Chapter Text
Chapter 1 Breaking Up With Your Hot Succubus GF
Author's Note: So I may have had another silly and unhinged crackfic idea. Please let me know your thoughts!
Madoka watched as Sayaka snuck up behind the tin soldier who was dressed up almost like a nutcracker and punched her hard enough to knock the girl out. Sayaka waved her hand to get her regeneration super power going until the broken and bloody knuckles returned to smooth unblemished skin and then she waved for Madoka to come down.
Madoka leapt from her perch atop a stone statue of a leafy tentacle haired girl kneeling and praying atop something that looked to Madoka like the top half of the Statue of Liberty buried in the sandy floor. In an earlier room there had been a butterfly winged slug monster statue also with tentacles sitting in a rose garden, so Madoka had learned to stop questioning Homura's taste in statues even if there were a worrying amount of tentacles.
Well, Homura was almost definitely a succubus and maybe this was at least to succubi just a tasteful amount of tentacles? How many tentacles was too many? Sayaka would probably say any amount of tentacles not directly attached to sea creatures, but Madoka was trying to be understanding here.
As Madoka fell through the air she summoned her angel wings to her and spread her white wings wide to glide through the cavernous room down towards the big round safe like, round shield like gear lined door that the tin woman was guarding. Even just this small change to be closer to her angelic form caused hope to blossom in her heart, hope for a better future and a better way of doing things, and with it came the unbreakable will to do whatever it took to make that hope real. It felt like opening up to an infinite well of kindness and violence in equal measure.
"Thank the goddess that's the only one of those things out here." said Sayaka drying the blood from her knuckles off on her skirt. Neither Sayaka or Madoka knew which goddess Sayaka was referring to, but Sayaka said it felt natural to say that. It was probably tied to her being some kind of paladin, but neither of them was sure. "Wonder what she was guarding. Think it might be a way out?"
The two turned towards the big safe door. It, like much of the rest of this fortress, was monochrome clockwork. Madoka did not know why her succubus girlfriend lived in a big clockwork fortress, but she did.
The Succubus Queen, as Sayaka had taken to calling her, had been pursuing Madoka for the last few days. Well she had been pursuing Madoka in a different way even before that, ever since Maddoka had come back from California assuming her memories of America were even real.
When Madoka dreamed she saw demonic black feathered wings and raven black hair framing a pretty face with the most beautiful amethyst eyes. In Madoka's dreams the supernaturally gorgeous demon would rip her from the heavens and then rant about taking her for herself and how long she had been waiting for this moment and other things like that, and she would do all of this while wearing the most daring outfit Madoka had ever seen in Japan or The United States! Madoka just could not help her dream self's eyes traveling down to look at places that it was very much not polite for them to wander and in her dreams the demoness would smile and then stroke Madoka's cheek promising Madoka eternity together.
It was all very very sweet, but at the same time Madoka did have one or two concerns about the lack of consent involved in stealing a presumably angel from presumably heaven so that you can presumably date and/or marry her. Thinking about these concerns, they felt like even more of a problem when she felt her angelic essence flowing through her, that essence allowing her to imagine glimpses of countless better ways to have a happy and healthy relationship than the whole kidnapping magical creatures and presumably altering their memories thing. After all, Madoka remembered an entire life as a human and remembered none of her angel life in spite of now knowing for sure that she was some kind of angel or angelic being. She had the wings for it and everything and she was not the only one with an experience like hers. Once could be a random coincidence, but two is suspicious and three is a pattern!
Even if the situation with that dream Homura could be healthier she still enjoyed those dreams a lot and had been working up the courage to talk to the waking world's Homura about them, and about if Homura would maybe be comfortable possibly dressing up as the Homura in her dreams.
That was before she found out that the dreams were actually on some level real and possibly a memory or reimagining of her abduction, though she could not be 100% sure since in mythology succubi are often hot dream demons that can control a person's dreams so her dreams of Homura could just be metaphorical things Homura was actively giving her each night. Either way though, she had discovered that dream Homura was the same as waking world Homura and that was what was important.
