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.

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.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

They're going to let him. Some of them will solicit coffee so as to be able to keep up longer. This is going to be revolutionary.

[from_scratch]

Coffee for all! Coffee and information on ulcers and warts and hemorrhoids and the common cold.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

If he is free enough with the coffee some of these scientists are just going to pull all-nighters. Most of them, actually.

[from_scratch]

Good for them. Would any of them like slightly more futuristic stimulants? Cam is a daeva and caffeine will do the trick but the scientists might enjoy modafinil.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

If there are future stimulants available they will be greeted with enthusiasm.

[from_scratch]

Modafinil for all. Something more futuristic for those who don't find modafinil happens to work for them. And now it is time for what Cam knows about allergies, avulsions, prion disease, and eating disorders!

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Stimulants. Rapt attention. Frantic notetaking. Some enterprising soul filming the whole endeavor.

[from_scratch]

Good, good.

Cam runs out of important quality-of-life stuff after lecturing near-continuously for thirty-six hours, and encounters his notes about baldness and cosmetic eye color changes. He pauses, says that he doesn't mind it being known that he will auction off this sort of information to the highest bidder so he can have some non-counterfeit local currency to work in but it is not germane to his purpose here today, and does anyone need extra copies of the books he's been conjuring throughout this lecture or have any last-minute questions before he takes a break and then flies to China?

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Everyone wants extra copies of the books. Needs is perhaps a different story.

[from_scratch]

Well, they can all have extra copies of the books, plenty to share around. They can also have some appetizer platters; some of these people haven't eaten anything but stimulants in a day and a half, Cam saw them - and then Cam heads out, wagging his tail, and gets in his little spaceship.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

No longer absorbed with revolutionary science, the scientists fall on the appetizer platters like piranhas on an obese cow.

[from_scratch]

Cam flies back to the university.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

It being broad daylight, the spaceship is remarked upon.

[from_scratch]

How about that. If people haven't noticed the mosquitoes by now he'll be very surprised, so. He is okay with operating in the open.

Does anyone know where Daphne is?

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Daphne is in the library, doing research for a paper. This information is provided by a blonde woman wearing all black and holding a parasol like she means it.

[from_scratch]

"...Are you Jaromira?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Daphne mentioned me, then."
Her accent is lightly Polish.

[from_scratch]

"She did! Nice to meet you."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Nice to meet you too. Daphne described what you're up to, and I have to say, good going."

[from_scratch]

"Thanks! I have just explained to many very exciting government scientists many many things and while I am not technically tired I do want a brief change of pace before I go do it all over again in Chinese."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Ah hah. Well, her research is neither short-term urgent nor otherwise uninterruptible."

[from_scratch]

"Cool. Which way to the library?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Over there. It's the grey building right beyond that ash tree," she says, pointing.

[from_scratch]

"Thanks!" He goes thataway.