#I think I did seven deadly sins/heavenly virtues once

[shwoo]

Okay here's my headcanons of which Bugsnax characters actually know the Journalist's name. I'm also headcanoning that Lizbert mentioned their name when she told the others she wanted to invite them, and that they tend not to give their name unless prompted. They're a journalist, is that not enough?! (They may also have some personal identity issues)

REMEMBERED THEIR NAME

Lizbert: Knows their name and maybe also their address.

Beffica: Knew their name because she's read all their articles. Pretended not to know at first as part of her facade of detachment, which is why she said "You're that journalist!" when first meeting them.

Clumby: Presumably knows them as something more specific than "obsessed monster hunter who made me have to work late."

Chandlo: Remembered because he is definitely the kind of friendly and outgoing person who can remember anyone's name after hearing it once.

Wiggle: Makes a point of remembering journalist's names. Tends to unconsciously assume that any media person is there mostly for her, so she wants to make a good impression.

Snorpy: Remembered in order to look into them and figure out if they were the heroic truth-seeker kind of journalist or the villainous sensationalist kind. Liked what he found, but still suspected they were a Grumpinati impersonator when first meeting them.

Floofty: Remembers their name, but refuses to use it out of spite.

DID NOT REMEMBER THEIR NAME

Gramble: Forgot their name, and either asked them when they met, or asked Wiggle.

Triffany: Terrible with names, apologised and asked them for it when they met.

Cromdo: Told himself he'd remember their name in case they did show up and he had the chance to sell them something, then totally forgot. Asked them what it was when they met, and immediately did the "[diminutive], can I call you [diminutive]?" thing. The Journalist said "Sure," because they didn't really care.

Eggabell: Didn't pay much attention to what Lizbert said about them, since she didn't think they'd take the invitation. Despite having quite a bit of interaction with them and worrying about their health, didn't realise she didn't know what to call them until halfway through her "I just need Filbo and... Filbo's... buddy." line.

Shelda: Tried to remember their name so she could address them by it before they introduced themself, and impress them with her mystical knowledge, but got distracted by everything else that was happening and forgot. Got away with it for a while because of her tendency to refer to people with descriptions when overacting, but exposed herself when she said "Floofty, did you ask the journalist to throw acid at you?" The Journalist made fun of her for keeping up the charade for so long, so she reminded them that Floofty had asked them to throw acid at them, and they'd done it.

Wambus: Took a little while to realise that he couldn't get away with just calling them Stranger forever, and then was too stubborn to admit defeat and ask. The Journalist specifically suggested he use their name after his "I been calling you stranger, but you been around a while" chat, but he still refused to ask what it was, or admit that he didn't already know. Eventually heard Triffany refer to them by name, but she had to do it a few times before he decided that he knew it now.

Filbo: Forget immediately after being told, and also forgot to ask when they met. Didn't realise they probably had a name until after they'd interviewed him, and didn't want to ask out of awkwardness. Hoped they or one of the others would mention it, but coincidentally, nobody ever did, at least in an unambiguous way. Eventually asked them while they were heading back to the mainland, but continues to call them Buddy anyway.

Jamfoot: Clumby told him their name when she let him know that they were also going to Snaktooth Island, and he forgot their entire existence immediately. Was confused when Clumby mentioned them by name after they returned alive, even after she clarified that they were her ex-employee who went to Snaktooth Island.

[gaycrittercentral]

Hopefully this will brain running  and give you enough energy until the end of the shift 



Instead of the seven sins for Max  how about the seven heavenly virtues for Sam?

( optional  what do you think they do if the seven sins of max meet the heavenly virtues of Sam )

Oh shit dude that’s SO GOOD FJKDLFJKSLJDSKFJS I gotta get out the laptop for this one >:D ok so the seven heavenly virtues (as defined by Wikipedia, anyhow) are sort of opposites of the seven deadly sins, or at least you can interpret them that way. In no particular order they are Kindness, Diligence, Patience, Temperance, Charity, Humility, and Chastity. And HOOOOOO BOY do I have ideas for them I been thinkin about this all night!!

This is gonna get long, obviously, so the rest is under the cut.

First off I just want to discuss how I interpret this concept in general, as well as some potential circumstances that could lead to it happening. As far as I see it, the seven deadly sins are really just normal behaviors taken to the extreme, which can be healthy in moderation; therefore, the heavenly virtues are the same thing but in the opposite direction. They’re values that are good and helpful until you start placing too much emphasis on them and overdoing it, and then they’re harmful to you. Separated from all other aspects of Sam’s personality, many of them are honestly pretty unhealthy despite being so-called virtues.

As for how they could’ve come into existence, either we’re looking at some kind of bizarre dark version of Hugh Bliss who wants to eat all the bad emotions people experience (lol wonder what he'd be like) or, as I feel is easier to implement, he decided to pluck out all Sam’s virtues so they could go spread his bliss in the world and what’s left of Sam won’t want to help Max defeat Bliss anymore. I’m gonna call the remaining part of him sinful Sam I guess \_:p_/ for that matter, let’s talk about him first!

Sinful Sam (or just sin Sam bc that sounds funny to me)

Without any of his usual kindness, patience and good humor, Sam is kind of like his noir self on steroids. At first Max is like “oh shit Sam with no limits!! Ooooooh this is gonna be fun!” but then sin Sam immediately starts insulting him and growling at him and demonstrating a total lack of care and concern and Max is like “oh. actually you suck like this let’s go get those stupid virtues >:/” Sin Sam is quick to anger, quick to violence, all too happy to steal things in plain view of people, pretty egotistical, impatient, and just plain rude. He’s like if you took all of Sam’s usual personality and then sucked the humor out of it so he really just means every awful thing he says. He might even get to curse for real ooooh but maybe Hugh Bliss bleeps all of it so every other sentence is just furious beeping and Max gasping in mock offense. He also has lost his affection for pretty much everyone and everything, including Max, so he’s annoyed with him the whole time they’re getting his virtues back. Although, since he’s basically every deadly sin at once, he did get to keep lust and he might flirt with Max just a little. Max is reeeeally hoping they get enough of a break at some point to have a really violent hate-fueled makeout sesh lmao (they probably won’t and he is going to be so heartbroken over it).

Now, as for the virtues themselves…

Temperance (liver)

Temperance is basically the concept of moderation and self-restraint, so if we’re doing comparisons to the sins, it’s probably closest to being the opposite of gluttony. I think he’s on board with the idea of reclaiming all Sam’s virtues from the get go, because what’s more moderate than reuniting all parts of your soul? But maybe you have to collect a few of the others before he’ll rejoin the party since sinful Sam is just so unpleasant. He doesn’t want to be the only one stuck with all those vices, y’know? He’s also probably the closest to Sam’s real personality, although a little bland and very indecisive. Since he agrees with the concept of putting them all back together, Max tries to recruit him to help, but he’s just like “Hmm. Well, part of me wants to help you…and part of me doesn’t. Let me think about it for a while…” and basically he never decides one way or another and keeps flinging Max away whenever he tries to brute force it. Maybe you just get him a coin to flip in the end and once it lands on heads he concedes and allows Max to take whatever part of Sam he’s got. Honestly I’m not sure what part that would be—maybe his liver lmao, since it’s responsible for alcohol management and all that. That’s kind of temperance, right?

Patience (tail)

Probably closest to the opposite of wrath? I feel like Patience is just meditating in a quiet room somewhere looking peaceful and cannot be moved or bothered in any way. Max can attack him and chew on him and insult him all he wants but nothing gets a proper response, even if you ask sinful Sam to yell at him or punch him (he yelps and shakes his hand out like “god DAMN that hurt >:’(”). The guy's as stoic as a stone. Maybe he gets Sam’s tail, which makes it a problem that he’s sitting cross-legged and can’t be persuaded to get up. All he says to Max is maddeningly calm stuff like “Not yet, Max,” or “All in good time, good buddy.” I think he’s the last one to be collected because he just waits until you have all the others and then gets up like “:) ok it’s time now.”

Charity (left ear)

Opposite of greed, obviously. Charity is HYSTERICAL to me oh my god ok here’s my concept for him; the minute he pops into existence, he hands Max a random item from Sam’s inventory delightedly and then runs off to give away every single item they’ve collected so far and even all their case memorabilia from the office. You find him by following the trail of people he’s ‘donated’ things to and reclaiming your items, until you finally track him down and Max asks for his ear back, to which he’s just like “oh sure! Here you go!” and pulls it right off his head, looking sort of surprised when he abruptly pops out of existence. Afterwards, sin Sam is like “Oh that’s good to have back I guess. I feel less stingy now…I’m still keeping this stuff, though.”

Diligence (right hand)

Diligence is sort of the opposite of sloth; it’s the concept of working hard, constantly. It’s like the main thing that led to capitalism lmao. I think he gets Sam’s right hand. He instantly takes off to go to work arresting as many criminals as possible, and by the time you track him down he claims to have taken all the muggers and whatnot in the area into custody and is just filling out a huge stack of paperwork for their arrests. To me he’s like if you took all the angst out of Noir Sam and left him as a workaholic shell of his former self jfkdljfhdfsd. He’s so focused on doing his job that Max just can’t get to him. He probably has to commit a crime to get Diligence's attention so he can fight him and get the hand back lmao. Once Sam gets him back he comments, “That’s funny. I suddenly feel like I have the will to power through that paperwork we’ve been putting off for three weeks.” And Max is just like “Oh, good! Somebody has to and it’s not gonna be me lmao”

Chastity (left hand)

Opposite of lust! I know it’d made sense to give him Sam’s heart, but instead I'm giving him Sam's left hand so we can make a joke about asking for his hand in marriage lmao. And I’m gonna be so honest right now, I love a shy Sam so I’m just dumping all of that onto him shkfljdlfshfs. He’s probably just sitting quietly and reading a book or something, and he hides behind it with a little squeak when he sees Max. He’s all blushy and shit lmaoooo, sinful Sam hates his ass. If Max tries to get near him to grab Sam's hand back he gets all flustered and insists they wait til marriage or something ridiculous (reminding him that they're already married does no good, he insists they have to do it again. ok gayass). Maybe they have to put on a quick wedding so he’ll let Max near him lmao. Maybe he’s hanging out at Sybil’s and they can recruit her to marry them since she’s queen of Canada and probably has that kind of power, right? When she says to kiss the groom, Chastity gives Max the lamest, most timid little cheek smooch ever (sinful Sam gags lol). Max takes the opportunity to shock him with a dip and a proper kiss before yanking his hand off lmao. Afterwards, Max goes, “Wait, are you gonna be a prude now? Did I just miss my window for crazy, kinky hate sex?” and sin Sam’s like “well…that does seem a bit much. Maybe something a little more vanilla?” “oh god DAMNIT”

Humility (right eye)

Opposite of pride, and honestly, kind of an embodiment of Sam’s lack of self worth. Pride is healthy until it turns into a braggy, ego kind of thing, and on the flip side, humility is helpful until it turns into negative self-talk, doubting yourself, and downplaying your own value. Max finds Humility locked in Bosco’s restrooms, having taken shelter there to read self-help books and try to ‘fix’ himself. When Max asks why he didn’t pick someplace less gross, he mumbles something like “It’s where somebody like me deserves to be.” Sinful Sam just shoots back, “Yeah, well, would you either get better already or find a gutter to wallow in instead? Some of us need to take a leak.” Max laughs instinctively and then scolds sin Sam when they hear Humility sniffle a little. You can try a couple different dialogue options to get him to come out of the bathroom, like an emotional appeal: “C’mon, Sam, you’re not all that bad! And honestly, I like when you are bad! I mean, this guy out here might be getting on my nerves but he’s also a real heartthrob.” Sin Sam eyes him and goes, “…Noted.” But Humility just insists that he’s imperfect and full of sin and needs to keep working on himself before he deserves to be around Max. You can also try the practical approach. “Seriously, though, ya can’t stay in there all day. I mean, what if I need to pee?” “You deserve a cleaner bathroom anyway :(“

Maybe you end up getting him back by just giving sinful Sam a bunch of cups of coffee until eventually he’s like “Ok that’s it, I’ve had it” and kicks down the bathroom door, throws Humility out, and props the door back up so he can piss lmao. Max wastes no time in cornering Humility, although he might take a second to be like “Sam, get this through your dense, bizarrely-shaped skull—I like you, and I think you’re a pretty good guy, and you don’t have to be perfect. That’ll probably be easier to believe once you get back with the more reasonable parts of you, but just trust me for now, ok?” Humility just kinda sniffles and goes “ok :’(“ and lets Max reunite him with the rest of himself. Sam comes back out of the bathroom with his other ear intact and goes “Yikes. I feel like I need a couple dozen therapy sessions.” “Yay! Attaboy, Sammy!”

And lastly, maaaaaybe my favorite—Kindness! (heart)

I guess kindness is kind of the opposite of envy?? Idk these comparisons get a little blurry after a while. Anyway, kindness and the ways in which it can be harmful is a topic near and dear to my soul because it’s something I struggle with a lot (along with every other people pleaser on the planet, I imagine). I feel obligated to try to be as friendly and helpful as I possibly can 24/7 and really guilty when I feel like I haven’t given my all, and obviously that’s not healthy. Sooo that’s the cliff notes for this poor boy lmao.

Max finds Kindness volunteering at a charity place or something, all cheerful and happy-go-lucky. The minute he sees Max he gasps delightedly and rushes over to greet him all excited, immediately swooping him up in a hug and licking his cheek. Max responds with the usual performative disgust and demands to be released, but instead of teasing him like Sam normally would, Kindness just goes “Ok! Sorry, buddy :)” and sets him back down. Weird, but whatever. Max tells him to hand over the heart, but Kindness insists that he can be much more helpful without all those other vices and virtues weighing him down, and he’s got a lot more good to do before he can rest. Asking sin Sam to restrain him doesn’t help because Kindness tries to hug anybody who gets near him and sin Sam is just like “oh HELL no I’m not touching that guy.” Through talking with him as he keeps handing out lunches or whatever, it becomes clear that Kindness has been helping everyone in sight with everything he can, giving away all his time and energy and completely neglecting himself; he gave his lunch away to someone who he thought needed it more and now he feels lightheaded, he’s been listening to people’s problems and probably taking on more stress than he’s really able to handle, and he’s so focused on making Max comfortable and taking care of him that he doesn’t argue when Max or sin Sam do anything that would normally bother him. Like Max could bite him and he’d be like “Ow! Oh, I’m sorry, do you need a chew toy, buddy? You can keep using my arm if you like!” even though he’s clearly in pain. Maybe sin Sam accuses him of being a masochist and he just chirps, “Oh, I’m not :)” which is honestly more worrisome because if you don’t like pain, why do you keep allowing people to hurt you?

Eventually Max gets fed up with him ignoring his own needs and hatches a plan, saying he needs help with something back at the office. Kindness comes along happily, obviously. Max tells him to sit on the couch and relax while he grabs some snacks and coffee. The whole time, he has to keep insisting that Kindness stay seated instead of jumping back up to help. Eventually he grabs Kindness by the shoulders to explain that having his partner as, essentially, a self-offered indentured servant is funny and all, but it’s making him uncomfortable. They work so well together because they’ve always been equal, and as high and mighty as Max likes to act sometimes, it feels bad to just keep taking everything from his best friend and to be unable to give anything back. In a dreadfully ironic twist, preventing Max (and others, by extension) from doing anything for him is sort of unkind in and of itself. “So just keep your ass seated and let me do what I need to do, okay? You’re stressing me out. Eat your donut and calm down already.” And Kindness, maybe a little starry-eyed, finally concedes and allows Max to grab a blanket and finish making them some coffee. Once that’s done they sit on the couch together under the blanket for a minute and watch some junk TV while they eat a much-needed snack (by the way, sin Sam has long since escaped this mushiness and is probably staring longingly at Flint Paper’s door or something. Ah, Flint Paper...). After a few minutes of that, Max ventures, “Sooo…can I get that heart now, or…?” “Aw, buddy. You know you already have it.” And with a final little side hug, which Max finally returns with only a little grumbling about how sappy it is, he poofs out of existence. Sin Sam pops back in after a second like “Max, I need to apologize. I feel like I yelled at you a lot today and I really don’t know where that came from. You ok, little pal?” “lol yeah it was funny” “oh! ok then. You gonna eat the rest of that donut?”

I don’t know if there’s a particular order they get taken care of in, besides Patience going last. I figure in the spirit of the games you could really get them in whatever order you like. And I don’t have colors for everybody yet, but I feel like Chastity matches well with a soft pastel pink and Kindness is kind of a warm dandelion yellow. As for interactions with Max’s vices, oof, I should probably make that a different post since this one got so long ^^; But hoooooo boy I’m def gonna write it up!! These things are super fun to think about and I feel honored to be the first person I’ve seen put out some thoughts about them. Thanks so much for the prompt dude!! And ummm if anybody would like to ask anything else about this funky little concept I would be all too happy to answer teehee

(Oh also I’m definitely gonna draw them! But that’s gonna take a second so I figured I’d just post this while I’ve got it and put up some sketches of ‘em later, especially since they don’t come across that well without color and that’s gonna take even longer. I’m SO excited though hfjkldshfkdlsjfhsk)

[sulfurandbrimstone74]

Okay quick rant ignore me—

The Seven Heavenly Virtues are so silly /pos

So like some pope made them up in like the 6th or 7th century or something like that after the creation of the Seven Deadly Sins in order to guide Catholics on how to avoid sinning. The Sins were created to explain where the root of evil comes from in humans. So in theory if someone found that they were committing one of the Sins, they could engage in a Virtue instead to sort of counteract it.

Anyway everyone knows the 7 Sins I can list them off the top of my head with ease. Not that that’s normal of course I’m just fucking weird but thanks to Dante everyone still knows them pretty well or at least know that they exist. No one knows a thing about the Virtues except for like hardcore Catholics, hella repressed gays, and writers.

But that’s why there’s like a gazillion different varieties of what the 7 Virtues even are. Even though they were made directly in relation to the Sins and the Sins have been more or less consistent for centuries (they did change but only once officially in the 13th century—get it? 13? For legal reasons that’s a joke), the Virtues can’t figure themselves out for shit.

And I think that discrepancy is just so interesting because it really highlights the crazy intense negativity bias in Catholicism. Even though there sorta was an attempt to highlight the good actions Catholics should be doing, really it was just a round about way of once again yelling “DON’T DO THIS OR YOU’RE A BAD PERSON”

In conclusion (pretending I had a point to all this…) the Virtues are virtually meaningless because they’re just another way of talking about the Sins anyhow HOWEVER they’re not really necessary in the first place

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[tapioca-puddingg]

Three, the Goddess of Sloth: A Drakengard 3 Analysis

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Yo! It's me, back at it again with another analysis post. Welcome back to my Drakengard 3 Seven Deadly Sins/Heavenly Virtues series. I've seen that I've been getting some likes on the other two that i did. So I wanted to thank you guys for reading and supporting my works ♥︎. Before I get started here, if you're seeing this for the first time and like Drakengard 3, be sure to check out the other posts that i did about Five and Four. And also I stream occasionally on Twitch, so I would appreciate if you stopped by and checked out the channel.

Anyways, Three has by far been both the hardest and the easiest to analyze out of the Intoners. Sounds contradictory, I know, but I'll explain later. Now sit back and relax as we get into Three, The Goddess of Sloth.

"Once upon a time, many moons ago...There was a beautiful intoner and an elderly man. The intoner's only love in life was making dolls. She loved it so, so, so, so very much. It was an odd obsession, to be sure; one the elderly man would often worry about...if the mood struck him."

INTRODUCTION TO THREE

Three is the third youngest of the Intoner sisters and the ruler of the Land of Forests. Four describes her as being the most "unbalanced" among the sisters, but that's putting it mildly. She has an extremely unhealthy obsession with making "dolls", which are the soldiers that she creates. She has a rather moody and aloof personality, but when she starts talking about her dolls, her whole demeanor changes. The subject of her creations brings her great joy, and she begins speaking much faster (as opposed to her usual slow speech) and with more enthusiasm.

MAIN GAME

Before we even meet the woman herself, her horny disciple, Octa, betrays her and willingly joins Zero and the party. When asked by Three, Octa claims that he left because of her immoral experiments, which is partially true. But she calls out his true intentions by saying that he needed a more "eager partner" and that he grew restless because of a lack of sex. That's the other half of truth haha. There's more banter, but she gets eaten by Mikhail by the end of the fight. As with the other sisters, you don't get much of them from the main game and her time on screen was short-lived. Literally. We don't get a full understanding of what her experiments are until the DLC and part of the novella.

THREE'S PROLOGUE (DLC)

So here's where we start getting to the meat and potatoes. As I said earlier, Three creates these soldiers for war purposes. She and Octa are tasked with destroying some of her soldiers that have gone haywire. When confronted with them, she remembers every doll down to their names and their flaws. She's exceedingly knowledgeable about their bodies and knows exactly how she failed and learns from the experience to make improvements the next time around. This would be admirable if she wasn't experimenting on living creatures. If only she used her intelligence to do good for the world instead of satisfying her own sick desires.

Gabriella comes to help out at some point and she stays calling out the intoners on their bullshit. Three apparently laughed at something immature that Gabriella said (I watched it back a few times I didn't hear a laugh so just go with it i guess) and she called her out on it. "See? You try to act like this moody, inscrutable genius all the time...but deep down you're just a little kid who laughs at fart jokes!" -Gabriella

All this proves is that the Intoners are all just children at the end of the day. That explains why a lot of them are emotionally immature. Four even said it herself in her novella.

"The Intoner was fascinated with the world's curiosities. And nothing was more curious than humans. So the intoner asked the elderly man: 'Why do people fight each other?'. The man replied 'I don't know'. 'Why do people move? Why do people think? Why do people live? Why? Why? Why? Why? The intoners questions continued on. And on. And on..."

Three is drawn as a little girl in the storybook-style part of the DLC. She has a natural childlike curiosity and that curiosity led to an obsession with humans and the human condition.

Time goes on and Three and Octa kill more and more of her dolls, and things start to get more and more morbid. Then we really get to see how disturbed Three really is. Octa expresees his disgust with the situation and fails to try to reach Three. She seems sad by the fact that she has to kill her "gifted" children. I forgot to mention this earlier, but she comes up with a bunch of riddles for Zero and the party to solve and analogies that straight up don't make any sense.

Octa: These gigantes seem a bit...rotten. Did you make them as well?

Three: No. Think of these children as merely spare parts. They're the junk leftover from my other work. Like the bones of a half-eaten fish

Octa: I must say, I'm starting to feel bad for them...

So she uses what she needs from whatever living creature she uses to make her soldiers and discards the parts that she doesn't. It's like she treats them like they're leftover ingredients or something.

Octa notices the next set of gigante monsters are different and this is where Three (casually) admits that she crossed them with humans. The gigante is capable of speech and talks about how it wants revenge on Three for what she did to them, not that I blame them. She goes on another long-winded tangent about how she created them and Octa can't help but to be concerned.

