Hi Colt! I'm not sure if you remember me, actually. So... Checking in to see if you do. It's Zack!
Oh! Hi! [ user has to stop and think very hard on it before remembering her weird interaction with a stranger who didn't feel like a stranger. everything that came after, well... she had figured the whole thing to be a bad dream after waking up some time later that night, finding herself inexplicably home and in bed ] Zack, yeah, uh... so that actually happened? Meeting you in that cafe, I mean. [ user can't accept everything that came after so decides to ignore it ] Sometimes I have such vivid dreams, you know? I thought maybe that's all it was.
Hiya! I'm Sawyer Rhodes and I'm officially running for Wicked's Rest Town Council! [This is not true. User has not filled out any paperwork or gotten any signatures to run. Also, is there even an upcoming election? She sure as hell does not know.] I believe that our current council is filled with ugly old bats who don't know the first thing about the twenty-first century. I'm young and hot, and I'll bring about lots of changes to our unique, fun town to make us even more hot and fun! Vote for me! [User links to her very serious powerpoint, Ban Shirts 2026.]
Hm! Yes, this is a very compelling argument. You've got my vote! Less shirts, lets ugly old bats! Aside from banning shirts, what other improvements do you plan on making? Inquiring minds want to know!
TIMING: Current
LOCATION: A cafe + Colt's Netherville apartment
PARTIES: Colt (@californiacolt) & Zack (@zackbanes)
SUMMARY: Zack is in public minding his own business when a weird woman (Colt) approaches him, acting like she knows him. Only, she isn't acting.
CONTENT WARNINGS: n/a
—
Even though it felt like a lot of her recent misadventures had begun with her trying to make coffee or tea, that didn’t stop Colt from pursuing her liquid passions… even if it did make her look over her shoulder a lot more than usual, now. She was out and about in town, hitting up a few different spices and herbs shops for ingredients to throw in with the blends she was growing at home. But after hours of scouring shelves full of jars of delicious-smelling vegetation, she was craving a brewed cup of her own and also lacking the patience to get everything home first.
Stepping inside a coffee and tea shop next, the woman smiled to herself. Ah. There was almost nothing better than the smell of a cafe, was there? Dainty little pastries sat on display in a case near the register, the baristas happily crafting undoubtedly delicious drinks for their patrons. The whole place had a friendly vibe that Colt could really use right now. She swept her gaze over the tables, looking for a place she could park her butt for a little bit with a mug of tea and her bags of herbs. There were a couple open spots, but—
Her breath caught in her throat and that smile dropped away. A spike of adrenaline made her hands start to shake, and she quickly twisted them into the sleeves of her shirt to try and calm herself down. Her gaze was fixed on one person in particular: someone she didn’t know, sitting at a table by himself with his laptop. She kept trying to look away, aware that she was staring, but she couldn’t help but continue to look back at him after only a few seconds. Confused, Colt moved to turn around where she couldn’t stare at him anymore, only… wait, that wasn’t what she’d told her feet to do. They were carrying her toward the stranger, which immediately mortified her. Oh my god! Stop! Her pleas went unanswered, and as her vision started to darken around the edges, she worried that she was about to pass out halfway to his table.
She never got the chance to find out, and the person that walked up to the table and pulled out the chair, sitting down without a word, was not Colt, though it still looked like her.
A short, awkward silence passed between them as their eyes met – something deep in Not-Colt’s chest ached unexpectedly, prompting it to speak.
“You came back?”
—
At some point over the past two weeks, the state of Zack’s work email inbox had become untenable. For all that he liked his work, the admin tasks of keeping up with client communication was not his favorite. He often put off the less pressing emails for a day or two…or several more. And that’s how he ended up with an inbox that made him anxious enough to not even open the server. Finally he had just mustered his courage and decided to devote one full day to getting through the slog. He thought maybe a fun little drink would help, so he had loaded his laptop into his bag and headed out to one of his favorite spots.
This cafe had the best tea selection, offering almost as many options for tea drinks as for coffee, which was a rare find. Zack was on his second drink and just starting to see the light at the end of his inbox tunnel when there was the shuffle of movement across his table. Looking up, he found a woman sitting in the empty seat, looking a little…spaced. Usually people would ask if they could join a stranger’s table, but he didn’t mind the intrusion too much. It was common enough to share when a cafe was crowded.
…But this one wasn’t, really. There were at least two completely empty tables, in fact. Zack looked back to the stranger, waiting for some explanation. He was startled by what she did say, and felt immediately on his guard. “I… Sorry, do I know you?” He didn’t recognize the woman at all – but she seemed to know that he had been in Wicked’s Rest previously before leaving. It wasn’t…entirely unreasonable to think that there were more than a handful of people that Zack wouldn’t recognize from hooks up during his last tenure in Maine. But he didn’t think any of them would know that he had left town and was now back. Frankly, he didn’t think any of them would recognize him anymore than he would recognize them.
Which left him with the issue of the person sitting across from him. “Did we…meet a few years ago?”
—
“No!” she blurted. She had not met this attractive man a few years ago! So why was something in her chest hurting like it did when she saw someone she deeply missed for the first time in a long time? “I-I mean, uhh…” Colt squeezed her eyes shut, huffing out a breath. “Maybe? Hang on, I need to…” Her voice trailed off and her posture slumped in the seat for a moment before she brought her hands to her face and laughed. It was soft and breathy, amused and frustrated at the same time, and when she lifted her head again, her eyes were no longer their typical dark brown. They were seafoam green, in brilliant contrast to the dark, salmon-pink tipped hair that framed them.
Her expression had changed from confusion to warm affection, and she reached a hand halfway across the table, offering it to the stranger.
Well, no, he wasn’t a stranger. Far from it, in fact. At least to this consciousness, the one currently taking up all the space in Colt’s head and ignoring the way she shouted in protest in their shared mind.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again, Zack” she breathed, in a voice that both did and did not sound like her own. In her own head, Colt’s awareness seemed to quiet down as she watched the exchange, her anger at being pushed away dampened for the moment by her own insatiable curiosity. Who was this guy? And who… who was driving them right now? She laughed again, fondly this time. “You look good.”
—
Zack was still confused, but he had also grown more concerned for the women before him. “Hey, take your time,” he told her gently, eyeing her face carefully. Who knew what she was going through. If it was something medical, though, he wouldn’t be much use. But he could at least be watchful, and try to get help before anything too terrible happened. Provide some useful information, if it came to that. Like, for example, her eyes completely changing color…
Those eyes, though. Zack knew those eyes. He had spent hours, it seemed, staring into them. Dopey on pain meds after a worm had eaten through his leg, sun-drunk and dazedly happy on some beach in Mykynos, holed up those last few days in a beach hut on a private island… Zack knew those eyes but it was impossible. Or. Maybe it wasn’t. Levi was some kind of demon after all, right? Or something else, entirely, Zack had never really understood the metaphysics. And maybe it was down to those metaphysics – why couldn’t it take another…host? Vessel? Body. Maybe this was its new form. A departure from how Zack had known it, sure, but maybe it just liked to switch things up every few centuries (millennia?).
“Levi?” he finally asked, voice a warm rush. Swallowing, he reached across the table and met that hand there. It didn’t feel familiar, but why would it? This wasn’t that body, even if it were Levi inside it. “Thanks.” A strangled, half-laugh tipped past his lips. “You look…different. Real different.”
And, it rang through with sudden clarity – there was someone else in there with Levi. Someone who hadn’t known Zack, who had been confused by the whole encounter. Who didn’t know that she was sharing a body, it seemed. He flinched and gently worked his hand out of hers. Its? Theirs. Whoever’s body this was, she didn’t know Zack and likely wouldn’t want to be holding the hand of some stranger. “What…are you doing, exactly?” He pointedly flickered his eyes and up and down, indicating the other person.
