Personal Demons Summary
At the request of several people, I've decided to make a short synopsis of plot elements and characters, since the story is so ungodly long and unwieldy.
BACKGROUND
Some background elements.
Magic – magic represents an imposition of will to change the world around us. Most people have the power to some extent. The most powerful, or those trained in the art, become mages (sorcerers, wizards, witches, whatever term you prefer).
The Institute – an organization devoted to the study and regulation of magic. It was originally created many centuries ago as a defensive, almost military alliance that brought mages of all nationalities and beliefs into a combined force against powerful demons that once threatened our world. The organization persisted and evolved, even when the original crisis had passed. Today, despite remarkable developments in magic power and potential, the Institute works mainly to keep magic safe and secret, forbidding its use outside the Institute except for minor, personal use. Public displays of magic are frowned upon, and interference in government or magic on a large scale are forbidden. The open use and even the acknowledgment of magic have been shown time and time again to be intolerable in the world, leading to persecution and destruction of its users. Secrecy is paramount, for as Gregor once remarked, “every wizard’s war has had the same result,” to wit, the near obliteration of mages
The Institute is physically located in [censored]. What? We can’t even say it’s near [censored]? Oh, all right. In any case, the campus occupies a site over a nexus between the worlds, accounting for an unusually strong source of magic which has led to a succession of shrines, temples and forts over the years for those attempting to secure it. The current Council building sits atop ruins upon ruins from previous centuries, their foundations blurring and forming a literal maze of catacombs, colloquially known as “The Dungeon.” The lower foundations and natural caves are particularly dangerous since they are suffused by old magic, and are populated with creatures corrupted by it.
CSA - Council Security Authority or CSA. A partially autonomous, quasimilitary organization within the Institute that uses a combination of sorcery and super science to enforce Council law, keep renegade mages in line, and even more importantly to fight the extradimensional demons that constantly seek access to our world. Members are usually known as agents, and most come from one of two sources – adventurers who like to kick butt (see Kei) and aspiring mages who use duty service to pay for or gain preference to the Institute for magical training (see Yuri). Many agents choose pseudonyms for service, preferring to keep their personal life separate from their professional, or to avoid awkwardness after moving on to an academic career. Choosing a fictional name, or having one assigned on initiation night, is considered a right of passage for most, and leads to most agents bearing famous or infamous noms de guerre, including many literary and television icons.
On demons - Demons represent one of the races of ifrit, the air spirits who visit our world. There are many varieties of ifrit (genies, angels and devils, among others), but demons represent the largest class, tend to be powerful and dangerous, and are usually characterized by their extreme appetite and cruelty. Since they feed off negative emotions, humans form their natural prey. In extreme cases, they will actually consume a person’s essence (the soul), a process that is called desolation (from de-souled). A consumed soul adds its victim’s power to the demon’s own, although it takes time and energy to absorb. Demons can only stay temporarily in our physical world unless they are bound to someone in it, or take on an actual, physical body (incarnation). Demonic possession represents an in-between step that is extremely deleterious to the body possessed.
When incarnate, demons have a truly physical nature that both limits and empowers them. Their magic is decreased, and having a physical body makes them vulnerable to injury, but in addition to allowing them permanent residence in our world, having a body opens up all the physical pleasures an air spirit is denied. That is why most demons choose a human body despite its frailty (And disdain the traditional monstrous, winged and horned forms most artists portray them with. Have you ever tried to eat a peach using 6-inch fangs?), and also why many are infamous for debauchery, sexual and otherwise.
Demons use a natural, organic magic that is inherently chaotic – its effects are usually permanent and always unpredictable. Although the primary effects of a demon’s spell can frequently be reversed, it almost always leaves residual effects. Lisa once characterized the difference between “white magic” and chaotic magic using the analogy of reality as a tapestry. White magic (the only kind sanctioned by the Institute) reweaves the threads but leaves them intact. Chaotic magic cuts through them. You might be able to tie them back together, but they’re never whole.
