Reading Othello hit me hard, and for procrastination reasons my brain decided to write the following mock-play versions of very crucial scenes in Among the mountains of everlong, the prequel to Cracking like a dry branch in a westward wind, and a tragedy that I didn’t know was a tragedy until I took a step back and realized that I just traumatized half the cast by putting them through actual warfare. So of course the only correct response was to write scenes from a nonexistent play about it!
A warning for spoilers (out of context) for Among the mountains of everlong (which I haven’t even bloody published yet), an unhealthy mother-daughter relationship, and a person getting mostly assassinated. He’s fine by the end of the scene.
Also they’re inspired by lyrics from the Oh Hellos because of course they are.
Scene 1: Exuent
(Enter Lynette and Katherine opposite each other)
Lynette: O daughter, dear Katherine, why dost thou seek’st
Mine council so late in this day of storms?
Don’t thou know’st that we be in such grave times
So fierce and tempest-tossed that no monsoon
Nor squall at sea would dare fight in the sky?
Katherine: O mother, dear Lynette, why dost thou ask
Such questions that thou must already have
The right crystalline answers of somewhere
Within thy head so cold and circled tight
By that which is frosty and silver there? (She gestures at the Powder Snow Torq)
Lynette: O rogue, o snake, o daughter of my love,
This war, this time, this wind-whipped land o’ mine,
Tis that which makes my nights so long and dark
And drains my light, my mind, my very self.
Tis why thine mother is so dull and grey.
To make it clear, I’ll say it thusly here:
My dear, I am a ship, a great one too
Cannon-heavy, tall and proud, bright as well,
But this here gale, this world’s great gusts,
Do send me top’lin tail o’re teakettle,
Rolling and bounding across wave and crest
Of war and peace and work and rest.
Tis why I still wear this old torq round here (She gestures at the Powder Snow Torq)
As it is what keeps this head on its neck.
Katherine: Lynette, do halt thine tongue and still thy breath.
Lynette: Why so?
Katherine: Why so? Why ask? Why prod and poke me so?
You of all the folk in this castle
Tall and proud upon the mountainside
Should know why I do speak with serpent’s tongue!
Blight me, o mother mine, if thou dost not
Know in thine stubborn heart the reason why!
(Lynette approaches Katherine, and the Powder Snow Torq glows)
Lynette: Daughter mine, thou treadst a line spindly
Thin and glasslike now. Sayest what thou
Darest.
Katherine: Do I sayest what I dare, Queen Mother?
I shall and will, and, like crystal, it shall
Be clear and flawless cut by mine sharp tongue
And teeth. Do listen close so you might hear.
(Katherine leans towards Lynette)
Katherine: I am not the fool I was when I
Was young and sweet like berries on a vine.
Thine crocodile eyes I have seen clear
And clearer still how you hunger right here.
Thine eyes you batt like ashes in the place
Of dying embers dancing ‘bout the log.
Yet thou art warm and bright and eat the branch
As swiftly as thou eats those words spat out
By mourners and the grieving few whomst thou
Allow to weep. No, Queen Mother, I trust
Thou not one grain of sand nor speck of dust.
So sayest I, right here, right now, to thou:
I turn my back for I am off to leave.
(Katherine about-faces and stomps away to her exit)
Lynette: Daughter mine? O, curse this day, o sing
Thine song for mine own sake, great Overture
At Dawn, o lord, do sound strong with trumpets
And horns of brass and pride that rage and reave
So that this storm may pass me by for once!
O once, just one time of good rest grant me
I do plead of you, o great Dawn’s ire made
In flesh and tusk and cape that flaps with wind
No mind the still and silent of the morn!
Away, o pain, o weakness in my heart,
And still mine soul, spirit within this chest.
(Lynette exits clutching the Powder Snow Torq around her neck)
Scene 2: Caesar
(Scott is kneeled and holding Montgomery’s head as the latter bleeds; looking on are Joey, Sausage, and Shubble)
Scott: Dear father mine, slip not into those hands
Of bone and rags that do grasp at thine soul!
Montgomery: Dear son, don’t fret, not now, not here, I beg.
Scott: Not yet, not yet! O Death, not yet! I pray
To you, wingéd Nocturne, do strike Midnight!
