[2.55] Every Waking Moment (Part 2/4)

When Cherub suddenly pounced at Angelica’s upper back, she almost batted him out of the air on reflex. Luckily, she was able to cease the retaliation with her wing, and instead wrapped the papery appendage around him, to catch him before he could sink her claws into her. Over the past few days, he had never cared about the workouts she’d been doing with her wing, barring maybe the shadowboxing she did which got a few intrigued stares before he’d flopped over.

But apparently her light baps upon herself made the wing look like fluttery prey that he needed to hunt, similar to when he’d chase string for a while. Honestly, he never really played for long, maybe a few minutes at a time with either Angelica or a toy, then suddenly act as if he was too good for it and excuse himself, moving on to a busy schedule of absolutely scuff all. Perhaps it was the buggy nature of the wing that triggered his hunters instinct, finding it the most stimulating thing in the world.

When Angelica maneuvered and outstretched her wing to delicately place the cat back on her bed, he immediately jumped down and pounded back over toward her once more, following the tip of her wing like it was a fishing lure. She wiggled it along the floor for him to chase, making sure to turn off the poison first just in case. He scrambled after it with enthusiasm that she’d never seen before, desperate to catch and shove the wing into his mouth despite how many times he’d caught it already, nibbling on it, which caused no real pain.

This went on for a lot longer than she imagined. Angelica didn’t track the time, but it genuinely felt like an hour. Eventually, he got too tired, and flopped over to take a nap. Once that was done, though, the hunt was on once more. This repeated throughout the day, with Cherub pretty much only stopping for nap and dry food breaks, having the time of his life. And of course, Angelica didn’t mind in the slightest, and would happily play with her kitty all day everyday until the end of time.

The one downside, though, is that despite the fine motor controls she was demonstrating with her wing during their playtime, it barely gave her any experience at all toward Ambidextral Mastery. Since she was using five other limbs at the same time, she was still constantly gaining progress, but there was a noticeable dip when it came time to entertain Cherub. Whenever he took his breaks, which were growing in frequency and length due to his own exhaustion, she went right back to training, and the experience would then flow again at the expected rate.

This was due to the Sin of Pride modifier. It did not count playtime with kitty as improving herself, which she’d strongly argue against, since it was boosting a hidden, made up mental health stat. Sadly, despite Demons actually having fairly good support for such things to her understanding, that wasn’t included anywhere in the DGS, except for possibly affecting Health if it got too severe. This meant that anything she did just for fun, even if it heavily utilized the Skill, received a ridiculous experience penalty, to the point that she may as well not get anything for it.

In a way, she was actually helping Cherub during this time. It was the most exercise he’d gotten in… ever. All the cat ever really did was lay around like a lazy louse all day. He showed no interest in the outside world, and never made any attempt to escape. And the few times Angelica had taken him running with her, he’d definitely look around at things, but was always happiest when they returned to the apartment—content to reign as ruler of his small castle.

He had a bit of a chubby face, but wasn’t really overweight. Angelica never had enough money to make him so. He was definitely getting proper treats on the regular now, but that usually resulted in him eating less dry food to balance it out. In a way, the cat was more consistent and conscious with his weight than she was.

The only time he raised a stink about food, or anything really, was when his daily wet food was late. Even that he’d been less fussy about lately, since Angelica had been getting home and increasingly random times due to her Demon duties. That wouldn’t stop him from crying incessantly if she forgot entirely, however.

Besides that, he was pretty much the chillest and easygoing companion she could ask for. When he wanted attention, he’d come over and rub against her chair instead of jumping up on her lap or desk. And usually it was her who bothered him, grabbing him from his peaceful day for forced attention. But he almost always went along with it, understanding the price of admission for his otherwise life without hardship.

And he was actually rather intelligent too, or at least understood how to adapt. During some of Angelica’s worst depressive episodes, when she could hardly get out of bed, let alone get herself to perform chores like properly tending to his litter box, he had taught himself to use the toilet. She shouldn’t have let it get that bad, but was still appreciative of his ability to assist how he could. Damn, she didn’t deserve him, and thinking on it now made her want to spoil him even more.

