…or, Big Package, Little Package
I expected Iason to pull something at Skinchanger’s, or for him to think that his overblown gifts would make me forget all about the promised apology, but he apologized first to Rosalie and then to Jeff, for putting him in a position where he had to choose between his colleague’s dignity and getting paid.
Jeff looked shocked and Rosalie looked embarrassed, but I couldn’t blame Iason for that. I was the one who’d made him apologize. Maybe she’d just wanted to forget about it.
The application took about five minutes, and most of that was simply getting the piece of parchment lined up exactly right on my back. When Jeff invoked it, I felt a tingle, and then the scroll crumbled to dust, which Rosalie brushed off my back with a feather duster.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“That’s it,” Rosalie said. “No fuss, no muss. Little mess, though.” She sneezed. “Sorry, I’m a bit allergic, I think. It’s the one reason I don’t like these things.”
“How do I wake her up?” I asked.
“Him,” Iason said.
“Her, actually,” Jeff said. “I got bored and looked some stuff up while you were gone. The males have horns, and thicker frills.”
Iason looked like he’d been poleaxed, but he just mumbled something about it being alright. Rosalie turned away and started dusting the glass framed samples on the walls. I’m pretty sure she was laughing.
“Anyway, dude, you don’t want it moving until the ink’s had a chance to set a bit,” Jeff said. “When it’s ready, you’ll feel it. It takes a few days. Maybe a week, for something that big.”
“What will it feel like?” I asked.
“Kind of like your hand waking up,” Rosalie said. “When it does, you’ve just got to sort of flex. It might take some practice before you can turn it on and off at will.”
“Okay,” I said. “Good to know.”
Then it was time to head back. Iason seemed to have an internal debate on whether or not he should get another cab. I resisted the urge to ask him again if he’d overspent. Considering the scope of his purchases, things would have to be pretty dire if he now couldn’t afford cab fare.
If it turned out he’d spent his whole inheritance on one impulsive date, we could sell back the jewelry and maybe he’d learn to be a little more careful. In the meantime, I’d let him have his pride.
Of course, the alternate explanation was he was trying to decide between a cab and something more impressive. We’d left the campus in a chauffeured carriage, after all.
Finally, he gave in and hailed a cab. After telling the cabbie to take us to Pelinor Hall at Magisterius University, he helped me inside. As soon as the cab was in motion, he was all over me.
The urgency surprised me. He didn’t kiss me so much as grind his lips on mine. That’s not to say there was no skill in it.
“You know, you can just come up to my room when we get back,” I said as he undid my pants and started fishing around.
“I’m due on the field, I am afraid,” Iason said. He gave the head of my cock a painful squeeze. “Next week, we’ll have this done. Do you think Clan Sternbauer makes body jewelry?”
“I think you’ve given me enough gifts for a while.”
“Very well, you can pay for this one.”
“I would have got my ears done anyway, eventually, but I’m less sure about sharp bits of metal in other parts of my body,” I said.
“You have the wrong perspective here, Iamie,” he said. “We are lovers, and though you insist on reminding me that this condition may not persist, for as long as it does, this is mine,” he said, stroking my cock. “Just as this is yours,” he said, putting my hand on his.
“So, you’re saying you’d get a penis piercing if I wanted you to?”
“Of course not.”
I took back my hand and pulled away from his grip.
“I’m being honest, Iamie,” he said. “I could have said yes and been confident you wouldn’t call my bluff. A piercing would go horribly with my dragon, though. I wouldn’t ask you to put a metal bolt through yours.”
“So, if you didn’t have that tattoo on your cock, you’d get it pierced for me?”
“No,” Iason said. “You see how honest I am?”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“And yet I am telling the truth. Do you want me to get a piercing?”
“No,” I said.
“Then our desires are in perfect harmony with one another,” Iason said. “You see how nicely this all works out?”
We were hardly in concert, but I wasn’t going to sit and argue over a piercing that neither of us wanted. Especially not when we were heading back to the campus and about to go our separate ways for the day.
“Well, it’s been fucking surreal,” I said after he helped me out of the cab.
