Versatile Superstar Rise In Hollywood

by Stayrr

"To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it." ... Two years ago, Aiden came to the United States to experience the American Dream. But after sleepless nights of struggle, just when he was on the verge of giving up, a translucent screen flashed in front of him - it was a System! A System that would make him embark on a journey to Hollywood. And today, he takes his fir

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Aiden talked to Ava for a while longer. They just discussed about themselves and their careers before parting ways.

After reaching home, Aiden didn't know what to do. His days were going by just reading and trying to get his mental health fixed.

From time to time, he would always go to meet Uncle Sam and have lunch with him. He hadn't been able to meet him a lot due to his work in the recent months.

So, it was a nice change of pace.

Uncle Sam was just worried about him, being someone to take mental health very seriously.

At the same time, he even offered Aiden to go on a road trip with him, talking about how he always wanted to teach his son the way of life but he never got one and then his cousin had a big rebellious phase which ended any of his plans.

Aiden did entertain that idea but he wanted to get a bit better first. At his current state, he didn't even feel like going out a lot.

'You can't explain it in words but maybe try to write it down like a diary or even a story.'

Dr. Penny's words resounded in his mind.

Thinking of that, he sat down in front of his laptop.

Marshall had also asked him if he had gotten another idea for his novel, so maybe he could just use his nightmares to forge a novel.

He tried to remember the last nightmare he had seen and the feeling quickly set in. A kind of a creepy, disturbing feeling that made him very uncomfortable.

Still, he tried to type. Trying to let out this feeling in the form of words.

An hour quickly went by as the sound of typing filled the room.

"I can't put it in words for some reason…"

Aiden muttered, looking up at the screen. Only one page had been done in the entire hour. He had kept typing and deleting things because he had felt like it wasn't the exact feeling.

His words felt lacking and the story wasn't right. In the last hour, he had gone from a fantasy genre to horror to a full on diabolical zombie apocalypse.

He had also wondered about the prospect of writing a story of a person dealing with trauma and becoming insomniac due to being troubled with nightmares.

But in the end, he had discarded it. He didn't want to get his mind into something dark, something that takes a deep dive into the minds of a troubled person, when he was feeling paranoid at random moments in a day.

'It's pretty hard to visualise all the things that are in my mind on paper. Why can't I do it?'

He wondered and even after the day was over, his troubles didn't.

The next day, Aiden was picked up by Wade because they have a schedule. It wasn't a gig or anything like that but just a simple meeting in Vikings publishing office.

The meeting about the film rights of Behind the scenes.

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They weren't going to sign the contract today but it was just a meeting for Aiden to know the thoughts of Gravity Media about the film adaptation and talk about the story.

"It's going to be a pretty boring meeting. I'm pretty sure Gravity Media are just going to ask you if you are interested in appearing in the film adaptation. It would give some gravitas to the project then. Otherwise, they are going to make it a proper festival movie and release it in a few years time."

Wade said, taking a turn and making sure that he was following the correct directions to the office of Vikings publishing.

"Aren't they going to focus on some kind of sci-fi project?"

"Yeah, they are trying to aim for the big commercial blockbuster title for one of their upcoming movies. Most of the budget is allocated there for now. It's a pretty important venture, so the company must be pretty tense."

"Why are they acquiring Behind the scenes then?"

"Future." Wade smiled. "A plan B if they failed. They would go back to their small movie ventures then. A lot of studios acquire whatever good book is in the market years ago. Throwing their money, hoping they get lucky."

Aiden nodded, not really too interested in the meeting. It was mostly confirmed that it won't become a live action adaptation in the next few years, so his excitement was low.

His mind was still more on projecting out his thoughts in some way or form as until now, writing wasn't working. He had also tried writing lyrics but it met with the same fate.

"Are you okay?"

Wade suddenly asked and Aiden looked at him in confusion.

"I'm fine. Why?"

"Nothing. I'm just worried about you a lot." He said with an annoyed expression. "I have worked with other celebrities, looked at them closely. All of them ruin themselves after getting these mental health issues. It's a very serious thing and some of them even take their—"

His words stopped in track as he licked his lips. Aiden kept looking at him as he talked.

"Sometimes, I feel like somewhere it's my fault. Maybe I worked too much for you? You have been working nonstop since the year began. Sometimes you even slept in the van. I know all this piles up… I just feel bad."

"I never knew you have an emotional side, Wade. Are you going to say I love you next?"

Aiden laughed. It was just a very different experience to see Wade like that. He was someone who Aiden had seen casually threatening guys but now, he was talking his heart out, blaming himself for Aiden's health.

"You!!"

Wade glared at him, seeing him laugh uncontrollably. A frown casted upon his face as he didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry. I know I should not laugh but… it's just different seeing you like this." It was only after a while that Aiden stopped laughing. "I appreciate your concerns but trust me, this is not your fault in any way or form. I worked myself hard and I don't have problems due to working hard."

Wade let out a deep sigh.

"Still, now that you have gotten a break, try to just rest and heal properly."

"I will."

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"The Sand God completely failed. The critics roasted it apart and I heard that the author is depressed now. I wonder if he will be able to get it back together."

"Is that so? He looked like such a cheerful guy when he first came here. I was even going to ask him for drinks. Failure is really a hard thing to take."

"Yeah, it is. You could still ask him out, you know. It's easier to get him to fall in love with you if he's down in the dumps."

"Ah, not now. I was going to see if his book worked."

A man ignored the gossip that was going on between two female employees as he waited for the elevator to reach its destination.

He seemed to be in some urgency as he was repeatedly tapping his feet and checking the watch on his wrist.

'Finally.'

He thought as the elevator reached the floor. He quickly got out of it and approached the reception. He was wearing a black bag on his back.

"I have an appointment with Mr. Haynes of the Graphic novel department."

"Wait a minute."

The female receptionist stopped scrolling Skygram on her phone and started typing something on her computer. The man's gaze wandered off as he waited.

Vikings publishing was one of the most popular publishers in America but the office looked pretty silent and there were only a few people going here and there.

It was probably due to the time. After all, it was still early morning and Vikings publishing didn't have a major release this month.

As he waited for a response, he heard a conversation of two people that were coming out of another elevator.

"We need to head straight to Marshall's office. I have already notified his assistant, so there won't be any problems."

"Okay."

Listening to that conversation, the man's eyes landed on one of the guy's faces and he felt like he was someone familiar.

'Wait? Isn't he an actor? I saw his movie last summer.'

The man thought but before he could think of anything more, the receptionist opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry but Mr. Haynes is running late. He's not in his office till now and you would have to wait."

"Till when could he come?"

"I can't say."

The man sighed as the receptionist gestured him to one of the sofas in front of the receptionist desk.

He sat down in silence and wondered when Mr. Haynes would come to his office. He wanted to go through the meeting as fast as possible. Otherwise, his anxiety was going to just keep increasing.

'I need to make a successful pitch no matter what.'

The man's name was Bruce Morse and he was a comic book writer that was struggling to publicise his comic for a long time. He had gone to big comic book publishing firms that have made big superhero franchises but his ideas weren't taken well.

Most of the criticism wasn't about his art but the story that often lacks interesting hooks, making it feel boring.

Knowing that Vikings publishing also has a graphic novel department, Bruce had tried his chance here with a story that he has been making for a long time.

It was practically his last try as he had decided to give up on a career as a comic book artists if he fails.

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"It's a great pleasure to meet you. I'm a big fan of your work, and my daughter can't help but gush about you every time we talk, telling him to get your autograph. Even the playlist in my car is full of your songs."

A bald man that looked chubby said. He was the CEO of Gravity Media.

He had fair skin and seemed very happy to meet Aiden. Besides him, a black man was also standing, both of them being from Gravity Media.

Marshall was standing on the side, wearing a suit, and Wade was sitting adjacent to Aiden.

After the pleasantries, the meeting started, and it went as what Aiden had expected.

'Pretty simple and boring.'

He thought in his mind.

The meeting began with the CEO talking about how much he had loved Behind the scenes and what attracted him to it. By his way of talking, Aiden at least knew that he had read the novel.

That was always a good sign.

After that, the black man listed out the novels from Vikings publishing that eventually became a big hit after Gravity Media acquired it, implying that Behind the scenes would follow the same path.

And like Aiden and Wade had thought, a question soon came his way.

"What are your thoughts on playing the main character in Behind the scenes?"

"I'm sorry, but I really don't think I would be able to play it." Aiden quickly said. "In the first place, the main character is in his 30s, divorced. I would look too young for it, and I'm not taking any roles for now. I think a more experienced and polished actor would suit the project way more. I could even recommend someone to you."

"Recommendations are fine, but we were really hoping you could be a part of this project." The bald man kept his eyes on Aiden, and Wade intervened.

"Actually, we are taking a break from acting for this year and then, there are other contracts that Aiden has to fulfil, so he will be busy for a long time, and no dates are possible."

Wade lied. Aiden was free, but it was better to say that instead of talking about mental health issues.

Anyway, Aiden had no interest in playing a character in Behind the scenes.

At best, he wanted to play a small supporting character, mainly because the main character was made keeping Harley in mind, and he didn't imagine himself in that role.

"Okay. I understand that. Can't break off existing contracts. Though, I didn't imagine you to be so busy."

"He's so busy I'm not even able to get a second book out of him."

Marshall chipped it and tried to change the topic. The talk moved on to the numbers, such as the royalty and the studio's plans for the movie.

It was pretty evident by the talk that Behind the scenes wasn't in their immediate plans.

'I'm pretty bored.'

Aiden felt like getting out of there as the meeting progressed.

"You are Bruce Morse? 28 years old, and you are originally a Brit."

"Yes, my family is from Durham. By the way, I'm a huge fan of DarkMan comics. I heard that you pushed that idea after hearing its pitch."

"Yeah, I did. It worked unexpectedly well. So, you want to be the next DarkMan?"

In another one of the meeting rooms in Vikings publishing, Bruce was meeting up with Jim Haynes, an editor from the Graphic novel department.

He was a bit tense as his arm was stiff, and he was tightly holding the initial draft of the comic and other papers in which he had written out ideas on how he wanted to move the direction of the comic.

"I certainly hope to be." He said, trying to sound as confident as he could — One thing he had learnt after several rejections.

"I like your confidence. Let's see your comic."

Jim Haynes said, picking up the comic book in his hand. For the next ten minutes, his hands turned up the pages of the comic book one by one.

Bruce kept a close eye on his expressions, but Jim's face was blank. That was making him more nervous, though he tried to keep his cool.

Finally, after a while, Jim opened his mouth.

"Your art is pretty great."

Hearing the compliment, Bruce smiled.

"Thank you. I have been practising a lot."

"But the story feels lacking." Bruce's face froze. "Like it's not something new or different. A man got the power to go into nightmares of other people. He's a dream walker or something. All of it sounds great, but the execution is severely lacking. Tell me, one thing, what do you think is the one quality you feel that people would like your main character for?"

Bruce gulped down his saliva and thought about it for a few seconds before replying.

"He's a common guy who suddenly got these powers and took revenge on his bullies by jumping into their nightmares. His power and his character make him interesting."

"Maybe to you, but I don't think the average reader would be interested in that. His powers are cool and interesting, but it's just that. The storyline has been used a lot, so much so that I feel like most of the heroes are those who have been bullied."

Jim replied back, clearly not convinced enough about it.

"I have other ideas too. Several paths his character could take. I have all the plans in my mind."

"Yeah, but the basic premise is something very generic. I feel like a better story would be a guy going after a mafia organization because they killed his dog."

For the next 20 minutes, Bruce tried his best to get his ideas past Jim's mind, doing everything to make him even a little impressed.

It was his last chance, after all.

He at least hoped that Jim would publish only the first chapter of it to see how the audience takes it, but even that suggestion was rejected.

He seemed very astute in his opinion that the comic wasn't great.

"I'm sorry. I know you worked hard on it. I could clearly see your effort in these pages, but it's just not to the standard we are looking for. You seem like a talented young man, so I will give you a suggestion." Jim kept his eyes on Bruce, who had his face lowered, not wanting to show his expression. "Try to not give up and just study and analyze what made great novels and also study the current market carefully. The graphic novel and comic book industry has changed too much, especially with any good story having the chance to become a live-action big-budget movie."

"Thank you."

Bruce simply said that and walked out of the room. Jim kept an eye on his dejected shoulders. It looked like everything in the world was crushing him.

Sighing, Jim looked at the ceiling like he was looking at God in the sky.

"Another artist who would give up. The industry is really brutal. I hope Jesus would have mercy on that young man."

'I lost my only opportunity. I'm a big failure in life that would always live in his parents' home.'

Jim thought and felt all his body feeling dizzy. He felt like crying, and his steps were shaky. Getting rejected had hit him like a bolt of thunder even though he had run scenarios like this in his mind.

Those didn't help when reality kicked in.

Feeling like he won't even be able to walk to the elevator and drive his car, he sat down on the sofa in front of the receptionist and threw the comic on the table.

A few pairs of eyes gathered on him as he continually frowned. He could already see that his life was finished, his parents were going to kick him out, and he would struggle to even get basic necessities.

His future looked like a big, dark hole, and the craft that he threw himself into for years now seemed completely useless.

He had failed in life.

Those words seemed to engrave themselves in his soul and mind. It was at that moment that someone walked up to him.

"Excuse me."

A voice took the attention of Bruce, who was busy cursing and crying over the circumstances in his mind.

"Ah, yeah. What?"

Bruce looked up to find himself staring at a handsome face with a sharp jawline and bright eyes.

He looked to be in great shape and was the type that girls would glance at at a party. Not particularly because of his face but because of the atmosphere that seemed too striking.

Even the receptionist was ogling him from time to time.

Bruce didn't like people like him because of his own insecurities.

"Is that a comic? Is that yours? Can I read it?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure. Though, it's generic and not good."

"Let me decide that."

The man said and picked up the comic. Looking at the title, a smile curved on his lips.

"Nightmare Guy."

"Just a draft title. I'm not good at them."

The man nodded and started reading it. It was then that Bruce noticed that his face was very familiar. He had seen him before, walking onto some meeting.

'I think I know him. Where have I seen him? Ah, that movie.'

Bruce thought, and as the man was going through the comic, he took out his phone and looked at the cast of a movie he had watched on Zetflix.

'Found it. [Disconnected] — Aiden Silvereye.'

...

/DreamNote/

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As Bruce wondered what Aiden was doing here and was starstruck, seeing a celebrity for the first time in his life, Aiden was going through his comic.

He had gotten bored from the meeting and excused himself, saying he needed to go to the bathroom. Anyway, it was a meeting without much reason—a simple meet and greet.

Gravity Media would only have used him when they started working on the movie.

Instead of these thoughts, he focused on the comic.

Although the name was silly and wacky, Aiden felt like the art was the best part of the comic. He could clearly see that Bruce had only achieved this level of mastery after working on his art for years.

That was the thing that attracted him the most.

As he went through the story, he noticed a few inconsistencies, and the characters felt like cliches coming to fruition.

For example, the bully character was just shown as a dumb, burly guy who was bullying the main character because he was the ex of his current girlfriend.

He felt like it was a bad reason as it just displayed the insecurities of the bully guy and just didn't seem like something that could have been more.

Moreover, one more thing that Aiden didn't like was that the main character mastered his powers too quickly, it just took him one try, and he knew everything about it.

That was never fun.

That way, although the main character became very overpowered from the start, the author just killed any chances of growth happening.

Aiden was a fan of overpowered main characters, especially a certain bald guy. But even those have backstories where they have trained very hard.

The way the comic went was just too lazy.

Though he did like many things in the novel, including character backgrounds and powers, the choices of characters and other things just killed any excitement of him desiring to read further.

'Ah, the main character could be much better. Something great.'

He thought in his mind as he flipped the last page to end the comic.

"How, how was it?"

Bruce asked as Aiden put down the novel. He was curious about his views on it.

"I liked it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's enjoyable, but I feel like it could be much more. The central idea is good enough, but it's just… it feels wasted."

Aiden replied honestly.

Bruce frowned hearing that. Was his novel really that bad? Was he not a good story writer? Or was he just missing something?

"Can you tell me how it feels wasted?"

"I feel like you could do a lot with it. I feel like the story could have gone to a much more serious and bigger place than just revenge on bullies. The story just feels like a lot of talent that was never used. Having potential is great, but you need to know how to use it."

Aiden finished his words, leaving Bruce to his thoughts. At that moment, Wade walked in from the hallway and looked around, his eyes landing on Aiden.

"Aiden, the meeting is over. Let's go."

"Okay."

Aiden put down the comic as Wade appeared.

"I need to go now. Nice meeting you."

Aiden said and stood up.

"Yeah, bye."

Bruce still had a lot of questions in his mind and wanted to stop him, but nothing came out of his mouth. Aiden walked towards the elevator with Wade and left while Bruce just picked up his comic and other documents.

'What am I going to do now?'

After reaching home, Aiden spent his time browsing his phone and reading a few web novels. There was no session with Dr Penny today, so he was mostly free.

He also read up on what was going on in Hollywood.

Unlike other Hollywood celebrities, he seldom went to parties and didn't live in LA, which was practically the heart of Hollywood.

He was also not friends with many celebs and only talked to the people he had worked with.

It was mainly due to him keeping Hollywood as the place he worked and not living. He wanted to separate his personal life, being much more of a loner than an average Hollywood person.

There were a few interesting headlines that caught his eye.

Aaron Hart was sentenced to prison for six months in case of assaulting a man in public. He's also penalised for his actions. His agency broke ties with him just last month.

Katie Brooks has apparently moved up in SGA ranks. The agency is looking at her as someone to groom as the next big superstar.

Ray Hardy said, "Action is becoming extinct in Hollywood because people rarely try something new. They feel all ideas are already used up. There are several car crashing movies, zombies are everywhere, and many sci-fi just seems like a copy of each other. Innovation is dead in action". The controversial statement is getting a heated response from the media.

After reading those headlines for a while, Aiden got bored and got up from his bed to head to his desk where his laptop was placed.

He was going to try writing out his thoughts again into a novel — Mostly because he had nothing better to do.

'I really hope it works.'

He thought as he started typing. There were a few ways he felt that he could let out his thoughts, but after trying them all, he again faced the reality that it wasn't really working.

For some reason, no idea of his was clicking, and he wasn't feeling like his thoughts were coming out.

'Nightmares… I need to let them out… That creepy kind of a feeling… Ah, yes!'

Suddenly, as he was typing, something clicked in his mind, and words filled his screen within five minutes.

A feeling akin to enlightenment came to him as he really felt like an idea was finally clicking.

This time, his skill 'Synchronisation' wasn't helping him as the story he was writing wasn't inspired by a real person, which was kind of a bummer but he had the skills to pull it off without using his skill.

"Wait! What am I writing…"

When he stopped to read, his eyes widened, looking through the story that he had written.

"A guy with the ability to give people nightmares. Ain't it oddly similar to the comic I read today?"

Aiden wasn't thinking a lot when this idea struck him. No, it was more like the idea had been in his subconscious mind since he had read the story.

The similarities were pretty clear. Just Aiden was following a pretty different plotline than the comic.

'Still, it's plagiarising if I just used it up.'

He thought in his mind, frowning.

At the same time, when he looked up at the story he was writing, he felt like a comic version would suit it much better. The story was good in writing, but it truly came to life in a comic style.

It was more suited for that.

'What should I do now? No other idea is clicking, and this one is plagiarising if I really went with it.'

Aiden didn't mind using tricks against people who had tried to sabotage his career, but he still liked to think of himself as a morally good person.

If everyone in Hollywood was black, then he at least wanted to be grey.

So, plagiarising was something that he would never do in his life. It would be shameful to do, especially when he has his system.

Moreover, if one gets caught doing plagiarism or an accusation against him, it would get media traction and become a court case, ruining most of his reputation.

But Aiden also didn't want to part ways with the story.

He had nothing else that would work. More than writing a novel, it was a way for him to heal.

After thinking for a while, he decided on something.

'Umm, this could work.'

He took out his phone and dialled up Marshall White, the owner of Vikings publishing. The phone was picked up quite fast, to his surprise.

"Hello Marshall, sorry if I'm disturbing you."

"Hello, Aiden. I was just resting. Why did you call me? Do you have something to say about the meeting?"

Marshall's cheery voice came out from the other side.

"No, I just need to find out the contact information of a person I met in your office today."

"Do you know his name?"

"I don't."

Marshall laughed hearing that, wondering for a second if Aiden was just doing a prank on him.

"A lot of people go in and out of our office every day. Not even I know the name or face of every person. You need to be way more specific."

"He had a comic with him. It looked like he was there to pitch an idea."

Marshall thought for a while, hearing that before replying.

"The graphic novel department might know then. I will send you the number of my assistant. Contact him, and he will help you out."

"Okay, thanks."

Marshall cut off the call after that, and a minute later, he sent the number of his assistant through a text.

Aiden talked to him and told him about the person that he had met. The assistant contacted the Graphic novel department and found that only one person was there to pitch the novel.

'Bruce Morse.'

Aiden finally got the name and address of the guy who managed to inspire him.

….

/DreamNote/

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"Okay, so who is that guy you are going to meet? You don't meet people like that."

Wade said, looking at Aiden. He was currently driving him to a residential area in New York City. That was the address of Bruce Morse he had gotten.

For some reason, his phone number wasn't working when he had called him.

"Bruce Morse. I just want to have a talk with him."

"Okay."

Wade didn't say anything else, knowing that Aiden would himself tell him at the right time. He just focused on his driving.

"Why did you even come with me?"

Aiden asked, changing the subject.

"I was bored." Wade shook his head. "Just that. Tom is handling all the important work calls and stuff. George is pretty free due to you not having any singing gigs and both Sasha and Lia are just handling your social media, trying to make your followers in the know about [Sherlock of the Shadows]."

"The release is in November right?"

"13 November. You would need to do the poster shoots, promotions and the additional dubbing before that."

Aiden nodded. Although he was off work, post production work and promotions were still something that he didn't mind doing.

He wanted his first streaming series to work after all.

"Well, we are here."

Wade said as he stopped his car in the residential area. Aiden got off it and looked around.

It was a normal residential area that looked nothing out of ordinary. A man was gardening and someone was playing with his golden retriever on the right.

Aiden approached that guy with the golden retriever and asked.

"Do you know where Bruce Morse lives here?"

"Bruce, yeah, I know that poor lad. Go to that house over here."

The man pointed at one of the houses on the left and Aiden couldn't help but ask.

"Poor?"

"Yeah, don't you know? That guy still lives with his parents and people taunt him a lot here. I feel bad for him and hope he actually succeeds someday."

Aiden finally understood what was going on. The last time he had seen Brue, he did look miserable. By his clothes, he did look like someone who was barely able to sustain himself.

But he hadn't thought of him as someone who was still living with his parents. It wasn't a big thing for Aiden, coming from a completely different culture.

Though, he was well aware that Americans are known as becoming independent and getting their own apartments as soon as they turn 18.

Shaking his thoughts, Aiden thanked the man and walked to Wade who told him that he would wait in the car.

After that, Aiden walked to the house that Bruce lived in and rang the doorbell. A minute later, some footsteps were heard and the door opened, revealing a young girl who looked to be a high school student.

"Is Bruce home?"

"Ah, yeah. He is." The girl said, staring at him with wide eyes. "Aren't you Aiden Silvereye? That singer and actor. You were nominated for Oscars too, right?"

"Ah, yeah."

"Oh my god!!"

The girl screamed so loud that Aiden had to close his ears with his hands. She looked like she was going to faint looking at him.

It was only after a while that she calmed down and Aiden was able to hold a conversation with her.

"I'm sorry. It's just my first time seeing a celebrity. Why are you here? Are you shooting for something?"

The girl asked, craning her neck to look behind Aiden, hoping to see some cameras.

"I said I'm here to see Bruce."

"Ah, yeah. Sorry I forgot in my excitement." The girl lowered her head in shame before turning towards the stairs. "His room is upstairs. He's holed up there and won't come down."

Aiden followed her upstairs and while walking, the girl who he had assumed as Bruce's sister kept talking to him, still too excited on the notion of seeing a celebrity.

They reached Bruce's room and the girl knocked at the door.

"Bruce. Open up! There's someone here to meet you."

"Who?" An irritated voice came out of the other side.

"Aiden. He said he wants to meet you."

"I don't know anyone named Aiden."

After that shout, there was a sound of a person getting out of his bed and walking towards the door. It opened in the next moment and Bruce showed his face.

His eyes lingered on his sister for a second before looking behind her at Aiden. They quickly went wide, in a similar manner to his sister.

"Hello, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Aiden said, giving a smile and Bruce couldn't help but stutter.

"Yes, yes, come in!"

Bruce quickly told his sister to not disturb him after Aiden entered his room. His room was filled with posters of different arts. On a desk, there were also pages filled with different character arts that looked similar to Bruce's style.

A few books were also scattered here and there. All in all, it was something not out of expectations.

"Sorry my room is a bit dirty. I didn't expect anyone to visit me today, certainly not you." Bruce said after a few seconds of silence.

"It's fine."

"What do you want to talk about? You said there was something."

Bruce directly asked. Curiosity was all over his face as he wondered what Aiden was doing here. He knew that celebrities would have a lot of work to do.

"Yeah, your comic. Nightmare Guy." Aiden looked at him. "I wanted to talk about it."

"What about it?" Bruce raised an eyebrow.

"I was thinking about it. More like, the main character, his powers. It's your own original character, right?"

Aiden asked to confirm and Bruce rigidly nodded his head.

"Yeah, I made it. I got inspiration from writing something like that a year ago and I've been developing the whole story since then. Well, it didn't turn out good enough. My pitch was rejected." Bruce muttered in a self berating tone.

"I think it's pretty good though." Bruce gave an astonished expression. "I mean, not the whole story. That needs help. A lot of it but the main character. You don't know what type of one could do it."

Saying that, Aiden looked up at him.

"I am a writer too if you don't know and I'm really interested in writing a story about your main character. The same main character but a completely revamped story. It's a proposal of mine actually, so you could reject it if you don't like it."

"Do you mean you and I are writing a graphic novel together? With me doing the art and you the story?"

Bruce asked and Aiden nodded his head.

"I actually thought that a novel would be fine enough but the story I have in my mind just sounds better as a comic. A graphic novel if you want to call it that. I liked your art and the original character is yours, so I came up with this idea."

Aiden explained all his reasons and gave Bruce time to think.

'I can't believe it. It's not a dream right? Wait! I'm not daydreaming right?'

Bruce thought in his mind, even going as far as to pinch the skin on his hands. After getting rejected in his pitch, he had completely given up on doing anything worthwhile in his life.

When he had told his parents that his pitch was rejected, their faces clearly spoke of their disappointment.

Their son was a waste of space — That's what he felt they would be thinking about him.

Bruce was playing around with the idea of just going to Nepal to settle in as a monk — Maybe there will be a chance to attain superpowers too like a certain movie — when Aiden had walked into his room.

,m 'Maybe this is the chance. My last chance that God has given me. Thank you! Jesus! I know you would reward me for staying a virgin.'

Bruce thought in his mind and realised that Aiden was still looking for an answer from him. He had been silent for too long.

"I'm sorry I was just thinking about all this. Are you really okay with someone like me? I never really wrote a fully published comic. Every piece I wrote was cancelled after the initial draft."

He immediately regretted it after asking that question. He was just making himself look like someone who was not confident in himself.

"Everyone starts somewhere." Aiden replied. "I'm extremely fine with it."

"I'm on board then. We could start any minute."

Aiden smiled hearing that. He had a feeling that Bruce would agree with his suggestion.

'I'm really getting into all sorts of fields.'

That thought suddenly crossed his mind. It wasn't a bad thing but he didn't want to be known as someone who was jack of all trades but master of none.

He dismissed the worries as something unnecessary and wondered if he should try his hand on drawing.

A skill like that sounded pretty helpful and he was sure that he would be able to acquire it if he tried enough.

But that was for later.

His job here was to give out the story and leave the art to Bruce.

"We could start any minute but are we going to work here?"

Aiden looked around the room and Bruce realised that the space was too less for both of them. He didn't have an office or anything like that.

As he was thinking about what to do, Aiden gave a suggestion.

"I have office space for my team. Both of us could work there on the idea. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes, yes, I'm!"

Like that, a new partnership began for him.

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After coming to an agreement with Bruce, things moved pretty quickly. Being off from work meant that Aiden could spend all his time making the comic with Bruce.

He wanted to get on with the novel fast as it was a way for him to get over the nightmares.

Bruce held the same thoughts as him, so they quickly started working in Aiden's office. Bruce asked him if he could just sleep there instead of walking there everyday.

It was a way for him to finally get away from living with his parents. Aiden also realised that, but he was completely fine with it as there was enough space in his office.

Both of them also decided to pitch it to Vikings publishing after the draft was completed. Aiden knew Marshall well, so it was a natural decision.

One more thing was that unlike other famous publications that have been publishing comics for decades, Viking publishing's Graphic novel department was pretty new, so there were chances of getting more promotional resources if the pitch was successful.

Wade was a bit iffy with him suddenly getting a new project when he was on a break, but he cooled down after Aiden told him that it was something Dr. Penny had recommended to him.

After all that was over, and Aiden and Bruce finally got to work, he showed him the ideas he had for the story.

It soon ended up in a discussion.

"A more mature tone with the character. Are we going to make it for adults only?"

Bruce had asked after hearing a few of his ideas.

"Not necessarily. A heavier mature tone really doesn't always mean gore or sexual content. I mean more on the basis of making everything in the world have a price on it. The consequences of actions need to be dire, and I want to add heavy philosophical inspiration to the characters. We can't make it a happy-go-lucky superhero story."

"But doesn't that sell more?"

Every year, there are so many superhero movies that are regarded as movies that families enjoy together. A happy, go lucky movie with the characters being goofy and having great superpowers.

These types of movies earn billions. The same goes for the comics.

"Not always really. They do work better as they are just stories that you could enjoy without worrying about real-world problems. Kind of a theme park ride, but life isn't like that, and you do know that there's an oversaturation of these types of movies and comics."

"So, you want to go opposite of that?"

"I just want to build a universal story and build lore around the nightmare powers. I want the antagonist to actually have a story of their own. In my eyes, the main character doesn't become a hero without a villain, and the best villains are the ones with ideologies. Moreover, if there's no consequence for the protagonist's actions, then what's the fun in a story? I want to create something that would last generations. People die, but ideologies pass on. I want the exact same thing with the story."

As Bruce listened more and more to Aiden, he got very excited. His words were making his body shiver like he was going to be a part of something big.

At the same time, he felt like a lock was opening in his mind. He had been too engrossed in creating something similar to what was working in the market currently that a lot of ideas never crossed his mind.

Following a trend was good but it also meant that one wouldn't get out of it to create its own trend. Most classics created trends and weren't a part of them.

As the discussions went on, Bruce asked one question that he was the most curious about.

"How are you going to create the lore around the powers?"

In his own draft version, Bruce had just explained the powers as an ability that he got from an evil god. He was going to add up more in it later on but that idea was scrapped now.

"You probably don't know it but there's an old Indian folklore about a king and a ghost. The ghosts were attached to the back of the king and would always ask him questions that would be in puzzles. It's a pretty interesting story. Anyway, I wanted the main character's powers to come from a god-like entity that is locked in his subconscious. We won't reveal it in the first draft itself, but we would show the god-like entity in chains, and to unlock his powers, the main character would need to answer riddles that would connect to the story and paths he would choose."

"That, that's a very impressive idea."

Bruce said. He liked it more and more every second. It would give enough mystery to the readers. As graphic novels were in issues, a hook was good to make the reader wait for the next issue.

Mystery was always good in comics, especially if it's done well.

Aiden obviously had more ideas on it. He wanted to create seven god-like entities and give them to different characters, one of them being the main character. Aside from that, he also made up secret clans and other power systems.

In his words, it didn't make sense if an entire world followed the same kind of power system without any variety. If a world was vast, then there would be more than one path — Different types of superpowers.

For the main character's background, Aiden wanted to keep the character arc of being bullied and making him a high school student, but he wanted to add it in a way that showed grit and character development.

Using his powers to take on the bullies was a pretty old take, but Aiden wanted to show the main character handle it himself, and as a consequence of it, his powers would start to awaken.

He was also going for a more secret organization approach with the fantastical powers being something that the normal people know nothing about but in secret, they all had played their parts in major world events.

All in all, it was a pretty daunting task as he needed to flesh out a lot of things but while doing so, he truly felt a kind of passion that he seemed to have forgotten in the recent months.

The passion to create a good story.

He and Bruce discussed a lot of things about how the story would move but most of their focus was still on the pitch and the draft that they were preparing for it.

After all, they couldn't let it be rejected again.

For the pitch, Aiden had already talked to Marshall about it and although he was very surprised by Aiden's sudden decision to make a graphic novel, it was welcomed by him.

At least he could see the pitch.

Marshall anyway wanted Aiden to do another book or at least start in it. A project like this was different but something that was along the lines.

As they worked, Bruce agreed with most of Aiden's ideas, having taken the role of the artist. Although he was missing having control of the story and feeling a bit odd that the main character he had made had changed a lot, he knew that it was for the better.

Aiden's storyline was rough as he was still making the power systems and they needed to give more personality to the characters but Bruce knew that it was way better than his storyline.

He also felt a bit free as the pressure of creating a good story was not on him now.

He could focus solely on the art and knowing that it was his last chance, he worked day and night.

The pitch needed to be successful!

In a room that looked like an office, a woman was silently typing on her laptop. Her hands were moving very fast and from time to time, she would stop to think and read the contents that she had written.

Sometimes, she would erase something and sometimes, she would add something more to a sentence. The whole process seemed tiring but she was making a lot of progress.

For some reason, she felt like she could finish an important arc of her script today.

It was at that moment that a few steps rang out and before she could react, a hand grabbed her shoulders.

She let out a small cry, scared for a second before turning around and looking at the man that had decided to pull a small prank on her.

"You scared me. You should never do something like that."

"I thought you would notice me but you were too busy with your script. Can I read it now?"

"It's not completed yet. Would take more than a month easily but I'm making great progress on it."

The man sighed hearing that, he really wanted to go through the script his wife was writing.

"Don't be like this. You would be the first person I would show the script to after it is completed. When the movie is finally ready, I'm going to be in the same league as you as a director."

"We will see about that."

"It will come true. My current script has the capability to bring true cinema lovers to the theatre. I'm just tired of superhero movies and heavy VFX stuff. People don't appreciate other genres now."

The woman complained and the man didn't say anything, knowing that it would cause an argument.

After a while, his wife changed the subject.

"Anyway, how was the meeting? Did they agree to your demands?"

"No, it's still a stalemate. I want to do an original but they want me to start working on the sequel of [Black Saints]."

The man was actually Zavier Lamb, the director and writer of [Black Saints] which was a superhit movie and Aiden had played the role of Kai in it.

His wife was also a director like him named Florence Levine. Currently, she was writing the script for her next movie.

...

/DreamNote/

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64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"It's a pretty great morning today."

Marshall said as he entered a meeting room where a few people were already there. There was a cup of coffee in his hand, and his lips were curved up in a smile.

"I would say it's a strange morning."

One of the people in the room said. He was Jim Haynes, the editor that had rejected the pitch of Bruce before. He was one of the oldest editors in the publishing firm, being one of the first employees.

"Why is it strange?"

"The guy whose pitch I rejected met with a celebrity and decided to do a story, and you agreed to listen to the pitch too. Ain't it strange? That could itself be a part of a story."

"It could be. Do you not have any faith in it?"

Marshall asked, sitting down.

"I don't have a reason to have faith, you know. I saw the previous pitch, and there are only a few things that I found interesting in it. It was all very boring, and I'm sure our reader demographic won't like it. I'm curious." Jim suddenly looked up at Marshall. "Why are you here? I never saw you during a pitch before?"

"Because I want to be surprised today. As you said, the previous pitch wasn't good, but I want to know how Aiden would do it. A new writer can change a story, you know."

"Yeah, either in a good way or bad way."

Marshall didn't say anything at that. He and Jim were friends, so he knew full well that he wouldn't be satisfied until he saw the pitch.

He had come to see the pitch by taking time out of his schedule just because he was curious about what Aiden would bring.

Being the owner of a top publishing firm, Marshall would often come across authors that would amaze him. He had gotten a habit of marking them and being an overseer in their writing career.

Aiden was one of the authors that he had marked.

On the other hand, Jim had the perception that Bruce was still a very inexperienced creator that needed to learn a lot to improve and present good enough work. Even with him collaborating with Aiden, it didn't change a lot.

After all, Aiden himself was a new writer, having only published one book.

'Everything would become clear after the pitch.'

Jim thought in his mind and checked his watch.

There were ten minutes to the meeting. Everyone has come early except the authors.

At that moment, the door opened, and Aiden walked in with Bruce following him.

'I'm so nervous that my hands are shaking.'

Bruce thought as he looked over the meeting room. Jim and a few other people that he didn't recognise were sitting at one side. He guessed that they were high-tier employees.

On the right, Marshall White was sitting.

Just the presence of the owner of the publishing firm was enough to put him under more pressure. After all, it was only two weeks ago that he had an unsuccessful pitch.

'I feel like I would suffocate.'

He thought as he felt his heartbeat increasing.

"Bruce, get it together."

Aiden whispered to him, and he could only give him a slight nod. His words didn't seem to have any effect.

"I'm pretty excited to know what you have in store for us. I heard that the same graphic novel was pitched to Jim two weeks ago."

Marshall asked, glancing in between Jim and Bruce.

"No, we are pitching a different story today." Jim gave Aiden a stare. "Just the main character and his powers are the same but the story is completely different."

"Sounds interesting."

Marshall said and with that, the pitch began.

Typically, a pitch includes a lot of things other than just a sample of the comic that the author is going for. The core idea of the novel and the future of it, several character arcs and how they would look as well as the demographic that they could cater towards.

In Aiden's own words, "The story is something that looks like another coming of an age superhero movie, and it is that but at the same time, it's more than that and the themes would just get more and more mature."

He tried his best to explain every good point about the story, with Bruce chipping in during the questions about the art and characters.

One of the particular ones was the unique look of the main character.

"Why is the main character's hair so long? He looks like someone from a boy band. It wasn't like that in the pitch I saw."

Jim asked, picking up one of the character sketches for the main character. In the sketch, the guy has long, black hair, and a sickly body with scars on his neck.

Aiden was the one to answer it.

"I just envisioned him like that. At first, there wasn't a particular reason but then, I thought I should give him a scar that he's trying to hide with long hair. It's also something that's different from the normal protagonist out there, right."

Jim nodded at that and the others didn't seem to mind it either. Mainly because it looked good.

Bruce's art was really great and no one could say anything against it. Because of that, the characters looked way better.

They moved on and talked about other things.

Jim was genuinely surprised that there were really a lot of changes in the story. The themes were similar but the vibe was very different.

It now looked like something that would appeal to people and for Jim, there was a particular scene in the story that was the hook for him.

It was the scene in which the main character would ask for help from one of the teachers against bullying, but the teacher would just ignore it. At that moment, a voice would ring in his ear.

'No one looks out for anyone in this world. People would certainly not look out for someone like you. You need to stand for yourself.'

Those words would haunt the main character until he would face the bullies himself and at least try to stand up for himself.

Jim felt like things could be done better in that scene, but character growth was something that he liked, and the last panel in which the god in the main character's mind is shown laughing was also done very well.

All in all, Jim liked it even though he had no expectations.

On the other hand, Bruce was also getting more and more comfortable as the pitch meeting went on. It was his longest pitch meeting to date and going by the expression in front of him, he could say one thing.

'They are liking it. No, I can't be sure of it yet. At least it looked like they didn't dislike it.'

After a while, Aiden had already said most things that he had prepared and now, it was onto the editor.

"It's surely a very good pitch. The story is something very unique and breaks out of the usual superhero formula quite seamlessly. I like it a lot. Good job, you two."

Marshall said, looking through the pages presented to him.

"Yeah, I quite liked it. The art is beautiful and a lot of people pick comics due to the art."

Another person in the room praised and Bruce couldn't seem to keep his smile to himself.

It was only Jim who had yet to say anything.

He opened his mouth after seeing that everyone was expecting him to speak.

"I liked it too." Aiden cheered inwardly hearing that, but Jim wasn't finished yet. "Like everyone here already said, the comic has a lot of great things going on in it. At least, the start seems good, and you have a good enough idea of the direction of the story, but you said that more and more mature themes are going to come into play."

"Are you saying that because children buy our comics more?" Marshall asked and Jim nodded.

"It would mess it up with it. It's a big risk if we keep it in mind. Not like Viking has a great record in comic books. We weren't doing them until the late 2000s, so it would be like going for a swim in a sea full of sharks that are already dominating the market."

Publishers are always concerned about what type of consumers they are getting.

Someone with comics that mostly children read won't go out of their way to publish adult ones until they are trying to take a big leap to attract a different kind of demographic.

Even Aiden knew that adults and college students would like the series more with the early themes of martial arts and later themes into a lot of complex stuff that would be too much for children.

"Jim is right, you two. Your graphic novel is good but it's not what we sell."

Bruce's face froze when Marshall said that. It almost felt like he was being rejected again.

But Aiden had already prepared for questions like this.

"Take a risk. As simple as that." His confident tone surprised people in the room. "I know that the comic isn't for children, but at the same time, there's not a lot of mature-themed superhero novels in the market. It could be something new and you could just publish the first few chaps and see the reactions. You will know if it's worth it."

His words were precise, with each of them well thought out. Bruce almost got a heart attack seeing Aiden talk back to the owner of Vikings publishing like that.

But Aiden was able to do it because he wasn't an employee in the company. He was an author and celebrity who was fairly successful and he knew that Marshall had a good impression of him.

The novel quality was there anyway.

So he could speak without worry.

Thankfully, Marshall didn't seem to take any offence to it.

"You seem confident. Well, okay. Let's publish the first issue and see the reaction. If it's good, we will go ahead with it. I don't think we should shy away from exploring different demographics."

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After Aiden and Bruce's pitch was successful and it was finalised that Vikings publishing was going to issue the first chapter to critics and the audience, things went pretty quickly.

Bruce was almost unable to believe that his comic was going to be published. He had already given up on it.

But Aiden told him to keep his legs on the ground for now.

The fate of the series was going to be decided by the readers and reception. They had only gotten the pass to participate in the race, they had not won it yet.

Bruce understood his advice and didn't show a lot of emotions, using them to create better work.

At the same time, as the project was under Vikings publishing, they quickly made a contract for Aiden while Bruce became an employee of the publishing company.

Normally, writers in the company were asked to make characters or continue an ongoing one until one could get a chance to pitch their original comic. If the pitch was successful, it was common for that writer to join the company.

But Aiden wasn't going to do that. He had no reason to.

So, there was a separate contract for him to work on the project.

Vikings publishing also assigned a whole space for them to work in and brought in other employees to help in the project. Although there were 4 people other than Bruce and Aiden, it was a lot of help.

These people had the job of a letterer, penciller, inker and colourist. Making a comic took a lot of effort after all.

With their help, the work moved forward in a very professional manner as the others, aside from Bruce and him, already had experience.

Though, for a while, Aiden was scared that it would cause problems as the others might not think of Aiden and Bruce as much due to their age and inexperience.

But his worries were for nothing.

The others were very professional and Jim, who was overseeing the project as the editor, was someone who let the writer and main artists work in their own ways and commanded a lot of respect.

Just because of him, it was smooth sailing in terms of working together.

For the first issue, they needed to add more to their draft and correct a few things according to the suggestion of Jim.

While working on the comic, Aiden felt like he was learning a lot about how things worked in this industry. It was a completely new experience for him.

As he worked on it, he also felt like he was getting a bit better. Maybe it was just because his attention was completely away from his nightmares now or because the pills that Dr. Penny had given him were finally doing its job.

He didn't know what was true, but while writing down the scripts, he was letting out the feelings that he would experience after waking from cold nightmares.

It was an indescribable feeling for him.

Other than that, Aiden was also discussing with Jim and Bruce a very important thing.

The name of the graphic novel.

Originally, the name was simply Nightmare Guy, which was obviously something they couldn't use as it seemed like a children's novel like this.

So, there was a lot of discussion about the name as the release of the first issue was coming close.

All of them discussed a lot of names, including 'Night Warrior', 'Shadow Man', 'The Shadow thing', 'Caged God's disciple' and much more.

But none of them clicked with the story.

They either looked too simple or just plain. Some of them were also just names that a 13 year old might come up with.

In the end, Aiden decided to go with a title that he thought really suited the atmosphere of the graphic novel at its best.

Morpheus.

The name sounded similar to the name of a very cool vampire but it had nothing to do with it.

Aiden had chosen it because one of the titular gods in the comic has that as a nickname and he was connected with the story in a lot more than one way.

The main character was named Volke Victor alongside it.

The release of Morpheus was decided to be 3rd October as generally, Vikings publishing released their new issues every on every Tuesday.

As soon as it was locked, Aiden was a bit anxious.

He had complete confidence over his story, but he didn't know if it would reach the right audience.

Unlike with his first novel where he was assured due to getting an award, a comic was very different and new titles wouldtake time to warm up to the readers as original ones were already running for decades.

People prefer established ones better than new ones and Vikings publishing anyway didn't have too much dominance in the graphic novel industry.

So, it was a risk for everyone involved. But by this point, Aiden knew that his every move was a risk.

He could only endure being anxious till the results came out.

While Aiden was recovering from his mental health issues and doing a comic, he had completely slipped from the eye of the media.

The last big news about him was him winning a million dollars in a game show and then, the news of him fainting on the set.

After that, it was nothing and the media soon lost interest, mainly because Aiden's personal life wasn't worth a lot currently.

He wasn't an individual who would be seen in every other party and certainly wasn't someone who did questionable things, so his life was boring for the media.

Obviously, with his popularity rising, that would change as even a small thing like who he was talking to would get into tabloids but that was in the future.

Currently, there was spicier news for the media and as Aiden was also inactive in his social media accounts with his team just sending out a few things from time to time, his fan group started wondering where he was exactly.

At that time, a certain user posted a picture of him in Vikings publishing office cafeteria, eating lunch with a few people.

The photo was taken from a Skygram account.

Seeing that photo, the inactive group suddenly came to life.

[Aiden's wife: Where is that? That seems like a cafeteria? Can someone tell me the address? I feel like wanting to eat some food from the cafeteria.]

[Writer of Art of Yandere: Your stalker side is showing. Remember the Art of Yandere waifu. Never give away your innermost thoughts. You need to be innocent to the world and make them believe that the knife in your hand doesn't exist.]

[Nani: Brother, giving out a whole messed up sermon out of nowhere. Anyway, that's Viking publishing going by the name written in the far right corner. Probably an employee posted it.]

[Levine's wife: The question is what is he doing there? He's certainly not on break it seems.]

[Arthur Morgan's follower: Maybe a new book? Man, reminds me I need to finish up Behind the scenes. The story got too heavy for me midway, so I stopped.

[Hollywood Insider: It's not a book.]

[Moaning Pikachu: How do you know that? Your godly network got more information on Aiden? Man, are you actually a yandere, trying to know everything about Aiden?]

[Hollywood Insider: No, my stupid friend. Just do a simple search. Vikings publishing didn't have any novel with Aiden in their roster for the next three months. Even if it's a novel, it won't come out this year. Secondly, they added a new graphic novel to their roster for digital sales. Aiden's name has it as the writer and creator. He's doing a graphic novel for them. #BigBrain.]

Hearing that, a lot of people searched it up and it was true. They discussed this unexpected news when another post came up in the group.

It was a link to Aiden's latest post on his social media accounts. A post was talking about his graphic novel Morpheus.

A man entered a comic book store with his hands in his pocket. He was wearing a hoodie that covered his hair and some parts of his eyes, making him look like a shady individual.

It was fairly early in the morning and not a lot of people were inside.

One of the employees was arranging the comic books in their respective shelves next to the poster of a superhero movie that had come out two years ago and had been a box office behemoth.

With the rise of comic book movies, stores like these had benefitted the most as what was nerd culture before became popular culture.

The man took a look around and headed towards a certain corner where young adult comic books were stacked.

He picked up one of them about a man with metal claws and just went through it while keeping an eye on the graphic novel shelf next to where he was standing.

At that moment, a few people who looked to be college students walked in and headed straight for the Graphic novel shelf.

"Man, last month's issue of Breathe was amazing. Can't believe his mom was the one to seal his powers."

"Ah, I'm more excited for It's Vampire Time. That thing just rocks."

"You two really like comic books."

"You will too if you try them."

The man listened to the conversation of the college students as they walked past him. It was at that moment that one of them saw a strange cover and picked the book up.

"Morpheus. What's this one? I never saw it before."

The man's eyes shined seeing that.

He was Aiden, who had come to this comic book store just to see if people were going to buy Morpheus or not.

...

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote for this novel with your power stones and golden tickets :)

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"Morpheus? Looks like a new graphic novel. The art looks scary. It's probably a dark fantasy."

"Sounds cool."

"Yeah, but I don't know if it will be good. It's a completely new series, and you do know that there's not been a lot of good new characters or stories these days."

This was one of the problems with new age comics. None of their characters after a while had become iconic, and a majority of the sales were still from old and popular characters.

A lot of reasons were there for this, but one of them was pretty vital — Too much quantity in the superhero genre that nothing looked original.

That's why the three college students were unsure about it.

They didn't want to read something that didn't turn out to be good. One of them, who has extensive knowledge about comic book writers, took a look at the name of the writer and found no one significant.

So, he put it down but at that moment, the third friend who had earlier said that he didn't like comic books picked it up and marvelled at the cover art.

"This looks cool."

He muttered. The cover was especially designed and had the art of a person screaming. The face of the person was unclear, giving it an unique aesthetic.

Below it, the words, "A new age dark fantasy begins."

It was then that a big belly man walked out of a door behind the counter. He looked like the owner of the store, going by the atmosphere he was giving.

"Boys, you all are here again. It had already become a habit of mine to look for you three after opening up my store."

"I will take that as a compliment, Mr. Frye."

One of the college students said and the eyes of Mr. Frye suddenly glanced at Morpheus.

"Are you all buying that? It came yesterday."

"Have you read it?" The guy who was holding the comic asked.

"Yeah, it's pretty good. Has a subtle dark tone to it and there's just something attractive about it. Starts out cliche but ends up at a nice hook—"

Mr. Frye started and he was quickly interrupted.

"Don't tell me more." The guy said. "I will take it."

"Are you sure?" One of his friends asked. "You are not the type to buy comic books."

"I like dark and mature stuff. I will try this out."

Like that, the first issue got its first customer.

Aiden who saw all of it happening smiled, thinking that a small step was achieved. The college students left after that and Aiden stayed in the comic book store for a while longer.

Actually, he stayed for over an hour.

In the entire hour, four more copies of Morpheus were sold. They were bought by two young girls who probably bought them due to being Aiden's fans, an old man and a kid whose mom bought him that.

Seeing this, Aiden was satisfied, thinking that the graphic novel would do well and he didn't have to worry a lot.

He bought a few comic books to read as he felt like it would be rude if he spent more than an hour in the store for nothing.

As the store owner, Mr. Frye was putting his comics in a packet, he asked.

"You are Aiden, right? Celebrity and author of Morpheus."

Aiden unconsciously pulled down on his hoodie hearing that but in the end, he nodded. There was no point hiding it.

"Yeah. How did you find out? I thought I was hiding my face just enough."

"I have a good memory and it's easy to remember as not a lot of celebrities write graphic novels. Moreover, you were suspicious enough with that hoodie and not like you bought anything for an hour. You were either a comic book writer, trying to see if people are buying his works or a thief." Mr. Frye said before adding. "I enjoyed Morpheus a lot."

Aiden smiled hearing that.

"Thank you."

"Do you mind giving me an autograph on the comic? I have a hobby of collecting them."

"Sure."

Mr. Frye grinned hearing that and quickly brought out a copy of Morpheus. Aiden signed it and Mr. Frye thanked him.

"Feel free to come again anyday. I will be waiting for the next volume of Morpheus.

There were a lot of websites and apps that had communities related to comic books. One of the most popular ones was Zeddit — A site that takes pride in having more quality than quality in terms of users.

It had every community possible on it. From cat videos to murder tricks — Everything was there. The comic book community was also very popular, especially with the rise of superhero movies.

On it, one of the users suddenly made a thread — [Morpheus — my mom got it for today and I loved it. Has anyone else read it yet?].

The post got a lot of varied responses.

[Eat Your D: What's that? Did Zero International released a comic book for the cult classic [It's Morbin time]. I would actually buy it ngl.]

[My Best friend is named Loneliness: I think it's a newly released graphic novel by Vikings publishing. They are trying to make something worthwhile in this industry but no success yet. The art looks good from what I found online.]

[Old Basement Dad: I'm actually glad that there are new characters still releasing. Comics need something revolutionary at the moment because I feel like giving up these days. The quantity is too much now.]

[Owner of OnlyGrans: My boyfriend bought it for me today because I liked how the main character looked when I saw it. Really liked it and would be following it.]

[Blue Cat with Gadgets: Looks interesting but would need to see. Can't expect a new title to do well these days unless it's really interesting. The first chapter was a mess in my opinion.]

[GTA 6 hacker: I liked it a lot and it's by a celebrity Aiden Silvereye. I only found it out because his name was on the cover and then I googled it. I feel like it would get good traction just because of that.]

[Aunty Sugar: I liked it a lot. I Will be following it from now on.]

Like that, people talked about it and although not a lot of people had heard of it, it was still getting good response from the ones that had.

It was undoubtedly a good sign for a new title that would just strengthen itself with the following issues.

The thing with Morpheus was that it was treated as something disposable if it didn't perform well, straight from the first issue.

That was the condition that Marshall had made after Aiden had told him to take a risk. His stance was harsh but according to him, it takes a lot to publish a graphic novel and there was no point in waiting for it to get picked up if it failed to perform initially.

Aiden and Bruce had agreed, having no other choice and after a week of being out in the market, Morpheus sales record and critical reviews were finally out.

'I feel like I would get a heart attack.'

Bruce thought as he sat in front of Jim. Aiden, who was beside him, looked far more composed than him.

Bruce attributed it to him being a celebrity and knowing how to handle pressure situations. But for him, it was taxing.

'I could lose my job if it's not good.'

He thought, frowning inwardly.

His days had been going pretty well these days with him doing the thing that he loved the most in the world but there was a crippling anxiety about how the graphic novel would do.

Aiden had told him not to think about it a lot but currently, he couldn't help but do. After all, the results were going to be clear to him.

"Well, as you know, the sales report is out. It's only for the first week but I felt like I should tell you two. There are also the critical reviews."

Jim said, looking at the both of them.

"How are they?" Aiden asked straight and Jim took his time to answer it.

"Unexpected."

Bruce's heart fell hearing that but Jim wasn't finished yet.

"It sold 15k units in a week. As you know, it's not a small number. The average comic sold around 30-50k a month, so we are sure of getting at least that much."

"Ain't that good news?"

"Yeah it is. Though, it's clear that your following played a part in it but it's just initial. The public review of the graphic novel is positive and even the critics liked it. Look at these."

Jim pushed forward a document with the critic reviews written on it. Bruce placed his gaze on it and saw that most of them were praising the graphic novel.

