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It was the moment of truth. He’d been waiting for this day for what felt like forever, and finally it was here. The results from the RAD Popularity Contest. Asmo was feeling pretty confident, after all everyone loved him, right? He opened his DDD, positively brimming with anticipation. Without hesitation, he scrolled through to find the results and–
11th. He’d scored 11th. 11th place out of 15 places. This couldn’t be right, it couldn’t be right at all. He refreshed the post. Still 11th. He rubbed his eyes, closed the app and opened it again, turned his DDD off and back on but the results remained the same. Mammon in 1st. Asmo in 11th.
Reluctantly, Asmo opened the comments. There was no denying it now. He really had scored that low. What would everyone think when they saw?
As the demon sat there, dumbfounded, his thoughts only spiraled faster.
Had he done something wrong? Did he not look good enough for everyone this time around? Was it something he’d said?
Questions came and went, each more nonsensical than the last, of course he hadn’t done anything wrong! But how else was he supposed to explain this abysmal result?! Everyone loved him! So why, why was he placed the lowest out of his brothers? It didn’t make any sense!
He’d just have to try even harder for next time. Would there be a next time? It didn’t matter! He would find his way into first or die trying.
First thing’s first, a plan. He would need to tighten his own regimen if he wanted to achieve anything. A wardrobe change may be in order, and he’d also need to take stock of his makeup to make sure everything was still trendy, otherwise what was the point?
It was late into the night by the time he’d finished everything. He’d just have to fix his sleep schedule tomorrow, easy enough.
Asmo caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he was putting things away. He raised his head to get a better look. His reflection stared back at him tauntingly. It wasn’t anything like how he was supposed to look. His face was too flushed, skin not smooth enough. His hair fell in all the wrong places. His eyes had lost their signature seductive shine.
He scowled, souring all his already imperfect features further.
This reflection wasn’t his own. He would never look so atrocious.
He turned from the mirror. Tomorrow was another day to further perfect himself and win back the hearts of the Devildom. He’d make sure of that.
What he hadn’t accounted for was the insufferable chatter of his brothers.
The table was livelier than usual this morning.
Mammon’s voice was the first Asmo could make out, “Can ya believe it? Me! In first! I’ll allow ya ta shower me with praise now, one at a time please.”
“Please, what were people thinking? I’m content with my spot in third though… didn’t realize I left such an impression on people,” Levi muttered to himself.
Asmo sighed and braced himself before pushing through the door to face his brothers, who had no doubt saw his place, so low compared to their own.
“Hey, look who it is!” Mammon piped up.
“Careful, I wouldn’t want to damaged his overinflated ego any more than it already is,” Belphie snickered
“Congrats Asmo,” Beel said. Unlike the rest he didn’t mean anything malicious by it, but it still stung.
“How’s it feel to be humbled, huh?” Mammon boasted.
“Careful, Mammon, karma is quite a force. Though, it is a little amusing,” Satan chuckled. He’d scored 4th on the poll.
“You think the results broke him?” Levi asked, looking Asmo up and down, “he has yet to say anything.”
Asmo simply huffed and took his seat, looking at his breakfast. He wasn’t really hungry though. Even if he was, he couldn’t eat so early in the day, it would mess with his schedule.
“It would be unfair if I hogged the spotlight all the time, no?” Asmo finally shot back at his brothers, as innocently as possible, he could betray none of his inner feelings.
“Whoa, careful there! Say something like that again and the Devildom might freeze over!” Levi laughed. Levi had scored 3rd.
“Think we should get a thermometer? Maybe he’s come down with something,” Satan teased.
Beel looked at Asmo, a little concerned, “That wouldn’t be good…”
“They’re teasing him, Beel,” Belphie clarified.
Beel only seemed more concerned, “That’s not good either.”
“Beel is right, now stop picking fights and finish up before you’re late for school,” Lucifer, who’d been silent this whole time finally said.
“Oh shaddup! You’re only mad ‘cuz you’re second ta ME! The Great Mammon!”
Lucifer narrowed his eyes, voice harshening, “That has absolutely nothing to do with it. I couldn’t care less about the results of some popularity contest.”
Mammon shrank back just a little, opting to turn his energy elsewhere, “So, Asmo- 11th place, huh?”
Asmo merely played with his fork.
Beel looked at him for a while before starting a question, “If you’re not going to eat that–”
Asmo, knowing exactly what he was going to say, answered before he could finish, “Yes, Beel, you can have it.”
Beel smiled as he pulled the plate towards himself, thanking Asmo before stuffing his face more. Lucifer regarded Asmo with a questioning stare, but if he had concerns, he didn’t voice them.
“Good luck dealing with your fellow normies today,” Levi told Asmo as he made to leave.
“Don’t forget someone like you scored high, people are going to be talking about you too. I thought you were the type to hate social interaction,” Asmo sneered. Any more of this and he might just explode here and now.
Levi went rigid at that, only seeming to realize his own situation once told about it. He left without another jab to throw.
