If You Can Make It Here... (Klaus)

Anyone and everyone looked to the bright light driving out the darkness against the skyline, but rarely did they reach so low as to safeguard against the darkness on the sidewalks. That fell to those with enough of a steadfast spirit to stand against the darkness. And, it became a little easier when they had gems. A few days ago Danny kept a gem from falling into the hands of about two or maybe even three different organizations with whom Danny could not even begin to prioritize which was the most dangerous- but, she came up with 1) Dabbler, 2) Tigress, 3) Templars with odd background and ambiguous ambitions, but did not like cartels. But, evil in the shadows aside, Danny needed to take the light to a new place. Broadway.

Calling in a few more favors than she would want, Danny managed to get a role in a major broadway production of the Aladdin, featuring herself as Jasmine. It made sense, but with very little actual acting experience, Danny fell back to the plan of 'Maybe my bracelet can channel an actress'. She never tried- or even thought, of it before, but tonight, a star might be born. Again, never tried before.

She pulled the upper portion of her green top into place, keeping her midriff bare with the hole for her belly ring filled with a much larger belly ring assortment. She had Mitsuko and Erica help her with her make up, which with just the approach amount to angle the lids of her eyes and cascade her makeup from a turquoise aorund her eyes into the blush around her cheeks. All in all, the two dress designers did quite a good job with something they only had second hand experience with.

"Alright. This looks good. I just need to know all these lines- by the next hour." More pages of dialogue flipped before her with hundreds of lines she did not know. "Did I tell you two I'm hoping my bracelet tells me the lines?"

"Is that why you have that bracelet?" A messy ponytail tucked behind a pair of glasses sprayed a last bout of hair spray into Danny's updo. The rest of her outfit remained practical with a pink sweater and a pair of jeans. "I thought you just didn't have good taste."

A sudden smack of realism hit Erica, pushing her eyes forward. "Don't worry Danny. You'll do fine. Your bracelet looks pretty in the theme, so the stage director probably won't say anything- I really hope the stage director doesn't say any-"

"You think she'll tell me to take it off!?" A sense of dread turned around in the chair resembling Danny.

"Um, I mean, I have no idea! I didn't think it would be-"

"This is the worst thing you could tell me!" Danny hung over the back of her chair. "Absolutely no way can this get worst!"

The room fell into more calamity as the three continued their bickering. A small plant stood in the corner of the room of the beige white room. The reflections of the three girls mimicked the trio as they continued their quarrel in the vanity mirrors adorning the wall in front of Danny's chair. A closet to the side of the room kept most of the costume changes required for Danny throughout the show. The dressing room was as large as the male lead, but still larger than the other supporting roles.

Most of the wooden backdrops were being rushed through by teams of carpenters led by a gentleman named Jacob Halzfaller, who happened to be an uncle to a Maria Rosa Halzfaller, who had shown up backstage to offer her support in the form of six boxes of John Cappadoccia Pizza, pizza so good it made orphans feel the spirit of Christmas once.

Her active wear made Rosa look like she was perpetually coming from or going to the gym or on a run, but she came from the pizza place. The garlicky, olive oily aroma of the Italian American pizza quickly filled the changing room, much to the chagrin of all the dieting actors, shooting Rosa the "oh my god i can't believe you brought that here" look.

"Uncle, what's all this? I thought the show was tonight?" She briefly engaged her relative working in backdrops.

"Some fool director is pushing us on an impossible schedule... But I intend to meet it. Go on, leave the food and go talk to your friends, Fraulein." He answered, carrying a tablet overseeing the building management with a 3d program.

She carried the pizza over to the catering table, where many hungry crew and carpenters were quick to empty the boxes of pizza. But she saved one for herself and her new friend, squeezing through the sword swallowers, acrobats and Belly dancers and to the cast members' area.

She plopped down a box of the sacred pizza besides Danny's make up, as well as a bottle of Arizona brewed iced tea. She munched rather obnoxiously as she spoke."So, Aladdin huh? Didn't know you did musicals."

The emergence of the axe-knight, now with much less axe, and very little knight, came as a welcome relief to Danny. "Thank you. Very much." Danny popped the top off of the bottle of tea, but left the pizza for now. Even cheating with a bracelet might not always compensate for everything Danny decided to slack off with. "Theater is important, but Mitsy really needs this in order to get me more glam, and with my glam, she can launch a new spring line."

"We need the line to be successful otherwise a demon gets a thirty percent stake in our company." Erica grabbed a slice of pizza. "Because, someone was too nice to just say 'no'."

Mitsuko waved her hand in the air to frantically find a word to throw out. "It would have been rude- and he wasn't being too mean."

The piece of pizza lowered down to Erica's side. "He was about to sacrifice Nancy and Summer."

"Just a little." Mitsuko looked off.

"The word 'disembowelment was used." The pizza became a point of judgment for Erica.

"Can you guys not talk about this in front of you know who- and also, Mitsy, just say 'no' to people sometime. You can start with your half-sister." Danny turned away from Mitsuko and back to Rosa. "So, is there some problem going on with the crew?"

