MIDSUMMER DREAMS

EVE BEST as ROSALINE WARD in “Maryland” 1x03 - ( footage thanks to @evebestonline )

EVE BEST as ROSALINE WARD in “Maryland” 1x02 ( requested by @mandalamarigold, footage thanks to @evebestonline )

#is this too meta?#type: closing spam #Eve in Antony and Cleopatra being a primarily influence tho makes this fitting

EVE BEST at a curtain call of Antony and Cleopatra (2014)

EVE BEST as ROSALINE WARD in “Maryland” 1x03 - ( footage thanks to @evebestonline )

#type: closing spam #sorry to backjustforberena for the multi reblogs - you are such a wonderful giffer for eve - i appreciate you

Juliet Lonsdale in "Wild Cherry" 1x02 - Girls Are More Responsible, and She Has Her Credit Card ( footage thanks to @dalyblue )

EVE BEST as ROSALINE WARD in “Maryland” 1x02 - ( footage thanks to @evebestonline )

#type: closing spam #type: art

Goodbye, Swynlake. You’ve been a wonderful sort of adventure.

Goodnight, Moon. Or, The One Where Menodora Says Goodbye.

no triggers, necessarily; referenced infidelity

The walls are just as bare as they’ve always been.

Menodora sits, legs crossed, on the floor of Castle Suites Flat 2F. Her heart feels heavy, still, but there’s a weight that’s been lifted from her shoulders. It was a weight that had been there for a long, long time — long enough that she doesn’t remember a time without it.

She feels unburdened. She feels light.

It’s Nearly May in Swynlake, the late sunset outside being proof of that fact. The days were growing longer, with the promise of summer ahead.

She hopes whoever has this apartment next can decorate it and make it feel like home. Or maybe they’d stay in Swynlake long enough for it to change their life before moving on, just like Menodora has.

The fading light casts light and shadow across her apartment. She’ll miss this sort of late hour most.

|| Read Here ||

#type: doc #type: closing

vague recognition || harvest moon

"Nah. I'd hate to make you go through the effort when I can give you something legitimate to worry about instead," said Jack, licking his lips and then reaching for yet another glass.

A joke, a joke! Though he had always been curious about this lady and her connection with Marks. What it was, why it was, all that kinda thing. He'd never ask Oz. They didn't talk about that-- about ladies or about men-- about relationships in general.

They talked business. And lately, the grisly nature of their separate... conditions.

"So what brings you to the Court, then? Feeling lonely?"

@menodoramoon

#th: vague familiarity #ch: jack skellington

Ha. Menodora doesn't need to tell Jack that she worries about things constantly, and that being fidgety was only one of her many manifestations of stress and worry and - yes - sometimes grief. That's too heavy, though, for a chance encounter. She gives a pleasant sort of expression, watching as Jack takes up another drink.

Menodora would normally be glad that Jack took the lead in the conversation. Asked a question, gave some direction. She doesn't know if she's glad now, when such a surface-level question ("Feeling Lonely?") hits very close to a deeper, raw truth.

For the past few months, Menodora has had to be alone. She's been unable to act as herself, fully embracing - no matter how empty it felt - everything it meant to be Mena.

It wasn't so much just lonely, Menodora thinks, but isolating.

"You could say that," she says, trying to shuffle all those thoughts away. "Sometimes it's nice to get out. People watch, or whatnot."

@the-pumpkin-king-lament

vague recognition || harvest moon

"Oh sure. People throw things at me all the time. Especially beautiful women-- I have a gift for pissing them off," quipped Jack. He raised his eyebrows, eyes bright with something wicked this way comes...

Was he flirting?

Maybe. He liked older women. It had to do with his copious mommy issues. Thanks, Wonderful!

He chuckled at his own joke, picked up one of his drinks and then knocked it back, letting a satisfied breath out after. "So how are you feeling today, then? Fidgety at all? Should I be prepared to duck?"

@menodoramoon

#ch: jack skellington #th: vague familiarity

Jack raises his brows. Menodora raises just the one. Curious? Slightly amused? Beautiful women. She laughs at that internally. Charmer.

Menodora leans one arm the bar, resting her face on her palm. "Well, you haven't made me cross yet," she says. "Still, there's time yet."

She watches him knock back his drink. He had so many in front of him. If she had that many, she's sure she'd be wasted.

"Decidedly not fidgety. Unless you want me to be. I'm sure I could muster up something to worry about, just for you."

@the-pumpkin-king-lament

ommer || tófi & menodora

ofseptarsis

Well, the whole thing was a no-brainer: Tófi could either choose the person they had known for decades and whose life had drastically changed the direction of their own both for the best and the worst, or have a hollow fake that bared (and only barely, given the colour palette changes) the semblance of familiarity but lacked substance and, as such, made her uncanny.

They'd rather carry the complicated feelings that composed their relationship with pride, as if they were a medal, than have to deal with the alternative.

Yes, if things had been any different that choice would have been terribly insensitive: had Menodora been affected by a natural ailment then the Septarian's choice to rather not deal with her in that condition would not be as acceptable -would have possibly been an insult to their bond than an expression of it-

-then again, Tófi had never claimed to be a good example when it came to morals, so they didn't exactly feel guilty.

It hadn't been a black and white thing and they were aware that the only reason why their choice had been remotely acceptable was because there had been many, many other pieces in motion; That wishful thinking rarely worked and that, maybe, this was the Norn's curious ways of figuratively throwing a bone at them after so many times making them miserable.

To try and compensate for person that did not have as much luck as Menodora, maybe.

"There is no victory, nor honour, in taking advantage of someone who is already suffering -you talk about that time as if it had been sunshine and rainbows, but it was not"

For they remembered the angst, the heavy pauses, the moments of fugue and how Mena had tried to cling to anything that could maybe give her answers about who she had been.

"I am glad you pulled through. That there are many people out there besides me that care for your well-being enough to actively fight for it"

They did not have any details about what had changed or how-

-but given Stella's threat and the Comission's actions? They could fill in the blanks just fine.

They lower their head, pressing their forehead to hers in silent affection

Then the question comes.

"I am note quite sure, myself" they admit with voice lowered "Mjaunie, I am afraid, will never be the same as they one I once knew. Times change, people change, and even places do -tomorrow's Mjaunie is as foreign to me as any other place"

It's a bittersweet thing to admit: that time has erased the vague idea of what Home had once been and that they no longer belonged to the place that saw them live their first of everything.

This was not quite like outgrowing one's birthplace, not like expanding your horizons, no, it was like...being dragged away by waves without even noticing it.

"And Swynlake is...terribly odd for my tastes. The bi-annual catastrophe and the collective dreams are not necessarily quite to my liking, nor their over-reliance on..."

The word 'magic' is left unsaid, but remains very present.

"I guess I will cross that bridge when I get to it -or whoever the phrase goes"

@menodoramoon

#ch: tófi sethson #th: ommer #mobile reply

Sunshine and rainbows... To Mena, it felt like it most of the time. Menodora recalls echoes of her own voice. Weightless, unburdened. Chipper and happy and quite different from who she was naturally. Or perhaps that’s who she was via nurture, given the fact that maybe Mena was who she would have been - naturally - if not for the weight of Mjaunie on her shoulders.

A long time ago, she had been happy-go-lucky. A long time ago, she’d been someone entirely different than what Mjaunie had made her. Or maybe that was what Tófi had made her. On purpose? By consequence? It doesn’t matter now, it’s done.

Assigning blame doesn’t fix the problem.

“It was nice for a time,” Moon admits, averting her gaze. Looking just off from their eyes. “I remember the good of it, the bad being suppressed or buried by the spell when it could be. I remember you had tried to tell me something — my name — and everything had shifted. There’s a gap there, a blank. I don’t remember what I said between that and us merely discussing…”

That hurtful conversation between them.

She lets her hesitation and silence speak for her.

“It was Stella who won me back,” Menodora says, “though she had help. I’m not sure if it was the spell she tried to counter-act with, or her own magic by itself. Do you remember my mother’s pies. The ones she used to bake for my birthday. She offered you a slice on my 10th birthday, that one where you indulged me with a class outside. It was the same one as back then. It tasted the same.”

The memory emerges in her mind piece by piece, resurfacing from its long dormancy. Tófi explaining to her the history (albeit revised) of her family’s reign, their responsibilities. She wonders how often they had cursed The Commission for the curriculum. They were outside on the veranda, Menodora scribbling down her notes on the subject. Her mother, radiant as always in her golden curls and blue eyes, bringing them lunch (tea sandwiches) with blackberry pie for dessert. Ice cream as well. Her love was stored in flavor, in food. Even if it wasn’t magic, her love was magic in itself.

There is a brief moment where Menodora wonders what Tófi’s relationship with her mother was. They seemed to co-exist rather well, her mother appreciative of Tófi’s efforts to rein in her child’s wandering mind.

Were they friends? Or was Tófi’s deferential smile always gritted, just out of sight?

Her had always inclined her head when the two of them — her and Mr Sethson — would pass each other in a corridor.

A tear nearly escapes Menodora as she looks up to Tófi’s face. This was a glamour. These were not the same eyes that Comitessa would have seen when Tófi had assassinated her.

Assigning guilt didn’t fix the problem, either.

Tófi lowers their head to hers. Menodora closes her eyes for a moment, letting her heavy musings slowly melt back into the back of her mind. Affection is what is conveyed. Affection is what Menodora feels back, even if it was complicated. And wrong.