Asmo got up, straightened up his outfit, and made for the door. Lucifer was watching him the whole time, but he pretended he didn’t notice.
The chatter at RAD was louder than usual. The Avatar of Lust who usually carried himself with overflowing confidence tried to make himself invisible amongst the crowds. Eyes stared regardless. Some of them were sympathetic, others jeering, others were downright hateful. It felt so much different from the eyes usually on him, but there were no stares of admiration to be found.
Classes felt longer than usual, highlighted with whispers and snickers. Is this what people meant when they said oh how the mighty fall?
By the time lunch had rolled around, Asmo’s usual group of fans had gathered around him. They offered apologies and words of reassurance. Asmo put up an act to reassure them everything was fine. He had to play the part if he was to win over the masses, looks alone wouldn’t be enough.
“It’s totally our fault! We weren’t strong enough, we’ll be sure to band together extra hard next time!” one of the demons surrounding him said.
“Yeah! It has nothing to do with you, you’re perfect!” another added.
Their words bounced off him though. He was already dead set on the war path he’d forged for himself. He couldn’t tell them that though.
“Aww, you flatter me!” he cooed, “But I’m telling you it’s fine. One little mishap isn’t enough to defeat me, is it?”
“Of course not!” they spoke in unison.
Asmo hadn’t eaten much for lunch either, his appetite was still in shambles and he really didn’t want to make himself sick. Hopefully it would return by dinner, lest he draw concern from his brothers. Not that they’d really notice. If anyone did it would be Beel or Lucifer. He could worry about that later, he had more classes to daydream through first.
These classes carried on much like the first, far too long. Asmo was preoccupied with planning on what to do when he got home instead of any of the subject material. The order of the tasks was important, and he had to account for the time dinner would take too.
His brothers would probably have thought up more ways to tease him about his place by now. He could already hear their voices, condescending and sickeningly amused.
The looming threat of tears pricked at his eyes. He blinked it away. The last thing his reputation needed was him crying in the middle of class. No one would ever take him seriously again if he did that.
A gentle hand on his shoulder startled him from his thoughts. He turned to see Simeon looking at him, worry etched into his features.
“Hey, the bell rang, class is over… are you okay?” the angel asked.
Asmo forced a smile and started packing up his things, “Yeah, yeah I’m okay. Why do you ask?”
“You seem distracted. Is this about the popularity contest?”
“No no it’s nothing like that,” Asmo responded, a little too hastily, “no need to worry about it!”
“Are you sure?” Simeon clearly wasn’t convinced.
“Positive! I’m just… tired today. I didn’t sleep well last night is all.” It technically wasn’t a lie either. Asmo was tired and he really didn’t sleep well, he just omitted the part that it was in fact because of the contest.
“If you say so,” the angel finally gave in, “but I’m here if you need to talk, okay?”
“Yeah, of course. Bye, Simeon,” Asmo said as he stood up. That had been his last class of the day. He was finally free to go home. He glanced at his DDD. His brothers had been blowing up the group chats all day. Asmo had been avoiding responding to any of it, he needn’t give them any more fuel to tease him.
The walk home was relatively peaceful aside from all the ignored text messages piling up.
Asmo decided he’d take the scenic route back to The House of Lamentation today. The less he faced his brothers, the better.
Asmo stepped through the front door and checked to see if the coast was clear. He tried to slink to his room unnoticed, only to be stopped by Satan. Great.
“There you are! We were starting to think you’d gone and disappeared or something.”
“Please, what would the world do without me? I couldn’t go and disappear on everyone like that~” Asmo said, offering his most charming smile.
Satan merely huffed a laugh, “Glad to see you’re back to your normal self, dinner will be ready soon.”
With that, Satan took his leave. Asmo was a far cry from his normal self but if the act was working that was a good thing. Now he just had to wind down and start his evening routine. He washed up his face and applied everything he needed to with practiced efficiency.
But that’s as far as he got before being called down for dinner.
For the second time that day, Asmo took his place at the table and prepared for a barrage of jokes made at his expense.
He was measuring out what he was allowed to eat by eye when Mammon sat down.
“Man! What a crazy day that was, huh? You should’ve seen me- people couldn’t help but stare!”
“That’s nothing new, the only difference is they weren’t looking at you because you were making a fool of yourself for once,” Levi said as he walked over, “on the other hand, I had to deal with people congratulating me all day! Do you have any idea how exhausting that was!” his gaze turned onto Asmo, “But I suppose that’s better than looks of confusion and disdain.”
Asmo’s grip tightened around his fork.
“That was nothin’ compared to the conversations goin’ on around ya, Asmo! Lotta rumors going around. You sure you didn’t do anything to piss people off?” Mammon teased.
“You should’ve seen him in class, he was so distracted the world was completely lost on him,” Belphie added as he sat down with Beel.
The repressed fleury of emotions in Asmo kicked up into a snowstorm, but he fought to quell the bitter cold taking hold of his limbs.
“Is that all you’re going to eat?” Beel asked, gesturing to his plate. There was only a little less than his normal on it, but he guesses it made sense for Beel to pick up on anything regarding food.
