@Eckhart_Von_Musel "When I'm in tournaments I usually play with a dragon deck. Basically it lets you play a lot of big monsters earlier. That can really trip people up. Like when I was playing that pillow boy last week's I pulled out a hydra on turn three! The poor kid had no idea how to handle it. He almost shit-" Elwin snorted with laughter. "And then the two-headed one tried to argue with me for five minutes!
Today was either going really perfect, or really badly. Elwin may have let it slip to Juniper Whitechalk that the Headmistress never schedules meetings on Friday afternoons. Now it was 1:00 and the white-heiress was here, but Nettlefield had specified no disturbances until precisely 2:00 P.M. He felt positively awful making Juniper wait, but it gave them time to chat, and he was killing it. Oh Myyla she was just so pretty, and so smart, and not shallow or full of herself like other girls. Elwin never had luck with women, but she just got him. Maybe it was a perfect day. Except that he forgot to shave this morning! Shit! Or did that make him look rugged? It probably did...
"But my favorites are these." Saoirse's pudgy apprentice gave a wry smile, plucking a wad of hexagonal-shaped playing cards from his coat. He splayed for her to see. They were slightly crinkled, as if gripped too long by sweaty hands. There was a stingray with the face of a young woman who sad and lonely, a medusa coiled atop a rock beckoning someone closer, and a winged girl with a bee's abdomen and wicked smirk. "I think these are really the magnum opus of the set. I like how they're so powerful, but its really friendship and stuff that's important to them. You know?
"Some people think that sort of thing is childish. But I think its really shedding
misanthropy that makes you mature. When I look at this I don't think the important thing is that she uses Lightning Lure to stun an enemy long enough to use Blackvenom Harpoon. Its that maybe too many ships have disturbed the oceans, and sailors are just what there is to eat. But maybe if someone took the time and showed a little
empathy she wouldn't kill humans. You know?"
***
Saoirse was in her plush chair, a cup of spiced cider dangling from her grip. Her large window made the office a touch drafty, but she found the cold bracing. There was a light snow in the air, just enough to make it scenic. She enjoyed watching her school run like clockwork. A wild-haired boy was balanced atop a floating broom on his way to class. Walking beside him was a purple haired youth in an absurd robe of multi-colored fur. Meanwhile a pot-bellied boar-man was naked in the sparring grounds, trying to stand tall while his friend conjured gales of frost in some test of endurance. Two dress code violations? And how did shape-changing factor in? An appendix should be developed to elaborate.
At least her piggish assistant was pulling his weight, if unknowingly. Topping off her drink, she could hear him blathering about those terrible children's cards through her door. He was an utterly perfect assistant when set loose upon the right people. Truly, just who did this Whitechalk girl thinks she was popping in at a moment's notice? And for a first-year student of all things! Wyrdwood had been training magicians for centuries and for a minor donor to waste the Headmistress' time a singular student was absurd. It was in her power to cancel of course, but there had been complaints that six boys to a room was overcrowding...
And more importantly M would be amused. If it were up to him a flame imp would be heating up her doorknob in preparation for Juniper's entry. Crass. But is a man without capacity for juvenile pranks really a man? Once that went other things were bound to follow. She had another hour to enjoy this. Perhaps a crossword?