soon" and BAM. WATERFALL. I KNEW IT WOULD GET ME I JUST REALLY LOVE THE IDEA OF GETTING SO COZY AND AT HOME IN SNAXBURG WITH EVERYONE IT MEANS A LOT TO ME OK.
I love the funny little puzzles you have to do on broken tooth, the first time I played it my brain was fried from like 10+hrs of streaming the original game to the point where I was forgetting how to catch bugsnax. I was a little dissapointed in how small the overall map is though (I played it a second time today and finished the whole DLC content within a few hours) but I still greatly enjoyed all of it regardless of that. I'm doomed to vocal stim the millimochi voice for the next month, sorry to all my friends who are gonna have to put up with that in discord vc's.
9.5/10 dlc -0.5 because I can't get the journalist to kiss Floofty (I'm joking, of course. I can just draw that. It really is a 10/10 <3)
There is. A lot more that I'm obviously not saying, because I'm still honestly absorbing a lot of it. I'm processing all the information from the dlc bit by bit, so it'll take some time. but I have seen everything there is to see (expect some funky art later tonight ;) )
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neolovesneo · 2 years
Text
SEE YOU MONDAY!
crush!jeno, classmate!6dream | fluff | highschool au, crush au (?)
note ; happy jeno day!!!! wishing nothing but the best for our pretty, pretty boy <3 + not quite sure what to feel about the ending? its so bad and my brain is fried,, rip
taglist ; @soobin-chois (lmk in comments, asks, or dms if you'd like to be added to my taglist! ^^)
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You stifle a yawn as you sit up straight, barely listening to what Renjun, your classmate, is saying.
It's not like you didn't want to listen to him - you just couldn't.
English class has never been this boring, but it was just so for today. Perhaps it was because it was Friday, the weekend so close and yet so far.
Everyone else seems to be fine though, working away diligently in assigned pairs on a worksheet your teacher had just given out.
Mark is writing furiously on his worksheet while Haechan rambles answers, Chenle busy folding his own worksheet into a paper airplane while a confused Jisung tries to copy him, and Jaemin is reading his textbook while Jeno looks at you.
Wait.
Jeno's looking at you?
You momentarily freeze, a million thoughts racing through your mind as you lock eye contact with the blue-haired boy.
Maybe he was looking at someone behind you?
The wall is the only thing that greets you when you turn around to check, and your cheeks immediately flush red when you realize that he is looking at you.
Now, no one knows this, but you've recently developed a crush on Jeno.
It's the way his hair falls prettily over his sparkly eyes that gets your heart skipping a beat faster, as well as the way he adorably talks in pout when he gets excited.
Jeno always catches your eye wherever he goes too, be it coincidentally passing by each other down the corridors or when he just happens to be lining up in front of you during lunch at the cafeteria.
All of that is enough to make your heart race and face involuntarily tug up in a smile, but now?
With him looking right at you, maintaining heart fluttering eye contact across the room?
You panic.
Do you look away? Do you keep the eye contact? Do you pretend like you didn't notice it? Do you look at the floor? Do you look at the ceiling?
"Should we include point two in our summary?"
Renjun's question snaps you out of it, and you're grateful for the excuse it provides for you to break the eye contact.
"Y-Yeah, I think point two is fine." you stutter, face flushed as you tried to act cool.
Renjun hums in response and scribbles something down on his worksheet, and you fight the curious urge to see if Jeno is still looking at you.
Which he probably wasn't.
In fact, he probably was looking at the wall earlier.
Or zoning out in your direction.
It seemed impossible that he'd be looking at you.
Or was it?
A quick peek answers your burning question, and this time he smiles at you, eyes creasing up into the little crescent moons that you loved to see every day.
"Oh my God." you mumble, physically feeling your heart beat faster as you quickly jerk your head back down to your worksheet. "Are you okay?" Renjun asks concernedly, frowning.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just uh - stepped on my own foot." you lie blatantly.
It's obvious Renjun doesn't buy it, raising an eyebrow at you in confusion.
He's about to question you further about it till your teacher interrupts, clapping her hands twice. "Alright, class's over! Thank you, you're dismissed." she calls.
Immediately, everyone makes a beeline for the door, and you scramble to get your things too. The last thing you needed was to be late for your next cla-
"Woah!"
You flinch and let out a surprised gasp when you almost get run into by someone, and you glance up to see it's... Jeno?
"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" he asks worriedly.
"I'm fine, yeah, I'm fine, don't worry, nothing to worry about here!" you ramble, flustered at how close the two of you were.
But the breath is taken out of you as you note how much more prettier he is up close - the usual boyish glint in his eyes now like the countless stars of the galaxy.
