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

Chapter 2028: Chapter 2028 Poisonous Presence Part 2

— Kat —

Appoline folded the paper up and slipped it, along with the nearby potion into one of her many belt pouches before looking around the room once again. She carefully eyed the dark corner. Eye’s narrowing in suspicion as her hands fingered the opening to a different pouch then the one she’d slotted the potion and paper into. It might’ve been scarier for Lily if she wasn’t staring at an entirely different corner to the one she’d hidden in.

Lily was hidden in the back left corner, while Appoline was currently staring at the one closer to the door. Appoline carefully moved to disassemble the devices on the table and put them away before rapidly reaching into her back and pulling out another potion bottle. This one looked to contain a thin mist and she soon threw it against the wall.

It exploded. The grey mist inside that seemed more like a trapped cloud then a liquid expanded in size rapidly to coat the entire room. Swelling up, and reaching into every nook and cranny. As it did this, Appoline simply watched. Lily kept herself still as the mess approached her in the corner. Lily carefully stopped breathing, not wanting to risk whatever this was being toxic.

The entire room was completely filled, and Appoline was once again looking around for any sign of trespass. She seemingly didn’t find any because she strode out of the room and shut the door once she left. Ensuring that the mixture of pink glitter smoke on the ground and grey-ish white mist remained trapped in the room. On Kat’s end of things she carefully tested and found that the doors further back in the hall that Appoline had checked were similarly shut so it wasn’t too strange… but it felt like she’d spent longer in the one Lily and Kat had been in last.

Alright what’s the plan? How long can you hold your breath?

[Um… a while but not forever? At least a minute but I wasn’t super prepared for her to do this so I didn’t have a lungful of air when she broke the bottle and it was much too fast to risk a last quick breath. I’m sure she’d have heard me if she did.]

Alright, that’s fine… ish. The reason I ask is because I don’t really need to breathe like this. Or I take in enough oxygen from being water? Water-ver the case I’m not worried at all about myself. I can manage to stay in place for ages. I proved that earlier in the tournament. You though… well I might just need to use a neat trick.

Kat decided to be extra thorough and shove a mental image of said ’neat trick’ towards Lily where Kat kissed her deeply and breathed oxygen into her lungs. Lily found her control of the shadows slipping a bit at the image but fixed them soon enough and sent a mental pout Kat’s way. [Please don’t send me that sort of mental image while I’m hanging here. I barely have the mental bandwidth to keep my horns hidden while the shadows are in place and I STILL have to hold my breath on top of that. It’s nearly too much as is.]

[As for your suggestion… remember I’m in cat form at the moment and I’m not really sure we have compatible mouth shapes for the moment.] Kat mentally grimaced at the idea. She didn’t think Lily was unpleasant in that form, and she was sure Lily kept up proper hygiene in both… but kissing Lily lightly on the fur was one thing. Going deeper while she was in Memphis form was not something Kat found appealing and she could tell Lily felt the same. It would just be weird.

You don’t think it’d be safe enough to transform? Kat eyed the pink glitter carefully. It had creeped up the cabinet fairly far but if they were both standing on top of it they should be fine for a fair while. Kat would just need a moment. Though the other stuff was more of a concern. It had filled the room completely. The fact that Lily was currently fine and not feeling any adverse effects implied it wasn’t a contact poison at least.

[Right but we’ve got no idea what either of those potions actually do. It’s possible that they’re keyed not to affect Appoline somehow, or perhaps her outfit is enchanted that way? I’m really not sure how she’d manage to make it avoid just her but I’m sure it’s possible. Difficult, but I don’t see her caring about that. The problem isn’t if these are poisons. Frankly, our high Rank should help mitigate the symptoms of that. The issue is if they’re NOT.]

Well, the glitter seems fairly self explanatory. I mean, have you ever tried to get glitter out of your everything? I have. More than once. I’ve also had to do the same for a bunch of the kids at the orphanage despite the fact glitter is a heavily regulated substance there.

Lily sent off a mental chuckle. Even as her lungs started to protest being closed off from fresh air for some long. [You make it seem like glitter is some sort of war crime in a bottle.]

Because it might be. Seriously, you can’t wash it out in the washing machine or it’ll get on everything else. You have to scrub that shit out by hand, and even then it doesn’t really get ALL of it out. No instead it gets on your hands and the clothes your wearing, which then spreads it around. Honestly, it’s a lot like a virus.

[I suppose. I didn’t really go through a glitter stage myself, and neither did anyone else I knew super well. Sure we had a little bit of glitter here and there, and I think I got a birthday card packed with the stuff once but that was basically it.]

Yeah no. Despite the kids being told to be careful with it, and limiting access they tended to sneak it off the school or traded with the other kids for some. Or even just borrowed it. I was usually the one that had to clean up afterwards because Gramps was busy disciplining them for making the mess. Usually they’d just have to sit in a corner, though sometimes if it was an older kid they’d be forced to help me with the cleaning.

[Neat, but I’ll admit I’m struggling a bit not to breathe in. Any other plans?]

Um… so the big worry is that the white gas isn’t a poison? Or breathing it in will be really bad?

[Yeah the big worry is that it’ll alert her somehow. On the other hand, I really don’t know what we can do other then take the risk soon…]

Can you make some sort of respirator with your shadows?

[Um… maybe? I don’t think I have the sort of fine control needed to shape the filter properly and that’s sort of the important part when it comes to making those sorts of mask work. Not sure if just the shape would be enough to, you know, filter anything. Especially when it’s an alchemical poison.]

Hmm… can you just make your shadow area larger?

[Yeah but because I still need to breathe its air permeable by default. The poison can probably just float through.]

Hmmm… I’m just trying to think of things you probably haven’t. Um… hmm… could I make like a ball of water around you?

[Well… yes but that doesn’t really get me MORE oxygen does it? The room is filled at this point.]

*Dammit. I could breathe it in first? I’ll definitely be fine… and if it’s a trap it’s a trap.*

[I… I don’t love the idea but I do need to breathe soonish. The main issue I see is if you returning to human shape triggers something… but we’re in an awkward spot anyway.]

Kat nodded and carefully moved her water droplets that were in the corridor back into the room. It was sort of weird because the gasses interfered a bit with the droplets movement but not too much. Kat rushed to the bench once the droplets were theoretically out of sight. Appoline could still be heard moving around in the other rooms after all.

When Kat had all of her water in one place she triggered the transformation and breathed in. It wasn’t exactly the most pleasant taste or smell… but it seemed fine? Kat looked herself up and down and she seemed fine externally as well. She wasn’t a strange colour, breathing was a bit hard because of how much mist there was, but it seemed fine?

Lily carefully glided over to Kat and wriggled into Kat’s kimono. No sense being risky. Once inside, she took in a breath and nearly immediately gagged. The smell was fine, but the texture. It clung to her mouth in unpleasant ways that interrupted her breathing. She didn’t know what it would do to her throat. [Shit.]

*Shit.*

[I did get SOME breathing room but only some and I think this gas might be designed to choke you out.]

*Double shit.*