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[whethervane]

...I miss the stage. I miss acting, I miss being someone else. I've been me too long, and I'm not very interesting, truly; oh, the heroines of Shakespeare and Marlowe and Rostand are so much more romantic and -- even when their lives end tragically, they end in an ending.

Real things aren't so poetic.

Comments

[pretty_sweeting]

*wanders in, probably looking for Viola* In my life, I have found that those who pretend to be other than they are wish to return to themselves. Is your experience so different, then?

[whethervane]

*jumps a little, startled by the unfamiliar voice* Oh- ...hello, miss... My experience? Why, I have had no other experience but this, of being an actress. Nearly my entire life has been on the stage, and even before that, I would playact with my mamma's clothes and the bits of costume lying about; I have only once felt that my own life was something better to return than the lives I lived onstage, and that's -- quite finished with, now.

...*blushes* Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry- what is your name, miss?

[pretty_sweeting]

O, what a sad life you must lead, if such is the case! You have my pity.

Pray pardon me, madam. I am Olivia, a countess of Illyria. *nods graciously*

[whethervane]

*earnestly* Oh, no, no! Not at all. It was beautiful, the chance to live as someone else every night, every show, and to live such romance with someone else's words...

Olivia? ...countess of - why... *beams* Why, you're out of Twelfth Night! Oh, I did that play many times - it was one of my favourites to be in, I always rather preferred the comedies, of course, though death scenes are lovely to play at - just to play at, though, not to - well, but oh, how many times I donned Viola's costume, I cannot even think...!

[pretty_sweeting]

But for there to be no romance of your own...! Yet perhaps a tame existence hath its comforts.

*laughs, surprised* Ah, you know my foolish tale! Is it one of those you think better than reality? For beyond the boundaries of the tale, there is not such an ending as you may wish. *sighs wistfully* And you have played my Viola! What think you of her character?

[whethervane]

*her face clouds, her eyes faintly troubled* I did have it, though, for a while; or, at least, I thought I had. I suppose it's feels as - romantic - to me as any of the tragic heroines felt their star-crossed destinies...

*smiles shyly* Oh, I think -- oh, to be honest, my lady, I do think that it is more fun playing her towards the beginning of the play, when she's first begun to dress as a boy. The girls in Shakespeare's plays do that so often, of course, but it really is so much fun-- playing someone playing someone, and mixed up identities are always amusing. When they put on skirts, they become a little bit flatter.

[pretty_sweeting]

Ay, love lost is a thing tragic indeed...

*dryly* Such confusion is mayhap amusing to those who see't played upon the stage, but not so to those who live't. *teasing* You do mistake yourself - 'tis when in doublet and hose that a lady must be flat!

[whethervane]

*darkly* Love lost - yes, love that disappears in the space of an hour.

...! *laughs, but a little blushily* Oh, of course I didn't mean that-- well, it isn't as though I ever had much difficulty in that area-- oh, that is, I -- ...well, I meant -- well, you know what I meant, I'm sure.

Typist: I about died when I saw Forti flirting with Sibyl. XD --sorry. XD

[pretty_sweeting]

This too have I known, or thought I did so. I wish it on no one.

*smiles* Nay, I saw your meaning. I too prefer Cesario to the Duchess Viola.

Typist: *looks shifty* ...that totally never happened. Not nobody not nohow. And I totally didn't almost do it again.

[whethervane]

If 'twas ever love at all, in truth... *...seems to be adopting Olivia's manner of speech rather better than OPHELIA is*

*wistfully* It's always better in the middle, isn't it? After the introductions are ended, but before the ending is ended...

[pretty_sweeting]

'Twas not, not then. *sighs* Perhaps not ever, no matter how I may wish't.

Ay, when there is still hope of things to come. I cling to the middle, while it seems all others have gone on to their endings. *looks a little guilty* I suppose I have also found an ending, yet still I hope for another.

[whethervane]

*wistfully* Though I wished so hard that it was...

*thoughtfully* And yours wasn't even a tragedy, was it? I suppose no one is ever satisfied.

[pretty_sweeting]

Would you not think it a tragedy to find yourself married to a man you love not, when you had thought 'twas a man you did?

[pretty_sweeting]

Typist: Hah! I'm not going insane! I just got a "Comment Not Posted" page for this comment, but I checked first, and behold, it was posted! WTF, livejournal?

[whethervane]

*slowly* But I thought you did love th-- Oh, I see. ...Is that more or less, do you think, of a tragedy, than never marrying the man you loved, love, always love?

Typist: Huh, that's weird...!

[pretty_sweeting]

'Tis part of the same tragedy, is't not? For I was never to wed the one I truly loved.

Typist: Quite. :P