She giggles. "Hi! No, actually, I would like to ask your permission for a thing before I do it!"

"What's the thing?"

"Basically, I am not in Bartalamos's jurisdiction anymore, so I need to get the license for the people I now legally fall under. But since I'm foreign, I don't have to take the test, I just have to show them I can summon a daeva securely. Sounds easy, right? Except their definition of 'secure' is different than mine."

"And you want somebody who's used to being obliged to shut up, is that it?"

"... I was kind of hoping it would upset you less than other daeva I can think of, but this is why I am asking permission first. I won't do it to you without permission, now that you've proven you're not going to hurt me when you had a very good chance to. If you're - insulted or angry or... Something I'm honestly extremely sorry and will put you back right away."

"Nah, it's fine, I'll play as long as it's not going to take too long. Especially if you'll get me a good list of music, I'm getting bored of what I have in the music department. But have you ever actually summoned a daeva without letting them talk, before?"

"I can get you a good list of music! But uh - yeah, haven't. It kind of bothers me a bit, I think I know how, it's pretty straightforward. It just seems really - rude. Or some other words."

"Okay, well - you know when we can't talk we really can't, right? I have on one occasion been blamed for the death of a summoner who I desperately wanted to tell to duck. If something happens, I will not be able to say anything about it. I can't warn you if you're about to make some kind of misstep on your certification thing, I can't finish a sentence for you if you forget a word, and I cannot shout at you if there's a flaming beam of wood coming for your head. And if they want you to bring me in on a narrow-scope task that doesn't improve any of that, if all I'm there to do is follow you I'm not going to be able to give you a blood transfusion if you get hurt or - whatever. I'm not saying any of this is likely, I'm saying you're not used to having someone that crippled around. I am indestructible and you are not."

"That'd be safest, yeah. I can get a little mileage out of comically exaggerated facial expressions, and that's pretty much it."

She manages a little giggle. "This is disgusting, are you sure you want to? I won't be upset if you're not willing to."

"Your next port of call is some twee angel who's never been gagged since a bell rang and they got their wings, I'd imagine. I really don't mind, I'm used to it, it's not like having me there will make you less safe, and you need somebody to accompany you, right?"

"I'm not worried about feeling less safe, I'm worried because gagging people like this freaks me out. But - yeah, next port of call is a 'twee' angel. Who has probably never been gagged." Wince.

"And I'm not freaked out by gagging, because you're literally the only summoner who hasn't done it to me and I pick up summonses whenever I can," shrugs Cam, "but I am freaked out by the dead guy whose apprentice thought it was my fault that I had narrow instructions and no voice and his teacher was dead. That's kind of my first complaint about gag orders and everything else is a distant second."

"Which - no one is likely to do, since it would just be us in a shuttle off for the certification. Okay. Uh - do you have preferences for the task I ask you to do?"

"...Please be careful about the details? Don't ask me to stay exactly five feet from you at all times and then wander into the ladies' room, that kind of thing. I trust your judgment and if you surprise me with terrible judgment at the time I will roll my eyes and say 'no, summoner' and you will have to start over."

She nods. "Right, uh - wait, can you do - not necessarily sign language, but can you, say, tap your nose twice as a way to get my attention, or something?"

"I can sigh loudly, I can stomp if I'm already walking for task-related reasons, I can yawn, I can crack my neck, and I can do any of those things and similar with an extra dose of theatricality - clearly delineated communicative gestures like that are out though."

"Damn. That's annoying."

"Yep."

"Well. Want to try and agree on a task now while you can talk?"

"Sure. They don't specify something?"

"Nope, they just - want me to prove that I can. I think they're going to be snippy about the gagging part, though. If you want I could give you a hilarious task, or something altruistic."

"Presumably it has to be something that entails going to the cert with you, though. Where is it, anywhere interesting?"

"Another space station, the one this station's schematics are borrowed from, actually. Not sure if you know it or not, it's called Harmony. It would be a shuttle trip, but we wouldn't have to deal with an atmosphere, at least."

"I've never been. I could give it a pinhole, if you think they'd like one? You should probably get advance permission for it, though."

