Work Text:
Working for the Black Parade tour was certainly interesting, there was a lot of gossip, a lot of drama and certainly a lot of violence. Some preferred to focus on the drama, it was a bit more lighthearted than the violence, even if the two often did correlate.
The main people who focused on said drama were the costume and tech staff, people there just to help everything move along smoothly. It was a lot easier to sneak around when no one knows your name. It started out as just two friends reporting little things they saw to each other, just the odd “I heard the Secretary is mad at the Clerk today” or “Did you hear what Marianne said in the dressing rooms?!” The problem was however that people started overhearing these conversations, and they would share the details too.
And that doesn't seem too bad at first, it's trivial facts about people's lives and the current going ons, worst comes to worse someone gets yelled out when people realise others are sharing their business. That is until small rumors start to piece together to form much bigger rumors, rumors that just so happen to have a lot of evidence.
It was little things, Sylvia seeming more fond of Marianne then most of her other coworkers or their habit to stay close to each other off stage. Okay so maybe they could have just been friends so most people brushed the idea off at first until someone from the costume department noticed one particular habit. Marianne would often sing to herself in the dressing rooms. Simple enough right? So much so that she didn't spare it a second thought for months, she's a singer, of course she likes to sing! Her job was to help put away their costumes and make sure everything's safe, Marianne singing didn't distract her from that.
But it was quite sweet, the woman actually found herself quite entertained by Marianne's singing. She would spare a glance towards her when she would start to sing, not watching her too long, whenever she even started to stare Sylvia would give her the harshest glares and yell at her to get on with her work or leave. But that's when she realised something, whenever the woman would begin to sing Sylvia would be entranced, often stopping what she was doing to sit and listen, usually smiling softly over at her from across the room or through the mirror.
If there was one certainty about the nurse it was that she is anything but soft. That was odd…
As time went on the pieces started to fall together, hearing the rumors of supposedly dating only increased her suspicions. And as she started to piece everything together she remembered something so obvious yet it hadn't crossed her mind in this context previously.
“When Marianne sings she can see everything.”
That's what she had been told when she first started working for the draag national tour, it’s something everyone who knew of the singer knew. After that realisation she paid more attention after the show to what the singer was doing, still careful to not draw Sylvia's attention towards her of course.
As always Marianne began to sing as she sat in front of her dressing room mirror as she began taking pins out of her hair, she of course usually looked straight forward,not really paying attention to what she was doing,now that she had began singing though she was looking towards the side of the mirror where it clearly showed Sylvia's reflection across the other side of the room. There was a softness in both of their expressions as they looked eyes through the mirror. It felt weirdly intimate to be intruding on.
Quietly the worker left the room.
She didn't know what to do or say, she felt that she shouldn't say anything, this was a quiet moment between the two. On the other hand though the rest of the staff had been theorising for months about the singers potential relationship, this was a huge deal! She had to tell somebody.
So she told her friend, just her friend. The problem was that of course he then told another worker who told someone else who outed it in a larger group, within the day everyone knew.
It was difficult going back into the dressing rooms the next day, knowing that now everyone knew they were dating because of her. By now Sylvia most likely knew that they were outed, and that was a scary idea. An angry Sylvia was not someone you wanted to get on the bad side of. They brought themselves to do it, later then usual of course but they were there.
Opening the door the worker wasn't greeted with yelling as they half expected, no, instead what they saw was Sylvia tenderly helping unlace the corset on Marianne's dress. Her hand ran slowly down her back as she let go of the lace before going to rest on her shoulders. She seemed softer than usual, almost peaceful. Furthermore even though Sylvia was still wearing her nurse uniform she had rid her gloves and wore her hair down, they had never seen her hair down before, it was strange. Long black hair cascaded over her shoulders, wavy from the way it had been styled in the bun for so long. All together it made the nurse feel more human, not just a figure of pure authority and completely untouchable.
That quickly changed when she turned towards the door, “Bit late aren't you?”
The worker stood in the door stumbling for words before just letting out a weak “sorry” and heading to the other side of the room to get the discarded accessories to organise. She spent her time very specifically organising everything so she wouldn't have to go back past the couple for awhile, she was sure Sylvia would lash out any minute now, after all she had accidentally outed them to everyone.
God the silence was killing her.
“You know we don't care who knows right?”
Confused the girl looked up from what she was doing to see Marianne coming back out from behind the wooden dressing screen now wearing a long satin dressing gown in her signature shade of red. She was carrying her dress folded over her arms and walked over to hand it to the still stammering girl. “But- wait, I thought…why didn't you tell anyone?”
Sylvia chuckled “Why should we?”
“It's not like no one knows.” Marianne added on, “Most people close enough to need to know notice anyway.”
They slowly nodded, okay, so it hadn't mattered that she had told people about them?
Sylvia continued, “The only person who really cares is His Grand Immortal Dictator.”
“Wait, why does he-?”
“He has a very specific image he wants to present to Draaag. Unfortunately having two of his vocalists dating is unsurprisingly not a part of his intended reputation.”
She supposed that made sense, what would that mean now though if word is getting out?
As if she was reading their mind Sylvia added “He will most likely make up a cover story, knowing how things can be it will most likely be something like us being siblings, those are usually the best rumors to combat these type of situations as it entirely rules out the possibility of the truth.”
“If people believe it.” Marianne added.
“His Grand Immortal Dictator's word is final, even if people have their doubts they won't be able to say anything.”
“Are you okay with that?” The worker asked. “Would it not be strange for people to think you're dating your partner?”
“Of course, but it's not like they'll know anything to the contrary. Besides, as we said, anyone who actually knows that will know its not true.” Sylvia replied, far too unbothered by this whole thing. Though they supposed it made sense, she is quite unshakeable. “Now why don't you hurry along and take that dress back and enjoy the rest of your night off.”