"We have a few hand-powered machines for the farms, running bigger ones of those with engines once in a while would save a lot of effort. Or we could organize a trip to grab a wandering island and haul it back over here and get a little annex, expand a bit. That's something Prez would decide we wanted though."

She can probably haul an island over. She won't know until she tries but she's pretty sure she can make a plane that'll do it. And she can definitely make something that runs a hand-powered machine.

"I'll probably end up bugging you for things. But not right now. And you know where to find me if you change your mind and want something after all." She gestures around at their current location, apparently Leah's office. "And I should get back to work now, 'kay?"

Sure, thanks.

Cafeteria, next?

The President stops his conversation with someone else (he mentions that she's Camilla and she tends and grows the stuff the island is made of), and leads her to the cafeteria.

It's most of the first floor of a whole building, with dozens of little tables and one central long one, Great Hall style, all wood. There's a big mural of elaborate plates of food and ingredients at one end. The floor and the counters over there are all plasticky or glass, with a little bit of metal. Snack food and pitchers of water are laid out on two of the kitchen-end counters, and half a dozen people are here and there eating.

"We serve up hot food for a couple of hours three times a day. For holidays, we have a big feast and try to get everyone to eat together. There's a few too many people to manage it most other days, though."

That should be fine. Is it open overnight?

"I'll ask you not to use the ovens or stoves without someone to help if you want to cook, or eat too much of something we don't have a lot of, like cheese and meat, but other than that yes. We don't lock anything except two of the storerooms, the clinic - the drugs could be dangerous - and private rooms, so you can get food overnight if you need it."

She nods: That'll be fine, yeah. Thanks.

"I'm glad we could welcome you. I try to let people be as long as they aren't hurting things, and you don't seem like the sort of person to antagonize others, so this should work out well."

Yeah. She feels pretty lucky to have landed here.

The next day they mostly leave her alone. One of the little kids doesn't seem to have a concept of personal space and keeps trying to poke Dusk's nonstandard features. A couple of people pointedly don't interact with her. The school teacher would like her to go to the classroom most of the time. She gives lectures occasionally, and trips to the art room to do art, or to one of the orchards to talk about plants, but it's more than half the time 'do whatever interests you and get nudged if the teacher thinks you need a nudge' style schooling. She could do some of the work around instead if there's any interesting work, but she doesn't have to. Leah asks Dusk for a couple of very specific hand tools, a ladder, some scaffolding, a rolling pallet, and other such things occasionally.

She lets the kid poke her once, pokes him back when he tries it again, and thereafter avoids him. She's - let's say hesitant - to go to class, but after running into the group as she goes about her day a few times, she starts dropping by to see what they're doing most days after lunch, and sticking around at least as often as not, especially once the teacher catches on that she needs to keep the annoying poking kid away from her. The rest of the time she works, or hangs around to watch people work, or reads, or goes flying, or constructs elaborate and arcane cartoon contraptions out at the edge of the island.

She watches the sunset every night, sometimes on the wing, sometimes just sitting out on the west edge of the island. And as the weeks go on, she takes to spending more time out watching the sky, checking the other islands for signs of life.

The commune gets used to her and soon some of the adults wave to her cheerfully whenever they see her. The guy who was painting a city finishes his painting and starts one that's clearly inspired by Dusk, if not actually in her image. A couple of times, a ship comes in and ties down to a sort of pier on one end of the island, and trades, buying food and selling everything else. The ship people have very... Mixed reactions if they see Dusk. Some are spooked and leave right away. Some are just suddenly a lot more polite and accommodating. One was just indifferent.

Other islands are full of life, albeit mostly the non-sapient kind. Islands themselves are a bit rare, but there's often a couple of new ones visible each morning whenever there's not too much fog. Perhaps a fifth of the other islands have towns, some larger than this one, most not as neatly laid out.

She takes to flying over to the other built-up islands, when they get close enough for her to feel confident she'll be able to get back. Mostly she just overflies them, far enough up that she's not at much risk of getting hit by a thrown rock; if this seems well-received, and the town looks interesting or anyone tries to talk to her, she'll glide down closer.

Plenty of towns look interesting. People do look up, and mostly are fairly unnerved or frightened of her. One time they even start to aim a ballista-thing towards her before an argument breaks out, and they stop when they notice her flying away again.

Most of the towns in this area are small and dominated by farms. Standouts are: A patchy homestead sort of place with lots of individual islands and rope bridges... An neat and largely tree-covered place where all the homes are down below that looks like it's building an airship... An ugly amalgamation of airships, islands, and those floating mangroves... A perfectly ordinary island except that 95% of its population is pigs...

She takes a closer look at the one that seems to be building an airship.

There's halls cut into the island itself, and a big system of suspended structures and catwalks below, with giant tanks of water in the middle keeping it all balanced. About half of the adults are wearing similar clothes - almost but not quite a uniform. No teens or kids have the uniform, and the uniformed people don't really act any different...

The ones that notice her wave at her politely as she flies past.

Hi! It looks like they're building an airship, could she maybe land and have a look?

They hesitate a bit and talk to someone else but then wave her in; Sure. (Maybe she can help. And if she can fly she's not more dangerous inside than out.)

She goes where she's directed and thanks them.

She's - well, it's a long story really - but she's interested in engineering, and the island she's on isn't very good for it; she really appreciates the chance to have a look at what they're doing, and if anybody is interested in taking an apprentice, she'd like to meet them, too.

"We don't really do apprenticeships per se - well, I suppose we do sometimes, but mostly it's classes. Making ships and equipment is a profitable trade, even if we have to be pretty strict on weight allowances to maintain this kind of altitude. You want to see the Endurant Wing then? She's that ship under construction."

She'd like to, yeah.

They take her along the halls hanging under the island to a large open space in the middle, where the ship's frame is hanging. There's a wide and neatly organized workshop-y area and scaffolding around the vessel - a few people are working on things. Someone's using a power saw on a large timber, someone else is turning a chunk of metal on a lathe, two more people are picking at what looks like an engine, and three are hanging in harnesses putting wooden spars into the ship's frame. The ship itself is mostly a frame at this point, though bundles of equipment and a few deflated gas bags are in place here and there on the inside.

"So, whaddaya think?"

Very cool. Are they doing anything in particular to reinforce the gas bags?

"I'm not actually an engineer, so maybe we can ask those two." He points at the pair working on an engine.