recolle | open | seal up the mouth of outrage for a while

open | seal up the mouth of outrage for a while

WHO: Any and all involved or stopping by the rehearsals for the community theatre production of Romeo & Juliet.
WHERE: Recollé Community Center, located around the border of Tribunal Terrace and Apprassage.
WHEN: March 19th - April 6th
WHAT: Rehearsals for Romeo & Juliet proceed... mostly according to plan.
WARNINGS: None yet!

Rehearsals run according to a schedule, where not everyone is needed every session. People are invited to attend them all, but the people with the biggest roles need to come most often, and scenes are practiced both in the theatre and in smaller rooms within the community center depending on the space needs that day.

During one session, the overhead sprinkler system activates due to a system malfunction, leading to everyone being rained out of the community theatre. The show must go on! Towels and paper towels are rescued and offered around while rehearsal is then held on the community center basketball courts and playground.

In another session, a giant ship, wave, and a white whale cardboard cutout have been brought out on stage while storage rooms are being cleared out. Ready to get your spontaneous Moby Dick on? There aren't any harpoons, but the practice foam swords might be a good theatrical stand-in.

In yet another rehearsal, three chihuahuas end up running havoc through the theatre, requiring coralling and capturing. They're flighty and good at hiding, but mysteriously are attracted to cheese and anyone speaking cheesey love lines (Romeo and Juliet, looking at you); they also gleefully run off with any script left low enough for them to reach, attempting to tear it to shred.

As stage sets are built and pained, the stagehands helping out may be on hand to help fill in as extras on set, or nab an actor currently not reading lines to help move pieces of the scenery. They also need to test out the balcony they've rigged: surely you won't mind getting up there and leaning over to wave down at your companion in set-construction hell? Too bad the ladder breaks after you've reached the top. Fifteen feet isn't much of a fall! (Don't fall, please.)

Costume fittings and make-up tests are part of later rehearsals, but they're supremely necessary. Helping each other in and out of costumes, helping with the costumes themselves, getting pinned up, getting measured; all of it happens as the co-director's vision is brought to life. Only why does everything seem to be so.. fancy? (Because they're going full game of thrones on the costumes — it's a mish mash of styles!) And why are you in costume and being requested to helping go for the emergency coffee? Go on. No one's going to stare too much! Cosplayers!!!

There may be an impromptu fashion show, there may be ongoing choreography for group scenes as well as the fighting scenes. What happens if Mercutio or Tybalt refuses to die? Sometimes you just want to live, guys. You want to live.

Remember, when it comes to luck, all should be wishing each other to break a leg. Enjoy the food when it's catered, enjoy the arguments over line delivery, enjoy repeating the same stage entrance in countless tiny variations, enjoy the set construction, enjoy the choreography, enjoy the costuming or the makeup; enjoy anything you get up to, or complain loudly. It's all part of the experience!

Just what kind of trouble do you get up to?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's probably a good thing Maya isn't calling her on how much pain she's in - it's not severe, but boy, does she ache. At the hovering comment, though, Alicia's smile returns for true and she starts to laugh, if only for a moment - she sputters, holding her stomach tighter.]

Oh, don't make me laugh, Maya, that hurts worse! But I appreciate it, truly. I'll be careful - I don't know that being up here too much longer is good for my health, so if I have to force myself down through some pain, that's what I'll do. I, ah, might need that minute to start again, though.

[She doesn't bother to hide the deep breaths, now, but somehow she seems calmer. A start, perhaps?]

[Her eyelashes flicker with concern as she sees Alicia's reaction to laughing. On the one hand, making Alicia laugh she be something good! On the other hand, well. It clearly isn't this time. Without any further preamble, Maya hefts herself up onto the balcony, sitting and dangling her legs over the side.]

Well, then! That's just fine, I've got a minute, I can wait until you're ready.

[She beams back at her.] No need to rush it at the moment, right?

[Alicia likes Maya, she really does. But her blood runs cold when she hears the sound of Maya pulling herself the rest of the way up onto the balcony, and there's a faint creak even she barely catches.]

Maya, ah... I'm glad you came up to check on me, truly. But-

[-no, she can't let anything happen. This isn't the time to keep up appearances. She takes a deep breath, working to banish her pain for a moment.]

Please, head back down. I don't want you to get hurt, and I don't trust this balcony to hold up forever. Here, I'm coming- gah!

[The sound escapes her as she takes a wide, purposeful step toward Maya, looking to rush her back down the ladder. Clearly she isn't as okay as she's pretending to be, arm returning to just above her waist. If the worst occurs, she at least knows how to land well, and could probably grab onto something if she had to, though not for long. Maya, though... Maya isn't trained in any of those things. She'd just fall, and the thought makes her even more uncomfortable than she would have expected.]