"Honestly it would probably mess up their system if they got a pinhole now. Also I'm maybe a little annoyed at them for their... required gagging thing. They do not get nice things because they made me gag a sentient person."

"Is the entire station of Harmony dedicated to nothing but irritating summoner certification exams?"

"Well. No. But I am mad at it as a whole because of that one thing."

"How dare the entire population of that station. Whoever sells them cabbages and socks should be deeply ashamed," he teases.

She breaks down giggling. "Okay, okay, fair point, but - if I make it seem like gagging a daeva is a good idea in comparison to not and leaving them alone, on account of cool mini black holes, then the idea of gagging daeva becomes a bit more common."

"I think it's already pretty firmly entrenched. I don't know, you could have me follow you there and then - make the data stick for my music list to go on? Make you a fetching hat?"

"... What kind of fetching hat?"

"There was a fashion in Lutsaci - that's the city I live over - a while ago to make hats and accessories out of abalone and wood together. I couldn't pull it off but you might have the look for it, not that I'm much judge."

"... Sure, why not. And you could make the data stick for the music, because I have to fund a space station, I am hurting for cash."

"Sure, no problem."

Smile! "Okay, any other things I should worry about before I put you back to immediately summon you again?"

"Mmm, give me five minutes at home to finish lunch? Nothing exactly happens if I don't eat for a while, but it is a really good sandwich."

"Sure! Fine by me. Ready to go back?"

"Sure. See you in five."

"Yes, summoner."

She is accompanied by a quiet tail-swishing demon.

Cam - smiles at her. This is about all he can do.

Cam manages a very quiet, voiceless laugh, and accepts the book.

Well that's about all she can do to make him comfortable, considering. She smiles at him, grabs a book of her own, and then gets to reading. This is just a quick trip, she will keep an eye on the sensors and comm, but otherwise not worry about it. Read, read read.

".... Er. Why do you need that? Are you in an emergency situation? My shuttle isn't really equipped for helping but I can certainly try. Or go off to get help, if your comm isn't reaching anyone you need."

"Thank fuck," says Cam, as the surprised attacker is encased in a thick sphere of various layered materials with very small airholes. "I thought you were going to let her - I'm going to go check to see if she was alone -" He stalks into the other ship, tail lashing, wings trailing behind him.

"... Oh thank god," breathes Adana, when the surprised attacker is encased rather than killed. "I was scared you'd - go rogue or - or kill people. You're not going rogue? Right? Please?"

"None of that, no," he assures her. The other ship is small enough that his check doesn't take long; the lady was a soloist. "Nobody else in there," he says, stepping back into the little shuttle. "It's okay, you're okay," he murmurs.

She decides to cease standing and sinks to the floor in relief. "... That was fucking terrifying. Fuck is the gag and - super bind a stupid, stupid idea. I should - I should not announce my name to strangers now that I am famous on account of space station," she whimpers in a rush.

Adana hugs him back, clinging just a bit. "Thank you. For saving me. And for not - using the broken binding as an excuse to go on a rampage."

"I don't even like rampages." He strokes her hair. "If you're still spooked you can shoo me and resummon me and I can make you a shuttle that doesn't have its door taken off and go nice and quiet with you to Harmony."

"I'm - I'm less spooked now, because you could have made some chloroform, used it on me before I could react, then drop me in a dungeon ten miles underground with everything I needed to live and you'd have been basically free to do whatever you liked here. The fact that you're not is - nice and non-spooky."

"I do try. But if you have unsubstantiated fears to soothe."

"A few, but I am getting over them, the hug helps a lot. Also saving my life, or at least my free will, that helps."

"Cool. You do still need me quieted up for your test, though, so at some point you're going to have to dismiss and resummon."

"Yes, but it can wait a little bit." Hugs, damn it, they are important right now. "I felt like such a jerk gagging you and - doing that, if you noticed."

"I noticed. It's okay. You are not a jerk." Hugs. Wingful hugs.

"Thank you," she says, pillowing her head on his shoulder. "... What should we do with - with unpleasant killswitch person in a box over there?"

"I don't know, you didn't want me to kill her. Do you have some kind of authority you'd like to turn her over to?"

