Author:
Audience Rating:
Genre:
Character Age:
TG Elements:
Other Keywords:
Permission:
By
Morpheus
Todd and I had engaged in a fierce philosophical debate almost since the moment that the last class of the day ended an hour ago. And after all this time, we’d only settled on one point that we both agreed on. Han shot first.
“Jar Jar is one of the worst things to ever happen to the universe,” I protested emphatically. “He was a weak attempt to throw in some comedy for the kids, but all he did was distract from the storyline…”
“He wasn’t that bad,” Todd argued. “I thought he was kind of funny. Besides, it wasn’t like he was a precedent for anything. Lucas had already used the Ewoks to appeal to kids…”
Todd and I stopped and stared at each other for a moment before we burst out laughing. “This is a pretty silly thing for us to be arguing over,” Todd finally said.
“Yeah,” I agreed with a smirk. “Because you’re obviously wrong.” The fact that this was a silly and absolutely pointless argument was what made it so fun.
Todd chuckled at that but leaned back and stared at me with an odd expression. I pretended that I didn’t notice it, though it did make me just a little uncomfortable. He’d been looking at me more and more like that over the last week, ever since he’d seen me using my talent.
“What are you staring at?” I snapped at one boy who was walking past.
We were in the middle of one of the dorm day rooms which meant that we didn’t have a lot of privacy at the moment. Unfortunately, our dorm rooms were all pretty small and staying in them for too long made me feel a little claustrophobic. I was pretty sure that they’d been designed that way intentionally, just to force the students to get out and socialize a bit more.
“You know,” Todd said carefully. “You looked pretty nice when you changed. I was just wondering why you don’t change more often…”
“Because I don’t like people staring at me,” I told him, standing up and stretching. “It’s weird enough being a girl. I don’t need guys hitting on me as well.”
Just then, two girls walked past and both of them gave me looks of contempt. “Mooo,” one of them said while the other giggled and called out, “Woof woof.”
“What was that about?” Todd asked with a confused look.
“Some people don’t like the Were,” I responded bitterly.
Ever since I’d come out in class two days ago, I’d been dealing with this kind of behavior. News of my being a Were seems to have spread through the entire school, encouraged no doubt by Teressa and her friends. Now, everyone seemed to know, and a few liked to make it clear what they thought of the Were.
Most of the students didn’t seem to really care one way or another that I was a Were, though I had gotten a few questions that seemed to be honest curiosity. However, as I’d already learned before, some Touched had poor opinions of the Were, thinking that we were more animal than person and other similar things. And unfortunately, those were the ones who liked to make their views heard.
“I need some fresh air,” I stated grimly, leaving the dorm with Todd walking beside me.
As we walked out, I overheard someone say, “Animal,” but I didn’t bother looking to see who. I grimaced, already aware of what some of these people were saying. Just yesterday, someone I’d thought of as a friend had told me to my face that the Were had been created as a result of bestiality. I’d been furious at that, even more because the guy had actually seemed to believe it.
“I’m beginning to see why you don’t want more attention,” Todd said, apparently having noticed more than I thought he had. “And why you’ve been in such a bad mood all day.”
“I just haven’t been feeling good,” I told him with a sigh. “It’s all the stress.”
“I’d imagine,” Todd agreed sympathetically. “By the way, you never did tell me what you turn into.”
“No,” I responded with a faint smile. “I didn’t.”
Suddenly, I heard someone yell out, “That’s her… She’s the one who attacked me…”
I looked around and was startled to see that Kaellie had been the one yelling, pointing at me as she did so. I noticed that one of her arms was wrapped up with a bandage. Master Tonkas and Amylia were right beside her, both of them looking very grim.
“She was the one who attacked me,” Kaellie exclaimed, still pointing at me. “She turned into a wolf and jumped me…”
“You saw her change?” Amylia asked Kaellie in a calm voice.
Kaellie hesitated a moment and then admitted, “No. But she came at me in wolf form and bit me…” She held up her arm. “I have a bunch of witnesses.”
“What?” I gasped in surprise. “I didn’t do anything…”
“You are the only Were in the Academy,” Master Tonkas said thoughtfully.
“I don’t even turn into a wolf,” I argued, growing angry at being blamed for something I didn’t do.
“And what is your Were form?” Master Tonkas demanded. “That information is not on record.”
“I’m…” I paused and took a deep breath. “I’m a mythic.”
