Chapter 476: 476: Designer Course

"I suppose I'll just have to agree to disagree with you" said Kat softly, "I don't know if I have much honour in combat. I'd go for the face if I thought it was a good idea. Sometimes it is, but things are generally good at protecting it as well"

Aslena let out a humming noise as she took another sip off tea, Kat was starting to wonder if the cup had some sort of special expansion charm on it. She would be surprised to learn that it sort of did. The teapot was connected to the cup and continually refilled it. This allowed someone to drink extra tea without needing to refill it. Aslena would say it looked more polite if asked. Nira, the actual owner, would say it's because when she wants to relax, why should she need to keep pouring her tea.

Letting the mood settle slightly Kat went over questions she had for Aslena. Many of them weren't polite at all, but it was also now very clear that she wouldn't be able to good the other demon into a fight. *She's just too weak. Probably knows it as well. If my regeneration is enough to push her back, I doubt she'd be brave enough to spar out some differences. What should I ask then? I can't think of anything truly snide to go for… maybe just ask a real question?*

"So… what is it exactly that you do?" asked Kat, not realising she'd managed to sound snide with the question at all.

Aslena raised an eyebrow and was shocked to see the genuine question on Kat's face. Sadly, Aslena, used to dealing with people capable of that sort of control and more, assumed Kat was masking her reaction and making fun of her, so shot back with. "I've been given a special dispensation to skip my Contracts as long as I continue to put out high quality designer clothing"

"Right but how?" asked Kat

Aslena frowned, still thinking Kat was playing her, and in this instance playing dumb. Aslena was under the impression Kat was doubting her abilities, when in fact, that was one thing Kat didn't want to touch at all. Despite Aslena's personality, Kat wasn't under the impression the other girl was anything less then an excellent designer. "What, don't think I'm good enough?"

*What? How did you get that?* Thought Kat, really not understanding Aslena's thought process at all, or the time of environment she was in regularly. The demon fashion industry was a cutthroat place, especially for someone that was only a low Rank like Aslena. "No… I mean… like… um… what was the process? How did it happen? It's a thing you can do? I was told that Contracts aren't something you can really get out of for a while"

"Ah, I see…" said Aslena sceptically, "Well, it's true that YOU can't do anything about it. Neither could I really. You need to get multiple higher Rank backers. I'm not even allowed to know the exact number but from what I can gather it's at least three, and no more than ten. Oh, and I don't think they can be family. I mean… I asked Mother, and she said that 'I can't' and was weirdly insistent on the can't part"

*I think that might have been more because she's in medical and has nothing to do with fashion but keep going I guess?* Oblivious to Kat's internal retort, Aslena did just that. "Once you have enough backers, they can send of a petition to the system. If it gets accepted, then they need to share the burden of paying for you to skip missions. I believe it's more expensive then what you'd get as a cut for doing the mission, perhaps by as much as three times more, but I'm really unsure on that part.

"After that, you should be good to go, however you need to keep at least a certain number of those backers supporting you. I'm unsure if they can change. Let's say you need at least five people as a backer. If it drops below that number your permission to avoid Contracts gets revoked. I think it might be less then the initial recommendations, but I'm unsure, and as I said before I don't know if it has to be the same ten.

"However, I was told very explicitly that my status was reviewed once every hundred days, plus or minus up to fifty days randomly to ensure that I was continuing with my craft in some manner. I have to show what I've worked on, including things that I've discarded for one reason or another when called upon and prove that it was me who did the work, normally by showing drafts, sometimes by answering questions though those are very specific to me.

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"Stuff like 'why was this dress discarded' or 'what material did you want to use for this suit when you started, and did that change when the design was finished' stuff like that. I'm not a fan of how long it takes frankly. They always assign a different demon for some reason and half the time it's the same questions the last person asked. It normally takes a couple hours but once you've been interrupted it's so hard to continue and just… ugh…"

Kat nodded, she could see Aslena was getting into territory she was annoyed with, and while Kat did sort of want that, she also didn't want it to just be directionless irritation, that was likely to come for Kamiko in the end, at least if it was focused on Kat, she knew she could deal with that. "That's nice, and seems like quite the process, how did you start getting noticed personally? You've described the more… technical side I guess…" said Kat

"Oh, it wasn't anything too special" said Aslena grateful for the chance to move on, but unsure why Kat provided it at all "When I was younger I started with contests," Kat couldn't hide the wince when Aslena's words brought up the one memory Kat knew off in that area "but that wasn't quite to get noticed…

"Well, it was and it wasn't. Entering contests, well I started because I wanted people to see me and know I could design well even when I was little. I'm so glad I didn't go even deeper into the pageantry but focused on my designs because I was rather bad at the start. Still, it made me known. I wasn't anywhere close to being recognised, but at the start it gave me opportunities. Then, once I hit Rank 1 I did quick Contracts with lower rewards and spent most of my time making and marketing my designs in the Hub instead"

"Hold up," interjected Kat, "how did you manage to get short missions?"

Aslena shrugged, "If you're employed in some other way D.E.M.O.N.S tends to give you easier missions, or perhaps quicker missions would be more accurate? Not always, I've still had a few longer missions, but they tend to pick missions that suit the demon in question best"

*Really? I wonder… does that mean I want longer missions or that I have what the system would classify as free time? I wish I could actually ask, but no, punishment dicatates I cannot.* 

Aslena, seeing that Kat understood, decided to continue her story. "From there, I started to build up contacts in the industry. Sell some designs, fairly cheaply of course, for tiny cuts in revenue mostly. The reason is, I knew my designs were great and I was proven right because I almost always made more money from a profit percentage then I'd ever been offered for a design for the most part.

"Not everything was a hit, sometimes that was on me, sometimes that was on the daft company that purchased my designs and messed with them to 'appeal more to their target demographic' which… UGH I always hated getting those responses back when I asked what was going on. IDIOTS! I'll admit, I tend to branch out style wise more than normal so they might not have assumed, but they really should have just waited and bought something I designed AND fit their style."

Aslena took a long swig of tea. "Sorry, I'm getting heated a bit here. I have bad memories of a couple high profile companies outbidding others on a design of mine, and then they changed it and screwed the marketing. Personally looking back on it, I think it was more about making sure this one other group DIDN'T get the design rather then it being something they actually wanted.

"That's pretty much how it went. Once I was Rank 2, I started to put forward the idea that I wanted to stop doing Contracts out there in the world, because Rank 2 contracts are more annoying for the most part, and rather quickly I was picked up. Which, I'll admit, was a little surprising even for me. I'm good, perhaps the best my age, but some of the others have been designing for centuries."

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