…or, Hints, Allegations, And Things Left Unsaid
Thursday, Astera 17th 222
Thursday morning, I tried to go back to sleep after breakfast without success. Iason was on my mind. As long as he wasn’t being a dick to me or my friends, his personality didn’t stop him from being fun in bed. If he really did want more than that, though, it could be a problem.
The frustrating thing was that I couldn’t even think about how irritating he was without getting rock hard. I didn’t mind spending the morning in my room getting personal with myself, but I wasn’t keen on getting off to somebody I was pissed at.
It wasn’t restful.
Giving up on sleep, I went to the lounge. It wasn’t crowded. Most people were probably either in class or asleep. Brad the R.A. and Kurt the big skirmish player with a sullen attitude were sitting at one of the tables, looking at a chart.
Iason was on the skirmish team. Maybe I could get another opinion on him from somebody who’d known him longer than I had. It could be important. Iason’s behavior to date had been on the border between cocky and creepy, clueless and stalkerish. His straightforward matter-of-factness matched what I expected from horny elf boys. His single-minded focus on me and less-than-honest behavior didn’t, but it could almost be endearing if I knew for a fact it was harmless.
“Hey,” I said, approaching them.
“Hey, what’s up, bud?” Brad said. “You need something?”
“Uh, not really,” I said. “I was just wondering how well you guys know the other skirmish players.”
“Well, last year was my last year on the team,” Brad said. “So, I don’t know all the new ones.”
I looked at Kurt, but he didn’t say anything. Of course, he was as new to the school as I was. It was likely he wouldn’t be any help.
“Okay, but do you know the elf named Iason?” I asked Brad. The way his eyes went wide with recognition wasn’t encouraging.
“Oh, man,” Brad said. “You do not want to mess around with him.”
“Why?” I asked.”
“Because he’s a total ass bandit,” Brad said.
“Oh,” I said.
“I mean, as far as I’m concerned all elves are, but he doesn’t even try to hide it,” Brad said. “Seriously, man. Back to the wall when he’s around.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Is he not part elf?” Kurt asked Brad quietly as I was leaving.
“Him? I don’t know,” Brad said. “Was that him?”
At lunch, I shared my thoughts about Iason with the girls.
“I think you should date him,” Missy said. “He’s cute, and I think the gifts are romantic.”
I raised my arm with the bracelet.
“This is romantic?” I asked.
“It is!” she said. “It’s like you’re bound together for life now.”
“That’s exactly what I was looking for, the first day of class,” I said.
“What do your instincts tell you?” Marlot asked me.
“‘Do whatever this man wants, twice’,” I said. “Instinct doesn’t help when he’s hot.”
“But you’re not afraid of him?” Marlot said.
I thought about it.
“No, I’m really not,” I said. “I’m afraid of what he’s going to do next, but in a ‘oh, hell, what did he do now?’ way.”
At that point, the conversation was interrupted by a crash from around the corner, followed by a woman swearing hoarsely and then yelling, “I’m going already!”
Everybody in the food court and around the balcony had frozen, gone silent. Moments later, the strawberry blonde dwarfblood stormed into view, stomping down the stairs and cursing a blue streak. Before she was halfway down the stairs, a literal blue streak rushed past her.
“What the hell?” I said. The commotion from the dining room was still ongoing, with what sounded like somebody or a couple of somebodies wailing loudly.
“Boy, somebody sure pissed Puddy off,” Missy said.
“Who?” I asked.
“That girl,” Marlot said. “Puddy.”
“Her name is Puddy?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Missy said.
“I don’t know if that’s her name or just what she calls herself, because of all the pudding pops she eats,” Marlot said. I ignored this bit of weirdness.
“Do you guys actually know her?” I asked.
“No,” Missy said. “But, I mean, everybody knows who she is.”
“I don’t,” I said.
“Well, you don’t really talk to anybody but us,” Marlot said.
“And Iason,” Missy added.
“What do you mean?” I said. “I talk to other people. I talked to Brad and Kurt just today.”
“When you’re in the dorm, you’re either shut up in your room or with us,” Marlot said. “Do you even really know your neighbors yet?”
“It’s the first week,” I said. “You can’t tell me you’ve met all the girls in your hall.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Missy said.
“Pretty much the whole floor, actually,” Marlot said.
