trade my soul for a wish

[from_scratch]

This is a successor to "call me maybe", which is getting crowded.

Cam is dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of tomato soup when he feels the summons. He goes ahead and grabs it. Doesn't even drop the sandwich.


with Mark (kappa)

with Adanya (Aestrix)

with Sable (kappa)

with Ari (andaisq)

with Metella (kappa)

with Miles (kappa)

with Isabella (Eva)

with Steel (Rockeye)

with Daphne (Maggie)

with Edie (Maggie)

Comments

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Honestly, I can think of worse things than paying for arbitrary objects with sex. But that's me--I'm aware most people put more emotional investment into it."

[from_scratch]

"Yeah. And it complicates the matter that the demons are almost never allowed to talk. I know they sometimes are - I once had an extremely fortunate series of summons to a linguistics department, they were learning demonic languages from a different demon they had and wanted me to confirm translations, they had to have been letting the other demon talk. But usually we can't negotiate, which means not only no suggesting souls as payment but also no saying look, I will totally fill your entire soup kitchen back room for literally the least token of payment necessary to count for dismissal, if you insist on offering me your physical charms we're just going to sit here very awkwardly between the rice and the beans before you notice that I'm not collecting."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

She bursts out laughing. "Oh dear. That's terrible, did that happen to you?"

[from_scratch]

"Yes, that happened to me. Summoners and their daeva can renegotiate payment on the fly as long as they come to an agreement, so faced with someone who literally just wanted food to give to the needy and couldn't think of anything to trade for it - well, I didn't want her to summon more demons until she found one who'd go through with it, the poor girl, so I made all the food and then just sort of stared at her until she asked if I might have remembered I left the stove on in which case I could have one of the nectarines and call it good. And then it was 'yes summoner' and that was that."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Poor dear. Was it a tasty nectarine at least?"

[from_scratch]

"I made it! It was delicious!"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I'm glad. We are fantastically lucky to have gotten you even instead of some other demon who wouldn't have immediately started committing mayhem."

[from_scratch]

"I agree entirely. Although I can't claim I've never slept with a summoner."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Well, it's a different matter when it's not someone who doesn't actually want it."

[from_scratch]

"Yes, this one had me make her a house and then looked me over and said that if she summoned me back it would be to have sex with me, and then she did. I am reasonably sure she downloaded inadequate 'how to have sex with a demon' instructions from the Internet, but since I wasn't actually out to do her harm she emerged unscathed - although I do wonder why she stopped, I hope it was some nice human and not branching out into more practically unsafe demon-related practices."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Oh dear. I hope so too."

[from_scratch]

"Yeah. I didn't have her name to see if she wound up in Hell. I wouldn't think she did, though I have no way to verify if my idle mental sortings of anyone I've tried to sort are correct."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Why, what determines who goes where?"

[from_scratch]

"I don't know, you understand, but my guess is that it's a matter of a personality fit with the powers."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...Huh.
Now I'm trying to figure out where I'd go."

[from_scratch]

"From our brief acquaintance I'm guessing demon."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Cool. On the other hand I have no idea where anyone else I love would go...I don't have a good grasp of this yet but I can't help but think my mother would go anywhere but demon, somehow."

[from_scratch]

"Well, that's still only two choices, this isn't exactly a fine-grained personality test. But yes, the afterlife arrangement leaves some commuting options to be desired unless you can convince someone to unite you in the mortal world."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"That seems like a really good intangible, if only anyone knew."

[from_scratch]

"I'm surprised it doesn't happen more with ex-human angels and fairies, actually. Most daeva aren't ex-humans, but I get summons often enough that if I were allowed to talk one time in ten I'd have managed to meet some people I wanted to meet. But I can't go to Heaven or Fairyland and ask around about that."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Seems a shame. Howcome everyone knows about Daeva but no one knows that some of them are dead humans?"

[from_scratch]

"I can only answer half of that question."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Which half?"

[from_scratch]

"Oh, everyone knows about daeva because I told them."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

...
"Oh really."