The Battle Royale S2 [Round 4: Burnination Studios]

"What made you decide to pick this set?"

From the perspective of an outsider, Burnination Studios could only be interpreted as a chaotic hurricane, there was so much, too much going on at any time, a production larger than the lives of the stars involved. Wardell was far too overwhelmed to respond to his now calm, but still boisterous companion, who noticed, and attempted to reassure him.

"Ah, nervous? Ha ha ha, I remember my first time looking at Burnination Studios, I won't lie, it wasn't very dissimilar to yours, but I can say with confidence that if you've survived this long in a Grand Battle you can deal with a few divas and vain super stars, we may not all be as devoted to the cause of art as I am, but you don't get this far in the business without knowing how to deal with a consultant. Now, the directors on the other hand..."

"NOW, AND I CAN NOT BELIEVE I AM GIVING YOU THIS CHANCE BUT IT IS ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE IMPROVED ENOUGH THAT IT IS ACTUALLY BETTER TO GIVE YOU ONE THAN IT IS TO START FROM SCRATCH, FOR THE LAST TIME, IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE S C R I P T SCRIPT, I WILL ENSURE THAT NOT ONLY ARE YOU ESCORTED OFF INTO THE ABYSS, YOU WILL BE IN SO MANY PIECES THAT YOU WOULDN'T EVEN BE RECOGNIZABLE BY YOUR MOLECULES."

Sitting in an elaborate chair, on the back of which were the words "Director (D3A)" was a large lizardy creature wearing a wonderful white coat, sunglasses, but also wearing goggles on her horned head. Unlike some other kaiju types, looking at her gave the feeling of what she was, rather than letting you draw your own conclusions, Wardell settled on dragon, though her messy blonde hair gave her a human element that was difficult to deal with. She was holding a megaphone that was unlike any Wardell had ever read about.

"Oh dear," Ironjaw landed a bit of a ways away from this directors chair, turning to Wardell with, from what he could tell, an expression of discomfort. "Are you sure that you need to come here first, she's... a bit of a handful..."

Wardell nodded, thinking back on Ruby's instructions, which clearly said to go to this set first.

"Alright then, if you're certain. Well... I won't lie to you, the dear director of this segment, is a bit on the temperamental side, but I assure you, that if you treat her with respect, she will do the same to you." Ironjaw stared at Boww, "So that means no smack talk, aye?"

With the word of warning over, Ironjaw and Wardell approached the director, who had resumed filming.

If looking over all of Burnination Studios didn't make Wardell feel small, then actually watching it film a scene would. The phrase "bigger is better" seemed to be firing on all cylinders and not just on its stars. Wardell found it a bit hard to parse, to which he assumed was partially because he didn't watch many movies.

"A bit confused ay? Well, you see when the actors and sets are as big as we've got, it's actually easier to film much, much more than we need to, and edit it down than to have to re-shoot things after the fact."

Wardell nodded, but didn't quite think that it made a lot of sense in this case. For one thing, while the actors were all definitely larger than him, they weren't that big. For another, nothing was happening. "Does editing also add the plot?"

Ironjaw chuckled and said, "Sometimes mate! But no I think this is the director trying to capture the human element here."

The masked, purple plant lady with a tail was the smallest of the kaiju, and she was trying to convince the others to take a whiff of a flower that was growing out of her. In response, a tall, dirty deer lady ate it, chewed on it for a while. While some, giant goofy green lizard type thing seemed to be trying to make an attempt to get their attention.

Wardell couldn't help but feel like there was some joke he wasn't in on, or like these characters were interacting not for any important reason, but because some writer had decided that they had a really funny joke that just everyone needed to hear. How early in the plot was this? Was there time for this? How long was this movie going to be? He had so many questions and just as many problems, which he supposed was to his benefit.

"PERFECT, SEE, I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT. TAKE FIVE EVERYONE."

Director Guillemet turned to her visitors, raised the megaphone to them, and said, "AH, YOU MUST BE THE CONSULTANT. AND, OH, IRONJAW, YOU'RE HERE TOO, WONDERFUL."

