letter to cam #17

[thisvorlunatic]

You would not believe the month I've had.

I really did mean to get back to you within a few weeks of my last message, but circumstances intervened. On the other hand, it seems to have worked out all right this way, because there's an Ash and Stars tour coming up and I'm not dead yet. How would you like to attend a concert in addition to raiding the comm nets?

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Tail too." Wag wag. "Does this century have any miracle cures for neurological balance issues? The wings help and being suddenly without them is sure to be worse than never having had them."

[greatcomposure]

"I don't believe so. On the other hand, there's always magic. Miles, do you suppose we have any magical miracle cures for neurological balance issues?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"...in about ten years I bet I could get something put together with taieli, but just yet I wouldn't dare try it, I don't think. Hm."

[from_scratch]

"I mean, worst case scenario I cannot fall over in a wheelchair or whatever the cool kids with neurological balance issues are using these days, and it's probably not actually that bad, I can probably walk. I'll just trip a lot, and if I happen to trip badly enough to have a nasty scrape it will heal unless I am paying attention and trying to prevent it from doing that."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Right. Mm. On considering the tools I can safely use here... do you think boosting your reaction time would help?"

[from_scratch]

"Probably wouldn't hurt. Unless it has horrifying side effects or I just wind up making things worse trying to incompetently correct my feet."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, unlike any detailed magical medical interventions I could try, the reaction time multiplier has been tested reasonably thoroughly and judged safe to put on and take off, so there's no harm in trying it. The only side effect is that it takes a bit of a mental adjustment to keep outwardly acting at normal speed, and I've improved on that aspect quite a bit since the prototype."

[from_scratch]

"I would love to give it a whirl."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Just a moment, then."

Miles looks at Cam in brief concentration, and then over the course of a few seconds the world slows down by an approximate factor of two. But, as advertised, there's some kind of unobtrusive interface at work, making it perfectly possible to interact with the world in regular time while simultaneously having twice as long to think about and react to everything.

[from_scratch]

"Well," says Cam, "I like it, but it may well not help the tripping thing at all. But let's try it. Cordelia, if you wouldn't mind ridding me of my demonic accessories?"

[greatcomposure]

Cordelia waves a hand. The wings and tail turn to air.

[from_scratch]

"Thanks -" Cam takes a step, starts to trip, tries to correct, and manages to put a beanbag between him and the floor before landing. "Well, I'm not sure this will help me be publicly acceptable but it's a very nice little enhancement."

[greatcomposure]

...Cordelia giggles.

[thisvorlunatic]

So does Miles.

"You're welcome to keep it regardless."

[from_scratch]

"Thanks!"

[thisvorlunatic]

"You might also like to put a shirt on at some point between now and the concert, but we have several hours of media browsing ahead of us before then."

[from_scratch]

"Ah yes, shirts. I barely wear them, they're just not wing-friendly. Is there a dress code, either in terms of style and dressiness or in terms of 'is that cotton, cotton is extinct', or what?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"You might get looked at a little funny but no one is going to accuse you of wearing extinct textiles. It's not the kind of concert with a dress code, thankfully, I would have no idea how to give you fashion advice because I always just wear some uniform or other when dressiness is required."

[from_scratch]

"Right then, old standards." Gray t-shirt: on Cam's person! Look how shirty it is.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Perfectly unremarkable, congratulations." And Miles is certainly not disappointed or anything.

[from_scratch]

Cam manages to get out of his beanbag and bow without incident.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles giggles again.

"What in God's name are we meant to do with this... ...chair...?"

[from_scratch]

"Turn it into a bouquet of dahlias? I don't know. I didn't think it was a priority with an angel around to minimize conjuration."

[greatcomposure]

"I will deal with the ...chair...," says Cordelia, dryly mimicking Miles's drawn-out questioning intonation.

[from_scratch]

"Thank you."