#i just Stopped being scared after that physical monsters scare me much less

[daytaker]

The Demon Brothers React to Watching a Horror Movie with You

CW: discussion of gore (Satan)

I didn’t include the dateables in this one but if people want that, y’know…let me know.

Lucifer

"You frighten yourself... intentionally? Interesting."

He fails to see the appeal, quite frankly.

Not only does he not find them scary, he doesn't understand why you watch them if you do.

He's too used to playing the babysitter to take you grabbing his hand as an excuse for physical contact. He interprets it as you tapping out, so he'll pause the movie and give you an out.

Of course, if you insist on finishing the movie regardless, that's an interesting choice in and of itself.

What an opportunity to observe a tortured human psyche at work.

If you insist on holding hands at this point, he won't fight it. He is a bit more dubious than before, though. Are you really doing this because you're scared? You wouldn't happen to have any ulterior motives, would you?

He will gladly reassure you after the movie is over that you are always welcome to come to him for comfort if you're afraid in the middle of the night. You know where his room is.

Mammon

"Just so we’re clear, I ain’t afraid of no horror movies. Not even a little! Not even a teensy-tiny bit, all right? Like, seriously."

He's lying.

This isn't even headcanon stuff, this is just common knowledge.

Also common knowledge: he will insist on proving how cool and brave he is by watching a horror movie with you and protecting you from the monsters and gore onscrEEAAAUUUUGH???!!!

He wasn't scared, he was just startled.

And he's only up here on the lights fixture because he remembered one bulb was flickering earlier. There. He fixed it. He's just being responsible.

Anyway, if you're nervous and want to hold his hand, he understands. Humans are fragile as hell.

In fact, you don't need to stop at hand-holding. You can just hug hiMYEEAAGH!!!!

He's hugging you instead. He's being a good demon and taking care of his human.

Yes, he's in your lap. He thought you'd feel more secure that way.

Stop laughing!

Leviathan

"So I read that the film set for this movie was cursed by a mangaka who never got credit as an influence for the story..."

Time for some J-horror, obviously.

He read up extensively on the production before asking you to watch it with him. He figures he'll be less terrified if he has plenty of background knowledge about the film as an artistic piece to remind him that the happenings onscreen aren't real.

Instead he found a bunch of rumors about how the movie was cursed. But he'd already poured so much of his valuable time into researching it. Sunk cost fallacy: activated! You're watching this damn movie.

He's scared. He's so embarrassed to be this scared but he's scared.

When he's by himself, he doesn't mind that he spooks easily. He likes it. That's the fun of horror games and movies.

But with you here, he feels the pressure to be your emotional rock during the harrowing film-viewing process.

You can hold his hand. You know, if you want to. He gets it if that idea grosses you out, but he did wash his hands right before you got here, so...

If he gets too scared, the demon form comes out, and suddenly you have a scaly tail wrapped around your waist and webbed fingers clutching you.

He's sorry, it's just... It just happens sometimes, okay? Laugh it up, normie!

Actually, it feels kind of nice when you stroke his scales like that. If you really want to, you don't have to stop.

He is no longer watching the movie.

Satan

"This is an extremely unrealistic depiction of decapitation with a hacksaw."

There is nothing less scary than watching a horror movie with Satan, because his smart ass can't stop telling you about everything wrong with it.

The movie is starting. Are you nervous? He'll hold your hand. He has enough basic sense to at least get that part of the process right.

...That's not even close to how it looks when you disembowel a deer.

There's a lot more blood spatter than you'd expect when head wounds are involved. Apparently the special effects crew on this movie didn't do their due diligence.

Hmm, that's actually a pretty convincing amputation scene. Credit where credit is due.

Sorry, but he thinks that calling this one a "psychological thriller" is giving it a little too much credit.

Asmodeus

"Nooo! Ahhh, I can't take it, it's so scaryyy!"

He's not scared. Not even a little.

He's not even grossed out.

But he thinks that seeming terrified is cuter than seeming mildly amused and a little bored.

So before you start watching, he makes sure to lay down some ground rules.

If he's scared, he gets to hold your hand. If you're scared, you get to hold his hand.

If he's scared, he gets to hug you. If you're scared, you get to hug him.

If nothing scary is happening for more than five minutes, he's allowed to request a kiss. Just to keep you both from getting bored.

Why are sex scenes in slashers so awful? Even before the stabbing starts. They're just so... blah. It's disappointing every time.

Ahhh! There's the killer! He's so scared! He's going to hide his face in your neck and cling to you for dear life!

Beelzebub

"What's wrong? Why do you look so sick?"

Bro will eat nonchalantly through the most brutal and gut-wrenching scenes of gore, entirely unaffected.

And he will.

He will do that, right in front of you, and not even have the decency to understand why you have to go vomit.

He doesn't really get most horror films. But occasionally something will resonate strongly with him and he will become very quiet and potentially fairly upset for awhile.

If something reminds him too much of Lilith or her death, for example.

But even if that happens, he won't stop eating.

Belphegor

"Wake me up if something interesting starts happening."

Another one who is entirely unaffected by horror.

Nothing is more horrifying than living as himself in this fucked up world.

He's very annoyed whenever Mammon or Levi watches anything horror-related because their screaming makes it hard to sleep.

He doesn't mind if you scream though.

He can fall asleep to the sound of you screaming.

Take that however you wish.

[sstardustt3]

toby rogers relationship hcs! (both sfw and nsfvv)

tags II toby rogers x reader II creepypasta II nsfw II mentions of him being a manwhore II toby being a whinny little bitch II slight angst at the beginning II toby being a wet cat of a boyfriend II just general hcs of mine II

-Okay so im just gonna say this right now that he is NOT a good boyfriend not intentionally of course but none the less, a bad boyfriend. 

-He’s the type to be overly obsessive and jealous of you, not even like the people that surround you and other men but just you as a person 

-i don’t think he’s abusive but i do think he would be an asshole for two reasons

One, he is canonically an asshole and he is an obnoxious little shit 

and two it is cannon that he is annoying to the point where he makes people full on cry

So in my opinion i think if you were to ever get into an argument with this man he’s either mocking you until you break down

-i do think he’ll feel bad about it tho after a while and apologize (eventually)

- but adding on to being overly obsessive i think he’ll also be very clingy and extremely scared of loosing you

- I think being with him would kinda be an endless cycle of good times, hating the world, and then fighting, apologies and then repeat

But moving on from that  lets talk about some happier hcs!!

I think he’d like very calm very small easy dates liike going to the aquarium or literal hanging out on the roof of a house and just eating or talking just something very simple and easy to do.

He would definitely be the type to just stare at people and not even realize that he’s doing it and he does that alot and now he does it even more with you! He just stares at you like some type of strange special thing he found

I don’t feel like he’s the type to be vocal about his love and he mostly just uses physical affection (kinda like a cat, he’ll give you affection if he wants it)

Which brings me to another point, he looks like a  wet cat and acts like one whenever he even TOUCHES water. Like he can’t stand it and he hates the way it feels on his skin, you found this out when on your second date he let you pick out where to go and out of everywhere you chose a beach..? Like okay picture this..

“...what the fuck is this?”

“It’s a beach, toby.”

“I know that much im not stupid, why are we here.”

“Because your whiter than a ghost and you can use some sun and two, the beach is fun!”

“...now what in the peanut butter fuck made you think that the beach is fun.”

“Stop whining like a little bitch and get in the water.”

“Im not getting in the goddamn water- wait- no-”

SPLASH.

-you threw him into the shallow part of the water and he started coughing and squirming and trying to claw his way onto shore like his life depended on it. 

-which brings me to another point, his hygiene is ASS. Like if you weren’t there you he would have continued to use axe bodyspray and act like that is good enough and nobody notices that he showers once every blue moon. 

-He did used to shower more often when he was with clockwork but after that he just fell out of habit

-but once he got with you he started to slowly fall back into actually taking care if himself and eating full meals and not just living off of  several week old pizza and monster energy

-but when you first met him it was unbearable, so unbearable that you literal had to get in the shower with him and take one with im just to make sure he actually cleans himself properly.

-you actually ended up helping him was his back and he ended up sobbing like a baby, so safe to say you knew then and their what his love language was..

-acts of service!! He is a huge fan of acts of service because  boy hadn’t had people really take care of him like that before at first he ends up rejecting almost all of the things you do but eventually he comes around to it and ends up letting himself enjoy being taken care of

NSFVV WARNING FOR THIS PART

- I don’t think that he’s as sex addicted as most people say he is

-like don’t get me wrong he still has a fair amount of hook ups but i personally don’t think it’s as big of deal to him

- i think when he does do it it’s to let out frustration when he’s pissed about something or he just wants to feel something

-he probably mellowed out overtime so now that he’s with you he’ll still do it when he’s really pissed about something or he’ll just do it because you asked

-he had some experience but he wasn’t very good at it but his willingness to learn made up for that

-he’s very awkward at first he has not clue on what to do, he’s used to it being a one and done type of thing.

-he was only in school until maybe 5th-7th grade (my personal hc not cannon) so he was only given a basic understanding of how the human body works in that way

-but when he gets into it oh my god he is a such a manwhore.

-he is pretty rough most of the time, not intentionally but you can not tell me that working for slender hasn’t given him strong ass arms and a sleeper bulid (but more on that at a later date) 

-he is unbelievably whinny, just praise him and he is your bitch. 

- as i said earlier, he likes acts of service, his way of returning that is aftercare (even if it’s like the bare minimum, it’s the thought that count’s really)

It appears i have ran out of shit to say so that’s the end of this post

(reposts and requests are deeply appreciated and if you want to make a request then submit it through my ask me anything!)

[quitealotofsodapop]

The conflict between Wukong and Macaque during the journey to me feels like a very complicated one simply because, at its core, Wukong feels abandoned by Macaque... but with 500+ years of self esteem issues brought about by his time under the mountain, being conditioned into a martyr by Azure, and just everyone and everything they come across treating him like a monster, he doesn't feel he has a right to be upset with Macaque when he was the one to lash out to begin with. So he tries to mask his pain by finding other, also extremely valid, reasons to be upset. Why did Macaque leave FFM without a protector? Why did he attack them? Why did it take someone physically jumping between the two to stop Macaque from accidentally hurting Wukong's unborn child?

It's a highly complicated situation, especially since Macaque is not entirely in the wrong either. He had the right to be upset with Wukong. He had needed the space and time away to heal himself just as Wukong is doing now by being forced upon this journey of redemption and healing. His mistake was that he got so caught up in his travels that he forgot or ignored his duties, thinking someone else would handle it. Because in the past it was always slemone else who did, it was Wukong. Except this time, Wukong wasn't around to protect the island. He was trapped. Leaving Macaque as the sole protector who could do anything.

The Pilgrims are outsiders looking in. They can see the situation for what it is, even without the full context. They see Wukong is hurt by Macaque and feels abandoned. They see Macaque is regretful and perhaps still a bit scared of the prrson Wukogn had turned into when he was at his worst. They're both deeply hurt, and they're both trying to figure out who they are and where they stand in their relationship with all the pain that now separates them. The fact that Stone Monkeys mate for life and Wukong is pregnant does little to help, Macaque feels the need to be there for Wukong while Wukong is left wondering why is he only now coming back after everything that happened. They need an intervention.

Prev.

YEEESSSS

its a multi-layered conflict!

Wukong's anger is born of worry and of confusion - but especially the actions (or rather inaction) that Macaque did that harmed others. While Macaque was put into the same position as his mate, suddenly thrust into power as FFM's ruler. Mac did what Wukong had done when he left to train under Subodhi. He left when he realised it was just too much for him in that moment.

The only difference being that Macaque wasn't sure if he'd ever come back - he wasn't born on FFM after all, and he had yet to find his own answers on what/who he was. It's only after so many years that Macaque sort of realises that he really should have stayed, but at the same time feels that he's "in too deep" to ever come back. Same with his relationship with Wukong - would it be easier/less painful to call the whole thing off or for them to repair what they once had? He's still a little scared of whoever Wukong became when he burst forth from the Furnace, but now theres this... future baby to consider - a little person who has no idea of the wrongs the either of them have done to eachother. Macaque wants to protect them.

Wukong on the flip side wants Macaque to talk to him about why he felt that he needed to leave. He wants confirmation and closure and honesty - Macaque often forgets that not everyone can tell lie from truth with just their ears.

And ofc the other Pilgrims are on the outside looking in - seconds away from locking these two in a room to force them to talk things out.

Sorry I just love when people send me introspectives of these goobers' relationship. Never be scared to send more <3

[glitched-username]

Hear me out: rottmnt but they are the actual sizes of the animals

Mikey is 5 inches for box turtles

Donnie is 9 inches for softshells

Leo is 1 ft

Raph is 30 inches (2.5 ft)

Splinter is 10 inches

And April is... there for comparison lol

Read more for my random assembly of thoughts and ideas

Just thinking about how Mikey views Leo and Raph's as giants, being over double his height and Raph being 6x bigger. But Raph and Leo are still tiny compared to humans like April.

And Mikey just loves treating his family like a jungle gym. He's gotten so good at it that no one even flinches when he jumps off an impossibly high distance cause they know he'll catch himself no problem, and if he can't then

Also using this concept to further transmasc-ify Leo cause female red eared sliders are larger than the male counterparts. Just imagining Donnie accidentally outing Leo out of a closet he didn't even know he was in cause

"No, you're the correct turtle species and there's nothing wrong with your mutation, female sliders are just bigger"

"...Donnie, I'm a guy"

"Yeah"

"..."

"..."

Donnie specifically checked why Leo was so tall because he was pissed at the slider gloating about the growth spurt when he became a teen and just straight up diagnosed him with Transgender (tm) like it was the most casual it of info to drop

Donnie is peak borrower energy. But like if a borrower decided to take it to a competitive level. How does he get such crazy tech despite being the size of a hairbrush? By massacring lost or currently devices for their parts. So, thrown out radios? Yep! But also, a store display TV that is currently airing commercials? Also free game for the softshell. He's had the most exposure to humans because of this and is definitely the least freaked out when they first meet April cause he at least knows what to expect (ie: they're more scared of us than we are of them sort of thing).

He's also the most feeal and territorial about his stuff because "do you KNOW how hard it is to lug all these parts into the lair??? If any of you touch you will die"

Also L to Splinter. Going from Lou Jitsu Action Star, to kidnapped and forced to fight in the battle nexus and then turned into a sewer rat and now you have to deal with 4 sons, one literally big enough to bite his head off even as a baby/toddler. He definitely had to start relying on Raph more as they grew up

And Raph

Oh Raph.

He already had a hard time learning his own strength in the original, where they were all roughly similar sizes. But now? He has to really practice being gentle. And he's gotten DAMN good at it. So good that even though it looks like he's being completely reckless and throwing his weight around his tiny brothers, he knows exactly how much pressure each brother of wildly different sizes and durability can take.

Bro is constantly doing mental math that would make Donnie impressed.

He has no idea how to handle meeting April. Like, all he's known is how to be gentle around people cause they're smaller and more fragile and suddenly, here's a human, over double his height... but she's still physically weaker??? Or at least not as durable. She doesn't have a shell or tough scales and wasn't specifically mutated for war so doesn't have any durability/strength/regeneration genes.

