Young Writers Society

There once was a demon.

This demon, like many others of his kind, had experienced his fair share of horrible incidents due to his demonic heritage. He knew that other demons hadn't been treated so kindly by life, either, and that they all had problems that could likely be traced to them not being human. Inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous - an organization he had heard about from one of his few human friends - he decided to create Demons Anonymous. Like AA, DA would meet on a weekly basis, He also created a provision where people could call together emergency meeting, though this specific aspect has rarely been used. Demons have a tendency to keep things to themselves, and the demons who attend these meetings are no exception. They would also not be required to attend every meeting, though most did end up doing so.

But the original DA has begun to fade away, no longer needing the weekly meetings to help them get through their traumatic memories and large-scale problems. The creator - though he, too, no longer attends the meetings - has decided to contact demons who may possibly be interested in the services that DA provides.

You are one of these demons, and it's up to you to decide how you'll use these meetings.



1. Every character needs to be a demon. Partial demons are allowed, as well as anyone possessed by a demon. However, in the latter case, there does need to be an emphasis on the demon doing the possessing, rather than on the human.

2. You're allowed as many characters as you like.

3. Please include descriptions of your characters, whether by including it in the actual post, in a spoiler at the beginning/end, or by leaving a link to their character profile page.

4. Please don't make any changes to the structure of the DA meetings without my approval - I want to make sure we keep this as respectful as it can be, seeing that it's styled after something very serious in nature.

5. If there's enough interest in this roleplay, multiple meetings will happen over the course of the roleplay. I'll start each meeting off with a title, and end them with a similarly formatted title at the end of the last post in the meeting.

When Puck arrived, he was the first one at the meeting. No biggie. He could wait around for - after all, he had some Instagram posts to catch up on. But just as he had made himself comfortable and began to scroll through the feed, he heard the door open behind him.

He resisted the urge to groan and turned his head back.

There, standing in the doorway, was a kid who looked incredibly uncomfortable about being here. Puck wondered if she had actually intended to come to the meeting in the first place, given how she froze up when their eyes met. The girl ducked her head down and stared at the ground for a moment. Puck went back to look at his phone.

But then the girl must have really been a demon, or else she wouldn't have come over to where he was and sat down in a chair a short distance away from him. Puck took this as a sign that the meeting would begin soon; he reluctantly put his phone away. Yet the girl wasn't talking - she was just sitting there and watching him with wide, nervous eyes, fidgeting as she occasionally glanced around the room.

Puck followed her gaze. There wasn't anything notable about the place - it was just an empty room that the demon behind this had rented out. There wasn't much furniture besides the the chair. There was a table, too, with refreshments up front, as well as a stack of what looked suspiciously like name tags near a cup full of sharpies. Puck got the implication. He got to his feet and made his way over to it. Taking an obnoxiously bright green sharpie, he wrote his name down - Puck - and slapped the sticker onto his hoodie.

A second later, the girl did the same. She wrote her name is a plain black, her handwriting small and neat. Puck watched as the word Briar appeared on the sticker, and wasn't all that surprised when she shyly placed the tag on her chest before hurrying back over to the circle of chairs.

...This was going to be interesting.

Puck snagged a cup of water and a bag of pretzel sticks before returning to his chair. Once there, he promptly slouched back in his seat and waited for more people to arrive.

And Briar, unsurprisingly, continued to look terrified.

Written by @Featherstone & @Magestorrow

Cornyx Blackthorne, the Son of Sathanus, Incarnation of Wrath, Sovereign of the Shadow Realm and King of Hell sat on his white marble throne, gazing at the similarly pale hues of stone that made up the throne room in boredom. Frost webbed across the floor and up the great columns that held smoking torches.

He missed electricity.

The gothic form of Raven stood behind him on the dais, a shadow of her master. There was a time when she'd provided some form of entertainment, but now she was just a husk. An intelligent husk, and a powerful one, but not one that was fiery or spoke much or had any sort of sense of humor. Jabril was running the hounds, as was his duty, and Arys, being a Hellhound, couldn't speak any more than Raven did. The white and silver furred form layed at his feet, feline tail sliding over the icy stone.

