-ORION, MELODIA KINGDOM, MANY YEARS AGO-
"Burn the demon!"
"Burn her until there's nothing left!"
"Let her burn in the fires of hell for all eternity!"
It was only a matter of time. The Overworld did not usually appreciate the demons of the netherworld living on the surface amongst humans. They were the very essence of evil, of sin. Succubi in particular were symbols of lust, tempting the chaste into debauchery and evil. They blended in with humankind, capable of hiding their devious horns, their bat wings, and heart-tipped tails in order to find their victims without arousing suspicion.
But she never expected it to come so soon. Ten years after she was born, after her mother settled down with a human man, promising to never return to Relgion and live in peace, in harmony with those of Melodia. Her mom always loved listening to the melodies the bards made, always sitting by her window and humming along. Dad would always join her in humming along before they started humming their own tune, their own duet to the beat of their own hearts.
And now, the harmonies became dissonant, as her mother was nailed to a cross in the middle of Harmonica City, the air heavy with smoke, the smell of flames assaulting all. Her father had opposed the crowds, only for him to be nailed down to a cross of his own. She could remember all those glares, all the screaming and yelling, the sad look on her parents' faces as the city turned against them, all because of a love never meant to be.
The last thing she ever saw of her parents was when they were set aflame, accepting their fate and saying nary a peep, not even screaming for the entertainment of the more sadistic priests.
She didn't say anything either. She only took what she could back at home and ran, ran far away from her kingdom of birth, away from the fires, the priests with hearts full of hatred, everything. She ran and ran and ran until she was in the relative safety of the netherworld, and then, and only then, did she allow herself to pull out an item her dad and mom always treasured.
A golden pocket watch.
And after that, she allowed herself to mourn, to cry herself to sleep under the dark, starry skies of the demon world.
-------------------------------
--RELGION, 100 YEARS BEFORE GLUTTONY'S RETURN TO THE OVERWORLD, REGGI'S RAVING RAMEN, SUSHI, AND HIBACHI--
Today, Tina was enjoying sushi all by herself up at the countertop, listening to all the latest gossip and rumors from all of the demons talking amongst themselves at the hibachi tables. Scarlet and Sora were out on the Overworld today, hunting rogue demons that happened to threaten the Techno Kingdom for whatever reason. She didn't really mind being alone; it meant that she could eat as many of the leftover snacks in the apartment as she wanted, play her video games without being disturbed, and hold interesting conversations about the state of Relgion politics with her multitude of stuffed animals.
Surprisingly, they gave pretty good points.
She could hear the jingle of someone coming in and turned back to see two prinnies walk in, each of them wearing hero scarves of different colors; one was green, the other was yellow. The two walked up with their little peg legs and took a seat at the counter, waiting for the tiger to recognize them.
Tina immediately recognized them and asked, "You guys are Gonzales and Bonnie, right? The ones who helped out with the whole Dark Council incident, right?! It's been too long!"
"Yeah, it's been too long since we've seen you, dood!" said Gonzales, adjusting his green scarf and giving a salute.
Bonnie flailed her little flippers about and added, "Yes, way, way, way too long! With a capital W! We haven't heard from you in like, fooooreeeeever!"
Tina flashed an apologetic smile. "Yeah, Scarlet and I were busy with other things for a while, like cleaning up the rest of those Dark Council freaks. Satoshi, too. I think he crunched on them pretty easily. Like, a big ol' CRUNCH noise when he bit into them. Music to my ears!"
"Aw, man!" Gonzales crossed his arms and sighed. "I wish I was there to see that. The blood spray must have been great to see, dood!"
"Don't mind him, dood! I mean, he gets REAAAALLY excited over, like, massacres and stuff." Bonnie tugged on Gonzales's scarf in an attempt to calm him down, or at least get him to stop talking.
"Well, I guess it was alright. I think we missed a few stragglers, but I think we beat enough senseless so that they won't be rebuilding anytime soon." Tina smiled as the two prinnies ordered bowls of ramen and asked them, "So, what brings you out here today, you guys?"
Gonzales slurped down his bowl of soup in a jiffy, replying with a mouth full of noodles, "Just boring chores and all, dood. Getting groceries and getting take-out here. Nothing exciting like beating up people..."
Bonnie nudged her fellow prinny slightly and added, "Master Gluttony is feeling pretty lazy today, that silly billy dood! That, and he heard that thieves are on the prowl, and that Prinnies are the least likely to get robbed!"
