#all drama must remain onstage: victoria

[nxttheendxfthestxryarch2]

“I swear, having siblings is the weirdest thing ever. One minute you’re gonna strangle them with their own intestines, and then the next thing you know you’re singing some dramatic duet with each other.”

Pausing, her eyebrows furrow. “Or is that just me and Alfonso?”

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Open Starter: Official!

“Wait, really? No, no no no never mind, I’m not asking any questions, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!” Victoria flutters her wave and backs out rapidly from the headmistress’ office.

Okay. Okay she needs to get a schedule set up. Needs to start actually working on a proper appearance. She had NOT been expecting this to go through. She definitely had NOT expected a yes on this musical.

Sure, it could be a lot worse, it’s not like they’re doing Heathers or something way too far out there. Well, Heathers has a school edition but there’s no way she’d even touch that shitshow with a 10 ft pole.

Then again, this one wasn’t even much better. Though, it did lack the sexual component.

Victoria’s walking on air, even being out and about on campus isn’t phasing her. Then she walks into someone, dropping all the printouts she’d made with information on the new official school musical this year to propose it to Fairy Godmother when she does.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

[leavingwitchmxuntain]

Double Solo Para: This Next Step

“Uh, hello?” Nova pokes her head in curiously, looking around the auditorium. She’d heard a few rumors about a girl who hid out in here.

She’s still startled when the other walks onstage, though. “Can I help you?”

The girl looks so tense and scared. Nova knows she’d already been through plenty-- the whispers had been more than enough to tell her that, but when she looks at the girl she can see it.

The running, the blood, flying, screaming, panicking, trying to protect others with her... never completely successful.

“I’m Nova,” she says abruptly instead of focusing on it. “I came to check in on you and see if you needed anything or anything.”

“Entertainment if you have any suggestions. I’m finally starting to get tired of all the same things,” the goth admits shakily. “I’m Victoria. Give me a second, I’ll come down to you.”

With that, she heads around backstage and out to the audience, going over to join her. Nova smiles softly. “I’ll keep the entertainment thing in mind for next time. I brought snacks, um... they’re homemade. And all the stuff in them is organic. And, uh, I also brought... this.”

She feels a little ridiculous as she pulls out the blanket she’d knitted. “I... don’t know how cold it gets in here. I thought, I don’t know, maybe...”

“Thank you,” Victoria interrupts quickly, smiling as she accepts it. “I could use it. You didn’t have to do this.”

“No, but I wanted to. I grew up believing in doing things for other people to help better their lives.” Nova smiles softly.

Victoria nods, running a hand through her hair and brushing it back out of her eyes. “Hey, thanks, really. Most people don’t think twice about me in here. The school gave me special permission because of my... mental health.”

Nova nods. “It’s no problem. I can bring some games and crossword books tomorrow. I have a ton of them.”

“You’re too kind,” Victoria says with a smile.

“It’s just doing right by you while you’re here,” Nova says with a shrug. “Okay, I have to get to class. I’ll check in later, right?”

“All right. Thanks again, Nova.”

“Anytime. Hey, if you can think of anything else you need--”

Nova holds out her phone, and Victoria puts her number in. Nova shoots a quick text to her so Victoria has her number. “Just shoot me a text, I’ll swing by with it.”

Victoria smiles softly, wrapping the blanket around her arms and taking the container with food. “Thanks, Nova.”

“Yeah. See you later.”

Smiling, she heads back out, glad she’d done something to help someone. Victoria stares down at the plastic container of food and can’t help but chuckle. That anyone bothered to come here wasn’t really a shocker-- a lot of people wanted to see if the rumors were true.

But that someone would bring her things, and make sure she was comfortable, instead of bugging her about why she doesn’t come out? That was... something of a surprise, actually. One that’s greatly appreciated with her life feeling like it always has.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

“No, I don’t wanna talk about it. I wanna change the musical because after what happened I’m not feeling up to a show with the content that’s in We Are the Tigers. That’s all I have to say. Do you have any suggestions for the replacement?”

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Solo Para: Daddy, Love You More

The thing about typically being found in a theatre thanks to severe agoraphobia is that you don’t always notice when the sky briefly goes dark.

What Victoria DOES notice is that suddenly, somehow, her arms are bound to the chair she’s in in the house, and her waist and legs.

And then a spotlight on the stage lights itself in the darkness and her head shoots up, seeing... her dad. “Daddy?”

“Tori--” he starts, but cries out when suddenly, from the darkness, someone punches him in the gut, bringing him to the ground.

The lights come up more and she sees her. Victoria struggles against the restraints. “No, no leave him alone!”

