Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jumping into the shop as if he were leaping into a trench, Bassett Ellery made his appearance for the first time in a number of weeks at the eccentric shop. The soldier still had his pajama shirt on and hastily pulled up underneath that was a pair of pants that weren't even buttoned. His suspenders flopped uselessly by his thighs. Thrown over his pajama shirt was Pey's favorite soldier's coat, and yanked over his tell-tale crown of horns and demonic ears was a big newspaper boy's hat.

"Edw-!" the haphazard soldier began to shout. Unlaced boots clomped loudly on the wooden floor of the shop and came to a stop when he saw Tae-Yul staring blanky at him, as if knowing that he were going to burst through the door. Bassett swallowed his cry and gave a twitching smile at the man. He didn't look happy at all, "Oh! Tae-yul!" he squeaked, immediately tensing up. His new state as a demon didn't seem to have any effect on his self, not at all, "Hello! Uh...There's something I-"

"Bassett, you took my favorite coat!" wailed a voice. It was Pey, lazily following after Bassett. He slunk through the shop door and yanked at Bassett's coat. The red-haired demon was no worse for wear, it seemed. It didn't even look like he really knew what was going on beyond the fact that his summoner was wearing HIS coat. Well, not HIS, but his FAVORITE. The demon yanked impatiently at the coat, "Just because you're all cold all the time too doesn't mean that you can just take my coat." Pey sniffed.

Bassett sighed desperately, loosening his arms from the coat into Pey's custody. He didn't have time to argue with his demon. He had to tell someone in this shop what had happened. ANYONE. He had to let them know. As soon as the coat was stripped from him, the newborn demon wrapped his arms around himself, shivering. He didn't know Tae-yul very much. In fact, he was sure that he only met the man once, and that had not been a good encounter. Regardless, he had to talk with SOMEONE and it looked like Tae-Yul was the only one immediately there. So he sucked in his fear, and connected his gaze with the man.

"Tae-yul, I have something important to talk about with you," the wayward soldier said, his teeth chattering.

Bassett furrowed a brow at the man, not quite understanding what the man meant by all his pointed glares, frowns, and general distaste. Bassett, looking down at himself noticed his disarray, and helplessly tried to pull himself together. He buttoned his pants and pulled up his suspenders, moving closer to Tae-yul to speak with him properly. The soldier cleared his throat and swallowed, before he spoke. He knew he didn't like talking to this man for a reason. His body always tensed up and he always felt like he were an idiot before this man. Granted, he was a youth and he was a soldier, a servant, but that didn't mean that...Okay, so maybe he wasn't well-read, but still! Bassett pushed the helpless argument out of his mind.

"Please, don't call me carrion-eater," the newborn demon squeaked, straightening his collar, "I came here to talk with you about something that happened these past two nights. First, there was this shadow. It happened just two nights ago, sir. A shadow was wobbling in the corner of my room and it muttered. I don't know what it was saying, but it was muttering for some time. I tried to shed the light of my...Uh...I tried...I shed light on it and it seemed to suck it all up, sir. Then, there was a piece of cloth, famliar cloth, drifting through my room just last night. I know that cloth, but it couldn't be...It can't be what I think it is. Tell me, Tae-yul, do you know what could be causing it? What it could be? I've asked Pey, but he doesn't have a single clue."

Pulling the jacket onto his arms, the demon sighed contently and stood aimlessly behind Bassett. He didn't have to look at his summoner or even pay attention to him. He's heard all of it before. So Pey idly plucked at the coagulated blood in his teeth and licked it off his fingers.

"A prank?" echoed the soldier, letting his head fall to one side in a tilt. He watched as the man very quietly thought about what he had said. It was almost like watching him in slow motion as he reached forward, selected an apple from the nearby ceramic bowl, cleaned it, almost every inch of it on the tail of his clothes, and sunk his teeth into it, all the meanwhile leaving Bassett to anxiously hop on his toes, readjust his hat for fear that someone might see the white horns beneath, and glance about the shop in hopes that Edward might appear and save him from this bitter and cold man.

