In the end, the packed lunches only sort of got eaten. Sylvie and Lily were unable to truly recover from the calming aura. Sylvie woke up when she was being removed from the car, only to see Kat holding her and immediately snuggle in closer and return to sleep. Lily for her part, ate a small portion of the food Callisto had unpacked upon return before slinking back to her own house to sleep.
Kat was sure that come the next day Lily would be unbelievably tired. Kat of course praised her demonic constitution that let her get up early in the morning right on schedule with no fatigue at all. Sylvie managed to get a good sleep as far as Kat knew but she wouldn't put it past the little one.
As Kat was eating breakfast, she was considering what to do about ranking up. *So, the real question is where.* Kat looked across the table and found Sylvie happily making her way through same pancakes as Vivian watched from the side
Kat thought perhaps that Vivian had eaten earlier but the distinct lack of a plate even in the sink raised a few questions instead. Kat found herself playing around with her food rather than eating it. If by playing you mean stabbing it repeatedly without paying attention.
*I mean, is it even going to be a problem? The system seemed to imply that my rather strange ascension was rather unique. Though is it more to do with the fact I was overloaded or the fact that I'm on Earth for this?*
Vivian had noticed Kat's repeated motions and her failing to pick up her own pancakes. That might have something to do with the large hole she had torn into the one she had been eating, but really, it's anyone's guess.
*Would it be safe to go back to that clearing? I don't want to go conspiracy theorist but if people found all that ice laying around I sure as hell wouldn't want to show up and do the same thing a second time. Once is a strange but potentially ignorable phenomenon. Twice and people start looking.*
Vivian was swift. She deftly removed the fork from Kat's hand and waited to see what happened. Kat mechanically 'stabbed' the same place she had always been her hand stopping just shy of having 'the fork' hit the bottom of the plate before raising it up again.
*But where else do I go? Probably don't want to use that training place Callisto picked out for us because by the sounds of things people actually go there. A bit of messing around for a day, sure, but freezing a large chunk of the landscape, or at least destroying a few trees? That would get noticed really fast*
Vivian decided that if Kat wasn't going to pay attention to her she'd just have to see how far she could take this. Carefully removing the plate from beneath Kat she carefully moved the uneaten pancakes over to the bench before signalling Sylvie to be quiet and leaving to grab more supplies.
*Could perhaps just do it here? I mean, surely Callisto has done a few strange things in the backyard right? We can just pass off anything strange that happens as one of her experiments going on right?*
Vivian quietly snuck upstairs to Callisto to get her in on the action. The pair came down with a collection of things, mostly random bits of cloth they found around Callisto's room along with a strange looking device that was something of a cross between a pair of scissors and a pizza cutter.
*No that's a horrible idea really. If I remember last time correctly, and I'm not sure I do…* Kat checked over her memories again and found them to be spotty at best. She could find the memories in question but it looked like they'd been in a heatwave and had a number of visual distortions. *Which I suppose isn't even entirely inaccurate considering I had the fever to end all fevers*
Callisto and Vivian go to setting up the various cloth scraps around. Firstly, they slipped one under Kat's hand and waited to see if she'd notice or move it in any way. Once it was proven she wasn't going to interfere Vivian set about leaving the cloth all around Kat. She was about to try and sneak some onto Kat's tail that was lazily flicking around near the bottom of the chair but was stopped by Callisto and Sylvie.
*Right so I'm risking a giant pillar of fire next time I rank up. Ideally, I should do that somewhere remote and where no one can see me. At night perhaps? Kat instantly shot the idea down. No that's stupid, I would be seen for miles around at night. The middle of the day would be much better*
Callisto and Sylvie managed to convince Vivian that it would never work and that Kat's tail was a bit special. Vivian in wild gestures articulated that Kat hadn't noticed anything else even the scrap of cloth on her head but the other two were adamant that messing with Kat's tail would ruin the whole plan.
*What about a warehouse or something? Maybe Chekov has some space somewhere… then again I doubt he'd want even cold fire anywhere near his woodworking supplies. Perhaps Vivian knows some abandoned constructions sites?*
After finally removing Vivian from the immediate vicinity of Kat's tail, they then got to work on the next stage of the plan. Callisto disappeared for a moment before returning with a number of old shirts she had lying around.
*Then again, would Vivian even be privy to that information? That sounds more like something Callisto would know… but then again now that I think about it. Is the town even large enough to have warehouses? Most things get shipped in pretty frequently or so Gramps always said*
Callisto went to slicing into the shirts she'd brought down. They were inside out because the outside had already been ruined by various stains from the few times, she'd tried her hand at some advanced chemistry. They were much too big for everyone especially Sylvie, but with a bit of extra slicing it looked… maybe, vaguely like a dress… if you were blind in one eye and had the good one covered in an eyepatch.
*Perhaps that old shed in the orphanage then? I mean Gramps would probably say yes even if he shouldn't… nah actually he'd probably have twelve better ideas for me instead. Plus, there are a few too many blankets stored there.*
Callisto stepped upstairs to change out of her maid outfit she always wore and into the ruined shirt as well as some bike pants and stocking to somewhat disguise the fact that she was not in her ordinary outfit. This combined with a white singlet that still let a large amount of skin show through the holes in the sleeves to complete the look.
*Wait, System? What are the chances of something crazy happening when a demon ranks up?*
Standard Rank Up procedure has almost no variation. The chance that something unaccounted for happening is less than a single percentage point, and occurs most frequently in battle induced Rank Ups of Wrath, Pride, Envy, War, and occasionally Monk Factions
Kat pursed her lips. *Chances of something crazy happening when I rank up?*
Sylvie and Vivian had just thrown the things over their own clothes. They didn't have the ridiculous changing speed of Callisto to make use of. Vivian had been tempted to just remove her own shirt before she remembered she was in a dress. For Sylvie it made little difference. Even with Callisto's modifications it looked strange.
The chance of something unaccounted for happening is extremely high. In fact, there is only an approximated single percentage point chance that nothing strange happens.
*Of course. What was I thinking? That things could be easy for once?*
"Kat" said Vivian quickly adding the strange scissors Callisto had procured to Kat's hand
*So I guess I'm back at the drawing board with no real place to go. Worst comes to worst I guess it has to be some other nondescript place in the forest but I have time to plan this go around so I really don't want to mess up completely*
"Kat" said Vivian and Callisto with smirks on their faces
*Probably best I bring this up with the others or something.*
"KAT!" shouted the three at once.
Kat startled and looked around, and saw the devastation. Cloth everywhere numerous tears in each of the girl's dresses and a strange looking pair of scissors in her hand. "Wha?"
Vivian pretended to look aghast "Wha? That's all we get? We've been trying to stop your awful rampage against all clothing kind for the past five minutes and not even a think you"
Vivian let her voice crack and posture faulter. Kat's face filled with worry. She was about to reach out to comfort her with Kat's eyes homed in on Vivian's dress. The one she was wearing underneath her tattered one.
Instead of comfort, Kat turned her kind concern into a glare standing to her full height with wings furled, letting her eyes shine. She took a deep breath and glared down at them all before saying "Wha!?"
They all burst out laughing.