Tayen doesn’t seem to hear her. “Rumor has it, Liam Adlon, that you ran one of the biggest refugee operation in the Hollow. The Blackbird operation.”

No. No this can’t be happening. Her father shakes his head. “I-- I didn’t--”

Tayen kicks him. He cries out and sinks to the floor. She rolls him over with her foot. “I want to know everything. Where did you send my subjects, Liam?”

“No,” Victoria says weakly. Her voice shakes. “No, no, it wasn’t him--”

But Tayen ignores her entirely, like she can’t even hear her. She grabs Liam by his shirt, pulling him up into her face. “I can make this far, far worse. You’d be smart to tell me what I need to know.”

“He doesn’t know anything!” Victoria yells. “It was me!”

But Tayen clearly can’t hear her. Liam shakes his head and Tayen cocks her head. “Very well. I suppose we can bleed you for the answers. We can start with removing one of your fingers, I’m not particularly in the mood to wait patiently.”

“NO!” Victoria screeches. “PLEASE, IT’S NOT HIM, IT’S ME, IT WAS ME! I RAN THAT OPERATION, I’M BLACKBIRD, LEAVE HIM ALONE, I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING, DON’T HURT HIM, PLEASE--”

And neither one acknowledges her as she continues to scream, plead and beg. She doesn’t understand. She just knows her dad is going to die up there.

Because he doesn’t know anything about what she did.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Solo Para: This Time, I’ll Rise From the Flames!

A weak, soundless sob escapes Victoria’s throat.

She’d screamed herself hoarse watching Tayen beat her father, and she’s left to watch helplessly as his torture continues, as Tayen tries to get information from him that he doesn’t have... that he’ll never have.

Because she was Blackbird. He’d never been involved.

A sickening crunch brings her eyes back to the stage. Her father cries out, and she sees the blood coming from his nose...

And he looks right at her, meets her eyes, the pain, the anguish, the suffering...

Tayen grabs his face, pulls her to look up at him. And Victoria stops, the blood rushing in her ears tuning out the next part.

“No,” she says suddenly, without thinking about it. And the word echoes, and Tayen finally looks at her.

Victoria jerks her arms free, pulls herself to her feet, cuts herself loose from the chair, not bothering to question how. She opens her wings, in their scarred glory, and watches their faces change. “He’s not Blackbird. I am. And you are DONE hurting him.”

She flutters up and straight for Tayen, grabbing her by the throat, slamming her into the back wall of the stage with a thud that echoes through the theatre. “You’re done hurting ANYONE. I will NEVER let you hurt ANYONE like this again. I sat by when I shouldn’t have, but no more. You are done hurting Pixie Hollow, Tayen Bell.”

And she winds back--

And then she wakes up. Victoria gasps, launching out of her seat, confused, looking around. “House lights!”

The lights come up and there’s nobody there, nothing there. “Stage lights to full!”

Same thing. The performance talent turns around in a circle, confused... blinking and going and peaking out one of the outside doors.

An eclipse. Tayen. Tayen was behind this.

Victoria looks around outside. Everyone... everyone is asleep.

She can’t let this happen. Not again. The fairy looks back into the auditorium. Her safety net. Her walls, her protection. She looks outside, at the whole world out there, the school, the open space...

And then she sighs and closes her eyes, looking back. “Lights down.”

The building goes dark. The fairy opens her wings and flutters them tentatively, her feet leaving the ground.

Sighing, she flutters out of the doorway, letting it close, cracking her knuckles. “Where the fuck are you?”

Tayen won’t take this place from her. From anyone. This? This ends today.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

“I’m trying to believe that all is not lost.”

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

"Blackbird?!" - @brxvely-flying

Victoria freezes.

It’s been a long, long time.

She whips around, freezing at the sight. She was alive, she was okay– “Silva!”

Breaking the cardinal rule of theatre, Victoria leaps down the front of the stage and bolts to meet the other. “Silva, what– how did you– why–?!”

@brxvely-flying

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Open Starter: Questions Questions

“So Wicked is out, I don’t think anyone has the voice for Phantom, Sweet Charity isn’t really what I had in mind, Hamilton was last year... hmmm...”

She has a list in front of her with those and a few other musicals scratched out, grumbling and putting her head in her hands. “What are we going to do?! It has to go better than Hamilton did last year! Well, that won’t be hard but... dammit!”

In frustration the throws her pen down on the list and leans back in her seat for a moment, looking up at another student passing by and staring a bit. “...sorry.”

