#odesika

Odette: With a succubi star.

Clara: With an Overlord and Succubi.

Emily: With a fallen angel and the legit Princess of Hell.

They're standing there trying to process how their kids do this?! Just glance at each other like...

Sera: Well I fell in love with an overlord so that can be blamed on me.

Carmilla: I fell in love with a seraphim so the attraction to angels is on me.

Odesika kids for @seramilla au. I decided this time to play a bit with color schemes and mix them a bit so it suits better.

Also made Andy be emberrased of his feet... Deffo has nothing to do with my inability to picture them. *sweats nervously*

Odette is sick. Really sick. She's not even certain how one can get this sick in Hell. She hasn't been this down-and-out since she caught the bubonic plague as a child. Clara had caught it at the same time, which had been a rough 3 weeks for Carmilla. But this is somehow worse. Maybe a new mortal soul brought a previously undescribed Hell-virus with them when they died. Either way, she wishes she were double dead. It would be better than dealing with this misery. It's impossible to breathe through her nostrils.

Verosika seems completely unfazed. She doesn't normally get sick. Not the way other Hellborn do. Something about succubi/incubi and always visiting Earth and having stronger immune systems against whatever the Sinners catch, or something like that. She'd tried to explain it to her, but honestly, Odette had just wanted her to bring her the humidifier. She'd been delirious and hadn't really been paying attention at the time.

She's going on a week straight of staying in bed, in the dark, stewing in her own snot and phlegm when suddenly, Verosika and her unusually cheerful morning voice (the succubus normally sleeps until noon most days, what the fuck is she doing up so early???) chirps outside the room. She busts open the bedroom door, two plates in hand, piled high with sugary dough and syrup and way too much carbon for something that was supposed to be made on the stove.

"Mornin', babydoll!" Verosika trills, making Odette bury her head under her pillow in agony. She groans. Her sinuses are so stopped up, even her ears are muffled at the sound of her girlfriend's voice. It has nothing to do with the mound of pillows.

"Verosika, not now," Odette groans, barely audible under the barrier of fluffy down and silk cloth. Verosika smacks Odette's butt playfully from where it's sticking out under the covers. She whistles one of her most well-known love ballads under her breath, as she places a hefty plate on Odette's nightstand.

"Is that any way to talk to your wonderful girlfriend when she went out of her way to make you breakfast?" Verosika asks, voice reaching a lower register, like the fact that Odette is ignoring her is physically painful.

Verosika puts the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically. "I slaved away in the kitchen for an hour trying to make these. The least you can do is show me that pretty face."

Odette grunts. Her glasses are on the nightstand, behind the tray laden with...something resembling pancakes. She reaches over the plate of food, and once her lenses are in front of her eyes, balks at what she sees.

"What...what are those?" Odette asks, face screwed up in confusion.

"Those are pancakes, bitch!" Verosika says in triumph, rubbing the top of Odette's head where it isn't still covered by her blanket. Odette isn't offended by Verosika's flim-flammy overuse of the word bitch. It's a term of endearment, at this point. "I followed a Sinstagram recipe to make them in the air fryer. It only took 10 minutes!"

"I thought you said it took over an hour?" Odette asks, picking up her fork, and poking the overly charred edges of the dough in front of her.

"This is the fifth batch," Verosika states, as if this should be obvious. "Once I got the instructions right, it was much smoother sailing!"

"Why didn't you just make them on the stove...like a normal person?" Odette asks, completely flummoxed at her girlfriend's choice to not use the perfectly serviceable appliances in Carmilla's elaborate kitchen. One that would make any chef worth their salt drool at the mouth.

Instead, her girlfriend had used the cheap air fryer she'd seen on social media. Because she has to follow the latest trends. Velvette is the absolute worst influence on the popstar.

"Like fuck I'm going to dirty all those dishes. This worked out just fine. Dig in, babydoll!"

Odette shoots the plate another questioning glance. The pancakes are a bit more...burned than she'd normally like on the edges. Maybe too undercooked in the middle. But she lives in Hell, for fuck's sake. She probably breathes in more carbon and sulfur on a daily basis than is currently present on that plate alone.

She tentatively lifts the fork. Uses it to cut through three layers of sugary, crispy dough. There is so much syrup, it almost breaches the edge of the plate as she's cutting. She lifts the mixture to her face, not noting anything else too egregious as she takes a bite. Closes her eyes as she chews.