“When did you have time to do that?” I asked.
“You run into them in the halls, you see them in the bathroom, you’re walking past and their door’s open,” Marlot said.
“You see them in the lounge when you’re warming up a snack,” Missy said.
“Guys don’t talk to each other in the bathroom,” I said. “And if I’ve got my door closed, it’s usually for a reason.”
“Well, making friends with yourself is fine but it leaves you cut out of the loop for gossip,” Marlot said.
“Like I even care about gossip,” I said. “So, do you know anything about that black-haired girl?”
“What black-haired girl?” Missy asked.
“The one that’s always groping and messing around with Puddy,” I said.
“Oh,” Missy said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. It was kind of a cute look. “Mack. I told you I sit next to her in thaumatology, didn’t I?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “You did mention that.”
“Monday, she came in with her hair all dirty and gross,” Missy said. “Yesterday, she practically slept through the whole class. If she doesn’t flunk out, I’m going to be surprised.”
“Disgusting or not, I don’t think they grade us on shampooing skills,” Marlot said.
“People who don’t care about their appearance usually don’t care about anything else,” Missy said.
“Or they don’t care about their appearance,” Marlot said.
“Anyway, she’s Puddy’s girlfriend,” Missy said to me. “They’ve got a lot of people pissed off because they’ve been bringing Harlowites into the cafeteria.”
“Where else are they supposed to eat?” I asked.
“Like I said before, they have their own place or something,” Missy said. “Anyway, I’m thinking about changing seats in thaumatology. She’s nasty enough even without all the lesbian stuff, and I don’t want her thinking about me when she’s you-know-whatting.”
“Yeah, I know that’s the number one thing I worry about,” Marlot said. “That’s why I’ve taken to stopping random women on the street and demanding to know if they’re masturbating to me. You can never be too sure.”
“Can we back up a bit to the part about Harlowe Hall having its own lunchroom?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Missy said. “How fair is that? I hear their food is catered in.”
“‘Catered’ can just mean delivered,” Marlot pointed out. “It doesn’t mean it’s fancy or good.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Missy said. “A girl in my knife class says that she heard that they have real silver silverware.”
“I wouldn’t mind that,” I said. “I don’t have to worry about it when we eat out here, but the stainless steel crap they’ve got in the dining hall leaves a weird taste in my mouth.”
“Is that why you eat your bacon with your fingers?” Missy asked.
“No, he eats his bacon with his fingers because he’s such a macho manly man,” Marlot said.
My thaumatology class that afternoon was so boring that I couldn’t blame “Mack” for sleeping through hers. Professor Meinke was a lecturer in the worst sense of the word. He was passionate about his subject matter in theory, but he didn’t bring any passion into the classroom.
After an hour and a half that would not die, I headed out for the class that excited me far more. Callahan already had us sorted out how she wanted us, so we got right into the thick of things. She told everybody in the advanced section to get back with whoever they were fighting and start doing whatever they were doing
I mocked up my axe, got a leather hoop off the table, and found the mountain of a woman I was supposed to be paired up with. We resumed the exercise we’d started on Tuesday, with me standing in the hoop and trying to defend against her attacks.
“Good form, but could be better,” Callahan said when she got around to us a few minutes later. “I’ll be back to help you after you’ve got into the swing of things. I want you to keep both your legs in the hoop today. If you step outside the hoop before I dismiss you, she will break your legs.” She turned to my opponent. “I want to see bones sticking out. And by the end of the class, I want you hitting back,” she said to me. “Or she’ll break your legs anyway.”
“She has a longer reach and can move,” I said.
“Suck it up, Princess,” Callahan said. She turned away to address a group of guys who were standing around sparring half-heartedly with each other. “Gentlemen, it’s time to play a game I call ‘last person to kill someone goes to the healing center with his balls in a cup’.”
“You’re not really going to break my legs if I step outside the circle, are you?” I asked after she’d gone through a few rounds of blows.
She grunted.
“You don’t know much about Coach Callahan, do you?” she asked.
“Nothing that’s not obvious,” I said.
“She killed Coach Heinrich,” the skirmisher said. “It was a legal duel, but she tore him apart.”
“Does the university allow the faculty to duel each other?”
She grunted again.
I kept my legs inside the hoop.
“Hey, Princess, where the hell is your little butt buddy?” Callahan asked, storming up to us.
“I thought I was ‘Blingy’,” I said.
“Yeah, well, now you’re ‘Princess’,” she said. “Seriously, though.”
“Who are you talking about?” I asked.
“You know, swishy fuck. Blond hair. Pointy ears. Makes sweet, sweet love to trees.”
“Iason?”
“Johnson,” Callahan said. “Khersis Fuck, I know you fags are easy but just how many elves are you spreading for, Princess?”
“Okay, hold on,” I said. “I know this is an immersive class and this is your style, or whatever, but you’ve got to knock it off with the racial and gay cracks or I’m going to—”
Callahan’s tiny, girlish fist hit me like a bolt from the blue. I hit the ground, and had only just thought to wonder where my leg was when a huge booted foot came down on my calf, shattering bone. I screamed. The sound, the pain, the sensation were all sickening. My head swam and my vision danced.
“You get a silver star for the day, Lucy, but when I say I want jagged edges, I mean it,” Callahan said. Then she bellowed, “Stretcher!”
I was carted by a couple of burly skirmish jocks to the Gygax Memorial Healing Center, a low, modern-looking building with a glass front. A side entrance, labeled the “A. Vanaheim Mental Healing Annex”, was screened from view by hedges.
Once inside, it only took a few moments of prayer and a laying on of hands to fix my leg and my bruised face. I followed the other guys back to the field when it was done. Callahan seemed surprised to see me, but only for a second. She’d already reassigned my partner, so she set me up with a guy with a rapier. I was doing the same exercise but with a completely different style of attacks to fend off.
She didn’t say anything about further leg-breakings, but in all honesty, it didn’t seem like the guy would be up to that.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t a good fighter.
“You’re an elfblood, right?” he asked as his spectral blade slipped past my defense and pierced my belly right above my navel.
“Uh, yeah,” I said, once I’d recovered. “A little bit.”
“I thought so,” he said. “It shows just a little bit, in your ears. Man, I would not want to be an elfblood in this class.”
“Because Callahan hates elfbloods?”
“Worse,” he said. “She loves you.”
“It sounds like she has an interesting idea of love,” I said, turning his next thrust aside with a swipe.
“Supposedly, she’s buried five husbands,” he said. “Three of them were dead at the time.”
“You don’t think there’s a chance that she encourages these rumors because it makes it easier for her to keep up her image?” I asked. This time I hooked his blade on my axe and jerked it to the side. He kept hold of it.
“Good one. I don’t know,” he said. “Even if only half of them are true, she’s still pretty fucking scary. I mean, have you heard about what she did when she was fighting in the Chaos Wars?”
“Hold on,” I said. “There are two things wrong with that sentence.”
“What?”
“First, she can’t be more than thirty,” I said.
“No, she’s totally older than she looks.”
“And second, there weren’t any women soldiers in the Chaos Wars.”
“No, there weren’t any in the Imperial Army at the time,” he said.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“No, you said there weren’t any women soldiers in the Wars,” he said. When I regarded him with confusion, he added, “Wars have more than one side, bro.”
I shook my head.
“Okay, let’s assume for the moment that I believe you when you say that tiny little girl is a sixty or seventy year old enemy of the Imperium,” I said. “What did she supposedly do?”
“Okay, well, her platoon was out in the forest on a patrol and they got lost and cut off, without food or any other supplies.”
“Does this story end with her walking out of the woods alone, surprisingly well-fed?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah,” he said. “You’ve heard it?”
“Not about her,” I said. “That’s like a standard war time horror story. Don’t you see? It’s a front, an act.”
“I don’t know, that broken leg looked pretty convincing,” he said. “But maybe you had a better look from where you were.”
“Technically, she didn’t do the breaking,” I said. “Anyway, giving somebody an easily healed injury that’s covered by a liability waiver doesn’t mean she fought on the other side of the Chaos Wars, or that she’s a cannibal, or that she killed another teacher, or whatever other stories are going around.”
“No, but it doesn’t mean she didn’t,” he said. “Did she give you a nickname?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Uh, Blingy.”
“I’d drop the class if I were you,” he said, shaking his head. “Learning to fight isn’t worth your life.”
“Oh, so now she’s going to kill me,” I said.
