Adrien and Mylene stood on either side of double doors leading to the back of the arcade, with black squirt guns in hand. Adrien nodded at Mylene before slightly nudging the door to let Mylene have the first look. Mylene immediately screamed, falling on her butt in horror of the "monster" hiding behind the door. The "monster" took off his cardboard mask, with yarn draping off the back, revealing himself to be Ivan. He knelt beside his fiancee and tried to calm her down.
"Cut," called out Nino from behind his camera, stopping the recording. He could hear a couple of groans from the crew while Ivan tried to reassure that Mylene's take was better than the last one.
"I'm surprised we haven't had the cops come after us with Mylene screaming every time she sees a monster," groaned Alya, who stood beside Nino, with the script in hand.
Marinette was flitting about, making sure everyone was alright, giving a little extra care to the actors.
"Marinette vouched for her acting abilities," commented Nino, checking the camera to make sure they would be ready to roll again soon.
"I'm sorry, I'm trying to get better at horror," offered Mylene.
"And you are doing great Mylene, you'll be an all time famous actress if you keep this up," encouraged Marinette.
"Can't we just make the monster in post so Ivan doesn't have to wear the costume. That should help," asked Alya.
"Not everything can be done in post Alya," answered Nino with a roll of his eyes, "How's the slime coming Alix?"
The director and cameraman turned to their special effects person, Alix giving them a slimy thumbs up.
"Sliming Ivan is not going to help Mylene with her fear of monsters," grumbled Alya.
"You chose to write a horror film," he criticized.
"That was before I knew the lead actress was afraid of her fiance." She opened the script, flipping through the scenes they still had to cover.
"Maybe we could try immersion acting," asked Marinette.
"I don't think that's a thing," started Nino, only for Marinette to shush him. She then turned back around to the couple.
"Ivan and Mylene, both stand up and look into each other's eyes," she instructed. The couple complied, Mylene giggling after a while.
"Now hug each other."
The couple didn't need to be told twice and Ivan pulled the small girl into his arms.
"It's only Ivan," Marinette partially whispered in Mylene's ear before reaching over for the mask Ivan had been wearing earlier. Since she wasn't tall enough to reach, Adrien took it from her and placed it over Ivan's head. Their "Monster" was a good sport as he made no movement to indicate the mask was back on his head.
Adrien and Marinette both whispered to Mylene, "It's only Ivan," as they took a step back behind Mylene.
It seemed to be working as Mylene remained ignorant she was hugging the film's monster. Until Alix dumped her slime over the two.
"I thought we were still doing the immersion thing," she argued in her defense as tried to get the slime off as Ivan took off the slime drenched mask.
She then looked at Ivan and began to laugh, Ivan looking at her and beginning to laugh as well.
Alix chuckled nervously next to them, looking at the director's to see if they had any idea of what was going on.
Nino shrugged before looking over to Alya, who wore a calculating grin.
"Genius! Everyone pack up, we are moving locations!"
Nino took the page of the script Alya had been holding moments before, trying to understand what she was thinking. He'll probably would figure it out when it came to editing.
Sorry for the short chapter, but I had to fit in one more chapter before the next one. And this fic has been looming over my head since September.