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

— Sylvie —

After moving on from that icky topic Callisto managed to clear out the oven. That and realise that in the pie explosion the heating element ended up as a casualty and would need replacing. With the oven out of commission Callisto finally relented and signed up for a round of Down with the Demon King… and promptly destroyed the three girls.

It wasn’t intentional in the slightest. Callisto had selected the ‘easy’ difficulty for the heroes and the girl’s all seemed to know how to play… they just got supremely unlucky. Comically so. Every single chance the girls had for something to go wrong? It did.

Callisto could only hold in her laughter so long before bursting into giggles every time they girls landed on something that made the situation worse.

Sylvie was glaring at Callisto the whole time, wanting to accuse Callisto of using some sort of magic on the dice or cards. Perhaps there was a special way to set up the decks so that the heroes entered ‘unfair mode’? Nope. Sylvie and her friends really were that unlucky and Callisto’s endless laughter was no helping the girls enjoy things. She didn’t know what to fix it.

At this point Callisto didn’t even need to try to win, the game was literally just handing it to her.

So Callisto laugher her way to a win and then brought out some leftover lasagna from the previous night, heated up in the microwave due to the out of commission oven. Which did bring a bit of a frown to Callisto’s face but there was nothing to be done about it right now. Callisto was planning to check on Vivian and see how well the work was going.

If things were on track, Callisto would convince Vivian to take over kid watching early in the morning so that she could leave first thing in the morning to get spare parts for the oven.

As Callisto served up the lasagna as Penny complained, “Is that game really meant to be so hard?”

Callisto let out a small chuckle again as Sylvie glared at her. “No, no it is not,” grumbled Sylvie. “I don’t know what happened,” Callisto thought the glare Sylvie was giving her was just adorable. “but it really isn’t like that normally. That’s the first time I’ve lost to Callisto…”

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“Is she normally bad at the game then?” asked Alice.

“Ah… no,” said Sylvie awkwardly. “The game has a bunch of difficulty levels for the demon king and Callisto normally plays on the ‘easiest’ one, which means the easiest for the heroes. We did try one round of medium difficulty just last week and that’s probably a better difficulty for everyone but I wanted the first game to go smoothly to teach you all how it’s played and well… that did not work,”

“I can hardly believe it,” added Callisto. “I genuinely have no idea how you were all just so unlucky. I cannot imagine how it could have possibly gone worse for you all, except perhaps if I had kept trying after the halfway point… but even then there was not much you could do. Your equipment was horrible meaning you kept failing encounters and your rolls for treasure were just… abysmal.

I wish I was recording things so that I could prove it happened,”

“Alice, give us the deets, just how bad was it?” asked Penny.

“I don’t actually know,” admitted Alice. “I lost track quite quickly because the chances got exponentially larger. Even three rounds in we were approaching the one in a billion mark and it did not get better from there. Statistical anomalies are… usually more interesting to think about.

I can’t say interacting with one in this manner was enjoyable at all,” Alice seemed particularly offput by this little detail, as if it had altered her worldview in a large way.

*I wonder if this is really the first statistical anomaly she’s been part of… or if it’s just the first time it’s turned out so badly for her. Then again, I wonder how many people notice that sort of thing? Being born is quite the statistical anomaly after all if you really thinking about it.

Then again, a lot of the more obvious ones are things like car accidents so perhaps it’s for the best this is the first one Alice has noticed.*

Penny was just about to start eating when she realised nobody had thanked Callisto, “Oh, um… thank you for the food miss… miss…” It was also when she realised that she didn’t know what Callisto’s last name was. Even after she’d been nice enough to take them all to the amusement park.

“Just call my Callisto dear,” Callisto’s smile when saying this made it clear it was NOT a request.

So Sylvie made it extra clear by adding in, “Callisto doesn’t like her parents much so she’d rather just go by her first name,”

“I did not particularly want to bring up such a weight conversation at lunch but Sylvie is correct, I do not get along with my parents much at all,” explained Callisto.

Alice chewed on the lasagna as she thought of that for a moment. “Does that mean that real parents can be bad too?”

Callisto winced at the question and took a few moments to compose herself. “Alice… you will find that what determines ‘real parents’ is a bit of a complex issues. I am aware that your home life is not the best… but also nothing truly actionable. Just know that if Vivian heard you say that she was not Sylvie’s real mum she would be quite upset,”

“But she isn’t? So wouldn’t that be lying?” asked Alice blindly.

Sylvie winced at the question. *Vivian has made me feel very at home and also made it quite clear that she’d accept the title if I wanted to give it to her and not a moment before… but it’s hard. She deserves it, and if someone asked me I’d say she was my mum now… but probably not to her face. She’s goofy and pretty busy… and maybe I’m a bit closer to Callisto but…

Even if she’s not my biological mum I certainly wouldn’t say she’s not my ‘real’ mum. My original mother is… a fairly distant memory at this point. More of a feeling then a person. Which hurts to think of admittedly… so I just tend not to. How do I explain that to Alice though?*

Callisto stepped up to say, “Being a mother and a father is both a role, and a biological statement. If a woman cares for and raises someone, they are likely more deserving of the designation ‘mother’ then one who just gave birth to them. The point I was trying to make is that while there is a saying ‘you cannot chose family’ in many ways that saying is incorrect.

It is quite acceptable to choose family. In many instances, a family chosen is a stronger family.

“Now, I understand that you don’t think of your own guardians as parents, and perhaps not as family at all. That is… perhaps rude, and maybe quite hurtful to them if they heard you say it. Of course, I am not trying to suggest you are wrong. As I said I do not know… just be aware that plenty of adopted families get along exceptionally well and treat each other as true family.

Insulting that bond would be like…”

Callisto paused for a moment to think of a good example for Alice. “It would be like saying you are not truly friends with Sylvie and Penny because you have only known each other for a short time,”

“But we’ve known each other for ages!” said Penny.

Callisto’s smile turned slightly more brittle at the statement. “Perhaps from your perspective. I do not want to dispute the point… so let me just direct a question to Alice. Did my points make sense?”

“I think so,” nodded Alice.

“Alright,” said Callisto slowly.

“Wait so am I the only person here with normal parents?” asked Penny.

“Vivian has normal parents,” answered Callisto.

Penny seemed to scrunch her face up a bit at that. “Vivian has normal parents?”

Sylvie and Callisto looked at Penny with shared glares. If Penny’s parents counted as normal? Then Vivian’s definitely did as well. “Yes. Yes they’re fairly normal,”

“Huh… and what about Kat?” asked Penny as a follow up. The glaring of course continued. Penny seemed to quickly realise why that was a silly question and pivoted to a different one “Oh… um… right. Does she call Vivian mum then?”

“No,” said Sylvie. “I’m not sure she ever will… big sis Kat… well… she sort of stepped into the ‘female role model’ role a long time ago. I’m not sure who SHE had as a female role model when she was younger but I know it’s hard for her to see Vivian as a proper mother figure. Then again… they aren’t all that different in age,”

“Oh yeah, they’re both old then,” said Penny with the confidence only a young child could have. Sylvie thought about it for a few moments before shrugging. Alice however, thought the math didn’t quite add up.freeweɓnovel.cѳm