You know, I give it 1-2 years top, before the transition from "This family is an arrengement of convenience" to "We are a family" cement itself really HARD (And probably a few more before Anya become a big sis), because even if this SI!Anya is not like the childish OG!Anya (acting like the glue for the relationship via stoking the flames of parental instinct and being a ball of perpetual sunshine) she is still, pretty much, drawing them together via normal bonding... and this is still just a precious. The academy is going to be fun!
The academy is going to be a god damned nightmare. Although Sianya here is much better prepared to razzle and dazzle adults with her 'precocious little moppet' routine, Damian is a little shit. Canon Anya handled it by smacking a bitch. Sianya is going to keep trying to be more mature and talking him around, but kids don't run on logic.
I appreciate how much thought you put into the mind-reading.
Specifically I appreciate that you put any thought into the mind-reading, unlike most stories.
Most stories go entirely plot-driven.
Need to know something?
They can read memories in Swahili from when they were 2 years old.
Need them not to know something?
Basic arithmetic turns into an unbreakable wall in the mind.
Climactic battle?
Now they have Reality Warping!
I actually read a fanfic where the "genre-savvy" character told a mind-reader that they should be spending their time trying to warp reality.
Why did they suggest this person waste their life on a wild goose chase?
Because they saw it in anime "all the time" so obviously it's an incontrovertible law of reality.
Well... You could go the Code Geass route and have the dog be tuned to exactly read the intentions of the subconscious will of mankind, thus predicting the 'future' by getting visions of what the "will of mankind" has predtermined.
Other options, is to take the... I think it's the Dark Towers series that said this? but anyways, the future being determined by a mix of "luck" "fate" and "free will". and Bond is tapped into viewing the second. Thus making his precognition powerful... but not absolute, as a particularly lucky or willful individual can throw off his visions, which is also why he's capable of preventing that 'bad future' he sees when Yor makes him dinner.
If you want a more sciency take on things, you could stretch some modern theroretical physics by having some radio waves slip through dimensions from paralell realities, and Bond is specificly tuned to those. Thus picks up Newscasts from a 'potential future'.
Otherwise, I feel precognition is something that's best just handwaved away. As the harder you try to fit it in a setting "logically" the harder people will try to see it 'broken'.
... Also also, I don't consider the Spy x Family to be particularly "hard" on the sliding scale of realism. At the end of the day, The world is pretty absurd, letting some of science fiction tropes slip through is in setting in my book.
mean, I'm all but tearing my hair out here trying to come up with a believable history for a world where basically East Germany still has nobles and a british style school for the children of the elite. I don't think communism exists here, like modern london than anything like the horror we saw out of late stage East Germany.
I've been doing a reread of this and I realized this is somewhat easy to solve. flip the ideologies to make it so alt Germany had a sucessfull communist revolution (it failed in Rl due to the lack of support and the strength of the far right) with alt hitler soing industrial rearmament to make ready on spreadinfo revolution everywhere. In alt russia the whites won and established a fascist government with a possible puppet tsar due to mistrust of democracy due to communists around
Now when alt ww2 came around. The democratic governments of alt France and Britain are tired of war and nowhere ready for it. (also scared of the far left and right taking over specially with alt france) they try and fail to do some forms of appeasements to buy themselves time to rearm. and possibly pit the facist Russians vs the commie Germans alt Germany goes on "liberate the world proletariat and get some revenge on the side" mode
then it goes the same way with alt America going and saving the western allies thereby splitting the alt Germany in two fascist and racist east and democratic west and tbh im very very scared for the ethnic minorities in this alt world I've created. Sure alt eastbloc it's not as oppressive for the average joe perhaps Even great but its most likely of the backs of some questionable things best left to the imagination
(Also the secret police is literally called the sss) if that isnt a nazi reference i will eat my hat
Henry Henderson, housemaster of Cecile Hall and all around elegant gentleman, didn't do anything as crass as sneer, but there was a palpable sense of disdain as he stared down at the milling crowd of aspirants and their families through his beautiful set of Galilean binoculars. His facial hair was impeccably groomed, and one eye sported a monocle.
After a moment, he lowered the opera glasses and resumed a stern though distant visage. As the oldest and most respected of the House Masters, and indeed the staff in general, he spent less time than the others making individual judgements. It was a tasteful and quiet nod to his years of service, while not embarrassing him with the face that his eyes weren't what they once were.
"This year's applicants are a slovenly bunch," he announced to the room at large, where, along with several other vantage points, Eden Academy housemasters and other staff judged the incoming mob with highly critical eyes.
Indeed, there were far more quiet announcements of 'fail' as the assembled staff made judgements long before the families made it to the personal interview part of the process. Behind them, assistants both male and female held leather bound notebooks listing the applicants, along with a brief recognition guide should the staff need a reminder of who they were judging.
Few needed reminders.
The admissions process for Eden Academy was its oldest, most important ritual. A ritual a large number of very well connected and powerful families across Europe would very much like insights on. A ritual only a few of the most powerful Ostanian families was privy to.
Eden Academy was unquestionably the finest, most elite primary school in Ostania, and oft considered in the top one percent of one percent the world wide. Accordingly, despite laws which required them to open their application process to the citizens of Ostania, or at least the ones who could afford the rather exorbitant fee, much effort was spent weeding out the plebeians.
Just because a family made a small fortune in business did not mean that they were fit to be inducted into the true upper class. Indeed, many such families, ambitious, power hungry, and pretentious, were often little more than up-jumped commoners who got lucky. The ones with taste, however, who had made the right connections and displayed the correct attributes, might get a helpful hint here and there.
The truly elite needed no hint. They were the standard by which the others were judged.
They still had to meet the standard, of course, but such things were handled privately, with consideration given to the family's image. An elite family with a dim or unruly child simply did not push for admittance, instead typically sending them to quieter, more private boarding schools.
They did, however, largely tune out the House Master's yearly diatribe on the virtues of tradition, poise, and elegance. It wasn't that they disagreed with the sentiments, far from it. To a man, they positively abhorred the idea that the hallowed halls of their beloved school could be filled with the grubby, unwashed gremlins produced by the working class. But every year it seemed as if there were more applicants, meaning the selection process had to get even more stringent and efficient.
Some bright stars did make an appearance.
"Ah, there is Sir Blackbell and his wife. And that must be little Becky," one of the female teachers commented. "Tasteful as always. The tails on his coat are a bold choice. I suppose they will be the height of fashion in the coming year."
This was sufficiently intriguing that Henry lifted his binoculars to take a look, if only to banish the images of the pretentious proletariat from his eyes.
No one mentioned 'pass' or 'fail'. The answer was obvious.
Henry was about to put his binoculars back down, but another family caught his eye.
"Oho? Is that family saluting the statue of our founder? By Jove! How elegantly respectful!" he announced, surprised. "Who is that family?" he demanded.
"That's K212, the Forger family," a pinstriped assistant announced after a brief check. "The father is Loid Forger, the daughter is Anya, and Yor Forger is his second wife." He quickly found their documentation and passed it over to Henry, where several of the staff glanced at it curiously.
"A 99!" one exclaimed. "That's the highest this year!"
The entrance exam wasn't just a filter for the unfit, it also served as a placement test. Correspondingly, it had questions which any modestly prepared child could solve, and the passing score was set low enough that they were worth sufficient points to pass. The Academy had long since determined that the family interview was the key to keeping out the hoi polloi, not exam scores.