“It was good,” he said. “You know that it was.”
“It was,” I said, smiling. “Honestly, it was. Are you sure you can’t come up?”
“You are a ravenous little beast,” Iason said, kissing my hand. “But I am already late.”
I got upstairs and found a note on my door saying there was a package at the desk for me. I had a moment to think “he wouldn’t,” then reason took over and reminded me that yes, yes he would. It was no wonder he hadn’t wanted to come up. I tore back down the stairs to see if I could catch him, but he was long gone.
I headed inside to the front desk. Jennifer, the girls’ R.A. from my own floor, was manning it.
“Oh, hey, did you get your ears pierced?” she asked when I approached.
“Uh, yeah. Just today,” I said. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed she meant “recently”.
“They look nice. Did you go to White Dragon?”
“Sternbauer.”
“Oh, wow. Did your boyfriend buy them for you?”
“Does everybody know about Iason?”
“Is that how you say his name?” she asked. “I saw it on the card for the flowers. Is he supposed to be a secret?”
“Not really, I guess.”
“Oh, good. I think it’s cute. You know, when I saw you at the meeting last week I thought ‘I bet that guy’s gay.’ I told Brad so later, but he thought I was full of it.”
“Um, package?” I said, holding up the note.
“Oh, right! You’ve got two of them,” she said, went into the office.
Two of them? That was really laying it on with a trowel. Before Iason had pushed my tolerance almost to the breaking point with his constant gifts. Having two surprise packages waiting for me when we got back from our date was too much. He’d overplayed his hand.
When had he even found the time to send them? They must have been arranged in advance, unless he’d done them inside the bank.
Jennifer came back with a great big box wrapped in the same paper my mom used to ship large items and a slightly smaller one that was bound in silver string.
“Sorry it took so long to find them,” she said. “A lot of people got care packages today. Sign the clipboard?”
I did, then picked up the smaller box. The return address was the inn. That answered one question.
“Well, let’s see what he sent me,” I said. I slipped the cord off of it and removed the lid and started pulling out the wadded packing paper until I found the item underneath.
I felt stupid as soon as I saw that it was the music box decorated with molded dragons that Iason had bought me at the concert. I had been with him at the front desk when he’d arranged to have it sent over.
“Oh, that looks neat,” Jennifer said. “Do you like dragons?”
“Yeah, I guess I do,” I said.
I put the packing material back in the box and moved it aside. The handwriting on top of the bigger box jumped out before I had a chance to recognize the address as my own. Of course the wrapping job looked familiar. My mom had done it.
I could hear Iason in my head, chiding me for being so “demanding” as to expect two more gifts on top of everything he’d already done.
Okay. Realistically, I had a hot guy who wanted to have a lot of incredible sex with me who also had money to throw around. Was any of that really so bad?
I rebound the small box, stacked it on top of the bigger one, and carried them upstairs. Two girls I passed on the way up complimented me on my earrings.
Juliana and Iolana were hanging out in the corner of the hallway by the stairwell when I came out on the third floor. I would have smiled at Iolana, but I didn’t want to get in a conversation with Juliana there.
If only wanting made it so.
“Oh, hey, gay kid!” she called when I was about halfway down the hall.
I would have ignored it and kept walking, but then Iolana spoke.
“Hey, he has a name,” she said. My heart fluttered, and my pulse quickened as she turned her face to look at me her long eyelashes fluttering. “Uh, what was it, again?”
“Jamie,” I said, heading back towards her.
“Oh, right,” Iolana said. “I knew it was something kind of girly like that.”
“I just wanted to ask who you think is hot, on our floor?” Juliana asked.
“Yeah, I’m not answering that,” I said. “If I did, the people on my list would all be girls because I don’t know any of the guys and I already have a boyfriend.”
“But you don’t like girls,” Juliana said.
“But I do,” I said. “I have a girlfriend.”
“Okay, but you just said you’d list girls because you have a boyfriend,” Juliana said. “So which is it?”
“I have both,” I said. “I’m bisexual. It’s a real thing. Look it up.”
