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

[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..."

[from_scratch]

"A daeva that wants to wreak havoc won't kill their summoner," Cam adds. "They'll render the summoner unconscious and put them somewhere safe, so they don't get dismissed. Dead summoner equals instant dismissal, and you have to be conscious to non-instantly dismiss a summon. Tempermentally speaking - I don't think demons are, as a population, meaner than angels or fairies are. But demons are harder to pay. You can get a fairy to rearrange your furniture for a batch of cookies, because the fairy would have to make or buy the cookies back home, and rearranging your furniture is easier than that. You can get an angel to change stuff for you in exchange for anything complicated or that the angel doesn't have the skills to whip up, because angel magic requires doing your own detail work, an angel can't just create a houseplant or a new videogame for themselves like," he snaps his fingers, "that. The things you can produce to interest a demon are few and far between. Most of us don't want to make phone calls. So the demons who are going to bother with summons are the ones that want - let's say 'intangibles'. You are extremely lucky you got me."

[unblinkered]

"So... okay! Nearly... nearly died, there. That would have been a great start to the morning. I take it they're not... psychologically the same as humans, in the... 'killing people and causing harm is taboo' sense."

Max rubs his forehead.

[from_scratch]

"You wouldn't likely have died, you'd have been put in a chemical coma and stashed somewhere," says Cam. "And - even naturally occurring daeva aren't crystalline aliens or anything. Remember, summons are going to be a non-representative sample. Even some humans like killing people and causing harm. And I don't think the number of daeva who are into it is that surprising given how much you can tweak human psychology by making a human totally self-sufficient and magically powerful and immortal and indestructible, putting them in a social situation where nobody they have to live with will find out or care if they cause mayhem in this other place, and then turning them loose." Pause. "Oh, and the daeva generally have it as common knowledge that if they kill people worst case scenario the people go to Limbo. They don't, like, cease to exist, or burn for eternity for their sins, or anything."

[unblinkered]

"So my best bet, if I'm just looking for information, is to work with fairies, then- less dangerous, more easily bought. Anything I should know about them? You mentioned they... 'move things'?"

[from_scratch]

"Fairies are telekinetic. They can move as much stuff as they can keep track of at whatever speed and in whatever direction they like. You can get them to open doors that are locked on the far side or send things into low Earth orbit or take you flying or, if you really have something they want, sit in front of a generator and spin it for a few hours, but I'd recommend giving them a book if you want to do that last. Some of the really sharp ones can start and stop fires almost without doing anything else detectable, although of course they're really using friction and moving the oxygen away from the fire. Most of them aren't that creative on their own - for them it's utterly trivial and everyday that they can do this, it'd be like a tree going 'wow, human, you can walk, have you ever considered becoming a world class ballet dancer' - like, ballet exists, but most people don't do it."