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Soul of a Tiger, Heart of a Lion

Like many young people his age, Edmund’s time at the Magistrum has come to be just as much about discovering himself as it has about discovering the world around him. As an abandoned child on the mean streets of Oplentis, he spent so much time fending for himself and his fellow orphans that he never had the chance to experience anything approaching a normal childhood. The younger kids under his protection always had to come first.

Since enrolling as a student, while still the gruff young man he was as a freshman, he’s had ample time to lower his guard and become more comfortable expressing other aspects of himself to his peers. Back at his hometown, he had to be the tough guy everyone could rely on to bail them out of their problems. Here, he can just be himself, the person he wanted to be.

As several of his classmates can attest, that tigerkin is a gentle, romantic soul. Men, women, and everyone in between alike can describe in detail how enraptured they were by the kindness that shone through bright green eyes and his warm smile. And as his confidence grew, so too did his tenderness and care. With each one, he would take their hand into his, gently lay it over his breast, telling them of the affection contained with the heart housed in his breast.

“Dis school an’ dah people here. Dey make me ‘appy in a way ah’ve nevah known. Dis is where ah belong.”

His rough manner of speaking, belying his fiery passion and the self-evident cleverness of Professor Enigma’s hand-picked apprentice, merely added to his charm in the eyes of his peers.

His courtships were never meant to last, fleeting moments to powerful, intense emotions, but all parties involved were aware of that from the first. And none of his romances would trade the time they shared with him for the world.

This piece from LittleBadWolf in September of 2022 comes at the time when I was still trying to find Edmund’s voice. I wanted to make him sound a little more like a jock, to contrast with his prim and proper mentor, Enigma. However, in retrospect this dialog took it too far. He sounds a bit too much like Joey Wheeler, a stereotype more than a real person.

That said, this piece is still important because Edmund isn’t gay or straight. He’s bisexual (and approaching pansexual), and I wanted to communicate that. I need to do a better job of it in the stories I write, but that’s a work in progress.