#the guy who is just allowed to stampede through life being a total ass with no pushback or accountability and terrorize people

[toytulini]

Disclaimer im just processing some thoughts im not cancelling the show

have almost thoughts about how i find the like....narrative on here that if you have chronic "zebra" conditions youd want a doctor like House and wouldnt sue for malpractice bc at least youd have a doctor that cares about whats wrong with you but lets take it one step further. so often he does NOT give a shit about the patient and actively endangers them frequently with his god damn heoric era of medicine approach? non zero amount of times he gets a diagnosis but it comes too late, or he gets a diagnosis after their first wrong 3 guesses of the episode shut down the patients kidneys and they either have to get a transplant or they are just, doomed due to other preexisting conditions etc? idk. i know ppl are almost certainly exaggerating and just letting off steam about the very real failures of our current medical systems and the ableism baked in and All That Shit. i just think its weird how ppl romanticize House who STILL, FREQUENTLY, MULTIPLE EPISODES will actively dismiss shit in the exact way that is a problem in our current system, especially when hes being Forced Against His Will To See Clinic Parients, he loves to be dismissive as fuck of symptoms and if he was a real doctor i think he'd be fucking 50/50 on cases he Notices Something To Dig Into vs cases he dismisses as an Anxious Hysterical Woman Who Wants Attention, the only reason he's Right so frequently in his snap judgements is cos it reinforces the narrative. its like a crime drama that has the mastermind serial killer masterfully using "loopholes" and lawyering up all sneaky and dodging Justice and if only our poor little cop protags were allowed to do A TEENY BIT of Justified Police Brutality, they could Save Lives!

and like sometimes in the show they will have a patient die despite his efforts to narratively punish him. not to mention, i think its been at least mildly brought up and glossed over how much they absolutely do not think about insurance costs for these ppl for the insane amount of tests that find nothing and Wrong Medications To Force A Diagnosis they use? i think it was brought up once in the episode following a day in the life of cuddy where she had to fight a lawsuit bc a guys insurance like didnt cover his thumb being reattached but chase reattached it anyway while in surgery cos it was The Right Thing To Do and the guy didnt have the money to cover it and the insurance wouldnt pay unless he sued the hospital or whatever. thats like the only time its come up. whereas like frequently the doctor I go to for osteopathic manipulation tries to check in with me and make sure im covered by insurance etc and that im not going to go broke or get buried in medical debt seeing her.

idk. just some Thoughts. not a defense of our current system and all the flaws it enables and enforces etc. his approach to medicine is really reminiscent to me of what I know of the Heroic Era Of Medicine which i dont...love? and hes framed on here as being an asshole but would kill for his patients to get them a diagnosis etc. but hes definitely extremely paternalistic to patients ? and despite some good clippable lines about ableism and being against eugenics, it honestly feels like his stance on that is kind of a toss up.

[louadorable126]

Demons(you).me: Chapter 8 - The Cult of Fortuna’s charity event (Part 2)

Artwork Commissioned from Aya/Itouyas on twitter! Please check her out! <3

>>Click here to read on Ao3!<<

Summary:

In a city controlled by the generally altered race of Demons, Lady’s life as a mercenary on the lower floor was never easy. Especially when she ran into Dante. A demon on the hunt for his missing brother.

———–

Fandom: Devil May Cry

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Vergil, Lady, Dante, Trish

———–

Chapter 8:

“Who are you?!

The doppelgänger of Eva raised an eyebrow in confusion at his hysteria. “One of your kind?” She said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I’m on your side, so calm yourself."

Wait, she sees herself as a demon? Great, that totally didn’t soothe Dante’s fears! In fact the complete opposite. Only bringing forth more questions than answers in his already overworked mind.

“S-Sorry. I, uh didn’t expect to see another…” He gulped for the words. "Another one of us down here.” He said shakily, lowering his sword, yet still not letting go of it completely. Playing along seemed like the best option right now in Dante’s mind. Freaking out, as reasonable as it was, wasn’t going to get him anywhere with this.“Why are you here then?"

