Sorry for Binding You to My Will

Hedi's day had been going awfully. Firstly, he hadn't eaten properly in days and was getting antsy, having flashbacks to disembowling potato farming peasants, which was disgustingly crude and frankly a bit beneath him. Secondly, he had recently been denied access to a tome he had requested detailing the particulars of how quantum physics was theorized to interact with summoning magic, he had a theory that he was keen to pursue but the dullards in charge of the archives were reluctant to give him the goods. He was preoccupied with all of this, huffing and snarling as he flicked through a book he'd read a million times before, when he felt a familiar tug.

"Oh for fuck's sake."

He didn't usually have to deal with summonings, most people didn't know how to deal with the fact that he lacked an actual name, but sometimes an idiot would get lucky or some tricky intellectual would figure out how to bind him. He was really hoping it was an idiot, if the wards had even a hint of a crack in them he was going to rip the kid's head off and eat him.

Looking down at his hands, Hedi grinned as they elongated and grew feathers, the rest of him following suit. Bits of darkness licked around him as he was dragged through hell, picking up energy and being saturated with demonic power. This was the one good part of being summoned, the rush of returning to hell, sucking in all that delicious power. He appeared in a flash of black and red flames, still in the form of a lanky and frankly quite terrifying creature, surrounded by dark tendrils and wielding claws which seemed to change shape and location, but soon the familiar mundanity of the human world sucked his hellish vigor out of him and he returned to his gaunt and humanoid self. His Gleaming red eyes shot around the room, taking in the sight of what seemed to be an actually proficiently done summoning circle. The wards were in exemplary condition, there was no mistakes in the drawing, and the caster had left no sign of weakness in the actual spellwork.

Looking up expecting to see some gnarled master wizard, Hedi let out an involuntary chuckle when he saw it was a teenaged girl, one with horns at that. Shit, had he just chuckled while being summoned? He was supposed to be a terrifying and mysterious entity beyond the understanding of amateur magicians, and his first interaction with this enchantress was a chuckle? He supposed he'd have to make up for it now with some stupid overly masculine display of strength, one on which he'd probably just be wasting power. Well, whatever, it wasn't like he had anything planned for the rest of the day anyway. His left hand trailed down to lightly touch the ring he had worn for nearly a century now, twisting it a little as he began muttering a series of demonic words of power. He locked eyes with the horned girl, who was now clearly of some demonic extract, you didn't look like that without a bit of hell in you. "Who do you think you are?"

A string of explosions echoed across the dimly lit basement room, nearly causing the candles around the room to shake perilously. Hedi had released an impressive volley of hellfire, he had opened up little bits of hell across five or six different points on the wards, creating a fearsome display of power. Of course, it was largely just fireworks, wards were something which generally worked based on meticulousness and preparation, not raw power, and so his magic would have little real effect on them. On the other hand, if the girl was young and stupid enough, it might scare her. Mildly impressed with himself, Hedi soon found reason to frown.

He REEKED of disgusting hellish fire now, why had he released that much of hell in such an enclosed space? He was wearing a brand new turtleneck as well, one that had cost him hundreds and was quickly becoming a favorite. It was nearly impossible to get hell smell out of human clothes too, it required a full magical ritual, one which was far too time consuming for Hedi's like.

"See, now you've made me go and ruin a perfectly good sweater. You better have a good reason for summoning me you dolt."

@Kait

Hedi's expression moderated itself as the woman began speaking. She at least wasn't horribly uncouth, but clearly had some sort of a spine. Most demons did, and in fact Hedi had found very few exceptions to this rule.

Something demeaning? If there had been even a hint of a fault in her summoning or ward (he'd looked) at this point Hedi would've burned her to death and proceeded to eat her, but it was true that he could be press-ganged into doing something he would rather not if he continued to give her attitude.

"I got this sweater last time I was in New York, this fifth avenue boutique I like had just gotten a new order of Raf Simons in and I just had to splurge." His voice picked up in cheeriness as he went on talking, designer clothes were probably the best thing humans had ever come up with. Expensive, difficult to find, and a status symbol? He was frankly obsessed.

