Innocent in Sickbay

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

“Why on wood are you wearing that … that … what is it even called?” asked Lithia. The garment in question covered most of Invincible Fire Demon’s body — notably leaving his buttocks prominently exposed and even uplifed. In many ways it resembled the traditional garments worn (mostly in fantasy) by a particularly degraded form of slave, or, (mostly in reality), by someone taking that role for the purpose of amusement. (Not that I know anything about that.) In other ways it resembled a rag-basket, and a clown’s outfit, and a straitjacket, and a penitant’s cloak.

“Grinwipey made me wear it,” said Invincible Fire Demon. “He said he’d beat me up if he heard I wasn’t.”

Lithia blinked. “Wait, he was beating you up already?”

“No. I think my left tibula is broken,” said Invincible Fire Demon, confusingly, holding out his arm.

“The word is ‘tibia’ or maybe ‘fibula’, and those are legbones anyhow,” said Lithia, risking revealing that she is half Rassimel. “And if he didn’t beat you up, how is it broken?”

“I don’t know anatomy! All I know is my arm hurts a terrible lot over here where Grinwipey made me break it!”

Lithia tugged at his sleeve. “This needs to come up. I’m going to cut the seams. If Grinwipey complains he can sew it up again himself. What happened?” She busied herself with a small sharp shell-bladed knife, and then with wood splints and cloth.

“Grinwipey came into my room all furious, and demanded I wear this. He started waving his clubs around and pounding them on my furniture. Then he shoved me into the bathroom and slammed the door and said he’d wait outside until I came out wearing it. He didn’t explain why. I tried to run away, but I tripped and smashed into an armoire and hurt my arm. ”

Lithia said, “He probably didn’t like the love poetry you were writing for him.”

“What? I didn’t write any love poetry for him!” said Invincible Fire Demon.

“No? What are all those posters around the ship?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t have anything to do with them! Except get beaten up for them!”

“Really? You aren’t lusting after Grinwipey?”

Invincible Fire Demon shook his head. “No! Not me! Someone else!”

Lithia sighed. “Who?”

“Jyondre!” said Invincible Fire Demon. “Not even a traff crush!” Lithia relaxed a bit; she had been afraid it was her. “And I’m not writing love poetry to him either. I don’t want his wife to be upset with me. Somehow I got Grinwipey upset with me instead!”

“Well, yes, Jyondre’s quite highly unavailable,” said Lithia. “But I think your arm might be broken.”

“It is broken!” wailed Invincible Fire Demon.

“Let’s go get Sythyry. Maybe zie can fix it, and even talk some sense into Grinwipey.”

They did. It wasn’t. I could. I couldn’t.

Comments

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

...oh, poor Orren.

All this time I thought it was Inconnu, and that IFD might have done something irresponsible on that front. But apparently he's been trying to be good all along.

So. Someone has been attacking some traff Orren on the ship. And in IFD's case, that's a stretch since I don't get the impression he's been all that demonstrative about it (and his primary crush is, as he says, not a traff one anyway). Jyondre, well, targeting Jyondre when Yerenthax is around could be a bad idea, which could explain why he's immune... but... in all, there aren't enough Orren being targeted for it to look like an attack on that pattern.

It could be that IFD is the target all along. And it might be that the note Inconnu got was the falsehood and that the Rassimel were, in fact, Rassimel... which could open some other possibilities for the instigator, if all zie has done is write notes instead of actually get it on with Inconnu while in Rassimel shape.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Even if IFD had done what Grinwipey accused him of, it hardly deserved this response. Frankly, if this is how he's going to react anytime someone makes a traff pass at him, he has no business being at Castle Wrong.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

He never thought Invie was making a pass at him. He thought Invie was making fun of him by pretending to make a pass at him.

For what it's worth, people have made passes at him once or twice, and he turns them down about as politely as he does anything.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

But if Invie was trying to humiliate Grinwipey why would Invie have made the letters point to Invie writing them? I mean why not sign them from Alzagonde or something that doesn't make any sense what made Grinwipey think that?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Invie is uncertain about whether he's Traff, a-touch-traff, or cissy-but-complicated.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Having a slight Thing for Rassimel isn't the same as being full-blown and exclusively traff, certainly. Cissy-but-complicated sounds like a pretty good description from what we've seen mentioned.

...I still find myself wondering if this is Alzagonde's handiwork. She needn't have been involved in Inconnu's eventful evening - just overheard Inconnu being blatantly traff about it afterwards, and attacking IFD for other reasons entirely. (He's too sympathetic to traffness for her tastes, perhaps, and she's trying to ruin his reputation?)

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Walking home.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Shoggies can't walk; they drift along lonely as clouds.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Break their drifter, and they'll walk all right.

replying late, but finally got around to finding it

[allessindra.livejournal.com]

Take away their wings, and the birds will have to walk to get around... (youtube link to a cute song that this made me think of.)

Re: replying late, but finally got around to watching it

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

That is cute, I concur.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Did you kick Grinwipey off the airship then or did someone else talk sense into him? Because he's really a big stupid bully and I wouldn't want him around if he was going to be that mean and stupid and easily manipulated.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

And I even used to get along with him I can't believe he's acting like this tell him I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED in him will you?

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

My respect for Grinwipey just plummeted into the depths of a god's nether regions.

It's probably Alzagonde at this. It has her stench of hatred. Possibly with the help of someone who is moderately more clever than she.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if people are reading Grinwipey right. I mean, he didn't *hurt* IFD, just worked on embarrassing him. I don't think it would have actually come down to physical violence, as even though it is inside his species to do so, I don't really think it's within Grinwipey to do it. Besides, IFD broke his *own* arm, Grinwipey didn't do it to him, and if you were mad and upset and set up on embarrassing revenge, would *you* believe someone sniveling in the changing room that they broke their arm? I'm not sure if I would.

