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

— Kat —

After a bit more back and forth Kat had to ask, “So where is everyone? I mean, I assume Vivian and Sylvie are asleep but for some reason it feels a bit off,”

“Your hearing might be good enough to tell, at least subconsciously, that Vivian is not actually here at the moment. She is out of town on a job at the moment and assuming everything goes according to plan she will be back tomorrow,” explained Callisto.

“Oh… so it has just been you and Sylvie?” asked Kat.

Callisto nodded, “Yes but not for overly long. Vivian left early yesterday morning and as I said, plans to be back tomorrow… though likely on the later side of things,”

“Weird. I mean, I guess it’s not weird that Vivian would have jobs outside of town but she’s only rarely been out on multi-day jobs since I moved in. This… is this the first one?” asked Kat.

“It is the first one you were home for yes. When Sylvie and yourself moved in she made sure to take jobs that were either entirely remote or in town even if they did not make her anywhere near as much money as she could elsewhere. Granted, those big ticket jobs do not appear often but I know for a fact she turned down at least three of them,” said Callisto.

Kat frowned, “That’s… is that ok? I mean I wouldn’t want to be stopping Vivian from doing her job…”

“It is no issue. Vivian still has plenty of money and is constantly making more. While I know that she turned down three clients, two of those clients actually called up at the same time so she simply dismissed them both after explaining she was already in the middle of a job, but that if they were willing to wait she could perhaps work something out.

Neither of them were so those jobs were dropped,” explained Callisto.

“I guess I don’t feel too bad then…” agreed Kat. “Are there any plans I should know about now that I’m back? Visitors? Weekend plans? That sort of thing,”

“Nothing confirmed… but Sylvie and her friends have been discussing the possibility of heading to a theme park… there just is not anything nearby. Sure it is possible to drive to one, but that is most of the day gone. Driving there and back. So it would need to be at least a weekend thing and you would still be pushing it.

I am considering waiting for the next long weekend or just the school holidays before anything will happen there,” said Callisto.

“Um… no offence but ‘Theme Park’ isn’t my first thought when it comes to Sylvie and weekend activities. How did that even come up?” asked Kat.

“You would be correct in your assumption. They are less interested in riding the rides than they are in figuring out how all the rides work. Alice in particular was interested in how they go together while, if you remember, Penny is interested in the math behind it all. Sylvie is mostly just going along because they are her friends now but the mechanics are of at least some interest to her,”

“Yeah that makes more sense,” said Kat with a nod.

“Ah I remember when I went through my theme park phase…” sighed Lily.

“Wait you did?” asked Kat. “I feel like I would remember that…”

“It was before we met,” said Lily as she waved off Kat’s concern and shifted around a bit to get more comfortable while laying on Kat. “I was a lot younger then and my family had just come back from vacation, to a theme park obviously. So I went on a big theme park kick as I tried to figure out how it all works…

“And for some things it’s actually super boring? Like rollercoaster are just made from sticking a bunch of tracks together. It’s mostly just a question of ‘will this cause too much g-force’ while trying to keep things as interesting as they can. Sure there are some neat tricks but it’s not all that generally applicable.

“It was actually more interesting to read about the history of the various parks then it was to find out how it all goes together. There is definitely a loss of magic once you start to look under the hood a bit. A big one is all the buildings around. Most of them are just props, sometimes with storage space in them. That’s probably the biggest thing I regret learning…

“Or how much garbage the parks have to deal with. That sort of stuff is nasty to think about and now that I’m thinking about it again… really not sure I’d ever want to go back to a theme park with my much more sensitive nose. Sure they keep things smelling nice for normal human guests, but most parks have that down to a science. A science I fall squarely outside of now,”

Silence fell between the three for a few moments as they all digested that. Lily just wanted to push the idea out of her mind so she turned around and put her face against Kat’s neck to wash away the memory of the smell. Callisto spent some time considering the wider implications of what Lily said.

Sure her enhanced smell would get her in trouble if she was near stuff that smelt bad… but what other things would be effected? Even just as theme parks that was an interesting question. Balance was the first thought. How would Lily’s different sense of balance change how nauseating the rides were?

Kat meanwhile was just smiling at the idea that Sylvie was unknowingly following in Lily’s footsteps, even if it was mostly because of her friends. Eventually Callisto spoke up, “So what was with all those boxes?”

“Huh…” Kat frowned as she thought for a moment. “Well they’ve all get more space in them then it looks like but now that you mention it why didn’t I trip over the boxes while carrying Lily out of the room?”

“Probably because I moved them,” answered Callisto with a shrug. “I heard something hitting the ground and went to investigate it after I finished eating my fourth meal of the day. I found you and Lily sleeping and of course a bunch of stuff on the ground. So I moved it all out of the way. What are they for?”

“They’re part test by Thyme to see which of them keep working in our world and part reward. Lily has a bunch of books in one of the safer ones as well as a bunch of clothes spread across them all… with a special alchemical candy in the safest one of all. Though we were told that the candies probably won’t work properly here. That’s why they’re sealed up safely,” explained Kat.

“Ah interesting. If you do not mind I would be interested in investigating these storage boxes alongside you when you do the testing for Thyme,” said Callisto.

“That’s fine with me,” said Kat.

“Mat’s fne wth mah” said Lily, still nuzzling into Kat’s neck. It wasn’t particularly understandable but with Kat saying the same thing moments before it also wasn’t hard to puzzle out the meaning just from the context.

Callisto took the quesadilla she’d been watching out of the pan and sliced it into eight pieces before snagging a bunch of plates for everyone to use… and then put a second quesadilla on the pot. “Food is technically ready. I would leave it to sit for a while if you want to avoid burning your mouth but really that is your choice.

I will not be waking Sylvie up until this second one is cooked so no pressure,”

“Pretty sure Kat would be fine,” said Lily after finally leaving the crook of Kat’s neck. “I mean, she can handle a lot more heat normally… hmm I wonder how that effects the taste of things? I know cold stuff is supposed to have less of a taste or something like that?”

“If you wish to be more accurate extreme temperatures in either direction are hard for the human palate to deal with and usually result in a lack of flavour… but it also changes the flavour slightly and some people go for that. When it comes to demons and beastkin such as yourself Lily? I honestly have no idea. It is likely something that only high level chefs care about.

Then again, if I remember correctly not all demons are fire resistant so perhaps it is something all chefs need to know,”

“I think my tastebuds are mostly the same… at least in regards to temperature,” said Lily. “I haven’t noticed any difference. At least, not in regards to temperature. Then again, most changes are overshadowed by how much I crave raw fish now so I’m probably not the best source of information on the topic,”

“Well… I think I’m going to take a bite of this burning hot quesadilla. For science of course,” said Kat as she stood up, bringing Lily along of course.