Chapter Text
In all of her full 26 years of surviving, Gangle had never even thought about the possibility of being a movie star.
Someone like her, starring in a movie? She had prior experience with musicals and small theatres from a very, very long time ago, but big-screen movies? Maybe as an extra, but even then, just appearing for a split second on a big screen, with such an immense (small, but even just one pixel is already too considerable) amount of space on a monitor dedicated to displaying her felt like some kind of humiliation ritual.
And neither had Zooble. Although they weren’t unfamiliar with getting some attention and being focused on by others, it was something that hadn’t crossed their mind, with the insane amount of other hobbies and interests they wanted to focus on. Plus, the film industry never sounded very pleasant to dive into, to say the least.
When Caine had gathered them all up like a flock of sheep on a particular morning, and loudly proclaimed…
“Goooood morning, my silly slouchy slogs! Listen up! There’s some exciting news to share today! I have decided to start yet another big project as part of a huge, overarching adventure, and just like every other project, you’re gonna be a part of it! The main part, in fact!”
A collective sigh was heard from everyone. More projects? There’s no shot that it’ll probably be just as draining and exhausting as all the last ones he had conducted. Those ‘Favorite Character Awards’ were just one of many examples; every year, they were pretty much always rigged, to the point where attending one had just become some kind of meaningless noise show— something you only watch to keep your mind distracted when you have those types of thoughts you don’t wanna address.
Zooble was the first to step up, unafraid of giving Caine a piece of their mind. “Whatever it is, you already know what we want, so enough of suggesting bullshit.”
“Nuh uh, don’t worry about that, Zooble! I’ve cracked the code! You see,” he said as he twirled mid-air, “Recently, I did some research and discovered that humans love watching movies and shows! And not to mention, they especially love making them for others! So, I have derived the most fun, group-bonding adventure that all of you will surely enjoy this time!”
Pomni raised her eyebrow, taking this cue to guess. “We’re… gonna make a movie? Or a TV series?”
“Ding ding ding! We will be making a movie! It’ll have the most emotional, fantastically exciting story, all written by me! Professional recording, the most beautiful sets, outstanding special and visual effects, and it’ll also be directed by… me! Quality is guaranteed!”
Bubble floated close to Caine. “And I’ll be the cameraman!”
Zooble’s antennae twitched after taking a moment to process. “So basically, you already did everything fun for us. What’s the point then? What are we gonna—”
“You will all be the main cast of the movie! The actors, the stars, who will all get their opportunity to shine in front of the camera! Arguably, that may be the most important part of a movie!”
They all glanced among themselves, dumbfounded by their new roles. It was something new, but it was hard not to think that it was gonna go horribly wrong. They already had plenty of experience with roleplaying thanks to the adventures, but for a self-proclaimed professional movie? That was on a whole other level. If Caine thought it’d turn out to be the best movie ever with a bunch of newbies who had never trained professionally to become actors, he’d definitely be misplacing that confidence, as he always does. Besides, with the type of adventures he makes, it’d probably turn out to be some kind of lame action or horror movie. Or maybe something for little kids. How good could it possibly be?
“Hm, it actually doesn’t sound too bad this time! Way to go, Caine!” Ragatha cheered. This time, her optimism wasn’t actually over-exaggerated; the idea of acting in a simple little movie that probably nobody else would watch other than them and the simple-minded NPCs did sound intriguing.
Pomni’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Ragatha. Ragatha looked back, but sensing her internal disapproval, she whispered a ‘sorry’ and went quiet. When she thought about it again, it was apparent that Caine would make the recording process torturous.
Jax smirked smugly, crossing his arms; it was his turn to be the center of attention, the big star, assuming that Caine would pick him to be the protagonist. As dumb as Caine was, there’d be no way he would choose anyone other than him to be the central star of the show. He outperformed everyone in charisma and constantly had everyone’s eyes on him with his pranks, using his cartoony skills to the max. Jax swore he was practically an acting pro at that point, to the point where if he could return to the real world the next day, he could instantly be hired as a Hollywood star.
“So, what kind of movie is it? What’s the story? And who gets what roles? Although I think I already have a tiny feeling of who’s gonna be the main character!” He said, his voice getting annoyingly high-pitched at the end.
Caine inhaled, as if he was about to expel an ear-wrecking yell. Then, he spilled it out.