L-leave me... I'll be fine, I'll be down soon. Hurry-!

[She can't do much to protect that smile at the moment, as another, more pronounced creak makes itself known. But if she can get Maya back to the ground safely, that'll be a good start.]

[...eep. She lets out a little squeak, hearing both the squeaking, and the panic raising quickly in Alicia's voice. She waves a hand and shakes her head.]

No, no. I get you. BUT DON'T RUSH! I'm not gonna let you hurt yourself, okay?

[She flashes another smile regardless, trying to be reassuring.] Heh, sorry...! I was just worried about you...!

[She scrambles quickly then for the ladder, and ... uh, grabs the sides of it and kind of both slides and hops down. With... limited effort.

You might be a little overly worried about her ability to catch herself on the way down, Alicia.

She looks back up as she reaches the bottom, that reassuring smile still there.]

Don't rush, but I'm not going anywhere down here!

[Alicia flashes a more pained smile as Maya agreed and drops... and then she blinks at Maya's mode of descent, before shaking her head slightly, murmuring as she watches the other girl touch down.]

Well, if I'd known that... alas, too late now. She's safe enough. That just leaves... me.

[Padding over to the edge of the balcony and the newly-placed ladder, Alicia looks down, and for a moment wants to recoil. Fifteen feet has never looked so unfriendly in her life, even having been in high places like this before. Still... can't stay here, or she's going to end up going down fifteen feet without anything to control her speed. Gingerly, she climbs onto the ladder, hissing but working to suppress her pain for just a few moments more. There's another creak from the structure, which decides her, and she goes down as fast as she can handle.

Which isn't that fast, in the grand scheme (and certainly not compared to Maya more or less ignoring the ladder), but will get her to the ground in a minute or two. Which is about thirty seconds too long, as the balcony issues a larger groan and the whole thing shifts, the ladder losing its placement and starting to slide sideways with Alicia still on it a few rungs up.

Her eyes go wide, and without really thinking about it, she pushes off it and backwards, clearing it handily as she gets a bit of hangtime. That does bring it down more quickly, and it hits the stage with a great crash.

Alicia herself, mind, is heading for the stage, and is preparing for... if not a great crash, at least a highly unpleasant landing that she's trying to blunt as best she can. It may not go well. Especially given Maya's likely below her.]

[Well, that's a lot that happens in only a few seconds. Maya's possible actions are very limited, very small: either try to catch her and risk being hurt herself in the process, or don't and have Alicia end up assuredly much worse.

Easy decision, really. Maya's a strong enough girl, but seeing her friend in freefall, even if she wasn't, she'd probably do the same without hesitation, something that in retrospect when her head has cleared might even surprise her.

Thus, she holds out her arms to try and catch the falling actress. And... as she feels Alicia's weight hit her, and tug against her arms, she almost stumbles but somehow still manages to stay upright. She shifts her stance just slightly to stay balanced, and lets out a long breath.

Something is misfiring in her brain, and just the way this looks doesn't quite sink in yet.]

Uh.

Hiya! Told you I'd keep an eye out!

[This is not Alicia's idea of a safe stunt; if her father ever hears about this, that action sequence will be delayed a few more years, if it ever happens at all. As she falls, there's a strong undercurrent of fear running through her, even as she knows she can more or less catch herself in an emergency. Maya being below her somewhere is rapidly turning into an afterthought. With the injury she's already taken, her mind is closing in on itself, unwilling to accept outcomes that don't involve rather a lot of pain-

-until, for a tiny flash, there's a feeling of something soft. Someone's in the way, but there's not enough of the right resistance for Alicia to have fallen on them - is someone trying to catch her? Everything is terribly fast from there, and she lurches toward the ground, but doesn't quite make it, eyes screwed shut in resignation of something that isn't coming. She finally realizes, a couple long seconds later, that her fall has stopped entirely - she's safe. Almost unwilling to believe it, she opens her eyes, to find she's in Maya's arms. The situation is so surreal that, for a moment, her mind completely blanks. For all her posturing that she could handle more or less anything, her insistence not to worry about her, not only is this a situation where one really should worry about her, but she's been rescued. It's so far outside expectation that it doesn't compute.

But she comes back online, and blood rushes to her face as she realizes the situation she's in. Her usual poise and light banter are nowhere to be found as she stammers her way through-]

M-Maya... you... why- how...?

[-something. She's shaking a little, enough Maya should be able to feel it, but aside from being very surprised and disoriented, she's fine.]

