"... Usual way? There's a usual way? Wait, are there ways to summon people to places? That's - not quite what I was aiming for, but hey, magic, I will take it!"

"...Do you live under a rock or are you also working on time travel or what?"

"Um. No to both? Why, is it really common where you live, or something? Are you from halfway around the world, oh my god I am so sorry if you are from halfway around the world. I will pay for a plane ticket back if I can't figure out how to put you back magically, I am so sorry!"

"...A plane ti- what year is this?"

"2004? ... Wait did I also do time travel? What the hell did I do?!"

"Last time I checked it was 2159 and no form of discovered magic looked like this thing, I have no idea what you did!"

"2159?! What?! I - how the hell did I even do that, it was supposed to be entirely based off of movement! There's - no form of discovered magic like this? But this is about the only magic we get! Do you just rely on - species specific things?!"

"Humans can summon daeva - with diagrams, just not diagrams like this - and get us to do things and there are some tiny parlor tricks that require no doodling on the floor, and that's it," says Cam. "So this is starting to sound like 'I have been pulled to an alternate multiverse' rather than 'time travel', although it is at least sort of also that, like, you're speaking English."

".... Holy shit I found a plane shift spell. Um. Okay, I can roll with this. Hi, I'm not actually human, I just happen to look like it right now. I'm a peryton, basically a magic deer with wings. You're a - daeva? Apparently?"

"Specifically I'm a demon. Daeva's a catchall for us and fairies and angels. In my multiverse, which doesn't have perytons."

Cam rolls his eyes. "You might if you'd gotten somebody other than me, but frankly anyone you'd have to run screaming from would not have let you talk this long, they'd have rendered you comatose to prevent dismissal as soon as they noticed that this isn't much of a diagram." He spreads his wingtips beyond the borders of the runes. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Eep," he squeaks. "... Okay, thank you for not rendering me comatose or - or possessing me or something, that would be bad, dad knows an angel but I doubt he could find one extremely quickly."

"...I can't possess you, and what would an angel do about it if I could?"

"Um. Hit you with a magic sword until you're banished back to Dis? I think that's how it goes?"

"...I'm not the relevant kind of demon. You can get rid of me by concentrating on doing it for about a minute, if you want, assuming the rules I'm used to are in play here as opposed to Crazy Peryton World Rules."

"Well if you're not the relevant kind of demon and not going to do terrible things, I don't have a problem with you sticking around as long as you like. Er. But my dad might, I should go tell him that I made a plane shift spell."

"Do you need me along for proof?"

"Nnnno he will believe me. Um. Do you want to go back to your home?"

"I'm not in a hurry. I'd like to make the next concordance with Limbo but that's not for years. And this assumes that you aren't going to wind up catapulting me into 1704 or 2378 or something by mistake, which I suppose I can't assume."

"... Yeah, I don't know that I won't do that by accident. That would be extremely bad. I am seriously very, very sorry about this! It was not what I was planning to do at all!"

"I get it. I will only be moderately inconvenienced if I can't go home, and only mildly so if I wind up in the wrong time - I guess showing up in the far future will mean I have catching up to do but I'd deal, no one expects demons to be up on recent history. But on the assumption that the relevant universes are proceeding forward through time at the same rate and I'll go back to the subjectively correct point in time where I came from, I will probably prefer to stay here for a few years."

"I'm getting the feeling that families are not a thing you need to worry about? Or aging? For you, anyway."

"Aging no, family a little bit but not as a daily life thing."

"Okay. I kind of want to keep saying sorry, but I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record."

"Just a touch. I get you didn't mean to. Where are we?"

"United States, Washington state, in a little town barely on the map called Forks. I can explain more while I head back to my house to explain things to my dad?"

"...Forks. Forks, Washington, are you kidding me?"

"... No? Why, is it important to you in some way? Is this the place that sprouts the volcano where the magic ring of evil can be destroyed, or something?"

"No. Nothing like that. And thank you for the hint that this universe still has Tolkien. I was born there."

"Yeah, sure, I should get my bearings more before I go running around meddling in things. Am I going to attract too much attention for the wings and the tail, and if so is it 'go ahead and saw them off' attention or 'wear a snazzy leather trenchcoat' attention?"

He startles a bit at 'saw them off.' "Um?! I don't think you should saw off any body parts at all! Even if you are going to attract a lot of attention with the wings and tail. I mean, we can probably get you to the Seattle Avalon where no one would bat an eyelash at them, but that's a bit of a drive. But - I have wings, too, there is not enough reason in the world for me to cut them off!"

"...I can replace them pretty trivially and I made them in the first place with a nice band of zero pain-sensing nerves," Cam says. "And you don't look like you have wings."

"Demons can make stuff. However, we cannot - unmake stuff, so I can't do the trick you can apparently pull. And we can't make intrinsically magic stuff, either, it all has to run on physics, so I don't think I can make myself a - medallion."

"... That was going to be the next thing I asked. Damn. Oh well. Um - however you deal with fitting in is up to you? If you don't want to -" he shudders a little "- saw off your wings, you can go with the trenchcoat and move to an Avalon. Uh - where magical critters live, and where everyone is aware that magic critters exist and therefore won't even blink at wings and a tail."

"Will they blink at me being a demon? You mentioned running screaming to your dad, earlier. Or do I resemble something more respectable?"

"You should probably not tell people that you are a demon. I mean - I don't think you look like demons are supposed to look here? But I haven't seen one, so I'm not sure. Dad has, so we'll ask him. But if you are obviously not evil and you just happen to have wings and a tail and explain it as, 'magic did it' people will accept that as facts."

"I don't think I want to live in an Avalon, anyway, although it'd be neat to see one. I can just make someplace comfy in the middle of nowhere and make a little atmosphere-compatible spaceship and go places where there's stuff to do."

Cam glances at him. "You can send me home by concentrating on it for about a minute, unless something extra weird is going on. And I have no particular desire to put you in a coma, so you're going to continue to be able to do that. Relax. It's the early 2000s, so I'm going to see how much of what I know about my Earth back then and then fix the ozone layer and save the honeybees and heal any amputees I run into."

"... Okay, that's all stuff I'm completely supportive of, go nuts with that. Sorry, I have read too many novels about how terribly this can go wrong to not be concerned about what you will do now that you're here."

"No, this could totally have gone terribly wrong, but if it were going to go terribly wrong, you would not be conscious to complain."

"I'm getting that feeling, yeah. This is what happens when trying out new spells, I suppose, strange risks you'd never expected to occur. Thanks for not rendering me unconscious, I have things to accomplish and I wouldn't get any of them done if I were in a coma for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, and by things to accomplish what do you mean?"

"Um. Okay, well, right now critters in general are in the closet, and also the adoption system is quite terrible. So I want to pull a Frankenstein and graft the two problem's solutions together, slowly unveil the masquerade, make sure the adoption system is not terrible and that critter children get to go to homes that won't disown them for being critters, that sort of thing. Oh, and also reverse engineer medallions, because we have a cap on them and it is extremely inconvenient."

"That does sound inconvenient."

"Yup. And it's not like they're indestructible, either, so eventually we will run out of them entirely, unless we figure out how to make more. So I am also working on that, on the side."

"Well, good luck. I suppose I could try duplicating yours in case I can after all. There's no magical stuff to copy, back home, so maybe the limit's not as hard a limit as it looks like?"

"Thanks. I'm not turning down any attempt to make more, though testing if it worked would be a problem. Since it's one medallion per person and they are greedy and jealous little chunks of metal."

"Sure," he agrees. "I'll head to an Avalon and find an amuletless peryton and offer it. Thanks, if it does work. I will probably start begging you to make tons of them, if that's the case."

"I could be persuaded."

He snorts with laughter, and returns to being human. "Can't have that! You are a potential medallion factory! I need you. Mind you, if you tell me to buzz off I will, because I try not to be a jerk."

"I mean, as you can see I can make these things pretty damn fast. I imagine I will still have time for other projects."

"True!" he agrees. "But it's not like I can force you to make them, so I might as well be nice about it."

"And if you could force me to make them, then...?"

"Then I would ask you very nicely if you would or not, and if the answer was 'no' I would continue my mission of 'trying not to be a jerk' and accept that as an answer and not force you to do anything in particular!"

"Okay then." It occurs to Cam to go ahead and conjure a leather coat, slightly lumpy due to wings but not obtrusively so.

"Also, I'm a scrawny fifteen year old who knows only a smattering of magic and probably can't even manage anything practical under pressure. So you are double safe, not only do I not want to but I'm pretty sure I am completely incapable of it."

"I mean, you could threaten to send me home before I care to go, although as threats go it's kind of lukewarm."

