#secret satan 2021

[zephyrbug]

Its secret Satan time is around!! This time the theme is Tieflings but I wanted to compile all the pieces I’ve done for this fun art gifting event!! So here are my pieces in order from July 2021 to May 2023!! 💕 💕 💕

If you’re interested in joining in yourself You can find info about the event >>  here and in general check out @leidensygdom the creator of the event!

[nico-di-genova]

Alexander Rossi Lore Drop Night round 3.

Honestly, these are just becoming my podcast recaps at this point. Like a “here’s what you missed on Glee” except it’s a “here’s what you maybe knew before me, because alex said it three years ago” kind of deal.

Not a cat guy, which feels like a given, seeing as he has two dogs and is very clearly a dog dad. But James called cats the “spawn of satan” and Alex agreed, so he’s actually very anti cat. Ironic, since he’s clearly the grumpy black cat in his friendships.

Likes pickled beans, which I guess are a thing in Canada. I don’t even want to think of what these could possibly taste like, I’m a little scared of the concept tbh. But like, glad he enjoys them I guess. He apparently raids Canadians houses for said beans when he visits them.

Eats Applebees before every indy 500. Idk if he was joking about this or not, he seemed pretty serious. If this wasn’t a joke…I’m severely judging him. Like, sure, the $5 drink deals are great. But sir, you are rich, have some class. Go to chilis.

Went to DC for a work event in 2021 and it was his first time getting to spend time in the city, so he explored a little. He ended up visiting the spy museum and figured he’d be in and out pretty quickly - like 20 minutes tops. Turns out, this place was like Disneyland to him, he spent three and a half hours there. He was invested in solving a mystery they apparently task guests with solving? Idk, I go to DC for the air and space museum, we have different interests clearly. His code name was pine cone. Given his competitive nature and love for acquiring obscure knowledge, it feels like a given he would love this niche museum where you pretend to be a secret spy and go against other guests in a fun little game. Idk why he thought he’d only be there for 20 minutes. Also I like to think he was surrounded by other kids when he was doing all this. Just this tall grown man walking around calling himself pine cone and feeling proud of himself when he succeeded at pretend spying against a group of pre-teens. Good for pine cone, proud of him for succeeding.

[napoleon-usher]

Happy Holidays @tellemonstar​ from your Secret Satan 😈 ↳ CHLOE DECKER in LUCIFER (2016-2021)

[winter-sol]

New hints (and questions) about Nightbringer

Finally! We have some clues about NB, I'm so excited! We finally have an idea of what to expect. Yet I still have so many doubts. But that's only natural, we're still missing on so much information ;; I simply want to share my thoughts about Nightbringer at the moment.

First, I'd like to mention the objective facts we know about the game:

We're our good old sheep MC.

We've travelled to the past, and we need to "reforge our bonds and pacts with the seven brothers"

Honestly, I'm happy the game is not just a prequel and we get to keep our MC. Still, time traveling is a choice. So, knowing this, what personally intrigues me the most are the questions that have arised from the possibilities when it comes to going to the past and meeting the demons there.

I'll try to point out my main questions and theorize a bit, but this is only with the little info we've been given.

We've travelled by Barbatos' magic, so at least he and Diavolo should know we're going to the past. Right?

Do the brothers know? The lines "Don't worry, you'll be fine. After all, we are..." and then "My love for you trascends time" (in Japanese, "No matter how many times we meet you, we'll fall in love with you") seem to be from the brothers POV. The first line gives me the impression they know what our mission is and are basically wishing us good luck and trusting in us, for us to... "save" them, maybe? There has to be a reason we're doing all of this.

About that, why are we doing this? Are we being sent with us knowing what's going on? Or we just wake up and surprise! You're in the past! (double isekai lmao) I hope it's some kind of "mission" we are well aware of.

How will time traveling be explained this time? (In case it will be explained because let's face it, we know OM is not the most rigorous when it comes to it, lol) The brothers will meet us in the past, so are we going to be presenting as ourselves? Or as some random human? You know, like we pretended to be a random angel in the Celestial Realm? After all is done, will they remember the events from the past? Will they know it was us? You know, as in sheep MC? Are their memories going to be "rewritten" and, once we're back, they'll know what happened and know MC loved them in the present and the past? I just... I just don't know. (But I kinda like the latter, it sounds romantic)

All of their lines in the webpage show some kind of emotion related to their fall, in their own way. But at least something that is common to all of them is pain. About each of them:

Lucifer seems to feel guilty or responsible for their fall; Mammon seems accepting of his (and their) fate, Leviathan seems terrified of his fate; Satan, being a new entity, is annoyed by his existence in this reality and his new brothers; Asmodeus is in denial; Beelzebub's one is intriguing, because it points to a secret more then his feelings regarding the fall, but I'd say there's something about the fall or the war he knows and feels guilty about hiding; and Belphegor is thinking about punishment and consequences of their actions, could it be indifference? or a quiet fear?

What kind of dynamics will we have with these recently turned demons? Are we going to have our beloved, dangerous interactions such as the ones we got on Halloween 2021? Or early lessons? (I really, really hope so)

But more than anything, regarding the reasons of our travelling... What happened that needs us to travel and bond with them in their past selves? Are they in some kind of danger? Did some kind of event trigger a reaction from them, becoming distant with us (ahhh yes, angst) and we need to unravel their past? I like the idea of MC getting to know their backstories and ending up with this idea of "I'll love him even after all he's done as a demon".

And that's why I like this concept of "My love for you trascends time" because it can be both ways. They'll love us no matter in what time or form we meet, but also they trust us to keep loving them even though it's a difficult, dangerous love.

And yes, the Japanese one is slightly different but I also like how that one is only directed from the demons to us. Even if it's in an alternative universe, the past, not knowing us, our bond and connection is so strong it's certain they'll fall in love with us.

...

Man, I'm getting the feels from this teaser. I can't wait to see what kind of angst, tragic backstories and dramatic romance we'll get to experience.

And by the way! On March 24th, the song from the opening will be released, "Devil's Way". From the unofficial lyrics I've seen, they do mention the little sheep and to not be afraid, so I wonder what kind of information we'll get from the full lyrics 🕺

Peace out.

[mariacallous]

One of Russia’s most famous 20th-century novels has returned to the Silver Screen. Infamously difficult to capture as a motion picture (more mystical observers even speak of a curse), Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” is back, reinterpreted by American-Russian filmmaker Michael Lockshin. The new movie stars Evgeny Tsyganov and Yulia Snigir in the titular roles and features German actor August Diehl (Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”) as the story’s demonic character Woland. Meduza reviews the controversy surrounding the film’s director and funding, the book’s cinematic history, and Lockshin’s adaptation.

The political controversy

Michael Lockshin’s “The Master and Margarita” averages an impressive 7.9/10 rating with more than 43,000 reviews at KinoPoisk and leads Russia’s box office in its opening week after earning 57.3 million rubles ($640,000) on its first day in theaters, but the director was making enemies before his film ever sold a single ticket. Self-described patriots denounce Lockshin as a Russophobe, a traitor, and a neoliberal besmircher of the intrepid Soviet secret police. They call him a hypocrite, too, in light of the fact that this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s classic was made (in 2021, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) with 800 million rubles ($8.9 million) from Russia’s Cinema Foundation, the state’s key funding agency for the domestic film industry. 