A review called the art beautiful and the ending perfect for a monthly issued comic as it's a great hook. Another said that it's a solid start and the second and third issue would determine the faith of the comic.

Bruce wasn't able to believe it for a second.

"So, was the risk worth it?" Aiden asked, smiling. He already had a feeling that the graphic novel would do well and was keeping a track on the online reactions to the comic.

"Yeah, it is worth it. We are going to continue it at least till the third issue as things would be much more clearer than. Anyway, for now, you two did a great job."

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"You two did a great job."

Hearing those words, Bruce wasn't able to control his already rampant emotions. He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

He was very emotional at that moment.

But Jim wasn't finished yet.

He also noticed that Bruce was having a moment but he needed to give him more surprises. There were special things to show.

"Well, with that, these come for you two."

Saying that, he pulled up a box that was filled with letters that seemed to be handwritten. Aiden understood what they were as soon as they saw them.

Even with the rise of digital comics where the readers could just leave a comment of appreciation, fan letters were still a thing and they felt much more sincere.

"These letters are for us?"

He asked, looking at Jim. Bruce's eyes also froze at him as he nodded.

"Yeah, people wrote them for you two. The company normally collects them every month for the artists. These came for you two yesterday. Go through them slowly."

As Jim completed his words, Bruce picked one of them up. His hand was shaking a little.

Opening it up, he read every word carefully and after reading it once, he read it again and again.

The letter was written by a female fan who appreciated the art style a lot and felt like it would become one of the best graphic novels.

Bruce rubbed his eyes as he was unable to believe it.

He was still in doubt whether it was a reality or not.

In the next moment, he broke down into tears.

Jim was a bit surprised as he hadn't expected this but he understood that it was because the young man in front of him had struggled a lot and these fan letters were proof that his struggle was over now.

'I feel like I did a good thing in my quest to get over my nightmares.'

Aiden thought, smiling at Bruce.

There were moments in one's life where you would unintentionally help someone and that's what had happened. Aiden just wanted a medium to jot down his thoughts and that turned out to be making comics.

As he didn't have any skill in drawing or illustrating, he naturally turned to Bruce who he had accidentally met. He did all this for his reasons but while doing that, Bruce reached the position he always wanted to reach.

It was accidental but Aiden was glad Bruce got his due.

"Thank you. Really thank you."

Bruce turned to Aiden and said. One of his hands was wiping up at his eyes, trying to control the tears.

"You deserved it."

"Still, if you hadn't come to my home that day, I wouldn't have gotten here. I'm really grateful to you."

"If you are really that grateful, then let's make Morpheus a big hit."

Aiden said and Bruce rigorously nodded his head.

At that moment, Aiden opened up his system to look at Bruce's status. Surprisingly, he noticed that he had just gotten a skill level.

[Bruce Morse] [27 years]

[Drawing level: Level 7]

[Special skill: None.]

Bruce's skill was on Level 6 till now but right now, it had levelled up out of nowhere.

Aiden could only think that he reached a breakthrough after seeing the letters from the fans of Morpheus.

After realising that his work was good enough to be liked by people, he had decided to give his everything and that had helped him level up.

Aiden felt like him levelling up would help the graphic novel more.

Anyway, he had a feeling that Morpheus was going to do better and better.

Like Aiden thought, the next few days were great for Morpheus. The sales kept on increasing. Although the hardcopy sales weren't something to brag about, the digital ones were exploding.

The graphic novel was blowing up on digital platforms and it attracted a lot of readers.

Surprisingly, a strange data came up related to Morpheus.

It was that more than 40 percent of the audience of Morpheus was female. A lot of women were taking an interest in it out of nowhere and it was hard to pinpoint a reason.

After all, women comic book readers were comparatively less than men.

After looking for it, one of the reasons was the appearance of the main character Volke. With long hair and a slim body, he was someone that a lot of women felt attracted to.

Moreover, the themes of the graphic novel were a lot universal and it was catering to any demographic. That surely helped the graphic novel.

Out of nowhere, Vikings publishing had a winner and one that was breaking a lot of tropes.

They had never targeted the female populace but they surely liked the female readership.

Unlike initial thoughts like the mature theme would hinder the graphic novel to reach its potential, it had all been proven incorrect.

Adults liked what they saw and it was the only thing that mattered.

Critics were also showering praises on the work as a lot of them felt like it was a breath of fresh air.

A major comic book website did a review of the first issue and wrote, "Morpheus is great in its art style and that's always a plus point but it has the heart too as the story takes its time to settle in but when it does, you connect with the main character and the ending of the first issue gives one enough reason to keep reading."

Another review came from a MeTuber who normally made comic and movie reviews.

He wrote, "This is a new character, someone not in a shared universe, meaning that he's trying to create his own universe but we have not seen anything of it. Art is great but the book wasn't able to sell me in the first half as it takes a lot of time to get to the main thing. I could see why it does that and although admirable, it leaves a lot to be desired. Though, I won't drop it as the work surely needs more time to shine."

In his review, he was less positive about the graphic novel and seemed unsure of the next issue, pointing out the world building factor.

Aiden had actually taken it to account too when he was working on the first issue and the major reason why he hadn't given a lot to build the world was because he wanted to get a connection between the main character and the readers first.

There was enough time to build the world after that as in the second volume, the fantasy side of the comic was going to be explored more and in the third, the powers of the main character would be the main topic.

As Morpheus was working well, Aiden hadn't forgotten about [Sherlock of the Shadows].

The Zetflix series was going to be released in November and before that, Aiden had to promote it and follow a round of media interactions and other promotional activities.

It was a hindrance to the graphic novel work but Aiden had already completed the script for this one's issue, so he left everything to Bruce.

Phineas had been working on the post production of [Sherlock of the Shadows] since the day shooting had ended. He wasn't the type to take rest before getting into it and was someone who treated his work like the world until it was over.

The VFX of the series took a long time to correct and Zetflix didn't give tight deadlines to the VFX artist unlike other companies in the market.

It was mostly due to Ava who knew that not giving enough time would just ruin the series.

At the same time, she was also working with the marketing team to promote the series well. Posters of it were released one after another and aside from that, she used the media to thoroughly make interest in the project.

It was interesting to note that most of the promotion was done around Aiden.

This was done by promoting things that had happened during the shooting like Jeremy giving an interview about how Aiden surprised him and how he didn't think much of him before that.

There were also articles on how Aiden got too much into the role and needed to take psychological help to get out of it.

This type of tactic wasn't original at all.

A lot of movies were promoted like that, trying to create an image that the actor gave his all.

Although it was true most of the time, there had also been fake cases about it. Once, a movie was promoted like this but when it came out, critics bashed the acting and it was clear to everyone that it was just fake marketing.

Thankfully, it was true in the case of [Sherlock of the Shadows] and it did make headlines. Media was interested as Zetflix was making the supernatural detective series it's main project for the winter.

Ava had obviously asked Aiden before using it in marketing material, not wanting to do anything rash in their newly formed mutual relationship.

He had agreed with it after a little thought, being fine with it until it was helping the series.

He knew very well that making a good series was just basic. If it didn't reach the audience, it was going to become a forgotten work.

At a media event, the trailer of [Sherlock of the Shadows] was released with the press being present there and after that, a premiere was held to showcase the first episode of the series.

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TV shows premiere were nothing new. Though in the past, only movie premieres would be given importance.

But as time went by, the TV shows had gotten a lot of following and some of them were even more popular than blockbuster movies. This has been strengthened by the rise of streaming platforms.

The idea of binge watching a whole series was a great one and unlike shows on television, they don't have to wait a week for new episodes. Due to this, it had gotten a lot of popularity.

Even then, there was a lot of difference in premiers. Small series won't get one as the media won't be interested until it has gotten a lot of buzz from the audience. Thankfully, [Sherlock of the Shadows] was the opposite of it.

It was Zetflix main series at the end of the world and they wanted it to be big, so everything was grand.

Aiden went through interviews with every major magazine in Hollywood with a lot of photoshoots for promotions. The questions were pretty simple.

Most of them focused on Aiden's accident on the set, why he signed the project and how he feels to be the lead in a major Zetflix series.

The streaming company mostly used unknown faces in their series, so it was considered as a breakthrough if one managed to land a major role.

But Aiden's case was different.

His popularity was surging every now and then due to multiple projects in different industries. Zetflix was glad to get him on board rather than it being the opposite.

Aiden just conveyed that in the interview, trying to imply that he wanted to do the series not because of the streaming platform but because of the interesting premise.

Aside from that, there were also questions related to his mental health.

Apparently, a paparazzi had found out that he was taking psychological help and had leaked it to media companies.

Aiden tackled it with a sense of humour, "Well, it was a new experience for me. Playing a character who could see ghosts made me paranoid and my personality changed a bit to Finn Wheeler. There were bad things and a few good things — I got the number of a lot of girls because my character is a playboy in nature."

The answer was met with a chuckle and Aiden just repeated it in all his interviews. After all, it was tough to come up with new answers for the same question.

It was annoying but something that a celebrity needs to deal with.

After the interviews ended, Aiden flew to Los Angeles for the premier of his series which was happening in the Chinese theatre, one of the most prestigious halls in Hollywood.

Zetflix had called several reporters, celebrities and other people for the event.

It was not like they were doing this because they wanted to make the hype. It was also because they were very confident in the series.

It was liked by most authoritative figures in the company and hence, they were proudly showing it to the world.

"Damn! There's so many celebrities here."

"It's basically a field day for us."

"Wow! Who's that model? She looks gorgeous."

"Jeremy Hill is here. It looks like the star case is finally appearing."

"Zetflix is really making an example to show that they are still the number one platform despite others trying to one up them."

Outside the Chinese theatre, it looked like a mess with so many reporters, celebrities and other people. The lanes were divided in two parts for people to walk in.

Suddenly, a car came up on the red carpet and Aiden and Wade walked out of it. Tom, who was driving the car, took it towards the parking lot as the media attention turned towards Aiden.

Like vultures seeing their prey, their eyes shone with a glint as they rushed towards Aiden. It was fair to say that it was a situation that Aiden both loved and hated.

He felt a bit uncomfortable seeing so many reporters swarming him but he needed to get used to it.

Unlike other events, the attention was going to be only on him for this one.

He moved forward as Wade patted his back.

"Aiden, what are your thoughts about the premier? Do you think it will be able to get good ratings?"

"Zetflix's other series are flopping left and right. In that environment, do you think your series would hold on?"

"How did you attempt this role? Did you do something special to get into the mindset of your character?"

Aiden answered all these questions one by one, trying to stay calm and only answer one thing at a time.

The tactic worked as reporters keenly listened to his words and a few of them wrote them down even while others were recording with their cameras.

The problem was that Aiden didn't know how to get out of here. Everytime, he would try to move forward, a question would come up.

As he wanted to answer as much he could about the show, he couldn't just leave.

It was then that someone approached him.

"Aiden, there are a lot of people who want to talk to you. Let's go."

He turned around to see Ava wearing a red dress. He nodded before waving to the reporters.

"I need to go now."

Saying that, he started walking with Ava. Cameras still followed them but at least he could breath now.

"Thanks." Aiden said, looking towards her as she smiled.

"No problem and I did have people to introduce you to. I think you know one of them."

Ava's words made him curious as they walked through a crowd of people. A few of them came to talk to Aiden, just congratulating him on the show and introducing themselves.

'It's hard to remember every name I hear but it's more important to know someone than to not.'

He thought in his mind.

He had gotten into the habit of making mental notes on every person he meets that looked even a little important.

"Here they are."

Ava muttered and Aiden looked ahead, noticing two people that looked like a couple. He recognised one of them.

"Zavier, it's been a long time."

The man was wearing glasses and his hair was dyed white. He was Zavier Lamb with a changed look from the time they have worked on [Black Saints].

"It's really been a while, man. I am hearing a lot about you. I still remember the shooting of [Black Saints]. It has been two years."

"Yeah, you haven't directed anything after that, right? I heard you acted as a screenwriter on a movie but nothing apart from that."

p Zavier had taken a long break after a commercial hit [Black Saints]. Aiden had read that a lot of people felt like it was a pity because they considered him the next big commercial blockbuster director.

But he lost all momentum.

"Yeah, I got married and wanted to spend more time with my kids." Zavier said, pointing towards the woman standing next to her.

She was a blonde woman who looked to be in her mid 30s. Aiden recalled seeing her on the set once or twice.

It looked like they were dating for a long time.

"Florence Levine. I have watched your performances a lot. You are a good actor."

Florence said with a fox-like gaze.

"Thanks."

He simply said that as Ava talked about how Florence was a director herself and had directed a few movies in the past. Though, Aiden could only nod as he hadn't watched them.

Two of them were horror movies and one was directly on streaming platforms.

After that, both Florence and Ava left to talk to some other people and Aiden couldn't help but think.

'Ava is probably collaborating with her on a movie.'

It was pretty obvious, knowing that Ava was a business minded individual.

"You have grown a lot since playing Kai."

Zavier suddenly said, grabbing Aiden's attention. They were left alone now.

"Yeah, I've been trying something new every time since playing him." Aiden said, smiling. Kai was his first impactful role and it has stayed with him till now. "Weren't there sequel plans for it? I remember you discussed it on the set, wanting to show Kai's origin."

Zavier nodded at that question.

"I have several ideas written down on it but I got busy in life. Now, I'm trying to pitch a romantic story to a few studios. Granite films still want me to do the sequel but it's a dark territory. My life's very happy now. I don't know if I want to approach it."

"I can understand that. You should send me your script whenever it's ready."

"What? You want to audition for it?"

"I will need to see if the idea works for me. I am going to sign new projects at the end of the year only."

"I will send you the script in a few days. It's good to have actors interested in it from the start."

As a creator, Aiden knew that there was a time for everything and it was important for one to know when was the right time.

If he would have tried making something like Morpheus a few months ago, it wouldn't have worked because his mentality was completely different than.

He hadn't gone through the experience that was necessary to write such a story.

Although it would be a lie if he said that he didn't feel disappointment. Kai was a beloved character of his and he wanted to see how he would play him now.

Especially with the bonus he gets on villain characters.

'For now, let's focus on the premier.'

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The premier was only for the first episode of [Sherlock of the Shadows] but the critics were still very excited about it. The trailer was well cut and had intrigued people a lot, including critics.

Phineas past records and well proven star cast was part of the reason too.

They were particularly excited for the no nonsense detective drama that it promised. The supernatural setting was thought to be just an added effect to gain more eyeballs.

After all, VFX was a huge factor in more people turning in these days.

As they sat down to watch the first episode, they couldn't help but wonder how it was going to be and where it would stand among the plethora of detective shows that were already out in the market.

A lot of these shows would be hampered by the subplots that won't connect to the main plot and a lot of characters that are not needed.

Would [Sherlock of the Shadows] be the same? Or would it do something different? Something that could create a platform for the new age of detective shows.

When the first scene started after the initial credits, everyone in the theatre realised that the show was trying to achieve something different.

Just in the first scene, Finn's character started off by telling the father of the church about his gifts and the things that had happened to him in the last few months.

One of the critics in the audience, Liam Daes, felt like it was a very interesting scene and a strong start.

Unlike his expectations, it didn't started off with a murder for the main character to solve but it tried to establish a connection between Finn and his father.

It was a good creative choice according to Liam.

Aiden's acting was also a standout for him. Having followed the work of the young actor, he knew the kind of roles he had done and Finn looked different compared to those.

At least his last role in [Disconnected] gave a very different vibe. It was a great change in the eyes of Liam as it signified that Aiden was trying to expand the variety of roles in his filmography.

One more thing that he liked was the soundtrack that gave a sense of eeriness even though it was adjusted to be on a low volume. The colour pallet and how everything looked a bit heavy also suited the atmosphere of the series.

'If the series could maintain this level of technical ability, I would need to write a separate article on it.'

Liam thought in his mind.

Then, the episode moved forward to a crime scene where a woman has jumped off a clock tower. Finn hears the news on the radio as he's flirting with a girl in his room.

He quickly left towards the crime scene hearing that, not really caring about the girl who could only be stupefied.

Again, this scene was to establish a playboy self to Finn as well as showing his willingness to go towards crimes and mysteries.

Liam felt like it was an interesting contrast as in the first scene, Finn seemed more serious, his voice having a strength that was not present in the second one. It was clearly a hint towards the character growth.

After that, the episode moved at a rapid pace as it began to establish the police in the town and their connection with Finn which was a hot and a cold one as well as trying to show Finn's personality scene by scene.

All this was obviously connected to the murder that Finn was trying to solve.

But till the first half of the 50 minute episode, nothing supernatural had happened.

This changed as soon as the second half started as Finn wasn't able to understand how the murder had happened. Things didn't match in his mind and even when he knew who the murderer was, he wasn't sure how the murder had happened.

As he tried to figure this out, strange things started happening. It was reported that the dead body was suddenly losing her flesh and Finn had started to hear strange things out of nowhere.

This leads him to investigate a house that he felt like was connected to the murderer.

By this point, only 5 minutes were left in the episode and it was then that Liam and the other critics were truly scared.

Although one of the genres of the series was horror, they did not expect it to be like this.

No, rather than the scene, it was more due to the performance and camera movements. The last scene had started with a long shot but it has slowly become a close-up shot as weird noises had erupted from here and there in the room.

The fear and uneasiness on Aiden's face was displayed really well to the point that Liam was becoming more immersed in it.

He felt like there was something different about it.

Having watched several movies in every genre possible, Liam had seen great performances. Some of them were even on the level that seems unachievable to most actors.

Aiden's acting was not on that level.

But there was something different about it.

'There's a deep sense of realism in it. A bit of chaos and it's making me feel uneasy just by watching it.'

As soon as Liam thought that, ghosts appeared out of nowhere. The audience was expecting it as the atmosphere was hinting towards it but when they appeared, it was hard to not scream.

A few audience members had that reaction and even Liam was holding his hand on his heart.

Only one person in the audience had a disappointed expression on his face.

'Those ghosts look bad. More like, the VFX isn't up to the standards of what I saw.'

Aiden clicked his tongue.

His immersion had created real ghosts but the VFX company wasn't able to match them. What he had seen was not comparable to the ghosts on the screen.

Due to this, he even felt like his expressions were a bit exaggerated.

Obviously, he understood that it was not the fault of the VFX company. It was just that his immersion was too real and VFX ghosts didn't look that scary to him now.

It seemed like only he thought that as the others looked very scared as Finn ran for his life as the ghosts tried to grab his leg.

The episode ended after that on a cliff as Finn struggled for his life.

Phineas had deliberately done it as he wanted each episode to make the excitement about the next.

Soon, the sound of clapping and cheering came from the audience.

The critics, reporters and the invited celebrities all looked like they enjoyed and liked it as there was a look of admiration on their faces.

A lot of people gathered towards Phineas to congratulate him. Ava seemed to be talking to a few executives from Titan studios and even Aiden got surrounded soon.

"It was a great episode. I thoroughly enjoyed it."

"I feel like Aiden is going to get his first Emmy nomination this year. The acting was superb and we didn't even see a glimpse of Jeremy Hill's character in the first episode."

"I can't wait for the second one now."

People praised the series, particularly Aiden. It was clear from the first episode that the show was going to focus a lot on his characters and that means good acting is a big necessity.

Aiden had hit the ball out of the park in that regard.

While all this was going on, a gaze followed Aiden with interest.

'He's a much better actor than I initially thought. Ava was right.'

Florence Levine thought as she started walking towards Aiden.

[Sherlock of the Shadows] first episode gives glimpses of the series vast potential that would be revealed in the upcoming episodes. Phineas Flinch made enrolls in his directing ability and the cast seems to be the highlight of the entire series.

Aiden Silvereye might bag his first Emmy nomination with his first Zetflix series. He brings a special charm and vibe to the character that's hard to ignore. The world building seems to be the focus in the first episode and it truly pays off.

Zetflix series [Sherlock of the Shadows] might be the next big one from the billion dollar platform. The first episode truly lands well and with the promise of it just getting better and better, we could expect a show unlike any other on the platform. The soundtrack made by the lead Aiden Silverye is the best part of the first episode.

After the premier, critics posted a lot of reviews online and the first episode got a lot of positive feedback.

It was good news for the people who have liked the trailer. The reviews floating around just ensured that the series won't disappoint them.

Fortunately, no big series was going to air in November, so [Sherlock of Shadows] couldn't get a better time to air. There is only one famous series that has its second season coming at the end of November but it won't hinder [Sherlock of the Shadows].

Surprisingly, a lot of people were still unsure whether all the positive talk about the series was actually coming from a good place.

Zetflix mediocrity had made people doubt them and a few of them were just tired of dark and gritty series.

With all these factors mixed in, it was very interesting to see whether the series would be able to make an impact on the audience.

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It seems like you are showing improvement. It's rapid too which is a very good thing. Are you feeling light these days?"

Dr. Penny asked as she stared at Aiden. He was currently in the middle of a session. It had been two months since she had told Aiden to release his thoughts in the form of writing.

"Yeah, I think I'm feeling way lighter than before. I'm getting a good sleep these days."

"No nightmares?"

"They ended a week ago. My paranoia is less even though it's not completely gone yet."

He said with a smile.

Compared to two months ago when he kept feeling restless and not in sync with his real personality, he was now slowly becoming like himself before the shoot of [Sherlock of the Shadows].

Not everything was healed obviously.

He still felt like some habits of Finn had stayed with him but his personality was becoming less like him, meaning that he was finally getting over him.

"It's a great sign, Aiden." Dr. Penny smiled. "Now, we could decrease the pills and lower sessions every week. Your new graphic novel certainly helped you and the images in it are certainly very… interesting."

She picked up the first issue of the graphic novel. On the cover, there was an image of a ghost with the shadow of a man.

The ghosts were similar to the one Aiden would see in his nightmares.

He had described it to Bruce who had taken a few tries before he got the exact same grotesque image.

The ghosts were going to be species living in a dimensional crack in the novel.

"Bruce, the artists that I worked with, made it. He's talented."

"I could see that."

The topic moved to different things after that, about other aspects of Aiden's life. Particularly his work life.

He had decided to only take a break till the release of his Zetflix series because his health was now getting better. Though, Aiden would still not return to another film set till next year.

Dr. Penny had told him to not take any more roles till he totally heals, especially ones that could have a negative effect on him.

"So, you have not signed any new movies till now, right?"

"Not yet. I'm busy enough with the new issue of Morpheus and the promotions."

Aiden said but Dr. Penny noticed that his tone was a bit different.

"You sure about it?" She pushed on and Aiden had no choice but to reveal what he was hiding.

"Uh, I have a meeting for a new movie in an hour."

Dr. Penny glared at him hearing that and frowned.

"Focus on your health for now. You have not completely gotten over Finn—"

"Just listen to me. The movie won't go into production till next year. It's not an immediate project and I would be in discussions with the director till December at least. Only after that I would sign it. I only know the premise till now and haven't read the script."

Aiden didn't say that it was because his stakes would be higher after [Sherlock of Shadows, so he would be paid more than.

"It's only talk, right?"

"Yes." Aiden looked at her. "Dr. Penny, I'm taking your suggestions and following them as best I could. I care for myself and won't do anything that would put me at risk."

It was only after that Dr. Penny calmed down. She knew that Aiden was a very calm and mature individual from the talks she had with him.

The session ended soon after that and Wade picked up Aiden for the meeting.

"How's the session with your shrink gone? You didn't hit on her too, right? She looked pretty fine when I saw her."

Wade said, looking at Aiden with a snarky smile on his face. Aiden ignored it as he replied.

"It went as usual. My sessions and pills are going to decrease so it's a good thing. I'm improving and Dr. Penny is married."

"Then just wait till she's divorced."

Wade shrugged but Aiden could see that he was relieved due to his progress.

"She looked pretty happy to even think about divorce."

"Say that to the divorce rates in America."

They both bantered like that as they entered the elevator. Both of them were in the headquarters of Titan studios and were going to the office of Ava.

It was the first time Aiden had set foot in one of the Big 6 studios in Hollywood and he had to say that everywhere he looked, he felt a bit surprised.

The place was enormous and he could see a lot of notable figures from time to time. Established actors, directors, producers — it seemed like the hub of Hollywood in a way.

Though that was the same for every Big 6 studio. They were the ones to give the biggest blockbusters in the last few decades after all.

"You are sure about the meeting, right?"

Wade turned towards him and asked as they reached the seventh floor and got off the elevator.

"Why?"

"Well, you told me about Ava and I think it's great to have someone influential behind our backs but Florence Levine doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Her filmography isn't great."

"I know that well but I liked the idea she told me and directors hone their craft with every project they do. It's the same with actors. If I don't mind doing a project with a debutant, I shouldn't be wary of bad filmography. There are directors who take time before finding their niche."

Florence had approached him right after the premier of [Sherlock of the Shadows]. During their conversation, she talked about her next movie idea.

Aiden had found it interesting.

The idea was basically a full blown drama set in Hollywood. It wasn't similar to something like Behind the scenes as that story was far more gritty and serious.

By the way Florence had explained the story, it looked like an over the top production with an emphasis on power struggles in the industry and a character's journey to rise up in a dark industry.

For the most part, Aiden had felt like the story was similar to his but in a more exaggerated and explicit tone.

"I can't refute your words but don't sign it just because you like a girl."

Wade smiled and just as Aiden was about to refute his words, Ava's assistant approached them and led them to her office.

Unsurprisingly, her office was one of the biggest that Aiden had ever seen.

Florence was already present there. As Aiden and Wade entered, both of them got up to greet them.

As it was a professional meeting, they quickly got to the topic without wasting any time.

There were a lot of things to talk about the movie, mainly the plot and the characters.

Sadly, the script wasn't present as according to Florence, she was still setting off the rough edges of it and would only be able to give the script to Aiden in two weeks.

He and Wade were fine with it as it looked like Florence had a good grasp of characters.

"Aiden, I feel like you would suit in one of the supporting roles in the movie. It's a character called Falcon Nelson and he would have a significant role in the movie as the main villain and rival of the female protagonist."

"I thought you were going to go with an old, influential person as the villain."

"No, it's too cliche. Falcon Nelson is the heir to a billion dollar studio. Kind of a shrewd business who would try to hinder the path of the protagonist. He's clearly a bad guy but he has a lot of charisma, so I'm sure that you would enjoy playing him."

Florence's movie was called Stars on the Ground and the movie had a female lead who would be a dreamer, trying to make it in Hollywood.

As for his role, Aiden liked villain roles, especially due to the boosts that he would get and the role of Falcon sounded nice as Florence narrated it.

He felt like the role was similar to someone like Tyler Reed and it was funny because he was fighting against those people since the beginning of his career.

Maybe because of that, Aiden felt like doing it.

According to what Ava said, the scale of the movie was going to be big with a 60 million dollar production.

A drama wouldn't cost so much but they were going for huge sets and costume design with a particular bright tone for the whole production.

One more reason that Aiden felt like it was a good opportunity was because the award shows generally liked movies based on Hollywood. A 60 million dollar production meant that they were trying to go for commercial and critical success.

Moreover, Florene felt pretty serious about wanting to make people go to cinemas not only for superhero movies.

As he listened to the narration, Aiden raised a point.

"I liked the overall tone of the movie but the female protagonist, Lucia. I have some doubts about her."

"What doubts?" Florence raised an eyebrow.

"You said that early in her career, she would try to sleep with powerful men for roles and I do believe that those types of things happen and it's a big problem in the industry but then, in the second half, you described a scene where she would talk down to an actress who did the exact same thing to gain the role that was supposed to be her. I understand her anger but isn't that hypocritical?"

Hearing that, Florence froze.

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The atmosphere became a bit weird and everyone could notice it. Florence's face was frozen. She had not expected a question like this to appear from Aiden.

Thinking a bit and composing herself, she replied.

"There are other underlying meanings in the whole conversation and she was angry, so she retaliated like that."