When he finally spoke again, Bassett sunk a bit and let his shoulders slump, his fingers fidgeting at his straps, "Ah. Glad to know that I wasn't the only one," although now, the strange fact being that it happened more than once...That meant that it was true. It couldn't have been a dream. Bassett felt a little bit better, if this was something that he should feel better about. Upon further reflection, Bassett decided that: no. No, he shouldn't be feeling better about it. Bassett bit his lip, careful of his slightly lengthened incisors.

"Edward lying? ...Guh, uh...So it wasn't Edward...Oh okay. Yeah, I do. I have it...Uh..." The soldier looked around his person. He knew he brought it along. Where did he put it? He glanced apologetically at Tae-Yul, as he felt along his pockets, pants pockets, back pockets...He even checked underneath his hat until he realized where he had stuck it. He moved back from the man and to his demon, who was still picking at his teeth. Without speaking, he reached into the demon's coat pockets, and fished for the fabric.

"What the ******** are you doing?" growled the demon in protest. He tried to push his summoner away, making it as difficult as he possibly could for his summoner to snatch the item of interest from his pockets.

"Shut up, Pey," Bassett snapped curtly, before he took the fabric finally and walked it over to Tae-Yul. He held it out for the man.

"Here. It smells like...It smells like someone I used to know."

Bassett sat down on the chair motioned to by the Asian man. He took his seat gently, as if expecting the chair to give way beneath his meager weight or flip backwards as soon as he leaned his back against it. He held out the fabric gently, letting it into the hands of the other. He was expecting for Tae-yul to peer at it for a good five minutes before he said anything, but he was proven wrong almost immediately. The man jumped, spewed out a string of curses in a tongue he didn't recognize, and continued swearing for some time after he sniffed the garment. Bassett shifted in the wooden chair, wincing softly as the furniture shifted underneath him with the loudest squeaks possible.

"Well," Bassett commented, looking up at Tae-yul balefully, "I don't know how high of a level she was, sir, but...I was friends with the young girl demon who used to be here before she...left."

"She grew incredibly fast, and..." Bassett shut himself up. The soldier waited and listened as the man continued and he anxiously reached up and adjusted his hat again. In caught himself in mid-motion though, reasoning with himself that if he continued to do that, someone was bound to notice and grow suspicious of what might lay underneath his hat, whether it be a bald spot, a bad hair cut, or a crown of horns unbecoming to the once-human youth. Forcing his hands back down onto his knees, he leaned in and asked, "One of Lilith's Named Children?" His gut sank. He didn't want to know what it all meant, but that's why he came here wasn't it? Bassett gulped and prompted the man further, "What do you mean? Offerings? Like a...I don't know. And who? Do you think it was....De..." the name choked up in his throat.

Bassett was so entranced in what Tae-yul was saying, caught up in the words in his desperate search for her name, her name, to prove that he wasn't crazy, that he was thinking straight, that he didn't see the demon fade into sight until he had already appeared. The soldier, imbued with a good dose of shell shock, gave a helpless and yet exaggerated jump, which caused his chair to shriek in protest. Adjusting himself and quickly compiling his composure, Bassett fussed with his collar, straightening out the twisted fabric as he looked on at the strange new demon. He had never seen this man before.

Eyes widening at the sight of the other's elaborate wings, Bassett gulped, immediately feeling somewhat lacking in his pathetic firefly glow. "Yes, sir," the soldier managed to croak, lifting himself up from the chair and following hesitantly after the demon. He looked once or twice at Tae-yul, trying to get some kind of confirmation of what kind of person this was and what he might want with a lowly soldier like himself, but there were no such hints given. Sighing, Bassett, looked over at Pey, pausing for a few short moments.

"Pey?" he said, snatching the demon's attention from whatever gross thing he was trying to accomplish with his tongue and the dried blood that happened to be on his elbow.

Pey glanced up from his endeavor, "Can't you see I'm busy?" he snapped haughtily. Then the demon noticed the other, and his brows furrowed, his neck and shoulders bristling. He knew that the demon prompting his summoner, HIS SOLDIER, after him was a fallen angel. The untrustworthy type, Pey reasoned. Those types were good-two-shoes once upon a time and they probably still had remnants of their snarky better-than-everyone-else attitude. "Where are you going, meatbag?"

"This man wants to talk with me for a little bit," explained Bassett, fiddling with his straps, "I'll be just a moment, alright? You need to stay here."

Pey frowned, momentarily putting down his elbow. "Bassett, you know it is my contract to protect you." He left the unsaid implications drift on their own to Bassett.

The soldier gave an exasperated smile at his demon, "I know. But honestly, it'll only be a few moments."

"That's all it takes," Pey snarled.

Bassett waved his demon down and watched as he returned, slowly and hesitantly, his eyes locked all the meanwhile on him, to licking his elbow with his long tongue. Turning on his heel, Bassett followed the angel up the stairs, his leather shoes clicking softly against the wood of the floor and stairwell as he ascended after the fallen angel turned demon.

When they got where they needed to go, Bassett swallowed pas a lump in his throat and asked, "What is it you needed, sir? And, don't mind me asking, how did you know my name?"

Bassett stepped into the kitchen like a deer that would step into an open field. It seemed normal enough. So, the newly made demon allowed himself to relax, if but a little. Of course, there was always that chance that a bombshell might drop on them, or so said the shell shock that proliferated in his mind, so Bassett kept himself on a healthy state of "edge". He kept fiddling with his clothes, trying to straighten them out as if they were perpetually out and askew on his person. He watched as the demon sat down and made a callous remark about humanity.

"It's what makes us...Well, them...human, sir, or so I believe," Bassett said in lame reply. He stared back at the angel, who's cool structure of a face was framed in black. He listened to the other's introduction and smiled meagerly, finding the analogy a little comforting. A fellow soldier, alright. That made things a little easier. Actually, that was a very cool and interesting title, "Pleasure to meet you, Sofiel," he offered up. The other still didn't answer his question about knowing his name. Perhaps it was being cleverly dodged.

Then he said it. The name. Bassett's breath hitched in his throat at the name and his heart and gut tightened uncomfortably.

"Odessa...She was a girl when I first met her, a sweet little girl. I could hardly believe that she was a demon princess," the soldier recalled, his voice becoming a little wistful, "She had amazing talents...She could heal me. She did heal me often from Pey's hunger when I was hum-....Frail. She would..." The soldier caught himself, feeling the bit of a blush rise to his cheeks. He wouldn't tell the man how she healed him, with the gentle press of her lips, "Help me recover from the bites...I was so weak oftentimes from Pey's feeding. And we became friends. She would visit me in my master's garden and I would walk her to Daemonologie. Every time I saw her, she was older. not like...just a little, but a lot. She grew in years each time I saw her. The last time I saw her was Christmas Eve. We exchanged gifts. She gave me a necklace and I gave her a coat, among some other things. That's the last time I saw her, and she was my age. She said some odd things that I don't recall...And that was also the last time she healed me."

The soldier paused. He eyed Sofiel and asked, "Why?"

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't hearing right. I haven't been getting much sleep these past two nights..."

Bassett felt the skin on his face sag down into a frown. The more the fallen angel talked, the more Bassett got confused, and he found himself falling farther and farther behind in comprehension. By the time he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a book, the simple soldier was quite flummoxed and finding it hard to piece together everything that the other was saying. It was like he had something in his ears, clogging up his hearing, like water or even too much ear wax. Bassett traced the nail of his small finger against the curl of his ear lobe, as if trying to tap his ear back into functionality.

"My necklace...Yes, she gave it...What?" Something struck clear from what Sofiel was saying.

"You must never tell anyone that you know her."

Instantly, Bassett was upset. Confused, yes, but mostly, he was wrapped up in the momentary spur of anger.

"Why?" he demanded, stiffening where he stood. "She doesn't know what she did to me? What she turned me into? What am I to her? What I've become because of her? Granted, it's helped me survive thus far, but it was never something I asked for, this...And now you're telling me that she doesn't know? What are you trying to fix? What was wrong in the first place? No, I don't understand! I don't understand at all!" Behind him, a soft glow emitted from his back, as well as from his eyes, ever so softly, a halo of white light.

"Fool," the soldier whispered in almost a whimper, "You should know that I am human no longer, not by choice."