O you with feathers dark and bleak who flies
Through clouds, o’re moon and sun, and calls
Your home the stars themselves, may those keen ears
Hear this blight-strewn call from these lands beyond!
Montgomery: Plea not, my son, cry not and waste no shouts.
Scott: Song o’ Dark! Heed my prayer! Do come
Hither and guide my hands so true and sure!
I beg of thee, great wings so shadow-swept
Uproot mine thorns and knot mine brambles here
And there do root my pricks and grow my stems
So that he may breathe again and again! (His hands begin to glow)
Montgomery: Scott, dear son! I feel thee, thine spell
It works and weaves and roots down deep in me.
Stop not! Halt not! A second more, I pray! (He coughs)
Joey: O miracle, this day in June, halt not
Strong prince, weave true and thick those thornéd twigs
Of magic there round blood and flesh that cleft
So quick and viciously by that foul beast
Of Skytouch sent!
Sausage: Speak not so quickly, friend, at this time now.
We know not who might see or hear these words
Slip past our lips when shock’d and frightened are
We here today under this spell of loss.
Montgomery: Speak of me not in tense of past, Void’s sake!
I breathe still and my heart beats now in here! (He coughs)
Shubble: Fair Gilded Crown of Solis dear, rest now
And calm thine racing heart so that your son
May knit your throat and mend your voice to strength.
Another day may you yet see with luck.
(All exit, Montgomery borne on a stretcher)
Scene 3: Hieroglyphs
(Enter Skizzle, Salem, Mini, and Rebels)
(A loud booming noise is heard followed by more explosions above)
Skizzle: Hark! Hear that outside?
Salem: I hear that not.
Mini: I do hear that.
Rebel: What be it, sir?
Mini: It be the song of war.
The cannons hit those notes on high with pride,
And gatt’lers cry the parts of basses deep
While rams of trees and metal wrapped do sound
More like the sweet mel’dies of altos strong
With surety in breath and tone only
Possesséd by the birds of opera stage.
Rebel: Why do they be singing at such an hour?
Skizzle: I know not but much I can guess
From facts gleaned from notes passed between the folk
At watch upon the walls of Cistern Bay.
High there do they see much and hear as well.
Tell me they have ‘bout odds and ends, things nice
And nasty too. All things blood, steel, bones broke
And steeds maimed far beyond the edge of life.
Salem: But what use are steeds maimed, bones broke, and such?
Day by day the same you hear from those
At watch on high from walls and skies above.
Skizzle: True that, but the day before last did change
That same rhythm of war. Said they who watch
That barreled guns and cannons tall did aim
And fire shot without shot true to hit
Those ‘top the walls, to find them out by light
Of powder shine and iron gleam midair.
Salem: They attack, then, now, within this night?
Mini: Most assuredly.
Salem: Why, we must man the cannon here, and take
Up swords and bows to fight against any
Who daréd face these vali’nt Red and Gold! (She draws her cutlass and holds it high)
Up, in arms, all wings and claws, to fight!
(Salem exits, followed by Rebels)
Mini: Join her I shall, and man the comms to keep
This Bay half up and down free from talons
Borne green and sharp ‘longside that banner high.
(Mini draws his sword and exits)
Skizzle: O, my comrades, true to those colors
O’re head and clack beneath mine feet down here.
Fly high, my birds, sing strong and fight til’ death!
For even those great stars above be naught
But dust alight and gilt with light on high
Yet great and bright do they still be, and we
Be like those shapes once fought and loved and died.