He really needed to get on with another war. Patience was an annoying thing, an agitating one. He knew he needed to bide his time, however: let the Alliance and the Pack ravage each other and leave the orcs in their civil war, destroy the numbers of those who would become their allies when his demonic armies rose, and it would be that much easier to quash them.

But dear lord was it boring.

He really should've pushed Auryon to work for him. At least then it'd be amusing. Apophis was just...well. Apophis.

Cornyx leaned back and tapped his fingers against the arm of his seat as he pondered, trying to think of something to do and overall finding very little. He'd read through the library at least three times by now. He'd killed everyone who'd defied him. His servants were now obedient as beaten dogs. There was no one to torture or kill, nothing to research, nothing to plan, nothing to make.

Ugh, if only there was something to break up this monotony.

As if on cue, the massive oaken doors to the throne room creaked open and Jabril, with three of his hyena-dog-cat-creatures milling around him, entered with a purple-haired woman who he held by the arm. His Hellhounds eyed the woman with a hungry gaze. This unfortunate soul was lucky that Jabril had called the beasts off, or they would've torn her apart alive.

But when the woman's gaze landed on him, she immediately stopped struggling.

"Cornyx!" she exclaimed, a grinning spreading from one ear to the other as she she tried to get out of Jabril's grip once more - though, this time, it appeared that she was trying to reach Cornyx's side instead of get away from it. "Man, I haven't seen you in ages-Wait, did this place get an upgrade since I was last here?"

She looked him over.

"And, wow, you really had a glow up," she continued on. "I mean, you looked great before, but that suit's to die for!"

He should've recognized her the moment she walked through the door, but it'd been so out of context that the fact it could be Darunia Vain simply hadn't crossed his mind. His eyes widened in surprise. "Miss Runi?" he asked, rising and striding down the steps. "Jabril, release the lady at once."

The demon looked almost as surprised as his monarch as he was ordered to release her, but there wasn't a moment of hesitation. He dipped his head and stepped back, clawed fingers releasing her arm. He whistled to the hounds and they came to heel as he fell into the background with his head down. The onyx-dressed woman behind Cornyx's throne watched in silence with her eerie, multicolored gaze.

"Madame Darunia, it's been far too long," he greeted with the ghost of a smile. "It did indeed. I thought it was hardly appropriate for the Snow King to have a castle of obsidian. I'm glad you like it. How have you fared?"

"I've been doing pretty good, actually," she replied, rubbing the wrist that she had been dragged by. "I was actually on my way to a meeting before I accidentally ended up here - not a serious kind of meeting like you'd have, but one for Demons Anonmyous. But instead of bringing me to the meeting place, the charm for it brought me here. Maybe it's trying to tell me something?"

Cornyx glanced back at Raven, then towards Jabril. "Leave us." Both demons bowed and exited in silence, though Raven cast a strange glance Runi's way--a distrustful one, and an analytical one.

He strode over to Runi and Arys scrambled to her feet to follow him, though she kept her distance from the newcomer. "Demons Anonymous? I must say, I've never heard of such a thing. Though, I must admit, it does sound rather droll. I'm sorry if you've been inconvenienced. Nevertheless, I am glad to see you, Miss Runi."

"Actually, I think it's going to be pretty nice," she said. "It's kind of like Alcoholics Anonymous, I think? But it's also a convenient way to meet other demons....But, I was thinking that it wasn't going to be all that much fun to go without a friend, though-"

Her eyes suddenly widened.

"Cornyx, we should go together! I think that's why I ended up here instead of there - the charm knew I wanted someone to go with me, and you fit the bill! You're a demon, too, and have definitely had your fair share of problems thanks to being one."

She paused and took a deep breath of air.

"And if you don't want to talk, you don't have to - I'll do all the talking! It's the perfect way for us to spend some more time together."

He let out a short snort that was something resembling laughter and shook his head. "I'd love to spend some time with you, for it's been too long since we've seen one another, but...I've sat through enough AA meetings to know that I don't want to do anything resembling it again, and certainly not voluntarily," he informed her, and it was true. It'd been nearly twenty years since those days but he had absolutely no desire to go back to them. Or go back to Earth, for that matter.

