"If it blocks you like this, would adding plants to it help? If it doesn't block you like this, could adding plants make it worse?" inquires Loki. "If the answers are no and no, we have a fine test without attaching anything else."

"Hmm. No, and no. Testing it like this it is, then."

"Right then." Loki stands up the trellis carefully on its edge.

"Maybe trellises could serve to build treehouses, with plenty of windows and something broad-leafed on the roof. You'd still need to grow trees to support the treehouses, but they'd just need to be trees, not entire skyscrapers that are made entirely out of live tree."

"Yeah, something like that would help, certainly. I don't know about others, but floors being solid doesn't bother me - we just get used to not feeling anything down there, usually. So a treehouse of sorts would work! This was a good idea - thanks, Loki."

"You're welcome. I'm glad I had a useful idea."

Zeviana nods. "It was! Though we're probably going to need help to do anything... Tree-choppy. So it might not be very viable, unless we grow them ourselves and just stop worrying about keeping them alive."

"I wonder if you could just import lumber. The Bifrost isn't really suited for cargo, though."

"Hm. Not really, no. I suppose importing's out of the question, unless there's a better method. A lot of what we do for our magic is ensuring the plant's longevity, anyway, so having a way where we don't constantly have to do that will help."

"Maybe you could import settlers, who wouldn't object to cutting your dead wood up or pruning trees like I just did, but I'm not sure how they'd do at assimilating to the culture. It would depend where you got them from and how many there were, presumably."

"I think we could do dead wood just fine, once it got past the cultural weirdness phase. Bringing in people specifically for pruning.... Eeeh. Several light elves would probably have tried to have me exiled or something for supporting you in pruning a living tree. Some of us are fanatics," informs Zeviana sadly.

"You could also make the trellises out of metal," points out Loki. "It wouldn't fit the aesthetic as well, but if a gappy not-alive trellis doesn't block you there's no obvious reason the not-alive substance has to be wood in particular."

"True! There would be less problems with that in some ways, more in others. We kiiiind of... Don't really mine much? Some do, we do use metals for smaller things, but entire cities built out of it might be a bit much."

"And stone wouldn't hold up particularly well over a few centuries in trellis treehouse form, probably, it's better suited to architecture with heavy foundations and big blocky shapes. Hmm."

"We're hard to please with buildings so we all just live outdoors. It's alright, it's worked for us pretty well and I have no complaints," says Zeviana, amused. "This wasn't a huge issue, anyway."

"Oh well."

"It was an interesting thing to test and I can let those building the living city know. Can't promise it'll be used, though," she offers.

"Hey, a reasonable chance at a useful civilization-wide-helpful idea is more than I usually accomplish in a day, much to my regret."

"Not with my general inability to reach anything that can use my help, no, but you may hug me anyway if you'd like."

"Okay," she says. A hug would then ensue.

Hug!