Chapter 766

“Do you guys ever go on vacation?” asked ‘Lily’ “I know Kat doesn’t unless you count school trips she hasn’t ever been on any herself. Well, Contracts excluded of course,”

“Why don’t you share your own experiences first,” said Sue as she put a forkful of pancakes in her mouth, making sure to eat it as seductively as possible. Pushing the fork deep into her mouth, letting a little trickle of syrup run down her mouth, pushing her chest out as she did. The works really.

Lily rolled her head, seeing as her eyes weren’t really built for it anymore, “Fine. I haven’t really gone anywhere recently because while my family isn’t bad off, we aren’t super rich either. You remember that story from my confession? Well, after the drama with Stella I had to leave school, and there was only one in that town. So we had to get up and move somewhere completely different.

“Buying a house, even when you have one to sell, isn’t exactly cheap. We only used to have a holiday every second year. Well, my parents would go more often. They had a system where they’d take there own holiday together one year, than the next year they’d take me someplace. Their holidays tended to only be half the time. Still, it meant nobody, not even they, got a vacation since I moved to Kat’s town.

“Before that though... we went a few places. I’m told when I was very young we all went over to Europe to visit my grandparents but I don’t remember that trip. The first I remember was a trip to Dalas Texas that was actually a business trip for Dad I was dragged along for. I was six at the time.

“When I was eight we went camping in the woods like half a days drive out of town. It was... alright? I don’t remember it all that well and I didn’t enjoy it but Stella was there as well and this was back when she was still nice to me so I enjoyed that part at least.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“When I was ten we went to Hawaii which... huh I guess probably doesn’t mean anything to you girls does it?” said ‘Lily’ trailing off as she realised just listing destinations probably wasn’t doing anything.

.....

“We actually get a fair bit of context from that,” said Sue after a few moments when it was clear Kamiko was off in jelly land. “Because you are talking about it as a holiday destination we get a sort of sense for the place. Europe, whatever that was, was too vague but you didn’t remember it so whatever. Camping is universal enough that we did hear that. Dalas we didn’t get too much for. Just ‘capital city’ more or less. Hawaii sounded a lot like ‘beach island’ but not much more than that,”

“Honestly that sums it up really,” said ‘Lily’ “Hawaii is a small collection of volcanic islands famous for their good weather and beaches. We did a lot of swimming, I spent as much time in the shade as possible to avoid getting sunburns. My mother, against her better judgement, tried to get a turn and ended up looking like a cherry. That also killed a couple of activities lined up for the last few days because she was in too much pain to move. My parents were not happy that I was glad of that fact. I didn’t really understand how much pain she was in, and liked the fact we could stay inside because of it.”

“Um, after that when I was twelve Dad insisted on doing something indoors. He lost the argument and we ended up on a cruise ship. It didn’t have a library so I spent most of my time on the ship exceptionally bored, and watching shows. The weather was also horrible, so bad we only managed to stop over at one planned port so I didn’t really get much enjoyment out of that one.

“When I was fourteen they asked me where I wanted to go. Apparently ‘the library’ was not an acceptable answer so we went snow skiing at Whistler. Which... I guess means nothing again. It’s just a mountain covered in snow really. That was the last holiday I went on. Well, if you don’t count occasionally visiting family but I don’t,”

“Yeah I wouldn’t count that either,” said Sue. “Honestly... vacations are both quite easy and quite hard. The issue is that the lines between ‘vacation’ and ‘cool weekend event’ get sort of blurred when you have no travel time. Just as an example, my parents took me to an ice skating rink multiple times growing up and it’s a hobby I’m still interested in when I have the time. Most of those trips were full weekend trips and we’d stay at the hotel next to it sometimes to make it an experience, but we didn’t NEED to and we didn’t really do anything except skate.

“Does that count as a vacation? What about the times we just made a day of it? Because that’s something I did a few times. Both of my parents can skate quite well, and they learnt to do a few routines together mostly for fun. Entered some amateur contests as well just for kicks. Never won any apparently, but they were still quite proud of their skills,”

[I’m not sure. Sue brings up a good point of what ‘counts’ exactly. I mean, if you take a weekend away it IS a vacation normally or it has that feel... but with teleportation it feels a lot more like going down to the local bowling alley or something instead of a proper vacation,]

*It does certainly blur the lines a bit. Then again, considering ‘work’ for a lot of demons is getting called away to exceptionally exotic locals heading down to the beach, or the Lust centre beach room, feels like a great way to unwind. I guess it depends on what they think.*

“Between the two of us we basically come to the conclusion it counts if YOU think it does,” said Kat.

“In that case, the ice skating at least, probably doesn’t count after the first few times. When I started... well I don’t really remember it I’ve been doing it so long but I’m certain it would have been new and interesting but afterwards I’d call it more of a hobby,” said Sue. “Hmmm... while I try to work out what WOULD count, Kamiko how about you?”

Kamiko turned to Sue in response to being addressed and let her mind catch up for a few moments before saying, “Eeeeh. Not really. I mean, yes but no? Hmm... how to explain this. It wasn’t and I guess still isn’t uncommon for Mum or Dad to take time off and do things with all of the younger members of the family. If we were lucky Elmony would join in, and the triplets were basically always involved. Aslena and myself are of course the babies of the family and were dragged wherever.

“But it was more a day or two here and there. If it’s not for the big once a decade family reunion what’s much more likely to happen is that Mum and Dad will both take a day off and ask us as a group what we want to do. If we don’t reach a consensus it’ll default to Aslena or I, whichever picked last, with the semi-regular input from the triplets and very rare suggestions from the others,”

“Though Dad was banned from picking places after... ‘the incident’ but we don’t talk about that,” Kamiko very pointedly went back to her meal. The silence lasted a full thirty seconds before Sue spoke up.

“Kami you got to tell us. I can make this bad by pressing on you, thinking up increasingly raunchy situations you all might have been involved in if you want... or you can just tell us what it was,” offered Sue.

Kamiko sighed, weighing her chances and finding them to be poor. Sue would start, Kat would default to Lily who was always interested in learning more. There was no escape unless she wanted to run through the door but Kat was closer to it an would be able to catch up anyway with the delay opening the door would cause. Letting out a long sigh Kamiko decided to make very light on the details.

“Fine. You guys win this, but I won’t be going into specifics. Dad booked us a stay at this hotel/café place and we were willing to go along with it. We were also told that it was ‘pyjamas only’ which got the triplets a little disturbed for reasons I only understood recently, but Dad assured us it was ‘family friendly’ which... yes I guess it was but more like ‘for little children’ then that it is actually fun for a family to do all together.

“Sue... I want you to picture your uptight Grandma swallowed a bunch of pink lace and vomited it over a hotel. That’s basically what it was. Everything was fluffy and pink. Which doesn’t necessarily sound horrible... until you realise your hair blends into the walls. Nobody else is older than like five if they aren’t a parent and most of the events are catered towards this. Additionally, pyjamas for the next few days are included as part of the package. So Dad picked them all out. I have never been more embarrassed by pink, or just in general, in my life.”