recolle | 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

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.

Whatever it is, I'm sure you're forgiven by this point. Sorry about that.

[A joke! At least, the attempt. Seeing Alicia crying hurts but at least she's laughing, so a part of her figures she might as well run with that.]

But... you're welcome. Really, I couldn't do anything else. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself otherwise.

Whatever it was, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It's hard to imagine the last few months without you.

[An honest smile as she starts to settle down; she doesn't know how she wrapped back around from depressed to cheery, but she'll take it.]

I'm happy we're friends, Maya.

[Seeing Alicia's mood lighten, Maya's embarrassment catches up with her a bit, and she blushes at that.]

Mm, so am I... seems to be better for both of us if we keep an eye out on each other, huh?

Partners, then. We can watch out for each other and solve problems with our combined might. Between the two of us, what could go wrong?

[If nothing else, Maya is a calming influence, she's begun to notice. Curious.]

open | seal up the mouth of outrage for a while

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