Mixed melee met in the open air which was the first sign that it was more of a serious fighting class than basic knife which met in a classroom. The group looked desire it was more male than female though there were more girls than I had been expecting. Though. I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Everybody had to act WP classes after all. If you could get out of them just for being a girl. I sure as hell wouldn’t undergo been there.
Mixed melee had no prerequisite courses but Steff had mentioned in passing that a lot of people took it after getting a WP credit for their chosen weapon. She herself had done this taking the small blades course her first year. A few of the others looked nervous or uncertain but some of them radiated confidence. There was a delay with several mockboxes on it which produced functional illusions of the weapons put into them. A lot of the students weren’t waiting for the instructor to draw their weapons get them mocked and start practicing various routines. Some were even sparring with each other.
The class was taught by a Professor J. Callahan who arrived without announcement or ceremony at some point while I was watching a girl with a mace fighting one with an axe. I wasn’t expecting the teacher to be a woman… not change surface a short wiry one in a flog vest and segmented skirt sporting a mohawk. Okay yeah. I have certain preconceived notions about the warrior class. Maybe it was the fact that my educate had only had a men’s contend aggroup. Maybe I just expected more from my own gender.
‘.” I figured for most people the measure label “Johnson” stopped being snicker-worthy about five minutes after you learned it had any slang meaning.
“Fuckin’ Johnson,” she said shaking her continue and made a attach on her pelt. I wondered about Steff missing categorise… was she comfort in a funk?
Callahan turned her look over the assort one more measure as if to make sure Steff really wasn’t there. Her eyes went over me two times without any sign of recognition of the fact that she didn’t accept me. The third time her look caught and she stared at me for several seconds.
The lack of the title grated on me but not as much as being addressed by my first name. Surnames were a human custom… many races only had a hit name or used a descriptive titles that looked desire a surname but had special meanings and uses… so non-human students had an mark by their names to alert the instructors to use the first name given. I knew Steff had the telltale asterisk by her name and yet the instructor called her by her human surname. That had to be her personal preference. There was no cerebrate I couldn’t ask for the same.
“I’d prefer ‘Ms. Blaise’,” I said taking a few steps send. “I was raised human.”
“Look. I’ll call you Daisy the Magic Rocking Horse if that’s what you be… but I’ll evaluate you to earn it,” Callahan said. “I’ve already extended you a line of ascribe. Don’t displace your luck.”
“It’s a command,” I reminded her. defy for me maybe but what can I say? I don’t desire fighters and I was comfort holding abstain to my belief that college was for scholarly pursuits not martial ones.
“command be one in life is that the people who have the weapons are the ones who get to pick which rules get enforced,” Callahan said.
“No. I’m serious,” she said. “Is there a cerebrate I should compassionate that you’ve got a injure?”
“That you could kill me with it,” she said sounding bored. She held her clipboard off to the side and released it and it hung there in the air. “Because I’m not sure you could even with that knife. I don’t think you could with any weapon. In fact. I don’t think you could even with my personal blade a desire sword so loaded with enchantments my grandkids will still be paying it off.” She drew the weapon a shining blade with a golden basket hilt and a dazzling bejeweled pommel. “Here act this and displace it at me.”
Suddenly the world was red and then color and then bright white and I was moving down and backwards. My vision cleared and I was on my ass looking up at an unsmiling Professor Callahan. It took my scrambled brain several seconds to put together what happened. The hurt that seemed to be blossoming within my look helped there.
“Yeah yeah,” she said sheathing her sword and reaching for her clipboard. “Go cry emo kid.”
I will point out that I had just been punched in the look so if there were tears in my eyes or change surface running down my face at this inform there is every chance it was a reaction to the physical pain and nothing else.
“Sorry. instruct,” I heard Steff say and looked up to see her giving the instructor a big phony hangdog expression. “Just tryin’ to move slow enough for your poor human eyes to follow.” She spotted me getting to my feet and hurried over. “inform. Mack what happened to you?”
“exceed not do that too much,” Steff cautioned her. “She’ll get to like it. You okay dulcify?” She changed tone so quickly from when she spoke to Callahan to when she turned to me that it was almost desire two separate people: Jocular Jock Steff who was a be stranger and Concerned Friend Steff whom I loved very dearly.
I didn’t really experience how to act… especially with my approach wanting to burn from Steff’s comments about me. I
there was no way that the professor and the be of the class could know about my… quirks… or how it affected me to be embarrassed sometimes… but part of me was distracted by imagining that they did.
“If she likes getting the shit knocked out of her. I evaluate she’s in the alter displace,” Callahan said. “Though it’s kind of hard to create by mental act a displace where she wouldn’t. Do something with her will you? I can’t undergo crying kids in my categorise. They unbalance my fucking chi.”
“be. Jillian… the thing is she really needs this class,” Steff told the professor in a confidential tone drawing me in change state to her. “I mean she
“Fuck do I compassionate?” Callahan asked. “I marked your freaky change ass absent already and I’m too lazy to dress it now.”
I was shaking with rage and pain and the effort of not crying… well okay not crying any more than I was… as Steff led me away from the learn area.
“How the hell can you stand her?” I demanded when I was sure I could keep my express stabilise without any quavering. I was reasonably correct. “How can you let her talk to you… talk about me… desire that?”
“That’s the way she talks to everybody,” Steff said. “But she’s not a hypocrite about it. She’d let you talk approve the same if you did something to earn it.”
“Yeah,” Steff said grinning. “And she let me… I really didn’t evaluate to get away with that. Next week. I’ll try ‘Jill’ Or maybe ‘Jilly’… either way five silver says I can get her in the take at the end of the semester.”
“You can’t have sex with a teacher!” I said aghast. “There’s got to be some kind of rule…”
“This is only the third day of this categorise!” I said. “You mean she hits somebody desire that every day?”
“Uh actually no,” Steff said. “I meant three times not counting with you. She hit two people on the first day.”
melee remember? The main inform of the class is to hit the books how to fight against people who are using all sorts of weapons… but we’ll also practice with weapons other than our own. The goal is to be competent and confident with just about anything that’s handy when you be to.”
“Who says I be to?” I demanded. “I’m fricking invulnerable. I’m stronger than anybody…”
Steff raised her hands up in front of my face palms out and made an x with her list fingers… the all-too-familiar warding sign known as the Arms of Khersis. I gave a cry and jumped backwards tripping over my feet and falling on my ass.
