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]

Jasper looks put off for a second by Peridot's question -- and then Lapis slips, and she lets out a sharp bark of laughter. She takes her own, more assured step forward. Toe beans. No problem.

"It's lionel-um," she says authoritatively.

[periphrasing]

Peridot reels back a little in surprise, eyes as wide as dinner plates because in all her years of demon research, she's never seen anything quite like this?

"It's linoleum," Peridot corrects her, "and crud, you need more traction-- Hold still!" she barks, holding her hands out, trying to get Lapis to calm down. "Just stay there, I have an idea--"

The human skitters out of the room and returns a few seconds later with a huge towel, which she throws down on the floor in front of Lapis. "There, step on that instead."

[mirrortide]

Lapis hisses, outright seethes as the other demon laughs at her, and her tail lashes back and forth in agitation as she waits for the human to grab- something? She's not sure what this linoleum flooring is, but she immediately dislikes it.

Once the towel is down, it's easier for her to stand up, thankfully. She glares daggers at Jasper. How humiliating, to be taken down by a floor? "What's the purpose of flooring this smooth?" Seriously. It's gotta be a hazard to everyone, not just her?

[stompadour]

"Lionorlem, that's what I said," says Jasper dismissively. "It works for humans because humans don't have hooves."

As long as they stay on this subject she doesn't have to answer invasive questions.

[periphrasing]

"It's not usually this smooth," Peridot explains irritably, straightening up and pushing her glasses back up her nose. "This linoleum--" her eyes flick over to the war demon briefly, LISTEN TO HOW SHE'S SAYING IT, JASPER-- "is super old because my stupid landlord won't pay to replace it. Usually it's textured, but that feature has been worn away over time by friction. Other parts of the house are at least carpeted, so you shouldn't have any problems there."

[mirrortide]

There it is, there's that emotional output Lapis has been craving, and it's absolutely delicious, it makes Lapis perk up considerably. "Your landlord sounds like a jerk." Lapis points out, seemingly innocently enough. "If you're paying for this space the least they could do is keep it taken care of for the tenants."

[stompadour]

Jasper shoots her a Look. "She's not going to buy that," she scoffs.

[periphrasing]

Well. She might have, at least to an extent. Not enough to actually give Lapis what she was angling for, at any rate.

"He's not worth the effort anyway," Peridot adds dismissively. She's circling Lapis now, investigating her more closely. She stops at one shoulder and grabs the wrist of one her wings, flexing it experimentally. "This is impressive... What would you say your maximum wingspan is?"

[mirrortide]

Well, she tried.

At the question, Lapis flares her wings wide open, purposefully bashing Jasper with the one before adjusting, like she hadn't meant to do it. It's a fairly large wingspan for a demon so small.

"This is my maximum, I guess?"

[stompadour]

The wing smacks Jasper straight in the face before she has time to react, and she bats it away with an agitated snarl.

"I've seen bigger."

[periphrasing]

"OOoooooh," Peridot gasps, completely disregarding the little tiff going on between the two demons. "Wait-- Hold that pose."

Without waiting for confirmation, she scurries around on her tip toes, investigating and then feeding her measuring tape out from one wing tip to the other. "Huh. Looks like you're at about 3.1 meters across from one distal phalanx to the other," the human chirps. She glances at Jasper, eyebrows lifted. "Have you really seen bigger...?"

[mirrortide]

These words mean literally nothing to Lapis. They're wings, they let her fly. She doesn't know why measurements are needed, nor why it matters.

"Demons come in all shapes and sizes. It's possible." Lapis supplies helpfully. She's not insulted by Jasper saying she's seen bigger, because big isn't exactly what she's meant for. She's not supposed to be intimidating like a war demon. Frightening yes, intimidating... well, not so much.

[stompadour]

"Of course," says Jasper, rolling her eyes. "This isn't impressive. I thought you were supposed to be some kind of expert."

jokes on you lapis bigness matters more than literally any other thing

[periphrasing]

"My precise expertise is spell crafting, not physiology," Peridot replies irritably, glancing up from investigating the knuckles of Lapis' right wing. "I know a respectable amount about it but it's not what I spend the majority of my time doing. But since you're so experienced, why don't you tell me? What's the biggest you've ever seen?"

[mirrortide]

"Yeah, what is the biggest you've seen?" Said with a tone of 'I don't actually care'.

[stompadour]

"At least three times that," says Jasper dismissively. This is of course pretty rich coming from someone who does not have any wings at all, mind you.

[periphrasing]

Peridot's eyebrows are just steadily climbing away. She's even paused in her poking at Lapis. "Why would anyone ever need to summon a demon with a nine meter wingspan?" she asks, mildly alarmed.

[stompadour]

Jasper stares at her blankly.

Why wouldn't you?

"... Well, there used to be more room for that kind of thing," she says, folding her arms huffily.

[mirrortide]

"Sounds like they wouldn't be able to fly very well. It'd be really hard to make any sort of tight turns with a wing span that big." Lapis points out, complete with an unimpressed look. "I could probably fly circles around a demon like that any day."

[stompadour]

"So?" huffs Jasper. "One this big could fly circles around you." She gestures with her hands indicating something approximately cat sized.

[periphrasing]

Peridot tries to interrupt: "No, seriously-- At what point in history did someone decide it was important to summon a demon that big? To what end!?"

Mind, she doesn't even sound upset about the idea? On the contrary, she sounds utterly fascinated.

[stompadour]

Jasper's stare is not any less blank in the face of Peridot's enthusiasm.

"To obliterate their enemies." Duh.

[mirrortide]

"... Seriously?" She's giving Jasper a look that clearly says 'I don't believe you'.

[periphrasing]

And then the human's expression went from sheer enthusiasm to dead stare. "Seriously? You're not going to give me any more detail than that? I'm literally giving you a free pass to brag about your past accomplishments and experiences on the battlefield." WHAT THE HELL KIND OF WAR DEMON EVEN ARE YOU

[stompadour]

"Those aren't my accomplishments," says Jasper, frowning. "In the old days people summoned a demon like that when they wanted someone the enemy could see across the battlefield – you know, you could see the silhouette through the dust kicked up by the horses and then they rained down holy fire on the enemy. Thousands of years ago, though, before there were so many cities everywhere." She looks a little wistful. "When you still did human sacrifices."