…or, Hypothetically, Pleasant Conversation
The meal that Iason had selected turned out to be good. The portions were small but filling. That was good, because I felt I could be pretty confident that when he’d said we’d be going to an inn for the main course he hadn’t actually been talking about food.
“If you want to order wine, go ahead,” I told him when we got our iced teas refilled. “Just don’t expect me to drink it.”
“You don’t like wine?” he asked.
“Well, sure, but not enough to make a fuss in a place we might want to come back to,” I said.
“You want to come here again?”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “I mean, the food is pretty good elven fusion. It actually reminds me of the way my mom cooks. It’s just a bit expensive, though.”
“You do not worry about the expense,” Iason said. “I’ll make us a reservation for next Friday. No, Sunday. We will celebrate the skirmish victory.”
“We don’t have to come here next week,” I said.
“We didn’t have to come here this week. That is the point of a night out.”
“What is?” I asked.
“That it has none,” he said with a grin. “Any reason given is just an excuse. I can’t believe you sought to lecture me on the definition of fun, Iamie, if you didn’t know this.”
“So, how would you have gotten out of paying for the meal, hypothetically?” I asked. “Just out of idle curiosity.”
“Well, I try to maintain flexibility and room to improvise,” he said. “If you go into a situation with one set plan, you are likely to fail when the smallest thing is not as you have pictured it. I would have to scout out the lay of the land before I could come up with a final plan.”
“Okay, unforeseen circumstances aside, what was your basic plan?” I asked.
“Would you like to see?” he asked. “It would require ordering dessert.”
“Uh, no,” I said. “Didn’t we say we’re coming back here next week?”
“If I do it right, maybe I could get us vouchers for that, too.”
“No,” I said. “No grifting from restaurants we like.”
“But if we’re grifting food, it makes less sense to do it from ones that we don’t.”
“Just tell me how you would have done it,” I said.
“Very well,” he said. He picked up his napkin, dabbed some golden wine sauce off his lips, and then reached down with the cloth napkin in his hand and fiddled with something on his belt. He came up with a fork, wrapped in the napkin. “See?”
“It’s a fork,” I said.
“Notice anything about it?” he asked, laying it down beside his dinner fork. They had the same design, but the difference in sheen was really noticeable.
“It’s not silver,” I said. The server had brought us actual silver silverware without being asked, as was normal when there were elves or other fay creatures in the party.
“And they say, ‘Oops, sorry sir, let me get you another one,’” I said.
“No,” Iason said. “That’s what happens if you say, ‘Oh, by the way, you gave me a steel fork.’ Instead, I would say, ‘What is this?’ Then, just as she starts to respond, I say, ‘You gave me a steel fork. Are you trying to poison me?’”
“Okay,” I said. “I could see how that might get you an apology and a new fork, but not a free meal.”
“Why not?”
“Well, even if they really had given you a steel fork, how big a deal is that?” I asked. “Any reasonable person would realize that you’d know what you were handling as soon as you picked it up, if not a moment before, and it’s not like it’s raw iron. There’s no danger you’d actually pick it up and stick it in your mouth. You’ll get a little discomfort and then move on.”
“Any reasonable person, yes,” Iason said. “But there is no motivation for me to be reasonable, and if they try to introduce such reason into the discussion, they sound like they’re making excuses. The key is to not just reject any attempt at recompense or reconciliation, but become offended by it. You have to keep control of the situation from start to finish.”
“Okay, but what if the waitress knows she put a silver fork on the pie plate?” I asked. “It seems like that would be the sort of thing that would stick in her mind.”
“Right, which is the only place such information exists,” he said. “If she thinks to say, ‘I was pretty sure I put a silver fork there.’ or anything similar, you just say, ‘Are you calling me a liar?’, and then you have one more thing to be outraged about. She’s calling you a liar to cover for her mistake.”
“But she knows she isn’t,” I said.