Additional magical beings exist but are rare, with most having fled the world after the Great Schism. Fairies still travel between the planes, since most require males from other species, and some maintain permanent residence, notably the Viridians or Green Fairies. Fairies absorb small portions of a male’s essence, usually regenerated, but repeated “visits” will permanently drain him, a change manifested by shrinking. They usually choose sleeping victims (leading to intense, sexual dreams), and drain the essence through various forms of intimacy. The men wake up tired but unawares. Since Green Fairies are notoriously horny, and trade sexual favors for their predation, most men wouldn’t care anyway. Green Fairies prefer human males as their targets, and are strongly drawn to magic.
CHARACTERS:
Bob, Karen and Lisa have appeared in multiple stories and I won’t go into many details here.
Bob is blessed and sometimes confounded by having two best friends and lovers in Karen and Lisa, only one of whom he is officially married to. He is currently cursed with uncontrollable shrinking magic which has produced chaos in people around him, and is causing him to inexorably shrink away towards nothingness. Bob is a “null,” a person with essentially no natural magical ability, and quite rare in that regard. Although truly powerful mages are also rare, the vast majority of people have some natural ability, and can use magic with a little training or help. Bob is entirely dependent on external magic sources. One of those sources was a medallion that had powerful size-changing magic. This magic ended up being transferred to Bob, as recounted in “Not Another Medallion” giving him the power to make people shrink or grow.
Karen is married to Bob, and Lisa is her best friend. Karen was recently discovered to have latent magical powers, a discovery which ended up making a mortal enemy in Kelly, one of her coworkers who happened to be a renegade witch. Karen is a touch on the voluptuous side, and has understandably mixed feelings about the new role Lisa has taken in their lives.
Lisa is a longtime friend to Karen, and has a sexual past with her. Her study of magic and a desire to reawaken that past resulted in tying all three of them together into a still evolving triangle. Lisa is self-conscious about her own minimal curves, especially when she compares herself to Karen, and is still insecure about Bob and Karen’s feelings in their evolving relationship.
Callista – a half demon, and the only demon to gain admission to the Institute in centuries. Demons are still almost universally feared and loathed by mages. Like most children of ifrit, she has physical stigmata such as pointed ears and unnaturally sharp teeth. When she invokes her power, other features appear, including changes in eye color and movement in her hair.
Callista has always avoided intimacy, since she fears her demonic side, and especially what it might be capable of in the passion of the moment. Indeed, this has formed the core of a recurring nightmare, and the nightmares have recently become more specific and frightening.
Callista is under a subtle curse, not yet fully explicated, although effects have included loosened morals, increased emotion lability, heightened libido and lapses in judgment. Rather like being drunk without the more obvious stigmata. These effects play against the deliberate denial and self control that Callista works so hard to maintain. These, in turn, leave her isolated, and both she and Danae desperately fear they’ll always be alone.
Yuri and Kei – agents in the CSA, a quasimilitary security force that serves as physical protection for the Institute. Both women were recently cursed with demon-altered magic.
Yuri is an aspiring mage who has been rejected from the Institute twice due to lack of talent, and has chosen the CSA as a means to bolster her last chance for acceptance. She is famous for her intelligence, but is currently suffering under a “bimbo” curse. The magic was originally designed to attack her intelligence, but its mutated form has also affected her body (which has changed into porn star proportions) and supercharged her libido. To paraphrase a song, the spell has “brought out the blond in her.”
Kei is known for a fiery temper, salty language, strong sexuality and superb combat skills. She sought CSA service for the excitement, and has no aspirations beyond getting bigger and better weapons. Her curse was designed to shrink her whenever she exerted herself physically, so that she would forever afterwards be humbled in personal combat. The mutated spell is instead driven primarily by sexuality, especially arousal, making her shrink whenever she’s horny. Although she grows back, her size recovery is taking longer and seems a little less effective each time.
Zhukov – commander of the CSA.
Petain – president of the Institute’s ruling body, the Council
Danae – Callista’s sister. Whereas Callista’s reaction to her tainted parentage might be characterized as fear, Danae’s is one of anger. Danae feels rejected by the world, personified by her long-absent father, and now brandishes her demonic nature as a weapon, seeking to inspire fear if she can’t have affection, and to reject people before they can reject her. Unfortunately, although she has inherited physical stigmata of a demonic nature, she has almost none of the usual power that accompanies them. We learned more about Danae in the “prequel” (set a few years earlier, but actually written long after “Demons” was started), “Playing With Dolls.”