"I guess I could throw her to Harmony's police force along with the comm logs and get her arrested for extortion and possibly murder, it sounded like she's done this before."

"Sure," says Cam agreeably. "Are you going to be arrested if you show up with a loose demon?"

"... Yeah, probably. And then people will try to shoot you and it will be unpleasant for everyone involved."

"I understand that people will shoot at loose demons but I have never understood it in a tactical sense."

"I think the theory is slowing you down long enough to throw the summoner responsible at you so they - or uh, we - can send you back. Or, if the summoner isn't cooperative, kill them and send you back that way." Wince.

"Right. So please don't get arrested on the charge of having a loose demon, that sounds inconvenient and pointless for everyone involved."

"Yeah, I'll avoid that. One brush with threatened death's enough for one day, thanks."

He hugs her and pets her hair again.

She laughs, a little. "I'm okay, really. Or - well, still kind of shaky but I am on the road to being okay."

"I'm not in a hurry."

"It's all right. I haven't read it yet."

"That's something, at least. I'm going to take my little victories where I can get them. Optimism!"

He laughs and snuggles her.

She is snuggled! "You're incredibly huggable, you realize, I was not expecting this at all when I was freaking out and summoning a demon for the first time," she teases.

"One hundred percent guaranteed huggable demon parts."

"You are very fortunate in several ways, although apparently not in lunar colony air filtration or in safe travel between space stations."

"Yes," she agrees. "... Oh god, if I tell my brother he will velcro himself to me for the next decade. It'll be terrible."

"That... yes, sounds terrible, is there no way around the terrible terrible velcro?"

"I mean I could tell him to buzz off but he would be upset with me after."

"That sounds plausibly not as bad as a decade of Velcro Sibling."

She giggles. "Maybe. I might just - neglect to tell him, but if he found out after he would be even more upset."

"You could tell him I'm going to be your bodyguard instead," Cam suggests lightly.

Head tilt. "Would you actually want to be my bodyguard?"

"I dunno, do you do stuff like building space stations to accommodate large quantities of refugees often or was that kind of a one-off for you? I like being helpful and have no close friends in Hell and I like you. But I will probably be slightly annoyed if you spend most of your time doing chartered accountancy and I just sort of stand around."

"It wasn't a... one-off, I would say, but it was way flashier than what I usually do. Working with angels, and all that. I mean, from now on I will probably do a lot of managing of the space station, but I do other stuff, too. I've actually been trying to persuade the lunar colonies in general to communicate and help each other out more. Which is slow progress."

"What would you do with a long-term pet demon?"

"You're not a pet," snorts Adana. "But - get lots of replacement parts for lunar colonies so I don't need another space station to prevent catastrophe, then probably head planet-side and start fixing things there, too. Things that people need and that would last a while, I mean, making truckloads of food for starving people is great and all, but it's not - long lasting. The minute the truckloads of food stop showing up they're right back to square one, unless I help get a proper infrastructure set up. Which is what I would focus on doing."

"So you'd have me making nice farmland and disaster relief contingencies and stuff? Sounds fun."

She giggles a bit. "Plus, I would also have you make lots of extranet ports or something and make a killing. The money would be funneled to paying the employees on my space station, or disaster relief and infrastructure."

"Do I get vacation days?"

"Yes. Also probably an actual house in the solar system, if you want it. I couldn't buy it for you, but I could help you pick a nice place to put it and look on approvingly when you make it."

"Help with the real estate choice and approving likes are all I would need."

"Yeah," she snickers. "I bet."

"Sounds fun. Anything I should know up front? Is your brother going to assume that you're putting on a brave face to cover up a botched summon and that I have been ravishing you behind closed doors and decide to attack me? Are you an internationally wanted jewel thief?"

Adana blushes at the 'ravishing' bit. "H-He would believe me if I told him I'm not. Kind of a terrible, terrible liar, if you hadn't noticed earlier, I literally cannot lie to save my life. Internationally wanted jewel thief, no, I do my best to obey laws. I got a speeding ticket once, does that count?"

"Nah, I'm not gonna ding you for speeding."

"So do you still want the job of following me around and making sure that no one sticks a killswitch in my head while helping me fix the world?"

