#the woggle-bug

[kazachokolate]

I participated in a broken tablet challenge back in February, now I can show the result

designs from "Adventures in the Emerald City"

[poppies-from-oz]

[witchesoz]

What we know of Oz: The second extravaganza

If you remember what I said a long, long, LONG time ago, the first Oz book was adapted into a stage musical (an “extravaganza” as they were called back then) by Baum in collaboration with other big names of the time, and it was a MASSIVE success, so much that the MGM movie actually borrowed a lot of elements from it. It was the success of this extravaganza that made Baum write the sequel to “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”: “The Marvelous Land of Oz”. The book’s more adult tone, love for puns and jokes, and great focus on the Scarecrow and the Tin Man (the stars and most beloved actors of the Wizard extravaganza) were all intended so that the book would be easier to adapt as a musical. When you think about it, the big reveal of Tip as being Ozma is also actually something Baum wrote with in mind the idea of a stage play: indeed, at the time, young male roles and boy characters were often played by young ladies, and as a result this kind of “gender reveal” where a male turns out to be a woman was very common and very easy to do in those kind of theatric performances. (So yeah, to all of you who hoped Baum was defending transgender rights, he was actually trying to make money out of a future musical. Sorry for your hopes.)

But Baum had a tiny bit of problem… He had already started to write a musical that would follow the first one, a stage adaptation of the second novel titled “The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman”. Hell he started writing it in 1903, so before “The Marvelous Land” (the book) got even published. As you can see he really designed it all to feature the two iconic character of the play. But turned out that the star actors, Fred Stone and David Montgomery, refused to play in it, because the “Wizard of Oz” extravaganza was still playing and they refused to abandon the show for a potential sequel.

As a result, Baum had to rewrite his intended story by removing the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman… so he had no Dorothy, no Cowardly Lion, no Scarecrow, no Tin Woodman… who was going to be the main feature? * looks over to Tip/Ozma* IT’S GOING TO BE THE WOGGLE-BUG of course!

Indeed this secondary character with no relevance to the plot of the actual book, here just for laughs, has become the star of the extravaganza. And thus in 1905 “The Woggle-Bug” was released, the second Oz extravaganza and an adaptation of “The Marvelous Land of Oz”. So what was different?

# When Jack Pumpkinhead comes to life there is a dance where “Harvest Sprites” appear in the pumpkin field surrounding Mombi’s hut and bow down to Jack as if he was their king.

# After Jack is brought to life and Tip leads him away from Mombi’s hut (no mention of petrification potion or Tip fleeing Mombi), we cut to the school of Professor Knowitt (who you might remember from the Woggle-Bug’s story, where he was called Knowittall), where the students are actually here children (in the book itself it was unclear if the school taught to children or older pupils). As with the original story, the Professor magnifies the Woggle-Bug on a screen with a magic magnifying glass, only for the bug to get off the screen and bow down to everyone. The Professor tries to put him back in the screen, to not effect. As in the book, the Woggle-Bug is very fond of puns, making tons of them, but the thinness of his so-called education is much more prominent here due to constantly mistaking or mispronouncing words (for example he calls “patois”, aka regional language, “patties”, like a beef patty).

# Surprise, Mombi appears right in the middle of this scene! As it turns out, the school of professor Knowitt is the school where Tip studies (big departure from the book, where Tip lived with Mombi and never went to school). Mombi is searching for him, as he actually fled her house with Jack, and the Woggle-Bug, eager to be of assistance, puts himself of service to her – he mistakes the story of Tip and Jack running as the one of lovers fleeing their parents to live their love freely. (There is also a little joke about how, if the Powder of Life can bring to life anything it touches, it should be used on the Democratic Party). The Professor actually fights a bit with Mombi because he refuses to let the creature go, claiming it as his property and discovery, but the Woggle-Bug scares the Professor away by saying that if he is held too long at school, his parents will come “bite him”. Again, jokes and jokes and puns.

