Basic Trope: Someone summons a spirit, often a demon, to perform a task for them, and the entity balks at the request.
- Played Straight: Alice summons a demon and asks it to give her tremendous power. The demon gripes at having been disturbed and getting a petty, standard request from a mortal.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice asks the demon to make her ruler of the universe. The demon rolls its eyes and tells her if it had that kind of power, it would take the position for itself, not bestow it on some unworthy mortal. Then it eats her for her hubris.
- Alice asks the demon to Murder the Hypotenuse. The demon tells her she's capable of doing that for herself, and leaves.
- Downplayed: Alice asks the demon to make her immortal. The demon rolls its eyes at the typical request, but does so.
- Inverted:
- The attempts to summon the demon end up calling a divine entity who chides Alice for her occult practices.
- A spirit, divine or demonic, answers Alice's call and happily grants their request, though the demon may have a steep price connected with it.
- Subverted:
- Alice didn't want the demon to do anything. She was just performing the ritual as part of a stage play. The demon whines about being summoned needlessly.
- Alice tried out the spell as a lark and has no requests, but the demon says it's not leaving her alone until she makes one.
- Double-Subverted: Though Alice didn't mean to summon the demon, she's easily tempted by its offers of power, but the demon is still irritated at having been called by an "idiot".
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice has an evil empire to run, and asks the demon to tackle the mountains of laundry and dishes generated by her evil horde. The demon gapes, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, at the mess.
- Alice tries to summon the demon, and instead gets a sign saying "The number you have dialed is no longer in service. If you believe you have reached this message in error, please check your magic circle and try again."
Back to Balking Summoned Spirit. Actually, y'know what? Why are you even wasting your time here, on this stupid website? This is going to ruin your life, you know!