“Thank you for inquiring, Jax! To simplify, the plot is about this young fighter named Aden, who escaped their evil, wrecked single father to go participate in a sword-fighting competition! And then, aliens take over, and they get teleported to a massive, horrifying ship in space where they have to fight off alien zombies and take over that same ship! And then afterwards, they land back on earth and become a cowboy sword-fighter in a dystopian land, and re-encounter the love of their life, called Eve, who…” Caine rambled on, with the plot becoming increasingly more and more nonsensical, and at least a thousand different tropes and subplots shoved inside it.
As he finished, Jax rolled his eyes. “Wait. Come oooon, romance? You really had to add that? Can’t you remove Eve from the plot or something?” Jax whined, groaning and slouching his shoulders in disappointment. His chance to shine was definitely over; no way he was going to be involved in a fake romance plot with anyone else. He felt shivers going down his spine just from thinking about it.
“Nope! It’s already set in stone. I’ve already written most of the lines in this script, and I don’t wanna change it! But that doesn’t mean you can’t act as Eve or Aden if that’s what you wanted, Jax!”
“What? No thanks. Get that away from me. I’d rather be the antagonist at this point.”
Caine snickered in anticipation.
When Gangle heard Caine’s idea, she was charmed with it at first, already thinking of what the main character could look like and wanting to sketch an idea for their design. She hadn’t acted on a stage for a long, long time, so it sounded like a nice opportunity to relive her teenage memories. But the longer he spoke, the more terrified and upset she got with how cryptic the story was.
Then, her brain had caught hold of a few words he had slipped in during his speech, and with Jax's interjection emphasizing them, it was like a lightbulb turned on inside her head.
‘The love of her life’?
This movie's gonna have a romance subplot?
Would one of us have to kiss somebody else? Or hug? Or say something cute and romantic, like ‘I love you’?
Her stomach felt like it was getting wrung out like an old, soggy cloth, but it didn’t stop her from feeling captivated. She felt doubtful that she’d even be getting more than a background role for the movie anyway, considering that Caine always forgot about her in adventures, which led her mind to wander off to the potential pair-ups that Caine could make. It almost made her feel 10 years younger, back when she was still much more hopeful and whimsical, writing tons of sweet fan-made stories about anime characters she loved envisioning as a couple.
However, there were only so many pairs he could make for this movie without causing everyone to reject the project, yelling at him to make something else from the awkwardness and embarrassment they got from being squished together; it’d cause some sort of interpersonal drama, which was something he never liked to see anyway. Just this once, she wished she could look through his program and see what his AI processes were trying to do with this idea, even though she probably couldn’t understand a single line of code…
Maybe he already had a duo in mind when he wrote the script?
Gangle was forced out of her imagination when Caine announced, “So, I’ll be announcing the roles right now! Stay seated and hold your breath, because each of you will be finding out which part you’ll be starring in! Get ready to become the best actors and actresses yet!”
Zooble gasped. “Hold on. We can’t even choose what we want to audition for? Or opt out? No casting calls or— Anything? Anything at all?!”
“Why would I need that? What I’ve seen from all of you during your wonderful adventures together is already enough for me to know who fits what role!”
At that moment, Zooble wanted to grab some sort of large rock and smash his teeth in with it.
Caine summoned some kind of large, retro TV screen into existence, plopping it onto the ground. It was large enough for everyone to look at without straining their eyes. Gangle tied her ribbons into knots, her invisible heart almost jumping out of her mouth. She couldn’t tell if she was going to squeal from excitement upon seeing the roles or pass out from how terrified she was.
Zooble, meanwhile, had a perked-up posture, tapping their foot. Their gaze was burning into Caine with pure rage, but he paid no mind, like he was just happy to be making this into a reality. Not only was that plot insane and incoherent, but he had also gotten the great idea of adding a romance part to the movie, presumably to make it more interesting. But who would be involved in that part? For all they know, he could randomly generate who plays as who, and let this whole thing sort itself out. It was purely irresponsible of him, and he already did a shit ton of irresponsible stuff. Every. Single. Day.
Whatever it was, Zooble hoped that they weren’t involved in any big roles. Recording a movie already takes multiple days in the real world, so something like this would get dragged on for way longer than a simple adventure would, and they had just started returning to the adventures after Caine began diluting the intensity factor out of them.
