characters:player:kuhsodas [Improbable Island Wiki of Often Not Lies]

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==== Csodas ====

{{:characters:player:csodas:csodavatar.png?100 | Formal portrait.}} 
  * Name:  Csodas. For plots, he'll go by some version of Eugene: Eugen, Jeno, or just plain Gene.((Aside from the times he went by Elmer, Matvei, and Feofilakt, of course.))
  * Age: 36
  * Height: 156 cm.
  * Leader of QUIET.

Csodas is, out of character, a Moderator on the Island. Distracting him is probably the most reliable way to reach him, unless you see him posting in Player Chat. //Cs// makes a ch-sound, as in //ch//urch; the final s makes a sh-sound, so that the last syllable of his name rhymes with //gosh//, more or less. If you're curious, you can enter //csodás// into Google Translate and have it speak to you in Hungarian, or [[https://youtu.be/C2AUe1NTvTE?t=5s|click here for a song clip with the word]].


=== The thing is --  ===

//the thing is// --

"Why don't I say what I //mean//? //You take that back//. Words are //words//. We do things with them, //all of us//. They have weight, sometimes even edges."

//blip//

"...that's what the press is //for//, anyway. To have something to work for. To make warm things so that people on the snowcap can be comforted, to remind them that they're part of a //community// if they //try//."

//blip//

"//...the time we had together will remain securely shelved among my happy memories (I rather thought you'd like that)...//"

//blip//

"Can I - have you eaten? There should be some of the season's last apples and quinces, and I think there's some French Hen stew, too."

//blip//

"...//the proper systematization is vital to the advancement of knowledge...//"

//blip//

"Nothing the lads couldn't have passed off as //good fun//, or accidents, really. A torn shirt here, papers half-scattered into a puddle there." He shrugs. "But never anything more than- than cornering me in an alley and //looming//," he says to his feet, "just to watch me //squirm// a little. Suppose I wasn't worth bothering with //properly//, really."

//blip//

"There are conventions to be upheld... //rules// to work by. Hospitality is a //sacred trust//, you know!"

//blip//

"They're always so cheerful, when they say hello. And I know I wanted to believe it, but..." He sighs. "He was a cataloguer. Foreign books, mostly Russian, a completely different wing, really. That's what... made it better and worse, really, because there I had no idea if he knew me from Adam, and to be greeted as if he had... It seems so normal, when it happens, something nice and familiar, and then you think, I've changed, how did they know, and sometimes I don't know if it's worse when it seems so obviously made up by the Drive, when you catch sight of a camera and wonder if Arpad is out there, blinking at some parody of himself on the screen, or if this is the time it's real and it'll be your weapons, not even some monster, or if..." He swallows, heavily. "If he recognized you because whatever the Drive has made you, it... was always lurking there, behind your eyes, and you were the only one who didn't see it."

//click// 

"I've never been," he confesses, "what you'd call //a man's man//. And yet, here I am."

=== Narrative Bio ===

Fond recollections of a lot of time in libraries and bookshops. By trade he was a bibliographer and card-cataloguer for the National Library of Hungary, with a weekend hobby of working on letterpress prints; he's working on amassing the sort of Island library that will allow him to make use of this.

While unassuming and sometimes shy, he remains a curious observer with a mild weakness for beards. Despite his best efforts, there are always one or two inkspots on his coat; when it's warm, rather more are visible on his rolled-up shirt-sleeves. 

=== Places ===

Csodas administers the Champollion Press and Lending Library at <del>(20, 36)</del> T36, which specializes in non-English printing jobs and doubles as the QUIET clan hall; the Improbable Island Airport at <del>(15, 38)</del> O38; the Kelp Forest at <del>(25, 1)</del> Y1; Skaldthorpe Green at W34, and Herodotus' Historical Wunderkammer, a reenactment theme park devoted to multinational polities located at <del>(8, 21)</del> H21. The first four are //substantially// complete; the last is a work-in-progress.

=== Other Guises ===

{{:characters:player:csodas:sadosc_smaller.jpeg?100 |The meat-grinder himself.}} Has a mirror-realm counterpart, sadosC. Thanks to a complex set of mirrorwriting negotiations, Csodas will occasionally pop through to the other side, to teach raspberry tart creatures the finer points of life on the other side of the mirror, while sadosC basks in the sun (//never// neglecting proper sun protection), hunts the choicest morsels in the Jungle, and -- //what?// do you know how long it took me to take on this body, I'm going to //use// it, all right? Absolutely //wasted// on that nerd Csodas, cooped up indoors all day with his ridiculous little machines, if you ask me, and furtherm-—well, yes. Okay, he //is// a bit of a soft touch, and I have a pocket-timer in his coat, counting down the hours until I have to go back. Better make them count, eh?


  * [[characters:player:stebiuk|Stebuklingas]] - a dour cousin from the Lithuanian branch of the family.
  * [[characters:player:etaoinshrdlu|Etaoin G Shrdlu]] - a sea cucumber who is, strangely enough, a very reliable typesetter.
  * [[characters:mod:cudowny|Cudowny]] - for when certain powers need to be turbocharged.
  * [[characters:player:quiveringherringbone|Quivering Herringbone]] - look, I don't even know at this point.

=== Other Contestants' Reactions (A Placeholder) ===

"Rude man attacks you? Rude man with bad memory?"

//ksssh//

"The mutation process did an awful number on you, didn't it? Were you this morose before your current incarnation?"

//ksssh//

"At one time, you reached a point where you had to look at yourself, and think about who you were and what you wanted. You weighed what you would gain against what you would lose. And you made a choice."

//ksssh//

...can't begin to //fathom// how he can blindly walk into an Outpost with absolute faith in the Island's population and inhabitants. Didn't it ever occur to him that people aren't walking beacons of kindness and enlightenment?

//ksssh//

"Oh, Csodas! You know they aren't even //real//. Just products of Improbability disguised to look humanoid. All that screaming and 'Ahh! Don't kill me!' and 'Please, no! I have a family!' is all just a ruse to try and get you to //feel bad// for them or something. Playing on your feelings and trying to generally get sympathy so //they// can eat //you//. Honestly, it's a waste of meat you're just leaving to rot in the Jungle!"

//ksssh//

"I got the packet, yes. It was very... thorough. On the filing at least."

//ksssh//

"You're always welcome to come see me after class if you need some... //individual attention//."