#we get to throw away the mask together and invent a whole new language of love

[sanjisock]

more than words

50 words; 50 sentences

ao3

#01 - Motion

A spinning kick, a swing of blade — the two meet and hit but don’t hurt, and Nami sighs exasperatedly at such a pathetic display of a mating dance.

#02 - Cool

Zoro stands his ground as his enemy — finally, finally — falls unceremoniously on his back, unconscious, and Sanji thinks for a moment that the sight of Zoro — wild and victorious and ready to take on the world — looks kind of, maybe, slightly cool.

  #03 - Young

Brook sees the two — dying to die for each other, the weight of their friends’ lives pulling down their shoulders — and he thinks too many people forget how young they still are.

  #04 - Last

The Cook is the last person Zoro would consider lending a hand in a fight — “who would want to work together with that dumbass anyway,” he lies whenever anyone asks, and doesn’t admit that it’s because he trusts Sanji’s ability to stand his ground, wholly and fully.

  #05 - Wrong

Sanji knows Zoro, like him, understands better than most — that this nakama thing isn’t just something you’d die for, but something you’d kill for, too.

  #06 - Gentle

Sanji manages to catch Kitetsu before it rolls off from the deck during a storm, and in that moment, Zoro knows, from the reverent way he regards the swords in his hands, that this isn’t the first time the Cook has wielded one.

  #07 - One

“Calm down, Marimo,” Sanji says with a dismissive wave of his hand when Zoro asks about the sword a few days later, “I’m not about to take your place as the ship’s swordsman; a cook doesn’t use his hands to fight, and I had a terrible teacher anyways.”

  #08 - Thousand

“I’m worth two thousand men,” Zoro grumpily says, almost sulking, and Nami can’t resist patting his head like she would to a little boy pulling the pigtail of a girl he has a crush on.

  #09 - King

You’re like the prince of Dumbass Kingdom, Zoro says, and it takes Sanji everything in him not to blurt out, Dumbass Kingdom sounds about right; wait ‘till you see the fucking king.

  #10 - Learn

Watching Sanji converse fluently with a couple of tourists in a Northern language, Zoro wonders when he will ever stop learning something new about Sanji — or if he ever will, at all.

  #11 - Blur

When Zoro finally comes to, the wounds from Bartholomeow Kuma is muted by Chopper’s medicine, a dull throb at the back of his consciousness; but the sharp pain against his heart feels raw still, visceral and razor-sharp, tucked alongside the ache of Sanji’s sacrifice.

#12 - Wait

“Wait,” he manages to croak out before Sanji flees the room, the word spilling out unbidden; he isn’t quite sure why, but he knows that he wants the Cook to stay.

  #13 - Change

“Have some fucking decency ,” Sanji yells, throwing a shirt at Zoro’s direction; the brute has been walking around the ship bare-chested like an eyesore ever since they entered the summer island, and Sanji is just trying to do everyone a favor — and definitely not because there’s a different kind of heat pooling at the pit of his stomach.

#14 - Command

Robin watches the two in amusement — Zoro could have easily refused to be Sanji’s pack mule, and she can hear him grumbling about it still; and yet, here they are, once again, together at the island’s marketplace.

#15 - Hold

Sanji is rough around the edges, bristling at the slightest touch; Zoro knows he needs to be gentle, but he doesn’t quite remember the last time he held something that isn’t a hilt of a sword, without meaning to hurt . It’s a learning curve. 

  #16 - Need

Sanji knows Zoro is a dumbass, but it takes a special kind of stupid to think he would never be good enough for Sanji, when he’s all that Sanji has ever needed.

#17 - Vision

Zoro never regrets losing his eye, but he wishes, sometimes, he could still take in the sight of Sanji with an unimpaired vision, just to see more of him.

  #18 - Attention

“You’re starting a fight, Marimo?” Sanji growls, voice low and dangerous, and Zoro thinks, yes, yes, anything to get you to look at me.

  #19 - Soul

He loves the kid like a brother, but sometimes Zoro hates how Luffy can easily see past his gruff words and feigned ignorance; the way Luffy only needs to take one look at him to guess, “you’re worried about Sanji, aren’t you?”

  #20 - Picture

He carries around everyone’s bounty posters, Sanji tells himself, and tries not to think too hard about how the only one he kept in his breast pocket is Zoro’s, folded neatly against his heart.

  #21 - Fool

“This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done so far,” Sanji says when they part, lips still tingling from their earlier kiss, because Zoro’s love is fierce and consuming and Sanji knows, ever since he was just a kid with the iron mask, that he doesn’t deserve any of this.

