(no subject)

[sythyry]

First Spell [1 Hispis 4261]

Topic the First: The first spell I grafted was Cute Fangs of the Hearthfire (Sustenoc Pyrador 10), which, of course, paralyzes a small fire so that the flames do not move (but otherwise the fire burns normally). [This is unusual -- most people start with complexity-5 spells -- but a reasonably smart Zi Ri of minimal skill could handle a complexity-10 Sustenoc spell, so it's not impossible. -bb]

This is false!

Rather, it is true, but it is true for my ~mother~ Eitharheinen, not for me. Verehinga recognized zir strong memory at a distressingly early age, and gave zir an unusual spell as zir first. It was not a very good idea! It is hard enough to learn how to graft a pattern spell when you start on a simple complexity-5 cantrip. Cute Fangs is a rather odd and twisty complexity-10 spell -- it wouldn't be so hard for a highschool freshling, say, but ~mother~ was some years younger than that when zie got it. Zie managed to break one copy somehow, and was stuck with a half-grafted mess on zir magerium while Verehinga scrambled to copy out another one so zie could finish it properly.

Or so zie told me, as zie gave me a nice straightforward Comb the Night Bed (Sustenoc Pyrador 5), the spell which I use most nights to keep a fire burning, low, the whole night through.

I did get Cute Fangs as a birthday present from Verehinga two years ago. I procrastinated for half a year before I grafted it, and the only reason I was so fast was that Verehinga was about to visit. I stayed up all night grafting it. I only remembered to cast it where Verehinga could see when ~mother~ reminded me. Useless spell, that.

(tempralisis: Yes, I did the enchantment in Aquador, but that's because I wanted to get a bit better at Aquador. It seems like an important Noun to be good at if I'm going to continue this unfortunate and doom-supplying interest in Orren. I'm hardly a great fire mage, but Pyrador is a very practical and useful Noun for a Zi Ri, and I'm about as good at it as I am at Aquador. My second spell was Extinguish the Fire (Destroc Pyrador 5), given to me in rather a hurry one day when I developed a snoutful of sneezes.

~Mother~ of course urges me to get much better at Airador before I ever go on a long flight by myself. I use this, rather than any laziness of the wings, as an excuse for not going on long flights by myself.)

(terrycloth: All four are only true or false in some detail. I don't have the energy to make fantastical stories up out of whole cloth.)

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Did Verehinga invent Cute Fangs or something? It does sound pretty useless, and I can't imagine zi ri go senile.

Would it paralyze a Fire Kitten?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I confess that I had to look this one up in the library.
Verehinga did not invent Cute Fangs; Glikkonen did,
for Verehinga, in year 823, as a sort of anniversary
present. I am going to have look into the history and
works and deeds of all my ancestors.

It's not entirely useless anyways. If you are
sculpting fires (e.g., by pouring scented oils on a plank
before you burn it), you can use Cute Fangs to keep
them in place for a long while. If you are a Zi Ri trying
to seduce another Zi Ri, presenting zir with a nicely
sculpted firebed might be just the thing.

So it's not entirely useless. Just it's useless to me, any
time soon.

Would it paralyze a Fire Kitten?

You wouldn't happen to be an adventurer, would you?

This one took me some research too -- staring at the grafted
spell, though, because I couldn't find it in a book. Simple
spells intended to get through magic resistance generally
have a disumphiant or a cacothex or some similar structural
element to do so, and I don't see any that I recognize on
this spell. Not that I understand more than a third of the
structure of the spell, really -- as I said, it's a very
twisty thing for a complexity 10 spell, especially one with
only two arts. My grandparent has been very devious zir
whole life long.

Anyways, I think it could only paralyze a fire kitten who
specifically tried not to resist it. I think that making it
useful for that would require at least a cacothex, and I'm
sure that would boink it up to the next quantum,
complexity 15, at least. Cacothexes are fairly big.

[Sythyry dreams that night about Bondage Fire Kitten, who
wanders around from monster to monster begging them to
paralyze it, and getting rejection after rejection, until a
kind Orren in a light blue beret helps it out with a Cute
Fangs.]