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Post by Hermes on Apr 7, 2010 15:15:28 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments, everyone! Also, were there fish-shaped lamps in TAA? It's been a while sine I last read it, and so I can't recall. If not, then it was a very creative idea of yours. Yes, there were. That whole sentence is borrowed - I think it occurs both in TUA and in TAA. (Actually, almost everything in this fic is borrowed. Which brings us on to ...) This actually comes from TGG - it's one of the captain's suggestions about what 'GG' might stand for. 'Count Olaf Mett' is an anagram of 'Count Molfetta', a character from The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily. Magnus and Frieda don't allude to anything in particular though; they're just Nordic-sounding names that might well turn up in the same family as Olaf; and Frieda might possibly be the F in the Snicket family tree from TUA. Working on the next chapter, but I suspect it will take a while.
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Post by Hermes on Aug 1, 2010 13:48:45 GMT -5
I apologise profusely for the long time it has taken to produce this chapter. The next chapter, which is shorter, should also be a bit quicker.
Chapter 4. The Vigilant Volunteers.
‘So,’ said the librarian when they had taken their seats, ‘how did you find out about V.F.D.?’
‘It’s in this article,’ Isadora replied, pointing to the copy of the Punctilio which she held. ‘It looks as if Count Olaf was a member once.’
‘He certainly was. You’re quite right to be interested in the organisation. But I didn’t want to discuss it in public – it is a secret organisation, after all. Well, I’m able to tell you quite a lot about it.’ With those words, he pulled up his left trouser-leg, revealing the familiar tattoo. The orphans gasped in shock.
‘It looks like an eye,’ he said, ‘and indeed it is an eye – it means we’re always on the lookout for villainy. But if you look at it closely you’ll see it’s also a set of letters – it spells V.F.D. I don’t think I should tell you what it stands for yet. But I can tell you we are an organisation of volunteers.’
‘So – you are a member?’ asked Duncan in a hushed tone.
‘Yes, I am. This is a V.F.D. library. And I help to recruit young people to V.F.D. from time to time, too.
‘And do all members of V.F.D. have that tattoo?’
‘Not any more. Older ones do, but we stopped using it a while ago, because of the schism.’
‘Schism?’ said Isadora, puzzled.
‘ “Schism” is a word which here means a split, a division into two factions. I’m always a bit surprised when people don’t know that word – have you not heard of the Great Schism of 1054? Ah well. But in any case you’ve read that article from the Daily Punctilio. It’s very confused, but it gets some things right, and there was indeed a great split in V.F.D. A little while after that, we decided it would be best not to go on using the eye tattoo, because our enemies use it too – indeed, they make rather a lot of it – so it caused too much confusion.’
‘But you are on the peaceful side?’ Isadora asked cautiously.
‘I am – or at least I try to be. Things have got more complicated, I’m afraid, since that article was written. I’m not sure how many sides there are now – and none of us are completely peaceful, though some of us still make an effort to do as little harm as we can’.
‘Well,’ said Duncan, ‘we’d like to know more about it. Were our parents members?’
‘Yes, they were. In fact they were very important to us. Because we are volunteers, we rely a lot on our wealthier members to support the organisation, and the Quagmire family was one of our three biggest supporters in this country – the others were the Snickets and the Baudelaires. There are other families who support us in other parts of the world, of course.’
‘But if our parents were members, why were we never told about it?’ asked Isadora.
‘I think your parents wanted to protect you. A while ago, we used to recruit members very young. Lemony Snicket was only two – or perhaps ever younger – though that was unusual; that’s why they made a song about it. But we regularly took children of seven or eight, dragging them away by their ankles – with their parents’ permission, of course. That still happens occasionally, but now a lot of parents want to shield their children from the treachery of the world – so they wait until they come of age, and then tell them, and let them choose whether to join us. But still, they do sometimes try to prepare their children by giving them a training in volunteer skills. Isadora, you know Lancelot Wordsmith, I think?’
‘Yes, of course. He was my poetry teacher. Is he a member of V.F.D?’
‘He is indeed. And Duncan, you have some experience as a journalist?’
‘Yes, I used to volunteer – oh! – at the Tedia Trumpet.’
‘Well, we have connections there – the editor is a member.’
‘Mr Little?’
