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]

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."

[from_scratch]

"Ouch."

[pythbox]

"Yes," agrees Earth.

Lightning gets up and wanders over to Bar and asks, "Is this another one?"

[from_scratch]

"Another one what?"

Yes.

[pythbox]

"Yep," reports Lightning.

"We've been meeting a large number of alternate versions of the same person today," Earth explains. "The previous four have been girls. You were starting to sound a little familiar, so Lightning wanted to check; apparently the bar can tell who is a duplicate of whom."

[from_scratch]

"Familiar how? Duplicate how?"

[pythbox]

"I'm not sure I could describe the familiarity. Our local version's attitude towards elementals is very unusual at home, much less so here. But the other alts we met here have tended to share it, and share it in a... certain way. As for 'duplicate how', I'm not sure I understand the question and I probably couldn't answer it if I did. I've only been here for part of a day."

[from_scratch]

"Okay... uh, Bar? Duplicate how?"

Alternate universe versions of you. Can I interest you in a beverage? First one's free.

"I've... got that covered, but thanks."

I am not limited to beverages you are likely to ever hear about in your home universe.

"...That changes things. Let's get something snazzy and exotic."

Something snazzy, exotic, and pink appears. With an umbrella. The demon sips it. "Okay, that's awesome, thank you."

[pythbox]

"We've been hoping all day to find someone who might be able to steal and break a large number of elemental amulets, but that's seeming less and less likely," says Earth.