Open Post: What a yarn

[sporesprouter]

There's still quite a bit of winter yet, according to the calendar, not to mention whatever Dark is, and Tress got an idea for a project fairly recently. It's appropriate and it gives her a chance to stretch out a skill she hasn't really gotten an opportunity to use in a while.

So she's in a cozy parlor, sitting curled up in a big comfy armchair right by the window, a basket of yarn at her feet, and she's knitting. It's still too early to be immediately obvious what it is she's knitting, but she's moving with the easy confidence that indicates it's definitely not a new craft she's just now decided to take up.

Sometimes, after all, it's nice to go back to something old and familiar.

Comments

[sporesprouter]

"It would almost be more unbelievable to think there isn't a purpose to them, but I can't even begin to imagine what that purpose is other than just to keep us occupied."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"What elements do you think they might have in common? Besides being largely horrid, of course."

[sporesprouter]

"Well, none of them have affected everyone, so that's interesting. They're all also things that we couldn't have just done ourselves. Almost all of them have caused a direct change of some kind to the people being affected..." She frowns thoughtfully. "They're quite varied, aside from that, though."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No?" she asks, surprised. "Not even the truth compulsion? Not even the undead?"

[sporesprouter]

"Certainly not the truth compulsion. I wasn't affected, anyway¹. You can probably make a case for the zombies, but there were enough people out fighting them that anyone who just stayed inside really wouldn't have had it affect them to any real degree. Unless, I suppose, they wanted to go out but couldn't."


¹ Or she was but is too honest in general to actually realize it. (Hello, one single solitary Glorf-bean.)

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I see," says Susan, thoughtfully. She sits back and regards Tress. "Do you suppose we're organized enough to handle whatever might come next?"

[sporesprouter]

She pauses again, mulling that over. "I'm not sure that organization has much to do with it," she says slowly. "Not that it's not helpful, because of course it is. But if we work under the assumption that there is a force behind this, call it mansion spirits or anything else... well, so far that force hasn't offered up anything we can't handle. But if they somehow decide to, they'll know about whatever preparations and organization we've done, so they'll be able to account for that."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"So you think of it as having some sort of sentience?" Susan asks. "I rather think whatever it is hasn't got any higher-level thinking ability at all. It seems to me to be pure dumb happenstance."

[sporesprouter]

"It all seems kind of... intricate, for pure dumb happenstance. I might be wrong, obviously, but I don't think I am." She frowns thoughtfully. "Lan Wangji has the ability to communicate with spirits through his cultivation. When he first got here, he used that ability and got a response. He said it was just laughter before falling silent. And it would be consistent with what it seems might be happening here. The house, or whoever's behind it, is keeping itself amused, sometimes at our expense."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

But Susan isn't convinced. "My sister once told me of a house she visited," she says. "Populated by invisible hosts, and with queer things inside. A book of spells, for example, with pages that would only turn one way, and which tempted her into awful things." Oh, how she wishes she'd listened to Lucy more closely when Lucy told her of the Dufflepuds! But by the time Susan came back from America, she'd quite put Narnia far from her mind, and had only been cross with Lucy for making up more silly stories. "She said the house was terribly frightening, and the hosts, though merry with their provisions, seemed threatening. She came to realize they were all rather silly in the end."

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, I very much don't think it's out of the question that our hosts will turn out to be rather silly in the end. But I think there's at least enough evidence of actual hosts with some sort of intelligence that it should be at least considered when working on theories. It just... seems like more than random happenstance."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"If there's any intelligence there, perhaps I shouldn't goad it," Susan says, thoughtfully. "I shouldn't want to be punished for impudence."

[sporesprouter]

"I don't think you'd be the first to try and goad it," Tress says, "but I still tend to agree with you on that."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No? What have others done?"

[sporesprouter]

She smiles, almost fondly amused. "No real specifics come to mind right now¹," she says, "but I think you can imagine, given some of the personalities it's brought in."

¹If only Tress were the puppet of mine to witness a certain someone planning on actually making a wager with us...

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I suppose I might," Susan allows.

[sporesprouter]

"I thought so," she says, almost laughing. "It's an interesting bunch of people we have here."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"As eclectic as any true society, I think."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "A small one, but yes. I think it's a good thing."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I'm inclined to agree."

[sporesprouter]

"It's practical, anyway. The more variety there is, the more ways to solve problems there are."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan regards Tress for a moment and then, carefully, ventures, "I do think there ought to be more collaboration."

[sporesprouter]

"I don't think that's a bad idea. Trying to do things alone can work, but only so far."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And we ought to have a better sense of each other's abilities, here. Some, I find, are more obvious about their skills than others.

[sporesprouter]

"I agree that it would probably be useful. But I think some people also come from places where their abilities are feared or outright hated, so it may take them some time before they're ready to be obvious about it."