Quest 088

[primrosella]

[Private//Hackable by Friends]

...Ugh. I'm certainly not doing that again. What an awful place. And I won't be wearing that dress or those horrible shoes ever again, either. I wonder if I might give them away to someone? It'd be a shame to let them sit around gathering dust in my closet if someone might want them.

I don't want Arthur to be right about her. We're friends, I know we're friends. I know she cares about things--for goodness' sake, she started planning her Midsummer party almost before we were all done talking about her springtime event! She had Neil working on the play, she--checks things and manages things and puts time and effort into them; that doesn't sound like the behavior of someone who doesn't care...

But that's how she's acting now. He's right about that much, at least--she didn't care to wonder if I'd like that place or not, or to warn me that it might not be my sort of affair. But something's wrong, I'm sure of that much. I'll have to continue to keep an eye on her, I suppose. I just...won't be doing it if it means going back to that...location.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining, as Daddy would say, and I suppose some good did come of it after all, in a very roundabout way. Tired as I was after last night, I still had trouble sleeping, and I ended up getting up earlier than usual; I suppose I was so caught up in thinking that I couldn't seem to settle down enough to fall asleep. But I thought a nice, long, early-morning ride might help to clear my head a little, so I went and got Valor and spent a while just riding around. And that's how I found my stone.

I brought it back with me and double-checked the spell as soon as I made it back; smooth, rounded, and of an unusual color. It's certainly smooth and rounded, and I've never seen a stone of quite this color--it seems to vary from very dark blue, almost black, to a cheerful green, all in patches. If that's not unusual, I don't know what is. And that means...

Teleportation at Random
-Salt Grains (easily bought)
-Dried Mistletoe (well dried, by now)
-Smooth Rounded Stone of Unusual Color (done!)
-Magic Wand (ready whenever I need it)
-Mortar and Pestle for Grinding

And it's certainly not as though salt is hard to come by. But first things first, I suppose. If I mean to wear this around my neck, I think I'd better have it made that way first, before I go enchanting it to teleport the person who rubs it around at random. But my goodness, wouldn't that be a surprise for the poor jeweler, though?

[/Private]

[Filtered from Alexis Hargreaves | Blue's Codes | Unhackable]

Well, that party at Victrola was...certainly an interesting way to spend an evening, wasn't it? Thank you for offering me the invitation, Blair. And thank you, also, to everyone I spoke with that evening, too; I very much appreciated the company. It was particularly lovely to make your acquaintance, Captain Kirk, and I do hope we'll have the occasion to speak again sometime soon.

But now it's back to the usual routine, it seems, and that's all right with me. Summer is coming, the weather is beautiful, and it's already June. Come to think of it, that means as of tomorrow, I'll have been here...ten months. Goodness, sometimes it really doesn't seem like it's been ten whole months but then other times it feels like it's been years. But it's nice, isn't it? I've made so many friends and gotten to do so many lovely things since I've been here.

There's a story in one of my fairy-tale books about a princess who was very stubborn and very spoiled, and whenever her father would bring a suitor before her, she would find something about him to ridicule. Finally, along came a young king, and he too the princess ridiculed, mocking him and calling him by a nickname that made fun of the beard he wore. And so she would have none of them for her suitor. But then her father the king found out about all this, and he vowed--and this is always the troublesome part in fairy tales, isn't it? Making a hasty vow--that he would have his daughter marry the first man that came through the doors the next day, no matter who it was.

The next day, a minstrel came along and happened to be the first man through the doors; the princess cried and cried at her misfortune, but her father was firm in his oath, and had them married. Then the minstrel took the princess away from her palace and brought her back to his own home. Along the way, they passed fields and fields of beautiful lands, and when the princess asked who such lands belonged to, her husband told her that they were the lands of the same young king she'd mocked for his beard--and that all those lands would've been hers, too, if she'd married him rather than ridiculing him.

When they reached the minstrel's hut, the princess was aghast because it was so small and rough and not at all the sort of place she was used to, and there were no servants to tend to her needs; she'd have to look after herself. And eventually, her husband told her that she would have to start working herself, to ensure that they'd have enough money to survive. So she tried selling pottery, but a drunkard passing through the marketplace on horseback accidentally ran into her wares and smashed them all to bits. Crying, she told her husband what had happened, and he arranged for her to work as a kitchen maid in a nearby castle--the castle of the young king she'd mocked, that might've been hers if she'd married him rather than ridiculing him.

But eventually, the princess realized that she had a duty to do her part to help them survive, and so she went to work in the castle, even though she was ashamed of her position and the fact that she was working in the very castle of a suitor she'd scorned. But she worked, and she did her best, and they managed, she and her husband the minstrel.

