krait: Ilisidi riding her mecheita (Foreigner - mecheita)
[personal profile] krait
This is the discussion post for chapter 9-13.

I am now heartily wishing that I'd looked at chapter content as well as at page-counts, when setting up the reading schedule! (I thought even then it might bite me, and it has!) This reading was composed of a hundred pounds of action, a hundred pounds of disconnected info-bites, a thousand pounds of questions, and half a gram of explanations! My brain was churning faster than Babsidi's legs, but reached even fewer coherent thoughts than Bren manages.


On the other hand: yay, mecheiti icon becomes more appropriate than ever! :D

with my own mecheita icon...

Date: 2011-06-20 11:06 pm (UTC)
cheyinka: An ateva riding a mecheita through the snow. (atevi)
From: [personal profile] cheyinka
So, we have the chapters where Bren following his instincts is a bad plan. He really should have sent Djinana for Banichi or Jago, though Djinana would have been unable to find them, probably, and Cenedi undoubtedly realized already that Bren wouldn't send for them - he didn't make a fuss about breakfast or going on a ride or anything like that, after all!

And then he muses that he likes Ilisidi. Bad Bren! No cookie (alkaloid-free or not) for you!

Huh. They do hunt on Mospheira, and Bren's been - though from the mention of "small game, very small", I get the impression of small-bore rifle, which is a very different thing from a pistol that'll stop a human or atevi.

Cenedi gives Bren a reason not to expect Banichi or Jago to come running, and Bren buys it right away. Sigh.

And the letter from Tabini! "If it was you behind the assassination in his bedroom, here's a chance to do it or not do it." Ugh. On the other hand, this proves that the attempt in Bren's apartment wasn't a setup on Tabini's part to see which way Bren would jump. Maybe.

It also proves that it's Tabini's doing that keeps Bren's guards away much more than they should be and more than they'll ever be in later books - he's trying to see what Ilisidi will do, just like Banichi gave Cenedi a chance to kill him.

And then the interrogation. It's interesting that Mospheira wants paidhiin to commit suicide. Here's another reason to send Bren away prior to attacking Mospheira: to provide the reason to do so. (Not that Tabini was doing that, mind you; but Bren should have been much more afraid of the television interview at the time than he was.)

Interesting that Bren yells for Banichi and Tano, not Banichi and Jago. Is he yelling for the leaders of the guard pairs?

Okay, so Tabini took Bren shooting before this crisis was known, so that wasn't a specific warning.

I was wondering whether an ateva would protect his aiji by lying for him the way Bren lied for Tabini - apparently that's the case, but nobody expected Bren, who doesn't feel man'chi, to do so.

Whew. I'm only at the end of chapter 11 - these chapters move so fast, and are so full of events, that it seems longer already than the "normal" discussion length. Off on mecheiti, again.

How might "taking the obvious course" count as betrayal? Is it fourteen words for betrayal (sigh), or is it betrayal+modifier01, betrayal+modifier02 ... betrayal+modifier14? Why would they not teach the paidhiin at least a felicitous number of words? Is something added or subtracted that previous paidhiin didn't realize was superfluous or missing, since the total didn't feel infelicitous to them?

And then Bren acts like an ateva with man'chi to Banichi - like he's the guard - and runs after him. It's a thing that's totally appropriate for a human commander ("I won't leave any of you behind, men!") but completely inexplicable to an atevi. I really felt Bren's hurt confusion at everyone treating him like a lunatic. :/

Aww, mecheiti screaming and getting put down :(

Re: thoughts and reactions, chapters 9-11

Date: 2011-06-21 01:53 am (UTC)
cheyinka: An ateva riding a mecheita through the snow. (atevi)
From: [personal profile] cheyinka
I was thinking .22LR or .17HMR, because I forget that airguns distinct from airsoft exist, haha. BB gun is equally plausible, for people who aren't me! :D

I like your headcanon on what "taking the obvious course" means. I still think that if there's a combination, the end result is still probably a favorable number, even if that means one of them is essentially meaningless, like "betrayal that doesn't actually harm anyone" or something. :D

Re: thoughts and reactions, chapters 9-11

Date: 2011-06-24 04:48 pm (UTC)
cheyinka: An ateva riding a mecheita through the snow. (atevi)
From: [personal profile] cheyinka
That makes a lot of sense - even if he knows the words as of the latest book, he'd still probably say fourteen to other humans, since they shouldn't know, and I bet he might not even know them then!

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