#demonology and beyond

[poobit]

harpia del amor <3

essentially a redraw of three different drawings from lik 2009-2010

[victusinveritas]

Just rocking up to Stolas with flechette rounds, DUP in an antimaterial rifle, and a stinger missile for good measure.

[thefugitivesaint]

Scott Templar, ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'', Vol. 1, #5, 1954 Source

[hisfluer]

so if anyone here has experiences / worships / venerates / works with mammon and would like to share their experiences with him — i'd love to hear it!

he's been the one i've just been unable to find a lot of information on or the information is just broken links / gone / etc.

[cheyisagirlkisser]

Succubus Ellie x fem! reader

Content / warnings: 18+ content, succubus Ellie, virgin (kind of a loser) reader, Ellie is super shady and you're horny & oblivious, corruption kink, oral sex (r! receiving), fingering (r! receiving), spit play, strength kink, Ellie gets increasingly more aggressive/stronger, biting (and some blood), nipple stimulation, mentions of stretch marks on reader's thighs bc I personally love them

Word count: 2.3k

You're a lesbian in a small religious town, and all you've got going for you is reading and your own apartment. It's not your fault that you get desperate enough to check out a book on demonology, summon a literal succubus, and sign a contract stating that you belong to said succubus.

Libraries have about every book you can think of.

Some may not have the most interesting options, but upon searching enough, you can truly find anything. You love reading. You love scanning over the ink-littered pages for hours until your brain is fried from trying to make sense of a complex plot. You get off on reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein because pretty words just do it for you. There is something about losing yourself in Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry that makes your blood hot. You know it’s fucked up, and yet you have no shame searching throughout your small town’s local library for something new.

Perhaps it’s just growing up in an isolated town that makes you find entertainment in the concept of everything all at once–literature truly has it all. There is no limit to what an author can write onto an unlimited amount of pages. You’d rather stay underneath your blanket with a flashlight at four in the morning than actually socialize (unless it’s on reddit, like a freak). Sometimes, you do get lonely though. Books don’t satiate your physical needs, and no amount of masturbation with a vibrator from an adult store a few towns over will truly make you cum like a woman could. You know that, but do nothing about it. You downloaded a dating app only to delete it when you had to set your profile picture. 

That is exactly why you find yourself in the occult section of your lovely local library scanning through books to find one about demons. Unsurprisingly for a library in the middle of a religious town, there are little to no books on the subject. Just one. Demons and Demonology.

You’re lonely, remember? Summoning a succubus is a low blow even for you, though. You don’t meet the librarian’s judgemental gaze, and you rush home to your humble apartment to hopefully read all about demonology, specifically the sexual kind. Little do you know what is in store for you.

Succubus are romanticized in the media; pretty women who seduce humans and sexually drain them. That sounds appealing to many who can imagine someone sleeping with them so willingly, something that you fall victim to simply because you’re lonely. That is exactly what demons prey on, though. People who are lonely and vulnerable. But did you ever really think that a malicious soul could give you one night of pleasure and stop there? 

You light the candles in just a cute, lacy tank top and a pair of white cotton panties. Your feet are cold, so you do have these little patterned, fuzzy socks on. You look desperate, but why would you need pants? A succubus wants to fuck you. You definitely don’t want to be wearing any pants for that. 

And before your very eyes is a woman you will grow to wish you never summoned. 

Dark, auburn hair with sneaky strays that you wish to tuck behind her ears as she fucks you. You’d like to tug on that hair or grasp at it with her lips tending to your clit. Your thoughts are flooded and you can’t even categorize each filthy need upon each beautiful feature your eyes are granted. Your lust is beyond repair.

Your brain should realize that all of the feelings you cling to involving this girl are persuaded by simple vulnerability and need. Her appearance isn’t humanlike. She is a demon, and she has resources to lure you in. You should be realizing how unsafe you are with this girl, not hoping that she will fill you until sunrise. You don’t realize, though. Instead, you find yourself looking up at her as she stands in front of where you sit on your bed. 

“You summoned me, huh?” Her eyes are unbelievably green, vivid in different shades that make you want to squint. 

“Well, yes.”

Such a simple answer, but she appreciates that you are getting straight to the point. Some girls waste her time with nerves and stuttering, but you know exactly what you want. She almost feels sorry for you.

The succubus seems to know where your drawer with your journal is already. She rips out a page and grabs one of your black ink pens, throwing it precisely onto your lap. 

“Sign yourself to me.” 

You look up at her quickly, brows slightly furrowed in confusion. The demon sighs, impatient.

“Don’t you know how this works? You have to write it out. You write out your full name, mine, and that you give yourself to me. Otherwise, I can’t touch you.”

In all honesty, Ellie is a little nervous that you’ll back out. You seem like a smart girl. Maybe you’ll realize that signing yourself up for “giving yourself” to a demon is simply foolish. She finds herself feeling something akin to disappointment when you scribble down your name. 

“My name’s Ellie. Write it down somewhere, it doesn’t matter where. All I need is our names, and something that states that you’re mine.” 

Ellie. You write that down.

Once you dot that final period, Ellie is done with the whole patient act. She grabs your sock-clad ankles with rough hands, pulling you to lay down with your ass just off the bed. You squeal in surprise, but she pays no mind. She hasn’t had a virgin in a long damn time, and she is starving to make you cum for her. 

Her hips part your legs and she leans down to press hungry, sloppy kisses onto your pulse. You feel like you’re about to explode with need, pressure within you building, but with no stimulation. Nobody has ever touched you like this. You’ve never felt a person’s tongue swirl over your collarbone, or you’d realize that this feeling of pure need isn’t in the amount that a human should even be able to feel.

“I need you.” You plead with her, fingers pulling at strands of short hair. This seems to encourage her in ways you didn’t expect, because Ellie is already kneading your tits through fabric, fingertips rolling stiffening nipples with ease.

“Tell me what you want most.” She buries her face into your sternum, hands making haste of pulling the flimsy tank top over your body. 

“I want you to touch me.” 

Ellie grabs your face, hands unfortunately leaving your tits. “Nuh-uh, none of that vague bullshit. Tell me exactly where. How. I need to know.” There is an aggression in her voice that makes your heart drop and your clit throb.

You trail your hand down to the soft fabric of your panties and Ellie doesn’t care that you skimp out on actually telling her. She only peels them down to your ankles and tosses them carelessly. Before you can even beg for her touch, she grabs your hips and throws you into the middle of your bed in a flash. Your head is spinning from the action, the logical part trying to make sense of how she could pick you up and toss you so quickly like you weigh nothing to her.

Before you can register her next actions, her tongue is tracing foreign patterns onto your thighs and her hands are forcing your legs wide. 

“Say you want me to fuck you and ruin you.” Sharp teeth sink into your left inner thigh, branding you. 

“I want you to fuck me, please.” Your voice is breathless, your hips are shifting with impatience and need.

“And you want me to ruin you? Ruin this pussy for anyone but me?”

You let out a whorish whine at her words, a sound you want to be embarrassed about, but your brain can’t grasp the idea of protecting your dignity. 

“So fucking needy, I’m about to have the time of my life taking you apart.” She snorts at the way you try to pull her mouth down onto your sex, but to no avail. She wants you at your most needy so that she can milk every drop of pleasure from your body until you’re a panting, sweaty, and fucked out mess.

It feels like forever since she has been between your thighs, tongue swirling over stretch marks and fingers digging into the fat of your thighs. 

“Please, I can’t take it anymore. I need you to fuck me.” You’re a mess beneath her, desperately trying to lift your hips enough to feel her tongue swipe over your clit. Instead, all you get is her warm breath over your aching pussy. You’ve been begging relentlessly, and you can’t tell if it’s working or not. 

Until you feel her spit drip from the hood of your clit, further down to your perineum. You gasp at the sudden warmth, and your legs squirm within the hold her hands have on them. You’ve been soaked for a while now, but it seems that Ellie thinks that your pussy wasn’t wet enough. 

You can’t even get out another round of begging before you feel her wet tongue slide up between your pussy lips and dig into your clit. You jolt and pull her head down, wanting to feel completely connected. You want her mouth onto you without any separation after so much teasing. 

The more pleasure flows through you that Ellie causes, the stronger her hold on you gets. You don’t seem to think much of it within your horny haze, but her nails grow sharper than your soft skin would like them to be, and her hold is more firm and decreasingly human-like, but the way she just eats you up makes you forget it all. It doesn’t matter now, you already signed yourself off to this. 

She is a succubus. You can’t be surprised when she moans like a goddess when you feel a particular jolt of pleasure in your body or when your free hand grasps your bedsheets for support. It’s a dangerous kind of perfection; even when you don’t physically show that her lips suckling onto your clip makes your vision blurry, she somehow knows and spreads you further.

You’ve never felt like this before. You’ve finger your own pussy and used vibrators in the past, but this is otherworldly. You wonder how you could ever live without this. You know that after you’re all fucked and spent, every bit of your need satiated, that you will never be able to have sex with a regular person. That should scare you enough to beg and cry for her to rip up the contract and leave, but there is a knot in your stomach that needs to snap in half. Ellie scratches every inch inside you, knows where you need her. When you crave her tongue deep inside your pussy, her taste buds are suddenly printed onto your inner walls, curling up into your sweet spot. When her mouth isn’t on your clit, her nose steadily fucks it. As if you need any of that to simply cum, though. Just grinding your pussy against her face in such a shameful manner as you’re doing now could be enough. That isn’t how this works, though. She needs you feeling the best.

