call me maybe [emma] | Glowfic Constellation

The woman gapes at him. "I-"

"Keys" Emma reminds her.

"That shirt just appeared, how did he-"

"He's wearing a shirt now. Good enough? And Cam," she says sternly, "no blood on the floor."

(Kind of sternly. She is not hiding her grin very well.)

from_scratch

"But my appendages are apparently against dress code, Emma. Do you take me for some kind of rebel?" inquires Cam archly.

"But blood on the floor is also against the rules, you see," she says solemnly. "You're just destined for rebel-hood. There is no escape."

from_scratch

"Oh no. What a terrible destiny. Cruel fates that toy with me so, what have I done to deserve your ire?"

Emma gives up and laughs. "The first thing that comes to mind is 'you gave Jenny chocolate ice cream', actually. You've met her; she is currently processing sugar and chocolate. I am going to come home to so much bouncy."

from_scratch

"The concept of the 'sugar high' has very little scientific grounding."

"Really?" Emma asks with interest. "Cool. Wonder when premed covers that?" Never mind, he is a demon from another universe. Selevy academics are hardly his specialty. "...sadly, that in no way changes my expectations of bounciness. Now it is just inexplicable bounciness."

from_scratch

"Perhaps she is just happy. Anyway. Do I get a key? To a place?"

The desk lady has used their distraction to fetch a small pile, mostly of papers but with two keys on top. She hands it hastily to Emma, looks nervously at Cam, crosses herself and retreats hastily into the back office, safely away from the scary person with impossible magic. Things can't just appear.

Emma gives the pile a quick glance through before handing it to Cam. "One key's to the building, the other's for your apartment. Uh, I think silver is the building one? Maybe?"

She gives the retreating back a scornful glare, and glances over at Cam (or rather, at his wings). "...so, um, I'm mostly crap at illusions, but I can try to cover up the wings if you want? Like, I could make them mostly match the shirt if you kept them folded, I think."

from_scratch

"What negative outcome besides me getting to mess with a key-distribution person are you anticipating if I continue to be flagrantly winged?" asks Cam, pocketing the keys.

"Walking around should be fine. Especially on campus. People dress weird, we're not known for the illusion program or anything but there's always a few really talented people floating around, no one will ask." She waves at the recently materialized shirt. "Adding 'I can do literally impossible things' to 'I look like the stereotype of a demon', I dunno. Depends on the person."

In short it is not much of a risk, and even less so on campus; Emma just happens to be very, very risk averse.

from_scratch

"Okay, but if it weren't fine, are we talking someone unwisely tries to attack me or I am in some kind of sudden legal mess?"

"Legal mess not on its own; it's not like we have laws about universe hopping demon summoning," she says dryly. "Attack- maaaaaybe? With possible legal mess included. I'd say 'hysterical screaming' is likeliest, followed by some religious stuff. Um, you said invulnerable, I assume there's not exceptions for crosses or holy water or whatever? Nothing a standard scared Christian would pull?" Not that non-Christians cannot be freaked out; Christians just have the most cultural baggage about his extra appendages.

"Selevy's pretty open minded, I don't think you'll see too much panic on the campus at least." She rolls her eyes. "And hundreds of precocious kinetic students later, we kind of collectively have a high tolerance for weird shit happening. You would not believe the number of things that have been made to float at one point or another."

from_scratch

"I'm not invulnerable, I'm indestructible, and there's seriously uncomfortable leeway between the two. I am unaffected by any form of religious iconography."

"That helps. I'm... I'm sorry," she mumbles. Whether for using the wrong word or for the fact that he has probably experienced the 'uncomfortable leeway' is unspecified. (It's both.) "...well, um, offer's there if you want it. If you think it'll make things easier, or whatever."

She has been wandering them in the direction of his housing. Not being intended for long term residents, it is not particularly close to the rest of campus, but they're getting there.

from_scratch

"Maybe I'll just wear a coat over them." He folds up his wings and now he is wearing a coat.

Emma blinks in surprise, then looks rueful. "I keep forgetting you can do that," she admits. "And it's way more effective then a bad illusion."

from_scratch

"Well, the coat's a little lumpy, but I imagine no one here is on the lookout for wings."

"Yeah, I mean... you're on a college campus. Anyone who sees your back and jumps to 'demon' instead of 'weird backpack' is deeply strange."

from_scratch

"My world also has college campuses," Cam points out. "The fact that this is a college campus is not the reason I will not be suspected."

Emma laughs. "No kidding."

The outside of the apartment complex is extremely boring- there's a small garden out front, they tried, but the building itself is about as Standard Construction as they come. Cam's apartment is on the second floor, helpfully near the elevators.

"So, um, as long as it's not that different from my dorm- same wifi as the classrooms, there's a laundry room...somewhere... might not be close to your room but it's free, someone cleans the halls and stuff once a week but the apartment's up to you." She tapers off as she runs out of ideas of 'what might be helpful'. "Do you need anything else? I keep wanting to offer to show you where stores and stuff are, but... you kinda don't need them."

from_scratch

"Mmm, what has today's Internet got for state of the art maps of things?"

"I used to use Mapquest, but Google Maps just added a whole mess of new features and it's kinda fun to play with? Either's probably fine."

from_scratch

"Okay then -" He taps things on his tablet. "I should be fine, but if you feel like visiting or quizzing me about Hell or whatever I see no reason not to oblige you."