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

Archer Alter (Fate/stay night AU)

[blackenedideals]

I. School Town
[This is, perhaps, the least fitting setting he has been thrown into yet. Yes, even more so than the fairyland. At least there he had been able to avoid people. Now? Now he has no choice. He tried to stay home, and the Management has already seen to it that he be punished for his truancy—which means there's a new addition to his wardrobe, a shock collar fitted around his throat. Predictably, it buzzes every time he doesn't go to class. Or is late. Or makes some minor infraction in the dress code. Naturally, he hates it, but he can't seem to make it come off...]

[So, he isn't precisely in the best of moods now. Which means the palpable aura of rage and darkness that constantly surrounds him is...even more palpable. And ragey. Also, if these disgustingly twee and irritating fairy dragons don't leave him alone while he waits for this classroom door to be unlocked, he's going to snap their necks one by one.]

II. Zombie Apocalypse
[It's not like he saved you because he likes you or anything!]

[...No, really, he doesn't. After all, whether you were defenseless or simply overwhelmed by sheer numbers, it's both easy and beneficial for him to pick off zombies while their attention is elsewhere. Killing them here and now just means he doesn't have to kill them later, anyway.]

[Maybe the polite thing to do would be to thank him, but... Really, who wants to thank someone that stinks of the all the evils in the world?]

II

[allthetime]

[Yeah, who would want to be near anyone who stinks of all the evils in the world? It's not like that would be a draw for some people or anything.

Nope, not at all.]

That was fun to watch! Good job!

[And really, why should it occur to her to say thanks?]

[blackenedideals]

[Maybe it seems a little backwards that he should be the one to slink back and away, but he does so. It's nearly an animal's gesture, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a faint grimace. Something that before would have provoked only exasperation makes him angry now—but, then, most things make him angry. It's not a pleasant state of affairs.]

[Maybe if he leaves without saying anything, she'll get the hint. Would that be too much to hope for?]

[allthetime]

[She doesn't seem to notice his discomfort at all. Or, more accurately, she doesn't notice it for what it is. Aradia simply brings a finger to her lips and looks somewhat confused.]

Sorry was I being rude? Sometimes I guess I'm insensitive and don't notice.

Re: Archer Alter (Fate/stay night AU)

[tenured]

[Kayneth was already inside the classroom. Having arrived early, he'd left the door locked so that he could get some sketching done in peace. At some point, he starts to feel a sense of unease and wrongness, but that's not entirely unusual in this cursed place, and he does his best to ignore it. When the time for class draws near enough, he rises and makes his way to the door. He pulls it open suddenly from inside, then blinks.

What the-- The wave of power that washes over him is as evil as it is alarming, and he has no idea what to make of it. He stares at the person standing before him.

What is this--thing? And is it enrolled in his class? He has no idea what to say, so he blurts the first thing that comes to mind.]

This is Introduction to Sculpture.

[Because maybe this thing is in the wrong place and it will go away now and leave him alone!]

[blackenedideals]

[The thing's response is to...smile? Well, his lips pull up and show his teeth, but it's not exactly a pleasant expression, going a step or ten beyond wry.]

If you have a problem with this, take it to the people in charge.

[It's not like he was expecting a warm reception. Or picked his own classes, for that matter.]

[tenured]

Oh, of course, because that's always productive and never a waste of my time, considering how helpful they are.

[Fine, if he's expected to teach some kind of evil nightmare entity, then he will. He's probably had worse students... He steps aside so that Archer can enter.]

Well, what are you waiting for? Come in. I hope you're not expecting an easy class, because you'll be sorely disappointed.

[blackenedideals]

[On some level, he's taken aback by the response he receives. He could reach out and snap this man's neck, and he probably doesn't even realize. It makes him want to laugh. Everything about this situation is so ridiculous that it makes him want to laugh, and he winds up making an odd, strangled noise as he does as directed and steps into the classroom.]

I can guarantee it'll be more productive than directing your complaints to me.

[It seems pointless to respond to the comment on the difficult of the class, so he doesn't. He'll be a good student! Well, sort of. He won't be any more disruptive than anything admitting waves of malice from the back of the classroom would be, anyway. The actual quality of his work is not guaranteed.]