“Really?” Amylia exclaimed, staring at me in surprise. “That is very interesting…” Then she abruptly turned to Kaellie and asked, “And when did you say this attack occurred?”
“About twenty minutes ago,” Kaellie responded, glaring at me. “She just came at me and bit me…”
“No way,” Todd exclaimed, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Erin would never do that. Besides, she was with me…”
“So, you are saying that you were attacked by a Were wolf twenty minutes ago,” Amylia said to Kaellie, who nodded emphatic agreement. “In broad daylight.”
“Everyone got a good look at her,” Kaellie insisted.
Master Tonkas stared at her with a look of realization. “Weres are incapable of transforming during the day. Whatever attacked you, it was most certainly NOT a Were…”
“No, it was not,” Amylia agreed with a grim expression. “I suspect it was a conjuring.” She gestured to me and said, “Erin is not advanced enough to cast a spell of that nature even if she was of a mind to. I suspect someone may have been attempting to use her Were status to blame her.”
“Agreed,” Master Tonkas said after a moment.
Amylia stood there for a moment with a thoughtful expression, then she looked to Master Tonkas and said, “You know this is not the first occasion when a student was attacked by a wolf.”
Master Tonkas scowled at that. “True. But the student responsible for that attack was expelled and banned from the Academy. It couldn’t possibly be him.”
“That would seem very unlikely,” Amylia agreed.
I glanced to Todd, wondering what was going on. Kaellie and I both seemed to have been almost forgotten about at the moment, though I was actually thankful for that.
“But what about her?” Kaellie demanded, drawing Amylia and Master Tonkas’ attention back to us. “She attacked me.”
“I see absolutely no indication that Erin was behind the attack,” Amylia told Kaellie. “None besides your baseless accusations.”
“Go to the infirmary and have Mrs. Reveine look at your arm,” Master Tonkas told her. “She should be able to heal it right up for you.”
Kaellie glared at me for a moment before turning and hurrying off. I didn’t know what had happened, but I didn’t really feel any sympathy for her, not after the way she’d blamed me like this.
Master Tonkas looked at me for a moment and then bowed his head. “I apologize for this misunderstanding. We are required to investigate all accusations.”
I nodded at that, not sure what to think about his apology. First, he’d accused me of lying about being a Were, now he’d practically accused me of committing an assault because I was a Were. However, he did seem sincere.
Master Tonkas walked away but Amylia stayed behind and put a hand on my shoulder. “I am deeply sorry about this,” she told me with a sigh. “Unfortunately, most Touched know very little about the Were and have a number of misconceptions. We like to accuse normals of being intolerant and hostile to that which is different, but we seem to forget that we are just as capable of those behaviors. I fear that now your status as a Were is public, you can expect more insults and false accusations.”
“That’s not fair,” Todd protested.
“No, it isn’t,” Amylia agreed sadly. “All Erin can do is deal with it as best she can and try to avoid trouble when possible.” Then she gave me a gentle smile and said, “Being a mythic is very special, and being a mythic as well as a sorceress is almost unheard of. If you wish to talk to someone about this, I would be happy to listen.”
Once Amylia had left as well, Todd turned to me and said, “That was kind of scary.”
“Yeah,” I admitted, feeling more shaken than I wanted to admit. I had a feeling that if Amylia hadn’t been there, things could have gone very differently.
After a few more seconds, Todd gave me a look and said, “Okay… What the hell is a mythic?”
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos!
Click the Thumbs Up! button below to leave the author a kudos:
And please, remember to comment, too! Thanks.
Comments
Han shot first!
and the guys chasing Elliott and ET had guns and not radios.
However back to the story, I liked the bit about the wolf and the possible tie with the first The Academy story. The hints about a deeper plot is so very kewl! I'm also starting to wonder about Aunt Jane. She has to know better than anyone else how Erin's Were form is going to be greeted. Yet, she has kept it secret. Personally I'm seeing a really bad backlash here. She is going to be blamed for anything that goes bad or wrong. The daemon did it!
The best thing that can happen now is for her new friends to push her to reveal that form to them early so hopefully she can get some help dealing with this. That is if they don't freak out too!
Grover
One minority attacking another minority
... now where have I heard that before? Middle East maybe? US maybe?
Human nature 'dims' through whether one is a minority or not. Just because one group was marginalized and attacked does not necessarily mean that group will have any better compassion for any other minority.
Kim
To bad about Todd not being
To bad about Todd not being able to keep treating Erin the same.
“Okay… What the hell is a mythic?â€
will she have to show them to prove she doesnt become a wolf?
It's time
I sure hope so. We're 20 chapters in, it's definitely time we should be seeing more of Jen as a succubus. It's a story about a succubus, so it's time to start showing more of that side of Jen, and time to be getting the long-term plot into motion.
- Jess Arita
These Chapters
Are serial, and thus shorter. The pacing has certainly been fine so far.
agreed
these chapters are so short they're little more than a few paragraphs. if you compile them into one you'd see that really this story is just really getting started.
Good last line there.
Erin is going to have to show someone pretty soon, that's becoming clear enough.
I just hope it's in a peaceful situation, though the way this is going I kind of doubt that. :)
Maggie
A bit frustrated with where this is inevitably going to go...
I can see it already, the double standards and willful ignorance are already beginning to line up, this is probably going to be a theme of this story.
This is an "Academy" right? With "professors" who are supposedly very knowledgeable and intelligent people?
If so, why are they presented as ignorant, incompetent, naive and/or stupid?
We (the audience) have been presented with the story of a magical Academy staffed by people who are supposed to be: 1.) Knowledgeable about Magic, 2.) Educated (re: intelligent) and 3.) Represent an authority figure to the man cast of characters who are adolescents (they're teachers, duh).
However every action displayed by said faculty have shown us that said faculty are not knowledgeable about magic, aren't intelligent, don't give a damn about authority and are not concerned with the safety of their students.
I find this, not only incredibly cliché, but completely inconsistent.
In this chapter we have 2 faculty members that are knowledgeable enough about weres to know that they can't shift during daylight, and yet they some how entertain this premise to the point where they are hostile and antagonist to a student whom they know beyond a doubt is not guilty and was not capable of committing the act. And while they display this intellect and knowledge on how it couldn't possibly be this suspect, after already accosting them, they completely fail to recognize the fact that the so called "victim" is falsely accusing another student and do not-a-damn-thing about this false accusation.
Meanwhile, a few days prior, another student committed sexual assault on this same student using magic, in public. An incident that again, unless the faculty walk around with a bucket full of sand to bury their head into, was seen by an entire cafeteria which included faculty staff. And again, not-a-damn-thing was done about this.
I find it just a tad bit absurd how quick the faculty are to act on the merest hint of an attack on a student despite fully having the knowledge that the attack is not possible by the "alleged" perpetrator, but at the same time do absolutely nothing when there is a cafeteria full of witnesses to a sexual assault and attack via magic on another student (in the real world, removing someone's clothing against their will, in public is a sexual assault and would get you labeled as a sex offender) and not even bothering to question the person who made the false report about their duplicity.
Hence, we the audience are presented with a clear double standard; the faculty are simultaneously both incredibly prompt, careful, responsible, intelligent and methodical and yet simultaneously incredibly lethargic, negligent, irresponsible, stupid and ignorant.
Which is it?
P.S. You better believe an "attractive" female getting stripped naked against her will in full public with many witnesses (student and faculty) is going to be known by the whole school by the next morning. And yet the faculty are blissfully (or should I say conveniently?) ignorant of said public sexual assault and now we have even more obviously blatant double standards stacking up.
reconsider
First of all allow me to say that i understand that you are simply voicing an opinion, and i dont think you intended this to sound as harshly as it came across.
You do make some good points...
However the manner in which you delivered them, to me at least; feels more like an attack on the author for bothering to share his story with us.
but in reply to your accusations, i think your going a bit overboard with your viewpoint. The school and facualty from what i've seen of this story and the previous one take physical threats very seriously. However for a school full of teenage mages... disentegrating clothing is a cheap parlor trick. Extreamly ebarassing, but sexual assault? no i dont think so. I imagine it's a rather common occurance at this particular school. If you can remember the hell that is High school, and then imagine what it would have been like if all those kids had magic at their command... the thought alone gives me the shivers. This is downright mild in comparison.
Intolerance
Ah, a classic set up for conflict, of course it really works since it happens all the time in real life. Great story Morpheus please keep the chapters coming!
Cheers
Zapper
Todd seems truely interested
Erin has a real friend it would seem
Premature?
OK I admit to at times going off on a tangent.....Imagine Todd or, any other "healthy male" would consider Erin and her succubus form to be an "ideal" catch.
Wondering if Morpheus is going to use this idea in the story???
alissa