#om celestial realm

[bluejay-writes]

Heaven is a Misnomer - Chapter 26

Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me! Rating: Teen Chapter 26 Wordcount: 2522 Characters/Relationships: Jake (Exchange student OC) / Raphael Summary: It's that time, fam. The chapter you've been waiting for.

Chapter 26: Communication is Key

A few mornings later, Jake sat up with a start. 

“Where am I?” He asked, looking around in confusion. Isn’t this Fen’s room? Why am I in Fen’s bed?

From the chair next to him, Raphael grinned. 

“Good morning, Jake. I see you’re feeling better. You’re in Feniel’s room, to recover.”

Recover? Recover from what? And why was Raphael sitting here with him while he was asleep in Feniel’s room? None of this made any sense.

Jake felt a little bit out of it, but before he could ask any of the questions that were on his mind, Raphael was on the phone.

“Yes, Sariel. Yes, he’s lucid, I think he’s through it, and I’d like you to confirm that he can come go back to normal activity. Yes. Mhm. Thank you.”

Raphael reached to the side table and handed Jake his phone.

“Now that you’re back to normal, I’m sure you’ve got a ton of missed messages and concerned friends to get back to.”

Jake smiled and looked at his phone. The first thing that caught his attention was the date.  Wednesday?! Wasn’t it just Monday though? Wait, and it was a week later even.

“What happened? I feel like I got run over by a truck.” Jake muttered.

“Celestial Fever.” Raphael said, watching him warily. “It can do a number on your system, so do tell me if you need anything.”

Read the full chapter on Ao3!

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Things general MC canonically likes:

• Chaos

• Horror

• Monstrous Food

I'm sorry but there's no way this idiot would ever be able to happily live in the Celestial Realm. You'd be taking the enrichment out of their enclosure. They'd get a shovel and start trying to dig themself back into The Devildom.

[spark-river]

MC: Jesus could've sold his bath water and nobody would've known.

Solomon: Oh, he did. Holy water.

Simeon: ...This is why you're banned from the Celestial Realm.

[inhuman-obey-me]

Power + Control: Lessons 55/56

As the main story of Nightbringer has been announced to be coming to an end, there is a lot for the writers to try to wrap up! Plus, we're approaching what is probably the climax of the season, which means shit's getting serious again.

Naturally, this means there's also a lot going on. Shall we get into it?

(spoilers up to Nightbringer Lessons 55 + 56)

MC and Their Power

In Lesson 55, we find ourselves back at the Sorcerer's Society, this time with Mammon and Satan in tow. When the two brothers question why they need to be there, Solomon explains that it helps solidify MC's reputation, as the spotlight has been on them for a while now. The Sorcerer's Society has been keeping a wary eye on MC for a while -- and we wonder if that might be since OG Season 2, when MC's powers were destabilizing the Three Realms. But they seem to be keeping an eye on them not only for their power, but also because of concerns that MC's loyalties could shift due to their close relationships with everyone, thus endangering the human world.

The actual reason for their visit, however, is that Solomon wants to use a device the Society has to measure MC's powers. On the initial reading, it doesn't seem like MC's powers have gotten particularly stronger, much to everyone's confusion.

Solomon then decides to test a theory (without warning, of course) and sends an attack spell in Mammon's direction. This, like before, triggers MC's magic to defend Mammon -- and causes the instrument used for reading magical power to break. Solomon mentions that the only time it's broken before was because of him, but he reinforced it when he repaired it. So, for a brief moment, MC had even surpassed Solomon in magical power.

We speculated a bit about MC's powers in our last lesson post, and Lesson 55 proved us right on the theory that this growth in power is due to now having two pacts with each of the brothers. This is also allowing MC to generate magical power, which is rare. We have to keep quiet about it, though, because otherwise we risk messing up the space-time continuum if others were to know of our trip to the past and all that occurred. (Though, one would think it would be safe to talk about it with Barbatos, who would probably also be more knowledgeable...)

However, there's no time to worry about any of that time travel shenanigan nonsense in depth, because *drumroll*...

The Angels Are Troubled

When we get back, we learn that Raphael has been acting very strangely since the Devildom Math finals. Mephisto, being his boyfriend a concerned fellow student, notes that he hasn't been to school at all in a while, and it turns out that he has holed himself up in his room pretty much ever since the Devildom Math finals, when he overheard Diavolo and Lucifer talking about Simeon's little turning-demon situation. And hey, speaking of Raphael acting weird, it seemed like Lesson 55 opened with some kind of prophetic vision of him having an emotional breakdown...??

