A/N: Mwah! More Pippin! I'm hoping to start a trend or something... I think I'm the only ff writer for this musical... *begins to look lonely*
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They were all nameless, really. They only played people with names - their own had been forgotten ages ago, before they had been suckered into their Master's trap of pride and arrogance. All it took was a little flattery, slight persuasion...
You know, you are the most talented person I have ever met... And you're so well built! You seem like an extraordinary human being...
They - all of them - had agreed with him. When someone feeds your ego pretty words, it's grows harder and harder to resist their proposals. First you're their friend, next their confidante, then their assistant... before you can count to twelve you're their slave, helping to ensnare more self-adoring psychopaths in their own twisted minds.
It doesn't hurt, and it won't cost you anything. It will be the most wonderful decision you ever make if you join us! We don't bite, you know. We're perfectly civilized...
Sometimes, late at night when the annoying crickets and murmur of Master practicing his lines were the only sounds to be heard, he would wonder what he had been like before he was "King Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire". Depressing a thought as it was, he couldn't remember life before the traveling theatre. He wondered if he had a family, a lover, a steady job and an ordinary life... But then a voice in the back of his head will warn him...
Even if you did have a family, you don't remember who they are or where they live. Besides, you don't want to leave the power, the glory, the attention of the stage, do you? And go back to a ordinary, normal, boring life without magic? You don't want that, do you?...
Every time he would answer 'no', and try harder to go to sleep. Other nights he would wonder if that was such a good idea...
Sometimes he would see the same question in the eyes of his fellow players. That empty, hollow, answerless question Who am I? But they would always hide it when their Master was around. No one wanted to end up like their former Pippin and Catherine, or even stupid little Theo. To not think highly of themselves meant there was something wrong with either their character or their physical appearance - and they didn't like to think they were less than perfect.
Compliments were their destruction, their downfall into homicidal misery and vicious superiority. They were on top. They were better than everyone else in the world, and if someone told them otherwise, that unfortunately 'inconsiderate' person was likely to meet a cannibalistic end.
You're doing exceptionally well today, players! One more time and we will no longer struggle to attain the highest rank in the business! You there - yes, you - you look very seductive in that costume - and you over there! You look - holy... you are quite possibly the most handsome man I have ever seen! That color brings out your eyes spectacularly...
If they he had thought about it harder, he would have realized they did have a name. Each and every one of them were named Conceit.
And they were blasted proud of it.