Magic Under Construction: TOMU #483
Jan. 24th, 2011 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinStarted: 1/24/2011, 2:45 PM
Status: Underway. (11:00 PM)
Word Count ~2500
Hours Writing: 2.5
2.5 hours. Starting to shape up more.
"Let's not linger here," Steff said to me, putting her fingertips on my shoulder as I gathered up my things at the end of class. I nodded.
Most of the students on campus were done with their classes. The crowds would be flowing back towards the dormitories, and the smart thing to do would be to go with that flow.
Steff was a lot more obviously on alert on our walk back. The bodyguard routine kind of made me a little nervous, coming from her... a lot of adjectives could be hung on Steff to varying degrees, but "business-like" was kind of a new one. Her hands kept sort of brushing the hilts of her twin daggers.
"I really appreciate you watching out for me," I said, hoping to help her relax even just a little. I appreciated the vigilance, but she was making me nervous.
"I just want you to be safe," she said. "And to feel safe. Danger's only fun if it's done from a certain baseline, you know? The sooner we're in the clear, the sooner I can go back to menacing you in my own understated way."
"Well, I think this whole thing's going to be over pretty soon," I said. "It might be over already."
"Oh, yeah... the thing with the merms, anyway," Steff said. "But you do have other enemies to worry about. I mean, what do you suppose Hart knows about Ariadne, that he'd end the class with that?"
I couldn't begin to imagine what Steff was getting at. Yeah, Ariadne'd had it in for me, but even if she did fit into the broad category of "enemy", she wasn't anything like the kind of threat Iona or even Feejee was.
"Well, I don't think he's ever liked her," I said. "Do you remember what he said when we transferred in?"
"Well, yeah, but that was him bagging on her," Steff said. "This was a warning. It's like the difference between 'I'm going to snark on my colleague because I disapprove of her teaching methods' and 'Hey, student Mackenzie Blaise... watch out because someone's out to get you'."
"Eh, it could be that," I said. "Or he could be letting all of his classes know on general principle, because of the whole 'not liking her' thing."
"Said principle being never let an opportunity to badmouth a coworker go to waste?" Steff asked.
"I mean the principle that more than one or two students might have had issues with her," I said. "I can't tell if you're defending her or not, the way you're harping on Hart's issues with her."
"Neither, really," she said. "I just think it's funny."
"How so?"
"I mean, I literally think it's funny," she said. "Humorous, not odd or suspicious... separately from thinking he was trying to warn you about her and thinking that's something we should pay attention to, I find it amusing that he rips on her to his students. Anyway, though, I do think he was pointing that at you, and I also think you should be worried about it."
"Yeah, well... it might be important on some level, but I kind of have more important threats to worry about," I said.
"Don't you mean 'bigger fish to fry'?"
"Maybe, if I were a character in a TV show with a small army of writers coming up with clever things for me to say under pressure," I said. "But I'm not... and also, I have other issues to worry about."
"Sorry," Steff said. "Just seemed like a missed opportunity... and while I'm not going to argue about what the more immediate and pressing problem is, I don't think you should write Ariadne off.She was pretty much coming apart at the seams there."
"Yeah, but what's she actually going to do?" I asked. "I'm not in her class anymore, and I won't ever have to take any of hers. She doesn't really have any stick to hit me with."
"Unless she picks up an actual stick... magic or blessed... and then hits you with it," Steff said. "That could be a problem."
"Steff... she's not going to do that," I said. My voice sounded more horrified than it should have, but I realized upon hearing it that on some level, I was horrified at the thought. Not because it would be senseless violence or because it would be directed at me... I was actually kind of inured to that. "She's a professor, a teacher."
"And Iona is a student," Steff said. "And murderers are people's brothers and sisters and children and parents. People do shit, Mack. Respectable people. Even people who have friends and relatives who would swear up and down that they're decent and kind and gentle can do bad shit... and be honest: do you think Ariadne could find a witness to swear to any of those things for her? If I hadn't heard her heart beating once or twice, I wouldn't even testify that she has a pulse, much less a shred of warmth."
"Okay, but I mean, she's got a lot more to lose," I said. "Iona's probably thinking that worst comes to worst she just heads for the waves and never comes back. Ariadne has got a life here and a position in the community."
"Mack, it's no use wondering if she hates you enough to do anything that would affect her career when she already did," Steff said. "If she could control her reaction to you, she wouldn't have gone off the deep end and taken a 'sabbatical' over it. Now she's back, and a really kind of perceptive guy who works in the same department as her saw fit to tell the class that has you in it that she's back in town."
"Or maybe what she already did is as bad as it's going to get," I said. "She lost control in class, she didn't like it, she left to gather herself or whatever and now she's back. Is that so unlikely? I mean, she's had hundreds of years to learn patience and self-control."
"Mack, that's just another reason to fear her," Steff said. "If Ariadne's got her hatred under control? It doesn't mean that she doesn't hate you. It just means it'll be harder to see her coming, and she won't be doing it in a way that makes her look like a raging dracobitch this time. I mean,
Iona's young and stupid and while it's a definite risk for any given person she has her eye on that she could kill them before it happens, it's almost certain that she'd end up completely stabbing herself in the foot... or flipper, or whatever... eventually, if she hasn't already. Ariadne? I could see her doing that... and doing a lot of damage on the way down, because if you don't remember she's a pretty quick spellslinger... but it's almost worse if she doesn't."
"But it's kind of a massive leap to think that if she did have her anger under control, she'd still want to act on it," I said. "I'm not saying I'd want to be stuck in a room with her or anything any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it's giving her too much credit to believe that she might behave reasonably now that we don't have to deal with each other three times a week."
