Re:Zero - Behind the Scenes

by Jacoder23

Summary:

For fans of the SMASH hit live-action adaptation of the beloved Re:Zero franchise comes a behind-the-scenes look at what blood, sweat, and BLOOD went into the production of the TV show. Featuring interviews with actors and exclusive clips of what happens on set when the cameras are off.

Drabbles set in a Re:Zero actor AU, because every fandom needs an actor AU.

Notes:

• Inspired by Donut Hole by NurikoEsuki

Had this idea running around in my brain but actually got on and wrote it because of The_Fyre's fics.

Tags are to be updated when new chapters arrive.

Chapter 1: Selected clips featuring: Eliza Evergreen, actress of Elsa Granhiert

Summary:

"Was I worried about playing Elsa? Well..." Eliza ponders, crossing her legs. She pushes her glasses up her nose, a box light reflected in its lens, leaving a bright highlight around her eyes.

"I was more than a little concerned, of course. Her design didn't leave much to imagination." Eliza answers.

"But when Dora said they'd have to change out her dress completely to better fit the new, more serious tone, I was even more concerned. They wanted something without the fanservice. Y'know..." She says before sipping her water, "It's not Re:Zero without lighthearted parts. Yes, that includes the fanservice and especially—" She pauses for emphasis, leaning forward in her seat, "—Subaru's shamelessness."

"You can give him a shave, trim the worst of it— if you've read the web novel, you know how much worse Subaru was for the first three arcs."

Megan, the interviewer, interjects. "You've read the original web novel?"

Eliza smiles warmly but hides it behind her hand. The corners of her eyes crinkle. "Like I said, I'm a big fan of Re:Zero."

 

 

 

1

---

Between takes for the second loop in the loothouse, Eliza Evergreen, actress for Elsa Granhiert, is seen chatting on set with younger co-star Velva Cromwell, actress for Felt. Both are still in costume, Eliza is covered in fake blood while Velva has a wound prosthetic running across from her shoulder, just barely short of reaching her other shoulder.

 

"I don't think I'd ever have the guts to do what you do. Doing your own stunts, even if you know there's a mat at the bottom... that's a real risk you're taking right?" Eliza says.

 

"Ah, well it's different for me. I used to do parkour." Velva replies. "It's why I took on this role, it's very physical, plus Felt reminds me of... well me."

 

"Really!" Eliza gushes. "The darling child of Hollywood Boulevard was leaping fences and rooftops?"

 

"I don't like it when people call me that..." Velva pouts. "But yeah, I used to."

 

"A-ah sorry, sorry! I don't mean to tease. But now you've got me curious, why would you stop?"

 

Velva grimaces. "Manager doesn't approve. Carol's a real stick in the mud." She turns to someone offscreen and shouts,  "Ain't that right, Rein!?"

 

The camera turns to the right to show Reinhardt Trias, actor for Reinhard von Astrea, going over lines with the director. He turns to Velva and shouts back with mirth, "Whatever you said, you're absolutely right! I, Reinhard von Astrea, agree entirely with anything you say!"

 

"He's a silly goose, that guy." Velva says with a smirk.

 

The director shouts at Reinhardt and then at the rest of the crew to take it back up from the first loop in the loothouse.

 

"All the way back?" Velva questions.

 

Eliza answers before the director can. "The prosthetics and makeup should be almost the same. Both have Felt and Rom as dead bodies after all, just that it's at the start for the first scene in the loothouse instead of near the end."

 

Velva shivers. "That means me and the old man are gonna be lying on the ground the whole time! My legs are gonna fall asleep— ugh, being a dead body sucks."

 

 

 

2

---

Eliza is hunched over, nearly kneeling on the ground outside her hotel. The crew are calling everyone back to the set but she hadn't responded and so a staff member approaches her, calling out her name. Eliza nearly falls over onto the hot asphalt below, revealing the gray-white cat that she was bent over. It scampers off.

