#even though they're powered by a human heart and have a human soul...

[moodlemcdoodle]

character design and story-development stuff i did for coursework. I love fucked up robots :)

#oc #robot #robot oc #also their mad scientist evil fucked up mother #who loves them dearly but doesn't accept them as sentient and human #even though they're powered by a human heart and have a human soul... #moodle's mcdoodles

[astaroth1357]

Devildom "Marriage/Proposal"

Again. Probably not too Christian-coded in Hell.

Contents: Satanic themes, possessive behavior mentioned

~♡♡♡~

First off, there's a big difference between a demon bonding with another demon vs. binding to a human. There's a lot more equal ground in the former, but the power dynamics are inherently different in the latter.

Traditionally, a demon "marrying" a human is usually used as the highest form of reward to an incredibly loyal follower. It's basically a way for a demon to point them out and make it clear, "This one is my favorite!"

Demons binding themselves to humans out a genuine connection is not unheard of, of course, but it's frightfully rare. Only handful may every do this at a time and not even Solomon has managed to pull it off despite the number of pacts under his belt.

It's this rare because to reform the new pact, the demon has to give up their grimoire (the books that more or less act as substitute for a demon's heart and soul) to their partner. It's like handing away the essence of their very being to another.

When demons bind with each other, the grimoire exchange is mutual. However, since humans don't have grimoire, binding to a human is seen as an act of extreme sacrifice and humility on the demon's part. It's truly the only kind of pact they have where the risks lie mostly with them.

Possessing a demon's grimoire is like literally owning the blueprint to their bodies. All of their powers, history, thoughts, and fears are detailed out within them. Every single weakness or spell to control them hides inside as well...

Because of this, demons take this decision very, VERY seriously. If your relationship falls apart, you don't want something that important left in the hands of your ex. A vast majority of demons never even show their grimoires, much less give them away.

A demon will only ever have one grimoire to share, so they can only ever be bound to one individual at a time. A human can technically be bound to multiple demons and having a binding pact does not erase lesser pacts, but again, it would be rare.

When an individual is in possession of a demon's grimoire, they will always be able to materialize it with just a slight flick of the wrist. Having it on their person will also be enough for them to summon the owner at will, barely a whisper necessary.

A demon will already show up stronger than usual if they're summoned by their grimoire, but using any added enchantments inside will only increase their power tenfold. A good caster can turn their partner into supercharged war machine with minimal effort.

There's a certain oneness between the pair that comes from binding that goes far beyond your average pact. The demon and their partner get the heightened ability to "read" each other. It's not full on telepathy, but they gain a preternatural sense for just how the other is feeling. An entire conversation can be held in the span of seconds with merely few glances and a shrug between them.

Demons are also EXTREMELY protective of their bound partners, which kind of makes sense considering what they're carrying around. They're not very good at hiding it either. We're talking full fangs out and deep, guttural growls at even the most minor of threats.

The offer of the grimoire is technically seen as the "proposal" and acceptance commences the "marriage." It's a big deal with when high-ranking demons decide to do this, so it's often celebrated by a public wedding ceremony.

The Grimores

Lucifer's grimoire has a real gothic flare to it. The whole thing is jet black leather with blood red rubies fixed to the spine and fine layer of gold leaf pressed into the corners. No matter where it's being kept, cover will always feel a bit cold to the touch... The pages are thick and textured, with every word inside written inside done in a careful, nearly mechanical hand. Perfectly legible. Technically flawless. Though certain pages are written with some hesitation, particularly the ones that go over his past...

Mammon's grimoire is, arguably, the most beautiful of the bunch. It's snow white with brilliant gold accents on the spine and along the edges. His personal sigil, painted in shimmering light, takes up most of the front cover and mesmerizes any eye that catches its shine. It's a little on the slim side, though, due in part to how thin pages are inside. Reading it can be a bit messy because the caster can always see whatever words have been scrawled out on the back of the page...

Leviathan's grimoire looks like something straight out of a sunken treasure chest. The brownish-violet leather used to bind it feels real, and it is, though it couldn't have come from any mortal creature on land. The edges are worn down and cracking from neglect, giving the whole thing a certain fragility over the rest... The pages are yellowed and hard from water damaged, yet the words inside still survive... even if parts of them are a tad smudged.

Satan's grimoire could probably pass for 18th century notebook. It too is leather bound, but it doesn’t have the same flare as his older brothers'. If anything, it has a very DIY feel to it, where the cover has a little glue in places it shouldn't and the rough-feeling pages don't all fit quite right. It feels more like a field journal than a demonic tome, perhaps adding to the distinct aura of rebellion radiating off of it... The script inside seems to change from page to page with some part written neatly and other parts apparently scrawled out in a rage. Legibility may vary.

Asmodeus' grimoire looks more like a decorative art piece than a book at times... The wine red cover is smooth and shiny with polished gems affixed like a spider's web on the front. Asmo's grimore is unique in that it is the only one that comes with a lock on it, one that can only be lifted by a spell only he knows. The penmanship inside is naturally beautiful, though sometimes the added flare of loops and flourishes gets in the way keeping everything readable.

Beelzebub's grimoire is deceptively simple looking compared to the others. It looks like your standard leather-bound book and aside from its surprising thickness, not much stands out about it. Even the engraving of his sigil on the cover doesn't have any extra color or shadow to it. But when it's open, the most gorgeous words lie inside as if penned by a master calligrapher. Every bit of space is used appropriately and each letter is clean, clear, and fluidly handled. It's not only legible, it's breathtaking and obviously done with a lot of time and care.

Belphegor's grimoire looks like a void in the space around it. It goes beyond the jet black of Lucifer's cover to an almost true black from cover to pages. You wouldn't even know that it's made of leather unless you felt it because it reflects no light and it betrays no design. Running a hand across it, though, does reveal the ridges of Belphie's sigil craved into the front and back cover. The black pages all have words are written in a bright, silvery, and iridescent ink. Parts of the pages also look seem to contain spilled stardust ready to fly off into the air. The penmanship is a little simple, compared to the rest, but nothing that can't be skimmed at a glance if need be.

Diavolo's grimoire could kill a man from its weight alone. The book is far too big for any shelf and thick with heavily textured, papyrus-like paper. No matter who has it, it will always feel as if a supernatural force is trying to pull it from their hands... Seeing much past its burgundy, black, and gold cover is more or less impossible but what's there truly befits royalty. Every aspect of the design is flawless, with polished onyx as black as night embedded in the spine and ancient symbols peppered between golden spindle-like filigree. One can only imagine what exactly is so forbidden on the inside though...

Barbatos' (true) grimoire is an honest to god mystery... No one has ever seen it and Solomon theorizes that he keeps it in a particularly empty timeline. If asked what it looks like, Barbatos will share that it's simply "a green book," but not elaborate much farther before changing the subject... One has to assume, though, it's probably as thick as a tree trunk with all the history within those pages and for the cover...? He's had all of the time in the world to make it something truly special.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons #obey me worldbuilding #obey me diavolo #obey me barbatos

[thekitsdontwork]

Not even talking about romance, I genuinely believe that Sans is the most important character in Toriel's life throughout Undertale.

Toriel herself flat out tells us about her intense loneliness, the weight of it, and her desire to not burden Frisk is part of why she lets them go. More subtle though are the signs that this loneliness is self-inflicted.

As the Queen and the brains behind the throne, Toriel had power. She had other options to oppose the sacrifice of children. She chose to seclude herself behind the massive door to the ruins.

And what about within it? See through Frisk's eyes, we get to know a kindly nurturer who teaches us to talk through problems rather than fight. But that's not how she herself handles conflict. The inhabitants of the ruins are "all too intimidated to talk to her." She does not hesitate to throw a fireball at Flowey before any words, and she handles the first Froggit with a threatening glar. I bet when you approach her, you get the glare first, and the fireball if you don't take the hint.

And why wouldn't she act this way? Undertale is a game where every monster attacks you by default, but that's not a generic game mechanic, it's a character motivation; they're trying to steal your soul to destroy the barrier. So by declaring herself protector of humans, Toriel has also declared war on every monster in the underground.

All this effort to completely alienate herself, to turn away from anyone would could support or understand her, because how could they possibly understand the pain of a mother? Thus she is lonely.

But what if there was a safe way to assuage that loneliness? Through a door. Knocking back and forth. It's just a game, a bunch of jokes. They don't even trade names, and Toriel certainly never opens the damn door. But Sans listens. He appreciates her. And he keeps coming back. Little by little, she shares parts of herself. Though cloaked in plausible deniability, her jokes are a way of telling Sans who she is and what's in her heart: "Old Lady who?" "She was feeling bonely."

I don't know that Sans would have guessed that he was Toriel's deepest bond remaining to her. Her desperate plea to protect the human reminds me of when I did personal care, and the elderly would sometimes try to give me random objects around the house or confess their deepest secrets. Not because of anything about me really. Just because I was the only person there, and I showed a bare minimum of politeness. Toriel didn't have anyone else. With something like this, she had to trust Sans.

And yeah, I do think that informs our understanding of how they act when they finally meet face to face, and how Toriel immediately buddies up to him. And why they text like huge dorks: it's one step closer than knocking on a stone wall

#child sacrifice #undertale #sans #toriel #soriel

[theoisdaydreaming]

hi!! i loved your overlord angel dust/husk art and i commented about potentially turning it into a fic and adding your art, which you consented to. i was wondering if you had any additional ideas to make it more than a oneshot, maybe they open a casino together with mafia roots, collect souls together, etc…once again, your art was amazing!!

Thank you so much, I would love a fic about my AU (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠)⁠｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

Here are other ideas about the story:

In this AU Angel didn't worked with Valentino, he and Arackniss reconciled before Angel could sign a contract with him

That is not to say Angel wasn't doing sex work, he would take all kinds of offers, from stripping to singing gigs, just for the money

Regarding the backstory of the spider brothers I haven't really fleshed it out but here are some points of it:

They had kind of a strained relationship even though they cared for each other, because Arackniss (or Andrew as I like to think) used to put down Anthony's dreams of becoming a performer like the drag queens he liked to see (in secret) in the gay bars the Mafia used to own back in the 30s (real history btw)

He did this in hopes he would give up, leave it all behind and live a 'normal' life, out of fear their dad would disown him, or worse, kill him

It wouldn't matter anyway because both of them would die together while doing a shady work for the mob (who started the shots? They couldn't really remember)

At the beginning of their afterlife Arackniss avoided Angel with the guilt that (according to him) it was his fault his little brother got shot in the eye. (He was too far, too late, he couldn't protect his brother and now he's dead because of him)

Cause of this angel thinks his brother hates him, but they eventually encounter during a turf war that went wrong

Arackniss sees Angel surrounded and not wanting to repeat his brothers death again, he saves him this time.

They sort things out, and become closer than ever

When Arackniss figures out what angel has been doing for money they decide to start doing mob work again, they're good and people start giving their loyalty and doing contracts with them because the brothers actually care about the souls they own, deciding to learn from their father's mistakes, they respect all of their workers

furthermore, Angel gains more influence because he gave the people he met while being a sex worker, safe and living conditions; every stripper, actor, performer wanted to work with him, and with all the contracts he made, became an overlord

On the other hand, arackniss does all the shady work, sticking to the shadows, not wanting any attention. He is very prod of angel, and becomes his right hand man

Other ideas and dynamics:

Angel calls arackniss An, Andy or niss

Arackniss calls angel Angie, Anni, or Anth. (He never really liked tony, that's what his father called him)

They love each other very much but they're still siblings, they bicker and fight all the time (all their goons are used to it at this point, unimpressed by the brothers shenanigans)

Valentino develops some sort of obsession with Angel after meeting him (this brings problems)

Angel fell first, husk fell harder

They kind of had an enemies to lovers (but not really, more like a rivalry bc angel likes to annoy the cat overlord for fun)

Molly is still in heaven in this AU, arackniss was able to shield her from the family business (he couldn't with angel though, That's part of his guilt)

She died of heart disease before the brothers death

Angel is the spoilt younger sibling

I haven't really thought about how him and husk get together but they will definitely become a power couple

I like the idea Angel performs at the casino

He sings, does drag, etc. (Maybe some pornos too, just for fun)

What caught husk's attention is that Angel cared a lot for the souls he owned, he treated them like the humans they are

That's all I have for now, I will make more art about this AU later, you can use it if you like, whether as reference or inspiration for the fic (⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡

Ik this is more about Angel and Arackniss but I really like to focus on their story. So regarding the huskerdust you can have fun with that as I don't have a lot of ideas

#overlord angel dust #hazbin hotel #huskerdust #angel dust hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel husk #arackniss hazbin hotel #angel dust x husk #hazbin hotel angel dust #angel dust #husker hazbin hotel #husk hazbin hotel #overlord husk au #overlord Huskerdust #overlord! casinohearts #casinohearts

[ladywren7]

My love letter to Star Wars Rebels this Rebels Remembered day, 2024.