[Maya, well. Didn't really think about it when she did it. Alicia was in danger, and regardless of her own personal safety, she had to do something the adrenaline hasn't really let her own emotions really catch up to her actions, and she lets out a breath, trying to gently move Alicia into a better position so that she can stand.]

Haha, I mean... I couldn't just let you hit the ground, right?

[Of course, then she feels Alicia shaking, the way she's stumbling over words, the redness seeping into her face. She feels her own face begin to heat up a bit, but it's a little too late to do anything else, so she clears her throat, trying to maintain composure until the situation has resolved itself a little more. It's the least she could do, especially after Alicia saved her bacon during the blackout.] I- I mean, you're okay, right?

Y-you... [Couldn't let...? No, that's not right. Something's wrong with that comment-]

Maya. Maya, you absolutely could have. An ordinary girl wouldn't... wouldn't even have tried. I could have crushed you.

[As she feels herself being shifted in Maya's arms so she can stand on her own two feet, she considers the last thirty seconds again, and can't come to any other conclusion than the one she just presented. As soon as she feels the end of a shoe brush against the ground, she shifts herself, standing up with a bit of a waver. Her face is flushed scarlet, but she shakes her head all the same as she turns to Maya properly.]

I am okay. I think I have you to thank for that. Certainly, I could have made that landing. I would have been worse for wear as a result, likely have broken something, but I could have. But because of you, I am fine. I...

[Her mind is still kind of hung up on the fact that Maya is the sole reason she's not a pained, likely broken mess on the stage right now. Given that, she favors Maya with a dazzling smile, hoping that communicates everything she's thinking and certain it doesn't. Still, it's what she has right now. It'll do.]

...Thank you, Maya. From the bottom of my heart.

[Maya laughs unevenly, feeling her embarrassment rise. Any attempts to push it aside wane as Alicia rights herself on the floor, the adrenaline draining out of her. She looks momentarily nervous, but shakes her head.]

No, no! I couldn't have done that! If you had gotten hurt and I could've done something to stop it, I wouldn't forgive myself, y'know?

[At the smile, Maya is full on blushing, and she laughs a bit more, scratching her cheek.]

Ah- ah, you're welcome! But are you sure you're totally okay...? You were hurt up top there, too! Come on, let's get you a seat, alright?

That's even more proof I asked the right person to keep an eye on me. Knowing and doing are... not always the same thing, you know? Especially when it's someone famous. Talk is cheap. This was... expensive. I-in a good way!

[Oh god, she can't shut up, she's just kind of happily babbling while also trying to get over the stress of almost dying more or less, oh god oh god-]

Y-yes. That's... probably a good idea. It's hard to feel the pain through the adrenaline and knowing I almost got really hurt, but it'll come back soon enough. I'm- [The words take a moment to come out of her mouth, but by the time she says them she's certain of them.] -going to let you lead, okay? I'm probably not the best for it right now.

[Her confidence is kind of shot; Alicia's just going to let herself go on autopilot and trust Maya to make sure things go okay. The girl's earned that much trust, several times over now.]

[Well, this is different - Alicia babbling like that is both unusual and sort of endearing, so she's content to let her do it, even as she gently takes her by the hand while holding another on her shoulder to help her walk along.

Which is, okay, yes. A bit enough and close enough to make her own ears go red, but she's still more concerned with Alicia's well being.]

Okay, then! Just follow me, I'll get you a seat and then we can make sure you're not too badly hurt, alright? Better safe than sorry.

[Says the girl who jumped down off the ladder.

Don't concern her with the details.] Still not done keeping an eye on you, yeah?

[Maya's closeness is reassuring, and it's helping to get her feet back under her, metaphorically this time. So as she's led forward, the same warm smile doesn't really ever leave her face. Nor does the blush, mind; she's still vaguely aware of the mess her emotions are, she just doesn't care right now.]

I appreciate that. Clearly I need a keeper sometimes. Otherwise I'll get into trouble, mm?

[...it's a bit hard to keep both her body and her voice from quivering a bit now that the adrenaline is fading, but she's doing her best. It may or may not be working.]

[At least Alicia's moving, that's the most important thing, and what Maya continues to focus on. The rest will sort itself out soon enough. Maybe.]

Mm, trust me - I think my mother's told me the same thing from time to time. No reason I can't watch out for someone else in the meantime, right?

No, of course not. You're off to a good start so far, I think.

[She can't quite keep the shake out of her voice now; more than anything else she's just drained, but it's not helping her emotional control, or even her physical control. Her steps, normally light and easy, are audible for the first time perhaps all show, and she feels... heavy, strained. But she's forcing one foot in front of the other for the moment.]

I have a feeling... I'll be depending on you a little bit, Maya. I should probably apologize in advance.

