A cliche fantasy

Chris was out front giving his normal introductory speech to the audience. This was Play of the Week, today's play was a cheerful piece of classic fantasy, one of the many hidden gems, as Chris called them, of obscure plays that they liked to bring attention to. And this time there were no set malfunctions, no historical inaccuracies, so it should be good to go.

Vanessa still held out hope for that happening one day.

She still had a bit more time though. She glanced down, wriggling a little to get used to her dress. Scene one was already playing out there; Sandra was hamming it up as the obligatory Evil Enchantress, expositing the overdone premise of the play. She was evil, she ruled the land, none could stop her, oh look there's Chris playing a shiny looking knight.

The forest set was admittedly impressive. A knee-high toadstool, fake tree trunks, and paper bushes set the scene. And...

"Oh, but what could one such as I ever do?" Chris's character declared, plaintively looking up.

That was her cue. Vanessa took a deep breath. Her role was the admittedly twee one of a good fairy, meant to provide all manner of helpful advice and deus ex machina. She had on a light, gauzy dress, a bright forest green complementing the glittery make-up she'd had thrown on. Hopefully somewhat concealed beneath the skirt was the harness that would allow her to make her entrance.

"Don't despair, brave herAHHHHHHH!"

Vanessa took a step off the platform. She meant to descend gracefully to the ground, tissue-paper wings fluttering behind her. Instead she realized very suddenly that the harness she was wear wasn't the best, and she went spinning across the stage, able just about to throw her hands out ahead of her to avoid thudding into the set.

There was a crashing sound, and a yelp, as a hefty wooden branch fell off the backdrop. Vanessa coughed, and nervously looked down, still some meters above the stage. Chris was shielding his head.

After a moment, seeing things seemed to have stilled, Chris lowered his arms tentatively. Vanessa looked skywards. She was meant to be on the ground already.

"What manner of creature are you?" Chris said, doing his best to act facing upwards.

"What do I look like?" Vanessa said. She steadied herself by keeping one arm on the tree, still looking up pointedly. "Give me your sword, hero."

There was a moment's pause. Chris looked up at her. After a moment, hesitating, he threw it upwards. Vanessa tried to catch it and missed, and it landed squarely on Chris's forehead. After a moment to recover, he tried again, taking a hasty step back. Vanessa managed to grab the blade.

She sighed in relief.

"A normal sword could not slay a creature such as the AHH," Vanessa began. She was cut off mid-line as the harness jiggled for a moment, and she looked up, hoping to find that she'd at last be lowered.

Instead, she felt herself start to turn over. The harness swayed, the connections rotated, and she went from delivering her lines somewhat vertically, to being horizontal.

"-as the enchantress," Vanessa continued hurriedly. "But with a bit of fairy magic, you might best any of the magical beasts she summons, and AHHHH neverfeartrollnorhellhoundofanyAHHH."

She kept spinning, until she was upside down, harness swaying only a little as the blood rushed to her head, and her skirt started to fall down. She only noticed as it reached her stomach, sliding down past the plain black panties she'd hoped would be unobtrusive. Awkwardly she tried to push it back up, as surreptitiously as she could, both hands still on the sword.

Meanwhile the harness still saw her slowly rotating, though this time rather than changing her orientation, it was just where she faced that differed. She looked down, only to find Chris significantly more to the left than she remembered, then looked back up to her skirt to realize that she was only pushing up the front, while the back was now what was facing the audience.

Flushing, she took one hand off the sword to hold it up.

"Fairies such as we will always be there to aid the heroes in need," Vanessa managed to say, still gently rotating.

"But why me? Out of everyone, why am I the one chosen for this?" Chris said.

"That is something you will have to find out for," she took a breath, neck straining, and turned it the other way so she could still face him, "yourself. Here, take your sword."

She hesitated again. Then, swallowing, momentarily moved her hand from pinning her skirt up, to lower it and drop the sword the short distance to the stage.

Her dress fell again, loose enough that a hint of her bra was visible before she desperately fumbled with it to push her skirt back up.

"Thank you, strange fairy," Chris said. "Will I see you again?"

"If you need me, I shall be there," Vanessa said, with a small dramatic flair.

Then she was meant to flourish, and that was her cue to disappear. She looked up expectantly. Then she sighed.

She moved both her hands as quickly as she could in the theatrical gesture required, hoping it would signal the stagehand operating the harness to bring her back up. Instead her dress fell down over her face, without either of her hands to support it, the airy green almost falling off her body entirely if it wasn't for her arms.

She kicked, suspended upside down, still feeling that she wasn't moving, mismatched underwear bared to the audience for those few moments as she struggled to push the dress back up off her face, and over her chest, stomach and legs. It was hard to be coordinated upside-down.

She made the mistake of looking down, to see Chris frozen in the gesture of looking up in awe as she flew away. She just wasn't flying.

Instead she was just hanging there with her skirt falling down, or falling up, whichever.

Eventually she got it under control. She was a little red, and hanging there, up until a glitter cannon fired. She coughed, closing her eyes, instinctively trying to bat the stray shiny specks away from her face.

That was at least part of her exit scene. Vanessa was slowly lifted up off the stage in what should have been a graceful fashion, with her underwear again bared as she was lifted up feet-first back to the walkways over the stage, struggling with her skirt covering her face.