You feel her middle finger part your folds and slip into your hole, and the feeling of another’s fingers inside of you besides your own for the first time is an experience that you simply will never be able to forget. She reaches places inside of you that you didn’t know about whilst flicking her tongue over your clit at a steady pace. You soon feel another finger inside you, and you realize how truly deep her digits can reach. How nicely they can stretch you, make you feel all full and warm. 

Her tongue pulls away from your clit, her thumb replacing it. The view above you makes you wonder how you’ve lasted this long. She leaves bites all along your navel while fucking you into a whining mess. 

“Fuck, you’re just so tight for me. Pussy needed to be ruined, didn’t it? You needed this.” She sounds breathless, and you can’t even dwell on it because suddenly her teeth, which are noticeably sharper than before, are sinking into your hip. You cry out, and she soothes you with her tongue as it laps up some blood that trickled out of the bite. 

Her fingers make your pussy squelch as they drill in and out of you and curl deep within your insides. You feel tears form in the corners of your eyes from the pure, unfiltered pleasure she sends through your body. 

“C’mon, baby. I need you to cum. Give it to me.”

When her mouth trails up to suck on one of your nipples, swirling over the soft bud like she did your clit, you cum hard. 

There are no words to describe the way a demon can drain your body. It should be labeled horrific, not in a goreish way or in a truly depraved sense, but instead, in a way that leaves you truly ruined. You’re hers, now. Not that she plans on fucking you again, unless you really leave a good mark on her. The feelings that flow through you and transfer over to her are ones you’ll never be able to replicate again. No amount of one-night stands or kink-finding will lead you back to this orgasm. No book can make you feel hooked again, not after the feeling of her nails digging into your skin. It’s almost sad that your first time will actually fuck you up like this. If Ellie is able to feel any sort of guilt for you, she’ll find herself back in your bed. She can do that now. You signed yourself over to her, whenever she wants you. You’ll never find it in you to hate it, either. You’ll crave her so much that anytime she comes back to take care of you and feed off of your need, you will be begging on your knees for just one more orgasm from her. 

For now, you simply lay limp in your bed, body aching and covered in marks from someone who isn’t even human. The bites on you won’t leave your body, and you’ll be lucky if the hickeys fade. You can only hope that she will visit you again soon and give you what you need.

[veganineden]

On the Evolution of “Happily Ever After” and Why “Nothing Lasts Forever”

A reflection inspired by Good Omens 2

One of my favorite Tumblr posts on the second season of Good Omens 2 was actually not about the series at all, but our reaction to it, primarily the ending. @zehwulf wrote, “I think a lot of us—myself included—got a little too comfortable with assuming [Aziraphale and Crowley would] work on their issues right away post-Armageddon.” We did the work for them through meta, fanfiction, fanart, and building a plethora of headcanons. Who among us AO3-surfing fans didn’t read and love Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach by Nnm?

In the 4 long years since season one was released, we did more than seek to understand and repair rifts between two fictional beings: we were forced to reckon with ourselves too. We faced a global pandemic, suffered traumatizing losses and isolation, and were forced to really and truly look into the face of our atrocities-ridden and capitalistic world. The mainstream rise of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice work, and our participation in this work, showed us that the systems in place were built to oppress and harm most of us, and they are. 

So, what does this have to do with the evolution of “happily ever after”? 

My friend put it best in a conversation we had following the season finale, when she pointed out a shift in media focus. The “happy end” in old stories about wars and kingdoms used to be “we killed the evil old king and put a noble young king in his place and now citizens can live in peace” and we’re transitioning into a period of “we tore down the whole fucking monarchy.” 

If we look at season one, written to follow the beats of a love story, it comforted us by offering a pretty traditional happy ending pattern: you get your fancy dinner with your special someone, the romantic music plays, and you have a place to call your own. Season one’s finale provided a temporary freedom for Aziraphale and Crowley, the “breathing room,” but it didn't solve the problem that was Heaven and Hell, or the agendas belonging to those systems of oppression. 

Is it good enough to keep our heads down, pretend the bad stuff isn’t happening, and live our own personal happy endings until we die? Moral quandaries aside, if you don't die (or if you care about the generations after you), then, like Aziraphale said, it “can’t last forever.” There’s a clear unpleasant end to the “happily ever after” that’s based on ignoring our problems– it’s the destruction of our relationships, and humanity. 

Ineffable Bureaucracy can go off into the stars because they do not care about humanity. 

You know who does?

Aziraphale. 

And Aziraphale knows that Crowley cares about humanity too. (He knows because Crowley was the one who proposed sabotaging Armageddon in the first place, who only invited him to the stars when he thought all was lost, because Crowley would save humanity if he thought it was possible, and Aziraphale knows Crowley has survived losing Everything before, and he will do all in his power so that Crowley does not need to experience that again.) 

In season one and two, we see how much they care about humanity, beyond their orders, to the point The Systems begin to frown at them. Aziraphale hears Crowley’s offer to run away together in the final episode of season two, to leave Earth behind, and just like the first time that offer was made in season one, he declines. He knows choosing only “us” is not a choice either of them can live with for the rest of eternity.

I believe season 3 will provide an opportunity to “dismantle the system,” but I don’t know how it will play out. I worry that Aziraphale has put himself in the now-dead trope of the “young noble king.” (I wish Crowley had told him why Gabriel was dismissed from his duties.) I worry that he would martyr himself as a sole agent for change. I worry that he doesn’t actually know how to dismantle anything by himself: because you can’t. He needs Crowley. He DOES. He needs Crowley, and Muriel, and other angels and demons and humans without fixed mindsets to help him. Only by learning to listen and making room at the table for all can they (and we) move past personal satisfaction to collective liberation. 

Crowley was right when he said that Aziraphale had discovered his “civic obligations.”

So, I think we will get our modern-day happy ending– and it’s going to involve a lot of pain and discomfort, communication, healing and teamwork– and in the end, it’ll all be okay. There will be a time for rest and a time for “us.” 

And most likely a cottage. 

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

 - Maya Angelou

[demonking-propaganda]

13 spoiler-free reasons why you should read Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

...if you haven't done so already 👀 (With "spoiler-free" I mean I'm not describing plot points or characters, but under the cut I'll discuss the overarching themes, so be warned if that's too much for you. The first 7 reasons may be enough lol)

It's both funny AND wholesome. I literally can't read it without laughing out loud, and there are a bunch of chapters that make me cry every time I read them.

It's clever! The Japanese version contains several puns based on the kanji "魔" (read "ma", = devil, demon), starting from the title, but it's a recurring pun. The English translation adapts them pretty well. Plus, there are some of the best plot twists in recorded history (IMO). And the names and characteristics of most characters are based on real-life demonology.

It's queer AF. Like, really gay. There are explicitly homoromantic relationships and several nonbinary and gender non-conforming characters. One of these is the best unashamedly nonbinary character ever written. Plus, the manga premise can be seen as an allegory of hiding in the closet. The only thing that made me uncomfortable because of cisnormativity (boys in drag as a joke) is completely fixed in later chapters, and very well so.

It's feminist, without being preachy or paternalistic. Simply put, the women/girls are three-dimensional, complex characters, as the norm should be. And there are lots of them, without it being a harem (...the harem trope is actually used as a joke).

It's spooky and adorable, imagine Halloween vibes all year round. Both main and background characters are super diverse, and if you like monsters there is stuff for you.

Most characters are neurodivergent-coded. It's basically the autistic/ADHD manga.

The art is phenomenal. It's especially good to see the improvement of the art style over the years (the first chapter was published in 2017 and the manga is ongoing). Some panels are really breathtaking.

8. The story is about personal growth - like most shounen manga, fair enough. But the protagonist, Iruma, is so far from toxic masculinity I dare say he's the antidote to it.

9. It's also about found family, the discovery of unconditional love, and trust, and healing from familial trauma.

10. It's about finding a group of friends you belong to, and transforming your weirdness into a strength, identifying and cultivating what you're good at instead of fitting into a mold.

11. It's about the beauty of learning in your own way, and the importance of education and the shaping of future generations.

12. And the reason why I opened this blog: it's about fascism and fighting against it. I mean real fascism, as in "a powerful individual/group wants society to be hierarchical and oppress certain minorities, elevating a specific subset of the population based on intrinsic characteristics which are being misleadingly treated as merits". Ethno-nationalistic stuff. More specifically, it's about being a somewhat politically illiterate person, who learns about systems of oppression beyond personal injustices. It's about questioning what is the best way to arrange society.

13. Most importantly, this manga gives you hope about the future, something I find harder and harder to have. Hopelessness is dangerous - as people without hope stop fighting. This manga makes me actively feel better. Since it's ongoing I can't ensure it will always remain that way, but I've come to trust the author enough that I expect it to.

[littlemourningstarr]

Do You Mourn the Passing of the Hours?

Former Professor Emmrich Volkarin had spent years settled into a quiet life running a small, quint flower shop in Nevarra. He expected that any excitement was far behind him. Enter, Lucanis Dellamorte. Professional assassin. Antivan Crow. A possessed man. A possible bad decision to take in Lucanis after an assassination goes slightly off kilter, and suddenly Emmrich finds his life is full of far more excitement than he'd ever had. But maybe, for the man who had begun to experience the world through a cloudy window of fascination but never truly partaking, the excitement would remind him what it was like to truly be alive again.

Chapter Seven!

Pairing: Emmrich Volkarin x Lucanis Dellamorte, Emmrich Volkarin x Spite, Emmrich Volkarin x Lucanis Dellamorte x Spite

Read below or on AO3!