 

"No! Puck come back!" Eliza shouts, hand outstretched with a cat wand in hand.

 

Offscreen, muttering can be heard from the camera crew, "She named it Puck..."

 

The actress' face turns red when she realizes what she's just said on camera. "Y-you didn't see anything!"

 

The staff member that called out to her just nods and holds out a hand to help her up. She talks softly to herself while standing up.

 

"I just saw him and thought: doesn't he look just like Puck? Then I got so caught up playing with him that I lost track of time. I mean, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet a Puck lookalike..."

 

The staff member doesn't say anything but raises an eyebrow before pointing at the cat toy in her hand.

 

"...this? Oh, I just carry it around with me." Eliza admits whilst placing said toy back in her purse. "Never hurts to be prepared."

 

"...prepared for what? For if I meet the real Puck of course." She deadpans.

 

 

 

3

---

"Was I worried about playing Elsa? Well..." Eliza ponders, crossing her legs. She pushes her glasses up her nose a box light reflected in its lens, leaving a bright highlight around her eyes.

 

"I was more than a little concerned, of course. Her design didn't leave much to imagination." Eliza answers.

 

"But when Dora said they'd have to change out her dress completely to better fit the new, more serious tone, I was even more concerned. They wanted something without the fanservice. Y'know..." She says before sipping her water, "It's not Re:Zero without lighthearted parts. Yes, that includes the fanservice and especially—" She pauses for emphasis, leaning forward in her seat, "—Subaru's shamelessness."

 

"You can give him a shave, trim the worst of it— if you've read the web novel, you know how much worse Subaru was for the first three arcs."

 

Megan, the interviewer, interjects. "You've read the original web novel?"

 

Eliza smiles warmly but hides it behind her hand. The corners of her eyes crinkle. "Like I said, I'm a big fan of Re:Zero."

 

"In any case, he's a lot worse there than he is in any of the other adaptations. That's fine. But removing that part of him, or removing the parts of Re:Zero that bounce off of his shamelessness like the fanservice, just misses the point I think."

 

"Re:Zero is already serious. But it needs all of its sillier, more lighthearted elements to regulate the tension. Otherwise, it's not Re:Zero."

 

Off-screen, a producer whispers to Megan before she turns back to Eliza. "Does that mean you were in favor of the original dress design?"

 

Eliza sputters.

 

"N-no, no. My point was about changing the tone of the series. The dress on the other hand, I just asked if they could just make a dress off of Elsa's designs on the some of the covers for the Side Content. I'm absolutely sure there was one with her in a more reasonable dress."

 

"But you were sure it had to be a dress?"

 

"It had to be. She wouldn't be Elsa Granhiert if she wasn't a walking, talking, barely concealed innuendo." She pauses, "That's me as a fan though. As an actress, well... I'm still concerned my parents are going to give me a call one day after watching Episode 1."

 

"I'd say I'd die of shame, but..."

 

"But you're not Subaru." Megan concludes with a light smirk.

 

"I'm not Subaru!" Eliza cheers, throwing her hands into the air, "Thank god for that."

Notes:

Names (thus far):
Eliza Evergreen - Elsa Granheirt
Velva Cromwell - Felt
Reinhardt Trias - Reinhard von Astrea

Chapter 2: Selected clips featuring: Toya Lee and Eliora Tyche, actor and actress of Subaru Natsuki and Emilia respectively

Summary:

"Eh?" Eliora's hands go to her head, feeling her hair net she turns around and sees the leading man chewing on her fictional father figure. She exchanges stares with her co-star until breaking.

"I think that's my dad in your mouth." She says with dread.

 

 

 

1

---

"What's the matter? Why'd you space out?"

 

The camera slowly unblurs showing Cameron Brando, playing Kadomon Risch, holding out an apple. His stern gaze turns towards the man playing the main character Natsuki Subaru, Toya Lee. He's not looking at the camera but past it. His breath is held tight, like if he released it— it would all spill out from his guts in a warm, moist freefall. But for just an instant, Toya's glassy stare isn't towards the camera but to the side. We cut to another angle.

