Wish Pacts

FORGING THE PACT

THE TETHERED

A LIVING COVER

STOLEN AMNESTY

Sometimes, a new Cover won't cut it. Sometimes, a demon needs to go to ground and guarantee themself a way to lose everything and everything that's tailing them. A patchwork Cover takes time and resources to solidify, things a hounded demon may find in short supply. Even a soul pact may not shake an angelic hunter that has a bead on their quarry.

Wish pacts are a contentious technique among Unchained, but few can argue their effectiveness under the right circumstances - and desperation makes even the hardest pills easier to swallow. Where a soul pact will erase a human's soul from existence, a wish pact allows the demon to hide their presence within the pact-maker's soul as an infallible form of Cover - at a heavy cost, to both the Unchained and their host.

FORGING THE PACT

Wish pacts follow the general rules for pacts. The demon cannot lie about the contents of the contract, but can mislead or pressure the human. Given the direct symbiotic nature of wish pacts, this sort of subterfuge is sure to lead to significant complications, if the human learns of it. The pact must be finalized in the form of a physical, written contract. The contract, known as a pact item, can be made on any medium that can feasibly hold writing on its surface. Once the human signs the contract in blood, the terms of the deal can no longer be altered, and neither party can renege on it.

Similar to patch jobs, a wish pact takes effect immediately upon signing, which must be done in physical proximity to the demon.
Similar to soul pacts, wish pacts are inflexible in their design. Wish pacts are always of permanent duration, and the demon's side is always the same: in exchange for granting a single wish, the demon gains tenancy within the mortal's soul, turning them into a pactholder - a pactbound specifically with a wish pact.
Unlike other pacts, wish pacts have no consideration for how balanced or imbalanced the final contract is. The demon only expends a single dot of Willpower to finalize the deal. Any price they might normally pay in points of Willpower are instead more than covered by the natural drawbacks of a wish pact.

THE TETHERED

Many demons scorn the idea of entering a wish pact, seeing it as a loss of independence and agency. Why become unchained from the God Machine, only to submit to the whims of a human? Demons in an active wish pact are often referred to as the Tethered by their brethren. The term, once primarily derogatory, is now widely used, especially in circles where distinguishing between pactholder, demon, and duo is important.

By default, the Tethered takes a backseat to their host's life. Many demons find it unnerving to be puppeted by another being, while others find it strangely relieving to get a chance to "relax". Taking control of their pactholder's body requires either ongoing cooperation (or manipulation) of their host. Those who forcefully take control find their relationship devolving into a constant power struggle, and unless there's a clear victor, this often hinders both parties.

A LIVING COVER

A living, existing human makes for the most infallible Cover of them all. The Tethered do not need to worry about behaving within the bounds of their Cover; by Symphonic standards, it's impossible for a pactholder to trigger Compromise by acting out of character. This doesn't stop ordinary avenues of suspicion, but the Tethered find it easier to get away with murder on a metaphysical level than their Unchained counterparts. This manifests in more subtle benefits as well. For example, an Unchained may find it more difficult to maintain a Cover that has repeatedly come into contact with a given Infrastructure, whereas a pactholder does not suffer similar issues.

On the more morbid side, being Tethered provides a layer of protection from death. The demon remains as long as their pactholder's soul remains within the grasp of mundane reality - including in the few days after the pactholder's death. On the Tethered's end, there's little difference between leaving their host's soul when the individual is alive versus when they're dead. Even better, if the pactholder is resurrected, the Tethered can remain in the wish pact as though nothing has transpired. In contrast, there's no way to bring a demon back from the dead, short of bending time and causality. The "extra" lives provided by a pactholder acting as a literal meat shield can contribute greatly to a demon's longevity, so long as the demon themself has an escape plan.

Of course, attaching one's existence to a human comes with a number of issues and limitations. Pactholders are susceptible to failings of the soul. Should the pactholder's resolve crumble, the demon will rapidly overwhelm their host's soul, mind, and body, killing the human and shunting the demon into the open in their Burned state. In the rarest but most devastating cases, the demon faces destruction as well, as they merge with their pactholder and create a Shattered and Echo in their wakes. It's not unusual for a demon to bail from a soul-sick host, while others may go so far as to tempt their pactholder into a soul pact as a form of "salvation".

Perhaps the hardest aspect that the Tethered face, besides their loss of agency, is the limitations of the human body. All Unchained recall what they have lost in their Fall, having their very selves cut down until the ephemeral infinity of something Machine-made can fit into flesh. Even then, the Unchained are still of the Machine, no matter how human they may seem. It's not uncommon for Tethered feel as though entering a wish pact is a Fall of its own (though, it could never compare), as they lose abilities inherent to demonkind.

