Chapter 1: To Create Perfection

Pathos Vathys was famous; this fact alone was undeniable.

To find out how famous Pathos Vathys was, simply look at the front cover of the nearest modelling magazine, perhaps turn to the nearest billboard, or even search the internet for the latest celebrity drama. It was no question at all that Pathos's face, name, or body would be somehow involved.

"Multi-millionaire playboy,"  "world-famous actor,"  "internationally famous model." Some would argue that there would be no shortage of words to describe the amount of fame that Pathos had accumulated during his short 30 years on earth.

In the early years of Pathos's life, he grew up in an orphanage with no parents or family to call his own. Life had been hard as every day was a struggle with the much larger kid, whether it was for food, clothing, or even who used the toilet first. Everything had been a battle that could only be fought with one's fists.

However, fortunately, during his time there, Pathos was miraculously scouted out by a modelling agency after passing by him on the street one day. And from there, Pathos worked harder than he had ever previously done, taking every possible photoshoot, advertisement, or requested job given to him without complaint, eventually edging himself above the common ranks. And by the time he turned 18, he was able to use all the money he had acquired to move out of the orphanage and live his own life to the fullest.

Along with his previous modelling, he started to get into acting, taking acting classes and even singing lessons, and after what felt like months, he had been scouted once again for his first movie role, although quite a small one.

From there, Pathos started to gain a taste for the higher life as more and more positions become available. He had hired a manager; he no longer needed to be scouted for movies as he could simply show up and get the role he wanted; he gained more advertisement offers than he could count; and best of all, he had started to gain a following.

Whether it was simply fan accounts or people wearing clothing with his face and name on it, he realised that he had gone from an unknown model to a national celebrity in a short period. Although the fame was never quite enough, he quickly dedicated his life to collecting more and more of it.

Learning new languages, instruments, or general skills had all become a means to impress the public more and more with his movie appearances. No musical, drama, TV series, or overseas movie was spared as Pathos dedicated all of his time to spread his name around. Soon, the name Pathos Vathys became so commonplace in normal conversation that the question of whether or not Pathos was famous became redundant.

However, it wasn't as if Pathos was unaware of his desperate desire to feel like his life had some sort of meaning. After many interviews and many conversations with his therapist, he wasn't blind to the fact that he was simply obsessed with his name being in everyone's mouths.

Was the obsession healthy? Not at all.

However, did Pathos care? Not at all.

Simply put, wanting fame was just an everyday part of life for him; he just couldn't bring himself to care whether the "want for fame" came from a lack of parental figures or a lack of friends growing up. All that mattered was that he simply wanted it, and so long as the want was not only not hurting other people but making everyone happy, there should be no reason for him to feel any shame or be shamed for having it.

 

 

 

Pathos, dressed in a matching black pair of clothes, could be found leaning against the wall reading his highlighted script in the theatre's empty backroom.

"Damn, I think this is going to be a lot worse than I originally thought." Pathos tiredly sighed as he laid the script on the table to his right, while his left hand glided through his hair. Today was supposed to be his empty theatre rehearsal for a live musical his manager had signed him up for; however, due to some mailing issues and a possible lazy director, Pathos had only been given his script a couple of minutes ago. However, that was not the main issue. During Pathos's many previous acting experiences, there had been times when he had only been given his line a few minutes before the official recording had taken place; however, due to the mass amount of experience that he possessed, he was simply able to brute force his way through the scenes if he desperately needed to.

The main issue was that, through reading the script, Pathos had concluded that the musical was utter sh*t.

The choreography, the lyrics, the actual lines, and the character interactions all felt rushed and robotic. Although all of that could be passable and fixable with a bit of improv. However it was the actual story itself which made the whole performance undoable, a rich city boy meets a country girl, and the boy suddenly falls madly in love with her, he becomes willing to give up his previous love for his fiance and his precious status as heir to his father's company, just to get to know her. The story itself is overall bland and nonsensical, as it additionally has nothing to add to the current genre itself. The main character was a stupid, ungrateful brat who would simply throw away everything his father and those around him worked for just to speak to an equally stupid woman who ran away from her rural home because she believed she wouldn't be able to achieve her dream of becoming a world-famous star there. The father character is hardly fleshed out at all, while the fiance the male protagonist is cheating on is simply never truly seen by the audience until the end, where a silhouette of her can be found crying.

