Chapter 9: An Exercise In Mental Breakdowns

I think that there's one universal fact about comedy: it almost always comes at someone's or something's expense. It's like an equivalent exchange of cruelty against your fellow man. Now, I'm not saying that comedy is an excuse to become a sociopath. What I'm saying is that we need to accept that comedy can be allowed to be a little cruel sometimes. Even small pranks, like putting chili in a friend's drink, come at an expense, no matter how small and petty it can be. But, if you've been following what I write, then you should pretty much know that fact by now. Believe me, it's okay to laugh. But hey, that's my opinion, it's not the all-knowing gospel of writing. Maybe with this chapter, you'll disagree with that statement. Who's really to say?

xxx

Pyrrha, as one of Remnant's top, young athletes, had plenty of experience in appearing in advertisements and commercials. From lemon-scented hand wipes to orange-kiwi juice, Pyrrha had hawked it all. If anything, having her image being used in an ad was almost second nature.

But this… This was a different beast. An unknown, obscure beast.

And it had adorable rabbit ears.

For nearly the past three hours, it seemed like Velvet had been replaced by some sort of pod-person clone, who was completely obsessed with getting the perfect take. And, in addition to that, nobody had any clue what the hell Velvet was looking for.

It didn't surprise Pyrrha all that much when Team RBY completely zoned out, none of them paying any attention at all. Yang and Ruby were on their scrolls, and Blake had gone off to a corner to the theater to read a book that she had brought along. It wasn't like there was anything for them to do at the moment. And as for Nora and Ren, they had disappeared about forty-five or so minutes ago. More likely than not, Nora had run off somewhere, and Ren followed in concerned pursuit. It was almost like an old vaudeville routine. And an unfortunately routine… routine, at that.

Pyrrha was ripped out of her thoughts suddenly, by Velvet telling her to get ready for another take.

"Pyrrha! Position, please!" Velvet cried.

Signing at her burden, Pyrrha moved over to the side an inch. She hadn't even moved off of her place marker. But, if Velvet told her to move into position, it was for the best not to fight her on that. Might as well take the easy way out and make it look like she moved a little bit.

"Fox! Call it!" ordered Velvet. She then leaned behind Coco, wanting to see the shot from the camera's perspective. Apparently she didn't care about or notice Coco's slight discomfort at Velvet's positioning. Velvet placing her hands on Coco's shoulders didn't help either.

Fox's voice was worn, and just about as lifeless as Weiss' performance the other day. "Beacon commercial… Pyrrha… Take… oh, fuck it…"

Velvet didn't pay any mind to Fox's lack of caring. Instead, she shrieked, "Action!"

"I came to Beacon Academy to make the most of my education! And I'm glad I chose it!" Pyrrha repeated for the umpteenth time, forcing a smile at the end. It was through sheer professionalism that Pyrrha was able to keep up the quality of her performances. But, being honest to herself, she didn't know how much she had left in her. Someone needed to step in already. It was at times like this that Pyrrha cursed Jaune's natural social anxiety. He needed to do something. He was Velvet's assistant, after all.

As Coco stopped recording, Velvet walked forwards towards Pyrrha. Taking out her professional glasses, Velvet pushed them up to the bridge of her nose with her middle finger. Then, she began to inspect Pyrrha, as if she was trying to appraise a fine sculpture—no scratch that. The way Velvet looked at Pyrrha, it was like she was inspecting a slab of meat at the slaughterhouse, seeing if it was fit for sale.

"Another," Velvet finally muttered, walking back towards the camera and sound equipment.

Pyrrha felt the corners of her mouth twitch. Somewhere deep inside her, hairline cracks were finally starting to appear. For someone like Pyrrha, to took a long time for her to crack. But, that didn't mean that it wasn't possible. This miserable exercise just needed to END.

Standing behind Coco again, Velvet put her hands on her hips. Her demeanor had gone so far from her normal, meek state. By now, it had been replaced by something almost in-Faunus, and coolly demanding.

"Call it, Fox!" Velvet shrieked. Yatsu and Coco tiredly got their equipment ready behind her.

Fox was feeling sleep tinge the crevasses of his body. Sitting around for a while would do that to a person, after all. "Beacon ad, Pyrrha, take whatever," he muttered quickly.

Now it was time for Velvet's oft-repeated cue. "Go! Action!"

"I came to Beacon Academy to make the most of my education! And I'm glad I chose it!". Pyrrha could barely even bring herself to smile that time.

Velvet didn't even bother to inspect Pyrrha again. "We can't use that take. Next!"

That was it.

All the bad memories of when Pyrrha worked on other ads came flooding back to her. All the repeated takes. All the fake smiles. All the feelings that she was just a tool for cheap good to be shilled at for children. It all came back. And Pyrrha absolutely detested that feeling.

"Wh-what DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" Pyrrha shrieked, surprising everyone. "It's been hours! I need food! I need to rest! Just make it stop!"

"We're not done yet!" Velvet yelled back. She furiously adjusted her glasses. "Only you can do this! I need the perfect shot!"

"How many takes? How many takes?!" Pyrrha cried. She sunk to the floor and rested on her knees. Was this her fate? Was this all she was good for? Just to be a face in a commercial for her entire life? Letting out a low wail, Pyrrha then slumped over onto the floor, and curled into a ball. "What do you want from me?! Just tell me what you want! I'll do it! I swear, I'll do it!"

"I told you already! I want a great take! Let's start again!" snapped Velvet. Instead of getting up, Pyrrha just retreaded further inside herself. Those minor cracks had now become deep ravines, in no part helped by Velvet's canned orders.

