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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
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imeanforever
wormcan
It works as expected. Then Armsmaster touches a switch and the fairylight gets shredded. "That was the easy part. And outside?"
wormcan
Fairylight. At least for longer than a few seconds. After a minute or so, "Can you try something more complicated?"
wormcan
She disappears—not according to his vibration sensors, Armsmaster notes, though maybe she has something else for that—and a few minutes later the machine starts smoking. Promise reappears and the light stops.
wormcan
"No. But it means the problem was with building it, not designing it. Should be easier to fix." As he and Dragon resume working on it, Armsmaster asks, "How does your translation work? I was almost expecting the phone call to come through as gibberish."
imeanforever
"I don't really know. I just talk, and people can understand me when I talk, and I can understand them, and it seems strange that mortals do it any other way. As though you've invented an elaborate code or something. But how it works I couldn't tell you."
wormcan
"Human languages are elaborate codes, more or less. You can understand and be understood without actually knowing the code and without the other speaker even being present?"
To Dragon, in addition to translating, he adds I doubt it's a distance limitation. Do you have any guesses at what went wrong to stop you from understanding her?
To Dragon, in addition to translating, he adds I doubt it's a distance limitation. Do you have any guesses at what went wrong to stop you from understanding her?
imeanforever
Only a guess.
"I don't change how I'm talking depending on who I'm talking to. All this applies to writing, too."
"I don't change how I'm talking depending on who I'm talking to. All this applies to writing, too."
wormcan
"Some languages are more efficient than others. If one of them can fit a whole book on a napkin, would something you wrote take up different amounts of space when someone who speaks that language read it?"
What's the guess?
It's not completely unthinkable; maybe it could be meaningfully different from a phone if Dragon is reading real-time transcriptions of what her suit hears. But he can't think of any non-strange explanations.
What's the guess?
It's not completely unthinkable; maybe it could be meaningfully different from a phone if Dragon is reading real-time transcriptions of what her suit hears. But he can't think of any non-strange explanations.
imeanforever
"I mean, I can write small? But I usually wouldn't write small enough to fit a book on a napkin. ...I'm assuming a napkin is small, I don't know if I've actually ever seen a napkin."
I'll whip up something to test it. The translation helps.
I'll whip up something to test it. The translation helps.
wormcan
"I've been hearing everything you say in English. I know that's not what you're really speaking, but the timing matches up. If the same meaning can be expressed more quickly in some other language, would someone who hears it said that way disagree about how long it took you to say it?"
Is it an equipment issue?
Is it an equipment issue?
imeanforever
Software, Dragon replies. I don't convey audio directly. I think it's failing to encode.
"I am, in fact, talking, for a real period of time," Promise says. "I have no idea what it sounds like to you, but so far in my life I haven't run into anyone who thinks I'm done talking before or after I really am."
"I am, in fact, talking, for a real period of time," Promise says. "I have no idea what it sounds like to you, but so far in my life I haven't run into anyone who thinks I'm done talking before or after I really am."
wormcan
"It's not as if it's logically impossible. Time to express something isn't constant; maybe some people would just think fairies talk faster or slower to get through however many words it is in their language."
imeanforever
"Maybe. You're welcome to have me talk to people who speak denser or more spread-out languages and see what they say, I guess, I did say I don't mind translating."
wormcan
"It'll probably come up at some point. Low priority, though, as it's not directly useful."
Speaking of directly useful, the defect in the harmonics flattener has hopefully been fixed.
Speaking of directly useful, the defect in the harmonics flattener has hopefully been fixed.
imeanforever
So Promise does another map to check - "confirm flatness" is a lot faster than "map complexity" - and then she turns invisible again.
wormcan
It outlasts the last attempt with no loss of the magic smoke. "This might be premature, but it seems to have worked. Try adding more sorcery, as complex as you can, and see if it gets overwhelmed."
imeanforever
"Okay."
She layers on her other undetectabilities - she will still show up on the vibration sensor, but goes inaudible and unsmellable. She grows her hair a half-inch, in lieu of actual healing. She screws around with the temperature in fine-grained ways, all within the boundaries of comfort.
She layers on her other undetectabilities - she will still show up on the vibration sensor, but goes inaudible and unsmellable. She grows her hair a half-inch, in lieu of actual healing. She screws around with the temperature in fine-grained ways, all within the boundaries of comfort.
wormcan
The device's power consumption rises (marginally; Promise's sorcery affects harmonics far less than being in the mortal world does) but it continues to not explode.
imeanforever
Presently she zeroes everything out, except the hair growth, which stays. "Putting it further through its paces would begin to be difficult."
wormcan
"That's good; it means it can handle at least as much as it's likely to need to. Though I wouldn't recommend relying on this for anything important until its duration has been tested more. Tested by something other than long-term invisibility, obviously."
imeanforever
"I could bring it back to Fairyland and try using it to grow plants rapidly. I can work on that for hours, and if I'm interrupted it's not a disaster."