When they first meet, I imagine the other boys are less freaked out cause they're used to everyone being taller than them but Raph goes FULL protective mode. Pulling out all the stops because he thinks it's going to be a tough fight, that the human would easily stomp him if he doesn't go all out.

But when he sees she isn't fighting back and is hurt pretty bad from his bites (1000 psi ain't a joke, she's lucky she still has all her limbs after that) he instantly goes from "evil giant monster must attack" to "mother hen" and gets extremely apologetic.

Not an... amazing first meetup but April jokes about it now, Raph even gives her little play bites when they're messing around or just absentmindedly gnawing on it while watching a movie(though much more gentle). And while Raph COULD give little playful bites to his little brothers, he has to be VERY aware and VERY careful while doing so, but with April he can be a bit looser with how gentle he is

I imagine once he gets his powers he's finally so happy that he can give April an actual hug for once lol

And I don't think Draxum reaaalllyyy anticipated the turtles not growing to a more human height. In his defense this was basically the first time he used live human DNA during the mutation process. How was he supposed to know that the animal's height would take priority over the human's height?

Draxum saw splinter shrink down into a rat during his escape but just assumed they were all so small that they couldn't have survived the collapse. Oh well, he'll make sure to fix that flaw when he finally gets his lab back up and running.

...

...

Also Mikey is still the strongest

[msfcatlover]

…I’m an idiot. The first time Jason saw something monstrous in his new family was when Dick was standing in front of him, fangs out, snarling protectively, ready to throw down with a man nearly twice his size seemingly for Jason’s sake. Which would not be any less terrifying, I think, because even if Dick’s ire is pointed towards Bruce, Dick is still an apex predator whose natural aura constantly whispers “just a reminder: you are prey.”  (An aura Dick can suppress when he wants to, but it takes maintained effort to do so. He’s definitely not doing it right then; seems like the sort of thing Dick would be used to letting go when it was just him and Bruce, and one of the first things to slip when Dick loses his temper.) 

If a tiger jumped out of a tree and seemed to be standing protectively in front of me, I think that second part would probably be overridden by the fact that a tiger was standing right in front of me. It is so much bigger & stronger than me, there’s no way I can outrun it, killing me would be effortless for it—the mere presence of a predator like that would outweigh any other detail of the encounter.

But… it’s Jason. Jason, whose instincts run protective, and whose default respond to feeling vulnerable is to make himself seem threatening. And Dick is threatening Bruce, who’s been looking out for Jason and offered Jason his home. So probably Jason grabs the nearest object and lobs it at Dick as a distraction, only to immediately regret everything when Dick turns his attention to Jason. At which point, Jason probably bolts. Dick takes one step after Jason before reigning himself in (it’s just instinct; prey running = chase.) Bruce tells Dick to leave Jason alone, Dick gets offended that Bruce thinks he has that little self control. Dick & Bruce have it out with eachother. Then Dick goes to apologize for scaring Jason so badly. Dick tracks Jason down and takes a second to make himself as human as possible before getting Jason’s attention. They have a very long, tricky conversation about what Dick is & what Bruce is while they’re at it. Dick offers to keep away if that would make Jason more comfortable; Jason says he’s not a wuss and that Dick’s not that scary anyway, so Dick can stay if Dick wants to.

(Jason never stops being scared of Dick when Dick’s more feral than human. Jason can’t; it’s primal instinct. But Bruce can teach Jason to control his fear, to think & function around that fear, and three years of exposure to Dick’s general weirdness builds up Jason’s tolerance for it until Dick has to be pretty far gone for Jason to actually start freaking out. By the time Jason’s 15, he can tell the difference between a play-growl & a real one, and has enough confidence in Dick that Jason probably responds to… okay a display like that, when Dick is seriously looking/preparing for a fight, Jason’s still staying out of his way—the danger vibes are too strong—but anything less and Jason just elbows Dick in the kidney and tells him to shush.)

(Even when Dick’s at his most terrifying, it’s less frightening when you know how to safely navigate around him. Even if it’s hard to connect the guy who helped Jason get up extra early to make pancakes for Bruce and Alfred on Father’s Day with the twisted beast in front of him, it’s a little easier having heard Dick talk about how terrifying it is to be subsumed by the Hunt; it’s not “he’s more scared of you than you are of him,” but it is “he’s more scared of himself than you are of him,” and that does make it a little easier to stay physically relaxed and focus on talking Dick down. Treat it like a meltdown, like a panic attack, like a dissociative episode—and you know, every time Jason manages to make the Hunt retreat with nothing more than the right words, a calm voice, and whatever contact Dick indicates is okay, the more confident Jason gets doing it and the less scary Dick’s monster form becomes. Still terrifying, sure, but not petrifying.)

.

Bruce, though. Still don’t know about Bruce.

[ckret2]

I'm curious about Ford's thoughts on the situation! Is he scared, angry? Does he really believe Bill is as powerless as he says he is? How does he feel about Bill being around his family and other people in town?

So at the end of April I got this question paired with another question about Ford's reaction to having human Bill around, I answered the other question, went "I'll answer this one soon," and then it got buried in my inbox lmao BUT I'M ANSWERING IT NOW!

(Here's the other half of this question I already answered! I also talk a bit about Ford's thoughts on Bill being around here and here so I'll try not to rehash stuff I've already said too much!)

Yeah, "scared" and "angry" are probably the top two emotions Ford's feeling when he thinks about Bill being back.

He's scared that if he does the wrong thing, Bill's human body will crack open and Bill will escape again, and the world will end, and this time they won't be able to stop Bill because they've already used up all the clever tricks they had the last time they tried to stop him. He's scared that Bill will find some slick way to worm himself into somebody else's mind—that he'll talk Soos into doing something innocent-seeming with devastating consequences, or that he'll get into the kids' heads (emotionally or literally) the way he got into Ford's head and turn them against the family, or that he'll secretly make contact with somebody on the outside and fast talk them into being his accomplice when they don't know what he is.

And he's furious that Bill's here, furious that he's NOT DEAD, furious that after trying every murder tactic Ford could think of from every angle imaginable he STILL hasn't gotten rid of this damn triangle. And furious that he's in Ford's life again, in ALL their lives—and that he's acting NORMAL. Like a NORMAL PERSON. He eats and sleeps and watches TV and complains about what's on TV and plays board games and tries to wheedle Ford into playing board games and acts like a person, instead of the monster Ford knows he is. Ford's mad that Bill is both a monster AND a person and he's mad that he has to see Bill being a person and he's mad that Bill has an opportunity to live like a person, waiting here on death row. He feels irrational. He's mad that he feels irrational.

(He's mad that he kind of wants to play board games—with the version of Bill he was fooled into thinking existed thirty years ago, the version that was Ford's "friend," and he's mad that Bill still CAN put on the "friend" mask and DOES put on the "friend" mask even though Ford knows it's all lies.)

Not long into Bill's captivity, Ford's decided he's pretty sure Bill won't hurt people—because right now, it's more useful for Bill to use people than harm people. He's not going to fight his way free, but he could scheme his way free. So, at the moment, he isn't worried for his family's physical safety—but he IS worried about what the things Bill could say to them, what he could persuade them, what he might talk them into. He's less concerned about Stan than the kids. And letting Bill fully loose in the town, to start making up his own story and identity to the townspeople, could be devastating. Ford canNOT let that happen.

(It's already happening. Trying to keep Bill's influence contained feels like trying to squeeze a handful of sand. Ford wishes they could just lock Bill in a tiny room with no contact with the outside world until Ford figures out a way to kill him for good—but Ford really does believe Bill when he says he'd just kill himself in that scenario, and Ford won't risk 50/50 odds that Human Bill dying would mean the return of Triangle Bill. So what can he do?)

He doesn't believe for a second that Bill is totally powerless. Not even Bill is making a strong effort to convince Ford that he's totally helpless; one second he'll say with a wink and a nudge "I'd try to tell you I don't have any powers left, but even if it's true you won't believe me, will you?" and then the next second he'll casually do a minor magic feat. The problem is, Ford doesn't know WHAT Bill can and can't do. He's trying to mentally divide Bill's skills into separate categories—what things could he only do because he was an energy being in the mindscape? He probably can't do those now. What magic spells did Bill teach Ford to do decades ago? He can probably still do those as a human—etc.

But these are just educated guesses. Even after thirty years of trying to learn more about Bill, Ford still doesn't know enough about him to list what all his powers were, where they came from, and which he might still have access to as a human. 

This is all Ford knows for sure: WHATEVER powers Bill currently has, they're not enough to let him kill the Pines and escape Gravity Falls—or he would have done so already.

[streettealee]

theory i've had running for a while now about how various downworlders represent different aspects/forms of neurodivergence and mental illness. and without being too spoilery about ~anything~ I was reminded of the connection I made a while back, long story short, do you think werewolves could represent something like the mood swings in bipolar or bpd or even autistic meltdowns? i know it's a very out there ask but i have IDEAS

TW: steroids, personal medical experience

That's quite an interesting take to think about. Without, of course, being spoilery about anything: when I write about werewolves, I more had in mind a period of my life where I was actually on steroids (prescribed by a doctor) on and off. At first, they feel kind of amazing, because they made a chronic pain I've been living with since the age of eleven disappear like it'd never been there. But I had a lot of energy all of a sudden. I struggled to sleep at all for many nights, and when I did, it was extremely lightly. My appetite increased dramatically and sometimes wasn't there at all. And I had wilder mood swings than I think I've ever had in my life. My skin broke out in acne worse than ever. The first time I was on steroids, I was only about thirteen, when a lot of my hormones were also going wild out of natural processes - and, of course, this medication threw them further out of balance, from my understanding.

I was aggressive, more physical, highly self-conscious, easily angered, quick to sadness and meltdowns, extreme in happiness, hyper, just... it was an intense experience. I got into arguments more. Literally took to punching a guy I had a crush on (just in the shoulder, but the intent to hurt, oddly, was there because of some provocation he did some days) and, on one occasion, throwing food at him (I have the distinct feeling he found it much less amusing than I did at the time). He confessed he had a crush on me too (I have no idea why and now I'm concerned for him upon reflection) but instead of being nice about it, I ignored him (for an entire year. As in I did not directly talk to him for the duration of a year.) I pushed myself physically further than I should have when lifting weights. I remember literally feeling like I could run up walls, wanting to try it, needing to bolt outside and run up the hills like a hound let loose. Everything about me was snappy, in a way. Words, moods. I couldn't focus either. Blew up in class at people. Hated myself. Was driven to a very, very dark place, the worst I've ever been in. There were, admittedly, other factors.

But I'll never forget how invincible I felt while on steroids or how much I craved them when the pain came back. The only thing holding me back from dangerously consuming more outside of what was prescribed was the fear of becoming as unstable as I was again. I scared myself with who I became and I'm still a little scared of her now.

In equal parts, I felt good, but I also felt like absolute shit. I had energy yet was simultaneously exhausted. Being on the medication and then off was, for a decent while, a real struggle (I did not suffer actual withdrawal, because my doctor was careful about that, but I did still suffer from intense mood swings for a while after I stopped taking the medication). It's what I draw inspiration from when writing about werewolves because of how changed they are when first turned. To me, werewolves have more to do with having more of things inside you that you lacked before, that you don't know what to do with, that lashes out and struggles to stay in no matter how desperately a distant, quiet part of you is saying "this isn't me, I know who I am, why can't I just be like I was?" Not so much a monster within as a version of you that is reflected tenfold outward, with less of your sensibilities. If, well, that makes sense. That was my experience I drew from. Changing and being not like yourself in a frightening way you feel like you can't control.

Honestly, I don't know enough about bipolar or BPD or autistic meltdowns to say with any confidence that Cassandra Clare was likely using werewolves as an allegory for these things. I barely have a clue what goes on in her mind after ChoT and some of the author talks I've seen her post. I used to think I knew what she was about, but I'm lost now. When I've seen CC write about newly turned werewolves, they are highly volatile, who need time and training before they can even interact with the wider world (hence the existence of the Praetor Lupus, for example, and some packs in general).

I could imagine werewolves representing some mental illness, but I'm unsure about a disorder or aspect of one. I'm wary of the possibility of unflattering comparisons that may harm others who may not appreciate the idea. What I will say is that when I write of werewolves, they represent a self that is intensified often beyond recognition, some change in you that you eventually learn to accommodate for and live with or control in some ways. I hope that all made sense <3

[nanomooselet]

Oh man, my opinions about this are so strong because I and the people close to me have also had to deal with - or are dealing with - disability/mental health stuff, including in a professional context, arguing for funding etc. I stepped on my initial much meaner draft because I thought to myself, wait. Something's off here. I am very familiar with Gross Takes, and the fact that you believed I had a Gross Take of that nature made me realise oh okay I must have phrased that badly. I'm relieved to know it was just a misunderstanding, and I respect that you were gracious enough to reply to say so!

I'm never going to stop being insane about how perfectly Orange understands Trigun and how many levels Stampede is operating on, so here we go: Knives, in Stampede, makes the "death is merciful" argument in the episode eleven. In fact, he basically re-enacts Monev's death, shooting Rollo (albeit in child-form) through the head right in front of Vash, wearing the shape of Wolfwood using the Punisher. In Nick's voice Knives says, You want us to live on, even if it's as monsters? How could you be so irresponsible? You can't even take care of us.

(Now, Wolfwood's perspective at the time he killed Monev I have a lot of sympathy for, and I think he was in a better position to know what Monev wanted, seeing Monev as he'd become. In that moment, Nick was closer to being in the right. Plus there wasn't time to come up with anything else - if Vash dies, the contract is broken. Wolfwood figured he was doing the kindest thing he could. But what Vash saw? The image Knives showed him. The man he chose to trust killing the child he couldn't save on behalf of the brother he is no longer certain he knows, that he's been so scared to face for so long. Fucking hell, man. Of course he lost his shit.)

Dr. Conrad is the closest thing Knives had to a parental figure after Rem died, and Knives is weirdly fond of him - calls him doctor, and like, teases him, almost in the way he once teased Rem. Luida and Brad get so much shit over Vash being like he is as an adult; I've seen it assumed Luida was consciously manipulating him. Should Dr. Conrad receive any less... credit for Knives turning out Like That? They kept each other company for so long; I can't see how they could have avoided influencing each other.

Also! If Knives is perfect, which Dr Conrad does say he is, and Vash is Knives's near-identical twin, Vash is therefore almost perfect. Knives loves his brother, so he'll give him whatever he needs to be fit for his paradise. And one of those gifts, one Knives was so eager to give that he slipped up and Vash figured out what was up, was putting back the arm he cut off, replacing Vash's prosthetic - a visible sign Vash was physically disabled.

was talking last night about nai’s obsessive tendencies and the way he views everyone, even vash and tesla, as an object. he keeps tesla alive, in pieces, immediately after the fall and presumably for the next 150 years given all the technology he has, despite the fact that killing her would be kinder, just because he wants her. he nearly leaves vash a hollow shell of a creature just because he would rather that than a vash he can’t keep close.

he’s selfish and cruel and so isolated from the world that what he wants is more important than what anyone else wants.

but also…

vash has a little bit of that tendency in him, too. we saw it with rollo especially, and a bit with livio and the sand steamer—though those ones worked out for him in the end. vash is so full of guilt over the idea of killing anyone, even indirectly, that he will keep them alive to spare himself the grief.

and that’s a nobler pursuit, and i think a lot of people also instinctively don’t want to think about death being a mercy sometimes, but it’s still going to get vash in trouble if it hasn’t already in the last century.

i think it’s interesting, too, in light of the fact that vash himself is sort of passively suicidal at times. he’s pretty close to immortal, but he has no sense of care for his own wellbeing. vash doesn’t believe he deserves to live, but i don’t think he believes he deserves to die yet, either. which implies a double standard in his belief system—death is too good for him, but a tragedy for other people.

“an independent must fix what an independent has done. this is my atonement.”

[thesunshineriptide]

First years with a Lamia!Reader

The greek legends say that Lamia was once a beautiful Queen that the king of the gods himself fancied, much to his wife’s ire. When the Queen sired her many children, Hera struck them down by either sending fits of madness into Lamia’s mind, or by her own hand. In her tears, Lamia devoured the children of other mothers, slowly transforming into a terrifying, snakelike demon, who was blind by day, but free to hunt at night.

It is similar to the concept of the Naga, which is a semi-divine being that is half human and half cobra. The Naga is a powerful race, as each can transform between fully human, fully snake, and true naga form at will.

For this particular request, I have combined the two into a very…interesting creature.

Fangs Up!

Tw// monsters, snakes, physical violence, attempted cannibalism (as a joke), fish cannibalism, eating a “dog” whole, biting, mentions of poison/venom

Characters: Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, Sebek

There is simply something about you that makes it hard to look away. It’s similar to the Leech twins, in a way, or to the Diasomnia housewarden. There’s something in your eyes, in your movements, in the words that slip from your tongue. The prestige that Leona neglects to carry, but the sociability that Malleus himself lacks.

It seems as though you float, slink, and slide everywhere you go. It seems like one minute someone could be positive they’re completely alone in the hall, and the next they can feel your breath on their neck.

It isn’t uncommon for a non-humanoid to attend Night Raven College, it’s fairly common. It doesn’t make it any less nerve wracking.

All the upperclassmen have to remind themselves that at least they aren’t a first year, like you. They can leave sooner.

Ace:

There’s very few that would be bold enough to actively start a fight with you. Just like the Leech twins, you’re tall, insanely strong, and a bit intimidating. But very obvious warnings can’t stop this idiot!

No, he’s the first freshman to try and make friends with you, and he wastes no time immediately trying to fight you.

But oh, how the tables turn. You catch him alone in the hall between classes, seemingly lost, and walk to stand behind him, reading his schedule over his shoulder. Letting out a ‘tsk’ that sounded more like a hiss seemed to startled Ace, however. He let out a terrified squeak and jumped away panicked.

“Hahahah, you sound like a little mouse!” Your sharp teeth were on full display as you laughed, only remembering after a moment to cover your mouth as you did so, “You look a bit like one too, all wide eyes and big ears.”

“Hey! My ears aren’t big! They’re completely normal sized!” Ace pouted as he nervously covered his ears, “whatever, did you just come to make fun of me, or are you gonna help me get to class? Not that you’d be much help, you probably don’t know where anything is either.”

With a closed mouth grin, you took his schedule from him, “Class 1-7 alchemy? It’s right around the corner, three doors down on the left.” You handed it back, a smug look on your face.

“How’d you even know that? We’ve been here like, four days!”

“Maybe I’m just smarter than you.” You grinned, showing sharp fangs, “If you want, we can walk around campus after classes until you’re familiar with where everything is. It’s what I did.”

Ace raised his eyebrows for a moment, then shrugged, “Sounds better than flamingo duty. Our housewarden is such a stick in the mud.”

You laughed and leaned over him a moment to watch him squirm before simply patting his head, “See you later, Rat tail. I’ll pick you up in the dorm hall, yeah?”

Deuce:

Deuce isn’t a coward in any regard…except for when he’s scared. Listen, he can’t just unleash his delinquent side every time there’s an issue, and he has enough sense to not start shit with you.

However…he can’t naturally escape you. You’re friends with Ace, his best-friend-sometimes-enemy-sometimes-no-homo-boyfriend, so you’re friends with him whether you like it or not!

What he doesn’t seem to realize for a while, though, is that you actually don’t mind his company. He’s a good boy, he does his homework, he doesn’t cause trouble intentionally, and he seems to have enough street smarts to assess situations pretty well, even if he’s gullible and clumsy.

Honestly, nothing could have prepared him for this.

“Deuce,” you start, “Your sleeve has a tear.”

He blinked a moment before looking down at his arm, and, sure enough, there’s a long tear going all the way up his forearm. Not just that, but it’s deep, and he’s bleeding.

“Where did you get that?” You question, voice low, “Was it a fight?”

“N-no! At least, I don’t think so! I don’t remember it.”

You frown and take his arm, holding him tight when he instinctively tries to jerk back. When you run a finger on the cut and frown deeper, he begins to panic.

“Nobody touches what’s mine.” He hears you murmur before letting his arm drop, “I’ll walk you to the infirmary so they can check it out. If you didn’t feel it before, you might have a numbing agent or poison in your system. I’ll mend your shirt and sleeve after it gets washed.”

He doesn’t quite know what to do, but nod dumbly and let you guide him away.

Ace and Deuce see your snake form for the first time together. It seems as though it isn’t something you prefer around here, or around them, but instead something you save for emergencies.

The emergency in question is that their dorm leader is having a mental breakdown and getting pretty close to killing the dorms population.

It’s a few beats into him trying to beat Ace with a rose bush that looks more like a tree before Riddle’s movement stops and he screams in anger.

When Ace manages to peek beyond the shrubbery, he sees you. He watches as you coil yourself around Riddle, restraining his movement with your long snakelike body, face showing a small amount of remorse as you squeeze him until he looks like he’s about to pass out.

Deuce is running to Ace, now, pulling him to his feet.

“Deuce- Deuce, look at the dorm head.”

“I know, I know, I saw.”

“No, I mean the snake- it’s- y/n….”

“I noticed, yeah. Kinda cool to have a snake friend, right?”

Deuce and Ace looked to you at the same time, watching as you opened your mouth to bite a now unconscious Riddle. You paused, locking eyes with them, then closed your mouth and instead let go of Riddle, carefully laying him on the ground.

“Thank you for not eating him, Y/N.”

“I dunno, Deuce, I kinda think they should have.”

“ACE NO-“

Jack:

The best kept secret of NRC is the vow of silence everyone is Heartslabyul was sworn to about how Riddle was defeated. The worst kept secret, though, is how Leona was defeated.

No, you hadn’t really talked to Jack before your investigation into the mysterious accidents right before the spelldrive tournament, but he became a close ally near overnight. Unfortunately, that overnight happened to be the one before the morning Leona overblotted.

Jack looked worriedly between you, the braincell duo, Ruggie, Leona, and Riddle. He needed to find out where to prioritize his needs - you’re built strong, but do you need protecting? Where is he needed most right now?

It’s when you lunge toward Ruggie to get him away from Leona’s grasp that he jumps to action, scooping up Riddle just as his signature spell on Leona fails. He manages to pull him out of danger, and before Riddle can reprimand him, he pulls him back to the ground to avoid a fireball.

He turns to see you trying to throw a spelldrive disc at Leona’s head. Seriously, this is the one who defeated an overblot?

He’s dumbfounded when it works though, and Leona passes out from the hit. Jesus, do you eat steroids for breakfast? Is Leona just that weak?

And he really doesn’t know what to do when you pick up a black gem and lick it. What the fuck is wrong with you. He does a double take when you eye Leona with what he can only describe as hunger.

Jack isn’t sure what he’s doing when he walks over to you, quietly whispering in your ear, “Please don’t eat him, he’s a prince.”

He’s more than happy to find out that you’re actually really cool, though. The more he sees of you afterward, the more he finds himself warming up to you. It seems like you sneak into Savanaclaw just to take naps in the sand, or to cheer him on when he does his morning laps. He appreciates all the little doodles you bring him of animals. Birds, cats, mice, and dogs, mostly, with the occasional giraffe or fish. He keeps them in his binder to look at when he’s feeling sad.

He first sees your snake form when Azul overblots. At first glance he misses you - there’s a lot of skinny long things waving about. But when he counts how many eel merfolk there are in the fight, he notices there’s too many. Or at least, he thinks so.

That’s when it clicked with him. He watched as your scaled body wrapped around Azul’s middle and you tried trapping his arms down, hissing and glaring at him as he writhed in your grasp. It seemed an octopus wasn’t ideal prey.

“Yamakagashi-chan! Bite him!”

Jack’s eyes went wide, “DO NOT BITE HIM.”

“Don’t worry, Jack-kun, Azul himself is venomous. It’s unlikely this will kill him.”

“DO NOT BITE HIM PLEASE, Y/N, I KNOW DAMN WELL YOU WONT STOP AT BITING.”

Suddenly, it seemed Azul’s mood shifted from angry to scared, and in an instant he shrunk down to his normal humanoid size, the blot leaving him.

Man, you really had a way or ending fights quick, huh?

“Do you think he tastes like Takoyaki?”

“I KNOW he tastes like Takoyaki~ I used to chomp on his tentacles all the time when we were younger.”

“Y/N DONT EAT HIM”

Epel:

You aren’t ever on Epel’s radar until you’re on Rook’s, because he won’t shut the fuck up about you and it’s really starting to freak him out.

“Ah, the Règle de forme seems to be enjoying some minced meat pie today, how fascinating, how exquisite!”

Epel let’s out a huff before excusing himself from the table to walk up to where you sit, surrounded by your idiots.

“Excuse me? You’re the- uh, Rook called you the Règle de forme? You fought the overblots, right?”

Your eyes flick over him before leaning back in your seat, “I suppose I am. Did you need something?”

“O-oh! Well, uh, I just wanted to tell you that Vice housewarden Rook has been…uh, hunting you? He does that a lot, but it’s definitely getting uncomfortable so I wanted to tell you in advance of him doing something stupid.”

The easy smile on your face as you lean back forward, head resting on your hand tells him that maybe he shouldn’t have been concerned.

“Will you protect me from him, then?” Epel’s eyes widened as you laughed, “you’re quite adept at spelldrive, surely you can handle this as well, can’t you?”

Epel let the soft boy look on his face drop and he gave a little evil grin, “Yer darn tootin’ I can!”

He watched as you raised an eyebrow before patting the empty seat next to yourself, “Take a seat, cowboy. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a royal retainer.”

Epel first sees your snake form on accident. After a long week at college you had disappeared into the woods to ‘blow off steam’, but you hadn’t come back for a few hours, and coincidentally, Rook also disappeared.

So in his nervousness, he ventured into the woods himself to find you.

It wasn’t long until he was lost - he would never admit he was, but he didn’t know the area as well as he knew home, okay? - and heard someone calling his name.

He assumed it was you, and called back, “hello?” He took a tentative step off the trail, “Y/N? Is that you?”

What he didn’t expect was to be met with glowing yellow eyes, large teeth, and a snarl from a creature pouncing on top of him. It’s matted black and brown and grey fur stunk of moss and rot, it’s slobber dripped on his shirt and caused it to sizzle and burn like acid.

He tried to scream, but the wind was knocked out of him from the beast before him. He felt his head growing dizzy and silently wrote his will.

Then the weight was gone, and a hiss cut through the pounding in his ears.

Now atop of him laid a cold, scaly body, and even farther away was you, biting down on the creature and -

And you ate it.

Whole.

How you managed to move afterward was unclear to him, but it was clear you were very tired and pretty angry as you slithered back to him.

Your eyes seemed clouded as you hissed out “mine. Nobody else gets my prey, just me.” But the daze seemed to pass when you made eye contact.

Your body slithered off him and he heard bones cracking as you transformed back to your human form. There was a pause of him staring at the sky and you panting before you walked over and offered to help him up.

“On your feet, retainer. It’s time we get back, isn’t it?”

Sebek:

Sebek only ever saw you as a threat to his Lord and Savior Malleus Draconia, Crown Prince of Briar Valley, and as a result made sure to steer clear of you.

He did, however, have one interaction with you.

It was late at night just after Equestrian Club called it a day when you strolled up, on two feet, but scaly and looking distinctly non-human.

“You.” You said, staring at him, “Sebek Zigvolt, aren’t you?”

“That is correct.” He said firmly, almost aggressively, “And you’re the snake of the school, yes?”

“That is correct,” you mirrored, lisp sliding into your voice, “I require help. You attend to a dragon, don’t you?”

“I do more than simply attend to Lord Malleus! I protect him with my life!” He cried indignantly.

You simply hummed, looking tired, “Do you know a remedy for insatiable hunger, half-fae?”

He stared, trying to decide between terror and feeling affronted. He settled on being helpful. “I do. I will get the recipe from Master Lilia, and bring you a copy.”

Your lidded stare made him feel uneasy before you just smiled, nodded, and began to move away, “That would be appreciated. Meet me at the ramshackle dorm. I don’t believe I should be around many people for a while.”

He watched as you walked away with all the grace of a sea-legged pirate, then began to internally freak out.

In the end, he did get the potion recipe from Lilia, and simply knocked on the door of the ramshackle dorm to make sure you were there, then slid it under the door when you hissed a reply to do so.

He still feels queasy thinking of it.

[rocorambles]

Know Your Place

Pairing: Naoya x Reader

Genre/Warnings: Yandere, NSFW, Misogyny, Abuse, Rape/Non-Con, Humiliation, Degradation, Feet Stepping

Summary: You should have known better than to believe that Toji could protect you from the Zenin forever. Once a Zenin woman, always a Zenin woman and Naoya intends to make sure you fully understand that.

Growing up as a female in the Zenin clan means you’re always expected to serve, to look beautiful. Never speak unless requested to. Never look any of the men in the eyes. Obey. Be submissive and demure.

There are thousands of rules and dozens of leering eyes ready to punish you for a single minor infraction. So as much as you hate the life you’ve been born into, you know better than to act out and bring attention to yourself, knowing full well especially now as an adult woman that the price of transgressions are too high to pay.

You’d be incredibly fortunate for the usual heavy backhands Naobito and Ogi Zenin would grace your face with when you were still a minor, for the cruel condescending words Naoya would sneer at you. Those were child’s play compared to what’s in store for you now and you shudder when you remember the images of fellow female servants who had attempted to escape only to be easily captured, clothes stripped and body laid bare for the entire clan to see. You remember the fear that would make you tremble as the men howled in laughter and jeers as they took turns smacking their victim’s ass, pawing and groping her body. You remember sobbing when you were forced to watch as fists, cocks, objects that you thought were far too large were shoved between flailing legs.

But nothing keeps you in line more than the cold dread you’d feel heavy in your chest when you’d be forced to clean out the room of one of your ex-maids, preparing the room for the next poor soul born into a never ending life of servitude. As much as you hate this life, it’s still better than being tied up and forced to be nothing more than a Zenin sex doll, used by every man in the clan until there’s nothing left but an empty husk of skin.

So you keep your head down, ignoring the cruel words and predatory gazes that follow you. You enjoy the few moments you have in the servant quarters alone with your fellow maids, giggling and whispering to each other, pretending that you’re just normal women. Those friendships you form warm your heart and you take solace in the sympathetic glances and warm brief squeezes of hands when a Zenin man is particularly harsh in their treatment of you.