"Oh, okay that makes more sense. Who're your friends?" Axe Knight masticated while listening, preferring to wash her pizza down with beer. Her chewing slowed significantly as she took in the conversation with the others whose names she hadn't caught yet, particularly having 'demons', 'human sacrifice' and 'disembowelment' thrown around.

Unfortunately Rosa was a skeptic at this point and had only limited experience with the supernatural. "Is that Dabbing Witch involved in your business in some way?" She'd already half forgotten the name she had signed an ice-cream contract with. But Rosa demonstrated super listening skills, and added to her question.

"You mentioned a 'he' though. is this another demon? You need my axe? or is this some kind of deal?" She offered bluntly.

Speaking of the devil, a handsome one walked in and turned many female and a few male heads. Decked out in sinister red-black robes and sporting a fine bad-guy goatee, good boy Jake Abdullah was one of the darlings of theatre, and looking for his props.

"Oh, excuse me ladies. I uh, think I forgot my Jafar snake staff. Anyone of you seen it?" He asked with a sly grin, and some of the girls dropped what their doing to help. By some strange work of fate, the prop rack was about a table away past Danny.

"Whoa. Now that's a bad guy." Rosa nudged Danny, the dude coming her way.

"That's Mitsy, she's a fashion designer. The other is Erica, she's Mitsy's assistant." Danny rolled her chair back, looking into the mirror. "No. Dabbler is not involved."

While the makeup artist already applied the foundation and drew her contour lines to sharpen her features, Danny still took it upon herself to make sure it stayed in place. "I don't think we need an axe for this demon-"

"He accounts for fifteen percent of our sales." Erica looked to the door, bringing her head back mid sentence. She could hear footprints coming through the hall.

"If you want to do something good with that ax, we could introduce you to Mitsy's half-sister, Bliss."

The harbinger of steps Erica notice opened the half closed door of the dressing room. While he began ask for the whereabouts of his staff, Erica peaked over to Mitsuko. "Mitsy." Erica whispered. "You need to hook up with that guy."

"I don't even know him." Mitsuko pulled a strand of her hair around her finger.

"You can see how good looking he is. Do you really need anything beyond that?" Erica took her eyes from Mitsuko to Klaus. "Name the personality trait that would deter you from that." Erica's hand made the 'that' more outlined.

Mitsuko raised an eyebrow "He could be mean?"

"Not even close to mattering." Erica kept her gaze directed to Klaus.

"He could be greedy?"

"If I looked like that, I'd want everything too."

"I think he is into Danny."

"Yeah, I guess you missed your shot."

The image of a staff took shape in the side of Danny's vanity. "Oh, hey!" She turned around in her chair. "Your staff is over here!"

Rosa moved closer to let Danny know of her awareness to the situation, meeting very little in the way of understanding from Danny. "You probably think that of everyone. This guy's pretty big around the theater. He can help me get more contacts and- wait, I don't actually care about that. Well, whatever. You're just being paranoid."

Danny reached over and grabbed the staff. "Jake!" She led with the staff, making it clear of her intention of returning the staff to its owner.

For just a brief second "Jake" looked as though she saw a life-force eating wraith in Rosa's direction, then composed himself into his role once more. Rosa was in a friendly mood and suspected nothing, much to Klaus's relief that his glamour still worked on the Germany Templar's most vicious fighter.

"...Thanks, I've been looking for this thing, thought I forgot it somewhere." The staff was very well made for a prop, the cobra staff's eyes even featuring a hypnotic swirly pattern.

Jake gave a sigh of relief then recited a few lines in creepy-old Jafar's voice. "You will tell your daughter, Sultan, to consider marriage to the vizier..." To everyone else it seemed like playful practice. To Danny, those hypnotic snake eyes in the staff were unsettlingly realistic, like the first wave of drowsiness subtly slipping into her subconscious. "haha, I always loved that cartoon as a kid. Hey, you guys wouldn't mind grabbing some late night drinks after the show, right?" Being the totally popular dude, he got overwhelming responses from the regular crew.

"Oh sure Jake!"

"Score, I'm there."

"Is it bring your own beer?" Rosa always found the prospect of celebrating welcome.

"Oh no, no. Drinks are on me. How about you Danny? You and your friends feel like... going outside?" He asked her, something about his nice voice and his sly grin... makes someone feel like... going places.

Everything felt fine. Danny got the staff back to Jake, before he decided to give some lines from the show. It came off a little odd to Danny, but everyone else in the room loved it- including Erica and Mitsuko. "Great lines. I can't wait to hear them on stage." If everyone else loved it, it probably was just a theater thing. Danny would pick up on these things eventually, but that drink sounded great. "Yeah, drinks sound good. Do you normally drink before the show? Is that like a thing?"

"Danny." Erica kept her eyes fixed on Danny. "He said 'after the show'. You aren't dealing with being a drunk very well."

"I'm not a drunk." Danny looked over to Erica and Mitsuko. "I only drink after I take down a major villain."

"Our definitions of 'major' differ." Erica looked over to her side, seeing Mitsuko no longer there. "Greatly."

