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 Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 12:23 pm
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 7:20 am
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 8:51 am
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:23 am
Into The Future Kaikamahine was nearing what her mother called her ‘teenage rebellious’ years. Her daughter had taken to doing her own thing even if she didn’t approve of them. For her part, Kai just felt she was headed in a direction that most of her peers and family didn’t approve of. Now that the newcomers were a bit more integrated, she’d just taken to the Earthling ways quite a bit. She didn’t stray too far from her roots, but she’d definitely taken to dressing in clothing that was a bit more Earthling than Kahikianian. She loved her roots, but she loved the colors of the Earthling.
A hobby she’d picked up was going through the marketplace and looking at all the clothing and colors they provided. She would come back home and draw up her own versions, as childish as they were, of what she’d want to wear one day. She loved dressed and even more so intricate designs with shells and pearls integrated into the design. She wanted the sea to be reflected in them even if the colors weren’t the norm. Gradually she got better over the years, Kai even grew a love of the more dramatic styles of clothing.
Unfortunately, Kai was still too young to be taken seriously, but she kept all over her sketches and such. She would never really be able to work on her designs here, but on Tendaji? People might actually want some of these one day. She’d heard they had plays in theatres and costumes were a thing. She could only dream about what it would be like to perform on a stage in her costume in front of a bunch of people. Would she sing? Act? Play some kind of instrument? Ah what a life! It was such a dreamy thought for her.
So much so that she had already made plans to move out and travel to Tendaji. She’d even gotten her hands on a map which she’d looked over and plotted out where she wanted to go. While she wanted to see everywhere, Oba seemed where she was the most interested in seeing. They had some of the fanciest clothing designs she’d seen so far, lots of metals too that people used as accessories for themselves and their clothing. The colors were a little dark, but she could work with that. She found the use of metals especially interesting but also their lack of using plants.
That was also something else Kai had noticed. They didn’t use plants like the Kahikians, metals yes and perhaps that was because they were Earthlings and metals were more of an earth thing? Kai didn’t know, but it would certainly be something she was going to look into. Some way to bring together both cultures into one design. It was going to be tricky, but there had to be someone she could learn this stuff from? She could learn all about Kahikian clothing but for Tendaji she would have to find a seamstress there who would be willing to teach her.
But her birthday was coming up and she was going to make a special dress for it that did try to bring together both designs. She’d ask her mom to buy her some materials form the markets (hopefully her mother wouldn’t put up a fuss or that), and then get to work. She wanted to do some kind of dress, long and flowy.
Kai floated about in her room, looking through her designs picking them apart, gasping at how horrible some of the older ones looked, but she fond inspiration and then got to work.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 4:42 pm
Performance of A Lifetime Kaikamahine had known for a long time now that she wanted to be a performer, but it had taken her a while to decide what kind of performer she truly wanted to be. She's always loved acrobatics, but there is something that she loved even more about performing in an environment that brought people together to watch her. Performing arts was a way for people to feel emotions through her performance, and that was besides all the really cool costumes one got to wear and the drama of it all. That was probably the thing she was the most excited about.
Kaikamahine had been part of a small class of other young dancers for a while now, she'd asked her mother to allow her to go when it first ad started up. Her mother had allowed her to go, but she'd called Kai silly for wanting to do something like this. She hadn’t believed this would be something that would pan out as a “real job” in the future and so she hadn’t put much stock into it. Kaikamahine on the other hand had taken it very seriously. The Earthlings would love the kind of performances she would bring to Tendaji and they would travel from far to come to see her!
As Kai travelled back and forth from their home to her classes every day to prepare for her performance there, she wondered what her mother thought about Kai leaving for Tendaji soon. She’d never been too gung-ho about her daughter doing anything else than being a teacher at the local school (following in her mother’s footsteps was not in Kai’s future plans). But this was an opportunity that was far greater than that, once she had a few years under her belt she would show her mother what she was truly capable of.
That was the plan at least.
When Kaikamahine got back to her home that night she noticed something odd in her bedroom. It was a note atop a bag. It read, “Dear Pup. I've put together some help to make things easier, I hope you like it. Love, Mama” Kaikamahine had known that her mother sometimes made fun of her classes, she'd seen it in the way she tended to avoid talking about what her daughter wanted to do in the future when asked. It seemed however, her mother was finally happy and was trying to make things better for Kai in any way that she could.
When she opened the bag, she found it filled with supplies and a costume. Kaikamahine pulled it out and held it up, it was beautiful. There was even a headpiece to go with it. Everything complimented her colouring. Kai made a face, had her mother heard that she had a big performance coming up? The costume looked handmade like her mother had made it herself. She’d never cared this much before… She wondered if she would come to her performance then, perhaps Kai would even let it slip in a conversation that it was in a few days and hope to see her.
Kai did let it slip, quite a few times of the day and time of her performance. Her mother never said anything, and she hadn’t told her thank you for the costume or anything. She wanted to keep it all a surprise, to see her mother's face when she got on that stage and performed in the outfit that she had made for her. She was happy to know her mother supported her choice after all of those years. Still, she didn’t want to get too ahead of herself. Maybe her mother wouldn’t even show up at all. She’d be missing a performance of a lifetime if she did.
The night of the performance, Kai left early to meet up with the others who were also performing that day. It was a huge thing for their teacher who was fussing and running about getting everyone ready. Lots of Hapuna had gathered from what they could see from behind some coral, but they were shooed away quickly by their teacher who told them to get ready. Kaikamahine had put on the costume her mother had made as well as the headdress and finished everything off with makeup. This was it; this was going to be her final performance before she moved on to bigger things.
And then a familiar head popped up from behind a coral and swam up.
“Mom, you’re not supposed to be back here.” Kai hissed at her, grabbing her to pull her away.