Physical limitations are the easiest for the Tethered to grasp, as in sharing the same body, they expect to only be able to use their host's strength. The mental ceilings are more shocking - a demon used to the freedom of their computer-like mind suddenly finds their thoughts slowed, as even the keenest of humans cannot compare to the heights that demons can reach. Being tethered is often a demon's first experience with forgetfulness, and not all appreciate the chaos of emotions without the ability to separate their quantum minds from their bodies (and, of course, that doesn't even touch on suddenly having someone else's emotions to deal with). The depths of knowledge that the Tethered might've spent decades gathering suddenly becomes entangled with what the human knows - or rather, doesn't. It's not uncommon for the Tethered to persuade their host to invest in skills precious to the demon but not the human.

STOLEN AMNESTY

Perhaps most fascinating to the Unchained is the brief moment of grace granted upon finalizing a wish pact. The demon immediately sheds all Conditions or other supernatural effects used to pursue or investigate them - including those of angelic or God Machine origin. This obfuscation does not affect mundane pursuit, nor does it tamper with any existing information known about the demon, but it is guarantee to cause the God Machine to lose interest. Demons are uncertain for the reason why. After all, a persistent and particularly adept mundane investigator could potentially uncover whom a demon has become tethered to, so surely angels could do so as well?

Theories range wildly. Some think the God Machine doesn't want to invest the extra resources, while others conspire that It has more sinister schemes that require pactholders. A few think that the particular occult effects of a wish pact distort whatever methods the God Machine use to track Unchained, akin to a solar flare flipping a critical bit.

Of course, this amnesty does not prevent the wish pact duo from attracting attention after the fact. Smart demons choose their hosts carefully, avoiding individuals who might get the duo killed, whether they be too reckless or too faint-hearted for the Symphony. Other demons learn to make do. Even the most aloof of Tethered will often coach their pactholder on how to hide from the God Machine, if only for their own survival.

A STEEP COST

For other pacts, the only cost on the demon's end is time and energy - both generally recoverable, even if significant. Wish pacts, however, incur a much greater cost.

The Unchained is forced to shed almost all of their Primum in order to fit themselves within the limitations of a human's soul. Still, this Primum doesn't just vanish, instead becoming fuel for the wish pact. As a result, demons have been known to grant wishes beyond the normal capabilities of patch jobs and soul pacts, using the extra leverage to tempt their mortal of choice. Other demons will invest their Primum into ensuring their new pactholder will have

a few extra spells in their new life, while some will use their Primum to ensure they have more control over their host in the future. Use it or lose it, as they say.

Additionally, all of the Unchained's existing Covers are immediately destroyed, as part of the demon forcing themself to their most barebones of quantum states. It's not as though the Tethered would be able to access the Covers anyway, a fact that would have doomed Covers to a slow decay. Similarly, all existing chromatic gadgets made from the Tethered are destroyed as though they had Gone Loud, as their true self as they know it no longer exists - as

horrifying as that is to the demon - and instead is reshaped by their connection to their pactholder. Any attached corporeal gadgets - implants, grafts, and tattoos - are also destroyed, as a result of no longer having a Cover or form to be a part of.

When possible, demons will often spend a significant amount of time in preparation, stowing away personal belongings and what soul pacts or scraps of patch jobs they can muster. The moment they leave their pactholder, they'll be Burned. Tethered demons are remiss to depart from their host without first maneuvering into a position where they can quickly obtain a new Cover.

PACT ITEMS

All pacts are bound by a physical, written contract. Patch jobs and soul pacts are traditionally written on paper, animal hides, or even stone - anything that is reasonably enduring will work.

Wish pact contracts begin as parchment or similar, just like any other. However, upon the deal taking effect, the contract reshapes itself, sealing itself away as a pact item, its contents known only to the demon and the pactholder.

Pact items must be size 2 or smaller. They are marked by a Gear of the God Machine, revealing its nature - all Unchained will immediately recognize a pact item on sight, while pactholders, stigmatics, and even mundane humans can learn to spot the difference between a real pact item and a fake. Regardless of size and material, all pact items have a Durability of 3 and Structure of 5. Attempts to destroy the pact item are additionally penalized by the Primum of the demon when the wish pact was created.

Unlike other pacts, wish pacts cannot be resold to other Unchained - though, the simple leverage of the pact item itself has its own value. A wish pact is indefinite until the pact item is destroyed. Doing so immediately invalidates the pactholder's wish, potentially to disastrous end. If the demon is currently Tethered, both the pactholder and demon take Special damage equal to their Resonance, and are immediately separated. The demon suffers the consequences of becoming Burned. If the demon has already left the pactholder, they roll Compromise, penalized by the Resonance they had with their pactholder prior to leaving.

