…or, Among The Tree Tops
There was a babel of voices around me, but if my hearing had become sharper, the part of me that sorted out language was sluggish as hell. With half a dozen elven guys surrounding us and more on the way, sounds were coming through but the meaning was lost.
Iason said something. His voice was big and booming. He slipped off my back, and there was a sense of breaking off. I felt reduced. He put his hand on the side of my neck, and things felt better.
My brain started to catch on to the things being said, starting with Iason. He was speaking elvish,
“— you it was real,” he said. “Pay up, Petros.”
A tall, rail-thin elf with features sharp enough to count as a weapon pulled a segmented bracelet of shiny metal off his wrist and went to throw it at Iason. Another elf, shorter and less emaciated, stopped him.
“How do we know that Manblood didn’t just charm some dumb beast?” he asked.
Iason removed his hand from my mane and stroked it down my muzzle. I saw an explosion of color. I felt myself shooting backwards, collapsing in on myself, and then I was standing on two legs. The position felt precarious for a second, then I remembered that was how I had always stood. Shapeshifting was seriously disorienting.
The warm breeze on my skin reminded me what the bundle strapped to Iason’s back was. The stiffening of elf cock all around us was a pretty handy reminder, too. Half of the dozen who were now present whipped it out on the spot. Three of the others ditched their pants entirely.
Petros and his skeptical friend were among the ones who were unmoved, but I was more interested in the others, the ones who were coming towards me eagerly. Memories of misspent summer nights were stirring. They weren’t the only thing.
I took half a step forward. Iason put one hand on my shoulder. His sword was in the other one, and he moved to point it at each of the approaching men in turn.
“The first one of you who touches my mount is going home a gelding,” he said. “Now, Petros, I believe you have something of mine.”
Petros flung the bracelet wide, so that it probably would have flown past Iason into the canal below, but he moved his sword and caught the metal loop on the blade.
“Thank you for accepting defeat graciously,” Iason said. He tipped his sword upward and the bracelet slipped down to the hilt guard. He let go of me so he could undo the clasp and pocket his prize. “I had not intended to cause such a commotion, but since so many of you are here, I would like to introduce my intended, Iamos Toxotes.”
“What’s wrong, Iason? Did you not get enough human in you from your father?” Petros’s friend asked.
“Don’t be so cruel, Nikolaos,” Petros said. “Clearly Manblood wanted a lover beside whom he would not look like a hairy, overbuilt ogre.”
“True,” Nikolaos said. “Next to a face like that, Iason’s almost fuckable.”
“Three things? One, ‘Iamos’ speaks elvish,” I said to them in their own tongue. “Two, I know I’m the pretty one in the relationship. And three, I see at least ten guys who are hard for me right now. Ten and a half, if you count the one that Petros is trying to hide by hunching over.”
Petros blushed and his boyfriend turned red, taking a step towards me. His hands went to the daggers on his belt, but Iason drew his dagger and leveled both his weapons at the man.
“If you are looking for another duel, Niko, you will find me ready,” he said. “But I am tired of taking your jewelry. The wager this time will be for your treasure, instead.”
“I will not sully myself by dueling with you,” Nikolaos said, sheathing his daggers.
“Yes, I do seem to remember our previous bout leaving you in a certain state of soiledness,” Iason said. “Now, if you have nothing further you’d care to say, I will be showing my new mount the way to my quarters.”
The two turned and slinked away, though not without several ugly glances thrown back at us as they went.
There’s a saying that the elves have no word for modesty. It’s not true, but the word doesn’t get used very often, at least without a lot of irony. Several of the spectators were jerking off furiously by this point. It made a nice counterpoint to any claims about my supposed ugliness, but it was frustrating and distracting to be the center of so much attention and not be able to do anything about it.
On the other hand, if Iason wanted to show me to his room, that would give me a chance to be alone with him.
That meant I’d be able to have words with him about turning me into a deer without asking first.
“Come, Iamie,” he said, putting his arm around me and drawing me away from the canal. “Let me show you the hall.”
