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estrelladeishtar-archive · 7 months ago

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♀ // After the tower, comes the star

Been dwelling a bit on Charter Verse AU Ishtar lately- mainly since originally they were like, meant to be a charter of their own district while working under NSR? Both them & Zion since their concepts have been meant to be charters (& I'll delve into charter verse Zion at some point too), but honestly in my hcs I imagine they'd be like... They end up being more recently set up charters prior to the revolution? Like, they haven't been around as long as the other charters so to speak Their own aims & ambitions throughout becoming charters, for them both, were in their own hopes/aspirations to make things better throughout Vinyl City, not to mention sort of push back with more power against the way NSR originally was running things, since as charters they'd be able to have more say & thus, their own hopes of trying. I headcanon that they were like, NSR elite status prior to—in the sense that they had joined NSR's ranks as musicians, later ascended to being charters outright, with such an aim in mind. Especially as they ofc saw the glaring faults (& have. Always been ones to be critical about & oppose such things too, especially Zion given the kinda person he is)

Also, info on Ishtar's District, as some of it will be relevant

But, that all laid out, I'm going to focus a bit on Charter Verse Ishtar & just... Their overall ordeal as one? Tossing under read more cause this is lengthy, some of this may be disorganized wording (I hope its not) but regardless.

So, delving into their charter verse...

I'm going to establish a few things with Ishtar's past first that I think are important, with these things being applicable to them regardless if they're a charter, NSR artist but non-charter, purely indie musician AU (still thinkin abt that one whether it's a neutral end or bad end ordeal), or rock/metal AU (sort of a bad end outcome)

So, with Ishtar... This is a MAJOR tl;dr (believe me I can go VERY in depth in depth), but... the whole thing about them is the fact that they don't exactly come from the best of circumstances, formerly a music hobbyist who got caught up in aspiring to the music industry, was swept up in it a bit too early, & then... sadly, on top of the hardships faced in their upbringing, there came the rather brutal trials & tribulations that came as they stepped into the music industry, especially at the hands of a musician far more famous than them, known by the name "Kaletu" as he'd further springboard them abruptly into the industry, with their luck & rapid ascension in the industry a bit early on. Things went down as their story would play on the issue of "people in an industry who use their power/fame/status to abuse others & get away with", as Ishtar became his casualty, yet with Zion together would speak out on all the cruelties he'd committed—even if it didn't really lead to any legal repercussions. In this time they'd made plans to move off to Vinyl City, leave behind Catemaco which is where they're from, & close out such a painful chapter, with hopes for better--ambitions & aspirations leading them down the path of establishing themselves in NSR alongside Zion (altho they wouldn't do so right away)—yet, still finding themselves facing their own hardships in personal life (especially with Tammuz too, someone from their past they once were involved with). Yet even throughout this, maintaining compassion for those in Vinyl City, as they've always revolved around this element, & w/ the glaring faults from NSR, trying hard to use their position to help smaller artists, bridge the gap & hopefully from within help with furthering changes. As well as them extending compassion & support to other musicians, no matter if big or small, advocating for them, being critical of NSR & directly doing things to pose opposition from within, hoping it can do something to turn around the way NSR was running things, which does prove... more challenging than initially thought esp w their own personal shit too they have going on (as Zion does too, the two believing firmly in supporting one another & so on, so forth) Throughout everything, their whole personal story has been one of undergoing tons of trials & tribulations, yet rising above all their circumstances & holding on to their own hopes for better, & extending hopes to others too that they aid, & not only that, them having to learn to not lose themselves & who they are at their core to their past traumas, especially in their earlier years where the things they go through... For some time, do turn them cynical, hateful, full of anger that turns them into a person they're not--& in time it almost costing them their only remaining connection after their past, that being w Zion. Until they turn things around for themselves & further soar higher than before & make amends with him as well. But, amidst it, with trust & vulnerability issues it causes them to be withdrawn from most, struggling with connecting with others, which... Proves an issue if they want to be able to make their aspirations for change through their position a reality, in using their compassion to bring about further meaningful change too.

I could elaborate further, bc again this is a VERY quick run down but if I rambled on I'd end up with a 3290432 page google doc (only half joking, y'all should see the ramblings I go on about Zion & Ishtar to others b ut ANYWAY)

Amidst everything, the arcs w them as a character are not only to not let the past change them into something they're not, but also to move forward, to let themselves embrace trust/connections/vulnerability again, so it can aid them further in the change they want to advocate further for, as well as letting themselves receive the same love & compassion that they give to others (not to say they're all love & light btw. But again, another time)

But now, with all that out the way... Onto their charter AU in full...

So, given the timeline I have for them & all, honestly they wouldn’t have become a charter until most likely the stuff after Tammuz that went down w them being in Vinyl City, tbh? There’s no way that w the turbulence ongoing in their life back then that they would have become a charter shortly after arriving in Vinyl City, & I figure that things basically follow the same path of like. Them getting into NSR as an elite only at first, w the rest of the stuff that plays out in their regular timeline playing out the way it does—Zion in this AU would also be a charter too, he was quick in rising to charter status given the life he’d been paving for himself. but as a whole, Ishtar still goes through the stuff they do, up until the temporary falling out w Zion & the shit w Tammuz, & the end of that & the unhealthy behaviors they fell into again for some time before they end up making amends w Zion again

Its around the point in time that they make amends w Zion, however, that w them putting their foot down on everything, they decide to really spur their focus to soar higher & come out atop everything—prompting them to push harder, immerse themselves in full towards working on becoming a charter & also, not just bc of personal reasons but they figure in becoming a charter they could maybe, maybe, have more say in how things are run in Vinyl City to help turn things around w how NSR’s running shit, & also it further aiding in just rebuilding themselves after everything too ambitions that prove harder to fulfill than initially thought though—but still, they do ascend to charter status, w their district pathway being established… I wanna say between Metro & Dream fever tbh—

Esp considering this concept i had as a "What if in game?" thing here:

(also, an important sidenote that Ishtar & Zion are both really close friends. They have been through thick & thin w each other for so long, so yeah)

I wanna say that, with Ishtar rising to charter status, its… Considering that Ishtar was created with them being a charter in mind, their personality doesn’t exactly change all too much from what it is now? But there is the fact they actually do become more apprehensive, withdrawn from most around them compared to as a regular NSR artist—more guarded still now because its like… Lying low during periods they wanna lay low is now harder, & there’s even more a spotlight being put on them in a way to where they aren’t always able to withdraw/retreat into the bg in instances they may want to, making things all the more daunting for them for sure... Especially when they have issues around trust & vulnerability, & meanwhile are always sorta holding up this lighterhearted demeanor & this upkeep of their physical appearance bc—its so ingrained in them, & here in this AU? it becomes even further instilled in them, by comparison.

You have to constantly uphold your lighterhearted demeanor, you can't be viewed, ever, as unsightly, be it through your physique or overall personality

So a couple pre-existing traits that are now turned up higher…

Well—Somewhat, bc at the same time despite this, you still can see elements of them attempting more open vulnerability & more open connections, through the way they engage with those that reside within their district—

Through the way they allow themselves still to extend themselves out to smaller musicians, engage interact with them & even has invited em into collabs with at their main venue, or their secondary venue which this one is where they’re more versatile w diff genres. & Hell, they actively do shit where they literally allow for indie musicians to host performances in the main plazas of their district or ask them for their ordeal with their venue, does not matter the genre they do not care. & Tbh, wouldnt be surprised if they would have gotten shit from NSR for refusing to ban rock in their own district during the start of the revolution even? Them & Zion both had that element of defiance against forbidding rock from their districts, even if that put them at risk of losing their position bc—fuck that, the prohibiting of such a genre is absurd to them & especially to Zion, who believes in self expression through any creative outlet to embrace yourself in full

There’s also the fact that well, the Plutonic Gardens in their district itself is another means of this whole… attempts at such things.

(Some examples of what I envision for the plutonic gardens in their district, in terms of general vibe/aesthetic, are here? Used that cause discord links ain't ideal-)

The gardens here as I mentioned w the district locations thing are, well��this is p much a place where there’s an ample number of the crystalline sculptures Ishtar makes? These taking on a more personal tone, tying back to Ishtar themselves on a personal level, some touching on themes of their own past, some in general being a glimpse into their own overall self for who they are, beyond just the lighterhearted side of t hem they show... Yet, heavily ladden with symbolism that isn’t exactly easy to decipher for non-practicioners of occult stuff so—its why this is,,, a more indirect means of vulnerability on display, not entirely openly so due to the fact they’re still really guarded either way despite attempts

But still, an effort nonetheless

More open connection attempts also are made through how they generally. Try to be more open also w other NSR staff. Its a weird position though for them as they’re both in this in between space of trying but also withholding themselves (& is even moreso withdrawn from those they don’t get along with,) so, almost this back & forth w/ themselves in opening themselves up that’s probs more amplified? Compared to them just being an elite. But still, more open somehow. To an extent, its connecting more openly, but all more surface level probably i’d say. Getting deeper than surface level takes longer meanwhile.

This paradox of they’re somehow more open, but more withdrawn at the same time.

I will say, something that probably ends up not… Helping their guarded nature when it comes to this sort of thing is, well—

So, in my own headcanons (given i follow a personal hc that NSR also recruits musicians through keeping tabs on musicians in the industry across the world that they especially see are at the top, & inviting them to join the company, somethn I shared w Al), I've had it set that the famous musician that Ishtar once was involved with, Kaletu, likely was someone who was on NSR’s radar in terms of artists to invite onto the record label—this being in the time frame before everything about his cruelties, esp those towards Ishtar, came to light. Tl;dr he declines joining but says he’ll consider in the future to keep that line possibly open, but later on, & even knowing Ishtar’s part of the record label itself especially, tries to talk w NSR about reconsideration of his invitation—gets shot down immediately bc of all the things that are public about him & the shit he’s done, etc etc.

But that little context aside I figure that—given his own. Awareness of NSR & stuff. Likely, with Ishtar rising in status as a charter he would have caught on, & likely. Tried to take jabs, bc the fact that the one he’d targeted still remaining in the industry & ascending to such a status has him less than pleased & thus. While Ishtar has all lines of contact to him severed (since years ago), & they p much try their best to keep moving forward, I won’t deny that something like that does set them back initially in their own ordeal w becoming a charter—this awareness of how much less they’ll be able to display sides of them that could possibly be deemed ‘unfavorable’, vulnerability further tightly locked away at the start becomes even more guarded & clammed up. & For some moments it does make them contemplate if allowing themselves to have become a charter was the best decision, especially with this sort of awareness of how much more eyes will be on them, even from ones like him, etc etc. Things like that

Ultimately, they don’t let those factors cause them to back down—but. It is a factor that leaves them a lot more. In that weird paradoxical state of. Trying to push past everything be more open (esp bc in being more open they can better foster their own community & fans & better work towards bringing about better for those in their district &, in their hopes, Vinyl City), yet at the same time guarding themselves highly—

I feel they sort of fall into this sort of. Trap also. Of just. They start. Almost lowkey putting everyone else above themselves? Throughout their time as a charter?

They focus so heavily on their general ambition of bringing about better for others through use of their position as a charter—yet, there’s like… They’re shirking away from letting themselves be open, connect in ways more than just surface level out of fear, putting the focus on their fans way too heavily almost over themselves & caring more about everyone else

… All while their own internal struggles & stuff are kept sequestered away, locking them away harder, any pressures they feel kept to themselves, any sort of worries & fears & anxieties being things they dwell in alone, because—what’s to happen if your own district members start to see the sides of you that others once deemed unsightly? What’s to happen if your vulnerabilities slip out a bit too much rather than through the light drip-feeding you do (for ex through their sculptures that, display such things yet, it takes deciphering them to even register that in the first place) What’s to happen if you ever show anything that could make others instantly doubt your proficiency as a charter?

Others always have deemed you too emotional, too passionate to a degree that’s distasteful, too much in extremes too volatile regardless of how true that is on anything, a rejection of what you were like before being something that has been consistent & thus, with those experiences... It sort of amplifies the concern that w them being a charter now, that now there’s even more importance in making sure only the sides of them ppl like can be seen & not, anything else that lies beneath that typically turns people against you or drives them away

Ironically enough though this is somethn that DOES cause fans to worry because, it starts to slowly seep out in one way or another—&… those who especially have been long-standing fans of Ishtar. Start to. Notice.

However—You have a standard to uphold though, one that’s been instilled in you all your life since your upbringing & now that you’re in the position you’re at, that expectation has to be higher right? You cannot deviate from it, you have to live up to that standard Despite the fact they have been healing from a lot, well… there’s also the fact that these behaviors crop up still because they’re still… playing yet again into the very themes addressed with them so to speak

It doesn’t help that you’ve had an increase in weird parasocial &/or objectifying fans too now that you’re a charter (Something that is part of their history. Eventually that'll be discussed though). Not to a degree to where it was like their past at least, no, & their fanbase STILL actively spurns those types heavily so its not like the risk of their fanbase returning to what it once was is there, but its still… a notable increase.

You’re there constantly trying to help & please & make others happy & help them, care for them, turn things around for them—& you are passionate about that, sure. I mean its even why you enjoy your work w occult stuff on the side, because of that reason of what you use it for… Yet you suppress yourself from your community & won’t even welcome in any support from others amidst how all this affects you too, because you refuse to let your guard down. Which all the while isn’t beneficial to trying to foster community & bring em together better for better change, & meanwhile your own community is starting to worry in a way about you also through the things that slip through the cracks, because you’re so strung up in putting everyone else before you & neglecting yourself that at some point some of it will start to spill. But you hide it. Hide it well. Hide it well. You have to.

You dread what’d happen if you properly connected with them outside of the exterior you show—ironically enough though, you also hate that you can’t. Its. Being a paradox. You’re paradoxical as a charter.

Then you’ve also got to deal with those who are trying to find any single thing to deem you unfit as charter & to try to get rid of you too, despite the advocacy you constantly do alongside Zion for those in the city... Alongside other stuff w NSR that’s stressful (ESPECIALLY the ordeals w DJ, as I hc they clash heavy with him a lot in their hatred for musicians who view themselves atop everyone else), alongside the process of healing you’ve been on for a while that aint easy, alongside dealing w the increased shit from Kaletu & his messy ass fanbase, alongside weird parasocial &/or objectifying fans, alongside plenty other things that make you just wonder if you were in over your head amidst this all

Yet you still try your damn hardest... & Any concerns from coworkers you brush under the rug too, that's assuming they happen to catch on anyway.

A lot of this whole ordeal is ironic bc they’re pretty much caught up in this loop, because they’ve never really let themselves start opening up to closer connections in full yet at this point in time?

Its literally AFTER revolution that they start doing so. Similar to their non-charter NSR artist version of them

This whole winding up back in that loop, is… in a way, partially self inflicted—them being their own self undoing through this being their own worst enemy (In typical 12th houser style (me making an astrology joke only i understand maybe, leave me be /lh))

The reason i say its partially self inflicted is bc—To some extent, there is valid/legitimate reasoning for them falling into this guarded / suppressed version of themselves, bc they do have the issue of weird/parasocial/objectifying fans, that try to dig & pry at their personal life & in ways that are wildly uncomfortable or who act entitled to them & so on. They have the issues w ppl who have been harsh & unfair towards them still, they have had the whole… mess w being in the public eye & needing to really enforce & maintain their boundaries & whatnot which is harder given how fans can be, & its a bit harder to lay low now whenever they please, because of their status & their disdain in ONLY ever being in the spotlight but w/o bein able to pull back when they wish (This does also start to lead to some general slow progression of avoidance too w ppl which is another red flag that somethn’s up w them)

But its also for sure in some ways self inflicted, because like… In being so. I guess, to some degree self sacrificing? Bc of that, I kinda figure w the things they do for others & their fanbase & the fact they’re so openly compassionate w those in their district & everything—that leaves an impact on people, in a positive way to where fans HAVE wanted to also. Sort of care for them too. Even though to them they… they tend to not think highly of the things they do bc to them its “not enough” (WHICH IS. A TENDENCY THEY HAVE ACROSS ALL ITERATIONS OF THEM. FOR LITERALLY ANYTHING THEY DO. They don't seem to recognize the things they do happen to do for others that's valued because, in their eyes, it's just... They don't think as highly of the things they already do for others w/o second thought?)

To them, what they do isn’t enough, its never enough, they have to push further, they have to constantly be doing the most they can & it isn’t helped by those “fans” also who are unnecessarily pushy w them demanding of them in ways that are crossing lines, esp when they’re already actively trying the most they can to make things better w those in their district & hoping to help w making things better in Vinyl City at large You keep others walled off from you, because you think they’ll spurn you—when if anything its the opposite, they would literally welcome your full range of expression & you no longer suppressing yourself & so on if you JUST. LET YOURSELF. ACTUALLY. PUSH PAST THE SELF IMPOSED RESTRICTIONS YOU KEEP DOING TO YOURSELF

&, of course.

All this comes out in some ugly tipping point throughout their fight lmao

Bc like, w the revolution happening—the thing w them is that they already at that point have been… Well they’re not blind to the faults of NSR by this point &, with Zion, have been openly critical about it, they've probably had disputes in meetings over some things too within NSR. They’re also both newer charters to Vinyl City too, so being swept up in all this when they’re charters who openly have been trying to work in the system to try to change it well...

Getting caught up in that mess in & of itself already is less than ideal.

