and the ledger is red

We all burn. We burn in fire, we burn in blood, we burn in dreams. And it never ends. Dreams never end. You wouldn’t want them to, not if it means forgetting; you can never forget, you, who are all that is left. So, remember: we are born in fire. ...

[keresiiisms]

“Ah, I see. Do you plan on being miserable your entire life or would you like to invest yourself enough to have one drink with me?”

[nataliasweb]

“A drink doesn’t sound too bad-- count me in.” 

[marvelgifs]

[buckybarnes-skelis-deactivated2]

“We’ll never leave?” Bucky asked, though something told him he knew the answer. The idea didn’t sit well with him: being trapped somewhere, forever… He didn’t like it., especially considering how familiar it was. “Your name is Natalia Romanova”, he remembered suddenly, standing on weak, shaky legs.

[nataliasweb]

“Never.” Natasha shrugged, walking towards the other being without a single care in the world. She was ready to fight, but part of her was also ready to help him if he so needed it. Stopping a few feet in front of him, she arched a brow, nodding slowly. “Have you been sent here to kill me?” 

[agxntjareau]

“Well, I can’t drink to be really good, but I won’t back away from a challenge.”

[nataliasweb]

“I’m fully willing to wait until after you have your little one.”

[wantedires-deactivated20200809]

“Um, are you sure you’re not a robot?”

[nataliasweb]

“I wish. I mean, at least robots don’t have to worry about emotions and everything else that’s quickly becoming a burden to me.” 

[keresiiisms]

“You’re not a people person are you, Nat? You’re more of a cat lady prowess at night. That’s nice.”

[nataliasweb]

“I don’t have time to make friends or emotionally invest myself into relationships with people. I’m trained to complete missions and stay independent, and I fully plan on sticking to that while on this island.” 

[keresiiisms]

“I don’t think they’d be here if they did, Natalia. Nobody on this island knows nothing and it seems that the little people do know, the more unlikely they are to share. This whole island is a joke. It’s a maze and we’re the lab rats. It’s.. pathetic.”

[nataliasweb]

“Quick question-- how the hell did you know my name was Natalia?” 

[parabatais]

[isobxlstevens-deactivated201511]

“I hope it’s my George. I haven’t seen him since he…died. I’m Izzie. Who are you?”

[nataliasweb]

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I’m Natasha. Pleasure to meet you.”

[keresiiisms]

“There’s this room, we call it the archive, and in the archive there are books. They’re written in one language that nobody can seem to translate. We’ve tried everything. I’ve been looking for a secret way in. A secret within a secret. But so far, nothing.”

[nataliasweb]

“We should probably seek out the resident that has been on this island the longest--see if they know anything.”

[nataliasweb]

tbonbonxbennett:

“Aliens are really a thing? I should have know, but I figured all the crazy things were enough with vampires, witches and werewolves were enough.”

“Part of me wants to believe that vampires and werewolves don’t really exist, but anything is possible on this damn island.”

[wantedires-deactivated20200809]

Kenzi shook her head for a moment –– not to Natasha’s question, but to herself, trying to quickly compose herself once again and running her hands over her hair. “It’s really stupid,” or at least, it felt stupid, after Natasha’s bit. “I mean, with the Fae… I was always just the weak, stupid human. Just a lost human in the Fae world… a weak, pathetic human, not apart of the future of the Fae.” It was a sensitive topic and she took a deep breath, sighing. “Which I get. They needed me to nut up and do the saving. Which… I did. That’s why I died.”

[nataliasweb]

“That wasn’t stupid.” No, it wasn’t even close. Natasha could relate to the other girls story-- aside from Clint, she was the only other human on her team. Sometimes it often felt useless, but she never gave up. Giving up would mean that she had let everyone who had ever doubted her win. “Sometimes being the only human sucks, but like you said-- you ended up doing the saving, so they needed you. Sounds to me like you were one hell of an important human to them.” 

[buckybarnes-skelis-deactivated2]

“He’ll have to put quite in effort into it”, said the Asset, emotionlessly. His voice was deprived of any sort of judgement or opinion, merely stating a fact.

He looked around at the island: the sand, so white and thin beneath his fingers, the endless ocean, where it met sky and faded into it. This place looked quite utopic. If he really was dead, he wouldn’t belong here. He’d be burning in Hell.

“Where-What is this place?” he asked. 

[nataliasweb]

“Skeleton Island.” She was starting to sound like a broken record-- always answering questions for the new residents, calming them down when reality hit them, misery building up when she realized that yet another person had been doomed to eternity on the island. It was exhausting. 

“It’s...--” She brought her explanation to a quick stop, wondering for a small moment if she should even share any information with the male a few feet from her before deciding that leaving such a burden to anyone else wouldn’t be fair. “It’s an island that has the power to bring the dead back to life. Not everyone here is dead; some are simply here looking for their previously deceased friends.” Tricked into thinking that they’d be able to retrieve them and then return home. “The grand plot twist of it all is that we’re trapped here.” 

[agxntjareau]

“I grew up in a small town. Just about all we had was darts. I think I play better with a little alcohol in my system than I do completely sober, if we’re being honest.”

[nataliasweb]

“I now feel the strong urge to challenge you to a game of darts.”

[sabslien]

“This doesn’t – It doesn’t make sense, like, at all.”

[nataliasweb]

“Nothing on this island makes sense-- you’ll come to learn that soon enough.”

[buckybarnes-skelis-deactivated2]

Yes. Yes, he definitely could. Not once, but twice. A train. A gunshot. Everything was the same, in the end.

Another attempt at speech had him coughing, throat and lungs burning as they worked dehydrated and overtime. Ignoring the pain, something he was good at, the Asset – Bucky? – forced himself on a sitting position, knees brought up with his flesh arm draped over them.  Instead of answering her question, he shot her back another one: “Do you?” It seemed quite unexpected to have her dead, he thought, surprised at himself for even thinking that. He wasn’t supposed to think, after all. But he knew she was dangerous and more than capable of defending herself.

[nataliasweb]

Was she dead? 

Natasha wasn’t too sure. Her memories had become a jumbled mess, the lines between reality fading with every passing day she spent on the island. Yet her heart still pumped furiously against her chest cavity, and she still felt things, breathed just as normally as any other alive person-- those things weren’t included in death, were they? “No.” Yes? She hadn’t quite figured it out. “The grim reaper still has yet to catch me.” Sarcasm was her best defense at the moment. 

[wantedires-deactivated20200809]

“Maybe you gingers are soulless. Tell me, there’s no one here you’d give a helping hand?”

[nataliasweb]

“I like to keep my hands to myself, Kenzi. Sexual encounters are not something I’m here for.”