“Give me my clothes and belt first,” I said.
“But I’m not half done showing you off,” he said.
“I thought you were taking me to your quarters.”
“You are insatiable, you unruly little beast,” he said. “I will take you there, but we’ll go by the ‘scenic route’, as the saying goes.”
“Fine, but give me my clothes,” I said.
“But there is no point in taking that route if you are not naked,” he said. “How about I keep them until we get to my room, but I take you directly there?”
“Fine,” I said. I didn’t mind being naked, in the company of elves, especially male ones. I threw one last longing glance over my shoulder at the group who’d gathered by the canal. Some of them had drifted away. Others were furiously finishing themselves off. Some of them were starting in on each other. It would have been fun to join in, but I really just wanted to get dressed before Iason used me as an excuse for a duel. It would probably be meant to impress me anyway. “Anyway, don’t you think you were getting ahead of yourself with that introduction?”
“What do you mean, Iamie?”
“You called me your ‘intended’,” I said. “I haven’t said yes to anything yet.”
“Now who is getting ahead of themselves? I haven’t even asked yet, and already you want to give me an answer,” he said. “I spoke of my intentions, not yours.”
“Well, I have no intention of getting married, even if it was an option for us,” I said. “Which it isn’t.”
He said nothing.
“Did you hear me?” I asked. “I don’t intend to marry you.”
“I heard you,” he said. “You are a very mean-spirited person, sometimes.”
We headed towards the cluster of giant trees that made up Treehome proper. One of the ones near the edge had a wooden ramp spiraling around it, and I thought that was where we were heading. Iason led me straight past it, in between the trunks. Inside the “grove”, there were buildings of stone and timber construction built around the trunks, standing two and three stories tall. Their design reminded me of pictures I’d seen of mountain settlements, where the houses had to be tall and narrow and hugged the rock face in back.
We went into one of the buildings nearest the outer ring of trees. The outer walls were short, with eaves hanging below my shoulders, but the roof over the ground floor sloped upwards and there were steps leading down into the ground before the entrance.
Inside, the lowest level was one big common room decked out like a hunting lodge. It might have gone all the way around the tree. There was a fair-haired head sticking up from above the back of a couch.
“Ah, Iason!” the elf called, though he hadn’t turned around. “Have you brought back another lovesick stray?”
“No stray,” Iason said. “Melos, I would like you to meet my mount, Iamos Toxotes. ”
Melos stood up and turned around, his eyes wide. They went wider when he saw my nude form.
“What a sight,” he said, his eyes locking onto my half-hard cock. Well, three-quarters. All the way.
“Be sure you do no more than look,” Iason warned. “Or it will be blades between us.”
“It might be worth it,” Melos said. “Fight me for him, Iason.”
“Why should I? I already have him,” Iason said.
“A wager,” he said. “Three nights with him for me against one with me for you.”
“Three to one?” Iason asked.
“I am no fool,” Melos said. “I will not duel you without odds.”
“I am no fool, either. One night with your brother and you,” Iason said. “But, later,” he said. He grabbed me by the hips from behind and pushed me towards the stairs at the back of the room, then hustled me onto them.
“You just bet my ass in a fight,” I said as we went upstairs.
“You told me you wanted other lovers,” he said.
“I want a choice,” I said. “What happens if you lose and I say no to Melos?”
“You mean, after the seas have caught fire and the stars have fallen from the sky?” Iason asked. “He knows he cannot beat me. He just desires for me to have an excuse to ravish him.”
“If you’re going to fuck around, you don’t have to rub my face in it,” I said.
“If you wish to talk about taking our relationship to another level, I am ready to listen,” he said.
“Hypothetically, if we did, would you go monogamous, too?”
“As long as we are speaking hypothetically, I would,” he said. “But if it actually happened, I wouldn’t. You have a phenomenal ass, and you take it in the mouth as if you breathe manhood, but you can hardly expect me to be satisfied by you alone.”
“But I’m supposed to be satisfied just with you.”
“Ideally, yes.”