Dear Star Wars Rebels, happy 6th Rebels Remembered Day. You have aged well, old friend. I don't even know where to begin. From catching season 1 in 2014 on the tv & seeing glimpses of who is now my favorite character of all time, Sabine, & declaring, "I like that Boba Fett girl!" to March 5th, 2018 when I cried my eyes out at the finale of what had quickly become my home, my safe place, my everything. Now in 2024 you are still my home, my safe place, & my everything more so now than ever. You have helped me through so much & I'm sure you'll continue to do so in the future. Though since then you've been brought to life in live action form & have even bigger things in store, I hope you know that I will always love you just the same, if not even more than before. I am proud to say that I will be putting you on my graduation cap with a quote Ezra Bridger says in your final adventure, "I want you to know that everything I've done and everything I will do began with you." In my heart, the "you" means not only my family, my amazing teachers, & friends, but you. You & only you have shown me that despite all odds, there will always be room for love, compassion, empathy, & humanity in this world. You taught me to love & to be loved in return, you taught me how true love should be (platonic & romantic), you taught me the importance of kindness & how far a sigular act of charity can go or mean to someone, how important it is to chase your dreams despite all obstacles, to unapologetically be yourself, even when others may not understand, & so, so much more. I'm tearing up as I write this because after all these years I never thought I'd end up here, being my most accurate self as I can be at the moment, because of you. Throughout life, I know you will always be there for me, even when things are at they're lowest. I'm going to do everything in my power to become the me I've always wanted to be because of you & I couldn't thank you enough. You were always there for me even when it seemed no one else in the world was. You are the reason I've become who I am & I thank you for that every day. As your story expands, so does my heart. I've recently opened up my heart to so many new bright souls to love just as I've loved you & it has made my heart even more full. Though your new era is going to give us one last ride, I will never forget the lessons, the qualities, and the heart that you have shown me. Thank you Star Wars Rebels & all those who created this more than life expirence you call a show. Always know that you will forever remain more than just a show to me.

Here's to 6 years of Rebels Remembered & 10 years of Star Wars Rebels, godspeed!🎉🤎💚🧡💜💖💙

-Lots of Love, LadyWren7💖

#star wars #star wars rebels #swr #rebels remembered #rebels remembered day #text post #source: me #hera syndulla #kanan jarrus #ezra bridger #sabine wren #chopper #zeb orrelios #garazeb orrelios #the ghost crew #phoenix squad

[carionto]

Reckless? Nah - wreckful!

The day has finally come - Abby's Action Asteroids 2.0 is open for business!

Abigail was sitting in her ship, Victor 3.4, and tending to a few scratches she just got from Hector. "No matter how you struggle, ya little bum, mama will always give you belly rubs."

Ships were racing around the track, the obstacles were moving where they should when they should, tons of people were tuning in - everything was going smoothly. Well, except the parts that are supposed to be rough, like the random rockets. Or the surprise one-way holographic asteroids. Or the group of asteroid surfers.

Wait, they're not supposed to be here. Jumping between parts of the race track while ships are speeding through, constant pieces of micro debris flying every which way that, while not significant to a ship, can somewhat easily kill a Human in just their space suit.

They didn't sign the waiver!

So if they get hurt, it's gonna be Abby's fault and she'll have to not only pay their medical and/or funeral bills, the authorities might even shut down her operation! And after going through the bother of visiting the fancy HQ place and submitting whatever papers. All that work, gone, because of some idiots?

That's it, no more Miss Nice Gal, she's gonna round them up personally. Hmm, can't stop the ongoing race though, the participants are already on the final two laps, and this is opening day. If the competition gets cut short for something as small as some jokers barging in and endangering their lives, nobody's gonna care about next time!

No! This debut will go off without a hitch.

So, after some "careful" consideration, she quickly rearranged the engine cluster into a ring-like shape around the back cargo bay entrance and sped off.

As she got close to the first surfers, she hailed them: "Bet 50 Credits you're too chicken to jump in here!" as she set the engines to power up and down rhythmically in a circular pattern around the entrance, which also caused her ship to fly in a somewhat circular way. They ate up the challenge like moths and before she knew it, three of the eight surfers were in her hold.

What she didn't tell them is that there's an EMP field inside, so they can't talk to their buddies still outside about the trap. Over the next two or so minutes, just as the race was entering the final lap, there was only one surfer to go. However, seems they caught on to her little ruse, and were actively running away from her. For nearly three minutes, the little bugger kept dodging and weaving through the track and regularly coming this close to getting bodied by one of the racers.

Just as they felt they had left Abby in the metaphorical dust, a literal dust cloud suddenly surrounded them and they were now floating helplessly in a slightly green-tinged energy field. "I hate using these tractor beams, no sport, no flair, no rocket engines!" Abby muttered to herself in disappointment that she had to resort to an actually safe method of obstacle removal.

After the official race concluded, and Abby paid out the 350 Credits she promised, she announced, with great sadness embedded within the heart and soul of the text, that:

"Any future trespassers who get caught will be held in a gravity field until the final event of the day is over, so just sign the personal safety waiver!"

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are deathworlders #humanity fuck yeah #carionto

[iceheap]

@panicataphmausinsanity okay so Zane HC's LETS GOOOOOOOO

Before we start trigger warning for like, child abuse and torture and shit. Seriously this gets dark. Zane redemption must come at a price >:D

So. Something interesting to me in regards to Zane is how in MCD, He's like, this evil, terrible human being, but in Mystreet, he's like, a semi functional human being who can be a NOT bad person and NOT do bad things. And so I got to thinking.

I don't think Zane was born a bad person.

Personally, I kind of hate the way Jess wrote Zane. Like, yes, evil for the sake of evil is great and all, but like. In season one and two, Zane was this overarching antagonist who was always one step ahead of the cast and plotting and having a good time being a paice of shit.

And then season 3 comes around and now he's a shadow knight, on the run, has PTSD...

Look, I'm not knocking the guy for having PTSD. I'm just saying that the way it's portrayed kind of makes him seem like a whimpery coward. AGAIN, NOT KNOCKING PTSD!!

I think the position that Zane found himself in season 3 was a PERFECT set up for a redemption arc and it makes me SO MAD that it didn't happen.

So I guess I have to do it myself apparently -_-

I've been thinking a lot about Zane. I don't want him to stop being evil. Not right away. So we keep what happened in the first two seasons the same. He's a cackling maniac that has killed a shit ton of people and is on his father's payroll.

And then he dies.

(skill issue lol)

Anyway, Zane is dead. But he's also Zane, so of course he weasels his way out of being dead. And then he gets tortured and is subjected to the same suffering he condemned so many others to yada yada yada PTSD bleh.

Everything seems to be the same so far.

But then he breaks out if the nether. Still, we're on track, right?

He gets captured, he gets expedited to Phoenix Drop, he gets interrogated, it's all the same.

But here we find a canon divergence. Instead of being absolute dumbasses, they don't bring him into the nether. Let's scrap that plot point entirely.

Instead, we're going to let Zane bake in prison for a while!

Here are the main issues that make Zane irredeemable.

1. He's killed like, a shit ton of people, for funsies ig

2. He killed Vylad.

3. He destroyed Aaron's village.

Let's keep those things in mind.

So he's in prison. While in prison, Garroth starts to visit him (along with Travis but shhhh we'll get to him another day) and just. You know. Be angry.

Garroth has seen Zane as a spoiled brat his entire life. He's always been their father's favorite. He's always had everything handed to him on a silver platter. He's always been willing to do whatever it takes for power. He's greedy. He's psychotic. Garroth hates him.

But Zane is Garroth's brother. And Garroth is the type of golden retriever, gold hearted, kind type of character to still love his brother even if he hates him.

That doesn't mean he goes in and is like, nice to him though. Nope. Garroth goes to visit him and nine times out of ten it devolves into a screaming match where Zane antagonizes him the entire time and Garroth yells at him for being a shitty human being.

And then one day Phoenix Drop is attacked and Zane escapes.

They track him down eventually. When they find him, they strike a deal with him. Due to Irene related shenanigans they need his expertise as a scholar of Irene to figure out some more stuff for Aphmau. In exchange, they'll protect him from the Shadow Lord (who he pissed off by stealing one of his soul fragments lol Zane behavior).

Eventually they're able to establish a rapore with Zane. Garroth still gets a migraine whenever they have a conversation. Vylad still refuses to speak to him (oh btw he's visiting from his nether revolution vacation just so u know) and Aphmau still wants to tear out his guts for killing the love of her life or whatever, but he becomes manageable. They can like, stand him. A little bit. Slightly.

And then Zianna gets kidnapped or whatever. So they go rescue her. But when they get back to Phoenix Drop they forget to mention the fact that Zane is like. There and in the wild and not currently killing entire villages worth of people.

So Zianna rolls up to Phoenix Drop and gets jumpscared by her youngest son and also, notably, Zane is NOT happy to see her. He shuts the front door in her face. It's hilarious even though Garroth doesn't think of it that way.

So, now we have our key players all in one place. Garroth, Vylad, Zane, and Zianna.

Let's say they have to all go find an artifact toghether or something and they need Zianna there because it's related to something she knows and they need Zane there because of Irene lore reasons. they go on this mission. One day, they sit and set up for the night, set up bedrolls, whatever. They're lounging around the fire and talking when Vylad eventually mentions his time as a shadow knight in the nether and something about torture.

Zane blinks, and, having not been included in the conversation initially, buts it to say,

"Oh, please. Don't tell me getting tortured by those amatures was DISTRESSING for you. I would have thought father's methods would have given you thicker skin."

The others bristle and start scolding him, of course, because Zane is like, the reason Vylad became a shadow knight in the first place. But Vylad himself, who is very observant and hard to antagonize, latches into something Zane said.

"Methods? What methods?" He says. He says it sharply, too.

Of course, Zane doesn't pick up on this. He just rolls his eyes.

"Don't tell me you forgot. Father had a whole floor dedicated to torture and loved collecting new methods from around the region. I think he even had a historian employed who would research for him..."

"What?" Garroth says, stunned out of his anger.

Zianna has gone silent. So has everyone else, and now they're watching with baited breaths.

"So what? What would that have to do with me?"

And for the first time that they've ever seen, Zane looks... Puzzled.

"What, did he go easy on you? Didn't you talk back to him all the time? Once, after just asking him a question, he had two of my nails pulled. Shadow Knight torture was child's play in comparison," he shrugs, then takes a bite out of his stale price of bread.

There's silence.

Zane looks back at all of them, confused and now kind of pissed off. He looks like he usually does when he feels like he's about to be scolded for saying something crass. Except, that's not what happens. Instead, Vylad looks him in the eye for the first time since Zane killed him, and with the most emotion they've ever heard from him, says,

"What?"

Zane hums.

"Come on. Don't play dumb. He hated you. Im sure he must have sent you to the "torture basement" at least once. You got on his nerves constantly,"

Garroth makes an aborted movement, like he's going to stand up and rush him, but Vylad stops him with a flick of his hand. And then Vylad starts doing what he does best. Interrogating him.

So remember that list, right? Let's reframe a few things.

Zane was not the favorite child. Garroth was.

Garte was a paice of shit. Garte hated Vylad. But he also hates Zane. Why wouldn't he? Vylad was his wife's affair child, sure, but Zane, Zane was Zianna's spitting image.

When Zane was little, he used to take snails and out them in the grass after it rained. He uses to clamor for his mother's pastries just like his brothers. He was a normal child, and he was NOT born a psychopath.

But Garte had a thought, one day.

Wouldn't it be funny... If he made his wife think he WAS one?

Wouldn't it be funny to punish her that way? Wouldn't it be funny to turn Zane into a terrible person, and have her think it was for no reason? Make her think that she birthed a psychopath? How much would it hurt her? How much would she weep?

Garte used to punish Zane for Vylad's joy. One of Vylad's laughs would equal one slap to the face. One side remark in defence of their mother would equal one hour locked in his father's study closet in his office.

Garte turns Zane against himself brothers. And the best part in his mind?

He makes Zane believe that they know about all of it.

He tells Zane that his mother knows about it. That his brothers don't care that he's beaten. That Vylad does things so he gets punished on purpose.

