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smashconTitle: The Entertainer's Handbook
Rating: PG
Prompt: “What they do not realise – and what you must realise – is that manipulating others is something that all people do. In fact, manipulation is at the core of social interactions” – Brandon Sanderson’s “Mistborn: The Final Empire”
Fandom/Series: D.Gray-Man
Word Count: 1,190
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
Summary:
Lesson 1: A performer is only an entertainer in front of an audience.
Allen Walker is Mana's creation, General Cross refines the idea, but Allen is his own character.
The Entertainer's Handbook.
Lesson 2 - A smile is an entertainer's first and best mask. The audience should see the smile and not the effort behind the act.
After Mana dies, Allen has lost his masks, lost his smile and lost himself. He can't remember how to shape his face and make people believe he is happy; he can't seem to manage anything but misery. His mask is broken and he doesn't know how to glue himself back together.
General Cross Marian has no sympathy for his failed performance, no care for the sharp edges of his broken mask. He throws Allen into the world, throws him in front of the audience and expects Allen to perform. He cannot prevent the passersby becoming uncomfortable under his dead eyed star, he cannot stop the women cooing over his poor, misfortunate life, and he cannot drag the misery that clings to him every second deeper into his soul and off his face.
When General Cross pulls him from in front of the human audience he has failed and gives him an audience of Akuma, it is a revelation.
Allen was so smothered by his transgression against Mana that he didn't realise the aid he'd provided his adopted father's soul. He'd drowned in guilt and forgotten all of Mana's lessons. The performance is about the audience and not about himself.
The Akuma want freedom from their distorted mechanical life, freed of the sins forced upon them.
Not even General Cross understands the relief an exorcist's performance brings the soul the Akuma. As an audience only Allen can cater to, they deserve to have his best performance. For the souls of the Akuma, he will create a new mask.
His show smile needs to be practiced and polished to perfection. There are Akuma to destroy in every town they visit and General Cross can never be bothered with them, so Allen has hundreds of audience members to work with. Each Akuma is a stretch of his lips and a twinkle in his eyes.
He knows his smile has progressed from being a work in progress when not even General Cross can help but react to his beatific grin. Of course, the reaction is to turn away and smack him over the head, but it is more than Cross has acknowledged the mask before.
The exchange seems to signal that Allen is ready to be the official apprentice of General Cross Marian and not just the follower he has been until now.
***
Lesson 7 - Tears should only be shed for an audience that will sympathise when the performer cries, or else it is a waste of perfectly good salt and water.
Being General Cross Marians official apprentice seems to have less to do with destroying Akuma and more to do with taking responsibility for the man's debts.
The people seeking returns from their investments in his master circle like sharks, discussing the worth of a slightly disfigured child versus the individual worth of his organs. A pleasant smiling mask does nothing to reduce their speculation. It does, however, win over the people in town who have never met his master.
It gets him a job in the mines in the first town. It is back-breaking work and his muscles scream at him, but he leaves town with all his organs intact.
The debts are an unfortunate trend that continues and whenever Allen is not killing Akuma, he is scurrying around towns to try to pay off his master's debts.
If the man runs through money too quickly, burns through the women and booze, faster than Allen can accumulate wealth he has to act for the continued well being of his kidneys. He trails his master into each new establishment in his oldest set of clothes, poking fingers into his own eyes so he can cry into the proprietors face about his father's drinking problem and their starving family.
Nothing stops Cross, but it tends to reduce the number of establishments willing to cater to him. It also results in punishment training, but it beats the mines in every way.
It is during one such performance, when most of the taverns clientele look away uncomfortably, that a young man with a sleazy smile pulls him aside and offers him another use for his acting talents.
Gambling, once he has mastered all the best ways to cheat at cards, is a much more lucrative way to earn money and keep the debt collectors off his back.
A timid smile to work his way into the gambling dens, a tear or two that he wipes away with a trembling hand full of cash and many of the meanest establishments practically invite him to participate in their games.
***
Lesson 15 - When a performer's mask is weak, extravagant gestures are their best recourse. Misdirect the audience's attention and they won't notice.
By the time he is forced on his way to become an official exorcist of the Black Order his mask is well practised and his smile only slips when he lets it.
Despite his expectations of an overabundance of Cross Marians to test at the limits of Allen's mask, the hardest part is getting through the gate. They're happy to embrace him wholeheartedly, or ignore him completely in Kanda's case.
He smiles and expresses his dedication to the cause and the Order seems to expect nothing more of him.
They don't really want to look at the Exorcists they send out to die. The few who do look closer expect trauma and trauma is something Allen can give them.
He colluded with the Millennium Earl and his adopted father cursed his existence.
He holds Mana to his heart forevermore.
His curse it the last gift Mana gives Allen and Allen will never not be thankful something to remember him by.
His master dragged him through the underworld, forced him into near slavery and ended their association with a hammer to Allen's skull.
Prostitutes, gamblers, con-artists and worse have been his most dynamic audience.
They've been his friends and teachers and made sure he survived General Cross Marian, more or less, intact.
He is dedicated to the killing the Millennium Earl and the destruction of all Akuma.
He loves the Akuma.
He wants to see them all torn apart by his innocence.
He wants to hear their outraged screams as he tears their souls from their mechanical bodies.
He wants the sigh of freedom as their souls escape their twisted existence.
Lenalee comes closest to understanding many of the shades of Allen that make up the mask. She is there for a flourish of cards and a dark smile. She is there when he tries to throw himself into an Akuma's explosion to save its soul.
She comes closest, but she doesn't look any further than the grand gesture.
He wants the Exorcists to win because the souls in the Akuma want the Exorcists to win.
(And maybe then he will be able to graduate from Allen Walker, the mask made by Mana, to Allen Walker the person, and he can be just another member of the audience instead of the main performer.)
***
Voting is now open. Please take the time to fill out the judging form HERE
Thanks.
Rating: PG
Prompt: “What they do not realise – and what you must realise – is that manipulating others is something that all people do. In fact, manipulation is at the core of social interactions” – Brandon Sanderson’s “Mistborn: The Final Empire”
Fandom/Series: D.Gray-Man
Word Count: 1,190
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
Summary:
Lesson 1: A performer is only an entertainer in front of an audience.
Allen Walker is Mana's creation, General Cross refines the idea, but Allen is his own character.
The Entertainer's Handbook.
Lesson 2 - A smile is an entertainer's first and best mask. The audience should see the smile and not the effort behind the act.
After Mana dies, Allen has lost his masks, lost his smile and lost himself. He can't remember how to shape his face and make people believe he is happy; he can't seem to manage anything but misery. His mask is broken and he doesn't know how to glue himself back together.
General Cross Marian has no sympathy for his failed performance, no care for the sharp edges of his broken mask. He throws Allen into the world, throws him in front of the audience and expects Allen to perform. He cannot prevent the passersby becoming uncomfortable under his dead eyed star, he cannot stop the women cooing over his poor, misfortunate life, and he cannot drag the misery that clings to him every second deeper into his soul and off his face.
When General Cross pulls him from in front of the human audience he has failed and gives him an audience of Akuma, it is a revelation.
Allen was so smothered by his transgression against Mana that he didn't realise the aid he'd provided his adopted father's soul. He'd drowned in guilt and forgotten all of Mana's lessons. The performance is about the audience and not about himself.
The Akuma want freedom from their distorted mechanical life, freed of the sins forced upon them.
Not even General Cross understands the relief an exorcist's performance brings the soul the Akuma. As an audience only Allen can cater to, they deserve to have his best performance. For the souls of the Akuma, he will create a new mask.
