CHAPTER 213: I SAW IT IN A DREAM (3)

With a vote of 5 to 2, Ari’s pirate idea won.

"Fine. Let’s flesh out the pirate idea, but try to merge parts of the water warrior stage into it as well, since that was given as a reference," Rex announced after taking the vote.

"Ari and Justin can work on fleshing out the concept details and present it to the group before submission. I’ll start working on the choreography. Benjamin, Levi, and Jerome can work on translating the lyrics with my help. William said he wants to work on the arrangement, so let’s listen to the song, pass our ideas to him, and have him meet with the vocal trainer today. We’ll meet again later to discuss what we’ll do for fans at the showcase. Questions?"

"What about assigning song parts and roles? I’m interested in being the center and main vocalist." William asked without raising his hand.

Rex glanced at William, giving him a polite smile, "Let’s get the song translated properly before we start dividing parts and positions. Unless you’re confident in learning to sing in Korean? If that’s the case, we can do it right now."

At William’s silence, Rex glanced around again, still avoiding Ari’s eyes even though he had voted for his idea after all.

"Good. Any other questions?"

"Is Will the only one working on the arrangement?" Levi asked, his icy blue eyes staring a hole in the side of Ari’s head.

"Yes, I am. Is that a problem?"

"Obviously, considering you’re not very good at it," Levi said bluntly, causing William’s face to turn red from embarrassment.

"You don’t know that-"

"I do."

"Why would you say that? You don’t have any faith in me?"

"No."

William: "....."

"William privately spoke to me about it, and I think it’s a good chance to let someone else shine for once, so let’s go with him for now especially as he’ll be working with the trainer. As a team, we’ll obviously give him input, but for now, let’s get to work." Rex interrupted when he saw that it was about to devolve into an argument with the two blonde boys.

"Hmmm."

With his usual sharp expression, Levi glanced at Rex, then Ari, then before looking away.

As the music to Neverland began playing once more and everyone went their own way, Justin rolled over sleepily, his chocolate colored hair looking even crazier, while Ari got up to get the spare whiteboards and markers.

As they sat face to face, Ari passed one over while spinning his marker around his free hand.

It was his first time having a face to face coversation with the boy but as always, he treated everyone with the same casualness.

"What are your thoughts on the concept pirate?"

"You said you saw it in a dream? What did you see exactly?"

"Is that important?"

"I think it’s a good starting point. The song clearly inspired something in you, so let’s build on that and make it a reality. The best performances are usually created that way."

"It was just a bunch of random things. There was fog, a ship coming out of it, pirates waving a pirate flag, mermaids singing row row your boat, a battle, and going to hunt for treasure."

While Ari spoke, Justin immediately began doodling and making notes on his whiteboard.

"Hmmmm, okay, let’s ask for a fog machine. We can’t have a ship, but maybe we can make one with our bodies, carrying one or two people, and then burst out of the fog. You or I, maybe, since we’re the shortest and look the lightest. There’s water on the floor that can act like the sea, pirate flags could be cool to wave around like we’re part of the colour guard."

At Ari’s confused expression, Justin laughed before explaining, "The people who wave flags and rifles around in a band performance. It’s pretty cool even though it takes lots of practice to get it right. I had to learn for a play once, and it was torture. I smacked my face with the pole every single day until opening night. I got so many bruises that it could barely be covered with makeup."

....let’s not do that.

"I don’t think I can spin a flag pole around. I can’t put weight on this or move it around too much." Ari held up his bandaged hand, and Justin winced.

"Okay, let’s scratch that. No flag poles or rifles, unfortunately. That kind of choreography actually looks good, though." Justin said a bit bummed.

"How about a handkerchief? Or maybe a scarf or bandana, depending on our costumes?"

"Ohhhh. Oohhhhh, yeah, yeah. Let’s make a note of that to ask Rex. Scarf-choreography. Ruffle shirts, vests, short pants, boots, scarves, triangle hat, dark eye makeup, extra tacky jewelry. If it’s not extra tacky, it’s not pirate core, you know! You have to have that grungy, weathered look to really sell it. And if we’re making it sexy, abs must be shown, and the clothing must become see-through when wet. But we need to ask how far the stage crew is willing to go for us."

Justin’s excitement grew as he began imagining the stage coming together, and seeing it, Ari started getting into it too.

"I like your fog machine idea. I think if we could start the song with an entirely fog-covered stage, the sea shanty-like verse in the song could be added to the beginning, making it kind of ominous before the person who has the first verse bursts out and does their part. I think we have a good range of voices here to try it out. Can you sing this part?"

On my-my way, this is how the story goes.

Ari quickly sang the line as low as his voice would go, and after a second, Justin replicated it.

"Can you go lower?"

"Yep.

On my-my way, this is how the story goes.

A much deeper voice than expected came out of Justin’s mouth and Ari smiled as he began seeing a picture in his head.

"What’s the lowest you can comfortably go?"

"About here? On my-my way cough cough-, well maybe not there but a bit higher than that."

"That works, if we harmonize, it would be a bit scary and haunting. Sing it with me. 1, 2, 3-"

On my-my way, traveling down an uncertain road.

On my-my way, this is how the story goes.

As the two of them sang, Justin taking the lower notes while Ari took the higher ones and sang in a slightly lilting way, a slightly haunting melody was formed.

