Quest 071
[Attempted Private//Somewhat Hackable]
All right, let's try this again.
A lot has happened lately, hasn't it? It's been difficult to find time to sit down and really think about it all, between all the curses and getting caught up on all the chores I should've been doing while was cursed in the meantime. Still...here I am, and it's clear I am cursed today, but so long as I don't move around much, I ought to be all right for a while.
I think...I'm not sure what to think of those pictures I saw. Obviously, the unsettling one was the one that Blue found, of Edgar and me...some people found ones of the two of us on the beach at Tamir, which is hard enough to remember without having to see it again, but that one...that one was a picture of something that hasn't happened yet. And I'm really not sure what to think...
I don't want to worry about Edgar anymore. I really don't, and I thought I'd gotten things at least a bit more manageable--yes, what I did was awful, but it was an awful choice and it had to be made, and no, it couldn't have been fair to him, even if I did say yes, because I wouldn't have said yes when he was green and to say yes when he was handsome would make me--it'd make me no better than that awful prince who called me an ugly little peasant girl. Yes, he was good, and yes, he was kind, and yes, he even loved me. But to only consider him after Genesta changed him...that's not fair. That's not love, and it shouldn't be that way.
But I'd told him, when I left, that perhaps we'd meet again, didn't I? And so perhaps that comes true, sometime in the future. Do I go back to Tamir? It seems there must be a great deal of adventuring in my future, since Dr. Cadaver also seemed to think I make it as far as a land I've never heard of before. So perhaps we meet again, and maybe...well. No, I can't possibly know what happens, just from that one picture. I don't even know why we'll kiss. Just that...well, that we will, if the picture is to be believed, and that neither of us look particularly uncomfortable about it.
I wish he'd come, the day all the visitors arrived. I wanted to see Mother and Daddy and Alexander, of course, but I wouldn't have minded seeing him again. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get all my thoughts straight about him until I finally do.
...But then again, I once thought that about Alexander, and now, through speaking with others and a few chance curses, a number of thoughts I'd had about him have all become much clearer. So maybe it's just a matter of waiting and hoping.
The more important of the two pictures, though, is the picture of all of us in what seemed to be Mordack's laboratory. Daddy was there with us in that picture, and he wasn't there in my first vision of the future; it was only me, Mother, and Alexander. At the time, I'd been afraid that would mean that something had happened to him, that the fruit might not have worked as it was meant to, that we'd lost him somehow. But if the picture is to be believed...then that's not the case. I don't know what might happen, but...but I know if something happens to us, and Daddy isn't kidnapped as well, and he's alive and well, then I know we'll all be safe in the end, somehow. He'd find us, just as Alexander found me. There's not a doubt in my mind that he'll find us. And then...then we'll be safe.
Still, that doesn't mean I should just sit idly by and trust that it'll all work out for the best, just from a picture--and especially not from a picture delivered by the City. It's a comfort, yes, and I know better now than to rush headstrong into my plans the way that I have been lately, but I can't stop. It's coming up on a month now, since the mishap, and curses or not it's about time I got back to work on hunting down exactly what went wrong.
Which means that at some point, I'm going to have to speak with him. The problem would either be in the ingredients or in the preparation, I'm sure of that much. If it's the preparation, then that's my fault entirely. But if it's the ingredients...then the only thing it could be, really, is the nightshade; it's not as though there are many ways that dried acorns could go wrong, after all. I'll have to ask and see about it, I suppose.
Which also means that talk of last week will come up. I've left it alone now, for a week, just to let things settle down a little. But...it worries me. Whether it was the right thing to do--no, but of course it was the right thing to do. I couldn't have done anything else. And that's the troublesome part--because I've seen that he's clever and he's quite adept at making plans, and now I have to wonder if I was always just a part of the plan. And even if I were to ask, how sure could I be of a truthful answer?
I won't hold someone's actions during a curse against him, I've said that many times already. But curses can also lend a great deal of insight into a person, at times, and--I wouldn't have taken him for a liar. Which means if he is a liar, he's a very good one, and he's cleverer than me. And that means I'll need to be cautious.