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

"Hey, Victoria. Don't worry, I'm not here to try and get you out. But I did bring you your homework...I did it myself, you only need to sign it."-@golden-faerie

"Your majesty!" Victoria shoots up from her seat at the voice, eyes wide with shock. "I-- you're here, that... probably shouldn't surprise me, I..."

She cocks her head, shocked. "You... you're too kind. You shouldn't have had to..."

@golden-faerie

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Solo Para: You’re Invisible When You’re Sad

After the scout fairy leaves, Liam turns back to his daughter, sighing. “You know I couldn’t let you go that far, Tori. You told me yourself you never once did it, even during those refugee runs you were responsible for. Resume,” he adds the last part, finally releasing her from her hold, immediately pulling her close.

Victoria starts sobbing again, but the scream is gone, now. The projection in her voice had faded. She hugs her father tightly, sobbing harder. “Daddy... you have no idea what she did to me, she--”

“Shh. Sh-sh.” He holds her close, rubbing her back. “Tori, I know that what you did made you one of her targets. You don’t have to explain anything to me, or to your mother. Not with that, not about what went on there.”

Victoria nods and holds onto him, sniffling. “I didn’t want to. I was just...”

“Scared. And that happens. We’re performance talents, and we chose theatre specifically. Why do you think I direct instead, Tori? Why do you think I’ve always been behind the scenes, never in them?”

Victoria shakes her head, wiping her eyes and looking at him. He gently brushes some hair out of her face. “The art of any performance is always the emotion, both that you yourself feel with the piece, and that you move the audience to in your piece. The same can be said for dance, theatre, any orchestral or band’s performance, even a simple song. Our emotions impact the piece we do greatly. That’s why our unique attributes as performance talents are strongest when we’re emotional. You were scared, your only focus was on getting rid of her-- and you were yelling. So it culminated into your projection abilities, to do anything to scare her away as much as you were scared of her. It’s a part of who we are... and it’s why I don’t act, I don’t go on stage.”

Victoria nods. “Leave the stage to the acting talents... you’ve always said that. But don’t they have the same emotional abilities as we do?”

“To a lesser extent, yes. But we have a heavier charge with our emotions, because emotion runs in all of the major areas of performance, which are all our specialty. Whereas acting talents, dance talents... anything of the like, only have one specific aspect of performance.”

Victoria nods, clearing her throat. “Thank you, for stopping me... I didn’t want to do that to her, I never wanted to do that to anyone, no matter what she did I--”

“I know. I know.” As her dad rubs her back, Victoria snuggles into him and sniffles, trying to settle herself again.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

"Ah, shit." - @astxrmiscxming

Victoria’s head whips around at the voice and she gasps in shock, paling worse than normal. “No… no, you can’t– you can’t be here. No, the theater is mine, this is my space, this is the only safety I have– get out of here. Get out! Get out– get out, get out, get out–”

Tears roll down her face as she takes a shaky breath. The building itself seems to rattle with the force of her voice on the next word.

“GET–”

“Tori, no! Hold!” Liam calls from the stage as he rushes out from the wings… putting his daughter on hold, his eyes wide, shocked at what he just stopped. Victoria, however, completely freezes because of him, though internally she’s confused and scared.

Liam rushes around and down off the stage, going to join his daughter and placing a hand on her should, before looking at Lyssa. “There’s a lot of things my daughter is, but I won’t let her hurt anyone, not like this. I think she made her point. And she is right about one thing. Whatever you did to her– whatever’s happened, I don’t care. The theater is hers. Not just as the director of the musical, but as a performance talent. Go wherever else, scout, but just stay out of here, and out of her life. Hasn’t she been through enough?”

He holds onto Victoria.

@astxrmiscxming

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Lyssa's here. Thoughts?

W…

No. No. Nonononononononono no you’re lying she can’t be that’s not true no you’re lying you’re lying she can’t be oh god no no no no no no please this can’t be happening this isn’t happening no you’re lying she’s not she wouldn’t be I can’t no not again please just be lying no–

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Are you honest about yourself?

“Damn straight.”

Of course not. My life has fallen apart so many times I can’t even count the pieces it’s in anymore. And it feels like there’s nowhere for me to turn anymore, that there’s nobody who understands me and what I’ve been through. I just feel so alone and cut off and I don’t know what to do anymore except bottle it up and suffer in silence.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Flashback Solo Para: To the Rescue

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Violence, gore, death

“It’s okay, shh, sh, sh,” Victoria murmurs softly to the young sparrowman she’d knelt down with. “She won’t find us here. Deep breaths for me, all right? It’s going to be perfectly fine.”

She smiles reassuringly and pats his shoulder, standing in a moment and turning to Raine when he joins her. “How are we doing, Raine?”

