(no subject)

[sythyry]

Fixing Figs Flambee [25 Hivvem 4261]

Thery and Ficina and Levande came by for a visit this evening. Ficina is small and squirmy. She has learned how to grin and giggle, which she does whenever anyone provides her with an excuse, which is fairly often. Ghirbis is alarmingly maternal given half a chance -- this surprises me considerably, for she gave no clue of it -- and spent two hours tickling Ficina, dangling feathers in front of her, making faces, flopping every available tail in her face, singing at her, and so on.

Thery, for her part, looks much better than she did the last time I saw her. (That was a week ago, at a small birthday party. Evidently Ficina is not much help at organizing a birthday party.) She seems a great deal older than she did last year, though. Older in the officially-approved Rassimel way: whenever she says anything, it concerns the matters that she is obsessed with. These days, that's Ficina and Yarwain. She is not sure whether she will go back to school next year or not.

Levande is not looking much better, though I think I saw her at her imperious noble best when she was beating up the healers at Ficina's birth. She has gotten distinctly more plump, and her fur is distinctly more ragged. She is distinctly morose. I have become a bit of a connoisseur of moroseness lately, and I will say that she does a fine job of it, though without the dramatic impact of Thelvion's sudden disintegration of his entire life, and, naturally, without the hideous monstrous might of Vae's jagged bloody glass tears.

The actual matter of the visit was that Thery is now well enough to nurse Ficina herself, and that my most recent casting of Draught of the Rassimel Mother on Levande was the last one. From now on Thery will get them.

"Now on", of course, started now. Thery winced and yelped at the spell, and decided that Ficina would be weaned as quickly as possible. Levande looked as saintly as a scruffy, obese adventurer can look, and did not point out that she has been enduring that spell for months for Thery's and Ficina's sake.

A few months ago, Ficina had a great deal of trouble learning how to nurse from Levande. Now she has to relearn how to nurse from Thery. This proved to be much easier. Ficina has, in the last few months, learned what her mouth is for. Thery is the one having trouble. She has not yet learned what her breasts are for. She knows how to hold Ficina in various ways, but holding her so that her head is in the right place as she drinks is a still different way which she does not yet understand.

Levande explained the details a great many times to her. She was absolutely correct, and absolutely unhelpful. Nursing, like dancing, cannot be taught as an intellectual exercise.

I must remember never to get pregnant in a mammalian form and keep the baby. Or, if I do, I must hire a wet-nurse immediately.

(No, it's not actually possible to do accidentally, and the ways for doing it on purpose will give the baby about five Thelvions of doom from birth.)

((Will Thelvion be upset if he learns that I am now using his name as a standard unit of doom, do you think?))

Comments

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

Given the title of this post, I half-expected the baby to be on fire.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

For some reason, whenever I imagine you casting a spell on someone now, I imagine you touching them with your tailtip...

I'm guessing that's not actually required for a zi ri.

In other news, happy babies are good! Because the alternative is *angry* babies. Grrr.

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

Will this measurement of doom be more along the metric system (mega-Thelvions, milli-Thelvions, etc.), or will it be more complex, like 12 Thelvions equals one SBCL, and 237.32 SBCL equals one Vae, etc.?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure a Thelvion would be that much less than a Vae, really -- the spell he's under is Nendrai-power-level if a lot more subtle than most nendrai would do.

Actually, I think a Thelvion would be the unit for a static amount of doom, while a Vae would be the unit for an ongoing doom-flow. That is, a Vae would be some number of Thelvions per second or per hour.

Also, the world-tree equivalent of the metric system would have to be base 3 or base 9. 9 is probably a better choice.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Why not base seven? or twelve? And I'm forgetting something -- why those two, 3 or 9?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Those are the bases they normally use -- Sythyry's always going on about 'a ninth of an hour' or 'a third of a lozen' or whatnot. Their days are 27 hours long, 9 days a week, 3 weeks a month, 9 months a year.

Presumably, their actual numbering system is base 9, although I've only ever seen them translated. Oddly, though, their magic works in quanta of 5-cley-required-to-graft-this at a time. And the whole '7+12 gods' thing which is also relatively prime.

[justicezero.livejournal.com]

Well, 7+12, base 9, becomes 7+13. Not particularly different. 5x does, however, become 5/11/16/22/27/33... which isn't horrible, I expect. Base three gets to be a nuisance quickly though.. 21+40, 12/101/120/202..

