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

--- Sylvie ---

Sylvie was shaking heavily, blood was pounding in her ears and she didn't know what she wanted to do. She- Sylvie found her frenzied thoughts lashing out as she felt someone pull her into a hold… only to immediately relax as Vivian's strawberry perfume hit her nose. Sylvie shivered and pulled herself deeper into the hug.

Vivian might not be the best at hugs, that honour went to Kat, but she certainly wasn't complaining right now. "Thanks…" mumbled Sylvie into Vivian's shoulder.

"Sorry Sylvie," said Alice as she saw the state her friend was in.

Immediately followed by, Penny's response of "Why are you apologising? I don't think we did anything wrong?"

Alice looked over at Penny and thought for a few seconds. "Um… hmm… well I mean… Sylvie is clearly upset… and I think it might be the right thing to do? I… don't really know?"

"That seems silly, we didn't do anything wrong, and I don't regret going on the rollercoaster it was quite fun. So why apologise for it? If Sylvie didn't want to go on the ride she could've just… not gone?" asked Penny clearly confused by this turn of events.

"I… I don't really know? I think it's something my parents would recommend? It feels like the right thing to do… but I admit I don't really know why," answered Alice, smile now missing. She'd been quite happy with the rollercoaster, giggling the whole time. Penny just sort of… rode along without changing her expression much, but she was smiling so that was fine.

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Sylvie though… "Yeah I can't really explain it…"

Callisto gave Vivian a look that said 'you deal with this'. "Alright I suppose I can explain," said Vivian as she shifted Sylvie in her arms so that the younger girl could be part of the conversation. "It's a bit complicated but you're all smart so I'm sure it will make sense," the slightly sharp smile Vivian had seem to carry a faint 'or else' in there somewhere.

"Not to embarrass Sylvie too much, but she went on the ride because before getting in line she was more scared of disappointing you both then the ride itself,"

"Why?" asked Penny. Alice had a similarly questioning look on her face, though Vivian personally thought Alice might have at least a vague idea.

"I was explaining that Penny," said Vivian with a patient smile. She wanted to pinch the younger girl's cheeks a bit because of the red-head's pout, it was adorable. Alas, she had her hands full with Sylvie right now. "Sylvie hasn't really had friends her own age before, so you're both very important to her, even if she might not say it out loud. She's bad at that like Callisto can be sometimes,"

Callisto twitched in the background but didn't interrupt Vivian. "In this case, she felt like she'd lose something if she didn't go on the ride. Maybe that was your respect, or maybe she just didn't want to lose a chance to share an experience with you both. It could be either, or both. What this meant was, despite being scared, it was not as bad as the alternative.

"Now, that doesn't mean it wasn't a scary experience. It was just 'less scary' then missing out. It's like…" Vivian searched for some metaphor that Penny might understand. After a few seconds of silence Vivian found a poor metaphor, but decided it was good enough, "one hundred, and one hundred and twenty big numbers, but one hundred and twenty is certainly bigger.

So if you wanted a thing, you'd usually go for one hundred and twenty right?"

Vivian winced at her explanation but Penny was nodding along like the nonsense she'd just said made perfect sense so Vivian was willing to call that a win. "Now, as for the reason Alice apologised, it's because she recognises that Sylvie wouldn't have gone on the ride if she hadn't brought it up.

Now, it's not Alice's fault Sylvie is like this, but she still feels responsible because it was her decision that led to this. Does that make sense?"

"I still think it's a bit silly but I think I understand…" said Penny with a nod before slowly turning to Sylvie and saying, "I hope you'll be ok soon,"

It warmed Sylvie's heart to hear it. Even if Penny was a bit dense at times, she meant well. Probably. Mostly. At least she didn't cackle on rollercoasters like Alice.

--- Sylvie --- (Just after lunch)

Sylvie was feeling a lot better as they hopped off the train to Fairy Land. They'd had lunch at the Creepy Café and it was actually a lot of fun. A surprising number of themed foods that were quite good… even if most of it wasn't all that healthy. Alice had gone straight for the 'human brain' which was really just jelly, though it did look excellent. At least until you took a bite out of it.

