Introducing Troy Minora

 When Troy managed to get home, the porch was full of paparazzi just waiting for him, cameras ready to take an endless amount of pictures. All he had wanted was to get into the air-conditioned beachfront abode, yell an insult or two at Aaron, have him respond, and fall face first into his bed. Maybe make Talia make him a grilled cheese sandwich.

But instead, he had to deal with this.

How did these people manage to stand the afternoon and night heat that seemed to bake him, and stand on his porch and around the house, undoubtedly for hours? Did they not have jobs or families or lives?

Sighing, he put on his most dreamy smile and got out of the car that had driven him all the way here, waving at the tons of teenaged girls that had driven over from God knows where. The cameras flashed brightly, too brightly, each trying to capture his good side. Years of modeling and acting kept him from showing his bad side in a picture, not that he had one.

Through the crowd, it took him a good twenty minutes to cross his driveway and get to the front door. It didn’t help that the fans asked him to pose with the few cars he was seen driving around in, his car, Talia’s car, and Kristen’s car. They also made him pose with Aaron’s car, thankfully, the one that wasn’t covered with game or anime characters and logos, and Mei’s cars.

He didn’t worry about them having copyright issues over the cars. If he was being serious, Aaron would probably be mad about his car not being used in the fanservice photoshoot. When he finally managed to open the door, Aaron and Talia were on the other side, and the two were pulled out as well. The photo shoot went on for a couple of minutes, like the hug between the twins, a little bit of playful roughhousing between the males, and the such. These bits of interactions between the star, and his idol sister and her pop star and voice acting friend were gold for the paparazzi industry. And then, with a wave and a flying kiss, Troy finally managed to get inside his house.

The housekeeper quickly shut all the curtains and blinds, signaling that the shoot was over. The people stayed there for another hour or so, expecting, hoping for the famed Troy Minora to accidentally walk out of his home unprepared. “Well, good luck with that” Troy laughed, once he was sure he was out of earshot.

Both of his companions looked at him strangely until Aaron spoke. “Talia, he’s responding to his internal monologue out loud again. Make it stop” Troy face went a beet red, from both anger and embarrassment.

“Shut up!” The male screeched in a hushed voice, afraid of the paparazzi hearing his little outburst. The duo hushed him, pulling him up the stairs and into his own room. “Troy, you voicing your internal monologue is not a good habit. Maybe it is for the main character for a video game, in which you see things from the villain's perspective, but it’s not good for anyone in your industry”

“And your voice isn’t made to be a classic villain’s voice. More like the male protagonist’s or the villain who turns out to be the love interest.” Aaron gave his insight as Troy turned to face him with what seemed to be the wooden sword from the infamous Game Night.

“Of course you would know, oh Great Voice Actor of All Females” Troy snapped

“That was one time, can you just forget it? Not that you haven’t acted as a woman in your movies, and you crossdress for some of your photoshoots. And that you often get mistaken for Talia whenever you go out in public” Aaron grabbed his phone and pulled up his gallery.

“Hey! What’s wrong with being a woman?!”

“Nothing, but we’re men, so we aren’t women. And calling us something that we aren’t is rude, isn’t it Aaron?”

“Exactly!” Aaron shook his head in agreement as Talia plopped down on her brother's bed.

“When have I ever had a problem being rude?” Both males looked at her, her own idol tank riding up her waist, and her cargo shorts, which had been pulled over the shorts she had been wearing outside, torn in many different areas. They ignored her and continued talking about how men shouldn’t be mistaken for women, as they were men, not women.

Talia eventually gave up trying to gain their attention from their pointless conversation and flipped through a magazine that was lying on Troy’s bed. He had a habit of collecting magazines that the twins or Aaron were in. He had thousands of issues, organized throughout his room, bookshelves filled to the brim in the attic, and even boxes back at their parents’ home, which filled all three children’s rooms. Of course, the most important ones were in his room. But she didn’t remember seeing this issue before.

“Isn’t that the new issue of Gamers?”

“Yeah, it was supposedly free with the new issue of Killer Celebs.” Troy shrugged as he tossed the copy of the other magazine over to Aaron. In front was a picture of the twins back to back, both holding stoic expressions, checking watches. The featured article was an interview with the two of them. But it wasn’t nearly as important as what was in Gamers. “Oh! Aren’t those pictures from the photoshoot we had a while back?”

“Troy, you dress as a girl so often, that you even talk like one. And when was I ever in a photoshoot?”

“Aaron! Shut up, and look! These are pictures for the promotional posters and such for that movie we were cast in”

“Wait! It’s those pictures?! From the Beyond Hell’s Gate photoshoot?” Beyond Hell’s Gate was a popular video game with millions of players, and an even larger amount of fans. It was about a character by the name of Athena Frostinal, who was the player played as, and her journey through Hell and other worlds, trying to find her missing memories about who she really was. With her were her two childhood friends, Alois Silverda and Oz Nightriver, and most girls played for the potential love interests they were. Not to mention the potential love story with the demon prince, and antagonist, Drysten.

