#moral of the story don’t do that

[heirloommtomatoes]

the way kaladin is like. the only character who gets an arc relating to overcoming his prejudices but it’s…him overcoming his “prejudices” against lighteyes…like huh……?

[koroart]

No new art but I do have this meme

[bing-whoops]

TO BE LOVED IS TO BE CHANGED | DIAVOLO . *. ⋆ ⊹ ౨ৎ˚₊

prologue: "villain and violent, infant and innocent"

꒰ summary ꒱ being friendly with those who lived nearby in your apartment building can come in handy especially while living outside of campus; this is highly recommended if you also have a roommate. Until a nice weekend at the house in the beach ends up with a three dead bodies, a roommate in a cult and — a demon baby?

꒰ pairing ꒱ diavolo x reader

꒰ warnings ꒱ child endangerment, suicide, death, mention of drugs, swearing, and brief vomit scene.

꒰ word length ꒱ 3.4k

꒰ author's note ꒱ this is my first series in general so any comments regarding it (or dm’s) are appreciated and encouraged! I would love to hear you guys' thoughts on it

꒰ MASTERPOST ꒱꒰ NEXT ꒱

The coldness of the night settled in your bones like an old friend. The waves splashed harshly against the boulders that were seen laid at the bottom of the cliffs that adorned the beach where you were currently residing at. The moon was was gleaming with a potency that you hadn’t quite seen before — or maybe you had and just hadn’t had the time to appreciate it as much as you should have.

Perhaps you should have thought more before deciding to take the weekend off in a house in front of the beach. Although, house would be a little bit of a stretch considering it was not only lacking any sort of electricity, but you were sure you had heard rats scurrying around the bathroom.

‘Well, there’s no use lamenting after the payment is done.’ You thought as you continued to lament the money spent to stay here — was this the regret every horror movie character felt after doing something that lacked survival instinct?

You tightened your grip on the jacket that you were currently wearing to try and ward off against the night that seems to become increasingly more freezing as the minutes pass. You shifted around in the medium sized boulder you were currently sitting on, and dragged your knees close to your chest to get more comfortable.

It had been what? Two hours since you arrived? Maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less. You didn’t care much either way as this had been the most relaxed you had been in weeks.

Of course just as such thought crossed your mind all of it went down the drain.

You flinched from where you were sitting as a commotion started being heard — above you?

The sand made your frantic attempt at getting away from where you were sitting a little harder than expected, but it could have been just the way that the screams had startled you into action. You warily stepped backwards, inching away from the bottom of the cliff while trying to crank your neck upwards, and narrowed your eyes after seeing flashing blue and red lights coming near the edge.

“The police?” You muttered with resignation, it seems as if a single weekend without anything occurring is too much to ask for, and a little of wariness. What could be the reason for a police car to be here?

The situation became more confusing as shouting erupted once again from the top of the cliff that you was still too close for comfort.

The muscles in your hands tightened as you clenched them after seeing a women with short black hair inch closer to edge of the cliff until you were able to realize what her intentions were. Your eyes widened in fright as dread settled inside your mind as you realized exactly why the police’s shouting seems to become more frantic the closer the woman stepped to the edge.

Are you about to witness a suicide?

No other thought had the time to cross your mind because in the next second the woman stepped backwards and slipped down her doom.

Faster than you could comprehend she crashed close to where you had been sitting less than five minutes ago. The sound that her body made when it finally reached the bottom was the most nauseating noise that you had ever heard (you wish you could wrench it from your memory)

You froze where you stood for a moment before your eyesight finally focused on the blood that was dripping from her forehead onto the sand. This made you quickly approach her unresponsive body and settle as close as you could to her head without actually touching her body in fear of making any injury that she had worse.

The only thing that stopped the automatic thought of her being dead was the pained groans she was still making.

“Hey! hey — I need you to try and stay awake okay?” You tried to frantically say while tripping over your own words while trying to search your pants and jacket for a phone to call emergencies. Only to realize that you had left your phone inside the bedroom after realizing how low the reception was in the area.