Maybe that’s why you can’t keep your body still when the woman who shares the same room as you accidentally spills hot tea all over Zenin Toji. And despite how terrified you are of Toji’s hulking figure and blood-stained reputation, you throw your body in between him and your friend, creating a feeble physical shield for her from his wrath.

A part of you is together enough to vaguely acknowledge how strange it is that Toji hasn’t roared a single word yet, hasn’t laid a hand on you. But you’re not foolish enough to think this is over and you throw yourself to the floor in a degrading groveling bow, begging him to forgive your friend, to have mercy on the both of you.

You know exactly who Zenin Toji is and you prepare yourself for the feeling of his infamous sword slicing through your neck. What you aren’t prepared for is the way he lets out a boisterous laugh, green eyes glimmering in amusement when he sees the bewildered look on your face as you tentatively peek up at him.

“You’ve got guts. Tell you what. I’ll forgive you and your clumsy friend if you become my personal maid. Deal?”

It’s a rhetorical question and you stiffly nod your head, tears forming in your eyes as you imagine the rest of your life chained to Toji’s bed, stuck in the lair of a beast.

Except your life isn’t anything like you had imagined and you’re stunned when Toji barks at you to go retire to your own room and get some rest so you’re ready to keep up with tomorrow.

Life is...surprisingly normal. Well as normal as it can be in the household of one of the top Jujutsu sorcerer clans in the world. You scowl at Toji as he teasingly throws a pile of sweat stained clothes and towels on top of your head as he walks out of the bath.

“You’re getting a little stronger, little lady. I almost even felt the punch you threw at me in training today.”

You roll your eyes, but you can’t help the slight quirk of your lips and swell of pride at his backhanded compliment.

Toji isn’t anything like the rest of his clan and it goes deeper than just his lack of cursed energy or his supernatural strength. He’s kind. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but you genuinely believe he has a good heart. Not once has he ever spoken maliciously to you. Not once has he ever laid a hand even borderline inappropriate or suggestive on you. And sure, you don’t necessarily enjoy doing his dirty laundry, cleaning his room, and making his bed every day and night, but he makes it easy to forget that you’re just a lowly maid.

He talks to you as if you’re his equal, carefully listening to you, acknowledging your points (even if he mocks you when you do say something silly or that he disagrees with). He invites you to eat meals with him. He trains you deeming you too wimpy to last long without at least some basic defense skills. Your time with Toji is one of the few moments of happiness you know and you greedily indulge.

But unknown to you, your new proximity to the black wolf of the Zenin clan has more than one eye looking at you in interest and above all, Zenin Naoya can’t stop fixating on you.

Naoya has always had a strange mix of respect, disdain, and jealousy towards the older man and he can’t help himself from wanting what Toji has, especially when the both of you look so irritatingly happy chattering away with each other as if you have no cares in the world. How dare a lowly Zenin servant look so carefree. How dare curse-less Toji make a mockery of the rest of the clan by living a shame-free life despite how hard they try to humiliate him for it.

Has Naoya ever been happy? Ever been relaxed?

He can’t remember ever laughing as hard as Toji is now in response to something you’ve said or done. He can’t remember smiling so freely like you are as you playfully slap Toji and try to get him to stop teasing you. A green eyed monster slithers inside of him and before he realizes what he’s doing, he’s making his way towards the both of you.

“Aren’t you two as unseemly as usual. I know you don’t care for our clan’s reputation or rules, but really? Parading your slut around so shamelessly? That’s a new low even for you.”

It’s adorable how you scurry away, cowering behind Toji’s broad figure, fear written all over your face. And although Naoya had done this to get under Toji’s skin, he can’t help but wish the older man would storm off and leave you behind in his clutches. He wonders if you’d be this scared and docile underneath him, wonders how tight you’d be while you tremble in fear while he sinks inside of you…

His thoughts are abruptly interrupted as Toji snorts, slinging a muscular arm over your shoulder and dragging you off with him, subtly tucking you safely into his side and away from Naoya’s hungry gaze.

Usually being ignored and dismissed would rile him up more, but as he watches the two of you amble away and sees your innocent and confused face, unsure what had just happened and what’s causing Toji’s strangely touchy behavior, his appetite is whetted and you’re what he’s craving.

What he hadn’t accounted for is how protective Toji is of you. So strange for a man who doesn’t seem to care about anyone except himself. But Naoya supposes that’s just a testament for how good you must be in bed. He can’t think of any other reason why Toji would waste his time and efforts on an insignificant woman like you.

You’re never left alone long enough for him to corner. Just when he sees you by yourself and swoops in to shove you in a spare room, Toji suddenly looms beside you, green eyes sternly pinning Naoya down with a warning. And as much as Naoya would love to rise to the challenge, he knows that he doesn’t stand a chance against Toji, so he slinks away in defeat, again and again.

It only makes him want you more and he grits his teeth as he slams into one of the whores in his bed who vaguely reminded him of you if he squints in just the right way.

He supposes he should be more remorseful as the news of Toji’s death spreads like wildfire through the Zenin household. But all he can see is a light at the end of the tunnel. It takes every last bit of restraint in him not to immediately hunt you down and devour you, but he bides his time. After all the teasing and taunting you’ve put him through just one taste isn’t going to satisfy him anymore.

No, he won’t just ruin you and throw you away after a single night. He plans on dragging this out, using you, tasting you until it fully sinks in that this is all you’re good for, that he owns every part of you inside and out.

His cock twitches at your swollen face covered in salty tear streaks. You look so pathetic, so scared when he takes his time strolling into your room, kicking your roommate out and locking the door behind him. It’s just the two of you and he feels the rush of power thrumming through his veins at how you tremble and cower before him. If only you were naked and not in those dreary mourning clothes…

But he has ample time for that and he wants to enjoy corrupting you, take his time watching your downfall.

“You’re my maid starting now.”

You mutely nod, but make no move and Naoya scoffs.

“I know Toji was soft with you, but let me set expectations straight. I’m nothing like him. Now get moving.”

“But this is my room-”

You yelp in fright as Naoya’s hand grips the front of your shirt and hauls your body until you’re forced to press against his body, feeling his breath against your face as he sneers at you.

“Sluts don’t get the luxury of their own room or bed. Toji spoiled you. Now move your stuff to my quarters. The only place you’ll be sleeping from now on is my floor or my bed. Understood?”

It’s a rhetorical question and all you can do is crumple to the ground when he lets go, staring unseeingly at Naoya’s retreating back as he exits your room, the weight of your new reality crashing down on you.

Sleeping on the floor is humiliating and uncomfortable. Naoya makes it a point to “accidentally” step on you when he gets on and off the bed, rudely nudging you awake with his feet, resting his soles on your face until you’re flailing around to breathe. But it isn’t as bad as wondering when the worst is to come.

At least you’re clothed. At least your innocence is still intact. So as much as you feel like nothing more than a dog, you take it. After all, your new life isn’t so different from your life before Toji aside from your new sleeping arrangements and the headache of being in close proximity to Zenin Naoya.

It’s entertaining enough in the beginning, watching you curl up on the floor like an obedient puppy, admiring how you never talk or lash out when he literally walks all over you. He even buys you a pretty new collar with his name engraved on it linked to a leash he holds in his hand or leaves tied to his bed.

But unlike a real pet you never warm up to him, always looking at him warily, body tense and nervous in his presence. Not once do you look at him with even the slightest hint of affection or fondness you used to stare at Toji with. He supposes that can’t be helped and he doesn’t care for anything disgusting like your love. But you don’t even seem remotely attracted to him as a man and that’s something his ego won’t allow for.

He knows women can’t stand his attitude. But he also knows that at their base, all women are sluts easily swayed by his good looks. He can’t even count the number of women who’ve insulted him to his face only to end up in his bed, moaning and screaming his name and their love for his cock.

You were supposed to be no different. But your continued disinterest in him infuriates him to the point where petty humiliation isn’t enough to sate his hurt pride.

“Strip and get in bed.”

You’re frozen stiff and he sneers at you while you’re on the verge of terrified tears.

“What? I’m not good enough for you? Don’t act like you aren’t used to this. I’m sure your old master had you warming his bed all the time-”

“Toji would never!”

Even he’s stunned by the weight of his backhand hit as it makes contact with your face, by the venom in his voice as he spits out his next words.

“Don’t you ever say that name in my presence again.”

He takes a few seconds to calm his breath, the crimson of the blood trickling from your nose grounding him as he finds his center once more. But then a thought crosses his mind as that red river finds its way to your lips.

“As punishment, let’s make sure you know what your mouth’s purpose is from now on. Words are wasted on a dumb whore like you anyway. Kneel and open wide.”

It’s oddly arousing watching your tears and blood stream down your face as you choke on his cock. Your efforts are half-hearted at best, but he doesn’t mind. Not when the instinctual way your throat flutters around him as he roughly thrusts his hips into your tight mouth suffices. He can see why Toji kept you around and he groans as his hand slips behind your head and pushes you until your face is squished against his abdomen.

Your mouth feels amazing and your muffled screams for air only add to the vibrations around his shaft. It’s enough to have him spilling down your throat and he keeps you tightly pressed against him, forcing you to drink every last drop he gifts you with. And only when your throat finally stops its forced swallowing does he release you, leering down at your pitiful form heaving for breath.

The bitter taste of his seed is all you can taste, all you can focus on as you greedily inhale much needed oxygen. You pray that he’s done, but you whimper when a strong hand easily pulls you up and begins to pull off your clothing. Instinctively you try to push the invasive appendages away from you, but you freeze at Naoya’s growled threat.

“Don’t make me hurt you any more than I have to.”

You know it’s not an empty threat. You’ve seen the quite literally broken bodies of women who had resisted too much against the Zenin men, against Naoya specifically. So you limply drop your arms to your side and stay still as he humiliatingly gropes and examines you like merchandise.

All you can do is clench your eyes shut as Naoya’s hands grab your breasts, kneading and weighing them in his hands, cruelly prodding and pinching your nipples to see your reactions. All you can do is bite back a muffled yelp when he forces you onto your knees and forearms on the bed, squeezing and smacking your ass, spreading apart your cheeks to closely look at your fluttering holes. All you can do is cry into the sheets as he fingers you open, breaching both untouched openings, his thick digits stretching your tight walls apart and taking their time to thoroughly defile you, using your own slick to loosen your ass.

You try to disassociate, try to imagine that this is just a medical examination. But your fantasies are shattered when something hard and thick slaps against your inner thigh as Naoya rearranges himself behind you, rubbing the head of his cock back and forth against your dripping entrance, coating his shaft with your juices.

“Naoya! Sir, please. I’ve never...You can’t-”

Your pleas are cut short as his hand painfully strikes your ass.

“Shut the fuck up. You’re ruining the mood with your sniveling voice. Remember what I taught you? Sluts don’t get to speak freely. They only get to moan and thank their masters.”

You don’t even know if you can speak even if you wanted to, not when his cock is forced into you in one go, the thick and lengthy shaft ruthlessly tearing you apart. It fills you, stuffing you full, and you don’t think there’s even room left in your body for words. The only thing you can release is a strangled scream, eyes and mouth blown wide open, fingers clawing at the sheets as you try to remotely ground yourself as the foreign sensation overwhelms you.

But Naoya has never been a patient man and there’s a certain sense of entertainment from watching you struggle and writhe underneath him. He begins a relentless pace before you can adjust to the feeling of him inside of you, hips slamming in and out of you, heavy balls bouncing against you.

You’re so tight, so hot, so wet and he can feel a rush of power from the confusion he begins to see setting on your face as forced pleasure begins to mix in with your fear and pain. Moans and high-pitched keens are finding their way in between distressed cries and he smirks at the way your eyes begin to roll back in your head, the way your hips begin to meet him halfway, greedily pushing back against him when he teasingly slows down his pace.

He laughs at the humiliation and embarrassment running rampant on your face when you whine as he abruptly stops

“Wow you really are a slut. You fucking love my cock, don’t you?”

He rolls his eyes as you adamantly shake your head in denial, bored by your playing hard to get act. But as he admires the way your pussy lips obscenely envelop his cock, your pretty puckered hole beckons to him.

“You’re fucking filthy, clamping down on me like a bitch in heat from just a thumb in your ass. You like that? Like having all your holes filled? Maybe when I break you in, I’ll share you with the rest of the clan. Bet you’d love that. Love having cocks in every hole, using every inch of you.”

Your orgasm takes the both of you by surprise in its speed and intensity and Naoya howls in laughter as he resumes fucking you, chasing his own high with his thumb still lodged in your ass, groaning in pleasure at how he can feel the tremors of your orgasm, the way your body convulses in the aftershocks of pleasure and onset of overstimulation.

You’re breathtaking like this, fucked silly, delirious, just a warm body and toy for him to do with as he pleases and it doesn’t take long for him to join you over the edge and add to the sticky mess already inside of you.

With a lewd pop he retracts his thumb from your now lewdly fluttering hole, shoving it into your mouth for you to clean and he smiles at how mindlessly obedient you are as you suck and lick the digit clean like it's your favorite lollipop.

You grimace when he finally pulls out, already feeling his cum beginning to leak out of you and you try and find the strength in your trembling and used body to push yourself off the bed. It’s time to retreat with your tail between your legs and you want nothing more than to spend the rest of the evening in the shower, harshly scrubbing every evidence of your utter defeat and conquest under boiling hot water.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

You open your mouth to speak, only to quickly clamp it back shut, remembering how your words only seemed to dig you deeper and deeper into trouble.

“You’re going to wash me and yourself and once we’re clean, you’re going to remain naked and in my bed until I’m ready to use you again. Think of it as a promotion. No more worrying your stupid little head about cleaning and laundry anymore. You’re being upgraded to my personal sex slave and bed warmer. Come on, I don’t have all day.”

You wonder if this is what it feels like to walk the plank, to approach your own death sentence as you robotically trail after Naoya’s figure towards his lavish bathroom. And as you lay in his bed that night, pristine and bare like a glorified sex doll, his broad arm possessively slung around your waist and forcing your bodies to mold together, you bid farewell to your past life, dreading what the future has in store for you.

[obeiii-mee]

MC had a bad day or they’re dealing with a bad loss from a loved one. So they decide to seek comfort from the Brothers! But they don’t do it in a normal way, they just barge in the room where the brothers are all relaxing or hanging out at before MC just busts in getting their attention and they go “I need a hug 🥺”. Let’s see the some fluffy hc’s of the brothers comforting MC 🥰

And how could they not want to hug their cute human that is literally 3 seconds away from breaking down into tears?

The Brothers Comforting MC After A Bad Day:

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You’re right, they wouldn’t be able to resist, they love their human too much 😌

*soBS* I want to hug one of them so bad rn

Thank you for the request, I love writing fluffy HCs, it’s my weak spot and it gives me serotonin. I hope you have a nice day/night!! Uh, it’s sort of implied that MC is slightly shorter than them so sorry if that’s a problem-

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Notes: Fluff, mentions of loss and dead family members/friends, mostly comfort though, short HCs

Characters: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beezlebub and Belphegor.