"Pretty much, yeah. Oh no, I could put you back to where you were before I was even involved! Quake in fear, demon, at my powers of mild disappointment!"

"Aieeee. Please, summoner, no."

"Bwuahahahaha!" cackles the summoner, completely unconvincingly.

"Farish, I do not want people to run into me while I am doing magic. Also if I blow myself up I don't want any casualties aside from the obvious one."

"Is that a likely hazard?"

"Eeeeh. No? But magic is kind of dangerous, and it does - things." He motions to Cam. "Strange things. Think of it like chemistry, but combined with - Sudoku, or something. And it can explode or summon someone from another dimension."

"Is there a little support group for us extradimensionals?"

"I'm afraid not. I've never heard of extradimensionals before in my life. It might have happened before, because our magical records are hilariously terrible, but I don't think it's common."

"Huh."

"It's also entirely possible that I did a thing that no one else has ever done before! I have no idea! I am mostly self taught, I have no idea what the standards are for magical knowledge."

"Where'd you get your materials to teach yourself?" wonders Cam.

"Learned the basics of it through surgical use of my peryton sadface, lots of logical arguments, and doing an absurd amount of menial chores. Then from there I used what I knew to find the other - .... I explained it as chemistry and Sudoku combined, right? I worked to learn the other elements on the periodic table and the other numbers in Sudoku. Essentially."

"Soooo, not via books left in an abandoned mansion set a bit away from Forks proper."

"... No? Why, should I go snooping in an abandoned mansion, is there magic there?"

"Well, that's where I found it. Oh, fair warning, I'm like seventy percent sure that everyone who summons daeva gets to be one after they die, but if you are subject to the afterlife rules I am familiar with this is much better than the alternative no matter which kind you get."

"Er. Okay, well, what's that like? Actually - what's the normal afterlife like, is it terrible?"

"It's not terrible, just disappointing. It is an infinite plane of dirt plus exactly one thing per person - the going theory is it's whatever non-person item tops the list of 'things you would find an afterlife incomplete without'. My dad got his house and my mom got a Winnebago, they're pretty lucky, some people land and get their dog or a pond or an ice skating rink."

"Ugh, wow, yeah that is - disappointing. Are lots of people homeless? That's extremely concerning!"

"They can make sort of bricks out of the infinite earth, when there's a water source - and there is, because the buildings and whatnot have mysteriously infinitely functioning plumbing. And my parents both have roommates most of the time and people live in the ice skating rinks. There's no weather, so mostly having to live outside is unprivate and exasperating, though. And they're just as indestructible as daeva, just no snazzy powers on top of that."

"... Okay, not as terrible, but still. Not what I want in an afterlife. What am I getting now for summoning you?"

"If you hook up to my afterlife system, of which I am not at all sure, I now expect you to show up in a daeva realm, I don't know enough about you to guess which, and you will have snazzy powers to match."

"Right, might not go to your afterlife, makes sense. Snazzy powers I will not turn down, I like snazzy powers."

"I do too. They were a pleasant consolation prize for getting murdered."

That causes peryton summoner to stop walking in surprise. "... You were what?"

"I was murdered when I was 22, I wrecked some guy's sketchy business in the process of going public on the existence of daeva not-quite-anonymously enough and next thing I knew I was in Hell."

"I'm extremely sorry," says the summoner sincerely. Pause. "... I should worry about that. I would rather not end up dead before I can accomplish anything."

"Do not underestimate the vengefulness of people with strong economic reason to want you to fail."

"I won't," he promises. "I do not want to die at twenty-two. Or, for that matter, at fifteen."

"Right then, that is basically the useful life lesson my death can teach you. That and the thing about summoners turning into daeva."

"...heh, I wonder if Charlie's house is here." Pause. "I wonder if there is a Charlie here."

"I don't know who that person is, but you can go check?"

"My dad."

"... Ah. Do you want to right now? I can explain things to my dad while you do. Hell, I can put an invisibility spell on you if you give me like - ten minutes, if you're worried about him seeing you and you having wings. Hidden under a trenchcoat they might be."

"If there's a Charlie there I think I'd want to talk to him."

"Is your dad going to be annoyed about you letting a demon run loose? I'm not in a hurry."

"He might be? But I am good at explaining things and he trusts my judgement, so."

"Okay." Cam looks both ways, then makes a motorcycle out of nothing and hops on it and zooms down the street without a helmet.

Darren snorts, and then goes and explains things to his dad.

