Completed Gag Order

[Kuvarakh]

60th of Summer, 513

"Sixty days." Wanda declared. "That would be my guess. After that, we are only getting our regular repeat contracts and people who are desperate."

Kuvarakh sighed. It was depressing how inarguably right she was. Not only did he have to heed her wishes as the employee at Alchemmia Alchae, where she was the BOSS, but he had noticed the trend as well. He'd get a new suit to mask the "Nuit aura", as she generously referred to it, and well before the duration of just a single season, prospective customers would be holding their breath when they entered the shop.

'What is that phrase I'm looking for?' he mocked himself silently, 'Oh yes...I stink!' That incident with the second sun in Alvadas had given him the notion of getting clothes specially made to be odor absorbent. For the time being, he had settled for simply getting a new suit, knowing it would suffice for a while. And it had, but that "while" was up, and, like always, he was stinking the place up again.

Wanda had hinted at it days ago already, when Alric had made his surprise appearance back in town. But another twenty days had passed and her remarks were stepping beyond the scope of "hints" and broaching the realm of demands. He could hardly fault her, it appeared he was hurting business. Not that they were in any financial danger - far from it! The primary reason he had not looked further into the matter of special clothing was due to their busy schedule.

He began to make that observation, but Wanda cut him off, none too gently. "Don't even start, Ku! I've already told you I can handle the shop for as long as it will take you to go buy some cloth and do whatever you have in mind. Better to get a rep that we are falling behind because we are in such demand than one that says we are losing customers because it smells like a morgue in here."

"But I'm not sure how many activations it might take. And I don't know how much cloth to buy. And I don't even know the terminology for..." Kuvarakh began.

Wanda's eyes rolled so dramatically he'd have sworn he heard them. "Oh Boo Hoo! Good preachin' Gods, Ku! Don't you suppose the tailor will be able to figure that stuff out! I mean it's only the very way in which his business succeeds!"

He started to make another pointless comment, but she waved decisively. "NO! Take the rest of the day off. Get that last outfit on, go to the tailor and see how much he thinks it will take to make you a couple of outfits...Do it now. You're honestly bringing tears to my eyes." She squinted and shivered unnecessarily to make her point, wiping her eyes in the process. Kuvarakh knew she was exaggerating, but he also knew her point was valid.

[Kuvarakh]

He made his way through the shifting streets of Alvadas, strolling among stalagmites that stretched up into the clouds, apparently never reaching their stalactite counterparts. They were of robust color schemes surely not found in nature, at least not as far as mineral deposits could account for. There was a thin layer of mist, a few feet off the ground, blowing slowly through them, wisps straddling, connecting and re-straddling again, as it divided and redivided itself into feathery tatters of curling, sliding, coalescing haze, flat as the surface of a river.

Kuvarakh stopped to marvel at it, feeling a swell of peaceful contentment embrace him. But soon a waft of a different source touched his nose and he was immediately reminded that he had something to do.

He went home, grabbed his last suit and headed towards The Tattered Thread. The all-white exterior soon came into view. Remarkably, the sun shone on it in a way very similar to how the SECOND sun had shone on it the season before. Kuvarakh was reminded how he'd gone there to spiff himself up, for his "date" with Wanda, with the purchase of a new suit. It had given temporary respite from his aroma as well.

He went in and made his way to the counter, grabbing a nearby linen cloak to contain his smell, for the sake of everyone present. He had a different idea in mind than what Wanda had directed and needed to see if Mr. Skyglow thought it feasible. The man came out from the back a few chimes later and gave Kuvarakh a stern look that was nonetheless friendly.

"I'm afraid I'll have to ask YOU to pay for that, Mr. Lashman. When you get to the...uh...point that you are right now, I really can't hope to sell anything you've tried on." The tailor said, indicating the linen cloak Kuvarakh was wearing. He looked a little regretful, but Kuvarakh nodded his agreement, with a spark of amusement in his expression.

"I understand completely, Mr. Skyglow, that's why I picked the only one that wasn't so outrageously overpriced." he kidded the man.

"HA! Overpriced you say! It's only the courtesy charge I add, due to the fact that I'm forced to give you more prompt service than the rest of my customers, to get your barnyard aroma back to the farm where it belongs." his eyes twinkled, feeling he'd won this round.

There were several snickers, including Kuvarakh himself. But now it was to business, in no small part to be able to leave sooner. Again, for the sake of all present. Voren Skyglow had proposed making several suits for Kuvarakh last time he'd been in. But, as a Nuit, it was not such a good idea to do anything that presumed having the same body for a long period of time.

