Jenga!

[c_macaulay]

Bored to tears, Camilla had gone rummaging in the gift shop to find a game to play. She'd played so much solitaire she was beginning to develop an irrational dislike of some of the face cards. It was there that Mr. Wednesday found her again

Comments

[c_macaulay]

"The first bit's from Pinocchio, yes. But I know that poem," Camilla objected. "It's got nothing to do with the Blue Fairy, or with turning dolls into humans. It's quite the opposite -- it's by Yeats, it's a Celtic thing, and the gist of it is that they're trying to get a human to join the fairies. To join the fairy world. And those last two lines you said, 'The quest will be perilous / Yet the reward is beyond price', those aren't part of the poem at all."

Wednesday shook his head. "You could be talking about any number of wood nymphs, and none of them have a power like you've described. More like than not it's a ruse to lure the subject into drowning. Water spirits feed on that kind of thing." The comment lacked any judgement, either against the nymph or its prey; utterly neutral, matter-of-fact, this is the way the world is and has always been.

[cuppa_mecha]

"I believe it is that at the heart of my design is the ability to change at my clients' whims. I can even go so far as to change my appearance. Why, then, wouldn't I just as easily change for my location

[callmewednesday]

Wednesday listened. "Some things outlive their use," he said, finally, voice rasping harshly. "Some servants are more faithful than others. There's a saying:

'At eve the day is to be praised,
a woman after she is burnt,
a sword after it is proved,
a maid after she is married,
ice after it has passed away,
beer after it is drunk.'

"In other words, the wind can change at any moment. In other words, distrust saved your skin. Good for you."

Where was that girl with those drinks, anyway?

[cuppa_mecha]

"I once queried one of my maintainers of the reason of my programming. Why would a woman need my company when there were willing humans to provide for her. He told me there were many reasons for this. Men were sometimes unkind. Women were sometimes unexcited

[c_macaulay]

Wednesday did not roll his eyes, but he might as well have. From that last remark it seemed some conversational habits would be harder for the mecha to break than others. Unless there was some additional meaning to it, which Wednesday couldn't quite discern ... how maddening, to find himself in the dark, when he'd known all things seen and unseen in the nine worlds since time immemorial

[cuppa_mecha]

"Shall we continue the game, then?" Joe asked, cheerfully. He'd felt uplifted by Wednesday and his conversation regardless of the pessimism apparent. The fact that he could succeed in a conversation of this magnitude was enough to be celebrated.

"Perhaps the Lord Jenga shall smite us if we abandon the attention given to their tower? Mr. Wednesday, I think it's your turn. I'm interested if you can balance a tower of wood blocks as well as you balance conversation with a mecha."