"But that doesn't change the hypocrisy." Aiden pushed on. "And I don't have a problem with a hypocritical protagonist. The whole industry is like that but by the way, you talked about her character, it's almost like she's a glorified personality, the heroine that people need to like."

Each word made Florence's face more blank. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she was trying to decipher Aiden's words but failing to do so.

Besides her, Ava just watched this with a smile, having no intentions to interfere in the conversation. Wade was the same.

He even looked to be enjoying himself, probably thinking that Florence looked funny.

"Well, she's the soul of the movie. So people are going to like her either way."

"That doesn't always work. It's really how you are showing things. I don't think people would like hypocrisy if the character isn't shown to be that. Actions make characters what they are, words are just that — words."

Aiden tried to explain it as best as he could.

Though, he kinda wished that he had a script to go through it first. What he was speaking was mostly what he had gotten from Florence's words and by the look of her face, he wasn't wrong either.

His intention was not to go against the director who had worked hard on the script but give his thoughts about the story.

"You are—"

"Let's end it here, shall we." Ava interfered as Florence again began to speak. "I think you should take Aiden's advice. They might help you in setting off the rough edges."

Her words were a bit cold but they were precise. Wade almost wanted to whistle seeing this.

'Producer backing is really something.'

He thought in his mind, trying hard to not show any expressions.

Florence hesitated to speak hearing that, contemplating a few things in her mind but she ultimately nodded her head.

"I think we should get back to talking about Aiden's character."

Like that, the topic moved to that and it was mostly smooth sailing from there on. Florence was a bit bitter but she knew that she needed to be professional.

She wanted to leave a good impression on Ava, being only the first time they were working together.

The small argument in the middle aside, it was a good first talk for Aiden on the movie that could become his next venture.

Days quickly went by as Aiden promoted [Sherlock of the Shadows] in various events and even went on an online talk show for it.

In the middle of it, the second issue of Morpheus was released and it again got a great response. At the same time, the female readership kept being high.

Vikings publishing was very happy about it and they felt like they have gotten lucky here. They were planning to increase the promotion for Morpheus from the third issue and see the reactions.

As the genre of the comic being dark fantasy meant that it still had a niche audience, they needed to take cautious steps to keep the good response going.

Though, their biggest worry was still Aiden who has a completely different career rather than being just a writer.

There was no way that he could solely work on Morpheus for at least a year, so there was a sense of restlessness because they knew that they would need to prepare for the time when Aiden would leave.

When Marshall discussed it with Aiden, he told him that he wasn't going to let another author write his world.

Even with him giving the pointers for the upcoming arc, it would be extremely hard to write something that you didn't originally make with the same quality.

Aiden had no intention of damaging Morpheus with that and he assured Marshall that he would not leave the project in the middle.

Though, he knew that he won't be able to give every bit of his time to it and hence, the release rate of the issues would probably become one every two months but it was still better than lowering the quality of the project.

Aiden was creating the graphic novel as a way of getting better, so he wasn't going to give it up just like that. It was a nice side project for him.

After the discussions on Morpheus, his much-awaited series [Sherlock of the Shadows] was finally released on 13 November.

Just on the first day, a lot of viewers tuned in.

In an online blog community about movie discussions and reviews, the admins created a thread about [Sherlock of Shadows] as soon as it was released and just two hours after it, it had more than 268 comments.

With Zetflix promoting the series a lot and the release date being Saturday night, a lot of people tuned it just to know if the hype was worth it.

[Harry's saliva: I just finished the first episode of it and I have to say it was pretty good. Felt like it could have been tighter but I don't think it stayed off from what the critics' review said about the first episode.]

[Wilde Screams: Is the episode scary? I'm scared to watch it because horror is listed as one of the themes.]

[Sherlock in a frock: Only the last bits of the episode were scary and if I'm honest, it was a pretty great twist. I feel like the show is following more of a superhero origin story plotline mixed with mystery and an overall serious and gritty tone.]

[Deep with the Deep: I loved it. I wish superhero movies were like this instead of characters making a joke about seeing their friend dying. Though, the playboy trait of Finn felt cliche and something the show should have avoided.]

[That's what he said: I just finished the second episode and till now, the show had been above average to brilliant in a few scenes. Like how Aiden's character is trying to check his powers and get mastery over them.]

[I have 69 wives: Didn't like the first episode. Not because of the plot or something but these types of shows don't appeal to me. I'm so sick of a gritty life that I don't want to watch it in a series. Zetflix, give me 30-year-olds playing as teenage dudes.]

[What colour is your Bugatti: I think this will surely become a huge hit. I loved the first three episodes.]

With [Sherlock of the Shadows] having a lot of hype, it opened up at number 7 on the Top 10 series list on Zetflix but just in two hours, it was at number 5.

People were rapidly binge-watching the whole series, loving every minute of it. It was the same for the critics who have only watched the first episode of the premier.

They also started watching from the second episode, having the job to write a fully detailed article on it.

They also have a lot of questions and doubts in their minds.

The first episode was undoubtedly great but will it continue? Or was it going to fizzle out? It could also be that only some episodes were good and the others won't be of the same quality.

There were various thoughts in the mind of critics but after they had completed the series, they only had praises left to say.

One of them wrote in his Sparrow handle, "[Sherlock of the Shadows] is a rebranding of a detective genre that shows how it could become much more. With most things already tried in the world, it feels like a breath of fresh air with solid characters."

Like that, there were more detailed reviews on the great aspects of the show. Particularly, Aiden's acting, especially in the scenes involving heavy VFX, was praised a lot.

Jeremy Hill was the actor who got the most applause after him. Though, at this point, it was no big deal for him to give out a great performance as everyone knew how good of an actor he was.

Other aspects like the pacing, setting, atmosphere and soundtrack were also praised.

With these things some negatives were bound to come as no project is perfect.

One of the critics mentioned them in her review of the series, "The show mainly walks a thin line between above average and spectacular depending on different people. It's in no way a bad show but it does suffer from the mystery plotlines being predictable and the reveal of the villain looking lacklustre, probably to keep interested in the next season of the series but it does hamper the quality as it leaves an ending that leaves much to be desired. A few characters are also needed and they just appear to fill in the world but could easily seem unnecessary."

Although what she said was mostly true, it didn't affect the show in any way because the good reviews were way more than the bad ones.

Either way, a lot of the audience didn't even seem to care about reviews.

They just wanted a good series and [Sherlock of the Shadows] was just that.

It was what it promised and in this age, that was rare.

Because of that, the next day, it was at the top position in the Top 10 series in America as well as trending in over 50 countries all over the world.

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[Sherlock of the Shadows] emerged as a huge hit for Zetflix. The series has been praised left, right and center this week and would very well go down as one of the highly rated series of the year.]

Aiden Silverye might be up for an Emmy nomination with his new series that had managed to make an impact at the end of the year. After an Oscar nomination this year, the multi talented individual is making giant strides in his short Hollywood career.

Phineas Flinch said that the work on the second season would not begin shortly as the streaming platform is not in any short of hurry. We could see the whole cast reprising their roles in it.

Aiden read through all the articles that flooded his phone screen one by one. The messenger app was filled with a lot of messages, some from the people he knew and some texts were from people who have gotten his number from somewhere to text him.

It was a common thing and he was already used to it.

He only replied to the comments of Uncle Sam, Omar, Dustin and a few others before closing his phone off. He could reply to the others later on.

"Aiden, are you listening?"

Wade's voice brought his attention back to the real world. His eyes glanced at Lia and Sasha who were talking about something while sipping on coffee.

He was currently sitting in his office.

"No, sorry, I was checking up a few articles and replying to the comments. My phone's been buzzing a lot since last week."

"It's the same with me." Wade smiled. "Phones always buzz after a project is released, no matter if it's a hit or a flop. Anyway, I was talking to you about the interviews."

Hearing that, his face displayed a tired expression.

"Can't we get over them now? I did a lot of them before the reason and a few after it too. Most of them just ask the same question."

"You can't do anything if the reporters aren't creative. A celebrity's job is to go through these press interviews in a way."

"I know. It's just they don't even ask about my work or the process. I don't mind talking about it. They are more interested to know what I do in my private life."

As Aiden's private life was pretty hidden due to him not posting anything about it online and avoiding a lot of social events, he was treated as a mysterious figure.

It was boosted by the fact that most people in Hollywood knew what the other was doing. It was the same with the fans due to social media.

Many people even treated it as one of the factors as to why Hollywood doesn't have superstars anymore.

"It's the same with a lot of other celebrities. It's just more in your case." Wade sighed, then cut back to the main topic. "Anyway, you only have two more interviews for the week. It's a major publication, so it's better not to say no. Aside from that, you wanted to talk about your acting process right?"

"Yeah but what are you implying?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"I got a call from Zetflix in the morning. They want you to take part in their annual roundtable interview."

"You are talking about that show where they call the actors from their successful shows and then toss topics that everyone discusses."

"Yeah, that one."

Aiden had seen a few episodes of that in the past as it would release directly on their MeTube channel.

It was a pretty good way of doing an interview and unlike a talk show, it was more about the acting process and the views on the industry.

"The interview gets a million views on average every year, so they want you there to help promote [Sherlock of the Shadows] more."

Aiden couldn't help but make a helpless smile hearing that.

"I don't think I have a choice then." Aiden shook his head before asking. "Who's going to be there? They must have told you that."

"Well…"

Wade's words trailed as he wondered in his mind how Aiden would react hearing this. His voice got a bit lower on its own.

"What happened?" Aiden asked, tilting his head.

"Nothing. It's just you won't like to know who is going to be there with you on the show."

"Why?"

Aiden wondered why won't he like it? It was not like he hated anyone in the industry but Wade looked very sure of the fact.

"You will know when you see it yourself."

"You were right when you said I won't like it."

Aiden frowned, looking at Wade. If he could, he would ask Wade to turn the car around but it wasn't possible now.

'I did hate one person in the industry. No, there are others but that guy is the worst of the lot.'

He was currently standing in the parking lot of US Weekly, one of the leading entertainment magazines in America. The roundtable interview was something that was produced by both the media giant and Zetflix.

One of the senior reporters from the magazine was going to oversee the roundtable.

Standing in the parking lot, he and Wade were not alone. They were looking at someone who they have not seen for two years.

'Tyler Reed — The two faced bastard!'

With a burly body and a gentle smile on his face, he was standing with his Lamborghini that looked very new. Besides him, a girl was almost hugging his arm.

Seeing that gentle smile, Aiden almost felt like vomiting. It came off as nothing but disgusting to him.

"Which movie of his is he here for again?" Aiden asked in a whisper.

"[The Name]. It's a rom com. You know those cheesy ones where teens are willing to die for each other even when they have only met for the first time. His popularity among girls increased after it."

Wade said and as they were talking, Tyler walked up to them with the girl following him.

"Aiden, it's been such a long time. I didn't expect to see you here. It seems like your new series is doing well. You are moving up in Hollywood quite quickly. Makes me feel incompetent."

'Maybe because you are incompetent.'

Those words stayed in Aiden's throat but they didn't come out.

Although Tyler had a smile on his face and looked like he was meeting a friend after a long time, Aiden knew that his true thoughts would be completely opposite.

But he needed to act well with him, at least until he dropped his guard.

"Thanks." He simply said that, wanting to end the conversation but Tyler continued on.

"I heard you got on good terms with Ava Adler. The last time I saw her, she was talking about you. It's easy to get roles when you have a backing."

Aiden's face froze a bit hearing that. Even with a smiling face and gentle voice, his words were clearly implying that Aiden got the role due to backing and not talent.

He felt like it was too ironic.

"You would know more about it. After all, you have a nice habit of calling your Godfather after every audition."

"What?" A crack appeared on his face.

"You didn't hear me? You should have spent money on hearing aids instead of an expensive car."

Tyler opened and closed his mouth, unable to say anything back. The only reason he had tried to attack Aiden was because he was sure he wouldn't talk back.

He still saw him as a stupid guy who was trying to make it in Hollywood without any big agency backing.

Being friends with someone like Ava didn't mean a lot in Tyler's eyes as he knew the politics that was going on in Titan studios.

'This guy doesn't know that I was the one who told Omar about his drug habits.'

Aiden thought. Even without that, he would not have just listened to anything. He was not a rookie anymore while Tyler's career had hardly moved since their last meeting.

Even if his godfather tried something against him, Aiden was sure that he would get away from it.

"Ah, do you not know how to talk to someone?"

Suddenly, the girl standing next to Tyler burst out.

Aiden turned towards her and information about her went through his mind.

Her name was Leona Mane, one of the actresses that was invited for the roundtable. She was a red haired teen actress who Aiden had to say was someone who knew how to act.

"What did I say that made you burst out?"

"You were rude to him"

"Really?" Aiden stared at her. "You saw that I was rude but you didn't see what he did. Are you blind from one eye or you just have double standards?"

Leona's face also froze hearing Aiden's words. Even Wade was a bit surprised.

Aiden wasn't one to talk back like this. It was almost like he was showing a completely different side of himself.

"Leave it. Let's go."

Tyler said and pulled Leona with him towards the entrance. He gave a menacing stare to Aiden but instead of being scared of it, he felt relieved because it was at least not his two faced smile.

"Are you okay?" Wade asked as they left. "You look angry."

"It's just that people like Tyler. I don't like them and I guess I'm still not over the fact that he tried to steal a role from me so blatantly last time. I have a feeling he would try something in the round table interview too."

Hearing that, Wade smiled.

"Then, give it back to him. Make it entertaining."

"I'm planning to."

Aiden smirked and gave a similar smile like Wade.

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'What an awful way to start the day with.'

Aiden thought in his mind as he moved along the hallway of US Weekly with Wade. They were moving to the room where the shooting of the interview would take place.

For some reason, Aiden had become more sensitive after constantly being in Hollywood for three years now.

It was like his senses had become trained.

People like Tyler Reed and Aaron Hart would give him a very similar feeling — One of disgust. Probably because he knew that if he made one mistake, they would pounce on him. No, even if he didn't do anything, they would do the same.

Leona Mane gave him a bit of the same feeling but it was mild compared to someone like Tyler.

'I really hope the fourth actor participating in the round table isn't like that or I might lose my mind.'

He walked in the room thinking that. Five minutes later, Aiden took a sigh of relief.

"I'm a huge fan of your work. These days, it's hard to find someone who could juggle between professions like you and Kai became one of my favourite villains just because of your chilling performance."

A blonde haired man said as he shook hands with Aiden. Rather than a man, it was better to call him a kid as he was only 16 year old.

A prodigy actor that people are already terming as the future of Hollywood.

Micah Madison.

"Thanks. I actually watched one of your theatre performances once with my uncle. It was a few years before but you were brilliant."

"Is that so?" Micah widened his eyes hearing that. "I have actually missed theatre since I came to movies. My parents wanted me to always do movies, so I took the Zetflix project when it came."

Aiden nodded hearing that.

He had some knowledge of his family. Unlike him, Micah was similar to Tyler as his roots were in Hollywood with a lot of people in his family working here in the film business. Even the reason he got into theater was because his grandfather had ties to it.

'It's pretty strange how even if both Tyler and Micah are from Hollywood backgrounds, they both are very different. Well, I don't know a lot of Micah yet but the kid seems like a good enough person.'

As he thought that, a middle aged man wearing a suit approached them. He had an articulate air about him.

He was Robert Locke, the senior reporter that was going to oversee the interview.

"We are starting in five minutes. I was hoping you two could take your seats."

"Sure." Both of them said at the same time.

"And don't be nervous of the others even if they seem more experienced than you." Robert said that, looking at Miach. "We have a younger cast today because we wanted to show the side of how the younger generation of actors approach their roles. And please, don't look at the cameras."

He pointed at the camera crew with all their equipment that were standing on the side. In front of them, a big table was laid where they were going to sit.

Aiden could see Wade talking to a few people in the crew.

All of them sat down after a while and for some reason, Aiden was sitting next to Tyler and in front of him, Leona was sitting, giving him a sinister glare.

Aiden was sure that it would change after the cameras rolled but he didn't like the seating arrangement.

The interview started pretty quickly after that and Aiden was glad that Robert knew how to handle celebrities and only ask the questions that were important.

US Weekly had thought a lot before selecting him for the interview it seemed.

They weren't any gossip questions that celebrities are often asked about. It was mostly about acting and their respective movies.

"You all have started your career in the last five years. Your first major role. How hard was it to get it? How did you approach the audition and after getting the role, do you have any thoughts of whether you should do this role or not as it's going to be your first role? After all, first impressions are a big thing."

Robert asked and pointed at Micah who looked a bit nervous but after thinking for a bit, he replied.

"I did not think it was hard for me actually. A friend of my father offered me the role as he thought I suited the atmosphere of the character." Micah tried hard to remember how it all had happened. "There was a small audition and I was selected. I think the major problem came during the shooting because I needed to be taught the camera movements and how to act in front of one. I don't think you will get a good enough answer from me."

Micah said, scratching his head. It was an honest answer from him without trying to act like he had gone through a lot. An honest approach was always better.

Robert appreciated it and moved on to Leona.

Surprisingly, she had the complete opposite story to Micah where she needed to meet a director in a party and he liked her, so after a few meetings, she got an audition and even after that, she needed to do 3 of them before she was finalised in a supporting role.

Aiden didn't feel like she was lying. He also knew what 'few meetings' entailed in this industry but it was also disguised as something normal even if it wasn't.

Ambitious people and those who want to prey on them — Hollywood didn't have any completely white people for a reason. Even the good ones are grey.

'Maybe the reason she is chummy with Tyler is to get ahead in her career. Not a bad strategy because he does meet a lot of top brass people on a daily basis.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

Robert moved to Tyler after that and as Aiden expected, he tried to exaggerate his struggles.

"What about you Tyler? Like Micah, you have Hollywood connections too. Was it easy for you?"

"No, actually, I feel like being the godson of someone like Owen Wilson just backfired on me because people got a lot of expectations. I won't say it helped me in getting any roles. If it was that easy, I would be the lead of the next big blockbuster right now."

He blabbered on for quite a while about it and Aiden barely stopped himself from laughing out loud.

He needed to learn how to lie so effortlessly from Tyler.

'He doesn't give as much time to his acting but he has perfected his two faced nature. I can't even tell if he's a genius who doesn't want to work or just a sociopath.'

Aiden shook his head thinking that as the conversation moved to him.

"What about you, Aiden? Did you go through a lot of projects before signing your first movie? Did you want it to be the perfect debut for you?"

"No, I didn't have that sort of privilege." Aiden said straightforwardly. "I didn't have audition offers from a lot of projects. There was only one and if I had not been selected in it, I would maybe still be struggling out there."

"I think that's the same for most of us."

Tyler suddenly interjected into the conversation and Aiden looked towards him with curious eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't have any more than one audition offer either and I'm what you might call 'privilege'."

Hearing that, Aiden could only smile to himself. Thinking of something, he quickly asked.

"How was your audition process exactly?"

Micah and Leona just looked on as Tyler composed his words in his mind. Robert kept a blank face but was smiling inwardly.

This is what he was looking for. Some good spicy material!

"I met with the director in his house. We went through the script together and then the audition happened. I impressed him and got the role."

"Thank you for explaining it yourself. You saved me the trouble."

Aiden smirked but Tyler just looked in confusion.

"What?"

"Didn't you hear your own words? 'You went through the script with the director in his home,' I didn't even know who the director was or what the movie was about before reaching the audition place. I wasn't given any information to prepare for a role because I didn't know what role I was doing until I got the role. Rules were pretty different from both of us and that's a privilege."

Aiden didn't stop there as he continued his words while the others looked dumbstruck.

"One more thing is that Owen Wilson was one of the producers for your debut movie."

"That don't mean—"

"It does." Aiden sharply said. "Maybe you went through the audition process in the right way but everyone working on the movie knows who you are. No one wants to offend the godson of the producer. You may not like it but that's just human nature. The name and who you associate yourself with follows you everywhere."

Aiden finished his words there and as expected, Tyler didn't have any words to say in objection.

What could he even say? Aiden's words were borderline disrespectful but extremely truthful.

With the logic before everyone's eyes, Tyler's words would only look meaningless.

Recognising that the atmosphere was turning weird, Robert quickly moved the topic forward.

But from now, Tyler was certainly not going to say anything towards Aiden during the interview.

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As the interview moved forward, Tyler kept to himself. From time to time, he would glance at Aiden, giving off a bad vibe but other than that, he didn't do anything else.

Aiden was glad for that as he could focus more on giving better answers than a useless struggle with Tyler.

Though, everything wasn't easy enough for him.

After Aiden 'roasted' Tyler, Leona seemed to want to get back at him, probably to impress Tyler but it was just a futile attempt.

All she did was to interfere whenever Robert would ask something of Aiden.

It was not a good behaviour and everyone realised it but it didn't seem like Leona seemed to care.

'She's just hurting her favourable ratings in front of the audience by doing this. US Weekly is known to edit things too much. She knows it but it doesn't seem like she cares a lot for it.'

Aiden made an assessment of Leona in his mind.

She probably thought that it was a small sacrifice for a larger goal. At least Tyler seemed to appreciate her moves.

Sadly, she didn't take into account that Aiden could also retaliate.

It happened when Robert asked a specific question.

"What do you think has changed in the current climate of Hollywood, particularly in female led movies? We have seen a lot of them every year compared to before. Do you think the audience has been receptive to it?"

It was very clear for everyone to see that Hollywood has a habit of going with what is popular and as America has seen a lot of feminist movements, it had motivated filmmakers to do more female based stories.

Leona didn't think about the question a lot and quickly replied.

"I think it's a great thing. We need more female led movies and there are great stories to be told by them but no, I don't think the audience has been receptive to them."

Aiden raised an eyebrow at that and listened.

"Why do you think that's the case?"

Robert asked and Leona curtly replied.

"Simply because I feel like a lot of people don't want to see female led movies. It's a pretty sick environment if I'm being honest. Take my movie [Criminal Attorney] that was released last year or even my Zetflix show [Agents of Doom]. Both of them were bashed because people can't stand strong female characters."

'I feel like that's the most ridiculous thing I have heard in the interview.'

Aiden thought, his mind moving to the two shows that Leona mentioned.

[Criminal Attorney] was something that Aiden had watched and it was an indie movie with Leona as the protagonist and although he only had two episodes of [Agents of Doom, he knew why the show was criticised a lot.

And it had nothing to do with what Leona had mentioned.

Taking a look around, Leona was still blabbering. Micah looked like he wanted to say something but didn't have the courage to while Tyler just listened.

Finally, Robert turned towards the three male guests to ask their opinions about it.

"What do you think about it?"

Aiden was the one to answer as the two don't seem to respond.

"I don't think it's anything to do with people unable to stand certain types of characters." Leona squinted her eyes at that. "If a movie doesn't get good reviews, both from the audience and critics, then the problem lies in the product. I think it's very simple."

"I don't think you know what you are talking about. If what you said is true, so many female led movies won't—"

"It has nothing to do with the lead of the movie but everything to do with the story."

The atmosphere turned a bit hostile as Aiden said that. A feeling that he was walking on landmines came but he tried his best to keep composed.

Watching all of it, Wade almost seemed to be sweating. Aiden was suddenly talking about something very sensitive in today's world.

One wrong move and a lot of things would go wrong.

"Can you elaborate, Aiden?" Robert asked, knowing that he had something that would be controversial.

Controversy meant more people talking about the interview.

"Just take the two examples that Leona gave. [Criminal Attorney] is about the justice system but in a lot of court scenes, the procedures aren't done in the correct order. That's a basic technical fault and I think that's the reason the movie failed."

Leona was about to open her mouth but Aiden continued without any hesitation.

"Let's move to [Agents of Doom, it's a superhero show but the major criticism I have seen is bad writing. I watched the first two episodes and the series just fails to make a connection with the protagonist and if people look into her character, she's not really the hero type. So, the criticism is justified."

"That's not true. It's not justified." Leona almost shouted, glaring at Aiden but he didn't lose his composure.

"It is. You can't hide bad writing by using ideologies as a shield. That won't work. In the first place, movies are not to appease people and if someone is doing that, then the product won't turn out well."

Aiden finished there and no matter what Leona said, her words sounded dumb. She was trying to defend something that can't be defended.

This was something that Aiden didn't like in modern day Hollywood.

As a writer himself, he wasn't going to blame the audience if what he wrote was bad. He knew that there are extreme individuals but the majority watches shows for entertainment.

If you can't provide a good story, the product is bad.

After the roundtable interview, Aiden felt a bit refreshed. Maybe because he had really talked about the things that he believed in.

Although he knew that his conversation with Leona was going to be controversial, he didn't feel like he had something that would make people oppose him.

Wade also felt like he had said what needed to be said without touching upon the more sensitive side of things.

Tyler and Leona had left straight after the interview had ended. Though, they both were giving him murderous glares while leaving.

Aiden had wondered if Tyler was going to do anything towards him again but it didn't seem like it.

Even if he tried, Aiden knew that he was a ticking time bomb who Aiden could end anytime.

Time moves quickly after that as Aiden basked in the success of [Sherlock of the Shadows]. The series which he had worked so hard on was receiving worldwide praise.

Working with a streaming platform meant that it was easy to touch down upon people living in different parts of the world.

Both [Disconnected] and [Sherlock of the Shadows] helped him in doing that.

It was a positive thing early on in his career.

One week after the shooting of the roundtable interview, it finally released on the MeTube channel of Zetflix.

It was easy to say that it didn't take a long time before the video blew up, thanks to the topic that was being discussed on the show.

Viral clips of the interview were everywhere and a lot of people who have watched it couldn't help but feel like Aiden was just face slapping Tyler and Leona.

The part where Aiden educated Tyler about the differences between them due to the privilege he had was appreciated by everyone.

Due to Aiden acting very calm in the clip, many people just saw him as the outsider fighting against what was nepotism.

Only Tyler's fans tried to bash Aiden on it, claiming that he was being disrespectful but no one listened to their opinions.

The clip that got more controversial was the one where Aiden talked about movies that are made to appease people.

Anyone could tell that it was a landmine but surprisingly, Aiden got a lot of support on his stances.

One of the reasons was because a lot of people were truly sick of it because most of the time a movie or a series don't focus on entertainment because of these things.

At the same time, Leona also didn't have a lot of fans to defend her. Even her superhero series fans didn't like her character, so they felt no need to defend her.

Even to a neutral person, just the calm composer of Aiden made them feel like he was right.

On the other hand, Leona just seemed loud and crass and someone who didn't have a lot of knowledge on movies.

An older actor commented on his Sparrow handle, "These are extremely true words said by Aiden. Art should be kept separate from things like appeasement. Hollywood needs to learn how to tell good stories instead of ideologies. The latter don't work mainly because the characters in these movies are very hypocritical".

Another female filmmaker also supported this, saying, "Hollywood do have a habit of using whatever is popular in the media. There's a reason why they can't come up with new and better franchises and are still dragging what came in the 90s."

Her words were supported by many but due to how many people were discussing it on Sparrow, trends related to it popped up on the trending section.

Tags like #Interview, #Appeasement, #Aiden and #Leona started trending.

In the controversy, Aiden's fan group played a major role by leading an 'attack' on those groups that were trying to portray Aiden's words as hateful.

Led by the user Chad Putin and Moaning Frodo, the fan group supported Aiden in the controversy.

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On Sparrow, Aiden's fan group was currently busy fighting out with people who were trying to bash him by calling him misogynistic for his comments. It didn't make sense but who needed logic when you were online.

Just because he said that one shouldn't do a project for the appeasement of people even without taking any name, people were suddenly after him.

Thankfully, a lot of movie lovers hated how filmmaking isn't about entertainment and telling a compelling story now, so they sided with Aiden.

