"Uuughhh..."
"No way..."
"Another bust? Are you kidding me?!"
"Weeks of preparation...for this?"
"It took days to draw that sigil just right, too!"
A chorus of disappointed cries and groans echo throughout the makeshift summoning room. All the goths looked very upset, and one of them was even starting to cry.
"W-waaahhh..." she sniffled, "Instructor Lina, are we really that bad at this? We can't even manage a basic summoning ritual...this was the weakest one in the book...!"
The oldest goth was almost too defeated to try and comfort the poor girl, her own self-esteem taking a hard hit from this failure. Carl, meanwhile, couldn't even get a kick out of this; even on his worst days, he was pretty damn sure he wasn't this pathetic.
Finally, the leader of the bunch uttered some words of reassurance to the younger goth, "Don't worry, Shelly, I'm sure we just miscalculated how much powdered mandragora root we needed to use." She pats the girl (apparently named Shelly) on the head, gets off her chair, and clears her throat, ready to re-inspire her apprentices.
She motions to each of the girls, lining them up for a roll call.
"Shelly!"
"P-present, and reporting for duty, ma'am!" the petite, emotional goth from before responded, raising her right arm up in a fierce army salute—at least, as fierce as it could be, coming from someone of her tiny stature.
"Charlie!"
A rather plain, average-height goth with not much to discern herself from the others raised one of her hands, the other absentmindedly playing with her skirt. "Present."
"Charlotte!"
The snarky goth who called Carl a dweeb—how uncouth!—crossed her arms, and muttered 'present' with a hint of annoyance.
"Shirley!"
The largest of the students sat up from her chair, sulking and generally looking a bit downcast from the failed ritual. She only spoke with a terse 'here', and left it at that.
"Patty!"
The last goth remaining said nothing, choosing instead to stay still in her seat. Wait a minute...was she snoring?
"PATTY!"
She cringed, nearly jumping out of her seat. "Okay, jeez, I'm here." she mumbled, clearly unenthused with the current situation.
"Okay girls, acquiring the materials again might be a pain, but I'm sure if all six of us work together and do our due diligence—looking at you, Patty—we can get the same ritual up and running in a week's time. The Pododaimones might have failed now, but we can't give up hope just yet. As long as we try, we can always surely do! The world will be beneath our feet in no time!"
The girls look back to their teacher, her speech mildly cheering them up. Even Patty looked kinda happy. After that pep talk, they all started to converse with each other again, singing some kind of made-up theme song for their goth group. Carl thought it was somewhat touching, if quite bizarre.
Unfortunately for him, it didn't take long for one of them to take note of his continued presence.
"What about that dweeb from before? He's still here!" Charlotte piped up, drawing him into the center of attention once again.
Charlie added in, "Yeah, why'd he have to come and ruin everything!"
Shelly turned her head to the side and pouted. "Jerk!"
Any sympathy Carl had for these ineffectual goth chicks vanished. "H-hey! First of all, I'm not a dweeb, or a jerk for that matter! I'm just very passionate about my duty to society," he took a moment to strike a pose, closing his eyes, raising his chin, and holding a fist to his chest. "Second of all, I didn't do anything; you guys were the ones who screwed up this weird, foot-based ritual thingy!"
From some nondescript location, an unknown voice whines. Oh, Carl, you're an idiot! That didn't help your situation at all!
As the girls got riled up at our awkward greenhorn of a hero (who has recently added 'intruder' to his embarrassingly long list of self-descriptors), something had changed in the atmosphere of the room...
---
Option A) The ritual was a success after all! A Foot Demon (potentially stronger than what they expected) was successfully summoned; now Carl has to deal with six troublemakers and a less-than-ideal threat. The loyalty of said demon still doesn't necessarily have to lie with the goths.
Option B) The ritual didn't summon a Foot Demon; instead, it malfunctioned and bestowed those present for the ritual the aspect of Foot Demons. The goths now have various Foot Demon powers, and their scent has become way more potent than before!
Option C) Instructor Lina decides to force Carl to prostrate at the summoning sigil, thinking that it might cause the ritual to succeed. Even if it doesn't, it's a pretty effective way to raise group morale after this little setback.
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