voice, @TARANTO

[heavyhitter]

So we got a buncha old fashioned guys who are used to swinging around swords all the time and stuff, right? It seems like it, I can't go 20 feet without tripping over someone that's never seen a minipad before. God, would it kill that rift stuff to start taking more people from the modern era?

Anyway, point is I need one of you guys — or, hell, a buncha you guys — to start teaching. I've got some students in mind, foremost being me, because the training room here doesn't cut it if you've never even seen a fucking sword before. And if anyone else sucks at medieval stuff too lemme know, we'll make it a whole party.

Achilles and Koltira, you guys are my top medieval guys that know what you're doing, don't you fucking ignore this.

[ a beat ]

Also, I've got this little super strength issue where I might break any weapons I try and use, so... there's that, too. Still working on that obstacle. Any ideas, lemme know.


[ ooc: here's a planning post for teaching stuff!! ]

Comments

[heelies]

The son of Klim! I would not dishonor him by lying with his woman, and so these our words shall not come to fruition when already you have his bed to keep warm.

[So is that a "no" on threesomes?]

[heavyhitter]

Yeah, the son of Klim. [ god, she loves that. what she does not love: ] But, god, I really wish you'd pick some... different vocabulary on that.

[heelies]

Have I misspoken? What mean you with this objection?

[heavyhitter]

I mean, okay, it's not the most offensive thing that ever fell out of your mouth. But it makes it sound like I'm just sitting around in his bed waiting for him to come back, and trust me, that's not the arrangement.

[heelies]

I meant only that a woman's duty to her husband or her lover is to provide her sweet body that in its soft embrace he might find comfort. Is this not so?

[Speaking of offensive things that fall out of his mouth...]

[heavyhitter]

[ congratulations, achilles, ramir is actually surprised into silence for a few seconds! that's a first.

then: ] Yeah, no, it's not. It's no one's duty, that shit's by choice only. And thanks for reminding me that I never wanna go visit your world, ever.

dying whale noises

[heelies]

[He too is stunned into silence by the sudden and sharp downturn of her tone. He proceeds in bemusement.]

For what are you so upset? You have chosen your lover, have you not? How rare an opportunity this is for a woman, when in the custom of the Achaeans her father chooses for her a husband and she with her woman's graciousness learns to love the man who has paid bride price to bring her to his house.

ah...... what a nice, progressive, open minded fellow

[heavyhitter]

[ there's another wordless pause, but this time it comes with a frustrated noise. ]

See, no, it's not a rare opportunity, it's just how the rest of the universe does it. You're the fucking outlier here, so quit expecting the shit you know from other people. Am I making it in through that thick skull of yours at all?

i hate this sexist piece of shit

[heelies]

[And so her harsh words and insults feed into his ire, which strains at his own words wishing to run free, but this he does not allow just yet.]

I must confess I know little of the customs borne by other lands, but certainly the love between men and women cannot differ so greatly from one planet to another. I meant not to offend you with my words. Therefore do not take this sharp tone against me.

that's ok i love him enough for both of us

[heavyhitter]

[ she's getting annoyed, and he's getting annoyed, and she knows where this goes. neither of them are really great at a civil conversation. so she lets out a breath, slow and easy. ]

Okay, honest question here, so give me an honest answer. Do you care that I'm pissed, and about why I'm pissed? Or do you just want me to stop being pissed?

[heelies]

I wish for your anger to cease, but too do I wish to know for what reason your heart stirs to such fury, for I understand not.

[His tone remains tense like lyre strings pulled too tight, but through this shows confusion plain and genuine.]

[heavyhitter]

[ that's... not as bad as she thought it might be. he's a piece of shit, but not as big of one as he could be. ]

Alright.

[ another quick breath out. she's cool, she's cool. ]

I'm pissed because you -- you're so fucking backwards. [ SHE'S COOL. more forcibly calm: ] You think I'm lower on the ladder than you because I've got better tits than you. Everywhere I've been, no one gives a shit if you're a he or a she or something else. Basically all we care about is your job and how much money you make. Being a woman? Nothing to do with it. No one's gonna tell me what to do because of that, and definitely not the guy I decided to date. And that's not just me, that's every woman here.

[heelies]

[The insult - backwards, like a barbarian who knows not the ways of civilized men - churns within his heart and he nearly interrupts. But then she dampens the spark and continues with words more controlled, and so he listens with his frown deep and his brow like the bruised clouds which foretell a storm.]