Tags: tags to be added as we go, modern AU, flower shop AU, demonology AU, former professor Emmrich, still assassin Lucanis, physical hurt/comfort, scent kink, Spite is a little freak, mentioned/discussed past Viago/Lucanis, background Teia/Viago, pinning, slow burn, hand kink, masturbation, background Bellara/Irelin, biting, hand jobs, blow jobs, anal sex, anal fingering, surprise piercing

"Ah, thank you Lucanis." Emmrich clasped his hands together, inspecting the very large pot Lucanis had just settled on the table for him, in the shop. He leaned closer, eyeing the leaves- he wanted to ensure they remained a healthy deep green, that he couldn't find any signs of health issues.

Lucanis was standing a step back, arms loosely folded, watching. He'd been awake when Emmrich had been preparing to leave, and instead of remaining in Emmrich's home for the day, had come with him into the shop. It wasn't the first time over the course of the week Lucanis had stayed with him, but that didn't lighten the chills of excitement Emmrich got from the man choosing to spend time with him.

Emmrich continued to inspect the plant, and after a few minutes of this Lucanis said he was going to get them coffee- which, of course, meant he was getting coffee, and he would be picking up a nice chai tea latte for Emmrich. With oatmilk. A lovely drink when the weather was chilled.

The bell chimed when Lucanis stepped out to walk the few blocks to the cafe. Emmrich straightened once he finished his inspection of the plant, heading back to the counter and checking his list of orders to fulfill for the day.

He found he was smiling, as he made notes next to each order, jotting down expected pick up times. He found he had been smiling quite frequently, as of late. That his life felt strangely revitalized.

Perhaps he had become simply too reclusive, when he'd left academia. The discussions over coffee and tea had stopped with colleagues, the students were all working with newer theories- well, mostly- and he simply hadn't made it a point to expand the effort to keep a social life. It was easier to just talk to Manfred.

Maybe not healthy, but still.

But having someone to come home to? It was thrilling. His evenings were filled with talk over dinner, with an evening glass of wine while he researched in the living room and not his study, Lucanis on his own laptop next to him. Just. Existing together.

He wasn't any closer to finding a safe way to separate Lucanis and Spite, and he felt a bit guilty about that. But at the same time, Lucanis seemed no closer to finding any leads on who was behind his abduction- beyond Venatori- and securing his own safe return home.

It just seemed like suddenly there was no rush.

Emmrich flipped the page in his notebook, as the bell over the door chimed. Expecting that he had just lost track of time and Lucanis had returned, he glanced up, ready to ask if he'd be willing to let Emmrich cook for him tonight. He couldn't very well let the young man take care of him every night.

He paused, however, when he realized it was not Lucanis standing inside the shop, but a young woman. Her hair was thrown up into a large bun, her patchwork sweater pulled tight around her against the Nevarra chill.

"Professor Volkarin?"

He hadn't been addressed like that in so long. Another lifetime, ago. She stepped closer, and he realized her face was recognizable. Not one he knew from previous meetings, but from a page on Arlathan University's website, introducing all doctorate students and their areas of study for the year. She had sent it to him herself, worried it had made her sound pretentious.

"Bellara?" She rushed over quickly, stopping when she nearly ran into the counter. He reached over it, grasped both her hands in his, squeezing them affectionately. "My dear what are you doing in Nevarra?"

She was grinning, seeming to bounce on her feet. "I'm sorry for coming unannounced, but I was told I should step away before my defense and I could go anywhere and- well, I thought, isn't this the perfect time to finally meet?" He squeezed her hands again, unable to keep from smiling.

"Brilliant. Oh, welcome to Nevarra, I do hope you enjoy your stay in my fair city." He'd barley finished when the door chimed again, and he caught sight of Lucanis entering, just over Bellara's shoulder.

The younger man paused, only a step in, looking confused. Emmrich offered him a smile, and Bellara glanced over her shoulder.

"Oh Lucanis, wonderful timing." Lucanis crossed the shop, walked around the counter to stand next to Emmrich, handing him his drink. "Thank you. Lucanis, this is Bellara Lutare- the thesis student I've spoken about."

"Oh! This is the one you mentioned to me." Bellara reached out, took one of Lucanis's hands. "Possessed, correct?"

Lucanis jerked his head slightly, looked at Emmrich. "You told someone?"

Emmrich offered a nervous smile. "Bellara is very familiar with my work, and I was hoping for some outside thoughts on how best to assist." He paused, feeling a bit guilty, and added, "I only told Bellara, I do swear."

"And I haven't told a soul!" She released Lucanis's hand, and the man took a long drink of his coffee, offering no response. Emmrich could see the tension in his shoulders, the subtle frown behind the lip of his cup. He wasn't thrilled that Emmrich had spoken to anyone about him.

It hadn't been the best decision, perhaps, but he had been desperate. Standard scholarly advice regarding possession always ended in spirit termination and most often death of the host. Neither were an acceptable outcome.

Emmrich turned his attention back to Bellara. "My dear it truly is exceptional that you've finally come to visit! We have much to discuss, you will have to catch me up on if you've been able to translate that text you found."

"The Elvish is still rough, I was hoping I could perhaps run some thoughts by you- perhaps you can help me understand what they were trying to say about spirits."

"Marvelous! Why don't you join us for dinner tonight? Lucanis, I was going to ask if you'd relinquish the kitchen to me this evening." He glanced over at Lucanis who lowered his coffee, gave a single nod. He still looked tense- and it was then that Emmrich realize he could hear something, a very soft whisper.

A moment later, and his notebook flew off the counter, tossed well over a display of plants and halfway across the room. Bellara jerked back a little, a quick, "oh my!" uttered.

Lucanis gritted his teeth, reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, Spite is having a moment."

Emmrich set his cup down on the counter right away, turning to face Lucanis and reached for his arms, grasping his biceps and turning the Crow to face him. He was pleased to see that the force of Spite's little outburst hadn't taken a physical toll on Lucanis- in fact, the spirit hadn't seemed to injure the man in Emmrich's presence beyond the one time.

Still, he reached up, gently gripped Lucanis's chin, studying him. "Are you quite alright?" he asked, and Lucanis just stared at him for a moment, pretty dark eyes laced with shock and something Emmrich couldn't read. He nodded, slowly, and Emmrich pulled back, glancing around the shop, unsure where Spite was. "Spite."

Here. It was whispered, into his ear, on the opposite side as Lucanis. Emmrich turned towards the voice, frowning.

"Can you tell me why you threw my notebook?" After a long pause, Emmrich sighed, admitting to himself he wasn't going to get an answer out of him. He moved to get the notebook, but Bellara had already walked across the shop and gathered it up. She offered it back to him. "I am sorry, I promise Spite has become quite a rather enjoyable presence typically."

"I'm going to go." Emmrich glanced back at Lucanis. "I don't want him to cause a scene." Emmrich managed a nod, very much wishing Lucanis would stay. But if he felt more comfortable removing himself and Spite, he couldn't argue that.

"I'll see you for dinner!" Bellara called, as Lucanis walked around the counter and past them, heading for the door. Emmrich sighed, walking back to the counter and setting the notebook on it, turning around and leaning against it-

And finding Bellara with a huge grin. He quirked a brow, and she folded her arms.

"You didn't mention you were dating the possessed man, professor!" Emmrich gawked. Dating? He and Lucanis- they weren't- this wasn't- "I know our emails are usually so scholarly but I would've thought you'd tell me! After all, I have more pictures on my phone of Manfred than my own girlfriend."

"We aren't- wait. Did you say girlfriend?" Bellara kept her grin, and Emmrich laughed. "Is it that lovely former anthropology student you have been speaking about for the better part of a year?"

Bellara swayed a little. "Maybe. So are you? Dating him, I mean."

Emmrich glanced past her at the door, unable to keep himself from feeling a sadness creep in at Lucanis leaving.

"No, my dear," he said, "I am most certainly not. A young man like that would have no interest in someone such as myself." Bellara looked poised to retort, but Emmrich continued on, "Now, I have to get some orders ready, but you are welcome to keep me company. Tell me, did you read the latest book recommendation I shared?"

*

Emmrich drove himself and Bellara to his home that evening. Upon entry it smelled of freshly brewed coffee- something he was already growing very accustomed to. His mind instantly connected it to Lucanis, and his existence in the space.

Something Emmrich was very fond of.

They had barely gotten their shoes off when Lucanis appeared, from the direction of the kitchen, cup in hand. Manfred was walking along side him, occasionally leaning into his leg affectionately.

"Manfred!" Bellara said eagerly. The cat looked at her, a bit confused- but happily trotted over at being called. She scooped him up, petting him affectionately. "Oh it's good to finally meet you. I think you were the only thing that got me through my semester last fall."

Emmrich gestured towards the living room and Bellara left, happily cooing to Manfred. Emmrich turned his attention back to Lucanis, walking over to him and speaking in a softer, hushed voice. "Are you alright? Has Spite calmed down?"

"He's fine," Lucanis said, glancing away. He seemed unwilling to meet Emmrich's gaze. The older man frowned, stepping closer. He reached up, placed a hand on Lucanis's shoulder.

"And you?" Lucanis simply looked at him. "Be honest with me… please."

The added please had Lucanis's eyes softening. He inhaled slowly, nodded. "I'm fine. Sometimes it can be… confusing, to feel Spite's emotions. And make sure they're not my own."

The concept was fascinating, indeed. Emmrich had to wonder how clear cut the line felt. "There is a wide spread theory accepted in academia that you may feel some of a spirit's emotions, but that they cannot overtake you."

Lucanis only nodded, lifting his coffee to take a sip. From the scent, Emmrich believed it was the Trevisan roast he had purchased. Lucanis definitely had a penchant for it.