But the thing that gets to Ishtar is—Well, the fact that even amidst all they do for others & everything its not been enough. & Even in the moment of defiance that Ishtar & Zion show to NSR themselves, in the whole “no fuck you, we’re not banning rock in our districts, you can try, we're enabling it actually” & them trying to push back in their own other ways (which yeah probably DOES stir a bit of an issue) Well—The fact that for Ishtar, anything they tried doing in vouching for better for the city, anything they tried doing to make things better is like... Almost immediately tossed out & forgotten by those in the revolution? It stings, because it sorta adds to that whole feeling that what was done wasn’t enough—but then there’s also the fact that… well. The revolution gets out of hand to the way it does, to where they get caught in the crossfire, in unfair ways

W ishtar & Zion, they both end up having to undergo having their district completely trashed, & w Ishtar they have to end up seeing that things they’d created throughout the district that had deep personal significance to them get completely ruined, shattered

The thing w their district is—a lot of themselves was poured into it, as sort of a whole … creating something for themselves & rebuilding themselves after all their past shit they’d been through. W the reaching charter status & creating such a haven for both themselves & others, it was sort of this… Further means of leaving behind past stuff & really stepping into an era w them flourishing, even if things do get messy throughout the process considering. How they are. Sdflks

The things they put into their district, a lot of em have this personal connection & significance to them. & Especially the shit in the Plutonic Gardens w all the sculptures & stuff there that are indirect expressions of their own vulnerabilities & shit There’s a lot of deep personal significance in this whole place. & for such a haven getting trashed & havin even valuable sculptures of theirs that carried TONS of weight due to the things it ties to for them being shattered amidst the revolution, having others demean them despite the things they actively have tried for others throughout the revolution & everything Having all that be ruined or destroyed or trashed in some way I kinda hc there’s even one sculpt that had a lot of personal value that was given to them by some in their own fanbase, that was sort of a whole… its by older fans who did that as an appreciation thing for them & support in all their struggles esp from the era they dealt w Kaletu That getting destroyed

This is... Also not helped that this whole revolution started a day before their b-day (like, its canon that the banning of rock started on Aug 7th-

& Ishtar's b-day is... August 8th LMAO & I also kinda hc that some ppl in said revolution did stir shit in their district that day too. Even aware of this fact.

& All that’s not getting into the… directly going & fighting them after actively sabotaging their district. By which when you first meet them in their fight, the encounter takes place during a concert of theirs obvs & you can. See the effects of their music on the crowds—their. Music has a passive trance-like effect by default on those who listen, enchanting them with their music, pulling them in & immersing them under their spell, in their performance to really amplify a more otherworldly ethereal like experience Almost spiritual in a way

Pulling you in deeper into their astral realm

The entire venue is this. Its a dark atmosphere lit up with neon hues, vibrant glows & magic of their own, legit the entire venue is powered & lit up from their cosmic energy & it is NOT something that’s like easy on them. &... They have their usual demeanor upheld when you encounter them, but there very much is an obvious disdain in their tone, venom starting to seep into their words, the start of when everything seeps out really (Considering how i have Ishtar & Zion’s districts set up in this whole “you can go to either district first & the other after, but whichever you go after first leads to the other character’s difficulty being amplified more than usual compared to if you’d gone after them first” element… if you. Happened to go after Zion’s district & defeat it first before them? This demeanor would not be there & their emotional suppression is completely coming undone at their anger that you went after Zion)

(Btw, Ishtar has 4 phases throughout their fight. I'ma casually gesture over to their reference here, they start out in their human form but w each phase they change until they've reached their full alien form w diff coloration & all. Them having regular human skin tone in human form is intentional so that it really makes their alien self stand out as they start to shapeshift fully to it.)

& Throughout their fight it. It really causes this lighterhearted side to finally falter & give way to the more emotionally intense & passionate sides of them coming out on full display, emotional vulnerability starting to bleed out & ESPECIALLY during their end of 3rd phase & final phase where they. Make use of their lunarian 12H ability in those last two phases

Them pulling no punches by that point letting their emotions power & fuel their abilites in full so these def are. Difficult phases as their abilities are amplified due to their emotions but they also are v much risking hurting themselves & def pushing past their own limits (even MORESO if you go against them after Zion first)

Everything that’d been suppressed fully jumps out completely in this fight & esp during Lunarian 12H ability in their end phases taking effect. & There’s also things it draws out from Mayday & Zuke too that fuck them up mentally i figure bc of the way this shit works.

Drawing out a lot of their own subconscious emotions on full display to hurt, subconscious fears, & past hurts/pains. Using their lunarian 12H ability at its fullest potential, which To directly copy paste the impacts of this ability of theirs

“Can make the area around them look like an illusory, space-like/ethereal place, channeling the themes of the 12th House (in astrology], making it seem otherworldly. Given those themes, the area becomes imbued with an effect that makes emotions significantly more amplified, pulling them out from the subconscious–a 12H theme–to either induce an emotional high (during their performances) or intense emotional low (strictly during combat) on those within the affected area. To more intense degrees, desires that are repressed may come afloat more easily, whereas during combat, subconscious pains & fears come afloat, causing intense emotional suffering on the target. These take the form of illusions, only visible to the affected person… Or, if pushed to its absolute limits, said pains/fears take a physical manifestation that can be engaged with by anyone in the area, in addition to some parts of the area giving visuals to things around these fears/pains the person has. Again, 12th House themes. However, Ishtar does not like using their ability at full potency/intensity in combat given how taxing it is”

Aside from it towards the end as you defeat them, it drawing out. All of Ishtar’s own things in full. & the full weight of things w them & going against them really kicking in full swing.

Their fight is one that gets ugly & really. A lot of things that you see from them are not... They're things that would likely weigh on BBJ for going after em perhaps.

…& Funny enough post everything, they’re… There’s the dread that washes over them that, now that fans have seen all this. Unsightliness they’d suppressed for so long. Now that other charters may even have seen this side of them too. Other NSR staff. If they were keeping tabs on how things got during their fight.

That now, they’re going to be spurned, that all the things they fear will come true. When meanwhile, at least with their fans from what i know, that wouldn’t be the case exactly.

As for how others in NSR would view them following this... something to speculate on (& also toss at some other friends maybe w nsr ocs jsdlfd)

I also... Considering the things that got damaged, the things that happened with, I don't think they'd be so forgiving of BBJ. Not easily, not at all. It's something that's really up in the air & esp with the issues Ishtar has going on.

This is p much the general gist &... Yeah this got lengthy as is (now imagine my other in depth rambles about them on many other subjects, some which are heavier djslf). But it's sort of I guess. An overview? On the whole ordeal with Ishtar & them as a charter & the like, so yeah.

A lot of thoughts to condense into this post & I guess more public unveiling of things I think about them & esp w their charter verse being at the forefront mentally currently. (Most of this is p much set in stone it's just... Wording & maybe some slight tweaks here & there, but yeah.)

#not art ;#OC: Ishtar Celis #nsr oc #no straight roads oc #nsr #ig lmao #Venusian alien's writings ;#Venusian alien's ocs ;#Venusian alien's sonas ;#no straight roads #ig???? idk

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valeriefauxnom · 5 months ago

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Things that the "It-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named" Manga hinted at that might have been interesting, were it an actually good work:

So, as we all know (or maybe we don't?), there was a terrible two-part Dragalia manga that they made at the beginning, likely just as a sort of advertising. One problem: it was bad.

For starters, whomever was in charge of it seemed to have a very, very poorly understanding of Euden as a character. The best I can describe it is if you put Euden, Emile, and dash of Leonidas' inability to remember his siblings' names into a blender and let 'er rip. And I dunno about you, but Emile and Euden are not exactly alike. But no, somehow the writer got the understanding that the reason Euden hasn't set out to form a pact was out of laziness than just a peacekeeping measure that the actual Euden was doing (well, a bit more to it than that, but I'll come around to it later).

When combined with the author unable to not have Euden be, let's say, weird in regards to Zethia (a thing that Dragalia itself commendably relentlessly fought against even to the end despite a depressingly large party of the community thinking otherwise. Before I get on that whole tangent, I'd just like to remind everyone that in the very last event they both stressed that no matter what they still see themselves as siblings) because, you know, everything's gotta be stereotypical (read, bad) anime and manga, right?

So yeah. Needless to say, we are pretty much wholly in AU territory from the start. WillofWinnie aptly described it (a headcanon I have incorporated) is that it is Euden through Emile's perspective, ie, assuming Euden is more like him and otherwise putting him in an unflattering light.

However, AU itself is not necessarily bad. And when I look at the few little hints of what might have been an interesting alternative telling to Dragalia, I just mourn all the harder that it might have had something compelling.

Here's a collection of things that might have been fun/interesting, were they not in so poorly a manga. That's right, I'm addressing the dragon in the room, the biggest forbidden topic in the Dragalia Fandom, and made myself Suffer(tm) to not only snip out parts that I think might have had potential, but also incidentally make this thing look much better than it was! Strap in, folks, cause this is gonna be long!

-First of all, this isn't even a manga-exclusive thing, but I just like seeing Sol Alberia properly. Turns out it's this massive city enclosed in walls!

-Perhaps the biggest change implied of all is that manga!Alberia seems to have a much more fluid understanding of who the next-in-line is. In canon, it's pretty much lock and key that provided nothing happens, Leonidas will inherit. Nobody really challenges his authority as heir-apparent. And with him regularly reaffirmed to be the eldest, it's clear that he isn't actually a younger sibling that just happens to be the favored for the throne right now.

Euden (well, dream Euden, but this imagining of him is of a much more in-character version of him than Gala!Mym's imaginings) even had this to say in a story:

But the siblings in the manga are stated to be in an outright inheritance war, which, since they're not just murdering each other, means that there would be other ways to gain the throne without eliminating the competition through death:

(Gotta say, the overly-ominous framing of the siblings is something pretty funny to me even if they are indeed bad news early Dragalia)

This could be its own point of interest, because notably, it's the exact thing canon Euden feared pre-game. Canon Euden establishes that his primary reason for not even attempting to make a pact is because he doesn't want to be viewed as usurper with dreams of power, now making a move. He'd rather be viewed as the weak, ineffectual sibling that is no threat to preserve harmony. However, given the more locked-in inheritance order in canon, Euden's fears are perhaps slightly excessive.

For the siblings to be worried about him as a true threat, they'd have to be worried about him killing Leonidas, Phares, Chelle, Valyx, and Emile before he'd be the crown prince. Of course, there's other ways to gain power, but the fear he's trying to take the crown would likely be a more remote fear.

In Not!Euden's world, though, Canon Euden's fears would be fully justified. Here, the throne is not near-guaranteed to rest in Leonidas' hands, and here Euden is immediately a threat if Aurelius starts to view him more favorably than his 'competitors'.

On a tiny note, this might also help align one of the relations diagram they put out as an ad before Dragalia launched, wherein Leonidas and Phares mutually consider each other 'worthy rivals':

In canon, we mostly only see shades of this relationship in Phares' lines wherein he comments that his alchemy work started after Leonidas' and how he's happy to have surpassed him in that, as well as Leonidas' general respect (well, for Leo) of Phares, but that's all. In the manga, though, they could be rivals in a more true sense for the throne.

The implications of this big change are also interesting in regards to Emile. Emile is his same-old abrasive self in the manga, but in the manga world, some of his initial anger would also be more justified surrounding Euden being sent out to pact.

As was ever-so-gently brushed upon in canon rarely, the Dragon Choosing and pacting is not an easy process by any means, physically or mentally. Here, Emile is upset that Euden has essentially been given a fast pass and cut the line, the agony, all that, and is in his view being favored by Aurelius, which I think is fair.

Aurelius might only be doing this just for the emergency of the situation instead of letting the Dragon Choosing/pacting being a voluntary endeavor like it was for the rest, but Emile (and likely the rest of the siblings) would naturally view this as huge favoritism and a sign the throne might go to Euden if they don't do something to regain favor/make him look bad.

And you know what? That might have been an interesting AU direction to take things, had they committed to it. The understandable misconception that Euden is now somehow the golden child (even more inconceivable compared to canon Euden as it is) leading to sibling arguments for the throne could be cool.

-On a lighter note, not!Euden is correct in one thing: Emile certainly will bring harm to him!

-Euden vs Combat, fight!

The relationship between Euden and not!Euden regarding fighting is a very interesting contrast. Both don't exactly love it; Euden might go to lengths to try and resolve things before coming to blows, but is ultimately willing.

Not!Euden, though, while he similarly dislikes fighting, goes a bit further than Euden does.

He skips sword lessons (a thing only attributed to Emile in canon), completely lacks any sort of will to fight. As I mentioned at the start of this, the bulk of it is attributed to laziness, but there's a small caveat.

This is where it gets frustrating, because at times the manga edges close to the canon personality of Euden but shies away from every fully meeting up to where it could take it in a new direction whilst remaining true to the core. Case in point, not!Euden here also dislikes fighting/power because he dislikes spilling blood, and because, as Zethia puts it, dragons=power=conflict to this Euden, tying back in to the whole inheritance war.

This could have been an intersting fork off of Euden, because they additionally share another divergence: talent, or lack thereof.

Canon Euden is actually addressed several times to not really have any talent in swordplay. He's fledgling, mediocre, as remarked by people like Raemond and Leif, and lacks for the natural skill Leonidas or any of his other relatives might have had with a weapon.

It's only through his incredible hard work and perseverance he's shown to have (plus all the do-or-die moments he's forced into over the years) that he gains the skill that he does, which again immediately contrasts with not!Euden skipping outright.

And yet, manga!Euden is noted to have talent. He's just not using a lick of it to actually gain skill.

This might just be Leif trying to puff him up, encourage him, but it doesn't seem to be when he's privately talking to Aurelius later:

(Leif get some sleep to get rid of the bags under your eyes, even if I'm sure dealing with this iteration of the family is even more taxing than normal). Ahem. The point is, is that this Euden has talent but no will or drive to get better but canon Euden has the inverse. While it might be tempting to frame this as an immediate way that the manga is worse ('oh of course, he's secretly got all this talent that he can just bust out at the convenient plot moment, get stronger for doing nothing at all'), I could see it as an interesting fork to Euden as a character if they handled it right, which they admittedly wouldn't in the manga.

What I mean would be mixing some of what we know about canon!Euden into the mix. Namely, Euden has a notably deficient sense of self-worth I've gone over several times. With siblings like Emile and Leonidas, it would be easy to further that into a thing partially caused by their attitudes that tend to push down others. In essence, I think one could have reconstructed his low self-esteem as a result of sibling bullying to the point where he even views trying as a futile endeavor, but as the story goes on and as he is no longer 'under their thumb' quite as much and then can actually use that room to allow any talent and skill to bloom. A sort of healing process and the change from derision to encouragement from those around, you know?

I'll stop there before I go start writing an AU of a bad AU of Dragalia, but hopefully you get where I'm going with that idea. The point is, him having all this apparently ~secret talent~ doesn't necessarily have to be bad!

-On another more lighthearted/less plot-heavy note, I will commend the artist for taking the bold step in finally giving Zethia some darn shoes, even as sandals.

-Honestly, regarding Zethia, she just kinda girlbosses her way through the manga, and good for her! Plenty of legitimate criticism can be levied with the way Zethia is initially handled as just another damsel in distress, but in its brief, generally poorly life, at least this manga's Zethia was kicking butt.

She's unequivocally the stronger between her and Euden, and as a result her overprotective side is on better display from the get-go (as both the twins had it in canon, and a later plot thread was actually getting them more independent of each other. Euden's was just naturally the one with more exposure)

Also ouch on the roasting there Zethia, but not!Euden probably deserves it.

Hard as it is to give credit where credit is due for this, again, good for her! (Even if it is just set up as a means to point out that terrible old 'protagonist is a useless baby' trope in anime/manga, but I digress.)

-Back to plot heavy stuff, Aurelius vs. Morsayati, fight!

As we know from canon, Aurelius was perfectly fine until he entered the Binding Ruins, wherein he was possessed by Morsayati and then started chapters 2-26. Manga!Aurelius, though, apparently seemed to have potentially had a bit of creeping Morsayati in the blood from the get-go.

I think this also would have been an interesting fork, since it also can connect with actual canon knowledge. Alberius explicitly sealed Morsayati in his blood, with the aim of his dragonblood being so diluted over the generations that Morsayati could no longer reform/possess one of his descendants. With this in mind, it's more than feasible to instead change the Other's possession method as more of a slow creep than an instant take-over as with Aurelius and Zethia.

It could have been interesting to see Euden slowly have to weigh if this is his father anymore, if Aurelius initially displayed more of his own personality. Canonically, his change is so abrupt and so jarring that Euden instead is devout in his correct belief that this just can't be his Father, and instead some shapeshifter thing masquerading as his father, whom he seems to view as in need of rescue:

With that in mind, I think it could have been compelling. Maybe the possession is still fully completed at the Binding Ruins, except maybe the Other just slowly pushed Aurelius into going there. Maybe Euden then and the townsfolk get worried over all the siblings the moment they feel as if any in the royal family might be starting the path to possession. Maybe Euden himself has to personally grapple with fears that he's somehow being possessed as he grows more used to having to make hard decisions as a leader in war and all that, that he views as 'evil'.

Also, we later find out in canon that Aurelius went to the Binding Ruins in an attempt to help Nedrick and was consciously gambling with controlling the Other's power for that end, which almost assuredly wasn't in the minds as of the manga's inception, but maybe it could be tied into that.

Aurelius, increasingly fearing, perhaps paranoid for how he's going to protect all his family, -including Nedrick still suffering on the north side of the continent, -starts heeding that little voice that in the Binding Ruins, surely there must be something from the ancient civilizations there he could use to gain power enough to protect his children? Again, not to create an AU of a bad AU, but I could see potential!

