It's a beautiful day, and many people have gathered along the river to enjoy it. The spirit of this moment in time feels intensely hopeful.
Humans have conquered darkness with electric light and distance with the chug of locomotives. What will come next? Will they conquer the sky and beyond? If nothing else, they feel assured the future is bright.
Victor: Ladies and gentlemen, make way please!
Victor: Are the spotlights ready? I'll pay, Sam! Trust me, for once!
Victor: Thank you, sir. This won't take long, I promise. 30 minutes tops, and I'll be out of your way!
Victor has become one-part engineer and two-parts showman, frantically lining up equipment and impatient reporters at the same time.
Victor: I promise you, gentlemen, soon you will possess the most memorable and valuable photos of the century. Forget the headlines of The Sun, this is history—
Victor: Ah, pardon me. I need a moment to talk with my lovely assistant.
The engineer wipes off his fake smile as quickly as he turns, running over to help Lucy unload the metal frame.
Lucy: The assembly time should be approximately five minutes.
Victor: Yeah, yeah, great—I just got a brilliant idea, Luce.
Lucy: I am listening.
Victor: We both know we can't afford another failure.
The engineer glances around and hushes his voice.
Victor: Our current model still has some problems to be solved, so why don't you just use that arcane skill of yours to "spruce her up," you know?
Lucy: You mean you want me to change its mechanical structure to make the experiment work?
Victor: Yes, yes! E-exactly what I mean!
Lucy: No. I refuse.
Victor: What? Why? What's ...
Lucy: First, you must remember there are limits to my arcane skill. I may run out of time, and it is possible it will not work.
Victor: The odds are already stacked against us in the first place! What could it hurt, even if it fails?
Lucy: It would be impossible for me to enchant every suit once our model is put into mass production.
Lucy: Without even mentioning that it would be impossible to enchant them each time they were needed.
Lucy: Arcane skills simply do not work that way.
Lucy: Our goal is a stable, reliable, and practical model. Who would buy anything less?
She focuses on the future, not the present, hoping to appeal to the engineer's true desire.
Lucy: Now, you have my reasons. Please assist me with the wings.
Victor: Do you have that head of yours screwed on wrong? Or do you really not get that our project is done if we fail again?!
Victor: Luce, it's real simple: enchant the engine, go up and have a little fun in the sky, then come back down to greet the reporters when they come to take photos of you!
Victor: Our investors will change their minds. Hell, they'll beg us to continue. Then we'll have all the money we could ever want to make this hunk of bolts really work!
Victor: And once we actually finish it, Luce, buddy, we'll have stacks as high as Rockefeller.
Lucy: OK. But why would we want a pile of paper?
Victor: ...
Victor: That's all I've ever wanted! Ever since I found these old drafts while cleaning up my old nan's house.
Lucy: Your motivations notwithstanding.
Lucy: This project has a promising future. That is all I know.
Victor throws the drafts to the ground in a huff. Lucy picks them up and returns them to the car.
Lucy: We still need these.
Victor: Like hell we do!
The engineer storms away, but as he enters sight of the crowd, he puts on his fake smile as cool as he can be.
It's smaller than he'd hoped.
Lucy: Victor, please ask the crowd to disperse.
Lucy: There may be unexpected dangers. I do not want anyone to be hurt.
Victor: You heard the lady, folks. My assistant is meticulously careful and considerate. Even though our invention is completely safe.
Victor: Still, as a practical humanist and a thorough scientist, she's always taking even the rarest and most extreme worst-case scenarios into consideration. But I do really have to emphasize "rarest."
Victor: Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's witness the latest creation of Victor's Workshop: the fantastic wingsuit! Press one button and control the wings with a simple lever. That's all it takes to fly right up into the sky!
Lucy: Hold on, Victor. We are not quite ready.
Lucy: There is some turbulence in the air. We should delay for a short while until it passes.
Victor: ...
Victor: Excuse us, friends. I'm afraid we need to adjust our equipment just one last time to make sure it all runs smoothly. Please, give us just two more minutes!
The Crowd: Hey, what circus are you from, pal?
Victor: Victor's Workshop of Boston, sir. We're not a circus or some arcane swindlers.
The Crowd: A pair of iron wings? Installed on a robot's back? Sure sounds like a clown act to me! Haha!
The Crowd: Go on, let's see it then! What can she do?
Victor: We can't keep waiting, Luce. The crowd's turning on us.
Lucy: I am on standby until the right wind arrives.
Lucy: You appear anxious. Why is that?
A ship floats past them on the river, its passengers gawking at the scene.
Victor: Because, we need to take off now. Or all those very nice folk out there are going to leave, and our last chance for fame and fortune goes with them.
