#I JST THINK THOUGHTS… i love having the crew of the bargerian jade there btw

[chryzure-archive]

I would like to know more about your ChrysiJacks Moulin Rouge AU 030 I've never seen it but I'm vvvv interested

OKAY, SO FIRST OF ALL—I SHOULD START OUT BY SAYING, IF YOU GET THE CHANCE TO WATCH IT, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE WATCH MOULIN ROUGE. Ewan McGregor is the perfect Christian and he has such good puppy dog eyes, and Nicole Kidman has the prettiest outfits. AND OF COURSE BAZ LUHRMAN IS A FANTASTIC DIRECTOR. I ADORE his directing style (though it is really strange, so keep that in mind!!! If you’ve seen The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio, think of that style of directing. It’s the same director.) AND THE MUSIC!!!! Sooo good—in fact, I actually prefer the versions of those songs than the actual pop songs! (since it’s a jukebox musical—with the original song Come What May, which should honestly just be this blog’s theme song.)

ANYWAYYYYY. OKAY. So, I’m currently working on this on the backburner, so I expect to post it here EVENTUALLY, but it starts out with Jacks coming to Paris to visit his good friend, Mistress Luck, the proprietress of the Moulin Rouge. He’s visiting for no reason! None at all! Certainly nothing to do with his break up with Tella (dude…).

Well, Mistress Luck sends him a letter, telling him to very kindly please not visit at all, because he always brings trouble with him (he tends to choose a courtesan at random, kiss her, then slow her inevitable death long enough for him to have fun for a week. It’s awful. He’s awful. I love him.) Unfortunately for her, he can’t read <//3 he’s staying in a ratty hotel that’s basically across the street from the Moulin Rouge.

Interestingly enough, an acting troupe trying to pitch their new play to Mistress Luck (through her top courtesan Chrysi Solstice) is staying in the suite above Jacks’s. He’s mostly irritated with the noise that comes from overhead at all times, but he’s dealing with it as best he can.

Until one day—what do you know!—a certain man from Rangus6 (if… that’s even remotely how you spell Pleck’s home planet, but for the purposes of this, his hometown) comes crashing from his ceiling. The room is obliterated.

Then Jacks is mobbed by the acting crew of the Bargearian Jade, led by Bargie (… oh god, I just realized I get the privilege to write this scene. I never considered the horror of Bargie meeting Jacks. Everyone else, I know how they’d interact with him, but oh no…), and followed very closely byyyyy you! The writer of the play at hand!

One thing leads to another, and Jacks suddenly finds himself roped into a scheme where he’ll pitch the show to the lead courtesan for them (since they’ve been thrown out on multiple occasions at this point, and Pleck really wants his wife’s play to succeed in any way possible).

(I should probably clarify some things: the Moulin Rouge is essentially a high-end prostitution place, where people will put on a show and then take their clients to their rooms later for… yeah. Yeah… but it’s more of an escort place in my AU, just for some class, if that makes sense. There’s still some Yikes™ (pronounced similarly to the goddess Nike) stuff, but more class.)

Well, in the meantime, the Count Elias Bloom (feel free to boo and throw tomatoes. In fact, I encourage it.) comes to the Moulin Rouge to seek the hand of the famed beauty of Chrysi Solstice. Mistress Luck has had a huge hand in making Chrysi very famous, even though Chrysi has expressed that she wants to leave this business to become an artist herself :’) Alas, that is not the case.

((Another clarification: YES, magic exists in this universe. The Fate rules still apply. Chrysi can see ghosts. She has faetelle. It’s a fun mishmash of random magic systems in a story originally written without magic, and I like every second of it :)))

Chrysi is to have a meeting with Elias Bloom (as per Mistress Luck’s request) so they can get the funding for the Moulin Rouge (as they want to become more legitimate in terms of being a theatre establishment.)

UNFORTUNATELY, there is a mixup with Chrysi’s understanding as to who is the Count. Mistress Luck points out the Count being the person that is being bothered by Pleck (long story, but he gets threatened with a gun and it’s not good :))—which transitions from being Elias Bloom to Jacks to Elias Bloom again. During that brief window of Pleck asking Jacks for help, Chrysi looks over. And so begins the trouble of the first act.

Chrysi ends up taking Jacks back to her room. Which is great for the crew of the Bargerian Jade!!! They’re so happy that this little plot of their’s is working out! (C’s a little skeptical, but even he can’t resist Pleck’s wholehearted excitement).

Now comes the most awkward and terrible scene in the story—Chrysi thinks. Jacks is there. To have sex with her. For money.

Jacks thinks. Chrysi wants him there. To pitch the plot. Of the Bargerian Jade’s play.

Horrible, awful, terrible, BUT in my AU, it’s not at all as awkward and cringable the movie scene is. Chrysi merely flirts with Jacks, and he’s happy about it because, okay, she’s pretty and he’s always open to having a fun fling with a girl that’s going to die within the week anyway (since his kiss would’ve killed her).

Things get a little dangerous (meaning only that Jacks almost kisses her and ruins the whole charade) and then he lets it drop that he’s there to pitch the new play of Filly’s.