‘Yes, Elwyn is a volunteer of long standing. Journalism is an important part of what we do; it helps us to expose villainy, and it’s a way of sending secret messages as well. We used to have links with the Punctilio, but alas, they were broken a long time ago. But we still keep up our links with some local weekly papers – and the Trumpet is one of them.’
‘And was Quigley’s cartography tutor….’ Isadora began.
‘Dr Yorn? Yes, he is a volunteer as well’.
‘So we’ve been surrounded by V.F.D. all our lives?’
‘Yes, I suppose you have. As I say, your parents didn’t want you to know about us until you were older; and your guardian has respected their wishes. But now you’ve found out by yourselves, I think it’s all right for me to tell you more.’
‘May I take notes?’ Duncan asked.
‘Ah, a true journalist,’ said the old man. ‘Of course you may.’ Duncan produced his notebook and pen, and the librarian began.
‘The world is quiet here. Libraries like this are precious places – places where people can be undistracted by the troubles of the world, and fortify themselves by study, against the crimes and follies and misfortunes of mankind. But villainy is always a threat to these places, and so some noble people set up an organisation to protect them; to put out fires, literally and figuratively
‘V.F.D. goes back a long way – it’s hard to say how long, but certainly more than a hundred years. Once upon a time we were an open organisation; all over the world there were safe places where noble people could meet and share information. But then, about forty years ago, things began to go wrong. I was a young volunteer then, and some of my comrades thought we weren’t doing enough to combat villainy. When we detected villainous plots, we could warn the victims, and alert the authorities, but often the authorities didn’t do anything. So some of us felt that we should become vigilantes, and fight fire with fire.
‘Many of our most respected members didn’t like the idea. A great volunteer said that when you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks back into you; that once you start using the methods of villainy, you’re in danger of becoming a villain yourself – and as it turned out, he was right. But in the end, two volunteers decided to take matters into their own hands.’
‘The man with a beard’ said Isadora ‘and the woman with hair’.
‘That’s right. They began burning people’s homes. They said those people were villains – corrupt bankers, cruel factory owners, dishonest auctioneers and so on; and perhaps they were. At first we didn’t know who was doing it – we could tell it was members of V.F.D., because the victims had been sent threats which used V.F.D. mottos and symbols, but we couldn’t be sure exactly who. But then two brave volunteers managed to find out who was responsible, and expose them. There was a great meeting of V.F.D., and the vigilantes were expelled, and their names given to the authorities. But that night, the two volunteers who exposed them were killed, in a fire which destroyed their house. They were relations of yours. In fact, they were your guardian’s parents.’
‘So that’s how the schism began?’ said Duncan.
‘Yes. It was a terrible time. Many members of V.F.D. left to join the vigilantes. Others just dropped out, and adopted a laissez-faire philosophy’
‘What does laissez-faire mean?’ asked Isadora.
‘It here means not doing anything villainous yourself, but not trying to stop villains either. Families that had supported us for generations – the Poes, the Spatses, the Jsch – the Chz – the Scht – the family which owns Lucky Smells Lumbermill – all left the organisation. We had to go into hiding – partly from the vigilantes, who were looking for revenge, and partly from ordinary people, who might blame us for their crimes. Still, after a while we managed to rebuild the organisation. We set up secret headquarters. We had a great training centre in the – well, I’d better not say, but a couple of hundred miles from here. It’s still there, but it’s a shadow of what it was – it’s mainly used as a refuge now. We developed codes and disguises. We had a programme for recruiting volunteers. We still managed to do some useful things to combat villainy.’
‘What about the vigilantes?’ said Duncan. What were they doing?
‘As some of us had foreseen, they were soon corrupted. They had to raise money to finance their activities, so they started making threats, and burning down the houses of people who refused to support them. They kidnapped children to recruit them to their organisation, and burnt down their homes to stop them going back. Soon they had changed from vigilantes into villains – their motto was still ‘fight fire with fire’, but they no longer meant combating villainy with villainy; they just meant being villainous, causing as many fires as possible. They were obsessed with taking revenge on us; and of course a lot of our time was taken up with protecting people against them – so after a while the two factions was mostly concerned with fighting one another.’
There was a knock on the door. The librarian went to answer it, and revealed a tall, bearded man in a long robe standing there. Duncan thought he might be a rabbi. He was whistling a cheerful tune.
