[Tatterdemalion]

I just reread the scene where Shurq and Ublala break into Gerun Erberict's estate. Ublala provides a distraction and Shurq sneaks in undetected. Good so far.
Then Shurq passes the slave area and her lust gets the best of her, sneaking into the cost of some slave named Prust and spending two bells nailing him. Fine.
Then, when she enters Gerun's offices she is confronted with his undead brother whatever-his-name is. When the question of how she is to escape is posed, Shurq says that her accomplice is about to provide another distraction.

But how could they have planned for Shurq spending two hours having sex? Surely they didn't choose an arbitrary 3-hour mark upon which Ublala is to cause a distraction, we're talking about a high-powered, heavily-guarded estate here. She's supposed to be in and out in a whip, and if not (as her hiding in the cot culled the guards into ease again) how would Ublala know just exactly by when she had pillaged the goods (as in the treasure, not Prust's:rolleyes:)?

Fa, I say!

[Abyss]

I beg to differ. I think that Shurq exactly planned how long until Ublala came back and it was only what she did to pass the time that was spontaneous (the big skanky parasite-ridden undead ho).

Iirc, Shurq and Ublala go in with a plan, it's just that Ublala turns wus until Shurq mentions that the guards said bad things about him.

[WhiskeyJackDaniels]

Or maybe she just knows Ublala is a destructive force that can't not be a distraction and she was waiting for the next one...

But I haven't read MT in awhile so Abyss' answer prob makes more sense

[worry]

Also, even though it's a common assumption, there's no confirmation that a bell = one hour. Could be half an hour each or what have you.

[ansible]

Abyss, on 26 August 2010 - 06:22 PM, said:

I beg to differ. I think that Shurq exactly planned how long until Ublala came back and it was only what she did to pass the time that was spontaneous (the big skanky parasite-ridden undead ho).

Iirc, Shurq and Ublala go in with a plan, it's just that Ublala turns wus until Shurq mentions that the guards said bad things about him.

I agree with this. She mentions something about passing the time...

Here we are.

Midnight Tides, Tor MMPB, p.398 said:

The guards had returned shortly after Shurq had slipped into Prist's cubicle. Loud with speculation and bitter argument, indicating that Ublala had made good his escape, although a call for the services of the house healer suggested there'd been a clash or two. Since that time, things had settled down. There had been a cursory search of the estate, but not the servants' quarters, suggesting that no suspicion of diversion and infiltration had occurred to the house guards. Careless. Indicative of a sad lack of imagination. All in all, as she had expected. An overbearing master had that effect. Initiative was dangerous, lest it clash with Gerun's formidable ego.

So my guess is that the plan was: Ublala causes a distraction so Shurq can get inside without being noticed; Shurq hides out for a predetermined amount of time while things calm down; right before Ublala is scheduled to return with another distraction, Shurq heads off to plunder Gerun's study. Shurq guessed (rightly) that the hardest part would be avoiding the guards, since most of the wards used to protect the study were tuned to living beings. Shurq handles most of the tripwires and such with ease even before running into Harlest, which makes her job even easier.

Basically, whatever Abyss said.

worrywort said:

Also, even though it's a common assumption, there's no confirmation that a bell = one hour. Could be half an hour each or what have you.

Come now. This is possible, sure, but I don't think it makes a lot of sense. The paragraph preceding the above quote even alludes to the derivation of the term:

Midnight Tides, Tor MMPB, p.398 said:

Two bells later, Shurq lifted her head from the gardener's muscled arm, concentrating to listen beyond his loud snores. Poor bastard had been worn right out - she hoped Ublala could manage better - and all his subsequent whimpering and mewling was disgusting. As the bell's low echoes faded, a solid silence replaced it.

Emphasis mine. So it seems she's chilling with this dude until she hears the bell that signifies the correct amount of time has passed. Of course, there's no reason that each ringing of the bell couldn't signify a half hour, but that seems weird, so it must be wrong!

[worry]

I don't see how anything I said is incompatible with your point. I'm just saying two bells could be one hour instead of two hours. Either way, Abyss is right about the plan.

[ansible]

Well, I was joking. I should have a rule where any sentence ended with an exclamation point an automatically becomes a joke. Like I said before, you could definitely be right, there is no real indication of how long a bell is. I only posted the quote because it is the first reference to the term's derivation that I can remember seeing in the series.

[worry]

Well dang. I was hoping we could go back and forth nitpicking each other's posts, given the theme of this thread. But your polite, even-tempered reply was just totally inconsiderate.

[ansible]

Alas, another thread's potential, spoiled...

[Illuyankas]

Sensible, coherent and polite debate? FUCK THAT, DOUCHEFAGS

Also even Ublala can count to three for the bells thing.

[Tatterdemalion]

But if you read the section, it really does sound like she had no plan to shack up for 2 bells. It sounds like it's only BECAUSE of the slaves chattering that she goes back and settles in with the guy. I mean, sure, it could have all been on purpose, but if the slaves didn't say anything hands down she was heading up the stairs to the offices. She's just smart and wants to maintain her guise. Also, she's horny because pleasure is new. Earlier she gets distracted from the job because the four guards were all men and she has to keep herself focussed. I feel like the way it was written her round in the sack was a spontaneous thing - elsewise, where was she going to hide for 2 bells? Ahead of time, going in, how did she plan to hide for 2 bells in the guy's damn estate? It works much better as an impromptu genius way of avoiding detection + satisfying lust until things die down - which is only ruined by telekinesis with Ublala.

Oh, well.

I promise to not post in defense of this argument again, to save us all braincells!

[Abyss]

But you're missing the major point, which is that anything Shurq plans allows for the possibility of an hour or two of wild crazy zombiemonkey sex.

- Abyss, couldn't quite come up with an undead banana follow-up joke there but tried real hard.

[Illuyankas]

Looks like someone slipped up and died onstage?

[Supporting Character]

As for the "a bell is an hour" problem - doesn't he constantly say "a sixth of a bell"? A sixth of a bell (an hour) being ten minutes? Why else would the sixth of a bell be used so much if it wasn't such an easy to relate to time as ten minutes?

Supporting Character

[ansible]

If a bell were a half hour, a sixth of a bell would be five minutes. Five minutes seems as useful as ten. Personally I choose to think a bell is an hour, but there really is no solid proof.

[worry]

Well, we know for a fact that the world they live on spins at precisely 18 earth hours per revolution, yet they still divide a day into 24 hours. So every Wu hour is actually 45 earth minutes, a sixth of which would be 7.5 minutes. Lots of numbers can be divided by 6. It all works out fine. Also, a year is only 91 days, which explains all the "old" people! I can't remember the exact quotes where this info appears, sorry.

[Aptorian]

worrywort, on 29 August 2010 - 08:45 AM, said:

Well, we know for a fact that the world they live on spins at precisely 18 earth hours per revolution,

What?!

[ansible]

Aptorian, on 29 August 2010 - 09:07 AM, said:

worrywort, on 29 August 2010 - 08:45 AM, said:

Well, we know for a fact that the world they live on spins at precisely 18 earth hours per revolution,

What?!

You don't remember that infodump in TtH? Watch the spoilers, worrywort.

[Aptorian]

I would like to see a page reference to this. It sounds absurd.

[worry]

I apologize. I was temporarily mesmerized by the bells. The bells!