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

[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."

[sturdycoldsteel]

After they're away from the guard, "I could have sworn I warned you. Wings make people assume you're a shaper. Shapers can withstand our method of body modification more easily than non-shapers."

[from_scratch]

"Yes, you told me that. You didn't tell me it meant I'd have to pretend to be one. I can't produce proof of that on demand - can't see the stream, can't transmute things unless I happen to know enough about their chemistry to do it by making and then only in limited ways, etcetera. What about being a shaper helps with the add-ons, anyway?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Keep in mind that I'm not a full doctor, I only took a half-load of med courses for three years. Our way of body-modification is a lot less finessed than yours. The going theory is that shapers unconsciously support their add-ons in ways that baseline humans can't. Shapers will grow capillaries in a new appendage all on their own, they generate their own skin and sweat glands, their new bones grow marrow without grafting, their minds more easily learn how to control new muscles, and so on. Non-shapers do none of these things, so it's all manually created, and it's too easy to miss something and end up with a defective body."

[from_scratch]

"Huh. I don't see what about shaping should do that."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Me neither, but the evidence speaks for itself. Are you going to find a hotel? I'm not that keen about letting you sleep in my apartment, to be perfectly honest."

[from_scratch]

"I don't have to sleep. Does the city completely go dead at night? I can just wander around, familiarize myself. Or find some nook to read in."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It definitely slows down at night. I'm heading to my office right now, to get some documents, and then we can head to the pump facility and see what you can do for it. Come to think of it, I don't feel like waiting for an elevator, and I have these shiny new wings..."

She takes a bit of a running start and flies up, landing in a park suspended halfway up between two towers, a few blocks ahead. "These wings are convenient as well as awesome."

[from_scratch]

He follows her. "Aren't they just?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Well I'm hungrier than usual, and they seem like they could get in the way sometimes, but yeah. Civil service building is this way."

The 5th floor of all these buildings is almost like an entire second layer of streets. Entrances to businesses, homes, workshops, offices, government buildings are all lined up along wide pathways that escape being 'streets' only be the absence of horse-or magic-drawn wagons.

[from_scratch]

"I like this layered look. I bet Fairyland has cities like this. Hell can't organize well enough and Heaven does a cave network shtick and humans where I'm from can't fly."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I think the reason we're vertical like this is so that we end up with almost a cube or sphere of constructed bluestream. It doesn't degrade nearly as quickly when it's in the middle of more bluestream. I wonder if you'd like to see the urban farms later? They're very magic, compared to using fields and natural sunlight."