Pathos didn't dislike the story but rather hated it. He hated the fact that his role as the father would need so much work on his side, and he hated the fact that the playwriter seemed to put as much thought into his work as a newborn infant learning how to walk, and most of all, he hated how much this resembled the first play he ever starred in.

"To call that catastrophe a mess would be the biggest understatement since..." However, before Pathos could finish releasing all of his pent-up anger, he was interrupted by a notification popping up on his phone. A notification was sent to his private email.

"That's odd; I didn't think Jessica had any other plans for me today."Due to Pathos' abhorrently busy schedule, the only time he would receive a message from his email was when his manager had to remind him of a possible promotional piece, movie audition, interview, modelling piece, etc. However, there seemed to be something new this time around.

"Character creation?" With no name attached to the email and such a vague topic for a title, it was an extraordinarily easy choice for Pathos.

"Delete." Pathos was no stranger to the concept of people wishing harm toward him, and with the current influx of stolen personal information being leaked, it was a no-brainer that somebody would be able to hack his mobile device if he were to click on the wrong email or perhaps open the wrong link.

Nevertheless, as Pathos deleted the email, a new duplicate took its place. Confusion and then frustration hit Pathos' faces as they once again deleted the same email, only for another duplicate to appear. In what appeared to be a never-ending cycle, Pathos was locked in a battle with the strange notification as seconds slowly faded into minutes.

Regardless of what Pathos would do, no matter how many times he tried to delete or block the source from which his email was being sent—even turning off his WiFi—nothing seemed to have worked in his favour. Pathos finally felt like he had won the strange battle by putting down his phone and walking out of the room with his script in hand.

Pathos walked through the theatre's main stage, surrounded by many light directors and actors, as the sense of familiarity had finally settled within him. Pathos had always felt at home on the big stage, regardless of what his role was or how good the movie was. No matter how his life would have gone, he always would have imagined himself on the big stage somehow, and the thought itself always provided him with a sense of comfort.

However, as Pathos's mind drifted away in thought, he seemed to ignore the quiet gasps of one of the overhead light directors once the light sources came crashing down onto Pathos.

 

 

 

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Pathos Vathys couldn't help but tiredly sigh as he stared at the white panelling of the hospital ceiling.

"This is a mess," he quietly whispered to himself as his mind slowly guided him on how he even got into this mess in the first place.

After one of the overhead ceiling lights, used to normally illuminate the actor on the stage when the lights of the room are out, fell on top of Pathos, leaving him bleeding on the ground, the whole theatre was left in an uproar at one of their biggest actors being injured, if not possibly killed. The director instantly called the ambulance in some sort of gesture of assistance as the medical staff on standby quickly moved into a helping posture with his injury.

From there, he was rushed into the hospital and immediately put into intensive care, only for the doctor to figure out that he had simply been lightly injured somehow. From there, he was placed in a separate room and told to be left undisturbed.

When he had finally woken up, it was not the director virtually on all four profusely apologising and begging Pathos not to press charges. Turns out the light director who was near the light that fell onto Pathos was his nephew. After some serious consideration, Pathos did agree to not press charges so long as the director fixed his script.

After earning a good laugh from both of them, Pathos found himself alone once again in the same situation he was previously in while he was in the back room. His phone told him he only had a single notification, and that was from the unlabeled email with the word "character creation" as the title.

"You won't leave me alone, will you?" Pathos once again tiredly asked as he stared blankly at his phone screen; the email seemed to stare him down viciously.

"Fine, you win, but I swear to God if this is some sort of virus, I will sue!" After making his rather empty threat to the mysterious sender, Pathos decides to read out the email, only to be confronted by some links. With cold sweats slowly rolling down his back, Pathos couldn't help but feel his heart pump loudly in his chest.

