Mia fondles her tarot cards like they're priceless relics – Her every murmur saturated with the potential for new, infernal knowledge. There's that lovely glint of insanity in her eyes again. That manic intent, the lustful desire for knowledge. So passionate. So fervent. Such lovely, lovely eyes your love has~!

They're so wonderfully mad – Brimming with darkness, endless pools of depravity…

"You know," you begin, carefully lowering your voice so it comes across as conspiratorial, "There's another source of energy you could use for your experiments."

Mia shifts in your arms, blinking rapidly up at you. She looks almost intoxicated – Dark eddies swirl within her purple eyes, black currents of primordial essence. She's a Magical Girl on the brink, not quite fallen, but certainly stained beyond redemption. Not pushed past the point of insanity – but not entirely lucid. "Another source of energy?"

You smirk.

And then you transform.

Crystalline horns blossom from your temples, bat-like inky wings unfurl from your back. Your prim, proper clothing dissolves into strips of fabric that just barely cover your sex – But that's alright. You're sheathed in power. Dark, corroding Essence flows freely from your form, brilliantly pink, and Mia's eyes widen as your scent intensifies.

You exude such lovely pheromones, now that you no longer have to hide yourself.

"Oh," she breathes, taking your form in. She tilts her head up and down, inching away slightly, her eyes roving across your body, drinking every last detail. Cold calculation enters her gaze now, even as you grin. "Oh..."

"Hey, hey~!" You cheer. "By day, I'm the cute, sexy CEO, Alice Takanashi! But at night I'm the sultry, seductive Dark Magical Girl, Void Heart~! Nice to properly meet you… Mia Cabalis."

Mia lets out a slow, throaty hum as she visibly thinks, calculating. Her face flits between a dozen expressions – undoubtedly because a hundred, nay, a thousand different thoughts just ran through her gorgeous brain.

Finally, she opens her mouth and speaks. "… This explains a lot, actually."

"Does it?" You smirk, and Mia nods vigorously.

"No, it definitely does. Your specialties?" Mia asks.

"Oh, I dabble in a lot of things. Energy manipulation, biomancy, mental magic…"

"… I see. And since we've clearly met before our first meeting, you're far too familiar with me…" Mia trails off, then frowns. "You were responsible for my lost time, then?"

"Maybe~!" You tease, folding your arms underneath your chest to emphasize your bust. It's a nice chest you have! Mia knows! She's looking at your cleavage with a particularly appreciative glance~!

"That was very rude of you, if you were," Mia notes clinically, and…

Honestly, you're kind of surprised she's taking things this well. She's been pretty thoroughly corrupted at this point, but still.

"I'm sorry, but in my defense, I thought your reaction would be, well…" You mime out an explosion with your hands. "Volatile, without some preparation?"

"Hm. Fair enough," Mia shrugs. "… Kaina knows?"

"Of course she does," you reply quickly.

"And considering she didn't immediately decapitate you…" Mia trails off, a familiar look entering her eyes. Oh, that wondrous, endless curiosity of hers. It's honestly her most endearing trait. So fascinated by minutia. It's really quite adorable. "Fascinating."

"Thank you, I try to be," you tilt your head to study your love just as fervently as she's studying you.

"You're trying to get me to Fall, then," Mia surmises. That's your love for you~! Even addled as she is, poisoned by the Essence you've been pouring into her body? She's still working all the angles.

"Only if you want to. I can assure you though, it's a fun process if you're properly guided through it – Will you let me?" You extend your hand now. Here you are, the devil tempting Mia with the fruit of unholy knowledge.

Mia pauses for a long moment, her face warring briefly between two expressions – Cold logic fighting against the intoxicating lure of total, complete freedom. She exhales, closing her eyes.

And when next her lids snap open, she fixes you with eyes swirling in madness.

"Yes, I think I'd like that very much," Mia murmurs, her voice resolute, and you feel glee enter your heart upon hearing those words, upon feeling her take your hand. Those lovely, lovely words~! "… How are we doing this?"

"Well, we'll need some… Special things," you reply. "For a girl like you, I want to get a whole tantric ritual set up. But we can… Go through a preview of that. Immediately. If you'd like-"

Mia forcibly kisses you now, surging up to press her body against your own. You find yourself flopping back onto the mattress as your love pounces on you with a dark, feral glint in her eyes – Overcome with her lust, her greed, her desire for limitless knowledge…

Hee~! Such thirsts Mia possesses – For knowledge, for sex, for pleasure… Just like you.

Well. You'll just have to slake your love's thirst – It's why you're here, after all, ~!

Those are the happy thoughts that flit through your mind as Mia forcibly undresses you, in order to have her way with you.

Hours of torrid passion later, you find yourself in Mia's silent laboratory – albeit one that smells like sex. That's what happens when you have sex in a laboratory. On the tables, on the couch, on the bed…

Mia's dozing amidst a haphazard nest of pillows and books. You're not sure how the books got there. They must have fallen over when you had sex against that one bookcase. It's a cute image, though. You kiss your love on the forehead, smooth out her damp curls, and smile. Ah, so cute when she's dozing. She's such an adorable little lamb; you love her so~!

The lab's overhead lights flicker. You twitch as the smell of sulfur and ash enters your nostrils. A shadowed figure steps through the door, her heels clicking against the tiled floor.

