View source for Sophomore, Second/Third Week, Winter Quarter

Altclair is Naomi's campaign, set at the college of Altclair, which is somewhere in Minnesota, although modeled on the University of Chicago between the years 1987 and 1993. Think Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, GURPS Illuminati IOU, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Other source material (that Naomi's not familiar with) might include Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon and most of Charles de Lint. Players are me (Justin Thorne) and Josh (Michael Conoway). Manny (Jim Gaffney) dropped out, and Beth (Diometra) lives in Chicago, and is only an occasional player.

Naomi moved to Chicago, but I'm a year behind in my write ups, and she hopes to run a few more adventures via phone, email, and visits before I have exhausted my supply of material.

==From the Desk of Justin Thorne:==

===2nd/3rd week, Winter Quarter, Sophomore Year===

Irish Terrorists and Irish Butterflies, as well as the Usual Altclair High Weirdness

It's time to update this journal and expand its scope. I think that I only need to add two items from last quarter.

1. Anactoria collected the larger debt from Michael, keeping him for a week of our time, or seven years of his. While this might technically mean that Michael's eight years older than I am, he says that he prefers to think of himself as a youthful twenty-two, and this is more accurate.

When he came back, I went over to the farm, not sure what kind of reception I'd get. He was glad to see me and told me not to change, which would make sense if he hadn't seen me for seven years, only this wasn't exactly the case. To my surprise, he told me what had happened, in outline, at least.

The first two years he spent with Jennifer--a Jennifer he never left after getting her with child in England. The next two years covered the same time period, but were spent with Delilah, a Delilah he'd never broken up with. The next two years were spent with Sarah in what Michael referred to as "a glorious reign that never ended."

I asked Michael why Anactoria had done this. He said that he asked her himself, three times. She did it because someone who was neither Daniel nor Sarah had asked her to be gentle. (1)

Now, while math is not my best subject, I do still know that 2x3=6, not 7, so I asked about the last year. Michael told me that he'd spent that one with Anactoria, having fun. (2) He doesn't think that she'll take the second favor from him in time, and he doesn't think that she'll want the same thing from me that she wanted from him. (3)

Beth broke it off with Michael almost as soon as he came back, returning his heart by way of Delilah while he was at the Olympic tryouts. (4) While I've always believed that it's better to break something off sooner rather than later, one could wish that she'd timed it differently.

I'm still not clear on how Delilah got from Altclair to Texas. That is, I don't know whether she, Michael, or Ash did the magic. I'd been under the impression that Delilah is not a mage. (5)

2. Sarah is capable of stupid pettiness. Specifically, after I had the nerve to mention my mother in her presence, she made me wander into a deadend created by a twelve-foot high snowdrift. I assumed I'd done it myself, and sent a paper airplane to ask Daniel to open the door to the building which had locked behind me, and he said that it was likely Sarah's doing, not my own absent-mindedness. So, I stayed out of her sights for the rest of the quarter and acquired a pet paper airplane. (6)

Over Intersession, I made 2 pairs of ghostcloth gloves. Annmarie loves her set, and I'm slowly working on a body suit. (7) As Michael pointed out, this has other applications too. (8) He suggested oil for her face, which I'm not sure I can make. (9) Make up might be possible, however.

For the first day of classes, I flew into the cafeteria on a giant neon-orange non-sentient paper airplane. This was Ken's idea, and he gave me the specs for building it, but I forgot to take updrafts into account. Michael was impressed enough to let me con him into climbing up onto the airplane. The extra weight, combined with my getting distracted, solved the question of how to get down as the airplane crashed into a wall. We managed a somewhat battered curtain call, and Michael suggested a hole-puncher. He also suggested test flights beforehand, but I simply didn't have time for that. (10)

Perhaps a balloon next time? The problem is getting it to work in the cafeteria.

First week went well. Matt got Miracle Worker. Craig did not get West Side Story. (11) Michael and I got a message from Daniel that Sarah was in the hospital. This was on Sunday, so we headed over, I as next of kin, Michael as the father. (12)

The children had to be delivered by Caesarian, and Sarah did not survive their birth. They've been in the ICU for a week. It's still touch and go, but I suspect their chances have improved. (13)

I went back to the campus and started working on Sarah's administrative tasks until Ken found me. He insisted I get some sleep, so someone made the usual excuses for -me- for a change. (14)

Okay, I admit I was not exactly at the top of my form. But my coping mechanisms were kicking in, and I would like to think that I would gradually have accepted that Sarah was gone and moved on to deal with the complications arising from that. I was not planning to do anything dumber than a couple of all-nighters in her office, and I -had- accepted that there was no chance of bringing her back to life.