—
It was a fair question. And not one that was easy to immediately answer, especially given that it would make Leviathan feel vulnerable. It hated feeling vulnerable. (And yet kept getting itself into relationships and situations that were inherently vulnerable! Go figure.) It glanced around them at the other patrons of the coffee shop before shaking its head. “Not here,” it explained (or didn’t). Twisting in the seat they were planted in, it looked up at the menu hanging over where one ordered their drink. “Go on then, pick what you want. Won’t make you come all this way just to leave empty-handed.” It was speaking in a quiet voice to itself, of course. To the woman that was acting as its vessel, who was being allowed a surprising amount of awareness given the situation. It had never done this before, never addressed its host directly (on the rare occasion it TOOK a host rather than just making itself a flesh and blood human disguise). But, circumstances as they were… desperate times, desperate measures, et cetera. It let her think, equally as surprised by her calm emotions as she was by spoken to so plainly. Not that the thing inside her mind talking to her really answered any of her fucking questions, but maybe if she sat back and let this play out, she’d get some answers. So she picked her drink and settled in, quiet as their shared body stood up from the chair.
Leviathan turned to face Zack and gave him another smile. “She’s got a place in Netherville. Let’s head back there and talk.” After getting the woman the treat she honestly deserved.
Some time later, the pair (trio?) found themselves alone in Colt’s apartment. Well, alone besides the badalisc that circled around their feet before being told to go sit outside the door and warn them of anyone who decided to snoop. Unlikely, but Leviathan was more paranoid these days. It sipped on the drink Colt had chosen, enjoying the flavor even if it was kind of weird to be sharing tastebuds with someone else.
They set the drink down, the woman still very much riding in the backseat for this exchange (since anything she said obviously would not be helpful in explaining the situation), but she was alert and curious to hear what this… this guy called Levi, apparently, had to say for himself. Up to now, she had considered the impulses she got and the voice in her head to be just that: made up. Figments of an overactive imagination. Tasks that she had to perform or else she couldn’t sleep at night. Nothing like this. Nothing like a whole other person being in here with her. And honestly, she probably would have been freaking the fuck out about it if not for the man sitting across from them, who seemed so gentle and genuinely excited to be hearing from Levi. So the pitterpatter of her heart as her own mind wanted to flip its shit was ignored in favor of understanding. She could freak out later.
“So, it’s complicated.” A fucking understatement. “I would have just made my own body, like the one you knew, but… I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself. And doing it this way, piggybacking on a human, is a lot more discreet.” They cleared their throat, feeling itchy as that vulnerability was laid bare in front of Zack. “Still in hot water with the other big dicks around this universe, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had sentries out looking for me. But… I had to come back. This woman just stumbled directly into my hiding place and was exactly what I needed to get back here and try to find a way to fix… everything.” It gestured at the town that sat mostly overhead, impatience leaking into its tone. “The failing magic. That was… very, very slightly my fault. Because I didn’t play the part I was meant to.”
—
It seemed that Levi was at least in some kind of conversation with the person whose body he was residing in. That soothed some of Zack’s conflict. At least the woman wasn’t completely in the dark about what was happening to her own body. Or about the strange man she didn’t know coming into her home. He was surprised to see Gaba still around and kicking, and wary as ever of the badalisc – but maybe it made sense he would be around if Levi was.
Zack listened as Levi laid out the bare bones of its situation. He had gotten accustomed to not really understanding the demon’s circumstances, or, understanding but not really being able to comprehend the full scope. Coming back to Wicked’s Rest and communing with Netherville as he had been doing had given him some perspective, as had his magic studies with Rosemary. There were different planes, with different energies, and different beings. Some of the beings from Levi’s plane were not happy with it. And that had, somehow, brought about all the trouble with magic.
“Wait. It’s not dangerous for her, is it?” Sure, this woman had apparently wandered into Levi’s enclosure, but that didn’t mean she should get wrapped up in whatever interdimensional power struggle was going on. “I know you want to…fix things, but she shouldn’t get caught up in all that.” Whoever Levi was wearing should have a say in her involvement, just as Zack had willingly chosen to get involved with solving the problem of the town’s magic.
“What…part were you meant to play?” His brow furrowed as he tried, once again, to wrap his head around all that Levi was and could be. Powerful enough to alter all of the magic in Wicked’s Rest, a thing that had been so constant for so long. “I helped fix it. I mean, a bunch of us did.” Not just Rosemary and Henri and Mateo, apparently, but so many citizens across the town. Lil had mentioned something about a demon being at the center of the town’s previous magic supply. Could she have possibly meant Levi? It has said, after all, that it was very, very slightly at fault.
With the magic fixed now, would that mean that Levi would cut and run out of town, like it apparently had before? Not that Zack was in any position to judge.
—
“What, being possessed? No, I mean… not inherently. I’m not poisoning her or anything,” Levi responded. Colt tensed, finding this information difficult to accept. Possessed. She was being possessed? What, like… like that girl from the exorcist? This voice in her head, this creature she’d assumed she had created as a result of stress was… a demon?
That was insane. She was insane. She was having some kind of mental break, obviously. Her mind had partitioned itself, and this was some bizarro sort of coping mechanism. For what, she had no fucking idea. As far as she knew, there was no trauma in her life significant enough to totally break her perception of reality, but then here she sat, talking with some stranger about possession and magic and all manner of things that didn’t — couldn’t — exist. And seriously, who was this stranger? How did he know her? Why was he calling her Levi? Had she been moonlighting as a demon during the night? Was that why she was so fucking tired all the time?
“Anyway, she wanted to help,” Levi continued. Colt bristled a bit at that — had she? Or was that an idea that this other version of herself had planted in her mind? Levi sensed the tension, but ignored it. “And she did help. Dug up that old bug that’s down here now, powering that impressive battery you and your friends built. As for me, ah… when the last demon got free of its prison, it needed to be recaptured or killed. The town saw to killing it, brutes that they are, so then there was a power vacuum. Places like this don’t exist entirely on their own, Zack. They need help. They need something like a greater demon to feed the magic supply and keep the ecosystem in balance.” Colt’s head was reeling now, and she had half a mind to retreat back into a dark corner where she didn’t have to hear the words coming out of her own mouth anymore. “I… I was supposed to replace it. I didn’t make that decision, obviously, but more or less got duped into it by some other greater demons after I killed Wyvss’Kgorr. It’s a long, stupid story, but suffice it to say that I didn’t hold up my end of the deal and I took off to avoid getting suckered into an eternity of being this hub’s battery.” She felt her shoulders shrug in a way that seemed entirely too nonchalant for whatever the fuck she was talking about. “So it just continued to fail, as you experienced. And… yeah. Anyway. I was able to use this woman as a vessel to get back here and start looking for solutions. And we succeeded! So hooray. No hard feelings, right?”
—
Zack shook his head, trying to look at the woman and not see Levi, the shape of Levi that he remembered. She was pretty, had a broad smile and dark eyes – he would’ve liked to know her as her. “No. Not the possession. I mean, if those big guys from your dimension or whatever are on the lookout for you, doesn’t that mean she could get caught in the crossfire?” Not that he wanted Levi to get nabbed either, but the body he was in was wholly innocent. It didn’t seem fair for her to get caught in some shootout with demons and gods just because she had wandered too close to Netherville.
(Which. Should Zack be concerned about that, with his Netherville ventures? No, right? It wasn’t likely that would happen twice in Wicked’s Rest. Right?)
He nodded along, trying to follow the interdimensional power struggle. The demon the town killed… He had heard about that, back when he first came back. Had been worried, in fact, that it was Levi. It hadn’t been apparently, but there was a different part it was meant to play and instead…it ran. Not like that was something Zack could blame him for. And even if he could… He understood Levi not wanting to be trapped underground for all eternity just to be some kind of magical solution for the town. “I mean, look. I don’t blame you for not wanting to be a battery. It’s kind of the town’s own fault, if you ask me, for taking the magical source for granted for so long.”
His eyes scanned the woman’s face, trying once more to see past the overlay of Levi’s that his mind provided. “So then… They’re not coming after you any more?” The town was fixed, that much was true, but Zack wouldn’t be surprised if whatever greater demons had conned Levi into the deal were still planning to collect. Levi, he knew, wouldn’t have likely let a deal go without payout. “You did what you needed to do. Doesn’t that mean you can…let her go?”
—
“Ah. Well… they probably wouldn’t hurt her if I bailed out of this body. Why bother, right?” Said as if taking a human life required any amount of actual effort for a greater demon, which… Zack didn’t need to know that. “Anyway, they don’t think I’m anywhere near here, I’m pretty sure. This is more a safety precaution than anything, until their egos calm down and they forget it ever happened. So… she’ll be fine.” Again, probably.
Right. It was glad to hear Zack say so, even though anyone who did fault it for not waiting to be trapped underground forever as a dormant power source could go fuck right off. It had done plenty of altruistic things in its life… it deserved to be selfish, in this case.
“That’s not clear to me. But no, I can’t let her go. Or, rather, I could, but I’d need to jump to another host.” It paused, wondering if something had been misunderstood, then realized its explanation was wordy and winding and failed to mention a rather important detail. “Ah. I see where the confusion lies. My body, or the current version of it, is back in… Norway, was it? Some icy, remote cave. It’s a miracle that this woman wandered into it, actually… she was really going off the beaten path. But I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by, seeing as how another one might never present itself. If I were to come here as myself, with my own body, I fear it would be too obvious to anyone who might still be lurking around, looking for me. We can kind of… feel it, if that makes sense. When we’re around one another. It feels very different from any other kind of presence. She helps me mask that, helps me muddy the waters. That’s just how it’s got to be.”
—
Levi’s explanation did calm Zack down, mostly. The woman that it had taken as a vessel (would that be the right term? That’s how Levi described it and Zack didn’t really have a better word for it so…) would be safe, which was his main concern. His second concern was that Levi would be safe. It was a little odd to feel that worry, given the being in question was an eldritch demon so old that it hurt Zack’s head to think about it. But. There were bigger demons at play, apparently. But those didn’t know where Levi was and it seemed to think it would be safe as long as it was in this vessel- woman-
“Do you know her name?” Zack asked finally, gesturing broadly at the woman he was sitting across from. “I feel weird thinking of her as just, like. Your vessel.” Which brought up another question: “Does she know what’s going on? I mean, is she…awake in there right now? Are you communicating with her?”
Already his mind was turning with the possible aid his magic could offer. Maybe there was some kind of spell, or enchanted object, that could mask the presence that Levi was talking about. Then it could go back to its old body and this woman would be free to…do whatever she was doing before she ended up in fucking Norway. But it wasn’t likely that Zack’s human spellcasting would be any kind of match for demons and gods. Levi had been impressed by what he could do with fire, those years back, but he had a feeling that its desire to sleep with him had played into that at least a little. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
—
The demon paused for a long moment before speaking again. It didn’t love the idea of openly acknowledging this woman’s personhood, because that was just going to make things harder. People got very weird about not being in control of their bodies, and the people around them got weird about it, too. It could see that Zack was wrestling with this exact dilemma before he even spoke up about it: asking if she was aware. It would have preferred to keep what connection it had with her private, but as things were…
“Her name is Colt. And… she’s awake when I allow her to be. I have tried communicating with her, but it tends to make her panic more than anything. Which is unhelpful.” It shifted in its seat, leaning forward to take one of Zack’s hands between its own. Really, there was a lot more it wanted to do, now that it had him here alone, but it wasn’t stupid. It knew Zack wouldn’t be comfortable with that, given the vessel of it all. Again, annoying. “If you really want to help, my little rocoto pepper…” It paused, recalling the years-old conversation about finding an apt nickname for Zack with a slight smirk, “... then help her understand. What I am, why I need her. That I’m not going to harm her. Maybe, if you can, make friends with her. Help her feel less alone.” It let out a breath, shaking its head. “It’s a lot to ask, I know. But I also know that her being pushed aside isn’t something that’s going to sit well with you.” Or Emilio, for that matter, who had posed a similar question before leaving. “And I want to see you, and I want it to be easy.” It could never be easy, but maybe easier.
—
“Colt,” Zack repeated, as if it was some way to at least acknowledge that there was someone else here with them. Someone else who was responsible for the fact that Levi could even be here at all. “I mean, I can understand why she panics.” Zack now knew himself what it felt like to be taken over by something else. That situation, of course, had been different but he still wore the shadow of that experience. If he could get her to understand the situation better, though, that might help her to calm down. Not just for Levi’s sake, but for her own, too. If she understood the situation better, she could at least participate in the decisions about it.
The nickname drew a smile, if a reluctant one, to Zack’s face. That had been one of their running jokes – Levi trying to find a good nickname for him and Zack rejected each one. “I still don’t think that works,” he said, giving in to the game. “I can try. I won’t convince her, but I can explain that you’re basically good and that you don’t want to hurt her.” He knew that was the truth, at least. It sucked that Colt was made to share her body with no real say in things, but Zack had to admit that Levi wasn’t such a bad co-host, all things considered.
“And you’re right. It wouldn’t sit easy with me.” He would try to make things easier. Zack liked being useful, after all. Being able to help. “Okay. I’ll explain things to her, as best I can. And if she wants to hang out with me, then we can be friends.” He would do that for Levi. For Colt, most of all. “And when she’s okay with letting you out, then…you can see me.”
—
When she’s okay with letting you out. The prerequisite for being able to spend time with Zack was not something Levi was especially fond of, but it wouldn’t complain. Not yet, at least. But if Colt ended up standing in the way more than she cooperated, well… that was a bridge they could cross later. One it hoped they wouldn’t come to at all. Having one thing go well would be a nice change of fucking pace, actually.
Anyway.
It smiled Colt’s bright, agreeable smile, nodding with satisfaction regarding this arrangement. “Fantastic. I’m sure you two will become great friends. If I’ve learned anything from observing her, she’s the kind of person that can befriend just about anyone.” It wasn’t untrue, and it was a fact the demon was thankful for in this moment, where snatching back a piece of its old life felt so close but still so far away. “Now. Enough about me and my very dull time spent living in caves… tell me about what you’ve been up to these past few years? Hopefully not taking luxurious vacations to Greece with any other greater demons?” There was a glint of mischief in its eyes and the wide grin that it wore, genuinely eager to reconnect with someone it had cared quite deeply for in its past life. And it hoped, despite always having maintained the idea that it was above all that human connection nonsense (it was not, and had fallen victim to caring more than once while living in this town), that Zack felt the same.
TIMING: sometime before a hunter's hunter.
LOCATION: colt's apartment
PARTIES: @californiacolt & @vengeancedemon
SUMMARY: emilio goes to colt's place to confront gabagool, and is met with a surprise.
CONTENT WARNINGS: references to alcoholism.
It wasn’t particularly hard to track down the address of the woman who’d posted Gabagool’s photo online. She’d mentioned publicly that she lived in Netherville, and there weren’t that many residences in that part of town yet. From there, it was a pretty simple matter of using his detective skills to find a more specific address to head to.
In all honesty, Emilio had no idea what he was hoping to get out of any of this. Seeing Gabagool would inevitably make him think of Teddy, and he wasn’t quite ready for the ache that that thought always sent through him. But there was the itch, too. Like the urge to pick at a scab, it denied him the possibility of leaving well enough alone. He needed to see what Gabagool was doing, because allowing that thought to consume him was so much better than allowing himself to think of everything else in his life. It could distract him from Arden, from Owen, from his empty chest and his dead lungs.
So, he was in Netherville. He was standing in front of a stranger’s door, he was rapping his knuckles against the wood. When the door opened, he barely looked at the woman standing behind it. Instead, he was already peering behind her. “Where is that little shit?” He demanded, not forcing his way into the apartment quite yet. Maybe he would, if Gabagool didn’t come to the damn door. “Gabagool! Get your ass out here.”
—
Her tea kettle was screaming on the stovetop, and Colt hurried out of the bathroom to shut it off, cursing under her breath. She’d forgotten that she’d put it on before deciding to take a shower, so her sprint was constricted by the towel she’d thrown on around herself for modesty’s sake… and no one else’s, because she lived alone. There was Doorknob, of course... Bob, but he was just an animal. Whatever. Maybe she wasn’t confident that if her new furry friend could get in so easily, that someone else wouldn’t be able to, too. She really needed to have a good look around this place and find where the little rascal had—
Removing the kettle from the burner and turning it off, she heard knocking on her front door over the sound of its dying scream, which immediately set her on edge. Goddamnit, she hissed to herself, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Hang on!” she shouted, rushing back toward her bedroom and nearly tripping over Doorknob in the process, who was bounding down the hallway toward the front door. She threw her towel on her bed, snatching the first pair of shorts and a t-shirt she spotted in her dresser and throwing them on. The knocking was still going, sending her back to the foyer in a hurry. “Okay, okay, keep your pants on!” She hiked her shorts down a touch, then pulled the door open.