“I wish I’d understood back then,” Menodora says, a softness to her voice that surprises her, “all that you’d lost. All that you gave up to be my tutor. I was too short-sighted to see it. I was too short-sighted to see beyond my own estate.”

Menodora loved Swynlake, she did. She loved the people she’d met, she loved the person she became - even if she loathed that person as well. Change was painful in ways Menodora had expected. In ways she hadn’t as well.

“I hope you find somewhere you can call home. And who knows? Perhaps, in some amount of years, whether in my lifetime or otherwise, Mjaunie will be a place you could find it in yourself to call home again. I want that for you, and every mon— (a clearing of the throat) —and every person that was every unfairly treated by myself and my family. I hope it can be rebuilt. I hope—… I hope it gets better.”

@ofseptarsis

vague recognition || harvest moon

I thought Oz thought the world of you.

Jack nearly barked, but thankfully, he was sipping his drink at that exact moment, and so he merely choked on the liquor. Jerking his head away, some spittle ran out of his mouth, dribbled down his chin, before he grabbed a napkin and patted himself clean.

Bah! Fucking hilarious. The way this lady made Oz sound like some heartsick besotted little....

Jack's stomach suddenly felt queasy. Anyway! What did this woman know?

"Did you? Did I deserve it?" Jack ignored the Oz comments completely, cocking an eyebrow at the mention of pen violence.

@menodoramoon

#ch: jack skellington #th: vague recognition

Did he deserve...? Menodora tilted her head, smiled. She'd thought he might say something further about Oswald but there is no follow up. Menodora doesn't press. Oswald shouldn't be her concern anymore, even if she is concerned about him. And... Ozzy, or whoever.

"It was an accident," Menodora says with a slightly raised brow. "I'd been fidgeting, as I often do. Why, is there a crime you may be guilty of that would warrant it?"

There's something almost teasing in her tone, though maybe something also uneasy.

"I wouldn't think so. But you never know. You could be hiding some fantastic secrets."

@the-pumpkin-king-lament

lunch is on me || mene

kouros-herc

"But you're trying-" Hercules reminded her, with the naivety of a child. He still could not quite make these two versions of the person in front of him occupy the same space. Sure, sometimes Menodora made comments that jarred him but... the idea she fought against magicks? That she felt so responsible for oppressing them?

How could he ever quite reconcile that with the woman who sat in front of him, smiling ever-so-slightly-sheepishly as if they were discussing nothing important?

"I hope it's see you later," he said, sighing a little to himself, before he drove the heels of his palms into his eyes to try and drive away the trace of the tears that wanted to fall. What else could he say?

"You're a better person than you think you are, Menodora," he reminded her, lifting his head again to try and break out a smile for her. "And I hope you get to come back to say a proper goodbye before you move somewhere else."

That would be a better version to imagine, wouldn't it?

@menodoramoon

#ch: hercules kouros #th: lunch is on me

Menodora looked up at Hercules, her expression some melding of sympathetic and helpless. She doesn't know how she could possibly make this better for him. Just earlier, she'd cheerfully barged into his establishment to invite him for lunch.

Her intention was to find out what he wanted as a gift, to say thank you. Maybe to say goodbye.

This is not how Menodora wanted this interaction to go.

Hercules retracted his hands, staving off tears. Guilt resonates between Menodora's ribs.

"It's 'see you later,'" Menodora assures, with no idea whether or not it was a lie. "You're not rid of me, yet, Hercules."

She reaches into her bag and passes him a light blue, embroided handkerchief.

"Only if you'd like," she says, softly. "But, Hercules..."

She starts, though realizes she doesn't know what she means to say. Menodora wishes she could sip on her drink right now, but it was empty. She taps her fingers together in a rhythm. A self-soothing tendency she wishes she'd outgrow.

"I'll send you so many postcards of my adventures, it's like I'd never left. You'll be inundated with verbose musings about something as mundane as the weather." She smiles then, brighter than it had been. Yes, that is the better future. "You'll have so many words from me, it'll be like I never left."

@kouros-herc

vague recognition || harvest moon

Yes, here was Jack: in enemy's territory.

But this was research! Just because he had his own club now didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy the fruits of others... perhaps take something here and there as well. He expected beautiful Jessica Rabbit to do the same kinda thing. Or she could try-- but she was so beneath him, magic-wise, he doubted she could ever truly rise to Pierrot's experience.

And that was fine because they both had very different experiences anyway, didn't they?

So today, Jack had ordered every cocktail on the menu. He sniffed them, licked the sugar, salt, and tajin rims (depending on the drink). He'd just smacked his lips and slurped a particular spicy margarita when someone caught his attention.

Oh! It was Oswald's... what was her name?

Clearly, she knew him. So Jack would just have to pretend to remember her name.

"Ahhhh, yes! That's me. Sort of," Jack said. "We're business partners, at least. Not sure about friends." He chuckled.

@menodoramoon