primrosella | Quest 226

It's interesting, really; we've been having weekends like this past one for more than a year and a half now, and even though they're always quite ridiculous and often full of the same sorts of curses, no two weekends are ever just alike. I've been a bird quite a few times now--which is rather a shame, since I was thinking very hard about dressing up as one for Halloween, but the idea seems a bit less appealing now that I've just spent the whole weekend as one--and I've been a child, too, and I've felt compelled to write my name all over things, and I've acted...well, quite unlike myself at times, as well. And sometimes my friends turn into animals themselves, and other times their souls come out for a visit, and other times still it's memories on the Network or red letters on their clothes or something else equally silly and uncomfortable. But they're never just the same as the last, no matter how many times we have them.

This was the first time I'd been turned into a bird with a cat in the house, actually. Which isn't to say that I haven't done my share of staying away from cats when I've been turned into a bird, but usually I can manage to reason with the cat in question when it comes up, and Snowdrop didn't seem particularly interested in listening to reason at the time, anyway. So it's lucky that she didn't manage to get me, though I am rather pleased that she saw fit to come into my room at all, since it wasn't so long ago that she wouldn't even dare to set foot inside the door.

But in any case, it was no harm done and it's all over now, so that's that.

Let's see, then. Today is the eighteenth of October, which means two weeks from today is November first--so it's only two more weeks until October is over with for another year. It really does seem to be going fast, doesn't it? Or at least, faster than it did last year. And a bit milder than it was last year, too, which could mean one of two things--either this month is going to be milder all around than we've been expecting, or the past few weeks have been the calm before the storm, and the next two are going to be terribly troublesome. But there's really no way of knowing until they come, of course, so the most we can do is to hope for the best and plan for the worst, and simply ride out the next two weeks however they may turn out.

Oh, but speaking of which, that reminds me. A few months ago, when the deities had us all writing essays about one word or another, they rewarded those efforts with a sort of coin or token that was said to have the power to undo a curse. I know it's been a while since then, and we've had some rather awful curses in that time, so I was curious to know--has anyone used one of those tokens before? And if so, what ended up coming of it? Did it really manage to undo a curse that had already struck?

That's the sort of thing that might turn out to be quite useful to know, after all, and especially so considering the tricks this month often likes to play on us.

Mm. Two more weeks of October. I suppose that also means it's just about the time to start expecting Peg-Fist Jack and his ghostly crew, isn't it? Goodness, that legend has been around a long time now--pirates and lost treasure and a ship full of ghosts said to appear around Halloween, looking to claim it again. It's just the sort of spooky thing that goes with this time of year, isn't it? And at least ghosts, I should think, would be much more harmless than most of the things we tend to run into when this month comes around.

[OOC: Sob, nostalgia. So two years ago, Rosella and a friend invented a Halloween legend about a ghost pirate named Peg-Fist Jack, his first mate Leonard the Barnacle, and his ghost ship, the Wandering Hangman; it's evolved into a sort of running joke for her by now, so bringing him up this time of year is tradition. Longtime residents, feel free to note the fact that she does this every year. After all, it's all in good fun. :D]

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I'm not sure which is the better and which is the worse, really.

No, I don't think I do, I'm afraid.

Well, it's the usual sort of pirate tale. A long, long time ago, a king and a queen lived in the Palace here, and the City was their kingdom. And then around about this time of year, Peg-Fist Jack and his crew sailed up in their ship, the Wandering Hangman, and came to pillage and plunder and all that. Well, when he heard word of all this, the king's Captain of the Guard decided to set a trap for Peg-Fist Jack, with the queen's most priceless jewels as the bait. When the pirates came to steal it, he ambushed them with the rest of the guard, and there was a great fight. Peg-Fist Jack was badly wounded, but the pirates managed to get away with the treasure.

Of course, to get back to their ship, they had to cross the whole City, and that was with the Captain of the Guard's men looking for them. So they had to go in the dead of night, bit by bit, over the course of a few days. And they did make it back and escaped, but Peg-Fist Jack died of his wounds along the way, and they buried him with his treasure somewhere in the City, which is why he still haunts it every Halloween. And then every year, the crew comes back as ghosts to try to reunite with their scurvy captain and recover their treasure once and for all.

That isn't so bad so far as ghost stories go.

We had fun dreaming it up, Rabi and I.

Rabi? Who is Rabi?

Oh, he's been gone for years now. But he was a friend of mine--we worked in the Library together, I think--and he helped me come up with the whole story, when we thought it might be fun to have a pirate tale to tell for Halloween.

So that's the real origins of this story, then.

You know, as many years as you've been telling it, it really should be a tradition by now.

And only a handful of people know it, too, so I'm afraid I'll have to swear you to secrecy now.

How many years does it take to make a tradition? This is the third October, now, that Peg-Fist Jack has been around for, and hopefully he'll be around for plenty of others, even when I'm not.

You should know by now that I can keep a secret.

Well, every tradition has to start somewhere. And if we make something of it this year, surely it'll carry on.

Yes, but for pirate secrets, I think you're meant to swear by the light of the full moon and the pricking of your thumbs, or something as equally silly as that.

I should hope so! That's half the fun, after all.

But this is a secret about a story, not about pirates. Nor am I a pirate, so I refuse to go through all of that, thank you very much.

We'll have to think up a pirate name for you, too.

Do I really have to have a pirate name? I thought I was just telling the story.

Why, you mean to say you don't want to be Clarence the Shackle?

I think I'd really rather not, thank you.

That's a shame. I think you'd make a fine Shackle, too. Or at least, as fine a Shackle as I am a Lurch.

There must be another name that would suit me.

Starboard Marvin? Two-Thumbs McCoy? Laughing Bill Longshanks?

I don't think any of those suit me at all.

Well, then, why don't you try coming up with one?

I'll give it some thought.

It has to be silly, though. That's the whole point.

Yes, but exactly how silly?

Silly enough to match names like Leonard the Barnacle and Morgan the Lurch.

I'd say Reginald the Blackguard, but that's rather a bit stuffy, isn't it?

And here I was going to say I rather liked that one.

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