Chapter 137: Fort Wars – Reactions.
[General POV]
"MOM! Edward's show is up!" Manny yelled after setting up the laptop with the TV screen in the living room. Luke was there too as he made it his job to make sure that Manny would keep exercising and dieting every single day.
Not that he wanted Manny to become healthier, but he fell in love with the 'powerful' feeling of being a coach and thus wanted to make Manny's life a living hell.
Compared to how bloated Manny was before, now, his jaw had become more angular and his chubby cheeks had sunk, making a few girls notice him – which made him more confident about Ed's technique to pick up girls.
"Grandpa! Come quick!" Luke ran to Jay who was drinking a glass of scotch at the bar and pulled him towards the couch. Jay sighed and said gruffly, "I…I don't think that I will be interested in watching this."
"Ayy Jay don't be an old man." Gloria interjected as she walked down the stairs while wearing an earring.
"Hey… this whole thing's for teenage girls who are crazy over everything that has to do with him, not me!" Jay angrily gruffed.
But Gloria quickly added in a careful manner trying to avoid sounding patronizing , "Alex…is singing too. You should give her support. Isn't that right Manny?"
Luke suddenly laughed and said, "Yeah Grandpa. Alex will need it."
Not that the family was looking down on Alex, but they just never heard her sing before. So they were a bit doubtful about her participation in such a show.
{Fort Wars!} was the title of the video. The thumbnail was of Edward sitting on a throne with a red-lightsaber, which made his fan's both feel incredulous and excited to click on it.
The movie played with texts floating up in the screen – Star Wars style!
"Aren't they afraid of getting sued?" Jay muttered in disbelief.
In another house.
"Oh OHHH!" Phil exclaimed in excitement as he watched the show. Next to him was Haley who was holding a Vogue magazine and asking Claire a few questions.
"Mom, it says here men who're attracted to emotional/gothic type girls, and even psycho girls, have massive issues with their mother. Do you think that's true?" Haley asked with an expression of disbelief.
[Haley's Commentary]
"I was wondering why Tara recommended this issue to me. Turns out, it can give me a deeper understanding on why…he's like that." Haley said carefully and with a wry smile.
"Of course, if it's written in a magazine it must be true right?? I mean I don't see why I shouldn't believe it? I mean, they are a hugely popular company why would they lie?" She asked with a worrying chuckle while holding the magazine.
"It's said that to attract the attention of these kinds of men, I should become more affectionate, don't play games with them, give out a motherly impression? What the hell does that even mean!? I don't have any idea of how to do any of these things!"
[Commentary ends]
"Honey, instead of reading the magazine, why don't you help me fold the laundry?" Claire said to avoid answering the question by her daughter. Not because she didn't know the answer, but because she knew it all too well.
"Hmmm…" Haley scrutinized her mother's face, before she slowly picked up the laundry and folded it messily but with her eyes stuck on Claire.
{Today we're going to build a school-wide blanket fort, and try to break the world Record!}
The video opened with the sight of Edward speaking to a group of students in a normal tone, before it changed 5 minutes later into a feudal lord tone after the blanket fort was erected.
"Pfft- HAHAHA! Why are they all so serious!" Haley laughed out loud, while feeling slightly jealous of those kids. Even Claire and Phil couldn't help smiling as they watched it.
"When Luke and Alex come home, We will make our own-" Phil said excitedly, before it was shut down by his wife, "NO Phil!"
[Phil's commentary]
"I want to build a fort too! It's been a while since the kids wanted to do anything like that . I miss that." Phil said with sad eyes.
[Commentary ends]
"Performance? He's singing in this?" Haley asked when Edward declared it in the video.
"Forget about that. What kind of contraband is he smuggling ? That's my main concern." Claire said with narrowed eyes.
The video continued with Abraham kneeling in front of the throne, {"Esteemed Lord of Fluffy-Shire…..Honorable members of the Royal Harem…"}
All of them were frozen as they heard it. Especially Haley.
[Haley' commentary]
"He said WHAT!" She yelled incredulously.
Far away from California, a blonde teenage girl was watching the video while on a video call with her best friend at the same time.
"Selena, are you watching it?" Taylor asked as she skipped the video to the last section as she wanted to hear Edward's song first.