Zane grows up thinking that his brothers probably go through this too. He grows up thinking that his mother just doesn't love him. And so he doesn't say a thing.

Garte starts having him tortured instead of superficially physically abused? He says nothing.

Garte makes him become a priest of Okasis even though the consequence of failing the academy is death? He says nothing.

Garte would encourage Zane to blugeon animals to death and bring them to Zianna and laugh at her horrified face from afar. Garte encourages Zane to say psychotic things while they're eating dinner, and watches as his family becomes more and more convinced Zane is a monster.

Until Zane is one.

But this reframes a few things.

The people Zane killed? It was under orders. He eventually became his father's right hand man. Most of his overarching goals have been in service of his father.

For Aaron's village, we'll stick a pin in that one, but long story short, Aaron's village had been planning a coup that night under his wife's orders. Zane had them killed under his father's orders so they could eliminate them as political neighbors. He let Aaron live out of pity.

And Vylad.

Basically, remember when I said that Garte used to punish Zane according to Vylad's actions?

One day, Vylad gets into an explosive argument with Garte defending Zianna. And Garte, again, without the other's knowing, has Zane tortured. Except this time it's for a WEEK STRAIGHT.

So when Zane gets out. He's. Very unstable.

And then he comes across Vylad in a semi secluded area.

And Vylad is acting like he did nothing, and all he's ever done is make Zane suffer, and Zane hates him hates him HATES HIM--

And so he snaps. And he kills him.

Keep in mind, though, Zane thinks this is all normal. He doesn't realize that killing his own brother has traumatized him. He doesn't realize that he's a victim of abuse. He doesn't realize that what his dad did is not okay because he THINKS HIS FAMILY KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED, and if they didn't contradict his abuse, then this must be normal. He thinks that Vylad has probably been tortured too. He thinks Garroth is their father's favorite because in his mind he's determined that Garroth not receiving any attention from their father is a GOOD thing because ATTENTION EQUALS TORTURE to him.

And this reframes a few things. His constant bid for power? It's not greed, it's DESPERATION. Power makes him feel safe. Hurting others makes him feel powerful because that's how his father had power over him.

His highly volatile and violent personality? It's l he's ever known. Do you have ANY idea what torture could do to a child? He has severe PTSD. Like, severe and repressed and his outburst are more common when he's uncomfortable or anxious or experiencing any negative emotion, which is often.

Garte took Zane's empathy from him. Turned him against his family. Made him into a monster. With these types of characters, I imagine it would probably be very difficult for them to redevelop their emotions and empathy because if they do that, they would have to face their whole mountain of trauma and the guilt of all the lives they've ruined.

I think eventually, after a lot of work, Zane does eventually regain his empathy. It probably finally sinks in during a small gathering. His mother makes her famous cake. Zane has long gotten used to being excluded during these sorts of things, but then...

His mother slides a plate of cake right in front of him.

Strawberry.

His favorite.

And she smiles at him.

This is probably after they found out about Garte being a peice of shit. Maybe a few months.

All Zane has ever wanted is to be loved. Maybe he didn't know it, but when he takes a bite of his mother's strawberry cake for the first time in decades and the nostalgic taste registers in his brain, something snaps.

And he becomes human again.

And he realizes:

Oh.

I'm a person.

I'm a murderer.

I'm a monster.

LMAO WAS THIS COHERENT SORRY PANIC I TRIED MY BEST I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS ONE OSIBWIBDIBSIBU

#zane mcd #aphmau mcd #garroth ro'meave #garroth mcd #zianna ro'meave #vylad ro'meave #mcd #aphmau #minecraft diaries #this one is dark guys watch out #please dont get mad at me for this one this is one of my favorite headcanons/rewrites and it will make me extremely sad

[beevean]

Dracula in Netflixvania: how small changes in lore build up to disaster

Changes in adaptations are bound to happen. Cuts in the lore are bound to happen. But I find incredible how so many tiny changes in the lore of Castlevania brought by NFCV, apparently innocuous or even improvements according to some, actually lead to the narrative completely falling apart both as an adaptation and as its own story.

Let's start with the biggest change:

Lament of Innocence didn't happen.

Everything has been covered in this clear thread. To summarize what this change affects:

Dracula in the games started out as Mathias Cronqvist, a man who, wracked by grief for the loss of his wife Elisabetha, rebelled against God and concocted a plan to turn into a vampire and have Death as his loyal servant. In the show, he's just "the oldest vampire", with no clearer origins. (in the games Dracula wasn't even the oldest vampire, Walter and Joachim already existed, but they don't matter for this list)

Leon Belmont in LoI was a crusader who had to throw away his title to rescue Sara, his fiancée. He was involved in Mathias' selfish plan, that lead to Sara's death, and cursed him to be hunted by his descendants for the rest of time: what makes it more painful is that the two used to be best friends. In the show, Leon was already a vampire hunter while fighting in crusades, and only moved from France to Wallachia to hunt Dracula, whom he had no previous relationship with.

The Vampire Killer in the games is the strongest holy weapon against dark creatures, due to it being infused with Sara's soul. There are other whips in the setting, but none can match the Vampire Killer. In the show, it's just a regular consecrated whip, and Trevor also fights with the Morning Star (turned from a powered up version of the VK to a different object) and Leon's longsword (the Belmonts in the games never use swords).

But these can be forgiven as small changes in adaptation, one could say. Elisabetha was cut because, really, she was a non-entity. Sara was cut because the VK can work just fine without her. Leon doesn't need to be Mathias' bestie, the Belmonts can fight Dracula out of the goodness of their heart.

All valid arguments. But this is just the beginning.

Dracula hunted humans before Lisa showed up.

We don't know in detail what Dracula was up to between LoI and CV3. For all intents and purposes, he focused on honing his new vampire powers, moved to Wallachia, made himself a nice castle, and... chilled there. Perhaps he became the voivode of the land, the historical Vlad Țepeș.

It's heavily implied, though, that he had zero beef with humanity, and in fact he was willing to help certain people as long as they were against God, Dracula's one enemy at the time.

Hector and Isaac are, of course, the proof of this.

But even without the extra material, they were two humans who were welcomed in his court and served under him, in an extremely important role to boot.

(to be fair, the show gives an alternative and decent explanation for the Forgemasters' presence as humans in Dracula's court: the fact that they're willing to kill their own kind proves to him how trustworthy they are. A detail that was changed but on its own does not break the lore: good job!)

Alucard in GoS gives us these intriguing words:

which not only emphasize how Lisa brought to light Dracula's better side, but even imply that she briefly reversed the corruption brought by vampirism. It makes more believable why such a pure-hearted woman would fall in love with him.

Instead, the show directly opens with Lisa marching through Dracula's courtyard, infested with impaled skeletons, and flirting with the guy. And if this could be justified if one imagines that those humans attacked Dracula's first, the flashback in Season 2, where he's shown having a grand old time going on a killing spree because some merchants "disrespected" him, proves that no, he was an outright monster when Lisa met him.

Due to the first season and the finale's rushed nature, it's harder to imagine why would Lisa find a kernel of humanity in this vampire. She doesn't come off too good either.

Why does it matter?: despite his grief having a more prominent role in the story, Dracula is actually less sympathetic in this version. This wouldn't be terrible, as he is meant to be a tragic yet intimidating villain, if it weren't for the fact that the show paints him as utterly pitiable, and it's even known for "giving him depth". Shankar himself sees him as the hero of his own story.

In the show, Carmilla keeps asking why didn't Dracula turn Lisa into a vampire. With game Dracula, one can believe that he valued her humanity so much that he was willing to let her die of old age eventually, as long as she died as herself. The show, instead, never gives us an answer, because the question isn't meant to paint him in a noble light, but as an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing.

Lisa is less compassionate towards humanity.

Lisa's death is very different between Symphony of the Night and show. In the latter she got burned at the stake, while in the former she was crucified and we can assume she bled to death. This affects two factors.

One, in the game, we know that Alucard stayed with his mother until her last breath, allowing her to speak her last words to her son. In the show, Lisa dies alone shouting in the hopes that Dracula hears her. The title sequence of the first episode shows Alucard kneeling in front of Lisa, but this is not shown in the actual story, and there is no further indication that he was actually there: realistically, it's not possible.

Two, her last words are also different.

SoTN (ENG): "She said "Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm. For their's is already a hard lot. She also said to tell you that she would love you for all of eternity…" SoTN (JP): "Do not blame humans. She said that those unable to forgive mankind will walk the path of their own destruction. Those who do not belong to that world shouldn't do anything... And Father... she said that she will love you forever." NFCV: "Don't hurt them! They don't understand! I know it's not your fault, but... if you can hear... they don't know what they're doing. Be better than them. Please!"

Lisa in the game holds no ill will towards humans. She urges Alucard not to resent them, and understand that their lives are already difficult. She even attempts to find a compromise for ease of his mind: if he truly can't forgive, may he at least leave them alone. In Japanese, she emphasizes that hating humans will only be detrimental, a somber foreshadowing of Dracula's downfall. And finally, she parts with a last thought to her husband, a soft declaration of love. The tragedy here is that Alucard kept Lisa's words dear to his heart, but he could not tell them to Dracula, who instead used Lisa's memory as a weapon to wage war on mankind. By the time Alucard reveals Lisa's final wish, three hundred years later, it's too late.

Lisa in the show doesn't sound the same. Not only she ignores her son completely, but her focus seems to wanting to appease Dracula, who might or might not be hearing her, it's ambiguous. She quotes Jesus speaking to God, but she sounds more like an abused wife scared of her abusive husband's rage, a sentiment echoed in S2. She also puts emphasis on how "it's not his fault", as if to absolve Dracula of the responsibility of his reaction, and that Dracula should be "better than them", implying that she thinks lowly of them and wants Dracula to be superior. Not exactly compassionate.

Why does it matter? 1: the show had a chance to flesh out Lisa and Alucard's relationship as mother and son, and it squanders it to further emphasize Lisa's already established attachment to Dracula. Not only it cheapens Alucard's attachment to the mother he fights his father for (he, bafflingly, even says "Then find the one who did the deed", which misses the entire point of his character), this becomes much worse by the time of the finale, as I describe below.

Why does it matter? 2: Lisa, once again, loses sympathy points. The inherent hypocrisy of Dracula disrespecting Lisa's memory is never breached in the show, which prefers to focus on his shortsightedness, but Lisa's wish herself is not as purehearted in the show. In fact, as I said, her relationship with Dracula sounds quite unhealthy now, which of course never gets acknowledged.

Dracula hired Hector and Isaac shortly after Lisa was killed.

There are so many changes brought to the lore of the Devil Forgemasters that they deserve their own post. Each change only causes more logical problems in the show's plot, and it makes the villain story in Season 2 fall apart.

In the prequels, both Devil Forgemasters went to knock on Dracula's door on their own volition, to study the dark arts and live in a place that would accept them. In the show, it's the other way around: after Lisa urges him to travel around the world, Dracula accidentally finds both of them, one in Rhodes and the other in the Sahara, and then he looks for them again once he needs them. This is not the most important change, though, as what matters is that Hector and Isaac are loyal to Dracula for being the only person kind to them, and in all fairness the trait is kept. What matters is how this affects Hector.

This line implies that Hector was left blindsided by Dracula's decision of exterminating mankind. This was not what he signed for! Hector never, ever wanted to harm humans, and he was so disgusted by his Lord's actions that he preferred to leave. In the show, Dracula already presents him with the idea of "stopping" humans: he means genocide, but Hector proposes that they be turned into livestock for vampires, and accepts to help him as long as there's no needless suffering.

Why does it matter? Hector started off with all the building blocks to go through a similar character arc he goes through in the CoD prequels, but he's turned into a less sympathetic character, as he was on board with turning humans into cattle from the get go. An anti-villain who'd enslave his own kind out of a misguided sense of mercy needs a carefully woven narrative to justify, and possibly redeem. We all know what happened to him.

To be fair, the story wasting Hector is not the fault of the lore changes, so there's no point in elaborating here. I will mention, however, that some fans genuinely believe Hector deserved to be enslaved and raped precisely because of his original plan, which makes the narrative even grosser.

Why does it matter? 2: Dracula lying to Hector to gain his help because "he's a child in a man's body" and thus "he's easy to lie to" devalues Hector, his intelligence (most obvious in his scenes with Lenore, where it's clear that he didn't think too deeply about Dracula's plans and she takes advantage of that weakness), and even Dracula himself who apparently doesn't trust the man enough with his real plans, but trusts him enough with the role of a General of his army... even as he's shouting in the war room that he doesn't enjoy paddling in the blood of innocents. It's never made clear why would Dracula even keep Hector around in the show when Isaac is presented as much stronger and smarter overall, while in the prequels, Dracula respected and trusted both (but favored Hector). Even worse, Season 3 confirms that Dracula did not invent the art of Devil Forging, but it's a type of highly advanced magic that nevertheless is fairly well known in certain circles - so then why did Dracula go out of his way to hire someone who didn't even fully agree with his plan, when there are other Forgemasters around who might be just as fanatical as Isaac?

