…or, Draconian Tactics
“You know, I like a spinach quiche as much as the next man who’s totally secure in his masculinity, but I usually just have a burger and fries for lunch,” I told Iason as we left the cafe.
“On campus, you must make do with what is available,” Iason said. “But with me, your options multiply. In any event, I’m sure I saw hamburgers offered on the menu in there.”
“Well, the quiche sounded good, and I thought, you know, since we were here I’d give it a try,” I said. “But I just wanted you to know that for future reference, fast food is fine. I don’t need to go some place with cloth napkins for every meal.”
“If you want a hamburger, we can go back and get you one,” he said.
“I don’t want a damn burger, I’m just telling you for future reference. If we keep going on dates, they don’t all have to be big productions. We can just go out for burgers and milkshakes some time. We could go bowling. I don’t want you thinking you have to take me out for fine dining and dragons all the time.”
“It’s worrying that you feel the need to tell me you do not expect to be taken to see dragons every night,” Iason said. He didn’t look worried. “It makes me think you may be accustomed to a higher class of suitor than I can match.”
“No, I just mean that not every date has to be a big production,” I said. “We can just go out.”
“It sounds as though you expect to have a lot more of these dates,” Iason said.
“Oh, stop,” I said. “Yesterday you were talking about marrying me. Don’t act like I’m the desperate clingy one here just because I mention the possibility of future outings.”
“You seem to be making quite a bit out of the fact that I mentioned the possibility of a future event,” Iason said.
“There’s a difference between thinking we might keep going out based on one date and thinking we might get married,” I said.
“You always have a reason why it’s different when you do something,” Iason said, ruffling my hair. “You know, I think you are right about the heels.”
“It bugs you that I’m taller than you are,” I said.
“Are you? I had not noticed.”
Iason summoned a cab and we headed down, across the canal where the river now ran, and into the market district in the lower city. In the stores around the marketplace, the clerks’ attention to Iason became a lot more direct and obvious in its intent. He gave up his quest to find the perfect pair of boots for me and decided to focus instead on finding body mod places.
We went to three different tattoo parlors before Iason even deigned to go inside one. I couldn’t see what was wrong with the others and he wouldn’t say. He finally settled on a place called “Skinchanger’s”. Its windows were covered with big pieces of leather—whole sides of a cow, it looked like—with sample designs on them. One of them was a flying dragon, curled in a crescent shape.
“That!” I said to Iason when I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards it. “That’s what I want. On my left shoulder, facing my spine.”
“A hundred people must have that exact tattoo,” Iason said. “We’ll use that pose, but you’re getting a custom design.”
“Won’t that take longer?”
“You said you weren’t in a hurry.”
There was a guy in a muscle shirt behind the counter. His forearms had three bands of knotwork tattooed on them, and he had a piercing under his lip. He looked up from a battered novel as we came in. He carefully marked his place, and set it aside.
“Hey, guys, how’s it going?” he said.
“Quite well,” Iason said. He draped his arm over my shoulder. “I want to give him a tattoo to commemorate our first date, and I want you to make it for him.”
“Ah, cool,” he said, coming from around the counter. “Well, my name’s Jeff. We have some catalogues you can look at, or if you have a design—”
“We have an idea,” Iason said.
“Okay, cool,” Jeff said. “I do original designs for a small fee. If it’s—”
“We don’t need to talk about the fees,” Iason said. “Iamie, take off your shirt and turn around.”
I did, and Iason traced a square on my back.
“He wants a dragon, similar in pose to the one on your window display,” he said, moving his finger in a semi-circle. “But the design must be unique and original.”
“Alright, I can do that,” Jeff said. “I am going to need to see his ID.”
“Yeah, I got that,” I said. I dug it out and showed it to him.
“Right. Any particulars?”
“Try to make it look not completely unlike this in color and style,” he said, taking off his shirt to show off his own tattoos.
“Wow,” Jeff said. “That is some serious ink.”
“Yes,” Iason said.
“But a darker blue, with some purple,” I said. “You know what an Imperial Blue dragon looks like?”
“I think so. They’ve got the crown frills, right? You want the whole flower thing, too?”
“No,” I said. “Just a dragon.”