She bit her lip, then glanced up at him with an innocent look to her eyes. It was the sort of look that was impossible to say no to, and she only made the effect worse when she asked him in a quiet, pleading voice, "Can you pretty please with a cherry on top come with me to the meeting? Please? It'll be just one time, I swear!"

For someone said to have a heart of snow, it was quite effective. He gazed down at her for several moments as he contemplated it. It wasn't like he had anything better to do, and if Runi really wanted company...well, what kind of gentleman would refuse such a fine lady an escort?

Cornyx pulled out his watch and glanced at the time. He didn't have anything pressing. Raven and Viper could surely handle anything that came up in his absence. He sighed. "Yes, alright, I'll come with you, but only if we grab lunch afterwards," he agreed.

Written by @Magestorrow & @Featherstone

Runi honestly hadn't expected Cornyx to say yes, but she also hadn't expected to see him in the first place. Things were going way better than expected - she still had plenty of time to spare until the start of the meeting, she had a friend to come along, and she could maybe work on her ulterior motive for asking him to come with her.

She really did want the company, but she was also pretty worried. Cornyx hadn't been doing so hot the last time she had seen him, and the looks she had gotten from his employees were definitely an indicator that they hadn't gotten better. If anything, things had gotten worse. She might not have been to a meeting like this before, but she knew how people worked. He'd end up talking eventually - it just might take some time.

And then maybe - just maybe - he'd change his mind on the whole being evil thing.

"We can definitely do that," Runi agreed. She grabbed onto his wrist and fished the charm out of her pocket. It was a little arcade coin, but she knew of its potential. It was how she had ended up here, after all. Screwing her eyes shut, she remembered what she had seen in the letter that had come with the charm - all she had to do was picture showing up in front of the DA meeting, and it would bring her there.

When she opened her eyes again, they were standing in front of an unassuming building in the middle of a bustling street. No one spared either one of them a second glance.

"It looks like we're here," she said.

It'd been a long, long time since he'd been to Earth in any form. Or, at least, that's what Runi guessed from the expression on his face. (Yup, he definitely need some help.) He offered his arm to her, ever the gentleman despite the unease he felt here. Some things really never did change.

Runi, in true Runi fashion, proceeded to kick open the door. She quickly discovered that the room wasn't as filled as she thought it would be - there were only two other people present. One of them looked absolutely terrified (especially when at the sight of Cornyx) while the other barely looked away from his bag of pretzels. Even though Cornyx had done the offering of the arm, she was the one who dragged himself. The door slammed behind them as she brought him to a chair.

Noticing the nametags on both of the other demons, she promptly marched over to the table in the front of the room and wrote out their names on a pair of nametags. She dotted her "i" with a little heart - only putting her nickname - and instinctively drew a heart in the place of the "o" in Cornyx's name. It was only when she returned to his side with a skip in her step and stuck it to his suit that she realized that she had written it out of habit.

Cornyx's mouth opened as though he was about to object to the heart on his nametag before he stopped himself, thought better of it, chuckled softly, and let her place it on the white fabric with her charming, sharp-toothed smile.

Now she turned her attention to the other two. The pretzel guy was still eating his pretzels, while the nervous demon was looking anywhere but in Cornyx's direction. This was a little hard to accomplish, seeing that Cornyx was standing behind the chair beside said demon, and seeing that Runi had sat down in the seat next to that.

"Hiya," she said, giving a wave.

The demon whimpered.

She frowned. Well, that wasn't going according to plan.

"Hey," the other demon said, crumbling his empty bag of pretzels and chucking it at the nearby trashcan. Nearby was a relative term - it was on the other side of the room. But a quietly uttered phrase and a soft gust of wind carried it across when it would have failed to enter the can on its own.

Runi peered at the nametag, and then at the other one for good measure. Puck was the name of the pretzel guy, and Briar was the shy demon. She could remember that, even if their names were obscured later on during the meeting.

She glanced back at Cornyx and patted the seat between her and Briar. "You should sit down," she said, giving him a big grin. "I bet it's going to start soon, once more people show up."

