I hope you didn't have nightmares about rats gnawing through the floor supports, that wasn't the intention of that haiku! When I want you to have nightmares I write about the Ilmatu... ;-) How was the physio on the shoulder? Are you feeling less sore and less grumpy yet? Or should I send you a basket of sugar-free muffins to cheer you up? :)
Foregone conclusion “The Sleepers do something funny to him,” said War to Pestilence, though both were gazing at the thing rising from the water. Rivers roared down its sides and foamed beside it, and small whirlpools formed where the displacement and replacement couldn’t happen fast enough. There was a noise like an aircraft revving its jet engines for take-off and small, dazed fish flopped down on the bank nearby occasionally. Hilda immediately pounced on the silver, thrashing invaders and shook them to death, resulting in fish heads flying around as well, which attracted the hippos’s attention. “He was like this when Narusheteli woke up too.” “Best connected,” said Pestilence. He and War were both talking, though neither could hear anything but the emergence of Rijbka, and the words just appeared in each other’s minds. “There are other Sleepers that would affect you or I more dramatically.” “How do you know this?” “…homework?” The water stopped roaring at last and settled down to a few small waterfalls and what looked suspiciously like a freshwater spring on a shoulder, and Rijbka, the Swimmer Beneath, glowered at the four Incarnates gathered on the reservoir bank. It looked like a mountain had emerged; all rocky crags and humps that might, if you squinted in the right light, be limbs and shoulders and head. Sail-like protrusions, glassily sharp, might be fins, and there was a glossy quality to it all that suggested it had been polished smooth by water for a very long time. When it opened its mouth it was like a cave appearing on the shore, fringed with far too many stalactites and stalagmites, and at the back of it was the reddish glow of uncontrolled fires. A smell of sulphur drifted across to them, making Hilda wrinkle her nose and sneeze, and then there was a vast, body-shaking stench of rotting fish, sunbaked seaweed and mildew, the kind that aggressively eats the curtains and then tries to suffocate you in your sleep. It roared wordlessly. “Anyone speak fish?” said Pestilence, trying to sound cheerful. In the silence after the roar he sounded thin and reedy. “No?” “That’s a foregone conclusion,” said War. He was eyeing Rijbka with a speculative eye. “I think a number-16 harpoon would be how you’d fish for that, you know. I might grab Kevin after all this is over and give it a go.” “Fishing for a Sleeper?” said Scuffles. The blood drained from his face, leaving him white and looking ready to faint. “Didn’t you just say that Death wouldn’t like that kind of thing?” “Death doesn’t like a lot of what we do, sis,” said Famine. “The broship fluctuates with that one; we’re practically never the droids he’s looking for. We’d be unemployees if he learned the word. So we drift along, ghosting him from time to time and adding oil at other times. It’s all karmic teapot.” “…I don’t understand,” said Scuffles in a small voice. “Foregone conclusion, fam,” said Pestilence. He pointed. “Is that someone rowing out of Rijbka’s mouth?”
Greg - nah, I slept fine. And yes, I know what you're doing whenever you bring those bastards for a visit...
The physio appointment ended up being an IMS session. The soreness and stiffness from the treatment receded today but I'm not sure yet what I think of the whole thing. I've got another one this coming Wednesday and I feel like I'll have a better idea of things after that one.
Also: I still don't like needles. Not new knowledge, just something to keep in mind whilst picturing me getting needles poked into my shoulder.
Regardless, sugar free muffins are always appreciated.
Ah, such great descriptions. And the interplay continues to be fantastic. I am most curious to meet the rower.
2 comments:
I hope you didn't have nightmares about rats gnawing through the floor supports, that wasn't the intention of that haiku! When I want you to have nightmares I write about the Ilmatu... ;-)
How was the physio on the shoulder? Are you feeling less sore and less grumpy yet? Or should I send you a basket of sugar-free muffins to cheer you up? :)
Foregone conclusion
“The Sleepers do something funny to him,” said War to Pestilence, though both were gazing at the thing rising from the water. Rivers roared down its sides and foamed beside it, and small whirlpools formed where the displacement and replacement couldn’t happen fast enough. There was a noise like an aircraft revving its jet engines for take-off and small, dazed fish flopped down on the bank nearby occasionally. Hilda immediately pounced on the silver, thrashing invaders and shook them to death, resulting in fish heads flying around as well, which attracted the hippos’s attention. “He was like this when Narusheteli woke up too.”
“Best connected,” said Pestilence. He and War were both talking, though neither could hear anything but the emergence of Rijbka, and the words just appeared in each other’s minds. “There are other Sleepers that would affect you or I more dramatically.”
“How do you know this?”
“…homework?”
The water stopped roaring at last and settled down to a few small waterfalls and what looked suspiciously like a freshwater spring on a shoulder, and Rijbka, the Swimmer Beneath, glowered at the four Incarnates gathered on the reservoir bank. It looked like a mountain had emerged; all rocky crags and humps that might, if you squinted in the right light, be limbs and shoulders and head. Sail-like protrusions, glassily sharp, might be fins, and there was a glossy quality to it all that suggested it had been polished smooth by water for a very long time.
When it opened its mouth it was like a cave appearing on the shore, fringed with far too many stalactites and stalagmites, and at the back of it was the reddish glow of uncontrolled fires. A smell of sulphur drifted across to them, making Hilda wrinkle her nose and sneeze, and then there was a vast, body-shaking stench of rotting fish, sunbaked seaweed and mildew, the kind that aggressively eats the curtains and then tries to suffocate you in your sleep. It roared wordlessly.
“Anyone speak fish?” said Pestilence, trying to sound cheerful. In the silence after the roar he sounded thin and reedy. “No?”
“That’s a foregone conclusion,” said War. He was eyeing Rijbka with a speculative eye. “I think a number-16 harpoon would be how you’d fish for that, you know. I might grab Kevin after all this is over and give it a go.”
“Fishing for a Sleeper?” said Scuffles. The blood drained from his face, leaving him white and looking ready to faint. “Didn’t you just say that Death wouldn’t like that kind of thing?”
“Death doesn’t like a lot of what we do, sis,” said Famine. “The broship fluctuates with that one; we’re practically never the droids he’s looking for. We’d be unemployees if he learned the word. So we drift along, ghosting him from time to time and adding oil at other times. It’s all karmic teapot.”
“…I don’t understand,” said Scuffles in a small voice.
“Foregone conclusion, fam,” said Pestilence. He pointed. “Is that someone rowing out of Rijbka’s mouth?”
Greg - nah, I slept fine. And yes, I know what you're doing whenever you bring those bastards for a visit...
The physio appointment ended up being an IMS session. The soreness and stiffness from the treatment receded today but I'm not sure yet what I think of the whole thing. I've got another one this coming Wednesday and I feel like I'll have a better idea of things after that one.
Also: I still don't like needles. Not new knowledge, just something to keep in mind whilst picturing me getting needles poked into my shoulder.
Regardless, sugar free muffins are always appreciated.
Ah, such great descriptions. And the interplay continues to be fantastic. I am most curious to meet the rower.
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