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The Journal of Arnold: Mid-Week 2

Day 5 continued from week 1:  Friday:  I didn’t find Miss Maddox as I roamed around town looking for her.  But I did find several unexpected surprises.  I found City Hall for the first time today and there was a giant ransom note upon it.  I figured it was a joke however, because some of the demands were ludicrous at best, and I had already missed the deadline by then.  Still, at least now it had made sense when Tenk had walked out of the Cafe saying, “Can’t sleep here, it’s not safe.” yesterday.  At the time I had simply thought it was because he had been laying next to the fire..but perhaps he had known this was going to happen.  I don’t know what to think about it, but I’m sure we’ll see him again.

There was another incredible oddity that I found today as well.  A pink house.

It was gaudy, ugly, and completely ruined the city’s aestetic, but it was a change of pace in an otherwise gritty city.  However Yang had also found this little black/pink sheep and he told me that it was probably going to get torn down or get repainted because New Babbage has building and aestetic codes.

An entire city that is forced to conform to a certain style and taste?  Perhaps I could write a disertation about conformality based upon this city, but not now.  One thing at a time, and at the moment that’s finding the doctors.

Week 2 (as set by every Saturday as the next week) Day 6:  Adrift in a Sea of Metal and Misery.

I woke up this morning in the school not quite sure how I got here, but I do walk in my sleep so it’s not that surprising.  I spent today exploring every inch of town, but I am still no closer to locating a hospital or any kind of clue as to where one might be.  The thought occured to me that they might not have a hospital at all and that we may have to start from scratch.  I know there are other doctors in town but perhaps they do all their work out of their homes…but then I realized how that would be really stupid.  Besides, why would the professor send us here if that was the case? 

I found Tepic’s home, but he wasn’t there when I visited.  After that I found a church that had a soup kitchen outside.  I took some for Miss Sinclaire after I had my own, and before I left I noticed a note on the door.  I don’t know who put it there, and why no one bothered to remove it, but I’m sure it doesn’t really matter. 

The more I stay here the more I find that New Babbage is like every other city I had ever been to before now…in so much that as long as you kept your wits about you then you could survive even with no money.

I finally found Miss Maddox sitting at the Cafe we had gone to after that initial disaster when we met the mayor.  She told me she had eaten a little, but I didn’t believe her.  When I had asked her what she had done all day, she told me that she hadn’t managed to get anything done at all other than write in her journal. 

I have no idea what she’s writing, but it could have waited until AFTER she talked to or found the doctors!  I feel like I’m trapped in the middle of the ocean on a raft, and I’m the only one doing any of the work to get us back to shore!  Sitting there and doing nothing wasn’t going to solve anything!  I stormed out of there and didn’t look back.

Day 7 and 8:  Sunday and Monday:  Avoiding the issue.

I forced myself to calm down and to make sure of that I decided that I was going to avoid Miss Maddox yesterday and today.  I didn’t even look for the hospital or doctors, because if she wasn’t going to try then neither was I.

A lot of things happened in that time.  I saw a whale that had exploded, I was declared this weeks champion in the fencing group I had just joined, and I attended a dance performance. 

I’ve never held a sword before now, but I have learned and at the moment I’m even hoping to get into the tournament this weekend, though I did have to be spotted a bit.  Thankfully the people there are very generous.  One of them even told me that they let someone new in town their home simply cause it was the right thing to do.  I didn’t mention our situation of course, because she had already offored to someone else, but also because I can live like we are just fine.  It’s Maddox who’d have to muster her wits and finally ask for that kind of help.

I knew that I was doing all of this just to stay away from Miss Sinclaire for the moment, but I did make a few trips past the Cafe just to make sure I could see her and that she was still alright.

I kept waiting for her to come to her senses and contact the doctors, or to seek me out, but except when I passed the Cafe I never saw her and I don’t think she has done anything.

I also picked up a costume for the tourney should I make it…but I know I’m going to look like an idiot in it.

Day 9:  Enough is enough.

I fenced a little today and spent the rest of it watching others participate, when Miss Maddox finally found me.  I was glad that she had finally sought me out, but our situation remained the same.

While I was talking to her it dawned on me why she was sitting in that cafe wasting away and doing nothing.  She had been thinking about why we left, and she had let herself fall back into her own depression without realizing it. 

We talked for awhile, and I even showed her my ridiculous costume just in the hopes it would make her smile.  It worked, but I couldn’t stop at that.  I was determined to find the hospital no matter what.  Now.

Miss Maddox asked me to be careful for some reason, and Hono (a fellow fencer) informed me of a saying within New Babbage that went something like this:

Hono: What is it they say in New Babbage? What could possibly go wrong?
Arnold: Everything. But then it’s already as bad as it can get, short of throat slitting.
Jedburgh: Never challenge worse.
I stared off into a random direction: “I challenge you worse. Come and get me, oh mighty worse.
I walked off but I could still clearly hear Hono say this:  “Hm, isn’t that akin to standing on a mountaintop with a lightning rod in the middle of a thunderstorm and shouting “All gods are idiots”?”
Jedburgh: Pretty close.

How did they know how I liked to spend my weekends?

Anyways for all that foreshadowing my doom that we did nothing bad happened, no matter how much I expected it to.  In fact everything went almost perfectly! I went into town and for the first time I asked someone and they did know how to get to the hospital!  They told me the entrance was found at the end of a pier. 

That didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever, but I followed the directions and found a lighthouse.  That wasn’t it and eventually I found the correct pier and found a strange device of some kind at the end.  I looked over the controls and rode it down.  Before I knew it I was riding it below the sea level!

Their hospital was under the water?!  No wonder I could never find it wandering around town!  Who goes looking for a hospital by checking every pier!  And what if the emergency required a stretcher!  You couldn’t fit one of them into that submersible!  I voiced these complaints to a white mouse I met down there who was wearing a monocle and a strange top hat, but she said that it all made perfect sense to her!  I wondered what was wrong with her, until she started to wonder aloud if she could eat a whale ambergris burger upside down during the next Scottish horror story party.  I told her she could come see Miss Maddox next week if everything worked out.

I wandered until I saw the sign saying Sir William Wilde Public Hospital.  I checked out a few of the rooms which were reachable by small buttons on sitting platforms and then I returned to find Miss Sinclaire where I left her.  We left to see it immediately.  It’s too late at night right now to expect anyone to see us, but we’ll wait somewhere down here till tomorrow.

In the mean time, I’m going to do something about that ridiculous outfit somehow…

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2 Comments

  1. Jedburgh30 Dagger Jedburgh30 Dagger April 6, 2011

    The whale was in the yard of the processing plant.

  2. Grendel Footman Grendel Footman April 6, 2011

    the hospital is in a prime location, it’s perfect for aquireing the amount of wiggyfish needed for the hospital food

     

     

    then again, the various molds and fungi growing in the sewers would just as easily serve the same purpose

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