“All right, Blackbird.” Code names. Can’t expose who’s running the nightly refugee smuggling if you don’t know who’s running it. Raine likely isn’t even his real name. “We’ll have to get moving again before long, though. I hope you’ve done this right and we have time to take this breather. I still think we should keep moving if anyone here’s going to have a chance to--”

“Shh,” she hisses scoldingly, leading him away from the group of anxious on-lookers. “I’ve told you, not in front of them. I know we’re pressed here but we’re not all going to make it if we don’t stop and--”

Their heads both jerk at a noise in the bushes. Something’s coming. Oh fuck. Oh shit. Oh--- “EVERYBODY MOVE!”

Victoria instantly zips over to help people to their feet and urge them off as Raine takes position to defend them if needed with some of the others of the group, the stronger, the ones who had volunteered to be the barrier.

Victoria’s no fast-flyer, but she’s the daughter of one of the best. She’ll be damned if her talent’s going to keep her from using her upbringing right now, as she gets people on their feet. Silva’s quick to take the lead in getting everyone out of there and on the path again, when through the trees--

Raine lets out a cry as he rallies the defense, Victoria looks back, and her heart shatters, seeing the face at the front of it.

But she wasn’t alone. Fairies and sparrowmen, warped by their nightmares and willing to protect her, only to keep her from making them suffer again. And those who knew nothing but blinding loyalty to the crown.

It makes her sick. But no time for that, as now there’s a real fight and people could get hurt, they need to go, they need to move--

Victoria cries out in pain, when she feels a spear embed itself in her back and push straight through. The young child she’d been helping looks at her, eyes wide with terror, but she pushes through the pain. “Go! Go, it’s okay. You need to go.”

She nudges the little girl along and is relieved when she takes off, trying to keep pushing through to help others, gritting her teeth and bearing it. Finally, finally, finally... the group has fled, following Silva to hopefully freedom. Victoria turns back to the line... noticing the casualties, wincing, but yelling, “Fall back! Let’s go!”

As her other rescues on the line, the ones still fighting, begin to retreat, spreading out to make it difficult to track them and hopefully distract her from chasing the actual rescued, Victoria watches them, watches as they flit by and... Raine. Oh god no where’s Raine. Nononono.

She looks around, pale, panicked, when she sees him.

He barely catches her arm as they both take off, together or not at all, but she can tell he’s hurt, badly, and on a hunch she manages to circumvent the ones after them, circling back around and hiding them out.

He breathes hard as they sink into the shadows, and she tries to remember something, anything a medical-talent had taught her, something that could help him right now-- but Raine reaches up and stops her.

“Listen to me. You get out with this batch. No more running. You leave it to Silva and everyone else who stays to help her. Blackbird, you can’t--” his word cuts off as he starts coughing, hard, and she panics but he forces it to settle and continues,”--you can’t keep doing this.”

“What? Raine, no, you know what you’re asking is--”

“River, actually.”

His real name. He wasn’t going to make it, was he? Tears fill her eyes. “Victoria.”

He smiles a bit. “Get out of here, Victoria. You have to. Don’t let this--” his breathing is shallow, and he has to stop to take a breath just to finish, “--don’t let me die in vain. Promise me.”

Her lip quivers and she trembles. Victoria doesn’t want to say this... doesn’t want to leave when others need her. But...

“I promise.”

He’s gone before dawn. She’s at his side till he’s gone. At dawn she manages to meet Silva, with what’s left of the refugees.

“Blackbird, I thought for sure--” Silva hugs her before Victoria can say anything and she winces. When Silva notices, she pulls back and gasps at the wound. “You’re hurt. Where’s--”

“He didn’t make it.” Her voice is hollow.

“Oh... Blackbird, I’m so--”

“He made me promise to leave with them. I’ll take them to the Mainland. You see if you can find any other survivors.” Victoria doesn’t let the other finish the apology. It doesn’t feel deserved.

There’s nothing more that needs to be said, and Silva knows it, nodding and hugging her again. “Good luck. Find help. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

“I’ll do everything I can. I’ll come back for you.”

A small smile. “I know you will.”

With that, the two parted ways.

Victoria shakes her head and snaps herself out of that memory. The memory of the last time she’d seen Pixie Hollow. The memory of the night she knew she’d need to do more to help her home and her people.

She didn’t know it then but that day would be the last time she saw her parents. And every full moon she’s waiting... waiting for the next rescue party, the next group Silva, or whoever of the others, brings to here, waiting to see them.

And she never does.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

"No Fear!" -@asktheawkwardgay

“Hell yeah!”

Victoria smiles. “…wait, who are you?”

@asktheawkwardgay