Big bright accent, catty smile, Oscar Wilde confrontation

[plaguedrat]

"Can I think about it and call you back?" Rat looked at the script in front of him as well as the drafted contract. The casting agency's offer was far more than he'd expected, especially for an 'out-of-towner' and Rat needed the money more than he was actually willing to admit. The city stipend paid his bills bu. Marius but Rat had a little more pride than that.

"Okay, Mr. Nezumi," the casting agent said, looking a little less than pleased with it. Rat felt strange being addressed as a Mister anything, much less a stage name he'd made up because he didn't have a real last name.

Besides all that he liked working. Television was a new prospect and it wasn't the stage, but there were plenty of actresses here. They didn't need to put a dainty man in a dress and hope the audience was forgiving the way they had in the West District. There was only so much call for Shakespeare too. Rat had to either diversify or embrace his niche.

But playing an effete gay secondary character, a drag queen? Rat wasn't sure about the script. On paper, it wasn't much of a part or even much of a show. It was a miniseries, apparently, with hope for renewal as a full time show. Dark stuff, they promised. Very edgy. Rat wasn't impressed, but he was hungry and he needed work.

"I'll call you first thing in the morning with my decision," Rat said, letting himself out through the lobby.

Comments

[plaguedrat]

"A dystopian hell hole outside the walls of an authoritarian state," Rat deadpans, letting Lito decide how serious he must be. Honestly, it's kinder than much of what he's said about No. 6 in the past.

"I acted on the stage. Shakespeare mostly."

[artoflove]

Lito has lived in that, he thinks. But maybe it's just his over-dramatic self raring its head given that Lito has always known a decent amount of leisure and luxury, even when he'd been sharing quarters with nearly every member of his family. "I skipped the Shakespeare and went straight to telenovelas, which are sort of like modern Shakespeare, but with endless drawn out cliffhangers."

[plaguedrat]

"Sounds like the perfect distraction," Rat says, thinking he can see the appeal. The West District would have loved that sort of entertainment and the escape it would have offered from the dark realities. It was why Shakespeare had worked so well. Despite the antiquated language, the struggles against power, fate, and love had stayed universal. The penis jokes had also gone over well.

[artoflove]

"It had done the trick," Lito agrees as he thinks of his day job and how much he had missed it. While Lito has only been here a short amount of time, he's beginning to get bored with staying around each day and thinking of Hernando and how very far away he is.

He is tired of listening to his voicemail to hear his voice again. "Which role were you auditioning for?"

[plaguedrat]

"I was auditioning for the love interest's teenage son. They've offered me the part of the gay best friend." So close to the studio, Rat doesn't say that he think the part is an ineffectual stereotype with lines and jokes that are out of date and slightly distasteful.

"I'd be paid as a series regular even though it's a miniseries."

[artoflove]

Lito feels icy water splash over him. Immediately, he sees a future in which he does come out and suddenly, the only roles anyone is interested in giving him are the ones in which he is the gay best friend or perhaps the token love interest in a never-seen film because it's indie. For all that his heart is broken for what he's done, he thinks it must be that way.

Yes? Except, there remains a hole in his heart and he is still wondering if his career is perhaps overly important to him. "A series regular is nothing to scoff at," he points out. "I've done a good deal of TV. It's good, honest, regular work."

[plaguedrat]

Rat catches the minute shift in Lito's expression and frowns, wondering if he's struck a nerve for him. Narrowing his eyes slightly, turning the idea over in his head, Rat doesn't comment on it.

"Honest? It's the art of a well-applied lie at its finest!" Rat says. His mouth twists with a smile, both sarcastic and deeply honest. "That's the best part of it."

[artoflove]

"We may be liars, but we are the most honest when we are speaking other people's words," Lito says, and truly believes it. "You're saying things people want to hear. We are liars, but telling truths that are wanted, needed. Reality is only as good as it is because of liars like us," he says, knowing his part in things.

[plaguedrat]

It's a very artistic way of phrasing it and Rat files it away to his memory, enjoying the philosophy of what Lito says. "The only way to be an actor is to make it real. Even if they know they're in a dusty theater with rotten floorboards and their Ophelia is me in a dress, you can still make it real."

