TEST DRIVE MEME #5

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

Comments

[cagedinflesh]

Ah-

[Berserker was just about to show him how to use it properly, or anyway his nearest approximation to that, only having knowledge up to 1991. He may not have done much better, really. But it breaks before he can speak up, and oh, oh no indeed. So instead he can only offer an apologetic smile.]

Not particularly, I'm afraid it's rather advanced. Although we might figure it out between the two of us yet.

[depicted]

Would you—[Dorian offers the broken object to Jekyll as if Jekyll may magically figure it out if he holds it

And then he realizes he is being a terrible and ill-mannered boy and yanks it back.] I'm so sorry, I've forgotten myself. My name is—I'm Dorian Gray. [He extends his hand to Jekyll.] It is my pleasure to meet you.

[cagedinflesh]

[His smile grows as he accepts Dorian's hand.] Doctor Henry Jekyll, my pleasure as well, Mr. Gray. And I would be happy to take a look at it for you, no need to apologise.

[depicted]

[Dorian smiles, an expression as fluttering as his voice, and hands Berserker the tablet.] Thank you so very much, Dr Jekyll; I am in your debt.

[cagedinflesh]

Not at all. I would consider myself somewhat technically inclined, let's see what we can do, shall we?

[Well, he can't do anything about the screen without materials, so for now, it's figuring out how it works. After poking around, sliding in and out of applications, he offers it to Dorian again.]

It's connected now, I believe that means the internet, which I admit to not fully understanding the concept of, myself. The device is a sort of a book, or a game, I suppose.

[depicted]

[Dorian lurches back a little bit, surprised, but taking the thing in his hand.] It can change its face so easily! It must be a kind of politician.

[Dorian immediately freezes and turns red. It's the kind of flippancy he has lately attempted to impress Lord Henry. It is also not appropriate in front of others. WHY DOES HE SUCK SO MUCH AT SOCIAL INTERACTION DAMMIT.]

[cagedinflesh]

[For a moment Jekyll is silent, paling slightly when he immediately thinks of it in regard of himself. But then he makes himself laugh, shaking his head to reassure Dorian it's in good enough taste. That wasn't what Dorian meant, so he shouldn't take offence.]

I'm sure it could be, people in the late twentieth century are in thrall of such devices, after all.

[depicted]

[Dorian notices the reaction but doesn't know what to do with it. He looks down, eyes flickering back up when Jekyll laughs. He isn't certain if it's all right.] The late twentieth . . . That is nearly a hundred years from the date I last recall it to have been.

Somehow, it is more difficult to fathom that there are people here from my future than that there are those here from my past.

[cagedinflesh]

[His expression softens as Dorian allows the change in subject.] I thought we might be from a similar time. It was 1885 for me, and quite a shock to experience 1991. But this is far above the technology even of that time.

[depicted]

[It looks like the doctor isn't mad at him, which is a relief. He actually has to smile—] You are from my future as well! Not so far, of course—it is 1881—but even so, a good four years. Are you saying that such wonders as this aren't developed in the next half a decade?

[It's another attempt at a joke (his smile says so) because OH ROMANTIC FICTION PROMISING ALIENS AND SPACESHIPS AND STUFF, hilarious]

[cagedinflesh]

Unfortunately not! What a leap that would be! [He almost remarks they may have been born the same year, but then remembers he isn't actually so young.] Ah, well, I was born much earlier, and that is what matters. As a scientist, however, I must take shame, and apologise to you personally, for not bringing such greatness to your near future.

[depicted]

[He laughs at that.] It is you I have to blame! I know it now, and will think harshly of you each time I recall the wondrous inventions not yet available to us.

[Although something gives him pause, and he looks at Jekyll in open curiosity.] But surely you were not born so much earlier. You hardly look my age.

[cagedinflesh]

Please, think kindly on the Royal Society, if nothing else! [He returns the laugh, then, raises his pointer finger as if to stop Dorian from saying anything more.]

That you must guess at. I assure you, I am well your senior, despite appearances! With that information, your riddle is: my age.

[depicted]

[It gives Dorian a pause.] A riddle of age? I should think that if you've found some trick of eternal youth, you are most remiss in failing to share it with others. I would give anything in the world to stay as young as beautiful as I am in this moment—no, to stay young as I was a few hours ago. If the Royal Society has a way to accomplish such a thing, I can imagine no reason it should deny the rest of us the gift.