On the second floor, the back wall was actually the exposed bark of the tree. The doors were on the other side, the outer wall. We went past three before Iason stopped and opened one. He stepped back and ushered me in ahead of him.
I stepped inside. I hadn’t had a specific image in mind for Iason’s room, but it fit. The furniture—a bed, a wardrobe, dresser, and vanity table—were all wood, elaborately carved and with green and gold highlights. It was the sort of work my mother did. There were large windows on the far wall, but the sunlight which came through them was muted and green-tinged. The other walls were covered with weapons and various antlers, horns, and tusks.
“This is my room,” Iason said, stepping in after me and closing the door. “You will stay here tonight. After your classes tomorrow, I will show you a more direct route back here than the one we took.”
“Hold on,” I said. “I haven’t agreed to sleep here tonight. What makes you think I’m coming back tomorrow?”
“You do not want to give me a key to your quarters, so you must stay here in mine,” he said. “It is called compromise, Iamie. You should look into it.”
“That is not a compromise,” I said. “That’s you giving one ultimatum after another.”
“To be perfectly strict about it, Iamie, only the last one can be an ultimatum,” he said. “What I am giving you is options, but you do not seem to be interested in anything more than being stubborn as an ass.”
“Well, maybe you should have turned me into a mule deer, then,” I said. I folded my arms across my chest and turned away. The mirror on the wall showed me somebody who looked embarrassingly like my mother. I unfolded my arms and turned some more.
“Are you actually angry about that, Iamie?” he asked. “About the incredible gift I have selflessly given to you?”
“You didn’t ask,” I said. “You didn’t give me one word of warning.”
“I told you I was going to show you something amazing,” he said.
“That isn’t exactly an instruction manual,” I said.
“Would you have put the bracelet on if I had told you everything it did before I presented you with it?” he asked.
“Hell, no,” I said. “That’s my point.”
“Would you have agreed to be transformed, had I asked?”
“No,” I said.
“Do you regret the experience?” he asked.
That was a tougher question. Being chased through the woods as a stag had been incredible. Being ridden by Iason had been even more so. Everything about it had been mind-blowing: the power in my legs, the awareness of the world, the running on water. Everything.
“Not completely,” I said.
“Would you rather it hadn’t happened?” he asked. “Would you like my assurance it will never happen again?”
“No,” I said. “I’d like your word that you won’t do it without asking again.”
“So, in essence, you would rather I had never done something while being glad that it happened,” he said. He shook his head. “Honestly, Iamie, I might as well date a woman, given the sort of logic with which you assail me regularly.”
“You might have worked up to it a little,” I said. I was fighting to keep a check on my temper. Iason had a way of turning irritation into arousal that was just plain irritating. Also, arousing. “You could have told me about the bracelet, and found out if I was interested in it, and everything that it entails.”
“Why does it have to ‘entail’ anything?”
“It’s bonded to me for life,” I said. “And it lets you turn me into a beast of burden. Can I transform myself?”
“No,” Iason said. “And you are not a beast of burden, Iamie. You are my mount.”
“Stop calling me that!”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It is my accent, it’s how your name sounds.”
“Not that,” I said. “I’m not your mount.”
“We must have very different memories of our trip through the forest, then,” he said. He reached out a hand to touch my face. I shied back.
“Shh,” he said. “I would not transform you in the middle of my room. I just want to touch you, Iamie. You like being touched, don’t you?”
“I like being able to trust you,” I said.
“You see something sinister in my gift,” he said. “I can’t see why. So long as we are together, it does give me a certain power, if that word applies, over you. But, as you so callously remind me at every opportunity, you are not committed to me on any longer or deeper basis than that of a college ‘hook-up’. If you leave me, as you frequently threaten to do, then it becomes just a pretty bit of wood with some protection magic.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you’d just let me go, when I’m wearing a bracelet you can use to track me, and transform me into an obedient animal?” I asked.