Anyway, so MC and the brothers make a plan to visit him after school, loaded up with treats and Raphael's favorite demonus, courtesy of his boyfriend Mephisto, who would never himself go visit an angel at home for any reason... However, when they arrive, it turns out that Raphael is not actually home. And, at around the same time, Simeon is out walking with Lucifer and gets a text from Michael saying that Raphael went up to the Celestial Realm, though he leaves the reason for the visit cryptically vague -- though, Simeon suspects Michael just couldn't be bothered to explain. About what we should expect from the one Raphael called socially inept weirdo, we guess?

As Simeon and Lucifer get back to Purgatory Hall, where everyone else is deciding what to do about Raphael, suddenly the ground shakes, and next thing we know, everyone is in Babel again!

Confused and quite literally shaken, everyone tries to figure out what caused them to suddenly be transported to Babel. Both Simeon and Lucifer suspect it has something to do with Raphael -- especially as the brothers take on their angel forms soon after arriving. We end up finding Raphael fast asleep, which further confirms Lucifer's and Simeon's suspicions.

When Raphael wakes up, however, he can't actually remember how he got there -- he remembers he went to visit Michael to talk to him about something, but can't remember what happened after he passed through the Celestial Gates on his way back to the Devildom. After some coaxing and interrogating, Raphael confesses why he went to speak to Michael, and it was to beg him to speak to God aka Father and convince him to forgive Simeon, as Raphael believes he has been punished enough.

Luke apologizes to Simeon, thinking he hasn't nearly done enough in comparison to Raphael to help him. They all have a heartwarming discussion of just how much Simeon is loved, but there are still questions to be answered.

Lucifer asks Raphael if he's responsible for all that's happening, seemingly determined to goad Raphael into some kind of realization that the seraph is too distressed to confront, even as the others try to stop him. Solomon makes a desperate move to come help, which has the more-than-geriatric human sorcerer showing up absolutely exhausted -- with a little anime-style help from all the demons left behind back in the Devildom!

After catching his breath, Solomon says he understands everyone wants to protect Raphael, but that this conversation needs to happen. Lucifer, now backed up by Solomon, again coaxes Raphael to think about what he wanted in that moment, saying it's important (more on this later). On that question, Raphael begins breaking down, much like we saw in that earlier vision, and losing control of his power.

Amidst the shaking and panic, Solomon takes a moment to explain that Raphael's power is probably what pulled them all there to Babel, and Simeon in particular remarks that Raphael's feelings of wanting to live peacefully with everyone are probably the reason that the brothers were in their angel forms.

But now, as Raphael unfurls while acknowledging what he wanted, the entirety of Babel starts to collapse.

OM's #1 (Deadbeat) Dad

So now, of course, the big question is what did Raphael think and feel in that moment, which is causing him so much distress? And the answer, it seems, may be that he disagrees with God.

We've seen time and time again that the Celestial Realm is one of extreme obedience, shown more recently by the entire situation with Simeon. So, Raphael trying to make an appeal to God takes the brothers by surprise. Leviathan in particular says he can't believe that Raphael would do something like that, "knowing it might make Father mad" -- with Asmodeus and the others agreeing but admiring him for it. After all, the brothers became fallen angels for rebelling against God themselves.

Lucifer in particular probably sees the way Raphael's actions and feelings mirror his own old feelings -- he thought the way Lilith was being punished wasn't right and wanted God to change his mind and see reason. He too tried to appeal to God to change Lilith's punishment, and encountered the same obstinate refusal to listen. Those feelings led to him starting the Great Celestial War, which resulted in him and his brothers all being the demons they are now. And now, Raphael is experiencing something similar with Simeon, someone who he admires and is considered his mentor.

If so, that's certainly a very troubling track record for the Celestial Realm. Of the four angels we know of who have been seraphs, we have Lucifer (fallen), Simeon (demoted-about-to-become-demon), Raphael (now questioning), and Michael (...socially inept weirdo).

And yet, is it any wonder? The idea of even questioning Father is seen as blasphemous. With such authoritarian absolutism in place, of course those at the next tier of power might begin to wonder as their own loved ones face these overly harsh punishments. And as a seraph whose loyalties are otherwise so unwavering towards the Celestial Realm and the other angels, it's no wonder his magic is getting unstable as Raphael comes to terms with these feelings. He already went through the loss of Lucifer and the brothers, and being faced with losing Simeon after Simeon's already been "punished enough" drives him over the edge.

