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]

"I don't mean manual dexterity, exactly, I mean the fine control I have with the metal."

[from_scratch]

"...I'm not sure if you'd keep that. I have no reason to believe you wouldn't, but there's never been a demon with that before, obviously."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I don't see why I shouldn't. It's not actually magic."

[from_scratch]

"It's genetic. Demons don't really run on genes, even ex-human ones, not exactly. ...Also in my world genetics definitely doesn't work that way, it only does boring things like code for proteins. But that's a separate matter."

[iamnotpolaris]

"They keep things genetics gave them in the first place, right? Ex-summoners don't just show up with a completely random hair color and bone structure and whatnot?"

[from_scratch]

"No, everything looks as it did in life, unless they die old, in which case they look younger. But we can change anything and it'll stick. We operate on self-concept more than genes. If I added a lot of melanin to myself and decided it belonged there, it wouldn't fade away. If I decided that I did not want to have ears, they'd hang around through sheer inertia for a while if I didn't cut them off, but they wouldn't be indestructible like the rest of me anymore. When I added the wings and tail they did get to be indestructible. And I don't know if daeva self-concept would stretch to cover your magnetism, but no one has ever managed to add something like that."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I have a very strong self concept of myself as a magnetist. I really don't think you could make yourself think of yourself as one if you're not. You don't know what it's like."

[from_scratch]

"Sure. I mean, definitely don't lose sleep over it, there's no way for that to help. Just warning you."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Well, I don't intend to die. So there's that."

[from_scratch]

"Do you have human immortality from your various wanderings, or just expect you'll stumble across it eventually?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"The latter. And we weren't actively looking, before, just sort of hoping, but Edie went and fell in love with an immortal..."

[from_scratch]

"Ah yes."

[iamnotpolaris]

"And he was so sad about his friend Tialle having died so long ago, and Edie would never do that to someone, not if she could help it."

[from_scratch]

Nod.

[iamnotpolaris]

"And we've got decades, still, and there are so many worlds. We'll find something."

[from_scratch]

"And as a fallback: daevahood."

[iamnotpolaris]

"That ultimately requires that Tialle's Demon also be able to summon, it sounds like, but yes."

[from_scratch]

"Or any other trustworthy person. In my world only humans can summon, but there aren't any Tialle's Demons around to try it, so I don't know what to expect there.""

[iamnotpolaris]

"If we go with someone who will themself die, we'll need a succession of trustworthy persons to replace each other as they age and go from summoners to besummoned."

[from_scratch]

"Yes. I think that's probably a tractable problem, though."

[iamnotpolaris]

"More convenient and less of a risk of discontinuity to just have a trustworthy immortal. The more people we have to trust our well-being to the more likely it is that one of them will be a mistake."

[from_scratch]

"Yes, but if none of the immortals you find can complete valid circles..."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Then we go with the less preferable higher risk option."

[from_scratch]

"Yeah."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Anyway, we probably wouldn't have to go on like that forever, we can...keep...I'm an idiot, we'd only need to be summoned the once."