When Averie returned behind the curtains, he only found Hyerin there.
"Wow, you were so..."
She was fervently adoring him, but Averie ignored her and ran to their room.
"How did it go?" Yoko asked as soon as he entered.
"Why weren’t you there? You should have seen their dumb, slavering faces."
"We had to prepare." She smacked the salon stool. "Co on, sit down."
Averie took a seat, and the ladies began cleaning and redoing his makeup.
"We’ll use lighter tones now," Yoko said, running a brush along his jawline. "It will make you look soft and malleable."
’Doesn’t feel right calling , of all people, malleable.’
Hyerin brought him a soft drink while the girls changed his clothes.
Yoko would have preferred another man ripping them off him in front of her, but sothing in Averie’s eye told her to perish the thought.
They took away his chains and replaced his earrings with smaller ones.
To bring a softer feel, they used a lighter eyeliner.
So of his hair was trimd, and hair product was used to make it look shorter than it was.
A cozy, black tracksuit that left his naval exposed was thrown on him. His overly long and thick pants had the design of a thorny vine climbing up his left leg.
It seed to signify the ever-encroaching grasp of his older lover.
Averie didn’t like it. He was supposed to be the man from Hell, not the twink of Tokyo.
’Now I am beco gay boy, the nightmare of conservative dads.’
But the girls did not think less of him—quite the opposite.
Min-Ha was eyeing him too passionately.
Yoko was thanking God for this gift.
Hyerin was busy taking his pictures while muttering, "This is so non-threatening, so nice. All the rumors around you will disappear if you start dressing like this."
Averie didn’t care for her, though. He could be wearing a kid’s pajamas, and she would still snap his pictures.
He closed his eyes and opened them imdiately.
Once again, Ilya witnessed the shift in his atmosphere.
His captivating smile was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t teasing anybody, nor did he hide so terrible proclivity.
He looked far simpler than before.
From every angle, he was an impressionable, innocent young man.
In Yoko’s words, he looked ’fluffy.’
This ti, no one waited for him in the room. They followed him to the ramp like an army behind its general.
As he walked out again, the place fell silent.
His gait was casual, quick, and simple. His eyes were shining with youthful energy. He was pretty, fresh, and warm, like a sumr fling.
The lipstick was the sa, though.
’Is this the sa guy?’ was written on every face in the room.
Averie may not have liked it initially, but seeing Peter Kang’s wide-open mouth was worth it.
’How versatile is this guy?’ his friend thought.
And as the fluffy boy walked the ramp, the place erupted in flashes once again.
***
Two days later, Cross Town released its monthly issue.
On the front cover was a beautiful man, a vision of glamour and grace.
The Quinn was printed under his face.
For the first ti, Averie was introduced to the entire world. And ironically, it was through modeling and not acting.
At the coffee table next to the hotel room balcony, Hyerin was busy carefully clipping the front cover.
Averie watched her from the comfort of his bed.
"Why are you doing that?"
"I need to store it well."
"Why? Are you going to fra it?"
It was ant to be a light joke, but Hyerin thoughtfully nodded.
"Uh-huh, that’s right."
"That’s... alright, I guess. What will you read, then?"
"I bought enough copies. One to store, one to use, and one to worship."
"Good."
"Ari ssaged about it. She was asking for the pictures I took. She saw so online. Are you even listening?"
After the fashion show, Ilya had asked Hyerin about featuring Averie in their magazine.
It was such a big chance that Hyerin had agreed on her own without consulting Averie.
At Ilya’s request, Shauna captured the photograph, pushing forward their catalog photo session.
It was a hasty job, as the picture needed to be sent to the Cross Town head office, along with a short interview conducted by Ilya herself, before midnight.
It had been entirely uncontroversial. For once, Averie answered like an actual actor.
"I thought you would be against it," Hyerin muttered.
"Everything was already in place, so why would I?"
"You know, this is historical, right?"