He dipped his head. "Of course." He pulled out the chair and sat down, fiddling idly with the chain of his pocketwatch. For all his status and power, his nervousness had, evidently, never truly left him, even if his stutter was a thing of the past.

Jeff threw his phone, a notebook, and a pen into a small bag, before slamming his door shut. He wasn't too far from the meeting place, but he didn't mean to get sidetracked by all of his homework. Even as a demon, he realized that he was better off imitating a regular kid to blend in with the human population.

He generally was chill with the situation, besides the days he had hours of homework over the weekend.

Either way, he sent a quick text to Colleen to remind her of the time and place, then unfurled his skateboard. He figured a sweet, wooden ride would be fun, as his other option was his own two feet. Jeff swooped down a small hill, then turned at the next corner, recognizing the street he was currently on.

He squinted at a flash of green that might be his friend, but he slowed down, either way, coming up right next to the correct building. The colorful blur waved at him. He couldn't help a small smile at the sight of her, once he got off his skateboard and approached Colleen.

"Hey!" He shook his hands in an awkward pattern before scratching his head. "How have you been, dude?"

The green-haired woman grinned at his antics. She slugged his arm gently as if to dissuade his nervousness. "I'm hanging in there." Colleen shrugged, tugging at her braid. "Don't have much to complain about, besides not being able to see you in a while."

Jeff chewed on his lip. "At least we have these handy devices," he said, holding up his phone. "Anyways, I guess we should head in? The meeting's supposed to start soon."

"Sure, kid," Colleen tugged on his beanie, her expression growing fond. "I haven't forgotten your urge to always be on time."

He huffed jokingly, moving his hat back into its original place. Jeff adjusted his grip on his board, then started to head into the building. He heard a chuckle as the door swung open, indicating the older demon had followed him in.

Walking into the room seemed to indicate they were late, or that others had already arrived. Four other beings sat in a circle of chairs, while a table sat a bit away, covered with plenty of snacks and apparently name-tags if the strips of paper on those waiting were any indication.

Jeff started feeling nervous at the sight of the striking looks coming from the other demons, even if he was one himself. Colleen snatched a pink pen for herself, writing her name in all upper-case letters, while he grabbed a dark blue pen to write his own short name.

He gulped but eventually sank into a seat, with his friend sitting by him, and tried to remain calm, in the face of seemingly powerful demons. He wondered if anyone else was going to show up, but didn't want to draw much attention to himself. Maybe once, or if the others want to talk. If not, Jeff was perfectly fine with staying quiet.

The moment the charm finished casting its magic, Akane panicked. The first reason was because he suddenly found himself in the company of a man who looked very similar to himself, and the second reason for his terror was the fact that he had been whisked to a very Earth-looking street. Seraphinity didn't have cars and didn’t have asphalt roads - this place was far too modern.

"Whoa," the demon beside him said, awe in his voice. He reached a hand out towards Akane's wings, only to pause when he seemed to realize that he would be intruding into his personal space. His tail went back and forth; it was almost like he was an excited puppy. "You have wings."

Akane took step back and bumped into the door.

The pressure was enough to send it flying open and him tumbling instead. He came precariously close to hitting the ground, but the demon grabbed him around the wrist and jerked him up to his feet.

"I'm sorry," the demon apologized. He gave him a sheepish smile as he drew his hand back. "I've just never met a demon with wings before - you must be from another region."

Akane mustered a nod; he was too preoccupied by how normal everything in here looked. He felt sorely out of place with how old-fashioned his clothes were - even the intimidating man in the suit fit the time better than he did.

But even though this was supposedly a meeting for demons - something he hadn't initially wanted to fully believe - only the demon he had talked to so far looked remotely demonic. The others could have easily been regular people.

The demon eyed the table at the front of the room. A second later, Akane was left as the center of attention. He hurried after the unnamed demon and quickly followed his lead by filling out a name tag. The demon didn't touch any of the food or drinks, but Akane's mouth was watering at the sight of all the foods he had been missing ever since the incident. He grabbed a bag of potato chips and a can of coke before joining "Mage" (as the other demon was apparently called) and the rest of the group in the circle of chairs.

