"What's all that racket up there?"
"Nothing mother." Xanax shouted down the dusty attic stairs. He sighed, times were rough- even after taking over as Merlin's replacement he still couldn't string together enough money for rent any place other than his mother's old house in the old clocktower. He frowned, not sure if he was more embarrassed or annoyed but then he turned to the creature that stood in his room and forgot about his mother entirely.
Six-feet tall, wearing some sort of futuristic blue suit with red skin and pointy horns on his ears and sticking out his chin- Xanax's spell had worked and brought forth the demon known as Sweet, the master of song and dance direct from the firey lands of some hell dimension or another.
The demon tapped out a brief tune with his tap shoes and finally spoke, or rather, sang his first words. "I come from the imagination and I'm here strictly by your invocation."
"Uh, wow." Xanax clutched the talisman he'd used to summon the demon in his hand. His mouth fell open and as dumbfounded as he was now, it took some effort to remember to close it. This was certainly better than the last spell he'd attempted. Turning a toad into a human may have been subverting the trope, but the resulting toad-human was a bit lackluster when it came to conversation, and he was creating a bit of a stench that even the burning incense couldn't get out of the air. "So, uh, how does this work? You do your little song and dance thing and turn the whole world into a delightful musical?"
"I'm here to bring the fun, I'm here to bring the dance," Sweet neared Xanax, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him closer. They twirled around the floor, while Xanax started to get dizzy. He knew he shouldn't have eaten before doing magic. Sweet continued to croon, not even bothering to notice Xanax looked like he was about to barf from all the spinning. "I'm here to open your eyes to our true romance."
"Ah, yes," Xanax had read about this part. It was the peskier part of the spell.
He broke away from Sweet, struggling to find his balance again. He hated all that kissing stuff and definitely was not into men. He backed away and returned to the scroll he'd used to summon the creature. "It says here you have been known to try to marry the one who summoned you and drag them down to your own hell dimension- well, yeah, you see... that's not going to be happening. I mean, I have a good place here, a good gig. I think after all the hubbub dies down I might be able to get reinstated as a magician. I wouldn't want to risk that, you know. But, uh, thanks.. for the offer."
Sweet frowned. He tapped his way across the room towards Xanax, then leaned against the pedestal where the scroll sat. "You brought me down and doomed this town, and now what will I do? You've turned me down and I'm turned around, my world all askew."
"Uh, well, you could still try turning the world into a musical." Xanax suggested. "And there's still some blokes out there who might go for a nice red-skinned guy such as yourself. I just, I'm not really into that sort of thing. I was more in it for the, you know, entertainment."
"Everyone loves a song until the words all come out wrong." Sweet continued his number, still getting into the music despite being rejected. It was as if the whole world was a stage and Sweet was standing there in the spotlight. "Now I have to split the screen if you won't be my queen-"
"If you really want a queen, you might want to try looking on the other side of town. The castle." Xanax fully admitted that his neighborhood was not the best, but that was only because he promised himself he was moving away from his mother someday. There would be castles in his future, but not today. At least that meant he might persuade this demon to go over there instead. "I hear that Queen Madalena is an excellent singer- you might even teach her a few dance steps. Really, um, really get into that musical bit there."
Sweet pondered this for a moment, tapping his shoe as he thought in rhythmic patterns. Finally, he nodded and gave a full smirking laugh. No more singing this time, things were about to get very serious. "That'll do."
He tipped his head before he left and Xanax could do nothing but stand there bewildered as he watched him go. The demon took the stairs out the attic and Xanax could hear his mother scream in the kitchen. This was probably not a good thing. People were known to sing and dance themselves to death under the manipulation Sweet could produce in them. The scrolls said that some of his victims just ended up spontaneously combusting from the heat of their dancing feet. Whole villages had ended up burning to death while singing about mundane things like laundry and bunnies. Definitely not good at all.
"Ribbit." Toad finally said in the corner, after watching the whole thing play out. He was more amused by the fly that had gotten in through the cracked open window than anything else.
Xanax finally shrugged. Despite what the scrolls said, he doubted a little singing and dancing could really hurt and at least it might lively up the kingdom a bit. Valencia had been such a gloomy place since King Richard arrived and took over the place, this might even put some pep back into the village. He sat on the bag of beans he'd been using as a chair lately, picked up the glass bong beside it and lit up. Some people just wanted to watch the world burn and even if he didn't have enough energy for even that, he was still okay with letting it simmer a little.
.End.