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Considered one of the most mysterious cities in Mizahar, Alvadas is called The City of Illusions. It is the home of Ionu and the notorious Inverted. This city sits on one of the main crossroads through The Region of Kalea.
Sayana bounced the little babe in her mid arms as she walked through the streets of Alvadas. Today she wanted to take Andreas to playhouse with her and spend some time with the little boy. With her high hands she pulled the corners of her mouth wide in a grotesque face and waggled her tongue. “I’m a monster, coming to get you! Blalalala!”
There was laughter from the baby and Sayana smiled with renewed confidence. She could make him smile just like Timothy always seemed to do. As they neared the tunneled entrance of the theatre, she stopped to do one last feeding. The baby often seemed hungry and she knew he would cry if he wasn’t happy. And sometimes at very inopportune times. Like the middle of the night. Even with Timothy looking after Andreas quite a lot, she was starting to feel the exhaustion that new parents often felt.
As she adjusted her top after the brief feed, she wondered if the baby was getting all it needed. After all, it was not a newborn and yet her body was probably producing what a newborn needed. She tried to shrug the thought away. It wouldn’t do much to be worrying. As Sayana stepped into the theatre she waved to some of the cast. The next show would be soon and some were already dressed up. It seemed like the Crook was constantly putting on performances but at least there was a back area to practice and learn the ropes. Sometimes quite literally. Some of the performers could swing and practically dance on ropes and things they called trapezes.
“I’ll be in the back learning lines and practicing choreography,” Sayana called as headed for one of the dressing rooms. The nice thing about so many performances and so many performers was that right from the start she was woven into one of the regular shows with an improvisational dance act. Yet at the same time, she could practice some of the more complex choreographies at other times during the day so that soon she’d be part of a bigger group performance. Not to mention getting better with her acting and acrobatics. She still didn’t dare attempt to do any flips.
Andreas squirmed in her arms. “Okay okay, I’ll put you down.” She found a comfortable looking chair with arms and placed Andreas into it before starting to look at the vast array of costumes. “Aha! Look at this!” She pulled out a rather large puffed up dress with a rather regal look to it. It was so large that she slipped it on over top of her clothes and fastened the back. Then she spotted a ridiculously tall hat with a similar flair.
“And how do you do, Mister Andreas?” She spoke with an exaggerated accent of dignified grace. Her arms weren’t the most comfortable but she was surprised at how billowing the sleeves were so that she could actually put three arms into a single huge sleeve. Deciding to exaggerate things even more, she went to the mirrors and found some bright red lip pomade to fancy up her lips. “How marvelous,” she continued with a pretentious air. She picked up the babe in two hands and kissed him on the cheek leaving a bright red mark of red.
Andreas gave a giggle at Sayana’s antics and she set him back down to find something new. A bear costume, what fun that could be. She carefully changed out of the dress and hung it back up. She then took off her shoes to put the big suit-like costume on. There were little bear feet and bear paws as part of the set. With a growl she pawed at the air. “I’m a fearsome bear!” Then she stopped for a moment. “But Andreas, bears don’t wear makeup.” Taking off one of the claws she smudged the lip pomade away until it was practically gone. It was a little awkward with her low and mid arms squished at her sides but clearly there weren’t many costumes designed for Eypharians. Sayana did her best bear face then the growled again at the babe.
Unfortunately, Andreas burst out crying. “No no no, don’t be like that,” Sayana said as she reached out to cradle the baby. But something about the claws on her hands made him wail even more. Quickly, she changed out of the costume and held Andreas close, speaking soft comforting words. After a lot of rocking and soothing he finally settled down.
Maybe something a little less frightening but no less interesting. She looked at the various costumes. Many came in sets but some were just random garments. She was getting a little tired of the clothes not meant for Eypharians and then she spotted a long dark cloak. This time she kept Andreas with her in her mid arms and reached to don the black cloak with her highs. She wrapped it about herself and pulled down the hood. Then she found some black boats to fit.