SHARED SPACE

With a single body now shared by two entities, a pactholder's dynamic can best be described as that of a driver and passenger. By default, the pactholder is the driver, controlling their body in day to day life without needing to put in extra effort. The Tethered is the passenger by default, settled in the "back" of their host's mind and soul. The passenger is capable of sharing the driver's senses, and is just as capable of simply "turning off". Demons who don't feel the need to micromanage their pactholders often find it a luxury to take a nap and wake up days later to find that their host is managing just fine - though, of course, any use of Symphonic powers will immediately rouse the demon.

A pactholder and their demon are often considered as two separate minds. Despite this, supernatural powers treat them one and the same. For example, if a pactholder is mind-controlled, their demon taking over will only cause the demon to become mind-controlled as well. Though much philosophical debate surrounds this topic, the driver-passenger analogy is favored in these cases. Supernatural powers treat pactholders similar to mundane humans, and mundane humans do not have a passenger. Thus, these powers target the driver's role, regardless of what mind is currently in it. Similarly, a demon's mental capabilities are hindered by even mundane troubles plaguing their pactholder, due to the physical nature of emotions and stress.

Mechanically speaking, pactholders cannot evade mental effects by swapping places with their demons. This applies to supernatural powers, Conditions like Shaken/Swooning/etc, and Breaking Points (i.e. whether they or not a Breaking Point should be rolled).

The host's thoughts are an open book to the demon - and yet, the opposite is not necessarily true. As a quantum alien, the Tethered finds it easy to close their mind off to their human host - which is somewhat of a boon for most humans, not designed to process the thoughts of two creatures at once. On the other hand, it means that demons can easily scheme outside the purview of their host, and the host is incapable of doing the same. However, the Tethered cannot dive into their host's memories, so long as the pactholder avoids reminiscing. Because of this, some demons avoid ever tuning out of their hosts' activity, in fear of missing something important.

TAKING CONTROL

It's not uncommon for a Tethered demon to grow restless. Some feel that the lack of physical agency is even worse than working under the God Machine, as even angels have the allowance to carry out their missions as they see fit. As such, it's rarely a question of if a demon will take on the driver's role, but rather when and how.

In an ideal world, the Tethered would ask for permission, and the pactholder would either say yes or no, and that would be that. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of wish pacts whose dynamics are strained. Some will negotiate schedules like a custody agreement, allowing the demon to stretch "their" legs every Friday. Others mislead, with the demon convincing the human that it would be in their best interest, and not all pactholders are well-educated on what a demon can and cannot do within a wish pact.

Then, some Tethered will resort to forcefully ripping control away from their hosts. These demons tend to have poor relationships with their pactholders - often hampering Resonance as a result, but not all Tethered care. In rare cases, a particularly strong-willed demon matched with a weak-willed human can result in the demon being in control more often than the human. These demons are colloquially referred to as the Untethered, derogatorily jeered Symphonic peers and mockingly worn as a badge of pride by the demons themselves. Still, even the most egregious of Untethered cannot maintain control forever, as it takes conscious effort for the demon to remain in the driver's role. Sleep will generally return control to the pactholder, though nothing stops the demon from simply reasserting themself again.

Mechanically, convert the demon's pre-pact Willpower to Control points. The demon expends a point to roll their pre-pact Resolve + Composure against their pactholder's Resolve + Composure. The demon may have a bonus to this roll if they allocated their Primum to Control Rolls when creating the wish pact. If the demon succeeds, they take control of their host's body for a Scene. They can freely expend points to extend the duration of their control without rolling another contest. The control ends if the pactholder's body is rendered unconscious. The demon regains points of Control every time the pactholder sleeps (i.e. regains Willpower via rest) or uses their demon form.

SLEEPWALKING

One of the more disconcerting realizations a pactholder may have is the fact that their demon is capable of acting without their awareness. Just as the demon can turn off their consciousness while as a passenger to their pactholder, the pactholder can do the same as a passenger to their demon. Pactholders might do so willingly, allowing their mind to rest while their body is awake (though, few people would consider this viable in the long term, considering the physical need for sleep).

In more insidious cases, the pactholder is less willing. Sometimes, the pactholder simply doesn't want to pay attention to whatever the demon has decided to do, especially in cases where the demon has forcefully taken control. Taking a head-in-the-sand approach to their demon murdering someone is one way to deal with the trauma. Sometimes, the pactholder doesn't even realize that the demon had taken over at all. As a pactholder falls asleep, there is a fraction of a window during which the pactholder's mind slips into unconsciousness, but their body has yet to. A clever Tethered may quietly swap places with their pactholder in that brief moment. As long as the demon avoids using any demonic powers, it's unlikely that the pactholder will wake until after their natural sleep cycle. Of course, the demon should also be mindful of the physical limitations of their host, as unlike Covers, their pactholder's body needs to manually sleep all the same.