A stranger stood there, looking… annoyed. Sounding annoyed. “Who?” she responded a little defensively, moving back into the man’s line of sight as he clearly tried to see into her apartment. Oh… wait a minute, wasn’t that the weird ass name that dude online had called Doorknob? “Oh my god, it’s you!” She would have laughed, except this guy had figured out who she was and where she lived very easily, which was… unsettling. “Dude, I told you, take your paranoia somewhere else!”
—
No sign of Gabagool straight away, and Emilio took a moment to wonder what the demon’s motivation was with all of this. If he was here now, did that mean Levi left town again? Did it mean Teddy had, too? Maybe that was part of it, why he’d stormed up to a stranger’s door to demand some explanation. Maybe some part of him wanted to know, even if he probably didn’t deserve any sort of answers. But… the truth of the matter was that Gabagool was his own being. He had existed long before meeting Levi, and was hardly attached to the greater demon by the hip. He was probably here because he was bored, because this woman — whoever she was — gave him some kind of gossip that intrigued him enough to keep him around. Emilio was, as he often did, assigning more importance to something than it had earned.
But doing this kept his mind focused on something else, even if only for a moment. He could not slip his heart back into his chest, would not have been able to convince it to beat again even if he could have. He could not raise himself from the dead in any kind of way that mattered, but maybe he could argue with Gabagool and pretend he was still the same person he’d been the last time they’d gone head to head. Maybe he could find some piece of the person he’d lost in that alley, even if it was only a small one.
“This is not paranoia,” he insisted, shooting the woman a glare. Later, he’d probably feel bad for tracking her down like this, but he didn’t feel that way right now. Right now, he was so wholly focused on the idea of tracking down that terrible little demon that nothing else really mattered. “I need to talk to him. About the money he owes me!” He raised his voice a little, hoping the creature — which was surely somewhere in the apartment — would hear.
—
Colt pressed her lips into a thin line, glaring right back at the asshole. “Okay, listen here, jerk, this is private property. You can’t just come barging in here demanding to see my…” She paused, thinking of what he’d called Doorknob online. A demon. Absolutely insane. “... dog. Now fuck off, before I—”
Doorknob, who had been lingering in the kitchen and listening to the exchange, finally sauntered into view. He placed himself securely between Colt’s legs, staring up at the stranger with a grin on his face and a look of recognition in his eyes that seemed… too human. Colt had fallen silent, watching the little creature with a lump forming in her throat. “B-Bob?” she stammered.
The creature tilted his head back more to look at Colt instead, and that grin suddenly appeared very unsettling.
“It’s Gabagool, actually, my dear,” he corrected her. Colt’s jaw dropped, her eyes widening in shock.
“You… you…!!” Terrified, the woman threw herself backward and away from the door, a scream rising in her throat and pushing past the constricted airway to burst out into the room. “What the fuck! What the fuck, you can talk?!” Maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise… she had been warned. But that shit was ridiculous! Dogs couldn’t talk! And demons were definitely not real!
She hadn’t noticed the way she’d started hyperventilating, her back against the opposite wall, hands coming to clutch at the roots of her hair. I’m having a breakdown, she told herself. I’ve finally fucking lost it. Fumes down here, or something… I’m hallucinating! Fuck! What the FUCK?!
Meanwhile, Gabagool turned his attention back to Emilio. “Wow. Never thought I’d see you around again,” he said coolly. “Figured you’d be dead by now. But, oh wait…” The grin widened, sharp little teeth bared up at the undead fury. “Guess I was right, huh? Heard talk of a new fury in town. Crazy luck with that one, you know, those don’t come around often! Guess you really were the angriest human I ever knew.”
In the background, Colt continued to panic and shriek, shaking her head and closing her eyes, trying to drown out the sound of her fucking dog talking to this fucking weirdo in her doorway like it was the most casual, normal shit to ever occur.
—
He couldn’t exactly argue when she called him a jerk, because it was an apt enough description. It also didn’t bother him much, though. Emilio, when he had a goal in mind, was a singularly focused individual, and he certainly had a goal in mind here. And despite his claims, the goal wasn’t just his empty wallet, or even his desire to know why Gabagool had decided to latch on to a random (presumably human) woman in Netherville.
The last time he’d felt normal, it had been in Teddy’s house. The day of his death, hours before he made his way to the bar, when he was sitting on the sofa tossing wads of paper at Gabagool’s head just to piss him off, he’d felt like himself. And he knew it wasn’t because of Gabagool, knew that seeing the demon again wouldn’t regrow his heart in his chest or prompt it to stutter back to life, but some nonsensical part of him thought it worth trying all the same, as if wanting something badly enough would make it come to fruition.
The woman was yelling at him; Emilio didn’t remember if he knew her name or not. He thought he’d looked it up to find her address, at least, but it seemed out of reach now. He wasn’t focused on it, or on the words she was spewing. Instead, his focus sat firmly with the small shape waddling to stand between her legs. He glared down at Gabagool, who grinned up at him. For a moment, he thought the demon would keep up the dog act just to fuck with him, to make this woman think he was nuts. Instead, Gabagool spoke, and Emilio had only a moment to be relieved that he wasn’t planning on playing some trick before the woman began screaming.
He hadn’t really considered what to do when he got this far. He hadn’t really taken a moment to imagine what this woman, who thought Gabagool was a dog, might think when he proved himself to be something else. He also hadn’t anticipated what he actually wanted to say to the little shit, or taken a moment to consider the fact that Gabagool probably knew what had happened to him. His throat tightened a little, his fingers twitched.
“Fuck you,” he snapped, teeth clenched tightly enough to build an ache in his jaw. “You’re lucky I don’t feel like ripping your head off for anything. Could, if I wanted to.” Probably not. Furies were plenty powerful, but even a year into his venture, Emilio remained painfully underfed. Outside of surge-fueled rampages, he rarely intentionally searched for any sort of vengeance to sustain himself. He wondered if Gabagool knew that, too, wondered how far the gossip demon’s innate ability to infer things went. “You took twenty bucks out of my wallet last year,” he announced. He held out a hand, palm up. “Give it back.”
The woman was still screaming. Emilio glanced over at her, concern curling somewhere in his gut. “And — And why are you here, anyway? What’s… What exactly are you doing? You’re not going to…” He trailed off, lowering his voice in hopes that the woman wouldn’t overhear and panic more. “You’re not going to eat her, are you? Because I’m not going to let you eat somebody. She seems…” Nice? He wasn’t sure. She had called him a jerk, but he’d also been acting like a jerk. “Normal,” he decided. “You can’t go around fucking with people who are normal.”
—
Gabagool sneered. “There he is. No one does cranky like you, y’know that?” He rocked back onto his hind legs, stretching himself as tall as he could go and slapping a paw into Emilio’s outstretched hand. “No. Even if I still had your twenty bucks, where do you think I’d be keeping it on me? I don’t have fucking pockets, Emilio. And you’re not going to give me a r—” He was cut off by one of Colt’s particularly throaty wails, and sighed. His attention drifted over to her, then back to Emilio.
“Normal? Oh, well… I suppose. Once.” His smile returned and he shrugged. “I’m not interested in eating her. I don’t eat people – you should know that by now!”
Colt felt dizzy, quieting down now but sinking to the floor to keep herself from falling haphazardly to the floor. How long could you scream because your dog started talking? She looked up through her fingers, eyes wet with tears, and stared at the pair. They were talking about something, she couldn’t really hear them – she didn’t want to hear them. She—
An immense pressure suddenly slammed against her back and she gasped in surprise, realizing slowly that it wasn’t from something hitting her (her back was still to the wall) but that it was coming from inside of her. The fear started to kick up again as her limbs moved without her permission, picking her up off the floor. She whimpered, her voice stolen away as her legs carried her over to Doorknob and the man in her doorway.
“Shut the door,” she said in a voice that wasn’t her own. It sounded like her, but it wasn’t. She looked down at Doorknob, whose eyes were alight with adoration. She felt her mouth craft a smile, even though smiling was the last thing she wanted to be doing right now. Then her attention turned back to the man in her apartment, and she let out a sigh.
“Just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you, Emilio?” Tears streaked down her face, her terror otherwise shackled by the presence that was controlling her body.