What about her face? Was there anything she could do to make it fit even better? Sayana looked around and saw a bit of reddish brown powder. She smudged some on in a mish-mashed way to resemble the dirt of the streets. Taking one of her small daggers out she slashed it about in a playful way. “I’m a thief going to steal you away Andreas!” Clutching the babe close she ran about the room and pretended to sneak around corners while dodging arrows or punches.
With a dramatic flair of her cloak, Sayana lifted the hood of the garment and replaced it with a crown that she found. “No one is safe while the Bandit Queen roams free!” She leapt onto one of the chairs and flipped a dagger into the air before catching it. With another flair of her cloak she jumped back down and returned Andreas to his comfortable seat.
Sitting in a chair across from the baby boy she opened her cloak wide with her high hands and then wiggled and flailed her mid and low arms at him. He gave a laugh and pointed at her various arms. He seemed fascinated by them and she was finding that sometimes she could trick him into not crying if he was preoccupied with watching her arms.
“Now, what I should be doing is practicing my lines,” she said half to herself and half to the infant before her. “Because I will be playing the role of a depressed Akvatari.” She turned her face into an exaggerated frown and then looked in the mirror at herself. As she brushed her hair from her face to get a better look, she couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of her chevas mark. She still had it. Did that mean there was still hope?
Shaking the dark thoughts away she made a silly looking face and then showed it to Andreas. His laughter lightened her mood. She tried a confused expression with raised eyebrows and showed it to her ‘audience’. Again she worked on her sad face and this time really tried to perfect it. It was rare that examined herself so closely in front of a mirror, but it gave her time to adjust her lips and face to make it look realistic rather than simply comedic.
Sayana went through a number of different expressions. She twitched her lip up into a smirk, then gave her reflection a solid and piercing glare. With a wink and a bat of her eyes she beckoned with a finger before tossing her hair to one side. The Eypharian straightened up and looked down her nose with a proud and regal appearance. Lastly her eyes darted this way and that as her hands fidgeted in front of her. The nervous and scared appearance felt rather odd but if she was going to act she might as well try out different sorts of characters.
Taking a break, Sayana picked up Andreas and held him up high before cradling him in her arms. This time it was a genuine expression of happiness and love.
“Alright, to business.” Sayana spun around with her adopted son and took off the various articles of her thief costume. She found a large piece of cloth that was a brilliant blue and held it between her high hands raised up and her lows bent down. Flapping the material back and forth she was rather impressed at the results. “I have my Akvatari wings…” But then she spotted herself in the mirror. Her face was all roughed up. She spent a moment carefully getting rid of the makeup with a piece of cloth and then searched around to find some brilliant blue face paint for her eyes. This time she actually made a real effort to create a dazzling effect upon her eyes with various lines coming off to further embellish the look. She reapplied the red lip pomade and searched for some black khol for the finishing touches. Perhaps someday she should find hair dyes to better match her character but today was not that day.
Even though the makeup and costume did not truly resemble an akvatari, it highlighted various aspects of the flying seal-like race. With a joyful flapping of her ‘wings’ she dashed outside behind the theatre where there were various acrobatic equipment pieces set up. Half-way there, she remembered that she should be practicing staying in character and thus had a more graceful, resolute, and rather depressing walk.
What she really wanted to try was the trapeze. And if she was going to be ‘flying’ during the performance, she better get good. There were other actors out at the back. Some practicing flips and cartwheels, others on some of the equipment. “Mind if I use the trapeze?” She asked and pointed to the long rope contraption hung up on a solid wooden frame. “Sure thing, there’s a rope to pull it up and you can stand on that platform. It’s nothing special today, but I’m sure the illusions will pick up.”
