Princess Rosella of Daventry

[Accidental Video Post]

[When the video first snaps on, it's accompanied by a brief glimpse of what appears to be white fur; for those more familiar with Rosella's living arrangements, they might recognize the culprit in question as Snowdrop, her cat, who is apparently feeling somewhat adventurous today.

Rosella, for her part, seems to have no idea what her cat is up to, or that she's currently on camera; at the moment, she's standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom, gazing intently into it as though looking for something. Rather than being pulled back in her usual braids, her long blonde hair is down today, and she's standing with a lock of it caught in one hand, absently twisting it around her fingers as she looks at whatever it is that's keeping her enthralled at the moment.

Then, after a few tilts of her head and tugs of her hair, the answer becomes apparent:]

...Well, at least it washed out, just like the last time...

[She frowns, pausing a minute to regard herself in the mirror, and then resumes fussing--and shortly thereafter, the video switches itself off with a click.]


[OOC: So yes, Rosella was cursed yesterday but my schedule tied me up from posting about it, and to hear her talk, it was the most awful day ever--except that she really just spent it as a brunette. What can she say, she's a little vain and likes being blonde. If you want to say you spotted her out and about yesterday, feel free! She'll just be a little miffed if the hair color topic arises. :D]

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"And the prince came to rescue his princess, and with a kiss, the two of them set out together, off to his kingdom to live happily ever after."

That's a fine ending to a story, isn't it? One thing I've pondered many times over is whether or not there really is such a thing as living happily forever after, since most stories end that way but most lives don't. Lives tend to be more like a storybook full of chapters, with each one ending so another one can begin, on and on with no ending in sight; sometimes, it seems as though it'd be more proper to say that they all lived happily ever after until the next adventure began.

But sometimes it's nice to have things end neatly with a "happily ever after", too.

Yesterday's curse was a terribly odd one, wasn't it? But I do think we managed all right, just the same, even if we never did make it to...er, wherever we were headed. And I'm sure my grandfather would be pleased to know that his advice came in handy yet again, even when traveling around in wagons like gypsies in search of parts unknown. One never knows when a dead fish might come in handy, after all, though it's certainly never pleasant to carry one around in one's pockets.

But today is the seventh of March, and that means it's only two more weeks until the first day of spring! In past years, we've usually had some sort of event for it--two years ago, Blair held a very lovely garden party, and last year Penny had one down by the lake with the ducks. This year...perhaps I'll try my hand at one, myself. I've never been much at planning parties--that was always my mother's area of expertise, not mine--but it's something I really ought to learn sooner or later, and there's no way of improving unless I start to try in the first place. So...once I give it a bit of thought, shall we have a party for the twenty-first? I suppose I'm a bit biased, but I think it'd be a fine day for a party, really.

It is, after all, only fourteen days away.


[OOC: Spoilers: March 21 is also Rosella's birthday, hence the obligatory countdown. Party, anyone? I'm thinking party. :D]

Well, that was...er, certainly an interesting curse yesterday, wasn't it? I'm not entirely, um, sure what it was all about, other than that everyone seemed to be talking in fives. That is, the things people were saying didn't seem to have much in common with each other, outside of the part about it always only being five words. Why five words, I wonder? We've had plenty of curses before that have altered the way we speak, whether it's through forcing us into rhyme or verse or a sailor's brogue, but there aren't many that restrict the numbers of words themselves, I don't think. There's the one that goes in only three lines like poetry, but I don't think I recall one that keeps things to only five words.

I don't think I was cursed yesterday, either, which is lucky enough, I suppose. Perhaps I'd have a better idea of what it really was if I had been, but I'm certainly not about to complain that I wasn't. Still, no matter what it was, at least it seemed...er, harmless enough, and it's over now, anyway.

And wasn't that a lovely ball we had for Valentine's Day? Really, words can hardly do it justice, and I'm sure anyone who attended will agree. Oh, and I do hope everyone who went to Mr. Nekozawa's event had a lovely time, too, even if it was a rather...well, unorthodox way of celebrating the holiday. After all, a celebration is a celebration, and what matters is that everyone enjoyed themselves, isn't it? And it was certainly nice to have something to look forward to and get excited about, too.

But now things are back to usual--or as usual as they get in the City, I suppose--and I've still another four days to go before I can start thinking about the next great event on the horizon. So I think I'll spend the day looking over a new book of mine. Five words at a time is all well and good, but it's just as nice to have a whole book filled with sentences to pore over on a free afternoon, too.

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And so today seems to be a quiet day again, after two days of trouble. It was certainly an odd week this past week, wasn't it, with so many curses coming about one after the other? It's rather strange, really, since they usually don't fall one right after the other that way--at least, not unless they go together somehow, like that week we had all the sins one after another, or the weekends when we have the random curses for two days. But I can't seem to puzzle out what the connection between all of these could be, honestly. Some of them are silly and others are horrible and there's really no telling what might come up next--though, if there is a pattern to it, and it follows the one we've had all last week, then tomorrow and Tuesday ought to both have curses on them, and then Wednesday will be another day of peace again. But I suppose we'll simply have to wait and see, and to hope for the best however it goes.

Oh, and I received a lovely card yesterday morning, so thank you so very much to whoever sent it to me! It was one of the ones Tamaki was giving out the other day, too, and I'm very flattered to have received it, so thank you again, whoever it was. I really do appreciate it so very much.

Which reminds me, I still have to address and hand out the set I picked up, myself. It's such a lovely idea, isn't it? And I'm having great such fun with it, too.

And today is the twelfth, which means it's just under two weeks until Christmas! Which also means things ought to start getting quite busy soon, what with finding gifts and decorating for the holiday and planning out dinners and celebrations and things. In Daventry we always used to go riding around on Christmas Eve and visit as many of the people in the countryside as we could, to say hello and wish them a merry holiday. So perhaps that's what I'll do this year, too.

It's the right time of the year for gingerbread houses, too. I'll have to remember to buy a good few bags of candy to decorate them all, along with everything else.

Well! That's certainly a fine list of things to think about, isn't it? And a nice quiet day to work on them, too. That's something we can all be glad for, certainly.


[OOC: And so Rosella neatly covers up for the fact that I've had a pretty harrowing week, internet-wise. But hopefully that's fixed now (cross your fingers), so with any luck, I'm back in business for good. But on the off-chance that something else goes wrong (knock on wood)...if I suddenly disappear for hours at a time, please bear with me, and I promise I will get back to tags as soon as humanly possible. o/]

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I'm sure by now most people have seen these around the City; it's quite difficult to miss something like that, I imagine, when they're littering the whole Square like leaves from a tree. And likely that was the whole purpose of sending them in the first place, too--just to add a bit of insult to injury, and make us all the more frustrated at everything that happened this past weekend. And it worked. Something like this treats the whole ordeal as though it were nothing more than a joke, as though people weren't suffering and worrying and frantic throughout the whole thing, and it was all just another one of the City's games that lasted awhile and now has come to an end.

I remember a time once before when the deities took 'donations' from us. It was a whole month of tasks to complete--borrowing something from an enemy, making a loved one cry. And I remember the last was that they asked for our hair, as a donation to some unknown cause. And then that was the end of it. Or so we thought, until a few months later when suddenly all our hair was returned to us. It had been taken wrongfully from us, we were told, and some balance had been disrupted by it.

That was a long time ago, almost two years by now. I remember it was January or February, one of the winter months, because Sam and I had to go outside and bury onions in the snow because I never wanted to see them again after I puzzled out what he'd gotten them for. But I wonder what might come of all this, now, since the deities have made certain to thank us for donating our blood to them. Were our accounts really so out of balance that we owed it to them? Or have they cast things out of balance themselves by taking it from us? Because if it turns out to be the latter, then I expect this won't be the last we hear of it. Our dues may come due again, after all.

