Greed God chapter 227

April 13th 2016 Brightedge City, Barbaric Bison Coffee House, 10:00 PM EDT

Since  she was so off kilter we decided to stay and let Raven enjoy her night.  She was emotional and raw and that wouldn't have been useful for my  training anyway, plus she was actually stupid cute being all shy and  reserved. Granted, her massive tits probably didn't hurt my enjoyment of  watching her, but seeing how weirdly excited she got over some terrible  poetry was kind of funny.

Thorn decided to take the time  to sing, at least partly I think to impress me because she was sulky  that I was paying so much attention to the bustier of the two goths. I  have to say I was impressed by her musical ability, even if her song  wasn't exactly my scene. Raven seemed to love it based on the slight  bopping of her head, which based on her stoicism was pretty much  screaming and whipping off her top in Raven-ese.

Since I  was wearing my mask and Thorn and Raven both only knew me as Mammon,  inviting them back to the Hall was out. I figured sticking around would  give me a chance to gather some intel on the half demon before working  with her. Gigantic bouncing jugs are fantastic, but they don't really  speak to competence, and her rank could easily be from raw power.

Because  of that, I kept a close eye on her as she watched Thorn sing her song  (something she said she wrote with a friend of hers that she called  'trap of love') and was pleased to see that even with her obvious  excitement she kept a firm hold on her emotions. The training she'd had  was clearly effective, and I was hopeful it would be useful to me too.

When  Thorn sauntered back over to the table she was practically oozing  smugness, she couldn't have been more obviously fishing for my attention  if she'd tattoed 'notice me senpai' across her ass and bent over in my  face.

"That was lovely, Thorn." I said with a soft smile.  "You've got a gift for that kind of thing." I'd normally have flattered  her a bit more, but Raven was here, and her empathy made exaggerating  TOO much a bad idea. It was good practice actually, having to match my  actions to my emotions within a reasonable tolerance level. I wasn't  going to be completely open or anything, but I had to have at least a  deniable level of sincerity. It was a tough line to walk.

She  smiled at me prettily. "Thank you so much Mammon. I'm so glad you liked  it." I saw her consider being kind of an asshole for my attention, but  in the end she was such a genuinely nice girl she decided to turn to  Raven. "How about you Rae? Did you like the song."

The  hybrid flushed, nearly imperceptibly to almost anyone else in the room.  "I thought it was very well done. You said you wrote that with a friend  of yours?"

Thorn's smile was nostalgic as she answered.  "Daphne. She's amazing. She solves mysteries with her friends, and she's  pretty and sweet and smart and stylish." She reached up to tug her red  streaked black hair. "I wish I had pretty red hair like she does. Anyway  she wrote that for her ex-boyfriend Fred when they broke up. He was  pretty weird, completely obsessed with traps. Nice enough guy, but he  paid her almost no attention."

I wisely chose not to  mention the gushing about her friend, though I noted that Thorn was  PROBABLY bisexual, and planned to introduce her to my own sexy mystery  solving redhead. I had no doubt Barbie would eat the cute little goth  up, and that would be a good way to transition her into meeting Nick and  not just knowing me as Mammon.

Raven on the other hand,  seemed fascinated, and asked to hear more about Daphne and some of her  adventures. Thorn seemed thrilled to talk about her friend and chattered  on, telling stories about men in masks, complicated schemes, and a  talking dog best friend, which I immediately decided I would have  someday. I was definitely going to upgrade Magnus so he could actually  talk, that sounded awesome.

It was...weird. Seeing how  affectionate Thorn was being about her friend. Caring about people I  wanted to fuck was new, but at least made sense. Having actual friends I  was that invested in...honestly that wasn't something I understood.  Zack and I had grown up together, but I'd bailed on him as soon as it  became inconvenient to keep him around, and Waylon and I were...kind of  friends? But I mostly kept him around because he was useful.

Not  that I for a second believed Thorn didn't want the redhead (who was a  bombshell, Thorn had pictures on her phone) to sit in her face. But  still, it made me think about some of what I was supposed to be doing.  Maybe I should try hanging out with Waylon sometime outside of  operations.

I was kind of curious actually, had Raven even  had any friends up to this point? I was pretty positive she hadn't been  dating anyone given the conditions of her powers. She seemed like she  was kind of alone. It was weird, because I could almost see myself in  her situation. Different, but similar, in that I couldn't feel before  and she didn't want to.

Identifying similarities between  another person and myself and feeling a little bad for them based on  those similarities were an early stage of sympathy, according to Ingrid.  Empathy was something different, and not something I understood well  based on her explanation, but she said sympathy was a good start.

"So."  I asked Raven casually during a lull in their conversation. "Where did  you learn how to control your emotions like you do?" I felt like if it  was a common sort of skillset my dad might have had similar training,  but I didn't think he did. He was always more emotionally driven than I  was, not that it was a high bar.

