#only to be thrown into a pit of snakes and watch your teammates (once again) fall down one after the other like dominoes

[slamrink]

The Sisyphean Allegory Plays Basketball Tomorrow! 🔥

[aseriesofhyperfixation]

“Where are you Dragonfly?” Olaf called out, laughing.  Beatrice crept slowly up behind him, leaping from where she was crouched on the stair railing and slamming into him hard, the two collapsing to the ground in a pile of giggles, “I’m right here, silly!”  “Hey!” Olaf chuckled, spinning around and pinning her to the floor, “Respect your elders!” Shaking her head, Beatrice kicked her legs up and flipped them over, “Stop calling yourself my elder! I’m turning nine in a week and a half.” “And I turned nine three weeks ago, which makes me your elder!” Olaf stood up, extending a hand to her. “Come on Firefly,” Beatrice jumped up beside him, tugging him along behind her, "I’m gonna get in trouble if I don’t get some piano practice in today.” “Aren’t we supposed to be practicing our scene for the play? That’s why we’re here,” He gestured around the theatre. She shrugged, “Well we’re already not practicing that, and you know that we’ll have it all down anyway. We always do. Besides,” She batted her eyelashes at him, “You’re the best piano player I know. Come help me.” “Flattery will get you everywhere,” Olaf followed with a grin, “It’s why we’re best friends.” “Who says we’re best friends?” Beatrice teased, hopping up onto the stair railing and balancing carefully. Olaf stared up at her, wrapping his arms over his stomach, and twisting the little firefly ring that she had made him,  “Bea?” “I’m just kidding,” She jumped back down, pulling him close to her, “You know that you’re my best friend.” And as the children made their way to the piano, Olaf wrapped an arm around her and looked at her earnestly, trying to keep his tone light, “Do you think that we’ll be best friends forever?” Beatrice continued to plunk at the piano keys with one hand, but she entangled the other hand with his, squeezing tightly, “I know we will.” 

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“Dragonfly, Dragonfly, come in Dragonfly,” Olaf was speaking into his wrist, using his watch as a pretend spy communicator.  “Shh,” Beatrice appeared by his side, whispering to her, and then she lifted her own wrist to use as her own spy communicator, “Here, Firefly, what’s your detail?” He looked around suspiciously and then leaned towards her, “Snake Boy and Gay Baby are near the right position for us to trap them.” Beatrice rolled her eyes, “Those aren’t their code names.” “They are for me,” Olaf chuckled, “Anyway, that’s not the point! Now,do you think you can lead them to the right spot without getting caught?”  “Of course I can! Who do you think you’re talking to?” Beatrice scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder, “Who’s idea was it to sneak them into the theatre to play spies in the first place? I’m a genius, you know that.” “You’re like twelve.” “I’m fourteen, you bitch!” She smacked him hard on the arm, but laughed and dropped her voice, remembering that she had to be quiet, “You know that we’re the same age.” Olaf shrugged, “We all know that I’m not the smart one,” And then he brushed back the strands of hair that had fallen back into her face, “Actually, fourteen suits you. Seems like a nice age for you to be. But you should try tying your hair up, like B & L do. It must make you half blind.” Beatrice laughed, “Doesn’t really seem like my thing. I only tie it up for shows. But you’re right, I should find a way to keep it out of my face a little better. Maybe I should cut it short.”  “But then what can I drag you around with?” Olaf gave her hair a playful tug, “No, actually, I’m sure that would look nice. You always look nice, Bea.” Beatrice smirked, “But not as nice as K, right?”   “That doesn’t count,” Olaf tried to ignore the blush that was beginning to spread over his features, “There’s a huge difference between you looking nice and K looking nice.”  “Why?” “Because K is a girl! And you’re, uh,” He broke off, shrinking under her glare, “You’re Beatrice! I know you’re a girl, I get it, but you’re not a girl girl like Kit is. You’re my best friend. You shoved my face into a mud pit once because I took a grape without asking. I broke your nose on accident when we were supposed to do  a stage kiss because I got too nervous and smacked you. You’re not, I mean, it’s not the-” “I know,” Beatrice laughed, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, “I get it, you’ve got a crush, and I’m not gonna stop teasing you about it, because that’s a best friend’s job. Now, I’m going to lead them to the piano, and you get ready to slam it shut.” Their mission of trapping their friends in the piano actually went fairly well, the two children trying their absolute hardest to win this game of spies.  The issue? Beatrice got locked inside the piano along with them.  Olaf had slammed the piano shut, locking it, and turned to high five his teammate, “Beatrice? Where are you?” “Goddammit,” A muffled voice complained, “They pulled me in with them!”  Cackling, Olaf sunk to the ground, “Are you serious? Oh my god!” “Does this mean we win too?” M asked, his voice also muffled.  “No,” B calmly tapped on the piano, wondering if he could play from the inside, “We only have one member of their team, and they’ve got too members of us. And anyway, I don’t think someone really counts as a hostage if they��re stranded along with the people that claim to be their captors.” “Who cares?” Beatrice knocked hard on the lid of the piano, “Let us out, you big Firefly dummy! God, we’re so bad at taking hostages.” “I’ll just have to practice abducting people,” Olaf laughed some more, “I’ll let you out in a minute, but first, I have got to take a picture of this.” “I want a copy!” M called out. 

