Monday: death

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone. I’m bleodswean and today's theme is death. As we "mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year" (Samhain), today's prompts are related to reaping.

Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and fandom's full name for ease adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the spoiler cut.
If there are possible triggers in your story, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Some examples to get the ball rolling...
Greek Myth, Persephone/Hades, Hades takes Cerebus to meet his bride as she descends
Harry Potter, Weasley Twins, “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
The Originals, Rebekah, While daggered Rebekah contemplates a true death

We use AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2017 collection. See further notes on this new option here.

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? Check out Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet 1 (not very current), Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet 2, or the Calendar Archives, or for more recent prompts, you can use LJ's advanced search options to find prompts to request and/or fill.

While the Lonely Prompts Spreadsheets and LJ's advanced search options are available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching for in the future.

Comments

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Greek Myth, Persephone/Hades, Hades takes Cerebus to meet his bride as she descends

[meridian_rose]

She is not afraid and he wonders why he ever thought she would be. His bride bends down to pet Cerberus's middle head, while the left snuffles her ear, and the right investigates her skirts. She laughs and the sound brings light and hope to this dark domain and warms his heart.

"He's beautiful," Persephone says over her shoulder, giggling when the middle head licks at her neck, almost knocking her over in his enthusiasm.

Beautiful. No-one has ever said that of the guardian beast before. But then before she spoke the words, no-one had ever told Hades they loved him.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter, Weasley Twins, “Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

The Originals, Rebekah, While daggered Rebekah contemplates a true death

The Originals, Rebekah - Daggered

[jdl71.livejournal.com]

They’d done this dance a hundred times before. Klaus would get mad at one of his siblings and decided to ‘teach’ them a lesson. It just happened to be her turn. She had seen it coming this time. The way he huffed at her in response to something she’d been saying. Now, she couldn’t even remember what it was. It could have been that the sky was blue Klaus took offense to that. In the end it didn’t matter what the reason was. Sometimes she welcomed the dagger to her un-beating heart. The chance to lay back and let the world move around her, without her.

She was tired. So tired of this world. They were so far removed from their initial life. One that was fraught with hardship but so much easier in its simplest form of survival. Stay alive from one winter to the next. Easier than the minefield she danced around, the one she called brother. You never knew what his mood would be from one moment to the next. That was beyond tiring. She’d sigh right now at that thought if she could. The funny thing was, their lungs didn’t actually work. She heard the giggle at that in the back of her mind. Being daggered was slowly driving her insane. Well, they were all insane for wanting this immortal life. Dealing with Klaus was ripping her sanity away, strip by strip as if it was an old worn piece of cloth.

At one time she’d been in love. Had found a man she wanted to settle with, have babes with. She’d wanted to be a wife, to be loved and cherished. She’d wanted to be a mother, to feel the life of her child grow within her body. To hear her child’s voice call her mother. That had been taken from her when the blood ritual had been performed. It was supposed to protect them. It had done more than that.

Now, they were immortal and if one of them died, their entire bloodline died with them. She thought it over in her mind. It wasn’t like she had much else to do. Laying in the coffin didn’t really do much to keep her alert mind entertained. If she could move, she knew her eyes would be rolling in disgust. But, really aside from a few she had created herself she didn’t know the others. They weren’t her concern just like she wasn’t theirs. They didn’t pay tribute to her as they had when she and her brothers had been considered Gods. She was overlooked, forgotten. By them and her own family. So really, what was the point to this endless life? One she no longer cared for. Maybe it was time. Maybe when this dagger was pulled from her body, she would seek out the only means that could end her and her family. Maybe it was time for her stop existing because really, she was no longer living.

[reeby10.livejournal.com]

Crimson Peak, Edith Cushing/Thomas Sharpe (/Alan McMichael), death didn't put an end to their relationship

Fill -- Til Death

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

The wording of the marriage vows makes it clear: Til death do us part, and Thomas Sharpe is unquestionably dead. Now Edyth is free to follow her heart, to embrace her childhood friend as a woman, moreover a woman of substance who no longer needs to worry about what people will think. She marries Alan without a qualm, returning to the safe, comfortable haven of Buffalo.

Her hometown is almost as she remembers it…save that now she lives in Alan’s tidy pied-a-terre, his family becomes hers (This is not a benefit, but it is inevitable.), and her father no longer occupies his office in the firm he helped build. There is a new managing partner, and the name of the firm has changed.

Fair enough--she’s changed too, in many ways. Writing is no longer an amusing diversion, it is a burning need, and the ghosts in her tales are no mere metaphors. She is at her desk one afternoon, penning a story of black moths which are spinning a cocoon around an unwary sleeper, when she glances up to see her first husband gazing down at her. A drop of ink forms a blot on the page as her hand trembles. She didn’t expect to see him here, so far from his ancestral hall.

