Studying Time!

As she held his arm, the girl dragged John back over to the front desk so that he could check out his books. As someone who had little to no social life, John was awestruck by the prospect of being invited to a girl’s home. He simply went with the flow as he paid $160 for his books and was pulled out of the book store by the girl.

Once outside both the barrier and the store, John realized he didn't even know the girl's name. In order to rectify that, he cast Observe on her as she waved for a nearby taxi.

Snarky comment at the end aside, John was surprised to see her already have this high of an RP score with him. It was the highest he had seen from anyone, especially from a girl.

So not only are you telling me that I'm actually going to her home, but she also finds me cute?! I… I better not say or do anything stupid enough to screw this up, especially with her level being so high, John thought to himself.

Within the next few minutes, Blair had finally managed to catch the attention of an available taxi cab and called it over. Once it had stopped in front of them, John and Blair entered and sat on the back seat of the taxi together. As they drove through the streets of Springfield, John was a bit surprised when Blair started to ask him questions not about demons, but about random subjects.

“Sooooooo, what wonderful weather we’re having, huh?” Blair asked John as lightning crackled in the distance. After she asked him that, John realised something important about Blair, something far more important than anything Observe had revealed about her.

She's almost as bad at small talk as I am! Wooooooooo! John gleefully thought to himself.

“Well, wonderful probably wouldn’t be my first choice to describe it,” John said with a joking tone. They shared a light, slightly awkward chuckle together as the taxi continued to drive them through the streets of Springfield. As they arrived at a small apartment that John assumed to be Blair’s home, they formally introduced themselves to each other and exchanged names. As Blair unlocked and opened the door to her apartment, the first drops of rain fell to the ground.

Once inside, they both took off their shoes and coats and placed them near the door. John looked around the inside of Blair’s apartment. The closest room to the entrance was the living room, which was about five yards in length and width if John had to guess. From inside the living room John could see a small counter top that separated the living room from the small kitchen. Inside the kitchen was a mini fridge, small tv attached to the wall, microwave, oven, dish washer, and wine cabinet. To the left of the living room was an open door that revealed a single queen sized bed inside. John felt his heart rate kick into overdrive as Blair sat down on the living room’s couch and began to relax.

John sat down next to her and closed his eyes as he attempted to get as relaxed as possible. They both sat there for a few minutes, one completely relaxed, the other less so. After, Blair got up first and went into the kitchen. She opened the mini fridge and pulled out two bottles of wine.

“Do you want La Marca Prosecco or Chloe Rosé? Trust me, when it comes to studying demons, it’s best done with some **** in your system,” Blair asked John. John opened his eyes and looked over to her.

“Uhhhhh, neither since I only just turned 18, so I’m still underage,” John said. Blair merely rolled her eyes at that and walked over to him and placed the Chloe Rosé on the small table in front of him.

“Do you see any cops around? ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t,” Blair said as she opened both of the wine bottles and poured each one into a glass. John sighed as he looked back and forth from Blair and the wine glass in front of him. He slowly reached out and grabbed it. He stared at it in his hand for a moment before he brought it to his lips and took a small sip. As someone who had never drank **** before, he could already feel his throat begin to burn a little. In terms of taste, however, it wasn’t as bitter as John had expected. In fact, it was actually quite sweet. They both sat there for a while as John slowly drank his own glass and Blair managed to drain three extra glasses.

After John finished his own glass and Blair finished her fourth, she got up from her seat and raised her hand up as she closed her eyes in concentration. Moments later, John got a popup that asked him if he would like to accept Blair’s invite to join her barrier. Which he immediately accepted.

John felt the air around him shift as he entered the barrier. The relative bare living room turned into one filled with book shelves and beakers full of liquids unknown to him. In short, it looked like a chaotic mixture of a library, chemistry lab, and a fantasy alchemy workshop. John took the three books he had bought from the store and laid them out on the table. Blair herself went around the room and picked out some books from the shelves and set them on the table next to John’s books. She checked the beakers, nodded to herself as she sat back down next to John and opened one of the books.

