What Comes Around Ch 22 bit – clash of morals

~ crossovercreativechaos

“We can’t stop what we’re doing now,” Sister Thomasina said sharply. “Think of the children!”

“I am thinking of the children!”

Mrs. Silversmith’s voice, and that roused Alan out of his exhausted doze on Morgan and Aladdin faster than a gunshot. Airport lounge, chairs pushed together so they didn’t need to lose contact, Maria snuggled up with a bunch of the ak-al’ab nearby, who were trying to look small and quiet and asleep so the adults would never see the ambush coming. What was his dad’s wife doing with Sister Thomasina-

“My children,” Edna went on, voice as politely cutting as Alan had ever heard it. “Who are now targets, thanks to your church and its abominable disregard for law and common decency, you smug, hypocritical, overgrown penguin!”

Eep.

But Sam’s hand was on Alan’s shoulder, one finger pressed to his lips in the universal plea for silence. Mom’s being awesome! he mouthed.

Oh yeah? This he had to see.

“Your children?” The sister was standing rock-solid, arms folded in her habit, scowling as she looked over street rats and – Alan would be the first to admit – a pile of people who looked like they’d spilled out of an Arabian Nights costume party. Which he was totally blaming Yunan for, because it was the magi’s fault, completely. Sure, Ja’far had been the one muttering about radioactivity and needing to change their clothes, but damn it, Yunan did atomic reconstruction like other magicians did little fire spells. He could have just swept anything radioactive off what they were wearing.

But no. A king – and his Household – has to look impressive. Alan smiled ruefully. Poor Drakon.

26 thoughts on “What Comes Around Ch 22 bit – clash of morals”

  2. Show a little of that tolerance and understanding that your church preaches about Sister.

    You don’t even know why the crew is dressed like that. They may actually have very good reasons (like a Magi not having a clue/caring about local fashions).

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    1. ATM Sister Thomasina is more concerned with dealing with Edna – who has the power to make life very, very uncomfortable for her and her setup, just by bringing it to certain authorities’ attention. The fact that people look like the aftermath of a costume party gone wrong is just icing on the cake. *Wry G*

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  3. “…who were trying to look small and quiet and asleep so the adults would never see the ambush coming.”

    A bunch of baby magicians who spent time around Alan and his subtle reality-bending ways, now complete with a magi and a red lion. No, they’ll never see the dog-pile coming.

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    1. You know, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen magicians raised around a king candidate before. Outside of Kouha’s girls, who 1) were “artificial” magicians, and 2) he found well after they were kids.

      …I suspect that could make things interesting, indeed.

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  4. Hey, don’t diss Yunana’s fashion sense, he’d have you know those clothes were very popular! Poor thing, his sense of time is so warped, he thought that 15 year old clothes and broomsticks were still in fashion. *pfffft*

    I’m rooting for him to get a happy ending this time round too! He’s a hilarious troll who’s always tried to do right by everyone, and that really takes a toll over the thousands of years he’s lived. I can’t imagine what he went through went he saw Sinbad (his greatest hope) possessed, and the main trio (who he has a soft spot for, and treated very kindly) sacrifice themselves permanently (or so he thought).

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      1. Love the Alan and Sam interaction. As for the clothes, I think a socialite and a nun having a fight would draw more attention.

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      3. Oh and he would absolutely deserve it, he probably needs a clue bat to the head about reading the situation! I’d like to think the happiness he’ll find one day is quieter, the feeling of finally being at peace and being able to hope again, and putting down millenniums worth of burdens, and also crying because Simon and Alan lol.

        On a side note, GO EDNA! Show her the true meaning of fear! \o/

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  5. Honestly, I’m far more charmed by the Sam/Alan interaction. Sam can’t be the kind of big brother most people expect, but I think Alan appreciates this a bit more.

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  6. That’s right Enda, tell her where to stick her ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’ crap!
    Also, I’d love to see the Sister’s face if she found out what she left Maria to. I think actual Satanists would be easier to stomach than what the Shays were doing.

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  7. Go Edna!

    I think Alan, already sympathetic to his step-mother’s feelings about him, will be even more on her side when he finds out that his father didn’t bother to explain to his wife WHY he was bringing his illegitimate son to live in their house out of the blue . . . (Alan’s not stupid, he’ll see what conclusion she would have leaped to and understand how easy it is make considering she doesn’t know him).

    Alan might want to become used to people insisting on him wearing strange clothes. After all, while modern clothes have something going for them, they don’t have quite the gravitas of some of the old styles . . . besides, you can be embarrassed by those clothes or you can work it. Don’t worry, Simon will teach you the benefits of working it and going along like those clothes are mundane fashion, rather than odd.

    “Embrace the weird! It’s more fun! And people tend to underestimate people they think are silly”
    *grins in a way that is both very Simon and very Sinbad. It is just as scary as you’d think. Unfortunately for the world, the Simon-wranglers are all too tired to care at the moment. But fortunately for the world, Simon is also too tired to get into too much mischief at the moment. And if he does do something that needs dealing with, Ja’far will deal with whatever it is later. After his nap. And food. There had better be food.*

    Ja’far has no objection. Because, as Vathara said, he has thrown up his hands already. “I’ll just wear the robes. I can fight them. I can teach in them. I can wrangle Simon in them.”

    And this might stop some memory snarls while they are working on re-training themselves because I bet their soul-memories don’t expect their clothes to move the way modern clothes do while they are fighting or they aren’t as flexible, etc, and that could cost them precious seconds in these early days.

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    1. I suspect our heroes spend most of the next day napping. Whoof. Good thing it’s Labor Day weekend!

      There are some things modern-day cloth is better at than ancient fabrics. It tends to wear better, be more breathable, etc. (If properly made, at least.) The trick will be figuring out how to make the two match up for the best results!

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  9. >>You might be surprised who really scares Thomasina. Ouch

    It’s Alan, isn’t it? Because pre-Hancock Alan was probably an angry ball of sunshine, but he hadn’t really shown his fangs. It’s like, like, well, to be honest it sounds a lot like a situation with my dogs. I had three at one time. Two Australian cattle dog mutts (the cattle dogs are the short ones) and one German Shepard mutt. We got the Shepard after the other two, and as a puppy she was their size and they bullied her horribly. Then she grew up, realized she was bigger, and proved why ‘bitch’ is indeed a pejorative.

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    2. >*Wry G* Put together these two phrases: “Illegal activity” and “blog reporter”. Yeah.>
      I imagine that Alan’s mother picked up a few bombshells over the years (and Alan now has access to) that were in the nuclear category.

      Of course Alan’s a King at his core and probably has a somewhat different opinion of when and where to use said info bombs (and not just as a MAD deterrent). Particularly with the individuals he can now give the information to (Federal agents, Simon, Ja’far, Tiburon etc).

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      1. Alan and Domingo are going to have a few talks about exactly that, yep.

        And this, I think, is one of the things that really brings home to Richard how he’s fallen down on the job – because if someone Alan was helping thinks that badly of him… ouch.

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