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

--- Kat --- 

Nobody was all that hungry so Kat, Lily and the rest of the team, sans Nixilei found themselves a nice place to hang out while they waited out there hour. It was a nice flat rock underneath a trio of palm trees. It seemed they provided shade for almost the entire day, and looked slightly oversized and perhaps leafier then normal. Kat suspected Thyme sculpted the landscape a bit, but couldn't prove anything. 

When they sat down, Kat and Lily explained their plans to the people present. It didn't exactly take long to do. "I think that sounds fine," said Green. "I doubt Nixilei will be disappointed with the chance to sleep in more, and I imagine Kress would be interested in showing off a bit and helping his boyfriend out," 

"Technically we're not official just yet," said Kress. However, before Green could attack such an obvious weakness Kress continued with, "we're well on our way, and we've both admitted to being interested, but as I said before, we plan to hang around the resort as long as we can and see how things go before making a decision. I imagine that will be as long as Stan can stay in the dimension… unless we suddenly have some last minute job we need to get to?" 

Green gave an innocent look of 'who me?' when Kress turned her way. He kept up the stare until Green let out a chuckle, "No of course not. I wouldn't do that to you. Or rather, I would totally do that to YOU but I wouldn't do it to Stan."

"Nice to know I'm loved," grumbled Kress. 

"Hey, if we didn't like you we'd give you so much more shit for you attitude… but you're getting better and you both deserve the chance. Besides, Nixilei will probably be hanging out with her 'maybe official' girlfriend as well, and Gareth probably still needs a break. I suppose I can put up with staying on a luxury beach resort. Truly, such hardships I endure for this team," finished Green with a long and heavy sigh. 

"Yeah yeah," said Kress dismissively. "We all appreciate your sacrifice," 

"As you should," confirmed Green with a nod. 

Gareth added on, "I'm on board with Kat's suggestion. I resonate strongly with the points made. It wouldn't do for us to be seen as ungrateful winners… admittedly Thyme is likely to have some really fancy things on offer, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. If Thyme is willing to do so much this round, I'm sure Thyme will offer even more for those of us that make it to the final round, let alone for if we win the entire thing. Best to keep everyone on good terms with us. Especially with such well connected teams.

"Furthermore, despite my fiancé's rather… questionable attitude involving your love life Kress… it does seem like a good step forward for us. Not only would the two of you working together for HIS team be a nice change of pace for them, but it might let you two get closer. Sure it's no life and death combat, but it'll be a healthy contest. Heck, the other three might team up against you both just to put us in our places, or because you teamed up first. 

"Seems like a nice environment for some respect to grow. On Nixilei's side of things… well it's probably best she gets some more sleep. Though back to you and Stan for a moment… what have you actually been doing?" 

Stan frowned at Gareth. "Are you alright?" 

"Yes…? Should I not be?" asked Gareth. 

"I told you what I was doing with Stan just this morning. You were right there in the break room with everyone else when I told you all. Heck, even Nixilei was there. Do you not remember? Should Green and I be more concerned about your health then normal? Shall we take you to Thyme?" asked Kress. 

"Ah right so you did…" mumbled Gareth. "Though surely that wasn't all?" 

Kress shrugged and said, "Stan is… somewhat easily entertained when I'm the one doing the explaining. Though… some of his reactions make me wonder what sort of childhood he had. Kat, do demons have normal childhoods?" 

Kat shrugged and said, "I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'normal' childhoods. I know a demon that grew up in a big family and a similar life when compared to mine… but I don't even live on the Hub. On the other hand, another demon friend of mine had a rather… unique home life simply because her parents are both very interested in each other still, if you catch my drift," 

Kress winced, "I don't think I really wanted to hear that," 

Kat just shrugged again before explaining, "Look I really don't know what to tell you. I've got no idea what the standard 'demon childhood' is like, and even if I did, there's no way I'd be able to tell if that applies to Stan. I can say that sand isn't necessarily something he's seen before, but I also know that it's like, around, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he had a chance to go to the beach. 

"Look, Stan could have anything from a super strict set of parents to the most chill people on the Hub. I really don't know. All I can really say is that a lot of demons, especially ones that get more powerful tend to be a bit eccentric. I really can't say how much that would've rubbed off on Stan. Heck, he could have a special ability for love at first sight for all I know," explained Kat. 

"Is… is something like that likely?" asked Kress a touch concerned. 

Kat shrugged and looked to Lily. "Hey why would I know?" asked Lily. 

"You know just about everything I know, and this does seem like something you would've thought about," offered Kat. 

"Well… you're right I HAVE thought about stuff like that but you didn't know that," Kat rolled her eyes at Lily's answer. Lily just huffed and turned to face Kress while leaning back further into Kat's arms. "Ok Kress, here's what I know about your question. If it's an ability at all, it's like quite rare… but if any type of demon was to have it, Succubus would be up there. 

"Now, I still don't think he'd have a 'true love detector' or a 'soulmate gaze' or whatever you might be thinking but I can easily imagine a 'compatibility detector' that helps him work out how likely any two people are to get along, or perhaps more… lewd in just having it be 'how much would these two people enjoy having sex with each other' sort of thing. Now, nothing I can prove, and I really wouldn't worry about it if they exist, but it IS possible for them to do so," 

"What about like… pheromones or something?" asked Kress. "I'm not too worried about that one… but is it something that might come in the future?" 

"Quite possible," said Lily. "They only tend to work on people already somewhat attracted to the person in question, and it's also much more common for them to only work on people the demon would be interested in as well. So like… Stan, if he had one, would only attract gay dudes. Wait… Stan is gay right? Not bisexual? I'm not sure that's come up. Never mind I'm sure you get the point," 

Kress nodded with a bit of a frown on his face. "Not sure how much I'd like that. Not the fact they'd work on me, but the fact they'd work on other people," 

"To answer the unasked question, no I don't know if new abilities would take into account the fact that Stan already has a partner. Nobody really knows how abilities are gained, even if you do sometimes see them run in families a bit. You won't get an abilities that's completely useless or that you'd hate… but I'm not sure if that extends to abilities Stan might hate 'right now' if that makes sense," 

Kress nodded "Right, like even if he didn't want that sort of thing because he already had me he might still pick it up because he's open to the idea of that sort of thing," 

"Exactly," said Lily. "Though at least mission-wise, if you aren't comfortable with him sleeping around that's something easily avoided. Of course, I'm not sure if that's something Stan does now or not, but yeah, if it was an option it can easily be made not one," 

"Thanks for the explanation Lily. This is the sort of stuff I want to go over with Stan before he leaves in a few days… but I also really don't want to ask him specifically? Even if it seems like the sort of thing we really should talk about together. I just… well… no this is a good starting point. You've put a lot of my worries to rest with just those few questions and I think I'll try and talk to him about the rest of them. Though… if I have any trouble can I come and chat with you about them before you and Kat leave?" asked Kress. 

"Of course," said Lily. 

"Good. Now, I'm gonna head off and find Stan so we can start to plan out the next round. So… by for now you four," said Kress.