InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I saw it with my own eye."

Roland Deschain | The Dark Tower (ofgilead) wrote in madisonvalley,
@ 2013-10-14 22:45:00

Entry tags:

!open, ~10 points, ~2013 october, ~~cuthbert allgood (cuthbertallgood), ~~georgia mason (afterthendtimes), ~~leisha camden (leishacamden), ~~roland deschain (ofgilead)

I have come across a job of sorts, mayhap.

There's a...camp, called Louis Ernst, north of town a bit, where young boys - Scouts, they call them - learn skills important to a young man's life. After a bit of research, I inquired after a job placement there, and they've told me they could use a 'counselor' for the target shooting merit badge. They wish to see me shoot, but I am certain that will not dissuade them, say true.

Does anyone know of this organization? We've nothing like it in Gilead, except the gunslingers themselves.

[Filtered to Cuthbert]

I've finished the second book, so I have. Jake...comes back alive!

But I lose two fingers on my right hand, Cuthbert. Two fingers. On my right hand.

(Post a new comment)

	afterthendtimes 2013-10-14 11:15 pm UTC (link)
	Boy Scouts. Community based organization devoted to teaching boys general life skills and values. Kind of back to nature stuff, mostly? I don't know, I'm a girl, and the Girl Scouts suck except for their cookies. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ofgilead 2013-10-14 11:20 pm UTC (link)
	Then it's a fair proper organization? I think I could help them with shooting, I'll not be false-modest, so I won't. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	afterthendtimes 2013-10-14 11:21 pm UTC (link)
	You mean are they legit? Yeah. They are. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ofgilead 2013-10-14 11:23 pm UTC (link)
	Aye. I like this term legit. Meaning proper, aye? Say thankee, Sai Georgia. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	afterthendtimes 2013-10-14 11:25 pm UTC (link)
	Yes. It's shorthand for 'legitimate'. You're welcome. (Reply to this) (Parent)

Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-15 12:30 am UTC (link)

Your fingers? Gods, Roland, that's - I don't even know what to say of it, say sorry. Those are terrible books.

I don't rightly understand it, how does Jake manage a thing like that, popping back from the clearing like the Man Jesus himself?

I reckon I'll come back to the apartment now. I've been away too long ~~and those books and your fingers and I have to do something!~~

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

ofgilead
2013-10-15 10:41 pm UTC (link)

What worse of a thing could they do to a gunslinger than to take his hand away? It's a fine thing to write about, someone getting his hands torn apart by...muties? Sea monsters? Right horrible.

Apparently, I go todash and save him from getting killed in his world, then he comes todash to Midworld, and Eddie, Susannah and I bring him through. It's terrible confusing.

Aye, do. I'd be glad to have you back.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-16 01:43 am UTC (link)

Mutie sea monsters. Your fingers. Roland. We'll stop that from happening, so we will, whether it's prophecy or history or just the disturbed imaginings of some fool who once went todash.

~~Eddie and Suzannah?~~ It sounds right confusing. I'll understand it better when I read on it, and I mean to, as soon as I'm back. Don't let all the terrible things in those books weight you down too much, we'll have plans by the end of it.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-16 12:53 pm UTC (link)
	Unless it's ka? I need to finish the series, Cuthbert, I need to know what happens. If I find the Tower? I don't much care what befalls me, so I don't. My fingers for the Tower seems a pretty fair trade. I'll not let them crush me, Bert. An odd thing, but there's hope in them, too. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-16 01:15 pm UTC (link)

I've been thinking on that, too. I've been thinking that mayhap you were right at the first and we need to find the Tower here, in this world. There are pointers in that direction.

You'll not tell me for what purpose you reckon ka would have a sea monster mangle your fingers, so you won't. It's a proper absurdity. Not everything is ka, it can't be.

There's hope in us being sent todash and in the knowledge we're to take, but there's no sense at all in having that discussion until we've both read all that needs reading.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-16 01:21 pm UTC (link)
	Ka's not always something we're meant to comprehend, Bert, and so you know it. But if that's the cost of finding the Tower, I'll gladly pay it. I don't quite know how we're supposed to find the Tower here though, when there's naught but a small town and no way to leave. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-16 01:27 pm UTC (link)

Aye, I know it. But don't I also know that not everything we don't rightly comprehend can be traced back to ka? It's a poor sort of excuse for things that way.

