I do not own the movie Sing. I only own my OC, Jason.
Hey, funny story, guys. It turns out auditions for The Voice 2019 here in the UK are already being held and they're right here in my hometown on Tuesday the 24th of April! How crazy is that?! Figured I may as well give it a shot soooo… wish me luck!
Enjoy and don't forget to leave a review! :)
Jason still felt right as rain by the time he reached the Moon Theatre. Ever since last evening's rehearsal session with Ash, his upbeat mood had never faltered all morning, to the point where Stephanie had asked if he was feeling okay. With the potential of winning that prize money to pay for Grandpa's operation, Jason assured her that he'd never felt better. Although getting to practice with Ash was certainly a plus. He'd even brought a water bottle filled with hot water from the kettle to last him the day. Good advice was good advice after all.
What did change his mood to confusion, however, was the moment he entered through the foyer doors and into the amphitheatre. In place of the old wooden floorboards was now a water-filled stage made entirely of glass. Walking closer, Jason's eyes never looked away as he climbed the steps onto the new surface. He swore he saw something moving down there.
"Moon, what are you up to?" He muttered to himself as he carefully walked across to the backstage area. As soon as he came through the door, he almost immediately heard the sound of jamming piano keys from Moon's office. He also noticed all the windows for the rehearsal spaces were gone. Baffled for a brief moment, the porcupine quickly deduced that they were what was holding the water.
What on Earth is that koala planning?
"Have you seen the new stage?" A familiar voice cried out from behind him. Smiling to himself, Jason turned to see Ash closing the door behind her, guitar case in paw.
"How could I not?" He replied, "Whatever Moon has planned, it better dazzle Nana Noodleman when she arrives."
"I'll say." Ash gave a nod, patting her guitar case. "Hopefully my song will blow her away." Her smile faded somewhat.
"If Moon approves of it, of course." She said quietly. Still keeping his own smile, Jason placed his paw on her shoulder, prompting her to look at him.
"He will. I'm sure of it." With that, the porcupine turned and made his way into his rehearsal space. Ash's smile returned as he shut the door behind him.
"Seems kinda pointless, doesn't it?" She called jokingly, "No glass!"
"Eh, force of habit." He called back. Laughing to herself, Ash walked to her own rehearsal room. Fishing his song sheet out of his jeans, Jason no longer gazed at it with worry.
"One more run through, I think." He thought out loud, switching on the CD player as the other contestants started to arrive.
Very soon, the entire theatre was booming with harmonious sounds, no longer confined by the glass windows of each rehearsal room. From Johnny's massively improved piano playing to Ash's poised guitar strums to the thumping beats of Gunter's warmup song, the musical noise never died down. No one was willing to give a half-hearted performance today, especially Jason. He powered through each of his songs with the boldness, and even fun that his previous attempts had been lacking. As much as he hated to sound like Mike, with any luck, he considered that prize to be good as his.
Just as he'd finished practicing his final song, the door opened and in stepped Meena. Jason jumped slightly at her sudden entrance.
"Oh, sorry, Jason." The elephant said sheepishly as he composed himself, giving a small smile in a forgiving manner. "Mr. Moon wants us all to meet backstage before Nana arrives."
"Sure thing, Meena." Jason replied, taking his CD out and placing his song sheet back in his pocket. He just managed to avoid pricking Meena with his quills as he sprinted out the door excitedly. Turning his head left, he heard the melodious sound of Ash coming to the end of her new song's run-through. Walking over, he opened the door very gently and watched her sing the final chorus. Even with their lengthy rehearsal time yesterday, he never grew tired of seeing her play and sing so perfectly. At last the female porcupine sung out the final note and ceased her strumming, eyes closed.
"Wow." Both porcupines turned to see Buster standing in the doorway beside Jason, clipboard in paw. "You wrote that?"
"Uhh, yeah." Ash replied somewhat hesitantly. "D'ya like it?"
"Are you kidding?" The koala's incredulous expression evaporated in an amazed grin. "It's fantastic! You've got to sing that today!" As he ran back out into the hallway, Jason turned back to Ash, a fully confident smile growing on her face. He grinned and raised an eyebrow, complete with a nod as she looked at him.
"Told you he'd be crazy to reject it."
Buster occasionally took a look at his clipboard while Meena moved some wheeled crates around, every contestant now on their feet. Gunter was stretching, Johnny was coming down from Moon's office reading this morning's paper while Jason took a swig of his water bottle.
"Mike, you're on first." Jason rolled his eyes at the pompous mouse, casually laying back on a fancy cushion on top of a directors chair.
"Sure, uh, just a second here." He lazily replied, stopping to answer his tiny phone.
"Rosita and Gunter, you're on after Mike." Gunter's downtrodden mood lit up like a Christmas tree as Rosita walked in the door, right on cue.
"You got it, boss." She replied, a newfound confidence in her smile.
"Rosita!" Gunter cried, giving the pig a high-five with a laugh. "Super cool! You've, like, totally come back!"
"Okay, Johnny, you follow them." Johnny was too ingrossed in his newspaper to notice the koala at first.