“Clutching a blue rose in its forepaws,” Iason said.
The guy looked at me and after a moment I nodded.
“Alright, guys,” he said. “Let me get a sketchpad and we’ll see what we can do.”
I put my shirt back on, but Iason handed his to me and we followed Jeff over to the counter. He grabbed a pad of paper, a pencil, and a stool and sat down. He started roughing out the dragon, and Iason and I gave corrections to make it look more like Vera had. The image in my head had been incredibly detailed, probably overly so. He kept it simple and stylized, but it definitely stood out.
“So, this is the basic design,” Jeff said when he’d finished to our satisfaction. “Do you want big, bold lines or thinner ones, like your friend’s?”
“Thinner,” Iason answered. “They have to match.”
“Okay, yeah,” I said.
“How do you want to do this?” he asked. “We can do it with the needle or with a transfer, if you’re shy.”
“I think I can take a little needle,” I said.
“He can take a lot more than that,” Iason said. “I am not certain that the transfer, as you call it, would give Iamie the full experience of getting a tattoo.”
“Yeah, I like having the needle in my hand,” Jeff said. “It takes longer, and it’s harder to fix mistakes—which is why I do my damnedest to not make any—but I just don’t feel like it’s a real, authentic tattoo if it isn’t done with ink and needle. Course, it doesn’t hurt anything that it’s much cheaper than a transfer.”
“Cheaper?” Iason repeated.
“Yeah, a lot cheaper,” he said. “I mean, you pay for the labor, which is four silver an hour for a custom design, and I have to say that a big design like what you’re asking for is going to take some time, but even that doesn’t approach what a scroll of image transference will run you.”
“I see,” Iason said.
“Of course, for more of a middle range, we’ve got magic needles,” Jeff said. “They move by themselves, but they’re animated under my will. They’re a little faster than doing it by hand, and a lot faster when you want colors, because they can work at the same time.”
“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” Iason said. “I think we will do the transference.”
“Uh, you sure?”
“Yes, unless you have something even higher,” he said. “Money is no object.”
“Uh, right,” Jeff said. “Well, we do have some different enchanted inks. You can do animated, living, projectable, summonable, soulbound—”
“Soulbound?” I repeated.
“Yeah, that’s where the ink bonds to your astral body,” Jeff said. “Makes it a permanent part of you. Like, if you had a tattoo on your arm and the arm got cut off, it would heal back with the tattoo on it. Your, uh, friend probably used soulbound ink in his, if he expects them to last as long as he does.”
“Of course,” Iason said.
“So, what if you get a soulbound tattoo and change your mind?” I asked.
“You’re fucked?” Jeff said. “I’ve heard that a necromancer can rip it off of you, but, uh, I don’t know how safe that actually is. The official script we have to read and the thing you have to sign says it’s permanent.”
“Explain the other options you enumerated,” Iason said.
“Animated just means it moves,” Jeff said. “A simple pre-plotted sequence, like flapping its wings or spitting lightning. Living is animated ink with a personality.”
“Personality?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s probably easier to show you,” Jeff said. He turned around and called towards the back of the shop. “Hey, Rosalie! Come show these guys your pussy.”
“Uh, that’s not necessary,” I said.
A girl with bright pink hair in pigtails came out from behind the curtain across the back of the shop. She was wearing a black blouse with short sleeves that were laced up the sides and a miniskirt with striped leggings.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“They want to see what a live tat looks like,” Jeff said.
“Oh, okay,” she said. She turned her left arm over and started looking around the upper arm. “She’s a little shy, sometimes. Let me dig her out for you.”
I got a bit of movement at the edge of the sleeve. She took one bright pink fingernail and speared her own skin, catching the edge of a tiny striped gray cat. She dragged it out into the “open”, while its miniscule paws tried to latch onto her sleeve without success. A flick of her finger flipped it over onto its back, and she proceeded to tickle its stomach with her pinky finger.
“We want that!” Iason said, his face lighting up. “We want that!”
“I don’t know, having a big ass dragon running all over my body might get a little distracting,” I said. “Also, I want it on my back so I can cover it up with a shirt. I don’t want it popping its head up on my neck when I’m talking to my mom.”
