𝐧𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 . .

dialogue prompts from woman, eating: a literary vampire novel by claire kohda.

people have appalling night vision.

i've marked crosses where you need to sign.

where did you say you live? anywhere near ____?

you hate me, don't you?

you won't make it without me.

it's hard to know what's real with you.

i did everything for you. everything was for you.

i don't like eating alone.

god wouldn't want to help a demon survive, and that's what we are.

this place is beyond new beginnings.

what do you see yourself as?

demon is a subjective term.

i'm not very good at goodbyes. or any form of greeting, actually.

how are you? i miss you. i want to hear about your life.

everything in everyone's life is temporary.

just imagine i'm dead.

people are like flowers: seasonal, wilting, and finite.

am i the only other person who can see you?

it sounded like you were dragging a body across the floor.

we cannot have any more catastrophe.

don't talk back to me.

my body isn't mine. it isn't a good fit for me.

you were very human. that was what i liked about you.

you never told me how ___ died.

i have to do everything for you, don't i?

give it time. you just haven't found yourself yet.

i don't really get contemporary art.

i'm trying to figure out what i want to do with my life.

how come you stopped ____?

what does the winner get?

it's kind of like being a kid again.

i don't want to be walking too late.

just be careful.

watch out for ___.

we're the same.

sorry if i said anything bad or embarrassing.

everything looks different, but it's hard to pinpoint how.

i like your look.

will you swap with me? can i be you for a bit?

i guess i feel small. undervalued.

it's hard to see what's beautiful anymore.

taking is not good for the soul.

what are you doing? lost?

did i make you feel bad?

i feel like i've been standing completely still.

i'm not sure what i feel when i look at you.

sorry. i'm not good at talking about it.

what are you going to do?

i'm really sorry about the ____.

when you left, you took something of me with you.

i'm sorry. i don't know what's wrong with me.

life is a line, not a circle.

i think i like you.

i don't want to feel at home in the dark.

take me with you. please.

i can't take you with me.

memories make life.

move away. i'm dangerous.

i don't know who i am anymore.

are you high or something?

i don't think i ever hated you.

can i do anything to help?

i wish i could be honest.

i don't want to bring you down with me.

i can't tell what it is i want.

the other night was a mistake.

you don't like me?

i am completely alone.

will you let me in?

i think i've known for a while.

you can't just listen to one side and block out the other.

neither side of me can be separated from the other.

i don't have sides at all. i am two things that have become one thing.

are you okay? do you need help getting home?

i'm not sure what i am anymore.

for the first time, i feel like i'm exactly where i'm meant to be.

it's time to wake up.

her back takes an unnatural arch. she gasps like she's dying, and maybe she is - something in her is, anyway, burning away under wanda's touch and her magic. she remembers, and it is an agony, but it is far from the worst she's endured: at least there is no stake, this time.

agatha's eyes flash open. they burn, too. she shoots her hand out, fingers wrapped harsh around the column of wanda's throat, teeth bared in a wordless, silent scream. and with her free hand, she sketches the gesture that will conjure a flame of her own.

[ nothing comes. of course it doesn't: wanda still holds this piece of what makes agatha harkness herself, as important at least as the centuries pressing on the bounds of her skull. she has never felt more murderous, never, endless cycles of 'howdy neighbour' and 'nice weather we're having' and 'did you hear about sarah's daughter's piano recital?' for ... ]

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒, 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑. after all, she's the one who trapped her. the one who sucked out agatha's magic as well as her own. as much is evident with one hand on her throat, body pushed back into a filing cabinet which rattles & the sound of 'oomf' leaving wanda's chest, & the other trying to conjure magic into her palm only for it to spark nothing ! agatha is free now from her torment, but she is void of her magic. of her power. unable to wield any of it lest someone blast her & for her to take it from them. like she tried to do with her. ( the witch is used to people being angry at her lately. agatha's anger is justified yet it does not phase wanda. )

green eyes, wide & wild, take in the expression of @tempusde with a growing, equally deranged grin on her face. it should be a clear indication that wanda is not the same witch who imprisoned her. who beat her. she's more, she's stronger.

so they've both been alone. that strikes agnes as odd, too, sympathy streaked across her face. whatever happened to wanda's family? did vision leave? no, she can't fathom it. they were always so ... perfect, together.

a line forms between her brows as wanda goes on talking. it's like she's underwater, just for a moment, and the hum of her office's cheap fluorescents fades to silence under the weight of something to set right. a physical, instinctive sort of panic gets its hooks in her throat. there is nowhere to go.