I understood more than a  few of his choices over the years better now. Before I would just assume  he was confident enough in victory to make subpar choices for his own  amusement. I'd done that a few times, and gods knew I let my dick do the  leading more than once, but it wasn't the same.

It  was funny, because I'd judged so many people for their subpar choices  driven by emotion, but now I could barely function with the same  feelings. The concept of emotional control seemed so simple when I  didn't fucking have any, but now every feeling we overwhelming to an  absurd degree. I found myself constantly distracted and agitated and  contradicting things I'd JUST thought. I was even speaking less formally  in my Mammon guise, though this wasn't exactly a formal interaction,  and my mask would prevent them from noticing if they met me anyway.

Raven  sighed, and I was jerked out of my distraction as she answered. "My  mother." She said sadly. "She was...a good person. An amazing person  really. She fell in with a bad crowd as a young woman and got tricked  into taking part in a ritual where they offered her as a sacrifice to my  father. A virgin sacrifice. He...I was conceived during that ritual.  She never held it against me, however. She dedicated her life to  teaching me how to harness and make peace with what I was."

Her  voice was flat, but not apathetic. It was cold and dull, numb rather  than uncaring. She kept going though. "She was part of an order of monks  called the order of Azar, who lived in a pocket realm called Azerath. A  realm that was...destroyed. Because of me. Because of the demon inside  me." She reached down to fiddle with the ring. The runes on the band  began to squirm, but it held. That thing was able to hold out as long as  she didn't actively try to draw from her demonic powers.

Thorn  looked heartbroken for her, reaching out to take the other girl's hand.  "Hey. Your dad used you. That isn't your fault. I'm sure your mom would  be proud of who you are now. If you're the Raven I'm thinking of, you  do a lot of good. I didn't make the connection until you mentioned the  demon stuff just now. I'm sorry for your loss though, my mom died when I  was young too. I miss her every day."

Raven gave her a  hesitant smile back. I felt awkward. They were having a moment and I had  no real context for it. Or...maybe I did. My dad had died, and I  clearly cared enough that it broke my seal. When no one spoke for a  minute I got back to my original line of questioning. "So she taught you  how to meditate and control your feelings to help combat your demonic  heritage?"

Seeming to snap out of her funk, Raven nodded.  "Yes. The monks were dedicated to inner peace and self discipline. SHe  helped me practice that every day, and I learned many exercises."

"Are  you willing to teach them to me?" I didn't beat around the bush. I'd  told her the ring was hers either way, and I wasn't pissing off an  unstable B ranker (C for now) over something I could probably figure out  on my own eventually. That didn't mean I wouldn't make the attempt to  ask, because the whole skillset sounded damn useful.

I  think she was surprised I asked. Hell, I was surprised I asked. Mostly  because I wasn't completely sure I cared, but some part of me wanted to  know if it would hurt her more to show me how to do this. Sympathy.  Weird. She nodded stoically though. "Yes, I'm happy to help. You..." She  reached down and fiddled with the ring. "You don't know what even this  much relief means to me."

"You  should be careful with that." I pointed out. "It's not a real fix. It's  enough to keep your blood suppressed when you're just living your life,  but if you use your power it's going to break past the binding. You're  not just magically fixed." Not with a D ranked ring, no matter how  specific it was to her.

She  shook her head. "It doesn't matter. During the times I use my power I  was already on edge and managing myself carefully. The difference is  that I was doing that all the OTHER times I was aware as well. Not just  aware. Even in my sleep I needed to meditate, making sure to put myself  in a trance before bed to prevent disturbing dreams. Now though...this  is everything to me."

Not  everything, since I could tell she hadn't been branded, but I hadn't  expected her to be. This was pretty much the absolute best case  scenario. "Alright, so what am I supposed to do? Close my eyes and count  to a million? Beat up an inner version of myself?"

The  smile she gave was as nostalgic as the one when she mentioned her  mother. "No. None of that. There are no shortcuts. I asked the same  things. The exercises we're going to do are going to be long and  arduous. We're going to have to invest significant time into training  you."

I'd  assumed that. "So...where do we do it? There's a room in the back of  this place for private readings. We could rent that out. Or we could use  your place."

"I'm  willing to host, though I'm staying at a hotel. I came to the city to  study the changes, as did most of the powerful magic users who have come  here." I wondered if she'd make any headway? Not that I cared, it  wasn't like she'd find any evidence of my involvement. She wasn't in the  system's league.

"Sound's  good." I said solemnly. "We can start whenever you have the free time."  Because I wanted to get this shit under control. I was crawling out of  my skin here. Hopefully Raven's training could do something to help. And  hey, even if not, maybe she'd wear something less concealing than the  hoodie. I didn't mind spending some time staring at those giant goth  jugs. Judging by the slight, almost undetectable flush on her ashen  cheeks, she knew it too. Maybe this would be fun after all.