[SS 2.97] Reckless Abandon (Part 1/2) (Patreon)

“So this is the place.” Despite being inside, thanks to her boosted hearing, Gelic could hear the slamming of car doors, followed by the voice of her landlord out in the parking lot. There were a few muffled responses by the other party, which sounded like at least two additional visitors, maybe more. A bunch of people prodding into her living space definitely sounded like an unpleasant time, and certainly would be awkward if she was chilling in the small room when they came to pry. 

She understood Ms. Gate’s reasoning as to why she should be absent, but that didn’t stop it from irking her. But she made sure to tidy up the space, not to help her landlord in her selling effort, but to lessen the judgment of total strangers—something she shouldn’t be bothered by, but her anxieties were rarely rational. Her apartment was spotless from top to bottom, looking like a model unit with just a few personal touches.

Sadly, the rug that her landlord had complimented during her last visit was now missing, or at least, that’s how it appeared. Angelica had cast Conceal on the carpet and the circle that lay underneath, so now there’d be no evidence of her Summoner activities, just on the off-chance one of them understood its meaning. And since Demons kept intruding on her space for some reason, the hidden Circle would help keep her safe, in case one of them managed to actually make it inside her apartment.

Fortunately, in this case, it would likely be a quick poke of heads into her personal space. Even so, Cherub had been relegated to the bathroom, along with his food and water, cat bed, and a few treats to keep him complacent. While he had never had any interest in escaping in the past, she wouldn’t put it past the orange troublemaker to decide that seeing strangers meant it was his time to bolt out the door. So hopefully, the two door gap would prevent that.

Gelic would bet anything that the majority of this short showcase would take place in the two much larger units. If Ms. Gate was going to show off the smaller units, she’d use the vacant one, then only intrude on Angelica's just to prove it was in decent condition. Which was why Gelic was in one of the larger apartments now and Angie was in the other, ready to take action as needed. Both were in their Demon forms, hopefully invisible to the naked eye, though ready to cast Conceal if it was necessary.

Getting her Duplicate to cooperate hadn’t been as easy as she would have liked. Angie was a little more than a year younger than her main body now, which meant she was right on the verge of spiraling hard into even worse depression and executive dysfunction. But even now, she understood that they needed to team up to vanquish this mutual foe, and that the problem wouldn’t go away if she simply holed up and made art all day. 

Hopefully, they wouldn’t really have to do much since plenty of preparations had already been made. First, was the Deterring Field, which was specifically targeting people who wanted to buy the place. That should make them uncomfortable the entire time they were here, and should already be in effect. Since they likely weren’t Summoners, the potency of the effect should be fairly low, but enough to ruin the vibe of the experience.

On top of that… Angelica had actually been a kind and courteous tenant, going above and beyond for her landlord. Since the other units had been vacant for a while, they were due for some touch ups, especially since the paint jobs after the previous tenants had left was never amazing. So she made sure to spruce it up, even going so far as to match the paint colors perfectly. And despite her fixes just usually being a few little drops of paint, they’d certainly be emotional to look at.

[Evoke Lv.31]

As soon as the visitors saw some of the railings she’d also touched up, they were already under her spell, feeling emotions they definitely weren’t expecting. Different spots around the complex conveyed different things. There was annoyance, anxiousness, melancholy, disgust in the bathrooms, but the primary one they’d be feeling now, that Angelica wanted them to be hit with first, was disappointment. If initial impressions were the most important, she wanted that to be the opening act. Everything else would be scrutinized harshly if they were already looking for flaws.

The final touch, though, was on the doorframes as they were exiting each unit, barring her own, since she didn’t want it tainting her space, even if it didn’t affect her. And that was: fear of loss. Sadly, despite Evoke now being her highest Skill, she couldn’t quite get it to convey what she wanted. What they were afraid of losing wouldn’t be clear; a loved one, their lives, their sanity, but it’d be something. If she could make it more specific, she would have made it fear of financial loss, since that’d be the optimal thing to drive any interested party away, but hopefully this would shake them enough regardless of the specifics.

Yes, it was all laid out perfectly. The brief apartment tour should be a horrific experience, the worst viewing of their lives, and her Malice was eating it up. Ms. Gate would also be inflicted with the emotions, but oh well, it was a small price to pay to save her apartment. 

Except strangely, as the voices drew closer, it was Gelic who felt a sense of fear. Weird? Was she a bit anxious and antsy? Sure, but not afraid. Then why was this suddenly vexing her? Except it wasn’t even her own feeling, more like it was being thrust upon her from another source. And that’s when she realized, one of the voices she was hearing wasn’t coming from outside, but rather through her own mind. Was this a Summoner call? Weird, but she didn’t have enough time for such cryptic nonsense. 

Just when she was about to ask Divining Ear to mute it, the voice suddenly evolved into a piercing desperate plea. “Somebody help!”

Ugh, dammit! Gelic’s head reeled from the screech. This really was a nightmare. Why did it have to come at such a terrible time? She was seriously pissed off by the intrusion in her life and plans, and a bit miffed at herself because knew she wasn’t going to ignore it. The voice was somewhat familiar, though she couldn’t quite place it, but even then, she’d be hard pressed to leave this alone. Dammit! She cursed to her clone. Angie, I’m trusting you with this. I’ll be back as soon as I can.

Except Angie would be of no use. As soon as she accepted the call, she received flashes of her Duplicate’s final moments, which were simply staring at a door, just as she’d been doing. And that meant Gelic had changed worlds. Before she could discern her location, however, she found herself face to face with a new problem: another Demon. Well, maybe face wasn’t the right word. 

