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The camera turns on, revealing two very similar grins standing in the centre of the video. One still in armour and his iconic blue scarf, while the other’s face is free of heavy make-up and painted scars for once.
“Hello to whoever actually bothers to watch the bloopers reel! It’s our turn to show you some of the studio!” Wild exclaims brightly, looking dead into the lens which follows the two men shakily down a hallway. They occasionally point out small things like the numbers on the doors or wave to people who rush past them.
They come to a stop outside of one such doorway with the number 5 embezzled in gold on the front. Wild swings the door wide open causing an assault of bright light to meet them as it bangs loudly on the wall inside, shocking Legend who jumps about three feet into the air.
“What the hell?” Legend lets out a shout of surprise, a hand coming to rest against his chest as he exhales shakily. From behind him pops out another man clad in deep, purple robes. He waves enthusiastically at Wild and Warriors with one hand while the other hand reaches deep into a satchel at the waist. It takes a few seconds for him to pull back out a glistening red gem which he promptly presents to the camera.
Legend squints suspiciously.
Wild tilts his head curiously as Ravio places the jewel in his open palms and nods solemnly. Before anyone can react, Wild swiftly lets the gem disappear into his pocket and in exchange for a wad of bank notes which are brought out for Ravio to flick through. Those too, are briskly squirrelled away inside the zipped compartment of Ravio's satchel.
It’s at this point that the actor of Legend points an accusatory finger at Ravio. “Is that from the set?”
Ravio spins to face Legend, smiling innocently and shaking his head. His hands come out in a placating manner, “No of course not,” he tries to soothe. Legend just crosses his arms like a displeased husband.
“Try again.”
“I’m trying to run a business here.” Is Ravio’s only response before Legend is turning on Wild and striding up to him and reaching towards his pocket. However, Wild just dances out of the actor’s reach and rushes quickly outside and slamming the door closed in the camera’s face.
Warriors blinks twice.
“Well, guess that’s my cue to leave.” He grumbles before holding the door open for the person behind the camera, who waves awkwardly to Legend and Ravio as they follow the boy outside, Warriors tailing closely behind.
“Those two are made for the role, I swear,” he mutters to the camera before speeding up and letting the camera focus on Wild instead, who stands waiting just up ahead.
They’re back to walking down the corridor soon enough. Eventually, Warriors, who’s just ahead of Wild, who’s chatting about some incessant thing to the camera, comes to a stop outside of an unassuming, blank door.
The video zooms in on Warriors before panning slowly to the door.
“This,” Warriors explains, “is the Forbidden Room.”
Wild’s head pops into view as his hand comes to grasp on the handle. “It’s a room most of us aren’t allowed into,” he shrugs, “though they never explained to us why.” Carefully his hand pushes down and the door slowly swings open allowing for the intense fluorescent lights to escape the room. He smiles mischievously, “Today we find out.”
The actor of Blue quickly swings round in his chair, startled. He holds a makeup brush in one hand and a fuzzy worm toy in the other. Above him with hands entangled in his hair is Green’s actor, who’s attempting to straighten the strands of blonde into the same style that Vio and Green already have.
“Wait, what are you guys doing in here?” Warriors asks slowly while scanning the room. “I didn’t know you were the ones with access to this place.”
Wild nods in agreement, bouncing on the balls of his feet a little. Vio, who sits in the corner with a script in hand looks up at the new arrivals.
“It’s our dressing room.”
Warriors closes his eyes briefly exasperated before sighing deeply and turning his gaze up towards the ceiling of the room. “I gathered that.” He articulates in the most measured, deadpan voice. Beside him, Wild’s brows crinkle downwards as he meets Vio’s gaze head on.
“I thought this was the Forbidden Room.”
The entire group pauses before each of the Colours start to shout over the top of each other.
“The Forbidd-”
“-who told you-”
“I can’t believe they fell fo-”
“-holy sh-”
Warriors rubs a hand down his face.
“I don’t know who you heard that from but… sorry to disappoint you?” Blue replies breezily, not sounding remotely apologetic at all.
Wild and Warriors watch in shocked bemusement as Green smacks the top of Blue’s head who yelps in protest, quickly dropping the makeup brush and instead rubbing the offended spot. Green goes to whack him again, but the voice of the red-clothed occupant in the room tiredly speaks up from the opposite while looking directly into Green’s eyes through the mirror.
“Stop hitting him, you’ll have to do his hair all over again, idiot.”
Green raises an unimpressed eyebrow at Red’s reflection but sighs in defeat before turning around and trying to get back on task.
It’s silent for a few seconds, Wild and Warriors not moving from their spots and the Colours choosing to get back into their routines.
“I hope your hair falls off due to heat damage.” whispers a voice.
Wild chokes on his spit and bangs his head on the door.
The camera feed cuts off at the panicked shout from Warriors.
– – –
Once again the duo men stand face to face under the harsh lights of the baking sun with sweat dripping down their backs and grimaces carving wrinkles into their skin.
“We might have to admit it, Sky.” Twilight mutters lowly, dipping his head once Legend finally trails away.
“Admit what?” Sky responds, his tone just a bit too cold as his eyes pierce into Twilight’s, practically freezing the hairs on his arms. There’s a pregnant pause as the man steels himself.
Twilight looks away and into the distance. “You know what I’m talking about,” he sighs, the defeat too heavy, too accepting, in his voice. “We won’t make it. There’s no way we’ll be able to do this.”
Sky’s gaze darkens. “And what do you expect we do then?” He takes a step closer, his boot thumping on the ground like thunder. “Let them all wait out here for death to come and take them?” He hisses right into Twilight's face, upper lip curling.
In the background, there is a small shout as a thermos begins to roll over.
Twilight stays silent for a moment, his expression one of sorrow as he opens his mouth again to speak and-
“CUT!” yells the director somewhere from off the set.
“Sorry !!” yells Red as he runs to pick up his can. “You guys are doing great!” He grins, giving the camera a small thumbs up.
Twilight closes his eyes and throws a prayer to the heavens above before proceeding to throw a defeated look into the camera.
– – –
The video feed flickers to life, this time Wind’s blurry face takes up the majority of the frame. Half a cheek peeks out from his left - that’s Hyrule - and a shoulder to his right - Time. He mutters under his breath as a palm comes up and covers half of the lens while he sticks his tongue out and fiddles with something unseen on the camera.
“There we are…” He sighs after drawing back his hand and looking back directly into the shot. “Hi guys!”
Hyrule waves happily from beside Wind, while Time’s arm lifts to do the same. Wind pauses for a moment, placing the camera down on a table, before shuffling back a few steps. The others follow his movements quickly, but choose to continue to stand awkwardly by his side. Wind’s eyebrows furrow downwards in careful contemplation.
“You’re too tall, Time.” He groans. Time shoots him an apologetic glance but doesn’t choose to do anything else about the situation. Wind huffs and starts scurrying around the room, occasionally running on and off frame, carrying various objects.
“Is that a boomerang?”
Wind doesn’t stay still long enough to provide a fruitful answer, but the object does get thrown behind him, almost taking off Hyrule’s head. Time snatches it out of the air just before it hits the actor in the nose and appraises it for a moment.
“Looks like it.”
The two stationery men watch in growing bafflement as a large crashing sound booms from off screen accompanied quickly by an alarmed shout. Hyrule takes a step forward, presumably to go and aid the boy, but he stops at Wind’s rushed claims of “I’m fine!” He shares a glance with Time and shakes his head imperceptibly while rolling his eyes.
Wild eventually comes back into view, shifting a large brown box alongside him slowly. His arms tremble with the effort of it, and it’s not long before Hyrule takes pity on the boy and picks up the other side, helping him to position it just beside Time.
The older man just blinks down at Wind, who beckons him to sit.
