No, just go and help your bestie prepare.

A couple of minutes later, and you're knocking on Taylor's door... While wondering about the strange scent in the air. Taylor had always tended towards more "practical" looks, or even "punk" looks, but she still knew how to dress up - you're pretty sure she didn't, like, screw up her perfume and set off a massive stink bomb or anything.

"Oh, um, Maya..." Taylor said, opening the door just a crack, "Just... Give me five minutes?"

Taylor then disappeared into... Whatever she was doing. You really, really hate to overstep, but you're super curious as to what she's doing; you "accidentally" swing the door open a bit more... And feel your eyes go wide at the sight.

Taylor's kicking what looks suspiciously similar to a grimoire underneath the bed, as she extinguishes some foul-smelling candles, and looking nervously at a chalk... Something on the ground. The candles are already giving you a headache, and with the added eye pain from the symbols, you can't even figure out how she managed to draw it - you were pretty sure it was some kind of non-Euclidean abomination that shouldn't exist in corporeal space.

You had expected that Taylor would be preparing for her date by now, but... You were pretty damned certain she was conducting some demonology research of her own in here. Your heart skips several beats at that thought, but your rational mind isn't surprised in the least - of course your bestie wasn't going to abandon this mess into your lap. She'd outright promised to look around for help yesterday, hadn't she? You just... Hadn't expected that help to go quite in this direction. Your eyes glance around the room as best they can without looking ta the abomination, and you at least notice to your relief that there doesn't seem to be any, like, blood or sacrifices involved. Yet.

Taylor stares at you as she notices the door, and you stare back as you realize the door had kept swinging open.

"So. Um..." You start groping around for words, "Guess you've been hitting the local bookstores, then? Anything useful?"

Taylor just sighs as she finally throws a sheet over the abomination. You hope she's not going to have to lose her room deposit over it...

"University library," She explains, "Ms. Devlin apparently donated part of her collection as a sign of goodwill. I doubt she'd give us anything truly useful in escaping her, and the information is probably biased, but... It seemed like a good starting point. If her book says she has wings, and another dusty tome says succubae don't have wings, then that book is probably more prone to errors, right?"

You nod, following her logic.

"But why the..." You ask, gesturing towards the now-hidden mess.

"Research," Taylor answers, "I'm expecting that they're accurate to a point, because donating bad books would defeat the purpose... But I'm also not necessarily putting that much faith in them. They could have traps of their own, or just be plausible-sounding lies. So I thought I'd follow the setup steps for some of the basic invocations, take a few pictures, and crossreference them to other occult texts - or maybe reverse-image-search them to see if any of them show up in the news surrounding, like, horrible accidents."

"You really wanted to work with something so smelly before your date?" You ask, wrinkling your nose, "It smells like some mad biologist decided to crossbreed a raffelesia and a durian in here..."

"Huh?" Taylor asked with genuine confusion, "It's just sandalwood and sage... Maybe Elizabeth will think I'm some kind of crunchy granola type, but it shouldn't be a problem. It really smells that horrible to you?"

"Worse, I was getting a headache just approaching the door," You answer, shaking your head.

Taylor types some notes onto her laptop as you speak.

"That's really weird..." She says, thoughtful, "The foul-smelling stuff isn't supposed to come into play yet; that's the offering to the demon, though exactly what they prefer varies. The scented candles are supposed to represent some element of purity to protect the summoner long enough to curry favor. It doesn't smell off to me, so maybe that's the trap? Something else about the ritual fouls the protections, so you're just letting a demon loose on the place - and because it looks like an obvious diabolist error from the outside, it doesn't hurt her reputation."

"Yeah, that crazy thing you drew..." You add, "Who knows what it does. Lines just shouldn't move like that."

"...Yeah, I understand," Taylor nods, "I'll ask Elizabeth for some help later, we should be able to figure out exactly how this works."

"Speaking of," You say, noticing the time, "We need to get you prepared for your date! You probably only have an hour or two left, right?"

Honestly, you really wanted to continue with the demon talk, but... Taylor had her priorities all out of whack here, and you needed to ensure her first date went well! You'd been at college long enough that you were surprised she didn't have a girlfriend already; at this rate, she'd probably end up in a convent instead. You didn't know what was going wrong, since you knew she always wanted a girlfriend... But now that she finally had a date, it was a chance to course correct!

You appreciated her help, of course, but this was something for her to help with yesterday or tomorrow - not now. She didn't need to throw out a pivotal life moment on your behalf, not when you finally felt you were making progress.

"Um, yeah, the reservation is for eight," Taylor answers, "I figured I'd get some work done for another hour or so, hop in the shower around seven fifteen, and start fretting if I missed anything around seven forty-five."

You just stare at her, hoping your mute horror isn't showing on your face.

"Taylor... No," You say, "This is a Luigi's Jubilee date. You can't go in there looking like some broke college student!"

"Maya, I am a broke college student," She replies, dubious, "It's a nice place, but it's still the go-to place for serious dates here. They'll definitely have seen worse."

"That is so not the point!" You answer, face in hands, "Don't you want to see Elizabeth's face light up with admiration and desire? Don't you want to draw everyone's eyes to you as the star of the night? This is your special day, so you should make it yours!"

"...I really don't get it," Taylor sighs, "But if it's what you want..."

And with her assent, you commenced the makeover.