LogicalDash
[Fanfiction](Magical Diary) The Antisocial Contract
#1 by LogicalDash - Apr 3 2013
This is set just after the start of initiation, before you even get back to your room. It is original flavor. Characters involved are Potsdam and Mary Sue, but this is mainly a worldbuilding story and not a shipping one.---
Is he gone? I guess I'll walk back this way just to be sure... yes, Damien left me alone like he said he would.
I could go back to my room now, but... I don't know... something's weird about this whole initiation business. I guess William's in charge, I could talk to him... but he said to talk to a teacher if we're ordered to do something wrong...I guess that means the teacher is in charge of deciding what's wrong? That's... weird...
Well, I wanted to get started with green magic anyway. I'll go there. Maybe I can find Potsdam's office, or at least meet her.
#
This is so weird. I can find the green magic workshop easily enough, but the doors next to it are all locked. And the workshop is the only one with its name on the door. The others only have numbers.
"Class isn't until tomorrow, dear," Potsdam says. I turn around to face her. I was just looking that way a second ago! Is she messing with my head?
"Sorry," I say, "am I interrupting?"
"Oh, perish the thought! You looked confused, that's all. Is something the matter?"
"Um... maybe. Look, um, I just got into initiation and..." oh, where do I start?
"Who is your senior?"
"His name is Damien."
"Oh! Yes, I can see how he would give you pause."
"Not that. He's really nice. It's just... the seniors get to push us around for a week, and it's just to make them feel good, I guess?"
"Hm, not exactly. By the end of the week you've spent a lot of time and effort getting to know your senior, and assuming they don't go too far with their orders--remember to tell me if he does!--then you've also built up trust. See?"
"I guess?" She's opened one of the doors, and waves me into a tiny, nearly empty office with a table, some tall glasses of water, and chairs. That door was totally locked a moment ago. I guess she used magic.
"You don't seem satisfied." She sits.
"Damien picked me. Now I need to trust him and I didn't get to decide." I sit and take the water. It's icy, but there's no ice.
"Oh, you don't trust him?"
"I don't know." I take a sip.
"If you don't trust him, you don't need to be his."
"I don't?"
"Of course not!" She's almost laughing. Am I funny?
"How was I supposed to know?"
"William read you the agreement, yes?"
"Um... he gave 'safety information'..."
"What did it say? Try to be exact."
"Um... 'if you are ordered to do something dangerous or wrong--or that you feel is wrong--please see a teacher.'"
She scowls and looks away.
"Did I miss something?" I ask.
"Possibly, but the agreement is much longer than that. I think William cut it down. This could mean trouble..."
"I did get this rulebook." I pull it out of my bag.
"Did you sign it?"
"N...no?"
"Did he wait until all in the room had read it?"
"I don't think so."
"Drat." She kicks her chair. "I'll need to read off the agreement myself tomorrow. William has demerits coming...ah, but to address your concerns, the full version of the disclaimer would have specified that you are required to refuse any order that you believe would cause any harm, physical, spiritual, or otherwise--and regardless of who the order comes from. What does that tell you?"
I have no idea what she's looking for. "What?"
"When, after reading out the correct agreement, William ordered you to submit to your senior, if you think that order is wrong, you must refuse it!"
Well, that's less creepy, I guess.
Potsdam takes a sip. "For free-spirited students such as yourself, this acts as a gentle introduction to the not at all gentle business of navigating a magical contract. The rest--well, they have a guide for their second week--perhaps a friend as well, and they learn to follow instructions of a more mundane kind."
"Is that good?"
It seemed like her mood was improving, but she's back to her scowl now. "In the mundane world, in training for a dangerous job, is disobedience encouraged?"
"We all take your orders in class every day. That makes sense, but making freshmen crawl to please the seniors...that's...it's cruel, and there's no need for it. How's it any different from bullying?"