"Mack... do you even know why she had it in for you?" Steff asked. "Specifically, I mean?"
"Anti-demon prejudice and the fact that someone kept distracting me in her class," I said. "I mean, okay, yes, that doesn't really explain the depths of her reaction, or why she latched onto me and not you or anyone else who wasn't giving her their full attention... but, well, you can't really explain those things."
"Because they're irrational," Steff said. "And that's why expecting her to be reasonable is a mistake, Mack... if a person could be reasonable about their irrational hatred, they woudn't have it in the first place. Anyway, I got morbidly curious... which is the best kind of curiosity, way better than the bi kind... and did some digging. Well, not literal digging. That would be more if I were feeling morbidly bi-curious..."
"What exactly did you find out?" I asked.
"Ariadne was married to a human, once upon a time."
"We knew that," I said. "That's why she has a last name."
"Right, but that was the beginning of a story," Steff said. "Hence the 'once upon a time'. This back when they were kind of new around these parts... he was a ranger who was employed by the Merovian authorities to explore and be an intermediary guy between the 'roves and the local elves. That's how Ariadne met him... they fell in love and got married, and when he started to get old they went back into the deep woods and built a cabin so they could spend his last decade or two together in peace."
"I can't even imagine planning for something like that," I said.
"Yeah, well, that's something you should really ought to keep in mind before you get too attached to Mr. Mason," Steff said.
"That'll only be an issue if I actually make it through my freshman year alive," I said.
"Don't say that, Mack."
"What? I'm trying to be darkly humorous," I said. "I thought you'd like it."
"I meant 'freshman'," Steff said. "This has been a co-ed campus for decades now, there's no reason to keep using that word... I wasn't any kind of a man last year, and I'm pretty sure you aren't, either."
"Noted," I said. "So... I'm guessing, since you're telling me this story, that there's a demon involved?"
"Possibly," It was never really settled, because there wasn't much of a body left either way and the cabin they lived in burned down. Which could have been unholy hellfire, or it could have been the fact that cabins are made out of wood and there was no one watching the fire because of all the death. She believes it was a demon. Her family was never sure, but she's had a major hate-on for demons ever since."
"Why's she think it was a demon?"
"Who knows? Maybe because you can't blame ghouls," Steff said. "I mean, you can blame things on ghouls, but it's hard to nurse real hate against them."
"This would have been hundreds of years ago," I said. "Where did you find this out?"
"Eh, I asked around," Steff said. "It could just be bullshit rumors, but I think it's probably either the truth or very close to it. I mean, the elves who are going to school now are mostly children of people who were alive when it happened."
"It's still kind of old history, even for an elf," I said, though I remembered Ariadne's reference to her late husband on the first day of class... she'd referred to it as "current events". It had been a joking play on the elven perspective of history, but if that relationship had ended in tragedy there could be a lot of pain behind the jest.
"She didn't take his last name until after he died," Steff said.
"What, she's supposed to change it back after a hundred years?" I asked.
"You know what I think is going on here?" Steff asked. "Deep down inside, you don't believe it's unreasonable for people to hate you. Not for the demon thing. You'll arm yourself against the mermaids, you'll stand up against Sooni's... whatever Sooni does next... but if someone hates you for being a demon, inside, you're agreeing with them. I'll bet if you'd known that Ariadne wasn't just being an arbitrary and capricious bitch to you for no real reason at the time, you'd never have managed to stand your ground in class. You'd have folded, because you couldn't find it in yourself to disagree with her."
"I don't think it's wrong for people to hate or fear demons, no," I said. "And maybe that sort of complicates my response here. I mean, yes, on some level I suppose I have always assumed that Ariadne had it in for me because of my specific heritage, and no, I can't really blame her for feeling that way, even if I would rather she didn't act on it. But is there any reason to think she'd do more than abuse her powers as a teacher, when that's all she's done so far?"
"Lately, to you," Steff said. "The story is that she practically led a lynch mob against another half-demon student a while back... or did lead one, depending on which telling in particular you believe."
Okay, that was an important piece of news. It could have been exaggerated or twisted through time and repeated tellings, but if there were any truth to it at all then it would be a mistake to write Ariadne off as a threat. She wasn't exactly charismatic in the sense of being likable or personable, but she had real presence and a way with words.
"Why are you just telling me this now?" I asked. "It seems kind of relevant."
"Yeah, that's why I'm telling it to you now," Steff said. "It's not like I made a whole big decision not tell you before... there's just been thing after thing happening, and Ariadne hasn't even been on campus that I knew of. Hell, she could have decided to take a year or three off as easily as she did a couple of weeks. Or resign and look for a position somewhere else. Or retire for a human lifetime or two. This wasn't exactly the biggest thing on the table, in other words."
[][][][][][]
"You've never had an elf for an enemy before," Steff said. "There's a saying that it's the only thing worse than having one for a friend. And that's an elven saying, Mack. We know what we're talking about."
Two hours of writing. Dialogue's going well, but still very "drafty" - no details or setting. There's a whole separate-but-related conversation I need to work this into, but I've been writing what comes the quickest and easiest.
"Well, that was interesting," Steff said. "Now I'm kind of wondering what he knows about Ariadne."
"I don't think he's ever liked her," I said. "Do you remember what he said when we transferred in?"
"Well, yeah, but that was bagging on her," Steff said. "This was a warning. It's like the difference between 'I'm going to snark on my colleague because I disapprove of her teaching methods' and 'Hey, student Mackenzie Blaise... watch out because someone's out to get you'."