However, it also had an escalating scale of difficulty, with some questions involving historical minutiae, reading comprehension, logic, or trigonometry at a level the Academy didn't start covering until Gymnasium, the academic focused schooling that was generally the preparation track for university, unlike the more general schooling of Realschule or the primarily vocational training of Hauptschule.
Eden Academy did not offer Realschule or (*shudder*) Hauptschule. That was for the working classes.
Those exceptionally difficult questions were there to identify particularly promising young prodigies-
-or cheaters.
Henry quickly flipped through the pages until he found the mistakes. Three of them, actually, a half point deducted each for spelling mistakes, rounded up to a whole 99. The handwriting wasn't great, but it wasn't the worst he had seen. Interestingly, all three of the spelling mistakes had the same mistake, an 'i' before an 'e' when it should have been the other way around.
"A cheater?" Murdock Swan proposed, looking at it from the side. "Might also be a sham marriage."
Although they, of course, attempted to stamp out any insulting hearsay, there was a persistent and hard to quash rumor that copies of the exam could be procured ahead of time for the correct price. Henry had been approached, hat in hand, with some hefty bribes, and taken particular delight in not only denying the would be cheat, but also banning the family from sending any children to attend for a period of one hundred and one years.
Yet, the rumors persisted. Although it galled him to his very core, the possibility existed that some staff member or another might take such a bribe. Elegance was very expensive, and vice could ensnare the unwary.
It wasn't impossible for a child to obtain a perfect, or near perfect, score. If so, the applicant would be exactly the sort of student the Academy delighted in nurturing.
If there were any discrepancies, however…
"We shall observe the family," he announced. "A 99 point score would naturally come from a 99 point family. But anyone willing to cheat on an exam is undoubtedly willing to cheat in other ways." He lifted his binoculars to observe the Forgers more closely.
Henry had to admit, though, saluting the founder was a nice touch. A prospective genius of good breeding would be a welcome addition to Eden, especially compared to the morass of commoners besieging their hallowed halls so far.
The father wore a charcoal suit of fine cut. Anzug, perhaps? Or maybe Kerstin. Hard to be sure from a distance, and his vision was sadly deteriorating. He at least needed to get binoculars with a higher magnification.
The wife was fashionable without being overdone. A small amount of jewelry over the sort of fashion popular among young women of the city, who were oft in a position to be seen. She was very attractive, which could mean the father had shallow interests since his first wife passed, but that was an uncharitable thought. Her poise was perfect.
The daughter was rather small, short for her age, with strawberry blonde hair that was nearly pink. An interesting result given the father's blond. She walked between her parents, but without holding their hands, showing she was self-assured enough to not need the comfort. A good sign in a child so young.
Altogether, they were well above average for the crowd. If not for the shock of the nearly perfect score, he'd have given them a pass already.
Ah! They've spotted one of the prepared tests of character. One of the younger boys, a chubby lad with poor academic discipline equal to his atrocious dietary habits, had accepted the onerous duty of pretending to fall into a nasty gutter to avoid getting a tonitrus bolt for his class performance.
Most, nearly all in fact, families pretended not to see the boy, to their discredit. However, it was hardly a failing condition, as even the most elegant families rarely braved the grime. It was merely an opportunity for an otherwise marginal family to display better attributes, though it could also be their failing.
He watched as the young girl spoke briefly with the father, who nodded and, without so much as a moment's hesitation, lifted the filthy student from the gutter with a single hand, ignoring the dirty water which splattered everywhere.
"Humph. Terrible," he murmured in disappointment. "No family of true quality would dare come to an interview this important covered in filth." He watched a few more moments as the child offered a handkerchief to the chubby student. "Although sparing the feelings of the boy is commendable, I suppose we shall have to fail them regardless."
Henry started to lower his binoculars, but the father's next actions caught his attention once more.
"Wait, what's this?" he gasped. "He brought a change of clothes?!" He frantically focused on the family, doing his best to decipher their statements by reading their lips and body language. "They thought this might happen?!"
The father dashed away, allowing his wife and child to send the sacrificial lamb away, then quickly returned, now dressed in an even more impeccable grey suit.
"That is elegant," Henry admitted. "Could they be the real thing?"
"Oh no! Animals have escaped into the streets!" came the cry from down the hall.
"What?!"
Soon they could all hear and see it. Not just cows from the agricultural program, but horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and even the exotic ostrich from the special enclosure!
"Whose idea was this!" he demanded. "There are VIPs in that crowd! People could actually be hurt!"
Many hurried shakes of heads and other denials responded. "I certainly didn't! Surely no one would be so foolish!"
Henry Henderson gasped in shock. "This is... an actual emergency!"
With no immediate way to respond, he turned back to the view below, wincing as the people cast all decorum aside in their efforts to flee, a stampede as literal as the maddened animals running through the streets.
One child was pushed and fell, and though he wasn't trampled by the people, it was unlikely the cattle would spare him such a fate.
Again, it was the Forgers who responded, the father sprinting with shocking speed to scoop the child off the street and into his arms, where he found shelter in the lee of a building.
But now the wife stood out, also sprinting forward despite the fashionable heels she wore to slam fists into the junction of the lead cow's neck in several places, her superlative speed nearly impossible to follow.
Disbelief warred with the scene playing out in front of him as the cow went from running full tilt to stumbling and collapsing in a matter of a few steps, crumpling to the stone street and sliding to a stop. With the herd leader now stopped and in the way, the assortment of followers also slowed. No longer stampeding, they began milling about, still anxious, but no longer dangerously running about.
Now the pink haired daughter demanded attention, calling to her father and her mother as she ran to the collapsed heifer. Like her mother, he would have assumed anything the little girl might do would be useless at best, an impediment at worst, but the moppet surprised him as much as her parents had.
He could faintly hear her commands now that most of the people were off of the street. Her mother, she of apparently herculean strength, was positioned at the aft of the cow, with instructions to keep it from getting its rear hooves under it, as 'cows get up hind end first'. If the cow could not get its rear up, it would be unable to stand.
Then the girl began stroking the cow's head and neck, apparently crooning soothing sounds as her father approached, no longer burdened by a rescue. Under her directions he produced both the tie he had been wearing and a belt.
The belt was looped around the cow's head, right behind the jaw, and the trailing length hooked forward, through the tie which was encircling the muzzle of the beast. He watched in astonishment as the makeshift halter was literally fashioned, with the belt's loop through the tie giving the most leverage to pull the heifer's head around.
She pointed at the cow's nose ring and indicated it was for emergencies if the cow resisted, but cautioned against its use now that the cow was calmer, since nose rings caused pain if they were yanked on.
Still soothing the beast, she coaxed the farm animal to rise and gently guided it back the direction it came from, her parents trailing behind to gently chivvy the others animals as they followed the herd leader.
"That is absolutely a 99 point family," the housemaster stated to the other gawking staff. "Elegant, considerate, decisive, and intelligent. I would be honored to have Anya Forger in my Hall." He nodded at the others, then gathered his crystal topped walking cane and went to meet them.
Fifteen minutes later, he was there to greet the family as they came back from the pens and corrals. He was there to be gracious, but was shocked once again.
