7083/A Grave Situation

A Grave Situation
Date of Scene:	26 July 2021
Location:	Woodlawn Cemetery
Synopsis:	A group of dummies try to summon something demonic. Mania shows up. So does an actual demon. Oh, and Satana's behind it all.
Cast of Characters:	Satana Hellstrom, Andi Benton

---

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"HAIL SATAN! We're going to summon the demon Brsark tonight at the cemetery on Ed Gein's deathday! Bring your black candles, your robes, and your daggers. Mindy has volunteered to be the ritual sacrifice, but we gotta bring twenty bucks each for her or she'll walk. Don't make her walk. She has the hottest outfit for the sacrifice!"

Those were the weird words Andi found on her DMs in one of her burner accounts on Twitter. Why she was DMed is not clear. Who was DMing her was ... some seedy-looking 20 year old. Doing a bit of digging and it was clear he was some poor D&D-playing schlub without a job living in his parents' apartment.

Still, talks of summoning and sacrifice are surely a reason for investigating, no? Thus is it that Andi finds herself looking over the cemetery at Woodlawn watching a bunch of pimply late-teens and early-twens cosplaying EVIL DARK SATANISTSISTSISTSISTSISTS (yes, complete with the echo), the girl in a "witch" outfit that would make Emma Frost blush at how little is covered, gyrating around in a "spell casting trance" that just happens to look exactly like Miley Cyrus twerking Robin Thicke.

Or, you know, a standing "lap dance" at a strip club. Which now that a second look is given, looks exactly like where "Mindy" got her costume from. Probably works there.

It's pathetic. And if it goes where it looks like it's going, there's going to be a dozen "indecent exposure charges" due in about twenty minutes. Tops.

The "spell casting" (twerking off the losers) settles down and Mindy collects her twenties from each guy before lying on a gravestone that has had a pentacle poured around it in chalk. Writhing quite fetchingly (and adding ammunition to the theory of where she works) she gibbers and arches her back and generally makes a scene while the boys form a circle around her, outside the ring of chalk. They chant stupid lines inspired from watching The Omen once too often, she gibbers and writhes and moans, and ...

... a demon appears, a nasty looking fellow with long, sharp fangs in a perpetual predatory grin, glowing blue eyes, black leathery skin with black leathery bat wings, long claws on feet and hands.

"WHO DARES SUMMON THE DEMON BRSARK!?"

For such a small thing it has an incredibly deep voice.

And why is that tree over there giggling?

Andi Benton has posed:
The whole thing sounded like a bad idea from the moment the message popped up on the account. Yes, Andi had a few for more secretive things, including following some of the darker, seedier elements of the city and surrounding area. One never knew when it might come in handy as a tip to cut off some trouble before it began, and the cemetery itself was on the way toward a late-night food spot she'd been wanting to try, so...yeah.

Mania entered the place silently, taking up a spot behind one of the many mausoleums that dot the grounds, waiting, listening, and watching.

//What are they doing, Andi?//
<<Right now? Looking and sounding like a bunch of idiots. We should just scare them off before they damage something.>>
//We could easily scare them.//
<<That's what I'm counting on. Let's give it a couple more minutes. Wouldn't want to interrupt whatever that girl's doing right now.>>

The dance, or something.

Only..the summoning actually works? And something shows up from nowhere, looking very much like a real demon? A small one, childlike in size, but definitely with the signs of a demon about it. The voice even surprises her, as the shape of Mania's eyes enlarge at first. "Uhhh..wow," she says, mostly under her breath as the would-be satanists find success. If it can be called that.

The figure with the spider-motif moves for a better view of this development.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
A couple of shouts of terror. Mindy rolls off the grave like a shot, wrapping her way-too-small cloak around her ... well, let's face it. It really only manages to cover her upper chest. Partially. She, naturally screams.

The DEMON BRSARK grins slowly, its wide mass of sharply pointed teeth glinting white in the night, saliva dripping from its maw.

"I ASKED A QUESTION MORTALS! WHO DARES S..."

It pauses as it takes in Mindy. It blinks.

"Wait, this is my sacrifice?" it asks, voice still deep but not with that bell-like sonerous quality it had had only moments before. "You're letting me have this?"

Then, for some reason, it looks at the tree from which Andi had heard giggling.

Just as quickly, with a visible flinch, it looks away and looks at Mindy again, who is paralyzed with fear as the demon hops down on the grave, then on the ground, stalking toward her.

"YOUR SACRIFICE PLEASES ME! HOLD HER STILL WHILE I FEAST UPON HER INNARDS!"

