call me maybe

[from_scratch]

Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.

He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -

with the Joker (kappa)

with Ripper (kappa)

with Darren (Aestrix)

with Minus (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Facility 3141592 (armokGoB)

with the admin (kappa)

with Jarvis (kappa, Aestrix)

with Miles (kappa)

with Hank (Nemo)

Comments

[from_scratch]

"I'm still seriously considering taking my further notes in a demonic language until I go home again. I really don't like that. Especially considering that obviously anyone who had plans to destroy the world in the past didn't get even far enough to leave a crater where I expect there to be Belgium or something."

[neverbeatme]

"Plots to destroy the world have not been successful despite their frequency largely because the Slayer or someone like her notices in time to stop them," she says. "I am the Slayer. It's my job to notice things like that in time to stop them. And for future reference, three out of the five apocalypses I've stopped this year involved someone trying to open the Hellmouth and of the last two, one was based around a demonic shrine a few miles out of town and the other was an attempt to call forth a powerful demon out of an imported statue. All the kind of thing where if it succeeds, you can tell because the sun went dark or everything is on fire or the legions of hell are pillaging the Earth from every direction, but if it fails you pretty much only know it happened if you were there or someone tells you about it."

[from_scratch]

"I hope you will forgive me if I am slightly skeptical that something that has obviously never finished happening starts to happen every alternate Tuesday and this conveniently justifies you in racial profiling. Anyway. Now what?"

[neverbeatme]

"I'm told this has been a heavy year, actually. There are usually only two or three. I think a possible 'now what' is you tell me some plans and I suggest ways I could be helpful to them."

[from_scratch]

"You read over my shoulder, you don't like the dispensary idea, anything else catch your eye?" he sighs.

[neverbeatme]

"Everything I saw: 'completely ignore magic - pros/cons', 'things to ask Sherlock', 'getting rid of wings', 'go through med notes and give to someone', 'maybe just fly to Mars and set it up nice for them later', 'there has got to be some way to make a vampire dispensary work'," she lists. She has the wording verbatim on all of them. "I'm interested in med notes, what you'd do with Mars, and what you meant about the pros and cons of ignoring magic; I'm also wondering who Sherlock is but I don't think that's likely to have immediate practical relevance."

[from_scratch]

"Right, so, it's 2159 where I'm from and medical science has advanced correspondingly. I keep on top of it more than I do, say, the advances that have been made in orchid cultivation, because, one, it's useful for personal alterations if I ever want to make any - the wings and tail I had models, if I decide I want something non-standard I'd better know about how people are put together - two, in case I'm ever on a summon and have the flexibility and opportunity to make stuff to heal someone. So I know and can conjure up notes for a century and a half of medicine you don't have and I'm not sure where to drop it to good effect. Mars I'd just make a little spaceship and go there and give it an atmosphere and topsoil and some plants and water so it would be comfortable for Earthlings who visited later. That would be an example of something I could do while ignoring magic besides my own, because it sounds like a mess."

[neverbeatme]

"Your view of magic besides your own is pretty accurate, but I happen to have an in with a witch who is much less of a mess than average," she says. "I could also probably figure out something to do with your medical notes if you don't want to handle that part yourself. I don't have the connections now, but finding the right people to inform about medical advances falls under the purview of what I plan to do with my life besides Slaying. No input on Mars; seems like you've got that handled."

[from_scratch]

"The library I was in earlier had floppy disk drives, so search me if I know what format to give you the notes in, but you're welcome to have a copy. No promises I won't duplicate them somewhere else if an opportunity comes up."

[neverbeatme]

"Sure, that makes perfect sense. You could for example give me one of your nifty future computers."

[from_scratch]

"You couldn't charge it unless I also give you a wireless electricity station and a whole string of power adapters to plug it into your wall, and I have not yet decided to supply that kind of tech, either the wireless electricity or the computation, nice try. Besides, you wouldn't know how to operate it unless I gave you lessons."

[neverbeatme]

"I'm assuming nifty future computer batteries last at least long enough for me to read the highlights and maybe retype some things. I'm also assuming that the interface isn't so arcane I couldn't figure it out on my own with a little effort, because I don't expect intuitive usability in computer design to decline over the next century and a half. It would admittedly be more convenient if you could get it in a format modern computers could read - the library machines are ancient, by the way, and my home computer is not, you might have better luck there."

[from_scratch]

"My concerns include that you would take apart the nifty future computer when its battery died. What counts as 'intuitive' changes a lot with background culture. I will happily make you a - what came after floppies? DVDs?"

[neverbeatme]

"Technically CDs came after floppies, but DVDs have in fact been invented and my computer can in fact read them, so they're a better option."

[from_scratch]

"Okay, here's the box set," says Cam, producing what does indeed look like a boxed set of DVDs in a plain white case. "Annotated medical textbooks for the last century and a half, have fun."

[neverbeatme]

"Thanks, I will."

[from_scratch]

"Anything else?"

[neverbeatme]

"It would be convenient to have a way to contact each other, in case you decide you want to meet my aunt the witch, or you want something done that requires going places where your awkwardly bulky leather coat is going to stand out. You know more than I do about your options for using things like phones and email."

[from_scratch]

"If people are going to notice through the coat I might as well just saw them off," grumbles Cam. "I can make phones and computers and so on but that doesn't automatically get them onto any subscription-based service. I'd offer you a walkie-talkie, but, tech concerns. You could buy me a phone."

[neverbeatme]

"I could buy you a phone," she agrees. "If I buy you a phone, I'd like some help paying for it. Any moral qualms about, oh, a handful of diamonds? My aunt uses them as a spell component sometimes; if we don't have to keep stocked, that's more money to pay for your phone."

[from_scratch]

"Sure, diamonds aren't a tech problem, just give me specs on how big and how you want them cut."

[neverbeatme]

"Probably better to ask Chris about that kind of detail," she says. She gets out a phone and calls her aunt.

"Hi, Chris. If I had a source that could get you arbitrary diamonds, what kinds of sizes and cuts would you prefer? Also, I made a new friend and we need to buy him a phone." She listens to the response, laughs, and then relays information about a variety of types of diamond her aunt would like for various purposes - mostly very small ones, the size to go on a ring, but a few significantly larger.

[from_scratch]

"Is your aunt the witch who is not as much of a mess as other sources on magic?"

[neverbeatme]

"Yep."

[from_scratch]

"Are we friends, now? I'm still way back in 'not giving out arbitrary information about future technology'."