trade my soul for a wish

[from_scratch]

This is a successor to "call me maybe", which is getting crowded.

Cam is dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of tomato soup when he feels the summons. He goes ahead and grabs it. Doesn't even drop the sandwich.


with Mark (kappa)

with Adanya (Aestrix)

with Sable (kappa)

with Ari (andaisq)

with Metella (kappa)

with Miles (kappa)

with Isabella (Eva)

with Steel (Rockeye)

with Daphne (Maggie)

with Edie (Maggie)

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Cool. Where are you at?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

They name an address.

[from_scratch]

Cam has old map data in his capacious little computer. "Great. I'll be there in fifteen to twenty minutes."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

They are looking forward to seeing him!

[from_scratch]

Cam bids local medical persons goodbye, goes out, gets in his little spaceship, and goes where he was invited.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

It is a medical laboratory. They do not attempt to betray him and strap him to a table for vivisection.

[from_scratch]

Good for them! It would go so poorly if they did.

Who has been assigned to talk to the demon from the future?

[maggie_of_the_owls]

A friendly intern who is fond of science fiction, apparently. Not that all of the real scientists aren't participating too, especially once he starts producing real results for them to geek out over.

[from_scratch]

Cam sighs, and gives the intern an overview, and cures her acne for her, and as soon as he has specialists and the people who know how to get drugs FDA-approved on hand he gets into the meat of the project.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

The intern is mostly to interface with him so that the scientists don't scare him off with their jargon. She is there to be helpful, not obstructive. Everyone wants cancer cures from the guy with the spaceship. The Martians' medical technology is, disappointingly, mostly incompatible with human biology.

[from_scratch]

Well, all of Cam's tech is intended for humans. And he knows his jargon, albeit rather futuristic jargon. He spent longer in med school than any of these people, demons don't feel the need to rush graduates out the door in a hurry so they can start paying back their student loans.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

True, but they didn't know that before he showed up. The intern is swiftly relegated to the role of gofer.

[from_scratch]

And Cam has so much to show these distinguished scientists! In between the fourth cancer cure and the antivirals - "Sit on those formulae until you need them, obviously, no sense teaching the viruses any faster than you have to" - he mentions that he's probably going to make similar excursions to every country that speaks a language he knows, which is a lot of them, and that anyone wrapping any of this in IP laws rather than getting it out the door as quickly as possible will very much annoy him. He does not suspect the people at this acronymous organization of such things but imagines they know people who might be so inclined.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

They will, possibly, suggest that he visit certain countries sooner than others. Couched in terms like "efficiency" and "distribution capability" rather than "foreign policy," of course.

[from_scratch]

"I want to give them vaccines, not nukes," Cam says dryly. "But obviously I will not be giving out drugs to people who don't know what to do with them except insofar as I can clearly explain."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Well, they're not admitting anything, but inasfar as they're attempting to influence him, it's in a "help the people the US likes" kind of way, not a "hurt the people the US doesn't like" kind of way.

[from_scratch]

Cam decides not to even acknowledge the nudges going forward. More cures for cancer! These only work on extremely specific kinds and they have side effects but they are better than what's on the market today.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Cures for cancer. Much better than halfhearted political gestures pushed on them by superiors.

[from_scratch]

This could take all day. More than, even, although Cam's going as fast as he can, conjuring up books for them to read on their own time when he encounters topics it would be time-consuming to give full depth to. At one point he switches to appearing marker on a whiteboard and erasing/replacing occasionally while he eats a turkey club he conjures up for lunch. Here is a deworming treatment. Here's something for radiation poisoning. Nerve damage. Chronic fatigue. Here's the acne thing he gave the intern. Anti-inflammatory. Designs for equipment useful for laprascopic surgeries. Antidepressants. 2159 standard of care for premature babies, minus the part where you're supposed to summon an angel. Fistulas and heart disease and osteoporosis and diabetes and ingrown toenails and polycystic ovaries and really, really good birth control.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

This is all much appreciated, although one of the scientists discreetly tells him that because politics, it would probably be for the best to give the birth control one to other groups than just the government.
But overall the scientists are sciencing their very hardest to get down all of the things Cam is telling him.

[from_scratch]

Cam assures the scientist that Planned Parenthood et al will also know all about the birth control, but he certainly hopes that in light of the fact that everything he's describing has been tested thoroughly in another universe the FDA won't drag its heels.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Good.
The scientists also hope the FDA won't drag its heels. This is really impressive stuff, and Cam's explaining it well enough that they can tell it really ought to work.

[from_scratch]

Good, good.

Here is the cure for AIDS. It's 1999, that ought to be exciting. Migraine drugs. Safe general anaesthesia. Cam can personally fix certain forms of colorblindness but this has not yet been made to scale for mortal-based pipelines. But for regular blindness, here's something for glaucoma. Here's a snazzy cochlear implant. Here is a four-minute summary on the political debate about deaf people and culture associated therewith, so, maybe be careful with that one. Burn treatment! Death to the guinea worm! Tetanus vaccines that don't need booster shots! Elephantiasis is a thing of the past! Stroke recovery protocol!

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Hooray!
By this point there are more scientists, the scientists native to this facility having called in farther-off colleagues.

[from_scratch]

Cool.

Cam will just chug a gallon of coffee and carry on lecturing to a rotating audience of scientists all day and night if they let him.