Quest 175

[primrosella]

Comments

[talkstoholes]

Hair monster?

[primrosella]

Mmhmm, a monster made of hair. Or rather, a monster covered in it, I suppose, since it turned out that the hair was actually ours to begin with.

[talkstoholes]

All the residents in the City? Was it growing out of the monster? And you said it had a mother...

[primrosella]

Most all of the residents, yes. A few months before it came, the deities had demanded that all of us give them a few bits of our hair, and it seems that all those bits went together to make up the hair monster. And if I remember correctly, he came to the City at all because he was trying to give all our hair back to us, somehow. But then he got stuck, and his mother had to come looking for him.

[talkstoholes]

So the deities...must've wanted him to come and get stuck, or else they wouldn't have asked for your hair in the first place. Was his mother very angry? I'm sure she was.

[primrosella]

Actually...I don't think the monster and the deities were working together that time. Quite the contrary, I got the feeling that the hair monster and his mother both outranked the deities somehow.

And she was very angry, but at the same time, she was oddly kind. She was terrifying, of course, but I don't think she ever meant us any harm, really.

[talkstoholes]

Outranked them...I guess they aren't all-powerful. There's always something else, something bigger...

I almost wish I could've met her. And the hair monster.

[primrosella]

Yes, something like that. But at least the bigger ones seem to be on our side, or at least moreso than the deities themselves. It's a small comfort, to be sure, but a comfort nonetheless.

Believe me, you don't. It was a miserable week, and it's better that you didn't have to live through it.

[talkstoholes]

Small comforts can sometimes go a really long way. They may not even feel small, anymore.

Hmm...I guess so. Do you think it'll happen again, though? I noticed strange things yesterday, too. And the barrier...I had no idea it came down, before. But then- how else would all of those visitors have gotten through? Have any of the City residents explored beyond it?

[primrosella]

Especially in a place like this, when sometimes a small comfort is all you ever get. You're right about that.

No, no one's ever been able to get out beyond the barrier, from what I've heard. I think some people tried once, but they just ended up right back here. And when it all came down back in December...well, that was only a trick, and no one really made it anywhere at all.

[talkstoholes]

The comings and goings...I wonder why they happen. Why we arrive, and why we leave- and come back, if we do come back. Why tricks are played on us, why creatures that are more powerful than the deities appear and disappear.

Well, at least I'll have lots of stories to bring home.

[primrosella]

That's a fine way to look at it, you know. If you do your best to see it as an adventure, it's not so bad at all, and every day is something new and interesting and different. It's when you let the City get the better of you that things start getting awful.

[talkstoholes]

Thanks, Rosella! That's what I'm trying to do. But it's probably hard to hold your head up, after you've been here awhile, and gone through a lot...

[primrosella]

I won't deny that it does get difficult at times. But the nice part about being here for a while is that you have plenty of perspective on what makes for a bad curse, and what makes for a simply tedious one. Looking at things in a relative way tends to help, I've found.