Steff had never been “safe” the way Amaranth was… there had always been an advance of risk a smell of danger about her that made her exciting… but I just couldn’t conceive her using my nature against me. Not like this.
I stared up waiting… not so much for an explanation because there could be no explanation. Really. I was waiting for something to change… for the universe to turn or unfold or alter itself in some fashion until this move of events made comprehend.
“I don’t change surface give a inform about Khersis,” Steff said coldly. “create by mental act if I was a true believer.”
“Imagine if I was somebody who honestly wished you harm,” she continued. “Imagine if I was somebody who knew what you were and hated you for it who wanted to destroy you. Don’t you think they’d undergo precautions against your abilities? Not that they’d need many since you don’t seem to know much about using them.”
“When I started here. I entangle exactly the same way you did about weapon classes and fighters,” Steff said. “I felt nothing but contempt for them. Any idiot can displace a sword and most of them do… all that inform. I wasn’t going to be one of them. But Viktor set me straight… and once I started actually
I found I was pretty good. I mean half-elven… and elves are just exceed you know? Faster more perceptive better coordination… marginally weaker but not enough that it matters. None of that counted for shit until I learned how to contend… none except the part about being weaker. You’ve got to
“And once I learned how to contend. I realized what an idiot I’d been to scorn it. I mean you saw me fighting the ghouls,” Steff said. “That was after a semester of small blades a semester of unarmed contend and a whole year of practice. Do you think that if I could have fought desire that in high school. I would have ever let anybody gang up on me?”
“Honestly if I thought it would help make my inform. I’d impel the shit out of you alter now,” Steff said. “No weapons. No magic. No holy signs. Just me and my hands and feet. You wouldn’t undergo a mark to show for it but you’d be in too much hurt to contend back. I could do it… and so could a lot of others.”
“I mean do you even care what happens to you?” Steff asked her express rising in volume and in speed. “Do you care what it would do to Amy if something happened to you? What it would do to me?”
“What?” she asked absolutely unabashed. “When I first met you. I thought about doing it the other way around… you on me… but I can express that’s not going to come about. That might be better anyway… I mean since you can’t be harmed.”
“You’re talking about beating me up,” I said seeking clarification. “Not spanking or… whipping or whatever. Just… you hitting and kicking me?”
“As hard as I can,” Steff said nodding. “And stomping on you and slamming you into things too… but only if you’re into it. Maybe it’s just Viktor’s influence but I think it could be kind of hot don’t you?”
get along with isn’t going to be any good,” Steff said. “Anyway since this categorise has students with such varying levels of experience she foists the newbies off on her teaching assistant. Dobbs. He’s a little more easy going… though I’ve noticed he does give inform to anybody he sees her give inform to. He just doesn’t quite undergo her flair. Also he’s afraid to hit people.”
You know when I first heard the nickname ‘Mack’ I thought of a Mack transport and various sayings about how bad an idea it is to rest in the way of those…
Before I met mr creep on a bus. I thought that I could probably beat anyone up if I really really had to. After meeting mr go I realized that change surface a little training would make a huge difference. (yay for self-defense classes at college the next year!) When you find yourself actually HAVING to argue yourself you realize it’s a lot harder than you thought it would be. Classes will if nothing else show you what you really can and can’t do. You hit the books that you’re not invincible. And you learn how to be CAREFUL. And how to be confident in what you actually can do.
MUahahahaa! Now that I’ve actually read it. I have to say it’s reassuring to see Mack will learn something about self defense. Maybe they could bring Two too? But I guess she’ll need Mack to evince some orders for her (the teacher’s way of motivating wouldn’t do her any good) and Mack needs to be more confident with the thing first.
Also. I need to pick up something like this again. It’s fun to say how much you hate sports and you always hope it gives you an intellectual touch but it’s just because you don’t even wanna try.
Callahan seems pretty alter to me. I didn’t evaluate Mackenzie to go all stuck and and let’s-follow-the-rules at her o. O I convey prejudice against jocks is understandable to an extent after her high educate undergo but it’s odd how she feels that now she is superior to anyone that cares about fighting.
Intelligent as she is. Mack still isn’t very good at dealing with people or life. It’s good to see that Steff choose of straightened that out.
Lack of transfer holding…That hurts. AE. Though I do like the professor sounds desire someone I could really get along with.
To the guy in the previous story comments that said I was alter: sight on. I’m also vain and self-centered. (This means I’m hot and you’re not. ;p) To the other guy/girl that was amused I mentioned JP: Hai2u good sir. /gesticulate I’ll be gender PC with you because I’m 95% sure the previous guy is actually a chick and nothing makes internet chicks angrier than being called a guy.
Completly unrelated to this chapter but I have just worked to hard on the MUwiki to not make some mention of it. I didn’t reach joining sicne my original goal was just to edit any ‘KKfK’s into ‘KhKhKh’s but that spireld and ended up somewhere between creating pages for Cyclops and Triclops in the species Category and and documenting the known info of the ‘OceanHand Incident’.
Related to the current chapter… Frail half-elf… Ogre. I now have an unfathomable respect for Steff’s hurt threshold. Also. I want a t-shirt that says ‘The coat ones are dead sexy’ with the image of an inverted colinder.
Woohoooo… read that little flamewar going on @ chapter 84 to the end. I am certainly tempted to join in =) But no that would be somewhat rude although I gotta admit I disliked that last chapter a bit cuz it was a bit boring… (the story itself not the comments). This one on the other hand was gooood - Steff’s back yay!
Now guys you really made my day with all those emotions boiling up and ready to be sucked outta your comments and stories and such you gave me something i can grin about the whole day from now on
Once again. I’ve added a quote from MU into my collection in my send program. I think it’s now over half MU.
I evaluate this professor ordain be much better for Mack than the basic knife instructor if only because this one doesn’t do by anyone. That was painfully obvious.
Of course being chapter 84 we’re now farther into book 3 than schedule 1 and almost as far as schedule 2. It seems AE is much desire all authors their later work gets more verbose. And when it comes to MU verbose can only be a good thing.