“It does not compel obedience,” he said. “It simply makes it feel good, and that only in the limited circumstance that you are transformed and being ridden. In any event, I cannot see how the presence or absence of the bracelet makes a difference. It might make things easier for me to ‘stalk’ you against your will, but I will not do a thing solely because it is easy, and I have no interest in pursuing the completely unwilling.”
“Tell me about the bracelet, then,” I said. “What is it, exactly?”
“I already told you a bit,” he said.
“Tell me more than a bit,” I said. “I’ve never heard of these things. I know the stories about stag riders, but I’ve never heard about bracelets. Were all the riders using transformed humans?”
“No, not all of them,” Iason said. “It was a single order, at first, though there were later imitators, as well. There were a few hundred made, at least. Perhaps as many as a thousand. Few remain. Some were lost and others were destroyed. Frequently, the destruction came at the hands of men who did not understand what they had stumbled across, only that it was a magic item that could not be removed.”
“Well, that usually isn’t a good sign,” I said.
“It’s meant to be a benefit,” he said.
“You’d really let me just walk away from you?” I asked.
“I would fight,” he said. “I would make my case to you. But gone are the days when an elf lord can take a human child over his shoulder and flee into the woods. Gone, too, are the elf lords. I can do no more than offer you my heart, and two of the most amazing things a human can hope to experience.”
“Show me the way back to campus,” I said. “Then, if I decide I want to come over, I can come over.”
“Alright,” he said. “I will show you, first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow? Iason, I’ve got classes,” I said. “I’m probably late already.”
“Then you might as well stay,” he said, pulling me close. “You cannot want to leave me, so soon after the rather heady experience in the woods. Not after having the sight of so much elf-flesh by the canal to excite you.” He reached down and grabbed my cock. “You will embarrass yourself every time you stand up.” I groaned as he pulled on my erect dick. “You don’t want that, do you, Iamie? We are both wound up, after our ride. Let us take care of each other, and then you can get dressed and see the rest of the compound. Anything after that is your choice.”
I closed my eyes so I could think it over without Iason’s face hanging so close in front of me. It didn’t work. I could still see him. His hand on my cock didn’t help things, either. Or maybe it helped too much.
“Okay,” I said, finally.
“Wonderful,” he said. “First, we make love. Then, a survey of the grounds and perhaps a quick ride, and then—”
“My choice, remember?”
“Of course,” Iason said. “But I would be remiss in my duties as your guide and host if I didn’t offer my most sincere recommendations.”
mooooookK!
I know I’m the prety one in the relationship = pretty
Mook! Three or four again? Awesome.
Also, this pretty much confirms it: most if not all Elves are both perpetually horny and perpetually dicks. No pun intended.
Hah! This chapter makes me laugh. MOOK!
Top Ten for both ToMU and MToMU? This must be my lucky day.
Anyhoo- I don’t think I like the elves you have here-well built character-check, detailed description of personality-check. Do I like they’re personality, not in the least. But- you can’t like every character you run across so I appriciate them for what they are- more background characters in a story I enjoy- I don’t have to like them just understand why they are there and what not.
Once again Iason is being as dense and dumb as a box of rocks- but what can you do? (Jaime could always dump his ass but the story would be as much of the story it is now if that happened at this point)
While I’m thinking about it- this relationship seems to echo the Puddy/Mack relationship we had over at the begining of ToMU. It just seems that Iason isn’t as violent and Jaime has a bit more backbone that their counterparts-can’t wait to see what happens next.
And now that it is past the Idiot Hour, I am off to bed. Thanks for another great chapter. Mook!!
OOK!!!!!
“Toxotes” is Greek
For “archer”—quite close to the
Pax/English “Bowman”
So Elvish is Greek
And Draconic is Latin—
The Classical tongues
Another factoid
Well worth recording somewhere
In the MU Wiki
What a strange mix of fascinating, annoying, and disturbing. I still can’t decide whether I can like Iason… but I still wouldn’t sleep with him, lovely though he may be.
Wonderful chapter as usual, though. Thanks, AE!
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
With half a dozen elven guys surrounded us and more on the way – surrounding, maybe?
“Anyway, yon’t you think you were getting ahead of yourself with that introduction?” – don’t you think?
I really want Puddy and Iason to meet.
Maybe it’s the universe, but if somebody put something on me that he said couldn’t be removed, I’d be spending a lot more time seeing if there might be somebody who could get the thing off.
so it’s pretty obvious now that you’re following the stereotypical “uke/seme” formula used in yaoi. i suppose i can live with that, but do you need to make iason such a dick?
prettiness and a silver tongue should not be the grounds for a relationship, and jamie doesn’t seem to notice…..or care. this is unhealthy, and i believe that someone (my money is for marlot or violet) should explain this to him.
and that piece of wood isn’t helping things either……..if im right, as i often am in my predictiong, that its submissive properties are going to begin growing stronger, spreading to when jamie isn’t transformed. this is going to make things even worse, and i dread that.
Sooo – Jamie is perfectly capable of standing up to people, just not Iason. Is that a good thing or bad thing?
Elves are interesting creatures, from the looks of it mostly male, horny and (to use a modern expression) prefering to sleep with the same gender…how does the race continue if the whole race is gay?
You know, the -one thing- that’s stopping Iason from being outright evil in my eyes is that it seems like he is sincerely trying to do his best… Okay, his best is creepy, vaguely abusive, and extremely selfish, but with that being said, he doesn’t seem malicious.
Heh. “If I’m right, as I often am” bwahahahaha. Kthxbai, I’m spent.
Eeeuch. I always though Iason just had some social difficulties but now he’s actually getting creepy. I have no idea why this chapter was any worse than the others, but something about it just hit the wrong button.
I actually really liked Iason’s dynamic with the elves – extremely witty at a lot of points. It’s also noticeable how much the elves see him as “part human” rather than “mostly elf”, which I suppose is understandable. Just throwing an idea out here, but perhaps this is why he enjoys being an assassin on the skirmish team – it’s one of the only places in his life where he’s the small slight one.
God Iason is a dick and Jamie needs to lay down some groundrules. Like not agreeing to fuck the pretty elf boy when he’s been bad.
@Tomo: I’ve never actually read/watched any yaoi manga/anime (I’m not a huge fan of the Japanese style, though I’m not opposed to it)… the model I’m following is more classical Greece than anything, to match the other Greek elements of elven culture. Greek men typically had a very competitive view of things. As historian Thomas Cahill put it in Sailing The Wine-Dark Sea, it was a “fucker/fuckee” view of the world.
Just a couple things I picked up:
“Anyway, yon’t you think you were getting ahead of yourself with that introduction?”
yon’t -> don’t
“The outer walls were short, with eaves hanging below my shoulders ,” <- space before comma
babel maybe spelt babble, but im not sure about this and will be happy to be proven wrong
I’m starting to get the feeling I’m the only one that actually likes Iason. He’s smart and he chooses his prey wisely. He knows exactly which buttons to push (or in this case, which cock to rub) to get what he wants. He’s genious and witty and I love the dynamic with Jamie. Maybe it isn’t completely healthy, but that doesn’t make it completely bad either. And I don’t like the comparison with Puddy at all. Puddy’s vibe felt completely different to me, way more violent and agressive than Iason’s. Puddy wanted a sex-slave, Iason at least wants his sex-slave to be happy
@22 pameluke,
No no! I love Iason. He’s hilarious. Cocky, witty, quick thinking and he really does make a lot of sense. He shoots right through Jamie’s “I just want a hookup but I’ll pout if you aren’t monogamous” bullshit.
I think the reason people don’t like him is because they think that Jamie doesn’t want this. He does. This is the initial stages of courtship – the dance where Iason pushes all of the boundaries and Jamie has to fight hard to keep them up or else he won’t be able to realise he’s much happier when they’re down. He’s too focused on what he thinks he should want. He is letting propriety interfere with passion and potential for happiness.
Then again maybe I’m just putting a bit of myself in that story. If I were saying the things Jamie was saying in this story there is nothing I would want more than for Iason to pull me close and kiss me. Roughly and passionately.
Iason has made Jamie’s choices blatantly clear. He’s saying “This is exactly who I am. This will not change. Stay or leave, but for Khersis’ sake stop the bloody whining.”
Good chapter, and proof, were it needed, that Elvish transposes to Ancient Greek. The elves seem to keep their sense of modesty in the same place as their infinitive of verb. >:=)> You’d think they’d have a bit more control, though. Ρελαχ, δον’τ δο ιτ, ωηεν ιου ωαντ το γο το ιτ, and all that!
As I thought, there was no trouble regarding access control, just a little dispute over a wager and a fair smattering of lust, envy and jealously.
Petros and Nikolaos are going to be trouble. Can you say “waylay and abduct”? Iason surely can, and likely has strategies and countermeasures in place already. Just more fun for him; your move, boys.
Iason says that Jamie can’t trigger the transformation. He could be right. Or have been right. The simplest lock is effective until they develop lock picks…
Where were the elf women? Was it that Jamie couldn’t see them past all the sausagemeat on display?
He’s still herding himself along between the fences of “I want to be free” and “I don’t want Iason snuggling other guys.”
No telling how his friends and family will react. We shall see.
This doesn’t look like a stereotypical yaoi uke/semme dynamic to me, from what I understand and remember of them. Maybe Iason is hoping Jamie will be that, but Jamie has no interest in blithely submitting, letting himself be romantically swept off his feet, rescued like a princess in a tower, etc, etc.
It’s more that Iason is, shall we say, very persuasive, and bad at taking no for an answer or understanding the context from which Jamie is making his requests. Bluntly talking about seeking attention from other men if one’s partner isn’t going to be monogamous either seems more in tune with what little I’ve gleaned from listening to Dan Savage talk and write about gay relationships. It doesn’t fit in very well with the Totally-Heterosexual-and-Heteronormative-Except-We-Both-Have-Dicks-And-Look-Like-Women yaoi thing. Like women, or confusing androgynous things.
Yes, I’m aware there’s more to yaoi and shounen ai than that. Not that I mind yaoi and slash. It’s responsible for setting me down the road of Gay Is Okay, and I frequently find the more nonsensical aspects of fandom to be utterly, utterly, hilarious. But MoreMU is not like yaoi or slash.
Oh, addendum concerning the impression that all elves are gay:
As I recall an offhand comment from Steff putting it, elves were forced to invent anal sex or risk overpopulating the world and destroying its resources, because the elven sex drive is that goddamn high. I think that’s been amply displayed here, and in other parts of the general MUniverse. Creating a culture that vastly favors homoeroticism was a solution to the problem.
It also provides intriguing food for thought about the basis of the faint/dark elf split. What we know of dark elf culture reveres motherhood and reproduction. Perhaps this did not develop solely from the struggle to survive in a barren and hostile environment.
Couple things: first, unless we’re talking about a reindeer, I didn’t think deer had manes. Maybe Jamie turned into some MUniverse-only maned deer, but I was under the impression that he was just a particularly fine stag. Sooo…did Iason really have his hand on a mane, or was it just the back of deer-Jamie’s neck?
Second, I think there’s a missing “no” in this bit: “I would fight,” he said. “I would make my case to you. But gone are the days when an elf lord can take a human child over his shoulder and flee into the woods. Gone, too, are the elf lords. I can do no more than offer you my heart, and two of the most amazing things a human can hope to experience.” If Iason could do more than that, wouldn’t he just be able to abduct Jamie and skip the whole heart-offering, bracelet-shifting schtick?
@Iosbel: Male deer of most species have a “mantle” or “neck mane” of thicker fur around their necks. A good depiction of it is Disney’s renderings of Bambi’s father, the Great Prince of the Forest.
http://www.collectorsconnection.com/imagesh2/42a396.jpg
I am somewhat surprised at the number of comments citing this chapter as definitive on the Elvish=Greek issue. AE has explicitly stated that relation several times in the past.
ARF, MOOK, whatever
OK it has to be asked
What the heck is a yaoi uke semme relationship?
Nevermind. I googled it.
Judging by this chapter’s comments and the Yokai Girls one, I’m starting to think I’m the only MU reader who knows absolutely nothing about Japanese culture
I like Iason, actually. There’s not an evil bone in his body, he is simply 100% certain that he is perfect and right about everything, and that Jamie just needs to realise that everything is in his best interest.
You’re not paranoid if people really ARE out to get you. And Iason is not arrogant, he really IS better than most others, in the aspects of life that he considers important.
@Elisabella:
I think that most people don’t like Iason because he’s an abrasive, sexist, inconsiderate jerk with a misplaced superiority complex, who couldn’t care less about what Jamie wants. He does whatever he wants and the fact that Jamie usually wants the same thing(s) is just a happy coincidence.
That having been said, he does have some redeeming qualities. He’s witty and clever, he can be very charming, like when he gave Jamie the glass rose and most of all, he’s honoust…
Yes, it is true he lies constantly, but he’s completely honoust about the fact that he lies. He doesn’t try to pass of a lie as the truth though and even at his worst, when he’s being a sexist pig or a total hypocrite, he is so blatantly and openly.
I’m enjoying the story and everything, but am I the only one who thinks Jamie & Iason’s interactions are getting a little… formulaic?
I: I own you. We will live together forever in the trees, my lovely mount. Allow me to do something which proves my dominant role in this relationship.
J: Do not want.
I: Yes you do.
J: No I don’t.
I: *sulky whining/clever rhetoric/flattery/feigning wounded pride*
J: …
I: Buttsecks?
J: Ok.
I’m hoping for Marlot or Violet to shake things up a bit. I&J’s whole relationship has been giving me the howling fantods lately.
@ #34, Ruth
Maybe its formulaic because Iason uses the same formula when confronted with opposition to what he wants?
Ohhh, okay, I was getting this incredibly weird mental imagine of a deer with a horse’s mane, just ’cause when I think of “mane” it’s either the lion kind or the horse kind. The reindeer thing wasn’t too far off, then, and it’s just that the deer I see in the mornings are mostly wee ones and females. Speaking of mornings, I need some coffee. I don’t care that it’s 1:03, I’m tired.
Also, ruth, I lol’d. That’s pretty accurate, even though I think Sephira’s explanation of Iason’s formula is dead-on. I’m pretty sure one girl or the other– maybe both– will have an exchange of some kind with our petulant elf prince, and it’ll be worth the wait.
@Sephira
Yeah, that and Jamie uses the same formula to put up opposition. Which is why I’m hoping for a little shake-up – left to themselves, I think Iason & Jamie could rehash the same power struggle indefinitely, and I’m ready to move on to a new argument
“I’m starting to get the feeling I’m the only one that actually likes Iason.”
Oh a good number of us like him, at least at a distance. & he can easily end up being precisely what our boy wants and needs.
The problem is that he could not too. He is something scary and uncontrolled, and a lot of people don’t like it when the situation is out of control, which it usually is around Iason.
But this is a courtship, and Jamie is quite right to bargain hard for some power in the relationship. It is going to take work to get Iason to acknowledge that what he wants and what Jamie wants are not identical, and that sometimes Jamie decides.
@23 Elisabella
“He shoots right through Jamie’s ‘I just want a hookup but I’ll pout if you aren’t monogamous’ bullshit.”
Maybe it’s just me, but I think Jamie is only upset about Iason seeing other guys cuz Iason won’t let Jamie see other guys too. Jamie either wants it to be a totally exclusive relationship or a totally non-exculsive relationship – as in, the same rules apply for both involved parties.
this relationship infuriates me. possibly even more than mack and amy, which is saying something.
so, I guess AE is doing her job.
any chance Jamie will be getting it on with anyone of the female persuasion any time soon? I dunno about all of you, but I wouldn’t mind reading about some of that groovy hetero sex I hear the kids are having these days.
