Fantasy A Deal with a Devil (tragictrees and rainzen)

[Rainzen]

Layla's dorm room had been half-empty for about a month now, ever since her weird roommate had up and vanished, along with most of her stuff, at the end of last term. She'd left behind a selection of mostly random things that had likely either gotten mixed up or lost in the move, but otherwise not so much as a note of explanation. The RA had told Layla that her mystery ex-roommate had not technically dropped out, and that her bill was still being paid so for now at least, Layla's spacious room made for the perfect candidate for celebratory drinks.

The room was now illuminated in candlelight as she, Bee, and DJ sat in a circle on the floor while she fumbled awkwardly over the Latin pronunciations, a little bit too tipsy to worry about cleaning up the patterns drawn meticulously on the floor with salt and chalk.

"Daemonium in tenebris: nunc autem hic" She grimaced as she finished the last line in the 'spell' outlined in the book she had found in her ex-roommates things while digging around for the bottle of gin Layla had stashed a bit ago. She'd definitely fudged however that was supposed to sound. Layla opened her mouth to restart the line, and give it a more dramatic finish, but before she could do so, every candle burned out, as if suddenly, all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. There was a crash like shattered glass, and then, there was a man standing in the center of the circle, blinking owlishly in the darkness. Layla was about to go for her knife when, on second look, the intruder appeared a bit more like a confused teenager in an occultist costume than a formidable man or evil demon.
"Um. Can I help you?" the guy, (kid? man? demon?) who had appeared in her dorm room asked irritably, in an inhumanly low voice that sounded like it had come out of a mouthful of gravel. It sounded out of place from a person who was shorter than Layla, and decidedly human-looking.

 

[elytra]

Bee had always been interested in ghost stories.

They were just fun! There was nothing better than gathering around a fire on a late night out camping, taking a flashlight, and just having at it. She was never any good at it, of course, because she had a hard time imagining spooky things off the top of her head. She didn't like horror movies, and so her pool of inspiration was a little empty. That didn't mean she didn't enjoy the stories other people told, though. It was great to see what they came up with on the spot, and she was almost on the edge her seat no matter what the tale.

It was only natural, then, that she was interested in summoning a demon, because while she was interested in ghost stories, she never believed them. She prided herself on being very science oriented; she liked to think that even if she had occasional 'what if' moments when she had to go into her dark basement of her childhood home and replace a bulb, she would ultimately find comfort in the fact that demons and ghosts just weren't scientifically accurate, and therefore had no place in her world. So, yea. She was interested, because it was fun, and nothing would come of it. There was no roommate to come in and think the worst of what they were doing, and even if she did, she was the reason they had the book in the first place. It was like using one of those funky boards to talk to ghosts, it was all smoke a mirrors.

This logic and reasoning that she had so carefully built up was the reason that she screamed and fell backwards when something ended up actually showing up.

"Oh my god oh my god that's a person!" she said, voice quick as she held herself up from the floor with one hand, and adjusted her glasses with the other. DJ, nearby, seemed just as perplexed, but hadn't yelled or jumped away. He seemed to still be processing it. Of course, when he was done processing, he got up, neared the person, and studied them while standing directly in front of them.

"Yo, what the fuck." He mused, circling the guy carefully, seeming to try and gauge how real he was. He even went as far as to prod his shoulder when behind him. "Yea, that's a whole-ass person! Man, this is crazy. Layla, did you hide this guy somewhere? Am I drunk enough that I didn't see him? Holy shit!" He seemed to be more enthused than anything else, grinning widely as he stopped in front of the guy once more, hands on his hips.

 

[Rainzen]

The demon let out a long sigh of resignation. One minute they'd been in hell, minding their own damn business, and the next they were standing in this room with a bunch of shrieking humans trying to remember what goddamned language they were speaking. They'd summoned him in Latin, and that was fine, he could do Latin, but this was definitely NOT Latin and the dark gravelly words from demonic tongues did not translate well to human words. He carefully eyed the human twittering about him like a bird or a gnat, and flicked it on the forehead before he could stop himself. Being corporeal up here was very different than materializing in hell, in a way that he couldn't put his finger on. What did they want, anyway? It had been a long time since he'd been up here but it had been his impression that the mortals generally got to the gist of the dealmaking pretty quickly. They had to want something from him. He did his best to stare impassively at them until they either got down to business or he figured out how to talk in this language a bit better.

