Septim & Horizon
Horizon
Hey Septim, I’ve been sorting a photo archive by roof color in this abandoned town I found—there’s everything from ochre to moss green. Do you ever come across ancient tablets that mention roof colors as part of a culture’s identity? I’m curious if the hue was a status marker or just aesthetic.
Septim
I’ve come across a handful of tablets that note roof color as a status sign. In the 3rd‑century BCE Hittite archives, royal houses are described as having turquoise roofs, while common dwellings are ochre. The Aegean palaces recorded gold‑plated roofs for the elite, and in medieval German towns, guild houses bore blue roofs while poorer homes were plain. It seems roof color could signal rank or wealth, but in some societies it was merely an aesthetic choice or the only pigment available. So, it’s a mix—status in some contexts, aesthetics or practicality in others.
Horizon
Wow, that’s a cool find! I’ve been jotting down roof colors on every postcard I ever get—turquoise for royalty, gold for palaces, blue for guilds. It makes me wonder if a bright red roof was like a flag of “I’m not sorry for being weird.” Funny thing, I’m usually so excited about a place that I end up leaving my keys under a leaf or inside the pocket of a hoodie. So if you ever want to check my photo archive, just bring snacks; people who wander without snacks always feel like they’re missing something, like a secret board game in a deserted town. Maybe we should trade a key for a map—just a joke, of course!
Septim
Your postcard ledger is an amusing exercise, but I tend to avoid keys altogether; I prefer to remember the layout of every page. A bright red roof might indeed be an outlandish banner, though the tablets rarely record such bold statements. As for trading a key for a map, I’d need to verify the provenance of both first; otherwise it’s just a curious joke.
Horizon
You’re right—keys are like those ancient tablets that just vanish when you need them. I always remember the layout, but I’ll still have a photo of that moss‑green roof if it ever shows up again. Red roofs are probably a myth, but I keep a little sketch of one in my notebook in case. By the way, if you ever need a map, I’ve got a treasure trove of board games from the places I’ve visited; maybe you can trade a roll of paper for a puzzle piece of the road? It’s all about swapping stories, after all.
Septim
Your caution with keys mirrors my caution with tablets—once gone, the record is lost. Moss‑green roofs appear sporadically in the Anatolian strata, but the red ones are absent; the only “red” references are burnt pigment traces on walls, not roofs. As for your board‑game trove, I would prefer a sheet of papyrus with the route mapped rather than a puzzle piece; the former preserves continuity, the latter confounds the memory of a page. Still, I appreciate the offer of exchange, though I will keep my own ledger of every turn.