video;

[wizzardly]

Well, now that all the technomancy's up and running again, I don't suppose anyone ever got that riddle solved, did they? The actual one, mind. Not the one about why we lost lights and things in the first place.

[Rincewind taps a pencil with one hand against the open pages of a book thoughtfully, the other waving his lunch (an egg and cress sandwich) as he intones:]

"We did warn you. All of you have so much power. That comes at a cost. If you can't see in the darkness, then look to the stars.”

...I certainly don't remember any warning, and I've usually a keen memory for those.

Anyway, "power" seems a rather obvious double meaning, but it's the "looking to the stars" bit which has me curious. [a phrase which here means, "debating whether there's still sufficient enough impending threat to flee the country".]

ImPorts could be the stars - we certainly are in their TV and such, that's meaning enough. But if "power" has a double meaning, it stands to reason "stars" would as well. Were we actually supposed to be looking up at the night sky during all of that, do you think?

...I don't suppose anyone did any gazing while they were running about saving people?

[or just running, in Rincewind's case.]

Comments

[wizzardly]

Ah. Sounds rather like the opposite of it, in fact.

/hijacks

[acclimatized]

Yeah, you'd be right about that.

[wizzardly]

- Are you the friend?

[acclimatized]

I am. He pretended to be dead for two years once, off being a hero somewhere. When he came back, someone kidnapped me and put me in a bonfire. It happens quite regularly.

[ he sounds suitably annoyed about it. ]

[wizzardly]

[it's been awhile since Rincewind has related to someone quite this quickly before.]

And I'll bet all that mess is generally something to do with him in the first place?

[acclimatized]

It wasn't entirely his fault that time. I mean, it happened within twenty-four hours of his coming back, but it still had something to do with. It almost always does.

[wizzardly]

I know exactly what you mean. I had one of those myself back home. You turn your back on them for a second and suddenly you're either in some dank pit or being menaced by a group of unpleasant strangers, and you can just toss any thoughts of time for a hot meal or a decent cup of tea straight out the window. Which you'll also probably be falling through at some point.

[acclimatized]

Mmhm. Well, it wasn't so much falling through the window as it was jumping through it. Long story cut short, my former therapist flew a grenade in on a drone and we had three seconds to get away from it. I still have nooo idea how we survived that. It was completely mad. This was after she shot me with a tranquilliser, too. All because of him, of course.

I take it yours isn't here with you?

[thevictoriandetective]

Apart from the dead-for-two-years-thing, I fail to see how I should be held accountable for my sister's actions. Or Magnussen's.

[acclimatized]

I'm not holding you accountable, I'm just saying it's because I'm your best friend. I haven't even told him about the Baskerville experiment yet.

[thevictoriandetective]

...that was necessary to solve the case. And besides, it was in a laboratory setting. It was a perfectly sound experiment.

[acclimatized]

You scared me half to death!

[thevictoriandetective]

We saved a man's life in the end, didn't we?

[acclimatized]

Yes, but you got it wrong. You thought it was in the sugar.

[thevictoriandetective]

Yes--er, well--

--it was the balance of probability--

--it's a rare occurrence.

[acclimatized]

It's not that rare. Should I share what else you've gotten wrong over the years?

[thevictoriandetective]

Do enlighten me.

[acclimatized]

Well for one, you thought my sister was my brother.

[ he did too, but shhh shhh. ]

[thevictoriandetective]

To all fairness, I didn't expect to get everything right that first try. Balance of probability and all that.

There's always something.

[acclimatized]

Fair enough, I suppose. You didn't know the Earth goes around the sun though.

[thevictoriandetective]

[The sound of gritted teeth.]

Well, now I do!

[wizzardly]

Ye gods. [Rincewind shakes his head in miserable sympathy.] It's always bloody windows. Well I hope he at least bought you a beer after all that. Several, even.

And no, he's not. If he was, I probably wouldn't be able to have this conversation with you. I'd be too busy running for my life through some foreign, terrible country or falling to an unknown fate from some nightmarish height.

[acclimatized]

He didn't, but he was a bit preoccupied at the time, so I'll let him off. Wouldn't have had anywhere to keep them cool, anyway. The flat was trashed.

Or arguing with him on this? [ john looks sheepish. ] Sorry about that.

[wizzardly]

Oh, don't worry about that. [Rincewind waves a hand.]

As far as I can tell, arguing with people without being in punching distance is the best use for these things.

[acclimatized]

You're right about that.