(added link to the next chapter) Tag: Visual edit |
m (Nikathelostio moved page Prologue Chapter 3 - All-Out Recital to Prologue Chapter 3 - A a Heartfelt School Play) |
Revision as of 18:29, 10 September 2020
Izumi: | (Is this set build out of cardboard? It looks like an elementary school play. Maybe it's meant to be that way?) |
Rookie Member: | Let's see, where was I supposed to stand again? |
Izumi: | (Ah, here we go.) |
Rookie Member: | ... |
Izumi: | (This is supposed to be his first play, and I can tell. He's stiff as a board up there. He must be tense.) |
Rookie Member: | Hiya! I'm Romeo Kadota, high school freshman! I'm carrying a torch for a girl in my class, you see! |
Rookie Member: | Poor me! Why oh why won't she give me the time of the day? |
Rookie Member: | Here I am, head over heels for her! It's just not fair! |
Izumi: | (Hoo boy. What an awkward delivery. Well, it's okay, he's new. I'm sure the others will carry the show...) |
Rookie Member: | Oh gosh, look at the time! I gotta get to school! |
Izumi: | (...There are others, right?) |
??? | Hey! Hold up, Romeo! |
Izumi: | (Finally, someone else is taking the stage! I was getting worried there...) |
Parrot: | You're goin' ta school, right? Take me with ya. |
Izumi: | (...You have got to be kidding me.) |
Izumi: | (Oh geez, this is... something. I guess it's got a kind of avant-garde flair? But I'm completely lost on the appeal.) |
Furuichi: | Ugh. |
Izumi: | (I get it. I want to sigh too. But can't he just be rude in his head like the rest of us?) |
Rookie Member: | Okay, time to go see her! |
Izumi: | (At least he doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that he's playing to a more-or-less empty house. In fact, he's loosening up by the minute.) |
Izumi: | (He's so upbeat on stage, like he's just happy to be there at all.) |
Rookie Member: | Thank you for watching! |
Izumi: | (Wait, that was it?) |
Furuichi: | What a trainwreck of a script. |
Izumi: | I hate to admit it, but... yeah. |
Izumi: | (The kid up on stage seems happy enough with it.) |
Izumi: | (Honestly, it takes me back to my own first time performing.) |
Izumi: | (I was having such a blast, it was over before I knew it.) |
Izumi: | (His motivation is wasted on this place. He deserves a better role, in a better play.) |
Furuichi: | Well, back to demolition. |
Izumi: | What?! How can you be so cold right after seeing that heartfelt performance? |
Furuichi: | What do you mean, heartfelt? |
Izumi: | He's a little rough around the edges, sure, but he's got heart! |
Furuichi: | There's plenty of school plays you could go to if you wanna see kids with heart way out of their depth. |
Furuichi: | You think this is a school play? That we give out participation ribbons here? |
Furuichi: | No. It's a place where pros get paid to entertain viewers. |
Izumi: | Maybe, but still. I'm sure with some hard work, he could totally pull it off! |
Furuichi: | Hard work doesn't amount to crap in this world |
Izumi: | ... |
Stage Director: | Just let it go. ou don't have the talent to act. Nothing you do can change that, no matter how hard you work. |
Furuichi: | Even you can tell, right? This place doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving here on Veludo Way. |
Izumi: | Yes, Veludo Way is a place for the best of the best, and this place doesn't come anywhere close to that, but still! |
Furuichi: | But still nothing. The troupe's getting shut down. |
Rookie Member: | What? The troupe's going out of business? |
Izumi: | Erk... |
Rookie Member: | Sorry, I just happened to overhear you guys talking. I only joined this troupe yesterday! |
Rookie Member: | I know I suck at acting, I love the stage! Please, you can't put us out of business! |
Furuichi: | I can and I will. |
Rookie Member: | But, come on! |
Izumi: | Have you no heart?! |
Furuichi: | I'm shutting down the troupe, and that's that. |
Mopheaded Guy: | You'll do no such thing! |
Rookie Member: | Manager... |
Izumi: | (Wait, the mophead was the manager?!) |
Manager: | I have to keep this troupe going, whatever it takes! |
Furuichi: | Matsukawa, I've given you plenty of chances, and you've pissed every single one of them away. This isn't up for negotiation anymore. |
Manager: | But, we could still get a following like back in the old days! |
Furuichi: | No, you couldn't. |
Izumi: | Did you have a following before? |
Manager: | Oh yeah! Back when Yukio was here, we had sold-out shows and ticket lines going around the block! |
Izumi: | Yukio? As in... Yukio Tachibana?! |
Manager: | You know him? |
Izumi: | He's my father. |
Manager: | Wait, you're really Yukio's daughter?! |
Izumi: | I actually came here to find the person who sent this letter to him. |
Manager: | Oh, that was me! |
Izumi: | So you're Isuke Matsukawa? |