(the reason might be in the stats sheets that came out with Season 2, that implied that Hector and Isaac were meant to be both physically weak, with the former slightly stronger and more powerful in "necromancing" than the latter. Clearly, something was changed during production to make Isaac the hypercompetent one and Hector the ineffectual one, but this part of the plot would have only worked if Hector was deemed absolutely vital to Dracula's plan)

Why does it matter? 3: Hector and Isaac only worked under Dracula for a year, and they're already called Generals. In the prequels, it's implied they spent years studying under him and gaining experience, both in the alchemy lab and in the battlefield, which is why they're called Generals in the first place (unlike the show version, who allegedly aren't even physical fighters). While Dracula explains that he trusts them due to being humans willing to exterminate other humans, it's questionable that Dracula would trust their qualifications so much; this is made even worse by the fact that Hector was "hired" thanks to a lie. When all three of them fall for Carmilla's plan, I struggle to sympathize with them, so I chalk this up to a worldbuilding and storyline failure.

Addendum: the show makes a frequent point, through Carmilla and Lenore and the Captain, that Dracula might have planned to kill Hector and Isaac together with all the humans: Isaac accepted this fate, Hector could be manipulated at the other vampires' leisure. It also paints Hector as even more of an idiot for not wanting a reward for his work, which gives even more leverage to Lenore. The mangas actually give a much more understandable reason for both points, tied with what above. I'm not making this an entire section because the result is the same: by changing the lore, Dracula comes off as more insane and hypocritical than he is, Hector comes off as profoundly stupid, and even Isaac's relationship with Dracula is now contradictory.

Dracula never became the Dark Lord.

When Elisabetha died. Mathias became a vampire through the Crimson Stone. When Lisa died, Dracula made a pact with Chaos/The Evil God to become the Dark Lord, the Avatar of Chaos on Earth. This makes Dracula far more than a vampire, and something closer to Satan, a truly terrifying figure. His penchant for cursing and possessing also proves this. Dracula, through his own actions, became the incarnation of evil.

Needless to say, Chaos isn't even hinted at in the show.

Why does it matter?: despite his posturing, Dracula is nothing special. He is in theory respected by other vampires for being the oldest and most knowledgeable one, but even that is not true, as the first thing Carmilla does is disrespect him in front of his whole court. His abilities also pale compare to what he can do in the games - while he showcases his iconic Hellfire, he doesn't even turn into his monster form!

Death is not Dracula's loyal confidant.

In the games, Death is a creature born from Chaos, and bound to serve the wielder of the Crimson Stone. Mathias was able to get his help to complete his transformation into a vampire, and since then, Death has stuck with the Dark Lord through thick and thin. Not only he's often responsible for Dracula's resurrection through the centuries, but he's pretty much described as the closest thing the vampire has to a confidant and friend.

No Crimson Stone = no Death. The role of confidant is taken by Isaac, strangely enough, with a Dracula being seriously concerned about their friendship (and this only highlights how differently Isaac and Hector are treated).

Death doesn't appear until Season 4, and he has a completely different role: he's the man behind the scenes who wants to revive Dracula, which so far is canon compliant... but he wants to use Dracula by giving him a fate worse than death, in the hopes of driving him insane and pushing him to kill as many people as possible, again. Dracula is nothing but a tool to Death, who is described as being a different type of vampiric creature.

Why does it matter?: it's yet another way Dracula is weakened and disrespected by the narrative. Constantly presenting new semi-original villains and having them insulting the main antagonist of the franchise or playing them as pawns is just tasteless.

Dracula and Lisa are brought back to life in the finale.

Death does manage to accomplish part of his plan: with St. Germain's help, he calls back Dracula's and Lisa's souls from Hell to be fused into a Rebis. After Trevor destroys Death, the two return to normal. Happy to be once again together, they decide to spend the rest of their lives together travelling around the world like they were set to do, leaving Alucard alone.

Why does it matter?: it completely shatters the whole point of the cycle of death and rebirth Dracula and the Belmonts are stuck under. Dracula in the games is brought back into the human world by mankind's evil and desires, forced by Chaos to be its avatar and a harbinger of evil. It's implied that even he grew tired of it all, which is why being reincarnated into Soma is a chance of a new start for him. By having Lisa to his side again, Dracula has no reason to hate mankind anymore. Since Chaos doesn't exist in the show, Dracula is completely free, and the year he spent planning mass extermination and suicide is quickly brushed off. We are left questioning what exactly Dracula will do now with his new life, and what he will do after Lisa's natural death.

As of Season 1 of Nocturne, he seems to have faded into obscurity: the first of the two times he is mentioned (the second time from Alucard introducing himself), it's from Juste, in a line like this:

"Whatever it is, evil. And it's everywhere. It will always be stronger than us. And you can kill this or that devil. A Lord Ruthven, a Dracula, maybe even an Olrox. But there'll always be more, more and worse."

Put in the middle as if he were a random vampire, implicitly listed as less impressive than Olrox. And to add insult to injury, Annette, who somehow knew all about Forgemasters, has no idea who he is.

In short, Castlevania, the series named after Dracula's own castle and domain, barely has Dracula as its villain, and in the short screentime he had he was blatantly disrespected.

But he's far from being the only one.

The Belmonts are incredibly nerfed.

To recap. The Belmonts are a generic clan of vampire hunters, for which Dracula is just another vampire. The two have no connection. The Vampire Killer is nowhere near as impressive as its game counterpart, regardless of the flashy animation of the fight. During the fight with Dracula, not even the Morning Star could scratch him. Dracula recognizes Trevor as a Belmont because he attempts to punch him in the face, to no avail. It's implied that, before Trevor, his ancestors went to fight Dracula. And failed. Possibly died.

The Belmonts... don't come off as being particularly heroic.

And this leads to the biggest sin: Trevor couldn't kill Dracula.

I repeat: Trevor Belmont was not the one who killed Dracula. And a weaker version to boot. He dies because he has an emotional breakdown at the sight of Alucard's childhood room, realizing too late that he's "killing his boy", and it's "his boy" who stakes him through the heart.

So much for him being the Legendary Belmont in the games, right?

Why does it matter?: The narrative feels somewhat disdainful of the protagonists of the whole franchise, let alone its own.

Alucard being Dracula's effective killer is the result of Season 2 focusing mostly on their strained father/son relationship, which has its place to be sure, but it's as if the writers copypasted the emotional climax of Symphony of the Night in what is supposed to be an adaptation of Dracula's Curse.

Generally speaking, Trevor gets the shaft in his own story. He did kill Death, the final villain of the show, but Death hardly matters in the grand scheme of things compared to Dracula. The narrative's focus was spread through too many plotlines, and clearly favored Alucard and Isaac (and Hector's plotline, but not for him). Trevor and Sypha, stuck to playing hero in random villages in Season 3 and 4, are by far the most wasted protagonists of the bunch.

The writers seem to have grown bored with the main protagonist, because other characters became more popular. It's amateurish, and once again, disrespectful to the source material: yes, not all games have a Belmont as the protagonist and sometimes they use some flimsy excuses to push them to the sides, but at least they accomplish stuff.

And this leads to...

Richter in Nocturne has lost the entire point of himself.

Richter Belmont is famous for being the turning point in the Belmont clan. While, chronologically, Juste already grappled with his own fate, Richter is the one who completely falls apart because of his legacy. For 300 years, his ancestors were born, raised and died knowing that some of them will have to destroy Dracula. Richter wrapped his identity around being a Belmont, and being tasked with killing Dracula, which he did eagerly... so when he did, he suddenly realized he had nothing to live for. He wanted to keep fighting for eternity, to give a purpose to himself. And that's how Shaft got to him. And Richter was so distraught for the shame he has brought upon the name of his clan, that he gave the VK to the Morris clan, who kept it until 1999.

Nothing of this could be kept in Nocturne, because no Belmont has ever killed Dracula, and there is no reason to even kill him anymore after he stopped hating mankind. Richter is still proud of his heritage, but he describes it as a generic "killing vampires": as of Season 1 of Nocturne, the main source of pain for him is the death of his mother at the hands of Olrox, a very different and IMO much more cliché tragic backstory.

Why does it matter?: between this, Trevor being a glorified prop, and Juste being reduced to a depressed cynical mentor, plus the OC Julia getting killed in an uncerimonious way to fuel Richter's angst, there is a sad pattern of the show almost resenting the Belmont clan as a whole. What is the point of adapting Richter's story, if his story simply cannot happen?

Richter thought Alucard was just a myth.

In SoTN, Richter immediately recognizes Alucard as the one who helped his ancestor Trevor. The implication is that the knowledge of Trevor's feats had been passed down, and survived for 300 years. Apparently, no such thing happened in Nocturne.

Why does it matter?: since Trevor did absolutely nothing of importance in the show, Richter's knowledge of his own clan lore is cheapened. This affects once again his supposed arc, confirmed by Sam Deats, of living up to his family legacy - what legacy?

And still they aren't the only ones affected!

Alucard doesn't hate his vampiric heritage.

In the games, Alucard's biggest internal struggle is about his dual nature. Both a vampire and a human, son of his father who wants to destroy mankind and son of his mother who asked him to cause no harm to them. The turmoil is so great that Alucard chooses to seal himself in a coffin twice over, in 1476 and in 1797: he explicitly does so because he feels tremendous guilt over having killed his father, and to protect the world from his "cursed" blood, as there is the chance that, if he dies, he will become a full-fledged vampire.

Absolutely nothing of this is kept in the show. Alucard reluctantly kills Dracula and is shown weeping about it, but he's fiercely, and weirdly, protective of vampires. This is shown in S2, where the reason he spends the entire time insulting Trevor and his lineage with cruel, callous and frankly xenophobic remarks is that they kept "a museum dedicated to the extermination of my people".

Furthermore, he never goes to sleep. The entirety of his story in S3 is caused by him going insane for the isolation over a month because Trevor and Sypha decided to travel alone, while Alucard guarded the castle and the Belmont Hold; in Nocturne, Alucard mentions that he spent the last 300 years slaying vampires (I suppose he changed his mind in the meantime).

Why does it matter? At its core, this is the show's attempt to make the vampires look more sympathetic, painting them as a noble race who don't deserve to be systematically killed (accidentally drawing unfortunate parallels with real life ethnicities). By default, it paints the Belmonts as morally grey, at best, hunters who kill innocent creatures like "children" and gruesomely display the remains.

Incidentally, while the objective was to make the vampires look more pitiable, the real consequence is that Alucard looks like a grand bastard, hating Trevor for doing his job and siding with bloodsucking monsters for reasons that are not elaborated upon. You'd think this would effect his relationship with Dracula, but it never comes up.

(Nocturne also comes off as even more disconnected to the original series now, as it reverts back to the notion that vampires are nothing more than shallow monsters to be killed without remorse)

Why does it matter? 2: a smaller consequence of Alucard never sealing himself in his coffin is that Trevor and Sypha come off as very insensitive friends for abandoning him right when he needed the most support. In Dracula's Curse, he choose to separate himself from them. This cheapens their supposed friendship even more.

But as for Alucard being awake for 300 years, we don't know enough to say how this has affected him. We'll see in S2.

And there you have it. Richter can't be Richter and Nocturne has to revolve around the French Revolution, because Lament of Innocence didn't happen in the show. And because the writers did not understand the source material and all the decisions that had been taken.

#castlevania #akumajou dracula #anti netflixvania #long post

[cookinguptales]

Okay so now that I've had some time to digest and think about Late Night with the Devil, some thoughts.

Sorry in advance, this got really, REALLY long as I rambled about all-male secret societies, who and what was possessing whom throughout this movie, literal and metaphorical hauntings, how fame and fortune tempt us all to give up our humanity, and uh. Family youtubers.

I really enjoyed the film, but I do have to wonder, to start with, if other people will get all the allusions...? I didn't think about it until later when I was reading confused posts by other viewers, but I guess the film does kind of predicate on a lot of somewhat arcane knowledge. Like you can understand what's going on without it, but I do think you get a lot more enjoyment out of it if you have a good working understanding of, like, the Satanic Panic of the 70s, the parapsychology/esper craze, James Randi's whole thing, Anton LaVey, Waco, late night hosts like Johnny Carson, and of course the Bohemian Grove.

