Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

[chalicejoker]

Heads up--if you run into Teruo, Kinji's infiltration, some kind of yellow sea snake mermaid--be really damn careful. He's a menace.

Asshole goaded me into what I thought was a spar, but then he started singing, and it...

[Hajime's mental voice trails off in embarassment here before picking up again.]

Look, I'm not proud of it, but it's hard to get me to back down from a fight. And what he did, it...I just stopped fighting. Didn't even think to defend myself. He kept it up long enough to hit me with a cheap sucker punch.

[The irritation is just coming off his mental voice here.]

He also said several times that if I was a warrior, I should be sticking closer to the boat and protecting my school--I'm still not sure if that was a threat or not. I wouldn't put anything past him.

...and if you do end up talking to him and he mentions someone named Chalice, that's me--I'm not about to go by my real name in the same world as the Bando, even if I'm a fish this time around.

Comments

[professorwolf]

How did you get on the subject of songs? Did he try to use one on you?

[triggerhappytraitor]

No. He was having withdrawal symptoms, and I had asked him what was wrong.

[professorwolf]

Well, now I'm curious what withdrawal symptoms are for magical singing.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Similar to other types of withdrawal, headaches, irritability and the need to use the addictive substance as soon as possible.

Our second encounter he was having them more strongly than our next, and he hadn't waited until I was out of range before using a Song on himself then.

[professorwolf]

And with something you create yourself, there's no means of going through detox, as it were, unless you had the willpower for it.

[And he's guessing Teluo doesn't, even if he felt the desire to wean himself off.]

This can definitely be problematic. I'm tempted to have someone try to give him a cold so he can't sing properly. Can merpeople actually get colds?

[triggerhappytraitor]

I'm not sure. Though I'm not sure I'd want to find out the side effects of a Song sung badly...

[professorwolf]

Well, if he loses his voice entirely... ah, it wasn't a serious thought, anyway. The best thing we can do is make sure we won't be effected if he decides to Sing at us. Do you want earplugs, too?

[triggerhappytraitor]

If you would, please.

...and a few extras.

[[Even if he's pretty sure Teruo won't use them himself, he still will want to offer...]]