“Hello, my darling,” he says softly, lips curving in a familiar smile.

Edyth smiles back. Even after the malevolent spectres she’s encountered, her late husband’s shade provokes no terrors. Thomas was always kind to her. Then her breath catches and she looks about wildly. “Is she here?”

“No. She is…elsewhere. She won’t bother you.” He’s studying here, eyes tender. “You’re looking well. Marriage seems to agree with you.”

A flurry of responses come to mind: “So does not being poisoned by my sister-in-law.”---“I know I’m safe here, which is more than I could say last time.” And most heartfelt, “I would have been your wife if only you’d let me in!” But he had, hadn’t he? It just hadn’t been enough to overcome the indomitable Lucille Sharpe. And now death has parted them, or has it?

“It’s good to see you, too,” she says at last. “Everything happened to suddenly at the end…I never had the opportunity to say thank you.”

“Don’t! Don’t thank me!” he says with some vehemence. “I was an unconcionable coward, and I allowed Lucille to do terrible things on my behalf. But…I couldn’t hurt her. And I couldn’t hurt you.” His voice is mournful and tears glisten in his pale eyes.

“In the end, you saved me,” Edyth reminds him.

“I suppose that’s the important thing. He’s a lucky man, that McMichael.” Thomas looks distracted for a moment. “I’ll be seeing you, sweetheart.” Then he’s gone before she can protest.

The door to her study opens, and Alan strides in, presenting her with a striped bag from the candy shop near his office and kissing her cheek. “How is my fair bride this afternoon?”

Edyth smiles and feeds him one of the chocolate creams from the bag. She banters with him, as if she’s spent a perfectly ordinary afternoon writing and hasn’t been chatting up her deceased first husband. Seeing ghosts is nothing new, really--not for her--and thankfully this was a peaceful discourse. Even if death hasn’t entirely parted her from Thomas, she thinks with a wry smile, it would be nigh impossible to prove bigamy.

..

[reeby10.livejournal.com]

Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham, "Death can be beautiful"

[reeby10.livejournal.com]

John Wick, John Wick +/ any, there are worse things to fear than death

[reeby10.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter, any, death looks different for everyone

[reeby10.livejournal.com]

Midnight, Texas (TV), Lemuel Bridger/Olivia Charity, they've both seen a lot of death over the years

[tigriswolf]

Author’s choice, author’s choice, contrary to hearsay, I did not die with you

[rhymesofblue.livejournal.com]

oh i love this a lot

[tigriswolf]

Author’s choice, author’s choice, with you missing, all the pretty animals are game for killing

Fill! Buzzfeed Unsolved

[rhymesofblue.livejournal.com]

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12645993

[tigriswolf]

Prison Break, author’s choice, season 2 if they’d killed Bellick in the pipes

[tigriswolf]

Prison Break, Michael Scofield + or / Lincoln Burrows, the killer in me is the killer in you

[tigriswolf]

Author’s choice, author’s choice, I carried my baby sister over miles of countryside. We never survived.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Riverdale, Jason/Cheryl, Just as when he was alive, Jason still quietly lets himself into her bedroom in the night.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Sandman, Death and Morpheus, She knows better than anyone that nothing lasts forever. She wants to tell the Dream King first.

[meridian_rose]

Midnight, Texas (TV), Manfred Bernado, death is a constant companion

[tinamour.livejournal.com]

He had felt it for as long as he could remember.

Even as a child.

It wasn’t until Xylda explained it to him that he understood. Xylda called it a Gift. Manfred wasn’t sure what to call it.

Growing up, it was reassuring to have that presence around him at all times. Some spirits were kinder than others, but with Xylda’s help, he was soon able to choose those he wanted to summon. And even in the absence of spirits, he wasn’t alone.

Always looming above him, like an ominous dark shadow that threatened to swallow him whole, it was here.

A constant companion.

There were times where he loathed it, where he would gobble up pills until the world was more blurry and less painful, almost kind, until he would stop screaming that he never asked for that gift, that he wanted it gone.

And there were times where he was happy to feel it around him, like a comforting embrace.

Familiar and sweet.

[meridian_rose]

Author’s choice, author’s choice, not just faithful unto death but after it

The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth, not just faithful unto death but after it

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

He grew old. Years bleeding out through his fingers, he didn’t try to hold on anymore. Not anymore. He knew he got to grow old because of bad luck that most others called good. He was still alive because others were not. It was that simple a thing. And the simplicity of it could make his head spin. He would never claim to understand why some lived and others perished. He certainly couldn’t attest to why he was still waking up each morning. Alone. But he was. And with each new day, he whispered her name between his palms and then bowed his head to pray over his steepled fingers, the heat of his breath his only offering to a cold god.