“Well, you hear stories.”
“Obviously.”
Yay!
First?
And arf! or Mook! or something to that extent…
Interesting …
Hmmm. Callahan is probably PARTLY front, but I wouldn’t want to test it myself.
And Missy is getting on my nerves far more than Iason.
Hurrah, hurrah. I do love the sparring sessions.
Now I have to think of something interesting and thought-provoking to say.
Got it. Does “Blingy” sound better or worse than “Princess”?
Mook! or Arf! or whatever…
but anyway, I really think that Callahan is pushing the limits of her immersion class just a tad… she may be an ass-kicker, but it seems a bit too much… (also, I enjoy ellipses…)
So wait one second if you get a nick name she likes you. that makes so little sense what did Mack do to earn that. darn now I have to go back and see hat happened to Mack today. I didn’t think that people may have been avoiding Mack because of her poor hygiene.
MOOK!
Okay, Missy really is getting uber-annoying. She wants to sleep with Jamie, but wants him to date Iason. And she doesn’t see the creep factor in the bracelet-of-possession-until-death?
Also, I’d tend to believe at least some of the rumors about Callahan. They just fit.
Ok. Brad = douchebag. “I mean, as far as I’m concerned all elves are, but he doesn’t even try to hide it.” Don’t RAs have to go through some sort of sensitivity training about saying shit like that?! I don’t even mean the racial issue; we know there is a lot of racism and racial tension in the MUniverse. But telling a resident that gay people should hide their homosexuality is very, very inappropriate for a RA.
In other news, I really like Callahan. I mean, not as a person– I definitely wouldn’t want to be her friend– but as a character she’s really fun.
Fun chapter. Quite a few laughs in it.
Missy continues to show her hypocrisy. It’s ok for her to fantasize about guy on guy, regardless of their orientation, but no girl can fantasize about her?
I wonder, what is Callahan’s life expectancy? I doubt even she knows, given her extremely mixed ancestry, two races of which live appreciably longer than humans. She is one nasty teacher. Apparently nicknames are signs that she has chosen you as a pet project.
Nice to see racism is strong with Jamie. Seriously, he doesn’t like when people make cracks about elves being gay so he should try to be more accepting of the Harlowites.
Note: Woohoo for the Gygax Memorial Healing Center!
OOK!
So..which other elf is Callahan talking about? can’t be Steff can it? Or is it actually Iason?-who i am still pulling for and he’s way ahead of Missy right now.
*Most* RAs don’t give two shits about sensitivity training. They’re just idiots who wanted a break on housing fees and were better at sucking up to the dorm administration than the rest.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that Missy will disappear soon enough. At least I hope so. God she’s annoying. Maybe if the snake that devours her is part-elf, she’ll even die happy.
Interesting tidbits about Callahan, even if it’s mixed with urban legend.
Also…um…ook. *runs*
Mook! Arf! Oh Goddess Alexandra, I humbly kneel before your awesomeness. =D This chapter is, like, the third best. The best and second best are the first two chapters.
Okay, Missy’s first impression had me liking her, but now she’s just grating my nerves, or whatever that expression is supposed to be. It seems like she might actually be lesbianphobic. Khersis, she’s going out of her way to avoid Mack because Missy is worried about what Mack does behind closed doors… DX ARGH! That girl needs a good twacking or an hour alone with yuri hentai.
Well we still have the rest of the year to get through so I can hope Missy will improve. And Iason, too.
Missy is being really unpleasant every time we hear from her, I can’t wait to see her lose that free pass but I know she’ll just gripe about the unfairness of it (possibly to the Dean hence the current situation)
Marlot on the other hand wins a sparkly gold star for: “That’s why I’ve taken to stopping random women on the street and demanding to know if they’re masturbating to me. You can never be too sure.”
And Missy didn’t even blink.
@Squeeks: Callahan was referring to Steff, who we know possesses the last name Johnson.
