WE GOT DEMONS UP IN HERE

[periphrasing]

It’s around noon when Peridot performs the summoning. By all traditional, dramatic accounts, this might seem an unorthodox time of day to be cracking the barrier between realms and calling upon the infernal forces of hell itself, but, hey. She’s only human, after all; she has a job, a schedule to keep, a sleep pattern to maintain…

Frankly, if you ask her? Anyone who risks doing their demon summoning in the middle of the night while exhausted, just because of tradition or for the ambience or whatever, is probably a clod who deserves to get devoured by an incubus.

No. Peridot is much more pragmatic than that. That’s why she’d woken up this morning after a solid night’s sleep and decided that today, at last, would be the day to act. She’d had herself a sandwich, changed into her work clothes, made sure to hydrate properly AND gone to the bathroom AT LEAST three times before she had gotten settled in to start with her preparations, gleefully determined to put her plan into motion.
Soon enough, the pentagrams had been drawn out, the lines double and then triple checked for accuracy. Incense and candles were both lit, ceremonial items and offerings laid out in the proper arrangements according to all the books. And the whole time that she’s working, in spite of the preciseness of her measurements and the thoroughness of her research, Peridot is achingly aware of the riskiness of this endeavor she’s about to undertake. She’s confident in her theories, and in her own abilities as a summoner, but…

A double summoning. It’s a concept often muttered about among all the scientists at the extradimensional research department which Peridot is employed at, but it’s rarely ever attempted. Too risky, everyone always says. Too many variables, the spells too wordy and complex and the demons… to unpredictable. Managing just one is a struggle for many of those who delve into the dark arts.
But not for Peridot. What can she say, she’s always looking to push the limits of her field, and pulling off such an allegedly impossible feat seems like the biggest and most impressive limit to break of them all.

And all that ambition has led her, at last, to this point. Everything is ready. She seats herself across from the pentagrams, spell book laid open on the floor in front of her, a sticky note with the names of the demons she has selected for this experiment stuck to the edge of the relevant page. She’s practically shaking with excitement, has to take a breath to center herself, focus on the moment before she starts to read aloud.

Ancient words from a lengthy passage. Peridot pronounces every one of them clearly and accurately, and then calls forth through the void for them: Jasper and Lapis Lazuli.
She sits quiet, stock still, and waits for the response.

Comments

[stompadour]

"I thought that was the entire reason you summoned us," says Jasper, looking a little indignant.

[periphrasing]

Peridot just gives Jasper a withering look. "Okay, fine! Tell me about the first time you ever set foot on Earth!"

[mirrortide]

Well obviously that question is directed to Jasper so Lapis will just be quiet.

And start looking around the room she's been summoned in, since it's full of all kinds of weird shit she's unfamiliar with.

There's a few sketchy moments as her hooves start to slide out from under her before she catches herself.

[stompadour]

"...Well," says Jasper, genuinely surprised that Peridot didn't keep arguing. She hesitates a moment, scratching her chin. "It was a long time ago. They used a human sacrifice, I can tell you that – she was the youngest one of their group, they were so desperate for someone to help them defeat these other humans that they killed her for it." She sounds approving. "They had a circle surrounding a fire, and they summoned me right into the fire, but it wasn't like now when you draw the circles with symbols and everything, the circle was just – they'd all bloodied their palms and they linked hands in a chain around the fire. I remember that."

[periphrasing]

Don’t worry Lapis, she’ll get to you in just a sec. In the meantime, try not to get scared by the boiler, or any of the washing machines.

The fact that Jasper actually answers the question is certainly a nice change of pace as far as cooperation goes, and it’s firing Peridot’s natural curiosity up again. Plus, the information she’s gleaning from this (provided Jasper is telling her the truth) is utterly fascinating. She’s never heard of a summoning like that before?

She knows the camera should be getting all of this down but, wide-eyed and intently focused on Jasper’s every word, she still whips out a little notepad and pencil and starts scribbling information down.

“So did you do it? Defeat their enemies for them, I mean?”

[stompadour]

"Obviously," Jasper scoffs. "I obliterated them."