“And nobody else does,” he says. “Well, if the man in charge of the establishment is any good, he will know that she isn’t, but he will also know that if he backs her up, he is also implicitly calling you a liar. The right move, from his point of view, is to remove you from the scene as quickly and quietly as possible, which in a legitimate establishment means apologizing and removing the largest obstacle to your departure, which is the bill.”
“Just like that?” I asked.
“Well, I might have to actually say, ‘This is outrageous, I won’t pay!’, but I consider it the purest victory if the other side mentions it first,” Iason said. “The worst case scenario is where you are asked to leave and not come back, but even that is a victory, albeit a small and imperfect one. It’s also why you do this with dessert instead of at the start of the meal.”
I shook my head. On some level, this bothered me more than his rudeness to women. That realization bothered me as well, but one thing at a time.
“You don’t think it would work?” Iason asked. “I may just have to show you.”
“I believe that it would, but I don’t think it should,” I said. “You’re stealing from people who never did anything to you.”
“We all do what we have to, in order to get by,” Iason said.
“Except you’ve admitted you can afford to pay for the meal,” I said.
“I could,” he said. “And they could charge less for their meals, but they don’t. They’d rather have the money. So would I.”
“That’s not the same thing at all,” I said. “People choose to pay them for their food.”
“See? I agree,” he said. “And if I choose not to, I don’t.”
“What about the waitress?”
“If she has any sense, she will justifiably dismiss me as just being some dick, and go on with her life largely unperturbed. If not?” He shrugged. “I am not going to make you happy by reminding you how little I care about her feelings.”
“So, basically, you’ve got no problem with ripping off the restaurant and making somebody feel like shit,” I said.
“It’s a game, Iamie,” Iason said. “If I win and they lose, that’s as much as their fault as mine. In this case, it is the restaurant that sets the rules. It isn’t my fault their rules make it easy for me to win.”
“It isn’t a game,” I said. “It’s people providing a service and you taking advantage. Back home, I play darts and billiards for money. Those are games. We put money down on the bar, everybody knows what the rules and stakes are going in. I’m not picking their pocket while they’re lining up a shot or tricking them out of money when they’re just there to make a simple transaction.”
“And you make a point to tell every new person who walks in through the door that you have measurable elven blood, do you?” Iason asked.
“No, but having a bit of elven blood doesn’t automatically mean I’m better than a given person,” I said. “There’s still the question of individual skill. I’ve lost before. That’s why they call it gambling.”
“But you usually win,” Iason said. “You have an edge which, if your opponents knew about, would almost certainly change their minds about betting against you. So, you are not without your flaws, either. I am a liar, and you are a hypocrite.”
“I’m not,” I said. “We’re talking about two completely different things. People who make bar bets know what they’re doing.”
“As do people who deal with the public,” he said. “But I am not going to argue with you about this, Iamie.”
“Thank you.”
“Because you know I am right. This is why what I do bothers you so much.”
“No,” I said. “It bothers me that you can be such a dick to people.”
“Right,” he said. “So, when you realize that you have done comparable things, you realize what that says about you.”
I bit my tongue. There was a fundamental difference between a kid hustling passing strangers in a bar, and going into a restaurant with the intention of defrauding the people who worked there. If he couldn’t see that, though, it wouldn’t be worth the effort to argue the point.
“In any event, you shouldn’t condemn me for something I haven’t done,” he said. “You asked me not to, and I didn’t. You asked me how I would have done so, and I’ve told you. I hope you will not be angry with me simply because I did what you asked.”
He took my hand off the table and raised it to his lips. I rolled my eyes, knowing what was coming, and then both melted and stiffened when he actually kissed it.
“I’m not angry, exactly,” I said. “Now that I know that you’re apt to do that kind of thing, I’d rather know that you’re not going to do it anymore. But you’re an adult—in human terms, anyway—and I can’t control you.”
“You can’t,” Iason agreed with a smile. “And I will not promise you anything. But, if it makes you happy for me to not indulge in this little hobby, I have a reason not to.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“To be honest, keeping you happy might be the far more interesting challenge.”
