And here we see that the Professor also needed some (or actually quite a lot of) time to mentally adapt to his new circumstances…only that he thankfully did it offscreen and concurrently with the others, saving much story-telling time. And I’ve brought that time down futher by omitting 16 of the 18 identical panels of confused petrification that the process would ordinarily have called for.
We also receive proof that the tenure process is indeed not arbitrary, or controlled by old-boys networks. No, it is based in a transparent and objective way on descent from the ancient bloodlines of King Solomon and Aristotle, as evident from a birthmark in the shape of the tenure symbol somewhere on the body. Where the birthmark is placed depends on how many other mysterious, meaningfully shaped birthmarks the person has. The Professor has his tenure mark on his shoulder, since his butt is already occupied by his other mysterious birthmarks indicating descent from the Royal House of Sylvuria and his future status as a Champion of Light in the Battle on the Plains of Gehenna.
Protocol requires such meaningful birthmarks to be normally hidden from view, so the Professor is in luck that his Barbarian outfit, skimpy as it is, happens to cover that part of his shoulder blade. As you may have noticed, our heroes’ new outfits are based on those of that old D&D Saturday morning cartoon, as well. I’ve adapted them where necessary, but the Barbarian’s is completely unchanged – it’s just too iconically bizarre to mess with it. XD I mean, seriously? There’s that strange leather harness, strategically “strengthened” with a grand total of 20 small studs, the “Viking style” horned helmet and a pair of armbands that, for all practical purposes, appear to be forged on – that latter thing appearing particularly unwise on a body in growth. And, of course, the classic furry hide underwear, here accompanied by matching boots. The hygiene and comfort issues raised by that particular sartorial choice has baffled many people before me. XD
More on Mon…uh, Thursday.