#I miss take a chance on me but they prolly would get sued if they still used it

[with-love-from-hell]

5 Sides of Human

{Part Twenty}

Genre: Mixed

WC: ~5.6k

CW:  Slight Asmo angst, allusion to past trauma, Barbatos is angy and sus, anxiety, Storm has a stutter but I am not depicting it with written word consistently, prolly lots of typos lol, spoilers for season 1&2, I'm skipping over/changing some things I didn't like in the main story so it will be a bit different from canon!

Series Masterlist

©️ artwork commissioned by @vivi8bit ©️  

“And the winner of this year’s Bloody Moon competition is...” Diavolo paused, lips stretching into a large, enthusiastic smile causing the crowed to murmur in excitement. They had been sure the winner of the most appealing person in Devildom this year would again be Lucifer, as he had won the title every century since arriving in the Devildom, but with Asmodeus literally running a whole campaign team along side him, the results seemed like they would end up being very close. Diavolo received the slip announcing the winner from the envelope, giving a boisterous laugh. “Asmodeus!” 

Lucifer and Diavolo clapped, offering their congratulations as Asmo screeched at the top of his lungs, snatching up Sarah, Heart, and Storm in a tight group hug that winded all of them. Storm winced, trying to cover her ears from the loud screaming directly in her face and the celebratory poppers everyone was firing off around them.  He bum-rushed the stage, snatching the microphone from Diavolo and giving a tearful speech of how grateful he was to finally be recognized, specifically shouting out his close human friends as a source of support. As Asmo finished his speech, the crowd erupted into applause.

“Congrats Asmo! We love youu!” Sarah screamed toward the stage, pressing her fingers into a heart. 

Heart clapped giddily at her side, yelling “Yas queen”

Storm clapped quietly smiling to herself about the results, though feeling exhausted from all of the work she put in to helping him win, despite the fact that she didn’t really care about the competition at all- especially finding out Lucifer didn’t care either, and only happened to win by chance during every competition. She stood on her tip toes, trying to find where he went from the side of the stage; only seeing a door close to the RAD gardens from beyond the ballroom. She decided to follow, snaking her way through the crowd in the auditorium. She needed a respite from the loud environment around her that was producing a headache, and maybe would spend a brief moment alone with him as a bonus. 

Asmo jumped off the stage as the party music started, rushing over again to where Heart and Sarah stood, still clapping and cheering. Asmo captured them both in a hug once more, feeling warm at first with the affection the two were providing. He glanced around, Seeing most of his brothers completely disinterested in what was happening, and noted the disinterest of Vivi and Fern throughout the ceremony. But now, even Storm had gone missing. His wide smile then turned into a frown, his shoulders slumping a bit. 

“What’s wrong, Asmo?” Heart felt his body droop as they exited the hug, and was worried about the sudden change in demeanor. 

Asmo gave Heart a sad smile. “I’m fine. I was just hoping everyone would be as excited for me as you two are...but it seems like no one really cares.” 

Heart felt their heart shatter at the sadness in Asmo’s demeanor, clutching his hand and pulling him into another hug. “I’m sorry you don’t feel supported by them, but us- we’re glad you won. We want nothing more than to see you succeed!” 

“Mmhm.” Asmo sighed sadly, lost in his thoughts about his worth to his brothers and the other humans. Heart gave Sarah a worried look, and she shrugged in response. 

“Asmo...” Heart paused, feeling their shirt become wet with what they assumed were Asmodeus’ tears. They rubbed his back reassuringly. “Lets take a walk.” 

Asmo reluctantly agreed, though dragged slowly behind Heart as they guided him through the crowd, who all kept trying to stop him and get pictures or ask him to dance. He managed to bypass them with promises of a photoshoot later, and breathed a sigh of relief when the cool night air swept his hair up in a breeze. Heart slowly walked hand-in-hand with Asmo along the path, seeing Storm chatting with Simeon to the west near the gazebo. He quickly bypassed them without acknowledging their presence, taking Asmo further to the small pond in the center of the garden. 

He sat cross-legged near the edge, patting the soft grass next to him for Asmo to sit. He obliged, snuggling up against Heart’s shoulder. He began to sob, crying into Heart for support as he expelled the hurt of feeling rejected from everyone else. Heart held him, hushing him softly and reminding him that they were here. 

“Just because they don’t pay any mind to the competition doesn’t mean they don’t care about you.” Heart murmured, combing their fingers through Asmo’s soft hair. “Beauty competitions just arent everyone’s thing.” 

“I know...I know...” Asmo sighs. “I guess just with all the energy I put into it, it really seems like half of them really only cared about Lucifer losing. I thought that winning this would make them realize that I’m worth something beyond being beautiful...but I guess I kind of went overboard with how obsessive I got about winning...”

Asmo.” Heart sighed. “You are worth something beyond your beauty. Thats not all of who you are. I wish you would come out from behind that shield sometimes like you do with me and Solomon- I think the others would appreciate seeing the real you too.” 

“W-what do you m-mean?” Asmo stammered, confused as to what Heart was talking about. 

“You’re more than beauty. You’re super bubbly and outgoing, fun to be around, you’re a legit genius when it comes to cosmetics and makeup, and you’re the most emotionally available out of all of your brothers, but that’s not it. You are  genuinely caring, filled with as much love for your family as you have for yourself, you are passionate, give the best compliments because you read others very well, and you have a good intuition for when people are feeling down. Just because your brothers only see you as a vain and selfish person who only cares about their appearance, doesn’t mean that is you.” 

Asmo was quiet for a moment, mulling over their words. Heart adjusted themselves so that they could look into Asmo’s eyes, smushing his cheeks in the process. 

“You could be the ugliest being in the entire 3 worlds, and I would still love you. And your brothers do too- this is just how brothers are, as shitty as that sounds. Just look at the arguments you and Mammon get into- I’m sure you regret saying some things to him sometimes- but that’s another thing I love about you. You’ve got quite the sharp tongue.” Heart let out a laugh. “There’s so many things to love, It’s hard to list them all.” 

Asmo glanced down bashfully, his cheeks still smushed in Heart’s hands. If they weren’t, Heart would have seen the glorious blush that exploded around his whole face. He had no idea that someone could make him feel so special. 

“You’re beautiful because you’re you Asmo.” Heart whispered, planting a delicate kiss on his puffed lips. After parting, he released Asmo’s face, pleased to see the wide smile that was worn plainly on his lips. Asmo paused, staring into the water for a moment. 

“No one has ever told me these things in earnest before.” He muttered, his smile growing wider. “I’m probably the luckiest being in all the three worlds to have someone like you, Heart.” 

Heart felt their chest feel full at Asmo’s praise, and the thrum of their heart nearly doubled in speed as Asmo turned back to them with shimmering eyes, capturing them in a deeper kiss. 

“Heart...” Asmo murmured, mere centimeters away from their lips. “I...I want a pact with you.” 

Heart’s eyes widened. “Huh? Really?” 

Asmo keened, inching his body closer to him. “I want to feel as closer to you. And this was how I got to feel closer to Storm and Solomon. Would you mind? Please?” 

Heart thought over the offer for a moment, and seeing the pleading look behind Asmo’s eyes made it hard to refuse. “Of course.” 

Asmo smiled widely, capturing heart in a hug. Like Lucifer did to Storm, he traced the outline of his sigil with his nail above Heart’s own heart, wanting this pact to be more special than any he had with another human. He kissed the spot tenderly, the pink glow fading into a scar shortly after his lips left the skin. He smiled, proud to have been able to connect so well with the purple-haired human. 

“I think I’m ready to go back to the party now.” Asmo beamed, happy with the development of their relationship. “I’m feeling better.” 

“Good.” Heart stood, helping Asmo to his feet. “Lets get on to celebrating your well-deserved win.” 

“Will I get an even more special private celebration with you later?” Asmo smirked, tracing the wrinkles on Heart’s sleeve as if to tease them. 

Heart blushed deeply, the pact mark on their chest beginning to glow. “Maybe...heh...I guess we’ll just have to see.”

Asmo giggled, taking notice of the mark’s subtle glow. He noticed it in Storm too, whenever she would feel or indulge in one of the brother’s sins. He squeezed Heart’s arm tightly. “Oooh, you can’t tease me like that, Heart!” 