Rue trusts him, and I want to believe in that. But at the same time...I need to be cautious. His rules are different than mine, and even if I were to learn them, I don't think they'd be rules to a game I would want to play at all.
So I'll be cautious, then, and I'll see, and I'll try to decide where to go from here after I do. It's awful, having to be so suspicious. Why couldn't he just be like me? Though today might not be the best day to try it. Maybe...I ought to wait a little more. Wait and hope, just like everything else. Isn't that right?
[/Private]
There's a story, in one of my collections of fairy tales, about a princess with a fairy godmother who blessed her with a rather strange gift--everywhere she walked, flower petals would drift down around her, and every time she spoke, roses and pearls and gemstones would fall from her lips. Which is beautiful to think about, when it's words on a page, but it's a different matter entirely when those words on the page become a reality. Suppose the poor girl were to talk in her sleep? She'd wake up to a bed full of sharp corners and crushed blossoms and thorns and all sorts of troublesome things. Or suppose she wanted to go ice-skating? She'd have to take a whole troupe of servants along with her to brush the petals off the ice behind her.
I don't know that I'd want to be that girl. With all the questions I ask, and all the talking I do, getting rid of all the gemstones and things would be no small task. Where would you put them all, even? And I must say, it makes it terribly difficult to keep the house clean when I'm trailing petals and blossoms everywhere I go. I've even tried walking backwards so I could sweep them up as I went, but it's getting tedious and I almost want to just leave it alone and fuss with it tomorrow, instead.
Is today's curse a fairy-tale curse, I wonder? Or is it a play on names, instead? "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", after all.
Well, whatever it is, I have a veritable mountain of roses today, of all different colors. I think I'll keep a few for my room, if they'll keep after the curse; I'm rather partial to the pink ones, but the red and the orange are quite close seconds, in my opinion. If anyone else is interested in taking some, please do let me know, and if there's a color you'd like that I don't have at the moment, don't fret--I'll just walk around in a circle and one will turn up eventually, I'm sure.
[OOC: Hit with the "What's In A Name" curse, of course!]
All right, let's try this again.
A lot has happened lately, hasn't it? It's been difficult to find time to sit down and really think about it all, between all the curses and getting caught up on all the chores I should've been doing while was cursed in the meantime. Still...here I am, and it's clear I am cursed today, but so long as I don't move around much, I ought to be all right for a while.
I think...I'm not sure what to think of those pictures I saw. Obviously, the unsettling one was the one that Blue found, of Edgar and me...some people found ones of the two of us on the beach at Tamir, which is hard enough to remember without having to see it again, but that one...that one was a picture of something that hasn't happened yet. And I'm really not sure what to think...
I don't want to worry about Edgar anymore. I really don't, and I thought I'd gotten things at least a bit more manageable--yes, what I did was awful, but it was an awful choice and it had to be made, and no, it couldn't have been fair to him, even if I did say yes, because I wouldn't have said yes when he was green and to say yes when he was handsome would make me--it'd make me no better than that awful prince who called me an ugly little peasant girl. Yes, he was good, and yes, he was kind, and yes, he even loved me. But to only consider him after Genesta changed him...that's not fair. That's not love, and it shouldn't be that way.
But I'd told him, when I left, that perhaps we'd meet again, didn't I? And so perhaps that comes true, sometime in the future. Do I go back to Tamir? It seems there must be a great deal of adventuring in my future, since Dr. Cadaver also seemed to think I make it as far as a land I've never heard of before. So perhaps we meet again, and maybe...well. No, I can't possibly know what happens, just from that one picture. I don't even know why we'll kiss. Just that...well, that we will, if the picture is to be believed, and that neither of us look particularly uncomfortable about it.
I wish he'd come, the day all the visitors arrived. I wanted to see Mother and Daddy and Alexander, of course, but I wouldn't have minded seeing him again. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get all my thoughts straight about him until I finally do.
...But then again, I once thought that about Alexander, and now, through speaking with others and a few chance curses, a number of thoughts I'd had about him have all become much clearer. So maybe it's just a matter of waiting and hoping.
The more important of the two pictures, though, is the picture of all of us in what seemed to be Mordack's laboratory. Daddy was there with us in that picture, and he wasn't there in my first vision of the future; it was only me, Mother, and Alexander. At the time, I'd been afraid that would mean that something had happened to him, that the fruit might not have worked as it was meant to, that we'd lost him somehow. But if the picture is to be believed...then that's not the case. I don't know what might happen, but...but I know if something happens to us, and Daddy isn't kidnapped as well, and he's alive and well, then I know we'll all be safe in the end, somehow. He'd find us, just as Alexander found me. There's not a doubt in my mind that he'll find us. And then...then we'll be safe.
Still, that doesn't mean I should just sit idly by and trust that it'll all work out for the best, just from a picture--and especially not from a picture delivered by the City. It's a comfort, yes, and I know better now than to rush headstrong into my plans the way that I have been lately, but I can't stop. It's coming up on a month now, since the mishap, and curses or not it's about time I got back to work on hunting down exactly what went wrong.
Which means that at some point, I'm going to have to speak with him. The problem would either be in the ingredients or in the preparation, I'm sure of that much. If it's the preparation, then that's my fault entirely. But if it's the ingredients...then the only thing it could be, really, is the nightshade; it's not as though there are many ways that dried acorns could go wrong, after all. I'll have to ask and see about it, I suppose.
Which also means that talk of last week will come up. I've left it alone now, for a week, just to let things settle down a little. But...it worries me. Whether it was the right thing to do--no, but of course it was the right thing to do. I couldn't have done anything else. And that's the troublesome part--because I've seen that he's clever and he's quite adept at making plans, and now I have to wonder if I was always just a part of the plan. And even if I were to ask, how sure could I be of a truthful answer?
I won't hold someone's actions during a curse against him, I've said that many times already. But curses can also lend a great deal of insight into a person, at times, and--I wouldn't have taken him for a liar. Which means if he is a liar, he's a very good one, and he's cleverer than me. And that means I'll need to be cautious.
Rue trusts him, and I want to believe in that. But at the same time...I need to be cautious. His rules are different than mine, and even if I were to learn them, I don't think they'd be rules to a game I would want to play at all.
So I'll be cautious, then, and I'll see, and I'll try to decide where to go from here after I do. It's awful, having to be so suspicious. Why couldn't he just be like me? Though today might not be the best day to try it. Maybe...I ought to wait a little more. Wait and hope, just like everything else. Isn't that right?
[/Private]
There's a story, in one of my collections of fairy tales, about a princess with a fairy godmother who blessed her with a rather strange gift--everywhere she walked, flower petals would drift down around her, and every time she spoke, roses and pearls and gemstones would fall from her lips. Which is beautiful to think about, when it's words on a page, but it's a different matter entirely when those words on the page become a reality. Suppose the poor girl were to talk in her sleep? She'd wake up to a bed full of sharp corners and crushed blossoms and thorns and all sorts of troublesome things. Or suppose she wanted to go ice-skating? She'd have to take a whole troupe of servants along with her to brush the petals off the ice behind her.
I don't know that I'd want to be that girl. With all the questions I ask, and all the talking I do, getting rid of all the gemstones and things would be no small task. Where would you put them all, even? And I must say, it makes it terribly difficult to keep the house clean when I'm trailing petals and blossoms everywhere I go. I've even tried walking backwards so I could sweep them up as I went, but it's getting tedious and I almost want to just leave it alone and fuss with it tomorrow, instead.
Is today's curse a fairy-tale curse, I wonder? Or is it a play on names, instead? "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", after all.
Well, whatever it is, I have a veritable mountain of roses today, of all different colors. I think I'll keep a few for my room, if they'll keep after the curse; I'm rather partial to the pink ones, but the red and the orange are quite close seconds, in my opinion. If anyone else is interested in taking some, please do let me know, and if there's a color you'd like that I don't have at the moment, don't fret--I'll just walk around in a circle and one will turn up eventually, I'm sure.
[OOC: Hit with the "What's In A Name" curse, of course!]