Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She awakens in an unfamiliar room. Standing. Her vision swims. There are… big chairs? And… people? She doesn’t know these people. What…?

“Welcome to the Devildom, Auva!” A booming voice sounds.

She blinks and squints. Ah, there’s the source. Tall man in red.

“…oh, pardon me. Feeling a bit shocked, are we? Well, that’s understandable. You’ve only just arrived, after all.” The man says jovially.

Auva removes her glasses. Rubs her eyes. Blinks again. Wipes the lenses with her shirt and puts them back on.

“Um… hi. I’m… what exactly… the fuck??”

The man laughs. Another man—tall, black hair, fancy clothes—sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks stressed. It contrasts noticeably against the first man’s… let’s say, cheerful bulldozer vibe.

“I suppose I should start by introducing myself. My name is Diavolo. I am the ruler of demons, and all here know of me. And someday soon, I will be crowned king of the Devildom.”

Auva’s face screws up in bewilderment. Diavolo pauses.

“Confused? That as well is understandable, you—“

“No no, hang on. Your name is Diavolo?? Your actual name is just word devil in Italian?? Who named you, what—why?”

Diavolo laughs out loud again, and the stressed man’s palm slides down his face in obvious exasperation.

“A curious one, I see!” Diavolo booms. “Unshakeable nerves! Excellent. You may be exactly the sort of human we’re looking for.”

“Unshakeable, hah… Okay okay okay lemme just… hang on. Devildom, you said? Demons? That’s not—okay look, I don’t know how the hell I got here or, or where here even is, but you can’t believe I’m that gullible! It’s a cool story, but seriously. That’s—I’m—no. What?? Please make sense.”

Someone snickers in the background. A blond guy, sitting next to another, less blond guy with fancy looking hair. Blond guy number one seems to be laughing at stressed guy’s exasperation. Staring at his back like that, as if he’s just barely refraining from pointing and laughing.

Auva turns back to Diavolo.

“Unbelievable it may seem, but yes! It’s true! You, Auva, are one of our two human participants in this pilot year of our intra-realm exchange program. You will be staying here in the Devildom for one year, attending the Royal Academy of Diavolo… though we just call it RAD. We are standing inside the assembly hall, the very heart of RAD. This is where we officers of the student council hold our meetings and conduct our business.”

“…Okay. This might as well be happening… Do I at least have a way to refill my prescription? Get more of my clothes? Any of that?”

Diavolo waves his hand flippantly. “Yes, yes, all that is taken care of. You will find all your necessities set up in your room for the year. Lucifer will explain all the rest of that. He is a demon, as you may have gathered, and the Avatar of Pride. What’s more, the vice-president of the student council and my right hand man. Beyond that, he is also my most trusted friend. Lucifer?”

Stressed man looks far more composed now that he has been called upon.

Must be the border collie type, Auva muses. Has to feel useful or else he’ll explode, it looks like.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Diavolo.” Stressed man—Lucifer, apparently—intones. “Speaking on behalf of the entire student body at this great and storied school of ours… I offer you a most heartfelt welcome, Auva.”

Lucifer explains a few things: the purpose of the exchange program (to improve inter-realm relations), that she will have tasks, including a paper at the end of the year—to Auva’s dismay. Then, what an Avatar of Sin is, and that she will be living with them for the year for her protection, as she is the sole powerless human in the realm.

“My brother Mammon will be in charge of you. He’s… well, you’ll see. Here, take this device. It’s called a DDD. It’s a lot like the cell phones of your world. This will be yours to use for as long as you’re here. Now, go ahead and try calling Mammon with it.”

“What the fuck is my life..” Auva mumbles to herself as she takes this new cell phone.

Hell phone? How could they have not called it a hell phone?! Missed opportunity! She thinks.

The DDD is tangible. The letters and numbers on it are legible. So… she really isn’t dreaming then. Wild!

Auva succumbs to the impulse to reach out and poke Lucifer’s arm. He seems irritated.

“Sorry. Just had to make sure I’m DEFINITELY not hallucinating…” she explains as she clicks on Mammon’s contact.

It rings.

