#ive not used those tags in a million years

[the-girl-down-the-street]

also gaetan jego!! ive missed seeing you bro

[basofy]

pinned post just because i dont have one and others do

hi im miguel and im a guy

especifically a bi trans guy from venezuela, i live there, i speak spanish and english

i am 23 years old

i like drawing messy stuff and experiment a lot and somuch of the stuff i draw comes from the heart even the embarrassing stuff. i like drawing silly stuff and a lot of vent art and stupid stuff and gay sex but you dont get to see that

my art tag is #my stuff

sometimes i like to make crafts too like plushies and clay figures but im no proffesional with it, the tag i tend to use is #my plushies . i also have some plushies that ive bought or been gifted and i take them everywhere and post about them ocasionally :)

i ocasionally sell commissions so i guess i'll edit this when i do but rn i'm busy and tired

be nice to me because i overthink a lot i might be mentally ill probably, trying to go to therapy soon but getting appointments is hard ¯\(ツ)/¯

i ALWAYSSSSSSSS read tags !!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!! as long as tumblr notifies me so keep this in mind please

i tend to like media thats colorful and cartoony and stupid and with fucked up people and with messages of love cuz im cheesy

stuff im currently interested on most is the lisa the painful games, kaiba 2008, chainsaw man, oneshot, yume nikki and its fangames, the mother series, undertale/deltarune, mouthwashing the game, but i like other stuff too and sometimes i might reblog or draw for it, you can always ask me if ive drawn art of something. i mostly draw lisa cuz im very fixated on it and it matters a lot to me but not all of it is tagged so it might get confusing lmao no those arent ocs...

sometimeeeeeeeeeeeees i do requests but if you send one i might draw it 5 months later

i ocasionally have bad tastes in characters and media i do that, also i enjoy overanalyzing

please do keep in mind that there is fanart of both children's stories and adult's stories in this account. would like if you didn't follow if you're under 16.

another disclaimer: i tend to make art of harsh topics sometimes, all of it coming from own personal feelings, and i take it very seriously. also if you see me make fanart of characters who are family/are an adult and a kid/a victim and their abuser, these are not meant to be seen as ship material and i wish nobody sees my art like that.

i don't post alllllllllllll of my art here because managing accounts is tiring but i have a twitter and an insta

i have a silly strawpage you can send me stuff there or look at the million characters and gifs i put in it, this thing is sensory to me

someone asked me the brushes i use so here they are if you want them

also i have a kofi in case you ever feel like donating to me :) i'm always in need of money lol

[borzoilover69]

(tampers with the gas) dirkjake for the shipping bingo

as you can see my thoughts on them are varied and i can write entire essays. a gas leak made my obsession with them hit an entire level i didnt know was possible. They're everything and nothing to me and i dislike most of fanon abt it and i hate this ship but also i have never cared this much about a ship in general for the doors it could open into messy straight relationship type bullshit with they give me the mic. I find myself often looking thru the tag just to see what people say on it because either theyre completely annoying and wrong or relatively right it really depends.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SECTION CONTAINS EXTENSIVE RAMBLING ON A TOPIC NOT MANY PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN:

i will both simultaneously defend this ship with my fucking life but also i will take any chance to shoot those two fuckers dead i genuinely wish jake english and dirk strider ill they are teens with attachment issues and i think the demonisation of it w/o looking at it as just a relationship that sort of is messy sucks and i think fanon should leave them the fuck alone. if given the chance i would kill both of them simply so i wouldnt have to see them at all but also i wish there were more meta writers for dirkjake bcus i find it so hard to find people that extrapolate at length abt it because its so wild to me the guilt and the feelings and the way they tear and grate at each other is so interesting to me.

every relationship is worse with them anyone that gets caught in the crossfires and tries to sort it out is basically doomed because whats probably going to happen is that dirk and jake are going to gang up to either a.) try to use the person as a weapon against the other or gang up to hurt this mfer theyre essentially doomed but in like a way that everyone is partying and those two are stuck together with awkward air.

im. not going to check over this ramble im just going to keep going. i have so much shit to say.

i hate the villainisation of dirk i hate the villainisation of jake they both suck in the way that teens and most young adults will theyre both at fault i hate the "jake never felt anything towards dirk because hes aro" yes he fucking did aro people can still feel levels of attraction and its very fucking obvious how tied up in each other they are and there are like a million and one reasons i could name it if you gave me a day and 15 pages of text.

i hope they both kill each other the idea of them being happy together is endearing but i dont want that for them most times unless im feeling especially sappy the fandom sort of ruined dirkjake for me heres my big old fuckyou to OD anyways heres a few song lyrics that make me think of them

They would literally be the subject of so much fucking talk in publications because theyre never over not even close theyre stuck together theyre going to be doing this dance for fucking years and either end up as the strangest but happiest freaks in some janked up mansion with a million different things that the normal person would think is fucking weird and strange and unnerving but which they think is completely normal or theyre just going to end up killing each other and nobody is going to be safe in the crossfire theyre going to key each others cars and send pipe bombs and poke at every single hole and flaw in the others facade blah blah blah.

people who just focus on the good parts of dirk and jake dont get it people who focus on the flaws only dont get it i think there should be more discussion but also the idea of being exposed to someone who doesnt get it is hell for me ive read their pesterlogs like so many fucking times and ive written extensively abt their selves and what flaws they have and i could prolly kick the shit out of them anyways mic drop im done.

[despite-everything]

moving across the country in two weeks and im fucking stressed.

im really excited - ive been trying to do this for more than half a year and only just now got a job, but this is hard! ive moved cross-country twice before, but once i was still in high school and was moving to live with a different parent then i moved again for college, so both of those moves were very different than a full adult moving because i want to. ive moved around within an hour or so radius over the past couple years, but this is so different and its starting to feel real.

i have my flight booked. ive put in my two weeks at my current job. i have a date im selling my car. im fortunate enough to have been offered to live with my sister and her husband for a couple months while i look for a second job and a place of my own (def with roommates though. im moving nyc. is this the smartest finanical decision with the current economy? probably not. but i feel like i need to for a multitude of personal reasons).

my cat is my personal item on my flight, and i plan to have a large backpack with important stuff (computers, audio equipment, and a pair of shoes), and one large checked bag. im hoping to send my stuff later once i find a place to live (i can keep things in my dads basement for a year or so which is a huge relief, but i want to get it out of there sooner rather than later since he doesnt know im on hrt and im sure wouldnt react well to figuring that out).

im trying to fit as many clothes as i can into this bag, as well as other important things and damn its fucking hard. i own a lot of things, but even just packing the essentials is tough because idk if this is all i will have for a couple months or for longer. and honestly? the hardest part is my pillow. its the only pillow ive ever wanted to use long term and it doesnt have a fucking tag on it so idk the brand. and i love my sister but i got serious neck pain after staying with her for a week using her pillow options, so i want to bring mine. and the fact that im not sure i can make it work is really activating my stress. i know i could ship a box or two with other things i could really use, but i think this pillow is kinda my breaking point for realizing how stressed i am.

im just trying to stay focused on how much i want this and keep reminding myself that millions of people have done this before me. but its scary! and i have someone in my life who id like to be talking to about this stuff but theyre going through some major shit of their own and i know they really need space this week so im going to wait. but i just needed to get some of this out.

[degeneratetwink]

ppl will literally say “hasan queerbaits as a socialist” and as a tenured gay man in america im just like… “ok define queerbaiting” BUT then anything they say i just dont agree with bc queerbaiting is for keeping people in your audience to continue watching or for trying to grab a demographic more than you already have. his community is so queer it doesn’t even count. he’s funny too. he’s got a funny laugh, he’s knowledgable about what he needs to know as a current event “journalist” type beat, he’s on national television championing palestine, and he is more understanding and even (unfortunately) sometimes smarter about queer liberation than most queers i meet.

additionally, he is more respectful to queer culture than some queers online. i dont say this bc i like straighties in gay places; i even had a huge streak of straight ppl just promising goodness and never pulling through. i even thought straight ppl shouldnt be involved in our liberation, but this man just happens to be really classically hot and masculine and ppl are mad bc of what???? queerbaiting? doubtful. i listen to him enough to know his viewpoints and i think he’s a noble guy. yeah hes really fucking hot and i feel like its a monolith to call this queerbaiting when queer people and especially queer men enjoy feminine men and femme men in general: not just big buff hairy MEN. this just applies to rabid twinks like me if i were 9-10 years younger.

the hate for him doesnt make much sense to me and im using my autistic logic. all i see is a friendly straight dude making dry sarcastic satirical commentary on social issues for doomers. and then he emphasizes things that are not doomed, and he regularly cleans out his audience if sentiments get too tankie, or too right wing. he’s one of the most responsible allies ive seen.

hes really never done anything to offend me and i don’t agree with everything he says either, so i guess i dont understand why this is what it is. ppl probably just hate that hes hot, autistically dialed into his special interest, speaks well on it, makes money online doing streams, is a homeowner, etc., and all of this is true jealousy. as someone who wants to be in shape, but physically cant, and as someone who wants my own home but cant buy one, why would i hate him for succeeding in both of those areas just because im disabled???? he wants ppl like me to be taken care of. he’s one of the biggest pro queer streamers on twitch. he could have $100 million & i wouldnt care if he just kept donating and doing what he still does.

