[ 1v1 ] hopes and dreams ( ember & zar )

[its me debz]

It was his first time, out in the wilds of Halloween by himself. Although Ember wanted to go visit in a golem so very badly, the opportunity didn't come up before duty assigned him to the Haunted House. But Ember was well accustomed to the likes of that: everyone had their part to do when livestock was involved. The work at Deus was, usually, a little more pleasant than cleaning out pens.

His coat was white and pristine, flared out at his waist. He had on one of his many flower crowns, adorned with spikes, pinned to his hair so it wouldn't fall out should he need to move swiftly. Black boots clomped a bit too noisily along creaky floorboards, oblivious to the noise he was creating.

Stealth was not something he was even aware of. Sun truly was a better fit for him than any other division, further proven by his equally bright disposition, eagerly inspecting every room he traversed, taking his time to drag his fingers along the walls, crouching to peer beneath rocks and structures and what laid in pools of water.

Every room was so different. It was remarkable.

He was, very obviously, a hunter-- and a new one. His weapons weren't even out, despite the warnings to always be prepared.

baneful

 

[Baneful]

Zar was used to getting drawn into the haunted house without meaning to be there and had learned to just treat the whole thing like an excuse to explore the world between worlds. It was a hunting ground these days and an excuse to sometimes meet individuals he might otherwise never run into.

Out of habit when finding himself in the creaky and ancient place, surrounded by dust and old furniture, he shifted to his human illusion, still impossibly handsome as Incubi tended to be and fully unarmed. As it was simply an illusion it did not impact his senses, still following his nose and heat rather than his actual vision.

He noted Ember before he saw him, crossing the other man's path in a large courtyard with an impressive, albeit non-functional fountain. When he saw him, he stopped in his tracks.

"I mean you no harm." he said, with a friendly and cordial smile. "You are a hunter, yes?" He could after all, spot those white coats a mile off, even with his sub-par vision.

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Funnily enough, to Ember, Zar would appear as...

A demon.

Not a true demon, mind you, but someone certainly dressed as one. Broad in the chest and shoulders, with fake ram horns and yellow contacts, all of it costume, but still, the intent was clear. He had a fake tail, too, spaded and everything. He wore a nice suit, and was, perhaps, Ember's discordant loves put together: fine clothes and the demonic.

"Ohhh," he said, cheeks pinking up nicely, hiding a smile behind his hand. "Yeah!" he excitedly replied, "are you like, a hunter too and just, dressed up to like, try and blend in?" Ember laughed despite himself, sheepishly smiling again behind his hands. "Oh, baphomet. Your costume is like, super cool."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Zar glanced down at his shape briefly as it settled only to find himself genuinely confused for the first time since he'd started using the human disguise. For a moment he thought it hadn't worked before he noted the differences in attire. He tried not to show his surprise too much as he waved a hand.

"Sort of." he said. "I'm stationed here all the time, sort of like a gatekeeper. Gets lonely as you can imagine, I'm glad to meet someone once in a while."

He was about to go on when Ember mentioned the name Baphomet and made him pause dead in his tracks as for a second he thought the man had said his Name. But no, there was no tug of power, he was safe, but still he realised he might be in more luck than he had previously reckoned.

"And thanks." he said, with only a moment of shakiness, leant a very significant boost of confidence by the deep rooted desire to hunt. "Yours isn't half bad either, what brings you out here? Mostly it's all er, Halloween creatures and stuff. Not many hunters. I hope you'll stay a while, I don't get much company."

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Oh! That made a lot of sense, didn't it? Someone had to keep watch, just in case. Perfectly logical.

"Neat," he said, getting a little closer to inspect his outfit. "Pretty convincing, too. I was like, so hopeful you were the real thing, it took me off guard, you know?" Ember laughed, still behind a white-gloved hand.

The shakiness did not go unnoticed, but the interpretation was decidedly different.

Ember beamed. "Sure! I like, sort of really prefer Halloween anyway, and like, i really need to visit properly in a golem and stuff, so I can get myself a minipet, and make lots of demon friends. Do you have any, being in here so much?"

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Zar extended his arm to show off his false claws and curiously investigate them at the same time. "Well." he said. "I'm flattered, I do try you know, especially when it's someone with such obviously impeccable taste." It was very unsettling how potent the hunting instincts were and the only thing keeping him from getting even further into Ember's personal space was the knowledge that humans were often pretty damn flighty and a fight wasn't what he wanted.

"I am familiar with halloween, probably more familiar with it than the human world at this point if I'm honest, it has been a long, long time." he smiled. "And I do! In fact it was a demon who helped me get this position and to be able to endure it, it came with a few perks."

He gave the other man a toothy smile (replete with fancy sharp tooth veneers) and conspiratorially added. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but it gave me another shape, to help me blend in even more with the halloween creeple. It's not often I meet anyone who is actually interested in halloween, it quite makes me want to show it off. As I said, I do so get lonely."

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Ember's eyes followed the claws like a moth to a flame, more caught up in the appearance of added parts rather than his, admittedly, handsome face.

But he could get that anywhere. Getting a full cosplay outfit-- a convincing one-- was surprisingly harder, even in the satanic circuit.

And then he stepped a little closer, and closer still, the chunky heels of his boots dragging across the floor. "That is like, so cool. if you can help me get in touch with them, I'd be suuuuper interested too, even if it does seem a little boring to be by yourself so much."

Ember gave a little gasp at the thought, and actually started jumping up and down a little in place. "Show me," he implored, eyes light with an almost manic glow. "Show me, please, I promise I won't tell anyone at all. I swear!"

