Quest 318

[primrosella]

When I was seventeen years old, I remember it seemed as though all I could think about was how things would be on the day I turned eighteen. It was rather an important birthday, you know. That is--of course, it'd be important to anyone, but it was especially so for me, I think, because turning eighteen meant starting to think about being married, and there was to be a great grand ball for me, and dancing, and all sorts of things. Mother would've arranged all of it, and she's really just magnificent with parties and that sort of thing. And I remember I was a bit, er...well, nervous about the whole business. I suppose anyone would be, thinking about being married and all, hoping to find the right person and so on and so forth.

It was almost my birthday, I remember, when the dragon came. And then I wasn't thinking about dancing and parties and marriage anymore. I was only thinking that it had demanded a maiden sacrifice, and someone had to go, and it was my kingdom and my duty and if I didn't then some other poor girl would have to and...

Well, it ended up that I rather stopped thinking about being eighteen at all, really. I didn't...think it'd matter, either way, since I wouldn't be around to see it.

I never did turn eighteen, back home. Oh, er--not because of the dragon, thankfully! My twin brother showed up just in time and rather saved the day and me both. But the day I came to the City, it was only about thirty-six hours after I went to the dragon; I fell out of Daventry and into the Fountain on the morning of the second day after I thought I'd be its dinner. And when I did, it was August here, and so then I found myself waiting another seven months still before my birthday came around. And it did come around, and...well, then it came around again, and again, and again still. And now here it is again, the same as always on the first day of spring.

It's strange to think that someday, if--really, I'm not sure if I ought to say when or if at this point, but perhaps it'd be better to say when--someday, when I go back home to Daventry, I'll find myself at seventeen again, just a few days away from my birthday. It seems a bit silly now, the things I thought and worried about at seventeen. Before the dragon came, I think my greatest worries were that I might end up a spinster or be an unfit queen! That all seems so terribly silly now that I think about it like this, looking back. But I suppose that's really just a part of growing up, isn't it?

Most years, I make it a point to have a great mysterious countdown to the first day of spring, or I'll say it's my brother's birthday without also mentioning that we're twins, and so that makes it mine, too. But this year that seems a bit silly, too, and mostly I'm just happy to see spring come around again, and to think back on all the wonderful birthdays I've had before this one, and...and just how lucky I am, really. For as awful as the City can be--and it's been terribly awful, there's no way around that--I'm still glad I'm here, and that I've been here. I met my best friend here, and people I've considered as close as family, and learned so much from the people I've known and really just...become better for it. I'm glad for that.

Oh, and I suppose it's fair to say there's someone a bit glad for me, too, if the packages that came to my door this morning are any indication.

But! Just because I kept from saying anything about my birthday before now certainly doesn't mean I don't intend to celebrate it. So I think first I'll keep up my usual tradition of paying a visit to Ellington, and then tonight we'll have cake at the Blue Light--and Edmund would howl, but we'll have all the drinks for a discount, too. It's one of those funny cakes that bakery in the square is famous for, the ones made with the pie inside? And I still don't know how they manage it, by the way, but I doubt they'd tell me the secret even if I did say they ought to since it's my birthday.

Comments

[misterblackbird]

Cake with pie inside and a visit to Ellington sounds like a splendid way for you to spend your birthday, Rosella.

And happy birthday.

[primrosella]

It rather does, doesn't it? I'm looking forward to it.

You remembered.

[misterblackbird]

How could I possibly forget?

[primrosella]

Oh, I don't know. I didn't say anything this year, I suppose it's possible you might've.

[misterblackbird]

You don't seem to forget my birthday. Anyway, I'd hate to lose such a perfect opportunity to be completely insufferable to you for the day.

[punchedhitler]

A cake...with a pie inside?

[primrosella]

Yes, that's right! Isn't that the loveliest thing? I never can seem to work out how they manage it. Someone must've been terribly clever, dreaming up such a thing.

[punchedhitler]

Doesn't that seem a little decadent?

[primrosella]

Well, yes, I suppose so! But I can't imagine it'd be the sort of thing one would eat every day, really. One in a while for a special occasion it's all right to be decadent, though, don't you think?

Oh, and they really are just delicious, too.

[had_not_lived]

Seventeen seems like a hundred years ago. How did that happen?

Happy birthday, Rosella.

[primrosella]

Why, I should hope not--I'm not that old!

Will you be coming down to the Blue Light for cake, Neil?

[had_not_lived]

Oh! Of course you're not, but being here as long as we have-- and you've been here longer than me-- well, it seems like... what it is, a whole other world. Maybe it's different for you.

I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'm really glad we're both here to celebrate it.

[primrosella]

I was just telling Captain Rogers it'll be five years this August. And to think, the one after that will be six--I'll have spent the same number of years as the princess with the six brothers turned into swans! Goodness, I wonder what I'll do once I can't tell that story on my anniversary anymore?

I'm glad, too. Oh, and of course you ought to bring Todd along, too! But I suppose that goes without saying by now.

[anunluckypenny]

Happy birthday, Rosella. I hope it's a good one.

[primrosella]

Why, thank you, Penny! It's a quieter one than ones I've had before this, to be sure, but I don't think it's in any way a worse one for it.

[anunluckypenny]

Nope, there's nothing wrong with quiet.

Is there anything you're hoping for for your birthday?

[primrosella]

Oh, only the usual--to see everyone and spend time together and if I'm lucky, to eat lots of cake and pie besides!

[hexuality]

Sometimes thinking about birthdays and ages here gives me a headache, but all the same—happy birthday, Rosella. D'you want some help at the bar?

[After all, there's cakepie.]

[primrosella]

It'd be more complicated if I'd ever been home since coming here, I'm sure--then I'd have to think about going back and forth in age, and which one was I really. But I haven't, so it makes things a bit more simple in that way, at least.

And I'd be happy to have the help, yes, please!

[Someday Rosella will get up the courage to ask the baker in that shop why he always looks a bit misty-eyed when she orders a cakepie and marvels at the cleverness of putting a pie inside a cake, and what skill with baking it must've took to manage it, and what cleverness to even think of it at all.]

[hexuality]

I'm sorry you haven't been home.

[But she understands; she felt like a jumbled mess when she came back here, the age she was meant to be and not meant to be different and clashing.]

But of course I'll be there. I miss working properly at the Blue Light, odd as it might sound.

[primrosella]

In a way, it's almost not so bad, I think? That is--as hard as it is to be away for so long, I think it'd almost be worse to go home and come back, to have it and then lose it again. This way it's...rather just like growing up, or going on an adventure and finding a different kingdom of my own to call home, as much as the one I left behind.

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[majorcrotchgrab]

Happy Birthday, boss.

... And that cake sounds delicious.

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[primrosella]

Oh, doesn't it, though? It's chocolate with cherry pie inside, and I'm wonderfully excited about it.

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[majorcrotchgrab]

You may have to hold me back from devouring all of it.

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[primrosella]

Oh, don't you dare! Not before I get my piece, first!