Jessie and James – former CSA agents, they were dismissed for misconduct after the incidents in “Renaissance.” Jessie feels an intense rivalry with Kei, and blames her directly for their humiliation, which explains why they were so willing to pledge allegiance to the first person offering the means and opportunity for revenge: Anton Scarabus. His alliance with demons is testing her loyalty. James, her twin, is unconcerned with revenge, but feels unwavering loyalty to his sister. He is also surprisingly gifted magically, but feels no ambition to match his potential.
Kelly – a renegade mage, i.e. a magic user who has been outlawed from practice or study, or someone who uses black magic. Kelly’s banishment after a promising start at the Institute was due to obvious moral lapses, but she has found a number of unofficial means to gain considerable power, most recently submitting herself as a secret student to Scarabus. A former coworker of Karen’s, she hates Karen and Lisa: Karen for having power “handed to her” (referencing both Karen’s natural abilities and her having such powerful official connections such that she’s already fast-tracked in the Institute), and Lisa for several reasons (for being Karen’s friend, for trumpeting the whole worthless concept of friendship, and for at least two previous physical smackdowns – people just seem to end up beating on Kelly). Kelly is quite beautiful, has remarkable multicolored eyes, and is already infamous for delighting in magic marked by cruelty and selfishness. The story shows that she has recently become adept at disguise magic, allowing her to appear as other people, and (through the use of a demon’s ring) mind control magic. She subscribes to Scarabus’ philosophy that magic means power, and power is meant for use.
Scarabus - Anton Scarabus is one of the most powerful and influential mages in the world, and serves as a senior Councilor at the Institute. He uses magic much more extensively and flagrantly than most of his colleagues in public life, and even more in his private life. He chafes under the Institute’s rules against open magic, and the proscriptions against interference. For Scarabus, mages have power for a purpose, and all power is meant to be used. Not surprisingly, he feels strongly that magic users also demonstrate a natural superiority over ordinary people (and lesser mages) and are meant to rule them. Although he has worked publicly to relax the rules against interference, he decided long ago that his vision required “unofficial” paths for realization. Most recently, an alliance with demons, who share his views regarding power and predation, has presented itself as a means to that end. Demon magic represents a source of unparalleled power, and demons themselves would be natural allies against the reactionary members of the Institute. Establishing a permanent portal into Daemon would solidify both purposes. He hates Gregor, both personally and for opposing him, but tellingly, has never been willing to openly engage him.
Gregor – Gregor Zauberersohn is a very powerful mage (he would probably say THE most powerful mage) but one who frequently alienates and frustrates his fellow mages for his flippant attitude towards magic, and the natural ease with which he masters it. Despite repeatedly drawing reprimands and anger from the Council, Gregor has never been banned or expelled. This is partly a result of his remarkable abilities, which are too useful to be put aside, but also due to a core of steadfast support within the Council, both from his own supporters and from older members who remember his parents. Gregor’s parents were powerful and long-serving mages who were both lost to a demon’s predation. Many mages who would have had zero tolerance for mischief from an apprentice or student were willing to look the other way in Gregor’s case, for extenuating circumstances. Gregor himself seems to have recovered remarkably well from his parents’ loss. Indeed, some would have said too well, leading to his own problems with intimacy (partly addressed in “Renaissance”). Gregor was recently appointed to Council against his will, and was rejuvenated into his mid twenties as a side effect of the age-magic chaos in the previous adventure.
Canis – a mage and member of Council, Marcus Canis is a specialist in demonology and dedicated to magic as a science. Perhaps in common with his subjects’ famously uncontrolled appetites, he is given to excess in food and drink, combining the best qualities of a gourmet and the worst of a gourmand. Not surprisingly, his corpulent body reflects his enthusiastic approach to gastronomy.
Gina – Gina is Karen’s secretary, and used to be Kelly’s, who she quite accurately characterized as a total bitch if not a literal witch. Kelly, showing off her new mind control powers and to torment Karen, rewrote parts of Gina’s sexuality and personality.
