Whatever Happened to Liam? (The One with the Twin Sister's Ballet Recital)

 The original caption is here

The air was unmistakeably Parisian – thick with the smells of freshly baked loaves and dank water, and Lianne cut through it like a luxury yacht slicing the ocean waves. Around her, the beautiful people of the French capital floated like swans in stylish outfits. She smiled and pushed her sunglasses back into her long brown hair to admire a display of tulips outside of a florist. In her flowing white mini-dress, she looked more than at home amongst the glamorous people.

With eyes fixated on the flowers across the street, she continued to walk and sip her iced coffee. By chance, she glanced to the shop window on her side of the street and paused. She was still getting to grips with the French language but even she could understand the words printed on the glass in neat gold. It was a shop selling equipment and supplies for dancers – specifically ballet, and a pair of gorgeous pink silk slippers sat on a podium just the other side of the window. Lianne stared at them for almost a minute. Pressing her lips together, she fished her phone from a small leather handbag and dialled the number at the top of her contacts. The recipient answered immediately.

“Lianne!!” A happy voice chattered through the speaker. “I had a feeling you would call. You are my twin sister after all!” Lynne proceeded to chit-chat about her day as the two girls caught up. Lianne sipped at her coffee some more as she listened, enjoying the sing-song of her twins' voice. They weren't identical but they did have a lot in common and Lynne always made her feel connected regardless of where they were in the world.

“Hey!” Lianne interrupted. “So when is your show coming to Paris? I can't wait to see you in Swan Lake... I was just thinking of you actually. There was this shop and they had these... You know, I bet you already know...being my twin sister and everything. Say, do you remember that time like ten years ago when we were kids and I tried to injure you with a roller-skate so I could take your place in some recital.” Lianne paused as an awkward silence overcame her phone. “I am really sorry about that, you know? It was...it was a weird time for me...”

Giddy laughter erupted on the other end of the phone and Lianne was helpless to giggle along. “I forgot all about that!” Lynne proclaimed. “Oh wow! Do you remember how confused Mom was? Like, where would you get the idea that my coach would just throw you in my place?” They continued to laugh together. “Honestly, I had forgotten all about that.. But, and this is a big but, you better not pull anything like that in three weeks when I visit the City of Love to perform Swan Lake. My understudy went home so it might actually work this time... By the way, I have front row tickets for you. I so can't wait to see you sister!”

Method Acting Part 4

 

Something had broken in Oscar when he saw the latest studio he was to film in. It didn't even have a parking lot and was little more than a converted condo. It wasn't even clean and while 'Pillow Fight' had been a complete and utter flop, it still had a full stage crew. This setup was just a few cameramen and a director. He hadn't even seen another cast member yet. It seemed absurd that they felt empowered to have such demands for him. Still, Agnes had said they were legit and he was grateful she stuck with him this far, even if she was an insufferable cow.

Oscar was once more on a bed for what he assumed was another sex scene – he had stopped reading scripts months ago as at this point he couldn't afford to turn anything down. He hadn't even had the money to remove the implants from 'Pillow Fight' yet and a good thing too since the latest role had demanded he keep them and then some. Not only had they paid for him to have his lips filled to bursting point, they had given him a weird ass prosthetic to wear that had fit over the lower half of his body like an ultra-realistic glove, albeit one with globed buttcheeks instead of knuckles. Gone was the long dress, he lay on his hands and knees in skimpy lingerie and glittering heels – his fake backside oiled and sticking in the air. As he began to grow impatient, not to mention uncomfortable, a familiar figure entered the room. He looked up sheepishly from his degrading pose.

“Hello, Oscar,” Agnes smiled. Her relentless grey remained, but she seemed like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “Aren't you the perfect little whore?” She watched Oscar's collagen filled lips part in surprise and added. “Perhaps things would make come sense to you if you knew my real name was not Agnes Crowe, but Agnes Frain – Bianca Frain's mother. You ruined my daughter, and unlike those other women you hurt who will get their day in court with you, she will never see a penny. And why, because she dared speak up first.” She paused to watch a sneer form on Oscar's bimbofied features. “Well, don't worry, because every cent you have made in your ridiculous roles in your time with me has been paid in her name. Good thing you are too arrogant to read contracts beyond the fee, hey? Every cent that is except for this current role. As a Mother, I couldn't bare to see my daughter paid for pornography!” Agnes drank in her client's confusion. “As I said, you aren't a strong reader...or you would also know that isn't a prosthetic. You are wearing the lower half of a state-of-the-art female bodysuit. As we speak, it is bonding to your spinal cord to ensure that you receive a truly authentic experience over the next ten months. You owe my daughter hundreds of thousands of dollars and you are soon to owe other women millions. I suppose you could break this contract – cut off your only source of income and owe hundreds of thousands more in severance in the process...I just don't see how you could afford to... It as good as air-tight, which coincidentally is, I believe, the title of your next movie...”