Lucifer dropped into his seat in the dark council chambers, immediately pressing his head in his hands to try to ease the throbbing pain behind his eyes. He groaned, trying to figure out what in the hell was causing such intense migraines to occur so frequently. He was no stranger to headaches, often coming on in response to stress caused by his brothers, but this felt...different. He attempted to use the remedies suggested to him by Storm- peppermint oil, menthol, herbal tea, cold towels over his eyes, reducing light exposure, drinking more water, getting more sleep, taking more breaks from his work...but all seemed to only temporary release from the ache that seemed to be like the weight of an anchor in his head. It had become a daily occurrence, sometimes happening multiple times per day, and would last hours. He gently rubbed his eyes, almost finding himself wanting to cry at the pain. 

Perhaps he should text Storm to accompany him home and-

“Lucifer, I didn’t expect you to have left such a jovial celebration so early.” 

Diavolo’s voice from behind him caused him to jump slightly, and he cursed himself for being so much more on edge given his current state. He tried to press down the discomfort and address his superior adequately. “My apologies, my lord. I needed to take a moment away.” 

“Is something troubling you?” Diavolo eased into the chair next to him, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. 

Your damn right something’s troubling me, he wanted to say. Not only were the migraines a problem, but Diavolo still was keeping his distance from him, and not telling him of the things that seemed to be continuously pulling him away, producing extra work for Lucifer to do in his absence. He took a deep breath, trying to channel the advice of Storm throughout the past couple weeks. “Actually, my lord, there is. I have been patient with this, but I would like to know what’s been going on with you and Solomon. I am fearful that there is something you’re keeping from me on purpose.” 

Diavolo paused, squeezing Lucifer’s shoulder and then giving a weak chuckle. “There really is no use trying to hide anything from you, is there?” 

Lucifer looked to him, his eyes narrow. “What is going on, Diavolo?” 

“Please understand, Lucifer...” Diavolo sighed. “I know that you are concerned, but there are still pieces of a puzzle I am trying to put together. I’m afraid I don’t have a direct answer to that question yet. If I did, don’t think for a minute that you wouldn’t be one of the first to know.” 

Lucifer’s nose twitched in frustration. “Why is that I can’t know now?” 

“Things are uncertain, and I’d rather give you a direct answer than-” 

“Why don’t you trust me with your uncertainty?” Lucifer muttered sadly, trying to ignore the increased throbbing in his head.  “Why is it that that sham of a sorcerer is at your side over one of your most trusted advisors?”

“I hardly think you have room to speak, Lucifer.” Barbatos’ voice jerked both of their attention to the dark corner of the room. Lucifer squinted, seeing the glint of almost reptilian teal eyes shine in the moonlight, staring angrily at him. Lucifer was taken aback, having no idea what it is that he had done. 

“Barbatos, I thought that I requested you to wait in the hall.” Diavolo straightened his posture. “I wanted to speak with Lucifer alone.”

“Anything that you can say to him you should be fine to say in front of me, my lord.” Barbatos shifted his eyes toward Lucifer, narrowing them into a glare. “Besides, you are needed elsewhere at the moment, and it’s urgent.” 

“So be it.” Diavolo subtly rolled his eyes, turning back toward Lucifer. “Lucifer, I do trust you, but there are things happening that I want the cause to be sure of before I speak it into existence. Your focus should be on the wellbeing of the exchange students and your brothers.” Diavolo chuckled, but was met with an icy silence from Lucifer. “You do have your hands quite full with them right now, I can see it in everything about you.” 

He straightened his back suddenly. “What do you mean by that?” 

Diavolo shook his head with a sigh. “Lucifer, you are clearly running yourself into the ground, you’re more ornery than usual, and you have begun to procrastinate on some of your paperwork recently, which frankly I am glad to see. I am unsure how you kept up on it so diligently before this point, but still it is unlike you. I don’t want to add more worry to your plate.” 

“Diavolo, please.” Lucifer nearly begged, trying to keep the nausea that had begun to develop from the pain at bay. “Tell me what’s going on.” 

Diavolo sighed. “I will in time. Please, just don’t trouble yourself with it anymore.” 

Lucifer frowned as Diavolo rose from his chair and made his way back toward the entrance to the council chambers. He paused for a moment at the door, turning back to face him with a smile on his face. 

“Oh, and by the way- I saw your report on Storm’s grades. She’s doing rather well, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps we should put her abilities to more of a strict test.” 

Lucifer raised a brow at him. “What do you mean?” 

Diavolo chuckled. “Lets go talk to her, I’m sure she’ll be pleased to know she’s doing so well. It’s a good reflection on your guidance, after all.” Diavolo pushed his way through the doors, immediately bombarded with reporters asking for his thoughts on the results of the Bloody Moon competition. He began to boast on his pride in Asmo winning, only to have the door close and shut his boisterous voice away from the chambers. Lucifer sighed, moving to stand when something smooth wrapped around his wrist and yanked him back down to his seat. He whipped his attention around, only to be met with the face of a very angry Barbatos. 

“You have some nerve questioning the young master’s decisions in such a way, Lucifer.” 

“Do I not have a right to know what problems are going on if I am working along side him?” Lucifer growled, and attempted to free his wrist from Barbatos’ tail, struggling with how tightly wound it was around it. He was unsure why Barbatos was in his demon form, and found himself fearful of what had occurred to make him so angry.

“Maybe so, but the young master has a reason for why he is choosing to keep this from you, and I suggest you respect that given the circumstances.” Barbatos eye twitched, tightening his grip on Lucifer’s wrist.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucifer narrowed his eyes as Barbatos leaned down over him. 

“What I mean is that I believe you should re-evaluate where your loyalties lie in your service to the throne, Lucifer.” Barbatos hissed quietly. “You serve Lord Diavolo, as you promised all those years ago. Yet, you seem to have grown quite fond of allying yourself with those who are threats to his position.” 

Lucifer titled his head in confusion. “I do not ally myself with Diavolo’s enemies.” 

“Do you need a reminder to what had occurred last spring with Belphegor? And perhaps your budding relationship with Miss Storm has just been a figment of my imagination.” 

Lucifer swallowed nervously. “Belphegor has realigned thanks to the help of Storm...and there is no relationship between us.” 

Barbatos scoffed, finally releasing Lucifer’s wrist. a red mark was left from where circulation began to be cut off. He leaned closer to his face, his hands wound tightly into a fist as his tail flicked in agitation behind him. “I wonder, Lucifer. If it came down to it, who’s side would you chose? I thought I knew the answer and that your allegiance to the young master was unwavering, but now I’m not so sure of where your loyalties lie.” 

Lucifer and Barbatos’ heads whipped towards the sudden opening of the council doors. Diavolo stood with a worried expression painted on his face, gesturing for them to follow. “Come on, you two. I have found Storm in the Garden. We shouldn’t keep the good news of her performance at RAD all to ourselves!” 

Barbatos’ tail flicked a few more times before straightening and eventually dissipating as his demon form fizzled away. He quickly fell in line at Diavolo’s side, offering a final sentiment as Lucifer made his way toward them as well. He leaned over to Lucifer as they followed Diavolo through the crowd. “I suggest you give what is to become of your relationship with that human some thought before provide an answer to my question.” 

Lucifer swallowed, only offering a nod in response. His eyes immediately fell to her as they exited the auditorium, and jealousy immediately spiked in seeing her so intimately close to Simeon.  His eye twitched and he directed his sight downward, trying to qualm the anxiety building in his chest at what Barbatos had said about his loyalties.

Perhaps he did need to reconsider how intense his feelings were becoming for the small redhead.

Sarah sighed as Asmo and Heart disappeared through the crowd. She was left alone amongst a see of partying demons, which usually wouldn’t be so bad, but she felt sorry for Asmo’s sadness at Storm and his brothers seeming bailing on him. Levi had begged to stay home, so she didn’t even have him as a distraction from the awkwardness she felt inside. She pushed her way to the outer layer of demons,  seeing if she could find Fern or Mammon to occupy her thoughts with more pleasant ones. She glanced around, seeing the top of Fern’s green hair in the distance near the snack table. She smirked, walking toward the sound of their annoyed voice.

“I BET I CAN!” Fern yelled poking Belphie hard in the chest. He had a teasing smirk on his face.

“I’d put my money on Fern. Ain’t nobody who cooks worse than Solomon.” Mammon shuddered, stealing a glance at the untouched cupcakes next to them that looked food poisoning on a tray. 

“I dunno, remember the one time Fern was on dinner duty and Lucifer had to take them off the schedule because they nearly burned the house down?” Belphie gave a half shrug. “Besides, it’s not like your taste in food is very refined, You make instant Ramen almost every time for dinner.” 

“Oh and yours is?” Fern narrowed their eyes. “You always make easy stuff too.” 