In his breakdown, which parallels MC's prophetic dream from the start of Lesson 55, Raphael says he's never felt so alone and miserable and he just can't take it.

Gee, good job Michael.

Now, we've long held a theory that God is just...not around. From a practical narrative sense, the devs have said that their original plan to have Diavolo himself be the Demon King felt like it made him too intimidating, and when they changed it to Crown Prince instead, they probably wanted to try and make things more "equal" between the Devildom and Celestial Realm. Thus, we have Diavolo and Michael as the acting leaders instead of the Demon King and, well, God.

But it's interesting because way back in OG Season 3, Simeon mentions that he hasn't seen Father in an extremely long time, even though we know he'd already received his "human" punishment by that time. Now, Raphael mentions that he's been unable to get an audience with Father. In fact, it seems like Michael is the only one who might be able to, and when Raphael says he pleaded with him to do so, it seems that Michael denied him -- in spite of the fact that, according to past speculation from Lucifer, Michael is also very worried about Simeon and was said to probably be trying to work out a way for him to come back! Though, by the way, the thing that got Simeon punished with human status was stealing from Michael, not the Celestial Realm itself, which itself is quite interesting. But even Michael has never been outright mentioned to be in contact with Father, as far as we've ever heard.

So...where the fuck is he??

[nocreativityfornames]

Lucifer telling the others about Lilith for the first time!

[ Spoilers for Belphie's UR card: Avatar of Sloth ]

[devildom-doll]

Bruh, they should fight. 💥💥

[luckykittysshowerthoughts]

Simeon: Why is Michael so upset with you, anyway?

MC: So, last night he saw me drinking demonus.

Simeon: Okay...?

MC: So, he challenged me to a drinking competition.

Simeon:

Simeon: oh.

Simeon: You didn't tell him humans are immune to demonus, did you?

MC: I told him this morning. While he was nursing his hangover.

Simeon: That explains it.

[sketch-guardian]

I finally finished the New exchange students' true celestial forms sketches😭it was a nightmare and now I need to get some sleep😞I apologize if they are disappointing, but here they are🙈:

"NEW EXCHANGE STUDENTS' TRUE CELESTIAL FORMS"

REMIEL X MC

NATHANIEL X MC

URIEL X MC

plus some close-ups to show their faces better:

REMIEL

NATHANIEL

URIEL

[coolsosha]

Angelic Asmo!!!

And also my first drawing from actual reference that is not inside of my brain! YIPEE

also i think im gonna start drawing non-Asmo art. Im really disappointed in OM and with how Asmo turned into a personality-less "gay best friend". Compared to first lessons he does 0 freaky or lusty things and we barely get to kiss him😭 He doesn't feel like a dateable avatar of lust anymore, more like platonic avatar of friendship 😭 And i think im getting less obsessed over him because of him treated so bad by the writers. I don't think i will stop drawing him completely, but i feel like drawing something from another fandom😔. Sorry, people who followed me because of the fact that i draw only Asmo i guess???😭

[arisu-draws]

Big bro mammon! This is a personal hc I have, he's the one who took care of Levi when they were angels. Though, Lucifer of course helps him too. This is probably my favorite artworks so far, I love this so much <33

[izzyzalezbian]

I know that we, as a fandom, all agree that while in heaven, Mammon's virtue was charity-- and that's all well and good, but may I present another idea; Mammon's primary virtue being loyalty

[bluejay-writes]

Heaven is a Misnomer - Chapter 25

Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me! Rating: Teen Chapter 25 Wordcount: 3244 Characters/Relationships: Jake (Exchange student OC) / Raphael Summary: Something's wrong with Jake.

Chapter 25 - Celestial Fever

“That’s your third glass of cloud pear juice already this morning, Jakey.” Aya said, elbowing him.

Jake chuckled. “What can I say, I’m a thirsty queer.”

On his other side, Fen smacked his palm into his forehead. “Really, Jake? Really?”

“Really.” Jake said. “I’m actually just honestly super thirsty this morning. And nothing beats Cloud Pear juice. Except maybe Red Grapefruit, but you don’t have that here. Ugh. Gotta remember to fill my water bottle before I head out for classes.”