—
“So give me another twenty bucks,” he snapped. “You can get twenty bucks if you want twenty bucks. Steal it from somebody else, if you have to.” The woman’s screaming was making the conversation a bit difficult to maintain, but Emilio had had pettier arguments under more distracting conditions. He’d check up on her sometime after the fact, probably. He did feel a little bad about barging in on her like this, on some level. But already, he felt some semblance of normalcy at the simple act of arguing with Gabagool. Already, he felt a little bit better. He knew the feeling wouldn’t last, but fuck did it feel good in the moment.
He glanced over to the woman when Gabagool commented that she was normal ‘once,’ wondering what it meant. Was she less human than she looked? Absently, a hand came to rub at his chest, though he dropped it quickly. Either this woman was human, or she was far better at playing dumb than most people in this town.
Emilio opened his mouth with another argument at the ready, about to say something about how Gabagool had certainly threatened to eat him at least once, but before he could get the words out, something shifted. The woman in the corner fell, and then stood, but there was something different about her posture when she got up again. There was something different about her voice when she spoke, too.
The door was shut; Emilio wasn’t even sure who had closed it. It might have been him, it might have been Gabagool, it might have been the woman. He was far too busy staring to know for certain. There was something so painfully familiar about all of it. The tone of the voice, the way the woman’s body moved, the look Gabagool was giving her now.
And then, she said his name, and the pieces fell into place.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” he breathed, glancing from Gabagool to the woman and back again. “Levi?”
—
“And he thinks I’m a thief,” Gabagool tut-tutted with a click of his tongue. “That’s really hurtful, you know. I would never steal. In fact, I never stole your twenty dollars, you probably just misplaced it. I’m a well-respected demon around these parts! Folks come to me for the truth!” Even as he said it he wore a mischievous grin, which dampened only slightly as Colt came walking back towards them. He felt a swell in his heart, ever so pleased to have his companion back (though of course he technically was the companion, if one was interested in splitting hairs), and Emilio’s reaction drummed up a delight that tickled him through and through.
Lkrak’Oaazhir, more readily known to a few holdouts in Wicked’s Rest as Leviathan, gave the man a wide grin. Pleased to be back in town, pleased to see someone it liked, pleased to have been recognized without having to come right out and say it. “In the flesh! As it were.” It looked down at its new body, and shrugged. “Not as intimidating as the last one, I’ll admit, but she’ll do. Anyway, I’m just piggybacking right now…” The reason being something it would prefer to keep private. “But you, void below, look at you.” Colt’s hands reached out to grasp Emilio by both shoulders, squeezing gently. “Been through a lot lately, hm? Sorry to hear it.” Fingers trailed down to Emilio’s chest, a hungry expression overtaking her features as the greater demon inside of her turned over and over the little supernatural marvel that stood in front of it. “No heart, but still standing. Died twice, and still spunky enough to create imaginary debts owed to him by a badalisc. Tell me, Emilio, how is it that you stay motivated?” Those dark eyes that belonged to a human woman from California flashed seafoam green as they caught the light for a brief second flicking back up toward Emilio’s face. “What keeps you going, after such a hard life, and so many deaths?” It was curious, obviously, and the question seemed as genuine as it could be coming from a demon.
—
“I do not misplace things,” Emilio argued. “And no one comes to you for truth. You’re a demon. You don’t do truth.” But he was too distracted to put any real heat behind the words. If there was one thing Emilio liked, it was a mystery. There was nothing else that could grip him quite as thoroughly, nothing else that could pull him from his own mind long enough to light a new fire under his heels. This woman, and Gabagool’s connection to her, presented him with a mystery. He had a guess as to what one answer might be, but it brought with it a whole new slew of questions. He watched the woman carefully as she moved across the room, watched the way Gabagool followed her with his eyes in a way he hadn’t been before. This was different. This was someone else in control.
And it looked like Emilio’s guess about who that someone else had been was correct.
The grin confirmed it just as surely as a verbal answer would have. It was strange — she looked nothing like the last face he’d known this demon to wear, but somehow, that grin was the same. “Yeah, whose flesh?” This woman was a stranger to him. He didn’t think she had any sort of connection to Levi — or, she had had no connection he knew of to Levi when Emilio had known the demon. Had she made a deal with it? Traded the use of her body for something else? But why would Levi need that sort of thing? Had something happened?
A million questions rose to his mind; he had time to ask none of them before the woman’s hands were grasping his shoulders, the squeeze a familiar thing. He flinched a little when her hands trailed down his chest. Maybe he wouldn’t have, if her face had been a familiar one, but his mind wasn’t quite ready to accept that strange hands brushing over the scarred skin, even with the fabric of his shirt covering it, wasn’t a threat. “Fuck off,” he snapped, mouth dry and throat aching. The question wasn’t meant to be a sinister thing; on some level, he knew that. His relationship with Levi had been strained at times, maybe, but they were allies. Friends, on the good days. But a million thoughts rose to his mind at once, and none of them were particularly good ones. None carried much comfort. “I don’t — Why are you here? And in… this person? That’s — That’s what we should be talking about.”
—
The demon frowned, having expected the third degree from Emilio (who was known to be nosy), but holding out hope that maybe it would get a modicum of truth before the conversation was being redirected. Not so. It removed its hands from Emilio’s chest to wave them dismissively in the air, giving a small roll of its eyes. “I don’t know, she was just the first person who happened to stumble into my…” Prison cell? “cave. She is a wanderer. I gave her purpose.” It didn’t really want to say more than that, but it could already tell that the answer was unsatisfactorily vague by the way Emilio was staring at it. And damn it all, those centuries of engaging with humans and even pretending to be one at times had made the greater demon something of a pushover when it came to the people it liked.
Heaving a dramatic sigh, it gestured for the fury to follow it deeper into the strange little underground apartment. “If we’re going to talk about this, then I don’t want to just stand in the foyer like a couple of freaks. Would you like a drink?” It gestured to the living room, which was visible from the kitchen, and where it was headed now. Gabagool followed closely on its heels before veering off into the living room to claim his spot in one of the cozy chairs, curling up in the blanket that was draped over it and keeping an eye on Emilio.
Arriving with two glasses in hand, the demon passed one to Emilio before sitting beside him on the couch. It crossed one leg over the other, leaning back into the cushions in a relaxed pose, watching the man over the rim of its glass as it took a sip.
A brief silence passed between them, and then it spoke again using Colt’s voice and tossing Colt’s hair over its shoulder with a flick of its head.
“If you must know, I’m trying to be more discreet these days, hm? Do I need to explain why?”
—
It wasn’t just the smile that brought familiarity to the unfamiliar face. The mannerisms, too, took Emilio back a few years, the tone acting as a time machine even as the voice it clung to remained largely unfamiliar. He hadn’t known Levi long in the grand scheme of things, but the demon had been… important. Regardless of how they might have felt about one another (and that was something that varied, due in no small part to Emilio’s general prickliness), there was no denying that much. He wasn’t sure he could claim to know Leviathan well, but… the demon knew him well enough, thanks to the endless centuries it had spent learning to read people. Emilio didn’t have to tell Levi that its answer to why the hell it was hitching a ride with a random woman was unsatisfactory; Levi could tell.
“We are a couple of freaks,” he pointed out, but he followed the woman — followed Levi? — into the living room, anyway. He nodded at the question as to whether or not he wanted a drink, knew Levi probably knew the answer the moment it asked. While the demon prepared the drinks, Emilio sat on a sofa, shooting Gabagool a glare as the demon stared at him. To think, he’d come here in search of one familiar presence that might make him feel something close to normal and had instead found an entirely different one that made him wonder if he was going insane.
Levi slid in with the drinks, and Emilio took one. He waited until Levi took a sip of its own drink to swallow some of his, though he knew it was a silly thing. If Levi wanted to kill him, it could slip poison into just one of the glasses. Of course, if Levi wanted to kill him, it could probably just rip his head off his body using whatever demon strength it possessed in this form. And… well, he was pretty confident that Levi didn’t want to kill him, anyway. In fact, he thought he and Levi were probably friends. Friends, in his experience, didn’t poison one another.
“Because of the…” He trailed off, waving a hand in a vague gesture, “magic thing?” There had been something to do with demons before the magic went to shit, Emilio remembered; he’d never been entirely privy to it. Mostly because he’d been a little busy dying at the time, which he figured ought to grant him a pass. “What do you know about all that? Can’t you just… fix it, or whatever?”