“You eighteen, dude?” Rosalie asked.
“According to my ID and the Imperium,” I said. “But I don’t know if that’s good enough for my mom.”
“Oh, well, you can deactivate them,” Rosalie said. “I just like to let her run free, unless I’m having sex. Then she’s very distracting. You turn them off and they just sort of flow back to their original position, which for her is on my ankle.”
“We want that!” Iason said again.
“Okay, for the size you were talking about, that’s going to be running into five or six gold,” Jeff said. “You’ll probably want it smaller, like hers.”
“Yeah, most live tats we do are only an inch or two,” Rosalie said. She was waving her fingertip in circles over her forearm, where the tiny kitten frolicked and leaped after it in two dimensions. “And they’re still not cheap. I was saving for my itty bitty kitty before I even started working here.”
“No, it’s fine,” Iason said to Jeff. “We will do it full-sized.”
“Hold on, I haven’t decided if I want this,” I said.
“Why do you have to decide anything?” Iason asked.
“Uh, because it’s my body and not yours?” I said.
“Yes, but this is the design you want,” Iason said. “Whether you get it with this level of animation or not, you will have what you want. Even if I choose to pay for the special ink, you still have to activate it. So why not let me do this? The final decision to invoke it or not is in your hands already.”
“Do you really expect me to have a tattoo that can come to life and never use it?” I asked.
“No,” Iason said. “Because you know as well as I do that it will be the most awesome thing you will ever own, and you’re simply being difficult.”
“Okay, but will a dragon that size even be able to fit on my arm or whatever?” I asked. “It’s not going to do me much good to have a dragon that’s stuck running around on my back where I can’t see it.”
“Dragons are sinuous,” Iason said. He looked at Jeff. “It will be able to fold its wings like a real dragon, yes?”
“Yeah, it should be able to do anything the real one can do, within reason,” he said. “If you want it to breathe lightning, we’ll have to work that into the base pose somehow.”
“Do that,” Iason said.
“Alright, like this?” Jeff asked, erasing part of the dragon’s mouth and redrawing it open with a tiny fork of lightning.
“You know,” Rosalie said, “if you’ve got money to burn and you really want to play with a dragon, you could get it—”
“Don’t talk to me,” Iason said. “And we want it soulbound, too.”
“Dude, not cool,” Jeff said as Rosalie gave me a “what the fuck?” look.
“What?” Iason asked. “Can you not mix the soulbound ink with the animation magic?”
“You don’t talk to people like that,” Rosalie said.
“Not when I can avoid it, but they keep coming up to me,” Iason said.
Jeff closed his sketchpad and put it down.
“Okay, guy, you can either knock it off and apologize to my fellow artist or you can hit the road,” he said. “We don’t have to work on anybody we don’t want to and honestly, the only reason I’m not tossing you out right now is that you’re doing this for your little buddy who at least has the grace to look like he wants to die.”
“I’m actually taller than he is,” I said. “It’s the boots.”
“You’ve already spent the time doing the sketch,” Iason said. “If you don’t complete the work, you won’t be paid for that.”
“Yeah, well, that’s my problem,” Jeff said. “Apologize.”
“Oh, forget it, Jeff,” Rosalie said, turning and heading back towards the curtained-off area. “Money’s money and we’ve been dead.”
“No,” Jeff said. “‘Money’s money’ is why people think they can get away with this shit.”
“Apologize, Iason, or I’m leaving,” I said.
“Well, it seems we’ll have to find a more suitable establishment, anyway,” Iason said. “Come, Iamie.”
“I don’t mean I’m leaving the store,” I said. “I mean you.”
“I try to give you a very personal gift and it turns into another ultimatum,” Iason said. “How does that happen?”
“You know how it happened,” I said. “So knock it off.”
“Very well,” Iason said. He turned towards Jeff. “I am sorry I insulted your co-worker.”
Jeff just stared at him. Rosalie said, “Oh, take it.”
“Alright,” Jeff said. “But just so you know, there is no way in hell I would ever work on your body.” He looked at me. “Live and soulbound? It’s your skin, dude?”
Getting me tattooed had been Iason’s idea but it had been my decision. The dragon was what I wanted. If I ever did acquiesce to having Iason’s mark or name inked onto my body, he’d better believe it would be removable.