# The plot of Jinjur’s army also crosses over here, because five peasant women (noticed for their lack of grammar and typical “hillbilly talk”) arrive searching for General Jinjur – who soon arrives, and everyone (including the Professor, Mombi and the rest) bow down to her, as if she had some sort of regional power. The Professor and the Woggle-Bug try to dissuade them from going to war, but the “army of gallant milkmaids and scullery ladies” is determined for war. Mombi refuses to be enlisted in the army (though Jinjur proposes it), but does make the deal of helping her with magic in exchange of capturing Tip and his Powder ; and the Professor also agrees to assist the army. The five peasant girls also want to join the ranks of Jinjur’s fight against the men, but Jinjur is a bit… let’s say she doesn’t knows too much what to do of those five peasant-ladies and is a bit awkward around them, so she precisely names them the “Awkward Squad”.

# About the Awkward Squad, their “captain” and most prominent member is a girl named Prissy, and she is at the center of a very bizarre humoristic subplot about the Woggle-Bug: the Bug falls in love… with Prissy’s dress. A beautiful checked dress that he loves and wants for himself, constantly trying to snatch away from the girl.

# Another major change: Jinjur isn’t a little girl anymore, oh no. In this play Jinjur is an adult woman (or at least a young woman), and she mentions that she used to attend this very country school house – with Professor Knowitt! Apparently they are of the same age, and there was a strange love triangle where Jinjur was courted by a certain “Tommy Bangs” (that called her “Sweet Matilda”), while Knowitt himself in his youth at the school tried to seduce Jinjur (in fact it is implied he obeys and follow her due to this old infatuation).

# The City of Emeralds has been changed here to “The City of Jewels” (though it is still in the Land of Oz). Interestingly, Tip visibly knows that he used to be Ozma, princess of the City, but was enchanted by Mombi. Tip even has very clear memories of her time as a princess (contrary to the book, where Ozma was enchanted as a baby, this Ozma was visibly enchanted as a young girl). In fact, Tip recalls that as Ozma he had many lovers despite her mother’s “watchful eye”, and one of them almost won his/her heart.

# The Scarecrow has been replaced by the Regent of the City of Jewels, Sir Richard Spud, alongside his faithful sidekick “Lord Stunt”. As with the Scarecrow, the Regent is tired of the complicated and sophisticated life of a king: he wishes to return to simplicity and honesty, and when he learns about Tip he is so joyful to find back the real ruler that he promises to hunt down for Mombi, to have her return Ozma to her true form.

# The subplot of the dress continues as Mombi suddenly appears wearing Prissy’s dress (for… unknown reasons) and the Woggle-Bug, desperate to obtain it, tries to seduce Mombi, to the point they even exchange blowing kisses. Mombi comments that never has anyone fallen in love with her before, and after slipping a few innuendos and “naughty jokes” she resolves herself not to answer the Bug’s seduction, because if she ever got married the “hobgoblins” would stop obeying her (aka, she would lose a part of her magical power).

# Mombi and the Bug, who are in the City of Jewels, meet all the other characters, and the Regent threatens Mombi with a public execution if she does not restore Ozma (and Mombi thinks the Regent is a fool for trying to give up his job, visibly not understanding why someone would not want to be king). Hopefully for the Witch the Army of Revolt marches on the City, with their banner “Give us Victory, or Give us Fudge!”. The Regent tries to talk the girls out of the war, to no avail, and so there is a battle and…

… You remember how in the novel the victory of the Army of Revolt was mostly humoristic? Yeah? In this musical… THE ARMY BURNS DOWN THE CITY OF JEWELS! BURN BABY BURN! And they take as prisonners the Regent, the Woggle-Bug (who decided to abandon the army and thus was deemed a traitor), Tip and Jack.

Note however that they don’t destroy the city, since the rest of the play takes place in the royal palace, like in the book.

# We get to see the spoiled and ridiculous behavior of the Army of Revolt once their conquered the City and it is a bit different than in the book: here they spend their days chewing gum, playing games (which always end up with them fighting for real since they are sore losers and cheaters), they choose whatever house they like in the city to be their own (and if they forget which one they chose, in the case of Prissy, they just get another one randomly), and they also bathe in champagne. As in the book, all the men are forced to do cleaning duties and taking care of babies.

