Explaining a rubber band effect to a character who may never have seen rubber

[Feo Takahari]

One of the central ideas in my current project is that the more two worlds differ, the more probability in both worlds warps to make the two likely to become similar again. This is easily portrayed as a rubber-band effect, stretched out and then snapped back. But while the character explaining this is probably familiar with natural rubber, the character she's talking to has never left her hometown, and the local ecology is too cold and dry for rubber trees. How else might I approach this? (A branch bending and then returning to position doesn't have the same ring to it.)

 

[Zero Angel]

Throwing something up in the air is the only thing that comes to mind for me (since I assume they have gravity). The farther something is thrown up in the air, the more it will accelerate coming back to rest.

 

[Alexandra]

Is the local climate too cold and dry for flies and web-spinning spiders? A spider's web is both strong and elastic.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

You can also describe that as a "pendulum" effect, where the differences can only swing out so far before they swing back to center. This is also an effect of gravity and easy to demonstrate using a string and a weight.

 

[ecdavis]

How about a longbow being pulled back so it is more curved, but when the arrow is released, the bow flexes back to a more gentle curve.

 

[Feo Takahari]

The more I think about this, the more promising the falling rock approach seems. I've been writing out a possible take, combining it with one of my own ideas:

-- -- -- --

Equivalence showed Patty two images, side-by-side. One was of a gold-robed woman, carrying a small stone carving in the shape of a balance scale. The other was of a black-robed man, whose carving was shaped like a squid standing on its legs. The former put her scale on the railing of a wooden bridge over a river. The latter ignored the bridge in his image, putting his squid on a flat rock at the river's edge. "Different worlds can go in different directions," Equivalence explained. "But if they change too much . . ." Seasons sped by in the span of a second, and both bridges splintered under a heavy snowfall. The scale fell into the water, a few feet from the rock where the squid was in the other image. "It's not a guarantee--Excess proved that much--but it's more and more likely the more different they are."

"So how do I fit in?" Patty asked.

"You're not from this world. You're not part of its laws." Patty saw the bridge again. This time, she was the one putting the scale on the railing. The seasons passed again, and the bridge groaned under the weight of the snow, but it didn't splinter. "You can change anything, and it won't be changed back."

"That sounds kind of . . . small," Patty said. "I mean, maybe the bridge would break, but maybe someone would just pick up that squid statue and put it on the bridge. How do I know if anything's really changed?"

"Small?" Equivalence asked. "It's not small at all." She showed Patty the gold-robed priestess standing in a field, tossing a ball up in the air and catching it, over and over. "This is what someone from this world does. She makes a change, and it changes right back." A double of Patty walked over and caught the ball. She let go of it, and it hung in midair. "This is what you do. You break the rules just by existing."

Patty shook her head and blinked, trying to clear away the illusions. Finding them gone, she looked around the temple, examining the chunks of fallen ceiling until she found one about the width of an apple. She walked over and picked it up, lifting it to the height of her eyes.

"Patty, what are you--"

Patty dropped the ceiling chunk. It landed on her foot.

"That wasn't literal," Equivalence said.

Patty didn't reply. She was too busy repeating the word "ouch".

 

[Asura Levi]

have to say, that was funny, got a silent laugh from me (it is 1h30 am, I have to control myself)

 

[krunchee]

I laughed out loud at the dropping off the rock, very funny.

 

[Jamber]

That's nice, Feo Takahari, though I found the twin sets of images in the first paragraph a little hard to keep in the mind, as they seemed a little convoluted and perhaps a bit strained. (Why a carving rather than simply 'set of scales'? Why an upright squid?) But the point is well made with the ball being thrown and then holding there, while the chunk of ceiling falling on the foot is a lovely full stop to the moment.

FWIW I was thinking of a drop of water or other liquid falling into a still pond, as seen in slow motion (the water's surface being the rubber band).

cheers
Jennie

 

[Zero Angel]

Looks like you handled that pretty nicely, and your story seems like it has a really cool hook too.

 

[Bloodywake]

Why does it have to be the rubber band effect? Doesn't ripples in water in a container not do the same thing once they get to the wall of the container? The energy once again tries to get back to the point of origin but it also collides with the other ripples on the way outward do they not?
Have character use a bucket and dip finger in to get drops of water first to show the ripple effect. Then to generate the stronger energy source used a pea to or quarter sized pebble to show the rebound effect.