“Alright. So, the most important thing about demons that you need to learn is where they come from,” she said as she flipped the book to the first chapter. “Essentially, all demons are born from the negative emotions of living creatures. Now, not all demons are born this way; some are born of course due to procreation between two already existing demons. However, it’s estimated that about 60% of demons are born straight from emotions while the other 40% are born from procreation. So if you’re having an extremely bad day, or an animal is dying, that could result in the birth of a new demon. Basically, this shows that demons are one of the oldest races out there, because they’ve been around since life could feel. Any questions so far?” she asked John as she looked up from the book.

“A few, yeah, does this mean that demons are older than humans? If all demons are born from negative emotions, does that mean angels are born from positive emotions? Also, does that mean someone like Satan is actually real?” John asked Blair. Blair began to twirl her hair between her fingers as she answered.

“Yep, like I said, since life itself became sentient. So they are muuuuuuch older than humanity. For your second question, yep, that’s exactly right, demons from negative emotions and angels from positive, although there is one exception. Sexual pleasure is an emotion all succubi are born from, even though it’s an emotion that makes you feel good, so you’d probably expect it to be considered positive rather than negative. There are a few theories, but nobody knows the exact reason why that is. The answer for your last question is actually kinda funny. You see, there are more than a few demons running around that call themselves Satan, but those are almost always the weaker tier ones. The higher tier demons like to pick out their own unique names,” Blair continued to explain as she flipped to the next chapter. She looked over to John. “Oh right, I didn't tell you about how demons are organized into tiers yet. There are five distinct tiers that most people put demons in: Imps, Demons, Generals, Arch Demons, and Devils. The five tiers are based on strength, so the stronger the demon, the higher it is on the totem pole,” she explained to John with her passion clear in her voice and eyes. “Got any more questions?” she asked John.

“Before I ask my actual question, you know that on totem poles it goes from best on the bottom to the worst on top, right?” Blair blinked at him and slowly turned to the next page as her cheeks turned red from the embarrassment that her analogy was wrong even though she was supposed to be the expert.

“Anyways, when you said that they picked their own names, what does that mean exactly?” John asked.

“Well, not all demons actually have their own name. The vast majority of demons that are essentially put into the Imp tier are nameless, with a few exceptions for the strongest Imps that are barely just too weak to be in the Demon tier. Basically, the common riff raff are all unnamed,” Blair explained to John. She flipped to the next chapter. “The next thing you need to know is about the 13 Devils of Hell. They are the strongest and most influential demons in all of Hell. Thankfully, they spend most of their free time fighting an eternal war against each other. Although, about two centuries ago they tried to form a council in order to make a relative peace and form a unified alliance against Heaven. Some say the council actually seemed successful for a whole minute, until Xazuth the 6th Devil stepped on the Tineva the 8th Devil’s tail. Which caused them to bicker and fight, and the council as a whole collapsed soon after that,” Blair said to John as she flipped to the last chapter of the book. “Now, there’s a common misconception that some people unfamiliar to demons and angels as a whole might have, and that’s that Gaia is the backer of Heaven and that she’s against demonkind as a whole. This is nothing more than false propaganda that’s been spread by Heaven and the likes of the Order for centuries. Like for all other things, Gaia prefers to take a neutral stance unless it breaks the rules she has in place. So essentially, Gaia doesn’t pick sides,” Blair said with an annoyed tone in her voice as she closed the book shut. John spoke up as she was about to open the next book.

“I just have one more question. I know she’s essentially God, but I don’t know much beyond that, so who or what is Gaia exactly?” John asked. Blair simply stared at him with her mouth slightly open with disbelief. Then it turned into a smile as she gave him a pat on the back.

“Pssh, who’s Gaia, as far as jokes go, John, no offence, but I don’t think your future in comedy is that bright,” Blair said to him.

“Nope, I’m completely serious, I’ve had powers and began to learn about all this literally just this morning,” John simply stated to Blair with a serious look on his face to show that this was indeed not a joke.

“Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?” she asked with disbelief back on her face with a vengeance.