Chrysi stops.

“You’re not the Count.”

“No, clearly not.”

“The Count’s going to kill you. And if he doesn’t, I will.”

Meanwhile! Elias is knocking on the door, asking her to let him in!!!! Like!!!! Bad!!!!! Bad, bad, bad, evil, horrible, bad!!!!!!!!!!!

Chrysi’s freaking out, she hides Jacks, she lets Elias Bloom in, it’s a mess. She doesn’t want to sell herself to him while another man’s in the room, so she’s like, “Great! I’m feeling a little faint, but if you want to go out for lunch tomorrow, that’ll be awesome.” And she kisses him and pushes him out of the room. Elias Bloom is a little put out, but he’s essentially been promised to Chrysi for the time being by Mistress Luck, so he’s not too upset.

Jacks is mildly offended Chrysi would’ve rather kissed Elias Bloom than him, but before he can be too pissy, Chrysi actually gets a little faint. Her face goes white and she almost passes out in Jacks’s arms. 

Now, Jacks is concerned. He is not one for comforting people in the first place, but nursing them back to health? He is not good at that at all. 

He manages to get her to lay down on the bed, which is right as Elias Bloom walks in again saying that he accidentally left his coat. A horrible time for him to walk in, I know. 

Chrysi, her head spinning (because her faetelle is bothering her significantly rn), comes up with a lie saying that something Elias Bloom said made her think of the play that Jacks is writing, so she simply had to get a meeting with him immediately to write it. 

At this point, Elias Bloom thinks this is all bullshit (rightfully so…. which is not something I thought I’d ever say about him), but the entire crew of the Bargerian Jade pours in (they were listening in to see how well Jacks was doing btw) to add to the convincing nature of the lie. Mistress Luck sees this mess and bursts in, frantic.  

Chrysi is doing damage control as best as she fucking can right now. Her head is killing her, she was about to pass out literally two minutes ago, and she has to drag all of them out of this mess they’ve found themselves in.

Long story short, she confuses Elias Bloom into verbally agreeing to invest in the show that Filly wrote, but actually everyone thinks that Jacks wrote it, and now she’s basically in a contract marriage with Elias. It’s great. She’s dying, both physically and emotionally.

She kicks Jacks out along with everyone else. It’s been a long night for her. 

Well, Jacks sneaks back in later and Chrysi’s act has all dropped. She essentially says that she’ll never be flirty like that again, unless he wants to pay for it in the future, and that she won’t speak to him in the same way. In fact, she doesn’t want to see him unless it’s in the practices and meetings for the new play (since now they all have to act like Jacks is the writer. Hell situation. Awful.) Jacks is like, “Understood, thanks, I’ll leave you alone” (hint: he will not.)

Mistress Luck and he then catch up, which really just means that Mistress Luck is pissed at him for showing up when she told him not to, but she might have a room better suited for him than before. 

So now he’s rooming with Simeon St. Claire. Both of them hate this set-up. Simeon was just fine living alone as the tailor for the girls of the Moulin Rouge (he and Luna Rune are saving up money to run away and get married), but now he has this bastard to account for. 

But Simeon’s petty, so he locks Jacks out of the apartment on a particularly rainy evening. Jacks, unsure of where to go, wanders around until he finds Chrysi’s place (actually a really nice place, just off the street of the Moulin Rouge). She first closes the door in his face, but when she doesn’t hear him leave, she opens it to find him sitting like a drowned rat on her porch, and she lets him in. 

Here they have a wonderful conversation where Chrysi’s talking about the men she has to be the escort for and she’s mean about it. She states that “in the business of loving people, you learn to like them a lot less” and Jacks is immediately smitten. He just doesn’t know it yet. 

Then comes all the rehearsals and rewrites (so much interaction with the Bargerian Jade’s crew and I’m loving all the snippets I’ve written thus far), where, regretfully, Chrysi and Jacks fall in love. Actually, initially Jacks was just some guy Chrysi went to when she was getting sick of Elias Bloom. Now she has feelings for Jacks and she hates it. 

Now they use the excuse that Jacks is the writer so they can meet up in secret. Chrysi’s the happiest she’s been in years. 

But one of the girls is jealous of Chrysi and she lets it slip to Elias Bloom that it’s strange that the writer and the lead actress spend so much time together without the rest of the crew. Elias immediately says he wants to change the ending of the play (written to emulate Chrysi and Jacks’s budding relationship, complete with a secret song for the lovers) and that he wants Chrysi to join him for dinner that evening.

Jacks is getting insanely jealous at this point. He begs Chrysi not to sleep with him, begs her to find any excuse not to go—but unfortunately, Mistress Luck has spoken with Chrysi and informed her that her “secret fling” with Jacks isn’t quite as secret as she might imagine and that she needs to make Elias happy if she wants the Moulin Rouge to succeed. 

Chrysi pleads with Jacks to understand (”You promised me you wouldn’t get jealous.” “How can I not be?” Both are crying :’’’)) and sets out to join Elias Bloom for dinner. 

