11 Oix 4385: Mystery Solved!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Scarletbloom Speaks

So I walked all the way back to Flowering Beauty again today and stopped for frozen honey tea once and frozen chub beetles once because YAY HOT SURPRISE. And then slooshed my way the last block because by then I'd melted into a puddle.

But Scarletbloom had hired some student to do a cooling spell on the shop so it was almost worth it just for that. Maybe I should hire a student to follow me around and keep me cool. Or just buy a pattern spell for it. It can't be toooo complex. But the month is almost half-over and it'll be ages before I need it again so I don't know.

ANYWAY Scarletbloom was in but she was busy with manager or owner things so I couldn't talk to her right away. But she got to me in a third of an hour which is pretty good for manager/owner stuff.

"Delight! It's so good to finally meet you!" Scarletbloom shook my hand enthusiastically. We've met before but my fur was gold and white then and I was going by Joy-of-Corpador or something so I didn't really expect a Herethroy to remember. "So what name are you going by now?"

"Delight-in-Surprise."

"... really?"

"Well, it's better than cold Surprise."

"... ask me about that the next time we have cold Surprise, all right? So, what brings you to my shop, Delight-in-Surprise? Blushvine tells me you're not looking for work, alas."

"... did you REALLY want to hire me?"

Scarletbloom smiled at me, her antenna splaying cheerfully. "Of course!" She turned to go in back, beckoning to me to follow her. "You've got to understand, Dee, not all of us are like Absweth, obsessed over the inconsequential things and losing sight of what truly matters."

I stepped into the back room after her. It was a big room mostly full of furstyling supplies: brushes, combs, clippers, soaps, conditioning oils, scented oils, herbs for mixing into soaps and oils. Scarletbloom had a sort of office space carved out of one corner of it, with a drafting table next to a filing cabinet, and a couple of chairs. "Ummm ... so what truly matters?"

Scarletbloom picked up a chair and turned it around to sit facing me, with her legs straddling its back. "Furstyling isn't just a service we perform, Dee." She folded her true arms over the top of the chair's back, gesturing with her midarms.

"It's not?"

She laughed. "Not at all! That's what primes like Absweth and Chenthery want you to think, that styling fur is like washing clothes or cutting cloth. That any idiot with a pair of clippers or enough Creoc Corpador to cast the Well-Groomed Prime could do it. But that's simply not true. Furstyling is an art."

This conversation was sounding familiar. "It is?"

"Yes! It's not about hacking a customer's fur to a uniform height, as if they were an unkempt hedge, or dying them to whatever the 'in' color this season is. It's about creating a style that belongs to the customer. That suits their species, build, features, personality. I saw that work you did on Nightbloom's carapace, Delight, with the clouds of blue flowers on a midnight field. Magnificent! Bold without being overstated. Now, if I asked you to paint the same design on me, would you?"

"... I don't have a carapace-painter's license."

She waved a midhand negligently. "Say you were doing it as a favor to me, just like you did Nightbloom."

"I wouldn't do it as a FAVOR!" I burst out, and continued as she blinked at me, "it wouldn't suit you at all! And Nightbloom wouldn't want someone else copying her."

She clapped her true hands on my shoulders. "Exactly! You understand!"

I screwed up my face at her. "I do?"

"Yes! You want to do what's best for your customer, right?"

"... yes? When I had customers which I don't anymore because I'm retired," I added, in case this conversation was somehow going back to me working again.

"You don't want to style your next Cani just like the last one, just because that style came out well on him."

"Nooooo that'd be boring."

Scarletbloom giggled again. "See, and this is exactly why the guild needs you as a master."


"... what?" I tried to figure out how that followed logically from this conversation or, in fact, from anything ever.

"It's not just your technical skill -- which is good but occassionally sloppy, from what I've seen -- or that you've got a furstyling pattern spell of unusual flexibility, versatility, and more complexity than most furstylists can even cast. No, it's your passion, your dedication to achieving the best possible look, and sense of design that make you a stand out. You see the whole figure, you compose your creations so that each element of the furstyle compliments your customer's form, identity, and everyday surroundings."

"I do?" I am really pretty sure I don't do any of this stuff. I just try to make people look good.

Scarletbloom just ignored me this time. "And you're not afraid to take risks! You're exactly what this guild needs to shake up the beancounters like Absweth and Chenthery. With furstylists like you we can show guilds like the smiths and the tailors that furstyling is a serious art form, deserving of as much respect as any other. If you'd rather open your own shop, well, I can't blame you for wanting artistic control over your vision. But I can promise you, Flowering Beauty would never step on your toes or deride your talent the way some other shops I could name might. I respect you as a fellow artist, Dee, and I look forward to welcoming you to the rank of master."

I think my brain kind of locked up here. I don't remember what I said next. I think I gibbered for a bit and then ran away, maybe.

But at least I found out why I was invited to stand as master.

Obviously, some passionate, dedicated, designing bonstable has been impersonating me and everyone thinks I'm her.

Well, if they want to make her a master, then she can stand the trial. I'm going to spend the rest of Surprise hiding at the bottom of a pool