Seeking out new worlds | Glowfic Constellation

The secrets of Delver technology could not resist decryption forever. While the tools they wielded are deeply weird, jealously guarded, and immensely complicated, living beings built the tools that brought aliens to the dragons' first world. The great calamity left ruins aplenty behind, and once grown the Seeker gathered these old tools as their very favorite sort of treasure. Dragons are not intelligent in quite the same way as a No-Tail, but they are far from stupid. They live forever and can be very determined if they set their mind to it.

The Seeker brought all its tools and treasure along with it when the world was evacuated ahead of the Tailless's relentless growth and hunger for resources. It studied under the great elder Darktooth on the new world, studied together with Darktooth (an arrangement not very common with dragons, as they are not particularly social), for a very long time. And eventually, by application of the hard claws of experiment and calculation and theorizing, the universe revealed its workings, cold and precise and mathematical. Creating more and more tools of the highest sophistication, and teaching others of its kind in exchange for wealth, and even spawning offspring and guiding them to adulthood, was all satisfying for a long while, but eventually... He got bored.

And so, the Seeker wondered if the long sleep for the journey between stars was really necessary, and got to work seeing about making it not. He managed it eventually, and built a starship, and went exploring. Stars come in a beautiful variety of kinds, and the worlds around them do too, but very, very few bear any sign of life. They are mostly barren and empty.

...Oh, this one is emitting curious amounts of low-frequency light. Worth investigating. Pushing a starship faster than light requires a touch of magic (at least for now), which he provides.

In the outer solar system of a certain star, well above the plane of the ecliptic, a black sphere the size of a city block appears and has a look around with powerful telescopes.

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"Sure, I can get you on the set of Sojourner, they're doing location shoots in the Apta Desert so there'll be room for you."

Okay. If I see nothing there that makes me think it would be horrible and awful I can probably accept the sequel clause. Where is it?

"Apta's about two hundred fifty miles northwestish of here, I can show you on a map."

That's not far at all by wing.

...He sends a burst of excitement. I should show your choreographer flying tricks!

"She'd be ecstatic!"

Please show me where they are. The sooner I reassure myself it will be exciting instead of horrible and awful, the sooner good things will happen.

Here is where the set is on a map.

Sunwind flies there at high speed and looks around!

By the time he arrives the people there have been told to expect him! He is waved down by some purples and a yellow jogs over to meet him.

He shows off on the landing, diving sharply and spiraling in midair, then flaring wings to swoop to a gentle stop. Behold!

The purples applaud!

"Wow, that's sweet!" says the yellow. "Boss says you want a set tour?"

Indeed, my skill in flight is great! Yes. I want to be in a movie but the contract is scary! Seeing how it's done will make it less scary I hope.

"Sure thing!" And the yellow can show him the trailers and the tents where they're doing makeup and catering and costuming and so on, and he can sit over here out of the way of the cameras and watch this scene. "Boss says if you want to try flying across the background in the next shot they're setting up, to get used to it, he's cleared that with the director."

Thoughtful tail-thump. The idea is to feel what it's like to act as instructed?

"Yup! Doing a few takes, taking direction, that kind of thing."

Very good. That is exactly what I want to know. The moment-to-moment experience of doing a movie. The director is in charge? I thought the producer was.

"The producer does the business side, more or less. The director does artistic detail."

I see... I think. Draak don't work together much.

I should speak to them before doing this, yes?

"Sure, between scenes! I'll tell you when." There are more set minutiae on the tour while they get enough takes of the one scene.

This is all very complicated but they seem to know what they're doing and the final product was impressive. He muses to his guide that someone here probably knows how to make a good flight harness.

"Sure, after you've met the director we can ask the propsmaster about that! Or the grip, that might be a grip thing."

Flying is fun! And carrying someone is probably cinematic. It might be pretty difficult, though.

"Because we'd be too heavy?"

A lot of it is weight, but also balance and wind resistance. I can fly with three hundred pounds of rocks in my belly. I did that for training. It's hard and I can't go as fast or use the same tricks, but I can do it.