Chapter Text
Sometimes Jayce hears the sound of his father’s voice say “you’re wasting your time pursuing this useless dream of yours,” and more and more as of late he’s starting to wonder if his father was right.
It’s late in the evening, and he’s sat in his small apartment reading the most recent text from his manager. The bright phone screen stares back at him through the darkness, and the word “sorry” seems to laugh mockingly at him. He has lost count of how many this makes at this point. One rejection after the other, with vague excuses about how he’s just “not the right fit” for a role. Sometimes his manager tells him he’s too much of a pretty boy, and other times he’s not handsome enough. Not that Jayce has ever particularly had a low self-esteem about his looks, but it’s made it increasingly harder for him not to pick himself apart when he looks at his reflection. Maybe he can fix his gap tooth; even out his lip shape; work out more or perhaps less.
A vicious cycle.
He sighs and sends a simple “thanks for the update” text to his manager, and lays down on the small bed. If only he had one chance to prove himself. All the studying he’s done, from watching countless movies and analyzing actors’ performances, to attending acting classes and even getting, for the time he could afford it, a vocal coach. Casting agents get one look at him and make in a split second a decision. Sometimes, on the auditions that are particularly demotivating, he doesn’t even get a chance to speak before they tell him it’s a no-go.
Jayce combs a hand through his hair. It’s a bit disheveled. Most of him is, honestly. He’s let his beard grow more than he normally would have. He hasn’t had an audition in a month, anyway, and he’s just been cooped up in his apartment for days at a time, only going out for groceries when the hunger finally gets unbearable. His apartment’s deathly quiet, safe for the sound of a lively city buzzing outside his window. Piltover’s finest going about their lives, enjoying an evening stroll and the city’s many delicacies. Lights dance along his walls, which are plastered with movie posters.
He closes his eyes. Tight enough that it hurts a bit. It’s not enough for reality fade away, and the anxiety lingers tight in his chest, but at the very least he can pretend he’s not in some dingy apartment in Piltover’s less luxurious districts. Yeah, he’s in a luxurious hotel at the heart of the city, having just come back from a press conference. The world loved his performance, and the accolades poured nonstop until he had to go home, overwhelmed. The cheering crowds thank him for his meaningful performance. Tell him how much it changed their lives.
A car horn breaks his fantasy and he opens his eyes and finds himself to still be just Jayce Talis. Son of a mechanic. A respected mechanic, but a mechanic nonetheless. A mechanic that told Jayce as he packed his bags that his dream of becoming an actor was ridiculous.
Useless.
“He might’ve been right,” Jayce says to no one in particular.
A month later Jayce finds himself outside an audition room — a last minute one his manager was able to squeeze Jayce’s name into — along with a bunch of other actors. Jayce only scans their faces once, before going back to the lines he was given to audition. The audition is for a small role, mostly a background character with minimal lines, in an upcoming television show. The description of it was vague, so all Jayce could gather was that it was some kind of science fiction series, where political turmoil is set against a backdrop of environment catastrophe.
Cheery, he thinks as he flips through the informational booklet.
He’s mostly spacing out, waiting for his scheduled time, which is still thirty minutes from now, when he hears a tapping sound on the linoleum floor, along with a new step of footsteps. Jayce mostly ignores it until someone sits in the empty chair beside him. The screeching sound of the chair as it slides loudly on the floor, makes him look up.
A man sits beside him. His slightly disheveled brown hair hides some of his profile, but Jayce assumes, based on not much beside a cursory initial impression, that the man is about his age, maybe a year or two older. Slight in frame, and shorter. The sound he’d heard was the man’s cane, which he places on his lap without a care of whether it bumps into Jayce’s leg or not. It does.
Maybe he senses he’s being stared at, since he turns towards Jayce with an inquisitive look.
“Hey,” Jayce hears himself saying.
The man nods, “hello.”
“Um, could you…” Jayce fidgets awkwardly. It feels rude to say anything, but the cane is starting to dig painfully into his thigh.
“Hm?” The man cocks his head, and it gives Jayce a clear view of his face. Golden eyes look at him expectantly.
He coughs. “Your, uh…” he points at the cane.
“Oh, shit, sorry,” the man moves the cane slightly. Enough so that it’s no longer digging into Jayce.
