Yes and no.

"I have another date with Elizabeth tonight, by the way," Taylor says, glancing away.

"Ooooh," You suddenly get it, "And you're worried about whether you'll look good for tonight?"

"Kind of," Taylor shrugs, "I thought we'd catch a band, and have a late dinner at some downscale place - like the Thai Palace. I don't plan on dressing up, since I'm thinking the band will be pretty active, but... "

"You're worried about your new look," You nod, giving her a studying look.

...You don't think it will be a problem for her, though. Her makeup might run a bit if she gets too sweaty, and her extensions might catch on something if she's unlucky, but... Her new outfit should be fine. Worst case, then, she'd end up losing some things that she didn't really care about too much.

"Remember how I told you earlier to get some actual, proper makeup remover?" You ask.

"Yeah," Taylor nodded.

"Put some in your purse," You reply, "If your makeup gets messed up tonight, Elizabeth won't mind if you decide to just take it off. A bit of a waste, if you ask me, but..."

"But I care more about the music than the face," Taylor smiles back at you, "Got it."

"So..." Taylor suddenly says, looking a bit uncomfortable, "How are you doing with the Devlin situation, by the way? I really was serious about asking how that was going."

"Pretty good, actually," You reply, "I've got some really promising leads. It looks like she's actually bound to live up to her end of this, and I think I might have a way of mitigating Ashley's influence over me so that I can actually capitalize on that fact. If not... Apparently there are some, like, angelic lawyers who can bail me out if I find them. And a weird technique to make Ashley owe me, but... Well, I'd feel like a complete idiot if I screw that one up."

"Grabbing her tail?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah... Wait, did your book mention that too?" You reply, surprised.

"...Yeah, it did..." Taylor says slowly, looking a bit distant for a moment, "I don't think you should try it, though. Like you say, it could backfire pretty easily; the lawyers sound more promising. But maybe you should keep looking - she might have countermeasures for some of these, and the more options you have, the better. If we can find out about these methods after a day, a succubae probably's encountered them before, right? Even if it's a new one like Ms. Devlin."

...Oh, shit, she had a point. You'd been trying to One Weird Trick this, but... You weren't the only one with agency here, were you? Of course Ashley would be planning to cut off your outs, instead of just hoping you'd dance to her tune.

"Sheesh, good thing I asked you," You scowl, shaking your head, "I'd have totally gotten complacent if I hadn't run it by you first. Did you learn anything else?"

Taylor looks like she's about to speak, and then hesitates.

"Actually, I think we should keep our research separate for the moment," She answers, "I did some research at a couple of occult bookstores while I was updating my wardrobe, but the stuff I found could be way off-base; I already sifted out some obviously wrong junk, but the books I did buy could be flawed in less obvious ways. If one of us has a major breakthrough, that's one thing, but... Maybe we should wait a couple of days before sharing notes, to make sure we don't just lead each other into wild goose chases?"

You think about it for a second, and you have to agree. Even in your more reliable books, you'd already found what seemed to be likely misinformation, like the anti-Catholic thing or the succubus eyes. Demonology was still a niche topic, so it would be easy to buy into historical misconceptions - maybe it would be better for the two of you to start with different knowledgebases.

But, there were a couple of big points you should probably bring up regardless.

"Okay, but let me run a couple of things by you first," You answer.

Taylor looks like she's about to disagree, but she falls silent when she sees how serious you seem.

"First, a scientific journal recently published a piece on succubae," You mention, "It seems that a succubae's bodily fluids has certain lasting influences, though none of the details are well-understood by the scientific community. Since I'm going down on her on the regular at the moment... I'll be counting on you to bail me out of some of those influences lead me astray."

Taylor gives a serious nod in response to that, but she doesn't seem surprised... You feel a bit nervous about that fact, but you choose to just think that she'd considered such a possibility as a reason why Ashley was so confident in her plan.

"Second, according to a book on bargaining with demons, apparently selling your soul is supposed to be really bad," You continue, "It puts you under the power of the demon who owns it, and being soulless is supposed to cause issues on its own."

