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

[unmarred]

"And what would you need to produce one of those...?"

[from_scratch]

"Sufficient information to single out a specific picture by non-contrived means, 'contrived' including things like 'the most recent one taken' or anything like that."

[unmarred]

"Mm. Not sure I can deliver. You could make one in your size and stare at it to your heart's content," he suggests as an alternative.

[from_scratch]

"Yeah, sure." And Cam makes one and looks it over.

[unmarred]

It's a hooded bodysuit made of what looks like a loosely woven fabric of incredibly fine silvery wires. The overall effect is very... glittery. Visually distinctive. And the fabric/netting is a little stiff; it would show pretty easily under tight clothing.

"A sufficiently well-calibrated scanner will pick it up anyway, but there's no sense going around advertising it more than I need to," says Mark. "So I want something to wear over it that'll look natural."

[from_scratch]

"Now, how do these work? If the wires are this thick because the substance isn't sufficiently ductile, I can get it a lot thinner, maybe weave it into some normal fabric; if it needs to be shaped exactly like this all I'm thinking is heavy denim and leather."

[unmarred]

Mark shrugs. "I'm not an engineer. I know that they exist, I know that they work, I know how to spot them, and that's as much as I know. I'm sure there are manuals somewhere, but I couldn't specify one."

[from_scratch]

"Then refining the design any will probably have to wait until I do find a way to specify such a book."

The pilot announces over the comm: "Jump in five, gentlemen."

[unmarred]

"Wormhole jumps are mildly unsettling for most people," says Mark. "Might want to be sitting down. If you're unlucky enough to get jumpsick, might want to have something to throw up in and somewhere to lie down afterward. If the jump feels like it lasts longer than a couple of seconds, or you get sensory aftereffects besides nausea, you might have jump pilot potential and we should look into finding a trustworthy neurosurgeon once we're rich enough to afford one."

[from_scratch]

"Noted. It'd be mildly interesting if it turned out to be able to get me sick. Do you get sick and need something to throw up in?"

[unmarred]

"I'll be fine."

[from_scratch]

"Here goes, then."

The jump commences.

After it concludes:

"Trippy."

[unmarred]

"Trippy in a way that suggests pilot potential? Impressive special effects?"

[from_scratch]

"Seeing music. Very pretty. I may experiment with trying to play it later."

[unmarred]

"Yeah, that sounds pilotish."

[from_scratch]

"Excellent. I'll be able to secure my freedom of movement."

[unmarred]

"Yes. Much more convenient than the alternative."

[from_scratch]

"Mm-hm. How long does it take to learn to fly a ship through the visible music?"

[unmarred]

"Variable. Minimum of a few months, I think."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. So that is for after setting up the business with the clones but probably before getting going on terraforming. I am going to be on the lookout for a trustworthy or at least thoroughly buyable human assistant as a backup or secondary summoner so I can cut transit time, though. The music is pretty but it's not worth days in ships every time I want to go somewhere, so once the urgent stuff is handled I think I'll prefer to get around via scheduled dismissal and resummoning."

[unmarred]

"The lead time you get from sending a message versus making the trip yourself, if you're a pilot with a very fast ship, is minimal enough that you'd have to have a very predictable schedule before the other method would be worth much."

[from_scratch]

"Yes, but I think I'm willing to trade some rigidity for the time savings. Clones first, then I find a nice pilot school and on whatever passes for weekends in the thirtieth century I go work on terraforming or whatever in places my trusty human assistant has found for me. I might find multiple trusty human assistants, since you're going to be baroning it up and will only need me when somebody wants a new body."

[unmarred]

"You'll get much less value out of having me as your interface to humanity anywhere but Jackson's Whole," he concedes. "Weekends largely persist. But if I'm going to be Baron of a House whose entire source of revenue consists of you to start with, I'd like you to stick around long enough for me to find alternate sources."

[from_scratch]

"It doesn't take very long to make a body," Cam says. "If they're currently growing them and there are rarely more than a hundred at a time, the demand's not huge - I guess we can expect more customers by undercutting the price, but they'll bottleneck at the brain surgeons. How long do you want to tie me to one unpleasant-sounding planet after that's sewn up?"

[unmarred]

"Long enough. So that I can maintain a presence for you to come back to every time someone wants a clone made. I won't have a good estimate until I've put some thought into how I will maintain that presence."