Birthdays were etched into the meat of his heart the same way he notched each death of those he had loved deep into the same muscle. One, two, three, four, crosshatch five. The organ was a mess of hatch marks. Sometimes, at night he would lie awake beneath the stars, he still slept outside in a bedroll, wrapped in a few more woolen blankets these days than before, and he would hold his hands up between him and the unforgiving stars and he would count them on his fingers. Bending each finger down until both hands were fists.

All the lives lost, all the souls gone to Heaven because surely this was Hell.

He loved her still. In the same way now as he had done then. He would have laid his life down for her if there had been a way to do so. There hadn’t, of course.

So he lived, and she had died, and he gladly paid a self-imposed penance for being able to live on without her. He loved them all, the children most, but he never loved another with the same part of his heart that he had loved her. Still loved her.

[swirlsofblue.livejournal.com]

Any, Any/any I've crept into your temple, I have slept upon your pew, I've dreamed of the divinity, Inside and out of you, I want it more than truth, I can taste it on my breath, I would give my life just for a little death

[cyanidesympathy.livejournal.com]

Supernatural/Sandman. Death of the Endless and the Death of Supernatural meet for tea.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

“Mmmm,” he intoned between closed lips. His tone conversational, but the raised eyebrow spoke slight disapproval.

“What,” she asked, laughing. She held the venti pumpkin spice latte double espresso shots in both hands just below her chin and bent to breathe in the spicy aroma. Her eyes closed slowly and her smile became downright beatific.

He watched her beautiful face unobserved, a slight uptick in his ancient heart and it wasn’t the slightest bit familial although it was deeply affectionate. “You are a never ending source of surprise for me.”

“Coffee? This surprises you?”

He inclined his head, raised a single shoulder beneath his suit coat. His topcoat was draped across another chair. They were seated at a small table on the sidewalk outside a downtown coffee shop. They were the only two sitting outside in the cold, drizzly October morning.

“You, my dear, surprise me. Coffee does not surprise me. Although,” he sipped at his milky Earl Grey, “this contemporary madness for it is slightly startling.”

She laughed again and the sound of it warmed him more than his cup of tea. His rib-bones felt fragile and the long bones in his thigh seemed loose in their ball sockets. She did have an effect on him. Still.

“You like them, see? That also surprises me. You have an indulgent fondness for them that I don’t always share.”

“Old school,” she informed him. He pointed a finger at himself and she nodded.

“Old school indeed when we agreed this was a date for tea.”

“And I order coffee." She leaned over the table and kissed him on the cheek. “I can see you’re offended.”

“Your breath smells of pumpkin.”

“I’m drinking pumpkin spiced coffee.”

He shuddered.

“So,” she began, sitting back in the chair and crossing her legs. He noticed she was wearing heeled Mary-Janes rather than the clunky boots. “Will you say yes this time?”

“No.”

“Please.”

“Is there actually time?”

“Let’s go now before we run out.” She stood, gulping several long swallows of the coffee. “Come on.”

She held her hand out and he reluctantly leaned back in his own chair and fished the keys out of his pocket. “She’s nearly as old as you. No joyriding.”

“She’s meant to be opened up on the freeway. But I’ll treat her with kid gloves.”

He sipped at the tea, holding her gaze over the rim. Finally he stood, hiding a smile in his shoulder as he shrugged into the topcoat.

She practically skipped to the curb, sliding the key into the driver’s side door of the impossibly long white Caddy. “Isn’t this so much better than riding a horse?”

He lowered himself into the passenger side, the seat was a plush velour bench and he settled in, unused to riding shotgun, his arm down the length of the backrest. She started the car and pulled out into the road without even clocking the rearview mirrors. Behind the nape of her neck, his long-fingered hand curled elegantly away from temptation.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

The Vampire Diaries, Bonnie/Enzo, After a long adventurous life, Bonnie passes over.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric+/Winry Rockbell+Alphonse Elric, Harvest festival celebrates the end of summer

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, Buffy Summers+/Angel, Love never dies.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

The X-Files, Dana Scully+/Fox Mulder, "Remember, Mulder, I don't die."

...except...

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow, He doesn't achieve immortality (or at least, not in the way he expects/wants to)

[emmatheslayer.livejournal.com]

True blood, Eric nothman /Jason Stackhouse, Eric meets the true death