Cornyx watched with something between boredom, relative indifference, and the slightest hint of amusement as the green-haired demon--Colleen, according to her name tag--and the nervous one, Jeff, came inside and took a seat, followed shortly thereafter by two men dressed in warm hues, one of which had wings and the other of which had a long tail. Mage and Akane, as he soon found out from their name tags.

Their bumbling was nothing short of comedic and the agitation emanating from Briar and Jeff was a source of entertainment for the silver-eyed demon. This day was getting better already. Or, at least, more interesting. 'Better' would remain to be seen.

Colleen glanced at all of her fellow demons, trying not to stare at any, especially the noble-looking one, as she figured direct contact with him would probably give poor Jeff even stronger anxiety, so she kept her looks discreet.

Eventually, however, she started to feel restless, after all, the idea of a whole group of potentially powerful demons all in one place promised some action, right? All she had seen so far was a kid that looked more scared than Jeff, a smiling purple-haired woman, and save for the two newest people who had clear signs of being otherworldly, most of everyone sitting seems normal enough.

She nudged her companion towards the snacks, spying one of his favorite snacks as the ever delicious Goldfish logo seemed to wink at her. Jeff shuffled over to the table, his head tilted down, grabbed a back quickly, then hurried back into his seat, not even pretending to behave like the near-adult he truly was.

"Jeff, buddy," Colleen said, catching his eye, or at least attempting to, "you've gotta be able to open up in some way."

He shrugged, ripping his pack painfully slow to try to not make any more noise than possible. "What if they find me annoying?" He eventually spoke, near under his breath at that, but the sound was a good start.

"Not everyone is like those high school punks." Colleen swung her braid to tap him on the shoulder. Jeff let out a short breathy laugh, before calming his expression.

"Maybe," he offered, giving her a partial smile.

"Good," she murmured, "because I'm going to get this meeting started one way or another."

Ignoring a muttered "What?" behind her, Colleen stood up from her chair and met the gazes of the rest of the demon group with a raised chin.

"Hello all," she started. "I figured I would introduce myself and my kid friend, Colleen and Jeff respectively, and ask just what will happen at this meeting of sorts."

She glanced back at Jeff to see him sighing in his palms. Ah, whatever. He could try to make friends with that other nervous demon. This was all for both of their benefits, in some ways, she supposed. What was the worst thing that could happen at an only-Demons hangout place, anyway?

"Going off of Elementary," Puck said, hopping back up to his feet and making another beeline for the table, "I think we're just going to sit here and talk about our lives."

He eyed the assortment of food on it again. The pretzels had been a good start, but now that his stomach was filled with something technically healthy, it was time to satisfy his sweet tooth. He grabbed a nice, big thing of blue Gatorade, then decided to go a step further by grabbing a plethora of candies. Whoever had put this whole thing together had done a pretty good job with it - at least, if the snacks were any indication of it.

He returned to his seat and placed his treasure trove of chocolate beside the leg of his folding chair. Once he got himself comfortable, he ripped open a bag of M&Ms and began to casually chuck them - one by one - into his mouth.

"I'm Puck," he said. Nowhere in the message did it ever say that he had to be entirely truthful. Like with everything else, he'd give bits and pieces of the truth. And Puck, though it wasn't the name he had been given when he was born, was just as much of his name now as that one was.

"I'm Runi, and this is Cornyx," the purple-haired woman said, eagerly throwing her arm around his shoulder before apparently thinking better of it and awkwardly drawing it away. "I've never been to meetings like this, either, so I'm just as clueless as you are. But I'm sure we can figure it out eventually!"

She grinned at the others in the room, then took a leaf out of Puck's book and went to get a some sugary foods. At least her choices were a little more healthy than his own - she got herself a little juice box and a bag of trail mix, though the trail mix was more chocolate and M&Ms than raisins and nuts.

Briar looked like a deer caught in headlights when he realized she would have to introduce herself next. Puck wondered why she had even decided to come to this in the first place, seeing how terrified of everyone she was. "I-I'm Briar," she whispered. Puck had to strain his ears to clearly pick up on what was being said.