make it make sense y’all.

p.s. yeah he has nice titties what are you going to do deflate them?????

p.p.s. yes i agree with hasan i just have an authority and power kink theres a tag for police so you can blacklist it i totally get it hence the tumblr username DEGENERATE twink okay i aint wholesome and i never claimed to be

[stressedanime]

15 questions for 15 friends!! thanks for the tag :3 @cordelia---rose

are you named after anyone? first name no, but my middle name is a family name. my parents found my birth name in a baby name book which LIED TO THEM. IT SAID MY NAME MEANS PRINCESS IN SPANISH. IT IN FACT DOES NOT MEAN PRINCESS IN SPANISH lmao it means aunt in spanish. and thats partly why i dont go by it anymore lol

when was the last time you cried? i watched a silent voice a couple nights ago and that movie always DESTROYS me.

do you have kids? i'd rather be put down

what sports do you play/have you played? i danced for 15 years!! did a variety of styles: tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, and music theatre. i also was on the basketball team in grade 6 lmao.

do you use sarcasm? yes. it gets me into trouble unfortunately

what is the first thing you notice about people? i honestly don't know. probably like, their language? like how they talk, how they hold themselves, how they move. i be analyzing

what's your eye colour? they're supposed to be blue, but ive also been told they have no blue pigment whatsoever and theyre just grey

scary moves or happy endings? BOTH THANKS!!!

any talents? hmm. im really good at ruining the mood. like, "um actually" is my best friend. oh also finding words people are looking for, im really good at helping people finish their sentences when they're stuck. im sure theres more but i cannot think of anything lol

where were you born: canada :D i hate it here but i also love it here

what are your hobbies? i love to cook, i used to play a bunch of video games, but lately ive been doing a lot more writing and reading. i also love to look at my guitar and say "hmm i should play guitar" and then never play guitar

do you have any pets? sadly no

how tall are you? 5'4. which is perfectly average.

favourite subject in school? i honestly do not remember what i liked in elementary school. OH novel studies. reading and analyzing books for sure lol. in high school i loved english and psychology and comp civ, in uni my favourite class was biopolitics or anything forensic.

dream job: realistic dream job is forensic psychologist (experimental not clinical) which i got accepted into masters for!! so i will be studying that in september :3 and like, non-realistic dream job is voice actor, i've always wanted to be one of those people who you recognize their voice and then open their IMDB and they've been in like a million different projects

i dont interact with too many people on here so i won't tag 15 ppl lol but im going to tag @kitkat-tat @sionnaach @hyperfigations. but obvs no pressure :)

have fun, yeehaw

[aspiring-artist-em]

get to know better tag

thank you @achilleslikespeas!! you're so so amazing omg- anyhoo

three ships: wolfstar, ineffable husbands (someone pls talk to me about good omens I literally can NOT rn), drarry

first ship: drarry, it’s a tried and true ship for me, ive been shipping it since I was like, a child  (literally flashback to me at like, 7 years old telling my mom that harry and Draco should get over each other and buy a castle and live together forever as a happy couple (parents were not happy that their daughter was saying this (they were homophobic( (im now gay and still shipping it so suck it, ig)))

last song: I would love to lie and say its something cool like “killer queen” or “lady stardust” bc I listen to those a lot, but once again, I would be lying and my actual last song that I listened to was “no hands (ft. Roscoe dash and wale)”, yk, the frat party song, I like to play it while writing angst

last movie: Harry Potter? idk what one, I like to put the tv on while I do stuff like budget money and write fanfic and draw, so honestly idk, it was probably the chamber of secrets, that and poa are my all time favs 

currently reading: ur mom LMAO (im so sorry) no, what im reading is smut, and also like, a good omens fic about Crowley’s fall (witness the fall) bc im trying to forget about season 2′s ending. im also reading away childish things (again) bc like, that's one of my fav drarry fics of all time. if we’re talking about marauders fics, it was probably her body is a temple down in the frozen food aisle  by achilleslikespeas, both for my emotional masochistic enjoyment and bc I wanted to draw a scene in the story (go read it now pls, its really good, Claude is really good a writing and im freaking out bc I wanna draw a scene from every single one of their fics I- like go-to horror dead dove fics for me I reccomend Claude and for smut I go to moonie), if we’re talking books books, Ive been reading yellowface and I am a cat which so far, are really really good, but also like, im really bad at reading so like, I haven't actually touched them in a week LMAO

currently watching: good omens, its playing on my tv in the background both because I love it and also because Neil said if u stream it enough amazon will see how valuable it is (with the strike and everything) and like, actually be willing to negotiate, essentially, help out the strike, go watch gay celestial beings 

last thing i wrote: 'Til Death Do Us Part, and Even Then, I'll Do My Best to Stay With You, its a dead dove fic centering around grief and denial, uh, 2 chapters in lol

currently writing: I have like, a million wips and no motivation to write rn so lets dive into them lol

1) chapter 3 of do death do us part, very sad, like, maybe 3 sentences in?

2) the next part of my lesbian wolf star series, its the one right before the trail one, so like, part 10 is gonna be another chapter centering more around Sirius’s memories and part 11 is gonna be the trial, I have like, 2 separate things ive written for it and I need to decide where I want it to go tbh

3) smut, gay wolf star, frat hazing blow or blow smut. sirius is on his knees and almost throws up but he doesn't and its lowkey like actually non con but its also frat hazing, like, idk how to explain the vibes but sirius is referred to as a dog and a filthy animal and degraded and he's sucking remus’s dick on coke and im like 2k words in and like, running out of ways to describe a cock lol (its also hard to bc like, I don't have a dick and my textbooks are no help sometimes) but he is also called the “pike puppy” and like, I think im smart for that and also its really filthy ngl, not a happy ending?

4) a short fluff fic to make up for the angst I put my readers through, im like 200 words in

5) au kinda thing, inspired by don't worry darling and like a TikTok that I saw (and now people are commenting on me commenting if I can write the idea and asking for the fic name and like, Im 500 words in? pls I need time), the idea is that Dumbledore has everyone under imperio or a potion to get them on his side to fight for him, lily’s pov, I really like it so far, uhh im like 500 words in I think?

so yeah, when I get inspiration im gonna write everything all at once lol, probably when my body isn't trying to kill me lmao or im at work

tagging: @spookymoonie @pinklume @wxlfstxrisbest @spindrifters @siriuslystargazing @siriusly-sapphic @green-lights-33

[tortoisebore]

tortoisee how have you been lately? we miss our favorite tortoise babe

HI NIC 🫶💖💕❤️💗💖💕

i’m doing good!! ive not been super active lately bc i’ve been soooo grossly busy at work ((more ab this below bc work stuff is not exciting fhfhfhfhfhf))

i will be back n more active very soon!! 🫶🫶 hopefully w some updates ab those chapters i’m supposed to be working on eeeeeeeeeeee

ILYSM tell me the news how’s your weekend what are the vibes 🤲

((BORING WORK STUFF so i’ve been preparing for like a year and a half for this big presentation i’m doing this week that hopefully ends w me getting a promotion to a senior position so like AAAAAAA very big very scary & i feel weird being My Age getting this kind of position fhfhfhffh. & i’m nervous bc i don’t feel super strong ab my public speaking skills so i’m hoping the visuals i put together for my presentation do a lot of the talking for me since it’s design work & all i really need to do is be like “here’s a picture of a box i made…..and here’s some pictures of the stuff i made to put inside it……”

but UGHH there’s this one m*n on my promotion approval committee that has been sort of pushy & unnecessarily active w my check-ins for this project. like emailing me randomly asking me to elaborate on my progress & requesting i send back lists of what i’ve accomplished. like he’s been tagging my entire committee ANDDD my supervisor on these emails. and i’ve asked other ppl in the program if their committees have reached out & asked them the things he’s been asking me & they were all like “of course not, our committees don’t contact us, that’s weird & unnecessary.” and like…..,i’m worried he’s going to ask me four million questions during my presentation and give me a hard time when my work is really good and has made a really big impact?? and benefitted a lot of people?? like literally around 25,000 people received this big project of mine in the mail when they were accepted to the university i work at last year like i don’t understand how he can think i’m being irresponsible with my time or not completing this project when it’s been finished for a year now & i just had to wait out the timeframe of the program 🙃

BUT!!! even if he does try to make it difficult, i don’t see a world where i don’t get approved for the promotion based on all the work i did for this project & how good the end result has been so like…..,it’s going to be fine!!!! it’ll be great!!!!))

