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Cam is dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of tomato soup when he feels the summons. He goes ahead and grabs it. Doesn't even drop the sandwich.
Steel summons Demon Cam
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from_scratch
"Yes it is."
Up up up.
"So, Italian's subject-verb-object. To say my name is... uh. What's your name, I'm Cam."
Up up up.
"So, Italian's subject-verb-object. To say my name is... uh. What's your name, I'm Cam."
sturdycoldsteel
"Ha, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is Jean, but please call me Steel. It's traditional for skilled shapers to take a nickname. By subject-verb-object, do you mean..." She says 'you' 'fly' and 'ship,' which is not a correct sentence in Tlane.
from_scratch
"Yes, like that." He makes her a piece of paper with the Roman alphabet and a description of the corresponding sounds in her own and hands it over. "Alphabet, sample sentences on the bottom, sound 'em out."
sturdycoldsteel
She rolls through the alphabet a few times, singing the sounds to a little tune, and repeats the sentences with slightly varying pronunciation for a while.
from_scratch
Cam corrects her when it's more than just accent creeping in, and then tells her what the words mean - "my name is Jean", "I am a shaper" (Cam makes up an Italian approximation of the concept, etcetera. Then she gets a sheet of paper with basic verb conjugations and pronouns.
"...Aaaand here we are in medium orbit," he says.
"...Aaaand here we are in medium orbit," he says.
sturdycoldsteel
"My name is Steel," she repeats firmly in Italian, using her word for Steel.
She looks at the stream. "Interesting. There's only the tiniest haze of fog outside the ship, but inside has as much fog as ever. I wonder..." She droops a bit. "If I try to do something fifty feet off to the left of the ship, it flies away behind us. If I do something five feet outside it, it sort of... Shears. The more distant parts fall away faster than the closer parts. And if I do something inside the ship, it decays noticeably faster but continues to exist. Large vehicles or heavy loads can disrupt roads a little. Maybe the stream wants to be stationary relative to nearby matter."
She looks at the stream. "Interesting. There's only the tiniest haze of fog outside the ship, but inside has as much fog as ever. I wonder..." She droops a bit. "If I try to do something fifty feet off to the left of the ship, it flies away behind us. If I do something five feet outside it, it sort of... Shears. The more distant parts fall away faster than the closer parts. And if I do something inside the ship, it decays noticeably faster but continues to exist. Large vehicles or heavy loads can disrupt roads a little. Maybe the stream wants to be stationary relative to nearby matter."
sturdycoldsteel
"About one and a half, maybe one and three-quarters measures a minute, on a good road." (This is about forty-five miles an hour)
She pivots her head. "Oh, the pattern I made inside the ship is falling behind us after all, just much more slowly."
She pivots her head. "Oh, the pattern I made inside the ship is falling behind us after all, just much more slowly."
from_scratch
"This suggests that it still cares about the frame of reference of the planet. Mind going higher?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Not at all. But I need to be back in Opri three days from now, so no long journeys, please."
from_scratch
"Sure, I won't try that far, I just want to break orbit and see what that does."
Up up up until it's no longer "up" but "away". Italian, meanwhile.
Up up up until it's no longer "up" but "away". Italian, meanwhile.
sturdycoldsteel
Prepositions and conjugation give Steel some trouble. Vocabulary mostly does not.
When they're far away enough to be clear of any lingering fog, she stares at the closer of the two small moons. "I can tell where the planet is easily from here, it's a circle of bluestream-fog. But if the moons have any, it's incredibly thin."
She makes a few steam-things. "Anything too distant from the ship just... Collapses into fog that spreads out into nothingness immediately. If I go closer, it holds together a little longer. The lightball I made inside the ship is steadily wearing away at the edges, too, but it's not drifting around."
She walks a few feet. "...That completely destroyed the lightball. At home they can last for months before needing shoring up, even if you walk through them all the time."
When they're far away enough to be clear of any lingering fog, she stares at the closer of the two small moons. "I can tell where the planet is easily from here, it's a circle of bluestream-fog. But if the moons have any, it's incredibly thin."
She makes a few steam-things. "Anything too distant from the ship just... Collapses into fog that spreads out into nothingness immediately. If I go closer, it holds together a little longer. The lightball I made inside the ship is steadily wearing away at the edges, too, but it's not drifting around."
She walks a few feet. "...That completely destroyed the lightball. At home they can last for months before needing shoring up, even if you walk through them all the time."
from_scratch
"But it's not falling behind, like we're flying away from it and it can't keep up, it's just disintegrating?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Yeah, it's just disintegrating. And adding to the fog in the ship, which is seeping outside the ship. That stuff outside is really thin but it isn't falling behind either."
from_scratch
"Okay. So... close to the planet, magic wants to stay stationary relative to the planet. Farther away from the planet, it wants that harder. Far, far away from the planet, it doesn't realize there is anything to want and sees no reason to behave at all. To anthropomorphize."
sturdycoldsteel
"I think it more wants to be stationary relative to the largest or nearest-by clump of physical stuff. Like... It seemed like it was trying to be stationary relative to our ship, but that effect lost to the planet's bigness. Can we land on one of the moons?"
from_scratch
"Sure." He fiddles with the instrument panel, and descends to the largest moon.
sturdycoldsteel
She does some stream on the way down. The moon behaves much like the planet: Once they get reasonably close to it, the stream starts drifting to the reverse of the ship's relative velocity.
Once they land, she builds some more things and glances at them between Italian practice once in a while. "My patterns are holding up better than they did in the middle of nothingness, but not as well as on the planet. This is starting to get tiring, though, I'm done testing things for now. Would you mind making me a nice, hot pastry?"
Once they land, she builds some more things and glances at them between Italian practice once in a while. "My patterns are holding up better than they did in the middle of nothingness, but not as well as on the planet. This is starting to get tiring, though, I'm done testing things for now. Would you mind making me a nice, hot pastry?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Hm. Not as far as I know, but I don't know all the things you might put in food to be allergic to."
from_scratch
"Probably safer if you're more specific so I can copy something you've had before, then. I can deal with an allergic reaction but I'm sure you'd rather I didn't have to."
sturdycoldsteel
"Indeed. How about a pear shortbread cake, filled with cranberry preserves. Made by 'The Orchard Bakery' at Opri, 382 Echo Street, 4th floor, Suite 3, if you need a specific example."
from_scratch
Pear shortbread cake with cranberry appears, complete with paper plate; he hands it over.
sturdycoldsteel
"Paper. Because it's disposable, right?" She takes a bite. "Ah, tastes like it's fresh from the oven. Thanks ever so. Any new hypotheses on the bluestream?"
from_scratch
"Maybe it just likes matter and life separately in different way. Planets and butterflies alike. Moon's smaller than a planet, spaceship is very little compared to either..."