Within the dark confines of the living House, an abode breathing pure magic in to the deepest darkest pits of existence, Klarion, Lord of Chaos, passed around mugs of hot chocolate.

Zatanna inhaled the warm scent of coco, "Mmmh that's lovely."

Shaking his head, John Constantine buried his hands in his pockets, "Nah, can't beat a cuppa if you ask me."

Lady Shiva  accepted a mug, perched within the group and constantly glancing between them. This was not a crowd she'd thought to find herself among; and yet, here she was. The assassin stared dubiously at the drink. If the 'cuppa' that the Englishman had mentioned meant 'tea', then she was inclined to agree with him.

Engulfed in the black magic of the WitchBoy, a cup floated in front of the Scouser's nose.

"So you don't want one then?" He nudged. "Come on... it's infused with elvish vanillaaa..." he dragged out the last word until the man caved in.

Constantine plucked it out of the air begrudgingly. He sipped with ill-disguised delight.

Now that they were all equipped with gently steaming mugs (courtesy of Klarion's recently acquired dedication to the art of hot-chocolate making, supported by YouTube tutorials), the discussion could begin. Raven was the instigator of this meeting.

"As you know, we" she gestured to herself and Damian, "are working on the poisonings case for uncle Lucifer."

"Bloody snake." Constantine mumbled.

Damian nodded to the blond, "Yes quite."

Raven rolled her eyes and continued, "We've gotten as far as our knowledge can take us. But a little experience would be appreciated for two matters."

With a pointed look, Raven indicated to Klarion and Damian that they were going first. The WitchBoy glanced at Damian; he didn't fancy speaking. Klarion might have been a creature of Chaos, but that didn't mean that he neglected other dark spirits (particularly the sin of sloth). Sighing, Damian set his mug down on a conveniently placed coffee table (he could have sworn it hadn't been there before...).

"Klarion and I identified the poison on the victims-"

"So it was the same for all of them?" Zatanna interjected.

She ducked her head apologetically at a glare from Damian, clamping down on her lips and pretending to zip them shut. The magician threw away the imaginary key, indicating to Damian to continue.

"Several bodies were analysed to corroborate, and the symptoms were a confirmed match with all living victims." He said. "So yes, multiple attacks of the same poisoning agent. It is the specific poison that is troubling-"

"Especially for creatures like yours truly." Klarion noted, hand laid on chest.

"Oh?" Constantine raised an eyebrow.

'Creatures like Klarion' no doubt meant the darker kind of magical being, perhaps demonkind, or ancient spirits, because anything to be lumped in to the same category as Klarion was serious business. Constantine gripped his mug tightly in rapture- he'd been getting quite bored of late and welcomed a distraction.

Damian said, "As simply put as possible, it's ultra holy-water."

There was a collective hiss in the room. Even Orchid, the inexpressive, still embodiment of the House seemed to recoil. All but Shiva appeared shaken.

"You don't mean..." Zatanna dared not finish.

"Angel venom." Raven said, shuddering.

For all her connections to the Demon Head, Lady Shiva's world had formerly been estranged to such ideas of magic. Ra's Al Ghul's dealings had been considerably less biblical than what the magical beings in the room spoke of. Shiva watched Damian, the heir to the demon -a significantly different kind of demon than the tempter that wound himself around the forbidden tree of Eden-  and remarked his ease in present company. He looked so much like his father, she thought, but Talia's flame still burned behind his eyes. Perhaps he found comfort in the air charged with magic; it hummed within the walls of the House of Mystery. Shiva had opened a door only a few minutes prior, in search of a kitchen, and had fallen upon a void of devouring blackness (she had never closed a door so quickly in her life). There was something, all the same, in the words 'angel venom' that chilled her blood. That was not good news to the assassin- Shiva was a master of her sentiments. This fear was innate.

Attuned more than ever to the auras of others, in the House, Raven resolved Lady Shiva's ignorance.

"Angels and devils are of the same stock." She explained. "The fall blackened the wings of the fallen, but their make is the same. The powers they wield are of no difference."

"And they're bloody strong, scary bastards, those angels," Constantine added. "While your devils and dark creatures will fang someone, angels are much trickier. Don't get their hands dirty, you see." He spoke with a tangible bitterness. "Nah, they keep their poisons in their tears. Scarcely shed a drop though." He added, "Angels are callous like that."