“Just tell me,” she whined.
“No.”
As questions went, “Which of these straight guys that you have to share facilities with do you find attractive?” was in the same class as “Do these make me look fat?” There was no right answer. The consequences for giving a wrong answer could be pretty harsh.
“Oh, leave him alone, Jules,” Iolana said.
“Oh, gay kids always get shit. He’s used to it.”
“You know, we’re the same age,” I said. “So this ‘kid’ thing is really starting to irritate me.”
“My naturalism teacher said that being gay means you’ve got arrested development,” she said. “So you’re still a kid even though you’re as old as people who are adults.”
“Did you go to a doctrinal school?” I asked.
“No, why?”
I rolled my eyes, at her and her distant teacher.
“No reason,” I said.
“Whatever,” she said. “So, who has a bigger dick?”
“What, you think I go peeking in the showers?”
“I meant you and your boyfriend,” she said, in a tone suggesting that this was obviously implied. “He’s an elf, right? So is yours bigger than his?”
“Mine is bigger around,” I said.
“So his is longer.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yeah,” I said.
“That means he’s on top, right? He fucks you,” she said. “Because he has the bigger dick.”
“No,” I said.
“He lets you fuck him, even though he’s bigger?”
“He isn’t bigger,” I said. “And that’s just—that’s not even how it works.”
“How does it work? Do you flip for it? Heads or tails?”
“Juliana?”
“What?” she asked.
“Fuck off,” I said.
Her jaw dropped. She stared at me for several seconds.
“If you were a real man you’d know better than to talk to a lady like that!” she said. She stomped past me and went into her room, slamming the door behind her. The latch didn’t catch, and she slammed it again with the same result before closing it a bit more gently.
Iolana laughed.
“If she’d ever had more than one boyfriend, she’d know that thicker around is better, anyway,” she said.
“Yeah, really,” I said.
“I guess you would know that, too,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, I was going to put these in my room and then grab a smoke,” I said. “I could use some company, if you wanted to join me. If you’re not busy.”
“Oh, I can’t stand cigarette smoke,” she said, making a face.
“Yeah, it’s a terrible habit. I’m trying to quit, but it’s so hard.”
“I’m pretty sure addiction removal is part of the healing plan,” she said. “If you want, I could walk over with you?”
“Oh, uh, I’m not supposed to mess around with healing magic while my holes are new,” I said.
“I don’t think an addiction cure is going to mess with your piercings,” she said.
“Yeah, but you know, better safe than sorry, right?” I said. “I don’t want to mess around with my health.”
“Okay. Well, bye then,” she said. “It was nice talking to you.”
“Yeah,” I said. “We should do it more.”
I could have gone over and gotten a cure addiction put on me, but I knew from experience that it would just make the next cigarette I smoked feel like the first one, ever. Being a brand new smoker isn’t fun, and thanks to my mom I’d experienced it three times already. My body was used to the smoke, and being hooked just meant I got a bigger rush when I lit up.
The box from my mom was full of things like crackers, oatmeal, popcorn, and other things that I hadn’t had a chance to run out of. She’d also sent ten extra pairs of socks. I laughed when I saw this. She’d made such a big deal out of making sure I had enough socks that if I lost all my other clothes, I could probably have made a whole wardrobe out of the extras she’d bought me. Then I started unpacking the box and realized she’d stuck a silver coin inside each of them.
There was a note under all the socks, too.
J – Sorry for all the socks but I didn’t want the box to jingle and attract attention. Also, you can never have too many socks. Your dad doesn’t think it’s a good idea to give you so much pocket money all at once but I just finished two big chests of drawers and I didn’t want you to have to gamble so much.
Love, Mom.
P.S. I know that hall has a mirror in it somewhere.
P.P.S. Let me know if you need more socks or anything. Just kidding about the socks. But seriously let me know.
I smiled at the last line. She was right, too. There were public pay mirrors by the stairs. I didn’t have anything else to do, and if I could honestly say I had thanked her right after opening the package, that would be worth a whole lot of Good Son Points.
