There is an old tactic that was supposedly employed by the Pictish. They wore kilts and no underwear, and their main strategy was using the environment to their advantage. Thus, they ran downhill, yelling, swinging their weapons around, intimidating the Romans who were downhill and had to witness the Pictish’s equipment. If you had seen Leonard’s expression the moment Josie bust into his apartment, I’m sure you would have thought of the faces the Romans made from the aforementioned tactic. She had him by the collar and against the wall within seconds of entering, and it was all I could do to get through the piles of books that were thrown aside from Josie plowing through.
“What in the name of FUCK were you thinking trying to wake the devil, you IDIOT?!” She yelled in his face, inches away from it in fact. “My girlfriend is STUCK TO THE CEILING because of YOU!! She can’t fucking leave our place or she’ll fly into Outer Fucking Space!” She shifted her hold, so she was keeping him against the wall with one hand on his collar, and punched said wall right next to his head. “You bring her down in the next ten minutes, or I’m brushing the walls with you.” Josie stepped aside and pointed at the door, as Leonard ran out, grabbing his laptop. It was amazing how he managed to sprint around the fallen over stacks of books. It took all my will to not crumble from the display of lesbian rage before I noticed Josie taking a couple deep breaths. She turned her gaze to me. “So. Which apartment are you in?”
“A-201.” I stuttered out, gulping, as Josie looked me over top to bottom. I crossed my arms over my chest, since it felt like Josie had x-ray vision or something. She snorted, sighed, walked over to me, patted my shoulder and spoke.
“Figures.” And with that, she left the apartment. She also left me confused about what she meant by ‘figures’. I thought I had avoided all my neighbors, had they all really seen Peter before? The idea made me uncomfortable that they had all seen that masculine version of me and that they’d always picture it when looking at me in Lily mode. I wasn’t sure why that thought made me uncomfortable, but it did. Maybe because it would be fun to just exist as a girl while in Lily mode, if only for a little bit? Yeah right, fun to exist as a girl, what guy thinks that. Especially since all being Lily brought me so far have been tears, bruises and nightmares. I shook my head to get back in the moment, slapping my cheeks to focus, following Josie out of Leonard’s apartment at last.
“Any ideas for how to get her down from up there, you weeby wizard?” Josie was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, when I reached her and Robyn’s apartment. Robyn gave me a shy wave and a ‘Hi’ when I entered the room. Leonard was furiously scrolling through his laptop, one window open with the list of demons, another with what appeared to be a spellbook of sorts. Tons of instructions and art. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it at the speed Leonard was scrolling through, until he stopped at something.
“Well, from your description, she’s stuck flying upwards, only stopped by the ceiling. I considered a weight spell, but Feathered Serpents don’t fly with wings but magical sources.” He dug up a marble out of his pocket, whispering into it, before handing it to Robyn. She grabbed it with ease, observing it.
“Pretty.” She gave a bit of a goofy confused smile and giggle, as Josie looked between her and Leonard.
“So what does that prove?” She gestured half heartedly to Leonard, who got back to his laptop.
“Something important. Robyn, could you throw the marble towards Lily?” Leonard turned to look at the snake girl stuck to the ceiling, who nodded. I opened up and extended my hand so she’d have an easier time aiming. A quick toss, and the marble was in my hand. And just as swiftly, my hand was on the floor, the rest of me following it promptly. It was like someone had dropped a full suitcase on my hand.
“Oh ha ha, cartoon physics or something. Is that covered in the ACME Wizard Manual?” I got off the floor and handed the marble back to Leonard, who whispered to it first before grabbing and pocketing it.
“Well, yes. The chapter on Hammerspace isn’t in any edition I found, however. Just the ‘adding a 0 in text onto an item makes it heavier’ spell, the single user tunnel spell, and the all too important ‘running off a cliff and not looking down makes you run on air’ spell.” He began looking at his laptop again, as me and Josie exchanged a glance.
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“Were you being serious there or just bullshitting me?” I put my arms on my hips, and Leonard shrugged.
