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]

"No problem."

[sturdycoldsteel]

She puts the shiny new computer in a pocket, then knocks over a box with one of her wings while turning around. After hovering it back into place, she heads out the front door and flies. "This way to the river."

[from_scratch]

Cam follows. He reads things on his computer once they're high up enough.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel also reads things, once she gets the hang of flying and reading. She asks for the occasional translated word, but never needs the same word translated twice.

It takes about half an hour to reach the southernmost part of the river that is still in Opri's territory. Steel turns north after that.

[from_scratch]

River. What an interesting river. Cam flies low enough to see if there's anything that shouldn't be underwater in the canyon.

[sturdycoldsteel]

There's some grass, and shrubs, and trees, and small animals, and fish. A little ways up there is the overgrown ruins of what might have been a house once. Ten minutes after that there is a very grand-looking glass-and-steel suspension bridge connecting road-ends on either side of the canyon. There's some sort of track going up and down nearby, and a significantly less abandoned-looking building at the bottom.

"That's the old water station. They would literally fill huge tubs and levitate them from here to the city. I like my way much better."

[from_scratch]

"They don't still use it?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Someone might be squatting, but no, not this one. There's another station with real pumps at the top of the canyon a few more minutes up. That's where we get any river water we use these days."

[from_scratch]

"Okay." Cam makes a note to chase out any squatters in the old water station. "Where's the source of this river?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"A series of springs forming tributaries in the highlands about two hundred mules north-east. Two cities draw from the springs, Lehr and Knip. Nobody else between Opri and the source draws from the river proper."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. I'm gonna go up high and get a topology snapshot - don't follow me, I'll be making my own air when it gets thin but it's hard to do that for someone else without tripping them up - and run some programs, see where it'll naturally drain if the river rises and if I need to change that by dynamiting something, etcetera. Forty-five minutes tops."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I'll determine the presence or absence of our water station squatter, then fly circles around the bridge. See you in a bit."

[from_scratch]

Cam goes up. He takes pictures and lets his computer assemble them into a topographical map and proposes to a different program that he could put a dam here or there or wherever and plugs in Steel's figures for the water volume. He finds where it's going to drain, overflies the area edge to edge to edge and finds nothing more than wildflowers, and then goes to catch up with Steel - for higher confidence in his software results he needs to know how much it rains around here and upstream, but he's almost ready.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"There are no squatters in the old place. There were a few old files, but nothing important, I burned them. I'd say just let it flood. As to rainfall figures..." She digs through a notebook from her backpack. "Here we go. These are for the local area. Unfortunately I don't have any for prefecture 6, where the springs are."

[from_scratch]

"Would you expect it to be more than..." He plugs in the figures and his computer spits out results. "...fifteen percent greater per year or thirty in any given month?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Probably not... We both get the same weather patterns for the most part, there's no really major geography between here and there to change it up."

[from_scratch]

"All right, so, probably safe, but we could check, how hard would it be to check?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Fly there, bribe someone to show us the records? Or try to appear their records? You can appear things with the author, right?"

She starts naming people who might plausibly have written or compiled rainfall statistics.

[from_scratch]

"Author and title - is there a standardized title system for rainfall records?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"In Opri, yes, but not between different cities. It's possible they're in your computer- I believe you appeared it with the entire Senatorial library, including the archives."

[from_scratch]

"Oh, yeah, good point. Should be all done processing the character sets after it had overnight to do it..." He searches the library archive for the relevant rainfall stats.

[sturdycoldsteel]

It's a bit of pain. The relevant information is in no less than nine different documents. But it turns out that the recorded rainfall in Lehr and Knip and surrounding areas is pretty much the same as in Opri.

[from_scratch]

"Okay, cool, we're well within tolerances. We could notify Nel as a courtesy, or I could just sit nearby and add water past the dam while it's filling up the canyon so they don't experience any interruption in supply, what do you think?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"The latter. If you warn or apologize they will feel entitled to reparations and be annoying. If they never notice a problem at all they will not."

[from_scratch]

"All right. Anything else to investigate before I get started?"