Instead of being rumpled and dirty, covered in animal hair, all three of them were wearing fresh outfits that showed even more elegance and fashion.
"Well!" he announced with a harrumph, mentally chiding himself rather than the family which had met every expectation and then some. "I was going to give you time to clean yourself up before the interview, but I see I don't need to. Well done, Forger family. Well done."
They bowed or curtsied with elegant little flourishes, proud smiles on their faces.
"Eden Academy thanks you for your service," he said, bowing back. "Please, follow me. I'd be delighted to get to know such a family as yours."
x
x
x
x
AN: Hated this chapter. Had trouble writing it, and it's not even fun to read. The next one is way better. I'll try to have it posted in a day or two. Feel free to throw tomatoes.
AN: Hated this chapter. Had trouble writing it, and it's not even fun to read. The next one is way better. I'll try to have it posted in a day or two. Feel free to throw tomatoes.
I do find it kind of funny that they more or less try to justify their 'exclusiveness' with throwing in what seems to be increasingly higher standards in behavior, since the grade thing isn't quite helping.
And the hilarity of the 'they might have cheated', managing to get the exams ahead of time, despite the rumors being 'false'. Wonder how many other copies of the exam get spread out as well. Especially with it going counter to the intended goals of the exam. Or at least Henry's opinion of it.
Anya being an actual prodigy would be kind of hilarious. Not even realizing that the extra memories wouldn't be enough to keep going to the same level. Possibly not even realizing that the content moved way past that point years down the line. Beyond the 'study to the test' levels as an excuse. Where she actually fully understands the lessons the test is intending to measure.
AN: Hated this chapter. Had trouble writing it, and it's not even fun to read. The next one is way better. I'll try to have it posted in a day or two. Feel free to throw tomatoes.
There's an apt saying: "We are all our own worst critics."
The chapter is fine, and enjoyable. But yeah, that feeling isn't pleasant. Where there's something off, or something missing but you can't quite figure it out? Yeah, I've got a few bits mostly written down myself, in various points of completion.
Something that might help you out the next time you're having trouble writing, is setting whatever has you stuck down for a bit. Maybe make a few notes of ideas; either what you want to cover but can't figure out how to put words down to say it, or just a few ideas on what could fit in there. Nothing concrete, just a couple of possibilities.
Then do something else. Let it cook in the background of your mind. Let 'fresh' eyes look over it after a bit. (One of the recommendations I've seen for doing an edit pass over a rough/first draft is to have a bit of time between writing it and going over it.) Do something to 'recharge' your creativity. Read, watch something, whatever. Heck, maybe even write something else for a bit. Not the same scene. And probably not the same characters, but it might help out. Make other notes if ideas come to mind while writing. Especially if it distracts you from whatever you're writing there. Getting that put down will help let you focus on the other. Rather than having to fight your own focus.
She was very attractive, which could mean the father had shallow interests since his first wife passed, but that was an uncharitable thought. Her poise was perfect.
AN: Hated this chapter. Had trouble writing it, and it's not even fun to read. The next one is way better. I'll try to have it posted in a day or two. Feel free to throw tomatoes.
I'm pretty sure it was the most stations-of-canon-y chapter yet, but that was kind of unavoidable given where we are in the story. And I imagine it's hard to write the POV of a character whose entire canon personality is one word. So don't worry about it.
I think the issue here is that this particular situation was like 90% Loid in canon, and so even despite the SI!Anya, there's not much to be done to go off the tracks as it were. It's Loid's plan, Loid's prep-work, and both Yor and Anya were following Loid's cues the entire time. That all said, it's also important worldbuilding, setting the scene of Eden Academy that will be important in future chapters.
So I think this chapter is fine, it might not be particularly groundbreaking, but I did like the insight it puts for the Eden Academy Staff.
But next is the interview... Which has potential to go... anywhere.
"I genuinely think you must be the best spy in the world."
"Thanks," he said kind of awkwardly. Inwardly, he disagreed. 'The best spies are completely unknown, though. Even the rumor of Twilight being somewhere gets people stirred up. But I suppose I have had a long streak of good luck. Let's hope it stays that way.'
Respect. A person who's actually self-aware. I mean, he's also probably wrong, since the mere rumors of someone like Twilight existing must be useful enough, as an intimidation tactic, a way to get people riled up, etc., that his superior officers just decided to leak it, but still. Respect for the self-awareness.
This story is indeed quite elegant and well-written. It's an interesting more serious take on the setting with an 'older' protagonist, one who isn't shy about acting older than they should be.
in light of the most recent chapter, one thing that caught my interest is the differing views on the entrance exam. On one hand, you have what Frankie found:
Apparently, however, the test itself was available in various social circles. The rich and powerful, whose children were obviously going to be accepted, received the test well in advance and had plenty of time to prepare their children to pass. The truly slow or stupid could and would be failed out, but even an unexceptional child could be coached to pass given enough time.
…
Whew, man, let me tell you. They're not fucking around with this entrance exam. If you weren't one of the elite, carefully coached to pass, you'd have to be the kind of young genius the powerful like to groom into useful servants. This was a test for six year olds. First graders, in american terms. It presumed functional literacy and mathematics, and went right past 'See Spot run. Spot is the name of the ____?' and straight to 'The superlative form of the word 'bad' is _____."
This view makes full sense when you take the exam in isolation. There's simply no way a 6 year old kid would do well on an exam like this, let alone get what would conventionally be a passing grade on a 100-point exam, so it's consistent with how Eden is exclusive to the elite that they have a filtering process like this, where you have to get your hands on the exam to enter the academy…
the passing score was set low enough that they were worth sufficient points to pass. The Academy had long since determined that the family interview was the key to keeping out the hoi polloi, not exam scores.
The exam largely doesn't matter. The comparatively easy questions are all you need to answer, so all they really do is filter out the kids who shouldn't be applying to an elite school to begin with, rich or not. The interview is really how they maintain their exclusivity, and the difficult questions are just there to identify the talented.
Henderson doesn't seem to believe the papers are circulated, and in all fairness it makes sense with how the exam is built; there's no point in cheating the exam in the first place. Considering he's part of the examination process, I'd trust his perspective more than what Frankie found, were it not for one problem-
-Frankie did get the exam papers. We're not told exactly how, but it's telling that he still believes it gets circulated. However, there's still a chance he directly got it from the source, rather than the social circles- even Henderson admits that-, and if you're not aware that the passing grade is low (30 if we're following canon), the rumors would sound very plausible.
What this all leads to is that one of them's likely wrong, and it's interesting either way. If Frankie's wrong, then that could show how reliable information is hard to get even to a top-class spy agency, and it'd go well with the setting's themes. If Henderson's wrong, that could be indicative of a deeper corruption even someone like him isn't aware of, and that'd be consistent with both the elitism and nepotism we see in the academy.
Both sound like they'll be interesting topics relevant to the future of the story, and I'm all for it. Keep up the good work!
A possibility is that one of the 'unofficial' tests is 'do not get caught'. Identifying who you can get the tests from. Or at least being subtle about obtaining it; ie, from a proxy. So that if you mess up in figuring it out, you aren't directly implicated. It fits with the focus more on appearance.
And most of the 'proper' families would know the test is more for scaring off those they don't want to apply. As long as they reach that minimum bar.
