The Magic Box, Tuesday

[always_someone]

Today, the Magic Box was continuing the trend of being... really, really slow.

Which was fine, as far as Norman was concerned. It meant he had time to do some actual tidying, put out some new stock, take the wizard hat away from the mouse again, put the tiny jelly demon to work scrubbing the floors instead, do some inventory, place some orders, put together some stuff for the booth for Sunday's Job Fair...

Usual Tuesday things.

The Magic Box is open!

[Open!]

Comments

[nuclear_snide]

"What on Earth is that thing?" Bob asked, eyeing the jelly demon. It had been hiding from him until today because I forgot it was there.

[always_someone]

"As far as I can tell, strawberry flavor," Norman offered, watching the little blob swirl and dance around the floor with a rag underneath it, picking up mud tracked in from outside with it. "But I'm not going to check."

He paused, and then added, "The garbage books summoned it."

[nuclear_snide]

"Well, don't look at me." He wouldn't lick it if it could. "Of course they did. Can't they unsummon it? I'm sure I saw some banishing rituals in one of these books..."

[always_someone]

"I think it's mostly a fluke that they managed to summon it in the first place," Norman noted. The jelly demon squidged on into a corner to make sure it had gotten all the dust from it. "... It's being weirdly helpful."

[nuclear_snide]

"Mm." Bob couldn't deny that, even if its existence on this plane offended him. Mostly because the garbage books had managed something. "Well, so long as it isn't getting the floors all covered in...whatever it is."

[always_someone]

"Jelly, I guess?" Norman shrugged a little. "It doesn't seem to be leaving anything behind, either."

Which was good. Norman would hate to have to send it back simply on account of it being a little squidgy if it was happy here.

[nuclear_snide]

"One thing in its favor, I suppose. Which does not mean," he raised his voice pointedly at the books, "that summoning things is a good idea, particularly if you don't know what you're doing!"

He glowered at them, then turned back to Norman. "Things and people generally take a dim view of being wrenched away from whatever they're doing in order to help someone who isn't giving them a choice about it. Keep that in mind, whenever you summon."

[always_someone]

"I wasn't really intending to get into summoning," Norman replied, blinking. "But I'll remember that."

Summoning seemed so invasive.

[nuclear_snide]

"It's a good skill to have," Bob said. "You may have occasion to need the help of a being from another plane of existence, you may want to trap them from roaming free and causing havoc, or you may simply need to interpret another wizard's summoning in order to reverse it. It's wise to limit its use, however."

[always_someone]

Norman considered that, and then glanced down at the little jelly demon for a moment.

"... So I could send that little guy back? That sort of thing?"

That did sound useful, admittedly.

[nuclear_snide]

"That sort of thing, yes," Bob agreed. "Also eventually perhaps trapping a malign entity, although I must stress, do not try anything for quite a while."

He went over to the books and ran a finger through them till he found the one he was looking for, then marked it with a glowing tick mark. "This one has useful theoretical information. Just be careful not to read any of the rituals out loud."

[always_someone]

Norman's eyes went a little wide as he reached for the book.

"I won't," he said, quickly. The last thing he wanted was to something bigger and meaner than the little cooing blob of goo on the floor.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob sighed. "It's such a pleasure to have a student who treats the dangers of magic with proper care."

He was side-eyeing the books here as well as Dresden. Summoning was dangerous!