Pyp blinked in disbelief when the mortal who'd summoned him abruptly terminated the circle magically confining him before choosing the restrictions that would bind him while in the summoners service.? When the room lights came on, he stared at the mortal incredulously.? The demon hesitated, then took a tentative step over the circle's boundary.? Nothing happened.? He took another step, leaving the circle completely.? Still nothing.? He was free.
The flower boy-faced demon smirked and made a show of snapping his fingers in the air and suddenly a large ornately carved chair with luxurious leather upholstery appeared.? "Well, it seems you've not only freed me but are letting me have full freedom of action," he said as he seated himself in the chair he'd summoned.? Another snap of his fingers produced a mahogany side table on which a crystal decanter of Napoleon brandy set on a silver tray, along with two matching crystal snifters.
"I can see that keeping you alive is going to be a lot more work than I've had to deal with in centuries," Pyp said, filling a snifter for himself but leaving the other one empty.? He held it just long enough to warm it with his hands, then brought it to his nose to savor the delicate aroma filling the air, finally taking a sip after a long moment. Clearly relishing the experience, the demon turned his attention back to his summoner. ?
"Why do I want to stay the hell out of Hell?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.? "Because of things like this." He held up his snifter and let the amber liquid slowly swirl about.? "You can't get this stuff in Hell.? Or anything else worth having for that matter.? I mean, Hell's okay if all you want is endless tormenting of the mostly pointless mortal souls who end up there.? But if you want any of the _pleasures_ of the mortal world, well, you're up shit creek.? Quite literally."? He snickered, taking another sip.? "There are literally rivers of shit running through Hell, depending on the circle."
"Hell," Pyp went on, "is _boring_.? There's nothing there to please the senses.? Nobody there to use our powers on either.? I mean, not in any challenging way.? They're damned, after all. And everything gets old, after a while.? I mean, you can only disembowel someone and make them eat their own entrails so many times before it's just a pointless chore."
"The mortal world is where all of the interesting stuff happens.? Not to mention all of the fun stuff."? Draining the last of the brandy in his snifter, he set the glass back on the tray.? "_That_ is why some of us preferring coming here whenever we get the chance.? Those of us with any sense of taste or imagination, anyway."
"Which brings me back to the problem of _you_."? Pyp steepled his fingers and regarded his summoner with a dubious look.? "I need you in order to stay here.? But you keep making mistakes that, quite frankly, are probably going to get you killed. I mean, in all your supposed research, didn't you learn that you're supposed to impose the three restrictions on me _before_ you let me out of the circle?"
[Kutsuki]
It was quite comical really the way the demon tiptoed out of the circle, Kutsuki's mouth twisting into a barely contained smile.? However, it just as quickly dissolved when the demon oh so helpfully pointed out that his summoner failed to impose certain restrictions on him prior to freeing him.? That meant that this demon has absolute free reign on what he could do, even on things that Kutsuki would have drawn a hard line on.? His face changed from confident to confused to pale with the realization, as if him going lighter was even possible being a shut-in, until nothing but pure anger graced his delicate features.? His pupils narrowed as a dark shadow came over the top half of his face, feeling the hair stand on the back of his neck.
"You...you...you...this is unbelievable!" he hissed, throwing his hands up in the air and balled his hands up into fists, shaking them at some unknown deity.? He let out a scream of rage, letting his hands fall back to his sides as he looked back down, huffing in anger.? Something on the floor had glinted, a flash of gold, and as he bent down, his fingers enclosed upon a rectangular shape as he pulled it back up and realized that it was the very same book that he'd tossed earlier.? Its filigreed font stared right back, its fancy curves appearing as if wicked smiles laughing at Kutsuki's plight.? Feeling like a downright fool, he flew right into Pyp's face, shoving the book between them as he jabbed a sharply nailed finger at it.? Having closed the distance in his righteous indigination, he was now suddenly acutely aware of just how close he was.? It made his skin crawl but he was too frenzied to just step back in that moment.
"See this book?? It wasn't meant for you.? I was trying to summon a demon well beyond the caliber of your...sorry existence, but now, all that effort that I made to get to this point.? Is wasted.? On you."? With that, he reeled back and flung that book with all his might at the wall, breaking its spine as the tome fell to the floor, its pages creased, losing their previously perfect condition.? His chest heaved as he whirled back at Pyp.? "You being here instead of the demon I wanted threw me in for a loop.? I wasn't ready to impose restrictions, I was ready to kill.? You see all these?? They're not here for decoration."? Kutsuki gestured at his shelves full of various bits and bobs, holy water, sanctified weapons which he had prepared in order to erase the reviler's being from existence, so that he could neither exist on Earth nor hell.
"I take it back.? What use are you to me if you're not who I wanted?" he said, mostly speaking to himself as he looked away, re-fixing his sweater back onto his shoulders, only for one side to slide right back down.? He turned around and stepped over the numerous obstacles that his furniture had presented, disappearing behind some tall bookshelves, as sounds of things being thrown and consequently broke had occured.? He kept angrily mumbling to himself as he scrounged around in whatever was unseen to Pyp.? "Maybe I should just send you back to where you came from...now where was that bottle of ash?? Ah, here it is...and then..."? Moments later, he came out with arms full of jars, each containing some kind of colored powder or liquid, which he all but ceremoniously threw onto the floor, waving his hand over them as contents mixed, reshaping and reforming into the same pentagram circle that had faded after Pyp's summoning.? Kutsuki then pulled out what looked like the glint of steel, taking out the same dagger that he's previously used, seemingly out of nowhere, as he pulled back his sleeve and thrust his hand over the circle, hovering the sharp blade dangerously close to his wrist on which many different scars already pockmarked his skin.
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't just de-materialize you right now," he sneered, eyes glinting in fury, as he looked down his nose at the demon.? "That way we could both removes ourselves from the problematic equation.? You can go back to doing what you do best, and I can move on with this failure and get to what really needed to be done."
[tag Pyp]
Luukasama