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

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Inconnu has been impersonating you. No matter that he's kind of ten thousand miles away. That boy gets around, if you know what I mean, and I kind of hope you don't.

Actually actually, Grinwipey has been impersonating you ... or you've been impersonating him ... or at any rate, you've got a muse inspiropersonating you both. You're artists. The rest of us aren't.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Well whichever of them it is make them stop! I have enough trouble being me without someone else trying to be me too!

[zeeth_kyrah]

And now we find truth: You don't know what it means to be good at something, you're just good at it.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

That doesn't make any sense how could you be good at something without knowing how to be good at it?

And I know I'm a good furstylist! I'm just not an artistydesdicatedwhateveritis that Scarletbloom thinks I am somehow.

[zeeth_kyrah]

You know how to be good at it. You just don't know what that means, you're not seeing the connections these people talk about.

Just like you didn't know why anyone would hire you for your knowledge, way back before you went adventuring.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

That's because no one would hire me for my knowledge I don't KNOW anything and isn't that just what you were telling me that I don't even know what I know .... AGH.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

Easier than you think. While it's true that in some fields, like magic theory or such, that how good you are is defined by the sum of what you know, this is not the case for everything.

Take, for instance, a stevedore. His job is primarily to lift heavy things, move them, and put them down again. He's good at this because he's strong and has a good sense of balance under load. He doesn't need to know the complex biochemistry that makes his muscles work, or why the gods designed them that way. He just needs to be strong enough to lift heavy things.

So it is with art, though in a far less tangible way. Most artists have a "feel" for the beauty in things that they couldn't explain even if they tried. And while you can learn technique and the rules of aesthetics as they apply to Prime psychology - and benefit greatly from doing so - that's not the whole picture.

It's not something I can explain properly. It's certainly not an ability I have. But there is a certain intangible thing to art that will express itself as raw talent even without understanding.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

...

So you're saying I could be what Scarletbloom says I am without me even REALIZING it?

But if you were making art you'd know it was art wouldn't you? Furstyling isn't *art* you're not going to put it in a museum and keep it for generations I don't even keep mine for a month usually I think she's just crazy. It's just a job.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what we're saying.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree or disagree with Scartletbloom. Just that it's a possibility you should consider rather than dismissing out of hand. A proper definition of "art" is something that has eluded our world's greatest philosophers for millenia.

Personally, I think art is subjective and happens to be whatever you point at when you're saying it. But that's an opinion, and no more.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh but that's just -- well --

... I was going to say 'I don't think your offdimensional theories apply on World Tree' except that it sounds like you agree with Scarletbloom and *she's* on World Tree so ....

Um.

I guess I'll think about it?

[terrana.livejournal.com]

That's all I ask. In particular, think about whether you want to be what Scarletbloom thinks you are. That will tell you whether you should stand for master or not.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

I am coming to associate the exclamation of "Exactly! You understand!" with fear and confusion.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Surely you must agree to be my willing sacrifice now! Get into the giant blender!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Yes somehow that is exactly what I feel like they're saying. c.c

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't think those words mean what they think they mean!

[terrana.livejournal.com]

They're being said a lot, though.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't resist, it's your destiny to inspire a new generation of furstylists who give customers what they need, not what they want. ^_^

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Why not think of it this way:

Somewhere along the line, you gained a lot of adventuring experience in furstyling.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

Turns out those ulgrane were good for more than just transportation and fire support.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

Completely unrelated to most of this stuff, how can there not be people in every city making a fortune from bound Keep Me Warm/Cool spells of various measure? It's not like Surprise is a new month or anything.