Layla hadn't said anything since finishing the incantation, but she was inclined to agree. Where in the literal, actual fuck, had this person come from? Layla was not an easy person to fool, even tipsy, and she damn well would have known if someone had been hiding in her dorm room, of all places. "Ok so. Not the most fucked up joke someone's ever pulled on me but... dude what the hell." The person just stared at her. Either he was a very good actor, or the joke was lost on him. "Alright, funs over. get out." His eyes widened.

"What?"

"I said, get out of my room. Or I'll kick your ass so hard you'll be tasting your balls for a month."

To his credit, the demon did look properly surprised.

"You summoned me... and now. You are requesting I leave?" The words sounded forced, still tinted with a rough, dark edge, like some supernatural chain smoker, but less inhumanly low in pitch than before. "That is not how this works."

 

[elytra]

"Consider: that could be totally how it works." DJ chimed in, unhappily rubbing the spot where he'd been flicked. He hadn't bothered to move back; he still wasn't convinced that the person they were dealing with was actually a demon. After all, it was illogical. Maybe he was more inclined to propose weird theories than the other two, but most of the time, he didn't even believe a word he said. It was all just a show, put on for a reaction. "I mean, I can invite someone into my house, and then I can decide I don't like them and want them to leave. So, like, I'm thinking summoning works the same way. If this is a summoning. Really don't think it is, but hey, I can be wrong sometimes."

Now, meanwhile, Bee was trying to think this over. She hadn't drank anything, because she really wasn't an alcohol sort of person. She much preferred water, or soda maybe; getting drunk wasn't worth having the bad taste in her mouth. So, she was sober, but she was still perplexed by the fact that this person, who hadn't been in the room prior, was now standing in front of them. She got to her feet, and she tugged DJ back by the back of his shirt, not feeling comfortable with him standing so close to someone who could quite possibly be a murderer.

The facts were simple: The roommate had left. They'd found the book. Both Layla and DJ had gotten tipsy. They'd decided to try a ritual, for the hell of it. Someone who wasn't in the room before was now, and he sounded like a chain smoker. He was also seemingly aware of the summoning, and was....what? The demon? There was the quote by whoever that say that when you cross out all other possibilities, the one that remains, no matter how improbably, must be true, but she wasn't inclined to tip her world view upside-down on the drop of a dime.

DJ stumbled, but Bee steadied him best she could. Then, she stepped slightly in front of him to keep him from walking back over, and took a better look at the situation. She had to be levelheaded about this, because otherwise, they'd just all be screaming or doing something stupid. "....So, you're implying you're a demon?" She questioned slowly, wording it so that she didn't admit to believing a lick of it, because she didn't, and she was fine with letting that be known.

 

[Rainzen]

Casey blinked in surprise at the human. He certainly hadn’t heard of that before. There had to be a protocol for this, but Casey honestly had no idea what was happening.
“A summoning is not so easily reversed as a house guest." He answered. To stop a summoning, the ritual had to be completed, and in this case, that meant a deal had to be made. He stared down the girl who had stepped to the front of the group.
"What do I look like? An aardvark? How exactly did you think that summoning a demon would go?" He hadn't had much experience interacting with mortals, and he had heard they were dense, but this was more than he had been expecting. He was getting better at nailing the accent though, human words and communication methods felt strange in his mouth, demons generally weren't nearly as vocal as humans, and their language sounded very different from the words that humans used.

Layla had sobered up pretty quickly at the appearance of a strange person in her dorm room and cursed under her breath when Bee practically threw herself in front of what could be a deranged and dangerous intruder. DJ and his big mouth were going to get them killed for sure but her phone was on the other side of the room in her jacket pocket, so calling the cops or campus security wasn't likely an option. That was unnerving, but Layla could probably take this guy if it came down to it. For now, she opted to stay put standing at the edge of the circle unless things escalated, however much she didn't like Bee getting so up close and personal with a stranger who clearly had no problem breaking and entering. Even if she couldn't figure out how he had done it.

 

[elytra]

"Well, I didn't think it would go, you see, and I don't think I really think it now, either." Bee said, being upfront about her opinion, pushing her glasses up and crossing her arms "And you look like a person. Like, a real person, not all that demon nonsense. I don't see how I have any actual proof that you're not just a regular human being, you know, and seeing as we were doing this as a joke, I'm not inclined to believe that you're not just....some magician, or something."