"I'm watching it from the start! Also, I'm jealous. I always imagined playing with my friends in school like that." Selena muttered on the screen.
"Really? Hmmm…What should I do?" Taylor rubbed her chin as she thought about it. "Well…I will watch the end first, then I will decide whether to watch the whole thing."
"Weren't you the one who was so excited, you just HAD to call me even if I was still on set? Didn't you say you missed him 'SO SO MUCH'? "
"Hmph! I do miss him, but he's out there playing without even thinking about me who's suffering over here!" Taylor said while crossing her arms angrily.
"Suffering? Bitch you're in a mansion-"
"Enough talking. I will play the song first!" Taylor then clicked on the play button, and listened to 'Celestial' together with Selena.
{"♫♪ You make me feel
Like my troubled heart is a million miles away♫♪"}
{"♫♪You make me feel
Like I'm drunk on stars and we're dancing out into space♫♪"}
{"♫♪Celestial, oh-oh♫♪
♫♪Celestial, oh-oh♫♪
♫♪Celestial♫♪"}
"Aha- I can't!" Taylor squealed and paused the video to calm down her huffing breath and flushing face.
Selena teased, "So, you sing Starlight for him, and he replied with Celestial-"
Taylor chortled out loud and then jumped on the bed before squirming -kicking all the pillows to the floor.
Selena was jealous and muttered, "I want someone to sing for me too! Or at least make some lines for me in his songs…"
Taylor suddenly sat up and slapped her face a few times to calm herself down. "That was dangerous! I was just thinking about buying a house next to him."
Selena raised her eyebrow and said, "And?"
"And nothing. Just thinking about it." Taylor replied casually before they both watched the show from the beginning.
{"Esteemed Lord of Fluffy-Shire…..Honorable members of the Royal Harem…"}
Both Selena and Taylor were frozen. But then, Selena realized something before Taylor could explode.
"Look, there's no 'Lady'. Or Queen." Selena pointed out.
"Hmm?" Taylor's brain repressed the image of Alex sitting on top of Edward's lap as she heard it. Then, she realized it was true.
"They are…WERE… only his harem members. Calm down. Don't go psycho. There's still a long way to go before the movie is finished." Selena placated Taylor.
As the video cuts to Jenna's commentary of wanting to substitute Alex, Taylor and Selena also nodded as they were thinking of the same thing.
Meanwhile in Edward's Fan Club chat forum, the members were bombarding the chat, displaying the same sentiment.
@LilyLeader: I want to sit there too! I'm so jealous!
@BeyonceLover: Still, I want to see Taylor sitting there even MORE!
@EdForever: I want to serve under the lord! AHHH! WHY IS HE SO HANDSOME! #VILLAIN_EDWARD_IS_SEXY
@KimJongSun: Don't you think Supreme Leader Edward is better?
@EdForever: I don't care! HE can TRAMPLE me anytime he wants-
(Admin: User is sent to time out for 5 minutes)
@ClownDaddy: Give me back my blanket Alex!
Inside Mitch and Cam's house, Cam was eating popcorn while Lily sat on his lap as they watched the show together. Mitchell was still at work, so they were watching it by themselves.
"Okay Lily, I know your Dad asked us to wait for him, but Daddy just couldn't wait any longer. Don't judge me." Cam made excuses to his 1 year old adopted child.
"JED!...ED!" Lily pointed at the TV every time Edward came out. Cam was baffled as to how Lily could possibly recognize the main lead, but attributed the matter to Ed's charisma.
"Even babies are captured by him." Cam said before he texted Mitchell that he would wait for him with a winky face.
In Mitchell's workplace, his entire floor of paralegal and lawyers were standing behind Mitch as he streamed the movie on his laptop. He had clicked to watch it the second it was uploaded, and he had already streamed it till the scene where Billie was singing 'All Star'.
"I didn't expect Ed to find another talent." Mitchell muttered to himself while eating a biscuit. His middle-aged fat man colleague poured some tea for him, and he said, "Oh. Thank you."
"You're welcome. So, he is really close to your family?" The college asked with a thick face. "Could you get me his autograph? I missed his last merchandise sale, now my daughter isn't talking to me."
Mitchell said smugly, "Well…He is quite busy…"
"Oh..Umm…You know what, why don't I…Do this work for you today? So can you take the time to consider?" The man said before picking up a thick stack of files on top of Mitchell's desk.