“I don’t need somebody to keep me happy,” I said. “I’m kind of used to being responsible for my own happiness.”
“You’re used to being alone,” he said.
“That, too.”
“They aren’t separate things,” he said.
“That’s a funny attitude for somebody who sees everybody as whores,” I said.
“I don’t see everybody as whores,” he said. “For instance, I’m not. But you have your price.”
“I’ve told you, I don’t care about the gifts or dinner,” I said. “I appreciate them. I mean, this is good food, but I’m not going to do anything because of it that I wouldn’t do anyway.”
“I don’t mean in material goods. But, look at how easily and how often you are willing to compromise to keep from walking away when I’ve offended you.”
“Yeah, I could easily stop doing that, if it bothers you so much,” I said.
He smiled.
“See, little by little, I am learning the limits of what you will and won’t do, what you will and won’t put up with,” he said. “How can I do that if I’m not willing to test them?”
“You could ask.”
“No, this way is more honest,” he said. “Since I am a liar and you are a hypocrite, we could never believe each other if we simply tried to talk these things out.”
“I’m not a hypocrite,” I said. “And I like talking.”
“Would you rather be a hypocrite or a whore?”
“I told you not to call me that,” I said.
“I’m not,” Iason said. “I’m just making conversation. If you want to talk to me, then let’s talk. Where do your values lie? If you had to be a hypocrite or a whore to survive, which would you rather be?”
“A whore, I suppose,” I said. “That way I could at least look myself in the mirror every day.”
“Really?” Iason asked. “I’ve always thought that being able to look oneself in the mirror was one of the primary benefits of hypocrisy.”
I shrugged.
“Well, being that I’m not a whore or a hypocrite, it’s all hypothetical,” I said.
“Naturally,” Iason said.
We’d pretty well finished eating by that point, so Iason settled the bill. I didn’t have to say anything to get him to leave the tip I’d promised Anna Louisa, though that was probably more for my benefit than hers.
I had to stop at the men’s room on the way out. Even though it wasn’t single occupancy, Iason waited outside while I used it and then went in. He helped me down the tiny step at the restaurant entrance, then leaned on me with his arm draped over my shoulder as we headed away.
“You know, I’m really not used to being treated this way,” I said.
“What way?”
“I’d say ‘like a lady’, except I’ve got some idea how you treat ladies,” I said.
“You may have to get used to it,” he said. “Unless you judge it to be my one irredeemably intolerable trait.”
I laughed.
“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “And I don’t know if I can get used to it, or if I’d want to.”
“You don’t like it?”
“I could get to like it,” I said. “But I wouldn’t want to take it for granted. I may be dumb enough to like you a little, Iason, but I’m not dumb enough to rely on you.”
“Iamie, you are the most hurtful person I have ever met,” he said. “I promise you that if I say I will do something, you can rely on me to do it without fail.”
“Unless you’re lying when you say it,” I said.
“Well, that goes without saying,” he said. “But I always know whether I am lying or telling the truth when I say something, and I stick by that.”
“I’m not really fond of liars,” I said. “Outside of gambling. I mean, a bluff’s a bluff. And of course, Marlot says things that aren’t true all the time, but that isn’t the same thing as lying. I get the feeling she’s slightly embarrassed whenever somebody believes her. That probably makes it annoying for her to be around Missy all the time.”
“If I were interested in scoring cheap points, I could say that you are being hypocritical by making a lot of fine distinctions, but the fact is I agree with you,” Iason said. “Those things are not lies. If I told you that my left nipple gives chocolate milk when I am sad, that would not be a lie because I had no intention of deceiving you.”
“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “Something can be ridiculously untrue without being deceitful.”
“It’s this way,” Iason said, tugging me down a different path when I started to drift towards the way we had come from.
“What?”
He reached into his pants pocket and pulled a pair of tickets.
“The show, remember?” he said.
“Oh, I actually forgot,” I said. “What is it?”
“The last of the Crystal Park open air concert series,” he said. “This show is called ‘Strings and Wings and Things’.”