Shiva frowned, "How then, would one come across angel tears- this venom that you speak of? I would think that it is a rare substance."

Damian answered, "That's precisely the point. 'Scarce' is a word that doesn't do the poison justice. When combined with the second of our matters, the connection between the victims, it becomes apparent that this is a grave threat."

"We need to find who is doing these." Raven concluded.

An uncharacteristically quiet member of the group- whose physical state revoked him of the right to drink hot chocolate with the rest of them- spoke up, voicing the question before anyone else.

"So what's the connection here?" Deadman asked.

Shiva's sight had been touched by Zatanna's powers;  the translucent man was visible to her. For all her steel, it was unnerving sitting besides a man through whom she could see. The last few days had presented lots of first-times to the assassin.

Raven sighed crossing her arms. The mug floated in front of her.

"From the victims that I've spoken to, and reviewing the list of total victims, it's apparent that the attacks have been indiscriminate of species, gender, dark or light magical alignment, political persuasion...the connecting factor, for all cases, is sexuality. All the victims are- or were- openly queer."

The room was still. The information had been chilling.

Zatanna broke the quiet, defeat echoing in her voice, "I...That... well it's a shock." She pulled her hair back from her face. "In the human world, sure that kind of thing happens but in the magical world..."

A puff of smoke clouded Constantine's head. He produced another one, dragging from a cigarette (the man hadn't realised that he'd even taken one out). Orchid glared at him, on behalf of the House, but he puffed away agitatedly all the same.

"It's practically unheard of." He said. "And we've had massacres for all sorts of reasons, our lot. But if this attacker has a big enough supply of angel venom to target that many people already, then we can only expect them to attack again. I mean, queer people don't just go away, do you know what I mean?"

He looked around the room, then considered himself. How many of the people that he cared about were at risk now, himself included? Angel venom was not a poison that any being could stop once it was in the bloodstream, and the severity increased with the stains on a soul.

"So this assailant," Shiva removed the group from their pensive quiet, inclining always towards pragmatism, "uses a poison from angels to attack homosexual individuals...we might then conclude this attacker to be functioning as a moral agent, punishing their victims. The specific poison, and the given victims would suggest some form of religious persecution- the punishing of sin, perhaps." She reconsidered. "While we could conclude this to be a singular fanatic..."

Zatanna sighed, finishing, "Cults can't be ruled out."

What could be done then, to solve the case? The group sat in pensive silence. They had magic at their disposal. And investigative skills. And the weight of the consequences for not catching the attacker soon enough; not only were the victims and potential further victims (many of those in the room included) haunting the room, but the demonic threat too. The securing of the scrolls, in the grasp of one Lucifer Morningstar, was contingent upon the solving of this case.

"So... ideas folks?" Deadman shrugged. "Or have ya taken up half my evening-"

"Fifteen minutes- half an hour max." Raven rolled her eyes.

"- half my evening," the ghost continued, "to tell me that we've got another sicko to add to the millions of other sickos roaming about?"

Damian placed his empty mug on the floor and folded his arms. The set of his face (drawn eyebrows and pursed lips) was an expression that Raven recognised immediately. He had a plan.

The man turned to Constantine and Zatanna, "Using your magic, you are able to see a person's memories. Correct?" They nodded- grasping his intent a moment later.

"Ahhhh, so if we look through the victim's memories..." Constantine's eyes lit up.

Zatanna continued, "We should be able to see our perpetrator- or perpetrators. And we can work with the dead and living alike so..."

"I'll take the dead, you take the living?" Constantine said. "Unless you'd rather handle the morgue-stench?"

Zatanna certainly would not. That had been sorted between them.

"Then there is the matter of the venom." Damian said. "We require blackmarket knowledge for a substance like that. Recent transactions, increase in supply, question sellers who've previously stocked the venom..."

Deadman chuckled, "Blackmarket eh? Ya got not problem there buddy."

Klarion raised his mug in a salute to that sentiment, "You need the blackmarket? Baby we are the blackmarket."

At a suspicious glare from Zatanna, the WitchBoy sheepishly, dubiously redacted that statement.

