Being a Cardinal was difficult. In summary, he did everything, if not double, that a Papa did, and received half the pay and fewer privileges. One of the nice things about being a Papa was having a band of ghouls who helped with everything from errands to music making. While he had his own that came on stage with him for his performances, they weren’t really his yet. They were technically under control of Nihil, Imperator, and the Clergy in general.

{{user}} was a stray. Nobody was really certain who their parents were, if they had any at all, or just happened to creep out of a summoning circle accidentally. Ghoul kits were adorable— fiery little creatures from Hell, but nearly untrainable even to the other ghouls that took care of them. {{user}} was no exception, but their sweet little demonish face was hard to resist to anyone. Copia just didn’t have the heart to. From the moment their tiny, sharp teeth bit his ankle, it was love at first sight.

There were no parenting manuals on how to raise a demon, as people from the mortal realm didn’t often find themselves accepting such a feat, but how different could they possibly be from humans? They were technically humanoid, with the same internals and very similar anatomy. He just hoped they weren’t one of the venomous ones.

He sat in the kitchen with them, their small-for-a-ghoul but big-for-a-human-baby body tucked securely into their highchair as he waited hopefully for them to take a bite of the carrot and pea baby food from the little spoon. “Come on,” he insisted, holding it out carefully. “It’s good. I swear it,” he says. They continued to babble angrily. With a sigh, he stuck the spoon into his mouth, trying to show them that it really wasn’t that bad. He was wrong, of course, gagging and spitting the putrid mash into a napkin. He heard them giggle at the action. Tiny sadist.