However, Frankie literally just walking in and grabbing a copy of the exam papers is kind of hilarious. Just have a clipboard, and if asked, just state that they were a few short on copies, and run off a few/make a few more. Maybe even a slight misfile on them when putting them back, so the count isn't off. That is, if the copies are actually put back with the 'original'.
Might be even easier if the exam papers need to be sent somewhere to confirm that there isn't shenanigans. Prevent 'insider knowledge only' questions. Also allows an auditing to make sure there isn't some 'creative' grading. Points that, funnily enough, I don't get the feeling the Academy wouldn't have even considered doing. Especially not with the Interview being more important in determining suitability.
It's also plausible that all the questions are hard, but in different ways and with minimal overlap, to reward in-depth knowledge without being unreasonable.
I mean, I grew up poor. Like, dirt poor, on the edge of tens of thousands of acres of trackless swamp in Louisiana. We did nearly everything ourselves, from hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming to stretch our food budget, to doing all the carpentry, mechanicing, and other repairs ourselves. It's a great way to learn how to do a lot of different things.
It's a shit way of preparing for stepping into the frankly bizarre world of the wealthy and powerful.
They made a fat kid half drown himself in a gutter as a test for incoming families.
He was so grateful for the chance to avoid getting a failing grade he willingly threw himself in. He only felt bad when he thought the muck he got on Loid was going to keep us from getting in the door.
I was at least somewhat relieved that the stampede was genuinely not planned. It was either intentional sabotage or someone's fuck up.
I say stampede, but it really, really wasn't. The lead cow seemed pretty scared but she wasn't sprinting, just doing a slow run looking for something that made sense to her. I doubt they would have been much of a danger to anyone actually caught up in the mass, except maybe that kid that fell. These aren't half feral free range animals here. Every one of them has spent its entire life being poked and prodded, but also petted and pampered, by a mixture of professionals and well-meaning if inexpert students.
That cow didn't so much as give token resistance on the way back to the corrals. I've had dogs that were harder to wrangle. I mean, I've spent a lot of time with farm animals, but I have the least experience with cattle, since we didn't raise them on our farm. Cows were the kind of thing I learned about helping on other people's farms.
Interestingly, I actually picked up some mental impressions from the heifer, primarily fear in the beginning, and relief when we led her back to the barns.
Makes me wonder about how much empathy I pick up through my telepathy after all. It was also utterly fascinating from the standpoint of finally getting to be close to some animals. I'd spent a lot of time staring at birds and dogs through the windows of whatever building I was living in, and not getting squat, but in retrospect I'd never really gotten close to them.
My telepathy does have some serious range limits depending on the person and the type of signal I'm picking up. I should do some experiments.
Anyway, we end up inside the building on the side where the actual prospects go. Apparently, they do snap judgements on the families as they come in the gates. Anyone not well dressed enough, anyone with unruly children, or anyone they just decide they don't like gets sent to a much larger conference hall and told not to darken their door with their filthy commoner-ness.
I hate this place. I want to burn the whole motherfucker down and put all their heads on pikes. Put the power back in the hands of the people who do all the real work, not these fatcats.
Kill and eat the rich.
I'mma still study like crazy, get this fabulously exclusive degree, and cheat my tiny ass into being the kind of hyper-rich that makes the term 'oligarch' look like someone's third cousin on the wrong side of the bed. If I'm worth less than a billion by the year 2000 I'm going to be very disappointed in myself.
Kill and eat the rich, tho.
'There is an imposter among you,' I thought gleefully.
My ambitions of being a sussy baka aside, I'm not in yet. Just because you made it through the snap judgements doesn't mean you're free and clear.
Like, I'm pretty sure we're good. My score was good, and we made a hell of a showing outside. The old guy, who's name I found out was Henry Henderson, seemed pretty solidly on our side. Apparently, his big thing was decorum and elegance, which we'd managed to satisfy. Loid's briefcase full of outfits and Yor's inherent chic-ness were unstoppable. I mentally nicknamed him 'Sasquatch', and he was the housemaster of Cecile Hall. But he's not the only one we have to impress.
The thickset man with the weird bowtie looking mustache seemed to hate everyone. Murdoch Swan, housemaster of Cline Hall and son of a previous headmaster. Recently divorced, and the wife took the kid, according to Loid's files. He'd apparently been a no vote on almost every one of the applicants that wasn't already a VIP.
Beside him was another man in glasses, one of those elderly, genial looking men who have had so much shit go absolutely perfect for them all their lives that it's polished all the rough edges off like a stone in a river. Just gently smiling all the time. Walter Evans, housemaster of Malcom Hall, reportedly 'gentle, conservative, and well-liked by his students'.
But I made a point of not assuming that smooth rounded stone was soft, because even if he expressed small amounts of regret mentally each time he denied an applicant, he was still just as elitist as the others. Fail to meet his standard, and he'd vote no just as hard as the fat, angry Swan.
Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
Man was I glad we'd studied the history of this place so hard. Loid knew how these people thought, I'll give him that. Yor was the weakest link in our tower of power.
Though obviously not physically weak. I've seen people punch out cows before, but never with the cowjutsu equivalent of a neck chop.
We didn't have to wait long. Henry had personally invited us in, but there were people ahead of us. VIPs and semi-VIPs they couldn't bump down despite their gratitude for us stopping the animals.
It was interesting to see the difference between the real elite and the pretenders. We were outside the room where our assigned judges conducted their interviews, but I could pick up some of the conversation inside with telepathy, and Loid had apparently broken in at some point and planted a freaking audio bug, and had a radio hidden in his jacket with a discreet earbud. Also, of course, we got to see the results as they left.
Anyone addressed as 'lord' or with particularly respectful 'sir's had kids who answered the questions with little trouble. They knew the routine, and prepared for it. The adults had softball questions, or even just genial chitchat.
The lesser variant of the VIP seemed to be people where the man generally had significant personal power, a judge or something, but didn't have any family weight and didn't move in the right circles. They didn't know how to prepare, so their kids, whatever actual academic prowess they might have, didn't know the answers to 'Who founded Eden Academy' and such.
They didn't make the grade. By and large, they left with the kid crying and the parents either angrily scowling, or in some cases actually berating their little failure.
I got the feeling their future children weren't going to have much of a chance of getting in either, at least in the case of the parents actually publicly scolding their child.
Ol' Sasquatch had a point.
How inelegant!
So, at long last, we got called in.
I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous. I mean, I was confident. We cheated so hard we broke the laws of physics. But Loid was a bit worried, because Yor and I were amateurs. Yor was worried because Loid and I were worried.
And I was worried because this was absolutely out of my wheelhouse.
Tests? Math, reading, whatever? I'm down with it. E Z P Z.
Talking to people?
Wooo buddy.
Loid had immediately fixated on Swan as the biggest obstacle.
But the real first move was mine.
Immediately after introductions, I piped up.
"Murdoch Swan, Sir?" I asked for attention. "Are you any relation to Wethersby Swan, former Headmaster of Eden?"
Five sets of eyes zeroed in on me.
"Why yes, I am," the portly man allowed, but instead of sounding flattered, he sounded irritated. "Did you memorize the list of Headmasters?"
Irritation? Did he not like being reminded of his father? Or was there something else going on? I didn't have time to read his mind and figure it out, but I think I made a tactical error.