The Bohemian Grove is kind of... like, obviously a lot of the people making up conspiracy theories about that recently are alt-right assholes (see: Alex Jones), but it is very much a real thing. It's kind of a modern Masonic situation, imo, where you get these big groups of rich, influential men together and they do silly, juvenile vaguely pagan frat boy shit. It's edgelord stuff. But because they are secretive and they are powerful, people come up with all of these conspiracy theories about them.

(I mean lbr that's kind of the history of the occult in general, isn't it? lmao. People ask me if I was afraid when I was studying secret societies and occultism and it's like -- no, these were by and large just rich assholes fighting over headcanons about rituals that they made up based off of deeply faulty scholarship. But I digress.)

The fact of the matter, though, is even if the actual rituals and stuff are kind of silly, the main focus is really rich, powerful men meeting up with other rich, powerful men and networking like crazy. It does keep the rich rich, the powerful powerful, and political resources focused on men. Like the Masons, women aren't allowed in the Bohemian Grove -- and women in politics have bitterly criticized the way that they're being excluded from this kind of networking.

(God, it's so fratty. It's so fucking fratty.)

So in that respect, it is kind of something to be feared.

And... I do think you see that aspect of it reflected in Late Night with the Devil. The consolidation of power, the networking with shitty people, and the way that women are "sacrificed."

[massive spoilers for the entire film to follow!]

I do think I want to see this movie again to firm up some of my ideas, because I suspect that there are a lot of details that I missed the first time I watched this. (And I really should have watched the open captioned version of this; I couldn't understand a lot of what the demon was saying, rip.) But here are some initial thoughts.

The heart of this, obviously, is the demonic presence at the Grove and the way that men go there to sell their soul for power. In a very literal sense, that's what's happening in this film and it's what happened to Jack Delroy. He made a deal with a demon for fame, and that demon ended up taking everything from him to achieve that.

But... metaphorically speaking, it seems clear that Jack Delroy was very willing to make human sacrifices in his day-to-day life. He may have literally (and I think accidentally) sacrificed his wife's life to a demon at the Grove, but he very consciously and willingly sacrificed her for fame when she was alive, too. I mean... imagine having a spouse who is actively dying of cancer and making her make an appearance on your show two weeks before she passes. For ratings. Imagine how much it must have physically taxed her. Imagine how difficult it must have been for them both emotionally. It even could have hastened her death. But he was still willing to do all that for views. He sacrificed his wife, his home life, and his overall privacy for views.

(Family youtubers, anyone? 🙃)

He's also willing to sacrifice his girlfriend, his crew, his audience, and a little girl for ratings. Gus, his voice of reason. He was willing to humiliate him onstage and wouldn't let him go home when he was scared. His audience, whose trauma he was entirely willing to capitalize on through Christou's act. His gf, who I'd argue was probably using Lilly as well, was totally thrown to the wolves when he realized it'd make good television.

Like -- yes, there were supernatural forces at play. Supernatural forces claimed these lives. But Jack sure as shit wasn't being very careful with them, and these supernatural sacrifices always, always mirrored his mundane ones.

(I mean... he performed a human sacrifice of a little girl on national television while in a hallucination about using the sacrificial dagger on his dying wife. It wasn't subtle. lmao)

Moreover, the producers of the show were also very willing to put people in harm's way and capitalize on tragedy for ratings. So... there's a really unsubtle message here about fame and capitalism and the way it tempts you to sacrifice your humanity to get ahead.

(MAYBE LIKE UNDERMINING YOUR ARTISTIC INTEGRITY BY USING AI INSTEAD OF HIRING ARTISTS, IDK)

I'd in fact argue that pretty much everyone who got on that stage that night sacrificed their humanity a bit for fame, with the possible exception of Gus. Gus was the voice of reason, but I mean... he was still there. Maybe a message about how once you get in, you can't get out. :(

But yeah, Jack's obvious, but also Christou, who was willing to use people's trauma for fame. June, who was willing to use a little girl's incredible trauma to advertise for her new book. Carmichael, who got off on humiliating people just to make himself seem smart.

Like... they all started with a kernel of something good (wanting to help the grieving, wanting to help traumatized children, wanting to stop charlatans) but in the end, show biz turned all those urges into the most amoral, selfish, and cruel versions of themselves.

And all of those people crumbled when they were confronted with something real.

(Side note, our theater was in hysterics when Carmichael tried to offer the demon the check. lmao)

Truthfully, it felt like all of them had made their own individual deals with the devil years ago. Halloween 1977 was just the devil finally coming to take his due.

That's the main message of the movie, I think, but there are still some smaller details I want to talk about.

The Grove itself was an obvious allusion to the Bohemian Grove, which is a secret society of powerful men who meet amongst the redwoods in Northern California. Their mascot has always been an owl, which is why you repeatedly see the owl motif throughout the movie. (Happy Owl-ween, the owl mask, etc.)

Abrasax makes sense as a demon to choose (the strong historical associations with magic and demonology, the reoccurrences in many world religions (and occult groups), the role in Gnosticism, etc.) but there seem to be vibes of Stolas, an owl deity who communicates arcane knowledge to humans in exchange for their souls, as well. I noticed a lot of little allusions to Abrasax throughout the film even before Lilly started manifesting, like the movie being shown after the show being about Abrasax.

Lilly... She was rescued from a cult that seems to be a hybrid of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan and the Branch Davidians who died during a siege by the US government in Waco, TX. (Like the cultists in the movie, their compound caught fire when they were being raided. IRL, it's unclear whether the fire was started as a suicide cult situation or if it was started by the actions of the government as they tried to flush people out.) In this cult, girls were sacrificed at age 13, and all who witnessed that sacrifice would fall under the control of Abrasax.

So... she was rescued at age 10. Three years have passed. So she is now 13, the age at which these girls were sacrificed. She was due, in other words. Who and what was possessing her... that's the question, I guess. Demons, historically speaking, were known to speak foreign languages, speak in the voice of other humans, have psychic knowledge their hosts shouldn't know, etc. So she did exhibit symptoms like that.

I think... there are a couple of options here. There's Abrasax specifically, there's June's theory that she was possessed by a minor demon, and there's Minnie. Or a combination of the three.

It's pretty clear that Minnie's presence is felt throughout the whole taping. You can see her reflection various times throughout the movie, she manifested through Christou, and obviously you see her in the tape playback.

(And when I say my theater YELLED. lmao)

The question is, though... Is it really Minnie? And if it is, what does she want? Has she been haunting Jack all along? Is she there because, as it's the first Halloween after her death, it's her last chance to deal with her unfinished business? Did the demon allow her to manifest? Or was the whole thing an illusion created by the demon all along?

(I'd like to note here that, historically speaking, there was a theory that ghosts aren't actually real. They're actually demons masquerading as the spirits of departed loved ones, and they want you to summon them and listen to them so they can tempt you away from God. You can read this in the writings of a lot of the ancient Christian theologians. Or you could have talked to my grandmother, who also told me this when I was a kid! :') But she's dead now so I guess you'd have to do a summoning and find out for yourself.)

All that said... I come down between two current theories. I'd have to watch it again to firm up my ideas.

The first theory is that she's been trapped on earth for the past year, but because it's Halloween, she can haunt them. They mention at the beginning of the film that Halloween is a recent spirit's last chance to take care of unfinished business. So this could have been the case with Minnie. That said... what exactly was her unfinished business? Was she trying to protect Jack and the others? Or hurt them? Was she angry, or was she just, as Christou said, sad? Was her "an unmarried man wearing a wedding ring" referring to the way that Jack was grieving her and still wearing his ring, or the way that he wasn't much of a husband to her when she was alive?

The second theory is that, when she was sacrificed to Abrasax, she became a part of that legion. She was, like Lilly and the other little girls, essentially raised to be sacrificed, and once she was, she joined everyone else who is under the control of the deity. It's still hard to sense whether she was trying to help or hurt throughout the broadcast, but it explains her presence (she came with Lilly, not Jack) and how she was used during Jack's hallucinations to ultimately get him to perform the sacrifice on Lilly, thus bringing all audience members (both in the studio and at home) under Abrasax's control.

Either way, Minnie, in this film, is literal ghost haunting the stage -- but also a metaphorical one. The ghost of all of Jack's past misdeeds and the humanity he's sacrificed to get ahead. She's guilt and she's shame and she's desperate grief, and I guess it's no wonder that the negativity surrounding her was enough to kill Christou when he touched it.

I do think it's fascinating that all of the women in this movie are, in a very real and physical sense, sacrificed for the aspirations of men. (The little girls are sacrificed, Minnie died of a mysterious cancer, June dies because Jack pushed for her to stay, etc.) But metaphorically speaking that seems to be the case as well. They're constantly expected to put their own comfort and safety aside for the men in their lives, and their own aspirations are consumed by the men's.

Like I said, it feels very telling that women aren't allowed at the Grove. Women are constantly being denied power in this movie (or are only allowed power when it's in service to a male costar/deity) and it's largely because they just don't have the connections that the men do. The deals were made while they weren't in the room, essentially.

I'm not sure if that was a conscious choice being made, but it does seem to dovetail nicely with the strong, strong sexism and male privilege present in real-life secret societies of powerful men that disallow women. Like June only getting to shill for her book because Jack let her, women are only allowed at the real-life Bohemian Grove in very limited areas -- and only as a male member's guest.

Um... back to Lilly, though. What the hell is possessing her? She speaks as Minnie a few times, but that could be because Minnie is a part of their legion or just because she's trying to freak out Jack. Demons are known to lie using the voices of loved ones. Minnie's presence could have been influencing her, but I definitely don't think that's all that was in there.

The question, really, seems to arise from what June said about Lilly changing like a week ago and how she started talking about Jack nonstop. At least one presence in Lilly seems to be the same deity that Jack spoke to in the Grove when he was making his deal with the devil (so to speak) because it mentioned that encounter. But is that the only one in there? Is it the same deity that's always been in there? Or did it come to her only a week ago as a way to get to Jack and complete their contract? ("It is done.")

Lilly refers to her demon as Mr. Wriggles (which feels like an Exorcist allusion) and it seems like she has a pretty good lid on it. And when that demon is brought out of her by June, it seems confused and frightened. But Lilly is pretty clearly possessed the entire rest of the broadcast, so really the two options are that she was faking the entire time just to fuck with them (entirely possible) or there were two different deities, perhaps the original (lesser) one put in her in the cult and Abrasax(?) newly arrived to claim Jack and his audience.

It's fascinating watching her, because you can see her slip in and out of a possessed state several times when people aren't paying attention to her (jerking, spacing out, etc.) but it's hard to tell whether that's different presences coming in and out of control, her "talking" to what's inside her, etc. Again, this is a thing I think would benefit from multiple viewings. I'm really not sure if the Grove creature is new to her body or if it's been there all along biding its time, and it's only changing its behavior now because it wanted to be on tv.

While her recently changed behavior seems to lean towards the former, I am sort of stuck on the detail that Jack said early on, that he read June's book and couldn't stop thinking about it. That could just be normal fascination (and he did end up having an affair with her) but it could also be demonic intervention. That would indicate that the demon was manipulating him into putting Lilly on TV long before a week ago.

What is not really up for debate is that the presence inside Lilly now is one that has connections to Jack through the Grove and promised him fame. Lilly (before she was visibly possessed) alludes to this promise by telling Jack that he'll be very famous after tonight. And once the ritual starts, she is seen taking electrical energy from the set and cameras. She is literally getting her power from the audience viewing the sacrifice. (It's very Ringu.) And after Jack stabs Lilly, the studio audience, audience at home, and presumably real-life audience watching this movie, are all put under Abrasax's control.

("Hail Abrasax" is seen multiple times throughout the film, which might also imply that the documentarians themselves are trying to spread this contagion after watching the video.)

Uh... a few more small things.

Carmichael Haig is obviously James Randi. Like Houdini before him, Randi was also a stage magician who dedicated his life to exposing "supernatural" charlatans. He did indeed offer a huge sum of money to whoever could prove him wrong. Carmichael even looked like James Randi. (Though I'd point out that "Haig" is the name of the man who constructed the owl statue at the real-life Bohemian Grove!) I suppose it makes sense that he'd be such an asshole in a world where demonic possession does actually exist.