I wonder.

In any case, no matter what happens this coming Thursday, our Thanksgiving party will be going on as planned. Please do let Penny or me know if you'd like to come, if you haven't already--everyone's invited, but it would help to have a count of how many people to expect, to make sure we have enough of everything to go around. And please do come, if you think you'd like to; I think we could all use something to look forward to, at the moment.

Tamaki, if you'd be so kind as to introduce me to your friend Miss Maria, I'd be very pleased to meet her. I have a package here with her name on it, as it turns out, and I'd like very much to deliver it.

For anyone else that needs me, please feel free to call. I'll be in the Library most of the day, I think; there's something I need to take care of.


[OOC: Well, someone's in a bad mood. People dying needlessly at the whims of the deities kind of does that to her. >> If you're in the Library, feel free to action her up; if not, have a Network post! ♥

ALSO: regarding Thursday's dinner, is anyone interested in doing a (possibly heavily backdated, considering the holiday) log for the party? I can put one up if there's interest, or assuming is cool, either way. Just let me know!]

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My goodness, wasn't that an interesting Halloween? It was certainly less busy than the one we had last year, since none of those visitors came to call this year, but I should think this one was plenty exciting enough on its own, just the same. That curse has happened before, I've heard--the one about people turning into their costumes, that is--and it is rather a shame to have to worry about things like that when picking out a costume for the occasion. But October is always an unusual month around here, and it's always better to err on the side of caution, really.

I do wish people would stop looking at me strangely, though. It's only a bruise, and there are much worse things I could've ended up as for a night than the princess and the pea, anyway. I wonder if there's anything around that might help cover it up?

But in any case, it's November now, and it seems things are finally settling down after the past few weeks, which means I finally have the chance to say thank you to everyone that was so kind to me throughout last month. I know some of you visited my, er, dreams, and that others of you were very concerned for me when I thought I was an angel, and I really do appreciate it. I'm quite all right now, if a bit sore and weary, and now that October is over with, I hope I'm sure we'll have some time to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.

I think I'll go for a ride today, too. It'll soon be too cold out for it, if I wait much longer, and I have some things to deliver around, anyway. And Valor would be glad for the exercise, I'm sure.


[OOC: And thus ends another Doomtober! Which means Rosella's slowly getting back onto her feet, though she does have a rather nice bruise on her cheek from the curse on Halloween. Such are the hazards of dressing up as the Princess and the Pea when the City turns you into your costume. Also, she'll be riding around today dropping off wrapped plates of treats for her friends, so feel free to say she left you one, if you're friends with her!]

Well, we're two days into October, now, and we haven't had a curse yet.

Perhaps it's just asking for trouble, saying that. But I seem to recall thinking the same thing last year, too--that the month started off quietly, without any curses to speak of, and I remember wondering if that might be a sign that it was going to be an easy month, after all. But now I rather wonder if all Octobers will start out this way, with a great deal of trouble to usher it in right at the end of September, and then a few days of quiet at the very beginning before everything gets awful again. Last year in September, there was all that trouble with the prison exploding--which means it's been sunken beneath the lake for a year now. It's a little strange to think it's been gone all this time, really. And horrible to think what they did to the people there-- And this year it was a boat--or an ark, rather--and now that's been sunken, too, and by a whale of all things.

Ugh. At least it didn't eat me this time.

I remember I wasn't one of the ones taken for that prison curse. Some of my friends were, but I wasn't. And I remember wondering over and over again why it was that things had turned out that way, why they'd been put into that mess and I wasn't. Dr. Chase said it was something to do with surviving and guilt--"survivor's guilt", I think it must've been. I just remember feeling terrible because I hadn't done more to help when people were in trouble.

