The gyms reopened yesterday in Malta, so I'm back there again, and it's nice to get able to get some resistance exercises done once more. Of course, the trick is not to overdo it in the first couple of weeks but to build up gently back to where I was, and your prompt made me think of that :)
However, I thought you might like the end of yesterday's vignette today :) There's no direct call out to the title, but for me the Mages are working their way through their options to a conclusion.
Working your way through
"Inelegant," said Mage Yinqui. She tossed her head and for a moment her stubbled scalp seemed adorned with long, luxuriantly thick copper-coloured hair that caught the wind and streamed behind her like a comet's tail, and then the illusion faded. "And if you don't watch it carefully you get slopes and inclines on the surface." "You also get hotspots," said Mage Albert. "Which is good when your side know where they are, but less so when they appear at random and blow cloud of boiling steam and chunks of rock up in your face." "Experience?" asked Mage Haralda, and smiled at the look of annoyance on Mage Albert's face. "Fine, while I would prefer an environmentally sound option there's always Illusory Glacier. That's a fun spell and even a child can cast it." "No," said Mage Albert, and then hesitated. His manticore stretched beneath him and yawned. "Wait, are you thinking of using it with Hefton's Heavy-heavy hand?" "Like a clothes iron over a wrinkled bed-sheet," said Mage Haralda, who did his own laundry. "Top it off with Adderson's Accelerator and I think we could manage it in half an hour." "What children have you taught this spell to?" asked Mage Yinqui, managing to make it sound like an entirely casual question. "Only I don't think it might have been a very good idea." "None," said Mage Haralda quickly. "Oh good," said Mage Yinqui. "I'd hate for you to get investigated by the Commission for Magical Wrongdoing. If we're going with ice spells, then perhaps we could also use Inclement Weather to get a storm going and then Aberrant Waterworks to fuel the Glacier? As I recall that spell works best with a good source of water, and since there are people living down there there must be water underneath the ground somewhere." "Use the storm to increase the water mass and then get a geyser from the Waterworks?" Mage Albert was nodding his head eagerly, and his eyes were bright as he thought it through. "If we time it right, the Glacier could form above the land and fall a good twenty metres before it even starts sliding. That would set a good level plane and we'd be sure that there'd be no tectonic rebound for at least three centuries." "And I can always set up Elpheba's scouring on a timer," said Mage Yinqui. She tapped a fingernail against a front tooth. "So that the battlefield gets cleaned up afterwards and the ground is all set for agriculture. Much better than is being done at present."
Greg - I am incapable of easing myself back into the gym, I've proven that on many, many occasions. But at some point I'll defy logic and try again. Things are starting to open up here in BC as well - they're hoping for a return to 'normal' by September, with gradual relaxations of the rules on the way there.
Well, you certainly can't deny they've exhausted the possible methods of achieving their orders. Definitely some creative options in there!
2 comments:
The gyms reopened yesterday in Malta, so I'm back there again, and it's nice to get able to get some resistance exercises done once more. Of course, the trick is not to overdo it in the first couple of weeks but to build up gently back to where I was, and your prompt made me think of that :)
However, I thought you might like the end of yesterday's vignette today :) There's no direct call out to the title, but for me the Mages are working their way through their options to a conclusion.
Working your way through
"Inelegant," said Mage Yinqui. She tossed her head and for a moment her stubbled scalp seemed adorned with long, luxuriantly thick copper-coloured hair that caught the wind and streamed behind her like a comet's tail, and then the illusion faded. "And if you don't watch it carefully you get slopes and inclines on the surface."
"You also get hotspots," said Mage Albert. "Which is good when your side know where they are, but less so when they appear at random and blow cloud of boiling steam and chunks of rock up in your face."
"Experience?" asked Mage Haralda, and smiled at the look of annoyance on Mage Albert's face. "Fine, while I would prefer an environmentally sound option there's always Illusory Glacier. That's a fun spell and even a child can cast it."
"No," said Mage Albert, and then hesitated. His manticore stretched beneath him and yawned. "Wait, are you thinking of using it with Hefton's Heavy-heavy hand?"
"Like a clothes iron over a wrinkled bed-sheet," said Mage Haralda, who did his own laundry. "Top it off with Adderson's Accelerator and I think we could manage it in half an hour."
"What children have you taught this spell to?" asked Mage Yinqui, managing to make it sound like an entirely casual question. "Only I don't think it might have been a very good idea."
"None," said Mage Haralda quickly.
"Oh good," said Mage Yinqui. "I'd hate for you to get investigated by the Commission for Magical Wrongdoing. If we're going with ice spells, then perhaps we could also use Inclement Weather to get a storm going and then Aberrant Waterworks to fuel the Glacier? As I recall that spell works best with a good source of water, and since there are people living down there there must be water underneath the ground somewhere."
"Use the storm to increase the water mass and then get a geyser from the Waterworks?" Mage Albert was nodding his head eagerly, and his eyes were bright as he thought it through. "If we time it right, the Glacier could form above the land and fall a good twenty metres before it even starts sliding. That would set a good level plane and we'd be sure that there'd be no tectonic rebound for at least three centuries."
"And I can always set up Elpheba's scouring on a timer," said Mage Yinqui. She tapped a fingernail against a front tooth. "So that the battlefield gets cleaned up afterwards and the ground is all set for agriculture. Much better than is being done at present."
Greg - I am incapable of easing myself back into the gym, I've proven that on many, many occasions. But at some point I'll defy logic and try again. Things are starting to open up here in BC as well - they're hoping for a return to 'normal' by September, with gradual relaxations of the rules on the way there.
Well, you certainly can't deny they've exhausted the possible methods of achieving their orders. Definitely some creative options in there!
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