“Oh really? You tried making a cup of instant Brimstone Macaroni in the microwave and burned it, so how easy is it really in comparison Fern?” 

“Whatcha guys talkin’ about?” Sarah strolled over, acting overly innocent with her hands clasped in front of her.

Belphie tilted his head toward the cupcakes. “We saw these were made by Solomon and started talking about how someday he’s going to kill us all with his cooking.”

 "And then Belphie said Fern couldn’t make a better meal than Solomon.” Mammon added.  

“And I say I can!” Fern glared at Belphie, who shook his head in response. 

Sarah nodded, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “I see...Well, how about we put it to a test.” 

“A test?” Mammon gestured for her to continue explaining. “Whatcha mean?” 

Sarah smiled evilly. “Hehe...I mean, lets make it a competition.” 

Mammon smirked. “Ohh I see.” 

Sarah pointed to Fern. “What do you want it you win?” 

“Huh? Oh...Uh...” Fern thought for a moment, caught of guard by the question. The others waited with bated breath, until a mischievous smile curled onto their lips. “I want a freshly plucked feather from Lucifer’s wings. As a trophy. And I want Belphie to do it.” 

“What?!” Belphie shook his head. “No way! You’re crazy.” 

“What’sa matter, cowboy?” Fern teased. “You seemed so confident a few minutes ago!” 

Belphie scowled. “Fine! Deal. But If I win, and Solomon is a better cook than you, you have to...” Belphie paused, trying to think of what it is that he wanted. 

“They have to go on a date with Lucifer.” Sarah giggled, seeing the horror manifest on Fern’s face. 

“Um, excuse me!?” Fern screeched, wildly shaking their head. “I don’t fucking think so!” 

Belphie snorted. “Yeah, I mean I don’t think we’d ever convince Lucifer of that. He likes Storm too much and I think Fern is his least favorite of the humans.” 

Sarah smiled. “Don’t worry, I can figure that part out. The punishment for losing has to be fitting for each of you, don’t you think?” 

They both groaned, glancing back to each other with a brief flash of uncertainty on their features, but it quickly shifted back to one of competitiveness. They shook hands, staring each other down. “Deal.” 

Sarah smiled, the evilness behind her expression only growing. “Great, then I’ll find Solomon and tell him to cook something for me. How about we do something like...A shepherds pie?” 

“What the hell is even that?” Fern looked confused, only to make Sarah’s eyes flash with mischief. 

“Oh, this is gonna be good.” 

“Oh, Simeon.” Storm paused, not realizing it was in fact Simeon she had followed out the door instead of Lucifer. “I didn’t realize it was you who was out here.”

“Aww, were you expecting Lucifer?” Simeon smirked teasingly, giving a slight laugh when Storm’s cheeks turned bright red. “I’m only teasing. Come here, Storm. I’ve actually been meaning to get a moment alone with you.” 

She gave a weak smile back and approached to where Simeon sat on the bench, watching some birds flock around the Gazebo, where plenty of seed had been left out for them to munch on. 

“It feels like I haven’t gotten to properly spend time with you at all since you’ve returned.” He mused, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. “Even in your visit to the celestial realm, Luke provided a significant distraction. Besides that though, your mind seemed to be elsewhere throughout the trip.” 

Storm nodded, giving a light chuckle. “Well...you know how Luke is. When he gets excited about something it’s hard to get him to calm down. But, I agree. I’ve missed spending time with you.” 

Simeon felt his heart grow full at the statement. “That makes me happy. How are you getting along here this time around?”

“It’s going good...I think.” She laughed. “It kind of sucks that Malice is too anxious around Demons still to come to RAD with me, but he seems to be warming up to everyone in the HOL. Especially Beel, weirdly enough.” 

“Malice...what an interesting name for a dog.” Simeon gave an amused laugh. “How does one end up with that sort of name?”

“Well, apparently as a puppy he was a nightmare.” Storm laughed fondly. “I didn’t own him until after he was trained for me, but the stories I heard...It seemed he liked to cause problems on purpose.” 

“Hmm...That sounds like a familiar set of demons who I’m sure you’re acquainted with...” Simeon replied sarcastically, causing Storm to laugh. “It’s amazing how that personality seems to be drawn to you. Fern and you are getting along quite well, yes?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of fun having a roommate.” Storm smiled. “But I’d say I have been getting along well with the other humans here too- even Vivi.” 

“Really?” 

 “Mhm.” Storm smiled fondly. 

Simeon nodded, smiling warmly. “Well, isn’t that just like you, though? You seem to just naturally bring out the best in those around you.” 

Storm blushed. “I dunno. This is the first time I’ve really had this good of a connection with other humans before.”

“Perhaps the others are the problem?” Simeon raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Maybe...” Storm looked down, clearing her throat and deciding to change the subject. “So, how have you been?” 

“Well...” Simeon tapped his chin, giving a slight giggle after a moment of thought. “Solomon keeps offering to cook for us, so we have to keep getting creative in ways to turn him down.” 

Storm chuckled. “Has anyone tried to tell him that he shouldn’t be within 5 feet of a stove at any time?” 

Simeon laughed. “We try to drop hints, I suppose. Though apparently he’s tried to have Barbatos teach him to cook. From what I hear, those lessons don’t go so well.” 

Storm and Simeon shared a laugh for a moment, which faded into a comfortable silence. She relished in being able to spend time like this with him again. The two had become quite close during the first exchange program, though it seemed like something always interrupted their opportunities to be alone together. Simeon, though, was the only one Storm felt comfortable enough to confide in with her problems with Lucifer at the beginning of the first exchange program, and he consistently offered good insight into Lucifer’s mannerisms and advice on how to deal with his previous defensiveness over his family. Simeon was shocked when Lucifer began to accept her as one of his own siblings though, not expecting his advice for how to coexist with him to manifest into such a close and loving relationship. 

As they quietly watched the birds fight over a larger seed, Storm’s mind began to wander to the disastrous rehearsals during the play, and what had seemed to be a complete personality change in the usually sweet angel. 

“Can I ask you something?” Storm anxiously stole a glance toward him, watching Simeon’s smile fade into a concerned frown. 

“What is it?” 

“What was up with you during the play? You kind of got...like...mean?” She bit her lip after the words came out, feeling nervous as to how Simeon would respond. 

“Oh...” He glanced to the ground, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “I guess I didn’t realize that, but looking back...I suppose I was a little harsh.”

“Yeah, and I just...” She breathed, trying to manifest the image of Mammon in her head from the night of the ball. His words rang through her head, giving her the confidence to tell Simeon how she felt. 

“I wan’t ya to value yourself as much as I do. Ya shouldn’t accept anyone talkin’ to ya in the way that I did.”

“You just...what?” Simeon had turned completely to her, his own nervousness bubbling up in how long she was hesitating to say something. He knew she had a hard time telling people when she was hurt, and if he had indeed hurt her, he wanted to know so he could make amends. Simeon couldn’t stand the idea of Storm being mad at him. She was his friend, and a close one at that. She had given him a lot of solid advice on Luke and his interactions with the brothers, and his fondness for her kind and gentle nature only grew over time. He even found himself feeling a slight twinge of jealousy at how inseparable she seemed to be from the brothers- not only because he secretly wanted her time to himself, but also because he wanted to be as close to them as she was. 

Storm breathed deeply again. “I just didn’t like the way you pulled me- er, us- around and your yelling kind of...” She trailed off, losing her confidence after looking at the surprised face.  She dropped her glance just as Heart and Asmo briskly walked out the doors of RAD, toward the opposite end of the garden.

“Oh...” He murmured, sliding his hand closer to her. She had told him about how terrified she was at the sound of raised voices as a result of her trauma, and he felt terrible for having triggered some of those awful memories. “I’m so sorry. I guess when it comes to my writing, I get a little carried away in wanting a perfect execution, but I didn’t realize it got so bad that I hurt you.” 

Storm smiled weakly, feeling guilty for making Simeon feel bad. Her thoughts began racing, accusing her of stirring the pot and minimizing the hurt she actually felt. “I mean, it’s water under the bridge now, y’know? I just...I wanted to make sure you knew and that I was feeling better about it now...You don’t have to feel bad or-” 

Simeon laughed, shaking his head. “Storm, it’s okay. I’m glad you told me. I’ll offer an apology to everyone, but I want to ask what I can do to make things better between us?” 

“Oh, no no...You don’t have to do anything...” Storm picked at the skin of her arm, the guilt building further at Simeon requesting to do something to make up for things that she had now convinced herself weren’t really that big of a deal.