“Yooooo,” Mammon greets.

“Hi.”

“Huh? Who the hell are ya? You ain’t Lucifer.”

“I’m the goblin Lucifer plucked out of the trash. I’m your problem now, apparently.”

(Lucifer facepalms in the background.)

“Wha?? Goblin? My pr—? Ohh! I get it now, you’re the other human—the new exchange student! …Welp! G’luck with that, see yaaa!”

“Lucifer said you have to come to the assembly hall.”

“Pfft, whatever. Ya think you can scare me with that name??”

Lucifer leans over Auva’s shoulder, “you’ve got 10 seconds… 9… 8…”

“Jeez, okay! I’m coming!” Mammon yelps.

He hangs up.

“…hm. And he’ll keep me alive, you said?” Auva questions, glancing sideways at an irritated looking Lucifer.

Diavolo interjects, “well, if you were suddenly brought to a place and then told that an unfamiliar face will now take care of you, you’d certainly be anxious!”

Auva is glad to know that someone here is recognizing that, at least.

Lucifer very flippantly introduces those of his brother who are in the room. “This one here” turns out to be called Asmodeus, and “that one there” is Satan. Finally, “the one there with the very grumpy look on his face” is called Beelzebub.

All familiar names, with familiar associated sins. The introductions line up with what she presumed. Asmodeus is lust, Satan is wrath, Beelzebub is gluttony.

She’s immediately wary of Asmodeus. That instinct is quickly proven right, because as soon as she asks about him, he immediately tries to mesmerize her. It doesn’t do anything but make her a bit nauseous, to his dismay, but this does not much reassure her.

“…hold on a second. That’s weird. Lucifer, are we sure there’s a soul inside this body?” Asmodeus asks Lucifer after his attempted charm fails.

Auva bristles, stepping back from him. “…’s a bit rude, don’t you think?”

Asmodeus opens his mouth to reply, and it’s right then that Mammon bursts into the room, barking his outrage at the situation until he sees how Auva is recoiling from Asmodeus.

“HEY! Just WHO do ya think you are, human?! You’ve got a lotta nerve summoning the Great Ma—HEY!! Asmo! Hands off the human!”
Mammon interrupts his own yelling to put himself between Auva and Asmodeus, immediately demonstrating exactly why Lucifer put him in charge of her.

With open amusement, Asmo says “I thought you didn’t want this human? Getting possessive already, hmm?”

“Wh—! No!” Mammon whirls around, sticking his finger in Auva’s face.

“Listen up, human, I’m only gonna say this once. If you value your life, you’ll hand over all of your money! Now! And anything else of value, too! Otherwise I’ll—“

Mammon’s threat cuts off with a squawk, as Lucifer slaps him upside the head.

“ Mammon . As we have previously discussed, you will be in charge of seeing to this human’s needs over the course of the exchange. I expect your full cooperation.”

“Tch,” Mammon scoffs. “Previously discussed, my foot. Ordered, you mean!”

“Aww, lucky you, Mammon! I’m so jealous!” Asmo coos.

“Alright, then why don’t you do it??” Mammon retorts, turning back around to face his brothers.

“What? Hell no, too lazy.”

“You just said you were jealous!”

Satan interjects. “Just give up, Mammon. There’s no getting out of this. You know you can’t refuse a direct command from Lucifer, right?”

Mammon sighs, agitatedly pushing his hand through his hair.

“But why does it have to be me? What about Beel, why can’t he do it?”

Asmo rolls his eyes. “This isn’t a job we can entrust to Beel. We might as well ask him to EAT the human!”

Beelzebub snarfs the last of his chips, then crumples the bag. “Mm, yeah.” he says. “Can’t promise I wouldn’t.”

“You’re useless, you know that?” Mammon groans.

Auva stands awkwardly behind Mammon. She glances up at Lucifer.

With all the authority in the realm, it seems, Lucifer raises a brow at Mammon. “ Surely you’re not going to tell me you object, are you Mammon?”

Mammon slumps. Defeated. “Ugh..! I hate you guys! Every last one of ya! Fine… FINE! I’ll do it, okay?”