[malka-lisitsa]

Meet the mun!

name : November (Novi)

pronouns :  she/her

preference of communication : Discord for sure I hate tumblr IMS

most active muse :  Katherine, always Katherine. Though Death has been making an appearance a lot lately!

experience / how many years : Oh god idk, ive been writing since I was 13 but ive only been writing WELL for like the past eight years maybe?

best experience : Oh god, Idk! I've had so MANY but honestly probably all the love and support of the people I've met since I started writing Katherine on tumblr. Particularly I want to throw @unsettledspirits @baby-royalty @el3nas @bunnyblooded @ravenskeeper and @langdhon under the cat bus

rp pet peeves : People who don't write their characters correctly. Just make an OC and use a fc. I do not mean AU interpretations, I mean your muse as a person, the basic traits that make them that character.... there is more to writing a character than just saying you do. But that's just me being "elitist" and I will 900% lean into that i give zero shits.

fluff, angst, or smut : I get so BORED with fluff so FAST idk what that says about me but probably nothing good. So ANGST and if its done WELL I do love me a good smut thread ;)

plots or memes : Uhmmm either tbh. I dont usually do the ask to thread thing, I like ask for one shots OR ask trains. I also love plotting threads Like the one I have with @bunnyblooded for the rewrite the stars verse, and honestly all of my threads with @multi-royalty With Madison in the fire starter verse.

long or short replies : A lot of my particular writing style has a lot of internals and thought processes so even my short ones tend to be long.. which honestly gets overwhelming quickly when I have a million threads, so Im slower on replies... but I don't mind single para or even one liner chats sometimes! Those just don't tend to be long term threads.

time to write : Jesus its so sporadic. Honestly my biggest issue with writing is just doing it. Once I open the draft and start typing the reply comes out no issue, I dont even have to think it practically writes itself... but its the getting there that gets me. Every time.

are you like your muses : I am most like Katherine tbh (and Nova but that's cheating shes practically a self insert from my book) And because Im a lot like Katherine IRL I am also a lot like Elena, since they share almost all the same traits- good and bad. I can be like Lexi sometimes and Rebekah too. I am a social chameleon so really it depends on the people and situation im in, but I am most like Katherine. Yes that includes the over competitiveness, the selfishness, carefully and sometimes extremely poorly masked insecurity, and impulsive rage.

Tagged by: @multi-royalty

Tagging: @unsettledspirits @bunnyblooded @hybrid-royalty @el3nas @salvatoraes @stanfordprepped @tricursed @ravenskeeper @ladamedemartel @nancewheelr @forbaes @cahroline

[boypussydilf]

17 and 18 they're less about hatred and more about what you find enjoyable and want more of!!!!! For any media you feel like talking about :)

HEEHEE *completely blanks on any thoughts iveever had ever* Fuck. normally id gravitate towards New and Current stuff but keroro fandom is 6 ppl and ive read no fic & i JUST got introduced to mop pinecone fandom so i simply do not have exposure there but that’s ok there are LOTS of things ilike and have many thoughts about. I just need to think of what those thoughts are

17 - there should be more of this type of fic/art

Ok you know what? I’m digging into the past here (said as if this isn’t an All Time Highly Beloved Interest That I Still Think And Talk About A Lot) and talking abt p5 bc p5 is something ive read the most fic of and had the strongest fic opinions on. And art exists. as well. Anyway I have always been desperate for good royal trio content that caters to me specifically. Like ok. I understand why that does not exist in very high quantities. Because the “royal trio” are not really actually a trio in canon and have very few interactions and very little dynamic, AND my thoughts on them are very niche and specific. But especially a year ago when I was desperately rampaging thru p5 ao3 tags to find stuff to read it was always just. Very few people Got It in a way i really liked. I reaaaallly want to see stuff that actually MAKES USE OF the interesting parallels & room for relating to each other w akechi and sumi that the game itself badly failed to deliver on, they’re in some ways very similar and their interactions could be soooo so interesting if people would just. um. Do the work that the writers of the actual game didn’t </3 Also i just think royal trio should be funny in a way that caters to me specifically. Sigh. I have to write p5 fanfic someday to inflict my righteous and superior thoughts on the world. Basically: there should be more p5 fanfic and fanart about akechi & sumi or about akira akechi and sumi, but like, it should also be made for me specifically and agree with everything i think.

18 - it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

i just made a post about this a little while ago but literally from what i can tell ritsu kageyama </3 he needs. to be appreciated. was he such a well done character for nothing. was he so great and well written just to have brief appearances in silly comics and little else. please. Umm lets see is there anything else……… Surely, somewhere, in the history of my life, there have been many occasions where I have gone, “Why does this fandom never seem to talk about [X great thing from the piece of media]!!!!” That has to have happened millions of times. I can remember saying it, as if a dream, “people need to appreciate [subject undefined]”. But I don’t seem to be able to remember anything so. Peace and love on planet earth I guess!

[just-a-whole-bunch-of-reblogs]

[ID: The original post has a picture of white text on an orange surface, similar to a description of a piece in a museum. The heading reads "The clock has stopped". The text below reads "Last year we allowed the Harrison clock to stop because we knew that we could not keep it constantly running without replacing original parts. To do this means it would gradually cease to be original. It would no longer be the Harrison clock."

The reblog of the original post has a picture of screenshotted Tumblr tags that read "#on one hand haha funny #on the other hand as a conservator #this is one of those scenarios where we get shit for no matter what we do #if we don't replace the parts we get told we r disrespecting an object and not taking care of it #if we keep replacing the parts we get told we are destroying the object by removing original pieces #we have to carefully weigh this decision against like 20 million other things against us like budgets and availability of replacement parts #or of people who even still know how to make them #and no matter what we do no one is ever happy #im literally doing a whole research project for my masters rn on the ethical debates surrounding conservting an object vs letting it go #and its wild that all the answers ive gotten are the two extremes with very little middle ground #and who get mad at people who are on the other side of whichever they chose #sorry for ranting on your post op but like i said im doing a whole paper on this #and conservation/museum is a hot topic of mine"

End ID.]

Due to budgetary constraints we do not have the resources for any Ship of Theseus bullshit and we have chosen death over continuity.

[floedland]

Heey! Im hob!

I’ll be using this blog to post about a story i’ve been working on, on and off, for about the past eight years. Its fantasy world building.

I’ll be posting art and parts of the story and hopefully people like it :)

Any thoughts or questions you have on it are welcome and encouraged!

The story itself is still under construction. Its gone through many revamps through the years but this last year ive managed to wrestle it onto a course im quite happy with.

It is a passion project so i cant say how often i’ll update or post or if there’s any end date.

I just find it really fun to work on and hopefully i can reach people who also enjoy my world! I am my own target audience though.

Now for the story itself!! vvv

The premise, like any good vague story, came to me in a dream some eight years ago. Now parts of this original premise are the building blocks of the current story. I really enjoy world building and this story mostly functions as an outlet for all the ‘what if’ questions i have.

In the dream. It was a stage play.

On the stage was a group of people, dancing around a fire which was the only light around.

This group were people known as Spirits. The first nature spirits in fact, who were celebrating the first ever days of their and the earths existence.

Two of these spirits, one earth and one fire, were dancing together until the earth spirit asked the other to follow them.

Very hesitantly the fire spirit followed and the two went off stage.

Where they were not supposed to go.

They both knew this, but the earth spirit insisted that they explore.

They did so for a short while until the darkness of the theatre room itself started to grow closer and the way back became obstructed.

Distressed, the two tried to make their way back through a different path and call for help.

Their call was heard, a spirit named void came down and in a panic of being caught the earth spirit tried to feign innocence and, thinking the fire spirit to be inherently dangerous, void gave chase.

The two raced across the confined room. Trying to stay alive the fire spirit tried to hide beneath the prop of a tree.

Now the other spirits had taken notice and came near, trying to get the earth spirit back to the stage. Thinking it would get them both to safety, the earth spirit revealed where the other spirit was hiding. Not expecting void to come down and smite/destroy the fire spirit.

The first ever death.

…

And on top of that ive built a whole world!! No worries, the fire spirit lives, which isn’t spoilers because this is just the start 👀

The story now takes this as the intro. The fire spirit was, instead of destroyed completely, sent into a sort of exile into the sun (Ignis). Only to return back to earth (Terra) some couple hundred million years later around like 1900 ish in our world.

The story itself deals with the fallout of this.

What does a million years in nothingness do to someone? What are you like when you return? What had attacked them in the first place? How much responsibility and blame do you have when you hadn’t even had autonomy?

Im personally quite interested in philosophy, the grayness of a story and life itself.

People sometimes have very convoluted work arounds to make decisions or to justify them.

To me this story is a puzzle, an exercise to have as much gray as i can. It will also delve into more personal themes, anxiety and dissociation for example. Grief in its many forms. Being FTM myself theres quite a lot to say about the horror of having a body.

So be aware of those themes as they can get quite detailed. I’ll try and tag warnings as best i can.

But its also a story about healing and overcoming the past.

Mostly about healing as this is the aftermath.

And i also like queer fluff.

So, thats it for now! If you read all this then thank you!! I hope you like the premise and I’ll be posting more of the actual story later :)

I also have a bunch of themed spotify playlists if anyone likes those

Any questions or thoughts or just a picture of a cat are all welcome in my inbox!!

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

MEGALOPOLIS (2024)

Starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D. B. Sweeney, Isabelle Kusman, Bailey Ives, Madeleine Gardella, Balthazar Getty, Romy Mars and Haley Sims.

Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Distributed by Lionsgate. 138 minutes. Rated R.

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project has been about 40 years in the making. Despite the fact that the guy has helmed some of the great films of all time – The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, Peggy Sue Got Married, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, etc. – no studio had been willing to put their support (and their money) behind Megalopolis.