Then I gave Michael a call and he dropped a bombshell on me. Pantheus, a man he knew from New Orleans, had given him reason to believe that Sarah could be brought back from the dead if someone went into Hades after her.

I do not know what would have happened if I'd been alone when he told me this. Since I was not, there was a certain inevitability about how things would proceed. Ken and I went to the farm to talk options with Michael and Delilah. I brought Mother up to date as Pantheus came in. It turns out they know each other. Mother sounded like she had a migraine and declined to speak to him. Pantheus says that Mother helped him out of a tight spot once. I should try to find out more about this.

Pantheus, it seems, is on speaking terms with all the gods, except for Artemis. Just as anyone can write to the postal mages, anyone can talk to the gods. But they tend to speak back to Pantheus. (15)

He also has an angel on his shoulder. It looks exactly like an angel.

Michael took me up on my offer to cook dinner, telling Pantheus he was in for a treat, which did nothing to set me at ease. Still, Pantheus said that I wasn't bad for an amateur. Angels, it seems, don't eat.

Michael was none too keen on the idea of going into Hades, for religious reasons. Pantheus didn't see why this was a problem. I didn't like the idea of going there myself, and Ken liked it even less than I did. Michael suggested getting someone to play the Demeter role to Sarah's Persephone. Her mother is dead. Mine said that she can't play that role. Michael suggested writing a play--to be finished in a week, for mystical reasons--and casting the Theater professors in the parts. Pantheus said that we were even stranger than he was. I sent off a letter to any of Sarah's people willing to read it, and I'd best send off a second letter telling them to disregard the previous letter.

Michael also said that the John Barleycorn method might work. Amusing as it sounds, I'm somewhat dubious that Sarah would have sprouted up like a sunflower in the Spring.

Pantheus said that if the religious question really bothered Michael, he should switch contexts, and use the Christian myth. I was and am highly dubious that Michael could have pulled off a harrowing of Hell, and I know that I could not. I pointed out that Michelle had the best chance, then asked Michael to veto the idea. He did, but when Pantheus pointed out that Michelle might be able to pull it off, Michael asked her what she thought. She made the sort of baby noises one would expect. I pulled out my alphabet block and suggested that the angel explain it. (16) The angel seemed to do this, and we discussed strategy--that is, all of us except Michael, who, when he finally realized what was going on, told us to stop. I pointed out that I -had- warned him that the angel was talking to Michelle, but he did not seem to object. At this, Michael looked to where Michelle had been sitting, but both she and the angel were gone. So was the alphabet block. (17)

Michael prayed to Saint Caratha for his daughter's safe return. I left him to it, and got drinks. I would not have been sure what I was praying for, and it had been my idea. However, Michelle arrived home safely, if sadly, with the angel who told Pantheus that they had been stopped by "one of those interfering saints". I found my alphabet block outside, somewhat singed. We decided to call it a night.

I did some weaving in the Bell Tower, hoping for a visitation from Sarah's stars. (18) This was not forthcoming. I did have a few ideas at dawn, however. I asked Pantheus about the possibility of trading for or stealing Sarah. He said that the only acceptable trade involved a soul, which was something one cannot afford to lose, and that we're not good enough to pull off grand larceny in Hades.

I asked Daniel if his people could bring back a dead land queen. He said that he wasn't sure they'd want to. If they did, I'd either have to get someone else to pay or to front for payment, since what they'd want from me would be large chunks of my mind. Less than a soul, but I'd like to think that I use those chunks on occasion. On top of this, being brought back by Daniel's relatives would change Sarah. I told him I'd think carefully before doing anything. He said that if I was quite finished giving him a headache, I could ask Matt to pick up something stronger than 90 proof.

I made funeral arrangements for the next day, bought vodka for Daniel, blew the -Miracle Worker- audition, informed Matt that he'd just bought some vodka for Daniel, and drove over to Michael's with Ken. (19)

Pantheus cooked and was obviously being very polite about my cooking. I brought everyone up to date. Pantheus said that Michael should not get involved with Daniel's relatives as they'd ask for his daughter.