Mammon looks at Auva again. She offers him an awkward smile.

“Alright, human, listen up. As much as I don’t want to look after you, I’ve got no choice. It’s a huge pain in the ass and I’m too important for this kind of thing, but Lucifer told me to do it, so I will. But in return, you better make sure you don’t cause me any trouble, got it??”

Auva nods. “I guess this is our life now. I’ll try to make it easy for us.”

“Good. That’s what I like to hear. As long as you do as I say, we won’t have any problems. Just make sure ya don’t forget which one of us is the boss here!”

Auva glances at Lucifer for half a second. The boss, yep. Very clear. Couldn’t possibly forget.

Looking at Mammon, she nods once more. He scowls, having caught that look… but he does nothing about it, except delivering her a swift tap on the nose. He’s gentle about it.

He actually has a reasonably cool temper, Auva mentally notes. All bark, no bite. Hopefully he’s safe enough… as actual DEMONS go.

Chapter Text

Mammon leads Auva to this House of Lamentation, grumbling about his brothers as they walk. He plays up his annoyance, but he still noticeably slows down just enough that she can keep up with him on this unfamiliar route.

“Why should I have to look after some human?? It’s insulting, is what it is! That rotten bastard… does he really think he can scare me into doin’ whatever he wants??” Mammon grumbles to himself.

He turns to Auva. “Just so we’re clear, it’s not like I can say no to Lucifer, okay??! I only agreed to babysit you because, um… well, y’know, because… uhh… Anyway! It doesn’t matter! Just don’t go thinkin’ I’m scared of Lucifer or anything! Because I’m NOT!”

Auva blinks at him. Processing.

“Okay..? I… I believe you?”

“Right, good. Long as we’ve got that straight. Anyway! Here we are. House of Lamentation. We brothers live here together, have for millennia, it’s very conveniently placed within 10 minutes of RAD, Lord Diavolo put us here because we’re student council officers and we’re real important, blah blah blah.”

_______

This house is FANCY , is Auva’s first impression. Tall ceilings, rich-people staircase in the foyer—also the fact that they HAVE a foyer—crazy sculptures all around…

“Quit gawkin’, c’mon. I gotta show you your room.” Mammon calls.

Auva snaps out of her thoughts and scrambles to follow him. Yeaaaah, let’s avoid getting lost immediately, she thinks.

“Ya have my number, so text me all your questions later—OR! Pester some other poor bastard, I don’t care!” Mammon interrupts himself, trying to cover any implication that he might give a damn. This confuses her a bit, but she decides not to question him for now.

He looks away for a moment, glaring at a random bit of wall, before addressing Auva again. He fixes her with a sharp look.

“Now, I’m gonna give you a bit of advice, so listen REAL close: if you wanna survive even a day in the Devildom… if it EVER looks like a demon is about to attack you? Run away. Run so damn fast. Either that, or die—“

A new voice sounds from the top of the stairs.

“I vote for YOU to die, Mammon!”

Mammon yelps. Auva whirls around to look, instinctively stepping closer to Mammon.

There’s a very irritated purple haired guy on the landing.

“Levi!” Mammon says. That’s this guy’s name then. Levi starts coming down the stairs. Something about the way he begins the motion reminds Auva rather starkly of a snake lunging at its prey.

“Uh, human! This here is Leviathan, the Avatar of Envy. Third-oldest of us brothers. His name’s kinda long, so just call him Levi. Okay then, let’s move on!”

Mammon pushes Auva towards the hallway under the stairs as he hastily introduces his brother, trying to escape him. Levi’s not having it, however. He’s right next to them in a matter of seconds.

“Mammon! Give me back my money, then crawl in a hole and die!” Levi snarls.

“Come on, I told you I’d get it to you! I just need a little more time! And you still want me to die even after I give it back? That’s real harsh, Levi!”

Auva takes the opportunity to examine Leviathan while the pair of brothers argue. She passively absorbs information from the argument: Levi’s throwing a lot of very harsh words at Mammon… Mammon borrowed money from Levi over 200 years ago… Levi wants it back right now so he can buy a limited time box set… but she’s paying more attention to observing them.

