Open Post: Curiosity

[sporesprouter]

Tress is, as she often is, in her workshop. However, what she is doing in her workshop is not even close to her usual activities.

Instead of her usual array of spores and sprouter's gear, she has found some more standard tools which are sitting on the table next to a rubber mat that is holding... a toaster. She secreted one from a kitchen that isn't particularly used. To the side are a couple books from the library as well as her open notebook.

She turns the toaster upside down and starts undoing some screws on the bottom of the case.

After all, the best way to figure something out is often to gain practical knowledge.

Comments

[sporesprouter]

Tress starts to point out bits of the machine. "From what I read, starting the toaster heats up these wires which sit close to the bread and, well, toast it."

[timebethine]

"By what means? The same that burns in the lights?"

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "It's... as best I can tell, it's like harnessed lightning, but on a smaller scale."

[timebethine]

"It must be a very small scale, to fit a bolt of lightning in the toasting box," says Laertes thoughtfully. "I had a friend in France who said that the little sparks of lightning made from touching a cat on a dry day are of the same substance as the lightning that splits the sky. He rubbed a rod of amber against a cat's fur and bid me try it, but I had no taste for shocking cats."

[sporesprouter]

"That doesn't sound very kind to the cat." She looks over the toaster again. "I'm not sure it matters all that much because it wouldn't need that if I were to make one with spores."

[timebethine]

"Are there spores for lightning?" Laertes asks, fascinated.

[sporesprouter]

"Not exactly. But there are spores for heat and light, so if I can figure out how to use them in something like this..."

[timebethine]

"Hmm." Laertes looks over the heap of parts again, considering. Much of his initial research on the steam box for his boards was completely incomprehensible due to its insistence on using electric heating coils, but now that he's got a practical example before him, the concepts no longer seem so daunting. "Water conveys lightning, does it not? So this device must have been built to shield the interior from water. Thou wouldst need a place for the spores, but also a path for water to reach them ... without soaking the toast, of course."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "That's nothing I haven't dealt with before, though. Almost anything that uses spores has to be careful with how the water moves. You don't want to get the wrong spore wet at the wrong time, after all."

[timebethine]

"I'd not thought how they might work in combination," says Laertes. He steps back, well out of reach of tempting curiously-shaped bits of metal, and asks, "May I watch thee work? I have little to offer by way of guidance, but it would do me good to study thy capable hands."

[sporesprouter]

"Feel free to! Just keep in mind that my capable hands are doing something very new here, so I might completely break something. I'll just try not to."

[timebethine]

"I beheaded a hammer the other day," says Laertes ruefully. "I tried to claw up a nail, and the handle surrendered ere the nail did."

[sporesprouter]

She can't help but laugh. "Oh no. Did you fix it?"

[timebethine]

"Ay, but I wouldn't trust if if any I loved stood by." He pauses a moment, considering. "What would happen if we left a broken tool in an empty room for some days? Would we find it broken, whole, or not at all?"

[sporesprouter]

"Well, there is absolutely one best way to find out."

[timebethine]

"We'll have to vary the complexity," says Laertes. "My broken hammer; thy toaster. Or, if thou hast other plans for it, we can always break another."

[sporesprouter]

"No, we can absolutely try both. Maybe something in the middle of the two, also."

[timebethine]

"A lamp?" Laertes suggests, ignorant of the technical complexities of the lightbulb.

[sporesprouter]

Tress, being just as ignorant of light bulbs, nods. "That might work!"

[timebethine]

"There's one in my room I won't miss," he says. "I'll return anon." Then he jogs off to fetch the bedside lamp, and returns a moment later to set it down on the worktable.

"I had a thought, while I wrestled this free," he says, giving the plug a little twirl. "What, if two objects were destroyed by different means? One smashed, the other carefully taken to pieces?"

[sporesprouter]

"That would also be fun to test, but then if only one got fixed, how would we know if it's the complexity or the way it was destroyed?"

[timebethine]

"Hence," he says, "the second toaster."

[sporesprouter]

"Perfect." She smiles. "Good experiment, I think."

[timebethine]

"But this, thou hast so neatly disassembled," says Laertes. "For what I plan, we require violence. Hast thou any skill with a hammer, Tress?"

[sporesprouter]

She grins. "I haven't really needed to find out, but I think I'd like to try."