Private Finished My People

Chloe sat in the student lounge, studying her notes, checking them against several big, old tomes with yellowed pages. When she was satisfied, she reached over to grab another arm from her pile of disembodied arms.

Well, there were two piles of arms. Both were made of styrofoam. One pile had complicated markings on them in pen, all with roughly the same design. None of them were up to Chloe's standards, but maybe this one would be.

Amber was doing some after school stuff, so Chloe had a lot of time on her hands. Pun not intended. Occasionally, one of her DSU friends would stop by and ask her what she was doing, or if they were in the know, ask her if this had anything to do with her tattoos she was going to get. One of them tried to give her a few pointers, which ended up being very embarrassing for him.

"Thanks anyway, Greg," she said as he left. She wrapped a string around the styrofoam arm and used it as a straight-edge to guide a sharpie marker. On the table lay a compass, a protractor, a ruler. She had to be very precise. Imprecision is why the other arms failed.

Across from the table where Chloe worked, there was another chair.

@Kyros

Another demon drew near. Chloe looked up from her arm-marking to see -

Emily Strong? The head cheerleader?

Chloe blinked once. Emily had never been to a DSU meeting. She wasn't publically acknowledged as a demon. Was this...?

"Yup." Chloe nodded to both of her questions

Chloe was starting to think that, perhaps, this wasn't going to be a conversation about the fact that Emily was a demon. Chloe had worked to sway a few student council elections, with her backroom politics, her help with posters, her endorsements at DSU meetings. She probably should have gotten involved in the last one, too, with how that turned out.

"So," Chloe made a few more careful marks on her styrofoam arm. She considered, for a moment, how to ask Emily what it was she wanted before settling on "What's up?"

"Do I ever," Chloe said. She had a lot to say, but she didn't say it immediately. She considered Emily for a moment, considering what would be the best foot to put forward, first. She set her styrofoam arm on her lap.

"Well. Where should I start? Ah, that Citizens Against Evil stuff from last year was something. It was scary to see that there was still that much hate against us. Made me realize I'm really doing something important here. This is the one place on earth that we're supposed to be able to be ourselves, but there's still discrimination. So it's understandable that there are some demons on campus who are, ah, in the closet. So to speak."

Chloe thought to herself that she might have been a little bit too on the nose with that last comment. "So, basically, a lot of what the DSU is about is trying to make this a place where demons can be accepted for who they are and live without fear. There's also a lot of misconception-clearing-up that still needs to happen. You can imagine that people will treat you differently if they know you're some kind of lust demon, or a succubus or an incubus. Lots of gross expectations and just, really uncomfortable stuff. My own daughter, actually, is part lust demon, and I'm already worried about how people are going to treat her differently because of it. That's something I'm hoping to fix."

At this point Chloe realized she was starting on a barely provoked rant. "Well, ah. Before I talk your ear off. Did you have any specific questions?"

Chloe took a moment to compose herself. This fucking rumor again.

"Nope." She turned on her patient explanation voice. "I'm actually not a sin demon at all. My father is one of the Goetia. That's a different kind of demon from a completely different hell from the sin demons. So even though I might arguably act like one sometimes, I'm not a lust demon. My daughter's, ah, other mother is a lust demon. Pandora is her name. She's also a giant spider woman. That's why Amber looks spider-like."

This would, hopefully, dispel the other annoyingly persistent rumor Emily might have heard: that Chloe had sex with an actual, literal spider.

"Demon family trees can get really complicated sometimes," she added.

"Sure! We have non-demons who come to the club all the time. So..." She paused for a second, wondering how much she should be assuming about Emily's situation. "Well, so whoever this person is, they can come to any of the general meetings. Everyone's welcome. Next meeting starts around 5 this Wednesday, and I don't think it conflicts with any other clubs right now."

Chloe considered mentioning the meeting for closeted demons. She looked like she was ready to say something more, but stopped herself. That advertisement would be better made at the meeting, where it wouldn't seem like it was aimed at Emily herself.