In the waking world the succubus took the form of Madoka's classmate Homura Akemi and had been going with Madoka on countless amazing dates. It had started innocently enough with Homura inviting a then shy transfer student Madoka to a mall outing with all their friends. Madoka at the time was still adjusting to being back in the country and speaking the language and kept worrying about messing something up or even messing everything up. Trips to the mall either together or with friends had then escalated to going to cute little cafes where Homura ordered black cold brew coffee and Madoka a nice warm tea latte. It was often Madoka asking Homura out on any of these one on one excursions. Then they had gone to the movies together, Homura sadly got uncomfortable watching Magical Girl movies, but everything else was fine.
Madoka probably should have picked up on the red flag of Homura being bothered by movies about holy warrior women who use miracles to fight back against demons, but she was starting to fall in love at the time, so sue her for missing the sign that Homura was secretly a succubus demon queen!
Well there was no missing the signs when after an amazing night at Homura's apartment, which Madoka now knew to be a front for Homura's pocket dimension clockwork fortress, the two had been talking for hours and then… well… Madoka worked up the courage to finally kiss Homura.
The poor succubus had absolutely melted against Madoka. You would think she was a virgin even when it came to kissing! Imagine that, a virgin succubus, but the adorable blushing mess that called herself Homura Akemi was just that. Even plain boringly average Madoka had actually kissed more people than her super cool and super pretty succubus girlfriend since Madoka had also kissed her friend Ashley Taylor while in America.
Well after the kiss Homura was a cute blushing mess staring blankly at Madoka with two big beautiful wings and a very very risque outfit. Between the black feathered wings and outfit that was how they knew what kind of demon she was, well, that and the spicy dreams. Whatever succubus magic Homura had used to hide herself had stopped working when Homura's brain stopped revealing the very same hyper sexual or at least sensual dream demon that Madoka had been seeing in her dreams each night.
That was the beginning of the trouble. It was trouble that involved discovering that Madoka had angel wings and that she was not the only supernatural woman that Homura had kidnapped and memory wiped. It turned out Sayaka was a mermaid who could summon knight armor and swords and heal people and that Kyouko was a witch with illusion magic.
It was trouble that saw them fighting against Homura's demonic minions who were just as hot as someone would expect a succubus's minions to be even with their scary blue eyes and sharp teeth. Even Homura's tin soldiers were all unfairly attractive women. Also why did Homura own a fleet of airships and have flocks of birds spying for her? Was she paying for the airships or did they come as part of her demonic magical powers or was it a mix of both? Did Homura have a side business involving airships and that was why she was never worried about the cost of things during their dates?
At least fighting against the demonic armies of The Succubus Queen had resulted in Madoka learning to control her angelic powers and Sayaka learning about her mermaid paladin abilities. Sayaka had pointed out that a knight with healing powers must be a paladin since they were like that in D and anime.
This whole series of troubles and adventures had now ended with Madoka and Sayaka sneaking through Homura's dungeon basement. Normally when you think of a succubus's dungeon basement you think of whips and chains and black leather, not… gears, white spaces full of holographic projections of statistics and of diagrams of nonsensical demons, and gothic statues of those same demons. Some walls were covered in what looked like wanted posters with faces on them, sometimes showing demons, but the most common one on the walls showed a mostly normal looking cute white furred red eyed rat with a little gold crown. The text on each of the posters was written in some foul demonic language that Madoka was sure she could understand if she just tried. She did not want to try in case the demonic writing cursed her or something. After all her friend back in America Ashley Taylor had shown Madoka some horror movies much to Madoka's dismay, so Madoka was genre savvy enough to know what was and was not a good idea.
Also for some reason classical music was playing in the background from unseen speakers, what Sayaka had said was Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker. Madoka knew very little about classical music even with her being friends with Sayaka and Kyosuke. She only found one part of the music to even be familiar, a part Sayaka said was called The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy.
They had seen a lot of wanted posters for the demons that were depicted in the two statues now in front of them that were flanking the big round shield like, gear lined door. On the door's front was an image of an hourglass. On one side was a statue of an evil eyeless grinning demon lady with a fancy gown and two hennin, medieval lady cone hair things, looking almost like horns. On the other side was a spider demon with a humanoid torso and head and clawed hands. It had pigtails that vaguely resembled Madoka's own pigtails.
There was something about the spider demon that called to Madoka. She took a step towards it feeling something calling her. She felt so much power, the call of the cosmos itself! The path of salvation was before her… or had it been inside of her all along. It almost felt like something she was remembering now that she was seeing the demon as more than just a vague 2D image in a wanted poster.