Lockshin, who now resides in the United States, declined to answer Meduza’s questions about the backlash in Russia, saying he’s not yet ready to comment on the situation. On Telegram, pro-war channels have circulated screenshots of Facebook posts that are now hidden from non-friends where Lockshin shared independent reporting about the war in Ukraine, wrote that he’s donated to Ukrainian organizations, warned that future generations of Russians will be paying reparations for the “tragedy they brought to Ukraine,” and compared the Putin regime to Nazism in Germany.

State propagandist Tigran Keosayan has advocated criminal charges against Lockshin, while Trofim Tatarenkov, a host on Russia’s state-run Sputnik radio (who admits that he hasn’t even seen Lockshin’s movie), called the filmmaker “scum” and fondly remembered how such “enemies of the people” were shot during the Stalinist era.

Previous adaptations

In May 2016, poet and literary critic Lev Oborin wrote an essay for Meduza answering several “questions you’re too embarrassed to ask” about Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” including the most shameful of all: Can I just skip the book and watch a movie version instead? The short answer is, yes, you can always skip the book. In fact, unless you’re a student or some other kind of hostage, you can skip the movies, too. But since you asked, there are at least two previous screen adaptations of “The Master and Margarita” worth knowing about.

The better-liked version, at least until now, has been Yuri Kara’s 207-minute film, made in the mid-1990s but not released until August 2011. Meanwhile, in 2005, Vladimir Bortko created a miniseries for Russian television that was criticized for uneven casting and even worse special effects. Unfortunately for Bortko, the 10 episodes drew deeply unfavorable comparisons to his beloved 1988 adaptation of Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog.” 

It’s also tempting to contrast Bortko’s miniseries with Kara’s adaptation — particularly how the two portrayed one of the novel’s most visually scandalous scenes: Satan’s Grand Ball. Filmed almost a decade later and made for TV, the sequence in Bortko’s series “looks almost puritanical” compared to Kara’s film, noted Lev Oborin. In raw terms of nudity and violence, this assessment is hard to contest:

So, is Lockshin’s adaptation any good?

Anton Dolin (a prominent Russian film critic who might be best known to casual Internet users as the interviewer who provoked Ridley Scott into saying, “Sir, fuck you. Fuck you. Thank you very much. Fuck you, go fuck yourself.”) liked Lockshin’s adaptation quite a bit. In a review published by Meduza, Dolin writes that the film “manages to retain the sharpness of the original source, which mocks Soviet power, and at the same time offers the viewer an innovative perspective on a classic text.”

Dolin praises Lockshin’s “Hollywood flourishes” and his capacity to juggle the book’s “genre and intonation incompatibility,” which has plagued past interpretations. The new adaptation brings a “circus element” to the story without sacrificing the script’s “rigidity,” says Dolin, while also “condensing the vastness of Bulgakov's novel into a coherent and clear narrative.” (You’ve been warned, formalists.)

Lockshin’s film takes some liberties with Bulgakov’s classic. For example, in the novel, the Master character doesn’t emerge until the middle of the book, leaving the reader to wonder about the title. In the new film, however, the main plotline belongs to the love story between Margarita Nikolaevna (the unhappily married wife of a Soviet functionary) and a writer she calls the Master. According to Lockshin’s script (which he co-wrote with Roman Kantor), the secondary narrative involving Pontius Pilate’s trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth) is a play within the story written by the Master and pulled from production by Soviet censors after its opening performance. (In a feat of authenticity unprecedented in modern Russian cinema, the Jerusalem scenes, which comprise roughly 10 minutes of the film, are performed in Aramaic and Latin.) Meanwhile, all the adventures across Moscow involving Woland and his entourage are presented as figments of the Master’s imagination as he slowly loses his mind under state persecution.

As Lockshin has argued in comments promoting the movie, Dolin says Bulgakov’s novel enjoys heightened relevance in contemporary Russia, and the new film makes menacing villains of NKVD executioners while presenting even more revolting characters in the Soviet elites whose conformity and hypocrisy enabled the Stalinist regime.

Dolin praises the decision to cast August Diehl as Woland, the mysterious foreigner whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling in the novel. Diehl’s Woland “is a real find,” Dolin writes. The German actor plays the character as “an infernally sarcastic gentleman in black” who resembles Satan “more than the thoughtful, sad wisemen from various Russian interpretations of the same character.”

A cartoonishly scary foreigner, complete with a spooky German accent, Woland turns out to be the creation of the writer’s wounded mind, his alter ego, writes Dolin. The censorship and persecution the character faces in the film are a “chilling reproduction” of mechanisms that resonate more in Putinist than Stalinist Russia, Dolin argues, highlighting some lines that wink boldly at modern-day realities, including nods to Crimea, oil production, and military parades.

Lockshin’s adaptation also features a fantastical version of Moscow that recalls the visionary designs of artists in the Higher Art and Technical Studios, which flourished in the 1920s before crumbling under Stalinism. In this universe, Moscow completed the Palace of the Soviets, altering the skyline in a delirious finale that depicts the city ablaze. This scene, in particular, has upset several state propagandists.

Dolin notes that Margarita is absent from the story for much of the film, but she reappears in the final act as a heroine on her own narrative arc. In the character’s scenes as a witch and then a queen, Lockshin’s intentions and the meaning of the novel’s title finally become clear, says Dolin: 

It’s not the imagination of the writer that transforms the grim reality but exclusively the emotion that is capable of elevating you to the heavens, of burning cities, and punishing or pardoning with the mere force of thought. In the end, Lockshin’s film is not about Satan, not about Moscow, not about Pilate, and not about totalitarianism, censorship, or creativity, but about love. It alone makes a person invisible and free.

[fickleminder]

Obey Me Masterlist

All writings feature GN!MC unless otherwise stated :)

✨ = Popular!

Masterlist Directory >> HERE

Latest:

cosplay (with commissioned art)

You convince Raphael to cosplay for you.

Fics:

forget you

You saw an opportunity to walk away, and you took it.

Inspired by the Glass pop quiz.

sacrificial lamb > part 1, part 2 ✨

The impossible choice between you and the Devildom.

Inspired by the Frost pop quiz.

seven supervillains and one (1) normie

You move in with seven normal, law-abiding housemates.

Written for the Devildom zine.

be good ✨

AU inspired by this prompt: Humans are born with demon counterparts to protect them. The more innocent and pure a person is, the more mean, fierce, and terrifying their demon becomes.

Halloween 2023 fic.

date night

Inspired by @777xara​‘s art here.

never after

Not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

Based on Satan’s Breaking Curses Devilgram and this post.

what’s up doc

Based on this post. Dedicated to the Satan simps who didn’t manage to pull his card in the Doctor Nightmare.

Zombie (commissioned art here) ✨

Mini-blurb based on an answered ask by @sparkbeast20​.

CW: blood and gore (in both the fic and the art).

would you lie with me (and just forget the world)

When taking out the trash, it’s more efficient to do it all in one go.

Karasu’s Confession Corner ✨

Seeing Karasu, one of Mammon’s crow familiars, at your windowsill isn’t an uncommon occurrence. He likes to stop by sometimes to hang out with you, but today he’s acting oddly for some reason…

Written for the OM Secret Santa 2022 event. Features Mammon x GN!MC.

let us die young (or let us live forever)

Life in the Devildom living with seven demon lords is pretty darn good. If there’s one thing you’re sure of, it’s that you’re loved, wholly, irrevocably, and forever.

Halloween 2022 fic.

The Escape

You are attacked while alone in the House of Lamentation.

Based on this scenario.

Bad Days ✨

You didn’t sign up to be their therapist, least of all their punching bag.

Inspired by @barbabetos‘ post here.

falling (for you) (commissioned art here) ✨

Five times you fell on Satan, and one time he returned the favor.

Obligatory 5+1 fic featuring Satan x GN!MC.

careful what you wish for

You and Satan find out that sometimes magic wishes have unexpected consequences.

Based on Satan’s Wish-Granting Charm Devilgram.

Food Favors

Mini-blurb based on an answered ask by @house-of-laminations.

Dirty Pop(sicles) ✨

When a human can’t even enjoy a popsicle on the beach without inviting salacious thoughts, you do what you have to do, toothache be damned.

CW: suggestive content but nothing explicit.

crawl to the in-between (part 1, part 2, part 3/?)

While recovering from an attack within the HoL, MC slowly finds out that there’s more to the Devildom than meets the eye.

This AU’s still a work-in-progress, summary to be updated.

forever valentine

Satan gives you flowers every Valentine’s Day.

Spin-off from this scenario (spoiler alert!) with a V-Day twist.

soft kitty, warm kitty

You sing Satan to sleep.

Lyrics taken from Big Bang Theory.

cum laude (commissioned art here) ✨

Season 1 AU. Snapshots from a year in which the human exchange student actually acts like one instead of playing demon family therapist.

Dedicated to all the goody two shoes MCs out there.

Inner Demon ✨

The one where the human exchange student gets possessed by a lesser demon.

Crack-ish fic inspired by this post. CW: mild body horror.

Cuddle Puddle

Technically every week is considered “hell week” in the Devildom, but this particular one has Elleroy ready to throw in the towel and call it quits.

Written for the OM Secret Santa 2021 event. Features Satan x M!OC x Asmo.

of electric rodents and demon butlers

Pokemon AU. Wooing a demon butler who hates rats on principle is a little tricky when you have an electric rodent on your team.

Self-indulgent Pokemon AU.

so wake me up (when it’s all over)

Your demons turn against you.

Halloween 2021 fic.

hear me cry > original, alt ending ✨

The one where the brothers team up to catch you.

Inspired by the Masked pop quiz. CW for alt ending: violence, blood.

Into The Woods > part 1 (commissioned art here), part 2

It’s like with Lilith all over again. Hindsight is 20/20, but given the circumstances, Lucifer has no qualms repeating history.

Inspired by The Nature of Sin.

Unholy

You haven’t said a word since you were moved back into your old room, but that’s okay. You’re in one piece, your burns are healing nicely, and there’s cream in the medicine cabinet for the scarring on your wrists and neck. The charred, bloody stumps on your back can wait; all Luke cares about is getting rid of the damned marks those accursed bangles had branded into your skin as they melted off.

Inspired by an answered ask from @obeythebutler.

the years start coming and they don’t stop coming > part 1 (commissioned art here), part 2 ✨

In which Lilith’s return distorts her brothers’ perception of time.

The original replaced!MC AU except we have Satan on our side.

Keeper

"Will one million Grimm be enough?” / “...How much is that in human currency?” / “Good point. One million American dollars it is then. We can say we sold everything at a charity auction or something.”

Inspired by the Angelic pop quiz.

Schrödinger (commissioned art here) ✨

Many ghosts dwell within the House of Lamentation alongside its demonic inhabitants. One in particular takes sick pleasure in tormenting Belphegor. (Alternatively: when the you that disappeared from Mammon’s arms isn’t completely gone)

Halloween 2020 fic.

Idea Blurbs:

no hope, no love, no glory

Replaced!MC AU. Wherein falling out of favor with Mammon has consequences.

weakest link

Inspired by the key route in the Lantern event.

Emergency Contact ✨

MC’s night alone in the HoL takes a turn for the worse.

The Haunting of Serenity Manor

Haunted House AU inspired by this and this.

your name

Mini scenario where MC isn’t really “MC”.

soul on paper

Inspired by Satan’s 2021 birthday pop quiz and UR Devilgram.

equalizer

Features a fighter-MC, lots of OOC characters, and generally dark content.

Incorrect Quotes & Headcanons:

Zero

Sugar Daddy ✨

Saving Daylight

Intimidate

Hidden Skills

Anime Run

Good Workout ✨

Depressed!MC moves into HoL AU ✨

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Eric Hananoki at MMFA:

Extremist commentator Christiane Northrup has promoted a pro-Nazi film that denies the Holocaust, encouraged people to check out the infamous antisemitic tract Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory that a secretive mafia is hiding behind Jewish identity to control world events. Still, Northrup has spoken twice at Trump’s Miami resort alongside Eric and Lara Trump and been featured in a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign video.  Northrup is a former OBGYN who initially gained fame as a self-help author who was praised by Oprah Winfrey. Since then, as The Washington Post reported in May 2022, Northrup has claimed COVID-19 “was part of a plot involving Deep State brainwashing and treacherous depopulation schemes” and she “encouraged fans to check out QAnon, called the Centers for Disease Control a ‘covid death cult,’ and described the vaccines as crimes against humanity.”  Northrup is listed as a “featured” speaker on the pro-Trump ReAwaken America Tour. She, along with Eric and Lara Trump — now the co-chair of the Republican National Committee — appeared on the tour’s stops at Trump Doral in Miami, Florida, in May and October 2023.

A poster for the tour’s next stop in Selma, North Carolina, in October lists Northrup, Eric Trump, and Lara Trump as scheduled speakers.  The tour has become a magnet for Hitler-promoting antisemites. Including Northrup, Media Matters has now identified at least five speakers who have shared antisemitic and pro-Hitler material. 

[...] Northrup has also repeatedly appeared on programs hosted by Children’s Health Defense — the conspiratorial group founded by Kennedy — and spoke at a 2021 anti-vaccine rally that was headlined by Kennedy.  Additionally, Kennedy’s book The Real Anthony Fauci touts a blurb from Northrup on its Skyhorse Publishing page. (Skyhorse is run by Kennedy ally Tony Lyons.)  Northrup has offered praise of both Trump and Kennedy. In May, for instance, Northrup said that she “can’t prove it" but her "opinion is that Trump and RFK Jr. are working together somehow behind the scenes to take down this entire satanic agenda.” 

ReAwaken America Tour loves to have fervent antisemites speak at their events, and anti-vaxxer extremist “Dr”. Christiane Northrup is the latest to be exposed.

[stripedscribe]

FIC WRITING REVIEW 2023

Thank you @loki-is-my-kink-awakening for coming up with this!

And thank you @42donotpanic for the tag!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

Words and Fics

38,518 words published in 2023

17 completed fics

Top 3 Pairings

Matt Murdock/Foggy Nelson [11]

Matt Murdock&Foggy Nelson [2]

Matt Murdock&Foggy Nelson&Karen Page [2]

Top 5 by Comments

Sticking It To The Man(Round Robin Collab) 15

Of All The Good In The World - 10

ART for Romantic's Pizza Package -

Let me spin myself into yarn - 8

A Vessel- 7

Top 5 by Kudos

Sticking It To The Man - 242

A Cut String Of Fate - 39

ART for Romantic's Pizza Package - 146

A Vessel - 36

Of All The Good In The World - 26

Top 5 by Hits

Sticking It To The Man - 1,235

The Way We Say Goodbye- 559

A Cut String Of Fate - 486

ART for Romantic's Pizza Package - 393

If Forever Leaves Too Soon- 256

Fandom Events in 2023

At the start of the year the Avocados took part in a round robin challenge for Sticking It To The Man, in which 6 of us wrote a fic together! I would love to do this again.

