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They are just about to Wyoming when Cypress asks: "Making literally anything includes making things that - don't technically exist but physically could? Such as, I don't know, an instruction manual for a spaceship you invented?"
(The Zevs have left the main cabin again. It's a really good thing their room is soundproofed.)
prodigal_miser
darkest_evening
"Just the one, I think. Additional ones could get very messy if we give it, say, a century and have an army of ourselves. Architecturally messy, you understand, the place would still be rather neat."
from_scratch
"I wasn't thinking big as in bigger than any extant person-Bell, but I guess I'd want to see the landscape I'm putting it on before I start making decisions about scale."
darkest_evening
"Well, there isn't anything left for us to do here, so - I think we should head back so you can look at the landscape. Possibly also find some method to disguise the portal tree before we go."
darkest_evening
"With the caveat that you should please be very careful about adding things to the portal. Please don't disturb the tree it's in too much, especially not around the portal itself."
darkest_evening
"Mmm - don't touch anything within three inches of the portal at all, but the area outside of that is fine."
darkest_evening
"I'm pretty sure we can manage an illusion, but the problem with illusions are that they aren't actually protective. It just looks like an ordinary tree." He sighs. "Essentially, we're having this problem because we had a Zev make the portal and I couldn't make it fancy and protective."
ask_nicely
"I can probably also tweak things to make the bark layer less bizarre. Just - not around the portal."
from_scratch
"Yeah." Cam walks around the tree speculatively, and then makes - a bark layer. It sort of bulges, since it has to be three inches away from a portal that reaches down to ground level and then blend in with the tree's roots, but it actually looks okay, considering. He reaches for a nook in the bark and tugs and displays a cunningly-hinged door. "Bark."
ask_nicely
"Oo, nice," praises Adana, and then she looks speculatively at the tree. "Hey, Prime, it's fine if I mess with the other side of the tree, right?"
ask_nicely
"Cool."
And she goes and messes with the other side of the tree - it seems her changes are a bit bizarre, at first, but then it becomes obvious what she's doing. She's giving the bulge in the tree a compensation on the other side, so that the tree looks like it decided to twist a bit while growing and then changed its mind later. It's pretty subtle, but it helps make the tree look less bulgy.
"Ha. Progress."
And she goes and messes with the other side of the tree - it seems her changes are a bit bizarre, at first, but then it becomes obvious what she's doing. She's giving the bulge in the tree a compensation on the other side, so that the tree looks like it decided to twist a bit while growing and then changed its mind later. It's pretty subtle, but it helps make the tree look less bulgy.
"Ha. Progress."
ask_nicely
"We might not. I bet we definitely wouldn't if I tweaked it a bit more, but - I don't want to break a fragile portal."
prodigal_miser
"Yeah. Portals. Useful, but annoying sometimes. Here, let me do the illusionary honors..."
Cypress stares at the tree for a while mutters something about 'environmental light conditions' to himself, and then - the tree is subtly illusioned. The shape of the tree isn't changed much at all, but the texture of it looks more whole. The roots seem to meet up perfectly with where the bulge is, and the tree looks perfectly coherent. For sanity's sake, the nook in the bark is still present.
"There," he says, brightly. "That should work."
Cypress stares at the tree for a while mutters something about 'environmental light conditions' to himself, and then - the tree is subtly illusioned. The shape of the tree isn't changed much at all, but the texture of it looks more whole. The roots seem to meet up perfectly with where the bulge is, and the tree looks perfectly coherent. For sanity's sake, the nook in the bark is still present.
"There," he says, brightly. "That should work."
from_scratch
"Cool. We just walk through? No weird caveats about having to move at a continuous rate lest we be bisected or something?"
from_scratch
"I do not want to find that I am not indestructible with respect to otherworldly magic by not checking. No offense." Cam takes Prime at his word, and steps through the door and the portal behind.