Young Writers Society

He nodded, padding over to sit down at the table. He was interally grateful for it; although he was capable of helping, the hangover didn't make him particularly motivated to do much more than he had to. He resisted the urge to cross his arms on the table and press his face into them to shut out the light. Ugh. Eating was wise, but at the same time, it wasn't terribly appealing.

He rested his elbow on it instead, palm resting against his forehead. The headache was dull but present. Would be, for a while. The man almost snorted when she asked the question, and it came out as an almost rueful laugh.

"Cain...It's my name. My actual name. Given name, real name, legal name. I guess old habits die hard in light of inebriation," he chuckled without mirth. "Cain Tanner. I switched to Cornyx not long before I met you because I never liked the name, given its origins." It didn't occur to him for a moment that Runi wouldn't be familiar enough with the biblical reference to recognize the name as that of the first murderer, so he didn't think to explain it.

Runi blinked.

"Wait just a second," she said, stopping her stirring and staring at him. "You gave yourself the name? I've been thinking your parents picked that out for ages. Cain Tanner definitely doesn't have the nicest ring to it, but...wow."

She looked him over.

"Cornyx definitely suits you better," she decided. "I guess Cain has all of the biblical stuff, but it's so...bleh. And Blackthorne is way cooler than Tanner is."

She grinned.

"You have good taste," she informed him.

He glanced back towards her, smiling slightly. "Thanks. Yeah, it was the name that...The man who raised me gave me," he replied, though the marked pause was evident as he tried to define what Jeremiah was to him. He might've said his father had he never met Sathanus but, as it was, he'd met, known, and eventually killed his actual father.

"My father, Sathanus, named me Thaalajahar, which is an old Draconic name, but seeing as he ditched and the other guy...was himself, I saw no obligation to keep either one. I chose 'cornix' after the Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix, and the Blackthorns was the gang I used to run with," he explained. He wasn't sure where the elaboration came from. Perhaps he just felt comfortable in Runi's presence; more willing to speak things he wouldn't otherwise.

"I'm not sure where my name came from," Runi admitted.

Now that the batter was ready, she poured it onto the pan to make the first pancake. She was starving, but she'd wait for the second one to be made - it would be rude to eat before her guest.

"I, er, don't really know a lot about my childhood?" she said. "I don't remember too much of it. Maybe it's because it was so long ago?"

She shrugged.

"But I like how you came up with your name," she added. She thought for a moment, digging the spatula out of the nearest drawer. "It feels like it really does belong to you. And I don't know a lot about gangs, but it seems like they were more your family than anyone else, right?"

Whether or not the Blackthorns were his family was a source of some debate. Certainly, they'd been his saviours; the reason for his survival, his life, but it'd also pulled him deeper and deeper into the bowels of the underworld. There were numerous sins on his hands that he would've been free of were it not for the gang and his loyalty to them, numerous scars he wouldn't have borne were it not for their will. But they had saved him, bitter as the taste was.

Still, the conversation did raise the question of where, exactly, Darunia Vain had come from, or how long ago it'd been. Their encounter in Grimmore was one that seemed distant but thirteen years wasn't really as much time as it felt.

The demon king shrugged by way of response. The gang life was complicated, and it seemed pointless to dig into, as long ago as it'd been. "They were the flower and the thorn, one could say," he explained, "but whether it was good or bad, they made a difference." The man paused for a moment, mulling over his next words before uttering them. "Where is it you come from, Runi? Did you grow up in Grimmore?"

Runi faltered.

She hadn't expected Cornyx to ask that.

She waited a moment ask the bottom of the pancake cooked, trying to figure out just how she wanted to respond. When it was finally time to flip the pancake over, she found her voice.

"...I don't really know," she admitted. "I know Grimmore wasn't where I started. I'm still not even sure if Grimmore was its own little pocket reality in this one, or if it was some separate world that just happened to be connected in one area."

She flipped the pancake.

"I grew up on my own," she said. "The memories are a little fuzzy - it's been a long time since I was a kid. I think I wandered around a lot. I...I don't really remember. I just know I ran into Nissam eventually, and that that friendship eventually resulted in the whole Grimmore thing."

She moved the pancake to the plate. After plopping the plate down in front of Cornyx, she quickly returned to stove to make her own pancake.

"I did spent most of my life there, though," she admitted.