Agnes left then and was quickly replaced by three muscle-bound men – all naked, all sporting enormous erections. Oscar didn't know if the experience was authentic but as the first man pushed a giant cock into his new pussy and reached over to gape Oscar's asshole open for his mate, only one word filled his mind – 'whore'. It bounced around his skull as he was invaded and split In half. Whore, whore, whore. He opened his mouth to say it and the third man plunged himself deep inside. The hulking men tossed him around the bed effortlessly for the next two hours, switching positions and taking turns with his sopping holes. He wasn't exactly sure when he started to moan but about an hour in as one of the men was slamming his meat into Oscar's grunting mouth while another mounted him from behind, his whole body went stiff and he began to tremble. The men kept plugging away as his first female orgasm ripped through him. The man pounding him from behind slapped him hard across the ass. “That's it you dirty whore!!”

Method Acting Part 3

 

The words of Bianca's final message played over and over in Oscar's head as crew members urgently worked to reset the scene around the bed he lay on ready for the next take. The stench of sweat and stale aftershave from the male lead still clung to his body as tightly as his red latex dress from the last attempt to film the scene. Had she been right? Had he become the whore she had prophesied? He was a filming a sex scene after all...with a male actor...or at least trying to... He leant back into the cushions in frustration. Bianca hadn't done this. How could she have? Still he needed to get this fucking scene done so he could move on with his life...

Oscar's life had someone taken a turn into ever direr territory when his bimbo housewife character had been killed off from 'Playing House' after just a single season. Not only had he had to go through the indignity of being crushed by a giant wedding cake and all the batter and cream and batter that went with it, but he was once again left without a pay-check. Agnes had lectured him sternly, or as sternly as the old woman could muster, about his mounting debts and growing legal challenges, and continued to present to him zero good offers of work.

Three months passed before Agnes brought the contract for 'Pillow Fight' – a low budget romcom about a boxer who loses his killer instinct after falling in love. It was a female part once more but this time the studio had conditions. They loved his bombshell character from tv but they were also aware that his hormone cycles had lapsed since his on-screen death. If he wanted the new role, he would need to get silicone implants, at least temporarily for his breasts and lips and have some minor plastic surgery on his face. He would also need to film a sex scene for the movie.

Finally, the crew had finished resetting the scene for the next take. A make-up girl skipped over to freshen up his lipstick and liven up his hair, slipping in a quick 'God, I love your dress' that made him want to murder her. She was exactly the kind of bimbo he would of pumped and dumped back in his prime... Now he just hated her almost as much as he hated the dress she had complimented – the one that hugged his still fresh surgery scars painfully. 'I couldn't fuck her even if I wanted' he thought bitterly of the tiny cock between his legs shrunken by the new higher dosed hormones the studio has been feeding him.

“There you are, my little whore!” Oscar's painted lips dropped open at the sight of the huge man standing over him aggressively at the foot of the bed and it took a moment for him to realise the director had called action. “How about you show me what you have for me?” Oscar leaned back on his elbows so that he could spread his legs in spite of the tight dress as his his bottom lip in practised sexuality – all the while, Bianca's words echoed...whore, whore, whore...

Method Acting Part 2

 

“You have fan mail.” Agnes presented a pile of envelopes held together by thick rubber bands. “I suppose I should say you have MORE fan mail. The audience loves you. It seems your reputation is steadily improving.” She said encouragingly. “And the acting contracts are doing wonders for the money situation.”

“Just give them here!” Oscar demanded – his voice now considerably softened by multiple rounds of hormone cycles. He was between scenes and didn't want to delay restarting filming because of any such bullshit – especially today. Wardrobe had once again put his character, and subsequently him into liquid latex leggings. He didn't care that it was one of her signature looks – he fucking hated them. They squeezed his oestrogen bloated ass like a shiny black gumball and squeaked when he walked around the set in the velvet stilettos. “Any chance any of these is a job offer where I can actually play a guy again?”

