"Oh, sure, but 'we went to this universe and saw these interesting things and engaged socially with people and helped out if we could and then left' isn't very storyish compared to, say, how my parents met, or how one of them had a profoundly terrible adolescence, or why neither of us look a bit like Aunt Raven, or The Cuba Incident, etcetera."

"Fair enough." He makes himself a little paper bag of popcorn and eats some. "And a lot of my stories are just things that just happened around me because I was on summon and couldn't talk or anything."

"Shame."

"It can be frustrating. I cope."

"I imagine so. Why can't you talk, usually?"

"Oh, people don't want demons to talk them out of their souls."

"Is that a thing that can happen?"

"Talking people into trading their souls, yes, actually collecting at any point, no."

"That seems...pointless."

"Summonings typically involve trade. Demons are a little hard to trade with, in a 'what do you get for the hellcreature who has everything' sense. The answers are, in approximate order of frequency: media recommendations, sex, and entertaining reactions to the prospect of soul loss."

"I can think of so many more amusing things to do to someone than convince them they've lost their soul."

"And your ideas, whatever they are, may have their fans too, but not so thoroughly popularized."

"It still seems idiotic, but meh, some people are idiots."

"I don't find it appealing myself. But it's a tricky equilibrium to shake, because this only comes up when a summoner is really desperate and a demon is really sadistic. If the demon knew that the summoner knew that the souls thing was fake..."

"And you get a lot of really sadistic demons?"

"Summoners get a lot of really sadistic demons. Demons who just want to do their own thing hang out in Hell and don't take summons at all; it's voluntary. Even if you want the latest music or movies from the Mars colony, we have a pretty efficient network for sharing that kind of thing around and you can let other demons do it for you. The demons who will show up when you summon them are the ones who want things you can only get that way, and these things are sometimes 'to be the first demon who hears the new album by this one band', but they are sometimes 'to watch mortals squirm'."

"And in your case, 'to do useful work,'" she says, nodding. "I'm a little surprised the gag thing hasn't stamped out the soul-selling thing even so. If I wanted to watch people squirm I don't think I'd be willing to show up who-knows-how-many times until I got a desperate one."

"Occasionally someone gets lucky and gloats. It doesn't seem to be an especially efficient use of time, but they don't have any other ways to get the thing they're after."

"Maybe I'm underestimating how petty people can be."

"Petty, immortal, and numerous. There are a lot of demons."

"If anything happens to my sister, I am summoning her so fast she won't have time to realize what happened."

"Demons do not generally antagonize other demons."

"Yeah, but she would not be happy among people who think antagonizing humans like that is okay."

"And in Hell that's a tiny minority. Most demons just live luxurious lives of endless vacation."

"Well that's...better. But she still wouldn't be thrilled about it. For various reasons."