 

A little girl is seen sitting in a corner of the set, behind one of the fake stalls, her green wig tossed to the side. The sound of digitized violence and pain can be heard over tinny speakers as Brando's daughter is seen with her eyes glued to a phone.

 

Cameron chuckles darkly as Toya's stare goes from thousand yard to plain bewildered and he lets out a sigh.

 

"What'cha got there sport?" Cameron saunters over to where his daughter is sitting.

 

The little girl looks up from the deluge of red flashes from the screen, interlaced with the sound of screams, towards her father. "Oh, the mister over there gave it to me!" She says, pointing straight at Toya. A pointed stare from her father follows.

 

"I said I'd let you borrow it if you stayed out of the shot." Toya says, hand scratching his head. "And it doesn't really feel like both ends of the bargain are being kept here."

 

The little girl blinks twice, looks around the fake stall she's in, three walls blocking sight from the main camera and the smell of plywood. "You can see me?"

 

"We could hear you, baby." Cameron says, peering over his daughter's shoulder. His eyes widen and he takes the device out of his daughter's hands. "Nasty stuff. Is this what your generation's into, Toya?"

 

"No, what? I-" Toya begins. "Wait, nevermind that. That's your kid, she's like nine years old tops. What do you mean, 'what your generation's into'? What kind of wording is that? Be a little more responsible for keeping your kid from the ills of the world!"

 

"It's your phone, kid. I'm just saying I can't understand you youngsters." He says, still watching the phone screen.

 

"I don't even know what she was watching!"

 

Cameron presents the phone to Toya, shoving it in his face. He takes it silently and cringes.

 

"What was it?" Someone offstage calls out.

 

"It's uh... Re:Zero. The anime." Toya answers. "It's uh... episode six. The torture scene."

 

"You let a kid watch that?" Said person from offstage storms onstage. Emilia's lookalike, Eliora Tyche, gets in Toya's face. "Really? You let a kid watch that?"

 

"When I gave it to her, I had Cut the Rope open! How was I supposed to know she'd go to my gallery and find it?"

 

"Mister had it under his favorites folder." Cameron's daughter helpfully chimes in. There's a beat of silence.

 

"Why would you even have that saved let alone favorited? It's a torture scene!" Eliora objects.

 

"If that's just what the youth is into..." Cameron begins, taking his own pound of pleasure from Toya's pound of suffering.

 

"IT'S. FOR. REFERENCE." Toya hisses, teeth clenched. "FOR. THE. SCREAMS."

 

The argument at Toya's expense continues as the camera loses focus, instead moving back to Cameron's daughter who in all the madness took the phone back. She looks straight into the camera and smiles.

 

 

 

2

---

"Because... I'm actually half elf." Eliora says with practiced resignation. The skies of Budapest make for the perfect backdrop to the scene, midday clouds and a late afternoon sun cast long patchy shadows onto the bridge.

 

Toya is relaxed, having practiced these lines in his screen test with Eliora before. His arms hang over the edge of the bridge.

 

The camera shows the two of them perched on the bridge's ledge, their faces reflected in the river below. It's almost possible to forget that this is a TV show's outtake and not the actual city of Lugunica. It's just Emilia and Subaru... and the shot cuts to show a person in a greenscreen bodysuit holding a Puck puppet just out of the crop and the voice actress of Puck who's recording their lines from behind the main camera and the camera crew themselves and—

 

"No wonder. It makes sense now," Toya says, turning towards Eliora. Eliora's eyes close and her brow tenses. "From the moment I saw you, I thought you were cute."

 

"Elves are always beautiful aren't they?"

 

"Huh?" Eliora turns towards Toya, her voice quiets but its pitch rises, hurried. "Didn't you hear what I just said? I'm a half-elf."

