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]

Meanwhile, Mial is looking pensively at the chart for an entirely different reason.

"...It occurs to me that my father is a dragon and my mother is a research wizard," he says. "If, um. If we wanted to ask her to gather data for the 'declining to have children' section of the chart."

[poll_the_stars]

That is not the sort of sentence Avet was expecting to hear. She blinks, twice.

"If it wouldn't be um, too awkward. Then yeah, that would be helpful." She pauses, looking at the chart. Okay, this is stupid. She takes a deep breath. C'mon Avet, you can do it, it's just a sentence. "And we can go take care of the firebreathing data in your yard, if you're. Um. Okay with it."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Sure I am. Are you? It's not very likely that either of us will spontaneously lose a form in the middle of my yard, but accidents happen. And my mother is a research wizard. If you wanted to ask her to do the firebreathing analysis, I wouldn't hold it against you."

[poll_the_stars]

"It's not really a matter of if you'd hold it against me," she says. "It's - I am poking at my reasons for not being okay with it and they're flimsy and I don't think they're good enough to have command over my life. I trust you. Finnah's at work and even if she were here, I trust her reasonably well. I don't think a random shren is going to show up out of nowhere and turn out to be the correct flavor of cruel and spiteful. I don't think either of us will spontaneously lose a form. There is no legitimate reason to be afraid. I don't want to have a, a flinch reaction to something in my head that I don't actually agree with, and let it control my life. I don't want to be that kind of person. If I were legitimately afraid I wouldn't volunteer, and I'd possibly be kind of upset with you if you expected me to, but this is - the sort of thing I am inclined to conquer, not cower from. So it's not, actually, involved with you at all, you're an innocent bystander." Pause. "So uh, sorry, innocent bystander, I am still attacking the lizard parts of my head, it takes a while. It's kind of entrenched."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Okay," shrugs Mial.

[poll_the_stars]

"Yep," she agrees. "Though, uh, if you'd like me to analyze your firebreathing we should do it someplace that is not, er, your yard. It's not officially a shren hazard location. Bottom of the world or something would be better, I think."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah, I in fact already have a place on the bottom of the world where I go to shift natural and breathe fire at things. Because sometimes my contempt for certain letters to the editor cannot be fully expressed any other way."

[poll_the_stars]

Avet giggles. "Can't say I blame you."

[thisvorlunatic]

Mial giggles too.

"So - time to go outside and analyze firebreathing?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Yep!"

Out they go, to do that. And then when they're out there, Avet shifts to natural form and obligingly breathes fire up at the sky once the spell's been cast.

[thisvorlunatic]

Mial takes notes on the wibblings of her magic container.

"Successfully analyzed!"

[poll_the_stars]

"Hooray!" says Avet, and she shifts back to human to peer over his shoulder at the notes.

"So that's most of everything," she muses. "I might grab my flight form early for the sake of studying it now, it's not like I'm likely to change my mind on it, I haven't budged since I picked it."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah, and after you leave for the day I will quietly ask Mother to fill in the 'declining to have kids' part sometime this week."

[poll_the_stars]

"Heh. I don't envy you - your mother is very nice and approachable, but I just sort of pretend my parents had me via conception spell."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, I envy you your illusions."

[poll_the_stars]

She grins at him.

"They're very complete illusions, too. They got married for the economic benefits and find each other tolerable life partners."

She's joking. Her parents are very happy together.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Aw. Do they not even have cute pet names for each other?"

[poll_the_stars]

"First name basis! I can only assume therefore that it is a celibate marriage."

[thisvorlunatic]

Giggle.

[poll_the_stars]

She grins at him.

"Want to do my flight form now? I don't think I'm going to have a change of heart if I go home to think about it some more last minute. It's almost entirely inertia that's kept me from picking it, with some, 'But what if I find something cooler?'"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I think you have already had a pretty comprehensive look at cooler things you could be," snorts Mial. "Go ahead, I'm watching."

[poll_the_stars]

She giggles. "Hey, you never know!"

And then she shifts to gyrfalcon, with pale white feathers and coppery spots.

[thisvorlunatic]

Mial excitedly takes notes on the way her magic moved when she shifted.

As an afterthought, he says, "Nice form."

[poll_the_stars]

She preens, a little. "Thank you."

And then she shifts back human to look at the excited notes in question. She doesn't think she could fit on his shoulder to read, and human form comes with hands, anyway.

[thisvorlunatic]

They've already looked at shifting to previously chosen forms. Shifting to a particular form will always activate the same section of a particular dragonish's magic, and those sections are evenly spaced in the magic container, one after the other, separated by sections of magic that aren't activated by any known cause.

Choosing a new form activates the whole form slot, right up to where the shift-activated section of the next unused form slot should begin. The mystery of the inactive sections is explained.