She could feel herself sinking into the sort of memory.
SHE COULD SAVE EVERYONE! SHE WOULD SAVE EVERYONE!
"Madoka!" Sayaka's voice pulled Madoka from what she now felt was a trance like state. In her trance she had unknowingly approached and set her hand on the statue.
She looked back at Sayaka, "Huh?" but her voice sounded wrong. There was an echoing deeper darker resonance to it.
"Oh shit you're possessed." said Sayaka, backing away.
Why was Sayaka scared of her? She had to protect Sayaka from her fear! She should give her a big warm loving hug and hold her close until all of that fear went away.
Sayaka put her hands into a cross shape, "This is supposed to banish demons right?"
"Demons?" asked Madoka. OH! Was that what this weird resonance thing was? Madoka could still feel the power of salvation flowing through her, a powerful energy full of warmth and cuddles and mercy and infinite determination. Or was this power some kind of demonic energy?
Huh, did her shadow always have those weird spider like… Madoka looked from side to side and saw claws on her hands and spider limbs where her legs should be looking just like the spider lady statue's.
She saw her skin had turned bone white with black veins and her hair became a faded out shade of pink. Her school uniform had also turned into a pitch black dress with puffy sleeves and a wide and poofy skirt. "Huh."
Well, at least the outfit was kind of cute right? And she could still feel the wings on her back and the flow of hope and determination and imagining better things that came with her angelic side.
Madoka tried taking a step to the side and promptly fell over. She tried to stand up but her dozen or so spider legs just were not cooperating. She would make it part way up only for a mental instruction to move one leg to cause another two to move instead.
How was she supposed to save anyone if she was too weak to save herself from just falling over? She was so useless right now and could feel a building anger at herself.
"Okay, I guess you only look intimidating. Um, scary spider demon, could you please release my friend?" said Sayaka, now taking a tentative step towards Madoka.
"It's okay." said Madoka again with the scary reverb to her voice, "I think I am just channeling the demonic spirit from the statue." If she paid attention, she could feel the feelings and desires of what she thought to be this demon. It was almost like becoming aware of a part of herself that had been there all along, not too different from when she discovered her angel powers though obviously it was different since she had touched a weird statue and then turned into a demon girl. Hmmmmm… if it worked like her angel powers… "Here, let me try to stop channeling it."
Madoka turned her focus towards the feelings of salvation, warmth, and hugging flowing through her and then let them go. After a moment she felt her legs return to the correct number and shape and looking down her hands were back to normal. The anger at her own uselessness and weakness also went down to its usual normal background level that she had always had from living with a slight inferiority complex. And she knew it was a complex since she was actually a powerful angel in disguise as a human, so what did she really have to feel inferior about? She was not a weak, shy, and barely average little human girl! She was not!
"Well, you no longer have black veins and glowing red eyes." said Sayaka.
"And I can stand up again!" said Madoka, getting back to her feet, nice useful feet that she would stop taking for granted. She would have to spoil them later to show how much she appreciated them once they were out of this mess. "I wonder if I can selectively channel the demonic energy sort of like what I can do with my angel powers." Madoka focused on the for lack of a better word salvation energy and tried to make it only flow through her arm. Suddenly the veins of her arm turned black as the surrounding skin drained of color. Her nails elongated into black claws that dripped that freaky salvation energy which looked like technicolor darkness and unreality that quickly disappeared from existence after leaving her fingers. The urge to hug Sayaka, but probably also everyone around her as well had also returned, but she resisted the urge, at least for now. She knew Sayaka had her own urges she had to resist whenever her friend took on her true mermaid form.
"That's really cool, but I really think you should look into getting an exorcism, because hosting a demonic spirit can't be healthy."
"It worked out for Naruto." said Madoka.
"I'm pretty sure it also caused problems for him." said Sayaka.
Madoka thought about fighting her friend on this and arguing for how this was a better system and a hope for a better her and she also considered how maybe Sayaka just needed to be reassured with a big hug and Sayaka not being let go until she agreed, a big hug where she would be forced to let Madoka feed her and take care of her and protect and watch over her and maybe even devour her, but then it occurred to Madoka that maybe all of these ideas were actually the demon influencing her thoughts? Like she should probably get the demon at least looked at by a priest if nothing else, "We'll talk to Father Sakura after we get out of this place."