Caine summoned just enough chairs for everyone except for him and Bubble to sit in, letting them get all comfortable to watch the role reveals. They all gracelessly took their seats, the silence and tension in the air becoming more pronounced.
“Alright! Now that we’re all set, it’s time for the grand reveal! Hope you’ll all be satisfied with what you got! Roll the video, Bubble!”
The TV’s static lines were all that appeared for a split second before a glowing white video began to play.
In the video, a strange, low-quality trailer ran on. It revealed that the movie’s name was ‘Aden's Epic Sword-Fighting Adventures’, a mouthful of a title that didn't make the movie sound particularly less amateurish than it already did, despite Caine’s insistence on it being professional. Some dark visuals and aesthetic ideas for the movie flashed throughout the video, setting the tone of what's to come; something sci-fi, somewhat surrealist? Since a lot of things had appeared midway, it was hard to tell what Caine was going for.
At last, the roles and actors were shown, seemingly going from the least to the most essential characters in the movie.
Ragatha, as Flower, a side character, a friend to the protagonist, Aden.
Pomni, as Alice, another side character, as well as a sidekick to the main antagonist of the movie.
Kinger as John, the evil, wrecked single father who only wishes to give their child a traumatic backstory to speak of.
Jax, as Lord Mega Destruction, the main antagonist who plans on destroying the universe for some complicated reason.
Gangle as Eve, one of the main protagonists who is also a love interest and Aden’s soulmate, and a princess at that.
And lastly, Zooble as Aden, the badass main character, who bravely wields a sword as they fight to save the universe from aliens, zombies, and alien-zombies.
Every other background role was to be filled by Caine's mannequins or the typical reused NPCs.
As the crew was revealed their assigned roles, some reacted with shock, while a few responded with contentment and relief at the knowledge that they wouldn’t have to act out any romantic scenes with anyone else. And then there was Gangle and Zooble.
Ragatha and Pomni had come up to Zooble to congratulate them on the role, but Zooble seemed to be in a contemplative and bitter mood, prompting both girls to withdraw from their personal space.
For a second, Gangle forgot how to even breathe.
Huh. She was chosen. She’d have to act out romantic scenes with Zooble.
Oh.
A strike of uneasiness hit her straight in the heart. Her gaze, which previously was focused only on the screen, shifted to Zooble. Her body shook as she saw Zooble attempt to bury their head into their hands. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to look at them right now, knowing what would happen between them. Would Zooble drop out or refuse, having to play as her love interest? Most definitely, right? It’d make things awkward, and having to do this with her, instead of with, say, literally anybody else?
Despite struggling to be able to let out any noise from her mouth, she decided to stand up, walk up to Zooble, who was staring at the floor in what seemed to be defeat, and try to comfort them.
“Um, Zooble. Congrats? Or, sorry about this… Ah, this is weird… I’m gonna play as your love interest, that’s— really weird, right?”
Zooble looked up at her; their eyes softened, but a bit of a flush had crept onto their face. They didn’t reply for a few seconds, and their gaze turned downward. Gangle wondered if she shouldn’t have said anything at all. Her mask also reddened in return.
“Why the hell did he choose me? I just wanna kill that son of a bitch right now…”
Gangle smiled nervously, almost reaching out to Zooble and putting a hand on their shoulder, but falling back at the last second.
“I’m sorry—”
“Gangle, if you’re feeling uncomfortable with this, let me know. I’ll tell him that I won’t be a part of this dumb fucking movie he’s trying to make. We can both quit.”
Uncomfortable? That was sweet of them, but Gangle wasn’t feeling uneasy with having to act out those scenes with them. She’d be happy doing it with them over anyone else. The real question was if Zooble even wanted to be near her at all in that sort of way.
Gangle hesitatingly replied, “I-I’m fine like this. I kind of wanna do it. If you wanna leave though, that’s okay,” before realizing it might’ve been weird to say. “Oh! Uh! I mean… like, pretending to be romantic like that, I think it’s— um…”
She then lost her train of thought. It wandered far, far away from within the roads of her mind.
Zooble glanced around for a bit. They knew Gangle was surely self-sufficient and had done many adventures without them, but this time? Leaving her to play such a significant role all by herself? If they left, their role would probably be replaced by some random NPC she’d be unsettled by, and she would probably feel humiliated that someone who was meant to be her partner had refused to play alongside her.
