Awesome start guys! Good for Ed, standing up to Mary like that! She deserved it! >

I played my son's world game (the one he created) once -- as a tiny fairy.  He was completely shocked to watch his Mumsy take out a giant by poking out his eyes with my dagger!    I don't think he's gotten over it to this day.  I do know that he never asks me to play anymore. 

Librarian wrote on Mar 28^th, 2011 at 3:37pm:


*sigh*  It's all too true! (snicker)

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Deb is right on with that! I was expecting a longer story, thinking that you were using the game as a parallel. But the story stands well, just as it is.

Amelia, I agree with your take on Mary and Rutland, I never thought that she was happy with him. Right after John got hit by the car, Mary didn't turn to her husband to do something, she turned to Ed. To me, That was telling.

Granted, it's all subjective, but that's how I saw it.

And saying a story is cute isn't a put down. Have you any idea how hard it is for most people to write cute, warm, and fuzzy?  Angst and high drama is easy compared to warm and fuzzy. Those of us who don’t do cute at all well are green with envy.

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Dying with a bite wound full of poison always was good for the appetite.

I agree.  Lots of great phrases in this short short.  It reads almost like a poem in certain places.

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The assignment called for a short story. Normally I'd explore the issue further. Yeah, the game was parallel and a 'dire situation' the literary theme. Straker says :

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Straker's talking about the divorce, he gave more than enough to her, sacrificed, but tonight he decides to fight back, by deliberately refusing to go along with the Rutlands when it comes down to the comfort of his own son, who is upset by the stepfather appearing in his life, and being told he can't play a game which all his school pals are playing.
Normally I don't go into explanation or what I do in a piece, but I'm trying it out now. So with that, about Mary making a mistake, oh YEAH.
You can see it in Priority. So I made this for soon after she remarried, and she's using Rutland and her son as pawns in a game with Straker. Fail. Straker here is barely concealing his temper to begin with, then she gets even more stupid by threatening to take the visitations away, "I have Phillip" suggesting that Straker can't lord over her now that she has a new guy in her life. Fail. He goes commando on her. He doesn't specify what he'd do to her, but we all know Straker's wrath, and imagination is a powerful thing. 

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Oh yeah,Matt, Denise. I saw it too. Plus Rutland just stood there. What I found even more telling was the scene in the hospital, where he tells Mary something like "We'll see to the boy." I used that revealing omission in one of my stories, don't recall which one. It told me Rutland had no real feelings for Johnny. Fine, it wasn't his real son, but he could have at least used his name. He didn't. I think he may have resented that Johnny was Mary's last bond to Straker in spite of the marriage, and Straker not only is military but strikingly handsome, two well-deserved barbs under Rutland's skin. Straker wouldn't buy into Rutland's crap, the man-to-man, alpha male nonsense. He's far too intelligent for manipulation, but as Matt pointed out, he's human, and gets in some insults directed at Mary and Rutland, intellect capacity of dung  (that was my husband's idea, I loved it  )  It isn't until Mary threatened to take away visitation that Straker explodes, both verbally and by disregard for her personal space, which is a damn powerful thing to use in an argument. Straker would know how to fight strategically in that manner, and saying she'd take his beloved son away was the last straw.

Knowing how to fight to win, know thy enemy that was why Straker knew all about the dire rat's stats. It's possible he interrogated the store owner and bought a book, or maybe he went to a certain website like I did.  There's a store in Berkeley (they run RPG's there too, Deborah) which was my model for the Forbidden Cavern. 

My husband just said Straker's play would be deadly serious. Even in a RPG, he'd need to win, and he'd brief himself on dire rat slaughter. (Not that it was an advantage, a lucky dice roll would be an advantage, with the DM's approval) So being killed off REALLY sucked for the Commander.

There's always empty calories at McDonalds to lift your spirits, Commander Straker. 

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I remember that line well. It was telling. There are quite a few different opinions out there, concerning this episode, and no two seen to be exactly alike. As part of my Soul Mates Saga, I wrote a companion story to this episode, that put Colonel Lake as the person who was delivering the drug from the states. In my story, Virginia witnessed the scene where Johnny has died and Mary tell's Ed the infamous line, "I never want to see you again!" I kept Ginny out of sight to keep in line with the episode. Come to think of it, Rutland looked smug (to me) when Mary turned back to say her final words to Ed. I said this once before, but it took every bit of displine I had to not break canon and let Ginny at her! Boy did she want too!