Therefore, the filmmaker decided to make it himself, spending over $100 million of his own money so that he could have complete control of the film. And this is after he nearly destroyed his entire career and trashed his studio 42 years ago by sinking all of his money into the historic bomb One From the Heart and he swore he would never, ever do that again. In fairness, I always have kind of liked One From the Heart and it has gotten a better reputation over time. Also, Coppola has been mostly financing his films in recent years through sales from his popular vineyard, in fact he sold the vineyard to get the money to make Megalopolis.

He even uses the idea as the tag line for the movie poster: “If you can’t see a better future, build one.”

So, here is Coppola’s mega-opus – and quite probably his last film. Coppola decided to pull out all of the stops, and damned if he hasn’t. This film is completely Coppola’s baby, and he has complete control, for better or worse. He spent a ton of money and a ton of time on it, and he was going to make it his way. On the plus side, Megalopolis looks stunning. It is full of fascinating sets, props, effects and massive, epic scenes.

Too bad that the storyline makes little to no sense, that dialogue is stilted and hackneyed and some very talented actors make some very questionable acting choices. (I assume that they were directed that way by the auteur, but it doesn’t make it any less jarring to watch.)

Megalopolis is supposed to be – I think – Coppola’s expose of corporate greed and politics and his wish for a purer, more artistic and loving world. And those things are definitely there, front and center, but they are at service of such a complicated and honestly kind of ridiculous story that they become melodramatic and cartoonish.

The Megalopolis of the title is New Rome, which is basically supposed to be a magic version of modern New York in an odd alternative timeline where the old Roman Empire never fell.

The film basically revolves around three families (although it has a cast of dozens) who are fighting for control of New Rome.

The hero – or as close as this film comes to a hero – is Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), a city planner who is trying to use magic to create his own Utopia. He can stop time and create things through pure will because… well I don’t know how, he just can. It’s not like Coppola has to come up with some kind of an explanation for his hero’s superpowers (although, yeah, really, he should).  

Because Caesar is pushing for pure change and beauty, he runs afoul of the slightly corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero of New Rome (Giancarlo Esposito), who doesn’t like the man’s fresh idealism, or the fact that he is sleeping with the Mayor’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel).

And finally there is commerce, with elderly banker Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), his scheming wife Wow Platinum (played by Aubrey Plaza, and yes, that really is the character name) and his trans, rabble-rousing wannabe street politician grandson Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) trying to exert their will on the city.

Clodio and Cesar are also cousins, and Wow was Cesar’s former mistress, just to show how incestuous this all gets. (I won’t even get into Clodio and Wow’s affair… oh, wait, I guess I just did.)

All of this leads to some highly over the top melodrama over the fight for the city, with some spectacular brawl scenes and some truly insane (in a good and bad way) world building. And then, for no particular reason, a character will recite a whole Shakespearean soliloquy, just because they can.

Well, Megalopolis is finally here, and good for Coppola for getting it made after all these years. And good for him for not leaving a thing that he wanted to try undone, this truly, for better or worse, is a magnum opus. But I’m afraid Francis Ford Coppola is in for another critical and financial drubbing. I have to hope that this is not the film that this great director goes out on. However, if he does, then he goes out on his own terms.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: September 27, 2024.

[samboyjp]

Good morning SWAG JAGGER'S

"HEY SWAG JAGGER HAWKEYES!

Just a reminder that you are the driving force behind the University of Iowa's success. Your swag, your passion, and your dedication are what make our community thrive.

Keep pushing boundaries, keep breaking barriers, and keep shining your light. You are the leaders, innovators, and game-changers of tomorrow.

Stay bold, stay fearless, and stay true to yourself. The University of Iowa is proud to have you as part of our community.

Keep it swaggy, HAWKEYES!"

FACEBOOK DISCLAIMER

THIS IS NOT A SCAM OR SPAM BUT A LEGITIMATE POST SHARED FOR GOOD 👍 PEOPLE

SWAG JAGGER IS A SMALL BUT LEGITIMATE CHARITY AND COMPANY THAT IS OVER 6 x YEARS OLD, I AM REAL, SWAG JAGGER IS REAL. SCAMMERS TAKE YOUR MONEY, AND YOU GET NOTHING IN RETURN, IVE NEVER TAKEN SOMEBODIES MONEY....EVER...!....WHEREVER OR WHOEVER YOU ARE, FEEL FREE TO TAG MY PAGE ANYTIME....

LOVE U ALL.....

ELUJOBA SAMUEL..

TONY NOTVONY...

FIND BELOW SPONSORS....SIGNED ACTS...

STAFF MEMBERS AND OUR AFFILIATE LISTING

AND SOCIAL MEDIA MEDIUMS

HERE ARE MY OTHER FACEBOOK CHANNELS

Honey Taylor

Jon Choppa

HERE ARE OUR GROUPS

SWAG JAGGER INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS, MENTORING, ONLINE PROMOTION CHARITY

SWAG JAGGER INTERNATIONAL n BRANDING SPECIALISTS AGENCY CORP ORG ESQ

LOOK AT THE ABOVE AND JOIN PLEASE

SWAG JAGGER STAFF MEMBERS...

Jon Choppa

CEO

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

FOUNDER

BRANDING SPECIALIST

PRIMARY BUSINESS PARTNER

PROJECT MANAGER

COORDINATOR

ORGANISER

CHIEF DESIGNER

TALENT SCOUT DIRECTOR

PRIMARY TALENT AGENT

Alex Ballard

GRAPHIC DESIGN DIRECTOR

BUSINESS PARTNER

SWAG JAGGER

SPONSORED BOUNCE DJ

CEO OF RN1MK

CEO OF RN1MK GROUP

CEO OF RN1MK

CEO OF ALLYBEE CLOTHING

Elujoba Samuel

Tony Novotny

ADMINSTRATIVE PROMOTIONAL COORDINATOR

CHARITY GROUP ADMINISTRATOR

NEW CEO PROTEGE

AFFILIATES AND SPONSORS

Colin S Wood

WORLD ADAPTIVE BOXING COUNCIL

WABC WORLD ADAPTIVE BOXING COUNCIL

COLIN IS SPREADING THE WORD

THAT PEOPLE PHYSICALLY OR

MENTALLY CHALLENGED IF

GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY

CAN PLAY SPORTS BUT

WITH SAFETY AT THE FOREFRONT

ESPECIALLY FOCUSING ON

CORE COMMON VALUES

SUCH AS CREATING COMMUNITY

GIVE LOVES LIKES N PROPS

AND JOIN HIS PAGES

Robert Keenan

CHARITY CEO

SAVE A LIFE DITCH THE KNIFE Inspiring Young People To Make Positve Choices

PLEASE JOIN

HIS GROUP

SPONSORING EACH

OTHER IN OUR ENDEAVOURS

Raja Sadat

Admiral Express Taxis

OUR CHAUFERING

COMPANY DOING OUR

LONG DISTANCE RUNS

BEST IN THE UK

GO LOOK HIM AND HIS BUSINESS UP

HES A TOP BLOKE AND PROPER

BUSINESSMAN

Lee Mayo

ONE HALF OF Liquid Bullet Productionz

JOINT CEO

THEY ARE ONE OF THE BEST PODCASTS

INTERNATIONALLY

AND ARE ALSO A SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTION

COMPANY PRODUCING TOP CLASS

VIDEOS FOR THOSE THAT NEED THEM

TALENT AGENCY SIGNEES

Lee mayo SWAG JAGGER SIGNED ARTIST

ACTOR/STUNTMAN/AUTHOR/MULTI BLACKBELT

MARTIAL ARTIST, EX TOP BOI BOUNCER

WORLD THAI BOXING CHAMPION

LEE MAYO IS A BIG TIME PROPER GEEZER

HARDER THAN JASON STATHAM

I LOST COUNT OF THE AMOUNT OF BELTS

HES GOT AND I DONT MEAN THE ONES USED TO

KEEP UP YOUR LEVIS.....FREAKIN HARD BIGGGGG

GEEZER HES EASILY A 16 STONE LUMP OR MORE

MY GOAL....TO GET HIM AS THE NEXT MARTIAL

ARTS UK FILM STAR OVER 5 YEARS

HES ON YOUTUBE, TIKTOK, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

GO GIVE LOVE LIKES N PROPS

PLEASE CHECK OUT HIS OTHER YOUTUBE CHANNEL

@DJ SOAVA

7 YEARS LIVING IN INBIZA

RESIDENTCAT SPACE

A FREAKING LEGEND WANTS ME AS HIS AGENT

I SAY WE AIMING FOR 250,000 OVER 5 YEARS

YEAR 5 IM AIMING FOR 10,000 POUNDS PER SET

HES ON YOUTUBE, TIK TOK

IM SO EXCITED TO HAVE A LIVING LEGEND

WHOS MAKING A COMEBACK WITH US

Dyl MC

A 21 X YEAR OLD RAPPER FROM SCOTLAND

HE ORIGIONATES FROM GLASGOW

IS A NEWLY COMMITTED FATHER

A GENIUNELY MASSIVE TALENT

ENORMOUS LEVEL OF STAR LEVEL SHIZZLE

YOU CAN FIND HIM ON INSTAGRAM, FB

AND YOUTUBE....HES GOING TO BE THE

BIGGEST RAPPER SINCE EMINEM

THE GREATEST SCOTTISH RAPPER

EVER TO COME FROM THERE

A ONE IN A MILLION GAME CHANGER...

