950 Encroaching Prelude
Focus was my new best and only friend. It was probably the only hope I had of getting through all of this without falling apart into so kind of mania for an entire fanbase to and slander on the silver screen. Acting was already hard enough on its own, all those lights, all those shines, the million pairs of eyes and their iron-scorching stares whittling away at your psyche waiting to see if you're gonna flub your lines so they can point and laugh at you like the walking, talking epito of embarrassnt you know you are. An exaggeration? Fine, maybe. But my point still stands—pretending to be soone you're not, and worse, failing at that would certainly be one of those monts you mull about sleeplessly deep in the dead of night. And now, thanks to a certain doting devil's ddling, my chances of acute insomnia just skyrocketed to a near absolute guarantee. We'd be in a scene, in the heat of the mont; caras, boom mics, and all sorts of technical fixtures invisible behind the thin veil of suspension, and thanks to so light persuasion from Chester, Tressa Yar had agreed to aid Leonardo in his venture to return to the realm of Asteria. All was going quite smoothly. But then, randomly, unwittingly, I'd see her there, just off to the side, in the corner of my eyes—standing there just a little beyond the boundary of the sacred veil. Barely a glimpse, I'd see her prideful smile, the excitent in her eyes, just waiting for her opportunity to co join in the fra… and Chester starts panicking, sweating… wait were my lines again? Oh, right, I had none. I was supposed to think. How was I supposed to think? We entered into a clearing, Tressa leading the pack. Leonardo follows suit, dutifully and diligently in his march. But as the hours began to stretch on longer and longer so too did the patience of a particularly impatient Elf. Relda grew ever more spiteful, bitter, implying in not-so-subtle snides that Tressa intended nothing more but to waste everyone's ti wandering aimlessly through vast, barren nothings. An accusation that only served to whittle away at Tressa's ever-dwindling generosity with every passing insinuation. Leonardo demanded Relda cease her provocations, which backfired completely, stoking her foul mood to even nastier degrees of abuse. Tensions were spiking, soaring… soone needed to step in, broker peace; in the company of much contempt and malice, a bit of levity was desperately necessary… a bit of charm to lighten things up.
Okay, Chester, say your line. Stop trying to peek through the veil. Focus is your friend. There are no caras, there are no lights, and more importantly, you have no mother. So start acting like it. "Leonardo, my friend," I put on my best smile, whispering at his side. "A word, perhaps?" 15:34
Credit to his venerability, the man did better than the rest at keeping his temper in check. But there's no softening that hard edge in his eyes, however.
"A word?" "More than a word, actually," I said, glancing briefly at Relda again, crushing stray sticks under the soles of her feet. "Maybe… a little break, if you would so permit it, of course." "No," an imdiate response. "The longer I'm kept here, the deeper the peril Asteria falls in. We cannot afford to stop. We have to keep moving." "And move we shall, indeed, eventually, yes," I jogged ahead of him, and threw myself in his unstoppable path. "Surely you understand not everyone's a person of your exalted standing. We are not heroes, as such, there's no need for us to pace ourselves as such. You may be able to forge on to the ends of the earth, absolutely, but us re mortals do not have your patience, temperance. We get tired, and we get grumpy. I suspect so of us, so more than others, have found ourselves grumbling into the latter." "Then do try and grumble away in silence," Leonardo said, marching past without the slightest glance. "I'm sure, you, 're mortals' can certainly manage that." "Yes, but then what?" I said, keeping up with him. "Despite our best efforts, an argunt sprouts, an insult taken too far, soone lashes out against their better judgnt, and before we know it, there's a huge smoldering crater in the earth besmirching this lovely forest, and worst of all—that's effort and ti wasted right there. An utter travesty that you, with your almighty capabilities, could so easily circumvent." Leonardo took another step forward, and not a step further. He let out a sigh. "With rest?" "No greater rejuvenator," I affird. "Let Relda off on her own for a bit; hanging with humans for a ti certainly does not do well for an Elf's spirit. Tressa aids you, but only reluctantly… a small show of generosity surely goes a long way to temper one's resolve. And my feet are beginning to kill , and I spied myself a lovely shade beneath a tree close by. Surely a hero like yourself can spare so consideration for their fellow n, can't they?"
