Glitch Parasites – Google Docs
Glitch Parasites
Demon possession is a dynamic field of study; there’s always something new coming down the pike. Possessed masks, rings, swords, mirrors, paintings, cars — every culture has an item that can be hijacked by Infernal interdimensional parasites, and it looks like our item will end up being ‘smartphones.’ Please don’t act surprised at that.
The good news is that you apparently can’t get very large demonic parasites stuffed into a smartphone before the damned thing bricks and needs fixing. In fact, the only things Hell have that can both transport themselves to our dimension and take over a smartphone without being detected are Glitch Parasites: non-sapient and remarkably passive demonlings that possess no particular offensive powers in this dimension. They’re barely even capable of reproducing.
The bad news is that all demons, from the Lightbringer on down, have an easily-recognizable and unique magical ‘identity.’ This includes Glitch Parasites. Any competent Infernal mage can easily track down a particular Glitch Parasite and use its senses. In practical terms: the demon possessing somebody’s smartphone can be effortlessly tapped by a much more powerful demon, who can then do everything from seeing and hearing the phone’s surroundings to going through its files and history. There’s no conventional way of knowing when a Glitch Parasite is being tapped; in fact, there’s no conventional way of knowing if a particular phone has a Glitch Parasite in the first place. And exorcising the phone only works for a short period.
And that’s why the cleric is the only one who gets to have a cell phone on missions.
I approve. Gives all the more reason to have along a specialist in dealing with demons, the undead, and various forms of nasty-ickiness.
.
And now I am imagining a certain pint-sized cleric smiting demons by pulling up images of puppies and kittens on her cell phone.