SWAG JAGGER IS ON THE FOLLOWING SOCIAL

MEDIA MEDIUMS

UNDER JON CHOPPA JACKSON JARVIS

INCLUDING

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

TUMBLR

LINKEDIN

YOUTUBE

GOOGLE BUSINESS

SNAPCHAT

TIKTOK

WHATSAPP

TELEGRAM

WhatsApp: +2348100522748

Email:elujobasamuel2020@gmail.com

[tsukasageorge]

8 10 12 14 16 18 artist ask

nico is carrying my entire inbox

1. what is your favorite color to work with?

pink and purple my beloved. red is cool too

2. who is your favorite character to draw?

(shoves mound of alluka drawings under the table) i do not have a favorite ahaha maybe aubrey because she has long hair 😊😊😊😊😊😊

3. what song(s) do you listen to when you do art?

a lot

4. how often do you draw?

at least every few days. it's pretty rare for me to go more than a week without drawing nowadays but i used to draw much less regularly and improved so much slower

5. digital or traditional?

digital! traditional is nice in small doses. i think im done with normal pencils i prefer either painting or like. charcoal as i recently discovered

6. tag your favorite artists/inspirations!

UH. UH. YOU DO I TAG YOUR ART BLOG OR MAIN. @shitbox-drawn my friend who's not on tumblr but she was my first art mutal ever i love her her names kyoki um. ngl i dont know anyone's name. tiucotheus (i dont wanna tag them i feel like id bother them) & yuumei art. hyperpop type art has been a pretty big inspiration for me recently i love colors

7. do you prefer sketching, outlining, or coloring?

sketching <3 lineart is to me what coloring is to normal people. it's relaxing sometimes but i need 1 million stabilzer. you already know how i feel about coloring

8. show us at least 2-3 drawings from 1-2 years ago.

this is the iconic sibling moment i was talking about. its roughly a year old now, and looks pretty stiff, but it was like. kinda insanely good for my skill at the time. pretty big point in my art history

here's one from 2021, its one of the oldest drawings i have on my computer. gilda was supposed to be there but i couldnt draw her so i gave up

9. what drawing program do you use? (if the artist does digital art)

clip studio paint my beloved

10. are you right or left handed?

right

11. warm or cool colors?

why are we pitting two bad bitches against each other..... personally i like ourple

12. draw one of your favorite characters in 15 seconds.

unlluka

14. what was something that you used to draw a lot that you don’t draw as much anymore?

um. bows i guess? butterfly wings, i really liked drawing those for a bit (i drew like 2 ever)

15. when was the last time you did art?

1 minutes ago if u count unlluka. i did draw earlier today though

16. what kind of tablet do you use? v v 

the wacom one its like. flat. no screen

17. (alternative for traditional art ) ^ ^  do you work with pencils or pens more often?

pencils my beloved

18. how long have you been drawing/ when did you officially “declare” yourself as an artist?

i considered myself an artist when i actually drew something and didn't just shade a picture. i've been drawing for probably like... 4 years now??? that's insane i swear it was 3 yesterday

19. do you like drawing short hair or longer hair more?

LONG HAIR ESPECIALLY THE KIND THAT IS SLIGHTLY WAVY

20. how often do you get art block?

not in my art block era but if i dont have an idea then yeah

21. draw one of your original characters.

not gonna lie i actually dont really like my ocs but anyways this one is nyx they're chaotic silly. remember that royal who randomly disappeared 3 years ago yeah thats them they were hanging out w some dragons this whol time

22. do you use a mac or pc to do (digital) art?

pc

23. draw your fav as a vampire

i will do this as not an ask bc i want to put actual effort into it

24. how many followers do you have? (on your art blog)

like 23 iirc but lets say 24 so it matches with the question number

25. where in your house do you usually do art?

exclusively on my bed but i drew nyx on nicos bed

26. draw urself! (it doesn’t have to be detailed)

same as 23 ive been meaning to make a meet the artist for a while

[jackrrabbit]

Adversary /// Overhaul x f!Reader (18+)

Summary: You make a deal with the devil to save your life, but it turns out Overhaul’s not interested in your soul.

A/N: Remember when I said I was going to do a fantasy collab and then dipped for like 9 months? Hahaha…anyway…

@pleasantanathema @ present-mel @shadowworks—if it’s not too late, here’s my part for the Pleasant & Strider Fantasy AU Writing Collab from a million years ago. Go check out the masterlist and gorge yourself on these amazing pieces!!

Tags/Warnings: dubcon, demon fuckery & occult things, big heresy/sacrilege/perversion of religion, sex in a church ft. Catholic sex guilt, other than that it’s not that bad lol, inexperienced reader, mild degradation, shameless camp and demon-fucking clichés, Overhaul calls you “little girl” 👉👈

He doesn’t look like a demon.

Not that you really know what demons are supposed to look like. But…red skin, right? Fangs and claws and swirling masses of bad energy. Maybe cloven hooves for feet. Yes, that’s the Disney version—but even if you didn’t expect a cartoon personification of evil, you didn’t expect this.

He looks like a doctor, you think. Lab coat hanging open, surgery mask pushed down under his jaw, stethoscope draped over his shoulders. No, he’s a little young to really look like a doctor…an intern, you amend, shifting back in your hospital bed. He looks like he fits right in here, not a hair out of place. Except for, you know, the polished black horns curling out of the sides of his skull.

Overhaul. It was written in the book. That’s the only thing you have to call him in your head.

He’s standing in the center of the sigil you drew at the foot of your bed before midnight, surveying the room critically without meeting your gaze. He looks annoyed—that’s not a good sign, is it?—but then again, of course he’s annoyed. You’d be annoyed too if you got summoned out of your cozy hell dimension in the middle of the night. According to the book, you’re lucky he even showed up…although ‘lucky’ isn’t really how you’d describe yourself most days.

“So,” Overhaul says after a long moment of silence in which you question every choice you’ve made in your relatively short life. “You’re dying.”

You nod.

“And you don’t want to be.”

You nod again, wondering if you’re supposed to be contributing more to this conversation. It’s a bit difficult when your mouth is so dry it feels like you’ve been eating dirt, but you suppose being in the presence of an unholy servant of Satan will do that to a person.

“Fine.” He sighs, frowns, and then finally lowers his gaze onto yours—and you shiver.

Those eyes. No human has eyes like that.

“Make me an offer,” Overhaul tells you, and through his open mouth you catch a flash of sharp white teeth.

Okay. Okay. The chirping of the heart monitor speeds up (as if it weren’t obvious enough that you’re terrified) and you fold your knees up to your chest and fidget with your ring and think. He’s giving you a chance to establish parameters. You’re supposed to start with his end of the deal, the thing you want from him. That’s what it said to do in the grimoire, aka the 19th century demonology volume your creepy cousin brought back from her pagan anthropology research trip in rural France. The one you keep hidden under your bed because your mother would burn it if she knew you were reading about summoning demons.

Offer nothing to a hell creature without first telling him your price. You know the words by heart, both the winding calligraphy of the original French from the grimoire and the rushed scrawl of the English translation your cousin left for you in sheets of lined paper layered between the pages of the book for you to read. Really, this is her fault. She was the one who slipped you the book, who told you that it worked, who snuck you the ingredients for the summoning. She was the one who left a bookmark at the chapter on this particular demon, one that specializes in ‘Contrat pour Remédier au Déséquilibre des Quatre Humeurs’, which she said meant a contract to cure any illness. Even his ‘name’ is translated in her hand, practically an afterthought in the margins of the page.

‘Le Malin qui Ravage et Rebâtit’— Overhaul?

You looked up the literal meaning of this phrase on your own. It did not reassure you.

“Girl.” His voice is cold, irate. Your eyes snap back up to his and it feels like that burning gaze is laser-beaming into your skull. “Do not test me. My time is limited…as is yours.”

You swallow. “How long do I have left?”

“Less than a single human year,” he tells you without a trace of sympathy. “Seven months, twelve days, three hours. Or so. You’ll be too exhausted to leave this bed in four months, and the pain will become intolerable in six… By the end, you’ll wish—“

“Stop,” you breathe out. The heart monitor is beeping wildly and you squeeze your knees into your chest, trying to calm down your breathing. “Stop, I—I want to live.”

“Of course you do.” Overhaul’s lip curls. “How very predictable.”

Be specific, you remind yourself, doing your best to ignore the stifling disapproval from the man—the demon—in front of you. Something about him (maybe how clean-cut he looks, maybe the indisputable authority in his demeanor) makes you want to impress him. But you didn’t turn your back on your religion—you didn’t draw pagan symbols on the floor in chalk, fill silver cups with various questionable substances (including your own virgin blood), and turn the crucifix your mother hung over your bed upside-down so you could let a demon make you feel guilty for wanting to survive. “I want to be cured. I’m okay with whatever natural death I have instead when I’m older, I just don’t want to die of this illness. I want you to make me healthy.”

