#orqwith

[itsacon10]

Scissorman

[liveoncoffeeandflowers]

…“Beyond the Ossuary, the half-life of the city continues. Sleepwalkers drift among marvels wrought in the bone of the unnumbered dead. Empty orbits contain electric bulbs that light and go dim in response to changes in air pressure or humidity. Here, the skull of a consumptive child becomes part of a great machine for calculating the motion of the stars. Here, a yellow bird frets within the ribcage of an unjust man. Around every corner is some fresh wonder: the weeping clock, the water gardens, the hymning birds, the mechanical orchards. Yet, no matter how strange, no matter how beautiful, everything in Orqwith is dulled by the taint of long familiarity.

When you see it, you will know it. For all of us, in the end, come to the City of Bone. And what was once a place of dreams is now only real.”

[tatehemlock]

The door flew open, in he ran, The great, long, red-legged scissorman.

[tatehemlock]

One day, Mamma said, "Conrad dear, I must go out and leave you here. But mind now, Conrad, what I say, Don't suck your thumb while I'm away. The great tall tailor always comes To little boys that suck their thumbs. And ere they dream what he's about He takes his great sharp scissors And cuts their thumbs clean off, - and then You know, they never grow again." Mamma had scarcely turn'd her back, The thumb was in, alack! alack! The door flew open, in he ran, The great, long, red-legged scissorman. Oh! children, see! the tailor's come And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb. Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go; And Conrad cries out - Oh! Oh! Oh! Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast; That both his thumbs are off at last. Mamma comes home; there Conrad stands, And looks quite sad, and shows his hands;- "Ah!" said Mamma "I knew he'd come To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb."

Heinrich Hoffman, The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb