Quoted By:
Well ... it really doesn't matter if it is going to be easy or not. If you aren't able to do it, you aren't going to be able to uncover much more of the Nine-Dozen.
With that, you lean in and redouble your efforts. But it seems that double is not going to be enough. Try as you might, it is plain to see that you have gone from eking out progress to losing it in fits and spurts right before your eyes. There is less and less play in the 'hems' that you try, and in spite of your best efforts, you cannot seem to guess when the Membrane is going to try to batten itself down. And on top of it all off, it seems to be succeeding more and more at holding itself fast to the body of the Nine-Dozen. Minutes pass, and all you have to show for it is slick, greasy hands and less uncovered Membrane than you had when you started trying to work through the resistance. Frustrated, you let go of the 'hem' in your hand, and wipe your hands on the linen. When much of the discharge remains even after your best efforts, you resort to using your nails and the False Silverware knife to scrape the stuff off. That works for now, but as you turn your attention back to the Nine-Dozen just in time to see another 'hem' manage to work itself back into position, snug against the Nodule, you find yourself wondering if the discharge is getting harder to get off of your hands, or there is simply more and more of it on there from longer bouts of handling the 'hems'.
Spurned onward by that thought, as well as your continually nagging doubts about the safety of touching the discharge like this, you lean in and treble your efforts; hoping to either make a breakthrough ... or to reach a point where you could justify to yourself setting this aside and focusing on something else. Something that doesn't saturate your skin with ... whatever this is. With these concerns worrying away and worming through your mind, you find that your patience is thinning and your caution is waning near as quick as the Membrane is floundering around, trying to cover itself up. Looking to be done with this, you set aside earlier fears and bring your off-hand to bear against the 'hems', and make more and more use of the False Silverware knife. Minutes creep by - and even with the Membrane agitating itself more and more, you can see that once again you are making headway. Amusingly, this observation is enough to ease some of your concerns about the discharge. But that cannot be called a surprise, not by any measure. Of course it is easier to stomach a risk with a reward than a risk without. You are however, becoming increasingly certain on one point - you are not imagining that the discharge on the inside surface of the Membrane has thickened and become stickier than it was when you started. You are making progress though. That is what you will choose to focus on. You reach a point when you can lean back for a moment, to wipe your hands clean, again relying on the knife and your nails to do the heavy lifting.