"Good. And no more touching weird statues! I don't care if you being an angel or anime protagonist gives you some special protection that lets you stay in control of yourself, we're not taking the risk of you getting the attention of even more demon girls!" said Sayaka. "Now let's get out of here." She summoned a sword to her hand and used it to pry open the big gear shield door with an hourglass symbol. The door resisted for a moment and then the gears that made up an elaborate hinge began to spin and the hourglass rotated 180 degrees, the carved grains of sand glowing purple and then slowly falling down as the door swung open forcing Sayaka and Madoka to both dive to the floor and out of the way.
Through the door they could see some random hospital room and through a window, they could see Mitakihara. Looks like they had found a way out of The Demon Queen's fortress! And maybe they could even bring hope and salvation to whoever was in that hospital room.
As the two caught their breath on the floor after dodging the swinging door they heard a voice they really did not want to hear right now. "Don't go in there!"
Madoka's gaze traveled up black ballet shoes with a kind of angular wing design, up to violet and lavender checkerboard stockings on long curvy legs framed by a black feather crowtail shaped floor length half skirt, and then to the absolute territory below a thin line of black feathers and up to a V split in the feathered dress showing belly…
"Madoka, stop ogling your succubus girlfriend and pay attention!" said Sayaka.
"Sorry, did you say something, Homura?" asked Madoka, her eyes moving up the rest of the way to Homura's now brightly blushing face.
"It's okay if you um…" stammered Homura looking off to the side, "I mean, you can look at me all you want if you just promise not to go in there. Yes. That." Madoka noticed that standing behind Homura were the white haired little girl and a few of Homura's other minions. There were Noroma and Manuke, which were very mean names for such sweet girls, there were a flock of black birds with funny hats led by a giant bird, and finally there were a half dozen tin soldiers, their spears at the ready.
In spite of some of them looking like they were preparing for a fight, Madoka just wanted to hug and reassure them all that she forgave them and wanted them to be happy with her for all eternity! Sadly Madoka also had to escape and fight for a better world and a better relationship dynamic. Drawing on her angelic side, she could feel the will to fight filling her up and giving her the resolve she needed to stand her ground no matter if the universe itself fought against her.
"What's in there?" asked Madoka, "It looks like some kind of hospital room."
"It's a lot more than just a hospital room. Seriously just please don't go in there. I'll do anything!"
Sayaka folded her arms, "I already have a girlfriend. Speaking of, what did you do to Kyouko? Also how'd you find us anyway? I thought you could only sense my transformation powers."
"I sensed Kriemhild Gretchen." said Homura gesturing towards Madoka's still transformed hand.
"So that's the name of the spider demon?" asked Madoka, "She has a really pretty name." and after hearing that name from Homura, Homura was looking even more huggable than usual right now! It was a good thing her angelic unbreakable willpower kept her in check.
"You think all the demons have pretty names." said Sayaka.
"But Homura's name is really pretty, though come to think of it, Homura your name kind of hinted at your demonic nature all along. I mean blaze and beautiful dawn kind of sound like the language used to describe the Morning Star right? And Sayaka once told me that Lucifer, like the Christian devil Lucifer, his name literally means light bringer, and can refer to the Morning Star."
Homura paused for a moment, "Huh, I wonder if the nuns thought of that when they named me Homura, oh, but isn't the Virgin Mary also called Morning Star?"
"Wait, nuns? But you're a succubus!" said Sayaka. Homura for some reason had a confused look on her face at the word succubus while Sayaka continued speaking. "Though I suppose that would explain why you're usually really shy and modest and why you like to dress really conservatively. Well, when you're not wearing what you are right now."
Homura cleared her throat, "Yes, this, my new transformation outfit is um… sort of me embracing my inherently sinful nature, a physical representation of me turning away from the divine order to create my own meaning and a reminder that that meaning is wrapped up in my um… my desire." Homura blushed then shook her head, "Why am I telling you this? You two are coming back with me this instant."
Sayaka got to her feet and activated her mermaid knight transformation, her white cape turning ocean blue and billowing like a wave in a phantom wind and a sword appearing in her hand. Her legs had turned into a long and beautiful white, blue, and purple fish tail that ended in rainbow scales and added a few inches to her overall height. She must have had some lamia in her too since she could slither about like a snake on that tail and actually move surprisingly fast for a person without legs. "Not until you explain what you did with my dear Kyouko." Madoka got to her feet as well and stood behind Sayaka.
