Dear Mr Curly, I have done little travelling lately because I have been so dreadfully weary. Can it be true as the old Ecclesiastes said; that all things lead to weariness? Surely not. Perhaps the opposite is true: that all nothings lead to weariness. I have a peculiar feeling, Curly, that I am worn out from something I haven't yet done and the more I don't do it, the more exhausted I become. How strange. Could it be something I haven't realised? Perhaps it's something I haven't said? Something I haven't finished! It must be very large and true whatever it is and a lively struggle in the doing but I look forward to it immensely. I know I need it. First, however, I must curl up in my chair and sleep deeply with the duck. Perhaps I'll dream of this thing and wake up refreshed and do it. My fond wishes to you Mr. Curly, and to all Curly Flat. Yours sleepily, Vasco Pyjama xxx P.S. Not having breakfast can make you weary. That's for sure!
After letting the rest of the pack walk off to Rukeewei's inn, Sabine was barely able to stop herself from briskly walking ahead of Meesei. She was a step or two ahead from Meesei for virtually the entire walk to the shop.
The shop itself was notably different to the last time they had seen it. Ariel had evidently commissioned a sign that jutted perpendicular to the wall so it could be spotted from the streets. The window was lined with rows and rows of glass flasks and jars. Most of the merchandise was labelled with printed Jel, though many had Cyrodilic as well. Even with the cloudy weather, the daylight was too bright to see anything else through the window.
Sabine grinned at Meesei when she spoke. She had been taking the lead most of the way until this point. "Okay. But I think she will be looking forward to seeing you as well, Meesei. You might take your time."
Sabine jogged up to the door and pushed it open. A small bell rang overhead to join what she saw in the interior. The small shop had been fully stocked at this point. Two Argonian women were separately perusing a dizzying array of glass cases and shelves with various remedies, cosmetics, and alchemical concoctions joined the occasional raw ingredient. There were so many things to see, even in the small place, but the smell hit Sabine the hardest. It was the smell of an alchemical lab mixed with a plethora of perfumes. It was a much stronger version of what she remembered the place smelling like four years ago. It made memories flood back.
At first, Sabine looked around for Ariel's face. Behind the counter, a door opened to the storage closet that revealed Ariel poking her head out to see who had rang the doorbell. Ariel immediately gasped. "Sabine!"
Ariel's surprise made the Argonian customers turn their heads curiously. Ariel stepped out from behind the counter with a simple silken green robe and nearly ran towards Sabine with her arms extended and a laugh on her lips. Sabine joined in her mirth and they embraced in a tight hug, laughing with joy. With her lycan strength, Sabine hugged Ariel so hard that she ended up lifting her feet of the ground for a moment.
"Oh, Sabine! Waiting to see you again has been unbearable! I've been watching the door ever since I received your letter!" Ariel swung Sabine from side-to-side in her arms.
What surprised Sabine the most was that she was now nearly as tall as Ariel. It was strange to see her from a shallow angle after all this time. Regardless, she responded in kind. "It is good to see you, too, sister."
"You have no idea, Sabine." Ariel pulled away, taking Sabine by the shoulders. "Welcome back to Thorn!" Ariel took a breath to stave her excitement for a moment. She peered around. "Are the others here?" She looked out of the door. "Oh! Hello Meesei!"
"The others are getting a room at the inn," Sabine mentioned with a grin.
Ariel released Sabine and walked out of the store to wrap her arms around Meesei in turn. "It has been too long! How have you both been?" She pulled away and beckoned Meesei. "Come inside! Come inside."
Gallus had been investigating all day, so meeting one more stranger was not a particular challenge. However, he had a feeling he was getting close now. To try and gain the trust of the man who answered the door, he held his hands behind his back and stood with a strong posture. It would be more officious than any of the more thuggish types they had passed already. Unfortunately, there was only so much that Gallus could do about his armed leather and mail attire and smell of the wilds.
"Greetings," Gallus began with a clear tone to spare shortcomings in language. He trusted Cuts to translate if required. "My name is Gallus Oswallson. Does a Yizan-Lei live here? I need to speak to him."
Gallus remembered to expect some kind of crippled child. This man was not likely Yizan-Lei, but could be close to him.
No, I don't remember. I think Dar-Tzesa mentioned that Yizan-Lei would be on his own, but that shouldn't necessarily mean that he has no family left or anything.
Also, sorry to pick at nits here, but you say the district Gallus was lead to was decadent. It sounds like a run-down part of town, are you sure you meant decadent?