“What’s that mean, exactly?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” he said.
“You bought the tickets not even knowing what it was?”
“I knew it was five minutes’ walking from our dinner,” he said. “And that it’s a legitimate event in a legitimate venue.”
“And you weren’t curious?”
“Of course I was,” he said. “That’s why I bought tickets.”
“You didn’t think to look it up and find out what it’s all about first?” I asked.
“Iamie, Iamie, Iamie,” he said, shaking his head. “How does ‘looking something up’ tell you what a concert is all about? We are talking about a musical experience, and that is something that, by definition, must be experienced.”
“What if it turns out to be an awful experience?”
“Then we’ll have more time to spend at the inn,” he said.
I couldn’t argue with that.
Oook!
Been reading much Customers_suck, have you? XD
I’m addicted too
^_^
Mook. I still hate Myself.
Mook!
Iason gives me a squicky feeling. He’s a great character, but… ugh.
OOK!
“I could get to like it,” I said. “But I wouldn’t want to take it for granted. I maybe dumb enough to like you a little, Iason, but I’m not dumb enough to rely on you.”
You seem to be missing some sort of quantifier in the I maybe dumb enough phrase there
good chapter though It’s amusing how much Iason’s illogical logic makes sense
I maybe dumb enough to like you a little, Iason, but I’m not dumb enough to rely on you.”
should probably be “I may be” at the start.
MOOK!
Hahaha, top ten! Now I can go to sleep for my Diff Eq midterm… somewhat happily, heh.
Having worked in the food service industry before I have to say that in this chapter, Iason is everything I hate about annoying customers. Granted there is quite the difference between an upscale restaurant and fast food.
Still he made a few fascinating points, and at least Jamie is making him work for it.
“And they say, ‘Oops, sorry sir, let me get you another one,’” I said.
“No,” Iason said. “That’s what happens if you say, ‘Oh, by the way, you gave me a steel fork.’ Instead, I would say, ‘What is this?’ Then, just as she starts to respond, I say, ‘You gave me a steel fork. Are you trying to poison me?’” – one more return?
“It’s a game, Iamie,” Iason said. “If I win and they lose, that’s as much as their fault as mine. In this case, it is the restaurant that sets the rules. It isn’t my fault their rules make it easy for me to win.” – as much their fault?
“I could get to like it,” I said. “But I wouldn’t want to take it for granted. I maybe dumb enough to like you a little, Iason, but I’m not dumb enough to rely on you.” – I may(space)be dumb enough?
ARF!
I just read this and the previous chapter in one sitting, so sorry for commenting here, but
“This is you being a dick to somebody because you can get away with it.”
“In my defense, that is much more fun than when you can’t,” he said.
Is a great line.
Besides that ,Iason really isn’t the shallow arrogant dick he appeared to be in the beginning. He’s an arrogant twit, of course, but he’s strangely fascinating. I don’t know whether I want him to die violently or to read more about him. Well, well written, that’s for sure
You have to admit Iason is honest in his dishonesty. And he does have some points. If we insist on full honesty, Jaime is both hypocrit and liar [oh yes, and whore]. He for example was cheating those who didn’t realize he was elfblood.
What Iason may not realize, or admit, is that there is cheating and there is cheating. Those that Jaime hussled could, in theory, still end up with a pleasant evening, and even if they did not know what they were getting into, they knew what they were getting into. Iason’s theoretical victims are simply losing and without justification.
Oh gods..Iason AKA “Elf-hole” actually had a plan that made since and was/is possible. I work in a BORDERlandS bookstore and have people pull shit all the time. Damaging covers for discount, or changing sales tags.
So far his only “redeeming” point is his proper view in that a ‘musical experiance’ must be “experianced”!
ToMU+MoToMU=MUniverse Extended!
AE’s creative power…IT’S OVER 9000!
“If you go into a situation with one set plan, you are likely to fail when the smallest thing is not as you have pictured it. I would have to scout out the lay of the land before I could come up with a final plan.”