"Would you be a dear," Emmrich started, "and offer Bellara some coffee, or tea? That way I can begin dinner." Lucanis nodded, stepped around Emmrich, heading for the living room. Emmrich himself went for the kitchen, opening a counter drawer and pulling out a very worn notebook. He flipped through the yellowed pages, taking in the options he had for dinner, mentally considering what he had in the home, as there wasn't time for a trip to the store if they wanted to eat at a decent hour.

He had the hand made cookbook open and was setting out various bowls and pans, when Lucanis came back into the kitchen. He headed for the coffee machine, switching out the Trevisan roast for the Orlesian one Emmrich had tried the night he brought the machine home.

"Thank you," Emmrich said, as the coffee machine gurgled and hissed, sounds that had simply become a part of the background noise of his life. He went to the small closet pantry, retrieved his apron, before returning to the counter where he began to remove his rings.

"Doesn't all of your jewelry get in the way?" Lucanis asked it as he watched Emmrich's hands, eyes locked on as if he was memorizing the layout of bones beneath flesh.

"Honestly? Not really." Emmrich set a thin ring down, the clink on the counter musical. "I've grown so used to it that I barely notice. I imagine it must be… gaudy to those outside of Nevarra."

Lucanis shook his head. "It looks good on you." He lifted his hand, as if he was going to reach out, grasp Emmrich's own, run his fingers along the back of his hand, the length of his fingers- but the hand fell back to his side. "Do they mean anything?"

Emmrich glanced at the pile of rings. "Some of them," he admitted. He picked up a larger one that hosted a brilliant green stone. "I bought this to mark my completion of my education and the start of my teaching life." He set it down, picked up a smaller one, with a cluster of red stones. "This was to mark when I was accepted into the Mourn Watch society, while I was still a student."

He set it down, before picking up a thin gold band, slightly engraved but hosting no stones.

"And this," he said, holding it out to Lucanis, "belonged to my father." Lucanis stared at it a moment, before he took it in hand, Emmrich's fingertips brushing the soft skin of his palm. "As I said, I was young when my parents passed- and we didn't have much."

"You wear luxury well." Emmrich quirked a brow, and Lucanis cleared his throat. "What I mean is, you… carry yourself like someone who grew up with…"

"Abundance?"

Lucanis nodded. "I meant it as a compliment."

Emmrich chuckled, as Lucanis passed the ring back. He set it back with the others. "No slight taken my boy. That ring is all I have of him." Emmrich let himself settle in a moment of sadness, missing both his parents, before he straightened his shoulders and settled the apron over his neck. "Now, I do believe I need to begin cooking."

"Here," Lucanis said, before Emmrich could reach back to tie the apron, "Let me." He stepped closer, and Emmrich felt the brush of his knuckles against his back, as Lucanis grabbed the straps and began tying them. He pulled it taut to his waist, and Emmrich could just feel the ghost of his breath, against his neck.

The knot settled, Lucanis drifted his hands, and Emmrich felt them on his narrow waist, grasping gently, thumbs rubbing the soft fabric of his sweater. Emmrich had the desire to lean back into Lucanis, right against his chest- for the man's arms to encircle his waist, for Lucanis to press into the crook of his neck.

He was jarred from the moment, the breath it took for the fantasy to unfold, by the sound of the coffee machine sputtering to silence. Lucanis pulled his hands back quickly, and when Emmrich turned, he was fully facing the coffee machine, focused on it with a hint of color to his cheeks.

Neither spoke, as Lucanis poured a hint of cream into the coffee, added a dash of sugar, and then left Emmrich to his cooking.

Emmrich sighed, grasped the edge of the counter and leaned forward slightly. Never once had he been so plagued with intrusive desires. He simply didn't know what to make of them- the desires, the situation, and Lucanis.

After all, he hadn't imagined his hands on his waist, had he?

*

Dinner went over quite well, in Emmrich's eyes. Bellara was the most joyous conversation partner, as she had been over her emails. She picked his brain in a way no one had since he'd left academia.

He was pleased to notice Lucanis seemed to relax, as well, as the evening progressed. And for every question Bellara asked of Emmrich, she had one for Lucanis, as well. The majority, of which, were not centered around his possession.

Emmrich wasn't entirely sure where Spite was. He couldn't sense him, lingering around Lucanis- nor had he heard him, since he and Bellara had arrived. Manfred had disappeared upstairs when they'd sat down for dinner, so he presumed the two were together.

"I'd love to see Treviso one day," Bellara admitted, setting her fork down. "All the pictures I see, the stories I hear, they're breathtaking."

"It does seem a truly lovely city," Emmrich added. Lucanis glanced at him- and held his stare when he spoke.

"Nothing should stop you from visiting."

It felt like a commanding invitation, spoken directly to him. Emmrich reached for his cup- knowing his tea was gone- but needing something for his hands.

"Maybe after my thesis defense," Bellara offered. "The city is in so many novels, I can't imagine it as anything else but a seat of romance and betrayal."

Lucanis chuckled at that. "I'd say don't believe everything you read in books… but Treviso is anything but dull." He finally pulled his eyes from Emmrich, pushed his seat back. "Do you want more coffee?"

Bellara utterly beamed. "Oh, yes please! That was lovely, where did you get the roast? I might have to stock up before I leave."

Lucanis gathered up her cup with his own, eyes glancing for only a moment at Emmrich. "Emmrich brought home a nice selection. It was quite a surprise." He walked around the table, picked up Emmrich's cup as well. "Tea?"

Lucanis was leaning so close to him, over his shoulder, that he could smell his cologne, the shampoo in his hair. It felt like a dream to see someone else's shampoo bottle in his shower, still. "You know," Emmrich admitted, "I think I'll have a cup of coffee as well." Lucanis's smile grew, and he was off, for the kitchen. Emmrich turned his attention across the table, and Bellara was giving him the most knowing of smiles. "What?"

"Professor, you are utterly smitten."

"It's just Emmrich, please. And I am most certainly not." He folded his hands on the table. "Perhaps you've been reading too much romance."

The elf laughed. "Absolutely not. Why the last one had brothers dueling on a chandelier-"

"And how did the physics of that work?"

Bellara was still explaining the scene, when Lucanis reappeared, managing to hold all three cups. He set Bellara's down, before moving back to Emmrich, handing him the mug- his fingers brushing against Emmrich's for only a moment. "I feel I've missed something."

"Oh, just explaining a scene from a book! You see, these two brothers dueled atop a chandelier because they were both in love with the same girl, but one brother was seen as wanting to tear down his whole house and no one cared for him, but she really knew there had to be more and-" she paused, color creeping onto her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm rambling. I do that."

Lucanis sat down, and Emmrich lifted his cup, offering it in a silent toast. "Nonsense, passions should be discussed. Do continue- perhaps you'll be able to persuade me that the scene is, in fact, not utterly ridiculous."

*

Emmrich drove Bellara back to her hotel, late in the evening. The moment the car doors had shut, she had twisted in her seat, eagerly saying you didn't tell me he was staying with you!

The entire drive was like that. Bellara pestering in the most affectionate way about Emmrich and Lucanis. And Emmrich had to wonder, if a woman whom yes he had known for years but also only just met could see through him-

Who else could?

"I'm just saying," she offered, as the hotel came into view, "I could cut the tension with a knife."

It was absurd- Emmrich said as much, but gods and Maker, was it? He felt it too, but assumed it was simply driven from his side, his own attraction. An attraction he could absolutely not deny, at this point. Nor did he, when Bellara flat out asked.

"He's an attractive man," Emmrich conceded, "I'm not blind, my dear. But I am sensible."

Bellara rolled her eyes, as she undid her seat belt. "I think you're being the exact opposite of sensible right now- I mean, he's living with you."

"He's staying with me until he can safely return home. There are… complications. A lot of them, that are not my place to disclose."

Bellara narrowed her eyes, but didn't push. Instead she just opened her door. "Maybe tomorrow we can discuss your theory on spirit temperament and realignment? Because I know it is going to come up in my defense, as I referenced it so heavily. I'd love your opinion on my speaking points."

Emmrich nodded. Of course- he planned to make the most of the few days Bellara would be in Nevarra. A proper passing defense of her thesis would be a point of pride for him, after all of these years in correspondence. She thanked him for dinner and the ride, promised to text him in the morning, before she disappeared into the hotel. Emmrich waited until he could no longer see her in the lobby, before he began the drive home.

When he arrived, he found Lucanis in the living room, the younger man's laptop on the coffee table, completely ignored. Instead he was reading through the old notebook Emmrich had left on the counter, forgotten to put away.

Emmrich sat down on the couch next to him, perhaps a bit closer than he meant to. Lucanis didn't seem to mind, just glanced at him with a little smile. "This is handwritten."

"Yes, my mother's." Emmrich leaned his elbow against the back of the couch, peering down at the book. "Collected recipes from both her and my father's families. Most of it is quite distinctly Nevarran, and I did want Bellara to get to experience as much as possible." Emmrich paused, before he added, "I hope it wasn't too boring."

Lucanis shook his head, flipping a few pages in, stopping at random. Emmrich smiled, recognizing the recipe.

"Ah, this was always a favorite when I was a boy." He leaned a bit closer, his eyes tired from the day, as he scanned over the extensive list of ingredients. "I used to be able to convince my mother to make this hazelnut torte on my birthdays." Lucanis tapped the page, as Emmrich added, "I can't remember the last time I made it. Years ago, at least. It's far too much without someone to share it with."

Emmrich's eyes moved to Lucanis's fingers, on the page. He had the urge to take them in his hand, entangle their fingers together. Bellara's comments were still ringing in his head.