“But I want to.” Simeon smiled, now reaching his hand out to her knee gently. 

There was silence for a moment as Storm tried to figure out the least burdensome way she could fix this situation.  She sighed, about to speak when the doors to the Auditorium burst open, walking through it a very amused Diavolo, who b-lined directly toward her.  a few moments later, coming out of the building, looking very annoyed, was Barbatos, with Lucifer in tow behind him with a somber expression on his face.

“Storm! Just the person I wanted to see!” Diavolo’s voice boomed through the garden. She flinched slightly as he approached, placing a hand on her shoulder roughly. “I wanted to say how proud I am of the marks you’ve gotten so far, and on top of all of this extra work load and coming in mid-way through the quarter! You truly are amazing!” 

 Storm blinked at him, somewhat confused. She had good marks, but they weren’t any higher than usual, from what she could gather. She glanced to Lucifer, who refused to meet her gaze. Diavolo squeezed her shoulder a little too tight, getting her to wince and return her focus to him. 

“It appears as though you are receiving such high grades, that after talking it over with Lucifer, we think you should be held to a higher standard!” 

Storm’s face went pale and she gulped nervously. “W-what?” 

“Well, all the exchange students here get a little cushion for their grades because of all of their other responsibilities, so that they will never actually fail any class here unless they do nothing at all! Even after removing this grade cushion to examine your results, we have discovered that you are still in the top 5 percent in the entire school. How amazing is that?!” Diavolo smiled widely, displaying his pride in her accomplishment. 

“Wow, Storm that’s amazing!” Simeon added excitedly as Storm blushed deeply, not used to such excessive praise.

“However, there is one more thing we are interested in examining. On quarterly exams, you only receive about half of the test questions that your other classmates receive. So we thought of removing this buffer after providing you with the standard exams, just to see if you still hold up against the other demons here!” Diavolo’s smile dropped slightly after seeing her anxiety begin to rise. “Not to worry, this will not go on your permanent record. And I am having Lucifer see to it that Satan aids you in studying if you need it. Exams are next week, so study hard!” 

With that, Diavolo said made and excuse for something urgent needing his attention, and went on his way. Storm sighed, nervously carding a hand through her hair. Simeon tried to provide reassurance, but her thoughts of potential failure consumed her to the point where her mind seemed to drift somewhere else, and everything around her seemed to fade into the background. 

Lucifer watched Storm’s reactions, but couldn’t find the words to provide reassurance. He merely was able to rub her back softly as Simeon spoke to her. He glanced up just as Diavolo had exited the garden, seeing Barbatos staring back at him with a stern look on his face. Lucifer swallowed nervously, dropping his eyes avoiding his judging glare. 

Barbatos shook his head in displeasure, now making his own way out of the garden to follow the future king. 

[jeanstin-jackelroy]

Og mbmbam fans will remember the abba days

[writemyaceattorneys]

Okay okay, you might've got tired of me already, but in case you didn't, I'm here to throw some more ideas--

Okay so,,, stick with me, but what if s/o's parents found a way to visit Britain somehow to check up on their child? They could be lying in those letters for all they know and the situation's worse than s/o lets on--

(Also honestly it was said before but Sherlock is a lesser evil for sure: of all the unfortunate scenarios, he just secured himself an ally approved by the gov., so he can get away w/whatever bs regardless of what police thinks abt his methods. Barok, on the other hand..)

I feel like s/o would immediately pull their parents away and ask them to not interfere, bc they're already walking a figurative blade of a glass knife.

They'd also prolly refuse being taken to home country, bc even if they wanted to (which is nonsense), I don't feel like either of the guys(but van Zieks in particular, bc he seems like the controlling type-) would approve of them leaving London.

Oo, on another note, what if s/o was invited to a social event or smth? I feel like they wouldn't be ashamed of dressing in their home country's clothing (although they def would take all the other precautions like specific makeup, shoulderpads, etc etc).

It would be a weird situation for both Sherlock and Barok: bc I mean sure Barok can keep them out of a major scandal on a daily basis, but either of them going out w/ s/o in public would look hella sus. And being gae was also punishable by death 😳

Oh! And if we're talking danger-- Just imagine that someone challenged s/o to a duel? And they couldn't refuse, bc public image?? They wouldn't die there obv, but what if they got injured? Like, mb they took a bullet to their shoulder or smth- I wonder how would Sherlock and Barok react if they saw them bleeding severely? Especially their reaction after s/o explained how they got injured in the first place--

Urs, 🪄 anon.

Ps: I might change to 🎭 anon if u can see that emoji? You aren't missing much w/ the mystery box one tho, it's just Miles' disco stick a magic wand.

Pps: I send LOL to Mod Miles, Suzume, 🐸, and all the other anons on here! You're rlly cool!💯

LOL stands for Lots Of Love;)

Ooooooooooooop someone better prepare the yandere duo for the wrath that is parents. I can indeed see the 🎭 emoji so if you want to be 🎭Anon then that's okay with me. I'm absolutely distraught that I can't see the uh- *adjusts collar* magic wand emoji though.

First thing they'd do once they hit English soil is start cussing these two men out in their native language. Not the most polite thing to do in any sort of public space, especially during the late Victorian/Edwardian period but seeing as no one would understand the language I think an exception could be made.

I do think that Barok and Sherlock would want to make a good impression on S/O's parents though. They'd paint themselves as allies to S/O, people who have sworn to keep their secret and even help them to maintain appearances.

Hopefully, S/O's parents see through this BS. But if S/O was desperate to keep them out of it, they'd respect their child's wishes but the minute that they return home they'll start badgering their Government officials to bring their child home.

Sherlock would be LIVING IT UP with his free access pass (courtesy of being associated with Barok) to pretty much every crime scene in the country.

As for S/O going to an event, I think that they'd be a bit nervous but if they particularly wanted to wear their national clothing and they took the correct precautions, I don't think anyone would realise. They'd be more wrapped up in the potential scandal that is whatever is going on between them, Barok van Zieks and Sherlock Holmes.

You are spot on, being gay at this time was absolutely punishable by death, but then again, those with the power to keep themselves out of trouble would definitely do so.

Barok could definitely keep the three of them out of trouble and without proof, there can be no accusation.

I found this website which I think could have some interesting information (specifically, the later 19th Century) so feel free to peruse that if you wish!

Danger you say 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Poor S/O, duels are not a fun way to go. Although, by this point in time duels had largely fallen out of favour and they were illegal as well so whoever was asking S/O to duel must have really wanted to chance it.

Barok would be furious, he'd track the other party down on the spot to prosecute them. Trust me, he won't be letting this go.

Sherlock would be the one to stay with S/O while Barok sorts this out but once Barok is back, the two of them would "collaborate" in order to make sure that S/O is comfortable and their wound is closed (they couldn't really go to a hospital because then S/O's cover would be blown)

[babie-jeno]

no longer.

genre: fluff-ish, angst, non-idol, female reader, cupid au

warnings: prolly some inaccuracies in the origins of cupids, major character death, su/cide

word count: 2200

synopsis: Every baby born under the Venus bloodline were assigned a cupid and a soulmate. Cupids would care for the Venus babies and guide them to their soulmate. Once they fell in love with their soulmate, the cupid would have to bid their goodbyes and move on to the next Venus baby in line. Cupids are incapable of love. Despite being the epitome of love, they themselves are unlovable. Jeno has been a cupid caring for countless Venus bloodline babies since the beginning of their time. Jeno enjoyed all of his Venus bloodline babies he has cared for but he was always envious of his Venus babies. They would always grow up to live a happily, lovingly, and long life with their soulmate, something he longed for but was supposedly incapable of. Then he took care of you...

_______________________________________________

Since the beginning of their creation, Jeno has been a cupid caring for countless Venus bloodline babies. He enjoyed his time with all of those he was assigned, but he always nursed an envy of them. They would grow up to live a long happily loving life with their soulmate, something he longed for but was supposedly incapable of. Then he took care of you...

_______________________________________________

Jeno stood on a cliff stretching his beautiful long white wings and adjusted his crooked and dull gold halo. He was about to fly home after bidding goodbye to his Venus offspring named Chen, who had just hosted his wedding and was getting ready to go on his honeymoon with his pregnant soulmate. Jeno had spent 28 years preparing, planning, and perfecting Chen’s love story.

When he arrived home, he had expected the gods to give him a break, as he has been working back to back on Venus bloodline babies for quite some time. 127 years to be precise.