You know, von Schliefen could have learned something from Iason. (That is honestly the first thought that came to mind when I read that.)
I’m trying to figure out if Iason has a high Charisma modifier but applies it badly, or if he has a high Int that he uses to find ways around a lower Cha.
“If she has any sense, she will justifiably dismiss me as just being some dick, and go on with her life largely unperturbed.”
Huh. I do like that he’s well aware of how his scheme would make him appear to everyone else. This one restored some of my lost faith in Iason. SOME.
Andy,
“Von Schliefen could have learned” the same from Clausewitz; and he the opportunity for that.
arf, mook, ook …
Hee, I’m starting to really like Iason. He amuses me terribly.
The dynamic he and Jamie are getting into is likewise amusing me verily much.
Iason has a high Charisma modifier, a high Int modifier and from past reading a High Dex Mod as well. Iason is just a jerk that lets his abilities feed his overblown ego.
Iason’s High Charisma is what saves him or lets him pull off the diplomatic/Intimidation routines he plays on everyone he can. I would say Iason’s low score is his Wisdom AKA his common sense.
My thoughts
Casp
(I’ve tried, but I can’t say this without sounding pompous. Sorry.)
I think I’m starting to see patterns of behaviour between the characters in this story and the original. Different suits with the same processes underneath. Anyone else?
So now Iason’s not only a dick, he’s an annoying dick.
MOOK! (Hey, I have to MOOK when it’s under 30–I’ll never make it to top 10.)
Wow, I really love this series! Iason has gotta be your best character yet, AE.
@ Iiain– I don’t think any similarities are due to similarities in writing style, due to the fact that *both stories are written by the same author.* Personally, I think MTOMU is a more evolved story, as AE’s writing skills have improved substantially over time.
@ TimWarp– Pay attention to two characters in this series– Marlot and Iason– They are there specifically for people (like you) who take themselves too seriously. Iason ADMITS he is a dick, but he does it in such an endearingly honest way. He may have fairly bigoted opinions, but he still has manners– remember, he’s a half-elf who identifies as elven. For all we know, his behavior is completely normal within his social norm.
I didn’t like Iason much when he was first introduced, and I still don’t like him, but I love the character. He’s so interesting to read and he has about six trillion funny lines in each chapter. Love love.
@14 I used to work at Borders, and had one customer who I saw about to put a book on a wet spot on a counter, so I grabbed the book to stop them. They then pushed the book down onto the wet spot anyways, and then proceeded to complain about the damaged cover.
When I worked at Pizza Hut, I had a customer pull an Iason. She flipped out about the hair she found in her food, going totally apeshit. We knew this was a scam, however, because the hair happened to be long and red. We had no redheaded employees at that store, and the only redhead in the building was the customer going apeshit. She still got her meal free because the manager caved to stop her disturbing the other customers.
If Iason was only being such an aggresive dick to see what Jamie’s limits were or to give him more wiggle room in their couple negotiations, then his behaviour is not quite death worthy. I still suspect that he is a raging misogynist, a dick, and an asshole, to the point that continued chapters like yesterday might have driven me away from reading this story. I don’t leave a story easily, but he was making it nearly unreadable. I have enjoyed quite a few chapters of this story, and endured the sex scenes(which don’t really do anything for me in either series), but the bad was beginning to outweigh the good. I know you won’t change your story to cater to certain individuals, but I thought you might appreciate the feedback.
Aww, I absolutely love Iason. Jamie annoys me, but he’s tolerable. But Iason, wow! Awesome1
Jason won’t admit
(Even to himself) that he
Likes being courted
Iason is testing
Jamie’s limits but such games
Also test his own
Iason’s love of games
Should cause Jamie to wonder
What game they’re playing
Oh, blarg, Iason. Stop being such a bitch, because people are not toys, and because there are other ways to find out someone’s boundaries. He reminds me way too much of an old acquaintance who, for some benighted reason, thought being an ass meant he was smarter than everyone else. Really, he was just being an ass, and not a terribly clever one, so he came out looking like a petulant baby. I see echoes of this in Iason, who is in desperate need of a Man-lot to be impervious to his elfy wiles/his constant being a thickheaded twat.