Fen and Aya both rolled their eyes, and Jake shrugged. Couldn’t a guy be thirsty?

“Cloud pear juice is the best, and Jake is right to want to drink it.” Bunny said from across the table, and they shared a laugh. Trust Bunny to defend his right to eat and drink anything he wanted. Maybe he could have her over once the exchange program was done and treat her to fun juice.

Read more on Ao3!

[ad0rechuu]

‼️ obey me nightbringer spoilers ‼️

we talk about the demon brothers or solomon or the others a lot when talking about nightbringer but can we talk about mc for a sec?

they were totally ripped away from everything they loved for the 5th or so time and still try to help the characters because they love the guys so much. and then they are told to leave the devildom again to go back to human world but that would mean they realistically don’t have anywhere to go, they would have no idea what era they would be transferred to and they might be transferred so far back in time that a unknown place like the celestial realm feels more like home. i’m sure when mc wakes up they can stay but imagine the fear and sadness they felt idk i just really feel for our mc :(

[saraminwglasses]

Happy birthday to the First Born!

[inhuman-obey-me]

Diavolo & The Loyalty Thing

Alrighty everyone, we're going to be blunt here -- if there is one character misunderstanding in this fandom that has always pissed us off (jk there are many actually), it is how people interpret Diavolo's deal with Lucifer after the war.

We know a lot of y'all don't like him because of that agreement. We know a lot of you think that Lucifer is magically bound to Diavolo's will because of it, as with a pact, and is unable to defy him. We know that many of you dislike Diavolo because you think he was taking advantage of Lucifer in that scene.

Well, the devs have made it plain time and time again and even more so in Nightbringer: that is not the case.

You are wrong, and here's why. (Or, to put it more nicely, please let us convince you otherwise.)

(spoilers including Nightbringer Lesson 17 below the cut)

Let's start by reviewing the situation from Lucifer's side:

Lucifer, a guest to the Devildom many times before in a diplomatic coordination context, has just led, and subsequently lost, a civil war in the Celestial Realm. The catalyst that pushed him to start this war was the impending punishment declared against his sister, Lilith. Seeing that sister get fatally wounded in said war, he flies down after her falling body, where both of them land in the Devildom.

Diavolo then shows up with Barbatos, presumably because they, you know, saw two war-wounded angels falling from the sky into his domain. Lucifer turns to Diavolo and starts shouting that he knows the prince has the power to save his sister -- and pleads with him to do exactly that.

Diavolo makes a point of telling Lucifer that it may not be in the way he expects or wants, but he agrees to do it on the condition that Lucifer swears loyalty to him. Barbatos attempts to interject against the idea, to which Diavolo responds that he's aware already that this is a big risk for him. Lucifer, upon realizing that he is becoming a demon himself as a consequence of the war, agrees to Diavolo's terms.

(OG Scene on left, Nightbringer scene on right)

Diavolo then takes Lilith before she dies and reincarnates her as a human. This then remains a secret between the three of them from that moment all the way until the events of OG Lesson 15, when Lucifer finally confesses the whole thing to his brothers in the first timeline, and then OG Lesson 16, when MC reveals it (in the second timeline).

So to recap: Lucifer started a war with Lilith's punishment as the catalyst, lost, showed up in the Devildom, and then demanded the prince of that realm save his sister from essentially the same punishment he was fighting against in the first place.

To be clear about Diavolo and Lucifer's relationship at this point, they had been communicating about diplomatic affairs, as a governmental head and a top representative respectively. They are friendly, but not close friends yet. They are not allies in this war. Diavolo is not involved at all in the Great Celestial War or the situation with Lilith. And with this rebellion, Lucifer no longer holds that diplomatic status -- in fact, as mentioned in Nightbringer Lesson 8, the brothers were essentially war criminals in the eyes of the Celestial Realm, with Lucifer as the leader.

Moreover, Diavolo's goal as prince is that he wants to establish peace and cooperation between the Devildom and the Celestial Realm. These two realms were enemies for the vast majority of history, and although there is a nonaggression agreement between them currently, it's a tense sort of truce, not true peace.

Helping Lucifer defy the Celestial Realm is in direct opposition to that goal. Taking in the brothers at all is pretty risky in terms of that goal, as Barbatos makes clear above, but there's at least a sort of implication that it is the Demon Prince's business what to do with new demons. Interfering in the Celestial Realm's punishment of one of its angels though? Well, Asmodeus and Leviathan understand right away when they learned the truth from Lucifer back in OG Lesson 15.

