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Sad Cam and Samora in Milliways
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Someone has to be the last person out of the fort's chapel on any given morning; today it's Samora.

 

 

 

This isn't the hallway.

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Sure ain't.

Instead she is facing a sort of tavern, if taverns had no visible stock behind the bar, and were made of remarkably nice materials without going for a particularly high-end aesthetic otherwise, and had a window displaying - the night sky with frequent brilliant explosions? - through the wall to her left, and -

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- had exactly one patron nursing a mugful of beverage, dangling his dark blue wings and tail off the back of a barstool.

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She's not where she's expecting to be and that guy is Evil and powerful. Powerful enough to do--whatever this is--in the middle of a fortress. He doesn't look like any kind of demon she's heard of but there are a lot of kinds and a lot of unique ones.

Samora tries disbelieving this whole situation. It's a very easy situation to not believe in but that doesn't make it go away.

She can't go get reinforcements or someone else who might succeed on their save; the chapel only has one door. She could start blasting, but the probably-a-demon is probably expecting that, and also "start throwing combat spells while inside your own fortress while it's very plausible you're enchanted" is a stupid plan.

She slides her shield from her back to her arm and says, "What is this? What did you do?"

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"- uh, I don't control the door, but it's some kinda interdimensional bar situation. I think you can turn around and close the door behind you and it'll go away, if you want?"

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That's a tempting suggestion. It's really tempting. But it would not result in understanding how this "interdimensional bar situation" got into the fort.

"Who does control the door? And who are you?" She's got one foot keeping the door open and is listening as hard as she can and there's nothing that sounds like the rest of the fort is being attacked.

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"The bar is a person and she refers to the mysterious door-controlling entities as 'the landlords'. I'm a demon."

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"Yeah, I kinda figured that last one. Been wondering why you haven't attacked me yet." Come on, brag about your plans. Or monologue about something else until Samora figures out what's going on.

(The bar doesn't detect as Evil. She has no evidence it's a person. No idea why the demon would claim it was one of it wasn't, either, but demons often have reasons for their actions that don't make any sense. Also, this one seems . . . tireder and sadder than she's used to.)

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"...why would I do that, it's not like I even own the place and you've just, like, walked in and talked?"

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"Because that's what demons do." If this one isn't doing murder and torture and destruction, it's because he saw an opportunity to do more murder and torture and destruction later and had enough impulse control to go for it. Or he's just having fun with how confused she is.

Even if he really didn't create this demiplane-or-mindscape-or-something, between the impulse control and the being a rare or unique type and his aura strength she is not at all confident she'd win a fight if she started one. He looks completely sincere and has this whole time, but that just means he's splendid enough to lie really well.

There's still no sign that the rest of the fort is being attacked. Apart from the wings, the demon looks weirdly human, more like a fleshcrafting experiment than an outsider. The room and its strange window don't look like something a demon would design or like something a human would design. Nothing here adds up; her best model of the situation still has no explanation for most of what she's seeing.

Inheritor, give me the wisdom to understand this situation and how to deal with it.

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"If you have only previously encountered bound demons and buy all the racist propaganda about why it's important to summon responsibly, I guess you'd come away with that impression. I'm basically just a guy though."

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???

Is he actually unaware that the other side of the door is a Worldwound fortress? If he is unaware, that's--probably good and she should stop him from finding out?

"I don't know why you'd expect me to believe you about that, regardless of what circumstances I've previously met demons in. . . . Though you are a very unusual one."

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"I'm actually sorta surprised you've met any. The bar claims to be interdimensional. I guess it's possible your dimension has humans and demons in it by total coincidence."

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Good thing she already decided not to tell him. Also, ugh, deception is even harder when she's fishing for information at the same time, all her instincts are pointing the wrong way even more than they normally would.

"Have you met humans before, then? I didn't think the Abyss had any." Oh, maybe he used to be human and remembers enough of it to recognize her as one. At least she didn't give him a clue to where they are, probably.

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"I don't know of any languages that call my home that but it's only demons there, I just accept lots of summonses as a general habit."

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"And they don't all just ask you to kill their enemies?"

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"No, the planet I usually get summoned to is very peaceful, they want me to like make spaceships or islands or whatever."

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None of this makes any sense, presumably because it's a pack of lies. But even then, why this pack of lies?

"Supposing I believed all of that," she says, trying and failing to sound like she's considering believing it, "what are you looking to get out of this interaction? I don't want any spaceships or islands," she adds, trying and mostly succeeding at sounding like she knows what a spaceship is.

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"...uh, I don't have very high hopes for this interaction because you seem pretty racist but in general I'm hanging out here waiting for someone to walk in who can do resurrections. I was most recently summoned to a world that is not my usual and they were having a war when I got there and a lot of people're dead now."

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"I can only do Raise Dead anyway," she says on bewildered autopilot, and then mentally kicks herself for revealing what circle she is. This demon has a weirdly good model of what humans want. Even succubi usually don't have much repertoire beyond sex/wealth/power. 

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"...uh, speaking as a guy from a universe where that's not a thing, what disappointing limitations have you just implied exactly -"

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Huh, maybe divine magic varies between planets enough that she didn't just give away her power level. Or he already knew which of them would win in a fight. 

It's such a reasonable question to ask if he really does want people resurrected, is the thing. And such a roundabout way of getting more details on her abilities. And she doesn't, actually, have a better idea for getting less confused than hearing the rest of the lie.

"I need an intact body."

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"Ah, fuck."

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" . . . If you're telling the truth, I'm sorry." Not convinced of that enough to offer to help him get in touch with a seventh circle, though.

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"Not like it's your fault."

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She's seen that expression. On the faces of people whose patrolmates have been killed by demons. This is, she reminds herself sternly, how they get you. They look guilty and sad and say they regret their Evil deeds and want to make amends, if only you'd help them out a little by providing some resource that you absolutely should not give them.

(But then, why did he claim to be a demon? With his face he could have claimed to be a tiefling and then like as not she'd be in full problem-solving mode trying to help him by now.)

"I'd like to hear the full story, if it's one you're willing to tell." Maybe he'll say something inconsistent or something that gives a clue as to what his plan is. Maybe she'll keep him talking until everyone realizes nobody has seen her since prayers and . . . Sendings her or tries to open this door from the other side or something. Maybe she's just asked a really sad person to explain all his problems to someone staring suspiciously at him. Which is very unlikely but also the best possibility apart from how rude she would have been being this whole time.

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