“No worries, and thanks,” Jayce, not one to get particularly mind things like that, laughs. “Here for the audition?”
“Mn,” the man points to a booklet in his hand.
“The waiting room is always so damn stuffy, isn’t it?” He tugs at the collar of his shirt. Even though it’s late fall and beginning to get quite chilly outside, he finds these audition rooms to be stiflingly hot; like someone has cranked up the heating as a form of psychological torture. A cruel prank that ensures actors arrive at the audition room already sweating and looking rather put off.
The man laughs. “It’s freaking cold, though.” To make a point, he shivers slightly. Considering how slim he is, Jayce thinks, it’s not a surprise.
“Really??” Jayce laughs, “I guess I’m too hot.”
The man gives Jayce a once-over. The edge of his mouth slightly curves with the hint of a smile. “Or, maybe you’re nervous.” It doesn’t sound malicious, though from anyone else it might’ve likely been. For some reason, that’s not the impression Jayce gets. Instead, he thinks he might be getting teased.
“I’m not sure I’m nervous. Just…lots of pent up energy, I guess. I really need to land this job.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
Jayce rolls his eyes. As if that much wasn’t obvious. The man doesn’t seem to mind. “Because this is my last chance before I’m forced to call it quits and have to go back and join the family business.”
“Would that be so bad?”
Jayce throws him a pained look, which only makes the man chuckle again. “It would be.”
“At least you have a fall-back,” he points out.
“A fall-back that’s literally nothing like what I’ve always dreamed of doing,” he sags slightly in his chair, “I just…I always found movies to be kind of magical, you know? Creating these worlds. Touching people’s lives. I thought maybe I could be a part of that. Create that kind of magic I grew up seeing on screen. If only I had one chance.”
The other man looks at Jayce pensively. He doesn’t jump to mock Jayce’s venting. His childish talk of magic and dreams. Instead, they sit there in silence for what Jayce feels like an eternity.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to vent,” he’s quick to apologize.
The man shakes his head. “No, I think that’s a great dream to have. Nothing to be sorry for.”
The door to the audition room creaks open. A woman walks out with a clipboard.
“Jayce Talis,” she calls his name.
Jayce glances between her and the man.
“Good luck,” the man smiles kindly, “I hope your dream comes true.”
The reassurance does something to lighten the heaviness in Jayce’s heart. “Thank you! I know we’re both auditioning, but I hope you do great!”
The man laughs. “Thanks.”
This time, not only do they give Jayce a chance to run through his lines, they seem actually enthusiastic about his performance. They ask him to run his lines a couple times, each with a new direction. The casting director nods as he shifts his performance slightly, and when he’s done she jots down something and exchanges a quiet word with the others.
“Thank you, Mr. Talis. That was great. We’ll definitely be in touch.”
“Great! Thank you so much!” He bows his head and walks out feeling hopeful for the first time in months.
He’s excited to tell the stranger that his audition seemed to have gone well enough, but when he opens the door he finds the man is no longer there. He frowns. “Maybe he went elsewhere,” he glances around the hall, but doesn’t recognize any of the other people waiting around. He has no choice but to leave, a bit disappointed at not even getting the man’s name.
A week later, Jayce gets a call from his manager saying he’s landed the roll. Filming, he’s informed, begins in a month.
The first day on set, Jayce wakes up hours before his alarm goes off, and arrives a whole hour before he’s scheduled to start filming. Around him, the set is buzzing with activity. Assistants are shuffling from place to place, bringing morning coffees to cranky directors, or transporting wardrobe from one trailer to another. Everyone, he notes, looks busy; like they have something to do. The cogs of the machine of entertainment that are, though less glamorous than the A-list stars, no less important. Nothing would succeed without their individual contributions, and countless of them, as he’s worked a few of those odd jobs himself, are terribly underpaid and overworked. The tiredness in their eyes reveals bone-deep exhaustion, but still they persist. For whatever reason — perhaps the love of the craft — everyone pushes on regardless.