“I just wanted to check to make sure everything was okay.” She said.
“Yes, of course, everything fits really nice. I’m almost ready, I’m wearing the costume you made me,” Kaikamahine replied.
Her mother chuckled and grabbed both of her hands. “Do you think you’re ready for this?” she asked. “You look good in the costume and while I’ve never seen you perform; I’ve heard good things. So maybe you’ll be alright on stage tonight?”
“I’ll do my best,” Kaikamahine said. “You’ll come, won’t you?”
Her mother smiled and nodded.
The two stayed quiet for a moment, Kaikamahine was relieved to see that her mother seemed to be happy for her.
“Do you still think you’ll be okay?” Kai asked.
“Of course, little pup, I’ll be fine. Just don’t mind me if I cry or anything…” Her mother said, unable to completely suppress her tears.
Kai nodded. “I understand, I don’t need you to be strong for me,” she said. “We’re both adults. I’ll miss you, but it’s okay. I’m not saying goodbye just yet, I still need my teacher’s evaluation.”
“I’m going to miss you too, but I can’t help but worry. You are my daughter and I want you to be happy. Just promise me that you’ll be careful.”
“Of course. I promise,” Kai replied. “I’ll see you after the performance, I’ll come back and give you a hug.”
“Alright. I’ll see you tonight,” Her mother said, her voice breaking with emotion. But she swam away back into the waiting crowd.
Taking a deep breath, Kai swam to where the performers were waiting. Her mother knew this was the final step before Kai embraced this kind of life. If she did well here, her future was set in stone for her. There was no going back and there certainly was no becoming a teacher either. And while shew knew she could always fall back on such a future; she knew that this was what she truly wanted and this was what Kai would do for the rest of her life.
Finally, it was time for her to go on. She stood, staring at the other girls behind the makeshift curtain waiting for them to call her name. They knew that she was nervous and so had tried their best to make her laugh. But no matter what they said, she wasn’t laughing.
“Hey Kaikamahine, it’s time to go on,” a voice announced from behind her. Kai moved onto the stage and into her first position.
As the curtains rose, the crowd around Kai was silent. She knew that this was what she wanted, this was where she belonged.
Kai began her routine as the music began. She moved and flipped, part dance and part performance on her part and then she was grabbing the ribbons that had been setup for her and she used those to climb up and meet her partner. And then their own performing dance began as they moved and swam together. Sometimes he held her up with one hand, other times he bent one way and she bent the other to equilibrate their weights. Soon enough, the music was slowing down and so was their performance. It ended with both of them bowing and the crowd cheering loudly.
Moving off the stage, her teacher came over and congratulated her. She’d outdone herself this time and all those years of practice had really paid off. Kaikamahine hadn’t even had time to look out for her mother, but when she saw her swim up with a smile on her face she knew she’d seen the whole performance.
“That was wonderful!” She said as she approached, clapping her hands together. “I didn’t think you were so… balanced and flexible. I’m… I’m really impressed Kai.” And her mother really did sound sincere.
“I told you I was good at this.” Kai removed the headdress to hold it in her hands.
“Kai! Everyone’s done, you’re needed back on stage for the final bow.”
“Alright!” Kai turned to her mother. “Will you wait for me?”
“Of course, we’ll swim back home together.”
Kai smiled, a really smile before she quickly joined the others who were getting on stage for the final bow. She felt great, she loved this. Her eyes looked over all the Hapuna and she imaged herself in front of Earthlings or Aishians and it just made her so happy. She’d been built for this and she was looking forward to following this path.Word Count: 1506
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:40 am
Time To Say Goodbye Quote: Kaikamahine has been waiting and talking for years about being able to leave and follow her destiny. However, when she is finally free to follow her dreams, she is scared and isn't so sure anymore. Nothing her mother's little pep talk (and light threats of what her alternative future is) couldn't help.
“Kai, what are you still doing here?” her mother asked when she was surprised to find Kai locked up in her bedroom.
“I’m just cleaning…” She lied and her mother narrowed her eyes at her.
“You’d never willingly clean. I thought you were going to leave first thing in the morning. And now I see you haven’t even packed.” Her mother began grabbing a few pieces of clothing.
“What are you doing?” Kai asked, turning fully towards her mother now as she watched her grab her travel bag from under the bed.
“I’m getting you ready. I swear sometimes you slack too much. Do you think the world outside of here will treat you as I do? No, so you need to get your stuff together.” Her mother huffed.
“I’m not leaving just yet.” She admitted quietly.
“What was that? Not leaving yet? You’ve been talking my ear off for years about wanting to leave and now you don’t want to? I don’t think so. You need to live a little otherwise I am sending you to school, and you will apprentice as a teacher.” Her mother stared her down.
“Can you come with me?” Maybe if her mother went with her it would be better.
“My sweet little fish,” Her mother came over and sat on her bed. “Are you really scared to go out there? Pello went out do you really want to be here when he comes back?” She placed a stray strand of hair behind Kai’s ear.
“No.” She admitted reluctantly. Kai would never live the embarrassment down if Pello came back and she told him she’d stayed to become a teacher.
“You have talent, go get the world. Face your fear, go find your place because you know it isn’t here.” Her mother gave her a sad smile. Kai knew she would rather Kai stay here with her, but she also understood that she’d wanted to leave and perform for all of Tendaji. She was scared but it wasn’t an excuse, if she wanted to follow her dreams, she had to do this, it would only get easier.
“Alright, I’ll leave with the boats tomorrow.” Because if she delayed it any longer she would never leave and her mother would send her to her apprenticeship right away.
“That’s my girl.” Her mother kissed her cheek and handed her the travel bag. “Now tidy up and get ready for tomorrow morning.”
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