#we had to enjoy the Solomon spotlight while it lasted it was probably the last…

[yourlocalgrass]

I looked at the trailer again since I slept through it last time (until the last part) but looking back

WE’RE BACK TO FELLOW EXCHANGE STUDENT??

WHAT HAPPENED TO ADORABLE APPRENTICE???

[jonbinary-archive]

Sees you have headcanons for gender in the devildom/celestial relm. My eyes do the anime glasses thing dispite not wearing glasses.

GO ON

-videogamereference

YES YES thank you for asking abt this uhhh i have been dying to post something about it but i wasn't sure if other people would be interested ? since it's fairly niche but uhh apparently you would >.>

under the cut so as not to utterly flood people's dashes with my ramblings but! click if you'd like some unnecessarily in-depth discussion of 1) how the different realms in obey me deal with gender/gender identity and 2) my personal gender headcanons for the obey me characters. this is mostly pieced together from one night when i went all pepe silvia in discord but hopefully its now somewhat digestible. thanks for your patience! 

ok so first of all: all three realms interpret and approach gender differently. i don’t think any of them are inherently wrong or bad, it’s just unique ways of viewing the same concept. i prefer the devildom way of looking at it but to each their own :] it maybe goes w/o saying but trans people are supported in every realm, no matter how they view gender !

GENDER IN: THE HUMAN REALM

obviously, the human realm in the om! universe views gender pretty similarly to how our world does. this is sort of like our baseline, where humans generally view gender on a male/female binary. (tho i do like to think that this version of earth is more welcoming to nonbinary and trans people, just cuz i do like a bit of escapism <3)

ultimately gender in the human realm is the most simplified version we will see. i actually have a small headcanon that MC, regardless of gender, is referred to with they/them because this simple gender structure doesn’t translate over well to the other realms

GENDER IN: THE CELESTIAL REALM

with that in mind, we can talk about how the celestial realm views gender. this gets into the whole ‘what is the gender of angels/god’ which is probably outside my expertise to talk about, but i will anyway! 

the celestial realm views gender as, ultimately, unimportant. what matters about a person is who they are, like one’s willingness to help others. most of the angels present masculine and use he/him, as in the image of their Father. there are some who choose to use she or they or present feminine (or any combo of pronouns/presentation), but they arent necessarily ‘boy’ angels and ‘girl’ angels. 

it’s basically like this:

so what are you?

i’m an angel!

no, i mean, what’s your gender?

i’m a messenger of our Father

ugh, that’s not what i meant. what’s in your pants?

oh, so that’s where my halo went!

transitioning, for lack of a better term here, is pretty rare in the celestial realm, but it does happen occasionally. michael will update the records with their new name if they so choose, and celebrations are thrown heavenwide in honor of the angel!

GENDER IN: THE DEVILDOM

now, on the flip side, the devildom almost...reveres gender? since they’re the polar opposite of the celestial realm, demons tend to hold gender up into the spotlight instead of rejecting it. this is why we see so many demons presenting as men but having feminine aspects (like asmodeus wearing pink off the shoulder tops or the demons’ painted nails). 

for angels who Fall, this difference can be very jarring and hard to deal with when they become demons. expression is important in demon culture! while angels see all others as made in their Father’s image, demons emphasize the things that make them different from one another. fluidity of identity is particularly celebrated!

~

GENDER HEADCANONS: BROTHERS

now here’s the fun part, which is how i interpret these characters! feel free to let me know your own headcanons, i love seeing how others view the same characters :] 

LUCIFER: sure, he’s a demon now, but he still somewhat aligns with the celestial view of gender. to him, a person’s character is much more important than how they label themself. he’s just...lucifer. (agender man, he/him) 

MAMMON: has always considered himself a man! one of the rare instances of someone transitioning in the celestial realm. lucifer helped him pick his name :] (trans man, he/him)

LEVIATHAN: levi my beloved <3 ive shared some headcanons on levi’s gender in this post, as well as in the tags of this post. i think he really likes the freedom of demonic gender identity, and is very fluid (genderfluid, he/she/they/it)

