• Solo • From One Dog Lover To Another

[Tristan Venora]

Cylus 6, Arc 722

Apparently, Tristan decided, as he sat in front of the fireplace in his living room where it was nice and warm and cozy, even in early Cylus, enjoying a cup of tea and considering the latest news that had made their way around Rharne, Ilaren was truly a dog lover. She had not only bought a magnahowl terrier (It surprised him that an Immortal bought a pet herself rather than sending a servant!); she had also issued a decree that abusing a domestic canine was now a high offense. And what more, the Pit had been raided, and its operations had been shut down. That was something that he approved of wholeheartedly, of course.

He'd never understood why some people considered forcing dogs to fight each other to be so entertaining. The mere idea made him sick to his stomach. He had a dog himself a four-eyed NightPup from Scalvoris named Fluffy, and couldn’t bear the thought of him suffering.

Animals had feelings, too!

There had been a time, shortly after Cassion’s Gambit, when he had been somewhat ambivalent towards Ilaren, but nowadays, he preferred to focus on the positive things. Ilaren was great. He decided that he wanted to do something for her, in order to thank her for issuing that decree – and for little Theo. There would be a welcoming gift, from one dog lover to another, something to entertain the dog and make his owner smile a little.

At first, he considered enhancing a dog bed or a blanket with alchemy, but then he decided that a toy would be more appropriate. Young dogs wanted to play. Fluffy was in fact a couple of years old now and still wanted to play on a regular basis. With that thought in mind, he finished his tea and walked over to the cabinet where he kept the things for his two pets – he didn’t only have a dog, but also a cat.

There were felt mouses in various sizes and balls of yarn, and a stick with colorful feathers that Mistral, his cat, loved to chase. There were various balls, and finally, there were various plush dog toys. Tristan didn’t pick any of those though. A used gift would be inappropriate, especially if it was meant for an Immortal; and besides, he couldn’t give something that belonged to Fluffy away. So, he grabbed the bag with new toys – he always had a few spare ones, in case Fluffy or Mistral ruined something – and removed a teddy bear dog toy from it.

At first, Tristan considered putting an impact trigger into the teddy bear so that a sound effect would be activated when Theo bit into it and started to chew. On second thought, it wasn't nearly fancy enough though.

He would, he decided, add a photosensitive trigger instead so that the effect would be activated under certain lightning conditions – and add two effects to the dog toy. It would sparkle and glow in the dark!

Notes

From the Rharne calendar:

6th of Cylus: Ilaren is a Dog Lover: Ilaren buys a magnahowl terrier from the Tribune Kennels in the Earth Quarter. According to her closest confidantes, she is instantly smitten by the small dog, who she names Theo. She issues a decree that abusing domestic canines is now a high offense, comparable to assault or murder. The Pit is raided, and it's operations shut down for animal cruelty, particularly to those of dogs and using dogs in fighting rings. Grumbling occurs in the Dust Quarter, and many among the lower classes turn elsewhere for their entertainment.

[Tristan Venora]

Just as Tristan was about to take the teddy bear into the kitchen where he usually practiced his alchemy in order to start, something suddenly occurred to him, and he stopped dead in his tracks and reconsidered his plan once more as a consequence. A toy that glowed if certain conditions were met only sounded impressive at first glance. A skilled artist might be able to make a phosphorescent paint that had the same effect, and it might work just as or nearly as well as something that had been enhanced with alchemy.

What else could he do though? He didn’t want to give Ilaren and Theo just any gift; he wanted to make something truly delightful for them, because they only deserved the best.

Furrowing his brow, he tucked the teddy bear under his left arm and turned around in order to look through the books in his living room, and the ones on art and alchemy in particular. There was a book that dealt with various kinds of dyes that caught his attention. He grabbed it and sat down on the couch in order to take a closer look, placing the teddy bear next to him as he did so.

The book contained a chapter that dealt with color-changing dyes – which gave him an idea. He wouldn’t make a toy that glowed in the dark and sparkled for Theo; he’d make a color-changing toy for him instead. He wouldn’t use any of the usual methods though (He didn’t think he was a good enough artist to produce color-changing paint, let alone color-changing paint that met an Immortal’s approval, anyway!). Instead, he would use …

… a flower!

He didn’t think that a conventional artist would be capable of transferring the color-changing properties of the Hibiscus mutabilis to a toy. Such a toy would thus hopefully meet Ilaren’s approval, and Theo’s, of course, because Ilaren’s dog was the most important “person” in this scenario, and he wanted him to have a lot of fun with his new gift!