Michael decided that he would go into Hades after all. Delilah said that if she agreed with this, no one else had the right to object. I suppose this means that they're back together. I accepted the inevitable, with somewhat ill grace. I did give Michael my set of gloves, the singed alphabet block, and my good wishes. We planned what we could. So, Wednesday evening, my best friend went into Hades to retrieve my half-sister, three days after she died. (20)

And I let him do this. I don't know how much I was motivated by cowardice or disgust or lack of charity, and how much I was motivated by ruthless practicality.

Michael, as land king, with a far stronger tie to this land than I, had a much better chance of retrieving the woman who was his queen. He's a mage, so he's more flexible than I am, and faster. And he was successful. (21)

I'll have to get the whole story from him at some point. All Delilah knows is that when they came back, Sarah was wearing nothing but sea salt. However, she did not miss her cue. When Delilah asked how Sarah was, she drew herself up an announced that the rumors of her death had been exaggerated. (22)

While Michael was bringing Sarah back, I was weaving in the Bell Tower, with frequent breaks. During one of these breaks, a butterfly flew out of my pocket. I still don't know how it got there.

Which brings me back, by way of a sentence fragment to the reason I started this entry. I've been keeping in touch with Jim, and it occurred to me that I should warn him--or, at least, his parents--about what happened to me in Mexico. I did not think that he was seriously at risk, but he was the only person involved who did not know what had happened. (23)

When I called, Cat answered the phone. I thought this was good, since it meant I could skip the lengthy explanations. She took my number and passed the phone to Jim who might try to get out here if Jessica does direct Yeats.

Some time later, Cat's husband, Kevin, called. He told me that he was sorry to hear about my troubles and that he thought he could assure me that there would be no repetition of last quarter's unpleasantness. I stammered something inane, managing to avoid either thanking him or advising him that my phone was almost certainly bugged. After I got off the phone, I asked Ken to tell me what had just happened.

His guess is that Kevin O'Brien is capable of pulling strings in the Palestinian underground by way of the Irish underground. This does not mean that there is a vast, organized world wide conspiracy; the more likely hypothesis is that there are lots of people from various organizations who know each other and sometimes do business for and ask favors from each other.

The good news is that this means that Jim is probably safe from Arabic terrorists. The bad news is that I made a couple of hard decisions which may do more than simply haunt me.

I sent letters to both the British and Israeli governments, advising them of the phone call. This is biting the hand of a man who went out of his way to help me. (24) On the other hand, if he has any intelligence, he knows my phone is bugged.

It also means I'm hurting Cat. I showed Ken the picture I took of her and Kevin last year, and he agrees that it probably means that Cat is well aware of her husband's connections. I won't speculate beyond that just now. (25)

It also explains a comment made to me explaining why Jim did not cooperate with the Israeli government: He was trying to protect his family, which probably means Cat. It's just as well I knew none of this, or I might have wound up in the same state he did.

But it also means that Jim, who has every reason to bear a grudge against Israel, is in touch with people who can put him in touch with terrorists.

I decided that, while I ought to pass this information on, I would prefer to do so in person rather than via letter. At first, this was just a kind of foolish sentimentality, but it seems there are other reasons to do it that way. Ken asked how often I had passed information on to Israel and said that if I do get a personal visit from halfway around the world, it will be time to worry. This will mean that I'm being viewed as a foreign agent, and the Israeli government is not particularly kind to such agents. But this only makes it necessary that I know what the situation is. I wrote that if a personal meeting is not possible, I will put the information in writing. Of course, if he realizes what I'm thinking, he probably won't set up a personal meeting in any case, but neither Ken nor I are up to that kind of multi-layered thinking.

My paranoia received more fuel when I decided to find out about the butterfly. I took my carpet outside at dawn, and asked Apollo where it had come from. The answer I received when the sunlight hit my carpet was Ireland.

Fortunately, I remembered that the butterfly appeared before I spoke to Cat. Otherwise, I would probably still believe that Irish terrorists were sending butterflies to spy on me. I know this is not a rational thought. (26)

We'll see what response my letter gets. In the meantime, Michael owes me a story. And while I don't really want to, I'd better write about my unexplained absence from campus last spring. (27)

===Addendum===

I've been talking to Michael--and Delilah and Ken--about re-forging Caliban. Caliban is trusting me on this.