 

He replies without missing a beat. "Yeah, I heard you."

 

Eliora goes still and her eyes widen, the silence growing before she leaps down from the ledge she was sitting on and back to the worn cobblestone. In one fluid motion, she hunches over on the ground, turning away, and while hiding her face in her hands.

 

"Uh?"

 

Playing one-half of the duo that would make up Puck, the puppeteer jumps out from behind Eliora wearing a full-body greenscreen suit. They stick the puppet, and with it her arms and hands, into Eliora's wig. They wind the puppet up for a loop-de-loop punch only for a mechanism to get caught in the wig. They shoot forward and it pulls the wig off of Eliora's head. The hairy mess goes flying; fortunately, it does not fall off the bridge. It flies into its intended target, though instead of a cute punch at Subaru for being a dunderhead it ends up with Toya with a mouthful of silver hair.

 

"Eh?" Eliora's hands go to her head, feeling her hair net she turns around and sees the leading man chewing on her fictional father figure. She exchanges stares with her co-star until breaking.

 

"I think that's my dad in your mouth." She says with dread.

 

 

 

3

---

"No, no I'm serious." Toya says, with wide smiles on both his and Eliora's faces: a rarity. Despite being the male and female leads, they don't get along nearly as well as some fans would assume. But they do have their moments.

 

"You're kidding. You have to be!" She playfully shoves Subaru, their chairs scooting further apart by a matter of centimeters. He scooches back in place. "You can't pretend that's not acting, you're nothing like Subaru off camera!"

 

"Besides both of their tendencies towards embarrassing themselves?" Megan offers, pen and a list of questions in clipboard and said clipboard in hand.

 

Toya rolls his eyes. He's not dressed like Subaru either, a tan blazer and tapered khakis have him only a few steps off from looking like a dad from the neck down but his youthful face makes sure those kinds of rumors won't come to pass.

 

Hopefully.

 

The joke passes and he gets to answering the original question. "Again, this is my first time really acting." Toya says. "Doing a little time at the comedy club doesn't count, no matter how many people go from stand-up to silver screen."

 

"There can't be that many people." Eliora says but is quickly interrupted.

 

Toya holds up a finger and takes a deep breath before launching into a list. "Jim Carrey. Eddie Murphy. Adam Sandler. Whoopi Goldberg. Ken Jeong. F*cking Robin McLaurin Williams." The beep of a post-edit censor goes off.

 

"Okay, okay! Point taken, Wikipedia." Eliora says. Toya settles but the smile remains.

 

"Re:Zero isn't really the kind of show for a comedian though is it?" Megan asks rhetorically. "Do you have another reason for taking the leap, maybe a personal connection?"

 

Her glances between Eliora and Toya along with hosting their interview jointly has made her intentions clear as crystal. Even though they both expected this, it does visibly take the wind out of their sails as Toya sighs, crossing his arms, and Eliora's face twists as though she's smelt something rotten.

 

"Just to clear that up, comedy was only ever a passing interest for me. I'm not really a comedian." Toya explains. The camera zooms in on him and Megan shifts to face him. "As for acting, I'm a novice but Subaru and his experiences resonated with me. When I got the opportunity to try out, I couldn't refuse."

 

Or rather, when the president of WC Studios showed up, I couldn't refuse. Toya thinks. Dammit, Ella!

 

With that, Megan turns to Eliora and the verbal baton is passed.

 

"I feel much the same way, even if I've been at this for longer." She says with a little wistfulness in her voice. "Emilia is a better person than I could ever be but I can't help but feel for her and her circumstances."

 

"So you deny the rumors circulating about the two of you?" Megan asks, insistent and incessant, leaning forward in her chair, her clipboard and list of questions ignored.

 

Eliora grimaces. "I don't think either of our relationship statuses are relevant to the show. Busybodies may speculate but in the end, it's all fiction."

