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ask-de-writer · 4 years

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KURIN’S FOLLY : World of Sea : Part 2 of 15

KURIN’S FOLLY

Part 2

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

23,699 words

writing begun 2006

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New to the story? Read from the beginning. Part 1 is here

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Kurin looked up at him with a boldness that she did not really feel. High Cloud was sharing his utter confidence in himself, as one of the premiere predators of the air, with her. It helped. A lot. With that deceptive calmness that Master Juris had seen and learned to fear during the trial up north in the Dragon Sea, she replied “Yes it is, isn’t it?” Then she turned to the cabin boy and asked, “Bron, would you be so good as to get Captain Mord and Purser Alor? Their presence is needed for legal reasons.”

“You don’t need to bother the Captain,” said Master Juris, with a sinking feeling. He turned to try and stop Bron but the cabin boy was already gone on his errand.

Learning that Kurin did not bluff had been a hard lesson and one that was still sinking in. The years of Kurin’s apprenticeship to him had made him overconfident of his ability to manipulate her. Now that she was an independent journeyman and had found out from the Grandalor what self-respect meant, she no longer needed to take his arrogance.

Shortly, Bron came back, leading both the Purser and Captain. Both seemed upset. It was Alor who spoke for them. “Kurin, why didn’t you come to your welcome back party? Most of the crew were hurt or angry that you didn’t even send us a note to say you would be late.”

Surprised, Kurin said, “There was a party? When?”

Captain Mord Halyn said, “At ten in the morning. We wanted to have some time to celebrate before we sailed at noon. The decorations are still up in the mess. Why are you surprised? Master Juris sent you the invitation.”

Kurin’s mouth went round as she took a breath before saying, “Ah, that explains everything. Captain, this is for you. Please sign this receipt and put it into the Log. Alor, this one is for you. Sign here. This needs to go into the ship’s legal record.” Kurin produced a pen case and ink along with the documents.

Master Juris started to say, “I think that I should go to the boat shop.”

Alor stopped him. Looking up from the document, she snapped, “Master Juris, did you write this?” She held out Kurin’s document.

With ill grace, he took it, glanced at it and snorted, “Of course not! This isn’t my handwriting at all!”

Alor’s eyes became angry slits. “Of course it’s not your writing! This is a Fleet Certified True Copy of the original! The references at the bottom tell where the original is in the fleet archive!” Tightly, she finished, “Did. You. Write. These. Words?”

Master Juris tried to dismiss it with, “Merely a prank! Nothing more!”

Captain Mord read aloud, “The Longin sails at three. Be aboard by two. Juris. – Master Juris! You have got us provisionally charged with violating the Wergeld agreement between the Longin and the Grandalor! We are in danger of losing our ship and being Scattered!”

Juris looked down his prominent nose at Kurin and said, “Her white hair reflects the fog that passes for her mind. Kurin overreacted. That’s all. It’s done with now. She’s here.”

Kurin responded with that mildness that held more threat than any shout, “And the Grandalor? My ship . . . remember that I own her? The diversion to get me here has cost her more than a day of ship time. Adults pay for losses that they cause by pranks. I’ll settle for fifty skins, drawn from your Purser’s account, Master Juris, and then we can all have a laugh at your sense of humor.”

Master Juris snapped, “Ridiculous! I won’t pay you a block!”

Tiredly, Captain Mord simply ordered, “Bron, get all of the Craft Masters and off duty officers to the mess immediately. We will be having an emergency meeting of the Combined Councils of Crafts and Officers. I will get the duty officers that can be spared.”

Alor shook her head and put a hand on the Captain’s shoulder. Sadly, she said, “I was afraid that things would come to this head, son. I will go and get the Minutes and other documents.”

As they left, Master Juris snarled, “Now look what you’ve done! First, you left us for - - - for the Grandalor! You nearly destroyed us. You made a fool of me in front of the court and over a fourth of the crew got scattered. There have been three sent to Dark Iren! Now this, and it’s all your fault! Why did you have to go and defend the Grandalor of all ships?”

High Cloud on her shoulder, Kurin was carrying her bags toward the companionway that led to the ship’s mess. Looking sadly back over her shoulder at Master Juris, she said, “Little things that someone I still respect once taught me were vital. You know them. Justice. Honor. Observing the Great Laws. They were denied their rights. It had to be fixed.”

Down in the gloom of the passage, Master Juris continued his tirade. “What about that monster war catapult that they built? That thing’s a danger to everybody as long as it exists. It should be dismantled.”

