CH103 Toy Balloons.
Alex's dream took her to a camp for magical girls, though it was far from ordinary. The dream featured a magical girl from another dimension, who arrived in a spaceship, and an overpowered classmate struggling with issues with her mother, who also happened to be the headmaster. The experience was overwhelmingly dramatic, with very little actual instruction taking place.
“Good morning.” Alex greeted the flamingo standing on one leg with her head buried in her feathers. “What a weird dream.”
Fufi fluttered to life and opened her beak in a big yawn. “Morning Alex. Is it daybreak already?”
Alex pulled back a curtain. “Doesn’t look like the sun is up yet but it is starting to get brighter.”
“What are your plans for today?” Fufi put her other webbed foot back on the ground. “Care to talk about your dream?”
“Too much that needs to be done to ponder weird dreams.” Alex looked out the window of the carriage. “The carriage needs to be fixed up. I could try to make another balloon. Also, there is going through the pipes and finding Merumeru. Lastly, there could be checking on the people and see if there is anything we can do to keep the peace. But I really don’t want to do that. It sounds like a hassle.”
“You think Ki’s worries are warranted?” Fufi stretched her wings. “That order is going to fall apart over the winter?”
“She’s a lot better at this social stuff than I am.” Alex started heating some water for tea. “After thinking about it for a little bit, a class of cultures is going to happen. One group has a history of might makes right. The other has grown up constantly being told that humans are a danger to themselves and have to take a subservient position in society for their own good. What could possibly go wrong with combining these two groups?”
“Is there anything we can do about it?” Fufi clucked.
“I’m starting to get why you say magical girls make terrible rulers.” Alex shook her head. “Ki’s solution to turn people into shrubbery is a little too close to Sakura’s idea that humans that linger in the forest get transformed.”
“I don’t think it is forever.” Fufi didn’t sound sure though. “But I haven’t met anyone talking about their time as a shrub.”
“I hope not.” Alex blinked. “When I heard about the punishment I was a little shocked and it didn’t really register. Something like that isn’t possible where I came from.”
“Do you think they should start preparing to leave?” Fufi asked. “Where would they go?”
“I don’t know, the only independent human settlement we’ve run across so far is the temple of purity.” Alex frowned. “And we know how that went.”
“Not everyone there was crazy.” Fufi reminded Alex. “The older librarian sounded sane.”
“Yes but he didn’t stop me from walking into some sick ritual.” Alex scowled. “It felt a bit like guilt by omission. Unless that was a different librarian. It is difficult to tell people apart when they are all copies of the same two people.”
“You went there seeking a cure from bird flu.” Fufi reminded the magical girl. “In a way you got your humanity back. It just came with strings attached.”
“Some really major strings.” Alex harrumphed. “And now the maids want to make that journey to the other side of the forest, through the mountains and glaciers? I don’t think they are cut out for weeks of that kind of travel. Going up river in a barge is much different than forging a path through the wilds.”
“So you don’t want to help them?” Fufi sounded a little sad.
“I didn’t say that.” Alex considered the options. “It is just that if they can’t fly then expensive preparations are required. Also, I’m a little worried that the residents of that temple’s idea of fixing the curse would involve turning them into clones of themselves. Which is worse, being a perfect maid with no idea or being transformed into a twin of another person?”
“I don’t know.” Fufl lowered her head. “I’m guessing that it is something to decide on later. We haven’t talked to the maids at all to see how they are fitting in.”
“Yeah, I’d rather tinker with stuff.” Alex pulled a plushy down from the shelf and hugged it. “I thought about that silly idea for the toy airboat for Lilly to shoot arrows from and wondered what I was thinking.”
“What was the problem?” Fufi asked.
“The airboat was mostly metal.” Alex looked up, annoyed at past Alex for missing something so obvious. “For flying weight is a really big factor.”
“Oh, I could have told you that.” Fufi snickered. “Unless they have some other magic helping them, birds don’t get much bigger than a Flamingo. Flying monsters are cheaters. I guess you could say flying mages are cheaters too.”
“Anyway.” Alex tried to keep the subject from slipping. “I was thinking that the way we are trying to float the balloons is the most basic way available. Burning wood to heat up air is not great. First, wood is heavy. Yeah, we used candles in one of the prototypes but that is not that much better. I think in the past balloons and airships used hydrogen, helium and methane.”
“Can we get those things?” Fufi asked, sounding a little overwhelmed.
“Maybe?” Alex puzzled the idea. “I think zapping water makes hydrogen and oxygen. If we can find a way to capture the hydrogen and store it somehow…” Alex tried to remember chemistry class. “I think if you put metal in acid it also gives off hydrogen. Just not sure which kind of metal and which kind of acid. For helium, no clue, I think it comes from wells that give off a lot of gas but other than that I’m not sure. Is methane the same as coal gas? I think it comes from wells too, but I am no oil baron.”
“Oil baron?” Fufi tilted her head. “Is that some kind of nobility in your world? It sounds like a powerful class.”
