Bigger, better, faster, now now now! When anyone can have anything, or at least a reasonable facsimile of it, is it any wonder that abstaining has become the status symbol? For a long time, they kept clinging to fine, minute details of difference, things that almost nobody could notice without training, or things that weren't actually perceivable--not really--but that they could tell others that THEY could perceive. Of course, this led in turn to stifling specialization by craftspeople who became known and valued because of that one little quirk that they had, the thing that they then had to do over and over again. It was driving us all mad as a society, and then a handful of the richest in society noticed and decided that they weren't enjoying things anymore, and after all, wasn't that the whole point? Then, of course, the ability to enjoy without having too much luxury that was just like everyone else's luxury, became the point. And from that was born a whole generation of austerity monks, the ultra-rich who have large, spacious, entirely empty homes, and walls entirely empty of art, halls entirely empty of statuary, and clothes that are lacking in designer labels and designs, just simple billowing things made from the softest fabric imaginable, cut in the most comfortable way. Most of them decided that this was boring, too, eventually--but enough stuck with it and found something deeper for it to become--


Inspiration: "never" -> "Never Never Never" -> "Grande Grande Grande"
Story Potential: Low.
Notes: Eh. Could be a fun background detail somewhere.

Pain swelled inside his heart, and he felt the dragon uncoiling and rising up, its teeth bared in a bloody grin. Scales rubbed against the inside of his skin. He cried out, but not from the knife shredding his flesh. He cried out because he knew the dragon was working its way through his veins to the break in his skin where it could split the puny shield of flesh that kept it bound. It had always been a risk, and he'd known it when he agreed to be the bearer of the dragon. He'd been guarded and protected. Every minor scrape had instantly been treated and covered, sewn tight to keep there from being a gap large enough for the dragon to escape. His flesh was puckered and seemed from all the places where stitches had been sewn into place around small scratches. No split of the skin--

Inspiration: "Pain" by Three Days Grace
Story Potential: High.
Notes: A very sheltered existence, to keep the dragon inside. And then he's kidnapped and tortured by those with Very Bad Motives. But the unexpected happens--the dragon doesn't *want* to come out? Or only a little, and without killing its host? The apocalypse is deferred? Or something, but now he must come to terms with the dragon inside. It would need to be written dark, but I can do dark....