"Ugh. At any rate, it's a philosophical question at best, because the chances of a summoner arranging that kind of circumstance for a demon is about the same as the chance of me putting on a halo and spinning straw into gold."

"I imagine you could pull off the halo if you were willing to undergo some surgery. Straw thing's probably harder."

"The only reason I would ever consider a halo would be for a pantomime show. The Rumpelstilzchen act would actually be quite easy, if you set up a 'spinning wheel' that burnt the straw and then set up the gold to come out the other side. That one, I've done."

"The halo would contribute to your 'confuse the summoners' act. You don't really have anything on you that screams angel, just fairy wings and demon horns and a tail equally uncharacteristic of anyone who could acquire such a thing."

"I'd consider it, were it not for the fact that I'd never consider it."

"One time I got this really over the top practically Biblical angel with a ton of wings and eyes who was slightly on fire all the time, it was amazing."

Ari cackles. "Typical. You want to see Biblical, though, Nalagon in the obsidian house down the way has actually given himself hooves. Utterly mad, I think, but then I'm the one with butterfly wings and a jetpack."

"I don't think I will go for extreme body modification that involves cutting things off," shudders Cam. "Not anytime soon. I can appreciate the fashion statement of hooves, but I can also appreciate, like, sneakers."

"Yeah, it's fetching in its own way but I doubt it's for me. I might try it sometime, though. And I've been thinking of claws and maybe fangs... It's been a while since I switched up my appendages."

"I'd expect those to get annoying in day to day life. The claws more than the fangs, I guess."

"Probably. I think I could get used to them, though. And I definitely know some folks who would appreciate them."

"I see."

"Are there buildings here that aren't individuals' tacky houses?" wonders Cam. "Is there government of any kind? I'm told Hell is anarchy, but that doesn't necessarily apply to individual cities."

"Mmm... There's theaters and arenas and such, and I believe one of the ex-summoners has something approximating a restaurant, at which you can pay by telling him in great detail exactly what you thought of your meal. 'Shops' exist where the very creative conjure things for the less creative, but generally you'll need some piece of media to pay for those. And there's a library with some decent lists of books and music, you can contribute to it if you like but you don't want to publicize too many titles if you're ever going to want to buy something around here. Government-wise... in a word, no. If something comes up, occasionally there'll be some kind of council that meets on it, but there's nobody with real authority."

"Huh. And this all rubs along in a reasonably friendly manner, I take it."

"Yep! There's less friendly types, but generally they don't go for us too much. Too busy warring endlessly with each other in the void. Every so often some jackass tosses an unrestrained black hole into the middle of the city or something, but that's only a temporary problem. Most of the jackasses don't have much persistence."

"Good. I wouldn't have liked to land in a war zone."

"Recommend you stay out of Amngaroth then. That place is more holes than void by now. Very unpleasant."

"Noted. Where is Amngaroth? Can I get a map?"

Ari causes such a map to exist! It's on a state-of-the-art (given the state of the art) holographic projector. The center is a wobbly thing that appears to be the plane of gold. "There," says Ari, pointing to a cluster of somethingorother in space opposite their side of the plane, "is Amngaroth. I don't recall what supposedly started the feud, but there's a few thousand demons over there who've been warring with each other for much longer than I've been around. By this point they hate each other more than the angels."

"Huh. And where are we?"

Ari points at a red dot on the plane. It's about as far from Amngaroth as it's possible to be. "Scenic Nagala. I think the story is that a bunch of the Galegans and Kelkaron who hadn't been around for the start of the war got sick of the whole thing and decided to go to the opposite side of the plane. The Kelkaron mostly live in Talrakk, a few hundred miles east, they're nice enough."

"And these are - subcultures or communities of some kind, as opposed to the Earth gold standard of ethnic groups."

"Yep! Far as I can tell it's just who popped in nearest who, but that doesn't stop them from hating each other. I do my best not to get involved."