<span style="font-size: 22px"><span style="font-family:Jim Nightshade">Employment with the American Ballet Theatre was one of the more prestigious accomplishments of Asher Tarkova’s career. His entrance into the company as a soloist was almost guaranteed for him. His resume was filled with his impressive education, his numerous lead roles, and glowing letters of recommendation from teachers, directors and fellow dancers. A couple of stunning auditions later, Asher found himself at his dream job.</span></span><br/><span style="font-family:Jim Nightshade"><span style="font-size: 22px"><br/>
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His parents could not be more proud of Asher. Petra Tarkova could see the potential in her eldest son and no expense was spared to put him on the track he needed to be a successful dancer. It was not the future that Vlad Tarkova saw for the child he took in to raise as his own. He wanted Asher to have a normal childhood and go to a normal college. However, if Asher wanted to dance, he would dance. In addition to his education, there was not an amount his parents wouldn’t spend to make their son psychologically healthy. Both Petra and Vlad knew that his inability to form lasting friendships or respond to authority figures outside of his parents was not normal. From the moment he was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, therapy was a constant part of Asher’s life. When he became a teenager, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a series of devastating decisions.  While Asher living primarily at home, it was easy for Petra to manage his medication and his therapy schedule. When he left the house…it was not so easy. <br/>
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With Asher’s erratic schedule, he stopped attending regular therapy. And when his psychiatrist changed his prescription, Asher suffered adverse side effects. The fatigue and weight gain hindered his process in his career. He abruptly ended taking the medication against his psychiatrist’s advice. Whenever his mother asked about it, he always told her he was taking it. It was the only thing he ever lied to her about.<br/>
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Asher was close with his mother. He was her shadow, even when he became a teenager and most children found their own path away from their parents. A good a mother as Petra was, when it came to being a person it was hard for her to function. Asher was more or less a witness to Petra’s struggle with an eating disorder, her compulsive shopping and hoarding, and her own emotional dysregulation. And more than that, he saw that no matter how bad she was, she always had the unwavering love and support from her husband.<br/>
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 If Asher could have anything in the world, it would be a relationship like that. He wanted unconditional love. <br/>
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But Asher wanted a great many things. He liked shiny, pretty things he could adorn himself with. He wanted to be the lead in every possible show the company produced. He was so utterly used to his parents paving the way for him getting what he wanted. But their influence could only extend so far. They couldn’t afford for him to buy whatever trinket he saw. They had no way of guaranteeing him roles. For the first time, Asher had to purely rely on his talents. <br/>
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The ballet Giselle had one of the most coveted male roles for a danseur. Albrecht was one of the most three dimensional characters to play with dance choreography that showcased the most beautiful of skills. Therefore Asher was beyond the feeling of rage when he discovered that the role had been given to his rival, Elai Charette, and he was slapped in the face when he was made the understudy. <br/>
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Asher didn’t truly had anyone he called friends in the ballet company. He saw the other dancers as his colleagues only. When he was in a good mood, he was friendly enough with them. He smiled and joked as though he had never called them terrible names during practice. Elai was the exception. The two men never got along. What could have been a healthy rivalry became a blood feud. It seemed that every role Asher auditioned for, Elai was there as well. Elai had a raw, natural talent that Asher secretly admired and envied. It had taken him being trained from the age of three to get where he was. Elai just waltzed in with Detroit education of all things and snatched roles that should have been his.  <br/>
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Albrecht was the last straw. That role belonged to Asher. He had spent days perfecting his audition. The stress made him go through his daily pack of cigarettes by ten in the morning. He had ran up a $3,000 credit card bill at Barney’s to “pre treat” himself for getting the role. It had to be his turn to get a starring role. <br/>
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Opening weekend for Giselle began tomorrow. Tonight, the cast was getting together at the producer’s penthouse for a party. Asher went, but it wasn’t to celebrate the company’s new show. Armed with liquid courage, Asher had made his way to the casting director that obviously had a hard on for Elai. He played nice, smiling and endearingly playing with the cuffs of his two hundred dollar shirt. Asher was not above using his charm to get what he wanted. <br/>
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The flirtation lasted for a grand total of twenty minutes before even Asher could pick up on how uncomfortable he was making the casting director. <br/>
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‘Great,’ he thought, ‘Of all the sleazy men in this city, I get the moral one’.<br/>
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Wondering whose dick he had to suck to get a decent role around here, Asher made his way around the party, accepting glasses of champagne whenever the current glass emptied. He finally camped out by one of the windows with a few ballerinas who he tolerated the most in the company. He chatted pleasantly, his mind swimming in the sweet alcohol. <br/>
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It wasn’t that Asher was particularly disliked in the company. It was just that the dancers knew to not get on Asher’s bad side. Being in a scene with him could go either very well or very poorly. When it came to the directors, they knew that he had enough talent and discipline to handle a lead role. But his mood swings had no place in a professional setting. Most still remembered vividly when Asher got into a screaming match with his choreographer during the Nutcracker rehearsal last year. No one could ever prove that it was Asher who keyed his car on every panel. <br/>
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Asher was well on his way to inebriation. He was always a lightweight when he was in the middle of a fasting period. Those were happening more lately than not. He was giggling and flirting with the ballerinas in his group. If he merely stayed with them, he could have taken one of them home for a night of fun and moved on with his life. But instead, his eyes moved around the room and he instantly saw the source of his irritation.<br/>
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Elai….</span></span>