D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Once Lily finished explaining the intricacies, or rather, the lack of, when it came to food for her Memphis form, Kat brought up her impending departure. Sylvie wasn’t the most pleased with the news, but limited her ’complaints’ to a bit of pouting. It did still hit rather hard, something Kat and Lily were in agreement with, but there was nothing to be done. So Kat helped clean up, gave Sylvie a big hug and then waited to get called…

Then waited some more…

And yet still more…

Sylvie, at this point asked, ”Are you sure Kat? It’s nearly lunchtime and nothing has happened… I’m happy to sit here, your hugs are still the best, but I mean… yeah…”

Kat checked and found she could indeed still feel the little niggling in the back of her mind… but Sylvie was right nothing was happening and the feeling hadn’t really changed in the past few hours. ”Let me just ask…” mumbled Kat. *Hey D.E.M.O.N.S what’s going on here?*

User Kat is reacting partially to one of User Kat’s beacons. An Entity is holding the Beacon with intent to Summon User Kat however they have not yet started the process. 

*Hmm… guess it has to be the tournament guys. Nixilei, Green, Gareth and Kress. Or well, I’d guess it’s them. Minor would have either messages me if it wasn’t serious or just summoned me if it was. I wonder… system, what counts as holding?*

’Holding’ in this instance means that the Entity in question is currently holding the Beacon, or the Beacon is in a bag or pocket the Entity is holding. 

*Hmm… so they might be carrying it around in a pocket or something with the intent to summon me later in the day… I see…*

[Feels kind of rude honestly. Almost like ringing the phone constantly but hanging up when you get to the phone.]

*It’s not that bad, I can just… sort of tell. It isn’t too annoying.* 

Lily didn’t make another comment, simply prompting Kat to explain to Sylvie what was going on, which Kat happily relayed. Sylvie got a thoughtful look on her face for a few moments before shrugging and resettling herself into Kat’s hug. Callisto actually took orders for lunch, something Lily ended up declining this time. She could now feel that eating more was a bad idea. It wasn’t the same as feeling full, but she knew nonetheless that it wouldn’t be the best idea.

A good thing too, because right as Sylvie hopped up to eat the tell-tale symbol they all recognised at this point shone to life around Kat. Kat put Lily on the top of her head as she dashed over to everyone and gave them each a hug. ”By guys!” said Kat for both herself and Lily as she waved and activated the Summon.

The familiar fire came into view and the pair enjoyed the scenery. Lily also took note of the fact that despite being on Kat’s head, she didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. The transportation felt smooth and seemed to be able to keep them together without any issue. Something Lily wasn’t really worried about before, but after the flash of fire, it did jump into her mind.

Once the fire burnt down Kar found herself in the back of a small room that looked to have been used for storage at one point based on the dust marks in the shape of boxes and the single light in the ceiling. In front of her stood Nixilei, Green, and Gareth. Kress was notably missing from the group and Kat wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about that. She knew they were all close but he’d never been anything more than ’accepting’ of her… and that was a stretch in all honestly. Only the fact that they so consistently won in the first round likely helped stave off an outburst before the end of the tournament. Which, Kat knew, was in no small part due to her own efforts, though Green did help quite a bit as well.

Green was dressed in more casual clothes this time around. She had a green sundress on that matched her hair, something that had been grown out slightly from before. She still wore knee high leather boots that had seen better days but Kat knew Green was quite comfortable in them. She was currently bouncing around behind Gareth with her arms around his left, smiling at her appearance.

Gareth took this as stoically as possible but had a grin on his face as well. He had thick leather boots like you’d find on heavy duty workers. He had a loose tunic on that showed off his muscles well. Perhaps sadly for him, the only person who really seemed to appreciate them was Green. His pants were a thick cloth but only went to just past the knees.

Finally, there was Nixilei. She was wearing black leather monk strap ankle boots that were slightly covered by the long pants she had on. They were completely black, and didn’t quite look like leather, but were certainly not cloth either. Perhaps the fantasy equivalent of jeans? Kat didn’t know, and neither did Lily. Her shirt was also long, coming all the way up to her wrists and cut in a light grey. Her glasses remained unchanged.

”Nice to see you again Kat,” said Nixilei calmly.

”Yeah! It’s great to have you back. I’m ready for the next round of the tournament! I’m so excited and it’s great we got you again for this round. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen,” cheered Green. Kat was honest enough to admit the attitude was a little surprising. Sure, she was bubbly a good deal of the time, but sleeping seemed to be her default state.

Gareth just gave a polite nod in greeting. [Huh… is this what normally happens when you get summoned?]

*Not really. I know these guys, so it’s a bit different. Plus I don’t see a circle for me so I can just walk out if I want to. I mean, from what I know it isn’t overly hard to just walk out normally. It does defend them a while though. Anyway, point is I don’t have much to compare this to. I asked Minor to call me last time, and the time before that she was dying so… guess we’ll have to see?*

”Happy to be here. Um… if you don’t mind my asking… where is Kress?” asked Kat.

Nixilei’s smile pulled into a thin line. She was about to answer, but Green butted in with, ”He’s off being all broody. He tried for like the last week to convince us not to summon you again. Talked about how we could manage by ourselves even down a member. Which is just silly because he agreed to summon a demon the first time. No idea why it’s a problem now, especially when the demon in question is a nice as you!”

”Personally, I suspect he wanted the chance to enslave a demon in a harsh Contract without really considering the fact that Gareth would be the one discussing it, and he’s a total softy. It was never going to be anything particularly restrictive. The only alternative answer is that he was hoping to see a specific demon and get a bit of revenge. Not that he knows what that demon looks like, or what its name is. I also wonder, after meeting you, if it was a demon at all. Still, he is nothing if not stubborn,” said Nixilei.

Gareth looked a little sheepish at the girls’ description of his friend but knew they weren’t inaccurate with their words. Kress hadn’t been a particularly good team player during the previous round… nor was he kind in his words after Kat had left, something nobody really wanted to delve into.

It was at this point that Green noticed something ’different’ about Kat. Specifically the fact she had a cat on her head. ”Hey Kat, who’s that cutie on her head? Did you pick up a pet recently? Or a familiar?”

Kat’s mouth flattened into a line. *Lily… how the heck do I explain what exactly you are? With you trapped in Memphis form it’s a little weird to be like, ’hey yeah, that’s my girlfriend Lily. Just ignore the fact she’s a cat at the moment, we’re working on it’. I mean… yeah… no idea what to do here. If you could transform things would make a lot more sense. That and the fact you can only talk to me…*

[Yeah I can see the problem. I don’t know Kat… I really don’t know. I don’t want them to think I’m just a pet… but I didn’t consider how awkward it would be talking about me to people who didn’t know I was human at one point. You can just be like ’oh, this is Lily she’s a cat now’ because they’ll just look at you like you’re crazy… hmm… maybe just skip the girlfriend part?]

Kat bit the inside of her lip, the idea had merit but she could feel that Lily didn’t really LIKE it. It was a suggest meant to make things easier for her, and didn’t take Lily’s feelings properly into account.. Kat sighed.