SATAN: looooves fucking with gender, particularly if it irritates lucifer. he’s read a ton of gender theory and would love to have discussions about human gender with MC if they want. feels a connection to masculinity, but not to actually being a man (transmasculine, he/they)

ASMODEUS: loves fucking with gender even more than satan does. had gender with your mom last night ;) super gender non conforming, though most of the time you can’t even figure out what gender he is! basically the definition of ‘gender is a performance’ (nonbinary, he/she)

BEELZEBUB: probably doesn’t think too much about his gender. he was told he was a man so he just kind of goes with it. it’s really important to him to align with a healthy form of masculinity! doesn’t seek out pronouns beyond he/him, but wouldn’t mind she/her or they/them (nonbinary man, pronoun indifferent)

BELPHEGOR: similarly to beel, probably doesn’t think too much about his gender. he knows he enjoys being a brother and a twin, but doesn’t care much beyond that. he used to ascribe pretty heavily to celestial gender theory, but after Falling he’s shifted from gender apathy to like. seeing that feeling as his gender identity itself (agender man, he/him)

GENDER HEADCANONS: SIDE CHARACTERS

DIAVOLO: literally just a guy. like hes just a dude but in a slightly fucked up demon way (nonbinary man, he/him) 

BARBATOS: literally look me in the eyes and tell me this dude isn’t a he/they.  he’s not a man, he’s a butler (agender, he/they)

SIMEON: really subscribes to the celestial view of gender/believes that who you are in other people’s eyes is just as important as who you are in your own! doesn’t really identify w gender in any way since angels don’t technically have a binary to deviate from, but in human terms he is (nonbinary, mainly he/him but she/her ok too)

LUKE: also transitioned in the celestial realm! the brothers tease him, but if anybody misgenders the chihuahua, they should be prepared to eat shit (trans boy, he/him)

SOLOMON: started out as a sorcerer while trying to alchemize testosterone. he’s been living as a man so long that sometimes he forgets he’s trans in the first place (trans man, mainly he/him and occasionally they/them)

[mammonshuman92]

- Sapphire - Pt. 2

(Mammon x MC)

part one | part three |

NOTE: F!MC

“Warm skin, the color of caramel, electricity felt in the slightest of touches.

Hair born of the winter, soft as the Heavens from where it once reigned.

Completely enamored by this creature, I would also happily fall from grace.”

Hair born of winter? Fall from grace? Tan skin?

Wait. That sounds like..

Realization hit him like a truck.

“..It’s about me..” He whispered, barely audible even to himself.

His chest felt like it was going to explode. His stomach so full of butterflies he felt nauseous.

He couldn’t believe it..

--

“Hey, great job out there kid. The crowd really liked you.” The man who had been the emcee for the open mic night was shuffling around backstage, putting away equipment and cleaning up. “We do this on the 2nd Thursday every month, if you’re interested.” 

“Thanks! I’d love to.” You were beaming.

Being out there, under the spotlight, reciting your work that you had poured your heart into, full of all the emotion you had to keep to yourself, was so empowering. You were on top of the world.

You thanked the man again and made your way to the exit. Just outside the door, a rather attractive demon was perched against the wall. Upon seeing you, he smiled and left his place on the wall, coming toward you.

He looks kind of familiar. Does he go to RAD?

Never having seen him outside of a RAD uniform before, you quickly pieced together that the guy was in your Devildom History class. From the few interactions you’d had with him in class, you knew he was pretty nice and also enjoyed poetry. The two of you talked and laughed for a few minutes.

“Next time you gotta tell your boyfriend to get here earlier so he can get a better seat.” He said.

Boyfriend?

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” You said, lightly shaking your head.

“Oh”, his eyebrows scrunched, “Well, the two of you are always together at RAD so I just assumed..”

Oh God..

No.

This isn’t happening.

You tried to keep your cool, but it was too late. The color drained from your face. The back of your neck felt cold and prickly. You felt sick.

Mammon was here. He heard ..everything.

“Anyway, he left right after you got off stage. He looked kinda mad.” The guy said.

...Mad? 

Oh God. My stupid poem freaked him out! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who I was referring to. He’s probably grossed out that a human has a crush on him.

What were you thinking?