Your breathing started picking up the longer it passed. Remembering that you were not the only one that saw this you quickly looked up to see if the police officers could at least indicate what you should do with their speakerphone. Yet surprises did not seem to be ending today because once you looked up you witnessed a baby falling off the cliff in the exact same spot the woman had thrown herself off.

Faster than you could realize your body stood up from where it had been kneeling next to the woman and raised your hand up to your chest in a straight line while bending them slightly; you frantically went through everything that could go wrong trying to catch a baby falling from such height.

Before you could keep stumbling around trying to calculate where the baby would fall your hands buckled as they tried to hold the sudden and harsh weight dropped on them. A yelp almost left your throat as you stumbled to the ground while holding a baby.

The baby that had fallen

The baby that had somehow fallen and not landed on your head and broken it

The baby that did not demolish your arms after falling on them

The baby that was without injury —

It was almost miraculous that there were no visible injuries on the baby that was currently being held on your arms while you still trembled from fright of what had just occurred.

But just because there were no visible injuries didn’t mean that nothing was wrong either. You warily changed the way you were holding the baby to be able to face it and check its face.

Now that you didn’t have to actively worry about someone else trying to free fall off the cliff you observed the odd child that was quietly being held by you. Its hair was an odd reddish color that seemed more bold than any ginger you had ever seen in your life — you were almost willing to believe it was dyed rather than natural.

But even that was nowhere near as startling as her eyes. (He? she? You weren’t sure) The eyes that were staring back at you were the unsettling ones you had ever seen in your life.

For a faltering second you even asked yourself if what you held in your arms was an actual breathing human baby and not a doll.

The eyes’ shape and size was not the problem rather its color was the reason for your momentarily surprise. It was as if somebody had taken gold and melted it in the baby’s eyes. An unsettling color for an unsettling baby. You pursued your lips before quickly beating yourself mentally for focusing on such meaningless description while the woman was still bleeding out — miraculously still alive; the only sign of her condition being the whimpers of pain she was letting out.

“Agh!” A scream startled you as you approached the woman once again. The scream that had left her mouth was louder than any other she had let out since her fall. This did not seem to be a one time occurrence as short scream kept leaving her mouth while you tried approaching her.

You clutched the baby to your chest as you stopped in your tracks less than a step away from leaning down to check on the woman. You weren’t sure why but it seemed as if the more the distance shortened between the two of you the more frightened she seemed.

“Please hang on! The police already called emergencies they’re on the way.” Your words stumbled out of the way in a attempt to comfort the woman that was dying in front of you. But you truly didn’t know if the police had in fact called the ambulance or anybody that could help this women. You had just lied and hoped that it was the truth.

A gurgled sound seemed to leave the woman in the floor. This time in a lower volume.

Cautiously you lowered yourself slowly in fear she would start screaming if you approached too hastily once again.

Another attempt seemed to leave her mouth at speaking yet only indecipherable gurgles were heard. Just as you were about to attempt to stop her from wasting energy trying to speak you watched as her eyes settled on the baby and her face twisted into something ugly.

( Later as you settled down in your bedroom you would chastise yourself for describing a dying’s woman expression as ugly out of all things )

Her lips trembled as her mouth opened and close as if in fear. The woman’s last word would be engraved into your mind for a long while.

Yet they would only make sense months down the line.

“Demon.”

The police were useless.

You had no idea how someone could be so incompetent. You would like to say that you have met a long variety of people with different personality and intelligence in your lifetime; there is not much confidence in you to be able to say you have met people more incompetent than the ones sitting in front of you.

“Is emergencies on their way?” You asked with resignation after leaving the body of the woman on the other side of the beach to be able to speak with the officers inside your house about what you should do next.

The police officers glanced at each other, a cue seemed to be passed between them in that sort second, then at you who was still holding the baby that both of them refused to hold unless necessary.

Both of them felt sympathy towards you, really! But neither of them had ever held a baby before and this situation had escalated from a supposed teenage bonfire party to a dead woman; neither of them felt very confident on the possibility of it getting better.