"Nevermind us, dood. Like, I'd slit their throats in an instant!"
"Dood, you're as lazy as everybody else, you're not gonna slit anyone's throat!"
"You forget what I was in my past life, dood! I was like, a murderin' machine, dood!"
"Ooooh, so scary!" the yellow scarved prinny said with mock terror. "Like, no wonder you ran away from that giant zombie, dood! Like, he had like, NO blood to spill, so it was all boring. Oh yeah, you screamed like you were gonna pee your pants! You were going to P-E-E, and that is really funny to me~"
"Well, at least I wasn't a cheerleader who stole money from her boyfriends to fuel her anime addiction!"
"Well at least I don't run away from battle when things get tough!"
Tina stared at the two prinnies as they butt heads, glaring at each other and almost reaching for weapons in their pouches. She bopped both gently on the head before looking rather cross with both of them.
"Now you stop that, you two!" she said. "You two are great in your own ways and you shouldn't rag on each other! Besides, Reggi will take your scarves off and hurl you to the moon if you start fighting here!"
The two prinnies turned to Tina before turning away from each other with a "HMPF!" Tina laughed a little, nervous that the two would start fighting again, and pulled something out of her dress pocket: a golden pocket watch. She opened it and looked at the time, as well as a tiny portrait of her mom and dad together hastily taped onto the other side. She stared sadly at the portrait for a time before shutting it and putting it away, which caught Bonnie's attention.
"I didn't know you had one of those, dood!" she said with awe. "Like, old fashioned pocket watches are like, SOOOO hard to come by here, dood! Nevermind gold ones like that! So preeetty!"
Tina smiled and replied, "Yeah. It's my good luck charm! I keep it with me always. It's a momento of my mom and dad, who died a long time ago. It still works, too!"
"Ooooh, you never told us about your family, dood! What were they like? Were they nice or something? I like nice people a whole lot!"
"Don't we all?" The succubus thought for a moment before replying, "Well, my mom was a really good singer. She used to sing lullabies to me when I had trouble sleeping, hum to herself when she felt really happy, and just pretty much sang spontaneously, whenever she felt like it. My dad was sort of the same way, always singing with her! He was probably the better cook, though; mom had a bad habit of putting too much salt in everything. He was also really good at drawing, making big paintings of forests and Princess Melodia that almost looked real!"
It wasn't until halfway through that Tina realized that her eyes were getting watery. Bonnie looked up with worry and asked, "Are you feeling okay, Miss Tina?"
"I... I just miss them a lot, that's all," Tina said. "It's been forever since I've seen them, and now I can't even see them anymore, you know?"
The prinny nodded sagely as her companion got a box of sushi to-go, and put it away in a bag. "I know, dood! I wish you could see them again. I wish I could, too! They sound all neat-o and stuff, dood!"
"Ha, same! They were pretty great parents."
Tina took out her pocket watch again, this time to check the time. Nearly 4 'o clock. Scarlet and Sora would be returning soon! She stood up and turned to her prinny friends and said, "Well, it was nice seeing you guys here, but I gotta go! Maybe we can meet up at your house later?"
Bonnie turned back and replied happily, "Sure, I'm sure Master Gluttony wouldn't mind, dood! Like, he acts all scary and stuff, but I think he's just L-O-N-E-L-Y~"
Gonzales stood up , holding the bag in his flipper and asked, "Mind if we come along with ya for a little bit, dood? Nico Nico's in the direction of your house, anyway."
"Sure, why not? I might be able to find something Sora will like there while I'm at it!"
The trio left the sushi bar, Tina beginning to hum to herself until someone bumped into her, nearly pushing her onto the ground. "Sorry about that!" he said before bowing down. Tina noticed the thief had dirty blonde hair hidden under a red and white bandana, along with dirty overalls and a few teeth missing from his mouth. "Didn't mean ta bump inta ya like that, missy!"
"O-oh, it's fine," Tina replied, but he had just zipped away, back into the crowds of the shopping district. "That was weird, he didn't even wait..."
Bonnie poked her succubus friend hard, eyes wide with shock. "Dood!" she cried. "Check your pockets, dood! Check them, fast!"
"What do you mean, 'check the-'"
She reached into her dress pocket, only for her skin to become as white as the dress she wore.
The pocket watch... her momento...
It was gone.
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