I think just Gallus at this stage. Cuts-Canes-Faster isn't really meant to be much of an involved character and I don't know who or what else is going to come up.
I didn't have anything planned for what Gallus finds either, so I'll let you deal with other characters. In any case, let me know if there are any other particular characters that you would need me to play.
It turned out that the wedding ceremony had taken longer than the pack ha realised, most likely because of the time spent in conversation. That left relatively little time before they set out for the Avarul family's favourite tavern.
The tavern itself was a cleaner place than most taverns had repute for. Calia strode in and swiftly acquired a table large enough for them all. While the meal was pleasant and the conversation as nice as it was after the ceremony, the event was still marred by the absence of Fendros' father, Rossarm. Calia mentioned that she had tried to convince Rossarm anyway, but he 'remained unreasonably stubborn in his silence of Fendros.'
Just as promised, Calia paid for everyone's meals, even if they over-ordered, but the amount of drink that Lorag consumed had Meesei handing the bartender the pack's coin on a secret tab.
Given how early the pack was to leave in the morning, they decided to give their farewells to Fendros' family that night. Addresses were exchanged for letters as promised. However, Fendros decided that he would also write to Llarasa under the alias of 'Dranas' for matters that would not be revealed in letters written and read by the whole family. It would be easier to keep track of more negative family affairs that way.
While Calia and Monderyn remained stoic with their goodbyes, Calia instead offering her small smiles, Llarasa ended up bursting into tears. She quietly mentioned to Fendros and Ahansha while hugging them that their letters had helped her through rough spots on a number of occasions with the family. They all promised to see one another again soon enough.
That night had Janius approach Fendros and Ahnasha to offer to watch the children for the night with a knowing look. Fendros and Ahnasha then took time together away from camp for the most part, embracing their first night as a wedded couple.
Travel began bare minutes after sunrise on the next day. They ate on the road to save time on their way south. Attempts to reach out to Lorag were largely unsuccessful from most members of the pack, though all could tell that seeing Harriet and Narsi had affected him. Sabine soon overcame her bout of sadness from the wedding and instead expressed a growing excitement with every day that they neared closer to Ariel. Janius and Kaleeth kept their routine regular; watching the children and Leaps, contact sparring until Kaleeth's beast spirit was appeased, and other general tasks assigned to them. The wedding had kept Janius' mind distracted with thoughts of how to find Kaleeth's tribe again and they weren't fading away with any rush. Finally, Fendros and Ahnasha continued to look as if they had fallen in love all over again. They were physically closer than usual, holding hands more often and sitting closely. It was only beginning to show signs of tapering to how things were after at least a month of travel, but the pet-name status of 'husband' and 'wife' was not losing novelty nearly as fast.
It seemed that the only pack member that had not changed at all since they left Skyrim was Gallus. He kept spending his idle time preening the red feather that he carried around and did not seem as talkative as he normally was. Whenever asked about his wellbeing, he merely responded that he was feeling 'determined.'
The time eventually came for the groups' paths to diverge. Gallus and Cuts-Canes-Faster gave their goodbyes near to the south-eastern corner of Cyrodiil. It was a straight-shot to Gideon over land and marsh, with travel being slower than the firmer Cyrodilic soil by a long margin. Even though he might have been confident of his chances beforehand, Gallus quickly came to appreciate Cuts' expertise of Black Marsh. Without the Argonian guide, Gallus would have been lost for upwards of a week just trying to navigate.
By the time Gallus came to Gideon, his clothing was suitably muddy and his brow drenched from the humid heat. The town's mix of Imperial, Argonian, and ancient architecture made him gaze with amazement for a while. Cuts eventually snapped him out of it. They went to an inn to book a room, if only to clean up somewhat, and emerged feeling fresher. At least, insofar as smell and look. The dark rings under Gallus' eyes told of fatigue that he was otherwise not showing.
"I'm not sure what I expected, Cuts, but it was different to this city," Gallus remarked out the front of the inn. "Come, I'll need your help to translate. We have a child to find."
Gallus then proceeded to trying asking around taverns and markets for anyone named 'Yizan-Lei' or any family and friends of 'Dar-Tzesa.' With Cuts' cultural guidance, Gallus again found himself saving much time. Regardless, he didn't expect the search to be easy.
Meanwhile, Meesei's pack had continued on south until they found a ferry to Leyawiin. Travel would be fastest to Thorn by boat than by travelling across the breadth of Black Marsh. They made sure to take time to have a satisfying hunt as a pack in the nearby wilds before boarding the ship to travel around the marsh.
