RP:Raining On My Parade
This is a Bard's Guild RP.
Summary: Alvina meets Brennia down at the Port Rynvale Amphitheatre and Brennia brings Wisax along. During their attempted meet a great with Bard’s Guild members reciting a play, it rains, as it usually does in Rynvale. Brennia gets inspired to renovate the area since Alvina had asked her to co-manage the theater there.
OOC NOTE: This role play started long before the Jar was opened.
Rynvale Amphitheater
Not all remnants of Archomsia's tyranny in Rynvale were destroyed. Where there was once screams and death, there now is laughter and life. The imposing arena where gladiators battled until their last breath of life has been retrofitted into a majestic amphitheater where actors entertain both the wealthy and impoverished. Funded entirely from the coffers of the restored government of Rynvale, all are welcome to experience the rich cultural gifts the various societies of Hollow have to offer. Taking seat in the interior of the vast oval structure, your eyes take in the exquisite environment. Grand tapestries along the walls hang overhead while laurels and wreaths of beautiful flowers have replaced the macabre decorations that once stood when blood flowed freely in the arena below. Your senses are pleased and pampered from the spectacular sights and sounds of everything from High Elven operas to Lycan tribal dances. Truly, this amphitheater stands as a testament that the life can never truly be extinguished.
Brennia had come back to the island to the the acting troupe which had been practicing their play at the Amphitheater the good news that they can actually perform there. They had been practicing for so long and had asked Brennia to watch over their rehearsal once more in order to critique them. This time she asked Alvina to help since this play will be shown at the Amphitheater which she is the one helping to run it, but she also brought Wisax since she asked him to accompany her to the Island in the first place. Maybe she just didn’t feel like being alone lately since her and Eloni are in the middle of breaking up. She escorts Wisax through the marble courtyard and to the open Amphitheater with a concerned look up at the bright blue skies… The weather here was so unpredictable and she brought her cloak on her arm just in case. When she arrived her eyes set at the center of the oval shape of the stage with a smirk as they were going to come up on one of the more brutal scenes of King Leer and she takes a seat immediately in wait for Alvina and scooting over so Vi may sit if he pleases.
Wisax had settled his business temporarily to accompany Brennia to Rynvale at her behest. Ostensibly on business, not that he was that easily fooled. Or opposed for that matter. He'd brought some of his work with him but was otherwise committed to the task at hand. On account of the tropical climate, he'd left the cloak and most of his heavy harness behind. Instead the tinkerer was dressed in a simple white linen shirt and rough-spun pants. Though he still sported a tool belt, his goggles and a suspiciously bulky pack. Which he set aside as he took a seat besides Brennia in the amphitheater. "Rehearsal already underway, I see. I don't suppose you want me getting set up just yet?"
Alvina was running a little late. It wasn't a flaw she considered to be rampant but it happened more and more these days. Having children slowed her down. They didn't understand that 'mom' had appointments to keep and things to do nor did she understand the gravity of spending a few more minutes with them instead of leaving on time. They were both guilty of disregard for the outside world. Acceptable, for children. Less so for adults. She makes her way into the theater, standing near the edge of the overhang, cast in brilliant afternoon sun. Her navy dress and cloak announce her presence, before her foot falls draw close enough to be heard. The projection of the actors on stage mutes her advance on Vi and Brennia in their seats. She picks a spot behind them, slipping in to admire the group in session. "They really have these bloody scenes down pat." She remarks, leaning her arms against the back of Brennia's seat with a smile. Her hair is bright with sunlight, her smile rich with joy. "Ooohh I can't watch this part," she chuckles, shielding her emerald eyes from the scene on stage.
