un: enneameter | text

[noniad]

[cw: forced body transformation]

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These queries are not returning information of practical value. Are there alternate sources you may access on my behalf? No, I am not particular as to their provenance. Yes, all of the questions. Thank you, Calliope.

Comments

[noniad]

This, unfortunately, is also the case.

I admit this current predicament to be in some ways nearly a relief from some others. But I should not lament to one I am not acquainted with.

[He has no idea with whom he is conversing.]

My name is Ortus Nigenad. I have adopted a pseudonym on the network to prevent my influence by wizards, witches, warlocks, or other magicians, and, in this case, to prevent widespread concern over my state.

[Also a failure.]

[givetheslip]

[For a moment she feels affronted, to think their conversation had been so forgettable — but then it clicks. Oh.]

This is Maria. I hope you still remember me.

[noniad]

Of course I do, Lady Maria.

[His reflex is to bestow the honorific, but he makes use of the 'backspace' techniques he demonstrated to another nameless conversational partner to prevent any disrespect.]

I should have discerned your identity from your practicality and helpfulness. Forgive me for the failing.

[givetheslip]

[She can't help but feel a little smug at his words.]

No, no. The failure is mine. I suppose I should have gotten around to choosing an identifying marker by now, but such things aren't required where I came from.

[noniad]

I have been informed that the use of one's name may be dangerous, if you are still considering what your by-name shall be.

I am accustomed to appending my name to all of my writing. Evidently, it is more distinctive than I realized, or perhaps it is that the reference to the meter of the Noniad is what provides the clue to my many readers.

I think I shall believe the latter.

[givetheslip]

the tone of your writing did put me in mind of your conversational tone. but it could be any number of things.
i would hardly begin to guess unaccustomed to such communication as i am.
what is it about using one's name that one would consider dangerous?

[noniad]

I was told it may allow unscrupulous magicians to control one's mind and behaviour.

I already have enough to fear from magicians. It seemed prudent to avoid further vulnerability.

[givetheslip]

did the person who told you this provide evidence for their claims?
i do recognize that extremely strange things can happen in this land.
but not necessarily EVERY strange thing.

[noniad]

[...that is a very good question. The sort of question Ortus might have asked himself first, if he had not been so affrighted by the idea, and moved by the stranger's obvious distress.]

No. But they seemed very certain, and spoke of having been so manipulated before.

Although that was evidently in their own land.

[givetheslip]

they may be sincere and correct.
they may also be a liar; liars are often convincing.
and it seems that circumstances vary greatly in our different lands.

[noniad]

[Does Maria really think that? That people would just go onto the DeerNet and tell lies?

Ortus would put his face in his palms if he still had either. The rattle of phalange against skull does not have the same effect.]

I may have been beguiled by their apparent intention of aid.

People here are more friendly than I am accustomed to. It has an eroding effect on one's defenses.

[givetheslip]

which is another way liars can sway you to their side.
but i may be too cynical.
it could be that i'm convincing you that good advice was anything but.

[noniad]

It is advice that costs me little to follow, and that perhaps makes me appear more ‘cool’ (a quality not of temperature, but of social adroitness and acceptability).

I do not think that you are cynical. I think that you are more a woman of the world than I, and I ought to heed your advice.

Although I suppose, given this, that I ought not to heed it blindly, for that would be a disappointment to you after your generous education.

[givetheslip]

[She does make note of that definition for future occasions when she might come across slang.]

an excellent addendum.
it's a wise thing not to trust too blindly.
but then, to trust no one at all is nearly as bad.
i suppose it's a balance.

[noniad]

There are many days I wish sorely I had spent more time perfecting mine.

Not least of which as I attempt walking without the benefit of padded feet. It is more precarious than you might imagine.

[givetheslip]

if it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one who has trouble with it.
i suspect many do.
'padded feet'?

[noniad]

That does alleviate some of my singular burden.

[Humour still dry and dusty as old bones.]

By padded feet, I mean the usual flesh and sinew that binds the bones of the foot, creating the scaffold by which we grip the turf below us, even through boots.

Which are also not the same in fit when the flesh has departed. None of my garments fit. It was a mortifying experience before I borrowed some of the garb of my new brethren.

[givetheslip]

ah of course.
i hadn't thought of that but it makes sense, doesn't it.
a skeleton with flesh upon its feet only would be a jarring sight.

[She's picturing it now and rather wishes she were not.]

how many socks do you own?
perhaps you could try wearing them all at once.

[noniad]

It would be most unseemly.

[He may be a skeleton, but he has a sense of the appropriate. Slabbing flesh onto a perfectly good bone construct is gauche, even for function.]

I own two pairs of socks.

But I believe I may obtain more by surreptitious means. Those I live with are not prone to guarding of their laundry.

[And it serves some of them right.]

[givetheslip]

which would make you something of a thief, wouldn't it.

[He can't tell, but she's smiling. Theft is...not admirable, but it's hardly something she would consider a great moral crime.]

i think you should do so.

[noniad]

Or one might call it creative appropriation.

[Practically a harmless undertaking.

There is a long span of time with no further communication, nearly unto a half hour. In the halls of God's cold house, one skeleton clatters with much more clumsy determination than his kin.

At last, another line comes:]

Once the laces are tucked in, this is much less precarious.

[givetheslip]

you do have a way with words

[She usually prefers straightforwardness to trying to conceal the nature of a thing in how it is spoken of, but she can appreciate it in this case.]

i'm glad to hear that
it would be a shame for you to suffer inconvenience along with indignity

[noniad]

They are my calling. Moreso than laundry, if I may, for a moment, be particular.

[He is not the only one who attends to the chore in the house, but he does find the burden falls heaviest on two individuals in particular, and he is the only one in no position to complain directly within its walls.

So: 'harmless venting' here.]

I shall stride forth sure-footed, sock swaddled and sturdy soled.

One less problem in this troubled world. Thank you once more for your aid in this trying time.

[givetheslip]

[It's a good thing that the words they are sharing now are in the form of text and not spoken aloud, because that gets a good laugh from Maria and she's not sure if the sympathetically amused nature of it would come across.]

you are most welcome.
i believe in you but wish you nothing but good luck and strength of steps all the same.

[noniad]

[One of the most critical of those sure-footed steps Ortus has begun to take towards the rudiments of confidence has been learning to invite a degree of levity aimed at his own tendencies. Laughter at oneself's, gentle and assured, is a shield against the crueller kind.

Or: more plainly, he has found he enjoys making people laugh on purpose, instead of by misadventure. He hopes she is amused; he seeks to amuse her further.]

Until next time we speak (hopefully when I have tongue to do so with) I will leave you with an image of my sincere appreciation:

💀👍