“All but the rose,” I said. “Can you do that? Make the rose separate and only use the special inks for the rest?”
“Yeah, you probably don’t want it dragging the rose all over the place, anyway. How about I just put a rose border around the dragon?” Jeff suggested. He pointed to one of the lines on Iason’s body. “Like this, but with purple highlights. It would stay there like a home base when the draggy’s on the prowl, and it wouldn’t have to be soulbound.”
I looked at Iason. His expression was calculating, but then he nodded. I think he was willing to accept the fact that his contribution to the design would be removable in exchange for a stronger link between his tattoos and mine.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do that.”
“Alright,” Jeff said, adjusting the sketch. He took out the rose and put the curving dragon inside a triangular frame of roses with their stems twined together. “How’s that look, guys?”
“Good,” I said.
“Excellent,” Iason said.
“It’ll take me about forty-five minutes to an hour to get this painted up on a scroll,” he said. “Wait, better make that an hour and a half, since I’ll have to let the border dry before I do the rest. Once you approve that, it won’t take a minute to get it in place. Sound good?”
“Very good,” Iason said.
“How much is this going to cost, altogether?” I asked.
“Well, when you include the cost of the scroll and the animation and initiative spells, and then I have to charge for the design, and the soulbounding is—”
“It’s fine,” Iason said, putting his hands on my shoulders and pulling me back away from the tattoo artist. “We don’t need to discuss price.” He dug in the pouch on his belt and pulled out a handful of gold coins, which he set on the counter. “If it’s more than that, I will pay the balance. If it’s less, you may split the remainder with your, ah, colleague.”
He managed to make that word sound like a serious insult, but there had to be a dozen gold coins in the stack. Rosalie and Jeff exchanged wary looks, then Jeff swept the coins off the counter.
“Alright, guys, rock on,” Jeff said. He held out his hand kind of in between us, and Iason took it and shook it.
“Iason, that was way too much money to drop on me, all at once,” I said once we were outside.
“You don’t need to worry about how much money I spend,” Iason said. “Though if you’re so concerned, you could let me do my own thing in restaurants. Now, let’s go find your earrings.”
“There’s a piercing place right there,” I said, pointing to the next store over. “Actually, they’re all over the place here.”
“No,” Iason said, shaking his head. “We have time, and if you are not going to let me get your nipples and cockhead done, I want a jeweler’s. You’re getting diamonds.”
“You’re spending too much money.”
“I’m investing,” he said.
“Well, I’m not letting you buy me diamonds unless you promise to apologize to Rosalie herself when we go back,” I said.
“You have an interesting style of negotiation, Iamie.”
Yay, an update! It’s good to be up this time of night
-blinks- omg.. could it be that i am actually 2nd? wow!!!
okay, off to read..
I have a much harder time relating to Jamie than I do to Mack. I’ve never been so besotted with someone that I would put up with the shit Iason keeps pulling. Maybe that’s just me, though.
Wow, that’s some tattoo! Jeff’s a good guy — glad that Jamie is trying to put his foot down, too. Iason is really a prejudiced asshole.
I went from “Awww, Iason” at the “We want that! We want that!” to “I’m gonna fucking kill him” with the shit he pulled towards Rosalie. Good to see people who aren’t cowed by Iason’s bullshit… if more people stood up to him like that, he might at least tone his shit down a bit. Doubt he’d ever fully stop, though.
Still, the “We want that!” made me laugh. Just like a kid…
Also, if I could get a live tattoo, I so totally would. That sounds like the most awesome thing EVAR. I would get a cheetah :3
Living soulbound dragon tattoo. That, would be an awesome thing to have.
I wonder if you could get a living tattoo of an epic battle and have dozens of little soldiers running up and down your arms fighting, or what other kinds of limits there would be.
I also wonder what you would do if the tattoo artist messed up if using a needle with soulbound ink.
OK. Iason needs a crossbow bolt between the eyes, and Jamie needs a savage beating with a clue-by-four. That whole chapter was just painful…
Okay, Iason: I want to smack him with a very large, very pointy death-stick.