"Yes. You want a resume?"

"No, since I'm still worried about summoning other demons, so you're not replaceable, but if you have suggestions for things to do, I'd love to hear them."

"I wanna terraform Mars. Unless someone got around to it in the last four years and I didn't catch the news."

"... Ooo! Yeah, no one's gotten around to it yet. That's a good idea, the colonies there would love us."

Cam grins. "I'd do Luna but I don't think it'll hold atmo."

"Probably not. I mean, maybe it you did complicated things with physics and mini black holes, but... It would be a headache."

"Yeah, and I'd be worried about misjudging the black hole and sucking the entire moon into it."

"Yeah, that would be very bad. Mars is doable, though. If you want to help Luna you can probably encase all of it in glass or something, then put an atmosphere inside it."

"I think that would make coming and going kind of tricky."

"Not if you do it right and put airlocks in place," says Adana serenely. "But that would require coordination with the colonies and would be a pain."

"Yes. So perhaps a project after I give Mars lots of air and freshwater oceans with exceedingly stupid fish in them and topsoil and grass. I will walk around trailing ecosystem like that personification of Spring in one of the Fantasias. ...Possibly before your time."

"A bit, sorry. I am old fashioned due to hanging out with daevas, but I haven't seen everything from a century or two ago. But it sounds nice and I would be happy to come along and watch you be a personification of Spring!"

"And maybe help me with the research on what kinds of critters are necessary so the plants don't die. I can make simple critters, although if you want proper mammals and birds you're going to have to import them, demons can't do minds even that complicated and I imagine they wouldn't know how to breed or something inconvenient like that."

"I will be happy to help with research on creating a stable ecosystem," she promises, snuggling a little. "We'll see how viable importing animals is, it might not be worth the trouble."

"Some things will do okay on water and sun, anyway."

"Yeah. Probably also fertilizer, to get it going, I doubt that Mars has great soil for plants right now."

"Well, yes, I did mention topsoil earlier."

"You did, didn't you? Sorry, I am used to having to think of all of the things to do myself, this is a nice change!"

"I'm very helpful. Appreciate me."

"Consider yourself quite appreciated!" Snuggle.

Snuggle! "Awesome. I'm really glad you let me talk, that first time."

"Me, too. It was mostly just blind panic because - you know, impending death. But I'm glad I did it, too."

"I know you were in a hurry," he laughs. "I didn't say, 'thanks for deciding to trust a near-randomly-chosen member of the demonic species, that's always a swell idea'."

She giggles.

Snuggle.

"And what are you planning on needing angels for? Or are they just that friendly, however racist they may be?"

"Sometimes it's really useful to just change a thing a little bit rather than making something else entirely. So I might need to do that, and I've gotten pretty good at spotting things that could use an angel specifically."

"Fair enough. Maybe I can win them over with my stunning good looks and charm."

"Maybe," she agrees.

"They will probably tell you I am evil or something. Depending on which angels you get, I suppose, maybe there are friendlier ones."

"I mean - if you were evil you would have already won and got to do whatever you wanted in the solar system. But you didn't knock me out, lock me up, throw away the key and run off. Instead you're - here and comforting me. So I'm really not likely to believe any of them."

Adana giggles. "I'll have to be careful, then, now won't I?"

"Yes. Ever so careful. Nice neat certifying-exam-passing circles."

"Yeees, because obviously all daeva are only useful for magic purposes and not for actual company as people."

"Certainly, conveniently ambulatory magic wands. That occasionally snuggle."

"Magic wands that double as pillows! What a concept."

"What a time to be alive. We have the technology."

He laughs and squeezes her. "Ah, what a thing it would be to be mortal and take advantage of such wonders."

She giggles and pats his head. "It's okay, ambulatory magic wand-pillow. You will get to do both magic things, and pillow things."

"Hurray! My purpose will be fulfilled."

"Yup!" she agrees. "And I won't even gag you, aren't I nice?"

"Very. Although I remind you that you still don't have your revised-jurisdiction license."

"... Mm, yeah. Augh, that's annoying." She sighs. "Guess we should do that, and drop off killswitch lady."