"I'm Magestorrow Rian," one of the two strange-looking demons said, his voice cheerful and confident. "But you can call me Mage for short. I only just found out things like this existed thanks to the letter, and I've admittedly never been in a region like this before, so I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do now."

The other one - the one with wings - shifted uncomfortably in his chair, tail swinging back and forth as he nervously ate his bag of chips. He looked like he was trying to be just as confident, but he was failing miserably. "I'm Akane. I-I've heard of places like this before, but I've never actually attended one of the meetings..."

Puck nodded. Something about Akane felt off, but he couldn't put his finger on what.

"So," he said, slouching in his seat a little more, "anyone want to go first?"

Pit stood with his portal maker in his hand thinking about whether he should go or not. Jessy said that he should go and said that it would be good for him but he really didn't want to go and share his problems with others. He thought and he thought about it until he reached a conclusion.

I'll go but only because she says I should go.

So he did. He scowled as he drew a circle with the portal making pen and stepped through the void of swirling colors. When Pit stepped through to the other side he looked around, glared at the others, got a name tag, and scribbled down his name and stuck it on his shirt. He then sat down at a random seat.

Cornyx, unlike the rest of the group, had been to such meetings before. But he didn't particularly care to mention it, so instead of saying anything that would be productive, he remained silent in his seat. He was there to be with Runi. he didn't need nor want therapy of any kind.

Of course not.

He leaned back and clasped his hands together to keep himself from fiddling with his pocketwatch chain any further.

It was around that moment when someone who looked more demonic than the entire group put together stepped through a portal that spontaneously appeared. He sighed. This group was big enough as it was, and the bigger the group, the longer this would take.

But it was for Runi. Right?

If Briar had felt intimidated by the assortment of demons before, she felt absolutely terrified by the arrival of the newest demon. She ducked her head down and stared at her lap. Most of the demons here looked human - that was a little easier to deal with. But then there was Akane, Mage and Pit, and all of them looked really, really strong. Puck and Cornyx did, too, even though they seemed more like humans than demons like she did.

She shouldn't have listened to Natalie. This wasn't worth it. She could have just found a regular human therapist - then they could have come up with a convincing story that mimicked her actual life, and she wouldn't have to deal with people who were definitely stronger than her.

"Hi," Mage started to say, pausing as she heard him lean forward a bit. A quick, hesitant glance showed that he was squinting at the name tag on the newcomer's chest, "Pit. We just finished doing introductions."

"We should do them again," Runi suggested.

"How about we don't," Puck replied. "We just need the names, right? I can give the new guy all of ours. I'm Puck, there's Runi, Cornyx, Briar, Colleen, Jeff, Mage and Akane."

Briar still didn't look up, but she assumed that he was pointing at each of them as he spoke.

Runi gave out a sigh. "So then we're still at the problem of who should go first. Cornyx is just here to support me, so he won't go. Pit doesn't look like he came here of his own free will, either." Briar heard her shift uncomfortably in her seat. "But I don't think I'm exactly comfortable with going first."

An awkward silence settled on the group.

"...Me either," Mage said. "I don't even know how these are supposed to go."

"I do," Puck said, "but I'm not exactly the talkative type. At least, not until I get to know all of you better - I have to be certain I can trust you."

Briar's fingers dug into her jeans, and she continued to stare down at the ground. That sounded really worrisome; she didn't get why someone would have to be that way around other demons. Wasn't this supposed to be a place where they would talk about their lives, even if she was really scared of doing that?

"...I shouldn't go first...." Briar whispered, keeping her head down to avoid making any eye contact with the others.

Akane gave a nervous laugh. "Who-Whoever planned this should have expected that we wouldn't want to talk about ourselves," he commented. She could hear feathers rustling as he folded his wings behind his back. "I guess I can, um, start."

She hesitantly raised her head up.

Akane looked really uncomfortable and nervous - his gaze kept darting around the room, and he was fidgeting in his seat as he spoke. Briar felt like he was feeling what she was; it was intimidating to be surrounded by so many other demons. But she never would have expected someone who looked so strong to feel the same way she did.

...Maybe he wasn't as powerful as he appeared to be?