Finally, one day, she received word that the young king was having his wedding celebration that day, and the head servant gave her orders to deliver the wedding cake. Afraid that the young king would see her face and recognize her, the princess held the wedding cake high as she carried it, so that it would cover her face. But just as she walked into the grand hall with it, she tripped and fell, completely ruining the cake--and she began to cry, not because of her own misfortune, but because she'd ruined the young king's wedding day with her clumsiness. But then, to her surprise, someone helped her up and dried her tears, asking her why she was crying on her own wedding day; when she looked, she realized it was the minstrel standing before her, but dressed in the garb of the young king. He explained, then, that he had masqueraded as the minstrel, and as the drunkard in the street, in order to humble her spirit, punish her arrogance, and teach her compassion for others. The princess thanked him for it, and they were married properly, and that's the end of the tale.

I wonder, though, about that princess and her young king. It's one thing to teach her compassion, after all, and perhaps she did deserve to have her arrogance punished. But to break her spirit...well. I'd like to think that the young king might've loved her for her spirit. But of course, it's only a story, isn't it?

Goodness, I've certainly written a lot today, haven't I? It's a good thing I was in the mood for it, I suppose!

Oh, and if I might ask, now that I've told my story--does anyone know the name of a good jeweler? I'm looking for one that's good at setting stones, please.


[OOC: This tl;dr post brought to you by the letter Kanda Yuu, who decided to complain to Rosella about writing too much on her last post. Yes, she's doing it on purpose. I, however, apologize for it. >> Also, if your character was at Victrola last night and wants to say they saw her or talked to her there, I'm open to assuming!]

Comments

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

It seems rather a cruel story, when one thinks about it.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Do you think the king was right, doing what he did?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I'm not inclined to think he was, no.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I do think she ought to have suffered some consequences for her actions. It's just the part about breaking her spirit that bothers me, I think.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Certainly what she did was wrong--perhaps even cruel. But I wonder if answering cruelty with more cruelty is the antidote for it.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I suppose some might say it's an eye for an eye, and so on. My question is, what did the king think he was achieving by it? Did he mean to be a teacher, or a conqueror?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Conqueror, more like. And now, though she's married to him, she'll never trust him.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

That's the less pleasant take on the story, and it's one that I think one might not notice, if they weren't reading carefully. He's really put her in her place quite deftly, hasn't he.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Indeed he has. And I wonder if he's happy for it.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

As I was telling Neil, I would've liked it much better if the story came with an epilogue, where the princess sets a bucket of water in place over her husband's door, and arranges a good drenching for him the next time he walks in.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

That might be a good start to paying him back.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I think it'd be enough for the purposes of the story, if not for the purposes of the princess. I'd want the princess to keep her spirit, but just make it playful instead of harmful.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I probably am taking this entirely too seriously.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Mm, I don't think you are. You want to see the king get what you think is coming to him, don't you?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I do, certainly--both the king she married and the king her father, though the princess isn't entirely innocent either.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

And you think it would take something more than a carefully-arranged pail of water?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I think it would, yes. I think it would have to answer the scale of what they made her endure.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I suppose the trouble is, then--what does one do with them, without answering cruelty with more cruelty?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

And that's where the problem lies.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

It's a problematic story all around.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

It's the cycle of existence, I suppose.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

...Suppose she arranged for the bucket of water and put salt in his soup?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I wonder if she shouldn't start having all his meals made without salt. Have you heard that story before?

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

It sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. Will you tell it for me?

1/?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Merry, I think, must have told me this one, or else I read it in one of her books.

Once there was a king who had three daughters, and he asked each how much she loved him.

The eldest spoke first: "Why, as I love my life."

And that answer pleased the king.

So the second daughter answered: "Why, better than all the world."

And that answer pleased the king.

Then the youngest answered: "I love you as fresh meat loves salt."

And that answer did not please the king. What kind of a love was salt? Her sisters would have given him their lives and the world, but his youngest daughter's love was only as worthy as common salt? So he drove the youngest daughter out of the castle, and she was forced to make her own way in the world.

It was autumn, then, and very cold, and she went on until she came to a river. There at the river, she gathered up reeds and rushes to make a kind of cape to keep the cold out, and went on until she came to a manor house.

She begged for work there and they put her to work in the kitchens, scraping the lids and scouring the pots. And because she gave no name, they called her Cap O' Rushes.

One night, there was a grand ball held at the her father's castle, and the commoners and servants were allowed into the corridors to glimpse the guests and the king. But that night, Cap O' Rushes was too tired to go, so she stayed at home while all the other servants left.