"It's not like I even have anything to hide; what am I worried about?" As his empty words of reassurance hit his ears, he couldn't help but click on the website link. After what felt like an eternity of loading, Pathos was presented with a page that surprised him.

And a plain white page with an empty avatar in front of him, with the words "customize your character" written in red on top, and a small green box with the word "confirm" written in green on top. Pathos sighed in relief as he proceeded to tap on the head of the empty character, only to be overwhelmed with thousands of customizable options.

"I guess I have nothing better to do anyway." Pathos stated as he looked around the empty hospital room before returning to his computer screen.

 

 

 

Pathos had finally finished creating his character, presumably at the same time as the sun came up through his hospital curtains, and seconds, minutes, and hours all seemed to blend into one.

"Wait, I spent more time on this than I thought."Pathos yawned slothfully as he clicked the green confirm button, only to be met with three more boxes, one with the word blessing and the other with the word curse. with a little dice symbol placed between them.

"What kind of game is this anyway?" questions as he taped the little box once.

Pathos intensively read two names that appeared on his screen.

As Pathos read the two traits, he couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sheer ridiculousness of both.

"I can only imagine if such a man existed with perfect memory and no refractory period. By God, he would be a titan among men." After laughing for a good minute or two, Pathos decides to hit the randomizer button two more times before he will quit.

However, by the time the next load was posted, an additional notification was posted in front of them, blocking his view of both boxes' descriptions and only giving him the names. In the blessing box, Adonis's blessing and eternal youth were mentioned, whilst in the curse section, something called the object of desire and the target of obsession.

 

Pathos sat on his bed, shell-shocked, as he read the result of his two choices. Divinity seemed to be a skill that would be far too useful if it existed in the real world, potentially changing the ugliest of ducklings into the most beautiful of swans, and that wasn't even mentioning the pseudo-immortality it seemed to provide. While last hope appeared to be a simple way to ruin someone's life by making them fearful of possible stalkers and rejects trying their hardest to keep them to them selfs.

"Yeah, I think that's all from me," Pathos said as he clicked the confirm button again, stunned by the sudden appearance of his avatar, which appeared to have become far more enchanted than it had previously been.

A small being that had the outward appearance of a young boy with a small, delicate body. His long, straight, platinum hair was seemingly transparent and gave off a soft glow akin to the shine of the sun. The radiance of his hair created the effect of a glistening waterfall that travelled down his slender shoulders and rested slightly below his knee line. His eyes were as deep blue as the sea and were framed by long eyelashes. Their inhuman beauty was enough to make anyone who saw him tremble. His charming facial features were considered the ideal image of the word "beauty" accepted by human beings. If it were possible to kill through beauty alone, it would be their radiance that would be capable of doing so. A normal man would be overjoyed if they even cast a passing glance his way. The boy was beautiful enough to make others tremble at his beauty, and even God would hesitate to touch him.

As if to amplify the impression of primordial perfection that their physical appearance conveyed, the clothing was incredibly simplistic. The only thing they wore was a single sheet of white fabric that covered his torso and draped over her like a poncho. The fabric had a line of deep blue stitches at the top and a matching blue ribbon. Aside from his gown, the only piece of material that could be found on them was a blue ribbon tied into his hair that was similar to the one that decorated his dress. His legs and feet were both completely bare; however, despite this, any desire to touch his bare flesh seemed taboo on account of his divine beauty.

He gave off an important aura, and his voice has a magic-like charm that seems to bind the bodies and souls of others. Just by being looked at or talked to, one can experience happiness enough to die for.

Pathos couldn't help but gulp in anticipation as his finger once again hovered over the confirmation button. After taking a final deep breath, he quickly shut his eyes as he speedily pressed it.

As his eyes slowly flutter open, Pathos is immensely relieved to know nothing seems to have happened, with his phone screen presumed to turn black because he hadn't charged it for what seemed like hours.

Pathos slowly laid back on his bed, he could feel his mind slowly drift away as the need for sleep took over.

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