[ she's seeing ghosts again. jumping at shadows. it's a poor trait in an investigator, but then, maybe this is intuition instead. at length, she struggles for calm. ]

𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍. giving people back their passed loved ones for a short while to play a part in her own personal sitcom only to be taken from them the moment she lowered the hex, the moment she stepped out of the towns boundary. something else to be seen as cruelty, as something hero's wouldn't do to innocent people. but, wanda only realized what she had done too far into it, the real gravity to come once she'd left yet it was fleeting at most. the darkhold was already corrupting her mind, whispering things to her in her sleep--she had children to find, a family to make whole. the entire quest was selfish at its core, desperate like the way anges looks desperate to have her seated back in her chair. fear flashes in her eyes, a fear she won't understand, the closer she comes ... as if wanda felt like a predatory ready to snap its maw over her throat.

green eyes are steady on @tempusde as she approaches the standing right in front of her. for a moment, she's lost her previous smile. lost her sense of lightness, just popping in for a visit & catch up on town news.

❛   i get that. my ma did all the cooking -- i'd help , if she let me , but i was never any good at it. i mostly stuck to helping with the cleaning or the laundry ---- did art for whoever would hire me. we were so poor that meals were kind of just a meat &* some sort of bread. usually boiled &* toasted with no seasonin' whatsoever -- cost too much. sometimes buck &* me would spend our savings on a hot dog at the pier or some candy floss , but . . . nothing that smelled like that ever came outta' the rogers household. ❜

steve's head shakes as he glances back toward the stove. ❛   so you'd be starting from the ground up if you try &* teach me. i basically eat out or just try what anyone here cooks. but i'd be willing to learn if you were the teacher. no offense to vision ------- i'm sure the recipes he's googling in his fancy brain are highly rated , but . . . i mean , you cook with love. ❜

baby blues turn back towards wanda , a fondness there in the way his eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles. he's always enjoyed what she brought to the team ------ not for her powers , persay , but just . . . her. a kid just like him that tried to better herself by trusting scientists that promised a better future. a kid thrown into a war they weren't prepared for. the amount of loss the both of them have gone through is not something anyone their age should face ----- yes , he might be a hundred in the linear timeline , but he'd woken up in the modern age at twenty-seven. he'd gone into those experiments at twenty-one. lost his parents &* best friend &* the only life he'd ever known. his home was no longer his home , but he was still himself at the core.

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀 when she was younger. even as a child who loved her sitcoms, who loved the idea of heros & the people who helped those who couldn't help themselves, she had predetermined notions of what a hero was suppose to be. of what they did, of how they were suppose to be as people ... not all of them lived up to it, like tony when she first met him, but if one of them did it was steve. he as as compassionate, as strong, as friendly as he ever was in the full captain america persona at its height. it's one of the things she liked most about him. ( he wasn't putting it on for cameras, for public opinion or even opinion of his teammates. he was genuine, he was ever sincere & wanda liked that. appreciate it as it was growing harder to find it. ) ❛ what was she like, your mother ? if you don't mind me asking. ❜ asks wanda with a small smile pressed against her lips.

when @apologizelater mentions him preferring her as a teacher over vision, wanda lets out a little laugh, ❛ like i said, i'd be willing to show you some things. really, steve, once you know the basics ... it's not too hard to put things together. & vision, well, vision does his best. but, he's too exact with his measurements. ❜

on the stove, the spoon continues to hands free stir whats inside the pot. except now, with no wave of wanda's hand but just from thinking about, various spices one after the other lift themselves to shake into the pot before setting back onto the counter. eyes, for the moment, return to looking past steve as he continues to move them in slow, steady movements around the living room. ❛ i do cook with love. i try to do everything with a bit of love, with a bit of good. to be a person my parents, pietro, would be proud of. ❜ she'll admit in a lighter tone, something with hope shining through it. eyes drop slightly, hand gripping slightly tighter onto his with a rising thickness in her chest: ❛ i didn't start out the best, i can admit that, but i do want to be better. being an avenger, understanding this power, lets me do that. & i'm so glad ... ❜ a pause for her to look back toward steve, ❛ to have people like you, steve, who remind me what good looks like. what compassion is. ❜