fandomhigh | Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

Max had spent a large chunk of the past week rethinking precisely how he was going to run this class with all the... women in it. He hadn't really come up with a solution he liked, but it was class time now so it was apparently time to go with a solution he didn't much care for.

"Welcome back, everyone," he began as he looked around at his students. "This class is intended to be a practical one, but for us to do that we're going to have to be candid with one another. That, however, requires trust, and we don't all know one another that well." He quirked an eyebrow, wondering if anyone was going to challenge that assertion. "We're going to try to remedy that." He grinned suddenly before adding, "The trust part."

"You're going to pair up. Then each of you is going to share a deeply private secret with the other one. That way each of you will know that if you violate the trust of the other students in this class, someone else here holds a serious piece of information to punish you with. If the person you're partnered with judges your secret to be insufficiently powerful, they can demand another, so you're better off sharing one major thing than being forced to go through a dozen things that almost qualify."

Max let a hard gaze drift slowly across the room, letting it rest on each student until he felt he'd driven home how serious he was. "Understand this: by receiving these secrets you're being entrusted with something important. Violating that trust is not something I will tolerate. The only reason we're doing this is to help everyone to feel like the can be candid because they'll know that everyone has shared something here they don't want spread around."

He gestured to the ~~handwavy~~ list he had up. "I've assigned partners randomly. Find yours and get to it. I'll be stopping by to check on how each of you are doing."

"Oh, and Pendragon, Cauthon, I want to see each of you after class."

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Huh. "Well," he said, "That's a shame." Remotely sympathetic, it didn't sound, but he was trying.

"Sorry my guilty secrets aren't more interesting," said she, and if it was the tiniest bit grumpy, it wasn't him. Mostly. It was the whole issue of the fuzzy bunny, now in her hands.

"It's that time again, isn't it?"

Okay, that statement did bring some sympathy skipping along with it.

Blink. Stare. "Excuse me?"

He couldn't possibly mean that. Mostly because she was pretty sure Arthur would swallow strychnine before meaning, discussing, or even acknowledging the existence of that.

"Katchoo turning into a rabbit," he said, holding up his hands. Please. He didn't want to know.

"Oh." Well, that made two of them, as she didn't want him to know what she'd been thinking, though it certainly made a more embarrassing admission than a two year old story about a dead cat. "Sort of. Last time it was Merlin; this time it just happened by itself. Poof."

"Does make you think," Arthur replied, thoughtfully. "Of course, Merlin's being an idiot getting ideas into his head about turning himself into a bird or something."

"Make me think what, that this island doesn't want me to get---" Brain. Mouth. Bunny who would so totally finish that sentence which meant it was something she should not finish. "Wait, Merlin wants to turn into a bird on purpose?"

"Yes," Arthur said, dryly. "Not his cleverest idea, as I told him."

"Why would -- oh, wait." Brain actually now engaged, she thought she remembered talking about this. "This is about teaching Owain to fly, right?"

"Yes," Arthur said, "I fear he might have lost it." Beat. "Even more."

"If he can figure out how to change back before he goes and tries it on himself, I don't think it sounds too crazy," Francine said. "Being able to turn into an animal when you want to could be really useful."

"It's Merlin," Arthur pointed out, "He'd just get stuck." Not that he was worried. It was just the fact of the thing. Yes.

"...He might not." The fact that it was might was probably telling, but on the other hand, this was Francine. The worrying was ingrained, and not about any doubt of Merlin's abilities.

Arthur just shot her a dry look. "Remember who we're talking about."

"He's never gotten himself into something with magic that he hasn't gotten out of too, has he?" she shot back.

"He was a bird for a full week," Arthur shot back.

At this point he really did have to add, "Not that I'm concerned or anything."

"That wasn't his spell." So there. But. "Not that you're concerned or anything, but if he's going to try to learn something like that, it's probably better here where there's a lot of people who could help if he does get stuck."

"Unless they can't."

Francine sighed, because a) she really didn't have an answer to that, and b)... fuzzy bunny. "Maybe not his best idea," she finally agreed. "But he'll be okay."

"In as much as he ever is," Arthur muttered, "He could trip over thin air, I swear."

Francine would try to argue that one, but. Well. "I don't think I'm qualified to talk."

Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

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