The Strangearium: The Star

Jacob Abramowski was getting ready for the big night.

His wife helped him making sure his tie was on just right. Jacob had to look his best for the gala premier of "Movie the Movie" where he had the lead role.

Jacob couldn't help but smile, having a feeling that the movie was gonna be a hit at the box office and beloved by film critics, even the really cranky ones. It was probably a very arrogant thing to think, but Jacob considered himself one of the greatest actors of his generation. And he was probably not the only one who thought so.

Acting was Jacob's life. He fell in love with acting from the day he, as an eight year old kid, was part of a school play based on Harry Potter and begged his parents to pay for acting lessons. Years later he played Romeo Montague the night a talent scout by coincident had decided to watch his amateur theater troupe performed "Romeo and Juliet" and he was so stunned by Jacob's performance that he practically begged him to play a minor role in the adapted screenplay of the second Harry Potter book.

The critics praised the newcomer, claiming that he practically stole the movie with his short but outstanding performance.

From that day on, the sky were the limit for Jacob Abramowski. He played Hamlet, Wolverine, Don Quixote, Freddy Krueger, Merlin, Vego, you name it. He did theater and movies, both with excellence. He had won more prizes that any actor in history. He was simply an artist without boundaries.

A car-horn could be heard outside the Abramowski resident, Jacob and his wife's chauffeur had arrived.

So Jacob grabbed his two crutches so that he could stand up and walk outside. He needed them since he had congenital muscular dystrophy.

@kingkarate: @poze:

@nemesisreloaded:

@boschepg: @4donkeyjohnson:

@admirallogic:

@stahlflamme:

@jackalantern: @heroup2112: @flumox56: @stumpy49er: @cbishop:@tommythehitman:

Woah! Didn't see that ending coming! Jeez Waezi you really strung me through a loop.

@waezi2: okay, the ending made no sense.

@waezi2 Was Jacob day dreaming or is this just a more enlightened society? Or...other? :)

Glad to know I can still do that:P

Tommy apparently gets it.

Nope. It happened. What a strange world, eh?

@waezi2: Was if a dream he was having? That's how I interpreted it.

@tommythehitman: Well, here is the question:

WHY do you think it's a dream? Because of the crutches?

@waezi2: I guess. Something he's imagining as he goes to the hospital.

@tommythehitman: Because people with physical handicaps can't be successful and famous actors.

I'm not even calling you out or anything, they probably can't. They can be extremely talented, but that's probably not going to be enough because the famous and rich actors are usually the pretty ones.

@waezi2: They can be famous actors. Such as Peter Dinklage. But it's very unlikely Peter Dinklage would be cast to play Freddy Krueger.

Indeed. ;) Not a bad one though.

@tommythehitman: I'm tempted to say that dwarfism doesn't count.

And for what it's worth, I think he could be a pretty good Krueger.

@waezi2: There's only one true Freddy, Waezi. Robert Enguland.

@tommythehitman: What about Jackie Earle Haley?

@waezi2: He's good but that film as a whole drags him down.

I get what you were going for, but it made no sense for it to be in this story. When you make that kind of reveal, you give some clues, however slight they may be. You don't paint a picture of one thing, and then say, "Oh, it's this by the way." You've done that in a few of these- go in one direction for the entirety of the story, then turn on a dime at the end and make it something else. If the reader can go back and re-read, and go, "Ohhhh, cool, it was there the whole time, and I missed it," then cool. If they can't do that, then you threw in a twist that doesn't belong.

But why listen to me? Law & Order did that shit for years. ;)

Its clear you're trying to be clever here so I'll bite. What's the twist.

It doesn't really matter if I have to explain it, it just means I failed as a writer.

...

Eh, I will explain it anyway.

The twist is that I describe a successful actor who can do theater as well as movies, and he so happen to be physically handicapped. The twist is that he doesn't look perfect yet can do fine in a career usually meant for pretty or at least above normal looking people. The twist is that the story is strange because of Jacob being in the position he is in despite having congenital muscular dystrophy.

When we hear about a guy like Jacob, we think of him as a normal person without such a handicap and we find it unlikely that he could be a famous movie actor. Tommy and Heroup proves my point by first assuming that Jacob is dreaming.

@waezi2:

Based on this series he could have been a turtle dreaming he was a movie star, or a brain in a jar, or some guy living out a bizarre personal Hell. But sure, jam in some pretension and social commentary.