"I just wiped her memories of the past few days and replaced them with happy memories. Trust me, it's better this way."
"It's not better." said Madoka, stepping forward and letting all of her rage for a better world fill her voice. "I love you Homura, but you have a problem."
Homura looked a mixture of pained and hopeful, "Is the problem my wretched and sinful nature that makes me unworthy of you?"
"No! It is the individual sins you commit." said Madoka, "You can't just kidnap magical creatures and alter their memories so that you can date them! Consent is important!"
"I wouldn't touch you like that without your consent!" said Homura looking horrified.
"And we appreciate that you're a nice succubus. It's part of what we love about you," said Sayaka, "but mind control is still evil." The L word tended to come out a lot more when Sayaka was in fishknight mode. So did a lot of allusions to good and evil, right and wrong, villains, heroes of justice and other things that sounded very paladin like.
"Even if the mind control is just in the form of manipulating our memories, it is still manufactured consent." said Madoka, "How can I be sure that what I feel towards you is all real, is all me?"
The poor succubus girl looked like she might start crying at those words. Madoka felt really bad seeing that expression and just wanted so badly to wipe the tears away with her claws and hold her close and tell her that she forgave her, that she would always forgive her, but she had to go on even if it hurt them both for her to say it, it was necessary for a better world "How can I be sure that you haven't erased memories of us having arguments or that all of our wonderful dates and experiences together were real?"
"They were real! I swear I haven't touched your memories since we started dating." said Homura and Madoka could see the truth in the poor demon girl's face. She just wanted to snuggle her until all of the pain left them both, to save them both.
"I believe you, but now you're wanting to wipe our memories all because we had one fight. That's not okay, and it is definitely not healthy for our relationship moving forward!"
"This is a bit bigger than just some argument. You've regained some of your divine power!" said Homura. Homura's demonic minions began nodding along like this was a good point while the white haired little girl minion would not meet their eyes.
"And you say that like it's a bad thing." said Sayaka, "Love involves trust. I love Madoka," she said, putting an arm around Madoka's waist and pulling her close. Madoka let out an eep noise and had to resist the temptation to wrap her clawed arm around Sayaka and pull the two even closer together. "Oops, sorry, fishknight brain making me extra touchy feely. Point is Homura you need to be willing to trust the people you love to return your affection without having to first trap us in human forms and change our memories. There's a right way to do things and this is not it."
"Wait us?" asked Homura. The white haired girl looked at Sayaka in alarm while the demonic minions Manuke and Noroma began whispering excitedly among themselves in that strange demonic language they spoke and that Madoka and Sayaka somehow were able to understand if they really focused on it. Sayaka figured it must be something like Infernal or Abyssal if the fantasy world they all came from ran on D logic. Ashley had introduced Madoka to D so she was able to follow along a little with what Sayaka would say on the topic.
"Yeah," continued Sayaka, "Us. Don't think I haven't caught on to you also messing with Kyouko and I's heads. It seems like you did to us what you did to angel wings here, and I can recognize a pattern when I see one. So yeah, if Kyouko's okay with it, I swear on my life I would totally be down to return your affection," the self proclaimed knight of love said releasing Madoka and now putting her free hand to her heart, "But only if you are willing to trust us first, give Madoka the freedom to return to Heaven, me the freedom to return to the sea, and Kyouko the freedom go back to wherever witches like her come from. Otherwise I can't see any relationship working out for us longterm."
"Wait, you think I… and with you and Kyouko?" The Succubus Queen looked stunned that Sayaka had figured out her scheme to form a harem of fantasy creatures like something out of an anime, as if Madoka and Sayaka were not genre savvy enough to figure out that fantasy stories usually involve harems or at least love triangles, and took a moment to collect herself, "It doesn't matter. I can't just let you all go or let you regain your full power and memories. I know what you would choose if you had all your memories and full power back."
"You don't know that Homura." said Madoka, "I believe my love isn't fake, isn't a product of altered memories or anything like that, but if you can't trust me to still be with you after getting back what you took, then I don't think we can make this relationship work." Madoka felt tears in her eyes and her new demonic spirit seemed to grow and feed on her despair even as it raged and screamed against the pain she was about to cause Homura, "I'm sorry Homura, but I have to break up with you."
