on a lark

[alicornucopia]

She combs and combs the world aside and there is another world, just ahead, and she steps in.

The combed-away hole closes behind her. She puts her comb in her pocket.

Thanjen (Unbitwise)

Blueberry (kappa)

Hivers (Rockeye)

Comments

[wind_on_my_face]

“This was just what if someone could stop air. Nobody can actually do it. But did you mean in general?

“Yes, there are ways that you can hurt yourself. But there are more ways you can hurt yourself if you don't have control! You could stumble and hurt your unreinforced ankles and be unable to travel out in the wild like this!”

(Pause. Deep breath. Stop complaining about the entirely unreasonable situation (he has been not-thinking about what is going on here, because the evidence is accumulating in the wrong way, and even that doesn't make sense, not really) to the person in that situation. Don't scare the kid.)

He sits down on the rock.

“Sorry. I'm just worried a— for you.”

[alicornucopia]

"I could still crawl around if I hurt my ankle."

[wind_on_my_face]

“I'd argue the point, but I don't really want to think of more bad things to happen to you.

“It's just — nobody lives this way. And if it was a good tradeoff, I'm sure someone would have tried it and stuck with it, and I haven't heard of anyone doing that.”

[alicornucopia]

"So how do I claim the rest of my body? Does it just happen now that I did my hand?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“You just have to try to do it, like you did with the glass. It would be hard because bodies are complicated, but because it's your body that you can feel, that helps. You should practice with stuff that isn't so important first, though. It's not like you would likely seriously injure yourself if you make a mistake, because you can usually feel it and stop, but interesting kinds of bruises are a thing.”

[alicornucopia]

"If it's just bruises that's not so bad. What happened to the blood that was in my hand when I got it at first?"

[wind_on_my_face]

Pause.

“If you got any at all, you would lose it as it flowed out of your hand and mixed with other blood in the other parts of your body. It's sort of like how you can't claim a gas, but you can claim a liquid, because it doesn't mix up quite as fast, but you still have to try harder. Once you have your entire body, that won't be a problem.

“You should be able to feel it a bit, anyway.”

If she pays attention, her hand is a bit like the pencil with its wood core — there is stuff inside it that isn't hers yet. Presumably that's the blood.

[alicornucopia]

Frown. Nod.

[wind_on_my_face]

(He's already suggested she practice a couple times, and she asked questions instead. What to do? Awkward silence until she asks another question? Or—)

“How about we go down to the beach and get you some more glass?” (To practice with.)

[alicornucopia]

"Okay. Can I do most things with glass or should I get other stuff?"

[wind_on_my_face]

He starts walking in a direction which looks like it leads down. (He didn't climb up, so he's guessing.) The shade-dish-machine-thing follows conveniently overhead, and for some reason there's a snail's-trail of glass rippling along the surface of the rocks that seems to be keeping to a rough circle around them.

“Glass is really easy to claim, and it's transparent unless you add something to it, and it makes really tough things with a bit of reinforcement, so it's useful for a lot of things. Metal is easy too but expensive, and you use it when you need it, like that electric circuit. Really, any time you need more than a particular shape, you might need something other than glass.”

The bird-bodies take off in other directions.

[alicornucopia]

She watches the birds go. "What do you have besides glass and you and your little bit of metal?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“I have pigments for my glass, to make it white or other colors. I have more than a little bit of metal — mostly aluminum, some copper, little bits of other things.”

He points at the thing over their head. “Silver for the mirror, aluminum and glass in the engine.”

“And I have some plastic, which is good for small flexible things. But since you included my body in that list, I assume you meant to ask about my entire kortarem, not just stuff that's suitable to be reshaped. I also have food and water, and my computer and radio, of course. Soap. Odds and ends.”

[alicornucopia]

"You don't make your food bite-sized?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“Sorry, I don't know what you mean. My food is in whatever size that kind of food comes in. I could split it into bite-size pieces, but there's no particular reason to and that might make some of it spoil faster.”

[alicornucopia]

"I mean, if you have all your food claimed then you could cut it up without needing a knife. When you were about to cook it. Couldn't you?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“Oh, yes, you can do that.”

[alicornucopia]

"But it seems to take a long time to claim things so maybe you don't do it every time you eat."

[wind_on_my_face]

“No, but usually I claim everything I carry with me on trips like this so I can keep it from getting damaged if I get adventurous, and find where it is if I were somehow to lose it, and so on.”

[alicornucopia]

"That makes sense."

Beach. Sand. She looks at the sand, scoops up a handful, looks at it patiently.

[wind_on_my_face]

“It'll be easier if we turn it into glass first; sand is more complicated because it's in separate pieces.”

The bowl over their heads stops providing shade. Now it's turned sideways, and the mirrored concave side is concentrating a lot of sunlight on a patch of clean sand well away from both of them.

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, I thought you turned it into glass with the magic thing."

[wind_on_my_face]

“The — magic — thing?”

[alicornucopia]

"The thing you're teaching me to do?"

[wind_on_my_face]

(Fine. This is not the time to get into an argument about words. If she wants to call it magic, she can call it magic until she has access to the collected knowledge of humanity rather than some strange censored version.)

“All right. You could claim the sand and then reshape it into glass, but that would take longer because instead of just glass, you have sand grains with air and dirt between them.”

The mirror is moving its focus along the sand, gradually adding on to the edges of a disk of fused sand. It's not exactly window glass, but at least it's melted smooth on the top.