Oscar's part as a transgender pianist in the recent smash hit romcom had gone well, very well in-fact, and despite its low budget and limited audience, it had been enough to land him in a part in a brand new show. Agnes had delivered the contract offer to him in his office and he had immediately started pulling off his acrylic nails – that is until he actually read the contract and realised it was for a female part. His recent portrayal had been so convincing that the studio wanted him to play Claudette – a bored housewife turned cougar who spent her screen time tottering around her home all day in outrageous outfits while her husband was out at work. Oscar had almost ripped up the contract on the spot until Agnes showed him what they were offering.

“All these creeps know I have a dick, right?” Oscar spat as he started to tear open the first envelope. The progression of his treatments and the further growing out of his perma-bleached hair made this statement almost comical. For everything else, there was prosthetics and makeup – for which he would spend hours every day in from a mirror while some bimbo painted him and cooed over the softness of his skin. He skim-read the letter, balled it up and tossed it over his shoulder. The latex of his leggings squealed painfully against the counter top as he adjusted his position to pick up the next one. He paused after reading the first line. It was from Bianca.

“This is your last chance,” it read. “You think your career is in the gutter now? You think you can't sink any lower? Tell the world what you did to me, or I will show you the meaning of rock bottom. I will turn you into the whore you made the whole world think I am!”

“Agnes,” Oscar shouted balling up the letter, “make sure I don't get any more of these!”

Method Acting Part 1

 This is a four part commission done for DeviantArt

“I don't get it,” Oscar frowned, “I thought transgender actors were supposed to play transgender roles now. It's the latest industry bullshit...representation...” He practically spat the word. Had it really come to this? Was his career really so deep in the shitter? Since the sexual harassment scandal, it had been hard enough finding a new agent. So hard in fact, that he had to settle for the impossibly grey Agnes Crowe, who seemed ancient enough to remember silent film, and now, here was the old bitch telling him to put on a dress to revive his waning acting career. He rolled his eyes at her. “Okay, next! What else is there?”

“There is no 'next'.” Agnes stammered. “That is it. It is incredibly difficult trying to secure you offers given your...reputation...given everything that came out in the press – not to mention the ongoing lawsuits. The only other correspondence you have is from Bianca – she wants you to come clean.”

“Fuck her!” Oscar snorted. “I only have so many pounds of flesh to give...” Bianca had been his original accuser. Back when he was still a big-shot star, she alleged that he had made her sleep with him to secure a role that she never even got. When she came clean to the media about it, he had publicly ruined her – making sure that the entire industry saw her as nothing more than a gold-digging whore. When the allegations from the other women came out years later, Oscar's reputation was indeed in tatters but it was still far too late for Bianca. The world had kept turning and the movie business had left her behind.

“Noted...” Agnes pressed her lips together and looked at her feet. “Well, the reason the studio is willing to cast their net a little wider for the role is that they need an accomplished pianist. They could use a double for the key scenes, but they'd rather not and they remember your part in 'An Affair in Dmajor'. I really think you should consider it. Your legal fees are growing by the day and you don't currently have any other income.”

Oscar replayed the conversation in his head as he stood in front of a firing range of cameras and lights. Four months had passed since he signed the contract and from day one, the producers had insisted on a cocktail of hormones to get him into the 'shape' the role demanded. He hadn't read the script before signing because he never really thought had much of a choice but he now wished he had if for no other reason than to prepare him for what was to come. The lingerie scene tested his hormone treatments to the limit and as he leaned back against the piano waiting for the director to call 'action', he may may as well have been naked. The makeup chair, growing out his hair, all the walking up and down backstage in heels, could only do so much. Once the cameras started rolling, it was all him...for as many takes as it took to get his career back on track.

Subliminal Part 1

 10/25

“So, what's this then?” Max coughed loudly from his place at the head of the conference table in the boardroom of his high-end fashion empire. Women squawked excitedly as they gathered around an image projected on the screen at the other end of the room. There were obvious benefits to stuffing one's company board with attractive young women, but at times it really was like herding cats. “Ladies!”he finally barked, “explain!”

