[MISC] Nine-Tenths of the Law

Drew Perron pwerdna at gmail.com
Thu Mar 30 16:38:20 PDT 2017


On 3/28/2017 4:37 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
<snip>
>      "...and by the scribing of this sigil, the pact is made."
>      Ben felt stupid.

I would've detailed a bit more of the complicated spellcasting, to 
really build up to feeling stupid. But that's a minor nitpick.

>      "Hello, Mister Casey.  How may I help you?" Ben felt himself say.

This is a good way of doing demon summoning in a way that's sort of... 
creepy-but-convenient?

> You may find it helpful to hold your
> phone up and pretend this is a regular conversation.

Practical!

>      "Oh, it's like call forwarding.  Used to be, that ritual put you in the
> right frame of mind to interface with whatever member of my race was 'nearby'
> and interested.  We can resonate with your brains...I don't know enough to
> the science to really explain it, so 'magic' is as good an explanation as
> any...and make you do things, say things.  We can even make it so you have no
> awareness of it happening, although obviously doing that right now would
> defeat the purpose.  But that kind of power is awfully tempting, and it led
> to a lot of...abuse.  To our shame we didn't do anything about it for
> centuries, just excused it as a few bad apples.  A 'demon' is one of us who
> abuses the possession ability, just like a 'warlock' is one of your people
> who abuses us, as I understand the translation matrix," Chad made Ben's
> shoulders shrug apologetically.  "We ended up shutting things down entirely
> from both sides, a lot of books were hidden or burned, knowledge suppressed,
> that sort of thing.  Now we're just starting to get the diplomacy going
> again, we have a big First Contact event planned for a few years from now and
> everything."

I love this idea SO MUCH. Like, a lot of "it turns out demons were 
actually aliens!" stuff leaves me cold, but there's so much thought put 
into this. It's a bit infodumpy but it's such interesting info, you know?

>      "I'll hold," Chad made Ben's head nod.

Heeheehee ^.^

> Happy customers are quiet customers, that's basically the agent's
> cut.

Makes sense!

> My job is to find a combination of
> experiences that works best for everyone, and since ALL of your sensations
> are alien to us, I can usually find someone who you can work with.

oooooh, nice. :3

> For
> instance, one of my best people loves the taste of peanut butter, but if
> you're allergic, we'd need to find a different possessor or a different
> bargain.  Another can't get enough of looking at cats, so really easy to
> place.

Awwwww. ^.^ I can relate to this.

>      "Ahhhh, yes.  Well, fortunately for you, 'work up the courage'
> possessions are actually pretty common, relatively speaking.  Several of my
> employees are quite good at subtly supporting you and supplying the right
> words and actions when you're at a loss.

This was the kind of thing I fantasized about as a kid; less romance and 
more general confidence and comebacks.

> Now, what sort of approach are you most comfortable with,
> since you'll need to keep it up after the contract ends?  Dashing,
> respectful, puppy dog eyes...."

Love it. :>

>      This story was inspired by a Tumblr thread on the idea of "consensual
> possessions."

Yesssss. <3

  I originally wrote it for the Amarillo College literary
> magazine, hence the 2016 copyright date and the generic setting.  Only the
> top three short stories got printed, I wasn't in the top three, so I decided
> to post it to RACC in 2017.

Good stuff!

Drew "consessions - no, wait" Perron


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