Behind The Scenes

My name? My name...I've had many over time. But the reason why I'm here is to explain why your copies of the movie of Alexander suddenly seems so different. You've seen the news, heard the radio, read the papers, so you know who I am. I'm the girl they call The Jumper. And I was in Alexander. Not the movie itself, obviously, but in the universe that it created. And when I was there...I was able to change things, but I can get to that later. I 'arrived' there when Alexander was three years old. The first thing I woke up to was his adorable little face looking at me. The first thing I remember hearing when I was there was his little voice calling to his mother and one of her ladies, telling them I was awake. Who I am is of no consequence, all that we are here to talk about is him. Them. The characters and the real ones. The differences and the likenesses. On a note, I was Alexander's only female friend outside his mother. I was there since the age of three, for him, for Alexander, through good and bad. I was there with him, when he was little, and he would play with his mother's snakes.

I know that I sound quite vehement over this and I am sorry at the strength of it. But it has become a sort of second nature to me. I haven't been away from there for very long and I miss those people that I have left behind. Alex, Bagoas, Phae...Even Olympias. You see, Olympias to me, wasn't as bad as the movie made her seem. It made her seem a sort of villian, but she wasn't. She was one of the coolest people alive. One of the strongest, one of the most loving people that I have ever met. And that's saying something. In a sense, she reminded me of my own mother. Why would she do that, you ask? Because Alex is her only son, her baby boy. Not her only child, mind you, but still.. Olympias was a very real kind of person, a very strong personality. But she is also like all mothers should be, and some that really are. She wants the best for her child and she fears for them. She loved Alex until the day she died. She didn't want to outlive her son and yet she did. She had told me that it was one of the worst things for her, that she outlived him. I know that some people thought her psychotic, or at least, a little bit nuts.

But with the shit she had to go through from day to day, I don't blame her for how she acted, for how she seemed to you in the movie. With the fight with Olympias and Phillip in the begin of the movie, you will see a girl with brown hair and she will have braids of black, of silver blond, of platinum blond, of gold blond, of butter blond, of wheat blonde, of almost reddish color, and different shades of brown. Yeah, that's me. Yeah, I'm really that pale, that short, that bitchy. And yes, that hyper, though I'll explain that later on. I was there with Olympias' ladies when they ran into the room and I was the one to pick Alex up, instead of how you originally saw it in the movie. If you notice it when it does almost a close up of me, I have almost a look of murder on my face, like I just want to kill Phillip for what he's doing. But I didn't do it...obviously. Cause I didn't want to deprive my best friend of his father. No matter how much of an asshole he seemed. And in the wrestling scenes eight years later, you see me watching Alex and Phae, rather knowingly. I knew how things would turn out for them.

I knew how they would look, act. And most of all, I knew how their relationship would turn out. I just knew them. Now, Phae...he'd be harder to explain than Alex really, since I really didn't know him until his father presented him to Alex and Phillip when the boys were 6 or 7. It may seem like nothing to you guys, not to sound rude, but to put it bluntly, I didn't know Hephaistion as long as Alexander. Hephaistion had a rather interesting people I've met to date. He has round about the same sense of humor that I do. A somewhat twisted sense of humor. A funny thing that he and Alex were never surprised by my rather colorful vocabulary and my imagination and creativity when it came to curses. I was there to watch Phillip's relationship with his son get destroyed due to his relationship with Euridyce. I was there, in the very room with Olympias and Alexander, when she admitted that Alexander could have married her, had his father not gotten to her first. But Phae...Phae was a force of nature all his own. He was the man behind Alexander, a role later shared with Bagoas and Roxanne, though Roxanne would be the woman behind the man, obviously.

There are many secrets about the guys growing up that I will never tell, so don't bother trying. I found out that the particular reality that the movie created, the one that I went to, was a sort of cross with the movie Troy and the shows Hercules and Xena. I never told Alex that I actually got to meet Achilles, but I will tell you this. They were right in casting Brad Pitt. Of course, this is the movie-verse, but I didn't know if that's what they actually looked like in the 'verse or not. I also never told Alex that he really was Zeus' son, that I knew the gods, that I promised the Pantheon that I would watch over him. I ended up finding out that Hercules didn't hate the gods as much as the shows made it out. Hercules was there at the battle of Gaugamela, he was there to make sure that his baby brother survived. That was one battle, though, that the gods could not involve themselves in. I was rather surprised to find out how many of them survived the Twilight shown in Xena. And I must admit that I was thankful that Bliss survived it. He was a strong little thing and he bounced back much quicker than the others.

But I might get to them later on. Right now is supposed to be about Alexander and the others. I remember the day, the scene is shown in the movie, that Aristotle was giving the boys the geography lesson. I didn't correct him...yet. But when he said what he had about Achilles, I felt like I had to correct him. I told him that he was dead wrong about Achilles and Partoclus. They were not lovers, but cousins. Patroclus was an orphan of sorts and was in Achilles' care. The two were close as brothers, like blood brothers would be. He said that I was a woman, what would I know. Which, admittedly, pissed Alexander and the boys off. The look on their faces was murder, just utter and complete anger at the man they called teacher. I only raised my brow at him and laughed, though on the inside, I was screaming at him. I pulled out a thick canvas scroll and opened it. It was a 'painting' of Achilles and Patroclus. When in reality, it was a still from the movie Troy imprinted by the Goddess Scribe onto a canvas scroll. I told Aristotle that Achilles was one of the strongest, bravest, and most courageous men I had ever met, and that is where I slightly outed myself.