If he were capable of it, he would've blushed upon realizing he had just gushed about a shopping trip to someone who'd summoned him. "Enough about that though. An academic you say? Where do you study?"

Hedi gawked as she answered his question. Manta Carlos? He had been dragged maybe only a few miles from his room. This was at least convenient news, he wouldn't have to traipse back through hell to find his way home. He decided to keep his residency on the island a secret for now, he didn't really know how this was going to go.

Fidgeting with his ring as he considered his words, Hedi felt a familiar burn. The longer it took him to answer, the more pain he'd inflict on himself, summonings were awful, not only did you have to do whatever you were told, but it hurt when you didn't.

"Hedi. Hedi van Essche if you want to be formal. The reason that ritual can't figure out where I'm from is that I'm from a lot of places. I had a rather unorthodox genesis. Involved a lot of shoddily cast black magic and a lot of unpredictable demonic energies." He'd be impressed if she knew what he meant, this was advanced magic he was talking about.

The girl was doing a good job of trying to assert her dominance in the situation. A giant demon clearly under her control, sunlamps all over the place, symbols of power on the walls, Goetic in extraction. Hedi had some familiarity, he'd actually spent quite a while traipsing around their particular hell, it was certainly an interesting one. The forms they manifested in the human world were interesting as well, Hedi had no clue why them as well as most demons had such trouble blending in, but he supposed he was a special case.

She was quite a curious one wasn't she? Wanting to know all sorts of things about magic far beyond the usual human limits, dangerous magic. He was mildly impressed, but not surprised, a lot of the students here were surprisingly dedicated.

As he contemplated how best to answer her question, Hedi slowly floated upwards, sitting criss cross in midair. "You seem to have your own theories on my genesis worked out already." Clucking his tongue as he thought, Hedi fixed his hair a little, checked his nails, and looked back at his summoner.

"Well Chloe, you're right, there was a sacrifice involved. This idiot magician in Amsterdam a few hundred years ago thought he was being clever. He wanted to evoke a nonspecific demon, there's been a lot of work theorizing that demons are more or less all parts of the same entity, its controversial of course, but I suppose it has some merit." Hedi was happy to test her knowledge. He wanted to see if she was familiar with the scholarship.

"Anyway, he evoked a range of energies from quite a few different parts of hell, it was all rather complex spellwork really, but he forgot to apply Trismigester's Fourth in his summoning lines. I was briefly conscious before murdering him and ripping his body apart from the inside, but it took me a while to get acclimated." It was an interesting story really, Hedi could probably write a book about all the ins and outs of his creation.

"I suppose you could say I'm not so much a demon as I am a construct, just made out of demon parts. By the way, the sunlamps are cute, but if you think im so weak as to be rendered powerless by those, you're mistaken."

Hedi chuckled, she really was a student of dark magic! It was rare he found someone so young actually knowing what they're talking about, it was quite a sight. "Well yes, they did stop using it centuries ago, it fell out of favor a few years after I was created I think."

The demon grimaced at the mention of holy water and silver. He hated that for some reason that first dolt who brought him out of hell had cast such an unstable binding. Holy artifacts and various blessed metals didn't just harm Hedi, they threatened the unity of his form, he had experienced quite a few close calls in which the complex spellwork keeping him together had been almost undone by some heroic moron with a bit of silver.

Hedi's lips curled into a derisive grin as she belittled him. "You're no wonder of demonic evolution yourself, little one. I'd advise you spend a few more centuries on this plane before you insult an elder."

He sighed as he was forced to answer her next question, summonings were frustratingly demeaning and irritating. "Well, when you were around back when humans were still using gold to pay for everything, you don't really have to worry about money. I believe my wealth is thanks to a rather insidious invention of theirs called interest."

Clucking his tongue once more, Hedi continued to speak. "I spend more time in this plane than I do in any other really, parodoxically enough I find myself quite a bit more free amongst humans. All the primitives living in whatever hell I happen to be in have some inexplicable urge to attempt to make me submit to their leaders. Craven lackeys mostly. Humans, for all their fleshy weakness, are quite a bit more fun."