"Eh, it could be that," I said. "Or he could be letting all of his classes know on general principle."
"Said principle being never let an opportunity to badmouth a coworker go to waste?" Steff asked.
"I mean the principle that more than one or two students might have had issues with her," I said. "You're not actually defending her, are you?"
"No, and I'm not really attacking Hart," she said. "I just think it's funny."
"How so?"
"I mean, I literally think it's funny," she said. "Humorous, not odd or suspicious.. Anyway, though, I do think he was pointing that at you, and I do think you should be worried about it."
"Yeah, well, I kind of have other issues to worry about," I said.
"Don't you mean 'bigger fish to fry'?"
"Maybe, if I were a character in a TV show with a small army of writers coming up with clever things for me to say under pressure," I said. "But I'm not... and also, I have other issues to worry about."
"Sorry," Steff said. "Just seemed like a missed opportunity... and while I'm not going to argue about what the more immediate and pressing problem is, I don't think you should write Ariadne off.She was pretty much coming apart at the seams there."
"Yeah, but what's she actually going to do?" I asked. "I'm not in her class anymore, and I won't ever have to take any of hers. She doesn't really have any stick to hit me with."
"Unless she picks up an actual stick... magic or blessed... and then hits you with it," Steff said.
"She's not going to do that," I said. "She's a professor."
"And Iona is a student," Steff said. "And murderers are people's brothers and sisters and children and parents. People do shit, Mack. Respectable people. Even people who have friends and relatives who would swear up and down that they're decent and kind and gentle can do bad shit... and do you think Ariadne could find a witness to swear to any of those things for her?"
"Okay, but I mean, she's got more to lose," I said. "Iona's probably thinking that worst comes to worst she just heads for the waves and never comes back. Ariadne has got a life here and a position in the community."
"Mack, it's no use wondering if she hates you enough to do anything that would affect her career when she already did," Steff said. "If she could control her reaction to you, she wouldn't have gone off the deep end and taken a 'sabbatical' over it. Now she's back, and a really kind of perceptive guy who works in the same department as her saw fit to tell the class that has you in it that she's back in town."
"Or maybe what she already did is as bad as it's going to get," I said. "She lost control in class, she didn't like it, she left to gather herself or whatever and now she's back. Is that so unlikely? I mean, she's had hundreds of years to learn patience and self-control."
"Mack, that's just another reason to fear her," Steff said. "If Ariadne's got her hatred under control? It doesn't mean that she doesn't hate you. It just means it'll be harder to see her coming, and she won't be doing it in a way that makes her look like a raging dracobitch this time. I mean,
Iona's young and stupid and while it's a definite risk for any given person she has her eye on that she could kill them before it happens, it's almost certain that she'd end up completely stabbing herself in the foot... or flipper, or whatever... eventually, if she hasn't already. Ariadne? I could see her doing that... and doing a lot of damage on the way down, because if you don't remember she's a pretty quick spellslinger... but it's almost worse if she doesn't."
"But it's kind of a massive leap to think that if she did have her anger under control, she'd still want to act on it," I said. "I'm not saying I'd want to be stuck in a room with her or anything any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it's giving her too much credit to believe that she might behave reasonably now that we don't have to deal with each other three times a week."
"Mack... do you even know why she had it in for you?" Steff asked. "Specifically, I mean?"
"Anti-demon prejudice and the fact that you wouldn't leave me alone in her class," I said. "I mean, that doesn't really explain the depths of her reaction, or why she latched onto me and not you or anyone else who wasn't giving her their full attention... but, well, you can't really explain those things."
"Because they're irrational," Steff said. "And that's why expecting her to be reasonable is a mistake, Mack... if a person could be reasonable about their irrational hatred, they woudn't have it in the first place. Anyway, I got morbidly curious... which is the best kind of curiosity, way better than the bi kind... and did some digging. Well, not literal digging. That's more for when I'm feeling morbidly bi-curious..."
"What exactly did you find out?" I asked.
"Ariadne was married to a human, back when they were kind of new around these parts," Steff said. "He was killed by a demon, or possibly ghouls. It was never really settled, because there wasn't much of a body left either way and the cabin they lived in burned down. Which could have been unholy hellfire, or it could have been the fact that cabins are made out of wood and there was no one watching the fire because of all the death. She believes it was a demon. Her family was never sure, but she's had a major hate-on for demons ever since."
"Why's she think it was a demon?"
"Who knows? Maybe because you can't blame ghouls," Steff said. "I mean, you can blame things on ghouls, but it's hard to nurse real hate against them."
"This would have been hundreds of years ago," I said. "Where did you find this out?"
"Eh, I asked around," Steff said. "It could just be bullshit rumors, but I think it's probably either the truth or very close to it. I mean, the elves who are going to school now are mostly children of people who were alive when it happened."
"It's still kind of old history, even for an elf," I said, though I remembered Ariadne's reference to her late husband on the first day of class... she'd referred to it as "current events". It had been a joking play on the elven perspective of history, but if that relationship had ended in tragedy there could be a lot of pain behind the jest.
"She didn't take his last name until after he died," Steff said.
"What, she's supposed to change it back after a hundred years?" I asked.
"You know what I think is going on here?" Steff asked. "Deep down inside, you don't believe it's unreasonable for people to hate you. Not for the demon thing. You'll arm yourself against the mermaids, you'll stand up against Sooni's... whatever Sooni does next... but if someone hates you for being a demon, inside, you're agreeing with them. I'll bet if you'd known that Ariadne wasn't just being an arbitrary and capricious bitch to you for no real reason at the time, you'd never have managed to stand your ground in class. You'd have folded, because you couldn't find it in yourself to disagree with her."