"Not quite, Sir," I replied. "I simply thought it would be respectful to at least know the current Headmaster, as well as the more general history of the Academy. Unfortunately, the first book I grabbed at the Berlint Library was a bit out of date, and listed Sir Swan as the current Headmaster. I'm fortunate that Father caught my mistake when we were discussing the school."
"The Berlint City Library?" Evans interjected. "I can see that happening. Although a very fine library, they have been known to keep out of date material on the shelves for longer than they should."
Everyone nodded, and the fat bastard seemed to relax at that revelation. So I failed at advancing, but at least I didn't set us back.
I kept my mouth shut as they returned to their planned interview structure. Swan focused most of his questions on Loid and Yor, which tracked given our knowledge of his failed marriage. He barely gave a thought to me, but clearly resented the shit out of anyone in a happy marriage.
Ironically, he'd probably be less irritated if he found out it was a sham marriage, but he'd be even more delighted to give us the boot.
They sparred for a bit. Swan actually got personal enough that Henderson chided him for being uncouth, and Evan's smile briefly flickered. That cheered me up a bit, as they seemed to use a simple majority system.
Instead of targeting Swan, it might be better, tactically speaking, to target Evans and get his approval. Unfortunately, the man was so goddamn genially noncommittal it was impossible to get a grip on him. Even his thoughts were like air. His mind was like a soufflé being baked. Unformed potential, before solidifying and being expressed.
Henderson continued to approve of our elegance, though. Loid had him in the bag.
Evans finally asked a question. "We would like to hear about Anya from the perspective of her parents. What do you think her strengths and weaknesses are?"
Loid smiled. "Strengths? How should I list them? She's extremely intelligent, and it shows. She reads voraciously, sometimes finishing multiple books a day. Her memory for what she reads is excellent. She thinks logically, and she pays attention to everything around her. It is, in fact, nearly impossible to keep secrets from her, because she notices the smallest things and then quickly extrapolates shockingly accurate conclusions from the data."
Heh.
"She's empathetic, quickly picking up on other people's moods, but she's also kind, and shows a wisdom that seems beyond her years."
Lol.
"She's so intuitive, it's almost like she's reading your mind."
Lmao.
"But she does have her weaknesses. Her approach to reading material is rather scattershot, picking up whatever catches her interest at the time and following those paths of inquiry, rather than a more consistent, regimented approach to study. She has in depth knowledge of topics you wouldn't expect, but has missed other, more basic subjects most people take for granted. I confess, that's mostly my fault as her father, since I've encouraged her curiosity more than I've given her set lessons."
Yes, yes. As we talked about. I had to come up with something to explain how I can do algebra but I didn't know what Bizzaro Italy was called.
"She's also spent more time studying advanced topics than playing with other children her age, so her interpersonal skills are somewhat lacking. In particular, she's uncomfortable in crowds and prefers smaller, quieter groups."
"Her exam score was exemplary-"
Oh nice!
Housemaster Evans noted, "but there are some concerns."
"She made several spelling mistakes," Housemaster Swan interjected.
So?
"And her handwriting isn't very elegant," Housemaster Henderson added, "but her score was the highest of this year's applicants. She actually got every question correct, but points were deducted for, as my colleague stated, spelling."
Oh, it was spelling that cost me a perfect score. I thought I'd actually missed something. I feel better now. There's no reason for a grown ass person to get less than a perfect score on an entrance exam to an elementary school, no matter how exclusive. But if it was just spelling, in a bizarre-funhouse-carnival version of a foreign country you ended up in after you died, in a language you've yet to master, I suppose it's okay to not be too down on myself.
"You see, Mister Forger, the entrance exam here at Eden isn't just to see if students have the necessary aptitudes to succeed in our school, it's also how we determine a student's academic strengths and weaknesses, to see if extra tutoring is necessary, or perhaps arrange for advanced studies," Evans continued. "In short, the entrance exam is also a placement exam. Many of the questions are easy, the sort of thing which any reasonably prepared child should be comfortable with. But there are a series of questions in each category which rapidly ramps up the difficulty, to see where their knowledge stops." He paused. "Young Anya got every single question correct."
Oh. I see where they're going. You know, I think this may actually be the first time I've ever been accused of cheating. Because-
Henderson continued. "While there have been other students in the Academy's past who have done as well, including several perfect scores, all of those students were already known to have demonstrated genius potential. Some had been noticed internationally. Several had scientific papers written about them, following their development and their savant level skills." He paused and slightly adjusted his monocle. "Anya was a total surprise."
"In short, we suspect that cheating may be involved," Swan said rudely.
Oh. Huh.
You know, technically, we did cheat?
Shit, I actually overlooked that. Like, I've never knowingly cheated before in my life. Not out of any particular academic integrity, more that, in the tiny schools I grew up in, I was the guy to cheat off of. Not the cheater.
The closest I ever came was one particularly memorable bit in a science class, my best subject, in eighth grade. I'd made a mistake when marking off the vocabulary words, and put the dividing line one word short of the whole assignment. The word was 'sepal' the bit of the plant at the base of a flower. Through some series of coincidences where I just never noticed the word, the test rolled around and I had no idea what the answer to the question was. My puzzlement actually caught the attention of a girl sitting beside me, who quietly told me the answer was 'sepal'.
But I didn't write it down, because not only did I not know what a sepal was, it didn't even ring a bell in ANY of the words I knew. So, because I was so confused, I left the question blank and missed it.
Only later did it even occur to me that it had been an opportunity to cheat.
Same situation here. Yes, we had the test, and I studied it, but I was still hung up on the fact I'd technically passed it before cheating, therefore I wasn't a cheat.
But I was.
Huh.
Neat.
Meanwhile, Loid got mad. Yor got mad, too. I'd actually missed most of the argument because I was puzzling out the whole 'cheating' bit.
"-our home library. We may not have the means some families enjoy, but I arrange for her to have access to as many books as possible, and she also trades in many of her old ones. I understand that Eden's entrance exam is one of the most rigorous for most children, but I've watched Anya fill out crossword puzzles in The FAS as fast as she could write. She doesn't quite meet the definition of a photographic memory, but she rarely forgets," Loid said, and paused to breathe. "More to the point, Anya is extremely excited by the prospect of going to Eden Academy. The education here is the best. What other school could provide an education that could challenge a student that learns at a glimpse? And she hopes, and more particularly, our hope as parents, is that at Eden she will finally find peers to make friends with. Anya has nearly nothing in common with average children her age. She has no friends, and little in the way of social skills, because her intelligence and maturity set her apart. At least at Eden there is a good chance she will find someone that can keep up with her."
"Humph. If she is as advanced as you say, why has she gone unnoticed until now? You might not know this, but Eden Academy works with the Vivante Klinik and other institutions to identify prodigies as they appear, and invites them to apply to the academy."
He paused.
"At least, you should know that, as a doctor at the Vivante Klinik Berlint. Why are there no papers on her abilities? She could be the next Gramm, or Schulze, both of whom were immediately invited to attend Eden on their discovery."
Oooh. I did not think of that. Yeah, if I'd been born to a normal family, there's a good chance I'd have ended up the subject of a study or something by now. If it wasn't for the whole orphan thing, and now the spy thing, I would have tried to stand out to the point of like, getting in college by the age of ten or something. I am really not looking forward to the monotony of having to do normal school stuff.
Like, it's fun to excel easily. Very satisfying. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to get tired of sitting in a class all day for the next twelve years or so.
And given he's supposedly a clinical psychologist, he should have put me forward as a research subject. I am anomalously advanced for a six year old. They'd shit if they found out I was even younger. Honestly, I think I'm around five, maybe even a very late four. My original birthday was July 12th 1980, and I have this totally unfounded but persistent suspicion my birthday is the same. I will admit I'm too big to be a normal sized four year old, but I am short for six.
"Because I never published them. Anya is my daughter, and although I may not have the perfect skillset to research the speed of her development, I'm certainly capable of monitoring her progress and performing cognitive tests," Loid lied directly.
Papa's quick on the ball, I tell you what.
There was a brief stalemate, Loid's confident gaze brazenly challenging the thickset house master.
I decided to jump in.
"Sirs, to be clear, am I being accused of somehow cheating on the test?" I asked.
Henry Henderson was the one to answer me.
"There are some concerns held by some of my colleagues, not just Mister Swan, although I must stress that there is no formal accusation."
"Yet," Swan added.
"How?" I asked.
"I beg your pardon?" Henry asked.
Then beg.
Shit! I almost said that aloud.
I took a moment to recover from the burst of panic. Being a saucy little memelord would not help me here.
"Sir, I mean, how? How would I cheat? I don't understand."
The two of them shared a look.
I continued. "I couldn't very well get answers from the students near me. They didn't know the answers, correct? And that's the only way of cheating I know about. I will confess I knew the answers ahead of time-"
Swan sat up straighter but it was Henderson who sported a tiny quirk of his lips. I'm pretty sure he knows where I'm going with this.
"-since I had read them in books. And Father and Mother taught me as well. But I'm pretty sure that's just studying."
Swan frowned. He and Henderson glanced at each other again. "But how did you know what questions to study for?"
"I didn't?" I lied. "I just learned as much as I could and hoped the test questions were things I knew. I know many things that weren't on the test, but all knowledge is worth knowing, even if it's not immediately useful."
There was another pause. Both were thinking about the copy of the test that went around for the most powerful to prepare their children, but neither wanted to be the one to bring it up. Interestingly, Henry thought it was just a rumor. He also didn't think I cheated, thanks to the incident with the cow somehow? Weird. But even Swan was getting doubtful.
Papa spoke up. "Isn't there a simple solution to this? Just give her another test. She'll pass it, I guarantee."
Probably not with a 100 or a 99, but yeah. I'll pass it.
"In fact," Father was adding, "why don't you just ask her some questions right here and now? If she has particular trouble, perhaps a full test may be warranted, but she won't have trouble." He got louder. "In fact, I'm so confident in my daughter, the genius, that I will place a bet. Test her knowledge on things she wouldn't know to have studied for, but could have appeared on the entrance exam. If her genius is still in doubt, I will voluntarily withdraw her application to Eden Academy. She may not know the answer to every question, but there will be no question that she wouldn't need to cheat to pass the exam."
What the fuck Dad? Placing the whole mission on a bet?! What if I fail?! I mean, I know he sincerely believes I'm a genius prodigy savant, but shit man, that's a hell of a risk!
"There's no need to go that far," Henry Henderson replied in protest. "Don't wager your child's future on a foolish bet."
Loid gave him a level gaze, his thoughts full of confidence. "A bet is when an outcome is in doubt. My daughter will not fail."
Damn. The dude genuinely believes I won't let him down here. It's both empowering and humbling.
"A bet is a bet," Swan replied, sticking out his hand to Loid, who shook it.
Henry shook his head in disapproval, and had to stop and reseat his monocle. "So what kind of questions should we ask," he mused. "Obviously, there will be subjects she doesn't know. We merely want to challenge her in the same way as the placement exam.
"That's exactly what I mean," Loid agreed. "As for a subject? She's got the makings of a young polymath. Ask her anything, right off the top of your head. She'll know the answer."
…Rofl.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that Loid doesn't know I'm telepathic.
Any nervousness I had at Loid betting the farm disappeared, replaced by the smuggest grin.
Henderson's eyebrow rose. "Confident, are you?"
"Absolutely. Tests are fun," I replied. And I'm not lying. Tests are fun. Learning is easy.
I was accepted, with a small scholarship, to MIT in my first life. Didn't go, because I wasn't smart enough for a full ride scholarship, and my family didn't have the money for that kind of expense. And looking back on it, and my performance in the college I did go to, I absolutely would have had shit grades or even actually failed if I HAD went to MIT. At least I can still brag and say I was accepted.
Like a lot of 'gifted' students, nothing in grade school required any effort to excel in, but in college level classes that even smart people have to actually put in some effort studying, I kinda got fucked. I didn't know how to study, because I'd never learned. However, in my late twenties I went back to college for two years. Armed with an actual adult's discipline, I was the top in my classes. Even in math, which has always been my worst subject.
Just to be clear, I'm not claiming to be a genius. I'm not. I'm merely reasonably well educated and my interests and professional career have continually refreshed my basic knowledge. Seriously, though. While the hardest questions on the entrance exam were ludicrously advanced for a six year old, they're still just middle school level questions. Any reasonably intelligent adult should be able to handle them. And I am making mistakes. I'm just in the fairly unique position to cover up those mistakes by telepathically grabbing the correct answer.
"That is the kind of attitude we like to see in our students," Henry said approvingly.
I gave him a bright smile.
Murdoch Swan, though, came out of the corner swinging. "Why is the sky blue?"
"Short answer? Rahlait scattering and a lack of violet receptor cells in our eyes." Almost got tripped up with that one. I nearly answered 'Raleigh' scattering. The name of the scientist was different in this world, but fortunately everyone (But Yor, poor Yor.) immediately thought of the local guy.
They weren't expecting the bit about the receptor cells, though.
"What do you mean, 'violet receptor cells'?" Murdoch asked.
"Rahlait scattering is the phenomenon where light is scattered by particles smaller than the wavelength of the radiation, correct? And the atmosphere scatters the smaller wavelengths first. Human eyes have three kinds of color receptors, corresponding roughly to yellow-green, green, and blue light, although the absorption properties of the rest of the eye broaden our overall receptive range, so we effectively see from red to violet. However, the S cones responsible for the smaller wavelengths in the blue range are the rarest cells in the eye, meaning their sensitivity is the lowest, and they still have hard limits on the lowest bound of color they can react to." I paused to take a breath and order my thoughts. I started to go into animal use of ultraviolet wavelengths in vision, but decided to be more concise.
"As ultraviolet has even shorter wavelengths than blue, it's scattered even more than blue, down to the limits of Rahlait scattering in our atmosphere. That scattered light is what we see when there's little else for the light to bounce off in a clear atmosphere. So in actuality, the sky is violet, even ultraviolet, we just can't see it. The best approximation our eyes can tell us is the closest match, blue."
"Well said, and included some information that I didn't know," Walter Evans praised.
Murdoch grumbled internally about needing to verify that, but even in his own head it wasn't voiced. Man, what is that guy's problem?
"Elegantly stated," Henry added. "I can see I'll have to pick something obscure if I'm going to stump you." He paused, thinking, then asked a question I shouldn't know, but most of us do. "What is the Latin word for 'go'?"
"Eo, sir," I replied promptly, messing up the pronunciation a bit because I had to choke a laugh.
"Conjugate it."
