Quest 299

[primrosella]

[Filtered from Known DELILAH Members | Blue's Codes | Unhackable]

My goodness, is it really March again already? With all that fuss over the desert and the glass and the waiting in lines for days on end, I must've completely lost track of the time!

Still, it seems as though that fuss is over with now, and the City is settling back into its routine again, just as it always does when things like this happen. It's odd, though; everyone knows how the City runs like a clock, with the Carousel and the numbered buildings and all that awful machinery in the heart of the Underground. But I almost rather wonder if sometimes it isn't a bit like an hourglass, too--running along normally for most of the time, but then with a great upheaval every so often as it turns itself over again. Goodness knows it'd certainly explain all the sand.

...Oh, and speaking of the sand, it's been just about a year since the tower by Building Three turned to sand and fell, isn't it? It seems as though sand keeps turning up again and again, lately--which rather makes me wonder if that mention of an hourglass is a bit more apt than I'd thought, even.

In any case, things do seem to be getting back to normal--or as normal as they're likely to get, in the City, and as we all saw for ourselves yesterday, even the curses are back to usual again. With any luck, things will stay quiet for a little while, at least. We've had some terrible curses in March before--the Ides of March in particular comes to mind--but after so much commotion last month, there's always the chance we may get lucky for a little longer. I certainly wouldn't mind having a nice, curse-free day for the first of spring.

My, and that's coming up quite fast now, too, isn't it? Goodness, it's only thirteen days now. As quickly as time has been slipping by lately, two weeks seems like almost nothing at all.


[OOC: Spoilers: the first of spring is also Rosella's birthday, and it's particularly special this year because she'll be twenty-one on the 21st. WHERE DID THE TIME GO?!]

Comments

[misterblackbird]

I sometimes think I ought to spend more time there than I do. I wonder what would come of that?

Still--yes, I would like to know. Even if it's only a small part of the library and its mysteries.

[primrosella]

Speaking from experience, likely a bite or two! And perhaps a few sore spines, besides.

...Oh, and you'd see more of me around, too, since I am there most every day.

[misterblackbird]

And now I'm left wondering how much of that is a pun and how much is the truth.

Well, yes, of course I'd see more of you around, so long as you didn't disappear into the shelves somewhere.

[primrosella]

That depends on how quickly one can get out of the way, really.

And I'm much better about that now, you know, now that I take my little timer with me and all.

[misterblackbird]

And still I'm not entirely sure how to take that.

Is that so? How very responsible of you.

[primrosella]

The biting books aren't even the worst, you know. It's the ones that run away, when they're precisely the book one wants to look at.

Well, if I didn't, I'd lose track of time and forget to come back out again! ...Er, again. It only happened a few times before we managed to do something about it.

[misterblackbird]

I did know that the library made it difficult to find the book one wanted precisely when one wanted it. I've seen that firsthand--that, or the library will very helpfully recommend another book instead, which may or may not prove to be useful. Now, the books that bite or run away, I'm afraid I've not encountered those yet.

And I'm quite glad you did, actually. You might starve to death in there.

[primrosella]

I think I'd remember to come out before I starved, but I might miss a meal or two before I did. Mother always used to say I'd rather read than eat or sleep, and I suppose she was right about it, too.

[misterblackbird]

Unless, of course, there's some way of nourishing oneself out of books. Music is the food of love--and that is Shakespeare, more or less--but I've not heard that books feed one quite so well.

Well, so long as you do come out again, sooner or later.

[primrosella]

Well, perhaps not out of a book itself, no, but there is that saying about teaching a man to fish, and there's hardly a better place to learn than from a book.

But don't worry. I like you all much too much to disappear into the shelves forever. I'd miss seeing you.

[misterblackbird]

Yes, but one does still have to fish. One can't simply read a fish into existence--not so far as i know.

I feel rather flattered by that. I'm glad I'd be missed, even among the most excellent company of books.

[primrosella]

Well, yes, that's true. And then one has to have something to do with the fish, too, or at least something better than sticking it into one's pocket and hoping for the best, because then it just goes a bit awful and then one doesn't have any dinner, anyway.

I can't think of many books I'd like better than you, you know.

[misterblackbird]

Would you put a fish in your pocket, Rosella?

[primrosella]

It was only the once, and only because I didn't have anywhere else to put it.

[misterblackbird]

[Knew it...]

May I ask what became of it?

[primrosella]

I gave it to a pelican on a desert island, because he looked hungry, too, and I didn't want to eat it anymore anyway.

[misterblackbird]

At least he had something for dinner, then.

[primrosella]

And he did help me get off the island, too, in his way. He dropped a silver whistle that called up a dolphin, and it gave me a ride back to the mainland from there. So it turned out all right in the end.

[misterblackbird]

Better a dolphin to ride than a fish in your pocket--though I doubt that saying will be quite so familiar as some of the others you and I have called up just now.