With ten pairs of eyes bearing down on him, all Carl could manage to say was. "Squidge! Just for once could you be on my side?"
'Nope. Lydia, Mummy, Grandma, Grandma, then Danielle if it's about Mummy, then you. If it makes you feel any better I'd take orders from a walking tree over Gillian.' Squidge summarised his internal hierarchy so succinctly Carl couldn't even be mad.
"Yeah, fair enough. Look Klaire, children isn't even something I have thought of yet, but honestly I have my hands full with the increasing difficult jelly, so yes, I would still love you if you couldn't have children... BUT! Honestly, it has nothing to do with me, I have no right to tell you what to do with your life or body, all I can do is my best to make sure you come out the other side, like with the wyvern."
Out of nowhere a hand found his face and sent him sprawling. "That's for all the nights she crawled because you forgot you could talk to her. Now, with that I'm willing to forgive you." Danielle said, whilst the others winced. The woman was no joke, her stats were mostly ten-digits and she was widely expected to be the next family head, despite being one of the youngest candidates, which is a very big deal to banshee.
"Mum, that was a little harsh... But, I can't say "it wasn't deserved"... Or unsatisfying." Klaire finished.
After Carl had shaken it off and found his feet, Lydia suggested they go to the park floor and let Squidge spread his legs and wings for a bit whilst Carl decided on what animals he should request.
As the others with him and also people familiar with Squidge observed his new form and flight experiments in different matter forms, Klaire eventually sat beside him. "Any ideas?"
"Yep, just look for the beasts, this catalogue is massive and they haven't fixed the search bar yet." He said without turning, completely absorbed in his current objective.
"What beasts are you wanting?"
"I want a siren, a calm spirit and a banishing eye..." Carl muttered just loud enough to draw the attention of all three adults.
"Those are expensive beasts."
"Yeah like money matters when I love living volcano, I could die at any time so I might as keep the volcano safe."
"Err Carl... You just said the L-word you know... Oh and also..." Before Alisha could finish warning her son, the volcano erupted and sent him flying.
"Damn! What did I say?"
"You said you're an idiot who needs to apologise, choose the animals, then leave me and mum to have a chat while you go get them and I suggest you have flowers waiting," Klaire demanded, a little disappointed when Carl just stood up and apologised before starting to work on that list.
"Yes! Looks like they have all three. H-"
[SYSTEM NOTICE : PET MATERIAL CAP HAS INCREASED TO FOUR AT LEVEL 5 ]
"GOD DAMMIT!" Carl shouted, drawing the attention of everyone nearby and turning bright red as a result. "Can I just add DIV to it rather than look for another beast?" He finished, ignoring the stares and not entirely expecting a response from his incredibly whimsical build that answered only when it wanted to.
[ ADDING DIV IS POSSIBLE ]
[ RESULTS WILL CHANGE OUTCOME DRAMATICALLY DEPENDING ON VALUE ]
"Great, well then..." Carl pulled out his personal slate, messaged Professor Liam, Blaine the beast handler he was pen-pals with and the supplier with his choices and a meeting place.
"On my way to park now... I HEARD SQUIDGE HAS CHANGED, YOU MUST TELL ME THESE THINGS!!!" Professor Liam responded first despite being the last to see the message on the new group chat.
"Ooooo, sounds exciting, I'll be there. It is pretty quiet this close to dead week..."
"Kid, I'll be there, still don't believe what the idiot above me said. Those choices though, hope your wallet's as lively as his imagination and they are, bring this Squidge to I may have a proposition for you. HAHAHAHA!" Carl didn't like the ominous undertone of the last message, but beast trappers weren't known for their smooth talking and often gave off a naturally ominous vibe.
"Okay, Professor Liam will be here shortly, want me to message you when I have an apology present ready?"
"Carl are you okay?" Klaire asked, concerned at how unusually submissive he seemed and the outburst wasn't comforting either.
"No, I'm not. That man is under my skin, I didn't want to use DIV because I think that's what he meant when he mentioned juices before resurrecting us, but I guess I have to face my trauma as bravely as you are."
"If you need me, call. I'll come running." Klaire said as she hugged him.
"Same... I also don't want to be away from you after watching that."
"Same and I was already gone by the time you were..."
They both started crying as the adults pulled them apart gently, they understood, the trauma the two were feeling must have been extreme, to die, for Carl to watch them die, then all brought back like it was a sick joke, whilst the man who done it sounded completely deranged.
"Come on you two, best to rip this plaster off before it gets stuck too well." Lydia said, tearing up slightly as she thought about what she nearly had to welcome back in the gate room.
With that, they were pulled away from each other, even before Liam had arrived to join them. The adults knew that every second they were close would make it harder from their display, so they didn't want to wait even a second longer.
