A crash course on the occult and memes (Cherry and Eden SL)

"Alright, I am pretty sure this is the place." The young girl said to herself as she looked up at the apartment complex. Finally after days and days of looking and pestering people to read the card Eden had given her, she had finally convinced somebody to do it earlier today and had followed the directions to this place. Despite the fact that her brawl with the demons was days ago at this point she just could not get Eden out of her mind. They where just so bizzare! The way they spoke, the way they acted, their strange powers! How could anybody not be curious about this walking enigma? And of course the most important thing about this whole thing, Eden called her a bitch! Who does that? She hadn't done anything wrong to Eden, in fact she helped and what does she get in return? A card and being called a bitch. Well Cherry wasn't going to let that stand! She was going to get answers and she was going to get her apology!

Walking into the apartment complex with a confident strut Cherry began to knock on each and every one of the doors, looking for the mysteryous Eden. And yet, she had found nothing. Every room on the first floor turned out to be totally and utterly barren, no Eden at all! Although it was still nice to explore those empty rooms, as they had plenty of items that Cherry took with her before she kept looking for this person. Not being able to find Eden on the first floor, Cherry marched on to the second floor. Where she once again found no Eden, but plenty of fun objects! Which kept her in a good mood despite the fact that she must have spent at the very least a hour looking for them with no luck quite yet. After combing through the area, and coming up with nothing Cherry did the next thing anybody else would do and went up to the third floor. And she quickly noticed a problem, many of the rooms where had debris covering the front door, and while the thought of just using her left arm to get them out of the way crossed her mind, she dismissed it after a few seconds. And went to go find another way into these rooms.

After a while of looking around her efforts where rewarded ad she stumbled upon what seemed to be a hidden fire escape. Using it, she began to start looking for Eden once again. The young girl would find that one of the windows would allow her access to the room. So without even thinking about it, she slipped into the apartment and began to look around. Her grey eyes always bouncing around, taking in the details about the area around them. Like the other rooms it was pretty run down and drity. And nothing seemed to really jump out at her either, so with nothing she'd liked to borrow she went back to her mission. "Eden! Eden!! Are you here!? The card said you'd be here, where are you? Eden!" She would continued to yell out as she waited for a reply of some sort, and if it took too long she'd start to roam around, loking for them.

Eden has been taking a lovely bath with some of the water they had collected, using some small flowers they had gathered over a few weeks of searching and trading. The lavender smell that emanated from their bathroom was potent, as they laid and relaxed in their bathtub. Their face had small cucumber slices on it and an almost green substance plastered on their face. They hummed to themself as they let their body relax in the water, almost melding with the feeling of the warmth. It wasn't too often they could take a bath, but they deserved it today of all days. From the awakening, to the stuff with their ceiling the other day, and now the lack of trades; it was almost the perfect time to take a day off to relax and let their mind wander. Everything had changed so much in the past few days, it was all so exciting. They couldn't wait to have a chance to help others, finally after all these years there was more to do then sell supplies to them. They let their mind continue to wander to dreamlike scenarios, thinking back to a specific guest of the Velvet Room, the one they grew the closest to over their time as an attendant. Back to a day where the two had gone out for ice cream and a walk around the Parc Monceau. It was a warm day, the sun was shining and the guest was talking their head off. Eden only listened, wanting to watch them as they expressed their happiness and passion in life. They were a lot like them: the energy, the excitement, the joy about being alive, and the optimism until the very end.


The sound of a voice from their apartment caused them to sit up abruptly, the cucumbers on their face sliding down and plopping into the water. They listened to the voice; it was obviously someone who knew their name but they didn't recognize it immediately. Standing up completely, they felt the water drip off of them for a moment before completely stepping out of the tub. Grabbing a white bath robe with the letters ED embroidered into it, they placed their clothes into the tub itself; better to use the water to wash their clothes as well and not let it go to waste. They'd slip on their slippers before walking to the living area, they turned a corner to follow the sound. It was around this time that the voice finally registered for them, causing them to smile. "Is that the Cherry Clear?" They would walk into the living room, flipping their still wet hair out of their face. "I do apologize my dear, I was doing hot-girl shit, you know how it is. But you have my undivided attention now!" They looked around before clearing a space off their couch, gesturing for her to sit. "Make yourself at home! What can I do for you?" They took a seat in a chair across from the couch, crossing their legs to avoid showing off more skin than they already were unfortunately showing.

While her eyes did not pick up anything out of the ordinary, her noise did catch a very powerful and lovely scent coming from somewhere in this room. She ceased her yelling for a second to focus on trying to place what this amazing smell can be, it was truely unlike anything else she had ever smelt before. In fact as Eden went into the living room they'd see the girl raising her chin up as she took deep breaths through her noise. "H-huh!?" She twitched back a little bit, Eden's greeting snapping Cherry out of her lavender induced haze. "Yes. Yes I am the Cherry Clear, and you are the Eden- Eden, uh. Y-you're Eden!" She said, getting herself a little flustered as she couldn't remember Eden's last name. Pushing through that slighty embarssing moment however, Cherry opened her mouth to say something. But right before the words could come out her mouth she noticed what Eden was wearing, and soon her statement had went out the window and was replaced by a simply and rather straight foward question. "What are you wearing?" Eden's clothes simply made no sense, they didn't seem thick at all and the shoes they had on seemed like they would get in the way of movement. Although these days most people had to get by with what clothes they had, but they didn't stop Cherry from being curious and asking about this style she has never seen before. And of course she also recalled Eden rocking something far more fancy than this.

