Fun At Parties (Action, OTA)

[profrollo]

[Another New Year's party, another festivity Frollo's forced to attend. Despite his best efforts, the other faculty liked to include him in their reindeer games. Whether this came from goodwill or morbid curiosity about what the grouch would produce was hard to determine. The latest participant, one Ms. Merriweather, was aglow with end-of-the-year cheer.]

"Mr. Frollo! Fancy seeing you here! Have you heard about the season finale of Mad Men? It sounds like just your kind of thing; very moral, you know. Very critical."

"I'm not familiar..."

[That was not an invitation; nonetheless, she gushed and brought him up to speed.]

"So you see, it's a fascinating period piece about, you know, what things were like back then. What do you say?"

"I say it's not nearly so moral as myopic; merely a devilish distraction."

[Though truly he wished he'd, if not she'd, said nothing at all. Judging by her bewildered look, he figured he'd have to elucidate. Like one of his lectures. Well, if she insists.]

"From what you've said, it seems this televised drama belongs to the genre of 'Now We Know Better'. The characters will indulge, without irony, something shocking to modern sensibilities. The moderns will then indulge a chuckle or a cluck, per their wont, and congratulate themselves on having the good fortune of being born decades afterwards. Such morality is pandering and cheap. Why the sins of the past were, and whether they were truly wicked or merely unfashionable, is not thought of. Indeed, such entertainment is a loss to real virtue, deadening the present to its own vices in favor of jeering the dead's. I confess, I see precious little morality in that."

[Merriweather's shock increased. Goodwill lingering, she floundered for a way to continue the conversation.]

"Oh, well, I see. Um...what vices don't get much attention nowadays?"

[His eyes lightly gave her a once over, noting that she was slightly overweight.]

"Gluttony, perhaps."

[Her face reddened.]

"O-oh, well, my friend is over there, and we really need catching up. Ah, Happy New Years!"

"Likewise."

[Frollo was blessed with a severe baritone and a preacherly knack for sermonizing, so his lecture and the fallout drew more attention than just his poor interlocutor. Good; that'll teach them to share their inane recreations. And Frollo's nothing if not an excellent teacher.]

In your own WORDs (Action, OTA)

[cool_skeleton]

[Papyrus, despite his poor grades in general studies, is nonetheless determined to wade into the deep waters of his major: Political Science. Surely that will pave the way to his dream job of monster-human diplomat. What's a little English or Math compared to that?

His exuberance and continual insistence finally forced the hand of a professor years ahead of his academic trajectory, who reluctantly lent him a copy of the subject's seminal work: The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures. All 500 pages of it.

Now, Papyrus liked to read, especially books about puzzlemanship. But this was an entirely different puzzle, one whose maze-like jargon and academic rigor lost him like nothing before. Monster society had nothing like this, or at least nothing he ever saw in the Librarby.

No matter! He's a genius! He can figure out this insanely complicated book and all others like it! What did a wise professor once tell him? "If you want to test your understanding, see whether you can explain it to a layman." Then the professor had to explain what a layman was.

And so he set out across campus to scream down laymen and laywomen (LIKE YOU) alike so they might hear his elucidation and tell him how enlightening he was.]

AHEM!!! YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS PRESENTS TO YOU THE FIRST PAGE OF TPOC: ASOSP!! ALL IN GLORIOUS PAPYRUS PARAPHRASE!!!

THE, UH, BEST WAY TO EXPLAIN POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT AND STUFF LIKE THAT IS BY THE FEELINGS OF AND IDEAS OF THE PEOPLE IN THEM. LIKE ME!! AND YOU!!!

THERE ARE OTHER WAYS, LIKE WHERE PEOPLE ARE OR WHAT THEY'RE MADE OF. THEY SUCK!! AND THERE'S ALSO OLD-FASHIONED FEELINGS AND IDEAS, BUT THEY WON'T DO!!! OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW!!!!

AND EVEN THOUGH IDEAS AND FEELINGS ARE PSYCHIC, PSYCHOLOGY STILL ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH. NOPE!!! ONLY OUR FEELINGS AND IDEAS MEET MY STANDARDS. THE REST IS PRETTY MUCH BUPKIS!!

SO WHATCHA THINK??? AM I MAKING SO MUCH SENSE, YOU'VE GOT DOLLARS!?