http://clampfix.fanworks.net/x-overs/backstag.txt </head><body><pre> Behind the Scenes by Sionna Klassen Umi walked through the halls of the new palace, engrossed in reading the scripts for the day. She went into her room and sat on her bed without looking behind her first. A muffled "Pu!" of protest greeted the move, and Umi got up hastily as she found the white rabbit-shape of Mokona somewhat squished on her bed. Wondering whether this was the actual Creator or its stunt double (although neither prospect was a very safe thing to sit upon), Umi hastily apologized and helped the marshmallow-like bunny-thing to regain its usual shape. "Pu?" Mokona asked inquisitively once she'd finished and he was smooth and round again. Umi sat down on the bed next to him and regarded the sheaf of papers. "Well, production on Shattered Self is still stalled, thank goodness. It gives me some time to breathe. The director of War of the Roses finally got to the scenes with me and Fuu in them, so I have to be in full armor for those and get strung up with all those wires. Those Mashin scenes are just awful! I got the first one out of the way last week, but I'm supposed to do more today. And then there's Visions of Romance, but I don't think I've got much to do in that one yet but mope and cry on Ascot's shoulder. Cefiro 1999 is always a hassle because I have to sit in makeup for three hours so they can make me look older, but I think that one's on hold for today, too. I'm not in Turnabout, and you've already done your work on that one for a while. And Between Friends 2 isn't scheduled for today either... I heard the director was working on something else... anyway, I think they're planning to do a lot of the complicated stuff today and leave character development for another shoot." Umi sighed hugely. "I wish Cefiro's movies were like the ones back on Earth, where you only have to star in one at a time!" "Pu," Mokona said understandingly. Umi had decided that this was the stunt-double Mokona, because the Creator probably would have said something withering about her complaining by now. For something that had created Earth and Cefiro, it had the tendency to be rather crotchety. "Umi-chan?" Hikaru asked, pushing the door open slightly. Umi looked up. "Come on in, Hikaru," she said. "I was just looking at the scripts for today." Hikaru walked in, followed by Fuu. "There's been a change in the schedule," Fuu said. "Rika-san is sick, so Visions of Romance has been rescheduled." "So what have we got instead?" Umi asked, privately glad that the director would be taking a day off. Rika had been refusing to admit that she could be defeated by a "cold" (she had not been overly amused when such things had been introduced to the new, more Earthlike Cefiro) for several days now, and it had been rather negatively affecting her work. She needed the rest. "Well, actually Sionna-san is suggesting that we leave the extra time open for the War of the Roses fight scene, because apparently this is a fairly long one, and after that last mishap with the wires that needed the reshoot, she thought it might be better to leave some extra time open just in case..." Umi remembered the near-disaster that had almost spilled her onto the floor of the studio quite a ways down and the frantic director trying to figure out a way to rewrite the script so that the Mashins wouldn't actually be needed yet, since the machinery to move the Magic Knights around inside them had clearly not been finished up to par. In the end, she had managed to rework it so that the Mashins only appeared in a much reduced capacity, and the reshoot had gone off as well as could be expected. Zazu had insisted this morning that he had all the kinks worked out now and today's battle scene could go on as planned. "What do Kristin and Rika think about that?" "Rika says she isn't going to get any work done today, so somebody might as well," Hikaru piped up. "And Kristin just rubbed her hands gleefully and said it would give her more time to work on X-change, whatever that is..." Both Umi and Fuu simultaneously coughed and blushed, having something of an idea what Kristin's current "pet project" was like. Hikaru just looked at them cluelessly, and Umi hurriedly stifled her blushing. "Never mind, it's one of those X movies, so we're not in it." "Okay," Hikaru said, then smiled. "Good luck in the shoot today. I know the Mashin scenes are hard." "Yeah, and I'm just waiting until you have to do them again!" Umi said. "I mean, in War of the Roses you don't even appear in Rayearth until..." she started flipping through the script, looking for the scene she was thinking of, but she couldn't find it. "Well, it doesn't matter - not for a really long time, anyway." "But I did in Cefiro 1999," Hikaru pointed out. "Not for very long, though, you're right." "That's probably a good thing," Fuu contributed. "What with the way the Mashin system is working..." "Yeah, I hope Zazu and Geo really did get it fixed," Umi sighed. "I don't want a repeat of last time!" "Too bad we can't use the real Mashin," Hikaru said wistfully. "But they would hardly fit in the studio!" Umi laughed. "And they aren't really transparent at the right times like they have to be in the movie," Fuu added. "The computer-animated ones really are better for movies." There came a soft knock on the door, and they turned to look. "Come in," Umi called. Eagle pushed the door open, dressed in the Cefirian costume that he'd been scripted as adopting in War of the Roses. He brushed his cloak back over his shoulder as he smiled at the three girls. "Sionna was wondering where you'd all vanished to. The shoot should be starting in about half an hour, she says." "She claimed that last time," Umi pointed out. "Maybe, but don't you think you should at least get into your armor?" Eagle pointed out. "She can be somewhat erratic in production schedule..." "That's true," Fuu said with a sigh, summoning her full armor to her with barely a ripple of green light. Her glasses vanished as her sword appeared in her hand, standing on its point so that the hilt