• Solo • Flesh, Bones, and Dust

[Malcolm]

110 Ashan 716

Malcolm looked up from his book at the class of students sat in front of him. The youngest looked about seventeen arcs old, while the oldest must have been almost three times that age. Not only was the captain a teacher of history, a subject that inspired many a tale, but of the finer arts too, languages and deciphering old scriptures, of which his current class were all beginners in learning. Draketh was the language they had been discussing today, something nicknamed around Idalos as serpentongue, an ancient language spoken by the first men of Rynmere, said to have been passed onto them long ago when man and dragon had once been one of mind.
Today there were very few who spoke the language and even less who could read it, a right only afforded to members of The Iron Hand, royals, and men of honourable houses or trades. Local merchants often used Draketh when trading in Rynmere, though the knowledge could only be considered slang with no real concept of the technicalities and beauty of the language. Sitting with the class in front of him, Malcolm was struggling with where to start and so opted to find out what his students knew about the language already.
He took a piece of chalk and got up from his desk to stand in front of the class. “All right you’ve had a few bits to look at the short passage I’ve given you, can anyone tell me what it says?” The captain looked over the sea of faces and with not a hand raised in sight, knew he had no experts in the class. “Perhaps then you can tell me what you think it might say?” He followed up his last question with a second that gained him a response that was much the same.
Someone, a young woman, mumbled from the back of the room. “I can’t understand any of this really, but I think one of the words might be bone, and many of the words appear to be repeated which has led me to believe the phrase is a very famous one I hear the knights say all the time.”
“And that is?” Malcolm encouraged, offering a warm smile.
“I am flesh, I am bone, I am dust,” the woman looked hopeful, folding the long, narrow piece of paper up in her hand.
“Correct,” the man agreed, “Well done,” he turned and wrote the quote up on the blackboard in common and then again in Draketh. “You know what these words mean, write them down, master them, look for familiar patterns in the text I have assigned for you all to take home, write down lots of questions and we will continue this during our next session.”

Malcolm sat down at his desk and watched the class pack away their books and slowly start making their way out of the room. Two or three of the students came down to the front of the lecture hall to ask more questions and the knight did his best to answer them, writing down any he would need to look into.

[Malcolm]

The students that had made their way down to Malcolm's desk were a few regulars from his history class, waiting to hear back on the outcomes of their essays and the assignment he had set last season for each of them to write to an expert historian from one of the far corners of Idalos and find out what they knew about particular events in Rynmere's history. The captain looked at the stack of essays and correspondence letters on the right side of his desk and frowned, he had completely forgotten about them. "Almost finished with them," he lied, "you can expect your results sometime in the next few trials." Fantastic, the man thought to himself, he was going to have to spend a few long nights grading those.
"I had a question regarding Draketh," a young man Malcolm knew only as 'Ray' spoke up, "The First Shields were from western Idalos, right?"
"Correct," Malcolm agreed.
"Was Draketh a language they brought with them or was it created by the Ryns themselves?"
"That's a really good question," the captain smiled and leaned forwards in his chair, clearly enthused by the subject. "Historians still debate whether or not the first settlers of Rynmere spoke Draketh or not. The scrolls and parchments that have been found in Valaris where the First Shields were said to have originated, don't hold any proof that Draketh was spoken during that timeframe, but etchings and stone carvings discovered most recently within the last twenty arcs or so do highlight the use of the language."
The young man smiled and scribbled a few notes into his book. "Does this prove anything?"
"Not exactly," Malcolm straightened up in his chair, "some think the language was taking back to the city of Valaris from Rynmere and taught there, but never really took off."
"Do you think the dragon really existed?"
"Rynmere?" The captain asked for clarification.
"Right," Ray nodded.
Malcolm leaned back and hummed. "Hmm, I like to think that it's possible, but these are just myths."
"Wasn't Draketh invented by the first knights of Rynmere to be used as a secret language,?" A woman piped up.
"Thats what a lot of the books will tell you," Malcolm stated.
"But you don't agree?" She said with raised brow.
"I have my theories," the knight smiled. "For now though, I'm going to have to bid you all a good evening and get cracking on the remainder of these essays I have to look through." Malcolm was careful to make it seem as if they were almost done and pulled the pile close, pretending to go through them as if looking for the paper he had last marked.