This didn't just feel like physical attraction, though. He found he genuinely liked when Lucanis spoke, liked hearing about the starkly different life he led. He found that he would be willing to give almost anything, to see him smile.

"You're quite sure you and Spite are alright?" Lucanis turned his eyes across the room, and Emmrich glanced as well. "Ah. Spite, if you're here with us, do answer for yourself. How are you feeling?"

There was a little rumble, and then a still somewhat annoyed Fine.

"Well, that is most certainly a lie." Next to him, Lucanis shut the cookbook, set it on the coffee table. "Why would you feel the need to lie to me?"

Because Lucanis. Lies. Too.

Emmrich glanced at the man, and Lucanis dropped his eyes to his lap, folding his hands, almost wringing them, as if being still was impossible. Before Emmrich could speak, there was a rushing static in the air, and he watched as Lucanis blinked once, eyes dark and gorgeous-

And then again, eyes shining amethyst.

Spite turned to Emmrich, reached for him and grasped at his sweater, leaning in very close. "Spite, you cannot just-"

"Lucanis. Let me. Did not fight." There was a pause, and then Spite continued. "He's here. He's listening."

Emmrich nodded. Alright, if Lucanis was fine giving Spite a moment in his body, he was content to speak to the spirit in a more physical form.

"You smiled. At her. You should smile. At us." Spite inclined his head a little, before he moved closer, pressed his face directly into the crook of Emmrich's neck. Spine going rigid, Emmrich didn't move for a moment, as Spite all but purred while nosing at his pulse. "We don't like. When you look. Elsewhere."

He was saying we, but Emmrich didn't dare believe that Lucanis was agreeing.

He swallowed thickly, moved his hand to gently touch Spite's back, sliding down along his spine. The spirit relaxed into him at the touch. "Spite, were you jealous?"

"Jealous, yes. You are. Ours. Ours."

Emmrich continued to stroke his back. Rationally, he was shifting through a proper explanation on boundaries for the spirit, yet…

The way Spite said ours left a shiver cloying at his spine, between his vertebrae.

"Spite, Bellara is a dear friend." The spirit lifted his head, and Emmrich moved his hand from his back, gently cupped his face in both, fingers flexing against the man's beard. "Just because she is my friend doesn't mean that you are not my friend as well. Nor Lucanis."

The spirit continued to watch him, eyelids fluttering as Emmrich continued to touch gently.

"Can I trust you to not act out again? If you're feeling such a way, you simply need to tell me." He leaned a bit closer, and Spite's eyes flicked down to Emmrich's mouth.

Emmrich had a moment where he thought the spirit might lean in, might kiss him. It was thrilling, but also filled his gut with a terror- because it was Lucanis's body he was in, and while the spirit might have an attachment to Emmrich, that didn't mean the man he possessed did, to such a degree.

But Spite didn't move. His eyes moved back to Emmrich's, and he blinked, once, amethyst-

Twice, deep brown.

Emmrich watched the switch in consciousness, the way a heavier sort of existing took hold in Lucanis's eyes. He was still cradling his face delicately, and Lucanis made no move to pull away.

Instead he stared at Emmrich with the same sort of intensity Spite had. Emmrich curled his fingers closer to his jaw bone, and Lucanis leaned a breath closer, could so easily have been moved by Emmrich's desires- he could be pulled in, his lips finally tasted, the magnetic pull in Emmrich's gut finally satiated.

Emmrich inhaled slowly and released Lucanis's face, his hands falling to his lap. "Apologies," he said, his voice wavering slightly. "I shouldn't touch without your permission."

"Spite didn't give you much of a choice." Lucanis eased back, into his own space. "He feels calm, now."

Emmrich only nodded. Yes, good…

He stood up abruptly, clearing his throat. "I believe I'll turn in for the night." Lucanis stared up at him, before he glanced away- and was that disappointment?

No, Emmrich was projecting. He had to be.

"Right. Good night." Lucanis reached for his laptop, and Emmrich offered a soft good night as well, before he headed for the stairs. He'd leave Lucanis to his work, his research, his tying up leads so he could one day leave-

Emmrich was half way up the stairs when he paused, hand gripping the railing. He frowned at himself. Of course he would leave- the whole point of him being here was to separate he and Spite, so he could return home. That was it. Nothing more.

Emmrich left his bedroom light off, changed in the dark, leaving his jewelry atop his dresser as always. He crawled into bed, pulling the blanket up over his shoulder, pressing it to his neck. The bed felt strangely cold, as it never had.

He wished it wasn't empty.

He closed his eyes, cursing himself. This was a ridiculous situation to find himself in, at his age. Yet he had been dangerously close to kissing Lucanis- no, Spite- and might have, if he had had but a single moment longer of inaction.

He couldn't deny, he wanted to kiss the man. He wasn't blind, he hadn't been since he'd first met him. He was honest when he'd admitted to Bellara that Lucanis was attractive. Was there a soul that wouldn't think so?

His mind thought back to Lucanis in the kitchen, gently grasping his waist after tying the apron, the feeling of his breath against his neck. Half a step closer, and he could have been pressed flush to Emmrich's back, the heat of his body undeniable. His arms could have encircled him, he could have pressed those hands along the planes of his body…

Emmrich bit his lip, his body feeling far too hot within his skin. The heat was pooling in his pelvis, his groin- and gods be damned, he was half hard at just the thought, the half memory and half fabrication.

He rolled over, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, and told himself to get a handle on this before he made a mistake he couldn't unmake.

[schwarz-san]

Danny is a normal fourteen year old boy in a household in a normal family.

His parents are doctor and engineers and has a smart older sister who likes psychology. He has a goth and a technerd as bestfriends in a normal highschool.

Then all of a sudden he's been kidnapped to be used as a sacrificed to a Eldritch Death God from beyond by some cult that literally came out of nowhere—

---

Danny is a normal kid.

Well, as normal as a kid of a couple with triple doctorates in Chemistry, Engineering and Demonology as well as black belt in multiple martial arts could be anyway .

He has a older sister that is interested in Psychology and proficient with Matial arts.

He's friends with a rich rebellious goth girl who likes plants and a tech genius boy who could probably hack pentagon if wanted that likes meat.

Life is fine.

Then he got interested in demonology and started reading his parents books.

(Maddie and Jack is so proud, their boy is following their footsteps!)

He then read something about a High Ghost King of The Infinite Realm from one of their ancestral books from his dads side. Way back when the Fentons was still called Fentonightingale's and still worked as the greatest and most infamous supernatural hunters around in the olden days.

He got hooked very quickly.

He studied and research more and more about the Ghost King, learning that its existence could be seen through out multiple civilization and mythology all across the globe and has been around way, way back to ancient greece, china, japan, egypt and so on.

He learned that it was considered as a Death God, Eldritch in nature in some cases. That its also represent life and death, balance, Stars, Planets, space and the entire cosmos itself as well as the sea of possibilities, that is simply known as the multiverse in modern culture.

It was known through various titles such as The Balance between Realms, The Absence of Heat, The Protector, The Great One, Halfa and many more with the title High Ghost King of the Infinite Realms being his most notable one.

Danny loves learning about the ghost king and the infinite realms.

On how it was the afterlife, and how it hold all other afterlife with itself. Its pantheon, its customs and its king.

Life is fine.

He graduate highschool with honors and recently got accepted in college, aiming for Engineering.

(He may love studying the supernatural but he still loves space and still defenitely aim to be an astronaut.)

Life is fine.

Then it reality came crashing down all in a blink of an eye.

His family got caught in a rouge accident while visiting gotham, only danny survived.

People who wants his parents tech and research are all hounding danny for their patents, for their tech, their researchs.

And they never stop.

Time passess and Danny is just tired of everything.

He dropped college.

He's pennyless.

Jobless.

His friends are out of reach.

(He heard rumors about the government and high standing people hounding them as well due to their connection with him)

And pretty much after that, he loss just about everything he has.

All except his fenton family heirloom books and his parents researchs.

So he lays on the floor of his crappy rundown apartment, disheveled, thick dark lines under his eyes, and unshaven face. His books, his parents research scattered and discarded around him on the floor along with numerous empty bottles and cans of beer and alcohol. Some bottles were even broken.

Danny is drowning and life is not fine.

Despair clawed deep in his chest as he continue to drowned in just about everything.

Despair

Sadness

Anger

Hate

Loneliness.

So on, so forth.

It was too much. Too much for a simple man like him too bear alone.

Until one day, he just can't anymore.

Broken shard from empty bottle of beer fall on his hand and his mind swirls. Every emotions, every suffering and all of his despair cultivating in to a potent, potent poison like poisonous critters fighting inside a poison jar.

He raised the broken shard in his hand before his bloodshot eyes fell on a discarded open book on the floor.

The Fenton family heirloom.

One that mentions the King of the Infinite Realms.

Then all of a sudden, memories rush back to Danny like water from a broken dam.

His childhood.

His parents.

His sister.

His friends.

His dreams of flying out of the planet.

His obsession with the ghostking and the ghost zone as his family labeled it.

His happy memories.

The accident that take everything away from him.

On how he loss everything.

On how… he doesn't have anything else to lose.

The fact that he doesn't have anything else to lose.

Tired, resigned and resolved, danny made his decision and blood fell to the floor.

--

Danny is an engineer.

A very smart one infact that he was often compared to the likes of Tony Stark and Reed Richards.

CEO of Fenton Works and formerly, Dalv co. (His Godfather insisted of making Danny inherit everything and Danny doesn't have the heart to refuse a dying man) , which he merged with his parents small company with the same name Fenton Works.

