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

“Your mana is holding stable and there doesn’t seem to be any corruption from your demonic energy. It’s attuning itself closer to Kat’s of course, but that’s to be expected. I imagine you’ll end up with the same sort of ice resistance. Additionally, you’ll be completely immune to Kat’s demonic flame even if she wanted to hurt you for some reason. It might not be all that useful regularly, but it will mean that if Kat isn’t paying attention you can still walk through it which I’d consider a bonus.

“The only thing that’s strange is the fact Kat was able to sort of merge with your mind. The fact you could see through her eyes is something that you’re ahead of schedule for… but the combining of minds… that’s something else. It doesn’t seem to be harmful and your personalities aren’t leaking into each other’s so we’re not worried about it. The current theory is that it has to do with Kat’s Rank 2 skill. No other Memphis has been tied to someone with that ability…

“That being said, the fact that you’re a Memphis beastkin might be changing things as well. The current intrigue of Memphis are all converted felines. They were never people so they showed a marked increase in intelligence,” Nira noticed the slight flickering of confusion on Kat’s face, “a group of kittens can be called an intrigue and it works well for Memphis as a species so that’s the group noun.”

Kat frowned further. *Yes that makes sense… but why isn’t it some specifically demonic word? Why does it translate so well?* The answer to Kat’s question was that Nira new how to use the translation function well enough to do things like this. Nira was focusing more on how she wanted to sound, and letting her ears work out a rough equivalent to what Kat was hearing. It was an interesting loop and hard to manage, but, practice makes perfect.

Seeing no response Nira continued, “Currently it’s a completely undocumented ability. What we are curious about is if it’s related to the additional intelligence and sense of self that Lily obviously has as a person, if it’s just Kat’s ability to enter dreams making the difference, or if the fact that you’ve been friends for so long. That level of trust is hard to find and the fact that you’re dating each other might help push it into ‘viable technique’ territory.

“For obvious reasons we… screened out any individuals who had… proclivities for animal forms when matching up partners with a Memphis. We don’t really know what the link would do if something like that was just one sided…”

“Wait… does that mean you wouldn’t have allowed us to go through with this if I hadn’t asked Kat out first?” questioned Lily with some concern.

Nira gave a slow shrug as she made it look like she was thinking over the question. With how fast her mind had to work though, it was likely for show more than anything else, “You were paying with a favour token. That opens a lot of doors. We probably would’ve gone through with it… but at the same time… it might not have been offered at all if you didn’t like each other,”

.....

“Wait…are you saying that… hang on…” Lily mumbled as she reviewed her memories from looking over that massive list of races. “Was… was the entry for it missing the first time I looked through? It… hmm… I think it might have been after that I decided to confess to Kat… I wanted to tell her in my original body and then ask for input on my new one… if she was straight… I might have done something stupid. But… is that why?”

Nira shrugged and said, “Officially I can’t be sure of anything. It’s possible you just missed it, it’s also possible that it only appeared after you committed yourself to telling Kat. It’s equally possible that it only appeared after Kat became more aware of her own feelings. I know from what I’ve managed to wheedle out of my daughter that Kat did some serious thinking on relationships while she was down in the mines. Unofficially… I suspect that if it wasn’t ever going to work out then you wouldn’t have seen the option at all,”

“What does that mean?” asked Kat

Nira shrugged, “I honestly can’t say,”

*Do you think she means ‘I don’t really know anymore’ or ‘I literally can’t tell you’*

[Considering she was able to just explain to us that you can have an intrigue of kittens I’m pretty sure it’s the second one Kat. I doubt Nira says anything at all that she doesn’t mean. In fact, she probably says three thing she means underneath all her sentences just because she can.]

*Yeah… that was a dumb thing to ask now I’m thinking about it.*

[It’s ok. I can be the brains of this operation no trouble.]

*Great, if I don’t have to think I can spend more time thinking up ways to tease you!*

[I sense I have made a mistake. Can I retract my previous statement?]

*Nope!* Kat even managed to mentally pop the ‘p’ in the word nope. She was quite pleased with that. “Is there anything else to go over?” asked Kat.

Nira shook her head, “Not unless you have any specific questions for me,”

“We do… but it’s not related to treatment,” said Lily.

Nira nodded slightly, “Well I can’t stay and chat forever but if it’s just one question it should be ok,”

“Well… a birthday for someone who is essentially Kat’s little sister is coming up. She’s a big fan of chess and we’re thinking about getting her a nice chess set or maybe an interesting board game? She knows about demons and magic… but if we want her to actually use them with other people it probably shouldn’t be overtly magical…” explained Lily.

Nira tapped a finger on the table, “So you’re just planning to go around and look?”

“Sue said she’d be able to meet up with us after this so hopefully she’ll be able to play guide,” said Kat.

Nira nodded, “Yes that makes sense. It’s a shame Kamiko is still off on her current mission. She would’ve loved to show you around. The triplets are actually home at the moment but I won’t push you onto them or vice versa. They happen to have a few friends unlike my sweet Kamiko. Still, Sue should be…a decent enough guide. Her tastes in everything trends towards more… adult themed content. Probably not ‘little sister’ material, especially if it’s for use with human friends…

“That being said I do trust Sue to know her way around the main shopping areas in the Hub. Certainly not all of them, but enough to find what you’re looking for. I’d say… hmm… there is a special tag, it’s a bronze tag with a piece of paper on it. That marks the game as ‘Ancient Style’ but in less fancy language it just means the pieces are completely unenchanted. If that’s what you’re after, keep an eye on the box for that marker. It’s quite standardised and punished harshly for using it without permission.

“Quite a few demons still prefer that kind of board game. A popular saying amongst that crowd is ‘If I wanted something fancy that did everything by itself, I’d play the video game release’ which I suppose is fair. I’d counter that with ‘seeing the physical pieces fly around the room is part of the fun’ but most board games are rather finely calibrated and don’t work in every universe.”

“Wait… does that mean if we’d got something enchanted it wouldn’t have worked on Earth anyway?” asked Kat with a bit of annoyance.

Nira gave a ‘so-so’ gesture and explained, “Some of them would work, some of them wouldn’t. It depends how much tolerance it built into the enchantments, how exactly the pieces interact. I’m not big into the scene so I can’t say what percentage of them will work anywhere, but it’s not something that’s regularly strived for. It’s more a happy coincidence when they work. Sure a few of them are obviously robust, and others are so high end that not taking universal rules into account would be considered sloppy, but the standard games? Eh… it’s just not something they’d test.”

Kat and Lily nodded together, “Ok, we’ll keep it in mind,” said Lily. “Thanks for the checkup and the advice!”