‘Well, young lady,’ said the librarian ‘have you been good to your mother?’
The Quagmires thought this rather an odd question, and the newcomer’s reply did not make things any clearer.
‘The question is, has she been good to me?’
The librarian went to his desk, searched for a moment and picked up a sealed envelope, then returned to the door and handed it to the newcomer. As he did so, the stranger looked with interest at the orphans.
‘Are these the –‘ he began to ask.
‘No, said the librarian, ‘not them. The others.’
He closed the door firmly and returned to his seat. ‘So, he asked, ‘where were we?’
‘Who was that?’ asked Isadora. ‘Was he –‘
‘I think’ said the old man with great firmness ‘that I was telling you about the schism.’
‘Yes,’ said Duncan ‘you explained what happened – but it sounds as if things have changed since then.’
‘Yes. About twenty years ago things began to go even wronger than they already were. There was a young volunteer – that is, he had been recruited to V.F.D., as a boy, and had had volunteer training; but he dropped out, and decided to become an actor instead.’
‘Count Olaf,’ Isadora said with a gasp.
‘Exactly. At first we weren’t worried – his teachers said he’d never have made a good volunteer anyway. Then it became clear that he had become a villain as well as an actor – but he seemed quite a minor villain, just doing petty crimes. And then some completely silly things started happening – it began with a quarrel about a sugar bowl, and it led to the burning down of a theatre, and false accusations against one of our volunteers. At least I have always believed they were false.’
‘Mr Snicket,’ said Duncan.
‘Yes,’ said the old man. ‘You’re doing well. Anyway, from then on Count Olaf had a grudge against us, because he thought some of us had insulted his favourite actress. He was still in touch with some people who were in the organisation, and he was able to find out from them about our codes and our secret headquarters. He joined the villainous side of V.F.D., and betrayed our secrets to them.’
‘Oh dear!’ Isadora exclaimed. ‘So was that the end?’
‘Not entirely. We moved to a new headquarters. We developed new codes. We managed to carry in, in a way. But it had a terrible effect on the organisation. We didn’t know how to respond. Some people became volatile; they felt that we had been wrong to renounce violence; that it was necessary to fight fire with fire after all. There were constant quarrels about how far we were prepared to go. We found it harder and harder to cooperate.
‘And then there was another thing; Count Olaf had got his information from someone on the inside, and we couldn’t be sure who, so we began to suspect one another. And what’s more, the villains often kidnap children in order to get their fortunes; but sometimes they manage to recruit those children to their own side. We can’t always tell if someone has been kidnapped or recruited; we can’t be sure if they are who we think they are. There’s no trust. A lot of us now think that we should observe everything carefully, and intrude only if absolutely necessary.’
There was a long silence. Then Duncan spoke.
‘But do you trust us?’
‘Oh yes,’ said the librarian. ‘I’ve been observing you for a while now. What with your devotion to poetry and journalism, and the good work you’ve been doing to help the Baudelaires, I am sure that you are truly noble people.’
‘And what about the Baudelaires themselves?’ asked Isadora.
‘I wasn’t sure of them at first – Count Olaf was their guardian at one time, so I was afraid he might have recruited them. But now I’ve been watching them for a while, I know that they are noble people as well.’
‘Still – is it really possible for us to do any good?’
‘Well,’ said the old man, ‘I think it’s important to try. Even if we can’t defeat the villains altogether, just doing one good thing – like frustrating Olaf’s plot against the Baudelaires – is worth while. And soon things may change. Your guardian and his fiancée are working on a plan to bring all the villains to justice; if that succeeds, perhaps V.F.D. can be open and united again, as it was long ago.’
‘But is there anything we can do right now?’ asked Duncan.
‘I think you should carry on with the research you’ve been doing on Count Olaf. I’ve been immensely impressed by it; it should be really valuable to V.F.D. We knew a lot of these things already, of course – some of these articles were written by volunteers – but no one has ever researched his life so thoroughly.’
There was a pause; then Isadora plucked up her courage and spoke. ‘And would it be possible for us to become members of V.F.D.? You did say that people were often recruited very young.’
The librarian chuckled. ‘Oh, I don’t think you need to be recruited. Why have you been doing all this?’