“As a matter of fact it is,” Asmo snapped. He hadn’t meant to answer so harshly, but his already frayed nerves were being grated further.
“Whoa there, careful Beel. Guess his placement is having a larger effect on him than he’s letting on.” Mammon chuckled.
Asmo tuned the rest of their remarks out in favor of his mind conjuring up its own harsh questions and comments about himself.
Yeah I get it, I’m a mess, keep talking.
Why would anyone love someone so ugly anyway?
Why am I even here? Clearly they don’t care either.
What happens if I can’t fix this? If everyone leaves?
Sick. He felt sick.
“Asmo? You alright? You’ve been oddly quiet all day,” Satan asked.
His anxiety-clouded mind prevented him from answering. Instead he set his fork down and started getting up.
“What’s the matter? You really that upset over some silly contest? It doesn’t really mean that much, y’know?” Mammon stated bluntly.
“Funny.”
“Huh?”
“It’s funny… how you say that- yet you just keep going on and on about how you placed first. Seems like it means a lot to you!” Asmo turned to leave, running up to his room before any tears could fall. So what if it upset him? So what if it meant everything? So what if his entire world and perceived state of himself were crumbling down around him because of it? Was he supposed to brush all that off.
He longed to curl up and hide. Like a wounded animal.
His reflection lingered in the corner of his eye. Disdain on its face. Disdain towards the world. Towards himself. How he longed to shatter that stupid mirror. That mirror that lied.
There was a knock at his door, followed by a voice.
“Asmodeus?” It was Lucifer.
“I’m a little busy,” he forced out through tears. He couldn’t make them stop no matter how hard he tried. They were hot and sticky and they marred his face, but he was helpless against them.
“Busy with what? Can I come in?” Lucifer’s voice remained calm, even.
“Busy with things, and no! You may not come in!” It was getting harder to respond through the sobbing. He’d even lost control of his breathing, like the pathetic sorry excuse of a demon he was.
There were murmurs behind his door, several voices morphing into one.
Another knock, Mammon this time.
“Hey… Ya coulda asked me to stop earlier… if it was upsetting you.”
“Do you really even care? I don’t want to hear it… go away,” Asmo seethed. Was Mammon really going to step back now? It was a little late for apologies.
“Great going genius,” he heard Levi say, “all you had to do was properly say sorry!”
“You were in on it too and I don’t hear you saying sorry!”
“Enough,” Lucifer cut their squabble off, “Asmo, open the door.”
The last thing he needed was to be seen like this, “I’m not going to!”
“Asmo. If you don’t open the door I will.”
Asmo didn’t reply, instead he made for his bed.
“I do not want to see you hurt yourself over this.” Lucifer was clearly losing patience, but he also wasn’t one to give up.
“Who said anything about hurting themselves?”
“A routine too strict does more harm than good.” The sound of the doorknob being messed with came after those words.
Effortlessly, Lucifer unlocked the door using magic. Asmo hid his face in his blankets.
His oldest brother stepped in the room, blocking the others from entering. He was silent for a while, simply watching as Asmo broke down.
Eventually, he spoke, “Look at me.”
Asmo hesitantly raised his head. At least he’d managed to remove his makeup before dinner, otherwise he’d be a tried and true mess right now.
Lucifer approached and sat down, his movements were gentle.
“Come here,” he said, opening his arms.
Asmo narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but scooted closer to allow himself to be hugged. He was pulled in gingerly and held close.
“We’ll figure all of this out another day, okay?”
“Okay…” Asmo mumbled.
“For now, get comfortable. Focus on working out your emotions.”
Mammon peeked into the room, “Got space for one more?” he asked, hesitating.
“I guess,” Asmo said, sniffling.
“I want a clear answer.”
The fifth sighed, “Yes, you can come here…”
Mammon shuffled over, making himself comfortable.
Gradually the others joined in. Asmo would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the attention. But he still felt he didn’t deserve it.
“Your value can’t be weighed off of some silly contest,” Lucifer said.
“Yeah… we tease, but you know we love you, right?” Levi added.
Asmo curled further into Lucifer,” You don’t exactly make it obvious for me…”
“Asmo… we could never hate our baby brother,” Mammon said, ruffling his hair gently.
“I’m not really good with words… but I’m willing to share my snacks with you,” Beel added.
Belphie nodded, “Or we could just spend time together. Who cares what a poll’s results are? You have us.”
“You’re right… guess I’m being irrational…” Asmo murmured.
“It’s not irrational to feel things,” Lucifer reassured, “but please, come to us if you need help.”
“Yeah… yeah I will…”
Asmo still felt the ache of his self-worth having taken a hit. But it would heal in time. He could course correct as he went.
One by one, his brothers left, until it was just Lucifer and him.
“So… are you going to go, or?”
“I’ll go when I feel it necessary,” Lucifer answered.
Asmo shrugged, “Suit yourself.”
Without realizing it, he’d fallen asleep.
When he woke up, he was carefully tucked in. A smile ghosted across his face. Today was another day.