Emily slides into a chair at the table between Vaggie and Alastor, feeling like she's burning up - it's been three days since Calli brought her to the Hotel, and now…she's feeling like she might be…what did the Winners call it? Being sick?
Whatever this is, it's not fun whatsoever.
On the bright side, though, everyone's been super nice to her - even Alastor, who almost everyone seems wary of most of the time. He's been perfectly nice to her, though, showed her around the Hotel and said to ask if she needs anything or has any questions.
And then, suddenly, everything just goes fuzzy...and hot. She distantly feels hands grab her, sort of hears people talking, but can't really respond. It feels like she's floating in a furnace, and all of that is happening on the other side of the thing.
Everyone jumps when Emily suddenly collapses straight into Vaggie without any warning, and the ex-Exorcist, Alastor, and Charlie all try to catch her before she can crack her skull open on the ground. Charlie asks "Emily, can you hear me? C'mon, Em, wake up, please?"
Vaggie puts a hand to Emily's sweat-covered forehead, only to pull it back and say "She's burning up, I'm not even sure how she got down here…"
Calli puts a wet cloth on Emily's forehead, and says "It's hitting her full-force now. I'll get Emily back to her room. Luce-"
"I'm on it." Lucifer snaps his fingers and all the dishes already lined up to be cleaned are suddenly spotless.
Angel asks "Wait…you knew she was gonna drop like this?!"
Lucifer says "We've been waiting for it since she got to the Hotel. She's starting to change due to being in Hell, her body's adapting to it. Think…evolution, but really sped up."
Husk nods as Calli picks Emily up, asking "She's going to be alright, though…right?"
Lucifer nods, saying "Yeah. Course she will be." If anybody catches onto the detail that he takes that as a bygone conclusion because Calli won't let anything else happen, nobody says anything about it.
Emily groans as she slowly swims to consciousness, and cracks her eyes open only to immediately close them once more.
"Emily, can you hear me? Don't try to nod your head, I'm sure it's pounding."
Emily tries to respond to Calli, but immediately reconsiders when her throat feels like there's a thousand small knives lining it. A cool hand cupping the back of her neck draws her attention, and then she feels cold glass touch her lips. "Here, try to drink something. Just a little, alright?"
The little bit of water that hits her tongue doesn't feel like it does anything for the burning in her throat, much less the rest of her body, but Calli says "I can't give you too much at once, you'll throw it back up. You've been out for about an hour, Em. You remember what Lucifer and I told you? How you'd start changing sooner or later?"
After a moment, and another sip of water, Emily rasps out "That's what this is?"
The glass moves away from her lips, and then Calli's hand is wiping the hair out of her face as she says "Yeah. Least with you, we know what's going on." Last time, she and Lilith were guessing and grasping at straws, completely clueless about what was happening to Lucifer until horns and a tail grew out of his body. And, since he was still healing…it was far from instantaneous, forget painless.
Emily braces herself, and cracks an eye open - either Calli dimmed the lights or the water helped, because the light no longer feels like a knife straight to her brain. After a moment, her vision focuses and she sees Calli sitting in a chair beside her bed - and they're in her room, she distantly notes. She tries to sit up, but Calli's hand on her shoulder - even without any weight behind it - is more than enough to keep her laying down.
After a minute, the red-head says "I've been trying to think of a way to broach this, but…now's as good a time as any other. I can think of one way to at least make the transition a bit easier for you, Em. Problem is…it's a Blood Adoption. You'd - technically - be my daughter…along with someone else's, because it needs two people to work." It doesn't matter who the other person is in terms of the potion itself...but, still. It matters.
Emily blinks in confusion, putting a hand to her head and asking "What? Blood…adoption? I don't understand…"
Calli shrugs, saying "I'm not surprised. It's something from my old world, doesn't actually exist in this one. Or, at least, this world's magic can't make it happen. I'd researched it thoroughly, way back when. I know how to make the potion, even if I never ended up going through with it." She wanted to have a family, she really did. Give Teddy some siblings, have a family as big as the Weasley Family or even bigger.
But, then, reality hit her once more - anybody she Blood Adopted would be targeted by either gold-diggers or political or press vultures at every turn. No child deserved to be cursed with her last name - or with her as a parent, what with the role models she had to go by for parenting. She woke up in the middle of the night dozens of times, if not hundreds, nightmares still playing out in her head of another kid being subjected to any of what Vernon and Petunia did to her.
Emily nods her head slowly, wincing at the way it makes the room spin, and asks "What's the problem, then?"
Calli purses her lips, then says "One of the requirements for the potion - the biggest one, actually - is the blood of two separate people to act as the parents. Theoretically, a Blood Adoption via my blood would make you a Nephilim like me - half Demonic, half Angelic...or Seraphic, whatever you want to call it." Well, far as she knows, it would take a full demon as the other 'parent' to make that happen - Emily's already an 'Angelic' being, after all. If she's right, just her heritage would make the Seraphim a quarter demon. "And I'm not trying to take Lilith's spot beside Luci."
Emily coughs, wincing as it practically scrapes her throat raw, and asks "What about Alastor, then?"
