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]

"I mean, maybe, what do your employees do with themselves?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Work the water pumps and monitor the water quality. Operate the public elevators. Light up public areas at night. Make and repair buildings, bridges, roads, tunnels. Deal with snow and other inclement weather. Deliver letters and packages. Keep stores of food for emergencies. Keep emergency services ready to respond to fires and injuries. Attempt to predict earthquakes. Maintain the magical infrastructure for all these tasks."

[from_scratch]

"I can spruce up your water handling, I can make elevators that don't need a person in them, um, electricity is a thing, I can make buildings and bridges and I can under some constraints make roads and I can produce tunneling-related equipment. I can't control the weather except to add water to the system, which you proooobably don't want me doing on any significant scale, but I can do snowplows and maybe tweak your postal algorithms and supply vehicles to do mail runs in. I can make shelf stable food, although I don't want to screw up your infrastructure for doing that yourselves in any way without knowing lots more about my long-term availability and public reception. Similar with emergency services, although I can do snazzy firefighting gadgets and if I'm satisfied your police aren't evil little tyrants I can do policing gadgets too. I can do medicine, great heaps of it, I'm specially trained. I cannot predict or prevent earthquakes; what I can do is cause them in more or less the same way you might already start small forest fires to prevent accumulating tinder, but it's a risky proposition. I cannot interact with your magical infrastructure at this time."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I wouldn't trust the police. And the only reason Opri's civil services are in such good shape is because Grind, the civil services chief, likes gloating about her well-run city and so does not embezzle nearly as much of her budget as her neighbors do. Water handling and elevators will be excellent. Electricity... Does not translate."

"I can probably help you do a few of these things without getting called out on it, especially the water. Grind assigned me control over the water section, oh, three and a half years ago. I built pumpjacks to pull water from the aquifer instead of the river, and now we don't have people magicking gigantic tubs to rooftops anymore. Cut the water section workforce in half, after the initial investment and training."

[from_scratch]

"Electricity: tame lightning. Runs all the cool future swag. I can probably do some of your water stuff on pure mechanical if you want though."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Tame lightning. That's a bit of a scary thought. What would be best for the water stuff is things that are low-maintenance or at least low-workforce. Is the general plan here 'improve things and deal with violence or other unpleasantness as it occurs' or something else?"

[from_scratch]

"My plan is 'implement unambiguous, safe improvements while getting enough of my bearings to make fewer things ambiguous and more things safe'."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Makes sense. I maintain that you are likely to have to deal with an army at some point. The Senate does not like rapid change. I guess you'll believe me when it happens."

They're getting close to the city now. It begins suddenly, with high square walls. Inside the walls are clusters of colorfully decorated buildings, all at least six floors tall and some as much as fifteen. Some of the buildings have large sections open to the air, entire parks halfway up the city, and raised pathways are everywhere as well.

"We probably want to land and enter through the main gates, for politeness to Kell's guards if nothing else."

[from_scratch]

"I'm not really... scared of an army? Like, it seems like your magic system all has to play with physics, so I expect my ability to break physics attempting to harm me will remain intact. Also I could just sort of tranquilize them all." He lands where directed. "It could get inconvenient if they did something like hold civilian hostages or invent the deadman switch but I'd still give myself swell odds."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Good for you."

She descends gradually as they approach the city, landing on the side of the large road leading up to it. The guards are wearing chainmail and carrying crossbows. She shows them some sort of badge and they wave her through the gate.

They ask Cam, "Do you want to sign into Opri as a visitor, or a temporary resident?"

[from_scratch]

"What's the practical difference?" he inquires, tail slowly drifting left and right.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Temporary residents are subject to taxes for any money they earn, inside or outside of the city, as long as they're registered as such. They are also permitted to own real estate and enroll in the public schools, if they so desire. And temporary or permanent residents are ineligible for extradition."

[from_scratch]

"Visitor, please."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Please wait a moment."

He comes back with a form. It wants Cam's full name, trade name if applicable, gender (male, female, non-binary), age, magical status (shaper, non-shaper, not attempted), a written description of his reasons for visiting Opri, city or country of origin (if applicable), and his signature under a paragraph agreeing to abide by local laws and ordinances.

[from_scratch]

Cam writes his nickname phonetically and, finding the W in his surname awkward in this alphabet, just translates it. Male. ...Twenty-two. Not attempted. Tourism and visiting friend. Not applicable. "Do you have a summary somewhere of the local laws and ordinances?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Don't harm others except in self-defense or registered and approved duels, don't steal, don't cause a public distrubance, if a guard or member of the police tells you to do something obey, don't harass people, don't interfere with the operations of the government, don't distribute controlled substances without a valid medical license, no public obscenity, which means you'll need a shirt... There's more, but that's the majors covered, I think."

[from_scratch]

"Steel, did I leave a shirt in your bag? I think I might have left a shirt in your bag."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Ah, right. Here." She hands him the shirt that wasn't there a moment ago.

[from_scratch]

"Thanks." Cam puts it on. "What are the limits on what guards and police may tell people to do?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

The guard gives an annoyed huff. "To arrest or detain a person, police must have a reasonable belief that they are involved with or have information about a crime. Police are not permitted under any circumstances to order you to commit crimes, to harm yourself or others, or to perform magic. Barring a clear and present danger or reasonable suspicion of a crime, they are not allowed to enter private property unless invited, or to order others to leave their private property."

Steel is glancing nervously between Cam and the guard.

[from_scratch]

"Okay, I can live with that." Sign.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I should hope so," the guard mutters. "Wait... You filled out the form incorrectly. You're a shaper, right?"

[from_scratch]

Steel has half a second of Cam blinking politely to step in before he has to make something up.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It's a new technique. By expanding the muscles and skeletal structure of the upper body, non-shapers can sometimes withstand the modifications necessary to grow wings. It has negative effects on the heart unless closely monitored, though."

"You'd know more than me," the guard shrugs. "Have a nice day, Steel. Remember to keep your shirt on, Cam."

[from_scratch]

"Will do."