You know, having the comic helps me realize some details that weren't that obvious in-game.
Look at their coats.
Mammon and Beel have theirs open, and Beel isn't even wearing the tie. One's too cool and trendy, and the other doesn't really care.
Lucifer's is the longest, plus he has that high neck and the gloves. He's the most guarded and reserved out of all the brothers, so it makes sense in his design for him to not only not show skin, but to wear the heaviest layers in comparison to the rest of the characters.
Satan is, probably, the only one who perfectly wears the uniform (appearances), yet he wears a bow tie. It could be his sign of rebellion and an attempt to make himself unique while wearing the same outfit as everyone else (every other student wears a tie).
Asmo doesn't wear a tie or a bow tie, either, but he does wear a bow of sorts (and now that I've written all of that together, it also ties the two of them as having a closer relationship inside the family dynamic). However, and although his uniform also looks impeccable, Asmo wears his belt as a bow (and is tied higher and tighter around his waist), which creates the illusion of his coat being a skirt or a mini dress! Plus, his legs are crossed in place, which is a very feminine way to stand. (And I'm saying this like blue = boys ; pink = girls. It doesn't have to be like that all the time, but it is the stereotype).
You can see it's his belt because the buckle is at the end right there.
So they have phones and TVs, but RAD is exclusively lit by candles and moonlight? They have three lamps in the common room, and they're all turned off.
And what's up with the Planetarium at HoL? Are the hanging planets lit by magic? Certainly not electricity. Levi is 100% taking care of most of the bill because there's no way his aquarium is lit by hopes and dreams. That man has LEDs for sure, and on top of that, he has his computer and all those consoles.
The rest of the brothers have lamps and electric lights (and Mammon has a damn projector, speakers and a garage door), but those are not enough to light their entire rooms. The majority of the lighting in the House of Lamentation comes from different sources of fire.
And you're telling me that MC didn't lose vision??
It's nighttime all the time; they're surviving on candles and (mostly) oil lamps.
And you're telling me that they go back to the human world with no consequences??
Whenever I write for Levi I think about this screenshot I took during his last birthday event in the OG.
Because that's his essence.
At the end of season 1, his intimacy level goes up when MC hugs him, not when they kiss. It may be due to his shyness and his insecurities (is this a goodbye kiss or a true kiss? Blah blah blah) , but my personal belief is that he will truly value personal connection over physical affection every day of the week.
If you really think about it, maximum poly MC doesn't have brothers in law, only boyfriends.
"This is Mammon, my boyfriend, and this is Levi, his brother, who is also my boyfriend; and that's their brother Beel, who is also my boyfriend; and that's Asmo, their brother, who is also my boyfriend; and their brother Satan, who is also my boyfriend; and their brother Belphie (Beel's twin), who is also my boyfriend; and their oldest brother Lucifer, who is also my boyfriend"
"Oh, and that's Diavolo, their boss, who is also my boyfriend; and his steward Barbatos, who is also my boyfriend"
Every time I fall out of tune with Obey Me and the characters, I work on some analysis and try to fall in love with them again through my reasoning (and it usually works).
I've done so again today and I've managed to write some headcanons about what type of friends and/or friend groups the brothers could possibly have.
Since MC is only mentioned a couple of times (so it won't be a x reader), I'm going to cheat a little bit and post this one whenever it's done. Next one after this will be a x male!reader fanfic, which is what I promised days ago.
Now a bit of complaining under the cut👇🏻
If I'm being honest, I feel more and more discouraged as time passes. I can see the fandom slowly fading away bit by bit, and it's like doing a presentation and witnessing people walking out of the classroom without saying a word 💀
On top of that, there are not many readers commenting or reblogging with silly tags or feedback anymore. Of course, people can do what they please with the way they interact with fanfiction, but seeing a single like or a reblog with nothing but a username next to it feels lonely/impersonal.
Again, I'm not trying to shame people for just liking or reblogging without tags/comments (I appreciate every single one of you who likes my craft), but spending time on something I care about only to be met with silence or a username (no matter how funny it is) leaves me a bit empty.
It just feels like business, you know? 🤷🏻♀️ Like I'm giving something and someone has received it and I'm being notified.
I have tried so hard to not let the situation reach this point.
And I don’t mean this in the sense of “I now put every ounce of my efforts in this blog so all my previous work doesn’t go to waste”; because it’s not true. It simply isn’t. I mean it in the sense of “this was once something I deeply enjoyed and I cherish that feeling, but I’m having trouble finding the joy again”.
I’m very conscious about trauma dumping and telling strangers on the internet about my troubles, but I quite literally do not have anyone else to talk to. I have a couple of friends who I’m not intimate with anymore, and, although my family loves and cares about me, I do not want to worry them with this kind of things. Because they don’t even know what a fanfic is and they would blow this out of proportions.
For those who care only about my writing (which I do not judge you for): I’m taking a break of undetermined length. For those who care about me as well: read below the cut, and thank you.
