(no subject)

[sythyry]

Change of Plans [17 Hispis 4385]

Thank you, O monsters and such who read and reply. I was going to stop at the nearest port and toss the stowaways off the ship (from a height of about five feet) and let them fend for themselves. But after reading and musing on all the discussion, I will not. I will let them off at my next port of call in the ordinary course of things, which, with only a minor change of plans, will be in Srineia. In the meantime, I need to borrow a few envelopes from Vae.

Borrowing Envelopes

I tracked Vae down! She was playing The Serpent of the Vortex with Ochirion and Quendry. She was in the shape of a serpent with a row of butterfly wings down her back, unmatched both stylistically and aerodynamically.

Me:"Hallo ... will you be much longer at the game?"

Quendry:"Yes! We won't be much longer! No! Yes! I'm going to roll a seven and then I'm going to win!"

Me:"Are you now? I was actually talking to Vae."

Vae:"Not so long will the game be if Quendry rolls a seven!"

Me:[in the Nice Language -- a horrible language which Vae forced down my mind a long time ago, and which nobody else around here speaks.]"And you wouldn't dream of ensuring that Quendry rolls a seven, just so you could get out of the game?"

Vae:[also in the Nice Language]"Not that! The happy game it is, and already have I asked Quendry and Ochirion for a rematch!"

Ochirion:"What? Whaa-aa-aat? Did you call me a porcupine, Vae?" I suppose "for a rematch" sounds a bit like "is a porcupine", if you are seven years old.

Vae:"Not that! And would you like to be a porcupine this afternoon, Ochirion?"

Me:"I hope you ask Zascalle or Thiane before you transform their children."

Vae: [suddenly rueful] "The I hope I do too."

Quendry picked up the dice and rolled a seven, completely fairly. He moved his pawn the obligatory seven steps to the serpent's head.

Quendry:"I win! I win the game! Can you believe it? How could I roll a seven? I rolled a seven and I win the game! How did I do that? It was a seven! It was four plus three! How can that be seven? It is seven!"

Vae:"The very good move, Quendry! Congratulations!"

Me:"Not that he was at one of the three places in the game where the player can actually choose what to do." I hate that game.

Quendry:"You are both very good players! I am happy to play with you! You make me happy! But how can I win? How can I roll a seven and win? It was three plus four! I mean four plus three! It is seven!"

Me:"Vae? While he's drunk on his victory, could you give me some envelopes, to write to Kzip La Hish and Nangbang back in Oorah Thrassen?"

Quendry:"I am making up the dance for seven! Here it is! The dance for seven!" He cavorted awkwardly. "Ochirion, come dance the dance for seven with me!"

Ochirion:"I'm dancing the dance for seven!" He might have been, too, but I couldn't see how his dance and Quendry's were at all the same.

Vae:"The certainly!" She transformed some cookie crumbs into ferocious Locador scroll-tubes.

Diplomacy at a Distance

Here's the first:

Dear Kzip,

Your indentured servant Dorze the spell-scribe has stowed away on my skyboat. I'm afraid I was unaware, and, indeed, unconscious at the time that it happened. The Sky Pilot's Guild, of which I have the honor to be an associate member, recommends that I put him aground at my next port of call, which will be Eigrach in Srineia. But I recognize your particular interest in this stowaway. If you like, I will lend you (with Dorze as your agent) the money to buy him passage on a skyboat from Eigrach to Oorah Thrassen -- when I can find one; Srineia has little direct commerce with Ketheria. I am not sure how likely he would be to stay on such a skyboat all the way back to Ketheria, since he has, already, recently attempted once to leave your service. Various other arrangements are possible as well. I expect to spend at least two months in Eigrach; you could, e.g., send an agent here to collect him -- assuming of course that he does not wish to flee further; I have few effective and legal means of restraining him. Or at any rate, you can send a letter to him urging him to come home (or whatever course of action you wish); I enclose two return envelopes, courtesy of the nendrai Vaisessasilmin.

With apologies for any perplexities or expenses I have directly or indirectly caused you, I remain, your hmbl srvt, Sythyry.

And here's the harder one.

Dear Nangbang and family,

I regret to inform you that your daughter Lost-Eyes was discovered stowed away on my skyboat. The Sky Pilot's Guild, of which I have the honor to be an associate member, recommends that I put her aground at my next port of call, which will be Eigrach in Srineia. According to Guild rules, that should be the end of the matter for me. However, I recognize that you may wish for your daughter to have better treatment than that. I would be happy, for example, to lend you (with Lost-Eyes as your agent) the money to buy her passage on a skyboat from Eigrach to Oorah Thrassen -- when I can find one; Srineia has little direct commerce with Ketheria. I am not sure how likely she would be to stay on such a skyboat all the way back to Ketheria, since she has recently left home and shows no great eagerness to return. I expect to spend at least two months in Eigrach, and would be happy to keep your daughter comfortable and safe there. My sky-yacht lacks prison facilities, and my friends lack suitable training; I'm afraid that, if she stays with us, she will do so of her own volition. In any case, I enclose two envelopes; you may write to her as well as me, and urge her to do what you think best.

