07.13d: A Roll of the Dice

[Wyvern]

"Exactly," responds Alys. "This place offers a remarkable degree of... leverage."

[Joshua]

Ninear will nod. "Perhaps that could incite some new people here. if we wanted to go out and recruit. Still, this is just conjecture. Without seeing if a change here affects other shadows." She thinks a little. "I'm not willing to check such things, but others may wish to."

[Veyska]

It's been a minute or two since Alys' Look at Rogbar, but given that Asai arrives by physical means* rather than teleporting it seems probable that she simply wasn't in the immediate vicinity and decided to fix this state of affairs with a minimum of reality warping. With the sinuousity that only cats and the more serpentine-shaped species seem to have inherently, she 'lets go' of the ceiling first with the one hand that isn't currently occupied holding some sort of messy pastry confection** and then as she twists her forequarters back 'upright' her hind feet come free as well and she makes a perfect three-point landing a few feet away from the table. Rising into a bipedal stance she wanders over, nibbling at the pastry as she does so, and then when a reasonable break in the conversation arises says to Alys, "Whatcha' looking at?"

(*Walking along the ceiling. Gravity goes where *I* tell it to, so there!)
(**Lots of drizzles and sprinkled nuts and whatnot; possibly something along the lines of a dessert equivalent of a soup bowl? By all rights it should have dripped all over half the room by now but... Even people who might have missed the comparatively subtle clues of her harness' hanging 'upward' on prior passes through would be rather hard pressed to miss this fact, assuming they notice the feline moseying around the ceiling in the first place.)

[Joshua]

Rogbar will stiffen as Asai arrives. He will address her curtly. "Asai, normally I would ask you to rethink your previous position*, but alas, tonight, blood-loss will have to trump chivalry**. Let me as least get drinks for everyone, I will be right back***."

Holt will also get a little nervous as Asai arrives. Although, that's more about your boss' boss arriving than anything else.
________
*: About not dating him.
**: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
***: He will assume refills unless otherwise stated... and he's clearly doing this to avoid embarrassing himself with Asai in front of Jiga****.
****: They're not on a date!

[Wyvern]

"I expect the effects on any specific shadow would be reasonably subtle. Still, verifying such influence should be well within the reach of those attuned to the Pattern, and tricky but not impossible for the rest of us," Alys replies to Lady Ninear.

"People," she replies to Asai. "Specifically, double-checking certain facts and assumptions, particularly with respect to the relative reality of various individuals."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

Jiga gives Alys a curious look but doesn't inquire further, rather she keeps one eye on the cat as he heads off, letting out a sigh with a shake of her head. "Well even if it's only a theory, and the little I know of how this place works makes it sound like a reasonable one, trying to make this place a model for other realities can't hurt. It'd be great if some of the open mixing of races that goes on here was more common back home.

Her thoughts take a turn as she asks, "Asai, do you know of some magic or ability that can heal a person quickly that has been in Amber for some time? If so that's something I'd certainly like to know more about."

[Veyska]

Asai will blink at Rogbar's remarks and give his retreating backside a patently inscrutable feline stare for a few moments before returning her focus to the Jiga. Some of the inscrutability remains as she dryly says, "It depends in large part on whether the person in question plans to remain in Amber for any length of time and how narrow your definition of 'quick' is. Conjuration is the simplest option, functioning a bit like a cast around a broken bone - it doesn't outright heal the injury, but it helps speed things along and helps the injured person function more or less normally while the injuries actually fully heal. However it's arguably the most fragile of the options I can think of offhand, like most magics it doesn't handle crossing shadows particularly well. I know Morgana's been working on fusing conjuration and Pattern, but I don't know how much progress she's made so you'd have to ask her. You'd need Pattern for that, though, which does rather limit who could make use of it. Same goes for shapeshifting, which is limited to self-only at lower strength in any case. You could also find or craft an item that enhanced a creature's natural rate of healing, and said item could be modified or made to work cross-shadow, but neither means of obtaining would be particularly cheap in terms of time or effort and it would probably be limited in how much effect it could have."

She starts to take a bite out of her confection and then pauses for a moment, thinking. Looking back up she comments, "If you'd like, I can give you some instruction in conjuration. I can't make any promises, my specialty is sorcery and shadow magics and, well... From what I've learned about your home shadow's magic by talking to Rasanam it seems fairly similar in nature to my own home shadow's and so you probably have some notion of how magic can be slippery to master at first, sometimes to the point where some people never quite grasp it. Conjuration and sorcery alike aren't too terribly different in that regard, though the fact you are here at all is a promising sign."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

"Me? Learn Magic? I'm not sure I have the mind or the patience for that though thank you greatly for the offer. I think I'm better suited to more common pursuits though I suppose a basic primer at the least would be helpful. I have little experience with magic of any sort in more than a passing manner. Rasanam might as well be speaking a foreign language when he starts in on magical theory. It's even harder to follow than his maddening talk of mechanics."

[Veyska]

Asai shrugs. "We'd start with a basic primer regardless, so no time wasted there. Believe it or not as suits you, but I completely understand the feeling of magic being entirely beyond one's grasp; when first I started trying to figure out my home shadow's magic I wasn't terribly much more intelligent than an ordinary cat*."

(*Asai has no qualms about people knowing that she was a familiar for most of her pre-Amber life, but it is rather less well-known (and likely even less well-believed) that she actually started out as a seemingly normal 'cat' and grew into her intellect and power some unspecified while after she had reached her species' adult status.)

[ShadowOfPreservation]

"Well, It's not like I wouldn't love to learn so I'm certainly interested. Hopefully the Striders won't keep me too busy training...but I suppose we can work out the details later. I'll do my best to not waste your time. Thank you again."