#carlotta

But sometimes her interests go against the betterment of the theater (read: Phantom). So listening becomes… difficult and there are times when negotiations have to be made.

(She does get some character development and all that jazz, but this is for the beginning of the story).

So for their first meeting between André, Firman, and Carlotta I thought of a fun scene that goes somewhat like this:

—————

Firman leant down and placed a chaste kiss onto Carlotta’s laced-hand. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Madame.”

For the split of one second Carlotta went from smiling politely to red-faced angry. “Madame?!” Firman’s eye widened. “Madame?!” Carlotta repeated, shouting. It didn’t matter how polite a lady she seemed before; everyone in that room flinched.

There was a clear reason she was the leading soprano here; the volumes she could reach….

“Who do I look to you, that retired ballerina instructor?! You shall refer to me with my nation’s much more proper- señorita.”

“S— sensorita…”

“Señorita!”

“Senora—”

“Señ-or-i-ta~!”

“Señorita… yes….”

Carlotta hmph’d softly, as if his pronunciation was still inadequate but she hadn’t the time to keep correcting him. “You wouldn’t prefer me calling you something like señor, would you? It’s not for someone of your—” she glanced him up and down. “—stature.”

“Really, I’m not so sure that I would mind…”

André set a sudden soft hand on Forman’s shoulder and subtly shook his head.

“Yes; right; señorita Carlotta — my apologies.”

“Quite,” Carlotta replied, giving him a glare through her squinted eyes and a snide unhappy smile.

He really hadn’t meant to offend. So much for a first meeting gone well…. The head soprano already hated him — what was he to do now?? He glanced toward his partner for help as Carlotta sighed and turned to walk away, but André himself appeared wide-eyed and confused.

“Come, let’s continue, gentlemen,” [the old director] said awkwardly.

—————

I’m still researching Spanish honorifics a bit more ‘n all that. I’m sure she’d love going by Doña too since it’s somewhat similar to donna (as in Prima Donna), but this is just a rough draft anyway and I’m not sure if it’ll wind up a canon interaction yet.

Another idea I thought of was after Carlotta gets a cat she always has someone else change its litterbox. And one time her usual person wasn’t around so she asked Firman to do it. And he did. At the time Reyer had been searching around for him and finds him through a cracked-open door. Cue his confusion and exhaustion as he realizes he’s changing the cat’s litter for Carlotta instead of asking her to do it herself.

Reyer becomes somewhat a mentor to the new lads when it comes to Carlotta, telling them to hold their places firmly when it really mattered and telling Carlotta to do the things that she could do herself; like change her cat’s litter.