[Valhalla is sad: Anyone saying that Aiden was on the wrong side during the interview should really watch it again. He stood against both privilege and bad appeasement. Probably the first time I have seen an actor being vocal about things.]

[Twerking with a flute: That was very disrespectful of Aiden. He needs to learn how to talk to people.]

[Chad Putin: Listen, you peanut. My eyes see no wrong in what Aiden did. If you have any problem, take out your eyes and throw them in the ocean. Just because you think you have an opinion doesn't mean it's true or relevant.]

[The man from North Korea: You said it, my friend. I'm eating a hamburger while enjoying this controversy. Call me if you need big guns. I will deploy a cyber army for you.]

[Half in my grave while waiting for daredevil: This discussion is very silly. In the first place, Aiden made sure to not be too obvious about things and stayed on the technical side of things, calling out Leona's entitlement to blame the audience for the flop. People getting enraged should really think a bit logically instead of being a part of a mob.]

[Catfishing on Tinder: Another day and Sparrow users again got offended by something that shouldn't offend anyone. I'm just waiting for the day people get offended by someone breathing. Humanity is truly doomed. Let's hope dogs take over the world soon.]

[Skyneves: Fight for Aiden! We can't let the fangroup of a guy on steroids and a squirrel faced girl to defeat us.]

"It's not a pretty picture online."

Aiden said, scrolling down on the comments. They disturbed him a bit as he wondered if he really said something wrong.

But then he shook his head.

Over 90 percent of the comments were either neutral or in his favour. Moreover, he had just said what he felt.

Hollywood do have a habit of using the same template for years for movies and then, using whatever is mainstream to make profits.

It was a business disguised as an art.

"How many days do you think it would take for it to die down?"

He looked at Wade who was in the middle of eating a pizza slice. Bruce was working behind him, not focused on anything else but drawing.

The next issue needed to be completed soon. So, Aiden was spending time in the Vikings publishing office.

"Two-Three days, I guess." Wade said, finishing the slice and picking up another one.

"Something new would pop up unless Leona and Tyler's agency tried to flame the issue by using bots. It's a bad situation but they must be happy that people are talking about them. Whatever to get their name out. You don't know how hard it is to get a topic about you in the trending page and look at this, [Sherlock of the Shadows] is getting benefitted from the controversy."

Wade showed him his phone. It was a photo of a few tweets that were about people wanting to check on the detective series just because they liked Aiden's view on movies.

December had already begun and the series was in its third week.

It had slowed down and was in the 7-8th position in America according to Zetflix, already becoming a big, impactful hit.

As the controversy became big, the roundtable interview got a lot of views, crossing over 2 million in a few days. It also gave the series a lot of viewers, so it would climb up the rankings again.

"I guess something good came out of it." Aiden muttered, deciding to take his mind away from the controversy.

"Only because you were on the right side. You dodged a bullet there." Wade said and at that moment, Aiden changed the topic.

"Anyway, [Sherlock of the Shadows] is already a thing of the past now. I feel like I'm over Finn too. When are we going to go for the script narration for [Stars on the Ground]?"

Aiden asked, thinking that a lot of time had passed since his last meeting with Florence. They were keeping in touch via text messages but it was very short as she was busy dealing with the sets that were being made for the movie.

"In two days." Wade said and Aiden smiled satisfied.

[Stars on the Ground] seemed like something right up his alley. A role that was going to be a challenge for him in a different way because the character he was offered has a lot of charisma.

As Wade and Aiden talked, Bruce suddenly looked up to them and opened his mouth.

"Hey, Aiden. If you are done discussing it, can you help me out a bit?"

"Ah, yeah, sure."

Like that, he started focusing on the graphic novel for the time being.

Two days later, Aiden went to Florence's office to get the narration of the script and discuss the characters.

Although Florence wasn't a famous director and was still waiting for that one movie to change her career around, she still owned a pretty good office.

As Aiden walked through the entrance of it, he couldn't help but think that.

The office was pretty big and looked well staffed. From what he knew, Florence had actually bought it instead of paying rent.

'Is it because of her acting work? She has also acted in a lot of TV shows. I don't think the movie she directed gave her a lot of money.'

He looked around as he walked.

From time to time, a few staff members would pass by. In the lobby, a few people who looked like struggling actors were sitting.

Wade had left to attend a few important endorsement negotiations after dropping him here. He talked to Florence's assistant who told him that she was in the middle of a meeting and would only be free after a while.

He was fine with it and sat down in the lobby, a few eyes directed towards him but he was already used to it.

Time passed as he waited and suddenly, someone sat down next to him. He was a bearded man who looked a bit rough but had a good ambiance. He had brown hair and his body was fit, like he spent hours in the gym daily.

For some reason, he looked pissed about something.

Finding him a bit familiar, Aiden glanced at him.

"Aren't you Hank Paige?"

Aiden asked and the bearded man nodded, turning towards him.

"Ah, yeah, I'm." He stared at Aiden and recognised him at first glance. "You are Aiden Silvereye. I loved your work, man. I didn't know I would meet you here today."

"Thanks. That's a big praise. I love your work too. You are one of my favourite action stars."

Hank was a Scottish actor who had been a part of a lot of action series and movies in the past. His career was just filled with action and adventure movies, making him a staple in a lot of franchises.

Though, as he normally played second or third fiddle to the leads and sometimes, villains that are not written well, he had never been able to get a big popularity for himself.

"I'm far from being a star."

Hank said laughing, then suddenly frowned, like he remembered something bad. Aiden saw it clearly but he didn't think that it was his place to ask about it.

Instead, he changed the subject.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am here to talk with Florence. She refused to talk to my agent, so I came here personally." Hank muttered, his mood becoming worse for some reason. "Why are you here?"

"Ah, I have a script narration for [Stars on the Ground]. I have not signed the movie yet but I'm pretty close to doing it."

Hank widened his eyes hearing that. He blinked, thinking of something. After hesitating for a while, he took a look around to ensure that no one was hearing their conversations and whispered.

"It's better if you don't sign the movie."

"What? Why?" Aiden raised his eyebrow, hearing that strange sentence.

Why shouldn't he sign the movie? Was something hidden from him? Hank clearly didn't look like he was joking around with him.

In the first place, he was known to be very serious in his interviews, appealing to a lot of men because of his manly nature and type of movies.

"Just trust me. That woman, Florence, is a hypocrite who doesn't know how to act professionally. She's the worst type of director you could work with. Originally, I was supposed to play the role of the boyfriend of the main character but things went south pretty soon, just because Florence thought I was too manly looking for the role or something which is obviously a bullshit reason."

Hank said and started talking about what had transpired with him over the past few months.

It was a tale that was pretty hard to believe for Aiden as Florence had acted pretty good with him.

But it seemed like things were never as they seemed.

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Apparently, Florence has talked about [Stars on the Ground] with Hank way before she did with Aiden.

He was also interested in the project, having heard the basic premise of it.

Both of them were on board after a few meetings and Hank was really excited as it was his chance to move away from the image of an action star. The role he was given was pretty comedic, so it was a great chance for him to flex his comic timing.

But one day suddenly, Florence called his agent and told him that she had found someone better for the role.

Hank was surprised and enraged, wanting answers. According to him, the role was his and only the contract needed to be signed.

If a director goes as far as to tell you that she can't imagine someone else in the role other than you, then it was a big confidence boost for the actor.

So, when Florence suddenly found someone else, it felt like a big betrayal to him.

His agent went to talk to her, to at least know who he was replaced with. Being an experienced actor, it would rarely happen with Hank.

There, he found out that the person who replaced Hank was called Liam Wilde.

"Isn't he a UK based singer?"

"'More like a superstar,' according to Florence but yeah. He has tons of young female fans."

"Can he even act?''

Aiden raised an eyebrow, having a lot of questions regarding what Hank had told him.

"He never did before. Probably another singer who wants to venture into movies because that's where the big bucks are. I am damn sure he never even attended an acting lesson. No offence by the way."

Hank looked at Aiden who was a singer who got into acting. Although that was not the case in entirety, Aiden didn't mind it.

"None taken." He said. "Why will she take someone who has never acted before in what she assumes is going to be a masterpiece."

"God knows. She just said that Liam is more likely to fill more seats instead of me and aside from that rude comment, she even forbade my agent from meeting her. I'm only here because I want to hear her reasons for myself."

Aiden wasn't able to talk for a while after hearing that. It was just a lot of shocking information at once.

Has Florence actually done something like that? It was very unprofessional. Aiden would have understood if Hank was replaced with a big star and a proven actor.

But replacing him with a singer? That didn't make a lot of sense unless Liam was some sort of acting prodigy who accidentally ventured into singing.

Even the method of replacing was something that was bound to ruin the relationship.

"I'm just advising you. Take it however you want. Doing the film would harm you more than anything as Florence is just not a professional filmmaker."

In the end, Hank only said that as Florence finally got free to meet him.

During the script narration, Aiden's mind was focused on what Hank had said. It was something that he was unable to get out of his mind because of how shocking it was.

He had to force himself to focus on the narration.

The script was pretty tight when Florence narrated it, having a lot of ingredients that would make people interested in the movie. At the same time, Aiden also noticed flaws that were very apparent.

From some plot holes that didn't make sense to dialogues being weird at parts, there was an abundance of them.

He just pointed them out one by one and didn't think much of it because every script has plot holes. A lot of scripts are also modified directly on the set, so it wasn't a big problem.

All in all, the narration was pretty good and Aiden decided to look more into the script after going home but the question about Liam Wilde was still roaming his mind.

His conversation with Hank had given him a pretty bad feeling and before leaving, Aiden decided to hear Florence's side of the story.

"Florence, can I ask you something?" He asked and Florence raised an eyebrow.

"Go on. You have already asked a lot of questions about the script. Why are you asking now?"

"No, it's different this time. I want to ask about something else." She tilted her head hearing that. "I met Hank Paige back in the lobby."

She widened her eyes after hearing that. An expression of hatred appeared on her face as she frowned. Her atmosphere changed in a second.

"What did that bastard tell you?"

"He said that Liam Wilde was cast in his place and he wasn't even given a proper explanation. I was curious to know what exactly happened."

"It's nothing. Hank doesn't have a great reputation in the industry if you don't know. We have differences in ideologies and that's why he was replaced. Nothing more than that. He's just bitter about it."

Florence didn't seem like she wanted to talk about it. Her voice was curt and sharp, like she hated Hank with every fibre of her being.

'She hates him.'

That's the feeling Aiden got seeing her talk about him.

He knew that the best thing here was to leave without asking anymore questions but he was curious as to why she selected Liam out of everyone else. It was an answer only she could give.

"Why did Liam come to his place though? He never had an acting job."

"He's a good actor, believe me or not. He's been studying it since the last two years and he passed the audition."

Florence sighed as she answered, like she was upset but her voice was a bit weird, almost like she wasn't confident in what she was saying.

"Don't ask too many questions. You are not the producer, you know."

In the end, she said that and knowing that he won't get his answers here, Aiden left.

'I'm not the producer but I want to be careful as to what type of movies I do. I can't afford something like [Disconnected] which failed at the box office.'

Aiden thought later that day, thinking of his eventful day.

For him, [Disconnected] was a pretty lucky movie. After failing terribly at the box office, it got rave reviews on the director's cut version on Zetflix and had become sort of a cult classic.

Those types of movies do help an actor's career.

But if he hadn't done anything back then, it would have just become a dark spot in his career. And it had solely happened because of who he was working with.

Seth Douglas and Franco Li — Both of them were responsible for what had happened.

Back then, he didn't have a choice but he had not signed [Stars on the Ground] yet, so he had a chance to get to the bottom of what was going on.

After listening to both Hank and Florence's side of story, he had gotten a very bad feeling. Something complex was going on that could potentially affect the movie.

He had felt that.

Replacing actors in projects was common but Florence's reaction was very weird and the hatred in her eyes made Aiden feel like she had removed Hank due to a personal reason.

Though, what she had told about Hank also needed to be verified.

"You asked about information on Hank Paige and Florence Levine right? Well, I got stuff for you."

Sasha said as she smiled. They were currently sitting in the office with Wade and Tom sitting on the side. The burly agent looked like he was in some sort of thought while Tom's eyes were shining for some reason.

"What did you find?" Aiden asked, leaning towards her.

"Don't expect too much. I didn't have a lot of time and what I found is just a mix of what is on the internet and from some friends of mine."

Sasha said and Wade couldn't help but interfere.

"Do you really think we need to do a background check? What you told me is shady but it's Hollywood. People are always shady in one way or another. If something even happened between Hank and Florence, I don't think it would affect the movie."

"I just have a bad feeling. Don't want to take a risk that could be avoided."

Saying that, he turned towards Sasha who started telling about what she had found.

"Well, Hank does have a bad reputation in the industry. Lack of opportunities isn't the only reason he's not a leading man in Hollywood. He had fights with a lot of his co-stars and directors and is known to be a heavy drinker."

"What's his relationship with Florence like?"

"They have been friends since long ago. To be honest, it's very weird to think that Florence replaced Hank in her movie. He's been a part of her every project."

Aiden put a finger on his chin hearing that. Even Wade looked very confused.

Remembering the eyes full of hatred, Aiden wondered what had happened that their relationship had broken so badly.

"What about Florence?"

"She's known more for her vocal ideological views and her relationship with Zavier that is said to be one of the best ones in Hollywood. Her acting was almost mediocre and her movies too, so don't really have a lot."

"And there's nothing about why she replaced Hank with someone like Liam?"

"No, not even a thing. UK media hadn't even reported that Liam is going to be in the movie. He's like their top musician for half a decade, so even if there was something like a rumour, there would be an article but there's none."

Aiden fell into a thought hearing that.

What was going on? Was he really thinking too much or was he just missing something?

He didn't know even if Hank was lying or Florence was lying. Both sides seemed to be in the grey zone.

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The next few days, Aiden read the script of [Stars on the Ground] again and again and he had to say that the story was pretty good.

It had most of the things that normal people would associate Hollywood with and although it was over the top in a few scenes and dialogues looked a bit immature, a good execution could make it feel right.

After all, in movies, execution of the script was as important as the script. There were many cases where a script was good but the execution had made it average.

The plot of [Stars on the Ground] mainly focused on Mary White, a white woman with the dreams of being an Hollywood actress, inspired by the top Hollywood actresses of the 80s and 90s.

The movie was set in that decade too.

The story was just her trying to do anything to move up ranks in the industry. From giving bad advice to an actress doing the same audition as her to sleeping with a director for the role.

The decisions were not morally right but they didn't need to be. One of the major aspects of the movie was the PR team that celebrities have.

In many parts of the script, Mary's PR team would show her as the actress that all top Hollywood men had their eyes on. They would even call paparazzi deliberately to spark up scandals.

Aiden's character would be one of these men.

A shrewd businessman who seems to live in a shell, not knowing a lot about life outside Hollywood and the rich circles. A classic elitist jerk that doesn't care about others and treats normal people as disposable.

There was even one scene when he would frame a struggling actor of a crime he did, very smartly.

He liked the character a lot. A negative character that was an important part of the plot but in Aiden's mind, the thing that Hank had told him was still roaming around.

He wanted to know what had gone wrong between Florence and Hank and why he felt like it would affect the movie.

He wasn't getting a wink of sleep due to that.

He wondered if he was thinking too much but after playing characters like Kai and Finn whose instincts were very sharp, Aiden felt like he had gotten that ability.

Because of his instinct, he even told Wade to delay the signing. He was reluctant about it, not wanting to create issues because of Aiden's instincts but he still did it, making some sort of excuse.

To satisfy his curiosity, Aiden asked Sasha to look for more information about Hank and Florence.

Even if they found nothing, Aiden would at least feel relieved.

Sasha, Lia and even Tom tried to use their contacts to know more about Hank and Florence. Aiden also asked his celebrity friends but they found nothing that wasn't already on the internet.

Hank was a heavy drinker and didn't have a good relationship with a lot of people in the industry. Florence had come out snobbish in some of her interviews but she was a woman who was very ambitious and calculative and had a lot of contacts.

There was a reason why she was able to make the shift into directing so easily.

Other than that, there were only a few rumours that didn't seem related to what Aiden was looking for.

The last time something like this had happened with Tyler where Aiden was in need of information, Uncle Sam had helped him out.

He still had a lot of his contacts but he has also told him that it would only be for once. Last time, he has already done a big favour, so Aiden didn't bothered him.

Day by day, the worry made him more and more uneasy with no solution in sight.

"There are rumours that next project is going to be with Florence Levine and Titan studios. Is it true?"

"Well, I can't say anything about it."

"By that tone of voice, it's easy to say that it's true. I hope the project goes well for you and there's no trouble."

'No, I'm sensing trouble everyday.'

Aiden wanted to reply to the reporter in front of him but he didn't. He just politely said a few words and left.

Currently, he was doing a round of interviews these days. Most of them were because of [Sherlock of the Shadows] but as Aiden could promote his graphic novel in them, he had not rejected them.

Aside from that, there were also a few photoshoots.

"You don't look good. You have that stern expression on your face these days."

Wade remarked as they were walking towards the parking lot. Tom was following behind them and even he agreed.

"Yeah, like you are sick."

"It's just that my instincts are still the same about [Stars on the Ground]. I feel like it's a red flag but I'm not getting the reason why."

When Aiden said that, Wade frowned. He stopped in his tracks and opened his mouth with a click of his tongue.

"Then, just leave the project." He said. "We have not signed it. You can still leave if you want. I know you think that it would damage your relationship with Ava if you did it without any reason but it's better than you acting like some heavy burden is on you. Anyway, we can't delay the signing any further."

"I know that. Let's talk about it later." Aiden said and changed the topic. The corridor of a media company wasn't a good place to talk about this. "Anyway, what's the next place we need to go?"

"Hollywood Weekly. The interview is with Katherine Huff. You remember the one who was hitting on you?"

"That senior reporter."

"Yeah, she's divorced. Maybe go on a date with her after the interview. Get off some steam."

Wade laughed but Aiden didn't say anything, his expression changed for a bit as the appearance of the red haired woman came into her mind. She had looked at him very favourably.

He looked up at Wade and suddenly asked.

"A senior reporter has a lot of contacts, right?"

"Yeah obviously. Why are you asking?"

"It's nothing. Let's hurry."

Aiden said and quickly moved.

He had made a lot of contacts in the industry till now but he wasn't close with any particular reporter. It feels like it was time to change that.

They quickly reached the office of Hollywood Weekly and it didn't take them a long time to get straight to the interview.

It seemed like Katherine was just waiting for them.

Though, throughout the interview, she was looking at Aiden with a bit of a cold glare. He ignored it and just focused on the interview.

The interview was pretty simple and it didn't take a long time for it to be over. There was no photoshoot, so that saved time.

He only had to talk about the recent things that happened with him. The controversy and his successful series. Aiden had already talked about it so many times that his mouth moved on its own.

After the interview was over, he got to the topic at hand.

"Can we talk in private? There was something I wanted to talk to you about."

Hearing that, Katherine was a bit surprised. Looking around, she saw that a few staff members were still lurking around and asked.

"What's it about?"

"I need to ask a favour."

She eventually nodded hearing that, interested to know what Aiden was onto about.

"Let's go to my office."

Aiden told Tom and Wade that he would meet them in the parking lot and followed Katherine.

Walking upstairs, they reached her office that was pretty big and sophisticated, indicating her status in the company.

She didn't waste any time and quickly got to the topic.

"What favour you were talking about?"

She said in a particular cold voice and Aiden couldn't help but ask a question back in response.

"Are you still upset that I didn't call you?"

"Yeah I'm." She said directly. "I was hoping you would but I guess the rumours are true that you are asexual."

"No, I'm not. I just got busy and I'm not really interested in having any relations at this point in my career."

"That sounds like something an asexual guy would say."

They went back and forth like that for a while but Katherine's expression cooled down soon. She let out a deep breath and smiled.

"Well, it's fine. I was just hoping for a while but I understand. Anyway I got a boyfriend now, so what's the favour you want?"

Like he had thought, she was an adult and wouldn't drag such a small issue. At the same time, her being his fan also made her unable to dislike Aiden, especially because he hadn't really done anything too rude.

"I need information."

"I'm not a detective." Katherine joked but her face was someone who was keenly listening to Aiden.

"It's something of the industry. You must hear a lot of rumours, both true and false and going by your stature, you have the ability to know which one is true and which one isn't. That's why, I need your help."

Aiden started talking about what information he needed and what exactly had prompted him to look for it. On every word, Katherine's expression kept changing bit by bit.

It was like she was unable to believe what Aiden was saying.

'I don't know how he got to this but his instincts are on to the point.'

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"Why do you think there's something wrong between Florence and Hank? They could be friends that just have differences too, right? In the first place, there's cases where Hank had been problematic. Very problematic while Florence had been known to be stubborn with her views."

Katherine asked, looking at Aiden with a strange gleam in her eyes. He hesitated for a second before shaking his head.

"No, there's something more. I'm very sure of it."

Aiden didn't know why but his instincts were buzzing at the very moment. He also observed that Katherine wasn't laughing at his observation, treating them as something of a joke.

She looked very interested.

Being in the industry for so long, Aiden hadn't gotten used to observing people's facial expressions. Katherine wasn't even trying to hide it.

Finally, she accepted.

"Well, I can't say you are entirely wrong. I'm just surprised you got to this conclusion after just one meeting with Hank."

"So, there's indeed something."

Aiden took a deep breath.

He was feeling very paranoid, wondering if he was really thinking too much into it. Even Wade and Tom seemed like they didn't believe him even if they wanted to.

It was mostly because it was deemed a very little thing.

Such things happen quite a lot in the industry and no one would think twice about it. Unless it was Aiden of course.

"There's something and it's pretty big actually." Katherine said and Aiden quickly asked.

"What is it exactly?"

"Actually, I don't know."

Aiden squinted at her, not in the mood of a silly joke but Katherine shook her head, implying that she was actually serious.

"You just said that there's something big."

"Yeah, and that's the only thing I know. Big media companies like us have a lot of contacts as we work in a field where connections are everything but as we are too big, we do need to have a good relationship with celebrities and everyone working in the industry. You don't know how many times media companies have been sued in the past."

Katherine said, clicking her tongue. Hollywood Weekly had been sued a lot too in the past.

"So?"

"So, Hollywood Weekly doesn't really break out scandals until it's something that would become global news but we do get the scent of what's going on, who is likely to break out a scandal. We just wait till it releases and then try to cash in on it."

Katherine was basically saying that Florence and Hank weren't big enough globally and Aiden did agree to it. After all, he didn't even know Florence was meeting her at the [Sherlock of the Shadows] premier.

But her words also contained one more thing.

"There's a scandal growing and you know who's going to break it?"

"Yes, a company is actually investigating it for a while. I heard about it from sources and they are waiting for a chance to reveal it."

'Probably before the release of Stars on the Ground].'

Aiden thought in his mind, gulped, thinking that he missed a bullet here. At the same time, he was wondering what type of scandal it would be. He had clues, probably an affair but by the expressions of Katherine, it was more than just that.

"Which company?"

As soon as he asked that, Aiden regretted it. Katherine was never going to give him the information without asking something back.

It was already a miracle that she had told him all this.

Give and take — That's how most things worked.

But surprisingly, Katherine simply said.

"Artery Media. They are a paparazzi company actually with one of the most stubborn guys. Celebrities hate them literally but they have learned how to be lowkey. So, they sell the information to bigger media companies, mostly UK based publications for a nice lump of notes."

Aiden was surprised that Katherine gave out the information so easily. She also noticed it on his face and smiled.

"You thought I would ask for a price for it?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Well, I thought about it but our interaction would end here if I did so. It's better to make you think of it as a goodwill gesture from me. Anyway, the information isn't of use to me.

Even though Katherine was his fan and she genuinely wanted him to do well, she was also a veteran reporter.

A connection was a connection, especially with someone young. It generally meant that person has a lot of years in the industry and was just in his starting phase.

"Thank you."

Aiden only said that and Katherine asked his number before texting him the address of Artery media. She also gave him the number of one of the paparazzi that she had.

It was time to find out what was going on exactly.

Artery Media's office was in a very old building, almost on the outskirts of the city. It was a building with a lot of different companies having their offices in it.

Though, most of them looked abandoned.

Before coming here, Aiden didn't inform Wade or anyone else, wanting to deal with it himself. He checked up the online website of Artery Media and tried to find out any information he could.

But there was nothing.

It was almost like they existed only in name. Maybe, a paparazzi company was really like that.

Their office was on the second floor but Aiden didn't go there. Katherine had told him that Artery Media don't allow anyone to enter their office and are very secretive, so he just sat in the small cafe that was on the third floor and gave a call to the number that Katherine had given him.

It wasn't picked up but that was enough.

Ordering the coffee that tasted pretty bland, he waited. From time to time, the waitress would come up to him to talk and ask for an autograph.

Thankfully, she wasn't clicking photos of him secretly. No one else was in the cafe either. It was probably a business that was taking its last breath or it was just a bad time of the day.

He waited for almost an hour and finally, a jagged man entered the cafe. He was wearing a simple black shirt and jeans and donned a beard.

He looked around the cafe before sitting in front of Aiden.

"Aren't you Aiden Silverstone? That celebrity."

"Silvereye." Aiden said and the man scratched his head in apology.

"Sorry, I'm bad with names. I'm actually a fan of your songs. My girlfriend took me to all your movies too. Can you give me an autograph?"

The jagged man asked and Aiden wondered what he was trying to achieve here. The whole cafe was empty but he had decided to sit in front of him.

That alone had given his identity.

He really thought of Aiden as a fool, trying to act like a fan with the acting skills that were worse than Tyler Reed.

As the jagged man blabbered on, Aiden simply took out his phone and called the number that Katherine had given him.

A phone started ringing.

The man looked at Aiden with a shocked face, trying to turn off his phone. Aiden smiled and looked at him.

"I don't know what type of act you wanted to pull off but can we talk now? I heard paparazzi are very busy people."

Hearing that, the man lowered his head in shame, then laughed.

"Sorry, I wanted to act as a fan to get some information out. I guess it only works on drunk celebrities." The man said, then looked at Aiden. "I'm Reece Scaler. Can I ask how you got my number?"

"I just did from a friend."

Aiden said and Reece raised his eyebrows, not asking anything further about it.

"For what exactly?"

"To make a deal. I heard pretty interesting stuff about your company and I was hoping you could help me out. Obviously, it would be mutually beneficial."

"Where is Aiden these days? His agent is just making excuses when we have already sent over the contract. Most of the other actors have already signed the contract, including Liam."

Florence said and frowned. She was currently in a meeting with Ava in her office, going over the preparation they were doing.

There was one more person in the room. A white man who looked to be in his early 20s and was an overall handsome individual. For some reason, he was wearing sunglasses despite being in an office and had a snarky smile on his face.

He was Liam Wilde, UK's biggest popstar.

"Florence, I think it's just because he's busy. Or maybe it's something related to the issues he got while filming his last series."

"I understand that but I want to get the cast ready as soon as possible. I don't want him having doubts about the project. You do know that casting the character again would be a chore at this point."

Florence was clearly angry with Aiden.

She didn't feel like it was the right attitude. She had not liked him since the beginning as she had continuously interfered in her script, telling her that things needed to change here and there.

She was a director who just expected her actors to act and leave the script to the ones handling them.

Giving actors that type of power was just undermining a director's firm grip on the movie.

"I will call him and see what issues are there. Don't worry, it will get resolved soon."

Ava said and at that moment, her phone rang. She took it out and saw that it was Aiden.

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Chapter 277.The Big Reveal

"Where were you and why are we here?"

Wade asked as they walked in the hallway of Titan studios office. Tom was following them with a curious look on his face. He was carrying a laptop that Aiden had given him.

As they reached near the elevator, Aiden replied.

"I was trying to get something. Meeting a reporter."

"You mean Katherine?"