At this point, Taylor frowns.

"That's pretty vague, though," Taylor answers, "Elizabeth knows others who sold their souls, and they did all start acting differently... But they weren't, like, totally different people. They were happier and more confident, more open with their desires. Most books on bargaining with demons date back to before the modern age... Are you sure they weren't just making assumptions based on beliefs of the day?"

You mull that over for a moment... Reflexively, you want to disagree, but it's true - you didn't have the books that would have gone into more detail on those points. And you didn't know any soulless people, but Elizabeth does. You just feel... Vaguely unsettled, with Taylor defending the idea of selling souls.

"It's not impossible," You shake your head, conceding the point, "But the book went to pains to emphasize that fact, even as it gave a bunch of other ways to deal with demons. That would have gone against the conventional morality of the time as well, wouldn't it? It seemed pretty convinced that the only times selling your soul worked out well was if your previous desires aligned with that of the demon's - like selling your soul for ****, or worldly pleasure."

"Oh, that makes sense..." Taylor said, something clicking into place for her, "Everyone here's been selling their souls for money, sex appeal, or an easy A right? So of course it would look like things worked out for them."

"...Put that way, it kind of sounds like our school deserved a demonic professor to begin with, doesn't it?" You sigh, "Somebody had to have sold their souls for, like, academic accomplishment or world peace or something, right? I hadn't thought we were a particularly selfish student body."

"I guess you could ask Ms. Devlin next time you see her?" Taylor shrugs, "I haven't really asked around - I don't like things being handed to me."

That's... Not a horrible idea. Whatever Ashley's designs for you, she probably wouldn't mind talking about her work.

"But even then..." You shake your head, returning to the point, "Being under Ashley's power probably isn't a good thing. I mean, what about after people graduate? Especially since she'll get new offers every year... And if her business thrives, there will be a lot of pressure for new students to sell before they can think of the consequences."

This wasn't an Ivy League school, but graduates went on to influence the world from all kinds of less-important positions. Within a few years, Ashley would have loyal agents floating throughout the entire country... Worse, if that "sway" mentioned before let her tailor their career plans to her designs.

Taylor falls quiet at this proposition as well, not having a good answer. Ashley having power over her students was the expected thing, but... Being at the center of some creepy succubae-web? That's when things started getting disturbing.

"...I don't know," Taylor finally replied, shaking her head, "The most I've thought about this was in terms of you ending up **** to give her your soul, or Elizabeth settling on her trade. I've wanted Ms. Devlin gone from the start for my own reasons; this soul trade business... It's bigger than a student like me should be worried about. If it's that dangerous, there should be laws to deal with the problem, not... A conspiracy of students to kick her out of a school. I mean, if she was running a brothel or something, she'd still probably be pretty dangerous, right?"

...Shit, Taylor was right. It's not like Ashley was the only succubae in the country, either. Here, at one of the engines driving intellectual progress, she had a dangerous amount of influence... But a succubae could do plenty of damage from a more covert position as well. Run a coffee shop in DC, talk politicians into selling their souls for power... It'd be less efficient maybe, but she'd get the results all the same.

You thought back to yesterday's research, and remembered Las Vegas. Was Ashley... Really doing anything worse than other demons? At least here... Her trades were entered willingly, in return for momentary whims. It was stupid, but caveat emptor. Maybe this... Was just the difference between a human and a demon, at the end of the day. And complain though you might, a demon was the more capable of the two - she didn't have to follow your morality.

"Still..." You say, shaking yourself out of your bleak thoughts, "You should probably mention as much to Elizabeth, okay?"

"Yeah, I will," Taylor nods, "The 'being under her power' part, at least. She might not be into a life-long obligation to her teacher, but she was actually looking forward to the personality changes, so... Confirming it would probably be counterproductive."

...Huh. Well, that kind of made sense. Like how some people just gave up and drank themselves to oblivion, right? Just... A bit more permanent.

"It's about time for Comparative Religion, though," Taylor mentions, "Want to walk me to class?"