Besides, if I am to gather a guess to who is up to this task, I would venture Alzagonde is trying to prove a point. Only she would be so dense as to write soft porn and plaster it everywhere to get a reaction. I... just don't know what that point is, exactly.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Actually, Invie's arm wasn't even broken, though it's surely exceedingly sore.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Grinwipey has used the credible threat of violence to create a humiliation for someone who is innocent of any offense against him, and despite an utter lack of evidence showing that it was that person who offended him. You can't say that "it isn't in him," because if you do that, the next stop is that those nice blonde boys who "don't have it in them" are beating people in the streets and walking away laughing about it.

[rowyn]

Yes. His behavior is unacceptable even if his suppositions about Invie had been remotely accurate. This is not a Khtsoyis I'd want on my payroll.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I never actually liked him, but violence or the threat of it doesn't seem to be as serious of business to primes as it is in our society. Probably because of all the healing magic.

So something like this might not be 'over the line'.

Still, the bit where he *had* to know it wasn't really IFD is hard to get around. It means he knew he was going after the wrong person but he'd rather look stupid than weak, even if it means hurting someone else.

[rowyn]

Yeah, it's so 'why would you believe this?' that I'm wondering if Grinwipey had some additional evidence that we're not presently aware of.

And I can see primes not treating violence or threats as necessarily criminal. But this at least akin to say, screaming obscenities at one's coworkers. One might not get arrested, but I'd expect the perpetrator to be fired. It just doesn't make for a comfortable home or work environment to have unashamed bullies running amok.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'd expect the perpetrator to get a stern talking to unless they were screaming at customers.

Or, if the boss was Sythyry, a halfheartedly mysterious attempt to sound threatening that really just confuses everyone.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

While I understand your are negatively tilted towards bullying and hazing, isn't this projecting a little bit? We are not talking about some group of dandies deciding to have fun at someone's expense. Character *is* important here.

Furhermore, no one is saying he isn't guilty, but I think your view of contemporary justice might be creating judgements that do not have equally weighted value in Sythry's world. There *is* no central authority in Sythry's world. Justice comes in many forms. Would you have actually prefered Grinwipey challenging IFD to several duels to the death, just to set an example?

Furthermore, if Grinwipey didn't want to let people know it was him, there are plenty of sorceries that I can think of that will cause harm and discomfort and he doesn't even have to be in the room.

No, this is Low Justice you are seeing here. It's not pretty to modern eyes, but given this universe, it's considerably tame.

As Captain of the Ship, Sythry is about to make hard choices about discipline, and Grinwipey KNEW he was going to get disciplined for what he did. There is no question about that. The question only is What is Sythry going to do about it, and Can he find the person who really did instigate this incident.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

It's already been stated that if IFD hadn't capitulated, Grinwipey probably WOULD have beaten him.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Possibly. After there was no furniture in the room. Assuming someone hadn't been dragged to attention by the noise. Or assuming the ship didn't intervene. Grinwipey is magically educated enough to know that if he *did* start attacking IFD, that could very well bring the attention of the Silver Golem (Or any of the other monsters) to the room, and that would create an even WORSE situation.

I honestly do not believe Grinwipey, even in anger, would risk having the ship attack him for what was a humiliating revenge.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Grinwipey attacked Sythyry's actual cousin for something that had nothing to do with him. He is so much a Khtsoyis that other Khtsoyis don't want much to do with him. I think you overestimate his reluctance to commit violence.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. I was under the impression that he was so much unlike Khtsoyis that the other ones didn't want to have anything to do with him. Maybe I misread that chapter? It was over two years ago...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Neither one exactly. It wasn't a matter of generalities like that. I would say that he was acting rather like a stereotypical Khtsoyis when he got in trouble, but he got in trouble for particular misdeeds, not behavior.

In fact he was occasionally working against the interests of someone he was supposedly loyal to.

Y'know, I can't think why I am surprised by his behavior now.

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

I can't figure out what Alzagonde would have against IFD though - the letters were very good at pointing the finger at him specifically. I'm pretty sure she and Frippin did the deed and wrote the letter afterward (or at least found out about it and then wrote the letter, but actually doing it would give them a lot more to write about!), and then Iconnu might have done this thing if he was misinformed about IFD's crush, maybe even by the very two Orren who did the deed.

But a lesson about whom you're really helping when something like this goes down can be found here. Not helping Inconnu after his tirade is justified, but figuring out what the hell happened is not just for his benefit. Sythyry, is someone officially in charge of internal security matters (a duty which on your ship really ought to include "knowledge of ship's gossip")? If not, such a role would be quite useful, given how many very different passengers (and passenger groups) end up on your vessel. If so, it's highly time you checked in with them and see what they know about what's going on.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

It's not what she has against IFD, it's her driving character. She is taking the only two people we know are traff on the ship, and trying to make them Traff. Since her mission is to learn what makes people Traff so she can undo it, she has to try to make it happen to two unsuspecting peoples.

At least, that is my thinking about it.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Err... two people we know who are not traff, and...

Head faster then fingers, apparently.

[kibbe.livejournal.com]

A lot of people are forgetting that at t he begining of this, Grin prettymuch so threatened to turn Ahz into paste basicly. So its reasonable to expect her to come up with some way to do this, Fire is pretty innocent, for an oren, so he makes a good tool for such a thing.
Also, I should point out, I figured Fire has better taste in poetry than what was being put out