“Possibly,” One of the police officer commented with a shrug not realizing how nonchalant he was coming off the the college student he was speaking to, “This area is quite far from civilization and getting down here took us a couple of hours it is highly possible they will take even longer.”

Those words caused a sigh to leave your lips. It was not one of exhaustion rather one of annoyance.

The baby you held in your arms was now more energetic; from limply laying in your arms to excitedly playing with the zipper of your jacket and holding onto your arms as tight as he could. Apparently it was also a he.

This what what the police informed you the woman had been using when referring to the child; they had also said that she had screamed about the baby being a demon spawn. So yeah, anything she had said was taken with a grain of salt.

Giggles erupted from the baby in your arms as you took your hand away from his hand. At least someone was having fun today.

“What are we supposed to do then?” You asked the officers after seeing them shuffle unsurely around the house each time they heard a creaking sound resonate around the house.

“You should keep yourself reachable,” The second one piped in as if he was worried you would object, “We will probably have to take that little guy in your arm to the station to find any other family member.”

“Or if there’s any missing babies around this zone…”

“What was that?” You asked with a frown adorning your face. The one who had been interrogating you not too long ago had muttered something incomprehensible that you couldn’t figure out.

After realizing he had been a little too loud the police officer cleared his throat and waved it off. With a quick shake of his hand.

“Nothing! Just thinking about the procedures that will soon take place.”

You warily nodded shifting your weight from one foot to the other keenly aware that neither of them seemed eager to leave or take the baby or deal with the dead body that was probably still rotting and bleeding in the sand after her death.

‘Are they waiting for water to be offered?’ You wondered after seeing the same police officer walk around the very limited space that this house gave you under the reasoning of looking for evidence.

‘Evidence for what? The woman that fell half a kilometer away from here?’ Your annoyance was barely tampered under your self reasoning that this could not last too long and once they left with the baby plus the body everything would settle down.

Deciding to take the initiative you shifted your hold on the baby who was clinging tightly to your jacket and walked closer to the second officer who tensed in nervousness.

“Well officers! Please do contact me if anything comes up that involves me.” You tried to say with some cheer in your voice (who could blame you really? Your pants were still dripping with blood from the woman the officers had not looked thrice at and your palms were still shaky from what had occurred and what could have been)

The reason for this sudden friendliness was to make the baby transaction easier. And it was.

Because as soon as you showed signs of giving the baby over the officer panic clowned his face as once he finally took the baby he held it as far away from his chest as possible with his two arms.

The first officer awkwardly stood around — his hovering did not help soothe anybody’s nerves in this situation.

This silence continued until the radio attached to the pants suddenly received a message that startled the three of you. Not the baby though, he just seemed to hate his new babysitter enough to try and kick himself out of his arms. The baby still held his arms towards you.

Like the professional you were you ignored it and instead discretely (indiscreetly) eavesdropped on what was being communicated.

“… her name was reported to be Laura Bolton.”

Your stomach dropped.

Before you realized you intersected the police officers before they could do what you had been trying to make them do for a while, leave.

“Right — sorry did you just say Laura Bolton?” You asked with cautiousness knowing that there was a possibility of someone sharing a name with your roommate.

“Well that was the name we heard.” The man who was still holding the baby wrong responded.

“I couldn’t quite hear the rest did they describe what she looked like?” You asked with apprehension while trying to keep a smile in your face. It became in readily harder as you realized you didn’t even hear why they had communicated her name through the radio.

“Late twenty’s, approximately six feet tall, white, dark-haired woman.”

That fit the description too well.

“What did she do?” It wouldn’t be the first time your roommate had gone to jail; each time it happened it only made you wish for time to go faster so you could leave that damn apartment complex behind.

“She was found with the woman you saw not too long ago and this baby,” A pause was made as if unsure of what he should say next, “It seemed as if they were doing some sort of — of well religious ritual.”

There’s an odd emphasis on religious.

Why is there an odd emphasis on religious.

‘Oh god.’

You had an epiphany.

‘She joined a cult didn’t she?’ You thought as you stared blankly at the officers who seemed uneasy at the sudden change of atmosphere.