—
Well, true. They were freaks, who had been freaky with each other all those years ago. Leviathan smiled at the memory, keeping that thought to itself as it went through the motions of being a gracious host. The comfort it found in Emilio’s presence (it had been alone for what felt much longer than it had been) was somewhat disrupted by the question, and mild irritation was clear on the demon’s human face as Colt’s brows furrowed and her lips dipped into another scowl. It held that expression for a moment before shaking it off and taking another sip of whiskey, then cleared its throat.
“Yes, but not in the way you think. Probably.” It narrowed its eyes at him for a second, then continued. “And no, I can’t just fix it.” Actually, that was a lie. It was a greater demon, and it had exactly the kind of power that this stupid little town needed to return to its former glory, when a different greater demon had been imprisoned beneath it and acting as its magical battery.
Leviathan could fix it, but it didn’t want to. Not like that.
“This whole thing is… complicated. I’m still technically on the lam,” it explained, the reluctance in its tone evident enough for someone who made a living out of reading people. “And coming back to this place as I had been, before… everything,” it gestured vaguely with one hand, letting its gaze wander elsewhere, “would be too dangerous. For me, to be clear.” It pondered for a moment telling Emilio about the deal it had made with the other greater demons, where it had unknowingly agreed to be the hub’s battery. For a long (three second) moment, it paused in its explanation and actually entertained the idea of being honest. But, such as things were, no one could know about that. If it could be used against the demon in the future, then no one could know. So… “They’re still fussy about that whole mess with that cult runaway’s demon god. How are they, by the way? The kid. What was their name?” It knew, of course it still knew. This was an act, and even if Emilio saw through it, Levi still had to feign some kind of aloofness. What was a demon who maintained emotional ties to humans? A bad demon, that’s what.
—
In all honesty, Emilio understood next to nothing about magic. Never mind his failed relationship with a spellcaster, or his participation in a magical ritual that had brought a man back from the dead — when it came to this sort of thing, Emilio was utterly clueless. Leviathan could have told him anything at all, and Emilio would have had no way of double checking on the believability of it. He snorted as the demon spoke, shaking his head. “There is no way I think,” he admitted. “I barely understand what the fuck’s happening at all.” He might not have said it to someone else, but he didn’t mind admitting it to Levi. Levi was a billion fucking years old. It already thought Emilio was stupid, but only because it already thought everyone was stupid. There was no sense in pretending to have more information than he did when speaking to something that had all the information there was to have.
It was a little concerning, though, that this wasn’t the sort of thing Levi could just fix. Emilio hadn’t been optimistic that such a solution was possible; if Levi could have blinked and repaired whatever was happening, it probably would have just done that instead of possessing a random woman in Netherville and… doing whatever it was doing instead. But if this was a problem so big that a greater demon couldn’t solve it, Emilio felt far less hopeful about it ever being solved at all. Maybe this was simply the way things would be now. Maybe there was no out, no solution. The thought made his stomach churn.
He watched the woman’s face carefully as Levi spoke, and he knew there was something it wasn’t telling him even if he didn’t know what. For a moment, he thought about pressing, but… fuck. Pressing Levi for answers could so easily turn into Levi turning around to press Emilio about everything that had happened since the last time they spoke. His death, his breakup with Teddy, the shit with the siren (or both sirens? How much did Levi know?), all of it. Emilio couldn’t rehash everything with someone who’d known him in the before. He could barely stomach the thought of remembering it himself. And so, he accepted the easier answer — the dishonest one. He took the idea that Levi was being punished because it had helped Wynne, and he pretended he believed it. And maybe Levi would see through his nod — hell, it probably would — but it wasn’t as if the demon would call him out on it. It couldn’t without admitting there was something else.
“Wynne,” he replied, even though he knew Levi knew that already. It wasn’t as good at faking indifferent as it thought it was. Or… maybe Emilio just knew it better than either of them liked to cop to. “They’re… yeah. Doing good, I think.” He’d distanced himself from them the same way he’d distanced himself from everyone. He wondered if Levi knew that, too. “You said they’re still mad. Is that… other demons? They’re really that pissed you took out some asshole for eating kids?”
—
It couldn’t help but smile at that – Emilio was as honest as ever, something it had learned to appreciate, once he’d gotten over the need to bullshit a professional bullshitter. “Well, that’s understandable. It’s all very…” It gestured vaguely again, buttoning the statement with a sigh rather than a straight answer. It was all very fucked.
Colt’s face did something else a bit queer as the demon piggybacking on her reacted to the unsatisfactory update about Wynne – of course it already knew the child was fine, as fine as one could be living in a place like this. Gabagool had lingered, after all, and often checked up on the household to see how things were going. They were fine, but they might not continue to be fine if this problem with the magic vacuum wasn’t resolved.
“Wynne, yes, of course.” It sniffed, sipping at its drink again. “It upset the status quo, my friend. Greater demons generally try to stay out of one another’s business, and what harm was that demon doing, anyway?” It paused, expression tightening. “Er… in the grand scheme of things, I mean. On the scale of the cosmos, Wyvss’Kgorr was just having a bit of fun. I’m suddenly a threat to the rest of them, and you might remember how I’ve reacted to threats in the past.” It wore a tight, unamused smile, downing what remained in the glass.
“Anyway, this business with magic… I am trying to help, in the ways that I can.” It looked down at itself, at Colt’s body, and shrugged. “This one is serving her purpose, even if she doesn’t understand it. I haven’t decided yet if it’s better or worse that she is so obstinately in denial of anything supernatural, but the mental gymnastics are pretty impressive.” It locked eyes with Emilio then, and that uncomfortable tension seemed to melt away, just a little.
“So you’ve not been in contact with Wynne. Or with Teddy, I assume? Too busy… getting yourself killed?”
—
It was funny to think Levi’s statement an understatement when the statement itself had been so vague and hadn’t really said anything, but Emilio thought it all the same. This shit with magic, whatever it was, was beyond any words or gesture that any of them could come up with. The current shortage was shit for most people involved, but Emilio couldn’t help but worry about any more potential surges. He could still recall the static that had taken the place of whatever control he typically had over himself, could still feel the rage that burned hotter than anything else. He didn’t want a repeat of that. He never wanted a repeat of that.
He didn’t think Levi did, either. The demon was good at keeping a straight face no matter whose face it wore, but Emilio liked to think he’d gotten decent at reading it in the time they’d known one another. He knew the magic shit bothered Levi — enough that the demon was willing to do something about it, even if Emilio doubted it would tell him exactly what that ‘something’ was. He also knew that Levi cared a lot more about Wynne than it let on. If saving them truly caused this many issues, Levi would have been aware of the risk before it had agreed to step in. And it had helped, anyway. It had come along for the ride, it had fought another demon, it had won. The demon put up a decent enough show about not giving a shit about any kind of human problems, but Emilio knew better. He also knew better than to say that.
He shot Levi a look at the idea that the demon that had terrorized Wynne’s life hadn’t been doing any ‘harm,’ though Levi corrected itself quickly enough. “Figured demons would be more about… survival of the fittest,” he replied with a wave of his hand. “If one gets taken out, it’s because it’s not strong enough to survive. That kind of thing.” That was how his mother had been, of course. He remembered a sparring match from childhood in which Rosa’s knife had accidentally slid between his ribs, when he’d bled so much he was sure he’d die from it. Rosa had been terrified she’d get into trouble, but their mother had only shrugged. If he were a better hunter, she’d said, you wouldn’t have been able to stab him. It was daunting, the idea that demons might care more about their own than his mother had. He pushed the thought away dutifully, decided the situations were far too different to properly compare to one another. There was no need to upset himself by reaching.
“Won’t say I don’t feel a little better knowing you’re on it,” he admitted through gritted teeth, not really liking the idea of paying Levi a compliment but knowing it’d feed the demon’s ego enough to ensure it would keep going if it were on the verge of quitting. “But if you’re looking to keep her from finding out about all the shit that goes on in this town, I don’t think having Gabagool show up was a good idea.” His eyes darted to the smaller demon, and he shot Gaba a quick glare. “I’m not the only one who saw her post online and knew what it was, you know.” A pause. “Might be the only one who showed up at her house, I guess, but if she gets too many people telling her the same thing, she might start to listen. And Gabagool’s a shitty actor.”