What Kuvarakh wanted to do now was purchase an entire 125 yard bolt of cloth to take back to the shop. There, he would perform the transmutations he envisioned to make it much more odor absorbing, and then bring it back to have The tailor keep it on hand to make suits as he needed them. Equally important was to make replaceable linings for them. That would greatly increase the length of time the suit could remain fresh smelling.

Mr. Skyglow mentioned a spare bolt of fine wool he had left over after a clerical error had led to an overage of the material. Kuvarakh countered that he would be altering the material alchemically anyway, so simple linen would be fine. The tailor shot back that his linen, while abundant and common, was used for far more than just affordable final products. It was his base backing, pattern cutting, trial and support material and was not just a throwaway item because it was cheap.

He really wanted to find something that was currently going to waste, and pointed out that, if Kuvarakh could alter the material, as he claimed, he could use anything. Kuvarakh responded that this was the exact reason why he had no reason to buy something three times more expensive than something he could use just as well.

They agreed on double the linen price and Kuvarakh handed over the 125 gold mizas, left his last suit for future reference, and walked out satisfied with the bolt of fine wool. It was heavy though, and by the time he reached the shop, he needed a rest before beginning.

[Kuvarakh]

He had heard from various people, particularly those that worked with animals, that charcoal was a very odor absorbing substance. Wanda had not been idle and many such opinions had been sought by her on this subject. She had brought up some detail about porous charcoal being better than solid. Something about the air bubbles giving more surface for the odors to get "stuck in", or something.

It sounded a little far-fetched to him, but was certainly willing to test out the theory, though it meant an additional transmutation. He had been ready to simply imbue the cloth with the odor catching nature of charcoal, while also employing a second fount for a better quality of cloth. Wanda had some superfine woven cloth that he would use to improve the strength of the wool he'd purchased at The Tattered Thread. What's more, she had already spent time generating several samples in a variety of colors and patterns. Of course, he would go for something dark and conservative.

It would have all been a single activation, charcoal in one charger fount and the cloth in a second. Perhaps even a second identical sample of cloth in a third fount and a rock in one of the filter founts to really overpower the texture of cloth and eliminate all traces of the stoney nature of the charcoal.

Now, though, he would need to alter the charcoal to include the highly porous quality into it. He gave that some thought. What would be useful to instill the quality of high porousness into something? Something with a lot of bubbles in it. He thought first of a sponge, as he was wiping something up, working his way through various pads and hitting eventually on cork.

There was a clatter in the back room just them, and Kuvarakh saw Wanda stepping back from her desk, avoiding some spilled liquid. He sighed and rolled his eyes, grabbing the sponge and heading in to wipe up the mess. He saw that she had instinctively righted the mug, the foamy head rising to fill the remainder of the now nearly empty vessel. He looked again, something clicking in his head, and yet again. The foam! The head on the ale! That was about as airy and full of bubbles as anything he could think of.

[Kuvarakh]

He knew it was best not to assume success, regardless of confidence. So he did not put ALL the charcoal in the center of the ring for this first stage. It was a good thing too, because regardless of the filters to remove the fragrant and liquid aspects of the ale, and the substance of the container from being imbued into the charcoal, it still rose like foam.

This did not take away from its effectiveness, but it meant an additional fount to account for changing the bloated heap into a thin flat layer. Of course, this was no big obstacle, but he was not going to let it become a regular step in the process.

Now it was routine procedure to make more than enough of any embellished item for keeping in stock. He didn't really know if Wanda wanted extra charcoal in the stockroom, but he put both some of the original charcoal and a chunk of the "foamed" away for future use.

He needed something to create a "flattened" element in his transmutation. He decided to place the charcoal that had already been foamed back into the center of the ring. He was still going to use the ale foam for one of the founts, so he didn't think the previous transmutation should be at odds with any new added quality.

He took a sponge and got it wet. He squeezed the water back out of it. it was still damp, but that was necessary for it to be able to be compressed. A dry sponge was almost like a brick. Now he stacked flat stones on it to flatten it. This added a second charger fount, beyond the original one with the container of shaken foaming ale. This, of course, required a filter fount to be stacked with stones as well, but he could handle that.

[Kuvarakh]

He generated his whirlpool-based, meditative connection to the slowly accelerating, spinning djed stream. With experience, he was finding it easier all the time to distinguish the introduced elements of foreign djed that he wished to keep from those he wanted filtered out. He had several elements involved this time.

