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]

“No, but motion powers machines, so that isn't particularly a limitation.”

Left bird hands him some wire and other metal bits, which he reshapes along with some glass. Now there is a little science-fair-style electric generator (spinning) and light bulb (glowing), except there's a glass globe around the entire assembly instead of the light-bulb part.

[alicornucopia]

Nod, nod.

[wind_on_my_face]

“I think we've covered all the basics. What's left is practice and techniques. After you have some practice to make sure your control is good, you should claim the rest of your own body, so that you can reinforce and move it.”

[alicornucopia]

"That sounds useful," she agrees.

[wind_on_my_face]

“Is there anything in particular you would like to try to do, or make?”

[alicornucopia]

"I'm not sure. Is it usual to make everything out of this stuff?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“Some materials can't be reshaped, like wood. Some kinds of fine detail are easier to make with tools. And if you need a lot of something, it's faster to use machines to make it than to have someone claim all the materials first. But if there's no reason not to, then you do.”

[alicornucopia]

"Can you make stuff smaller?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“Depends on what you mean by smaller.”

The empty glass globe from a previous demonstration rises up, then shrinks to the size of a tennis ball.

“This is all the same matter in a smaller space, but the glass is thicker and the air is compressed. It would burst if it weren't reinforced.”

[alicornucopia]

"Do you own the air too?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“No, it's just trapped. It's really hard to keep a claim on air because it moves around all the time.”

[alicornucopia]

"Can't you make it attach to things?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“—I don't actually know. Let me check.”

Pause.

“Apparently nobody has fine enough control to slow down the air enough to keep it, and if you could anyway you would just have liquid air, because that's the difference between a liquid and a gas anyway.”

[alicornucopia]

"I thought the difference was how cold it was."

[wind_on_my_face]

“It's the same thing. Heat is what we call individual molecules moving around or vibrating.”

[alicornucopia]

"So it wouldn't be safe to touch, either? If you held air still."

[wind_on_my_face]

Pause.

“Instant frostbite, at the least.”

[alicornucopia]

She looks at her pencil and glass. "You didn't tell me this was so dangerous."

[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.