"Oh, you're finally done?" Tessa, the demon, asks. She deposits a stack of grimoires on a table, brushing her gloved hands elegantly as she struts over to where you're lying in repose with your love. As she approaches, she lifts her gaze, revealing the slightest hint of a wry smile. You can't help but note the subtle predator's gleam in those crimson eyes.

You lift your chin, arching your eyebrow imperiously, heedless of the fact that you're very much naked and in front of a deadly demon. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"How could I not? You're quite the performer miss… Alice? Void Heart? I'm terribly sorry, I'm not sure what your proper appellation is…" Tessa curtsies, and you feel your eyebrow twitch at the elegant gesture.

She's definitely mocking you here. The sweet lilt of her voice barely conceals that razor edge you've come to associate with demons like Lucy.

"Void Heart for now. We can talk about names once we've talked about your arrangement with my love," you gesture towards Mia, who's still slumbering in her nest.

"So untrusting," Tessa lets out a dramatic sigh, and you just stare flatly back at her.

"You're obviously as fresh from Hell as you look if you're trying to get cutesy with me," you reply in a flat tone of voice.

Tessa sighs again. "We're dispensing with the platitudes, then?"

"We are. Drop the act already."

Tessa tilts her head, fiery red hair spilling over the bat-like ears perched atop it. "So you want me to drop the act," she echoes, her voice adopting a clipped, bored tone. Gone is the coquettish lilt—now, she just sounds like a demon who has better things to do than trade quips. "Fine."

She deposits the last of her grimoires on a table, dusting her gloves off once more before turning to give you a cool, unguarded look. "Just because I was born yesterday doesn't mean that I was – You know what I mean. I know you're here to corrupt Mia. I'm also here to corrupt Mia." Her eyes flick to Mia's sleeping form, then back to you, and a faint sneer tugs at the corner of her mouth. "Which means I'm not about to interfere with your attempts. We're working towards the same end goal here, there's no need for this… Hostility."

You let out a short, humorless laugh. "Hostility? No, no, no, this isn't hostility. You'd know if I was being hostile to you. Let's clear the air here." You straighten, wings rustling against your shoulders as you lean forward, eyeing her. "There's just one thing I want to know about right now - My love's arrangement with you—how binding is it? Some standard contract? Or have you found any cracks to exploit?"

Tessa gives a lazy shrug, though you see her wings flutter in a small burst of annoyance. She snaps her fingers, and infernal parchment unfurls in the air in front of you. "It's a pretty straightforward labor agreement," she answers, voice turning dry. "Loosely modeled on a corporate template. Pretty thorough, actually—makes it unwise to double-cross her. But hey, I'm only a few days old in your plane. I'm not suicidal enough to break a sealed contract for no reason. Especially not when 'your love' threatened to send me back to hell with a damn Archimedean death ray."

You blink, surprised. "… Mia threatened to shoot you with the sun?"

"It surprised me too, yeah," Tessa chuckles mirthlessly.

Dang, your love's hardcore. You really know how to pick 'em~!

Still, you take a moment to skim through the contract Tessa's holding in front of her. It does, indeed, look pretty typical. There are all the usual clauses about "nondisclosure," "labor duties," and "obligations under immediate banishment"—all couched in flowery demonic language, but the specific language of the text?

Thoroughly mundane. This is just an employee contract with added infernal twists. The text outlines Mia as the "rightful mistress," with time-bound tasks and arcane oversight. There's even a section on dispute resolution. Mia literally just grabbed some standard corporate contract templates and translated them into demonese on top. No wonder Tessa isn't panicking; there's nothing particularly cunning or hidden in the phrasing, just straightforward obligations she'd be foolish to break.

At least from this cursory glance you're taking, there's nothing objectionable about Tessa's service in the short term. There are probably many long-term consequences you'll have to worry about, and you do want to do a more in-depth read of this contract just to make sure you haven't missed anything… But that can come later. You have other things to worry about right now, unfortunately. You take a moment to flick a casual glance over Tessa's body, scrutinizing the slight tension in her posture, the steady glimmer in her eyes.

This is definitely her contract. She won't lie about that — Demons are, funnily enough, notorious for never lying.

That doesn't mean that she's telling the truth, though. Demons are also notorious for their dastardly tricks and love to get selective with their wording. It's like stepping through verbal minefields, talking to a demon, reading demonic contracts. So many potential loopholes, or negated clauses... Ugh. You hate demons. This nonsense is why you always, always brought a lawyer with you when you had to make a deal with one of them…

"We'll chat more… Later," you say, your tone edged with authority. "But as long as you stay in your lane, and let me stay in mine… I don't think we'll have much to quarrel over. Truce?"

Tessa grins and salutes you mockingly. "Truce. Understood, Void Heart." There is a pause, and then her eyes flash with a flicker of humor. "Or Miss Alice, or whichever name you prefer."

A faint scoff escapes you as you rise to your feet, letting your wings spread just enough to reassert your dominance in the room. "You're learning," you remark, stepping around the stacked grimoires and heading back toward Mia's side. Tessa doesn't move to stop you – She watches you depart with an unreadable look. You sense she's content to let you carry on with your goals—so long as it benefits her not to interfere.

That's enough for you. For now, at least.

+25 Reckless Abandon (Mia's Reckless Abandon at 60)

Mia Falls at the end of the week. Mia's Reckless Abandon gains halted for the next two weeks.