When I was listing important items I neglected to mention last quarter, I neglected to mention Caliban. When he was given back to me in Mexico, I learned that there was some kind of enchantment on the blade, locking the magic in.

I then sat on my ass until after -Arcadia-, leaving Caliban to stew. This was wrong.

I should have woken him up at once, but I decided to consider my options. Matt pointed out that leaving him in that state was dangerous, as he is an extremely potent link to me. I thought about changing, reforging, and destroying him.

After -Arcadia-, I got Matt to talk to Caliban, who made it clear that he wasn't happy, didn't trust me, and wasn't about to be distracted by the promise of a new hilt. All of this indicated a good deal more common sense than I tend to show, and frankly, Caliban has never done anything that some part of me hasn't wanted.

The third party mediation was making everything more tense, so I decided to cut through all the crap. I told Matt to stand out of range and woke Caliban with my blood.

This was a risk, but a calculated one, I think. It was an apology, as well as a gesture of trust, and I really didn't think the sword would try to cut deeper than I'd intended. As it turned out, the cut was even shallower than I'd planned, since Caliban twisted away as soon as he knew what was going on.

Matt got bandages and said that he'd never seen a sword get abashed about doing what swords are meant to do. (28)

So, Caliban's feeling very protective and trusting, but the dog metaphor just doesn't work. I'd considered trying to weaken the link between us, but I think I was approaching it backwards. Making it stronger might mean that I won't need an interpreter.

I think I can do this by reforging the blade, especially since Michael's right about my needing a better guard for my hand. Words on the blade seem to be traditional, but they need to be in a language I'm not completely fluent in. This rules out English and Arabic. I'm going to need to think about this. (29)

I can't play games with odd cloths for Spring Quarter. First, my math isn't good enough. Second, the cloths I'd need are made of seriously classified materials. So, I'm going to fly by less exotic means: A balloon. Ken said he'd cover the rental as a birthday present. I can't land it in the cafeteria, but the weather should be good enough for an outside flight to be suitably spectacular.

===Footnotes===

(1) As Michael soon learned, but Justin didn't, this was Kristie Kattapong, the best stage manager of Altclair's Theater Department. How did she know Anactoria? Good question.

Kristie had dated Jim, and she went into a depression after he withdrew from college. She directed Godspell for Fall Quarter, and she left her own cast party in tears when someone made a pass at her because it brought back memories of how she got together with Jim.

(2) Anactoria offered to let Michael go a year early, but he wisely and diplomatically declined.

(3) And a good thing too, as Justin's might-have-beens would be far more painful than Michael's.

(4) Delilah had been engaged to Russell Mast, the Vice President of Student Affairs. She broke off the engagement just before the Halloween hunt, recognizing that her primary loyalty was to Michael. Justin found this out only when he went to tell Russell how Delilah was doing after the Halloween hunt. Embarrassed by this, when he got an inkling that Beth had broken up with Michael, he asked so that he wouldn't make false assumptions. Beth broke up after Michael came back from paying his debt to Anactoria, I think partly because of how he'd paid the debt, but more because the weirdness of Michael's life finally got to be too much.

Michael had ceremonially, if metaphorically, given his heart to Beth so that he wouldn't be in danger of pining away for Anactoria, even though he was still vulnerable to her power to make herself irresistible. When Beth realized that she couldn't deal with the relationship, she gave the heart to Delilah. I think Naomi and Josh originally intended for Michael to make a later Olympic fencing team and for Beth to break up with him then, but the timing just worked out better this way.

(5) Delilah teleported to Texas using Michael's magic. She could only do this because Michael needed her to be there.

(6) Justin's first thought was to destroy the airplane so it couldn't be used to steal his creativity, but when Daniel said the airplane had tapped on his window, Justin figured the thing was at least somewhat sentient. He still has it, although his roommate did occasionally threaten to shred it (he had a paper shredder) when it got overly boisterous.

Sarah was determined to break Justin of the habit of referring to his mother in her presence. This is partly because of what his mother did on Halloween and partly because Sarah mistakenly assumed that Justin knew about it. He found out in Winter Quarter because his mother told Michael who told him.

Miranda Thorne was not pleased with how Sarah had treated Justin, pressuring him to sleep with her and then conceiving a child. She met Sarah and asked her what her mother would think of her actions. Sarah told Miranda to leave her mother out of it, but Miranda said it was high time someone brought her into it. Miranda is a witch, and it was Halloween. She brought Sarah's mother back from the dead to have a little chat with her daughter.