“I would think the reason is pretty obvious, given that they are currently sitting around us.” The doppelgänger gestured to the limp bodies of the leaders.  “Dispatch sent me to deal with these lunatics, and so I have. Though, how very thoughtful of them to send me a backup just in case~ You’re a damn good fighter, and I like that in an assistant."

“Dispatch?” So the demonic military had been looking into taking out the Cult of Fortuna as well then? Eh, not too big of a surprise. It was always gonna be a matter of time. At least on the upside, they’d saved him a job by pulling their ‘disappearing’ act on them here and now. “Oh right, dispatch! Yeah, they didn’t tell me anything about you being here. So hence, uh… all that-”

“Its fine, all is forgiven.” She cut in briskly, waving him off. Clearly holding no resentment at least. “They were probably trying to protect my identity. It's hard to put up a decent front if you know who you can trust!”

“True” Dante responded, somewhat detached; weakly leaning back against the solid wall behind him. In truth, he barely processed her words, too unsettled by the tone of her voice, that gentle yet smug smile not too dissimilar to his own… it was all too uncanny.

Ugh, this is so weird! He whined to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. Why couldn’t she just be a clone of Lady? At least she’d have another pretty sister if that were the case! Maybe a little more murderous, but I could work with that-

A chorus of radio chatter spat its way out of the busted helmet. Easily startling the two of them, as they quickly turned their heads towards the sound. The thick static it emanated, made it far too hard to make out exactly what was being said. But if Dante had to guess just by how many voices were overlapping each other whenever it did get audible, the situation sounded quite hectic.

“Seems like security just found out about our little play session." Gloria commented, glancing over her shoulder towards the open door. The sound of a stampede of feet bashing against laminate sounding in the distance. She sighed, shaking her head. “And here I thought Agnus would be a slower runner.”

“Hang on, you didn’t kill all of them?!” Dante yelled in surprise. This wasn’t good at all. How the hell were they going to make good on their deal with Augustus if they hadn’t cut off all the hydra’s heads? (Maybe a bit too literally in the unfortunate case of the guy near to Dante.) God, Vergil was going to have his guts for this…

“I dealt with who I was ordered to deal with. We’ll leave it at that.” The woman in white said ominously, turning her back on him and heading towards the door.

“Right. Totally not the short and simple way of saying you fucked up!” Dante scoffed, unbelieving.

“Oh, I could’ve killed him if I wanted.” Gloria reassured him confidently. Throwing her gilded blade up into the air playfully and catching it again stylishly. “We need to get moving.”

She left the room. Leaving Dante to on hurry after her begrudgingly; his bold red half-cape billowing behind him.

Okay. Maybe we can still get away with this, even if the cult leaders aren’t all dead! Dante thought, trying to reassure himself. As long as the Cult of Fortuna doesn't reform under Agnus. Augustus will have no reason to think we screwed up. Yeah! All he wants is his family to be free. So like he need to know about the finer details of this mission anyway-

His stream of consciousness was abruptly cut off, when his foot came into contact with something solid and heavy, just as he passed through the doorway. The demon glanced down curiously, only to immediately regret the decision when he found the two guards who’d assailed him at the door, laying out cold on the floor. Looking distinctly very dead, if the large pools of blood around them was anything to go by.

That explains why you guys didn’t come charging in at the first sound of commotion. Damn. Dante mused, awkwardly stepping over the guard’s arm he’d come into contact with. Trying to avoid getting blood on his dark metallic feet, with picky, small steps.

“Are you coming?” Gloria’s impatient voice asked. Dante looked up, finding his mother’s doppelgänger standing there in the darkness with her arms crossed disapprovingly - still holding her sword in one hand. “The sight of a few dead bodies scaring you, recruit?”

“Hey, I’m not the summer intern lady! Show me some respect, alright?” Dante said, biting back with his usual wit. Confidently walking off ahead of her down the hall ahead of her. “What even gives you authority over me anyway?”