"Whatever." A hand wave did little to dismiss Erica, but it did allow Danny to move her wrists. "Jake. Wanna go over lines or something."

"I'm up for something." A two fingered wave from Erica interjected herself. She then tilted her head towards Rosa. "I don't know if it will be BYOB, but I know Danny no longer knows you exist."

MAIN DRESSING ROOM

Rosa tried speaking to Danny but soon found it an exercise in futility. Jake's persuasion check was a natural 20.

"Wonderful, they're so good together." Rosa half heartedly said, mostly to Erika and company. She decides to shift the topic to something more templar-like in business. "Tell me more about this boogeyman in the basement of your store."

SOMEWHERE ELSE

Jake went over the script and making small talk. He was buttering Danny up some more with natural friendliness, alternating between the psychic control and the more mundane. "So Danny uh, what do you do for fun outside theatre and work? You ah, go to interesting places?" He asked.

He flips through the script and picks a scene.

"Here we go. Scene... scene uh... Jasmine hears about the Sultan's guards capturing Aladdin, and goes to confront Jafar... as he's exiting a secret passage. Yeah, Jasmine has to be a total ninny if she doesn't suspect anything."

Jake turns around, shrugs his shoulders a bit and clears his throat, his way of getting into character. He spouts a few lines to himself, his voice gradually going from charming heartthrob to old, ambitious vizier.

"Why, your father has charged me with keeping the peace in Agra'bah. the boy was a criminal."

"His crime? why, kidnapping of a princess..."

"Oh had I but known. Sadly, the boy's sentence is being carried out... Death... by beheading..."

"Okay from the top." He said to Danny, taking the scene back to its start.

"Oh, princess!" Turning around, Jake speaks in the Jafar voice, deep and ominous yet convincingly subservient. It was a dead ringer for the 90's movie. "The hour is late, I did not expect you to be up. How may I be of service?" He bowed, clasping his cape. The scenes were not just at random, but deliberate; the whole script itself a subtle means of instilling an unconscious pattern in Danny. The scene was especially relevant, as it would spur Danny to save her 'prince' from the 'execution chamber'.

"It's not so bad, most of the demons pay with cash, so that's always an up." Mitsuko sat down on the sofa as Danny and Jake left the room. "When they try to use a card, it normally bounces though, so maybe the templars can do something about that."

"They also try to pay in currencies from other dimensions. One of them was a measure valued at absolute zero." Erica closed the door Danny forgot to shut. "He was really impressed by it, but when I told him it was economically unsavory to use spend capitol to create a representation of a value of zero, he tried to decapitate me."

The dressing room for Jake put Danny's to shame. Situated on a sofa, Danny tried to look the part of Jasmine while she kept clearing her throat. "Fun? I just took over as cheerleading captain at Stanford this year. I've never done theater that much, but I'm pretty good at just about anything I do, so I'm sure I'll pick up on this whole theater thing. I love traveling though. My parents are archaeologists, so I'm always getting pictures of the stuff they find. I've been around the world too."

"Oh that's really good!" Both of Danny's hands rested squarely on her knees. She looked around the room for something to drink until simply the idea of that being what Bliss would do came to her. Enjoy his company without alcohol. Maybe make out, but nothing more. Well, maybe once- oh shoot, I have not heard a word he said. "Yeah. I'm really upset about- shoot, what's that character's name- Aladdin! Yeah! Um, But, Aladdin's not a criminal! He has a genie- maybe I should read the script. Or use my bracelet."

"Maybe we should get a teleprompter to help you Danny... Here, in this next scene... Jasmine and her tiger sneak around the palace to find a way... to free Aladdin...Perhaps the keys to his prison..." Jake's voice was distant now, ethereal, dream-like.

With his psychic abilities, the serpent staff, and the script as a guideline to her behavior, Klaus-as-Jake boosted the suggestion to Danny. Only once she was fully engrossed in the hallucination would Jake bring in Jasmine's "Tiger", in this case, Red Tigress, dressed as stage crew.

Natalya and Jake nodded to each other quietly, having worked out the details of the plan. With a fur glove, Tigress would soothe the princess as she wept at the imminent death of her prince... then her 'idea' that she could still help him escape.

"So, I find a way to free Aladdin, that sounds good. I think I remember this movie, but I can't remember if they changed anything for the stage. You know, that must be it. So Jasmine goes to get the keys." Danny began flipping through the script. Her eyes read the words, but she needed to flip back through the stage directions. "I don't see where the key is."

Danny started to drift from her mind. It made sense. She did not know what 'it' was, but it made sense. "I'm going to find the keys. But, the keys are not here." A deep pit of suffering opened inside of Danny. "Oh no. He's dead. There's...there's a way to bring him back? How?"

"A lot of those demons never miss a half off sale, but then they keep adding more to the discount." Erica continued to talk shop with Rosa.

"We tell them you can't stack discounts. It even says on the social media accounts." Mitsuko put her phone down to add her claim to the discussion. "I now Summer has been putting them up, but some of these demons are just terrible."