"I don't think it's wrong for people to hate or fear demons, no," I said. "And maybe that sort of complicates my response here. I mean, yes, on some level I suppose I have always assumed that Ariadne had it in for me because of my specific heritage, and no, I can't really blame her for feeling that way, even if I would rather she didn't act on it. But is there any reason to think she'd do more than abuse her powers as a teacher, when that's all she's done so far?"
"Lately, to you," Steff said. "The story is that she practically led a lynch mob against another half-demon student a while back... or did lead one, depending on which telling in particular you believe."
Okay, that was an important piece of news. It could have been exaggerated or twisted through time and repeated tellings, but if there were any truth to it at all then it would be a mistake to write Ariadne off as a threat. She wasn't exactly charismatic in the sense of being likable or personable, but she had real presence and a way with words.
"Why are you just telling me this now?" I asked. "It seems kind of relevant."
"Yeah, that's why I'm telling it to you now," Steff said. "It's not like I made a whole big decision not tell you before... there's just been thing after thing happening, and Ariadne hasn't even been on campus that I knew of. Hell, she could have decided to take a year or three off as easily as she did a couple of weeks. Or resign and look for a position somewhere else. Or retire for a human lifetime or two. This wasn't exactly the biggest thing on the table, in other words."
[][][][][][][][][]
"You've never had an elf for an enemy before," Steff said. "There's a saying that it's the only thing worse than having one for a friend. And that's an elven saying, Mack. We know what we're talking about."
First hour of writing:
"Well, that's interesting," Steff said. "Now I'm kind of wondering what he knows about Ariadne."
"I don't think he's ever liked her," I said. "Do you remember what he said when we transferred in?"
"Well, yeah, but that was bagging on her," Steff said. "This was a warning. It's like the difference between 'I'm going to snark on my colleague because I disapprove of her teaching methods' and 'Hey, student Mackenzie Blaise... watch out because someone's out to get you'."
"Eh, it could be that," I said. "Or he could be letting all of his classes know on general principle."
"Said principle being never let an opportunity to badmouth a coworker go to waste?" Steff asked.
"I mean the principle that more than one or two students might have had issues with her," I said. "You're not actually defending her, are you?"
"No, and I'm not really attacking Hart," she said. "I just think it's funny."
"How so?"
"I mean, I literally think it's funny," she said. "Humorous, not odd or suspicious.. Anyway, though, I do think he was pointing that at you, and I do think you should be worried about it."
"Yeah, well, I kind of have other issues to worry about," I said.
"Don't you mean 'bigger fish to fry'?"
"Maybe, if I were a character in a TV show with a small army of writers coming up with clever things for me to say under pressure," I said. "But I'm not... and also, I have other issues to worry about."
"Sorry," Steff said. "Just seemed like a missed opportunity... and while I'm not going to argue about what the more immediate and pressing problem is, I don't think you should write Ariadne off.She was pretty much coming apart at the seams there."
"Yeah, but what's she actually going to do?" I asked. "I'm not in her class anymore, and I won't ever have to take any of hers. She doesn't really have any stick to hit me with."
"Unless she picks up an actual stick... magic or blessed... and then hits you with it," Steff said.
"She's not going to do that," I said. "She's a professor."
"And Iona is a student," Steff said. "And murderers are people's brothers and sisters and children and parents. People do shit, Mack. Respectable people. Even people who have friends and relatives who would swear up and down that they're decent and kind and gentle can do bad shit... and do you think Ariadne could find a witness to swear to any of those things for her?"
"Okay, but I mean, she's got more to lose," I said. "Iona's probably thinking that worst comes to worst she just heads for the waves and never comes back. Ariadne has got a life here and a position in the community."
"Mack, it's no use wondering if she hates you enough to do anything that would affect her career when she already did," Steff said. "If she could control her reaction to you, she wouldn't have gone off the deep end and taken a 'sabbatical' over it. Now she's back, and a really kind of perceptive guy who works in the same department as her saw fit to tell the class that has you in it that she's back in town."
"Or maybe what she already did is as bad as it's going to get," I said. "She lost control in class, she didn't like it, she left to gather herself or whatever and now she's back. Is that so unlikely? I mean, she's had hundreds of years to learn patience and self-control."
"Mack, that's just another reason to fear her," Steff said. "If Ariadne's got her hatred under control? It doesn't mean that she doesn't hate you. It just means it'll be harder to see her coming, and she won't be doing it in a way that makes her look like a raging dracobitch this time. I mean,
Iona's young and stupid and while it's a definite risk for any given person she has her eye on that she could kill them before it happens, it's almost certain that she'd end up completely stabbing herself in the foot... or flipper, or whatever... eventually, if she hasn't already. Ariadne? I could see her doing that... and doing a lot of damage on the way down, because if you don't remember she's a pretty quick spellslinger... but it's almost worse if she doesn't."
"But it's kind of a massive leap to think that if she did have her anger under control, she'd still want to act on it," I said. "I'm not saying I'd want to be stuck in a room with her or anything any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it's giving her too much credit to believe that she might behave reasonably now that we don't have to deal with each other three times a week."
"Mack... do you even know why she had it in for you?" Steff asked. "Specifically, I mean?"
[][][][][][][][][]
"You've never had an elf for an enemy before," Steff said. "There's a saying that it's the only thing worse than having one for a friend. And that's an elven saying, Mack. We know what we're talking about."
