This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
Accept our Terms of Service
Our Terms of Service have recently changed! Please read and agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy
Demon Cam in the Potterverse
Permalink

Three twelve-year-olds are gathered in a bathroom, copying a diagram from a book onto the floor in chalk.

"Do you know what all this writing means?" asks the green-eyed boy.

"No," says the bushy-haired girl, "and that worries me too, but we need to find out who the Heir of Slytherin is and this ritual is the best we've got."

Eventually, one or another of them draws the last bit of the outer circle.

Total: 308
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

"Yes, like I said."

Permalink

"What limits does this ability have? Is it learnable by any wizard, or restricted to a subset?"

Permalink

"I'm not a wizard," Cam says.

Permalink

"Are you a different variety of human, or a different species? How many of you are there? Is it heritable?"

 

Permalink

"I used to be a human but now I'm a different species, billions, no."

Permalink

"Billions? That seems highly unlikely."

Permalink

"I mean, they don't live around here," he replies blandly.

Permalink

"Does anyone other than you currently have the ability to dump gold into the economy of this planet."

Permalink

"Not yet."

Permalink

Deputy Ambassador Rangvald is not having the best day. "Would you care to explain."

Permalink

"Well, I got here, and others could too, and on the whole it might be good if they did since it's easier to end material scarcity that way, but I can tell you about the monetary arrangements that work where this is already common."

Permalink

"Please do!"

Permalink

So Cam can explain about how he can make arbitrary things and this dooms all physical currency but with sufficiently attended-to cryptography various digital systems may remain alive and well, and you could probably substitute some suitable magical signature deal, and also daeva are okay but not as good as wizards at disguising themselves so if you recognize someone you can figure with as much confidence as you normally have that they are them, blah blah blockchain blah blah retina scans blah blah when there are this many demons around you can have them verify things on your end as-needed.

Permalink

The Deputy Ambassador is relieved that Cam understands the importance of not destroying the economy but disconcerted by the sheer number of daeva. He asks a bunch of questions about privacy laws and intellectual property rights and contract dispute resolution, and calls in another, less elaborately dressed goblin who asks some extremely technical questions about the crypto and the blockchain.

Permalink

Cam can answer questions and supplement as necessary with written materials.

Permalink

His ability to conjure information he doesn't know about leads to some sidelong glances and muttering in Gobbledegook and then even more questions about data encryption.

Permalink

"The state of the art in demon-proof encryption is the chip-locked computer. I have one myself. They can be installed safely - by demons, or less safely by conventional surgery - in humans. They use the habits of a person's brain to encode data and have yet to be hacked. I don't know how hard it would be to adapt them to non-human non-daeva persons."

Permalink

This calls for the summoning of another subject matter expert to discuss whether this can be replicated by magic, because brain surgery designed for humans sounds like a terrible idea. Maybe you could do something like a simplified, stripped-down Pensieve with a tablet-and-stylus form factor? Communication with anyone who isn't in the same room is going to be the tricky bit. Can Cam's abilities intercept, for example, a Muggle telegraph?

Permalink

"It depends. If it's written at either end, we can get that. If it's transmitted electrically by people who speak it out loud to translate, or it's semaphore or something, we can get it, but it's substantially harder, because we have to get the state of the transmission at each point in the relevant timespan and decipher it from there."

Permalink

The crypto guy calls in three more presumable crypto people, tells them something in a mix of Gobbledygook and sign language, and then shoos them out again. Rangvald says, "We appreciate your cooperation with all of this. Eventually we would like you to confirm under veritaserum that you haven't misrepresented your own or your species' abilities."

Permalink

"Uh, I picked up Occlumency a while back out of an abundance of caution and have tested it on Veritaserum, which I beat. I can just demonstrate the abilities themselves more if you like."

Permalink

This gets an expression of mild annoyance, but it doesn't appear to be directed at Cam. "That plus a demonstration of your ability to lie under Veritaserum should suffice." He writes something on a piece of paper, rolls it into a tube, and sticks it into a hole in the wall, which inhales it. "The Veritaserum will be delivered shortly. In the meantime . . ." Rangvald proceeds to ask for conjurations of various things, some of which are secretly nonexistent or contradictory and many of which involve references to things like "the number of fingers Rangvald is holding up, some of which are under the table".

Permalink

Cam conjures little dioramas, narrating as he does about what conjurable parameters he is using.

Permalink

Eventually Rangvald is satisfied that Cam is telling the truth (or significantly smarter than Rangvald, or concealing several additional powers).

"Do you have a timeline in mind for introducing additional demons to this plane of existence? And how much have you told any wizarding governments? It will affect how quickly we need to redesign our operations."

Permalink

"I have not been in contact with any wizarding governments at all. I haven't been keeping many secrets from people I meet at Hogwarts, though. I've been planning to see if there's anything worth joining forces with in existing anti-secrecy movements to reduce impediments to a revelation of how to get more daeva assistance here."

Total: 308
Posts Per Page: