The heavens at my birth intended me for stardom

[sadisticsong]

Characters Adel Todd (Death), Grell Sutcliffe, Kuja
Rating PG-13 at worst
Summary Adel introduces a chosen fan to the magical mirrored world of the Gene Co stage. And it generally explodes in his face.
Location Backstage at the opera
Date/Time October 31st, during the festival
Status In progress

Comments

[shinigamijuliet]

When the room went dark he briefly allowed the ecstatic grin to show. Fate was too kind to him. When the lights went up, however, it was back to the sweet veil, his secret happiness tempered.

The familiarity of the seats, the perfect construction of the stage-he knew that, by heart. So many faces and faceless passed through these walls, Grell included. Whether under the mask of Adrian or the freedom of Grell, this place was equivalent to a church to him, and he took it in reverently.

How could one dismiss the arts? To Grell, art was as essential as breathing. True art, too. Shakespeare, opera, good fashion and color. Not the trends or surgeries that changed every week. Timelessness was what attracted him, the pure beauty that could not be forgotten. True art was timeless, and for one to become such-like an opera star-was to ascend into immortality. One would both be and serve the essence of beauty.

[sadisticsong]

Adel watched the girl with discerning eyes, reading her facial expressions and examining her every move. She was the perfect choice for this, his strange ritual of inviting someone to his world before a performance. Unjaded eyes would always gaze in wonder at the theater, edging the slightest bit of warmness into Adel's heart.

"I always imagined," Adel bluffed expertly, "that I would be on the great stage of Vienna, or Paris. This stage is too small for my heart... Don't you think?"

Staying a few steps behind her, he let Grell wander the theater for a moment, recalling the wonder of his own first time in the room. He had been a child, and Rotti Largo had been ever so slightly less rotund, and Gene Co had been but a small medical startup. A completely different world.

"The first time I sang in here, I wasn't much older than you. Do you sing?" He strayed from Grell's side, advancing on the stage.

[shinigamijuliet]

"The greater a performer, the greater their stage should be." Grell had longed to to the great opera houses, but never been. When he left the country it was business and always disguised.

He recalled his first show-he had been eight. His mother and his father were still happy, he wasn't nearsighted, and he knew nothing of the world's harsh realities. It had imprinted a love for the theater in him, unshakeable and strong.

At the question, he blinked. "Just a bit..." he replied modestly. In truth he sang often by himself, another thing he'd self-taught.

[sadisticsong]

Grell's statement lifted Adel's spirit just a bit, and he paused, one foot on the steps up to the stage. The stage lights were down still, throwing long shadows of a partially lowered curtain on the cavernous space before him. He glanced back at Grell before mounting the stage in two swift steps.

"I believe you're right," he said grandly, turning back to face the empty hall. "And I believe, quite secretly, that there is a much greater stage awaiting me." A much greater stage that had nothing to do with music, admittedly, but who was he to elaborate? "Will you keep my secret, Grell?"

He glanced to the side for a moment, and he swore there was the briefest flash of movement. He wouldn't be certain of what he saw, but nevertheless, his act would have to be kicked up another notch.

[shinigamijuliet]

"But of course." He pushed up his glasses just a touch. Secrets were his specialty.

Emerald eyes shone as he gazed at the figure on the stage. Adel belonged there, effortlessly, beautiful in every way Grell knew and did not know. His heart ached. To be adored, to be important, that was what he desired. To be useful to someone in irreplaceable ways. Not this world nor Jack's world gave him that.

Envy and idolatry wove together in his heart. Not for the first time he wished he could be an actor on that stage. Seeing Adel up there comforted him somewhat, in that he could secretly live vicariously through his idols, easing the emotions enough so they could be repressed.