Never had an actor unknown in the West featured on Cross Town’s front page, but ’The Quinn’ had done it.
"I never expected her to put you on the front page. This is good for you."
At that mont, Min-Ha brazenly opened the door and entered unannounced.
"You could have knocked."
"Yeah, sorry." She sat beside Hyerin. "The latest episode of The Color Spectrum just finished airing."
"And?"
She showed them a bunch of comnts online.
- I was thinking, who is this chump? Then he turns, and bam! Asmodeus ’hold-my-soda’ Depresso!
- Did they seriously bring in The Quinn?
- Are they idiots? After what he did, they put him back on TV?
- Nothing is proven, so shut up.
- Love him or hate him, so far, he has always delivered.
- He turned to look at her, and my heart stopped for a mont.
- Never watched BSPH because Mom wouldn’t let , but is this what he was like there too?
- Did it seem like there was a special atmosphere to those two?
- BSPH feels so long ago already, and I felt like Asmodeus was back for half a second. Then, I got sad knowing it was not BSPH...
- Man, was I the only one who thought Averie looked like a spirit? Like he was not completely there?
- It was nice to see him again in a role, even if it was just a guest appearance.
- I thought they were going to kiss! Why did they not kiss? What idiot gives a lady a can of soda as she is coming in for a kiss?
- My boy is back already. Feels good, man.
- I hope he crashes and burns.
- Why is that ass not in jail? Can’t the police do anything right?
- I got divorced.
- So?
- Nothing. Just wanted to feel included.
- What’s wrong with you?
- That’s what she said.
- Saddest ’that’s-what-she-said.’
- Why did Sae look so sick, though? He felt so unnatural.
- Yeah, he looked like he had been suffering from dysentery or sothing.
- No way, lol
- I bet that Quinn or whatever must have threatened him or sothing.
- Can you imagine? lol
***
Two days later.
At the headquarters of Xinema, Averie arrived in a black sedan. He was greeted and treated with admiration, murmurs, and smiles.
"Welco, welco."
In a space that was not so different from a film studio, Hideo was waiting for them.
Behind him were several props, green screens, machines, computers, caras, and so on.
After spending so ti getting a tour of the place and familiarizing himself with the equipnt, Averie was ready for their first session.
"We will start with mocap."
Mocap, short for motion capture, was a process of recording movent and translating it into digital animation.
"We will use physical mocap for body movent and then move on to optical mocap for expressions."
A staff mber helped Averie into a full-body motion capture suit. It was black with too many sensors to count.
While Hideo went on about inertial movent units and optical tracking, the actor walked over to the green screen and distanced himself from reality.
His eyesight turned blurry.
’You are Allaryx,’ he told himself as his breathing beca less noticeable. ’You are the most fearso knight of the old world.’
The room disappeared from his sight.
Hyerin, Min-Ha, the staff—they were all gone. Now, only a pit of darkness remained.
’With a swing of your glaive, thousands once perished.’
"Let’s warm up with battle animations—like swinging your weapon, dodging, etc."
Hideo’s voice echoed, piercing Averie’s veil of concentration.
He raised his hand, which held a prop rod with sensors attached.
But to Averie, it was his glaive.
It looked like a glaive. It was heavy like a glaive. And it would cut like a glaive.
’I am Allaryx.’
He forgot about Averie Quinn Auclair and Gene Conti.
’I am the Dread of the Living, the Vengeance of the Fallen World, the Guardian of the Queen’s Rest, and the Last Knight.’
He slightly adjusted his posture and swung his glaive in a wide motion.
The power and ferocity behind it rippled through the darkness in Averie’s mind. If sothing had been there, it would have been ripped into pieces.
’He is doing exceptionally well,’ Hideo thought. ’Even his movent already feels like Allaryx.’
Sohow, he could imagine the character well with Averie’s face on it. He was lucky that Averie picked him. It felt like fortune’s favor had led to these events.
’He is one of those actors who are made for difficult and charismatic roles.’
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