[Tristan Venora]

Being an avid gardener, Tristan had a number of different plants, both in his house and in his greenhouse. There were various herbs, such as basil and rosemary that stood in pots on the windowsills in the kitchen, or on the table in his greenhouse. There was the little Mokou Tree that he had found in Melrath and decided to save. He considered it a friend, even though most people would insist that you couldn’t become friends with something that didn’t move, didn’t talk and didn’t even have a brain. There was his rose garden in progress that he had started in order to honor his late grandfather, and finally, there was a Hibiscus mutabilis that he kept as a houseplant in his living room because he found the dramatic color changes that occurred over the course of a trial absolutely fascinating.

It was almost as if the plant had a bit of magic of its own!

Since his hibiscus was still small – he had bought most of his plants in Rharne, when he had arrived the cycle before – Tristan decided to only harvest a flower or two, which would likely be enough for a single item that was on the small side anyway. With that thought in mind, he took a pair of sharp scissors – he made sure to be careful so as to not accidentally hurt himself – and cut the stems of the two flowers that were the biggest and in the best shape. Following that, he removed the stamens – the yellow parts in the middle of the flower – and rinsed the flowers with a bit of water in order to remove any dirt.

Contamination could affect the alchemical process negatively, and he wanted to prevent that.

Once the flowers were clean, Tristan placed them on a tray that he pushed into the oven. There likely was a way to use the flowers as is; his preferred method involved drying them and turning them into a powder though, so that was what he had decided to do. He made sure that there wasn’t too much heat, and that the oven door was slightly ajar so that the moisture would be able to evaporate, and he checked his flowers on a regular basis so that he would be able to quickly intervene in case something went wrong.

His parents had taken his daughter to a café for a bit of hot chocolate and cake, and his employees were happy to spend some time with the dog, so there was nothing and nobody else that he really needed to take care of.

Once the flowers were crisp and brittle, he removed the tray from the oven – he put oven mittens on in order not to burn his hands, of course – waited until they were relatively cool and crushed them. A few moments – and a light snack later; he had gotten a bit hungry while he had waited for his flowers to be ready – the real alchemy finally began.

[Tristan Venora]

Since Theo would be taking the toy into his mouth and likely even bite into it on a regular basis, Tristan grabbed three books from one of his shelves, one on gardening, one on alchemy and one on dogs and their diet and checked if any of the reagents that he planned on using were bad for dogs. To his big relief, none of them were, especially not hibiscus which was the one reagent that he didn’t really have an alternative for. He supposed that he might be able to procure a chameleon somewhere as Rharne was a big city; he was not very interested in slaughtering innocent lizards though, he had to admit.

Since chameleon murder was fortunately not necessary, he proceeded to prepare two small metal tubs and set them down on the kitchen table. He filled the first one with a non-toxic priming liquid – a primer prepared the item for receiving the alchemical enhancement – and put the teddy bear into it, making sure that it was submerged completely.

He didn’t stop there though. He moved the teddy bear around using a wooden stick on a regular basis to make sure that the priming liquid reached every fold, and then he carefully removed it from the tub and hung it onto a drying rack while he prepared the alchemical liquid itself.

Water was the least toxic substance that he knew of – unless you were allergic to water, which was probably not a matter of toxicity, but something entirely different – so he used that as a base for his alchemical liquid. When he had started out as an alchemist, he had often used snail slime as a binderA binder ensures that the reagents don’t negate each other – he had discovered that it was near-perfect and easily available, especially if you had a garden with proper plants rather than just grass in it – he wasn’t sure if snails weren’t bad for dogs though; and thus, he had decided on using honey instead.

Honey wasn’t toxic to dogs, according to his books. It was in fact perfectly safe for them to eat in small amounts – and a small amount was all that he would need. He thus put a teaspoon full of honey into a small porcelain bowl and mixed it with a hint of water. Honey and powder wouldn’t dissolve each other in order to make a solution; he needed to add an additional component to it in order to render the honey more liquid first. So that’s what he did before he added the powdered hibiscus flowers and stirred everything thoroughly.

Having done that, Tristan poured the contents of the bowl into the second tub that he had filled with water – his base – beforehand, before he submerged the teddy bear and moved it around, just like before.

He didn’t stop there either though. The Hibiscus mutabilis changed color over the course of a trial; he wanted to speed that effect up though.

For that reason, he mixed a liquid accelerator and a metabolizer, both of the non-toxic variety. The former would speed up the reaction, and the latter would increase the potency of the alchemical mixture, and both were infused into the teddy bear so that it would change color and become lighter and darker and lighter again within the span of bits.

