Shadowcaller wrote: ↑Dec 16, 2022 10:44 pm
[Room with a Goat]
"I have three eyes and can see the present, past and the future. Yet in none of those perspectives I focus your bosom. So be at peace, child. I know you don't see me in that way and while the Jaahlyn you know might feel a casual sort of lust for you that she won't act upon, that's not the case for me." Baphoreth claims.
"But I have to ask, do the four of you actually live together? Since I find that adorable."
[Room with a Goat]
...Oh. Um, good. That's... that's good to know.
It really is. If she can be certain Baphoreth is being
honest, that is. She's run into people who have claimed to have
no interest in her that way whatsoever who later turned out to be either lying through their teeth or painfully lacking in self-awareness. Both of which made life more than a little awkward for her.
Thankfully, before the sentiment can pull up any such instances, Baphoreth changed the subject. That was nice of... her? It's hard to tell, but she's assuming since that's part of Jaahlyn, they share a sex.
Well... yeah. We've all been together since we left the Abyss. And for a while before we left it, too. We've been leaning on each other this whole time, and to be perfectly frank... we don't really have anyone else.
It doesn't take long for Melody's mind to make her point for her. In life, she was always a shy girl who had trouble making friends (
real friends, at any rate), and her home life was...
Ugh.
So she didn't really have much of a social circle. Which probably wasn't a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, which would include Baphoreth.
Exstacy was sort of her opposite in that regard, from what Melody remembered. Total party girl, the type who would bring beer to any casual social event and not leave until the cops came. Melody thought she must have been popular, but as she confessed to Malady during a particularly rough night, most of the relationships she ended up fostering this way were temporary and superficial; long enough to hit a high point, and then abruptly cut off before there were any real
commitments involved.
skrrrrrrrch!
thwam!
The memories around Melody get a little blurry here. There's a brief moment when Exstacy had pulled her into a surprising, passionate kiss, followed by a hard shove, the street spinning under her as she stumbles in a drunken daze, and the flash of headlights coming her way, along with the scream of brakes being hit far too late to avoid disaster.
...That's... probably an extreme example.
Jaahlyn's already heard Marianne's sob story, and when it passes in front of Melody's eyes, it'll seem unchanged; a quiet confession on a sleepless night that she'd been complicit in some shady business in life, which was materially rewarding but left her feeling guilty, and eventually ended with her own intoxication-assisted death. Melody was never quite convinced it was an accident, but Mania was far too driven a succubus for the only alternative she could think of to make much sense, either. In any case, whatever associates she had in life were dead or dying when they finally got out of the Abyss, and Mania hadn't been intent on reconnecting with them.
Euphoria probably had that problem even more so. Five hundred years of demonhood... she's almost certainly outlived anyone she could have called a friend, if she didn't alienate them or see to their deaths herself. Melody tried to ask her about it once.
Once.
The memory associated with that incident is just a sensation of pure, undiluted panic. Melody must have blocked out whatever happened there, and clearly never broached the subject again.
...That might be giving the wrong impression, though. The very next thing she remembers is the two of them sitting in a booth together with a pair of half-eaten sundaes in front of them. Melody has her head buried in Euphoria's side, while Euphoria is gently stroking her hair and quietly shushing her, urging her not to make a scene in public. The other two succubi are nowhere to be seen; this was a moment between the two of them and nobody else. They would go on to spend the rest of the evening writing a poem together, which Euphoria would later record and put to somber piano music. The resulting track was never released to the public; it wasn't a DEATHKISS song. It was just Euphoria trying her hardest to apologize to Melody for being so harsh with her earlier.
Melody still has that CD. It's in the top drawer of her dresser back home.
...Yeah. We, um... just each other, for the most part. I think Jaahlyn's the first time we've ever had somebody come around to us. In person, at least... I'm not sure the fans really quite... count.
Baphoreth probably recognizes this memory. It might be a bit surreal, watching it from the outside, seeing Jaahlyn perform for them from Melody's perspective, with the rest of the band working to wash a poorly-graffiti'd phallus off the tour bus. Or seeing her again at the concert, shortly after Ava's bombing; most of the world around her is faded and darkened, and she can't hear anything other than a high-pitched ringing, but there Jaahlyn is, like an angel, coming to their defense. And then again, at the hospital. Or not so long ago, at the graveyard, coming to help her again.
And then yet again, at the temple. Which is especially bizarre and dreamy, since it's a memory that was itself formed within a dream.
...Sorry. I'm, uh... that's probably super uncomfortable for you, isn't it? I'll try to think about something else.
...It's easy being with you, sacred simplicity
As long as we're together, there's no place I'd rather be~♪Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
