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]

“It was just like this to cool off. Now you can reshape it into something sensibly compact and carry it however you like. And I don't mean to suggest that you should carry around exactly this much glass and more stuff on top of that; this is just for practice for now and you can decide what you want to do when you leave.”

[alicornucopia]

"Okay." She munches it all together in a ball. Maybe she can forcepattern it so if she kicks it, it'll roll in the relevant direction. ...Balls already mostly do that, but she wants it to roll in a straight line. Kick.

[wind_on_my_face]

It seems that there are only three directional results she can get: towards her bracelet, away from her bracelet in no particular direction, and fixed to her bracelet (and trying to move the ball anywhere by twisting her bracelet is a bit too much for her wrist).

A little work with “towards” will make it stay in a radius like an unenthusiastic leashed pet, and not roll away if she kicks it wrong.

[alicornucopia]

Well, that's sort of okay.

"How much do you have to push stuff before it can use the energy to fly?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“It depends on what kind of flying you want it to do. If you just want something to float, you can make it hollow inside, and that just takes the energy to push the air away once and it'll float forever.”

He takes a tiny bead of glass and expands it into a wispy sphere like a large soap bubble. It drifts away on the breeze and a little upward.

“If you want it to be able to go in a particular direction or carry a significant load, then it needs enough energy to lift and propel itself, just like anything else. Big wings are more efficient. As a general rule, imitate birds and you won't go far wrong.

“But if you mean you want to have your ball of glass floating with you rather than rolling behind you, that's a bit of a different subject, because you don't exactly want it to turn it into an island-sized bubble or have it noisily windily hovering all the time. You want to carry it.

“For example, our sunshade up there is supported by all this glass I've spread out on the ground around us. This is simple and no load on me, but I have to constantly reshape the glass to move it along, which is a skill I had to practice. The stuff I'm not using right now, I keep some of it in my clothes” — a little glass tentacle waves from a sleeve cuff — “so it's well balanced around me, but most of it right now is my mock-bodies that you saw me flying with.”

[alicornucopia]

"And those had to be all loaded up with pushing so they could flap?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“Yes, but I didn't do all the pushing myself. I used machines, like this solar engine.”

[alicornucopia]

"How does that work?"

[wind_on_my_face]

He moves the mirror to the side so they can see the machine sitting at the focus. Bright glare and heat shimmers obscure one end.

“The engine has a hot part and a cold part. The hot part is kept hot by the sunlight. The cold part is kept cold by blowing air over it. Inside, it moves air between the hot and cold parts, and as the air gets hotter or colder it pushes on other moving parts, and that keeps it running. And all the energy that's left over is stored.”

[alicornucopia]

Frown. "And you can use that energy the same as pushing energy for forcepatterning?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“It's turning the heat into pushing.”

[alicornucopia]

"By the moving parts?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“Yes.”

[alicornucopia]

"How much energy can stuff store?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“I could fly all the way around the world and back here, if I didn't have to stop for other supplies anyway.”

[alicornucopia]

"What would I need to do to make a machine like that?"

[wind_on_my_face]

“It's all shaped and forcepatterned for the moving parts, so you need to learn the shapes. You need metal to make the hot and cold ends, and something black, and a few other materials to make it more efficient but it could work with just metal and glass.”

[alicornucopia]

"I'm not sure if there's any metal on this island besides yours," she says consideringly.

[wind_on_my_face]

“Probably not. You usually buy it.”

[alicornucopia]

"I don't have any money with me."

[wind_on_my_face]

“There aren't any stores to sell it right here, anyway. I can give you some energy for now, or make you another engine you can hook up to, and you can get metal for yourself later. There are other ways to collect energy, too, like from waterfalls or waves or wind.”

[alicornucopia]

"I might not stay here long enough to go to a store and buy metal. Does using wind and waterfalls and waves let you do without?"

[wind_on_my_face]

(Isn't staying here the opposite of leaving?)

“Sure, if you're only using it as slow as those sources provide it. Or if you find a really big waterfall, or a dam, of course.”

[alicornucopia]

"So I just have to let things move my stuff and then it'll charge up the stuff."

[wind_on_my_face]

"Yes, and your stuff has to be trying not to move, but not so hard that it doesn't move. Like this.”

This time, the thing he gives her isn't a transparent sphere. It's an orange dumbbell.