fandomhigh | How to Make a Radchaai Entertainment; Friday, First Period [05/22].

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radchaai entertainment

How to Make a Radchaai Entertainment; Friday, First Period [05/22].

"Morning, everyone!" said Amaya, greeting the class eagerly because, let's face it, she was just sort of used to pulling most of the conversational weight when she co-taught a class, so it was just habit for her to take charge right out the gate. "I hope you're feeling inspired today, because we're going to get started on developing our Radchaai entertainment. Now, there are two ways we could approach this story, and that's character-driven or plot-driven," maybe? She didn't actually know, but she'd read something like that!, "and we thought it would be more interesting to start with character-driven, so that's why today, you'll be working on what kind of character you'd like to play in our entertainment, and then next week, we'll figure out how to put all your unique characters together in the plot."

That was how it worked, right? Maybe? It made sense to her, and so why not?

"In general," Amaya added, "there are certain character archetypes that typically make up a good entertainment, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to have those characters, but, in general, that's what'll fit in nicely with a good plot."

Seivarden, finally managing to get a word in, added: "Not all archetypes work well in a Radchaai entertainment, and since that is what we're making, we might have to adjust your first ideas."

"So today's about workshopping!" One of Amaya's favorite words, even if the context was just slightly different. "Think about what character you want to play, make a proposal, decide how they might fit in with the characters your fellow actors might want to play, and we'll see if they're a good fit or what direction we might want to take them."

And that was...it! Time to grab some tea and start brainstorming some ideas that one teacher would likely put down while the other actively encouraged them!

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Acting like a real character!

Wayne

Ulysses Zane

Tahani al-Jamil

Seivarden let Amaya do most of the talking, while looking at the students. She wasn't sure what to expect from them. Tisarwat would come up with something suitable, of course, but Seivarden didn't really know her taste in entertainments.

But, of course, there was plenty of tea to help yourself to for inspiration.

"We have a few character types we need," Seivarden said. "A hero. An enemy. A love interest. A best friend. Any particular type that interest you?"

She looked at the students. "Suggest a character, listen to the feedback and discuss what kind of relationship you have to the others."

This should be....interesting! Yes let's go with that.

Wayne actually...had a few ideas, of the sort of character he might be able to play for this disaster of a movie they were apparently going ot make in this movie, but none of them seemed to really fit, so he might have to appeal to his classmates and instructors on this one.

"I don't..." he started, squinted a bit, then tried again. "I don't s'pose there were too many farmer types on space ships, realleh...."

Because of course, if he was going to play anything, it would probably have to pert'near just be...himself. But, you know....in space.

"No," Seivarden said firmly. "No farmers."

Really.

Yeah, Wayne had sort of been expectin' a response like that.

"But how you gonna be stuck on a spaceship fer all that time," he, who had barely left his tiny little rural podunk hometown, reasoned, to the person who actually did live on a spaceship fer plenty of time, "and not have any fresh food? You jus' gonna survive on rations the whole time? Freeze-dried, mega-dried, salted and canned processed junk fer for however long? What if there was some sort of hydroponics situation goin' on? You could prob'ly have hydroponics on yer spaceship, or at least a botonist or something..."

Despite the arguments, he was not, in fact, married to this space farmer idea, but he felt it was still good enough of one to be given a fair shake in the court of his peers and instructors.

Seivarden paused.

"There is skel, and it's completely irrelevant to the plot."

"We don't know that," Wayne pointed out. "We haven't gotten to plot yet, it could be about anything, even skel. Fuck, I'd watch a movie about skel."

Then his head tilted.

"Now what's skel?"

He wasn't just bein' contrarian, after all. He'd gladly watch a movie about skel if it meant knowin' what skel was.

"Skel is what you eat if there's no other option," Seivarden said. "It's boring and nutritious, and it's not grown on ships. Nothing to make a movie about."

She looked horrified.

"They made a movie about corn," said Wayne. "Why not a movie about...skel?"

It was said with a particular emphasis and a particular squint that seemed to suggest he might actually be growing quite fond of the word. Amaat save them all.

"Doesn't even have to be the whole movie about skel, could just be a character about skel. Doesn't even gotta be a farmer of skel, mebbe just a scientist-type that's taken to studying...skel."

"There will be no entertainment about skel," Seivarden said firmly, looking around for Amaya to support this decision.

"I would like to be the star," Tahani said immediately.

As long as she didn't want to be a space farmer star Seivarden was fine with that, so she smiled.

"What kind of star?"

"A very large one," Tahani said. "Like Gwyneth Paltrow."

"What kind of character is she?" Seivarden, who had never heard of Gwyneth Paltrow, asked.

They're some pretty interesting characters in their own right, really.

Especially the two of them together.

Seivarden was here, prepared to offer her opinions on any characters the students came up with.

And Amaya was here, prepared to mostly just gently sway as much as possible away from the mushy stuff in firmly into the let's-blow-everything-up stuff.

She wanted this to actually be somewhat good, after all.

And the same could probably be said for her, too.

How convenient that Tisarwat's other creative workshop for this session earlier in the week also talked about characters, so that by the time this class came around, she actually had a few sheets of paper with an incredibly detailed and thoughtout character to propose for her own part, but the thing was that it hinged pretty heavily on the possibility of adding another part, and so she was going to sit on her proposal for just a few minutes, to wait and see what the others might have to bring to the table, so she could know how to best work her idea in with theirs in a convincing way that would make it difficult for Amaya to back out of joining the cast.