"What?" He asked before finally seeing him. "Oh! Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm ready. Yeah, yeah."
"Ash, you're…"
"After Johnny. I got it." Came the porcupine's swift reply as she took one last look at her lyrics, Buster nodding in return.
"Jason…"
"Yep, after Ash. I know." Jason responded before going back to breathing in and out gently.
"Hey." Ash gave him a nudge with her elbow. "You ready for this, Jason?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. You?"
"You bet." She frowned slightly. "Still gotta wear that stupid princess outfit though."
"Well with any luck, Moon will take one look at your performance and say that dress doesn't suit a rock star like you." Jason said, causing Ash to blush modestly under her fur.
"Mr. Moon!" Buster, along with all the contestants, looked upward to see an anxious Miss Crawley on the rigging, pointing towards the window.
"She's here."
"Right, places, everyone!" The koala made a break for the door. "I'll go greet Nana while Meena sorts out the lighting!" Without a moment to waste, everyone immediated rushed about to prepare for this performance as quick as they could.
In no time at all, everyone was in the wings. They watched with bated breath as Nana Noodleman herself, accompanied by the same sheep from the auditions, sat themselves in the royal box with a perfect view of the glass stage. The chest with the prize money inside was propped up on a tall glass stand with steps leading up to it. Jason could've sworn Mike was missing from the group but he chose to ignore that as the stagelights dimmed. Everything went silent as Buster lowered down in front of the red curtain on the crescent moon prop, the spotlight shining on him.
"All creatures great and small, welcome to the Moon Theatre!" He announced into the mike clasped in his paw, "I am your host, Buster Moon, an-wuuaaaah!" He gave a yell at the prop lowered way too fast before stopping abruptly. Everyone turned to look at Meena who sheepishly took her trunk away from the levers and quickly joined them. Nana looked on unimpressed while the other sheep facepalmed.
"Okay." Buster hurriedly pulled himself back up before clearing his throat." Behold, the very first stage lit entirely by… squid power!" With those words, the curtains parted as the song Flashing Lights by Kanye began playing over the speakers. Jason's eyes widened in wonderment as hundreds of squid dance around in the tank, flashing different colours in time with the rhythm like fireworks. Everyone including the porcupine was beyond impressed, clapping and cheering at this dazzling sight. Even Nana was blown away as Buster leapt down onto the stage and gave little dances, the squids following his every step.
"And as you can see, this is no ordinary theatre." He said, explosion of colour bursting beneath his feet. "This is a palace of wonder and magic!" It was safe to say that Nana was now fully captivated, fanning herself while the other sheep looked on in amazement.
"Now welcome our first contestant…" Before he could finish, the amphitheatre doors opened with a deafening bang. Three brawny-looking bears stormed in as the music ground to a halt and the squids stopped flashing.
"Which one of you is Moon?" The bear in front boomed in a thick Russian accent, clearly the leader of the trio.
"Hey, hey, hey, you can't just barge in he…" Buster's protests were swiftly interrupted as the bear held up something in his paw.
"You know this guy?" Everyone's eyes, including Jason, widened as they instantly recognised the rodent in his clenched fist.
"Mike?" Buster asked, shocked.
"Right. Mike here says you got his money and it's in that box." Jason shuffled with worry slightly as the scene unfolded. He was worried about a literal crime and hostage situation taking place, sure, but he certainly didn't want his potential prize to be stolen by these random gang members.
"No, no, no, no, no, just hold on a moment here." Buster replied confidently, "That's prize money. And it's not Mike's unless he wins it fair and…"
"G-Give him the money!" The mouse spluttered, clearly choking in the bear's grip. Jason winced; as much of a jerk as Mike was, he wasn't sure he wanted to see him die. Buster clearly had the same thought, given how quickly he changed his tune.
"Okay, okay! Hey, hey, take it! The whole chest! It's yours, okay? All right here."
"Open it." The bear demanded, now pressing his claws to Mike's throat as he and the other two bears advanced, now on the stage and towering over the koala.
"Open it? I-I, no… me?"
"Open it!" Mike wheezed, desperately struggling in the bear's grip. Buster nervously scrambled away from the bears and onto the chest stand's glass steps, dropping his mike.
"Okay, no, I-I just don't have, I don't have the keys." He winced in pain as the head bear picked him up by one of his ears. "So maybe you could come back later?"
"Get out of the way!" He growled, tossing him and Mike aside. One of the bear crony handed him a baseball bat which he raised above his head, eyeing the chest greedily.
"No, no, no, no, no, no! Wait!" Buster's pleas went unheard as the bear brought the bat down onto the chest. Everyone flinched as both the chest and the stand exploded into pieces, dust forming around the remains.
"Hey, there ya go! Big guy with the bat!" Mike chuckled nervously, dusting himself off as he got to his feet. "Who needs keys, right? Alright, let's get this thing squared up now." Nana, the other sheep and the contestants all watched as the mouse walked into the ruins of the chest as the dust began to settle. Jason's eyebrows furrowed as he began to make out the contents of the chest: a carpet, a watch, an old radio and a bunch of other junk. And worst of all, a measly few hundred dollars.