--

After you had finished reading and walked off stage, Mammon immediately stood up and went outside. He needed air. Hearing the words you were saying caused his eyes to prick with tears.

There’s no way. I’m getting somethin’ confused somewhere. Have to be.

Once outside, the cool air hit his face and he took some deep breaths, on the verge of panic.

“There’s no way that was about me.” He kept whispering to himself.

Why would you write something like THAT about him? He’s just a scumbag after all.

Yeah, just a scumbag. Don’t get your hopes up.

His face fell. In the brief moment he got to believe that you loved him, he’d never been happier.

If it wasn’t about him, who was it about? The description was uncanny, and not many demons look like him. Not that you know, anyway.

As the questions swirled around his brain, he saw you walk outside the coffee shop. Before he could react, he saw a demon who was waiting outside the exit, strike up a conversation with you.

Who’s that? Does she know him?

Mammon stepped behind a magazine stand trying to hide, but still watch your interaction with the unknown demon. You’d been in the Devildom long enough to travel close to home without being messed with, but it still made him nervous. He kept his eyes fixed on the two of you.

He watched as you chatted and laughed with the good looking demon, growing more jealous and hurt by the second. Unable to watch anymore, he stormed off in the direction of the House of Lamentation.

“Maybe she does have a boyfriend. She seemed to know that guy pretty good.” He scoffed.

He wasn’t mad at you, he couldn’t be. He was mad at himself. Maybe if he had told you how he felt you wouldn’t have been chatting it up with that pretty boy. 

But what about the poem? That’s gotta mean somethin’ right?

When he got back to the house, he went straight to his room and slammed the door, nearly running Asmo over in the process.

“Hey! Rude.” Asmo called after him.

He didn’t care at the moment. He just needed to be alone. The weight of it all was too much.

As quickly as his love for you was reciprocated, it was ripped away. This time, he didn’t try to hold back the tears.

--

Shit, shit, shit! What now?!

You cursed yourself the entire way home. How are you supposed to just walk in nonchalantly like Mammon didn’t just hear you confess your entire soul? Not to mention  the fact he apparently looked mad.

Ugh. I wonder is Solomon knows a spell that’ll open up the Earth and swallow me whole?

You quietly walked up the front steps to the House of Lamentation and opened the door slowly. Peaking in to see if anyone was around, thankfully not, you carefully made your way inside.

If I can just make it to my room, I’ll be fine.

You crept up the stairs and down the hall. The coast was clear.

Once you got close enough you ran inside your room, shutting the door quickly behind and for the first time since right after moving in, you locked your door.

Usually the brothers come and go out of room, which you don’t mind but tonight you just wanted to be alone.

You dropped your bag on the floor with a hard thud, and sank down to the floor, burying your face in your hands.

How could you be so careless? You should’ve known one of them would figure out where you were. I just wish it hadn’t been THAT one.

*knock knock knock*

The light tapping on the door made you jump put of your skin. Your hands flew to your mouth to stifle the small yelp you let out.

Just stay quiet. Whoever it is will go away.

“MC? It’s me. I know you’re in there.”

It’s just Asmo.

With a sigh of relief, you stood to unlock the door and let Asmo in, quickly shutting the door behind him. He made a face at your strange behavior.

“Hello to you too. And was your door locked? What’s that about?” He almost sounded offended, turning to face you.

“So, what happened?” He asked.

You were a little caught off guard but tried to play it cool.

“What do you mean?”

He perched himself on the edge of your bed.

“Well, this afternoon when I got home from shopping Mammon asked me where you were, seeing as you told him you were going with me. Then, he came home just a little while ago, visibly upset. He nearly ran me over on his way to his room.” He explained.

Crap! Had I let Asmo in on my lie about going shopping with him, I probably could’ve avoided this entire fiasco.

“He was mad?” You asked, voice getting quiet.

Asmo nodded, “Very.” He replied.

That made your heart hurt.

I’ve really done it this time.

--

Avoiding Mammon was going to be hard. The two of you practically did everything together. Did you really have a choice though? You can’t face him right now.

Breakfast was the easiest. Mammon is always late, so all you had to do was wake up early. 

