i wasn't looking for this

[from_scratch]

This is a successor to call me maybe and trade my soul for a wish, which were getting crowded.

with Emily (Maggie)

with Alex (ErinFlight)

with Destin (Rockeye)

with Nick (Rockeye)

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"What are they for, then?"

[from_scratch]

"Garbage disposal. Demons can make anything. We cannot get rid of it. I use a black hole, myself."

[iamnotpolaris]

"And what happens if you need to get rid of the black hole?"

[from_scratch]

"I go somewhere which does not have a black hole to pass the time while mine dissolves into Hawking radiation."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Okay, I don't actually know enough about that particular kind of science to know exactly what that means but I'll take your word for it."

[from_scratch]

"Relatedly, I do feel I should warn you: while to the best of my knowledge no one has ever turned up dead in my world having previously been alive anywhere other than the Earth I'm familiar with, if this is for some possible reasons as opposed to other possible reasons, you as a summoner, however accidental, may become a daeva yourself when you die."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Great. If that happens, how does my sister summon me?"

[from_scratch]

"She draws most of a circle on a floor with room for you to stand in but doesn't finish it, and then around the border writes 'I summon the whatever, insert your full name', where 'whatever' is whichever kind of daeva you are. The options are demon, angel, and fairy. Then, only after writing out all those words, closes the circle. That's for an unbound circle. You are very luck that this unbound circle got me and your sister presumably doesn't wish to magically enforce you behaving yourself. In the strongest possible terms do not ever summon random unbound daeva again."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I didn't intend to do it this time. My sister has zero interest in magically restraining me. To be honest, I'm much more of a restraining influence on her than vice versa."

She looks at the metal doily he appeared on. "You might have to tell me how not to summon daeva, come to think of it."

[from_scratch]

"The basic idea is the same, but I have no idea in what language this might say 'I summon a demon'. Just avoid closed circular patterns on floors, I guess."

[iamnotpolaris]

"That...is going to be slightly difficult, oh well, I guess I'll just make sure that any rugs I put down are rectangles. Or ovals, maybe, do ovals count as circles for summoning purposes?"

[from_scratch]

"The circles need not be perfect but they do have to be more circular than anything else."

[iamnotpolaris]

"You should probably tell me your full name so my sister can summon you later so she's retrievable too if anything catastrophic happens. And maybe some other people."

[from_scratch]

Cam hands her a piece of paper. "I'm not sure that the usual summoning rules apply to this situation, because this isn't the place I'd normally wind up upon being summoned, but assuming all is as normal except now I can be summoned to and dismissed from here, this is how you do it."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Good. So what determines whether you end up as a demon, an angel or a fairy if it's not eternal punishment or eternal bliss that decides your afterlife?"

[from_scratch]

"As far as I know Heaven and Fairyland are also reasonably nice places to live, although I'd definitely have picked demon powers over the other options. I don't know how people are sorted, but my guess is a personality affinity for the associated magic. Demons make, angels change, fairies move."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Huh. So...demons are likely to be creative people, angels are adaptable, and fairies are energetic?"

[from_scratch]

"That's not how I'd put it, but your guess is nearly as good as mine. I'd say, demons like to work on things from the ground up, angels like to work on fixing what's already there, and fairies prefer to simply shuffle things around."

[iamnotpolaris]

"...Man, Edie would so be a demon."

[from_scratch]

"Being a demon is pretty great."

[iamnotpolaris]

"For reasons of practicality and restraint, she does not advocate the overthrow of every government that doesn't do civil rights well enough. Not because she doesn't want to. I bet she'll be thrilled that this nets her the best hypothetical powerset."

[from_scratch]

"You know, if her magical mutant power did not terrify me down to the tip of my tail I imagine I might get along with her."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Gosh I can't even imagine what that would be like."

[from_scratch]

"What what would be like, being afraid of people reading and/or fucking with my mind? I have no reason to believe my indestructibility extends to my non-physical traits and I value my privacy. A lot."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I mean, I can't say I blame you, you have every right to not want to be telepathized, it just seems strange to have such a thorough fear reaction to it. I wouldn't consent to unrestrained telepathy from someone I didn't trust, but being all alone in your own head forever sounds lonely. I'm not saying that it's wrong or even unusual, but it's just not something that I personally get."