But now she could make him as happy as possible while also tending to other tasks. Since she was reverting back to her usual schedule of Merlina’s Boutique, it allowed her to branch out her art more. And granted, she knew she needed a break after pumping out four chapters in rapid succession. If she kept going at that pace, she’d hit burnout fast, even if they didn’t take nearly as long now.

There was some good timing in that regard from the publisher she was working with. They had both been amenable to her contract changes, which they sent for her to sign, followed up shortly with their request for a new book cover. Neo Fight: World Battler was her assigned project, another with a name she probably wouldn’t read otherwise, though based on the description that came with the art request, she was a bit intrigued.

It was about a human-trafficked young man in a cyberpunk setting who had to earn his freedom by participating in fighting pits. From there, it evolved into him trying to take down the systems that oppressed him, with his fights escalating, to eventually defeating the strongest contender of the world he’s on. That led to it being revealed that his world was actually a rather weak one, and there were a bunch of other, stronger planets that were far more corrupt, so he’d have to defeat all of them too if he really wanted his freedom. Which was where the first book ended to serve as intrigue to read the next installments.

The actual request for the art was annoyingly vague. It basically just asked for the main character—who was described in excruciating detail at least—to be fighting some other enemy which was left open to whatever she wanted. All they asked otherwise was that she somehow incorporate the “world battling” aspect, while again, providing no insight into what they actually wanted. So it would seem she had full artistic license for basically all aspects except for the main character, even the setting which had no real descriptors besides “something cyberpunky.”

Well, she let her imagination fly, and it wasn’t long until she landed on a concept she was pleased with and got to work. The idea was to have the main character fighting in a shabby indoor fighting ring with plenty of sketchy spectators jeering him on. It showed him punching his opponent, a bulky, mean-mugging cyborg in the face. But rather than a fist, he was shoving a small version of a planet into the cyborg’s skull that was cracking on impact, metaphorically showing the effect he was having on the world. And since the enemy was semi non-human, it allowed for showcasing plenty of viscera that would typically be censored by publishing regulations.

Interestingly, because of her arsenal of art-related powers, she actually found it easier to just go ahead and make the completed, fully colored and shaded work than it would be to do a rough sketch. Transferring it one-to-one from her imagination was better than attempting a crude recreation. There were still a few blemishes, though, which Scrutinize was sure to make her aware of. But she didn’t want to commit to such touch-ups without knowing they’d be needed.

Of course, the nearly completed work would be absurd of her to submit instantly, and would likely raise all sorts of accusations. So she took it from there and utilized Editable Reprint to make the rough sketch, basically just stripping away the color while purposefully blurring the outlines to make it appear cruder. Ultimately, it would still be significantly more refined than most first-draft sketches, but that would hopefully make a good impression for her new partners. Unless the piece needed a complete rework, she’d probably do the same thing for the grayscale version, which was typically the next stop on the commission pipeline.

And… she did decide to use Evoke after some internal debating. What she went with was simply the basic form of surprise. As for what they’d be surprised about, she wasn’t sure, and was a teensy bit fearful about the result. Would they be surprised by how amazing it was, or surprised by how much they hated it? Surprise wasn’t inherently positive or negative like joy or anger would be, so they’d have to fill in the blanks themselves. And if they weren’t pleased, hopefully those Evoked emotions would lead to strong feedback and more details she could work from.

With that done, until she heard back, she worked on a more personal project for just a little while: potential Demon Evolutions. That turned out to be more difficult than she imagined. Thanks to her experiences seeing thousands of Demons in Hell, coupled with her vibrant imagination, she could come up with limitless Demon designs. Yet… none of them felt like her. So many were cool or terrifying, a couple cute, but ultimately, they weren’t ones she would want to become, or felt like Evolutions of Gelic.

Granted, her Puck form had been a complete shakeup, temporarily going through her bug and/or fairy phase. While she’d come to accept it as it was, it still didn’t really feel like what she wanted to be. The Puffball was much closer. It was never how she would have envisioned herself back when she was a human, but from the moment she saw it, the form just felt right.

