#roaslind

Masterlist

Taglist: @setsuna1415

When Freyja came back to, she noticed the unforgettable blonde sitting beside her. Of course, none of the Winx girls were there. “You’ve made your point,” came her raspy voice. She sounded like she had been screaming. Had she? She was breathing heavily despite having just woken up.

Rosalind smirked down at her. “Good.”

With a sigh, the redhead went limp in the bed.

The blonde stood. “I expect you back in the office in the morning.” She left and the redhead turned to see the sky outside the greenhouse where she was residing in was dark. It was mid-night. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to calm down enough to sleep.

*~*

Freyja was back to classes by noon. She slipped back into the greenhouse for one of the few non-combative classes. Rosalind still wanted healers, then. That was reassuring. A bit. She sat in the back of the room, by the door, in case she had to make a speedy exit. They were paired off and put to an advanced potion Ben clearly wasn’t comfortable teaching them. Aisha and Bloom stayed together, along with Terra and Musa, even if they all stared at the solo redhead. Freyja was forced to team up with an isolated fellow first year, named Nabu.

Class inched by. Time had no meaning to the numb redhead. She was in full recovery mode, only necessary functions operational. Like she was a computer, conserving as much as she could. Freyja did most of the work. Nabu was more into active magic, something he just had to tell her 80 million times. The low sound of the bell rang and she slowly cleaned up, abandoned by her partner. A hand on her shoulder made the girl flinch.

Ben stood behind her, looking very concerned. She’d gotten up and left before the botanist returned to the greenhouse. “Are you okay?” he asked gently, softly.

It would have pissed the redhead off if she was still capable of deeper emotions at the moment. Instead… all she felt was violated. Crippled and alone. “Fine,” she answered, leaving the greenhouse. He could clean up the rest of her mess.

The bald man watched her leave, feeling resigned at her confirmation of his theory. Rosalind broke her. Maybe not for long, maybe not completely, maybe she could recover, but - for now, at least - she was a hollow shell.

She stood on the hill she’d flipped Dane on and watched the children be molded into warriors. Sky was struggling, watching his father be so cruel to students who didn’t meet his impossibly high standards. The redhead briefly wondered where her kids had gotten off to. That sparked something inside her. Even recovering from the memories, still feeling the lashes strike her back, she felt the determination she’d felt when Eliza had been infected. She had to pull herself together. There was nothing more to be done. She had to be a leader, had to keep the kids safe. Protect them even from herself. From Rosalind. From Andreas. As the cruel man kicked a first-year into the pond by the floating platform, Freyja felt a burst of wind crowd in her palm. It almost felt like a sphere and a twitch of her fingers brought an orb into being. It was just wind, still, so very unstable, but when she lifted the magic to her eyes to examine more closely, it felt real. Smog gathered between her palm and the air outside her magic, silver flashing in her irises, and a cemetery flashed in her mind.

Leaves along the ground in the thick of autumn, trees fully green, seven lumps of dirt scattered before two old, twisted benches. Crosses were staked behind them and tall walls sectioned off the bit of ground.

She felt the blonde approach long before she did. Something in her dialed up to 11 and magic was far too connected for her own good.

“You weren’t in the office,” was the non-greeting delivered.

Freyja let out a breath, staring forward emotionlessly. Full freeze out. “The work was done. I was there. You were not.”

The blonde stepped up beside the ginger, a cruel smile twisting her face in a familiar way that suited her. “Don’t think you can get by with too many loopholes, my dear,” she threatened lowly.

The above it all redhead didn’t even give her the time of day. She just watched as Andreas slammed a boy down with a seething glower. She was unaware of how she was being observed.

Blue eyes flitted from a clearly pissed student to the acts of injustice Andreas was doling out. She had always been a fan of harsher teachings, but clearly Freyja was not of the same opinion. The blonde found her eyes drawn back to the girl as Layla stepped up to the platform, clearly having been forced to approach. A faint smirk had pulled at pale lips. Ooh , it was a good look on her. All dark and broody, the confidence and wickedness in her gaze lit a fire inside the Headmistress. Suddenly, all she wanted was to see the redhead against her prized Specialist. The only one who never left her. It was bonding in a cruel she-was-using-him-and-the-bond way. Cool fingers wrapped around the girl’s bicep, pulling her down the hill. “Come, now, let’s get a better view.” The girl didn’t fight her, but she’d shown wisdom in understanding how to adjust to statements made by Rosalind. She knew her submission meant something to the former prisoner.

Both competitors were armed with a bo staff. This wasn’t technically a class so anyone could fight anyone and there were hardly any rules. Andreas lunged first, predictable and dumb. He was trying to assert dominance. He swung wide and Layla was a slippery spy. She jumped the swipe and kicked his chest to counter. She fell to the ground and moved onto one knee, already in motion to continue the fight. She jabbed harshly, but Andreas brought his own down to block, spinning it to lock up with hers. He pulled to the left and yanked her staff from her grasp. She was disarmed. She moved away in alarm, rolling to her feet. She ducked the next swipe, catching another, then stole his move and proceeded to steal his staff. She yanked it from his arms. The momentum from him releasing his grasp landed her on the ground. She couldn’t move as well now and he took the opportunity. Enraged at having been showed up, he landed on top of her in typical alpha male fashion and pushed the staff down, cutting into her ribs right below her breasts. She couldn’t fight his strength, but pushed against him all the same. In a quick move, the abandoning father pulled a knife from his belt and held it over her head. He went to bring it down when another arm blocked him. Sharply, Andreas looked from his victim to see a pissed redhead, bent beside them, using a single arm to combat his single arm’s strength, then pushing it up.

