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testing_the_box2013-07-05 08:41 pm
behind_the_box) wrote in testing_the_box2013-07-05 08:41 pm
Entry tags:
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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[Adjusting the sunglasses he'd worn on top of his head for what felt like forever, Waver sighed with a bitter smile.] Very well...since this is obviously some mad little dream I brought on myself from working three days straight, I'll play along.
My name is Waver Velvet. There was a time some years ago when I called myself your Master--no, your friend.
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[Diarmuid gives the man another look. As he says, he does look completely different and yet...yes Diarmuid can definitely see the resemblance now. So that solves one thing. Now for the million other things that aren't solved.]
I'm sorry. There must be some kind of mistake. I mean no disrespect, but there is no way you could have been my master. My...master...
[Diarmuid's eyes flick away from Waver's, his expression darkening for a moment as his hand unconsciously rises to rest against the center of his chest.]
His name was Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. It should sound familiar to you. He was your teacher, was he not?
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[Sighing, Waver kept speaking in an explanatory tone.]
Of course he was my teacher back then. But I'm telling you, I wasn't Rider's Master. That idiot summoned Berserker after I stole his original relic. [He reached to the back of his neck and unfastened a small pendant hidden under his shirt--a small silver chain holding a broken shard of ivory.]
This one, in fact.
I almost wrote Lady Sola of the too-freaking-long-name instead... Geez...
As impossible as this all seems, I have been told this is no dream and that the city is some kind of dimension outside of our own. It smells to me of second magic, but I am no magus so I have no idea how accurate that idea is.
And yes, that is my relic. How it came to be in your hands is beyond me. The last time I saw is my master's fiancee, Lady Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri had it. Was it retrieved by the Church or the Tower after the War...ended?
[And what did that say about the fates of his master and his fiancee? Had sacrificing his servant to save his own life been in vain? Had Diarmuid's whole existence in the war been in vain?]
fffff
Diarmuid, why aren't you listening to me, I have it because I stole it before the war st--Second Magic?
[Son of a bitch.]
...
[His insistence that this was a dream had been denial more than anything. He didn't want to believe this was real; didn't want to see Diarmuid because that meant losing him again. But if this was real and Second Magic was involved...]
[Waver slowly stepped forward looking like he'd very literally just seen a ghost, reaching out a shaking hand to lightly touch the knight's shoulder.]
You're...you're real. You're not the same one, but...you're really here?
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Yes, I am real. I...shouldn't be here. I should be...
[Dead. Erased. Gone.]
...on the Throne, but for whatever reason, I am here instead. Something to do with those odd boxes we all seem to have found.
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[Did it matter? He was still himself, wasn't he?]
In which case, you'll...h-have to forgive me for this. Please, if you would just humor me for a moment.
[Waver raised his arms and wrapped them securely around Diarmuid's shoulders, trying and failing to stop himself from shaking as he did.]
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The embrace surprises him. As does the shaking, but Diarmuid isn't a cruel man. No matter how many times he is hurt, that will not change. As a result, he doesn't pull away from Waver. In fact, his hand comes up to unconsciously return the embrace.]
Hey... It's all right... I don't think I am going anywhere anytime soon.
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[But he didn't know how to react. Ten years had been spent carefully collecting that terrible sense of loneliness and vulnerability; locking it away where no one would ever see a shred of it. That was how he'd come to terms with being separated permanently from the most important person he'd ever met. And now ten years of secret unhappiness was threatening to come out at a moment's notice.]
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[Diarmuid pauses a moment. Actually, there is something he is feeling because of Waver right now, but that's not really the other man's fault either. He knows it's not the other man's intent, but the more he talks and makes Diarmuid realize just how close he had to have been to his servant, the more jealous Diarmuid becomes.
That bond with a master. That had been what he wanted. It had been his simple wish. Why did he do wrong that he had been doomed to suffer another betrayal when this other version of him had gotten everything he wanted?]
You...cared for him a great deal. You were both very lucky...
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[Waver pulled back slightly, hands resting on Diarmuid's shoulders.]
I'm sorry. There's no world where you'd deserve someone like him as your Master.
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[Diarmuid shakes his head, shutting his eyes for a moment. He remembers all too clearly the boy who had stood--or at least tried--to stand at Rider's side. Even though he had been scared and overwhelmed so much of the time it seemed, he still stood there. And by the time they faced Caster on the river bank it had been obvious that not only had he stood there, he had grown. He was stronger, braver.
There was no way any version of that boy could be a worse master than Kayneth had been.]
I...would have loved to have him as my master. Even if he didn't know what he was doing... Even if...
[Even if they had not won the war, Diarmuid knows the ending would have been better than what he had faced.]
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[The sudden reaction had been surprising, but the reasoning behind it less so. Yes, that definitely sounded like the Diarmuid he'd known. Of course logically Waver realized now they weren't the same, but...well, it was an odd gray area.]
[Features sharpened and hardened by a decade of hard work and harder circumstances softened considerably as Waver spoke next, hold on Diarmuid's shoulders turning a little more secure.]
...you've had a terribly rough time, haven't you? I'm sorry--I wish you hadn't been stuck with such a difficult Master.
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It's not your fault. I should have realized it would come to what it did. He never trusted me. I wasn't what he wanted anyway. I was just a second rate replacement...
I hoped, though. I really hoped there might be a way I could prove to him I would bring him victory in the end if he would just trust me--if he would just let me fight the way I knew how to fight.
I was a fool... I shouldn't have been surprised that he chose his life over my own when things became rough.
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The best of magical aristocracy are stupid, self-absorbed and cowardly at worst. It's no failing of yours that caused him to be an idiot.
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[He sighs.]
I wish it had not played out so close to what happened the first time I was betrayed. Even more, I wish it had not happened in front of her. She should not have had to bear witness to that.