"Yeah and someone else. Anyway, let's go upstairs. I have something to show to Ava."

Aiden simply said that and no matter how much Wade and Tom asked, he just said that they would know it in a while. As Aiden had disappeared suddenly after the interview at Hollywood Weekly, both of them were worried.

He had suddenly asked them to meet him at Titan studios office.

"I don't know what's going on in your mind but you know what you are doing right?"

Wade asked just before they entered the office of Ava. Aiden looked at him and gave him a calm smile, trying to reassure him.

"Yes, I have thought it through. Just believe in me."

"I do." Wade said, taking a deep breath.

They entered the office and Aiden felt surprised, seeing Florence already present there. She had an angry expression on her face as she sat with her legs crossed.

In front of her, a good looking guy wearing sunglasses was sitting. Aiden recognised him as Liam Wilde and was mildly surprised to see him here too.

'I wasn't expecting this but this would be very interesting. Both the main players of the game are here now. Only Hank is missing.'

He thought as Ava's eyes landed on him.

"Aiden, we were just talking about you." She said, wondering what was going on. Aiden had suddenly called her and said that he wanted to meet her to show her something.

Before Aiden could reply, Florence opened her mouth.

"You are finally showing your face after avoiding any calls from us even after you received the contract. There are better ways if you don't agree on the supposed pay."

It seemed like she had assumed a hell lot but Aiden didn't give it much heed.

"It's not about the pay. I am here for a reason."

"What?"

Florence asked but Aiden didn't look at her but at Ava instead. She raised her head at him, her eyes gleaming a bit, obviously knowing that whatever Aiden was here for wasn't simple enough.

"I have something to show you." Aiden glanced at Tom. "Show her the laptop."

Tom nodded and put it down on Ava's desk. He walked towards it and took out a pendrive and plugged it in. Ava glanced alternatively between Aiden and the drive before whispering.

"What are you doing? You are ruining your impression on Florence. She will give you a hard time on set, you know."

"It doesn't matter. As to what I'm doing, I'm saving… you, I guess."

Aiden said with clarity in his eyes. Ava wanted to say something but she didn't and instead stared at the laptop screen. From the side, Tom was also glancing at it shamelessly, too curious to stop himself from knowing what was going on.

Slowly, both the faces of Tom and Ava changed. They looked stunned, like they had seen something that they never thought existed.

It was the same expression Aiden had when he had first came across the ghosts in [Sherlock of the Shadows].

"Hello. I don't think I have introduced myself. I'm Liam. You must know me, right?"

As Ava was busy going through his laptop, Liam, the snarky guy stood up and introduced himself. He had not bothered to do anything till now and was watching Aiden.

"I do. Nice to meet you."

Aiden said and Liam smiled.

"I'm going to play a part in [Stars on the Ground] too, so we are going to see each other a lot in the next few months."

"I know that but…"

He hesitated for a bit before forming words in his mind and while trying to be a bit polite, he completed his sentence.

"I don't think I will be a part of [Stars on the Ground]."

"What?"

Liam tilted his head and Florence besides him also has a bewildered expression before it turned into anger. Her face also turned red, like a ripe tomato as she sweared under her breath.

"What did you say? Are you really trying to back off the project after agreeing to it months ago. I should have known it would happen when you were avoiding signing the contract. You have a lot of problems with the script too. Bastard!"

Aiden kept calm under her gaze.

"Calm down. I have my own reasons."

"What reasons? I would love to hear them."

"I don't think you would."

It was not Aiden who spoke but Ava who has a calm expression on her face. After the initial shock, she has calmed down. There was one more thing that Aiden noticed.

She was emitting a bit of a pressure as her eyes were very sharp under her calm expression.

"Why?"

"See for yourself."

She said and turned around the laptop. At that moment, the room froze and not even one breathe was heard.

It was like time had froze.

Everyone's gaze was locked to the laptop's screen. Wade was the first to move as he walked in front of it and squinted his eyes, trying to see if the things displayed on it were actually real.

"Photoshop?"

"We can get them checked but they are very genuine. You can see for yourself. A bit blurry but everything could be seen in them."

"What the fuck?" His reaction was expected by Aiden. "Damn! It's like the biggest cluster fuck I have seen in years. How did you get all this?"

He was still unable to belive it.

"I made a deal. I will tell you about it later. For now, we could see that it's going to be a big deal."

"Big deal? This is going to be the biggest scandal of the year. Fuck! I could see 4-5 known celebrities there. If it's real, Hollywood media is going to be having a field day for months."

Wade laughed and it was only then that Florence and Liam moved. They were shell shocked like their souls have left their body.

Liam was even shaking.

"What the hell is this? What nonsense are you showing everyone?!"

Florence was the first to erupt out of the two of them, a reaction that was expected by Aiden. She looked rigid even if she was angey, shock was too much for her to handle.

"It's not nonsense, Ms. Lamb." Aiden deliberately called her by her husband's surname, making her shoot out a glare.

"All these are photosop right? These days, you can do a hell lot with a computer." Liam asked, glancing at Aiden, hoping that he would say that it was photoshop.

"They are not. Belive it or not." Aiden answered. "I got it from a media company that was looking into it. They have better shots. The ones they gave me are blurry. What I saw in their hands was high definition. Rest assured, they don't have videos from what I know but in this case, photos are enough."

"You are just trying to blackmail. Yes, that's what you doing."

Florence said, trying to give herself reasons.

"I don't have a reason to. Moreover, these photos are going to be public soon by the media company that has it. They apparently already sold it to someone and you yourself know if it's true or not. You should have thought more before attending an orgy when you are married."

Aiden frowned and looked at the laptop. On the screen, a few photos were displayed, all naked. Two of them were of Liam and Florence. One more familiar figure was there — Hank Paige.

They were in a position that was better left to imagination. Though Aiden had to say that Liam has a very unique fetish.

In the back, two more married actors were present. All cheating on their spouses together.

Aiden scrolled down on the photos and a few more came up. In one of them, Liam's 'tool' was on full display and seeing it, Tom couldn't help but glance at his crotch and chuckle.

Tom seemed to be the only one who looked like he was having the best day of his life.

'Who would have thought I would come across something like this?'

Aiden thought silently in his mind.

At first, the only suspicion he had was of cheating and that was indeed involved but when he dig further, an entirely different story came up.

Hank Paige and Florence was indeed in a relationship behind the back of her husband but it was more than that. They used to attend orgy parties invited by their friends and in these parties, they have met Liam.

Florence was quickly attracted to him as he was UK's most popular pop icon and a handsome guy, younger than her. He also seemed interested in her and hence, she had started seeing him besides the orgy parties.

Hank had gotten to know it and in an ugly spat, their relationship which was never really moral broke. He was ousted from the next day too as Liam and Florence began a relationship.

Aiden guessed that the reason Hank had given him warning and lied was because he wanted to cause trouble for Florence but it had given Aiden the necessary imagination to think that there was something much more graver going on.

In the end, the only victim was Zavier Lamb, Florence's husband who actually loves her.

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"Originally, a media company was going to release these last month but they got wind of [Stars on the Ground, so they halted it. They probably wanted to release it at the time of its promotions, completely destroying any goodwill towards the movie. It's fortunate I got to it first otherwise…"

Aiden didn't finish his sentence but everyone knew what he meant.

He had just saved a whole movie from being a box office disaster. Knowing the budget of [Stars on the Ground, it won't be a small loss either.

Ava looked at Aiden with grateful eyes while Florence stomped her feet while looking at Aiden's laptop.

"I will destroy the evidence right away."

"Are you not listening to me? Have you gone deaf?" Aiden sneered at her. "The media company already has it. Better pics. They are going to release it soon now that I have it."

"Tell me the name of the media company right now!"

Florence shouted but Aiden shook his head.

"I can't. I don't have a habit of betraying people unlike you."

She was almost ready to scream hearing that but Ava's voice silenced the whole room at the moment.

"Florence shut the fuck up! Don't shout at Aiden when you are the one who fucked up big time. You are making a movie, supposedly to empower women when you are not even someone who's moral. Has Hollywood really managed to make you such an awful person or where you liked that from before?"

Florence wasn't able to say anything hearing that. Ava's voice was deafening.

"Hey, Liam." Wade looked at the snarky guy, who was still silenced. He was too stupefied by the whole reveal, even a bit embarrassed.

When Wade called him out, he looked at him.

"What?"

"I think you are just wasting your time here. You are contracted with Intra Entertainment in London, right? Go and tell them what happened. The PR team might be able to stop this from circulating outside. Your female fan following is going to take a massive dive after this as you have got involved with a married woman."

Liam took a second to take his words before nodding furiously. He quickly left after that, not even looking at the others.

"Liam, wait for me!"

Florence also followed her boyfriend who apparently didn't even look at her before fleeing towards the parking lot.

Aiden was able to hear him talking on the phone from a distance. Something about calling his manager about it.

'He's fucked. There's no way any media company is going to let this get away from them. As for Florence, I hope her true face comes out to the public now.'

He thought and took a deep breath.

He had just dodged a bullet. If he thought about it clearly, the movie would not have suffered a lot if it was just an affair. In the west, these things don't have a huge impact on movies and people forget about it after a while.

But going to an orgy with the UK's most popular popstar, that was big.

"What a mess."

Ava muttered, frowning. She had not expected today to turn out like this but a day being ruined was much better than a couple of months being ruined.

Looking up at Aiden, she opened her mouth.

"Aiden, can I talk to you for a while? In private."

She glanced at both Tom and Wade who nodded. For some reason, Tom was muttering, 'This will be a whole arc in the reality show' while leaving.

After they were alone, Aiden sat down in front of her.

"You didn't know anything about it, I assume."

"Not even a clue." She sighed. "I was only producing a movie for Florence because she seemed to have a vision and I expected her to give her everything to it. I never knew she was such a time bomb."

"It was thanks to Hank Paige that I got a clue about it too. I was completely oblivious before that."

"What?"

Aiden explained what had happened and how his instincts made him feel like something was wrong. Hearing that, Ava widened her eyes.

It was only after a while that she took in the whole matter.

"What now then? I'm pretty sure this news will be out in a day or two. They won't wait now that I got my hands on the leaks."

"[Stars on the Ground] will be dumped," Ava said like it was a matter of fact. "I will pull out as the producer and Titan studios won't have anything to do with it. It would take a bit of PR as media reports are going to include our name in it for clout anyway."

She put a hand on her forehead, thinking about all the troubles she would need to go through.

Then, she glanced at Aiden and maybe for the first time today, she smiled.

"Thanks, you saved me this time."

"I just did what I needed to do. I didn't want to be associated with [Stars on the Ground] too."

Ava shook her head upon hearing that.

"No, I got you in this movie, telling you that it would be a big hit. I should have looked a bit more into Florence's background. You have done me a huge favour."

"If you say so." Aiden said then asked. "How are you going to return the favour?"

He wasn't a fool to let go of something like that.

He and Ava were friends but there was also a business relationship between them. Aiden was going to use their relationship to propel his career.

"Actually, I have something. Something pretty big actually."

Ava said, with a meaningful smile. Leaning against her chair, she kept her eyes on Aiden. A gaze that made him a bit uncomfortable as a pressure mounted upon him.

She finally opened her mouth.

"Do you know what type of movies are sure shot blockbusters at the box office?"

"Superhero movies. Generally anything to do with heavy VFX and big franchises."

Aiden said without thinking.

It was very simple, as the box office has changed a lot since the 2010s. It was the era of big budget studio movies that encompassed the entire franchise. It wasn't about the story but the experience now.

This has even engulfed niche genres like rom coms. Actually at the box office, Aiden's [30 days of Happiness] was the last rom com to be a box office success and that movie had a lot of goodwill due to how it had performed in film festivals.

Rom coms were only for streaming platforms now.

Of course, there were exceptions but they were few. The normal condition was pretty bad, especially with inflation rising.

"Yeah, and Titan studios is planning something like that. It will take a while obviously but if the project goes ahead, it would have the potential to become the next big blockbuster franchise."

"Are you saying—"

"Yes and no. I will give you the main role in it but you would need to increase your filmography and make it so that the others don't object when I give your name for the movie."

Ava finished her words and Aiden felt shivers down his spine.

'A lead role in a big movie.'

That was like a dream come true for many actors. There were reservations as committing to a franchise meant going the commercial way and binding yourself for years.

But at the same time, it was a challenge.

A way for him to get his name across the globe. A way for him to become a direct A lister in Hollywood.

"I will do my best."

Splash! Splash!

Aiden splashed water on his face as he looked at the mirror in front of him. The conversation with Ava was going in his mind continuously, like a song on loop.

The chance to lead a movie and eventually a whole franchise.

It was something that seemed very far away but suddenly, it was a few steps away from him. Aiden couldn't help but feel excited about the prospect.

'I need to prove myself before it.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

It was a funny thing for him to prove himself every time but this time, it was necessary. After all, such a big role would attract every actor in America and the world.

He was without any agency too, so he understood where Ava was coming from.

He needed to do more movies before that, to make his name bigger so that the studio wouldn't hesitate for him to become the image of the franchise.

At the same time, there was an inherent scepticism about it.

There were many actors who got rich and famous through superhero roles but none of their other projects worked after that because people preferred them more as the character that they had been playing for years.

At the same time, these types of actors also wouldn't work well in art movies and hence, awards would be out of their range.

No actor in the world could perfectly balance the artsy and commercial space.

'I need to perfectly plan my next movies. Do roles that are larger than life but at the same time, I need to have a mix of the ground reality with movies that would stretch the art of filmmaking.'

He thought in his mind and left the bathroom.

He wouldn't be working in [Stars on the Ground] now but a whole new world was open to him suddenly. And he was going to make sure that all his hard work would be worth it.

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Breaking news! A huge scandal has just broken out. Liam Wilde caught in between an orgy. At the same time, his relationship with Florence Levine, an actress and director, is out too. There were speculations in the past, but now it has been confirmed!

—The UK Times.

Florence Levine caught cheating with Liam Wilde. Photos of them being in an orgy broke out. All the other faces are blurred, but there are a lot of rumours that it was a celebrity orgy fest.

—Great Britain Tribunal.

UK's biggest news — Pop sensation and ex-boy band member Liam Wilde's photos from an orgy with his married girlfriend out in public. Both of them have gone underground after the photos leaked and the scandal came forward. There were rumors that Liam was going to work on his girlfriend's next movie.

—Hollywood Muse.

Both Liam Wilde and Florence Levine tried hard to stop the photos from leaking to the public. Liam's agency even offered more than a couple million dollars, but the news publication that Artery media had sold the news to didn't agree.

The next day, the leak engulfed most of the UK and tremors were even heard in Hollywood.

Surprisingly, only Liam and Florence's photos had come out from the orgy and others were left out of it, maybe because the publication wanted to sell those to earn money too.

Hank Paige would probably pay millions for his name not to come into the scandal.

But in the end, both Florence and Liam were at the center of it.

Ava quickly broke off any ties she had with Florence and [Stars on the Ground] was scrapped like it never existed. On Sparrow, hashtags like #Leaks, #Orgy, #Small, #Scandal, #Liam and #Cheating were trending, taking the top spots.

Literally, every user was tweeting about it, not wanting to miss out on such a piece of massive news.

[Dancing to get famous: Woah! Woah! Woah! Is this true? Am I really waking up to a photo of Liam Wilde and Florence Levine with another guy in between them? My day is ruined, and my disappointment is immeasurable.]

[That Meme guy: So, apparently, Florence Levine was cheating on her husband with a young pop star. Okay, I understand that, but what in the nine realms were they doing in an orgy. I would love to have a Zetflix documentary on it.]

[Fighting for equality: Man, Florence Levine really went down hard. Her marriage is doomed, her career is probably over, and she ruined her image.]

[Try guys founder: This is some wild news. Never thought those conspiracy theories on MeTube about celebrity orgies would come out true. Imma watch all the drama with popcorn.]

[Hollywood Insider: Liam truly followed the dao of 'If there's a hole, there's a goal'. He even got other people to contribute to this mighty dao. #Insider Monk.]

[Aiden's wife: Wasn't Aiden doing a movie with her? I think I heard rumors. Wait! Does that mean he was also in these parties? I'm conflicted about it but ahem, I guess I could do a bit of research. Need to make sure he's not there.]

[Dark Arts Master: Hollywood's really going crazy these days. I am pretty sure Liam's 25-year-old fans are soon going to start acting like teenagers and defend him, saying it's photoshopped. Some are going to blame it directly on Florence.]

"Did you hear the news? I heard the media is going crazy in London, trying to get even a line from Liam Wilde about it."

"He can't even say it's fake. It's very clear that it's him. There were proofs, and his relationship with Florence Levine is also completely exposed."

"Must be hell for him. Well, he deserved it. Florence Levine is anyway getting bashed harder."

Aiden looked at the couple of girls who were talking about the 'Wilde Scandal'. Yes, that was what the media was calling it.

He didn't stand there for a long time and walked. He was currently in a cafe.

Moving past a few more tables and making sure he didn't attract too much attention to himself, he sat down at a table and looked at the man in front of him.

He was Reece Scaler, the paparazzi from Artery media who Aiden had made a deal with.

"Congratulations. You must have earned a lot with the controversy."

"It's the company who did it. I'm just an employee, happy with the bonuses we will get."

Reece said at Aiden's words. There was a smile on his face, which almost looked cunning due to his facial features.

"You looked into what I said."

Aiden asked, and Reece smiled.

"You do know that the information you gave me about Seth Douglas wasn't at the level which I gave you." Reece sighed, then said. "Well, it was true. He's really a big trash. Sadly, SGA has abandoned him, or this would be bigger."

"I gave you the information in exchange for the photos, but it didn't have any impact on your plans. It just got out early."

Aiden muttered.

In exchange for the photos, Aiden had just told Reece about Seth Douglas. The stuff he had heard on set about him, and at the same time, he had confirmed the fight between Jesse Ross and Seth.

Aiden himself didn't know if most of the information he had given would be true or not, but it seemed like this gamble had paid off.

"True. It's just fascinating that you got the scent of this news."

"I was lucky."

Aiden simply shrugged, and Reece tried to talk about a few other things, some related to the scandal and some other stuff, and Aiden listened keenly to each of his words.

It was not like he was interested in what he was saying, but he knew that Reece was just trying to engage him in conversation to get more information out of him for free.

'I guess it won't work on him.'

Reece thought and then took a look at his watch. Frowning, he looked up at Aiden.

"I would love to talk more, but I need to leave now. A lot happens after such a scandal, you see."

"It's okay."

Aiden said, sipping on his coffee. He had only decided to meet Reece to know how everything was going after the scandal broke out.

Before leaving, Reece looked up at Aiden.

"Well, this was a good deal. My senior said that the thing about Seth Douglas might be useful later on. If you need me again for a deal, call me."

"You are expensive, you know."

Aiden joked, and Reece just shrugged.

"The business is like that. Information is always expensive."

"The last few days have been very entertaining, but the plans for your next project got completely ruined."

Wade said, looking at Aiden. They were currently in the office of Uncle Sam. After meeting with Reece, Aiden was craving some food, so he had Wade drive him to his uncle's restaurant.

After eating the food, Aiden was playing video games with Uncle Sam. On the big screen, a samurai warrior was attacking another with sparks flying all around.

"I know, but it's for the better. Anyway, there isn't any scarcity of projects, right?"

Aiden glanced at Wade from the corner of his eye. Most of his focus was on video games.

"There isn't, but you told me you are going to be very specific with the type of project to choose. Mixing both commercial movies and artsy stuff — I don't really know what would attract you. You do reject a lot of stuff."

Aiden wanted to say that it was because his skill told him which was a good script and which was not. Unfortunately, most of what he got were bad, and the good ones had too many people aiming for them.

But he remained silent and focused on the game.

"Ah, I lost."

After a while, it ended, and the samurai that Aiden was controlling had a sword pierced in his chest while Uncle Sam's character was smiling with a maniac smile.

"This sage has won again. I'm still the only one worthy in this world. Ah, it's truly lonely at the top."

Both Aiden and Wade squinted their eyes at Uncle Sam, hearing those weird words.

"Cringe," Wade muttered. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just imitating a character from an online novel I'm reading. By the way, Aiden, I forgot to ask you something."

Uncle Sam suddenly turned towards Aiden.

"What?"

"You got the photos of the orgy from a paparazzi, right?"

"Yeah."

Hearing that, Uncle Sam gave him a smile that was best termed as perverted. No, it was very creepy.

"You didn't get any video of it? I have friends who could give like 100k for—"

"No."

"I need money for a collector's edition—"

"I don't have anything like that, Uncle. I will tell my aunt about it if you don't stop."

Uncle Sam sighed upon hearing that, and Aiden didn't know if he was serious or just joking.

"Anyway, a lot of careers would end due to this scandal. I'm pretty sure Florence won't get any work for a long time. People do forget, so she will make a comeback after a few years. For now, she's going to hatch onto her boyfriend."

Uncle Sam muttered, being very aware of how scandals were perceived. It was generally based on public outrage.

Then, he suddenly thought of something and asked.

"By the way, she was married, right?"

"Ah, yeah."

"I feel bad for her husband. Must have gotten a shock out of nowhere."

Hearing that, Aiden frowned, thinking about Zavier. He was the victim in all this, and no one knew how he was coping at the moment.

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Thinking of Zavier, Aiden thought about the last time they had met during the premier of [Sherlock of the Shadows].

He had looked pretty happy back then and had even talked about how he had taken a back seat in his career because of his family.

This news must have broken him.

Aiden had never experienced such a big betrayal, so he didn't know how it would feel, but it wasn't something that he wanted to go through in the future.

Thinking of it, he berated Florence more. She didn't seem like the type who even cared about her marriage, knowing how she had multiple affairs.

"I wonder how he's taking it," Wade muttered. "I heard that he was preparing for his next movie and it completely stopped after he heard the news. Florence is in London, from what I know, and the media is trying to get to Zavier to get some comments for a headline."

"The media is the worst in these types of things." Uncle Sam muttered, clicking his tongue.

"Yeah, but he needs to wait for them to lose interest, and that won't happen easily. People even go into depression due to such things."

Aiden just listened as Uncle Sam and Wade talked. His mind was thinking of Zavier, the director who had given him his most iconic role till now.

They were not friends, but they definitely had a good working relationship. He would even say that Zavier was a good acquaintance of his.

'I should give him a visit.'

As he thought that, Wade called him out.

"Aiden, are you listening to me?"

"Huh? What?"

"I was talking about your new script."

When he was in thoughts, the topic had changed back to his next movie.

"I have a few scripts from good directors in mind. Most of them would be happy to have you on the cast as a supporting actor."

Wade said, and Aiden slowly nodded his head.

"Okay, just send them to me. I will read all of them as soon as possible and get back to you."

"You don't have a specific genre in mind, right? Or a type of role?" He raised one of his eyebrows and asked.

"No, I don't. Though, any role which is impactful and could stay in the audience's mind."

Uncle Sam laughed at that.

"Actors don't get those types of roles. They need to make their role like that by their acting. Even then, they are as rare as a role could be."

"I know, but there needs to be something in the character for me to hold onto. If I'm given a character with no traits, I don't know what would fit."

Aiden said. His conversation with Ava was still in his mind and he wanted to aim for roles that could be larger than life.

Characters that stay with people.

"I would try to look for those types of roles but don't have a lot of hope. Those types of stuff don't come everyday."

Wade muttered with a sigh.

After leaving Uncle Sam's restaurant, Aiden and Wade parted ways. He didn't go home and instead drove toward Zavier's house.

Both of them lived in New York, and knowing their relationship, the least he could do was to give him a visit in these tough times.

Zavier lived in a pretty high-end neighborhood, and when Aiden reached near his house, he saw that a lot of people were standing outside it.

On another look, he saw that they were reporters and paparazzi who were there just to get some news material.

Aiden frowned seeing them and parked outside the house.

"Hey, it's Aiden Silvereye."

"What's he doing here?"

"Click pictures. They might sell well."

"Aiden, what are your thoughts about the whole saga?"

"Do you have anything to say about Florence Levine? There were rumours that you were doing a movie with her."

"Please give us your views."

As Aiden came out of his car, the reporters barged at him and surrounded him, asking different types of questions.

"I'm sorry but can you give me a little privacy?"

He said and tried to walk towards the main door, ignoring every question that was thrown at him.

With every step, a photo of him would be clicked.

Reaching the door, he pressed the doorbell but no one answered. After the second ring, a voice came out of the smart doorbell.

"Aiden… Is that you?"

It was a very melancholy voice. Aiden recognised it quickly and opened his mouth.

"Yeah, it's me, Zavier. I wanted to see you to know how you were doing."

"Come in."

As soon as those words came out, the door opened automatically and Aiden entered.

The house looked like the typical millionaire's house, with everything clean and a lot of space.

Aiden walked inside slowly and found Zavier on the sofa. A bottle of wine was in his hand and a few other bottles of wine were on the floor.

Pizza and other food items that were barely recognisable were also on the floor. It seemed like Zavier was living on fast food these days.

One more noticeable thing was that the TV was broken, like someone had hit it with a baseball bat.

"Aiden, you are really here. Come, sit down." Zavier said, turning around and pointing at a seat adjacent to him.

Aiden sat down and glanced at the TV.

"What happened to it?"

"I broke it," Zavier replied. By his breath, Aiden could easily tell that he was drunk. "I needed something to let out my feelings. That TV became the victim and the… bedroom. I wanted to hit Florence's head actually but that bitch left."

"Where."

"London. To her fucking boyfriend with my… fucking kids. Fucking bitch, you know. Actually, you don't but it's a very heartbreaking feeling when you see your cheating wife leave with the kids. I talked to my lawyer about it and apparently, mothers have an edge on these things. World is very unfair, my friend."

Every word of his slurred a bit and his eyes were red. Black circles were under his eyes like he had not slept and his hair was dishevelled.

He looked like a person who had lost his entire world and it was true too.

"Why are you here? Aren't you busy?" Zavier asked suddenly.

"I was worried about you."

Aiden replied and Zavier looked a bit surprised.

"Ah, that's surprising. You are the only person that came to see me." Zavier said, surprising Aiden. "None of my friends did as they don't want to do anything with this scandal. I saw a few comments online. A lot of them were saying that I was probably involved in the orgy too and some of them were saying that I'm a miserable person. Well, the second one ain't wrong."

He blabbered on, happy that he finally had someone to talk to. It had been a few days since the scandal had broken out and from reports Aiden had read before coming here, Zavier hadn't left his house.

Aiden had felt like it was really dangerous as someone who was going through such a big thing was bound to have some sort of reaction.

He was glad that it was only the TV who had become the victim and nothing worse had happened.

"Thank you for coming here. I was very lonely. Do you want a drink?"

"Yeah, sure."

As Zavier poured out a drink for Aiden, he talked more.

Aiden realized that rather than talking, he needed to act like a listener here and let Zavier let out whatever was in his head.

"You know, I met Florence on the set of a TV series. I was a college dropout. She was just out of high school. We became friends. She was very sweet back then. It was only after a couple more years that we started dating and it quickly became more than that. I actually thought I had done something right by marrying her."

Zavier frowned, the memories haunting him somewhere in his mind and continued.

"There were signs, now that I think about it. She used to be too busy sometimes, more than necessary and auditions would pop out of nowhere. I thought it was nothing. Never thought she was cheating all along. I even took a year break to handle the kids as she worked…"

For the entire night, Zavier told Aiden all about their relationship and what had happened after the leaks had gone viral.

For a moment, he hadn't believed it, but the photos were too real.

He had called her, and they had fought about it. In the end, she left without explaining and even took the kids with her.

He had obviously tried to stop her but she had threatened to call the police if he touched her. Maybe, that was the breaking point when Zavier realised that the person he loved never existed and the true self was cold and bigoted.