"Take me to my trailer. I want to go to my trailer…" Pyrrha began to mutter to herself. It was like she was completely gone from the present. She was reliving the worst experiences of her commercial acting career all over again. All she wanted to do now was to get out of there, and to somewhere safe.

Jaune finally took action. Stepping out from his seat at the front of the stage, he immediately went over to his distressed girlfriend's side. Kneeling down, he began to awkwardly pat one of her shoulders, in an attempt to calm her down.

"I think we're done for today," Jaune firmly declared to Velvet.

Velvet grit her teeth beneath her lips. "No! She's my star! You leave her there! She'll leave when she does what I want!"

"What do you even want?!" Jaune yelled back at Velvet. "Nobody deserves this! This is… this is wrong. It's not right at all!"

"It's my JOB!" spat back Velvet.

Jaune shot Velvet a venomous glare. Helping Pyrrha to her feet, he firmly said, "Then I don't think I can be your assistant."

That made Velvet briefly step aback, before recovering from that shock. Whipping off her smart-looking glasses, she jabbed them in Jaune and Pyrrha's direction. "Fine! I don't need you! You're not an assistant! You're a QUITTER!"

"Fine by me," Jaune hissed, before leading the dazed and horrified Pyrrha out of the theater. By then, Pyrrha wasn't looking all that great. She practically had to have her hands around Jaune's collar in order to keep walking. It was as if her ability to walk was replaced by her ability to go into hysterics.

Velvet spun around to face the rest of the theater. Everyone on the film crew had a mix of shock and disgust plastered on their faces. "Anyone else?! Anyone else wanna leave?!" Velvet ranted at them.

Ruby immediately stood up from her chair. She gave Velvet a short stare, before sadly shaking her head. Although she seemed somewhat hesitant at first, she made her way down the row of seats and down the main walkway. Casting another brief look at Velvet, Ruby pushed open the theater doors and left.

Following Ruby's example, Yang and Blake followed their team leader out of the theater doors. Unlike their softer-hearted companion, neither of them bothered to look at Velvet as they left. Whether it was out of disappointment or spite, it wasn't clear. What was clear, however, is that all of Team RWBY had wanted nothing to do anymore with the production, or Velvet Scarlatina for that matter.

"Good!" Velvet yelled after them. "I don't need you working on this! I'll write around you! You'll see!"

Then, focusing on her teammates, Velvet hoarsely said, "What about you? Are you going to abandon this too?"

Yatsu was the first one to speak up. Placing down his boom mc, he bluntly said, "Velvet, I can't approve of this. None of this."

"Yeah… I'm done here," Fox added, standing up from the plastic crate. "And I'm done with you."

A low growl was caught in Velvet's throat. How dare Fox and Yatsuhashi leave her like this? They were abandoning her in the middle of her dream! HER commercial! They were losers, quitters!

"And you, Coco?!" Velvet then shrieked at her other teammate.

Coco, in one of the rarer moments of her life, was frozen in indecision. Not because she thought that Velvet was right to do any of that, mind you, but she was completely blindsided by her friend's actions outright. Velvet, in all the time that Coco knew her, had NEVER acted like this. It was absolutely out of character for her. Who could have guessed that such a controlling beast lie underneath a shy, meek exterior? Coco had no clue how to deal with this type of situation coming from Velvet. She had no experience to help her in this new territory. All of this was alien to her. And she was supposed to be her team leader, damn it!

"Uh…" Coco vocalized.

"Are you with me, or not?" Vevlet demanded to know.

Coco still appeared to be inn thought. Then, with a click of her cheek, her brows furrowed. She couldn't stand to work in such an unjust production. "You know what? Fuck this ad. I'm not helping you anymore."

That made Velvet's face grow deep red in anger. "F-f-fine! Forget all of you! I can do this on my own! I don't need you! Get out of my sight!" she furiously screamed. She turned away from her teammates with a frustrated huff.

Team CFY shared looks at each other. Even Fox, who couldn't see a damn thing. He just looked in the vague direction of his friends. Coco made a dismissive gesture with her hand, before leading Fox and Yatsu down the steps of the stage.

Velvet didn't even look back as her teammates left her alone, to her own devices.

"I don't need them! I'll… I'll just write around them! I'll work around them! Whatever it takes, I'll get his commercial done! I can't fail!" Velvet thought to herself. But then, she felt something on her cheek.

Touching her face, Velvet's hand came away with something clear and wet on her fingers. "Tears… Why am I crying? I shouldn't cry…" she absently thought.

No matter how much she thought to the contrary, Velvet couldn't stop the small trickle of tears leaving a stain down her face. For the life of her, she had no idea why she was crying. Was she sad that everyone had left? Perhaps. Were they tears of rage, on the fact that her commercial was now impossible to get done? That was just as likely.

Whatever the case may be, Velvet couldn't ignore the fact that she felt something that she didn't like. And that fact just made her sadder. It was a strange thing, for the subconscious to be depressed, and the consciousness to not know why. But, in a way that same thing could happen to anyone.

They just needed to be in that emotional place, in the place where none should willingly go.

Velvet had just arrived.

xxx

So… about that monologue at the beginning… I suppose it's up to you to figure out if it was funny, tragic, or both. After all, comedy is just the lighter side of tragedy and drama. Two sides of the proverbial writing coin, if you will. Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, it's not like what I say about a story should apply to your opinions. That's why I like reading yours in the reviews. They're all different, in a great way. So, go ahead, let your opinion be heard!

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