Living kitty tat: I WANT ONE!!! OMG. So cute. I’d have to get it a friend or two, though.
OOK!
Knowing what Iason’s issue (with women especially) is would be really fascinating.
But wouldn’t stop me trying my hardest to beat the crap out of him.
And… who does Jamie think he’s kidding, anyway? I… God, I’m over-involved in this story!
Way to go, AE. Again!
Oooh! Top 20! MOOK!
A living dragon is the first tattoo that I have heard of that I would want. I think I really could live with that for the rest of my life.
I don’t really like tats, but hell, if I could have a dwarf puffer fish swimming around on me, I might actually get one.
KILL IASON!!!
Dammit not only is he a dick, but he’s gotta be swinging it in everybody’s face to.. if not his actual phallus, then it’s more socially acceptable replacement, a stack of gold coins.
Mongoose & Bobfrank: I heartily agree.
Iason is starting to remind me disturbingly of Ian’s sociopathic father: he’s deceitful and manipulative, he has no remorse for the harm he does, he constantly violates other folks’ boundaries, and he always re-works every situation to fit his point of view — then convinces Jamie to passively not bother arguing any more, or to just agree. Oh, and he oozes both superficial charm and a hugely inflated self appraisal. I find it sadly telling that Jamie went into the shop wanting just a straightforward tattoo… but he’s going to be walking out with a soulbound one.
Bleah. I’m finding Iason hard to follow in the story. I keep wondering what nasty shit the vicious little monster is going to pull next — will the gold be fake or illusory or something?
I’m actually disliking Iason to the point of wanting to skip the chapter if I see that he’s in a majority of it…
Euuggh. That was painful to read, really.
Iason… Sometimes he’s got JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT of nastyness to appeal to me, and sometimes, like now, he’s just a total ass.
…that being said, I DO like him more than Sooni.
@14: Laughing Collie.
I think this is precicely why Ian was so hostile when Jaime tried to do his usual Iason’s-apologist routine after Mack almost went ass-over-teakettle. Ian loathes and despises those two because Iason and Jaime remind him too much of his father and mother.
Iason really has a thing about women, and not in a good way. Want to precipitate ice crystals out of the air without using elemental magic? Just arrange a meeting between him and Dee.
Another thought: did he ever try to treat Callahan like that? He might be fearless, and hot stuff as an assassin, but he really would have had his work cut out if he did, not to mention his heart, liver, lungs, intestines, kidneys….
@14 Laughing Collie (any relation to Super Collie?): I don’t think even Iason would go messing about with currency fraud. It’s an old crime and is taken very seriously, so the punishments would be suitably medieval. Plus, as he commented in the previous chapter, people automatically suspect elves in retail situations. The sales counters and cash registers are probably enchanted to expose false currency automatically, saving sales staff from having to cast such spells and do so overtly.
I spent a good few seconds reading this paragraph:
It could have a whole different meaning in a milieu where undead can exist…
A live dragon that can spit sparks PERMANENTLY attached to you? Even if you can turn it off, there are all sorts of problems that it could cause. Including, possibly, seriously upsetting the real Vera. And he cannot ever remove it …
Interesting take on what tatoos might be like with magic involved though.
So when do we get to read the chapter where Jamie gets a spine and a clue and tells Iason to go take a flying leap? I want to read that one.
I think I actually like this one better than the original MU. xD I still don’t see what’s so bad about Iason–but I think Jamie needs to realise that he’s a friggin’ child and treat him as such until he manages to figure out why how he’s acting is wrong.
I also really want to see what his mother was like. O:
Ok, so I’m a Iason apologetic, but even this is getting tiring for me.
Jaysan @6 asked:
To quote Jeff about changing your mind after you’ve gotten a soulboud tat “You’re fucked?”
This chapter answers several questions that have been raised about healing.
Iason is the biggest jerk i’ve ever read. Great Job AE! I love being able to hate a character as much as i hate him. Just wanna go in and take his head and smack it against a brick wall. Repeatedly. Jamie on the on the other hand seems like a nice guy, someone i wouldn’t mind for a friend, or boyfriend. I’m loving this so far, and that living tatto idea. ;.; I’d cry because i can’t get one. That is the most awesome thing I’ve heard in story yet. I’d deffinatly have a white iridescent one not to big though if I could. that’s AWESOME.
Iomah
Damn, living tats sounds cool. Though I would have thought you could set a boundary for them somehow. Like, only stay on my back! Either way, I’d definitely get a living Intellivision running man on me. That would be bad. ass.
Holy crap this is one of the best chapters of anything I ever read!` Soulbound animated tattoos?! I demand the battle of ragnarok to be placed upon my entire body and let it play out for all of my existence!!
Phew………This chapter rocks and Iason is ok but Scott Mason will always be my favorite character that no one else likes.
why does iason hate women so much?
seriously he needs a smacking
I’m actually at a point where I’m considering skipping all the Iason-intensive chapters, because honestly, Veruca Salt was my least favorite part of the Chocolate Factory movies, and that’s who he is. Actually, all the arrogant trust-funders I went to high school and college were like this too, so that’s not helping my boredom with dropping cash and being a dick. I mean, as a character, Iason’s certainly realistic, but I’ve seen wayyyy too much of him and he’s way too bent on remaining a revolting little pain in the ass. Sure, it’s my short attention span and not a problem with the story, but I wouldn’t say no to more Marlot, dormmates and Professor Bryony.
Wow….animated and enchanted tattoos!!! That’s got to be one of the coolest ideas i’ve ever read. Makes me seriously wish it were true.
I do have to say that i don’t recall my college experience of self discovery being hallmarked by bullying and coercion. Seems to be a disconcerting theme… But then i guess we only subject ourselves to that which we are willing. Still…
WTH is wrong with Iason? GHOD, what an ass! I can’t figure him out just yet.
It sounds to me as if he really doesn’t have much money, and is throwing what he has around, to make a big impression. Was he raised in a barrel and fed through the bunghole (and had the bung driven firmly home when he reached puberty)? He has absolutely zero social ability beyond his ability to speak the local language.
Iason as bent an individual as I think AE has ever written.
I am truly sorry Jamie can’t shake him. There’s a whole campus full of people out there for him to come to know, and he’s stuck with this asshole.
“Do you really expect me to have a tattoo that can come to life and never use it?” I asked.
“No,” Iason said. “Because you know as well as I do that it will be the most awesome thing you will ever own, and you’re simply being difficult.”
–
I laughed out loud at that. I never laugh out loud at anything. Well done!
Extra closing quote.
Did anyone else have a “Hobbit” flashback at the name ‘Skinchangers’?
I want to hear the rest of this list. These tats sound like fun.
Does a soulbound tatoo appear on a your new incarnation if you are reincarnated? It would make keeping track of souls much easier, and possibly worthwile for elves with mortal lovers.
Can you feel the tatoo moving around, or is it just an image?
I really like the artists in this chapter. They remind me of most of the people I know who do tatoos. They charge for their work so they can afford to keep doing it, but they are artists first, to the point of refusing to prostitue themselves or their art to someone who doesn’t appreciate them or it.
Firstly, great chapter AE!
Secondly, I really want to punch Iason in the face.
Thirdly, Jamie needs to GET A CLUE.
It does make for entertaining reading though. He’s certainly well written if so many people hate him *g*.
This chapter strangely made Iason a more likable character, to me. He has a problem with women, we’ve already come to understand that. Now, however, we see that he has some boyish enthusiasm as well. He now has, in my opinion, a truly redeeming quality (even if it is typically buried)–everything up until that point has felt very calculated.
I’m not going to apologize for his actions towards Rosalie but, considering his treatment of her was beyond rude, I think this gives us an idea of how much he does censor himself normally. Or, at least, that’s what I want to believe. I’d like to think that he was so excited about the tattoo that it didn’t occur to him to moderate his behavior, and if that is true then it shows Iason at least has a filter (even if what comes out of it is still rude, he’s trying or at least recognizes that only so much is socially acceptable.) Of course, this could just be wishful thinking. I’m just glad he has finally shown a side that isn’t carefully crafted.
MOOK!
I must fourth or fifth those who support the idea of living magic tattoos. Those are awesome. Wish I could get one.
