barring emergencies

[the_very_best]

Bella's not sure where she has wandered. She thought she was about to walk into a shop, but this appears to be an unattended bar. With none of the windows associated with the shop she thought she was entering. It could be an elaborate psychic assault of some kind, but it doesn't feel very... assault-y... and she was in the middle of a town and doesn't think any humans want to sic their 'mon on her. It's strange. She approaches the bar, looking around warily, hand hovering near her belt.

with Max (Benedict)

with Earth and Lightning (kappa)

with Ann and Sabrina (kuuskytkolme)

Comments

[pythbox]

"I very much doubt it."

[katrea]

"Rats. Oh well."

[pythbox]

He shrugs.

[katrea]

The conversation peters out. Katie quizzes Bar, takes notes, collects napkins, accepts a Sprite, and goes out again.

[pythbox]

Lightning finishes his nap. They sit together on a couch and wonder if another Maurabel is going to show up, and what she'll be like if she does.

[from_scratch]

Well, next is this random dude with wings and a tail in lieu of wearing a shirt. He looks pretty damn confused, which is something of a theme.

[pythbox]

Earth approaches to investigate.

"Let me guess, you were expecting somewhere else?"

[from_scratch]

"My swimming pool. What's the story? What are you, that doesn't look like the sort of cosmetics you do on a whim because you saw it in a magazine."

[pythbox]

He smiles. "I'm an Earth. This is a weird magic place called Milliways. What are you?"

[from_scratch]

"I'm a demon. I'm going to guess you haven't heard of demons any more than I've heard of Earths in the form of talking winged humanoids as opposed to planets."

[pythbox]

"Planets? That's a new one. Earth is a type of elemental from my world. Lightning is another." He points at the couch; Lightning sits up and waves. "And in much the same way that I'm not a planet, I'm going to assume you're not a mythical creature speculated to be a wild misinterpretation of early encounters with elementals."

[from_scratch]

"I am not that thing. Demons were for a while widely considered mythical but now we are not. The planet most humans live on is named 'Earth'. Uh, in my first language, which I'm suddenly not at all confident you're also speaking."

[pythbox]

"Yes, there seems to be some sort of translation effect active here. Most humans? What happened to the rest?"

[from_scratch]

"Some of 'em live on the moon and another planet in the same solar system now."

[pythbox]

"I see. Did they run out of room or are they just very adventurous?"

[from_scratch]

"Little of column A..."

[pythbox]

"Aha." He smiles again. "And what's your magic like?"

[from_scratch]

"Demons can make stuff. Arbitrary nonmagical stuff adequately specified."

[pythbox]

"That's an interesting ability to have. Is that all the magic your world has?"

[from_scratch]

"Nah, there's also angels and fairies. And parlor tricks. And summoning. Angels change stuff, fairies move stuff, parlor tricks are stupid and tiny, and summoning moves demons, angels, and fairies from where we spend most of our time to the mortal world so they can get us to do stuff for them."

[pythbox]

"...'Get' as in...? Coax, coerce, trade?"

[from_scratch]

"Trade, by and large. We don't have to show up to summons if we don't want. A summoner who was a huge jerk could just sort of leave a summon parked in their circle without making a deal or sending 'em home but that doesn't happen that I've personally heard of."

[pythbox]

"I see. Lucky you. With elementals it's coerce - humans have the ability to bind us to amulets that let them make us do whatever they want, which usually amounts to more magic than they could accomplish by themselves."

[from_scratch]

"Wow, that sucks. Annnnnd because human populations are a reasonably large fraction total jerk this happens every Tuesday?"

[pythbox]

"There is no such thing as a free elemental in contact with humans. Either we're out of their reach or someone is using us."