poly_chromatic | Quest 324

Mm. It's August 2nd again, isn't it.

There's a story I tell every year on August 2nd, you know: the one about the princess with the six brothers that were turned into swans, and how she spent six years in silence sewing shirts for them out of thistles, because the only way to break the curse was to go the whole time without ever smiling or laughing as she worked to make the shirts that would change them back. This is the fifth time now that I've found myself thinking of that story. And every year when I do, I think of how long of a time six years really is--it's only a few lines in a story, but living it out is something very different entirely, isn't it? I certainly don't think I could've managed it myself.

A dear friend of mine once told me, during her stay here, that the first year seems the longest of all, and every year after that seems to come faster and faster. On days like today, I do wish she were here, almost, just so that I could tell her she was right. Well, and because I miss her, of course. Five years certainly means a great deal of goodbyes, too.

Every year on this day, I find myself wondering what it is I'll do if I manage to run out six years, just the same as that princess with her swan brothers did. To think it's just one more year, now. What story will I tell on my anniversary if I should finally outlast her with my own time in the City?

Though I suppose by that point, perhaps, I could always start retelling a few of my own, instead. With all the changes we've seen lately, goodness knows there'll certainly be plenty of them.

[OOC: And with August 2nd comes Rosella's Polyversary--today marks five years she's been in the City! Thank you all for all the wonderful years of gameplay, Polyites! I'm hoping for many more still to come. ♥]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That happened in Salem.

Er...I'm sorry, in where? Is that your kingdom, or...?

No. It's in Massachusetts. It's a city? Or, probably more a town. I've never been. It's on the other side of the country. Which, I guess could also be called a kingdom? You're not from the United States, are you?

Oh! Er, no, but I've had friends from there. Is it anywhere near Prince's Ton? That's where my best friend is, right now.

...Or, well, that's where he was the last time I saw him, but I suppose by now that might've changed, really.

I've never heard of Prince's Ton.

I don't know. Maybe. Sorry, geography's not my strongest subject.

But, sorry, I interrupted again. So, she was going to be burned at the stake. [ SHE BETTER NOT BE ]

It's a place where a school is, I think. And rather important, somehow, but I never quite heard why. Something about ivy.

Oh, but--yes, of course, we can't simply leave our poor princess like that, can we! Yes, well, they took her out to be burned at the stake, but it just so happened that they day they picked for it was also the very last day of her six years! And so they took her out and she took all her little shirts with her, which were all done save for one--it was missing the sleeve on one arm, since she hadn't had time to sew it on yet in all the commotion.

And so they took her out and tied her to the stake and just as they were about to put her to the torch, there in the sky came her six brothers as swans, swooping down toward them all! And she managed to get a hand free and as they came down, she threw a shirt over each of them, and lo and behold the magic worked and they all turned back into their human selves!

...Well, all except the youngest brother, who got the shirt that wasn't quite finished yet, and so he ended up still having a wing for one arm, instead.

[ Wide eyes.

A beat.

Laughter. Sorry, Rosella. It's a horrible ending. But, it's ... so funny. ]

Yes, well! Er...that is, yes, there's a bit more of it, too, but--

[Well, you know, it is sort of funny, but it's rather horrible, too. Either way, she'll just kind of let him finish laughing before forging on.]

Well, um, then of course, with the curse broken, the little princess was free to speak as much as she liked, and her brothers freed her from the stake and she embraced them all happily, and once she had she was able to explain everything to the young king--his mother's treachery and all--and the young king was so taken aback by it all that he ordered his wicked mother onto the very same stake instead.

And then of course the young king and the princess were married, and they lived happily ever after, and all the brothers did too. Even the one with a wing for an arm.

And that's the end!

[ Sorry, it subsides. The visual is just ridiculous.

Oh. Well. Okay. Wow.]

He burned his own mother at the stake?

[ Yeah, she was evil, but... ]

He did. And that's the way the story ends.

But, it's his mother.

Well, yes, but she was also making out that poor girl to seem like a cannibal and a murderer and all sorts of awful things, just because she didn't like her. It's meant to be a sort of "what goes around comes around" thing, I think--horrible though it might be to think of in the first place.

Those older fairytales are all so gruesome though, right? Like, was it Cinderella where the step-sisters had to dance in hot shoes? Or, no. They cut their feet to fit the glass slipper?

[ Stiles shares what he reads, sometimes. He did a lot of crazy research around werewolves and fairytales and stuff. ]

Both, really! The foot-cutting was to try to fit into the shoe in the first place, yes, but then their punishment for trying to keep Cinderella away from the prince was the, er...hot shoes.

But that's only in some versions! In others Cinderella forgives them and marries them to dukes of the court once she's wed the prince herself.

But, originally?

Well, I don't think I've ever met the real Cinderella, of course, so I suppose it's a bit hard to say, isn't it? Oh, drat, if only Blue were here, I'm sure he would've known how it really went, and which bits of it were just stories.

... I don't think anybody's met the real Cinderella.

Why, of course they have! Why wouldn't they?

From the fairytale?

Is that so strange? I've been acquainted with the real Boy Blue. And my father once met the real Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, and most everyone in my family knows the real Ifnkovhgroghprm, besides.

Every story comes from somewhere, right?

Yes, of course! And really, in a place like the City, the thought of meeting a princess isn't all that strange, either.

Have you met one before?

[ He's way too awake for this hour of the night. But, this is a nice conversation. ]

I have! More than one, even, and rather a few kings and queens, besides.

And you have too, now, I suppose, since I'm one, myself.

[ Eyes, flick upwards in realization. ]

Oh. Sorry. [ Scott McCall, forever the apologist. ] Or, it's really nice to meet you. I'm Scott. Not a prince.

audio ]

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