View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
On Monday, Bella arrives at school completely and stably human shaped, with everything she has learned about critters (except for her own species, which she isn't liable to forget) written down as margin notes on a page reminding her to ask Darren about D&D and filler decoy notes about that. She's probably going to have invent an actual cipher alphabet or something eventually but for the time being she thinks this will probably do for casual inspection.
She sits next to Darren in English.
+ Show First Post
shesepankh
castmyown
Rune is given!
This one's concepts are a bit more ephemeral. Less easy to nail down like the previous runes. Darren has to explain each concept quite a bit.
This one's concepts are a bit more ephemeral. Less easy to nail down like the previous runes. Darren has to explain each concept quite a bit.
shesepankh
This one's notes gets footnotes on the back of its page. Bella is enthralled the entire time.
castmyown
Darren notices! He will tailor his lesson plan because of this. The next rune is another less physical rune, and requires some more explanations - but once explained it makes sense.
castmyown
"Thank you!" says Darren, delighted. "I'm glad you're enjoying this."
shesepankh
"So am I. It would be so disappointing if there were real magic and it was intolerably boring."
castmyown
"Me too. I spend hours on magic, it would suck if it were just... 'Press a button fifty thousand times, get magic.'"
castmyown
"I would be okay if it were just 'Press a button five times' but fifty thousand and I would just feel like I was wasting my time."
shesepankh
"Even if it was 'press button fifty thousand times, world peace' - that would be disappointing. I'd press the button but I would complain about it."
castmyown
"Yeah. I'd want to keep track of how many times I press the button so I could at least make the final button press suitably dramatic."
shesepankh
"Cameras, beautiful lighting, music, weeping war widows giving heartfelt speeches about how today is the day it can finally be over. Gimme a rune."
castmyown
He giggles. "Exactly."
Then he gives her a rune! It follows the theme of the last few because that's what it seems like she likes.
Then he gives her a rune! It follows the theme of the last few because that's what it seems like she likes.
shesepankh
And she writes this down. They could pass the entire afternoon like this, swapping between runes and chatting.
castmyown
They could! In fact, that's the plan.
"I'm going to assume you'll study these on your own time, so I don't need to make you recite them or anything?" he asks brightly, after several more runes.
"I'm going to assume you'll study these on your own time, so I don't need to make you recite them or anything?" he asks brightly, after several more runes.
castmyown
"Good, then I can skip it."
So he does! More runes, wheee!
(He can't actually keep to the ephemeral runes, she needs to know more than just that. To make up for it he takes care to show connections between runes and starts expanding on how they interact together.)
So he does! More runes, wheee!
(He can't actually keep to the ephemeral runes, she needs to know more than just that. To make up for it he takes care to show connections between runes and starts expanding on how they interact together.)
shesepankh
Bella is happy to be shown all kinds of runes. She was not actually aware that he was sticking to a specific genre for a reason.
castmyown
Runes continue to be fascinating!
Darren's enjoying himself quite a lot - he has a magic buddy and now he has someone to talk to about runes and things!
"Want to learn more runes, or practice drawing them?" he asks, eventually.
Darren's enjoying himself quite a lot - he has a magic buddy and now he has someone to talk to about runes and things!
"Want to learn more runes, or practice drawing them?" he asks, eventually.
castmyown
"A few, yeah. But I haven't gone over how to lay out runes yet, so... Sorry, we're still on the boring stuff."
shesepankh
"I'm not bored. Maybe make me a sheet of paper with clean and tidy instances of each rune so far on it and I can practice at home where I won't be taking up your time when I don't strictly have to have it?"
castmyown
"I don't mind, it's nice to have someone to talk about this with. You're good conversation."
Also he has a crush on her. So that helps.
Also he has a crush on her. So that helps.
shesepankh
"Yes, but since I don't literally live here, it seems smart to save the practice that I can do alone for later, and do stuff that I need you for while I'm here."
castmyown
"True," he says. "Okay, I'll make a list of runes and check your work, later. Proper teachering, hurray."