sigh "And most of the people who've been criticizing my parents for their actions at the time are doing so less because they actually believe they handled it badly and more because mutants, as a new minority, have had to deal with some of the things minorities in the United States typically have to deal with, and you were sounding kind of like some of the bigots we've got back home. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you, I just...kind of have a Pavlovian dislike of that kind of thing."

"I have no basis to be against mutants in general. And demons have a pretty bad reputation among mortals at home which I deal with all the time. But you might have better luck modeling my reactions to your family anecdotes if for 'any telepathic contact not consented to beforehand' you substituted 'sexual assault', say."

"Okay, congratulations on accusing my sister of automatically raping everyone she's in the same room with, I don't think I've ever actually heard someone say something so terrible about her before."

"...Never mind, I guess."

"I'm sorry, I get that you don't want your mind read, but is it really that terrible for her to observe that it exists? Not that I'm suggesting putting you in the same room as her."

"I really know nothing about the mechanics of her kind of telepathy. That's not something I normally have to worry about, whereas I do in fact accept a small risk of sexual assault every time I take a summons. Observing that my mind exists sounds fine. I could extend my analogy but I don't really have the sense here that you're actually interested in my perspective on the matter, so as long as you aren't proposing to introduce me to your telepathic sister I can let it drop."

"I'm only willing to tell you how to summon other daeva if I'm reasonably confident they can be sent back. I can't think of anybody I know who'd like to be bound forever, or would be guaranteed trustworthy unbound, in case the rules are suspended. I'll be okay more or less if I can never go back to Hell but I don't exactly belong to a club of like-minded demons on that subject."

"If I tell you how to avoid being telepathized can you be in the same room as my sister long enough for her to summon and dismiss you without insulting her?"

"If you're that worried about it I can tell you how to summon me gagged. Nothing that isn't par for the course."

"I kind of object on principle to limiting anyone's free will any more than is absolutely necessary. If you insult my sister that will make her angry and sad but it won't hurt her, not in the long term."

"My point is I usually don't talk to my summoners and as long as she isn't going to read my mind I don't have to pick up the habit long-term today."

"And I'm saying that depending on how it works I don't want to do it because I don't want that to be a thing I have done, not because I expect you to object to it."

"Okay, no gag in the circle, I can't say I disapprove as far as that goes, but I can keep my mouth shut voluntarily, too."

"I mean, you don't have to say nothing. And there is a metal that has telepathy blocking properties if you don't want to take my word that my sister is an ethical person."

"What is the metal's name, and how much of it do I need where?"

"It's an alloy, it's usually just called 'telepathy blocking metal,' I know a helmet made of it shaped like so," she shapes a mock helmet out of the stuff she was using to make the doily, "will do it, but we don't have any more of it back home and the person whose helmet it is isn't interested in having experiments done on how much of it is necessary to do its job."

"Do you want more of it?" Cam asks. "Give out foil hats of it at a lemonade stand?" He makes a copy of the helmet. "Because if you want to do that I will help."

"I don't suppose it would hurt. Maybe not all in the shape of that helmet, it's kinda ridiculous looking and we could do experiments on how much of it is necessary."

"Yeah. If it turns out not much of it is called for I might just replace a small portion of my skull with it. This is trickier for a demon than an angel, which is why they're the ones with the halos, but not impossible."

"...Well, given that you don't want to be in the same room as my sister, we'll have to do the experiments after I hopefully manage to send you back where you came from, but if we've got it done when you're resummoned so other people don't permanently die then we can tell you, I guess."

Cam puts the stupid helmet on. "Assuming I get to wear this fetching hat, and assuming you aren't lying to me, I wouldn't mind being in a room with her to help furnish you with experimental headgear."

"I'm not sure if Sivath will be interested in helping with this experiment, I sure as hell don't want to, and I think results we got from the demon and dragon might be inconclusive for more normal-brained folks."

"Well, since I'm still operating under the assumption that you aren't lying to me - or otherwise mistaken - then I and my as-far-as-I-know normal brain can be the test subject, provided under normal conditions the fetching hat does block even the 'can tell someone's mind is there' feature and nothing more invasive need be tried."

"Oh, sure it does, nothing more invasive is necessary at all. But--no offense--I think I'd rather explain you to her before randomly introducing her to, 'another demon, he's almost certainly not evil, and also you cannot tell that he is there.'"