It’s not just that Levi moves like a snake, she notices. He’s got slit pupils like one, too. Maybe there’s something more to that? He’s even vaguely got the ball python-esque puppy mouth shape. And notably longer incisors! He’s tall and pale and lanky, and his uniform jacket looks deliberately oversized. Not as messy as Mammon’s, though. Maybe Levi’s got more room for pockets that way? Mammon’s a bit shorter than Levi, though now that she’s really looking HIS jacket looks like it’s a bit too small for him.  In contrast to Levi, Mammon is built more along the lines of wiry than lanky. Levi’s got nice blue nail polish—now that she’s thinking of it, all the brothers she’s seen so far have nail polish. That’s cool, it suits them. Maybe they’re gonna make her wear nail polish too?

Auva snaps back to awareness as Levi rambles in her direction for the first time.

“…that ass! He ran off! Do you realize what just happened?? Mammon used you as a distraction to get away from me! Or maybe I should say he used you as a sacrifice! I’ll admit Mammon’s one of the scummiest scumbags you’ll ever meet, but still that was pretty dumb of you to let him use you like that… Ugh, this is EXACTLY why humans are—wait a second. Humans! That’s it! Come with me, I have an idea!”

Without giving Auva a moment to reply, Levi snatches her wrist and drags her up the stairs.

“I like your nail polish,” she blurts out impulsively. “Blue is pretty.”

“Wha? Oh, uhh..! A-asmo does that, he does manicures for us all every week—uh! I mean! Don’t pull those normie tactics! Do you think I can be distracted with a compliment? Because it won’t work!”

Chapter Text

“What, you don’t know WHY I checked if anyone was watching before I closed the door? Why do you THINK? Isn’t it obvious? Imagine what would happen if someone saw me inviting YOU into a room?! A human who doesn’t even look like an otaku, but a NORMIE! You know what people would say, right??” Levi scoffs at Auva as soon as she looks at him askance.

Auva looks down at her outfit. It’s for sure not an otaku look, but she’s pretty sure it doesn’t exactly scream normie.

In the human world, she regularly hears “cool it with the bones and horns, Auva” and “wear something decent, you’re scaring auntie’s church friends, Auva” and “are those pajamas? It’s like you’re not even TRYING to be hot, Auva” so she’s pretty sure she is projecting I AM QUEER AND NEURODIVERGENT reasonably well.

“I’ll admit I’m not exactly an otaku, but I’m not one of those anti-anime weirdos! I just tend to prefer things like… video game content and D&D shows! Also, what makes you think normie? I tell you, THAT’S a new one for me. It was almost refreshing for a moment, but then again… anyway, are you a snake demon? But wait, how does that work genetically, I don’t think your brothers are snake demons, are you adopted? Oh wait shit, I think that’s a rude thing to ask. Sorry. I’ll shut u—ohh, you have an aquarium!! Your room is so pretty by the way, I love the jellyfish that’s so cool! And so many figurines, whoa...”

Now it’s Levi’s turn to stop and process.

“Uh.. um, thanks? I, we’re… kind of..? We don’t really DO genetics, so I guess in a way we’re all adopted, except for—uh! N-never mind, that’s—I’m not telling you.”

Auva nods and shoots him a thumbs up and an apologetic wince.

He continues.

“Anyway. Yeah. I’m… Leviathan? THE Leviathan. OG big sea snake. Do you… do you have a problem with that??”

“No, no not at all!! Snakes are very cute, I love them! Do other people have problems with that? Because I’ll—no, I can’t fight them, demons, hah.. I can yell at them? Because really, snakes deserve better!”

Levi’s expression softens a little bit.

They continue rambling at each other for a while—Auva infodumps about fictional big sea snakes based off of him and admires his bookshelves full of manga and DVDs and video games, talks about her favourite games at length, and Levi talks about HIS favourite games, and TSL and Henry the goldfish and his jealousy at humans getting to go to human world anime conventions and his grievances against his brothers… which finally reminds them of their initial topic.

