TEST DRIVE MEME

[behind_the_box]

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?

Comments

[marriedthebloke]

[She wakes up, and this time, she actually listens.]

Yes, I can see that you and he are...very different. But I don't despise my husband.

[Only...harbors a lot of resentment over the arranged marriage and such.]

[tenured]

[He draws his hand back.]

Oh yes, that was certainly the impression I received from your words. The very image of a loving couple.

[Can you feel the sarcasm?]

It's pathetic that you remain with someone you obviously regard with such contempt, but knowing what I already do of your common sense, I can't say I'm surprised.

[marriedthebloke]

It would be a scandal if we divorced. Isn't it common sense to avoid a scandal?

[tenured]

You're talking to a man who left the Mage's Association and scorned the Archibald family. Of course I don't give a damn about scandals.

It makes no sense whatsoever to make yourself miserable for the sake of other people's tired notions of how you're supposed to behave.

[marriedthebloke]

It's my duty. I can't just refuse to be a magus.

[tenured]

Duty.

[Duty is for losers.]

You could refuse them. I refused. It doesn't make me any less of a magus. [At least, according to him.] But I'm only advising you get a divorce. It's a fairly common practice in civilized societies. Even the monarchy does it these days.

[marriedthebloke]

I don't think you understand. I'm nothing without my family.

[It's true. The only way she could be human, or even be useful, is as a wife and a mother. Since she was raised as magus nobility, she has few life skills that would allow her to get a job in the outside world. As well, the fact that she had no crest means she's a rather half-assed magus.]

[tenured]

I understand perfectly. You're content to live your life as a broodmare, unwilling to take any risk to assert your independence. With such a pathetic mindset, no wonder you're trapped and miserable. You've clearly never even tried.

[Kayneth has little patience for this kind of thinking. But, he's trying to be nice! Maybe...]

Take the child--or children--then, if you're so set on a family.

[marriedthebloke]

I-I don't know if I can do that. Kayneth tries to love all of us. I know he does. And Diarmuid is very attached to his father...

[Even if Kayneth was always disappointed.]

[tenured]

Make up your mind. You said he wasn't capable of affection. You said a number of uncharitable things about him that make me wonder why you'd decide to stay with him. Perhaps your viewpoint simply can't be trusted.

[Diarmuid is only a name, so he doesn't think much of it; it's a coincidence. He also makes it a rule to avoid asking about others' children, in most cases. What a terrible subject of conversation. He also hates talking about others' spouses and relationships, so this is paining him greatly. He does like talking about himself, but not like this.]

Do you know how wretched you sound? Do you want to leave, or don't you?

[Kayneth may need sensitivity training, but he's very cross right now.]

[marriedthebloke]

I've told you several times! I can't leave. This has nothing to do with my desires!

[Between the aforementioned lack of life skills and a sort of complex, Stockholm-esque love, she really was stuck.]

[tenured]

Actually, you've only given me several pathetic excuses. It sounds to me like you want to leave, but if you'd prefer to be miserable for the rest of your life, by all means. Continue your existence as a hapless pawn, without ever experiencing true happiness or freedom. It makes little difference to me.

[marriedthebloke]

...Perhaps it is a bit pathetic. But it is my life.

[She sounds so very resigned, and so very bitter.]

[tenured]

Don't expect me to feel sorry for you.

[Kayneth rises to his feet, but nonetheless reaches down to offer her a hand, to help her up.]

If you're going to knowingly persist in idiocy, you'll have only yourself to blame for being an idiot.

[marriedthebloke]

[She takes his hand and stands up.]

I don't. I just want you to understand that I am different from you. My situation is different. My skills are different. I have no crest.

[tenured]

That is already abundantly clear. [He pulls his hand back once she's on her feet.]

And the world is full of people without crests.

Do you think I found everything easy when I left home? I did not.

[marriedthebloke]

[She can barely hold back a snicker.]

I thought you were a genius?

[tenured]

Certainly I am. That's why I conquered all my obstacles and became a great artist revered by my peers and adored by the public. Success as an artist isn't given. It is earned. It takes not only talent, but boldness, to win that prize.

I don't expect one of the Association's pampered, helpless women to understand. You can't know what it's like to find yourself alone in a strange city without your family's support. I can just imagine how you'd react if that happened to you.

[She'd curl up and weep, perhaps.]

One must suffer for one's art.

[Kayneth didn't even suffer all that much, but he likes to play it up.]

[marriedthebloke]

If you haven't noticed, that's already happened. To both of us. We're in this...place right now.

[tenured]

If you haven't noticed, this is absolutely nothing like the real world. The fact that you can't tell the difference is--

[He laughs.]

It's quite illustrative of how delusional and divorced from reality you are. Also, you aren't alone if your husband is here.

[marriedthebloke]

...I kept my cool, though. Before I knew he was here. I wouldn't completely panic in a strange situation.

[tenured]

Oh, I'm so impressed. Except your keeping your cool for ten minutes before your husband showed up, in a magical backwater in which all your needs are provided for you impresses absolutely no one, anywhere.

[marriedthebloke]

...

[She gives an irritated huff as her only response.]