# The Regent, who has been enslaved by the Army, has attracted the eye of Jinjur, who wants to marry him – but the Regent, whose main wish is to live a peaceful retirement in the countryside, refuses to marry Jinjur… unless she becomes a milkmaid. Jinjur of course is not going to do so, so she decides to just lock him up in a room until he agrees to marry her.

# The tensions between Mombi and Jinjur explode as soon as after the victory: Mombi wants Tip and Jack, she claims that Jinjur’s victory was due to her, and she even calls Jinjur her “slave”. Jinjur of course rebels, but Mombi threatens to turn Tip back into Ozma and make Jinjur lose her throne – so Jinjur plays on Mombi’s great vanity (calling her “beautiful” and all sorts of lovely names) to convince her to actually destroy Tip, Jack, and the Woggle-Bug too. Mombi refuses to kill Tip at first, but Jinjur ultimately convinces her to do so. Though her “convincing” isn’t maybe so great – when later Mombi sees Jack, she promises not to destroy him if he becomes her servant and obeys her every orders. Mombi also promises Jinjur to cook for her a love-potion they will give to the Regent.

# When Jinjur brings in her prisoners, we finally have back the “petrification” episode of the book: to prevent Tip from ever becoming back Ozma, she will turn him into a marble statue ; she also says she plans to kill Jack to make a pumpkin pie out of him the whole Army of Revolt will eat. As for the Bug… WARNING RACISM ARRIVES, but for the Bug Mombi calls “Aunt Dinah” (a mammy character, on top of that played by a man) and asks her (as she is the cook of the army) to prepare the Bug on toasts, “Newberg style”. Fun fact – the dress subplot continues! Because this time, it is Aunt Dinah who wears the checkered dress (how come the same dress is worn by three different people? I DON’T KNOW) and so the Woggle-Bug tries to seduce her ; but the Aunt, thinking he is a lobster, rejects him (because she is… lobster-phobe apparently).

# This fun subplot also mixes with another subplot: Professor Knowitt and Prissy (the captain of the Awkard Squad) fell in love, and want to marry. One of their lovey-dovey scenes is interrupted by the Woggle-Bug, who is lamenting the fact he is heartbroken and will never be able to be with the love of his life – and he tells them his story. Prissy wants the Professor to squash the Bug, but he refuses. The Professor proposes to save the Bug’s life from the cook’s kitchen by shrinking him back, but the Bug refuses. Ultimately Prissy, to have the Bug leave them alone, suggests that he cuts a piece of the dress and wears it close to his heart, so that like that he might be with his “beloved” at all times.

# Here we have the Gump episode – that Tip, Jack and the Bug build to escape. Mombi sees that and tries to order those around her to hunt them down, but neither Jinjur nor Prissy nor the Professor follow her orders. So she decides to take matters in her own hands… she does incantations around a cauldron, she invokes a bunch of other witches for a dance, and there is also another dance of black cats this time. This whole thing casts a spell, which at first breaks a storm upon the group, then creates a field of gigantic chrysanthemums with the faces of the Army of Revolt, a field that moves to block the way wherever the heroes go (a clear re-invention of the sunflower field episode from the book). And, strangely, this time it is the Woggle-Bug that saves the day by… revealing that his father was a wizard and invoking a flood to wash the flowers away.

… Yeah.

This play is bonkers I tell you. Completely crazy.

# Now, there is no Glinda here in this play. Rather we have another witch of Baum’s works, “Maetta the Sorceress”. (Maetta is a Glinda equivalent Baum wrote for his book “The Magical Monarchy of Mo”, and he already used Maetta as a replacement for Glinda in some versions of the first extravaganza). Interestingly, Maetta’s palace seems to have electricity to light it up? Maetta welcomes the travelers (her talismans warned her beforehand that strangers were about to arrive). After hearing all of that she has her favorite page, a boy named Athos, send a group of fairies to summon here Jinjur, Mombi, Prissy and Knowitt. There, Maetta plays “the Wizard of Oz”, as in she asks everyone what they want: Tip wants to become Ozma again, Jack wants his head not to rot, and the Woggle-Bug wants the dress he is in love with. Suddenly the Regent barges in the palace: he escaped the City of Jewels by riding on the Sawhorse (which then tried to kill him when he offended it, it is a long story).

