Press "Enter" to skip to content

The Journal of Arnold: Week 7 and Beginning Week 8

Week 7 Day 42,  Monday:  Misunderstandings of origin

There was nothing else really of interest today, so I left to go fence with Miss Erehwon and Hono today, and shared with them my exploits in Babbage thus far.  Miss Erehwon was wondering if maybe the fresh air of Mondrago would do the mayor some good, till I pointed out that he was probably carrying a deadly and contagious disease.  She asked me to be careful not to get sick myself, but I told her there wasn’t much to worry about and told her that most cats don’t get the same diseases that humans do, with few exceptions.

Hono seemed to be under the false impression that I wasn’t all cat though, and I informed him to the contrary.

Day 43, Teusday:  A green dance and a gun shot not heard, and a new patient

I attended a dance in the most green area I had ever seen in town, but it was uneventful for the most part.  Someone threatened to eat my Mr. Harvey as a joke, for the most part at least, and I didn’t help much.

After that I went to eat at the soup kitchen and overheard Lionheart and a Brother I had never seen before in a stand off.  Lionheart had a gun in hand and had come to get his collar removed.  I waited in case I had to take someone to the hospital, and listened from outside for the gunshot that never came, but I did notice Scald’s scent.

The child had gone into the church, which was a horrible idea so of course I did it too, and I ended up startling him.  We watched for awhile until Scald dropped something and alerted the three in the stand off to our presence.  Since they had already said they would come to an agreement rather than forcing anyone to resort to violence, I said goodbye after offering a piece of advice I was positive they would ignore anyways.

After making my way back to the hospital I found that we had a new patient anyways.  A Chris K had suffered a head injury and was having problems remembering anything.

We did our job and then I went to bed.

Day 44, Wed:  I woke up in the Bucket.

I have no idea why I woke up in the Bucket of Blood, I had never even been there before, but when you sleep walk you don’t have much choice in the matter, and I’ve long since stopped caring about it.  No one was around at the time and it was still well before dawn, so I left and wandered the city for awhile.

There wasn’t much to do until I ran into Yang and Lionheart, who had turned back into a horse now.  He wanted to have a drink with me, and we were about to go have a chat I had been meaning to have when we were approached by a woman I’d never met before looking for a post box.

We lead her to one and ran into her friend Sol Orion who was a friend of our new patient, and because she was convinced we were being followed she let off a smoke bomb in the hotel.  I had been standing near the door so I escaped very quickly, but the others didn’t make it out till after it was cleared.  I pointed out how she had pretty much just wasted that since we hadn’t actually gone anywhere, but she said I just didn’t know how to appreciate good science.  It was obvious she was quite new in town so I didn’t bother to correct her, yet.

I made my way to a surprise party, and then due to the incredible crowd I was forced to leave and went back for my drink with Mr. Lionheart.  He was with Mr. Orion, who was on a hunt of some kind at the time.  They invited me along so we could have the ”drink” right afterwards, so I followed them and had my first encounter with Rawhead.  I hadn’t known it at the time of course, but Lionheart did eventually tell me it was he.

After we assisted the gentleman we went to Red’s Revenge.  I didn’t actually get anything to drink of coruse, but we sat together and talked for several hours.  I had heard Miss Macbain’s side of the story and now I wanted to hear his side.  We had just finished when someone came in and said hi to Lionheart.  I left them to it, though I think Helio was also saying he couldn’t stay as I left.

Day 45, Thursday:  Docs and Coughs

I found the mayor early in the day, and followed him while he was doing all the things he said he had to do before he would speak to me about the Carnival D’Arcane.  I followed him across town back and forth and finally we stopped in the cafe we had first stopped at when we last met.  He said a clown had been burned, but that no one knew who had done it.  He did say that it was Lilli who had been scared out of her mind by it, so perhaps I should go to her in the next step to see what she thinks.

I then talked to the mayor about his cough finally, but before I could get a straight answer or to tell him off as I had intended an urchin arrived and the mayor had to leave urgently for some emergency somewhere.  I’ll have to talk to him about it again later.

While acquiring items that I needed for the sub, Yang approached me and we had a short conversation.  We ended up talking about Lionheart and somehow it brought up the subject of home.  I think it was because Yang was saying it’s Lionheart’s nature and he can’t help it, but back home that argument wouldn’t have done him any good anymore than it would have done me had I chosen to use it, which I hadn’t because even then I didn’t think it was an excuse.

I left Mr. Yang and then headed toward the Gut.  I’d been thinking for some time about speaking to that Doctor, the one Blackberry had said was stationed there, who had diagnosed the mayor.  I was at the door when I noticed that my timing was inappropriate.  I waited nearby for him to come out, while I looked at places that a good asylum could be built or converted…this seemed like the area for it.  While I was busy doing that I missed my opportunity to speak with him.

