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

--- Kat ---

The discussion carried on for a while afterwards but all of the essential things had been covered. Trumbor would attempt to find a way to summon demons from the inside, and if he hadn't succeeded after X amount of years then Corela would get the church involved. The exact number of years hadn't been decided on yet, but everyone was fairly happy with the plan.

Everyone else was planning to leave with the main group. Some of them were happier about that fact then others but nobody else was all that keen on staying. Corela may prefer that Craunch remain, but he was clearly more interesting in leaving. Both to mess with Corela and just because he was sick of the place. Apparently he'd been somewhat strongarmed into joining the research teams here long ago.

He was never happy here, always one for more… hands on or practical uses of his knowledge. The problem? He was really bad at avoiding fines and had a habit of pissing people off. Corela had been forced to work with him not just during his time at the facility but several other instances in the past where he'd fucked something up in a public area.

Corela would then be called in to fix the issue, while Craunch showed no remorse for whatever horror of nature he'd unleashed.

Now Craunch was careful never to do anything super illegal. Nothing the government would ever kick up a real fuss over… but the small fines added up and made it hard for him to get more legitimate backing. So he'd do something slightly questionable, get funding from people who were much the same, and the cycle would repeat.

It was an… interesting dynamic and if not for Craunch's earlier comments about his sexuality Kat may have thought that there was some romantic tension there. Heck, Corela hadn't made her own preferences clear so perhaps there was still some.

[Maybe they're siblings? Neither of them have mentioned a last name… I don't think? Or like cousins or something?]

*That makes way too much sense.*

Regardless of the truth it was fun to imagine and mostly just something for Kat and Lily to spend the time pondering about. Kat was still around just in case Stensil woke up and needed the help. She'd woken for a bit, had things explained to her, and then she'd crashed soon afterwards. It was assumed that she'd leave with the group… but not completely clear.

She wasn't exactly in the right headspace when she was up to confirm as much.

Grepnar was interesting in that once he'd properly woken up he'd first apologised for trying hit Corela unprovoked… and then asked her out on a date. Corela had told him no, he'd tried to insist, and then Corela reminded him that they were trying to leave the compound and had to organise everything before they set off.

That got him to back down… with the promise that he'd restart the conversation once they'd set up somewhere new.

Corela didn't seem entirely pleased with that, but she wasn't willing to hammer that point home and potentially create more issues. Especially now that she'd need to bring up the 'change of plans' with the 'kids'. Kat had no idea how that was going to go. With Trumbor staying behind… leaving RIGHT NOW was a lot less important.

Corela and Brella were trying to work out how best to raise the point when dinner time came around.

Kat and Lily shared some speculation on how that was going to go, but it was hard to for certain. Trumbor was an unplanned for variable. The only thing that was expected by everyone? Was when his idea was explained at dinner later in the evening? Ben's group completely lost it. The gardeners also burst out into another round or arguing, one that Strek was more actively involved in this time.

Kat and Lily watched, alongside Kamiko, as the workout crew basically just shrugged and continued onwards. For them? It didn't matter one bit. There was a way out and they were taking it. They didn't hesitate for a second to let Corela know they were still planning to leave as soon as possible. That the plan hadn't changed for them.

Brook and Church were the most subdue and… somewhat lost, so when Kamiko started to head over to sit with them, Kat and Lily went as well. Meg was in the corner just enjoying the chaos and Hunter was still missing… though so was Bower? Perhaps they were hanging out together, trading hunting tips or something… or maybe they were just happened to be missing at the same time.

Could be either with those two.

Taking a seat at the table, Kat waited for Kamiko to say something… when that took longer than thirty seconds Kat realised she'd been designated the spokesperson for their group at some point. "Hello you two. You seem… both more and less together then the rest of the groups so Kamiko if you wanted some help? Lily and I just went along with the suggestion,"

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Kamiko glared at Kat but didn't actually contradict anything that Kat had said. She was correct after all. Kat just glared back at Kamiko, not ashamed at answering for everyone in the slightest. It was almost like she was back in school with Kamiko as part of her friend-group. Kat could easily imagine it.

Her two friends following her around and just letting her do all the talking until they left the grounds. Kat wondered how long it would've taken for Lily to admit her feelings in such a world.

"Well that's very nice of Kamiko," said Brook, eventually. "We're just… yeah I guess we are a little lost,"

Church gave a slow shrug, "I mean… leaving isn't something we're against… but it was always going to be a bit of a struggle to leave everything behind. Probably worth it, and the food still interests me… but now we have a more… moderate option. That plus… we're probably the two best researchers here. At least amongst our generation,"

"Yup. So… from what I've gathered, and this is really just based on how well Church and I know each other… we sort of feel responsible for helping Trumbor out? Like we were going to take a bunch of data and just store what we could, preserve it for as long as possible even we never got it working again before we passed away…" Brook trailed off.

And Church continued, "But with Trumbor here and the possibility of summoning a demon specifically to help sort things out? Well that's a whole new ballgame. Especially when Trumbor doesn't know how to get it all done. I still want the chance to try new foods.

The idea of living on the stuff in here for another few decades isn't exactly appealing… but at the same time leaving so much behind was going to hurt. Now I guess… we're just a little lost. We definitely want to stay together, we're both sure of that… but where can we be our best selves you know?"

Kat nodded along. "Which way are you leaning towards?"

Church and Brook glanced at each other and made a few subtle hand gestures somehow managing to get across exactly what they were thinking about before Brook said, "We're still thinking of leaving. If the plan is to get everyone else out… ONE DAY then it also means that one day we can come back in.

Not sure what the plan will be exactly… but if we leave like a contact beacon to come and call us, or maybe just leave instructions?"

Brook glanced at Church who picked up the train of thought. "We're really not sure how we want to play things… but yeah if there's the chance to access things again we can leave a lot more behind. Take things that are more personally interesting then stuff we need to preserve.

If Corela is committing to opening the place back up with the church's help should that fail… well we can be ready for that as well,"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Guess you guys didn't need that much help after all," said Kamiko awkwardly.

Brook shook his head, "No this little conversation has been great to get our thoughts in order. Before the idea to just… turtle up a bit and leave later was powerful but if we sit here… we're not going to change. We'll spend our time playing games and just… existing. Maybe we'll have kids at some point… but we won't really become more then this place will let us.

Sure we might help free the others but… I think…"

Brook paused to lick his lips "While the idea of staying here to play games is tempting like, really damn tempting… I'm not sure we could leave later on if we did stay. We'd probably have kids, if that's still possible for us… and… well either they'd want to stay and we'd feel obligated to do the same or they'd want to leave… and it might feel like we were getting in the way of their adventure,"

"Well… I guess I'm glad we could help?" offered Kamiko awkwardly.