primrosella | Quest 212

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I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm scared and this is a wretched curse and he's a monster, that doctor, he's nothing but a monster but--but I'm all right. I am. I'm safe in the Warehouse and the spells are all up and he can't get me so long as I'm in here. He's not welcome in here, and the Warehouse won't let him in. It threw him out before. It'll throw him out again.

So I'm all right. I've done worse before. Dealing with Lolotte was worse than this. I was alone in Tamir and I managed all right, even when I had to face her myself. I've held Pandora's Box in my hands, and that was worse than this. He's a monster, and he's a madman, but I'm safer here than I was then. I have friends here. I have defenses here. And he's no different than--than an ogre or a troll. He's just a monster.

And a monster can't love, so if it's cursed to do just that--

Because that must be it. He must be cursed, just like everyone else has been cursed, because he wouldn't have listened to me if he weren't. If it were just a matter of scaring me, taunting Cain--then why would he listen? It wasn't like that the last time, when we thought Cain's father might've found me. He talked to me, but he didn't--listen. Then, it was as though I were just a puppet in the midst of a greater game, and my strings were being pulled every which way. But this...

~~A boy with white hair who couldn't get warm, and sat in an alley covered in blood--~~

But what in the world am I going to do with all that--all those things he left? Goodness knows I wouldn't eat that candy if it were the last thing on earth, and I'm certainly not about to put up those flowers anywhere. And that--that jar of--I don't even know what--

It's the sort of thing I'd expect to find in a hag's cave or an evil wizard's laboratory, not on a doorstep. Not on my doorstep! And if he got it here--then where did he get it from, and--

Honestly, why would you ever?!

Ugh. As if I needed any more reason to hate August. Peter's still--there's still no word of him, and I haven't gotten anywhere at puzzling out how to call on Adrastus's mother for help, and Penny's upset and Cain's in an awful mood and I'm in an awful mood, and why shouldn't I be, when there's a madman delivering parts of people to my doorstep? Ugh, this is always such a terrible month. At least now I know about that...oh, what was it? Tanabata? That story about the Sky Princess and the husband she loved, which explains why there are always troubles with love around this time of year. But it certainly doesn't make things any easier to put up with in the meantime.

I've always managed so far. I can manage now. I just have to get things figured out.

Now, if only all this utter silliness would just be over...

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One of the first lessons I ever learned in this City was about the importance of understanding. In a place like this, with so many people from so many different places, it's easy to find ourselves caught in the middle of misunderstandings simply because we see things in different ways, and because we've all had different experiences that have shaped the way we approach things now. A word from one place might be the same word in another, but the two words might have completely different meanings. A reality in one place might be nothing more than a story in another. A monster in one world might not be a monster in the next.

The curses bring about a lot of misunderstandings, too. That's the whole point of them, really, to make us do things we normally wouldn't, and to try to make us miserable because of it. And oftentimes, they succeed--especially so with curses like this. The ones that make us act differently are the ones that are hardest to be understanding about, both during and afterward, because they turn us into people we're not, make us do things we wouldn't, make us hurt people we ordinarily love. These sorts of curses are some of the worst to endure, and the hardest to forgive.

And yet, these are the ones when forgiveness is needed the most.

I'm still not certain yet if yesterday's curse really ended at midnight, or if it's decided to persist through today as well. Last year this sort of thing ended at the stroke of midnight, and in a rather humiliating way for everyone concerned. This year, it's much harder to tell.

However, when it finally does come to an end, I hope that we can all find it within ourselves to be understanding about the circumstances, and to be open to the people we've hurt, and to forgive the things we said and did when we couldn't help ourselves. And it's a duty that both people need to engage in--the people that were hurt need to find the strength to forgive, and to not hold those actions against the person that hurt them, and the person that was cursed needs to do the responsible thing and ask forgiveness for the things they did, and apologize for hurting their friend, even if they couldn't help it at the time.

I'd hate to see more friendships needlessly ruined over something as silly as a curse.

I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid I won't be coming in to the Library to help today. I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and so I think I'll be staying in and getting some rest until I start feeling a bit more like myself.

[OOC: My, Rosella's certainly putting on a brave face for someone who found a human heart on her doorstep yesterday. Sob. She'll just be over here hating this curse and hiding inside her magically-warded Warehouse until the world stops being crazy, thanks. ♥]

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...

Caspian, do you--do you remember, a little more than a year ago, when that hair monster invaded the City and caused all that trouble?

