PARADISA LOST

[for the past several hours, those who dwell in the Gaudium Tower and observers from the town may have observed that apparently there is a small localized thunderstorm hovering around said tower - the top floor, to be exact, although rain is of course pouring down from the small localized cloud cluster and may indeed be affecting you.

someone's hair is absolutely hideous today, brown and lank and greasy, and there's a wizard in a snit. he's doing his best to control himself though, because without that we wouldn't have dramatic buildup throughout the week, and he's trying everything he possibly can on his hair to do... something. anything. but nothing is working.

eventually he comes over to bitch in the journal.]

I thought monsters and aliens were bad... but I could take horrid demons, I could take mind control, better than I could take this! For God's sake, is there no depth this awful building won't sink to?!

You would think that some things could be sacred! That there would be some things you could rely on! The sun rises in the morning, you drop something and it falls, oh... you wake up with your hair how you styled it the night before! But no. NO. Oh, no, not here.

On that note, I won't be seeing anyone today! So sorry if you were hoping to meet with me, or even catch a glimpse of me on the street. No. I won't be going out.

Donations of delicious baked goods or consolation cards may be made to the Gaudium Tower, room 1920. And a good day to all of you, I hope you're enjoying yourselves while I suffer here... I hope you're all enjoying yourselves! [getting kind of shrill there.

...aaand journal slam. he'll answer in a bit, when he's calmed down marginally.]

[there's a couple of thumps from the open journal, and then Howl speaks quietly... to a ghost, apparently.] Yes, that will do. You may go now, thank you.

[and clearing his throat.]

I must say. I've spent my time here looking admiringly at all these lovely, empty towers, from my lowly room in the second floor, and given that there doesn't appear to be housing officials waiting in the wings to harass those who aim high, I thought I'd take the opportunity to move.

Friends, acquaintances, not including angry aunts, if you wish to find me, you may now look upwards.

Ah, Moonbay, I believe we are now neighbors, vertically speaking.

[...yeah he moved to the top floor of the Gaudium Tower. ROOM 1920 LADIES. AND GENTLEMEN. not that he's going to walk all those flights of stairs every day.]

Ah, for those of you who retrieved items from the mysterious room uncovered in that roiling mess known as the Insolitus... I'd like to inspect them.

I've done an initial work-up on one of them. Simple queries, really, mostly as to nature and origin; they certainly weren't eager to give up anything at all but with some deft work [if he does say so himself ahem ahem]... well.

These items for one are extensions of the castle's power, and they're quite remarkable in their own right, or they could be - at the moment, they're mostly dormant. Paradisa seems inclined to keep a tight lock on them, though. I didn't get much more than that from what I took a look at, which is why I'd like to sample the field, if I may.

[clears his throat in the journal. all dictated,]

Yes, good day, Paradisa. I do believe some of you here knew me before? For those of you who don't, I'm Wizard Howl Pendragon, well met and so on. For those of you who I knew, no need to fuss with introducing yourselves and explaining our acquaintance, I have been doing some backreading. It's an interesting lot we have here, isn't it?

I must admit I'm glad to see [flip of pages, flip flip flip] that the events of the past week or so do not seem common. What a frightful course of events. [his tone hear is a little softer. he's a douche, but he's not totally heartless /rimshot. and he doesn't really enjoy people getting hurt. page flip flip flipflip.] A bachelor's auction, I can't believe I missed it, several dances, common protestations of boredom, public drunkenness... how charming.

Oh, yes, there's no need for the usual explanations either. Permanent 'loss', so-called temporary losses, the castle grants wishes, impermanent death aren't we lucky, yes, I did arrive in the midst of all that unpleasantness, yes, thank you.

I would enjoy meeting some new people, though. And perhaps re-meeting some old acquaintances? Let me know if you're here, please.

[The faint rustle of someone turning an invitation over, and a laugh.]

Well. It looks as is Paradisa will be presenting us with a Christmas ball as distinctive as its other holiday festivities. I, for one, can hardly wait.

( Moonbay )

( Nill )

And now winter has at last overtaken us. I suppose it was inevitable eventually... well. [A dramatic sigh.] The worst time of year! Heralding a month of frenzied shopping, house-cleaning, head colds, relatives who won't go away, formal parties to attend where you stand around eating cold prawns dipped in that sauce and wishing that something interesting would happen... anything interesting at all... [He sniffs.] I suppose that something interesting might at least happen here.

And my sister is not here, so no relatives. At least there's that. [He misses his niece and even his nephew, and his castle and Michael and Calcipher and even Sophie, but good luck wrestling that out of him. :(]

It's not especially fair, you know, portraying them as the villains all the time. Spiders do plenty of good in the world too, and they're quite harmless if you just let them alone.

Why, during times of trial, my spiders have been some of my dearest and most accepting companions, quietly spinning away and going about their lives, upset only when strident, invasive harridans stick their long noses in and start disrupting things. I would think a magical castle so derided by its residents would have some sympathy for the poor things. Alas, it seems that simple acceptance is too much to ask for even here.

[A sorrowful sigh... directed towards his ceiling, quietly:] Alas, poor things. Your older sister lies fallen but all of you at least may spin on.

We do live in the most interesting place, don't we? Spontaneous memory loss - thank you to everyone who returned memories, by the way - spontaneous pirates, which I can't say I disapprove of, the grog wasn't half bad if I say so myself... and such interesting people living around me. And below me.

I do hope I'll get to see a world change while I'm here. I wonder how the place does it...

[Most lugubriously] If this is revenge for the slime, Sophie, I am not at all amused. A man should be able to fill his own home with green slime if he chooses to, and I have just washed -

[Much sharper.] -- ah. Sophie? Michael? Calcipher! What's this?!