Deadly silence for one ... two ... then pandemonium breaks loose.

Some of the guys--chiefly the older ones that look like construction workers along for the laughs--just break and bolt, shedding robes and screaming in fear. Some are transfixed with surprised fear, muttering things like, "NO WAY!" or "HOLY SHIT!"

Three of them, however, including the rotund ringleader, step up behind Mindy and hold her in place: one on each arm, and the ringleader snaking his arms around Mindy's waist to try and hold her still. This triggers Mindy's transition into a wildcat, screaming, kicking, biting, clawing ... anything to get away from the monster now stalking toward her, clearly intent on violent feasting.

And there's more laughter from that damned tree!

"Give it up, Mindy," the rotund ringleader hisses in her ear. After licking it. "You're the sacrifice."

"THE WOMAN IS NOT WORTHY AS SACRIFICE! SHE IS NOT VIRGINAL!" Brsark looks at the ringleader. "YOU WILL HAVE TO DO!"

Hoo-boy.

And that tree is practically doubled over with laughter. You know. For a tree. Which means it's not moving. But it sure SOUNDS like it's doubled over.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's head turns in the direction of that tree where the laughter is coming from. Trees don't snicker, snigger, giggle, chortle, laugh, or anything else of that nature.

//Something strange is going on, Andi.//
<<What gave it away?>>
//For starters, there is--//
<<It was a rhetorical question, Mania. We know.>>

As soon as people begin to scatter and talk proceeds toward a real sacrifice taking place, Mania mutters, "Guess it's time we got involved," and a line of webbing is shot out toward Mindy, no real effort made to be careful about where it comes into contact with her. She's tugged out of the way, but that still leaves the others who'd been holding her.

"You are all so stupid. We should eat your brains, but we're afraid there wouldn't be much to feast on." A demon..well, an imp talking sacrifice and consuming innards, and that..thing bringing up chowing down on brains?

Mania adds, "But first, you. For a demon, you're not very big." Neither is Mania, for that matter, but at least she's a little taller than Brsark. A line forms where the mouth ought to be, creating just that, and the teeth amount to more than the demon's got, and are no less sharp as the long, snake-like tongue flicks out. Claw-tipped fingers flex as Mania eyes the thing with a challenge in its eyes. "Loathe as we are to let them go without teaching them a lesson, you are our main focus."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The DEMON BRSARK<tm> freezes as Mindy is suddenly yanked out of range, leaving behind only the three guys. Behind Andi the sound of a stripper hitting dirt hard, cursing with ... surprisingly creative facility ... and getting to her feet to run off can be heard. Mania's replacement of Mindy makes the ones frozen and watching with wide eyes rethink their survival strategy, along with one of the lieutenants. To a man they turn and run.

Oddly the lieutenant who chose to break runs full-tilt into a gravestone next to the laughing tree, collapsing to the ground with an "Ugh!" and a thud. And then not moving.

The remaining two ringleaders start backing away from Mania on each side, but don't flee.

Brsark stares at Mania a moment. It casually turns its back on her, jumping up onto the grave to bring it more evenly eye to eye. Calmly it turns around, faces Mania, cracks its neck first left, then right. Cracks its knuckles. And knees. It slowly puts itself into a stance that looks like it might be a combat stance.

Then it turns and runs, straight at the headstone, vaulting it in a stunning display of Demon Parkour, and tries to scurry off into the night.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mindy is left alone. She can live with the choices she made, and she got her money. Presumably.

The guy that smacks himself silly by running into the marker by the tree is given a brief glance. For a moment the predator/prey thing kicks in for Mania, but Andi pushes it aside with but a thought and an internal 'No,' directing attention back on the demon, the imp.

Even as the other pair start to ease their way back, they are mostly ignored except for Mania to say, "You are not our main focus. If you're even a little smart, you won't make us change our mind about it."

Then Brsark is facing off with her, seemingly about to leap forward to attack. Mania matches that posture, but as it bolts instead the symbiote and host decide the chase is on. Lines of webbing fwip out to secure to a tree, and she swings close to close the gap. "Not so fast. We are not done with you."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Behind Andi, were she not focused on Brsark, she might notice an all-too-familiar form stepping out of the tree. An all-too-familiar form wearing clothing that would have made Mindy blush. Though her cape, at least, is full-length. Diaphanous, mind. But full-length.

Sardonic smile and very false clucking tongue of concern. Satana crouches beside the fallen lieutenant and ...

Andi, had she been looking, would recognize that purple glow as Satana straddles the fallen lieutenant, flipping him on his back, lips touching his. She would have seen him writhe and twist in the height of pleasure. She would have expected to see him turn into a husk ... only ... he doesn't. She stops, rising, eyes glowing red, face flushed with excitement that seems ... unsavory. Chest heaving.