Cam is back on the motorcycle a few minutes later and parks it in the relevant driveway.

There is a brunette, sitting outside. "Hi, shirtless trenchcoat guy. Darren has spilled the beans." She waves. "What's up? Cool motorcycle."

"I'm glad you like it. Are you his sister or something?"

"Got it in one! Yup, sister. Darren is geeking out, by the way, he's like 'Eeeee maybe the medallions will actually work eeeee' and that's why I'm outside."

"Well, maybe they will. Should I go in, do you suppose? I can make arbitrary things, but ex- I mean internet access isn't one of them, at least not easily, so I should probably be slightly on the grid while I work out how what I remember matches this place."

Shrug. "Go for it. Pretty sure dad and Dare will be competing to make sure you are not left out in the metaphorical cold."

"Okay," agrees another voice. "Be careful, please. Do I need to grab Lynn and get her to check him over? Actually, you know what, nevermind, she's probably already on her way because she is Lynn."

"Hullo," says Cam. "For whatever it's worth, it totally felt like a normal summon from my end. And also, the house is there but Charlie's not in it, I peeked in a window and the stuff and the paint job's wrong."

"Hi," says Darrendad. "Glad you're here, uh - guy."

"So hypothetically I could probably send him back through his method, but neither of us want to, he could possibly make medallions and - actually I don't even know why he'd want to stay, general altruism?"

"My name's Cam. Yeah, Hell's tacky but very comfortable, not a lot to do there that's of meaningful use to anybody - and off-leash a century and a half ago relative to when it is at home is much more opportunity to do general impact than bound to a specific limited task and not allowed to talk, which is the usual condition when I'm summoned."

"Why the specific task and no talking? Bad reasons, or...?"

"People are afraid I will talk them out of their souls."

Eyebrow raise. "Any stock to that?"

"Not as far as I know. But the only time it comes up except as an inconvenience for demons who'd be safe without the precautions is when a really desperate summoner gets a really nasty demon, so I haven't taken steps - not that I had much chance - to make this known. Since I'd rather they trade something meaningless and the summoner be scared instead of, like, raped or tortured or comatose-while-the-demon-runs-off-cackling."

"Okay. Fair. Darren's already explained that you can make whatever, so - thank you very much for not doing any of the listed things."

"No problem."

"Hi, I'm Cam."

"Hi. I'm Lynn Adams. What's under the trenchcoat? You don't look like an angel."

"I'm a demon. Wings and a tail."

"Holy shit, wow, calm down," says Cam, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "I think this is an alternate universe from my usual one. I'm pretty typically shaped for a demon from mine."

"Are you," says the clawed woman.

"Lynn," says Darrendad. "Lynn, claws in, not that kind of demon."

Lynn growls. It's a literal growl, like an animal. "How do you know, he is admitting it!"

"What, do you want me to saw my wings off? Would that make it better?" exclaims Cam. "What do you want?"

"I don't give a damn about your wings," says Lynn. "What purpose does a demon have here?!"

"He summoned me!" Cam exclaims, pointing at Darren. "I thought I was going to spend an afternoon making a dome for a city on Mars or something, and instead I'm a hundred and fifty years in the past in my fucking hometown in an alternate universe where there are perytons!"

"Thank you. That would be uncomfortable and I would not appreciate it."

"Mm. Misbehave and I will change my mind. I have met demons before."

"Well, I have no idea what you are, but I haven't met it."

"Bugbear."

"And demons from my world have a bad reputation too, but at least there the fact that my summoner is obviously conscious and unharmed would constitute evidence that I am not up to whatever has you so riled."

"Yup," says Vernon, calmly.

Darren makes a little squeaky sound.

"Well, that was impolite, does she barge into your house and threaten your visitors routinely?"

"She's got a thing about demons. Should have warned you, sorry. Wouldn't have attacked without being sure, though."

"Sure of what exactly? Because I am literally a demon according to my own world's definition. I am a demon and I do demon magic and I live in Hell."

"As in, they were basically responsible for killing her entire family. So. If you are not the same kind of demon, she will not try to kill you."

"But I am a kind of demon which contains members who are not me who would be disposed to do things like that," Cam says, "so while I'm glad I got off on a technicality this still seems like a problem."

"Yes," says Vernon. "Which is why she asked me to vouch for you. And I did."

"Okay. Thank you. Do you have other violent racist friends, or is that one it?"

"Eh. Not many people will like you after you say you're a demon, but she's the most violent."