“Simple enough. What else?”

‘Simple’? Your heart surges with something you’ve felt very little of since your initial diagnosis—hope. “T-That’s it. Just the cure.”

Overhaul glares at you. “Humans… Every vice in the world available to you, and you limit yourselves to the basest priority of survival.”

“But you can do it? You can cure me?” you persist.

Overhaul steps forward (quiet, so quiet you wonder if he really moved) and holds a hand out to you past the foot of your bed—you hesitate, and a second later you can see the muscles in his hand flex, stretching the latex of his plastic gloves tight over his knuckles.

Just do it. You give him your hand. Carefully. Like you’re scared the contact will burn you. It doesn’t (although his skin feels warmer than yours), but after a moment his grip tightens, sliding down past your hand to circle the fragile bones of your wrist and squeeze.

“Ow?” You wince.

The demon’s eyes flicker closed for a second, lips moving silently like he’s talking to himself—and then he drops your hand unceremoniously back onto your lap. “You could be cured before the sun rises this morning. I doubt your stay in the hospital will extend past the end of the week.”

He sounds bored, voice as flat and passionless as it was earlier, but your heart is soaring. Cured. You’ve lived with this illness for so many years, you can’t remember the last time someone told you you could be cured. And getting out of the hospital that soon? You can just imagine taking down all the decorations from the walls of your room here and setting them up in your old bedroom at home. You could see friends on the weekend and not take an oxygen bag, you could get a job or—or apply to college, you could have a life—

“That is…assuming you have something to offer me in exchange for the cure.”

Your stomach drops. You’d almost forgotten about the other half of the deal.

“Don’t tell me I came all this way for nothing.” Overhaul steps back, and the orange light of the candles you set sends strange shadows over his arrogant face. The fires look brighter now, and you find yourself tracing the lines of those shining black horns. In an odd way, they look natural—so organically framing his temples that you can’t imagine him without them.

“N-No, of course not. I have some money—I mean, my mom has some, and I can get it for you…” Which is half the truth. If you know anything, it’s that your mother’s spent most of her savings on your treatment and care. You probably have more debt than you have money in the bank right now—you’d try to get rid of that, too, if you hadn’t read in the book how important it is to keep your request as simple and straightforward as possible.

…Although it’s apparently not enough. Overhaul’s eyes narrow, molten gold irises carved into slits. “Even if I had a use for human money, do you really believe your life is worth so little?”

“No—no,” you say quickly. “I just thought—in case you were interested—”

The air crackles with energy, the candle flames spark bright blood-red, and the hair on your arms stands straight up. “I am not.”

“Okay! I get it.” You wave your hands back and forth, pulling your IV line from side to side with the motion. The book was very clear about staying calm and rational while you work out the terms of the deal, but that’s easier said than done when you have a real live (live?) hell creature in front of you. You always knew this was going to be the hard part—all the stories say there’s only one thing that a demon would be interested in, and no matter how inviting the prospect of living past this illness is, you know you’d rather die than sell your immortal soul to the devil. “I’ll give you anything except my soul! And—and don’t hurt anyone I care about, or— just don’t hurt anyone, okay? Other than that, if there’s anything I can give you, I will.”

Overhaul’s lip curls, baring a thin strip of those unnaturally sharp canines. “And is your soul really so valuable?”

This throws you for a loop. Isn’t that the standard deal? A soul for a wish? That’s how it’s supposed to work—at least in this twisted version of reality where you can summon a demon to perform unholy miracles for you. But if you think about it, it doesn’t really make sense, does it? Why would your soul be valuable to him? You can’t form an argument, especially since you’re not willing to barter it away in the first place.

Your mouth is pursed open as you search for a response, but Overhaul doesn’t seem willing to wait. A gloved hand wraps its way around the railing at the side of your bed, and he leans in closer. “Little girl…what makes you think you possess anything I desire?”

Little girl. You’re not a little girl, you’re a grown woman—and yet there’s no untruth in the statement. In front of him you feel insignificant, immature, weak. You have nothing real to offer, and something tells you that you’re not going to get rid of the demon you summoned without a sacrifice you’re not willing to make.

You twist your ring around your finger—the nervous habit you haven’t bothered to break because you’ve always had more important things to worry about—and the glint of silver in the candlelight must catch Overhaul’s eye because before you even notice him moving, your delicate hand is trapped in his larger one to give him a better view of the tiny piece of jewelry. “What is this?”

“It’s—um, a ring. A purity ring.” Has he never seen one before? Well…actually, that makes sense.

Overhaul turns your hand over in his without touching the band of silver. He’s looking at it closely, inspecting the lovingly engraved cross in the design and the inscription on the other side. “Matthew 5:8,” he reads out.

“…Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” you recite cautiously. It feels wrong to speak the words in front of him, but somehow you can’t help yourself.

Overhaul’s hand doesn’t leave yours. “This ring is important to you.”

“It’s a symbol of a—a promise I made to God. To save myself for my future husband.”

“To ‘save yourself’? To save what?”

You can’t believe you’re explaining this to a literal demon. You close your eyes and inhale slowly and taste smoke. “My…virginity. It’s a promise that I won’t have sex until I enter into a biblical marriage.”

At this, Overhaul is quiet. You give him a moment to answer, half expecting him to question why you think God cares about your sexual status (honestly, you’d be lying if you said you haven’t wondered this yourself), but he stays quiet until you peek up at him to try and gauge the look on his coldly handsome face.

He’s still staring at the ring. He hasn’t touched it—maybe he can’t, because of the cross?—and through the latex, his skin feels hotter than a human’s is supposed to be.

“Is there…” you start, but you trail off when you realize you have nothing to ask. You give a little tug to try and take your hand away and you’re surprised when your wrist actually slides out of his grip to fall back on the nest of sheets in your lap. You didn’t think he’d let you go so easily.

Overhaul turns his head to the side, eyes drilling into you so you feel like you should lower your gaze. The candlelight flickers in strange shadows over his horns. “This will do,” he says quietly.

“What?”

“In exchange for your cure.” The demon taps his own left ring finger, the place where the purity ring sits on your hand, and your heart soars. He actually wants that? It’s just a simple silver band, not worth much, but you’re not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe it has some special significance because of the religious connotation. Your mother will be angry you’ve lost it, but you’re happy to cope with that if it means living to actually get married!

“Yes!” you blurt out before he has a chance to rethink his offer. Sure, you’ll miss the purity ring—you’ve had it since you were a kid, after all—but there’s no question you’re getting the better end of this deal. At least in your opinion.

Something flashes through his yellow eyes, something you don’t even want to try and identify. “The contract, then.”

You barely have time to notice that his voice has gentled, that it’s practically silken in comparison to before, when the candlelight flickers again and suddenly the contract is everywhere. Everywhere. Writing appears on every surface in the room, covering the walls, stretching over the ceiling, coiling around the sides of the hospital equipment and decorating your bedsheets until you and Overhaul are the only untouched surfaces in sight. The characters are inscribed in red, dark red like—don’t think about that, you tell yourself squeamishly. You can make out some of the letters, even a word here or there—French, you recognize, mixed with what looks like Latin and interspersed with what you can only guess are runes.

“I can’t read this,” you tell him, fidgeting with your ring for what you now realize will be the last time.

“I only need your name,” he purrs, and then you feel a fragile weight in your hand: a feather, pearl-black and glossy and too large to belong to any bird you can think of, its angled tip glistening with wet ink. There’s an empty space in the writing before you, and Overhaul’s gloved hand comes to yours again to guide you into place.

This feels wrong…then again, of course it does. Even if you’re getting off relatively easy and just losing your ring rather than your soul, you’re still making a deal with a demon. You sign your name, forcing yourself to think about the future you have ahead of you rather than a disapproving white-bearded caricature of The Man Upstairs wagging his finger at you for haggling with a literal servant of Satan. People have done worse things to survive, haven’t they? It’s just a ring.

You set the feather down and Overhaul sighs, thick black eyelashes obscuring his intense gaze for a moment—and then the contract is gone, leaving your hospital room as blank and sterile as it’s supposed to be (well, aside from the candles and all the other ritual stuff you threw together to summon a demon in the first place).

“Are you going to cure—heal me now?” you ask.

“…Patience, little girl.” He’s pulling his glove off, peeling it down his fingers to bare the pale skin of his hand. You catch your breath and wonder what this is going to feel like, and then the tips of his fingers meet your cheek and—

you stop breathing.

It doesn’t hurt.

Or if it does, you don’t remember the pain a second later when breath floods back into your lungs. What you do feel is energy. Strength in your muscles, blood pumping through your veins, every inhale and exhale as light as a bird and freer. You feel healthy. You’re surprised you even remember what health feels like but you do: it’s like you’ve only been half alive, and now life is surging into you and through you and around you, bubbling up in your core like a spring overflowing. You blink rapidly, thinking you might cry from the sheer pleasure of it, but when you open your mouth it’s laughter that comes out. You’re healthy. You’re alive. You barely notice the IV line literally falling off of your skin because the hole where it entered your vein is sealed shut and healed perfectly.

No more needles. No more hospitals. Even without all the monitors beeping out your heart rate and measuring your vitals, there’s not a shred of doubt in your mind that you’re cured.

“Thank you!” you laugh, looking up at Overhaul and for the first time, not caring that he’s evil incarnate. “I feel—I’m okay! It worked!”

“Of course it did.” His expression is inscrutable, but he lets you have a few moments to enjoy your newfound health.

You roll your shoulders back, flex each muscle you can isolate one by one to test, make fists with your fingers and then run them over your hair, which is already thicker and shinier than it was a moment ago. Your body thrums with energy—you want to run, to feel the ground against your bare feet and the cold night air on your face, and you think you could do it! Your legs are already swinging over the side of your cot, ready to run barefoot out of the hospital if that’s what it takes, but before you can stand up Overhaul’s pushing you back down onto the bed.

“Have you forgotten your end of the bargain already?”

Honestly you did forget, but only for a second, only because you were so excited to just be outside again. “Oh, yeah. Of course.” Your hand goes to your left ring finger, ready to slip the ring off and hand it over, but Overhaul shakes his head.

“Not here.”

“What—?”

You’re falling. Your hospital room is disappearing, the image of your walls and your window and your bed disintegrating into yawning black, and you’re falling through it into nothing, into emptiness, and Overhaul’s still-bare hand in yours is the only anchor you have so you clutch onto it and squeeze your eyes shut. You want to scream—that’s the sane thing to do when you’re falling through miles and miles of empty space, right?—but when you open your throat the sound is swallowed up just like the light was…

Overhaul’s hand burns into yours, an improbable lifeline that you pull closer more out of terror than conscious thought. The slick, empty air rushes around you and you think I am going to die like this and then, incredibly, as soon as you’ve accepted your imminent demise, you feel your back mold onto a chilled, flat surface, vertebra by vertebra up to the back of your head, as if you’ve been lain down onto it.

Your heart thuds in your ears and you brace for an impact because your body hasn’t quite accepted yet that it’s not falling anymore—but at the same time, you know you’re lying down on something. You pry your fingers away from their vice-grip on Overhaul’s arm and feel around blindly for what’s underneath you, and when it seems reasonably tangible you let yourself open your eyes.

Way above, vaulted dozens of feet over your head, is a ceiling studded with gilt-edged frescoes and stained glass. It’s raining (even though it wasn’t in the hospital, you think) but through the massive panes of colored glass there’s enough oily blue light to make out that you’re in a church.

You’re in a church, with a demon. Isn’t that against the rules?

You sit up stiffly and look over at Overhaul, who’s standing at your side and looking down at you…which is how you realize the soft, cold surface you’ve been deposited onto is the blanket on top of the altar in the sanctuary. “Where...did you take me?”

“You should know this place.”

And you do, when you look around. It’s empty now and you’ve never been here at night, but this is a church your mother would bring you to when you were little, back before the disease got so bad you couldn’t risk traveling to it anymore. This is where you took your purity vow…the ring feels heavy on your hand. “Why—why—“

“I can’t stand human hospitals. Filthy places… How that reek of illness and death doesn’t bother your kind, I’ll never understand.” Overhaul pulls his latex glove back on. He’s dressed differently now, no longer impersonating a doctor—black shirt, black pants, and a…bird mask in red leather and gold. So are you, as a matter of fact. Instead of your hospital gown, you’re in a gauzy white dress that’s already been pushed up to pool around the tops of your thighs.

The slip is too thin for the cold, and you can feel your nipples standing up under the cloth so you fold your arms over your chest and hug yourself. “Why did you take me here?” The sound of your voice echoes off the walls eerily and you wish you hadn’t spoken so loudly. The reflection of your words sounds girlish, nervous.

“I told you. Your side of our contract.” Even in this dark, the angular features of his face are clearly concentrating—on you. “Are you already having second thoughts? Such a fickle little thing…”

“You mean the ring?” You reach for it again, ready to tear it off and throw it at him if that’s what it takes to see your deal through, but Overhaul snatches your hand away, pinning it above you.

“Not the ring,” he says. “The promise.”

The…promise?

A chill makes its way down your spine despite the heat radiating off the demon’s body and onto yours. “I don’t understand.”

“The promise,” Overhaul repeats—and you hear a sound almost like wings flapping and then he’s on the altar with you, knees straddling your hips as a single hand holds both your wrists above your head. “To remain a virgin until marriage. Your promise to God.”

A streak of lightning cracks down on the other side of the stained glass window behind the altar, illuminating the room briefly in spectacular pits of red and orange and yellow…and then it’s dark again, and the only color you can make out is the gold in Overhaul’s eyes.

“I’m going to break it,” he murmurs, lowering his head toward your ear right as the answering thunder rolls through the sanctuary, up through the altar, up into you.

///

Méfiez-vous de son piège, the grimoire said. Beware of the catch.

Of course it wasn’t just a ring.

Overhaul’s fingers are in—inside you, his middle and ring finger pumping through the length of your cunt like they belong there, like you were made to be touched this way. A mixture of your juices and your own spit cling to the latex because he made you suck his fingers before he put them in you and he hasn’t bothered to take his gloves off—not that you asked. You’ve been too busy biting your lip to try and muffle the moans that he keeps forcing out of you. He’s bracing himself on top of you with one hand and fingering you with the other, so your own hands are free to push into your eyes and hide your face…until he yanks your arm back and stops.

“Look at me.”

Your eyes are screwed shut and you shake your head back and forth, the movement shuddering your whole body right down to your pussy wrapped around Overhaul’s fingers. He slows the movement and kneels back, pushing one of your thighs up into your chest as he does it.

“Look at me.”

And you’re not sure whether it’s some unearthly power he has over you or the plain old deterioration of your willpower, but you can’t refuse him. You crack your eyes open and he’s glaring down at you, skin pale as ice in the blue light. Once he’s satisfied that you’re watching, the demon leans back in to fuck your cunt with his fingers, slowly at first and then quicker when he hits something inside of you—a spot, a place on the inner wall of your pussy that makes you feel like you’ve been shocked— heat blooms through you like blood in water and you gasp and he curls his fingers up to pet over that spot again.

“Wait—wait, that’s—it feels—weird!” You’ve never felt like this before. You’re not supposed to feel like this, it’s wrong.

“I understand you’ve never touched yourself, but don’t pretend you don’t like it.” Overhaul says, voice as indifferent and calm as ever even though your cunt is dripping clear sticky liquid over the plastic of his glove.

He pushes back in and grinds his palm over the little button on the top of your pussy—your clit?—and you want to scream. “No, I—I don’t—nnhh...”

Do you like it? The demon’s body is so hot next to yours, like he’s running a fever except you’re the one going out of your mind… You’ve heard metaphors for sexual pleasure before (that it’s like having something to drink when you’re dying of thirst; or that it’s the ultimate act of intimacy, love in physical form) but all of that’s a fucking lie. There’s nothing to compare it to, no reference that makes sense, because it doesn’t make sense—you don’t even want him to keep going, do you? You’re only doing this because you signed your name on a devil’s contract, because you don’t want to die and there’s no alternative…but that doesn’t explain why you feel so warm from the inside out, why you’re squirming and your hips are rocking involuntarily no matter how much you try to keep still. This isn’t right. You feel like you’ve been lied to.

A good girl wouldn’t like this.

Overhaul isn’t going to let you close your eyes, so you don’t—but the sounds coming out of your mouth are so…indecent (and how can you think these things about yourself? the word feels like someone else is saying it when you hear it in your head) that your hand is drifting up to your mouth before you can stop yourself, trying to stifle all of it…

“Let your voice out. I want you to hear yourself moan.”

Long fingers slide their way out of your pussy and then move up to rub quick little circles around your clit and you moan, like a whore, like a girl getting her cunt rubbed by a demon— “Oh, uhhhn—something, it’s—coming—“ There’s something building up in your core—a peak, a climax, something that makes you fist your hands in the nightgown he put you in (so tight you’re surprised the thin fabric hasn’t torn) and tilt your hips up into him, begging without words because you don’t have any to express what your body is asking for…

But he doesn’t give it to you. Overhaul takes his hand away from your pussy and the shock of the cool air after his too-hot touch is almost enough to send you over that edge—almost. Not quite. And without it, you’re left shivering and quaking, thighs twitching as your baser instincts beg you to just put your hand between your legs for once and hump your fingers to completion if the demon won’t do it.

You’re not going to risk that, though. Not when Overhaul’s dragging your body closer, bunching up the blanket on the altar under your spine, so your pelvis is angled to his… He’s already shirtless and you hear him unzipping his pants but you can’t bring yourself to actually look at him, even when you feel something hard and hot nudging up against your inner thigh and then aligning to your sticky wet slit.

“This will hurt a bit, but I want you to look,” he says, and you don’t even understand at first until you make yourself feel it—his cock, pushing up against your tight cunt to finish this, this perversion of what your first time was supposed to be…

And what was it supposed to be? Roses and candles and soft kisses? A nameless, faceless husband unzipping your wedding dress and making love to you with the lights off? The way the demon touches you should be cruel in comparison but it isn’t, it’s lighting fires under your skin and turning your brains to mush, so how is your body supposed to tell the difference?