Her victim moans beneath her, but not groans of pain. More the satisfied sounds of ecstasy.

The head turns to fix on the other two that were holding Mindy who themselves, already sparked by Mania's threat, run off, shouting things like "Holy Shit" and, surprisingly, one of them reciting rosaries at the top of his lungs.

Satana chuckles then, and walks--saunters, really, over to the grave to straddle it and rest her chin on her hands atop the gravestone, watching the Benny Hill farce that is unfolding.

For it is exactly that kind of farce.

Brsark, his voice still unsettlingly deep, is running and screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" as he looks over his shoulders every so often, only to see Mania closing in on him. Several times he changes direction, briefly increasing the gap. Several times the gap closes resolutely and gets Mania closer.

"YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG SISTER!" the demon wails over its shoulder. "I WAS TRYIN' T'SCARE THE BOZOS! I WASN'T GONNA EAT ANYBODY! SHE WOULDN'T'VE LET ME!"

She?

"C'MON YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME! I WOULDN'T LIE TO A HOT PIECE OF ASS LIKE Y..."

That sentence gets cut off by a faceplant as the demon, intent on talking over its shoulder, runs straight into a pillar of one of the crypts, knocking it over and flattening itself.

Its subsequent (and disturbingly low-pitched) wail is one of hopelessness and resignation.

Andi Benton has posed:
//Andi--//
<<Not now.>>

Mania tries to get more of Andi's attention, but for the moment that appears to fail. Even if Andi sees what Mania does, through the shared bond they have, it goes by the wayside.

"Stop running. We only want to..talk," they claim, but it doesn't sound all that sincere.

Meanwhile, the feeding takes place somewhere behind them, though only up to a point this time. Not like the last time. The other two that seek to get the hell out of there might just.

//Andi, we think you should--//
<<What did I say? Look. It's a real demon. We need to kill it before it gets away!>>

Distance is created then closed, repeated a couple times until the thing runs smack dab into the stone, causing an almost comical rebound to the grass that surrounds it. In the next moment Mania is upon it, hand closing around the imp's throat as the other? The fingers begin to lengthen, elongate, sharpen. She might just skewer the thing on the spot. "What did you just say about our..wait, who wouldn't have let you? Who is she?" The hand squeezes but does not fully cut off the ability to breathe.

//We have been trying to tell you, Andi! She is here!//

Only now does Mania turn around enough to spot Satana. "What the fuck?" she reacts, eyes both widening then narrowing within moments.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Satana fingerwaves from the gravestone, smiling perkily. "Hello, Andi. Mania." Her voice is calculated to send a deep thrill from the contralto through the nervous system. You can tell. Brsark is showing the ... ah ... physiological evidence of same.

"Aw, Hell!" it says strangled. "Look, sorry 'bout that. Just ... you're a hot piece of ass. The boss is a hot piece of ass. And this whole thing of you trying to kill me is really turning me on."

Ew!

"Oh, Andi, if you do kill Brsark, remember that he just goes to Hell and I'd have to summon him again. It's mostly an inconvenience. You'd be wasting effort for no good reason. He didn't do anything wrong." She mimes shading her eyes as she looks at the pair in the distance. "Well aside from ... that. But that's not really his fault either, is it? Physiology is physiology. Still, why not put the little thing aside and you and I can catch up, OK?"

Catch up. In the graveyard. With a man groaning on the ground with sounds that are decidedly not those of pain. (And with a suspicious patch of staining on his trousers.) And a demon that ... is ... turned-on. By Andi. And Mania.

Oh, Hell, what has Andi gotten herself into!?

Andi Benton has posed:
Immediately, Mania lets go of Brsark and, in fact, shoves the demonic imp away a few feet, pointedly not looking at the thing. She's staring more at Satana for a few seconds, notably silent but visibly..tense? For a moment, body language shifts enough to glance over a shoulder and downward.

"Whatever. We don't care how it got here. Just send it back before we do it for you," she answers, crossing her arms. The one hand has returned to normal, but the tooth-lined mouth remains and it gives a more sinister look to the being.

She glances past Satana to see the guy groaning in..well..and she just shakes her head. Then takes a breath, the chest rising and falling more visibly. "Everyone who came here for that..is dumb," she then declares.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Oh, don't I know it darling?" Satana says, rising from behind the tombstone and walking it around it to sashay up to Andi.

