Opus Eponymous

Satan Prayer

Hear our Satan prayer, for the coming of seed.

They woke up in a pile of thin blankets and an empty room. There was only a painting on one wall of two colors. With the frame dripped in them.

X stumbled up and nearly forgot where they were, taking their shirt off and stretching and grabbing the door handle, nearly opening it until they remembered where they were. They turned around again and saw the bed that must have been Aether's. They grabbed their shirt and pulled it over their torso again.

X looked around more deeply and saw a pile of clothes on a desk in the corner with a messy not on it. "Put these on and meet downstairs for diner. Remember your mask, Aether."

They pulled on the skinny jeans and buttoned the shirt up. They secured the mask in place and laces up the boots.

They glanced in a small mirror and saw their eyes glowing a little more than they had before, somehow despite their eyes already being bright blue. They stood and walked down the stairs to follow the sound of voices. They were tired and their throat felt dry and scratchy.

It seemed like the dining table was to the left and they turned that way.

"There they are! X! Come, sit here!" Sodo called over and pet the seat next to him.

"And they kept kicking me so I put them in a pile of blankets. Perfectly reasonable." Aether said and smiled widely. "I'm a reasonable man."

"Stand." Cumulus coughed as the Papas walked in.

"Ghouls, I see you've been very busy." Papa Nihil said, smiling. His paint was faded and roughly done. His wrinkles made shadows in his face where the makeup seemed messed up.

"Good morning, Papa." Every Ghoul and Ghoulette in the room said and sat down. X followed their lead and sat with them.

"So, tell me. Have you come up with much else for this all?" Papa Nihil asked, sitting for food.

"Well we haven't come up with a name. So until the people meet X and give them a name this is just a Nameless Ghoul to everyone else."

"Alright, well we are touring in a few months, so I suppose that a small change will be known. I am excited to see what they name them." The papa at the time said, smiling."

"Yes, and they think we don't know." Sister Imperator said.

"I've seen the people talking all about it, yes. Possibly we could have them appear on an interview for the time being. We do have to send one of you to talk to the interviewers." Terzo said and ate the eggs on his plate.

"It'd have to be very surface level information."

"The upcoming one is just talking to an interviewer about religion or something, I believe. So that's fairly simple. Just put a good word in for us, would you?"

"Maybe that's not an amazing. I'm not amazing at talking, really." They laughed.

"Fair, we'll send special ghoul, then. You just keep practicing and adjusting here." Papa Nihil said, he was doing his best to be welcoming.

"Thank you, Papa." X said.

"Okay. After breakfast you all have library free time. Then practicing and then a day off from there."

At the library nearly an hour after breakfast none of the Ghouls were quiet, as nobody else was there to care. The library time was spent in a huddle of them all playing with the books and throwing things around.

"Race you to the top of the bookshelf." Aether said and pointed at X. X grabbed the shelves and scaled it with force. They pulled the shelves and ripped out a few books on the way up. They lost by one pull of an arm and swore.

"Fuck you, Aether."

"Pay up." Cirrus said, opening their hand. Cumulus and Rain handed her five dollars.

The two climbed down, but before they got to the bottom a messenger walked in. She stared at the scene of many masked creatures hollering at two climbing on bookshelves. She cleared her throat and spoke. "It's now time for your practices. Clean this up before you go, please. Out librarians have enough to deal with already." Some Ghouls growled and she scurried away with fear.

The Ghouls ran out of the library without cleaning up and pretended they weren't there. They went to a practice room and gave X a spare guitar that was black and decorated with a cross on the side to define it.

They were given chords and asked to play something on it. They played the noted to the best of their abilities. It wasn't the greatest, but it was unpracticed and uncoordinated.

"Okay, not bad." Swiss said.

"Okay, let me play those to the tone and then you try to match it a little better, okay?"

"Alright." X said and listened to the way Sodo played it. They copied it and then they played together over and over as the rest of them played to the two other than Mountain who chimed in occasionally for a full test.

After the hours of practicing the same Sister came in with a disappointed expression. "You're free. After, you clean the library."

"Fine." Swiss said, "Last one out the front door has to clean it all." He said and bolted to the stairs of the practice room. He was immediately followed by Rain, Sodo, and the Ghoulettes. Then followed by Aether and X.

"Fuck." Aether said, stopping at the top of the stairs. X stopped to check if he was okay.

"Are you okay?" They asked and sat next to him.

"I might have pulled something, but I'm fine."

"I think we're going to have to clean the library. Here, let's go already." They said and stood up holding a hand out.

"Y'know, maybe you're not that bad. I suppose I could get used to you."

"Good to hear." X said and started walking through the long halls. They walked out the front door and Aether sat down again.

"I still don't know how you run up those damn stairs so fast without pulling something." Aether panted.

"Calm down. Okay, everyone take the masks off and our contacts await us." Cumulus said. She removed her silver mask to reveal her face and everyone else did as she did.

They all packed into one of the Clergy's fancy cars they owned for travel purposes. The drivers were all helping Ghouls who ran around with outdated masks and did chores.

Everyones eyes were dimmed from the contacts as the large black car took off from the dark building.