Chapter 7: Hardcore Thespian Action

Fun fact: writing is tiring. In fact, I'm writing this chapter immediately after making a round trip from Central California to San Francisco and back. All in one day. Sure, I'm tired, but I'm writing for you guys anyway. Because I care about delivering you fine readers some fine product. Hey, if I'm going to be a selfish bastard when it comes to reasons for writing, then I'm going to be a selfish bastard with a heart of gold. Now, let's get to this chapter before I pass out on my bed for the night.

xxx

A few moments later…

"Okay, so what's my motivation here?" Weiss tiredly sighed.

Glancing up from her script, the heiress glared at Velvet through her sunglasses. Right now, she was just plain tired. After her stash of coffee somehow "disappeared" yesterday, the sheer dull pain she was experiencing pretty much ruined her day. So much for that whole "hair of the dog that bit you" crap. At this rate, Weiss would need the entire damn pack.

And now, here she was on a Monday afternoon, about to be filmed saying lines that painted her as a vile racist, by people that Velvet didn't even bother properly introducing. All Weiss got out of her was a few quickly mumbled names, not even pointing out who was who. So yeah, the Schnee girl wasn't exactly crapping out sunshine and rainbows. She was all out of shits to give anymore. Her colon wallet was completely empty.

Weiss inwardly groaned as Velvet pulled on her fake glasses and adjusted them by the bridge. What a try-hard.

"Okay, so, I want you to sound like you've reformed. Like some kind of ex-prisoner. As if racism was a crime, but you found god and repented. It's like you're seeing the light coming through the clouds. Okay?" Velvet explained in an overblown way. She was milking the imaginary cow too much for her own good.

Weiss rolled her eyes behind her designer shades. "Yeah. Right," she mumbled.

Velvet spun on her heel and faced the girl with the beret behind the camera. "You ready, Coco?" Velvet asked. Coco gave a quick thumbs up before focusing her attention on the camera controls.

"Yatsu?" Velvet then asked the tall Easterner holding the boom microphone.

"I'm ready," Yatsu quietly replied.

"Alright Fox, we're ready!" Velvet finally called, stepping out of frame.

The dark-skinned man sitting on the large plastic crates to the side called out, "Beacon commercial, Weiss scene, take one!"

"Action!" Velvet cried.

Weiss groaned and took off her shades. Placing them into her pocket, she took a quick glance at the rather bland olive-green curtains being used as a backdrop. Not exactly what she would have picked. And, as she straightened out her normal dress, she thought that she would have picked out some kind of costume, personally. Her dress and bolero jacket didn't really match with her surroundings.

"When I first started at Beacon, I was a filthy racist. But now, my best friends are Faunus people…" Weiss recited, nearly lifelessly. She was almost as bland sounding as Ren was on a normal day. And for anyone else other than Ren, that was quite the statement.

"Alright, cut," Velvet ordered to Coco, before taking a step forward.

Weiss rolled her eyes as Velvet placed her hands on her shoulders, in a blatant attempt to try and level with her.

"Okay, Weiss. I know you can do this," Velvet began. "You know your character. You know that this almost… almost like your redemption! A new start! So, on this take, I want you to feel it, alright? I know you can!"

Bouncing back behind the camera, Velvet gave Weiss a grin and a thumbs-up gesture. Weis simply give it any positive thought, if any thought at all.

"Fox?" Velvet verbally motioned.

Fox stopped picking at his cuticles. "Er, right. Beacon commercial, Weiss scene, take two," he said, right before getting back to his previous distraction.

"Annnnddddd… Action!" cried Velvet.

"Ughh… When I first started Beacon Academy, I was a racist. But now, I'm friends with Faunus people," recited Weiss, even worse than before. Her performance was even flatter than her chest.

Velvet and Coco shared a glance. Making a "keep on filming" motion, Velvet looked slightly worried at Coco. Coco simply gave a small sneer and a half-hearted shrug.

"Uhh... Weiss? We're just gonna keep it rolling. So, uh, just start your lines over when you're ready," Velvet instructed. She adjusted her smart-looking glasses with a slightly shaky hand.

"Sure," Weiss bluntly replied, before steadying herself for another line read. Her spine crackled as she stretched her back and shoulders. Not that it helped all that much, of course. Weiss was so far fallen of the wagon that it would at least take several hot baths and oil rubs to even start to feel better. Damn her coffee issues.

