Chapter 29

He passed out for an hour and woke up to a scene of romance that scared him more than any horror that he had ever watched.

Mostly as the kiss scene was between two species with large mouths and teeth, with a close up on the teeth, it was terrifying.

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The extra detail was unnecessary, in Airic's opinion, as this was a film and not a documentary on alien courting. He felt that scenes like these should have been shot differently or removed entirely.

At this time, Drala walked up to Airic with a smile, as he explained that he was here for two reasons: The first was to introduce himself as Airic's new manager. Secondly, to introduce a script to Airic, which was strongly recommended by the company. It was a script for a TV drama called Dreaming of you. As the name suggested, it was a romantic drama, not dissimilar from the one they had watched previously. The only difference that he could see between the two was the number of protagonists and the background. Otherwise, it was the same as the drama from hell.

Every artistic cell in his body rebelled at the notion of acting out this show, as even the script was awful. It took exceptional effort to keep his face calm.

However, the rest of the room was in a state of shock, as Drala also mentioned that the director was Luns Ohn- a highly celebrated director, that had created many classics. He was such a renowned director, primarily in drama circles, that the mention of his name sent everyone in the room in raptures. Airic felt like crying. He just dodged one hell and landed in another. Then, Drala sent over another script for a movie with a different director and insinuated that the job was too high level for him. He suggested that Airic should avoid tarnishing the company's name with amateur acting.

Again, he felt cornered.

Not even mentioning that the director was almost as famous as director Ohn, but he did not want to act in any of them. There was no way to dodge this without antagonising either of the renowned directors.

Looking at the choices offered, he decided to go for the movie, as it seemed the least offensive overall.

Looking through the script sent over, it revealed a relatively dramatic story surrounding the Ancient Earth explosion. The main characters were two children going to visit their grandparents that still lived on the planet and were caught up with the mad man's plan to destroy Earth. The story focused on their escape from Earth with the help of their grandparents, their harrowing adventure, and, ended with the planet's destruction and, their grandparent's death while they barely made it back to their parents. It was supposed to be thrilling, but, the dialogue was not. The word usage was bland and unimaginative, the scenes were not planned out appropriately, and even the emotions conveyed in the scripts were non-existent.

It was painful.

On the other side of the room; Drala looked satisfied as he watched as Airic's face cycled through emotions and, stopped at despair. He did not realise that it was over the script contents, and, not inferiority-fuelled hesitance to act in it.

After a thorough look at both, he chose to audition for the movie script.

This decision was not as accepted as the drama script, but it was still supported by the company. The movie producers were contacted for an audition with the assistant director and the director in attendance, and the crew confirmed his attendance and sent him the audition date and time. It was set for the next day at 12pm Reynor Time (+RT). Airic looked over the script grudgingly, and memorised it as best he could in preparation, while Drala watched him with resentment.

"It would have been better to have picked the drama to brush up on your acting skills with a more experienced director." Drala said as he sat to the side and watched Airic memorise.

"While that would be a good idea usually, I would prefer to start with this as the script speaks to me more." 'especially as I am not some talentless newbie and have actually trained to do this for most of my life,' he finished silently.

"But why?! Why did you ignore my suggestion? I went through the trouble of picking this fantastic script with an experienced director, and you threw this great chance away. So, tell me why?" Drala asked, with a crimson face, a vein throbbing almost visibly on his forehead as he struggled to keep his tone calm. By this time, the bodyguards had left the room to start patrols.

"I appreciate the thought, but... I just don't feel like doing that script. Sorry for the trouble." Airic said, face never leaving the script, as he replied in a flippant tone.

'I am not into M-play, so I will not torment myself by playing such an ill-thought-out screenplay. Even for a galaxy award winner', he said inwardly.

As he studied the text in silence, Drala sent a commentary to the company executives regarding his choice of scripts. The message implied that Airic was far too self-absorbed to understand his limits, mostly, as he chose to pick against his recommendation. The note further stated that as a singer, Airic would likely be a disaster to the reputation of the more talented actors in the company. Undoubtedly due to his poor acting skills. Lastly, there was a proposal by Drala to freeze his actions for a year or more as a punishment, when he inevitably causes trouble for the company.

In all, the report was an act of petty revenge that was planned for the future, using the supposed unbiased first impression of an agent. Most importantly, was that Airic had no idea that Drala had sent it, as he focused on memorising the script while being supremely uncomfortable reading it. As such, this incident disappeared quietly.