Manager: | That's right. Yukio couldn't make it? |
Izumi: | Eight years ago, my dad went MIA and never came home again. |
Manager: | ... So that's what happened. |
Izumi: | I came here to ask if you knew anything about it. |
Manager: | Yukio up and vanished one day and stopped coming to the theater. We've been out of contact ever since. |
Izumi: | So we're in the exact same situation... |
Manager: | I was hoping maybe we could reach him at his home address. |
Furuichi: | So you were going to try and lean on him again. Tough luck, looks like that ship has sailed. You're done. |
Izumi: | Now hold on, don't you think that's a little dismissive?! There could be another way to salvage this! |
Manager: | Y-Yeah! Who knows, maybe we could get some help from someone other than Yukio! |
Izumi: | (He's staring at me again. Do I sense a pattern here?) |
Furuichi: | That's easy for you to say. You don't know the first thing about this theater. |
Izumi: | What's your point? |
Furuichi: | This theater is reserved exclusively for this troupe's use, if you'll believe that. |
Furuichi: | Most troupes don't have their own attached theater. They book time in other venues for their own performances, but not this troupe. |
Furuichi: | They have their own theater AND their own dorm, which means a lot of overhead costs. |
Furuichi: | Back in their heyday, they ran four sub-troupes – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. They'd rotate shows on a monthly basis and make money hand over fist. |
Furuichi: | The hard truth is that this troupe can't support itself without running constant shows with four mini-troupes. |
Izumi: | (I feel like my dad mentioned something about the four seasonal sub-troupes once or twice...) |
Furuichi: | But as you can see, aside from Mr. Get-a-Haircut here, the troupe's only member is the kid that jumped in the other day. |
Furuichi: | One-man shows aren't going to be enough to carry them. |
Manager: | So that's how it is... |
Furuichi: | That's what you have to say? You're the manager– none of this should be news to you. |
Izumi: | On the flipside, you sure seem to know a lot about this troupe. |
Furuichi: | ...I like to be well-informed about my debtors' circumstances. |
Manager: | Oh! But wait a minute, we have one more feathery member– |
Kamekichi: | I'm Kamekichi, here to save the day! |
Furuichi: | Birds don't count. |
Manager: | ...Worth a shot. |
Furuichi: | That's enough stalling. Sakoda! |
Sakoda: | You called, boss?! |
Furuichi: | Do it. |
Sakoda: | You're the boss, boss! |
Manager: | How heartless can you get?! |
Rookie Member: | Please, don't write us off! |
Izumi: | (The troupe is about to go under. My father's old troupe...) |
Izumi: | Hey, uh, wait! I just remembered! |
Furuichi: | What now? |
Izumi: | Um, my father asked me to look after the toupe if they ever needed the help! Yup! He totally did! |
Manager: | What?! He did?! |
Izumi: | (I made that up on the spot. Guess I have to stick to it now.) |
Izumi: | Come on, Matsukawa! You're the manager, right? SURELY you would've heard about that? |
Manager: | Huh? Naw, not really. |
Izumi: | No, I really think you did! |
Izumi: | (Come on! I'm dropping hints with all the subtlety of an anvil!) |
Manager: | Oh! Uh, now that I think about it, maybe I did? |
Izumi: | Basically, what you'd need is for them to expand the troupe and assemble for sub-troupes, right, Mr. Yakuza? |
Furuichi: | Yeah, that's the long and short of it. |
Izumi: | Then there's no problem! I'll bring some new members on board! |
Manager: | You will?! |
Furuichi: | How many, and when are they coming? They'd better not be all like Amateur Hour over here |
Izumi: | I'll get one– no, two! It's fine. I've got all my dad's connections and insider information on my side! |
Manager: | Heck yeah! The troupe is saved! |
Izumi: | (There's no way the Yakuza's buying this. But there's no harm in trying, right?) |
Furuichi: | ...Sunset |
Izumi: | Huh? |
Furuichi: | You have until sunset to bring those new troupe members to me. |
Izumi: | You'll really wait until then? |
Furuichi: | Yes, and I don't mean any idiot you've conned into filling your quota. |
Manager: | No worries there! With Yukio's daughter on the case, we've got this in the bag! |
Izumi: | (That's a whole lot of confidence in somebody this guy's just met.) |
Furuichi: | If you can't manage that, you can kiss this sign and this theater goodbye. |
Izumi: | Y-Yes sir! Come on, boys. |
Manager: | You're the boss, boss! |
Rookie Member: | Y-Yes, ma'am! |
Furuichi: | Good God, she can't act to save her life. She's got nothing whatsoever on Yukio. |
Sakoda: | So what do we do about the sign, boss? |
Furuichi: | Just what I said. Wait for the sunset. |
Sakoda: | You're the boss, boss! |