I know well that anything involving customer service is an escalating war. For instance, Iason pulls his trick today….then the restaurant removes all steel cutlery tomorrow.
I think retail would have been more fun for me if I had realized this earlier.
I think I’m falling for Iason. I LOVE guys who challenge me like that.
Oh Jamie. Just admit you like being courted and spoiled. We won’t judge [well Iason might but, in a loving way ^_~]. Speaking of Iason-
@29- Me too!
“So now Iason’s not only a dick, he’s an annoying dick.”
Well, technically everybody is annoying, and those you like are particularly likely to, but by common usage, Iason is to be considered very engaging, not annoying. Jaime is going to get annoyed in spades trying to act as Iason’s keeper, but the reason Iason is annoying is because he is very attractive.
Of course, as a dick, he goes well past being annoying.
“People who make bar bets know what they’re doing.”
Gee, want a third standard with that?
“There was a fundamental difference between a kid hustling passing strangers in a bar, and going into a restaurant with the intention of defrauding the people who worked there.”
Yup, one will make more money and not get beat up by bigger bar patrons. This reminds me of a story: A man walks up to a girl and asks “Who do you think is the hottest guy alive?” she replies “Johnny Depp”. The man cocks his head, “Would you sleep with him if you got five million dollars?” “Sure!” “All right, how about sleeping with me for $100?” “What? How dare you!? What do you think I am, a whore!?” “We’ve already established that, now we’re just arguing price.”
I just love the way the MU audience jumps around. Last chapter saw an enormous amount of Iason-hate, followed by this one’s Iason-love. In my book, less Jamie-whine == good.
Yup, looks like Jamie is clinging on to Iason, trying to get some semblance of her dream relationship and — of course — trying to change Iason. She’ll be lucky if the swollen lip is the worst she’ll get.
I really don’t understand where all the “Iason is awesome” is coming from. Here he’s finally crossed the line from annoying to actually evil, and with no indication that he’s going to get better.
Right, something to get off my chest, and I understand if no one else cares, or pays much attention –
the initial attraction of MOAR was the idea of the same universe presented in a different way, from a different viewpoint.
Slowly but surely, Iamie’s and Mack’s viewpoints are getting closer and closer. Iamie started as being a very slef-conciously ‘normal’ character, in juxtaposition to many of those presented in TOM.
I’m not saying any of this is a bad thing, but its certainly slowly turning me off MOAR.
To clarify my earlier statements, I still hate Iason, just not so much in this chapter. Here, instead of being a dick he merely discusses being a dick. His behaviour is not uncommon amongst the extreme riche, but that does not excuse it. I do not consider him engaging, and would not tolerate his presence. I would not, in life, actually kill him, but I would likely fantasize about it if forced to endure his presence. The extent of his dickishness is enough that I can barely tolerate his presence in print, and enough of him could cause me to drop this story, and I still check some stroies that haven’t updated in over a year in the vain hope that those stories might one day resume.
@32 Ren Part of the difference is that most restaurants make very little profit(compared to a lot of businesses, such as retail) and are often only a few steps away from closing, even if successful. The overhead at a restaurant of this sort eats up most of their high prices, although high class establishments like this do overcharge, just not so much as people think. The bar patron is betting money that he can presumably afford to lose that his skill will best his opponents, regardless of any heritage bonus. Jamie would be that good at darts not so much because of his elven blood, but because he spent his time in bars playing darts. Almost anyone who spends a lot of time playing darts will get reasonably good at it, although I’m sure Mack would be banned from ever playing darts again the first or second time she put a hole in the wall behind her. Assuming that you can beat a kid of unkown skill is always a pretty poor bet unless you are very certain of your own skill. I do not see Jamie having problems with one but not the other as being hypocritical. Life has very few absolutes, so a line has to be drawn somewhere. Disparaging someone else for doing something of comparable or lesser reprehensibility than what you yourself do/have done is hypocrisy.