‘Well, to help our friends, of course.’
‘Is anyone paying you?’
‘No,’ said Duncan.
‘Or were you forced to do it?’
‘No,’ said Isadora, ‘we vol- Oh, I see! We volunteered.’
‘That’s right,’ said the librarian. ‘You don’t have to be recruited the old fashioned way, dragged away by your ankles. You are volunteers, because you have volunteered.’
He rose. ‘It’s getting late. We should go. But don’t hesitate to talk to me any time you need to know something.’ He led them out into the darkened library; as they walked through the literary section, he paused and took down two books from the shelves.
‘Here are a couple of books you might like to have a look at. Isadora, this should suit you.’ He handed her a book entitled Versed Furtive Disclosure. ‘This might seem to be just a book of poetry; but actually it’s about how to conceal messages in verse. And as for you, Duncan, you should look at this.’ The book he gave Duncan had Pigeon Post in large print on the cover, and then in smaller letters and Other Forms of Winged Communication. ‘This might easily be mistaken for a novel by Arthur Ransome, but in fact it’s about ways in which journalists can send dispatches in an emergency.’
At the library door he shook their hands. ‘Welcome to V.F.D. And good luck.’ He turned and was gone.
‘Well,’ said Duncan, ‘I wasn’t expecting that. It gives us a lot to think about.’
‘Yes,’ said Isadora, ‘but I think it’s good news. We’re not on our own any more; we’re part of a noble organisation.
In a noble cause one should have no fear. I am proud to be a volunteer.’
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 1, 2010 14:42:26 GMT -5
Fantastic! This chapter was well worth the wait. I want to have a chance to read the story again from the beginning, though, and will comment with greater detail after doing so.
Edit: You put the pieces of the schism together wonderfully--it's good to have the story as a whole. But why didn't they tell the Baudelaires any of this? (Unless this is just before they (the Quagmires) get kidnapped.)
Does Elwyn Little and Tedia Trumpet allude to anything? Lancelot Wordsmith I think I can work out, and I did find the Dr. Yorn reference (very clever).
‘No, said the librarian, ‘not them. The others.’ Would the "others" be the Baudelaires?
Also, is the V.F.D. schism compared to the Great Schism of 1054 even after the librarian mentions it?
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Aug 1, 2010 18:54:23 GMT -5
That was a wonderful - and very informative - chapter! I'm so glad to see you're continuing with this story. The explanation concerning the start of the schism (or, at least, the start of the events that led to the main ones depicted in the canon) was very interesting. Never did it occur to me that Olaf would be so protective of Esme's reputation (or who I assume is Esme, anyway, considering The Daily Punctilio article in LSTUA).Your Olaf makes mine seem like an even bigger cakesniffer (which I assure you is a compliment). Mine would just tell Esme something along the lines of 'suck it up'. Was the rabbi anyone in particular, such as a character we've met before? He certainly seems significant. I liked how the librarian helped Duncan and Isadora realize how important the work they're doing is. It was also very nice of him to give them books - which I presume will no doubt come in handy in later chapters to come. You're doing an amazing job, Hermes, and I look forward to reading more.
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Post by Hermes on Aug 2, 2010 11:10:13 GMT -5
Thanks, Sherry Ann and Emma!
Yes, I see the kidnapping as coming very soon after this. we do know that the Quagmires knew something about VFD that they never got the chance to tell the Baudelaires.
Elwyn Little is an allusion to E.B. White, who was a journalist at the New Yorker; his first name was Elwyn, and one of his best known works was Stuart Little. (Another was The Trumpet of the Swan, though oddly enough I only discovered this after I had named the paper; I just thought it was a good name for a paper based in Tedia.) He may be the same person as the Baudelaires' Uncle Elwyn, who is also inspired by White, though equally he may not.
Yes, I think the others are the Baudelaires.
The Great Schism is not mentioned anywhere in the books. This was an expression for my own frustration that everyone in the books seems to find 'schism' a very odd word, while I don't think it particularly obscure.
I think in canon (TUA) there is some indication that Lemony's insulting Esme was one of the things that provoked Olaf to do whatever he did - the burning of the theatre is my invention, of course, but certainly he did something drastic as a result of Lemony's review.
