tampered | MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S PARTY

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S PARTY

When; Evening, Sunday 21 June
Rating; PG
Characters; EVERYONE~
Summary; one not-so-summery midsummer's night.
Log;

You could call it being hard-headed, but Blair much preferred committed. They did set it to be this date, after all, and the next day would not be midsummer's day anymore. Besides, no one could tell when the snowstorm would end.

For the not-so-brave, there has been a tent set up on the side, all fitted with heaters on full blast. Stand in the heat, down your sangria and pretend it really was summer. But for the more adventurous ones, most of the revelry was still happening outside. The storm had subsided by the day before, and the blanket of snow looked festive enough by itself. Where else could you have a snow party in the middle of summer?

The play had just finished, with great success of course, and the people were now dispersing amongst themselves, eating and chattering. Blair, now with a checklist in hand, was standing by the corner, deep in one thought or another.

Long tables decked out with hearty foods has been set up, and yellow fairy lights lined the snow-laden trees. Under a great tree, a group of musicians were playing a rural dance song, but no one was dancing yet. It could be because of the corsets. The guests were mostly dressed in period garb, complete with large hats and puffy sleeves. Truly, if it were not for the speech, Shakespeare would have felt right at home.

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Things hadn't gone as planned, between the snow and the curse and all the last-minute fixes and changes to try and accommodate the madness that was the City's Midsummer celebration. Neil couldn't have cared less. Feeling the weight of his father's gaze upon him all through the performance had only made him determined to succeed. Not to prove himself to the absent man-- he'd done that already-- but to prove that it hadn't ruined him, hadn't killed his love of acting. His love of this play. He had a desperate need to build new memories, in order to wash away the connotations of his last performance-- not the play itself, but what had come after. Applause echoing in his ears, surrounded by new friends and old, Neil felt that it had all been worth while.

He was a little tired, having poured all his energy into this-- but overjoyed to see his plans come to fruition, all the work pulling together to produce something amazing. Something beyond all of them; and as much as he protested (truly!) that everyone else had done the bulk of the work, in a way this was wholly his as well, his pet project, his pride and joy.

And it was finished, fantastically, if strangely. He tried to catch his breath-- after all, there was a party to attend, too...

[ooc; FEEL FREE TO MINGLE ELSEWHERE OF COURSE. I just figured it'd be nice to have an actors!meet thread, idk. ♥♥]

Todd couldn't stop beaming after the play ended, his heart and breath racing in the best way possible. He had done it, had gotten up in front of a huge audience and he'd performed-- a major part, no less. And through it all, his own curse-father had been there, seen him get up on stage and pull off something that even Todd himself didn't think he could do. In the end, maybe he'd even done better because of the fact that he could feel that same dismissive, judgmental gaze that had made him feel worthless so often, because he was determined to show his father, whether he actually was there or not, that he could do this, that he wasn't the silent, terrified boy that his father thought of him as. He'd seized the day... he'd gotten up there, and he had been good.

His smile broadened as he stepped up next to Neil, "So... I'll admit, that was... amazing."

"Neil!"

Because, of course, all of this was Neil's doing, Neil's plans, Neil's creation--and so it was only right that once it was all over and the curtain had gone down, Neil receive the first congratulation. After everything that had happened, everything that could've gone wrong and did go wrong with this day, they'd pulled through it. They'd done it.

Rosella's smile was so wide that she was certain her face would hurt from it the next day, but she couldn't seem to make herself stop as she hurried over to Neil and grabbed him for the tightest hug she could possibly manage. "You were fantastic!"

It hadn't gone perfectly, but that was to be expected with theater, and Yuuko thought that the players had pulled together admirably in the end. And her own father hadn't turned up with the rest to complicate things, which made it easier for her to concentrate.

She was quite impressed with Neil and his evident struggles to get here and fix all of the problems that crept up last minute. She caught him backstage afterward, looking a little dazed. She hadn't even bothered to change out of costume, thinking that the gauzy dress and elaborate hair rather suited her. In any case, she wanted to say something to the boy.

"Neil, you did well," she said, approaching him.

Neil laughed, clapped his friend on the shoulder, a little intoxicated by the moment. Dragging his shy friend out of his shell was another success of the evening, and Todd had been an admirable Demetrius. Neil had known he'd do fine-- but had to admit, even he was impressed.

"You were amazing. I told you you could do it!"

He laughed in response to that, an embarrassed grin on his face as he shook his head a little, shrugging, "Well, I guess I was okay..."

Looking back up after a moment, he beamed at his friend, "But you were even better this time... and you were already amazing the first time."

Uta didn't play much of a part. However, she was still happy to be close to Yuuko-san as one of her fairies. The cold made it impossible not to wear tights along with the fairy dress, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

"You were awesome too, Yuuko-san."

She admired Yuuko quite a lot. She wonders why she always felt shy around her...

He laughed and hugged back, as thrilled and excited as Rosella was.

"Thanks! You were, too!" He grinned, pulling back a little to regard her, clasping both her hands tightly. He'd felt like this after the play at Henley Hall, but it had been tempered by the fact that his father was waiting for him, furious-- now it was just him and his friends, and as such his joy was unfettered.

Yuuko turned and smiled to see the girl. "Thank you, Uta-chan. And I had such lovely fairies."

"Thank you," replied the boy warmly, still grinning like a fool. That was unlikely to change for-- oh, say, the next few days. He was pleased enough that he could ignore his father's illusory presence almost entirely.

"You made a wonderful Titania," Neil added, smiling a little more broadly. The fairy costuming did suit her, and her otherworldliness (in Neil's opinion) lent itself well to the role.

