View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Everyone knows that mysterious old ladies are kind of a big deal.
Yes, anyone who is female (or wraps up in sufficiently mysterious shawls) and old enough could pretend to be a mysterious old lady, but the actual category of the creatures is a different matter, and one can often tell (though it's better to be on the safe side, when identifying them).
Mysterious old ladies can, in a certain sense, do magic - or help you do magic. Sure, if you decide to take the first milking of your new cow and leave it out in a bowl in the backyard with a garland of roses floating on the surface and then drink it all first thing in the morning without stopping to put on your shoes or comb your hair, nothing will happen. But if you do it because a mysterious old lady told you to, and it was a real mysterious old lady, and you followed all of her instructions? Then you will find that you will get whatever result she advertised.
But if you step into your slippers first or tug a knot out of your ponytail or drink the milk early or late or use daisies for the garland, you will get something else.
It's very important to be exact and careful about these things.
Compared to what happens if you disobey a real mysterious old lady, being occasionally made a fool of by some pretender to the title because your eyesight is going or you were too sleepy to note her lack of a proper mysterious aura is nothing.
+ Show First Post
spell_eternity
spell_eternity
"What can I say, 'follow instructions from mysterious old women very carefully' winds up being an important part of one's upbringing when one used to be a log."
spell_eternity
"I should clarify, I was a log to begin with, I didn't get turned into one. My mother had mysterious old woman instructions to get a child and she followed them and got me."
spell_eternity
"No. I remember waking up already being about six and telling my mother what my name was and asking what was for breakfast."
spell_eternity
"I just sort of came with it. She liked it so she didn't try to change it."
spell_eternity
"No idea. I suppose you can ask if you spot a mysterious old woman, but it seems like a waste of a mysterious old woman. Speaking of which, I would like my mother to know that I have not been eaten, as soon as possible."
spell_eternity
And the princess goes home and reassures her mother and comes back to the palace with a sackful of her possessions.
The palace is in something of a commotion and no one really pays her much attention when she shows up.
spell_eternity
What is there a commotion about? If it were about her being alive she'd think they'd pay attention to her. Where are the princes?
mydarkness
Well, one of the princes is in the throne room.
It's quite a large room, and there is blood on more parts of the floor than there isn't. The blood is intermingled with fragments of lindworm skin. Prince Taphinieu is trying very hard to coax a maid with a mop into cleaning up the mess, but she doesn't want to go near it.
It's quite a large room, and there is blood on more parts of the floor than there isn't. The blood is intermingled with fragments of lindworm skin. Prince Taphinieu is trying very hard to coax a maid with a mop into cleaning up the mess, but she doesn't want to go near it.
mydarkness
"Erian's empty skins wrapped themselves up as though they were around a lindworm again and ate the king," he says. "And then exploded."
The maid bursts into tears.
"It's okay," says Taphinieu, "you don't have to clean it up, I'll find someone else." To Carrabella, he adds, "No one wants to go near the skin bits in case they start doing things again."
The maid bursts into tears.
"It's okay," says Taphinieu, "you don't have to clean it up, I'll find someone else." To Carrabella, he adds, "No one wants to go near the skin bits in case they start doing things again."
spell_eternity
"Well, that seems like a more or less reasonable concern, considering."
mydarkness
"I think they're not going to do anything else. But if I keep being the only one who thinks that, I'm going to end up having to clean this mess up myself," he says wryly. "Erian's in your room. I found him some clothes earlier and he put them on - that's when the skins started acting alive - but he stayed in the room because he's having trouble figuring out legs."