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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.
Steel summons Demon Cam
sturdycoldsteel
"I'll read that later, then. I'm thinking about how to control this place... We'll have to set up a signal tower or send runners so the city's tanks don't overfill if we turn it up too high. Or maybe just build spillways."
from_scratch
"Oh, it can be controlled remotely, you just need a person doing it. And it's button pressing."
from_scratch
"On your phone poke the button that looks like a stylized house - box with a triangle on top - to get out of your library, then poke the water droplet."
from_scratch
"Yes. That's actually the function it's named after, although after a while they did enough different things that plenty of people never use theirs to talk to other phones. Right now it can only talk to the water pump and the range isn't great, I'll need to put in some satellites to get good coverage, but from here to Opri it'll be fine all by itself as long as you aren't underground or behind a lead wall or something."
sturdycoldsteel
"Communication is yet another thing you can do much more effectively than us. We are limited to physical mail, couriers, or for particularly important messages, coded sequences of light shined from one tower to the next and then the next until it reaches its destination and is decoded. Can you see yourself selling electric mail delivery?"
from_scratch
"Sure, once the place is wired up and you can charge the things. Modern battery life is great but it won't last forever all by itself. Maybe you could get along with shared induction chargers in public places while the change rolls out to individual residences."
sturdycoldsteel
"Conveniently enough for that idea, public places are where Grind and company have the most influence. Speaking of Grind, do you want to write up some summaries for her while I read Engineering for Summoners?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Don't lie or embellish about the new stuff's capabilities. She'll like concise descriptions of what the things you can make are, what they can do, any drawbacks or limitations they have stated up front, how they are not particularly dangerous unless mistreated. A description of how you can make things with whatever arbitrary limits you want to make up to discourage immediate attempted exploitation of you. Repetition of the very generous lease terms. Emphasize how great the city will be with all this new stuff, but don't go overboard with the rhetoric."
from_scratch
"All right." Cam pulls out his computer and writes up dumbed-down technical specs for the dam and the water pump. They require no routine maintenance; absent deliberate sabotage, severe earthquake, or similar magnitude of destructive force, they won't even need non-routine maintenance for about fifty years. Anyone who is not really stupidly determined to tamper with the things will find them harmless. They will produce, at peak capacity, a (comprehensible) volume of water and an (incomprehensible) amount of electricity. The terms under which their use is offered to Opri boils down to "no upfront fee, water's free, electricity's very very cheap, modest installation charges for things that use the electricity and any of Cam's time spent on teaching other people about it, and all of these prices are subject to change at any time depending on what Cam's doing with his valuable time and how friendly he is feeling towards Opri's representatives that day".
He describes his ability to make things as a non-transferable form of magic. He lists the real limits that will make sense in context (things cannot appear in motion, he can't appear things he knows nothing about) and asserts that he can't make anything complicated without design input into it (that should stop them from trying to sneak anything past him he doesn't like).
He lists some things electricity can do. With appropriate infrastructure - unmanned, low- to zero-maintenance, nonexpert-controllable light, heat, transport, communication and computing technology, household appliances, industrial processing - he stops short of talking about electric string instruments. Just won't have the right impact without a demo.
He shows it to Steel in its draft form on his computer screen. "How's this look?"
He describes his ability to make things as a non-transferable form of magic. He lists the real limits that will make sense in context (things cannot appear in motion, he can't appear things he knows nothing about) and asserts that he can't make anything complicated without design input into it (that should stop them from trying to sneak anything past him he doesn't like).
He lists some things electricity can do. With appropriate infrastructure - unmanned, low- to zero-maintenance, nonexpert-controllable light, heat, transport, communication and computing technology, household appliances, industrial processing - he stops short of talking about electric string instruments. Just won't have the right impact without a demo.
He shows it to Steel in its draft form on his computer screen. "How's this look?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Very impressive. If she believes you at all, which she almost certainly will after a tour of the new water plant, she'll be all over it. This will probably end up turning the civil service on its head, since electricity will take over something like half of what we do. But she's not the type to shy away from positive changes just because they're new and scary."
from_scratch
"Yep. I'll make the main cable from the dam as we go."
Up into the air he goes, and the cable, hidden by appropriately hidey layers of stuff and insulation, comes into existence below.
Up into the air he goes, and the cable, hidden by appropriately hidey layers of stuff and insulation, comes into existence below.
sturdycoldsteel
Steel follows, a bit slowly. "I'm going to need a nice big lunch. Flying burns calories like nothing else. And hey, it's probably a good idea to stop the cable about half a mile of the city walls, at least for now. Kell would make a stink if you encroached on the defenses built into the stream without his permission."
from_scratch
"All right. I can leave the rest of it coiled up or just leave the end unfinished or put some sort of cap on it, I guess."
sturdycoldsteel
"Sorry I didn't warn you sooner." Fly, fly, back to reading her intro to engineering book. The relatively little math involved in this introductory book is not that tricky, especially since thermo-kinetics involves a lot of math already. Calculus is confusing, though.
And then they are at the city. "We can fly in without annoying anyone, this time, you're registered properly." She navigates to the civil services building.
And then they are at the city. "We can fly in without annoying anyone, this time, you're registered properly." She navigates to the civil services building.
from_scratch
Cam leaves the wire unfinished, under some turf to keep it hidden that will be easy to dig up later.
sturdycoldsteel
Steel goes in and knocks on Grind's office door.
Yelled from within, "What?"
"I've got that detailed plan you wanted."
"Okay, come in." Steel opens the door to reveal a much larger office with a wide glass window and a desk that almost looks grown from the wood floor. "Welcome back, Cam. Let's see the goods."
Yelled from within, "What?"
"I've got that detailed plan you wanted."
"Okay, come in." Steel opens the door to reveal a much larger office with a wide glass window and a desk that almost looks grown from the wood floor. "Welcome back, Cam. Let's see the goods."
from_scratch
Cam hands over his writeup in written form. It's not actually all that detailed, mostly because Grind doesn't know what a watt is, but nonetheless.
Just for show, he makes the writing when his hand is already halfway to her.
Just for show, he makes the writing when his hand is already halfway to her.
sturdycoldsteel
She glances sharply up at him when he does this and reads through the whole thing extremely quickly.
"I would have called it a pack of lies if you didn't do it right in front of me. That said, a tour is in order. I can cancel my meeting with Vine for this." With immense sarcasm, "O kind sir who will quickly become absurdly rich, do please show me the source of your electric power."
"I would have called it a pack of lies if you didn't do it right in front of me. That said, a tour is in order. I can cancel my meeting with Vine for this." With immense sarcasm, "O kind sir who will quickly become absurdly rich, do please show me the source of your electric power."
from_scratch
"You want to see the dam? I can show you a diagram if you'd rather not go all the way there."
sturdycoldsteel
"I was being sarcastic. This looks extremely good, but we have a saying 'The shortcut to the top of the mountain always conceals a trap' so I want to see the pumping station and the dam in action, in person."