  #22 - Mad

“Don’t you ever say that kind of shit again,” Zoro snarls, slamming the wall beside Sanji’s head, his voice trembling with a kind of anger Sanji has never seen him with before — frustrated, desperate. “You’re important to me, Cook.” 

  #23 - Child

Grow up and cast your dreams away, Sanji tells himself every day, the voice ringing in his ears; you stopped being a child deserving of a dream the moment you chained Zeff down to the ground.

  #24 - Now

Grow up and cast your dreams away, Sanji wants to tell himself, but the voice stutters, drowned out by the sight of the kid bleeding on the deck of Baratie — he’s a swordsman, too, acknowledged by none other than Dracule Mihawk himself — but a kid still, throwing himself headfirst towards the case of his dreams, steps unweighted by regrets.

  #25 - Shadow

Zoro doesn’t know which is worse — Sanji, forever running away from the shadow his brothers cast; or Zoro, chasing after someone who is no longer around to leave behind a shadow anymore.

  #26 - Goodbye

After Whole Cake Island, there’s a period of time where Zoro would follow Sanji around the ship like a lost puppy, unwilling to let the Cook out of his sight; Usopp definitely didn’t expect Zoro to have such a cute side, and crouches over his new invention to hide his smile.

  #27 - Hide

“We’re not doing that here,” Sanji hisses, and forces himself not to laugh at the pout on Zoro’s face; the galley might be secluded enough, but they’re still on the enemy ship’s galley.

  #28 - Fortune

It is annoying, the way Sanji keeps reminding Zoro that he could have collected Mihawk’s bounty and lived the rest of his life in wealth; especially when Zoro would trade any riches in the world just to stay by the Cook’s side.

  #29 - Safe

It catches Zoro off guard when Sanji starts talking about his mother; it’s a short anecdote, a single happy memory, but Zoro can tell by the way Sanji tells it — guarded and hesitant, like he wants to keep the words close and safe — that he has never shared it with anyone else before.

  #30 - Ghost

Usopp starts shaking like a leaf as soon as they enter the abandoned, dilapidated house, and Sanji gently tells him, sometimes the worst ghost is the one you create yourself; Zoro feels the weight of Wado on his hip, and agrees.

  #31 - Book

“I don’t need this,” Zoro grumbles with a blush, pushing the book back into Nami’s hands, trying hard to ignore Nami’s laughter and the words ROMANCE FOR DUMMIES emblazoned on the book’s jacket.

  #32 - Eye

Shusui sinks into the man’s stomach, all the way to the hilt, and Zoro thinks of the way Sanji curled into himself as the man landed a lucky hit on the cook’s hand. An eye for an eye.

  #33 - Never

“This is my first time,” Zoro whispers, head ducking away as he feels his face flush at the admission; but Sanji’s hand rests on his cheek, encouraging, and he can feel the curve of Sanji’s smile as their lips meet and Sanji replies, “it’s mine, too.”

  #34 - Sing

Luffy cheers when Zoro and Sanji comes into view, and he lets them take on the next batch of enemies; a good fight is always fun, but watching Zoro and Sanji fight is even more so — like watching a dance that only those two know the melody to.

  #35 - Sudden

“What, are we supposed to be surprised?” Nami says, barely looking up from the map she’s working on; Sanji sputters, face redder than the tomatoes he served during breakfast, and Nami feels almost bad for him.

  #36 - Stop

“But we — Zoro and I — how did you know?” Sanji asks, and promptly stops asking questions when he realizes the rest of the crew aren’t surprised either; who could blame them, when his and Zoro’s sexual tension can be seen from a mile away.

  #37 - Time

Sanji knows they have to break apart soon, just to breathe, but right now all he cares about is to taste as much of Zoro as possible — he has waited two years for this, and it has been two years too long.

  #38 - Wash

They have their fair share of fighting — and how, considering the amount of repairs Usopp has to do for Merry just from their petty fights alone — but what the crew doesn’t know is that they also have this thing, this quiet thing, just him and the Cook and a stack of dirty plates between them.

  #39 - Torn

“In retrospect,” Robin observes, “dressing up our dear cook in a maid uniform would not only lower the enemy’s firepower, but also ours, considering how distracted our swordsman has clearly become.”

  #40 - History

“Why do you keep him around, mister?” The kid asks, pointing at the old swordsman with three swords and an eye scar by the peer; Sanji laughs, pats the kid on the head, and says, almost wistfully — “you can say we have some history.”