Not even Jax wanted to be a part of Gangle’s duo (and Zooble would feel the rage of a thousand gods if he did get cast for that role). Something about these possibilities left them wanting to strangle something. All they wanted to do was leave her comfortable and safe. Maybe, just maybe, being the star of the show this once could have a positive outcome. Plus, they could spend some time together, having fun with acting out cheesy lines and scenes—
Snap out of it. Just make her feel better. Do it for her.
Their rage had now resigned for Gangle’s sake. A sigh slipped out from them. “Alright. Well, if you say so, then I guess I’ve got no other choice but to do this. I’m not leaving you in the dark.”
Gangle’s sheepish smile had doubled in size. So many emotions ran through her, and she wasn’t sure whether she could exist for a single moment more without exploding with all her might. But at the same time, she felt like she was melting into a puddle of digital ooze. Her brain was like a basket, full to the brim with everything that was occurring around her.
“Well— Maybe it won’t be that bad. He probably has to make it family-friendly, right? And it won’t be focused only on romance! I don’t think he’ll force us to do anything too strange together because of that…”
“Let’s just… try to have fun this time. And laugh it off later.”
“Y-Yeah,” Gangle nodded in response.
It had been about a few hours since the roles had been announced. Any other adventures were postponed until further notice since Caine was busy preparing the last finishing touches for his script, and he, being the primitive, glitchy AI that he is, was taking quite a while to make it fit for his own liking.
Zooble and Gangle had mostly accepted their fate and, for now, were deciding to leave it be and relax with their usual bonding activity of drawing together.
Gangle drew what she thought the main character of the movie might look like in an anime art style, with multiple iterations, and Zooble did some simple sketches of her design in their own style as well. She then began suggesting some alterations to Caine’s long-winded plot to make it more bearable and enjoyable to get through, since, as a past aspiring comic artist, she knew that writing a story was something you could easily get wrong, causing potential interested viewers to drop it. Not like it was ever that serious anyway, but Gangle had always loved writing stories.
Zooble attentively stared at her with her silly grin as she went on, adding in their own chuckles and hums of approval here and there. They wish it had been Gangle writing that script, directing that story, instead of that stupid AI; her ideas were much more engaging than whatever mess Caine had made up. They wanted to see her get a chance to shine and tell her own tales, too. It almost made them want to yell out of frustration when they realised the amount of potential that was lost when Caine announced he’d be the one in control of the film.
Suddenly, Gangle had hit the brakes on her monologue, her head once tilted to the ceiling as she recalled her ideas, turning to Zooble. Something was plaguing her mind.
Gangle’s smile dwindled. “Uh— why do you think he cast you as the protagonist?” she questioned, “He said he chose the actors for the roles based on how we acted in the adventures…”
“I wish I knew why… I actually thought it’d be Pomni or Jax. Maybe he thought he could make me happy by putting me in the spotlight this time. As if my joining his adventures again wasn’t good enough for that bastard.” They said as their eyebrows furrowed.
Gangle giggled in response, “Maybe it’s because you’re… really headstrong and brave?” she went on, “I think that when you want something, you just go for it…”
“Oh,” Zooble whipped their head to the other direction, not expecting the compliment. They were sure that they had started sweating profusely, and their entire body suddenly felt hot. “Yeah, well— You gotta speak up when you need to, you know? ‘Can’t let them step all over you.”
Gangle tilted her head to the side in confusion, unaware of what she could’ve possibly said in that phrase to make Zooble shy away from her. It took her a few milliseconds to realise that it was the compliment, but by then, it was futile to say anything else, and why would she take it back if it was true anyway?
In her eyes, Zooble really was a warrior. No wonder they got picked over everyone else, even though they tended to stay in the shadows, hiding away from Caine. It was obvious that they had this burning spirit, someone who wanted to fight for the best outcome for themselves. Someone who could shout no from the top of their lungs without any fear or shame.
“You’re so cool,” she mouthed. Her heart stopped her from saying it any louder.
Caine had printed out each actor’s individual scripts, using Bubble as his own personal printer; everyone had received their papers (or rather, books) for the night. He had given everyone a short, cruel deadline: just a few days, less than a week, to learn and memorize everything from scratch, understand their characters’ motives, and really get their heart into the role. He wouldn’t let anyone resume any of their normal activities until all was done, to ensure that the movie was practiced perfectly by each and every one of the team. Bubble even began scouting the hallways to ensure that everyone was taking their new job seriously and not slacking off. No matter what, it had to come out just right; It was Caine’s latest masterpiece, after all.
