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

--- Kat ---

Turns out? This place also had a gym. None of it was standard, and Kat really had to wonder why March wasn't making use of it… but at a guess? The weights weren't heavy enough. In the corner of the room was a punching bag that seemed to be an oversized pillow that had been enchanted. Burgandy was punching it with a consistent rhythm.

Kat was willing to wait until Burgandy was finished, but the fae seemed to have heard her coming because she spoke up, "Hey Kat. What brings you around?"

"Oh you know, just saying goodbye to everyone," answered Kat. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to work on my anger. I… I try not to fight angry so I try not to deal with my anger by punching things. Well not anymore. I punched out more than one person when I was younger because they did something that pissed me off. It's why I haven't really tried stuff like this since I matured.

"Not sure how I feel about it," despite speaking Burgandy's rhythm didn't falter in the slightest. "It gives me a good workout. I can feel the burning in my arms and that helps with the anger… but I dunno. Feels a bit too much like I'm either fighting angry or just pushing the anger down, and I know that's a bad idea as well.

"Screaming at trees seems to be the best for me… but well that leads to a sore throat so I'm trying this. If it works out? It can be a way to calm down and train a bit more. Even if I use a weapon most of the time, learning how to punch good is never a waste of time,"

Kat smiled and nodded, "Yeah that sounds ideal. Sorry that it's not working out all that well. Though… I do have to ask, why doesn't March use this stuff?"

"She was actually the one who told me about this place and I had the same exact question. Turns out? This stuff is good for… general stuff. You punch the bag, you lift the weights, you get in a groove and just repeat stuff. Good for building up your basics, your foundation. March however is mostly working on all the muscles that don't normally get used.

"Not sure why. I didn't think to ask at the time. Perhaps she needs to bring all of her muscles up to a level playing field? Perhaps she's worked the other ones to their peak and can't get any more out of it. I really couldn't say. Then there's the fact that the weights aren't properly weighted for her.

It's a Rank 2 gym. Probably because Rank 3 stuff would be really expensive and specialised.

"Heck, even calling it a Rank 2 gym is a bit overly generous. It's around mid-tier Rank 2. This bag I'm smacking? It's just to burn steam. March could punch it to pieces with one good punch and if I was putting in the effort? I'm pretty sure I could wreck it in an afternoon.

Now, the fact it has some repair enchantments on top of the rest really helps its longevity but yeah… just not up to March's ridiculous standards,"

"Guess it's not something I'd find much use out of either. So I guess it doesn't matter that I didn't know about it before now," mumbled Kat.

"That's about how it goes," agreed Burgandy as she shrugged and went back to punching things.

--- Kat --- (Sometime later on the beach)

"Hey Kat! Get over here!" called the yell from down the beach. Kat shrugged and followed the sound until she found Marigold and Vanya… naked on the sand. Kat spun on her heel and started walking away. "Hey! Don't you run away from us!"

"You'll find that I'm walking away!" Kat shouted in return.

"If you don't come back I'll jump on you naked!" shouted Marigold.

"I can outrun you!" retorted Kat.

"I… hmm…" Marigold turned over to Vanya. "Vanya? Ideas?"

"Um… put on clothes?" offered Vanya.

"That's quitter talk," insisted Marigold. Vanya just shrugged in response. "Look Kat! Do you really want to give up on the chance to chat with us? Going to leave without saying goodbye?"

Kat rolled her eyes. *Lily you want to turn around?*

[Eh it's just Marigold. Well Marigold and Vanya. I say we turn around… but I will remain like this. No transforming. It's much easier to push down my lust like this.]

Kat shrugged and turned back around, walked over to Marigold who was grinning… and then promptly closed her eyes. "Well that's just giving me permission to mess with you in other ways," said Marigold.

Kat shrugged, "I've got pretty good hearing I'm not that worried. Then again, I'm mostly doing this to annoy you. You and Vanya already know I'm asexual so seeing you naked does basically nothing to me,"

"You make a compelling counterpoint… so I guess I'll just sit here and enjoy the sun," said Marigold.

"Actually yeah… why are you doing that? I would've thought your regeneration would keep you from getting a tan," asked Kat.

"Oh it totally will. This does nothing for my tan… but it's good practice for my healing actually. It gives me better body awareness and lets me get practice with shutting down healing to specific areas. You can't see it right now, but I've been trying to write out 'I'm horny' across my stomach but it's much harder than you think to get just those words burnt into me," explained Marigold.

"That… ok that's sounds a bit ridiculous. You probably don't burn all that quickly so this is a massive time sink… is it really that useful?" asked Kat.

"Eh… useful? Sort of. In theory this is really good training for subconscious control. In practice? Not so much," answered Marigold.

Lily poked at Kat to ask "Can you elaborate on that?"

"Sure," said Marigold as she wiggled a bit in place. Not that Kat saw. Vanya though, her eyes drawn to Marigold's movements, entranced. "So, there are some poisons that specifically work against regenerators. The specifics vary but they do work. Theoretically?

If I get good enough at controlling my sunburn I could chase that sort of poison out of my body.

"Additionally, I can use this sort of technique to take mostly cosmetic damage without the enemy catching on that I'm healing everything underneath. At the same time? It's not likely that this is the best way to train for stuff like that, and it probably won't amount to anything… but the sun on my skin feels great and teasing people that walk past is a lot of fun.

It's just a bit of mental stimulation for me while I bask in the sun I guess,"

"What does Vanya get out of it?" asked Kat.

"She gets to see me naked," answered Marigold like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kat thought for a moment and conceded it probably was.

Lily 'asked' another question "So… can you tell me a bit more about that poison? I don't really see how that works…"

"Ah, well… at the highest level? It works by convincing your body that your current state isn't ideal and forces you to expend mana to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Another way is to go for cancer… but honestly that doesn't really work on proper regenerators. Monsters? Sure. People who learn to heal themselves?

Sometimes. Someone with regeneration affinity? Pretty much never.

"Oh, um… one other way is a poison that tricks you into thinking your body is dead and tries to get you to make a whole new one. But it doesn't work all that well because regenerating your entire body is less expensive mana wise then you think. Especially when there's not anything wrong with you. Part of your mind just thinks there is," explained Marigold.

"So it's not really an issue?" asked Kat.

"Not really no. Once you know about them and have even a bit of control they're easy to deal with. So many of them are just 'burn their mana' with extra steps. The ideal way to poison a regenerator is to have one single substance that both forces the body to waste mana if you try regenerating while also dealing a lot of internal damage… but it's basically impossible to combine that sort of stuff.

Because if damage is being done you can purge the garbage from your system," explained Marigold.

"Hmm… I haven't really thought about this sort of stuff you know? Never thought about if I'd need to be careful of that sort of poison," said Kat.

"Ah I wouldn't worry about it," said Marigold with a wave. "You're a demon and demonic energy tends to be… a bit more hostile to shit it doesn't like. If you were poisoned? I'd give it like an 80% chance of doing fuck all unless it was demon specific, and even then if you just pushed enough energy at the problem it'd go away."

"Well that's one less worry I suppose," mumbled Kat.

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