testing_the_box | TEST DRIVE MEME

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TEST DRIVE MEME

Starting now, we'll put up a new one of these very month! Feel free to use the current setting of Pandora (Christmas in July) or make up your own! You can also use the following scenarios if you'd prefer:

1. Mushroom Kingdom

Have you ever wanted to be a fairy? Well now you are, even if the answer was no! The City is a big, big place, all of a sudden. Houses are roomy affairs inside giant mushrooms, there are colorful flowers everywhere you look, and the animals are always friendly! Unfortunately, the only food items being sold in the market this month are fruit, fruit, and.... more fruit.

2. School Town

You may be too old to attend the academy, but that doesn't seem to matter; your attendance is mandatory anyway. Or perhaps you're there to teach, because you're the only resident of Pandora that possesses a certain skill. It doesn't matter if it can't be learned; you have to come up with a lesson plan anyway. At least the uniforms aren't some god awful color, right?

3. Zombie Apocalypse.

There's no coming back from death in Pandora, so you'd better do all you can to survive. Three quarters of the city are already infected, and this is the last stand. Are you going to pool your resources and try to make it together, or is it time to stop trusting others and go it alone until the month is over?

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[Waver turns to look in the direction he gestures toward, then looks back at him with her brows furrowed in genuine confusion.]

But I'd just seen you in the lecture hall, you've just finished lecturing the hall at large and myself in particular, and you're next session begins in fifteen minutes.

[It's her turn to gesture, toward the New Age Sciences Department. Which she still thinks is a silly name, for the record.]

And for the record, I'm not ever late.

[Is everyone here mad? He wonders that to himself sometimes. And sometimes he asks it out loud, but for now he keeps it to himself. He regards her warily, looking for more evidence of madness.]

I've just come from home, and this is my first lecture of the day.

There is no reason I would be lecturing in the science department. [He doesn't call it by its full name because he also thinks it's rather silly. Not like Fine Arts: a decent, distinguished name.

As for lecturing you personally, we are not acquainted. I believe you have confused me with someone else. I am Professor Archibald of the Fine Arts Department.

[After a moment's hesitation, he adds:]

I am glad to hear it. Punctuality is a virtue.

...Okay, I have to admit this is weirder than insisting I'm a boy and that we aren't related. Either you've bumped your head while changing your clothes, or something very odd is going on. My name is Waver Velvet Archibald El-Melloi, and-- actually, here, look.

[Waver pulls her schedule out of her bag, where her professor's name is clearly listed.]

I assure you, my head is in excellent and uninjured condition. For what possible reason would I insist that you're a boy? [She is fairly obviously a girl... As she gives her name, he glances at her sharply.]

How are you supposed to be related to me?

[He looks down at her schedule with a frown. He's only just begun teaching, and no one has informed him yet of his similarity with another professor at the school. To be fair to the arts faculty, there are a lot of professors.

He's not sure what to make of this at all. He's so bewildered, he doesn't manage to come up with any kind of curt remark, but his frown deepens.]

That's not possible. This person is--me? I dropped the name El-Melloi years ago.

I'm your daughter. Well, not your daughter; I'm from a version of events wherein I'm the illegitimate daughter of Lord Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. The Kayneth I mistook you for is from a variation of events in which he insists we have no relation to each other and I'm male, for some utterly ridiculous reason. I'd guess that you're him and you've finally gone mad, you're him and someone's fuddled your memories, or you're a third Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi because second magic and the universe is just out to make me completely miserable.

[She doesn't even know which of the possibilities she hopes is true. The lattermost is seeming more and more likely, though; the only reason Waver has to doubt it is that she can't recall any two versions of the same person being in Pandora at the same time.]

I am not mad. In fact, I may be the only person here who isn't.

[Now he's not keeping his opinion on the madness of others to himself.]

My daughter. [What.]

Yes, you're certainly not my daughter. I have no children, and I've never seen you before in my life. [And he has no desire ever to have a child. Dealing with students is enough young people for him, forever, thank you very much.]

Please, Kayneth Archibald will do. [That "El-Melloi" added to his name is giving him a headache.] I want nothing more to do with my family or the Association.

If the universe is out to make you completely miserable, you are not alone. This place couldn't be less appealing if it were constantly on fire.

[This latest installment is just an addition to the many reasons he already hates this place.]

...You said you're an artist?

[Waver cannot believe she is thinking that he could be remotely tolerable, and yet here she is with such thoughts in her mind.]

Yes, I am a renowned sculptor, as well as a Professor of Sculpture at L'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

[He had to throw that "renowned" in there.]

What happened to being the magus prodigy and heir to the Archibald line?

[He won't say it, of course. He'd never say that, no matter how much she'd like him to...]

What happened? I left.

I am a prodigy. I don't need the Association to be gifted. They've never done anything but limit me. But I am an artist first.

[It would be foolish of him not to practice magecraft when it's perfectly possible that a magus might try to kill him--the great prodigy--magi being what they are.]

As for the rest, I couldn't care less. I had no desire to serve as anyone's pawn. If the Archibalds die out, well--good riddance.

[He's not bitter or anything.]

Edited 2013-07-26 06:34 (UTC)

[Waver's mouth hangs open just a little in speechlessness for a long moment, and then she looks like she could cry from joy.]

We're the same, then. I decided to leave, too.

Did you? Then you have some sense in your head. What kind of unimaginative cretin would choose to be subjected to a life of mindless obeisance to a system of outdated rules drawn up by raving lunatics?

[Is this real life? Maybe Waver is hallucinating.]

E-Exactly! I shouldn't have to spend my life doing what my family tells me until I marry a man I barely know and have to do what he tells me all because our society still sees women as little more than tools for breeding! It's ridiculous!

