sythyry | (no subject)

Flies-with-Fez [12 Thory 4261]

I tried wearing the pointy conical romantic hat. It fell off before I had flown twice around the room.

After some experimenting, I discovered that it stays on adequately if I keep my wings entirely still, but it falls off if I flap them.

Unless, of course, I keep the point of the hat pointed precisely forwards as I fly.

Which is too ridiculous to be endured.

The milliner is working to contrive a secret internal support, or, if need be, an chinstrap of invisible cloth.

(Note to self: The prices for invisible cloth are remarkably high. The stuff is quite hard to make: even a plain invisibility spell is complexity 20, and that is a short-term spell. And, for some reason, Illusidor mages good enough to make invisible cloth are generally more interested in making fun or flamboyant illusions. And invisible cloth has many uses in all sorts of straps and support garments. The milliner complained at length how hard the stuff was to get. I gather it's nearly as expensive as metal. And, unlike metal, it wears out. An iron sword might be in your family for generations -- an invisible brassiere will not be. And, of course, permanant invisibility spells require Sustenoc, which gives Zi Ri a substantial advantage. So this might be a nice straightforward way to make lots of money, once I'm good enough to cast it.)

(Note to self: Investigate other items that might sensibly be invisible. Invisible support beams for fantastical architectures? Invisible boards for insanely expensive windows? Invisible coats for exhibitionists in wintertime? These don't sound quite right... but there must be some other good tricks.)

In any case, I am now flying around in a stunningly stylish fez.

By "around" I mean "around the milliner's shop". The thing seems to stay on pretty well -- it's snugger around my feathers than the romantical cone.

Next, if I am bold enough, I will show it to my friends.

And I'd better be bold enough, or I've wasted a great deal of money.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ah well, there is an obvious solution, but Sythyry may not appreciate it - extend or reshape your head-feathers into a support structure that fits within the romantic cone hat and keeps it firmly on your head! The only problem is that if you take it off, well, you will have a magnificent case of 'hat hair', or rather, 'hat feathers'.

While I think invisible support beams may well be more trouble than they're worth; I imagine that you'd have problems with people walking into them occasionally. Perhaps invisible armor plating for the windows of castles and mansions would be a viable market? I imagine if one's life were threatened, an invisible steel or stone plate fitted inside one's windows might be a valuable investment. Likewise, if one was to display a fragile or valuable artifact, perhaps an invisible case made of some hardy material could be a valuable investment. Invisible gates or portculli to stymie theives and invaders?

Pardon a mere monster for asking; I know that inhabitants of the World Tree have a sort of magic sense in addition to the five that we monsters have. Would this allow one to sense enchanted objects, or ones that were made invisibile through this method?

- HC

If you're rich enough to buy steel armor plating, you probably wouldn't need to make it invisible . . . it'd be cheaper just to hire guards to stand outside each one.

Point. Stone or wood, perhaps?

- HC

Or, I suppose, one could build a building without windows, and simply Illusidor windows in place. It would allow for more substantial rearrangement of individual rooms. No more problems with not being able to put a bed against a given wall because there are windows there! Just move the windows over!

Hrmmmmm...

Enchanted things are generally quite obvious to the magic sense. (Those are things with big heavy permanant magics on them -- what I'm studying.)

Enspelled things are generally pretty obvious to the magic sense. (Those are things that have a spell on them, or were created by one, or whatever -- what any five-year-old can do.)

But Illusidor is generally obscure to the magic sense -- the more powerful the spell, the harder it is to sense as unusual magically. (Invisibility is generally an Illusidor effect.) Most illusion-based art is physically impossible and high-power, so one sees something that cannot happen naturally and does not appear to be magical. Just the style, I guess.

The invisible cloth is just plain invisible with Illusidor, without any extra power or subtlety, meaning that it's on the edge of what I can sense. Senior magic students can usually tell it's there.

I could see this going one step further, if even more extravagent and expensive. Invisible metal. Oh yes, having an invisible sword would be the ultimate in needlessly adventurous adventuring gear.

A trouble and a half if you drop it thought!

Well you would just enspell it to sing on command, of course.

And I'd better be bold enough, or I've wasted a great deal of money.

On the plus side, it was money you'd have to have spent (or lost) anyway. :-)

I actually wondered why invisible clothing wasn't more popular, until I thought about it for a moment longer. O.o;

Invisible clothing -- for when you want to be nude, but warm!

I imagine invisible body stockings would be popular for strippers in cold places.

Do you guys even have strippers, or is that just something we monsters have?

[Bard and Sythyry talk a bit]

We have erotic performers of various sorts. I know nothing more! Really! But the ones in Vheshrame do more than simply strip. I am entirely ignorant. Performances seem to involve lesser or greater degrees of extravagant autoeroticism. Even the puppet shows. Fortunately I know nothing about this. Actually the puppet shows are the most extreme of the lot. I am wholly ignorant of this entire topic. Perhaps less civilized places have just-plain-strippers. I don't know about that either.

And I'm not hideously embarrassed either. Really.