Beel is usually the first one to breakfast, so I can ask him if he’d walk with me to RAD. I’ll study with Satan as usual, and I can spend more time with Levi and hide out in his room or nap with Belphie.

This sucks.

It’s not that you don’t enjoy the time you spend with the other brothers, because of course you do, but you miss your best friend.

The walk to RAD with Beel was quiet. He could tell that you were sad, and didn’t want to make you talk if you didn’t want to. Before you went your separate ways to your classes, he gave you one of his big squeezy, pick-you-up-off-the-ground hugs. It made you feel a bit better. How could it not? It’s Beel.

--

The day went rather smoothly, not once bumping into Mammon. Come to thin of it, you hadn’t seen him at all today.

Maybe he skipped? You thought.

The thought made you breathe a little easier, considering your last class of the day is Devildom History, which is one of the few classes the two of you have together.

You sat in your usual seat, and looked at the empty one next to you that Mammon usually sat in. Your heart started to hurt again.

Trying to distract yourself, you started going over your notes for the upcoming test. When the seat next to you scooted out, your heart stopped beating.

Oh my God! Just stay calm. Don’t freak out. Breathe, dumbass. You chanted to yourself.

“Hey.” he said, as he sat down. You looked up at the demon next to you.

It’s the guy from the coffee shop.

Phew! That was close. Your heart rate started to return to normal.

“Hi.” You replied with a faint smile.

As students kept filing into class, the two of you talked back and forth about the upcoming test  and other school related topics. He seems like a pretty nice guy. Why was he sitting next to you though? Surely he knows who always sits there. Although, it was nice to have someone to talk about poetry with.

Just then, as the bell rang loudly signaling the beginning of class, someone came running through the door.

Mammon.

Shit! I thought he wasn’t here today!

Cue heart rate acceleration.

Mammon looked at you, and the occupied seat next toy you. His seat.

His face distorted.

You kept your head down trying to avoid eye contact. The guy next to you, I think he said his name was Ezra? I don’t even remember, stiffened at Mammon’s reaction to seeing him in his seat.

Mammon made his way to the back of the class to the only empty seat near a bunch of succubi. Their expressions lit up when he sat down. That made your heart hurt.

Their reaction to just sitting near him, just proved how insane you were for thinking he could ever have feelings for a human.

The class seemed to drag on forever. You couldn’t wait to get far away from there.

I’m definitely texting Solomon about that “Earth opening” spell.

--

When the bell signaling the end of class finally rang, you hurriedly made your escape.

I gotta get out of here, and fast before he can catch up.

With zero hesitation, you walked as fast as you could, nearly jogging, to the House of Lamentation. If you could just get to your room again without being stopped, you were in the clear.

Plowing through the front door and running up the stairs, you made it to your room without being discovered. It looked as though you were the first one home.

You opened your bedroom door, and stepped inside feeling accomplished. Before you could turn and shut the door, it was slammed shut.

You jumped and screamed as though the murderer you were trying to outrun had finally caught up to you.

You turned to see that it was Mammon who had slammed the door.

You would’ve rather it had been the murderer.

| part three |

[gavillain]

So with the year about to close, I'm once again doing my annual Top Ten Villains of This Year list. My personal rule for doing this: these characters are judged solely on the merits of their 2017 appearances, and I'm not going to include any villain who has appeared on last year's list (which you can read here), even if they would still make the cut. So, basically, what I'm saying is no Cersei this year even though she was awesome XD Also bear in mind that this is only from media that I actually did this year, so forgive me if your favorite isn't here because I might not have seen them.

