sythyry | (no subject)

Cool Day [1 Consimbs 4261]

And we're back to autumn, and not a moment too soon. This means that ~mother~'s promised assault on the Duke has occurred; zie did not want to do it during Oix, when the Duke, along with every other mammal, was overheated and cross.

The Duke did not notice the assault.

Hezimikkainen:"Hallo -- Sythyry! What are you doing in that poor baker's oven?"

Me:"Getting romantic advice and free poptaloops. I didn't know you came to Academy Bakery very often."

Hezimikkainen:"I don't. That Yistreian singer who shares your house told me that I might find you here."

Me:"Oh, dear. What trouble am I in now?"

Hezimikkainen:"Oh, you're due to be slain horribly at any given moment, or, perhaps, cursed into nullity."

Me:"... really? ..."

Hezimikkainen:"To listen to ~father~ ... well, Eitharheinen ... talk about it, yes."

Me:"Zie noticed I'm still ambassador to Vae, not long ago, and said zie was going to do something about it. What did zie do?"

Hezimikkainen:"Told me to attend to it."

Me:"You tried once, didn't you?"

Hezimikkainen:"I tried more than once. You should have muffed up that breakfast silliness."

Floosh said nothing, but her smirking was vast.

Me:"And humiliate myself in front of the Duke? No -- I could not muff the muffins!"

Hezimikkainen:"It would have made my case easier!"

Me:"Well, between you and Lord Eddarna, I've gotten more trouble for doing it adequately than I would have for doing it badly. I guess you're right."

Hezimikkainen:"Nothing is punished as severely as success, I'm afraid, Sythyry."

Me:"So what punishment is coming to me now, and what's it for?"

Hezimikkainen:"That depends on your answer to this question: Shall I, as Eitharheinen asks, press the Duke again for the ending of your ambassadorship? Knowing that, if I do, there will surely be some Ducal penalties or disfavor, whether I succeed or fail, and success is not so likely."

I pondered the question in a wise and sage silence for a while. (Any suggestion that I was boggled by it is undignified and will not be honored.) It is a truly horrible job, but, as truly horrible jobs go, it's not a particularly onerous one. Except for the pastry incident, it takes only an hour or two every three days, now. And most weeks Vae doesn't even come close to killing me.

And, on the other hand, it's got to be done, and got to be done adequately. After the pastry incident, Vae has become accustomed to ... not obedience, exactly, but general mindfulness of what I have to say to her. I suppose she considers me a friend, and I know she doesn't have many of those in Vheshrame. And it's not treason 'cause the Duke told me to do it.

Which is all babbling to say that it's not as horrible a job as I thought it would be, it's not even as notable a job as I thought it would be (except for the pastry incident, which will never happen again), it's a moderately important job, I'm doing tolerably well at it, I'm getting some goodies from it (in terms of skill, if nothing else), and Vae would be upset if I suddenly skittered off.

Me:"Well, perhaps this mightn't be the best time to push the Duke on that matter."

Hezimikkainen:"I am distinctly glad to hear you say that, in no small part because I entirely agree. I shall tell Eitharheinen to copulate vehemently with a Khtsoyis."

Me:(something indistinct, yet, somehow, incoherent)

Hezimikkainen:"Don't worry, zie wouldn't. Zie's quite cisaffectionate."

Which phrasing, in retrospect, leaves me to wonder if Hezimikkainen is traff, or if zie is simply prodding me indirectly for being traff. Or for being distinctly traff.

Hezimikkainen:"Which is to say, I shall write zir a polite note explaining that making a strong and proud Duke change his mind on such a topic is a slow matter, at least when I'm not Shadow Duke."

And we discussed other things for a while -- including Extra Sleep in the Morning, which Hezimikkainen doesn't have grafted but does have on a talisman and uses it fairly often.

Hezimikkainen:"And, despite that, I don't have time to graft spells anymore. Well, not time and energy at least. I think the last one was in the 4220's sometime ... Write the Moment's Story."

(Which remembers the next few minutes of things that happen, and provides a way to repeat them in a little illusion.)

Me:"Is that useful?"

Hezimikkainen:"Oh, I use it when people are agreeing to things, and I think they might choose to forget some of the details without a bit of prompting. Or evidence. It's more polite than using truthspells after the fact, especially with a foreign ambassador or something."

So we discussed spells and enchantments and such for a while. When I graduate, I might, as one option, work as zir personal sorcerer and enchanter for some while.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do you have a proverb about Choosing Your Battles Wisely there too?
If not, borrow and run with it. Just don't tell them imagionary monsters told you about the idea.

Was this unwise? I thought it was, um, more sensible of me than I usually manage.

I was implying you were being wise. Silly lizard.

Oh, good.

So we discussed spells and enchantments and such for a while. When I graduate, I might, as one option, work as zir personal sorcerer and enchanter for some while.

hooray for nepotism!

It's comforting to know that, should you survive to employable age, that you'll have little trouble finding suitable and well-paying work.

Though there's always adventuring.

Oh, I daresay that most graduates of Vheshrame Academy, specializing in Enchantment, could find some sort of well-paying work. Enchanters usually do.

Ah, yes! Like setting up your own shop in Ulmarn. ;) I have work most weeks, and when I don't, I have ample money to take trips for fun. Even do a little adventuring as well. :) I highly recommend Enchanting as a profession. Though, if you /do/ go adventuring, be sure to bring along friends who are.. Better equipped for it. I doubt zie would have any trouble, but most Enchanting graduates wouldn't have many adventuring spells grafted if they hadn't planned on adventuring as I did.

And heck, if not, at least you will have plenty of cley spare that you can dispense to more gainfully employed persons . . . *grins, ducks and runs*

Does the world tree have any carnivorous plants, that you know of?

I'm sure there are some. I don't know much about them -- my status as a Great Adventurer of Choinxeia rarely takes me more than a few miles past the city wall. Excusing the occasional trip to Umtangeia, of course, but I didn't meet any plants there.

Helletumugs are certainly aggressive plants, capable of such a flurry of magic that even a nendrai needs to approach them cautiously.

Mara eleni are sentient trees that can cast spells on anyone who eats their fruit. I don't know the details. I gather that my translator is, unaccountably, planning to translate the autobiography of a mara eleni.

Tlo eleni are sentient, telekenetic shrubberies. I don't know who translates their autobiographies.

I don't know if any of these are carnivorous per se, but I imagine if they killed you, they'd happily feast on your composted corpse.

Why do you ask?

I think the last one was in the 4220's sometime ... Write the Moment's Story.

Aha! I KNEW I was being controlled by little heat-seeking lizards! And now I have PROOF!!

I didn't think it was a Mentador spell...

But that's what Mentadorists want you to think, right?

*whine*

Oh, I wouldn't worry so much. Any Mentador in there is probably by way of Sustenoc, to keep the recording fresh.

Good choice there. 8)

Two people have now said that I did something sensible. Pray excuse me, for I must now faint, or, at least, go to the orchard to pick a basket of the flounders that surely now grow in trees.

I'd bet it surprises you to see your sibling standing up for you! Laughed at the Khtsoyis comment.

Could you tell us a bit more about Common?

It's a nice change!

Every creature here speaks and understands Common, to the extent that they can speak and understand anything at all. It's not a very good language -- it doesn't have words like "butter" or "cat" or "breakfast". It has a few hundred words; I can't remember exactly how many.

[And all World Tree languages are based on it. -bb]

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Cool Day [1 Consimbs 4261]

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Off topic world tree question

Re: Off topic world tree question

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