See Sid.<\/p>\n
Sid is staggering out of an underground secondary school fighting tournament arena.<\/p>\n
Stagger, Sid, stagger!<\/p>\n
Sid\u2019s hands are covered in burns.<\/p>\n
Sid has been trying to summon FIREBALL. Sid does not fireball well.<\/p>\n
Sid goes to the private summoners\u2019 buffet table. He finds the butter. He slathers it all over his hands.<\/p>\n
Butter your burned hands, Sid, butter!<\/p>\n
. . . wait.<\/p>\n
That isn\u2019t actually a good way to treat burns. If you looked it up on some sort of marvelous interconnected data network, you would discover this. You would laugh at the folly of Sid!<\/p>\n
But Sid, he just butters his hands.<\/p>\n
He leans back against the wall.<\/p>\n
He sags.<\/p>\n
He has been through a lot.<\/p>\n
In addition to butter Sid is slathered in INTIMATION. This is the best summon that he is currently capable of. It\u2019s an intimation that one day he\u2019ll be able to summon something better. That he\u2019ll be something really good one day. Something awesome. He\u2019ll show you all what for.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s probably going to rule the world one day, or at least the arena.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the implication of the INTIMATION Sid wears.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what he looks like when Tom finds him. That\u2019s what he seems <\/em>like when Tom offers him his hat.<\/p>\n He\u2019d still lost his battle, though.<\/p>\n Against Eugenie\u2019s summon, TERRIFYING FOUR-ARMED APE . . . hints and intimations had not sufficed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look like you\u2019re going to be something,\u201d says Tom.<\/p>\n Sid looks at him. He looks at the hat. He looks back at Tom. He doesn\u2019t take the hat. Not yet. He holds up his buttered hands instead, in explanation.<\/p>\n He raises an eyebrow at Tom.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been three years since Tom\u2019s mother vanished. It\u2019s been two and a half years since Tom lost his future to Jeremiah Clean. Two and a half years, and the space behind Tom\u2019s ears is still pristine and dirt under his nails won\u2019t stay.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, really something,\u201d Tom Friedman explains.<\/p>\n Sid attempts to snap his fingers and point at Tom. He fails. After a moment he says, \u201cI was going to think of something clever to say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d says Tom.<\/p>\n \u201cOh!\u201d says Sid, thinking of something to say just a second too late. \u201cWhat are you doing here? How did you get in <\/em>here? It\u2019s supposed to be summoners only back here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI command a swarm of robot bees,\u201d says Tom.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not a summon,\u201d Sid says. \u201cIf it were a summon it would be \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n He flings his arms to the sides dramatically. He stomps the ground: ROBOT BEES.<\/p>\n Tom shrugs.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd also you\u2019d need a summoning circle,\u201d Sid says, embarrassedly, what with no robot bees actually appearing. It isn\u2019t a summon at all! Sid rubs at his nose. He gets butter on it. He wishes suddenly that his nose had been chapped. Or a detachable but slightly dry food product. That would have been so efficient!<\/p>\n \u201cFree-summoning them,\u201d Sid says \u2014 \u201cThat\u2019s way too hard!\u201d<\/p>\n Tom tries again.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are torn,\u201d Tom explains. \u201cIf you are at war within yourself, or unfocused; if you are given to two destinies, or to no destiny at all \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n He pulls the hat back towards him. Then he holds it out again. He makes little micro-shoving, prompting gestures as if Sid should take it and put it on.<\/p>\n \u201cHuh,\u201d says Sid. He squints at the hat. He tilts his head to one side. \u201cIt\u2019s talking to me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIs it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think? I can hear it. Is it alive?\u201d asks Sid. \u201cHats aren\u2019t supposed to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPut it on,\u201d says Tom, ignoring the questions.<\/p>\n Sid looks uncertain.<\/p>\n \u201cPut it on,\u201d Tom says. \u201cAnd you will ascend. You will become one thing, one good thing, perfection. Join me, my miscellaneous buttered boy, in the night-house; in the house of inspiration and science: in the House of Dreams!\u201d<\/p>\n Sid takes the hat.<\/p>\n He lifts it up. He gets butter on the edges. Then he puts it on. He closes his eyes.<\/p>\n The room is still. The sun doesn\u2019t move, or wouldn\u2019t have done, if it had been in the room and moving anyway.<\/p>\n Sid shivers once, head to toe, as the hat transforms him.<\/p>\n Then he opens his eyes and he takes the hat off. He holds it out and gives it back to Tom.<\/p>\n Tom attempts to brush the butter off the edge of the hat before he puts it back on. He can\u2019t do it. He rubs it, but it just greases the hat and the thumbs and the fingers of his hands!<\/p>\n He puts it back on.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll need a black hat,\u201d says Tom, \u201cof course \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Sid shakes his head.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all right,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you have<\/em> to wear a hat of your House\u2019s color,\u201d says Tom, uneasily. \u201cIt\u2019s a . . . feature.\u201d<\/p>\n Sid brushes at his hair uneasily with his hand a few times. He gets a couple strands of hair in his buttered burns. Then he gives Tom a little smile.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it,\u201d he says. \u201cThank you. That was excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom frowns at him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a purpose now,\u201d says Sid. He grins. He looks up at the ceiling. His eyes flicker a bit. For a moment Tom almost sees the color that they become. Then he looks down. He gives Tom a wider grin. \u201cI,\u201d he says. \u201cIsn\u2019t that great? I finally have something I\u2019m for<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" See Sid. Sid is staggering out of an underground secondary school fighting tournament arena. Stagger, Sid, stagger! Sid\u2019s hands are covered in burns. Sid has been trying to summon FIREBALL. Sid does not fireball well. Sid goes to the private summoners\u2019 buffet table. He finds the butter. He slathers it all over his hands. Butter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-5571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-2-5-how-sid-joined-the-house-of-torment","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Hat_1_blankbg.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6084,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5571\/revisions\/6084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5571"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}