List under the cut

10. Mr. Yama (Big Hero 6)

The Big Hero 6 TV show pilot has promised probably the best Disney animated series in a long time, particularly given the return of Kim Possible and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command showrunners McCorkle and Schooley. Mr. Yama was a bit part in the original film who I never thought much of, so imagine my surprise when he came back as the starter villain of the show and was not only enjoyable but was memorable. I like how they took a bit part that was already established and used him as a way to introduce their unseen show original bigger bad. I've always been a sucker for crimebosses, so seeing Yama take on that role as the local gang leader who you don't want to fuck with was pretty cool. Also I thought he served a really nice balance between funny and intimidating. I really look forward to seeing what else this show has to offer!9. Jim Moriarty (Sherlock)

While the ultimate reveal that Moriarty was not, in fact, back from the dead was certainly a disappointment to me, damn if the new Moriarty content we got wasn't worth it. The main villain of this series was actually Eurus Holmes, Mycroft and Sherlock's mentally unstable sister, who set up an elaborate plan with Moriarty before his death. Eurus is cool too, but not really one who appeals to me that much. The big draw to the episode, in my opinion, was Moriarty's posthumous vengeance. Seeing him still flawlessly portrayed by Andrew Scott having the time of his life through flashbacks and video messages, Moriarty is still easily the most fun villain to watch on the show, and he hasn't lost a single beat. The way he's come to be sort of the devil on Sherlock's shoulder and a symbol of all evil in Sherlock's world has given him a sort of twisted immortality. Also, it must be said, him dramatically stepping out of the helicopter dancing to "I Want to Break Free" is nothing sort of AWESOME XD8. Euron Greyjoy (Game of Thrones)

Euron Greyjoy's transition from being a disappointing and uninteresting character to being a fabulous scene stealer btween seasons was one of the biggest hallmarks of the improvement in quality between season six and seven. He was definitely underused in the season, given his lower position on this list, but the way he confidently strutted up to Queen Cersei and started making innuendos and proposing mutual murdering is exactly the type of horrible person that I can get behind. The way he revels in bloodshed and totally decimated Yara and the Sand Snakes' forces and then paraded them through King's Landing as the triumphant "hero" was just wonderful. His actor has also definitely improved, becoming a lot more charismatic and unhinged in his portrayal, which not only made him more entertaining, but, in a way, more threatening. I love his alliance with Cersei, and I really look forward to seeing what those two cook up next season.7. Madame Hydra (Agents of SHIELD)

This was a great year for Marvel villains any way you slice it, with a couple more still yet to appear on this list. However, none have quite been as topical as the MCU's adaptation of Madame Hydra over in Agents of SHIELD. Madame Hydra is the alter ego of Aida in the virtual reality alternate universe of the Framework, which depicts a world totally conquered by Hydra. Marvel's gotten themselves into trouble lately with its use of Hydra, but this was a really good place for it. Depicting a totally dismal totalitarian state that the heroes have to fight to dismantle, showing the way Hydra pushes "alternative facts" through their "fake news" to push their agenda of "make the world great again." Yeah, as you can tell, this season goes hard in slamming the Trump administration and equating them with Hydra which the show goes out of its way to say "Hydra is a bunch of Nazis, every last one of them." It's pretty much exactly the type of heavy handed metaphor we needed right now, and Madame Hydra is at the head of it all with her cold ruthlessness and picture perfect page to screen transition. 6. Arthur Watts (RWBY)

RWBY has villain problems. There's no real way around it. And while Watts does have some of the issues that are endemic to the series, he's also been pretty consistently the element that I most look forward to seeing in a given episode of RWBY. With his posh and snarky personality constantly making him an entertaining addition to any given scene, he really reminds of that type of classic Disney villain mold we haven't seen in a while. This is a guy who would not at all be out of his element standing next to the likes of Jafar or Dr. Facilier, and that's high praise coming from me. The way he's manipulating and holding the leash on Professor Lionheart is really cool, and his sort of scientific inquisitiveness makes him stand out from the other villains quite nicely. He's the type of villain who gives me faith that investing in a series like RWBY isn't a waste of time, and I really look forward to see what they continue to do with him. Also, it must be said, his mustache game is too top tier to ignore.5. Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)