T: But my research found the answer. Human strength is governed by emotion

O: Your..research?

T: Yes. My research. Research to create the perfect soldier. I decided I had to cross between assorted emotion sets.

O: Cross? You don't mean--

T: Of course I do! Why wait for the right emotions to come along when it's quicker to make them yourself?

O: How many people died for this, my lady?!

T: 56

O: You counted?!

T: Keeping one's memory sharp is what helps maintain youth, after all!

O: I cannot believe this...

T: Octa! Hey Octa! Guess what? Come on Octa! Ask me! Ask me!

O: I cannot, my lady...

T: You want to know which humans had the highest durability levels? The ones who were filled with hate! So i gathered up a few nearby villagers and I... *giggles* And I.. *giggles*

O: Please, my lady! No more!

T: I killed a guy right in front of them! They didn't even see it coming! Just hacked him into little bits!

O: My lady...

Had to include this interaction for more context. Yeah, I feel bad for Octa. And her victims of course. Three grows more unhinged and uncharacteristically excitable as she goes over the details. She is completely unafraid to share her thought process, as she's legitimately proud of what she achieved with these murders. This moment is also the straw that broke the camel's back for Octa.

"The intoners hobby caused her to lay hands upon human beings. Once she crossed that line, nothing could stop her. The elderly man silently excused himself from the room. He chided himself for his impotence as he mourned for his now-broken intoner."

The end of the DLC. Octa realizes that Three is officially too far gone to be stopped, so he takes it upon himself to leave and joins Zero. Three has already crossed the moral boundary of killing humans, so nothing would've stopped her at that point. It's probably for the best that she was put down by Mikhail. Who knows just how many more people she would've sacrificed in the name of her "research".

NOVELLA

Three's novella is fitting for her, you could say. It's basically just a journal of her logging her experiments. It's here where she details her thought process, how she makes her dolls, her inspirations and identifies her mistakes and how she improves with the next experiment. Her level of intelligence is impressive, and she also proves to be incredibly observant, analytical and determined to succeed. However, it doesn't make up for her unethical and immoral nature, cruelty and selfishness.

She is completely and utterly socially inept and is oblivious to her actions. She fails to understand that her experiments are wrong, and she genuinely doesn't understand why Octa doesn't like her dolls.

NOVELLA ARTWORK

This is just a quick analysis of the image used to represent the novella. It shows Three standing in the center with her sisters' heads on chess pieces surrounding her, scissors in hand. I believe this is how she views humans and other living things. Pawns for her to use and tamper with for her own sick satisfaction. It could also symbolize where her madness began. She says in the novella that the first doll she ever made was a copy of an already existing doll. And the doll she copied was apparently a chess piece, which she wasn't aware of at the time.

COLOR THEORY (PURPLE)

Color theory is extremely important when it comes to character design and logo design, like for brands, game logos, etc. Although sometimes colors are just chosen because they look good, and that's fine. But overanalyzing is the name of the game here. Every color has positive and negative traits associated with it. Purple is very hard to find in nature, so some may consider it to be exotic. It is also the color of mourning in some cultures. Some positive traits include royalty, power, mystery, imagination and creativity. Negative traits can include sensitivity, immaturity, decadence, and conceitedness. Despite how awful of a person she is, she has pretty much all of those positive traits that I listed. But the negative traits more than outweigh the positive ones.

THE FINAL SONG

Here's where I wanted to talk about her dance in the final song. Just like the other odd-numbered Intoners, her movements are asymmetrical and odd to say the least. It's unpredictable and oppositional (ex: when one arm goes up, the other goes down, etc). Her movements are constantly conflicting with itself. It's uncoordinated and done pretty haphazardly. It appears to be loosely timed with the music, showing her disregard to the world around her. She doesn't appear to be reaching out for anyone or actively involving anyone. She's just moving as she pleases.

TLDR

Three was an unhinged, yet highly intelligent woman who performed immoral experiments on humans and other living creatures for her own twisted self-indulgence. She had a complete disregard for human life and failed to understand the horror that she induced with these creations. Her actions were so monstrous, in fact, that her own disciple saw the need to betray her. Her personality was usually moody and aloof, but Gabriella reveals that she is still just a child on the inside. Her curiosity about the human condition led to a dangerous obsession and she callously toyed with their lives as a part of her research. In Four's novella, which shows the Intoners in a more casual setting, Three is lazy, irresponsible, and can apparently sleep anywhere at any time. Like Five, she doesn't clean up her own messes and disregards those around her. It's a very small part of this overarching story, but this is why I've dubbed her the Goddess of Sloth.

AFTERTHOUGHT

Whew! Finally done with this thing. I called her the easiest and the hardest because I couldn't get anything super deep with her like I did with Five and Four. I wish I had more to work with, but what you see is what you get, I suppose. If you've gotten this far, thank you so much for reading and for giving me the time of day. My next analysis is gonna be on Two. Dunno when that'll be, but I'll try not to let too much time pass between this one and the next. As usual, I'll catch you guys next time. o/

[chaotic-snake]

VIVZIEVERSE THEORY

(AKA HAZBIN HOTEL AND HELLUVA BOSS)

Heaven Hierarchy

----------------------------------------------------------

So we know the hell hierarchy and here's what it is according to Vivziepop

I think that Heaven has a similar hierarchy since we've seen thats there's multiple different angels and it would make sense for Lucifer to copy the Heaven hierarchy since he's from Heaven, so here's my theory on what that is:

Starting from the bottom, in hell we have imps and hellhounds, with hellhounds probably lower than imps. I think that those CHERUB type angels and the exterminator angels are at this level, with the CHERUBs being equal to imps and exterminators being equal to hellhounds.

First why CHERUBs are equal to imps. As we saw in Episode 4 their skills were almost equal. They were at about a stalemate until they were interrupted by the piano. Now why exterminators are equal to hellhounds. We've had evidence that hellhounds are pretty much used by higher beings, and exterminators have the evilest job of killing hell's souls, meaning they're probably looked down upon by everyone else in heaven.

Now I'm going to move to the top of the hierarchy since it's easier to infer starting at the top. God is of course in place of Lucifer, since he is the ruler of Heaven (God design belongs to Voidseeker on Twitter)

Next on the hell hierarchy is Charlie and Lilith since they are related to Lucifer. In pop culture dealing with angels, archangels are portrayed as the children of God. I'm not sure if in the Bible they are also referred to in this way. But anyways, they're actually in the lowest tier of angels. However this isn't the actual religion so, I think they'd go in this spot since they're "related" (archangel designs belong to Voidseeker on Twitter)

The only other spot that I can be pretty sure about replacing is the sinners and overlords. Sinners of course are replaced by the souls that go to Heaven, and if it works similar to Hell, the overlords will be souls that did many amazing things in their lives that helped a lot of people. And once we get to the Christian hierarchy of angels in just a bit, these I think equal up to Angels as regular souls and Principalities for the "overlords" since in Catholism they are the angels that control and look over regular angels (no drawings of characters since we have no idea what they might look like)

This is the last of the spots that I can be sure about, from here on out the rest will be heavily inferred from Catholism.

Here is the Catholism hierarchy of angels according to Wikipedia:

Highest Order: Seraphim, Cherubim, Orphanim (Thrones)

Middle Order: Dominions, Virtues, Powers

Lower Order: Principalities, Archangels, Angels

As you can see, Vivziepop got the name "CHERUB" from one of the higher orders, but I don't think they're actually this level in the vivzieverse as I explained before.

But let's work on what might be equal to the Seven Deadly Sins. The higher order angels in Catholism are Seraphim, Cherubim, and Orphanim. Seraphim are the caretakers of Heaven and help to maintain heavenly order, Cherubim take care of God himself, and the Orphanim are heavens warriors. The Seraphim definitely sound like the Seven Deadly Sins due to them being the ones to "maintain heavenly order" and the Seven Deadly Sins maintain the 7 rings in hell. Also the Seraphim are the funky multi-winged nightmare angels. So I think Seraphim are at this level (picture is from a website called Curious Christian)

Cherubim and Orphanim honestly sound lower since they're being used; just like we've seen with the imps to the Goetia and CHERUBs serving heavens souls; and how the exterminators are warriors that go down to hell with hellhounds being used as bodyguards. Thus more reasons why they are equal to the imps and hellhounds. In the Bible, Orphanim are portrayed as a whole bunch of rings floating around each other, and the exterminators have the freaky halo rings above their head. Cherubim are portrayed with animal head things around them, and as we saw, there's a lot of the CHERUBs that have animal features to them. Plus the Cherubim are portrayed as chubbier angels, and the human looking CHERUB was chubby like a baby.

Last is the Goetia and hellborn levels. In Catholism the middle hierarchy is the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers, and these are the more human looking angels. The Dominions are said to be basically angel lordship to regulate the duties of lower angels. And only with extreme rarity do they allow themselves to be known to humans. Sound familiar!? Goetia are pretty much lordship, they are given duties and most likely use lower demons to do so, and Stolas has a book to the human world that he rarely uses

That leaves Virtues and Powers to the hellborn level, which honestly makes sense. Virtues are ones that go to the human world to make signs and miracles and Powers are ones that have control over evil forces which they restrain to keep people from doing harm, which both kinda sound like what we call Guardian angels. And as we saw in Episode 3, succubi, which are in the hell born level, go to the human world and mess around, which these angels do (these pictures are from a free wallpaper website)

BAMN, heaven hierarchy completed.

[serowotonin]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒉...

➻ you’ve been in a total of 7 meaningful relationships, each one worst than the last, but each teaching you something equally important . . .

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 ➻ oikawa x reader 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 ➻ 0.9k  𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 ➻ hints of abuse and manipulation, toxic past relationships

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ➻ this is a actually smth i actually posted before on another blog but jgkdfg idk i deleted it sooo,,, im reposting it here. theres sum 7 deadly sins, 7 heavenly virtues symbolism in this and its mostly a monologue but hope u guys like itt<3

Dark brown eyes gleamed at you through the darkness.

“Do enlighten me,” said its owner in a coy voice.

You lips drew in a thin line and you took a deep breath before pacing to the window, the only source of light in this room. 

“I’ve been in a total of 7 meaningful relationships. Each one worst than the last, but each teaching me something equally important,” you paused and turned to the man behind you. He raised an eyebrow, pressing you to go on.

You turned once more to the window before letting the memories completely wash over you.

“The first person I was with never bothered to put any effort into our relationship. He never planned dates or surprises or even asked how I was doing. He cared for me, I knew that, but he never showed it. He’d only try when it was convenient for him. Eventually, I figured this wasn’t the relationship I should be in. I broke up with him soon after. The only thing I got from our relationship was the ability to stay diligent.

The second man I was with cared only about my body. He used me and I let him, thinking that was the only form of affection I’d ever receive… I left him when I met someone else, someone who paid attention to me and not just my body. Other than shame and regret, the second man left me with an understanding of chastity.

The man I left him for was caring and nice to me. Unlike the first man, he tried. He put so much effort, too much. Somehow, he always found a way to be there with me. And I was okay with that, at first. Maybe it was because I didn’t say anything sooner, but it got to the point where he wouldn’t, couldn’t even, leave me alone. If I asked for some time or space, he would get upset and tell me I didn’t need to be alone. Because of that, I told him to get away and that I didn’t want him by my side any longer. From our relationship, I learned the need for temperance.

The next person I was with had a wall surrounding his heart. He never let me see his vulnerable side and never came to me for any help. The only things he’d tell me about his life were all the good things he’d accomplished. I had to find out from his friends that his mother was sick and that he had to work tirelessly to pay her medical bills. When I asked him about it and offered to help, he got really mad. We ended things that night and I haven’t heard from him since. This one taught me humility.