The first time Gangle and Zooble skimmed over their scripts, they would have both fainted if not for Bubble checking on them.
At first, the story seemed innocent; a typical fantasy, action, sci-fi, comedy, drama, horror, whatever other genre exists… movie. Okay. It wasn’t too good at defining itself. But it was doable. There were obviously a lot of plot holes, terms that Caine had made up but couldn’t explain properly, deus ex machina, things that you wouldn’t expect to be there since Caine had spent so much time planning out stories for adventures. But then again, those were usually not that long or meant to be expanded on, and some plot lines tended to be reused and recycled from different adventures. This seemed like something brand new that Caine wanted to experiment with.
It was a bit infuriating to read at times, and a lot of the lines were ridiculously hilarious (even the ones that weren’t meant to be comedic). It was a movie trying to be bigger than it could ever be. But that was fine. It wasn’t ever gonna be displayed in a real cinema anyway, so it wasn’t like an actual human critic was gonna watch it and declare it to be the worst movie of all time, even worse than something like The Room, or anything along those lines.
It was just for fun.
What really short-circuited and fried their brains was the romantic scenes. It was longer than they had both expected.
A family-friendly movie? Even in typical kid movies where two characters got together at the end, the romance parts were short, and the characters were usually hastily thrown together at the last second just to ensure a happy, harmonious ending. With all the other content in this movie they had seen, there’s no way it could be classified as all-ages.
Zooble almost fell to their knees when reading certain dialogue and action lines. It made them want to stomp out of their room, run up to Caine, and tell him to change everything about the movie literally right then. But it was too long. There was no way in hell that Caine would accept making even the slightest, tiniest change; getting him to accept constructive criticism was hard enough with adventures, or in regard to their parts, and now with this narrative that he’s extremely proud of? It’d be like talking to a brick wall.
Their limbs could’ve almost straightened as they saw what was defined for their character throughout the latter half of the script. That AI was getting too bold for their liking.
They began reciting some lines to themself. Their eyes narrowed, and they wondered what the point of trying even was. An image of Gangle flashed into their brain, and they dragged themself into continuing. If it wasn’t for her, they would’ve ripped each page of the book into tiny little pieces, set it on fire, and flushed it down a toilet.
“I’ll… avenge my— sweet… Shit! What the fuck is this, man?” They face planted onto their bed, grunting in mortification. How were they ever going to be able to say these cheesy, corny lines right to her face? Zooble didn’t care for the concept of ‘cringe’ much, but there had to be a limit. A very neatly defined limit. And this had to fly past the line, didn’t it?
As they grasped their bedsheets and yelled into their mattress, a knock on the door was heard. They really hoped it wasn’t Bubble asking them if they were practicing, as he had done at least 10 times that day. One more time, and they would’ve pulled out one of their claw fingers and popped him.
They lifted their head from the mattress, looking at the door. “Who is it? If it’s Bubble, I’m practicing, so leave me the fuck alone.”
“Uh, it’s Gangle… I’m here to talk about the script and… Practice with you? If that’s okay? I brought my book…” She said awkwardly.
Zooble’s mind had quickly cleared itself from the haze as they heard her voice. They gathered some strength and opened the door for her, welcoming her with a simple “Hey.” As soon as she stepped in, the air in the room got a lot heavier than usual.
They both were well aware of what went down in their scripts. And they had gotten especially laser-focused on that last part, where the supposed character arcs would come to a close, bringing in the big climax and resolution of the story; It had turned into some kind of big burden weighing upon their backs.
They had both decided to take a seat on their huge bed, not too close to each other, but not too far either. Just enough to let the other know they weren’t uncomfortable with their presence, despite everything.
“So, uh…” Zooble stared into her, their pupils quickly shifting from side to side to break eye contact occasionally.
“Yeah,” Gangle added, squirming uncomfortably as she sat.
There was nothing but silence between them for a few seconds.
Zooble decided to cut through the silence. “So, the story really sucks, right? I already expected that. Classic Caine.”
“It could be better…”
“He really should’ve just let you write the story. It’s honestly not fair, since he already gets to decide the story of every single adventure! You already have experience.”
