Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-31845764-20171031024337/@comment-28718853-20171107203520

I take a deep breath and adjust my armor. It's showtime!

As the curtain parts a man dressed like a farmer and a Weresheep stroll out to set the first act into motion. I watch as they speak their lines in an almost perfect manner, giving me a slight feeling of inadequacy. My body steeled itself as I waited for my cue to appear. This was my first professional gig, and I was in no mood to blow it.

The music was quite peaceful as the couple sat on stage, enjoying a picnic. Then, the lights shifted purple, signalling that I was about to make my appearance. The two currently on stage put on their best panicked expressions as the music turned tense and ominous. Then, the villain arrived, a Satyros in dark red armor and had bat-like wings on her back. She was acting as the vile Demon Princess Ivecev.

Ivecev let out a maniacal laugh, and I popped on stage with my fake sword drawn. I point my sword at her and order in a commanding voice, "Leave this place at once you wicked being!"

Ivecev laughs some more and booms, "Oh, a Demon Hunter is trying to stop me? How adorable!  All who dare challenge me will perish before the Demon Princess Ivecev!"

I turn to the other two actors and tell them, "Leave this place, for I shall deal with her!"

They nod and run off the set, and Ivecev takes out a fake sword of her own. We proceed to have a lengthy sword fight, ending with me "inflicting" a wound on Ivecev's lower torso. She clutches her injured torso and stumbles away from me. Before she leaves off set however, she points a finger at me and snarls, "Enjoy your little victory whelp, we'll meet again!"

With that, she flies off the set, and I give the audience a brief aside. "If the Demon Princess is here, then that must mean that a Demon invasion will soon occur. I must report to the High Council at once.  I exit stage right, and the curtain closes, meaning that it was the end of Act One.  Clapping could be heard from the other side, and I let out a sigh of relief knowing of the crowd's approval so far.

I can see my Phantom friend Amber smiling at me, as if to say, "Good job."

A grin spread across my own face. That experience wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Now I can feel myself growing more confident for the rest of the play.

The Satyros, whose actual name is Ebony, walks up to me and asks with a blush, "How'd I do?"

I give her a thumbs up and reply, "I'd say you're doing pretty well so far. You make for a very convincing villain."

Ebony's body stiffens and she hops with excitement. She throws her arms around me and says repeatedly, "Thank you thank you thank you!"

She soon releases me and jogs back to the other side of the room. I turn to Amber and she nods. We still had four more acts to go, and we were going to have to give it our all. These folks wanted a show, and we were going to give them a show!

Throughout the rest of the play, the actors and I maintained our composure, spoke our lines down to a T, and performed the actions required of the play (though I think one of the three Hellhound actresses got a little pervy with the guy playing the messenger, hopefully it wasn't too big to notice).

The final act ends with me slaying the three Hellhounds serving under Ivecev and an epic battle. As Ebony and I have our sword fight, I think of how the events in my life led up to this moment. I think of the first time Amber and I met. I think of how she helped me to overcome my stage fright, I think of how we helped each other though performing arts school. It's crazy to even remember all of that, and now here I was, my first professional play.

The final battle ends with me driving my sword through Ivecev's chest and her body glowing bright and exploding (it was really just extremely bright lights that obscured the audience's view of us to give Ebony enough time to run off set). I then raise my sword to the ceiling and shout triumphantly, "Victory is mine! I have defeated the Princess, ended the war, and the demons retreat back to the pits of Hell from whence they came!"

When I finished my speech, I swear I heard chuckling from behind the stage. Looks like I still need to work on my voice acting.

The curtain closes, and the audience erupts into an encore. All of the actors including myself are lined up in front of Amber who says, "Time to take a bow folks."

We all walk up on stage and stand side-by-side facing the still cheering crowd. Everybody on stage takes their bow and I can feel a great sense of accomplishment as I look back up at the audience.

Several minutes later I'm in the dressing room changing back into my regular attire when I hear Amber's voice say, "You did really good out there, everyone did."

I turn to the Phantom and reply, "Thanks, but I also think you deserve some credit for setting the whole thing up."

Amber blushes and floats over to me. Her hands rise up to my cheeks and she says, "It was very hard work, put my heart and soul into it."

"Technically it's just the soul," I say, earning me a punch in the shoulder from Amber who laughs and blurts out, "Nerd!"

She settles down and says, "Anyway, the play worked out just as I wanted it to."

"It certainly did," I say as I bring my head up to Amber's and give her a peck on the cheek. "Listen, thank you very much for helping me throughout my life, I don't know if I'd be here right now if it weren't for you," I add softly. Amber pulls me into a hug and says, "My pleasure, and thank you for making my life a very special one. I don't know what I'd be doing without you either."

Our hug lasts for a full minute. Amber dusts herself off and asks, "Some of us are heading out to the bar to celebrate, wanna come?"

"Gladly," I reply. "Excellent," Amber says as she heads for the door, only to stop and turn her head my way to give me one last question.

"By the way, I noticed some bottles of whiskey stashed away in Ebony's costume, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" she asks with a snide grin.

I shake my head and answer in a sincere tone, "Nope, I had no idea she was doing that until you told me."

Amber's grin softens and she says, "Alright then, I'll prod her about it later on, but not tonight."

She then disappears, and I chuckle to myself as I redress in my regular clothes and prepare to spend the rest of the night with my friends and Amber.