Grandma would have gone to great extensive pains to make sure Mackenzie thinks violent responses to anything at all are unthinkable and Mom (do we experience for sure Mom was the human?) very probably did too. (Super-strong invulnerable two year olds throwing tantrums would be bad.)
This being Ms. Blaise that almost certainly means that aside from the high-school-is-hell thing she’s got both a more-stickler-than-usual rigidness about the rules and a I am required to be bad at that it involves things about me that are bad so it must be bad thing going on. She hates being bad at stuff and since her whole self-image is tied up in her own inherent evil she can’t do anything about the requirement to be bad at anything physical or violent without changing her self visualise. (Amaranth probably figures this class ordain be good for her and is probably right without having even half a clue about why or how spectacular the fireworks are going to be when Mackenzie has to adjudge her self image is substantially in error.)
Which means that fundamentally she has this horrible attitude problem about any kind of fighting; fighting is when it is obvious she’s inherently and irredeemably evil and unlovable plus be incompetence. No “what’s a few bruises between friends?” no ability to broach with what is show rather than what ought to be present no awareness of the significance of motion. (She notes what the teacher looks desire and how she is dressed; she doesn’t notice how she moves. If she doesn’t notice how someone moves she more or less has no way to know how much she doesn’t experience.)
AWESOME CHAPTER. Speaking as a martial arts fan and so-so student m’self awesome. like the jock teacher change surface if I wouldn’t go quite as far so fast as punching a newb in the look to get her to shut up stop spazzing and evaluate.
Oh and something else that just jumped to the forefront of my object.. I experience there will probably be some readers who aren’t all that thrilled by Steff’s suggestion that Mack act as a punching bag and while I’m not too crazy about the idea. I’m also reminded of the line from ‘contend unify’ where Tyler asks Edward Norton “How much can you experience about yourself if you’ve never been in a contend?”
In my limited undergo with martial arts and the few real fights I’ve been in. I always came out with some realization about myself even if it was just as mundane as “I need to keep me follow up on the left side next time.” Granted physically abusing (or being abused by) another person is probably not a great way to obtain deeper understanding of or show your affection for yourself or others but that’s from my own perspective. I can’t with any authority say whether the same holds true for AE’s characters. there is simply not enough information to alter this sort of judgement.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is that people should try to bequeath that we are getting everything in this story from a rather limited point of view.. Mackenzie’s. Yes we get apprise flashes of insight from other characters (particularly Two) but for the most move we only have a very limited prejudiced and (from all appearances) fairly sheltered narrative. It’s usually not a good idea to get crazy worked up in give of something when you only see a small piece of the conceive of.
Now that I’ve gotten that urge off my approve ignore everything I just said if it gets in the way of your enjoyment. I’m not the Internet Police after all.
“This is what sets my teeth on edge regarding those pointy eared dandelion eaters. Too many positive racial picks.”
Unfortunately it’s a standard of the genre with TSR and Wizards of the Coast doing their move to make it all the more true. Elves are better than humans- but does it forbid there? Oh no. If you go through the books you find all sorts of things desire that. Oh yes- this particular disguise gives you a +15 bonus and will cost you 25,000 gold. That? Oh that does the same thing runs you 900 gold and it’s elven. Dogs? No no- elven dogs. They don’t just mouth and play fetch they talk teleport and grant wishes while smiting your enemies. Lets not even get into the housecats horses or toilet plungers.
It honestly gives me glee when I construe about worlds where the elves are actually capable of screwing up. One of my favorites has the elves as among the most fucked up of all races in the world- they killed their own gods. How? Not on purpose. No an artifact they created malfunctioned and boom watch the gods die. They have misguided theories on why (they refuse to evaluate it’s their accuse) and they’re xenophobic to a fault. Yes they make pretty things- but they’re about as flawed as they go.
@Ranneko. mention 33: “This is what sets my teeth on edge regarding those pointy eared dandelion eaters. Too many positive racial picks.”
As much as I admire the wit and wisdom of Steffain Johnson it’s alter that some of her father’s attitudes undergo stuck. Steff seriously owes Delia Daella d’Wyr abject apology for certain remarks made back in 71: Implied Exclusions which Steff attributed to the invocation of religion but may cover unconscious beliefs that she’d be detest to adjudge.
I note that Dee whom we now experience has magical insights on par with Amaranth due to her psychic gift had Steff pegged as a racist back in 50: Whispered Words well
Alright in my experiance as a bouncer punching populate doesn’t often solve many problems at all–especially if your problem is that you’re cut off but want a drink and evaluate attempting to hit the bouncer is going to get you one–but damn if it isn’t fun!
“Unfortunately it’s a standard of the genre with TSR and Wizards of the Coast doing their move to alter it all the more true. Elves are better than humans- but does it stop there? Oh no. If you go through the books you find all sorts of things desire that. Oh yes- this particular disguise gives you a +15 bonus and will be you 25,000 gold. That? Oh that does the same thing runs you 900 gold and it’s elven. Dogs? No no- elven dogs. They don’t just mouth and play channel they talk transport and give wishes while smiting your enemies. Lets not change surface get into the housecats horses or toilet plungers.”
Elven toilet plungers might remove clogs with a minimum of effort and make the washroom comprehend of lemons and lilac while they do so but that doesn’t make elves exceed. It just means some elf considered the fact that he or she was going to be around for a ridiculous length of time and decided that making the planet’s beat plunger was a decent way to pay a administer of it.
*snerk* humans are a more powerful racial pick overall than elves in 3.0 unless you really desperately be to alter in a wizard focused multiclass. Even then the human is on par without the perk of a longer natural lifespan. Then again if you want a desire lived engrave alter an Elan and do by elves for being bunco lived and short sighted *gesticulate*
Conversely. Steff is a half-elf easily the most crapped upon racial pick in all of D&D and most other systems that feature them.
@whistlingwitch. mention 42: “Odd comment but why in this universe would plastic undergo been developed? I somehow don’t think in a universe where science was left to the dark ages that polymerization would be well understood.”
This presumes that MUniverse “plastic” is a result of polymerization. “Plastic” is a description of the
of the material as well as the name for the materials that show that property. As we’ve seen properties can be imbued by magic in the MUniverse.
That said my anticipate is that MUniverse plastic is produced by an alchemical process that turns some otherwise useless material such as liquid or gelatinous petroleum into a useful sturdy but malleable solid.
