exploratory kidnapping

[alicornucopia]

In this room are two women, one gray and sixty years old, one just thirty and red-haired, both wearing elaborate outfits. The younger casts a spell.

In this room is now also a third person. (On whom the elder woman promptly also casts a spell, which she had at the ready.)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

They stand back. They shift.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda looks at Ludei first.

"Firebreathing," she says. Ialdae jumps into the container. "White-group magic." Ialdae takes that too. "Shapeshifting." More ialdae. "The kids thing." Ialdae. "Your name." Ialdae. "And language." Ialdae. There are now little bits of leftover dragon magic hanging around in between the dense blobs of ialdae, especially in parts of the filled form slots, but for the most part, the contents of his magic container have been completely replaced. "It's way easier to do it when there's already magic in there," she adds.

[alicornucopia]

"What's the dragon magic doing?" wonders Jensal. "Is it going to have any effects lingering like that?"

[missnicegirl]

"Um... I think the tiny little leftover bits aren't doing anything, and the big leftover bits are in places that weren't even doing anything before. I guess you need more magic to pick a form than to keep one, and after you're done picking the form for that space it just kind of sits around?"

[alicornucopia]

"That makes sense, considering how thudias and vampires work," says Ludei.

[missnicegirl]

"I don't know how thudias and vampires work," says Matilda. "How do they work?"

[alicornucopia]

"Thudias are half-dragons, who don't turn out to be dragons themselves. They're born normally for the other parent's species, and eventually learn to turn into a smaller version of the relevant dragon color," says Jensal. "Vampires have a humanoid shape and a bat shape."

[missnicegirl]

"And that makes sense if it takes less magic to have a form than to pick one, right," says Matilda. "Okay then. Jensal, your turn." She names the parts of the magic as she replaces them. "Firebreathing, shapeshifting, kids, language, name. All done. You don't have separate colour-group magic doing a different thing like the white-groups do, your shapeshifting section is just bigger."

[alicornucopia]

"Makes sense," says Jensal. "Should we find you examples of the other color groups to transplant before we start trying to do this ourselves?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea."

[alicornucopia]

So they get the (copper) leader of the Corentan house, and the (amethyst) leader of the iceberg house, and then they find an elderly garnet miracle and an elderly black opal miracle to round out the set.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda spends a few ticks peering at each of them, and then replaces their firebreathing and shapeshifting and colour-group magic and reproductive magic and language magic and name magic. Everything works just fine. Everyone's used form slots retain splashes of dragon magic.

[alicornucopia]

Jensal and Ludei then each try it on other elderly miracles, and succeed without any disaster.

[missnicegirl]

Magic transplants are distributed. Hooray!



It occurs to Matilda to ask Jensal, "Why did you need to make sure the people taking care of the babies were fixed first out of the grown-ups?"

[alicornucopia]

"The dragon council would have made a fuss if we'd had baby dragons looked after by shrens," says Jensal. "It wouldn't have been much of a problem, in this case, because those babies have parents to go home to anyway - most of them are already gone now - but better to avoid in the first place."

[missnicegirl]

"But why is it bad to have baby dragons looked after by shrens? Is this about Draconic's opinions again?"

[alicornucopia]

"Draconic's opinions, dragons' opinions," shrugs Jensal. "It would be inappropriate. Dragons can keep their baby shrens if they want to; shrens raising dragons isn't done." (Were it not obvious from context that Jensal does not share these opinions, her tone is dripping with contempt.)

[missnicegirl]

"Draconic has bad opinions," says Matilda.

[alicornucopia]

"Draconic has one large and despicable blind spot," shrugs Jensal. "We can think around it if we really try. But the Dragon Council doesn't try, so the baby-minders were early in line for miracles, and shrens generally avoid having children because they'll just be whisked away and given to some dragon couple who's failed at producing surviving offspring."

[missnicegirl]

"...Some dragon couple who's what? Is that a problem dragons have a lot?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes," blinks Jensal, "actually, it is."

[missnicegirl]

"Why?"

[alicornucopia]

"Nobody knows. You're going to go find out, aren't you."

[missnicegirl]

"Of course I am. Where should I look? Who should I talk to? Do you know?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know any dragon couples currently mid-harrowing-attempt-to-reproduce personally, no. I'm sure some miracles are trying now that their kids wouldn't get taken away, but it'll take a while for any of them to get around to laying the eggs."