As she slid aside the mess-room door, Kurin said frankly, “They wanted to. I ordered it kept. We did install hunting blocks, though. We can take them out quickly if the need arises. I made them keep some antipersonnel shot, hull breachers and rigging destroyers too. Trying not to use it, up north in the Dragon Sea got a friend of mine killed.

“Too late to save Morga, Captain Sula taught me the value of being prepared. She told me that the one thing that you can’t do is let your own folk be the ones to die because you weren’t ready.”

Several officers and three Craft Masters, including Mistress Daeron of the Rope Walk, were in the mess already and overheard Kurin’s remark. They looked at her as if they had never seen her before. The Kurin that they had known had been a pacifist.

They also remembered the damage that just one shot from that catapult had done to their ship during Kotance’s ill fated attempt at piracy against the Grandalor. It had taken three days, with the help of the Grandalor and the Soaring Bird, to repair the mainsail and rigging.

Kurin set her bags down and looked for a place to sit. She saw party streamers and a big ‘Welcome Back!’ banner across the forward bulkhead. Most of the looks that she was getting were outright hostile.

Captain Mord entered, leading a contingent of officers. He saw the situation at a glance. “Gentlemen and Ladies,” he said in a clear voice, “hold your anger until you hear the facts. Things are not as we believed. As soon as everyone is here, we will begin.”

At last, everyone was there. Most had taken out tallow-slates and styluses to make notes. They were giving Kurin dark looks, assuming that it must be something to do with her, since she did not belong in a Council meeting and had missed both her party and their sailing.

The silence stretched. Finally, Captain Mord said, “Master Juris, you are the head of this Council. Will you begin the meeting?”

In a surly voice, he replied, “You called it, you open it.”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS ~ NEXT==>

#KURIN'S FOLLY #Part 2 of 15 #World of Sea #Written by De Writer

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natsubeatsrock · 4 years

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“Does Fairy Tail respect women?”

Oh, you celebrated Intermational Men’s Day last year on November 19th, but not International Women’s Day on March 8th? Chauvanist pig!

I remember it like it was a few years ago. I was catching up with the Tartarus arc and Erza was fighting Minerva in her "Nakama hakama". Someone walked in on me watching this part and made a passing remark on how the series doesn’t seem to be respecting to women.

I didn't know how to respond..

And that's weird. Like, given my track record with the series, you'd think I'd able to agree with this sentiment. But I can't fully agree with it, even as I don't fully disagree with it.

If you don't know, I did "reviews" (they were more like reactions) of the chapters in the Alvarez arc when they came out. At first, a rally big complaint I would regularly have with chapters is how female characters are framed in panels. At times, it's obvious that he wants his readers to be aroused by his female characters, rather than try to empathize with them. It got to a point where I got frustrated with it and had to stop making the joke as it was becoming stale to make.

Of course, that's only in how characters are framed. When it comes to the outfits, this becomes a worse issue. It's one thing when the Star dress for the water-themed spirit is a bikini and the maid-themed spirit's dress is a maid outfit. (Someone did a redesign of both and I think that's a bit too much.) But did so many outfits really need boob windows? (Also something, something bikini armor battle damage.)

And don't get me started on certain events. Consider that they didn't walk in on Erza's torture scenes only episodes before. There's plenty of other examples of this kind of thing involving several characters. Especially involving the main female lead of the series to a disturbingly high amount. It's stuff like this that makes it hard for me not to empathize with this sentiment.

Here’s another fun story. I was on my college campus reading one of the newer chapters of Fairy Tail. When I told my friends that, one of them noted that it sounds like a title for porn. I dismissed the comment, but was kind of embarrased by my inability to defend the series on that aspect. Especially considering I had just finished reading the Christmas special.

At the same time, I feel as though some of the complaints come from the wrong outlook on things. Like, some people will say it's wrong for Lucy and Natsu to not have the same kind of fight results. While I think Lucy could have had better ends to her fights, I don't think it's good to compare the two as they have different functions and character arcs within Fairy Tail. As I often say, Lucy is to Natsu what Dr. Watson is to Sherlock Holmes (or what Robin is to Chrom for the gamers among you).

And to be blunt, some of this has to deal with Hiro Mashima being a writer for a magazine aimed at young boys. Are they interested in female characters with depth and intrigue? I'd like to hope so. But it's not like they wouldn't be turned off by sexy girls, even if they don't have much else to them. (I say that as if I don't know women with similar feelings towards female characters.)

