Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

Joseph looked at the young man in front of him with wonder. 

Aiden was someone who reminded him a lot of all the great musicians he had met. He had qualities that are common in a lot of great musicians. 

A sense of music and a curiosity for stories. 

Both of these were extremely important to any musician. Maybe because of that, he had taken a liking to him. 

It also helped that Aiden was a good friend of his grandson. Cameron had told him a bit about him and that was enough for Joseph to make a good impression of Aiden. 

But maybe due to his age, Aiden was a bit reckless. 

It wasn’t a bad thing, but Joseph was sure that he won’t be able to complete ‘Joker’. More experienced composers, including him, had tried before. 

All of them have given up in the end. 

‘There’s no harm in him trying anyway.’

Joseph thought as he took out a box in which he had kept all the letters that Agnas had sent him. 

Picking them one by one, he breathed in, his mind going back to the time when he had received these letters for the first time. 

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Aiden said as he picked up one of the letters. 

“You should.” Joseph smiled. “They are precious to me. You can read them here.”

“Okay.”

Aiden opened up a folded letter and the scent of an old ink entered his nose. The letter looked worn out, like it had been read a lot of times.

One more thing that Aiden noticed was Agnas’s handwriting. 

‘It’s pretty.’

It was almost on the level where Aiden won’t be surprised if Agnas was a calligraphic on the side. 

Taking a deep breath, he started reading them. 

[Joseph, I hope you are okay these days. I heard you are in Norway these days. I had a lot of fun when I toured there. The girls could be a bit crazy there but…]

‘It’s a pretty normal letter.’

Aiden thought as he read through the first letter. He felt a bit disappointed but he quickly shook it away and picked up another. 

[I’m sorry I have not been able to talk to you for a long time. I’m currently going through a blank and can’t put my mind to making music. I hope we can meet soon and go for drinks…]

Another letter was very normal, just consistently on Agnas writing about his plans with Joseph after he’s back in town. He also talked a bit about novels he used to write. 

He was particularly a fan of a linguistic author who was treated as the greatest in the fantasy genre. 

He picked up another letter but it was at the same time. Letter by letter, it felt very normal. 

‘Is it useless?’

Although he was getting clues about his relationship with Joseph and a few of his hobbies from the letters, he wasn’t finding anything about what he was looking for. 

He picked up another letter deciding to give up if it was useless, but when he opened it up, he saw that the beautiful writing was a bit odd in this one. 

It looked a bit messy. 

[My girlfriend left me. She fucking left! I told you that she was pregnant right but apparently, she didn’t want a kid. I thought it was my chance to settle down, have a family but no. You know what’s worse. My agent told me that I can’t marry. I could have as many girlfriends as I want but my sex appeal among the young females would go down if I settled. I sometimes feel like I have no control over my life…]

Aiden read the letter twice before putting it down. He sighed before picking up another letter. The writing was back to normal in this one but the overall feeling of the letter was the same. 

As he read it, Aiden felt like he was reaching close to what he wanted. 

[You know, my friend. My momma always used to say that I should smile no matter what and I’m doing that for a long time now. I don’t know why but I feel like I have not smiled genuinely in years because of this. I wanted money and fame all my life but I never knew I was going to lose my smile for this. Feels like a tad bit too much to pay for fame…]

The same type of things were written on the next letter too. The writing became more distraught in this one. 

[Mary had a miscarriage. I lost my child, Joseph. My own child… I somehow persuaded her to start a family with me but maybe it was never in my fate. Mary left me after it too, telling me to leave. She didn’t want to see my face. I lost her. I completely lost her. I sometimes wonder if I’m a bad person. Why do these things always happen to me? Can’t I be happy? Maybe not…]

Aiden felt sadness grip his heart as he read that. He had known about the miscarriage part that the letter was talking about, but he had known that Agnas didn’t like Mary and it was just a one night stand. 

Apparently, it was different. 

Now, there was only one more letter left and with a heavy heart, he opened it up and went through the content. 

[I don’t know if I feel like myself now. Someone told me that I have everything in the world today. I wanted to tell them otherwise, but maybe it’s true. I have everything that normal people desire. A man who has everything but nothing. Very ironic but I realised that this is just the life of a musician. A superstar to be exact. I realised I’m the employee of my own myth and I need to play the part till my last breath. After all, a good artist finishes his performance even if his performance is his own life. The show must go on…]

As soon as Aiden read through the letter, an image formed in his mind. The doubts he had about Agnas cleared as the clouds over his judgement moved away. 

He felt like Agnas was his worst future. 

Becoming so big that your life doesn’t remain yours. It won’t happen to normal celebrities but a superstar’s life was just not his. It belonged to every fan who supports him. 

Even if there was a lot of distance between the fan and the star, they can’t exist without each other. 

”Joker’ is just the deepest feelings of Agnas. It perfectly describes his life. A joker who was told to always smile even when his heart was broken. Smile on the stage and sing no matter what’s going on. The show must go on.’

As soon as Aiden thought that, his system suddenly opened as notifications shadowed his vision. 

[You have managed to gain an affinity of over 70 percent with the character called ‘Agnas’.]

[Agnas was one of the Level 10 musicians in the world. You have achieved a rare feat that no one was able to do before. By connecting to a master musician, you have gained the skill ‘Connect’.]

[A lot of experience has been given.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 5 from Intermediate Grade 4 in your singing skill.]

[Congratulations.]

Reading through the notifications, Aiden widened his eyes. He felt like it was one of those moments where he was benefiting from accidentally combining his acting and singing skills. 

For a while, he was in a trance and it was only after Joseph shook his shoulder that Aiden came out from his trance. 

“Aiden, are you okay? You suddenly froze.”

“Ah, yeah. I’m sorry I just zoned out.” He looked at the old man. “Joseph, thank you for letting me read through the letters. I feel like I would be able to complete ‘Joker’ now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Thank you very much. I will leave now.”

Saying that, Aiden didn’t stay for long and left. His mind was chaotic with what had just happened. He felt like he had grown closer to finishing up ‘Joker’. 

At the same time, he was excited to use ‘Connect’ and see what exactly it does. 

“He’s a weird kid.”

Joseph muttered after Aiden left. He didn’t feel like he would be able to complete the song, but if he did, that would mean that he could die without regrets. 

The old man looked at the letters once before sighing. 

***

In a room, a man was typing on his keyboard with frantic speed. His beard was rough, and he was constantly licking his lips and smiling like he had been struck with an inspiration that was going to create something magical. 

If anyone saw him like this, he would be termed as a mad man and maybe it was true as only a mad man could create something like [Black Saints]. 

He was Zavier Lamb, who was currently writing down the script of [Black Saints 2]. 

For the sequel, he was going to give Kai the best story arc of all time and something that the audience would be shocked by. 

“I can’t wait for the audience to see it on the big screen.”

He stopped and muttered, his eyes going over to a particular scene. 

The dialogues in this scene was something that was his favourite and it was something that Kai constantly talks about. 

And it was the most truthful thing about his character. 

“There’s a freedom in chaos.”

Zavier said as he imagined Aiden saying the line on the big screen.