Akane took a deep breath.

There was a moment before he spoke, and that moment felt even longer than the last silence.

"...A little while ago, a change happened in my life," he said. He seemed different now - calmer, maybe? "It was...Well, I don't think anyone could have expected something like that. I've been trying to adjust to it, but it's hard getting used to a change on that scale. When I got the letter, I think part of me wanted to come to see if there really was a place for demons to meet. But another part of me needed it. I...I've missed my last two therapy sessions. I can try talking to my friend, but it's not the same because I'm always worried that I'm burdening her."

Reaching up to scratch at his neck, Jeff tried to focus on Akane, even with the demon's pitch-black wings that make him nervous. His tale was a sad, yet relatable one. Even if what happened didn't involve his actual being, Jeff could see himself in the other's shoes, of being a bit (or a lot, he amended) scared in the face of some sudden change.

He didn't know if he should really say something - or cough or words that weren't completely muffled by shaky hands. An elbow nudged him, startling Jeff to look up to amused black eyes. Colleen tilted her head down at him as if willing him to speak. Jeff groaned under his breath but slowly looked up at Akane.

"Um, hi." Jeff pretty much whispered. He cleared his throat trying to be louder. "That's really tough, Akane. I-I'm sure your friend just wants to be there for you. But, hopefully, we could kinda be helping you out, y'know?"

He smiled a little awkwardly, trying to slide back down into his seat. A few sets of eyes glanced back at him, as if curious to note what made him, a seemingly scared, assumably slighter demon, want to speak up. Butterflies seemed to fly rather quickly through his stomach at that moment.

"I second that!" Jeff blinked up at the sly grin on Colleen's face before she turned to look at the others. "I've been trying to get my own buddy here to talk more, so I'm all ears to anyone else who'd like to go over something." Her light expression slipped a bit when she paused as if getting a flash of something from her past. She soon sprang up to her feet, however, ready to finish her message. Her braid flew nearly into her mouth, but she didn't really react.

"I do want to say I sincerely hope things better for you, Akane. Surprises of any shape or kind can be hard, especially if you're unsure if you can really talk or not, or anything like that. Good luck."

With that, she sat back down, seemingly content with how the meeting was going. Jeff bit back a grin, opting to shake his head in bemusement at the easy confidence his friend carried with her, wherever they went. Even at a Demons Group Meet-Up, or whatever the official name was. She truly was one of a kind.

He decided to bounce off her energy to say one more thing, in hopes to keep the conversation going.

"How have all you been then?"

Jeff figured that was a decent way to kick start something.

Damascus let himself into the room that he had spent the better half of the hour trying to find. When he had heard off-handedly about the Demons Annonymous meetings that had been going on, he knew that he simply had to attend one.

Not that he wanted to talk about himself at all, really. He just wanted to support his fellow demons that lived in the surface world, too... and maybe see if any of them were like him.

He swung open the door of the room he was fairly certain the meeting was being hosted in, and peeked around it. There were several people of varying appearances sitting in a circle of chairs, and his eyes widened slightly. There were a lot more attendees than he was thinking, and it seemed as if the meeting had already started.

"Hello." He called cheerfully, wincing a little as he wondered if he had interrupted anyone. "Sorry I'm late. I got a bit lost."

Halfway to an empty chair, he stopped and noticed the name tags everyone was wearing. He made his way over to the table in the back and selected a bright blue marker before writing his name in barely legible writing (a collection of letter-shaped squiggles, really).

With another pause, he scooped up a donut from the refreshment table and went to go sit down. He selected a seat by the purple-haired demon, his eyes suddenly all lit up.

"Runi!" He whispered loudly as he sat down, still trying to be polite. "Goodness, it's been so long! How are, you?"

With another glance behind her, his smile widened, though he seemed to be enthusiastic in a very different way.

"And Corynx- lovely to see you again." He remarked, gesturing with his donut and spraying a few crumbs into Runi's lap as he did.

Pit scowled at Damascus and then decided to respond to Jeff's question. "I'm doing... okay..."

Okay meaning not so good. He glared at everyone to try to discourage them
from asking him about it. He then leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.