fandomhigh | MSND [slowplay]

...

.

As she stepped onstage, Zero could possibly be heard hissing to herself. "Don't squall it up! I'm not going to--and what does that even--will you just be quiet?" She waited for her cue, and then,

"The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
She never had so sweet a changeling;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there."

She really seemed to be getting into it. Really feeling the character, as it were. But then, "There. You see? Okay, so you didn't squall it up...am I talking out loud? Yes. Bugger."

Allie followed Zero on stage and recited in a bored tone:

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

Puck shot the fairy a Look. If they didn't do this right, he had a feeling his horse would make good on her promise of coming after him with a mallet. And the whole point of being a trickster was supposed to be not facing the consequences of your actions.

"Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon."

He pantomimed his various tricks, enjoying the reminiscence. The girl apparently did not feel his pleasure. "What the squall was that? You made me look like an idiot," she hissed under her breath as he stepped aside for his lord and master.

Fairy!Allie caught the look and interjected more enthusiasm as she delivered her next line.

And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

Smiling as He knows the scene so well, Oberon stalks onto the stage, looking for whoever it is who will be playing his liege lady. He may absently smooth his kilt as he stands tall, alert and austere.

"Pet his arms," Zero hissed. "What? Look at them, pet his arms! ...they are very nice arms, but--are you sure? I WILL MALLET YOU! I'm petting, I'm petting!" Puck inched toward Oberon and started patting his arm. The girl seemed to calm down immediately. Thank Mab.

To keep her quiet, Titania allows the girl to dance onto the stage, rage whirling fast in circles as she makes her entrance, then reasserts control again as she comes to a stop in front of Oberon.

Fair, I see. Well, he always was.

Lee's better than fair, and even if I'm mad at him, your husband better not do anything to him!

And her rage and Parker's merged, her desire and Parker's thwarted feelings, and they both gave their husband/lover/friend a scimitar of a smile.

Amused by the young sprite at his arm, Oberon smiles down at her and has to regain his calm as he recognizes his henchman at once, though inhabiting another form. A wicked smile grows across his human lips and he winks at her.

At last the human playing his wife arrives and He is most pleased, but hides it with a look of fury. Let us see how she will react to this...

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," he breathes (loud enough for the audience to hear yet soft and deep enough to rattle the stage).

"What, jealous Oberon!" And oh, it is good that he is jealous, good that he, given his many, many crimes against their marriage, dares still to want her. The girl agrees readily, and her chin goes up in the gesture she practiced with the Lord Shaper, regal and cold.

"Fairies, skip hence: I have forsworn his bed and company." As if they needed to be informed. As if all did not know why they were here, this night, because of his calumny.

"Tarry, rash wanton," he almost roared, hoping to see the human jump. He stalked towards her, watching her intensely. He grabbed her arm and forced her three steps closer so that she was flush against him. "Am not I thy lord?"

And it was at that moment that he realized that he wasn't the only royal fairy on the stage. And that She was inhabiting this insignificant human female.

Oh, he was fucked.

"Then I must be thy lady," Titania purred, leaning toward him a hair's breath closer, and the laughter in the back of her mind was as familiar as her own. Oh, he had thought himself so clever, did he? Had not imagined she would know him first? Her delight and malice must be visible in the farthest row.

She gave his hand on her arm a look of scorn, and freed herself with one quick pull, stepping back, ice coating her words. "But I know when thou hast stolen away from fairy land," always, always, every time, "and in the shape of Corin sat all day, playing on pipes of corn and versing love to amorous Phillida."

The girl folded her/their arms, more slowly than was her wont, and leaned back on her spine, allowing her smile to fade to nothingness. "Why art thou here, come from the farthest Steppe of India?"

The internal snarl on that brought of a flash of other young women to mind, both blonde, both athletic, and lovely enough for Oberon to favor them. Acid would taste kinder than her next words. Oberon, you fool. Lee, you idiot.

" But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love-- to Theseus must be wedded," she drawled, repeating words written for her, for her sake, and hers alone, no matter what Oberon had ever believed; the Lord Shaper had been kind in this parting gift. "And you come to give their bed joy and prosperity."

He had them write the play for you?

From one love to another.

And that kept the girl quiet in shock for several seconds.

