Desmond’s Climb - Professor Smiff

[aldersprig]

This is written to a donation and request from [Bad username or unknown identity:  ]thnidu for Desmond from Professor Smiff's eyes. 

✨

Telanien Smiff walked around her classroom slowly, looking at all of the newest Blue students. She liked Blue the best, something all of her fellow teachers assumed and nobody would ever ask her about.

This year, Blue had the Last Person Up The Stairs, an honor that they were very quiet about – except in the upperclassmen dorms, where she was certain the Blues were crowing about it. And the student in question was not, to Telanien’s eyes, all that impressive – just another teenage child from one of the poor streets, well-fit into a uniform, presumably by a collar that cared about impressions, that was good, but still out of place here. If this Desmond knew how many of his fellow students were High Street, he’d probably be even more uncomfortable around them. Or around the teachers.

Your focus is lacking, Telanien’s collar scolded. It liked to scold, but Telanien never took any offense. After all, they were a team, and sometimes a little push was helpful.

Speaking of pushes, Desmond was holding up his shield and very carefully not pushing. Was he worried about hurting Talia? The student in question did not look too young or too delicate, but you never knew.

“Desmond. Why aren’t you pushing?”

“Because I pushed already. Now it’s her turn to figure out how to push.”

Telanien poked at the reasoning a little, to see if it had holes, to see if Desmond was really interested in being ‘fair’ or just fond of Talia. She left them, content that that pair, at least, had understood that teamwork was a vital part of being a Collared Person.

There were always going to be new students, there were always going to be new collars – even a collar eventually reached the end of its life, after all, and certain threats the Collared People got into could actually do more harm to the collar than to the wearer, were they not irrevocably linked – but Telanien watched them all, every year, for the sparks that would make truly notable collared people – or truly dangerous magi.

Sometimes, she feared, they were one and the same.

And on Wordpress…

Comments

[thnidu]

Thank you.

I forget the other colors. Is there just red, or are there Collared Greens as well? (Gdaravvf)

[aldersprig]

red, blue, and yellow :-D

[sauergeek]

There were probably Collared Greens in the past, but they proved to consistently fall on the truly dangerous magi side of things. They are no longer recruited for collaring. Instead, anyone who is predicted to choose Green is recruited to be a priest, and sent off to a monastery. Because of their vows, they are known as the Silent Greens.

[aldersprig]

I think I’m missing a pun here.

All I can think of is greens and pork.

[sauergeek]

I was aiming for Soylent Green, but I seem to have missed.

[aldersprig]

Ooooh, *facepalm*

[thnidu]

Homines est! Soylens Viridis ex hominibus fit! Dic omnibus!

[kelkyag]

And another sort-of conflicting opinion on who gets collared.

Irrevocably linked ... but collars have memories of other discussions with wearers? Or just linked until one of the two dies, or always the person? I've been fuzzy so far on how much what the collars know is shared information they can access and how much it's their personal memories.

And no specification yet on how new collars come into being. :}

[aldersprig]

Well, to be fair, nobody was asking THAT in the commission :-)

There’s a lot of fuzzy. Some of it is just me trying to figure out what is going on.

[sauergeek]

What's the cachet associated with last-up? Desmond was last up by climbing until he felt it was unsafe. But what's to stop someone sitting at the bottom of the stairs for nine hours and then taking the first door they come to?

It's good to see the teacher's perspective. Cooperation is often a useful thing; now let's see how they teach it. So far it's only shown up as a lack of teachers telling them to stop cooperating. Certainly there's been no suggestion on Desmond's side that there's been any attempt at instilling cooperation.

Interesting to see that collars are irrevocably linked to the wearer; Cataleb would seem to be stuck. There's still a suggestion that the collar can outlive the wearer, though. Hrm.

[aldersprig]

To be fair, they haven’t really had the cachet properly explained yet :-D

And yes. The collars are stuck with their wearers, and vice-versa… :-)

[clare_dragonfly]

That's interesting. I thought--perhaps because Desmond did--that most of his fellow students were poor like him. Apparently Telanien doesn't think so. She also doesn't chat with her collar nearly as much as Desmond does.

I'm curious whether she thinks that Desmond is either notable or dangerous.

[aldersprig]

Good questions!

Most people don’t talk to their collars as much as Desmond does...