(no subject)

[sythyry]

The Greeting [23 Hispis 4385; Eigrach, Srineia]

Wicker seems to be reserved for buildings inside the city. The Mayor's pavilion is a small fortress actually, with a short wooden wall all around, and four archery-and-sorcery towers at the corners (each with three city guards), and a two-story central keep with a big flat roof that's suitable for even more archery and sorcery, or, in the most dire emergencies, a small picnic with visitors and monsters from Ketheria.

(And nothing has said "This is a foreign world-branch, and, indeed, a newly-colonized one" nearly so much as this pavilion. In Ketheria, a pavilion outside the city would probably have a strongpoint somewhere, but would be mostly devoted to, um, pavillioning. Monsters simply don't come that close to the city without being (a) noticed, (b) deterred, and/or (c) Vae. Srineia has no such tradition and mechanism of safety, and relies on more basic fortifications.)

This was lost on Vae.

"The we're all invited and all!" she warbled. "The grand and elegant entrance we shall make!" A leaf became a bridge of frozen kidneys, dyed alternating purple and orange, arching over the fortress walls. She surrounded it by a whirling tube of astringent winds, then a spiky sheath of magic-corroding owl feathers, then an honor guard of bats with blazing tails. "Oh, the I should make it beautiful too!" She added a decorative flourish of burning flowerpots fluttering around on burning butterfly wings, and another of rippling banners embroidered (unimpressively) with many, many candelabras.

A dozen city guards took aim at us with bows and mystic staves.

Comments

[rowyn]

Frozen kidneys? I see a hundred years of living closely with primes has not changed her aesthetic sensibilities much. >:)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

We've been trying ... staring gods, have we been trying! ... but the poor thing's mind is not entirely her own.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I don't think *anyone* chooses their aesthetic sensibilities, monster or no.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

De gustibus est non disputandum

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

De gustibus can be kept to the socially-acceptable when one is visiting in polite society!

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

o/~ Everybody's got the right to be different (if you want to be different) / Even if at times they go to extremes.... o/~

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

Doom before you even get in the pavillion!

(I'm reminded of our jokes about rampaging gazebos, brought about by an event involving a vocabulary error; note that gazebos can do no such thing out here, so it's a harmlessly entertaining concept)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard grins! It includes gazebos in most of its novels from gaming settings for just that reason.]

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many battles have actually been started by nendrai aesthetics, rather than genuine nendrai aggression.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Yyyep! Doom. Incredibly doomful doom.

This is going to be fun to watch!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Rather pretty, too.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

If you mean "Pretty Horrific" I completely agree with you.

As I was telling my little bro this morning, "Never invite an Effret to a party."

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

A dozen city guards took aim at us with bows and mystic staves.
Well, atleast you know they're substandard bows and staves.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Heeheehee!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I don't get it...

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

They're threatening Sythyry with the weapons that weren't good enough and that they're enlisting Sythyry to replace. That seems funny to *me*.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oh duh! I wasn't thinking beyond the most recent posting...

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

You know, I see substandard guns all the time (Okay, used to). They don't typically intimidate me any less.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

This was more me pointing out something “grimly ironic” than trying to provide comfort in the fact. I’m sure it’ll be rather funny in hindsight for Sythry. And already proved to be amusing to other monsters in the peanut gallery. I mean, I know if I was a professional gunsmith and some one tried to hold me up with a J-22, I’d probably laugh about it later. But I have rather a dark sense of humor.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

*light dawns* Oh.... okay.. I understand.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

We can only hope the guards' aim is also substandard. };)

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a bit from a movie ("Pass The Ammo", if you're interested... don't let the title fool you!) that went something like this:

Cop 1: "Let's just rush them! All they got are pistols."
Cop 2: "Son, you ever get shot by a pistol?"

Substandard still hurts. *grin*

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's purely precautionary...

[xolo.livejournal.com]

spiky sheath of magic-corroding owl feathers

Feathers from a magic-corroding owl, or...?

And what sort of kidneys did Vae use?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Owl feathers that corrode magic. No actual owl was involved, so it's hard to say.

They were pretty large kidneys. They might have been Gormoror, or they might have been from some monster or animal. No actual kidney source was involved, and I didn't investigate them terribly closely, so it's hard to say.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Pity. I was hoping for magic-corroding owls :)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Do you enjoy magic-corroding owls on your home world? I will admit I am confused about which world that may be.

After this vacation -- and a suitable recovery period -- I shall have to have a transdimensional vacation.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I'll admit to some confusion about that myself. It seems most often to be either Edwardian England, or Ponyland. In any event, I'm fairly sure that magic-corroding owls aren't to be found there, more's the pity.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Well, for all you know, perhaps the owls corroded all of the magic already. So now they're just normal owls.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Oooo. The idea makes owls much more special :)

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

This is why you should always pay for the stainless magic. It costs more, but you don't have to waste all your time polishing it.

[oh6.livejournal.com]

The incidents of your life tend to remind me of some of the chapter-endings in Gene Wolfe's novels.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Is that good? Or shall I try to live in a manner less befitting this DNA-canid?