When the world goes boom (Calleigh)

[Anastasia]

When both works are done, Baleruk brushes the three back with a flick of his tail. He goes to Ithea's first, studying it in silence. This stretches on nearly a minute before he says, "I find the symbolism FASCINATING," from casual to a bellow in a second, then back to casual, "In particular the two fold reference to the Queen of Stars and an implied masculine Sharess, as that joins the inherent dualism of red and blue slaad combined. This in turn references the dualism of the eladrin two-form reality, which can be interpreted through neo-unrealism to further imply the figures in the painting are hermaphrodites."

Baleruk pauses, still studying Ithea's work. His eyes narrow slightly, "The numerological inclusion of three vegetables is most displeasing. How dare you imply that three vegetables and the music are the same, which clearly an elven analysis tells us that the Triad are the vegetables and the natural fruit of dual-gendered slaad. Unacceptable. UNACCEPTABLE!" Baleruk's tail slams into the coins beneath him, a loud metal clatter to punctuate his words.

"However," he draws himself back down, "The nature of the music becoming the dress and the night sky bring to mind the image of the chaste woman giving life through magical parthenogenesis, which clearly defies the initial role of Sharess, until we remember that any proper reading of this through Renbuuan philosophy informs us that this must be taken in reverse of the natural meaning, and in that all the natural meaning cannot be trusted as it is ever mutable. If you extrapolate this to a political statement, it is a firm rebuttal of anti-anarchic sentiment, in particular a hierarchical order."

Baleruk goes silent after a time, whirling onto Ithea and staring at her. "But what about black slaads? The night sky is clearly symbolism to represent them, so why is there no statement on destruction in the piece?"

[Merc]

...that was totally not what she meant with the badger and the cat. That was just a reference to 27 and the slaad cat. Really, everything in the picture was slaads. But if Baleruk wanted to see something else, sure, she can work with that!

"The music being devoured, crushed and becoming the stardust," Ithea comments gesturing towards the crumbs of stardust falling from the maw of stars and musical notes, in reference to his last question.

Ithea pauses briefly before considering if she should respond on the matter of vegetables as well.

I forget my numerology despite having read some book on it at some point. Are four or five better than three for whatever madness Baleruk is thinking of? There were five veggies present in the portrait, and I guess I could bluff and say there are four if four is better than five. Also, is numerology what he's using as a reference, or some other weird mathy thing?

[Anastasia]

Make a quick Int check.

[Merc]

[22:38] <Merc-zzz> roll d20+11 int
[22:38] <Kobot> Merc-zzz rolled d20+11 int --> [ 1d20=8 ]{19}

edit: add +5 if collector of stories bonus applies (though I suspect not, even though it sounds like something it should!)

[Anastasia]

Ithea has no idea what Baleruk's going on about. It's words and some of them just don't make sense. She's getting a headache trying to wrap her head about everything Baleruk talked about.

However, she does recall three is an important number and recurs often. The Guardian of 21 mentioned it is a simple resonance of the fact of the Three Incarnations. Four represents death and five is about combining 1, 2, 3 and 4 together into one whole.

[Merc]

Well, since she has red and blue slaads, a gray slaad, a black slaad, and whatever the hell 27 and the cat are, she decides to go with honesty and adds, "Also, there are five vegetables, not three. The conductor is using a celery stalk, you can see corn, wheat, radishes and potatoes as the musical instruments too. I suppose the potatoes and the radishes might look a bit similar due to the shapes and the colors I used, but still..."

[Anastasia]

"Hmmmm...." Baleruk considers this, then whips his head over to Calleigh and Tryll. "EXPLAIN YOURS. NOW."

[Yuthirin]

"Well gosh I saw you and I just thought colors and you're really inspiring and we thought prisms and I know that colors are usually related to chromatic dragons and stuff so we grabbed as much color as we could and built it into this big vortex thing of colors and the prism in the middle is designed to catch ambient light and refract the colors in the painting all over the place but not in a uniform way to represent chaos and I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!" Calleigh is shaking with enthusiasm. "Oh my gosh a real art critic and a dragon and oh my gosh oh my gosh ohmygosh."

[Anastasia]

Baleruk gazes at Tryll then at Calleigh. "Yes. You are welcome to BASK IN MY MAGNIFICENCE!"

[Yuthirin]

Calleigh is very clearly basking.

[Anastasia]

"Now," Baleruk turns back to Ithea, "There are two pixies I have COMMANDED TO BE MINIONS TO my disciple, Afina. You will ensure they serve her well."

[Merc]

Ithea blinks at that and guesses, "Is it Crystal and Moore?"

[Anastasia]

"Yes," Baleruk says, "You will ensure they follow my will."

[Merc]

Well that should be pretty easy since they already follow her without any further prompting needed from her or Baleruk. "Sure, I can do that?"

[Anastasia]

"Go then!" Baleruk commands, "Go forth!"