The fourth relationship I was in was with someone who wanted everything. He wanted the best cars, the best foods, the best houses, and of course, the best girls. Honestly, I’m flattered he even looked my way but it seemed I was what he was looking for at the time. He was a rich man and never said no to any request I had. For that reason, I stayed. Karma works in mysterious ways though, and he was cheated out of a business deal and lost lots of money. I broke up with him then, not because he couldn’t provide me with money and material things anymore, but because he still didn’t learn to actually care for me. He was the one who taught me to be generous.

The next relationship I was in was the longest of all seven. In the beginning, he treated me well and convinced me that he was the one. Soon after, our relationship progressed and we moved in together. That was when he changed. The first time it happened, he was drunk. He wasn’t “thinking straight” and was “consumed by his anger”. Believing that it wouldn’t happen again, I forgave him. But it did happen again, it happened again many times. He got mad at every small thing and would take it out on me. Eventually, I had enough and found the courage to leave him. From him, I learned to be patient.

The last man I was with was very similar to the third. It took a while for me to trust others again and even longer for me to put myself out there. When I did, he came with promises of safety and security. I was wary, but I decided to at least try to trust him. He treated me well, but the only flaw he had was being too jealous. He never liked it when I hung out with other people that weren’t him and would get very possessive. Taking the past as a warning, I ended things with him as quickly as I could. He was at least able to teach me something - kindness.”

You turned away from the window.

“All those men hurt me in different ways. It took time but I’ve healed and am stronger than I was before. Still, none of those relationships gave me what I really wanted...”

Taking a deep breath, you stared deep into the man’s eyes.

“I want to learn love. I want someone to love me as I am and for me, as I am, to love. So, let me ask you, Oikawa Tooru, will you hurt me as those men did, or will you be the one to finally teach me love?”

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 ➻ @lilikags @scorpio-in-luv @itskoushi

[mythgirlimagines]

why did you choose the name deadly virtues heavenly sins for your fangan?

Good question! I know a lot of more official fangans (like the ones that are like actual visual novels) have a sort of opposites theme, plus with the canon themes of hope v despair, past v future and truth v lies, I wanted to have something similar.

I landed on Deadly Virtues, Heavenly Sins once I decided I wanted to incorporate some of the seven deadly sins in the motives. If you think about it like that, the motives are greed, envy, gluttony, pride and wrath! Then I just thought the name was cool, plus it allowed me to do the offshoots Deadly Sins (the bad things happen bingo series) and Heavenly Virtues (the free time events)

[onepdumpsterfire]

Disclaimer: These stories are based ‘loosely’ on the game Obey me shall we date. The major stuff will be the same, but here and there the story will be changed or embellished. It is just an AU and I do not own the game the characters, from both One Piece or Obey Me, nor do I own One Piece in general. It would be cool though…

Warning: The characters will mostly be ooc and for the most part will not have the same background as in the anime/manga. The reader’s age will be above consent; the exact number is up to you.

Seven Heavenly Virtues

Devildom!AU

(pt9/?)

Various Characters X Reader

The boys were homesick. Three days away and more than a hundred human lifetimes in the house of lamentation goes down the drain. They all moaned their loss as soon as they walked in through the door. Imploring the unknown future to let them rest in their safe haven. 

Gathering in the kitchen, the first thing they did was prepare a nice lunch, having left before they could eat anything. Inviting you to join in with them, you all laughed and played in the newly finished kitchen that none of you have yet to test out. Reminiscing on your stay in the palace. Poking fun at the small fights and the constant visits to the underground labyrinth. Law sniveled over his lost pet while Sanji proudly pronounced the new pact he’d made.

All throughout the meal, the chatter continued. Even as it ended and the table was cleared, the conversation didn’t end. It just moved on to the living room, all sitting around each other to better listen. The stories didn’t stop at the retreat. Bringing up past stories, and mementos that they’ve all kept. Your shenanigans with the siblings being a popular topic of conversation. Sabo leading the cheerful atmosphere to a more subdued one. 

“Y/n, you’ve already made pacts with four of my brothers, what’s your end goal?” He didn’t beat around the bush. He needed to know the truth and so did his brothers. All of them deserved to know.

“A-ah well you see…” There was a pressure in the room that was palpable, different from when the demon brothers showed their true forms. It wasn’t suffocating, so to say, but it was dizzying having to think of a lie. You were doing this for Zoro, so he could make up with Sabo. At first, when you first told him you’d do it, it was because you pitied him. He seemed so desolate. Then you got closer to the brothers. There was this undeniably human urge to help them. You wanted to make their family whole like it was before the war. Before the protest. Before the heartbreak of losing someone they loved. It was a human cliche to want to fix a broken person, but this was more than one single person. It was a whole family being held together by lies and deceit. They were grief-stricken. Grasping at whatever they could so that their last remaining strands of normalcy stayed. It wasn’t a lie you wanted to help them all. It wasn’t just for Zoro anymore. So you told the truth, for the first time. Albeit, leaving out a few details.

“I’ve seen how well you all seem to get along… but there’s this underlying… how should I put this…” You put a balled hand up to your chin, thinking of a way to say this without being rude. “I don’t mean to step out of line…. But you all seem sad. There are times where you all seclude yourselves and I don’t know.” You ran your hand through your hair. Looking anywhere but them, you distracted yourself from the embarrassing statement. “Maybe it’s because I’m human, but I want to see you all get along.” The brothers were confused, they thought they had been getting along. Sure they had their sad days, but who didn’t? “I know that you guys have your times when you do, but there are other times when you all can barely hang out together?” you knew how this was sounding. You didn’t mean it like that! Waving your hands in front of you, you tried to fix your mistake. “I-i mean there’s just a coldness in the room… I uh….” Blood rushed to your face, you were making a fool of yourself. You should just wrap it up. “I just wanna see you guys hang out comfortably all the time because even if you don’t I see you all as friends!” Your face was hot, and your hands shook. It was embarrassing to admit this, but you needed to say something. “Oh Y/n, I love how much you care for us!” Sanji swooned over to you, taking your hand in his, he leaned in close. Dropping his voice lower, he murmured in your ear, “and It’s so cute how flustered you got.”

Law and Luffy thanked you for looking out for their family while Kid fought with Sanji. He wanted him to let go of you, but the other didn’t relent. You all lost yourselves in your own little bubble; maybe if you had paid more attention you would have noticed the suspicious look Sabo sent you. He was skeptical of your intentions. He believed you wanted to help. He just didn’t think that what you said was the whole truth. Ace noticed it too. He might be tempestuous and distant, but he was also smart. He too knew you were hiding something. And he knew how much it irked Sabo to not know the full truth. Ace liked to irritate Sabo, and if you were hell-bent on getting them to grow closer. The answer was one in the same. Out of the spite he had, he’d make an offer. One you couldn’t refuse. 

“Y/n.” You pulled away from Kid and Sanji who were still grumbling about not letting the other lay a hand on you. “Yeah?” 

“You’ll need my pact too, right? I’m willing.” He seemed smug. He knew how mad Sabo would get if he offered himself without a thought. They argued back and forth, about how he wasn’t doing this because he wanted to make a pact. Ace was doing it because he liked to rile him up. Back and forth they went. It was close to physical at some point, but the others separated them. Telling them to go to their rooms to cool off.

There it was again. A constricting force in the room. Ace and Sabo fought all the time, usually it was yelling. If it leads to anything more physical one of the brothers would tell them to go to their corners. It made you wonder what could have happened to turn their relationship so sour. Right now wasn’t a good time, you’ll wait for later that night and ask one of the brothers you had a pact with. Kid or Law, they were the most likely to give out information. 

After everyone left for their rooms for the night you felt it safe to poke at the conflict the two brothers seemed to share. You texted the group chat you had with Kid and Law, asking if they could provide some answers or if it would be best to speak to Ace in person. They both spammed you with messages saying that you shouldn’t bring it up to him, ESPECIALLY not in person. Law offered to fill you in on what happened at the cost that you come over. It was a small risk, but a risk nonetheless. Sabo didn’t like you wandering around late at night. Though you wanted to know the truth more than you feared the reprimand you would get if you were caught. So you went over with Kid tagging along. Obviously he would, for ‘help with the storytelling,’ as he put it.

Law’s room hadn’t changed since the last time you were here. Papers were still strewn around on his desk; comic books and books alike were still piled high on the coffee table, the floor, his bed, any surface really. His beloved series is still center stage in this whole mess. It was probably the only thing that looked like it wasn’t in disarray, Law included. He had dark bags under his eyes and seemed to only change between the same three outfits. Always adorning it with his beloved long coat. 

“Can’t believe you live in this mess.” It looks like Sabo wasn’t the only one scolding Law for the state of his room. Kid pushed books off of Law’s bed to make way for himself, all the while continuing to grumble about the mess. “At least it’s not a scrap pile like yours.” Angrily, Law collected the books from the floor and stacked them in a pile by the bed. “I have them organized! And I use them, unlike you who reads the book once and never picks it up again.” Kid grabbed a book of the pile next to him, “I mean, come on. Med books? Who’d read these in the first place!” Kid tossed it back onto the floor. “I read them! And study them! If you’ve forgotten I’m a licensed surgeon.”

“Surgeon my ass. The only reason that you’re allowed to do any of your sadistic testings on people is that the people at the hospitals are too afraid to tell you to fuck off!” sparks were flying between the both of them, you needed to end this now. “Will you both stop! Two brothers fighting in one night is enough!” Law turns to you, still simmering in the heat of the moment, “Is that an order, master? Gonna keep telling us what to do?” How could he think that! You would never abuse your power over them. “No, it’s not. But the fighting is getting us nowhere.” The tension in the room is thick, both of them not wanting to let the other have the last word. It soon dissipated as Law decided it was time to get the point of this meeting. “Well… about why Ace hates Sabo. He doesn’t really hate him per se.” Law kept his eye on Kid, who continued to move his things around. “How should I put this… the more alike two people are the more they hate each other?” Kid scoffed, “why don’t you start from the beginning. You’re just gonna confuse her.”

Law crossed his arms, “if you’re so great at telling stories, why don’t you?” Still fighting, really? “Fine, I will. Sit down pee-squeak, I’ll try to make it short.” he patted the spot next to him. Making himself right at home, isn’t he. “You know what we are, right? The seven deadly sins,” He answers his own question, classy. “We only became that after we started to revolt against our father, god”

“Before we became that we were the seven heavenly virtues. Chastity, abstinence, liberality, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.” Law noticed Kid settling down, deciding that he wasn’t gonna move anymore of his stuff, he sat at his desk. “Ace was the first of us to fully change,” Law continued the story from his new spot, “the civil war in Heaven fueled his anger. It was like a punishment from falling from Heaven. Straying from the path of righteousness,” 

“Ace was all rage and frustration when we first got here.”Kid breathed out heavily from beside you. He remembered the bout of anger his brother had. It wasn’t easy to see one’s own family be consumed by such an emotion. There was the hate for the war and towards his brothers. Hate towards himself. Ace couldn’t help it, he was just so angry all the time now. They all had to go through that with him. “We had to keep reassuring him. Teaching him how to cope.” Law rubbed at his face, insomnia finally letting his shoulder droop in tiredness. “Sabo doted on him. He felt guilty for making us fall out of grace.”

“But it wasn’t his fault,” Kid interjected, “we CHOSE to follow. We saw how corrupted it was getting in Heaven too.” you’ve heard from Luffy that it was, but just what was it that made Heaven corrupted? “If you don’t mind me asking, how was it corrupted?”