“Oh, right. I didn’t bring you here to talk about TSL. I’ll just come out and say what we already know is true: Mammon is a hopeless! Worthless! Scumbag! I lent that scumbag money, and now I want him to pay me back! I can’t miss this release, I’m so sure you understand! But, being the SCUMBAG that he is, he won’t give it back!”

Auva frowns. “I get it, and obviously you know him better than me but… maybe he’d be more cooperative without… yknow, ALL the insults?” She cautiously asks.

Levi waves that off with a derisive scoff. “Pffft, no way. He doesn’t care enough to bother living up to higher standards. It’ll only disappoint me when he’s still a scumbag, not him. Anyway, I wish I could force him to pay me back, but despite what a rotten waste of space he is, Mammon’s still the second strongest. As the third strongest, I don’t stand a chance no matter how hard I try!”

Auva smiles awkwardly—she doesn’t intend to invalidate Levi, but… she does like Mammon so far. He’s been pretty decent to her… if you ignore the abandonment, that is, but then again he had to have known that Levi wouldn’t have killed her out of anger at Mammon or anything, at least because it would anger Lucifer. She’s sure he wouldn’t have left her in REAL danger, right? She just… REALLY feels like Levi’s being excessively mean. But it’s probably a bad idea to push harder about that, especially since she’s just met both today. There’s probably so much complication there. She resolves not to touch it for now.

She tunes back in, listening to Levi explain how Mammon mistreated a figurine Levi wanted and then they physically fought about it—and even half asleep, Mammon kicked Levi’s ass.

Yeah. She’s not gonna say anything yet. Seems unwise.

“…you’ve seen how fast he is for yourself, haven’t you? Only Lucifer and Beel can come close to that kind of speed! But if, say, a human made a pact with Mammon and bound him to their service… then he’d have to do whatever that human told him to! So if YOU make a pact with Mammon and order him to pay me back, he won’t have any choice but to do it!”

Auva raises her hand to interject. “Wait, wait. Explain that to me in detail. What’s a pact, how does it work, why is it like that?”

“A pact, with a demon? Haven’t you seen that in movies an—“

“Yeah, sure, the CONCEPT, but I dunno what’s accurate, all the stories set it up differently—“

“The demon lends their power to the human to make their wish come true in exchange for their soul—“

“Soul, yeah, but is it like warlock patrons or more like a physical handover, do I die immediately after the deal’s done or do I give it at the end of my natural lifespan, do I get an afterlife or do I just get eaten or something, is there a ritual, because there’s a LOT of variation in those in the stories, also I don’t wanna give up my soul—“

“Doesn’t necessarily have to be your soul, no obviously you won’t die because Lucifer would be SO mad, it depends on the type of pact, it’s just that you have to give SOMETHING to make the exchange worth it—“

“Like what kind of types, are there standard examples I can look at? Also what would Mammon want that bad anyway?”

They fall silent for a moment as Levi thinks.

“I’ll help you figure out how to negotiate with Mammon. Also, I’m sure it would be useful having a way to make him listen to you. I mean, despite how awful he is, he’s still a powerful demon. I bet you feel worried, being dragged down here to the Devildom all of a sudden. Being given such a flaky scumbag for a protector, and all. So, I don’t think it would be a bad deal for you, don’t you think?”

“…I see the logic. I’ll want more information, but I’m definitely considering it. I do want to help you out…”

“Excellent. You may be a human, but you show promise! Okay, I have a plan. You can’t just walk up to him and ask for a pact, he’ll never agree. No, you need some leverage. A bargaining chip. Something he wants SO badly that he’d do ANYTHING to get it.”

“So… the play is, use the greed?”

“You DO show promise! Okay, we’ll figure out the specific strats later. For now… you were supposed to find your room a while ago, right? I guess I have to show you. Let’s go, then.”

Auva waves goodbye to Henry, then follows Levi out. Through the corridor, down the stairs, into the corridor under the staircase, past the kitchen, around a corner, and they arrive.

“I can’t be seen with some normie, so I’ll text you later. Bye!” Levi says, then quickly leaves.

Auva shakes her head, starting to really sympathize with Lucifer’s seemingly constant state of exasperation. If all his siblings are this full of nonsense, it’s no wonder he’s stressed.