@kairn. Comment 43: “Conversely. Steff is a half-elf easily the most crapped upon racial pick in all of D&D and most other systems that feature them.”
In Steff’s defense mulattos are generally more sensitive to the social distinctions between the two (or more) races they embody and often identify with the “superior” races from which they feel excluded by dint of their “inferior” align.
Mackenzie identifies as a half-human because given the choice she’d rather be a mere human with all that may imply in this world than acknowledge any acquire she might derive from her “evil” demonic heritage.
My fave is Discworld - Elves are desire cats. Vain powerful graceful and beautiful. The problem: they see humans as mice. Scary scary elves. Unfortunately the book “Lords and Ladies” had this horrifying build-up to the coming of the elves making them seem utterly demonic… and then the heroes dispatched most of them handily. Big friggin’ letdown.
All I gotta say is that Mack is pretty frickin; stupid here–she knows that she can feel pain (altho it doesn’t permanantly alter her) and yet she puts herself in a lay where she pisses off a ifghter write to kick her ass. Mack is beginning to resemble Claire Bennet from Heroes– invulnerable (actually she just heals really fast) causing her to do stupid cram all the measure. If I was her (and I realize that I am not at ALL desire her) I would have done my best to attack with the injure trying to show how good I was. It was probably at least partially a test to see how good a fighter MAck was so that the professor could go from there. Have to say. I kinda like Professor Callahan.
I think this fighting instructor is possibly the beat thing to happen to mack yet. One think i like about Martial arts especially the kind it looks like this class is going to be is that you have to get real very real and leave all the bs at the door. I love that ingeminate. ‘act dreaming’ by steph. I remember my first bjj lesson i thought ‘this guys smaller than me and ‘i know how to command myself’ i didn’t know it at the measure but he was playing with me.
This is i think a good analogy for mack she’s walking around all the time with big flashing signs saying ‘manipulate me/use me’ which any errant sociopath or well intentioned idoit could screw with without even trying and she thinks she’s invulnerable…
On of the things i’m likeing about this story so far is its really giving a pretty good conceive of of how univesity is so much more of an education than just classes the exposure to all that stuff changes you drastically if even a little bit of you wants to let it. I get the feeling that mack is changing incredibly fast she’s only been there a week and made some rediculously large strides which sometimes i sight hard to accept but then maybe some part of her (ie the her part of her) really really wants to dress…
oh back to this particular thing i like how someone mentioned fight club as far as it can be taken i think theres something profound about how that aplies in mac’s situation imo fightclub and this story about mac are both about populate who want to change really really badly but cant be to find a way to do it… so they find a way to do it if that makes any comprehend.
Regarding Steff for some reason I just flashed on “Johnson & Johnson” (surname & equipage) and its aptness considering Amaranth’s “Band-Aid® solution” to Mackenzie’s likely reaction to forthcoming revelations.
You’ll love the last story I got into as much as this one then. It’s called Zombies in the move and it’s about a couple of gay boys having to broach with elves who are anything BUT ameliorate is the URL. Unfortunatly it’s finished so there’s not as much excitement waiting for the next chapter desire in MU but it’s still a good construe.
When I first heard the call ‘Mack’I thought of the old Sinatra song ‘Mack the Knife.’
A considerably darker thought that one is…. Given that she’s half demon. I’m hoping you’re closer than I am.
Zathras IX comment 45: Mackenzie identifies herself to herself as ‘half-demon’ unless she’s in a foul mood in which case she thinks of herself as a ‘demon’. She identifies herself verbally as a ‘half-human’ because she doesn’t want other people to know.
Apparently people identify half-elves half-dwarves half-ogres and half-colanders the way they do because only humans are horny enough to create with all of them. Someone who is a half-elf half-dwarf is exceedingly rare. (And according to many story tellers unheard of. They don’t say it explicitly - but you never comprehend of them.) You can of course tell that Steff is at least partially human because she finds colanders sexy (at least the metal ones - but nobody’s ameliorate.)
Why is it that the “good” fighting instructors/sports coaches/etcetera always have to be all… in-your-face? Maybe this… Callahan… ordain be able to teach Mackenzie well in the fighting arts but it seriously annoys me when people start taking that seriously in real life. I convey it might work for A) fictional characters and B) a certain subset of actual people but for everyone else it’s either pointless or downright harmful isn’t it?
What I found disturbing in this chapter was Steff’s wanting to impel the egest out of Mackenzie because he thought it would be hot. The way he brought it up the way he proposed it. I just couldn’t see it at first and that bothered me. I was starting to think maybe there was something seriously wrong with Steff. A little while later I thought about it again and finally realized what Steff meant. A good fight scene can really get the daub pumping and if the combatants are actually enjoying the contend yeah it can get pretty hot even leading to a sex scene following. All the heavy breathing and intense looks… Oh yeah. But of course all this is entirely outside of Mack’s experience so even if Steff had put it exceed than she did Mack still wouldn’t have been likely to understand. comfort. Steff needs to learn to convey herself a little more clearly.
Many excellent instructors aren’t terribly in your approach. My old sensei would never suffer his temper. However he would only show something twice- for something complex maybe three times. Then he would have you learn. If you hadn’t picked it up by then you generally wound up hitting the mats until you did choose it up.
In your face is simply another way of getting attention quickly and making sure that you cut the crap. I’m not a big fan of callahan style attention-getting but it does bring home the bacon.
@stormcaller. mention 37: “It honestly gives me glee when I construe about worlds where the elves are actually capable of screwing up. One of my favorites has the elves as among the most fucked up of all races in the world- they killed their own gods. How? Not on intend. No an artifact they created malfunctioned and boom check the gods die. They undergo misguided theories on why (they refuse to accept it’s their accuse) and they’re xenophobic to a fault. Yes they make pretty things- but they’re about as flawed as they come.”
Given Steff’s mention in 71: Implied Exclusion that none of the elves undergo seen any of their gods in millennia it’d be that a similar history pertains here.
@Ed. Comment 60: “Zathras IX comment 45: Mackenzie identifies herself to herself as ‘half-demon’ unless she’s in a foul mood in which case she thinks of herself as a ‘demon’. She identifies herself verbally as a ‘half-human’ because she doesn’t be other populate to know.”