 

A shiver goes through Toya's body, rising up to his shoulders and to his throat. He hunches over. The interviewer is saying something but he can't hear it.

 

Did I always have to watch how I talked around other people like this? He thinks as his mind runs at a thousand frames a second, the flickering of the camera shutter in his mind's eye like the sound of a train roaring by. It feels like if I don't pay attention to the sound of my own voice, as much as I hate to listen to myself talk, I might-

 

A crooked smile breaks into form on his face, like an old suit he hasn't worn since highschool. "Busybody? Who says that in this day and age?"

 

There's a noticeable pause. The interview and camera crew laugh, a little too stilted with the timing for a joke being a bit off, but Eliora looks like she just had a flashbang go off in front of her. She looks wide-eyed at Toya.

 

"Su-" The quietest whisper is caught on her mic before the camera stops rolling.

Notes:

Tiny bit of the serious starting to poke through. Will I tag this as crack treated seriously? Maybe eventually. Thank you very much to The_Fyre for reading the snippets I posted in the Discord server.

---

Names (thus far):
Toya Lee - Subaru Natsuki
Eliora Tyche - Emilia
Eliza Evergreen - Elsa Granheirt
Velva Cromwell - Felt
Reinhardt Trias - Reinhard von Astrea
Cameron Brando - Kadomon Risch

Chapter 3: Selected clips featuring: Apollo "Polly" Augard, actor of Otto Suwen

Summary:

The interviewer presses on anyway, "Alright, but what was your reaction to being passed up for the role of Subaru Natsuki by a complete unknown?" She leans in hungrily. Eliza's neck nearly veers off the road when she hears that and her expression leans to one side, twitching. She looks more Granhiert than Evergreen like this.

But Apollo just closes his eyes, wrinkles forming along his forehead, and opens his mouth— hands clenching the armrests of his chair— and then nothing.

All the shot shows is his expression frozen, still dripping with sweat. An eagle-eyed viewer might even notice a droplet fall on his tongue, the salty taste appearing to wake him up as he opens his eyes. Slowly. Like waking from a dream. His hands fall off the armrests.

 

 

 

1

---

 

Black screen. Silence.

 

Then a sudden cut to a field of grass and lines drawn like crop circles. Then, the sounds of roaring stampedes down the freshly-cut savannah: tens of hundreds of battle-cries in contrapuntal play. Two sides of the prairie, distinguishable by the color of their wear, and each united in their opposition to the other. They chant and scream and shout over and over, each repetition not draining their volume but strengthening it. It's impossible to tell who's the hunter, and who's the hunted. But then a blur passes by the camera, and all the roaring stops for a moment, as if all the wind were taken out of the animals' chests to give this one creature all the momentum of the thousands strong watching him flyby.

 

And then they roar again, one side dominating the other. But now, the cacophony of cries unites around one name: the name of their hero.

 

"POLLY, POLLY— POLLY WANTS A GOAL! / POLLY, POLLY— CRACKERS CAN'T SLOW!"

 

The camera pans to a tracking up of a man with black hair, a youthful face, and understated looks. He's lithe, pretty, and has an air to him that the Japanese would call 'ikemen'. But he's not playing for the Japanese team, and though they would be sportsmanlike enough to compliment him and his team for their abilities, it would seem a bit much to gush over their main striker's looks, undeniable as they might be.

 

The field is open, and though he'd go on to claim this goal as his and his alone, it was the efforts of his team's defenders who held on as the opponent team overextended themselves looking to break the deadlock. They were tied at 1-1. And though it was the efforts of all men down on the field that day that brought the U.S. men's team to that standstill, 

 

"In the end, finishing a battle comes down to one unit." A voiceover says. "In the wars of old, they were the front guard. In soccer..."

 

He shoots.

 

"He scores!" a commentator cries, his voice only barely heard over the shaking of half the stadium. The applause and cheers of thousands live shake the stands but the joy of hundreds of millions shake up the world.

