Doloise had been sitting quietly under a charm she called a “veil,” but really was just a misdirection.\u00a0 It’s that terminology issue again, I think.\u00a0 When I think of a veil, I think of a physical manipulation of the visual field, but she merely made people look different places, like any magician worth his (kosher sea) salt.\u00a0 (I think prestidigitation should be a required course of study for practitioners, because there are so many important lessons in it.\u00a0 Of course, I have been trying to learn to juggle for years.\u00a0 I know, I know, I can create a doorway from here to the Nymphic Pleasuregrounds (well, in theory, anyway) but I am concerned about throwing a few balls in the air and catching them in order?\u00a0 You’re smart.\u00a0 I’ll just let you sort out the obvious corollaries…)<\/p>\n
There was one awkward moment when my boss du jour, chatting with me about flummery and ephemera nearly decided to sit in the seat across from me, where the Realm perched, happily ensconced in trying to figure out how to make the little electronic ninjas fly.\u00a0 I was able to dodge the sports questions (thank you, talk radio!) and he was called back to his office by the clock.<\/p>\n
(The clock is a harsh mistress.\u00a0 Time seems inevitable, and, I’ve been told by some, it is one of the hardest elements to manipulate even though it is one of the most basic and mathematically simple.\u00a0 We are slaves to our perceptions, even at the finest levels.\u00a0 I have considered the idea of being able to make a portal that crosses through, but I find myself hesitant at best.\u00a0 I don’t want to be on the wrong side of time.\u00a0 Time has me (and probably you) by various short hairs, and it’s a knuckly, sweaty grip.\u00a0 Time to laugh, time to cry, time to get to work in the morning, time to check and make sure Doloise is still entertained and not about to make immortal trouble…)<\/p>\n
I like to be active.\u00a0 When it’s busy, I feel like I’m getting things accomplished.\u00a0 I don’t have time to think.\u00a0 The whole “Idle Hands” proverb is true on many levels – if you’re thinking too much, you’re not just being self-indulgent, you’re on the precipice of mental disaster.\u00a0 Chances are you’re not self-affirming, you’re instead worrying about what other people think, what needs to be done, how you’ve failed in some fashion.<\/p>\n
Which is all nonsense.\u00a0 Downtime should not be a chance to slide straight into a depressive spiral of things you _ought_ to be doing; it should be a chance to recoup, to heal, to improve.\u00a0 You should be levelling up, darnit.\u00a0 The problem is the entropy.\u00a0 When I’m sleepy that lack of focus can turn everything soft and fuzzy, maybe even nicer, that blanket of arousal that leads into pleasant dreams, but when you’re awake there’s more anxiety.\u00a0 The clock breathes down your neck, showing you that lovely door straight into Guilt.<\/p>\n
I have been known to unplug my clock on weekends.\u00a0 I stay up too late on weeknights as it is – regular sleep would make a heck of a difference, but I don’t want to be ruled by Queen Clock.\u00a0 (Hey, would it be a King, or only if it missed a letter?\u00a0 Don’t answer.) So I’ll bumble around tired now and then.<\/p>\n
Not so tired not to make a disapproving click as Doloise suddenly sat up, a flash against her amber lenses alerting me.\u00a0 Adrenaline flooded my system.\u00a0 What was she going to destroy?\u00a0 Where was the danger?\u00a0 Did she download some killer app and I was going to have to spend another half hour with more of the electronic equivalent of duct tape and baling wire?\u00a0 Did she need another doughnut from the break room?<\/p>\n
“Your wrist is beeping.”<\/p>\n
Oh, so it was.\u00a0 Well, not the wrist, but my watch.\u00a0 The Red Poets.\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n
I stared at Doloise.\u00a0 I only knew faintly of rusalka, the firebirds, and Old Man Winter.\u00a0 I recognize that I have a blindness when it comes to fey, thinking of them as mostly Celtic in origin.\u00a0 Tatiana.\u00a0 Hmmm.\u00a0 Well, maybe they’ll recognize her, or even better yet, have some kind of cure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t want to be on the wrong side of time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-three"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}