"Yep. You wanna steal her ship or replace your door or get a shiny new shuttle?"

"Pass on stealing, I have a friendly demon bodyguard and don't need anything she has to offer. New door, please, I like my tiny shuttle. I'll leave her ship to get towed or stay as space debris."

"Sure. I'll have to unclamp her first but I'll keep plenty of air going, okay? Whenever you're ready."

She gives him a goodbye squeeze, then carefully extracts herself. "Okay, ready," she says, once free of comfy demon snuggles. She doesn't want to get in his way.

He ruffles her hair and goes to find the controls to make the attacker's ship let go of the little shuttle. There is plenty of air. When he's got the ships separate, he fills in the holes the clamps made in the shuttle and replaces the door on the way back in.

"You going to resummon me at the station?"

"Unless you particularly want to be gagged for the entire trip there, that's the plan! You can stay here with me or I can put you back now, whichever you prefer."

"I'll accompany you." He sits in the seat beside her and drapes a wing over her back. "When I'm being your bodyguard are you going to have me off-leash or just on a very long term vague task?"

"While I'm now completely fine with snapping bindings for you - long term vague task will not get me arrested." Pause. "Sorry."

"Nah, I understand."

She manages a little smile. "But it'll be effectively the same, it'll be the loosest binding of all time."

"Fun."

"Feel free to brag about me to all of your demonic friends."

"I don't have that many, actually, but I'm sure they'll be duly impressed."

"Yay! Approval!"

"You'll be very popular."

"I'm quite proud. Though even with recommendations I don't think I'll let demons that aren't you off of the 'leash.' Because safety."

"Really, if I told you 'summon so-and-so, she's safe, promise', you wouldn't take my word for it?"

"I would summon her, but not much else without cause. I wouldn't gag her or anything, but no randomly summoning people to let them loose on an unsuspecting galaxy. I am a responsible summoner. Except when I'm not, which you just so happen to be seeing a lot of."

"I do happen to be seeing a lot of that. But there's nobody from Hell I'm desperate to have around."

"Okay," agrees Adana. "If you have a lover or family member you would like to see or something, I will be happy to summon them, too. Because I'm not a jerk."

"Did someone tell you that demons have families?"

"... No, but I was trying not to assume. One of my angel friends has got an angel sister. I kind of guessed it could happen in demons too? Was I wrong?"

Pause. "Okay, so I am now kind of confused about how my friend has got a sister. Um. Is it rude to ask that? Do you just - come into existence, is there a - I don't know, horrifically tacky golden demon-tree that pops out new demons in sacks?"

"They adopted each other, maybe? Also, it's possible my info about angels and fairies is incorrect. There's no tree and no sacks, folks just appear more or less at random - we think typically close to other demons, but if there's a completely independent cluster of demons somewhere else or new demons appearing trillions of miles away, we wouldn't necessarily know."

"Huh. Okay, I'll go with the adopted each other thing, I guess. That's got to be freaky, to just - not exist and then start. Or - wait, do you pop in as babies?"

She nods. "This line of questioning isn't - weird or bothering you, right? I'm honestly curious, usually daevas are cagey about where they come from. I guess I know why, now. Randomly existing is kind of hard to explain."

"I'm not telling you all the details. Maybe later."

"Okay," agrees Adana. "Whatever you're comfortable with. I know I'd be embarrassed as all hell to explain to a daeva where mortals come from."

"Ooooh, but I'm so curious," he teases, leaning in her direction. "How does it work, Adana? Where do babies come from?"

She giggles, embarrassed. "I suspect you already know the answer to that one, since you mentioned the 'getting tail' pun."

"Yes, yes, ruin my fun."

Adana snorts. "I can explain anyway, if you want to see me turn as red as a tomato and sink into the ground as I do it."

"You needn't do so on my account."

"No? Heh, okay. Fine by me, apparently I am a huge prude and weird for being embarrassed by sex in general."

"I'd been under the impression that it was getting more normalized as a conversation topic over time, but you get outliers in any culture, I suppose."

"Hi! My name is Adana Sanders and I'm an outlier!"