Also, twenty silver out of the blue? Score. I could turn the tables on Iason by taking him out for a really expensive dinner. Or I could take Marlot out for crab legs and still take Iason out some place nice. As a third alternative, I could put the silver coins away some place safe or even open a savings account with them.
But it wasn’t like my mother would never get the urge to send another care package right after finishing a huge commission, and it wasn’t like I couldn’t find some guys playing cards for coppers if I needed cash in a hurry.
I went through the lounge to get to the landing where the mirrors and the vending cupboards were, to avoid bumping into Juliana again. I pushed some copper coins through the surface of the mirror and asked for Aurora Bowman in Agora, West Phale. It didn’t take long at all for the mirror to find her, and the image began forming almost right away.
“Jamie?” she said, her voice watery as the surface was still rippling. “Sweetie, is that you?”
“Yeah, Mom,” I said. “I just wanted to thank you for the package. I just got it, and—”
“James Endymion Bowman!” she said as soon as we came into focus for each other. “Did you get your ears pierced?” Then, in a completely different tone, “Are those diamonds?”
“Uh, yeah they are,” I said. “You told me I could get them done when I turned eighteen.”
“You were twelve,” she said. “I thought you would forget about that!” I had, actually, until the moment came where I needed an excuse. “Is that silver?”
“Platinum, actually.”
“What were you thinking? Were you thinking? We give you money to take care of your education expenses, not so you can buy a bunch of expensive—did you say pl-platinum?”
“Yeah,” I said. I decided it was time to bite the strap. She couldn’t yell and be supportive at the same time. I hoped. “Mom, I have a boyfriend.”
OOK!
i love that moms are the same all over!!
(also MOOK! or ARF! or whatnot… I feel so dirty…w)
MOOK!!!
Sorry about that, I’ve never OOKed or MOOKed before
So anyway I find Iason likeable, and I’m glad that Jamie can handle him.
And that line Juliana said about gay guys being used to teasing? That made my blood boil. Here’s hoping she gets eaten by wights!
Oh yay *is apprehensive*
Cannot wait to see what happens… To wait a day is torture!
‘“Oh, hey, gay kid!” she called when I was about halfway down the hall.
I would have ignored it and kept walking, but then Iolana spoke.’ – another return?
‘Also, twenty silver out of the blue? Score.’ – that made me laugh because a score equals twenty.
“I was the one who’d made him apology.” Typo.
As this is my first comment here, I’ve gotta say even though the original ToMU was the first one I got addicted to and have been reading longer, I think I’m liking this one more than the original.
Oh and…
“I was the one who’d made him apology.”
That sentence seems off…could be wrong but it seems like it should be apologize.
“James Endymion Bowman”
My bfs two middle names are cadete quadros and he thinks those are pretty bad. At least they don’t sound like the names of digimon. :3
I loved the last three chapters. Keep up the spectacular work. I can’t wait to see whats next.
I was the one who’d made him apology.
Not sure it this was meant to be either “made him give her an apology.” or simply “apologize.” but it needs a little redo.
Otherwise, Loved it, loved it. Especially the total Mom moment over the “frivolous use of money… wait, we didn’t give you that much….”
MOOK!
Top 10 in both forms on MU? Must be my lucky day!
And yay for Moms.
Oooooooooooh hell, the 5 words no ((or rather few)) mothers want to hear…
However having a rich elven sugar daddy isn’t an entirely BAD thing.
Then again Iason is gonna be in a pissy mood tomorrow, considering MU gets its butt kicked in this match…. or at least thats what I recall.
Does Jamie’s mum know that he’s bi? Interesting. I hope she takes it well if not.
Juliana was so annoying, I hope she gets a rude awakening about how to treat people. Just because someone is a different sexual orientation doesn’t mean that they are below you, moron. grr.
MOOK!
Another good one AE, thanks!
wow, top 10 on BOTH sites…..
well, there’s the typical gay-hater character…..and iason….well at least he apologized.
he’s still a douche though >_>
Doesn’t his mother want him to be gay/bi?