"Oh you don't have to. I will ask him!" Mitchell said with fake reluctance. The middle-aged man smiled and said, "No. I want to do it. You should just enjoy watching this-"
Before he could finish, Mitchell's boss knocked on the open office door twice, earning everyone's attention. "What are you guys doing here? GO BACK TO WORK!"
The colleagues all scampered away to avoid being targeted by the boss. Mitchell slammed his laptop shut, but the boss was already walking towards him.
"Mitchell." The boss called out politely to Mitchell's surprise. As it turned out, the boss also had the same dilemma as his middle-aged colleague.
"So you know…If you could…It'd be great." The boss asked politely.
"Oh. I understand. Amanda is a nice girl. If…You know what …Nothing."
"What? Tell me."
"Well… There will be a small…Just a tiny…concert by Edward tomorrow. Not many people are invited ... But I am… If I wasn't busy reviewing those lab reports on the McNutty pollution case, I could-"
"What are you talking about Mitchell? I gave the research work to Jolene. She should send you her full report before Monday. You can take Saturday off like usual." The boss said suddenly. Mitchell smiled and said, "Oh. I guess… I can go to the concert then. And you know what? Why don't I take Amanda with me? I do have backstage passes."
The boss grinned widely as he walked away from Mitchell's office. He stopped by the door, turned back and said, "Mitchell. You had done some exemplary work this week. Why don't you take the rest of the day off?"
[Mitchell's commentary]
"I really didn't think that my impulse to watch the show today could lead to such a wonderful opportunity." Mitchell grinned before fixing his seat to show more confidence.
"Is this what it feels like to be famous? People want to give you nice things and just treat you so nice all the time? I sure could get used to this." He said smugly.
Then, he realized something and he said, " Maybe I should call Haley after this. I…don't actually have the tickets yet…I sure hope that I can find one…"
[Commentary ends]
Inside the Dunphy's house, Claire was so excited and was shaking Phil violently as she watched Alex's performance. Even Haley was shocked by her sister's performance, but she was so embarrassed when she saw Alex wanted to do a crowd surf.
"Damn it Alex! You ruined your own image!" She muttered.
"How did Edward plan this? Why is he making his teacher run around? Does he have a grudge with her?" Phil muttered in confusion.
In terms of popularity between the 'cast' of the movie, Mrs Henderson was actually leading in the ranking as her cold-blooded beauty was shown to the entire world. Next was Enid, the shadow guard, and cementing his place in the top 3, the corgi, Sir Fluffy 'Hound' Templeton the Second.
"Awww…He's so cute!" Selena exclaimed as the video cut to footage of the dog licking Ed's face, making him laugh and break character as he sat on the throne.
"Hmm…I wonder if he likes cats too." Taylor mumbled to herself.
Inside the room of a certain 'D' producer office, a certain X-Stein producer smoked his cigar as he watched the figure of the children inside the show.
"Hmm…I wanna see their feet." He muttered. "Should I cast them in my new show?"
But too bad for him, he wouldn't even manage to come close to the cast members as they got Edward as their backing. Fame carries a certain degree of treachery, so Ed knew that he had to be careful when releasing his show on his platform.
With 3 millions subscribers in the first month of the streaming site release, the names of the cast members in the show had spread all over the world - albeit it was still only circling amongst Edward's fan community.
Entertain company Co-CEO Pepper was watching the show when he suddenly sighed. "At first, I didn't think that it'd be good for his image to release this…It just seemed so… childish"
"But unexpectedly, people liked to see their idol doing dumb and relatable stuff." Pepper added as he saw Edward's name was trending again on Twitter.
Harvey nodded and suddenly said with a smirk, "Yes. You have no talent in this. You should just let him handle the company from now on."
"..." Pepper was speechless and couldn't find the words to refute Harvey for a while.
Eminem watched the show with a poker face before he sniggered and muttered, "Yo Dre. Come check this out man. He's fighting with lightsabers."
"Huh? Weren't you watching a documentary?" Dre asked in confusion.
In Jay's house, Luke and Manny exclaimed in awe as they watched the lightsaber fight in the dim room.
"That's soo cool!! Mom! What is a lightsaber?" Manny asked as he had never watched Star Wars before. (He's 10)
"That's from Star Trek Manny. I want one! Grandpa! Buy me one!" Luke pestered Jay before getting back to the show.