It wasn't exactly sound reasoning, because he did appear in the room, and there was no real explanation for it nor the good timing. However, Bee wasn't ready to just believe that demons existed. If she were wrong, she'd look foolish, so she would ask for proof- hesitantly, because if he was a demon, then that wouldn't be so good -and go for there.

She also had to hope none of them would get murdered prematurely.

"Exorcism!" DJ piped up suddenly, interrupting her thoughts, grabbing Bee's shoulder and shaking it lightly, before saying it again "Exorcism, there it is, that's what I was thinking of. You can kick out a house guest after inviting them in, and after summoning a demon, you can exorcise them. Its the equivalent! Not, uh, not easy, I'm sure, but there's a way. It exists."

Bee wanted to throttle him. Gently, caringly, but throttle him all the same. He was interrupting, and possibly in the worse way possible. She couldn't blame him entirely, seeing as he was tipsy, but she did wish that he could get a handle on his situation a bit more and learn to keep quiet.

 

[Rainzen]

Layla was about to kill DJ. And maybe also Bee. If they got out of this she was absolutely going to toss them out the window of this dorm room. Would she regret it as she watchedthem fall, probably in faux slow motion, down seven stories of meet their end or grievous injury on The concrete? Likely. Would that stop her? Absolutely not.
“Hey guys. Remember the don’t negotiate with terrorists thing? That also applies to home intruders.” She needed a plan. Before Bee or DJ said something even more stupid. The person spoke again before she could act.
“Excorcise me from what?” Sure, there’s were demons and spirits that had to find a suitable... environment... to interact with corporal beings, but that was distasteful at best. They hadn’t attempted to summon a demon too weak to manifest it’s own body on Earth to try rob make a deal had they? Something too weak to even grant itself a body surely couldn’t give them what they wanted.
Casey sighed. He might as well do what he could to get this over with. He locked eyes with the girl that had seemed to take charge. “Tell me. What do you wish for, right now? No strings attached.” Freebies were generally frowned upon. Especially given out by someone as bad at negotiation as Casey, but if he could get on someone’s good side, he might be able to make a better deal, which might actually buy him a moments peace back home.

 

[elytra]

A freebie? Bee didn't trust that. She frowned, fixing her glasses and shoving DJ further back, to which he protested by swatting her hand. Maybe if she went for something simple, something that you couldn't misconstrue, it would be fine. It wouldn't backfire, and it would prove whether or not this guy was for real. If he was, they had a problem. If he wasn't? Well, they still had a problem, it was just a completely different problem from the other one. The second at least meant they were dealing with something they knew about: people.

"....Okay." She said slowly, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms "Are there rules? What're the limits? There has to be something that you can't do, right?" If it was real, she was going to learn how the process worked, at least, before doing anything. That was what she saw as the best option, though Layla obviously didn't think so. Besides, Layla didn't seem to have a better plan, so Bee was going to work with what she had.

Which wasn't a lot. Not at all.

DJ had given up, instead opting to back up, leaning on a side table next to a chair. His hand was placed near a lamp, and it wasn't clear if that was on purpose, to possibly use it for a weapon if needed, or just at random. Both were possible; he wasn't dumb, per say, but he had his moments where he didn't think things through. For example, earlier; one who thought things through wouldn't find it wise to be that close to a stranger who had, in one way or another, gotten into a private residence, and yet, he had done it instantly. It didn't help that he was tipsy.

 

[Rainzen]

“Bee.” Layla said it in a warning tone but reconsidered and let the rest of her would be sentence hang in silence. Maybe stalling wouldn’t be so bad after all. She glanced at DJ but turned back to Bee when she’s saw the lamp, not wanting to give him away. That thing was ceramic, and damn heavy. If he could get a good swing going, it would really do some damage. The person seemed to be thinking on Bees question, but was still watching each of them like a hawk.

“For now? Something simple, preferably material.” He answered and pause during again. “But I suppose if your desires are more creative than that, I could make either of these two do something you wish. Nothing permanent.” The girl was doing an admirable job at distracting him, but he wasn’t my naive enough to forget her companions. “I could also change your appearance. Superficially at least.” He offered. He could do a great deal more than that, but not without a price for them both.