 

"...they are Apollo Augard."

 

 

 

2

---

 

"No, well, I'm white." He raises an eyebrow, and circles his face with his hand. "So I don't think it makes much sense if they meant 'cracker' that way."

 

Eliza chuckles, "Agreed. That question was a stretch, don't you think Megan?"

 

"Well, I-" the interviewer begins. But a producer from out-of-view slides a finger back and forth over their neck, while looking straight at her.

 

"-I guess so!" she completed.

 

The atmosphere in the room was simmering. The usual hotel room reserved for press would've been everyone's preference but the interview that day was scheduled between takes due to a legal mishap over the terms of the contract between Draconic Times and WC Studios (always specify if biweekly means twice a week or once every two weeks). Not to mention, the usual hotel for talent was being renovated for a press junket the next day; while they'd have their personal rooms available, there wasn't any ideal space to set up an interview. Having it on set meant they could at least skip the traffic.

 

The downside, of course, was the heat. Between the studio lights and the Budapest summer, it was like the back of a refrigerator in there. The camera frames three people: Apollo, still wearing the grey wig for his role as Otto— by then it began to slip, showing a stray lock of black— Eliza— she and Apollo both previously starred in Bachelors in Crime, a cop procedural (and they were a very popular ship for fans)— the interviewer. All of them were glistening with sweat.. From the side of the frame, the hand of an assistant came into view, and ineffectually pats Apollo's face with a handkerchief, before Apollo waves the assistant off.

 

"Apologies for that. Moving on," diverts the interviewer, "you were originally brought on for the leading role, correct? Was there an audition?"

 

Apollo takes his time, grabbing a paper cup of water, having a long sip whilst holding up a finger, and only answering after he put the drink back down, "We had a screen test. They thought I fit Subaru quite well but fit even better for Otto so that was that."

 

"Even better?" The interviewer tilts her head. "Mr. Augard, since breaking into the entertainment industry, haven't most of your roles been more serious? More man of action and less butt of the joke? Do you feel you're being put on the metaphorical bench?"

 

Eliza tries to butt in, "Hey, it's not as if Subaru isn't the b-" But Apollo looks at her. She stops. He turns to the camera then back to the interviewer, his eyes half-lidded and expression askance.

 

"I took the role. That's all I have to say about it." He says, trying to manage casual but only sounding strained. "Look, can we move on to-"

 

The interviewer presses on anyway, "Alright, but what was your reaction to being passed up for the role of Subaru Natsuki by a complete unknown?" She leans in hungrily. Eliza's neck nearly veers off the road when she hears that and her expression leans to one side, twitching. She looks more Granhiert than Evergreen like this.

 

But Apollo just closes his eyes, wrinkles forming along his forehead, and opens his mouth— hands clenching the armrests of his chair— and then nothing.

 

All the shot shows is his expression frozen, still dripping with sweat. An eagle-eyed viewer might even notice a droplet fall on his tongue, the salty taste appearing to wake him up as he opens his eyes. Slowly. Like waking from a dream. His hands fall off the armrests.

 

"...what?" He directs to no one in particular, looking nowhere in particular, pupils leaping around the interview set. "I don't hear any... w-what's going on?"

 

The interviewer coughed. "The question was, 'what was your reaction to being passed up for the role of Subaru Natsuki by a complete unknown?'"

 

"Mr. Natsuki? Where is he?" he asks like a newborn latching onto the first familiar thing it's seen or heard. His eyes are filled with growing horror and his teeth are clenched in anticipation. Eliza isn't looking at the interviewer anymore but instead at her ex co-lead with almost as much confusion as he seems to have.

 

"P-Polly? What's going on?"

 

He turns to Eliza, as if only now noticing her, "Oh m-miss! Can you help me? Have you seen him? Mr. Natsuki?"

 

Now, Eliza's gone from concerned confusion to complete bafflement. She raises her eyebrows, evaluating, "...you mean Toya?"