At least to the fact that I was a lot older than I looked. Alexander and the boys looked at me in awe. I told them how Achilles died in the movie, hoping to sugar coat history just a little. I told them that he was in the courtyard of Troy with his new lover, a temple maiden named Briseis, when he was fired upon by Prince Paris. I told them that Paris was utterly devastated when Briseis told him what Achilles was really doing there. Paris thought that Achilles had attacked her, not knowing that in reality, he had saved her from being raped. I told them that Alexander's mother, that Olympias herself, was descended from Achilles and Briseis' son Aleron. How I found that out...maybe I'll tell you, maybe I won't. We'll never know at this rate. I remember the looks on the boys' faces when they begged to know more. I told them that Achilles had not been burned, like history...and Homer...would like them to have believed, but he had, in fact, been taken back to his mother by Briseis. And Briseis stayed in Phtia, where she gave birth to, and raised, their son, with the help of Achilles' mother, Thetis.

I have to admit that the way that the boys looked at me that day...I loved it, it just made me feel good. They begged me to tell them more. I told them to find me after class, that I would try to tell them more stories. I didn't tell them of Troy and Achilles and Paris and Briseis after that. I told them episodes of Hercules and Xena. I started with the pre-series movies of Hercules first. I explained them all in such great detail, and with great animation. And the boys loved it. How do I know them personally, you ask? What are they like in person, face to face? There is so much to them that I don't really know how to describe it. Alexander and Hephaistion are too difficult to describe.
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“Questions?” I ask, chuckling at the silent and shocked looks on the faces of everyone.
Colin was actually the first to raise his hand.

“Yeah?” I asked him, looking over at him.
Colin looked at me. I could see several emotions playing over his face, knowing everyone of them, even if I refused to name any.

“Did you really love him more?”
I raised a brow at him, a mask clearly in place.

“It depends on what you mean, Colin. On what kind of love: sibling or otherwise.”
Colin closed his eyes and sighed. I knew what he meant, but for some reason, like I had with Alexander many a time, I just had to say it aloud.

“I knew exactly what you meant, Colin, but how I felt for Alex and Phae was completely different. And regardless of what Alex may have thought, I'd never have even dared try to take him away.”
That sparked many a question that I politely refused to answer. How I fell in love with Hephaistion was nobody's business but mine own.
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How many friends did you make there: I made so many friends in that 'verse. So many. Olympias, Perdiccas, Hephaistion, Alexander, Bagoas, just to name a few. But Bagoas...(chuckles)...Bagoas was one of the sweetest men. They called him a boy, but a boy he was not. When Alex and Phae were young, I went ahead to Babylon and believe it or not, I actually stopped them from giving him the snip. Which Alexander actually thanked me for once.

What about Hephaistion?: Hephaistion...(sighs)...I kept him from drinking so much, which had lead to his poisoning in the movie. I made a promise to a dying man....

What promise?: That I would protect Hephaistion and Bagoas. I promised Alexander that I would protect them and I came from there. The day before yesterday, I was in Roxanne's birthplace, delivering her and her son to be buried there. Hephaistion had been awake for just a few days...
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I took a breath. A saddening and shaking breath. Things almost seemed slow for me, slow motion. I vaguely feel Angelina and Rosario helping me up and taking me from the stage. I can feel them following, Colin and Jared, just like I'd feel Alex and Phae. Angelina let Rosario help me sit, helping me breath, as I had apparently been hyperventilating. I can feel Rosario's hand touching my cheek. I look up at her, I can feel my eyes tearing up.

“Are you alright?” She asked me.
I shook my head slowly. Angelina sat next to me and I saw Brad in my peripheral vision. I snicker mentally, some memories of Achilles still fresh in my mind. Especially since it was dirt on him that Thetis told me. I noticed Jared watching me and looked over at him, Rosario moving away. He raised a brow at me and I knew he saw the laughter, so I only shrugged at him and jerked my head toward Brad. Brad noticed the action and gave Jared a look.

“So what about him cracked you up?” Jared asked finally.
I laughed aloud this time.

“I remembered something that Thetis told me about Achilles when he was a kid...” I shook my head, still laughing before I sigh heavily.
“And?”
I snickered. He was just as adamant about it as Hephaistion was. I shook my head and sighed, laying back on the couch. Oliver walked up, smiling like a fool, which was rather...disturbing. My eyes narrowed at him.

“Alright,” I said, standing up shakily, “what did you do?”
Oliver didn't answer, he only stepped aside. And what I saw...I about had a fucking heart attack. I was in shock, to say the least. There they were. Hephaistion and Bagoas. My boys...well, two of them. I looked around at the cast and it would be an understatement to say that they were shocked. Hephaistion still looked like death warmed over, but he still looked a hell of a lot better than he was when I had left. I walked over to him, with a little help from Jared and Bagoas. When I reached him, I just smiled. I couldn't believe that he was there, standing in front of me. Bagoas had a hand on my arm and one on Hephaistion's.

“I missed you, Phae...” I whispered.