"It's Star Wars Luke! Your uncle Mitchell's head will actually let out smoke if you say it wrong." Jay said with a chuckle.
"I know it's Star Trek! I watched it with my dad before!" Luke said disobediently.
As the story showed that Ed had been playing the teacher from the beginning of the story, viewers around the world were shocked by the revelation and the internet exploded.
@LilyLeader: All According to the Plan. (AizenSosuke.img)
Inside an apartment in Pasadena, Sheldon suddenly shouted while sitting on his spot on the couch, "IMPOSSIBLE!! This must be scripted!"
Leonard laughed while sitting on the lone couch and said, "No-no. It's real. It's a documentary."
"I refuse to believe this! Also Leonard! You lied to me! You said George Lucas came out with an exclusive!" Sheldon stood up and ran away to his room in anger. Rajesh and Howard also laughed at Sheldon before Rajesh said, "I didn't know that he was a Star Wars fan. Is he also a comic book fan?"
"Ohh. We should invite him here and show our collection to him sometimes." Leonard added.
"Or use him to get close to George Lucas, and get a cameo as a Jedi in the next movie!" Howard said as if he got a great idea.
While his friends were disdaining him, a certain director inside the Skywalker Ranch was watching the show before he mumbled, "Hmm…Is it the right time for another Star Wars movie yet? Or should I just sell the company?"
George Lucas couldn't come to a decision today. But he knew deep down in his heart that if he did come out with the new movie, a certain teenage singer would be his first choice to become a Sith Lord, and do the soundtrack.
RDJ watched the fight scene and he said to John Favreou, "I told you. The kid can act."
"Yes. I do believe you. But there aren't any roles suitable for him. And we don't have the rights for the spiderman film." Jon replied.
"Give him a role to fight Scarlet. I'm sure he'd love her to wrap her legs around him." RDJ said sarcastically while teasing John's questionable choice in the new movie.
@ClownDaddy: Congrats Ed for breaking the World Record!
@LilyLeader: Congrats Ed for breaking the World Record!
Even on Twitter, a lot of celebrities were tagging Edward in their tweets to congratulate him.
@MileyCyrus: Congratulations Edward Newgate! I didn't think that I would be absorbed watching a documentary, but you have changed my view!
@SamuelLJackson: Motherfucker, why didn't you use the purple lightsaber?
@AndrewGarfield: Oh my god, My Jedi heart is screaming inside of me! @EdwardNewgate, You should be a Sith Lord!
@EwanMcgregor: You were the chosen one Edward! It was prophesied that you would destroy the Sith! Not join them!
@EwanMcgregor: Ahh, I'm not satisfied with the 2 minute fight. I want more! The plot twist is mindblowing! The JESTER is the MVP!
@Hayden: I agree with @EwanMcgregor.
As the world reached Edward's performance, they swooned together with the rest of the students.
Haley mumbled to herself, "Is he still sad about his grandmother? I didn't expect that…Hmm…"
Phil swayed to the music before he muttered, "I don't know why, but this song reminds me of Pokemons."
Haley: …
Claire: …
CameronDiaz: It makes me miss my school days. I didn't expect that.. @EdwardNewgate I'm your fan now!
Back to Taylor, Selena was baffled when Taylor suddenly ran out of her room, shouting for her dad.
"DADDY! I want to go to the concert tomorrow! YOU CAN'T STOP MEEEEE!!!"
@LilyLeader: Celestial? Hehe, I guess it's a reference to the girl who sang Starlight before? Haha, #Tayward_Forever!
The song Celestial quickly started trending everywhere, and the fires of Edward and Taylor's shippers were reignited again, pushing the shippers towards a new fanatical level.
…
[Camila's house]
As the world was reacting to the show, Edward was currently being squished by a group of people on top of his giant bed. His group of friends was laying on top of him in a dogpile, preventing him from moving.
"We don't want to go!" Exclaimed all of the people in his social group. Jenna, Enid, Billie, Alex, Finneas, Abraham, Elsa, Jacob– All of them were currently at Edward's house as they didn't want to separate as school was over.
"Get lost you guys! I have to get ready for prom!" Edward shouted and tried to push them off, but to no avail.
"NOOO!" x8