Most guys played from the potential prospect of the game being in the process of making the two other main characters playable in the next games and Athena being their love interests. That, and beating Drysten to a bloody pulp.

“Talia, you are rocking the look as Athena! You look exactly like her!” Aaron exclaimed as he stared at the pictures.

“Yeah, I sound like her too. I voiced her in the game like you voiced Oz and Troy voiced Drysten. You remember that, don’t you?”

Aaron sighed “How could I forget? Like Troy would ever let me live down the fact that I voiced a ditzy blonde? Even if he did voice a demon pretty boy, who often gets mistaken for a girl, by characters even in the game”

Troy snatched the issue from Aaron and Talia’s grips “For starters, Oz is not a ditzy blonde, and you know it. We went to a convention just to show how useful he is to the plot, and we know how important he is in the next games. In fact, isn’t he your favorite character?”

Aaron shrugged “What can I say? Oz is like me, our undying love for our best friends, I’ve got to give the guy some respect. And He’s a personal favorite of yours too”

“Yeah! And not to mention Oz’s hot! At least in the game...” Troy ignored his twin and started to read the article with the pictures. It was a promotional article, to promote the upcoming movie for Beyond Hell’s Gate. The trio, being great actors and being in that field in general, had been cast as the characters they had voiced.

Despite voicing the characters, and playing the characters in the movie, the three were champions in both the game and the MMORPG based off of it, called Beyond the Gate of Demons. You could choose to play as either a demon or human, and of course, the twins played as demons. As a matter of fact, Aaron did the same, and the three were tied for the fifth position on an international level, the first position being held by Mei and third held by Kristen.

“That reminds me, they leaked the first ‘teaser’ trailer for the movie, using the shots they took during the photoshoot. It was unexpected but totally worth it”

“Who told you this?”

“I’ve been at another photoshoot and casting for the movie for the past few days, as you all know, and the director told me” Troy answered, putting away the magazines into their designated spots. “I haven’t watched it yet, as Talia wasn’t there, but let’s watch it now”

“Lame dude! What kind of guy doesn’t watch something as important as that because his sister isn’t there?” Talia deadpanned. “Booooo!”

He pulled out his laptop and searched for the infamous video “Or, on the other hand, I can just watch this with Aaron” He removed it from Talia’s view and set it in front of her dear best friend. He just complied with Troy’s wish and sat next to the male.

“Aaron! I’ve never felt this betrayed!” The redhead just shrugged and continued to obey the young man. Talia eventually gave in, curiosity influencing her pride. There were many pictures in the teaser, along with dialogue they had recorded for a flashback scene.

Of course, they would have doubles doing the romance scenes, but awkwardness would always be there. But then again, they were actors, and on the screen, they weren’t Talia and Troy Minora, they were different people who, usually, had no blood ties. In this case, they were the adventurer, Athena Frostinal, and the Demon Prince and General of the seventeenth army legion of hell, Drysten Ragarnok.

When they finished, they were left in shock, their mouths gaping. Even if it was just a teaser, it was so well made that it could pass as an actual trailer. “You’re telling me this is just a teaser?” Aaron asked, as Talia pet his head.

“Why are you so surprised? You’ve acted in movies before” Talia asked, pushing his hair back, and using a scrunchy to tie it into a somewhat ponytail.

“Twice. I normally sing for the soundtracks, remember? I’m not an actor, you know” He clarified, even if the ‘twice’ was a lie. Aaron had worked in as many movies as Troy had held a major role in and acted in as many movies as Talia had been cast in a major role in, and had acted in enough movies as a major role to have ‘professional actor’ come up whenever someone searched his name.

Though Talia hated to admit it, Aaron was pretty popular in the industry, maybe even more popular than her, loved by both fans and co-workers alike. His songs played everywhere and ranged from rather depressing, slow, songs to upbeat and almost cringy pop songs, which somehow ended up in a good version of cringy.

He played eight different instruments; the piano, the guitar, the tuba, the flute, the drums, the harp, the pipes, and the algaita. The kid really had a thing for wind and brass instruments. He was a child prodigy for all things related to song, and could act on the level of a professional actor. Most of the musicals Troy had worked in, there was at least one song by Aaron in it.

Talia and Aaron often sung for duets, and those were the songs that sold more than the average ones she sang. They had live shows and the ones with Aaron involved, they had a bigger turnout. Aaron also voiced all sorts of characters, from video games to cartoons, to anime. So there was also a popular demand from him there. Not to mention, he did charity, animals liked him, excluding Pinky, and his naturally handsome looks. How many people in the country had as natural, deep blood red locks as Aaron did?

His naturally carefree act and personality didn’t help either, just adding to his charm, and to Talia and Troy’s dismay, made his rank first on one of the stupid fan polls of the most huggable and the best friend material. And the fans are always right.

“Anyway, I can’t believe we’re actually acting in a movie for Beyond Hell’s Gate! And it’s official! It’s passed!” Talia cried as Aaron and Troy fist bumped. Poor fists. After a moment, they sat in silence, until Aaron mentioned: “Wait, wasn’t there a featured article about you two in Killer Celebs?” And the dash for the magazine once again began.