[tenured]

[Kayneth is well aware that this thing--person--whatever it is--could doubtlessly kill him in an instant, but saying "ah, I believe you could murder me with no trouble at all" is not the kind of thing Kayneth does, and it frankly makes him irritated. He has to teach this class, and he's going to do it, even if he must teach a room full of monsters, evil spirits, and rabid animals. He will teach them to sculpt, and they will like it, dammit.]

Did I complain? As I recall, I merely informed you what class this is, because I am tired of students wandering into the wrong rooms at the wrong times because no one has any bloody idea of what they're supposed to be doing thanks to general incompetence and a complete lack of organization.

[Kayneth doesn't give full marks for effort, so he'll be the judge of whether Archer is a good student or not. He moves back to his podium.]

Your name?

I

[proteusmoon]

[ Cecil doesn't know why there are fairy dragons about, but then again, very little of this... schooling system makes sense to her. Where she's from, school is the pupil and the tutor, several years of study and practice, and that's it. There is none of this classroom swapping, or uniforms, or alarms.

Goodness, "the Bell"!

The first time she heard it, Cecil thought she was hearing some sort of alarm warning danger was near go off, so she promptly grabbed Lightbringer and ran off towards the front of the school grounds, prepared to battle whatever was threatening the safety of her fellows so much that the other students were scrambling to go indoors. Of course, by the time she learned that the danger was her own truancy, it was far too late and she was fitted with a punishment collar too.

Thankfully, since then, she's been more careful about incurring the wrath of school administration, but sometimes she still gets a little shock from her collar for things she didn't know were against the rules.

Like picking her own seat instead of waiting to be assigned seating once the door to her next class opens. ]

Ah...!

[ Cecil winces and takes a step back from the desk she had been about to sit at, falling back into the crowd of other students now that she clearly understood she was not to act until told to. ]

Why are adults even forced to attend these classes?

[blackenedideals]

[Someone behind Cecil sighs, though the noise seems oddly...ragged in a way that's difficult to describe. Archer has to close his eyes and rein in his irritation with the situation as a whole; his constant, Angra Mainyu-induced rage makes it difficult for him to think at times, and the proximity of so many people doesn't make dealing with either his anger or his scattered thoughts any easier.]

For the same reason we're forced to do anything else.

[He doesn't even realize he has answered the question aloud. Is this seat assignment exercise really necessary?]

[proteusmoon]

[ Cecil doesn't feel the corruption in the man's aura the same way some do. Her magic resistance as a paladin is pretty strong, but she's no mage. She senses... something that matches his strange appearance, but she doesn't know what it is and it's not enough to put her off of socializing with him-- or trying to. ]

I see you've found adjusting difficult as well.

[ She glances at his collar, then taps at her own lightly with a fingertip. ]

My sympathies.

[ The instructor begins to assign desks, putting Cecil and her fellow collared student towards the back of the classroom. ]

II | Fate/Prototype-Zero AU

[holyswordwielder]

[ The polite thing to do would be to thank him, yes, but Saber instead regards the stranger with more suspicion than gratitude. He's only felt such a presence as this before when he himself was corrupted by Sancraid. The Beast, though similar, was a different horror altogether, but the other Servant brings these faded memories bubbling forth from the ether of his consciousness and he suppresses a shudder. ]

Who are you?

[blackenedideals]

[Despite the fact that the area has been cleared of the dead, however temporarily, Archer's posture doesn't relax in the slightest. Faced with an unfamiliar Servant, he remains straight-backed and tense, even as the more rational remnants of his mind tell him that there's no real reason for them to fight in this place.]

[For a long moment, Archer remains silent, and at first it might seem as though he doesn't intend to answer at all. He stares down Saber in front of him, and finally his mouth opens to reply with a single word.]

Archer.

[Surely he didn't expect something more than that?]

I lied; just Fate/Prototype canon. l-lol

[holyswordwielder]

[ Fortunately, no, Saber didn't expect more than that. Even here, even now, he still prefers not to introduce himself as Arthur Pendragon. He certainly would not ask another Servant for their true identity either. There may be no war, some rules shouldn't change. ]

Saber.

[ He dismisses his weapon and armor to prove he intends to show no hostility towards the other man. He nods at Archer, meaning to gesture to his general form. ]

How did it happen?

[ He means the corruption. ]