-And last but not least, on another lighter note, but given not!Euden's...everything, I do appreciate that his personal guards(?) are always prepared for when they need to use their magic lassos to bodily drag him down from a tree:

Given that we do know that Euden had at least a minor proclivity to go outside the castle/escape when he wasn't supposed to growing up, it might have been funny to see some of Euden's escapades, instead of not!Euden's. That being said, the guards also channel one's feelings quite well in regards to having to deal with this not!Euden:

So yeah, there's a little bit about NotMy!Euden's thankfully brief if disastrous stint in the world of manga! My apologies for either informing you or reminding you about it, but I do hope you gained something of vague interest from this, or rather, what it could have been!

#dragalia lost #dragalia #gotta say it's also darkly funny that despite actually being on screen we still know 0.0% more about Euden's/Zethia's mom.#Honestly surprised they never picked that thread back up again or even cleared up the long-standing speculation #...that the siblings were actually largely half-siblings with each other. I personally don't ascribe to it since I don't think Aurelius is #that kind of dude but I will acknowledge there are some potential hints? And no I'm not counting things just like Valyx's looks since he #...could just take after his/their mother. Maybe I'll discuss that Big Question later but yeah. We didn't even learn a name for his mother!#Sorry again for subjecting the innocent people's eyes to the Dragalia manga. I swear I tried my best to pick what to show carefully!

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mysaldate · 1 year ago

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Hey OP, I'm sure you didn't mean it this way, but pointing out flaws is not always done out of hate. More often than not, it is done out of love for the character. When I see a post saying Vil hates poor people and is a white supremacist, usually I just block and move on but from time to time, I do reply. I point out that Vil is actively providing for poorer students in the school when it comes to hygiene and beauty products and that Epel's accent isn't about racism or white supremacy but about vulgarisms and speaking properly to the occasion.

There are headcanons I disagree with because of personal tastes but there are also those made because of genuine misunderstanding that can be cleared up for everyone to enjoy the characters better. Then there are also headcanons that are made out of spite by people who hate that their fave isn't popular so they rip on other characters, and those aren't healthy either.

And when it comes to criticizing official material, that is a different story altogether. Loving a property can mean calling out its weak sides. It can mean that when a racist company makes a racist decision and that decision directly and negatively impacts the property, we, as fans, can and oftentimes should call it out. It's not being bitter or spiteful when the property suddenly turns directly against its core concepts and ideas and changes what it is and has always been because the Mouse decided they don't like what the JP team is doing (and blames it on their race) even though that's what brought the fans in in the first place. We are allowed to criticize the localization for its censorship, for its racist stereotypes, for its character assassination, for its mockery of the original's commentary on mental health, class issues, inequality, societal expectations, and more. We don't do that because we're bitter, we do that because we want to see our beloved property do better.

Being upset at certain headcanons is fine. Commenting can be beneficial in the right time and space. It should always be done in a constructive spirit when interacting with individuals but it is not inherently evil.

I'll give another example, back to Vil. In my opinion, the transfem Vil hc goes against his character as he establishes himself as a man multiple times throughout the game and one of his main philosophies is that men can and should be beautiful and that beauty isn't only limited to women. The hc also comes from misunderstanding Vil's personal pronoun, Atashi, which a few English fans took out of its cultural context and began claiming only women use. When native JP speakers and JP fans came out to explain the full scope of people who may use Atashi (including but not limited to women, trans women, feminine men, gay men, and trans men), they got harassed and attacked by the English speaking fandom. Given all the context around the hc, yes, it annoys me. I think it makes far more sense for Vil to be transmasc as that would play into his character far better. I will not comment on every post about transfem Vil of course. In fact, I won't interact with most of them. However, if I see a post spreading misinformation (saying Vil is CANON transfem, claiming Atashi is only used by women, etc.) or if a post is worded in such a way that there is room for discussion, I will try to politely point out the canon contradictions to that hc.

Hcs have always been for things that the canon doesn't explicitly mention. Aus have always been for changing established canon facts. There is nothing wrong with making an au in which Vil is transfem or hates the poor or is a white supremacist for all I care. Not every piece of content on the internal will be made for me. However, I will make my own posts about fandom takes that go against canon and I will occasionally comment in the hopes of a good discussion and a better fandom experience.

This got long, I am sorry OP, I hope what I laid out here sounds reasonable to you. If not, feel free to block me, I won't hold it against you. Cater your own experience as I will continue to cater mine.

I don’t see why people feel the need to comment on things they don’t like. If you don’t like something, it’s clearly not made for you. That goes for like everything. Needlessly commenting on someone’s post cause you don’t like it is a waste of your time an energy.

Being that spiteful and hateful cannot be helpful or healthy, right? This was triggered by one comment I got on a post btw, which I won’t publicly share which one or who it was. But the point is pretty important to state in general.

What is the point in commenting on someone else’s post that you don’t like? What do you get out of it other then annoying them. Like, your opinion isn’t going to magically change their own — especially in fandom spaces.

I always found it so strange when I was scrolling through reading headcannons and reading comments and there’s just a random person angry about it. I get that mischaracterization is an issue to understanding actual characters, but at the end of the day it’s just not that serious is it.

Fandom is a safe space for more than just you, you know. You are responsible for curating your own experience as much as I am. If you don’t like something the best thing to do is scroll. There’s no point in wasting energy on something that upsets you.

#twst #twisted wonderland #disney twst #disney twisted wonderland #vil schoenheit #twst vil #headcanon #fandom discourse #twst discourse #headcanon discourse #also yes sadly the racist comments happened #tweets have been deleted but many of us remember them #we remember Yana sharing what the team was told regarding who would be writing book 6 and why #and we remember the JP fandom's reaction #and with the new event being handled by a different team again we can't but worry #because all the red flags are there #the characters act weird the world is weird pre-established rules and relationships and traits disappear for plot convenience #and don't get me started on needing 700 lessons to clear the whole mess #glomas needed 390 and it had more story better conclusion better song with some actual depth better villains and was overall much better #stage in playful land is trying to be glomas but failing in every possible way #except maybe the design but that is up to personal taste

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mangacat201 · 2 years ago

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I posted 1,995 times in 2022

That's 277 more posts than 2021!

23 posts created (1%)

1,972 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@queenklu

@ahhhnorealnamesallowed

@the-marathon-continues-nip

@hattalove

@letmetellyouaboutmyfeels

I tagged 1,906 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#0 - 53 posts

#laugh rule yo - 77 posts

#the devil judge - 74 posts

#911 fox - 55 posts

#resource post - 48 posts

#the untamed - 41 posts

#duuuuuuuuuude - 37 posts

#word of honor - 34 posts

#bad and crazy - 34 posts

#true dat - 31 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#yeah once i realized how small their size of canon interaction actually is i went like 😳😳😳 because headcanon was so vast and limbo like

My Top Posts in 2022:

Can you explain the origin of goncharev???

Ahhhhh... my friend your ask has set me with a nigh impossible task, for Goncharov as a phenomenon is a many-legged kraken whose suckers will snag any unsuspecting tumblr-fish swimming by while its center remains hidden by the jagged edges of the digital reef.

But i will try!

See, it started with a shoe.

No, it started with someone making a shoe who did not know what they were doing.

Nay, it started with someone being slapped with the dodgeball of Apollo's gift of prophecy and predicting that tumblr would hence come together to invent a piece of media and create a Fandom out of it so vast and authentic, people outside the hivemind would believe it was real and start to be driven mad with trying to find the source that only exists in the shape that is left empty by all the fannish things created around it.

And the tumbrlinas would be so delighted by their own work that they perpertuated it to the point of alerting its supposed creator who then went IN ON THE BIT.

And so the new fannish corner of the internet trundles on, continuing to make art and writing and music and meta discussions and we looked upon it and shared it as good.

Or, you know, you can have the origin explainer post (as far as i can tell) here🤣🤪🤭:

9 notes - Posted November 28, 2022

youtube

I miss them.

The emotional build up of this SENDS me.

11 notes - Posted August 21, 2022

Just sitting here, minding my own business. Meanwhile my spider plant a few days ago started to try and establish first contact with baby!Groot. Don't really know what to do with that🤣.

12 notes - Posted October 1, 2022

𝐓𝐀𝐆 (𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄) 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑

Got tagged by @hedgewyse whom I was very happy to get to know better via this tag game, thanks a lot! Sorry it took so long to respond, I needed to get on tumblr on the laptop where I can actually type up text and I had a lot of things going on this past week that kept me LOL.

Favourite colour: Blue.

No explanation, not particular reason why, it’s just always been blue. All shades from deep purple to almost white. But I have a special place in my heart for the word ‘turquoise’, which I feel is just so the most.

Currently reading: Oh good gosh, my open doc reading list is so long, I will constrain myself to the most recent things...

“(Love is)The second oldest profession” The 9-1-1 Buck/Eddie pornstar!AU I knew I needed but kept for a special occasion

I’m also reading “Achtsam Morden” a national German bestseller and the first actual like physical book I’ve picked up in probably four years. It’s hilarious and murdery and perfect

I’m listening to “Blood & Paper” by Kevin Hearne (whom I recently got to meet at a book signing event when he was visiting here and a friend asked me to spontaneously tag along - best decision in ages) Love the audiobook version read by Luke Daniels, he’s a whizz with the accents.

“Hide the drums (there’s fire in the sky)” latest installment of the Magical Marriage Ribbons-Verse, the Untamed Mega Saga, for which the author starandrea has been posting a chapter every day since May 31st 2020, so 805 consecutive days as of now without missing ONE. It boggles the mind. (I’ve started reading when the verse was ... oh I think about three parts in, I haven’t missed one too since then)

Last song: “The Greatest Show on Earth” - Nightwish, it’s my soundtrack for my daily yoga practice (no I am in fact not joking), so it doesn’t really count last leisure listening was the soundtrack of ‘Robin Hood - Das Musical’

Last series: Ooofff... ok, so many balls in the air at the same time. I’m watching “The Sandman” of course, as you do and loving it. Also “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” which is THE MOST(tm). Recently finished my rewatch and catch-up of “Manifest” and rewatched a couple of episodes of The Devil Judge with a friend who just started and that I got into it, remembering why I can’t be normal about those boys (and how delightful it is to rewatch with someone experiencing sth for the first time). Of course went down the magnificent and batshit crazy rabbithole that is Kinnporsche. Also, “Tomorrow” which is definitely my fav K-Drama of 2022.

Last movie: Day Shift - Fun and a nice remix of vampire tropes that you don’t really see on top of each other a lot. But it felt more like a set up to a movie trilogy I don’t know if it’s made enough impact into getting, so the premise might have been served better as a mini series? ...The Gray Man, which was solid and enjoyable and absolutely bonkers with how hilarious it was to watch Chris Evans have a ton of fun playing straight up, no holds barred, unredeemable villian. Ryan Gosling can stay... Ana de Armas is queen bee.

Currently working on: My last day of vacation :sob: and of course my WIP/plot bunnie enclosure excel spreadsheet (yes, I do not do things by half until I halfass writing them). Anyway, actual words or plotty thinky thoughts were put into:

- The Devil Judge a/b/o PWP (that has, so far, about 5k of set up and no porn) with a Jung Sunah made them do it scenario and non-traditional dynamics (yeah, idek...)

- Vincenzo Inception fusion - Jang Han Seo wakes up from getting shot to a curious set up of sleeping people around him (really really wanna write this one but the premise is so vast I’m afraid of flaming out again)

- three separate 9-1-1 Buddie fics of varying size and scope that reaches from one’s in love the other isn’t and confessions make things complicated (or do they), the fall out from the truck bombing goes the other way for Buck & the “Eddie deals with his 5B-issues by discovering shibari”!AU (do NOT try this at home-therapy)

- The Untamed - Blades of Glory!AU

pheeeeew. hooookay, wow, that was interesting, hope your learned something about me. I’mma tag some people, but please, feel free to participate at your own leisure. @hattalove, @the-marathon-continues-nip , @iskarieot, @themostglorioushour, @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels , @fondofeveryprickle, @ahhhnorealnamesallowed, @sam-t-a, @b612sunsets

16 notes - Posted August 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Jonathan Harker: Yo, yo, mofos, what's up, I'm about to drop some TRUE FAX. ×proceeds to speak lawyer for five paragraphs, then looks out the window×.

Dracula: ×scales castle wall upside down like a gecko×

Jonathan Harker: Akjejsksljhejslwpfjfbf DUDE WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCKERY IS THIS!?!?!?!?!!!!????

23 notes - Posted May 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #Youtube

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alleycat-arcade · 3 years ago

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Game Continue! The Seven Lords: Those Who Remain

@pastelhologram asked: Wait. What about The demon bros reaction to Mc being the Person lilith fell in love with. Like maybe an au where he's not Related to lilith but instead he's the person she fell for. Even better if They're first impression of Mc is that he didn't deserve Lilith, but as time goes on, They start seeing what lilith saw.

(This is Part 2! I recommend reading Part 1 first, which you can find here. Due to some internet issues on my end, there has been a little bit of a delay in my writing TwT. I deeply apologize for the wait! There is an off chance I may re-write Beel and Belphie's parts at some points, but that is just my inner perfectionist talking there.

Also as an apology for such a long delay, here is a link to the video that is almost always playing while I am writing fics n' stuff. No it is not a rickroll this time.)

Everburning Candle(Part 2) (Obey Me! Younger Brothers x Male/Masc! Mc/Reader)

Content Warnings: Mc/Reader uses he/him pronouns. Spoilers for Pretty much all of season one (Chapters 1-20), since pacts, reasoning behind certain pacts, and Lilith are discussed. I hope you don't mind me adding a few of my personal headcanons! Hurt/Comfort overall, with traces of blood and acts of violence. The book from Satan's part in not meant to be real lol. Asmo's part has mentions of sexual acts, but other than that its good. In terms of descriptions of violent acts, Belphie's is the most intense. Also I am infected with the angst plague, I apologize my dudes. But other than that its all good.

(I'm not gonna copy the whole intro to prevent it from being too long. You can find it in the first part. <3)

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

Satan:

It was hard for Satan to deny that he was curious about you. Similar to Lucifer, he picked up on the fact that you had a delayed response whenever they would call you by what they thought was your name, but the unofficial detective also noted something else interesting. Oddly, you seemed wise beyond your years when in came to the topic of human history. In tandem with the Exchange Program, Diavolo had established electives for RAD students that studied both Human and Angel history. You happened to be in this class at the same hour as him, and he couldn't help but be curious about how you could barely pay attention in class yet get near perfect scores.

Yet, the Avatar of Wrath couldn't find it within himself to pay more attention to you than basic curiosity. He had quite a few other things to worry about, and a strangely smart human exchange student wasn't too high on his list of priorities. There were humans out there with eidetic memory, so it wasn't too hard to believe that you could just have a lot of knowledge about Human history that you acquired prior to the Exchange Program. At most he would stare at you quizzically from time to time during Humanity Studies, as you scribbled away in your notes that only had brief concepts of what the teacher was saying written down.

The evening after you formed a pact with Leviathan, Satan felt his curiosity spike as you suddenly pulled Lucifer away from the group to talk about something. His interest only rose as the Eldest pinned you against the wall in his demon form, your voice too far away for him to hear exactly what you had said to piss him off so much. If it weren't for the whispers of the contents of your conversation that passed around the room, he may have congratulated you for getting Luci so angry and escaping with your life.

Now, Satan had never truly known Lilith. Seeing as he had been brought into existence during her final hours and was not in a state of cognizant awareness at the time, he had no memory of those final moments of her life. At most he had the hazy memories left over from Lucifer that give him a basic concept of her features, and the stories that his brothers would tell about her. But even those stories were strained and missing details, due to their grievances of the loss of their sister.

And yet, even with a decent reason to approach and question you, he strayed away. You held likely all the answers he had ever wanted to know about the deceased sister that his brothers loved so much, but he couldn't bring himself to even speak to you. Something about being in your presence brought an odd pain to his chest, one only made worse when he'd see the ways his brothers would stare at you. Looks of disgust, anger, and sadness were directed at you, causing Satan to recoil upon contact. As much as he may mess with his siblings, he still deeply cared about them and did not want to bring them anymore grief by hanging around you in front of them.

Besides the TSL Quiz, the two of you had hardly ever spoken to each other. You were a sort of Enigma, a boy that both drew him in and pushed him away at the same time. A temptation he swore to never give into, but... he was a demon after all. And sometimes you just needed to give someone a little nudge for them to dive headfirst into their desires.

It had been an awful day for the Avatar of Wrath. Scratch that, a dreadfully awful day. Nearly everything had seemed to go wrong for him, as if the worst bad luck curse imaginable had been secretly placed on him the night before. He had woken up late and dealt with a lecture from Lucifer, tripped and fell up the stairs at RAD and nearly broke his nose, someone in class had spilled Poison Veggie Juice all over his notes and textbook and scurried away too quickly to face his wrath, and to top it all off he had realized that he both forgot his lunch at him and didn't bring any extra Grimm with him to pay for anything to eat. If he had been in a better mood he may have asked one of his colleagues to borrow a little Grimm, but he felt that if he had to talk to another person today he'd blow up in their face. Thus, once RAD was over and it was time to leave, Satan hurried home to hide away in the Library until his Wrath subsided.

What he had expected to find was the library silent and empty so he could relax, but it seemed luck was still not on his side today. The sound of pencil on paper drew his attention, now staring at you seated at the table in the middle of the room. It seemed as if you hadn't noticed him enter at all, too focused on the book in your hand that you had begun to litter with colorful sticky notes. A pile of similarly marked books sat to your left, with a slowly decreasing pile of normal books awaiting their fate sat at you right. On a normal day, with a different person, Satan may have found some respect in how you were taking such details notes about the material in your hands. But as the sound of stomping filled your ears, it was clear that he was very, very angry.