I have passed enough time here to know well how strange seem my ways and the beliefs I hold as true in the eyes of others - so much so that for all this time still do I feel as a stranger in a strange land here among this crew. Yet for this I have tried to adjust as I learn ever more of races whose lives in turn seem strange to me. Have I not agreed to instruct you in wielding arms, as no man among the Achaean nations would so much as think to offer his daughter? Do I not speak to you now as would one man to another when deciding a matter in assembly, in which no women partake? For here such rules hold no sway, and so I am learning to set these aside.

[heavyhitter]

[ these are... decent points. it cools her anger a little more. ]

Alright, yeah, you're trying. And you're doing good so far. [ Or at least, he could be way worse and more intolerable. ] But you're still looking down on me. If we're gonna be friends — and I want to be friends, I'm sick of being pissed at you all the time — I'm gonna ask you to try a little more.

[heelies]

You wish to share in the bond of friendship, daughter of Jolanda?

[At this he sounds surprised, as if the thought had never crossed his mind: and indeed it had not.]

Among the Danaans it is unusual indeed for man and woman to engage thus with one another, unless they are kin, or unless he has taken her for his wife or his lover. But I suppose it is not so completely unheard of.

[Here is another allowance, small but with the potential to open wider. He had first been friends with Deidamia before they bloomed into lovers, had he not? This was so because he had assumed the disguise of a girl then, and to reveal his true sex would have been to foul his mother's plans of keeping him hidden, but still he had been immutably male beneath the dress in which he was draped - and truly they did not seem so different from one another in those early days tinged gold like the sky when rises the sun.]

Despite your attitude which is oftentimes far cruder than what I am accustomed to, you respect my prowess in battle - and so too do I hold respect for the great strength which is yours. On this matter we have reached understanding, have we not?

Thus I shall tell you this: if I am to try harder to meet your viewpoint, then so too must you understand that the ways of my people, which are the ways I loyally follow, are not so easily forgotten. These are a part of my dear native land, and thus a part of my person.

[heavyhitter]

[ It always comes back to man and woman for him, doesn't it? She sighs, but not so heavily or with as much frustration as before. This is, for once, progress. ]

Alright. That's fair. If you respect me, not just as a woman— [ you can just hear the air quotes — well, anyone who knows what air quotes are can ] —put that part aside. Respect me, and I'm all ears. Tell me where you're coming from on this shit, I'll listen. Maybe you won't be such a stranger in a strange land anymore.

[heelies]

[Baby steps, Ramir. Baby steps.]

I spoke true when I likened your strength to the blessing of Pallas Athena, she whom the well-greaved Achaeans revere as the goddess of war and wisdom. The bright-eyed daughter of Zeus looks not upon this land, this I know well, but still I shall pray that you find not only strength and courage which matches her own, but the wisdom to balance it too. This I offer in blessing.

[heavyhitter]

[ oh. that's. actually kind of a nice sentiment. She's at least marginally aware of who Pallas Athena is, she's seen the statues. She's quiet for a second, considering, then: ]

What do I say back to that?

[ In his customs, in his world, whatever. ]

[heelies]

You need only offer your thanks.

[heavyhitter]

Oh. [ feels a little... paltry, next to his speech, but: ] Thanks.

[ or is she supposed to say that in like 80 more words than that? shit. ]

[heelies]

[Her words, while far from grand, serve their purpose, and thus for all the frustration which had gripped his heart and all the uncertainty which lingers in its wake, he feels tentatively at peace.]

Have you now set aside your fury? For so too is Pallas Athena known for her even temper, and her heart which stirs to rage only for the most just of causes.

[heavyhitter]

Yeah, I'm not pissed anymore. [ There's a smile in this, which is a novel new thing in the context of Achilles. ] But I'm not really known for my even temper, so — nice thought, but I bet I'll yell at you again about something. It's fine, I'll get over it pretty quick too.

[heelies]

I must admit that such a temperament we have in common, you and I.

[There exists a whole poem, 15,000 lines long, describing what happens one time when he gets mad.]

Thus I shall try to remember that just as certain matters spark so easily the flame of anger within my breast, so too are there matters which lights your fury thus.

[heavyhitter]

Yeah, I think we definitely got that in common.

[ She'd like to think it's a regional thing, even if she wasn't actually born on Earth, but with all the time between them maybe she can't blame that. But maybe she can, which is kind of an awesome thought. ]

Anyway, thanks for the offer. I'm gonna take you up on it, and maybe we'll manage to not get pissed and kill each other.