The one thing I'd say is... it's hard to say whether this was a case of the filmmakers not thinking through implications or if this really was a nasty joke, but Randi was, IRL, gay. He came out late in life and got married to a man shortly before he died. So the implication that Carmichael, in the movie, wanted to join the Grove largely because he was perverted is... iffy. Carmichael was never stated to be gay in the movie (that I noticed) and it's hard to suss out whether the orgies he was talking about were relating to the all-male membership of the Grove (i.e. a gay orgy) or the women that these powerful men had hanging all over them (i.e. a... less gay orgy) and I do think which they were implying has major implications for what they were saying about a man who was, IRL, gay.

Like... if the implication was that he must've been willing to hurt people in order to have wild sex because he's gay, that's uh! Not great! But if the creators didn't realize that aspect of Randi's life (it was less publicized because, as I mentioned, it happened later in his life) then they might have just been pushing on that trope of powerful men using women.

Really, really hard to say.

Next, Christou. Christou... it's hard to say whether the man was psychic at all. It's clear that he was doing a lot of fake-ass cold reading beforehand (though I do want to go back through it and see if there really was any allusion to a Peter- character involving the skeleton) and was using interviews to find grieving audience members. (Two practices that James Randi talked about a lot IRL.) But he also did have a very real experience when he sensed Minnie and, while overwhelmed, didn't seem particularly shocked by it.

If I had to guess, I think that Christou does have some psychic powers (which is why I want to investigate the Peter thing) but can't control them well and is easily overwhelmed by real phenomena. He plays things up for the cameras (I noticed his accent slipped when he had his real experience, lmao) but I wouldn't be surprised if, like everyone else on stage, there's a kernel of something real in him.

Finally... that fucking skeleton! I want to do an entire watch through just to examine that guy. He was in the flashbacks about the Grove, so I think it's likely that he might've been a member of that. He also is the only one who refuses to take off his mask, which seems to relate to the dialogue at the beginning of the film about wearing a mask to protect yourself from spirits during Halloween. I think he's definitely in on what's going on, to some extent, but it's hard to figure out exactly in what capacity. Was it a Grove member, or maybe a cult member? A follower of Abraxas? Was it actually the personification of Death?

Hard! To! Say!

Like I said, I really do want to rewatch this movie to pay more attention to small details I might've missed in the theater. I'm also looking forward to seeing it with subtitles. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it was intriguing and original enough that I really enjoyed it and want to watch it again to puzzle through it. Really, the one big mark against it was the brief use of AI, which is just -- god, it's infuriating.

It's such a small part, so it would have been so easy to not do. (Apparently it wasn't even IN the first festival showing.) But it kind of pollutes the whole movie, especially when such a large message is not fucking over real people in the quest for success in the media landscape.

Plus, it just kind of looked like shit.

I know it's probably a lost cause, but I would be thrilled if they hired a real artist and redid those images for the Shudder release. It would be so easy to fix, and it would make the movie a lot better. Those commercial breaks were so funny and if they had better interstitials (that didn't make you feel icky just looking at them) then it would boost an already great film.

I just. I don't even know why they did it in the first place. I'm guessing, based on the fact that they weren't in the original screenings, that they were pressed for time to finish things...? But come on, surely you can find some artist who can do something quick for you. It wasn't even a moving image.

So uh... yeah, I guess that's where I'm at. It was an interesting (if slightly hokey) movie pulling together a lot of threads to make something cool and mysterious, I liked a lot of the acting (particularly Jack Delroy's) and set design, I wanna chat with people about it -- but I can't really in good conscience fully recommend it because of the AI thing. It's just such a disgrace to artistic integrity. Here's hoping they hire a real fucking artist.

#this got really long sorry lmao #really though more than anything this just made me feel like #damn why did I stop coming out to the bourse and east #like yeah they're a little further than the PFS center and the amc but not by much #I felt so nostalgic there #I gotta get back into seeing weird indie movies I miss it #late night with the devil

[zabiume]

if i could, very gently, turn any popular perception in my circles over its head and examine it, it would be the perception that ichigo cares only about protecting his family and friends and not anyone else. i'd say this is true for maybe the first few chapters of the manga, and the evidence people usually give is his quote about how he can't claim to be superman or anything but he'll do as much as he can to protect people, but even then, i think this statement is more of a cop-out on ichigo's part than any indication that he's only dedicated to protecting friends and family. he's afraid of widening the pool because he's afraid he'll fail them. keep the circle small and the task is manageable. rukia rightfully calls him out on the hypocrisy of this very early on, and over the course of the series his aims do evolve to a point where, by TYBW, he's pretty explicit about wanting to save everyone.

i think the reason this comes up a lot is because of how it factors into ichigo's ending in 686. people pro-ichigo's ending cite the importance of family and friends as a reason why it works, but i do think it goes a little too far when people say they're the only people he cares about. especially considering ichigo is notorious for caring about people he met, like, 5 seconds ago (rukia), or caring about them to a point where he hasn't been able to forget the day they met (orihime), or even caring about someone after it turns out that they've been the enemy all along (nel). ichigo feels way too much to be comfortable limiting his goals, even if he did very much start out that way out of fear of failure. however, anti-ichigo ending circles take it too far too, with this notion of unfulfilled heroic ambition. i don't think ichigo wanted to be a hero at all, but being extraordinarily attuned to suffering and grief had been taking a toll on him pre-powers, and having powers was just a way to respond to that. the powers were only a means to an end—the end being that ichigo had to embrace his heart and stop projecting the grief of losing his mother onto the fear of losing everyone else. ichigo at 15 is not the same as ichigo at 18, because ichigo at 18 embraces the fact that he is someone who will help anyone if they come to him or if he himself is a witness to their pain. if ichigo's life is a universe with rings, his friends and family would be in his innermost circle, certainly, but you can bet the most random spirit is on his radar too, even if they're on the farthest, outermost circle.

in light of that, karakura town can best be described as his base of operations, or, specifically, the place where he rests. where he's doing mundane things like reading books or hanging out with his friends. the rest of his universe emerges and expands out from this center. so much of ichigo's soul is split into four, and the part that's human is definitely the one that wants connections and love that will live on well beyond his mortal existence. ichigo will live on though kazui, as any parent lives on through their child, but there's something really poignant about a boy too scared to accept responsibility for strangers growing into a man prepared to raise a child – arguably one of the most daunting responsibilities there is. he cares about everyone, but it's not unreasonable for him to want to sink his roots into the town where his parents met, where he grew up, where he met everyone who would become important to him etc etc

#i'd maybe buy the unfulfilled argument if he randomly kept visiting soul society for no reason but to my knowledge that's only ever happened #in bleach filler. and you all know how much i respect the sanctity of that lmao #we could also argue about the implied heteronormativity of a happy ending = a wife and kids but a) this is the heteronormativity genre #and b) i think it's still believable for ichigo's character to want a family considering his nurturing nature #obviously i ship ih so i like the thought of them growing old together but i think i'd like his ending even if he hadnt ended up w anyone #that man was born to be a father lmao #it all feels reasonable enough mainly bc of how ichigo has always had a LIFE beyond what he does as a hero #so it makes sense to me that there's something waiting for him during peacetime. that heroism isnt all there is for him #ichigo kurosaki

[eldritch-spouse]

GIMMIE THE ANGST IT FEELS TO WARM AND FUZZY AROUND HERE

 (I -I really like like your characters Pinnie)

When Adrul takes full control of Perdition that means most, if not all, of the Ring’s inhabitants respect and fear him. As his partner nobody would dare to harm us -we’re mostly safe, but not completely. 

There has to be some radical group somewhere that believes a half human demigod doesn’t deserve to rule. 

So what would happen if, on a day Adrul had some important business with his parents at the clergy, his beloved was attacked and succumbed to her wounds before Adrul could return? Despite all the protection placed around them and the highest medical care, they still died. Adrul wasn’t quick enough. He wasn’t prepared. He miscalculated. He wasn’t as in control as he thought he was -and that cost him his heart.

What are Belo, Admin, Miara, and Krulu’s thoughts about this?

What does Adelo think of him now that he’s finally failed at something?

How much of Krulu’s callous apathy did Adrul inherit?

[Hellow and thenk you!- I'll humor the scenario, but know that it is out of character, Adrul is far too cautious to leave you, supervised or not, in any part of Hell while he's in the surface.]

TW: Death; Gore; Torture; Suicidal ideation.

For as much as his Lord-Father wishes he take command of Hell, sometimes Adrul has to agree with his celestial father. Demons are the scum of this planet. They're the lowest of the low, the most disgusting lifeforms to ever enter the planes of existence. Made out of spite, made to spite-

Belo had always been right. Perdition doesn't need to be ruled over, it needs to be decimated. Torn asunder, rent to a crisp. And its verminous inhabitants should be hunted down to the very last curly-tailed imp...

But alas, orders are orders, and Adrul's fate had been spun long before his mother birthed him. So Hell still stands, mocking the universe.

Sometimes, now more than ever, Adrul feels that he's a clown. A fool made to lord himself over degenerates. It's a sinking feeling that curls in his gut like poison, and now, he has no means of escaping it.

See, demons, in their endlessly abundant mental stunting, fail to grasp that Adrul is not some half-human nitwit. He's less than a tenth human, if he had to guess... Father weaved his power into both his and Adelo's development during pregnancy, there is absolutely no way he would have allowed a half-lesser child. They both know this, and truthfully, are also grateful for such.

But again, demons are just brainless. They're hardly even people, in Adrul's eyes. So it's no wonder they can't put two and two together, it's no shock groups of overconfident scumfucks gather to plot against the King of Perdition on a daily basis.

Adrul simply... Underestimated them.

It's something harrowingly painful to admit.

Because it implies he's getting out of touch, he's lowering his guard too much, getting tired maybe. It means he's succumbing to something, that his thought process is deteriorating, that he's not as competent as his parents trained him to be, that he's a let-down, useless- He makes mistakes because he is a mistake, they're all extensions of him.

And his biggest mistake, was letting his heart die.

Carelessly tossing you to a brutal end, the details of which gruesome enough that Adrul can't bare to recall lest he fly into another soul-shattering meltdown. His most selfish action, marking the day he lost everything.

Adrul's reaction to your death was stone cold.

He's never been good with displaying emotion. Never been very facially expressive, strayed from hysteric tones, hardly laughed and hardly cried. Though, in that moment, he felt that he didn't react because he simply couldn't. Reacting would have killed him. It would have broken his mind beyond saving.

The servants didn't know what to do, rushing back and forth, too afraid to direct any words at him, everyone hovering around the scene of the crime, trying not to touch what's left of your body or the mess that spattered the rest of the area.

Adrul collected your butchered remains silently, slowly following the trail of blood leading to other divisions, indicating you had put up a valiant fight. The constant dripping off your torn body echoed through the walls, reminding him that it was over. That you were gone, that he would never get to hold you again, or hear your voice, feel your touch. He would never love again. He would never want again, he would never live again.

Hell burns. But Adrul is cold.

You were handed over to people he knew could never betray him, ordering them to fix your form as perfectly as they could- Because their lives depended on it. And while that happened, the prince crowned King went hunting for the animals that did this, the insects who couldn't even fathom the horrors they'd face.

It wasn't hard. Adrul knows how to manipulate crowds. Turn them against each other. All he had to do was identify the culprits, offer compensation, and allow the entirety of demonkind to turn against each other, a slaughter the likes of which not even Kalymir could dream of. The Icons themselves are involved in this search, which means whatever rebellious sect initiated this had less than days to get their shit kicked in.

Most of them were brought to him captured, alive. Others dragged in dead. Some stragglers who made it to the surface in hopes of escaping were severely wounded but there nonetheless. Adrul kept the leaders to himself.

And then, he loaded the rest into a transportation device, preparing to visit the surface, and bring the news to his family...

Adrul hadn't shed a tear yet.

Admin was devastated. She could not imagine a fate more disturbing for the human Adrul favored, for the one her, Belo and Krulu approved of. A lesser truly worthy of uniting with her son... She was the first to offer Adrul solace and comfort, and the first to see him react minimally, face twitching erratically, silent tears flowing down his face. She understood Adrul is just like his Father, that he doesn't show what he's really feeling most of the time, that she shouldn't expect him to bear his heart to her in this time- But she wouldn't be a good mom if she didn't make it very clear that Adrul needs to process things and mourn you properly. Easier said than done. She couldn't imagine the grief it would cause if either one of her partners died, if she died.

Adelo, for once, took something seriously. Adrul had spared him a venomous look upon first sight, as if expecting the angel hybrid to crack a tasteless joke, and it genuinely wounded him to know his brother thought that little of Adelo. He's always been bad with wording things, so the older brother merely offered his condolences and volunteered any sort of necessary help. He could tell Adrul was dead inside the moment he glanced upon his brother, having learned to read the monster quite well. It was hard to witness, and he figured he ought to keep his distance for a while.