But, that feels wrong to say about the women in Fairy Tail. I mean, Mashima's not the best writer of either male of female characters in shonen, even and almost especially in his chosen niche of battle action shonen series (an aspect of this discussion that I don't think gets enough consideration). But for as many complaints as can be levied against him, I think there is good to be said of how handles his women.

Team Natsu has a male to female ratio that puts its contemporaries to shame. By the fourth arc of the series, the team of two girls, two guys, and Happy is established as the "main group" And once Wendy and Carla join the team, the team balance is more towards female members than male.

And they're by no means just pieces or meat or pretty faces. Wendy is argued to be one of the best-written characters in the series and has one of the most dynamic growths of any member of the main cast. Comparing her during her introduction in Nirvana arc to her during one of her fights in the latter half of the series is near jarring to see. And considering we're on this side of Hero's, the idea that Lucy is weaker than Wendy has been obvious since Tartarus.

But for her part, Lucy's exploits have been criminally underrated by fans and critics alike. Some of my favorites include singlehandedly defeating Love and Lucky, figuring out the second half of the S-Class Exam and coming up with the plans at least partially responsible for defeating Zeref and Acnologia. If we're a bit looser with what counts as a "Lucy accomplishment", she shuts the Eclipse Gate with Yukino, her future self figures out how to defeat the dragons and is responsible for rallying members of Fairy Tail in the anime. Just because she isn't taking out the big bads directly doesn't mean her actions don't move the plot of arcs of effect the main story.

And, then there's that woman, Erza. When the topic of "strong female characters" in anime comes up, I can imagine Erza as the type of character one would think of. They think of the type of female character that has no flaws. She beats all the enemies that she faces without breaking a sweat. The only people that don't like her are bad guys. Many people have rightly brought attention to how, to varying degrees, these are true of Erza.

But, it would be wrong to put Erza in the same league as [insert example here]. The whole point of her arc in the Tower of Heaven, the arc that gives the greatest focus on Erza, is all about how Erza isn't as strong as people think she is. She has a personality with more settings than "stoic heroine". She's shown to soften up and even be incompetent several times.

While it's easy to look at her fake wins, they aren't always as easy as one may argue. Yes, she's able to beat Kyouka without using her senses. However, she doesn't stop her from activating Face. Yes, she punches Deus Sema with almost all of her bones broken. However, she needs help to hurt Irene after and isn't directly responsible for her death. She's not sweeping all her enemies easily and without trying. [Use your imagination at who I'm attacking with this.]

And that's just regarding the members of the Strongest Team. This doesn't go into Mirajane, a fellow S-Class mage with her own set of complex feelings. This doesn't go into Juvia who, despite all that could be said regarding Gray, is a strong mage in her own right and whose arc is also underrated. I could talk about them and how Mavis is the first master of the guild or Irene is the mother of dragon slayers or Anna is the architect of the Eclipse Project, and so on.

I could even go into some of the stuff that's happened in other Mashima works. I could go into stuff like having all four of Eden’s Shining Stars become female in his current running work. I could also just start gushing about why I like Elie from Rave Master so much and how anyone who says she’s just like Lucy or Rebecca is objectively wrong. Heck, Mashima made Starbiter Satsuki, a one-shot with a female lead, and it may be one of his best works.

Again, this isn't to say Mashima is somehow a feminist champion among writers of shonen manga. Remember that I started this post off by admitting many of the issues with his portrayal of women. It's near undeniable that Mashima treats women differently than his male characters and many of those ways are negative. I'm not here to deny any of that.

At the same time, I feel like the ways that Mashima has elevated women in his work have been severely underrated and ignored. It doesn't undo the bad he's done on that, as some would argue. But it's not absent from his work. I believe your view on this is a matter of what you want to emphasize more about this aspect.

And, thus, we return to the scene that inspired all of this. If Erza fighting in what many would consider an impractical outfit is what matters most to you, I get that you'd think Mashima doesn't respect women. If seeing arguably the strongest woman in the series fight to save a fellow victim of abuse from demonic influence, you'd probably say otherwise. Even as I see merit in both views, I lean more towards the latter.

#fairy tail #hiro mashima #well i missed international women's day #oops #the whole thing feels weird juxtaposed to imd #basic message of 3/8 #women are awesome and can do anything they set their minds to.#basic message of 11/19 #maybe don't kill yourself #and yes #intermational men's day is november 19th #this is late because...#i have no handle on life #but all things considered #can you blame me?

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