Nor do I, but think on it. There are people being pulled here, accidental todash, from all manner of worlds. Doesn't that mean there's something particular important about this one, where we're all coming together?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 11:26 am UTC (link)
	My father told me that if there was something you couldn't understand, it was best left to ka. So I will. Or perhaps this world's but a waystation, to others? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 12:24 pm UTC (link)
	You do that, then, for I'm not fool enough to pick an argument with your father in his absence, of all things. 'Course, one solution there is to come to understand whatever the problem might be. That would explain the...size of it, so it would, but folk usually travel on through a waystation, not get stuck there! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 12:29 pm UTC (link)
	And that is exactly why you are here, friend, so it is. Aye, it's a peculiar kind of waystation that leaves you waiting for something but won't let you leave. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-17 12:39 pm UTC (link)

Me? I'll try as I can. Mayhap I need to talk more to Sai Georgia, for hasn't she a better understanding of things than any of us? If she's right and she's from a time long before ours, then we ought to take note. It might explain why there were no doorways or chimes or aught that there should be when a fellow goes todash.</s> Mayhap going between times is something else altogether.

She doesn't know a bit about the Tower, though, and that's a proper shame.

So it is. Unless what we're to wait for isn't yet here, of course.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 12:42 pm UTC (link)
	Sai Georgia, aye, she's not fond of me, so she's not. And I can't say I'm right pleased with her, after the things she said about Susan. But if she can help us find the Tower, we'll use her regardless, say true. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-17 12:48 pm UTC (link)

She's not rightly fond of anyone, that's her way. She's from a world moved on and she's got all kinds of responsibilities and you're not to think badly of her for that.

I like her well enough. And her brother.

I'll not excuse what she said of Susan, though. She doesn't know near enough about it and she shouldn't have made comments on what she won't understand. But then it's her way to do that, too.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

ofgilead
2013-10-17 12:52 pm UTC (link)

She's told me she thinks me right spoiled, too. And aye, we grew up in Gilead, we had it better than most, but I'm hardly a pampered prince like in the bedtime stories my mother told. I've worked my whole life, and worked hard, but she won't listen a bit to anything I have to say and insists on thinking of me so.

But, there'll be water when God wills it.

She's a cold woman, so she is.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 12:59 pm UTC (link)
	Spoiled. And what would she know of it? It's all very well for her to call us spoiled, she's never met Cort, so she hasn't! Don't mind it. She didn't think at all well of me when I first met her either, but I reckon it's a little different now. She's cold. She's been through things that have made her so, I'll say that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 01:03 pm UTC (link)
	Aye, she knows nothing of it. She hears of our world, of Gilead, and of the line of Eld, and immediately assumes what such would mean in her world. But if these books turn true, I'll be colder still. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 01:13 pm UTC (link)
	That's so. And I'll admit I likely didn't help matters by going on about Gilead and what a fine place it is. ~~I was homesick.~~ Aye. You'll be cold, if that all comes to pass. Mind, not near as cold as I'll be, say true! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 01:17 pm UTC (link)
	But it is a fine place, say true. The finest. Nay, such a thing's not for joking, 'Bert. Your loss grieves me, even reading of it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 01:26 pm UTC (link)
	'Course it is. Only folk like Sai Georgia don't rightly see it that way. If she could only visit Gilead she'd know different. I know, Roland. Only I have to joke about it, it's either that or I'll get right melancholy and isn't that worse? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 01:29 pm UTC (link)
	Aye, aye, joke as you will. I'd sooner stop a dog from barking, so I would. I'd trade you your fate for mine, though, if I could. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 01:35 pm UTC (link)
	And I'd trade them both out for something newer and shinier, like, say, finding that Tower half a year from now and living on in Gilead 'til we're both old greybeards. I take your meaning well enough, though. Didn't I say that I don't envy you for it? Dying's not the worst thing. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 01:40 pm UTC (link)
	Well, aye, of course. But such, I think, is not our fate. No, watching everyone you love die is, say true. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-17 01:48 pm UTC (link)

No, I reckon not. Only it's like I've said to other folk here, it doesn't trouble me a bit if I should die fighting for Gilead and for the White. Well. Mayhap a bit, but not near enough for me to need to change matters. If I knew that Gilead went on after me, that'd be enough. It's not for proper selfish reasons that I mean to alter what's written there.