Turning your head to face him, you were met with a rather frightening sight. The demon loomed over you, surrounded with a rather violent black and green aura that almost rivaled Lucifer in terror. "Why hello, Mc. What do you think you're doing?" He questioned, an unnerving smile on his face. "I'm just marking notes in my books. It's kinda upsetting how-" "Did I hear that correctly? Your books?" You let out a sigh, before shoving your hand into your pocket and fishing out a receipt. Though you had originally kept it in case Mammon decided to sell them after you had spent hours begging Lucifer to let you buy some Human World books, it seemed like as good of a time as any to use it. You only hoped that he wouldn't stay angry at you, seeing as they were in fact your property. He was quick to snatch the slightly crumpled paper in your hand, eyes scanning over every line. As his gaze travelled farther down the paper, you could see the way that his rage almost seemed to deflate like a balloon.

His demon form was no longer present as his shoved the receipt back into your hand with a subtle huff. "I suppose that it is fine for you to mark your own books in such a manner, but don't let me find out should you ever mark any of mine." Holding back an eye roll, you motioned to the book that you had been in the middle of before he interrupted. "I don't have any plans on messing with your things. I bought these books specifically for this reason. They just have so many historical inaccuracies it drives me crazy." "...Historical inaccuracies?" Satan carefully slid his hand over to lift the cover, the title standing out in rather bold lettering. "The History of the Titanic?" You simply nodded, flipping the pages to one absolutely coated in sticky notes. "It's like they didn't even ask someone who was on the boat or worked on it! They may as well make this a fiction novel with this phony evidence they collected!" His eyebrow raised as you ranted. "How would you know that for certain?" "Satan, I'm pretty sure I would know. I was on the damn boat."

An hour had passed as you recounted your memories of events. Telling the story of how you had worked as a Butler for a rather wealthy woman who had been on the boat, detailing all you could remember about the boat and its passengers, and how you had barely escaped with your life while helping some children and their mother into a raft before the ship capsized. Curiously, he inquired about the other books that you had already marked. Some had even more notes and some very little, but you had a story for each one. Either you had been involved in the events yourself or had known someone who was, and he found your stories entrancing. It had been deep into the night before you had concluded, your throat aching from talking for so long. He asked you to stay there suddenly, leaving to fetch some tea with honey.

After allowing you to soothe your throat a little, he presented you with a question he had been holding back for a while now. "If your throat isn't too sore, can you tell me about, Lilith?" A twinkle forms in your eyes as you move to bring a journal out of your bag. You flip through the pages and tell him everything about your deceased lover, making sure to show him the images you had drawn yourself or had an illustrator draw of her. Unconsciously, Satan had began scooting closer to get a better view. It wasn't until he was practically in the crook of your neck that he noticed. "A-ah! Sorry, I don't know what came over me there." He stammered, nervously tugging at the collar of his sweater and leaning away. "No it's fine. Here, let me move so you can see better."

When dinner time had rolled around, Asmodeus couldn't find his younger brother. Satan wasn't in his room, and since there had been a sign on the library that the human was inside, it wasn't likely that he was in there. He was about to give up and tell one of his brothers that the Avatar of Wrath was no where to be found, when the sound of amused chatter caught his attention. It definitely sounded like the brother he was looking for, and where was it coming from? The library. Entering the dimly lit room, Asmo was met with a rather odd sight. Held in your hands was a rather ancient looking book, with his brother pointing at various locations in the image of the mountainous region displayed on the current page. "Oh, hello Asmodeus." You paused, a nervous smile covering your face as you noticed him standing in the doorway. Eyeing you suspiciously, he informed you about the time and left. "Ah, we'll have to pick this up some other time." Satan spoke, standing up and stretching. "Feel free to come and chat whenever. I'm almost always available, so don't worry about scheduling with me."

Like his brothers, Satan is slow to warm up to you. He doesn't hold as much against you as his older siblings do, but he still feels guilty when they glare at him for hanging around you. But eventually, the guilt of earning his brothers' disapproval is overridden by a new feeling of guilt that blooms in his stomach. The guilt of watching you wander about HOL all by your lonesome, with an attempt at bonding usually met with a scoff and a brief, strained conversation. The Avatar of Wrath is no stranger to being the black sheep of the house, especially being the only full demon in a household of fallen angels, so he understands what it feels like to be a sort of outcast.

Satan tries to be subtle in his approach to you, waiting until you've gotten on even somewhat better terms with one or two of his brothers before he suddenly asks you to tutor him in Humanity Studies. Understandably, you were a bit confused since he was one of the smartest demons-, no people in general that you've known, but you agreed to help him nonetheless. Studying sessions quickly devolved into just talking with each other whenever he felt like it, your relationship carefully going from acquaintances to tutor and student to friends and then potentially close friends.(Or even closer if you catch my drift.)

You had begun to view his room as a sort of sanctuary after a while. He almost always let you in whenever you knocked on the door, and the two of you would either speak about a mutual topic or sit in a comfortable silence. Eventually, you had begun visiting so much that Satan gave you an enchanted key to keep a hold of, in order to let yourself in when he couldn't get to the door quickly or if you left some belongings behind and he was out. The time spent in his room only increased exponentially after the Attic incident, so much so that the brothers were beginning to think you had moved into his room.

In the dead of night, when you're most likely to be in a deep sleep, is when Satan gets very vulnerable about the topic of your death. Nightmares weren't something he had frequently, and most of the time they were about him doing something controlled solely by his Wrath. Yet, these newer ones seemed to hurt more. He dreamt about inactions rather than actions, wicked dreams where he would kick and scream at his body to protect you or heal you but he remained rooted in place. In you happened to be a lighter sleeper, you might have noticed the way he suddenly would curl into you and rest his head on your chest, fragments mutters about protecting you leaving his lips and being muffled in your shirt.

When he can't be by your side to protect you, he ensures that two things are there with you in his absence. First, one of his brothers to keep you safe, and secondly a clothing item of his. It doesn't have to be anything in particular, just something he's worn enough to smell like him. Only a really, really stupid and desperate demon would try and attack you with the scent of the Avatar of Wrath hanging off of you.

Even with all of that said, for being likely the smartest sibling in the family, it took a comment from one of his brothers to fully recognize how much he cared about you, outside of not wanting to see you hurt and beating himself up for allowing you to bleed out without even trying to help.

It had been a rather cold day in the Devildom, so both of you decided to share a blanket and warm up in front of the fireplace in the common room. Satan was very vividly discussing a drama that both of you had binged the other night, with you nodding along and occasionally adding in your own points to the conversation. By the time Belphie had arrived you were near the end of the discussion, with your eyelids growing heavy and your body leaning into him. "Are you tired, Mc? Here, let me move a bit so you can rest against the arm of the couch." You tried to assure him that he didn't need to, but he stubbornly shifted around until you could properly lay your head against the plush couch. The Avatar of Sloth only made his presence know once you were half asleep, your body unconsciously snuggling against the demon sat in front of you. "It's been quite a while since I've seen him like this. Mc must care very deeply for you, Satan." His voice startled the blonde, but he did his best not to jolt or make any sudden noises that might stir you. "I-I suppose so. But what exactly is that supposed to mean, Belphie?" "Oh, nothing too drastic. I just remember that he always used to sleep with Lilith like that. He always used to say that the positioning of his hands was symbolic, like a sort of promise." A shiver ran up Satan's spine, feeling your unconscious form tug him closer to lay down with you. As much as he disliked being compared to his deceased sister, if you cared about him in such a way, perhaps he might be willing to admit he did as well.

Asmodeus:

The Avatar of Lust was fairly interested in you from the beginning. Not really as an equal or potential friend though, more so a sort very friendly acquaintance that he could toy with as he so pleased. He didn't exactly find anything about you extraordinarily remarkable besides a decent amount of scarring on your body, so it was needless to say that the demon wasn't very deeply invested in your life in the Devildom or as a whole. You were just another human, and he's met plenty ordinary and average humans over his lifespan.

Well, you did have at least one intriguing quality that would catch his eye on occasion. Besides Mammon, Asmodeus is the brother who spends the most time in the Human Realm outside of purposeful missions. What can he say? He's a popular demon to summon for some late night activities. But the point is, Asmo's met quite a few demons over the years, but none of them truly matched your mannerisms. You had a variety of different ways of doing things that mimicked modern idiosyncrasies as well as ones from times long past. The best explanation he could come up with is that you came from a rather old fashioned family, as he'd already tested the vampire approach. Plus, it was highly unlikely you were just an immortal being seeing as you had no magical abilities and the chances of another fruit of the Heavens being given to another human were slim to none. Unless...?

As it turned out, you were not the catalyst of a covered up Second Celestial War, but rather the same human from all those centuries ago. Asmodeus had been the one to properly overhear the conversation between you and Lucifer, as well as spread the rumors of your past throughout the House of Lamentation. He felt it only proper that his brothers be aware of your true colors, especially since you had such a history with all of them. Even if he'd never met your prior to the Celestial War, Asmo was aware of your existance and how much you meant to Lilith. So much so that she stole a fruit from their Father's garden to save your life, thus starting the war itself.

Asmodeus didn't really like the fact that he couldn't read you. You were just as mysterious as Solomon at times, and your past only made this trait of yours something he grew to dislike more and more. How exactly did his little sister manage to fall in love with you, some random guy with average looks and a somewhat distant personality? While Asmo's life may seem to revolve solely on himself, he does care a great deal for his family, and as such has rather high expectations for their romantic partners that he usually lacked towards his own. He may have had different opinions as an Angel in regards to his standards for himself and his family member's partners, but here and now in his demonic form, you weren't worth Lilith's time in his eyes.

Similar to his brothers, he wouldn't be around you if he didn't have to, but with him it was almost worse. Though his brothers might on occasion extend an olive branch, if he didn't need to or want something from you he wouldn't even be in the same room as you. Call it petty, but Asmo really couldn't bear your presence. Underneath all his nitpicks about your personality and appearance, was an open wound that you irritated every time he had to be near you. Perhaps the insulting thoughts towards you were meant to cover that up, to hide away the gash in his heart that Lilith's death had left behind. Or he was just really, really petty. Who knows?

The most willing interaction you had exchanged with him in quite a while was a rather odd one. Both of you had the same Art Class, that you shared with Simeon as well. Asmo usually sat on the opposite side of the room, so he didn't have to worry about interacting with you too much. Yet, it's kinda hard to avoid a certain someone when he's your partner for a rather important project. Being partners with you wasn't something that he expected since just about everyone in the class would've jumped at the opportunity, but according to the teacher you were paired together since you lived together. Seeing as the teacher slipped away before Asmo could charm them into changing their mind, he was stuck with you as a project partner. As much as he might've liked to skip out on it, Lucifer had been hounding about his grades lately and he wasn't doing the best in Art. He resigned himself to his fate as he texted you a location to meet him in HOL, reassuring himself that he'd at least get maybe a semi-decent portrait out of the whole thing. You were known as a fairly good painter from what he heard from his classmates, and it was rather hard to know so much about painting and mess up his beautiful face, right?

Setting the needle down onto the record, you carefully adjusted the volume of the music before returning to the work area you had already set up with your supplies. The vinyl in particular was one you retrieved from the Human World once you had returned to your home temporarily to gather your belongings, the album specifically being one of the indie band's most popular due to the melodious harps tied into each track. You figured it would make decent background noise as you painted Asmodeus, since it was unlikely that the demon would engage you with anything other than basic small talk. A decent variety of mediums were lined up along the base of your easel, with your portfolio neatly set in the middle of the wooden structure. As much as you were aware, the Avatar of Lust could be a rather picky person when it came to his appearance in things people would see, so you had decided to just give him his choice of medium and style in order to give him less about the final product to worry about.

You were beginning to think that he had flaked out on you when the doors to the Music Room opened, revealing the demon you were looking for in his glory. With how much time he'd taken to get down there, you would've thought he was putting on an elaborate outfit and makeup, but unless his usual appearance is incredibly complicated you doubted that. Sighing, you removed your portfolio from the easel and waved him to approach you. "Since you haven't seen much of my works, I figured that you could just look at what I have here. Just tell me whatever one strikes your fancy, and I'll try and replicate the style and medium." After placing the large binder in his hands, you returned to your stool in front of the easel and waited. Hearing a scoff sound from behind you, you stared straight ahead as you waited for Asmo to make his decision.

What Asmodeus had expected when he opened the pages of your portfolio was a set of basic, amateur level paintings that maybe increase in quality as you dive deeper into it. But what he held in his hands was something that probably could've never guessed, even if his life had been on the line. The sections had been labelled by era for convenience, starting in the 16th century and ending in the current one. Pulling back the opaque plastic covering, Asmo was met with a carefully preserved painting that looked like it belonged in the Renaissance era exhibit of a famous Art Museum. The piece itself was of an extraordinary quality, in both looks and preservation. Even as he flipped through the other works from different eras, the initial piece found itself stuck on his mind. "Hey, Mc, you made this, right?" He suddenly spoke from behind you, turning the portfolio to face you. Stretching and turning, you gave the piece a quick once over before nodding. "Yeah. It's pretty old, but if that's what you want I can do my best." "You're absolutely certain?" "I painted that thing for an entire month Asmodeus, I may be old but I'm pretty sure I'd remember my first decent painting." You tried to disguise the annoyance in your voice, settling on simply staring at him with a bored expression. "...Then this style is fine."

As you thought, Asmo was silent as he stared at you from the other stool you had set up for him to sit on. You were too busy collecting the art supplies that you needed and selecting a canvas to care too much about the way his eyes followed your every move. But as you settled back onto your stool he suddenly spoke again, making you peer around the canvas to look at him. "Where did you learn to paint like that?" "The one you picked out? Or did you mean the others in my portfolio? I've had many teacher over the years, you'll need to be more specific." Awaiting his answer, you began taking in the details of his form into your mind. "That Renaissance painting." Beginning to ready your palette, you leaned away and replied. "Ah, that. Well, I don't exactly feel it proper to call the man who taught me to make that my teacher." "What would you call him?" In surprise, you choked on your breath for a moment. Clearing your throat with a cough, you continued to speak, as not to waste an opportunity for an actually conversation with him. It wasn't often that Asmo showed any interest in things that involved you, after all. "Well, uhm, you could potentially call our relationship something of a casual one. Not heavily romantic or smitten, but not platonic either." "Ohhh, so what you're saying is you would have sex with him." A sputtering cough shook your lungs as your hands barely managed to keep you from spilling paint onto the tarped floor. "Y-yeah we did do that, but that wasn't everything. Mostly he just wanted some company is all, and I adored his companionship, so when we both weren't busy or in the mood we would just hang out and stuff. During those times he taught me how to paint."

With the most awkward portion of the discussion of your past partner out of the way, your conversation flowed more and more freely whilst your brushes glided across the canvas. No detail was spared as you began openly speaking to the demon in front of you, who was surprisingly an attentive listener. Halfway through the process of painting, he asked another question that caught you off guard. "Wouldn't your relationship have been illegal at the time? I can't imagine how upset the Catholic Church would've been." "Eh, I didn't really give a damn what they thought. The opinions of others on myself and my relationships have never really mattered to me anyway. As long as the person I've fallen in love with is safe and happy, I'll be fine. Plus, we stopped seeing each other after he took up that job for the Sistine Chapel anyway." You chuckled dryly, setting the brush in your hand down as you reached for your D.D.D. to check the time. "I hate to cut this short Asmodeus, but we'll have to continue this later. I'd prefer not to get an earful from Lucifer about being later for dinner and I'm sure that afterwards you-" "Asmo. Just call me Asmo. It's kinda weird hearing you address me by my full name." The Avatar of Lust's heart suddenly fluttered as a soft smile crossed your features. "Got it, Asmo."

By far Asmodeus was the least subtle of the brothers in his approach towards you, mostly because daily it would be just the two of you alone in the Music Room together. He would pose was you painted, chatting with you intermittently whilst your brush glided across the canvas. Once the painting had been completed to both yours and Asmo's satisfactions, you had begun speaking with him on a regular basis outside of your time in the Music Room. On the topic of the piece of art, though it did not completely resemble the style you were trying to replicate the way you had painted it just felt more "Asmo" to you. It had some of the features the original painting had, but you found your hand painting different details in that didn't quite match the era, but did match the personality of your model that had begun to shine through in your little talks. Something the Avatar of Lust wouldn't tell you until a little later is that he had asked the teacher for the original copy of the painting once the project display was completed, so that he could hang it up in his room near his vanity.

To the displeasure of his brothers who still weren't too fond of you, he had begun to show you some of the same friendly affection that he often showed his brothers and close friends. Hugging, hand holding, playful teasing, and other such occurrences became commonplace between the two of you.

Having now spoken with you for quite a while, he had begun to find some qualities about you that he found somewhat interesting, but not quite interesting enough to suddenly form a pact with you. You would still have to go through the same trials at Lord Diavolo's castle as you normally would've, allowing Asmo to see the magical energy passed from Lilith onto you in action. Only then did he choose to form a pact with you and begin letting you become genuinely closer with him, rather than the sort of pseudo-, but also semi-, fondness he had shown you beforehand.

Once you had both reached a certain level of comfort in each other's presence, he began to show you a more vulnerable side to himself. But even with that, Asmo still held back some of his own insecurities from your eyes, an unfamiliar feeling of nervousness inside of him growing at the thought of how you might see him once you saw the truest form of himself. This metaphorical dam slowly began to crack more and more as he found himself spending time around you at an increasing rate, only to burst upon your demise after Belphie was released from the Attic.

Truthfully, the demon had no clue what to do when him and his brothers found your dying form lying on the ground. His heart pounded loudly in his ears as he stared at his older brother cradling you in his arms, loud enough to drown out Mammon's sorrowful weeping that slowly infected him as well. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he reached to grasp your limp hand by the wrist, eyes darting between the brothers who knew the most about healing magic as well as your murderer. He felt oddly deflated and weak, as if his soul had been flattened like an open balloon and his body would collapse in on itself should he let go of your wrist. The beating of his heart stopped for a moment as your body suddenly disintegrated, only to come back full force at the sound of your voice from the top of the stairs.