Sayaka let out a gasp, her sword trembling in her hand and almost falling from her fingers. "You can't mean that!"
"I do." said Madoka, feeling her tears start to fall. She felt the dark energies of the demon spreading the demon wanting to stop Homura's pain, but pushed them down completely returning to her normal ordinary human self, ordinary other than still having her wings. Even with the partial transformation into her angelic self giving her strength and righteous anger, in that moment she felt very painfully human.
"Fine," said Homura and there were tears in her eyes as well, "I shouldn't be so selfish as to want to be with you. You'll be happier with someone else anyway."
"I don't want someone else. I want you, Homura." said Madoka, "but I also want you to trust me and not try to manipulate me into staying with you."
"I'm not doing this to make you love me. I'm trying to protect you." cried Homura, "I have to protect you."
"And will you protect me from yourself?" asked Madoka.
"I wouldn't touch you…"
"You tore me from heaven." said Madoka, "I see you in my dreams ripping away my divine powers." Homura flinched. "I get it, I'm an angel and you're a demon. The universe may not want us to be together, but I believe in hope and I hope that one day you can come to trust me and then we can be together, forever and ever for all eternity."
"You know I'm a monster." said Homura.
"From a certain point of view we're all monsters." said Sayaka wagging her fish tail, "but it's a choice to act like a monster."
"When you're ready to choose to do the right thing and simply trust me and not keep trying to mess with my or our other friends' memories then I would like to date again." said Madoka turning away and wiping at the glittering tears falling from her eyes.
"Wait, where are you going?" asked Homura, her already pale face paling further.
"Come on Sayaka." Madoka took Sayaka's free hand.
"Oh Hell, don't go in there. That's not the way out!" shouted Homura, "Stop them! After them!"
They heard running feet behind them, but Madoka just kept walking as the two stepped through the magic portal door into what they thought would be a hospital room.
* * * * * *
And then Madoka woke up in her bed in Mitakihara, her wings squished under her which she banished with a thought. It was always embarrassing when she woke up with her body parts having come out while she was asleep. What if her parents walked in? How would she explain all of what her life had become to them? How would she explain the changes in her relationship with Homura? Her parents liked her girlfriend, well ex girlfriend now.
That would take a lot of getting used to.
She rubbed her eyes. How did she end up in her bed?
"Oh crapping kittens, did Homura mess with my memories again?"
Her phone beeped beside her. She pulled it out and saw it was a text from Sayaka. It read, 'you remember breaking up with your succubus girlfriend right?'
Madoka texted back, 'Yep!'
'Good,' and then 'wanted to make sure' followed by 'so what do you think is going on?'
Madoka thought back to her memories of the last few days or at least what she thought were the last few days. All of the chaos from her kissing Homura onwards was still there. She called forth her angel wings and could feel her feathery wings hugged between her blankets and mattress. She held up her empty hand and channeled the demonic spirit of Kriemhild Gretchen into it. She got a sudden urge to build a blanket cocoon full of herself and all her stuffed animals, possibly followed by eating her toys in order of cutest first to make them one with her forever. She promptly banished the demonic energies before any more demonic thoughts could invade her mind.
"Well Gretchen is still here." she said aloud and texted Sayaka, 'angel and demon powers and the memories between the kiss and going through the portal door are still here, but nothing after'
'Still need to see Father Sakura about Kriemy' sent back Sayaka, followed by 'So why would Homura take our memories after leaving through the portal but not the rest?'
'Maybe it's her way of respecting our autonomy' texted Madoka, 'like she knows it would be really messed up to wipe away our memory of the fight with her so she left us with the memory of the break up and the memories relating to it'
'Makes sense' and then 'at least she is a succubus with morals' and then 'and she is now single as well…'
'HEY!' sent Madoka.
'I'm just teasing! :P' and then 'I can share' then 'assuming Kyouko is okay with sharing me' followed by 'I should ask her'.
Madoka waited for a moment and then got another message from Sayaka. 'Kyouko's number is missing', 'and I tried calling her' another text, 'got the number did not exist', 'something is wrong!'
Just what had Homura done to them that they could no longer remember?