Jarod does 'smug bastard' so well, it almost makes me love him too. He doesn't even have to say anything - this is where the strength of Sothe's voice really works though, because even though you're not jumping to other characters, he does an excellent job of characterizing them for you. And that it's unreliable just makes it better, because his opinions are hilarious.

I have the other fragment open in a tab, but I'm so behind on reading/commenting. I'm hoping to get to it tonight after I've worked on my essay a bit.

Your hints were just enough, I think. If you'd said more, you would have been obligated to either write several hundred more words, or... well, it works out fine.

Ahahaha, that sounds like me trying to get Chronicle chapters done for the deadline. XD