xp_logs | Stage of Illusions: A Disagreement of Character

Julian & Yvette discuss Nick getting the lead role before the big fight.

Julian tore off his coat and flung it toward a couple of younger stage hands as he stormed into the backstage area. It was infuriating enough that he wasn't in the lead role, but why did Nick need to be the star. He was just as capable at transforming himself, though perhaps not physically and had acted more times than Nick could probably count. Infuriated, he took a doughnut and a cup of juice from the craft-services table, seething for a moment as he stuffed his emotions into his mouth.

Yvette wasn't due onstage for quite a while, so she'd been helping out with the set while she waited, always happy to be useful. She blinked, however, at the obviously-angry Julian storming offstage. Even a year before she would have shrunk away, but she was an X-Man now, and Julian was one of her friends. Best to see if she could do anything to help.

"I am almost feeling sorry for the donut," the small red girl said, approaching the table with a small smile. "That is the very angry eating, yes?"
"Vury," Julian managed to get out, his mouth full of deep-fried sweet-dough and powdered sugar. The young man managed to swallow before continuing, "It's Gleason, that ass. First he and Angel start sneaking around, now he gets the lead in the play because, what? Because he can turn into a wolf? Big effing deal."

"It is more than just that," Yvette pointed out reasonably. "Nick is the good actor, as good as any of us. And I do not think he and Angel are... like that. Angel would be telling me this."

"I saw the two of them together while we were in Malibu. They were very...close," Julian seethed, still jealous that she'd apparently moved on. "Inez thought there was something going on between them too before she left." Though, she may have been telling him that in order to get him into her pants, but the fact remained. "And he's not that good of an actor."

Yvette's eyes flashed. She knew her friend and she knew Angel would have told her if something was going on. "Nick is Catseye's boyfriend, not Angel's," she replied, normally soft voice raising a little. "Inez was being jealous of Angel and wanting you, so of course she is telling you that they are close. And if they were, Catseye would know, because she has the feral nose and would smell it." She took a breath. "Julian, please to be thinking. You have made the conclusions before, yes? When you thought Angel had said bad things about your family? Do you want to be doing this again?"
Julian hadn't ever seen Yvette quite so scathingly angry. Bitterly cold perhaps, but never angry. He took a subconscious step backwards, toward the table. "I...I...I..." was all he could stammer out.

"You do not have to like Nick," Yvette continued, in a slightly calmer tone. "But you should be the grown-up, yes? Not the baby, who says the bad lies because he is jealous. It is only a play - there will be others and you will be the star again, I am sure."

Still not sure how to handle this new turn of events, Julian churned things over in his mind until finally speaking again. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Nick had taken a lot of things from him, they'd never really gotten along and now his friends were siding with the wolf-boy against him. "I'm sorry, Yvette," he said in a sincere enough tone.

She managed a smile. "You're the good person, Julian," she said. "You will not let something so silly as this be the problem, yes?"

"Of course not," he lied. Julian really was a passable actor after-all and Yvette a fairly trusting person.

"Of course." Yvette patted him on the arm and then glanced over at the stage. "Oh, I think my cue is coming. I will see you later, yes?"

"Break a leg," he said, giving Yvette a sincere pat on her covered back. Once she was far enough away, Julian picked up another doughnut and voraciously tore into it. It was going to be a long rehearsal.