@ Chrinos 10:
You know, it does seem hypocritous at first. But think about it for a second. She’s attracted to men, not women. Therefore, the idea of two pretty men having pretty sex (which is probly about all she knows about it) is overall, a very pretty image. However, the grungy skinny little twerp that sits next to her in class, doesn’t know what deoderant is, doesn’t take showers, can’t find it in her to care about her looks is really kinda a gross image, and that’s how Missy sees her. Then you take the fact that this girl who has no attraction to girls is dealing with the thought that this disgustin girl next to her wants to grope her, play with her breasts, lick her pussy, make her come to a screaming orgasm (probly all in public, since that’s where Mack’s been having her little forays into sex city), and then expect Missy to reciprocate. It’s not a pleasant thing for Missy because she seems to be geared completely towards guys. Honestly, I don’t see anything weird or hypocritical about it. I just see a matter of “Totally not my thing, ew.”
I’ve gotta say, I finished this chapter and was laughing because of Callahan’s reputation and naming habits. Nothing I’d do within earshot, but she’s just so outrageous I can’t help but be amused. I’d be there’s a distinct bullshit:fact ratio here, probably more on the side of fact, but still. I also always pictured her as looking older, like the standard seasoned-warrior type, but Jamie’s making me think again. She looks like a student, apparently– yes, no?
Also, Missy is horrible, but she’s giving us a slightly mroe conventional human perspective on Harlowe, which I think is useful if not enjoyable. She sees a creepy girl who looks like she can’t use a shower, and I think that’s a pretty common opinion (Ian’s dormmates and the guy at orientation certainly felt that way). She’s a pain in the butt but she fleshes out the story very effectively. I still cannot stand her weeaboo-yaoi-fangirlism, though. That shit is for no!
@Twilla Thanks! I’d forgotten Steff’s last name for a minute or two.
@15- ” Marlot on the other hand wins a sparkly gold star for: “That’s why I’ve taken to stopping random women on the street and demanding to know if they’re masturbating to me. You can never be too sure.” ”
I second this. That was my favorite line.
Does not Lucy deserve a character tag?
@Squeeks- No problem! Anything to help a fellow MoarMUnky. *Dunno if she spelled that right* ^_^
I fourth that the stopping random women on the street line deserves a star. It’s the best line in this chapter, definitely.
Also, I’m kinda confused. Everybody’s like “Oh Khersis, that grungy little twerp chick from Harlot Hall is, like, so uberly GROSS and DISGUSTING. Somebody needs to teach her how to use a f*cking TOWEL.” but Jamie hasn’t described in her in a way that really helps me picture what Mack looks like… maybe I should just not take a shower for a week or two. =) Heheh.
XD Um, I meant to type in “SHOWER, EMO CHICK! SHOWER!” after that last sentence in between the quotes. And could someone please tell me how to make text appear italic-y?
[I]Nom nom nom…[/I]
@21: Do it like you did it, but instead of [these] use >these.
Regarding Mack being unwashed: I think “grubby” is an accurate descriptor. Remember Jamie’s never been all that close to her either, so he’s probably missing out on the olfactory and close-up visual cues. If you’ve ever been camping for a more than a couple days, something like that. Not full-on utterly filthy, gone the color of dirt and smells like death, but a little greasy and grimy.
Jamie’s comment about there being no women in the army. When using the word ‘woman’ in this universe, did Jamie just mistakenly mean no females (with the assumption of human) or does woman/man imply human?
@Xans – Callahan’s way of ‘liking’ a student seems to come down to when she thinks that they have interesting potential, someone who could be a good fighter, or someone who would be challenging for her to fight, once they have more training.
Oh, thankyou! I haven’t had too many experiences with ‘grubby’ people… Though I remember my sister’s hair was really oily-looking, all nasty, after a week at this invitational ’cause she kept forgetting to take a shower. If Mack looks anything like that… ewww. Can’t blame Missy for not wanting to sit her near her.
Does anyone else see any parallels between Missy’s attitude toward Mack and Mack’s attitude toward Sooni? Both of them imagine the other doing things to them and find it completely disgusting but have no reason to.
Could get interesting.
Missy is pretty much everything I hate about Yaoi fangirls… I don’t think much else needs to be said there.
Huzzah! for another classic Marlot quote, with the whole “asking random strange females if they masturbate about her” quip.
And as always its great to see a different perspective of Mixed Melee than Mackenzie’s rosy colored glasses staring at Gloria. Then again we may not see it like that next time.
To: Missy
From: MUniverse
Homosexuality is not contagious. Lesbians do not masturbate to your image just because they sit near you. Enclosed is 50 copper with which we suggest you buy a clue.
Respectfully,
The MUniverse
p.s. it might be a good thing if you started talking about the sex you had with your boyfriend more than the sex he had with someone else.
The first half of this chapter explores a familiar MU theme: prejudice. Brad and Kurt are prejudiced against male homosexuals, but would probably buy ringside seats for a lesbian sex show. Missy shows us the female equivalent to that attitude. She also shows the effect of MU’s segregation policy toward Harlowe: “they” have it better than “we” do, so she wonders why “they” don’t stay where “they” belong instead of getting in “our” faces. She has only rumour to substantiate her assumption, of course, because she doesn’t go to Harlowe’s facilities: that would be slumming. It takes effort to check the facts, and most people won’t bother to do it.
This attitude is also apparent in the prejudices shown against sexual preferences. What turns “us” on is hot, but what turns “them” on is sick and wrong, and worse, “they” are going to force “us” into doing it with “them.” It’s easier to dislike “them” than to deal with “them” as individuals whose tastes differ from “ours.” In real life, I have found it more pleasant to deal with “them” by ignoring the differences and concentrating on what “we” share with “them.” “NMK, so let’s move on,” works wonders.
I found Jamie’s doubts about Callahan’s history hilarious. There is a strong element of dramatic irony in a quarter-elf who has spent a good deal of time describing the relative apparent ages of his ancestors arguing that a mutt like the coach couldn’t be older than she looks. While some of the stories could be “campus legend,” the only one who could say which are true is Callahan herself, and she isn’t telling, yet.
As far as the nicknames go, it seems like the coach works on a plan of negative and positive reinforcement. Do well, and your name steps up to something more agreeable. Do badly, and your name slides to something less agreeable. She rarely mixes with the students off the field, but I can imagine that years later, she would still use those nicknames in conversation with former students, and that she has a phenomenal memory as part of her elf and dwarf heritage.
“A. Vanaheim Mental Healing Annex” — Heheheh. Good one. Nice touch.
BTW — Did I miss that before, in the Hissy bonus story, or is that the first time the name of the Annex has been given?
Hg
I’m writing Santa for a Mock Box and Coach Callahan to teach me how to really fight.
@DarQuing (#11):
Unless I missed something, all the racist/anti-Harlowe remarks were made by Missy. Jamie asked a question or two, but didn’t seem to offer any opinions of his own other than about not liking stainless steel cutlery.
BTW, I’ve found Marlot annoying in the past, but I really liked her in this one. She’s not letting Missy get away with any crap.
@17, Andy: I see what you’re saying and completely agree with it, but it’s hard to be understanding when Missy says related things that are so odious and hypocritical. I understand that at some point everyone has an “Ew, not my thing” moment, but it’s still disgustingly hypocritical for her to think nothing of fantasizing about Jamie having sex with Iason (an act that is really none of her business unless she’s invited, too) yet disapprove of just anyone thinking about sex with her.
I can understand if she’s uncomfortable with a stranger thinking intimate thoughts about her, but I don’t recall anyone giving her permission to think intimate thoughts about anyone else. There’s really nothing she can do about what people think except maybe make herself odious and unappealing, thought I have a feeling she wouldn’t want to be repugnant, either.
I agree with Major @ 29: Missy could just as easily have focused on positives as decided that Mack was gross for the few observed and rumored traits Missy had to go on that turned her off.
I’m guessing the business with Callahan nicknaming Mack has to do with her slight build and superhuman characteristics (like invulnerability), two things that put her on a level with elves, even if demons are very different sorts of creatures. I couldn’t begin to reason what exactly fuels Callahan’s interest in them, but if physical characteristics are any basis (and that’s all she had to go on when first meeting Mack), there are certainly similarities. Maybe Callahan just likes to wale on people, and beings that are disease resistant and less vulnerability are desireable because they don’t break as easily.
I looked up what Mack was up to today: The night before, she had her encounter with Barley, Puddy, and Mariel, and didn’t end up sleeping. That explains why she was zonked through her first class, despite it being thaumatology.
Holy typos, Batman! Please pardon the state of my last post. -_-;;
Hmmm,
Jamie doesn’t like the taste of stainless steel?
Must be the cold iron…
Minor typo in the date.