The foaminess was a simple quality to locate as it rode on the surface of his visualized funnel of water. Additional spray from an imagined wind brought more and more to accumulate in a single mass as the acceleration increased. He recognized the flattening element of the stones pressing the sponge flat in that particular fount. The mass of foam slowly spread into a thin layer covering a large band of the entire circumference of the surface of the water funnel.

Kuvarakh could detect the solid mass that was causing the foam to spread. A bulk just below the surface, impacting the underside of the foam. He concentrated on the currents in the whirling water and brought the circuit of foam down, further into the funnel, clear of the bulk of solidity lurking in the wall of the spinning maelstrom. He directed his meditation beyond the inner surface of the whirlpool's funnel and got a mental hold on the block of weight and solidity, struggling to push it out of the range of influence on the djed swirling in the accelerated stream.

By the time he got it clear enough to no longer have any impact on his manifested whirlpool image of the djed stream, he was starting to feel the effects of the effort and let the foam slip back up even beyond its original position. This exposed a band of amber liquid that was not part of the whirlpool. It was the ale from which the foam was formed, and Kuvarakh let it wash down into the funnel and away.

Last to go was the impression of an enclosure around the perimeter of the whirlpool. Kuvarakh could only assume this was the container that the ale was being held in. He let memories of sensations from visits to the beaches of both the outer ocean at Zeltiva and, more recently, the Suvan Sea take hold in his meditation. He started to feel sunlight on his face and lose the ambiance of an enclosed space. The smell of ale was replaced by the briny aroma of the sea.

By the time he was near to believing that he was feeling sand between his toes, he released the activation and stepped back until he felt a chair bump the calves of his legs. He flopped back into it and rested his eyes and his dizzy equilibrium for several chimes before examining the results.

[Kuvarakh]

There was a large, flat "platter" of what looked like charcoal. It was still quite heavy, despite the spongy flexibility and the visible bubbles throughout. Kuvarakh considered this a success, given that it now occurred to him that he'd done no filtering to remove the dampness from the sponge. This water weight had been magnified due to the relative size of the receiver compared to the small sponge he'd used in the fount.

But he now had a good three foot, by six foot, by four inch "pad" of damp charcoal sponge, the bubbles much smaller and more numerous than normal. It would mean filtering the water, but that would be simple. He took a bell's rest, then laid out his founts and filters for the final activation. A sample of Wanda's high quality cloth, already in a nice conservative blue.

The stoney nature of the original charcoal had already been removed. It was only the sponginess that needed removal. Then there would only be the cloth texture left. And since he needed to remove the dampness still, a second damp sponge should do the trick.

It was no surprise to Kuvarakh that the final transmutation was much less involved than the first one had been. It was often the first steps, where you prepare the special founts you'll need later, that were the most complicated. The final stage went easily and the end result was a roll of densely woven dark blue cloth of near silken texture, 125 yards long by one yard wide.

He returned to The Tattered Thread and gave the roll back to Mr. Skyglow. The man had taken his measurements already during that odd time where the second sun had shone within Alvadas. He agreed to make two three-piece suits for Kuvarakh. It was a benefit of being a Nuit, unnoticed by most people, that once a body was secured, measurements did not change during its duration. Nuits did not eat and once the initial weight loss occurred after a body jump, usually complete within the first thirty days, there were no causes for their weight to change.

Mr. Skyglow told him it would take about 4 days per suit, and would charge him 20gm per suit. This was, of course, for the tailoring, and Kuvarakh had greatly enjoyed the snug flattering fit the last time, so he slid an extra 10gm along for a nice round 50.

"I knew there was something about you that didn't stink." The tailor kidded him, pocketing the tip.

[Elira]

XP Award!

XP Award:

• Alchemy +4
• Meditation +1
• Negotiation +1
• Observation +1
• Socialization +1

Lore:

• Nuit Aura: They Make Clothes for That
• Date Night with Wanda
• Odor-Absorbent Properties of Charcoal
• Ale foam: That Airy, Bubbly Head on the Ale
• Big-Tipper

Losses:

• -175 gm for materials, the cost of the suits and the tailor's tip
• -Your old suit

Gains:

• +Two 3-piece dark blue suits of near silken texture

Notes:
Yay! This was my first real exposure to hard-core alchemy. I learned a lot by grading this thread. You really know your stuff! I have to say that I got a few laughs reading this too. Your Nuit is something else!

If you have any questions/concerns about the XP or lore awarded, let me know. I'm happy to tweak as I'm able.

Also, I can't delete your thread from the queue, so can you mark yours as graded so it can be deleted by Fallacy? Thanks!