(no subject)

[sythyry]

[9 Trandary 4261]

The Mysteries of the Artists

Tethezai is generally a person who shares and reveals. She is generous with presents of books or food or what need you. She shares personal favors with many people -- though I gather that she has become less generous with such since she fell in love with Dustweed. She is less likely to wear a robe than anyone else walking in the public rooms of our apartment.

(I, of course, do not and cannot conveniently wear a robe; I, of course, do not and cannot conveniently walk. Someday I shall cause to be built a suite of rooms which suit my size -- and therefore also the size of Orren in water-form -- and everyone else must do as best they can. But such suites are, somehow, not built for leasing in Vheshrame.)

But most of all she shares her art. She shows half-finished sketches. To the non-artist these look like entirely finished works -- but works depicting, not people, but the marks that a dozen assorted glasses would leave on a table. Congeries of carefully arranged circles and lines, mostly. Esory and Dustweed and suchlike will nod admiringly. I may ask, "This is a chalice of beer, this is a teacup without its saucer?". She will giggle and respond, "This is Dustweed's thorax, this is the half-full sun."

For which reason it is remarkable that, though she has been working on sketches for her Heroic Drawings project, she has not shown anyone.

Hmph. Zi Ri are supposed to be the most mysterious of all people, yet my life is an open book -- even to people who do not somehow get to read my diary. Yet all around me, Rassimel and Orren have their mysteries. I must acquire some of my own.

Comments

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

I recommend a hobby of brilliantly executed petty crime. Surely this shouldn't be out of reach for a Zi RI trained in the magical arts, and surely there are people who deserve to be relieved of some excess posessions.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

My suggestion would be flying around at night, writing little tidbits of wisdom on random places signed with a silly pseudonym.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

This is an honored pass-time at universities, even monster universities! Cryptic messages that appear, smeared in chalk or paint, on university sidewalks, the sides of buildings, or even the undersides of stairs are all quite common! I recommend this course. If you cannot think of something wise to say, I recommend what one monster quoted in random and exotic locales at my university: "Things which are repeated are pleasing."

(Evidently not, for the monsters in charge of lawn care and building maintenance removed these wise words!)

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

I suspect burglary or graffiti won't achieve the effect you desire. While both are appropriately mysterious, the neither of them will be attached to you - at least, not if you do them right. If I understand you, what you want is an air of mystery. If no one associates the mysterious acts with you, there will be no reputation.

To cultivate an air of mystery, schedule frequent blocks of time when you are not available. They may be regular or irregular, but they must conflict with times that others are likely to want to do something with you. When asked by anyone to join them during one of these times, explain that you are busy and (this is crucial) never explain further.

What you do during these times is up to you - visit museums in other parts of town, try new restaurants, sunbathe in out-of-the-way places, write graffiti, burglarize the unworthy. It's easiest if you do whatever you do entirely by yourself; if you were to cultivate new friends then sometime one of them would be sure to meet one of your current friends and compare notes, ending the mystery. This, I believe, is a law of nature.

The essence of mystery is not in what you do, but in what others don't know.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Take one room of your house, and fill it with wooden dividers to represent walls and floors, and then fill it with miniature furniture? As long as you don't actually glue it to the real walls and floors the landlord should accept it as a piece of furniture itself, right?

Then have Dustweed enchant it so that it's perpetually damp, so that Orren can actually visit it in water form, and rent out the subrooms to truly desperate Orren.

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I have no idea whether Zi Ri really are that mysterious. You just have so much longer of a lifespan than us that, if you were to refer to a public event one hundred and fifty years ago, few nonspecialists would understand it.

[esory.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could take up artist mysteries! No doubt there'll be a beginner's course of some sort next term: "Drawings of Things that Do Not Move", maybe, would suit you. :)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

'Flirtatious Etchings'?

[esory.livejournal.com]

No, no, that's an intermediate course.

Though, hmm, perhaps Sythyry's experience in Flirtatious Dance would serve as prerequisite .... ;)

[jareth-atian.livejournal.com]

If you are looking to aquire mysteries, I do believe that I have a few available for purchase.

I think that you'll find my prices to be reasonable but I'm afraid that the charge will increase depending on the depth of mystery you desire.

And I am always willing to negotiate or barter.