"Okay, that's good." Jeno chuckles. "Well, see you Monday then!" he chirps, softly nudging your arm.
With that, he leaves the classroom and into the bustle of the crowd and the swarming hallways.
Yet the feeling of his fluffy, sweater-clad arm against yours remains, burning right through the fabric of your jacket and onto your skin, leaving a tingly, electrical rush coursing through your body.
Truly, only Jeno could make you feel this way, and you couldn't wait to see him again - next Monday.
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© neolovesneo, 2022.
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totiredtowrite · 3 years
Note
Howdy! I heard you were taking asks. :D
Could I possibly get how Kuboyasu or Saiki (or both if possible) would react to their bf (reader ofc) hugging them out of nowhere? 🥺🙏 Pls I almost never see any Saiki K blogs 💀 the anime is so underrated, why doesn't it get the proper attention? Oop- I'm rambling- sorry :P
I'm anon bc I'm shy asf- 🤷‍♂️
– 🥑
Touchy Boy
Warnings ~ Nope
Note: This is adorable ngl. Also When I started writing this (rn) its 12:16 am, and my brain is kinda fried lol. I need my 4 hours of sleep :0
Update: Okay it's been like four hours and it is now 4:42am at the time I'm writing this update. Back and ready to rumble >:). Also saiki's is a bit shorter than Kuboyasu's because of the whole brain fry thing, and I had more ideas for Kuboyasu.
Male Reader
Kuboyasu Aren
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Ask Kuboyasu who startles him the most, and chances are he'll either answer his best friend Shun Kaidou, or you. His boyfriend, (y/n) (l/n).
He doesn't even understand why you do it! Always springing random hugs at him when he doesn't expect it. His whole "past as a delinquent" makes him kind of jumpy when you just...appear from nowhere and wrap your arms around him.
Eventually of course he gets used to your sudden displays of affection. Sometimes he misses your hugs when you're out sick or something.
It's really the best thing to him after a while, though the first one was kind of rocky.
He heard your voice before he saw you. "Aren!" Always bright and cheerful whenever you said his name. Even if you weren't like that normally, it was hard not to get excited when it comes to this boy. It make him feel, well, special. What he didn't expect was for you to come barreling into him at full force. You were behind him, running into his back and wrapping your arms around his abdomen.
He froze up instantly. Went stiff like a board, face blank. He wasn't used to this. You were at his back, hugging him, and this sudden touch was far too fast for him to get used to. People don't usually touch him! This all felt like too much, even if you were his boyfriend!
Even so, he can't say he didn't like the comforting feeling of you holding him.
When you peeled away from him after a moment of awkward silence and moved to his side, shuffling awkwardly, a thought hit him like a slap in the face.
Of course you would feel weird after that! He didn't say anything, instead opting to stay silent and go unresponsive. Like a rock. (An odd way to describe it, but weirdly accurate nonetheless).
Truly no one was in any sort of fault here. Teenage boys in love were bound to do weird, awkward things sometimes, and it's nothing that can't be fixed. (It wasn't even all that devastating in the first place).
He turned towards you and hugged you, tugging you into him rather forcefully and awkwardly before you chuckled and lifted your arms to return the embrace. No words were needed, and the two of you stayed like that for a little while before pulling apart to head to school hand in hand.
Kusuo Saiki
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Of course he always sees it coming. He knows whenever you go to hug him, so the fact that his heart rate picks up and he feels startled doesn't make any sense to him.
He knows when you intend to hug him, and he knows where you are. Yet and still, the actual contact never fails to make him jump a bit. As powerful as he is, he just wasn't as used to a boy actually touching him as he was reading intention and thoughts.
His boy, specifically.
You, his wonderful boyfriend, who also liked to hug him at random points in the day.
It kind of goes without saying that the first one went a lot smoother than it would have with Aren.
He felt your presence before he felt you. Did he expect it? Yes. Was it still somehow a surprise? Also yes.
A pleasant surprise though. He felt you coming, and turned around to make it easier for you to hug him. You didn't seem to notice that though, as you were solely concentrated on hugging him.
You ran right into him, circling your arms around him and resting your head in his neck. "Morning.." you muttered out lazily, a dumb grin on your face. Saiki rolled his eyes, and turned his head so that you couldn't see his little smile.
Morning
Your grin devolved into a content little face, humming softly in response and resting there for a bit. As loud and obnoxious as some people could be, Saiki admits he likes your random hugs.
He can't seem to decipher a pattern, it's really just whenever you feel like it. It's...cute, if anything.
So he stays content with it. Even if he expects your randomly placed hugs, he can never deny the little surprise and contentment that came with being able to embrace you, even for just a little while.
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