Mombi is punished by Maetta by being cast in a dungeon, and she is dragged away as she throws insults at everyone. Jinjur appears before Maetta dressed as a simple milkmaid, because this is what Maetta condemns her to be as she dismantles her armies. The Regent, seeing Jinjur as a milkmaid, falls in love with her, and the two former rulers agree to get married. Interestingly, here it is Maetta herself that turns back Tip into Ozma by singing a magic song while he rests on her lap – and Ozma proceeds to name Jack Pumpkinhead her Prime Minister (yeah, nominates the idiot who can’t understand simple things as a Prime Minister… it makes sense). Prissy is also here, wearing the famous dress, but also a coat covered in military medals (it was a running joke that Jinjur gave medals to her girls for nothing and everything). Maetta takes away those medals and orders Prissy to return to being a simple milkmaid, and when the Professor and Prissy reveal they are about to get married, Maetta sets them free because apparently they are a punishment enough for each other.

But before Prissy leaves the “romantic dress” subplot is solved by… the Bug tried to rip the dress away, the annoyed girl ripping the skirt herself and throwing it at the Bug’s face, and then the bug wearing the skirt as a vast under his coat.

Oh yes, and to solve Jack’s wish, a servant of Maetta puts a big tin can over his head and labels it “Canned Pumpkin”. So it can’t rot. Get it?

- - - - -

And here is "The Woggle-Bug", the 1905 play following "The Wizard of Oz" extravaganza. This play, contrary to the first musical, was a disaster. Critics did not like it, audiences did not like it... a disaster. A failure. It basically killed all dreams and projects of future Oz plays. Mind you, Baum did another musical adaptation of his Oz work on stage... but it was also a failure. More on that later. On top of the already convoluted and crazy plot (oh yeah I forgot another element of the "Woggle-Bug is actually a wizard" subplot is that at one point he conjures up Sawhorses for all the main characters in the play to dance with... yeah) ; critics of the time mentionned that the play felt too "simple", as in it was truly a children story, in the sense adult audiences would not (and did not) enjoy it. It was too childish. Plus the special effects weren't apparently really great? Notably at one point there is a literal "rain of cats and dogs", and one critic remembered this moment as looking like animal corpses were thrown down... So yeah, big failure. BUT the whole subplot of the Woggle-Bug falling in love with a dress has stayed pretty well known in the Baum "fandom", and is now often mentionned in modern Oz adaptations as an inside joke or clever reference ("the incident with the dress" as Oz fans call it).

[poppies-from-oz]

If I may add onto this I think it bears mentioning that there are certain characters in the books who seem to draw visual inspiration from- if not outright based off of- minstrel show caricatures.

TW: examples of blackface/antiblackness

/ /

This article goes a bit more in-depth about the ways anti-blackness influenced the series.

Like OP I'm not bringing these up in an attempt to cancel the Oz series, nor do I believe that people who have made fan content for these characters are therefore racist. But it’s important that we be aware of how racist ideology has influenced the world of Oz in ways that may not be immediately obvious.

Anti-black racism in the original Oz books

Someone recently made a post about Lyman Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz)'s outright advocacy of genocide towards Native Americans in periodicals in 1890 and 1891, and I made additional comments about anti-blackness that crops up in the Oz books. I don't want to derail that other person's post, however, and want to add further details than what I commented there.

TRIGGER WARNING for examples of anti-black racism.

In The Patchwork Girl of Oz, the seventh book of the series published in 1913, we are introduced to "the Tottenhots," a tribe of racial stereotype characters whose name is a play on the racist term of "Hottentot" (which, incidentally, has an unfortunate usage in the 1939 MGM film). They appear for a chapter, harangue the main characters, then let them stay the night before they go on their journey. They are describes thusly: "Their skins were dusky and their hair stood straight up, like wires, and was brilliant scarlet in color. Their bodies were bare except for skins fastened around their waists and they wore bracelets on their ankles and wrists, and necklaces, and great pendant earrings."