Damian checked another box off of the list. He turned to Raven.

"Let me guess," she jumped ahead of him, "I'm liaising with our dear Lucifer to ask what the fuck he's playing at...and trying to squeeze some information out of him?"

The man shrugged. That worked just fine. She grinned at him, pleased to be making some kind of progress. His insides had immediately melted to lovesick goop, but as ever, the man maintained a firm exterior. Unfortunately, the charming demon had entirely thrown him off course. Damian grappled hopelessly for his last train of thought.

"What about the cult option?"

Saved by the assassin! Shiva's question steered him back on track. It hadn't escaped his notice how the master swordswoman had been sat, drawn in to herself, uneasy, sandwiched between a dead man (conveniently dubbed Deadman) and a smoking scouser. Shiva was formidable. It pained Damian, with the same ache that often struck for homesickness, to see her so isolated, almost vulnerable.

"America is rampant with cults. I also know it to be rampant with magic. There is a common crossover between the two, specifically concentrated in Las Vegas, where Lucifer's establishments sit, the sites of the poisonings, and (to little surprise) Gotham city." He spoke with the same reverence to the woman that Raven had grown accustomed to (one that she, perhaps in imitation, perhaps in awe, applied too), "If it suits you, investigating and monitoring cults in the region is a task best suited to our skills."

Zatanna nudged the man, "Heir to the world's Greatest Detective hm?"

Lady Shiva raised her eyebrows, "So-called world's greatest. Such intellect yet he cannot find teabags in his own cupboards."

The magician chuckled, "You've been gossiping with Alfred, I take it?"

The assassin made no comment, but glanced coyly out of the corner of her eye at Zatanna. Damian's bones chilled at the thought of the combined forces of Shiva and Pennyworth, yet there was a comfort to the thought of them sitting together, over cups of tea.

Catlike, Klarion stretched his arms, yawning dramatically, revealing teeth framed by tiny fangs and the roof of his mouth black (indeed, just like a cat).

He rubbed his eyes, "I'm an old school narcissist. When the conversation isn't about me, or directly involving me, I leave. I take it we're done with this little...seance?" He looked around the room (conveniently provided by the House of Mystery, and littered with an interesting array of deeply stained souls) and was met with a series of shrugs.

"In that case, I'm off to wrangle with some boggy trolls." Constantine said, standing up. "Nice catching up."

He opened a golden vortex in the centre of the room and set one foot towards the portal- only to be yanked back by Zatanna.

"You're not going anywhere mister." She scowled. "You've been wondering about for how many days! We need a catch up." Her frustration softened.

The others dissolved their meeting circle, breaking in to more trivial chatter.

Constantine's face morphed with realisation and he raised an eyebrow, "Oh...and by catch up you mean..." he winked.

Raven mimed vomiting and Damian laughed.

"Ugh gross." Klarion shuddered. "I'm far from a prude- sex is great...but not old people sexy talk. Yuck."

Zatanna narrowed her eyes at him, tapping her foot, "Klarion, you're what, five thousand years older than us? What do you mean 'old people'?"

While their bickered continued on (Klarion justified his remarks using the contrasting phrases 'eternal, elegant spirit' and 'crusty humans', sparking further conflict) Lady Shiva tentatively engaged Deadman in conversation. He was loud (surprising, once again, for a ghost) and very...to be kind, she used the word 'American'. Remarking thus, she produced a guffaw from Deadman. That was a win in her socialising streak.

Damian glanced at Raven.

"We keep odd company." He said.

She looked over the group, "Yeah, that's fair." Then smirked and nudged him, "Just wait until you meet Etrigan."

A.N:

Hiya guys! Sorry that it's taken so long to get this chapter out. I had to dedicate my life to finishing my entry for this year's Damirae Zine. Keep an eye out because it should be out in a few months! The money for it goes to a charitable cause. I don't have any links because I'm very disorganised 😭 but if you snoop about on Damirae social media pages I'm sure you'll find info.

In any case, once it's eventually out, I'll link it in my Author's Notes- but that'll be in a while yet (I think).

Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if it was a bit boring- I'm a bit brain dead atm folks lol. Welp! Thanks for reading :)

-Bats