An hour later they were at the agreed meeting place, an IDC that the supplier always attended personally because he grew up in the area and like to see what the local kids picked.
"Well if it isn't the man, the myth, the legend" He laughed, the man was surprisingly young and light-hearted, not what Carl expected at all and that changed how he read the message in his head.
"I wouldn't say man quite yet, still in school, but the other two... Well, you got me." Lydia gave a sarcastic cackle, his mum smacked him over the head and told him to watch the arrogance. "Sorry sir... I have been looking forward to meeting you to, but want to make this clear, you cant't have anything I make."
"Slow your roll kid..." He chuckled. "I like you and I want your babies." He laughed, throwing Lydia a wink when she joined him. "Where there is one, there is more, I only want one of the babies one of those creatures one day makes, of course only if it accepts a contract and only if the parents and creator are okay with it."
Carl thought for a moment, while he did, Lydia let him down with a gentle but immediate rejection. "Look, I have to say no, sorry... My Squidge is like my own kid, even calls me dad, but I may have another offer for you one day soon..."
"Intruiging... Offer when it's time and we'll see where the dice fall. Now where is the other idi-"
"Sorry I'm late... Things picked up, hello everyone and Squidge! How you've grown... Did you always have wings?
Carl ignored Blaine's rambling and just returned the greeting, then returned his attention to the other man. "Sorry I didn't get a name for you..."
"Ah, yes, like to stay off record. Otherwise I'd have people banging down my door for personal requests, but you can make your own so my name is Noah, yes, I know, I have heard all the jokes before." He laughed though his eyes revealed the truth of that sentiment.
"Well Noah, lead the way." Lydia said, making him wince with melodramatic heartache and making it clear he wasn't giving up so easily.
When they entered the private room where Noah had put the creatures aside for him, Carl asked for them all to be let out of the enclosures when he was ready.
As his finger hovered over the button, he turned back to Carl. "You sure? I'll warn you the siren is a feisty one and refused to eat much, so she's gonna be hungry." Carl nodded with certainty, this was for Klaire, he would make it submit if he needed to.
The button beeped, the doors slid open and the siren stepped out of its one first, looking like it was about to start singing, but then it hesitated.
"... Or not. You got a gift with women my man." Noah joked, relaxing to try and hide his readiness to stop it.
Carl looked at it, it looked like a human almost, or at least close enough that someone could mistake it for one if taken by surprise, like this the differences were clear. No ears, just a small cavity where they should be, webbing stretched between clawed fingers, teeth designed to rip flesh apart quickly.
Then the banishing eye floated out, their form was fairly simple but largely unnerving. A Massive eye with a leathery carapace a few thin tentacles that it used to manipulate and hold things.
They had a strange ability to will things into existence as long as they were smaller than it and it could use attacks of every element. In short, it could produce food and water and was possibly able or be able to eventually neutralise elemental threats.
Finally the calm spirit, which stayed put, a little intimidated by the other two, the bizarre contradiction was that as timid and anxious as calm spirits were, they could neutralise peoples fears and anxieties, even being this close and contracted, he could feel some of his diminishing. All of them in fact, except for one, the one that seized at his very existence, the one he felt in the presence of that man.
It's body was made up purely of light flickers that were grouped together, the larger those flickers were, the older the spirit and stronger it was.
"Were you right there when this one was born?"
"Yes actually, it was born from the first one I ever caught, just a week ago. The only fee I charged the man was exclusive rights to its children. That was the only private commission I ever took."
With how much it was listed for, he could have retired just on that commission, he clearly simply did the job because he loved doing it.
Finally Carl took a deep breath, then a step forward, lowering himself slightly.
"Is he?..."
Then another, then another, then when he was within range of all three he knelt and turned his back on them.
"What kind of old-world nut job is that kid? There's a reason no one uses those methods anym-" He wasn't wrong, the book his mother gave him was very, very old, not that she knew given its immaculate condition next to him when she first found Carl as a baby. The reason Noah stopped though wasn't because the beasts attacked like he thought they would, but because they didn't.
The Siren crawled on all fours til it sat in front of him, resting its head on his lap like a pillow, purring like a kitten.
The Banishing eye lowered to float no higher than his chin then finally landed in his lap, only aggravated by the siren taking up most of the room, but relaxing when Carl gave it a little tickle on the leathery carapace.
The calm spirit simply flittered through his chest repeatedly.
"Not just women kid, what the hell did you do to them? I've never even hear of a siren purring."
"He's always been good with animals, beasts used to wander into our shack all the time, scared him silly because he didn't understand they just wanted to be close to him."
"Good with animals, doesn't quite cut it. That kid wasn't arrogant, he is a legend, at least to someone in my profession."