But I suppose it's always easier to look back on things and see what we ought to have done differently, isn't it? Just like it's easy to forget that looking back on something and regretting the choices we made at the time won't solve anything at all. What matters is learning from a mistake, and trying hard not to make it again, and hoping that the next time something horrible happens, you'll have the wisdom and experience and good sense to get through it without making mistakes.

This time, on the ark, I was one of the ones that ended up there. And as horrible as it was, for those hours we spent in the rain and the water and on the beach after we were wrecked...I still think it was the right decision to go. At least that way, I knew I was with the people I care about, and even if there were to be danger, at least that way we'd be together in facing it. Isn't it better to take that sort of risk for the sake of saving others, even if it'd be safer for yourself in staying home?

They're difficult questions, I think. But October is the sort of month that begs them.

But in any case. On the bright side of things, at least the Warehouse managed to come out of things reasonably safe and dry. Prince weathered the storm perfectly fine, and Snowdrop is all dried out now, though I don't think she'll soon forgive me for that swim we took the other day. I meant to go check Blue's old apartment yesterday, too, but I ended up staying under a pile of covers all day, keeping warm instead. So perhaps I'll go today, and see how that made out.

...Or perhaps I'll go tomorrow, and stay under my covers all day again, today.

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There, and that's another of those silly random weekends come to an end. We've been having them quite a long time, haven't we? At least a year and a half, I think it must be. I know it's less than two years, though, since I've been here two years and I can still remember a time when we weren't having them every month, but it really has been quite some time now since they've started coming along. And I suppose they're nice, in their own way, since the curses we get on those weekends tend to be mostly harmless ones, and then we always know that the Monday afterward will be free of them, since we've just spent a whole weekend acting silly.

Goodness knows I certainly was, running around writing my name on everything I owned--or simply thought I owned, even, which wasn't always the case. And I'm sorry to anyone I might've, er, tried to mark yesterday, in my rush to get everything labeled. If I did get to you, I hope you've managed to wash the ink off by now, and that I wasn't too much of a bother yesterday when I was trying to get all that done.

I don't think I've ever had that curse before, honestly. It's usually much more likely I'll find myself turned into a child or a bird for the weekend, which is usually a bit troublesome but mostly manageable. And this one was mostly manageable, too, but it does make for some interesting questions, doesn't it? After all, we usually write our names on things that are important to us, that we want to keep for ourselves, and that's why we mark them as our own. It helps keep them from getting lost, having a name on them, because then if they do and someone else finds them, they know who to return it to. Putting a name on something lets people know who it belongs to.

But it's silly to write your name on everything that's yours, and it's even sillier to try to do it to other people, instead of just possessions. For one thing, writing your name on something might spoil it rather than helping it--like trying to pen your name on a white cat, for instance. Or it might only be a waste of ink, since sometimes things are lost and can't be returned, no matter how much we may want them back.

Still...I think there are other ways of writing our names on people, even if we don't do it with ink, and more lasting places to do it than on their skin. In a certain way, I think that's rather what it means to be friends, even--because friends have a funny way of making their mark on you, and changing you for the better, and I think that's a much better way of going about it than writing all over them, anyway.


[OOC: So yesterday, Rosella found herself hit with the Mine Mine Mine curse, and spent the day running around writing her name on everything she owned. Which, all things considered, was quite a lot of writing. And now she's got to wash it all off again, too--but hey, at least it's giving her some quality time to think? Friends of hers, if you want to assume she got to you yesterday, feel free! Otherwise, she'll just be cleaning up the contents of the Warehouse. :D]

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Well, it's Monday again, which means one more of those silly weekends of random curses has finally come to an end. And what a ridiculous one I had this weekend! It's one I've had before, of course--all the birds and animals and things turning out to flock around me--but at least this time they managed to make themselves useful, helping to clean up the Library. Normally they just swarm me every time I try to get my chores done, and make it absolutely impossible to do anything without a great flurry of feathers and a dozen furry friends underfoot. But they really did help a great deal at getting things straightened out, and I'm grateful for the assistance, even if all the singing did get a bit tedious after a while.

