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

[marrinikari]

"Well, yes, I did mention the telekinesis I think? It's not any more efficient than actually picking an object up yourself, but it's good for remote work. Top shelves in grocery stores, that kind of thing. And of course there are ways and ways to apply it; picking up a box by the corners is a far more reasonable use of your energy then grabbing the entire bottom of the box, for instance."

Well. It's like she got her master's degree in telekinetic algorithms, or something.

A small bracelet-like device appears in Cam's hands. It has two smaller straps that go tightly around his wrist, and a larger band on top of them that looks electronic with a small display. The display is currently dead.

"That's not promising," Professor Reed says, eyeing the display, "but you might as well try it on."

[from_scratch]

He puts it on.

[marrinikari]

The display shows no inclination to live.

[from_scratch]

"Nope," sighs Cam, taking it off. "It's expensive? Anybody want it?"

[marrinikari]

"I'm okay, but thank you."

[marrinikari]

"I'm fine without one, thank you, but we can donate it to the school," Professor Reed suggests.

[from_scratch]

"Sure. I nominate you to represent the school." He hands it to her. "Other kind might still work?"

[marrinikari]

"Other kind takes batteries. They're not well rated against physical contact but they should be fine for wandering around."

[from_scratch]

"Okay." He makes the other kind.

[marrinikari]

This one is similar but noticeably larger, and will be closer to half a forearm than a bracelet, but its screen is successfully lit. It's just a green indicator light, but it's a light.

Emma peers at it curiously. "Wow, that's like half a battery pack in there, no wonder they usually use magic."

[from_scratch]

"...Okay, so if I wanted to conventionally recharge this battery, would I use a cord of some kind that would connect on the other end to a two- or three-prong outlet in a wall, provided I was in the United States at the time?"

[marrinikari]

"Those look like they use a standard recharger... that's, uh, box with battery slots, put batteries into slots, plug directly into an outlet? Um, three prong is best for the US, or most electronics stores will have plug converters you could copy."

[from_scratch]

"I'm asking so I know how to line up power conversion for replacing the battery with a smaller batter, because this thing is clunky." He hands over the second object - "another donation for you" - and makes a new thing, which is considerably smaller. "There. Okay. Shall we?"

[marrinikari]

They shall!

The dean's office is split into two; the front half is clearly a tiny waiting room of sorts, complete with posted office ours and a variety of chairs that look maybe about half-comfortable. A voice comes floating through the open door.

"Tamara! Took you long enough. Come in, come in. I hear we're breaking laws of physics today. And meeting mythical species? I'm losing track. Far more interesting than paperwork, anyway!"

Everything is more interesting than paperwork.

[from_scratch]

"Hi," says Cam, waving. "I'm apparently mythical, here."

[marrinikari]

"You are absolutely mythical here," Dean Fisher agrees, getting up from his desk and offering Cam a hand to shake. "Pleasure to meet you. Dean Fisher, call me Scott." Cam is, after all, well his senior. "So. How can I help?"

[from_scratch]

Handshake! "Well, while my home in Hell is comfortable, I have no pressing obligations there, and also tend to find the fact that I can't go about meaningfully improving anybody's lives since they can all make whatever they want whenever they like kind of stifling, that being why I answer summons like the one that brought me here. So I was thinking I'd stay here for a while looking for useful things to do. I could use a place to be - a place to put a house would be best but I might start with some kind of university housing if it's available and there's some kind of hassle with building permits involved. Apparently I am also reasonably likely to need lawyers and to interact with the FDA and so on. Also, back home, it is illegal to sell demon-made objects, so you might want to dispose of those shielding things I made or make sure the university can use them before legislators here catch on and do the same thing."

[marrinikari]

"I am entirely on board with a plan to improve people's lives," Scott says, looking pleased. "There are, off the top of my increasingly poor memory, two apartments in the Couples Housing area not in use, and one in the short term housing complex. And I will deny it to the grave but I'd recommend the short term building." He sighs reminiscently, and not particularly fondly. "Couples tend to have small children. Loud small children."

"Now. As someone who is, thank God, not a lawyer, I haven't a clue what sort of building permits you'd need; but handily we have a pile of lawyers sitting around with blessedly little to do, and the exercise will be good for them. Let's see- I think this one is moderately more tolerable than the rest-" he scribbles a name on a piece of paper with an email address attached.

"Shielding things? Tamara, you look like you know what he means, you handle it. Legislators- shelving that for now. They have to find out, and try to use it themselves, and fail, and then somehow get a law done. I give it at least a year."

"FDA- hm. Maybe a problem. Tamara said you could get us research papers? That'll speed up your process by light years and then some. Do you care if we have our medical school look over them? Do you want them to be published? How would you like to be credited? Important questions! So many questions. Here." He adds a few lines to his piece of paper, and offers it. "My email and phone number. Also, the name and phone number of the head of the housing office. Tamara, do you have a class, can you take him when we're done here? Or- your friend, if she has a free block." It's Emma second week of school, and she hasn't gotten in trouble; Dean Fisher has no reason to know her. 'Friend' will do for now.

[from_scratch]

"Short term it is, I am not a couple and have gotten accustomed to not even sharing a gravity well, let alone a wall. I can make research papers, and the med school can read them, and I would like them to be efficiently distributed - if that means publication, so be it. I will not have written any of these papers. So I guess I can be credited as 'editor' or something." Cam accepts the paper.

[marrinikari]

"Just speed of distribution you can post it on the internet- but getting it to doctors and scientists, those types, publishing will help. Pompous lot, we are, all of us." He flops back down in his seat. "Short term housing it is. Tamara?"

[marrinikari]

"I have a class in twenty minutes," Professor Reed says apologetically. "Ms. Miller, do you have the block free?"

[marrinikari]

"Uh. Yeah, I don't have class till tomorrow." She looks at Cam. "Apartment now or later?"

[from_scratch]

"Well, what else would I be doing if I said 'later'?" Cam inquires.

[marrinikari]

"Um, posting papers online? Submitting them for publication? I don't know."

[from_scratch]

"Campus have wireless Internet?" Cam inquires. "For that matter, can somebody name me popular brands of computer, I remember some stuff from my world but don't know how it'll match."