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]

"Unfortunately, most things can't be cured quite that straightforwardly. You aren't having bee problems yet, those I could also fix via the 'create huge numbers of insects' method. I have interesting drugs and gadgets but they would need to be distributed by doctors or at least someone with a legal identity, and I'm only one person. You don't happen to have contacts at the NIH or anything similarly acronymical and medical, do you?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Not me personally, but you may note that this is the campus of a reasonably-sized university."

[from_scratch]

"I have noticed that. Maybe you can tell me who to go wow and I can see if that works. One thing I can do that I cannot teach humans how to do is heal amputees, which would be suitably dramatic to get me all kinds of scientific attention but requires an amputee willing to let me saw off their stump so I have a clean end to work from..."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Well, I can definitely introduce you to some biology professors. I don't know about amputees but I've seen enough to be confident enough in your abilities to let you take a finger off if you can do it more cleanly than sawing."

[from_scratch]

"I mean, slightly more cleanly than sawing and I could numb you completely but the show-off-ness would be slightly dented by the part where you don't have a documented history of missing a finger. ...Say, is the Randi Prize a thing here?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"If it is I haven't heard of it. And no, it wouldn't be legally impressive, but if I take you to see a professor with my finger off and you make me a new one they will be somewhat more likely to vouch for you than if it's just, 'oh, Ms. Major found a new weird thing.'"

[from_scratch]

"I'm not actually sure I want to remove your extremities in front of witnesses."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I was thinking we take it off ahead of time, go up to a professor, let them freak out a little, and then replace it."

[from_scratch]

"Doing anything along the lines of 'stopping the bleeding' will tend to make it harder for me to attach a new finger that doesn't have a layer of blood clot in the middle of it, it's really pretty inconvenient, I'd rather just talk to the NIH, I was speculating idly about how to get people to believe that I have awesome cures and treatments to share if I can't get a hearing in some more civilized way what with lacking a legal existence. By the way, after we eat I want to borrow your internet again, look for my parents, see if I can pretend to be my twelve-year-old self to people who aren't paying attention or something."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Oh, you didn't do that last night? Sure. Also, it's not like I'm not used to periodically losing blood, I'm sleeping with a vampire. My thought would be that once it's been established that you can replace bits, a professor would be better than me at getting you in contact with the NIH and/or amputees."

[from_scratch]

"You haven't seen me replace bits. I could show a professor other things I can make and they might be as convinced as you."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"True enough. I'm not particularly attached to the idea of losing a finger, just trying to be helpful. So, finish breakfast, internet, see if Professor Marsh is available?"

[from_scratch]

"Yes. Those things."

Breakfast is yummy. The Internet turns up no public information about either of Cam's parents in the places they are meant to be. Professor Marsh?

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Professor Marsh turns out, after a series of enquiries, to be attending to some kind of experiment that mostly takes place in a petri dish. He's peering intently into a microscope when they find him.
Daphne gently tugs Cam out of the doorway. "Probably better to wait for him to finish."

[from_scratch]

Cam doesn't object.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Professor Marsh will be peering into a microscope and muttering to himself and scribbling notes for a good half-hour, but if Cam and Daphne are willing to wait that long he looks up and sees them at the end of that period.

[from_scratch]

Cam entertains himself with his computer during the interim. "Hello!" he says, when they have professorial attention.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Ah, hello," he says. "Little Bird, who is this?"
"This is a matter-conjuring demon from another dimension. He wants you to introduce him to someone from a government medical agency, or introduce him to someone who can introduce him etcetera, so he can make new limbs for amputees. Real limbs, not prosthetic ones."
"Ah," the professor says. "I expect a demonstration is called for?"

[from_scratch]

"The limbs for amputees doesn't scale I only mentioned it because it was flashy I'd have to do it personally every time the real winners in my arsenal are the vaccines and fancy medical scanners and drugs," says Cam in a long sigh.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I meant for matter conjuration in general, not limb replacement in particular. I don't think anyone in this room is volunteering to have a limb removed," he says dryly.
Daphne looks up at the ceiling innocently. Professor Marsh either doesn't notice or pretends not to.

[from_scratch]

"Sure. Do you need some matter?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Professor Marsh names a complicated-sounding Science Gadget.

[from_scratch]

"I can make it with that model name alone but I can make a better guess about where a reasonable place to put it might be if you give me its approximate dimensions. Or point at an appropriate flat surface."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Professor Marsh points at a convenient lab bench.

[from_scratch]

And there is a gadget.