[periphrasing]

She definitely writes down "obliterated" on her notepad and underlines it like. Three times. She'll have to ask Jasper for more details later.

"And Lazuli," Peridot says, pointing at the other demon with her pencil. "What about you?"

[mirrortide]

Lapis' hooves clack very suddenly on the floor as she jolts when she's suddenly spoken too. She doesn't fall, but that's only because she grabs one of the strange machines to help keep her balance.

"The first time I was summoned? Your kind was still in mud brick shelters. It'd only been one human, and I wouldn't say it was a human sacrifice I was given exactly? He'd killed one of his friends, but it wasn't an offering, but it was a catalyst for it. It was the emotion that summoned me. Fear, loss, regret, anger, and powerlessness. He'd wanted revenge against their leader at the time? Apparently they'd killed his lover, or something like that, and his friend was the one who sold her out. He'd wanted me to wipe out his whole village."

[stompadour]

Jasper nods in satisfaction as she watches Peridot write that down. Obliterated.

As Lapis speaks, she raises her eyebrows a little, tentatively impressed.

"Did you do that?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot leans forward a little, hanging on Lapis' every word. "Yeah, did you?"

[mirrortide]

"Of course I did." It only makes sense that she did? She is a demon, after all. "I was still new though, I was confused, I didn't understand much at the time. I didn't take his soul, but there weren't any rules or bindings to my summon then. I stayed in this realm for awhile before they actually figured out how to banish me. I caused a lot of trouble." It'd been a seriously fun time.

[stompadour]

"Hah." Jasper's a stickler for rules and for doing things correctly, but even the most lawful demon can't help an approving chuckle at the idea of another demon using a gap in the rules to make things harder for their summoners. After all, if an opportunity that blatant presents itself, it means the human summoner didn't do their part of the summoning right, in which case they deserve what they get.

Take note, Peridot.

[periphrasing]

Almost like she reads Jasper's mind, Peridot seems to snort in agreement. "Idiot," she says while scribbling down everything Lapis just said on her little notepad. "People wonder why I'm so thorough about the summoning and agreement process, and it's exactly because of situations like that."

[mirrortide]

"You do realize it's because of people like that that you even know how to summon and dismiss demons in the first place, right? It's not like they knew what was going on back in those days." But, also, whatever. She'd definitely had her fun back then.

She'd absolutely do it again if given half the chance, but Peridots' bindings are way too tight and well placed for that sort of mischief.

[stompadour]

Jasper's looking sideways at Lapis now, curious.

"How'd you do it – what did you use to destroy them? I would've thought you'd... work on a smaller scale than that."

She doesn't sound skeptical about it at all, but...

[periphrasing]

Peridot gives Lapis a little scowl at her comment, but keeps jotting down her notes.

"Yes. I would like to know this as well."

[mirrortide]

"I flooded their village. They were right on the river. It wasn't hard." It'd been out of the rainy season, so they hadn't ever expected the torrential downpour, the breaking of hastily constructed and poorly made dams.

"The scale I work on depends on how many people they want revenge on. Most of the time it's personal squabbles, petty one on one stuff. Sometimes it's a bit bigger than that."

[stompadour]

Jasper gives a small, approving nod. "What's the biggest job you've ever done...?" She's like fifty percent sizing Lapis up for future reference and fifty percent indulging her own competitive streak.

[periphrasing]

This is great. Jasper's basically asking all the questions for her? And also this is giving her really good material on interactions between demons. Fascinating stuff.

"Yes, I'd also like to know that," she agrees, pausing just briefly enough from scribbling notes down at a dizzying pace.

[mirrortide]

Lapis fixes a look onto Jasper before turning her attention back to Peridot. "Uh, turned two monarchies against each other resulting in the deaths of thousands and a war that lasted for ten years." She waves her hand dismissively. "Don't remember their names, though. It's been a good few thousand years."

[stompadour]

Jasper's eyebrows go up. That sounds... familiar. She's not going to say so, though, because that was one of the instances where even summoning her wasn't enough to bring the war to a decisive end. She was there for years. It damaged her reputation for a good few centuries.

She narrows her eyes.

"Impressive."