Yes, it's absurd. It's the 20th century, and they remain mired in feudal times. [He's read de Beauvoir, he knows these things.] I'm sure if I'd remained, they would have set me up with some unfortunate pedigreed wife to carry on the family bloodline, and we would have been absolutely miserable together. What a beautiful domestic tableau.

[A terrible thought.

Kayneth likes talking about how people who make decisions different from his own are idiots, so he carries on, his enthusiasm building as he goes. In his life, he isn't actually able to talk about magus society, seeing as how he doesn't willingly talk to any magi, and he can't speak to others about it. So his feelings of resentment are more than a bit pent up.]

It's regrettable that their so-called luminaries are simply the people who are best at following their senseless rules, so that the magus elite are nothing but generation after generation of ever more mindless dullards. Petty, cruel, unimaginative, and ultimately pathetic.

Life is too short to waste your time doing as others dictate. The ideal human state is freedom.

There's a woman and you --the other you, I suppose-- seem to feel something for her, but it isn't mutual. I don't know how emotionally invested y--he was with my mother, honestly; she was the daughter of a first-generation mage with no ties to the Association whatsoever, so his family had her killed when they found out about me. You know how Archibalds feel about scandals and low-born families, I'm sure. The woman he was supposed to marry learnt of it and used it as leverage to call off the engagement. Being raised by my grandmother until I stupidly entered Clocktower against her wishes, I wasn't brainwashed with the typical tradtionalist rubbish.

[Instead she had an unrealistic idea of what a magus was and thought she'd finally find a place where she belonged. Waver is still embarrassed over how wrong she was back then.]

I don't mind if you think I'm completely mental, but... the fact that some version of you who gets it can and does exist makes me very happy.

[Kayneth rarely talks about his personal life, so he doesn't say anything about his own domestic situation when faced with that of his supposed other self.

His lip curls in obvious disgust. Murdering women, simply because of an affair. The sad thing is, remembering his past and the way he used to be, he can actually see himself having accepted such things as normal if he'd chosen to remain. He hadn't left home for humanitarian reasons, but for selfish, prideful ones. He'd only happened to learn a bit of humanitarianism along the way.]

How barbaric.

[He should say something comforting, shouldn't he? This is a young woman talking about her mother being murdered. But he doesn't know what to say. He's terrible at such things. Saying "I'm sorry" doesn't seem right at all.]

All the more reason that that institution should be wiped out.

[That's comforting, right?

Not that Kayneth had tried to stir for social change, he had just ditched everyone.]

I don't believe you're mental.

[High praise from Kayneth. Although... this is awkward.]

I'm pleased my very existence can be of some utility to someone.

[He tries to sound sarcastic, but it doesn't really work out.]

[She's gone through the DOWN WITH THE INSTITUTION phase herself, but in the end Waver realised she probably couldn't beat the system on her own, so she's given up. Well, that and she has a promise to keep. She seems to take comfort in being told she's not mental, though.]

...I'd like to see your work some time, if you don't mind showing me.

[She told Lady Archibald she'd consider attempting to get to know Kayneth better. She never specified which Kayneth.]

[Kayneth is just too selfish to ever join a protest or fight the establishment.

Oh, someone interested in his work? Well, that's the surest way to appease Kayneth.]

If you'd like. I wouldn't be adverse to showing you.

It's a shame there's no way to access the main body of my work here. I don't even have any slides or clippings. I've had numerous shows throughout Europe and America. But I have been working on a few pieces since my arrival.

Oh, um, there's a woman that runs an odd shop with trinkets and things. Sometimes she can get stuff from home, though I've no idea how. Her idea of payment is odd, but not terrible. I was told to write letters in order to get my familiars back.

[She isn't sure it would work, but Waver supposes she could at least mention it to him.]

Is that so? Interesting. [He ponders this news.] I could make an attempt. It wouldn't hurt to have a few of the smaller pieces. I have nowhere to store my larger works, which is a shame, as I do my best work on a grand scale. But yes, at least I could ask for slides, although three dimensional work loses so much in a two dimensional portrayal.

[His life is hard.]

The city could use more art. It's no Paris or Barcelona, to be sure.

You could convert one of the abandoned buildings into a gallery. Even if it were only to display new work, it could be a nice thing to have.

[Okay, maybe she misses wandering around the British Museum a little and it's influencing her suggestions...]

A gallery. That's an excellent idea.

[He'd been too busy complaining about being here and feeling sorry for himself to think of productive ways he might spend his time.]

There's so much empty space here, it would be simple. I could make a studio as well, so I'd have enough space to create something truly inspiring. I'm not sure if there are any other artists, but it might be worth arranging a show. Curated, of course. I can't let just anyone in.

[He misses museums, too. All the museums.]

I'm not much of an artist, admittedly, but I'd be happy to help you organise it. Surely you can't be the only one in the city.

[Waver truly would love to find a productive use of her time, and she likes appreciating other people's artistic talents well enough.]

That's quite all right. I don't expect most people to have so much as an ounce of artistic talent.

[He means this--in the nicest way, really.

Finally, there's someone here who is actually useful and not insane.]

I could use the help. Organizing and curating a gallery show is no small task.

[If someone is going to offer help, he's certainly going to take advantage of it.]

No, there must be others, we simply have to find them, and to assure that they're worthy of being shown.

It's more that I've had other outlets for my creativity.

[She shrugs, not exactly bothered by his attitude. In truth, it's much more tolerable when not directed at her personally.]

An advert on the city network ought to generate some interest.

TEST DRIVE MEME

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