The rabbi is no one in particular; just a volunteer in disguise, coming to collect a message. He may perhaps be the same person who turns up as a rabbi in TPP. I did think of having Lemony turn up at this point, but I decided his vist to the library probably came later than this.
As for the books the librarian gave the Quagmires, it should actually be possible to work out from canon how they came in useful.
Thanks again!
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 2, 2010 13:40:10 GMT -5
As for the books the librarian gave the Quagmires, it should actually be possible to work out from canon how they came in useful. It's also a good explanation of how they came up with it. It seemed a bit advanced for the two to have devised it themselves.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Aug 2, 2010 16:46:00 GMT -5
Elwyn Little is an allusion to E.B. White, who was a journalist at the New Yorker; his first name was Elwyn, and one of his best known works was Stuart Little. (Another was The Trumpet of the Swan, though oddly enough I only discovered this after I had named the paper; I just thought it was a good name for a paper based in Tedia.) He may be the same person as the Baudelaires' Uncle Elwyn, who is also inspired by White, though equally he may not. I had planned to inquire about this Elwyn being the same one who's related to the Baudelaires. I was read both Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan as a child, though it wasn't until your mention of E.B. White that I remembered who the author was. I think the question of what made you choose Tedia Trumpet as the name of a newspaper crossed my mind as I was reading the chapter. Coming up with names for characters and locations alike is not my strong point, and so I really admire your creativity in being able to do that.
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Post by Dante on Aug 7, 2010 12:50:34 GMT -5
I'm not sure what else there is for me to say, Hermes, but this is a great chapter and it's good to see you working on this again. I liked all the little allusions you snuck in, both to the canon and to the real world, and you kept it pretty interesting for a chapter that's basically all exposition.
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Post by Hermes on Aug 7, 2010 16:50:13 GMT -5
Thanks Dante!
(Chapter 5 will be coming up in ten days to so - I'm away for a week, and though I hoped to get it done before then I don't think I'll manage it.)
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Post by Hermes on Sept 2, 2010 10:31:07 GMT -5
Sorry for the delay - here is the next chapter.
Chapter 5. The Preposterous Paper.
There was a loud knock on the door of Mr Pym’s office, followed by a fit of coughing.
‘Come in!’ said Mr Pym. ‘Ah, Poe – it’s you,’ as the door opened to admit his younger colleague. ‘Glad you could make it. Glad you could make it. So, I understand you’re taking over as – ah – Vice-President in Charge of Orphan Affairs.’
‘That’s right,’ said Mr Poe. ‘It’s a great honour for me. My father had this position at one time, you know.’
‘Yes indeed,’ Mr Pym replied, ‘I remember it well. I remember it well. I think the position was – ah – created for him. There were a lot of orphans around at the time, because of all the – ah – fires that were taking place. Now if you sit here, I will – ah – show you the files. I will show you the files.’
He produced a large pile of files from his desk. ‘Our orphan portfolio has recently expanded, of course, because of all the – ah – files we took over from In Investments.’
‘By the way,’ said Mr Poe ‘I’ve heard that orphans are in again. Should we send these files back?’
‘No,’ said Mr Pym, ‘that would not be a good plan. That would not be a good plan. In Investments seriously – ah – mismanaged some of these orphans’ funds. They should stay with us. They should stay with us. Now, here are some of the – ah – most significant files. Twist – ah – Eyre – ah – Lennox – ah – Gale – ah – Shirley – ah – Fossil – ah – Trotter – ah – Potter – ah – Owens. Willoughby – no – that must have been misplaced. They aren’t orphans. They aren’t orphans.
‘Now,’ he continued, producing a particularly heavy file ‘this one concerns a family I – ah – think you’re already familiar with. The Quagmires. They were schoolmates of your young friends the – ah – Baudelaires.’
‘Oh yes. They were just kidnapped by that terrible Count Oscar.’
‘It’s Olaf, I think. But this is a matter of great concern. A matter of great concern. I hope you will give it – ah – a high priority. I just got a letter from their guardian. You should look at it You should look at it.’
Mr Poe took the letter from the file and read.
Dear Mr Pym,
I was most distressed to hear of the kidnapping of my young charges, the Quagmire triplets, from Prufrock Preparatory School. This shows Count Olaf to be more ruthless than we had previously suspected. Since there is no possibility of his becoming their legal guardian, I can only guess that he intends either to hold them to ransom, or to keep them prisoner until they come of age. In either case we must make every effort to frustrate his plans and ensure their safe return.