  #41 - Power

Sanji tugs at Zoro’s sleeve, and Zoro follows suit despite his complaints — Sanji thinks, distantly, how much of an honor it is, to have so much control over such a powerful man.

  #42 - Bother

“I didn’t have enough time to make this three-tier ice cream cake for our lovely Nami-san and Robin-chan because you distracted me!” Sanji says with a hard jab of a finger against Zoro’s chest, and Zoro thinks, good .

  #43 - God

Zoro does not believe in gods, but there’s a hymn of a noise when Zoro presses his lips against the crook of Sanji’s neck, the hallelujah of the world breaking apart as their bodies move together, and he thinks, close enough .

  #44 - Wall

 Zoro slams his fist into the wall of Polar Tang, and is taken aback by the depth of his own frustration; he knows Luffy and the others will get Sanji back from Big Mom’s place, but it unsettles him still, the way Sanji hides himself under layers of pretenses when Zoro has bared so much of himself to the Cook in return.

  #45 - Naked

“What the fuck was that for , Mosshead?!” Sanji shrieks, justifiably furious, leg raised and on fire after Zoro sliced his tray into two without preamble; Zoro can’t exactly tell the Cook he did it because he was too surprised at the sight of Sanji in a swimming trunk and nothing else.

  #46 - Drive

Why Zoro , people sometimes ask, but the answer is easy to Sanji — nobody drives him crazy the way Zoro does, and is that not what true love feels like?

  #47 - Harm

Zoro knows Sanji will be furious ; but as he faces Kuma, knowing at least the Cook is out of harm’s way, he knows he would do this a hundred times over, a thousand times over, a million times over.

  #48 - Precious

Sanji is sitting by the corner of the infirmary, face pale with red-rimmed eyes, and Zoro thinks he’s never had that, before — people who would weep for him, knowing that he is more than dried scars and calloused skin.

  #49 - Hunger

This thing we have is dangerous, Sanji tells him, but Zoro doesn’t care — he already has a craving, the same way he needs a booze when it’s been too long, except he thinks that this vice will surely kill him.

  #50 - Believe

This isn’t faith; this is the truth, Zoro’s truth, the same way he knows he will become the Greatest — Sanji will find that elusive sea of his, and Zoro will stay with him until it is the last thing he can do.

[tom567855-blog]

Greek Tragedy Blog (12/1/17)

Firstly, my initial feelings on this session were mixed. I was looking forward to learning this style of Greek Tragedy as I had never really done this before so it was a learning experience for me. But I also had thoughts that this is something that I may not really enjoy doing very much and would be something I can’t really get into doing very easily.

Greek Tragedy requires a lot of working together as an acting company. The chorus in Greek Tragedy is a key part of the whole performance style. The chorus has to work together to react at the same time and react in the same way (if they all react the same). This can be very tricky to synchronise if group members don’t get along with each other very well or the chorus is under-rehearsed. The chorus is always on the stage in Greek Theatre and they are always watching the scene that is happening in front of them. The audience can see the scene and the chorus. While the characters in the scene can’t see the chorus. So the audience is an audience to the chorus and scene; and the chorus is audience to the scene. The chorus reacts to the scene as it is happening through their gestures and voice, such as anger, sadness or joy.

To get us all working together we did group exercises. Firstly, we warmed up our bodies and voices in a short warm up; then we moved onto group exercises such as walking around the space and sensing the speed that everybody is walking at and trying to speed up or slow down matching that speed. Then eventually, we will all completely stop – we did this exercise without having a “leader” so that this was natural and we weren’t following a specific person, we were following everybody. We also did an exercise where we had to mirror a partner, one person would lead and do something like raise an arm but the aim was to do this at the same time so you couldn’t tell who was leading. We did this same exercise in bigger groups. I found that doing actions slower and repeating them made this much easier to do. The third exercise was one where we had to all walk onto the stage at the same time then perform our “famous” clapping routine all at the same time without any forward planning. This was fairly easy to do once we all got into the rhythm of the clapping. The purposes of these exercises was to get us all working together and watching closely what everybody else in the chorus is doing so that we all do the same thing at the same time; this is an important thing for a Greek chorus, they have to move all in unison. These are things that we need to incorporate into our Greek Tragedy performance to make a successful chorus.