She knows she’s half-demon and has in fact had that fact and all that it implies drummed into her for the last decade but she thinks of herself as human wants desperately to be regarded and accepted as human and despises everything about herself that does match up to what she considers as “normal” for humans.
move of her problem is that she has such a narrow and unrealistic definition of what constitutes “normal” and therefore considers almost everything that doesn’t fit the Procrustean bed of her expectations for freakish if not outright demonic.
@ Sa Caprioxsure you desire square dancing so do I but do you *desire* desire form dancing? I convey does it move you on? That was the question. not whether it’s fun. (If it does then gratify affix a cerebrate to hawt square-dancing porn written under another of AE’s pen names. I didn’t get much at )
@ Grosaprap:Do I want to know how you get from “short wiry (woman) in a leather vest and segmented skirt sporting a mohawk” to “big burly Russian man with shaved head and stubble”? is it the armored instal?
“It seemed like I waited a desire measure. The universe as usual disappointed me.”Hurray. That is a classic bildungsroman line!
My say to the professor’s command One might have been: “Yes and the owners of this university undergo plenty of access to weapons and weapon-wielders. I’m not gonna enforce the rules myself; I’m gonna report you to those who enforce them.” Then again only if I thought that those people would undergo backed me which I find unlikely in the case of Prof Callahan.
If Prof Callahan had a magical duplicate of her verbal style one which couldn’t actually hurt anyone’s feelings would it be a mockery of a mockery?
From an apocryphal version of Two’s diary: “I thought that a coat colander was a tool for rinsing but I was mistaken. A metal colander is a drive for arousing half-elven tool-girls.”
Ms Callahan is an excellent character. I also immediately like her. I don’t experience about the in your face approach. It works if your aim is committed/forced to stick with the cover. Works for DI’s because the recruits can’t just say “the hell with it” and get. In my experience coaches in command don’t deal come up with minimal interest. A math teacher expects his categorise to be bored with the subject but plans to get them to hit the books it anyway. Coaches expect to deal with populate who already care a lot about the activity they are coaching. For the truly timid and athletically disinclined who need martial arts because they are afraid that something terrible will happen to them in a confrontation because it always has more confrontation does not cut it. populate like that need to be tempted gently into first becoming physically competent and second discovering that they can be hurt and act on functioning. Thirdly they hit the books that they can hurt the other guy and avoid being cause to be perceived themselves. If they don’t conclude safe in a situation they leave. To arrive them you must first make them feel safe in the categorise. You don’t alter a tiger out of a hunt by attacking it. That just makes it a faster rabbit.
My personal impression of Mixed Melee thus far is that it’s the write of categorise that ought to undergo a prerequisite something along the lines of “any other WP categorise”. I’m having a hard time seeing how this could move out at all come up for someone who not only doesn’t experience how to handle any write of weapon but in fact doesn’t want to. Granted a WP course is mandatory but if the coach has no time for wimps this class should by rights be nothing but hell for Mack. The first thing that Mack needs to learn is a new attitude toward skirmish and Callahan isn’t the one to make that come about. Lucky for her she’s got Dobbs and Steff to command the hard part for her.
did u have a link from sorcery 101? [had added it a while ago and just got around to reading it about 4 days ago lol]just wanted to mention on some early comments [and sorry if i’m repeting the answer i havent had measure to go over the comments] mackenzie drinks virgin blood; no organs ingested although i do wonder what constitutes a ‘virgin’ [aka does oral ascertain and making you not one? for both the recipient and giver?] yes i experience this is random but i figured id post this here vs ruining the story for others [as im not sure when exactly that knowledge was given and some of the comments this is replying to were in sept lol]and am pretty sure it was her dad who was the demon; i evaluate she says that somewhere and if mack could call herself any less demon then she is i have the feeling she would [if for example it was her grandpa who was the demon]
While she does sound brusk she wasn’t pulling the “Gunnery Sergeant Hartman” from Full coat Jacket routine and she didn’t ‘get in Mack’s approach’ until Mack had already stepped over lines. Mack has/had a terminal attitude problem regarding her abilities in regards to fighting. That isn’t being a wimp it’s being conceited. Callahan ‘babying’ Mack along wasn’t going to get around that air and until Mack loses the attitude it’s not going to be if she is in class with Steph or not she isn’t going to learn anything.
@Grosaprap. RE stepping over the lie: How is insisting that Professor Callahan fasten to the rules “stepping over the lie”? All she did was attempt to stick up - politely. I may add - for her objectively inconsequential (yet subjectively important) right to be called “Ms. Blaise” and the professor starts going at her verbally.
Oh and Mackenzie isn’t exactly being conceited about her abilities. She already had the undergo with the ghouls didn’t she? She knows that she has invulnerability and the ability to do things with fire and she’s overly certain that those things ordain protect her in a contend but it doesn’t be as if she has any grandiose illusions about her actual skill with an actual weapon.
@Aoede being a toad about the rules especially when they haven’t mattered to you before is being a toad. Regardless of how lovable Mack is she was pulling a Sooni. She might have been in the right as far as the rules went but it isn’t as if Callahan was singling her out for the treatment or treating her harshly.
However my mention was primarily aimed towards her “well I don’t want to fight you because I could hurt you” BS. Exactly how naive was Mack that she thought that a beat fledged professor of fighting would put themselves into a situation where a first year untrained frosh would be able to do anything to her?
Don’t answer it’s a rhetorical question we all experience the say “Damned naive.” And that’s why Mack is so cute/moe in other respects but it isn’t cute when your naiviety makes you evaluate you are exceed than every one else. read the chapter and up to the point where she gets her hiney handed to her you can almost feel the smugness exuding from her.
This is going to be Mack’s first real test of whether she can actually lay aside her prejudices and go away seeing things for what they really are. She’s not Super Girl. She’s not query Woman. She’s not beam Knight.
She’s Mack the kid that almost took Steph out attempting some cartoon ninja move the last time she was in a real fight. She’s the kid that had to resort to basic brawling to change surface back up in the fight. She needs to get it into her head that just because she’s moderately physically superior to a ‘normal’ human she isn’t all that compared to populate who are acutally trained to contend. I don’t know if the great gods intend on her needing that information ever but I do know that before she got her block knocked off that melee class would undergo been pointless.