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Lucifer:

-He doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t really need to because him just being there, arms wrapped around you and hands lightly running up and down your back, is worth more words than any sort of verbal consolation he could’ve given you and because of this, you feel at ease

-His touch is firm but gentle and you relax almost immediately, burying your head against his chest and feeling him press a kiss on top of your hairline, tightening your hold on him

-He already told his brothers to back off because the last thing he wanted was for you you to get overwhelmed by their insensitivity so you two were left in the living room by yourselves

-In a bit of an awkward position though, because you were both standing and after a while, it was clear a hug wasn’t going to be enough

-That’s his excuse as to why he picked you up bridal style five minutes later and carried you all the way to his bedroom, a place he knows his siblings won’t ever trespass without his permission and somewhere he can shield you from any prying eyes while you’re in this vulnerable state

-At this point, he was basically cradling you like a baby, having you sit on his lap and waiting for you to tire yourself out until you couldn’t cry anymore and watching you slip into that hiccuping stage you get after a breakdown

-Lucifer is obviously going to ask what happened, but whether you answer him or not is up to you because he’s not one to push matters if he sees you’re uncomfortable talking about it

-However, he might insist if he concludes that it’s affecting you and your well being and that’s how you know usually know he’s worried

-His voice is soft though and just listening to it makes you want to tell him everything, whether it’d be something as annoying as a small inconvenience you stumbled across that day or the death of a relative, you feel welcomed enough to spill everything

-Even if you decide not to, he’ll stay with you until you feel better, until you’re no longer crying or shaking or anything of the sort. He speaks occasionally, almost soothingly about how important you are to him and how capable you are of overcoming anything in your way. For the most part, however, he remains quiet and allows you to mull over your thoughts, willing to forget about his paperwork just to let you cling to him for a few hours

-Maybe later, when you’re no longer as distressed, he could get the full story out of you and help you overcome whatever problem you’re having trouble facing but for now, he understands all you need is for him to be there

“MC?” He calls your name out because he was thinking that maybe you had fallen asleep but he realised that was not the case when you looked up at him, streaks of tears still sliding down your cheeks. When you don’t respond, he sighs almost contently “A bit longer?” You don’t answer again but this time, he could feel you nod against him and he smiles despite himself as he leaned his head against yours “All right then, just a bit longer.”

Mammon:

-Truth be told, he’s never been the best at comforting someone and normally, he’s kind of awkward when he wants to show his support because it feels so out of his character

-But it’s not like he was going to refuse you anyway. Not when you specifically came to him and asked him for help and not when you looked like you were on the verge of crying. He’d be a monster to deny you >:(

-It upsets him too, you know. He’s meant to be your protector, guardian even, so the fact that he couldn’t keep you from getting hurt makes him feel like he failed at keeping his human safe. Actually, it takes a lot of convincing on your part just to tell him that you’re not actually physically hurt. Just a shitty day…

-Mammon, despite the walls he puts up ever now and then, is someone that genuinely cares for you. And he’s also the type that does almost everything in excess, especially when it comes to you or spending money. That’s just his personality; he’s loud and boisterous and even though he wants to deny this, completely transparent with his emotions

-You ask for a hug? He gives you plenty of hugs! He lets you lay on top of him while cuddling so he can hold you!!! He brings you snacks and drinks!!! Shit, he basically cradles you the whole night!!! And he’s blushing and acting annoyed the entire time, refusing to accept how much he’s actually enjoying this

-The point is, he tends to coddle you whenever you have a bad day or if you’re really affected by the loss of a dead loved one. This is probably because he, in turn, likes to be babied and cared for when he’s feeling down and he subconsciously does that to you because it’s the only means of comfort he knows how to execute well

-A hug would’ve sufficed, but you’re his human and let him be damned if he’s not gonna give you the world on a silver platter if you keep looking at him with those sad eyes of yours

-By now, if you need anything, you just need to ask because even with a bit of grumbling, he’ll get it for you. More snacks? Say less. Wanna watch TV with him for a while? Immediately reaches for the remote? You just want to cuddle? His body is naturally warm for a reason bby, dig in. You want his heart? Give him a moment to surgically get it out of his chest-

-No matter what, he’s so glad that you trust him enough to talk to him about this sort of stuff and that he’s the first person you think of when you need consolation

-It makes sense after all, right? He’s your first pact so your direct happiness is his responsibility while you’re in DevilDom! It’s his job to make sure you function again by tomorrow morning and that you’re no longer troubled by anything

“Hey! What’s with all the crying huh?” He cups your face in his hands and softly squishes the flesh between his fingers. His thumbs brush over the tears in your eyes and he let’s out a small ‘tsk’ as your foreheads touch and his hands drip to your shoulders to keep you steady “The Great Mammon is hugging ya right now, ya know? There’s no reason for you to be upset, not when I’ve got ya in my arms like this, OK? So you can stop with yer water works now.” As noisy as his voice is, there’s a gentle note behind it when he speaks and embraces you, his cologne spreading everywhere “I love you, ya big idiot. So please, stop cryin’ and lemme hold ya already! Yer making me worried, ya stupid human.”

Levi:

-You stopping by his room is not unusual. In fact, you do it every day and it’s just part of the routine you have with him. However, he’s wasn’t exactly expecting you to stand there, all shaken up and ask him for a hug!!!

-And he doesn’t process this request for a second but then he freaks out so badly-

-Yells incomprehensibly about how you’re ‘pulling your normie tricks on him again’ and how he’s ‘not going to be fooled by them anymore.’

-You raise your head to meet his eyes while he’s still rambling on though and he sees your teary expression and now he feels guilty because you look really upset. Levi’s kinda scared he made it worse-

-He’s the type to usher you in his room and lock the door as usual but instead of doing what the two of you always do, you literally stay attached to him because you need comfort damn it!

-Levi….is sort of clueless about these emotional outbursts since he himself doesn’t deal with them very well. However, he’s watched enough animes revolving around romance to conclude on the best course of action so-do not fear! (Spoiler, he still doesn’t know what he’s doing)

-He’s really stuck and can either stay as quiet as a nun or start babbling in a language you probably wouldn’t even understand because he’s so nervous

-Or actually, he might start crying with you if I’m being fair; he’s very in sync with his Henry and your emotions

-Once he calms down, he’s actually not all that bad at comforting. Levi is a bit stand offish with his hugs at first but he relaxes into them and by now, you’re both standing by the side of his bed, with you leaning onto him and him holding your hand. He then intertwines your fingers together but subconsciously because he wouldn’t have the gall otherwise

-Later, he tells you to help yourself with the snacks he has hidden in his room. I guarantee you he has a whole ass mini refrigerator hidden somewhere for his all night gaming session, in case he needs any boosts. No one knows how Beel hasn’t found the stash yet and there’s no need to tell him

-Then you watch re runs of old shows together and make fun of the shitty editing and dialogue. He’s still holding your hand though and he’s really flustered and wondering if it’s too sweaty for you but don’t mention it because he’ll get even more embarrassed

-He glances over to you, every once in a while, whilst you’re cuddled up against his arm, eyes glued on the TV, to make sure you’re OK. You almost gave him a seizure or at least that’s how he felt-so he made it his mission to make you feel better by any means necessary. Fuck today’s raids, his team can get them done without him!!

“I-I don’t know why you would want me of all people to hug you but…” he trailed off in a whisper, having to lean down so you could wrap your arms against his neck and bury your head in his shoulder. He pulled you in closer, a streak of protectiveness coursing through him as he shut the door to his room with his foot “Lord of the Shadows would never leave Henry all on his own, so I’m not going to do that either. This is an important character development arc and-just, please don’t cry. I’ll give you more hugs, OK? Seeing you like this is not good for my heart-“ stopped mid sentence after realising what he just said and now he’s the one burying his head in your shoulder, flushed beyond hell “Forget I just said that! Holy Lord Diavolo this is embarrassing, why am I like this????”

Satan:

-It troubles him greatly to see you like this and he can sort of feel the world shift out of place, seeing you with tears running down your face and hands balled into fists out of frustration almost immediately makes him fly into a fit of rage because who would dare to hurt you-

-Oh, a hug? If that’s all you need, he’s more than happy to oblige but if you’re as distraught as you seem to be, he wonders if just a small embrace from him would be enough

-Satan’s hugs are very intimate and even passionate at times. He has one hand on the back of your head and the other supporting your lower back while you bawl your eyes out into his shoulder and getting his uniform wet

-You can’t really seem to focus on what he’s trying to tell you because he’s so warm and welcoming and even though he’s someone as renowned as the Avatar of Wrath, he’s shockingly patient with you as you let out the overwhelming emotions that have been consuming you all day

-It’s hard to not relax when you’re in Satan’s presence because he’s calm and he smells like musty, old books and mahogany wood and cats, meaning he was most likely cuddling strays he found on the street the entire day. The first visual that comes to mind is fire crackling behind a grate in a chimney and someone reading a book while swinging back and forth on an old, rickety chair when you’re around him

-He will wait until you’re no longer crying and then, before you know it, you find yourself in the library with him, drinking tea and being handed a plate of biscuits he took from the kitchen to help you regain your strength after all that crying. You’re still feeling pretty miserable about the day you’ve had but you quickly lose yourself in a conversation with him over a cup of tea

-Sometimes, you two talk for hours on end about nothing important just to hear each other’s voices and finally have some quality time spent together. Even though he wishes the circumstances were better, he’s glad to have been able to snatch you away from his brothers for a while and he’s even happier you chose him to confide in

-Satan practically doesn’t even mention your outburst and keeps the small talk minimal but he wants you to know that if you do wish to tell him about it, he’s more than happy to listen and he’s not so bad at giving advice either

-The topic of the discussion you were having with him changed abruptly by the end of the night and now you’re reading together from this book he started a while ago, both of you covered with a blanket, your head on his chest and his leaning on yours. He’s holding the book with both of his hands, but still managed to get his left wrapped around you. And because of this feeling of safety and warmth, you don’t feel desperate anymore. Tomorrow, you’ll be able to sort out your feelings but now, you’re content to just listening to Satan read, in his clear, soft voice

“Ah MC, could you turn the page for me?” You do as he asked to and you could feel him smiling as he kissed your hairline, sighing before going back to the book and the story within “Thank you. You truly are amazing, did you know that? I’ve never met someone as caring and as kind as you. Well, I suppose Beel could compete for the title but unlike him, you don’t really leave us in debt whenever we visit the grocery store.” Hearing you laugh makes him smile even more and he lets you hold the other side of the book while he plays with your hair and now you join in reading with him, out loud and trying to act out voices for the characters. As everything unfolds, Satan feels the world click right back into place.

Asmo:

-It’s a known fact by now that Asmo is willing to give you any sort of affection at any point in time, whether it’d be a hug, a kiss, holding your hand-you name it! I mean, whenever he’s feeling down, you being there to encourage him helps a lot so it’s only natural it works the other way around too!

-If he notices that you’re genuinely upset by something, then he would have no problem whatsoever with lavishing you in attention and really, a hug or two from him is the bare minimum in situations like this

-In any case, he always enjoys fussing over you and you having a bad day is the perfect excuse for him to do so! After all, he can’t disappoint you since you came to him with your troubles and he will do anything in his power to make you feel better. Actually, if he could, he would keep hugging you forever but as miraculous as his charm can be, it’s not effective against someone with this low of a morale

-His first suggestion is to take a bath! It’s his way of taking care of you; you’re tired after such a long day and he feels like you’re neglecting yourself a little because of it. So you relax in his bathtub with him for a while, him actively trying to get your mind off any bad, lingering thoughts while you splash around in the bubbles

-And obviously after that, you need to have your mandatory spa sessions with him since you need to unwind and what’s a better way to do that than to let him paint your nails and apply lotion to your skin? Besides, it creates a great opportunity for you to take things off your chest

-He’s in need to hear gossip constantly so if you don’t feel like talking, he’s gonna be a bit bummed out but he still respects your wishes enough to not push you. If your problem is as sensitive as the death of a family member, you’re not obligated to talk to him about it and he will understand, since people grieve in different ways. He too shut down after the death of Lilith for a while after all

-A bad day is nothing Asmo can’t handle. He’s had plenty of those before, mostly because of Mammon and his thievery, they’re usually common factors. It’s only natural you experience those yourself and he’s more than willing to be your support system if you need one. He wants you to know that you can go to him if you need advice or help with anything, or even if you just need to someone to hear you out

-To give a more detailed explanation of his hugs, they are usually really light and you never feel suffocated when you’re in his arms. He never squeezes you too tight and he always smells amazing, so you feel inclined to stay near him for as long as possible. Despite his overtly loud nature, he gets incredibly soft spoken with you and he traces patterns on your back and arms as you stand there together

-It’s important to mention, he never pulls away from you first. He lets you decide when you’ve had enough and when you’re ready to move on or if you require some other means of comfort

-And even if you’re no longer disgruntled, he’s still going to pamper you as much as possible the next day with either a shopping spree or another few spa sessions, this time done at a professional institution rather than the privacy of his bedroom

-Asmo is in touch with your emotions and it’s kinda scary sometimes because of how well he can read you, since he almost always knows what you need

“Oh darling, how could I refuse a hug from you?” You can feel his arms embrace you, even with your eyes closed and for some reason, this makes you cry even harder, sobbing as he tries to comfort you. You’re aware he let go of you at some point and returned with a tissue to dab away at your tears, gently to not hurt your eyes and now he’s hugging you again, a wry smile on his face “You don’t have to worry about a thing, MC. Everything will get sorted out, I promise. In the meantime, come to me if anything troubles you again, OK? No more crying, darling-it’s bad for your eyes.”