Thursday, Astera 17th 22
It’s missing the 1 at the end, unless this story actually takes place 199 years ago but that would just be weird unless you’re implying that time in the MUniverse is cyclical.
Callahan is one of the more entertaining teachers. Like a Snape, but the students learn something.
I’d enjoy seeing D&D 4th filtered through her viewpoint.
I wonder how Jamie will react to finding out Mack is a half demon.
@Isobel (23), Twilla (25): Mack had a few for her image unfortunate things happen to her early on – like Amaranth bringing her into the dining hall without pants, like going down to breakfast in the clothes she had slept in in order to be able to break fast with Puddy and Mariel, had her near-rape by Barley, like being outed by Mariel as a Demon etc. Add to that the fact she had only three sets of clothes change in the beginning, that her clothes weren’t exactly the height of fashion, that she doesn’t wear make up or in other ways make any kind of conscession to the way others perceive her.
@Miss Lynx (32), Lothran B (35): In Chapter 237 Steff tells us My guess is elves have the old folklore weakness to loadstones/magnetism/iron/steel. My guess would be that Jamie has a weaker version of that.
Loved Marlot’s comment re stopping random women on the street! Major (@29), very well put.
However, did I miss something here? Jamie said if the rose did anything he was absolutely through with Iason. Iason promised it did nothing — and cheerfully, almost proudly ‘fessed up to being a liar. The rose did something — it levitated and gave off scent. Who knows what else it does.
So… why hasn’t Jamie told Iason he’s through? I suspect this doesn’t bode well for our protagonist… he appears to have just shown Iason he can be pushed around, if he’s bought off with gifts.
Poor kid.
@Laughing Collie- It doesn’t really do anything except act like a flower-that levitates admittedly, but other than that? Nothing like the first gift-which I want to see in action too.
And Jamie knows Iason lies, frequently. It was his decision to trust Iason.
Jaime will probably react positively to the news Mack is half demon. He seems to have a sensitiveness about attitudes against those of mixed races.
Now we do have his attitude at the dance, which does suggest any positive attitude may be temporary and/or easily overcome.
The combination of all the Callahan stories is close to impossible. Still, if any are true, I think I’ll try a different class.
A is for Aardvark
Which with Vanaheim entwined
Begat Cerebus
Rumors are flying
About all the non-humans
Both student and staff
Isn’t it true that
There’s an element of truth
To some of these tales?
OOK!
“Is that why you eat your bacon with your fingers?” Missy asked.
O_O Who eats bacon with silverware? I thought everyone ate bacon with their fingers! *learned something new today*
@29 Major (or anyone else who knows) – What does NMK stand for?
@41 Squeeks: (love your alias…
)
It’s not that the rose “only” does certain things, or that it might have hidden capabilities, that’s the real issue here — at least to my way of seeing things (YMMV, of course). It’s this sequence of events:Jamie said if the rose did anything they were through,Iason said it didn’t do anything, and then,clearly, obviously, the rose does do something magical.So yes, the rose is apparently harmless, but it does do something, and Jamie has no idea if it also does more — which Iason has (again) lied about.
My immediate thought in the same situation would be: “Okay, he’s a confessed and proven liar, and he ignored my single request, so he could force what he wanted on me. He is SO gone.”
Crudpuppies — my ordered list HTML didn’t work at all. Sorry. Let me try again:
There, hope that’s clearer.
@45 Andrea:
Not My Kink.
Arf!
As for Missy: she’s very hypocritical, and, as such, very realistic. Doesn’t mean I like her, on the ocntrary. Marlot comes off very good in this chapter, but the same sort of bluntness has turned me off before. Just because it’s about something I agree with here, doesn’t actually make it better. So, my mind really isn’t made up about her. Iason is still an idiot, James will hopefully actually be as strong minded as he describes himself, and the stories of Callahan are typical.
I like this chapter a lot
It’s like the drill sergeant in the army: EVERY urban legend ever told is apparently true about him/her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been in the wars on the wrong side, but I would be surprised if she ate her teammates. I wouldn’t be surprised if she duelled with another coach and killed him, I would be surprised if it was real butchery. Etc.
As for silverware: if they do have real silverware in Harlowe, I know some races that would object…But, apparently, cold iron isn’t fit for everybody either. Oh well.