I couldn't help it and started giggling.
"What's so funny, girl?" Swan asked indignantly.
I was still giggling. What Monty Python fan wouldn't remember the famous Latin lesson in Life of Brian? I just hoped I wasn't going to have to write it out a hundred times. I'd already lost my balls, after all.
After a few moments, I was able to recover and answer them. "Ah, sorry about that, Sirs. The truth is I've barely touched Latin at all. I will not be able to answer many questions about it correctly, but I was giggling because you picked one of the few things I did know. It's funny, because the pure coincidence would actually make me seem more educated than I actually am."
The adults present did generally agree that it was a little amusing. At Henry's prodding, I did list out the conjugations in the order he thought of them. Truthfully, I'd have missed a number of them, since Monty Python only covered ire, isit, itis, imus, eunt, i, and ite, and Henry also wanted ibam, ibas, ibat, ibo, ibis, ibit, and such. There were actually like fucking twenty words, and that sobered me up pretty fast.
Oh Jesus. I was going to have to actually learn Latin. Like, all of it, not just the funny insults and curses. That was going to suck.
Henry was satisfied with my knowledge of eo, but curious about my professed weaknesses with Latin. "And if I had asked about 'curro' instead?"
I winced a little. "Uh, curris, currit, curram… curr…" I shook my head. The words were available for me to grab out of his head, but I'd already admitted I didn't know shit for Latin. "Sorry, sir. That's all I can remember."
"A noteworthy effort, despite that. I hope you will give the same effort in Latin as you have everything else," Henry both praised and chided. "After all, a truly literate person is not just fluent in Ostanian, but Frankish, Anglais, Latin, and Aramaic."
Aramaic was apparently this world's version of Hebrew, which must have been the result of some truly different historical events.
"Yes, Sir. And I look forward to learning them. It's a terrible thing that so many of the books at the library are unavailable to me." I paused. "Oh! I have managed to learn Anglais," I added in English. "I just haven't had time to get to the others yet."
"She's fluent in Anglais?" Evans asked, turning to Loid.
Loid smiled paternally. "She learned to read so fast I started writing things I wanted to keep secret in Anglais. Notes about birthday gifts and so on." He shrugged, both helpless and proud. "Secrets don't last around Anya."
"Hmm, that might actually explain something, now that I think of it," Henry mused, still in english.
"How so, Sir?" I asked. Apparently we were just straight up speaking english now.
"I noticed that all of your spelling mistakes were the same. An 'I' before an 'E' in words where that shouldn't have been the case."
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "May I see my test, Sir?"
My test was quickly removed from the folder and laid flat on the table between us. Everyone craned their heads to look as Henry pointed out the three mistakes. Two of the same word, one of another. "Ah, I do see my mistakes," I admitted, still in english. "Yes, Sir. I've been learning to spell Anglais words over the past year or so, and there is the rule in Anglais that you put the 'I' before the 'e', except in such a large number of exceptions I honestly wonder why they decided it was a rule at all."
"Can you name some exceptions, then?" Henry asked.
"Yes, Sir," I replied. "Eight, weight, abseil, caffeine, zeitgeist, feisty, atheist, reign, foreign, heinous, gneiss, vein, heist, neighbor, leisure, weird, fanciest, inveigled, forfeit-" I trailed off as Henry made a negation gesture with his hand. "Are you sure? There's quite a few more," I offered. I wasn't even reading their minds. "Rules and Anglais don't exactly go well together, but most of the exceptions do come from either older Anglais, or have been stolen from other languages, so you could use that definition for an exception list. The problem is that there are so very many words in Anglais stolen from other languages it would probably be easier to memorize a list of words that aren't. After all, Anglais has been described as a stack of other languages in a trenchcoat, pretending to be one subject." I shook my head. "It really makes me appreciate our language even more. Anglais is terribly untidy."
The four men, even Swan, chuckled a little at that. Loid's chuckle was less about the shitshow of english and more a smug 'I'm totally winning this bet' chuckle.
"Perhaps one more question?" Evans mused aloud, reverting to 'Ostanian'. "Although Mister Forger's confidence in his daughter has clearly been validated." He turned to me and smiled in that genial, sanded smooth way of his. "Although I merely want your opinion more than anything. What is your favorite of the sermons of Saint Bonifact?"
URK!
I'd seen the dude mentioned a few times as the patron saint of Ostania. He was heavily associated with both faith and learning, which, you know, great and all-
-but I hadn't actually read any of his writings!
And fucking Walter Evans and his god damned silent mental voice was screwing me over here. Henry wasn't giving me anything actionable in his mental musings, either, and was simply curious about what I'd pick.
Murdoch Swan, on the other hand, was switching from grumbling acceptance to inner glee, as I took longer and longer to reply, and it was growing clear that I didn't have an answer.
They had me cornered. Neither past life knowledge, current life efforts, nor telepathy were getting me out of this one. I wasn't religious, and didn't go to church. More to the point, I did not want to go to church.
"I…'m sorry, Sirs, but I have not read any of the works of Saint Bonifact in any detail. I cannot give you an honest opinion."
Evans frowned just a little. Henry simply accepted it.
Murdoch found an angle. "Ah, so religious works are not a priority in the Forger house? All too common, these days." He turned. "Eden Academy is officially non-denominational. No specific faith is put before others. We do, however, discuss various beliefs and practices. I hope that's not going to be a problem?"
"No, of course not," Loid replied, carefully not growling in anger. "We encourage education in all of its forms, and Anya is learning many subjects. As you've noted, she is only six years old. At Eden Academy, she will surely find the time to cover any areas she is weak in."
Evans's little smile was back. He accepted that answer, and looked forward to educating me. In both he and Henderson's minds, I was already accepted, and they anticipated that I would soon be a star student.
Murdoch mentally acknowledged that, too. It was quite literally pure spite that kept him pushing.
"I suppose the loss of a wife and mother might cause a certain… crisis of faith," the bastard insinuated. "And perhaps a preoccupation with more worldly matters with a new woman."
Loid's eyes tightened. Fortunately, Yor didn't really get the insinuation.
"MAS-ter Swan, that is highly inappropriate," Henderson chided angrily. Like, actually indignant on our behalf.
"Really, Master Swan, that is completely outside our current topic," Evans said in protest.
"Ah, my apologies," Swan lied, backing down hard now that both of them were against him. "Young Anya is clearly no cheat. However, we've barely talked to her mother at all. I'm merely doing due diligence. It would be terrible if we failed to address the deficiencies in her existing knowledge. For such an advanced student who's gotten her education from home so far, I'm merely curious what her new mother's role in her education is?"
"Mother teaches health and exercise," I countered confidently. We'd covered this in our preparation.
Yor may not have completely understood everything that we had been talking about, but she had certainly been paying attention, and knew when to step in.
"Loid loves his daughter very much," Yor began. "And, being rather intellectual himself, has managed a simply amazing job instilling a love of learning into Anya. However, while he is a surprisingly excellent cook, and stepped up to handle the domestic duties of the house when it was just he and Anya, he tends to make too many rich dishes. Proper nutrition is necessary for good growth, but we certainly do not wish to overfeed Anya. Also, both of them were more inclined to curl up with a book than to play catch. Anya needs a healthy body as well as a healthy mind."
