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

[tenured]

Oh, do you mean I should enter a place of business and begin throwing merchandise I haven't paid for in a fit of pique at other customers? I fail to see how that has anything to do with being carefree. Quite the contrary, I should say. Fortunately, I am not a petulant child, and I've learned how to behave myself in public.

[This is arguable. Also, dammit, his wing hurts, but he's trying his best to look unruffled.]

[gamechamp]

Settle down, pops. [He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans back on a heel.] It's not like I was aiming for you.

[Because, honestly, if he had been, he probably wouldn't have managed such a tidy headshot.]

[tenured]

That's Professor Archibald.

Yet I didn't hear an apology.

[Young people today, with their fruit-throwing and their bad manners!]

[gamechamp]

I'd say sorry, but I think your attitude makes us even. [He punctuates this statement with a short, deliberate pause.] Pops.

[But really, he just...has problems with adults who throw their titles around like that.]

[tenured]

[He deserves respect for all his hard work and dedication to his craft!] My attitude is faultless.

I should think anyone would be cross after being hit in the head by an orange.

[Ugh, he's so tired of this wing--he manages to free it with a tug and does his best not to wince.]

I don't consider us even at all, child.

[Yeah, he's great with comebacks.]

[gamechamp]

Yeah, and I'm sure you have tons of friends to prove it.

[Shinji rolls his eyes. Being called child just makes him more certain that this guy's the exact kind of 25+ he hates, which makes him even less pliant than he might otherwise be.]

Sounds like a personal problem to me! [The smile that crosses his face is something like the beginning of a grin.] The way I see it, you walk out of here with a lump on your head, and I walk out with a headache. Seems about equal to me.

[tenured]

I hardly see how my personal life is relevant, but yes.

[He has more acquaintances and colleagues than friends, but he thinks he has plenty. To Kayneth, a few friends counts as a lot, since he's never had very many. He doesn't like most people much.

His head isn't hurting anymore, he's just in a bad mood.]

That's your idea of a fair trade? Remind me not to engage in any further commerce with you. We could have dispensed with headaches entirely, but I do hope you've suffered somewhat.

[He doesn't wish Shinji any harm, in spite of his words. He's used to obnoxious children, but he nonetheless picks up the orange pointedly, dusts it off, and sets it where it belongs. Or where he thinks it belongs. To prove a point! Actually, he wants to throw some fruit himself, but now he's built himself up as mature, so he's backed into a corner.]

As if I didn't have enough to worry about after being kidnapped by lunatics, now I will simply have to watch out for children hurling fruit. I'll be sure to put up a ward.

[He really should just surround himself with protective measures at all times. Someone is going to kill him sooner or later, he's sure of it.]

[gamechamp]

[Okay, but being called a child is starting to get to him. As far as he's concerned, the differences in their ages don't matter. He's been out in the desert fighting oppressive plutocrats for like half his life, you know!]

You know, maybe you should lay off on calling other people children. If you're going to go around stamping your feet and throwing around that you're a professor like that means anything, you'll just be leaving yourself wide open. Consider it a point of friendly advice.

[tenured]

I'm calling you a child as a result of your behavior. If you weren't throwing fruits and insults and failing to apologize, then I would not.

[Probably. Although, to be fair to Kayneth, he wouldn't hesitate to call a man of 90 years a child if he felt it were warranted.]

As a point of friendly advice, people tend to judge one on one's actions. Shocking, I know.

[gamechamp]

Says the one demanding to be called professor while he does nothing but piss and moan.

[EVERYONE INVOLVED IS A HYPOCRITE. CONGRATULATIONS.]

[tenured]

My students respect me as a professor because of my contributions to the field. I was merely correcting your disrespectful address.

[IT'S ALL TRUE. HYPOCRISY ABOUNDS.]

Pardon me for objecting to being assailed with fruit and petty jibes.

[He's going to keep making the fruit assault sound worse. Plus, he really didn't like being called pops. He's only in his 30s!!]