(no subject)

[sythyry]

What a Libertine Does in her Own Mind [18 Nivvem 4261]

Continuing my collection of libertines, I took the liberty of interrogating Tethezai.

Me:"Hallo! And, specifically, not "hiio!". How are you? How is Dustweed?"

Tethezai:"Hallo! I don't know what you mean by "Hiio"! I am perfectly wonderful, especially in intimate ways. And Dustweed is just peachy -- why do you ask? Haven't you seen zir much lately? Zie's been at home, and you've been at home."

Me:"Oh ... Zie seemed sort of out of sorts the last time we spoke, and I was hoping that things got sorted out."

Tethezai:"And 'Hiio!'?"

Me:"That's what the nendrai says. She thinks it's cute. I don't think it's cute. I think it's juvenile and cutesey in a way that really sits badly in her huge fangy mouth. I don't tell that to the nendrai, though. She might be offended."

Tethezai:"That would be bad for you! She might turn you into some horrid grub!"

Me:"More likely she'd cry at me for a while, but that's only marginally better. Fortunately, I know enough not to tell her things like that."

Tethezai:"And there's something in your manner that keeps people from taking offense at you."

Me:"Well ... usually."

Tethezai:"You can even get away with mild insults and the like!"

Me:"Well ... usually."

Tethezai:"I've seen you in action! If you're not actually trying to insult someone, you won't!"

Me:"Well ... usually. That's the nicest thing anyone's said about me today, you know, Tethezai?"

Tethezai:"I spread niceness the way I spread butter on bread!"

Me:"You spread niceness the way you spread legs in bed!"

Tethezai:"My point exactly. If Dustweed had said that, I'd be mildly insulted. I know you mean it in a suitably admiring and slightly envious fashion, though."

(I was, in fact, trying to be mildly insulting, since that particular topic was the root of the quarrel that Dustweed was having with Tethezai. Unfortunately, it was a one-sided quarrel -- evidently with Dustweed being on the one, only, and entirely losing side.)

Me:"Well, that will have to do, I suppose. How about Claryelle?"

Tethezai:"Well, I did have high hopes for Claryelle. I did seduce her quite thoroughly, but, well ... I don't think she has the proper spirit, do you know?"

Me:"I have, unaccountably, neglected to seduce Claryelle myself, so I don't precisely know."

Tethezai:"Well, you do know what happens when you seduce someone of another species, and, after all the horizontal fun, they remember that they're distinctly sub-libertine?"

Me:"Sub-libertine?"

Tethezai:"Well, for you, I suppose it would be cisaffectionate. Bound up by conventional morality and propriety, and stupid notions of who should enjoy body-play with whom."

Me:"Oh, that. No, that's never happened to me."

Tethezai:"Well, you are phenomenally lucky, as well as inoffensive. It happened three times in my first dozen other-species lovers!"

Me:"If it had happened three times to me, I'd be in some kind of horrid bureaucratic lover deficit."

Tethezai:"What?"

Me:"I haven't had three lovers yet."

Tethezai:"Are you trying to offend me?"

Me:"...no..." (Which is to say, "yes, but not about that.")

Tethezai:"Really? You're not trying to lie to me and thereby offend me?"

Me:"Really. If I needed to offend you, I'd probably resort to vulgarities."

Tethezai:"Sythyry, you've been at school for four terms. You should have lost count of your lovers by now."

Me:"I haven't lost count. It's two."

Tethezai:"You're daft, lizard. Why not?"

Me:"Um ... 'cause I flee from sex parties?"

Tethezai:"You what?"

Me:"I flee from sex parties."

Tethezai:"Right. Now I am offended. How dare you flee from sex parties?" She sounded serious.

Me:"They're disturbing. And even distressing."

Tethezai:"You're utterly hopeless, lizard!"