This will be long.
I started playing Obey Me a little after quarantine, I believe. I remember I was living with who I thought were two of my closest friends at the time, yet I was feeling lonelier than ever; hence me looking for interactive games. It was Duskwood first, and Obey Me second (which I already knew thanks to Tumblr redirecting me to Levi fanfics when I was looking for Levi Ackerman fanfics, by the way).
I remained a reader for years, but I didn’t interact with the fandom much, which I now regret. I was more of a lurker, just like in real life.
The more time I spent becoming familiar with the characters and the story, the faster my life started to crumble around me. I have a fanfic in my page (MC has a selfish best friend) that explains what happened between me and my first roommate, although I was already going through a rough patch even before that, and then I made the mistake of inviting my absolute best friend to take her place once she left.
This best friend of mine was also my creative partner. We had been working on a story together for six years, in which I wrote and she drew. We had every character design, a storyline, the settings, the rules, even the religions and politics, the characters’ relationships and developments… It was a whole thing that we were planning to develop over our adult years. She is, by far, the best and most dedicated artist I’ve ever met (I stand by that, even now).
Then people kept dying around me. Both literally and metaphorically.
And I have yet to learn how to live through those losses.
I became bitter and sad, and mostly angry, and my friends were never empathetic to begin with. I’m guessing you can imagine how our last year living together went.
So I started writing. I filled the void, I guess? It made me happy, both in healthy and unhealthy ways.
It was there when I was the loneliest, so I poured as much as I had in me.
Last year I had nothing to live for except for my family, a degree that I thought would help me feel accomplished and a decent amount of followers on Tumblr that praised my writing. It was like having my best friend and my creative partner all over again.
I hoped it would get better once I graduated, but I was very wrong. In fact, it only got worse.
One of my last posts in here says that my therapist helped me reach the conclusion that I have no purpose in life. Of course, I already had the feeling that there was nothing in my future that made me feel useful or motivated, but giving monsters a name only makes them feel real. I knew I was lost; I just didn’t want to realize I was hopeless too.
So what was the point of writing, then?
I got a reblog notification earlier this month from a very nice user who wrote some very sweet comments in the tags. And, obviously, I had to reread the fic they were referencing.
And I hated it.
It looked lazy, pointless, disconnected from the characters and the games. I didn’t even finish reading, I just closed the app and forgot about it.
So I thought: do I even like the game anymore?
I uninstalled it, just to try. And then days kept passing, and passing. Now, after four or so years of daily playing, I haven’t played Obey Me in almost two weeks; and I haven’t missed it a bit.
Can I really keep writing about something that makes me feel like I’m losing what little talent I had in my craft? Comparing myself to other authors, and forcing myself to write to stay relevant? Can I keep doing that to myself?
I can’t, can I?
So:
I didn’t want the situation to reach this point, but I believe it was all out of my control since the very beginning. And that breaks my heart.
Will I download the next game? Yeah, I have to try it (at least).
Will I write the requests and fics I have listed in my Next Works post? I have no idea. I wish I could say that I will, or at least try, but I don’t know. It pisses me off, because I didn’t want to be the type of person who can’t finish a project; especially when I said I’d write something.
I’m tired of disappointment. Of disappointing others and myself. I’m so, so tired. And I’m tired of being tired, frankly. I want things to change.
So I’ll leave for a while to sort things out.
I won’t delete anything, of course. I want you to be able to reread what I’ve already written, if you enjoyed it. I also won’t disappear completely, since I’ll be active in my main account, posting about whatever crosses my mind.
But this page will remain on hold for a while.
Thank you for being there (the ones who like sporadically and continuously). I remember some of your names (fips, alex, blondie anon, romance anon, ai anon, the chaotic academic demon, madam scream, noroi, me-lo (is that how you write it?), of course akira, and many others). I wish I could remember every one of you, but my memory has always been shit. I guess that’s just another disappointment I have to live with lmao.
Remember that I love you. Remember that I won’t be gone forever.
If you want to keep in contact with me, though, you can send me a dm or an ask through my alt account: @temisdeleonfrfr
You know, if NetherRealm Studios wants to change Mortal Kombat so bad, maybe they should do an open world game or something.
You know how we have the krypt for exploring purposes? Well, how about we (as a customizable player) meet each character in the open world?
They clearly suck at doing "new" lore, so it doesn't even have to be good, but we could have a mediocre story while we train with the legends or something. Let us travel within realms with Raiden or Liu Kang or whoever wants to sit on the highest chair, and let us go to the military, to the Shaolin Monks, to the Lin Kuei, Shirai Ryu, the Black Dragon...
Legitimately I do not give a fuck how they do it 💀
But I think changing the formula (without necessarily changing the fights and the executions and such) could help them a little bit.
Imagine choosing your powers and your fighting style. Like I'm a pyromancer but I fuck with Kano? Or a human soldier who ended up in Outworld after a military mission gone bad? Or I own a gun, but I'm not American (jk).