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“Hey Dragonfly,” Olaf appeared, out of the shadows, next to Beatrice, “How are you?” “I’m pretty good,” Beatrice swept her hair back, “But how are you? What’s going on? Is everything okay?” “Everything’s great,” Olaf broke out in a grin, wanting to grab her and hug her as tightly as possible, but instead he pulled the box of darts out from behind his back and handed it to her, “You wanna play?” She beamed, accepting them and looking gleefully into the box, “God, I’ve missed this place, missed this stage. Do you remember how excited we were when they put the dart board backstage? Do you remember how much time we spent playing here?” “I do,” He took one of the darts himself, weighing it in his hands for a moment before throwing it at the board, veering just to the left of a bullseye, “That’s why I wanted to be here, to ask you what I have to ask you.” Beatrice threw one herself, hitting the bullseye easily and smiling at the low and appreciative whistle that Olaf gave her, going quickly to retrieve the darts they’d thrown, “And what, exactly, is it that you have to ask me?”

“Well,” He bounced on the balls of his feet, and then paused, “Actually, I have a gift for you first,” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a smaller box, handing it to her gently. She examined the box, reading the scrawls of silly things they’d said to each other over the years that he had written on the sides, and she opened it to see the most beautiful dart she had ever laid eyes on. It was small, the end incredibly sharp, but it was also inlaid with gems, and fine wings branches out from either side. “It’s a dragonfly,” She breathed, running her fingers over it carefully. “Check this out,” Olaf took it from her gently and pressed one of the gems that sat in the middle of the wings, and as he pushed it, the wings-which were in an up position-flapped downwards, and the head of the dart withdrew inwards, the nib of a pen coming out in its place, “Isn’t that awesome? It’s supposed to be a play on the saying ‘The pen is mightier than the sword,’ because, y’know, it’s kinda both. I mean I know a dart and a sword aren’t the same thing, but it’s still just-“ “I love it,” Beatrice cut off his rambling, looking up at him with a gleam in her eyes, “I love it so much. Thank you, O. Firefly. Thank you.” Olaf puffed his chest out proudly, “Well, y’know, just doing what has to be done. Now,” He softened again, his face growing anxious once more, “Listen, Beatrice, K and I have been together for a long time, and I just, I really love her, so much more than I thought you could really be in love with a person. So I asked her to marry me.” Beatrice covered her mouth with her hands, feeling herself start to tear up at the thought of two of her favorite people in the world getting married, “That’s so amazing! Oh, I’m so proud of you!” “Thank you,” He shook his head a little, chuckling, “I’m still having trouble believing that we’re really engaged. But that beings me to my question. Beatrice Baudelaire,” He dropped to one knee, holding out the tiny firefly ring that she had given him when he had turned nine, her promise that they’d be friends forever, that he now wore on a necklace chain around his neck as it had grown too small for his fingers, “Will you be my best man?” Almost shrieking, she took the ring from his hand and looped its string around her neck happily, “Of course I will! I can’t believe this, I mean,” She paused to giggle, “I’m not even a man, but somehow I’m still the best one! Why didn’t you ask J?” Olaf shrugged, pulling her into a tight hug, “I love J, you know that, but he’s not my best friend in the world. Not like you. And besides, K already best me to the punch. She asked him to give her away. Pressing the gem on her new dart pen carefully, Beatrice threw the dragonfly and watched as it seemed to fly across the room to the board, “Well, that sucks for him. I’ll be the best best man who ever was.” “God, you’re so good at that,” Olaf muttered as he watched the dart hit squarely on the bullseye, “Anyway, I know you will. And just so you know, you don’t have to wear a suit or anything, just because you’re the best man. I mean, you can if you want, you can wear anything you want. I just want you to know there’s no obligations.” “What If I want to wear dragonfly wings?” Beatrice’s eyes sparkled, “Dragonfly wings that really fly.” “I’d love that,” Olaf turned and examined the poster behind them, “Hey, have you seen this?” “What is it?” He peeled the audition announcement off the wall and handed it to her, “There are auditions for La Forza Del Destino this weekend. You should audition! We never get to see each other anymore, and we haven’t been able to be in this theatre in forever. I would love to come watch you in it.” “You should audition too!” Beatrice showed him the audition slots open, “We could go back to back.” “I’d love to, but that may have to wait for the next play. I need to avoid as much bad luck as I can until after I get married,” He smiled warmly at her, “But I’d be right there, every night, cheering you on. I bet my parents would come too, you know they adore you. You really should audition.” Beatrice wrapped herself into a hug with her best friend, trying to ignore the great sense of sadness and doom that was flooding through her, “You know what? Maybe I will.”