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Mumbai
The four Eternals and Alex walk onto a movie set, music instantly floating into their ears. Serina smiles when she sees the actors rehearsing a musical number. The set is dark but the dancers can be seen moving around. The lights turn on, illuminating the colorful set and revealing Kingo in a sparkly blue costume with gold designs. Serina internally screams, excited for him. She's never visited him on set so it's cool to see him filming in person. She tilts her head as she watches him perform with a smoldering look on his face.
"You know what, why is Kingo kinda..."
"Ew!" Sprite shrieks, scrunching up her face in disgust.
"What??" Serina asks defensively. "He looks good. I think it might be the dancing, he just looks so debonair."
"He's fine," Alex chimes in, nodding her head as she watches Kingo.
"He is," Serina agrees, nodding along. Sprite rolls her eyes while Sersi chuckles. Ikaris cocks an eyebrow at them, scoffing and shaking his head.
"Ah, Serina!"
The group turns to the right, seeing a middle-aged man walking up to them with his palms pressed together.
"Karun! How are you?" the girl greets, smiling politely and pressing her palms together as well.
"Very good, thank you. Hello, Alexis," Karun responds before acknowledging the other girl.
"Hey, Karun," she replies, pressing her palms together. They've met Karun a couple of times. Kingo has invited Serina to a few of his movie premieres and she has invited him to hers as well.
Karun's eyes shift to the others. "Welcome," he greets in Hindi. "I am Karun Patel. Kingo's valet," he introduces himself, chuckling. Ikaris, Sersi, and Sprite share a quizzical look, wondering how Serina knows him. "It's truly an honor to be in the presence of the great Eternals," he expresses, pressing his palms together again.
The three stare at him in shock before glancing at Serina. "Are you going around telling everybody about us?" Sprite questions.
"What??" Serina shrieks in a high voice. "I didn't tell him, that was Kingo!"
The song comes to an end and the dancers strike their finishing poses. "Cut!" Kingo yells. A bell rings and the actors start clapping. "Okay, everyone, that was good. But we could do 10% better. That was beautiful. Very, very good." A woman approaches him and touches up his hair when he glances up, spotting four familiar faces in the distance. His face instantly brightens up. "Ahhh!" he screams before laughing. Ikaris, Sersi, Serina, and Alex clap while Sprite shoots them a look. Serina gives him an enthusiastic smile. "My friends from college are here!" Kingo shouts.
He walks over to them and ecstatically yells, "Serinaaa!" The girl squeals excitedly in return as they run up to each other and embrace in a tight hug.
"Look at you killin' all the ladies out here with them dance moves," she praises.
Kingo cackles and responds, "you know, I've been meaning to call you about doing a cameo. Everyone loved you on the soundtrack for Selene. I'd love to have the biggest pop star in the world in this movie!" He gives her an encouraging grin. Kingo made a film about a siren named Selene a few years ago in honor of Serina. Sprite made up stories of Serina when they were in Greece and Rome. The stories changed over time, turning into tales of women luring sailors to their death with their beautiful voices and songs.
Sirens were depicted as either half-woman and half-bird or beautiful women with a fishtail. Sprite came up with the bird thing when Ikaris teased Serina about not being able to fly and the fishtail thing when Kingo threw her into a pool one time. Serina never liked that the mythical beings named after her represented risk, temptation, and desire. Although, she thinks some details in the myth are cool. She's glad that Kingo's movie does the siren justice.
Serina laughs, flattered by the suggestion. "I'll see if I can," she answers.
"Awesome," Kingo reacts, clapping his hands together. His eyes shift to Ikaris behind her and he zooms past her. "Hello, boss!" he squeals as he hugs him. "Perfect timing! Welcome to the set of Legend of Ikaris," he speaks, saying the title in Hindi. "I'm playing you! Do you like the costume?"
"Ugh, it's fabulous," Alex compliments, waving her hand through the air.
"I know, right!" Kingo agrees.
"We need to talk," Ikaris gets straight to the point.
"Tell the director I have some notes for him," Kingo tells Karun, ignoring Ikaris.
"We need to talk to you in private," Sprite interjects, pointing at Karun.
Kingo's eyes shift to his valet. "Oh, Karun, he's worked with me for 50 years. I trust him completely. Actually, when we first met, he thought I was a vampire and he tried to stake me through the heart!"
"Nah 'cause I thought the same thing! She was '18' when we met and I thought it was weird that her face wasn't maturing," Alex pipes up, doing air quotes when she says 18. "It was either that or adrenochrome... I was obsessed with The Vampire Diaries so..." she claims.
"Oh, yeah, you started wearing vervain essential oil around me," Serina mentions.
"I didn't wanna stake you because you seemed so nice but I needed to protect myself," Alex comments.
"I have apologized so many times," Karun jumps in, chuckling. Alex pats his shoulder, giving him an understanding look.
"Not quite enough times. Very close though. I'll let you know," Kingo yaks, making Serina chuckle. "Oh, I have to get ready for the next scene. Come to my tent, we'll talk there," he rambles before walking off. The others follow him and he turns around to face them as he walks backward. "You guys are gonna love the next scene. I come in on a wire because you know, I can't fly. Wait, are we getting back together?" he chatters as he sits at his vanity. Oh, right... I had forgotten why we're here, Serina thinks. It felt nice to chat as if nothing was wrong.
"We need to talk," Sersi tells him.
Not noticing the serious looks on his fellow Eternals' faces, Kingo continues to babble. "I've been waiting for the day the world learns the true identity of the Shadow Warrior," he utters as he applies eyeliner.
"Ajak's dead," Sprite curtly states. Kingo falls silent and slowly turns to face them.
"She was killed... It was a Deviant," Ikaris informs. Karun instructs everyone else in the building to get out upon hearing this. Kingo turns back around sadly, processing the information. "The Deviants are back. We don't know how many there are," Ikaris depicts as he approaches the man and sets a hand on his shoulder. Kingo glances up at the mirror, looking at Ikaris's reflection. "You need to come with us."
Kingo doesn't respond as he stands up and turns around. He merely glances at Ikaris before walking off toward the exit. Serina frowns at this, feeling awful about how this must affect her friend. Kingo halts, gazing at the people who are waiting outside. "I can't just go. I mean, all these people depend on me. We just started shooting this movie. It's the first of a trilogy. We just got BTS to do a cameo and Serina might have one too now..." he trails off, his voice breaking. Karun approaches him and gives him a motivating speech, convincing Kingo to go with his family.
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I just wanna say that Peter and Ned are Serina Álvarez stans because I said so 🤗
