"Bindings are written sentences added to the summoning circle that define things that the daeva being summoned can't do. They're quite prone to loopholes, and they can gain exceptions when a deal is agreed to. It's a tricky business. The kinds of bindings I'm usually summoned under, none now by the way, wouldn't do they're designed for fairies."

"I think you already said you weren't bound when you first showed up, and putting them in the circle you gave me seems...unlikely."

"Right, but I'm used to humans getting twitchy about bindings, so I said it again. And just to inform you, I've decided that open relationships won't bother me unless you and I get orders of magnitude more serious than flirting and related activities."

"Noted. Although I suppose it is relevant in this case that I'm not from a culture that expects your kind of summoning, so the...twitch reaction wouldn't be ingrained. I appreciate the courtesy, nonetheless."

"You're welcome. A perfect gentleman, except when I'm not, that's me. You know this country and time better than me, would it be a terrible idea to patent some of this future knowledge and sell it? I don't quite need money, but it's still very nice to have."

"Off the top of my head, it would probably be best to release some fraction of it to build your credibility and then patent the rest. If you just claim to be from the future with fantastic knowledge to sell without much concrete evidence, you're likely to come off as a scammer."

"I was planning to release a solid 'most' free, or free-ish. Things like consumer electronics are not as needed as an AIDS cure or yield-boosting agriculture AIs, though."

"There is that. I'm probably not the best person to ask, but patenting anything that's not on that level surely ought to be fine."

"I'll need to talk to Lawyers." The way he says it, it's definitely capitalized. "I've heard terrifying stories about Lawyers."

"That's definitely a stereotype more than a real thing."

"I suppose it's to be expected that I absorb stereotypes. My interactions with Earth have been rather limited. Anyway, any ideas on who to talk to about giving away tech?"

"Not specifically, but I'm sure if we ask around we can find someone."

"Sure, let's try it... If we can't swing a transcription spell I should have you unsummon me and find a bunch of printers that I know will hook up to this thing." He waves the tablet. "Even if I don't know anyone who could backchain to compact disks, it'd speed things up."

"...What do you use instead? I'm betting none of the science fiction I've seen is accurate."

"Wireless communication directly between two devices. And for stuff bigger than few terabytes - A terabyte is a thousand gigabytes is a thousand megabytes - little sticks of flash crystal that don't even plug in because they're wireless too."

"I imagine I'd be more impressed if my area were the mechanical instead of the biological, but even I can tell that that's pretty cool."

"It's pretty sweet, yes." He taps a few things on the computer. "I found a biology book I thought looked promising. Flip 'pages' by flicking at the corners." He hands over the tablet. "How does one find a professor?"

"Ah--since you're a stranger and I'm a student, it would probably be for the best if I introduced you, rather than simply giving you directions."

"Point, again. Though I'm half-tempted to just fly off to the CDC and wave new antibiotics at them, just for the sheer novelty. Eh, it'll wait until professorial route is obviously going to take more than a few days."

"That, I suspect, depends largely on which professors I introduce you to first. Hmm..." she bites her lip. "Professor Green is on leave, Professor Marsh has contacts but also priority issues..."

"What about Professor Tuyolev?"

"Tch, I just did the same thing you did with the Whomping Willow, sorry."

"Probably! Who's Professor Tuyolev?"

"Character in a long-running sitcom that started in 2168. One of the running gags is that Professor Tuyolev appears and disappears in places he oughtn't be able to, like a ninja."

"Nice. You know if for some reason patenting future science doesn't work you could probably make some good money importing media."

"Hm, I'm skeptical. Culture differences and all."