I think one of the early chapters said that. Still thats sooooo much money… He has so much awesome stuff we normal people could never have *Cry*
And apologies for the double comment, but this chapter has one of the best title/subtitle combos I’ve seen in ages. I couldn’t think of anything other than the sick meaning haha.
Although I’m much happier he got 20silver than what I’d imagined XD
Ugh. I’d have punched Juliana, but I love how she thinks JAMIE was the one being rude.
Bwahahaha! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer misogynist jerk.
I’m not certain which character I detest more: Jamie or Iason. Iason is an overbearing shallow misogynist, and Jamie is spineless shallow twit. Iason would normally win it on points, but Jamie makes it up for being unable to realize that he’s just as shallow as Iason.
At this point, the only reason I’m reading this story is for the insight it provides into the MUniverse.
I think one’s opinion of Jamie is dependant on how nice a person one is, and how seriously one takes Iason.
I’m a selfish bastard, so I’d find his rudeness (at least to people I don’t know) no more irritating than Jamie does. Furthermore, I think that Iason’s possessiveness is kinda… unlikely to be enforced. He appears to be genuinely crazy about Jamie, so whether or not he’s creepy-possessive depends on how he’ll react when Jamie finally thwarts him.
And now, my mental connection between Jamie and Mack is completed. Both are hypocrites in their own right, like acting immature, and invoke their own morals on others. Oh, and both like it in the ass now, not that theres anything wrong with that. Jamie being the opportunistic diplomat who hates conflict, and Mack being the whiny little brat, that for some reason grew a spine, yet still has the ability to lick other people’s shoes without even bending her knees.
Is it too late for
Jamie to tell Juliana
To put a sock in it?
Endymion was
The lover of Selene
In ancient Greek myth
That 20 silver
From Jamie’s mother can pay
For his smoking fine
Naturalism class would be? is it a real thing? or something from this universe? Does it have to do with gay people in any way(if it is real), or was this teacher out of the blue being like, FYI, gay people are just immature? sorry I don’t know this.
>>“Okay, but you just said you’d list girls because you have a boyfriend,” Juliana said. “So which is it?”
“I have both,” I said. “I’m bisexual. It’s a real thing. Look it up.”<<
I don’t see what’s so unreasonable about asking which it is, or why he assumes that she’d go, “oh, you’re bi!” because he says he’s in two relationships at once.
Is it just me, or is there this really American thing where just because someone is bisexual it’s asumed they’re having open relationships? Is it to do with the idea that bisexuals are ‘greedy’? Because I really don’t get it. I know a mess of bisexual types- and am one myself- but none of us would date more than one person at once. Well, not without a heapin’ helpin’ of drama anyway.
Aaaaugh, I can’t stop myself anymore. I’m designing that tattoo. D:<
Damn you ,AE!
Truly you are the master of cliffhangers! I’m incredibly pissed and in awe at the son/mother confession! NUUUU!!
T_T
“She couldn’t yell and be supportive at the same time.”
great line. so much like my parents too.
Endymion? *swoon*
@26 silv, people don’t really imagine the differance between polygamous and bi, because they’re both sexually “open” or “hip” or “da hood” or whatever you young’ns are calling it, and they imagine that if someone is willing to be bi, they must be in a relationship with 1 of each other gender…at the same time. Plus, it’s differant, so people’s assumptions go KE-RAZY and throw all sorts of random stereotypes.
I can’t wait to hear what his mom has to say about Iason. It was none of the business of everyone else who bumped into Iason and his questionable morals. …unless Jamie will end up having to defend him, but his mom seems pretty cool.
So Endymion? A mortal beloved by an immortal, placed into an endless enchantment so that the immortal might forever enjoy his beauty? Does anyone see the theme of mortals being doomed by the desire of immortals being a bit of heavy foreshadowing of where Jamie may be going with Iason? Who would trade a life of sensation and experience for immortality spent asleep in a cave? Not only is Jamie in a tragedy, he’s in a Greek tragedy!
I will not be surprised if Jamie gets disappointed by the reaction of his parents to his having a boyfriend. His doting mother may have encouraged him to have boyfriends to keep him from beig stolen by another woman and may react badly to her baby boy getting entangled with Iason.
I loved the irony of “‘If you were a real man, you’d know better than to talk to a lady like that!’” and “‘I don’t want to mess around with my health,’” in that conversation. Juliana was hardly acting like a lady, asking Jamie about every penis on the floor, and as a smoker, I can see the contradiction of declining a cure for addiction on the grounds of worrying about health. OOK!
Done! I used Wild Roses because that’s what came to mind, and they looked better than the kind you see in stores in my planning sketches. P:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f346/nekoyaki/dragontattoosmall.jpg
I had to take a photo because it wouldn’t fit on my scanner. >.> *posting to the livejournal art community now*
@54 If i had the money I would so get that ink’d.
Ooooh, pretty dragon picture. And now that the Endymion link has been explained, I’m just a tad terrified. Will Jamie’s bracelet keep his soul on the earth after any accidents? Would Iason get him a new body? How? Gah!
I have a feeling his mother will be extremely supportive… she’s the elfblood side of the family after all.
That’s terrific, Scraps.
I would just like to point out that it is science that teaches us that smoking is bad, mmmkay? The people in the MUniverse- other than shirelings and dwarves, who appear to have some science, would not necessarily have any notion about this. For that matter, all our data that we have on smoking and lung cancer is correlational. (I’m convinced, but one could wish for more persuasive data.) In a world where healing spells can regrow limbs, maybe smoking isn’t bad for you at all, just distasteful to some.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f346/nekoyaki/dragontattoosmall.jpg
“The males have horns, and thicker frills.”
So it seems we need a little revision here.
Now an interesting lesson for our elfie. Sometimes you just got to put up with women. He may not take the lesson right away, but it seems he will be getting the lesson frequently in the future.
How will mom react? Hard to rule out anything. She is familiar enough with elven behavior not to be too shocked, but Jamie got his attitude about homosexual behavior from somewhere, and being familiar with something does not necessarily mean approval.
Now most mothers would be more than a little upset if their innocent daughter suddenly showed up with this sort of rich gifts. That is quite possibly our best model for the future.
“I don’t want to mess around with my health.”
Oh, sweet fucking Khersis, Jamie. Don’t make me reach in there and smack you.
Endymion, eh? *chuckle* Nice.
I like Jamie ok. Iamie is a chump.
@ Cadnawes (39) : All of which is academic to the fact that having an addiction of any kind is bad for you, regardless of the risk to your physical health.
Also, I’d be willing to bet that if people in the MUniverse find smoking a filthy habit, there is probably a correlating reason within the MUniverse- like perhaps healing of a particular type has diminishing returns, or the herbs used to make cigarettes there have properties that resist healing, or gawds know what else.
You make some good points, though. We’ll see what AE chooses to reveal as time goes on.
Yep, we shall see. I’m just saying that people are making assumptions based on OUR world. It might just be considered a bad habit there because, well, as a nonsmoker, when I go into the house of a smoker, my reaction is a lot like going into the house of a cat owner with indifferent litterbox cleaning habits. You know IMMEDIATELY, and the olfactory assault is less than pleasant.
From Chapter 7 “Week End”
”
“So, Bowman,” she said, with a look on her face that just told me I was going to regret my moment of mental charity. “When you see a tree, can you just feel what it is?”
“Shut your racist mouth, you whore,” Marlot said, before I’d formulated an answer. “I can’t believe you just said that. Doesn’t this college have some kind of policy on hate speech?” ”
Now I get where Marlot is coming from. I like Marlot <3
We’ve barely met her, but I like Jamie’s mom already. I can’t explain why.
And Scraps? You have a gift, man. Those roses are beautiful, and the dragon looks almost regal. Amazing.
Cadnawes : “as a nonsmoker, when I go into the house of a smoker, my reaction is a lot like going into the house of a cat owner with indifferent litterbox cleaning habits. You know IMMEDIATELY, and the olfactory assault is less than pleasant.”
Damn straight.
@40 David Argall
It’s NOT a male. It’s a female. o.O