“You’ll never know, Miss Looks-Into-A-Man’s-Private-Image-Collection-Without -Permission.” He gave me a look that made it very clear he was messing with me, and it took all my willpower not to walk over to him to whack him upside the head. “Oh, here we go, something to try, a Grounding spell! Says it connects the target with the ground, let’s try this.” Leonard turned to face Robyn after he looked over the spell. Clapping twice, snapping in Robyn’s direction, and clapping once more, before he began moving his hands in a pattern. I could smell a faint odor of rubber from where his hands passed through, and then he shouted out a word I didn’t recognize or understand, it was almost as if my mind blocked it out completely or something. Or well, maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. The smell of rubber made me think of a specific item, wondering if succubi need that kind of protection. Josie broke me out of that train of thought with her observation, however.
“Sooooo. My girlfriend is still stuck to the ceiling. I figured Grounding would bring her down.”
“I thought so too, the spell description said it connects the target with the ground, so why did it not bring her down?” Leonard scratched his head in thought, as I got an idea. I could do fire fists, and he said my magic was powered by emotions. And ‘grounding’ had another meaning. I tried to channel whatever would let me test my hypothesis, but nothing came of it, and I sighed in frustration.
“Leo. Lightning spell. Try that.” He turned to me as I said this, his expression was that of utter bewildered shock. “I’m serious. Just a small zap.” He shut his mouth and shrugged, Moving his finger across an open palm.
“This is usually to charge electronic devices, but also works as a stun if intensified.” He gestured for Robyn to bring her hand down, and he high fived it. I could smell the ozone in the air from the electric discharge, but Robyn had no reaction. “Okay. Yeah. It’s a Lightning Immunity Spell, not a Gravity Shift spell.” Leonard sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Guess we’re drawing the summoning circle on the ceiling.”
It was quite awkward to draw the circle on the ceiling. Mainly since Robyn had to keep tilting her head to look at the print out design. But once drawn, it was a simple case of summoning the ancestor over. Robyn’s landing once she had gained control over her flight wasn’t as graceful as she looked. It was like somebody just dropped a seven foot long python on the ground. A solid whap sound. Josie rushed over to her, concern on her face, before Robyn straightened up with that goofy smile on her face. “Good job.” Was what came out of Josie’s mouth, right before she kissed Robyn on hers. It was heartwarming to see. “Okay, thank you for fixing your fuck up, now I’m going to cuddle with my cute snake girlfriend, so leave!” She lifted Robyn like nothing, her tail kind of dragging on the ground as she made her way over to their bedroom, shooing us away. Robyn’s ancestor didn’t really leave as big an impact as Asano or Gel had, didn’t even give us a name. Simply showed up, patted Robyn, and then flew up into a portal to leave.
And so with that, me and Leonard made our way down in the elevator, stopping in his apartment. I sat down in the armchair I had claimed as mine, sighing.
“So, I think that’s everyone solved. Well, except me. But we can’t solve me.” I ran my hand through my hair, enjoying the texture of it, a small satisfied smirk on my face. I heard a buzzing from Leonard’s pocket, as he dug his phone out.
“Yeah, really sorry about not being able to summon Meassael.” I felt sorry that my ancestor was called Me-ass-eye-eel. Leonard swiftly unlocked his phone with a thumb movement so complicated that I was pretty sure he had a second stash of furry porn on it. “Oh, that’s surprising.”
“What is?”
“I got invited to a seminar on summoning. My Master sent me the invite, thinking it might interest me.” Staring at his phone for five more seconds, he shrugged and pocketed it. “Ah, I got enough of summoning in me. Three demons in two days is a significant amount. I’ll just get to cleaning up my apartment.” He grabbed a washcloth nearby to start working on the circle as I shrugged and grabbed a book off the top of a nearby pile.
“Hey, you okay if I borrow this copy of Cuddle and Monster? The cover looks fascinating.” A character split in half, one a bald goateed skinny faced man, the other half a pretty witch, holding a cute plush toy in front of them.
“Oh? Oh yeah, definitely okay with you borrowing that one. More than okay, in fact. If you’re not planning to help me out though, begone so I can work in peace, foul seductress!” He pointed out the door again, chuckling to himself.
“Seductress he says, as if I had the same sex appeal as that dragon wearing your fursona as a cock sleeve in that one picture.”
“OUT!!!!”