Staff Meeting [Friday Afternoon]

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe had met with the teenagers, now it was time to meet with the grownups after handwavily messaging them all about the meeting. There were more sweets among the sandwiches and salad for the staff - donuts, cookies, etc. - but no alcohol among the drinks unless someone brought their own. With this group, she pretty much expected it.

"Hello folks, thank you all for coming. I know some of you are very busy," she said. "I wanted everyone to have a chance to get together in case any problems have come up in your classes, or with any of your students. Also, we're going to be getting ready for the summer sessions soon, so be thinking about what you might want to teach and who you might want to teach it with. That's all I've got in the way of speechifying, so if you need anything, just flag me down."

[Going OCD-free today!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Pffft. It was because they'd never been in a war before.

"I assume that after this is all over, everyone on the island will be stepping up their security? I'll be lucky I'm allowed back without a bloody honor guard trailing behind me."

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah. . . . I didn't wait for all this to be over," Eliot said. "I've been stepping up security all week."

Longer than that, even. And in not the most rational of ways.

[glacial_queen]

"Where my fiancé and I basically had to lie to everyone back home about what's going on here. Otherwise my entire First Circle would be here and that's the last thing anyone needs. A bunch of Warlord Princes looking for a fight. My Master of the Guard would be the worst of the whole lot, too."

Karla shuddered and shook her head.

"...That didn't mean much to you, did it. Hi, by the way. I'm Karla."

[vdistinctive]

"Been getting used to that around here," Eliot said. "Eliot. I teach Creative Problem Solving with Parker." He nodded in Parker's direction. "Warlord Princes, huh?"

That bit he could work out.

[glacial_queen]

"History of Poisons," Karla said, not mentioning her class was actually more a 'how to' than a history lesson. "A caste in my world. They're the most more aggressive, violent, and temperamental of all males. Which means that they generally see everything as a threat until proven otherwise."

Karla gestured around, indicating the island at large.

"The last thing I want to unleash on the island is a pack of Warlord Princes expecting an actual threat rather than a potential one. But if they had even the slightest idea of what was going on, my Court would insist."

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, I've run into that sort before." Worked for a few of them, even. "Court, huh? We got royalty teachin' here, now?"

[glacial_queen]

"I dunno," Karla said with a wry smile. "If I say yes, are we gonna have to get all fancy here? I am so not in the mood for having to mince around and pretend I give a fuck about diplomacy."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot actually laughed at that. Well, chuckled, anyway. "Never been much one for fancy, no."

And any diplomacy he had he'd learned from grifters and thieves.

[glacial_queen]

Like with Parker, if Karla ever found out that Eliot had a Sophie in his life, boy would she have stories to tell.

"That's one of the reasons I keep coming back to this island," Karla admitted. "No one gives a damn about my other job and most people won't hesitate to give me a thwap to the head when I'm being an asshole. It's refreshing."

[vdistinctive]

"That would be," Eliot agreed. "I mostly just get lectures."

This was because he was being EXTRA-ASSHOLISH right now.

[glacial_queen]

Even so, Hardison would like to point out that ain't nobody on the island stupid enough to hit Eliot even when he was being a giant asshole.

Which seemed to be his default state right now.

"Ugh." Karla said, making a face. "I'd prefer getting thwapped."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged. "I tend to hit back."

[glacial_queen]

Karla laughed at that. "Fair enough--but then, you've never been dunked in a horse trough by Lucivar."

[vdistinctive]

"Nah, that was Aimee." Eliot smiled. "Been a long time since, though."

[glacial_queen]

"Lucivar periodically stops by the estate," Karla sighed. "Comes in, kisses the baby, kicks my ass with sticks, grumps at me for not practicing enough, flies with Warren, bitches at him for not practicing enough, and then goes home to terrorize his own people, dammit."

[vdistinctive]

"Sounds like a decent sort of guy to have around," Eliot said. "What kinds of sticks?"

Why yes, of course Eliot zeroed right in on the weapons. It wasn't like he was about to start asking about the flying thing.

[glacial_queen]

"Bladed ones," Karla said, calling one in and handing it over to Eliot for him to examine. It was made of ironwood, which was harder than the metal it was named for, roughly the length of a bo. Karla's had a groove in the middle, where it could twist off and turn into two shorter sticks that could be wielded one in each hand. "Lucivar's been training me in sticks since I was sixteen," she said. "He trained all of us. Also knives and warblades, though that was more for the boyos than the coven."

[vdistinctive]

Holy shit, she just pulled that bastard out of nowhere. Eliot hopped back instinctively, before reaching out to take it.

It was heavier than it looked, perfectly weighted.

He wanted one.

"That appearin' out of nowhere, that your trick, or the blade's?"

[glacial_queen]

"Mine," Karla said, unaware she was adding a new wrinkle in Eliot's constant study in how to take individuals down if necessary. "Basic Craft includes the ability to call things in--" Her cellphone appeared in her hand and she checked for any new messages. "--and vanish them again."

Her cellphone disappeared again.

[vdistinctive]

"Well, that's. . . ." Kind of disturbing ". . . handy." Eliot passed the weapon back to her carefully. "You can't do that with your jewel thing?"

[glacial_queen]

You were just jealous you couldn't do it, Eliot.

"No," she said, her smile vanishing almost as quickly as her stick did. "Which means that it's shielded by powerful magic that either is too foreign for me to understand or too powerful for me to break."

[vdistinctive]

Extremely jealous.

"Like whatever's killin' the land."

[glacial_queen]

That would teach you not to be born into a race of stupidly-powerful magic users now wouldn't it?

"Exactly," Karla said. "I'm sure they're connected, I just can't figure out how yet."

[vdistinctive]

He just had to be born into a world of stupidly-powerful "ordinary people" instead.

"Can't help much there," Eliot admitted. "My world's pretty lean on the actual magic."