March 2, 1185
"Well, someone's all dressed up, I see." Grinning, Isidro kicked the door shut behind him without turning around. He must have liked what he saw. "Does this mean I've forgotten an event again?""No, you're fine." Riona twirled the hanging lock of hair nearest her shoulder. Her poor maid had labored through sweat and tears to bring the character's bouncy curls to her stick-straight hair, and all those efforts would be wasted come bath time. But even if she wouldn't bother with the hair for dress rehearsals, at least they knew it could be done for the performance? "This is my costume for the masque. Cherry designed a dress for Mona in Carvallon, and she decided to adapt the pattern for Jessie."
"Jessie being your character."
"Yes. Princess Jessica du Lac, née Pendragon, Princess of Albion and future Duchess of Avilion, at your service." She popped her hip and lay her hand upon it, bust forward and smile aglow. "In addition to being a princess and a future duchess and generally fantastic, she's also a light witch who serves as magical adviser to her father and brother--and a total badass who assists her good aunt with the capture of her not-so-good aunt.""Huh." Her husband strode over, mouth curling at the corner. Damn, why could she never keep from tingling when the scar on his lip stretched like that? "Princess Jessica sounds like my kind of woman."
"I thought you'd say that--but I'll remind you that she is a married lady."
"Damn it." But with a laugh in his eye, he took her in his arms and kissed her cheek. "Who's playing her husband?""Oh, just some local knight. You might know him--shorter man, Spanish, big awful scar across his face..."
She smirked, just to drive home the point. Isidro's brow arched. "What, tonight?"
"N--well, maybe," she reconsidered with a wink, "but I meant in the masque. Did you really think I'd agree to help with casting and not get you a part?"
"I... guess I just thought you'd figure I wasn't the right sort."
"Don't be stupid. Even in a play, I don't want to be married to anyone but you.""I'm still not sure why, but I won't argue with good fortune." He leaned in again, catching her on the lips this time. His nose bashed the side of hers. They both had rather large noses, and she kind of liked that rather a lot. "So tell me about this... Princess Jessica's husband."
"His name is Sir William--but his friends call him Will. And he's a lot like you, where it counts." She plucked her finger from his back and tapped him on the nose. "He's smart, he's handsome, and he always does the right thing."
"Sounds like a good man." She wouldn't have had him cast if he wasn't! "And I'm guessing that his role is to support his wife from the background as she brings magical criminals to justice?""Partly. But he's also a lawyer."
"What?" He stepped back, grin fading, eyes narrowed. "A lawyer?"
What? "Yes."
"In a play about a trial?"
...what? "Absurd, I know. But yes, Sir William is the prosecutor at the trial.""So... he has a lot of lines."
"Oh, yes. Actually, if the play has a male lead, it's probably Will."
"Oh." He took to picking at his cuticles, gaze to his fingertips in an unfocused fog. Perhaps she ought to have thought this through. "Great..."NEXT CHAPTER:
7 comments:
Not sure if I like this outfit on Izzy or not. The blue might be a little too much color for him. On the plus side, I like that it shows a bit of chest hair.
I was originally going to stick him in one of Yuxi's "Prospero" outfits, but the mesh made him look too broad-chested (he's supposed to be deceptively scrawny; his relative shortness makes him look stockier than he is). So the Prospero outfit will be going on someone else. Maybe a Tamrion? A pity that the mesh wasn't around when Halford was alive, because it would have been perfect for his build.
Though damn, I hope the boots from the Prospero outfit get transplanted onto a lot of meshes in the future....
Awww, Izzy. You'll do great as Will! And it's about time you got more into the spotlight. ;) Even though (or maybe especially because) you don't like it much.
Also, might as well get used to the blue. If he's gonna play Will... ;)
Pity that other mesh didn't owork out, but I can see the difficulty. Oh well, I like this one on him. Chesthair... :D
He could very well surprise everyone, especially himself (and excepting Riona). ;)
And it is true that the part of Will will require copious amounts of blue-wearing.
I do love that mesh, so I will definitely use it on somebody (maybe Garrett? Garrett's a big guy). And oh boy, do I ever love me some chest hair. :)
LOL I really could not imagine Izzy acting in anything for any reason ever. Why aren't the students putting on the production instead? Who will pay for tickets to watch the mayhem if all the rich people are in the play instead of in the audience?
The Doylist explanation was that I felt a lighter storyline was in order, but I wasn't about to make a bunch of new characters just for that. Possible Watsoniam explanations:
1) There are more parts than there are drama students.
2) Conversely, there are too many drama students, and it would not be in the interests of Paulina's course plan to sew the seeds of animosity until she's found her surefire way to make those who don't make the cast feel better about mundane background tasks.
3) Regardless of the number of students, Paulina wants them to master mundane background tasks before they're allowed onstage.
4) The idea is that people will pay more to see these prominent people than random students in spite of--or even because of--the lack of acting quality.
I like 4 myself, but feel free to take your pick. :)
Knowing the way things operate in Naroni, I'd go for reason #4 as well. ;)
And I LIKE this! I think Izzy will make a great Will -- heck, any nervousness he has will work well for the character, as long as it's clear in the masque that he's trying his first big case. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of Enforced Method Acting. ;)
Riona will make a pretty awesome Jessie, too. I guess you'll be doing the capture as part of the masque? After all, Jess didn't do much during the trial. Just kind of gave Will moral support.
Anyways, I can't wait to see the rest of your choices. This is going to be AWESOME.
That does seem to be the way things work around here. XD
It's true that Izzy's nervousness could very well translate into Will's. And yes, the capture will be included in the masque; at some point, I'll have to send you a breakdown of the key scenes.
Well, just going by the preview pic for now, Sparron and Ashe are both in the masque, so you'll be finding out who they're playing soon enough. :)
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