Status: Underway. (11:00 PM)
Word Count ~2500
Hours Writing: 2.5
2.5 hours. Starting to shape up more.
"Let's not linger here," Steff said to me, putting her fingertips on my shoulder as I gathered up my things at the end of class. I nodded.
Most of the students on campus were done with their classes. The crowds would be flowing back towards the dormitories, and the smart thing to do would be to go with that flow.
Steff was a lot more obviously on alert on our walk back. The bodyguard routine kind of made me a little nervous, coming from her... a lot of adjectives could be hung on Steff to varying degrees, but "business-like" was kind of a new one. Her hands kept sort of brushing the hilts of her twin daggers.
"I really appreciate you watching out for me," I said, hoping to help her relax even just a little. I appreciated the vigilance, but she was making me nervous.
"I just want you to be safe," she said. "And to feel safe. Danger's only fun if it's done from a certain baseline, you know? The sooner we're in the clear, the sooner I can go back to menacing you in my own understated way."
"Well, I think this whole thing's going to be over pretty soon," I said. "It might be over already."
"Oh, yeah... the thing with the merms, anyway," Steff said. "But you do have other enemies to worry about. I mean, what do you suppose Hart knows about Ariadne, that he'd end the class with that?"
I couldn't begin to imagine what Steff was getting at. Yeah, Ariadne'd had it in for me, but even if she did fit into the broad category of "enemy", she wasn't anything like the kind of threat Iona or even Feejee was.
"Well, I don't think he's ever liked her," I said. "Do you remember what he said when we transferred in?"
"Well, yeah, but that was him bagging on her," Steff said. "This was a warning. It's like the difference between 'I'm going to snark on my colleague because I disapprove of her teaching methods' and 'Hey, student Mackenzie Blaise... watch out because someone's out to get you'."
"Eh, it could be that," I said. "Or he could be letting all of his classes know on general principle, because of the whole 'not liking her' thing."
"Said principle being never let an opportunity to badmouth a coworker go to waste?" Steff asked.
"I mean the principle that more than one or two students might have had issues with her," I said. "I can't tell if you're defending her or not, the way you're harping on Hart's issues with her."
"Neither, really," she said. "I just think it's funny."
"How so?"
"I mean, I literally think it's funny," she said. "Humorous, not odd or suspicious... separately from thinking he was trying to warn you about her and thinking that's something we should pay attention to, I find it amusing that he rips on her to his students. Anyway, though, I do think he was pointing that at you, and I also think you should be worried about it."
"Yeah, well... it might be important on some level, but I kind of have more important threats to worry about," I said.
"Don't you mean 'bigger fish to fry'?"
"Maybe, if I were a character in a TV show with a small army of writers coming up with clever things for me to say under pressure," I said. "But I'm not... and also, I have other issues to worry about."
"Sorry," Steff said. "Just seemed like a missed opportunity... and while I'm not going to argue about what the more immediate and pressing problem is, I don't think you should write Ariadne off.She was pretty much coming apart at the seams there."
"Yeah, but what's she actually going to do?" I asked. "I'm not in her class anymore, and I won't ever have to take any of hers. She doesn't really have any stick to hit me with."
"Unless she picks up an actual stick... magic or blessed... and then hits you with it," Steff said. "That could be a problem."
"Steff... she's not going to do that," I said. My voice sounded more horrified than it should have, but I realized upon hearing it that on some level, I was horrified at the thought. Not because it would be senseless violence or because it would be directed at me... I was actually kind of inured to that. "She's a professor, a teacher."
"And Iona is a student," Steff said. "And murderers are people's brothers and sisters and children and parents. People do shit, Mack. Respectable people. Even people who have friends and relatives who would swear up and down that they're decent and kind and gentle can do bad shit... and be honest: do you think Ariadne could find a witness to swear to any of those things for her? If I hadn't heard her heart beating once or twice, I wouldn't even testify that she has a pulse, much less a shred of warmth."
"Okay, but I mean, she's got a lot more to lose," I said. "Iona's probably thinking that worst comes to worst she just heads for the waves and never comes back. Ariadne has got a life here and a position in the community."
"Mack, it's no use wondering if she hates you enough to do anything that would affect her career when she already did," Steff said. "If she could control her reaction to you, she wouldn't have gone off the deep end and taken a 'sabbatical' over it. Now she's back, and a really kind of perceptive guy who works in the same department as her saw fit to tell the class that has you in it that she's back in town."
"Or maybe what she already did is as bad as it's going to get," I said. "She lost control in class, she didn't like it, she left to gather herself or whatever and now she's back. Is that so unlikely? I mean, she's had hundreds of years to learn patience and self-control."
"Mack, that's just another reason to fear her," Steff said. "If Ariadne's got her hatred under control? It doesn't mean that she doesn't hate you. It just means it'll be harder to see her coming, and she won't be doing it in a way that makes her look like a raging dracobitch this time. I mean,
Iona's young and stupid and while it's a definite risk for any given person she has her eye on that she could kill them before it happens, it's almost certain that she'd end up completely stabbing herself in the foot... or flipper, or whatever... eventually, if she hasn't already. Ariadne? I could see her doing that... and doing a lot of damage on the way down, because if you don't remember she's a pretty quick spellslinger... but it's almost worse if she doesn't."
"But it's kind of a massive leap to think that if she did have her anger under control, she'd still want to act on it," I said. "I'm not saying I'd want to be stuck in a room with her or anything any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it's giving her too much credit to believe that she might behave reasonably now that we don't have to deal with each other three times a week."