“Oh I’ve only spent the last six months infiltrating my way inside here. I’d think with that amount of effort, I should be in charge instead of the guy who rocks up at the last minute!”

“Hey, sometimes it’s only the last few minutes that count in the end anyway!” Dante responded cheekily, lifting his crimson sword up and resting it on his shoulders. An overly-dramatic, mournful sigh escaping him, as he pressed his hand on his forehead, like he was a tragic character on stage. “Though, not that my epic tea serving skills will ever be appreciated now."

“They were very nice, dear.” Gloria complimented calmly from his side. The blond woman had caught up with him once again. "Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Perhaps. Although your real name would be nice too.” Dante smirked.

He knew he was pushing it a bit here. If she was sent by the demonic military, it was likely she wasn’t allowed to reveal her true identity to anyone for the sake of keeping things nice and secure; names always meant loose ends, and that was never good for anything covert.

It was a rule that Dante knew better than most (He kinda broke it... pretty often. Had the higher-ups or his dad found out about his first meeting with Lady for example, he no doubt would’ve gotten one hell of a rocket up his ass for how many protocols he’d broken). So the chances that uptight ‘Gloria’ here was gonna spill the beans on…well anything about herself, let alone the similarities to his mother, was unlikely at best.  

It seemed he wasn’t wrong, as Trish’s face turned hard at the suggestion. Looking dead ahead with the stern procession, pretending as though he wasn’t there. Leaving an uncomfortable silence (Not that you couldn’t really call it that though, with all the panicked yelling and commands to ’search the area’ echoing down from a few corridors back) to fall upon them.

But that wasn’t to say there was a glimmer of hope. Every now and then, her lips would twitch almost like she was on the verge of saying something before shutting herself down once again. Until finally, she anxiously glanced over her shoulder and spoke.

“Trish.”

Hot damn! He actually got something out of her! “Trish? Oh like Beatrice-“

“Just Trish.” She insisted firmly. Her fixing her green eyes over to the young man beside her, with an fearsome intensity only Vergil could match. "And your’s?”

Oh. He hadn’t thought that far ahead with this.

Should I tell her? Crap, that was a tough question. Sure in the here and now it would be fine. Perfectly reasonable too since she’d given her own. But, what happened when this mission was over? Trish would most likely have to report back on how this operation went down. Write up some boring essay that Dante normally left Vergil to handle. She’d surely mention he was involved as her ‘back-up’ or something. And that would be fine if she left it vague. There were plenty of grunts like him out there so he’d be pretty anonymous.

But…if he was named. It wouldn’t take long for some clever-clogs back at dispatch to realise he was here unauthorised. Questions would be asked most certainly, and Dante wasn’t sure how well he or Vergil could defend themselves once that started happening. What, being involved in an unauthorised capacity on an operation months in the making, if he went off what Trish said. From there, it could only unravel more and more. The two week absence, Vergil’s little murder tour of the cities’ databanks, Lady, Eva-

What if they already know about Eva?  Stuck the sudden, horrifying thought. Trish thinks she’s a demon. What if they had- No! They can’t have done that!

“I’m risking a lot telling you that, you know?” Trish huffed angrily, brushing hair out of her face rather elegantly. “Going to return the favour or not?”

“Yeah yeah I am..” Dante brushed her off, his voice quivering slight. If.. if they had done what he thought they’d done. There was no point hiding anything anymore.

There was no point to anything.  

“Its.. its Dante”

“Good name.” Trish praised, a faint smile tracing her lips.

“Heard it before then?” He pried, returning with his usual confidant edge. Yet, that couldn’t be anywhere further from the truth in reality. His stomach was a torrent of nervous energy, swishing and swirling in anticipation for what would come as her reply. Honestly not sure if it would be a blessing or a curse if she did recognise him.

“No. It's just an instinct. Nothing grander than that I’m afraid.” Trish professed a little bashful. “Although, rolls off the tongue rather nicely I suppose."

