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

Time passed smoothly, even though plenty of things happened. Lily spent what time she could practicing, but her parents were not very pleased with the idea of her spending all her days hanging out with Kat. It was fine before when Lily came home from school every day, but now that Lily was away, for potentially months at a time, they were less keen on the idea that she'd be glued to Kat on her days off. Sure Evaline and Harold were away that one day Lily would transition to essentially living with Kat. Today, was not that day, nor was tomorrow, or next week. For now, they were taking what time they could get with Lily.

When Lily wasn't hanging out with her parents, she was practicing her magic. Lily wasn't entirely sure if she was making progress. Her constant failures on Earth seemed to imply that she wasn't making any further progress… until one day she managed to summon a tiny scrap of paper. Lily was quite sceptical of the paper when she first saw it, unsure if she'd actually managed to summon something, or if it was just a bit of fluff that looked vaguely paper shaped.

Kat was called over, and after utilising a bit of demonic energy Kat found out that the paper, small as it was, happened to be a perfect square and nearly perfectly flat. That second part was likely just due to the fact it was stuck to the end of Lily's finger though, and not an indication of how the paper was originally summoned. A bit of back and forth between Lily and Kat to confirm it was in fact paper, and that it was square lead to them watching it closely for a full thirty minutes until it vanished before their eyes.

Only the fact Lily had been smart enough to put a glass over the paper to prevent it blowing away let them stay confident in the fact that the paper had vanished as it was supposed to instead of say… blowing away in the wind or getting caught in someone's clothes. With confirmation that Lily was actually able to do magic, albeit very poorly, her training doubled in intensity. She was spending less time with Kat, and Vivian's parents, and more time training.

It was only when Kat physically pulled her out of the backyard and started to scratch around her ears that she'd give up on her training. Lily would insist she was resting at her parents house when they got her to visit and that she NEEDED to train. Kat ignored these arguments and just kept petting her until her resistance crumbled. A few kisses might've been used as well… but Lily got very embarrassed at the implication. Teasing her about it was just too easy and really not all that amusing. So Kat and Roxy didn't mention it.

Callisto spent most of her time with Sylvie, reading the rules for CoG and trying out a few 'example turns' to try and understand how the game is played. During the nights, when everyone else was asleep Callisto did her regular cleaning and managed to finish up what loose ends she still had with her projects before too long. Callisto had already prepared to spend a good deal of time with Sylvie following her birthday, she just hadn't prepared for something like CoG.

It was turning into a massive project and Callisto had actually gone out to buy a second folding table to setup in the room they'd held Sylvie's party to spread the board out on. Even with that, it still didn't properly fit on the two tables. It was… manageable but a number of pieces and card decks were spread out over a few chairs in the room to deal with that little fact. Kat had taken a look into the room at one point and couldn't help but stare at the boards in awe, and horror. Kat promptly ran out of that room, wanting nothing to do with something so complicated.

Callisto also managed to convince everyone to play a round of DDK just to give Sylvie a break from thinking about CoG. It was proving a bit tough even for the two of them. It was clear that CoG was designed for people with a lot more time then your average human as well as the ability to speed up your mind. It was still doable, and Sylvie LOVED even just the little bits she'd manage to uncover… but it was still a bit much even for her. Callisto managed… but mostly because she didn't need to sleep. That really helped her keep up with the whole thing and support Sylvie when the younger girl got to a confusing part.

DDK was… fine. Callisto got completely destroyed as the Demon King. It wasn't even close, despite Callisto managing things rather carefully. Everyone was able to understand rather quickly why the game was popular… and also why the Demon King was never expected to win. The whole thing was stacked in the hero's favour and with a full team it just wasn't hard to take Callisto down.

The only consolation prize for Callisto was that she managed to avoid a 'total defeat' and dealt some damage to the hero's kingdom, robbing them of a perfect victory. It didn't feel particularly well earned though and nobody was all that interested in playing a second round. Instead, they played a few different card games to pass the time together.

Vivian was pretty busy while her parents were over. Because she wasn't warned beforehand, Vivian still had a two projects running and spent her time in her office, designing room mock ups, pieces, and making calls to suppliers while occasionally going out for a drive to look at the locations in question of meet with clients. Vivian was rather annoyed that she couldn't properly spend time with her family, but understood she had no choice… especially because Roxy had almost certainly planned it this way. Vivian had given herself the day off to have fun with Sylvie and was booked up with plenty of projects after that day.

This meant that Vivian couldn't put anything off. She didn't even have time to take an extra day off for family time. Just the one lone day off she always had. The second and sometimes third day she managed some weeks were but distant fond memories. Everyone was accommodating about it. Not holding Vivian up at meal times. Letting her do her work in silence… and letting Vivian hug Sylvie, Kat and even Lily when she was finally done with work for the day to make up for all the family time she was missing.

Lily had been particularly surprised when Vivian captured her on the third day of Roxy's stay. Vivian had just snuggled into Lily's hair and bound the younger girl tightly with her arms. Refusing to so much as budge. When Kat came by to help possibly free her girlfriend, she was instead added to the hug pile. Sure Kat could technically break out with her physical strength… but her will was weak. She couldn't do that to Vivian and so into the hug pile she went. Though Lily felt it to be much less awkward when Kat was bound up as well.

Sylvie spent what time she wasn't being hugged by Vivian or learning the rules for CoG hanging out with her grandparents. Roxy and Bruce were both happy to tell stories of their time abroad… well… normally it was just Roxy. Bruce followed her around like a faithful Labrador, but didn't actually comment on things all that much unless Roxy prompted him. He was happy just to sit and take in the atmosphere.

Kat would regularly sit in on these stories as well, something Sylvie appreciated. The ten-year-old was very happy to be spending so much time with her older sister figure… even if the call of CoG was strong. Story time became a very frequent activity while Roxy and Bruce were here… and it might have even sparked a bit of interest of travelling in Sylvie. It was hard to tell… but she did at the very least read through one large travel guide, so perhaps that was a sign of things to come.

Roxy and Bruce mostly just did whatever they felt like. For Bruce that was almost always whatever Roxy was doing. Roxy split her time between telling Sylvie stories, and grilling Kat on her own journeys. For them, the most interesting part about being a demon seemed to bet he ability to visit other worlds. Sure power was nice… but the ability to travel to a completely unique location once a week? Why… that was something they'd be willing to pay an awful large amount for. Did already in fact.

They did not however, find a practical way to do something like that. D.E.M.O.N.S was rather clear that if they went on a Contract with Kat they were bound to help Kat with the objectives, and that was if they were even allowed to go. Lily was fine because she was basically a familiar, and the pair needed to stay together. Roxy and Bruce then tried to find out if they could become demons and of course the answer was no. It was something many hoped for, many had tried… and all had failed. So that particular dream would go unfulfilled.