"Mack... do you even know why she had it in for you?" Steff asked. "Specifically, I mean?"
"Anti-demon prejudice and the fact that someone kept distracting me in her class," I said. "I mean, okay, yes, that doesn't really explain the depths of her reaction, or why she latched onto me and not you or anyone else who wasn't giving her their full attention... but, well, you can't really explain those things."
"Because they're irrational," Steff said. "And that's why expecting her to be reasonable is a mistake, Mack... if a person could be reasonable about their irrational hatred, they woudn't have it in the first place. Anyway, I got morbidly curious... which is the best kind of curiosity, way better than the bi kind... and did some digging. Well, not literal digging. That would be more if I were feeling morbidly bi-curious..."
"What exactly did you find out?" I asked.
"Ariadne was married to a human, once upon a time."
"We knew that," I said. "That's why she has a last name."
"Right, but that was the beginning of a story," Steff said. "Hence the 'once upon a time'. This back when they were kind of new around these parts... he was a ranger who was employed by the Merovian authorities to explore and be an intermediary guy between the 'roves and the local elves. That's how Ariadne met him... they fell in love and got married, and when he started to get old they went back into the deep woods and built a cabin so they could spend his last decade or two together in peace."
"I can't even imagine planning for something like that," I said.
"Yeah, well, that's something you should really ought to keep in mind before you get too attached to Mr. Mason," Steff said.
"That'll only be an issue if I actually make it through my freshman year alive," I said.
"Don't say that, Mack."
"What? I'm trying to be darkly humorous," I said. "I thought you'd like it."
"I meant 'freshman'," Steff said. "This has been a co-ed campus for decades now, there's no reason to keep using that word... I wasn't any kind of a man last year, and I'm pretty sure you aren't, either."
"Noted," I said. "So... I'm guessing, since you're telling me this story, that there's a demon involved?"
"Possibly," It was never really settled, because there wasn't much of a body left either way and the cabin they lived in burned down. Which could have been unholy hellfire, or it could have been the fact that cabins are made out of wood and there was no one watching the fire because of all the death. She believes it was a demon. Her family was never sure, but she's had a major hate-on for demons ever since."
"Why's she think it was a demon?"
"Who knows? Maybe because you can't blame ghouls," Steff said. "I mean, you can blame things on ghouls, but it's hard to nurse real hate against them."
"This would have been hundreds of years ago," I said. "Where did you find this out?"
"Eh, I asked around," Steff said. "It could just be bullshit rumors, but I think it's probably either the truth or very close to it. I mean, the elves who are going to school now are mostly children of people who were alive when it happened."
"It's still kind of old history, even for an elf," I said, though I remembered Ariadne's reference to her late husband on the first day of class... she'd referred to it as "current events". It had been a joking play on the elven perspective of history, but if that relationship had ended in tragedy there could be a lot of pain behind the jest.
"She didn't take his last name until after he died," Steff said.
"What, she's supposed to change it back after a hundred years?" I asked.
"You know what I think is going on here?" Steff asked. "Deep down inside, you don't believe it's unreasonable for people to hate you. Not for the demon thing. You'll arm yourself against the mermaids, you'll stand up against Sooni's... whatever Sooni does next... but if someone hates you for being a demon, inside, you're agreeing with them. I'll bet if you'd known that Ariadne wasn't just being an arbitrary and capricious bitch to you for no real reason at the time, you'd never have managed to stand your ground in class. You'd have folded, because you couldn't find it in yourself to disagree with her."
"I don't think it's wrong for people to hate or fear demons, no," I said. "And maybe that sort of complicates my response here. I mean, yes, on some level I suppose I have always assumed that Ariadne had it in for me because of my specific heritage, and no, I can't really blame her for feeling that way, even if I would rather she didn't act on it. But is there any reason to think she'd do more than abuse her powers as a teacher, when that's all she's done so far?"
"Lately, to you," Steff said. "The story is that she practically led a lynch mob against another half-demon student a while back... or did lead one, depending on which telling in particular you believe."
Okay, that was an important piece of news. It could have been exaggerated or twisted through time and repeated tellings, but if there were any truth to it at all then it would be a mistake to write Ariadne off as a threat. She wasn't exactly charismatic in the sense of being likable or personable, but she had real presence and a way with words.
"Why are you just telling me this now?" I asked. "It seems kind of relevant."
"Yeah, that's why I'm telling it to you now," Steff said. "It's not like I made a whole big decision not tell you before... there's just been thing after thing happening, and Ariadne hasn't even been on campus that I knew of. Hell, she could have decided to take a year or three off as easily as she did a couple of weeks. Or resign and look for a position somewhere else. Or retire for a human lifetime or two. This wasn't exactly the biggest thing on the table, in other words."
[][][][][][]
"You've never had an elf for an enemy before," Steff said. "There's a saying that it's the only thing worse than having one for a friend. And that's an elven saying, Mack. We know what we're talking about."
Two hours of writing. Dialogue's going well, but still very "drafty" - no details or setting. There's a whole separate-but-related conversation I need to work this into, but I've been writing what comes the quickest and easiest.
"Well, that was interesting," Steff said. "Now I'm kind of wondering what he knows about Ariadne."
"I don't think he's ever liked her," I said. "Do you remember what he said when we transferred in?"
"Well, yeah, but that was bagging on her," Steff said. "This was a warning. It's like the difference between 'I'm going to snark on my colleague because I disapprove of her teaching methods' and 'Hey, student Mackenzie Blaise... watch out because someone's out to get you'."