She looks away and, for once, doesn't smile or frown. "Mainly, I suppose, in the seniors' obligation to treat you...oh, no, that part's up to the class president. Hm...well, you can always stop it."
"It sounds like the agreement doesn't actually say that."
"But you still can."
"I don't think you can do what you don't even know you can try. Or there's not much difference really."
"Well, the exercise rewards those who make the tiny effort of finding out. You've passed the test with flying colors."
"You want to teach us how to hunt, so you strip us naked and throw us in the woods with no food?"
"Oh, please, it's nothing like that."
I think she's getting impatient. "Maybe it's different if you grew up a witch, but contracts in the, the 'mundane world'? They work nothing like this."
"Don't they?"
I need an example now. "I heard about some...realtor I guess, who hid some things in his...the contracts you had to sign to live on his land...that made the, that made you responsible for thing you'd expect him to be responsible for, and a lot of people signed them, but he tried to, to enforce it and the court wouldn't let him."
She seems confused. "Well...I'm aware that mundane contracts take a lot of physical effort to enforce...it's sensible that your courts would not always find it worth the effort."
"That's not it. Um... fraud. The guy couldn't get the contracts enforced because the way he'd hidden that stuff was too tricky."
"I thought 'fraud' was the act of falsifying a contract?"
"Yes. And he did. By writing it the wrong way. Writing it so you couldn't read it. Reasonably read it."
Now she's frowning again, but it's the kind you use when you're worried and she's staring me right in the face.
"You're not lying," she says. "I'll need to do some research to substantiate your claims. I think we could fit a lecture in the first week, to give the wildseed some advance notice. For initiation and otherwise. Normally contract negotiation waits until sophomore year, but if it's really as you say...oh, well, for the time being. Since William read the wrong agreement, the correct one won't take effect until tomorrow morning when I read it out, and, well, now you know what to do."
This water is making my hand numb. I put it down.
"Goodness, you look even worse."
"What?"
"Something's still troubling you, clearly."
Well, she's right. "What if it isn't that we think we're hurt or we think it's wrong? What if we just don't want to be treated that way? I don't think we need a reason."
Potsdam jumps to her feet and applauds. "Five merits!"
"What."
"You're not supposed to have to sign anything for initiation, and the agreement specifies no particular gesture for acceptance. That means the only way to accept it is to behave in the way it describes. If you do not--for example, if you refuse one single order!--it's null and void."
"Oh. Well. Does the agreement say that? Plainly?"
"No, but it's the kind of information I might include in that lecture I mentioned. If you'd like to earn some more merits, you could help me with the research."
Well, I guess joining the enemy is one way to fight them.
"My dear...I'm trying to be helpful. Do cheer up."
"I guess you're not going to stop holding initiations," I say.
"No, I'm afraid I can't do that. Traditions, in the magical world, provide the context in which contracts operate, and ceasing a tradition can have unexpected effects on contracts that you believed did not depend on that tradition. I do not expect that ending initiation would have such an effect, but I would need to be quite sure of that, and present the evidence to certain people whose names you are not yet permitted to hear."
"Hazing is a magical tradition?"
"Initiation is. Once it was a much more solemn affair, and it may yet be again."
"When it was...'solemn'...did it still have seniors pushing freshmen around?"
"Far worse. I'm sorry, I can't tell you more until you graduate."
I take a deep breath. Then let it out and take another. "I'll help you with the research," I say.
"Excellent! Oh, if you are in fact leaving initiation, I expect Damien will be upset when he finds out, but I'll tell him if you don't want to."
"Thanks." I stand. "I'm sorry I couldn't cheer up for you."
She blinks. Then I go out to the hallway, and she follows after a moment. "I'm not offended," she says.
"That's good."
I can't actually look at her right now, but I'm pretty sure she's blinking a lot. "Well, I hope you feel better," she says. "Do come here if you need me. That door will always open for you."
"Okay."
And I walk away. Just like that. Saving a lot of freshmen a lot of trouble, just by asking.
Easiest thing in the world.