Even though it was just as boring as their other voyages by ship, all except for the children, Kaleeth, and perhaps even Meesei found the ship to be preferable to the conditions of Black Marsh. No incidents came up during the voyage beyond some cabin fever.
When the pack landed, Sabine was so excited that it was hard to tell whether the tension she held was good or bad. She was the first down the gangplank, even jumping ahead of some docking crew. She waited for the rest of the pack to disembark after rolling the balls of her feet on the ground for every second that passed.
"What should our movements be?" Janius asked with his shoulders laden by some of the pack's baggage. "Did you and Sabine want to go to Ariel on your own while we find a place to camp or should we all come with you?"
@Vec Thanks man! Yeah, I'll probably change it to endomaton in that case. I don't mind much about it not being a word. I make up words in English all the time, what's a different language matter?
I'd be interested to hear more if you find anything.
@Muttonhawk I can help with the greek, if you want. :)
That would be great, actually! What I was looking at was butchering the word 'automaton' in its capacity as an English loan word.
See, automaton roughly splits up into "operated by itself," so I wanted to fenangle it into "operated from within."
I went searching around ancient Greek for what I could bodge together and found "esoterica," which apparently means "interior." The prefix on that word is "es-" which is what apparently describes something being "inside."
In the end, I got "esomaton," as in "operated from inside." I think...
Now, ancient Greek and modern Greek are slightly different, but English seems to like loaning from ancient rather than modern. That meant that this whole process was mostly me flailing around in Wiktionary.
But anyway, I am more than willing to admit that I am woefully unqualified in ancient Greek word smithing, so please help me out.
As for endo/exo, that might be more correct. It apparently comes from "endon," meaning "inside the house" or something. That in turn came from "en" which is a catch-all for "around," "on," "amongst," and all that, so I wasn't sure if it was most appropriate.
This latest post might be a slight clusterfuck. I hope it's readable enough.
Edit: I also forgot to mention, I've changed Toun's musical theme to this because I think it suits him better than Adam Hurst playing an oversized version of the worlds tiniest violin just like all of his songs.
This might be a bit low quality because it's mostly housekeeping and I'm tired. Please forgive me this time.
Toun builds the prototype of his new creature: A flying siphonbeast. This is a creature piloted by a slave hain and provides sustaining magical energies to the creatures around it. It's pretty much a massive floating magical siphon like the white giants have. See my character post for their creation sheet.
Interleaved in this event are vignettes of Toun deploying another new creature, the droningbird. They are basically spy drones with partial adaptive camouflage. See their creation sheet on my character post as well.
Droningbirds are currently spying on the following characters:
- Niciel - Logos - Lazarus - Altair - Farxus - Sularn - Conata - Amartia - Edda - Lifprasil - Tauga - Jvan's Sleeping Blob In The Water
Now, these birds will not be hard to detect for anyone looking for them. They're fairly disposable, so you can smash them if you want. However, they aren't the easiest things to spot and kinda difficult to catch if you don't have a way to snare them. Gods won't have any trouble either escaping them or crunching them.
Other birds are wandering around just in case they find other interesting godly characters.
During these little scenes, it is mentioned that Majus has left Sularn and Conata's home and returned to Cornerstone. Rtron and I have a collab going which resolves Majus' involvement with him for now, but that's been on the backburner for a while. We'll retrospectively post that should we get around to finishing it.
In other news, I have decided to go the way of some other people and move Toun's character sheet to an external topic to spare loading the high-res maps and everyone else's images every time I want to look something up. You can find it here.
Finally, I have cashed in the free Khoupon to acquire Toun the (Oaths) portfolio. See my character sheet for what that entails, but basically, mortals can pray to Toun and take oaths, and then get cool boons for sticking to them. This is all along the lines of Toun's 'improvement of the world' shtick and how he's encouraging mortals to do the same. Sularn, Edda, and the rovaick that have taken Sularn's Oath are the current examples of this.
Anyone who wants to have a character pray to Toun for whatever reason will probably be afforded an opportunity to take an oath that gives them cool stuff.
The valley of peace lived up to its name just as much as it did on any other day. It was not often that anything new arrived, let alone anything that would disturb Niciel's decree. That wouldn't change for a long time, after today.
The trees brushed on in the light wind and birds chirped. The buzzing wings of the new arrival fit in without any disturbance at all. It swooped in like the other birds and was coloured like them as well, but it did not chirp.
It perched on a branch and folded its metallic wings. Silent on that bough, it watched the distant Niciel and witnessed the end of a meeting with Galbar's interstellar invaders.
What spite comes next, overwhelmed sibling?
"Not spite over myself, under likely projection."
On the central tile of Cornerstone, under a partly cloudy night, Toun mumbled over his latest project. The spinning wheel between his hands held aloft a larger shape than usual. An egg the size of an ogre's fist and made from white clay. Divots sucked in on its front to form tiny eyes.
"It shall depend on how fast you all learn."
The city of Xerxes was rather more changed by its recent events. To call it a city was an injustice to cities, though the prospects of its future perhaps had it deserve a more lenient review.
Rubble was strewn around filth, rot, charcoal, and barbarism. Animalistic survivors stalked the shadow of civilisation under the shadow of a ruined palace.
Another tiny bird buzzed in on blurred wings. It flew above the baying below, between the flocks of carrion birds with a sheen of black, but it was no eye of Reathos. Bits of metal glinted from the firelight below.
It's buzzing wingbeats stopped abruptly as it placed its feet on a brick pile and bounced up to the pile's summit. There, its eyes fell upon a disgraced king. A humiliated demigod.
And to think you were improving your people before recently. There is no greater purpose to you, brat.
Another strange black bird joined the other but flew off just as quickly. It found what it was looking for a short distance away. The scaly torturer.
Your essence, hm. How unfortunate that the greatest pain you will ever witness has already been inflicted upon you. It will keep you docile from me, at least. Or distracted. Fate does help at times, it seems.
The droningbirds were a small project, but no less important than Toun's other plans. He needed to keep up with the rest of the world, especially since demigods were shooting up out of the ground like spring flowers.
There were many emerging agents in the world and inconsistent prayers from mortals were not reliable enough to keep track of them.
Of course, the little spy birds were nothing compared to the current preparations. Now that they were sent out, Toun had moved on to the preparations for the further future.
"With this, dealing with the creeping crystals should not present a significant obstacle in the grand scheme. That much, at least, is required."
The next bird did not have to put forth much effort to camouflage itself. All around it was snow and ice. The tiny porcelain plates on its body shone natural and pure as it buzzed through the tundra.
It had less trouble finding its quarry than the other droningbirds, and the main reason was standing ahead on the mountain.
A young female dwarf in thick clothing stared blankly into the white mists until the buzzing neared. She raised a gloved arm horizontally in front of herself as the little white bird droned up and landed itself on the side of her wrist. The bird's eyes took on a blue hue, turning from beads of black jet to lapis lazuli.
They are within, Minus?
"Yes," the dwarf woman said in a gentler voice than any dwarves in the mountain behind her. "All of them appear to have come along the wake of godly deaths. Balance is restoring itself. Only Lazarus knows of me as of yet, but I will present myself if they need me. Or if they ask."
Inconsequential. Continue your vigil until further orders.
"As you wish, father." The dwarf watched as the bird fluttered off into an opening in the mountain. Two more birds fluttered in after it, turning a dark grey to hide still amongst the rocks.
"Are you feeling better now, father?"
...What is the cause for this question?
Minus answered in an inquisitive monotone. "This is the first time I have heard your voice since I felt your brothers and sisters pass away."
Focus on your mission, Minus.
"Natural speculation, an innefficient use of Minus' capabilities," Toun mumbled. "The necessary chaos in those twins' designs are taking their toll."
Toun wished the avatars' missions were not so important as to keep them separated. With the 'incident' between Conata and Majus, Toun wondered if he should cease to treat them as two separate individuals at all and keep them together forever.
The egg upon the spinning wheel had taken on more features. Symmetrical crevices lined its surface where ethereal strands were coming through. Two large arms hung from its sides, ending in gnarled claws.
The scene in the south pole was repeated upon a higher mountain, though this twin did not bother with a disguise. The porcelain knight upon the mountain peak held the haft of its pole hammer out for another white metallic bird to perch upon it. Again, the bird's eyes went blue.
You bestowed my power to Sularn?
"Yes father," the armoured gianted boomed in its unnerring voice.
Then your mission is done, Majus. No more realta shall attack here. Return to Cornerstone.
"At once, father."
The bird fluttered off down into the mountain home of the rovaick below, tailed by another metallic bird. The burgeoning population of the town did not often see such birds this high up, but they had too many of their own problems to pay them heed.
One of the birds banked sharply down another tunnel and into the chambers of a certain azibo prophet. It perched on a shelf and watched just as silently and still, but made no effort to hide.
The other bird made its way into a dark corner of the bedroom of a sleeping metallic demigoddess. It turned grey against the stone.
Conata opened her eyes as soon as she heard the buzzing of the wings. She thought she felt giant bone moving around, but she turned over to sleep again. It must have been a dream.
You will be more than your father bargained for, child. He must have planned it as such.
The new creature was almost done now. Its tiny sets of eyes opened to reveal a glowing blue, shimmering with power. Toun wrote glyphs into its inner workings, tuning the power to show with greater glory.
"Much and more. You will be my banner."
With a few last adjustments, Toun walked backwards over the moon-lit tiles, leaving the spinning wheel in his view. The wheel slowed to a stop when Toun did.
"Now you are complete."
The wheel lowered and was subsumed into the tiles below. The large egg melted and sank into the porcelain until the surface was as flush as it started.
The bird that buzzed onto the rigging of the small galley was not one Toun had expected to assign. Another droningbird that went to find Jvan found only a dormant body that would not awake with any guarantee. He needed to find Jvan's other machinations without simply diving into her undulating, comatose body.
It just so happened that the birds in Xerxes felt the caress of unseen appendages before they went for their quarries. The lingering presence of Jvan was a trail that directed Toun's bird to a mutated hain, helping a few last refugees to escape. The female hain was guarded by massive metal spheres that were of clear Jvanic design but would be easy to outmanoeuvre for the little spy bird if the galley was to remain above water.
Of course, this Jvanic thing was of particular importance due to its possible heading. It would have to travel far if it ever left the city, but if the Jvan-touched hain made it past the acalya, it would creep dangerously close to Toun's other project.
Less than optimal. Keeping track of this mortal will have to suffice for whatever plan you had here, Jvan. Other things will be revealed to me in time.
The now flat porcelain tiles were at peace for a moment. But, assembling the final product took did not take longer than half a minute with Toun's direct focus.
"Rise."
The flush tiles ground against themselves and bulged from the centre. Underneath where the wheel stood, the tiles peeled up and back slowly like the skin of a fruit. The grinding tiles gave way to a colossal white shape.
"No complications. Good enough."
The huge white egg-shaped creature rose further, towering greater than three times the height of Toun's form. A verticle mouth on its underside opened up between its two clawed arms and hummed a low note.
"One more detail."
The bird that flew to Yorum was less conspicuous than any, for it was no god or hero that it had to stalk. Merely a hain that had spoken to one.
Edda barely recognised the buzzing bird that fluttered from building to building, following the movement of herself and her entourage on the way to see the king.
You took your oath. Redeem yourself. None of you shall disappoint me.
The slave hain that approached Toun and the massive sighing creature did not have any fear in its demeanour. It marched on knowing that Toun was the guardian. He was the father of them all.
"Come closer." Toun asked the hain without turning to face it.
This was a big task, bigger than shaping arches and strange shells of big soldiers all day. A primitive excitement put a spring into the stunted creature's step.
Toun took a single step to turn and look down at the hain. His glowing blue eye did not have any anger or distress today. Only curiosity. The father of the five tribes hardly ever seemed distressed when he had a project to concentrate upon.
Without bending his torso, Toun stretched his arms until his hands took the little hain under the arms. He gently lifted the creature up to his eye-level like it was a toddler.
The hain flicked its head around as obliviously as a hen.
Toun turned again to the massive creature he had made and the front of its many-eyed face opened. Two huge doors of thick porcelain plate gently pushed apart to reveal a shining aluminium frame surrounded by pulsing red flesh.
The hain saw this behind him and smelled pulsing power. Not even the smell of the twisted and unnatural structure seemed to bother him, despite its gnarled and tortured appearance.
When Toun walked up to the revealed frame, he gently placed the hain into it, leaving it standing in what was a surprisingly comfortable position.
"You were never a creature designed to fly," Toun murmured with his quivering voice. The god began stepping back. "Now you will fly for the rest of your life."
The hain tried to move but found that metal braces had gently wrapped around its limbs and torso. Its heart began to quicken.
The doors lurched and pulled with a tendonous squelch, slowly closing.
The hain did not have the intelligence to ask if it should be afraid. It knew it was afraid already. Its head began flicking swiftly, teeth chattered. It struggled but could not break its bonds.
The doors were closing.