Brennia shakes her head and Vi, “no no, go ahead. This is just my favorite part is all.” She gives him a kind smile and a kiss on his cheek while she sort of watches him set up as well as the play. It was hard to solely focus on the play with him around and dressed the way he is. Once Alvina arrives it gives her a bit of a start and she turns to greet her new close friend with that warm smile. “Merry meet. Yeah? I love this part because this particular scene forces the actors to dig deep and really let themselves go into their role. I find the beauty in that art aside from the screaming and fake blood.” She gives a wink before the scene draws nearer and nearer. She decides to move up to her friend while Vi was busy with this recorder and she takes Alvina’s fleshy hand in her own and gives a soft squeeze to comfort her. The climax was approaching and the actors were putting on a convincing show and it was easy to get sort of lost in it all…. A streak of lighting paints and alights the sky right as thunder cracks loudly through the humid and thick air. Brennia's feathers on her wings puff out before it seems the clouds open up and douses the troupe, Wisax, Alvina and Brennia in heavy rain. It's hard to read Brennia's expression at the moment as the troupe hurried off stage and under any shelter available.
Alvina is still turning her eyes away as Brennia takes her hand and gets lost in the tragedy before her. It sounds convincing, Alvina would have noted before the thunder strikes her eyes like cymbals. She jumps, startled because she hadn't seen the lighting to know it was coming. Her eyes burst open in time to fill with water, she maintains her hold on Brennia's hand and scurries under the overhang over the stage where the actors now huddle. A couple students are laughing, they'd be scared by the sudden storm as well. The bard shakes her head, water soaking through to weight down her previously lively curls. "This always happens after I do my hair..." Alvina complains, blowing a strand of damp hair from her wet forehead. It's fixed, unyielding. She moves it with metal digits, masking her annoyance. "It's been a problem for ages..." Alvina admits. "It might benefit us to get a weather shield of some kind. Is there a spell that works for such a thing? Brennia?" Emerald eyes shift to the avian with a warm smile. "Are you alright?" She remembers their past conversation about how Brennia was not a fan of rain. "You look a bit startled." She laughs, maybe misreading her friend's face.
Wisax had stood up and gone about his business. Creating the necessary geometry around the amphitheater. It wasn't a quick job, as it required quite a bit of precision. Yet Wisax did not seem to do much measuring, relying largely on a inhumanly exact eye. He paid little to no attention to the actual performance as he worked, at least not visibly, and even less to the rain as it broke out. The tinker mage might as well have been a duck for all the impact the weather had on his work. It wasn't until he'd finished the task and created the necessary circumstances for the recorder to.. well... record that he came walking up to Alvina, Brennia and the others under the roof. “Canceling the performance for a little water?” he questioned with a hint of humor and a smirk, both subtle enough to be completely missed. “It is to be expected on a island like this, I'd have thought.” finally, he turned his sharp eyes on Alvina. “Hello again.”
Brennia joined them all while responding to Alvina, “I’ll be alright,” and pulled her hood off with a bit of attitude (not towards Alvina) which exposed red tinted cheeks… Inside she was fuming. Really the only people who probably picked up on her agitated state was Wisax and Alvina while the actors remained oblivious. Brennia picks up on Vi’s subtle smirk that she's come to recognize and it calms her down a bit. She allows Alvina and Wisax to say their hellos while she walks over to address the actors and praise them on their work/form/passion. They smile at her and go take their places elsewhere while Brennia made her way back over to her friends, “they were so close... This damn weather.” She scowls up at the skies and even though Alvina hasn't seen the rarity of Brennia’s temper it was evident this doesn't happen too often. She was glaring at how the seats carved into the amphitheater floor were being drenched in a downpour and depending on how hard the wind wanted the blow that being under the overhang did not matter. Taking her place next to Alvina she lowered her tone, “I haven't told them news that you asked me to run this place as your partner yet. They only come here to practice, but I was excited to tell them the news…. I have a better idea. We should renovate and somehow turn this old gory arena into a work of art. An actual theatre - I mean - being outside is nice, but with such fickle weather Rynvale has, I think an indoor theatre would suit it better…. Yeah?” She glances to Wisax to see if he maybe agrees with such a notion, was she making sense? Or was she on one of her passionate artistic kicks?