"Maybe I should ditch the wings and tail after all and make something nice and feathery. Or go without."

"Up to you," he shrugs. "Not the wings and tail, the 'demon' part is what freaks people out. That word's got a very specific meaning to it, and it is not a nice one."

"Okay, I can stop claiming the species, if that'll help, I guess people here don't know the difference between the daeva."

"Nope. Not like you seem to, anyway."

"Well, if I did any magic at home, even wearing no or the wrong wings, I could be distinguished from a fairy instantly and from an angel by a remotely discerning eye."

"... Yeah, nope. Not how it works here at all. Literally anyone can do magic."

"But it's the complicated rune-y thing that can do, supposedly, teleportation?"

"It's the complicated rune-y thing," agrees Darren. "Don't know if it can do teleportation, but apparently it can do summons."

"I really don't know how that worked, that looked nothing like a summoning circle from home."

"Magic does strange things. That is my answer. I am sticking to it."

Darren snorts. "I missed something, it's not random."

"I used to be a summoner, I could teach you if it seems useful and you continue to appear responsible. But I would not show you circle designs that looked anything like that."

"... I mean, I guess we could try it? I'm not turning down snazzy new magic."

"You have to be careful, though, not everybody's as nice as me."

Darren nods. "I will be. I am already super careful with the magic I have - I'll just be even more obsessively careful."

Cam nods. "And I have other stuff I plan to do, but first, if I make an era-appropriate computer, can I use your Internet? ...You do have it, right, is this back too far for literally everyone to have it?"

"We have internet. You can use it."

"... Nnnno, but I can show you the cable."

"Okay, thanks."

Cable is shown! Look, there it is, a cable!

"Not that I know of. Why, want an outline of 'em?"

"Yes, please, that's one thing I know definitely differs."

"Okay. Well, there are critters. General rule, if it exists in mythology, just assume it exists in real life. They get medallions, to pretend to be human or actually be mostly human, some kind of weird mix of the two. Their kids get free hidden humanhood from the medallion, but they can't turn to natural form on their own. Another medallion of the same type snaps the spell and then they need to keep that medallion."

"About what fraction of the population is some thing?"

"That we know of, or what's actually there? We're all pretty sure it's a way higher number than what we think, basically."

"Ballpark."

"... Anywhere from an eighth of the world's population to half. Possibly more. I might be overestimating, but I seriously doubt it."

"And this manages to be a secret. Well, that's kind of dumb."

"Yup."

"Is there a particular reason? Evil critter shadow government threatens to send dragon assassins after you if you go on TV?"

"I think the general consensus is that it's too much trouble and no one wants to try it. Plus an incredibly large fraction of my ballpark has no idea that they're critters."

"Right. Hmm."

"Yeah. I mostly just get by. Human in on the weirdness. You want to change the world, talk to my son. Fifteen and determined to change the world." He sounds incredibly fond of him.

"I'm getting that." Cam is on Wikipedia and has conjured a second computer that is shaped like a stick and does very futuristic projecty things; he's comparing it to the laptop screen. "No major discrepancies so far..."

"Mm. Good to know. Do you need to eat?"

"No, and I can just make food if I feel like it. Why, are you about to cook something? I can save you the trouble if you like."

"I am about to cook something. But I am not turning down skipping straight to food."

"Cool, whaddaya want?"

"... Uh, pick something, I'm not picky. Neither are my kids."

"Okay. Magically boneless ribeye and mashed potatoes and fancy salad and lemon pie? Do you want to supply serving dishes? I can't get rid of things as easily as I can make them. At home I take care of this problem with a black hole, but I should not do that in your house."

And they contain magically boneless ribeye, cooked to rare perfection, and garlic mashed potatoes, and an elaborate salad with nuts and cranberries and complicated dressing and cheese and mushrooms in it, and a lemon pie.

".... Okay, I like you."

"Awesome."

Darren snorts, from his spot on the couch, where he is furiously showing a notebook who's boss. Answer: him. He will find out what happened with the spell! Eventually!

"Are the kids going to eat anything?" wonders Cam. "I made plenty for four."

"Waaaait for it..."

"Food?" says the sister, poking her head through the door. "Food!"

"Demonic food!" says Cam brightly.

"Yaaay demonic food, if it's delicious and won't kill me I'll take it!" Skip, skip, food. She takes two plates, and wafts the second in front of Darren. "Earth to nerd, come in nerd. This is food calling."