As usual, the gods summoned his presence and demanded his technical works to be put to use for the next Venus offspring. They informed him the offspring was a female. Jeno tilted his head, confused. He had worked with only a handful of female Venus offsprings. He was only assigned them once every blue moon because he specialized in males. The gods dramatically laughed at his confusion, “Trust us, you would not be our first choice either, but Wendy failed her mission with a female baby. Nature is replenishing herself, and Wendy is now sentenced to 145 years in the garden. No cupids are available, so you can take it, or you can leave it and serve the 145 years for Miss Wendy. You wouldn’t want that, though, am I right?” Jeno scoffed and glared at the gods.

“I’ll take it.”

_______________________________________________

Your loud cries and your mother’s pants filled the labor room. “It’s a girl!” the doctor shouts. Jeno looked down on the room and smiled. You were absolutely precious.

_______________________________________________

Every night, Jeno would watch your crib to protect you from any lurking danger. He would tuck you into bed after your mother left. Before that, though, your mother would tell you every night before you went to sleep, “Angels are watching over you.” Little did she know, she was correct.

______________________________________________

You were only 8 years old when you encountered your first bully. Jeno watched from afar, and his heart clenched at the sight of your glassy eyes threatening to spill. He had decided to take form of a younger boy to protect you. It was a risk for cupids to actually participate in their Venus baby’s life, but he simply couldn’t bear another moment in the presence of your sadness. He took into form, fought off the bullies, and comforted you. You felt so small in his arms; you felt right.

Jeno had only expected to protect you in the human boy form this one time, but you didn’t socialize much after getting bullied. So, he took it upon himself to be your companion because it would be easier to protect you, right? Changing his appearance to seem human took a lot of his cupid energy, but he endured it for you. You were so lovely and kind. He couldn’t understand why the humans didn’t fancy you, but the humankind was always confusing him, so he wasn’t surprised.

_______________________________________________

You had invited him over for a movie marathon night at your house, a tradition that you guys have religiously done since you were 8. You had put on your pjs and were patiently waiting for Jeno to show up. You heard 5 hard rhythmic knocks, a code the two of you had created when you were 10. You ran to open the door to greet him and spent the night eating snacks and watching scary movies in his arms. Jeno watched as you fell asleep. He caressed your face and your nose scrunched at the sudden touch; he couldn’t help but giggle. You were so cute. He picked you up bridal style and tuck you into bed, just like he has every night since you were born.

_______________________________________________

When you were 16 you experienced your first real crush named Chan. Jeno was petrified. He knew Chan was not your soulmate, as his halo didn’t glow brightly to indicate a Venus soulmate. He knew the moment you introduced Chan to him that there was potential for your heart to be broken. For years, Jeno had managed to subside small childish crushes, but you were gonna be an adult soon and your feelings were slipping through his fingers. His also knew his job was to protect you and guide you to your soulmate, so he demanded you to quit seeing this stupid waste of a crush.

“Y/n, are you out of your mind? He is no good for you! What do you gain from this stupid boy?!” he yelled at you.

You were greatly astounded by his harsh tone. He had never once used such tone towards you in your many years of wonderful friendship. Was this the same boy who protected you from bullies, babied you, cuddled and tucked you in all night every halloween? Your eyes became glassy, just like the first time you met him. Looking into your eyes, he realized how he had hurt you. How could he? He questioned himself. In that moment, he understood he wasn’t doing his job. Yes, he was trying to protect you, but you ignited this fire in him. You made him feel pain, in the sense of love? He had feelings for you. Impossible, he thought. Cupids were practically feelingless beings who provided the feelings. Then, he said the 3 words cupids were forbidden to say.

“I love you.”

The air was thick, and your glassy eyes softened. You took a big step towards him and pecked his lips. Jeno was alarmed but was distracted by your soft lips against his. You cannot love him; it was no good for you or for him. Your life would end short if you rejected your soulmate and loved another, especially a cupid. For Jeno, he would spend 100+ years in the garden, and the gods would torture him and strip his memories of the mission he failed. Which means he would forget you. He couldn’t risk that. He wants to remember you. Jeno pushed you off and stormed away.

You laid in bed that night sobbing. Jeno watched from above, waiting for you to sleep and tucking you in.

_______________________________________________

Countless failed attempts of contacting Jeno lead to many missed calls and pathetic voicemails. You eventually gave up, and you never saw Jeno again. You went to your dream university that Jeno granted with the snap of his fingers. You lived comfortably, and every morning you went to the same coffee shop around the corner. You were standing in line when someone bumped into you, spilling their iced americano all over your white t-shirt. He panicked, “Omg, I’m sorry! Here’s my sweater”.

You only laughed. He was tall and extremely handsome. “It’s okay, my name is y/n,” you said and took his sweater.

“I’m Johnny,” he smiled. Jeno stood above, halo shining brightly. You had met your soulmate.

_______________________________________________

Years into dating Johnny and you were beyond happy, but something in you still thought about Jeno. Jeno knew you still thought about him, but he still needed to accomplish his mission. You needed to marry and accept your soulmate. Johnny stood in the jewelry store looking for a new watch when he glanced at the wedding rings. Jeno took the chance to whisper little persuasive words in Johnny’s ear, “Do it.” Johnny blinked and bought a beautiful diamond ring. On his way to his car, he texted you. “Babe dust off that red dress. We’re going dancing”. You replied with “so sudden but ok babe lol”.

_______________________________________________

You were in your red dress, slow dancing with Johnny. You were simply just enjoying the other’s presence, when Johnny got on one knee and proposed to you. Of course you said yes, Jeno made sure of it. He watched as his plan worked from above. Not his best delivery, but it succeeded. His time with you was running out.

_______________________________________________

The day had finally come, and you were finally getting married. You looked at your reflection in the mirror, and you started to get the jitters. Do you want to marry Johnny? Are you ready? Why was Jeno on your mind; it’s been years? You panicked and started to pack your stuff. You grabbed a pen to write a letter to apologize to Johnny.

You weren’t the only frantic one. Jeno panicked and showed his true form. He grabbed your wrist before you could begin to write. You looked up and were taken back by his halo, his lack of clothes, and his huge wings. “J-jeno?” He cupped your chubby cheeks and looked dead into your glassy eyes. Oh was he was gonna miss those dazzling eyes. You were as gorgeous and beautiful as ever, he thought.

His eyes glowed a bright pink, and he began to compel you,

“I love you, but you need to marry Johnny. You won’t remember me. You fought your bullies alone, and every year you spend Halloween alone, your first crush Chan rejected you, and Jeno never existed, and you love Johnny so, so, so much. You’ll forget you tried to ran. You’re gonna walk down that aisle, get married, go on your honeymoon, have kids, and grow old with Johnny. I’m gonna kiss you and you’ll forget everything associated with me.” You were overwhelmed, and you were about to speak when Jeno kissed you and disappeared.

Your memories were wiped. You looked around. Why were your things packed? You could’ve sworn you had already unpacked. Why was there a pen in your hands? What were you gonna write down? One of your bridesmaids walked into the room, “You’ll be walking down in 10.” She looked at your lips and pointed at her own, “You have a little smear here.” You awkwardly laughed, looked in the mirror, and cleaned up. You could’ve sworn the smear wasn’t there a moment ago. Jeno watched and smiled at your confusion. Johnny is one lucky man.

______________________________________________

Again, he stood on the same cliff stretching his long white wings with a crooked and dull halo. Was this all to his life? Mission after mission with no love to share? He flew home and again the gods called for him. They were probably wondering why was he home early. His mission wasn’t finished until you said those 2 bonding words, but he couldn’t bear it anymore. Instead of going to the gods, he went to the garden, where they held prisoners and golden arrows. Cupids are immortals beings, but magic always has a loophole. Every cupid has their own golden arrow capable of taking their life. It’s what the gods used to threaten cupids into working in love labor. He grabbed his arrow when the guard was not looking and flew back to the cliff. Jeno opened a portal to watch you walk down the aisle and say your vows. God did he wish it was him you were marrying. The priest began to say his line,

"Do you, Y/n take Johnny Suh as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

“I do.”

You said those two words that bonded you to life with your Venus soulmate. Which meant Jeno had officially finished his mission.

“She no longer needs me,” Jeno spoke before he pierced his heart with his golden arrow.

_______________________________________________

2 years after your wedding, you and Johnny began to try to start a family. You were happy to find out you were pregnant and that your due date was Halloween. You don’t really know when it began or why, but Halloween has always been your favorite holiday. You had expected for a baby girl, so you chose the name Yeeun.