Athenee Lacy told Sarah that she'd been acting like the Viet Cong, what with playing mind games and not ever telling the victim everything. Sarah was very young when her mother died in Vietnam, and remembered a loving, nurturing figure. Being scolded by someone she expected unconditional approval from reduced her to tears. Miranda pointed Sarah to her sorority house and suggested she lay down and have a good cry.

(7) Annmarie is the ghost that haunts the Theater. When the ghost cloth gloves are worn one way, she can touch people and things from the world of the living. When they're worn the other side out, living people can touch her, and their hands pass through solid matter. Putting the gloves on requires a fair amount of manual dexterity.

(8) Military and/or terrorist applications. Justin forgot all about these possibilities and about having been kidnapped by Arab terrorists and told to make a flying carpet at the sight of Annmarie's expression when she realized she could touch people.

This is also when he realized that flirting with Annmarie was no longer safe and started wondering about various possibilities. This amused Ken, who wondered what the appeal of a ghost was and teased him how most people want their partners breathing. This got Justin to realize that he didn't know whether or not Annmarie breathed. She doesn't; as she pointed out, she has enough air passing through her already.

(9) Besides, Annmarie wasn't sure what would happen if the oil soaked in.

(10) Michael skied to campus that day, with the news that he had been selected as first alternative for the US Olympic fencing team.

(11) Craig, annoyed that he didn't get to direct Don Quixote, fudged who'd agreed to do what on West Side. The Theater Board was not amused.

(12) Of course, only one of Sarah's children was Michael's. The other was Justin's. It was decided not to explain this to the hospital staff.

(13) Justin was informed that there were unusual elements in Sarah's blood. He asked to see the lab reports and get the samples, intending to remove the evidence. He was informed by an embarrassed man that this would not be possible. Asking if the samples had been lost, he was assured, too quickly and emphatically, that this was not true. Guessing, correctly, that Sarah's people had handled disposal of the evidence, he assured the hospital that he wasn't going to take action against them.

(14) One of Justin's self-appointed tasks is to contact his friends' professors whenever they need to miss classes for emergencies.

(15) Artemis was annoyed that Pantheus couldn't keep from staring at her. He did try.

(16) This was from the set Justin was carving for his son, with letters from 3 alphabets. As he told Sarah, the English was for protection, the Arabic for knowledge, and the letters representing the language of the Sirens was for danger. Sarah approved.

(17) This was the result of Josh not paying attention, I think because he was cooking dinner.

(18) More ghost cloth. Justin was working on a body suit for Annmarie.

(19) Justin was auditioning for the part of Jimmy. Given my roll and the fact that he'd been considering directing the play himself, Naomi figured he'd subconsciously auditioned for his Miracle Worker, not Matt's.

(20) Justin left Daniel a note:

Have come to my senses; Michael has taken leave of his.

--Thorne

Daniel replied:

Glad to hear it. Michael's his own look out.

(21) If Justin hadn't been in a relationship himself, he might have drugged Michael and gone into Hades after Sarah. He did talk about doing that, but Justin is generally more dangerous when he doesn't talk, just acts. Once he'd talked about drugging Michael, it was much less likely that any attempt to do that could work.

(22) Justin was very proud of her. Of course, when he learned that Sarah had known all along that carrying Michael's child would kill her, but said nothing, his comment was, "Sister mine, your secret is safe with me." Not knowing her actual secret, Justin meant only that Sarah was as big an idiot as he and Michael are. Sarah did not give Justin the satisfaction of asking what he meant, of course. 

(23) Justin and some of his friends were questioned by the Israeli government due to their connection to a terrorist bombing of a bus station in Jerusalem. Some time after, Justin was kidnapped by Arab terrorists who wanted to know what he'd told the Israelis.

The Israeli mage who asked most of the questions was Israel Bar-Lev. Generally, Justin uses "Israel" to refer to the country, not wanting to refer to the man too openly, but this makes his journal a bit confusing.

Cat is the sister of Jim Gaffney, the man who dated Kristie. Cat married an Irish terrorist, something Jim tried to keep Israel from learning when he used magic to read Jim's mind. Jim wound up with neural damage, I think, and a serious grudge.

Cat has visited Altclair a couple of times and knows how odd it, Justin, and Michael are.

(24) Kevin.