The students left, and bewildered by the task set ahead of him, the mortalborn tried to summon the strength he knew it was going to take in order for him to work his way though all forty eight of the essays he had neglected up until this point. With a sigh he took the first one and scanned the first few sentences, already regretting the couple of late nights he had experienced recently. "This will be interesting..."

[Malcolm]

Malcolm sat at the living room table at home, burning the midnight oil. In the last eight breaks he had managed to get through just under half of the essays, putting him around the twentieth mark. His eyes were starting to close of their own accord, betraying his determination to get everything done. Soon he came across the essay he had provided advice for the season before to a girl from Gawyne who had decided to write to him, choosing the man as her history expert. The knight smiled as he read through the letters that had gone back and forth between them and checked over the essay for what kind of content had made it into the young woman's assignment. I wasn't the most well written report, but the woman had managed to include everything they had spoken about and there was something endearing about the way she referred to him as an expert.
The knight's facial features softened, and reenergised by the essay, he managed to mark another four or five before it was time to call it a night. The next morning he managed to wake by the sixth break and had at least two more breaks before it would be time for his next class. After a cup a tea and something to line his belly, Malcolm took the pile of essays with him and headed towards The Crown in order to make his way to the university. Once there he set to work with the last ninety bits he had remaining before the students would start coming in through the doors at the back of the lecture hall, and discovered that two of his students had written to the same expert, finding that each and every word of correspondence was almost identical, both by the two students and the replies they had received.
Plagiarism, Malcolm was disappointed to see it taking place in his class but thought it inappropriate to confront the students just yet in case there was more further down in the pile. He looked at the two documents, comparing the notes, they had gone to some effort to try and keep it from looking too obvious and their essays were slightly different but the copied letter had been held up to the light and traced poorly. The captain took note of the name of the professor the pair had decided to get in contact with and recognised him as someone from Viden University. It wouldn't take him long to get a letter to the city and inform the professor about what had taken place, or to find out if more than one student had contacted him.
Putting ink to page, Malcolm recorded his concerns after addressing the expert professionally. The captain made note of exactly what he had uncovered and inquired about the best course of action. He was inclined to punish them both but curious to see how the other professor would handle it. Technically one of them had gone to the trouble of doing the work while the had merely repeated it, but if he didn't set a harsh example, this might not be the last case he might run into. Annoyed, the knight sighed and signed his name, folding the letter after blowing the ink dry; he still had time to get it sent off before the class started and could expect a reply by the end of the season when the marks were due to be returned to his students.

[Pegasus]

Malcolm

Points!:

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 0/ 5 (solo thread)
Structure: 5/ 5

Knowledge:

Draketh: An ancient language
Draketh: Also nicknamed 'serpentongue'
Draketh: Spoken by the first men of Rynmere
Draketh: Passed on to men when man and dragon had been united.
Draketh: Very few speak it, even less read it
Draketh: Usually, reading this is restricted to The Iron Hand, royals, and men of honourable houses or trades.
Draketh: Often used by merchants when trading, but usually not very accurately.
Draketh: Historians debate whether the first men spoke it or not
Draketh: Some think it was made up as a secret language by the first knights of Rynmere
"I am flesh, I am bone, I am dust"
Teaching: Questioning technique: Start with a basic question, move to more complex notions.
Teaching: Questioning technique: Use follow up questions to encourage students
Teaching: Setting homework: Make them think about things
Teaching: Never let on that you've forgotten to grade their papers!
Teaching: There's something very rewarding about them doing their best, especially when you've helped.
Teaching: A little bit of praise goes a long way.
Teaching: Plagiarism feels personally disappointing.
Deception: Making it appear like you've nearly finished.
Endurance: Mental fatigue is exhausting.
Endurance: Emotion can rejuvinate the tired mind

Loot:

NA

Fame:

+1 (good deed in helping the girl with her essay)

Overview:

General comments. I really enjoyed this thread - I know that job threads can feel like a chore to start, but this was a lovely snapshot into Malcolm's work. It helps that I'm a teacher, so I recognised a lot of those situations ~ and I've certainly had to burn the midnight oil to finish marking work! A nice thread and a window into Malcolm's teaching style.
Story All good - a well written and cohesive story that flowed from beginning to end.
Structure All good!

Please do PM me if you've got any questions