Demon who's been going through a lot lately, and is just feeling very vulnerable.
"You okay, Golnaarth?"
"Yeah," Golnaarth says, flopping down on the bench near the duck pond. She puts her lunchbox down next to her, and reaches for a pile of throwing pebbles, scoping out the pond's targets.
"You look like you've been crying at work again," Bernadette says, looking at the pond.
"Had one of those mornings that just suck," Golnaarth says. "Nearly late for work, and we had an all-hands meeting about people stealing the office supplies and Malharaxxus was really mean, those staplers probably just went up someone's bum on a summoning, that's legit work, and then we were out of coffee and Malharaxxus is in charge of ordering it and I bet she didn't on purpose because of the staplers, and then the second I got my first summons I knew it was going to fuck up my metrics—"
"Aw, did you get a rules lawyer," Bernadette says, scowling.
"Think it mighta been an actual lawyer," Golnaarth says glumly. "Argumentative. Showoff argumentative. Butt naked. Woman. Don't get me wrong, I like women when I'm off the clock, but when I'm on the clock I'm on the clock, lady, your foreplay's coming out of my KPIs even if you don't insist on giving your full rehearsed closing argument that you've loopholed me into getting it for free—"
Bernadette gently touches her wrist and points out a duck furtively swimming into the open.
"So I had a cry," Golnaarth says, and skims the pebble with deadly accuracy.
"In the toilets again?"
"No, right there in the summoning circle, on the job." Golnaarth wipes her nose on her sleeve, and grins, full of gleaming teeth. "Spooked her so bad she jacked in the arguing and begged me to stop. Gave me a cuddle. Made me hot chocolate. Agreed to hide a clause in a software EULA she's vetting for her job that gives me the soul of anyone who clicks through without reading it. Malharaxxus is gonna be so mad when my numbers come in next quarter."
"You're wasted on her department," Bernadette says. "They'd love you in New Ideas."
"Yeah, but I'd miss the orgies."
Bernadette sighs.
"True," she says. "The institutional knowledge really shows when succubi do 'em."