Richard and Natalie – are two demons whose sadistic qualities and preferences for public humiliation and random acts of mayhem have been chronicled elsewhere on the site. Like other demons, they “taste” emotional distress the same way we do fine food, and gain power through others’ suffering. Tired of being thwarted and routed by CSA agents, or having their ruinous spells reversed by magical rescues, they have allied with Scarabus and Belisarius as a means to amplify their power many times over, giving them the opportunity to operate and hunt openly. In addition, Natalie has a personal stake in the game, which has yet to be revealed.
Belisarius – a very powerful demon, Belisarius has only
recently become interested in returning to our world, having satisfied himself
for over a century with dominating lesser creatures in Daemon. He briefly captured Callista when she
traveled there, and managed to keep a connection to her even after her
escape. Forming an alliance with
Scarabus, the sorcerer summoned him to our physical plane, and facilitated his
possession of
Lina – a Watcher, a mage attuned to acts of black magic, used by the CSA to guide its operations. Lina is one of the magic users in the CSA, and feels like she’s been pigeonholed because of her aptitude for sensing chaotic magic, and would much rather be a field mage, seeking the excitement and prestige of front-line operations.
Rick – mysterious owner of Rick’s, the major club and gathering place for the Institute’s members. The nature and extent of Rick’s powers are unknown, but are assumed to be considerable, given his privileged position and the deference even Council members pay him.
Tink – Dr. Theresa Belle, “Tinkerbell,” is a scientist who fell victim to advanced experiments in genetics gone horribly wrong. As a result, she now stands about 6 inches tall, is iridescent green in color, and has insect-like wings that enable her to fly. Her new nickname was inevitable given her new similarity in appearance to the famous fairy of page and screen, but shortened to the more familiar form. Her fairy-like appearance but entirely unique qualities caused the Green Fairies to adopt her as their queen. She is now torn between ties to her human friends and former life, and trying her best to properly serve her new subjects. We have Sally Reynolds to thank for first bringing this remarkable character to our attention.
Sally – Sally Reynolds needs no introduction to most readers. The Mistress of Minutiae, she is the undisputed queen of SW. As we have discovered here, Sally’s stories and artwork aren’t simply the result of an extraordinary imagination, but reflect her real world experience. Despite her obvious powers, Sally avoids the Institute, preferring an independent course and life.
Alberich - a dwarf (as in Nibelung, the dwarves of mythology and Wagner’s Ring) in charge of weapons in the CSA. Although born in Faerie, Alberich has lived most of his adult life in our world, and is thoroughly enamored with technology, at least as it relates to weapons. He would no more reach for a double-bladed axe than a dwarf in Middle Earth would think about taking out a particle blaster.
Chira – a healer; a mage who specializes in healing magic.
Darcy – a handsome but seemingly humorless CSA guard, who has caught Yuri’s eye. He became offended when her expression of interest was interpreted to mean that he was good enough for her now that she was a dumb blond.
Javert – Jacques J. Jabert, an investigator for the Council Special Investigator’s office (CSI), basically the Institute’s own version of the Inquisition. Ordinarily concerned with discovering and apprehending renegade mages, Javert is currently doing his best to prove that Callista is responsible for the current demonic attacks.
Geist – Carol Anne Geist, a young mage attacked and desolated by Belisarius. Her body remains alive temporarily, although death is inevitable without her spirit. And her spirit is proving unusually strong, preventing Belisarius from fully absorbing and integrating it. As a result of his connection to Callista, Carol Anne’s last moments of horror have been burned into Callista’s mind, and she sees Carol Anne herself in her nightmares.
Lucy Ramirez – a police officer maliciously spelled by Richard and Natalie, and left to the untender mercies of a teenaged boy. She was rescued by a Green Fairy and brought back to their hive, and has adapted too quickly to her surroundings, under the influence of the fairies’ hive magic.
Nissa – a lesbian succubus. Succubi drain sexual and life energy from their victims, and almost exclusively target male victims. They are among the most durable and successful of demons, since men are notoriously willing partners. They need to feed to replenish their magic, and often have physical characteristics that reflect their magical reserves, especially their size. Nissa steals height as well as energy from her victims.