Only the outside was fancy.

Penny had gone for the 'Fiendish Fish Fingers' which where just fish fingers dipped in something to make the batter grey with onion on the end pretending to be nails. Penny seemed to enjoy them… but the little bit Sylvie had tried proved they were just funny coloured fish fingers. Which seemed really boring to her.

Sylvie herself had chosen the 'Witches' Brew Soup' which… honestly Sylvie wasn't sure WHAT it was. It looked like this green bubbling potion in a fancy cauldron bowl. It tasted pretty great and the fake eyeball eggs were nice… but she couldn't really place the flavour. It was also a bit spicy for some reason? Honestly the dish was a bit of a mess.

Vivian and Callisto had both ordered 'Tentacle Eyed Bowl' which was just spaghetti bolognas. It was also probably the laziest dish on the menu. The spaghetti was a normal yellow colour, the sauce wasn't anything close to blood red and the 'eyes' were just bits of white something pressed into the tops of SOME meatballs.

Apparently it tasted great but if you were having fun a themed café Sylvie thought 'tasted great' was probably a letdown.

Still, they were at Fairy Land now and it was much less creepy. It also smelled of floral perfume. The dispersers for that were moderately well hidden but after bringing it up to Alice, her blonde friend had managed to point out three of them. Sylvie was ready to get going when she heard crying nearby.

Callisto and Vivian paused alongside the rest of them. Callisto moved first, gliding over towards the sound. Just outside of the train station was another girl with brown hair tied into small pigtails. She was clearly trying to stay quiet but wasn't doing the best job of it. "Hello there, are you ok?" asked Callisto.

"N-no… I mean… wait, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers!" retorted the girl.

Callisto sighed, "I understand, you do not have to tell me anything. Though I would be quite grateful if you could point out your parents. This of course caused the girl to burst out into tears again. Not ideal.

--- Sylvie --- (Ten minutes of crying later)

Callisto had managed to tease out the girl's story. It seemed that she'd managed to lose her parents at one of the other train stations. She'd run ahead and got on the train… only to realise that her parents weren't behind her anymore. Now she didn't know if they were back at the other station, or nearby, or where they were in general.

Callisto had also managed to get the girl's name, 'Charlie Smith' and Vivian had gone off to inform some of the park staff.

Charlie had finally finished crying, and was looking up at Callisto with big eyes to ask, "Can I have some ice cream?"

"No," stated Callisto firmly.

"But why not? I want some! It'll help me feel better!" insisted Charlie.

"Because that would feel far too much like rewarding bad behaviour. You should have remained with your parents instead of running of," stated Callisto dryly.

"But… but I want ice cream…" mumbled the girl.

"True, but I fail to see how that changes the situation," stated Callisto.

Charlie's lip quivered and she looked like she was going to cry. Meanwhile, Sylvie had long since gotten board of this. Vivian had left her backpack behind with the group and Alice had managed to find the pack of cards Callisto assured them was in there. They were currently ignoring the crying child in favour of playing Queen of Spades, also known as Hearts to some.

Currently, Alice and Sylvie were getting smoked by Penny. Sylvie personally suspected Penny was card counting. A valid, if annoying strategy. Sylvie decided she'd have to do the same next round.

--- Sylvie --- (Ten minutes MORE of crying later)

The group watched as Charlie's parents pulled the girl away. She'd ran over to her parents in a great mood, seemingly happy to be away from Callisto… only to ask for ice cream again and get immediately shut down and as such, she was now crying again. "You know… she was pretty weird," stated Alice.

Sylvie looked at her friend for a few seconds. "I'm not really sure we're allowed to say things like that,"

"Maybe… but even when you were super scared and shivering in place you didn't cry and winge like that… and over ice cream? I mean ice cream would be nice but it can wait! And no means no. Is it really that hard to understand," grumbled Alice.

"I think she was thoroughly stupid," said Penny. "Why she thought that was going to work at all is beyond me. Also, I win,"

Sylvie glared at cards still remaining on the table. Penny was definitely counting cards.