"What the?" Mike rummaged around the broken wood in disbelief, "That's it? That's all there is?" Picking up the watch in his paw, he turned and glare at the koala.
"He lied."
Jason and the others let out small gasps as the bears turned their anger to Buster.
"Moon lied to us all!" Mike yelled, throwing the watch down. Jason was the first of the contestants to advance on the koala.
"W-Wait a second, I can explain…" He said feebly.
"He's your problem, not me!" Mike said to the leader bear, smacking the bat into his paw threateningly.
"This is just a prop."
"So where's the hundred-thousand dollars?" Johnny demanded as they all got closer. As everyone voiced their own disbelief, the shock inside Jason gradually turned into anger. All that hope to save Grandpa. All that encouragement from the others. All that practice and for what? A prize of a hundred-thousand dollars that didn't even exist to begin with?
His bridled rage quickly vanished as he noticed the squids flashing red beneath them. Finally taking notice, the conflict subsided. The stage was starting to crack beneath everyone's weight. All the animals glanced up in horror as more cracks started to form in the glass wall, streams of water leaking out. The male sheep shouted from the royal box, panicked.
"Buster, look out!"
Before anyone could react, the glass exploded.
A torrent of water unleashed from the tank, which sucked up the cast and the bears. Jason struggled to stay afloat above the raging water as it carried the screaming contestants through the stalls, out the auditorium and into the foyer. Meena's bulky body plugged up the ticket booth window, the water rising around her as loose theatre seats piled up against the glass doors and windows.
"I'm stuck!" She cried.
Jason was now more terrified as more and more water kept flooding into the foyer. He was now wishing he'd taken swimming lessons as his lungs burned, unintentionally taking in gulps of water. His arms waved furiously at the water, as did everyone else. The pillars for the theatre's dress circle collapsed, blocking off the auditorium completely. Everyone's struggle to stay afloat continued as the ceiling light fizzed out and fell into the water too, just missing Jason. Meena still couldn't budge and her trunk was now just barely above the water level. Gunter and Rosita tried to push her free while thousands of panicked squid swam around in all directions.
The marble support columns began collapsing as Jason fought to keep his eyes open. His vision started to black out as the water only continued rising. Try as he might to stay alive, panic flowed through his veins as he realised this was how he was about to die. In a flooded theatre, all thanks to a lying koala.
Thankfully his awaited death never came. Johnny clutched one of the crumbling pillars and launched himself at Meena. The force of his push made the elephant shoot out of the ticket booth window like a champagne cork as the rest of the glass burst. Water, debris, chairs and the others all washed out onto the street as pedestrians looked on in shock. As the rest of the water thankfully flooded away down the nearest drains, everyone groggily got to their feet, spluttering. Jason coughed up all leftover water in his throat as Ash rose from some wooden wreckage, holding her head. Moon ran out onto the street too while Johnny helped the female porcupine up.
"Is everyone okay?" He asked worriedly before seeing, out of the corner of his eye, an unharmed Nana getting into her car but not before shooting a glare at the koala. "Nana! I-I-I-I'm so sorry, I-I just… No, no, no, no, don't-don't go!" Rosita rushed over to the drenched porcupine and gently grabbed his arm.
"Are you okay, Jason?" She asked as Jason took in large gasps of air.
"Yeah, I… I think so." He replied before also shooting a nasty glare at Moon. "No thanks to him." But before he could go over to give the koala a piece of his mind, a low rumble comes from the theatre. Everyone turned to look, a few stones clattering from the theatre's cracked walls to the street blow. Suddenly a thunderous cloud of dust roared out of the wrecked foyer.
"Look out!" Buster cried out as the cloud covered him and the contestants, following by the ear-splitting sounds of crashing stone. At last, they stopped.
Everyone coughed as the dust gradually cleared. Jason, Ash and the others all gazed in shock as they saw the space where the grand Moon Theatre once stood. In its place was a mountainous pile of smashed rubble and wood. The theatre now in ruins. Jason turned his attention to Moon pathetically stumbling into the wreckage, clearly hoping to find something salvageable. The porcupine felt no sympathy as the koala fell to his knees, Miss Crawley putting an arm over his shoulders as he weeped.
He felt only anger.
Barely resisting the urge to pummel the koala, Jason instead turned on his heel and stormed away from the ruins. He ignored Ash's call from him to come back as he rounded the corner. He didn't say a word as he stormed down the street, uncaringly pricking every citizen in his way. The porcupine didn't even bother getting a bus. He just walked all the way home, the same betrayed glare never leaving his face. The moment he walked into the house, he didn't even acknowledge his surprised mother asking what the matter was or why he was all wet. He just went straight upstairs to his room and slammed the door behind him. Slumping onto his bed, he took one glance at the family portrait with Grandpa on his bedside cabinet and placed it facedown, turning away and clenching his eyes shut tight.
All that time wasted.
All for a lie.
*I do not own the rights to the movie Sing. All rights go to Illumination Entertainment