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Dante said, smiling weakly. Perhaps there was something there after all…

All of a sudden, Trish reached an arm across Dante’s chest and pulled him so they were both pressed flat against the wall.

“Hey, what was that for-“

“Shut it.” Trish ordered sternly, voice low. Putting a finger to her lips, before gesturing with her eyes to the end of the corridor.

Dante followed their gaze. In the dull yellow light leaking from around the corner. Two shadows, large and twisted in a way that made their builds indistinguishable, traced their way across the floor. Thankfully it seemed they had already passed by, if Dante guessed from the direction the shadows were moving. Having missed the pair of demons completely by some stroke of luck.

“Think we’re safe. They’re leaving.” Dante whispered, moving to get up, only the flat edge of Trish’s golden blade to be pressed against his chest. Pinning down him in place, unmoving.

“Not so fast.” Trish advised sternly. Carefully observing the shadows’ movements as they danced across the floor. “They’re going to loop back round any minute now."

“Loop back round? Look, their probably just catering staff on the move. Unless they’ve dropped any napkins on the floor that I’ve missed here, they are going to be long gone any minute now-“

“And why exactly would catering staff move in groups of two?” Trish inquired. She had a point. Tonight had taught Dante enough to know he was barking up the wrong tree here. He’d been left to do stuff on his own, actively encouraged in fact. So yeah, for two people to be walking around together with no trolly did seem kinda strange to be honest. “They’re most likely guards on patrol no doubt. My men….the cults' guards have a protocol to move in groups of two. Means if one goes down the other can call for help. I know because I instituted it."

“Geez, thanks for making our lives harder I guess?” Dante joked.

“Oh I try my best~” Trish stated modestly. Removing her sword from his chest and lowering it back down to her side. “May as well make it up to you then, shouldn’t I Dante? I’ll only be a moment."

Sticking close to the wall, Trish swiftly began to make her way down the corridor. Disappearing around the corner moments later in one fluid, deadly movement.

Off she goes killing again. Dante sighed to himself, letting out air he didn’t even realise he was holding in. The relief that he was on his own again striking him in that moment. He was thankful for it. Any more stress, and his strained heart probably was gonna give out young. And let’s just say keeling over from a heart attack, wasn’t exactly on the demon's to-do list tonight.

The young man reclined his head back against the freezing wall. Maybe I should tell her to just keep to non-violent takedowns until we get out of here. Would’ve thought a trail of dead bodies is going to be pretty obvious to follow-

“What the-“ Cried a distinctly familiar, peppy voice. Followed by a surge of bright blue light streaking across the wall from around the corner. The crash of someone collapsing to the ground echoing down the corridor to Dante’s sensitive ears. Alerting him.

That can’t be good! Dante thought, imminently springing into action. Hurriedly sprinting down to check what was going on.

Only to be met at gunpoint by Lady when he rounded the corner.

———–

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[themurphyzone]

Secret Santa Ch 1

Welcome to my first Christmas story in MML! I kind of wanted to do something different and give perspective to Milo’s classmates that have at least had a major supporting role. Well, two of them are fairly minor but I really love writing them anyway. You’ll see what I mean!

I was originally planning to release this story on December 1, but my impatient ass can’t wait any longer. 

Ch 1: Amanda

Amanda was about ready to throw her pen against the wall in frustration. She’d already used up half of the allotted thirty minutes in her schedule for brainstorming ideas for the Secret Santa exchange.

The paper remained devoid of any ideas, apart from a few words that had been neatly scratched out.

It was Lydia’s fault anyway for signing her up without permission. Or Melissa’s. Or both. As far as Amanda was concerned, they were equally suspicious.

What was she even supposed to give Chad? She didn’t know him that well. He was nice enough, but his attempts to prove Mr. Drako was a vampire weirded her out. And he tended to be the first to go down when Murphy’s Law struck.

In other words, he would be the hypothetical first victim in a zombie apocalypse.

Wait….

Vampires. Zombies. The paranormal.

Amanda’s brain whirred to life as she hastily sketched a bubble map. Chad liked to formulate theories and gather evidence to support them. Conspiracy theories, weird happenings, spooky stuff.

Maybe she could take a page out of his book and collect her own evidence on what he liked.

Her timer went off, and she stored the bubble map in her school folder for later. At least the history worksheet she needed to finish didn’t cause any stress.

“You are not going up to Chad and asking him for a gift idea,” Lydia said, shaking her head in disapproval. “Kinda kills the point of being a Secret Santa.”

“I’m not going to ask him what he wants outright!” Amanda complained. “All I did was dedicate four to six minutes to having a conversation where I subtly lead him into stating his interests! I made a bubble map, Lydia! I am not letting those fifteen minutes go to waste!”

Lydia blinked. “You made a bubble map. For a gift exchange.”

“Yes,” Amanda said. “I wrote down a main idea and added supporting details. I would’ve added color, but I ran out of time.”

“I know what a bubble map is,” Lydia sighed. “It’s just not gonna help me. I think I got the worst recipient of all. Are you sure you don’t want to switch with me? Nobody needs to know!”

She leaned over Amanda’s desk, grinning excitedly. Amanda edged back in her seat, keeping Lydia at arm’s length. “I don’t like doing things spontaneously. Sorry.”

Lydia groaned, backing off so Amanda could have her personal space again. “Okay. FYI, I’m probably procrastinating on this like everything else that doesn’t involve theater club.”

“Procrastinating on important things is just going to-“

“-increase anxiety and throw you down a well of endless despair,” Lydia finished. “I heard the spiel before. Like, fifty-three times now.”

Amanda allowed herself a small smile. “I didn’t know you were keeping track.”

Lydia shrugged. “I have a tally chart.”

“And you were getting on my case about the bubble map?” Amanda giggled.

Before Lydia could reply, Chad entered the classroom behind Milo and his friends. “We’ll finish this conversation some other time,” she whispered, scrambling out of the way before she could be a target within the splatter zone.

“I’m telling you, Mr. Drako doesn’t have a reflection in the mirror!” Chad exclaimed loudly. “How else do you explain the Hall of Mirrors incident at the school fair?”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “He didn’t have a reflection because the school couldn’t afford to supply the mirrors and substituted plastic wrapping instead?”

“I remember that!” Milo said. “Remember when Zack and I were wrapped in the plastic like a double burrito?”

Zack groaned. “Do you have to remind me?”

“Yes,” Melissa replied.

Amanda caught Milo’s eye, and he quickly looked away, his face slightly red. That was…odd. Usually he didn’t pass up a chance to greet her.

She mentally filed ‘wonder what’s up with Milo’ under lunchtime. She had a goal, and she needed to seize this perfect opportunity.

“Chad, how exactly do you know so much about vampires that you’d accuse one of the nicest teachers in the school of being one?” Amanda asked. Everyone stared at her.

Amanda wanted to curl up in the back of the school closet and waste away in the darkness among all the cobwebs and dust bunnies. Did that sound accusatory? That totally sounded less accusatory in her head.

“Easy. My vampire blog requires a lot of research into vampire lore.” Chad replied. “You know, traditional ones like Dracula to more modern portrayals. That sort of thing.”

“Now that sounds like something I have to follow!” Milo exclaimed, pulling out his phone. “What’s the name?”

“Transylvaniaterrors.com,” Chad said. “It’s a forum dedicated to everything paranormal. My blog is-“

Milo held up a hand. “Could you write that on a piece of paper? Sorry, my wi-fi cut out.”

“I’m not getting a signal either,” Melissa said, checking her phone.

Screams erupted from the hallway, followed by the sound of stampeding feet. Melissa shoved Zack in the direction of the door. Zack glared at her, carefully opening the door by a hair.

He shut it again after a few seconds.

“They’re panicking over the wi-fi,” Zack said as he pushed his back against the door as several loud thuds echoed from it. “Gonna need a blockade over here!”

Milo, Chad, and Lydia quickly pushed the teacher’s desk in front of the door. Amanda opened the window, preparing the escape route in case the desk plan didn’t work.

Thankfully, the desk held the door in place just fine.

Unfortunately, third period would probably be delayed for a while. Hopefully the situation didn’t extend into fourth period.

Amanda collapsed on her bed, exhausted. The wi-fi hadn’t come back until the last twenty minutes of the school day, which rendered her Wednesday schedule obsolete. She grabbed a nearby planner and a blue pen, too wiped to properly color-code the box.

She scribbled in ‘Expect Principal Milder to go on a five to seven minute lecture about rampaging in the school hallway during announcements’ under Thursday.

She would think about Chad’s present on Friday once she gave herself enough time to recover from a messed up schedule.

Her inspiration came the next day, when a cabinet in Mr. Drako’s classroom almost fell on top of Chad, revealing dozens of vampire teeth.

Everyone in the class looked at Mr. Drako for an explanation. He shrugged. “My ex-wife worked at an arcade and had a lot of these fake vampire teeth lying around. They’re actually pretty good things to toss into children’s Halloween baskets. Glow in the dark too!”

“I think I’m turning! I’m sorry guys! Tell my turtles I love them! The sun is slowly sucking away at my being!” Chad hissed.

Melissa leaned over and plucked one off his shoulder. “Chad, you’re not a vampire,” she said, shaking her head.

Chad slowly opened his eyes. “I’m not?”

Zack held his phone. “Chad, do you see yourself in the camera?”

His eyes widened. “Stop making me feel better! The undead is my realm now!”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Tilt the camera down. It’s pointed to the ceiling. There. I see you. You are not a vampire. Can we get back to the lesson now?”

Chad sighed in relief.

While Mr. Drako flipped through his slides to figure out where they’d left off, Amanda took the opportunity to write ‘go to discount bookstore’ in the Saturday afternoon slot.

Unfortunately, Lydia’s idea of helping Amanda decide on a book turned out to be making her read the summaries of YA vampire novels and choose one. While they were all within her price range, she doubted Chad would be interested in poorly written romance.

Besides, she figured he was more into the lore.

“Early Evening?” Lydia suggested, holding up a thick book with a black cover. “Maybe not. The prose really isn’t for everyone.”

Amanda wrinkled her nose. “Definitely not pile.”

“That’s the only pile we have so far,” Lydia sighed, setting Early Evening on top of a stack of five books.

Amanda groaned, regretting not doing any research into vampire books beforehand. “We’re doing it my way now,” she said. “We’ll just put everything on the cart and see if there’s a mythology or paranormal section.”

It took two minutes for Amanda to organize the books in an order that satisfied her. Lydia leaned against the table with her elbow, checking her phone.

“Need help with your gift?” Amanda asked, setting the books into the cart.

“No!” Lydia exclaimed. “I don’t need help! I totally have ideas and I have every intention on following through on at least one of them!”

Amanda raised an eyebrow. “Whose name did you draw anyway?”

“Bradley! I drew Bradley of all people!” Lydia hissed. “He’s going to hate what I get him.”

“I don’t think he will,” Amanda said.

“He hates everything that isn’t a bolted self-serve ice cream machine or people who aren’t named Melissa,” Lydia complained.

Amanda shrugged. “Okay, we’ll figure yours out after this. Just help me find a book for now.”

The paranormal section was two aisles over from the YA novels, and appeared a lot more promising to Amanda.

After five minutes, she selected a rather compact book that held information about vampires and similar creatures from different cultures around the world. “Good choice,” Lydia grinned. “Chad’s definitely gonna love it. Unlike Bradley anyway.”

Amanda nodded. “I hope so. And if he doesn’t like the book, at least he’ll be nice about it.”

“And now you’re just rubbing it in.”