[cagedinflesh]

Not at all. I have always found far greater interest in the mental than the physical. Which is to say, not only is it the subject I am more inclined to research, but as well what I value in myself and others. If one were to attain eternal youth, though he may cultivate a great number of experiences, that life would not be so rich as one lived to old age. As I see it, it is in our change, and the briefness of a lifetime, which makes each individual life truly miraculous and beautiful.

[depicted]

[Dorian frowns at that, the new prospect coming at odds with an old one.] I do'nt know if I believe that to be true, Dr Jekyll. So far as I have heard, and in accord with what I have seen, youth, youth and beauty, are everything. We only have a few years in which to live truly and perfectly—our value wilts with our youth.

[cagedinflesh]

Which is precisely the reason I see it as something beautiful. When I look upon you, and I hear you speak thusly, I must find myself consumed with nostalgia. To remember my youth, and youthful ideas, it is a wonderful feeling. I very nearly feel I could become that young man again. However, my mind is old, my body was old, even with my appearance the way it is, it can be no more than reminiscence. I never enjoyed youth so much as I do now. However, in youth I forgot to ever look back, and so rarely did I look forward. At each point in life, we realise a new understanding of ourselves. As much as old men look back on their youths with heavy sighs of longing, to remain in one state forever would erase all novelty. All the vibrancy would fade, in time, new experiences would not satisfy. Moreover, one's brain is not fully developed until into adulthood, to cut that development short would mean to lose out on many possibilities. I could not have lead as fruitful a career, had I remained young. Perhaps I could not even have graduated. A person's value cannot be measured, for it is made up of so very many factors, most of which are entirely intangible. But surely if beauty is one, then the mind is as well. If youth is a factor, then too is legacy, what one has chosen to do with one's life, how it has improved the world. Nothing is of importance without its opposite.

[depicted]

[The point is well-argued, and Dr Jekyll has a beauty that carries it. Dorian is half-convinced.

But only half. He remembers Constance, and the words Lord Henry confirmed. He knows that what people value in him is his youth, his beauty that is only enduring for his beauty. And when he looks back on other conversations, with Lord Henry's words in mind, he realizes they must be right. Even Lord Henry's aunt seems to love him more for his looks than for his piano-playing.

He touches a ring on his index finger, one that came through his uncle, and he turns it over and over. It helps quiet his thoughts. He almost wishes he had a hundred rings, so that he could keep turning them and never have to think in their spinning.]

I don't understand. You seem to speak as if you have been an aged man, as if you have played every part on the stage of life.

[cagedinflesh]

Not quite. I suppose my final part was that of the justice. [How appropriate that's what it should be called...] My life was cut short at fifty.

[But he certainly notices the hesitance, and fidget. He regards Dorian, watches the ring.] Is everything all right?

[depicted]

[At least that distracts him from his discomfort.] Yes, of course—but what can you mean? Did they resurrect you here after your death, as you were when you were a boy?

[cagedinflesh]

Something like that, yes. Not here immediately, but rather in the year 1991, as I mentioned. It's rather a complicated explanation, however.

[Which might require explaining Hyde, which he would rather avoid.]

[depicted]

[No, this boy loves crazy stories.] Would you give it? It sounds fantastical—even more fantastical than this place.

[cagedinflesh]

I suppose I can't mention it and go on to deny the request for an explanation, can I? Well, in the time I was called to, in Japan, practitioners of a sort of magic are fighting among eachother to obtain a wish from the Holy Grail. Please don't think me somehow touched, what I say is true! However, rather than do battle directly, the Grail has granted them the ability to summon forth a figure of mythology or history, in order to fight in their stead, called a Servant. I was summoned as Servant Berserker, by a young man about your age.

[depicted]

[Dorian listens, and he attends with confusion, some skepticism, but a willingness to believe. In their circumstances, how could he not? Even so, it seems bizarre, a truly strange idea.] That is not at all like the Holy Grail legends with which I have any passing familiarity.

[cagedinflesh]

Nor I. It's not at all like King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail. Although such figures could be summoned. [And Arthur was, in fact. What's more, Jekyll desperately wishes to speak with him, as himself, and not Hyde, or under the influence of Mad Enhancement. If only he knew who that man was.]