Someone, somewhere, wants their belts back. The one Satana is using as a bustierre. And the other one she's using as a skirt. The black ones that move in a hypnotic counterpoint as she closes the distance to Andi and Mania. A wave of her hands and Brsark starts to get sucked away in a hole ... but not before it gets the chance to crawl up behind the distracted union and ...

... smack ...

... Andi/Mania ...

... right on the tush.

The look of bliss on its face as it gets drawn away to vanish would be cute were it not ... well ... it.

"They are quite the band of idiots. Except Mindy. She's ... intriguing. I think I'll go catch her act later. And maybe whisper sweet nothings in her ear afterward. She seems ... open ... to suggestion."

That purr in Satana's voice is chilling.

"How about you two? How have you been? Exploring?"

Andi Benton has posed:
The all-whites of Mania's eyes have become nearly slits, narrow as they are right now. The pointed display while approaching her keeps her staring, and the line of that mouth turns more flat than ever just before the spell is weaved to send Brsark back to wherever (hell) it came from.

And then the swat, felt clearly through both host and symbiote.

//!!//
<<!!>>

Mania wheels on Brsark and immediately claws out at the thing, only to come up empty. "You will not get the chance to do that again!" she hisses, but the imp is no longer even around to hear the threat.

Satana's thoughts about seeing Mindy go unanswered, for she is still staring daggers at the spot the demon had been in just before, and now her back is to Satana, the question not fully responded to beyond a terse, "Something like that."

It /touched/ her!

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Never one to miss an opportunity granted, Satana slips up behind the outraged, dangerous pair, wrapping her arms around Andi's waist, pressing up against her, and resting her head on Andi's right shoulder. "It's lovely to see you again," she murmurs in the pair's ear...location (since the ear proper isn't visible at the moment). "You feel a bit tense. Do you need some relaxation exercises?"

The incongruous smell of cinnamon fills the air: Satana's personal scent when she's not manifesting from Hell or teleporting or such. No, this is what's left behind after the brimstone dissipates.

"Did you enjoy the evening's theatre as much as I did?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Yes, Mania is tense, especially after Satana takes advantage of the opening. Stomach tightens, as do shoulders, and she's felt to attempt a turn in place but the woman remains squeezed up close. The mouth fades away, replaced by that more blank visage again except for the expressive eyes.

"We.." is begun before a sharp look is cast again at the spot where the imp was pulled out of this world. "If we see that thing again, we will leave it in pieces. Enjoy..is not the right word."

This gives her reason to think about a better one and she determines, "It was annoying, and we do not know any relaxation exercises." A hand has paused at her hip, briefly rubbing at the spot.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"I'm glad you managed to run them off when you did. Brsark is a bit of an idiot and I doubt he could have kept the act up for much longer. It's why I invited you. You are ..."

Satana takes a deep breath. She slips one hand to hold it over the one that Andi has at her hip, interlacing the fingers. The other wanders upward, dangerously high but still barely in the realm of decency.

"... magnificent as a threat. These idiots won't try something like this again. They'll settle for drugs and pornography and other vices that will blacken their souls until they're a perfect meal for me."

Satana starts swaying, trying to bring Andi along with her.

"As for relaxation, there's quite a few techniques available. But ... as much as I love cemeteries and graves, I suspect you don't share my fondness for them." She giggles, almost girlishly in Andi/Mania's ear. Almost. "You'd probably find what I have in mind to relax you 'disturbing' if we tried it here."

Andi Benton has posed:
Can Satana sense the frown behind the expressionless mask? It's there. Mania asks, "You're the reason we came over here?" She leaves out the details of how. After all, if that's the case the how is already answered. And then her hand is taken, leading to a sort of dance that Mania has to move with or find a way to slip free of if she wants to.

"They deserved..ahh." This brings her pause. She's seen what this woman can do to people like them. Even felt a twinge of something that left the symbiote interested in learning more. "They deserved a scare," she settles on, staring ahead of her as she adds, "You think we're afraid of a place like this? We don't need to stick around here any more, though." She'll just not take the bait with the rest..yet.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Well, that intriguing Mindy works nearby and I gather this little 'sacrifice' gig of hers was just a thing she was doing before she went to her real job. Why don't we go watch her at work? Take a few drinks. Take in the scenery and the scene."

The hands don't stray into dangerous territory. Yet somehow it feels like they are all about the dangerous territory. Uncanny how Satana has that effect on people.

"Don't worry about getting carded. They won't card you."

And then Satana releases Andi, except for that hand in whose fingers she's entwined her own. That mysterious smile of hers becomes visible as she slides around the girl, before gently tugging her in the direction of the cemetery gate...