D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2088 Old Messes Part 2

Chapter 2088: Chapter 2088 Old Messes Part 2

— Kat —

“Well let’s start with earlier failures,” said Kat. “Those probably have a chance at funnier mishaps,”

“Hmm, I suppose it depends on how you look at it. A lot of them weren’t so funny in the moment. The first that comes to mind though… was the time I turned my hair bright neon yellow. I’m still not sure why it worked out that way and I don’t really remember the ingredients I used to test that.

“Anyway, I wanted to have blue hair, which is why this is even stranger. I didn’t want it to be quite so vibrant either. Just a soft understated blue. Perhaps some extra features later on. I know how to give someone stars in their hair these days, just as an example. Anyway, I brewed the potion and immediately drunk it. This was before I realised that testing was important.

“Now, even as a little girl I was a bit of a maniac for potions. Nothing seemed to happen, and I wasn’t sure if that was proper or not. Plus I was staying up somewhat late to make the potion. The next morning, I wake up to screaming. My mother had found me, and I now had a giant mess of bright yellow hair… and my original hair had completely fallen out and littered the bed. I’m not sure what my mum thought but I had so much hair that when I shot up out of bed I slapped her in the face with it.

“Turns out? While the hair wasn’t an issue for the person it was growing on, if you put your face right in it, it was much like sniffing ground pepper. My mother’s scream got cut off by a sneezing fit that ended with her collapsing due to lack of proper air. That produced more screaming… it ended up being a whole thing,” Kat nodded along to Appoline’s story. “So what about you? Before I move on, any interesting stories from your own childhood?”

Kat rubbed her chin a few times before nodding. “Alright. So, I grew up in an orphanage and I quickly became the kid in charge? It wasn’t intentional but I simply didn’t get adopted and stuck around, so even if I was younger I knew more things. I knew where everything was, how to help calm people and eventually it became semi-official, or perhaps properly official? I wasn’t paid for it but I certainly got benefits the other kids didn’t.

“Anyway, the reason I explain this, is because when Gramps was out I was the one in charge. He didn’t leave often, just occasionally for checkups on kids that left recently or to talk to someone about getting work done on the building. It was one of those days, and I think Gramps was having an issue with the food supplier actually. He was out talking to them to try to find out what was going on, and I was tasked with ensuring nothing too bad happened.

“Now, there were a few other people trusted to do the watching as well, but not really. It was mainly my job because they were older kids that didn’t really want to interact with the little ones. Now, one of the less responsible teens decided he wanted to really cause trouble. So he got a few of the little ones to distract me with a small mess.

“He’d grabbed a bunch of fruit and handed them to the youngest kids in the playroom. The entire place looked like a crime scene, fruit juice everywhere. On the floorboards, across all the toys. On their faces, fingers, just EVERYWHERE it could possible be. Now, while I was there cleaning up everything the idiot in question was getting ready.

“He recruited a few of the slightly older kids. The guy was like… twelve, the younger kids were like four and five, and the two kids he got to help him out where… eight I think? Anyway, he managed to get into the old paint and told them to help him paint a mural. Well, that’s what he TOLD them was the plan.

“What actually happened was that as soon as they were all gathered together in their painting clothes the oldest teen started to chuck paint at the two of them. This set them off screaming and running away… all through the orphanage… covered in paint. I had to drop what I was doing, to investigate and it was just such a mess…”

Kat shook her head slowly. “There ended up being paint EVERYWHERE. Several kids had their clothes ruined, the floorboards needed cleaning pretty much immediately, the paint was hidden in a locked storage box and in the end the guy responsible got in so much trouble. The only reason he wasn’t made clean it all up was that it needed to be cleaned swiftly before it all dried… that day was a big mess.”

Appoline let out a polite chuckle but Kat could tell it was somewhat forced. Still, it was an amusing day… even if at the time she was moments away from simply finding a spot to cry. It was a day of constant cleaning and low level panic. Kat was somewhat glad she couldn’t quite remember the guy’s name. He’d been adopted surprisingly quickly considering how much of a little shit he was. Then again, if Kat remembered correctly they’d found like… an aunt or an uncle of his that was willing to take him on? Something like that.

Kat realised she was out of vegetables to chop so she shrugged and decided to make up a spice rub for more meat. Even if it wasn’t eaten today… well it could be a nice thank you surprise for Steel once this was all over. *Though actually… will he have a chance to eat it? I’ve got no idea what’s happening to most of the people on the island once the tournament is over. I doubt all of them will want to leave… hmm…*

Kat shook her head at that. “So what’s your next story?” asked Kat.

Appoline smiled and made an offer, “Well, I could tell a similar story of mess and cleanup from my younger years… another messy story from when I was a good deal older, or perhaps simply go over something else?”

Kat shrugged, “Whatever you want is fine,”

“None of that,” tutted Appoline. “I’m asking for your input here.”

“I’d be happy to hear all of them though,” Kat countered.

“Alright, all of them it is,” agreed Appoline with a grin. Kat faltered slightly as she raised the mortar she was using to grind spices, a little surprised Appoline had agreed so easily, but simply settled back into a rhythm and dedicated most of her mind to the story.

“The first one, is another silly one from when I was a kid. It was my first real original potion. Not a modification, or a recipe I got from someone else. I wanted to do this one all by myself. I wanted to make the ultimate bubble bath. So I took a while to figure it out, did my research and worked out a few things. First, lots of bubbles. Second, the bubbles can’t hurt your eyes. Thirdly, you need to be able to breathe around them if they’re high.

“So that was my goal, and technically I succeeded in all of that. The problem… is that I didn’t really have a stop condition? I also didn’t test a smaller dose. It turns out, if you pour a normal potion vials worth of potion into a bathtub with intent to make bubbles, you can fill an entire house.”

Appoline snickered. “It was a pain to clean everything and a lot of people freaked out… but it wasn’t deadly at all. It’s also what taught me that while standard potion vials are nice for some things, for others, they should be completely ignored.”

Appoline continued, “The next story I have for you is the second mess. This was actually the protype form of my glitter that I’m sure you’ve seen around,” Kat frowned. Something about that sentence was a lie. Towards the end… She’s not sure I’ve seen it? Wait is she fishing?

“Like the slime monsters?” asked Kat.

Appoline eyed Kat for a few moments, “Somewhat. Same colour at least. I wanted to make a special substance to catch thieves. It wasn’t meant to stick to anything except people and I wanted it to really spread out to cover just about everything. My biggest failure instead, stuck to just about everything else.

“It started with the stirring rod. It got to the point where I couldn’t move it. So I tried pulling it out. This simply stretched it… and I tried putting it back in the cauldron once I realised the problem… but apparently that was permission to go. It started to cover the cauldron itself, and then the bench. I tried to leave but it basically ate my shoes, so I had to swiftly kick them off and LEAP for the door.

“I barely got it open before it caught up to me, and I slammed the thing shut. A few hours later when it was set I opened them back up again, with magical and physical barriers in place, and it had covered EVERYTHING in glitter. I was stuck peeling it off the wall for like a week afterwards. It was just everywhere, and constantly sticky. If I was willing to let apprentices down there I’d have forced them to do it…”