THE STORY SO FAR …
The plot (if we can use such a nice term for the mess at hand) to date:
In the last mega-story, our main characters were menaced by a malicious spell-virus that regressed its victims to infancy, fed off magic, and spread geometrically by contact. Karen and Lisa were both regressed into childhood, but Bob, although also infected, remained almost completely normal because of his null nature.
The key to breaking the spell came when Callista sent her astral form into Daemon, a dimension populated by “angels and demons,” to find her father. While there, she attracted the attention of a particularly powerful demon named Belisarius. He briefly captured her, and succeeded in imprinting his consciousness onto her. This “taint” initially manifested only in her dreams, but his power has grown to the point of projecting his thoughts into her conscious mind, and even taking control of her for brief periods, producing alarming blackouts that last seconds to minutes.
Callista was rescued from Daemon through Bob’s intervention, specifically a kiss which brought her back to her physical self. Alas, a demon’s kiss has powerful consequences. Most importantly, Callista’s demonic nature mutated the magic virus that had infected him, converting it to a shrinking magic that began to affect people around him regardless of his conscious thoughts. Their kiss has also left a deep connection that neither of them is comfortable about admitting.
Bob’s shrinking magic not only caused chaos around him, but is slowly causing him to shrink permanently as well. Attempts to restore himself to normal only accelerate the process, and he has become resigned to staying small until they find a cure. Unfortunately, the only known cure is for someone else to take the curse upon him or herself (absorption). Callista, Karen and Lisa have already volunteered, but Bob’s null nature provides a natural protection against the magic. Anyone else taking it on would quickly shrink away to nothing, probably in a matter of hours or (for someone as naturally powerful as Callista) minutes. Absorbing his curse might, in effect, be a death sentence. Despite this, Callista has already made one abortive attempt to take it, hoping her own chaotic nature would stabilize the magic - a scorpion immune to its own venom, as it were.
Gregor and the Institute’s official attempts to cure Bob have been hampered by the appearance of demons within the Institute itself, and the rising threat of imminent attack. Lina, one of the Watchers who can sense the use of dark magic, detected a summoning portal, and shortly thereafter, a mage named Carol Anne Geist was found desolated, literally “de-souled” by a demon attack. Yuri, Kei and Callista were also attacked, and Yuri and Kei ended up cursed with powerful chaotic magic spells (Yuri by a “bimbo” spell, and Kei with a spell that shrinks her when she becomes aroused or physically active), but Callista was inexplicably unscathed from the attack. This has cast even greater suspicion on Callista as the source of the trouble, especially in the eyes of an investigator named Javert. But to be fair, since Callista is the only demon in the Institute, and even half-demons are notorious for eventually giving in to their rapacious nature, most people have also assumed she is the culprit.
Yuri and Kei are suspended from duty for because of their curses. Yuri begins to enjoy her transformation, which is strangely liberating, while Kei finds herself cut off from her usual physical outlets and the joys of sex and combat. Yuri ends up flirting incessantly, throwing herself eagerly at a fellow agent named Darcy, but inadvertently alienating her intended paramour, while Kei ends up hiding in the library, hoping that reading will distract her long enough to grow back to normal size.
While searching for the source of the demon incursion, the guards Xena and Gabrielle discover a secret region of the catacombs underneath the heart of the Institute which is guarded by powerful magic, including a golem. Correctly inferring that this must be the source, they investigate, only to find themselves shrinking rapidly through the area’s defensive magic. Less than half size, they are easily overcome by Kelly, disguised as Callista (to further implicate her), and Xena is captured. In a desperate ploy to avoid death or capture, Gabrielle uses her small size to advantage and escapes into the pits below the dungeon – an area so forbidding, even Richard and Natalie don’t want to follow. Her ultimate fate is still unknown, but her escape was assumed to be lethal.
As if demon attacks weren’t enough, the Institute is further staggered by the sudden appearance of widespread and very public displays of magic, almost all involving shrinking in one form or another. Since Bob was responsible for the first, the assumption is either that his power is spiraling out of control, or is somehow spreading to infect others. In fact, these are calculated efforts by Richard and Natalie, at Scarabus’ direction, to disrupt and destabilize.
Gregor devotes all his time and effort to finding a cure for Bob’s curse, even seeking out the less principled mages, none of whom have any answers or much sympathy.