Banxeful

 

[Baneful]

"I'll help you, you seem worthy of them, devoted. They told me they like that in a human." he smiled fondly, hardly able to believe that humans like Ember existed, sure that this must be too good to be true, that humans were always suspicious and always hostile towards anything monstrous or demonic.

"I don't think they'd believe you if you did." he said. "But certainly, just for you because you are special."

He took a deep breath and on the exhalation his shape rippled back into his true form, the false horns sweeping into real ones, suddenly all wings and tail and much, much taller.

He chuckled despite himself. "You can understand why mosssst humanss find me a little intimidating like this."

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Ember had never been so flattered in his entire life. Ember clasped his hands together, eagerly watching with hawk-like eyes, as the transformation unfolded.

This was no costume. This was wings, huge and black, this was hooves, this was teeth and a very very long tail. He absolutely dwarfed Ember, who stood barely at 5'3" in his boots.

He took a deep, deep, breath.

And then screamed at the top of his lungs, half interrupted by wild giggling, more enthused than any fangirl at a pop idol concert. Rushing forward, Ember reached out to touch the wings, running his fingers along them with delicacy, almost vibrating with excitement. The screaming died down, replaced with a high EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE of giddy excitement, having lost the ability to even use words in his moments of adoration.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Zar inhaled sharply in surprise at the sound Ember made, flicking his ears back out of sheer instinct but giving him a very curious look as he touched his wings, the membranes flinching naturally under the contact and the skin flinching in the same reflexive fashion. He permitted the exploration though, even as his very long tail subtly slithered around them both in an enclosing circle.

"I am going to assssume." he said in a low hiss. "That it isss to your satisfaction?"

It was a dangerous game however, the longer he maintained contact with Zar the more he would be able to feel the emotional bleedover from him, the most predominant of these emotions being a very interested sort of arousal which was by its very nature contagious and which reached out to seek for Ember's own emotions automatically.

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Ember erupted into bright laughter, fascination written all over his face, a careful sort of reverence.

"Yes." It wasn't shy, not quite, as even in the face of what should be terrifying, he was only excited. Ever adventurous and curious, fingers skimming along the top of his tail.

Zar's emotional connection would run into something just as interested, full of wonder and careful worship, swirling curiosity welling up to the surface.

"You look," he whispered, breath hitching, "like a real demon."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

The emotional link sought out curiously on its own and what it found made Zar's pupils dilate to mere slits. It wasn't often that he found anyone human or otherwise who was so receptive to and fascinated by him, it reached into some deep and visceral part of him and whispered prey. The tail when touched lanced its usual electric sensations through him and pulled him even more into the arms of a mode he could not easily back out of, it reached up to twist loosely and affectionately around Ember's waist.

"Well." he said, and his smile split all the way back to his ears.

It was safe enough he felt, given how relaxed the human was in his close proximity, how uncannily unafraid."What if I told you I was one?"

Up close Zar smelled like musk and everything good, almost heady, like the sort of meal one probably shouldn't eat but do anyway in a fit of self indulgence.

"Would you leave me here, all alone again? Or would you stay and worship a little at my altar?"

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

There was something else in his head, he realized. But that wasn't quite right, was it? It was a feeling, wrapped all around him, snug and too warm, bringing color to his pale cheeks. Ember licked his lips, reaching one hand up to touch Zar's face, monstrous and different as it was, tracing his lips back to one ear, tracing the curve of its shell.

"Oh," Ember said, and a huge spike in yes, yes, I can't believe it, yes, lanced through him like a spear to the heart. "I want to stay."

And then, stretching up on his tippy toes, pressed a kiss to some small part of Zar's mouth, dwarfed by him in height, in width, in sheer presence. He smelled good, and Ember wanted, so badly, even without the aid of any aphrodisiac.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

There was something in the very nature of Zar as a demon which responded to being in a sense invited in that made him think in the moment that perhaps he was not so entirely in control as he normally was. All the careful practice in his natural form, all the meticulous testing the boundaries of his control had been in Halloween against creatures which were like him and which felt like fear and felt like home. Ember was human and to Zar's extremely delicate senses tasted like fireworks in the air and wild colours in his mind, every breath was hunger and prey and food and it was impossible to resist, leaning into the contact as the dark markings under his eyes flushed more vivid and dark and his skin took on a subtle iridescent sheen.

"Then you shall." he said, his tail twisting slow and sinuous coils about the hunter, warm and comfortable and yet clearly all muscle and coiled strength.

The kiss set off another barrage of wild distraction in Zar's already subtly addled mind, drinking in Ember's emotions and thrilled vicariously, doing only what spiked the positives and for the moment disregarding all negative.

"Your reward for your faith." And it was obvious this close that Zar's gum and tongue were all jet black as his markings. "Will be to taste pleasures man was probably never meant to experience."

Probably repeatedly.

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

The word faith set off another star-burst of reverence, of pride, of I knew it, I knew it. His hopes and dreams were real and true, and while it was a little scary, to be at the mercy of something so powerful, the excitement was undeniable. Ember's hands wandered, eagerly exploring new and foreign territory: tail and teeth, tongue and horn, claw and fur. Wholly, utterly, completely demonic.

All his life, he'd wanted to meet one properly, and now Ember had, and was sharing with one the most vital of partnerships, if only for a moment. It was an act of worship, and it was pure.

The choice was clear. There was only ever one choice to be had, after the path he had walked. As a willing disciple, a devoted servant, an eager thrall: Ember succumbed.

Baneful