call me maybe

[from_scratch]

Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.

He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -

with the Joker (kappa)

with Ripper (kappa)

with Darren (Aestrix)

with Minus (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Facility 3141592 (armokGoB)

with the admin (kappa)

with Jarvis (kappa, Aestrix)

with Miles (kappa)

with Hank (Nemo)

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Well, the coat's a little lumpy, but I imagine no one here is on the lookout for wings."

[marrinikari]

"Yeah, I mean... you're on a college campus. Anyone who sees your back and jumps to 'demon' instead of 'weird backpack' is deeply strange."

[from_scratch]

"My world also has college campuses," Cam points out. "The fact that this is a college campus is not the reason I will not be suspected."

[marrinikari]

Emma laughs. "No kidding."

The outside of the apartment complex is extremely boring- there's a small garden out front, they tried, but the building itself is about as Standard Construction as they come. Cam's apartment is on the second floor, helpfully near the elevators.

"So, um, as long as it's not that different from my dorm- same wifi as the classrooms, there's a laundry room...somewhere... might not be close to your room but it's free, someone cleans the halls and stuff once a week but the apartment's up to you." She tapers off as she runs out of ideas of 'what might be helpful'. "Do you need anything else? I keep wanting to offer to show you where stores and stuff are, but... you kinda don't need them."

[from_scratch]

"Mmm, what has today's Internet got for state of the art maps of things?"

[marrinikari]

"I used to use Mapquest, but Google Maps just added a whole mess of new features and it's kinda fun to play with? Either's probably fine."

[from_scratch]

"Okay then -" He taps things on his tablet. "I should be fine, but if you feel like visiting or quizzing me about Hell or whatever I see no reason not to oblige you."

[marrinikari]

"...I'm kinda curious about Hell," she admits. "Since you're so... non stereotypical, yourself."

She hopes Hell doesn't match the stereotype either; that implies unpleasant things for Cam.

[from_scratch]

"Hell is comfortable, yet tacky," says Cam, unlocking his door and scanning the furniture critically. "Since we can all make anything and have no magical way to get rid of it. The discovery of black holes improved things, but there are still a few traditional lakes of fire around, and by then most of the cities had already been built on an enormous plane of solid gold that somebody had to think was a good idea for several sustained weeks, or convince several friends of same, to complete."

[marrinikari]

Emma considers this mental image, then breaks into giggles. "A plane of solid gold? Oh my goodness that's absurd. Please tell me someone named a city El Dorado."

[from_scratch]

"Nope, sorry. The cities aren't made of gold, anyway, just the underlying surface." Cam puts sheets on the bed, adds a pillow and a duvet, sets down his tablet on the desk, and attempts to open the window."

[marrinikari]

The bed is much improved by the presence of bedsheets. It's a cute little apartment; it's a studio rather than a one bedroom, no surprise there, but it has a good collection of basic furniture: bed with a mattress, a small chest of drawers, a two seat couch, a tiny table with two stools, a desk and chair. All of it screams Dorm Furniture. There's a small kitchen, with a fridge and a stove and a microwave, and a bathroom with a shower. He probably doesn't need to stock the kitchen with much, but he'll probably want towels.

The windows absolutely open. It's creaky and the paint's not enthusiastic about the idea, but the bottom half is willing to rise, at least.

"I am very disappointed in your cities' collective naming committees," Emma says, mock sadly. "Are there a lot of cities? ...Are there a lot of demons?"

She peers around the apartment, watching in fascination as bedclothes appear. "Did you want to keep the furniture? Some of the dorms have basements, I bet you could stash this stuff somewhere if you wanna replace it."

[from_scratch]

"There are lots of demons, not as many as there are humans in my time though, something like three billion of us, slowly increasing as new ones pop in. Plane of gold has sixteen good-size cities on it and a bunch of little ones and plenty of demons living by themselves or with a few friends. There are some farther-away planets and personal black holes; I live above, not on, the plane. There are dozens of demon languages and dialects of same, too, I have only learned six, and I would replace the furniture but I'm not sure how long to expect to be here and don't know of a good way to dispose of it after."

[marrinikari]

"New demons... pop in?" she asks, confused. "The idea of a personal black hole is kinda adorable. And anything that even kinda works in a dorm room will be super easy. Free furniture, college students. I could email some of the dorm lists but I mean, as long as you could get it to an elevator I've definitely seen people just leave things outside with notes saying 'free'."

[from_scratch]

"Okay then. Furniture replacement is go if there's a place to stash what's here already, then. And yes, new demons pop in, daeva of any kind can't reproduce."

[marrinikari]

That was not what Emma was thinking at all and she will now be slightly flustered. "Um, I meant like, where do they pop from? Can you pop back? Is it like... in a particular place, or random? Could there secretly be a hundred million more demons just really really far away from the-" snerk "-plane of gold?"

[from_scratch]

"Oh, we appear near other demons, more or less. We think, anyway, but there could be another cluster an octillion miles away that nobody knows about. Most demons don't seem to pop from anywhere. They just start existing."

[marrinikari]

"If most just exist, what about the rest?" She inspects the room. None of the furniture is terribly heavy, or too large, but it's a little awkwardly bulky. The two of them could move things by hand, but it might be time consuming. "Do you want to conjure... I dunno, a cart or something? Or I can ask a couple of my friends to help." She rolls her eyes fondly. "They can be bribed with pizza."

[from_scratch]

"What happens to the cart if I make a cart?" asks Cam patiently.

[marrinikari]

"If you can make a little folding one, I'd keep it. My mom has one at home and she's moved some crazy stuff with it. Seven foot bookshelves once, I think."

[from_scratch]

"Okay, little folding cart for you it is." Cam makes a little folding cart and starts stacking mediocre dorm furniture on it.

[marrinikari]

Emma is not particularly strong and Cam has a few inches on her, but she is used to dorm furniture by now. Helping ensues. It will take a couple trips to the basement, but the elevator is close and they have a folding cart and it's not much of a hassle. The basement's small, but not close to full; short term residents don't have much in storage. There is no shortage of places to put mediocre dorm furniture.

[from_scratch]

Cam disposes of all his mediocre dorm furniture except the bed which he's not even going to try to haul, replaces it with nicer and comfier things, and then makes himself a slice of toast, hmming to himself about what's next.

"You want to know where not-most demons come from?"

[marrinikari]

"...sure," Emma says slowly. "If you're okay telling me, I mean?" From his attitude, she's guessing this may not be common knowledge.

[from_scratch]

"Well, humans back home don't know, unless someone spilled the beans and I didn't hear about it, but it might be relevant to you, and this is a different world. But kindly don't go telling everybody until I've thought about it some more. Some of us daeva are dead summoners. If this world now works on afterlife rules like my world does, you will now be some kind of daeva after you die."