Wander about looking dismayed

[aestrix]

There is a certain reason why wandering around outside by yourself while looking dismayed and thinking about your troubles might get you a bit more than sore feet, burrs in your shoes, and catharsis.

Sometimes, you might just find a mysterious old woman. It's hard to tell them apart from perfectly ordinary old women, just the way mist curls around her feet or for the way her eyes catch the light a bit too well, or other telling signs of mysteriousness. Those vary, though, and often it's quite a good idea to err on the side of caution with these things, and take care with heeding their advice.

While their advice often is a very bizarre set of instructions, following them perfectly will get you exactly the result the mysterious old woman advertised, without fail. If she advertises a fixed roof if you were to weave a net made of reeds picked only at midnight on a new moon and then drape it over your roof at sunrise, or a full stomach if you filled a large pot with clear water, acorns, and fresh wildflowers and put it over a fire and leave it to simmer for four hours, you will get a fixed roof or a pot filled with delicious stew. If you follow the instructions exactly.

If you don't, you could get something else entirely.

Comments

[pythbox]

The gate guard asks her her business.

[light_another_life]

Because she does not want to fuck this up she is going to get the wording exactly as the mysterious old woman told her.

"I was summoned to marry the elder prince," she says, because she has memorized this line and doesn't need to check her list.

[pythbox]

"...of course," he says uneasily. "Right this way, miss. You there! Show the, uh, prince's betrothed, to her room."

The fellow guard thus selected nods unhappily and motions to Imarivet to follow him.

[light_another_life]

"If you would please," says Imarivet, "I would like to see my future brother in law first."

She says this in a way that sounds like she is not to be questioned on this front.

[pythbox]

"Uh, very well," says the guard. "We can check his study..."

He leads her to the prince's study and knocks.

[mydarkness]

The study proves to contain one prince.

"...Yes...?"

[light_another_life]

"Hello. I am under instruction from a mysterious old woman, I have a complicated procedure to fix all of this, and she said you'd be willing to help." Out comes his copy of the materials-and-what-to-do-with-them list. It is missing the bathing and whipping and shift snuggling instructions, but everything relevant to him is present. She offers it to him.

"I'll be happy to explain it if anything seems unclear or confusing."

[mydarkness]

He takes the list, slightly stunned.

"You wrote it down. Oh, that's clever..." He scans down the list. "Yes, I can have all of this brought to the bridal chamber before the ceremony."

[light_another_life]

She smiles a little. "Excellent, thank you. No questions or clarifications?"

[mydarkness]

"It's, um, very comprehensive," he says.

[light_another_life]

"I thought it would be a good idea to be thorough," she says, her smile widening a little.

[mydarkness]

"Yes," the prince agrees, smiling back.

[light_another_life]

"Thank you for your help," she says sincerely, and then she looks at her escort and says, "and now I'll be happy to go to my room."

[mydarkness]

"When you're done, please tell Otinaru that this week's bride has arrived and then return to your post," says the prince.

"Yes, your highness," says the guard, looking much less upset about the whole business. He shows Imarivet to a small but reasonably pleasant room and leaves her there.

[light_another_life]

She unpacks her ten snow white shifts, nervously counts and recounts them, and then with that done she decides to sit, fidgeting.

It's not long before she gets tired of that and gets to pacing, and then she stops pacing and goes over her list again, to make sure that she definitely remembers everything correctly (she does) and then it's back to pacing.

Augh.

[pythbox]

A servant knocks on her door around lunchtime with a tray of tasty food, but this one doesn't seem to have been informed about the promising nature of this bride, because she hands over the food and then scurries off immediately as though afraid to be near her.

[light_another_life]

Of course the servant flees. She'd be tempted to flee, too. She was tempted to flee, even. ... And then did the opposite of fleeing, good job, Imarivet.

She sighs and is very very paranoid about keeping the food away from the shifts that could potentially be made less snow-white by spilled food. To stretch out the time that she has something to do, she eats slowly, but this doesn't last nearly long enough. Then there's nothing to do. Again. Napping isn't even an option. While she didn't get enough sleep the night before, she thinks with her nerves all she'd accomplish is getting a part of the ceiling a pair of holes burned right through it from her staring.

So she returns to her old ally; pacing.

[mydarkness]

Someone knocks on her door again.

[light_another_life]

She answers it.

(... Is it 'It's time to get ready for your wedding'? Is she getting married today? She does not want to get married today. ... She does not want to be stuck in this room with nothing to do for another day. She would like to not get married and not be in this room, why did she have to go and be heroic.)

[mydarkness]

It's her future brother-in-law!

"Everything's ready," he says. "Your wedding is this evening."

[light_another_life]

It is very hard to hear that sentence and not start trying to flee through a window, even without the carnivorous reptile for a groom.

She nods, and does not start looking for windows. Hers doesn't have one, possibly because someone tried that already.

"Thank you very much," she says sincerely. If a little - well, like a girl that's about to go marry a carnivorous reptile.

[mydarkness]

"You're welcome. I hope it works."

[light_another_life]

"You and me both," she says, a little wryly. "Because I am going to be in some trouble if it doesn't."

[mydarkness]

"Yes."

[light_another_life]

"But if I follow her instructions everything will be fine. It should be okay."