“You’re too tall.”
Time exhales tiredly, but he does take a seat on the box.
A box which happens to promptly collapse beneath him as it folds in on itself. His eyes widen as his backside crashes to the floor, and the sound of fragile rattling from what had been the inside of the box shakes the room. Something has definitely broken, multiple times over.
“I'm really not good at this vlogging thing.” Wind says while hurrying forwards. The clip ends in darkness.
– – –
“You know what I’m talking about.” Twilight sighs, the defeat too heavy in his voice. “We won’t make it. There’s no way we’d be able to do this.”
Sky’s gaze darkens. “And what do you expect we do then?” He takes a step closer, “let them all wait out here for death to come and take them?” He’s hissing right into Twilight's face now, who barely manages not to recoil at the stray spit that flies off his lips.
“Oh but marching them off into-” Twilight stutters, breaking off in a shaky voice “their certain demise is so much better?”
“I-” Sky cuts himself off, mouth opening and closing once or twice before his shoulders sag in defeat and he leans forward to try and jokingly kiss Twilight, the latter dodging it with a laugh.
– – –
The actors of the four colours all sit in a neat little square opposite a bubbly interviewer, who holds a clipboard to her chest with one hand and a mic in the other. “So… huge plot point in the film here to do with Red. How did it feel to have to let go of such an important character?”
The interviewees just grin at one another, Blue chuckling softly under his breath.
It’s Vio who outright laughs as he explains, “Oh yeah, the real reason we killed off Red was so that he could permanently play Four.” The actor in question, who sits just behind Vio, smiles wryly as he flicks his hair off his shoulder.
Green jumps in next to Vio, “Especially because Blue kept showing up at our metaphorical doorsteps to beg us to take his parts as Four instead because of how much he hated it.”
“I just hated the constant costume change!” Blue shouts from the back.
From Blue’s left, Red elbows him, “Oh, but you were just fine playing as me that one time I took your Four parts, hm?”
The interviewer giggles good-naturedly, eventually collecting herself and asking the next question. “And the Producers let you get away with this?”
Green looks sheepishly into the camera as the other 3 break out into giggles. “I’m not sure they always knew who was who.” Blue nods enthusiastically in agreement.
“Oh we definitely knew.” A distant voice calls from behind the cameras.
“We even had bets on who would play who each time.” Another pipes up.
Green throws his hands up in exasperation and mild frustration while Blue pats his head in condolence.
“In the beginning I’m sure I got called by your names more than I did, though,” Vio comments lightly, taking a glance at the rest of the group out of the corner of his eye. He shifts slightly in his seat so he can get a better view of the group. “I’m not sure about you lot, but I’m pretty sure I would respond to any name at this point.”
“Okay Link.”
“Not what I meant.”
– – –
Once Legend is gone, Twilight hangs his head. “We might have to admit it, Sky.” he mumbles.
“Admit what?” Sky retorts coldly as his eyes pierce into Twilight’s, causing goosebumps to raise across his arms. There’s a long pause as the man readies himself.
Twilight looks away and into the distance. “You know what I’m talking about,” he sighs, the defeat too heavy, too accepting, in his voice. “We won’t make it. There’s no way we’ll be able to do this.” There’s a small shift in his expression, having spotted something on the horizon.
Sky’s gaze dims. “And what do you expect we do then?” He takes a step closer, his boot loudly thudding on the ground sending shockwaves through the eerie silence.
But he cuts himself off, because Twilight still isn’t looking at him, eyes wide and instead focused on the spot in the distance.
Sky’s facade drops, the confusion clearly displayed on his face as he turns his head to look at whatever got the other man so distracted.
Once he does see, he barely has time to dodge fast enough, only narrowingly managing to throw himself off to the side and onto the floor so that the rapidly approaching dog wouldn’t be able to run him over as he jumped up and barrelled into Twilight, who readily catches him and falls to the ground alongside Sky.
