Well, this is where it came up, mainly. WRT the more on topic part - it sounds a bit like the backstory scene of Twoflower's Slayers Trilogy fics. To paraphrase:
A golden-haired little girl sang happily, looking down into the project She'd just finished. One of the boys wandered over, and She held it out proudly for him to see. "Look at my butterflies!" She said. Indeed, the terrarium was populated by tiny, short-lived creatures, flitting around and doing their own thing.
"Laaaame..." He complained, poking at it to make them react. He dropped in an altogether different sort of bug, and watched it catch and pull the wings off of one of the colorful little ones with much more interest. "See, now it's much cooler!"
"Meanie! Get away from my butterflies!" She yelled, kicking the boy in the shin. "Now how am I supposed to get that out without breaking everything?"
Note, it's now fifteen years since I read these, so this is apt to be a very loose rendition.
http://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/Slayers_Trilogy
I'm not saying this is any kind of bad thing, just that it's an example to either intentionally reference or to intentionally avoid making a reference to. I think that as a framing device it works fairly well, in fact.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
A golden-haired little girl sang happily, looking down into the project She'd just finished. One of the boys wandered over, and She held it out proudly for him to see. "Look at my butterflies!" She said. Indeed, the terrarium was populated by tiny, short-lived creatures, flitting around and doing their own thing.
"Laaaame..." He complained, poking at it to make them react. He dropped in an altogether different sort of bug, and watched it catch and pull the wings off of one of the colorful little ones with much more interest. "See, now it's much cooler!"
"Meanie! Get away from my butterflies!" She yelled, kicking the boy in the shin. "Now how am I supposed to get that out without breaking everything?"
Note, it's now fifteen years since I read these, so this is apt to be a very loose rendition.
http://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/Slayers_Trilogy
I'm not saying this is any kind of bad thing, just that it's an example to either intentionally reference or to intentionally avoid making a reference to. I think that as a framing device it works fairly well, in fact.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows