Well, they didn't actually have their shields up, silly Oorstemothians. If they'd had their shields up it would have been a different story.

As to the bodyguard? You might note that Sam was bothered by, and accused him of, "stealing his schtick" This implies that the bodyguard was purposefully impersonating/stealing Sam's routine/persona of being a fallen angel. Which, if he was a fallen angel, would not be stealing Sam's routine, it would be legitimate. So Sam does not seem to believe that Salvatore is who he says he is.

I also point out that Melissance has no problem sharing a cabin with her lowly bodyguard. Mighty progressive of her, and her archdemon husband.

Yes, the shields were mentioned as not having been fully brought up, technically a very huge breach of protocol for Oorstemothians. However, they really aren't that used to such extreme ranged weapons. Normal fireballs/lightning bolts would have been suppressed by what they had up.

And yes, 'Salvatore' was goading Sam. However, it's a bit risky for an archdemon's servant to purposefully antagonize a demon prince. See Major Domo, who also knew who Sam was. However, an archdemon, aligned with, and close to Asmodeus? Much safer to goad. Demon Princes and Archdemons often run in the same social circles and play power games, given that there really aren't that many demon princes and the line between archdemon and demon prince is far blurrier than the lines to everything lower.

Well, it's all rather iffy, and very political, but yes, they (he and Lilith) call themselves princes, first (two) among equals (ahem)

All of those folks have mighty big egos and for the sake of avoiding all out warfare...the Courts are, what the Courts are and names are what they are.

No one is really wanting to "test" the limits. All of them are slightly neurotic. The worst thing that could happen would be for them to push too hard and provoke a true test of power only to find out that they (whoever/whichever prince) is not as powerful as they thought.

True power among the princes is not just raw blasting power, but influence, and how much "power" others think you have. It is better to remain quiet and ominous and let everyone fear you, then to have to put your cards on the table and perhaps reveal you aren't as powerful as everyone thought.

In your own world, it's often possible for a mighty nation to be humbled, and proven less powerful than perceived and lose a lot of 'face' and influence.

The Spanish Armada comes to mind, but there are many more recent examples.

>Tom needs a woman he can trust, someone he can talk with about his fears.

Why? That's what I'm here for, Tizzy trusty confident of the Demon Princes and the Gods. Beloved adviser of wise immortals!

Of course, the position you speak of is one that Tamarin wants to fulfill, that's what djinnis really enjoy doing. Intellectual and physical advisers.

However, Inethya is an interesting thought, However, not a sure bet. First thought it would be Jenn, then Zelda, now Tamarin...maybe Inethya...very hard to tell at this point.

You bring up a good point. In some other thread, some long time back, on this site. We were talking about duplicating me.

That would make things much easier, if I could replicate myself. However, I am not sure how to do perfect replication, I only know of imperfect replication where one mates with a female. Unfortunately, all those I've whom I have approached have admitted to be unworthy of me. I don't quite understand, I am more than willing to lower my standards for them, however, they all insisted that it would some sort of multiversal crime if I did not have a worth bride whose ani-genetic material was fully suitable to mine.

Again, I'm more than happy to settle for imperfect little Tizzies, but they all demur. I must admit, it is rather depressing....

Interesting, I believe this just came up in the Amazon forums as well, so it's clearly a thought going around.

In principle, yes she can get pregnant, if she wishes, or not if she doesn't. Like many supernatural beings, she has to work to create life, same as a demon, but yes she could do so if she chose to.

Yeah, I am aware of that. I've kind of side stepped it for the moment, and it should be discussed in Tom's head at least.

There are a couple of issues facing him on this front:

1) Tom is a virgin, but he is/was as a human, interested in girls, just didn't really know how to relate to them, or many people, recall his previous social life was very non-existent before he moved. He was working to change that, hence the party.
2) At first he was very self conscious of his appearance, being a hideous demon and all, and really the only person of potential interest was Jenn, and in fact she was originally to be his love interest, but that has not worked out, and Gastrope' has been (sort of) making the moves on her, and he hasn't seen her for some time, and Tom is not getting any friendly vibes from her.
3) Next, he's been surrounded by male demons, and then D'Orcs. The problem is, he has not been around D'Orcs enough to really be attracted to a female D'Orc, and even if he was, most of them are extremely intimidating and thousands of years old. Which is mentally intimidating.
4) The exception being Zelda, who is very young by D'Orc standards, she's around 30. However, she's his subordinate, as are all the D'Orcs and that makes it awkward and then there is the attraction thing.
5) Next, there is Tamarin, and she is a very possible target of his affection, although also still a bit intimidating as she's literally a genie, who looks like Barbara Edens from I Dream of Jeanie. Now she is very willing, but he's very awkward towards her, and it will take some time. And her referring to him as 'Master' is not a big turn on for him.

And one thing, one thing he does/did think about is the size thing. Most of the women he would be attracted to are much smaller than him. He could size change or be Edwyrd, but what if he 'lost it' upon orgasm? He could split his partner in two. Now a D'Orc would be fine (but there is the attraction thing) and then there is Tamarin, she could just get bigger, or grow with him.

So in a nutshell, he's not got a lot of women around to chose from, most of them are thousands of years old or intimidating in some other way, or not attractive to him and then there is his body image issue.

So his best bet is probably Tamarin, but Vaselle is making moves there, slowly. The big hold up is the master/djinni balance of power that Tom doesn't know how to deal with. Of course, since Vaselle wants nothing more than to be possessed by Tom--this could be quite interesting...

Edited by user Tuesday, June 13, 2017 3:19:40 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yeah, I agree, which why I don't really see it either, she's just the most obvious choice, and I say that because she actually wants to experience carnality very badly. It's a big part of why young djinn sign up for several decades of service to a mortal.

I keep tossing girls at him, but none seem right. Jenn, Zelda, Tamarin...

Of course, for immortals, there is no huge rush to fall in love, marry and procreate. They do so for companionship and for sex as desired, but even so, when you have thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions and billion years...there is time.

And that vow of "till death do us part..." is a pretty strong commitment if death never comes...

I trust you TAG, you've done great with the books so far, so in my opinion it will all turn out all right in due time.