BXBX NOVEL Chapter 607: Waiting Room
Chapter 607: Waiting Room
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Evaline managed to show surprising speed and dexterity and remained out of Lily\'s reach the whole time. Lily was rapidly flagging, the lack of breakfast not having helped matters, when a pentagram appeared beneath her feet. It was ten thirty. Before she could recover from running so much and process what was going on, Evaline came up behind her and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck dear. Make sure to ask questions and try not to do anything I wouldn\'t do!" cheered Evaline.
Lily scoffed even as she leaned into the hug, "Mum, you wouldn\'t abandon your humanity to become a cat person so that you could live forever with your asexual demon girlfriend."
Evaline rolled her eyes and responded in jest, "Of course not, how you managed to find a demon girlfriend on Earth is beyond me, especially one that\'s asexual. Aw well, women never did anything for me anyway" Evaline let out a long fake sigh as if the weight of the world was crushing her at the injustice of not liking other women. Woah is Evaline.
The pair let out a set of synchronised giggling. "Thanks Mum. For… being pretty cool about this, and… thanks really for being ok with the fact I\'m gay. I know… I know it might not seem like a big thing to care for your daughter but… I\'ve read about plenty of girls whose parents kicked them out over it, and while the whole Stella thing sucked majorly… at least I had you by my side."
"Always Lily. Well, maybe not always, you\'ll outlive me in a big way, but while I\'m still around I\'ll always have you back" said Evaline as she gave Lily a light push and the flames engulfed her daughter.
Lily instinctively closed her eyes to hide from the light but felt no burning nor could she flashes of light from behind her eyes. Carefully opening them she found a sea of flames, the same one Kat saw when teleporting, though less detailed. Lily\'s mind could not comprehend the full scope of what Kat saw, and Kat too could not comprehend the full scope of the fire.
*This is beautiful. I guess I understand now why Kat complained about Thyme\'s teleportation. If she sees this every time she goes off on a contract… it\'s a breathtaking sight and the ride is so smooth. I just feel like I\'m standing in place despite the movement.*
Unlike Kat, Lily\'s journey was over quickly and she soon found herself dropped into a room. The walls were made in such a way to look like she was on a hill and the walls and floor almost perfectly mimicked the outside world. The corners were the only things to spoil the illusion but Lily had a suspicion that was intentional. On the ground was a couple of chairs and some beanbags spread out over the floor. In one corner there was even a stack of blankets.
*Right… so… I guess I\'m in the right place? Do I just… well no now that I look I realise I can\'t see a door anywhere so I\'ll have to just sit down and wait. Not quite what I had in mind for a demon waiting room. I wonder how Kat\'s true sight would work with the walls.*
Lily decided to take on of the chairs, she wasn\'t overly tired right now and didn\'t feel like taking a nap. The chair she grabbed was more like a lawn chair and let her gaze up at the \'ceiling\' which was filled with clouds. She also noticed that despite seeing a sun, it didn\'t hurt her eyes to glance at and was thankful for the clear care that had been put into the room. Almost without noticing, tension bled out of her. It was unnaturally quick, and probably the work of an enchantment, but Lily\'s mind was able to accept this easily. It was no problem, she felt safe and the calming effect was nice.
Eventually, she heard a click that seemed to echo throughout the moon, and craned her neck to see where it came from. What she found was an open door in the wall right where one of the few trees she could see in the background was. Now that she\'d noticed it, she also noted that the tree in question had a notable protrusion at about the height you\'d expect a door handle to be.
The figure who stepped inside was immediately recognisable as Nira. Though her hair was up in a bun at the back of her head and she had on a heavy lab coat her face and eyes were exactly as described by Kat. The eyes in particular made it very hard for her to be mistaken as someone else. Still, Lily thought it best to check. "Hello, my name is Lily."
"Hello Lily, I\'m Nira. I\'ve been assigned as your attending because of the requests you and Kat made to include my presence. On top of that my history with the research and development side of medicine was able to push me above the other suitable candidates. Do you know what I am here for?" explained Nira.
"Not really?" said Lily honestly.
"Right well, just get comfortable because I have a few things to go over with you. Now, my main purpose is to inform you about the procedure and answer any questions you might have. I\'m trading my time for the chance to observe the process but I was required to read up on exactly what is going to happen and have some prior experience with similar things so I should be able to answer everything.
"Firstly, I would ask you if you truly wish to go through with this. I\'d ask at first right now, then after I describe the procedure and the details involved… however you will not have this choice. I don\'t fully understand but whatever was used to initiate this procedure required you to give your final confirmation. I instead need to warn you that while we will try to accommodate you as much as possible the procedure MUST go through.
"That being said, you shouldn\'t have much to worry about. While I would not call this operation entirely safe, with all the recovery options available long term damage is unlikely. The reason for this is that we\'ll be preserving your body during the operation and returning your soul to it is surprisingly easy in a controlled environment. The soul is also quite resilient. Damaging the soul is impossible difficult, it is the connection between body and soul that is at risk here, however, as I said, in this controlled environment the chance of that is minimal.
"On the other hand… I suppose the best thing to call them would be intended side effects, they are things you need to be made aware of. Your new body will be just that, knew, and because you have chosen Memphis as your beast heritage you will have to start out as a Memphis while your soul stabilises. This is because, unlike normal beastkin, your default form will be that of a Memphis.
"Furthermore, a Memphis body comes with certain instincts and while your sentience can and will help you ignore them, it\'s not a long term solution. You will need to learn which behaviours to lean into to relieve the pressure on your mind and instincts. It isn\'t too bad, as a Memphis has always been a manufactured creature, so they are less then a typical wild animal but the ones I need to warn you about…
"Firstly, you will be drawn to whoever you bond with. This is in a more literal sense. Your affection for them won\'t change" Lily went slightly red and Nira grinned at the response. She wanted to joke about it, very much so, but she was currently working and it wasn\'t appropriate so she held her tongue, "simply having your partner leave the room you are in will immediately cause agitation. Now, you will be able to tell the difference between that agitation and a sense of true danger from being too separated, but it won\'t exactly be pleasant. Memphis were designed as companion creatures and that is the most deeply ingrained instinct they have.
"Next is the desire to sleep. It\'s not overpowering but you will feel like you require additional sleep. You do not, as a matter of fact, but the desire will remain. You certainly CAN sleep as your body requests it, but it is not necessary. Personally, I would recommend utilising this instinct and the desire to remain close to your partner to sleep on their shoulder, head or around their neck. This satisfies two instincts at once.
"Another instinct to be aware of is the desire to consume. Now, this was is a feature we\'ve since removed because it doesn\'t work properly, but when you see something powerful you will feel the urge to try and eat it. I\'d recommend not giving in to this one. As we\'ve tried to remove it, and been somewhat successful, with a bit of effort on your behalf you can remove it completely.
"That\'s all the big ones… but there are a few other minor ones you may want to be aware off…