"Hiiiii, Adana. The first step is to admit that you have a problem." Pause. "Are those still a thing? I try to keep up, but I can't keep up with everything simultaneously."

She snorts with laughter. "Those are still a thing, not to worry."

"Cool. You can twelve-step your way to fluently discussing all sorts of racy topics."

Adana giggles more. "Heavens that would be so mortifying, is prudism such a debilitating condition?"

"It seems to be affecting your life! You can't tell me where babies come from without somehow becoming insubstantial and sliding through the bottom of this shuttle."

"I can work through it! I don't have a problem!"

"Then you are still missing step one. You will take time to make progress. But don't give up! I believe in you!"

"Thanks. I will try to get over my condition. Somehow. And then I can explain where babies come from."

"And then I will be enlightened. From my terrible ignorance."

Adana giggles. "Do you actually not know because no one bothered to tell you, or are you just having fun teasing me?"

"Nah, I know, I'm just playing with you."

More giggling. She is so giggly, now. "Making sure, I wouldn't want to actually doom a daeva to ignorance about where babies come from because I think it's obvious and embarrassing."

"I mean, I suppose you're taking a chance that I have been grievously misled with a myth of some kind."

"... You're just trying to embarrass me. Aren't you."

"What gave me away?"

"You obviously teasing me and enjoying this immensely?"

"Oooooh, that. I'll have to watch my tells in the future, clearly."

"Yup, you do. For when you are in the very specific situation of having a prudish summoner that is concerned about misinformation about mortals."

"Should I not be expecting to see a lot of that situation?"

"Well, obviously it will have to be a different summoner, because I am onto you, mister."

"I am caught! Alas!"

"Yup! But at least you know for the next time you get summoned by a prude who doesn't gag you immediately."

"Someday in the distant future perhaps I shall use this information."

"That's the spirit!"

"I am a very spiritual demon," he jokes.

"Are you now? ... You know, I realize that you're joking, but I'm honestly rather curious about if demons are religious at all!"

She giggles. "I figured, considering you are all super magic, but - hey, new culture I haven't had contact with, I have nothing to base it off of!"

"We mooch off human culture a lot. There are demons making music and writing books and stuff, but we make ourselves lots of human media when we know how to find it."

"Thus, the datastick that will have music for you, and the book list," agrees Adana. "Makes sense."

"Yeah, although we can make a lot of headway even without things like that. For a long time I conjured physical newspapers because they came out regularly and looked for bestseller lists. Then physical newspapers went completely extinct, of course, you've probably never seen one."

"Never in my life, no. Uh - well, it's not really a solution for when you're back in Hell, but while you're here you can visit lots of news sites on the extranet. I'm not a bad boss, you can look at the news while you're here. Or funny cat pictures."

"Still full of funny cat pictures! That's heartening."

"Cam. Come on now. It's the extranet. Of course it's full of funny cat pictures."

"Like I said, heartening! Something would be truly wrong if you gave humans a massive communication network and they did not fill it with cats."

Adana giggles. "Yeah, I'd be worried for our souls if there wasn't a single cat to be seen."

"Ah, you and your worrying about souls."

"I don't know what they do but people keep writing about them, so I am concerned about them!"

"Because of course all their writing is thoroughly well-informed, unbiased, well-researched, empirically grounded...?"

"... Okay I feel like you are hinting that they either do absolutely nothing or don't exist."

"Maybe in the future I will tell you the secrets of the universe."

"That's exciting! All of its secrets? Those are a lot of secrets, we don't even know everything about our galaxy, let alone the entire universe."

"All right, a small subset of secrets which I know and you may find interesting."

"You wanna resummon me right here in the shuttle and walk out with me all docile-like?"

"Yeah, that seems best. First, though -" She opens her arms for a hug.

"Yep."

She nods, then goes through the process of dismissal. Poof, off he goes to his home. Then she redraws a new circle, outlining all required safeties, and - summon?

Here is a quiet smiling demon.

Adana smiles back at him. "Hi. Again. Keep me safe while you're here and make me a datastick and I will give you music?" she offers.

"I didn't think of it either, and I should have. But it was still very sweet of you."

"Hey, if I want a job as a bodyguard, have to act the part. And I like you."