Probably late replying to this, but…
@tomo, 12: it’s not a yaoi standard as much as an Ancient Greek standard, especially Spartan where they had a pederastic mentoring system for the ascension to the militant adulthood.
@Crane, 15: Alignment is usually brushed off as a matter of opinion or point of view by those who would be ‘in the wrong’. It was pretty common back in the day, and if I go any further I’ll invariably invoke Godwin’s… Actually, I think by referring to Godwin’s, what I imply becomes almost explicit, which ends up invoking it. Oh well. It still ends up being a really skewed point of view, and the other party is clearly up to something despite how often they deny malicious intent.
@The Other Dave – me too! And a relationship – sex included – with Violet would be so interesting, with her special abilities!
*sigh* I’m sad because I find myself disliking the characters, and thus liking the story less and less. If it matters, I may not read this again for a long time.
I’ll grant that it’s not an easy concept to hold on to when Iason’s being his charismatic jerkass self, but I’m rather intrigued by what might happen if Jamie were to up and sleep with another guy.
Out-and-out violation of one of Iason’s assumptions/instructions could be educational. It could also be final and potentially dangerous if I’ve misjudged him, so….
I was discussing this story with a friend today, and together we agreed that we felt that Jamie was something of a chameleon. He acts as he thinks the people around him expect, and doesn’t really care whether it agrees with who he is inside. It’s all about expectations and results for him. His actions are to manipulate, to present an image.
For that reason, I do not feel that he is in much danger from Iason, except in that Iason might cause him to hurt his own grades by occupying far too much of his time. Jamie is a slither-outer. If he doesn’t want to do something, he’s perfectly capable of sliding away from doing it while saying he’s perfectly happy to. See with Missy – he isn’t a pushover, he just has an agenda. And, in this case, his agenda is hot sex.
I completely agree that Iason reminds me of Puddy somewhat. He’s arrogant, controlling, and provides complicated rationalizations for the purpose of that control. However, Jamie is not Mack, and I feel a lot of these early chapters have been written to illustrate how he differs from the other protagonist of MU. He isn’t going to let Iason take over his life, I think, though he’ll put up with a lot before it comes to that. In the end, Iason will have to play nice or Jamie /will/ walk away.
@43: That is the predicament I find myself in as well. I continue to read, but I’ve reached the point where I basically skim the chapter to see if anything happens other than Iason being an ass and Jamie being… well, also an ass, although a different kind. If so, I read those parts.
I was really hoping that this story would include, mid-way through, Jamie giving Iason a good punch to the face. Seriously, it just felt like it needed to happen here. Anyone else feel that?
@20 AE
well, i understand that, and i suppose that yaoi wasnt the first example of uke/seme (uke is the pretty boy who ALWAYS bottoms, while seme is the big, burly man, usually an asshole, who ALWAYS tops), but this is not like ancient greece, or the old elven land….im not exactly positive on the specifics of this universe, but i still can’t see why jamie would put up with this like he does. he has stated many times he wants to fuck others, not just BE fucked……that’s all im saying.
@Tomo:
It’s like you’ve painted a picture of Iason with words!
I came to this discussion having just been immersed in the Iliad, Xenophon, etc. Bear with me if I get pedantic or hair-splitting, I beg you, especially since I can tell from the mere presence of Greek original in the thread above that there are people here who can easily out-pedant me.
The problem with comparing Iason/Jamie to a Spartan (or more generalized Periclean Greek) model is that Iason isn’t acting like a mentor — he’s acting like an owner. He wants to decorate and show off Jamie, but doesn’t really seem at all intent on improving him, which was a large part of at least the theoretical underpinning of the Spartan model.
Which makes him come across poorly, at best. He’s not providing the benefit he’s supposed to in order to be boinking Jamie the way he is, (the jewelry and suchlike is as much for his own pleasure and pride as Jamie’s), and this makes his self-important posturing even more irritating.
How shall we say this — if you come across as prouder than Achilles, when you’re in college, you’ve got a problem.