Work Text:
The moment Thog saw Markus' grin he knew he was in trouble.
"Let’s make a musical!"
The usual crowd was scattered about the bar, talking or amusing themselves. Ashe raised an eyebrow at Markus' proclamation, but seemed content to let Thog handle it.
"A... musical."
"It's the one year anniversary of the bar soon, and I figured we should do something to celebrate! What could be better than a musical about the life and exploits of Markus Velafi?"
Ashe looked about to say something. "Ummmm..." she managed, before shutting her mouth and going back to her drink.
Thog shrugged. "Ehh, I guess. Can't be much more ridiculous than anything else you've idiots have done."
--
Markus' first call for volunteers was met with enthusiasm from Kier... and not a whole lot else. It was soon discovered that Kier could neither sing OR dance with any dignity.
Markus tapped his chin thoughtfully, after having watched some of Kier’s heartfelt yet ultimately somewhat disheartening attempts. “Y’know what buddy, how about you just help me write it? I’m sure you could make some great costumes too! And sets! Think of all the explosive effects this show will need!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Okay, that sounds good! We can start putting plans together! What do you think about having rocket boots?”
--
Markus and Kier having left their beginning pages of the script scattered all over the bar top, it wasn't long before Inien snatched the first page up, scanned it, and promptly began scribbling notes in the margins.
“I’m helping you write this.” She told Markus as he passed by. “If anything, I can’t possibly allow you to make me look anything but fabulous.”
He stopped, guitar currently strapped across his back, and and clapped his hands eagerly.
“Wonderful! Simply fantastic. What else do you want to do?”
She stopped her writing, and narrowed her eyes at him warily. She pointed to a line in the script in which Markus described Inien as ‘having feeble magical ability at best.’ “This was a trap, wasn’t it?”
“Absolutely! So, besides editing the script, what more can you help add to this marvelous production?”
Her eyes flicked down to the pages again, and she moved her finger to a bracketed line that simple read ‘[INSERT DANCE NUMBER HERE]’ “I can choreograph your dance scenes. That should be… fun. Hopefully they can handle my moves.” She gave a sort of half grin, and Markus honestly could not tell how serious she was about musical-theater dance.
“Allllrighty then.”
--
The next person to take offence at the current script was Ashe.
“You can’t just put all this in the musical, Markus!” She said, holding up pages angrily.
“I… Ashe, it’s only for dramatic effect. Surely, you can under-”
As he spoke she had already produced a pen, and was making her own edits. “We definitely never ‘showered you with kisses,’ I am not doing that onstage, and…” She flipped the page.
“What the hell, Markus?!” A large dark X was drawn across the page, covering an entire scene that Markus thought would maybe appeal to anyone hoping to see some romance in the show.
Markus carefully tucked away the song he’d written for her to sing. He’d already known it would take some convincing, and he definitely did not want it also blacked out in a fit of sudden rage.
--
Gregor, who had already thrown himself into helping Kier with the sets, appeared almost ecstatic when Markus presented him with his main song in the show. While he had 0 talent when it came to musical instruments, it had turned out that Gregor could sing rather well when he put his mind to it.