Belo was equally stunned. That's always been the problem with lessers, hasn't it? They're endlessly fragile, they need constant surveillance, constant protection- A herculean task. Like Admin, he cried for his son, he joined in her comforting efforts, using his properties as a celestial to offer calm, and did his best to guide poor Adrul into calm mindsets. Belo knows what it's like to want to drown one's sorrow in work, productivity is oftentimes a coping mechanism, so he urged his son to work and help around as he visited, keeping him safe from his thoughts, gentle silence shared.

Krulu's gaze is hard. Adrul did fail, he said to his own son's face. That was failure, there's no escaping it. And before Adrul's soul could shatter deeper, the siadar proclaimed that Adrul didn't have the luxury of following you. Adrul is bigger than you and he serves a purpose that precedes your involvement in his life. You were a marvelous lesser, and he recognizes his son loved you more than anything- For his eyes blazed with the same intensity around you as his do towards Admin. Although it may have felt that way, Krulu reminds his inwardly grieving, breaking son that not all was lost. That he couldn't let himself fail further.

Miara deflated like a balloon at the news. She was looking forward to seeing you and him become a big, happy family. Adrul was hastily invited into her main lands, and after some bickering with both Krulu and Belo, Miara convinced the stubborn bulls that their son needed rest, distraction, care. Not pain, not being around people who remind him of his responsibilities. Adrul needed healing of the highest degree, he seemed to attract misery and those who covet it like moths to a flame. To see wraiths hover around his vicinity like vultures was infuriating and extremely disappointing. She had wisdom to impart on the demi-siadar, and more than enough nurture to spare, as well as guidance for Admin in how to care for her wounded son.

The rebellious demons who had been transported to the surface were handed to none other than his Lord-Father.

Adrul knew that, no matter how creative he got, Krulu would always be able to unleash torture the likes of which he can't even conceive of. Seeing the mind-shattering terror on the demons' faces as they got swept into the bowels of The Clergy's Eye, taken into the depths of it by his Father, it was something truly marvelous.

Krulu used these demons for just about everything, spending most of his free time delighting in their meticulous torture. For once, his chosen and his dove were invited to see the process, to aid in it. Not Adrul, Adrul was still too shattered to glimpse into those instances and Krulu knew that. Although, his son does get a couple of "finished pieces" sent back to his residence in Perdition, with a message from the higher suggesting that he should display them where all could see. Beautiful omens born out of pointless lives. Adrul did like them, enough to show them to the mangled leaders of the resistance.

They don't get to die, naturally.

After all, Adrul didn't get to die either. To this day, he's not afforded that luxury. He has to drag himself onwards with his many legs, pretending to feel any sort of drive for anything, pretending he doesn't just want to loiter around the garden the two of you made, now a burial ground of unimaginable beauty, and curl up next to your headstone for the rest of time.

Adrul was merciless and blind to morals when he hunted down the families of those leading demons. He forced them to stay by his side, bound and gagged and screaming, because they knew exactly what was going to happen when the King ordered his most loyal warriors to bludgeon and massacre and do anything they wanted to those innocent lives. Wives, parents, sons and daughters- Adrul smiled, grinned, it was the first time he laughed ever since you were taken from him.

The demi-siadar almost wished he was a wraith, just so he could savor the pain his prisoners felt as they froze, or erupted into hysterical babbling, screaming at the top of their lungs until their throats tore.

Adelo and Adrul are sons of Protector Saudramar, of Plaguemaster, of Lord-Master Krulu.

Sure, they may also be born of Admin and Belo, elements that keep them minimally grounded, bearable. Still, it would be foolish to assume they couldn't choose their Father's path when poked just right.

The King of Hell became something uncontrollably evil.

Adrul is now consumed by a rage not too distant from that of Krulu's. Having his most important element in life mauled to an untimely end, then forced to rule over the cretins that did it, forced to think in their best interests and keep them safe, keep the comfortable.

As if they fucking deserve the bare minimum consideration.

He can't take it.

He can't fucking take it anymore.

That's why Adrul seizes any opportunity he has to slaughter hundreds for the smallest of misdeeds. A trail of bodies follows Adrul wherever he ventures in his own domain, the streets cleared for him. If he could, he'd wipe out the entire population of all rings. Even if he knows it wouldn't fix him. It would be just.

It would be fair.

Sometimes, he comes back home showered in blood, letting droplets taint the flowers of your garden as he lays on the ground and speaks to you.

Begs you to take him with you.

To forgive him.

He failed you. He failed the person who was there for him through thick and thin, through his anxieties of wanting to live up to his role and getting caught up in tornados of endless conflict. He conquered Hell for you, in the end, because of you.

And now... It means nothing to him. Everything Adrul spent his youth training for, attaining, means absolutely fucking nothing to him.

He just wishes he could die, anything would be better than this joke of an existence.

And maybe, it's that desire to shed his husk and his life, that brings Dorem to Hell.

Granted, the ruler of Limbo isn't there for small talk or a pat on the back. No words are spoken between Adrul and the soulkeeper when Dorem produces an intricate container of what appears to be (but definitely isn't) glass. Inside it dances an extremely bright light, molding into all shapes and states as if agitated.

Then, once passed onto his dark hands, it calms immediately. The entity flattens against the glass, drawn to him, emitting a comforting warmth he could never mistake.

Dorem fades with the shadows.

It's you.

It's the essence of you.

Adrul sobs so hard he chokes on his own screams.

#Adrul oc #Krulu oc #Belo oc #Adelo oc #Mother Miara #Dorem oc #yandere monster #yandere teratophilia

[blue-rose-soul]

For Bastard child au. Assuming that Lucifer finds out before the finale how would he respond to knowing Alastor got hurt fighting Adam? How would Charlie?

I've been waiting for an excuse to talk about this! Well, not this exactly, just...

Okay, so the general consensus is that Lucifer couldn't step in sooner with the extermination because he had an agreement with Heaven, and that Adam broke that agreement by targeting Charlie, a hellborn. Alastor may be Lucifer's son, but he was born on Earth to a human mother. He has a human soul and came to Hell as a sinner. An extremely powerful sinner, but a sinner nonetheless.

In other words, he's not protected under the same agreement.

But! But but but, I figure Lucifer must have been keeping an eye on the battle from somewhere, so he could know when to step in. So he saw Adam and Alastor fight, saw Alastor nearly die, and saw him barely escape with his life. In the end, Niffty doesn't need to step in to finish Adam.

"You come at me, and my family!?"

Lucifer does it himself.

They know Alastor isn't dead thanks to Husk (and possibly Niffty) but are still concerned when they can't find him in the ruins of the old hotel. Lucifer does make an attempt to look for Alastor, but he doesn't know Alastor well enough to know where to look. But his daughter is still here and still needs him, so Lucifer puts the search aside and helps Charlie rebuild her hotel.

And in the end, Alastor returns. Alastor would shove Lucifer off when he joins in the group hug, but he doesn't want to aggravate the wound he's pretending not to have*.

I think that, whether or not she knew Alastor was her brother, Charlie would show the same amount of concern for him. Wanting to know what happened after Adam broke through his shield, why he disappeared from the battle. Just, wanting to know if he's okay. Alastor just brushes off her questions and keeps her at a distance. The biggest change is really between Lucifer and Alastor, and later between Lucifer and Charlie.

The guilt is crushing Lucifer. He knows how badly hurt Alastor was, and knows that instead of coming back to the people who would help him, he hid away somewhere to heal alone. Lucifer tries to be subtle about it, but he's constantly checking in on Alastor, asking if there's anything he needs, or anything Lucifer can do for him. He's not subtle at all.

And Alastor is not at all amused. He doesn't care that Lucifer was late to the battle! He didn't ask for or want Lucifer's help! It was his own fault for getting sloppy and letting Adam get a hit in (not to mention a disadvantageous deal but he's not saying that bit), and he doesn't need Lucifer coddling him. Unfortunately, with his cane broken and his body healing slowly, Alastor is uniquely vulnerable for the first time in a long time. But Lucifer's awkward hovering and Charlie's concern is only serving to make Alastor all the more agitated. So he sticks the needle where it hurts; Lucifer's guilt.

He accuses Lucifer of waiting until after Adam had mortally wounded Alastor specifically so his 'mistake' would be erased. Of wanting him deader than dead.

Then he coldly tells Lucifer that if he can't be bothered to show up when it matters, he shouldn't show up at all.

Later, he assures Charlie he doesn't hold any negative feelings towards her even though Lucifer came running to her rescue while he was willing to let Adam nearly eviscerate Alastor. After all, it stands to reason that Lucifer would choose his real child over a bastard. The King of Hell has made it perfectly clear he doesn't need a 'busboy.' Charlie tries to speak in Lucifer's defense, but, Alastor is pleased to note, her heart isn't in it.

Afterwards, he listens from the shadows and grins as he hears Charlie asking Lucifer why he saved her but not Alastor. Lucifer telling her the terms of the agreement he made with Heaven doesn't satisfy her. Alastor's her brother, they're both Lucifer's children! Lucifer should have stepped in, agreement be damned! The recently repaired cracks in their relationship begin to widen once again and Alastor is pleased.

(*I'm going to cackle if season 2 drops and it turns out we were all wrong and Alastor's completely fine.)

#ask #anonymous #Hazbin Hotel #the Devil's Bastard AU #Lucifer Morningstar #Charlie Morningstar #Alastor #and here on your right you'll see Alastor taking advantage of Charlie's desire for a sibling bond to drive a wedge between her and Lucifer #Season 2 episode 1 prediction: Alastor's got his cane back and he's not injured in any way shape or form! #but not in this AU in this AU he's bleeding every minute of every day lol #just imagine Alastor dealing with wave after wave of upstart sinners thinking they can become Overlords #if they just get in a lucky hit on the injured Radio Demon #not to mention whatever Vox and the Vees are planning #and all the while Alastor's choking on his own blood acting like he's fine #and glaring at Lucifer every time he tries to step in

[normiematsu]

concept for angel killer yumemi ^_^ the au i have thought the most about storywise! she's an angel in training who gets corrupted by choro. i made a playlist for it here that serves as a moodboard/audio version of the whole story when you listen to it chronologically! i need to type up a proper retelling of it and create real ref sheets but have some unformatted thoughts/minificlet below...

yumemi is an angel in training tasked with learning more about how humans live. unfortunately for her she ends up at choro's cathedral and he's immediately able to clock her as an angel. even more unfortunate is the interest he takes in her...

shes super trusting and willing to put aside any suspicions she has about choro since she likes him. gets scolded a lot for not being that great at hiding her own identity - what would everyone think if they saw her wings!! her halo!! humans aren't ready to handle that - so choro keeps her close by. she's like a lost lamb that dutifully follows him around the cathedral, never openly questioning the odd things that happen when they're out of sight from the congregation. she thinks there's a lot to learn from him, a man so willing to teach her about humanity, while not questioning how little he shares about himself...

eventually she figures out he's belphegor and despite feeling betrayed she abandons her mission and decides she's going to save him, no matter the cost! love always wins!! she genuinely thinks she can fix choro and he's like... "do you know who i am? what i am?" for a while lots of fighting ensues. shes not that strong though so all her threats fall on deaf ears, and he knows she doesn't have it in her to put her lance through his heart. (he kind of wishes she would tho, since he's a demented freak)

choro could kill her so easily. he's never met someone with so little common sense... he can't imagine her ever completing her mission or being in charge of anything important... so he decides to start up his own little game. testing the limits of how much he can get away with. before he knows it, he's already claimed her soul, not thinking of the consequences...

and then one night he gets too riled up and accidentally kills her during one of their fights. he didn't even mean to do it, honest! suddenly he's hit with the realization he wasn't quite ready for their game to end... he's toyed with keeping undead humans around before, but they never lasted long after reviving them. he's never resurrected an angel but he figures it's worth a shot trying. the result is... not quite what he was expecting.

he manages to get her revived, but not as an angel - she's some strange and twisted thing fresh out of purgatory. violent. bloodthirsty. she wants nothing more than to get revenge for what he's done! even in this state though she's not powerful enough to finish him off, not like she could anyway since he'd just regenerate... begging god for forgiveness gets her nowhere either. she's committed an unforgivable sin by abandoning her mission and knowingly pursuing a relationship with a demon.

choro takes great pride in telling her she wasn't his first plaything, but he didn't think she'd be his last - and now she's bound to him for eternity...

