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 Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 12:29 am
Michelle wasn't typically involved with the children's section of the library -- there were other librarians who were dedicated to that, and she certainly admired them, knowing that children weren't exactly the best at communicating their wants and needs. Thus, finding herself involved with a story time in the comfy little area the children's library was situated in was...different. Normally, she surrounded herself with the stacks, reference books that were not to leave the library outside of specific circumstances, books that needed to be inventoried every so often to ensure they hadn't been stolen, bound periodicals gathering dust as everyone moved to digital, helping the odd high school or college student who dropped by. But this... She really wasn't cut out for children, or working with them, unable to get them to settle down and quiet, but the moment someone came in, dressed to the nines and looking quite loud without actually speaking, their attention was grabbed. Children were rather curious creatures, after all. And honestly? She was right there with them. Was this what typically happened down here in the summer?
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:11 pm
Honestly, after last night and everything that had happened with Arsenolite and Raymond Callahan, about the last place where Reiki wanted to be? Was the library, up in his geish—a child-friendly version thereof, at least—reading to the kids out of A Day In The Life Of Marlon Bundo, or Heather Has Two Mommies, or whatever other books the library had picked out to celebrate June.
Strictly speaking, he hadn’t really wanted to be at The Green Carnation Café for drag brunch, either. Putting on his makeup in the manager’s office at the café before the audience got there, all Reiki had wanted to do was go back home and marinate in misery and self-pity until he decided on the most plausible not-entirely-lie he could tell Obaasan and Ojiisan about last night and how he’d done nothing to stop ******** Hawkeye from murdering someone.
But as Saint Freddie of West Kensington had once belted: the show must go on.
Pride Season, unfortunately, was Pride Season and it meant having Saturdays double-booked with drag brunches and drag queen story-time hour. Obligations were obligations, and they meant needing to show up and perform. Reiki had not been working for the past decade on building up a reputation worthy of being Sybil and Cherry’s daughter, networking in the local drag and burlesque scene (practically to the point of unionizing the local artists, inasmuch as they could unionize), and establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with……only to let all of that fall the ******** apart because some Dollar Store knockoff of Clint Barton, who somehow had even less ******** charisma than Jeremy Renner, had decided to murder an innocent science teacher because, oh boy, the Negaverse needed starseeds.
But—no. No. Deep breaths, Reiki told himself as he changed his outfit in the library’s family restroom. He couldn’t present himself before the kids in the slutty little number he’d worn for brunch. At least the wig didn’t need changing; the silver-blonde braid that Reiki wore for performing as The Other Elsa—the “of Arendelle” one, not the real one—had gone well with both outfits. All Reiki needed to do was shimmy out of his slutty, loligoth-adjacent cocktail dress, and slink instead into his self-made dupe of Elsa’s iconic “Let It Go” dress.
Catching sight of himself in the mirror, Reiki wouldn’t have guessed that he had anything going wrong for himself. A trembling breath, and he reminded himself, “Conceal, don’t feel.… Show the kids a good time.”
He nodded to confirm for himself what he needed to do, and how he was going to do it. Closing his eyes, he took and held the deepest breath he could get while corseted. And when he opened his eyes again, he’d donned the warm, charming smile that inspired plenty of bar patrons to toss him their money. Today, hopefully, it would inspire these kids to see that gender was whatever they wanted it to be and queerness was one of the most beautiful things out there.
As he swanned into the children’s area, Reiki wished he’d had somewhere else to store his drag bag—but at least he could pretty easily shunt it under a table near the mats and beanbag chairs that got used for story-time hour. “Is it just me,” he said, putting on his lofty, performance voice, “or could the weather stand to cool off a little?”
Had he been at the bar, probably performing “Let It Go” because what else would he perform in this dress, Reiki would have thrown a mix of glitter and confetti around as his “snow.” Under the stage lights, that s**t looked amazing. But the library staff had enough to clean up without compounding their suffering. So, instead, Reiki swished his arm up in a way that made his cape flourish almost like his “snow” would—not quite as impressive, but several of the kids seemed to appreciate the spectacle regardless, gasping and clapping delightedly. A few of the parents even politely joined in.
“Oh, this old thing? That’s nothing. You all should see my dress that magically changes, right before your very eyes.” The only question, honestly, would’ve been picking which one to let them see, considering Reiki had several. But for right now, he looked around for a moment before finally finding the library-employed adult in the room, a pretty redhead with a heart-shaped face. Holding out a hand, he said, “Miss Sayuri Kurobara Disobedience. I’m here to treat these little darlings to story-time?”
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 8:33 pm
As the performer entered the room (her? Queen? Artist?) Michi needed to not overthink and just be polite, smile, take the offered hand and give a small shake. "Ah, Michelle Alexander, it's wonderful to have you here, and I'm sure the kids agr--" She didn't even have to finish what she was saying before the kids were cheering -- or at least, some of them were. They certainly looked happy at least, wanting to be here rather than somewhere else. And there were so many places they could be, but... "Now, you all need to be polite and listen, alright?" It wasn't as if she was going to be going anywhere aside from stepping away enough to give their guest some room to perform. Because even if this was just a simple reading from the book...well. Most tended to play it up to some extent.
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