Do not mock the humble survey

[poll_the_stars]

Avet... has found herself annoyed. She has only one form. This isn't the problem, but this is what led to her noticing the problem. There is no way to preview what a dragon will look like. There are species books of birds and bugs and animals - but some of them are sub-par on noting where the dragon's colors go, and miscellaneous gods that she doesn't worship help you if you want to see what your color will look like on the form.

She is going to solve this problem. By taking some surveys. As in, grab photo paper, gather up a list of lines to go visit, and then knock on some doors and ask some questions and create a book series that organizes all possible forms, all known forms, what known lines look like in the forms - that sort of thing.

She starts with blue groups, because blue groups have the most available forms - she's gotten all of the big lines (well, all of the big lines that gave her the time of day) and is on the smaller ones. The ones with only one or two people. Or, in some cases, none.

This particular one's easier than some others; she doesn't need to fly to another country. It's Esmaar. She flies to the address of one 'Avar,' no line name. Apparently he had one and had some kind of explosive spat about it and gave it up. Not that it's her business. He's just another person for her survey.

She knocks on his door.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

I was mildly surprised flames did not rise from the page as I read it.

[poll_the_stars]

It was not for lack of trying. Maybe next time.

[thisvorlunatic]

What, are you going to keep it up? My very own dragon champion?

[poll_the_stars]

Only if you'd like me to.

[thisvorlunatic]

I certainly wouldn't mind. It's a refreshing change from having every public acknowledgement of my existence by a dragon come in the form of berating someone else for publicly acknowledging my existence.

[poll_the_stars]

Makes sense. Well. I wouldn't say I'll be your very own dragon champion, I do not exactly have the free time to always write angry letters to the newspaper defending you, but - yeah. If people keep being stupid at you, I'll probably publicly defend you again.

[thisvorlunatic]

I appreciate it.

How's the survey going?

[poll_the_stars]

The actual survey of it is basically done. Violet groups were a pain - I have a merfolk form entirely because of them - and several shrens think I'm completely insane. Dragons, too. But my 'people that want a copy' list is taller than I am, so I must be doing something right in my insanity.

Now I'm compiling and organizing, because of course I am. It's going to take longer than the survey itself.

[thisvorlunatic]

Well, that sounds fun and exciting. Good luck. How up to date are you on information-handling spells? I could forward you some good ones if you're not already covered.

Also, taller than you are in which form?

[poll_the_stars]

Pretty up to date, but feel free to forward me some good ones in case I missed a few.

Human, thankfully. I shudder at the thought of a list taller than my dragon form.

[thisvorlunatic]

He attaches several (presumably copies of) books to his next letter. Some of them, Avet will have seen before; others are new. All together it's an impressive collection, and definitely an improvement on what she had - some of those books are not widely available.

Hah. A list taller than my natural form wouldn't be that impressive. It's as approximately half-sized as the rest.

Do any of these help?

[poll_the_stars]

Ooo. He has good taste in books. She approves.

Pff. Mine's a normal size, so the list would just be terrifying. Thankfully I'm not two thousand or something. I might want to flee to the moon if that were the case.

Those were incredibly helpful, thank you! I had a lot of those, but not all. I bet you just saved me a month. Maybe two.

[thisvorlunatic]

Happy to help! Have fun sorting your data.

[poll_the_stars]

Yep! Have fun winning scoot races.

[thisvorlunatic]

I always do.

[poll_the_stars]

She smiles a bit at that, but doesn't have anything in particular to reply, and so she doesn't. Nice guy, though.



Months later, she is sick of sorting through survey results, and decides that she needs a break. Her friends are busy, in another country visiting family, or otherwise indisposed. She checks the nearby library, but no books catch her eye, and she's already read most of them. She could watch a play, but there aren't any playing that she thinks she'd find interesting and hasn't already seen. She could visit family, she supposes, but she dismisses that idea pretty quickly; the thought doesn't appeal. She could maybe pick up another hobby, but doesn't have a great idea of what exactly to shoot for.

She notes that there is a scoot race that looks like it's a big deal going on. She notes that Mial is participating. Without anything better to do, she supposes she can go show up and obnoxiously be a dragon rooting for the person obnoxiously being a shren. Maybe that'd be fun.

Off she goes, to see if it'll be fun.

[thisvorlunatic]

Mial races in his silver-and-brown homemade custom scoot, the latest of several. It is so shiny and so fast.

He's not being a shren that obnoxiously; you wouldn't know unless you'd already heard of him. Of course, plenty of people have heard of him. He has fans.

For some reason, though, none of the other people cheering him on are dragons.



He wins. It takes some seriously fancy flying, but he edges ahead of his closest competitor.

[poll_the_stars]

... Okay this was more fun than expected. She can kind of see the appeal of the sport, now, though she doesn't think it's the sort of thing she'll ever want to personally participate in. She suspects she's going to show up again and watch more scoot races.

Mial now has one more fan. Screw the other dragons that aren't cheering him on, he's good. She cheers sincerely when he wins.

[thisvorlunatic]

And he is so pleased about it! Both the victory and the cheering. Although he probably can't pick Avet in particular out of the crowd.

[poll_the_stars]

That's fine. She doesn't want to stick around and fight through the crowds, either, tempting as it is to go congratulate him in person.

She will write him, though.

The trick in the canyon was pretty cool. How'd you get your scoot to respond that quickly?

[thisvorlunatic]

You've been watching my races?

How much technical detail do you want? Scoot manufacture is kind of an obscure field. The short answer is, I put more care into it than the mass-producers and I'm a better wizard than most of the other amateurs.

[poll_the_stars]

Just went to the recent one. I'll probably watch your others; I had fun.

Some technical detail, if you don't mind - I've never dealt in scoot manufacture, though, so you will likely have to explain it using small words.

[thisvorlunatic]

His next letter is... long. Probably longer than all of their correspondence to date combined.

He's good at explaining, though. Avet will learn so many things about scoot manufacture. (Mial is very enthusiastic about scoot manufacture.)

[poll_the_stars]

She learns so many things about scoot manufacture! Her eyes do not glaze over when reading his long letter. She pays attention to the explanations. And then when she writes a reply, it is filled with questions. Questions that prove very thoroughly that she was paying attention to the letter.

[thisvorlunatic]

Ooh. Ooh.

In that case, she can have answers. So many answers.