Left to their own devices, Karen and Lisa fall victim to Kelly’s triumphant reappearance. Flaunting her new powers of disguise and mind control, Kelly tortures her former secretary, Gina, by twisting her mind, making her believe she’s a lesbian in desperate lust with Karen, imprinting a shrinking fetish on her, and giving her a desire for domination. Kelly starts Karen shrinking and then hands control of her size changes to Gina. She then torments Lisa while disguised as Karen, before she is routed by Callista’s unexpected interference. Karen and Lisa are protected from most of her magic by ward-protection rings (wisely provided in anticipation by Gregor), but prove vulnerable to shrinking magic since they’re still affected by Bob’s curse. Thus, both Karen and Lisa are left reduced in size and still slowly shrinking after Kelly’s visit.
Knowing Bob is also threatened by Kelly, Callista takes it upon herself to warn him. She finds Bob has drawn the amorous attentions of a Green Fairy (or Viridian) named Absynthe, since the fairies are naturally attracted to magic and, well, are notoriously horny little creatures. Absynthe decides Bob is a perfect mate, since he’s handsome, well-endowed, radiates power, and, best of all, is shrinking to her own size. Using magic to immobilize Bob, the fairy is about to have her way with him, when Callista’s unexpected arrival sends her packing, but Absynthe is not about to let Bob get away.
Finding Bob helpless, aroused and nearly ravished produces an answering wave of sexual arousal in the dangerously uninhibited Callista. Since she passed the curse on through physical intimacy, she reasons that intimacy is required for her to take it back, and she can justify even a near-rape under that excuse. However, the magickus interruptus continues, as Callista is discovered when Canis returns to make sure Bob is all right.
Angry, embarrassed, and then insulted when the guards accompanying Canis nearly fire on her (all demons are targets, after all), she steals a teleporter and escapes. Now fired by uncontrolled emotion and a lifetime of sexual frustration that has just been teased from smoldering to blazing, Callista decides it’s time Gregor proved his professed love in a more physical sense.
Shrinking mayhem continues in several public situations, including another televised sporting event that implicates Bob as the agent. He is effectively arrested and hustled off to the Institute.
Gina kidnaps Karen to have her sexual way with her, and finds she now delights in tormenting her former boss through her new size control.
Yuri is searching for Karen, and manages to make a connection to Gina through their office.
Scarabus’ plan to establish the portal and cast the blame on Callista continues. After punishing Kelly for her botched mission, he dispatches Jessie and James to capture Lisa, to cover their trail and remove yet another person Callista might turn to for help as the net closes. Lisa nearly escapes when Bob’s chaotic magic makes her stronger, but falls victim to James’ capture spell.
Tink and the Green Fairies have discovered parts of the plot afoot, and react accordingly. Absynthe reports that she has chosen Bob as her mate, and the queen gives her permission to bind to him (shrll’la) as long as he gives consent.
Sally has also learned about the demonic uprising, and seeks further information both within and without the Institute. Rick suggests she seek out “Ms Albeon” using Callista’s surname, but Sally assumes he means Danae.
Richard and Natalie take a break from wreaking size change havoc amongst the populace, while Richard disappears for a special assignment.
We now have 1) Bob in custody as the presumed agent of Richard and Natalie’s magic; 2) Karen captured as Gina’s shrunken sex slave; 3) Lisa captured by Jessie and James; 4) Callista on her way to demand Gregor show just how much he loves her; 5) Yuri searching for Karen; 6) Kei hiding out and hoping she’ll grow back to normal size; 7) Gregor nearing exhaustion from 2 days of travel and research without sleep; 8) Richard, Natalie, Jessie, James, and Scarabus all working on the culmination of his plan, with Richard and Natalie still wreaking size magic havoc on the world; 9) Absynthe on her way to bind Bob to her forever; 10) Sally looking for Danae; 11) Zhukov, Canis, and the rest of the Institute mages trying to hold against the onslaught of dire magic; 12) Xena still captured and Gabrielle still missing.
Hmm. I can’t imagine why anyone finds this confusing.
Well, I think that covers the major players. Can you believe we still have one more significant new person to meet? Oh, and Danae is tired of Callista getting all the attention, and she’s pretty angry. But then, she usually is.
Now then, on to the next chapter...