Lotus in Bensaylum
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"She doesn't embody it, she feeds on it. She works as an unusually effective anger management counselor."

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"Oh, that makes much more sense. What other sins are there?"

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"In their class? Sloth, lust, greed, gluttony, and envy."

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"So demons consume sin and are for the most part evil but some are perfectly nice and turn their vice-consuming abilities to good ends. Are there multiple demons per sin, or is it a more one-off thing?"

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"Multiple. Lust demons are typically called incubi and succubi, the rest of the minor ones get less individual attention."

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"You implied that there are lesser sins? Not in the same 'weight class' as the seven you mentioned? Do they get demons too? What are they like?"

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"No, the seven are the lesser ones. The heavier hitters are more actual bad things like murder or torture."

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"Ohhh. That makes a lot more sense. What else is in that category?"

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"Rape, maiming..."

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"So I'm asking because I don't want to be evil and it's entirely possible that there are things that seem obviously evil to you that aren't known to be so on my plane. You haven't mentioned anything like that so far but an exhaustive list just in case would be useful." She's maybe twisting the truth a little but she's not lying.

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"Ah--I don't have an exhaustive list on hand. And the really powerful demons don't typically come to Earth or disclose their natures casually so I'm not totally sure what-all they are. It wouldn't surprise me if genocide were on the list, but I've never specifically heard of a genocide demon, for example."

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'Does genocide of demons count?' she does not ask. "It seems like a lot of the tools for nonlethally ending a fight in my world are possibly sins? And seem like the most obvious areas of confusion. Mind-affecting magic? Non-mind-controlley enchantments, like sleep or paralysis? Hostile transmutation?"

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"Sleep and paralysis are fine. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by hostile transmutation. Mind-affecting magic--well, it depends on if it's consensual or not."

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"For the purposes of stopping a fight, generally no. Suggestion spells are common 'you, put down your sword and go home until you've cooled down'. Sometimes it's a spell that just directly lowers tempers. Sleep and paralysis are technically mind-affecting but possibly not in the morally relevant sense. Hostile transmutation would be - similar goal of trying to get everyone to stop for a while, but accomplished by turning the combatants into rabbits instead of messing with their heads."

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"The specific cases you discuss sound mostly fine."

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"Mostly?"

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"I mean, I'd be careful about relying too much on mind-altering magic to end fights."

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And she does not seem likely to go for any "once of prevention is worth a pound of cure" arguments. 

"Of course not. I do try to avoid being involved in fights in the first place, this just seemed like an example that would probably illuminate any differences in the norms around such things."

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"Of course. Just--it can be very easy to go, 'aha, I have a solution to this problem,' and stop looking for better ones. If you have to alter someone's temper to end a fight, that's one thing, but if you ignore a dozen opportunities to learn other ways because you have that one..." she shrugs. "Perhaps I'm being overly cautious."

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"Perhaps. Still, it is good advice. It generalizes well."

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"Thank you."

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"So, back to the original topic at hand - you have demons, which make a straightforward breakout difficult. Is that the main obstacle to that approach, or are there other reasons why you're relying on" - she waves her hand in a kind of confused gesture - "christ stuff. Also, is there a plan for rehabilitating the people that your extraordinarily picky hell took in, or do they just get contained less torturously going forward?"

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"It mostly works by 'Heaven is extremely convenient.' By which I mean that you can be prevented from encountering people you're liable to harm without being kept away from everyone."

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"...If that's not basically a contradiction in terms when talking about the very worst people on this plane then you may consider me once again shocked by how nice this place is."

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"Almost everyone has someone they can interact with without hurting anyone. And even if they don't, they can still--go on walks through autumn-treed forests if they like. God is essentially omnipotent in Heaven."

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