Alvina greets Wisax with a pleasant smile, shaking raindrops from her soaked hair with little to no change in it's state of affairs. Doomed to dampness, it seemed. "Good to see you again." She remarked, following Brennia's eyes to the students and then the sky above. It's not difficult for Alvina to make small talk but she has spent literally ten or so minutes with the male and thus there's not much to exchange beyond pleasantries. "How have you been? I'd love to know more about how your devices function-" It's then that Brennia comes back, interrupting what might have been a never ending line of questions from one Engineer to another Tinkerer. Her emerald gaze turns to regard the same seats, trapped in the downpour. "Hmmm..." She considers this interesting proposal in silence, lips twisted in a thoughtful squiggle. After a moment, her eyes widen and a smile blooms. "I think that's a marvelous idea!" Alvina whispers, hurried but still hushed between the triad gathered away from the students.
Wisax watched Brennia rage at the skies. "I'd say you cannot master the weather but I'm not in the habit of lying." He was clearly not at all affected by her mood. And any response he might have had to Alvinas half-finished question was silenced before it was spoken by the new subject. Instead, he turned his attention to sweep over the girls' heads to take another look at the place. "Assuming you don't lack for resources." he... not so much agreed as weighed in. "Is there much demand for performances in Rynvale? Perhaps something of a smaller scale would be more appropriate? Not a new building but a overhaul and some kind of protection from the elements." The hypothetical project already turning gears in his head."Or... In for a inch, in for a mile perhaps?"
Brennia didn't want to sound braggy, but resources weren't really an issue for her so she says nothing on that front. “Oh, I think we hope to change that. Yeah?” She looked at Alvina for confirmation that the perhaps the reasoning for bringing her on as co-manager was to get this place to a regular attraction. She looks around the oval shaped area in agreement with Wisax, “it is a rather large space.” She takes into consideration the surrounding area of this part of Rynvale and how it seems more of an aristocratic part of the Island. They won't do too kindly to sitting on the seats which are carved into the ground. Brennia nearly dawns the same ‘gears turning’ expression on her own face as Vi does. “If we split this oval through the width of it at the stage I think we could build changing rooms and prop storage in the back half of the oval. “We could charge a general admission for floor seats and along here,” she motions to a space in the air by the sides of the stage, “we could charge extra for balcony seating. Maybe those spaces could be adorned with thick curtains and sofas instead of just chairs. With their own drink carts…” she clears her throat a bit nervously as she felt herself getting a bit carried away. “We could have special seats on the floor. Repurposed from old pirate ships?” She motions to the edge of the stage, “we could install some oil lights there. Any thoughts?” She genuinely looked to her two campaigns for their input from an engineer and tinkerer’s perspective.
Alvina watches at the theater Brennia imagines springs to life in her mind. "Ooooh, I think I just got chills." This was said after the bit about couches instead of normal, boring seating. And then this shout out to Rynvale's trade? Constructing with repurposed parts of old pirate ships?! It's just too poetic to handle. Vi is temporarily ignored as the bard throws her own theatrical hat into the ring and spreads her arms wipe, sweeping drops of rain from the air, just outside the overhang. "Soft lighting, dramatic effects. It would really make the sound 'boom' to be in a completely enclosed space like that." She smiles, grin eating up most of her face. "From old pirate ships," She laughs, excitement rolling off her in palpable waves. "Brennia, I think that's a magical idea and it's all within the realm of possibility, nothing too outlandish and if we find it's too much along the way, well darn it, we can improvise!" Alvina strikes a Shakespearean pose; one arm propping an invisible skull while the other is extended backwards, fingers splayed in tense consideration. That is exactly the reason the bard thought to add Brennia to the Rynvale Theater's managing body. She knew the avian was full of good ideas and plenty of passion to bring those ideas to life.