“My ideas aren’t the best either, honestly.”
“Way better than anything he could ever make.”
Gangle was tired of the elephant in the room that was beginning to suffocate them. “Hey, you know, um, isn’t the script really weird when it comes to our scenes together?...”
Zooble stopped in their tracks for a second. They usually weren’t afraid of bringing things up, but this time, with her? Every ounce of toughness they had just evaporated away.
“It… Yeah. It is.”
“Like, that one scene where we have to— look each other in the eyes, and…”
Gangle gulped, her breathing wavering. Her entire body wanted to tie itself into knots as she gazed at Zooble, those lines still replaying in her mind.
She instantly regretted the route the conversation started taking, so it was time to drift it to another track. Her eyes were redirected to the script book.
“...Aaaand my lines are terrible! I’m always being the damsel-in-distress! My character is so flat! I can’t believe I’m gonna have to act like that the entire time…”
“Can you show them to me? Here, I can share mine too.”
They handled each other’s books, taking the time to look over what they believed was most important: the big plot twists and scenes in that sea of words.
Zooble tsked at what they read. “Shit… why’d he have to make your character like that?”
“I don’t know, but at least your character seems to have cool parts…”
Zooble laughed. “No way. They sound so corny that I genuinely can’t get through a single scene without wanting to blow my brains out.”
Gangle smiled as she heard their silken laugh. “You’re gonna have a sword, and you’ll be fighting with almost everyone in the movie… Do you think he’ll make the fights real or,” she pondered, “Maybe he’ll try to fake them like they do in real movies?”
“I don’t wanna get stabbed, but I’m thinking he’ll want a shortcut to avoid the hard parts of making a movie, so he’s just gonna make it real…” they huffed.
Gangle winced at the thought. Although they were pretty much immortal, as in, they couldn’t die from the typical human ways, the feeling of getting stabbed or ripped through was something she still hadn’t gotten used to; it never stopped being painful in all those adventures she’d gone through.
As Gangle’s hand drifts through their book, flipping through its pages, she mumbles, “But you do win all of the fights pretty easily, except for this one, where you almost lose…”
They absentmindedly go through her book’s pages as well. “Damn. I’m not excited for that one. It’s gonna be brutal if he makes it real.”
“I wish my character had a better role. She could’ve been a protector for your character in that scene.”
Zooble’s expression lightened at her ingenuity. “That’s what I’m saying! He should’ve at least let you be the co-director or something.”
Gangle couldn’t help but giggle shyly at all their flattery. “I used to be a theatre kid in high school for a little bit, so I do have some experience with acting too…”
At the mere mention of a new fact about their friend, Zooble’s pupils dilated. They had an insatiable curiosity about what her old life was like before the circus, wanting to know her as a real person outside all this chaos. “That’s funny. I used to be a freaky emo kid, actually.”
Gangle beamed. “I think that maybe we could’ve crossed paths, our groups overlapped a lot… we could’ve become friends in high school! Oh, wait— if I wasn’t 4 years older than you.”
Zooble scooted closer, placing some fingers on her thin, ribbon arm. “Pfft. Age wouldn’t stop me. I’d definitely have found a way to get to you. Somehow.”
Gangle laughed harder, leaning harder into her jokester mood, “No! You shouldn’t chase an old lady like me… It’s not worth it!”
“Don’t lie to yourself like that.”
“Huh?”
They both paused. When they had come to, the wall they had unconsciously drawn between each other had been breached. And there was Gangle, saying something stupid yet again to drive Zooble further away from her. Gangle’s smile quickly faded, her mask gaining an obvious blush, and in retaliation, Zooble’s hand was slowly pulled away from her. They couldn’t stop themselves from gaining a dark magenta flush on their face.
Gangle stumbled on her words. “Ah— sorry, why’d I say that?! That was such a terrible joke…”
It was clear that Zooble’s flirtatiousness had failed yet again. It was unclear if they were actually trying to be, or if it was just something subconscious that activated whenever they talked to her. “No, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. It was my fault anyway. Uh—”
Their door was barged open, causing them both to jolt upwards, almost jumping into the ceiling. And Bubble, the menacing hallway vigilante, had welcomed himself in, with his huge, toothy smile that took up most of his form.
Bubble approached them, slowly invading their space, until he was about a veeery tiny inch away from their faces.
