"2159!"

"Nice. Do you have Future Video Games? Are they really, really well ruggedized?"

"Future video games yes, ruggedized huh?"

"Oh yeah. Fun Wizard Fact: we're not great with technology. As in, 'stuff starts exploding when we're upset or actively doing magic unless it's behind leaded glass or preposterously sturdy', bad. You don't have, like, a chip in your brain or something, right? That'd suck."

"I do actually have a chip in my brain. Please don't fry the chip in my brain, it would be moderately unpleasant."

"...Duly noted. Maybe I can wear a Faraday cage around you or something. I don't want to explode your brain."

"You... I'm going to say probably... shouldn't be able to do any more than minor damage to my actual body, which should heal. But if you wreck the chip I'll have to dissolve it and make a new one before I can use my most up-to-date computer."

"Are you invulnerable or something? Is that what demons do?"

"Daeva in general - that's us and angels and fairies - are indestructible. This is not quite the same as invulnerable. You could scratch me, you couldn't cut my tail off. Imagine attacking a watermelon with a plastic fork." Wag.

"...Damn do I want to spar with a daeva now. Do you punch recreationally?"

"Nah. I'm actually a very nonviolent, and also a very clumsy, sort of demon. The wings and tail help, but not enough that I'd take up a hobby like that even without the risk of brain damage and staving my nose into my skull."

"Aw. Do you know any demons I could fight? Or, like, angels, or fairies, if they're cool too. Is that just a cosmetic difference?"

"Cosmetics and magic powers. More the latter; you could find demons and angels with each other's wing types. Less so with fairies, their magic doesn't lend itself to that. Demons make things, angels change things, fairies move things. I could maybe dig somebody up, but we don't know if I can go home, and I don't think anybody wants to be permanently stranded in a mortal realm."

"Ooh. Yeah, that'd be a problem. I could ask some knowledge spirit or other about it, they've sometimes got answers to really unlikely questions. Until then, I will have an itchy sort of unsatisfied desire for punching invulnerable folks. Do you make sandwiches?"

"Sure, what kinda sandwich do you want?" Cam asks, and he pops the last corner of his into his mouth.

Ari considers. "Roast beef," he decides. "And barbecue sauce. And fries."

Cam hands him a little cardboard tray thing with those items, on very nice ciabatta.

"You're welcome," chuckles Cam.

"Am I going to have trouble being winged and tailed in places better lit than this?"

"Mm... people don't know about magic for the most part, so you might get stared at. There's a magic-conscious 24-hour coffeeshop downtown, though. They've got these really nice little cookies shaped like stars. And scones."

"Okay, but, there's space between here and there, I assume. Should I be cutting the wings off or hiding them under a snazzy leather coat?"

"Coat's fine. Vancouver doesn't have so much of an active nightlife, we might not even run into anybody."

"Cool." Cam folds his wings snug against his back and then there is a snazy leather coat, ankle-length and black and fitted perfectly over his wings and concealing his tail in deep shadow. He's still not actually wearing a shirt.