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

[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.

[wormcan]

Cam's not exactly under a lot of scrutiny on that subject.

He is for other reasons, though. It may take a few weeks, but eventually Cam will spot an inconspicuous-looking person glancing at him and disappearing when seen.

[from_scratch]

This person can be bugged.

[wormcan]

Many people can.
She eventually reports that Cam has been acting pretty much as he appears to be. A disappointingly complete lack of secret plots. She and whoever she's reporting to don't happen to mention their names, the first time at least, but they do talk about someone called Regis Rex as their mutual boss.

[from_scratch]

To Google to find out who has been brutalizing Latin!

[wormcan]

Brutalizing Latin is an ancient and respectable pastime of people who want impressive-sounding phrases!

This particular culprit is a cape, and notable enough to show up on Google. At least, he's assumed to be a cape. Google doesn't say what his power is. But he heads a cell of the Elite, which means it's a safe assumption. The Elite is a large collection of allied cells, ranging from neutral to sadistic and everywhere in between. They're an American group; no information is forthcoming on what one of them might be doing out here.

[from_scratch]

It's time to play Information Will Be Forthcoming When Cam Damn Well Wants It To Be. Let's read Regis Rex's email!

[wormcan]

So apparently the Elite take it very seriously when they say they try to have a finger in every pie that gets sent across the Pacific. Or, in this case, conjured. Posing as a business is a strategy that has worked before, and it has been getting Cam to send them a lot of valuable goods over the last few weeks. Regis Rex, presumably also known as Gabriel Vega, has more or less declared victory. His superiors back on the U.S. west coast have been pretty happy about it.

The spy herself is a native cape with a convenient power. It's probably why she was able to report back after having only glanced at Cam. The Elite always try to get control of the local cape groups one way or another when they move into a city, so the emailers consider it unremarkable that an unaffiliated cape is already answering to them.

They're also trying to take over local crime, naturally. Regis Rex has (or believes he has) enough of the government in his pocket, and when the Elite try to take over a city at every level they can be very comprehensive about every level. They're already getting a share of the profits from the relative few who contravene Japan's strict drug laws, and are working on expanding their control.

[from_scratch]

All right, that's really irritating.

Cam announces that he is going to eradicate malaria in a process that may take a few months to complete itself. He overflies Africa.

He keeps going.

Regis Rex's emails included reversible directions to some locations.

[wormcan]

Cam knows extremely precisely where to find some sites under the control of the Elite, because he was making things appear there. If they happened to say where those are in relation to more important locations, good for them.

Conveniently, one of those is the one at the top of the pyramid. San Francisco is exactly the other way from here, but Cam can circumnavigate the globe fast enough that it hardly matters. And this way he has an alibi.

[from_scratch]

Yep.

When he's almost there he chucks his spaceship into orbit and flies down on his own. He got some more reading-up done while he was flooding Africa with sterile male mosquitoes.

[wormcan]

He'll be spotted on his way down, but they don't send up a force field and evacuate or anything so drastic. Instead, they just open the door and a cape comes out. "You must be Cam. I assume you're here to talk to Uppercrust?"

[from_scratch]

"How right you are."

[wormcan]

"He's in here. If you'll come with me?"

Uppercrust is, as Cam knew to expect, a well-dressed man, old for a cape but not for a human, and in charge of the leadership of the Elite. He's also the tinker behind the large-scale force fields, but that's not the relevant capacity. What Cam didn't know to expect is his condition. He's sitting down, almost sagging into his chair, and moves only feebly. But his mind and speech are unaffected.

"Welcome to my city. What brings you here?"