Furthermore, after the exercises we read through the script, Electra. We divided the group into 2 smaller groups and worked on two scenes of the play. My group worked on the first scene which sets the scene. This involves a tutor (me) who tells Orestes (whom he brought up to manhood) that he is to avenge his father’s death and has to kill his mother and her new boyfriend who had killed him. They killed him because he sacrificed their daughter to get safe passage to Troy. Electra’s side is that he had no choice and had to sacrifice one of his own because he had killed a stag which belonged to the Gods and he had to pay the price even though he didn’t want to. Her mother’s side is that he had no right sacrificing her when it should have been somebody else’s family who needed to go to Troy to rescue someone in the first place. A lot of the dialogue is between Electra and her mother which meant that the chorus had to find lines to react to otherwise they would be standing there doing nothing until they have a line. The chorus is always on stage so they always have to be in character and doing something. So we went through the script and marked points where we could react and what the reaction is. This was quite tricky putting it into practise because we hadn’t thought about exactly how we would all react and would do it on the spot rather than rehearse it. We worked on blocking this scene; we had finished most of the blocking during this lesson. Next time we had to finish bits off ready to be performed. For example, we worked out what the chorus would be doing while the tutor is setting the scene for the performance. These movements are in beats of 4 and are repeated over and over, one movement per beat. Slow motions and changes in pace are very effective as well. We did an exercise where we tried this out. We did a little kitchen scene where we all are making food in the kitchen and then the manager enters the kitchen which we all hate and we all scowl at them. Then after they shout at a certain kitchen worker they walk away and then that worker steps out of the rhythm while the rest continue and pick up an egg and look at it. They then throw the egg, the moment the egg leaves their hand the pace is now in slow-motion and all of the workers are reacting to egg and trying to stop it. Then just as it hits the manager, time goes back to normal but we are all doing our movements at a faster pace and quicker beats. This was very effective and used many advanced techniques.

Gestures have to be much bigger because the actors had to wear masks that covered their entire faces. The masks had exaggerated facial expressions on them so audience members from far away could see them more easily. As a result, the actor’s facial expressions are useless so they have to focus on physical movements and gestures to get their message across. The language is also similar to Shakespeare’s language and can be tricky to follow. This meant that gestures had to get across the meaning and plot of the performance so they were very important so that the audience could follow and understand the performance. Levels as a result needed to be much higher so that the message could easily get across to all members of the audience. Wearing these masks is very hard, just like Commedia Dell’Arte masks. They block a lot of your vision and you can only see forwards; you have to be very aware of your surroundings and you can’t look around to see what people are doing otherwise you break character and you look unprofessional, so practise was very important so that everybody knew what they were doing and where people should be. I personally found it very difficult wearing these masks and I would definitely have to take some time to get used to it.

Moreover, I felt that I was professional in these lessons. I was on time for these lessons and arrived with the right equipment: I wore my black clothing to act in, pens and paper to make notes and with my annotated script. I helped out other people and my group as much as I could and contributed any ideas I thought that would be helpful. I also helped the group decide on what ideas we should use for the performance piece.

In terms of strengths, I found that I was good at projecting my voice and being clear (diction). I received feedback saying that my projection was good and could easily be understood. This is positive and this is something that I will need to maintain for the performance. I also found that I was good at learning my blocking for the scenes. This is something that stuck in my head really quickly and was very easy to learn for me. I don’t think I will have any problems for the workshop performance in terms of remembering my blocking and how to move on stage. My third main strength was that I was good at focussing and listening to other people’s opinions and points of view on the performance. I never ignored anybody and allowed everybody to have their equal and respectable say.

Finally, in contrast, there are many areas that I need to improve upon ready for the final workshop performance. The first thing I need to do is learn my lines. For the tutor I need to learn my lines; this is an important character because the tutor sets the scene for the whole performance and gives the audience a setting and plot to follow. It is important I get this key information across. I will learn these lines in-between sessions ready for the performance. Next, the second area for improvement would be to work more on my characterisation. I need to get a thorough understanding of my character’s thoughts, feelings and personality. At the moment, the characters feels very hollow to me and I need to work more on the characterisation so I can become that character more easily and deliver his lines and movements just how that character would. This is something I will work on in-between sessions. I will do this by inventing a background and personality that would suit this character. My final area for improvement would be to work more on my reactions as part of the chorus. I know when the chorus should react to the scene on stage and how they should react but I don’t know exactly how to portray this. Like for anger, I don’t know what gestures or actions I could do to get this across. I will come up with a couple of different gestures and actions that I could do to express each emotion that I need to get across in that scene such as anger, shock and joy. That way, it makes it a lot easier for me to react to what is happening on the stage and if I need to improvise reactions then I know various gestures I could use to help my improvised reactions.