I'll not disagree. Your fate is worse.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 01:51 pm UTC (link)
	Perhaps I can keep it alive in some small way? It's my hope, so it is. Perhaps as long as a gunslinger still walks Mid-World, it'll not be forgotten. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 01:56 pm UTC (link)
	I don't doubt a bit that you'll do so, Roland, so long as you live, but that's not- I can't stop thinking on what'll happen to my mother, so I can't, or my little sisters, or Sidony that I took to cotillion that time, remember her with the blue eyes, or - any of them, Roland! All the folk we care for, that we ought to be able to protect. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

ofgilead
2013-10-17 02:01 pm UTC (link)

I remember your Sidony, aye, blue eyes that glittered in the sparklights. She was smitten for you, Cuthbert, right bad, too. What became of her? I expected you to court her.

Cry your pardon, I don't want to think on it. On all those who'll be lost because we fail. My mother, too, and all those we're pledged to keep safe. All gone, and all of Gilead's blood spilled into the dry earth. I don't want to think on it, say sorry.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-17 02:09 pm UTC (link)

There, look, it's my fault, so it is, I've gone from jokes direct to melancholy again. I'll not speak on it further. It won't help to, not yet. ~~Although I can't rightly help thinking about it whether I want to or not.~~

Mayhap I would have courted her, although I'm not rightly sure she was as fond of me as you say. She was so very pretty, though, and I did love the way she laughed. No doubt she found a new fellow to look to when we all went off to Hambry, though. A girl like her wouldn't have any shortage of admirers.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 02:12 pm UTC (link)
	Aye, but none an apprentice gunslinger, say true. You'd more worth than most. Did you ever think what it might be like, 'Bert, to have had a life like our fathers'? To marry, raise children, grow old in Gilead? I never thought it a life I wanted, until I met Susan, say true. And now I can't get it out of my head, maybe because I know it'll never be. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Cuthbert | Roland

cuthbertallgood
2013-10-17 04:09 pm UTC (link)

As it counts, I suppose. And wasn't her mother's father a gunslinger himself? She knew what it meant, say true.

I'd not ever had much cause to think on it; I reckon I just assumed it'd be so, eventually, before I was old enough to consider it properly. I'd still want it, but isn't it fair distant now, like a far-off sort of dream? Likely it'll never be, you're right on that.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 04:14 pm UTC (link)
	She did. I think she knew your worth well enough. A far-off dream, aye. Sad that we were born in such times, I don't feel ready for such a thing, Cuthbert. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland cuthbertallgood 2013-10-17 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	Could anyone ever be ready for such? We'll do what we can to make things better, serve the White as we're meant to, and mayhap that'll be enough. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Cuthbert \| Roland ofgilead 2013-10-17 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	In any case, it's all we can do, say true. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	leishacamden 2013-10-15 12:53 pm UTC (link)
	Boy Scouts? ~~That's funny.~~ That's probably not a bad match for you as values are concerned, actually. Good luck! I hope you get the job. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ofgilead 2013-10-15 10:08 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you, Leisha. If all they need to see is my shooting skill, I'm not much worried. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	leishacamden 2013-10-16 01:56 am UTC (link)
	There's a little more to securing employment than that, usually. But I'm sure you'll do fine. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ofgilead 2013-10-16 12:47 pm UTC (link)
	Aye? But target shooting is what they want me for, so it is. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	leishacamden 2013-10-16 01:18 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, and I'm very sure that you can impress them with that if they give you the chance. But at most interviews they'll ask you about your education and your work history and things. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ofgilead 2013-10-16 01:19 pm UTC (link)
	Work history? I'm but fourteen years old, so I am. What work history could I have? But I've a good education. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	leishacamden 2013-10-16 01:23 pm UTC (link)
	You're young enough to still be a Boy Scout, never mind teaching them. It's hard for young people to get jobs, and I say that because I've tried. It's only - it's something they'll ask about, so it'd be good to have an answer prepared instead of being surprised if they bring it up. (Reply to this) (Parent)