[artoflove]

"Yes," Lito agrees, nodding vehemently. It is the only way he has allowed himself to be so successful and so good at the same time, but now he is coming to grips with the fact that to be resoundingly honest in another skin, you must be a very good liar, personally. "It makes you a good actor. Maybe not a good person," he concedes.

[plaguedrat]

"Oh, I'm a terrible person," Rat says, entirely unbothered by saying it. At birth, maybe he'd had a chance of being a good human, but life had interfered to make him–by his own estimation–cruel and survival-oriented.

"But I made a beautiful Shakespearean leading lady."

[artoflove]

Lito frowns as he starts to put the pieces together, his stomach turning in dismay and disgust at such a practice. "They do such things here?" he demands, not sure he's ready to start auditioning if that's something that might await him; a fate he's not ready to endure. He is an action star and a romantic lead. He is not to be put in dresses. "What did you say?"

[plaguedrat]

Rat shakes his head, frowning. It's kind of a problem for him, really, since those are the roles he likes. "They were my bread and butter where I came from. Not enough actresses and I was prettier than all of them." He shrugs, "And the women got all the best sonnets and speeches anyway."

But then they'd misinterpreted his interest in androgynous roles as an interest in playing a token part. "Back home was kind of a hellhole."

[artoflove]

The world this boy has come from is certainly not one that Lito thinks he would do well in, though he has no idea if he would ever be called on to be a woman on the stage, given his impressive physique and the very manly jaw he has. "And here? You seemed upset when we met."

[plaguedrat]

They've strayed far enough away from the building that Rat thinks he can be a little more candid, though he keeps his voice lowered. "The role's a bit flimsy. Mostly a token gay best friend. The casting director has got it into his head that what I meant is that I'm a drag queen."

He makes a face because it isn't the same. On stage, Rat hadn't used women's clothing as a parody of gender, but as a gateway of hiding it to fade into a role. Here, it seems different.

[artoflove]

"Then if your morals are against that idea, you should turn the part down," Lito says, possibly a little more arrogant than his current position should allow. "You should not accept anything that does not feel right to your beliefs. Especially not if it makes you uncomfortable because you disagree with it. Do you disagree with the thought of men dressing up as women?" he asks, a leading question.

[plaguedrat]

Rat shrugs, because his morals are twisted things whose existence is questionable at best. "No, I object to a shallowly written part that relies on cheap humor." Beggars can't be choosers, but Rat's made a career of Shakespeare and the great playwrights. This is a step down.

[artoflove]

"Ah, then the writer is the problem," Lito says knowingly, though there is a part of him that still fusses mightily at the thought of being anyone's woman in a play for sake of dressing up as a joke. It is too close to the things he has been running from, for so very long.

[plaguedrat]

"If I take the role, it's an opportunity to subvert the writing with my acting. And to get paid." But he'll still be trapped in those parameters and with that insipid writer and there's no fixing stupid.

[artoflove]

"Then it is up to you," Lito says, because he knows he would not take the role, but he has long, deep fears that he cannot shake. They are issues that he has and must deal with. They are not the issues he must project on others. "And perhaps if you ever have a role for a man like me, you will give me a call."

[plaguedrat]

Rat snorts and smiles crookedly. This guy seems to take it well enough in stride that Rat thinks it would be interesting to work with him.

"Well, I think they said they're still looking for someone to play the police officer. You should try out and help me give them hell."

[artoflove]

"I would be very good at being a police officer. Many of my past parts have involved firearms and being the sort of vigilante who goes against the police, but it has shown me what the role needs," he's quick to say. "Then again, I am not sure I am ready to act just yet. Not this soon."

[plaguedrat]

"I've been auditioning for months. You should take advantage while they need someone," Rat says, nodding toward the building. "If you don't get the part, then it's not really a problem, is it?"

[artoflove]

Lito has never even considered not getting the part. Between his good looks, his talent, and his body, he has never had trouble getting parts, even in his younger years. So there is confusion on his face in reply to such remarks. "I am sure there will still be parts for when I want them, later."

[plaguedrat]

"Would that we were all so lucky," Rat says dryly. Being an actor, he puts on a cheerful smile and nods. "Well, when you do start auditions, I'll look for you on TV."