Rise To Stardom - Chapter 166

Chapter 166: Cyborg In Motion
KYLE KESTIS, STAR OF DREAMLAND’S GALA IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!

“That he was! Absolutely, breathtaking hunk of a human being!”

“Sucks that I never actually got the chance to speak with him after that though…” the lady let out a slight pout of dissatisfaction, after which she then read then scrolled to the next gossip.

ARE JASMINE FAYE AND KYLE KESTIS IN A RELATIONSHIP?!

“No, I don’t think they are…”

A WARDROBE INCIDENT TO REMEMBER… FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS!

“That is true. Jasmine better be counting her lucky stars.” the lady seemed happy as she commented.

[PROMISE YOU’LL HOLD ON], A POP-BALLAD FROM TWO TALENTED MUSICIANS THAT’S EFFORTLESSLY DOMINATED THE CHARTS.

“Well, Carl Finch and Kyle Kestis, make quite the deadly combo. I’m not even surprised the song did that. It’s everywhere at the moment, really…”

SHARON WINTERS MAKES A BOLD & DARING MOVE… BOTH IN FASHION, AND IN ROMANCE.

“Ah. There’s one… Phew!”

“Hopefully, they’ll lay off my ass for a while…” Sharon heaved a sigh of relief.

Laying on her bed on a Saturday night, her legs dangling back and forth as she scrolled through the most read topics in Hollywood magazines in recent memory, an e-mail notification popped up, the sender familiar.

Sitting upright on the bed, Sharon had a visibly excited expression on her face.

Just as this was happening though, somewhere else, a handsome young man at his apartment, got a similar notification just as he exited the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist.

Picking up the phone and reading the message, he had a slight frown on his features, his dark-hazel irises a bit curious about something.

However, a few seconds later, he dismissed his thoughts and sent a reply, acknowledging that he would be on set by then.

“Well, it’s not like there’s anyone as good as us so…” the young man tossed the phone aside onto the bed, mopping his wet, jet-black hair with another towel.

“Yo Tyler! Hurry up. The game’s gonna start in a few minutes!” one of his buddies whom had come over for game night, called out to him, the rest of the guys doing the same.

“Chillax guys. I’m on my way.” Tyler spoke in response, not a single hint of sincerity in his casual tone.

In a dance movie, there are actors, and there are dancers… professional, dancers.

Actors usually make up the main cast, often the protagonists and important side-characters of the story.

Dancers, usually make up a good majority of the antagonists and the backup dancers, rivalling the story’s leads and barricading them from achieving their goals.

But, one thing typically stood out in most dance movies.

And that was a noticeable fact that the dancers, be they back up or antagonists, did a good job of almost showing up the actors in their own movie whenever dance scenes were involved.

This scenario however, was something that was typically subverted by making the main cast’s characters, have the audience rooting for them by giving them more depth than their counterparts.

However, in the case of Tyler Reeds and his crew of dancers, all that, did very little to hide the fact that they were still better dancers overall.

And Danny Rock, didn’t mind that one bit.

In his mind, the plot of a dance movie, functioned mostly to keep the audience engaged while giving them proper downtimes between spikes of dopamine rush from the main reason they came to watch the movie in the first place.

Cool, expressive, energetic, engaging, dance choreographies.

* * *

Having contacted the crew and the rest of the cast that filming would resume in a week and a half’s time, Danny and Sean, spent the next few days preceding the filming date’s resumption to watch over Kyle’s dancing progress.

On the first of those days, just as a particular pop music played in the background, Sean explained to Danny as Kyle, performed a robot strobing amateurishly;

“Honestly, he’s a good dancer. There’s even a nice fluidity to his untrained movements that’s quite hard for me to place my finger on.”

“But, amongst the main cast, his lack of technique will be a major standout.” Sean spoke honestly, gazing at the young man from afar whom had come to a dimestop, his amateurish robotic movements halting… only to pick up as he instantly transitioned to a jump shift in sync with the music.

“That said, he has stellar recollection of the choreography, although, he will still need to actually practice with the cast before we can give a verdict on his teamwork…” the assistant dance choreographer said with a thoughtful gaze.

Kyle, ever since he had arrived in Miami, had been spending all of his time in the practice hall, leaving only when it was late evening or late at night.

“Well, I don’t actually think that’ll pose an issue considering he’s both an actor and singer. Cooperation should come naturally to him…” Danny replied, after which he then added when he remembered Justin’s shenanigans.

“I hope…”

“As for his lesser technique being obvious in a dance routine with the main cast, we can easily hide that with camera cuts…” the director stated casually.

In response, Sean nodded, he and Danny not expecting Kyle to suddenly become a great dancer overnight, especially with the limited time he had to practice.

Kyle on the other hand, having failed to perform a running man shuffle with a heel spin by missing the timing on the spin in sync with the music, instantly moved onto the next part of the dance choreography without stopping, his [Flow] keeping him in sync.

Yet, in his field of view, was a certain panel, one that he was using to motivate himself to practice even harder.

___________________________

{Danny Rock} – 35 years

Directing › Level 14

Dancing › Level 13

Acting › Level 7

Skills – [Visualized Choreography]

___________________________

___________________________

{Sean Wells} – 26 years

Directing › Level 10

Dancing › Level 12

Acting › Level 6

___________________________

‘Level 13 and Level 12… much, much farther from my current Level 8.’ the young man made it his mission to at least, reach Level 11 before filming actually began.