Beel:

-The type to immediately lean in for a hug without even questioning why. As soon as you ask him, you barely have time to finish the question and you already find yourself in his arms. The only exception would be when he’s eating or maybe in the middle of a work out but the point is he doesn’t hesitate much when it comes to you. And I mean, he loves hugs just as much as his siblings do

-Beel is not the most observant and he may not realise you’re in a bad mood unless you tell him outright. It’s not even that he’s emotionally distant, it’s just that if you tell him that you’re fine, then he’s gonna take your word for it and believe you since he’s pretty straightforward with his feelings as well. However, as dense as he may be on occasion, even he’s bound to notice that you’re not being your usual self and this is especially true if you start crying out of nowhere while he’s nearby. Probably assumes the worst and is under the impression that he did something to upset you because shifting the blame onto himself whenever others suffer is his coping mechanism and we’ve seen him to do it before

-If you’ve just had a bad day, he understands that things could’ve been very overwhelming for you and he wishes he had known sooner so he could’ve helped back then, instead of letting it come to this. But he doesn’t hesitate all that much since he looks like he’s built for giving hugs on a daily basis. I’m not even sure this would classify as a hug since you’re not touching the floor. Rather, you are attached to him like a koala and he’s carrying you around as if you were a baby strapped to his chest. And he genuinely doesn’t mind. He’s been doing it with Belphie for centuries now

-Please, after a while he gets seriously concerned because are humans supposed to cry this much? What if you dehydrate or something? So he makes you stay in bed and just gives you plenty of water. You look so pale and sad, he shares his food with you too because his heart is aching just looking at you like this. He feels like besides being there, he can’t provide you with much help and he’s starting to think he’s hopeless at comforting

-If a family member died then…Beel is one of the best people you could’ve gone to. Honestly, having dealt with his sister’s situation, he knows how horrible it is to lose somebody you love dearly (I mean, all the brothers do but I’m making a point saying Beel, Belphie and Lucifer were especially affected). Now he’s sad himself since he’s aware that you’re going through something similar and his twin might walk in on the two of you being emotional on the floor

-For the most part, Beel makes sure you keep yourself healthy even when you’re tired and depressed. Continues to bring you food, even if he eats half of it on his way to your room, and just keeps you company in general in case you get lonely. Seeing you upset makes him even more considerate of your feelings and you don’t have the heart to tell him that he doesn’t need to stay with you all night. He thinks he does because you’ve always offered to stay with him whenever he’s had nightmares before so how he’s gotta return the favour

-Beel gives these bear hugs all the time, since he’s so big and his hand basically covers your entire back. So, more often than not, you end up cuddling while standing because he’s a lot taller than you, with him being a demon and all. Despite that, you feel so unbelievably complete when he holds you like this. It’s hard not to feel protected since his whole body is practically concealing yours so easily all the time and you feel sheltered from the world and it’s….nice

-And Beel enjoys hugging you too, because he knows that as long as he’s nearby, you’ll be safe and that’s really all he needs. He wants to be there for you the same way you were there for him when he needed it most and comforting you when you’re having a shitty day is like his full time job

-You could come to Beel with any problem and he would never judge you, no matter what. He’s just really unproblematic and he just wants you to go back to your normal self because it hurts him to see you cry your eyes out. Now, not only are hugs mandatory but holding your hand is too. It’s like hugging…but your hands are doing the hugging

-Definitely even goes to Belphie after a while if he really doesn’t know what to do and that’s how you know he’s desperate to do something. Since the Seventh Born isn’t exactly someone that yields great advice, more so when it comes to other…people….and his twin knows this-

-Beel’s best strategy at the moment is to just maintain some kind of physical contact because he discovered that makes you feel better and it calms you down more than him trying to verbally console you. He even invited you to sleep in his room if you’re comfortable doing so just so you’re not alone. After that one incident, he’s trying to coax you to tell him whenever something is wrong so he can jump in and help, because that’s all he really wants to do ahakenksms

“MC? Did something happen?” He’s honestly taken aback by how shaky you are and how you’re hands are trembling as they’re reaching to connect with his. Without much of a warning, he feels a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach and now he discovers that he doesn’t like seeing you with tears trailing down your face. And he feels worse the longer you wail in his chest and he doesn’t know what to do. So, he wraps his arms around you so tight you think you might explode, strangely comforted by the feeling as he speaks again “I’m sorry if I’ve done something to upset you. What can I do to help, MC? We can just stay like this for a while if you want” And when he sees you nod, he proceeds to not move an inch almost the entire night. Obviously, hunger overtook him eventually but he shared his stolen goods with you so can you really complain? Doubtful, not when he hasn’t let go of your hand the whole time.

Belphie:

- Hugging him is a gamble. Realistically speaking, you’re not going to catch him standing upright long enough for you to give him a hug. He’s laying on the floor somewhere, asleep so you shouldn’t expect much from him to begin with. Even if you were to get lucky and stumble upon him while he’s wide awake, he might slump over and succumb to sleep the moment you embrace him because you’re so warm

-Cuddling is a different story altogether. He’d rather shoot himself in the foot than not have you cuddle with him so if you need to be babied for once, he’s a pretty good option to consider

-As usual, he’s in the attic and you go to him because it’s really late and you didn’t want to wake up any of the other brothers. Actually, Belphie is normally awake by dusk so to see him sleep like a log past midnight was quite surprising. You didn’t exactly want to interrupt but if you stayed alone for any longer, you would’ve gone insane. So you shook him awake. And he was understandably confused and probably forgot what planet he was on for a minute when you did so

-Technically, he was half awake and from his point of view, everything must’ve been pretty blurry. He did see you; the problem was that because he was still feeling very sleepy, he was basically in a daze and could only squint at you to try and figure out if you were really there or if he was hallucinating. His suspicion was confirmed soon enough because he reached out after a few seconds and poked your cheek just to check. His face the entire time and the action itself was so amusing that, despite tittering on the edge of a breakdown, you burst out laughing

-Once he came to the conclusion that you were, in fact, real and he wasn’t dreaming, he sighed and opened his arms out for you; a direct invitation to cuddle with him. By now, he likely didn’t even noticed you looked sad because, as I said, he was all over the place but this little ritual you two have was common enough that it got engraved in his memory. Now he does it out of impulse whenever you’re around and he wants attention

-So you basically tackled him and threw yourself on top of him so hard, both of you toppled over on the bed and now you were used as a blanket, with his arms wrapped securely around you; preventing you from getting up. Not that you were planning on doing that anytime soon but moving on-

-You thought he had fallen back asleep, because he went really quiet and he stopped squirming to get comfortable. To be exact, the whole room was rather still and the only thing you could really hear was Belphie’s soft breathing and the rustle of the bedsheets every once in a while. And since it was extremely dark as well, you couldn’t see a thing either so it felt like the best place to let go of your stress

-It’s not like you were making much noise but as I said, the seventh born wasn’t sleeping just yet. And he wouldn’t be able to because it was obvious to him now that something was wrong. He believed that he was bearing witness to something that should’ve been a lot more private than this so he didn’t say anything. You should have your moment, let you have a chance to recollect your thoughts and the next day, he might ask you

-It was too much to handle. It’s not like he was gonna get any sleep unless he knew your problem was solved otherwise he might get nightmares all night. Besides, if you’re crying this much, then something terrible must’ve happened. You realised he was awake when he gave your entire body a small squeeze, as if to reassure you and you froze because did you just wake him up???? Or worse, did he hear all that sobbing you were doing????

-Hugging him is similar to hugging a pillow. He’s soft and squishy and warm and it’s impossible to resist him when rest at a time like this is so tempting. His fingers running over your pact mark once or twice, as if to remind you that he’s right there and low whispers describing the best dream he ever had about you, hoping to distract you for long enough to help you fall asleep

-To him, it doesn’t make a difference if a family member died or if you’re just having a bad day. All he knows is that you’re having a lot of emotional problems because of either one and as a result, you need a shoulder to lean on. He’s glad that you trust him enough to let him assist and if it was up to him, he would keep cuddling you forever. You’ve already suffered enough so let him take care of you this time around, OK?

“Dumbass, why are you crying?” The gentleness of his words was a clear contrast to that quick insult he shoved at the beginning of his statement, though you couldn’t hear any malice behind it and the fact that he really cared about what happened to cause you to struggle with your emotions so badly, would’ve made you wail even harder. However, he managed to silence you pretty well because he kept speaking and you wanted to listen; you wanted to hear what he had to say so you reduced your sobs and you sat quietly enough to do just that. Belphie flipped you over, now with him on top and you underneath and he laid there, cheek sloshed against yours as he sleepily mumbled out more praise for you, “MC, are you tired? You should go to bed, you need to get some sleep. Tomorrow, you can tell me what the problem is and I’ll help. I promise-I’ll even get up early for you. Just…please calm down. I don’t want to see you crying yourself to sleep ever again. I’ll stay here the entire time, alright? And I’ll make sure you have nice dreams tonight MC…just let me hold you…”

[shadowknightapologist]

YAYYYY OKAY it's madness time

WARNINGS FOR: angst, toxicity, torture, cannibalism.

first off, Gibson Girl. if you know Ethel Cain lore, don't apply it here LMAO i'm going purely off the lyrics + their vibes/my interpretations.

not every lyric applies but here are the ones that do with explanations:

"says he's in love with my body, that's why he's fucking it up"

gene def feels like the sort of asshole to tell laurance he's beautiful, well-built, etc. while torturing him 😭🙏

gene is really fucked in the head after becoming a shadow knight, so his relationship with pain is. odd. he thinks it's good, that it's a reward, that strong people can take strike after strike and keep grinning through it. part of him knows he's being an asshole when he inflicts this philosophy on laurance, but the other part genuinely believes laurance will become a stronger, hardier person.

""Baby, if it feels good, then it can't be bad" / where I can be immoral in a stranger's lap"

i mentioned this in the laurgene ask i got, but at its bones, laurance and gene's relationship primarily consists of gene goading/pushing laurance into overreacting. to gene there's no reason to hold back. as a shadow knight, your allegiance is to shad and shad alone, why would you want to spare anyone of your righteous fury? and why be scared of being powerful when you could embrace it? ("if it feels good, then it can't be bad")

laurance hates how easy it is to slip into being a shadow knight around gene. when they fight, it becomes less about stopping gene and more about hurting him. every time laurance uses a little more force, revels at the blood a little more, fractures a little more, until it starts to boil over and this affects how he fights with others (think of the werewolf wedding for an example) ("where i can be immoral in a stranger's lap")

"you wanna fuck me right now, you wanna see me on my knees / you wanna rip these clothes off and hurt me"

i debated keeping the first line just because i don't think laurance and gene ever got physical like that but i'm gonna stay w it because of the sentiment.

i think these lyrics really encompass the aggression of their relationship. it's like. they make each other feel, but it's never soft. laurance hates gene's guts, and gene just likes to break laurance down/prove that he's not as good as he thinks he is.

as much as gene likes getting laurance to go sicko mode on him, nothing's ever going to beat the power rush of reminding laurance that he's his superior for a reason. unfortunately, laurance's persistence to rebel just makes gene all the more interested in putting him in his place.

"and if you hate me, please don't tell me / just let the lights bleed all over me"

this actually isn't about gene and laurance and more about how gene's influence affects laurance's relationship with others.

despite his best attempts to maintain control, laurance is splintering. he knows that anyone looking can see it. he knows it's only a matter of time until he does something unforgivable and everyone sees him as a monster (if he's not already). ("and if you hate me, please don't tell me")

for a moment, when he's fighting, when he's leading his rebellion, he can forget. he doesn't have to remember the softness of aphmau's hands, or garroth's smile, or how he'd catch dante mimicking him in training. he doesn't have to remember to be kind or honorable or human. being cruel is a benefit in the nether, and if it takes being the cruelest for people to survive, then so be it. ("just let the lights bleed all over me")

OKAY STRANGERS TIME. similarly to Gibson Girl, don't apply Ethel Cain lore lol.

"in your basement, i grow cold, thinking back to what i was always told: "don't talk to strangers or you might fall in love""

THIS IS ABOUT EURYDICE I FEAR. he thinks of her often throughout the turning process, sometimes kindly, sometimes cruelly. at times he blames her, sometimes he hopes she'll save him, and when he's more lucid he wonders if she made it out at all or if they slaughtered her like a lamb.

"when my mother sees me on the side of a milk carton in winn-dixie's dairy aisle, she'll cry and wait up for me"

CADENZA. do we ever even find out how she felt about her brother DISAPPEARING for 3 weeks? i think she was a chicken during this time so tbf she was busy but 💀💀 MY FEELINGS ARE THAT WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CADENZA + LAURANCE CANON CONTENT, ESPECIALLY IN REGARDS TO HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT LAURANCE BECOMING A SHADOW KNIGHT.

(the fandom kills me bc i've just forgotten a lot of stuff /hj)

anyway. cadenza fucking sobbing when she finds out what happened. one father is already dead, now her brother? she's not familiar with shadow knights like guards and scholars might be, but she knows the general idea: reanimated corpses, dark knights, evil creatures. in her grief, cadenza prays, but it's not to eirene. she's ashamed of it sometimes, but she begs whatever dark force is out there to return her brother to her. she knows him. there's no way laurance could ever be any less good than he is. he'd prevail. he's not like everyone else. etc, etc.

"i'm happier here 'cause he told me i should be"

pretty simple, just gene manipulating and brainwashing laurance

"you're so handsome when i'm all over your mouth"

fun fact, the first few times i listened to this song i didn't listen with lyrics (as in, i didn't watch them, so i didn't process the words LMAO) and i thought this was just about kissing?? and then my friend fixated on Ethel's lore and was like "yeah it's cannibalism" and my brain EXPLODES every time i listen to this lyric now.

anyway shadow knights and cannibalism. i've established that as a thing. shadow knights eat each other for power, but gene's probably just a little freak who likes to bite the newbies because it scares the fuck out of them. i think romanticization is a tool traumatized people use to process trauma without it tearing them apart, which is what laurance ends up doing to an extent.

"i tried to be good, am i no good? am i no good? am i no good? with my memory restricted to a polaroid in evidence"

gene manipulating laurance's memories, laurance struggling to decipher what's true and false because he knows his mind has been tampered with...

laurance finds himself switching between "i'm here because i'm an awful person" and "i'm here because everyone else is awful". he knows he's misremembering things, but to what point? how much of it is foul play and how much of it is trauma? how much of it is him seeing things for what they really are?

laurance scratches at the walls of his mind for weeks before ungrth saves him. ungrth/passing through the realm barrier the way he did manages to purge laurance's mind of the memory magic, so he remembers everything perfectly when he's topside.

"i just wanted to be yours, can i be yours? can i be yours? just tell me i'm yours"

laurance talking to joh and hayden, to eurydice, to cadenza, to sasha, to gene, to eirene, to shad. i think at his core, laurance wants to be someone's. not necessarily romantically, but he just wants to feel at home. he's loathe to admit it, but he thinks that, sometimes, if gene switched his tactic to talk more about comradery and unity, it might have garnered more consideration from him.

additionally, after becoming a shadow knight, laurance knows he's different from everyone else. even without completing the process, he'll outlive most of the people he grew up with. it's not as necessary for him to eat or drink or sleep anymore. he can't be out in the rain without his skin burning. he's not human anymore.

who else other than gene could actually want that?

"if i'm turning in my stomach and i'm making you feel sick, am i making you feel sick?"

self explanatory, i think...

can anyone who knew him recognize him? can he still be a good person? can he still be a good guard? is it worth trying? is everyone waiting for him to snap? is his life going to be an endless battle? will he win?

idk i leave this with the people

i feel that the best way i can explain toxic ex laurgene in MCD is through ethel cain's "gibson girl" and "strangers" but LIKE I FEAR I'LL SOUND INSANE EXPLAINING MYSELF

[love-toxin]

plagas; leon.

a/n: in the midst of some writer’s block i stumbled upon an old concept i never finished. enjoy some good ol’ plaga leon <3

warnings: parasitic possession, yandere leon, female reader, violence, blood, groping, leon’s teasing is just straight up bullying, pet names, almost noncon, slight boot kink, chasing. 

word count: 1.9k

“Leon..?”

The sun had set on your terrifying journey, and cast a shadow over the room you'd found yourself trapped inside. Not by locks this time, or villagers, or Saddler himself...but by the person you had trusted throughout this entire nightmare. The man that had saved your life stood between you and your only way out, and even then, you doubted that you'd be able to escape if you managed to slip past him. The road home was so long and the stifling, smothering Spanish heat had made way for a chilling cold that breezed through your body in the night and froze you to your spot.

And Leon was gone. His mind and body had succumbed to the disease he'd been injected with, the parasite that he'd protected you from...but instead of saving you, now all you felt was panic, fear, and dread when you looked into his eyes. 

“You can’t suck the poison out of this wound, sweetheart...but I won’t stop you if you wanna give it a try.” 

Leon took slow steps around you, his footsteps echoing in the marble hall of the castle as he eyed you up like you were his prey, while his fingers spasmed and twitched at his sides, like they were itching to either grab you or wrap themselves tightly around your throat. So much had happened since he'd rescued you from the farmhouse, and reassured you with infectious confidence that everything would be okay. It felt like a lifetime that you'd known him, even if in reality you'd only spent less than a day together--but running and hiding and waiting for Leon to dispatch any threats made the hours seem so long and torturous. You prayed for his safety at every turn, and felt terror grip your heart as you waited for him to come back and retrieve you from hiding…

And now you were here.

"Saddler wants me to kill you, you're not worth the hassle to him. But to me...you're my treasure. Mine." 

The way that word rolled off his tongue sounded like an echo in your brain. He said it once before, and it stuck with you awhile--but hearing him say it now was like having it permanently seared into your head. 

It wasn’t a secret anymore. You’d fallen in love with Leon, as so many had before. You fell for his confidence, his strength, his effortless teasing and sincere concern for your safety, and maybe it was all just backed by your appreciation for him saving your life and playing the hero so well. But even if it was temporary, you were in love and you wanted him to survive just as much as he wanted to save you, and even if he succeeded and brought you home just for you to never see each other again, there would always be a part of you that loved him, and you had accepted that fact. 

But things had changed. Seeing Leon no longer filled you with relief and happiness, that smug grin on his lips as he greeted you after fighting off monsters you could only imagine in nightmares. He took a step towards you, and this time you took a huge one back--and he chuckled, his tone dark and biting, before continuing on and piercing through you with blood-coloured irises. 

"I found you, I get to keep you. Finders keepers, huh sweetheart? That's fair, isn't it?"

His gaze held nothing less than a deep, ravenous hunger within him, the unsettling smirk on his face in no way easing that tension that weighed heavily on your mind. 

“Maybe I’m just a monster, now...if I am, then so be it. If being a monster means seeing that look on your face forever, then I gotta say, it feels pretty damn good!” 

"Y-You're not Leon!"

His shoulders suddenly tensed like he was about to lunge for you, but letting him have the upper hand would mean the end for you. You knew that fact so well that you acted on instinct, and unsheathed the knife whose handle you'd been stealthily gripping this whole time, to stab it into the eye of the man you wished you could have a life with. And you missed, the realization both relieving and terrifying, as the blade clanged and stuck into the wall behind him and barely clipped a few strands of his light-coloured hair. 

"Is this my knife? Now that's pretty cute,"

A shudder violently wracked your body as Leon's tongue slipped past his lips, and he turned his head to lick a slow stripe up the gleaming, bloodstained blade. He'd ended plenty of lives with that thing, but it seemed as though his own had yet to be one of them. 

"I've played the hero long enough. I want a reward for all my hard work...I want you."

His hand crept up your waist before you could react to it, rough fingers spreading warmth through your stomach as they grazed the exposed skin of your hip. But once you tried to break away from the touch you wished you didn't crave more of, his other hand shot out to grab you by the waist and keep you pressed uncomfortably close to his body, so close that your lips were mere centimeters from his neck and breathing in gave you a good whiff of that faint scent of cologne that still lingered on his skin. 

"Don't fight me, pet. I can already hear you crying for me to use you...you know, you're so cute when you're scared."

You squirmed even still, thrashing and shoving against his chest to try and find some way to twist out of his hold--but moving him was like trying to push a brick wall, and his grip on you got tighter and tighter until you whimpered with pain. The things he was saying just didn't make any sense, and you never wanted the real Leon more than you did in this moment. Knowing what it felt like to have his strength used against you instead of to protect you...it was becoming too much to bear, and in your terror you found comfort in Leon's touch again even if it was brief, his thumbs rubbing circles into your skin and working to relax you enough that you weren't so tense. 

"You're gonna forget all about that fear when I'm balls deep inside you." 

What little comfort you found was gone once he whispered that into your ear. You felt your eyes widen and Leon's fingers worked their way under the waist of your shorts in a moment, the danger so imminent that your reaction ripped itself from your throat in a scream, and you returned to struggling against the unmistakable stiffness that dug into your inner thigh through his tight pants. 

"Leon, stop!"

You wailed, beating your fist against his chest and even catching him in the jaw, not that you really noticed in your frenzy nor did he react save for his brow furrowing in fury. It didn't last forever though, it was easy for him to use his leverage to shove you off, your back hitting the ground hard enough to sting while he loomed over you and watched with sick glee as you trembled too hard to get up. 

"You don't want me to stop. Be honest, doll." 

You weren't expecting this kind of violence from him, especially not when he brought his foot down right between your legs, as was evident by the way you shrieked and tears pricked at your eyes at once. Somehow he managed to aim the heel of his boot right at your clit, and you were certain now that it was by no way an accident by the way he ground into it in slow circles, and watched with a smirk as your hips shakily followed his rhythm of their own volition. 

"You want me to take everything from you, and I swear to you I will. I'll strip you of every inch of your pathetic life and make you mine." 

The pressure was starting to hurt, and your arms shot out to grab his calf and try in vain to wrench him off of your sensitive areas. It seemed to just entertain him, however, and his taunts were starting to sting your broken heart even more than any physical pain he had inflicted. Even worse was watching him lick his lips as he reveled in your suffering, and one of his hands descended beneath the belt of his trousers to stroke himself under the tent that was so clearly obvious. He loved watching you in pain, and nothing but rage bubbled up in your chest from the humiliation of loving somebody so depraved, even if he wasn't really Leon anymore. 

"I hate you,"

You muttered through gritted teeth, trying so hard to hold back your tears that your whole body was shaking. He let slip a soft moan as he twisted his grip on his cock, and didn't stop even as he focused those bloodred eyes on yours and growled in time with an especially rough tug. 

"Liar." 

Leon's grip fastened on your shoulder, but instead of pushing you back down to the filthy ground, he yanked you forwards and crushed your lips against his. Nothing but heat and the scent of blood overwhelmed your senses, your eyes fluttering closed when he started sucking on your lower lip and grazing it with his teeth. You wanted to hate the shivers that snaked up and down your spine from his kiss, but when it was from the man you still loved, it was difficult to brush those feelings aside. It wasn't impossible, however, because when he prodded past your lips with his tongue and moved in close enough for you to feel his cock twitching through his pants, panic flared up in your throat and you bit down on instinct, the coppery tang of his blood flooding your mouth at once. Leon shoved you off him much harder this time, but with the pain causing him to stagger you managed to scramble to your feet and back away a few steps to get some distance. But the fear of turning your back to him kept you frozen in place.

"You wanna be a brat, huh?"

Despite inflicting some much deserved pain, his glare barely wavered as he pulled his hand from his pants and wiped the blood that dribbled from his mouth, eyes gleaming with a lust for violence that you feared right now more than ever. 

"I'll let you have a ten second head start then, sweetheart. Better hurry."

You hesitated, his offer confusing you for a moment, but once the realization dawned on you your feet moved on their own. Sore and stained with tears and blood, you tore off down the castle corridors to search for an escape, and if not, then just a place for you to hide until Leon gave up on you, which would never happen. The thought of monsters barely dwelled in your mind when the most dangerous one was Leon himself, but little did you know that it would only take a short while for you to realize how fragile you really were when he wasn't protecting you, and that escaping without him was just simply not possible. 

"...Cheeky little slut. Let's just see how far you get before you come crawling back to me."

[delimeful]

Snapshot: Cleanse

snapshots: a new compilation of mini-fics taking place in the WIBAR universe! this one takes place a few days after Making Adjustments!

warnings: none! Whoops, All Fluff!

-

It was a few days after the Breakfast Ceasefire that Virgil decided enough was enough.

He needed a shower. Badly.

It didn’t matter that he was on an alien ship full of alien stuff, or that showering meant temporarily ditching the comfort of his hoodie, or even that two out of three aliens would probably happily see him dead at any opportunity.

He had picked up what felt like an entire football field’s worth of dirt, mud, and other muck while him and Patton were planet-hopping, and impromptu washcloth (read: a patch torn from the back of his shirt) cleaning sessions had only done so much. They only came across clean water every so often, anyhow. Most of it couldn’t be wasted on washing.

Patton had picked up on his discomfort back then— that or the smell— but the Ampen’s idea of ‘cleaning up’ was very similar to that of chinchillas’ back home on Earth: dust baths. That’s right. More dirt.

(Yes, he’d rolled around in the dirt with his friend. Contrary to popular interstellar belief, he wasn’t a monster.)

Still, it was time to come clean. Literally and metaphorically.

Patton had spent last night cuddled up to him, which meant that he had actually gotten a full eight hours of sleep (good!) and that Roman was probably sulking around (ungood!). The sense of clarity that came with not being quite so horrendously sleep deprived only made him more aware of how dirty he was. It felt like heresy to even touch any of the numerous well-sanitized surfaces in the ship.

“Patton,” he called, once the Ampen had started doing those little antennae twitches that meant he was half-awake. “Can you show me the wash room?”

The response was a little delayed, but eventually Patton startled into full wakefulness with a little chirp-peep that reminded him of a computer startup noise.

From there, he was led down the circular halls to a square room that sort of resembled a locker room shower area, complete with drainage grates in the floor. There was a ledge along one side of the room that led up to a windowbox-like protrusion, and Virgil could see from here that it was full of soft, beige dirt.

Patton paused, visibly turning his head from Virgil to the washbox, as though measuring things out in his mind.

“That’s probably too small for you, huh?”

Virgil stopped him before he could start making plans for a human-sized sandbox. “Uh, actually, Pat, I need water to wash.”

“Oh!” Patton exclaimed, more surprised than disconcerted. “Well, water we doing over here then?”

Virgil couldn’t hide a smile, and Patton crinkle-smiled back at him before waving him over to the opposite end of the room. He pointed up, where there were little circular discs with a grid of tiny holes set into the wall. “Here you go! Roman uses these to help with his slough, or when he gets particularly rough and tumble down on planetside!”

… Great. Odds were borrowing his shower was probably going to make Roman even more homicidal towards him. Virgil decided to worry about that later. For now, he was faced with the biggest challenge of them all: figuring out how a friend’s shower knobs worked.

Surprisingly, it seemed like the panel set into the wall below each disc worked similarly to the other touchscreens he’d seen set into the control room of the ship. Unsurprisingly, they were all labeled with the written form of Common, which meant he had about zero chance of figuring it out on his own.

Patton noticed his blank stare and patted at his knee, and Virgil squatted down easily so the undersized alien could clamber onto his shoulder. He rose up, and Patton’s little claws scrambled for purchase for a moment before he caught his balance, Virgil tense with preparation to twist and catch him if he fell.

“This little icon has the symbol for on, and this is how you get it hot or cold,” he chirped, leaning forwards to point at the screen for emphasis. Virgil obligingly shifted closer, trying to commit the guidance to memory. “You’re a little squisher than Roman, so you should probably change the pressure, too.”

Once he’d shuffled around so he was sure neither of them were about to get slammed by a jet of water, he tapped the power button.

A three-note chime played as a sort of countdown, and water shot out of the disc, at what was probably the appropriate pressure to powerwash muck from under tightly-packed scales. Virgil pushed the slider down until he could put his hand under without feeling any sting from the water’s impact. Then, he cranked the temperature up until it was just short of scalding.

Patton eyed the steam curling up into the air with a concerned fluff to his feathers, but didn’t protest after seeing the small, delighted grin that Virgil made as he held his hand under.

No, this wasn’t dunking his head in cold streams, or dipping his arm in a lukewarm puddle, or the humiliating icy hose downs in captivity. This was warm water. He’d never take it for granted again.

He shrugged out of his hoodie as he walked over to the entrance. “Does this… lock?”

“Any door on the ship can be sealed,” Patton replied, and bonked his head to Virgil’s sympathetically at the shudder that information sent through him. “Nobody’s going to lock anything without your permission, though, okay?”

“Yeah,” Virgil said, knowing he sounded less than convinced. “Can you guard the door, still? Just in case,” he added in English, one of the phrases he’d used a lot while they were on the run.

Patton gave him a sad look, more than aware how unsafe he still felt, but nodded firmly and dropped carefully down to the floor, taking up position just outside the door like a tiny sentry. Virgil draped his hoodie over him, and then-- checking that the others weren’t nearby to witness and freak out about it-- he gave him the world’s smallest noogie, ruffling the feathers atop his head with a knuckle.

Having preemptively twitched his antennae out of the way, Patton made one of those bird-like laughs at him, batting his hand away. “Go clean! And make sure you wash out for slippery floors!”

Virgil snorted, and carefully sealed the door behind him, trying not to think about the feeling of being stuck in a tiny square room again. He shook his head, dragging his thoughts back on track.

He had access to a warm shower, his first in literal months (...years?). He was going to stay under that spout until every bit of dirt washed down the drain.

---

Roman was midway through a session of storywriting when he heard Patton’s bright voice coming down the hall, passing by his room and chattering all the while.

His ears flicked back automatically to check in, and he frowned when he realized that he couldn’t hear Logan’s arms clicking alongside the Ampen. No, apart from Patton’s tiny tapping footsteps, there was nothing. Patton had to be talking to the Human, then, since he was the only one who ghosted around the ship silently enough to make Roman feel stalked at every corner.

Well. He’d grown tired of watching his characters make a rather vexing detour from his carefully-plotted main storyline anyhow, and he was loath to leave his smallest friend alone with a Human, regardless of how docile that Human pretended to be.

After a brief cleanup of his writing instruments, he was sweeping down the corridor to the commons after them.

Logan was already in the room when he arrived, which was surprising; even Roman had picked up on the ludicrous lengths the Human went to avoid the Ulgorian, as though Logan of all people was someone to be scared of. The nerd’s poison blood was the most “threatening” thing about him, and the Human had already shown how easily he could shake that off.

Patton was leading the Human by one hand, their size disparity as jarring and terrifying as ever. And the Human…

Roman turned his head to the side to study the scene more intently, and that in itself was strange.

Normally, Virgil was almost preternaturally aware of when he was being watched, according to Logan. It was obvious when he knew: the Human went tense and rigid, practically poised to pounce at any moment.

But now, he was trailing after Patton with a relaxed slope to his shoulders, his steps almost languid. He all but collapsed on the fluffy cushion Patton gestured to, eyes gliding shut as the Ampen climbed up after him.

Roman took a few steps into the room, and the Human cracked one eye open-- not entirely out of it, then. The mild suspicion he was regarded with was almost reassuring.

Upon closer inspection, there were physical changes, too. The human had gone from pale, almost grey-toned to having a pinkish tint to his skin. The grey-brown still clung to the hooded garment he’d draped himself in, creating an even more jarring contrast. Dirt, then? It would certainly explain the smudges he left everywhere he touched much better than some strange Human Residue.

… He wasn’t crossing Human Residue off the list of possibilities, though.

Most striking of all was his head. He had originally stalked around with a matted mess of fur, glinting oily in the light where it wasn’t dull with dirt. Now, the fur was clean and stuck out in little fluffy tufts, creating a much less menacing look overall.