(Skizzle draws his sword and exits)
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When The Amazing Devil wrote "You will scream, 'I won't forget you' but I'll cover my cold ears, It cannot be a lie if no one hears. 'Cause although you say good day to me, I know I don't belong. And although you hold my hand and say I love you, you are wrong. 'Cause love does not exist in this garden, there's no feeling. And you say the words so often that I barely know the meaning. And when the flowers are rotten and all cannons shot, I'll scream but you won't hear, 'forget me not'" and when they said "Pray for me, oh children, pray for what I've done, I'll haunt the very wrinkles of your skin" and when they yelled "God made all man in his image, Honey I'm no man, I'm what's left when children go to war" and when they cried "The cracks you made, I filled with mortar, a broken pot can still hold water" and when they whispered "These hands are growing old, they're running out of things to hold" and when we all weeped with them "If I'm good will you come back, If I'm good will you come back to us" and when they scribbled "Let foul men band and heed your hum for that ancient hymn you heard me strumming's nought but fumble-falls and guns and tumbleweeds, love run. It's nought that rum won't solve though some would harm you, none, not one, no one would raise to you a hand nor thumb, not while by you, I stand and hum" and expected people to just go on about their days, and when they said "If I have to be who I was (You're not) Do I have to be who I am" and then they said "'Cause I will suffer silence for the strings you tune. And I'll withstand what's written for the writer in you. Write me well, my love, write me weird, write me willing, write me well." And when we all sang "Shoulder the sky (I can't wait to show you how much) Open those eyes (I know you can be, just let the rain come) There's a kind (Let the rain come down, darling) (Can't you hear it howling) Of calling" and when they made me freeze right where I stood with "Back then, I wasn't hopeful. But now my ink's blood red, not black. And I'll blink like ripping envelopes in the hopes that you'll write back" and BACK TO BACK they wrote "Cause I'm between that just-one-more and drank-too-much again" "And I promise you I'll write I love you with my fingers on your sleeping hand" "And when I think I'm fine you'll visit, and then you'll happen to me, happen to me all over again" and then had the audacity to say "And I'll sing silence, and ask my glass of wine for guidance. I might not make it tonight" and then "They'd paint your eyes with sunsets (my saints, my sigs, my upsets)" and ON TOP OF THAT "You're not a coward 'cause you cower. You're brave because they broke you, yet broken, still you breathe." AND SOMEHOW WROTE "'Cause I'm not trapped with you, you see. you're the one who's trapped with me." IN THE SAME FUCKING SONG ALONGSIDE "Sometimes I fall to pieces just to see what bits of me don't fit" then decided to break some hearts with "We didn't talk, we made universes out of bitten lips and broken hands. You said I love you less than when it all began, and I said fewer cause I make jokes to show how broken I really am" and then they were both the man their fathers never were and more than what their mums told them to be. And then there was the utter heartbreak of "If I don't make it back from where I've gone, just know I've loved you all along" being repeated for an entire outro. AND THEN THERE WAS "Remember me I ask, remember me I sing. Give me back my heart, you wingless thing." with "Think of all the horrors that I promised you I'd bring, I promised you, they'll sing of every time you passed your fingers through my hair and called me child. Witness me old man I'm the wild." "How bold I was, could be, would be, still am. By God still am" AND THEN THE SHEER FORCE OF THE LINES "Welcome to the storm, I'm thunder. Welcome to my table bring your hunger"
AND EVERY TIME THEY COMPARED THEMSELVES TO THE SAINT OF THE PAINT THAT WAS LEFT IN THE POT, YOUR ANGEL ELLIPSIS, YOUR DEVIL OF DOTS, THE HEARTBREAK THAT ACHES FAR TOO MUCH TO BE SHUNNED, ALL THOSE LETTERS UNSENT, AND THAT GARDEN UNGROWN, THE CAPTAIN OF COURAGE THAT YOU'VE ETERNALLY LACKED AND THE JESUS OF WISHING TO CHRIST YOU'LL COME BACK AND SO. MUCH. MORE.
"This here is not make up, It's a porcelain tomb. And this here is not singing I'm just screaming in tune" ARE YOU KIDDING ME "You try so loud to love me, I cannot seem to hear" and "'Cause If we join our hands in prayer enough, to God I imagine it all starts to sound like applause" IN THE SAME ALBUM WITH "And these plates they smash like waves (place your hand in mine) And on the wind, it howls (how long can this last?)" AND "'Cause these plates, they smash like waves (Place your smile in mine) And the wine stains, hide the tears (Why stay? Hide the-) But that breathing you hear, don't mistake it with sighs. Don't you realize, they're just battle cries, my dear?" And then, when they said "And you, you follow philosophies, but me, I laugh, I choke. 'Well hello my hollow Holofernes' I wink but you don't get the joke" and while we were all busy processing, they reminded us "Your eyes aren't rivers there to weep, but a place for crows to rest their feet" AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON "I chipped my teeth on every joke you cracked" In this essay I will-
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