Snippets of their Friendship.
Richard had always had a bit of an admiration for Pacifica Northwest –
just about everybody knew where she had come from, what she had given
up for her ideals (even if it was unlikely she was going to be cut off
forever, Northwest pride in bloodlines being what it was – her point
remained, and she was stubborn enough to continue to say no, no matter
what her parents promised).For Richard, the admiration was a little more personal. Vixen,
the show that had catapulted Pacifica to stardom, had been predicted to
be a failure. It was Pacifica’s acting that had saved the show from
being the mess everyone had expected, and Richard had always hoped that
he’d someday have it in him to save a show the way Pacifica had.Well, his curse was that apparently, his ‘I hate everything about
this and pray for everyone involved, including myself, to find the sweet
release of death’ portrayal of Alcor (which was only about half acting)
meant that the show he was saving was Twin Souls. Twin freaking Souls.Richard never thought he’d get to meet Pacifica…but then again, how
could he ever have imagined the circumstances that lead to it, meeting
her through his friendship with the Dreambender, of all creatures?Richard really hadn’t expected to see Pacifica again after that
impromptu dinner with her and Alcor, even though they had exchanged
numbers. That was practically professional etiquette, bolstered by the
fact that they both knew and got along with a demon and therefore might
need that backup.Still, Richard was very surprised when he did get a text a few days
after meeting Pacifica, asking him to come meet her at another out of
the way diner if he were free.
Tag: richard
The Twin Souls Premiere
Of all the things she could have worn to the premiere of the Twin
Souls movie, somehow Richard wasn’t surprised that Crystal chose to put
her Mizar knitted sweater on over her designer gown.Little
wonder people kept getting her and Mizar confused. It would have been
amusing…if people hadn’t kept confusing Richard and Alcor.Seriously – human, demon. Why were they so hard to keep apart for some people?
Richard
was standing firm that he wasn’t wearing the sweater Mizar gave him to
the premiere. He hadn’t sold it yet, but he still thought he would. Not
that he didn’t appreciate having a hand-knit sweater, but one with
‘Alcor’ across the front?He didn’t need any more fuel to
the fire that he was really Alcor in disguise, ridiculous as that was.
Richard had hinted his thoughts to Alcor, and gotten an equally vague
go-ahead, although he had a feeling Mizar might be a tad disappointed he
broke up the set. Or she might be amused. It was hard to tell
sometimes, with Mizar, when she was teasing and when she was serious.Richard
also stood firm that he needed two invitations to the premiere. It
would have been four, but Pacifica had her own through being a financial
backer, and Mizar’s husband, though willing to put up with quite a bit,
drew the line at actually attending the premiere of the Twin Souls
movie.Richard had told Crystal and Pacifica that he was
inviting Mizar and Alcor so they wouldn’t also invite them, and swore
both Crystal and Pacifica to secrecy when it came to his invites.Perhaps
it was a bit petty and mean of him, but after the hell that was
shooting this movie, he wanted a little revenge. And he had a feeling
watching this movie with those two was going to turn it from painful to
hilarious.
Actors And Sweaters
Richard had been having regular drinking and bitching sessions with
Alcor the Dreambender ever since the director and producer had tried
summoning him to lift whatever curse was on the Twin Souls movie.Well, Alcor had ceased trying to stop the movie, at least. Not
happily, but apparently, listening to Richard complain about having to
shoot the thing made him amiable to just letting it be over with for the
sake of his drinking buddy.Whatever it was, if it was sympathy for Richard or just being tired
of that particular chaos, Alcor stopped the pranking and let them finish
the filming. Mostly. With a few hiccups along the way.But at long last, the movie was finished. The premiere was over. The
worst of all of producing a movie was finished and done with.Of course, that didn’t mean it was all over for Richard and the other
actors. Interviews, appearances, convention panels, all part of
promoting the movie had been included in their contracts, continuing
even after the premiere, which was still a few months off as it went
into post-production editing.Under threat of calling up Alcor, though, Richard was getting
security at all these appearances. He wasn’t dealing with any more
Twinners trying to offer him blood or souls or begging to be ravished,
thank you very much.Of course, being a demon, Alcor might not have been the best backup
for Richard to call on as a threat…but he was using every card he had
at this point.
Demon Approved (Or…not)
Readerdreamer5625 on chapter 34 – Haha! I’d like to see a
chapter about Richard signing up a small contract with Dipper to
attempt and destroy Twin Souls once and for all… and then they find
out, apparently when demonic things happen around the actor playing as
the aforementioned demon, people start to think that said demon actually
agrees and supports the movie.
The filming had been going…okay, ever since Alcor had agreed to stop messing with it so they could just finish the damn thing.
The
bi-weekly drink and bitch fests with Alcor (Richard had needed to cut
them back, as that amount of drinking once a week was just a bit much
for him and his liver at this point) helped more than Richard liked to
admit.At least someone felt the same way he did about these movies.
Richard
didn’t remember exactly when, but during one of those drink and bitch
sessions, he and Alcor began to lament the existence of the series as a
whole, and of the fandom in general.The rants they both
went on tended to end up on familiar lines when they got to that point,
comparing the fans who wanted to be ravished by the Dreambender to the
fans of the movie that continuously bothered Richard.That seemed like a very bad idea to Richard on a multitude of levels.