Brennia got carried away while Vi probably wandered off to inspect the architecture and was grinning just a wide as Alvina, “most theaters sell little treats and water before the show and during intermission, but what if we cater to the island even further and serve the water in recycled rum bottles.” She got a little off track there, but those striking blue eyes fell on a statue of which was carved to look rather gruesome from the time this amphitheatre was something different entirely. A smile remained as she can find the charm in it, but she knows other people wouldn't, “I think I will need to find a sculptor to change these statues a bit as well… Pitty. Pirates may like them, but I would like all to feel comfortable and welcome here.” She looked up as it seems the sun was peaking out once more, “I see chandeliers made of the wheels from the helms of those abandoned ships… Maybe make a very large one specially for the center.” She stands next to Alvina now and motions up to the air as if they were actually standing in the new theater already. “I’ll work with Vi on finding out how to shape the ceiling so it carries the best acoustic through the entirety of the building.” She pauses for any input from Avlina before turning herself to the back half of the oval shaped area, “for the actors I can see a hallway here for their own changing areas.” With the motion of her hand Alvina can see an area where actors have had to leave their costume changes in small organized heaps on the stairs to the stage, “on the opposite side there will be a space to store props, but in the middle I would like a common area where the actors can throw themselves a little wrap up party, just for them and their close friends.” She looks back to Avlina as if to ask her opinion on it all.
Alvina pondered the idea of reused rum bottles. “That might make it hard to keep the underaged kiddos from getting actual rum from their parents or other adults...hmm...” She thought about these things now, being a mother. “Maybe we could create sculptures with the rum bottles? Something more...like artistic expression than an actual recognizable object? We could still serve rum to the adults, but I’d advise against making all the containers look the same.” It would add a sprinkle of culture to the dismal place. Alvina looks overhead again, imagining the chandeliers of steering wheels. “A famous ship!” She offered, for the large center suggestion. “A ship with meaning to the city’s history. I bet if we went looking, we could find just the thing!” Alvina continues to listen, changing her position to face where Brennia is facing, imagining the new layout for the backstage space. It is a shame, there’s been little storage here at the theater as it was now. And so rarely used, with Rynvale’s unpredictable seaside weather.
Brennia was starting to feel giddy all over at this point. “Such great ideas! I'll send off some letters for hire and continue college business through the mail as well because I think I'm going to be staying in Rynvale for a couple of weeks.” A smirk playing on her plump lips, “I know, seems a bit rushed.” A shrug at this, “but when I get a project of this magnitude I'm on fire until it's done. I implore you to stop on in whenever you get a free moment from the kiddos, I still have yet to meet that matter of fact. I love children.” She crosses her arms under her perky bust, “I'm going to head to the local library can dig for some island inspiration.” A glance up to Wisax who was finishing up his inspection of the area and catching his eye with a wave back down to the stage. “What an interesting vacation this has turned out to be,” she starts to depart. “Alvina, I'll be staying at the broken barrel during if you need anything and I mean anything, just send word?” Not without a warm hug to her dear friend and a smooch on Alvinas cheek before her and Wisax head off to the library.
Alvina grinned, Brennia's joy was ever infectious. Her expressions filled Alvina with her own confidence that the project would go smoothly. Just you wait and see! "I'd love to bring them sometime, mayhaps soon. They are growing by the day.." She sighed, a mixture of joy and disappointment. "I'm sure they'll love you just as much. I'll be on hand to assist as much as I can. Things are rather quiet in Frostmaw as of now. Attacks have slowed so there's less work for me to do beyond repairs and special requests. Alvina returns the hug, grateful for the meeting and all abuzz for the future. Their future, as friends and the future of the theater. All good things in time, isn't that the saying? "Be careful you two!" She calls after them, just as the rain starts to lessen and the sun streaks out over cloudy skies as if creating a rainbowed banner to drape over the avian's shoulders as she left.