You said your goodbyes to the officer and wished them good luck but your tone was flat in the rest of your interactions.

Perhaps that was why you didn’t pay much attention to the baby in the officer’s arms was still reaching towards you while making grabby hands.

It was a cute sight.

You would have probably tried calming down the baby in any other situation. However, it had been a taxing day.

(And you had no idea how bad it was gonna get)

You roughly pushed the door with annoyance — somehow the hardest part to deal with was opening and closing the door.

You sighed, your hand came up and massaged your forehead. It was an attempt to stop the migraine that usually popped up when you become too stressed.

Your steps caused the wood under your shoe to creak loudly as if demanding you to notice it. You couldn’t find it in yourself to care enough for it at this moment. You headed for the mini bridge you had brought yourself to get a cup of water (or wine, you weren’t feeling too picky)

But once you had opened the bridge and were about to reach for the water bottle a defeating crash was heard outside. There were no screams.

You gazed longingly at the bottle of wine and closed the bridge quietly.

Trying to make as little sound as possible you approached the front window next to the door to gently lift the curtain and sneak a peak outside.

Was it dangerous?

Maybe not.

However a little precaution never hurt anybody.

What you saw was not carnage only because everything had been covered. Your hands let the curtain go as if they had burned you; outside of this little house were supposed to be the police officers. Alive officers.

What you saw was a giant boulder being where the police officers were supposed to be in. You would have thought that they already left had you not seen a grown’s human hand peaking out from under the boulder.

There only seemed to be a survivor.

The baby.

The laughing baby.

You opened the door and wearily looked up the cliff the old lady that had allowed you to rent this house had assured you was as sturdy as cliffs could get. Fear settled in your heart of you also adding to the kill count today. After seeing nothing out of the ordinary you quickly sprinted to where the boulder still stood and grabbed the baby by his stomach and sprinted back inside the house. The baby gurgled with glee as he clapped his hands in excitement. At least someone was having a good time.

You tightened your hold on the baby who already had his finger tightly wrenched in your jacket — a little tighter than you would have thought was possible for a baby.

In the privacy of your mind you wondered whether this child was lucky or unlucky with what had happened today.

Trying to place the baby on the bed did not end well. No matter what you did you couldn’t dislocate his grabby hands from your jacket. As nausea gripped you and didn’t let go you stumbled to the bathroom trying to not have a fourth death in a single night by dropping the baby and promptly threw up.

The baby quieted down after seeing you breathing heavily and simply patted your head.

In the end you went to sleep with a migraine, a nausea filled stomach, and an energetic baby that did not let you out of his sight without throwing a tantrum.

You contemplated the possibility of walking back to a police station and reporting what had happened only for your body to hit you with the worst migraine imaginable. Its pain was enough to make your knees buckled.

Strangely enough it left as soon as it arrived.

While this occurred the baby that had been screaming had quieted down after seeing you hold onto a wall for support.

His unsettling gold-like eyes stared as if they could see through you. Perhaps you would have been more scared had pity not overcome you — this was after all a child whose mothers last word was calling him a demon.

Not the best way to be greeted into this world. You refused to acknowledge the strange way he looked just to avoid the possibility of ending in the same train of thought his mother had after calling him a demon.

Just because he looked different didn’t mean he was the devil’s spawn.

Right?

[darlingcloudie-9]

oough………. my babies………….. i care for them very much 🌸

[bubblingdrfizz]

taco from inanimate insanity but instead of snapping at the end of season one she actually kept up her persona so she could live in hotel oj. it's alright at first, but she's so fed up with acting dumb that it's really hard for her to stay in character and it starts to stress her out. one day taco gets sick or smth. she sneezes and lets out the most british "BLOODY HELL." ever. it's so weirdly out of character but in character at the same time that it's not even questioned beyond a simple "what" so taco was just able to live the rest of her life in hotel oj with her actual personality without needing to explain anything

[right-there-ride-on]

Sbr is only mildly morally ambiguous and that’s okay

okay so the title is misleading 🫣 this is just a short examination of Johnny v Valentine (and Johnny & Valentine) with a little analysis of the confrontation.