"Eh, it could be that," I said. "Or he could be letting all of his classes know on general principle."
"Said principle being never let an opportunity to badmouth a coworker go to waste?" Steff asked.
"I mean the principle that more than one or two students might have had issues with her," I said. "You're not actually defending her, are you?"
"No, and I'm not really attacking Hart," she said. "I just think it's funny."
"How so?"
"I mean, I literally think it's funny," she said. "Humorous, not odd or suspicious.. Anyway, though, I do think he was pointing that at you, and I do think you should be worried about it."
"Yeah, well, I kind of have other issues to worry about," I said.
"Don't you mean 'bigger fish to fry'?"
"Maybe, if I were a character in a TV show with a small army of writers coming up with clever things for me to say under pressure," I said. "But I'm not... and also, I have other issues to worry about."
"Sorry," Steff said. "Just seemed like a missed opportunity... and while I'm not going to argue about what the more immediate and pressing problem is, I don't think you should write Ariadne off.She was pretty much coming apart at the seams there."
"Yeah, but what's she actually going to do?" I asked. "I'm not in her class anymore, and I won't ever have to take any of hers. She doesn't really have any stick to hit me with."
"Unless she picks up an actual stick... magic or blessed... and then hits you with it," Steff said.
"She's not going to do that," I said. "She's a professor."
"And Iona is a student," Steff said. "And murderers are people's brothers and sisters and children and parents. People do shit, Mack. Respectable people. Even people who have friends and relatives who would swear up and down that they're decent and kind and gentle can do bad shit... and do you think Ariadne could find a witness to swear to any of those things for her?"
"Okay, but I mean, she's got more to lose," I said. "Iona's probably thinking that worst comes to worst she just heads for the waves and never comes back. Ariadne has got a life here and a position in the community."
"Mack, it's no use wondering if she hates you enough to do anything that would affect her career when she already did," Steff said. "If she could control her reaction to you, she wouldn't have gone off the deep end and taken a 'sabbatical' over it. Now she's back, and a really kind of perceptive guy who works in the same department as her saw fit to tell the class that has you in it that she's back in town."
"Or maybe what she already did is as bad as it's going to get," I said. "She lost control in class, she didn't like it, she left to gather herself or whatever and now she's back. Is that so unlikely? I mean, she's had hundreds of years to learn patience and self-control."
"Mack, that's just another reason to fear her," Steff said. "If Ariadne's got her hatred under control? It doesn't mean that she doesn't hate you. It just means it'll be harder to see her coming, and she won't be doing it in a way that makes her look like a raging dracobitch this time. I mean,
Iona's young and stupid and while it's a definite risk for any given person she has her eye on that she could kill them before it happens, it's almost certain that she'd end up completely stabbing herself in the foot... or flipper, or whatever... eventually, if she hasn't already. Ariadne? I could see her doing that... and doing a lot of damage on the way down, because if you don't remember she's a pretty quick spellslinger... but it's almost worse if she doesn't."
"But it's kind of a massive leap to think that if she did have her anger under control, she'd still want to act on it," I said. "I'm not saying I'd want to be stuck in a room with her or anything any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it's giving her too much credit to believe that she might behave reasonably now that we don't have to deal with each other three times a week."
"Mack... do you even know why she had it in for you?" Steff asked. "Specifically, I mean?"
"Anti-demon prejudice and the fact that you wouldn't leave me alone in her class," I said. "I mean, that doesn't really explain the depths of her reaction, or why she latched onto me and not you or anyone else who wasn't giving her their full attention... but, well, you can't really explain those things."
"Because they're irrational," Steff said. "And that's why expecting her to be reasonable is a mistake, Mack... if a person could be reasonable about their irrational hatred, they woudn't have it in the first place. Anyway, I got morbidly curious... which is the best kind of curiosity, way better than the bi kind... and did some digging. Well, not literal digging. That's more for when I'm feeling morbidly bi-curious..."
"What exactly did you find out?" I asked.
"Ariadne was married to a human, back when they were kind of new around these parts," Steff said. "He was killed by a demon, or possibly ghouls. It was never really settled, because there wasn't much of a body left either way and the cabin they lived in burned down. Which could have been unholy hellfire, or it could have been the fact that cabins are made out of wood and there was no one watching the fire because of all the death. She believes it was a demon. Her family was never sure, but she's had a major hate-on for demons ever since."
"Why's she think it was a demon?"
"Who knows? Maybe because you can't blame ghouls," Steff said. "I mean, you can blame things on ghouls, but it's hard to nurse real hate against them."
"This would have been hundreds of years ago," I said. "Where did you find this out?"
"Eh, I asked around," Steff said. "It could just be bullshit rumors, but I think it's probably either the truth or very close to it. I mean, the elves who are going to school now are mostly children of people who were alive when it happened."
"It's still kind of old history, even for an elf," I said, though I remembered Ariadne's reference to her late husband on the first day of class... she'd referred to it as "current events". It had been a joking play on the elven perspective of history, but if that relationship had ended in tragedy there could be a lot of pain behind the jest.
"She didn't take his last name until after he died," Steff said.
"What, she's supposed to change it back after a hundred years?" I asked.
"You know what I think is going on here?" Steff asked. "Deep down inside, you don't believe it's unreasonable for people to hate you. Not for the demon thing. You'll arm yourself against the mermaids, you'll stand up against Sooni's... whatever Sooni does next... but if someone hates you for being a demon, inside, you're agreeing with them. I'll bet if you'd known that Ariadne wasn't just being an arbitrary and capricious bitch to you for no real reason at the time, you'd never have managed to stand your ground in class. You'd have folded, because you couldn't find it in yourself to disagree with her."