“You guys aren’t doing your work,” he whispered.
“We’ll get back to it if you leave,” Zooble affronted them, their eyebrows furrowing, “So get the fuck out of my room, weirdo.”
“Okay! Start rehearsing your scenes… I’m watching you…” As they slurred their last word, they slowly reversed their movement out of their room and headed back into the hallway, winking at them. It was their unique way of warning someone that something terribly bad would happen if they didn’t comply with a request.
Zooble stood up furiously, slamming the door shut. They closed their fists so tightly that if they had human skin, it’d have started bleeding by now.
“Fucking bitch. I could pop you in an instant.” They mumbled to themselves, still staring at the door.
Gangle lifted herself, reaching out to them. “Is everything okay?”
Zooble looked back at Gangle, their angry expression returning to what they once had during their chat. “Yeah. He’s just annoying. I got sick and tired of him knocking at my door.”
Gangle sighed, gaining a pout on her face. “I guess we really have to start rehearsing. This is gonna be…”
Ah, I really can’t do this! How are we supposed to do this together? She cried internally.
Zooble exposed a confident stance, their hand on their hip. “It’s fine. I said we’d laugh it off together, right?”
Gangle looked in awe. “You did…”
“Let’s make it quick. If we do this together, it’ll be easier to get through. I’m sure.”
“Yeah, together,” she repeated. Her anxious heart began to feel somewhat soothed by their words.
Their script books had been laid down on the bed, right next to each other. For about two hours now, they had been failing to act out any scenes successfully. It constantly ended with them either bursting into maniacal laughter, taking a break from frustration, or getting so flustered they couldn't say specific lines to each other. With the deadline in a few days, they genuinely wondered if they'd be able to make it. It looked like Caine was expecting them to work on this all night long, with no regard for their mental sanity (as always).
“I won't lie, the fact that it’s so funny makes it easier to remember. But I just can’t take this part seriously!—” Zooble wheezed as they pointed to the exact line in the book they had to act out. It was something about Aden dramatically throwing some random character they had to fight across an entire field while chanting the name of some sort of weird spell, demanding them to tell them information about the whereabouts of Eve.
Gangle squinted at the line, chuckling. “How did Aden even do that? My mind can’t really understand what went behind this…”
Zooble continued to wheeze and laugh, tears almost spilling from their eyes. “Fuck, this might be the best thing I’ve ever read so far. We should find a way to bring this into the real world and make it into an actual thing.”
Gangle smiled, “I’ll give it a comic book adaptation!”
After the joke had passed, they had gone quiet for a bit, searching for other parts to practice. They weren’t really doing it in order; it had been going so casually between them that either they just rehearsed the parts they found funniest first, or any scene between them, which they had plenty of.
There were some particular scenes that they just couldn’t bring themselves to do, though. Some scenes that they couldn’t even talk to each other about. At least not now.
“Let’s do this one together, maybe?” Gangle said, pointing at the title of a specific scene on a particular act, not thinking much about it.
Zooble nodded in response, flipping through pages until they found the exact one, and they began reading through their lines.
As they skimmed through the first few words, reading the action lines, they weren’t too bothered at first, but as they advanced through the scene, the part where Eve and Aden had begun interacting with each other was honestly a bit intimate. It was something that, as they envisioned themselves acting it out with Gangle, began to make them slightly unsteady. Their eye contact stayed firm on the book, and they questioned themself; why the hell would Gangle specifically choose this part out of all the ones they have together?
But then again, what was there to complain about? Being this close to her wasn’t something to cry about, was it? They knew deep down that this was something they’d been longing for.
Might as well take advantage of it.
“Alright, c’mere.” Zooble said, taking a few steps back into a larger space within their room.
Gangle had just finished parsing out the scene. She looked a little stiffer than before, almost coiling into herself. “Yeah,” she shyly muttered.
Both of them actually started to take it seriously; in their individual parts, they were embodying the characters within their own voices and postures, copying their actions as closely as they could. Gangle assumed a dainty, small posture fit for a princess, while Zooble had a large, heroic stance, fit for a fighter who was ready for anyone to pounce at them. They couldn’t take their eyes off each other, so the others’ presence would naturally become quite a distraction. At the same time, it was an inspiration, forcing them to do better and better, loosening up each time it was their turn to come up on that imaginary stage. Their passion kept shining through every movement, every step, every word they spoke. Becoming one with their personas was actually becoming quite automatic, despite how foolishly written their characters were.