...I do hope it didn't disturb the monks from their work, come to think of it. We were making quite a bit of racket, what with all the twittering and chirping and chattering.

In any case, that's one more weekend done and over with, and a whole new week of possibilities ahead of us. And that's a good thing, I think. We could all certainly use a calm, quiet day.

And in two more weeks, I'll have been here for two years. I suppose it's true that the first year takes the longest, and all the others get quicker and quicker after that. Really, I can hardly believe the time has gone so fast!

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[OOC: Graaaaaaaaaves! So late tonight, Rosella and Cain are going to go out to the graveyard and bond over their mutual interest in digging up graves. Which will be all well and good, right up until the part where Rosella gets sucked down one and ends up in the middle of the Graveyard Plot! But hey, at least she's expecting a trap this time...? It's progress. Sob.]

So last week it was equivalence, and this week it's pain, is it? It rather makes me wonder if there's a pattern to the words the deities are giving us to write about, and especially so since both words seem to describe an aspect of life in the City. Or perhaps I'm simply reading a bit too much into it, just the same.

Pain is...something I don't like to think about very much, honestly. And it's something that comes in so many different forms and shapes and varieties, and each one hurts a bit differently in its own way, but they all hurt. It's not a very pleasant subject, pain.

I've known a few different kinds of them, I suppose. I've felt the pain--and had the marks left, too--from when a witch grabbed at a necklace of mine and broke it off against my neck. I've felt the horror of realization of certain death, like a painful wrenching in the pit of my stomach, when I was stealing a hen that lays golden eggs out from under the nose of a sleeping ogre, and the hen squawked and the ogre woke up. I've felt the dull ache of hopelessness, sitting in a locked room in a tower, trapped waiting for dawn to come and knowing that the deaths of two people I cared about would come with it. And they're all terrible in their own way, of course.

I think...I think that pain makes people do foolish things, at times, to try and relieve it. I was just recalling a story this past week about the king that ruled Daventry before my father did, and how he very nearly brought his whole kingdom to ruin because of the decisions he made. He died long before I was born, so I never knew him myself. But in all the stories my father has ever told me about him, he never once made that king out to be a bad king--just a kind, sad, and lonely one. He was a king who sometimes made poor decisions because he thought it would take the pain away. I think everyone rather knows what that's like, to make a decision like that just for the sake of alleviating the pain.

But I think that pain also helps people to make the right decisions, too, because hard choices are hard for a reason, and if escaping pain can lead people to make bad choices, then enduring it can sometimes help them make good ones. It hurts, the first time a little girl falls off her horse, but it also presents her with a choice: will she cry, and sulk, and curse that mean old horse for letting her fall, and vow to never go near one again? Or will she cry until she learns that eventually the pain fades, and get back up and try again, and slowly but surely learn how to avoid making the same mistakes until she never falls again?

Though I must say, it's a bit harder to get back up from emotional pain than it is to recover from the physical sort. That's...rather what I'm trying to do now, I think. I'm afraid I'm still not very good at it, either.

I really am so very sorry to everyone I might've--menaced when I thought I was a pirate the other day. Even without the fact that I went around calling myself "Morgan the Lurch" the whole day, I do hope it was quite clear that I really wasn't myself, and didn't know any better at the time, and if I had I certainly wouldn't have done some of the things I did. I really am so very terribly sorry, and so absolutely mortified, too.

There was a silver lining to the whole ordeal, though, even though I admit I didn't discover it until I, er, tripped over it on my way home. Duo, are you settling in well so far? When you feel you've slept your fill, do let me know, and I'll make you anything you like to eat when you're ready for it.

Oh, and Neil, I finally finished your story! I do hope you like it; I'll send it over in just a minute.

( Attempted Private to Neil | Accidentally Viewable to Friends )