And here are some illustrations by John R. Neill from that book:

The Tottenhots are mentioned in a later book, Rinkitink in Oz, when a prince who has been transformed into a goat is turned back into a human. He is turned into various other 'creatures' first, including a Tottenhot, which is described by the text as "a lower form of a man." Yikes.

(I have not read The Woggle-Bug Book, Baum's children's book from 1905, but I'm told there's racism in there, as well.)

Before someone starts breathing down my neck, I'm not saying this to "cancel" the series or to "apply modern standards to books written in the early 1900s," but I am discussing it because it is imperative we remember Baum's racism and the atmosphere of racism in which the books are written.

Modern fans of the series often racebend the characters, and I enjoy doing this as a particular "Fuck you" to Baum. I've commissioned art where I've specifically demanded Ozma be black. I love all the fanart that has been made of black Ozma and black Dorothy; and I value the notion of modern fans of the series tearing it from Baum's cold dead hands, BUT we also need to keep in mind the racism of the source.

[woggle-bugger-me]

"What Did the Woggle-Bug Say?" from The Woggle-Bug, a 1905 musical with lyrics by L. Frank Baum and music by Frederic Chapin. Performed by Vancha March.

[joemerl]

It's kind of sad that each Land of Oz book now begins with Baum begging his readers to let him write something else.

Spoiler alert: this is the fifth Oz novel out of fourteen. And that's only counting the ones that he wrote.

[musickickztoo]

CONTRA2024-7 MISCHIEF

(all new releases)

TRACKLIST:

Shop Regulars - Mischief John Cale - Shark-Shark The Ar-Kaics - Stone Love Lambrini Girls - Body Of Mine Silicone Values - GABBA Receptor Jessica Pratt - The Last Year Googon - Elmer Fudd's Stutter Busted Head Racket - Go Go Go! 10 000 Russos - Demokratia Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Silver For My Sister The Woggles - Telling Me Lies Bloodshot Bill - Tres Tacos The Bug Club - Quality Pints Neutrals - That's Him On The Daft Stuff Again Girls In Synthesis - Lights Out Thurston Moore - Rewilding Tramhaus - Beech The Fall - Slates, Slags Etc. (Live) - The Fall

RIP Steve Albini, Duane Eddy and Chan Romero

The 7th playlist of the year!!

HEAR: https://www.mixcloud.com/Contraflow/contra2024-7-mischief-all-new-releases/

[capnportofficial]

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

This man is so Ed Wynn coded I know the timeline doesn’t line up but tell me he wouldn’t sound like that

[nevertoomanyspiders]

decided to turn this post into a silly diagram.

transcript under the cut.

How Wheelers Express Affection by Professor H. M. Woggle-Bug T.E.

Most of you may know the Wheelers as uncouth ruffians originating from the Land of Ev, but you may be surprised to learn about their complex social lives. For instance, how do they display fondness towards one another?

That is what I attempt to answer here!

Wheelers, as creatures with wheels in place of hands and feet, lack the stability to be able to stand in place let alone embrace one another… Without it ending in disaster.

When interacting with bipedal people, a Wheeler may, however, perform a "Wheeler hug", a somewhat awkward attempt at replicating how bipeds hug one another.

How Wheelers display affection and trust is in a number of different gestures, such as nuzzling, leaning into one another, as well as headbutting. The intensity can vary, but thankfully, Wheelers have hard heads and can roughhouse without much ill effect.

[kazachokolate]

The Woggle-Bug from "Adventures in the Emerald City"

[yellowbrickramble]