“That’s a whole other story, sweetheart.” Law said, “short version, there was gonna be a war between Heaven and Hell. Demons were amassing an army, but it’s so hard to be good these days.” Law’s eyes widen as he raises his hands, feigning shock. “Heaven didn’t have many soldiers so they had to get some.”

“A war between Heaven and Hell?”

“Yes, that was with the old king, but rules around here are different. If you can defeat the king you get to rule.” That’s why Shanks is in office right now… erm palace. That also explains why after all this time and fighting, Hell wanted the three realms to get along.

“Ahem,” Kid clears his throat, “back to the story, Sabo doted on Ace. They got close for a while, but soon after we found out Sabo swore his loyalty to Shanks.” Law followed him up, “It wasn’t just that he swore his loyalty to brand new king. It was that he tried to hide it.” That must have made Ace feel betrayed. His loyalty to his father was terminated in such a disastrous way. He wouldn’t have wanted to pledge his loyalty so soon, nor would he have wanted his brothers too. After Ace and Sabo had gotten close, to have the newfound avatar of pride throw his dignity away and swear his loyalty. It must have been a hard blow. One that must have broken Ace’s trust even more. Cracking their bond as brothers. Sabo didn’t just put his pride away for this, he put doubt in the strength the brothers held. This thought must have festered until Ace just found himself hating Sabo.

*Author’s note: I changed how wrath got was birthed or whatever to this to go into more depth. (In truth I forgot about the circumstances of his birth so I decided to just roll with this.) (Later I did find out but decided to keep it this way.) Also, I changed the scene to only envy and avarice because too many characters in one scene make me stressed out.😓*

[starker-stories]

My Virgin (Revisited), Chapter 7 - The Messages Series

This chapter on AO3

By @thestarkerisobvious​ and @starker-stories​​

New chapters in the series post every Thursday.

Well, guys, here we are. At the end of My Virgin (Revisited), Book 4. Next Thursday we begin with The Cold, Book 5, where we find out what it was that Peter had to talk about, but, like he said in Tomorrow, "not yet." It's finally "yet".

Thank you for following this story and for following the Messages series. It means the world to us, because this whole thing is truly a labor of love and we appreciate every reader so much. The best way to make sure you get notifications is to subscribe to both the series, and then to the story.

We're still sticking to the "every Thursday" posting schedule. The Cold is 7 chapters long and is complete and starts posting on Thursday, April 9, 2020. See you there and then.

The entire Messages Series.  All links are to AO3.

Messages Unsent  (complete & posted)

Nothing More Than A Machine  (complete & posted)

Tomorrow  (complete & posted)

My Virgin (Revisited)  (complete & posted)

The Cold  (completely written) posts every Thursday  

Untitled Book 6  ( in progress )

Untitled Book 7  ( in progress )

Tags: Sexual Roleplay, Virginity Kink, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Kissing, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, A teeny weeny bit of plot for the next book hinted at, Happy Ending, Happy Sex

Chapter 7:   The Seven Deadly Sins

They were laying side by side, the sweat cooling from their bodies in the dark room. Peter lay on one of Tony’s convenient towels, holding his lover by one hand. After all that touching Peter felt drunk… no, not drunk… over-satiated. A half-hour before he had been clinging to Tony, desperate for that skin-to-skin. Now he pulled away from Tony’s arms, recovering.

They lay very close to each other, not touching. Peter played idly with his lover’s fingers. They talked about everything and nothing, about his senses-dialing, and what it was like to be dialed up and dialed down. About Peter’s real first time and how this had been different. About playing the game again, and what to call it. About how it could be played differently, what other forms it could take. Soon the conversation drifted aimlessly. About the social construct of ‘virginity’. About what was considered a virtue, and what wasn’t, but should be. From there they began to list their comparative sins.

“Do they have a separate deadly sin for wanting to take your virginity?” Tony teased. “For wanting to be your first and only? Wait. That’s Lust, obviously. Pride, I guess because there’s more than a little bit of,” he chuckled, “‘if you’ve had me, I’ve ruined you for anyone else’.”

“True. I’m not sure if it’s Pride to simply be stating facts.”

Tony laughed. “It’s still Pride to be proud of that fact. Greed, because I’m possessive as fuck, and you knew it and still wanted to be in my bed.”

Peter laughed quietly. “It’s not like you could share me, that’s not a virtue. What you’re calling Greed might just be ‘being faithful’ so I’m not sure that counts either.”

Tony shook his head once. “When you’d ruin any other person who interfered, it crosses over faithful into Greed.” He paused, trying to count his sins. There were so many more than the Church counted, but they were limiting themselves, thankfully, to the seven. “I’m missing some. I know I must have the whole collection. Damn. What are the Seven Deadly Sins? Should’ve paid more attention in catechism class.”

Tony stared at the ceiling as if the answer was written there. “Vanity? I’m kind of well known as the king of ego. Wrath? You haven’t seen that one baby, but if anyone but me ever touched you, they’d certainly see it. “Sloth?” He snorted. “My seventy-two hour work binges kinda kill that one. Envy? Nah. No one else has anything that I want,” he said, running his finger along Peter’s arm. “Damn. Only got five out of seven. Gonna have to sleep in more and find something I want that someone else has.” He paused for quite awhile. “Envy. Because…” Tony hesitated. “I don’t want anyone else to be that ground you cling to. If there was anyone… That’s Envy. Six out of seven,” he amended.

“But you, my sweet innocent Peter Parker, I think we’ll have to look up the Seven Heavenly Virtues for you. Because you don’t have any of the sins.”

“Pride,” Peter said quietly, looking into Tony’s eyes. “No, I mean it. Look at me. I asked you to do... this,” he said, gesturing to their two bodies. He couldn’t think of a better word to describe the incredible thing that had just happened to him. “To play this game with me. And in the middle, what did I do? I decided to argue with you about being your virgin. ‘If it gets in the way of doing what you enjoy… something something’. I forget the quote. But my pride almost got in my way tonight, so that makes it a sin.

“And Lust… I definitely get Lust.”

“Okay but you have the virtue of Kindness to offset one of those. I don’t. And you get… um… okay not Chastity,” Tony said with a giggle. “Patience. You get Patience. You put up with me.”

“No, there is no ‘Virtues offset’. That’s not… not for this one. This one is way too big to get an offset.”

He reached out with tender fingers and lay them against Tony’s lips. He looked toward Tony’s shoulder, his usual place for confessions, and decided against it.

“Tell me, wicked boy, why do you get Lust? I corrupted you.”

“Because so much of those unsent messages were my own fault,” Peter said very quietly.

“No, I’ve been thinking about it. I mean, that six-week stretch that we were apart, that dry spell, that wasn’t entirely your fault. Okay, you could have said ‘no’ to some SI business, but Avenger business is Avenger business. This is the life we chose. But what happened up until that dry spell, that was on me. That was Lust.

“Think about it. The two times we met at the Plaza. We didn’t have much time, and you offered to talk. You said we needed to catch up. You’ve always asked me about school. But all I could do was look at the clock. That’s why I insisted we ‘talk naked’. And once naked, well…”

“Once naked, I started kissing you as I recall. Lust is mine. Not sharing.”

“And being a good kisser is a virtue, not a vice,” Peter said grinning.

“Okay… I kissed you but… you’re right! You pushed me on my back and climbed on top of me. You completely seduced me. You held me down,” Tony smiled at the memory of how Peter’s strong hands felt on his shoulders. There were so many ways that what he felt about Peter were wrong. That was another. Knowing that he would never hurt him. Even when he was as angry as he’d ever been, he held all that strength back because of who he was with. Because he wasn’t a dorm room wall. That was a fuckin’ rush.

“But then you flipped me over and pinned me,” Peter said. “ And claimed you were going to use your tie to bind my wrists… but I begged you not to because I was afraid I would ruin it…”

Tony hadn’t thought of tying Peter up until he saw the four poster bed in the suite, then he couldn’t get it out of his mind. It wasn’t that Peter objected to the idea of being tied up, but he objected quite firmly to being tied up with Tony’s tie. No matter how much he tried to convince Peter that the tie was near worthless, chosen only for its color and was probably the cheapest piece of silk in his closet. It was an impulse purchase and he’d only spent two fifty on it. Peter’s eyes went wide and he insisted even more that he didn’t want to ruin something so expensive, because he was certain he’d tear it, if not break the beautiful bed — which Tony could easily pay the hotel for. Instead, Peter had an alternate suggestion to save both clothing and furniture. Tony let Peter roll them again and Peter climbed on top.

Watching Peter ride him? That was always a very lustful thing to do.

“I’m gonna have to share Lust dammit!”

“I’m sorry if it hurts your Pride,” Peter grinned.

Then his smile fell as he remembered.

“And you do. I get Lust. Because at the Waldorf? I have no excuse. I spent a week promising myself I would talk to you about the things that were bothering me. Promised myself sex could wait. Tony, I was telling myself we were going to talk about it as I was walking in the lobby.” He sighed. “Oh god, But then I saw you there, standing in your Zegna suit and all my self-control went right out the window..

“And don’t you see? I made sure we stayed naked the entire time, if you remember. I didn’t even let us get dressed to eat. We stayed naked right up until you left.

“Then Happy drove me back and I spent entire drive being bitter that we had only had sex for twelve hours and never talked. Told myself you were treating me like a… whatever.”

“Like an escort?”

Peter’s eyes closed. “Exactly. And I’d like to think I never would have said that to you out loud, I keep telling myself that. But really I only had myself to blame. So I get Lust. You’ll just have to share that one.”

“But I get the rest of the sins. You lose Chastity for Lust, I’ll grant you that. But being shy about being a virgin hardly counts as Pride.”

“It is Pride. It wasn’t ‘shy’. I was willing to admit my lack of experience to someone else, maybe, I mean I had no problem admitting it to the friends I fooled around with. It was no big deal to make a list of things we had and hadn’t done when we were all just experimenting anyway. But admit it to you? My idol and long-term crush and mentor? Admit it to Iron Man? Nope. Never gonna happen.”

“Still not Pride. You admitted it to people who didn’t matter. That’s not pride, that’s love, baby,” Tony said tenderly. “It’s hard to admit things to people you love. To show them your less than perfect side. Not pride. Heart.”

“Tony, that makes it worse, not better. Lying to the man I was in love with — nope. You lose this argument. I was too proud to admit to things in front of Tony Stark, Sex God. Anyway you might be right but I’m far too proud to concede the point,” Peter said with a grin.

“I will grant you Pride,” Tony said, thinking of the many long discussions — arguments — they’d had over the issues of class and money. “But not for that. Not for that at all. Thought I might take you out and see about getting you that beautiful watch I was looking at.”

“Do I get dishonesty? Is that one of them?” Peter said, changing the subject quickly. It was an easy cover, though. His eyes were drifting closed now, and he was beginning to recognize the signs of being too tired to go to bed. If he didn’t get into the shower soon he wouldn’t get there at all.

“Nope. Lying, dishonesty, prevarication are all venial sins. Still going to heaven as long as you confess.”

“Confess… who whom? Damn, this Catholic shit is confusing.”

“It’s easy. You get down on your knees in front of an older man and…,” Tony grinned, “make your confession.”

Peter grinned too. “Too tired,” he said, then he pointedly looked down in between Tony’s legs. “But Lust might win out over that one. And you neeeeeeever let me do that… that is criminal. That should be a deadly sin.”

“Not true! I let you go down on me. Even let you…” Tony took Peter’s hand and put it on his arc reactor, “taste me.”

“And you taste like a piece of heaven…” Peter whispered gently, moving in for a kiss. He knew he was the only one who had ever touched Tony there intimately. Because the world was apparently full of insane people who had no appreciation for tech and who were also blind.

“And I let you do it more than once.”

“And I remember every single time I’ve tasted you,” Peter whispered against Tony’s lips before laying back. “And I can count them on one hand… wait, okay I need two. Six times, Tony. Only six. That is a sin. Oh! Greed! That means I get Greed too.”

“Nope. There is NO WAY you get Greed. Wanting more sex is still Lust….”

“I want more Tony.” Peter grumbled even as his eyes began to close. “Greed.”

“…So you only get Lust and Pride still.”

“Too tired to argue. So there’s Sloth.”

“Dammit I’m going for all seven, Parker. Lust can’t win out over Sloth. We’re both tired. We just fucked. Still Lust and not Sloth.”

“Okay. Can you make a robot that will bring the shower to us so we don’t have to get up?”

“We can sleep messy. That’s DEFINITELY Sloth.”

Peter giggled, completely scandalized at the idea of not showering after sex. But he giggled with his eyes closed. Sleep was closing in.

“Besides, I like the way the bed smells when it smells of you and sex, Lust boy,” Tony said, rolling over to spoon Peter’s back. He kissed Peter behind the ear. “So, what dishonesty do you have weighing on your conscience? Can’t get to heaven with that.”

“I’m in heaven now,” Peter murmured, realizing he could go to sleep, just like this. It had to be some great scandal, sleeping without a shower, but in the arms of Tony Stark surely scandal was to be expected?

Then he realized he should probably answer Tony’s question.

“Oh, I never lied to you about anything big. But… you asked me how I was. And I said ‘fine’. Those last three times we saw each other before the six week dry spell. And I wasn’t fine. I wanted to talk to you about how I felt, but I kept quiet. I was pretending… dammit... it’s hard to tell while pretending everything is good, being brave when it’s just a lie. But I know it was a lie, because if I had talked to you, even once? About how I felt? I never would have sat on the rooftop texting messages into the void.

“And that’s Pride, again. Being so goddamn proud of myself for being honest, and saying what I mean. But I really just let things fester until I thought I was ready to break up with you.”

“Nah. Still just lying. Still just venial. Motive for lies doesn’t matter. Only that you didn’t tell the truth, even in a text you deleted. You sinned in your mind.”

“I’d rather you sin in my mouth,” Peter complained, moving a fraction of an inch, pressing his backside against the object in question, the object of his greed. But he was too sleepy to do anything else.

“Besides I told you, I’m in heaven now. Don’t move and I can stay there.”

They talked a little bit more, mostly in whispers. Teased each other. Traded ‘I love yous’. Soon Tony was asleep.

But Peter wasn’t.

And soon it was clear why.

His eyes were too tired to keep open, but every time they closed Peter found himself in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable place. A jewelry store of some kind, probably Tiffany’s. Letting Tony buy him a watch.

A watch that might cost as much as a car. Or even a semester’s tuition.

And every time he found himself there he jerked himself away. Jerked himself awake.

Pride.

Tony had hit on an uncomfortable truth. ‘I am in this picture and I don’t like it’, his tired brain protested. And it was true. Peter Parker was too proud to let Tony buy him a watch. Too proud to even go look at it. Tony was convinced that it was a working-class thing. Peter had him convinced.

Peter felt his lower lip tremble a bit, felt the tears threaten to come. He told himself it was just exhaustion. Physical exhaustion from making love to a man who could dial his sense up to eleven and then keep dialing. Emotional exhaustion from the past days that had seemed to go on for months on end. Spiritual exhaustion from having his whole life turned upside down, nearly losing his balance in that world completely, and having it all set right again.

Because Tony had apologized.

And that was good, wasn’t it? Didn’t Tony have a lot to apologize for?

“Pride,” Peter whispered against the bed, wet with his own tears.

Peter was a proud man, and the great injustice of it was, the same people who would say it to Tony’s face would never condemn it in Peter. But Peter was hurting Tony with his Pride. The Pride of a young kid who didn’t want to be taken into a place where he was helplessly ignorant, and laughably so. A place where he was embarrassed. A place where he was stupid.

Which made no sense, of course. If Tony took him into a nanotech lab tomorrow where he could identify exactly nothing, Peter would be enchanted. Being slammed with a massive amount of information he didn’t previously know was usually a dream come true. And Tony had done that before, introduced him to tech that his own instructors had never heard of, thrown him headfirst into a pool of endless, and utterly new, toys.

And there, Peter swam like a fish.

But this? This threat of going to that place for ‘that watch I was looking at’. That ‘watch’ that cost multiple figures. Laying in a case in a jewelry store among other watches worth astronomical amounts of money. In that place Peter would be like a fish climbing a tree.

Or like a fish in the Plaza, where he found himself thrilled at the idea of being tied to a bedpost and fucked into oblivion, only to humiliate himself by thinking Tony’s ‘only two fifty’ tie was a $2.50 tie.

“I get Pride,” he whispered into the bed, waiting for the tears to fall.

This was ridiculous. Peter had just experienced the best sex of his life, was he really going to cry himself to sleep? Stupid. Tony really had ‘broken’ him. That first night he had gone to Tony’s bed certain that the man couldn’t physically hurt him. He was the unbreakable superhero, had Tony really broken him tonight? Obviously. He was broken now.

He shook his head (as best he could against the mattress, as best he could without waking up Tony) and ordered himself to sleep.

Okay, so he had a problem. Okay, it was a doozy. And like all problems, he was going to come up with a plan to solve it.

All by himself, of course.

Pride demanded it.

[eseult]

4, 16, 41

04. What was your muse doing when they heard about Harry’s death – and later Neville’s death and Harry’s resurrection? How did they react to the news? Did they attend either of the funerals or memorials?

She doesn’t remember where she was or what she was doing when she learned about Harry’s death. She vaguely remembers her father being the one who told her, but apart from that, there isn’t much that’s clear in her head regarding that time. She remember how she felt. Empty, in a way. Sadness often manifested that way within her, and since it was the first time Lucy had to grieve someone she knew (well? I don’t know the family dynamics yet but I picture Lucy having generally gotten along very well with the adults of the family and loving their serious™ discussions; but that’s another story) and it was… A lot. At the same time, she didn’t feel it was right for her to express too much grief, when she finally unfroze, because she knew it had to be a billion times worse for James, Albus and Lily, and that she couldn’t possibly understand what they were going through. Then again, she didn’t want to act like Harry’s death didn’t affect her, so she ended up isolating herself a lot after his death. She either really leaned on Molly II or her best friend (the best friend is going to be a wanted connection, just saying — and I’m saying one of them since I don’t know the dynamic between Molly II and Lucy yet, of course, and don’t want to like force my ideas and what not), and that person was probably the only one she full on sobbed/broke down in front of. The thing with Lucy is that she’s really sensitive and tends to react strongly to everything, and honestly cries easily, but with a death, a death of someone she admired, someone who was family, it was… Different.

Oof. Regarding Neville’s death… Her plot arc is legit that she disagreed with the resurrection, and like… She feels so fucking guilty she didn’t fight harder for what she believed in, aka that they should not be trying to fool death. So I feel like when she first learned about Neville’s death, she was angry. At herself, mostly, but also at everyone else involved in what had happened. She deeply regretted not arguing more than she did and not literally stopping them, but also… At first, she was also mad at the rest for not listening to her. It was weird because it was a jumble of emotions, but Lucy can sometimes feel like people don’t take her seriously for a variety of reasons (too soft, too young, too sensitive, too girly, too kind, too forgiving; the list goes on) and it was like… She was right. She was right and for the first time in her life she wished she wasn’t, but she was, and they should have listened to her. That was her first reaction.  Then came the devastation. The sadness that felt like emptiness. The tears she hid when she had to face Dove and Fawn, though she found ways to make them know she’d be there for them if they needed her. For anything. She literally asked Dove if it was okay for her to attend Neville’s funeral, because she wanted her to be like, comfortable? That may not be the right word, but just… Not be surrounded by the wrong people at such a heavy moment? To be fair, Dove didn’t seem to care either way, but Lucy was like “I have been a decent human being, that is good.” Because honestly Lucy isn’t always the best in social situations. And I’m rambling and I don’t know where I’m going but she’s just…… So upset. Still. She feels guilty. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do or say. But she knows she wants to honour Headmaster Longbottom’s memory, even if it is in a small way.

She did attend both funerals/memorials. She sat in the middle row each time. 

16. Who is the most important person in your muse’s life and why?

I sometimes go with Molly II when I play Lucy, but obviously that depends on the plotting that’s going to happen between me and the person who plays Molly! But no matter what, it’s definitely someone in her family OR her best friend (who I keep on mentioning as a wanted connection but like……… I am nothing if not not subtle). It could easily be her parents, to be honest, and I think that’s the most obvious choice. Lucy really loves and respects both her mother and her father, and though she did have a tiny rebellious phase in her second year (she tried to get a muggle tattoo……… she was NOT taken seriously ergoijeriogjergiej it’s kind of funny actually but yes), she’s always had a good relationship with her parents. I picture her feeling like they’ve never treated her like someone lesser or as an extension of themselves, as some parents can, but rather as an equal (with some limits, of course), and it probably led to her feeling respected and listened to. Which is like, super important for Lucy, because she often feels like people don’t take her seriously enough for a variety of reasons. Plus, she just really admires her parents as people in general. She’s very close to them, all in all, and yeah, they honestly might be the most important people in Lucy’s life at the moment?

41. Out of the seven deadly sins, which does your muse embody the most? What about the seven heavenly virtues?

This was tough because I feel like every sin fits Lucy in some ways and REALLY doesn’t fit her in other ways, but! I think I’m going to go with envy. Thing is, Lucy’s happy with what she has, but she’s ambitious and wants more. And when she sees people who have all she wants, she can’t help but feel envious. It’s not to the point where it hinders her own happiness, but I still feel like it is relevant when it comes to who she is. I think, sometimes, she feels bad about her envy, too. Like, she doesn’t enjoy feeling envious of people she loves, admires and/or respects, but she can’t help it. It’s like, she works so hard for everything, and maybe she’d still have those things even if she didn’t work that hard (which would never happen because it’s not in her nature), but sometimes it’s like… “Why can’t I have what they have?” And she reads a lot of muggle science magazines and what not, and has actually read a couple of things regarding psychology, so I do think she acknowledges that it’s not a good way of thinking, but even though she can acknowledge that, it’s still not easy to alter the way you think. And like, I feel like when she’s with close friends and things like that, it may sometimes come through that she feels this way about some people? I’m still developing how her envy manifests itself, to be honest, so that’ll probably be explored in a self-para or something like that eventually!

As for the virtues, I think Lucy definitely embodies kindness the most, but once again, it wasn’t an easy decision. The thing that comes up most often when I scavenge through the internets™ for information about this virtue is that it’s kindness for the sake of helping others, without expecting anything in return. And like… That’s Lucy. She doesn’t forget herself in the process of helping others, but she doesn’t do it for herself either; she does it for the other person. To her, helping someone in the hopes of being rewarded (whether it be literally or through reputation and what not) is not true help. It’s why she feels uncomfortable with muggles who do charity work and then talk about how it “changed” their lives, which she’s seen way too many times in muggle publications. She’s even written a long letter to a muggle magazine who said they were doing a profile on a country, but who only included articles from foreigners who went to that country to “help out”, and like ergoirjgoijeroijger. It was a ten pages long letter and she was thirteen years old at the time. But anyway! Yes, kindness. It just… Fits best, I think? Once again, I may explore that more in the future!

[sweetdeathwrites]

Their Seven Heavenly Virtues

Pairing: Vongola family/reader

Summary: Sure, they've sinned. Who hasn't? It's not fair to judge them on their faults when they have their virtues. Not everyone's a saint.