Following the incident, Asmo became even more latched onto your side from before. It the "day"time he would still act like his usual self around you, albeit slightly more attentive to your wellbeing and general mood, but in the night his more vulnerable side leaked out like a river. Initially these sudden declines in his guarded nature were reserved for the dead of night when you were in a deep state of sleep, but he began allowing you to fully see that side of him one night after you woke up in the middle of one of his declines from a nightmare.

You didn't exactly remember what all had happened in the rather frightening dream, only that you had woken up squirming and gasping for breath in the Avatar of Lust's arms. "Are you alright, Mc?!" He fussed, taking your head into his hands and examining you for any sort of injuries. Allowing your lungs to take heavy gulps of air, a sudden dampness on your face distracted you from the fading constrictions of your chest. At first, you had thought it to have been your own tears rolling down your cheeks, but you soon realized that the droplets had been landing onto you from above. From Asmo's own eyes that darted around erratically, staring at you in every other location until they rested into your gaze. His lip trembled as the teardrops began to fall more rapidly, an involuntarily hiccup now shaking his own diaphragm. He trembled under your touch as you wrapped an arm around his waist, the other moving to rest your hand against the back of his head. Gently, you ran your fingertips through his scalp in soothing motions, pressing down light enough to lead his head to rest in the crook of your neck. "I'm okay, I promise." "M-Mc, as much as I love your embrace, I'm the one who's supposed to comfort you. N-not the other way around." Heart-wrenching sobs racked his body as his hands grasped at the sheets underneath you, clenching and releasing with each cry he muffled into your shoulder. "You don't need to bottle everything up for my sake Asmo, you can let it all out. I won't judge you for crying, y'know?"

After that night, he fully came to terms with the extent that his sister had loved you and the reasons why. Recalling conversations of long ago, you were just as much of a kind and adventurous soul that she had described. With all of that said, only one question plagued his mind regarding you. How could anyone not fall in love with a man like you, himself included?

Beelzebub:

The manner in which Beelzebub had thought of you initially was similar to the way he would've thought of some lesser creature that one of his brothers had brought into the house like one would a pet. Like how a human who wasn't a stranger to butchery would view their sibling's new pet chicken. You were weak and needed to be looked after of, but also something that could make a decent meal if not for their owner's attachment to them. It was fairly obvious to those involved that the Exchange Program would very well crumble at the seams should any harm come to you, so eating you was off the table.

Beelzebub had interacted with you infrequently prior to your conversation with Lucifer, though most conversations could be summed up easily as small talk. He had slowly started to began to put in some effort into being around you once his brothers had gotten a little more friendly with you, finding it almost heart-warming the way that Mammon seemed to hang around you like a lost puppy and Leviathan eagerly tugged on your sleeve and rambled about his interests and hobbies. Perhaps if you had spoken with Lucifer later, both of you may have bonded a little more than the very baseline friendship that you shared.

Though he wasn't the last of his brothers to find out, Beel had been in the dark for a short period of time. Actually, he had been planning on asking you to accompany him to Hell's Kitchen as a sort of congratulations for sort of winning the TSL Quiz, his treat of course. But once the news of your past reached him, the extra "All You Can Eat!" voucher he had gotten for you now sat crumpled in the bottom of the communal bathroom's trash can. He was unsure as to what exactly had deeply upset him about the sudden news, but he was upset nonetheless. Perhaps it was because you had reminded him of a guilt he still struggled with, the guilt of failing to protect his sister. Maybe he had begun to shift some of the blame for Lilith's demise onto you at some point, seeing as she had started the Celestial War to prevent your death. Or maybe Beel saw you as someone unworthy of his sibling's love and adoration, some random guy that had swept his sister off her feet who was the same as any other human, similar to Asmo. It was hard to accurately place his feelings towards you, and this only unsettled and discomforted him more.

Avoiding you wasn't something that the Avatar of Gluttony had to put much effort into doing. It wasn't often that you crossed paths or spent long periods of time in close proximity, as before he mostly only came into contact with you when you'd be around his brothers. All he really had to do was stop talking to you to fully ignore you. Occasionally you'd try and speak with him, Beel would cut the conversation short by using Fangol or his hunger as an excuse to leave your general vicinity. It became a common situation that he would wriggle out of talking with you, using the excuse of needing to go to Fangol practice that moment or he would be late, only for you to later realize it as a lie when you saw him talking to some of his teammates in the hallway as you walked by with your silent Guardian Demon. Eventually you took the hint and gave up approaching him, resigning yourself to a melancholic silence in his presence.

Following your resignation in seeking him out, he would at times occasionally forget you were still in the House of Lamentation and living with them. If it weren't for the brief moments he'd see you at meals or Mammon's complaining, Beel would've thought that you had moved into the Purgatory Hall by now. There were even times where he wouldn't even see you at meals at all, not noticing the fact that the extra serving of food in that night's dinner had been meant for you and not something to keep him from snacking on his brother's plates.

One night, Beelzebub had been the one to seek you out. Not of his own volition, but rather at the request of Lucifer in order to get you to come in for dinner. Where he found you was quite an unexpected location for a vulnerable human in the Devildom, a secluded corner of HOL's garden that if he hadn't heard strange noises coming from he probably would not have found.

A soft smile crossed you face as you sat down on the bench, carefully removing a very precious object from your bag as you hid away in your favorite spot in the garden. The instrument glistened brightly in the moonlight, illuminating your surroundings in such a manner that made your harp appear as it was glowing. Sliding your fingertip gently along one of the strings, you couldn't help but admire Simeon's handiwork. The harp was something of an ancient relic by itself due to its age, made apparent by the wear and tear it had acquired over the years despite your best efforts of preservation. It had meant a lot to you that the Angel you had slowly come to view as a friend had repaired the object for you, not only because of the effort he had put into its restoration, but also the meaning behind the harp itself.

With trembling fingers, you gently plucked at on of the strings. The soft hum the vibrating chord let out released a deep sigh from your chest, a feeling of tranquility vibrating throughout your body as the sound faded out. You tested out a few more of the chords, getting a feeling for the different pitches of each string. While it didn't sound exactly as you had remembered it, you couldn't find it in yourself to complain about the miniscule detail. It had been hard enough already to find someone capable of repairing a Celestial harp, let alone anyone who could bring the instrument back to an almost brand new quality.

In the beginning, you had just been strumming without any real rhyme or reason, trying to adjust yourself to playing the harp that you had stopped yourself from even touching for many, many years. Slowly, your inconsistent notes feel into a familiar order, becoming more and more complete until it had became a proper song. The song was one deeply ingrained into your mind and perhaps even your soul, one that you could never forget even if you tried. As your fingertips glided across the strings, memories of a flower field came to mind. It was almost as if when you shut your eyes you could feel a pair of soft hands covering your own, guiding you to play each note with the gentleness and warmth of a summer's breeze. With each note that sounded into the hidden area, you could feel it reverberate in your chest, like you had been plucking at your own heartstrings rather than a musical instrument. You had almost reached the climax of the song when the sound of footsteps approaching caught your attention, snapping you out of your dazed stated. Turning towards the sound, you locked eyes with a pair of violet ones.

Practice had been rather rough for Beelzebub, and the demon was looking forward to returning home. Lucifer was on cooking duty for the night, so Beel couldn't afford to miss it. It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy his other brothers' cooking, but something about the way the Eldest cooked made it taste so incredibly delicious. Plus, it wasn't often that Lucifer prepared dinner. The enticing scent of his brother's cooking flooded out of the doors as he entered the House of Lamentation, drawing him to pursue the source. Beel had almost made it through the doorframe of the kitchen, when an invisible barrier suddenly blocked his path. Oh, Lucifer must've cursed it to keep him out again. But even through the thick door and strong curse, Luci could still hear the resounding thud when Beel had hit the barrier. Slowly, the eldest cracked the door to the Kitchen open just enough to see him, speaking an order to him quickly before closing the door once more.

Thus, Beel began searching for you throughout HOL, his stomach growling viciously all the while. Though he'd loved to have given up by now and just gone to eat, Lucifer had specifically said that he wouldn't be allowed dinner should he not find you. Seeing as the punishment had happened before, Beel knew that his brother wasn't messing around with him and would keep his word. A bundle of distress had began to form as he strolled through more and more rooms, finding no trace of you in any of them. His brothers didn't have any clue where you had gone off too as well, surprised that Beel hadn't found you in your room as usual. There were only three places you might be at this point, and with the other options being the Catacombs and the jaws of some random lesser demon, he headed towards the garden first. Maybe you had gotten lost in it somehow, chasing after some sort of scaly-backed rabbit or some lost homework. But as an entrancing song began to sound from one of the farther corners, the idea that you may have been lured in by a siren came to mind.

As he approached, the song became clearer. The first thing he recognized about it was the instrument type, a harp that left a twinkling feeling in its general vicinity. This effect was common for Celestial harps, something that Beel had not heard nor seen since after the Fall. Vinyl's and recordings could not accurately sound and feel the same as the actual harp, so it was off the table that you could have just been playing something off of your D.D.D., leaving him with only one conclusion. Somehow a harp from the Celestial Realm had made its way into the garden of the Seven Avatars of Hell, and someone was playing a tune that Beel nearly knew by heart. Finally, he made a turn into a clearing that had been hidden by a pair of branches that were easily nudged away. A familiar scent of honeysuckle and lavender struck his senses as he entered the space, finding you seated on a bench with something clutched closely to your chest. A Celestial Harp with very distinct engravings running along its golden surface.

"Beelzebub? What are you doing here?" Your eyebrow raised, lowering your defensive posture slightly. The slow relaxation of your arms gave him an even better look at the object in your grasp. "Beelzebub, did you need something? Why are you getting so close-" "That harp. That's one of Lilith's." His form cast a shadow over you even in the dark, and the way the moonlight highlighted his features made the way that he loomed over you even more intimidating. "I- ehm, yes. Lilith gave me this harp as a gift, a very long time ago." You had closed your eyes to try and add a little confidence to your words, but they snapped open at a sudden shift in weight on the bench underneath you. "Can you play that song again?" "I... I guess?"

The way that you played this time was far more shaken and nervous than it had been prior, but you eventually lost yourself to the music and properly played the chords. You longed to feel the sensation of your memories as you had done before, but a different feeling coursed through you with the flow of the rhythm. Closing your eyes did not make you feel as if you were in a different place, but rather made you more in tune with your surroundings. Each object created a sort of aura that lit up your brain, as if it were some strange type of echolocation. The aura that struck you the most radiated from the demon sat beside you, this warm red that came in pulsations with hollow gaps in between. It reminded you of the very first time Lilith had taught you the song, whispering into your ears to feel the life all around you. Eventually the song came to a close and you opened your eyes.

"That's a song that they always used to teach young Angels in the Celestial Realm. Despite being a kid's song, Lilith always loved it and would play it whenever she had the chance." Your gaze locked onto Beelzebub as he leaned forward on the bench. "Lily always played it when she would wait for me in our meeting place. She liked to call it 'Our Song' and really wanted me to learn it. So, we spent years going over the same tune until I knew it by heart. Even now it is engraved into my very soul." A fond expression crossed your face at the memory. For a moment it was silent, until the sound of your text ringtone went off. Several messages from Lucifer lit up the screen, inquiring of your location. "Oh, it's dinner time already? Why didn't you tell me?" Beel didn't respond, still sitting in silence. You had begun to get up and walk back towards HOL, before his hand suddenly grabbed you by the wrist. It was a bit of a stronger grip than you would've liked, but you could tell even then he was holding back. "Did you need something, Beel?"

"...Mc, can you play that again for me some other time?"

In the beginning, Beelzebub simply just wanted to hear that song again and again. Songs played on a Celestial harp weren't just something you could record the audio of and play it back or even played on a different instrument, they needed to be experienced in person on an Angel's harp. The days that he pulled you away into the secret spot in the garden were at random, but slowly increased in frequency over time. It reached a point where you would keep the harp on your person just in case Beel wanted to hear it. Originally, neither of you would talk following the performance of the song unless it was about Lilith, but over time the talks about his sister faded away and were replaced with talks about each other's days and questions exchanged about personal interests, histories, and such. The song slowly became an excuse to be around you, rather than just a simple desire to hear what he had known as "Lilith's Song".

You were beginning to grow on him, and when you had the gall to protect him and Luke he began to develop respect for you. Once, he had thought of you as a reminder of his failure and the Celestial War, but he had begun to see you as an equal now. A human worthy of his pact, despite the complicated history they shared together. The scent of lavender and honeysuckle had been something he used to avoid, tying it to you being nearby, but now it was something Beel wanted to be surrounded by. It was a smell that reminded him not only of you, but of Lilith as well.

While he had disliked you in every meaning of the word before fully getting to know you, something he had never truly wanted was for you to pass on. And after getting to actually know you, the desire to keep you safe and especially alive bloomed and grew. So finding you in a battered heap at the bottom of the staircase torn his heart in two. He could sense the way Belphie felt towards you and understood his contempt, but an unfamiliar anger boiled deep inside of him. Beel couldn't bring himself to hate his twin in any regard, but still he was upset by his actions. This inner turmoil left him rooted in place, staring with very minimal reactions other than despair and sorrow. Once again he had failed to protect someone he loved, a thought that ate away at him as he watched you die in Mammon's arms.

Prior to the Attic incident, most of the time you spent with Beelzebub was very contact free. Just simple discussions or comfortable silence, perhaps with a brief touch when he'd pass you a piece of food that he wanted you to try. But following your demise and later revival, Beel seemed to want to touch you as much as possible. If he wasn't having you sit on his lap or vice versa, he enjoyed being pressed up against your side. Particularly with one of his hands resting against one of your pressure points so he could feel your heartbeat.

Nightmares were something he had on occasions, but none were more frequent than the nights following your death. Most of them were just replayings of the event, but sometimes the dreams could be incredibly cruel. Mixing your death with Lilith's, mocking voices surrounding him, showing his brain's interpretation of Belphie killing you that made him feel even more like he could've prevented it, or all of those things at once and more. Waking up from a particularly nasty dream sent him seeking you out immediately, needing to make sure that you're alive and okay. Though usually just feeling your pulse or having a brief conversation with you would soothe the ache caused by the nightmare, he found that he couldn't properly sleep unless you at least slept in the same room.

Beelzebub knew his devotion to you from the moment he formed a pact with you, one made out of respect rather than the transactional agreements commonplace in many others he formed before yours. But the sensation that Lilith had always felt for you was a gradual increase that sprouted from your times in the garden. From a mutual respect grew fondness and longing, steadily blooming into what his little sister called "love". This bloom truly burst one night as you lay slightly together, his arms holding you close to his chest as you willingly nuzzled against him. Shockwaves of warmth and fullness coursed through his veins at the action, and he pulled you in tighter. In that moment he deeply understood why Lilith had done such a stupid and reckless thing to save your life. If it he been him and you in that situation, he too would've done the same.

Belphegor:

Belphegor knew your face long before the Celestial War. Like his sister, he too had been fascinated with Humans, perhaps even more than Lilith had. When Lilith had first met you, you had met her brother not too long afterwards since Belphie had come to retrieve her before the others noticed them missing. He grew to know you as Lilith's friend, and later Lilith's lover, a man that he would recall the face of when his sister would go about her lovestruck ramblings despite hardly knowing you himself. But after the Fall your face was nothing but a stain on his mind. His contempt for humanity rose more and more by the century, with you as personification for the whole species.

So when the very person that he felt to be the sole cause of his sister's demise ascended up the stairs, he recognized you in an instant. Surprisingly you did as well, rushing over to the bars with a worried expression. His blood boiled at the way you called him "Belphie", gritting his teeth and digging his nails into his palms to keep him from desperately swiping at you from the bars. The desire to escaped his confinement tripled the moment he locked eyes with you, if it weren't for the bars that separated you he likely would've ripped you to shreds. But, he needed to stay calm. There was no way he would be able to get out of the Attic without your help, and if he made too much of an uproar it may alert Lucifer to his plans. Ditching the plan to trick you into thinking he was a human, he tried his best to convince you that he was still an Angel. Sadly for him, you weren't as naïve as you may have been all those years ago and he confessed his true form. Only after that did you agree to help him. Watching you descend the stairs, he began plotting your downfall.

Reasonably, he was upset when you had confided in his brothers the truth about your identity after meeting him. Putting distance between yourself and his brothers put a heavy dent in his plan, since you would need all of their pacts in order to destroy the barrier keeping him locked away. The night you had told him he had stormed away from the bars in a huff, and refused to talk to you every time you would return to the attic door after. Only after you repaired your bond with Beel did he speak to you, but it took the formation of Satan's pact for Belphie to actually look at you.

Your conversations with each other were always brief and stinted, unless Belphegor began to feel your trust in him slipping. He'd put on the façade of kindness whenever you began to grow hesitant to go along with his plans, empty promises and forced pleasantries flowing easily through his lips. These "sweet" moments made him grow angrier at you as well, but not just because he was talking to you. Something about speaking with you in such a kind and attentive manner pissed him off to no end, only made worse by the residual feeling of uncertainty you left him with each time. Uncertainty not in your trust in him, but his own ability to fully enact his plans. The very thought that he may not have actually wanted to kill you all along infuriated him.

But once he found you standing alongside his bed in the Attic with the door open behind you, the uncertainty he held was drowned underneath the waves of the ocean of resentment and anger that had built up over the years. A sudden feeling of unbridled joy overtook him as you gasped for air whilst he strangled you, the joy carrying over and growing in intensity as you drew closer and closer to death. Even as his brothers crowded around you he felt nothing but the rush of adrenaline he had gotten from seeing the despair and betrayal in your eyes. And then, seeing your teary-eyed form reappear alive at the top of the stairs crying joyfully about the tales of Lilith's second life as a human, left him feeling nothing but hollow.

Though he may have acted with a fondness and admiration towards you following your revival, Belphegor couldn't shake this feeling of remorse. And how could he not? He had killed the very man that his sister had loved so dearly, her love that transcended beyond her first and second demises. While he did want to repair his relationships with you and his brothers for what he had done, for a while he just avoided you entirely. Avoiding you was something difficult since you seemed to almost always actively seek him out, so one of the only escapes he could use was sleeping. Belphegor was aware that you didn't like waking him up and bothering him unless necessary, so he pulled the sudden slumbers out of the blue quite often.

To fully avoid thinking of you though, he couldn't be in his own dreams. If he did have a dream it often involved you, and no amount of dream manipulation could get you out of it once you were there. So, he went into the dreams of others instead. Most of the time it was of lesser demons who just happened to be asleep at the time, or occasionally it was one of his brothers'. Unfortunately, it seemed that a divine force was getting very upset with this dancing act he played with you, because one night he found himself stuck in one of yours.

Initially, the Avatar of Sloth had thought he was in the dreams of some random lesser demon. The open valley in front of him wasn't something he was at all familiar with, and from the amount of discarded armor and dried blood on the ground it didn't seem like a place he would've wanted to be anyway. His attempts at changing anything in the dream were strangely ineffective, and it seemed all he could really do inside of it was wander about and watch. Shuffling through the mounds of metal, he found himself at the edge of a campsite. While the area itself lacked any living beings entirely, a transparent illusion hung over the deserted scenery. One of a grand feast, adventurers clinking together mugs of ale and chatting over heaping plates of meats and fruits.

A certain person at the center of it all stood out to him. The face of a man he could never truly forget. Belphie wanted to run and get out of your dream as fast as possible, but curiosity held a tight grip on him and only beckoned him closer. You appeared overjoyed in the scene before him, happily downing another mug as you spoke in a tongue he'd never heard you use to a man next to you. The merriment of the atmosphere around you was infectious, and it almost brought a smile to his face. Almost. Because any sort of joy he got from seeing you so happy was quickly replaced with despair.

The man you had been so eagerly chatting with had seemed like a friend of yours at the time, reciprocating the same friendly conversation with you as you had given to him. Yet, seeing the way that he now stood over you, bleeding out onto the ground, he no longer looked like a friend. A tremble had set into his fingertips as he watched the sudden scene of betrayal, noticing each and every detail of the exchange. The way the stranger had for a moment lovingly cradled your face before quite literally stabbing you in the back, scurrying away as the drunken fools surrounding you finally caught on to the situation at hand. Dread filled his mind as he slowly backed away from the scene before him, unable to look away until he could no longer see you behind the crowd surrounding you. Had someone betrayed you in such a way before? Or was this your way of coping with his betrayal of you? He no longer had to wonder these thoughts any longer, as he backed straight into someone.

It wasn't unusual that you would dream of past events, memories of times long gone. They weren't always pleasant, as that'd be impossible without outside interference, but the bad dreams didn't effect you as much as they used to. You could still be caught off guard by certain things or deeply immersing dreams, but most of the time your dreams were reacted to with indifference. As such, the memory of tonight's dream wasn't one that really effected you. You remembered the location fairly well upon waking up in the medic's tent, and as you exited you prepared yourself to rewatch the memory as you had before. What you weren't prepared to see however, was a trespasser in your dreams. A very familiar demon with a cow pillow clutched tightly to his chest. While a part of you wanted to call out to him and ask him why he was here, you were more curious of his reaction to the scene before you. It wasn't often that people would enter your dreams or used spells to watch your memories, and their reactions were almost always interesting. Standing behind him now, you waited for the scene to conclude before confronting him.

As he backed into you, you lazily wrapped your arms around his waist and rested your head on his shoulder. You could feel him jolt but not pull away, eliciting a soft chuckle from you. "Whatcha' doing here Belphie?" He didn't respond, but the discomforted hums and way his eyes darted about were decent enough as an answer. "Eh, why you're here doesn't really matter. Did ya' like the show?" "...No. Why would someone like that?" In response you shrugged, releasing him from your grip and sitting down on the ground next to him. "This memory in particular just always reminded me of a stageplay is all. Perhaps Simeon could use it in one of his stories." You brought a hand to rest underneath your chin in a thoughtful pose. "Have you been betrayed liked this before?" Belphie spoke, still standing up next to you. The way he balled up his fists and looked away from you made it clear that the dream was upsetting to him. "I guess you could say that. But I guess it makes sense in this context, y'know? Assassination attempts on war strategists were pretty commonplace back then. It's nothing I'm not used to after all, I've had far worse."

The silence following that statement was almost deafening, enough that it made you uncomfortable to the point where you'd have to talk about the elephant in the room. "Don't worry about the whole Attic thing, Belphie. It's fine, I'm not mad at you." A sudden sniffle caught your attention, drawing you eyes towards Belphegor. He still refused to look at you, but the way his shoulders shook made it clear he was holding back tears. Reaching out a hand, you grasped his wrist and gently tried to tug him to the ground beside you. This action seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, as the Avatar of Sloth crumpled onto the ground beside you, curling in on himself. "Belph-" "Why? Why aren't you mad?" He sobbed. You paused, taking in the situation before you moved closer to him. Of course he tried to recoil from your touch, but once you trapped him in a sort of sitting down hug he knew that unless he gave you a really strong kick you weren't going to let go of him. "Belphie, I was upset at first. Being betrayed and stuff isn't the most fun thing in the world. But, I'm not mad. I'm not claiming that I know what you've been going through all these years, but I do understand your struggle. Your contempt for the world that took someone you loved so dearly away from you. If I was in your situation, I feel that I likely would've done the same." Another sob racked his body as you ran a hand through his hair, avoiding eye contact as you brought him closer to your chest. "I've come to terms with everything and I do forgive you. All I hope is that you can forgive yourself."

In the morning, Belphegor wasn't in his room when Beelzebub had come to wake him up for RAD. His twin was certainly surprised when Lucifer said that you and him had asked to take the day off of school with the excuse of being sick, but decided to simply ask the two of you about it once he got home. Unbeknownst to the rest of HOL, both of you sat in your room, snuggled closely together as a movie played on the nearby television. The tears that stained Belphie's face were slowly fading, as the pact mark on the base of your neck glowed a faint purple.

Forming a pact with you after that night was a sort of promise on his part. A promise to never allow harm to come to you ever again, by his hands or otherwise. It was a spur of the moment idea that he took and ran with, something largely uncommon for the Avatar of Sloth. If he was forming a pact under any circumstances he would've spent time and thought out what the individual was offering to him in trade, but he threw himself into the pact as soon as he had woken up from your dream. He didn't quite care what lie you had told to his older brother about your absence for the day, all he really wanted to do was spend it with you. Your touch had suddenly become intoxicating, and the scent of honeysuckle and lavender was now deeply engraved into his memory. Even if his brothers had already explained everything about pacts to you before, he made sure that you knew just as much control you had over him. He wanted to make you feel secure around him, and know that he would never want or try to hurt you again.

While he may be at your command, Belphie is still quite mischievous and lazy. It takes a bit to fade back into it, but the way he treats you now is more akin to how he treats his brothers, albeit in your case a little more intimate. Should you be seated anywhere in his vicinity and dare to have nothing taking up the space on your lap, you best believe that you'll gain a new lap warmer within the minute he sees you.

Besides Beel, he really doesn't have any desire to share your precious time with any of his brothers, the Royals, or the Purgatory Hall. Complaining about it to him gets them nowhere, as he simply nuzzles himself into your neck deeper and uses the excuse of having spent the least time with you.

A feeling that you accidentally kickstarted within him is the spark of curiosity he had long ago about Humanity. You are pretty much the closest thing to a living Human History book, and if you remember a certain event he's going to probably ask you about it. At times Belphie can be as deeply interested in listening to you speak on a topic as Satan, but you have to be careful about certain details. Bringing up foul and painful memories makes both of you uncomfortable and lengthy, uninteresting things make him fall asleep, so you have to cherry pick certain things. The topic he finds himself most interested in oddly enough is basic household appliances in the Human World, besides the refrigerator. Belphegor now desperately wants a Roomba to take over when its his turn to vacuum, but gets upset every time that he sees that they aren't on Akuzon.

Belphie thinks a lot about the Attic incident and your forgiveness of him. While he still may not forgive himself from doing such a thing, he slowly coming to terms with it as well and making steps to better himself and your relationship. You often make sure to let him know to take as much time as he needs, seeing as you aren't going to die of old age anytime soon. He does not like that joke.

It takes a very, very long while for him to be open and honest about his own nightmares that involve you. He can't bring himself to describe the details of them to you, and even recalling the events of the dream is painful enough as is. If you're asleep while one of these dreams are going on he'll often escape to your dreams, unless the one you're having is much worse. He'd rather sit through another one of Mammon's money dreams than watch something terrible happen to you, even if you say that those memories don't effect you.

Coming to terms with how deeply he truly cares for you is a bit of a rocky road. Sure, he doesn't want to see you hurt and thrives off your happiness, but he also feels guilty about his past actions still. It takes some time, but he eventually allows himself to begin indulging in your happiness and joy instead of hanging around and cuddling with you just to give you brief moments of joy. Over time he realizes just what he felt about you, a feeling that had built up from the moment he'd first met you snowballing into the current day. Something that Lilith had always told him about. That feeling was love.

Out of all his brothers, Belphegor is the most insistent on you remaining in the Devildom. It would make a lot of things easier for you as a whole since you wouldn't have to keep moving around and lying about your identity, and he also just really wanted to keep you around.

#obey me hc #obey me x reader #obey me x male reader #obey me x male mc #obey me angst #obey me fic #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me asmo #obey me beel #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphie #obey me belphegor #i am very tired im gonna go take a nap now lol... not. genshin time

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void-inked-pen · 3 years ago

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Pen Rants About Fantasy BNHA Fics For Too Long

Aight people, I'm sharing the same thoughts on here I did on twitter but with more to add because twitter won't let me rant long like I can on here.

its "pen talks at length about fantasy au's and fanon around said established au's" so I'm a huge nerd for fantasy au's if the original story isn't fantasy and I'm even MORE a nerd for it if one of those characters becomes a shapeshifter or something. With BNHA it already has a kind of canon au where horikoshi literally made a fantasy au ending sequence and I remember all the hype for it back when it came out and that love for it resurfaced recently because... again... I'm a nerd for it.

But one thing i've noticed fantasy fics do often is they kinda just... don't do the leg work with what it means to make a whole new world with magic and lore. they just assume the reader will read "oh they're a fae" or "oh they're a dragon" and get it which... pls dont do. There's a lot of fun that can be had figuring out legistics of how magic and creatures look and work and I get it if that isnt your cup of tea but if you have a fantasy world... you gotta usually do some extra work with it.

So fanon has this thing with bnha where whenever they write certain characters, they kinda automatically are always the same across the board in various fics. which is fine, I appreciate consistent headcanons, but when it comes to PORTRAYING those headcanons... I get bored. There are only 2 FICS (if you wanna know which I can toss them your way) that I have read for fantasy au which both actually do leg work for the world and put thought into how these characters work and out of the literal thousands (over half just being plain boring smut because they are just weird and horny) it bums me out.

One thing that seriously gets stunted is Bakugou as a barbarian which... what would that mean in a fantasy world? not many fics go into that but they def go into it more frequently than some of the other concepts. I just think there's more that can be messed with there. Like, what kind of culture did he grow up in? how did he meet Deku? did they still grow up with each other and if they did how? are they from the same villiage? Horikoshi's art makes it seem like they were born in different cultures, so how would they have met? would their interactions still be the same if they didn't grow up together? there are a LOT of questions to be asked with interactions I think

It's even WORSE with kirishima tho. He is a dragon in some fics, part dragon in others, but they hardly ever go into the logistics of what that means for him. They never touch on his culture or how people treat him or ANY ANGST and as an angst lover with my favs it suuuuucks. Kiri in general has hardly any well-written long-form angst and I'm starved for that kinda content. Also, when people write dragon Kiri they always, ALWAYS introduce him to Bakugou by him somehow being captured (I wrote him that way too but its mainly for a specific situation to happen and a scene that's been stuck in my head for ages now so I'm calling myself out) but then, they do that to him and expect him to... what be fine afterwards? Tangent but not many people write good angst for my boy and I'm DEPRIVED.

but anyway, I think there's more that can be done with some of these concepts. like if Kiri is a dragon, would he still breathe fire? If so, how would he use it? if not, why/how does he work? Can he shapeshift willingly or is he forced to or does he need outside assistance like a ritual or something? is his hardening just his scales, in which case if he's in dragon form and has his hardening magic is that just a special ability he can do to make his scales harder? there's a lot about shapeshifting that can be messed with as well! (both those fics i mentioned before have major consequences if Kiri doesn't shapeshift frequently and I love it).

In general, I feel like people see the au with these characters and just don't think of the nuances and it bugs me. And then the fandom also has fanon about it and some of the tropes are tired... so I started thinking about scenes around fantasy au and ye a lot of what I'm deciding to do with it isn't really... how I normally do it. like there's thought into what I'm imagining because it's me we're talking about but world-building I'm leaving a bit up in the air and to be interpreted however.

anyway, thanks for coming to my Rant-talk lol, if you have fantasy au fics that are long form, arn't constant smut, have kiri or bakugou angst and good world building I'd love to hear recs. the two fics I was talking about are:

the (I think discontinued) fic Blood Of My Hand by PurplePersnicety - its about Kiri being captured by humans and possibly sold but his fire got locked away and he can't shapeshift, while an exiled Bakugou is a barbarian who has a problematic goal and the two make a blood pact to try and help the other and then shit hits the fan And the currently still updating fic, Wandering Home by Milligramme - Kirishima was raised in a human town and told to hide his beastly traits when one loud blonde shows up, tries to steal and then eat said stolen lemons before the two decide to travel together and help Bakugou return home and Kirishima figure out what he is.

(links are being weird so i could only add the link on "home" on the second one idk why)

#pen talks #bnha #kirishima eijirou #bakugou katsuki #fantasy au #bnha fantasy au #dragon kirishima #barbarian bakugou #dumb shit i rant about inbetween work lol

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wisecloudnightmare · 1 year ago

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What if we add to this the au where green lanterns are ghost king's guardians/guards?

After Hal "died," Danny disappeared from the face of the earth. He finally accepted the role of the King of the Infinite Realms so that he can access the ability to locate its population.

A year has passed since then, and there's no sign of Hal's ghost. Slowly, Danny learns to accept that Hal is gone gone.

(That's what he tells Jazz anyway.)

However, while trying to stay awake in the super important meeting/party (because ghosts hate boring events), like, formally establishing ties between realms level of importance, the Ghost King is introduced to Green Lantern Corps.

When he asks why they're here even though they look like they want to be anywhere but (while wording it more politely, of course, it's a formal event.), one of them explains that they were just learning of their true roles, which are protecting the realms citizens and managing the flow of ectoplasm in the living realm, before coming to the meeting. So, they want to give an official apology for unknowingly neglecting duties and maybe schedule another meeting to discuss the matter at another date, bla bla.

(I don't remember the exact details or which person I osmosis this headcanon from. Sorry. Can someone throw me a name or a link, please?)

Danny zones out since the first ten seconds. No one knows because of the veil he wears over his face.

(Other green lanterns also find this boring, scattering to find their friends so fast Danny can't get a good look at most of them.)

After telling the Lantern to talk with Lady Jasmine, Danny spends what feels like eternity accepting greetings and gifts from a long line of other important people/heroes.

Even heroes who are known aliens can't hold his interest. They only make him think of the alluring darkness of space, the bright sky, the brighter smile of—

His attention snaps back at the familiar sound of laughter—

No, Danny, you're just missing him so much you hallucinate his voi—

But what if—

Pull yourself together. You're a Kin—

Then it means he can do what he wants.

Ugh, Jazz and Sam are going to be sooo mad.

Danny turns, ignoring the hero he doesn't remember the name of.

His gaze lands on lips that stretch into a familiar grin.

("Next time I will take you even higher.")

(There is no next time.)

Strong jawline.

("I'm here." The comforting weight on Danny's shoulder echoed the sentiment.)

("Where are you?" The weight of the crown is far heavier.)

Flushed cheeks.

("Remember me when you finally reach space, okay?" He always felt so strongly but asked for so little.)

(Was Danny asking too much?)

The bridge of his nose.

(The braver of the two brought his face close. "If I ask, will you stay?"

Danny closed his eyes.)

(Someday he doesn't want to open them.)

Danny swallows the lump in his throat. There are many things he regrets. However, taking the time he spent with Hal for granted and refusing to give him an answer are what has been haunting him since Hal's "death."

He won't let this chance slip away.

He takes off the veil.

"Hal."

************

(123456) this is a memory || before Hal's "death"

(123456) this is Danny's feeling relating to what he is remembering || after Hal's death

Short DPXDC Prompts #874

Danny’s high school grades have destroyed his chance of becoming an astronaut so he turns to the next best thing that doesn’t require anything besides his High School Diploma: the US Air Force. He becomes good friends with a fighter pilot at the Broome Lake Air Force Base; Hal Jordan.