Cherry herself was dressed up much like she was the last time she and Eden met. A very thick winter coat, that was a gods sent when she had to get through the Highrise. It also did a decent job of hiding her left arm, well as decent of a job any clothing item could do. Sure there was no hiding the sheer size of Cherry's limb but other than her hand and fingers it would be very hard to tell that it was wooden. The rest of her outfit was also something you'd assume somebody would be wearing in a cold place like this. A glove on her right hand only of course, a little beanie on her head and some thick black pants with heavy snow boots to get through all the ice and powdered snow that covered the area.

"Um. That's, fine I guess?" Hot girl shit? Yet another thing to add to the ever growing list of strange things Eden has said to her. Or at least around her. "Oh, why t-thank you very much." Cherry muttered out softly as she sat down on the worn out couch. The young girl was quite confused. Eden was still being vvery upbeat and cheery with her, which by itself was something that she wasn't really all that used to dealing with. But by no means dislikes. The real thing that was making her head spin is that this was the same person who had just called her a bitch a few days ago! She just couldn't wrap her mind around it. Thinking back on it, even when they called her a bitch they didn't sound mean or taunting. But was instead their seemingly normal cheery self. "Well I came here for some answers. First and foremost, I want to know why you called me a bitch! Did I say something back in the fight? Or was it something I did? And even if I did do something, you shouldn't just call somebody a bitch and then leave it's rude! So I would like a apology and a reason for why you called me such a thing."

"My second question is that........ Thing you summoned during the fight. How did you do that? Is it a bound demon or something? Can you keep summoning it, or was it like a one time thing?" As the young girl fired off her questions, her stance became less tensed up and more relaxed. However after she was finished with her questions  she suddenly went back to her tense way of sitting. With her legs and arms crossed. Alnost like she just now remembered that she was mad at Eden for calling her a bitch. "And finally, what is that wonderful smell? I haven't smelt anything like it before, and I need to know."

They gave a bit of a flourish of their outfit when asked, showing it off slightly. "This is a bathrobe, it's used to wear while lounging around the house after a bath while you dry and await your clothes." Eden tilted their head at the question prompted to them, not really fully understanding it. They had a hard time acknowledging that folks from this time period didn't really recognize their lingo. They thought for a moment, before realizing and letting out a laugh. "Oh honey, no." They continued to laugh at the thought of how Cherry had felt, taking a good while to laugh it off before continuing. "'Bitch' is a euphemism. Before the fall, folks would use 'bitch' in the way I do in place of words like 'friend' and 'girl.' But 'girl' in the context of 'female friend to which I am very close to or a female I respect the most.' Men used it as a derogatory term towards woman to oppress them, but in the early 2010's, women reclaimed the word to empower each other." They stopped for a moment, realizing that they were talking a lot and rambled a bit. "I was essentially calling you my companion. Not a bitch, but the bitch." They folded their hands over their knees, maintaining eye contact with the small girl as much as possible as to not seem rude.

The question about the smell, they'd chuckle and answer immediately. "That's lavender, I used some for the bath I drew, I could give you some of the lavender extract I obtained." The second question took them aback a bit, causing them to smirk. "Ah no not a demon at all. What you saw, was a projection of my own ego. A persona. One moment." They nodded, standing from their seat and moving into the other room that was essentially their bedroom. Opening a boudoir, they'd pull out one of their outfits, which was a white button-up with a blue vest over it and a pair of black slacks. They placed their leather dress shoes on and entered back into the living room, sitting back across from Cherry. "I think the easiest place to start is: do you know the difference between a shadow and a demon?" They'd adjust their hair, which was still damp but was starting to take it's normal shape.

The young girl placed her right hand to her chin, rubbing it thoughtfully as Eden explained to her what a bathrobe was. "Oh, I guess that makes sense." While it was something that Cherry herself had no use for, seeing as she rarely bathed herself, let alone washed her clothes, she could understand the usefulness of it.

When Eden began to laugh, Cherry placed a hand on her hip and gave them a little glare, her lips turning down into a frown. She was actually about to say something, however Eden cut her off before she had the chance. And soon that look of annoyance was turning into one of curiosity. And towards the end embarssment. "Oh! I see! So bitch can be a bad word, but if we use it right it can also be........ Empowering?" Cherry asked, the confusion on her face as clear as day. But it was also quite easy to see just how interested she was in this. "Anyways, I am sorry that I assumed you where trying to insult me. I was acting rude earlier, I think you are the b-bitch too." She replied as her index finger went up to twirl and play with a lock if her drity blonde hair. "I have to ask though, how did you learn all of that? Did you find it in a book, or did somebody tell you?" Cherry loved learning new things, but she couldn't help but wonder where Eden got this knowledge from. The way they told it to her was more detailed than her mother's! And Cherry's mom was alive during the fall! While Eden didn't really seem all that old to her.

"Yes I would love that!" Cherry declared, so eager at the thought of having her own extract that she almost hopped off of the couch. "But um, I don't have much I can trade you other than some spare water I have on hand. Will that be enough?" Cherry questioned, hoping that some water would be enough to convice Eden to give some of that heavenly lavender. "Oh! Also, do you have to use it in a bath for it to smell like this? Because to be perfectly honest I don't take that many baths." She asked, before letting out a small. "Huh?" At Eden's comment on their power. Cherry simply couldn't grasp it. Sure she understood what a ego was well enough, but to her knowledge it wasn't something that you could just 'project' and the term 'persona' was something totally and utterly foreign to her. "Take your time." Cherry replied as she began to gently swing her legs back and forth as she awaited Eden's return.

"Oh! Your clothes finished drying!" She blurted out as pulled her feet back up on to the couch. Sitting with her legs crossed together, her ears open and ready to hear Eden explain their powers more thoroughly. "You mean there is a difference? I always thought that a shadow was the same thing as a demon."