My associates and I will naturally be devoting ourselves to this task. Many of my colleagues will help to search for the orphans, and a comrade of mine will shortly be travelling to Prufrock Prep to investigate the kidnapping, and seek to prevent such a thing happening again.
However, I hope that the bank will also commit itself to the task of bringing the orphans back safe and sound. Because of the nature of my work, I cannot communicate directly with the authorities, and I trust you will be able to do so. I would like you to keep me updated on the progress of the investigation; please make contact with me in the usual manner.
With all due respect,
D.
‘Here’ said Mr Pym, pointing to another document, ‘are the – ah – details of how to contact him.’
Mr Poe paused to cough before speaking. ‘Hm. What does he mean by his associates, and the nature of his work?’
‘Ah,’ said Mr Pym, ‘that is quite interesting. That is quite interesting. The orphans’ guardian is a member of – ah – a secret organisation, devoted to protecting the world against villainy. I don’t know if you have heard of it: it is – ah – known as V.F.D. The bank had many dealings with it at one time, but that ceased some time ago. That ceased some time ago. Indeed, until I heard from Mr – from this gentleman, I believed – ah – that it no longer existed.’
‘Really?’ Mr Poe replied. ‘That’s very interesting. My family used to be involved in that organisation – in fact I was recruited to it as a boy. But not long after that there was a big crisis – I think it was called the sizzle or something like that – and my parents decided to leave. Come to think of it, I recognise the symbol at the top of this letter. I had it tattooed on my ankle once. It had to be surgically removed when I was pulled out.’
‘But were you – ah – aware that the organisation was still active?’
‘Certainly not. I believe my sister kept up her links with it rather longer than me – she’s older than I am, and so she had got more involved. But when I was in my twenties there was another sizzle, and I thought that was the end of it. Well, well.’
‘In any case, I hope – ah – that you will devote yourself to the task of rescuing the orphans’.
‘Yes, certainly. Actually, my sister could help with that. She is editor-in-chief of the Daily Punctilio, you know. I must go and see her about it.’
********************************************************************************
The next morning Mr Poe arrived at the office of the Daily Punctilio, and asked to see the editor-in-chief.
‘Oh, hello, Arthur,’ said Eleanora. ‘How nice to see you.’ She did not look very happy.
Mr Poe coughed. ‘I’m here to see you about the Quagmire twins – the ones who have been kidnapped, you know, by Count Oscar.’
‘What? Oh yes, I remember them vaguely. Actually, someone wrote to me about them – let me see if I can find the letter. Yes, here it is.’
She showed her brother the letter; he recognised the familiar handwriting of the orphans’ guardian. The first part was very similar to his letter to Mr Pym; then it continued:
I trust that your paper will also commit itself to the task of bringing the orphans back safe and sound. As you will remember, their mother, my second cousin Laura Preludio, once worked for you as a musical correspondent, at a time when you had closer links with our organisation. I urge you to give this terrible event the greatest possible publicity, so that the public may take part in the search for the orphans, as well as being warned of the dangers which Count Olaf poses. I hope that I may contact you from time to time, to see how your investigations are progressing.
With all due respect,
D.
‘I’m not sure what he means by the bits about an organisation, and associates, and so on,’ said Eleanora.
‘Ah,’ said Mr Poe, ‘that is interesting. Their guardian is a member of V.F.D. You must remember – we belonged to it as children – and later you gave some of the volunteers work experience here.’
‘Oh. Are you sure?’
‘Yes – there was Rosanna, or whatever her name was – the Princess’s daughter. She worked on the Financial Times. And that woman who used to write your horoscope column – Madam Lucia, or something like that. And also that man who was your theatrical correspondent – though he got into trouble later, I think. I suppose the twins’ mother was another of them. Though I must say, I didn’t realise the organisation still existed.’
‘When was this, Arthur?’ asked his sister. ‘It must have been more than a year ago.’
‘Oh, yes – nearly twenty years ago, I would guess.’