Well this was a pleasant surprise, wasn't it? An MCU movie villain who was actually one of the best parts of her given film. Ragnarok actually had several villains it, featuring a surprisingly fun version of Surtur, the hilarious Grandmaster, the conflicted Skurge, and the ever unpredictable Loki. Yet, Hela definitely stands tall as the best among all of them, in my opinion. Cate Blanchett does a great job with her, giving her a very Maleficent-esque persona that I had a lot of fun with. I really liked the undercurrents of colonial imperialism with her, and how Hela was bent on being unapologetically proud of Asgard's bloody history and continuing to subjugate "lesser" worlds. That's a neat and fresh angle to take the archetype of the power hungry villain. Also, damn was she impressive. With her power to make blades appear out of nowhere and how she was basically indestructible on Asgard, she was easily the most powerful feeling MCU villain yet. She just lends herself incredibly to almost every facet she was here to provide, and that easily warrants a place among the best villains of 2017 and the best of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.4. Uma and Harry (Descendants 2)

Descendants 2 was a let down overall, but the one element that exceeded all of my expectations were the new Villain Kids, especially Uma and Harry. Uma's great as a young and ambitious up and comer who wants all of the luxuries she was denied by basically being charged with the sins of her mother all while also wanting the recognition and adoration that she craves. Harry's great as a total psychopath who creates sexual tension with everyone he comes into contact with but doesn't really have any ambitions or the brains to make it on his own. Together, they make a fun duo with an interesting dynamic that seems to harken back to that sort of Lost Boys mother longing. I like their repartee a lot, their actors are absolutely phenomenal, and their villain song is really REALLY catchy. They have similarities to their parents, but they're not carbon copies by any means. Though I did really enjoy how Uma used Ursula's seashell hypnosis scheme on Prince Ben for the climax and then later on went full out giant octopus for the final battle. That was really cool. It must also be said, the whole pirate motif really tickles my fancy too.3. The Riddler (Gotham)

Gotham actually had a lot of great villains in 2017, as they always do. The heart of the show has always consistently been Penguin and Nygma, and while Penguin was great this year, Nygma was the MVP. He’s been on a dark path ever since his first murder back in season one, but this year fully saw him embrace his destiny as The Riddler - fancy green suit, ridiculous name, gimmicks and all. It was great to see him finally embrace the title in "How the Riddler Got His Name," and, while it was heartbreaking to watch, his betrayal of Penguin really allowed him to step out of Penguin's shadow and into his own spotlight. I particularly love his penchant for doing things as melodramatically as possible, with him actually murdering a man on stage in a play where he sent out his message to the elites of Gotham. He's so extra and flamboyant in everything that he does that it's just a treat to watch. And while I'm not caught up on Season Four right now, what I have seen of him manipulating Solomon Grundy has been really enjoyable too, showing off how even when he's lost his evil genius, he's still smart in the way that he can manipulate and play others to get what he wants. 2. Rita Repulsa (Power Rangers)

It's been a good year for green villains, apparently. I was as skeptical as anyone with the live action Power Rangers movie, but it ended up being one of the best films I watched this year. Elizabeth Banks plays Rita Repulsa and is having the time of her life up there. She's not quite as hammy as OG Rita, but she gets about as close as a semi-serious movie will allow. I like the added backstory to her feeling like an outsider of the original Power Rangers team and her having been their green ranger. He design as a sort of jagged perversion of the Rangers' uniform is a neat design aesthetic, and it looks really friggin' cool. I like how she does feel like an ancient and powerful witch who has come to really make us all feel the hurt. The scene in Trini's bedroom is pretty chilling, and the fact that she does manage to kill one of the Rangers (albeit temporarily) really makes her dangerousness feel genuine. She's also got some great comedic moments given that the macguffin she's after is buried underneath a Krispy Kreme and just hearing this powerful ancient witch trying to find Krispy Kreme of all places is exactly the type if ridiculousness I'm here for. 1. Daken (Iceman)

A lot of long term Daken fans were not happy about his portrayal in Iceman. I am not one of them. At all. I loved seeing him back in fully swagalicious glory on the pages of one of the best comic runs that I've read in a long time. His chemistry with Bobby is perfect, and I loved how much Daken was flirting with him while Bobby was having absolutely none of it. I love how the first encounter with him is in a super swanky club with him rocking designer formal wear even amidst the battle against Bobby. And despite how controversial it is, I like his whole dynamic with Zach. I like how it shows exactly the type of manipulative hypocrite he is, and how he can also be extremely petty and trivial in his desire for what he wants with sending Zach to steal an ordinary ring that catches his eye. And I'm really looking forward to the next few upcoming issues where we'll see the payoff to Daken's scheme that he's been setting up, which promises to be really interesting. As someone for whom the antihero Daken stuff that's been going on in All-New Wolverine just hasn't done it for me, it's nice to see him have his proverbial villain claws back in this run. Also, while it doesn't really count for this list's purposes, despite the fact that I've been a long time Daken fan and reader of his self-titled series, this year was finally the year where I got to fill in my gaps in his history and see the full picture for really the first time, which allowed him to climb all the way into my top favorite villains of all time. So it's been a big year for me and Daken, and I think he easily warrants my position as the best villain of 2017.