His show smile needs to be practiced and polished to perfection. There are Akuma to destroy in every town they visit and General Cross can never be bothered with them, so Allen has hundreds of audience members to work with. Each Akuma is a stretch of his lips and a twinkle in his eyes.
He knows his smile has progressed from being a work in progress when not even General Cross can help but react to his beatific grin. Of course, the reaction is to turn away and smack him over the head, but it is more than Cross has acknowledged the mask before.
The exchange seems to signal that Allen is ready to be the official apprentice of General Cross Marian and not just the follower he has been until now.
***
Lesson 7 - Tears should only be shed for an audience that will sympathise when the performer cries, or else it is a waste of perfectly good salt and water.
Being General Cross Marians official apprentice seems to have less to do with destroying Akuma and more to do with taking responsibility for the man's debts.
The people seeking returns from their investments in his master circle like sharks, discussing the worth of a slightly disfigured child versus the individual worth of his organs. A pleasant smiling mask does nothing to reduce their speculation. It does, however, win over the people in town who have never met his master.
It gets him a job in the mines in the first town. It is back-breaking work and his muscles scream at him, but he leaves town with all his organs intact.
The debts are an unfortunate trend that continues and whenever Allen is not killing Akuma, he is scurrying around towns to try to pay off his master's debts.
If the man runs through money too quickly, burns through the women and booze, faster than Allen can accumulate wealth he has to act for the continued well being of his kidneys. He trails his master into each new establishment in his oldest set of clothes, poking fingers into his own eyes so he can cry into the proprietors face about his father's drinking problem and their starving family.
Nothing stops Cross, but it tends to reduce the number of establishments willing to cater to him. It also results in punishment training, but it beats the mines in every way.
It is during one such performance, when most of the taverns clientele look away uncomfortably, that a young man with a sleazy smile pulls him aside and offers him another use for his acting talents.
Gambling, once he has mastered all the best ways to cheat at cards, is a much more lucrative way to earn money and keep the debt collectors off his back.
A timid smile to work his way into the gambling dens, a tear or two that he wipes away with a trembling hand full of cash and many of the meanest establishments practically invite him to participate in their games.
***
Lesson 15 - When a performer's mask is weak, extravagant gestures are their best recourse. Misdirect the audience's attention and they won't notice.
By the time he is forced on his way to become an official exorcist of the Black Order his mask is well practised and his smile only slips when he lets it.
Despite his expectations of an overabundance of Cross Marians to test at the limits of Allen's mask, the hardest part is getting through the gate. They're happy to embrace him wholeheartedly, or ignore him completely in Kanda's case.
He smiles and expresses his dedication to the cause and the Order seems to expect nothing more of him.
They don't really want to look at the Exorcists they send out to die. The few who do look closer expect trauma and trauma is something Allen can give them.
He colluded with the Millennium Earl and his adopted father cursed his existence.
His curse it the last gift Mana gives Allen and Allen will never not be thankful something to remember him by.
His master dragged him through the underworld, forced him into near slavery and ended their association with a hammer to Allen's skull.
They've been his friends and teachers and made sure he survived General Cross Marian, more or less, intact.
He is dedicated to the killing the Millennium Earl and the destruction of all Akuma.
He wants to see them all torn apart by his innocence.
He wants to hear their outraged screams as he tears their souls from their mechanical bodies.
He wants the sigh of freedom as their souls escape their twisted existence.
Lenalee comes closest to understanding many of the shades of Allen that make up the mask. She is there for a flourish of cards and a dark smile. She is there when he tries to throw himself into an Akuma's explosion to save its soul.
She comes closest, but she doesn't look any further than the grand gesture.
He wants the Exorcists to win because the souls in the Akuma want the Exorcists to win.
(And maybe then he will be able to graduate from Allen Walker, the mask made by Mana, to Allen Walker the person, and he can be just another member of the audience instead of the main performer.)
***
Voting is now open. Please take the time to fill out the judging form HERE
Thanks.