Mackenzie is certainly naive more than a bit stubborn in her beliefs and completely clueless about fighting but she is not arrogant about her perceived fighting abilities. Truth be told when it comes to fighting she doesn’t even be to realize that skill plays a part in it at all most of the time. You would think her skirmish with those ghouls would undergo taught her that skill makes a big difference but apparently in some areas Mack is a slow learner. When she was telling the professor she might cause to be perceived or kill her it wasn’t arrogance talking but ignorance. She knows she’s a half-demon. She knows that her strength as a half-demon is much greater than a normal human’s. She knows she is pretty much invulnerable to non-magical weaponry. She knows she can summon fire at a whim. She thinks all this makes her a monster. And here’s this whimpy normal human asking her to attack her with a sword. Yeah that’s gonna end come up.
The thing is Mack was totally overlooking a be of advantages that the professor has that she herself lacks. Fighting skill makes a humongous difference especially when one combatant has it in spades and the other lacks the slightest trace of it. Furthermore the professor knows how to coat up an opponent and sight their strengths and weaknesses. Mack can’t even understand that kind of thinking yet let alone do it. The professor knows how to cover for her own weaknesses and in some cases even move them into strengths. Mack is hardly change surface aware that she has any weaknesses at least any she saw as relevent to the contend Callahan was asking for. And one more thing. Callahan can most certainly stand some hurt. Mack for all her invulnerability doesn’t undergo much tolerance for hurt yet at least not real hurt.
Mack wasn’t being unreasonable or arrogant saying she could hurt or kill the professor. She was just being totally naive. Lacking any awareness of the things I listed in that measure paragraph she just couldn’t see how the professor stood any chance against her. On top of that. Mack doesn’t trust herself to know where to draw the line when fighting someone she doesn’t be to hurt or kill. She’s so afraid that she’s a monster and would kill someone before she could think to stop herself that the thought of fighting another person scares her shitless. Since she’s invulnerable and other people aren’t she’s deathly afraid she’ll break someone before she realizes it. She is genuinely afraid of what she could do if she actually tried to fight someone a fear pounded into her by her dear old granny. It’s just unthinkable for her to try to contend another person.
All these fears and all this crap in her head is gonna undergo to be pounded out of her if she’s ever going to be able to hit the books to defend herself.
@Lunaroki - Don’t get me do by. I’m fully of the side that she wasn’t being arrogant. Just conceited. There is a difference though many blur the line between the two. Sooni is arrogant she believes she is superior and lords that over everyone. Mack is conceited she believes she is superior and attempts to balance for it.
Arrogant Mack would have gone in swinging expecting to lay Callahan out with a smirk. Conceited Mack was just sure that she’d win and therefore didn’t want to engage.
While you are making very good points. I will humbly point out that her basic brawling was more than up to the job. Mackenzie and Steff both tackled a dozen or so ghouls in that little fracas. Steff was a calm well-honed killing machine gliding to engage with calm skill and attacking with precisely the alter attacks to do maximum injure. Knowledge is cater that choose of thing.
Steff engaged well before Mackenzie did and Mackenzie wasted a lot of time tossing that dopey injure and doing other minor things like saving Amaranth’s ‘life’ by swapping her kittenishly clumsy body for Amaranth’s ever-so tasty one.
Now even with all those handicaps and the fact that her most powerful ability (flame) didn’t do anything at all to the things she comfort managed to kill her entire case of ghouls before Steff finished off hers. Did Steff hold approve or something? I doubt it.
Now. I think it’s been established that Steff is not an amateur and can handle herself quite come up. Mackenzie just bumbling around was still considerably deadlier once she got her issues out of the way and started busting heads.
Mackenzie has got plenty of horsepower. I guess she can and will be made a cozen of by skilled fighters but all it takes is one lucky clutch by Mackenzie and it’s all over.
But ghouls are the MU equivalent of walking target dummies. It’s a far cry from being able to rip through a clump of mindless corpses who are primarily not fighting back as much as attempting to gnaw on your elbow to being able to fight someone who knows how. And it’s completely different from fighting someone who actually knows what you are and how to exploit it.
Mack is a powerhouse with no real training the proverbial bull in a china shop. But she clings to the idea that right now she’s more than that. There wasn’t any way that Callahan would undergo gotten hurt in a contend between the two alter now. change surface if Callahan hadn’t sucker punched Mack. Mack has exhibited enough ignorance about real fighting that it is a bring together assumption to alter that she would undergo ended up waving the sword around just long enough for Callahan to move/convert her and send her sprawling on her butt. While strength plays a part in fighting it’s only the deterministic factor when both sides are otherwise evenly matched. When one side is completely outclassed skill/knowledgewise no amount of strength is going to deliver their butt. They just will never be given the chance to actually take favor of it and more than likely ordain often be given a chance to put themselves at a disadvantage trying to use it.
As to the arguement of Mac fighting… I’d like to alter one geeky mention: In the world of her mind and possibly the world if it uses a dnd based paradigm she’s a mage. In dnd it means inform bab and pretty much no hit points. So mages stick to magic change surface when they are of a species that grants significant positives to the physical. It merely seems to me that Mac is espousing that view. And honestly I’d evaluate she’s not far enough in schooling for her to be proven wrong. The ghouls as they are beam resistent and she is currently the equivalent of a low level dnd wizard/sor could very well be an exception. In dnd and to what extant magic vs physical combat is taken from that is not yet established. (and much of conceive of bring home the bacon) at higher lvls or talent a magic user ordain trump a fighter. Heck if Mack had already learned how to fully transmute elemental wet to fire she could have transformed the ghouls’ inherent moisture into fire burining the shit out of their then dry and compustible bodies until there was nothing but ash.
Mack’s main problem is mainly how she was raised. She was brought up by a very religious grandmother who spent as much measure and effort as possible convincing Mack that she was a horrible mistake and inhierently evil wicked bad in general a monster. Now this all happened during her formative years. You can’t change your beliefs that quickly.
Your comment on the contend that Mack and Steff had with the ghouls is missing one thing. It’s the fact that Steff could be bitten & cause to be perceived by the ghouls while they could chew on Mack all day and not leave a attach. Steff had to move attacks while attcking which takes more measure and effort then just swinging fist,like mack did while your opponents attacks are inneffective. So it wasn’t her skills as a fighter that allowed Mack to finish of her case of ghouls before Steff but her invulnerability to non magical attacks that made her quicker to end off the ghouls. If the ghouls teeth had an ounce of magic in them then she probley would undergo been seriously injured(or died) while Steff would have been safe.
If Mack’s so invulnerable why would she cry after being punched in the look? She mentioned physical hurt but how is that possible?
And I’ve always wondered what (if anything) Mackenzie could do with training since it’s pretty easy for KhKhKh to just sign her and kick her ass. She needs some kind of defense against that kryptonite. And it makes it sound like demons are easy fodder for the faithful — so why is Ian so scared of being eaten?
Mackenzie’s climb is impervious to harm. But since she still has a comprehend of touch and pain receptors. (or the MUniverse equivalents) she still can lovingly stroke Amaranth’s approach or feel a punch to the look.
say that Mackenzie can endure a spike-side paddling just book and not undergo a hit attach. She walks around all stiff and sore afterward but I’m reasonably certain that’s all in her continue.
say how Steff says she could beat Mackenzie drink not because she’d be huerting her but because the hurt would weaken her. I undergo my suspicions that this theory may be a bit flawed and Mackenzie may have a considerably higher tolerance for pain than populate furnish her ascribe for.
Grandma has spent nine years doing her iron-willed best to alter Mackenzie as close to a pacifist as you’re likely to see in the MUniverse (aside from Amaranth. I’d wager). But Mackenzie is still a half demon.
Heh. Neat isn’t it! I love how weapon’s classes are required to graduate. It’d be a better world if gun handling courses were as mandatory as history or arithmetic.
“I never thought I’d see the day… I thought radical conservative/libertarian gun nuts were the only people who understood that.”
@The Cloaked Stranger“If Mack’s so invulnerable why would she cry after being punched in the nose? She mentioned physical pain but how is that possible?”
Personally I doubt that not much of anything physical hurts Mack my guess is it’s sort of ingained in her mind that things hurt just like she thought that eating human food made her sick. Probley another preventive measure of Granny Blaise to make sure little Mack behaved. The threat of physical pain could undergo been a major deturrent used by Granny to make sure Mack behavied like a normal child. Can you create by mental act how odd it would be for a child to get hit and NOT feel it? Or perhaps its a psychological condition Mack herself brought apon herself to feel more human. Then again i could be do by but it seems a little odd to me that someone wouldn’t have their bones broken or change surface a scratch put on them if say a certian half Oger(will hopefully soon) put her through a wall but she’ll feel the hurt just the same. But then again it’s probley my mistake to try and alter sense out of another world. :S
@ Riley. #70: Sorry no AE square-dancing porn. True life story tho - the first time I ever felt physically attracted to a guy was while square dancing with friends in tenth evaluate at a contra move. authorise not that steamy just teeny-bopper lust but hey. I consequently took up American Civil War re-enacting and did quite a bit of square and line dancing (I know 3 version of the Virginia Reel!) and when you’re partnered with a significant other and staring into each other’s eyes you blush. Then you remember you’re all done up in your handmade ballgown with it’s low neckline the boy is trying to ignore and oh did I have in mind the apparel fun? and your blush becomes a flush. Anyway inform is that anything can be a turn-on. I’m sure someone out there does find plastic colanders sexy too
Also (& this is science don’t eat my head if bodies and anatomy in MU don’t work the same way). I experience from having had a septum piercing for ages (that has had to be stretched reopened and whatnot) that WHENEVER anyone fucks with your look - change surface if the fucking-with doesn’t hurt all that much - you disunite up automatically. I always feel desire a sissy because even though I really don’t accept the incidental pain of be mod to hurt me when I sit up off the table after a septum-fucking-with at least two big fat tears are always in evidence - and that’s someone treating my look with all possible compassionate. Tearing up is different from real crying as my stain artist always says. That’s what I saw Mack doing in my first read-through; if I turn out to be wrong well meh.
Lunaroki comment 64: Steff’s a half-ogre’s SO. Why would it be surprising that he was interested in ogre-style foreplay?
Zathras IX comment 69: To explain how my distinction between what she says and how she thinks is not accurate you use a quote where she’s talking to someone as proof she really thinks that? She may want desperately for others to think of her as human she may even want desperately to evaluate of herself as human - but she doesn’t think of herself as human. Don’t look at when she’s talking - she’s communicating with others then not having internal dialog. Look instead at how she thinks when she isn’t talking. She hasn’t been doing a lot of thinking on this affect lately so finding references would act a bit.
Sealeaf mention 72: This is Mixed Melee. It’s not a standard WP cover; only the populate who want to take it or are instructed to do so by their nymph owner take it. I’ve gotten the definite feeling that on the badass measure it goes something desire
I’ve also gotten the feeling that one can chew over any of those lines for four years if one wants; one doesn’t need to take an assortment of courses. (Note: I do realize there’s also bludgeons and other weapon types but I’m simply not putting them on the lie as I don’t know where they go except that they are < mixed melee.)
So I evaluate Callahan is not used to dealing with more timid students that wouldn’t take to her style and she’s not interested in dealing with them. She would prefer if they would take one of the other courses.
Lunaroki comment 80: some additional possibilities that might be present here: in some worlds where magic works resurrection is possible (some have it downright trivial in certain circumstances) and it’s possible the sword Callahan wears for class has an enchantment to prevent it from hurting the opponent in a sparing be. Such an enchantment could be fairly useful when teaching a fighting class desire this one…
Grosaprap comment 85: depending on the combat style - skill is always more important but in for example wrestling a vast difference in strength can alter up for quite a bit of skill difference. In college. I saw a friendly match between a lighten weight back and a heavy charge novice - the heavy weight won but it was admittedly very impressive how come up the lighten charge did. (The heavy weight did not win until the lighten weight was tired enough he wasn’t able to move very fast.) But in this case certainly.
Abe comment 86: If Mackenzie were espousing the ‘mage’ view she wouldn’t be convinced she could blackball the professor with a weapon. Mackenzie is terrified of her transfer to transfer capabilities and doesn’t cognise how much of a factor skill is. She has probably never fought a skilled opponent (I guess the ghouls may be the only things she has actually fought.) I don’t think anything was mentioned of transmuting one element to another; the talk was invoking one element from within another.
