Sanguis Daemonium

3-Rituale

After the first sleep of seemingly an eternity, she had awoken into her cornflower blue room, the cotton sheets snagged on her claws in a released devilish form. It had been years since she's shifted fully from form to form, so this was a refreshing change.

Knocking echoed through her room, the hollow sound of bone covered in flesh against wood.

"Marian? Copia told us you're a halfling?" Rain echoed nervously from outside, "I want you to know we don't care that you're a halfling, you-you're one of us now." Though his words were unsure at first, the last few were resolved and confident.

"You don't have to keep the human form. We know." Cumulus echoed.

Bones popping and straining with her great stretch, she clothed herself and opened the door to the unsure masked ghouls.

"Good morning." She sighed. It took her a few moments, but she realized how alive she felt. This is home, it has to be home now.

"M-morning." Rain shuddered at the sight of Marian, but not in fear.

"Here hun, Cirrus asked me to give you this, we have spare from the last Ritual and you could use it to buy yourself some clothes." The shorter woman offered her the wallet full of money.

"I really can't accept this, you all have been so nice to me." She began to melt from embarrassment at not being able to provide herself with money for clothes.

"Nonsense, what's ours is yours too. You're an honorary ghoulette." Cumulus smiled and handed Mari the pouch.

She slowly began to tear up.

"This is- this is the safest I've ever felt, and this is both the worst and best feeling I've felt in a long time." She wiped the tears away before they fell.

And with just instinct, Rain slowly brought her into a hug.

"You're safe. And we're all going to take care of you."
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Moments later, long moments, when Mari had calmed down into a happy blanket with an old Disney movie on the TV, Rain approached her from the entrance to the rest of the church.

"Hey, we're holding a Ritual soon, it's just music, alcohol, probably other things, but since you're our babysitter, I thought it was a good idea to invite you to it? It'll be fun."

"It doesn't sound like any ritual I've seen, but it sounds like fun." She nodded.
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So it was set, the stage was set, and everyone had rehearsed. Marian was going to be front row next to security. The music was playing, and she caught sight of Rain during the song "Square Hammer".

For once he seemed confident and content, flirty even. He held her gaze for moments at a time while playing. Even though his part wasn't especially loud or noticeable, it was what made the crowd dance or as Copia put it, "the sound that makes your ass wiggle like this-". It was entrancing and it lit a fire within them both.

The ghouls and Copia shifted around the stage, allowing the church goers and party people to get a good look at all of them and their perfected art. But Rain was never too far from her, but he did move aside for Dew to play his solo, showing off in a competitive way to the other ghouls through something he does all the time.

Of course, Aether had his moment to show up Dew in a friendly way with his own solo. Dew held the spot near Marian for a little too long for Rain's liking, and he looked rather defeated. It was some sort of silent argument.

The ritual ended and couples paired off for their night, and the drunk stumbled out. Leaving Marian to wander into the backstage. Expecting her room mate, she turned into the hallway to their living spaces to find it empty, everyone had instead gone to the practice/common room to celebrate their big night. And they had been expecting Mari.

"Mari!" A happy Swiss greeted, "hi!"

"Oh, hi Swiss. I'm glad to see you're not avoiding me." She grinned.

"Yeah no, I just think you're pretty... cool pretty cool." His pathetic attempt to cover it up went unnoticed by Marian who took it at face value due to the lack of normal interaction.

"Thanks Swiss, but I am looking for Rain." She tried to peek around him for her roommate to congratulate him on the concert.

"He always celebrates alone, idk what it is but that what he does, so... you wanna dance? We have a lot of vinyl, and the ghoulettes are fantastic dancers too." Swiss offered.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm not really a dancer."
She back away towards the entrance.

"Please? Come on, just one dance? We can put on something slow, it'll be easy." He used his adorable puppy eyes and Mountain put on something bouncy, poppy and slow. She couldn't help but indulge and take Swiss's hand.

She let him lead as their footwork got a little faster with the song. Swaying with the melody. He twirled her with the drop of the song. He held eye contact with her, following her move every way she moved.

Her hips swayed with the dance as her feet followed his in rhythm. Their hands clasped together. They almost seemed perfect for dancing together. The second "drop" in the song resulted in a dip and twirl and back to the steps. His spade tail curled in joy, but not for the same reasons as Mari, she just felt confident enough to dance. But as the song ended she realized she hadn't congratulated them all.

"I'm sorry guys, I forgot to say good job that concert was fantastic, I should go find Rain." Swiss's tail drooped and so did his mood. The ghouls and ghoulettes waved goodbye except for Swiss whose heart was pounding like a machine gun.
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It's a bad time for me to be around anyone, I feel like I'll tear into them like an animal. And I don't want to risk the ghoulettes or my new roomie. It was hard enough hugging her this morning, I don't know why I did that.

I mean, I know why, but she doesn't. And I don't know if what I'm feeling is genuine. It's that week after all.

Oh and I can smell her even clearer now, fuck, she's here isn't she? In the house. No, no, no, I have to think about something else, do something else. Uh-um I could retune my bass, I could just lock my door and hide under my bed. Good plan let's-let's do that.