Don't worry, and don't apologize! These things happen, right?

[She can kind of feel how "off" Alicia is. It feels like she's doing a lot of the moving, and angles towards the nearest seat she can see.] Depend all you want, I just don't want anything to happen to you, alright?

They... they do, I guess... Ah, okay, I-I will. I... I'll be... ugh.

[Alicia's self-control breaks right about the moment Maya gets her poured into a couch some distance from the stage. She stays upright for a second after being deposited, but it's only for a couple seconds before she falls sideways onto it, breath coming short and hands shaking badly.]

I won't- be okay. I... I almost died, how could I be okay? I-

[She has just enough presence of mind to stop talking before she bites her tongue or something, but she's in a bad way, tears streaming sideways across her face she's not aware are coming out. She's been playing tough, but this was just a touch more than she could handle, and the breakdown attached to barely surviving is catching up to her.]

[For just a moment, Maya almost panics. But that would be the last thing Alicia needs right now, so instead she drops down beside her as Alicia falls over onto the length of the couch.]

A- Alicia...?

[There is a lot of worry in her eyes, and she reaches out. Alicia will feel a hand on her cheek, and Maya certainly feels the tears as well.]

Alicia, it's okay, I'm right here...! How bad does it hurt? Do we need to get you to a doctor...? Just say it, I'll do anything you need me to...!

[Doctor? Doctor means it might not hurt, but they'll call Father, and-]

No! I- a-ah. No doctor... Father will... mm...

[The shout surprised even her, but she's freaking out. It's Maya's light touch that starts to bring her back to herself; Alicia's whole body jolts when she notices, but with a huge effort she starts to bring herself back under control. Her voice comes out low and rough, but when she speaks again, it's with a little more surety in her words. Just a little.]

...s-stay with me. Maya... don't leave me alone.

[Some tiny part of her recognizes she's being needy, and at the same time knows she's putting a lot of faith in Maya. But most of her just needs the human contact to remind her she isn't dead. One hand works to move toward Maya's on her cheek, horribly unsteady but moving all the same. Something in her expression is more haunted than she's ever showed.]

[Maya's heart is beating like a drum, loud enough she feels like something is just banging in her ears. Still, her resolve to see Alicia okay gives her a lot of focus - she'll be a lot more flustered later on, especially as she feels Alicia's hand on her own cheek.

She's really worried, but she gives a warm and reassuring - if somewhat thin - smile.]

It's okay, Alicia. Or- at least, it will be, alright? I'll make sure of that! No matter what. Just... breathe try and calm down, okay?

R-right. Breathe...

[Given she's about a step away from hyperventilating, that's probably important. Alicia visibly forces herself to take deep breaths, even as her body shakes from both silent sobs and the adrenaline crash. It's working, but slowly.

At some point, her hands shift, both of them reaching down to grab Maya's hand touching Alicia's cheek. It's reassuring, but she also needs something to anchor her, and absently she has an awkward feeling that Maya is too far away from her right now for that. Emotionally, relationship-wise, perhaps not physically... but her heart hurts, and she doesn't know how to make it stop, so she's letting her emotions reach out in hopes of getting herself to calm down.]

[Slowly is fine, so long as it is, you know, working. She lets out a breath herself, her smile widening as both of the other girl's hands take hers.]

See? You just need to ... calm down a little, okay? I'm not going anywhere. As long as you need me to, alright?

[She hopes if she keeps saying reassuring things, Alicia will at least manage to right herself, mentally. She hopes.]

C-calm down, she says... If only it were so easy.

[She's getting there, but she has a feeling she'd have already shut down without a familiar face keeping her grounded. What a disaster...]

Sorry, Maya. This... probably isn't the image of me you had a few months ago.

[Melancholy is rapidly joining all her other wild emotions, though at least shock is leaving the list almost as fast, as she takes at least some comfort from the closeness.]

[Maya's eyes flutter at that statement, and she shakes her head.]

Well, nothing really could be, could it? Before I met you, I just knew you through a screen, but I didn't know Alicia!

But the Alicia I've known since then is even better than that, so... [She smiles brighter.] I'm not worried about that! And you shouldn't be either. Bad things happen to everyone... I wouldn't judge you for that, just like you didn't judge me when you found me in the dark...

[Before she can really process it, as Alicia listens to Maya, everything seems to go further out of whack with her emotional control; she lets out a watery laugh, sobbing harder and gripping Maya's hand tight even as she smiles.]

Oh, Maya, I don't know what I did to deserve you. I...

[She sniffs, trying to get herself under some kind of control again and not having a good time of it.]

Thank you, truly.

open | seal up the mouth of outrage for a while

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