Wardell and Boww had braced themselves for an ear shattering experience, wrapping the scarf incredibly tightly around his head only to hear a relatively normal, if muffled voice come out of the megaphone.

"OH THIS? ITS MY NEGAPHONE, I MADE IT SO THAT I COULD YELL AT PEOPLE WITHOUT THEM GOING DEAF. I MADE IT AFTER WINNING THE LAWSUIT ALL BY MYSELF. I'M VERY TALENTED."

Wardell cleared his throat and stretched his arm out timidly, "Pleased to make your acquaintance... uhhh..."

"OH, APOLOGIES, I ASSUMED... SIR IRONJAW WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU, I AM DIRECTOR GUILEMET, TO BE SPECIFIC DIRECTOR D, SECTION 2, A. NOW I HEAR YOU ARE A CONSULTANT ON GRAND BATTLES, SO WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS SCENE. I THINK I CAPTURED A VERY IMPORTANT MICROCOSM OF BATTLES, THE PART WHERE PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHY THEY'RE DOING ANYTHING THEY'RE DOING."

Wardell hesitated for a moment, mentally reviewing the instructions that Ruby had left for him.

"You aren't really going to do as he says, are you?"

"Do I have a choice?" Wardell thought in response. "What would you have me do, just run away from this giant shark man to find Geoff? We don't exactly know where he is. And besides, this is what I was hired for, right? DALI wants me to act as a consultant to this production, Ruby wants me to be brutally honest about what I think about what I see! At least I can try to do something I'm kind of good at."

"You really need to think a bit more highly of yourself Wardell... Trust me..."

Wardell sighed at his scarfs words and turned to Guillemet. "Frankly, all of this kind of sucks."

"WHAT."

"You just have these characters talking and making some quips, not even taking advantage of what they really bring to the table, you could be doing so much better."

"WHAT."

"Don't what me, I'm not going to be impressed by some random plant people hanging out doing plant people things and accept an excuse as lazy as "oh they don't know why they're doing it, they're just doing things," and neither would anyone else.

"OKAY BUT."

"But nothing, yeah people in battles act irrationally or without thinking, but they're usually doing it out of some emotion or in reaction to something they aren't prepared for, nothing about this scene tells me anything about that and no one even says anything! Yeah it's kind of funny for the doe lady to eat the flower, but what is that... lizard, bean, doing then?"

"WELL,"

"And Director D, Section 2, A? What does that mean? Working with other directors is fine, but you have to actually work together, I don't see any signs of that, you're just satisfied with that?"

Wardell went on, doing his best to attack the situation from all fronts, using his own knowledge of literary criticism with a cheat sheet Ruby had left him against Guillemet in hopes of making her question her role in the production. Whether it led to a better scene or not, Wardell didn't really care, getting a small sense of accomplishment and some excitement out of getting to act like he had some authority.

After his tirade ended, Wardell stood still, looking at Guillemet, who had stopped responding somewhere around when he brought up the question of why there only seemed to be plant based actors.

"WELL. DEAR CONSULTANT. YOU HAVE GIVEN ME MUCH TO THINK ABOUT. I THINK THAT IN ADDITION TO EXTENDING THIS BREAK, I MAY NEED TO TAKE A MOMENT TO FIRE ALL OF MY STAFF. WHICH IS TO SAY FIRE THEM UP, BECAUSE YOU ARE RIGHT! CHANGE MUST BE ENACTED HERE, WHY SHOULD I BE SATISFIED WITH THIS WHEN I COULD BE DOING SO MUCH GREATER? ME, GUILLEMET, ON A SCENE ABOUT EATING PLANTS? I DID IT PERFECTLY, BUT I SHOULD BE DOING OTHER SCENES PERFECTLY, ONES THAT ARE MORE PLOT RELEVANT! WELL. SEE YA LATER."

Guillemet took to the skies, flying somewhere Wardell hoped would lead to her doing whatever Ruby wanted her to do as everyone looked at him in some form of confusion, bemusement, fear, or a combination of the three.

Ironjaw was the first to speak up, "Well. I must say, I... I take back everything I said about you Wardell, you uh... You seem to know your stuff." Ironjaw patted Wardell on the back, "I know that must have taken a bit out of you, and filming here is going to be on break, so why don't we do so as well, ay? C'mon then."

Wardell nodded, and started to follow Ironjaw, but also looked around. Now that his moment with Guillemet was definitely over, everyone returned to their break, with the masked plant lady speaking with the deer plant lady about where to go for lunch while the lizard bean made their way to them, Wardell noted that he was wearing a nametag that said "Sen [Palaedis Greenheart]".

"I appreciate your words young man, I don't have hard feelings for the director, her hands were quite tied with the scene..." They handed Wardell a card, "Now, I must be going, tell our friend good luck."

Before Wardell could catch on to what was going on, Palaedis had blended back into the set. He sighed, and then looked at the card, his next set of instructions.

"What's next..."

---

Ruby unconsciously adjusted his glasses. It was a signal of sorts, to himself and the world that he was about to change face. Walking down into a secret part of Burnination Studios, one built without the knowledge of DALI or any of the kaiju population, it was one of the few paths built by humans, for humans. He had a long day ahead of him, but he had weeks if not years behind him. All for the sake of liberation and advancement...

Ruby sighed as he went through the usual theatrics of getting into this secret meeting room, to meet with the cabal that were his "handlers." A group he worked so hard to get into the good graces of, all for this moment.

"Ah, Chad, we were worried when we heard about the battlers, hah, what are the odds! But... you adapted well to this unexpected situation, we are all very pleased with your performance. So, how goes the acquisition?"

Hiding behind shadowy silhouettes were a number of humans, their features other than outline hidden for their "safety." Ruby had nothing but disdain for each and every one of them, thinking of them as parasites, content to feed on a pathetic status quo of false civility. They had hired him to ruin the film, the studio, and not only had he done everything to ensure that they thought those were his goals as well, but he had taken the time to get to know each and everyone of them.

Ruby couldn't wait to see the look of surprise on their faces... time and place, neither now nor here. "I have both pieces," Ruby took out two orbs, one beige, one purple, both swirling with an energy that was difficult to describe. "Additionally, as you may have learned, one of the contestants in the battle has already proven his worth to our cause, as a way for us to ensure Holly's... absence. The window of opportunity will open soon..."

"Perfect, perfect! You know, you remind me a lot of me in my youth, so resourceful, so up to the task, able to adapt to anything. Ah, how I miss those days before those beasts tricked the world with their false docility, when a man did his own stunts, when movies were in their prime!"

Ruby remained expressionless as his handler went off on another of his worthless, trashy, tirades. He almost felt pity at the how obsessed with the past the fool was.

"Once you use the Convoid on those monsters, we will reveal them for what they truly are, once and for all! Monsters, filthy beasts as undeserving of the time they spend on screen as they are to lick my boots... And then, things will go back to how they are supposed to be, with those creatures cordoned off, away from the rest of society, as it should be..."

Ruby returned the orbs to his person, gave a polite clap to the speech and bowed. "A true return to form, master, humanities place will be restored, improved even, and you will go down in history as it's arbiter. I hope you continue to look forward to the results, I foresee they will exceed even your expectations."

"Yes! Good, you are dismissed. Our window will open soon, all eyes will be on Burnination Studios, and the world will return to as it should be!"

Ruby left the corridor, re-adjusting his glasses and grimacing, not very interested in another speech from a washed out fool. "Yes old man, the world will change, but it won't revert to your lofty memories, that's for sure." Ruby giggled, thinking about what Wardell thought about his plan and wondering what the bookworm would do... Everything had just been too easy, even some of the unexpected battlers had been perfectly positioned to aid him in the plot. He almost hoped that Wardell would cross him, plot out a betrayal, another thing for him to effortlessly conquer.

Ruby smiled. "Now...who's next on the list."