‘Well, honestly, Arthur. This is a newspaper. We live in the here and now. You can’t expect me to remember things that happened twenty years ago. Anyway, the important thing now is to give the kidnapping some publicity, as their guardian says. Suppose I send a correspondent to Prudence Prep, or whatever it’s called, to interview their teachers and some of their classmates – find out what sort of people they were?’
‘That might help, I suppose. I was thinking that you might publish a picture of them, so that the public can be on the lookout for them – I have some old photos of them here.’
‘I guess we can do that too, though we tend to go for human interest mostly.’
The door opened, and a woman in a grey suit entered, chewing gum. ‘Oh, hello, Geraldine,’ said the editor-in-chief. ‘This is my brother, Arthur. Arthur, this is our star reporter, Geraldine Julienne. Arthur and I were just discussing the disappearance of the Quogmarsh orphans.’
‘Quagmire,’ said Arthur.
‘It is indeed. We were thinking you might go to their school to interview their teachers and classmates about it.’
‘Yes, that sounds like a good plan,’ said Geraldine. ‘“DISTRAUGHT STUDENTS TELL TALE OF MISSING CLASSMATES.” Wait till the readers of the Daily Punctilio see that! Wait a moment – these orphans who have disappeared; were they twins, by any chance?’
‘Yes, they were,’ said Eleanora. ‘Have you heard anything about them?’
‘I think I might have. We got something a little while ago from one of the wire services. Let me go and look for it.’ She left the room, only to return a moment later carrying a telegram; she handed it to Eleanora, who began to read.
Twins Seen on Mountain.
Two twins have been spotted wandering on the side of a mountain near the alpine fishing village of Lachsberg.
The site had recently been used for the shooting of a film about vampires or something like that, by some famous director or other. A local resident said ‘When the film crew left, we saw these two children wandering about. They looked rather lost. They seemed to be heading for the peak. They were obviously twins because they were absolutely identical, even though one was a boy and the other was a girl.’
The twins have not been identified, and attempts to contact them have failed.
‘Well,’ said Mr Poe, ‘that’s amazing! It seems as if it must be them. I will mount an expedition to this mountain right away.’ He coughed, as he rose to leave the room. ‘It's been good to see you. We must meet again some time. And let me know, won’t you, if you hear any more from You-Know-Who?’
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Post by Dante on Sept 2, 2010 13:40:29 GMT -5
What a fantastic Eleanora. Perfectly Snicketishly barmy. I recognise quite a few of the orphan allusions, too, but I don't suppose I could press you for a full list...?
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Post by Christmas Chief on Sept 2, 2010 18:26:59 GMT -5
Wonderful. It was quite believable, and I found a few parts to be rather funny. The orphan allusions were great; I think I got them all, with the exception of Lennox.
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Post by Hermes on Sept 3, 2010 9:04:37 GMT -5
What a fantastic Eleanora. Perfectly Snicketishly barmy. Thanks. I felt I needed to explain how the Punctilio could be so out of touch despite having had VFD links. I also wanted to draw a contrast between the two Poes - Arthur gets a lot of things wrong, but does have a vague idea what's going on and what he ought to be doing, whereas Elenora is, as you say, barmy. OK (blacked out in case people want to guess): Oliver Twist from the novel by Dickens. Jane Eyre from the novel by Charlotte Bronte. (Although it's the adult bits most people remember, the first part of the book is about her childhood as a an orphan.) Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden. Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz. Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. The Fossils from Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfield. James Trotter from James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl. Harry Potter from some series or other about wizards. Nobody Owens from The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. And we know the Willoughbys. And thanks, Sherry Ann!
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Post by Dante on Sept 3, 2010 9:51:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the list. A few of those I knew without knowing that I knew them, so that's pretty interesting.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Sept 3, 2010 10:57:09 GMT -5
Hmm...'You-know-who' appears to be a reference to Harry Potter. Wonderful chapter! I really enjoyed the interaction between Mr. Poe and his sister. If we'd seen more of her in canon, this is exactly the way I can imagine her character would be. I'm quite certain we've read of him before, but I liked as well Mr. Pym; his repeating of sentences is a very creative character quality. And Geraldine and her gum! Would you mind if I used that in my fic sometime? It just suits her personality so well. I got the allusion to Harry Potter immediately but, like Dante, I hadn't realized I was aware of a few others until I read your list. I especially can't believe I missed Lennox.
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