The @daredevilexchange held a prompt fest in February, in which I posted 3 fics/art! One of these also started a collab with @udekai for our BADminton series!

In March the Avocados had our Secret Satan exchange in which I wrote Let me spin myself into yarn for @feenyxblue!

Through the year I wrote a few shorter prompted things - from our no prompt left behind challenge on the server, and also from Tumblr requests!

In October we had the @daredevilexchange where I wrote 2 fics, The City That Never (Always) Sleeps, and You know it breaks my heart in half, in half.

Upcoming Plans

I've just started the @killacharacterbingo, 4 fics in, and I hope to finish that next year! I've got a few longterm wips I want to bring back out and actually get finished, and not burnout with constant event pressures.

Writing Reflection

This year has felt quieter. I wrote about half what I did last year, and nothing can compare to 2021. It's been busy IRL, and I've felt like I've been in and out of burnout, but we're getting there!

Having a community online has been a lifesend, and even if I haven't been posting it, we've had plenty of brainrot opportunities, which I'm glad for! I also started to dabble in original fic, and that's slow going, but I'm also writing a bit more through starting DnD, and having text-based rp sessions in between, which are amazing!

Community is everything, and I'm so glad to have met everyone I did, you all hold a special place in my heart. Where else are you going to be able to cry about Matt and Foggy at 2 in the morning and there be someone to listen?

Tagging: @udekai, @blissful-thinker, @feenyxblue, @missmoochy and the rest of the Avocados discord, you know who you are!

[elderyautjavegeta]

Chapters: 5/? Fandom: Gorillaz Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Murdoc Niccals/Stuart "2D" Pot, Cherry (Studio Killers)/Noodle (Gorillaz) Characters: Murdoc Niccals, Noodle (Gorillaz), Russel Hobbs, Stuart "2D" Pot, Satan, Cherry (Studio Killers) Additional Tags: monster au, monster murdoc, demon murdoc, Body Horror, timeline differs from canon, Budding Love, Friends to Lovers, demonic essence, Witchcraft, witch 2D, 2D goes pagan, celebrity guest stars, Unlearning Toxic Behaviors, specific warnings in chapter notes Summary: 2D accidentally discovers a secret that Murdoc's been keeping for more than twenty years. [more tags will be added as story progresses]

BET YOU DIDN'T EXPECT TO SEE AN UPDATE FOR THIS FIC IN 2024. SURPRISE BITCHES!!! Feel free to yell at me for how long it's been in the comment section (chapter 4 was posted in april 2021 for those who forgot...) ENJOY, OKAY BYYYYYEEEEEE.

[nicosraf]

I have to ask how you came up on the idea to write ABM? I just wanna know your thought process because I'm wildly intrigued. I'd love to know how you'd feel about a lesbian story between Lilith (Adam's first wife) and Eve which is what my story is about.

Hello! So usually I'm pretty secretive about all the stuff behind Angels Before Man and why it's like That, but I recently saw a tweet that wrongly assumed the motivations behind the book, and it upset me a bit, so I should probably finally go into detail about ABM's deal. Sorry if this answer is way too long.

1. Personal reasons: in 2016, I came out to my parents during a very rough period for my mental illness. It went very bad, and I ended up going to a therapist for a few month for, well, conversion therapy. This involved using a lot of Christian manipulation tactics ("God would not make you this way") and EMDR techniques that have done quite a bit of psychological damage to me. In 2021, while working with a new therapist, I had a "died and met God" nightmare, then developed an unhealthy obsession with the Bible as I processed what happened during conversion therapy. Another thing I need to mention is that my family are immigrants from an epicenter of the Mexican drug war, which exposed me to a lot of violence very young, and traumatized me in its own right; how I think about the violence we perpetuate on the people we love is something I just really wanted to write about, also. All this to say that ABM is just a convoluted allegory for trauma.

2. Theological reasons: during my obsession, I read the Bible in its entirety a couple times, and I developed a lot of questions about it, especially regarding angels and this Lucifer guy:

Why did Lucifer/Satan become evil? Ezekiel 28 is usually the passage people refer to that explains it (others argue this section isn't about Lucifer/Satan but let's assume for the sake of argument that it is). What's interesting about this section is the emphasis on the cherub's "blamelessness" (innocence! Lucifer's young innocence isn't talked about enough) and his beauty. In fact, his corruption is entirely linked to his beauty.

But what does beauty mean? To God? What is beauty before humanity? What is the purpose of it? How can you become corrupted by beauty? (For this, I looked at Ezekiel 16, where Jerusalem is corrupted by her beauty; this inspired quite a bit of the story of ABM as a whole, particularly regarding God's wrath)

What are angels for? What do they do? I asked a couple friends this and usually they answered that it was fighting demons and protecting humans, but there was a time before demons and before humans. (There was an "angels before man" if you will haha). This seemed to stump everyone I asked. Did they just worship? All the time???

Why does the Bible compare angels' submission to God to a wife's submission to her husband? (Well, that's a least an interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:10). This is related to Jesus explicitly stating later that angels can't marry. Why not? It's especially weird, at this point, given the matrimonial relationship between Jesus and the Church, and God's own somewhat matrimonial relationship with Mary. So everyone can have a romantic/sexual/spousal union except the angels? Why can't angels love?

This isn't a question but it really strikes me that Michael's only line of dialogue in the entire Bible is in the book of Jude and just as a reference to a time when he allegedly argued with Satan and said "Lord rebuke you." Ah. Michael. That brings me to the last major question I'll mention.

What was Michael and Lucifer's relationship? Something really cute is that everyone I harassed with my questions seemed to have this idea that they were best friends, that they really loved each other once. There's no scriptural evidence for it, and we only ever see them fighting, but it just seems like it makes sense, doesn't it? Strong, golden-hearted Michael and the beautiful, doomed Lucifer...

And of course the duality of God as both jealous and loving fascinates me. Even more so I'm fascinated by the concept of a lonely God. Jealousy, to me, only makes sense when you're insecure about love. How could an all-knowing God be insecure about love then? Maybe because he loves different than you, and he'll never have anyone who can love him the way he understands love (no matter how much he wishes, because he's a lone god)

Somehow all these questions came together and formed a story while I was outlining.

3. Technical reasons: I've been wanting to write a full novel that didn't follow the 5-act structure for a while. I wanted to write a novel that had no source of tension for a majority of the narrative (the source of tension early in ABM is just from the reader; you know what's gonna happen, but the book doesn't allude to it until about Chapter 11, and even then it's vague). I wanted to write a book that's radically differently paced in the second half. And I wanted to be a bit experimental stylistically (inspired by the Latin American Boom authors). Angels Before Man gave me all the opportunities to do this, I'm afraid.

Ultimately, Angels Before Man is really weird!! I'm both very happy and very shocked that people have enjoyed and understood it. I'm incredibly grateful when someone lets me know that my little self-published gay Satan book has been healing or cathartic to them. That's all I can really ask for tbh! Again, sorry for such a long answer, but I'm riled up about my intentions being misrepresented.