Hey Ren, I know we established last chapter that you’re a dick, but can you seriously cut it out with the “she” stuff? Yes, we know Jamie has a stupid, near-reasonless crush, but I know more guys who act like that toward their crushes than girls. So quit being a sexist asshole, please.
“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “Something can be ridiculously untrue without be deceitful.”
Should be *being.
You are a lovely writer, as always; you must either have a lot of really intriguing friends or you do more research than the common writer in order to make these wonderful characters.
I am here to propose a radical notion: that until Ren has something useful or even somewhat realistic to say, we ignore him/her/it. It won’t stop the “I’m bitter because I can’t get laid and because being an ass doesn’t make you cool” shit, but it will save the rest of us time and effort. That, in the end, is a better situation for everyone, no?
@Isobel, Calia et all:
Sorry, I’ve been busy/distracted the last couple days or I would have done something about this earlier…
@Ren:
You don’t have to like Jamie, but you need to find a way to express your displeasure that doesn’t involve impugning ~50% of the earth’s population along with him.
And just so everybody knows, no update tonight. Placeholder on TOMU ‘splaining it.
Well that was fun. I wonder how many places Iason is banned from ever visiting again…
And I don’t even mind waiting longer for the next episode, which will probably feature more rampant male gay sex. Something I am not fond of – in fact for the first time ever on MU/MTM I only skip-read their sex scene in the previous episode. But that’s OK, some people here really like it, and may like what I like less. AE gets round to exciting us all at different times
MU is getting horribly dark too at the moment. “Eating people is wrong!” and I’m somewhat disturbed that Mackenzie seems so willing to do it now that she is back to her normal self. Which suggests she may not be…
No worries. What with the liberal comment policy and all (I like it, and I’ve certainly taken advantage of it regarding Ren), the notion that it was your bag didn’t even cross my mind. I just figured that ignoring the bitter little schmuck would be the best solution. But if he/she/it is banned, that’s, like, a million times better, and I tip my hat to you.
I’m with Heph @ 12: I can’t say that I like Iason, since he is a monumental dick, and I don’t just mean anatomically, though I believe that is one of the things Jamie sees in him. I can say that Iason is a deceptively layered and complex character, and I have picked up my share of interesting, dick-like friends in the past because, despite their apparently rough and undesirable edges, they are endlessly intriguing the more they are picked apart and provide a good amount of entertainment when they are not behaving in a mortifying fashion. Like most people, it turns out that Iason is not perfect (far from it), but because of his redeeming qualities, this only makes his flaws stand out that much more abhorrently.
I’m not generally given to wanton hero worship, but I desperately aspire to creating characters like that!
@Andy (15): Perhaps Iason has chosen to take on a number of potentially offensive character flaws in return for a ridiculously high charisma? I imagine he would need a few extra points to get a high charisma in addition to high intelligence and high dexterity, half-elf or not. It would explain why he keeps making his saving throws.
@G followed by many o’s, n’s, and z’s (34): I believe what we’re seeing here is character development, not so much character transformation. Maybe we all thought Jamie was “normal,” whatever that is, at the beginning of MOARMU, because he seemed so much closer to home than Mackenzie both started out as and is rapidly proving to be the farther along we get in ToMU. I think it was a subjective first impression, not necessarily an objective one. Besides, what is normal, really? Steff is having trouble finding a culture that accepts her and experiences emotional problems related to that – who doesn’t know someone like that? Amaranth thinks that everyone should be loved and accepted by everyone else and won’t say bad things about anyone – who doesn’t know someone like that? Mackenzie is the smart, socially-maladjusted kid who nevertheless has abhorrently low self esteem and is suddenly finding herself in a situation where not only is she accepted and loved, but she’s being told it’s okay to be nothing like what she was always taught she should aspire towards as “normal.” Do I even need to say it? Hell, I’ve been all these people at one point or another, and maybe you haven’t, but that doesn’t mean they’re farfetched or bizarre circus freaks of individuals.