With apologies for any perplexities or expenses I have directly or indirectly caused you, I remain, your hmbl srvt, Sythyry.

Perhaps I can behave morally and legally towards everyone concerned, even.

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

*dances the dance for seven!*

Four plus three! Four plus three!

*indeed, to the close eye, the otter can be seen dancing first in four steps, then in three, repeated*

*plays some complex but appropriate drum sounds*

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

You actually did it, RL! Whee!

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

You might enjoy some of the rest of my music. (Note: VERY widely differing songs and song styles.)

[rowyn]

I see World Tree has $CANDYLAND, though with great improvements! My world's version of $CANDYLAND has no places where the player can make a decision.

Also, Quendry sounds just like a young boy. Your translator translates him well!

And good luck with your letters to Nangbang and Kzip. I hope they don't ask you to serve as their agent in returning their property/offspring. Since it sounds like, from earlier discussions, being Kzip's agent would give you legal authority to return at least Dorze against his will. c.c

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Heh! Ah Candyland... I'm sure there are games that do the "instead of ZERO places to make decisiosn, there are THREE!" somewhere on this world...

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

We played one with my nephew a few years back. You have to roll dice and move your little squirrels (or were they birds?) to keep them ahead of the cat, who moves if you roll the BAD number. At three places on the board, you get to choose whether to take a shortcut or not. Sending the cat on a shortcut past the squirrels is the key to victory! >:)

[rowyn]

And it's got squirrels in it! That makes it better than Candyland. >:)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

They might have been birds... we only played it a couple times.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

The Game of Life, depending on the version, can have upwards to four choices now! Very progressive from it's initial "one choice".

[rowyn]

I seem to remember Life had several points where you could make choices. Many of them were *bad* choices, but you still got to choose whether or not to buy various types of insurance or play the stock market or whatnot. >:)

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

The whole point of Candyland and similar games is that there are no choices, allowing players of widely differing levels of intelligence (e.g. parent and child) to play without forcing the superior player to choose between patronizing (by deliberately playing below level) or frustrating (by being unbeatable) the inferior player

[rowyn]

Hee, I know that. I can still remember when my favorite game was War, a card game with no decisions involved. I was maybe 4?

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

And doom in five, four, three...

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Was the intimidation of sending the notes in Vae Envelopes intentional?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't carry around a post office in Strayway! Perhaps some city near here could take a letter to Oorah Thrassen (and perhaps not quickly), but I don't feel like stopping for a week or two to wait answers the usual way.

I don't have any spells that could reach from here to Oorah Thrassen, and I doubt that Kzip or Nangbang has any that could reach here.

So asking Vae was practical.

Intimidation is useful too, of course.

[warphammer.livejournal.com]

Envaelopes?

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's bad. I'm in admiration.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Ba-Dum! Ching!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well done diplomatically speaking. :)

[vernononfm.livejournal.com]

I agree. You have certainly done your legal and moral duty, even if not both at the same time. ;) And, as someone suggested the possibility earlier, if zie was to be an agent for someone, zie would have the choice. A simple 'I'm on my vacation, and that would be too great an inconvenience' would be more than adequate, as zie is under no real obligation to accept. You will have to work very hard to get any serious doom out of this one! :)

[zeeth_kyrah]

But the whole point is that Sythyry doesn't have to work at the Doom, it comes on its own and says hello at inconvenient moments.

[rowyn]

You have far less faith in the powers of Doom than I do! >:)

The Circle Closes

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I am pleased that a reasonable course of action has been found.

I am also amused to have contributed to it, since I have myself occasionally benefitted from reasonable suggestions by friends in other universes.

Re: The Circle Closes

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oh? That sounds like an interesting story to tell!

Re: The Circle Closes

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Among the more notable examples: I was walking along, and a bee got caught in my hair. My response was to freeze, waiting for the bee to get loose on her own. Various of my characters started yelling advice, ranging from the imprudent ("Scream and run") to the impossible ("Shoot it out with a laser gun"). But one suggestion was better than what I was doing: calmly go inside, put a comb between the bee and my face, and comb it out. So that's what I did, and it worked. I popped a cup over the bee and took her back outside.

Re: The Circle Closes

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Various of your characters...? *blinkblink* your characters give you advice? Oooh neat. MY characters (mostly D&D ones) dont give me advice. For which I am thankful! I would really only want to pay attention to the advice from the LG Paladins, of which there are a few!

Re: The Circle Closes

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

My characters are mostly not on speaking terms with me. Except Sythyry, who is not all that happy with me.

Re: The Circle Closes

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

what is the bloo lizard upset with the bard over?

Re: The Circle Closes

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Have you been reading the LJ? Everything bad that happens to Sythyry is because Bard decided it should happen. ;>

Re: The Circle Closes

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, you and I both know that Bard is just the translator! ;)

Re: The Circle Closes

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Well, Sythyry may believe in killing the messenger. ;>