for me valentine’s defining character trait isn’t his patriotism but that’s he’s a massive fucking liar. excellent writing for a politician. the only promise he ever kept was the one he made to lucy not to harm steven. and even then valentine is also super vindictive, so even though he didn’t kill him he made sure to torture him a little. Valentine is not at all the magnanimous man he presents himself to be and the constant discrepancy between his words and his actions proves that. when he’s trying to trick johnny into ending the rotation he hits all correct appeals but johnny knows in his gut that this man is a liar.

sometimes ppl act like sbr proposes a huge moral quandary about valentine’s intentions and whether he was the one “walking the righteous path” all along. but there’s really not. that’s Johnny’s internal battle. Since nick’s death johnny believed himself to be a curse / burden / bad person, but through the race he undergoes several trials that end in self-improvement and learning to have grace with himself. by the end of the narrative Johnny has evolved into someone who does have the strength of character and integrity necessary to judge the actions of someone else, whether he believes it or not, and regardless of whether he feels the right to. So yes, johnny was right to kill valentine. there’s no ifs or buts about it. the true brutality and cruelty of Valentine’s ideal world was very clearly portrayed in the way D4C Love Train functions. the corpse appeared to ‘choose’ Valentine by granting him Love Train, but at the same time it was also healing Johnny. if we look at the corpse through the lens of it primarily being a tool used to achieve the collector’s desires, we see that it empowered both Valentine and Johnny and indirectly or not set them on a collision course with each other. Perhaps there was a question of who was ‘righteous’ for the corpse itself, but the narrative itself tells us over and over again that it’s Johnny.

look at it this way. Johnny, who for most of his life believed he was spiritually and later physically damaged beyond hope, was empowered through the corpse and ended the narrative with a new chance at life. Valentine, who desired a world where not just America would prosper, but where he would be the head of said prospering state, and embody the power behind it, was granted the ability to achieve that world. Yet during their confrontation, the callous cruelty and negative consequences of Valentine’s vision is made apparent over and over again. First with Lucy, then with the innocents killed ‘somewhere else’, and lastly with Gyro and Johnny. Valentine’s actions always betray the truth of his intentions; once he proposed the deal, should Johnny have accepted, he intended to backstab Johnny and kill him the moment he got what he wanted. If he had truly been the ‘righteous one’, he would have kept his word and left Johnny alone once the rotation was reversed. But leaving Johnny alive would have meant he was no longer the most powerful man in the room, and that idea is something Valentine can’t stand.

Valentine is not a good person with good intentions. He claims to care about America, yet throughout the story discards his men and citizens like bugs (consider the train engineer). His actions continually demonstrate the reality: Valentine is power-hungry, petty, vindictive, ruthless, and above all else, a manipulative liar.

Valentine’s patriotism is the motivation behind his actions, but his brutality and deceptiveness defines those actions and is evident in everything he does. The implicit reason Alt!Diego failed was because he believed Valentine. By the end of the story there shouldn’t be a question on whether Valentine or Johnny was in the right. Valentine was the villain and he needed to be defeated. His ‘righteous’ world was, unequivocally, wrong.

[koutose]

ezren interactions! i drew some headcanon interactions with ezren and others so forgive me if they’re ooc! 🙇🙇

milo and ezren: milo’s love in this relationship is one-sided. however, it isn’t milo’s time to exit the stage yet and ezren won’t dismiss their perfect “actor” that easily. the show must go on after all.

eris and ezren: they both don’t want to associate with each other and they’re mostly indifferent. also slightly antagonistic. just slightly.

ryan and ezren: i would like to imagine that ryan used to admire ezren. now, he fears ezren yet is still entranced by them. this doesn’t help since ezren likes to torment him often. it’s just fun to see his cocky demeanor shatter!

emil and ezren: emil feels threatened by ezren, and the relationship between the two are strained. ezren doesn’t seem to mind though, having another person to toy with is a plus!

i also drew some interactions with gabriel (by @pitot-0) and xt (by @eouk-n) cause their ocs are neat and cool!!

gabriel and ezren: poor gabriel. ezren loves teasing gabriel with a glimmer of hope. yet, gabriel will never be the star on ezren’s stage. there is space in the backstage crew though.

xt and ezren: id like to think xt ropes ezren in some crazy antics and causes trouble, but ezren goes along with xt anyway because its interesting! a energetic and calm duo.

