Lazy Day [open]

Lochlann got drunk and tried to summon a demon again.

When Chloe heard the news, she headed down to the ballroom to find the person he summoned. She was a little bit shocked that Lochlann would try something this stupid again. It was a miracle she didn’t kill him, when they first met. Maybe he was so desperate for a good lay that he was willing to risk death for it? Or… an even scarier thought, maybe he didn’t care whether he got sex or death out of the deal. Chloe would need to talk to him later, to make sure he wasn't getting worse.

But for now, she just wanted to meet the unfortunate soul who Lochlann summoned. If her experience was anything like Chloe’s, she could probably use a friend right about now. Or at least someone to help her acclimate to her new life. Chloe herself had been doing this for the last half year, so she felt like she would be qualified to help.

She was almost there when she walked around a corner and saw a new face, an unfamiliar person setting down some very large jars. There was a faint hint of a demonic aura to the woman, and… was she pregnant, or…?

Chloe decided not to comment on it. Just in case she was wrong.

“…Hi,” Chloe began, uncertainty in her voice. “So… I heard my friend tried to summon a succubus while drunk, again, and he got someone completely different, again. Are you her?”

She looked at the jars again. “Do you need help with your, uh, jars of important dirt?”

Chloe picked up one of the jars and tucked it under her arm. It was awkward only because of its size; the weight was negligible for the younger half-demon. She quietly declined Vlad’s offer to let her feel her belly, choosing instead to just stand back and watch, and to silently wonder what kind of religious ritual calls for grave soil.

Chloe gave Vlad a polite smile for her advice. “I’ll try to keep that in mind. But I… I think our world might work very differently from the way yours did.” For a split second, she looked worried. “It’s going to take you some time to adjust.”

Her worry soon gave way to optimism. She would follow Vlad wherever they were going. “Here’s some good news, though: midwives aren’t really a thing here. Instead, we have hospitals with entire medical teams who can take care of you no matter what complications you have when you’re giving birth, so both of you are basically guaranteed to survive. They can also make it hurt less. In fact, if you want, I could take you to a doctor later, so they can look at you and your baby and plan ahead for it. Medical science is really good here, and we have free healthcare on this island, so, why not?”

“Society is probably different here, too,” she went on. “Arranged marriages are only common in some countries. Usually people marry someone of their own choice in their late twenties, when they’re old enough to start a household, if they even marry at all. But my dad is just…” she chuckled, “Completely opposed to any kind of monogamy. He tolerates me having a girlfriend, but he really thinks I’d be happier if I had lots of sex with lots of different people and never stayed attached. Or if I had a harem.”

Chloe didn’t sound like she had a lot of respect for her father’s opinions about relationships. It only occurred to her after she stopped talking that Vlad might not even know that lesbianism existed, much less be able to accept it.

Like what the astrologers performed? “…Sort of? Science is more of a, uh, a general method of figuring out how things really work. We used it to find out how bodies actually work, and then we used what we learned from that to learn how to do stuff like cure diseases or make childbirth safe.”

Chloe went on to answer the rest of her questions.

“…They don’t have long masks, but sometimes when they’ll wear a special cloth thing over their mouths.”

“They usually know how to deal with unusual species, if they’re similar enough to some kind of human or animal they’ve seen. You and I are similar enough to humans that they can work with us.”

Vlad’s voice changed, and Chloe blinked, face turning red. Chloe very quickly accepted the idea that Vlad had a kitsune in her head; it wasn’t that much of a stretch for her. What she struggled with was how to respond to this ‘Nixis.’

“Um… well, no harm done. I could give you some reading material about how that works, if you want to learn about it on… uh, on your own time.” She wasn’t going to dwell on that subject for too long. “Anyway, it’s kind of funny that I’ve been introduced to your head-kitsune before we introduced ourselves. I’m Chloe Black, and I’m the result of the first time Loch tried to summon a succubus.”

“Nice to meet you too, Vlad. I go by ‘Chloe’ here.” She was careful to word it that way, instead of outright saying that her name was Chloe. Real names had power for demons. Better for Vlad to assume it was a fake name. “There are supposed to be some pockets of supernatural creatures here and there in the world, but… I think there are more non-human sentients here than anywhere else. If nothing else there’s definitely more kinds of us.”

It began to occur to the younger half-demon that this was a very strange place to be unloading Vlad’s stuff. “Are you going to be teaching here next semester? Or is the school just letting you store stuff here?”

Chloe couldn’t entirely believe that Vlad was qualified teach students here. Vlad sounded like she would be more at home in 1015 CE Europe than 2015 CE Manta Carlos. She was too polite to let Vlad know she felt this way.

She was actually going to be teaching here. And at Juvie Island, which made Chloe raise an eyebrow; you had to be seriously powerful to handle yourself as faculty there, from what little Chloe knew about the place. Maybe she was teaching some kind of magic. From the grave-soil and everything… “Lemme guess: you teach necromancy, right?”

Vlad had a lot of interesting things here. Including a skull she had a personal relationship with, apparently. Chloe dutifully started picking up the things Vlad asked her to. When the new teacher began to discuss payment, she stopped, thinking, conflicted. “Gold?” Should she tell Vlad about the exchange rate for gold here? Or….?

“You don’t have to, but… I totally won’t complain if you give me gold for this. That’s very generous of you. Thanks.” She chuckled a little, still surprised. Along with the things Vlad directed Chloe to get, the younger half-demon was also able to pick up her heavy backpack and sling it over her shoulder. It wasn’t such a challenge for a girl with greater-than-human strength.