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

[sagramore]

It's very important for Sagramore to check in on Tress regularly; she might be overworking herself and require more horse lessons. So he pokes his head in, coffee in hand. "Good morning! What are you working on?"

[sporesprouter]

Hey now, she is dutifully brushing Fenyes every morning. She very much likes that horse.

She looks over and smiles. "Hello! I just got a little curious about how this works so I decided to take a look so that maybe I can figure out how to make one that works with spores."

[sagramore]

"Oh, that's the thing that toasts bread? How does it work?"

[sporesprouter]

"From what I've read, it puts a kind of power into some metal wires that heats them up close to the bread."

[sagramore]

He comes in and approaches her worktable to observe it. "Hmm. What would you replace with spores, exactly, if you were to replicate the effect?"

[sporesprouter]

She carefully peels the casing off of the toaster. "I haven't decided yet. Sunlight spores create heat, so I was thinking using them in place of the wires, but maybe it would be a better idea to heat the wires with the spores to make the heat more even. The oven on our ship at home worked using sunlight spores and it was very uneven heating. It made it hard to make anything. We were... we were working on improving it but hadn't gotten there yet before I got here."

[sagramore]

Sagramore has browsed the welcome table and collected the various pamphlets, though he hasn't actually read any of them. He is not, however, going to ask her to explain spores. "What else?"

[sporesprouter]

"I'll also have to figure out how to get water to the spores if I make something like this, otherwise there's no point. Maybe if I look at the coffee maker..."

[sagramore]

"Is there more than one of those?" sipping from his own cup. "Something mechanical?"

[sporesprouter]

"I found one next to this toaster. I didn't look too much into it yet, though, just because it's better to be doing one thing at a time, obviously."

[sagramore]

"Obviously," smiling. "And the mat? What's the purpose of that?"

[sporesprouter]

"Just for safety. I probably don't need it, because it's the attachment to the wall that provides the power and it's not attached, but... apparently these run on, well, harnessed lightning, I guess? And it can't go through rubber. I have some gloves, as well, for when I get further into it."

[sagramore]

"Jesu Christ." His tone is softly admiring. "You've thought of everything, then."

[sporesprouter]

"I made sure to find what I could to read about it before actually starting. I took notes. I do my best to try to be careful when I can."

[sagramore]

"Well, I'm very impressed. I don't know the first thing about being careful, myself."

[sporesprouter]

Tress laughs. "I know that's not true, or Fenyes wouldn't be nearly as wonderful as she is."

[summerdude]

Magnus stumbles across the workshop quite by accident. "Tress, right?" he says, poking his head inside. "What's up?"

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "Yes! And you're Magnus, right?" She looks back at the toaster. "I'm trying to figure out how exactly this works so that maybe when I get home, I can try to make something similar."

[summerdude]

"Oh cool, toaster," Magnus says, taking it in. "They don't have them in your world?"

[sporesprouter]

She shakes her head. "No. We just toast our bread in ovens. And when the oven on your ship doesn't heat very evenly, it makes for patchy toast."

[summerdude]

"Are your ovens electrical or fire? Or something else?"

[sporesprouter]

"Fire, on land. At sea, we use sunlight spores."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet was pretty sure that Tress was from some kind of fantasy situation. Considering all the moons, and the spores, and whatever else. But when she pokes her head into the workshop, what she sees doesn't look like fantasy bullshit at all. It looks like something you'd get at Target.

"Hi," she says. "What's up with the toaster?"

[sporesprouter]

"I'm trying to work out how it works to see if maybe I can eventually make one that uses sunlight spores as a heating element."

See? It's just a prelude to fantasy bullshit.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's eyebrows shoot up. "Okay," she says slowly. "Like... for fun? Is this just a science project? Because I assume that toaster worked fine before you took it apart."