sculpture

[bitterchill]

Ari is currently standing on a broad plateau on the Plane of Gold making a very pretty statue of a woman he loved once. He's not thrilled with the fact that she put him in a coma and swanned about doing horrible things for the span of his natural life, but half a millennium is a lot of time to get over that, and Belinda made herself beautiful enough that he's willing to overlook her faults in order to use her as a model. She was stunning.

For this statue, he's elected to use various shades of corundum. He managed to get the violet in her eyes into a pair of sapphires, and is now deliberating over how to render her skin. She changed it every so often, so he's got choices here.

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Okay. So why am I here?"

[bitterchill]

"You're a demon now! You have the magical powers of making shit and not getting shot in the face anymore. Well, I mean, you can get shot in the face, I have been, but it doesn't do much. You can make yourself wings and a tail and whatnot if you like, too, I highly recommend them."

[from_scratch]

"...Cool. I'd probably go for wings that work... how do I actually do it, is it supposed to be obvious? I don't really feel different except for no longer having a hole in my head."

[bitterchill]

"Yeah, it's... kind of supposed to be obvious. I mean, conceptually I guess it's kind of similar to the mortal magic tricks or something? But it's kind of like asking, like, 'how do I breathe,' it doesn't make a lot of sense."

[from_scratch]

"So if it's like a parlor trick -" Cam holds out his hand, looks at his palm -

And now he has a green M&M.

"Oh. That was easy."

[bitterchill]

"That's making, all right. Quick and cheap and easy, as the actress said to the bishop. What is that thing, some kind of bead?"

[from_scratch]

"Piece of candy. Want it? Apparently there are more where that came from."

[bitterchill]

"Hell yes. I am amazed by the fact that modern humans have such ready access to chocolate that they can ruin it by putting it into those horrible little chemical shells, it's delightful."

[from_scratch]

"Don't knock the chemical shell." Cam hands over the M&M.

[bitterchill]

Ari bites into the horrible little chemical shell. "My god, it's disgusting. I love it. So, anyway, twopenny tour of Hell or what? I can get back to my sculpture any time, but molding the flexible little mind of a new demon doesn't happen every day."

[from_scratch]

"Please, tour. It's been mentioned to me a few times that demons sometimes only started speaking English after I summoned them, I imagine if I go directly to Hell ones I can talk to are a much smaller subset of the population."

[bitterchill]

"Oh yes. I mean, English speakers make up a lot of the summoner community, but the summoner community is a pretty tiny subset of the population at large, which in this region mostly speaks Lagalann. Which is a lovely language, I highly recommend learning it, but it'll probably take you a while." Ari leaves his statue and pops a jetpack onto his back. (He spent almost fifteen years working on this design back in 1800; since then he's made upgrades to keep up with fuel technology, and by this point it's very sleek and space-agey.) "Want to go now?"

[from_scratch]

"I don't know how to operate a jetpack, and I don't think I want to court experiments with daeva durability right now, though I'm assured it's state of the art. Can I get there in a car? I know how to drive a car."

[bitterchill]

"You can drive there in a car while I soar above your head on my extremely cool jetpack, yes."

[from_scratch]

"Right then.

Cam makes a cute little blue convertible, top not only down but nonexistent, and hops in behind the wheel. "Lead the way."

[bitterchill]

Ari takes off, white flame bathing his bare legs in a way that looks remarkably uncomfortable. He soars off in the direction which has, for general demonic convenience, been declared north.

[from_scratch]

That looks remarkably uncomfortable. Maybe he's got some kind of insulator around his legs that Cam can't see.

Cam drives after him. Vroom.

[bitterchill]

At the speed of vroom, Ari leads Cam to a city that looks a bit like what would happen if you let several million people with inherently contradictory design aesthetics and the ability to conjure arbitrary matter build a city together. It's... unbelievably tacky. Near the center there appears to have been something of a competition to see who could build the tallest unnecessary spire, which concluded when the top floors stopped being affected by gravity. Nearer the outskirts it's humbler, just a mess of elaborate mansions made entirely out of gold or rubies or human bone.

[from_scratch]

"Wow," mutters Cam. He may live in a city for a while to get used to Hell but then he's fucking off to someplace less tacky to be introverted and have a sense of damn (...heh) proportion.

[bitterchill]

There are not drivable streets in Hell-cities. This may present a problem. In fact, by the looks of things it seems that there may not be streets at all, so much as occasional spaces between the mansions; there are clouds of demons flapping about, who land on the rooftops and descend when they land anywhere.

[from_scratch]

Cam parks when he cannot drive further and gets out of the car. He feels kind of out of place without wings; he keeps an eye on demons in flight to get an idea of how various sets handle.

[bitterchill]

Ari touches down near Cam. "Do you want to make your own wings yet or should I just fly you up? I can totally carry you, the jetpack has pretty high capacity."

[from_scratch]

"I haven't decided what I want my wings to be like yet. If you carry me am I going to catch fire?"

[bitterchill]

"Nope! You're as invulnerable as I am, and anyway you'll be pretty much shielded by my body so it won't even be that uncomfortable. It's a short trip to my place, I got into the real estate scene early but at the time I was a bit outside town so it amounts to me only being a little while into the city."

[from_scratch]

"I understand that demons, of which I am now one, are indestructible, but I still wouldn't enjoy my jeans being on fire, even slightly. But sure, if you're between me and the flames let's do it."