At least one of us stormed off, in a whiffle of feathers and/or fur. Both of us reported this conversation to Dustweed. The official reason why I am not allowed to run away from sex parties is that I am exotic, and thus should be made widely available to the libertine community at large. This goes for Dustweed too, except that Tethezai is somewhat more protective of Dustweed, or, perhaps, goes to those parties as a vacation from zir.

The conclusions:

1. I didn't manage to get any useful information from Tethezai.
2. I probably don't need to.

Comments

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, I've never been to a sex party... so you still are doing better then me.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's some trend in the puppet-shows that tells people, that anyone who gets through college without a slew of lovers -- or amazingly, without even one -- is abnormal.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Well, I already knew I was different from everyone else, so I guess that's okay.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I think its a good thing that you stay true to your standards and your upbringing.

Of course, if you ever decide to work to overcome your aversion to sex parties after careful consideration and deliberation, I would not think less of you. What about these other people do you think it is that makes sex parties so important to people like Tethezai?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

True to my cowardice, more accurately. It wasn't standards or upbringing that made me run away!

And, um, Tethezai is a Rassimel.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

So does this mean Tethezai is likely to start kidnapping you off to sex parties as a public service?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I hope I am hard to kidnap!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

It was just cowardice? well that changes things... read on...

There were multiple species at the last sex party that you ran from and wrote about on your journal, right? So what do you think makes people of a wide variety of prime species enjoy going to sex parties? And perhaps you would enjoy going to one if you brought your girlfriend, as long as you laid some ground rules for each other's behavior ahead of time and stuck to them and both went with the intention of having a good time? Maybe having a buddy and a plan could help you confront that fear.

Also, there is the question: do you wish to confront and overcome this cowardice, or is it not something that you want to do at all in your college career for other reasons?

[esory.livejournal.com]

...

Words fail me.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

So you're still afraid of them, even though you've had more experience with the sort of thing that goes on there?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Fire-breathing dragons equipped with summonable guardians of mightiness, even if small, tend to be a little difficult to kidnap against their will, so I think you're safe... Of course, I could be wrong!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, my breath weapon is about as dangerous as, oh, Nestrune's after a night of partying ... or less, if I'm using it on Cani. It doesn't quite even the odds in a fight between me and Pazi-Pazi, even!

The seven-winged burning thing, though... it's not a Holocaust War weapon! Really! But it is designed to keep my relatives from having to bother with ransom notes and the like very often, yes.

Plus I have spells -- mighty spells! Like, um, Extra Sleep in the Morning... never mind.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't recommend it. Especially if you weren't told in advance that it was a sex party.
(Actually, it was half a sex party and half an other things party, but when I stumbled on the sex side I got invited.)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

How were you?

I am, but that's only because of species.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I generally like my personality as it is now, thank you very much!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

So when will you ever get some real adventuring spells that would be useful in a straight up fight?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Hmm... well, try magic. What spell would you cast at the situation?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know - if you can cleverly arrange to set Extra Sleep to exclude your kidnappers, that's extra time you can use to make your arrangements to get away! Come to that, how does it work - time passes faster within the circle defined by your Extra Sleep, or do you get it all in one lump sum within which the world outside seems to stand still?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It passes faster, is all.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I thought cowardice was generally not considered a beneficial trait?

Like, isn't it a virtue to be bold and unafraid of things? And, well, if someone of such small stature needs to sometimes not partake in certain activities to be safe, that 'caution' was the virtue that was necessary, not 'cowardice'?

[zeeth_kyrah]

Imagine meeting a pacifist Nendrai. That would be close to the way I'm different from most of the people I meet: they expect someone big and strange and scary, and get someone even weirder that they can't quite deal with and are thus even more worried by, even as he's trying very hard not to smack them around for being so stupid about him.

Of course, I'm not a Nendrai, it's just that my ....how did you say, magitherium? I probably got that wrong... is shaped in such a way that people expect certain things when they meet me; and what I'm trying to grow toward is shaped in a more compassionate (but not less devious) way.