She knew she couldn’t stay as it forever—still happy to regress when the situation called for it—but Demons Evolved. That was their nature. It was how they grew, progressed in their lives. Humans were similar in a way, changing as they aged but typically in a much more linear fashion. To stay as an Imp forever would be like locking herself in time as a toddler. Cute as a button, sure, but it would never be taken seriously, which meant she could never reach her desire of isolation via intimidation.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t guide the path, get closer in line with the Demon she wanted to become. Her Puck form was just the weird track while she figured out who she was, a kid experimenting with a bunch of different things, trying to figure out what she wanted to be when she got older.

From what she knew about Hellions in general, they tended to be a bit hot-headed and aggressive, more animalistic in nature and appearance. In human terms, they’d be in the pre-pubescent stage. While Gremlin and Ghoul were almost like a split of puberty. One was the prankster, living without abandon, riding high on the invincibility of youth, and the other was angst incarnate, riddled with shame and all sorts of fun hormones. But those were getting ahead of herself. She could worry about them later.

In general, though, fully fighting against the nature of what made each Evolutionary stage unique was likely counterintuitive. It would probably lead to some botched form as she’d been warned about if she made too many demands. So it was best to lean into them, while putting on her own twist. And right now the twist she really wanted was to go back to being a ball. What could she say? Being a bouncy ball was so fun, and while she could sort of become one as a Puck, it simply wasn’t the same.

Maybe it wouldn’t work well for all of her Evolutions, unless her future as an Archdemon—should she ever make it that far—saw her as a mountain sized ball that would crush everything around her. But for now, it felt like she should enjoy it while she could, and hopefully turn it into a stepping stone to guide her future. So a ball that was aggressive and/or animalistic, coming up with such a thing was surprisingly difficult.

She only really landed on two solid ideas, sketching them out. One basically turned her into the spikeball that would traditionally be on the end of a flail. The other was sort of mammalic pufferfish that could be in a more slender form and inflate into a perfect sphere with still some spikes that would then protrude. She had problems with both forms, but they were the closest she could get to while keeping the spirit of Hellion and retaining the ball form she wanted.

If she branched out a bit more, then the idea of incorporating the spherical shape was somewhat easier. She drew a rendition of her original Puffball self that was bigger in form, with defined horns and larger wings. It was definitely more in line with a linear Evolution concept, and she wouldn’t mind it, but at the same time, it also felt somewhat limiting, like she wasn’t flexing her creativity enough.

Then Angelica had the bright idea to draw a form that was actually basically two spheres. Because what was better than one ball but two! The concept would almost be like having a twin, maybe that could separate and exist as their own forms, or perhaps two parts of herself that she could control independently, similar to Ambidextral Mastery since she’d really come to love that concept. However, when she drew it the revelation came instantly that it looked like a hairy pair of, uhh, men’s danglers, which was a depiction she would absolutely refuse to take, so she scribbled it out on her page in a hurry.

Which brought her to another aspect she was struggling to incorporate: being an art Demon. She knew the spirit of it, but how the heck did she depict such a thing? Art itself was somewhat of an abstract concept. It had its staples and tropes. Like her Beret of Visibility, which she’d used at the otherworldly sleepover so that the non-magical teens could see her, definitely gave off “pretentious artist,” but she wasn’t sure she’d want that in a Demon form. She could have her hair colored like a painting, but what if she wanted to change it?

And mixing it with being a ball was even harder. The only remotely interesting idea she came up with was having her main body be relatively spherical with maybe a long hairy tail, like the head of a paintbrush, and then have a giant horn protruding out of the top of her had to be like the handle. But no matter how she tried to work it, the idea just came out both silly and cumbersome.

So ultimately, she decided that maybe it was best to stay as a blank canvas. Evoke art with her actions or own accessories rather than try to cram it into her base form. Perhaps if she mentioned that she wanted to specialize in art, Creativity, and Fabrication, those crafting the form would be open to leaning into it in their own way that may not look silly. They were decent artisans themselves from what she’d seen with Demon forms around Hell. Some were positively hideous, but that didn’t make them not competent and cohesive. Hopefully, they’d still take her considerations into mind.

She didn’t get much farther than that. Ultimately, there was no rush. Since she knew what she was getting into, the Evolution could be delayed as long as she needed it. Plenty of time to come up with more ideas and reflect on what she wanted to be when the time came closer. For now, she tore the page with her doodles from her sketchbook and threw it into Second Stomach. Which also gave her another training idea.