9 Oix 4385: Ice in Hot Surprise

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Yay naked parade! Vheshrame didn't have one this year, maybe we all forgot how to after the last few Cold Surprises of Freezingness. I'd rather go to a Naked Parade than deal with guild politics but since there's no Naked Parade here, I haven't been doing either.

Instead, I went to an ice-dance yesterday afternoon which was WONDERFUL and COLD. Not that I only went because it was cold though that was definitely extra incentive. But I do really like watching ice-dancers. They're so graceful and elegant and this troupe had gorgeous costumes and made wonderful use of magic to accentuate their performance. The story was about Flokin accidentally setting the top of the World Tree on fire and then asking the heroine to bring back the Heart of Ice from the bottom of the World Tree to put it out. Most of the show took place at the bottom of the World Tree where it's always winter and strange primes and monsters don't even know what the sun looks like. There was lots of skating (it is an ice-dance after all) and Creoc Aquador to make artificial snowstorms that filled the arena (including the stands) and Illusidor to provide these amazing backdrops for the characters to skate through and to turn some of the actors into great and terrible monsters. The nendrai's lair was very impressive, full of gleaming intricate death-trap spells. Not actually as scary as Vae in person but more imposing if that makes sense?

Of course the brave heroine wins the heart of the ice prince, and then they tricked the nendrai into letting them take the Heart of Winter back to the top of the World Tree. The Heart brought winter with them all the way to the top almost, but the wintery heart cancelled out the fire there and it became a beautiful summer instead. The heroine and her prince took off their skates and danced on the green moss and the prince pledged to stay with her in the summerlands forever. It was very sweet! Although I was sorry about summer winning because I didn't want to go back into the heat. o.o;; Maybe I should become an ice-dancer! That'd be fun and I'm pretty good at void-dancing although ice-dancing looks harder. And not a whole lot like void-dancing.

I may go back again tomorrow because it WAS very pretty as well as cold and I know it's expensive but I'm rich now so I can afford it right?

This morning, while we were still lounging around in our beds, Glory-morey wanted to know if I'd taken the master's test for furstyling yet. So I had to explain to her about guild politics and not being sure that I wanted to go back to furstyling since I'm rich.

"You're rich? Really? How much did you get from that adventure?"

"Lots!" I said, sliding one of her ice chips around my head.

"So, what? A thousand lozens? Ten thousand?"

"... all right maybe not that many lots."

"There's no way you're going to live the rest of your life on it, then. I bet you can't even make it through next year. You'll need a job again eventually and being a master furstylist'll pay better than a journeyman. You could even have your own shop if you were a master."

"Nooooooo I don't want to run my own shop then I'd have to hire an accountant and she'd embezzle all my money and I'd be broke for sure!" I whined.

Glorious Cool (did I mention that she's changed her name? She changed her name) stared at me. "I don't think that's how business normally works."

"That's how it would FOR ME!"

"... I am not going to argue with that. ANYWAY," Glorious Cool continued, stabbing at her pillow with one finger, "the point is that getting a job will be easier if you're a master, and Paranenzu knows if you'll ever get the chance again, so you should go for it. AND," she added as I opened my mouth to protest, "if guild politics are keeping you from trying, you should find out what's going on there, too. Trouble that involves nobles is NEVER good."

"But I've got lots of lozens NOW I don't see why I should deal with this all while I'm still rich!" I complained, holding up the chunk of ice and letting thin shivery rivulets of ice water run down my arms. "These are the problems I have to fix when I'm POOR."

"If you fixed them NOW, you won't BE poor."

"But if I won't be poor, then I don't need to deal with it EVER!" I said, triumphantly.

My roommate got up and took the ice from my hands. "Fine! Do whatever you like! But I don't have to keep you cool and comfy while you do it." She stomped out, and all the cold seemed to leave with her.

Well, not right away -- I had time to write this before Surprise had melted all the frost in the room away -- but it's pretty hot and stuffy in here now, and it's probably even hotter and stuffier outside. I guess it probably wouldn't kill me to ask at the guild about why they offered to let me stand the test. Or why they dropped the whole license-suspension thing so quickly, even.

Or I could see when the next ice-dance performance is. I think I'd rather do that.