His throat tightened as Levi brought up the shit he didn’t want to talk about, eyes darting down to the drink in his hand. “Talked to Wynne some,” he replied. He’d avoided Teddy’s calls until the phone stopped ringing, but that was a harder thing to admit. Especially to Levi. He wanted to argue that he hadn’t ‘gotten himself killed,’ but he knew it would be a lie. Everything that had happened was his own fault. Wasn’t that always how it went? “It’s just… complicated,” he decided, speaking slowly. “I’m not the person they knew before. And — And they don’t care about that. I know they don’t care about that. They’ll treat me the same. But that — That’s part of the problem. They’ll treat me the same, and I’m not. I’m…”
He trailed off, one hand rubbing absently at his chest. It was hard not to think of Ishan looming over him, talons digging into his chest. It was hard not to remember his heart in the siren’s grasp. Someone tore his heart out, and he was still here. What kind of monster could walk around without a fucking heart in its chest? What kind of beast could let someone hold it in spite of that emptiness, let someone sing it to sleep? He had nothing worth having to offer anyone who might want him. He knew that. To pretend otherwise was to deceive. “This is better,” he said, forcing himself to look back at Levi. “For them. For me. This is better.”
—
That was a fair assumption, given that demons often only cared about themselves. Which was still technically true… “Well, they do feel that way, more or less. They didn’t come after me because of some misplaced sense of justice, more just that… they were scared.” It looked a little too proud of that fact, posture shifting as it lifted its chin. “If something else had done it… maybe a scrappy gang of supernaturals or something, that’d be one thing. They would have felt glad that that greater demon wasn’t out there anymore, making the rest of us look like chumps. But we don’t meddle in one another’s affairs. We don’t go after one another. That’s just how it’s always been, since… since the dawn of everything. I presented them with a new reality, and they panicked. Alone, they knew I’d stand a good chance of doing the same thing to them. But if they ganged up on me, I’d have to do what they wanted. So.” It waved a hand, not wanting to get too much more into it. “Anyway, here I am, skulking around because I didn’t do what they wanted, not exactly, and I’m not really looking to advertise my location to a bunch of lessers who might be on watch duty. It’ll probably take another century or so for this to all blow over.” Leviathan laughed. “Or I just pick the rest of them off, one by one. But that sounds hard.”
It followed Emilio’s glance over to Gabagool and laughed. “That was just a fun coincidence. Or rather, he found me. And how could I turn away my dear friend?” Gabagool flashed a toothy grin at the both of them as the demon continued, “But I don’t really care, one way or the other. It might make things easier if she understands and just accepts it. We’re working on that… and we’ll see how it goes.” It lifted a brow then while Emilio explained the situation with Teddy, but there was a distinct lack of upset that its child had been ghosted by the person they loved. Colt’s face was relaxed, her expression perhaps even leaning toward empathetic.
The reason for which, Emilio would soon find, was because the demon piloting her body was empathetic to this particular quandary.
“I agree. Better for them, better for you.” It frowned then, but the disquiet seemed to be reflected inward. “And it’s why I’ve not tried to contact them. It would only cause more distress… it’s better that they think I’m gone for good.” A bold statement to make when the demon had returned to the same town in which its ‘offspring’ lived, but then Emilio was still here, too, so they were kindred souls in that regard. It would be understood by the dead man, it knew.
“Boss,” Gabagool interjected, hopping down from his spot in his chair, “you promised we were gonna go see that bottomless pit.” He squinted his eyes at Emilio, who had very much gotten in the way of those plans. “You about done here?” Leviathan chuckled and shrugged Colt’s shoulders, downing what remained in their glass and setting it down on the coffee table.
“Sorry, old friend. I did promise that. Emilio, would you care to take a look into the abyss with us, or are you otherwise engaged this evening?”
—
Emilio supposed it made sense, what Levi was describing. It was something of a relief, in its own way, because it meant demons did not care about their own more than hunters did, more than his mother had. Levi hadn’t been a target in the name of avenging the demon that had terrorized Wynne’s community, nor had the other demons’ coordination against it been a means of punishment. It was still a self-serving thing, still something built out of fear that someone out there might be bigger and scarier than the demons dolling out said consequences. He thought it a little arrogant of Levi to assume that they were right in their fear, that the fact that it had defeated one demon meant it could defeat them all, but he didn’t say this. He wasn’t interested in arguing with Levi at the moment. Not about this, anyway. It was the sort of thing that was subject to change in the future, of course, but not in the present moment. “So, is that the plan? Hide out here for the next hundred years, then go back to doing whatever you were doing before?” He wondered if Levi was capable of keeping something like that on the down low. Somehow, he found it difficult to believe.
Case in point: the Gabagool of it all. If Emilio had taken note of Gabagool’s presence and others online had as well, wouldn’t other demons notice eventually? Did they keep up with things like that? Or were demons not skilled in the investigative department? “I would find it very easy to turn him away,” he said flatly, still glaring in Gabagool’s direction. He turned his attention back towards Colt — towards Levi — as the demon continued, though. “Knowing and understanding are not the same,” he pointed out. “And accepting is the kind of thing that might never happen.” He didn’t think he’d have accepted it, in Colt’s shoes. If he’d learned a demon was possessing him, using his body as a puppet and influencing his actions… His first call would have almost certainly been to an exorcist. Colt might not have known such an option existed, but how long would it take someone to suggest it to her? Hell, Emilio might have suggested it had the demon in question not been a familiar one.
A familiar one who was almost a comfort at that. There was something in Colt’s expression, something in the way Levi twisted her face into one of quiet understanding. He’d been expecting something angrier, considering he’d broken Levi’s kid’s heart, but maybe he should have known better. The answer, when Levi gave it, felt obvious: it hadn’t reached out to Teddy, either. Some part of Emilio had known that already. After all, Levi left before he had, and he’d never heard Teddy talk about it contacting him after. Emilio could hardly chastise Levi for it without sounding like a hypocrite, so he nodded. “They always deserved a lot better than both of us,” he acknowledged, throat tight.
Gabagool got up, and Emilio looked back to him with a raised brow. Of course the little shit wanted to go to the bottomless pit. Emilio huffed as the invitation was extended to him, shaking his head. “And give that asshole a chance to push me in it? No.” He set his own glass down beside Levi’s, wondering how it would be explained to Colt later. What would she remember of Emilio coming here, showing up at her door? Would Levi replace the memory of the conversation with another one, or did it have some way of wiping it completely? He thought it was probably better if he didn’t know the answer. “I’m in Worm Row,” he said, absently tapping a finger against his thigh. “The old place. If you ever wanted to stop by… I guess I wouldn’t stop you.”
—
“Perhaps. It’s as good a plan as any, I think.” It was a terrible plan, but Leviathan had let itself grow far too fond of this place, and abandoning it permanently was a more difficult sell than it should have been. “Oh, it will happen,” it assured Emilio, in response to the man’s concern that its host might not accept her position of renown. “Don’t you worry about that.” Of course saying it like that might make him worry. “I’m very likable, aren’t I?”
As if to reiterate that assertion, the demon refrained from correcting Emilio when he claimed that Teddy had always deserved better than them. Emilio, maybe. Sure. He was just a guy. But Leviathan? The demon had saved Teddy. It had raised them and imbued them with power no other mortals could wield. (And sure, it had taken it away, but that’d been necessary.) No one deserved any of that. Teddy was lucky, even if they hated Levi now for abandoning them. The argument built up in the host’s chest, straightening her spine as her expression briefly hinted at the demon’s irritation. But… likable. Right. Be likable. It settled back down, taking a deep breath through Colt’s nose and ignoring the heat that had bloomed on the back of her neck.
The rivalry (if one could call it that – could they?) between Emilio and Gabagool never failed to amuse, and as quickly as that indignation had boiled over, it was forgotten. The demon chuckled, shaking its head. “He would never. Would you, Gabs?” The badalisc shook his head in a comical sort of way, loping around the living room area in lazy circles.
“‘Course not! I ain’t a monster.”