Patton apparently agreed, because he’d scampered up to one shoulder and immediately buried his tiny hands into that fluff. Roman and Logan both startled, exchanging an alarmed-exasperated-fearful look, one that had become exceedingly more common after Patton came home with his new Human cellmate.

Surprisingly, all Virgil did was go even more boneless on the cushion, turning his head to better meet Patton’s touch. Patton closed his eyes happily, apparently completely fine with petting one of the most feared creatures in the galaxy.

That wasn’t surprising at all, actually.

What was surprising was the Human’s apparent tolerance for it.

“I wasn’t aware Humans enjoyed tactile ministrations,” Logan said, tapping his wristplates curiously. “Is Virgil alright?”

The Human in question turned slightly to glance at them, eyes still half-lidded. It was probably the least threatening body language Roman had seen from him since… well, ever. “Mm?”

“You’re just relaxing, aren’t you kiddo?” Patton combed through that mess of fluff some more and Virgil lost what little tension he’d regained. “Virgil spent a lot of time on guard while we were on the run planetside. He deserves all the time in the world to recuperate… and all the head scritches!”

Roman’s tail swished exasperatedly, but even he really couldn’t come up with a reason to begrudge the Human for this, not when Patton was so clearly enjoying having someone else onboard to preen. Even if that someone was a Deathworlder.

He moved to settle onto his own cushion under the guise of supervising, though for once he thought the Human might actually fall asleep in front of him.

And if he was perhaps just slightly curious about what exactly a fluffy Human felt like? Well, that was nobody’s business but his own.

[neutinya]

Some relationships are you, a human, with a human partner, and other are you, a human, and your 240cm tall monster bf, but that's okay - !! I included their backstory as well as the setting up of the general context for this AU below the cut so if you’re interested,,, do consider reading it fhdjdj;;; I'm really happy with how this turned out and it's super fun to draw monster tooru and his 4 arms lmao I'm super excited for this AU;;; I really wanna draw more of it dndjjxjd

Iwa is monster-hunter royal blood. However he doesn't want to be heir to the monster hunter shit so he decided to run away the day before his coronation??

As a kid he would play with all the monster animals near the forest which is where he met his lizard familiar and llama ceb. The day he runs away he brings them with him??

The moment he ran away from his kingdom and title as prince he was immediately hunted down by hunters sent by his own family for dishonouring them the Iwaizumi name. Like he's straight up wanted??? ahhh

Somewhere along the way he meets Tooru and they probably wouldn't get along at the start

?? Like they meet at some weird beer house?? And Iwa obviously sticks out because he's human and humans aren't exactly super welcomed because of the history between monsters and humans. Iwa being oblivious to the monster world obviously doesn't realise why this four armed dude won't stop pestering him in spite of his attempts to keep a low profile.

Tooru had approached him because he was sure if he didn't step in, Iwa would have been killed

Iwa was initially extremely resistant to Tooru's "advances" until Tooru whispers into Iwa's ear that "I don't know if you realised but almost every monster in this beer house is staring at you with the intent to kill, so unless you want to leave this place alive, play along and let me get you out of here"

And Iwa just looks around the room and he realises that Tooru was right so he plays along and they try to leave but one of the monsters in the beer house walks up to them and asks Tooru to back off so they could kill Iwa, and Tooru is just like "no can do, he's a friend of mine" and the dude is just like "move." But Tooru is adamant much to the annoyance of the other. A fight kinda breaks out, but much to Iwa's surprise, Tooru managed to take all of them down with ease

As they go aside, Iwa just asks Tooru why doesn't he want to kill him like the rest of the monsters and Tooru is just 🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷 Iwa apologises for causing such a big commotion and getting Tooru involved unnecessarily. Tooru says it's not a problem and Iwa not really having that much money on him, asks if he could return him in some other way? He offers a family heirloom at first but Tooru is just like "Not interested, although how about you let me tag along wherever you're headed?"

Iwa’s response is just "???" Tooru says "look, you aren't getting anywhere in these parts as a human, if I tag along, you won't have to worry too much about being killed and you returned the favour, it's a win win."

So that's how they kinda go off on their journey!!! Iwa actually learns a lot about monsters from Tooru who seemed much more knowledgeable than he looked (no offense to Tooru but that was Hajime’s genuine first impression) There were so many different types of monsters and Iwa was just?? So amazed and almost excited that there were so many things for him to learn and explore??

Like okay they had a bad first impression but he was kinda starting to like Tooru as a companion, listening to way Tooru told all those stories offered him a comfort that he never had back at home

Tooru did most of the talking honestly but Iwa was always intently listening and Tooru could tell he was intrigued and super attentive so he didn’t mind

He did ask Iwa about why he was wandering around in the first place and why the hell was he just traversing across the land with no plan or knowledge of the terrain. Iwa tells Tooru he ran away from his family but neglected to tell Tooru he was of royal monsterhunter blood. Iwa fires back the same question and Tooru responds saying “I get bored of spending all my time in the same old place every day.” neglecting to tell Iwa the fact that he too was of royal blood, the king to one of the many monster kingdoms. (Actually one of the most feared in fact??)

I was thinking the four armed form isn't his real monster form but a less scary version, he's actually a huge fearsome beast but he would walk around in this form to blend with the common folk. This also explains why people don’t recognize him, because if they really knew who he was, they’d be terrified of him.

Tooru is extremely flirty and generally enjoys teasing Hajime. Iwa's lizard does not like Tooru at all. It would be sitting on Iwa's shoulder, breathing small fireballs at Tooru whenever the brunette got too close- For example, when Tooru tries to wrap an arm around Iwa's shoulder or waist, Haji’s lizard would get extremely angry and began attacking him. Tooru is super upset about this tiny little creature preventing him from getting close to his new human companion, but nevertheless, he learns to pick moments where the lizard is asleep to try and engage with Haji

Sidenote, Iwa is a really fucking good archer and good at knives. He may not have had the heart to be a monster hunter, but he definitely had the physical skills to be one if he desired.

Of course there’s a bunch of shenanigans, but honestly speaking there’s also a good amount of sexual tension?? They have a lot of moments where they kinda save each other, whether it be having run ins with unfriendly monsters or humans, to navigating dangerous terrain and making hard decisions;;

They grow to be rather close friends I would dare say;; In fact, for the most part, Tooru would be Iwa's first genuine friend :(( Iwa was never given the luxury of having friends growing up. He spent most of his time training to be a monster hunter or learning about them, which is why he grew super attached to Tooru platonically at first

Once they have a pretty mean run in where Tooru ends up seriously hurt;; Iwa was so scared that he would lose Tooru at that moment;; Tooru fake dies to kinda tease Iwa but he didn't expect Iwa to cry, so as Iwa is there like "don't die on me you idiot-" Tooru "comes back to life" and is all like "awww is Iwa-chan crying because of me?" And Iwa, embarrassed, just punches him in the chest and wipes away his tears like "shut the fuck up asshole"

Tooru is just like "ow- I may not be dead but I'm still kinda hurt you know?" And Iwa feels bad so he just tries to play it off like "that's what you deserve dumbass" before treating Tooru's wounds. They end up spending the night at this cave near a lake where they decided to stay for a few days since Tooru was pretty beat up and the weather was pretty bad

Haji pretty much nursed Tooru back to health, finding berries, herbs and all that during the day in order to make medicine and food

I think at one point Tooru comments "You're really good at this kinda thing huh?" And Iwa is just confused like "good at what?" And Tooru elaborates "taking care of people. Not everyone can make medicine like you do you know?" And Iwa just says it was nothing and he learned most of it from reading when he was a kid

Also like I said the weather was pretty bad so imagine Iwa curling up next to his llama and lizard for warmth. Tooru finds it so fucking adorable??? Clearly the two of them loved Iwa and vice versa, but he couldn't help but feel a little jealous at the sight uxjxhdh

So like one night he just casually says "you guys sure look warm over there" and Iwa just looks at him like 😐

"I gave you my cape you know" and Tooru just "Monsters can't regulate heat like humans do, at least not my species" That was a lie but Iwa didn't know that, so he kinda just looks at Tooru funny before scooting over to Tooru and lying down next to him. His llama and lizard follow, and scoot on Tooru's other side so Tooru is kinda sandwiched in between Haji and the pets. Iwa just mumbles a quiet "now go to sleep dumbass" and Tooru just smiles like a fucking idiot

Iwa quickly dozes off but Tooru not so much, when he was sure Iwa was asleep he gently drapes the cape over Iwa instead before going to bed himself

The next day Iwa is the first to wake up and much to his fucking surprise, he was pretty much incapable of moving because Tooru had somehow wound up hugging him with two of his arms. He was so embarrassed he thought he could die so he could only stay there and not do anything. After while he realises that staying like that could only mean more mental suffering so he slowly tries inching away from Tooru to which he eventually succeeds

He does his morning routine which was to look for berries and herbs because Tooru needed quite a bit of medicine. Tooru was definitely close to being back to his healthy normal self but he still needed to make sure that everything was in check

[manslaught]

for someone who's concerned themselves with nothing more than self-preservation for their entire life, maybe mikayla should be more worried about whatever it is that's bothering tai—she's spent her entire life getting hurt, so she shouldn't stay when someone is more or less alluding to hurting her, too, but she wants to believe tai's just being paranoid. mikayla's not used to this, caring so much about someone else that her feelings blind her to what might really be best for herself. usually, saving herself matters more than anything else, but it's hard to care about that when being around tai has made her feel more whole than she's ever been, despite all the stress it puts on her. she hadn't realized before how god damn empty she was, putting all her energy into training for survival and pushing people away, telling herself none of them mattered, because none of them could help her—now that she's found someone who matters, she realizes just how much she was missing out on, even if she's hesitant to allow them more.

if mikayla could focus on anything more than just keeping tai here, maybe she'd realize how stupid both of them sound—insisting that the other should be scared of them without being willing to delve into why. “no, you would be. i'm not—normal.” not human, or at least not entirely. what she is isn't the scary part, because technically, her kind are supposed to be heroes. she's not, too selfish to do anything for anyone other than herself, but she's supposed to be one. it's just letting someone know about the other half of her world that's the terrifying part, because most people can't accept it—her sister's father had been driven insane by the knowledge, cured only when his memories were wiped completely, when he forgot everything he'd learned about gods and monsters. if they're lucky enough to last, maybe then mikayla would be more willing to tell tai the truth about all of it, when she's sure it won't run her off, drive her crazy, anything like that—but they still have a long way to go before that happens, if it happens.

the mention of tai's ex would normally irritate mikayla, but she's too relieved to be getting some kind of explanation to process that. she lets some of her anger go, her expression softening slightly. maybe it would help to tai the truth about herself, because maybe she'd be less scared if she knew everything else mikayla has to deal with—there's a brief moment in which she considers revealing something, even if its not the whole truth. she could break something, prove how opposite of fragile she is, but mikayla knows she can't do that without explaining herself further, so instead, she moves closer to tai, hesitating before reaching for her hands. “baby, stop—” she breathes out, hardly registering what words are coming out of her mouth, which is probably good, because the vulnerability would usually be enough to make her leave. “you don't want to hurt me. that's all that matters to me.” after living so long with a man who seemed to want nothing but that, who went out of his way to put his hands on her, to break her both physically and mentally, after surrounding herself with people who couldn't care less about anything other than her body, finding someone who doesn't want to hurt her felt impossible. “i know how to take care of myself. that's, like—the only thing i'm really good at. i'm sorry that happened, but you don't need to worry about me.” she's used to getting almost killed, though she doesn't know how to say that without tai automatically assuming she's just talking about her father—which is some of it, but not all. mikayla brings one of tai's hands up to her lips, pressing a kiss against her knuckles in an attempt to show she's not afraid, not even after what she told her. “you're not going to hurt me. and honestly, even if you do—i don't care. you'd be the only pain that's ever been worth it.” there's more she could say to emphasize just how little she cares about what tai could do to her, but the words i'm falling in love with you get stuck in her throat, so she tries for something else, something a little less unnerving. “i want all of you, okay? even the fucked up parts.”

taissa glares back at her with her jaw clenched,  because she wishes it was easier than this -- maybe it'd be better if mikayla just agreed and walked away.  it would have hurt all the same,  but at least she wouldn't have to keep fighting it.  at least they could both stop this push and pull they're been doing for so long now.  they want each other,  but they don't know how to have each other in a way that works without delivering some kind of crushing pain on either side.  for tai,  it's not about what she does feel for mikayla -- it's about what she's capable of when she feels it.  it doesn't work out for anyone,  not her or the other,  and knowing what mikayla's been through makes tai want to be even more cautious,  because she knows she doesn't deserve this pain.  but taissa is also selfish, and she fears that's outweighing everything else now,  because what she can't shake is that she wants to be with her.  more than anything.  more than protecting either of them,  because maybe it'll blow up,  but at least they can have it for a moment.    ❝   when i---  ❞   she starts,  her voice more harsh than mikayla's flat tone,  but she abruptly cuts herself off.  will admitting what she wants to say make this even harder?  saying it out loud makes it too real.  and yet---  mikayla is looking at her like that,  expectedly,  and tai may be good at pushing more people away,  but mikayla already feels too far.   ❝  when i fucking---  care about someone,  ❞    she blurts out,  rolling her eyes at herself,  not her words,  because she wishes it wasn't that hard.

she looks away,  because mikayla is right.  that's what it sounds like because it's what tai should be saying.  her eyes are locked on the floor as mikayla speaks,  but she's not expecting what she says --- and it should put into perspective how mikayla feels when tai says the same to her.  instead,  tai's head lifts again and she shoots a look at her.  ❝  i'm not scared of you,  ❞   she counters,  without understanding why she'd say it --- because tai isn't one to push, either.   ❝  i couldn't be.  ❞   it's then that she realizes she's not being fair to her --- saying all of this without any real explanation.  there isn't a lot she can give.  too much of what happened to them in the wilderness is sworn to secrecy,  a pact made with the other survivors that will hopefuly protect them for life.  but then there's the other parts --- the parts that tai herself is trying to bury,  like her sleep walking,  the other side of herself that hasn't come out since.   she could try to explain what happened to van,  but how does she start,  knowing she has to stop somewhere?   

she's silent for too long as her nails dig into the palms of her hands,  eyes darting around the floor as she tries to debate her words carefully.  maybe if she gives her a little, she doesn't have to watch her walk away --  no matter how unfair that is.   ❝  my last girlfriend,  ❞   she starts,  quickly clenching her jaw as she starts to lift her head.  ❝   i---   ❞   she pauses again,  and she quickly shakes her head to try to get through it.  ❝  i almost got her killed.  ❞   she probably should have died, given what happened, something that's haunted her ever since, but she goes on.   ❝  and she wasn't fucking fragile,  ❞   she says, repeating mikayla's words.  ❝  it was just-- me.   i'm the problem.  ❞    that leads to so much more,   other reveals she definitely can't talk about because she can't even make sense of them herself ---  like why her unconscious self had ripped the one thing van counted on and tai refused to believe in away from her and protected herself over her.   that's what hurts more than anything,  what she's never been able to figure out.   ❝  and i don't want anything like that to fucking happen to you.  okay?   i'm scared as hell of you getting hurt because of me.  ❞   that goes beyond physical,  too --- because she doesn't know what kind of girlfriend she could be  if that's what mikayla wanted.