Unfortunately!! Chrysi starts having a flare up and she faints before she can manage to get there. Mistress Luck gets a doctor to nurse Chrysi back to health and informs her that she must make it up to Elias Bloom in any way possible. 

Meanwhile, Jacks is being tormented by jealousy and he will not stop pacing around like a caged tiger. Pleck is trying his best to calm him down. Nermut’s making things worse by doing the same. C’s not saying anything, and Dar’s actually rather insightful, if also not getting through to Jacks, and Filly’s the only one that actually manages. 

Jacks calms, if only slightly, and waits for Chrysi to join him in the morning. 

When she does, she’s pale and sickly, but she plays it off as best she can. She informs Jacks that no, she did not spend the evening with Elias Bloom—but she’s going to have to, because she has to make it up to him.  

Jacks is heartbroken, but he allows her to. This feeling thing that mortals have to go through is awful and he doesn’t like it at all. 

But as Chrysi’s up there, Jacks is being needled by that same jealous girl and he blows up. He almost kills her by stopping her heart, and then he’s dragged off by Simeon, who tells him that he should’ve never fallen in love with a woman that sells herself. “The jealousy will drive you mad,” he says, and Jacks wanders off in an agitated state. 

He finds Chrysi standing on a balcony with Elias Bloom and they make eye contact and both of them can feel their hearts cracking in their chests. Chrysi immediately pulls away from Elias Bloom, but he sees Jacks and immediately realizes that Chrysi’s been running around with Jacks every time she makes excuses to leave. 

He basically assaults her at this point, and Chrysi’s a sobbing mess. Fortunately, Simeon was in the area after dragging Jacks outside, and he knocks out Elias Bloom. Both Chrysi and Simeon are stunned by what he did, but he then grabs her and returns her to Jacks’s flat (which is also Simeon’s, but whatever. Semantics.)

There, Jacks comforts a crying Chrysi. He comes up with the brilliant plan to run away with her and that she just needs to pack up her things and they’re gone. 

Chrysi does as he requests, but Mistress Luck is there. She tells Chrysi that it’s cruel for her to run off with Jacks when Chrysi knows she’s dying. Chrysi replies by saying she doesn’t care if they’ll only have a year, a month, or a week—so long as she can be with Jacks. Mistress Luck then tells Chrysi that Elias Bloom is obsessed with her—and that he will hunt Jacks down to kill him. There’s some extra guilt thrown in here, because Jacks can only be killed due to the fact that he loves Chrysi. She’s his greatest weakness. 

Chrysi’s stunned and realizes… she probably should save Jacks. So she returns to him and informs him that, regretfully, her greatest wish was to become an actress (a lie) and that she’s going to stay at the Moulin Rouge. Jacks is shocked and confused and hurt, but he’s manhandled out by Elias Bloom’s bodyguard and thrown into a puddle of icy rain water (my poor little drowned rat :(….) I think the stress gets to him, because he just passes out. 

When he wakes up, he feels like he has a fever, but Pleck and Filly are standing there, basically saying it doesn’t make sense that Chrysi would leave him like this—there has to be something more happening. Chrysi loves Jacks a lot. She wouldn’t just leave him.

Jacks tells them to leave him, but their words bother him—and so he returns to the Moulin Rouge on the opening night of the play with a lot of money. He finds Chrysi’s dressing room and insists she take the payment. After all, why should he get her services for free when everyone else has to pay? She’s done such a good job that he almost thought his heart was beating again. 

Meanwhile, Chrysi’s panicking.  She knows that if Elias Bloom sees Jacks, he’ll kill him. She’s trying to push Jacks out of the room, and she’s not accepting the money, and come on, she’s a gifted courtesan, she might as well accept! 

Her heart’s breaking. Her faetelle is acting up. Jacks knows that something’s wrong, because she looks so pale and fragile, but he can’t comfort her like he used to. 

She essentially runs from him to the stage, where the curtain opens on both of them. 

Elias Bloom is in the front row. 

This is bad!!!!!!!

But Jacks throws the money at Chrysi (who’s on the floor, crying and trying not to) and says he’s paid his whore. Then he walks down the aisle to leave. 

But that forgotten song between the lovers? The one Elias Bloom forced them to get rid of? Come What May? Chrysi starts singing it for Jacks and he stops where he is. 

Then he turns around and rushes up to her and hugs her and kisses her for all the world to see. Elias Bloom’s bodyguard is knocked out by Dar. All is well! The show ends and everyone loves it!

But Elias Bloom has a gun of his own. He aims it at Jacks and when he shoots, Chrysi steps in front of it and takes the bullet straight to the heart. 

Elias Bloom starts screaming and wailing, panicked that he’s just killed the woman he was obsessed with. Jacks, on the other hand, looking pale and drawn, just cradles Chrysi close to him as she dies. He’s crying silently and begging her to stay, please stay, and she’s just smiling and stroking his face. 

She dies in his arms like that. 

Yep. That’s that. That’s sorta just… It. That’s the end. Jacks leaves flowers at her grave and curls up by her gravestone and it hurts. I care them and my heart hurty :((((