“Wolfie!” Twilight exclaims. “Did they let you out early?”
“CUT!”
Sky drops his head in defeat.
– – –
“We’ve just heard from the colours.” The invterviewer begins once Hyrule, Wild and Legend have taken their seats. “How was it like having so many of them running around on set?”
“Disorienting.” Hyrule admits, nodding earnestly.
“How so?” The interviewer prods, leaning forward in her chair, holding a pen up to her mouth.
Legend leans back in his chair. “Have you ever tried walking around with 4 very similar faces all around you constantly in a different colour?” he deadpans.
The interviewer gives a small laugh. “No, I must admit I have not.”
“It got worse for the scenes with only Four,” Wild adds. “I mean, before that it at least added up,”
Hryule jumps in.” Yeah! Suddenly you had something like Red, Blue, Violet and… Four.” he chuckles. “Instead of the usual and correct Red, Blue, Violet and Green.”
Wild nods solemnly. “Their dressing room was particularly uncanny.” he shivers.
The Interviewer opens her mouth to ask the next question, but she gets interrupted by the amused voice of Blue shouting from somewhere off camera. “That’s why we dubbed it the forbidden room.”
“That was YOU? ” shrieks Red, also off camera.
The tape cuts.
– – –
“We won’t make it. There’s no way we’d be able to do this.” Twilight's voice rings out from the distance, right as the camera pans away from the wide angle shot of the rolling hills and lush, green countryside to the band of geared up adventurers.
Sitting and talking quietly amongst each other, Legend, Vio, Blue and Time have all made good use of their break by getting themselves comfortable in their camping chairs , the latter of the two even having a thick, woolen, blanket draped over their laps.
A small distance away, Twilight’s voice can faintly be heard from the set again, Sky’s response being too quiet to be picked up on the videotape. “Oh but marching them off into their doom is so much better?”
A groan is heard from Legend, who sits the furthest away from the camera. The clip focuses on the poor man as he pitifully folds over at the waist and holds his head into his hands, shaking it softly in desperation.
“Oh fuck, it was demise, wasn’t it?”
Legend shrinks deeper into his seat. “This is the 45th fucking time.” There’s unshed tears glistening in his eyes.
Next to him, Vio giggles.
– – –
Time’s favourite spot on the entire set was most definitely his chair. It was a small, tiny thing, stationed off to one side near the camera crew. Out of all of his time on filming sets, it was probably one of the better spots, at least from the view he could get. The rickety seat was thankfully squished just in between a space where he could peer through the machinery and get a good look at the active film site.
A blessing really, in times like this, where the majority of the actors were attempting to shoot a scene in which they had to complete some impressive stunts.
It had been two and a half hours by now at least. An entertaining way to spend a Thursday afternoon by watching the actors and directors and stunt actors trying to coordinate with each other. He was too old for this kind of thing really, but luckily his long lived experience in the industry had helped him organise and finalise his own parts in the scene so that he could sit out the rest of the scheduled time and relax to feast upon the growing trainwreck that was this specific shoot.
Another thud from Legend’s direction catches Time’s attention, and he manages to catch the moment where the guy lands flat on his face. He winces in sympathy, before shouting encouraging words his way.
Legend jumps to his feet and rotates on one heel, locating Time as easily as he had the other 42 times before this. He glares. Raises his left hand and then raises his middle finger.
Time just claps his hands and beams, “That’s the spirit!”
Legend huffs and swivels around to replay the scene again.
– – –
Twilight sat at the small rectangular table a few metres back behind the plethora of cameras next to Sky, who was holding a ham and cheese sandwich and digging into it with an energy that must have come from his very core. Where did this energy come from? Twilight had no idea, seeing as he had his head rested heavily in his hands while his eyes blinked blearily at the set in front of them, the distant sounds of whatever scene Legend and Hyrule were shooting were currently washing over him like the wind.
He sighed, turning slowly to face Sky, who looked up at him startled mid-bite. The other man made a curious shoulder shrugging gesture before biting into the sandwich again, a sandwich which Twilight could honestly kill for right now.
Too bad he'd forgotten his damn lunch in the trailer in his rush to get out of bed and make it to set on time.
Before he could return his focus back to the two other boys currently being filmed, there was a nudge at his elbow. A small square of white bread and a startling generous amount of pink ham falling out from between the two ends appeared in his peripheral.
Twilight just quirks an eyebrow in skepticism but accepts the squarelet of sandwich and munches it in thought. “I’m glad that that godforsaken scene is done now.” He says in between bites. “Not sure I could handle ignoring Wolfie for much longer.”
Sky chuckles under his breath as he stretches his arms above his head. “Yeah that’s fair,” he agrees, “I’m looking forward to seeing it on the big screen though. All that work will make it worth it.”
– – –
“And truly, seeing the way you guys flourished in your characters and adapting to them was mesmerizing.” The interviewer comments. “Tell me, is there anything that stuck with you from your character now that it’s over?”
Wild lights up. “Oh yeah, I actually began learning how to cook. It turns out, I really enjoy it.”
Next to him Twilight starts to giggle.
Wild crosses his arms, looking over to Twilight with raised eyebrows. “Got something to comment?”
“I’m sorry.” Twilight wheezes. “I’ve just been reminded of that one time where you-” he’s breaking out into full on laughter at this point. “When we-” he cuts himself off again, the other actors present also beginning to smirk. Twilight takes a shaky breath. “When we were filming the dinner scene with Artemis and you took one” he looks into the camera. “And I mean one sip of your prop soup and went ‘this isn’t seasoned enough.’”
Wild grins. “I forgot my line, I had to improvise.”
– – –
Polished, stone brick walls rise to the ceilings which stretch out into an ornate flower carving. Mirrored directly below, the plush carpet, worn only at the edges, sprawls across the pine floorboards. Its condition is testament to the amount of care the room has seen over its lifetime.
Seated at a plethora of masterfully crafted wooden tables, the guests of the evening converse quietly among themselves politely. Some dare to reach out and take a helping from the colourful food-filled platters generously scattered across the gathering; a delightful assembly of ruby red fruits, emerald green salads, and rose quartz coloured cakes which stand proudly upon serving plates gleaming in the warm light of the crystal chandeliers and elegant, yet modest, candles.
At the centre of the dignified flock of esteemed invitees stands the Queen herself, respected in her authority at the head of her table. A gentle ting echoes across the space as she hits a silver spoon on the edge of her glass with a flourish of graceful sophistication, causing heads to look up from their conversations in curiosity.
She adorns a dashing smile, opening her arms wide to invite the room to join in her cheer.
“And with that,” Artemis exclaims, her voice ringing out throughout the hall, “the feast shall begin!”
She sits back down as the Heroes begin to eat their food. One in particular, Wild, however, looks skeptical at his own soup. He hesitantly lifts his spoon and takes a sip, just as Twilight leans over and whispers, “Everything alright?”
Wild blankly stares at the table in front of him for a few moments. “This isn’t seasoned enough.”
Twilight snorts and the rest of the table begins to giggle as well as a defeated smile spreads across Wild’s face.
From the other end of the table, Artemis abruptly gets up, grabbing a salt shaker prop and stomping over. She opens the prop above Wild’s soup and proceeds to dump all of its contents into it. “That enough seasoning for you?”
The rest of the table loses it.
– – –
“Yeah! I had to eat salty soup the whole time after!” Wild huffs. “They refused to give me a new one!
He pauses.
“How did Artemis even know there was salt in the shaker?”
– – –
The camera cuts to Wild as he hesitantly eyes his soup, slowly lifting his spoon to take a sip.
The moment the flavour touches his tongue his face scrunches up and Twilight starts laughing again.
“CUT!”
– – –
Wild groans with his head in his hands, “We kept having to redo it too!”