It's...fine. There is way too much syrup. She prefers the crispiness of the outsides to the gooeyness of the insides. But she can't smell anything anyway, so her taste buds are a bit numbed to the effect of her breakfast. She's had worse service placing a breakfast order at Wackdonald's. She swallows another big bite, and goes in for a third. Honestly, the more bites she takes, the easier it is to think...it isn't too bad. Sweet, even.

Verosika, likewise, is beaming at her girlfriend eating what she's made. Verosika wraps one arm loosely around Odette's neck, and rubs her cheeks against her girlfriend's affectionately, kissing the bridge of her nose.

"I did okay?" Odette asks, eagerly waiting for Odette's approval.

Odette smiles, and takes another bite for good measure. "Yeah, sweetie. You did good."

"Fuck yeah!" Verosika shouts, pumping her fist dramatically, before settling in next to Odette on the bed to eat her portion of the diabetes on a plate.

Odette giggles, despite herself. She's not sure what she did to deserve a partner like Verosika, but as she finishes off her perfectly adequate, nothing-to-write-home-about-but-still-very-sweet stack of pancakes, she considers herself the happiest woman in Hell.

Do any of Hell's rings have forests?? I'm assuming not, so they'd probably have to go to Earth.

Carmilla's been working too much, Sera insists she needs to take a break, so Verosika or Kiki suggest an Earth vacation. Humans like to rent these gas-guzzling fossil fuel machines, drive out to the middle of nowhere, and "get back to nature", whatever the fuck that means. It'd be great!!!

It sounds miserable. Absolutely dreadful. There's no way Carmilla would agree to something like that. Not in a million years. But in the next scene, somehow the Carmines, their girlfriends, and maybe Vaggie and Charlie, for some reason, are all squeezed into a 40-foot luxury RV they rented from Wally Wackford (because he's selling those now, for some reason) and use Verosika's Asmodean crystal to travel to some bumfuck nowhere national park.

Any time they need to be near other people, they adopt the human disguises they had in the serious!crack/college AU. Velvette just doesn't bother, because that's so beneath her. She's having the worst time out of everyone else there. The mosquitos are eating her alive.

Odette: uncle ozzy, I need a favor

Ozzy: sure pumpkin, what do you need?

Odette: the strongest fucking birth control you have

Ozzy: uh context?

Odette: you didn't hear it from me but, Velvette is pregnant and I think Verosika is getting baby fever and I don't want to get pregnant

Verosika, busting through Ozzie's door. "Uh-uh, Odette Carmine! You get back here right now!"

Odette, frantically: "Uncle Ozzie, hurry, please! You don't know what she's been like!"

Ozzie: "Uhhh???"

Verosika, marching up to Odette, picking her up and carrying her under her arm like a 2x4: "Alley-oop! You're coming home with me, babydoll."

Odette, clawing at the floor, leaving scratch marks in the carpet: "Uncle Ozzie! Uncle Ozzie, help! Please, have mercy! She's gonna...!"

Ozzie: "Verosika, honey, be reasonable, now..."

Verosika: "If Velvette gets one, I get one, too! It's only fair!"

Odette: *screeching into the distance as Verosika spirits them both away*

Odette doesn't say a word when Verosika's annual "Halloween" party comes around. She can't say that she gets it -- she also has her own share of bad experiences with exes, but never any that made her want to rip out their aorta and stomp it into the dirt, like Verosika seems wont to do with Blitzo.

But Verosika had explained pretty early in their relationship that it's not about Blitzo anymore -- yeah, she'd been a devastated young demon in love when he'd left her in the lurch, but Verosika has moved on since then. These days, the parties are about helping all those other victims who've been abandoned by that two-timing, selfish prick. The Goetia prince Stolas, most recent of all.

Maybe it's because of Blitzo, or maybe because Odette also just doesn't want to rush things, but the first time an "I love you" is dropped is after the latest party. Verosika comes home a lot less...wound up than Odette had expected. Tired and exhausted, yes, but her partner seems almost...relieved? Less stressed than that morning? Whatever happened, Verosika doesn't come crawling into bed needing reassuring cuddles like Odette had expected her to. Instead, she just changes into her PJs and climbs in next to Odette like it's any other evening, moving softly so she doesn't wake up her partner.