#dp x dc #dpxdc #hal jordan #green lantern #danny fenton #danny fenton x hal jordan #the portion above read more is what I planned to type #you can see how much control I have over my body #danny has a space obsession #hal tried to help him and fall in love in the process #when hal “died” danny took up the crown so if hal's a ghost he can find him #before this danny has problems feed his obsession despite hal's helps #he didn't know how long he can stay in the living realm. he wanted to so much for hal.#but he didn't want to give hal false hope.#so. none answer.#and danny fled for a week— i mean took leave. then hal was gone.#danny kinda thinks it was his fault somehow and gets kinda obsessive in finding hal's ghost #i don't have the spoon to put the details in #I just want to share the vibes that inflicted my brain so they would go away.#if you see any mistakes no you don't #p.s. is this even readable??? I'm awake for 24 hr so ehhh

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mwolf0epsilon · 4 years ago

Text

First off, before everyone comes after my butt with their "No Fun Allowed" and "Cringe" signs, this is in no way something to be taken as gospel or insightful. It's not a prophetic enforcement of canon. It's literally a theory done for fun, and to try to piece the Bendy Crack up Comics into the general and messy lore of the BatIM franchise.

Most of you get this and don't need a big wordy warning about fanon interpretation, but a lot of peculiar people tend to show up in my ask box hoping to start a fuss over my headcanons and AU ideas, so I thought to be nice and leave a polite and diplomatic "Kindly Fuck Off" sign at the door for them.

With that said, there will be mild spoilers, carry on of your own volition, down below under the cut that will definitely show up because Tumblr mobile is a functional app that's never given me trouble!!!

---

[[MORE]]

The Bendy Franchise has an established issue with cohesion in its lore. We all know what I'm talking about, we all have reservations about canonical character discrepancies (game vs novel vs guidebook) and we all have been racking our brains with a few holes in the timeline, as well as how BatDR (which is neither prequel nor sequel) will fit into this, since it's connected to BatDS and that's an established prequel to BatIM.

Granted I myself am missing a lot of pieces, having to scrounge around for info since I can't really get any of the reading material myself and rely heavily on @british-hero (who owns the novel plus got her copy of the comics yesterday), a very incomplete wikie, and analysis and theories from SuperHorrorBro's Bendy videos.

Heck, I also rely on a lot of gameplay footage, because BatIM has a bit of subtle storytelling through visual design of its levels, and hints of how certain characters work through a few game mechanics.

Through this mishmash of collecting puzzle pieces for the greater picture I even have a few notes on my phone to piece together certain events in established dates, something which comes very in handy for this theory since it talks about two particular characters, the Projectionist and Brute Boris (and I guess Twisted Alice to some extent but it's more of a note on some interesting thoughts I have of her).

Without further ado, here's what this theory is all about: Why did Norman become the Projectionist, and why did Twisted Alice turn Buddy Boris into Brute Boris?

If you think about it, there's only two creatures in the studio that really seem out of place in the world of BatIM, and that's Prophet Sammy and the Projectionist. Neither are inherently similar to any of the cartoon characters, nor are they considered to be Lost Ones. They're certainly not Searchers, but while we know Sammy is unique because his method of transformation was different, we never got an explanation for Norman's. It could be that it's a process similar to BatDR's new enemy type that's larger and seems to have bits and bobs stuck to it, but then those big guys seem like the equivalent to Swollen Searchers for the Lost Ones. The Projectionist doesn't really fit the puzzle.

Or at least he didn't.

With the introduction of the Crack up Comics collection, we get three new characters that were definitely designed in the same manner that the Butcher Gang was. Beginning with a corrupt monster forms and then giving way to perfect and pristine rubberhose toon forms.

I'm talking about Miss Twisted, the Brute, and Cameraman.

The villainous trio from the Souper Boris comic strip.

To us it's obvious the artists created them in parallel to Twisted Alice, Brute Boris and the Projectionist, but to the actual canon this actually has a bit of an impact on the Projectionist's existence.

Why, you ask? Because those characters were introduced between 1936 and 1940.

Bendy Crack up Comics table of contents, showcasing the publishing dates of the strips.

For anyone who doesn't know (either from not paying attention to the Joey Drew Studios channel audio logs, or from not owning the books) the Ink Machine wasn't conceptualized or installed until 1942/1943. Putting that into perspective, the only other thing that happened in Joey Drew Studios in 1940, was the conceptualization of Bendyland (which is likely the origin of the idea for the Ink Machine itself).

This means that Cameraman existed well before the Projectionist ever came to be, and that made me think about another thing: The Ink's apparent sentience.

I'll be frank, the Ink is very hard nut to crack. I consider it a form of alchemized entity, others consider it pure black magic, and I'm pretty sure Joey Drew himself had no idea what he was dealing with when he began using it. The fact of the matter is that the Ink is alive and that it has its own agenda. One that coincides with Joey's, out of mutual interest.

In the novels it seems to want to be free, but it can't exactly do that as a formless liquid, so it tries to body-snatch people (ex: Sammy and Buddy's grandpa).

When Joey tries to use it to give life to Bendy through nothing more than using the Ink and a template (likely a character model sheet) the Ink tries to follow the model but immediately becomes a distorted humanoid version of it (which honestly rings so many fucking alarm bells on its own). Things… Escalate there on out, with Joey trying to perfect the method and only managing to succeed through Daniel Lewek (and many other nameless Boris Clones), Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor.

An important thing to take from this, however, is that by trying to perfect this method Joey not only taught the Ink to reshape things into viable referenced material, but that he had to have lost control of just how many souls were being pumped through the Ink Machine for him to monitor and keep up.

Sammy started killing people when he completely turned, and it didn't seem to take long for him to cut down people in likely both the music and art departments. At this point he had no self-restraint and was completely wrapped around inky fingers and Joey's lies.

Norman is one such potential victim, and Dot and Buddy even passed by his ink-wrapped body while fleeing.

Now, the thing about trying to follow a specific guide and not having the actual means to make it exactly the same thing, is an easy enough notion to get (as shows like "Nailed It", and years of trying to perfect visual style mimicry, have taught me).

The Ink likely had the template it needed (maybe a printed copy of Souper Boris that got thrown around in the chaos), the insight of what Norman's role in the studio was, the amount of mass it needed to consume and transform his dead body, but not exactly the right sort of… Centerpiece for it...

Cameraman using his lens to light up his path.

But what's a projector besides a bigger fancier camera? Both blink, both take film, same thing right? The ink doesn't see the difference and just stitches together this humanoid bootleg cameraman with the pieces it finds that are similar enough.

Mechanical blinky head? Check.

Strange round disc near the belly? There's a speaker. That's round! Check.

Film? There we go, a nice big round reel full of film in it, let's put it near the head, that's how it works right? Check.

Lastly, no Joey to actually direct this artistic recreation of a one-off character. The Ink did it all by itself while he was off getting his hand broken by a rightfully upset Buddy Boris.

If you look at it objectively it makes sense that being the projectionist tasked with not only recording and maintaining the projectors themselves, that the entity in the Ink would pick Cameraman as a template for Norman's transformed self.

It also makes sense that the Projectionist is so off-putting in the studio. He's almost perfect, but not quite because there just weren't the right materials. He's stuck in between Twisted Alice and the Butcher Gang clones as another failed recreation.

Moving on to the next question on why Twisted Alice turn Buddy Boris into Brute Boris, when she hadn't done the same to any of the other Boris Clones.

It's hard to say really, but I think it all comes down to who Twisted Alice really is. It's very likely that, as Susie Campbell, she would have knowledge of the comic strips. A few were most likely made into cartoon shorts even (which isn't an unusual assumption to make), and maybe Susie voiced a few background characters for said shorts.

Susie may have lost her role as Alice, but before Joey came to her with his proposition for the "special project" it's very likely that she remained in the studio, forced to do the voices of characters that weren't noteworthy or that she felt completely disconnected from (talking chairs and singing hens really don't become beloved fan-favourites) . Maybe if the Souper Boris story was made into a short, she might have voiced Miss Twisted (which honestly would be personally insulting considering she once had the role of the main heroine).

Point is, Susie knows her lore, and that translates to Twisted Alice's repertoire of insightful knowledge on the abominations lurking around the studio.

She never did turn other Boris clones into brutish lackeys because at the time she didn't need to. But it doesn't mean she hadn't considered it. Henry's disruptive behaviour is just what she needed to put that plan into motion.

There was already a "Cameraman" walking about, one that could easily rip apart anything it came across, so acquiring the means to recreate the "Brute" would have been benefiting from her point of view. The Projectionist doesn't take orders and can't be reasoned with, so if she could make something just as strong that took her orders she could, theoretically, be safe from most terrors in the studio. If that didn't work, she would still likely send others to their death by simply sending them down to Level 14, or maybe lure the Projectionist to them herself (just because he doesn't take orders doesn't mean she can't use him to achieve her end goals).

Miss Twisted, the Brute and Cameraman in their evil swamp lair.

But why Buddy Boris specifically? Why couldn't she have used any of the bodies laying around? Freshness most likely. Rigor mortis is probably still a thing, even for living cartoons. Easier to work a fresh dead body than a bunch of stiff wolves.

That's at least why I think Brute Boris is a thing. Susie's knowledge of most Bendy cartoon/comic strip characters, taking inspiration from the Projectionist's presence, and honestly a very twisted sense of humor and irony. In her quest to become a Perfect Alice, the heroine of the show, she ended up becoming just as antagonistic (although more sadistic) as Miss Twisted, a Bendy comic strip villainess.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #bendy crack up comics #bendy spoilers #spoilers #theory #headcanons #speculation #twisted alice #the projectionist #brute boris #long post

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rhydium · 3 years ago

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Could you give a big general description of what your AU is about? I've only been able to catch some tidbits of it (feel free to give as many details as you want though, I love reading about people's stories/headcanons!!)

i can do my best yea!!! :D

to kick things off, i would recommend checking the masterpost, which will be pinned on my blog! particularly, infinite’s backstory essay. already 12k words of free content right there, and good for establishing context!! more things will also be added over time, such as updated references, so i recommend checking back now and then if you’re interested!

given the length of the essay though, for you or anyone else who may not want to read through it, the main details you ought to know are as follows;

– the au is fully canon compliant to the prequel comics, the main game, and the episode shadow dlc minus one detail;

– that detail is that shadow did not kill the jackal squad, however, until after the war is over, infinite believes he did due to eggman being a massive [redacted]

– yes, they are still alive, but who can say where... if you were wondering :)

– this is all only partially idw compliant as it's an ongoing series obvi, and diverges around when starline has been kicked from the empire

essentially, i guess it’s about... okay. so. infinite and starline are very parallel characters in my opinion; they both crave recognition, acknowledgement, and will chase that desire for these things to very dangerous lengths. they both feel they must prove something, to either others or themselves. i'd say its considerably more noticeable in infinite, and my personal belief regarding him is that he ties in his worth with his strength – i mean, that’s practically canon, it's not really subtext.

i feel it’s something sorta like... if people fear them, to be perceived as a bad person, a threat, they're still being perceived. if people are scared of them, that means they're worth noticing, their lives have some kind of impact – even if it's negative. we don't know as much about starline, you could definitely say these themes went a lot harder with infinite, but they're like... i do think they're there. i saw similarities in their thought patterns, and i really, really wanted to explore these similarities!

while infinite is kind of manipulated into the empire to a degree, starline is far more enthusiastic, but ultimately... the interesting thing is, they end up in pretty much the same place. discarded.

infinite, post forces, has been trapped in nullspace, for... roughly a month. my calculations could be a bit off, i really did try to keep track of the loose passage of time in the comics, but. yeah! take this estimate with a grain of salt!! he can't get himself back out again, as the phantom ruby is totally janked up. if you check out my side document on the ruby, there’s more info on that! an abbreviated version – he overused it, and an off-balance ruby is a dangerous ruby, hence his struggle to maintain a physical form. you can’t just recreate the entire sun without paying a uh... significant toll.

his experience there is definitely not pleasant, with nothing to do but contemplate his failures and faults. it’s also disconcerting, as time there is absent. he has no idea how long he’s been there. hours? days? weeks? or years? and what if he never gets out – is this his punishment, he wonders? condemned to an eternity alone, floating in an empty void? not even capable using the ruby to create the illusion of company? unable to die?

but finally, then, then comes a glimmer of hope, with the appearance of a strange new gem. the warp topaz. in the present day/real world, as we knw from the comics, it had just been cast away to an unknown location. don’t ask me the specifics on how this works, but, like, listen, it’s magic, and that thing has gotta be somewhere!! anyway. while escape isn’t possible with the drained phantom ruby alone, when he combines both gems, he’s able to warp time and space and free himself, though it’s not a painless endeavour.

finally, he is back in the real world. he identifies his location as mystic jungle, where it all began – the irony isn’t lost on him. as he is very disoriented, unsure of how long he’s been absent, he decides he ought to, naturally, get a grasp on that. he could also do with having shelter, as unless it’s been many years – which is plausible, but he would prefer not to entertain the concept – then he will want to stay away from any watchful eyes and lay low.

the two gems are also now unresponsive, most likely a result of the massive reaction between them. he should figure out what this other one is, he thinks, once the basics are covered. he’s significantly weaker following these events; first the drained ruby, then the massive energy reaction of using both it and the topaz, combined with the fact that, while he can survive for quite some time without sustenance, he hasn’t eaten in a long time. being part organic, part robotic, and involved in a symbiotic, parasitic relationship with the ruby, it all gets kind of complicated for him. he needs food and water and rest still, however, it’s more infrequent. after a week or two is when the side effects begin displaying themselves. anywho!

infinite also briefly wonders what his long-term plan is, now, following his defeat, finding he isn’t sure. he doesn't know what he wants anymore, feeling purposeless. he can’t dwell on it.

he heads for the abandoned laboratory.

it is there, however, that he finally ends up learning of eggman's lies to him. when he turns on the power to boot up the computers, he is able to determine the date... and then he decides to go through some of the files. his attention is caught by a folder simply titled “infinite.” within it are details about him, an unnerving amount of things, audio and text logs of various experiments, and... a recording from january 11th. two months before the war began. the night his squad – his family – had been killed.

he draws a deep breath in when he clicks it.

eggman’s gleeful cackle fills the room, and he swears he feels something deep within him twist. the man happily details the success of his plan to frame shadow for murder, to set infinite up, and in that moment, everything changes.

for better or for worse?

they’re alive. or – were? what had happened since? what if eggman killed them later? what if they got away and then – then... died because of – he feels sick. because of the war. because of him. the war he started because he thought they were already dead.

dread, relief, anger. mixed emotions pull him all directions, but as he sits there, letting it all sink in, one is strongest; the one that’s always strongest.

eggman. the doctor used him, manipulated him. turned him into a pawn, and infinite, gods, he had let him, guided by grief and a very similar fury to the one he’s feeling right now. he gave up his body, endured test after test, tore the whole fucking world down, and why, for what? everything he had done, he did for a lie. the torment he caused, the destruction... becoming a weapon. he had become everything he despised.

but he knows now. he has the truth, now. and he has his new purpose. it won’t be like last time, no. infinite is informed, and this is between solely him and the doctor. eggman is right in his crosshairs, and he’s itching to fire.

first, however, he has to find him.

so, he checks the eggnet pings. he sets out, chases some rumors, dead end leads. then, he gets a name. starline. from all the intel infinite can gather, he was working with eggman during the time he himself was gone, and he had missed... quite a bit. it isn't clear if they are still in alliance, but either way, the platypus may know something, so infinite decides to divert attention to searching for him, instead.

he finds him.

he's quick to learn starline is no longer with the empire, another lackey tossed aside, though the man claims even if he knew anything, he wouldn't tell infinite anyway.

"you would show that much loyalty to a man who cast you aside in a blink?" infinite asks, and starline is quiet. "you owe him nothing. even if he takes you back, you will never know security. one mishap, one wrong remark, and you’ll be back here again, squirming around like a maggot in the wreckage. if you have studied him this long, you ought to be aware of the patterns."

"i was–"

"different?"

the silence is confirmation in and of itself.

infinite snorts softly. "don't go fooling yourself."

"then why did you?" starline bites, gritting his teeth. "why did you align yourself with him? you're acting like you're so smart, but need i remind you, here we both are."

infinite's gaze is icy, unwavering. "that's my business. but i was not planning to remain complacent. our agreement was built upon deception. he withheld information, and intended to betray me. i planned to do the same. subservience is not my style. was it yours?"

starline glares back, equally frigid. his fingers curl, clenching into fists, but he says nothing.

“if i were you, i would not allow myself to be limited by merely trailing along after another.”

“i don’t recall asking for your advice, dog.” the doctor sneers.

infinite hums. “i suppose. we’re done here, then. do whatever you want,” he waves a hand dismissively, turning to take his leave, “it’s your choice.”

he gets only a few paces away before starline suddenly calls out, halting him in his tracks.

"wait," he says, "i believe you have something that belongs to me."

infinite twists to look over his shoulder, unblinking. "we are through talking."

"the warp topaz. return it."

"why the hell would i? i don't know you, and you've been nothing but a pain in my ass.” infinite replies coolly. “who are you to make demands of me?"

"i have spent a very long time studying it. it’s incredibly valuable research."

"yeah, well, good for you. there's nothing in this for me," infinite’s tail flicks in irritation and adjusts his mask, "i do not care for a one-sided transaction." he pauses. "...although if you were to change your mind about eggman, perhaps we could negotiate."

starline makes a low, frustrated chittering sound. infinite waits, despite the strong desire to put this entire interaction behind him.

finally, the platypus pinches his bill and sighs.

"...i truly do not know anything."

"i see."

infinite observes him; his posture, tone. he doesn't appear to be lying.

"that's unfortunate."

he doesn't reply. he seems conflicted.

infinite is about to give up and head off once more, only for starline to finally say,

"i could come with you."

"excuse me?"

"i have a proposition. you have something i want, and although i can not advise you in regards to doctor eggman, i may be able to assist you in a different fashion. have you somewhere to stay?"

infinite frowns. "you're desperate."