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Our numbers are base 10. 3 is about half of an order of magnitude, though, so it shows up a lot in currency -- coins are 1 lozen, 3 lozens, 10 lozens, 30 lozens, etc.

Time is in multiples of three because that's an observed fact. Months are 27 days (a month being how long it takes the sun to roll around the sky once, and coincide with seasonal changes), years are 9 months.

Spells are in quanta of 5 cley because that's another observed fact.

Ditto gods.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Okay, that makes sense. I suppose we usually use thirds of an order of magnitude -- 1 2 5 10 and so on.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

But halves of an order of magnitude work out better!

[zeeth_kyrah]

Shall I start counting in mod-2?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Technically, that's true -- 3 varies from the ideal curve by about 5%, while 2 and 5 vary from the ideal curve by 7-8%.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

Probably. He'd rather think of himself as a unique case of doom, rather than a standard measure...

[esory.livejournal.com]

It would be sort of reassuring to think he was a unique case of doom ... though I'm afraid he isn't. :/

[niss-the-ai.livejournal.com]

What about numbers of digits? Does each prime species have five fingers per hand? The only non-digit-based number systems (base 5, 10, or 20) I can think of here are our exotic base 2, and the obscure Babylonian base 60 (still used for time because it can be divided evenly so many ways).

What about units of distance and mass/weight? I can imagine a Herethroy being used for a measurement similar to the Smoot.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[OOC - are you at MIT? That's where I did grad school. -bb]

Yes, five, mostly. Khtsoyis and Sleeth don't, and I'm not quite sure about Gormoror. Herethroy are confusing, of course; I think some varieties have five on the upper hands and four on the lower.

[There is, incidentally, not a canonical answer to this question. -bb]

[niss-the-ai.livejournal.com]

[I graduated from MIT undergrad school in Feb. 2003, having studied history and biology and gotten credit for building a Lego robot and talking with overeducated parrots. What department were you in?]

[zeeth_kyrah]

I suspect most Primes simply haven't cared to examine a Sleeth's feet in more than passing fashion; I also suspect that they'll typically have between five and seven claws per paw, counting any dewclaw(s) which may be found. (The reason I offer that optional plural is due to some species which may be found to have vestigial digits on both sides of the palm/wrist, rather than having just one on the body side.)

[vernononfm.livejournal.com]

Most of those I know that would be in a position to count the digits on a Sleeth are either A)about to be seriously injured, or B) about to engage in intimate relations. Neither group is very concerned about the number of digits the Sleeth may or may not have. It is possible, I guess for zir to ask Rhedwy, but I doubt either of them would really care about the answer, either. You monsters sure concern yourselves with the strangest things...

[zeeth_kyrah]

...ever met a Rassimel whose obsession was trivia?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Ever met one whose obsession wasn't?

[zeeth_kyrah]

No, like useless trivia: How many claws on a Sleeth, how quickly wood decays (wouldn't everyone know that where you live?), what color a cloud of sawdust is, how painful a particular injury is...

Each could be an entire obsession of its own (claws, wood properties, clouds, pain) but together, they're just a heap of pointless information. Trivia.

Only useful if multiplied in number and correllated so that each piece comes in handy - a particular Sleeth has an odd number of claws, so this print in the dust may have come from him; considering the age of the stone here, this wood should have rotted completely and it's not enchanted, so why is it fresh; internally, this kind of cloud appears to be white, not yellow, which explains the eyewitness accounts; and wouldn't you know, the screaming involved suggests someone's digits being hit with a hammer. Now we get the expert in footprints to say whether that particular Sleeth ought to be accused of carpentry with intent.

Which is still entirely absurd and in character, yes?

[vernononfm.livejournal.com]

If I do ever meet one who is that interested in the numbers of digits on ones' paws, I will be sure to point them in your direction. I expect this will be a very long time from now, though. Until then, and likely after as well, I will continue to believe you monsters have strange concerns. Me? I'm concerned with having enough cley for my enchants in the morning, and with not getting killed by monsters when I go on vacations. (Which is the only time, it seems, that adventures seem to find me. Luckily.)

[zeeth_kyrah]

I could send an adventure out your way sometime; I'm sure there's a few around here which are getting tired of me. ;)