Lucy: Is that so? What does that mean for the project?
Lucy: What good does that spotlight do for our experiment?
Lucy: Will the people gathering by the river help us optimize our wingspan, our power source?
Victor: You're being difficult. What's the point of this experiment if no one is here to see it?
Lucy: The point? The point is that we put our work into perfecting this machine. Is that not point enough?
Lucy: Even if something does go wrong, it will give us a chance to analyze and fix it. That is the point.
Lucy: Humans have dreamed of flying in the wind since before even the first kite flew into the air.
Lucy: And now, our achievements in materials science and the development of the internal combustion engine have laid the foundation for us to make this dream a reality.
Lucy: What do we lose even if we fail again, Victor? We have failed a hundred times. What is so terrible about one more?
The engineer has no answer for her. The moment turns as a swift westerly wind blows across the river bank.
Victor: That's your wind, Luce! Go on!
Victor: Move! Move! Good luck!
Lucy: It is in the hands of fate now.
The mechanical woman pulls the device over her silvery arms.
Now a bird with iron wings, she walks to the edge of the river bank and presses a button as a jet of air erupts beneath her.
No signs of arcanum, only the mechanical rumble of human technology.
Lucy: We have done all we can. I have a feeling that this time we will succeed.
Victor: You ready?
Victor: Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your eyes—
Victor: For you are about to bear witness to the greatest invention in human history!
Victor: Where Icarus failed, we succeed. Now, mankind will take to the skies just as easily as the birds.
Like her friend ran toward the sea those many years ago, Lucy spreads her wings and leaps from the river bank.
The Crowd: Hey! That was a jump! She jumped!
The Crowd: Come on, do any of you think that stupid contraption is going to fly?
Where many expected a splash, they hear instead a roar, as the engine pulls her up and over the surface of the water.
Lucy: There appears to be some unexpected instability.
Victor: Look, look! She's rising, folks! That's no mere glide! But 100% genuine powered flight!
Victor: Up, and onwards!
The engineer stares out at the silvery bird as it holds just above the river's surface.
Sweat drips off his forehead, and the yellow draft paper in his hand is now a crumpled ball. But he turns back to the crowd.
Lucy: Victor—
Victor: Let me tell you folks. This thing is safe, stable, and reliable. Why even a child may pilot it after a few short lessons!
Victor: Imagine it, faster than an airship, more convenient than a locomotive, and cheaper than an automobile!
Lucy: Victor!
Victor: Gentlemen, I ask you now for just a small investment. One small payment, to put yourself in front of the most important invention of our time!
Victor: This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of the future! Seize it now! Fame and fortune await!
Lucy: Victor! Something is wrong!
The engine begins to sputter and cough, no longer moving forward. The buffeting wind pulls her into a tumble.
...
The Crowd: Your future just took a nose dive, pal.
The Crowd: Oof, look how she hit the water! That could've killed somebody!
Victor: ...!
The engineer turns white, slowly wrenching his head toward the splash.
Victor: No!
Victor: No ...
The iron bird pulls herself up to the river bank and drops her wings.
Lucy: I believe that I have found our problem.
Lucy: Our engine is not providing sufficient downward thrust to keep us in the air, even with the aid of wind.
Lucy: There are also many extraneous parts. We could significantly streamline the design to improve our fuel efficiency.
Lucy: If we can improve the overall power output—
Victor: Yeah, well, good luck with that, Luce. I'm out.
Victor: No one is going to invest after today—Not a penny.
Victor: It's a money pit, and I'm tired of digging it. No chance I'm going to see a profit, not in ten years, not in a hundred!
The mechanical woman dries herself and walks to the engineer as he mopes on the ground.
They deserve a better ending.
Lucy: So, you give up? We got this close, and you just want to walk away?
Victor: Seems like it, don't it?
Victor ends his last attempt with a heaving sigh. Pulling his hat down over his face, he walks out into the crowd and doesn't return.
Lucy: This is only another failed result.
Lucy: We have found another avenue for improvement.
Lucy: This is nothing more than a minor setback. An unsuccessful experiment is not a critical failure.
The crowd is dispersing now, and Victor has disappeared with them. Flying is a beautiful dream, but dreams do nothing for a man with an empty wallet and a growling stomach.
Lucy: ...
Lucy: You only ever saw what you could reach in one grasp, Victor.
Lucy: But it takes more patience than that if you really want to touch the sky.
But he is gone; the random movement of fate has left her alone once more.
But that will not stop her.
Lucy: Like many before him, he was terrified by the difficulties ahead and changed his course, like those mountaineers who turned from the Matterhorn long before they reached its peak.
Lucy: But I know there will be others—those behind him—that will climb higher than he had ever imagined.