Like clockwork, you began to go into labor Halloween morning. Johnny rushed you to the hospital. You were emitted to a labor room and gave birth. “It’s a boy!” the doctor shouted. You and Johnny were confused, since you had been expecting a girl.

“What would you like to name this baby boy?” the nurse asked. You were in deep thought.

“Oh we haven’t thought abou-.”

You interrupted Johnny with, “Jeno, J-Jeno, yeah Jeno his name is Jeno.” You don’t know what compelled you to say such an uncommon name, but it felt familiar, comfortable even.

_______________________________________________

this was based off a dream I had so like dhjdfnnsdk

[staysuki]

squid game episode 7 reactions:

1) oh nvm ali’s dead :D

2) GO HWANG. HIDE WITH YOUR LIFE

3) I KNEW NO.212 WASN’T DEAD. WE DIDN’T SEE HER DIE. SHE’S ALIVE. i hate that i’m right, i don’t like her character trope. the sad part is, if gihun didn’t partner with 001, he’ll prolly still be alive (but i think he’s alive, i’m suspicious of his character and also, we got a confirmed kill from ali and jiyeong but not him).

4) front man speaking always gets me, idk why.

5) “i always put down the receiver the other way” omfg i cannot with this guy. he is so intimidating but also kinda goofy. apparently he’s not even one of the VIPs??? he answers to higher ups still? i cannot take this “antagonist” seriously at all.

6) istg if hwang gets hurt i will riot. mr. mask head is smart though.

7) HWANG ISTG YOU’RE PLAYING WITH FIRE BUT OMG CLUTCH WITH THE BODY THAT HE DISPOSED OF

8) the husband and wife :((( honestly if that was me, i would rather just die as well but i know how hard that must’ve been ugh

9) idk why hwang had to leave his id with the body. even with water bloating, they couldn’t have been THAT alike right. but idk, i trust my man hwang.

10) as much as it hurts, i’m not siding with no.69 on this one :(((( narrative-wise, he chose to go back to that place with his wife and nobody else were with someone that important with the game so even if people were close in-game, there really weren’t that much of a personal bond. still sad though, maybe i’m just a bit detached because i’m watching it from a critical perspective. sangwoo is cold but he’s 100% right. no.69 and his wife was alright with joining but now that the stakes turned against them, suddenly it’s time to stop, it’s also unfair for the people who died and also the people who worked hard to get this far idk.

11) THE MASKS LOOK SO GOOFY I CANT— and also am i missing smth here??? i feel like im missing a point bc they build sm center around the masks so it should amount to smth mindblowing but it’s just so meh(???) like, i don’t care to know about these people bc we haven’t seen them at all nor have we learned anything from them. it’s not like the reveal of the BBEG main antagonist in Alice in Borderland where it’s surprising because spoilers: we’ve seen her before alongside the others and it was unexpected. But idk, maybe it’s yet to be revealed.

12) this black mask guy seems so small as time goes on. he’s made to be this cunning head but he��s still just a pawn all along to whoever the “host” is 😭. i’m guessing no.001 is the host or smth idk, he’s sus. JAJWHSHAHAS I CANT LET GO OF NO.001 ISTG THERES SMTH THERE

13) so much buildup for the next game omo 😭 i’m feeling tense. “the games in korea are the best” so it’s held all over the world eh 👀 this reminds me of Cabin in the Woods actually

14) the acting from the VIPs are so goofy i cannot. i saw the no.069 ending coming from a mile away :((( so tragic, but i understand.

15) apparently mr. deoksu 101 is the “muscle” but why does he always look like he’s about to cry 😭😭 like i get he has his scaredy cat moments (alot) but whenever the camera pans to him it’s like he’s a second away from tearing up.

16) the VIP lounge looks so cozy, i would love to cuddle with someone and watch a movie on a big screen while munching on a nice charcuterie board, preferably said movie isn’t some gorefest.

now that i think about it, this also reminds me of a manga i read a while back named Suicide Island (i think????) basically the premise is that “no-chance” people (basically people in debt, criminals, etc.) are sent to an island to die or fend for themselves, that’s the whole premise. ngl i forgot most of it because it’s been a long time ago so that was probably a crass summary so i’ll probably check it out again.

17) another physical game(????) these seem interesting tho, new numbers and whatnot.

18) i am so sick of that running 69 joke already 😀

19) mr. hwang you’re doing so well. please come out of this alive. ily bb

20) i would choose 7. it’s my lucky number too. istg if no.7 dies immediately, i will riot.

21) THE VIP’s DIALOGUE ARE SO CHOPPY(?????) like its so bad????? it keeps throwing me off 😭 not just the lines and the delivery but the pacing as well? it’s like there’s this millisecond of pause between each line as if behind the scenes, someone has to tell them “it’s your line now”- or idk, maybe i’m overthinking it but i hate these guys sm, and not just because they’re scummy people 😀

22) the pain of being indecisive lmfao. i personally am good at making decisions (kinda). ok no.96, go off, you make the decision for gihun.

23) ok this game i can’t—

24) honestly, i’d like to keep mr. hwang all to myself too

25) so being last is the best position huh 👀

26) my man is doing the math on the probability of his death. this is a man i can stan. goodbye though. what a good way to go honestly, what a champ.

27) in this game, i would probably get clammy feet and slip and fall and die even if i get the correct tile. honestly i’d probably lose balance and fall to my death. i can’t even jump that far.

28) oh wow they’re playing chess now, kinda. i think that’s how you play chess right. you push people.

29) is gihun cracking the code 🤔🤔🤔. oh lmfao he just forgot. i thought he was having an epiphany 😭

30) no.101 is next now. idk if he lives this one but honestly there’s a saying in our country that goes “mahirap patayin ang masamang damo” which just directly translates to “weeds (bad grass) are hard to kill” which means “bad people are hard to kill” so like 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

31) “you’re all mine” I WANNA SAY THAT TO MR. HWANG TOO. “please take me somewhere we can be alone” MR. HWANG SAY THAT TO ME TOO BUT DONT KILL ME

32) mr. black mask guy i feel like is catching onto the suspicion, mr. hwang was a bit too risky on this one.

33) mr. hwang you’re so pretty. marry me. THE ENGLISH. I CANT. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OMFG. HE’S TOO MUCH. he pulled out a gun and suddenly i’m 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️

34) ooooopppp no.101 and no.212 face off!!! i love this!!! i knew they’d face off together but i didn’t think they’d do it as enemies. e2l honestly, i stan. ok maybe i like no.212 now. what an honorable woman in the end.

35) THEY DIED TOGETHER. MAYBE IT WASNT OUT OF LOVE BUT I SAW IT COMING. I LOVE THAT HONESTLY.

36) i knew there would be someone who knows glass.

37) THEY TURNED OFF THE LIGHT, WHAT A BUNCH OF SCUMBAGS 😭😭😭. the sound hint, gihun will probably use the marble to check the sound so they all survive and then he’ll be like “no.001 saved me” or smth. idk.

38) somebody make the VIPs stop talking 😀

39) oh he did use the marble. cant he just knock on the glass idk 😭😭😭

40) MR. HWANG YOU’RE SO HANDSOME

41) SANG WOO YOU COLD BLOODED MURDERER. but it had to be done. we all know what this man is capable of 💔💔💔

42) why did ya’ll have to explode the glass, that’s just rude 😭 also what a weirdly placed slowmo, so unnecessary 😭

43) mr. hwang i’m counting on you

[ts-hvv4]

EPISODE FOUR: “I JUST NEED ME AND MY GIRLIES TO SURVIVE.” - JAKE

I'm jumping ship because Keegan voted for me TWICE!!! Bro I'm like Kelley Frickin Wentworth, I'm gonna underdog this game. Heck yeah I'm joining Andreas, Chris, and Dennis. 

The word of the day is definitely Tinky Winky. It’s a Tinky Winky revolution and all because I couldn’t get the fucking epic rap battle line “we’re in the endgame now Tinky winky” unstuck from my brain

Literally all my best friends are on the other tribe UGHHHHHHHH Sharifa, Trent, Kurt, Lukas we will be together at some point 😞✊ And Jake tbh imma miss him I have ned, Keegan, and Malik Ned doesn’t like malik Keegan thinks I voted ned Malik would’ve been voted out if he didn’t have immunity Sitting in a burning room with a teaspoon of water but ILL GET THROUGH THIS I PROMISE

I imagine Olivia, Trent, and Keegan as the episode 2 trio of Jamal, Jack, and Molly from Island of the Idols, specifically the line "we're really impressed with ourselves." They think they're playing some mastermind UTR game but in reality literally everyone knows their schemes.

Sooooo I received a vote and it was likely from Kage so that’s annoying… BUT here are my thoughts on the swap

1) I think Lukas told Kage I was trying to get him out. The way Lukas talked to me about Emma and the way he talked to me about Kage were very standoff ish. He was clearly trying to get info and just say things that didn't give anything either way. It was a very different feel than what I got with anyone else. 2) I think there's a winners alliance between Jake, Sharifa, and Kurt. Jake told me he got along well with Sharifa and Kurt. So clearly he's hoping we target Trent. BUT Also Sharifa knew I was a winner when I talked to her and made a point to bring it up. Yet, when I asked if there were other winners she mentioned Kurt and not Jake. That doesn't make sense. She doesn't know me at all. Why would she have that info about me but not have that info about Jake? 3) I think I'm losing Lukas a bit. Before we swapped Dennis told me that Kage mentioned something about the idol no longer being where it was originally. He also mentioned that Kage told Lukas. Me and Lukas had been sharing idol information but Lukas hasn't been coming to tell me things and he DEFINITELY didn't tell me the Kage info. Now that I've said all that, I wanna debate whether or not to tell anyone about the 5 that was created on our old tribe. Dennis might not enjoy it cause it would throw him under the bus. But he's no longer on my tribe. I could use this opportunity to inch my way into the winner's alliance and surround myself with threats. Get Lukas closer to me and make him a bit more sus of Kage. AND get Matt closer to me as well. My relationship with Sarah is interesting and I think it'll stay that way. I think we've been getting along nicely but I don't think she's actively going out of her way to work with me cause she likes me. I think at best, she wants to just get info from meAGAIN, all this said, one of the BIGGEST things I've learned in the past is to trust my perception. In both real life games I've played, I had a gut feeling about all of the important things in the entire game. I knew when things were happening that were shady and was able to sus it out. BUT in both, I waited too long to act on it and tried to logic my way through issues rather than trust myself. So I genuinely think what I'm feeling about all these relationships makes a lot of sense and I'm trying to really figure out what I should do with the trust I've built. I gotta a lot of ground to make up cause of my vacation and I can feel my relationships slipping. Jake and I rn are really close. As outside friends, I trust him to work with me for a while. He’s giving me lots of info and even shared an idol clue with moi And honestly, the only person I would care to push to go home rn is Kage and even then I don't necessarily think it's smart to take him out yet 

This was actually a good swap! Me, Andreas, and Dennis are in the minority, although I felt prepared that it would go this way! I talked to everyone and actually think all of them are cool BUT Matt claimed that Olivia told him Malik was the target on their tribe had he not gotten immunity and Sarah I believe said do not trust Olivia so I want to capitalize on that somehow! Also Malik and I know one another so that's cool! But we must downplay!

Just survived the double tribal. It was way more stressful than it should have been, but thats just because of my paranoid self. I had a 1/6 chance of going home, but luckily i didn't receive any votes. There were two rouge votes on keegan who was in my alliance but jake admitted that he and ned were the votes because they both got scared they were the vote and wanted to protect themselves in case of an idol. I thought for a split second there was a much bigger alliance controlling the game and I just got played. But luckily that didn't happen. Now comes a much harder part of the game. We swapped into our original roles, classic Heroes vs Villains. This would be fun expect for the fact i'm now in a 5-4 minority.  I'm going to have to work extra hard to not get voted out, but if they choose me, theres not much i can do unless i find an idol. Lukas I sorta knew threw olivia and she was hoping all three of us could work together, so i'm hoping he can protect me a bit. NIcklas I played BB pokemon with. We were never on the same side in that game, but hopefully theres so some sort of connection there I can use. Sarah Lynn also played that but she was inactive and first boot and I dont think she remembered me. The other two i just met for the first time last night. It's going to be tough to survive, but hopefully we dont even have to go to tribal.

To absolutely no ones surprise, we have swapped! But before I get into that, let me just unpack a little bit that happened at the last tribal because I am SHOOK. So the plan was for there to be a near unanimous vote for BIRCH. With Olivia throwing an extra vote on NED just in case BIRCH had an idol and was lying about who they were voting for. All is well and good. But then tribal happens and not only does NED get two votes but I get two votes. Record scratch. Hold up. What the absolute fuck? I genuinely though I was about to be blindsided and sent home pre-merge. So the end result was five votes for BIRCH, two for NED and two for me. In the brief chats I had before we actually swapped, as well as after with OLIVIA, MALIK and NED, it appears that it was KURT and JAKE who wrote my name down. Fair enough I guess, I hardly spoke with them at all this round. But it was still a shock. As far as I can tell, the McBITCHES all stuck together with the plan. SHARIFA, TRENT, MALIK and myself voted BIRCH with OLIVIA sticking with her NED vote. BIRCH definitely voted for NED and I’m pretty confident NED voted for BIRCH which definitely leaves KURT and JAKE as the two who voted for me. Which means they are close and working together. So that’s definitely something to keep in mind. In regards to the swap it is now a true Heroes vs Villains season and we swapped into those alignments. Which honestly I am okay with because I’ve got OLIVIA with me, who is probably my #1 ally at this point. I’ve also got MALIK who I trust a great deal. And NED, well NED I’m still working on gaining his full allegiance to me. ANDREAS, CHRIS and DENNIS are the other heroes from the original Molysmeno tribe. So far they’ve been nice and I’m bonding with CHRIS over horror movies so that’s been good. However, because of the late tribal we didn’t get a whole lot of time to talk last night. Moving forward, I’d like to win immunity challenges for sure. As much as I would hate to lose TRENT or SHARIFA on the other side, I don’t trust that OG AMMONIA will stick together if we end up at tribal. And who’s to say one of ANDREAS, CHRIS or DENNIS doesn’t have an idol and idols us out even if we do. I genuinely would like to stick with OG tribes for the time being though. As of this very moment, ANDREAS I think is who I would prefer to vote out right now. He seems to be the most difficult to actually talk with at the moment. But it’s still very early in the swap so we’ll see how things progress. 

So I feel that everything is coming together. Andreas/Dennis have told Malik on the Olivia stuff and he was hurt but it is going to have him come to us. While they think Malik's going to be all for them, there is a good chance he and I can snipe! Meanwhile Malik and Ned have expressed a little concern about Olivia/Keegan. I think my ideal tribal scenarios are 5-2 or 3-2-2 so stay tuned on THAT 

Today I've spent lots of time thinking about my odds in the game while at work and tbh I feel like I can surprise a lot of these people. For me, a lot of them want to play under the radar or downplay themselves, but I feel like perhaps the fact I am so new I can legitimately do so without it not looking suspicious and unbelievable. Someone like Matt or Sarah or Dennis or Ned or whoever I feel will have a hard time with that- at least I hope they will. So yeah. Still, I enjoy so many of these people that I feel if I do lose, then I certainly won't be sad about it! Having that said, I'm here to win and plan on doing so!

The swap happened as expected after Emma left. If Emma had stayed, this swap would've been a mess and a half, but she didn't and Kage (the rogue vote) prolly put himself really low into that swap. The swaptribe is amazing. Thanks to Matt's info, I was instantly able to form a really good relationship with malik, who didn't necessarily know he was on the outs, but is SO easy to talk to. He also seemed so so sad when I told him Matt's info, like literally heartbroken and I felt so so sorry for him :(. Ned also approached me about him being on the outs and even being close to Malik, so that is good... right?! Olivia and Keegan seem really nice, but we swapped into a Minority, so I will have to work every angle I can. There are a few concerns I have and those are mainly based on the fact, that things seem way way WAY too good and this just can't be?! I do feel like tho. My connections to Malik and Olivia would EVEN if they stick together mean, that I hopefully don't get targetted and that is actually my entire premerge strategy (or atleast until we make jury). Make connections and make people depend on you/like you enough that even if they betray you, it won't be you, who gets the boot. We just have to be careful, especially depending on what awaits us at Thera. The new Idolsystem is very very interesting to say atleast. It seems multi facetted and apparently Thera plays into it, so yeah

Music. Video. Challenge. No. I hate it. However, I stupidly volunteered to edit the damn video and I'm literally wasting almost three whole days of my life editing It's Raining Men. But I'm putting a ton of effort in so even if we lose I think I might be doing enough to make people feel sorry for me and like they can't vote me out. But by golly if I ever have to do another music video in my life I am RIOTING.

So for this challenge I’m really not feeling too hot about my tribes chances. It seems like not many people are excited about it, granted I did get a score of 8 on guess who. Hopefully we can pull it together.

Omg were back to original tribes..... it’s 7 heroes and it’s 4 original Armonia and 3 molysmeno. I’m with Dennis and Chris who were in the mystery inc alliance so I trust them. But then Malik is here who is someone I played a FB BB org with over a year ago and we went to f3 together and were extremely loyal. And then we have Ned who is one of my best friends from ORGs ever. Ned caught me up to date pretty quick about how he’s been targeted by Olivia and Trent. That’s dangerous for sure. He also said that there’s a Ned/Olivia/Keegan/Malik alliance that ‘plans’ on working together.... I have a plan to break that one up.

So I broke the news to Malik that Olivia led a campaign to target him and while he was really upset, he took the news well. Honestly, this has been the most gameplay I’ve done all season and it’s weird because I’m trying to be cool calm and collected. Also, Olivia and Keegan are so hard to chat with .... they just leave me on read so often, or will just react to my messages halfway during our chats and it’s just hard to chat with them. Neither of them want to talk game at all, and I’m thinking it’s cause they believe they’re going to be Armonia strong. Further to this, Dennis and Chris said the same thing is happening to them too. Malik approached me about a me, him, Ned, Dennis and Chris alliance. That works well for me honestly. I can get behind that quite frankly. As long as Ned and Malik can play both sides for at least this round, I won’t have much blood on my hands. My only fear is about idols or double votes or what not. If we split the votes and they have a double vote it could 3-3-2. That would cause a revote so all would be fine. But as long as they don’t sniff it out we should good. This is all dependant if we can win or not.

Woo we won immunity!!!! 😄😄😄 i worked so hard and Keegan kicked ASSSSS (pun on my password lol) I’m terrified for my buddies sharifa, Trent, Kurt, and Jake because they’re outnumbered. I hope Lukas can flip or something

Things got insane after the immunity, all of the other villains were messaging me except for Kage. Suddenly everyone wants to work with me...sounds fake but okay. Matt and Sarah were ALLLLLLLLL up in my dm's talking about how they weren't going to vote for me because of how hard I worked on the challenge. Do I believe them? No. We’re all villains, someone here literally voted out Isaac on his birthday LFKJASDKJFA. But I do think it’s smart for them to work with me, taking out the target on everyone's back eventually means yours is the only one people can shoot at. Yes I'm the biggest target, but that means I'm a shield for yalls bitch asses. I'm just never gonna fully trust Matt and Sarah, they think they have the game WRAPPED around their pretty little fingers, and their final 2 is BLATANT. Then Lukas messaged me saying the same thing, but it felt genuine from him. We ended up having a lovely chat and I trust that a lot more than anything Mattrah said to me. MATTRAH AKSDLFJALSDJ. I went from Trolivia to Mattrah I'm never escaping these duos GOD. Speaking of which, Matt revealed that Kage was bringing back everything Trent was saying to Mattrah. So I gave Trent the heads up and then proceeded to throw him under the bus to Matt. Initially the plan was to get the target on Trent and then use my idol on him...and I even said that to Trent. But there’s a whole day left to play tomorrow so I have ZERO idea what I’m doing as of now. It’s a huge risk not to play the idol on myself, and everyone could just be trying to make me feel safe...but a part of me thinks I might have an opportunity to get power. The most interesting convo I had was with Nicklas. I’ve just had a feeling about that one since the swap, and we had a really meaty game talk. Not even talking about the game but just strategy in general...that one is a smart fucking cookie, I like him. He reminds me of myself in a lot of ways, the more pragmatic side. I was open that I was really fucking with what he was saying, and he seemed to be vibing me. It just felt like a lot of effort for him to put in just to make me feel comfortable but YOU NEVER KNOW. Everyone, and I mean everyone said they wanted to talk about the vote tomorrow...I feel like everyone is trying to use me in their plots and schemes, but I’m the queen for a reason. I need to figure out how to not only survive, but put MYSELF in a better position by doing what I need to happen. I have to take paranoia out of it, I have to take my personal shit out of it, forget I'm one of the pieces and step back and look at the chessboard as a whole. Tomorrow is going to be a huge day, if I go home, I’m gonna leave SWWWWIIIINNNNGGGGGGIIIING!! YOU WANT TO TAKE ME OUT YOU BETTER EARN IT!!

All that work was worth it! We won the immunity challenge! By a glorious 2 points! The only thing that worries me is whether SHARIFA and TRENT can survive this vote. KURT or JAKE can be voted out and I won’t feel any amount of sadness over it. I still feel like it’s early enough in the game that anything can happen so I’m really hoping the McBITCHES can stay whole until another swap/merge and we can reunite. I think for my own safety I’m going to try to propose an alliance of sorts with ANDREAS and maybe CHRIS, maybe bring in OLIVIA. I don’t think it would be the worst thing in the world to lose NED, but if we lose the next challenge I think it would be in our best interest to vote out DENNIS or CHRIS, depending on who OLIVIA and MALIK would rather see go.

 This week was a bad week to go to NOLA. I can tell I'm not doing so hot with the people on my tribe. Not bad, but not good. Kage apologized for "not checking up on me" after tribal today. Days after I already told him I was feeling fine about it all and just wanted to let him know since other people checked on me. Lukas has been quieter with me. Sarah and I are still talking but it took a lot to get info out of her today. People are also talking about the game without me cause Kage told Sarah that Trent was trying to target her earlier this morning as an "easy vote". And only Sarah told me that but I doubt only Sarah and Kage know about it. So I’m aware of my spot here…

Ok so update: We won the challenge by two points! The other tribe did great but we ended up getting the win! And based on what I know, Olivia was likely really trying to gun for me and said that to Matt because they were able to talk as Olivia confirmed it to me herself, and there’s no way Matt can randomly come up with that when he doesn’t even know me. So the second we lose if we do, Olivia is going home. She did great in the challenge, but if I know someone’s after me I never just let them stay in the game. I also got an alliance going with me, Ned, Chris, Andreas and Dennis! We(or I atleast) called it the teen titans and everyone went with it and we have roles. I’m cyborg, Andreas is Starfire, Chris is Raven, Dennis is Robin and Ned is Beast Boy. I love that group, they definitely made me feel at home on the new tribe!

i can’t believe we lost this effing challenge. LITERALLY ROBBED. anyways, first lemme confess about my new tribe. of course the other tribe has majority. i’m with kurt and sharifa who are the ones i trust, trent is iffy especially since i lies about the keegan vote, but came forward after to try to put it behind us nicklas is here who i trust a lot but am trying to keep the connection low because tbh idek how far he would go for me, i’ll have to see what happens in the vote to determine that. sarah might have a grudge against me idk, matt can’t even be assed to talk to me, i know lukas a bit and me and kage are eh. sharifa is worried we won’t have majority but this queen tellls me she has the idol so we might have some luck nicklas told me he doesn’t trust kage so i’m gonna try to work that angle, i just need me and my girlies to SURVIVE.

I'm so happy that we won! I get we have ideal targets but if I can go as many rounds as possible without seeing tribal, it'll increase my longevity in making the bonds I need to! Teen Titans was created (Dennis, Andreas, Ned, Malik, and myself) and I honestly love it! Between that and Mystery Inc and Andreas & The Chipmunks I feel good!

My gut has been telling me Kage is in trouble and so if he does get voted I'll feel horrible for not warning him that some people in MI think he had the idol. Hopefully he, Matt, and Sarah at least can pull through but I dunno, I have a bad feeling for one them going home

Omgggg so I had a very cathartic and explosive meltdown last night. I think this is my first time I’ve ever let like... true emotions trickle into an org. But I don’t regret it and I think it was a valuable experience. In terms of the vote tonight, I have no idea. I want to vote with Matt and Sarah because I think they will be a good lotus of power to cling to for awhile. I want to keep Kurt and Nicklas close as well, but Nicklas is kinda elusive. I assume the vote will land on Kage or Trent, which are both completely fine options to me. Both are a little unpredictable but Trent is super nice so I would feel bad.

*later on*

I feel like I’m in an okay spot! I helped launch the Kage vote (which hopefully will work) but I don’t think anyone sees me as the mastermind. I’m getting super close with Kurt and Matt. Jake seems to not hate me. Trent is def weary of me, but I’m weary of him too, so I’m not offended. My plan as of now is to just play this middle zone as much as I can!

I’m beginning to think that there’s nothing at all in the “idol system” and it’s all an elaborate ruse. Or I’m just that unlucky. I’ve also spent a bit of time on the blog typing random things into the URL in hopes of it revealing something useful but no luck with that yet either.