“You had to learn his mediocre ways of book storing. I’d say that’s horrific enough.”
Quirion meant every word he said and took a moment to understand why Milo was doing a cross between a hiccup and a laugh. “I’m sorry, Qui, but that’s only horrific for you. I hate to tell you this, I really do. Not everybody suffers under the severity of faulty library work like you do.”
“Then perhaps ‘everybody’ should get their priorities straight.” Quirion wasn’t above pouting. It worked, too, because Milo smiled, even if it was a bit wavering, and nodded.
“As always, you are right. If books were a priority on this world, many things would be different.” He sighed wistfully. “No wars, because books could be damaged, for one.”
Glad that they had steered away from Milo’s lingering feelings of guilt—Quirion could see how they might be a problem, in an abstract kind of way—he tried to get back to the important things.
“No more wars if books were to take their rightful place. What else beside the CV do you need?”
“Such a smooth change of topic,” Milo commented with a wink. “Let me see, ah, yes, an outline about my work and the progress I’ve made so far, no longer than five pages, minimum three. And an essay about the ethics of bioengineering.” He tapped his lower lip with his right index finger. “I do have an outline—it’s a bit dated, but I can polish it. The essay, though, that I have to do from scratch.”
“Then let’s start with the outline. I can’t to wait to hear what you’ve come up with since we last talked.”
A few hours later they had polished the outline to a shine nobody would be able to resist. Quirion was more than impressed by Milo’s latest findings and didn’t hesitate to tell him so, which put that special gleam in Milo’s eyes Quirion loved seeing there. He just wanted to suggest a break when Milo’s cell chimed. He took one look at it, furrowed his brow, did some swiping and reading and sighed.
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s from Sammy. I’ve forgotten that today is video jury day.” Milo huffed and grinned at the same time. “How about it, do you want to watch fantasy short films from enthusiastic humans re-enacting what they think the Demon Wars were?”
“Are you serious?” Quirion couldn’t imagine a more torturous way to spend his late afternoon, aside, perhaps, from having to suffer through the Middle Ages again. And seeing how many errors were in print to this day. Or listening to his brothers bickering about absolutely insignificant things that they somehow managed to blow completely out of proportion. So, yeah, there might be a few things worse. Still, Milo couldn’t be serious, could he? The expression on his face said he was very serious, thank you very much. Not wanting to be the person to crush Milo’s spirits after their unpleasant run-in with his useless colleague a few hours before, Quirion steeled himself for the evening of torture he was about to endure. “I’m just kidding. I can’t wait to see what those humans have in store.”
Milo’s smile resembled the sun coming out after a thunderstorm. “Wonderful. Let’s shut everything down and then we can go to Sammy’s.”
Chapter Seven
Quirion looked less than ecstatic about the prospect of helping Barion and Jon with their video contest. Milo almost felt bad for pressuring the demon to come with him. Then again, he did think it good for Quirion to spend more time with his family and this was a wonderful chance. The book club would be there, too, which would add another element to the already interesting family dynamic the demons had going. Milo was the first to admit that his scientific mind delighted in the chaos every meeting of the book club promised. Being able to stir the pot even more was a chance he would never pass up. Plus, he really thought it was fun watching all those videos together and judging them.
After his lab showed a semblance of order—by his standards, at least—Quirion opened space and time and brought them directly to Sammy’s bookstore and into the midst of an already heated debate.
“I really think we shouldn’t encourage such an unrealistic portrayal of female anatomy in the videos. It’s not only sexist but also highly impractical.” Amelia, by the melodic way the vowels were intoned.
“I agree with Amelia. Meat sacks this big are only a hindrance, be they front or back.” That voice was new, but Milo thought it belonged to Allienna, the demoness who had become the leader of Barion and Jon’s acting troupe.
“Well, while that’s entirely true, we’d still have to ban more than two thirds of the videos sent to us. And itisfantasy, sowe might allow a little stretch of reality?” Barion sounded very careful, as was befitting when discussing such a touchy subject.
“And how will earthen males ever learn differently when we allow them to bend reality? I mean some of them argued a mermaid can’t be black because she lives deep down in the sea, but female fighters having breasts like high performance cows is absolutely fine?” Amelia didn’t sound as if she wanted to let the topic go easily.
“It’s not fine.” By the tone of it, Jon was trying to be the mediator. “It’s very wrong to impose one’s own racist views on an imaginary film character and portraying female warriors like porn stars is an error in judgment at the least and highly sexist to boot.”
“And it’s not true.” Amber. The shrill undertones in her voice always made Milo shudder. “Mermaids, I mean. They’re neither black nor white. Usually, they’re a shade of gray or green. Makes them blend in better with their surroundings. And they don’t have hair. That’s totally unnecessary in the sea.”
“You’re absolutely right, Amber.” Quirion stepped around the shelf of books toward the two couches in the middle of Sammy’s shop, where the whole gang was gathered around three laptops.
“Quirion, Milo, what a nice surprise!” Alerion beamed at them. He was sitting on a bean bag next to the turquoise couch, holding a mug with his favorite hot chocolate. Declan and Troy were sitting on the couch in front of one of the laptops, staring intently at what Milo assumed had to be one of the videos sent in by human fans of Barion and Jon’s video game. To start the PR campaign for their first film playing in the universe ofDemon Wars, they had thought it a good idea to make a raffle, giving out free tickets to the premiere and a training weekend with the demon cast to the best ten-minute video depicting a scene from the games. The jury consisted of Jon, Barion, the entire book club, Alerion, Milo and Quirion, and Allienna.
“Hello, Father.” Quirion nodded in the general direction of his sire before focusing back on Emilia and Amber. “What seems to be the problem here?”
Emilia huffed. “Most of these videos depict women like they are porn stars, even though Barion and Jon have given their best to create realistic female warriors for the game.”
“And nobody in the short videos for YouTube looks likethat.” Allienna pointed one of her claws at the screen. It wasn’t entirely clear if she was as outraged as Emilia. She seemed to be more annoyed, though it was hard to tell because this was a woman you didn’t mess with on a good day.
Milo eased around Quirion to take a look at the offending depiction. The film on the screen was paused, showing a woman in a thong-like piece of cloth, with boots reaching over her knees, a broad belt on which a scabbard hung, and something that might have had a chance to hold in a small apple but not the amount of meat attached to this person. Her hair was long and floaty not practical in battle at all. If Milo had had any interest in women, this overemphasizing of secondary sexual characteristics might have been alluring—or not. Most probably he would have been frightened. As it were, all he could see was a nightmare for her back.
Allienna tapped her claw against the screen. “I might be able to see it.”
Everybody stared at her with widened eyes.