It’ll hurt, you know that, you’ve heard enough about sex to know that it always hurts the first time for girls…women. It was already a stretch to fit his fingers in your virgin pussy, so of course his cock is going to hurt. You turn your head toward the window at your side and try on look out at the rain drawing rivulets like veins over the glass, something to focus on instead of him.

“I said look,” the demon hisses, and his hips push forward a bit and you bite off a whimper of pain. “Watch me take your virginity…look at your tight little cunt swallowing me up just like it was made to.”

“N-No—“ you whine, even though it’s not like you can ignore it. “Don’t make me, don’t make me look, I can’t—“

“Then look at me.”

It’s what he wants, some kind of wicked satisfaction he gets off on, but you’re lucky enough to even get an option so you choose that one, shifting your gaze up into his face instead of the place where his cock is pressing deeper and deeper inside you. Overhaul’s eyes are half-lidded and it’s hard to tell from behind the mask but the look on his face is…pleasure? No, that would be too human. Restraint, at least. He could just thrust up into your body in one stroke, but he wants you to feel it for some reason.

Maybe because it’s a worse betrayal of your chastity if you want to get fucked.

Lucky for you, though, you can barely feel anything aside from the pain. The heat you felt building earlier is draining out of you even as Overhaul tilts deeper, layering his chest over yours. You’re almost grateful for the modest barrier the dress provides between your torso and the solid muscle of his abdomen. His cock in your pussy feels like it’s too big too deep too much and it’s the first time you’ve felt like your body wasn’t created specifically for this purpose so you hold it tight.

“Does it hurt?”

A second of clarity makes you want to snarl (of course it fucking hurts, I’m losing my virginity to a demon I summoned from hell) and you dig your fingernails into your palms to stop yourself from saying it out loud. Overhaul pulls out a fraction of an inch and then pushes back in and you feel like the breath’s being pushed out of your lungs. “Yes! Yes, it—it hurts—“

“I can make you enjoy it…for a price,” he sighs, settling into a slow rocking motion of his hips pushing into yours.

And you want to, every sore muscle in your cunt is telling you to give in and give up, give him what he wants so you can enjoy it like he says—but you’d rather hate every second of this than make another deal. You shake your head quickly and because you’re still too afraid to look away from him, you don’t miss the look of surprise that flits across his face before he tamps it down. “I don’t—I don’t want to—like it,” you gasp out between thrusts. “It’s better if—if it h-hurts…”

This time it’s obvious—his eyes really do widen, and you feel some petty triumph at having caught him off guard like this. Who’s predictable now? you think—and then he’s lifting one hand off the altar at the side of your head and tugging his glove off with his teeth, and you don’t even have time to be afraid of what he’s going to do to you because it’s too late, his bare fingers are already stroking over your mound and onto your core, massaging into the flesh of your stomach so he can feel his own cock sliding in and out of you—

and it doesn’t hurt anymore?

You only have a second to try and understand—he cured you, he healed the pain from your first time just like he healed your illness?—before he hooks his grip under your thigh and folds your legs into your chest so he can fuck into you harder than before. His cock slaps into your pussy and you can hear it, hear how wet your filthy little cunt is, smeared through with your juices. It’s sick—the sound of skin against skin, and the moaning you can’t hold back, you sound like a woman in a porno and you wish the pain would come back just so you could keep hating what he’s doing to you. “What—what did you do—“

The demon ignores you. “It feels good, doesn’t it.”

“Nn—“ It’s deeper like this…deeper and rougher and you can feel it. Now that the pain’s been reduced to the dull ache of a stretched muscle, you can feel everything—his cock sliding against that same spot in your cunt that makes you want to squeal, the friction of his body moving against your clit, all of it, everything you wanted to block out— he pumps into you and you hear your breath sobbing out a moan a second out of rhythm, the sounds of you bouncing on demon cock echoing over the walls. “Please—ah, ahhh…”

“‘Please?’ Are you begging—me, little girl?” Overhaul pushes your thigh up and drags his cock through you, excruciatingly slow, forcing you to feel the thick head slide over every gummy wall in your slick pussy.

You shake your head, mewl, try to force your hips to stop rocking back into his and grinding your clit against him. But you can’t. You’re a—you were a virgin, for fuck’s sake! Overhaul’s immortal. Probably thousands of years of experience on how to make you feel like you want this, like you’re only alive in the places he touches you… You’re at his mercy, if he has any. You never stood a chance.

“Then are you begging your god?” His body lowers directly onto yours and like you’re being controlled by puppet strings your arms fold around him and rake your fingernails uselessly into the smooth skin of his back. You can feel the vibration of his mirthless laughter through his chest. “It must hurt terribly…to know he isn’t listening.”

“Don’t—stop, please,” you sob. “Don’t say—don’t stop—please!”

“Listen to yourself, girl—“ Overhaul’s breath is faster now, but you don’t have time to question it because you feel your peak coming again, the tension rising up through your cunt and your abdomen, harsher and crueler than when his fingers were in you but you want it just as much. More. “Has he ever answered your prayers? Has he...ahh, fuck—who’s the one giving you what you need?”

“No— please, please just let me let me, please—“ You’re talking nonsense now, begging for the release—at least then it’ll be over, and you need it, you need it so badly you feel your muscles locking up, cramping, your ankles crossing each other behind Overhaul’s back.

“Good girl,” the demon breathes, and then he lifts off you so he’s kneeling upright with the two of you still connected, his thick, heavy cock still speared in your pussy, and his fingers come down again to rub at your clit. Everything’s so wet you can hear the motion of his fingers slicking themselves through your juices, sliding up and down the little button over and over and it feels so good that a tiny part of you almost wants to drag it out, to savor it, but the rest of your body is going to die, is going to go crazy if the demon doesn’t let you cum right now, right now, right now!

And he does. Praise the Lord. The pads of Overhaul’s fingers pass over your clit one last time and your head rolls back, your throat moves but you can’t even make a sound, your legs shake and you cum.

You didn’t know it was like this.

Your cunt squeezes down on his cock, throbbing and pulsing and your toes literally curl (you didn’t think that was a real thing!) and your vision goes black for a moment and—oh fuck oh fuck i want this i want more how is it possible that i’ve never felt like this—you understand, more intimately than ever, why sex is wrong:

because nothing that makes you feel this good could possibly come without a cost, could it?

///

It must take longer than you thought for you to come back to your senses, because when you regain awareness of your body you’re in your hospital bed. You’re clean, too, and you wonder for a second if Overhaul bothered to clean you up? Or no…he probably just snapped his fingers and transported you back to your room. You’re not really sure how it works.

What you are sure of, however, is that you just got fucked by a demon. You’re sore in places that you didn’t know it was possible to be sore, and there are already bruises forming on the flesh of your thighs from how tight he was holding you. You don’t really have time to inspect these, though, because apparently your…ordeal (if you can call it that) isn’t over.

Overhaul’s still here.

He’s facing the hints of sunrise through the east window, dressed again in the immaculate lab coat and surgeon’s mask. “You’re awake,” he says without looking at you.

You nod hesitantly. You’re not really sure what the protocol is in this situation, but at least you’ve finally held up your side of the contract, right? And so has he. Despite having been up all night doing sinful things, you’re still itching to get out of this bed and test the limits of your healthy body. “You’re…going to leave, right?”

“Yes—”

At that, you sigh in relief and settle back into your starched bedsheets.

“But there’s one more thing you owe me.”

“Goddamnit,” you swear for the very first time in your life. After what you just did, taking the Lord’s name in vain seems like a relatively minor sin.

Overhaul’s mildly irritated expression doesn’t change, but he holds his hand out to you, palm up, the way you imagine someone would if they were helping you out of a car or requesting a dance at an old-fashioned ball. And really, you want all of this to be over—you want to get out of this hospital, you want to taste what the air outside is like, you want to distract yourself from what you just gave up in exchange for a future. At this point you’re just going to have to hope God isn’t as picky about the whole premarital sex thing as you grew up believing.

So you put your hand in Overhaul’s.

Slowly, carefully, like he’s afraid it’ll burn him, he slides your purity ring down your finger and balances it in the palm of his bare hand. It sizzles when he touches it, glowing orange until it eventually burns down into a ash-black circle in the center of his palm. Once he’s satisfied that your pretty little ring has been reduced to nothing more than a scorch mark, he closes his hand around yours and you feel something sharp, painfully hot, etching onto your finger.

It’s over in a second, but you still yelp and yank your hand away from him as soon as he lets you. “Ah—ow, what was that?”

He burned you, he literally burned you! He’s already healed it, but there’s still a thin, pale scar, an intentional one left wrapping around the skin at the base of your left ring finger. Like a wedding ring.

When you look close, you can make out a symbol on the back of your finger where the cross used to sit—and even though your conscious mind doesn’t recognize it, the sight of it rings out something inside your ribcage, deeper and truer than flesh and blood. It’s the devil’s mark, you think. It’s his.

“…A promise,” Overhaul says softly, and even though it’s a chilly morning, you can feel the heat of his hands on yours a long time after he vanishes back into the dark.