this is crazy

[from_scratch]

Cam is watching a new recording of Atriama, tail swishing in the gap in his couch, and doesn't stop to pause the show when he feels a summons go by.

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Oh, yes, I understand. I thank you anyway. Anything else to discuss?"

[wormcan]

"I don't believe so. We'll be in touch when the receiving ends are set up."

[from_scratch]

"Great, I'll look forward to that." Shoo, person, Cam has shit to do.

[wormcan]

Person shoos.

It's not very long before they're ready for the first attempt, with some precise distance measurements and a parachute design. The first attempt may as well be a cargo entirely of Endbringer material, since if anything goes wrong it's not exactly fragile.

[from_scratch]

As long as it has someplace appropriate to go and everything's in order, sure. Cargo of Endbringer bits.

[wormcan]

Arriving stationary relative to Cam turns mean indestructible objects moving at over five hundred miles an hour in San Francisco. Luckily, it doesn't. No one is too surprised when physics doesn't insist very hard. Powers don't have to make sense.

After a perfectly safe arrival, long-distance conjuration definitively works.

[from_scratch]

Hooray.

[wormcan]

"If you'd like to try some tinker products," his contact says, "this should be a safe test." It's a six-inch camera drone, which when activated levitates at about head height.

"The tinker is one we've worked with before. He says nothing in here would be dangerous if copied."

[from_scratch]

Cam makes one.

[wormcan]

It levitates at about head height. Nothing exciting happens at all.

"Perfect! Now that we know it works, you can try more of them, or larger scale devices.
You could be the best tinker since Dragon if you wanted to."

[from_scratch]

"I'm not a real Tinker, but yes, thanks for the test! I've got a list."

Cam has a list. He goes down his list.

[wormcan]

And the list now includes quite a few suggestions from overseas. Large-scale force fields to help protect port cities in case of Leviathan feature prominently. How OTP got the rights to make copies of those, even in limited numbers, is anyone's guess, but every city wants one.

[from_scratch]

Cam is not going to be too fussed about patent rights here.

[wormcan]

"That sounds like a good way to get tinkers to not show you their products in the first place," says Vega.

[from_scratch]

"They don't have to show them to me up close, they just have to use them in any way that makes them look appealing to anybody who is willing to tell me about them," Cam says. "If any Tinkers come to me after the money they were previously not making by selling these things either, I'll pay them, I have been known to produce things of interest to Tinkers. This plan is not flawless but it seems better than 'try to negotiate with a lot of parahumans who have every reason to waste my time jacking up their prices every time I want to make some tech'."

[wormcan]

"And a lot of tinkers would take you up on that. Others are more possessive, and keep in mind that tinkers are uniquely well positioned to make things unusable by anyone but the creator. You'd get most of the tech you can shake a stick at, certainly, but also the fear of every tinker and the enmity of plenty."

[from_scratch]

"Do you have a better plan?"

[wormcan]

"Make copies only in agreed-upon numbers. The more paranoid tinkers will still stay far away, but many would like the chance to focus on development while they or their team are already outfitted. And the ones who are strictly business, the one behind the large-scale force fields among them, would be much more likely to cooperate with you.

And regardless of how easily you can copy anything you've heard of, you should pretend otherwise. If the cat isn't out of the bag yet, act as if you need an example to copy for tinker tech. They'd have one less thing to worry about now."

[from_scratch]

"I suppose that will do medium term as long as I can pretend I got ahold of plans or examples or video footage or something of anything a dead tinker made."

[wormcan]

"Once you have a reputation for refraining from copying more than agreed, the ruse would be redundant anyway.
For the plans, it might be a good idea to talk to the Protectorate. They have extensive records on what their tinkers make and on much of what they capture, and they might agree to back you up if you claim they let you see it."

[from_scratch]

"Sounds like a plan, I'll write them."

And he does.

[wormcan]

In the meantime, things continue going well. It's remarkable what a complete lack of material scarcity can do to a country.

The medicines and electronics continue getting reverse-engineered and produced, there are increasing numbers of people moving to Japan, and even the rate of cape crime is sharply improving.

[from_scratch]

Hooray! People have been tolerating the wings pretty well. Cam puts his tail back as well.

[wormcan]

Cam is known as the guy who put a country back on the map in multiple senses. He can look like whatever he wants to. And it's not the weirdest fashion decision parahumans make anyway; overseas it's considered normal to wear spandex.

[from_scratch]

Cam declines to wear spandex. He is a jeans dude. A jeans, wings, and tail dude.