Devil, Devil-ish, or Victim?

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Devil, Devil-ish, or Victim?

Have you ever noticed the immense pleasure you get from wandering aimlessly through the city, window shopping or chatting online with friends (watching TV or cleaning and re-arranging a very well arranged apartment is just as effective) the day before an assignment is due? Something about knowing you should be working on your assignment with all engines on full capacity makes you want to divert them to opposite interests. The more you try to sit and focus on the task, the more people tell you interesting things happening around you and tempt you away from it.

I recently got addicted to Reaper, a TV series about the Devil tempting people into selling their souls. I wonder if this is how the Devil tempts students into selling their souls. It is an interesting tactic I must say. Step one: Tempt teachers into suggesting long and weary assignments. Step two: tempt parents into paying oodles of money to universities as fees. Step three: tempt students into aiming to do well in assignments. Step four: make them forget their deadlines. Step five: introduce interruptions and distractions in the form of all God’s creations with an edge to them. Step six: Dangle a carrot called ‘High Distinction’ , ‘appreciation’, ‘careers’ or ‘money in the future’ in front of their faces, close enough to touch, but a few millimetres off reach. Step seven: Sit back and wait for them to pray to God for more time or that they finish on time. Then swoop in, offer the extra time they pray for, the HD they wish for, the appreciation, careers and money in exchange for their souls. Once the souls no longer belong to the people, the easiest thing to do is to make them act according to his or her every whim.

I say his or her because I really am quite convinced that the Devil appears as hot men to women and as a hot woman to men. And to support my theory, I was visited by a very interesting musician the day before my essay was due. He sang songs that made me swoon. He told me stories about his life that made me gape at him with awe. Now when I don’t have any assignments due in the immediate future, I haven’t seen him! I haven’t even heard him! A friend of mine had an essay due today. Yesterday, I hounded her into playing Monopoly on a board so small, that it wouldn’t even be able to serve as a coaster for a decent pint of beer. I made her squint to read the names of the places on the board, count money and calculate rent. After that, I made her come out drinking and bowling with some common friends. Later that night, I’m sure she silently cursed, wished, prayed and hoped she would finish her work. And she did. I am not convinced she owns her soul anymore.

My flatmate had an early morning class. After some excellent beer at a local pub, she was in the ‘groove’ and wanted more alcohol. I am not sure if I tempted her or if the Devil himself did. After walking a short distance, we entered a different pub that had a bowling alley attached to it. We ordered a few drinks and flirted with the bartender. The fact that we got a bartender too smashed to tell the difference between Australian dollars or Monopoly currency, who later offered us a game of bowling on the house seems like a true tempt. We should have left, but we took the bait and ended up doing a bunch of B52s, tequila shots and more before rolling into our apartment prepared to drift into a slumber. As expected my flatmate didn’t attend her morning class. Do you see a pattern here? Am I the common factor in all these scenarios? Am I the devil in her female form? However, I am not hot, I don’t look tempting in any way, nor do I have any special powers that I know of. However, another common factor in these scenarios is the smooth talking flirt that I became. Was I empowered with devil-ish powers in them? I’m not complaining about any of it at all. However, I am incredibly fascinated, suspicious and delighted by it.