But to do that, he had to at least ensure he broke through to the next level in his dancing stat on his own before he could then, use his points to advance higher.

Considering with every increase in stat, it got even harder to get to the next level, Kyle was being very practical with using his points.

Getting to Level 11 while practicing would be much easier as he only needed to advance to Level 9 first and then, use his exp. points to get himself two levels higher.

However, if he used his exp. points to rapidly boost himself up his current stat of Level 8 to Level 10, the stat increments would then make it harder for him to get to Level 11 simply by training.

At the same time, Kyle reasoned to himself that if the Director of the movie himself, alongside his assistant were already this high up in their dancing skills, the crew he was yet to meet were either, pretty much in the same range or higher.

Having ended the choreography as the song came to an end, Kyle walked over to the stack of boom-boxes and hit the play button again, his expression determined.

To that, Danny and Sean, watched from the sides, a singular thought in their heads;

‘Does he ever rest?’

–

On the second day, Kyle got a notification while performing a Jackson Shuffle in sync with Sean.

| You’re close to breaking through to Dancing Level 9! |

| Keep dancing to improve your skills! |

“Kyle. Keep up.” Sean called out to him when he noticed the young man had slowed down his shuffling speed, one to which Kyle replied with even more motivation as Danny watched from the sides.

“Sorry! I’ll pick up the pace!”

–

On the fourth day, early morning, Oliver finally arrived in Miami, he too, immediately heading over to the practice hall.

Due to [Promise You’ll Hold On] finally getting released to critical and commercial success, he had ended up having even more on his plate to deal with, hence why Kyle had told him to take his time coming over.

“Pleasure to finally meet you.” Oliver exchanged greetings with Danny who reciprocated with a firm handshake.

“The pleasure’s all mine.”

“Woah! You finally figured that out this morning?!” Sean’s surprised voice boomed across the expanse of the wide practice hall, causing both men to gaze over.

What met their gaze was Kyle, in a B-boy breakdance, his windmill movement coming to a halt in a freezing Nike pose!

| Dancing has advanced from level 8 to level 9! |

| You have obtained a huge amount of exp. points! |

| 5000 exp. points have been awarded! |

| Total exp. points available (30,055) |

| Keep dancing to improve your skills! |

“Yeah! Beats me too! It’s one of the coolest things I think I’ve ever learnt though!” Kyle let out an excited laugh, his breathing heavy as he maintained the pose for a few more seconds before finally, lying on the polished wooden flooring, his chest heaving up and down, much to Sean’s obvious excitement.

However, in an instant, his excitement changed into one of deep concern;

“Wait, Kyle… did you go home at all?!”

“Nope!” Kyle laughed in response, excitement in his eyes as his chest kept heaving up and down.

‘This…’ Danny inwardly muttered, tilting his head in an obviously puzzled, surprised yet similarly concerned manner.

His thoughts were currently trying to wrap around how Kyle had learned such a fairly complex dance move in a little over a few hours before they arrived, and moreso because they knew he wasn’t capable of it two days ago.

“Haaa~… What aren’t you capable of really you workaholic…” Oliver’s calm and collected voice, brought Danny out of his thoughts, the agent watching his talent tiredly laying on the ground with pride in his gray irises.

–

On the sixth day, Danny watched in a mix of shocked awe, a thrill of excitement running up his spine as Kyle, performed a captivating, fluid, dance hybrid between waving, robotic strobing and popping, all whilst moving to the rhythm of the music in the background.

It was almost like a cyborg in motion.

‘With this… I won’t have to make any scene cuts! How did he even polish the glaring flaws in his techniques in two days?!’ the Director inwardly stated, his mood, fantastic!

Honestly, Danny as of the moment, asides from being amazed that Kyle achieved all these within just six days, was more or less grateful to both himself for sending out the script to the young star even in doubt and also to Kyle for accepting the role with such immense dedication.

“How?!” Sean on the other hand, couldn’t help but ask Oliver who simply stared at the scene before him, not the least bit shocked that his ward was assimilating how to dance at a frankly terrifying rate.

“I have no idea. It’s a Kyle thing, really. You’ll get used to it.” Oliver casually waved off the assistant’s worries.

Although he himself would be heading back to Canada to sort out a bunch of endorsement deals and also help SpawnPoint Studio as Kyle’s stand in secretary, Oliver as of the moment, was extremely proud to be witnessing the cyborg in motion.

___________________________

{Kyle Kestis} – Exp. Points (15,055)

⸶Skills⸷

| [Soulful Vocals (P)], [Growth Spurt (P)], [Appraisal(A)], [Resonance (P)] – {A}], [Charisma (P)], [Polyglot (P)], [Deep Dive (A) – {A}], [Recollection (P)], [Scene Stealer (A)], [Action & Stunt Mastery (P)], [Bleeding Effect (P)], [Detoxification (A)], [Peak Human Conditioning (P)], [Flow (P)]…

* Exp. Points can be used to create skills.

⸶Levels⸷

| Singing › Level 14

| Acting › Level 13

| Composing › Level 14

| Dancing › Level 11

| Instrument Mastery (Piano/Guitar) › Level 10/10

* Levels will increase in accordance to your growth.