it's a piece of chalk, actually

[unblinkered]

Parking on the street at Brenda's is full. It's what he gets for showing up for the 7:30 rush, instead of his usual 6AM. He takes the Volvo around to the back parking lot- the one that's not connected to the road, where you have to drive over the curb. It's... probably a parking lot. It's paved, after all. It's on the coffee shop's property. There's no "employee only" signs, anyway. There is, within reason, room to park a car. Maxwell Wax is sure the management will understand, if they even leave their room long enough to notice.

Hm? Who's this? Some kid in a hoodie, smoking a cigarette behind the building. He's standing right in the way of... what looks more or less like a parking spot, off to the side of some graffiti on the ground. He honks at the kid, who panics and drops his cigarette. Wasn't even lit. Did him a favor, in Max's opinion. He knows firsthand how bad those things can mess you up. He watches the kid round a corner, and pulls into the probably-parking-space. 

He hears a snapping sound as he pulls in. Must've run over the cigarette... do cigarettes go "snap"?

In his rearview mirror, he sees nobody standing on top of the graffiti, and then abruptly sees somebody standing on top of the graffiti. There is no transition between these two states.

Comments

[unblinkered]

"First thing you do is call your parents, huh? Number one order of business when you come back to life?"

Max actually thinks that's kind of sweet, he supposes.

[from_scratch]

The demon hangs up. "I died five years ago. I was twenty-two. I've been taking summons since then hoping for a chance to get ahold of them." He dials a different number.

[unblinkered]

While the demon calls- his mom, he assumes- Max checks around the corner where the summoner fled, in case they're still around. There are people in the street, but none in the same outfit- if the summoner is here, they've changed clothes.

[from_scratch]

The demon actually addresses the person who picks up as "Phil". "Hi, Phil, can I talk to Renée? Do I? Huh. Anyway, is she home? It's urgent." And then he says, "Hi Mom."

Renée actually talks loud enough that Max can hear her if he tries. "I - excuse me?"

"This isn't a prank, swear to God, I just called Charlie, too, check with him if you want. Listen, this is such a long, long story but in case something happens - do you have a pen and paper?"

"...I do."

The demon gives her the same instructions about summoning him that he gave to Charlie. "I'm going to find out where I am, I have actually no idea, and see if it's faster to fly to your place or Charlie's, okay? And if I don't show up and I'm not at Charlie's you finish that circle. I'm so sorry about everything, I'm sorry I didn't explain -"

"It's okay, sweetheart - but I don't understand -"

"It's - complicated, but long story short I died and went to Hell but it's okay it's nice there I'm fine I swear and now you know how to get ahold of me if I get sent back before I intend to."

"I - I should call Charlie."

"Yeah, do. And apologize to Phil for me? Thanks."

And thus ends the call to the demon's mom.

[unblinkered]

"So, now what? You said you were working on getting the word out- did you have a plan to do it without getting killed, that... failed, or did that part come as a surprise?"

[from_scratch]

"I had, like - some of a plan. It didn't go well, and I'd still rather not be shot even if it's not such a showstopper, so I want to rethink it some, especially since as a daeva myself I can no longer summon anybody myself and would have to enlist a human to do it. Where are we?"

[unblinkered]

"We're behind Brend- I mean, we're in... New Jersey, edge of Newark. West ward, I think, might be North but they keep redrawing the borders every election season. Gerrymandering, y'know. Any of that relevant?"

[from_scratch]

"New Jersey was all I needed to know, means I'm closer to her house than his and should start out southward."

[unblinkered]

"Now hold up! You said you'd teach me how to make one of those summoning circles- you can't just trash my only reference and leave! Or-"

Wait, no.

"Or- sorry, you probably didn't mean immediately. How long are you planning to stick around?"

[from_scratch]

"It'll take me at least, ugh, half a day, probably more, to fly to Mom's, so a couple hours won't make a difference if you continue to be entertaining. You want a safe demon circle?"

[unblinkered]

"General principles would be more useful than a schematic, unless it's all just specific diagrams you have to memorize. I... suspect it's not as precise as all that if this one was completed by running over a piece of chalk, though."

[from_scratch]

"It's not that precise. You need a circle that is more circular than it is anything else, and I recommend completing that part last. And around the circle you write what you want to get and how they're bound, in whatever language, English works fine. The one I described to my parents will work to summon me, specifically, but if you aren't acquainted with a specific daeva -" Cam gestures at Max's notebook. "There, generic standard-binding circles for whichever daeva types. And safety instructions, do not unbind random daeva you do not know, do not make stupid deals with them."

[unblinkered]

Max flips through his notebook, alarmed. As promised, it's been filled out with diagrams and instructions. He'll have to take a closer look at those- but first...

"So- making things, that extends to making graphite or ink on existing paper? You can just- that's not some other kind of magic?"

[from_scratch]

"Same thing, yeah. I mean, I could sort of do it with parlor tricks but it'd be preposterously slow and tedious and shorter range."

[unblinkered]

"...Parlor what now?"

[from_scratch]

"There's extremely tiny, nigh-pointless magic that humans can do besides summoning. It takes a lot of concentration - I didn't even bother trying all the exercises in the books I had until my first summon worked and I had reason to believe there was something to it, because even though it gets easier after practice you have to focus really fucking hard to do really fucking trivial tricks."

[unblinkered]

"What? How tiny are we talking? Does it require... some specific trigger that people aren't likely to stumble upon just by trying really hard, something that people wouldn't... notice, if they didn't have instructions beforehand? I can see people keeping daeva a secret, but why that?"

[from_scratch]

"I don't know nearly enough about, like, intensive meditation practices, to know if anybody's likely to have stumbled on it. And the tricks are all so stupid and tiny - would you believe somebody if he cornered you and was like "look, magic" and a blotch slowly appeared on a piece of paper, but he couldn't put it in a specific place if you drew him a target?"

[unblinkered]

"Sure, but... people pick up on all kinds of tiny hidden phenomena that don't seem significant. They become quirks of physics, not magic- ordinary, mundane things. The question is, why would these be different? If anyone can do the blotch thing, why is that a secret magic technique and not... no more special than being able to raise one eyebrow, or break glass with a high pitch?"

He thinks for a second.

"Actually... are there things like that, which people discovered but just treat as normal and ignore because they're useless?"

[from_scratch]

"I think I am not the expert you are looking for on that."

[unblinkered]

"Right, right, okay. I'll want to summon an expert, then. Is that... in here-" he shakes his notepad to indicate it- "-in the notepad, instructions on... a way to summon daeva based on particular criteria, or are your only options summon-by-name and summon-randomly?"

[from_scratch]

"Yeah, that's it. You have to know who you want or take whoever answers first."

[unblinkered]

"Hmph."

Worse comes to worst, he can ask a well-connected enough demon for a demon phone book, or a- well, summoning demons sounds like maybe not the first thing he should... oh, christ, that's racist, isn't it.

"So- god- I just want to be sure- you mentioned demons going on rampages, having to bind them- are demons more dangerous than angels or- um... fairies, in general, is there... is that racist to ask? I... oh, jeez."

[from_scratch]

"Well, let me put it this way. A fairy can kill you. An angel can kill you easily. A demon can destroy the entire planet."

[unblinkered]

Max drops his note- no, he fumbles and catches it.

"Okay, um. That's- that's scary, I took for granted they're all, powerful, but, like, I meant... temperament, like are... mythologically demons are evil, as opposed to... other kinds of... I mean, you're clearly not... uh..."