They are advance compared to other tech companies and could keep up to Stark's tech (probably one of the very very few that could keep them on their toes) that continue to ridiculously advance at a terrifying pace due to continuous study of alien tech that Stark manage to observe and get his hands on due to his superhero stint.

(No. Danny isn't jealous. Not by the fact that Stark could go in and out of space at his leasure. Not by the fact that he could go to other planets or the fact that he could meet real life aliens. No, shut up Tuck. Seriously dude, stop laughing–!)

Life is fine, he's engage and happy with his life and his family.

Then he got on a accident.

Sam is in coma, with no concrete time on when she'll wake up.

Her parents were angry of course but relented when they saw that state danny was in.

His arms were crushed and he cant feel anything from them.

The vary same hands that he use to craft. The very same hands that sam compliments whenever he made a new invention that made that hammer dude green with envy and made stark speechless.

Fenton work is declining. It wasn't obvious yet but they are slowly losing footing in the industry. All because he couldn't make anything new.

His parents helped, and the only reason that the company isn't crashing and burning to the ground yet. But even they could not totally prevent the company's slow and steady decline.

They then tried to find a way restore his hands.

They tried a lot of things, cybernetics to medical operations and medication, so on, so forth. They worked. But only by little as everything felt horryfyingly wrong whenever he tried any of his options, but for the sake of the fenton works, danny endured. Everything to ensure sam that everthing is alright the moment she woke up from her com.

It's been half a year since then.

Danny was in his office, typing on his computer with the Fenton Ghost Gloves on his hands that let him do work despite the condition of his hands when Wes suddenly barged to his office holding a flyer, yelling something about a way to permanently heal his hands and a possible way to wake up Sam from her coma.

That immediately got Danny's attention.

With hope in his eye and determination burning in his chest, Danny take the flyer and went to the place right of the bat. Lets just say that it wasn't what he was expecting at all.

Danny new of the supernatural. Kind of hard not to when your family have a been written in history books a the worlds greatest and infamous Supernatural Hunter bearing the Fentonightingale name and with Gods and all the magical shenanigans that keeps happening left and right that the Avengers have to deal with.

Which means that he shouldn't have been surprised that magic is involved with the flyer promising miraculous healing.

It's also strange (hah) to meet Stephen Strange again.

He knew the man, a little arrogant but definitely have the skills and talent to back it up. He also heared that he had an accident similar to his that led him to give up his medical career entirely unlike danny who make do with his fenton gloves.

Now he's a sorcerer, not just any sorcerer but The Supreme Sorcerer and may have been a Avenger now for all he knew. Doctor Strange, then gave him the option to either help him heal his hands or learn magic.

Danny chose magic of course.

(Sam would be so mad the he went on and learn magic on his own without her and Tucker)

Now, he just need to learn the magic to wake her up safely.

A year pass and Danny is a full bown sorcerer.

It baffled everyone how fast he learned that he's already nearing the Supreme Sorcerers level with only just a year. Definitely faster than the progress that Doctor Strange himself shown.

They all shuddered in horror once they heared his family name though, and Danny understand their reaction. A descendant of Fentonightingale himself, the greatest Witch Hunter, having magic is a image that they never would have imagine.

That said, it's also been a month since Sam woke up ( there was so much crying involve) and has been in rehab ever since.

She's mad that he learned magic own his own as expected and demanded that she and tucker learn it as well.

(He couldn't say no to her)

It also a shock to learn about Tuckers potential with magic, something about having Egyptian roots. Sam is jealous. Well, that was until she obtain some form of plant magic and make herself a walking terror to everyone.

(The illegal loggers and companies were not ready)

Meanwhile, Danny's specialty is tapping and looking through diferent dimentions, secretly of course, and space magic as well as exorcism related magic in honor of the Fentonnightingale name.

Life is well.

Until one day when he was scrying through other dimension, he encounter a very very large, endless dimension consisted of green skies. It's a dimension that Danny doesn't recognise so he got intrigue and he knew he should have told Doctor Strange immediately but well… his curiosity get the better of him and he take a peak. Just a little wee bit of peek and—

A massive Eldritch Eye looms and stare back at him.

"Uhhhhh—GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH—!"

-

It's been Eons and Danny has been The High Ghost King for quite a time.

Probably more considering that time in the Realms never really flows in a linear Fashion.

(He could tell, with all the time he spent at Clockwork's Lair, his position as the High King, dominion over Space and the fact that Time and Space are always intertwined and are lowkey perpendicular to one another so it's nly natural for him to do so)

Danny just got back from his vacation to another universe and may or may not have traumatize a lot of people (Arceus still won't remove the barricade he put at the Hall of Origins, Giratina may be traumatize as well but enjoys watching Arceus suffer so its worth it. Revenge for being lock away in his own lair. Hah!) And is feeling great! Sure Tuck and Sam were mad that he leave them with his own paperworks but can you say no to this adorable face? (Sam and Tuck grumbled as Danny make the Ookemon team he got from vacation to do puppy eyes with him and aim it to Sam and Tucker, like seriously, its not fair! Hes thousand years old how can he stay adorable after all that years!)

They forgave him but demand that they be included along when Danny decide to have another vacation. Though not before stealing his Pokemons and dumping athe backlogged paperworks on his desk.

Great…

So there he is, doing work like he hadn't taken a vacation and a Mt. Everest worth of paperworks.

(Danny doesn't know what he'll do with out his duplicates)

He's done about half of them (what can he say, hes fast and just want to go to bed) when he felt something.

He could feel it. The ripples from countless universes hapening everywhere all at once, they touched the surface of the Infinite Realms and made themselves known. Normally, ripples isn't something to be worried about. There will be people, gods, cosmic beings and such that will always deal with them one way or another so beings from the realms rarely bothered. This one though is different. Because it messes with the realms, something that almost never happened before.

Further more, he could feel something tugging at his core, which only happens when he was being summoned most of the time.

Putting his paperwork aside (oh yes, finally a valid excuse), Danny take a look to the one he could feel is scrying throigh the realms with magic.

He tuen Eldritch and peak back to the rude person peaking without permission.

Danny wasn't expecting to see a version of him scrying through the realms with sorcery of all things.

He shut his Sorcerer version's spell as he heard the man scream in terror.

(Danny snorted, for some reason, he found it hilarious)

Welp, I guess it's about time to visit Clockwork.

[gingebreadbeetle]

Hey guys it’s me your favorite hazbin slop critic with more slop takes.

Something that has been bothering me lately, like badly is Lucifer in general. From his design, his status to his writing.

A lot of other smarter bloggers have already talked about Viv’s problems with daddy issue characters and making them sympathetic, so I won’t really discuss Lucifer’s writing in that regard as I don’t think I can add much.

I’m also aware some critics like Lucifer, as well as fans and to that I say, good for you! Like genuinely, if you like Lucifer from hazbin hotel, there’s nothing wrong with that! ( i literally like sir Pentious and he barely has any real screen time episodes or development so I cannot speak.)

Okay, rant from here on.

Vivziepop is so bad at religious imagery it is laughable. Lucifer’s theme of the garden of Eden and ringmaster of a circus sound good but she fails to mesh them together. I lowkey thought the snake on his hat was a worm. His design is the generic sexy man copy paste top hat bow and or tie and suit with weirdly shaped feet. Canes may or may not be included.

Lucifer doesn’t feel like Lucifer at all. I sort of understand what she was going for by making him a guy failure, but I feel like compared to other works with a similar episode count, cough DEVILMAN CRYBABY cough, she fails to accurately capture the intrigue and allure of Lucifer through his said persona and design.

While we’re talking about persona and design, Devilman crybaby’s Satan, Ryo, is so excellent. From the writing, the clash of ideals, the reveal to the final form and fight, it’s perfect. Satan and Lucifer are things I feel people cannot accurately capture in works, because while Jesus is a perfect human, Satan and Lucifer go beyond anything human as they are pure evil and, light.

So it’s really fucking embarrassing when a character who is also Lucifer has a similar arc ( clash of ideals, final form, fight ) and fails in every single way.

I understand that hazbin hotel obviously is a lighter show, that Lucifer isn’t trying to be the MAIN big evil nor is he, from the protagonists perspective, the villian, but for the ruler of hell, the light bringer and enemy of heaven … he doesn’t really size up and he’s another generic Vivziepop character in a pile of them.

To wrap this up, it’s just very disappointing. As someone who is very hyperfixated on demonology and the literature and philosophy of Lucifer, Viv fails to recreate an ounce of intelligence or thought that goes into writing a being of horror and evil.

Better Lucifer’s imo: Devilman crybaby, paradise lost (shocker guys ong who knew I’d reccomend it ) Sandman, and hot take but CSM public safety arc ( I could make an argument on how makima represents Lucifer but that’s another post sometime soon.)

[deadbutbetter]

Hi, i'm sorry this is so out of the blue but would you mind sharing sadomasochistic literature recs pls? I love your other rec lists<33

yo not out of the blue at all. i realise i post a lot of content related to sm.

for fiction: besides the obvious bataille, you should look into colette peignot's collected writings under the name laure.

for some rewritten material on her there's kathy acker's my mother demonology. but everything by kathy acker relates to the subject: blood and guts in highschool, empire of the senseless.

