IN A LOVE AGAINST LIFE

So I had this bunny for a while - a Tristan & Isolde Enjoltaire fusion (both Wagnerian and Arthurian elements) where the Thénardiers all fill in for King Mark - in this AU, they adopted an orphan Grantaire instead of Cosette, and, ever since a strand of fine, long golden hair with a static electric charge fell into their midst, they want the Enjolras heir for their firstborn Éponine's fiancé. So they send their valet R to the Camargue as a matchmaker or cupid or go-between to fetch the bridegroom... now add a kuudere Enj, a mishap with a love potion on the return trip (which leads to feelings intensifying between the wrong people, and one-sided admiration turning to something mutual and more serious), an Enjoltaire vs Enjonine conflict that escalates into open war, Combeferre as Kurwenal, Éponine as a woman scorned, lovesickness, lavender oil, savate fights, disguises, Tarot card spreads, bloodstained flour, bloodstained snow, backstabbing at the least expected moments, references to Wagner and to Shakespeare (as well as quotes from Gabriel-era Genesis lyrics, especially these apocrypha, and that song by Amaral - ¿Será tu voz, será el licor, serán las luces de esta habitación? But each chapter title will be a quote from Genesis lyrics)... and, obviously, STAR-CROSSED LOVE ensues, of course!

THE INITIAL CONFLICT IN OTHELLO - GENDER-FLIPPED

THE INITIAL CONFLICT IN OTHELLO - GENDER-FLIPPED
This was a bunny I had for a while. Inspired mostly by Wicked and Othello, and also by the fact that Yaga (for Jadwiga) and Kasia (for Katarzyna) are completely real Polish terms of endearment. Going from there to Baba Yaga and Catherine the Great as well as to Elphaba and Glinda was not that hard, actually.
This is most likely to not swell into a full story. That bunny is already rabbit stew, what with Jadwiga getting Kasia drunk (the latter takes drugs for her hyperactivity) and Else starting a relationship with a local celeb (we're talking about the Polish provinces, the Oder region) whom I hadn't decided for male or female. That bunny is already rabbit stew. But at least I had a beginning for this retelling...

"You can do it, Jadwiga," she says to herself as she walks down the garden path. By her full name. She tightens the rubber band in her queue and the belt around her waist.
She hates being called Yaga, even though her mum calls her that still, and even though it's supposed to be a term of endearment. At class, they once called her Baba Yaga. She had no friends. Messy dark hair, rimmed spectacles on an aquiline nose. All that was missing was and is the croft on chicken's legs, or the flying mortar boat.
Anyway, Fräulein Else will pick her aide, who will also be her Polish-German interpreter during the tour to launch her latest single -Heute durch die Brust geschossen-, pretty soon.
Now she wears specs without rims, a lot of gel in her hair, looks a lot less like the wicked witch in her storybooks. She is Jadwiga, after all. Herself. Trying to find a new identity.
And who is standing in the middle of the path if not Kasia, in that peony-like frilly pink dress?
Unlike Jadwiga, Kasia prefers being called by the term of endearment. Maybe because she's so outspoken and excitable, like Jadwiga herself has never been. Maybe because her full name, Katarzyna, is too much of a mouthful to say. Maybe because she's tall and blonde and buxom and cultured and charming like a czarina... "I bet they once called her, and they still called her, Katarzyna Wielka (Catherine the Great), which is definitely a far cry from Baba Yaga."
Loathing, unadulterated loathing, for her face, her voice, her clothing...
They have been roommates and classmates for two years already, Yaga being the senpai to Kasia's kohai.
But, interestingly, it was Kasia who helped the socially awkward Jadwiga to rise in popularity. Like having the PR advisor with a more-than-middle-class background that surpasses your muggle self's. What shoes to wear, how to fix her hair, to be good at sports... how to be popular, long story short.
There she is, cheerfully waving and hooking her right arm to Jadwiga's left as they enter, or rather storm (against senpai's will), the auditory hand in hand.
Fräulein Else, the Valkyrie of Warnemünde, is so mannish, and wears male lolita visual kei attire for the record, that her short hair, broad shoulders, and contralto lead most people to gender confusion. Still, it is this bifauxnen persona that has made her a celebrity all over Europe. The most redoubtable one of the decade, in fact.
She strides onto the stage, eyes fixed on the auditorium packed with expectant Translation students, most of them female, who signed up for the offer, and clears her throat as she opens the envelope in her hands and announces the name of her aide out loud.
Jadwiga is biting her fingernails. Kasia is polishing her fingernails.
That deep, heroic contralto finally reaching the part of the speech when she mentions the name of her personal interpreter and Girl Friday:
"Katarzyna Mikhailova!"
"YAAAY!" an elated Kasia hugs Jadwiga so tight that her senpai is not only worried about suffocating.
In fact, little does she know about the state of shock for which her senpai is putting on such a brave face.
That post should have been Jadwiga's own by right. Not some frilly, excitable, self-absorbed second-grader's. But that of someone more serious approaching the end of her degree. Not everyone is fit of becoming the Valkyrie's assistant.
Maybe Else wants a blonde like herself, to give the impression of being like sisters... maybe she was smitten with that aura of charm that Kasia seems to exude even with her perspiration... She instantly remembers the shock she was in at her first impression of her prissy blonde kohai with the rooming two years ago:
What is this feeling, so sudden and new, I felt the moment I laid eyes on you?
My pulse is rushing, my head is reeling, my face is flushing...
what is this feeling?!
What is this feeling, fervid as a flame? Does it have a name?
Loathing, unadulterated loathing, for her face, her voice, her clothing...
There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation, so pure and so strong...
Then, let me be the Baba Yaga. There is no need for flying mortar rowboats or cottages on chicken legs; after all, real villains have never been obvious, Jadwiga thinks to herself. Time to hide her cards within her sleeve and to be content as Kasia's understudy. After all, she knows her kohai like the back of her hand and will soon strike her soft spots, without either Katarzyna Wielka or Else, whose fangirl she is since the latter rose to stardom -and of whom she knows practically everything- feeling the pain of the borrowed blade entering their backs...

MORE EASTER GREETINGS

Springtime is coming.
Thus:

Keep your chin up.

Spread joy to your loved ones.

Enjoy the sunshine with them.

Take five!

You're larger than life.

HAPPY EASTER!

Let every year's April showers

bring forth colourful May flowers,

let the sun shorten each night

and fill every day with light...

When summer comes in the end,

we'll finally comprehend 

that hope's reborn every spring,

for children and bards to sing.

And, when cold and gloom return,

we won't forget that we learn

to stay hopeful and secure,

for spring will return once more.

By Sandra Dermark

Happy Easter

and may every springtime last

more than all the winters past!

COUNTDOWN TO LÜTZEN II: MOVEMBER

Wait? Movember with an M?
It's an international NGO/NPO, that started in Auz about three years ago and has become big in Europe.
Its name is a portmanteau of "Moustache", "Movement", and "November".
Its goal: to prevent prostata cancer.

Mo Bro Jack A. Lope in late November last year.

Right now, hundreds of Mo Bros (Movember Brothers) worldwide have kickstarted the month with a clean shaven upper lip. On the 1st of December, they will have shaven their impressive moustaches once more.