#I HAVE HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH THIS TEEHEEEEEE i love angel killer au. #kits sketchbook #yuulore

[edgyonporpoise]

Prison of Plastic

Hey so I just finished reading/listening to Prison of Plastic, Epithet Erased’s book continuation, and my heart! Is full! My soul! Is nourished! And there is something spoilery! I have to scream about! Under the cut!

OKaY, so. I haven't seen Anime Campaign and I have no intention to, I wanna experience this story as it releases. BUT. Naven is absolutely 100% the secret final boss, right? They could be doing the whole "You thought the obvious twist villain was a villain, but there's a twist to this twist! Ooo~ooo~oo~~" but for now I'm operating on the assumption that he is and like. Fuck dude, he was so MAD.

In his little (hah, fairy) speech to Molly about talking to brick walls? That right there, is a normal person in a world with superpowers. Silly superpowers, but still, this story is very clear about how dangerous those powers are. This is a speech from someone who has Tried to talk it out, to have Mundie voices heard. He has tried to claw his way up, to build a respectable business run by, employing and catering to Mundies, to shove it in their dumb superpowered faces that normal people are still capable people.

And he is tired of being put down.

Tired enough to swing the wrecking ball through society, to tear down Epithets and everything they stand for. Think about it! Even if he is actually that nice guy we see, think about all the bullshit Epithets can cause. Think about the 17-year-old, so traumatized and scared of herself that she threw a tantrum so hard it took up his entire evening and nearly seriously injured 3 different people! (She threw Molly down a dumbwaiter. She nearly toppled literal tons of cake on him. She DISAPPEARED Rick's HEART!) Sure, it was an evening he had set aside for a speech class, but three hours late to finish it? He's a CEO of a multinational conglomerate. How many cross-timezone meetings did they have to reschedule? The fact that he takes the time out to make sure to urge Lorelai to check the message from Giovanni, even though no-one can see him and it doesn't seem to further any goal for recruiting Lorelai for his terrorist org besides making her feel better, makes me thing there's some sincerity to him. But that makes it all the juicier!

Makes me think of the line where Gio's spouting about people who think they're good but still do bad stuff! Makes me think about how Naven, snarky little pixie who's been playing along with Gio's rambles in any other way suddenly stops speaking at that point and doesn't come back in until after. (And maybe that's just for the flow of the scene but I can just imagine him floating in the background with suddenly flinty eyes while no-one's looking)

Makes me think of the little girl, the little girl he has implied he would kidnap (from what Molly's flashbacks said anyway) if it weren't for the laws holding him back, who crumbles under the weight of the world, of her family's business expenses. Yes, maybe Molly is right, maybe absolutely no-one knows what they're doing. But it is a human instinct to shield the children from the horrors of reality, to give them some small amount of time where they can be carefree. A shitty father, a bratty sister, and Epithets took that away from Molly.

Maybe Naven is just salty at Epithet users for looking down on him for being Mundie. Maybe he thinks he'll be doing the world a service, bringing it back to normal. Maybe he just thinks that these things are dangerous, and should be... Regulated in some way.

Maybe he's right? Even to people who do have these powers. People like Lorelai, who are scared of their own abilities. Or people like Mera, actively harmed by their Epithets. Or the whole IDEA of Ocean Country citizens being farmed for EXP. Damn, the idea of Down With Epithet Society makes a whole lotta sense.

And guys who make you think "Huh, that makes sense." are the most dangerous of all.

Silver-Tongued businessman, indeed.

#prison of plastic #epithet erased #eepop #lorelai blyndeff #molly blyndeff #giovanni potage #theory #ramblings #epithet erased spoilers #prison of plastic spoilers #naven nuknuk #if that IS your REAL NAME SIR

[betbeton]

𓆱 Survival of the Worst

Strade × Reader

Beast Y/N Series

Warnings - Blood, Violence, Cannibalism, Elk Y/N, Prey Becoming Predator Trope, Mildly Sexual Content (Described Male Arousal, Groping), Strade

18 + Minors DNI

Enby Y/N

✎ i will never write a cat y/n 🔪

Links are broken - other works are linked in BtD & TpoF Masterlist

It was wrong. The way blood and meat were forced down your throat. The metallic tang so inherently disgusting to your, once plant sated, stomach that bile rose up from your throat whenever he came down to feed you. The disgust running rampant in the very crevices of your psyche had a dry heave rocking your now ghostly body. You were a litch in all, but name. An elk that was sustained on the flesh of the people they were forced to gore with their beloved horns... It was wrong. You didn't like this, it all made you want to curl up and die... Or worse it made you want to become the predator.

Your life wasn't always these several concrete walls, stained with blood and other bodily fluids. It wasn't always the Red Room you were forced to participate it. You had been content and happy once, a bloom amongst the muck and grime of the world. A soft hearted person who went out of their way to help others... Now though? You were barely a wisp of the person you once were, there wasn't any of the proper you left. It had all been taken, perverted, into a sick caricature of the elk that stood proud with their chest puffed out. You were prey, a glorified toy who once they lost their shiny charm would be sent to the chopping block like every other poor unfortunate soul to be dragged down those stairs.

Once you were dead, then what would you be? Freedom was an illusion even when off the physical spectrum. Certainly you would be a tortured spirit left to roam the lands wailing for retribution... Screaming for revenge. Was that your future to be the wailing elk ghoul who haunted an upper class neighborhood? To be the poor lost soul talked about at campfires to frighten children... To be that monster's next meal?

It was WRONG. You were a person, sure you had large antler and floppy elk ears, but you were more human than he ever would be. The beast that stalks the streets at night, a greased monster who's perverted gore slut mind ruled his world... And by proxy your life. Even that damned fox, skittish and demur wanting more to be a human and shed his animal visage was slowly becoming a power hungry monster - you could see it in his eyes. Both of them disgusted you. This new bastardized version of yourself disgusted you.

The world disgusted you.

Every last person in it was horrible, selfish, worthless. You didn't truly believe that... not yet. Not with a man screaming and crying for his god to save him while staring directly into your eyes. No, some people had worth just not those two creatures. They deserved one another. Strade and Ren. Ren hadn't harmed you yet, but you could see the predatory glint in his eyes each time you were brought up those gods damned stairs. He wanted to rip your throat out with his teeth and consume you whole. Just. Like. Strade.

The beast that you so tried to ignore began gnawing away at your very sanity when a large blood soaked hand clasped around one of your antler tips. Your head jerked forward and a sickeningly sweet pat pressed to your shoulders before you were urged forward slowly. The tear of flesh and muscle almost deafening as the man prayed to a higher power for salvation and rescue. Gods didn't exist, surely if they did they wouldn't have created Strade... Then again many gods are described as cynical and cruel... It doesn't matter in the end though. Everyone ends up stuffed down your throat after they're dead.

The hands on your back urging you forward moved in tandem as a sweaty, warm, body pressed to your bare back. Blunt fingernails digging into your skin hard enough that blood welled and dribbled down grease and gore slicked hands. Body stilling on its own you could feel your own tepid fear clawing away at the back of your throat, that little voice telling you to rear your head back and stab Strade, but you couldn't. There were too many what ifs, you could miss or worse he could enjoy it and you end up strangled to death all while a greased rat bastard of a man ruts away in your hole seeking release.

You didn't have time to spiral into a hole of what ifs or disassociate as your head was ripped back, the antlers you so adored goring the poor sod man further as his intestines threatened to spill out of his body. It always amazed you how much abuse person could take before they died. At one point this curiosity had been just a mild morbid interest... Now though as your chest and genitalia were groped while Strade watched the man writhe and scream in pain you wondered how much more you could take. Surely you were nearing your limit... Right? Yes that had to be it. You had to be near death yourself to find the way the poor man's organs strained against his slashed gut as they tried to spill out fascinating.

The man finally passed out - or died - from blood loss mere moments before his lower intestine finally spilled out of the quickly widening cuts on his stomach. The disgusting hard arousal pressed into your back as you were fondled like some type of toy had bile rising up in your throat. Hands clenching and releasing as you tried to will away to homicidal thoughts and disgust plaguing your tormented mind. It didn't work. The thoughts only grew as your body twitched violently enough to dislodge Strade's hold on your slightly... That was the only opportunity you needed as you reared your head back and stabbed your antlers into his shoulders. The angle of your neck was painful, but that only fueled the adrenaline and the monster in your mind more.

Turning quickly as Strade stabbed his pocket knife into the side of your arm you dislodged your antlers and stumbled backwards falling onto your butt as you stared at the greasy bastard of a man. He had an irate expression as he held a hand to his throat, a horribly familiar gargling noise leaving his mouth as he wheezed in a breath... You had hit something extremely important in your blind attack. It took several long seconds before his eyes dulled and his body slumped, but finally you were free. Though your ears flattened to the sides of your head as soft clawed footsteps descended the stairs.

#btd x reader #btd strade

[chroniclyst]

tvc masterpost

the venus cycle, lovingly nicknamed "vgb" (vee gets bitches) is the trilogy my fiance @deadhorse77 and i are writing together. it centers on a strange town where, when new people arrive, they completely forget that they were ever from anywhere else, and their history molds itself to fit the city. it's also about a bunch of trans people who all kinda suck in their own way and end up in the worlds worst polycule, with one shared daughter!

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characters

vee/venus | they/them - one of the two narrating characters, they are the catalyst and the story begins with their arrival to the city. what they don't realize makes them special is that they remember their life beforehand, and instead they focus on situating themself in the lives of everyone they meet. with their arrival, the narrative dominos begin to fall. also, they're a whore and get involved with everyone else.

the chronicler | he/him - immensely private, TC keeps his name hidden from everyone. the other narrating character, he seeks to puzzle out the mystery of the city. while he doesn't have any personal memory of his life before the city, he's aware of the effects it has on its inhabitants memory. additionally, he's prone to stalking the "people of interest" of the city, trying to figure out what their role in the story is. loserly academic vibes, like a jon sims who doesn't even have the archives going for him. he has the looks of a depressed english professor and the soul of a whore for fucking real. paris | he or she (not simultaneously) - titled the scholar by TC, paris is a nosy bitch who wants to know everything about everything and everyone--and knows pretty damn close to it. part fairy, and takes advantage of that extended lifespan to spend more time studying at the city college and to get into everyone's business. if you want to know something, paris is your fairy. also, he's genderfluid, swapping pronouns accordingly!

the oracle/sybil | fae/it - while the most obvious trait about it is faer gift of prophecy, sybil has many other skills, like being a bitch to basically everyone it meets. fae're the other fairy in our main cast, and sick to death of humans who want to get their futures seen.

jax | they/them - a member of the city police force, the detective is about as corrupt as it gets. they're violent, angry, and use their position of power to get away with everything. as an unfortunate blow to their credibility, they're also convinced that there's demons in the town, and that they'll be the one to catch one. also, they're down bad for the king.

the king | re/rem (he/they auxiliary) - like TC, the king keeps rheir name close to rheir chest, as well as a plethora of other secrets. from any surface level perception, the only things re cares about is gaining more money and more power within the city, as well as a certain member of rheir staff. don't look deeper than that, you probably won't like what you find.

the ram | arieself - part of what you'll find when you look deeper, the ram is the king's bodyguard. fully controlled by the king, air is rheir "pet project". immensely volatile and simultaneously a doormat in the face of the king's power. eventually, air will be able to come to terms with aries own power, but that time is far off still.

petra | they/them - said certain member of the king's staff, petra generally does not give a shit about the situations unfolding around them. they view most people on a spectrum of neutrality to dislike, and are deeply apathetic. also they have low empathy autist swag!

mama/eudora | any (written with just they/he/she for convenience) - eudora, fondly nicknamed "mama" by most, is the caretaker of the weeping girl, and a deeply caring person with a tendency to take lost souls under their wing. he's a mom friend to her core, and also? that's a fucking MILF babyyy!

the weeping girl | she/her - the heart of the city, though most don't know it. a very long time ago, she was cursed into becoming a statue, forever crying. the fountain her tears create has healing properties, and her slumbering life force shields the city from outside forces.

-

while none of these characters know it yet, with vee's arrival everything they've known is on the brink of change. lives will be destroyed by their fun and flirty personality (joke + reference)

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relationships

here's the relationship quilt, because everything is too complicated for a normal chart (it's read in rows, so the first row is how vee feels about the people in each column, second row is tc, etc) ("spade" refers to the concept of kismesis from homestuck)

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asked and answered

on the ram

on paris and tc

on vee as the catalyst

on tc

on paris and jax

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anyways please ask the both of us about this. we love to talk about it and we have such a beautiful autism about our ocverse.

#book of truth #oc tag #tvc tag #vee tag