His last comment was a bit odd but Sayana was glad of the instruction despite how minimal it was. Still clutching Andreas comfortably to her chest with her mids, she found the rope and climbed the ladder to the small platform. Once she was at the top, it made sense to have the rope because she needed it to pull the trapeze from its resting position in the middle to the edge where she could grab it. Grinning, she carefully managed to secure the Akvatari wings in her high hands while at the same time grabbing hold of the bar. Her mids held Andreas and her lows stretched out the fabric to give the wings shape.
“Ready, set… Whee!” It was exhilarating as her legs jumped off the platform and she was swinging, soaring. Until… As she neared the low spot in the middle of the swing, the extra momentum going downwards was too much to handle and she slipped off with stumble to the ground. Fortunately, she didn’t crush little Andreas but even though it was a practice trapeze, it certainly jarred her and left a few scrapes on her legs and hands.
“Uhh, perhaps could someone look after him for a moment?” Sayana asked around. “I’m still getting used to the trapeze here and I wouldn’t want him to get hurt.” She was thankful when someone offered and she returned to try out the swing-like contraption again. This time she even got rid of the ‘akvatari wings’ and put four hands on the bar rather than just two. The Eypharian swung low and made it up on the other side of the arch. Then back down going backwards. After a couple more swings she jumped down and landed with only a slight stumble upon her feet.
Grabbing the small rope she ran up to the platform again and climbed up, ready to do it all over again. She was more confident this time and even made a beautiful angled shape with her legs. The Eypharian then brought her legs up as if to do a flip, but then just hooked them onto the bar and hung there as she swung back and forth. Only once the trapeze was hardly moving did push her legs all the way over and let go with her hands to land on her feet.
She tried a couple more things with the trapeze, even hanging by her legs for just a moment. Then she started incorporating the Akvatari wings with a melancholy mood. She made dramatic sighs and tosses of her hair as she swung through the air. “Art thou my love? Or a mere figment of my imagination?” With another sigh and a false tear, she landed far more gracefully upon the ground.
“Now where is my young child?” Where did he go? Her eyes darted around as she tried to remember which actor she had asked to look after him.
For the next couple of chimes she was frantically looking around for the little babe. She looked in and amongst the equipment, in various piles of props, even in the various nooks and crannies of the practice area. At last her eyes widened as she saw little Andreas walking, no, running across a large practice mat. Could he really be taking his first steps? And at such a speed? Sayana ran after him but when they approached one of the actors dressed up as a clown, Andreas disappeared and she saw instead that her adopted son was in the arms of the clown.
The clown’s nose grew round and red and a flower in his pocket burst out into song. Sayana couldn’t help but watch for a moment as the babe played with the singing flower and grabbed onto the red nose. She wondered if Fabel had found yet another disguise and suddenly started to question if the ‘Andreas’ he held really was her baby. However, when she saw the stripes on his pants start dancing along with the song, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Children are always so accepting of illusions,” he spoke calmly. He held up a hand in the rough shape of a rabbit and in the next tick it had white fluffy ears and a pink nose looking very much like a little bunny. “I’m glad you brought him today. Alvadas has been… not feeling its best. And it’s nice to have a child to brighten the mood.”
“Not feeling so well?” Sayana inquired. “What do you mean by that? I was able to actually find my way here this time. Unless you’re going to tell me that all these actors are more illusions you’ve created.”
“It’s sick,” the clown continued rather pensively. He didn’t attempt to confirm or deny whether she made it to the playhouse successfully. “Maybe there aren’t enough people who simply believe and embrace the illusions. Maybe it has lost its energy.” He melded back into his hooded appearance and handed Andreas back to her.
As the Eypharian cradled the babe, she couldn’t help but do several checks to see if it really was Andreas. After she felt reassured, she wondered at the predicament of the city. Could it really be feeling sick? Did it need an audience who believed in order to remain lively? She knew that she always gained energy and even creative insight when she had an attentive audience. Maybe Alvadas was similar. Maybe it was time she really started embracing the illusions rather than fighting against them.
Otherwise, nice little thread! Don't take your baby on a trapeze.
