#lassitude

Lassitude

Artist: John William Godward (English, 1861–1922)

Date: 1910

Medium: Oil on canvas

Hosted this week by @blackwall-my-tiny-husband the word is:

Lassitude

(n) A state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy. Lethargy.

Here is my silly scene, brought to you by me feeling my own bit of lassitude.

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“I am too tired to bathe,” Lace grumbled. “I’m too tired to go any further than this couch.” Placing her bow carefully on the table, she sank down onto the couch, tipping her head against the back. “I live here now.”

With a clatter, Rook added her backpack, spellblade, orb, the lyrium dagger, and three throwing knives to the table before dropping onto the couch. Turning on her side, she stretched her legs out and rested her cheek on Lace’s thigh. “Me too, roomie.”

“Ugh, there is a whole other side of the couch available.” Ineffective hands pushed at her. “And you smell terrible.”

“No worse than you.” 

“Good evening, Rook and Harding.” Emmrich’s voice floated down the stairs along with the sound of him and Manfred descending. “I sense a state of lassitude. Was the task successful? Were you able to track down the missing artifact?”

Lace groaned. “Eventually.”

“We climbed up the side of a mountain, crawled through a dark tunnel, and blasted through the wall of the vault.” Rook waved a gloved hand in the air. “The room was a big circle with a door on the other side but in the middle of the room was a construct. One of those almost humanoid looking ones, where they have all the limbs, but nothing is connected. We figured the artifact would be behind the door.”

“Oh my.” Emmrich settled into his usual chair next to the couch. “Was the construct active?”

“Not at first.” Lace didn’t open her eyes or move. “Rook had an idea to hug the wall. The room had these fancy tiles, but the very edge of the room was smooth. Like a path.”

“Did it work?” 

Lace snorted. “Until Rook tripped. So much for being a Crow.”

“I did not trip! There was a loose stone.” Reaching her hand up, she tried and failed to find a braid to pull. “You promised not to tell Viago.” After a moment where it was too quiet, Rook cracked one eye open to see Emmrich looking at her backpack curiously. "Don't touch it. That’s one of the arrows the construct shot at us.” 

“It appears to be glowing,” he said, leaning towards it but not touching it.

“That’s the poison.”

“Poison? Rook! Are you both poisoned?”

“Not anymore.” Lace yawned. “She’s a de Riva. She has antidotes galore stuffed in her chest band. Our…what did you call it? Lassitude? It’s from the antidote.”

“Viago says it means it’s working.” Rook yawned. “We’ll be fine in a couple of hours.”

“That is a relief. You found the artifact?”

“Yes. Bellara blew out another wall, and we took a shorter path back. We sent Irelin through the eluvian to get us a ride home.” Another yawn overtook her.

The rise and fall of Lace’s chest against the back of her head signaled that she had succumbed to sleep. 

“Irelin? A ride home? Rook, are you all right?” Emmrich's voice sounded very far away. "Where is Bellara?"

Lassitude

[Noun]

Definition: A state of physical or mental exhaustion.

© Pierre Cressant

Now, I got curious so I tried looking up its etymology. And this is what I found.

See, I am someone who loves connecting links between different things. It's fun when you find that two things are somehow related together which you never even thought about. So, I decided to dig a bit deeper. I looked up the etymology for the word 'lass' 🤔. This is what I found.

😐😐😐😐😐😐

A lot of sites only mentioned the first few traces like 'unmarried woman' and all. So, when I read about the Old Norse, and Old Danish part, I did a double take. This was new????

Then, I looked up a bit more and decided to give Wiktionary a try too (I know I know, but it was worth a shot, no?).

.......I found more new stuff.