Warnings: virtues so... none? 

Word Count: 1,000 ~Sequel to Their Seven Deadly Sins ~ in response to the second prompt of the May 2017 Prompt Off

(posted on Luna/AO3. Original A/N below)

(yooo so posting 2 things within a few days of each other... wow! haha, and they're related~ I'm not as happy with this as i was with the first one, I wrote this when i was really tired but i realized it was the last day of the prompt off before this one expired... i hope i turned it in on time...oops........ i hope you enjoy! Please please PLEASE leave a comment if you do, i just got the CUTEST comment on my last one! I love knowing what you guys like and don't like! I like writing these, they're like character studies!)

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They had their faults. But it’d be unfair to them to exclude their virtues, right? He was surprisingly pure. Sure, he indulged, but not excessively. The flocks of women around him never tempted him anymore than the men he spent his time with. He’s had every chance in the world to drown in sins of the flesh and the most you’ve ever seen him do is start fights. Once, a girl come to him with her mind full of pictures of dirty wishes that no one else could see. She asked to talk and they left, he grumbled and cursed the whole way. When you found him twenty minutes later, he was stomping away from the tearful girl, apologizing with hands frantically buttoning her shirt. He grabbed your hand and held it tightly as he dragged you in his escape. He said something under his breath about only caring for people whom he loved. This was Gokudera and his chastity. He had the world in his palm. Under his thumb, more like it– he could make anyone do anything. He didn’t even have to bat his eyelashes or say please. He almost never lashed out, or in a way that you could see. He was so polite, even if it was a facade, and you always were enchanted by it. Once you had been reading a book that was a favorite of his and it was a beautiful specimen, indeed. The pages were lined in gold and red leather smoothed the cover. You was reached over it to grab a snack when you had knocked over a glass of water on the hand-painted pictures in the book. As you scrambled to fix your blunder, he came out of the shadows and held your hands in a gentle grip and hushed your frantic apologies. He assured you that it was fine, as she blotted a fluffy towel over the pretty pages. They both kissed your temples and brushed your hair. This was Mukuro and Chrome and their temperance. He was the most generous person you’ve ever met. An uncountable number of times he’s lent you money to pay for lunch when he himself ate nothing. His smile lit up the lives of everyone around him and as he grew older, more people began to see his goodness. He was always ready to lend a helping hand, even if the people he helped bit him in the end. When you hit rock bottom, he opened his doors to you. He fed, clothed, and laughed with you until you laughed too. He gave you his bed and slept on the couch happily. You owed your life to him. This was Tsuna and his charity. He had grown into an admirable young man. His goal was to protect those whom he loved and to keep them smiling. He could be childish, yes, but you never blamed him for it; you thought he took on the role of an adult far too early. He deserved to be happy too. You had taken up a job with him once. It was dangerous and you tried to send him back but you couldn’t get in touch with your boss. It was dark and you were surrounded by the enemy, out of supplies, and exhausted. He equally tired but firm in insisting you sleep. He held you close when you argued and whispered what you meant to him. As you laid down to sleep, eyelids quickly closing, but not quick enough for you to miss his visage looking towards potential battlefield. His brows were set in concentration and his eyes shone with determination. You remember thinking how responsible he had become and how lucky you were to have him before succumbing to sleep. This was Lambo and his diligence. He was impossible to predict, other than his smiles and openness. He was as serious as a clown, most of the time. You’ve seen how his eyes sharpen when his friends need his help, though, and you’ve made it a point to never get on his bad side. He’s so understanding and sweet and sometimes you can barely stand it. He didn’t know you were watching– at least you think he didn’t, but knowing him, he could probably sense your presence– and he knelt down to the crying child’s eye level. He made some exaggerated hand motions and sound effects and the kid’s crying grew louder. He laughed and pulled some candy out of his pocket. He kept the kid’s attention until he stopped crying and giggled and then the most satisfied smile you ever saw washed over his face. This was Yamamoto and his patience. Even demons can be kind in the right light. He was ruthless but you’ve seen him show mercy. He hunted for himself but he proved he could share. The closest you’ve ever seen him smile was when he was with them. He sat in the sun for him. No matter how much he loved the shade, his darling pet liked to fly in the sun’s rays. So he would indulge him until it was time to sleep and they would rest in the concrete shade of the school. He whispered to the bird and let it rest on him until they both floated off to dreamland. This was Hibari and his kindness. He made up for his lack of smarts with his personality. Shining bright and energetic, nothing could bring him down. Not his grades, not his losses, not his lack of close friends. No, he was confident in himself and his abilities. And he had much to be confident in! There is a difference in confidence and pride, and he did not confuse himself. You kissed his knuckles before a match once and told him to knock them dead. He grinned and told you that he was good, but not that good, and jumped in the ring. This was Ryohei and his humility. They all must’ve been kissed by devils and angels.

[sparklycitrus]

Virtus Principalis - Charity (Part 2 of 2)

Remember guys, this is the seven deadly sins. It’s not (just) about our boys being badass motherfuckers, but about them being bad.

I may also have gone a bit off theme but whatever. XD

Virtus Principalis

V. Caritas

(part one here)

The shower, like Q described, is cold and perfectly adequate. Bond scrubs until all signs of blood and dirt and tropical insect bits have been washed away. His camo, however, is a lost cause, so he chucks everything behind a shrub and goes back in as nude as his born day. The Quartermaster did ask, after all, and Bond is not one who disappoints.

Q has moved from his spot on the floor to the threadbare couch. His laptop, sans the thick cable, is perched on the rickety coffee table amidst a large spread of Colombian pesos. A loaded Walther (Q’s) sits to the side, along with some loose bullets, a butterfly switchblade, and box of Cuban cigars. Bond strides over, unabashed, and settles down on the couch. The fabric isn't the smoothest thing rubbing against his bare ass, but Bond’s sat in way worse, and the achieved effect is certainly worth the discomfort.

“There!” Q announces, a bit too loudly. Bond does not miss the furtive look thrown his way before the other resolutely returns to the laptop screen. “Now the Colombian government can’t possibly complain that we've never stuck our necks out for them. Really, every time someone moves a bit of refined coca off grid the entire region goes into fits. And they wonder why we prefer to keep tabs from afar.”

Bond makes a noncommittal noise. His attention has wandered to the cigar box, once he saw the Bolivar brand on the open lid. He distinctly remembers the last time he’s had a good smoke: it was in the backroom of a colonial hotel in Morocco. There were no less than three different guns pointed at his head at the time, but the only thing Bond could focus on then was the heady flavor of the Montecriso No.2 flooding his senses. The experience was regrettably cut short when he had to go out guns blazing. Would've been a remarkably successful mission otherwise.

He reaches for a stick, sliding it under his nose to take in the rich, loamy aroma. An appreciative hum escapes his throat. Beside him Q makes an interruptive noise. Bond looks over, just in time to see a guillotine cutter and a large butane lighter thrust his way.

Bond quirks an eyebrow. “I didn't know you smoke these.”

“I don’t,” Q replies. “The cutter came with the box and the lighter I stripped from a dead body. I doubt he’ll be missing it.”

“Where’s the body now?”

“Somewhere out back. Keeping your clothes company, I imagine. Why are you naked?”

“I clearly remember you asked me to be.”

“Let me rephrase: why have you decided to sit next to me, naked? This couch can’t be too comfortable, not to mention the health implications.”

To provoke you. Isn't it obvious? But Bond doesn't answer, instead he snips off the cigar tip, sniffing deeply once more before lighting it. The drag he takes in is deliberately slow. He knows Q is watching intently while pretending not to. Bond grins. He proceeds to stretch, arching his back and jutting his hips out so that his abs and half-hard erection are on prominent display.  

“Would you rather I sit on top of you naked?” he says.

He’s expecting the scoff but not the laugh that follows. It’s a nice sound, soft and lilting, and Bond feels an overwhelming desire to make it happen again. Q shakes his head, hands instinctively returning to the keyboard. But Bond can see the bright green eyes dancing mischievously even as he refocuses on the screen.

“As much as I enjoy the absurdity of that image, no, thank you, 007. Not my type of thing to unwind with, you see, and completely inappropriate for the current circumstance.”

It has only now gotten inappropriate? Bond chuckles at the thought, then asks, as nonchalantly as he can manage: “Oh? And what, exactly, is your type of thing?”

“Do you really want to know?”

There’s a pause when they turn to assess each other. Q is biting his lip, clearly debating whether to give a real answer. Bond waits, until the other man finally lets out a half-defeated sigh, subsequently closes the laptop and moves it off the table.

“Well, considering extraction is not for another six hours,” Q stands up, cracking the stiff joints of his hands and neck. “I suppose we have time.”

There are things that Bond expects the Quartermaster to dabble in, both as an inquisitive genius and as a member of a deadly organization with literal and figurative blood on his hands. The sheer amount of legal substances the man must've consumed to brave the flight down is already questionable, not to mention their mission has gone on for the past 40 hours with minimal breaks. In truth both of them should be using the precious time they've given to sleep. Instead Bond is sinking in the exquisite slow rush of a Royal Corona, watching his skinny, strait-laced Quartermaster walk toward him holding a brick of pure cocaine like an ordinary mail parcel.

“They aren't going to miss that either?” Bond quips, recalling their previous banter.

“This whole place will be burned down once we leave,” Q shrugs. “Right after they confiscate the valuables and deposit whatever is needed to keep the heads of state securely in power. Hardly something they’ll notice,” he gestured to the large stack of identical bags leaning against the opposite wall. “And even if they do, it’s not like they can openly declare a kilo of cocaine have simply gone ‘missing.’”

“Plan to do all that by yourself?”

Q laughs, the same melodious cadence, and Bond again is confronted with how much he desires it. “A kilo? In under six hours? You know, I've gone on a few binges in my life but, that may be just a tad too much for one person.”

Bond only smiles blandly in return. He relaxes into the couch, a comfortable haze surrounds him as he watches Q slash open the plastic wrap with the switchblade. The spilled white powder blankets the spread of pesos with a pure, crystallized sheen. Q makes a sweep of the notes, scattering them all over while making a clearing on the table. Bond stares.

“What?” the voice is indignant as Q meets his gaze. “No one claims a coke habit is tidy.”

“I see that it’s far from your first rodeo.”

Q answers him with a rude gesture. He then cuts a small amount with the back of the knife, making a neat, narrow line. A 50 mil note quickly becomes a rolled tube with practiced ease. “Bond,” he tsks. “Did you genuinely think those 60-hour shifts are pulled off on the mere merits of Earl Grey?”

He doesn't wait for a response before leaning down to rail the line. A rapturous look soon envelopes his features, and the satisfied sound coming out of that lush mouth sets Bond’s blood on fire. There’s a spot of white hovering just above the thin red lips. Without thinking Bond reaches over, swipes up the bit, and puts it into his own mouth.

It’s some damn fine coke, alright, Bond thinks as the numbness travels up his tongue. The look Q shoots him is positively filthy, and Bond suddenly has the urge to throw the coltish man onto the floor and fuck him, slow and deep. His body reacts at the thought and he makes no moves to hide it. It sounds heavenly in any case.

“Would you like some?” Q asks. His eyes are still lucid and the flush is very faint. Got a tolerance, Bond notes, as another neat line is cut onto the smooth tabletop.

“Not my vice of choice,” he declines, shaking his head.

“Ah, right. Liver failure. Always a pleasant way to go.”