 

[elytra]

Bee didn't like being watched that carefully, but if most of the attention was on her, that was fine. DJ was doing something behind her, but she opted not to turn around, even when Layla said her name, figuring that it was best that she kept talking. Or, well, maybe 'bullshitting' was a better term. She was genuinely trying to figure out what was happening, but she needed time to do both that and figure out how to handle it. Unfortunately, time was minimal, they were in a small space, and a weird guy was in the room. Things weren't looking up.

She considered, for a moment. She wasn't about to do anything to either DJ or Layla; even thinking about it set her on edge. In the same line of thought, she didn't want to do anything to herself, because that seemed like it was just asking for trouble. Getting too creative with it would be bad, too, as there would possibly be some way to twist her words, but she needed something bizarre enough that it would prove or disprove what the guy could do. She couldn't just ask for him to materialize a mint, because that was the sort of thing that someone just had on them, but asking for something like a pet lion would probably end in injury.

"Okay." She said after a moment of thought, considering the other with a frown "Okay. Well, how about this? I want a 10:30 candy bar." She originally considered asking for a candy from another country, but then thought it over and realized that those still existed, and there was a percent chance that the 'demon' would have one. Small, of course, but still there. What he couldn't have on hand, however, was a discontinued candy bar. They weren't made anymore, but she remembered her mother telling her about them, and about how she had no idea if there was even a way to get them anymore. It was a safe wish, considering it wasn't dangerous, and it was obscure enough that it would make or break his case.

 

[Rainzen]

"A what?" It was generally helpful to at least know what he was conjuring before trying to pull it out of thin air. He really didn't have the patience for trying to reason out what it was. Casey closed his eyes, and, instead of trying to picture what he thought he was trying to conjure, he focused on creating what the girl in front of him wanted at the moment. He wasn't sure why it worked, he couldn't read minds, but tapping into someone's desires to conjure something was usually pretty reliable. From what he could tell, it was less mind-reading and more some kind of combination of his conjuring and hypnosis abilities.

Layla tense as the intruder grew very still, and took a deep breath. She was convinced this was the distraction he'd been waiting for to strike, so she nearly fell down in shock when a red and white candy bar appeared out of seemingly thin air and dropped into the palm of the persons waiting hand. It sat there innocuously as he opened his eyes again and outstretched and arm, offering the bar to Bee for inspection.

"Well? Do we have a deal, or not?"

 

[elytra]

Well, it was real.

Bee could confirm it, after an extreme inspection. Even then, she couldn't really believe it, because it was really the sort of thing that shattered world views. She could hear DJ behind her whisper "Holy shit.", and she knew he was probably having similar thoughts. This was, probably, the worse option out of the available possibilities. She would've preferred a serial killer to, what, a demon? A demon that'd they'd summoned in their dorm room. This was possibly simultaneously the worst and best thing that could've ever happened. On one hand: weird, unexplored territory that was interesting. On the other: it was a situation that was probably life threatening.

Except....the demon couldn't do anything without a deal.

If he could, he would've done something to prove that he was real. Set something on fire, done something wacky, anything. Instead, he'd given Bee a freebie. While her reasoning wasn't solid, she had some supporting evidence, and considering their current predicament, she was going to have to work with it. She didn't want to make a deal just to have it turn on them. So, she took a deep breath, let it out, and crossed her arms.

"No deal." She said firmly "I'm not in the business of selling my soul." God, she had never felt more dumb, but beggars couldn't choosers.

 

[Rainzen]

Casey balked at her. “What?! What do you mean, no deal?” Was the human serious? He had come all the way up here and given her a freebie and everything. He looked around at the other two humans present. Given their expressions, he felt secure in the assumption that she was, in fact, speaking for them all. This was unacceptable. He couldn't return empty-handed, especially after such a short time, the consequences would no doubt be painful and efficient. He needed a minute to think.

Layla jumped, ready to fight, as the intruder moved toward Bee, only to sit down cross-legged on her dorm room floor. As casually as though they were hanging out and there just weren't enough chairs. For the moment, she was just sort of pretending that he hadn't materialized some obscure candy bar out of thin air at her friends bequest. She could compartmentalize whatever insane mind freak shit was going on and deal with it once this creep was safely out of the building. She was definitely less convinced that he was unarmed now though, and used the brief distraction to grab her knife from the drawer behind her.

"Well." He stated. "You summoned me by creating a contract. I don't suppose you know how to un-summon me? It appears my only option is to stay here until terms are negotiated and the contract is fulfilled."