She delivered a quick kick to his vulnerable chest and pulled Layla up. She pushed her down to Timmy who stood at the bottom of the stairs to the platform. She turned back to her opponent, sizing up the standing man subtly. She had her head to the side, very clearly seeing him as decidedly not a threat.

Sneering at the arrogance of this young girl, Andreas moved to her like a bear. He swung the staff at her which she caught and slammed her hand down on the fist holding it. He brought his free hand up to side punch her, but she ducked and throat punched him. She ducked beneath his arm again, getting behind him and raising her leg. She circled him like a snake, getting up to his shoulders in height before delivering a swift kick to his face, falling onto the platform. She brought her legs up to her face and kicked herself back onto her feet. She grabbed his staff and kicked his stomach again. His injured wrist forced his grip to lax before he fell back into the pond beneath the platform.

Freyja faced the group who stared up at her in awe. “That’s enough fighting him to have your worth decided,” she ordered, throwing the staff onto the platform before marching off. Sky stood at the bottom of the stairs and they took Layla to the greenhouse together. “How are you?” she asked the blonde.

Pretty blue eyes jerked away, boring into the ground like he was Sam. “How much time have you got?” he asked, trying to mock her accent.

It backfired and the redhead smiled faintly. “Enough,” came her smooth, sympathetic answer.

Rosalind: Oh my god.

Elora: I’d better do this properly, get down on one knee...

Rosalind: Oh my god.

I had my first call back ever in my college career (because I don't realy count highschool) and it was the most horrifying thing in my life. Even just getting the text saying "the call backs have been posted" made my heart stop and my gut clench.

When I saw the list, I don't even think I felt happy that I'd gotten called back for the lead role, Rosalind, because I was so intimidated by the other five names I saw right under mine. My nerves just worsened... When they finally sent us the call back slides, the nerves finally started going away. I wouldn't be going in completely cold; I had time to go over these scenes, figure out what happened before and after them and decide what I felt in those moments. 

Rosalind was asked to read two excerpts of monologues, a scene with Orlando, and a scene with Celia. There were six Rosalinds, six Celias and three Orlandos, and the girls were called an hour before the guys. We went in with our partner and did our scene one group in the room at a time, then Celia left and we did the two monologues. Later, when the guys showed up, they did a scene with one of us, left, came in a round later with another Rose, did the scene again, then did their monologues.

The tension was so palpable...

The Rose and Ceci scene was one about Celia finding a love letter Orlando had written Rosalind, and tormenting her by not revealing the name of who wrote it. When she finally did reveal the name, Rose's disdain over the poetry disappears and she is completely enamored by him. The tricky scene about this, was that the tone of the piece rested almost completely on Celia. She could decide whether it was really comedic and action filled, or if it was more serious and stagnant. I was hoping for a fun one, but my partner sort of hit a half-way point that led to a more serious Rosalind until she became love-struck.

When we came in, the director asked me if I'd been called back for any other roles, and when he heard that I hadn't been called back for Celia, he asked me to read her once I had read as Rose. Oh my god was that fun! I was teasing my partner so much, not letting her see the love letter, and being genuinely excited for her love or Orlando. It felt a lot more real to me, and while Brett laughed at some of my reactions as Rose, I think he was a lot warmer to my version of Celia.

Then came the monologues. They spoke to me instantly. I knew exactly what they were about and how they made me feel because I'd analyzed them over the summer in my scansion class. The first was Rosalind belittling Phoebe and her belief that everyone should love her. That bitchy-mean, yet honest and deserved, is something I love playing but don't often have chances to do. The second excerpt was Rose telling Celia how much she loved Orlando while lamenting that she couldn't be forthcoming with her affection because she was pretending to be a man. I think that this was the best part of my Rose audition, because I really knew what I was doing and just had to react with myself, so there wasn't too much "variation" (if you know what I mean?). Brett laughed at both of them and didn't give me any notes.

And then Orlando. I feel bad because I had rehearsed the scene with a partner before the other Orlandos showed up, but I though he'd already chosen two Rosalinds to go in with, so I ended up going in with someone other than him. Sort of stupid, but we've been on the rocks and things are finally neutralizing, so I was just worried about anything upsetting that balance. Ah well. I really liked the guy's acting style who I did audition with. He was able to give me some notes on what Brett had asked for before, and they were almost perfectly aligned to my interpretation. The only thing was remembering to let Rosalind's love peak through the man she was pretending to be. It's a hard dynamic to play... 

And finally, before I left, Brett asked me to read for CeliaCelia one more time with a different Rosalind. Oh. My. God. I'd been nervous up until that point, but when we got on stage, I just felt a connection and everything went away. It was genuinely fun! I was laughing and I felt so invested in the scene without even trying. I wasn't thinking or trying to decide what the character would do. In that moment, I really felt like I had a chance to be Celia, or to even get a part in this play!! 

I just want this. Everyone does. There are some really really talented actors in our department, and it was really fun getting to work with them... It's just hard knowing that some of them may have been more of what Brett wanted, and that even though I put myself out there, I may not be what he wants. Obviously nothing personal, but still a hard thing to think about.

Now I get to wait until Tuesday at the latest for the cast list -.-