It's useless, though, because Odette had already been lying there awake, waiting up for her, unable to sleep. When Verosika sees Odette's eyes glowing back at her in the dark from under a bundle of blankets, she smiles.

"Hey, babydoll."

"Hey...how was your party?"

"Good!" Verosika is oddly...chipper for it being 3 in the morning and having run on adrenaline and Beelzejuice all day. She seems unusually sober, too.

"Are you...okay?" Odette asks, wincing a little bit when Verosika's ice-cold legs and tail come into contact with her body, and she snuggles up under Odette's chin. Verosika's definitely been in the human realm, all right. It's always so fucking freezing there.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because...it's Blitzo."

Verosika's smile does falter a little, at hearing his name. But surprisingly, amazingly, it doesn't seem to be affecting her the way Odette had thought it would. She doesn't grumble or yell or do any of the stuff she was doing this afternoon, while getting ready. What exactly had happened that night? Had something happened, or is she just overthinking this?

"Yeah, well..." Verosika starts, "I tapped out early. Tex wrapped everything up for me."

"What? Really?" Odette is surprised. She'd expected the party to be an all-night affair. She supposes it is rather odd that Verosika is back before dawn. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah," Verosika answers, just letting that response linger in the air for a while. She doesn't bother to elaborate. Odette's not sure if she should ask for details. "You know, babydoll, I might see if some of the others wanna run the shin-dig next year. I just wasn't...feelin' it tonight."

Now, that's extremely unlike Verosika. She has always been Blitzo's #1 Hater and plans these parties months in advance. She has the T-shirts, bumper stickers, and stacks of planners to prove it. What gives???

"Okay, wait, now I know something's up. There is absolutely no way you'd be saying this if something major didn't happen. Spill it! Are you okay? Did Blitzo...die or something? Why are you taking this so well?"

Verosika sits up to be able to look down at Odette in the dark. A pair of concerned, red eyes meet gold and pink, and Verosika sighs contently. She reaches a hand up to rub Odette's cheek, then runs it through her hair and scratches Odette's scalp lightly with her claws, the way she likes.

"He apologized. Finally. And I guess I just realized it doesn't...bother me anymore, now that I have you. I'm not over what he did to me, but I'm over him. I still put up the act, to get everyone in the mood, but to be honest, my heart just wasn't in it. And maybe that's the goal of the parties. To get to a place where I didn't need 'em anymore. The whole time, I just wanted it to be over, so I could be back here with you...where my heart truly is."

Odette looks up at Verosika, her red eyes shiny and wide like glistening saucers. She grips the blanket tightly to her chest, squeezing it between her claws. Is Verosika really saying...?

"...Because I love you."

There it is.

Odette's not going to cry...she's not going to cry...Odette Carmine doesn't cry!

"I love you, too, sweetie!" Odette says, a little too excited. She sits up to give Verosika an affectionate peck on the cheek. Then the peck turns into a passionate kiss, and okay, maybe a few tears leak out around her eyes, and the kiss turns a little heavy. "All night I just wanted you to be here! I missed you so much!"

Verosika does get a little emotional, then, too. She falls sideways into Odette's laps, throwing up her arms exaggeratedly and grabbing Odette's face between her claws for emphasis.

"I was so miserable, babydoll!!! As soon as the concert was over, I just hung out on the balcony. Then Blitzo and his whiny ass tried to ruin my party. But he was such a sorry sack of shit over Stolas dumping him, I almost...felt sorry for him! Me?! Verosika Mayday, sorry for Blitzo Buckzo?! I must really be losing it!"

"Nah," Odette smiles, leaning down to give Verosika another kiss on her forehead. Her girlfriend's skin is salty from sweat and booze, but she almost doesn't care. They are having a moment. "You're not losing it. That just means you're finally growing up to be a big girl who doesn't give a shit about no man!"

Verosika looks up at her girlfriend, grinning slyly. She pulls Odette down closer to her face by her nightshirt collar, her voice laced with a hint of spice. "Watch it. Don't think I'll take that from you just because you're hot."

Odette laughs and blushes. "Noted."

They settle back into bed again, side by side, Verosika's head tucked up snuggly under Odette's chin. Before the two of them fall asleep, Odette vaguely hears Verosika mumble something else about Blitzo, and manages to pick up the last thing she says before nodding off.

Odette, texting Clara, who can't move with a clingy Verosika lying on top of her: "I'm trapped. Can you bring me a glass of water?"