He'd seemed so distraught on the Network this morning, and to a lesser degree, in person when she'd arrived this afternoon. She was glad to see the tension gone from him. It made him look so very young... perhaps his actual age.

"I enjoyed it," she said honestly. She had, from the most ridiculous scenes to the most serious ones. She'd never pretended to be a fairy queen before. It was something to add to her resume, even if it was only a trick of the stage: a costume, a few bright words, and you could almost believe her wings were real.

"And how was it, playing Puck again?" she asked, her voice light if the question itself was a little heavy.

She blushes at the compliment. She's never taken part at a huge production like this before. School plays simply could not compare.

"Ah... it was fun! But uhm... I'll be leaving early today though, and I just wanted to congratulate you before I went off..."

"I didn't laugh! I remembered all my lines! Oh, we all did so well!"

She positively beamed at him as he clasped her hands, her eyes bright with excitement. "We all did so well," she repeated, a little calmer now, but warmer, too. She was just so proud of him. "Especially you."

Todd was number-two on Rosella's list of people to run to for the biggest hug she could manage, so when she managed to corner him backstage, she only gave him a moment or two's warning before pulling him in for that hug, grinning all the way. She'd told him earlier that she'd believed in him, and she'd meant every word--and her faith hadn't been misplaced. Not one bit.

"Marvelous," she said firmly, laughing a little. "You were absolutely marvelous!"

"Oh, you have other plans?" Yuuko lifted an eyebrow in surprise. She leaned down and continued, smiling, "You might want to change out of costume, then.~"

"Yeah?"

He grinned, pleased that Todd thought so-- as he was the only person... well, the only real person... here who'd seen that first performance. Stage fright wasn't a problem for Neil, but he'd been a little concerned about playing Puck a second time, after what had happened at home.

"Everything was amazing," he half-sighed, agreeably. Right now nothing could touch his mood.

Uta shyly approached Neil... She was a little tired from everything that happened during the week, but she was happy that the play was such a success and that she was part of it even in some small way.

"...uhm! Neil?

"Thanks for... letting me be one of Titania's fairies. I really, really enjoyed it! And you were so great too!"

"Only because I had such excellent costars!" he exclaimed gleefully, intent on sharing the praise around. As much as he'd put into it, he didn't feel he deserved more credit than anyone else. He'd had the advantage of having done this before-- certainly all the newcomers' brave efforts were worth as much!

"But, thank you," he added warmly. It did mean a lot to hear it, and he was exceedingly proud.

The lack of warning aside, Todd wasn't too startled when Rosella came up and hugged him. Certainly not startled enough that he didn't hug her right back, laughing as he did so.

"You were marvelous," he countered.

"Something like that, yeah."

She fidgets, totally forgetting she was still in costume.

"Ah..! Right, right! I should do that now... heh. I'll be seeing you, Yuuko-san! Enjoy the after party!"

His grin sobered a little, just for a moment, as he considered the question. It was hardly a secret, what had happened at home-- though not too many of his friends knew the whole story. Yuuko knew more than most-- he'd spoken more with her about the darker side of this, the ways in which it was difficult to reprise his performance.

"It was... good. I'm glad I did it," he announced, brightening again a little. "I'm glad I could."

He means that in two senses-- both having the opportunity, and his own capacity to brave the sad memories it stirred up.

Justin waited to approach Neil. He wanted to make a run for it and spend the rest of the evening in his apartment--hopefully he could avoid any comments on his admittedly less-than-stellar acting--but Neil deserved recognition for all of the work he had put into the play. That he had also been able to act with his father present was nothing short of amazing.

After Neil was free, Justin tried to catch his attention. "Neil..."

He had had a rehearsed congratulatory remark prepared, but it escaped him. As such, Justin had to settle with a awkward, "Good job."

Clow was somewhere in between the two groups of revelers, not having a particular fondness for the cold but also not liking to be too hot and also being a bit of a wallflower. Temperance was theoretically somewhere nearby - the person, obviously, and not the idea - and he scanned the crowd periodically for the fairy queen and whoever else he might know. Or not know, really, but looked interesting.

Smiling, he turned to Temperance to maybe make small talk. It was odd - he couldn't say for certain, but despite their having gotten off on the wrong foot when they first met she might not be so annoying after all.

"What did you think?"

"You were more marvelous," she retorted, not to be outdone, and then grinned mischievously at him. "We really managed it, didn't we? We really did it, can you believe it?"

Neil was still riding the high of the performance, too giddy to be as tired as he ought to be. He had a bright smile for Uta-- since even the smallest roles were vital, and he remembered that she'd been a bit nervous about doing even this.

"I'm glad you had a good time!"

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Page 1 of 4

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S PARTY

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing y/y? ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || omg a thousand times y ♥ ♥♥♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing y/y? ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing is required<3

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || omg a thousand times y ♥ ♥♥♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || omg a thousand times y ♥♥♥♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || ...thread-jacking for the squeeing toos?

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing y/y? ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || a threadjack it is!

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing is required<3

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing is required<3

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Yey~!

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing y/y? ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || omg a thousand times y ♥ ♥♥♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || <3

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || omg a thousand times y ♥♥♥♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Y forever~ ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing y/y? ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || omg a thousand times y ♥ ♥♥♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing is required<3

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || ♥

Audience revelry is go y/y?

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Backstage squeeing y/y? ♥

POST-PLAY FOR THE ACTORS || Y forever~ ♥