Class Bonding

A senior once commented last year about it. About the ACSian life, the ACSian IB life, how IB life is destructive in culture.

He told me what the second batch was like. He told me what the pioneer batch was like. I thought to myself that I as the third batch would be different.

I started thinking otherwise sometime in, but never gave it much thought.

Then someone reminded me again that it has been there all along.

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The Prince: You are excused, O' Jack the Jester. The doctors have said you feel unwell and need your due rest.

The Jester: I thank the prince for his benevolence. I shall do my best to rest.

The Prince: Pardon me if I ask, though. What is wrong with you, Jack? It has been ages since you have fallen sick, and this has taken many of the family by surprise.

The Jester: I'm afraid, prince, that you will not understand the reason for which I find myself sick.

The Prince: Do you imply that I am not well-read, Jack? I assure you I am as knowledgeable as the doctors in the mainland.

The Jester: Yet it is by no disease that I find myself ill, prince. A jester may jest but when it is not in his capability to do so, neither is it in his capability to lie very well.

The Prince: What of it then? The illness.

The Jester: ...stress.

The Prince: A jester? Stressed? Surely you perform your job well even in illness.

The Jester: Perhaps I do, but in that case it is your foolishness doing my job for me. Do you remember the inclusion of the other royal house into our family?

The Prince: Yes, my brother's recent wed to the lone daughter of a particularly influential house. So much that not only does the wife have a say in political issues, even her parents do.

The Jester: Indeed. The ill-willed politics have caused my sickness.

The Prince: What do you mean? I see the House is very much intact and fine - I see my sister-in-law getting along with my brother and parents, I see the chefs cheerfully doing their jobs, and I see the maids cleaning the mansions the way they have always done. What is so different?

The Jester: Have you seen where everyone's allegiances stand?

The Prince: A slight idea.

The Jester: The two parents are at ideological oppositions. Your brother and sister-in-law find themselves rather stressed out every now and then due to the political conflicts at hand.

The Prince: I have never noticed such a thing! How can this be so? My brother has been fine every time I visit him! Speak as a person and not as a profession, Jack!

The Jester: Yet the very fact that I am sick should explain to you why your siblings are not, o prince. I must say that I do pride myself very much with a job well done, though.

The Prince: What do you mean, o Jester?

The Jester: Have you seen the kind of emotions that the two parties share with each other? Have you seen the stress on their children? Have you seen the faces of servants ill-treated by enraged masters? I assume not. I have kept this place peaceful singlehandedly, prince, and it is about time that the workload that comes from doing so get the better of me.

The Jester: Though I may be a mere Jester, I must do my job well in order to keep the bond of the House strong, o Prince. That, or perhaps a day will come where the House will collapse from its weak supports?

The Prince: Speak not of ominous words, Jack. They suit you not. Rest.

The Jester: Such might be closer than you give credit for, o Prince.

Such things closer to the heart than expected.

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