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

--- Kat ---

The funny music cut out only to be replaced by low, slow drum beats. The camera zoomed in and made it look like Carl was stepping into a challenge room instead of being teleported in. Then the camera kept zooming in past Carl's back to show off a sign that read, 'Ensure the equation on the blackboard is correct with one change'. Carl stepped forward again as the camera cut between twelve freeze frames of Carl's foot. 

When the camera stopped switching rapidly it instead focused on a simple looking equation. '1+2' but then it zoomed out, the equation was revealed to just be a small part of a larger one. The drumbeats got louder, faster, as the camera zoomed out quickly, giving you only a brief glance at the full equation before Carl's body covered it. The drumbeats got faster. 

The camera zoomed in to be roughly inline with where Carl's eyes were supposed to be as it showed off the equation in its full glory. It was a massive set of calculations filled with everything from factorials to imaginary numbers and back to basic addition and subtraction. All separated by a small equals sign right in the middle that kept the two massive halves of this complex equation separated. 

It was clear that if Carl wanted to equalise them, he would need to study both sides, complete the equations to find out what they actually came out to, and then search for the one change that would fix it all. The drums swelled, a trumpet solo joined in as the camera cut to swivelling shot of Carl. The view spun with Carl in the centre increasing in speed rapidly till it was nothing but a blur and the drums were sounding like cracks of thunder, punctuated only by the exceptional call of the trumpet player in background… who was probably just a Thyme copy. 

The blurred image of Carl suddenly paused on his hand as it reached out for a single piece of chalk, completely ignoring the eraser available to him. As his hand grasped the chalk the music cut out completely for a few seconds. A slow-downed rendition of Carl reaching up towards the equation was accompanied by a quiet violin solo. Then, just as Carl made his move a whole orchestra joined in as he slashed a thick line through the equals sign. Thus, the equation was corrected. The left and right side, did not equal each other. 

Lily couldn't help it and burst into laughter. Well, it was more like a snickering, she was a cat at the moment after all and lacked the right vocal cords to properly laugh. It was very amusing though. Kat couldn't help but smile at it as well. *Gotta admit, that was a great bit of editing. A wasn't ready for Carl to just… make it so the equations don't equal each other. I wonder what the 'proper' solution is.*

[Just at a guess, you could erase everything on the board. That's 'one change' arguably anyway.] 

Kat nodded in understanding as the next clip played. The music instantly changed and now it sounded vaguely reminiscent of the benny hill theme. It showed Burnice hopping off the platform that had been struck by lightning, falling, and then repeating the motion again. It was clearly doctored because Burnice jumped of six times in the clip. It was still quite amusing to watch though. 

Kat couldn't help but grin as she saw the next clip which was Nell, standing at the edge of a donut shaped bowl. In the centre was a banana made of gold. A sign in the corner revealed that she just needed to grab the banana and put it on the stand nearby. The problem? Well the bowl was filled with banana skins and some slippery coating that looked a bit like sap. Nell attempted to jump straight for the banana but didn't quite make it. Seeing this, she tried to brace herself with her hands… 

But instead, she slipped down the centre podium with great speed flying backwards towards the edge of the bowl… only to lose her grip and fall onto her back, sliding forward again towards the podium. Nell growled as she tried to get a grip on things, even going so far as attacking the ground to try and make an indent for her to grab onto. The floor was resilient to her efforts and remained strong. 

Nell kept sliding around for some time until she eventually slid to stop at the lowest point of the bowl. Nell seemed to just… sit there for a few moments as she contemplated her life choices. Then, very slowly she tried to stand… and instantly slipped over again. Still, Nell was not to be deterred. She tried a second time, much more slowly… and managed to get to her feet without falling over. 

Nell glared at the banana. Unsure of how she was going to get it. After a few seconds of contemplation Nell started to carefully walk… away from the banana? Yes that's right, Nell got to the edge and just as she felt herself starting to slip she pushed her weight in the other direction and did a sort of half slipping walk. Nell got to the other side… and slid as far as she could before turning around. 

Nell proceeded to slide from one side to the other, gathering momentum as she did so… until success she managed to escape the hellish trap that Thyme had made and grabbed hold of the golden banana… only for it to slip from her fingers. After all the sliding she'd done earlier, the slippery sap covered both of her hands. Nell looked down at those same hands in horror. Aware of the terrible fate that awaited her. Then the scene cut to black. 

*Wait I want to know how she managed to finally pick it up!*

[Yeah! What sort of a business are you running here Thyme!]

The next scene was Green answering the chipmunk riddle, something Nixilei had missed, so she looked down at Green and asked. "Was that really a question?" 

"Yup, it was easier then the medical ones they asked me," said Green. 

"Right…" mumbled Nixilei. 

Asteodia just chuckled at the interaction between the two of them as the clip changed over to Carl being asked what Thyme's favourite genre of novel is. Carl replied "Sapphic romance because it's got Sap in the name," 

The text box with the question seemed to buzz at the answer for a bit before you could see new text. "It's not correct but I'll accept that pun as an answer," 

Kat and Lily shared a look, both knowing what type of story that was before glaring up at Thyme. Others, not knowing what Carl was talking about didn't really react. [Why would Carl know about that kind of romance anyway? I mean… he's gay]

*Maybe someone directed him towards it as a joke? Just told him it was gay romance without specifying further?*

[Hmm… weird but yeah I can see it.]

The next few clips were various stills of funny faces the competitors made. Green slamming into the puzzle box. Carl sneezing at just the right angle to make it look like Nell was flying out of his nose instead of just being in the background. Nell and Burgandy making annoyed faces as they fell from their platforms when things started to move. It was quite silly, but not quite up to the standards of the clip of Carl doing math. At least, in Lily and Kat's shared opinion. 

Then the clip transitioned into the final scene, with Green trying to climb the last few platforms and catch up to Burgandy. But it wasn't all that close and everyone already knew how that ended. So Kat in an effort to distract Green who was now pouting, asked, "So what clip was everyone's favourite? Lily and I liked that clip of Carl with the math equation," 

Nixilei thought for a few moments as Asteodia chimed in with, "Perhaps it's a bit rude of me to say but I think that clip of Nell staring at her empty hands in horror after losing the golden banana was my favourite. I really felt the emotions in that one. Though yeah, I feel a bit bad for her, that would've been heartbreaking," 

Nixilei, deciding to stir the pot, said "My favourite had to have been the final clip," 

Green grumbled, not willing to let Nixilei 'win' by making her truly annoyed. She was still annoyed though, and changed her answer to, "Well my favourite clip was watching Burnice jump off that hot platform over and over again. I didn't get to enjoy it that many times when I was actually in the obstacle course, and the time between each jump was a big wait," 

*Well. So much for that distraction.*

[There there Kat. I'm sure they won't spend too long fighting. Green will want to go visit Gareth after all.]