And finally, Lilith x Eve sounds really interesting!!! I have a lot of thoughts on the double creation of the sexes in Genesis (so, so, so many). I'd be ecstatic to see your take on it <3333 :)

[coldgoldlazarus]

So... I don't agree with Lilith Farren on a lot of things but she's spot on about the RWDE being full of it. I mean, they want to make her out as the real bigot while not once looking at the company they keep. Even if Lilith holds these secret prejudices... she's got the real receipts on them.

I've generally avoided talking about this, but here we go, I guess.

I'm so fucking tired of receipts, and discourse, and debating whether or not RWBY is good, (it's not perfect, neither is it the animated spawn of satan or whatever) or debating whether or not Rooster Teeth is evil, (they are, but they ain't special) or the suspecting everyone and their mother of secretly being a bigot or creep over their opinions on fiction, and just the endless pointless fighting over shit that really doesn't matter at the end of the day.

The world is burning down around us, queer people are under constant fucking attack, racism and antisemitism are having a resurgence, (not that they ever really went away in the first place,) the politics of imperial countries like Britain and America and Russia still have outsized ability to ruin the lives of people all over the rest of the world, and neoliberal capitalism is slowly killing us all with the constant monetization of basic survival. And yet, some people apparently have nothing better to do with their lives than either bitch about a show, or bitch about the people bitching about a show. It's so. Fucking. Asinine.

I will be honest, I do not particularly like or respect Lilith Fairen, any more or less than the 'rwde' people she's constantly picking fights with. I did follow her for a while at the start of 2021, because I was in a different headspace back then and that stuff felt like it mattered more, but honestly? Even when I was following her and considered her 'cool', something didn't sit right with me about the way she talked.

Whenever she was dunking on rwde takes, there was an even mix of really strong points she made, and arguments made purely using in-universe information without considering the OOU reasons for those things, then needlessly hostile assumptions being made about the other party. Sometimes they were retroactively validated, but not always, and either way they were usually completely insane things you would't just assume of someone out of the fucking blue.

It's really only since the big RT controversy that the why has come into focus. Because at the end of the day, with her response to that it's become clear to me that she cares about RWBY and defending everything about it, even the genuinely bad stuff, more than she cares about real people. She talks the social justice talk, but does not walk the walk.

I don't completely agree with the people who have gone the other extreme as a result of the controversy and insist continued engagement with the show makes you just as bad, (because like I said, RT are awful, but they aren't special in this) but I do still get where they're coming from and agree with them on not supporting RT financially in any way anymore. (Whether V10 should or shouldn't be greenlit, I'm still conflicted on, but also that's ultimately out of my hands to decide, so I plan to just roll with whatever does or does not happen there.)

LF's response, from what I saw, (for better or worse, I wanted to see how she was faring after the news broke and still offer some kindness if needed, hoping to see better of her I guess, so I logged out to go check her blog since I was blocked by that point) was to wring her hands a bit about how this would impact the show, then insist rwde were to blame somehow and go right back to her usual behavior.

Do I think she's secretly bigoted or something? Not really. (And the recent claim by someone that she was totes a neo-nazi definitely raised some eyebrows as a result, that's a very serious claim to make.) I don't think she has the capacity to care enough about real-world issues to have those kinds of beliefs, honestly. And on the flipside, I don't think she cares about social justice as much as she claims to; it's all props for her to justify harassing people over a show.

Which brings me to the other big reason I don't particularly care for her, which is her behavior in the magical girl community. I won't belabor the point, since I really don't want to make this some big callout post, (deserved or not, those have already been made about her, and I don't like the concept either way) but between her awful takes on PMMM and fans thereof, and actual harassment campaign against the creators of Sleepless Domain, she's been consistently pretty unpleasant-at-best over here.

I don't disagree with everything she's ever said, and I do agree that a lot of the post-Madoka grimdark Magical Girl trend has been pretty bad on the whole, (though at least some good stuff has come of it, like Symphogear) but her hardline refusal to see anything good in it, along with her sometimes completely insane bad-faith readings of Madoka in particular, is such an ironic echo of the same sort of behavior she claims to hate about rwde. And even then, it would be fine, if annoying, if she didn't then also go and mistreat people over it. It really boils down to the same thing as with RWBY, just in the opposite direction; "I like this show, show is good, people who don't like the show are bad and evil" and "I hate this show, show is bad, people who like the show are bad and evil", and then using social justice language to justify and prop up her arguments.

It was all that stuff, not so much the RWBY discourse, that led to my disillusionment with her, and her eventually blocking me. I guess if one good thing came of it, was spite powering me to work on my own magical girl stuff again, and the resurrection of a friend's dormant story that I proofread for. But on the whole, that period of life where I was really paying attention to what she had to say, just feels now like a waste of time.

I don't hate her, and I don't think she's secretly evil or whatever like that one person suggested, and I definitely don't think she should be harassed, despite her own behavior. I just think she's a kinda mediocre human being who really needs to get her priorities straight, and probably work through some insecurity issues or something. (It's not my place to diagnose, but like, therapy could probably help with whatever she has going on, if she ever becomes receptive enough for it to work.) As much as rwde people can annoy me too, her whole moral crusade against them feels like a waste of time and energy that could better go to other, bigger things, and her moral crusade against dark (or even moderately-toned like Sleepless Domain) Magical Girl stuff, her response to the RT controversy, and how she ignores or speaks for other marginalized people, shows it all to be ultimately hollow and shallow, more about opinions on some shows she likes or hates, than anything meaningful.

In the end, she's just not worth my time.

[emyluwinter]

Я опубликовал(а) 338 постов в 2022 году

Это на 82 поста больше, чем в 2021 году!

258 постов создано (76%)

80 реблогов постов (24%)

Блоги, из которых я сделал(а) больше всего реблогов:

@adrianasunderworld

@minzart

@jangmi-latte

@cherryvin

Я пометил(а) тегами 277 из своих постов в 2022 году

Только 18% из моих постов остались без тегов

#twst - 213 постов

#twisted wonderland - 170 постов

#twst wonderland - 147 постов

#twst yuu - 145 постов

#disney twst - 144 поста

#twst mc - 135 постов

#disney twisted wonderland - 125 постов

#twsited wonderland - 83 поста

#twisted wonderland x reader - 80 постов

#twst spoilers - 46 постов

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#remember in the hercules tv show when jafar and hades teamed up? so when the villaisn die they go to him right? so. there we have it :)

Мои самые популярные посты в 2022:

#5

Crewel found out about the fact that Yuu and Epel did NOT do ANYTHING after his words.

They ran away without warning for a Rook in STYX. To the secret centuries-old overblot research base!

Leaving Pomfiore unattended at all.

They made a complete rout there, led to the 6th overblott.

But they returned all the abducted, including the director.

THE WHOLE COLLEGE NOW THINKS THAT YUU IS SOME KIND OF UNKILLABLE TERRIBLY TENACIOUS SATAN.

(6 OVERBLOTS + A BUNCH OF DANGEROUS MAGIC BATTLES. AND THEY ARE STILL ALIVE!!)

It 's playing in his head -

"They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me They could care less as long as someone'll bleed"

Divus - on the one hand I am very proud of this puppy, on the other I am terrified. What. the. hell??? Yuu meanwhile, barely standing on his feet - believe me, teacher .......I ask myself this question every time. In fact, I'm worried how Crewel will smash the Rook with his whip that he took two children (first-year students) to such a dangerous place and did not persuade them to return.

