Music in media: Castle On A Cloud from the "Les Misérables" musical

14 January, Friday, 3 p.m. | Winter

Drama — an inevitable part of theatre. The happy coincidence of seeing Calliope and Linus and their Deerling, Otis, clashed with a sight for sore eyes, namely Ken and Karen. Rae felt a lump pass in her stomach as she took her seat beside Linus who, having complimented her appearance, proceeded to ask her if she was excited to watch the musical.

Castle on a Cloud told the story of the twin heroes of Unova one thousand years ago, hence its close relationship with the Relic Crown, as mentioned by Elesa when a Fa rang in the crisp air. This was nothing worth fawning over.

"Elesa was praising it, so it must be great!" said Rae.

Linus nodded. "It is! Mama watched it twice since its opening."

Karen, seated behind the pair, turned to her husband and laughed. She was scrolling her phone to pass the time, but her eyes were always elsewhere. When he frowned at her, she gave the pair a sideways glance. He understood. She kicked the chair in front of her on which Rae sat, causing the girl to spring up, and cried, "Did you know, Ken? The placenames in Unova are inspired by clouds because Unova was a kingdom of ever-changing clouds."

"I did not!" Ken feigned a shocked expression as he sat up and elbowed Linus's head, ignoring the boy's yelp and scowl, "How are you so smart, Karen? You know that's why I love you."

"Of course!" A hearty giggle-snort. "I love you because you're a friggin' dumbass. It makes me so enlightened."

"I love how you enlighten me."

Rae squinted at the stage while Linus inched forward to the edge of his seat and bent over a little.

"We should say something," said Linus with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"No."

Rae's reply was interspersed with Karen's "We are splendid equals!"

"C'mon, Rae! We can't let them do as they please!"

Linus's words were also overwhelmed by Ken's answer to his wife: "A wise doctor once said not all lives are created equal. We must be in the top one percentile!"

"You will let them be," the seething voice of a woman cut in, followed by silence. Calliope pushed down her son's hoodie and offered him and Rae some chocolate-coated chips with a toothy smile.

The curtains soon rose for the musical. The cast was made up of Pokémon native to the region. A Snivy, supposedly the Prince of Truth, debated with an Oshawott who played the Prince of Ideals. Subtitles of their squabble were projected onto the two large screens sandwiching the stage. The general rundown was that the Prince of Truth decided one day that the Truth was more important in ruling the humble vale and tried to convince the other Prince to give up his Ideals. Of course, when one tries to undo another, that becomes their very undoing. If not for the Tepig, their King father, that soon appeared to quell them and spoke of unity, things would have worsened.

But they already did. When the argument broke out, the Original Dragon, played by a Hydreigon, split into two Deino that wore a Zekrom mask and a Reshiram mask respectively.

"What about the other head?" Rae asked Linus.

"Kyurem doesn't show zirself much. Maybe zie's shy?"

Calliope smirked. "No, Kyurem is the oft-forgotten one."

"Why's that?"

Rae's question was answered in a soliloquy sung by a Deino donning a Kyurem mask when the other five Pokémon left the stage and frost spread from the centre of the stage. The Deino sang of loneliness, how "you shunned me for being ugly and empty, you will not face nothingness"; of pain that "like an icy salve, will heal all other pain"; of "an unbroken circle, an unspoken hour" when there was nothing to fill the primordial space.

The Original Dragon, when it first appeared, sought to Take Down the universe because it could see no meaning, wielding its Scary Face like a sword. However, a human took care of it and shewed it boundless compassion. The Original Dragon decided to Protect him, and in so doing, came into contact with the concept of meaning. It lent the power of its three fangs in the order of Fire Fang, Thunder Fang and Ice Fang, which was said to mean the importance of Truth, Ideals and Boundary ranked. Whoever said it must be a fool.

The score switched to a darker one when the Kyurem witnessed the devastation brought about by the Princes of Truth and Ideals as well as their companion Pokemon, the parts of itself it became a husk to. Boundary was a husk because it could be worn and shed anytime, because then a cyclic realm of possibilities could open up. Fire and electricity rained onto the stage as people (played by a bunch of Yamask) and various Pokémon ran helter-skelter to avoid being in the crossfire or defended their sides valiantly.

To each side, the Prince was a Hero. To each side, the other Prince was a villain. Neither would see eye to eye. The Dragon Force that kept the vale going flowed in reverse and grew corrupted in the process. Suddenly, everyone and everything were Thieves of joy, intertwined in the hands of comparison. Life became a Facade, and anywhere in the kingdom, at any point in time, there were nothing but screams and Snarls.

Until the King who fathered the Heroes, the Villains, stepped in with Victini, the Pokémon appearing cheekily as zirself, it seemed so, and asked for zir aid to move the Sword of the Vale. Victini, boosting the strength of hundreds of Solosis and Duosion in the castle, lifted it into the sky with all of the village's people within. The Sword floated from the vale to the peak of the mountain where the Dragon Force's leading edge flowed before landing cleanly. Despite managing to calm the Dragon Force, the King unfortunately died soon after, accidentally leaving Victini trapped inside of the Sword of the Vale's barrier. Word had it that the Sword of the Vale plunged into the sea and stayed rooted there. It would one day be discovered by civilisation as Liberty Island, an island on the outskirts of mainland Unova. Reshiram and Zekrom, exhausted from their battle, reverted into Dragon Stones of Light and Dark. Guilt like a Venemoth ate at the Princes. They hid the stone at the bottom of the castle they had once built together with their bare hands. The curtain fell.

Rae had lost count of the number of times Icosa yawned throughout the musical. The origin of the Relic Castle was interesting and rather flashy. Still, why was the Relic Castle more popularly known in connection to the King of Truth? Where did the King of Ideals go then?

Rae turned back. The odd couple had long left the theatre. Icosa told her they had left when the show covered a quarter of its plot. The repertoire was beautiful, but the story wasn't exactly authentic.

"Not authentic?" Lenora blinked in surprise. Professor Juniper shared her reaction. On the other hand, Cheren glanced at Rae and realised they both did not know much about the authenticity of the history. History was often touted to be written by the victors. There was always some form of romanticism involved, which was Icosa's case in point. One of them, anyway. He'd rather let his sentiments linger in suspense.

The group stopped in front of the reception booth. Elesa was pleased to know that everyone except Icosa enjoyed the show.

"It's Mewtwo again!" The sprightly beauty set her sights on the mother-son couple and patted Otis's head. "Mew have been frequenting the Musical Theater lately!"

"The Pokémon are talented," said Calliope. "BW Agency certainly outclassed themselves again."

Elesa's Xtransceiver rang. It turned out a challenger was waiting for her and she had to take her leave.

"Her puns are legendary," Linus told his mother once Elesa exited the Theater.

Calliope sighed. "I know she's your role model, but don't pick that up from her."

"What do you think, Rae?" Linus looked away from his mother. "The Oshawott had this nice line: 'Sometimes we can only salvage what we can and dream the rest.'"

Icosa chortled. "That's memorable to you? I thought the line 'Please do not send me out alone! Not in the darkness on my own!' was better."

"You do not understand poetic stuff." Linus stuck his tongue out.

"Poetics? You kid yourself." Icosa swatted the air and walked to the automatic sliding doors.

Before Linus could fumble for a reply, the sky caved into the temptation of a tempest. A public announcement requested everyone to stay indoors.

Alas, it came too little, too late.

A bolt of lightning struck onto the spot next to Icosa. He looked back at his companions, then at the figure floating in the sky.

"Well, well... If it isn't fucking Thundurus."