Yes, even Mombi was beautiful once. First off, if you live in the United States, please please please VOTE if you're able to. Sorry if you're not a fan of politics, but the right wing has made my very existence political. Now on with the news post: Longtime Oz fans may know that in the original novel, there was a chapter titled A Highly Magnified History. Halfway through the book, a giant supercilious insect wearing a fancy suit suddenly walks up to our heroes, introduces himself as Mr. H.M Woggle-Bug, T.E. (Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, Thoroughly Educated), spends an entire chapter explaining his origin story, and invites himself to join the party. He's purely a comic relief character, constantly annoying our heroes with puns. Now, you have to understand that Baum thought this Woggle-Bug stuff was pure gold. This, he thought, is the breakout character of Marvelous Land of Oz. He put out a Woggle-Bug comic strip, a Woggle-Bug board game, an absolutely awful non-canon Woggle-Bug book, and he named the stage adaptation of Marvelous Land of Oz "The Woggle-Bug." Yes, you read that right. Ozma's story was renamed The Woggle-Bug. He's not in my adaptation, but there is a non-magnified wogglebug hidden in every chapter of this comic. Anyway, I named this chapter after the Woggle-Bug's, but it's all about Mombi.

If you like my comics, please support me on Patreon! (link in bio)

[blancamz]

Possibly the most clever citizen of Oz is the Woggle-Bug, also known as Mr Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, Thoroughly Educated. He has humble beginnings as an ordinary Woggle-Bug who lived in the fireplace of a schoolhouse, passively absorbing knowledge whilst nestled in his little hidey-hole. One day Professor Nowitall discovered the Woggle-Bug and decided to do an impromptu lesson for his pupils on this particular species. He used a magnifier to project an image of the bug on a screen, and during an opportune moment the highly magnified Woggle-Bug stepped off the screen and to sweet freedom.

(Wait. Does that mean that this Woggle-Bug is the projection, or is it the original Woggle-Bug made large? Is there still a small, unmagnified Woggle-Bug hiding somewhere in a classroom? Um...)

Since then, the Woggle-Bug has achieved greater status. After helping the gillikin boy Tip on his journeys, and returning Ozma to the throne, he received a good position as head of the Wogglebug College of Arts and Athletics. He's something of a chemist too, having invented School Pills and Square Meal Pills, allowing all his students to receive a full education and nourishment in seconds, so they can focus all their energy on what really matters when you go into higher education: sports.

(He's also a prosecutor in Ozma's criminal court. See the case of Oscar Diggs v. Eureka the Pink Kitten.)

Anyway, I think we can agree that the Woggle-Bug is much, much more clever than the Scarecrow. What's the point in having Brains (even if you get them from a Wizard), if you're not also Thoroughly Educated?

P.S. Also his puns are very funny and if you don't get them then I guess that's a skill issue on you buddy.

[bestworstcase]

i know i’m cranky about fanon allusion readings literally all the time but i NEED people to actually read the marvelous land of oz. please. for the love of fuck.

the wizard leaves oz forever, leaving the scarecrow to rule in his stead. general jinjur usurps the wizard and spends most of the book occupying the conquered emerald city in search of the royal crown. ozma is cursed to live as a boy; he is accompanied by jack pumpkinhead, his creation/“son” who spends much of the book fretting about his own death—his head, a pumpkin, is doomed to rot—and both are guided by the scarecrow. the woggle bug is both cursed and blessed by knowledge learned from a professor who irrevocably transformed him. glinda is searching for ozma and she chases the bad sorceress mombi to the ends of oz to bring her to account and force her to tell the truth and relinquish her power not just over ozma but by extension all of oz. the tin man has become a vain emperor. there is no dorothy; she’s in kansas.

the allusion is extraordinarily straightforward. it screams off the page. mombi is the god of light; ozma is ozma/tippetarius, ozpin is the wizard, oscar is the pumpkinhead (HIS COLOR IS ORANGE. PLEASE–), qrow is the scarecrow, ironwood is the tin man, leo is the soldier with green whiskers who lets the rebels into the emerald city out of cowardice, raven is the woggle-bug burdened by knowledge (and the only one who can use the silver wishing pill to transport everyone back home, which is to say she knows the truth about summer and i firmly believe still has that bond), summer is general jinjur searching for the crown, and salem is glinda.

(glynda goodwitch is a red herring. she’s purple—the good witch of the north, named glynda perhaps as a nod to the popular conflation of these two separate characters into one and chiefly to misdirect away from the real glinda—most ancient and formidable sorceress in all the world, whose color is red.)

it’s ✨simple✨

[throwaninkpot]

i.