(sidenote from an interview w kris kraus on her biography: According to Eleanor Antin, Kathy worked at a massage parlor in Solana Beach for a while, and she did not give massages. [...] She was also, at the same time, tutoring Latin. / If she didn’t give massages, what did she do? / Well, hand jobs, probably.)

another classic but story of o written by pauline réage plus its beautiful illustrations by leonor fini. it's actually said her fantastical owl masks inspired the character of o + she was really close to andré pieyre de mandiargues, whose one story la marge was adapted by walerian borowczky in immoral tales. then there's sacher masoch's venus in furs. you've probably already heard of anais nin's delta of venus.

i specifically highly rec mary gaitskill. bad behaviour is a great short story collection - one of the stories specifically inspired the film secretary (2002). her essay, the trouble with following the rules, on rape culture and agency published in harper's bazaar (later repub in somebody with a little hammer) is one rare occurrence of nuance and grace accorded to women who've had sexual experiences that are difficult to categorise. it gives a rundown of the ways she personally relates to feminist scholars on the subject too.

there's problems by jade sharma. for a more modern story of the eye, try ryu murakami's ecstasy.

for non-fiction (disclaimer that i mostly haven't read these but they are on my list):

gilles deleuze, masochism: coldness and cruelty ; avgi saketopoulou, sexuality beyond consent ; virginie despentes, king kong theory

if you're similarly interested in boundary-pushing experiences, the limits of the body, attraction to the horrific (i getchu) this is moreso sociology, aesthetics, psychoanalysis focused:

elaine scarry, the body in pain ; anne dufourmantelle, in praise of risk ; sylvère lotringer, overexposed: perverting perversions ; umberto eco, on ugliness

other media: the podcast drunk church, the director catherine breillat.

hope this is of help & if you read anything tell me how it went. i'm always looking for more stuff on the subject too.

[poobit]

Calcus OC dump of many months uhm (lets the brainrot set in)

[thevirginwitch]

Current Reads + Book Reviews

To stay more up-to-date with what I'm reading, and to see my book notes, be sure to check out my Patreon!

last updated October 25, 2024

Current Reads

Weather Magic: Witchery, Science, Lore by Debra L. Burris

Inside the Mirror Box: Spells and Theory for All Practitioners by Ray Baker

Queer Chaos Magick & LGBT Witchcraft Covens by Justin H. Guess

Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft from the Margins by Cassandra Snow

Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries edited by Lee Harrington and Tai Fenix Kulystin

Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick and Manifestation by Mat Auryn

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton

A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans by Jeffrey Burton Russell

Elemental Witchcraft: A Guide to Living a Magickal Life Through the Elements by Michelle Heron

The Black Arts: A Concise History of Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, Alchemy, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the Ages by Richard Cavendish

Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America by Margot Adler

New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic by Cory Thomas Hutcheson

Weather or Not: Two Books About the Magic of Timing & the Timing of Magic by Katrina Rasbold

Coven Craft: Witchcraft for Three or More by Amber K

Read Recently + Reviews

The Everyday Witch's Coven: Rituals and Magic for Two or More by Deborah Blake

Traditional Witchcraft for Urban Living by Melusine Draco

Urban Magick: A Guide for the City Witch by Diana Rajchel

Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic in the Information Age by Patrick Dunn

The Crooked Path: An Introduction to Traditional Witchcraft by Keldon

Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic by Phil Hine

By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn: The Theory & Practice of Effective Home Warding by Althaea Sebastianti

[whats-a-human]

Advice on deconverting:

The anger is REAL. If you aren't pissed off already, then you'll probably be eventually with the shit they taught you/what happened to you. And you're ALLOWED to feel that way, but PLEASE PRIORITIZE YOUR SAFETY. Try not to get into arguments. The anger will dimish with time, especially if you focus on good, healing things. Don't downplay or run away from your anger, but shift your focus from bad people to yourself and your allies.

THE FEAR IS ALSO REAL. It's a normal reaction to show up during confrontations and sermons, so notice it but don't let it control your decisions. Especially when you go through a difficult situation... going back to god may be tempting, but eventually you'll never even remember him during hard times lol

BUILD A SAFETY NET!!! Irl friends, online spaces, everything you can find to help you!!!

You'll have to learn to leave so many things and people behind. It hurts, but I promise it'll get better beyond the wall. And refrain from "saving" others: they'll never deconvert against their will.

Even if you still believe in the supernatural, give it a break and learn to accept a non-magical reality. I'm not saying you should be an atheist but it's so important to be at peace with the idea of permanent death, human-made morality, an indifferent universe and such. These ideas were extremely liberating for me, but I know they're worrisome for some. You gotta build your new worldview based on objectivity first

So, it's so important not to overwhelm yourself. Your journey is like a tower, built one brick at a time.

Knowledge is your friend, and especially the same type you may have avoided before. I'm talking of evolution, debunking theist arguments, the history of christianity, other religions, demonology, etc. I like the YT channels of Genetically Modified Skeptic, Forrest Valkai, Professor Dave Explains, Religion for Breakfast, Esoterica, and Aron Ra's series on Noah's Ark. Aaand you'll find more good ones along the way!

Healing from religious trauma is like any other kind of trauma: lots of ups and downs, you may relapse, have breakdowns, and you're bound to make mistakes too. In my case, I was already pretty far in my recovery from mental illnesses before deconverting, and so I employed tactics like the safety net in this situation and although I made mistakes too, I mostly felt at ease. I also recognized and dealt with religious trauma still inside the religion, but I only notice now that I could only FULLY heal from its effects outside the church.

Wish you the best

[hislittlestar]

Obey Me

With the Obey Me games coming to an end (😭), I wanted to talk about them.

First off, OG Obey Me >>> Nightbringer. Nightbringer was much more money-hungry and the writing was more kid-friendly and just generally worse. Due to the events in the story, all character development that had happened in the original game was set-back completely and the brothers practically devolved into caricatures of their respective sins. There is one redeeming feature for me with Nightbringer, Time Chronicles, where you can read stories from the original game for free. I’d say it’s worth downloading Nightbringer solely for the Time Chronicles feature. It was a dream-feature for me after I had accidentally lost all my data in the original game when I switched to my current phone.

I started playing Obey Me in late 2020. It was my first introduction to otome games, but also my first peak into the world of demonology. It was also my first time seeing Lucifer portrayed as a character that wasn’t evil, along with the concept of Lucifer and Satan being separate beings. I think it ultimately helped me feel less intimidated to approach Lord Lucifer when he decided it was time for us to start working together.

As I progressed through Obey Me, I grew to love the characters and the world of the Devildom. There is so much potential with them and I hope Solmare really does continue do push out new projects. I’d love a full anime based on the main story of the games. I’d also absolutely looove an Obey Me game meant for adults. I wish Solmare would see the success of Love and Deepspace and realize how profitable the adult market is for otome games. I’ve tried What in Hell is Bad, but that game is objectively… well, bad. Any spiciness that was present in the original Obey Me game was gone in Nightbringer, which left me using Character.ai and reading fanfics (shoutout to you fanfic writers 🫡).

The more I played Obey Me, the more I fell for the game’s Lucifer character. Looking back, the fact that I was crushing on and reading smut about him with the real Lucifer unknowingly watching me is super embarrassing 💀.

I had a bit of a reality shifting phase and Obey Me was the main world I wanted to shift to. I now think Lord Lucifer was actually the one holding me back from successfully shifting due to my purpose being in this world, not that one (though I think it also would’ve been strange for me to be dating someone with the same name and a similar backstory as him).

The games’s Lucifer compared to the deity I interact with are quite different. Looks-wise, the only things they have in common are that they are both hot, well-built, and can have black wings at times. My Lucifer’s hair is more the color of Satan’s and eyes the color of Diavolo’s. As for personality, late-game (in the OG game) Lucifer’s personality isn’t too far off, though I’d say Diavolo’s is a little more similar at times.

I will always hold these characters near my heart and am really hoping to see more with the franchise beyond in-person events in Japan I can’t attend. A couple of years ago, I never ever would’ve imagined the kind of connection I have with the ACTUAL Lucifer. I find it funny that things have worked out this way for me.

[biblioflyer]

Nosferatu (2024) takes its Occultism at least as seriously as it’s cinematography.

Exhuming the Spiritual Assumptions

Spoilers ahead (naturally)

One of my guilty pleasures is The Exorcist Files podcast. I don’t really buy into its extremely Catholic spiritual warfare worldview. I am at least a little bit skeptical about the veracity of the stories being recounted. I am both Scully and Mulder on the occult. I find it endlessly fascinating and am very much willing to engage with believers seriously and respectfully but try as I might to develop any sort of consistent religious or spiritual practice, in my core I just don’t exist in the demon haunted world. I believe there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy but it’s all so very ineffable to me instead of inerrant.

Right off the bat (or as Matt Berry would say: BAT!) that leads me to my first complication, caveat, and interpretation. Namely that the very heavily Catholic informed worldview of the Nosferatu setting may just be the framework that the characters are using to understand what is happening. This being a variation on The Dracula tale more or less played straight, the audience also would tend to bring that assumption with them. However! I think the role of Willem Dafoe’s character is to push back on the reflexive assumption that capital E Evil exists as a supernatural force therefore Christianity is empirically correct.

Nosferatu weaves around a couple of assumptions largely by neither proving nor disproving them. The trope of a Vampire being repelled by the cross for instance is never tested. The people living in proximity to Orlok’s castle clearly believe this but for all we know they are only situationally free of his power because he has no specific desire to hurt them. Same with hallowed ground. The priests and nuns believe Orlok cannot threaten them but is it beyond question that Orlok actually wants to finish off Thomas?