[soupexpertt]

It’s crazy how Bill Cipher was meant to be a one shot villain. Voiced by David Lynch. Bill was supposed to appear in a couple of episodes due to Lynch’s schedule but when he rejected the offer and Alex Hirsch decided to voice him himself he got surprised by how popular the character became and decided to make him recurring.  Disney criticized the idea thinking that having a yellow triangle as the main villain would only make the show go downhill but surprisingly it was the opposite. Bill unintentionally fits with the entire theme of weirdness and he probably wouldn’t be that impactful if he looked like a regular demon.

[gabriels-golden-kazoo]

Nothing like dyeing my hair on the floor of my lounge whilst watching the archangel Gabriel eye fuck his brother’s destined vessel

[shorthaltsjester]

i contain multitudes and can say that i am a little :( about vex and percy being teammates with benefits because i think there’s something particularly heartbreaking about the dynamic that was neither of them ever said a thing even though they both were aware of it and it took losing percy for vex to finally admit it and Even Then, she couldn’t say it to percy’s face when they got him back, percy was the one who had to make the first move (that they were both alive for at least) and he was only able to do that because he’d heard her confession, because he never would’ve thought otherwise. to be clear, i also very much enjoy the story being told, i think i just wish they’d maybe committed more significantly to This Is A Campaign-Inspired Story Rather Than A Retelling sooner in the show so that maybe there would be a bit more grounding or set-up for the storylines the narrative is focusing on (and i understand why they wouldn’t), because i think they’re doing very well with percy’s arc for example, because they started with focusing on his and keeping his beats mostly the same and that seems to be much the same case as some of his second wave of meaty character stuff has arrived. but with vex they’ve aimed for the same character beats but it doesn’t always feel as earned or really feel like much character at all; i think saundor particularly was a bit of an :/, since in the campaign it was really a catalyst for vex interrogating her role in the party and her morality and something she struggled to get over and that haunted her far beyond the walls of that tree, but in the show it hasn’t really had a clear impact on vex beyond the scope of the episode itself — syldor certainly has, but the challenge that saundor presented didn’t really have much weight beyond its moment. and obviously a large part of that’s also probably just, 7 protagonists and wanting to expand the perspectives to antagonists and give more room for side characters is a lot of things to cover. and, i say with love, perhaps a bit too ambitious for a 12 episode per season, ~22 minute runtime show if they want their characters to have the kind of depth that really makes campaign 1 shine the way it does.

[maggie-candy999]

They’re just star gazing.

[diimpledoll]

Getting older is realising none of these horny text posts are realistic. What do you mean “I want to keep you on your knees” THE HELL YOU WILL, IM SORE, I CANT IM GETTING FKN ARTHRITIC LEAVE ME ALONE.

[vonclosen]

vent. sorry i’m honesty hangry and upset

actually i’m still annoyed. has anyone in this damn fandom heard of filtering tags. for shit. they don’t like

also like not to be ‘what about’ but seriously if your biggest problems are fucking shipping wars on tumblr dot com i envy you. truly.

[clannfearrunt]

Unfortunate: this “weed” I have been harboring in my cosmos planter this whole time is definitely a tree. Probably an elm. I do not have space for an elm. GOD I wish I had space for an elm. Also problematic for tree removal: I love this thing ?

[teagrammy]

Just saw a (recommended) post cross my dash hoping Colin is going to be more upset about Pen “writing bad things about herself” than the actual tangible things she’s done to people… be fucking for real please

[moonilit]

sometimes reading Kory’s talk about love and how her culture normalizes poly relationships and love is separate from marriage as in yeah sometimes you marry for politics but doesn’t mean you ‘love’ that other person or they you and thats OK is so weird because, you don’t even need to go to space for that?? Its already somewhere on earth??