Calli blinks, not quite able to keep her expression from changing for a moment - and absolutely not being able to hide her blush - and asks "What about him?"
"You two get along well, right?" Plus, everyone else seems utterly convinced there's something going on between them! Heck, she can see the chemistry between them clear as day, and she's only been in the Hotel a few days!
Calli's cheeks glow redder than her hair, and she says "I doubt he wants to suddenly have a kid with me, Emily!" Whatever it is they have between them - 'dating' doesn't really describe it, in both their opinions - it's so new, the last thing she wants to do is break it completely by asking him to suddenly become a parent with her!! Even if only by a technicality! He's an Overlord by a technicality, after all, he'd likely see it exactly the same way!
There's planned parenthood, there's unplanned parenthood...and then there's suddenly magically adopting a Seraphim out of the blue with her because the potion to keep said Seraphim from being bedridden for days requires two people to make it work!
And then Emily notices the shadow leaving the room, and says "Erm…I think he's gonna find out either way."
Calli blinks, then asks "What?"
"I swear I just saw a shadow leave the room…"
Calli groans, then says "Ohmigods…I'll explain the context of what his shadow overheard when he comes to ask about it. That's going to be an interesting talk…" Especially since having kids generally demands something neither of them have ever wanted in more than a possible abstract sense.
Alastor raises an eyebrow when his shadow finishes talking, and asks "Truly? Well…that's interesting." A Potion that can grant somebody the DNA of two other people…he can guess why Calliope never used it in her old world, having been told enough about her version of Britain to know how the theoretical child would've been treated. Adored one minute - or, more accurately, stalked - and turned on the next, he wouldn't subject an innocent child to that life either.
He may have been a serial killer in his life, but he did have morals - who he went after, for instance, he only ever killed abusers, rapists, and violent degenerates.
Hells, he likely would've gone after her headmaster if this world was Calliope's original one, given half the chance.
Most definitely would've killed her relatives, even if he wouldn't have eaten the walking heart attack named Vernon Dursley.
After a moment, Alastor says "She's probably panicking. I should go let her know I wouldn't be opposed to adopting Emily with her, then." Honestly, a potion that gives someone new DNA sounds a lot less troublesome - and complicated, for that matter - than the way people up on Earth do it. Plus, he'd really like to see this Sera's face when she next sees Emily afterwards.
Calli stares at Alastor in absolute shock, asking "You…what?!"
Alastor nods, saying "My Shadow heard everything. The Blood Adoption potion, what it would need, all of it."
Calli runs a hand through her hair, asking "And-and you'd be willing to…to magically adopt Emily with me? You do know we'd be her parents in Magic's eyes, right?" And, considering she knows Magic, that's a bit more daunting of a prospect than it was when she had no idea the deity existed.
Alastor shrugs, saying "I gathered as much." Even having actually met the woman, it doesn't make a difference to him. His mother always wanted to be a grandmother, to. Even if they're both dead now, he can say he granted her that in the end.
Alastor watches in abject amusement as Calli seems to short-circuit at that, stammering and cutting off about five times before she manages to get her thoughts in some kind of coherent order. Eventually, she says "This isn't something you can change your mind about, Alastor!"
"And I'm not going to, Calliope." He never had kids, or adopted any kids, because he never found anyone he wanted to spend his life with that would accept him - plus, the whole serial killer thing would've been a bit hard to cover up.
Calli blinks a few times, then runs a hand through her hair and says "Alright, then. If Emily wants to do it, I'll start making the Potion…"
About three days later, Husk, Pentious, Angel, and four of the other new Sinners are at the table when Emily comes in…looking drastically different.
Her feathery-looking blue hair has turned red and curly as Calli's, but pitch-black at the ends.
Her wings are the opposite now, mostly black with red at the edges.
Her sclera are bright red, making the vivid green irises stand out even more.
And she's got Alastor's face-shape, a frame similar to Calli's, her complexion is somewhere between the two of them, and her robe has turned red.
Angel's the first to find his voice, eventually asking "Hey…you all good now, Em?" He's not sure whether to be grateful or disappointed he doesn't have his phone on him right now, honestly. Actually, he'd probably drop it.
Emily smiles and nods, saying "Never better, Angel!"
Pentious leans over to Husk, quietly asking "You're seeing what I'm seeing…right?" Because he's seeing a young woman who could well be Alastor and Calliope's biological daughter.
Husk nods, not daring to take a sip of his coffee and grateful he hadn't when Emily came in, and murmurs "I really don't want to know…" He really, REALLY doesn't want to know why Emily suddenly looks like a mix of Alastor and Calliope after being holed up in her room for the past three days.
And then Alastor walks in, and the resemblance is even more striking.
Husk, Angel, and Pentious all trade glances, and then Husk jerks his head in the direction of the bar. It's barely eight-thirty in the morning, and he is already way too sober for whatever else is going to happen.
And then, because of course, Cherri Bomb bounds in, startling Emily, and revealing a black eye with a red dial in the middle in her chest.
Husk goes for the Dragon's Breath Bourbon when he gets behind the bar counter, pouring one shot glass for each of them. Cherri Bomb joins them, after about ten seconds.