And dear Lord does Iason need a good ass kicking. Good for Jeff for standing up for Rosalie and telling Iason his money is no good there unless he apologizes, even though they clearly need the money.
He’s a bad ass and I wish we could swap him for Iason.
The part about ‘investment’ gave me chills.. Iason has already openly called Jaime a whore, does this mean he thinks he’s Buying Jaime?
I still love Jamie…But Iason is a downright asshole. WHY are they still together come the second dance? WHY JAMIE. WHY.
Oh, and Jeff is total win for standing up to Iason like that. Seriously. I’m in love with this guy already, I hope he shows up more. =3
@34: I’d like to believe that, but I don’t think Iason does censor himself normally. Reliably, every time he has to interact with a non-penised person, he has been appallingly rude. He’s even unpleasant to other men if he feels like it, and he appears to be very aware of what he’s doing. However, I think the childish enthusiasm you mentioned is very accurate, and in part explains the rest of his behavior. He’s very childlike in his actions (“I want it! It will be mine!” is 97% of his thought process about any given thing) and since he’s been petted and spoiled by the school for being a skirmisher, by elves for being hot, and by men for being a hot elf skirmisher, he’s never had a reason to modulate his behavior. No one’s ever sent him to time-out, in other words. Sure, he knows better, but so do kids some of the time. Jeff might actually be the first person who has ever told him no. Which, by the way, is part of the reason I like him– he doesn’t buy into this whole “suck up to the elf/the person with money” thing that allows Iason to be such a whopping asshole.
I love this story, maybe it’s the hot boy on boy sex, Iason manages to be at once sexy as hell and fucking infuriating… I want one. a living tattoo??? holy crap that is soo cool. I want one! reality bites… it’s so limited. Will Jamie feel it when the dragon spits lightning? what if the dragon and Jamie don’t get along?
ooh, he’s a dick but I love him anyway!
I wants teh tattoo too!!
Frakkin’ cool. Don’t worry Chris, it’s entirely possible whenever nanotech really takes off. Well, we might be old and wrinkly by then tho. Iason is really childish at times, but can be really charming when he wants to… he just seldom wants to. I wonder what his problem is with women?? That would be an interesting side-story. You hear about man-hating lesbians all the time, but not so much about woman-hating gay men. Kudos to Jeff for demanding an apology!
Ha!
Okay, the last line made me laugh out loud. Iason is right, Jamie does have an interesting negotiation style.
While Iason is a total jerk, he’s still fascinating. I can understand why Jamie is sticking around so far, it’s like having your own personal car crash to watch. Terrible, but soooo compelling….
I have to wonder at Iason’s resources. It’s quite possible he’s so loaded this is just a lark. Or maybe he’s good enough that the school gave him chests of tribute to come play skirmish and he just wants to show off.
Or maybe he’s a stalker. The bracelet thing is still at maximum creepy…. Although Jamie seems able to tame the wild-eyed man-blood when he can back off his libido….
More and more I come to think Iason is a sociopath who just does not Grok the concept of ‘the social contract’.
…that’s where you agree to not be a flaming asshole in public, and the public in turn agrees not to murder you. So far kudos to the public for keeping-up it’s end of the bargain, such patience is saintly.
@17 Les: That’s a very good point. I wonder, though — if Ian truly saw Jamie in the victim’s role (as opposed to the abuser’s role, which Iason is filling with gusto), would he have been so willing to attack Jamie that Mackenzie had to grab his shirt to stop him?
@18 Greenwood Goat:
LOL! Re Super Collie: who’re you, and who’s asking? Inquiring minds want to know!
Re the remote possibility of the gold being fake: actually, I agree with you. It was more I was wondering via (obviously not very good) metaphor how soon Iason would gleefully and proudly screw over another innocent bystander, you know?
@20 Purple Cow:
Well put; you and me both! Ah, well… hopefully the date will be over soon, and Jamie can get back to his real life and real friends.
@28 Isobel:
Now that you mentioned Verruca Salt, I have been trying to winkle from my consciousness the character that I think Iason most resembles. And with a whole anime nation of haughty, manipulative bishonen out there, I have somehow fetched up with the Erl King from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem of that name (Erlkönig).
“Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel’ ich mit dir;
Manch’ bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.”