There was a very real risk of pissing off the Celestial Realm that he had to calculate against here, and it's a risk that threatens not only him but everything that matters to him most -- his realm, which is a responsibility he takes very seriously, and his goals, for peace between the realms.

And then there's Diavolo's own precarious political situation.

Though Nightbringer retcons this a bit with Diavolo's father falling into a slumber and leaving the realm to Diavolo more suddenly, the original OM actually established that Diavolo was in charge before the fall, with the Demon King going off to sleep shortly after giving the brothers' their titles. And Nightbringer has shown that his position as the de facto leader of the realm is very much in question.

The nobles of the House of Lords are very blatantly unhappy about Diavolo and his goals, especially in regards to the now-fallen angels. Really, the whole realm doesn't really approve of angels -- they've made a clear point of it in NB, and even well into OG's main story, approval ratings for the exchange program are mentioned as being better but still pretty low, with various references to demons threatening to eat the angels.

But more to the point, the House of Lords has power over Diavolo. Though he is the rightful heir to the throne in terms of birth, they are able to challenge that right, and they even choose when he will be allowed to ascend to the throne -- something which, even in the distant future of OG, they still have apparently never allowed him to do, seeing as he's still not the king even after all this time. And just between his goals for peace and his taking in the fallen angels, they already maneuvered to punish him with suddenly demanding he go through the Kingsblood Crucible to potentially prevent him from ever becoming king. And as Diavolo says, even if he passes, they could still decide against appointing him king.

Now imagine if they found out that he risked the safety of the entire realm to help save a dying angel. If they knew that, they probably wouldn't stop at just challenging his fitness to rule.

So, to be clear, when Lucifer showed up with Lilith, yelling at Diavolo to save her? Diavolo was NOT free to just do whatever he pleases. When he said he's taking a big risk by helping Lilith, he really was. There were so many reasons why he shouldn't, and no real reason why he should -- but Lucifer was begging him to do it anyway. So, he needed something in return. Some kind of reassurance, some kind of protection in the potential consequences.

And there certainly are consequences for helping Lucifer. Even with the Lilith deal being a secret, there are consequences. We saw that already with the House of Lords' increased animosity -- as said above, he was nearly removed from power over it. And as for the Celestial Realm?

Well, that brings us to the end of Nightbringer Lesson 17, where Raphael comes bearing a message from the Celestial Realm -- or, more aptly, a threat.

(We could go into a whole thing about why the Celestial Realm is threatening this but that's for another time)

So, here we are, at the very dangerous crossroads that Diavolo finds himself at now in Nightbringer -- the Celestial Realm coming into his domain with blatant threats of war, while the nobles of his own realm just tried to remove him from power. Threats that are being made against him over helping Lucifer and the brothers. And that's without any of them knowing about Lilith, which would only make all sides even angrier.

You know what he could really use, amidst all those threats? An ally. Someone he could depend on to have his back. Someone he could rely on to be unequivocally on his side, in that very precarious balance of powers.

So that's what he asked for -- loyalty. For all that he was putting on the line for Lucifer's request, he asked for Lucifer to stand by him in turn. What he asked was simply this: "Don't stab me in the back. Don't leave me to deal with the consequences alone. If I'm going to help you, promise me you will be there for me too."

P.S. Lucifer himself has said he agrees with Diavolo's goals. Talking with Diavolo about the peace and cooperation plan was a huge part of why he started having doubts about the Celestial Realm! He was not being asked to do anything he disagreed with; Diavolo knew Lucifer feels the same about his goals as he does. Lucifer takes the loyalty thing too far in OG Season 1, but it was never the only reason for him supporting Diavolo!

[celestialfantasiess]

When they talk in the original game about Satan and how they would raise him and each teach him something else you would imagine a small child learning said child how to talk, eat and walk. U imagine a small baby Satan. And then you start playing obey me nightbringer and you have this full grown dude with the temper tantrums of a toddler. And the brothers didn't raise shit, if they didn't feel like dealing with him they would just shove the dude who just came into existence into a locker tied up with chains. Which does make me question did Satan just spawn into existence as a full grown man? Because he came forth out of Lucifers wrath and is thus the embodiment of wrath but did he just like spawn?

Satan's birth:

Lucifer, angry beyond comprehension:

Satan, spawns into existence:

The other brothers: Who the fuck is that?