He spent the next few days crying about it and trying to get over it but it wasn't easy. Whenever he went outside, the media trailed him.

So, he had just stopped and decided to finish up every wine in his collection.

As Zavier talked and Aiden listened, time flew by very quickly and both of them didn't know when they had slept off.

When Aiden woke up, he saw that Zavier wasn't on the sofa.

His head was hurting a bit, probably due to the wine. He stood up to look for Zavier and found him making breakfast.

He looked like he had woken up a while ago.

Hearing footsteps, he turned around and asked.

"Want toast?"

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"Want toast?"

When Zavier asked that, Aiden nodded and sat down on a chair.

"When did you wake up?" Aiden asked, and Zavier looked at him as he put a slightly burned toast on a plate.

"Two hours ago. I slept a lot in the last few days." He passed on the toast, "Here."

"Ah, thanks."

"Sorry, I never really cooked before."

"It's perfectly fine."

They didn't talk for a while as Aiden chewed on the toast. It wasn't the best toast he had eaten, but it wasn't so bad that it was unbearable.

It was just average.

After a while, Zavier opened his mouth.

"I wanted to say thanks." Aiden looked up at him, still chewing the toast. "No one else came to meet me after the scandal, and only you did. It's a big thing for me. I feel much better after letting out everything going on in my mind."

Last night, Aiden had heard every bit of detail of Zavier and Florence's marriage unwillingly. From how they had met to every single fight of theirs to even things that were better not said out loud.

Zavier had even told him about him wanting to murder Florence in 100 different ways. Yes, he had actually talked about that.

The only reason he hadn't gone ahead with it was that he still had sanity left.

At one point, Aiden was even scared of his thoughts and wanted to advise him to do a horror movie with the extraordinary imagination he had.

"It's not a big deal. What are you going to do next?" Aiden raised an eyebrow and finished up the toast.

"I'm going to hire the best divorce attorney in town and get custody of my kids. They don't deserve to suffer with a filthy mother."

"That's a good plan."

Aiden said. Watching the whole drama pan out in front of his eyes had made him remember once again why Hollywood marriages rarely worked.

It was as rare as a normal movie beating a superhero movie at the box office.

Children are left with broken homes, and parents are too busy in their professional life to give them time. It was sad, but that was the reality.

"Ah, all this is going to cost a lot. Lawyers take a lot these days."

Zavier muttered as Aiden was thinking of relationships that were purely based in Hollywood.

"Are you short on money?" He asked, and Zavier sighed.

"Not exactly, but I have not worked in a long time. A lot of my savings went into getting that bitch her office."

Aiden ignored the fact that Zavier was calling Florence as 'Bitch' and finally understood how she had gotten a great office without much accomplishments.

"Are you going to get into directing again? Ads might get you money quickly."

A lot of directors actually did ad shoots to get some short-term income as they were easier than movies and didn't take a long time.

"No, I want to direct a movie. I will go crazy if I don't get to work straight away. I need something to distract my mind as I file the divorce case."

"Your rom-com movie?"

Aiden still recalled Zavier talking about it on the premiere of [Sherlock of the Shadows].

"No, never in my entire life," Zavier muttered. "I already tore that script. If I made a rom-com movie currently, it's going to come out as a dark and disgusting movie that would be rated R."

He frowned and continued.

"I was actually thinking that I should work on the sequel of one of my previous movies. It's better to follow the same characters that I have created instead of making a whole new batch of them."

"That means?"

"You talked about a sequel to [Black Saints] before, right? I think this is the right time to bring Kai back."

Aiden widened his eyes hearing that. He hadn't thought that he would get a chance to go back to Kai as all plans for the sequels that he knew of never became something more than an idea.

Zavier had never been able to execute the ideas, so a script was never made, and he moved on.

"I thought you didn't want it?"

"Things change. I feel like I'm in the right mindset to write a good enough story that would suit Kai." Zavier said, then smiled, thinking about it. "A dark villain story that would make people gasp."

The major thing that was the worry in something [Black Saints 2] was the fact that there were a couple of ways that the story could be taken forward.

Whether Kai died or not at the end of the movie was something that was left to the viewers. So, was the sequel going to focus on that? Or, instead, was it going to be a back story of how he became that sort of a maniac?

Prequels like that have rarely worked in the industry as they were mostly badly executed and it was hard for people to connect with them. One of the reasons was also that people were bored of origin stories.

But maybe the origin story of someone like Kai would work?

Both Zavier and Aiden didn't know, but they discussed a few ideas.

Zavier showed Aiden the various ideas he had written for Kai back when [Black Saints] emerged as a big hit.

They were interesting, to say the least.

There was even one idea that showed Kai as a middle-aged man with kids after he had gone underground. It was an idea that was discarded in a second, as that just didn't suit Kai.

Aiden felt like Kai would never be in a relationship simply because love for him was a weakness. He would kill the girl he would fall in love with.

After all, Kai was the epitome of anarchy.

In the end, it was not something that they could work on straight away. Just the scripting was going to take a couple of months, and then, they would need to start on the pre-production.

Zavier asked Aiden whether he was able to help him out in fleshing out the ideas, and Aiden agreed without thinking for a second.

He was the one who was the most excited about Kai making a return.

Even though Kai was a crazy guy, Aiden had a connection with him that was hard to emulate in any of his other characters.

Maybe, it was just because he loved playing villains.

At the same time, Aiden was very excited to finally be able to use the boost he had received on villain characters. After [Black Saints, he had never played any villains, so he wanted to see what would happen if he played one. With the boost, he was bound to max out the character affinity.

In a room, a song was playing. His melodies danced around, creating a mesmerizing atmosphere. It was a ballad song with a voice that held a lot of melancholy, and the lyrics were as pure as they could be.

An old man had his eyes closed as he listened to the music.

A thin smile was on his face, reminiscing about the day he had first heard the song. Since that day, he had been playing it every single day, no matter what.

It was his favorite song, and at the same time, it was linked to one of the most painful memories that haunted his mind.

Suddenly, the song stopped, and the old man opened his eyes with a deep sigh.

'If only I have called you that night…'

The old man thought, and at that moment, a man entered the room. He was a young man with intricate features, and confidence was evident in the way he carried himself. Following him was a square-shaped face, a short man with a bit of a belly.

"Grandpa, Mr. Price is here to meet you."

The young man was actually Cameron, and the old man was Joseph Bryce, his grandfather, and a famous composer.

"Come sit. You should have called me if you were coming to my place."

Joseph said as the man named Mr. Price took his seat.

"It was a bit urgent. I didn't think a lot and just wanted to meet you."

"About what?"

"Agnas."

Joseph widened his eyes hearing that. He hadn't expected the topic to come up so suddenly.

Cameron just stood on the side hearing that, but even his expression was a bit more serious after hearing that name.

A name that most people in America and most of the west would know of.

"What about it?" Joseph asked.

"We got into an agreement with the family members. They agreed for us to go on with the project, and they won't interfere in it. They didn't have any problem after we reimbursed them properly and told them that the world needs to get the story of what exactly went on."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the project is on."

Standing on the side, Cameron couldn't help but smile hearing that.

The full name of the short man was actually Theodore Price, and he was one of the producers from Zero International, one of the Big 6 studios in Hollywood.

He was currently talking about a movie that had been in the works for years, and just when they had gotten a script ready, it had gotten into trouble.

"If that's the case, then we should start the production right away. It had already been delayed a lot."

"I'm here to talk to you about it for that reason. More importantly, I want to talk about 'Joker'."

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"I'm here to talk to you about 'Joker'."

Hearing those words, Joseph was in a trance for a second before looking at his phone on the table. The song that had stopped in the middle was displayed on it.

Joker — A memory that was incomplete. A painful past that Joseph had never been able to forget.

"What about 'Joker'? I thought we were over it."

"We need it." Theodore insisted.

"It's incomplete, and it would be like that for eternity."

Joseph shook his head. If he could, he didn't want to talk about it, but it didn't look like Theodore was going to leave it be.

He had come here with determination.

"You are someone who could complete it. I don't know anyone else who could."

Theodore said. Joseph was the only composer he knew who could complete 'Joker'. No other modern-day composer would be able to do it other than him.

"Do you think I have never tried? I have. Many times but it never worked. It didn't match well. Something was always missing. It's not my song, and the one who could do it is already dead. Do you really need it for the movie?"

"We want to use it if we can. We feel like it would be the best possible farewell to Agnas."

Joseph sighed, hearing that, and looked up at Theodore.

"Have you talked to other composers? There's more than just me."

"I sent it to a lot of people. Some think it's cursed." Theodore shrugged, frowning. "Others tried their hands on it. But it didn't work out. The emotional range needed to do the song is not something easy to find. Moreover, you were the one to work the most with Agnas. If you can't do it, no one can."

Joseph closed his eyes upon hearing that. His memories took him to the days when he was still young.

The young musician Agnas — the true superstar that ruled an entire era. He had done so many songs with him, and his life was of legends. Something that most people could only dream of.

But there was just so much that was not revealed to the public.

In the end, Agnas overdosed while trying to complete a song called 'Joker'. A song that was never revealed to the public and something that was even considered a curse now due to it being involved with the death of Agnas.

"Grandpa, can you really not do it? You are the best composer I know of."

Cameron, who had been silent until now, asked. Joseph shook his head in rejection.

"No, I already said I can't. Some things are just better left incomplete in this world."

"Yeah, that's better, I guess." Theodore leaned against his seat. "The director wanted to use it in the movie, but I guess it would need to be removed now. By the way, Joseph, can you be there during the auditions? You know Agnas better than anyone else, and your character would be in the movie too, so it's better for us if you are more involved."

Joseph nodded with a smile.

For the record, he had helped out as a consultant for the script for years, as he genuinely wanted the world to see the real story of Agnas.

"Yeah, I will be there."

At that moment, Cameron suddenly opened his mouth.

"Mr. Price, can I audition for the role?"

"Which role?"

Theodore raised an eyebrow, and even Joseph looked at his grandson with a strange eye. He was never interested in acting before.

"For Agnas. I want to give it a shot."

"[Black Saints 2, you said? One entirely focused on Kai?" Wade asked. "How did you get a new project when you went to see how he was doing? Was that your plan all along?"

"No. Do you think of me as some sort of mastermind, with every small move of mine hinting towards a grand plan?"

"You do give that vibe. I won't be surprised if you are."

Sasha and Jody burst out in laughter at the exchange between Wade and Aiden. George just snickered while Lia and Tom focused on the food.

Aiden was currently in a restaurant, having lunch with his entire team. As he didn't have any schedule today, he came out to eat together with his team.

"Are you sure the sequel would be focused on Kai? [Black Saints] is Ray Hardy's biggest hit in the last three years. He won't like it if his character isn't featured a lot in the sequel."

Jody asked, and before Aiden could reply, Wade chipped in.

"I don't think Ray is the type to care about the box office. His character arc was completed too, and Kai was the most popular character. Aside from him, the movie was nothing new. I'm pretty sure Zavier would be cursed if he went for a sequel without Kai. A lot wanted him as the main face anyway."

Aiden took a bite from his burger and nodded.

"Yeah. Although the scripting would take time, so I don't know when it would go into pre-production, but going by what Zavier said, the project is definitely on."

"If we are lucky, it will roll around the end of the second half," Tom replied, already feeling excited about the movie. "A lot of my friends loved Kai."

"Going by the character's individual popularity, it would definitely be a big hit if the script is good enough."

Sasha replied. There was something in Kai that attracted common people to him and made them like him. Maybe it was because of his unpredictability, or it was because of something else, but it was undeniable that he was charismatic.

"There would be a wide gap if your next project is [Black Saints 2]. Almost a year. Are you going to do another movie till then?"

Wade asked, and Aiden thought for a bit before replying.

"Yeah, obviously."

"Then, go through the scripts in your home. You have not talked back to me about them."

"Well, I'm just busy in [Morpheus]. It's getting a lot of traction with each issue, so I'm trying to keep up with the expectations."

Keeping up with readers was a very hard thing, and Aiden kept feeling like people would be disappointed if he did something wrong. That was the challenge of a serialized series, and both he and Bruce knew it well.

Vikings publishing was already happy enough with a hit series, and they were letting Aiden do what he wanted.

It was certainly tiring, but he felt like his writing skills were improving.

"Take your time. We are going to go through Christmas first. Work would only begin after the new year."

Wade muttered, already feeling excited.

The year was finally ending, and the whole country was in a festive mood due to Christmas. Aiden had gotten used to snow after coming to America, and he had even started to enjoy it.

Like every year, he celebrated it with Uncle Sam and his family.

At the same time, Aiden couldn't help but feel like this year was truly something that had taught him a lot. It had not been as good as he had hoped.

Although his album was received really well, with songs reaching hundreds of millions of views, his acting career got its first flop.

Though, [Disconnected] did become a unique movie and was a hit on Zetflix.

[Sherlock of the Shadows] ensured that his acting career was gradually improving, and his filmography was becoming better and better with each project.

A role like that improved his acting credentials in the industry by a lot, and after reading the scripts he got, he noticed that a lot of the roles that he was asked to audition for were written very well, and they had a lot of personality.

It was a good change from the past, where he needed to reject a lot of projects just because the role had nothing in it. It was cardboard with no significance in the story.

Now, Aiden was treated as one of the young stars in the industry with a bright future.

His unique style was what made him stand out too.

Not like he had multiple talents, but he was also continuously doing well in them. Even writing, something that he wasn't much famous for, was working really well.

His first graphic novel had reached the top ten best sellers in December, in the middle of a lot of superhero comics.

But Aiden didn't feel satisfied with what he had achieved till now.

He wanted to stand far higher than where he was standing right now, and even though he knew that it would take time, he was a bit impatient.

It wasn't a quality that he often displayed.

Maybe, it had something to do with what Ava had told him. A chance to lead a whole original superhero universe. He didn't have any idea about what it would be, but it was a chance for him to stand at the top of the commercial zone in Hollywood.

Several actors had knocked down A list just by appearing in superhero flicks.

At the same time, Aiden needed to establish himself in movies that were more likely to work in film festivals. It might seem weird as Aiden's goal was to become the top actor in Hollywood — A superstar.

The star culture in Hollywood was dead, but even before, the true superstars would mostly star in commercial flicks that would get hundreds of millions at the box office.

But Aiden wanted to keep a mix of that.

He really wondered if he would be one step closer to his goal in this new year.

What type of projects would he do? And what type of fields would he get involved in? Will he write another book?

There were just so many things left.

...

/DreamNote/ (9th Oct 2022)

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A chilly wind blew by.

On the streets, people have been tucked into warm clothes and were covered from top to bottom. Most of them were walking quickly, wanting to escape the cold weather by going into their homes.

Cars were as usual and the traffic was minimal.

"LA is pretty good in winter. The atmosphere is certainly something different than the summers."

Aiden remarked, looking at the man next to him. From the last time he had seen him, the man seemed to have gained some weight and his eyes were a bit sunken.

He was Leo, the director of [30 days of Happiness] and one of Aiden's friends.

"Yeah. It's one of the hottest cities in the US in the summer. Ah, see, that's your holding."

Leo suddenly stopped in his tracks and pointed at one of the holdings. It was one of 'Spirit', the energy drink company that Aiden was signed with.

"You must be earning in millions with just that." Leo remarked.

"It's not that much."

"Are you trying to look humble?"

Aiden shook his head without saying anything and walked ahead. It was January and Aiden was in LA for an ad shoot for a clothing brand. Wade had negotiated with the brand in December and had gotten a good deal out of it.

Here, he had come across Leo who has apparently moved to LA as most of the big studios are situated here. They were just having lunch together.

"So, are you working on any scripts at the moment?"

Aiden asked as they walked. From time to time, a few people turned to Aiden but seeing celebrities wasn't that big a deal in LA, especially in the streets where a lot of studios are located.

"Not really. You do know how my last movie went."

"It was good though. Heard it passed the breakeven point. It was a great achievement as rom coms hardly work these days."

"Studios these days don't care about it. I pushed for a theatre release and they were happy about it as [30 days of Happiness] made a lot of money but this one didn't really connect at that level even though the reviews were nice. I'm lucky I'm still in demand to direct a project."

Leo frowned. His second movie had released last year and like his debut one, it was a lighthearted rom com with similar themes but the results were not the same.

"So you are seeing the market, studying up stuff and then, would you start the script for your next?" Aiden asked, a bit disappointed.

"Yes, I am not the type to take chances. I have scripts ready but none of them are movies that I feel like would work in the current market. They are so nuanced that people won't want to go to the theatre for it." Leo muttered, almost like he was complaining about the current state of cinema. "You still haven't found a good script to sign?"

Leo looked up at Aiden as they passed by a cafe.

"Not yet." Aiden sighed. "I feel like I'm too choosy these days. Even if I like the story and writing of a script, I reject it as I feel like it won't work at the box office."

"There's certainly a difference between a good project and a successful one. You need to choose one that could be both."

Aiden nodded his head.

This was something that he had understood very well. There are so many good movies every year but are they all successful? No, they are not.

A good movie could easily flop in these times.

A lot of the scripts have high ratings by the system but Aiden felt like those were the type that people would more likely watch on their couch instead of driving to the theatre.

Having no luxury to choose a project without thinking of box office, Aiden was being very careful, so much so that he was hurting himself by wasting time.

It was already January and by this time, he would have started on [Stars on the Ground] if the scandal hadn't happened.

Both Leo and Aiden passed a few more buildings as Aiden talked about the various scripts that he had read recently. Thrillers, mystery, a kids fantasy, dramas, more thrillers. It was endless if he was being honest.

The problem was that the scripts he was getting weren't those from the big studios as they are more tight lipped about stuff unless the director or the writer wanted him.

After listening to Aiden's worries, Leo thought for a bit before asking.

"What are you doing after this?"

"I will go back to the studio and complete the photoshoot. I'm free in the evening, so I was thinking of just reading over the scripts that I have again. I could have missed something in them."

"Then go meet Omar."

Aiden raised an eyebrow for an explanation. He hadn't been much in contact with Omar in the last couple of months other than the normal small talks.

"Why him?"

"He was talking about a script last time we met. It was a month ago. He said that he's in a dilemma because the script was 'problematic'."

"Problematic?"

"Yeah, I don't know a lot about him. Just go and meet him."

Like Leo suggested, Aiden drove to Omar's office after the photoshoot was done. Wade wanted to take him to a meeting with some writers and studio employees but he told him that he had something else to do.

After the success of [30 days of Happiness] and Omar's second production, he had opened up an office in LA too.

It wasn't grand or anything compared to bigger studios that Aiden had visited but it was still a place where people could focus on making great entertainment. Omar had given more emphasis to the comfort and making the office more environment friendly.

After talking to his secretary, Aiden directly entered his office.

"Omar."

Aiden called him out. Omar was busy in a pile of papers and there was a different look on his face than usual. It was like he was in some sort of dilemma and it was affecting him a lot.

It was very different than seeing the happy go lucky Omar.

"Ah, Aiden. You are here." He said, standing up. His eyes seem to shine a bit, looking at him. "Sit down. Do you want some iced coffee?"

"Sure."

"Let me get it then."

He sat down as Omar prepared two iced coffees from the coffee machine. Aiden just looked at him with a discerning eye.

After Omar placed the iced coffee, he sat down.

"How's everything going for you? Heard you survived the Wilde scandal by the barrest of margins."

"Yeah, I was almost scratched by it."

"You have a knack for handling those types of situations. I still remember how you handled Tyler back then. You surprised me with your witty charm and—"

"Stop."

Aiden interrupted him in the middle of the sentence.

"What happened?"

"Don't act so weird. It's sending chills down my spine. Your compliments only work against drunk girls." Omar widened his eyes hearing that but his facial expressions soon relaxed.

Shrugging his shoulders, he took a sip out of his iced coffee.

"Are my compliments that bad?"

"They are but I knew from the time you offered to make iced coffee for me. You are not the type to do something like that. More like, you are the type to hire people for the smallest of jobs. You were even fumbling your way through making this coffee."

Aiden took a sip. He was observant, a trait that had benefited him a lot. Omar was a privileged guy who always had people doing things for him.

"You sometimes feel like a superhero with those weird skills of yours." Omar remarked, acting like he was in awe of his skills.

"Leave all that. Why were you acting so nice with me? What do you want?"

"Well, it's a long story."

"I have time."

"Okay. Well, I heard you were looking for a script from Leo. So, this might help you too."

Omar said and pointed at the wall on the side. It had two posters on it. One was of [30 days of Happiness] and the second was of his streaming movie called [Night Assassin.]

Both the movies have done extremely well and were pretty safe projects for Omar as the producer.

"What about them?" Aiden asked.

"Those are my first two movies. Both were very successful and I got a lot of profit. Now, a few months ago, I wanted to move above them and get a way better third movie and I did get one of the scripts that I felt would do extremely well in the era of turbulent box office."

"So, what's the problem?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"It's going to be very risky."

"You just said you are confident of it doing well at the box office. Now risky? Are you going for a 200 million dollar blockbuster that would be hard to get back the money?"

Aiden asked. Omar wasn't making much sense to him. He was easily contradicting himself.

Sighing, Omar opened his mouth.

"It won't take a lot of money. The risk is that the movie is very problematic. At least, I'm very sure the media would try to portray it as that."

"How exactly?

Aiden was very curious by this point. A problematic movie in Hollywood? Unlike other industries like in his home country, Hollywood wasn't very strict. In a few movies, even nudity is allowed and in a few R rated movies, there were scenes that were full of gore.

...

...

/DreamNote/

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"Well, for starters, the movie is just a series of fights. The director who showed me the script literally named it 'Ballads of Fights'. It goes from one cool scene from another with a story coming in the middle."

"So an action movie? Something like a slick spy movie?"

"No, it's uh, a teenage gang movie. A bloody one at that."

Aiden blinked his eyes in confusion hearing that.

A teenage gang movie? With bloody scenes? Aiden had never seen something like this in Hollywood before. Whatever teenage stuff he has seen was either a rom com, a comedy or something in the superhero genre.

Those things were often very family friendly.

'It at least looks new and different.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

"What's the story exactly?"

"Well, if I have to give a short summary, it's about a gang that rules the student body in a boys high school and a guy challenging it. The director who wrote it is a huge fan of Hong Kong action movies and took a lot of influence from it. You know Asano Mercer?"

"I feel like I have watched a few of his movies. He's a veteran, right?"

Aiden asked and Omar nodded.

From what he remembered, Asano Mercer was a Japanese origin director that had started his career doing Asian family dramas. He had a show on IBM channel called [Crazy Rich People].

Aiden's roommate used to watch it a lot back in the day.

"Yeah, actually his last two movies flopped because he was trying to show a very slow but emotional story. The movies were liked by the critics but the audience just said that the movie wasn't able to hold their attention for a long time. He was missing the entertainment element. So, he decided to do his next movie entirely on cool moments and one good fight scene after another. I have seen his work and preparations for this movie and it's very brilliant."

Omar explained in an excited tone. It was very easy for Aiden to see that he genuinely was interested in this movie.

'It certainly doesn't look like something that one would see often. Although risks would be there.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

He would only be able to tell if he read the script but he was able to imagine a movie with only fight scenes. It looked like a weird concept but it was possible.

,m One needs to just make it entertaining enough to capture the interest of the audience.

A lot of movies work on just visual spectacle because they are beautiful to watch. So, a movie that has a story in between fight scenes could certainly work if done well enough.

Though, Aiden saw the problem.

"The media could make issues because it's basically high school students fighting it out right. If it's too violent, people could term it as a bad influence. A lot of people could target it just as being toxic."

"Yeah, that's the problem. The movie looks promising and I have read the script, the execution is really good. Most of the fight scenes that Asano is planning are very slick and would look great on the big screen. It would make you feel very excited but I'm in a dilemma as I don't really want bad press against it."

Omar muttered. Having only recently gotten a good foot in Hollywood with producing movies, he was a bit concerned about getting into controversies.

Aiden was also thinking about it. Hearing what Omar had said, he had felt like it was a very innovative idea.

'It's trying not to follow a template by prioritising entertainment above everything else.'

It was a strange thing for most Hollywood directors as they focused more on realism.

But people would only move ahead by doing something different than the rest.

"Take the risk." Aiden said, coming to a conclusion.

"What about the controversy?"

"Your job as a producer is to make a good movie. Focus on that. Controversies are there in the past too. India has controversies regarding movies every month. It don't stop people from telling great stories. If it's good enough, audience would enjoy it. The common audience don't really care a lot about these things and just want good entertainment."

Aiden recalled the various controversies that he had followed in the past. Some were from religious reasons while others were due to portraying certain characters in a particular way. Movie making was such a tough business also because you don't know what would offend them.

One just can't appeal to everyone.

"You are right." Omar said, his chest feeling a bit light after talking with Aiden. Thinking of the reason why Aiden was here, he asked. "So, are you interested in this movie? If you say you are, I will give you any role you want."

"Send me the script first. I will go through it and then, it's better for me to do an audition, so the director knows whether I fit in the role or not."

Although Aiden could easily get the lead role in this case, he would rather not do it. A good actor needs to know which role he was most interested in and which role he could play to its potential.

Sometimes the lead role wasn't the most lucrative.

"Okay, I have the script here in my office. Take it with you and call me after you have read it. I would arrange a meeting with Asano."

"Okay—"

As Aiden was talking, his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and saw that it was from Wade.

[Wade: Aiden, I got a great project! It's something that others would kill for. It's really a big opportunity and I feel like it would suit you a lot.]

After talking with Omar, Aiden left with the script. In his mind, he wasn't thinking of his meeting with Omar but the text that he had received from Wade.

Wade had never seen so excited about any movie before. So, Aiden knew that it was going to be something big.

The question was what?

On the whole way to the hotel where they were staying, Aiden kept thinking about it.

When he reached the hotel lobby, he saw Wade standing here, walking in circles like he was waiting for someone.

He noticed Aiden and quickly walked towards him.

"You are finally here."

"What happened? You look very excited."

"Am I?"

"Yeah, there's a wide smile on your face."

When Aiden pointed it out, Wade finally noticed that he was smiling. Shaking his head a bit, he gestured to the sofas on the side and sat down in the hotel lobby.

At this time of the evening, not a lot of people were present in the lobby.

"So, what is this project that you got your hands on?"

Wade's face was making him more curious about the project.

"You won't believe it." He muttered. "Do you know Agnas?"

"I think everyone in America would know of him. You are talking about the pop icon right?"

"Yes."

Aiden grew silent for a while. Agnas was a name that he was very familiar with as he was one of the first global icons. He was the first western artist to perform in many countries that Hollywood used to ignore back then.

At the same time, his confidence and charm were one of dreams with each of his songs becoming national sensations.

Aiden had listened to his music a lot.

"What about him?" He asked, wondering why Wade was suddenly talking about him. He was heard only in whispers in the current generation as most young people have gotten new pop icons.

Only the old people truly remembered him.

"There's a movie going to be made on him. It's been in planning for a long time and it only got confirmed a few days ago. It's made by Zero International and they have started the audition process for the movie."

"I didn't hear about it." Aiden made a confused expression.

If such a movie was in the works, there would be a lot of media covering it, just because Agnas was a cultural phenomenon.

"It was a tight lipped project. Only a few people in Zero International knew of it as they didn't know if it would go through. Agnas family members didn't want to get a movie on him and they only recently got the full rights."

"And you got me an audition for the role of Agnas?"

Aiden asked, his voice becoming a hit excited. His eyes were shining a bit, knowing full well that it was a very big opportunity for him.

In a bipoc like Agnas, it didn't matter which actor was playing him until he played it well. So, Aiden was also eligible for the role.

"They are looking through a few actors, preferably those who can sing and your name came up due to that. I was just in a meeting with one of the people that is working on the movie and they want you to audition for it."