“You lovely child, come, go with me!
Such nice games I’ll play with you;
Many gay flowers are on the shore,
My mother has many golden garments.”
The contexts of Erlkönig and MToMU are completely different, and (BTW) Erlkönig does not translate to Elf King, particularly not these sorts of elves. However, the two characters keep chiming with each other.
“Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt;
Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt.”
“I love you, your handsome form attracts me;
And if you’re not willing, then I’ll use force.”
Well, we haven’t gone there, as Jamie has proven willing – enough – so far.
Here’s a link to the complete poem and English translation.
http://german.about.com/library/blerlking.htm
And, just for the erl of it, a performance of Schubert’s setting of the poem for piano and solo vocal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5B6nysheec
Oh, possible typo
I think you mean “right next door” or “right there”? I’ve never heard “right next there” before. xD
Iason thinks himself
“A higher class of suitor”—
Not just a rich one
Blue roses signify
Mystery … or attaining
The impossible
Diamond earrings
May be deemed more expensive
Than an apology
@39
I mentioned it as a possibility because he has not until now been so abruptly dismissive (though I could just be doctoring my memories.) Also, I have to disagree with the idea that he is very child-like in his actions. He is methodical, manipulative, and confident in pursuing his desires. That’s not childish. He has an enormous sense of self-entitlement, and whether his attitude is the result of being spoiled or typical for a “macho elf”, I can’t say.
@42
Considering the lengths that schools go to in recruiting ogre skirmishers, I imagine they would also make life very easy for an ogre-slaying assassin.
@44 Laughing Collie:
I was thinking of this character:
http://www.furry.org.au/focault/Prose/Super-Collie-Adventures.htm
Googling “super collie” comes up with some interesting hits, though.
Yes, I did see what you were trying to do with that example, and no, I haven’t been able to think of any neat examples either… Iason does seem to enjoy doing such things, a bit like Raffles, the gentleman thief, with Jamie cast in the role of Bunny. As it would be if written by Oscar Wilde, for private publication. Hmmm, there’s a link to Dorian Grey there too >:=)>
As to who I am, “who” is merely the form following the function of “what”, and what I am is someone who is calling himself Greenwood Goat. >:=)> If this was a page with avatars, and I got it together to draw one, it would be a six-foot tall anthropomorphic goat with a light grey coat, shortish horns, unguligrade stance and a woodsman’s axe, probably lying under his favourite tree in the greenwood that he calls home.
So now you know. >;=)>
(shrug) Yeah, Iason’s an ass, but he’s more tolerable than Puddy (the f–king prick who should be brutally snuffed from existence), Sooni (the abusive airhead who can’t tell reality from her ass), and the chicks who tossed garbage at Mack (the f–king bitches who should be stomped on by Callahan. Come to think of it, they should ALL be stomped on by Callahan). But he’s also as intolerable as dear Two’s…. inventor? Master? (Which should I call him?) It balances out, sort of. I think.
For his part, Jamie is more tolerable than Mackenzie, who can’t or won’t learn that being assertive is a GOOD thing, even after she felt so fantastic when she stood up to Brenda (it is Brenda, right? The half-orc skirmish player?), and when she survived the trial in the maze.
I understand the girl’s damaged and abused (and f–king STARVED in food and affection) to all f–king Hells and back thanks to her f–king granny (may she burn eternally with all the demons she exorcised getting revenge on her), but if dear Two can develop and grow into herself in three weeks, why can’t Mackenzie? Is she really so desperate to be loved that she’ll let herself be repeatedly beaten down just to be owned and coddled by Amaranth and Steff? (Holy shit, battered wife syndrome!)
(Sorry to be so off-topic there, but lordy am I confused on that particular subject. And wow, I’ve used a lot of profanity. My twin really IS a bad influence. Sorry everyone!)
Anyway, I have to agree: Seeing more Marlot would be fun; she has the same prick-ish bent as Puddy, but she’s actually, y’know, DECENT. Her friendship with Jamie has an interesting dynamic. More Professor Byrony would be fantastic too; if I’d had a greater amount of tolerant teachers, especially teachers who cared for the students (and offered snacks), I might not have needed homeschooling.