I'm not sure any of them would work as expected in the City. We'd do better to find another way.

No, nor should you try to do as much. I'd rather he not bother you. I can endure whatever he might try.

I most certainly do.

[Gosh he kind of even sounds offended, though hardly offended by Rosella. It's the grease trap of a monster, really.]

I'll just stick with being as careful as I can in the meantime, then, and see what else I might be able to come up with.

I just don't want to be an easy pawn in some plot to make you miserable. That's all.

It's definitely easy to forget. Once hearts're involved, things get messy.

That's the best anyone can do, I think. I'm good! Worried about Chris and Ray--Ray's pretty mad--but it'll all be fine soon.

[Yeah, well, his hair is too nice to be a part of a marauding beast like that. Edmund and Rosella both agree on that.]

And then his mother came by afterward, to collect him?

[Her back is to the door when it opens, the result of a half-turn to look back the way that she's come, some casual glance out at the City as if looking into the heart of it will let her see half of the people that she's wondering after and about. The one thing the curse has managed to do is provide an adequate distraction, in some respects, from things that have still been collecting at the back of her mind, and while working late and often has also provided something of a decent distraction, Claire knows that offering to visit Rosella is as much for her own benefit and peace of mind as it is for the other girl's. It's easier to take your mind off of something when you're deviating from a daily routine: a blip on the monotonous radar of existing in this place.

She turns, a smile ready and hooked at the corner of her mouth. The hand at the end of the arm her messenger bag is slung over comes up to lift the strap off of her shoulder, thumb slipping underneath the brown cloth so that the body of the thing brushes across her leg. If there is anything off about Rosella's smile, Claire doesn't immediately notice it.]

Hey! I thought about throwing rocks at the window but that was a little too cliche. [An abrupt turn brings the bag into better view, and Claire takes a step toward the open door so that she can get inside.] I could only find a couple movies I was absolutely sure were within the realm of 'happy endings.' Have you ever watched The Princess Bride?

I'll put my mind to it as well, as I said. We'll think of something between the two of us.

You won't be. I won't allow that.

Yes, I think I remember that too, although we didn't talk...I mean, if it was the kind to talk.

I spoke with someone who said there's a celebration going on at the moment, which might be the reason why we always have curses like this around this time of year. It's called Tanabata, I think she said, and it's something to do with two lovers being reunited after being separated all year.

Are they still, er...cursed, then, or have they mostly managed to overcome that by now?

So much for a brief respite from all the trouble. I just hope this isn't the start of another stretch like last year, where it was just one thing after another for months on end.

All right. I believe you.

I did. Er, speak with her, I mean. She was terrifying, but...well, motherly. Kind, in her own way. Lately, I've been trying to think of a way to speak with her again.

[SPUTTER.]

What for?

The City is always one thing after another for months on end. It's only the kind of things that happen that change.

We'll endure this as we've endured everything else.

Awkward way to celebrate something like that. I wonder what the deities're thinking sometimes.

Nope, everyone's still cursed. Chris still loves Ray who loves Arkady who loves Chris, and Lucy might love me. Or she might just be really drunk. I can't tell. Do you think it'll end tomorrow?

[Right, um. Awkward. Have like...thirty seconds of silence.]

Because she outranks the deities. And because-- [Oh, look, there's an elephant in the room. Nope, better keep ignoring it for the moment.] --because strange things have been happening in the City lately, and she's the only power I've ever met here that really seemed to be concerned with our well-being.

Well, then, there's nothing to do but face them, I suppose. And to try to keep our spirits up as best we can in the meantime...although sometimes that's easier said than done.

[Oh.....Oh.]

Do you think she would be kind to you again?

She did say she'd come back if she was needed. I remember that much. And I think she might be, if I could explain things.

You can't give up now, Rosella. If you do, August might win.

They do like making us celebrate holidays in the strangest ways.

I hope so. Curses don't usually last longer than two or three days, unless they're the really terrible ones. And I don't think this is quite terrible enough to last the whole week.

It sounds dangerous, Rosella. You may have spoken once but what if she--

They are fickle people, all of them. We don't need to lose anymore.

...It rather has gotten the better of me in the first half, hasn't it? I suppose we'll have to see if I can't turn that around in the second.

It is a dangerous thought. Which is why I haven't done anything more than think about it, yet.

But I just think...it might be something to keep in mind, even so.

You've still half the month left yet.

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Quest 212

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