Re: ACT II, Scene I

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Re: ACT II, Scene I

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Re: ACT II, Scene I

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.

Negotiations with the mortal were not going well.

You will let me do part of this, or I'll scream and I'll scream and you'll never get through it all.

I could muffle you forever.

But you won't. The girl's knowledge of Dream was a sticking point. A pity she had not retreated, but there was little time for stronger measures now.

So again, the girl was allowed to walk onto the stage, to dance under the lights, then come to a halt.

"Come, now a roundel and a fairy song," and Titania took their/her voice back, turning to the transformed court. So far, they had held to her orders; but the temptations of this place, for mischief or merry-making, were beginning to call to them.

" Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats,"

And again, the thought: no one would mis a few of these infants--

No.Way. In. Hell.

The girl's fury on that point would not be gainsaid. Yet.

"--and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits."

One of the better presents ever given her, this shadow play.

" Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest."

Titania curled into the 'bed' they had laid for her, and closed her eyes with a smile.

And now, for amusement that Oberon would very much not approve....

Okay,what?

With stealth, he slinks onto the stage and slides alongside the "sleeping " Titania, placing a hand on her stomach, thumb caressing her through the leather. The human child is pretty, he thinks, more beautiful than most but colder than he likes. And not blonde. But he's not here to torment her anymore, but that all-too-familiar creature deep inside.

Leaning over her, he presses a light kiss on her cheek followed by her neck and then her lips as well, a seal of his love, albeit twisted.

"You dare take these liberties, within mortal sight?" Titania's fury radiates from her, despite her stillness, her closed eyes, and the softness of her voice, inaudible to all save him. "Oh, husband. You shall regret this deeply. And soon."

"" he breathes back almost inaudibly, deeply amused.

He pulls the flower from his ear and dramatically squeezes it over her eyelids, the very important plot point important for the audience to see while a true fairy would be far less Romantic in how he or she or it administered the juice of a magicked flower.

In a gentle, sing song, he gave the spell: " What thou seest when thou dost wake, do it for thy true-love take, Love and languish for his sake," and he caresses her hair as he whispers the poetic cruelty, "Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, pard, or boar with bristled hair, in thy eye that shall appear when thou wakest, it is thy dear."

He got to his feet and laughed merrily, his hands on his hips. "Wake when some vile thing is near,," he almost spat before sauntering off stage, a smile on his lips.

Blair swaggered on stage and yawned loudly, before sprawling on a fake hill.

"One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth."

He crooked a finger at Nadia and patted the ground next to him.

Nadia skipped over and sat down next to Blair. She hoped he was going to play with her because she was still bored.

No playing, you have a line.

But I don't wanna.

You're a big girl, aren't you?

She pouted but said her line.

"Nay, good Loserander; for my sake, my dear,
Lie furver off yet, do not lie so near."

"Can we play now?" she whispered.

Blair scooted closer to Nadia, slipping a hand behind her.

"O, take the sense, sweetheart, of my innocence!"
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
so that but one heart we can make of it;
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then two bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie."

He growled low in his throat and whispered, "I for sure don't lie. I wouldn't mind lying next to that bosom of yours."

He wanted to take a nap? She hated naps.

But at least she didn't have to say any more stupid lines.

So Nadia laid down next to Blair and pretended to be asleep.

Puck meandered back out onstage, looking frustrated. Whether with Zero or the missing lovers, it was hard to know.

"Through the forest have I gone.
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence.--Who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
This is he, my master said,
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul! she durst not lie
Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy."

Puck froze. That...that had been the girl. And she'd definitely been feeling those words.

"Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
When thou wakest, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid."

He squeezed the flower over the boy's eyelids, muttering, "Oi, don't kneel like that! They can see up my skirt!" He rolled his eyes as he finished his lines,

So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon."

Then he bounded to his feet and dashed offstage to find a quiet corner and explain to the girl why she couldn't kick the king of Fairy in the shins.

Callisto swaggered back onto the stage, she crooked her finger in Logan's direction. "Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius," she crooned.

"Stay!" He threw out a hand to keep her away and backed off. "- on thy peril. I alone will go!" He dashed offstage.

ACT II

ACT II, Scene I

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ACT II, Scene II

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