DEPARTURE

The demon's half of a wish pact is always the same: the demon remains within the host's soul until the demon departs. Demons across the ages have tried modifying these terms without success, leading to unviable wish pacts.

What exactly does this mean? For one, it means that the demon only gains a one-time tenancy. If the demon leaves the pactholder, they cannot return to the pactholder's soul without creating a new wish pact. Not only that, but the terms do not indicate whether the demon leaves willingly. Hunters who specialize in pactholders will often kill the host in order to force a demon into the open.

The Tethered do not immediately leave upon the death of their host. Bound to the human's soul, they have a 48-hour window to decide whether to leave or go, and much like with Cover age, they have a natural understanding of how much time they have remaining. Should the 48-hour window pass, the demon will perish alongside their host.

When a demon leaves, they retain their pactholder's Resonance as their Primum for one Scene, giving them a small window to find another Cover. After the Scene, their Primum will degrade to half of their wish pact's Resonance. On occasion, a demon will use this property of wish pacts to brute force the early steps of their Descent, though many others find it distasteful to seek self-actualization through wish pacts.

It is important to note that a demon leaving their pactholder does not "complete" the contract. The mortal's side of the contract continues indefinitely, until the pact item is destroyed. In some cases, this is a relief to both parties - the Unchained may want to move on with their own lives, without harming their host in the process. Other Unchained are remiss to leave loose ends, and others still will go out of their way to take back their pact items to use as leverage over their own ex-pactholders. Though destruction of a single pact item will hurt the Unchained, it will hurt the human far more.

OTHER HOSTS

Unlike with regular pacts, demons cannot make wish pacts with supernatural beings like vampires or mages. This is not particularly surprising, as even a soul pact will create a Cover as though the being was human, and the Unchained avoid pact-based deals with entities outside the Symphony to begin with.

Within the Symphony, a demon obviously cannot create a wish pact with another demon, let alone cryptids or angels. Stigmatics, however, remain human enough to be viable. So why, then, are stigmatic pactholders exceptionally rare?

One of the main reasons demons make wish pacts is to lay low. A mundane human is the perfect Cover, and even as a pactholder inevitably falls deeper and deeper into the Symphony, their human nature allows them to lose the attention of God Machine agents with a little less effort than a normal demon would. Stigmatics, on the other hand, naturally draw the attention of the God Machine and its agents. Their lack of perfect poker face combined with their ability to see Infrastructure as it truly is means they're constantly at risk of being caught, as anyone who knows too much about the workings of the God Machine is instantly suspicious. Their uncontrollable visions put them at risk more than they serve any use. Being at the bottom of the Symphonic food chain, they're quick to get caught up in others' machinations and just as easily discarded, often with permanence.

Thus, a stigmatic host utterly negates the primary benefit of entering a wish pact, and makes it all the more likely for the demon to be caught by the God Machine. No sane demon would take the risk when the cost of the pact is so high, especially with plenty of mundane humans to pick from. Those that do forge a wish pact with a stigmatic either are desperate or deranged, fixating on a specific human for one reason or another - a Psychopomp obsessing over a project, a Guardian over a charge, etc.

MULTIPLE WISH PACTS

Active pactholders cannot make a second wish pact. Attempts at doing so will fail, and demons and pactholders alike theorize that even if you could, it would likely kill the pactholder outright.

What about an ex-pactholder? Without a demon in their soul, the ex-pactholder is free to make a new wish pact. Their ex-Tethered may object - assuming they're still alive. It's not uncommon for ex-Tethered to arrange for their ex-pactholder's death, to prevent any leaked information or possible vengeance quests, or sometimes simply as an act of possessiveness and pride. In just as many instances, the ex-Tethered may not care, finding it a waste of resources to continuously monitor or threaten some human they used to know. In other cases, the same pactholder and demon may make another wish pact together, having already developed a familiarity - good or bad - with one another, utilizing that fact to get a jumpstart on their Resonance.

Regardless, the act of making multiple wish pacts is permanently detrimental to the human's soul. With each wish pact made beyond the first, the human's maximum Integrity decreases by 1, and they gain a permanent minor or major brand. These brands and lowered Integrity follow the human for the rest of their lives, even if their demon departs or their pact item is destroyed. These brands can be a serious hindrance, especially whenever the human is currently an ex-pactholder - being easily picked out as Symphonic is never a good thing, and even more so when currently lacking any powers to speak of.

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