"That's great. I would love to do it—"

Aiden stopped in the middle of the sentence. He glanced down to the script that was beside him.

'I just told Omar that if I liked the script, I would do the movie. Now, the audition for Agnas. Both of them look very enticing.'

Aiden thought in his mind and asked.

"When are they going for the shooting? Like they have a date in mind."

"Around April. Why?"

"Nothing. Just I met Omar today…"

Aiden started telling Wade about his conversation with Omar and the script that he had gotten.

...

/DreamNote/

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When Wade heard about the movie that Omar was producing, he had a thoughtful expression on his face. The movie seemed interesting enough for him to not outright tell Aiden to focus more on acquiring the Agnas bipoc.

For the time being, Wade told Aiden to go through the script to see if the storyline was good enough. And Aiden did just that.

He went through the whole script and he had to say that the movie was certainly very unique in the stances that it tries to take.

At a glance, it was about a teenage guy, entering a school that is meant to educate children to fit into society. Certainly not a nice place and it's ruled by characters that you won't find in the outer world.

Then, a conquest for the top position in school starts with one fight after another. In the script, there was every type of action scene that would be possible in such a setting.

There was even one particular scene which was just a brawler in a classroom.

By just this, the script looked like something that you found on top of the pile of rejected scripts that aren't good enough to become movies.

But the subtle themes were very clear when Aiden read it a second time.

One of them was about how society expects people to fill in a role when the true nature of a man was much different, making one oppressed by just living in the man made jungle.

This was made clear just in the opening of the script where the main character enters the school and another character tells him that the rules of the outside world don't apply here and he won't survive if he tries to fit in.

Like that, there were several subtle themes throughout the script, all in between fights that you would rarely see in the market of oversaturated action movies where nothing was original and everything looked repetitive.

'I like it. I want to do it.'

That was the first thought in Aiden's mind after going through the script. It felt like the script was perfect for his next movie, the story that he was looking to do.

Something different. Something fresh. Something that no one has tried before.

He did understand the risk but Aiden knew how to play with fire after constantly being on the edge in Hollywood. One might even call him an adrenaline junkie.

After finally getting a stable place in Hollywood, he was taking a risk, ignoring so many projects that were right up in his comfort zone.

But that was the way forward for Aiden.

A career that has something different at every step until he achieves his goal. Cinema was known to have big boundaries but there would always be people who would try to push on those boundaries to make it even bigger.

So, just on the next day, Wade talked to Omar and scheduled a meeting with the director and other important people related to the project.

'He looks very shabby.'

That was the first impression of Aiden when he saw Asano Mercer, a Japanese American director. He had seen his photos in a few events before and compared to that, he looked like he hadn't even taken a bath before coming here.

Wade was also surprised but he didn't show anything on his face.

Long, messy hair and glasses — Those attributes were sticking out.

"Asano Mercer, I have heard a lot about you, young man."

Asano said in an American accent, his eyes scanning Aiden from top to bottom.

"Aiden Silvereye. I'm a big fan of your work."

"You should be." Asano smiled in an arrogant tone but Aiden didn't mind. Directors lived and died with ego.

Omar introduced him to other people. A few of them were employees of his production company, Green movies. General manager, production assistant and people like that.

There were also people from the crew that had worked in every movie that Asano had directed.

After getting a hang of everyone's name, the meeting started and just the first statement by Asano was something that stupefied Aiden.

"You do know that starring in a movie like this might mean a lot of outage? It's a movie that would get a lot of hate for a lot of reasons. People would call it toxic, would say that it's glorifying delinquents and it's something that would create a lot of conversations around it. You know that, right?"

"I'm aware." Aiden said and Asano couldn't keep the smile away from his face.

"Then I'm curious. Why did you select it? Actors are always conscious about what type of movie they are into. This movie was actually rejected by two actors that are very well known just because they didn't want to get into any controversy."

Why did he select it?

There was no complicated answer to it. Aiden knew about the chance of a controversy. This was a movie better made in the 2000s when there was less internet.

Back then, people weren't able to be too vocal about anything until it was something big. Now, everything was just blown out of proportion because a lot of people didn't have anything better to do.

"I selected it because I felt like it's a good movie. People would enjoy it when they watch it."

"Just because of that?"

"I don't think it's trying to show something that's not true."

Asano seemed satisfied by that answer as he nodded his head. But the discussion hadn't ended yet.

Aiden expected that Asano was going to ask him more about the character and his analysis of it.

But every question about him was very different.

Rather than asking about Aiden's analysis of the character and the plot, Asano focused more on asking about whether he smoked or whether he knew any martial arts. At the same time, he also asked if Aiden was comfortable in action scenes.

It seemed like he was expecting the main lead to do every action scene himself.

As the talk went on, there were various things that were discussed but the topic of Aiden's character or the plot never came up.

It was certain by this point that Asano had an unique way of working.

"By the way, we have a request."

Wade looked for an opportunity when everything was going well. Omar looked at him and asked.

"If it's possible, we were hoping that the shooting could end as soon as possible. Probably in a month and a half. We have our reasons."

He was saying that due to the movie on Agnas. The audition for it was already locked and Aiden had been given a small part of the script to prepare.

It was going to happen in three weeks as the crew was looking through other actors and also casting for the supporting roles.

Omar was about to agree when Asano suddenly opened his mouth.

"Are you already assuming that Aiden has gotten the role?"

The atmosphere cooled in an instant.

Employees started glancing at each other and Wade blinked his eyes, realising that he was too early to ask something like this. He had just taken his chance as with Omar, it was mostly confirmed that Aiden would get the role.

Even Asano seemed to like Aiden but he had messed up.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." He quickly said but Asano waved his hand around as a calm smile appeared on his face.

"No need to be so stiff. I am not angry." Wade took a sigh of relief. Omar looked a bit more relaxed too. Asano turned to Aiden. "Though, Aiden still hasn't gotten the role and that's true."

"I am ready to give an audition."

Aiden tried to say but Asano shook his head.

"The role doesn't need an audition. At least not the main role. Moreover, I have seen your works. You are good. One gets an eye for a good actor after several years in the industry and my eye tells you that you are good."

"Then, how do I get the role?" Aiden raised an eyebrow. Asano words were very confusing. Even others in the room didn't know what to expect from him anymore.

"In my eyes, the main characteristic of Ray isn't his emotions but his attitude. He's the guy who everyone would look at when he enters the room. He's someone who doesn't mind taking on 50 people at the same time. He's reckless but he has an attitude." Asano said. "Let's have another meeting in three days. If you show me that attitude that I envision in Ray, then you get the role."

Saying that, he glanced at Aiden's hair and opened his mouth again.

"One piece of advice for you. Don't cut your hair. Ray has long hair that he puts in a ponytail from time to time. Oh yes!"

He turned towards Wade.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"If Aiden gets the role, I don't mind finishing up the movie in a month. I like finishing up my movies on time."

The meeting ended after that.

Asano hadn't really asked for an audition but he had given Aiden a challenge.

A challenge to see whether he had that factor that would attract people to look towards him. That inbuilt charisma and can he really project it like the main character Ray.

It was something new for Aiden.

But when the meeting ended, he didn't seem to be in a dilemma. Contrary to that, he was smiling.

Aiden was someone who loved challenges.

...

/DreamNote/

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"What type of test is this? Ray Stark is a delinquent. Are you going to have to beat up people for real to show an attitude like him?"

Wade muttered. In his entire career, he hadn't heard about such an absurd thing to get the role. Rather than doing a scene or talking about the analysis of the character, Asano had asked Aiden to show him the attitude.

It was a very ambiguous request and it could mean a lot of things.

There were eccentric directors all over the world and in the past, Wade had pestered directors for roles a lot. Some roles would take months to get as it was hard to persuade directors.

Compared to that, this was simpler but very different.

"I don't know but I guess I would need to find out."

Aiden said, looking outside the car window. They were just out of the meeting with Asano and Omar.

'An attitude.'

His mind immediately started thinking about it.

A delinquent normally has an attitude because he's a rebel. They don't really care a lot about things and are rebelling against various things for a lot of reasons.

But Ray, the main character of the movie, was someone who had reasons at every point. He wasn't that way because of being a rebel but because he had seen his father being timid all his life and knew that he needed to stand up for himself no matter what.

If he could make others fear him, no one would cross him.

Thinking of that, Aiden glanced at the packet of cigarettes that was just lying around.

It belonged to Wade.

He picked it up and Wade couldn't help but ask.

"Are you going to smoke? You never did that before."

"Ray smokes. It does make one seem cool with the correct posture. Even you need to accept that."

"Only kids smoke for such reasons. I smoke because I got a habit of it due to my job being stressful. My body would rather have lung cancer than give up on it."

Wade shrugged his shoulders and Aiden took one of the cigarettes.

He didn't light it up but just took it in his mouth, trying to get a feel of it.

He touched his hair with his left hand and realised that it had grown a lot in the last month. His hair always grew fast and Aiden didn't like it too big but this time, he decided to just leave it be.

'Let's hope I look good with long hair.'

As he had only three days to get the right attitude, Aiden quickly got into work.

To get a better understanding of delinquents, he started watching various movies that featured them and read articles about it.

Most forms of media always showed them in a negative role and rightly so as delinquents were not morally good but Aiden felt like there was also another side to them.

Aside from that, Aiden also practiced different postures for walking and got used to keeping a cigarette between his fingers.

A character's walk was a very subtle feature but it was a very necessary one. Certain characters' whole body language was timid while others walked with confidence.

Every small detail was necessary.

He also went to buy a few jackets that he felt Ray would wear. Black jackets, tight jeans and anything that suited his atmosphere.

As he didn't need to remember any lines and only work towards his atmosphere, it felt like a bit of easy work to Aiden.

His charisma had reached a certain level after doing so many roles and levelling up, so that was already helping him portray Ray as close to Asano's imagination as possible.

Finally three days later, Aiden and Wade again went to have a meeting in Omar's office.

"Ah, why is it so noisy in that room? Is someone swearing or something?"

"An actor and his agent are in the second meeting room. They came here because they are angry that a lot of the actor's scenes were cut in [Night Assassin]. Both of them are from an agency that doesn't have a lot of great rumours about them. I heard they are involved in a lot of criminal cases too."

"What a headache."

Asano muttered as he lowered his head. Omar sighed and gestured to one of his employees to go handle what was happening.

They were currently sitting in a meeting room, waiting for Aiden to appear.

To change the subject, one of the general managers opened his mouth.

"Do you think Aiden would be able to pass this test?"

It was an easy question to start a conversation with. Asano looked at him with interested eyes but didn't interfere in the conversation.

"He looks the part if we go by age. He can pass off as an 18 year old with a clean face. I don't know about the right atmosphere though."

An employee said and another added.

"He just played a teen in his Zetflix series, so he obviously looks the part of one but I seriously think one don't see him and think that he's a badass. You know that type of character which you know is dangerous. He has a calm demeanor about him and looks more suited to do gentleman type roles."

"Maybe but he did play the villain nicely in [Black Saints]."

"It's been two years since that movie. He's only doing morally good roles after that. He's been in a few rom coms too."

The employees talked like that but the general consensus was that Aiden was not suited well for the movie.

Perception was something that was formed with each movie and only veterans are accepted to play any roles with no difficulty.

There was a quote that an actor is only as good as his previous movie and that fits perfectly with Aiden. The public was somehow seeing him as more of a rom com actor due to his teenage roles.

He had already played a playboy character twice in two years and even if they were very different, one won't remember every detail until they are a big fan.

"You guys are underestimating Aiden a lot. He's a much better actor than most think and I have never seen fail in anything."

Omar said, shaking his hand and at that moment, the door to the room suddenly opened.

Eyes went towards the two people that entered and a few gasps came out in shock.

Wade and Aiden were standing there.

Rather than Wade, everyone's eyes went towards Aiden who was wearing a black jacket and his hair was tied up in a ponytail.

His face didn't show any expressions but he gave off a menacing feeling.

There was something very different about him than the meeting that had happened three days ago. It was like they were two different people with two completely opposite atmospheres.

Aiden was normally who people would feel like approaching but currently, he was giving more of a feeling where people would rather avoid him.

With Wade standing behind him, both of them gave the impression that they were from a street gang.

Due to his scary face and big stature, Wade could easily pass off as one without even trying to do something different.

"It seems like you have given heed to what I said."

Asano was the first to open his mouth and Aiden looked towards him.

"Yeah, I tried incorporating it into what I understood of Ray's character."

Aiden said and sat down without anyone telling him to. Wade stood next to him and for a while, Asano kept staring at him, like he was trying to see if every feature of Aiden matched with the imagination of Ray in his mind.

The silence was not broken by someone in the room but the voice that came from the meeting room next to it.

Aiden glanced at the wall, then looked up at Omar. He looked angry. Other people also seemed anxious.

"What is going on?"

"Some actor and his agent are causing a scene because his scenes were cut in my last movie. That actor was in a hit movie last time, so he became arrogant. My employees are dealing with it but it seems like it's not enough."

Omar sat up and walked out of the room. He was constantly frowning because this was just a case of hooliganism.

Aiden and Wade followed him. Asano guessed that something interesting was going to happen and did the same.

They walked up to the meeting room and saw a tall man pinning down an employee against a wall. There were tattoos all over his arm and he looked very scary.

Two employees were shivering in the corner while a man was sitting, relaxed like he was in a cafe. Aiden was able to see an arrogant smirk on his face.

The man was handsome and seeing what was going on, he took out a cigarette packet and a lighter from his pocket.

"I told you that I need to see your CEO. Do you really think it's a small matter? We were promised almost 30 min of screen time but it was reduced to half. Don't you realise how unprofessional it is?"

The tattooed man was speaking in a threatening tone, acting like those terms were written in the contract.

"I told you the director edited it out. Those scenes were making the movie look too long."

"Are you saying that my client did a bad job?"

The tattooed man shouted and Aiden opened his mouth.

"I don't think you understand English as that's not what that person is trying to tell you and going by how you are acting, I'm pretty sure that the director cut out those scenes just to give a middle finger to your client."

...

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"What did you just say?"

The tattooed man turned around hearing Aiden's words. His eyes looked at Omar, Wade, Asano and a few more employees that had followed them before landing on Aiden.

"You have some problems in your ear?"

"I don't but I feel like you have a problem with your mouth. You shouldn't just say anything especially when it's against people you shouldn't cross."

The tattooed man frowned. For some reason, he looked like how Aiden imagined Wade to be in high school if he was a delinquent.

Aiden scanned the room with his eyes before replying.

"I don't see anyone I can't cross in the room and let's stop with the bullshit. You are harassing a guy for a reason that's as dumb as it gets."

"How is it? It's breaching a promise."

"Those types of promises are made daily in Hollywood but a good movie takes precedence over everything. That's what professionals think which your client isn't. He's just sitting while his agent harasses a poor employee of a new production company."

Aiden looked at the actor who was about to light up his cigarette with a glare.

Wade chipped in at the moment.

"When this goes out, I'm pretty sure production companies would love to work with someone who sends his agents to harass their employees because his scenes were cut. You would surely be rewarded the nicest actor award in Hollywood."

His sarcasm made a few employees chuckle and the actor's face went red with anger.

"Enough!"

The tattooed agent finally had enough and tried to swing his arms around, trying to hit Aiden. He moved a few steps back, dodging the strike and gave out a glare.

'Okay. Now, it's in self defence.'

Thinking of that, Aiden didn't hesitate and thought about Finn and the boxing training he had gone through for the role. The next second, a punch landed straight on the agent's face, knocking him down.

A ripping sound came out like the punch had fractured something.

He nearly fell onto the employee he was harassing as he struggled to get out of the way.

The atmosphere froze in a second.

"What the fuck?"

Someone muttered on the back and the sentiment was shared by everyone as they were too shocked.

The tattooed man was taller than Aiden and due to him being very bulky, he looked like a wrestler. But he was knocked down in just one punch.

Obviously, there was a factor of surprise as the agent hadn't expected Aiden to do that. Still, it was a big deal.

The actor on the side had dropped his cigarette and was shaking now.

'Damn, it hurts. It's really a different thing practicing boxing and punching someone.'

On the other hand, Aiden was flinching with pain but he tried hard to not show it.

After all, he noticed a gaze that was continuously on him. Asano was looking at him with shining eyes and enjoying what was happening. He was the only one with a smile on his face.

"Hey, leave with your agent. Leave as fast as you could and never be back. I'm the CEO of the production company and we are not going to work with you from now on. Not you or any other actor from your agency."

Omar opened his mouth at the moment and glared at the actor.

"Y-you can't do that."

"I can." Omar scorned him. "Do you really think I fear you or your agency? I wouldn't have opened up a production company if I was scared of thugs like you."

The actor was about to say something more but he saw Wade glaring at him from behind Omar.

Going by what Aiden had done, he felt like he would be beaten up if he didn't leave right away. In his mind, Aiden and Wade were already looking like people from a gang.

He picked up his agent and left with him quickly. The tattooed agent was glaring at Aiden all the way but Aiden didn't seem to give it any heed.

After he left, Omar scratched his head.

"What a headache."

His gaze moved to Aiden and it was not his usual carefree one. It was a serious one. Other people were also looking at him with the same gaze mixed with admiration and fear.

"Aiden, you should not have punched him. That guy would surely try to get you in a lawsuit."

"It won't work. See that." Aiden pointed at the security cameras. "There's enough evidence to prove that I was acting in self defence. Pretty sure that guy has previous offences. He seemed like the type to get riled up at everything."

"That's true." Omar sighed. "Just call me if that guy tries something. It happened in my office. You were trying to save my employee. I will get you the best lawyer."

"Sure."

The conversation moved back to the meeting room after that but before Aiden could say anything, Asano opened his mouth.

"I think I have seen enough." He smiled. "I feel like you would be as good as Ray Stark."

With that, it was fixed. Aiden got his first role after [Sherlock of the Shadows].

In one of the meeting rooms of Zero International, Theodore Price was handling a meeting related to the movie based on Agnas. The draft title was also 'Agnas' and although it wasn't official, they were going to use it if no better title came up.

Besides Theodore, an old man with a long white beard was sitting. He had a kind of expression that you would expect from an old king in a medieval TV series. With long hair, beard and a serious looking face.

He was Baz McCarthy, one of the most prominent directors in Hollywood and he was also the script writer and director for Agnas.

Currently, they were looking through the resumes of the people they have selected down to play the role of Agnas.

"I never thought Joseph's grandson would be interested in playing Agnas. He hadn't acted before, right?"

"He hadn't." Theodore replied to Baz. "But I think every musician would want to place himself in his footsteps. He probably was interested in acting before and just took his chance. He's a great singer but I can't really say anything about acting."

"His voice is pretty good and there's hints of Agnas's music in some of his songs. Joseph probably told him all about Agnas growing up big. I also don't think he would be a great actor. Maybe in a rom com."

In the last quarter of last year, Cameron had released an album that had been hit. Two of the songs have gained over a hundred million views and after years of not being in the limelight, his name was again getting thrown in among rising musicians.

At the same time, he has also worked on the soundtracks of a few movies.

Baz didn't find Cameron to be unpleasant but he didn't like him enough to give him the main role. With the face he had, he was way better suited for rom coms than anything.

An eye candy for young girls.

"Then, we have Greg Hendricks. He acted in a few musicals before. Ah, I think Aiden Silvereye is a good choice."

Theodore suddenly changed and a couple of employees in the room chipped in.

Aiden was a much known face than any other name that had came up.

It was due to the fact that Baz wanted people to see Agnas and not the actor when the movie finally releases. If an actor is too famous, people tended to see him like that rather than the character he's playing.

The old man was being extra careful this time.

"He had good past roles. Nothing extraordinary though."

"No, his performance in [Sherlock of the Shadows] was great. I heard he might get an Emmy nomination for that. Zetflix seems to be pushing his name for it."

"He sings nice. A few of his songs are on my playlist constantly."

Hearing that, Theodere looked at Baz who had one of his fingers touching his chin, seemingly in thought.

"What do you think?"

"He's good but I would need to see more of him to decide. He has past acting performances and a career in singing but I don't know if he would feel like Agnas on the screen. The resemblance isn't there."

His words clearly meant that Aiden would have a lot to do to persuade Baz.

"He's half Indian. Maybe because of that."

"Nah, his features aren't a problem. He just seems like an actor who looks good when you see him for the first time but you know that he's not a generational talent. Someone who would meet a wall too hard to climb as he moves in his career."

"We ain't looking for generational talent, are we? Those actors get famous the fastest because every script passes through them due to their sheer talent."

Theodore laughed. Obviously, there were other factors in play like agencies, luck but a generational talent was someone who was bound to reach the top of Hollywood sooner or later until he didn't destroy himself.

Agnas was also one of these. A bad example in the context.

"Yeah, anyway, let's move on. Ah, ain't this guy going through a massive scandal?"

Baz looked at the photo in front of him. It was a familiar face that he seems to have seen in every newspaper he had read in the last month.

"Liam Wilde."

"I heard his agency pushed for the audition a lot. They probably think that the scandal will be left behind if he gets a big role."

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After Asano was satisfied with Aiden and began to see him as Ray Stark, things moved pretty quickly. No, it seemed like most of the things were already decided and the director was just looking for the main character.

In the next week, a lot of auditions for other roles happened with mostly teenage actors getting the part. A few of them were even new and just making their debut.

It was like the director hadn't bothered to cast any known faces.

Only two other actors aside from Aiden were well known among the public. One of them was Melissa Grace who was playing Ray's love interest. Being a known figure on TV shows, she was touted to be a future top actress.

The other was an old actor who has prominently played middle aged characters in his career, Ned Dweller. He was even nominated for Oscars once in the supporting category.

According to what Omar told him, Asano didn't care about star power for this project and was just going with what he felt suited the character.

Him working with Omar was also one of the reasons behind it as Omar didn't mind giving Asano complete freedom over casting.

Other than that, Aiden also officially signed the contract.

The film's budget was decided to only be 9 million dollars which wasn't a lot but it was a safe bet, considering the project was a very different type of teen action movie that people won't see often in Hollywood.

Aiden signed the movie for only 300k which wasn't much by his standards but he didn't want the movie to increase in budget due to him.

One of the first pieces of advice he had gotten from Uncle Sam was that some movies are flops just because the budget goes to the actor's pocket instead of the things that are more important.

As Omar was his friend and he didn't want his fees to be a reason for the film to increase in budget, he didn't even negotiate much.

Omar obviously appreciated it a lot.

They also decided on the official title for the movie. The draft title was 'Ballad of Fights' which wasn't really something that would make people attracted to the movie.

So, after brainstorming for a while, Asano came up with the title [Action Hero]. It looked like an odd title that one would usually see in a B grade movie but according to Asano, it perfectly fit the soul of the movie.

Ray Stark was just an action hero, going from one fight to another.

The title perfectly summarised him.

Aiden also liked it and felt like it was something unique. Pre-production started like that and the shooting was going to start in the first week of March and end by April.

Before that, Aiden had another audition which was for the role of Agnas in his biopic.

As the biopic was only going to start shooting in May, Aiden was pretty safe in terms of date if he indeed got the role.

"I heard that a lot of musical actors are auditioning for the main role."

"Yeah, I think even Chris Payne was interested in it. He had a big musical hit just last year and he's a regular in Broadway shows."

"Wasn't he already 40? I don't think he will fit the role."

"Yeah, he was rejected without even getting a chance to audition. It's a role that everyone craves."

Aiden stopped for a second to listen to the conversation between two employees that seemed like assistant directors.

He was currently standing in a theatre that was booked by Zero International for the auditions for the biopic. It seemed like the auditions were going to run for over two weeks for different roles.

Aiden was already able to see a lot of prominent actors from various TV and movies he had watched in the past, sitting around with their agents and waiting for the chance to audition. It was a very weird scene as most of the time, these actors are just given private auditions.

'I guess Agnas biopic is so big that every actor wants to be in it. A role that's bound to get awards and a movie that is destined to mint hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.'

He thought in his mind and made his way towards Wade who pointed at one of the empty seats.

"Let's sit there until our turn comes."

"When would that be?"

"I don't know. An assistant director told me that we would be informed when that happens. I guess we are here for the whole day until we are lucky."

Wade muttered with a sigh. He gave Aiden more information about what was going on.

It seemed like they were taking auditions for several roles and even a few executives from Zero International and other important people were here.

By every second, Aiden felt the gravitas of the movie increasing in his mind.

"You look a bit odd. Are you not interested in the project?"

Wade asked, noticing his strange reactions to every word he was saying. Compared to actors who were willing to do anything for this role, his attitude looked a bit lackluster.

He was much more excited for [Action Hero].

"It's not that." Aiden shook his head. "I just didn't think the role would have so much importance. I wasn't born hearing Agnas's music like most of the people here. It was only when I was a teenager that I heard of him. Maybe because of that, this role looked like just another role to me. Moreover…"

"Moreover?" Wade raised an eyebrow and Aiden composed words in his mouth before continuing.

"I feel like even if the movie is a hit, it won't be a hit because of me but because of Agnas."

Wade smiled hearing that. Aiden had slowly started to feel like it was his responsibility to make sure his movies do well, especially in the ones he's playing a lead role in.

It was a good attitude as it meant that he was very serious about whatever project he was getting into.

"I guess you are right. People don't care who's playing Agnas as if presented well, the movie is bound to do great business. That's why, you could get your mind off the box office and just focus on the acting." Wade shrugged his shoulders and added. "After all, with the box office out of the way, people are going to examine your acting way more."

"I guess you are right."

Aiden said and leaned against his seat.

Maybe his attitude was really wrong about it and he needed to focus more on playing Agnas as realistically as possible.

After all, him being a musician was certainly going to help out in understanding Agnas's character.

Thinking of that, Aiden lowered his head to look at the scene that was told to him to perform but at the moment, a voice interrupted him.

"Aiden, I thought you would be here."

Looking up, both Wade and Aiden saw Cameron walking towards them. He stood up from the seat and was a bit surprised to see him after so many months.

"Cameron, I thought you would be on some tour after your album was released."

"I was on one but I came back due to the production of Agnas."

"What do you mean?"

Wade asked, tilted his head. What does Cameron have in common with Agnas? Was he working on the production?

"My grandfather used to work with Agnas back in the day. They made a lot of songs together. He helped out with the script and he's also inside as the director wanted him at the auditions."

"So, you are here because of that?"

Aiden asked. In his mind, he was going through what he knew about Joseph Bryce — A famous composer and someone who was regarded as a pioneer of music back in the day. He has been retired for decades now.

"No." Cameron shook his head. "I'm here to do an audition."

"For?"

"Agnas."

Both Aiden and Wade were a bit surprised hearing that as both of them hadn't taken Cameron to be the type to lean towards acting. There was no hint of it in any of their interactions.

"Don't get me wrong. I like singing, not acting. Just I always wanted to be in the shoes of Agnas. I felt like starring in his biopic was the best chance I would get."

Cameron explained before Aiden could ask anything. He shut his mouth, noticing strange emotions on Cameron's face. It was probably some sort of backstory as his grandfather was really close to Agnas.

As they talked, the door to the room opened again and one more familiar face walked in. Aiden's gaze moved towards the man who had just entered.

Actually, everyone in the room was looking at the man. It wasn't because he was famous. It was because he was the most infamous person currently.

"Liam Wilde."

"He's finally here."

Aiden muttered. Wade had already gotten the news that Liam was going to be taking part in the audition and had informed Aiden.

"Why's he here?"

"I thought he was hiding underground or was vacationing in some small European country."

"Man, I won't even be able to show my face to people if everyone saw me naked in an orgy."

Aiden heard people whispering among each other and felt a bit bad about Liam. But he didn't seem to be affected by the whispers.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and his eyes turned towards Aiden. They became sharp for a second before he moved to take his seat.

'What's his problem?'

Aiden thought in his mind.

...

/DreamNote/

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