By contrast, Jamie is proving to be someone who thought he was well-adjusted, about average on the “cool” scale, and knew himself well, then he’s thrust out into the wider world and starts to find himself drawn to situations he had previously written off completely, and is starting to see himself as less genuine and straightforward than he previously thought. He’s being drawn into what we perceive to be an increasingly bad situation, but maybe it’s really not, in the grand scheme of things. I had a friend who said it was time to end a relationship when you became comfortable in it because you learn the most about yourself when you’re under stress (which is to say you also stop learning when you’ve settled yourself into a comfort zone and stopped trying new things.) I tend to take the opposite approach to life, but I see her point. Jamie is in a situation with Iason that is almost completely outside his comfort zone, and I think it’s good for him to deal with because he’s learning a lot about himself that he might never have come to know in as accepting a situation. (Please don’t confuse this with saying that this is a good relationship, because the jury’s still out on that one.)
@Dave (41): I can see a good argument in favor or your concern that Mackenzie is still out of her head to entertain the idea of eating people, but she has reacted violently to the idea on several occasions since the fight with Callahan, suggesting that she is quite solidly herself. It’s also worth noting that Mackenzie has discovered that she likes the taste of flesh, regardless of the moral strings attached to procuring it. Considering how excited the plan made Steff, how much Steff’s happiness means to Mackenzie, and that the whole situation is very solidly nonrefundable and happening anyways (never mind Mackenzie’s hallowed ability to justify nearly anything when she wants to), I don’t think we need to be suspicious of her sound-minded intention to go through with eating flesh that she’s already paid for and had processed.
I actually felt like applauding on this one. By now, I felt like applauding over Coach Callahan’s first appearance, but this one’s different. You have actually worked your way into creating totally clashing characters and are able to fully stay “in character” with each of them which is a blast when they argue. Cheers.
1.The boy needs to loose Missy(aka Bimbo#1) as much as Iason(aka the RICH Elfhole),she seems way to needy-into herself-snobish-gosipy-airheady. Points to AE for true to life variety in characters*^-^*
2.May I never get myself into a hypothetical convbersation with Jamie and Marlot, my head would explode in a matter of moments.
3.I’m liking Violet. Here’s hoping that she IS a “she”(though Jamie is allowed a Steff too)and not another Sooni(IE-majorly clingy). She seems to be a good match for him and they sem to be hitting off an (albiet strange) friendship.
@ Andy: If we want to get real nerdy and technical-like about it, Iason’s got a high Cha score; I’m in agreement with Caspian on that point. Charisma is force of personality in general, not only the perceptions of others, and he is pretty good at getting his way. He just prefers Bluff and Intimidate to Diplomacy. How he uses his Cha is fueled by his vast arrogance, a personality trait not governed by simple statistics. However, I’d actually just give him a 10-ish Wis rather than substandard. 10 is average human, and average humans don’t have a great abundance of insight, perceptiveness, or common sense. Iason doesn’t horribly lack common sense, he’s just more analytical than intuitive.
On a wider scale of showing my epi-nerd-us, onward to “…it’s not like it’s raw iron.” (My basic assumption here is that proximity causes discomfort, but it takes contact to cause real damage; please correct me if I’m wrong, because it’s something I’m curious about.)
Proximity-wise, he’d react a lot like he would to ‘raw iron’: stainless steel contains at most 2% carbon and at least 11% chromium, so we’re still left with a good solid 80-85% iron.
[science time]
Contact-wise it’s a bit safer; stainless steel is stainless because a film of non-reactive chromium oxide develops around it, while regular steel develops iron oxide which readily allows more rusting.
[/science time]
The practical consequence of this is that contact with the stainless steel is not contact with iron. However. If he scrapes the fork against something and breaks the film, we still get contact and Iason’s still potentially poisoned.
I particularly like that even after my pedantic dissection, the conclusion is the same as in the anecdote: stainless steel is safer than raw iron, but still dangerous.
Excellent world-building.