“Mm. There you have it.” Leviathan stood, which urged Emilio to do the same. “Ahh, no, not that abysmal little apartment… maybe I can help you spruce it up a bit. For old time’s sake.” It smiled non-commitally, knowing that he’d likely argue against it anyway. That was half the fun. “Anyhow… it was good seeing you. Even if you did come here to demand money from — oh! Of course. Your twenty dollars.” It whacked Emilio gently on the arm as it stepped by him to go fetch Colt’s wallet on the kitchen counter, pulling out a twenty dollar bill and holding it out to the man. “Don’t drink it all at once.”
—
Emilio raised his brows, but said nothing. In truth, he didn’t really care what plan Leviathan had as long as it wasn’t going to hurt anyone. Hiding out here would do no one any harm; if anything, it was the safest plan the demon could have hatched. It was somewhere Emilio could keep half an eye on it (because a demon was a demon, even if you found its presence a familiar comfort), and it wasn’t… demanding human sacrifices or bursting through the crust of the earth or tying people up in its basement the way other demons he’d run into tended to do. The person most affected by Levi’s presence here was Colt, and it seemed confident she’d be fine with it. Emilio let out a dry laugh when it insisted itself to be likable, though he didn’t argue the point. Levi wasn’t really his business anymore.
He didn’t miss the way Colt’s — or, rather, Levi’s — expression shifted when he claimed Teddy had deserved better than the two of them, but the demon didn’t voice its displeasure with the claim and Emilio was too tired to care enough to call it out on it. He didn’t really want to talk about Teddy, didn’t like the hollowness saying their name carved into his chest. He’d just as soon drop the subject entirely, even if it was difficult to think about anything else with Levi standing in front of him like this.
Better to roll his eyes at Gabagool, to level the small creature with a look that said just how much he believed the claim that the demon would never push him into a bottomless pit. Yeah, right.
“Not sure we have the same taste in decorating,” he replied dryly, getting to his feet with a quiet grunt. He could tell when he was being ushered out the door, but he didn’t mind it. Especially not when Levi grabbed Colt’s wallet from the kitchen counter. Maybe he should have felt bad about taking cash from someone he barely knew (because he figured this was Colt’s twenty, not Levi’s or Gabagool’s), but he wasn’t in much of a position to question things like that. He tucked it into his pocket, offering Levi a nod as he stepped towards the door. “Yeah, we’ll see,” he replied, which they both knew meant he was definitely going to blow it all on a single trip to the nearest bar. “I’ll get out of your hair so you can get out of hers,” he said. “Just… call me if you ever need a hand with those other demons.” He paused. “Otherwise, I think whatever fight you picked would blow up this fucking town.” Yeah. Because that was the only reason why he gave a shit. “Bye, Levi.”
And with that, Emilio slipped out the door and into the rocky exterior of Netherville, twenty dollars in his pocket and far too many thoughts in his head. Maybe he’d get that drink sooner rather than later. He felt like he needed it.
Way I see it, you like to pick on me for bein' younger than you. [...] Guess my personal life ain't the hot inter-station gossip, then? [User isn't technically avoiding the question. Just talking around it. Super chill and normal behavior, Kellison.] Kids chew on furniture, Colt. It's not that weird. [User had to look this up. He assumed it might just be a werewolf thing. He breathes a sigh of relief.]
[...] If you thought I missed your message, you could've reached back out. Sometimes I swipe open notifications when I'm leavin' work. You'd really hold me responsible for the actions of post-shift Kelly? [Liar.]
Yeah, because you're a baby. [...] Tch, no. We have way more interesting things to gossip about at West station, my dude. [...] Kids? Wait. You have a kid???? Since fucking when???
Yeah, well, people might accuse me of a lot of things, but being a clingy, annoying friend isn't one of them. I was giving you time to decide if you wanted to reach out. You were being....... weird. After the thing with the thing.
Oh, you live there? I don't think I knew there were apartments and stuff in Netherville, but I hardly get down there. Your place was okay, though?
I don't even know if it was bad or just Exactly. Need a clean slate for a clean start and all that. You said you're from California, right? What part? I mean, I've never been out that way but it looks nice.
There's not many, yet, but they're expanding! They carved it right out of the the stone, it's pretty sick. Modernized too, though. Thankfully. I love camping and shit but I don't think I could handle living like a caveman 24/7. But yeah! All good on the home front.
Mmm, near where the giant sequoia trees are pretty dense! Way up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. So not really the beachy, L.A. type of place people think of when you say California. But it sure was pretty, yeah. My folks raised animals up there -- goats, horses, alpacas, and reindeer. Friggin cute little bastards, I miss 'em.
Well, it's not my slime ball, is it? Those are the sort of questions I'll have to ask whoever slimed it! Do you have any ideas? You probably see this sort of thing all the time, yeah?
Some people might call it delusion, but I just call it deciding to be happy! Life's too short to feel sad all the time, so even when I do feel sad, I just [...] ignore it! It doesn't really help but-- Sometimes it even pulls me out of feeling sad!
[pm] Well, who cares if they believe it? We know it's true, so why not say it? I, for on, think people ought to know about the work we did! We deserve some sort of recognition. This town would be dust if it weren't for us! [user has no idea if that's true or not.]
[pm] I mean hey, go for it! But I wouldn't hold my breath for that recognition, you know? If they don't believe it, then... [ user doesn't really believe it herself. the more time passes, the more she's convinced it didn't happen like she remembers ]
Anyway, how have you been since? Your party was a hoot, thanks for the invite!! I forgot how fun letting go like that can be! [ user definitely got drunk and flashed some people, what of it ]
Yeah. I'm guessin' you had a lot of trees? Do you ever miss it? I know Maine is not exactly California. Like, obviously. The sun doesn't get down here the same way. Fog is nice though, right?
Hey, I'll offer lessons at a discount. Why not, anyway, y'know? I like people to stay safe. Stay alive. Wicked's Rest has got its own set of rules, actually. Totally unique self-defense. And hypothetically there are little pets that are demonic and actually Anyways, I'd love to help. Got anything you're lookin' for in particular?
Tons of the things! I was an expert climber by the time I was five. Yeah, the whole landscape looks real different, but I am a sucker for crazy fog. Reminds me of Silent Hill!! (That's positive, that movie ripped.)
Oh for real? That'd be so rad of you! Hmm, well... hard to say, really. I mean, animal attacks are a big thing around here, but I doubt you've got a style that's good for dealing with THAT... generally these things are human-on-human violence, right? Haha.
I guess so, yeah! I just want to make an impression on the world in a positive way, and this seems like a good way to do that. Plus, it's a lot of fun.
Oh that's cool! Also very very important. Do you get to save a lot of animals?
Hmmm, yeah, there have been a few pets in peril. The switchboard generally tries to not send us out for those kinds of things if they can help it, unless of course the peril in question is fire-related. I think if we were less busy, maybe we'd rescue more pets, but as it stands... they've usually got animal control on speed-dial for that kind of thing. Which honestly? I'm kind of okay with... seeing animals in danger is real upsetting. I wouldn't want to deal with that on a regular basis.
@kellydays replied to your post “Kid, I need you to stop gnawin' on the furniture.”:
…Now, why in the hell would I call you “kid”? [d: Fuck.]
[…] I haven’t been avoidin’ you. [User has been avoiding Colt.]
I mean, you do like to pick on me for being older than you. I figured you were just being tongue-in-cheek. So you weren't, then? Who were you calling kid? And why are they chewing on furniture??? I have questions, Kelcifer. I need answers. And it sounds like you need a mouth guard for this mystery person.
Wait, the underground place? That could have got real dangerous [...] Oh, I think I saw the post about that. Yeah, that definitely falls under "endangering the whole damn town." I don't need to go collapsing into some underground tunnel because someone thought it would be funny to set some fireworks or whatever off.
[...] No, I don't. I didn't leave on the best terms I'd love to go back and see the land again I don't know what Maybe someday.
Yeah! That was some bullshit. When I got the call I was like, if they blew up my apartment I'm gonna be so freaking mad, dude. I like that apartment.
Ah! Well, yeah, maybe some day! I should probably visit my folks back home sooner rather than later, but... I dunno. I understand the feeling of wanting to leave your past behind you, even when it wasn't bad. Baby bird's gotta leave the nest, and all.
Well, safe to say my party was a roaring success! I've a small lost and found set aside in the front room, if anyone's missing anything. Right now it consists of three pairs of pants, a pocket knife, and some sort of slime ball. And a few things I'd like to take by the pawn shop before returning, just in case they're worth a mint.