"what about the phantom ruby?”

“...excuse me?”

starline adjusts his glasses, then states, more calmly, “you aren’t using it, despite the fact it would benefit you to do so – such as when you tackled me back there. i almost got away, but you didn’t simply trap me with your illusions because you couldn’t,” infinite grinds his teeth as he smiles, smug, “am i incorrect? you’re also playing things rather cautious. and if the topaz – my topaz – was functioning to standard, you would have simply warped away, just now.”

“that is none of your concern.”

“but you don’t know how to fix it, do you? i, however, have enough resources available that i could analyse both gems, identify the problem, and potentially remedy it.”

“you think i'm so stupid as to risk trusting you?”

“i think you’re smart enough to understand that i'm your best bet.”

infinite finds himself truly consider it, much to his annoyance. as if sensing that he’s swaying him, starline continues,

“you can't keep hiding out in old labs forever, you don’t have any equipment, and you surely want to have access to your former abilities again. and without them, what do you truly have to lose right now?”

my sanity, he thinks sarcastically, though i guess i've already lost that if i'm thinking about partnering up with him.

“i assume you’ll be wanting the topaz back?”

starline smiles again.

“it’s a fair price, is it not? a more secure place of shelter, and your phantom ruby restored.”

after a long moment, infinite sighs.

“...where’s your base of operations?”

so... they strike a deal!! a very grouchy alliance is formed!! this is a spontaneous, loosely written interaction, but. that’s the gist!

the plot is, i guess, predominantly about mutual healing. see, they're so alike, and first, a lot of their dislike for one another is, at it's core, due to the fact that... they see their faults and failures reflected in the other person; their presences are a constant reminder to one another of everything they don't like in themselves.

the thing is, as time passes and they come to care for one another, that in turn also teaches them to show that same compassion and, eventually, love, for themselves. like, recognition and acceptance of the self through the other. growing, recovering, how our relationships with others can affect our relationships with ourselves, that's the story at it's core!

infinite does almost succeed in his mission, which is definitely a climax in his character arc, but from there, he slowly mellows out. for the most part, we just have a couple of losers (affectionate) hiding out and trying to figure themselves out. their “redemption arc” is more complex than like, they become totally Good though. like, they heal and grow into better people, but i want to acknowledge the fact they both still have bastard energy. their characters i think would still be in the grey zone, and i don’t want to really, bend them waaaay out of their shape to fit something else to the point they’re more like ocs. so while not pure evil, they’re more like... demoted to cartoonish villains. domesticated. they’re bad but not like........ BAD?? they don’t really take sides and are basically just allied with each other, though will if circumstances really call for it, similar to how eggman will work with sonic sometimes.

think less “wanna destroy the entire planet together?” and more “hey, wanna go break into that warehouse? i know you wanted parts for your latest invention <3″ lmao. infinite does help out with rebuilding sometimes, though, as he does feel guilty regarding everything, and it seems only right. starline tags along because, package deal. two for one on war criminals. do not separate them.

WHEW i hope this was a satisfying answer!! tysm for asking and sorry abt the wait!

#jackal.txt #ask #anon #yeehaw !!!!!#aspect machina au

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revasnaslan · 4 years ago

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I'll be honest about Annilis, I love him and his sympathetic background AS well as his awful approach to keeping Hec-tor safe, because he's probably in some legitimate danger but he took it too far. I love HP, but I also wanna beat his ass too. Just grab him by the ears and yell, "What are you doing you idiot sandwich?!" I just wanna ask him "Are you even happy? And no getting pegged by a Shade isn't happiness." Don't want him to die though, only because it's a cop-out for actual punishment.1/2

2/2 That's what kinda bummed me on HP in-show, he did so much horrible shit, was an arrogant living "God", and he was just killed? That easy? HP's hubris was grotesque and he deserved a worse punishment than just a lightshow to the face. HP was also a non character in the end and whatever characterization he did have was lost quickly, gonna admit. But, an arrogant jerk dying that quickly is too easy a punishment, he has to suffer the consequences of his actions and experience his loss in detail.

sorry I'm sending you so many asks about HP. But dear God did the show drop the ball on Horde "supposedly endgame villain who was woefully underutilized until the last minute and even then was handed the villain ball to make sure what credibility he did have was lost" Prime. Could have been great, his story was there, but Crew-ra wasted time on frivolous characters(star siblings might have been cool but s5 needed to work on its existing characters, not introduce new ones)and wasted plot points.

I actually have done a ton of analysis on why prime just doesn’t work as a villain for pretty much six months now. Like I started doing this pretty much the day that the finale dropped cause I never liked S5 at all. There’s just much wrong with it, strictly from a narrative prospective than I cannot get over it, which I why I’ve kind of retreated into doing Fuck Canon aus. And I don’t think the major problems plaguing prime is that he’s a bad person or a cult leader or whatever, that would be fine. This is a matter of set up and pay off. This is a matter of narrative structure. Those are my major problems with everything about this.

Anyway, I guess we’ll try a flaccid attempt at positivity, just to make it clear that I am not coming strictly from a point of view of hate… the one thing I remember liking about prime is that creepy dinner scene. Loved that scene, I was so giddy when they dropped it as a teaser clip, and I got to enjoy it in peace for like a day and a half before my love for the show went crumbling. Prime is absolutely on his game in that scene, I can very clearly see his mind working, because my interpretation of the scene is that he’s trying to bait glimmer into giving him information. Did he actually intend to harm adora? Who knows! Does it matter? Not really, considering he got the information he wanted, which was what was needed to work the heart. I can feel the tension in that scene, that is how he should have been for the rest of the season.

So what the fuck happened? *cracks knuckles* well let’s see shall we.

Foreshadowing It’s Fun Cause It’s A Thing I’ve Heard Of

So I think we all remember just how shocking it was when prime actually showed up, and he wasn’t anything like we’d all come to assume he’d be based on what had been said about him up until that point. What we had been fed was essentially that he was cold, calculating, and didn’t look upon “defects” well. He saw the clones as disposable. And they set up that aspect of his character just fine, and I don’t have a problem with how that was set up.

What they utterly failed to properly set up (and even contradicted themselves on) was the cult thing, and how prime is essentially this messiah figure to the clones. I highly suspect this occurred because they were writing the show as they went along, and hadn’t fully fleshed out prime’s whole deal until he actually appeared at the end of S4, but that’s just my own speculation given some of the things that had been said in interviews regarding other aspects of the writing (namely that micah was apparently not supposed to be alive in the first place and that happened because of a miscommunication between noelle and one of the other writers).

Regardless, there are a number of things that should probably have been done differently in order to properly foreshadow prime’s cult leader status, that actually would have heightened hordak’s characterization as well. For one thing, there’s a reason we all assumed that the galactic horde was merely a military program and it’s because of how hordak acts throughout the first four seasons. We can talk in circles about headcanons until we’re blue in the face (i.e., he might have memory problems), but the fact of the matter is that those are headcanons and that hordak’s entire narrative changes from one of an ableist family to one of a religious trauma seemingly on a dime come the very end of S4 when prime shows up.

imagine how satisfying the foreshadowing would have been if hordak had actually been spouting dogma the entire show (i.e., “cast out the shadows” and “all beings must suffer to become pure”) only for it peter off once he’s befriended entrapta, if he had been calling those who he respected brother/sister instead of force captains (which is a far more militarized word to use, and judging by the galactic horde isn’t even a term they use), if he had still been dressed in his uniform and only actually started dressing differently after entrapta had helped him? Hell, he never even so much as implies that entrapta is leading him astray before he’s back with prime, he doesn’t even seem particularly distressed about being around her most of the time, and the only reason he even gets persnickety with her is because of his medical condition.

One point I’m going to expand on for a moment is the whole “brother” thing, because that is actually a very good way of explaining what I mean. Now, hordak doesn’t actually mention any other clones at all from what I remember. This is contrary to all of the clones in S5 referring to each other as “brother” pretty openly and it being seen as a term of respect. However, the only person that hordak actually calls “brother” up until S5 is prime, and this inadvertently ended up making the word seem far more neutral than it should have been considering the context of S5. The word “brother” is actually a control tool, and if they had wanted to establish that sooner, hordak should have been calling anybody he respected that.

So, either the writers hadn’t actually thought of that part of the narrative yet, or they’re just that bad at foreshadowing.

There are also three instances of the narrative contradicting itself with regards to prime, one in S3, one in S4, and one in S5. The first is that hordak wanted to make a new body for himself. While one could argue that this was meant to be foreshadowing that prime takes new bodies whenever his old one failed (which is fine, that works as foreshadowing), the act of hordak admitting that he was intending to do that is what actually creates the snag. With the context of S5, we learn that becoming a vessel is meant to be a place of honor, but this comes with the caveat that it seems like only prime is allowed to take new bodies. So why the ever living fuck would someone as “pious” and “unworthy” as hordak think that was something he could ever be allowed to do, much less that prime would welcome him back with open arms if he did it. But there’s zero hesitation on hordak’s part, he doesn’t even mention that this is something usually only reserved for prime.

The second is that prime literally looked at the heart of etheria and said it was “unlike anything [he had] ever seen” despite canonically fighting the first ones, so he’d presumably have recognized the energy signature that first one’s tech gives off and be like Oh Shit. This one in particular drives me absolutely nuts because if I was writing a villain who had lived long enough to fight the people this mystical weapon was created by I would never write them saying that what the actual fuck. My gripe here is not that prime is ancient, that’s fine, I could’ve vibed with that. But the fact that he not only fought the first ones but also recognized mara is really egregious in a way that borders on parody for me. Like what a flimsy excuse for him to be connected to adora (and we’ll get to that!)

The third and final one is that hordak was allegedly thrown out for his defects. That’s what we were told, that’s what a major facet of hordak’s trauma is centered around. However, at the same times, prime seems like… oddly fixated on hordak in a way that usually implies something deeper is going on here. That was why I was so convinced that hordak wasn’t remembering something clearly, because why would prime spare him instead of killing him immediately after returning if he was defective enough to warrant being thrown out? Come S5, prime seems to have forgotten about the pesky little plot detail that is hordak’s defects, since they never come up again! Nope! Hordak is not only completely healed of his ailments (which Can I Get A Yikes?) but he’s also been welcomed back to his original position as prime’s right hand by the mid-point of the season, and he stays there until the finale unless the plot demands he be elsewhere to interact with entrapta cause hordak was added in post. You can’t even argue that he was keeping hordak alive because eThErIaN kNoWlEdGe because he has those fucking mind chips. Literally every single person he’s chipped is connected to the hivemind because of that. He’d have every single bit of knowledge that he could possibly want right there at his fingertips. He doesn’t need hordak alive at all.

Which brings us to…

It’s Almost Like He Wasn’t A Villain To The Proper People

The thing about villains is that, in order for them to not feel out of place, in order for their defeat to actually give a true feeling of satisfaction, you kind of have to put them up against the right people. The reason that prime ultimately fails in this respect is that he is not adora and catra’s villain, despite the narrative pushing him as that…

I actually once joked on twitter that if the rise of skywalker had come out when S5 was being written, then prime would have likely ended up being revealed as adora’s long lost grandfather in some attempt to make his fixation on her seem warranted. That’s the level we’re at in terms of how connected the two of them appear to be for the villain and hero thing. They just are not connected, and prime has absolutely no reason to be this fixated on her. They tried to explain it with she ra and prime being old enemies, but that’s equally as confusing because a) mara hadn’t mentioned him up until that point, b) this inclusion actually makes the first ones creating a superweapon look justified since prime is such a huge threat, and c) she ra is explicitly stated to have been on etheria long before the first ones even colonized it, so why the fuck is she just gallivanting around the cosmos fighting cult leaders?

And to be clear, if this whole prime versus she ra had actually been hinted at, I would not be taking so much issue with this. But as there was absolutely zero mention of him, it just comes off as egregious and very, very sloppy on their parts.

Prime also should not be as fixated on catra as he is, that doesn’t make sense at all. I know why this happened in particular, though, and it’s because the writing team was so in love with her that they just had to give her this arc. That just makes its inclusion all the worse to be honest. Why does he go to such great lengths to use catra to torture adora, why does he go into a total breakdown after catra escapes? He isn’t connected to either of them…

… because he is hordak and entrapta’s villain.

that prime didn’t immediately want entrapta dead continues to confuse me to this day, nearly seven months after the fact. Like you mean to tell me that this cult leader, who is presumably used to complete obedience from his followers, finds one of the wayward members of his proverbial flock lost on some backwater, who didn’t want to be found, and he knows exactly who is responsible for sewing those seeds of discord in this poor lamb’s head. And he doesn’t immediately want entrapta dead?

Not only does prime never mention her, despite it being very easy to push a plotline about how it’s necessary because she’s perceived as a danger to the rest, and especially to the poor lost soul who was ultimately returned to him. Instead, prime just doesn’t seem to realize entrapta exists. He doesn’t know who she is despite literally reading hordak’s mind. He doesn’t even seem to interpret her as threat considering he wasn’t worried about putting her and hordak right next to each other in the finale. He should have been using hordak to torture entrapta, and he should have had his break because hordak escaped him. That whole scene where catra is under mind control and adora was trying to snap her out of it was textbook entrapdak. Hordak should have been the one to delve into the hivemind to help adora. It was his story and it was taken from him when he was sacrificed on catra’s narrative arc altar.

And this is ultimately completely fixable. Because they had a villain they could have been using for adora and catra the whole time. Shadow Weaver. Y’know, their mutual abuser who was the main cause of strife between the two of them, and the person who kind of set the plot in motion since she’s the reason catra is the way that she is?

He Blew It. Super Hard. Complete Buffoonery.

Ultimately one of the biggest writing fumbles with prime is that he is just really fucking dumb as the plot demands, and it doesn’t make any kind of narrative sense for him to be that way, it is literally just him being at the mercy of the writers who need him to do something stupid so they can push the plot forward since they made him too overpowered for it to happen any other way.

There’s numerous instances of this across the season, including him bringing entrapta aboard the velvet glove when the very person he would have had very good reason to not let her near is standing right there, and him deciding to give catra pretty much free reign of the velvet glove and seeming to decide to trust her despite him knowing damn well that she’s likely to betray him the second he does something she doesn’t like, and the time he literally left adora to be beaten by catra instead of just killing her outright when she couldn’t even activate she ra. And in all these cases he had the fucking nerve to seem surprised when it happened?

However, there is one plot point that I feel illustrates how goddamn stupid he is to move the plot forward, and it’s the mind chips.

I mean one of the reasons I dislike it is going back to how little foreshadowing the writers actually seem capable of committing to. There is nothing to indicate in the narrative that prime actually employs mind control on anybody besides the clones, and this becomes especially egregious when we later meet the star siblings, and we find out that there are large swathes of the universe that are seemingly not chipped? It just screams like they needed some type of angst plot point for catra, so they had to find a way to make it work.

But the very inclusion of the mind chips as a plot point makes prime look so ridiculously dumb, because we are told those chips connect people to the hivemind, we are explicitly shown this for catra angst. So a) why does he need hordak around at all, because the excuse he needs to know about etheria doesn’t work since he literally chips like half of the etherian population later on anyway, b) if he needed information on the heart of etheria, why didn’t he just chip glimmer outright, it would have saved him a lot of time and hassle, and c) if he knew damn well that catra had betrayed hordak numerous times and was likely to do the same to him, why didn’t he just immediately chip her so he could mitigate two problems. If he had chipped catra immediately, he wouldn’t have lost glimmer, and it would have been next to impossible for adora and bow to storm the velvet glove through the means that they did.

When your main villain is that fucking stupid, the tension is completely sapped out of your narrative, and prime doesn’t have enough character unto himself to continue holding up his own arc. He is a sexy lamp cardboard cutout that just happens to be brought onto the scene when they were in need of someone to throw the idiot ball at. Prime is supposed to be this thousand year old body hopper who has the wisdom of the ages, and yet he was defeat by a group of teenagers driving a clown card held together by nothing but duct tape and prayers.

Anyway!

Guess Who Just Got Murdered!

Anon, I completely agree that the way prime got taken out was just… hm. Well, it was a choice, given how they had written the rest of the season.

I’ve said this before, but I really wish I could actually enjoy hordak yeeting him, but I just don’t feel anything. That scene is a culmination of an arc that never happened because hordak was barely on screen for S5. It feels like we’re missing this whole season-long arc about how hordak managed to break free of prime and was actively working against him, and that scene is the lowest point, right before the greater scope villain is ultimately defeated by the protagonist. Which just furthers my point that prime is really hordak’s villain, because hordak reads more like a protagonist than I think the writers actually intended for him to.

Since you mentioned anillis, I feel the need to comment on him as well, because I do know exactly what happens to him at the end of my au, because I actually planned for his ending from the beginning and built his arc towards that point. The very bare bones spoilers is that he isn’t going to die, because a) he needs to live with the consequences of his actions and b) him dying would affect hec-tor horribly, especially since if anybody had to deal the killing blow it would be hec-tor. And hec-tor doesn’t deserve to be forced to do that. He wants freedom, he doesn’t want his brother dead by his own hand.

So, I completely agree that just killing prime off feels a little… like a cop out? I’m not going to get into a discussion of how he was defeated by the power of (romantic) love because my issue there is not with the trope itself, but ultimately how it was handled, and that also has to do more with my grievances with how catradora was ultimately handled than my grievances with prime. However, him being like… exorcised…

Well it sure does clean up some loose ends that we don’t want to discuss huh?

#rev's rambling again #i ain't putting this in any tags #i really don't want to get into fights with people about this #but anyway here's 3000 words on why prime sucks from a narrative perspective #i've been bottling up these feelings for seven months #i deserve the chance to go feral #as a treat #Anonymous

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