For the sake of the entertainment, of course! Tisarwat wanted to just tell a good story and do her culture proud! There were absolutely no ulterior motives in this whatsoever. Really!

But it would seem, Tisarwat, that no amount of preparation or well-thought-out character worksheets would save you from the cruel twist of fate. Because you weren't theh only one that had an idea for your role in all this nonsense, and Amaya had the added confidence of knowing that her coteacher thought it was a good idea when she'd brought it up (although she couldn't for the life of her figure out why she seemed so amused when she suggested that Amaya be the one to bring it up to her).

She hoped she could make this quick, though, to get back to the discussion before Seivarden let that Tahani turn this whole thing into a goopy, mushy, romantic mess.

"Tisarwat!" she greeted the TA with a grin and a rallying pump of her fist. "Real quick, before we get too far into this, I wanted to talk to you about an idea we had that I think might really take this thing to the next level, and you're the only one with the expertise to pull it off right and proper."

Tisarwat's brows shot up.

"You had an idea for me?"

On the one hand, that seemed to make all the work and effort she'd put into her own character seem like a giant waste of time, but, on the other hand, Amaya had thought about her!

A smile brightened on her face, and she wondered if her current character sheets would make good fuel for the forge.

"I'm flattered!" she said. "I mean, it does make sense, though, doesn't it, as the only other person besides you and Seivarden with experience in the subject matter, to give me a part that might help carry the entertainment where it might...falter a little." And she knew for a fact that she was an incredible actor; it had actually saved her life to be so. "Now I'm excited to hear what it is! What did you have in mind?"

"I don't think there's anyone here who could do her even a little bit of a justice," said Amaya, throwing on the encouragement although Tisarwat always did seem oddly compliant with most of her suggestions when she had them for the young Radchaai, "so it just makes sense. I feel she always makes an appearance in all the good entertainments, so we'd like you to play our Lord of the Radch."

Considering Amaya's impression of the Lord of the Radch was almost entirely built on her as depicted in these entertainments, it seemed to her to be quite the honor and a coveted role for anyone. The Lord of the Radch definitely seemed like Kind Of a Big Deal.

There was...a pause.

A significant pause.

Well. She wasn't wrong; there was definitely no one in this entire universe who understood the Lord of the Radch quite like Tisarwat did.

Her first, knee-jerk reaction was to refuse. To absolutely refuse, because the Lord of the Radch was in her brain enough without going ahead and inviting her back in like that, and she could easy make up some nonsense about it being offensive or uncivilized to even try, to suggest that you had to be specially approved to depict the Lord of the Radch in an entertainment. Amaya wouldn't know it was a lie, if Seivarden said something about it, she could just explain that a lot had changed between her time and Tisarwat's, she just wouldn't understand...

...but Amaya had asked her. And she looked so proud of the idea, and, even though it was miniscule on the scale compared to that moment, Tisarwat felt that odd tug in her chest like when she'd finally been released from the Sword of Gurat and the only important thing was Breq's approval...

"I..." Tisarwat started, trying to find the words to say 'no,' but unable to find them, blinking her lilac eyes, and finding a warm smile instead. "Sure," she said, with a casualness that betrayed the dread that now settled in her stomach. "That actually makes a lot of sense. I'd love to. Was that...your idea, or did you and Seivarden come up with it together?"

"So, any ideas?"

Seivarden approached Tisarwat after Amaya hed left her. She grinned, curious to hear, and maybe to make fun of the space farmer.

Hey, now, space farmer was a friend and made very excellent breakfasts that Tisarwat missed a lot now that she was out of the dorms, even if she would agree that some of his habits were abominably disgusting.

But when Seivarden asked her that question, her smile was a bit more rueful than she'd originally intended, though she hoped it passed off as a sort of shell-shock. It wasn't like Seivarden didn't know how Tisarwat felt about Amaya, and, in this case, that could work to her advantage, even if the twist in her stomach had nothing to do with infatuation or butterflues.

"I guess I'm playing the Lord of the Radch," she said.

Wasn't she just thrilled. But she could hardly let Seivarden know anything about it...

"Oh, that's perfect!"

Seivarden grinned.

Tisarwat really wished she could share your enthusiasm for it, Seivarden, but at least she could pretend she did, her own grin taking on a slightly wry bent.

"It was nice of Amaya to think of me," she said, and that was genuine enough; in fact, saying it made her feel a small swell of pride counter to all the negative feelings associated with the specifics of the request. "And she's right, of course, anyone else in the class wouldn't be able to do it right at all." Just imagine Wayne as the Lord of the Radch, Seivarden, just imagine it. "And that the Lord of the Radch always has the best weapons that lead to the best ship battles in these kinds of entertainments."

It actually helped, that the driving force behind the suggestion had seemed to just be an excuse for Amaya to go all-out on the explosions more than anything else.

Aren't we all just characters in our own stories, anyway??

....I THINK MY COFFEE IS BROKEN, YOU GUYS.

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How to Make a Radchaai Entertainment; Friday, First Period [05/22].

Sign In - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Sign In - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Sign In - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Sign In - Entertainment, 05/22.

Listen to the Lecture - Entertainment, 05/22.

Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Workshop your Characters - Entertainment, 05/22.

Talk to the Teachers - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the Teachers - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the Teachers - Entertainment, 05/22.

Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

Re: Talk to the TA - Entertainment, 05/22.

OOC - Entertainment, 05/22.