So hey you guys are a thing. And I'm a thing. And this was a thing, not finishing the thing.

Enjoy the unfinished thing.

[spoiler=]
“Darling?” A young woman piped, unmoving voidish black eyes bore into a strange figure she had confronted in her basement. She spoke with a casual tone, like she was asking someone to take out the trash. “Did you let this humanoid in the house?”

It growled from a shadowed corner, baring sharp fangs at her before a man from upstairs replied.

“I thought it was another one of your clients, dear.” He spoke, voice softened in concern.

A smile crossed the pale woman’s lips, almost starch white in contrast to her dark gown. She watched it step forward, oxblood skin and narrowed red eyes. It had two bone growths sprouting from the back of its skull that curled down. It stared and awaited a response.

The woman’s dark eyes grew from this pleasant surprise, her arms stretched out as if to motion to the contents of the basement. Wooden shelves lined the stone brick walls with various clay and glass containers, some of which contained various bizarre anomalies. Some glowed, others buzzed, and the occasional one shook. The third kind were tied down by leather straps. “What service can I provide? Here in my little cavern, all mortals, immortals, and various humanoids alike are viewed as equals.”

“You don’t have to be so ‘politically’ correct.” It leered to her baring sharp teeth, “We have our label.”

“Ah, but an incorrect one.” She chirped, with a cheerful smile holding teeth just as sharp on her face that, given the circumstances, even brought an unease to the creature. “The only reason why you’re called ‘demon’ is because that’s the first thing mankind bellowed when they saw you. I don’t blame them. We’re all very quick to pin the unknown into knowable categories.” Her eyes found the creature’s a second time, staring at him almost longingly, in a sense of a predator over a lover. Like her eyes were stripping away his skin. “There aren’t many of you left, from what I recall. Not after what happened t-”

“Quit babbling.” It finally said, cutting her off at her last word. “I’m here to conduct buis--….What is –that-?”

She followed its gaze and her smile only seemed to grow. A tiny brown skinned toddler sat by the humanoids feet, “Terra dear, it’s not polite to grab a demon’s toes.” Terra blinked up when hearing her name, hair and eyes matching the raven black shade of her mother’s as the young one craned her neck to look up at the creature.

The demon drew back and snarled at the child with a force that reverberated off the basement walls, watching as the little girl’s face lit up. She giggled and let go of its toes to clap her hands. They stared at each other a few moments longer in silence before the humanoid broke its gaze to peer up at the mother.

“Your spawn disturbs me.”

“Why thank you! Hopefully she’ll be a little horror just like her mommy, mm?”

Another round of silence, before the woman clapped her hands together and took a few strides to scoop up the toddler, who was now sucking her thumb. “Now then, business? An exchange? A purchase?” As she listed these, she turned around and a free palm hovered a few feet above an empty table. The surface trembled before a set of bone walls grew out of the wood, making a small pen which she promptly plopped the child into.

“A donation, with one subtle request attached.”

“So an exchange then?” She teased, spinning on her heel to look the creature in the eyes. The ends of her gown wrapped around her from the motion. “Well, let’s name the debt before the gift.” Her hands clapped a second time as a large circle was drawn with a strange green light in the center of the stone floor, leaving the shape to linger there. A soft hum filled the room, just softer than the toddler’s idle babbling.

“There’s a particular object we’d like you to fetch. To hold until a later time.”

Her smile, unwavering, grew in size if that was even possible. “Am I to tamper with this strange object?”

“No.”

Now, her enthusiastic grin dropped, but the expression was more mocking a child’s pout. She eventually let her mood draw neutral again. “How long will I be holding it?”

“As long as we need. The only threat it has to you is others that may want it.”

“And what will you give me in exchange for this? Your ‘donation’.”

It took two large steps forward, until its feet were inches from the outer rim of the glowing circle. “You get me. For whatever you wish.”

Her brows raised, “Anyt-?”

“Don’t try mocking me, yes, you are to take the offering literally.”

She pouted almost sincerely this time. “You’re just taking the fun out of this job for me, aren’t you?”

It said nothing to humor her, walking passed her to inspect the contents of a table just below some of her wooden shelves. The woman canted her head, standing behind the demon, observing weakness. “Where is the artifact?”

“I’ll tell you when you accept the terms.” It reached for a small stone carving in the back corner of the table, but turned its head at a short squeal. It was from the toddler, whose pen was only a few feet from the creature. The little girl blinked, a big slobbery smile on her face when seeing it had looked back at her. The demon leaned forward to squint at the child, regretting it as the toddler immediately grabbed at its nose and pulled.

The demon reeled back, having a good idea of what was going to happen next. It pulled its arm back to swing at the child. Though the reality of what happened after that point was quite different.

A powerful burning churned in the demon’s stomach and it rapidly spread throughout its nerves, an overwhelming force of pain and heat. It opened its mouth, but the agony had stripped it of a voice, instead a black foam and orange plasma began to spill from its mouth. The thing fell to its knees, shaking, almost disregarding a dark shadow that loomed over, before the human woman had nonchalantly walked right by it with as little regard as a homeless man.

The symptoms eventually subsided, the demon able to catch that the humming center circle had been glowing a threatening shade of red before subsiding to its regular green.

“Is this what you were looking for, sweetie?” The woman said with a saturated motherly tone, plucking a small stuffed object from a tall shelf. The toy was a giant yellow blob with blood red teeth and three eyes. As the toddler let out another squeak, she took the toy and squeezed it as hard as a child could against her chest in a death hug. “Baah aamm mmnn.” She babbled, sitting down with the toy just as the demon had gotten to its feet.

The woman turned without hesitation, at a speed that startled the creature.

“I, Ida Elvira, accept the terms of the job. Now, where is it?”

The demon was quiet, wiping its mouth of the contents that had been forced from her enchantment. “A cabin in the forest. The city near it is called Toronto.”

She gave a slow nod. “Good, good. I’ll fetch it when I’m able.”

“When you-?”

“Back up for me please.”

She made a shooing motion with her arms, despite the demon’s growl in defiance. If it was even possible, the dark in her eyes dimmed further and the creature eventually relented. It could feel the warmth of the circle still carved in the floor against its feet. “When you’re able?” It repeated, edging towards irritation.

“Well if you must know, my husband is going to want to examine the object as well. We’ll have to call a babysitter ahead of time a-”

“Y--!” Its sentence stopped dead when noticing the color of the circle under it was beginning to shift. It could feel the smile on the smug human’s face.

“Back up a little more for me. It doesn’t do you much good standing on the cusp of the ritual circle.”

The demon’s next two steps were short and hesitant, it spoke slowly. “What are you going to do to me?”

Ida blinked and her eyes matched the florescent green of the circle, her hands balled into fists as detailed runes began to shine within the ring. “I’m going to do anything I want.”

[/spoiler]

I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going.

Quote from Scarecrow

I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going.

You may want to expand your list of accepted genres.

I suppose I should say that I love this story. Kyra knows this. In fact, she's been sitting on this one a while.

And I'd imagine that the reason- er, a reason- why Kyra has held off on posting this is because the story poses a question that, in this context, rather predictably, is met with a simple, flat, and rather stale assumption. The question I am speaking of, though never spelled out within is as follows:

"What would Ida Elvira want from a demon?"

And the response, also implied- this time by the conveniently-named user 'Scarecrow', is blind to context. Much like the rest of our audience.

Because we don't know who Ida Elvira is just yet. We don't know what Ida Elvira would want just yet.



But let's not fool ourselves here. We want it all. Don't we?

See, now that's my question.

And it's up to each of us to answer.

Good story.