"Oh....I like that! I like that a lot!" Justin began rubbing his arms as if he had chills, "If it’s an ominous fog where the sound rings out, maybe we can get something to color it....you know, you’re surprisingly easy to talk to. Not crazy at all."

"...Thanks I guess?"

"Now back to this haunting intro. Walk with me here. Red fog. Black pirate flag waving, Levi’s angry face jumping out..."

"I’m walking, I’m walking..."

While the two of them were excitedly working hard, working out all the details of their concept, two of the three people who were having to translate the song from Korean to English were suffering as the British monarchy was once again enacted.

"Take it back and cut it down by a third, mate. Too many words to get out in too short a span of time. You won’t be able to do it during the performance." Benjamin handed Levi back the paper that contained his translation of the verse he had chosen for himself.

"I can."

"Fully enunciated? While dancing at full strength without missing a beat?"

"Yes," Levi replied confidently.

Seeing the challenge in those sharp eyes, Benjamin smirked, "Okay. Do it."

Without even playing the music, Levi began rapping.

Yeah, I’m now Ready now for the next journey

You better watch and hold your breath, while I run and get my money

I’m an ruin explorer, it’s in my blood and veins

I’m searching everywhere, high and low, against the flow,

Call me Captain hook, the way I go insane

I follow the guiding light flying in the sky without shaking or turning

Without hesitation bang, bang, you’re gonna feel the pain from my wrath

break it down, until I reach that golden, illusionary, destination

Neverland, the home that will give me liberation.

Whistle.

As Levi spat the entire verse without taking a breath, Benjamin whistled, a bit impressed at his lung capacity.

Each word had been crisp and sharp with the characteristic aggressive style that Levi had in each of his raps.

While it hadn’t been bad, Benjamin knew it could be better.

So he shut him down.

"Huh. I guess you can, but there are a few issues, innit. Firstly, the rhythm of the words compared to the original is broken and sounds off. Secondly, the direct translation makes it too crowded. Thirdly, you might not be winded now, but you’ll definitely be winded later. Even if you say you’re a rapper, if he has his way with the arrangement, Ari will have you singing supporting vocals throughout the performance, and you will get winded. You’ve been on the same team so you know how he is. Rewrite it with the original rhythm, fewer words, and keep the same message."

"....."

Seeing the stubbornness in Levi’s face, Benjamin shrugged, "There’s a reason I’m ranked first in rap. It’s cause I’m the most versatile rapper and good at writing. If you don’t believe my opinion, keep it as is and ask X-Ponent when he comes by. He’ll give you the same advice I’m giving you right now or tell you just to rap it in Korean because the flow of the song is ruined."

Levi: "....."

"You might as well do as he says; he’s made me rewrite my rap verse three times already," Jerome cut in as he complained before looking away as Levi glared at him.

"And I’ll make you do it a fourth time if you don’t get off rhymezone and chat and actually use your head to paraphrase the verse." Benjamin warned the other boy.

"But it’s easier," Jerome grumbled.

"So? If you can’t think of ways to take an already written rap and simplify it to fit a pattern, don’t call yourself a rapper. And the same message goes to you, cut it down. I guarantee that even if you think your lung capacity is good, the kid will squeeze those vocals out of you for the song."

"That punk’s not even arranging the song this time, so I know that’s definitely not happening."

As soon as Jerome finished speaking, the door cracked open and two handsome faces, one with green eyes and black hair, and the other with brown eyes and hair, appeared.

"Ben?"

"Wagwan."

"Sing this for me. As low as you can go. On my-my way, this is how the story goes."

Not even questioning it, Benjamin sang the words back to Ari, who nodded while Justin laughed.

"Heheheheh."

"Cool. Thank you."

Without another word, both Ari and Justin immediately left, and as the door slammed shut, Benjamin turned to the two other boys and gave them a knowing look.

"See."

Without another word, the other two began rewriting the verses.

********

And when they reconvened later, as the team listened to Ari and Justin’s performance presentation, Rex’s eyes couldn’t stop twitching at the extensive details that seemed to go on forever and ever.

"....this is a lot. Will the staff even allow us to do this?"

"They’ll probably do about half, but theater rules say always overask because they will underdeliver. If not, we’ve also sorted things from high priority to low priority and separated them into categories. We separated it by costumes, stage, props, and the music arrangement." Justin explained, handing over a stack of papers with extremely dense writing.

"Okay. Thank you for your hard work." Rex quickly flipped through things before handing the arrangement stack to William, who had kept touching his shoulder throughout the meeting.

Feeling Ari’s gaze, William glanced at him with a smirk on his face.

"You have something to say to me?"

Ari glanced at William’s hand that was on Rex’s shoulder before staring the blonde boy in the face and telling him something only he would understand.

"Don’t ruin our team and someone else’s performance because you’re selfish."

"This could all be solved if you gave me what was mine."

"I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"Then mind your own business," William replied with a smirk.

"If the two of you are done exchanging cryptic words, let’s start to practice the song so we can assign parts."

Ari glanced over at Rex and gave the Korean boy the only warning he could afford, "I recommend you stop letting him touch you."

"Why?"

"He has germs that make you lose your voice."

"Whatever problem the two of you have with each other, keep it out of the practice room."

Seeing that Rex didn’t believe him and just rolled his eyes, Ari shrugged before he began stretching.

"Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you."