But first the Rook will be killed by Vil. AYVVLYJPLAJV

Vil - DID YOU BRING FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS WITH YOU?!AGAINST ROBOTS THAT DIDN'T CARE ABOUT MAGIC?!?

Rook - oh my beautiful Vil! even in a rage, you're beautiful!!!

Yuu hides Epel behind his back so that he doesn't get hurt either. - God rest your soul, Rook....

881 заметка - опубликовано 18 января 2022 г.

#4

Riddle on Malleus's birthday interview - What would you really like to get?

Malleus thinks for a while and grins cheerfully - Hmm. And what would you prefer Rosehearts?~

Riddle ponders, carefully considering the answer - Strawberry pie? and I will try a lot of different sweets and cakes.

Malleus chuckles softly- How charming...Well, it will be...Heart.

Riddle freezes in place completely not understanding. - Huh?

Malleus is dreamily thinking about something - The heart is a Child of man...

Riddle petrified on the spot and rapidly turning pale "what the hell...?!?!"

***

Riddle returned to his dorm so pale that everyone thought that the poor dorm leader would have a stroke now.

Trey putting down his notebooks and pen and hurriedly approached Riddle - Riddle? Are you feeling unwell? Did something happen?

Cater - Malleus scared you?

Riddle snapped and was shaking in a wild panic - HE WANTS TO KILL THE PREFECT OF ONBORO AND TEAR OUT HIS HEART AS A TROPHY!!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM?!?

Trey and Cater are terrified - HE WANTS TO DO WHAT?!?

***

Ace and Deuce drag Yuu to their dorm - Boys, can you really explain what's going on?!

Deuce - we're saving your life!!

Ace - and forestall the murder!!

Yuu is completely confused - almost everyone in college tried to do this, why are you behaving like this right now?!

Ace - Draconia wants to rip out your heart!!!

Deuce - yes! He told the Rosehearts dorm leader about it!! He wants to take it as a trophy!!!

Yuu get even more confused - WHAT?!

Ace - You'll thank us later!

Yuu - You're nuts!!you couldn't clarify with him what exactly is the topic with "Heart"?!

Ace suddenly realizes how ambiguous "get a heart" sounds - I ESPECIALLY WON'T GIVE YOU TO THIS STRANGE GUY.I AM AGAINST THIS RELATIONSHIP!!

Yuu - you could just say you're jealous...

Посмотреть весь пост

933 заметки - опубликовано 19 января 2022 г.

#3

Yuu has a hoodie with a pocket. And Grimm makes full use of this pocket, like as well as this cute adorable white kitten marshmallow.

1 278 заметок - опубликовано 14 мая 2022 г.

#2

Yuu and cooking.

I am very interested in how, with a meager budget and a very hungry Grimm, does Yuu eat?

And also all these beautiful Korean food blogs are to blame. Please stop, I want to try it all now..

So my little story / fiction.

Sorry for the mistakes

A few weeks after arriving at TWST, Yuu realizes a very important thing.

She needs to learn how to cook something more diverse than scrambled eggs, toast and pancakes. And learn to calculate your budget more economically so that it is enough for the repair of the Onboro and for the terrifying appetite of the Grimm.

At first, Yuu tried to teach him that stealing food is bad. But it was a stupid idea considering how boring they had to eat and they had to listen to "rumbling concerts" because of Grimm's empty stomach.

She even had to work out a strategy not to go to lunch and dinner with the duo of Adeuce and Grimm. To attend and sit in the library all the time.

Yes, she had to cut her own food down to one meal. And stay on free fruits that can often be found in the cups of canteens.

(Toboso mentioned that such fruit cups are found in many private schools, plus the boys are growing up and always want something to eat.)

Because of this whole scheme, Yuu lost 8 kg in two months.

Crewel was the very first to notice that one of his puppies looks more pale and unhealthy. Of course, this could be attributed to adaptation and stress from the place and people.

But Trein also noticed that the student looks not very cheerful, but terrifying...exhausted when no one notices her. But he doesn't dare show it to anyone.

In addition, the old worn-out uniform that she got from Crowley definitely became a size bigger for her.

Crowley received a very clear "double warning" from both of them, and thus Yuu got a small scholarship.

The scholarship for Yuu was mandatory, as a child with no legal or legally registered relatives, and since she was in the care of the college, NRC received a small addition to the budget for her maintenance at the college.

Crowley didn't lose much money and was finally left alone by the angry stares of the teachers.

When Crewel volunteered to be the one handing over her weekly scholarship payment. Yuu thought at first that she had hit her head or a mistake had occurred. She didn't even have a birth certificate, let alone a simple mention of schooling.

You can argue with me, but the teachers are the secret parents-guardians of Yuu.

Crowley - plays the role of a distant relative who is always causing chaos. And thus Yuu was able to get a little more chances for her culinary skills. As well as funds for three meals a day. Let it not be high-class, but it was enough for her to quickly recover from her very harsh idea.

Посмотреть весь пост

1 598 заметок - опубликовано 13 апреля 2022 г.

Мой пост №1 в 2022

Developers and owners of the game. - Twisted Wonderland is not an otome-game.

Toboso Yana. - This is not otome-game.

Fans. -Yes. We understand that this is definitely not an otome game.

Malleus ABSOLUTELY ignores all this and subtly flirts with Yuu 24/7/365 (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Yuu is very embarrassed with and charming blush -.....and no one told him about it????( 〃▽〃)

LOOK THIS

"Won't you check if there's any cream left on me? It would be quite tasteless to use magic to wipe off the "lucky gift" after all."

"Something I want? I can't think of any at once... But if you insist, maybe someone who will come with me to explore ruins together?"

"Oh, did you bring me a drink? Very well, then come sit next to me and be my conversation partner as well. Surely you won't refuse the main character for the day's request, won't you?"

"If you like the patch emblem for the Gargoyle Research Society, then you should join as well. So that you can wear the same thing."

I'M SERIOUS, THIS GUY WITH HIS BIRTHDAY LINES WANTS TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK!!

MALLEUS HAS BEEN CALLING YUU ON A DATE FOR THE SECOND YEAR TO LOOK AT THE RUINS. I NEED THIS EVENT, I SWEAR TO YOU.(」°ロ°)」 Yuu already owe him 11 dates?

Correct me if I'm wrong, last year on his birthday Malleus talked about 10 walks to see the ruins.

*cough*Private Audience of the Prince of Thorn Valley *cough*

I have two fears.

- Valentine's Day event

- Chapter 7. (Given the timing and how the other plot parts came out, we should find out the beginning at the end of this year. But these are just my assumptions.)

1 849 заметок - опубликовано 19 января 2022 г.

Получите свой Обзор 2022 года в Tumblr →

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is reportedly undergoing brain surgery hours after being attacked by an intruder at the couple's San Francisco home early Friday morning.

NBC Bay Area reports that Paul "was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and undergoing brain surgery" as of Friday afternoon, with a source telling the outlet he was in stable condition after being treated for facial injuries. The outlet further reports that Secret Service agents were stationed at the hospital, as well.

In a statement issued Friday morning, the speaker's spokesperson said Paul was "expected to make a full recovery" after an intruder broke into the couple's San Francisco home early Friday morning, reportedly in search of the House Speaker.

Armed with a hammer, they were unable to locate her — so they instead violently attacked Paul, 82, who was in the residence.

CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel reports that the intruder "confronted the Speaker's husband" and shouted, "Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?" Sources told Gangel that the assailant also tried to tie Paul up to await Nancy's return.

According to U.S. Capitol Police, Nancy, 82, was in Washington, D.C. with her protective detail at the time of the attack.

The assailant was taken into custody and multiple agencies — the U.S. Capitol Police, the FBI, and the San Francisco Police — have partnered to determine a motive for the attack.

Following the news of Paul's assault, President Joe Biden called the Speaker to show his support.

"The President is praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi's whole family," wrote White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement. "He is also very glad that a full recovery is expected. The President continues to condemn all violence, and asks that the family's desire for privacy be respected."

Nancy is second in the line of succession for president and has previously been a target of violent threats by supporters of former President Donald Trump, who has often directed ire at her and dubbed her "Crazy Nancy."

On Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters descended on the U.S. Capitol, many were in search of the Speaker, occupying her office, stealing her property and defacing her belongings. One rioter left a note atop a police vehicle saying, "PELOSI IS SATAN."

After Friday's violent attack, Nancy's spokesperson said, "The Speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time."

[caffeinated-and-annoying-bard]

here i have an analysis on why i think i am so very guilty and scared of sex. it has to do with gender dysphoria. needless to say, tw: mentions of sex-related topics. i am making this for myself, i am very very sorry if it stumbles across someone uncomfortable with it, so i'll put a cut here /nm

maybe if i was a boy i would have less fear about sex? because i feel like most of it was caused because of being afab, the guilt, the taboo around it, the need to be "pure" and stuff. even if i wasn't raised vary catholic (my dad is very catholic, but he does not attend church and my mom is neutral) i feel the purity culture drag me down. i was even more repressed before and during the pandemic, when i hadn't began to question my gender+sexuality yet.

a part of the problem was that i went to a small co-called-montessori-more-like-yuck-what-is-this school, and my internalised mysoginy and homophobia led me to (post-my best friend leaving for prepa, bc he is a year older) hang out with the anime-watching, sex-obsessed, mysoginy-filled, homophobia-fueled boys. one of them is the guy i used to call my best friend (in a very different way in which i call my actual best friend my best friend). he saw me as plastiline, someone he could turn into his anime fantasy of a love interest. we were 13-14 i think? everyone in my grade was starting to discover their hormones and stuff, me included, but every time is saw my "friends" at the time talk about it, the more guilt i got about the subject, the more repressed i got.

the repression, due to the internalised misogyny and homophobia, was most of what delayed my sexuality questionings (which sould have started with the "oh my god if i was a boy i would have such a crush on "her"" -the "her" in question being my now very guy of a best friend. whom i have a crush on.- thoughts, but didn't because every thought about even romance-related topics would lead to me feeling like if i had offered my body to satan. and that's what lead me to the toxic-est situationship with the former-friend guy who always saw through me, as if looking at what i could become to him and not at my eyes.

through my 2021 depressive episode i became not bolder, but more secretive about the topics? i think. it still wasn't healthy. then there came the sexuality questionings, then the gender ones. being horny and stuff is still something that makes me guilty, but now i've started to analyse how much it has to do with dysphoria. i think i don't feel that much of it consistently, it's subtle things for me most of the time (until something triggers it and i have a meltdown. help). and maybe some of the guilt/fear/repulsion about it was because i am afab. when starting to read smut about amab people, i felt way more comfortable, i even related to it a bit more, and smut about afab people made me feel like it was gonna hurt the characters or something. it still feels a bit like it, but reading smut about ftm characters has made me feel more comfortable, less in fear or feeling that it is dangerous, maybe because i'm genderqueer, leaning into transmasc.

what i'm trying to say is: the more comfortable i get with my gender, the more comfortable i feel myself getting with the concept of being horny or the concept of sex itself. knowing that part of it was that i did not want to be viewed as a woman is comforting to me.

i still don't want to have sex, i'm 16, maybe in 10 years i'll change my mind. but at least i'm *starting* to feel a bit more comfortable with my own body and the idea of sex itself :) it has been a long trip and i am not even in the middle of it. but i'm happy about starting to understand my fear of it. yippeeeeeeeeeeeee :D

[daysofourlivesrecaps]

Monday, 24 July 2023

Yesterday I watched an episode of General Hospital. This has no bearing on anything I’m about to recap; I just wanted to mention it because it was SO FUCKING WEIRD. Somehow that show felt simultaneously cheaper and more expensive than this one. And there weren’t nearly as many hot people. It was like spending the night at some other kid’s house and being weirded out by their different brand of paper towel and their liberal use of doilies.

Speaking of doilies…

…damn, I really thought I had a segue there.

Speaking of Chad (we weren’t, but just roll with me or we’ll be here all day), he’s paying a visit to the only person all of Salem can agree is a good person: Theo.

They do a lot of narrative running in place (if you’re playing the “as you know…” exposition drinking game with these scenes, you will end up with a pleasant buzz) because Theo needs to be in this episode but not till near the end. I’ll get to that. Near the end.

Related: Eli’s back! He’s wondering why Lani hasn’t gone back to prison yet, so he heads over to Paulina’s for some answers. Paulina has none.

This is another set of characters that will have a lot to do in the last beat of today’s installment, but right now they’re in a bit of a holding pattern until we get there. I promise, we will be getting there. And it will be worth it!

One set of characters who have absolutely nothing to do with what I’m trying to build your anticipation for: Alex and Stephanie. Alex is returning the robe he borrowed from Chad, freshly dry-cleaned. Then he invites himself in and just sort of… hangs out, refusing to leave.

Last time this happened, I put forth my theory that he’s just doing this to fuck with the new couple (Chad did a LOT of “oops, I’m here right when you two are trying to get intimate! What are the odds??” back then), but Stephanie calls him out on it and Alex is… actually oblivious to the fact that he’s been doing anything wrong, and a little hurt that he’s caused his friend so much annoyance.

They talk through their issues, Alex promises to work on this in therapy and then they hug.

And then we get to experience my absolute least favorite Days cliché (even more than “walking in on someone telling a secret you’re not supposed to know about”): someone walking in on their partner in what is clearly a platonic hug with someone else and going off the fucking deep end about it.

Chad told Theo that he doesn’t feel threatened by Alex, but his witty rejoinder of “shut up!” when the other guy tries to explain seems to say otherwise.

So now Stephanie’s sympathies are back with Alex, and she’s mad at Chad. Maybe there’s still some life left in this ol’ love triangle after all! (And listen, I like Chad but there’s a part of me that would absolutely LOVE for Alex to steal Stephanie away from this perfect little domestic situation she’s building with Chad and his kids. That part of me is the entire reason I enjoy soaps.)

Down at the docks, Jada, Rafe and US Marshal Sam Gerard (no relation) continue to discover Lani’s body and also a syringe.

Gerard expresses concern that Lani became a junkie in her brief time on the outside, and that the reason she didn’t return to prison is because of drugs.

But then she’s rushed to the hospital, where they’re able to determine that it’s not, in fact, heroin in her system but a highly specific sedative that Nurse King recently took a pallet-load of. Good work, Kayla.

Speaking of Kayla… just prior to this, she was still poring over Nurse Kings records with Marlena.

