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



Bargaining

Gareth POV chapter

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"Ok, while Thyme's working out whatever they think is a fair way to do this… sell me on it Gareth. What can you offer me as an incentive here?" asked Blue. "I'm not asking for money, or future points… nothing that tough. I'm not going to bleed you dry just for me to have a proper attempt at this… but what will you offer?" 

"I'll have sex with you," said Marigold before Gareth even had a chance to think what he might offer. 

Blue used a bit of her mana to shoot a ball of salt water at Marigold's face. Marigold, being the crazed masochist that she was, opened her eyes as wide as possible to get the salt in. "Ooh yeah! Already starting with the foreplay I see. I'm loving it! The fact I don't really have the mana to heal it properly just means I get to experience the burn longer!" said Marigold with a manic grin. 

"No! Buzz off! Your offer isn't worth anything because I'm nearly certain you'd sleep with me anyway," retorted Blue. Who paused, and then went bright red. "Not that I want you to sleep with me. That's what I meant. It's worth nothing because I'm not interested in sleeping with you at all," 

"I think the lady doth protest too much," said Marigold with her best attempt at serene look. It was made somewhat more difficult by her constantly twitching eyelids. Letting them get hit by salt water was not a great idea. Especially since it'd just come from slightly compacted ground and probably had dirt along with it. Marigold was lucky she had regeneration as an affinity. Or perhaps she wouldn't have been so bad without it?

And while this was happening, Gareth was using the time Marigold provided to figure out what to offer. *So… food is off the table. Not only does my land not provide anything particularly notable in that area I can't cook all that well and certainly not better then Thyme. Jewellery… would probably send the wrong message and she did say she wasn't after money. What skills do I have?

Hmm… Green regularly uses me as a pillow but that's probably not something Blue would WANT. Hmm… what else… I don't think she'd need training to use a shield… or move in heavy armour. I suppose she might like to know how to care for that sort of equipment? No that's silly. Hmm… hmm… well actually...?

I wonder how good I am at massages? Green will beg for them occasionally, and even if I know she hasn't really hurt her back sleeping in all those odd positions, she does still seem to enjoy the sessions… but is that because I'm GOOD at massages or is because I'm her boyfriend and she likes the feeling of my hands? Because those are two very different things that would, once again, send very different messages. 

Actually would Green get mad at me for offering to give Blue a massage? It's not exactly sexual… but it's also not like I've made the offer to anyone other than Green and my mother that one time… hmm…*

Blue growled, "Not everyone is willing to drop their pants on the first date," 

"Honey, you insult me, I'm not wearing any pants," said Marigold with a salacious grin. The effect was enhanced now that her eyes were healed up. Well, that and the fact she turned her ass to Blue and pulled back the sarong to show her swimwear riding up. Carl, not wanting to get in the middle of this started walking off to the opposite side of the course that Gareth was on. 

"You know what I meant!" hissed Blue. "It was a saying dammit. Just because you feel the need to show off doesn't mean you're an idiot. Don't disrespect MY intelligence by insinuating I haven't noticed." Of course, Marigold obviously wasn't doing that, but Blue was a tad distracted by Marigold's backside. So her poor comeback could be forgiven. 

Marigold nodded slowly, "Well, if we're here to respect your intelligence then I'll instead talk about just how wonderful this night I'm offering you could be. See, we'll start off slow with some candle wax…" 

While Marigold was describing horribly lewd things. Gareth was still debating the merits of his offer. Then he realised that nothing was stopping him just asking Green. So he slid off the chair while nobody was paying attention. Thyme watched Gareth go. Carl gave him a nod of understanding and Burgandy glared in his direction. So nobody was paying attention when he whispered to Green. "I'm thinking the best thing to offer might be a message? Are you ok with that?" 

Green nodded and said, "That's fine with me. Heck, I don't mind helping out! I've been practicing my massages to try and return the favour one day but I don't know if I'm any good yet. Blue would be an excellent first test subject. I can probably convince Nixilei and Kress to test it out later if I'm any good," 

Nixilei just pinched her nose while shaking her head. She wasn't going to get involved with that just yet. Kress was making plans for the secret contest later today. He was convinced he had the right idea regarding what it was, and he felt like he needed a real showstopper for it. Lily was sleeping and Kat was playing around with her demonic fire. It made the other teams keep their distance. 

Gareth nodded before turning around so Green couldn't see his slightly unsure expression. Not that he didn't trust Green… but how exactly had she been practicing? *I've not seen her try to massage the servants… or Nixilei I don't think… and she's almost always with me. I'm almost certain she's lying about having practice… maybe she thinks I wouldn't let her help if she said she was trying this for the first time?*

Gareth walked back, tuning out Marigold's illicit ramblings as she did so, "… and if things go well up to that point I can start with the bringing out the duller knives…" yeah Gareth knew that he didn't want to pay ANY more attention to that then he already had so he walked past until he was standing next to Blue. 

"Hey Blue, would you try to win for a massage?" asked Gareth. 

"YES!" shouted Blue instantly. Then she looked over at Gareth and tried to work out what she'd just agreed to as payment. Marigold HAD stopped talking though. So even as Blue failed to puzzle out what exactly she'd agree to, she couldn't exactly bring herself to care. At this point, she just wanted to beat the smug out of Marigold. Not that it was likely to haven any negative effect on the elf, but it would make Blue feel better at least. 

"Thyme. I'd like that regen potion please," said Blue firmly. 

Thyme nodded and tossed one over to Blue which she caught. Thyme then tossed one over to Marigold before looking at Burgandy who just shrugged. Thyme nodded and put the third one back into hammerspace. "Carl who did you want to serve?" asked Thyme. 

"Um… Blue and Gareth I guess? Not sure Marigold's team deserve it after… whatever that was," said Carl. 

Burgandy glared at Carl and said, "I am heart and betrayed by this indignity," 

"You could've stopped her," retorted Carl. 

"I very much doubt that," snorted Burgandy. "What could I have done? Force would've egged her on more and I certainly don't want to put mind hand over her mouth. She's liable to lick it," 

"I'm not taking my decision back. Marigold really doesn't deserve the bonus after subjecting us to her kinks," said Carl. 

"Bah, that was barely scratching the surface," said Marigold. Gareth intentionally looked away. Even what little he heard was enough to know that he didn't want to see the honesty in Marigold's eyes when she said that, because he was certainly betting that's what he'd see. 

Blue was of course downing the mana potion, grimacing at the taste and the feeling of her mana forcefully being refilled. "Urgh… that stuff is always nasty. Overpriced and nasty," mumbled Blue.

"Is it really?" asked Gareth, just to get them off Marigold as a topic. 

Blue nodded, "Yeah… it's not cheap and the shelf life is AWFUL unless you've got some really fancy enchantments for it. The problem with mana potions is that they're concentrated mana, and they'd really like to NOT be so concentrated so they tend to disperse pretty quickly after the brewing process is finished. You need either a really good box, for a few of them, or you accept that they lose effectiveness in like a day," 

"I know THAT much, but I was asking about the taste," pointed out Gareth. 

Blue blushed. "Oh… right yes. The taste. Yeah no… I don't have any idea why it tastes bad… or perhaps not necessarily bad? It's like swallowing liquid sand. It's got a lot of grit in it most of the time and I know that's necessary… but it feels horrible in the mouth and the aftertaste is just… urgh…" Blue shivered as she stopped talking.