Welcome to Gaia! ::

'Til We See The Sunlight Alright

"Caroline?" he asked through the door, without panic, fingers splayed across the locked bathroom door. It was pristine and white, painted not so long ago. His black nails stood out against it, and through it came echoing cries, distraught. "Caroline, are you all right?"

She was not, but he had to ask. Ember curled up in front of the door, pressing his ear to the surface to listen to the tenor of her tears, with it a name and the hiccuping, whispering words of a person not all there. "I don't know what's wrong, but I'm here," he continued, "and I won't go anywhere unless you want me to."

No response came, just the repetition, fractured and rearranged, a bunch of puzzle pieces put together all wrong.

"Do you know who Raum is?" he asked, asking not for her curiosity's sake but so Caroline would hear his voice, soothing and at ease.

Animals could always tell if you were nervous or scared, and that meant humans could too.

"They always like, draw him as a crow, in the old books, which is sort of funny. No big devil tail or horns. Just a crow that hates everything. And because he's a crow, they've always got him stealing things from people's homes, carrying them off into wherever. But he most often steals from like, nobles, and hates nobles most of all, like some sort of weird crow Robin Hood. Crow Hood? I don't know. But, that like, kind of goes to show, you know? Most demons have a softer underbelly that no one ever tells you about. Raum is also known for bringing together friends and enemies, for making peace! And love! He's not so bad."

Ember smiled, and stood to get a pen and pad of paper by the phone, scribbling on it with red ink. "That's why I'm thinking of him, right now. Because he invokes love. Not carnal, not amorous. Just love, and so that's what i invoke."

He slid the paper under the door, the sigil on it drawn in a sloppy hand.

"I hope you're okay, or that you will be. I'm here if you want or need anything, okay?"

Ember settled into the door-frame again, and waited, and listened.

So Much Fun Now

"Yeah, she does," she agreed, amused at the idea. A brush of her hand against the girl's hair got her attention, and she flashed a grin. "Do you taste like cotton candy? No--hang on, jesus, don't go asking these people. Look, see, that a*****e looks like he'd really eat you."

The blonde, seemingly bewildered, stopped frantically scanning the club for someone to ask, slowly looked at her own hand, licked it, and made a face that suggested she did not taste like cotton candy. Hoping for a second opinion, she extended it to Ember.

"Don't, unless you want to," Caroline laughed to him, shaking her head. No humoring required here. "This one was just trying hard at making herself lost in a bad way. Thought she could use some right company. But she says I'm a fairy goddess, so hey, worth it to have that knowledge!"

'Til We See The Sunlight Alright

"I don't mind." He smiled, lips curved against the door, and it was true. Ember knew it would be a good idea to be careful with his words, because I don't mind was different than it's okay-- in that moment it might not have been okay.

The door cracked open after some amount of fumbling, revealing a woman who looked every bit as exhausted as she sounded. "He does," Ember said, and slipped his hand into hers, scooting into the bathroom with a careful nudge of the door, still on the ground with her.

Carefully, he pulled her up enough to put her head on his lap, gently petting mussy red strands with the hand not holding tight to one of hers. "That's like, how he takes all that treasure. Plucks it out of their rooms and soars away."

Ember squeezed her hand. "Fixing is a funny way of looking at it. You're just having some problems right now, right?" People didn't get broken, even if they had problems. "Like a storm, they too will pass. Even if there's a next time, there's always a lull, a calm, a quiet. May yours be long."

'Til We See The Sunlight Alright

Ember laughed, but not in a mean way, nor a mocking one. "Sort of," he said, "witch isn't the right word." He ducked his head to press a kiss to her temple, soothing. "I am real, and permanent, and alive, and super duper human. My mom's name is Serenity but she was born a Sarah, and my dad's name is Frank but he goes by Mister Lee. I grew up in Bastrop, which is a bit south of Austin, Texas, but they moved the commune up north of Austin, near Leander. I helped raise goats and chickens. I've got four brothers and sisters, but only one's my full sibling. Like them all, though."

He stared up at the fluorescent lighting above the mirror, noting that one of them was probably gonna go out soon. It kept flickering. "So: Totally super real. Flesh and blood, bone and sinew. Got scars from climbing and super messed up fingers from oil painting with them. My left pinky is all crooked cos I broke it once, tripped over a stone and fell into the creek. Dream things don't have such boring things happen to them, do they?"

Caroline's original point still hadn't been fully addressed, though, and that just wouldn't do. "I'm a Satanist. There's lots of sorts, some mean, some not. The LaVeyan sort believe in eye for an eye and not taking any s**t. Thought I was one of those, for a while, cos getting angry is so easy, you know? But it's not me. Then there's The Satanic Temple, who are champions of justice. They believe stuff like 'one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone', so they fight against corporal punishment in schools and pro-life jerks and stuff like that. They value compassion, they value personal freedoms, but... But they believe that science is the way forward, and that we should conform to it."

He huffed a sigh. "But what I saw when I was little can't be defined by science out there. I always knew there were more, I just had a real narrow scope. But I made a-- I made my own book, based on old texts of Demonology, you know? And I transcribed every demon, every power, every sigil, and they got their own meanings. I really believe them, silly as that kinda sounds. But when I say stuff, I mean it. I light incense and sit at my shrines and think real hard, about all that is and all that could be, and demons are like-- they're not all bad. Not at all. Lots of them have connections to knowledge and having answers to questions, and most of them are compelled to be real truthful. So I do think that when I look at them, and draw their sigils, and call on them-- well, it's real to me. Even if they're just aids in our lives as we do stuff ourselves. It's not like I think all this stuff will be powered all by itself. But if I try to-- if I try to do something, it's like having a helping hand. The strength to go on and on and on, as long as I need to. Even if no one else is there for me."