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

After that, the demons let things lapse into silence and enjoyed the relaxation provided by the cool water. Or rather, Kat and Kamiko did while Nira enjoyed their company. You could see it in her face, as despite the smile she wore, it was the slightest bit pinched and somewhat static when she wasn't looking at Kamiko.

After a while, Kat had an interesting thought. "If you don't mind me asking…"

"You really don't need to keep saying that." said Nira jumping in, "You are more than polite enough to us both Kat. Don't feel the need to preface questions with something like that, just ask them. If I take offence I'll tell you."

"Sure Nira. I was just going to ask what your first mission was like?" asked Kat

"Oh nothing to spectacular" said Nira. "You know how Kamiko has poison in her nails?" Kat nodded. "Well, I have that as well, but when I started it was the first healing ability I had. I didn't realise it was setting a trend at that point but I'm not really disappointed.

"Anyway, I was called in to heal someone. It wasn't anything special, just go across town, heal this person for me, don't kill anyone on the way or let anyone stop you. Luckily no one even tried. Just a quick pop a few streets over and then a jab in the arm and I was all done.

"Sat around drinking tea with everyone for a while just to make sure it did actually heal the girl of course. I think it took… Eh I don't really remember and it wasn't that important. It wasn't longer than an afternoon though I know that."

*Hmm, maybe I should ask… She seems to have a good memory to even remember that much and mine is almost perfect but I still seem to forget things sometimes…*

"Hey Nira?" asked Kat as Nira turned to face her. "You mentioned you don't quite remember the time well… how good is your memory exactly?"

"Eh, pretty much perfect at this point. Or as good as you can reasonably get." Said Nira

"Why do you make that sound so mundane?" asked Kat. "I have a perfect memory and it's amazing how much I can remember"

Nira tutted lightly. "I bet you'd be surprised how much you still can't recall."

"What do you mean?" asked Kat.

"It's a little complex, like so many of the other questions you've asked me. The basics of it though, is say you have your bedroom and a closet full of clothes," *Like that would happen. I didn't have that many clothes before and I have none that fit me now.* "can you find things better when they are on hangers or on the floor?"

"Hangers of course" said Kat easily.

"Right, well. When you try to recall memories it's a lot like looking for a specific shirt. If your closet is nice and ordered, it shouldn't take you all that long. You just have to search in the right section of your closet, look at a few other similar outfits, and find the thing you are looking for.

"However, without any organisation, your memories will be stored a lot like throwing all your clothes onto the floor of your closet. You know they are in the closet, and that you have every item you own in that closet, but it's somewhat hard to know where specifically. Sure, you can pick out the general area if it's recently been put there. Next to those jeans, or near that dress, or under those knickers you bought last week…"

The teasing look Nira sent Kamiko managed to get a mild blush from her, but she managed to stay strong for the most part as Nira continued. "But the trickiest part is when you don't quite recognise the clothing you're looking for, or you forget to look, or you forget you remember something."

"How can I forget to remember something?" asked Kat

"It isn't too common in someone your age. It gets worse as you grow older if you don't organise your mind with some regularity. Putting them in filing cabinets or books or something. Anyway, what happens is that you have all these memories you can see, but the ones that are easy to grab don't have all the little details.

"Let's say… um… hmm, what's a good example. Kamiko! Give me an example please." 'requested' Nira.

Kamiko floated around for a while as she considered the options. Her mother had explained this before so she did know what was being discussed, she just needed to remember what example was used last time or come up with a good one. "Ok, I got one" said Kamiko. "Say Kerra has some old paint cans lying around. She might remember that fact, or find something to remind her of the fact, but the colour of the paint in said cans might be buried somewhere. If they look somewhat untouched, she might not even realise she'd open them at all"

Nira nodded. "Yes a fine example. She might know she has cans, but cannot remember that she knows what's in them. Slightly different storage method when left untouched. Of course, remembering things because they are connected is a thing as well.

"You can sort of… follow the breadcrumbs a lot of the time. If we stick to Kamiko's example, if Kerra was reminded that she checks all of her paint, then she might be able to follow that thread to find out what colour they are. This is because she does technically still remember the information, her brain just can't find it."

Kat nodded, soaking up the information. "How do you try and order your mind?"

"It's a bit of a complex process at the higher level." Said Nira. "This is something I'm not actually an expert in. I get by well enough, but I'm not sure I could properly teach you. I believe, once you are meditating, you need to go to your memories instead of your resting place and just… sort them out.

"My mother actually organised my mind. She could enter people's mindscapes by locking eyes with them. Neither could move when she did this, but she could take serious damage if the other person managed to fight her off. I'm not sure I could ask her to do the same for you. It's a lengthy process and a bit invasive. I think you'd be best to find out how to do it yourself. I can only maintain my adequately, not well"

*Yeah, I can see why that's a concern.* "I wonder if I can do something like that." Wondered Kat aloud following her second train of thought. "I can go into people's dreams or I think I can? I haven't really tested it much and I've only done it once, but I have a similar ability."

"Probably won't work" said Kamiko, who looked to her mother for confirmation. When Nira nodded, Kamiko continued on. "It's only the same thing in so far as they are the same type of ability. But it's like… the difference between my poison nails and Mum's healing tincture nails.

"They are both very similar in a lot of ways, but I can't heal anyone with mine. I know that a mindscape is a lot more… actively participated in. It's more like the driver's seat than a dream which is a very different experience. Actually… I don't think you can enter the mindscapes of sleeping people, can you?"

Nira shrugged and said. "You sort of can. It's all dark and you can't find your way around. Or at least that's what my mum told me. It's possible to find things but very hard, and disturbing anything too much can lead to you waking the person you are trying to enter the mindscape of."

"Is that sort of thing rarer than my dream walking?" asked Kat somewhat interested.

"Eh… not necessarily? I mean, your dream walking is rare for someone so low in Rank, and it's not common for a Succubus to end up with it. Entering a mindscape is… probably about the same rarity, though more likely to show up at your Rank, but MUCH rarer in the Succubi population.

"We are somewhat connected to dreams after all. One of the more common abilities for Succubi is to have our bodies shift subtly to be more appealing to the person watching us. However, my family doesn't seem to ever end up with it. That's probably the rarest thing mentioned actually. Not a one of my extended family, but quite a few friends."

  "I didn't realise something like that was so common. I mean… do I have it? I don't think I do…" wondered Kat.

"Probably not. I haven't noticed you changing at all, and you can tell somewhat. It is very common though. It's up there with the nail poisons, and the perfect skin.. Not everyone has it, but you are more likely to find it tacked on to some other upgrade pretty early on than not.