Weiss, taking her sweet time, began to say her line over again.

xxx

To show all of Weiss' failed takes would be like checking the inventory of a factory that made nothing but beige-colored paint made out of semen. In other words, very repetitive and terrible. But, the main difference was that one was terrible to look at and have around in general, and the other one was paint.

So, in the spirit of brevity and semen-based wall decoration, many, many, many of the attempts at filming Weiss' commercial scene will be skipped. It's not like much would have been missed, anyway. It wasn't as if anyone was losing it terribly.

xxx

At least an hour and a half later…

Velvet couldn't help but chew at her fingernails anymore. She felt like she was completely losing it. Was she crazy? How in the Xibalba could all of this have not improved after all this time?!

It was like Weiss was deliberately trying to scuttle this whole project. And, due to Velvet's increasing paranoia and stress, that was seeming more and more likely in her mind. Oh, so Weiss wanted to play a little game, eh? Well, Velvet could play too, damn it!

"Okay, cut!" Velvet barked. She had just cut off Weiss in the middle of another flat delivery. "Just cut!"

Without even taking a moment to pause, Velvet strode right up to Weiss, getting up in her face. "Okay, what is this?" Velvet hissed. Now that was a rare thing to bear witness to. That got everyone's attention. "Are you just trying to bring this down? Are you?"

Weiss, still in a bad mood, didn't take such talk directed at her lightly. "Oh, what? You're not getting your way, and you're blaming me? It isn't even good!" she bitterly spat at the bunny girl.

That made Velvet take a step back. Now, Velvet was normally a very meek person. But, this… This… This was unforgiveable! Inconceivable! This was her big chance! And it was going to be ruined already by one prima donna actress! Weiss needed to get off her high horse and read the lines exactly as they were written, in the way that Velvet wanted!

Velvet's fingers twitched. They badly wanted to curl up into a closed fist. Instead, Velvet decided to place her hands firmly on Weiss' shoulders. "Weiss, please. I need you to work with me here. It's been an hour. We've got other things to film. So, I'm not asking, I'm ordering you to do better this time around. Okay?". She punctuated her talk with a small shake of Weiss's shoulders.

However, all this did was make Weiss pissier. "Well, maybe if someone gave me actual material to work with, then I'd get the job done! I want lines, not trash!"

"Trash? T-trash?!" Velvet sputtered. Her script wasn't anything of the sort! It was carefully crafted along the guidelines of all the research she did! She didn't watch all those commercials on DustTube for nothing! "I wrote that to be the best commercial ever! Just read the lines!"

"If that's your best, then no wonder your PSA failed," Weiss sneered.

That made everyone stop. Now that was a grave insult. Not to mention a bad memory that filled everyone with either vague or direct feelings of regret and suffering. That sexual safety/abstinence PSA was a sore spot for practically the entire Beacon Academy student body. And for some of the teachers as well.

Ruby stepped onto the stage. "Uh, okay Weiss. I think th-that's enough now," she said, tugging at her girlfriend's sleeve. She needed to stop this fight. There was no way this was going to end up well.

"I'm so sick of this! Velvet needs to—" Weiss began to say, before being stopped in the oldest way possible. The cracking noise of the slap traveled all the way around the silent theater.

Velvet couldn't help but shake her hand from the pain of slapping Weiss' face hard. But, she couldn't help herself. Weiss had gone too far. In Velvet's mind, what she just did was completely justified. That slap felt good to do. Even now, her palm had left a large red mark on the side of Weiss' face.

The Schnee heiress looked absolutely flabbergasted. She was almost quite literally dumb-struck. What had just happened? Did Velvet, the meek, often bullied Faunus girl, just slap her? Just… This was all very new and different to Weiss. It was completely safe to say that nobody saw that one coming, Weiss most of all.

"You… You…" Weiss stammered in a daze. Then, as if a flip was switched on, an angry fire entered her eyes. "You BITCH!" she cried, before trying to lunge in the direction of Velvet.

However, Weiss' trajectory was thankfully stopped by Ruby desperately holding her girlfriend back. "Stop it! Stop it, please!" Ruby desperately pleaded. By now, some of the others had sprung into action. Blake and Yang jumped in to join Ruby in holding back the furious Weiss. Otherwise, Velvet was going to be nothing more than a red stain on the floor.

"Velvs, what the shit?!" Coco finally got around to exclaiming. Even she couldn't help but notice how extremely out of character her friend/teammate had acted.

Spinning on her heel, Velvet began to frantically fume to her team and the on looking Team JNPR watching from the theater seats. "I-I had to do it! She was acting out! She… Weiss deserved it! She deserved it!"

"Velvet, stop!" scorned Yang. "You really aren't helping!"

"Let me get her! I'LL CLAW OUT HER EYES!" Weiss furiously screeched, before having one of Blake's hands clamp over her mouth.

"C'mon, let's get her out of here," Ruby ordered swiftly.

It took most of the strength of the combined Team RBY to pick up and carry a furiously struggling Weiss Schnee. She thrashed and fought against her being carried away all the way down the stage, and out the doors of the theater.

The theater once again feel silent. Then, it was broken by Jaune walking up onto the stage. He couldn't help but keep his head slightly low as he walked up to the head of his club. "Hey, Velvet? I can't say that was a good thing to do. Like, it wasn't great. At all," he protested.

"You saw what she said to me. It was rude and unneeded here!" Velvet cried in her own defense.

"Still…" Jaune said, "A-as your assistant, I gotta say that you can't do that. It doesn't help anybody."

"I agree, it isn't right," Pyrrha said from the theater seats, offering her support to Jaune.

Velvet felt her adrenaline rush start to ebb away. Her hands relaxed. By now, the implications of what she had done had started to sink in. Man, this wasn't good. She had driven off an important actor. Now, that part of her commercial was in jeopardy. How would she be able to do that part now? Velvet felt that she had screwed the proverbial pooch on that one.

"O-oooh. Oh no…" Velvet trailed off, stumbling over to a plastic crate to sit down on. She began to vigorously shake one of her legs. This nervous energy wasn't good at all. She needed to get rid of all of it.

Everyone waited for a response from Velvet, who was busy taking a few deep breaths to calm down.

After a minute of calm breathing, Velvet finally apologized. However, she couldn't bring herself to raise her head. "I'm so, so sorry about that. It w-wasn't fair to you guys. I swear that I w-won't do that again."

"Seriously, Velvet," Fox scolded. "That wasn't cool. At all."

"Right," Yatsu quietly agreed. Ren agreed with him even quieter, giving him an approving nod from his theater chair.

"I really ruined this shoot, didn't I?" Velvet noted, mostly to herself. Looking up, she tiredly announced, "I think shooting is done for today."

That got a few nods of approval. Today just wasn't a good day. As the members of Team JNPR said their goodbyes and made their way out of the theater, Team CFY began to pack up the camera and sound equipment.

"So… Velvs. Do you want to go get a drink? Maybe calm down a little bit?" Coco offered, treading a bit carefully. She had to, if she was going to get her and her whole team through this situation.

"No… no thanks," replied Velvet. "I… I think I'm going to hand back for a bit. E-edit the script…"

"Okay, that's fine," Coco said softly.

"Will we expect you back at the dorm?" Yatsu added.

"I… Later," Velvet muttered.

"Just get back safely," said Yatsu.

At that, the equipment was stored in the plastic crates on the cart. They didn't want to have Velvet move from the one she was sitting on, so they managed to squeeze all the electronics in the remaining crates.

Fox was the first to leave, slowly pushing the cart down the large walkway down the middle of the theater. He couldn't help but wonder if Velvet was going to follow them as soon as they left. Coco followed suit, but not before patting a comforting hand on Velvet's shoulder. Yatsu was the last to leave, giving his rabbit teammate one last look before leaving through the double doors. All of them were pretty concerned for her.

Soon enough, Velvet, the shaky director, was left alone in the Beacon Academy Theater. No, she wasn't a director now. Her crew was gone. All Velvet was now was a worried and frustrated girl, sitting all alone on a plastic box in an empty room. The spotlights shone on her as she continued to sit there, alone in her thoughts.

That was probably the only mercy that was afforded to Velvet that day.

xxx

That's… a note to end this chapter on. Well, all we can do now is wait and see how this is going to play out for the whole film crew. But, one thing can be said for certain. This isn't even the beginning of the end. Not even close. So, until then, let's just hold out. That's probably for the best.

This is The Draigg, and I'm signing off for now.