And then came the part where they had to get close to each other.
“Alright, take a deep breath. Are you ready for this part?” Zooble said, pumping their fist into the air.
“I’ll do my best,” Gangle said, fired up from Zooble’s immersive performance.
Their postures quickly shifted into something more elegant and refined as they stepped closer to each other. Gangle had already lost some of her potency just by being this near to her friend, but she couldn’t give up now. Not when they were working so hard for this goal.
She took a deep breath before starting. “Aden,” Gangle cried out, desperately trying to stay in character, “Where have you been?”
It was Zooble’s turn to be dominant, and just like in their script, they had to take Gangle’s hand and draw it closer to their face before speaking.
They exhaled heavily, trying to stop their arm from shaking vigorously. Every bit of control mattered in that second in order not to make themself look dumb in front of her, and the imaginary audience watching them. It’s fine, it's just acting, was all they could repeat in their head in order to calm themself down from such a bold step they had to take. With a friend.
As they began to reach out to hold Gangle’s hand, their hand suddenly felt like it had gone limp. They broke eye contact with her, but when they peeked at her again, Gangle was wearing a nervous smile, her mask rosy, as if she was encouraging them to keep going without saying a word.
With her approval, they stuck their hand out and grabbed her hand, slowly raising it to their face, and then shyly leaning their head into it.
“Eve,” Zooble’s smoky voice hissed, “I’ve been looking all over this land for you.”
Gangle could’ve tied herself up into a velvety ball of ribbons in that moment, but somehow managed to find a way to stiffen up her ribbons and stay up, trying not to melt into their touch.
“You’re… hurt,” she said, her voice losing a bit of strength on the way, “Who hurt you? Tell me who did it.”
Zooble’s hands smoothly slid from her ribbon ends to her back, pulling her into a nervous, but at the same time, tight embrace, lowering their knees a bit to stay at her level. Gangle quietly gasped as her mask was now on their shoulder. She had no idea where to put her hands from there, and suddenly, Zooble had won their unspoken battle of acting. She lost track of all the lines she was meant to say to them in return.
Zooble whispered to her, their voice still not stammering despite how obvious it was that they were quivering in her proximity. “You don’t need to know. I’m just glad you’re here.”
There was something she was supposed to declare next, but all the words had jumbled up and become a soup-like mess in her brain. So it was quiet for a minute.
The embrace was getting longer than it should have, but Zooble wanted to give her some time to think. Or maybe they just wanted to stay within that warmth for a minute more.
“Gangle. Did you forget?”
“Um,” she stammered, her face going completely blank, except for the blush that had taken over her mask.
They backed away from her, seemingly looking like it was nothing to them. But Gangle could hear their heavy breathing, their eyes shifting from side to side, and that enticing puddle of dark magenta on their face.
“Maybe we should… take a break.”
Gangle blinked rapidly, waking up from the dream that the embrace had just put her in.
“Oh! Yeah— I’m… sorry… I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s fine. I was getting… Yeah. You did good.”
They sat back down in bed, taking a moment to freshen themselves up. They had gone back to being distant in where they sat, just like they were in the beginning. Although it was fun, Gangle felt like they couldn’t be there anymore. The ambiance had just… changed. The closer they had to get to each other in every scene, the stranger it felt being around Zooble. Her heart felt like it was working twice as hard to keep up. It was almost as if she were breathing the same air as them for one more instant; she’d phase out of existence. But at the same time, it was hard letting go of them and the moment they were having together.
“I haven’t done this in a really long time, so my acting isn’t that good… I probably need some time to rehearse by myself,” she said, her ribbon hands fiddling with each other.
“I get that. I’m honestly pretty shit at this. But you’re always welcome back to practice with me.”
That invitation felt like it was ripping her apart in two. But she couldn’t refuse such a good friend of hers, could she? She didn’t want to reject that either. “I think… I’ll come back later, okay? And you did good too.” She said as the fiddling with her ribbons was getting a bit more intense.
Zooble couldn’t stop with those tender gazes they threw her way. “Thanks.”
They both knew they needed to step away from each other for a bit.
And figure out how to address that part, looming over their heads, that definitely needed to be talked about, sooner or later; the dreaded kissing scene for the closing act of the movie.