Five thoughts after reading Chapters 26-28 of The Rose Labyrinth
1) This is beautiful, you guys. This right here is the passage that justifies reading this far into this book: "Last night she'd invited Will to haunt her, her need so strong that she was sure he'd come back and sit here. Coiled in an armchair, she'd watched and waited, listened for him after too much wine: not for the first time. But she was no Heathcliff and he no Cathy" (257). LOL WOT. THIS IS SOMETHING SOMEONE CHOSE TO WRITE*. I literally fell over laughing.
2) "She put a gentle hand on his shoulder, understanding his delay with Lucy. Whatever ethical problems there may have been, he'd also been grieving--something they'd not given proper consideration to" (276). Because they are TERRIBLE PEOPLE. I mean, they knew by the time he really started showing signs of interest that Alex had had a family tragedy. How is it that they completely neglected to consider that in their "Woe is me, why isn't he dating me, yet?!" whine sessions?
3) They're eating at the Tick Tock Diner! Well, Simon is eating there; Lucy is apparently too sick to eat there. But whatever; BizOp and I ate there! I've done things! Things that I am now reading about!
3a) I really appreciate the fact that Lucy and Simon are spending time together, and Alex and Grace are spending time together, and not a single person is jealous, not a single person is treating this as anything more than a group of friends working together. THANK YOU, TITANIA HARDY, for not pulling the old sexual tension thing just because there are heterosocial situations going on here.
4) "She read the feeling in Simon's look, but didn't want to talk about it with him" (286). THEN WHY DID SHE BRING IT UP?
5) What was the point of injuring Max? Lucy occasionally asks Alex how he is, but that is seriously the only time it even comes up. Alex seems to only think of the fact that his son was just injured by someone trying to get to him when Lucy brings it up. I said it before, and I'll say it again: WORST FATHER EVER**.
Bonus thought) I'm really not impressed with the clues so far. I didn't pick up on the 34 pattern, somehow (it IS everywhere, now that I know to look), but one of the only real in depth analysis we've gotten of the cards is about the Wizard of Oz one...which may have been mystifying to people who weren't raised in a culture where EVERYONE knows about ruby slippers (which were silver in the books, so...I guess the clue was movie-specific?) and yellow brick roads and tornadoes and Kansas, but was utterly transparent to the rest of us. Perhaps it's because I haven't looked at the text of most of the cards since I first pulled them off the pad, but...I seem to have lost interest entirely in the mystery, despite the fact that I WANT to be involved.
* I ORIGINALLY WROTE "WATCH" instead of "WRITE" because Community came back on while I was typing, and I was distracted by Keith David being the most awesome person on earth.
** This is hyperbolic. Being negligent is not as bad as being abusive.
Because it's a shame that my previous mention is hidden in a footnote behind a cut, I want to point out that Keith David was on Community tonight, proving he is even more The Most Awesome Person on Earth than I previously believed.
I am not sure what it is exactly, aside from the hair and the zero-tolerance policy on bullshit, but something about Virna Hunter reminds me more than a little of Zoë Washburne. And holy crap, there needs to be a full-length version of "Shallow Boy" because suddenly the Anti-Love Album will never be complete without it (And because it's mandatory for me to say this when discussing such things, Will Friedle! I looooove you!)
I think Jon Stewart just described Shrimp World in a bit with Bill O'Reilly. What is happening?!
And finally, Lorne is very, very sick all of a sudden. He was perfectly fine, acting exactly how he always has (read: lounging around, eating a lot, occasionally running in his wheel a bit before lounging some more... Seriously, if they made seabreezes and yellow zoot suits for hamsters, he would be a fuzzy, cream-coloured, four-legged replica of his namesake) until yesterday afternoon, when I noticed that his breath was laboured and he was kind of cold. He seems to be in some amount of pain, but, being as hamsters are less than forthcoming with medical information, it's hard to tell. I've had him under the turtles' old UV lamp off and on all day, and he's at least warming up a bit, but not enough that I'm not really worried. So, that's a thing in my life right now. Delightful.
ETA: I think I kind of love Anne Rice again after that Colbert interview...? Dunno if I'll be reading her books again anytime soon, but I like the lady.