“The panel...” Anita his CFO turned to face him at last, her eyes bulging with wonder. “The test audience. The one we ran last week for the new ad... You know...” her voice dropped to a whisper as if there might be spies in the room, “...the subliminal one.” She turned back to the projector screen and Max followed her gaze. It was a shot of a young red-headed woman walking in the snow whilst dripping in Max Vektor merchandise – not just the dress and knitted roll-neck from their latest line but also a bag, a watch, boots – all high-end and very expensive. The penny dropped. It had worked. “Boss...” Anita turned back to him. “This is Kevin.”

“Kevin!?” Max almost spat out his morning coffee. “You mean this is a guy? And the ad did this to him?”

“Well, technically he did this to himself,” Anita replied. “But, yes, after watching the ad. His wife sent this picture in last night. Apparently he is completely addicted to our products now. He is completely obsessed with trying to look like the models from the commercial. She is threatening to sue.”

“But...” Max tried to stifle a smirk, “I thought the test audience were all women. Didn't Marketing only show it to our usual demographic of customers?” His smirk quickly disappeared as he began to ponder the potential legal consequences.

“They were,” said Anita. “I mean they did. But Kevin, he's the video tech who ran the test screening.”

“I see...” relief washed over Max and his grin returned. “So, he works for us... Well then, it should be pretty easy to keep this out of the press. We just need to give Kevin's wife some shares in the company and make sure that ad never sees the light of day!”

“Aren't you forgetting something, Boss? Anita responded urgently. “We previewed the ad in our last board meeting two days ago.” She glanced back at her colleagues frantically gathered around the screen. “We all watched it! You watched it!”

Whatever Happened to Frank? (Doll House Arrest)

 We last saw Frank here as part of a three part story

Frank stood in front of one of the apartments many mirrors and looked back into the kitchen area. Lola has posted a newspaper cutting on the fridge. He stepped back into the room and snatched it from under the magnet. His nails were still tacky from the coat of rose-pink polish Lola had insisted on. He flexed his fingers carefully so as not to smudge them, though the article before him made his stomach churn.

FUGITIVE BANK ROBBER PRESUMED DEAD

His mugshot stared back from the page: hard eyes, rough jaw, a man who didn’t smile for cameras. According to the story, the police believed he’d drowned in the river during a botched escape. Case closed. Investigation terminated. Dead. He was dead. He looked at another mirror. A stranger stared back. Her cheekbones were sharp, her lips plump and glossy, her hair pinned up elegantly. The white miniskirt she wore clung to her curves, curves Lola had paid surgeons handsomely to sculpt. Not a fugitive. Not a man. A doll.

“Isn’t it romantic?” Lola’s voice floated in from the doorway. She breezed in carrying a breakfast tray, humming, her bubblegum-pink robe swishing around her ankles. “Our anniversary gift! The state has declared you officially deceased. It’s like a second wedding certificate.” She set the tray down and kissed him on the temple, leaving a faint lipstick print. “No more police. No more hiding. No more of that dreadful mugshot.” She snatched the paper and flung it into the trash. “Now you can live as who you really are. My perfect, beautiful doll.”

Frank stared at his reflection again, heart hammering. He cursed how many mirrors she had put up. Her ceaseless reminders. “Lola, I can’t keep doing this.”

Her smile stiffened. “Can’t?” She leaned over him, her perfume thick and sugary, her nails resting lightly on his throat. “Darling, you are doing this. You’ve been doing it for a year. And I’ve never been prouder.”

He tried again, weakly. “Maybe it’s time I… left. Started fresh.”

Her nails tightened, just a fraction. “And go where? As who?” She laughed, high and sharp. “You're dead. Everyone knows it. You want to stroll into a bank looking like this and shout, ‘Remember me?’ You’d last five minutes.” Lola softened, stroking his cheek with mock tenderness. “Besides, I’ve booked something wonderful for us. A little touch-up on that voice of yours. Permanent this time. Once it’s done, nobody will ever doubt you again.” She kissed his cheek, then whispered in his ear, “When they hear you speak, Frank will be gone forever. But, sugarplum, forever looks so good on you, so why don't you smile?”

The stranger in the mirror with the soft eyes and painted lips stared at him. A stranger who had his heartbeat, his thoughts, his prison sentence. He tried to imagine the man in the mugshot, the man in the article. But the harder he tried, the blurrier that face became. Finally, he did as he was told. In the mirror, the doll smiled back.