A couple of recurring themes in demonology are legalism and the need for witnesses. Orlok covets Ellen but his mind has become fixated on dissolving her marriage to Thomas and her willingly giving herself over to Orlok. For the most part the Abrahamic religions treat evil as something that must be chosen. A good many millennia of spilled ink, schisms, and even spilled blood has centered around the question of what it really means to choose and the definition of informed consent. For Orlok’s purposes Ellen seems not to have had sufficient agency to properly choose as a legal child in her society but he could court her until she came of age to be legally and metaphysically responsible for her choices. Alternately it’s possible age was irrelevant and he instead simply lacked the means to bring her to him or go to her until he established a connection with an occultist who had the resources to arrange everything.

Regardless, to some degree Ellen must have agency but Orlok can leverage her by threatening her loved ones including Thomas. Once he escaped the castle, Thomas was more useful as leverage alive and given the belief of the exorcists that Orlok still had influence over Thomas, Orlok may even have subtly pushed him to return home to make it easier for Orlok to locate Ellen if she continued to reject his overtures and collected herself enough to shut out Orlok as she had up until Thomas��� departure. Orlok certainly didn’t put a lot of effort into ensuring that Thomas was really dead and one interpretation of Thomas’s experiences with the exorcists is that Orlok would have been aware that Thomas was alive and could track him down in the material world if he really wanted to badly enough.

Evil’s Prime Directive: Likes, Shares, Subscribes

Which does bring me to witnesses. In Christian demonology specifically while Evil hates Creation generally and Humans in particular, destruction and ruin for its own sake is rarely a primary goal. So while Orlok as an alleged disciple of Belial in life and probable demon incarnated into a body (more on that later) desires to reap Ellen’s soul and brings along an army of plague rats for good measure, there is no point to any of this without survivors to bear witness.

Destroying isn’t enough though, the true objective is to get people to doubt the existence of a just and loving God. According to some like Father Martins of Exorcist Files fame, through a lot of hand waving the real real objective, as dictated by an all powerful God, is to use Evil to remind people that little sins lead to mortal sins and thus they should stay on the straight and narrow and remain under the protection of God.

This is where my inner Crowley would say “And you call me the bad guy!” while Aziraphale throws up his hands and says “It’s ineffable but it must be good, because God is good.” Which is how the formerly henotheistic Israelites and their descendants wind up quietly reintroducing dualism into their monotheism by retconning most of their God’s more wrathful deeds as having actually been the fault of a certain ex-prosecutor turned eldritch terrorist and his gang of personified concepts of wickedness and a few pagan gods who got laid off when their pantheons underwent consolidation and “right sizing.”

Ahem. Sorry. I’m being cheeky, I actually think it’s all very interesting and as a consequence I lose patience with people who don’t understand the history of their beliefs but not because I want to refute them but because how is it not fascinating?

So since Evil’s prime directive is to have someone acknowledge how cool and awesome it is, Orlok wouldn’t view Thomas as a loose end. If Orlok doesn’t need to kill Thomas, then Thomas would be in some sense an accidental missionary. While the Romani hunt vampires and try to warn unwary travelers, their apparent willingness to try to, if not mollify then bait, vampires is useful. Their belief in a supernatural evil and the specific customs they have developed to protect themselves also separate the Romani from more “sophisticated” people whose lack of direct contact with monsters and overt magic cultivates a sense of superiority over superstitious peasants. The maintenance of plausible deniability is also a practice attributed to Evil.

Up to this point I’ve tended to describe Orlok in largely stereotypical demonic terms. The reason being that Orlok presents very different in many respects from more traditional representations of Dracula and even the more bestial depictions of vampires. Orlok himself identifies as “an appetite” when Ellen questions whether he is even capable of love. You are free to read melancholy into this if it suits you to humanize Orlok. I myself view him as a being with very little humanity and is more of a set of base urges with the ability to develop somewhat sophisticated plans to serve those urges but there is little to nothing about him that is able to stray too far from his hungers.

There’s one other scene where I think you could argue Orlok shows a bit of humanity and it’s perversely when he’s being maximally petty. That being when he insists on being addressed as My Lord. As an alleged disciple of Belial, this has a metaphorical meaning and a literal meaning. Belial is an example of one of those concepts that got personified over time as subsequent generations translated the original texts and added their own flourishes. Originally Belial was a description. A slur even. It meant to be worthless. So Orlok in pledging himself to Belial has in some sense given himself a cosmic demotion when his earthly rank was count. Which he would have almost certainly thought was also a divine mantle.

Being a vampire seems like the sort of thing that might seem like a promotion but there’s a lot of suffering that comes with it. More so than the classic Stoker or Anne Rice version. For starters to the extent he is even still the same person, he’s Damned with a capital D and that is portrayed as sucking a lot in the Abrahamic framework. Just the knowledge that they can never be in Heaven or in the presence of God is supposed to be a torment but that tends to get deemphasized because it’s not as relatable a motive for wanting to ruin the world when the audience is flesh and blood and maybe asks uncomfortable questions about global floods and why have a fruit bearing tree if you don’t want people to snack.

So let’s remember why Vampirism sucks in other ways:

There’s an argument to be had about whether he’s a damned ghost haunting his body that hungers for blood as a condition of his continued existence: the feasting upon blood and his other comorbidities being the burdens he must accept for extended life. Life beyond death in an embodied state for humans being a fundamentally unnatural state and thus requiring sacrifice to maintain the equilibrium of nature. So he makes periodic blood sacrifices and in doing so, is alienated from society still further as if being a literal corpse that cannot abide the sun was insufficient.

My own feeling is that the glimpses of Orlok the person may just be the semi petrified remains of the memories in that body, a body being used by an avatar of the Deadly Sin of Gluttony. The vacated body of a former disciple of Belial being a compromised vessel but one that allows more exercise of power over the natural world by virtue of being so alienated from the natural world and obligated by its hungers and nature to confine its activities to a fairly limited range: it can do almost anything it wants towards spreading terror and ruin but can’t take a night off to enjoy a play.

This entity likely being a demon and not being capable of appreciating art or beauty for its own sake. Orlok or the entity wearing his bones didn’t fall in with the wrong crowd and vaguely saunter downward. Traditionally Abrahamic demonology doesn’t allow for demons who are merely just kind of bratty and ask too many questions, blurry lines between good and evil tend to invite a return to henotheism or, gasp, polytheism. A thing other Christians have been accusing those who pray to Saints of for centuries. This is not me implying Catholics are polytheistic mind you, I don’t have any stake in delegitimizing Catholicism and even if I did, treating polytheism as a slur wouldn’t be the hill I’d die on.

A Chronicle of a Dim World but Not Necessarily Pure Darkness

I did say though that I think Christianity was possibly not empirically correct in Nosferatu but rather the framework that everyone involved was interpreting things through. Everyone except Von Franz. Okay I’m just going to refer to him as Willem Dafoe from this point on because he’s such a Willem Dafoe character. He doesn’t automatically assume Ellen is crazy nor does he blame her for anything. His comment about how she could have been a priestess of Isis in another age I think is very revealing about where he draws his ethical lines. I think it’s implicit that he doesn’t think it’s Ellen’s fault a malevolent presence latched onto her when she seemed to have a natural gift for walking the spirit realm in dreams but absent any tutelage or cultural context for managing this ability.

By the Christian paradigm, Ellen has messed up big time and probably irredeemably. Traditionally it’s not good to have dissolved your marriage and pledged yourself to a demonic being whom you then perform a pseudo sex act with. The Abrahamic religions, as traditionally practiced, aren’t very sex positive when it comes to women nor is there much of a concept of spectrums of consent and coercion invalidating sexual and spiritual relations. Traditionally practiced is a phrase doing a lot of work and oversimplifying a lot when it comes to thousands of years and billions of practitioners. Norms obviously varied quite a lot across eras and regions.

Dafoe taking up her cat and staring into the dawn though is rich in hopeful symbolism. Cats got a bit of a bad rep in certain periods due to their tendency to be looked upon fondly by pagans. On the other hand, they were often looked upon fondly by pagans. They’re often portrayed as wise and associated with magic. Plus, and this matters in the context of a plague spread by rats, they eat vermin. If the bodies are piling up, stray cats are on the side of the angels doing their part for humanity one meal at a time.

Given how much Ellen adored her cat, one could say perhaps it’s invested with a measure of spiritual power and is more than just a symbolic surrogate for Ellen. Regardless, I think the context points to Ellen’s sacrifice being both literal and metaphysical. She sacrificed her life and also nullified her sins too. So Van Hellsing, I mean Von Franz may be visually representing a spiritual intercession where Ellen has been snatched away from the Pit.

To get a little Gnostic, Willem Dafoe may be basking in the light of knowledge. He’s seen behind the veil, made testable assumptions, and proven them. Ellen is being taken up to Heaven, Orlok is back in Hell, and Hermes Trismegistus is proud of his star pupil. Although this is truly Ellen’s tale and Ellen’s victory while Willem Dafoe believed in her and kept the well intentioned white knights from getting everyone killed by interfering with an unorthodox solution they’d no doubt object to on the basis that it was super icky. Although in their defense, I consider myself a pretty enlightened 21st century man but I’d probably try to talk my partner out of it and be a bit of a pest if she told me we needed to get divorced so she could shag a demon to death to save not just my life but the lives of untold thousands.

In the finest tradition of horror heroines, Ellen was a hard woman making hard choices and in sacrificing herself she took a groomer demon of pestilence and hunger with her.

And maybe, just maybe I’ve over complicated all of this and it’s just a metaphor for how bad women have it with online dating where the astral plane is the apps and Orlok is a creepy dude who becomes obsessed after an underage girl is nice to him once.

Epilogue: Again, with all due respect to the character, this would have been my humble suggestion for a hidden bonus track on the soundtrack.