  There once was a boy who never felt right. It itched, maybe. Chaffed and claustrophobic, like when the witch who raised him would threaten to transform him into a bug and keep him in a jar, and even the thought had made his throat feel tight and his limbs weak and confined. That threat and all the other threats of equally awful punishment were never enough to make Tip behave. Once, when Mombi sent him to bring in clothes from the wash line, he kept a few items back from the laundry basket. Just a scarf and a blouse--how would that witch like it, Tip thought, if a little Mombi entered the house one day wearing her clothes, hunched over like her, and barking the same commands she gave him and promising the same nasty magics in an exaggerated mimicry of her voice. It would be sure to earn him some harsh punishment, but the prank would be worth it for the startled look he imagined on her awful face. So, he secreted the items away, and a few days later he ducked behind the house, threw the blouse on and tied the scarf over his head. Then grinning, he leaned over the rain bucket to catch a glimpse of the ridiculous image he made. 

In the water's reflection, his grin slipped away replaced by a curious frown. He looked...pretty, almost. The witch's clothes were nothing fine or lovely, made of the same practical lavender fabric as his own. But unlike Tip's own clothes, there were little blue and white flowers dotting the collar of the shirt. And the scarf framed his face in a way that made him look less like the old witch Mombi, and more like one of Gillikin girls he often saw at a distance working in their fields.  

It was strange. Well, yes, it was strange, but not in the way Tip had thought it might be, not in a bad way at all. It was-- 

"Boy! Where are you?"

Tip started, tearing the scarf from his head and hurrying to shrug the blouse off. The moment, like the prank, were forgotten and the day went on.

The days went on. Tip went, and went, and went, on and on, and found himself in a high room in the Emerald City. And it was himself, wasn't it? Tip wasn't a girl. How could Tip be a girl? How could Tip be?

But, well, if it had to be done...

So it was.

Tip went to sleep and Ozma awoke. When she sat up, a mirror was held up to Ozma's face, and looking at her new features didn't feel the way she expected. All those years of seeing a face shakily reflected in water barrels and puddles, and this was the first time the face looking back felt like--felt like-- Something tugged at Ozma's heart that she didn't understand. Me? Me. Is that me?

"Well?" Glinda asked gently, still holding the mirror for Ozma, smiling encouragingly at the child. 

"It's...strange." Ozma started. Oh, was that her voice? High and fluid as a bird song? Nothing like the cracking thing her voice had become in the last few years as Tip. 

"Strange, perhaps," Glinda allowed. "But not so bad, is it?"

"No," Ozma said. Oh, that was her voice. Oh. "No, it...it doesn't feel bad at all."

Once, there was a boy. But that boy isn't. That boy was a dream, or a threat of a tight jar made a reality that Ozma lived in every day. But the dream is over; Ozma awoke. Ozma continues to wake, now in open rooms all arching ceilings and wide windows looking out on her kingdom stretching wide. The clothes are as light as anything on her, and even when she orders adventuring outfits from the dressmaker, they come in lovely shades with little flowers on the collar and they never itch to wear.

      ii.

There once was a boy who was made a boy, cursed to be a boy, never knew anything but being a boy and there was joy in this.  He was happy in a way he had never noticed because he had never thought to question something so intrinsically true.

No one else had felt the need to question it either, until now.

He had tried to tell them--Glinda, the Scarecrow, Woggle-Bug, all of them. He wasn't a girl, he was Tip. He was no girl.

Glinda, smiling sweet, patted his hand. And for a moment he thought--maybe she would--but-- "But you were born a girl," she told him simply, like he was only confused. "So you must resume your proper form."

Tip looked around desperately. All these smiling faces. All the friends he had spent so many adventures beside. None of them would listen. Well, Jack listened. Jack cried at the prospect of losing his father. And Tip had never been comfortable with his parentage of a pumpkin-headed man, hadn't wanted to be Jack's father, but he wanted to be Jack's mother even less. Jack's protestation didn't matter. If Glinda and the others didn't care about Tip's objections, when he was the one who was heir to the throne of Oz and whose life they would be changing, why would they listen to anyone else?