I left him alone to simr with the thought. Ultimately, it was his decision, his judgnt. I could only pray that wherever it was he was whisked away from, there existed a modicum of reason he took with him here. Leonardo slowly turned towards the rest of us, just a small shift in his expression commanding everyone's attention. "We shall rest here for now," he declared, the strength in his voice truly undefiable. "Everyone, do as you wish. We shall resu our journey at a later ti." And there you have it. Issue solved, crisis averted, and with the deafening call, an echoing shout of 'cut!' the scene had ended. I blinked, and it was like I just snapped out of a dream. Actually, a grand delusion more like. The vast, winding forest shrinking into a small grid of green grass and greener screens surrounded by an array of lenses and a sea of wires. "Good! Yeah, okay. Good enough," The Director nodded all around, coming into the scene with his usual round of praise and criticism. Mostly criticism. "Chester, I didn't like the way you paused at the beginning. We can fix that in post—but no more of that, understand? Make it natural, don't look like you're waiting on a signal." "Oh, leave him alone. He did amazing," Amanda said. She ca forward, the light smile on her lips one of complete sincerity than reassurance. "If anything he's got a knack for this. Improvisation isn't easy. And with charm like that… I wonder if there's more where that ca from?" She blinked musingly at . "Maybe so you could spare for other tis?" "Is this you hinting that I'm usually boring?" I asked. "Nooo," she said, sounding a lot less convincing than she probably intended. "It's not that you're usually boring—of course not, you silly. It's more like, uh… you're rarely ever exciting, you know?" I fail to see the difference. "At the very least, I better see a lot more co the next scene," the Director said, staring right down. "Terestra's debut. It needs to be perfect. Absolutely perfect. Which ans you need to be perfect. Understood?" "I'll give it all I got," I said in return. Which technically wasn't a lie—just a simple matter of how much I had left to give at that point. But to him, fortunately, that was good enough; imdiately stalking away to give Hayley and Leon their dressing downs.
"Are you okay?" Amanda took his place, standing a few inches closer in front of , scouring my face all over like a doctor looking for symptoms. "And by 'are you okay' I think you know what I an by that." "Dunno, alright, I suppose," I said, shrugging. "I an, how would you feel having your mom co-starring alongside you?" "Your mom isn't my mom," she said with a wispy breath. "And you definitely know what I an by that." "I'm fine. It's fine," I told her, shaking my head trying to shake off all her scrutiny. "Sure, it was a shock at first. But what the hell—I've been shocked by worst. This is nothing. She's just another actor, it's just another scene. It'll all be over before we know it." I took my eyes off Amanda briefly to look around. A lot was going on around us. mbers of staff in a constant ebb and flow, but even amidst the chaos and commotion, she continued to stand out above it all. Like she really was above it all. Mom looked like a splotch of darkness compared to everything else. Like a drop of black in an empty white canvas. Whoever made her costu desperately needed to co up and see the sun soti soon. There she was, a little further off from where I last saw her. Dad and Sammy were with her now, and while Dad looked like his usual aloof self, Sammy did not seem to be taking Mom's new profession all too well. And while she appeared to be talking to Mom just fine, albeit, flabbergasted…I can't help but sense that her feelings went a little beyond that just being shocked. I rembered the discussion we had. About learning to live with what we know. About trying to see the best side to it all. It seems that way of living is about to be put to the test soon.
"You're curious too, aren't you?" I blinked, eyelids fluttering open to the sight of Amanda peering over at my family too. "Curious?" I repeated back. "No, co on," she turned back toward , narrowing her lips. "You know what I an." "Not this ti, I don't," I said. "What are you talking about?" "Your mother," she muttered, her words soft and stifled with apprehension. "After all this ti… I was just wondering… you know…" "Wondering about what?" Again, her gaze wandered over to that dark splotch in reality, that anomaly. And at that mont I understood what she ant. She wasn't just staring at my mother anymore. "If she still has it in her." And we're back after like a week-long break! Sorry about that. I was having a severe case of writer's back so I figured I should step back. I went ahead and read a couple of new novels to rejuvenate myself and it worked like a charm. I feel renewed now, and hope you'll be able to sense that in the writing here. Fingers crossed we don't run out of steam so soon again, eh?
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