Hibiscus changed color due to a combination of sunlight and temperature, from what he knew. His adding a metabolizer to strengthen the alchemical effect should make sure that the item would react even to small changes, such as the ones that were caused by being moved around. He didn’t know a lot about science and such – he had hated physics for a long time because Padraig Augustin was a physicist, and he had used to dislike him – but he was aware of certain things, such as the fact that friction created heat, nowadays.

Tristan had just put the teddy bear on the drying rack again and was about to clean up the kitchen and put his equipment and the rest of his reagents away – when you had a small child and pets, doing such was strongly advised so that nobody would accidentally ingest something – when he suddenly heard that the door was being opened. A moment later, a light, childlike voice, the voice of his daughter Ayla, could be heard.

“Daddy, we are home!”

[Tristan Venora]

Tristan quickly put the last reagent away, locked the cabinet where he stored his reagents and pocketed his key before he went to the door in order to welcome his daughter and his parents back and asked them how their little outing had gone. Ayla’s cheeks were flushed with excitement as she told him that she had eaten chocolate cake with cream and sprinkles, and what more, there had been cream and sprinkles in her hot chocolate, too!

While Tristan’s parents went into the living room in order to relax, the little Mortalborn asked if she could watch him. Tristan loved spending time with his daughter, so he led her into the kitchen. He didn’t just let her watch him finish his gift for Ilaren and Theo though, he gave her a couple of colored pencils and a piece of paper and addressed her in a very serious tone of voice.

“Ilaren recently got a new puppy. His name is Theo, and I’ve made a toy for him with alchemy. We should also add little messages for her though, otherwise, she might not know who or what the toy is for. Would you be willing to help me with that, Ayla?” he wanted to know.

The little girl nodded eagerly and started to work on a drawing of Ilaren’s puppy playing. Her drawing consisted of various blobs with sticks attached to them – being just five arcs old, Ayla wasn’t exactly a masterful artist – but she drew with obvious joy, and what more, she signed the drawing with her name. She was proud of her signature!

“That looks wonderful, Ayla”, Tristan complimented his daughter with a smile and asked her to please put her drawing inside the little gift box he had prepared in the meantime. Once Ayla had done so, with obvious joy, he proceeded to write a little message to Ilaren himself.

Lady Ilaren,

I’d like to thank you for declaring abuse of domestic canines illegal, and I thought I’d also make a little welcome gift for your new family member, Theo. This teddy bear dog toy was alchemically enhanced in order to quickly change color (All the reagents that I used are non-toxic, of course!). I hope that Theo will have fun with it, and that you will have fun watching him. My daughter also made a drawing for Theo and you!

Yours,

Tristan Venora

Having finished the letter, he checked it for errors before he put it into an envelope that he placed into the box, right next to Ayla’s drawing. Provided that the teddy bear that was nice and dry now worked as intended and had indeed begun to change color, he added it to the box, closed it, wrapped a nice pink ribbon around it and asked Hannah, one of his two employees, to please deliver it to the temple in the Sky Quarter where Ilaren resided and explain that it was a gift from Tristan Venora – she would hopefully remember the name.

[Balthazar Black]

Review Rewards

Name: Tristan

Points Awarded: 10
Magic Experience: None
Knowledge: Alchemy: Photosensitive triggers activate an effect under certain lighting conditions
Alchemy: Transferring the color-changing properties of the Hibiscus mutabilis to a toy
Animal Husbandry: Honey is safe for dogs to eat in small amounts
Science: Friction creates heat
Gardening: Harvesting hibiscus blossoms
Gardening: Drying hibiscus blossoms in an oven

Renown: +10, she remembered the name and loved the gift
Loot: None.
Injuries/Overstepping: None.
Consequence: Nope.
Wealth Points: None.
Skill Review: All Skills used appropriate to level


Notes: There are few things as fun to read as a good alchemy solo. I really enjoy the way you make sense of the process in your threads related to the skill. You did a great job of setting up the scene, describing where Tristan was and what he was doing, before getting into the story. Tristan's idea to send Ilaren a gift as a thank you for her proactive steps to protect dogs was a great one, in my opinion. I'm not quite sure what the immortal would think of the gift, but the thought behind it was great. I didn't know Tristan had a dog and a cat, but I definitely got a kick out of him having a cabinet dedicated to animal toys. You describe Tristan's work process in a very details and pleasant to read way. The funniest thing to me, which only occurred to me at the end, was that I became curious how the dog would perceive the color change given the difference between human eyes and their eyes.

I wasn't sure if I should award the knowledge "Science: Friction creates heat" because Tristan did not actually learn it in the thread, but instead implied it was something he was already aware of however I did award it because I feel that at competent science that is a reasonable assumption and really, he'd just have to rub his hands together to figure it out. Regardless this was a great read!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this review, feel free to PM. Enjoy your rewards!