On a large enough clock, the hour hand could have easily visible marks for not just minutes, but also seconds. If I were an architect or whatever I would try to make that the floor of a lobby or something.

What is this, a magnification for ants?

He does look rather sub genius.

I'm surprised it's not by Eiffel.

Yes. Although our children are more squircle than square.

Wow. Yeah, that's almost Space: 1999 levels of unphysical.

I had to read that 2-3 times before I could comprehend that the base was not on top of ice and falling through it.

Yeah...

I assume a novelization.

Yup. Kids are jumpy alright. I expect to see a lot more of them this evening.

I think a good author makes it explicit.

Here's a sci-fi web novel I read years ago, where a couple of the characters end up being immortal in different ways, and in one case they show exactly how far that can go (in the context of the story) even without invoking heat death.

Yeah, This case especially since it includes XWayland

I believe you mean:

"Hey.
Mr...
Tambourine man?"