How Richard Gained a Drinking Buddy
@ii-thiscat-ii said: I want more Richard the Twin Souls actor!
With a side bonus of this prompt.
Richard had known there was going to be problems with his latest role.
Demons
were still a touchy subject, even now, thirty years after the
Transcendence, as people were torn between learning more about them and
trying to pretend they didn’t exist. And Richard hadn’t been chosen to
play just any demon, but one of the most controversial of all, in one of
the most controversial pieces of demon based literature to come out
since the Transcendence.Alcor the Dreambender, and the long awaited Twin Souls movie.
Richard had expected things to be controversial, but he hadn’t quite expected the focus the movie put on him.
Especially not from the fans.
Richard hadn’t had a lot of roles so far, so he hadn’t had much experience of fans and fandom yet.
And this movie was giving him a crash course in the darkest aspects of mixing reality and fantasy.
Richard
was fairly sure he didn’t look much like the demon’s human-ish form,
whether it be the one described in the novels or in first hand accounts,
but the hated prosthetics and makeup were supposed to take care of
that.(He especially hated the wing prosthetics and the
sclera contacts. The wings refused to look anything but fake, but using
CG to add them in later was going to up the budget enough the production
crew was still arguing over them. The practical effect wings kept
getting caught on things and didn’t move naturally, and had a tendency
to droop, sometimes falling off completely in the middle of a scene. As
for the sclera contacts…it didn’t seem to matter how many times
Richard put them in, at least one of them always felt like it was inside
out within the hour. He wasn’t even going to get into the problems with
the fake claws and fangs.)They were going to be shooting
the non-demon scenes, where Alcor pretended to be the human boy ‘Al’
(and why, oh why, would a demon choose to go to high school? The best
Richard could come up was the chaos potential in an environment so high
in hormones and emotions, but he remembered his own high school years
all too well, and it was a particular hell he never wanted to revisit)
to buy some time to fix the problems with the props, and Richard had
done a few interviews already to promote the film, so people knew he was
going to be Alcor despite all the issues. (Mostly due to an iron clad
contract, but he mostly left that out of the interviews.)More importantly, people knew what he looked like now.
Thankfully,
most people could tell the difference between movies and reality, so
apart from a few fanatics wailing about how dare he play a demon, one in
a positive role at that, Richard was mostly left alone.At first.
Attack on Aggie
Aggie and her family are introduced in Chapter 36, Demonic Guardian. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2709113/chapters/13169767)
Short summary of Demonic Guardian: Alcor was summoned to be bound as Aggie’s (Agatha’s) protector, as her parents are powerful preturnatural-rights leaders. Recognizing Soos’ soul, Alcor makes up his own contract instead, to protect a friend in their new life.
And now, it seems that summoning Alcor may have been the right thing to do.
WARNINGS FOR VIOLENCE IN THIS CHAPTER
When Richard and Tabitha Mendis had requested their security detail find something, anything, even a demon if they had to, to protect their daughter, they hadn’t thought they’d be taken literally.
Except they had, and now they had to deal with the fact that their daughter had a literal demon hovering over her.
Being natural optimists, they did manage to find a few bright sides. Alcor the Dreambender had a soft spot for kids, despite all his efforts to hide it, and the contract he’d written up did state quite clearly that Aggie would always be safe from him as well as being kept safe by him. And they always had a babysitter, no matter how spur of the moment the need was.
Getting used to having Alcor hanging around was a more different matter.
Thankfully for their state of mind, the demon had other children he was keeping an eye on, so he wasn’t with their daughter at all times. Elusive about what other children he was watching, yes, but it still gave them a little break.
Though it was still unnerving to find their daughter painting the demon’s claws, or brushing his hair, or a dozen other childish games that they never would have believed a demon would have the patience for.
And finding the most powerful demon in the world patiently letting Aggie put all of her favorite glittery plastic clips in his hair or give him a ‘makeover’ was likely to always be just a bit unsettling.
The original summoning had meant to bind a demon to protect Agatha, though by now they’d all realized just how lucky they were that it had been Alcor they had called, that he had been charmed by Aggie, had agreed to protect her his way, without a binding. The protective and almost loving friendship between human and demon, amazingly enough likely to be real (Alcor was known to sometimes be odd that way) was a more sure bet of his protection than any binding could ever have been.
The threats that had prompted their action kept coming in, though they’d remained just threats for a very long time, long enough that the rest of the security detail had begun to wonder if maybe, just maybe, they had overreacted a bit by calling up a demon.
But still, the threats were serious enough (and both Aggie and Alcor attached enough) no one even considered trying to negate the contract.
Besides, but this point, well…demon or not, they trusted him with their daughter.
They just hoped and prayed that playing with their little girl, being her friend, was the only part of the contract the demon would have to fulfill.
Their prayers wouldn’t be answered.
Drinking Buddies
“If you hate it so much, why didn’t you just quit?”
“Ugh. I signed a contract. I think the guy who wrote it is part demon…is that even possible?”
“Ew. No.”
“Sorry. Anyway, if I didn’t finish the film, no one else would ever hire me.” The actor tilted his head back and took a deep swig of his drink, mirrored by the demon sitting across the coffee table from him. “Were you really trying to curse the movie?”
“Wouldn’t you?” Across the table the demon – Alcor the Dreambender – took another drink, and idly Richard wondered if demons could get drunk.
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