(25) This is one of Justin's magical photos. Kevin has a military bearing, while Cat looks sad, as well as older than she is. Justin, aware something was up, but not what it was, offered to give them the photo and the negative. They accepted the photo, but said there was no need to take the negative. Justin made himself another copy of the photo and kept the negative.

(26) Justin eventually found out about that. A second butterfly flew out of his clothes when he was at Michael's, and he decided that if it happened again, he'd check with his mother. The next day, he was on the phone with Michael when a blue jay flew out of his clothes.

Justin (thoroughly freaked): That's it! I'm calling my mother!

Michael: Justin, if you don't call your mother, I will!

It was amusing that once Michael had finally talked to Miranda Thorne, he picked up Justin's high opinion of her capabilities. He also learned that she had made Justin memorize their address and phone number when he was two.

Michael: This explains a lot.

Miranda told Justin that he had tinker blood in him, albeit much diluted, from her side of the family. The tinkers, also known as the travelling people, are sort of the Irish equivalent of the gypsies. They are often subject to prejudice from the Irish.

Naomi had dropped a hint of this, which I failed to pick up on, but Manny got it at once, and explained it to me. Well, actually, he just said "Tinkers!" Naomi's annoyance at this was mitigated when I explained that, as I had never heard of the tinkers, there was no way I would ever have picked up on her hints.

What does this have to do with butterflies? Well, stories are told about the tinkers, and some of these stories have a tinker who sheds butterflies at odd moments. As Miranda explained ruefully, Justin was something of a throwback.

(27) This is when Justin wrote about his trip to Israel.

(28) Ken pointed out that if Justin were going to do stuff like this, he was a fine one to talk about risks he thought Ken was taking.

This had to do with Ken's plan to show Justin the wilder side of San Francisco. To this day, I'm not sure how much of a risk Ken was taking, being somewhat confused about when Naomi was explaining the reality of the situation and when she was using NPCs to say what they believed, but what was not necessarily true.

Ken planned to take Justin to the Castro, I think--forgive my ignorance if I got that wrong, but we are talking about an area I'm not likely to explore, an area where some of the male homosexual population of the city goes to have sex. Matt told Justin that what Ken was doing by inviting Justin there was all but begging to be arrested for statutory rape, as Justin is still 17. Ken assured Justin that he was trying to do no such thing. Justin was unconvinced that Matt was wrong.

Justin: When a 150-year-old mage gives me a warning, I try to listen.

Ken: Ask the 150-year-old mage which decade he was last in San Francisco.

Justin conceded the point and left Matt a note asking. Matt admitted it had been some time ago--I think just after the Panama Canal had been built--and maybe Ken was right. He suggested Justin talk to Patrick, who grew up in San Francisco. Justin did, and Patrick said there shouldn't be any problems. This was when I got confused, as I'd thought Naomi had told me that Matt was correct. Chalk this up as confusion over whether or not or when NPCs are the GM's mouthpieces.

Justin decided to play it safe, although he did intend to spend some time in San Francisco, and Ken accepted that. Justin spent Christmas with his mother, then took the train to San Francisco.

He did this partly to see the country and partly to have a chance to weave moonlight into ghost cloth so that he could make the two sets of gloves. As a result, he was exhausted by the time he reached San Francisco.

Justin (trying to explain): At dawn, I prayed to Apollo and then--my God, the scenery! And at night, I was weaving, and after that--my God, the stars!

Ken: Only you could get exhausted on a three-day train trip!

To Justin's disgust, Ken insisted he spend the next 12 hours sleeping.

(29) As I understand it, to folks who used the Roman alphabet, the Norse runes were nicely exotic, but the Norse would use the Roman alphabet if they wanted something exotic. Justin eventually decided to use Morse Code. He intended to write not Caliban's name, but the relevant quote from Shakespeare's Tempest: "this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine."

Naomi suggested that Justin might take it a step further: Perhaps the Morse Code "runes" would become clear bit by bit, as one moved the blade through each of the 8 parries. That is, the dots and dashes would create different patterns in each position. I liked this idea, and we all agreed that Michael would have taught the positions the first day the fencing club met, not being as sensible as Ramon Martinez (from whom Josh and I have been taking lessons) who teaches the 2 most important ones (6 and 4), then later, the next 2 (7 and 8) and the rest as needed (I've used 3 in drills, know 1 and 2, but still don't grok 5).