“It would be an incredibly powerful class if it existed here.” Alex boggled at how much money someone could make if they could use the system to extract petroleum. “If we ever run across someone like that we better not get on their bad side. They could have next to limitless wealth in the right circumstances.”
Alex and her friend bounced ideas off each other. Alex decided to start with a smaller balloon for a plush toy. A magical girl, known for her rather imprecise mental calculations, estimated that a 10-foot balloon would be needed to float a basket with a plushy.
Within a day, Alex efficiently crafted a basket, a non-flammable candle holder, and a netted balloon using available warehouse materials. A motionless stuffed panda bear rested within the basket. The abundance of rope made the construction of a drag net and other rope-dependent components relatively straightforward.
“Okay, mister panda, let's give this a shot.” Alex lit the candle with a tinderbox.
The strange cloth device drew a crowd but a candle slowly burning bored the onlookers.
“This is going to take a while.” Alex addressed the crowd. “Sorry.”
…Some time later.
“Okay, looks like our plushy pilot is ascending.” Alex watched the basket going up. She held onto the rope.
“This takes a long time.” Fufi complained. “And the balloon isn’t cute at all.”
“It is just a balloon with a candle. If we add more flourishes it’ll just make it heavier and need a bigger balloon to compensate. If we wanted to get the toy airboat off the ground I bet it’d need to be ten times the size.” Alex didn’t think Fufi was taking this seriously.
“I think that is where you are wrong.” Fufi paused for dramatic effect. “Believe in the power of cuteness.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Fine, let's try again with the airboat and do it your way.”
As the panda balloon ascended, it captured the attention of everyone outdoors, drawing a second crowd to admire the novel sight. Passersby were invited to hold its rope, treating it like a large kite. However, it lacked sufficient lift to carry anyone off the ground, even with the wind. As dusk approached, the crowd dispersed, and the hot air balloon was packed away into the warehouse. While a nice prototype, its utility proved to be no more than that of a kite.
“Okay, round two.” Alex rolled up her sleeves the next day, still wearing the outfit that gave her toy making skill bonuses. “Time to double down on cuteness.”
Alex gave the airboat a fancy makeover, reshaping its contours to resemble clouds, painted in white with pastel blue. For safety, a cage was added to the propeller and coated generously with pyrite paint. Wooden parts replaced some metal components, reducing weight and enhancing its appeal. A specialty candle, crafted by a candle maker, was adorned with glitter. The doll chair was upholstered with velvet-like cloth, a material Alex wasn't sure how they acquired but chose not to question. Finally, the 40-foot diameter balloon was embroidered with constellations that twinkled with an inner light during the inflation process.
Alex could only scratch her head. “I don’t get this. The balloon is bigger but is inflating faster.”
The candle sent off blue sparkles that floated up into the balloon before vanishing like they were not there.
“See, all you have to do is trust in the power of cuteness.” Fufi flew circles around the balloon.
Alex crossed her arms. “I think it is still too heavy to take off. This weighs as much as a person.”
As if to make Alex eat her words a gust of wind suddenly blew through the street and sent the doll-sized flying machine aloft.
“Shoot!” Alex raced to grab the drag rope but the wind took it and forced the contraption into the sky.
Fufi flew alongside the balloon. “This is great Alex. You’ve really outdone yourself here.”
Alex felt her phone vibrate, the system was giving a notification but she didn’t have time to check it right now. The magical girl bolted down the street, watching the balloon get further and further away. She didn’t dare hold onto the rope so tight that it would pull her off the ground.
“Okay, don’t panic.” Alex slowed down a bit and formed a quick plan. “This is not like the other balloon, it has the ability to maneuver.”
Alex swayed, eyes shut, envisioning Lilly nestled in her velvet seat, since she couldn't see the doll from her vantage point below. She performed a small jig, then leaned into the controls, her weight shifting to propel the flywheel, steering the balloon back toward town. Her dance came to an abrupt halt when the dragline whipped across her face, prompting a round of applause from everyone.
“Good job.” One lookie-loo complemented. “I thought for sure that one would get away.”
Alex awkwardly accepted the praise from the strangers. She felt a little bad that she only knew a handful of people. But in her defense, the population had gone from 3 to nearly 2000 in the course of a year. Most cities don’t experience that kind of population boom.
After things died down, the candle ran out and people stopped asking questions. Alex and Fufi packed the doll airboat up, folding the balloon nicely and storing it in the carriage. She headed back to the warehouse and checked the notification on her phone. The toy boat was a bit big to go inside the carriage so it was stored in the warehouse.
[Toymaking has reached level 3!]
Alex finally had a breakthrough in toymaking. With the outfit that would give her a toymaking skill of 6. Hopefully that was high? She wasn’t sure how she compared with other crafters of toys.
“I got a skill up.” Alex told the flamingo.
“Behold the power of cuteness.” Fufi flourished her wings fancily. “I bet you thought it couldn’t be done.”