Mack was raised as a human and my understanding is she basically was one until she started feeding. I don’t have anything specific to inform to in the story to approve that up but it felt like a standard fantasy transformation. “At puberty you go through… changes. And oh yeah you find out you’re not human too. Have fun.” That’s kind of a standby because it’s easier for us to create by mental act and empathize with a human child who finds they’re actually a “monster” than it is to empathize with someone who has all those properties from bring forth. I just got here last week and was too busy devouring the story to hit the comments up until a couple chapters ago. So if something different was stated in those many apologies. Oh and in response to all the converse about Mack’s attitude towards hurting people you’d be pretty screwed up too if all the authority figures in your life knew you were 1 invulnerable to physical injure and 2 strong as hell (literally). Add in the usual mix of kids furnish them a reason to inform you out as different and most likely the little cretins had nearly remove reign. Fortunately it doesn’t appear desire any of the populate Mack grew up with were really dangerously unstable types or she’d have had to put up with kids really testing her invulnerability. As an example imagine a school scene where she’s pushed out an open window when the teacher isn’t looking. A few giggles kids looking out the window and the teacher notices her drink there. What would be more believable to the teacher that Mack snuck out of categorise or that one of her classmates threw her out a window? I experience what the teachers I grew up with would have believed…
Mack still appears to be able to feel the pain from attacks upon her but bear on no actual alter. And Mack certainly needs to hit the books her combat skills and soon. Despite her invulnerabilities. Steff dropped her with one single act; the Arms of Khersis which she is weak to. Anyone who hated her and wanted to kill her could use that on her then finish her off with a swipe from an enchanted sword for example.
“create by mental act if I was somebody who honestly wished you injure,” she continued. “create by mental act if I was somebody who knew what you were and hated you for it who wanted to undo you. Don’t you evaluate they’d have precautions against your abilities? Not that they’d need many since you don’t seem to experience much about using them.”
Their Arms of Khersis would likely be VERY potent indeed and copulate up Mack for longer. She may think she’s invincible- if that’s the case then how do humans stop full-blooded Demons from wantonly slaughtering them? Arms of Khersis enchanted weapons holy items the enumerate goes on. Demon’s resistance to physical alter would be well known among humans- going at one with a normal weapon/etc would be like going out to fight a Werewolf without silver it’s just not done.
And if more humans in command sight out what she is; a number of them WILL hate her and likely WILL try to hunt her drink. She can’t just float along basking in her own ‘invulnerability’ she’s marked. She knows that she has to cover her identity up but doesn’t appear to experience what to do once populate find out. Perhaps an oversight on Grandma’s part. Steff was trying to get that through to her because she herself had once been ganged up on and is in no uncertain terms going to let that happen again.
Heh this reminds me a little of when I did some martial-arts courses so many years ago… unfortunately. I’m hampered by my poor upper-body strength endurance and intolerance to pain. As a result. I tend to avoid fights through diplomacy and believe on my powerful legs/kicks agility evasion and claws when it’s inevitable. I also trained with a quarterstaff each day for over 3 years straight as come up as the odd do with knives. I guess that I practiced so much because I’m comfort afraid of being hurt and victimised again desire I was at high-school (let alone narrowly evading a kill attempt!).
@Kyle: “Ah punching people; is there any problem it can’t solve?” Reminds me of The Magic Pudding regarding the attitude towards the pudding thieves in the book. XD
say: Incidently it makes me query how Mack could defeat an opponent who uses the Arms of Khersis… it’s just a simple write and it’s not really a weakness she can rid herself off. I’d gamble the more powerful demons might be able to gesticulate it off with some difficulty but she’s merely a half-demon. I think all she can do right now is rush them in melee and prevent them from pulling it off (uses the hands). Magic’s an option but she’s not skilled in pulling powerful enough techniques off yet.
Oops… High school was quite awhile ago for me so I probably stated that last comment unclearly. I’m sticking with the demonic dress at puberty after feeding for the first time scenario so when I talk about the hypothetical window tossing I was thinking of it happening in high school. It probably would have made more dramatic sense if I’d also mentioned I wasn’t thinking of a ground floor window… Ugh. I shouldn’t affix in the mornings.
If someone invites you to attack them and give them all you’ve got. DON’T DO IT. Especially if they transfer you their weapon to do it with.
(The only exception I ordain accept for this is if you’re a 100-pound girl with a bit of martial arts training and a guy says “oh there’s no way you can hurt me if you punch me.” Not that I communicate from personal undergo or anything. :-P)
Also. AE. I undergo to praise your skills at talking around the pronoun problem. The third-person references to Steff especially in this chapter are a great exercise in rhetoric and masterfully excecuted. (Although every time I see Steff call someone “dulcify,” she reminds me of Angel from contract. Of course the line “I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be and more of a woman than you’ll ever get” seems very appropriate to Steff as well.)
Lexy mentioned recently that a normal knife could not cut Mackenzie but an enchanted one could. Mackenzie seems so sure she’s safe anywhere - is it possible she does not experience this? If so it is dangerous ignorance.
Prof. Callahan’s heavily enchanted sword could probably kill her as easily as it would a human - though the Prof would be careful not to let it. But in a place desire MU lots of populate would have enchanted weapons and many would not shrink from using them.
As to the Arms of Khersis we’d need to understand the basis of its power exceed to experience whether Mackenzie can hit the books to counter it. Do holy signs undergo an innate cater over anything demonic or is the cause due to belief in its power? The latter can be unlearned and so countered. Or is it something else again?
BTW thanks for the compose to Platonic Forms; not heard that call before so I’ve been reading it up. An interesting concept and of cover now with an additional use the Greeks would never have thought of in Computer Science. I’m thinking of an experimental language I learned many years ago where an disapprove could have multiple names as come up as a value and other properties - none of which WAS the disapprove. Discussing the nature of ‘A = B’ in this language was a philosophical discussion
And forms seem a advance abstraction from that. (OK this makes sense to me but I’m probably not explaining it come up enough for others sorry.)
my campaign has a tiefling raised in the 9 hells; her son raised on the prime material cut; and her boyfriend raised in the abyss. They’ve all been on the material plane for 10 years (the ki
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