They discovered that the trauma Marlena treated her for (which was then, unfortunately, circumvented by The Rollicker himself, Satan) happened thusly: one cold day back in 2021, she left her husband at home with a malfunctioning gas-powered space heater. The heater in question ended up killing her husband and three cats by carbon monoxide poisoning. And… I know this part of Marlena’s possession is a bit of a retcon, but I’m glad it is now because watching her camp it up as the Devil was a lot of fun and I’m not sure this gas leak sidequest would have been thematically appropriate at the time.

So, as Kayla’s pulled away to tend to a drug overdose (the aforementioned Lani), Marlena, knowing that Abe is still alive and at Nurse King’s apartment, realizes she could get there before anyone else and stop a potentially deadly situation (which she, under the influence of the Dark Prince, inadvertently helped to create.)

So she makes her way over there.

Good thing, too. Because Nurse King has decided to do that thing that a lot of crazy people on TV and movies do — recreate the events that traumatized her. (I have no idea if this happens in real life. And this does not matter at all.)

Only this time, the cats are stuffed (because she’s crazy), the husband is Abe (not her husband, because she’s crazy) and she’s going to be with him this time, like she should have been last time.

Jesus. I love laughing at all this dumb, exaggerated nonsense but… jesus. That’s a good one, Days. Sometimes you get me feeling some real emotions and this is absolutely one of those times.

Thankfully, before this horrible scenario can play itself out again, Marlena comes charging in!

And if you ever wondered why I constantly assert that Marlena is the main character of this sprawling, seemingly unconnected narrative, this is an excellent example.

Rafe and Lani are right behind her…

…but Marlena’s therapist powers kick in and she ends up being the one who talks Nurse King down and saves the day!

Not to mention getting a bit of redemption for her role in creating this horrible situation. She didn’t even need that redemption because that was all Satan… but she is Marlena, so obviously she got herself some anyway.

And back at the hospital, all those characters I mentioned earlier converge. Paulina and Eli are pleased to see that Lani’s okay.

And then the entire family greets Abe, who’s been safely recovered at long last!

Abe, for his part, still doesn’t remember who any of these people are.

But that’s more of a “promise of delicious melodrama to come” than an undermining of the long-awaited conclusion of this storyline.

[friendlylifecherry]

I posted 9,273 times in 2022

That's 6,997 more posts than 2021!

63 posts created (1%)

9,210 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@goddessofroyalty

@featherfur

@crazynekochan

@egberts

@the-irken-pony

I tagged 352 of my posts in 2022

#obey me - 200 posts

#obey me lucifer - 62 posts

#dialuci - 49 posts

#obey me diavolo - 38 posts

#danganronpa - 29 posts

#obey me shall we date - 19 posts

#obey me mammon - 15 posts

#obey me satan - 12 posts

#kiyotaka ishimaru - 11 posts

#obey me mephistopheles - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#and i had to spend the whole time with my jacket wrapped around my waist because my jeggings looked like a murder scene the whole day

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Hamefura AU where Maria ends up unlocking her past-life memories of being a Fortune Lover fan who just absolutely adored og!Katarina (to an unhealthy degree) and makes it a mission to make herself a Katarina route, because Katarina deserves to be with someone who genuinely cares about her, not that dirt bag Prince Geordo! If all works out, awesome! If it doesn't, well, she knows the secret route, she knows where to find a good basement

110 notes - Posted October 5, 2022

#4

You know, it's kinda weird, but even though the brothers definitely deserve to get called the fuck out about how they treat Mammon, I don't think I've seen much of Mammon getting mad at whoever was doing the callout. Both because it makes him feel bad to hurt his brothers, and also in a "fuck you, you don't know me/us, this is private family shit" kinda way. Even if it's by MC, Mammon seems like he would still be pissed at them acting like they speak for him and for hurting his brothers (even if they deserve it), like most people in pretty toxic situations when that toxic person gets called the hell out and the person stuck in it gets mad at the caller

150 notes - Posted August 2, 2022

#3

So according to Wikipedia, Melinoë was born at the mouth of the river Cocytus, where Hermes is stationed as a psychopomp just on the border of the living world and the underworld, which is just a hilarious image of a heavily pregnant Persephone taking a break over by the river when she heads into labor. None of the House of Hades is going to get there in time, thus leaving poor Hermes to play midwife in between bouts of trying to get literally anyone else to help

155 notes - Posted December 8, 2022

#2

Lucifer has just enough characters with history with him to feasibly be the main character of an otome game himself. For example:

Diavolo is the clear simp and lonely rich boy with more to him than meets the eye and a very complicated relationship with Lucifer

Simeon as the former childhood friend/first ex who would like to reconcile despite how badly the break-up went [I see them more like brothers in how monks are brothers, don't @ me]

Mephistopheles is the poncy vain jerk who resents Lucifer for past slights but has a nice side to him that he gets super embarrassed about

Solomon is the mysterious weirdo trying to prove to Lucifer that he means no harm and trying to get past all his abandonment issues.

MC is the brand new exchange student that Lucifer warms up to a lot and ends up getting super attached to, despite just how dumb they can be

And for the secret character, Michael, who is a fucking weird dude (I say this with love) and fellow former bestie trying to get close to Lucifer in secret so that Lucifer doesn't push him away again

Add in the brothers and the other characters as a supporting cast and write up some bad endings and you have yourself a good base for a dating sim!

326 notes - Posted July 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Fic idea based on this where the RAD newspaper club is going to the Mausoleum of the demon kings for some fluff piece when one gets the bright idea to head inside and do some stuff for the Demon King, pay some respect and maybe some funny pictures. So as one of the members goes in, the others record for a combination of posterity and a desperate attempt to explain it to the authorities if they get caught where they aren't supposed to be.

But as the little leader gets close to where the Demon King lies, they notice something off; the king should be in eternal sleep but he doesn't seem to be breathing. Not like they would know about how the Demon King sleeps, but it's still weird, isn't it?

Then they get close enough and there's definitely something wrong. They haven't seen the King in millennia at this point, but he has this unnatural grey-ish pallor and his body looks limp, not unlike a corpse.

The leader gets a bright idea: approach and touch the King, just to check if he's alive. This is risking getting eaten and their club members all tell them so, but still, gotta try, right?

A gentle poke, nothing.

A soft shove, nothing.

A whisper in the ear, nothing.

A semi-distant shout from an irate Mephistopheles (he must have called the other members at some point about why they went inside), nothing.

That's when the leader decides to check something; touching his chest to see if he's still alive, checking for a heartbeat. So they use their wings to fly up and reach a careful hand to push onto his chest. Only that it sinks upon their touch, like the Demon King's flesh is mattress foam instead of muscle over bone. But what their fingers sink into is the worst part.

It's a stab wound to the center of his chest, with stagnant black blood leaking out onto their hand and coating their fingers with a revolting sheen.

-----

Mephistopheles can barely tell what's going on between all of the screaming, even as he tries to get back order and get some semblance of an explanation. But then he gets the worst news that he had ever heard in his life.

The Demon King is dead, stabbed in the chest who-knows how long ago.

-----

The news is all over the Devildom within hours. It's understandable, their sovereign had been killed at some point and no one had known. The video evidence of the RAD newspaper club finding out is all over social media within minutes, and it's a mass panic for everyone that sees it. Mourning, fear, furious blaming the angels or the humans or just anyone because this can't be real, this can't be happening. The Demon King is dead, murdered.

Diavolo was the first to find out, Mephistopheles calling him in tears. It felt like the world had frozen in place, he was trapped in shock.

Not because his father was dead.

Diavolo was the one who killed him.

It's that people had found out.

371 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

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