Her eyes widened.
"Eh?"
Cia is laying down on bed. It's late night and she has gained a bad habit apparently.
Being a 6 and half year old child, she sleep with her father. But the thing is that.
"It's 3 AM." She said blankly. Her sleep somehow evaporated.
She remembers how for few days she has been only taking 2 to 3 hours nap. And all the blame can go to Ark in some specific manners. "Only if he drew it a little more earlier." She can't really blame him either.
"Maybe I should've done it myself."
She is now staring at half built telescope. It is less looking like a cylindrical shape and more closer to a cuboid. For past 2-3 days she has been working non stop. School hours where she mostly sleep. Then homework and chit chat with Andre at home. And lastly after taking aside eating and little playing around, building things at night.
"Now what?" She glanced at sleeping face of her father who made some serious then a weird face in sleep. "Ugly." She doesn't know how she is still sitting here.
Then finally her gaze fell on Andre's phone.
Papa rarely look into it. But still keep it close. I can't even recognize the company.
She narrowed her eyes and blurred out the image. "Eh?" She saw a skull emoji by mixing two different fraction of design on back cover. Then she blinked once. Not knowing what to do.
"That is kinda cool." She sighed. Her brain seemed to shrink at nights so she doesn't do much after mid night if awake.
"Yawns.... maybe it's coming." She slowly closed her eyes thinking about her stupidity. Last time when Crystella came, she explained what natural phenomena depicts a zooming effect. But the most on point one was missed out of her memory.
Chameleon Telephoto Vision:
Negative-power corneas paired with positive-power crystalline lenses give chameleons a unique biological telescope. This specific lens configuration magnifies the image directly on their retina, allowing them to visually "zoom in" on tiny insects from extreme distances.
Dewdrop Micro-Telescopes:
Perfect spheres of surface tension formed by water droplets on hydrophobic leaves act as high-powered biconvex lenses. They refract light at extreme angles, flipping and magnifying microscopic details of the leaf texture or background scenery behind them.
These were the most practical to her somehow. Slowly as she counted numbers, slowly sleep took her.
Then after 10 minutes Andre's body sat up. He's awake now.
"Is it morning? No." He said to himself while looking at the table clock. Then he looked over to Cia. "She is done with that thing?" He said and stood up to checkout this as well.
It's half built. But the eye part seems to be done. He held it in his hands and slowly raised it to his face. Looking through the hole he can see 3 other eyes.
"Huh??" He settled it back down on table, scratching his head. It's like he is some farmer and his child is trying to be a great scientist. Though one thing is different, he can afford this much now.
"Sighs.... why I'm awake?" He went to the bathroom and came back after sometime. He laid down on bed and started trying to sleep hardly. Sometimes it's really hard to sleep. It's like fighting a inner demon who is encouraging your soulto do something really unpredictable.
"-I gotta sleep I gotta sleep I gotta sleep-" more or less, he ain't going to sleep tonight.
(Next morning, 7 AM)
Hm. Late for everything.
He finally slept by 5 AM. But what's the use?
"Papa!! It's almost time!!!" Cia came screaming, she clutched over a tiny stool and entered the bathroom, slamming door shut.
When did she sleep? Andre thought.
"Yawns.... mmm...." he started making breakfast and by the time she came out under 5 minutes after brushing teeth and freshing up, a lunch type breakfast is already done. "This is for my princess!" He said. Cia came, took the sandwich in her mounth and ran to her room for changing into school dress.
Where is my thank you? Andre thought.
"Aaagghh!!!" A childish roar came from her room and Andre quickly went there with her schoolbag ready, "what happened? Homework not complete?"
"Papa, we should exorcise our house. There must be ghosts." Cia said while staying on bed. What happened, that it made science enthusiast to believe in ghosts?
"Hey, what happened? You are gonna be late for school Cia." She just nodded and pointed at the half built telescope. "What happene- huh?" His eyes widened so hard, nerves came out. He froze in his place and then looked down.
What the hell? Did it really broke my putting it back on table?
When Andre picked it up, tried looking through and putted it back on table, it broke a bit. And right now Cia accidentally saw it.
"Sighs.... ok maybe I'll have to change it after school." She said, stood up from bed and took her bag.
Hmmm.....ok.
They drove to school in their normal car. "Hm. Have I ordered one car? What car was it? I no longer remember it." It is going to take too long.
As he handed Cia to school and came back, He entered the room and sat down facing the telescope.
Can I build it? I remember using different kinds of binocular during my early adulthood. But telescopes are a different species.
He remembered that Cia said she will change it later so maybe as well give it a try? He picked up the book setting aside it. "Hybrid? So it isn't a project that she simply copied? What even is this?"
He disassembled it slowly, making sure it won't get any worse and be good enough to reverse the process.
So this thing has internally 3 cylinders? 4 lenses mimicking natural phenomenas such dew drop? But that doesn't seem to be enough power to be called a telescope.
Then his saw few mirrors. These round mirrors are actually industry standard. He knows this because he have worked with some during his teenage. "These mirrors? Must be that kid Ark. Then what's the use?" He raised his eyebrows as he started reading book again. Simply put, by mirrors we can zoom in or zoom out images. Pretty simple thing that Cia was going to use.
But then again, it doesn't show what's in front. Hm? Wait why did it broke in the first place?
He looking through every part of it and then realised one thing. Cia made this to work like this. In actuality, this is not a telescope at all.
"What have she made?"
This is 3-tunnel-way scopic measurer, that works purely on natural phenomena. It doesn't have those inside it but relies on what you are seeing. The rough sketches explains it all. It makes zero sense in many ways.
It's range goes from far infinite space to lowest details of the hands. A hybrid with a hundred flaws that can work perfectly fine as long as the path has what it wants. The zooming effects comes from the atmosphere instead of inside cylinders.
"So it's just that it cannot stay in shape because of this?" Andre then kept changing it's outer support shape. It's his first time in a decade doing something like this. But he can feel why Cia do this at all. She doesn't seek the worldly desires or curiosity that history admires so much. She just wants something that is entirely different. Maybe even that tablehand something hidden in it?
For next 5 hours, As Cia is sleeping in school, Andre here is getting his hands on something he never done.
"This is kinda exciting in it's own way."