Zi'da 40, Arc 716
“I think“, Tristan said to his cat Mistral who was sitting on the kitchen table in front of him and staring at him from out of sulfur-yellow eyes and probably thinking about which neighbour to terrorize next rather than actually listening to his owner. “I’ll write a comedy next. I’ve had enough violence to last me for a lifetime! Besides, I need to branch out if I want to remain successful. I can’t write plays about queens trying to murder their kings all the time! What shall my comedy be about though?”
Mistral did of course not say anything, but his ears twitched a little, and his thin, black tail began to swish back and forth as if he were irritated or slightly agitated. Tristan furrowed his brows a little and took a large gulp from the glass of wine in front of him (thinking and working made him thirsty!), and then a smile slowly began to spread all over his face. “That’s it! I’ll write a comedy where all the characters are animals that wear clothes and talk and walk on two legs, and my protagonist will be a cat! I’ll call it ‘The Cat Knight’. What do you think of that, Mistral? Would you like me to incorporate you into my new play?”
Mistral let out a loud meow, and then he abruptly jumped off the table and walked over to the corner where his bowl stood. He demonstratively positioned himself in front of it, let out a loud, pitiful sound as if he were starving and then looked at his owner accusingly. Tristan let out a deep sigh because he had just realized that his cat probably didn’t care about his job at all, walked over to the cupboard, took out some cat food and filled Mistral’s bowl to the brim.
Mistral began to sniff at the food, tried some and spit it right out again as if it were the most disgusting thing that he had ever eaten even though he had practically devoured it the trial before. And then he walked over to his scratching post, jumped onto the small platform on top and lay down, ignoring Tristan and pretending to fall asleep. Tristan watched him for a while, and then he walked into his bedroom, shaking his head as he did so. Mistral, he decided, was a really strange cat! He had never met an animal like him before!
He retrieved a book from his bookshelf – a book on the basics of playwriting that was in very questionable shape, a sign that it had been used frequently in the past – and then sat down at the kitchen table again and flipped through it until he had found the correct page. Although he had plenty of humour, he had never written a comedy before. Even though he didn’t normally care about following rules, he had come to the conclusion that it couldn’t hurt to at least take a look at what the book had to say about it.
<><><>
“A comedy”, Tristan read aloud because reading aloud made it easier for him to commit something to memory. “Is a play that is light and humorous and typically has a happy ending. Subgenres of the comedy include the farce, the comedy of manners, the burlesque, the black comedy and the satire.” He stopped reading there and grinned.
The word ‘burlesque’ had caught his attention. He imagined a couple of beautiful, curvy women in in lush and colourful costumes dancing in a most seductive manner and was thoroughly disappointed when the page in question didn’t even mentioned anything about that.
Apparently, he realized, a burlesque didn’t have anything to do with female nudity, but was a literary or dramatic work that sought to mock, usually be means of caricature and comic imitation. He furrowed his brow a bit as he considered that, and then he came to the conclusion while burlesques suffered from an unfortunate lack of dancers, the idea still had potential.
For now he wanted to write a more classical comedy though. He moved to a page that provided examples of various comedy plots. They all seemed rather boring and cliché to him – they were mostly about a hero and a heroine that were destined to be together, but had to overcome a lot of obstacles and suffered a lot of, usually amusing, miscommunication before their happy ending - but some elements, he decided, were usable.
He grabbed a pen, drank from his glass of wine, opened his notebook and started to write, paying a lot of attention to his spelling and grammar as he did so because nobody wanted to read the play of a playwright that didn’t know proper Common! Although, he thought, he could use intentionally bad Common as a literary element. Maybe he’d also have one of his characters use the wrong words on purpose. Some people were bound to find that funny!
He wrote, “The Cat Knight: Act 1” and immediately crossed it out again because he realized that the story he had in mind would work much better if his main character weren’t a simple knight, but something more fun. But what job should he give him then? He thought of all his friends and family members and what kind of jobs they had, and then he wrote, “The Cat King: Act 1”. That, he decided, was a lot better. His main character would be a good and honorable king with a big sword, a fluffy tail and bright yellow eyes that just loved to eat fresh mice and other rodents and murdered balls of yarn in his spare time.
He also needed a name for his main character, he realized. ‘King Mistral’ was a good name, but it was a little too obvious. Using people’s real names was something that was just not done in his opinion. His cat king would be ‘King Purr-a-lot’. It was a somewhat stupid name, but since he was writing a comedy and not a serious play, he was allowed to give his characters stupid names!