“It’s not nice to judge others’ habits, Quartermaster, when you've just inhaled a gram of pure coke and it’s evidently not enough.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, 007,” Q’s narrows his eyes. “One, I wasn't judging, merely making an observation. And two, please, that was only half a gram, which makes this…”

He bends over and the second line disappears into the paper tube. “…the full amount and quite sufficient, thank you very m – oh!”

Q falls back against the couch with a moan, eyelids fluttering rapidly as the effect kicks in full force. Long, trembling fingers run through the dark curls, traveling down the elegant neck to pull ineffectively at the loose shirt buttons. Bond instinctively reaches out, but before he can touch any exposed skin Q slaps his hands away. He abruptly rolls over, bodily onto the agent, then clumsily deposits himself right into Bond’s lap.

“I’ll have you know, that certain stimulants tend to exacerbate my need to keep myself...busy,” the Quartermaster says as he rubs himself against Bond’s naked torso. The half-finished cigar is plucked from lax fingers and dropped onto the table, and Bond, for a moment, harbors a ludicrous thought to lament the loss. “And I believe, as an elite agent of MI6, it’s your solemn duty to protect your superior from committing any international cybercrime that could potentially endanger the integrity of the entire agency, simply out of boredom.”

“And how do you propose I do that?” Bond smirks. He pulls the man closer, hands sliding up the shirt to finally touch warm skin. Q hovers precariously above him, face flushed and pupil dilated and still covered in someone else’s blood, and Bond has never seen him look more beautiful.

“Oh, you’re a clever and capable man, 007,” Q whispers, lips gently brushing against Bond’s own. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

end

(I erased all my browser history after this because leaving ‘how to snort cocaine’ and ‘drug routes in Colombia’ in your Google search is just not an ideal thing to do.)

Other parts of the ‘sins’ collection: Chastity; Kindness.

[glapplebloom]

So I saw a reblog from @zionkraze that has @segasister give roles to various MLP Characters that fit the 7 Deadly Sins as well as the Heavenly Virtues. And while I agree with the Virtues, I find further discussion on the Deadly Sins more interesting. So check to see who I would place in each role.

((Original image by High Roller 2108 or xioade.))

Lust - The Dazzlings/Sirens

In the original, it was Chrysalis that was given this role. She desires to feed off love, makes perfect sense for her to be a choice for Lust. But thinking it over, I feel she would fit another role much better. But for my nomination for Lust, I believe the Dazzlings represent it best.

You pretty much see it in their actions and words. They want your admiration. They want you to desire them. They want your thoughts into pleasing them. And while that could also been seen as greedy, they also do so in a way that makes you think of unpure thoughts. So Lust would definitely fit these two.

Gluttony - Lord Tirek

When you get it right, you get it right. And Tirek’s entire gimmick is to eat all the magic of the ponies. Even when he has all of them and Discord, he still wants more. Even if he was never beaten, I doubt he would have been satisfied with absorbing the entire planet.

Greed - Queen Chrysalis

Honestly, what started this was seeing Sega’s choice for being Greed was Stygian. That I just couldn’t agree with. His entire story was about trying to earn their respect and making them regret how they treated him. How he became the Pony of Shadows is a story about someone falling into darkness, not purposely for power. If it was, he would have done that in the first place.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, fits the role of Greed well. While feeding off love is an easy reason for Lust, I personally feel she shows more signs of Greed that allows her to be in this position. For starters, the whole “I’m doing this to feed my kingdom” is a complete lie. I’m sure they would have spared a cup of love if she asked. 

The whole spiel was to make the Changelings believe she was their only hope. That there were no other alternatives other than what she said. Because if she really did care for them, they would have been good long before Thorax. What she truly desired was complete control over them. And as of right now, all she is thinking about is to achieve her sense of vengeance. 

Sloth - Discord

When you’re right, you’re right. Discord has all this power yet he pretty much allowed the other ponies to gather the Elements and win. He’s reformed, but he doesn’t make a good effort to change unless it benefits him. So many incidents could have been solved by him yet he really doesn’t do anything unless someone asks. He is definitely a great representative of Sloth.

Wrath - Tempest Shadow

Sombra is an alright choice, since if you just see the show itself he really doesn’t show much outside what could be considered wrath. But looking into the comics, I see someone who has fallen into a path he didn’t choose. Too boot, Starlight Glimmer, Fluttershy, even Chrysalis shows more Wrath than he does.

But I’m picking Tempest Shadow because of a childhood drama, she doomed an entire kingdom to get her horn back. And while she does seem prideful, moments like the one above seems to suggest that she hates the fact they can use magic for such things while her horn is broken. The fact she was the one to suggest it to the Storm King makes it seems like she is making them all feel her wrath.

Envy - Nightmare Moon

Do I even need to say anything. They like YOUR sun better than my moon, so I’m going to only make them see MY MOON! Once again, Sega is right on the money in my book.

Pride - Starswirl the Bearded

Behold the only non-villain on this list. Starswirl represent pride a lot more than a lot of characters in the series. He feels he is always right. He thought Stygian wanted power and the other agreed with him. When the idea that contradicts his own shows up, he immediately denounces them without giving a second thought. 

This guy is so frikkin Prideful it makes him look terrible. Especially from a guy whose only real tactic is to Move the Problem Over There. This same lesson taught to Princess Celestia and Luna which lead to the Main Six having to clean up all these messes. Hopefully if he does return, he will learn his lesson.

And these are my nominations for the Seven Deadly Sins. What are your thoughts on this?

[megan-cutler]

I’ve done two rounds of Seven Deadly Sins prompts, mostly because I have such a large pool of characters to draw from. While flipping through other prompt suggestions, I happened to find a list of the Seven Heavenly Virtues (which seem to get a lot less press). In case you’ve never heard of them, they are: Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness and Humility. So now that we’ve seen the darker sides of my characters, why don’t we take a peek at their virtues? This week features Silkfoot, who is ever the diligent thief. . . . “Have you heard that they’re planning to move the Mirror of Enthdrada again?” Silkfoot Lightvolt placed one hand on the edge of his first mate’s newspaper, drawing it down until he could see the other man’s face. At the same time, one of his cream-colored eyebrows drifted upward and a characteristic mischievous grin split his lips. He wasn’t even daunted by the slight frown that took up residence on Kestrel’s face at the interruption. “You mean the no-longer-very-lost mirror from ancient Imuntat? Said to belong to the great lady Laghess? The one that can slightly bend the properties of reality based on a small amount of input from the user?” “The very one,” Silkfoot agreed, obviously pleased that he hadn’t had to explain himself. “It’s only on display for another three days. That should be ample time to plan a heist, don’t you think?” Kestrel gently extracted the newspaper from his captain’s grip and flipped through the rest of the pages, folds of consternation cleaving steadily deeper into his brow. “Where did you hear that?” “Museum website,” Silkfoot beamed, flashing his phone in Kestrel’s direction. The screen was just large enough that Kestrel would be able to make out the exhibit details from across the table. The phone disappeared back into Silkfoot’s pocket and the captain’s face once more replaced it in Kestrel’s field of view. “No one relies on print anymore, my friend. Faenet prides itself on providing the most up to date details as they occur. That’s why the damn faeries charge so much.” Kestrel grunted as he folded the slightly tattered newspaper and set it aside. “The least we can do is glance at it. They deliver it to the door every morning.” “And by then it’s already out of date!” Silkfoot snorted as he swept to his feet. “Besides, you’ve gotten distracted from the important details here. How are we going to steal the Mirror of Enthdrada?” Keep Reading.

[apostleshop]

5 Ways to Approach an Examination of Conscience

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5 Ways to Approach an Examination of Conscience

Image credit: Pixabay.com (2016), CC0 Public Domain

Most of us realize that to grow in virtue we need to do a daily examination of conscience. If you are anything like me, though, you will find myriad reasons for not getting around to it, from exhaustion to forgetfulness to not knowing where one of those really thorough little lists of questions is. Well, here I will share with you five “poor man’s” examinations for when you haven’t one of those written ones handy.

First of all, what is an examination of conscience? An examination of conscience is first and foremost a prayer. It is looking carefully at who we are with the Holy Spirit as our guide. This is actually really important, because for us to know who God is, we must know first who we are. You only realize you need a Savior if you are aware of sin. And you only start to grasp His faithfulness, mercy, and love when you see how often you fall.  And once you know Him better, you will love Him more. So let’s get started!

One is to think through the Ten Commandments and to see which have been broken (and if you aren’t already aware, the Ten Commandments are about much more than not murdering or stealing). For example, “thou shalt not kill” encompasses “killing” someone with your words or even gestures. So, for example, if your needy three-year-old (ahem) received a withering look from you when she asked for another book to be read aloud after you had clearly stated it was the last one, or if your vocabulary when responding to your strident kindergartner was a little too colorful, you I broke one of the commandments.

Another method is to think through the seven deadly sins to see which one was a theme for the day: pride, perhaps, when your neighbor dropped by unexpectedly and the state of your house made you refrain from inviting her inside and thereby sin against charity. Wrath, maybe, depending on how many pee accidents, kid quarrels, and inadvertent pokes to your face happened that day.

Yet another way to sort through the day is to think about yourself in relationship to those around you. We have a Christian duty to our parents, spouse, children, neighbor, parish, community … and, well, to anyone else whom Our Lord sent to us that day. Did you love with an agape love — that is, a love that freely bears inconvenience and discomfort for the benefit of others? At the end of the day, can you truly say that you put your husband before yourself?  Did you remember to honor your parents? (Did you remember them at all today?) Did you sin against your kids? Did you scowl at the door-to-door salesman who rang your doorbell just as your 15-month-old settled down for her nap?

Don’t forget sins of omission. What you didn’t do today can be even more hurtful to the heart of Jesus. Did you ignore someone in need? Did you miss an opportunity to show mercy? Did you take your husband for granted because you felt like you just didn’t have one drop inside of you to give? Did you basically forget God today, rolling over in bed before you had said even a simple prayer of thanksgiving or adoration?

Our Psalm refrain at Mass one weekend was, “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.” Well, about the third time I was singing this beautiful melody, a thought popped into my head (thanks, Holy Spirit). How would my kids complete the phrase “My mom is …”? I think a perfectly valid examination of conscience would be to fill in the blanks for yourself at the end of the day. “My mom is quick-tempered, for-giv-ing of her own sins, but slow to shoooow mer-cy …” I can hear my five little cherubs sing.

A priest once told me, “Without being specific, there is no contrition.” That’s a powerful statement, so let’s relate it back to family life, which is an icon of the heavenly community found in the Holy Trinity. When a child, say, talks back to his mother, and he is called upon by his father to apologize to her, how much does his apology mean if, when asked why he’s sorry, he stares blankly? Does the mother forgive him? Of course she does.

Do you think that child will grow in virtue, though, without understanding what exactly he did that was wrong? Of course not. Was he contrite? Maybe, in a vague way, upon seeing his mother’s hurt face, but certainly not in any way that will shape his future behavior.

An examination of conscience is first and foremost a prayer. Click To Tweet

So we too need to resolve to examine our consciences before God and, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, tell Him specifically of what we repent. The Christian life is a constant interior struggle against the effects of original sin, and it’s not a once-and-for-all kind of battle. It is a daily fight to conquer pride, selfishness, sloth, and all of the other remnants of original sin. A daily examination of conscience shows us on which battlefield to send our ranks.

St. Paul alludes to this interior struggle in the book of Romans, chapter 7, where he says “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (verse 19, NRSV). Can you hear the desperation of this cry? I can. I understand it. How do we do then that which we want to do? How do we keep from doing what which we would not? Stay close to the sacraments, ask for grace daily to do what is right, do not enter into near occasions of sin.  And too — make a daily examination of conscience. 

Copyright 2018 Amanda Woodiel

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