[Demon | Alias: Dif Dif | Demon Rank: Hellion Lv.20 / 40 | Health: 85%]

Dif Dif didn’t have a face, or most parts of a conventional creature. Their main body was a pink perfect hemisphere, about the size of her Puffball form if it was cut in half. Protruding from the top of the dome was a singular equally pink tentacle, lined with suction cups. Maybe its further Evolved form would be a kraken, because right now, it kind of looked like the arm and joint had been chopped off of one. 

And speaking of chopping, it would seem Dif Dif was doing a great job at chopping up the air. Wrapped in their grasp at the end of the tentacle was a long knife, closer to a machete, but it looked more like it was from Hell than a typical human shop. The weapon was pretty fancy, and Gelic chose to Muse it at random; something to reference later since she doubted she could convince the Demon to hand it over.

It looked pretty happy with the blade too, slicing it around with reckless abandon, but not really in a threatening way, more like it was having fun. She could see maybe why the weapon swooshing would be scary for some, but to her, Dif Dif seemed more like a wacky waving demonic knife-flailing tentacle arm. Though, then it did take a different course of action.

The Hellion slammed the blade into the floor mere inches from where Gelic stood. It then used the embedded knife as leverage pulling itself close to her, dragging its body across the distance with a wet squelching sound. Okay, yeah, that was definitely a bit more creepy. And since the Demon didn’t seem capable of proper communication, or was choosing to ignore such courtesies, she honestly couldn’t garner its intent. Perhaps it was being friendly, or maybe it was trying to front on her. 

So she Bumbled away to get some distance, allowing her to take better stock of where she was and what was happening. Now that she could look around, Gelic found the place oddly familiar, a basement she’d been to before. And those two girls who were cowering in the corner, they looked familiar too. Ugh… damn. It was now really starting to dawn on Gelic that this was all her fault. Well… not really. She hadn’t directly caused any of this, but it was more that she could have prevented it if she’d been a bit more proactive and conscientious. 

Wicca and her still unnamed friend, that’s who had summoned this Demon. They hadn’t learned their lesson from when they’d accidentally summoned Gelic a while ago, and had apparently gone on to perform even more experiments. Then after conjuring a Demon they couldn’t properly communicate with, who may or may not intend to do them harm, they panicked, and one of them called out to her somehow. She still wasn’t sure how they’d done that, but at least she was caught up.

As for how they’d managed to pull this silent Hellion, that was still a mystery. Well, her best guess was that this world—what was its name again? Uhh, Smook had mentioned it when she got registered. Krosele, right, that was it—Krosele must not have the same Tongues requirement, which would explain why Gelic herself was able to be called there when the Skill wasn’t maxed. Perhaps this Demon wasn’t used to getting requests since it was non-verbal, and took the opportunity. A shame since it probably wouldn’t get paid, though it had maybe gotten the Babysitter Achievement, which would give it something for its trouble.

And Dif Dif did make some effort to entertain the pair of quivering girls. Or to terrify them further, maybe even harm or kill them if it didn’t care about the potential punishments. Since Gelic didn’t intend to keep it company, it began stabbing its way over to the two humans. This matter wouldn’t be resolved if things continued like this, so she chose to interject in the best way she could think of: jumping in front of the two girls to make it appear that she was in fact on their side, having come to their aid.

“Which one of you two summoned it?” She glanced back at the girls. The one whose name she didn’t know hesitantly raised her hand, the same who had actually summoned Gelic last time. “Hold out your hand and repeat after me. Banish!”

She did as instructed, and Dif Dif disappeared back to Hell, averting the crisis. Wonderful. Problem solved. Now Gelic could get back to scaring investors from buying her apartment. Except… Ughhhhhhhhhh. She’d just find herself back again here someday wouldn’t she? Bailing them out of another problem. Or maybe she’d never hear from them again; too late to save them after they did something even more reckless.

“You, what’s your name?” Gelic pointed a claw.

“Tarice,” she answered, still with a whimper in her voice. 

By the reverberation in the Demon’s mind, she knew that the girl was telling the truth. “Fool!” She pontificated poignantly with another point of her sharp hands. “Never tell a Demon your real name. The same goes for you, Wicca.” She shifted her gesture. “You all carelessly gave away her name the last time I was here.”

“Uhh, do we know you?” Wicca asked hesitantly. Hearing her voice again now, it was definitely Wicca who had cried out and summoned her. So now she’d had both as masters, though technically, she wasn’t Bound or Contracted in any way this time. To ease their confusion, Gelic briefly turned back to a Puffball before returning to a Puck. 

There were mumblings of recognition after that, but nothing coherent until Tarice said, “Thank you for saving us.”

“You’re welcome, but I shouldn’t have needed to,” she made sure to chastise them further. “No more summonings until you at least learn the basics properly, got it?!” They nodded their heads, but Gelic honestly wasn’t convinced. Stupid girls would try again when they weren’t ready. They needed a proper teacher. 

“Sadly, I’m not the best one to teach you.” Angelica really wasn’t, having virtually no Summoner experience herself. She could teach them enough to maybe not die, but probably not enough to thrive and use Demons effectively. It’d just be a cobbled together course from the random things she’d picked up. They needed a real Summoner who would do it right from the start. And besides that, she had other things to do. Not to mention getting back home as soon as possible. Hopefully this was something she could wrap up in a few minutes.

“But maybe I can find you someone who can help.” Yes, that’d be the best solution, and she asked Divining Ear to do just that. Hopefully, it’d find someone relatively nearby in their world who’d be willing to take on some foolish pupils. Gelic did get a new call fairly quickly, though once again, strangely, it was almost silent. She could hear ambience in the background, but no words were mumbled. Well, if it was the best her divination could do on short notice, she’d take those chances.