<><><>
King Purr-a-lot, Tristan wrote. Is unhappy. None of the noble women at his court do anything for him. They are boring and arrogant. Most of the people around him (that look like mean, old dogs) are just friends with him because he is the king and not because they genuinely like him. The food he eats has begun to taste stale. He doesn’t even enjoy destroying his beloved balls of yarn anymore. He has realized that the life he is leading doesn’t have anything to do with the reality that his subjects have to face on a daily basis. So he decides to take a break from his royal duties and live like a common citizen for a while.
He stopped here, furrowed his brow and wondered if such a thing would be realistic. King Cassander had once disguised himself as a slave, but he couldn’t imagine him just disappearing for a week or two and pretending not to be noble while he left ruling the kingdom up to the plotters and schemers at his court. A play, he decided, didn’t have to be realistic in every aspect though, especially not a comedy where everybody was an animal!
He continued to write. Soon he had the basics of his plot. King Purr-a-lot would move into a small house with a garden in the part of the city called Midtown (which had been inspired by Andaris’ Midtown). There he would struggle with everyday tasks like making his bed, cooking and gardening and be confused by a shovel and wonder what strange thing that was!
He would eventually meet a nice cat girl that lived down the street and that would think he was a bit weird, but still agree to help him. She would even help him find a job as a waiter at a local tavern. They would grow closer and eventually fall in love. The king would make up a story about how he was from another country to explain his behaviour. He would meet the girl’s parents (who looked like common house cats), lie some more and eventually realize that he needed to be honest with his girlfriend if he wanted the relationship to have a future.
The girl would be mad at him because he had lied (which was a bit unrealistic to be honest, in reality most girls would probably be overjoyed to find out that their boyfriend wasn’t actually a waiter, but the king). She would eventually forgive him though. They would get married, he would get rid of all the mean, old dogs in his court, and she would become his new queen, and they would live happily ever after and have a lot of kittens!
Content, Tristan put the pen down and drank the rest of his wine while he wondered how he could make his actors look like animals without involving magic (which would be a bad idea due to the side effects). He decided that he would have masks made for the play and have a tailor sew costumes made of fur. Of course the costumes would be rather warm, but the premiere of his play probably wouldn’t take place until Cylus, so hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad!
He would also dedicate his play to Zanik, he decided. He would dedicate all his plays to him from now on because Zanik had marked him, and he was his favourite male Immortal!
OOC: 1.589 words.
“I think“, Tristan said to his cat Mistral who was sitting on the kitchen table in front of him and staring at him from out of sulfur-yellow eyes and probably thinking about which neighbour to terrorize next rather than actually listening to his owner. “I’ll write a comedy next. I’ve had enough violence to last me for a lifetime! Besides, I need to branch out if I want to remain successful. I can’t write plays about queens trying to murder their kings all the time! What shall my comedy be about though?”
Mistral did of course not say anything, but his ears twitched a little, and his thin, black tail began to swish back and forth as if he were irritated or slightly agitated. Tristan furrowed his brows a little and took a large gulp from the glass of wine in front of him (thinking and working made him thirsty!), and then a smile slowly began to spread all over his face. “That’s it! I’ll write a comedy where all the characters are animals that wear clothes and talk and walk on two legs, and my protagonist will be a cat! I’ll call it ‘The Cat Knight’. What do you think of that, Mistral? Would you like me to incorporate you into my new play?”
Mistral let out a loud meow, and then he abruptly jumped off the table and walked over to the corner where his bowl stood. He demonstratively positioned himself in front of it, let out a loud, pitiful sound as if he were starving and then looked at his owner accusingly. Tristan let out a deep sigh because he had just realized that his cat probably didn’t care about his job at all, walked over to the cupboard, took out some cat food and filled Mistral’s bowl to the brim.
Mistral began to sniff at the food, tried some and spit it right out again as if it were the most disgusting thing that he had ever eaten even though he had practically devoured it the trial before. And then he walked over to his scratching post, jumped onto the small platform on top and lay down, ignoring Tristan and pretending to fall asleep. Tristan watched him for a while, and then he walked into his bedroom, shaking his head as he did so. Mistral, he decided, was a really strange cat! He had never met an animal like him before!
He retrieved a book from his bookshelf – a book on the basics of playwriting that was in very questionable shape, a sign that it had been used frequently in the past – and then sat down at the kitchen table again and flipped through it until he had found the correct page. Although he had plenty of humour, he had never written a comedy before. Even though he didn’t normally care about following rules, he had come to the conclusion that it couldn’t hurt to at least take a look at what the book had to say about it.