All the while, they were kind. Reassuring him that he would be just fine. Guiding him with care to a couch. Meaning so well as they let him be put to sleep and took away everything that Tip knew as Tip. 

There was a boy, once. He is a boy no more.

Even the clothes were different. Tip didn't know why that hurt the most. His scuffed but sturdy purple pants covered in all the dirt from every stop of his travels were magically gone, and in their place was a dress of green gauze and flounce. Oh, and why were his legs put together funny? They weren't meant to sit like that on his hips. Oh, his hips. They were wrong. It was all wrong.

He sat up, burying his hands into the frilly fabric mess for something, anything, to hold onto. Glinda brought out a mirrored glass and it showed a face that was almost but not like his.

"Well?" Glinda asked gently. 

"It's..." Tip started to speak, and then burst into tears when the voice that came out was not his own.

"Give it time," Glinda soothed, days later, after Ozma's return had been announced, and ceremonies and parades had been held. "It must have been such a trial, dearie, and it's only natural it would take you time to adjust after the experience."

The experience. No one liked to speak much of it now, and when they did, it was only in the vague terms. The experience. Ozma's time away. The curse. Before.

If the experience had been such a trial, why did this now feel so wrong? That was the way curses worked, Tip thought: A person was happy, then a spell was cast on them and they were wretched, then the spell was broken and they were happy again.

That order had gotten a bit mixed up here.

He gave it time. Days, months, a year passed. Tip didn't adjust. Tip didn't feel right.

He wondered if maybe this, now, was in fact the curse. Maybe Ozma isn't him. Maybe it never was really, and never will be, even as he answered to that name and smiled at the subjects who murmured it adoringly. 

Maybe fate had found its way through accident and misfortune, and the initial transformation into Tip had been the universe setting something to right. Maybe Oz had been meant to have a king again. Well--after all, Glinda had said no respectable sorceress would deal in transformation magic, but she hadn't said anything about sorcerers. And maybe it wasn't a sorceress who sat on the throne of Oz after all. Maybe Oz was meant to be ruled by a sorcerer again. Give it time, Tip swore, and he would put himself to right again.

      iii.

There once was a boy. There now is a girl. And he would, if she could, live in that space between. Where eyes are fluttering, falling asleep and waking, as Ozma is coming and Tip is going. 

The child left by this sits up, and there is Glinda waiting with a mirrored glass showing a new face for them to meet.

"Well?" Glinda asks gently.

Tip-turned-Ozma can only look between the sorceress and himself in wonder, unable to answer. When he--she?--rises, there are her friends looking just as startled as she feels. She speaks finally: "I hope--" Oh, is that what he sounds like now? Well, his voice had changed once already before; this is nothing stranger than that, only quicker an ordeal than when his voice began dropping and cracking. "I hope that none of you will care less for me than you did before. I'm just the same Tip," she says, and for a moment feels like crying. Struggling to put into words what she doesn't even understand yet. 

What she means is: I'm the same me.

What she means is: Can't I be both?

It's elusive--fickle--ephemeral, fragile as her new gossamer gowns under the touch. Sometimes, he can feel it take shape at his fingertips, as solid as the crown Glinda places on her head. There is Tip. There is Ozma. Sometimes, there seems like little difference between the two. And other times, it is all he can do not to cry as the crowds call out "Princess! Princess Ozma!" as he passes through the streets. It's more than the names. It's more than the new clothes she must wear. It's more than the new way his friends treat him now even though they had promised it would still be the same. It's something like the way the skin wraps around their bones so distinctly different and differently distinct. It is each of these, and still more.

If they could have started as Ozma then turned into Tip then back again to Ozma, maybe the boundaries between are more malleable than people seem to think.

Ozma-still-Tip will learn the words to explain, and invent new ones where she finds the need. Slowly, he comes to understand herself. The citizens of Oz will learn, too, and so come to love their ruler whether there is a king under the crown today or a queen. This is Oz, after all. Where straw or clockwork walk and talk, and heads may be swapped, and young girls in houses fall from they sky then fly away home again. A little multitude of identity is not so odd at all.

(x)