The hain looked through the last sliver of the outside world between the doors. He saw Toun's curious eye.
There was a dull thud. Everything was dark.
The hain felt proddings at the nape of its neck.
As if the crux of the godliest power on the planet could be ignored. Alefpria was the largest city the world had seen. Its progress had been boosted by the touches of many a diety, but there was no denying that improvements had been made because of it.
All headed by a son of Vestec. I dislike this irony.
If for whatever unlikely reason Lifprasil thought that the sheer mass of population could help him to hide, he had not counted on the little bird that fluttered over the walls of his Ilunabaric palace. It found plenty of places to hide and observe and it was particularly well-suited to seeking out divinity.
Other persons of interest may even turn up in the palace eventually. Toun had no shortage of birds to assign to them, should he deem it necessary.
Time to find out what manner of creature you are, little prince.
Beyond that, there were many other pieces of the puzzle that Toun wished to seek out. Many missing kin that he wished to check upon. He could have found them himself, but he had precious little time and focus with his plans in place.
With so many spare droningbirds, he decided to send them in random directions with instructions to begin watching the first divine being they found. Chances were that they would find something new, perhaps something that the other gods had not even caught onto yet.
That would take time in and of itself.
Other possible interruptions can be accounted for.
Toun had his hands behind his back as the muffled screeches of the hain calmed into whimpers. The integration would be complete any second now.
As sure as he had perfectly planned, the many eyes of the giant clawed creature glowed brightly once more, looking around and taking in its surroundings. The whimpering of the hain was drowned out by the regular sighing of the creature that now housed it. Its claws twitched and flexed experimentally.
"Patrol the walls. You will be joined by others soon."
As naturally as if it was created to, the massive creature gently ascended into the air, letting its claws dangle over the vast expanse of Cornerstone. It floated over Toun's head as Toun bent his neck to watch it.
As it headed for the walls, it passed over what progress Cornerstone had been hiding; rows and rows of porcelain arches. Each one suspended a shell or sculpture of some humanoid-shaped creature with the height of a tedar and the gaunt build of a hain. Each one was identical.
The army of shells stretched on across the entire tiled space. Slave hain flanked each one, working through the night to shape them.
"My own oaths will be fulfilled, as shall others taken in my name."
[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPjJCVylFBo[/youtube][/center]
[quote=Michael Leunig. The Curly Pyjama Letters.]
Dear Mr Curly,
I have done little travelling lately because I have been so dreadfully weary. Can it be true as the old Ecclesiastes said; that all things lead to weariness? Surely not. Perhaps the opposite is true: that all [u]nothings[/u] lead to weariness. I have a peculiar feeling, Curly, that [u]I[/u] am worn out from something I haven't yet done and the more I don't do it, the more exhausted I become. How strange. Could it be something I haven't realised? Perhaps it's something I haven't said? Something I haven't finished! It must be very large and true whatever it is and a lively struggle in the doing but I look forward to it immensely. I know I need it. First, however, I must curl up in my chair and sleep deeply with the duck. Perhaps I'll dream of this thing and wake up refreshed and do it. My fond wishes to you Mr. Curly, and to all Curly Flat.
Yours sleepily,
Vasco Pyjama
xxx
P.S. Not having breakfast can make you weary. That's for sure!
[/quote]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><iframe src="//youtube.com/embed/HPjJCVylFBo?theme=dark" frameborder="0" width="496" height="279" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br><br><blockquote class="bb-quote">Dear Mr Curly,<br>I have done little travelling lately because I have been so dreadfully weary. Can it be true as the old Ecclesiastes said; that all things lead to weariness? Surely not. Perhaps the opposite is true: that all <span class="bb-u">nothings</span> lead to weariness. I have a peculiar feeling, Curly, that <span class="bb-u">I</span> am worn out from something I haven't yet done and the more I don't do it, the more exhausted I become. How strange. Could it be something I haven't realised? Perhaps it's something I haven't said? Something I haven't finished! It must be very large and true whatever it is and a lively struggle in the doing but I look forward to it immensely. I know I need it. First, however, I must curl up in my chair and sleep deeply with the duck. Perhaps I'll dream of this thing and wake up refreshed and do it. My fond wishes to you Mr. Curly, and to all Curly Flat.<br>Yours sleepily,<br>	Vasco Pyjama<br>	xxx<br>P.S. Not having breakfast can make you weary. That's for sure!<footer>Michael Leunig. The Curly Pyjama Letters.</footer></blockquote></div>
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