<><><>
“A comedy”, Tristan read aloud because reading aloud made it easier for him to commit something to memory. “Is a play that is light and humorous and typically has a happy ending. Subgenres of the comedy include the farce, the comedy of manners, the burlesque, the black comedy and the satire.” He stopped reading there and grinned.
The word ‘burlesque’ had caught his attention. He imagined a couple of beautiful, curvy women in in lush and colourful costumes dancing in a most seductive manner and was thoroughly disappointed when the page in question didn’t even mentioned anything about that.
Apparently, he realized, a burlesque didn’t have anything to do with female nudity, but was a literary or dramatic work that sought to mock, usually be means of caricature and comic imitation. He furrowed his brow a bit as he considered that, and then he came to the conclusion while burlesques suffered from an unfortunate lack of dancers, the idea still had potential.
For now he wanted to write a more classical comedy though. He moved to a page that provided examples of various comedy plots. They all seemed rather boring and cliché to him – they were mostly about a hero and a heroine that were destined to be together, but had to overcome a lot of obstacles and suffered a lot of, usually amusing, miscommunication before their happy ending - but some elements, he decided, were usable.
He grabbed a pen, drank from his glass of wine, opened his notebook and started to write, paying a lot of attention to his spelling and grammar as he did so because nobody wanted to read the play of a playwright that didn’t know proper Common! Although, he thought, he could use intentionally bad Common as a literary element. Maybe he’d also have one of his characters use the wrong words on purpose. Some people were bound to find that funny!
He wrote, “The Cat Knight: Act 1” and immediately crossed it out again because he realized that the story he had in mind would work much better if his main character weren’t a simple knight, but something more fun. But what job should he give him then? He thought of all his friends and family members and what kind of jobs they had, and then he wrote, “The Cat King: Act 1”. That, he decided, was a lot better. His main character would be a good and honorable king with a big sword, a fluffy tail and bright yellow eyes that just loved to eat fresh mice and other rodents and murdered balls of yarn in his spare time.
He also needed a name for his main character, he realized. ‘King Mistral’ was a good name, but it was a little too obvious. Using people’s real names was something that was just not done in his opinion. His cat king would be ‘King Purr-a-lot’. It was a somewhat stupid name, but since he was writing a comedy and not a serious play, he was allowed to give his characters stupid names!
<><><>
King Purr-a-lot, Tristan wrote. Is unhappy. None of the noble women at his court do anything for him. They are boring and arrogant. Most of the people around him (that look like mean, old dogs) are just friends with him because he is the king and not because they genuinely like him. The food he eats has begun to taste stale. He doesn’t even enjoy destroying his beloved balls of yarn anymore. He has realized that the life he is leading doesn’t have anything to do with the reality that his subjects have to face on a daily basis. So he decides to take a break from his royal duties and live like a common citizen for a while.
He stopped here, furrowed his brow and wondered if such a thing would be realistic. King Cassander had once disguised himself as a slave, but he couldn’t imagine him just disappearing for a week or two and pretending not to be noble while he left ruling the kingdom up to the plotters and schemers at his court. A play, he decided, didn’t have to be realistic in every aspect though, especially not a comedy where everybody was an animal!
He continued to write. Soon he had the basics of his plot. King Purr-a-lot would move into a small house with a garden in the part of the city called Midtown (which had been inspired by Andaris’ Midtown). There he would struggle with everyday tasks like making his bed, cooking and gardening and be confused by a shovel and wonder what strange thing that was!
He would eventually meet a nice cat girl that lived down the street and that would think he was a bit weird, but still agree to help him. She would even help him find a job as a waiter at a local tavern. They would grow closer and eventually fall in love. The king would make up a story about how he was from another country to explain his behaviour. He would meet the girl’s parents (who looked like common house cats), lie some more and eventually realize that he needed to be honest with his girlfriend if he wanted the relationship to have a future.
The girl would be mad at him because he had lied (which was a bit unrealistic to be honest, in reality most girls would probably be overjoyed to find out that their boyfriend wasn’t actually a waiter, but the king). She would eventually forgive him though. They would get married, he would get rid of all the mean, old dogs in his court, and she would become his new queen, and they would live happily ever after and have a lot of kittens!
Content, Tristan put the pen down and drank the rest of his wine while he wondered how he could make his actors look like animals without involving magic (which would be a bad idea due to the side effects). He decided that he would have masks made for the play and have a tailor sew costumes made of fur. Of course the costumes would be rather warm, but the premiere of his play probably wouldn’t take place until Cylus, so hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad!
He would also dedicate his play to Zanik, he decided. He would dedicate all his plays to him from now on because Zanik had marked him, and he was his favourite male Immortal!
OOC: 1.589 words.
