So are the 'deities' quite through with us now? I'll admit, I wasn't cursed, but that didn't make the City seem any less mad to me. It was like one of those wretched weekends when every curse I've ever seen seems to happen again--but all at once. I think most everyone here has endured at least one of those weekends, even if not everyone was cursed during it. I'll still count myself fortunate that I wasn't cursed. I suppose whoever had the box with my name on it didn't press their button. Perhaps they couldn't, with paws or claws or no hands at all. Perhaps it was a race after all, and the winner is the one who pressed the button and cursed the other first.
But it seems as though it's all over now. A few people whom I know went home seem to have returned. I knew the 'deities' wouldn't keep their word on that promise. Or, rather, they kept their word, but not as we'd like. I did say not to trust them.
I suppose we'll slide back into our usual routines now, recover from these curses, and carry on.
A few people have told me that Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I knew it was coming up, but I never celebrated it before I came to the City two years ago. I know full well about harvest celebrations, even being in town like I was, but those were much earlier than this--that was after the grain was got in, usually. I suppose it's just the time and place and things that are grown. I've had enough Americans explain it to me. I think I quite understand it. It makes perfect sense to me. And who could really refuse a good dinner with friends or with family in this cold part of the year?
I suppose what I really mean is that here's something for which we ought to be grateful: these curses have ended.
[Private to Riff || Unhackable]I know full well that I cursed someone by pressing that button, Riff. He or she could have been struck by anything. Now that the curses are ending, it's beginning to come out more about what curses were striking who and how. I know some were horrid--think of the one that struck Sam.
But all curses are horrid, really, in their own way. If they aren't painful, they're annoying, or maddening, or make one think one is mad.
Should I count myself fortunate that I wasn't cursed? I don't believe in luck, you know. But I wasn't cursed, and I'll be grateful for that.
More than that, Riff.
I've not told anyone here about my collection here, you know. When I arrived, Rue ordered Fakir--or perhaps he did it himself; I can't recall--to strip my room of anything and everything that could be used as a weapon. The opera house had enemies then, and terrible ones. I understand entirely why they wanted to protect themselves against me, a stranger. I had only a few vials hidden in my coat then, but I started rebuilding from those in secret. Princess Rue knows something of it now, but she's the only one. If I was to be trapped here, I wanted my collection, all the same. You've seen how it's grown now. Some of them I've found in the Underground or strange shops, one I had obtained for me as payment for doses of opium and laudanum that I made in the City's laboratories, one the 'deities' themselves brought by as a souvenir of a visit they made to our world.
So, Riff, I've had another one returned to me because of pressing that button.
I wouldn't leave and abandon you here, not the way you've left me so often. And I doubted that the 'deities' would really make good on that promise anyway--and that's been proved true. I've no real use for money, not with my situation as it is and my savings as they are. There's some good that's come from my having been here for so long. So I wanted something from home, something of mine. And the 'deities' brought me back the cantarella.
I had something like it for a while now, but not the real cantarella, not my own. It's here now, locked up with the rest of my collection, kept secret and safe.
Shall I be grateful? It was the 'deities' who brought it, at the cost of someone enduring a curse, and I escaped entirely.
Well? Shall I be grateful?
[//end private filter][Private to Rosella, Sam, et. al. || Unhackable]Rosella, how is Sam? I'm sure the doctors are taking very good care of him, but I would still like to know. I'm sure he's still in the hospital, of course, but if he's well enough, I'd be glad to speak to him too, of course. I wonder, though, if you won't keep his Network device away from him to make him rest. I have the feeling that you could be both a very good, but very strict nurse. I'd be glad to pay another visit too, of course, if he's receiving visitors.
And my offer still stands, too: if you should like, do come and stay in the opera house as my guest. I know you'd much rather stay with someone than by yourself in the Warehouse, even as protected as the Warehouse is. I'm sure there are any number of people asking you to pay a visit, so add me to the list if need be.
Do let me know, and do give Sam my good wishes.
[//end private filter]Admittedly, there is a very real chance we'll be cursed again, even as soon as tomorrow. Of course we will be cursed again, but the question is whether we'll be cursed tomorrow or the day after. I recall once on a Thanksgiving when everyone was made to list the things for which they were grateful. There are worse curses than that, even as annoying as that might be. If we're to have a curse on a holiday, even a holiday that isn't mine, it had best be a mild one.
I hope we'll be given a few days' rest after all of that. There's no certainty of it, but I would be grateful for it.
~C.
[ooc: So Cain ended up pushing the button on the box he received. Sam was cursed with a reprise of the SAW curse (sob), Cain's been trying to help out Sam and Rosella in the aftermath (ironic), though he doesn't know that he cursed Sam (crai), but he did get one of his favorite rare poisons from home (secret). So he's...well, he'll get his later, I'm sure, if the truth ever comes out ;3; The Rosella & Sam filter is open to Rosella, Sam, and their friends and acquaintances that Cain knows they know--their mutual friends, basically. If you're not sure if you're in the filter, drop a line.]
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