After a full ten minutes of horn investigation Kat was getting a bit bored. Which was rare for someone like her who could find the joy in relaxing just about anywhere and understood the meaning of patience extremely well. This was however getting stretched nearly too its limit with Callisto. She hadn't said anything or done anything new in the past 5 minutes. Callisto would carefully tap a spot on Kat's horns wait for anything to happen and then repeat the process.
"Um Kallisto? Don't you have anything better to do?" asked Kat
"Nope" said Callisto continuing her ongoing investigation of Kat's horns.
Kat was stunned. She hadn't expected someone to just outright admit they didn't have anything better to be doing then poking her with a stick to see what happened. *Is she serious? How could she possibly be learning anything new about my horns after the first hundred taps?*
"Would you perhaps like to do something else?" asked Kat
"That's two questions in a row" said Callisto "But I guess I'll answer anyway. Your body is extremely fascinating. It seems to break the laws of this universe, or at least I suspect it does. And I can't help but wonder what purpose each piece serves. Actually I guess I will ask my question, is there anything else you got when you became a demon?"
"Yes" said Kat *Two can play at the stupid answer game if you really want Callisto.*
"I suppose I deserve that one. Well go ahead then, I surrender myself to your questioning" said Callisto who, contrary to the statement she was surrendering, was in fact still investigating Kat's horns, though she moved on from minor taping to running her hand along the edges.
*What do I even ask? I hadn't really prepared questions unlike Callisto seems to have. Is there really anything I want to know about her? I mean, I guess it's actually a matter of which questions not to ask. The room already brings up several but I want to know more about her as a person if possible.*
"Please tell me the story of how you and Vivian met" asked Kat
"Well, before I answer that I'd like clarification. Do you want to know how I met Vivian or how Vivian met me?" said Callisto
"Is there a difference?" asked Kat
"Why of course there is. I knew of Vivian's existence long before she ever knew of mine. I'm not sure which you'd prefer but they are both interesting enough tales to tell. Both with Vivian in the staring role of course" said Callisto
"Well, let's go with whichever one happened first then" said Kat
"Excellent let me set the scene" said Callisto running over to grab the chair for her computer desk she wheeled it behind Kat to let her sit down. Spinning the chair around once Callisto jumped back and began.
"So, for the first story we will have to be how I met Vivian. As I said I knew of her existence before mine, which I thought would imply it happened first? But anyway I'm already getting distracted by minor inconsistencies.
"It was a day of moderate temperature. Perhaps some would say it was too cold, but an equal number would say it was too hot. Of course none of this mattered truly because the school had air conditioning running. It was the first class after lunch, and it was woodwork. Vivian and I were the only women who actually chose to take it. I already knew how to cook and sew so I thought I'd do something useful with my time.
"Vivian on the other hand just seemed to think it would be more fun than anything else, or at least that's what she tells me. It was the second week of term and already she was causing problems. We were younger than, fresh out of primary school so people were starting to get to that awkward teenage phase.
"I actually quite safe in the woodworking class, I didn't look as immaculate as I do now. Back then I had horrible acne and tried to wear a nice scarf to cover it up. Of course I know now I just looked like the lunatic who wore a scarf to school everyday but that's in the past. Anyway, that coupled with my underdeveloped build and the fact I was sick the first two weeks meant that nobody had really noticed I was a girl.
"This meant that to the rest of the class Vivian was the only female present. The only one that shouldn't have been there in the eyes of most the class. Luckily the teacher didn't count among those numbers, but it was the start of term and they hadn't had to confront any students to directly yet, so everyone was trying to toe the line.
"The issue came when we were instructed to mess around a little with the carving tools and make something to show our parents. We were recommended to keep it simple, like carving our names into something or if we were feeling really adventurous to try and carve a scene into a block of wood.
"Now Vivian, Vivian took this as a challenge, so when the wood slab was provided for us instead of carving something minor like a normal person, she went into a flurry of movement, shaving bits and pieces of wood here and there. It was at this moment I'd stopped working on my own project just to watch her. The speed and accuracy that she managed to carve was astounding to my young self and even thinking back on it I doubt I could match the energy she displayed after learning woodworking and practicing it as part of my job.
"Of course before long I wasn't the only one watching Vivian carve, eventually it was a class wide event. Everyone had pretty much given up on completing there own work on time if it meant watching the spectacle Vivian had created.
"Quite some time passed. Even the teacher was enthralled with her. It wasn't until Vivian finally stopped moving did the spell finally break. Now at the time I didn't know how long it had been, I only later found out we'd watched her carve this thing for over half an hour. After a minute of silence the teacher finally asked 'Vivian, what did you make' and she replied with that big bright smile on her face I'm sure you already know 'I made the world's greatest toothpick because I have lunch stuck in my teeth'
"You could hear a pin drop in that room. Here was this kid that we'd just watched carve up a storm with a passion and fire that nobody would argue was fake. And it had all been for a toothpick. Yelling and cussing rang out throughout the classroom. The kids accused her of being a show off, most of them said stuff along the lines of 'this is why girls can't do woodwork' and other such nonsense. Even the teacher looked quite irritated with her, but then he seemed to catch something out of the corner of his eye and he slammed his hand down on the desk
"He said 'Enough class. I said to make something simple, and Vivian seems to be the only person who even tried. Look at you all. You just spent the last half hour watching a girls first attempt at woodworking without trying anything yourselves and instead of congratulating her on being the first to finish something, you scream at her. Not only is what she made complete, it is also functional and useful. I'd give her full marks if I was grading this assessment now sit down and think about what you've done'
"Now I wasn't harassing her like the others. As much as I wish to say I was trying to defend her that would be a lie on my behalf. But no, I was sure she'd made something better, and when I saw that strange look pass over the teachers face I knew the others had all missed something. So I stared at her hands trying to figure out what she'd done, when I saw it. Vivian had carved a beautiful flower. The only problem of course was that it was carved into the desk and not the block of wood she'd been provided which she'd actually knocked off the desk when she went to grab her tools.
"I don't think anybody ever noticed that carving, and I also learnt the desks in the woodwork room are made from spare timber and easily replaced so as to avoid accidents not quite like this one. When I noticed the flower missing the second time, we had class I was actually a little devastated. It was such an amazing work, I was upset at the idea it had been destroyed. Yet I was the fool, the teacher knew that it was special, because if you looked closely, the front of the teacher's desk had been modified. It now had the carving of a flower slotted into the front with the edges trimmed well so as to look like a continuous piece of wood.
"No one else ever commented on the flower the teachers desk now held. I like to think they noticed, but I'm not sure they really did. It really was an amazing sight. It wasn't the best-looking flower you'd ever seen. The technique was sloppy, the edges weren't carved symmetrically, heck there where chips in the edges in a number of places as well. But that didn't matter to me, or clearly the teacher.. We had seen the passion that led to it's creation and it was breathtaking to behold.