In the old world, there is an old story, about an old man who could not die. Who guarded his own death jealously and cunningly, who devised all manners of traps and ingenious hoaxes to hold off the day of death. —or: Romanova to Romanoff, the girl without end.

Bucky Barnes screamed himself hoarse on that table and screamed falling off that train. He screamed when they programmed him and screamed and screamed until he isn't Bucky Barnes anymore, not really. He is still screaming, a trapped rat running around a labyrinthine machine, clawing at the doors and running into dead ends. He has been screaming for seventy years. - post CATWS.

For each man kills the thing he loves, Yet each man does not die. If there had been one thing he had always been sure of, if there had been one thing he had always known deep in his soul—it is that his mother would love him until he dies.

He wonders if Thor knows this much, wonders if his foolish oaf of a brother had stumbled on to this revelation—they will dance upon this line until they die.

the old ways are done. - the brothers renegotiate.

sif comes to see loki in his cell; thor 2.

Her heart aches, her entire chest thrums with a love too big and too vast for her body to contain—her darling, bright, quicksilver son. (a study of frigga and loki, pre-thor movie and into thor 2.)

Phase 3: Ragnarok. A year, three years, ten, fifty. In the black silence of deep space, time unfolds like an old tapestry, and he sees visions of what has been and what will be, of what shall perish by his hand, and what the humans will build. Loki Liesmith, the universe whispers and for the first time in his long, long life, he listens. What grand plans we have for you.

she is a golden emperor worshipped by thousands, she is a carved image limned in gold, a false messiah of a false kingdom. but still she needs her right hand, she needs her wrath; she needs the most faithful man of them all to spill blood at her altar, to cut her enemies down at the knees if that is the only way they will kneel. qetsiyah/silas, the first immortals.

You can't have my heart, she had said in what seems to be another lifetime, to the corpse of a golden queen swathed in feathers and the lives of others. How can they expect her to give it away, now?

The sun is a brutal hard kiss. Out here, beneath the glory of her grandsire and abandoned by her hero, she thinks; this is it. She thinks that oblivion and freedom bear an odd similarity.

crack!fic: elijah returns to mystic falls to teach klaus a lesson. and to make sure that the monet isn't hanging on the teal wall. mostly the latter.

52 years, 4 months, 9 days.

"Loki fell," Thor says in the quiet of the aftermath, voice heavy. (sif after loki's fall.)

Outside the glass cage, his brother smiles, gestures to his stained blade, as if to say: look what you made me do.

o sing, muse, of the rage of loki; godkiller.

if he be worthy.

you lack conviction.

"This is capitalism," Uther had told him once. "You might not get a crown, but you can still be king."

sentiment: natasha romanov is ruthless, her ledger is dripping red.

Death makes friends of even the most embittered enemies. - sif and thor mourn loki, post-movie.

Thor brings his brother home in the summer. Post-Avengers; Loki's punishment.

when i'm king, i'll hunt the monsters down and slay them all.

she is war. she prepares for battle.

"Klaus taught me the truth," Katherine said. "He showed me how the world really is. You have to be strong, and take the things you want. You have to think only of yourself."

- did you mourn? - we all did.

klaus finds out about certain necessary bodily functions. he is not pleased.

rebekah is trapped. rebekah screams. spoilers through 3x19

in which klaus becomes an art teacher at mystic falls high.

Don't embarrass me.

The meek shall not inherit the earth.

She will not die. Not today.

She likes to watch her brother paint.

This time I will not bear your weight. set during 3x13, rebekah's thoughts upon waking up.

This is not love, she thinks, and curls her fingers tight around her brother's.

She does this sometimes. Sees how far she can push him before he pushes back.

"Bekah," he says, and it is the same voice, God, it is the same— rebekah confronts klaus, after an indefinite amount of time.

"You need only remember this. We are Martells. And we are not weak."

This family is a cage.