 

"No, no." he insists. "Subaru. Natsuki Subaru, Hero of Priestella? Wears weird clothes. Same black hair color as you, come to think of it, and so very hard to miss."

 

Elsa seems to decide what's going on, before breaking out into subdued chuckles and grabbing onto his shoulder, "...pfft. You really had me scared there!" A smattering of awkward laughter from crew members can be heard, "When'd you grow a funny bone, Polly?"

 

"Funny... bone? I-I don't think there's anything funny about this, miss...?"

 

Eliza rolled her eyes and, going along with it, said, "Oh, alright let me get in on this."

 

She leans in close, up against her co-star's ear, and stage whispers, "Shouldn't you have heard of me by now? I'm Elsa Granhiert," she playfully growls in low sultry tones, "the Bowel Hunter."

 

The co-star stared slack-jawed at the stranger before him. Then the resemblance clicked in his head and his chair fell to the wayside as he leapt out, stepping away, backing himself up against a wall.

 

"W-woah, I'm sorry! A-are you alright, Polly?" Eliza asks with double concern. With her hand outstretched and eyes wide, she thinks, Oh no, I scared him! ...I scared him? Him? Either I got way better at acting overnight or-

 

"Who?" 「Polly」asked.

?

---

 

What's going on here? 「Polly」wondered, his back to the wall, curling in on himself like a dying Zodda bug. The heat was sweltering and his clothes unfamiliar. Did they undress me and change them? O-oh no! Not again, not again! I'm so sick of getting kidnapped!

 

"Cut it, cut the damn footage!" shouted a blonde woman in a purple button down blouse, "that isn't going on air. And get your interviewer in line, we might not be able to terminate your current contract but don't expect any return calls for future productions if this is how you treat our talent!"

 

"I-is it heatstroke, are you okay?" asked a woman whose description matched that of the dreaded Bowel Hunter. The dead Bowel Hunter. His little brother in all but blood made sure of that. Her eyes watered and she was babying him like he was about to collapse.

 

Not that I don't feel like it. T-this might be creepier than how she was acting earlier, whispering in my ear.

 

A buffet line of men and women in strange clothing ran to surround him. Come to think of it, why is it so bright, why is it so hot?

 

He looked up, and regretted it, whiteness filling his eyes. "G-gah!" W-what are those? Yang magic? His reaction only emboldened the voices around him and they mixed together in his ears.

 

"Mr. Augard, are you okay? Do you need water, a change of clothes? Ms. Evergreen's not on for the next take but you are so if-"

 

"Polly, I've never seen you act like this, don't you think you should lie down? Even if it's a little refreshing to see you like-"

 

"Dona, Ella, Dora, not to mention me and rest of the producers and scriptwriters and-"

 

E-except, these are the only voices in my ears... where... where are all the animals, the birds, the bugs? It's so...

 

"Quiet..." he said. To his surprise, most of the people speaking seemed to follow his accidental order. But this only made the contrast even greater to him.

 

"I... I'm going!" He shouted before running away.

 

A cacophony of voices crying for names he could not recognize fell behind as he did.

Notes:

Been a while hasn't it? Apologies, I got caught up working on other fics and this one fell by the wayside. Not because I didn't care about it or didn't have any ideas, quite the opposite. I kept writing drafts and concepts for this chapter that got scrapped. Eventually, I settled on exploring "Polly" because I was especially interested in telling a story specifically from his perspective.

Still, I'm going to try to be less fussy about what I put out there so that this accidental hiatus doesn't happen again.

---

Names (thus far):
Toya Lee - Subaru Natsuki
Eliora Tyche - Emilia
Eliza Evergreen - Elsa Granheirt
Velva Cromwell - Felt
Reinhardt Trias - Reinhard von Astrea
Cameron Brando - Kadomon Risch
Apollo "Polly" Augard - Otto Suwen

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of perpetual motion picture