"I don't think it's wrong for people to hate or fear demons, no," I said. "And maybe that sort of complicates my response here. I mean, yes, on some level I suppose I have always assumed that Ariadne had it in for me because of my specific heritage, and no, I can't really blame her for feeling that way, even if I would rather she didn't act on it. But is there any reason to think she'd do more than abuse her powers as a teacher, when that's all she's done so far?"
"Lately, to you," Steff said. "The story is that she practically led a lynch mob against another half-demon student a while back... or did lead one, depending on which telling in particular you believe."
Okay, that was an important piece of news. It could have been exaggerated or twisted through time and repeated tellings, but if there were any truth to it at all then it would be a mistake to write Ariadne off as a threat. She wasn't exactly charismatic in the sense of being likable or personable, but she had real presence and a way with words.
"Why are you just telling me this now?" I asked. "It seems kind of relevant."
"Yeah, that's why I'm telling it to you now," Steff said. "It's not like I made a whole big decision not tell you before... there's just been thing after thing happening, and Ariadne hasn't even been on campus that I knew of. Hell, she could have decided to take a year or three off as easily as she did a couple of weeks. Or resign and look for a position somewhere else. Or retire for a human lifetime or two. This wasn't exactly the biggest thing on the table, in other words."
[][][][][][][][][]
"You've never had an elf for an enemy before," Steff said. "There's a saying that it's the only thing worse than having one for a friend. And that's an elven saying, Mack. We know what we're talking about."
First hour of writing:
"Well, that's interesting," Steff said. "Now I'm kind of wondering what he knows about Ariadne."
"I don't think he's ever liked her," I said. "Do you remember what he said when we transferred in?"
"Well, yeah, but that was bagging on her," Steff said. "This was a warning. It's like the difference between 'I'm going to snark on my colleague because I disapprove of her teaching methods' and 'Hey, student Mackenzie Blaise... watch out because someone's out to get you'."
"Eh, it could be that," I said. "Or he could be letting all of his classes know on general principle."
"Said principle being never let an opportunity to badmouth a coworker go to waste?" Steff asked.
"I mean the principle that more than one or two students might have had issues with her," I said. "You're not actually defending her, are you?"
"No, and I'm not really attacking Hart," she said. "I just think it's funny."
"How so?"
"I mean, I literally think it's funny," she said. "Humorous, not odd or suspicious.. Anyway, though, I do think he was pointing that at you, and I do think you should be worried about it."
"Yeah, well, I kind of have other issues to worry about," I said.
"Don't you mean 'bigger fish to fry'?"
"Maybe, if I were a character in a TV show with a small army of writers coming up with clever things for me to say under pressure," I said. "But I'm not... and also, I have other issues to worry about."
"Sorry," Steff said. "Just seemed like a missed opportunity... and while I'm not going to argue about what the more immediate and pressing problem is, I don't think you should write Ariadne off.She was pretty much coming apart at the seams there."
"Yeah, but what's she actually going to do?" I asked. "I'm not in her class anymore, and I won't ever have to take any of hers. She doesn't really have any stick to hit me with."
"Unless she picks up an actual stick... magic or blessed... and then hits you with it," Steff said.
"She's not going to do that," I said. "She's a professor."
"And Iona is a student," Steff said. "And murderers are people's brothers and sisters and children and parents. People do shit, Mack. Respectable people. Even people who have friends and relatives who would swear up and down that they're decent and kind and gentle can do bad shit... and do you think Ariadne could find a witness to swear to any of those things for her?"
"Okay, but I mean, she's got more to lose," I said. "Iona's probably thinking that worst comes to worst she just heads for the waves and never comes back. Ariadne has got a life here and a position in the community."
"Mack, it's no use wondering if she hates you enough to do anything that would affect her career when she already did," Steff said. "If she could control her reaction to you, she wouldn't have gone off the deep end and taken a 'sabbatical' over it. Now she's back, and a really kind of perceptive guy who works in the same department as her saw fit to tell the class that has you in it that she's back in town."
"Or maybe what she already did is as bad as it's going to get," I said. "She lost control in class, she didn't like it, she left to gather herself or whatever and now she's back. Is that so unlikely? I mean, she's had hundreds of years to learn patience and self-control."
"Mack, that's just another reason to fear her," Steff said. "If Ariadne's got her hatred under control? It doesn't mean that she doesn't hate you. It just means it'll be harder to see her coming, and she won't be doing it in a way that makes her look like a raging dracobitch this time. I mean,
Iona's young and stupid and while it's a definite risk for any given person she has her eye on that she could kill them before it happens, it's almost certain that she'd end up completely stabbing herself in the foot... or flipper, or whatever... eventually, if she hasn't already. Ariadne? I could see her doing that... and doing a lot of damage on the way down, because if you don't remember she's a pretty quick spellslinger... but it's almost worse if she doesn't."
"But it's kind of a massive leap to think that if she did have her anger under control, she'd still want to act on it," I said. "I'm not saying I'd want to be stuck in a room with her or anything any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it's giving her too much credit to believe that she might behave reasonably now that we don't have to deal with each other three times a week."
"Mack... do you even know why she had it in for you?" Steff asked. "Specifically, I mean?"
[][][][][][][][][]
"You've never had an elf for an enemy before," Steff said. "There's a saying that it's the only thing worse than having one for a friend. And that's an elven saying, Mack. We know what we're talking about."