Murdoch was taken aback. "Oh? So you make sure she gets healthy food, correct?" He turned to me, obviously sensing weakness. "So, Anya, what is your favorite food that your new mother cooks?"
"Turnip greens," I said promptly. "Before Mother came along, I didn't know how nice greens could be. Now I love trying everything, especially things I've never had before. How will I know if I like them or not if I never try them?"
That was a winner with Evans and Henderson.
"And what kind of exercising do you do to keep such a trim figure?" Murdoch continued, still trying to portray Yor as some sort of shallow floozy, or something. It was going over about as well as a fart in an orchestra, but he kept pushing.
"Mother is teaching me ballet!" I cheered proudly.
That perked both the other teachers up nicely, and even Murdoch seemed taken aback.
Yor acted a little bit demure. "Although I never had any professional ambitions, since I chose to focus on my career in government administration, I performed ballet quite a bit all the way through university."
Yor had a college degree. And not just in murder. Wild.
"Show them your Grand Adage, Mother!" I added enthusiastically. "And a Grand Jete!"
Yor tried to decline, but Murdoch still hunted for a failure, and both Henderson and Evans were intrigued by the possibility of ballet. Loid also liked the idea, since she'd performed a bit for us already. Although she protested a lack of proper shoes and space to perform, Yor did graciously agree to put on a brief display.
Remember how I said her legs were like pythons wrestling in tights? When she leapt into the air she practically exploded off the floor, high enough with legs outstretched that I could have walked under her with my hands all the way up. And her poise, balance, and control when she stood on the toes of one foot and showed off the moves of a Grand Adage were quite literally worthy of being a prima ballerina. Henderson was moved nearly to tears at the display of elegance and skill.
"I want to be as smart as Father and as skilled as Mother," I announced boldly. "I understand Eden has a number of physical disciplines available, and I can't wait to try out for ballet."
"I'm sure you'll do wonderfully," Evans announced with a smile. He glanced at his notebook, then back to me. "And in the spirit of completion, there's one more common question that we have yet to ask. We've heard answers from your Father, and your Mother, but now I ask you. Why do you want to attend Eden Academy?"
"The simple answer is, Eden Academy is the best," I replied. "But I say that with perhaps a different emphasis than others you might talk to. I understand that Eden is the school for the elite, the wealthy, the powerful, the influential. There are social reasons for the wealthy and powerful to send their children here, a boost in reputation or refinement to say their children attend Eden. For most children, they want what they've been conditioned to want. To be seen as elite, better than everyone else. And while I acknowledge the reality and the importance of those reasons, I want to be clear."
I stood up from my chair, acutely aware that every eye was upon me.
"Their reasons are not my reasons." I gave them my best steely look, my eyes alight with passion and my hands clenched into fists.
"I want to learn."
I paused, letting them take me in.
"If you allow me to attend this school, I will make the most of it. I want to learn music. I want to learn art. I want to learn Frankish, and Latin, and Aramaic, and other languages as well. I want to learn math. I want to learn ballet. I don't want just any education, I want the best education. Teachers that are experts. Curriculums that ensure I don't miss entire categories of knowledge. A school full of the opportunities to learn things I cannot learn elsewhere. It's said there are more than sixteen thousand books in the Eden Academy library. If I'm only going to be here twelve years, that's about four books a day I need to read if I want to read them all. But I don't want to just read the books. I want to learn the things that I don't even know enough about to know how to learn them. In short, I want everything Eden Academy has." I paused, breathing heavily before I continued.
"Father tells me I also need to learn about people. Peers, rivals, friends, all the stuff I genuinely cannot learn by myself. I don't know about that kind of thing yet. Every other child I've met just seems slow. I relate to adults better. But if Eden Academy has students I can really talk to? Students more advanced, or even smarter than people keep telling me I am?" I shook my head. "That would be wonderful. I want to find students like that, and learn from them, too."
Loid and Yor looked proud. The two headmasters who weren't assholes looked sort of genially tolerant, with a tinge of being impressed. Swan just looked sort of resigned, and a bit rueful. Even in his head he'd given up on fucking with us.
The three briefly conferred before coming to a conclusion.
Swan stood and offered his hand to Loid in a show of respect I honestly wasn't expecting. "I withdraw any of my misgivings, Mister Forger. There will be no accusations of cheating. Congratulations on your very well prepared daughter."
Loid was gracious in his acceptance.
Evans gave us the official results. "Although we generally keep the results a secret until the formal announcement, there's no point in being coy here. Welcome to Eden Academy, Anya Forger. We expect you to be one of our brightest stars."
Henry harrumphed and got our attention afterwards. "Students at Eden are given the opportunity to join our elite group of particularly gifted students, the Imperial Scholars. As you probably know, achievements in learning, service, or other noteworthy ways are rewarded with Stella Stars. Getting at least eight stars automatically inducts you into the Imperial Scholars."
Hmm?
"Ordinarily, the elegant way you handled the stampede of animals would be worthy of a Stella, but I'm afraid we can't give you one, as you're not actually a student here, yet."
Dang, but oh well.
"However," and it might be my imagination, but I think light glinted off his monocle, "a lesser known tradition is the award of a Stella Star upon perfect completion of the entrance exam." He held up a long boney finger with immaculate manicuring. "That's a perfect completion, not merely the highest score of the year. Normally, that means a score of one hundred, which Anya did not quite achieve. But, given our failure to reward her for saving our guests, but also being both intelligent and gentle with our animals, and the fact that she did technically get every question correct…" He smiled at us. "I will be putting Anya in for a Stella the moment she officially starts the academy."
"And I will second it," Evans added.
Swan sighed. "And I third."
"I look forward to seeing you in autumn," Henry concluded.
x
x
x
x
x
AN: The patreon is being shut down! I am pleased to report that I've finally lined up a new job which I will be starting at the end of the month. Thanks to all my supporters, I have survived this jobless period. Couldn't have done it without you. Everyone who is currently a patreon supporter will get moved to a mailing list and continue to have early access and special request rights, but no longer pay for it. Yay!
Also, a heads up about Ice Pie. I'm taking a little break from it and working on No Promises, as requested by a number of supporters.
Oh No! Loid didn't save that poor teacher from that Mosquito this time around! what will we ever do if he happens to get Malaria and die!
I really dug this chapter here, having Evans here be actually against the Forgers initially is kinda interesting, as he was kinda a non-entity in the initial interview, but to have him aware of the corruption behind the initiation test is a nice angle, as well as having him be against cheating.
Howard was still a huge shit, but having him legitimately back off after getting schooled so thoroughly is still kinda nice.
Also really nice having Loid being so legitimately proud of Anya. Real sweet of him to have so much confidence in her for this.
This is actually really good.
I can't wait to see Anya's reactions to some of the anime nonsense that takes place later on. Like the most recent episode that aired.
This is actually really good.
I can't wait to see Anya's reactions to some of the anime nonsense that takes place later on. Like the most recent episode that aired.
What happened in the recent episode? I'm not watching the anime, I've only read the manga. Spoiler it for me, if you would.
For some reason over the last several years, I can't watch things anymore, only read. When I sit down to watch something longer than a few minute youtube clip, I get antsy and distracted and have to stop it. I don't have ADHD, used to be able to marathon things, and generally loved movies. But these days it takes a week of a few minute at a time sessions to watch a single episode. I just can't focus. On the other hand, I can still sit down and read all day.
