XANADU OPERA TIME | ALL INVITED

[shall_yield_us]

WHEN: Jan. 15 | the Xanadu gardens.
CHARACTERS: Everyone.
SUMMARY: we interrupt your regular Xanadu viewing for the following special reminder: ...the visit ain't over til the bloody plant sings.

That's right: our green belle been giving rather obnoxious titillating performances in Xanadu, to what can only be the... enjoyment... of certain Citizens. Adding injury to insult, it's quite possible that a couple of residents have also captured the plant's tune on film, and now the video's been turned into a network viral phenomenon!

But as Citizens surely know, every grand artist needs a doting live audience: come get dibs on more plant footage? Save someone from its evil clutches? Help a poor soul that's got lost in the gardens' great expanse? Get the plant to sign with your talent agency? Embark on a mystical quest to get it to shut up?

Just put your chlorophyll-tinted glasses on, and anything is possible.


[ ooc: Find whatever excuse to throw your character in Xanadu, tag someone new, and all around: GET IN HERE. Just as a note: hearing the plant is definitely optional, so please don't think it's an overwhelming sound that'd keep your character up at night or some such. It's just a log prompt. XD ]

Comments

[othersdie]

[This is not quite what Justin expected to see when he decided to get a closer look at the plant.]

What are you doing?

[shall_yield_us]

[ softly, as if he's entirely too occupied with willing the metal pieces to move the plant veins - ]

A French braid, they come with more difficulty.

[othersdie]

[And the obvious follow-up, of course, is--]

Why?

[shall_yield_us]

[ Light laughter, the perfect accessory to pretending you don't catch a poor boy's meaning. ]

Because you work with more strands of hair, darling.

[othersdie]

[A potential psycho who thinks it's funny to play dumb? It's almost like being at home. More androgynous, maybe, but...]

But why are you giving the singing plant a french braid?

[shall_yield_us]

[ More laughter. ]

Because a chignon wouldn't suit it, my love?

[othersdie]

Oh.

[He doesn't know what else to say to that, but he's kind of fascinated by the... man-or-woman-or-other and just watches the plant get a makeover.]

[shall_yield_us]

[ He lets the plaiting go on for a little longer, before it suddenly breaks pace, and he turns to frown at Justin as if he's done something to trigger it. ]

You devil, you scoundrel, you plague - you think a chignon would have been much, much better on its frame. That's what you think.

[othersdie]

[Definitely a psycho. Justin is mildly perplexed.]

I don't even know what a chignon is.

[shall_yield_us]

[ It takes a moment for realization to dawn - and then he's moving.

Hands go to his hair, picking it up slowly, twisting and turning it in a slightly messy bun. There're too many curls, and too thick for him to knot tidily - but the one benefit of showing someone absolutely ignorant is that they can't well criticize. ]

This, you mule. This.

[othersdie]

Ah. [It looks like any other hairstyle to him, but he suspects that's not the thing to say.] It's... nice.

[shall_yield_us]

Of course it is, I'm the one to wear it.

[ The chignon comes undone, hair draping again. ]

But it wouldn't do nearly as well. It hasn't the shape for it. The shape of its face. The same face you will narrow-mindedly say doesn't exist, because of an infuriating habit to reference everything to human anatomy, all your kind does - but its face. Its face isn't right for this. No. Not at all.

[othersdie]

That's not a fair assumption to make.

[But yeah, insults to humanity aside, that kind of 'do would look ridiculous on a singing, carnivorous plant.]

What's your kind?

[shall_yield_us]

[ He seems to think that over for a moment. ]

...beautiful?

[othersdie]

[He pauses, trying to think of a tactful way to ask for elaboration.]

Evidently, but I mean... if you're not human...?

[shall_yield_us]

[ Suddenly so much more cooperative! ]

...and exactly how beautiful would you say I am?

[othersdie]

[So much for getting an answer. He still can't figure out if he's addressing a female, a male, or something else entirely...

Also, that's a seriously awkward question.]

More than anyone else I know, I think.

[shall_yield_us]

[ Curling and uncurling, a lock of his hair against his playful finger. This might fall as flirtation in some other world, where Rosiel's occasional glances have no bite. ]

And does that matter? Beauty?

[othersdie]

[The question is met with a sudden burst of animation and engagement.]

Of course it does. It gives the beholder a glimpse of a perfect beauty that either exists in some other realm of being or masks the ugliness of reality--dignifies an existence full of death and decay by hiding it behind something idealized and ephemeral. Either way, beauty's purpose is to... to appeal to whatever within us looks for perfection in a world of imperfections. To inspire art or to mislead.

[shall_yield_us]

[ Rosiel's own humour withers altogether. By the time Justin's done, he isn't every trying to pretend he holds an interest. ]

...ah, yes. That. Naturally. You're a wretched little fool, by the way. And I believe you only just insulted me with implications as to my - rotten core, prompted by the -- ugliness of reality, was it? But that doesn't matter. That's the only intelligent part of your drooling discourse. By all means, treasure beauty - especially as... apparently, a means to cover up on the world's wrongs, rather than fix them. Only proper.

[othersdie]

That's not--I didn't mean it that way.

[But "drooling discourse"? That insult to his intelligence makes Justin bristle.]

Are you seriously proposing that beauty can fix the world?

[shall_yield_us]

[ ah, eye-rolling. ]

I am proposing that what cannot fix the world should be admired for masking that failure.

[othersdie]

And so beauty only matters superficially. There's nothing substantial about it--nothing that changes the way things are, only how things appear to be.

[shall_yield_us]

[ Just a little bit of clapping, soon joined by the tap of tentacles against each other, as if they too are giving an accolade. ]

Oh, bravo. Shall we see you learning your numbers and your letters soon?

[othersdie]

It's just a restatement of what I said originally.

[Christ, even the tentacles are patronizing him. Justin chooses to leave Rosiel's company before he starts thinking that a violent response would be a good idea.]