*There was something else written here, but it’s been erased*

Day 46, Friday the Thirteenth:  “Try being polite!”

I had spoken with Lionheart, and now I owed the same courtesy to Miss Phaedra and Doctor Obolensky before I judged them.  I stopped in to see Miss Stargirl early in the day and she suggested that I should try being polite, and that it would get me farther in life.  Considering how far I have failed to get in life, I decided I would at least make the attempt.

We also talked about the reality collars and I asked where I could buy one.  She was startled, but she told me to talk to Kaylee.

And then I finally ran into the guy who made our engine.  *This page has been ripped out by Arnold himself.  After writing it he realized he never wanted Maddox, Pippy, or anyone else to find out so easily what had really happened.*

He told me good day after that and left me with our ships new engine humming so quietly I could barely hear it, which meant that a human ear would probably be unable to unless they got close to it.  That should make everyone happy.

I went out walking after that and near the Gangplank I finally encountered Mrs. Underby.  I tried being polite, and she treated me the same way.  She denied everything, despite the fact I hadn’t even given her any examples yet like I had been going to, and blamed everyone’s stories on her being a strong independent woman that caused everyone else to hate her.  Considering she had just denied everything and it was obvious she had no intention on shifting that stance, there was no way while being ‘polite’ to continue the conversation.  Besides there were other things I actually had to take care of that were more important, and now was as good a time as any.

I do have to say though that after all of those horror stories and whispers I heard that I found the end result to be quite disappointing.  I had been expecting, from all the horror stories, that just being in her presence would be a horrible experience or would make my spine tingle or make the air hotter, colder, or heavier; but to be honest I found it was actually a pleasant air she radiated.  Maybe it was just because her company was less offensive to me personally than the man’s who I had just left, or maybe I really am just weird like Miss Maddox and Harvey were saying behind my back the other day.

After that I ran into one of our patients, Chris K.  He seemed to know who he was, but he collapsed on our way back to the hospital and I had to carry him.

Week 8 Day 47 and 48, Saturday: She finally uses our home and inspection.

I met with Doctor Obolensky this morning after they had trashed his ship, and he was quite happy to admit that it had gone better than he had anticipated.  He was very jovial and even considered this a victory.  He was not at all what I had expected, and a part of me finally understood why someone might want to work for him.

I went about my day, after I made a to do list, and started to reinspect the tunnels, finding flaws here and there.  At the end I found Maddox waiting in the patient rooms, and I told her to come to the sub with me now that it was finished, since we weren’t supposed to use them while the patients were there anyways.  She said she couldn’t because of the heart but I informed her it had been removed late last night, and I realized I hadn’t seen her at all yesterday…but I didn’t ask where she had been.

Sunday was uninteresting due to the fact I just finished the inspection, though just before midnight maybe a little after I did find some new furniture from a man named Spires (and even some from Doctor O.)  Since Lionheart had said Spires might have been the one to leave the note on the Church door I decided to ask about the Church, but tried the polite approach again.  I will admit that the conversation did go very well, but I don’t think that I have the patience for it and I didn’t really learn what I wanted to know.  I did say that I had heard stories about the Church and he said they were just stories spread by ”heathens and subhumans.” Once again, I think I would have gotten farther being myself.

Day 49, Monday:  The Mayor thinks he’s better now.

I went to see Miss Macbain to tell her that I had tried her advice and had not found it very helpful in my line of work.  While we were talking another doctor named Miggins arrived and we sat down and I saw a new reality enforcer on the table.  It was smaller than Lionhearts, though Macbain said she didn’t know how useful it was yet.

The Mayor came in next, and he seemed to be healthier and attributed it all to Dr. Berithos.  I hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with him yet, but that was the name on the side of the building I had been waiting outside for. He then told us that the doctor had been bleeding him as well and that was what he had attributed to his new health along with the whisky.

I knew right away that he was wrong because neither whisky nor bleeding would have cured him, and that if he felt completely healthy right now then that was just another sign of Yellow Fever, but he scoffed at this and insisted he hadn’t gotten anyone else sick.  Honestly though that remains to be seen.  I insisted he go to the hospital and he agreed, if only to show up and say he was healthy now.  If he doesn’t go, I still have that little math problem I’ve been meaning to share with him.

After the others left I turned to look at the Reality enforcer again and stared at it.  Miss Macbain was going to put it away but I asked her if it could be made even smaller, to say fit on someone’s wrist.  The one Lionheart looked way too cumbersome but if it could fit on my wrist then that wouldn’t get in the way as much.  Maybe it wouldn’t be very effective but it might be something…and I do have two wrists on which I could wear them.

She didn’t know, but she suggested I ask Miss Kaylee, which I will the next time I see her.

Spread the love

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply