More idioms from the world of Pb.
BIRD AND SEASON [ARGUMENT]: Chicken-and-egg argument. Do the birds follow the pattern of the seasons, or do the seasons follow the pattern of the birds? See “birdwards”.
BIRDWARD: Clockwise. “Birdwards” because it is the direction the birds migrate over the course of a year. The birds’ arrival marks the coming of warm summer, and their absence marks cold winter. Given the lack of sun and moon (whatever those are, ask the Lunatics), the bird-patterns are how centennial time is kept.
CHAINKISSER: Lesser-than, pauper, of a lower class. When you’re on the chains, the only way to go is up.
DRAGGING A CATHEDRAL: To be carrying a burden or performing labor unnecessarily. An allusion to Saint Zinc’s trial of strength, in which he dragged a cathedral to the other side of a mote, and in so doing burst the first spider egg, to make sure his mortal son would be sheltered from rain.
[TO HAVE] CHLORINE’S LOVE: To repeatedly return to a toxic relationship. A reference to Saint Chlorine, whose embrace is so tight as to inevitably smother its recipient. Only the tempestuous misanthropy of her twin, Saint Sodium, can assuage her stifling affections.
[TO HAVE] LOVE LIKE WATER: To love deeply and richly. An allusion to the Courting of the Stars, and the eventual wedding of Saints Hydrogen and Oxygen. To have a love as steadfast and generous as theirs is a high compliment indeed.
[TO] HAVE THUNDER [IN ONESELF]: To never be able to stop working on something.
[TO HAVE] NEON’S NOSE: To be unnaturally perceptive. An allusion to Saint Neon the Great Hound, the only non-human Saint, known for his unerring olfaction.
[TO BE] ON THE CHAINS: At rock bottom.
[TO BE] ON THE ROCK: So old its origins aren’t popularly known. “The rock”, in this case, refers to the Golgothan Edifice, upon which is painted the first image.
[TO BE] PLAYING THE PITS: Gauche, out of style. A reference to a practice from the Saccharinian Conquest in which operas and plays that ceased to be in vogue with the cognoscenti and popular audience were performed in pantomime for prisoners in oubliettes, as a sort of salve to ease popular cognitive dissonance about the use of oubliettes.
POP: Magic user, occultist, thaumaturge. So called because they’re known for going “pop”; it’s a dangerous profession, you know.
RINGWARD: Counterclockwise. “Ringwards” because it is the direction of the Ringfire Rail’s circuit. The Ringfire Rail is the current hubris-fuelled magnum opus of the ever-ambitious Iodine Empire, upon which screams and soars the Lightning Rail.
ROCKHOPPER: Vagabond, mendicant. Hops from rock to rock. What do you want from me?
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