[theinvinciblenoob]

PagerDuty, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company that sends companies information about their technology, doesn’t receive a fraction of the press that other fast-growing enterprise software companies receive. In fact, though it counts as customers heavyweight companies like Capital One, Spotify and Netflix; it employs 500 employees; and it has five offices around the world, it has largely operated out of the spotlight.

That’s changing. For one thing, the company is now a so-called unicorn, after raising $90 million in a September round led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price that brought its total funding to $173 million and its valuation to $1.3 billion. Crowded as the unicorn club may be these days, that number, and those backers, makes PagerDuty a startup of interest to a broader circle of industry watchers.

Another reason you’re likely to start hearing more about PagerDuty is its CEO of three years, Jennifer Tejada, who is rare in the world of enterprise startups because of her gender, but whose marketing background makes her even more of an anomaly — and an asset.

In a world that’s going digital fast, Tejada knows PagerDuty can appeal to a far wider array of customers by selling them a product they can understand.

It’s a trick she first learned at Proctor & Gamble, where she spent seven years after graduating from the University of Michigan with both a liberal arts and a business management degree. In fact, in her first tech job out of P&G, working for the bubble-era supply chain management startup I2 Technologies (it went public and was later acquired), Tejada says she became “director of dumb it down.”

Sitting in PagerDuty’s expansive second floor office space in San Francisco — space that the company will soon double by taking over the first floor — Tejada recalls acting “like a filter for very technical people who were very proud of the IP they’d created” but who couldn’t explain it to anyone without relying on jargon. “I was like, ‘How are you going to get someone to pay you $2 million for that?’”

Tejada found herself increasingly distilling the tech into plain English, so the businesspeople who have to sign big checks and “bet their careers on these investments” could understand what they were being pitched. She’s instilling that same ethos at PagerDuty, which was founded in 2009 to help businesses monitor their tech stacks, manage disruptions and alert engineers before things catch on fire but, under Tejada’s watch, is evolving into a service that flags opportunities for its customers, too.

As she tells it, the company’s technology doesn’t just give customers insights into their service ecosystem and their teams’ health, and it doesn’t just find other useful kernels, like about which operations teams are the most productive and why. PagerDuty is also helping its clients become proactive. The idea, she says, is that “if you see traffic spiking on a website, you can orchestrate a team of content marketers or growth hackers and get them in that traffic stream right then, instead of reading about it in a demand-gen report a week later, where you’re, like, ‘Great, we totally missed that opportunity.’”

The example is a bit analogous to what Tejada herself brings to the table, which includes strong people skills (she’s very funny) and a knack for understanding what consumers want to hear, but also a deep understanding of financing and enterprise software.

As corny as it sounds, Tejada seems to have been working toward her current career her whole life.

Not that, like the rest of us, she knew exactly what she was doing at all times. On the contrary, one part of her path started when, after spending four years as the VP of global marketing for I2 — four years during which the dot-com bubble expanded wildly, then popped — Tejada quit her job, went home for the holidays and, while her baffled family looked on, booked a round-trip ticket to Australia to get away and learn about yachts.

She left the experience not only with her skipper certification but in a relationship with her now-husband of 16 years, an Australian with whom she settled in Sydney for roughly 12 years.

There, she worked for a private equity firm, then joined Telecom New Zealand as its chief marketing officer for a couple of years, then landed soon after at an enterprise software company that catered to asset-intensive industries, including mining, as its chief strategy officer. When that private-equity backed company was sold, Tejada took a breath, then was recruited to lead, for the first time, another company: Keynote Systems, a publicly traded internet and mobile cloud testing and monitoring company that she steered to a sale to the private equity firm Thomas Bravo a couple of years later.

The move gave her an opportunity to spend time with her now teenage daughter and husband, but she also didn’t have a job for the first time in many years, and Tejada seems to like work. Indeed, within one year, after talking with investors who’d gotten to know her over the years, as well as eager recruiters, Tejada —  who says she is “not a founder but a great adoptive parent” — settled on the 50th of 51 companies she was asked to consider joining. It was PagerDuty.

She has been overseeing wild growth ever since. The company now counts more than half of the Fortune 50 as its customers. It has also doubled its headcount a couple of times since she joined roughly 28 months ago, and many of its employees (upwards of 43 percent) are now women, as well as engineers from more diverse backgrounds than you might see at a typical Silicon Valley startup.

That’s no accident. Diversity breeds diversity, in Tejada’s view, and diversity is good for business.

“I wouldn’t say we market to women,” offers Tejada, who says diversity to her is not just about gender but also age and ethnic background and lifestyle choice and location and upbringing (and functional expertise).

“We’ve made a conscious effort to build an inclusive culture where all kinds of people want to work. And you send that message out into the market, there’s a lot of people who hear it and wonder if it could possibly be true. And then they come to a PagerDuty event, or they come into the office, and they see something different than they’ve seen before. They see people they can relate to.”

Why does it matter when it comes to writing code? For one thing, because a big part of coding is problem-solving, says Tejada. “When you have people from diverse backgrounds chunking through a big hairy problem together, those different perspectives will get you to a more insightful answer.” Tejada also believes there’s too much bias in application development and user experience. “There’s a lot of gobbledygook in our app that lots of developers totally understand but that isn’t accessible to everyone — men, women, different functional types of users, people of a different age. Like, how accessible is our mobile app to someone who’s not a native-first mobile user, who started out on an analog phone, moved to a giant desktop, then to a laptop and is now using a phone? You have to think about the accessibility of your design in that regard, too.”

What about the design of PagerDuty’s funding? We ask Tejada about the money PagerDuty raised a couple of months ago, and what it means for the company.

Unsurprisingly, as to whether the company plans to go public any time soon, her answers are variously, “I’m just building an enduring company,” and, “We’re still enjoying the benefits of being a private company.”

But Tejada also seems mindful of not raising more money for PagerDuty than it needs to scale, even while there’s an ocean of capital surrounding it.

“Going back to the early ’90s, in my career I have not seen a market where there has been more ready availability to capital, between tax reforms and sovereign cash and big corporates and low interest rates and huge venture funds, not to mention the increased willingness of big institutional investors to become LPs.” But even while the “underlying drivers and secular trends and leading indicators” suggest a healthy market for SaaS technology for a long time to come, that “doesn’t mean the labor markets are going to stay the same. It doesn’t mean the geopolitical environments are not going to change. When you let the scarcity issue in the market drive your valuation, you’re also responsible for growing into that valuation, no matter what happens in the macro environment.”

Where Tejada doesn’t necessarily want to be so measured is when it comes to PagerDuty’s place in its market. And that can be challenging as the company gains more traction — and more attention.

“If you do the right thing for your customers, and you do the right thing by your employees, all the rest will fall into place,” she says. “But the minute you take your eye off the ball, the minute you don’t earn the trust of your customer every day, the minute you stop innovating in service of them, you’re gonna start going backwards,” she says with a shrug.

Tejada recalls a conversation she had with her executive team last week, including with Alex Solomon, the company’s CTO and the one of three PagerDuty founders who remains actively engaged with the company. (Co-founder Andrew Miklas moved on to venture capital last year; Baskar Puvanathasan meanwhile left the company in March.) “They probably wanted to kill me,” she says laughing. “I told them I don’t think we’re disrupting ourselves enough. They’re like, ‘Jenn, let up.’ But that’s what happens to companies. They have their first success and they miss that second wave or third wave, and the next thing you know, you’re Kodak.”

PagerDuty, she says, “is not going to be Kodak.”

via TechCrunch