He is one of those people. His role isn’t big enough to even require a trailer. From what he was briefed, the side role Jayce landed is of a scientist that makes some kind of discovery with another scientist. Their work defines a lot of the science fiction part of the show. Not to sound conceited, but Jayce can’t help but think that despite it not being a sexy role, it seems to him to be rather crucial to the plot. What does he know, though. The show might be set in the future, the usual melodrama is at the forefront of the plot. The inventions that create the universe are inconsequential when the two main love interests are squabbling with pent-up emotions and sexual tension.
“Jayce Talis?” A voice catches his attention.
Jayce turns to look at the assistant that’s come up to him. “Yeah, that’s me. Good morning.”
They jot something down on a clipboard. “Come with me. You’ll meet your partner and the two of you can get to know each other, or not, it’s your call in the end. Rehearse your lines, and be ready to start shooting in two hours.”
The two start walking at a quick pace. “I never heard who go the role for the other scientist,” Jayce says to make small conversation.
“Hm, some actor from Zaun, I don’t remember his name.” The way the assistant says it, it’s clear to Jayce how obvious the dismissal of the actor is. Some actor, he catches the tone. Just another random actor, a nobody, much like Jayce. Inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, with small roles that barely deserve crediting.
“Oh, I-“
“Here he is,” the assistant points to a man sitting on a chair set to the side. He’s munching on some of the food laid out for the staff.
Jayce perks up. “You!”
The man looks up at Jayce. His brows furrow momentarily before he fully takes him in. He smiles. “You.” He echos.
The assistant looks between them. “Well, seems like you two already know each other. I’ll leave you to it.”
Jayce plops unceremoniously on the chair next to the man. “They say we already know each other, but I don’t even know your name yet.”
The man munches on a piece of bread before answering. It’s clearly dry and tasteless by the displeased expression he makes, and Jayce can’t help but take in the two beauty marks on the man’s face. One on his lip, and the other below his eye. They help animate his face, which Jayce notes is expressive and full of life. Perfect for an actor.
“It’s Viktor,” he says once he’s swallowed the dry piece of bread.
“Nice to properly meet you, Viktor. I’m Jayce Talis.”
“I know,” Viktor smirks.
Jayce raises a brow. “How…?”
“The audition. They called your name.” Viktor reminds him.
“Oh, yeah,” Jayce chuckles. “Looks like we’re going to be partners.” He grins.
“Hm, looks like it. Though we barely have any lines and are just there to deliver one-liners to the hot main characters.” Viktor says the last part with a hint of sarcasm. His eyes light up with amusement when he speaks, and Jayce finds himself leaning slightly towards him.
“Hey but at least we’ve got a proper role, that’s something.”
“You’re quite the optimist, huh?” Viktor says with a hint of teasing.
Jayce scratches his cheek, a bit embarrassed. “I like to tell myself things will always work out.”
“That’s a kind of optimism I think all Pilties are born with,” Viktor takes a sip of what smells to be coffee. He grimaces with the bitter aftertaste.
“You’re a Zaunite, they said,” Jayce says cautiously.
“Mn, a bottom-sider in the shiny city,” Viktor says dryly.
“But you’re here, nevertheless, aren’t you? Things kind of worked out.”
“Despite no one believing in me, and through my hard work. I managed to land the glorious roll of…” he scans his script, “side character scientist number two.”
Jayce laughs, “I bet you’re going to be a great scientist.”
Viktor grins.
They run over their lines a bit while they wait. Viktor, as it turns out, is a natural. The kind of acting that seems effortless; a perfectly tailored suit that he slips in and out of. He eases whatever tension Jayce still had.
It’s easy talking to Viktor. Though at the surface it might not seem like he and Jayce have much in common, it turns out they have quite similar philosophies about the importance of cinema, and the art of acting. To some, Viktor might seem like a misfit in the profession. From what Jayce can gather from his witticism and ample sarcastic remarks, he’s not exactly seeking attention from other people. But there’s ambition that Jayce recognizes from himself. Whether Viktor is as susceptible to lure of the spotlight or not, as Jayce admits himself to be, minor roles are certainly not where he wants to end his career.
Before he realizes it, two hours have passed and it’s time for them to go on set.
“Shall we, partner?” Jayce puts his hand on Viktor’s shoulder as the two follow the hurrying assistant.
Viktor glances at Jayce’s hand, and for a moment he thinks Viktor’s going to shrug him off but instead he smirks. “Don’t slow me down, partner.”
Jayce smirks right back.