stretched up a foot beyond her head. Umi followed suit, thinking that it was a good thing the doors in the palace were so tall when Fuu had to walk around with a sword that huge. "At least we don't have to struggle into these costumes..." Umi laughed. "Can you imagine trying to make this stuff out of the materials we have on Earth and wear it?" "Well, it *could* be done," Fuu said. "But you're right, this is much easier." "I'd better get changed too," Hikaru said, running off to change into the kendo clothing that she'd been wearing ever since her first appearance in the movie. "I'll meet you down there!" she called cheerfully behind her. "I wonder when she's going to figure out what X-change really is," Fuu said with a wondering shake of her head. "It's hard to believe she really is as innocent as she keeps appearing in all these movies..." "Myself, I'm waiting until she finds out what happened in Between Friends 1 when we get to that part in 2," Umi said slyly, looking at Eagle. He coughed and blushed. Umi giggled. She loved to tease Eagle, he was so cute that way. Almost as cute as Clef, and much easier to fluster. "I'm lucky that... erm.... supplemental story isn't widely available, aren't I?" Eagle said, still blushing. "Yeah, how'd you let yourself get talked into doing that, anyway?" "Kristin-san can be very... um... persuasive," Eagle said, and Umi was by now certain that Eagle was never going to regain his normal coloring before meeting up with Hikaru again. Or worse yet, Lantis. Lantis was totally unruffled by anything, of course, so it was useless to tease him about his and Eagle's relationship, whether it was their real one or the fictional one in Between Friends. But he enjoyed teasing Eagle almost as much as Umi did and he would love to pounce on the opportunity to tease an already-blushing Eagle. "Well, we'd better get down to the studio," Fuu said, taking pity on Eagle and rescuing him from Umi's teasing. He really needed to learn how to give as good as he got. Eagle agreed with obvious relief and the three of them started down the hall. Umi noticed that Eagle had an even thicker sheaf of papers than she did. "What are all those for?" "These? They're scripts for the current X projects running as well." "What do you need those for?" Umi asked, mystified. "Kakyou isn't up to much acting, so they cast me as him for some scenes. We look enough alike that the difference isn't noticeable at all if the makeup artists do their job right, and we even sound very similar, or so I'm told." "You're kidding! How do you find time for all this?" Umi exclaimed in amazement. "I mean, you've already got the most work to do in Between Friends, War of the Roses, and Visions of Romance!" "It isn't that hard," Eagle said with a laugh. "After all, Kakyou doesn't appear that much in the current projects. Most of the X ones focus on Subaru and Seishirou, actually. For example, End Game was a short special, so it didn't take up much time, and Subaru and Seishirou were doing most of the work in that one too. So between Kakyou and I, neither one of us has to do too much." Umi shook her head. "I still can't believe it..." she said as they walked into the studio. As they entered, Clef, Ferio, and Lantis turned to look at them, already in full costume and ready to begin. Zazu and Geo scrambled around with the rest of the tech crew making sure that the equipment was all in place so they wouldn't find midway through shooting that they were missing a vital piece. Sionna was sitting in the director's chair and poring over the script, making frantic notes. She had a tendency to revise at the last minute. They'd all gotten used to this by now, however. It was what happened when the screenwriter and director were the same person. "Well, then we only have to wait for Hikaru," Clef said. Ferio stepped closer and took Fuu's hand, smiling as she accepted it easily and leaned her head on his shoulder. After two years, she had become much more relaxed about their relationship. Umi sat down in one of the wicker chairs, careful of her cloak, and smiled as Clef moved to stand next to her, watching the techs scurry about. He shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever be able to understand all this... technology." "And to almost anyone on Autozam, your magic would be just as incomprehensible," Eagle returned, carefully stepping over some trailing wires so as not to trip. "What was that thing you quoted at me once? Clarke's Law?" Clef asked Umi. Umi nodded. "Right, any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. I heard somewhere else that the reverse worked too. So basically, neither side can understand the other, but it doesn't matter as long as it works! Right?" Clef laughed. "I suppose so." He glanced over at the director, who looked slightly more relaxed now, seemingly satisfied with the changes to the script. They would assuredly be minor and nothing to worry about - Sionna didn't tend to deviate in truly massive ways from what she planned, once she got the basic ideas down. She stood up and called, "Okay, let's get the Mashin scene going. I know the other scene technically comes first, but I want to make sure this shoot has enough time. Someone want to wait outside so Hikaru doesn't make a big entrance?" She smiled as she spoke, undoubtedly recalling the time Hikaru had burst through the doors and promptly tripped into a mess of wiring on the floor, ruining the take with her surprised yell and as Lantis immediately abandoned the soundstage to help her. As soon as they'd made sure that there were no drastic consequences, it had become one of those stories that was dragged out periodically for everyone's amusement. "I will," Eagle volunteered, and headed toward the doors. "It'll give me more time to study my Kakyou part." Sionna smiled secretively as Eagle turned away, which, Umi knew, meant that she was working on a new project but didn't have enough of it yet to start production. And it probably had Kakyou in it. Umi had gotten very good at reading the directors over the months they'd been working together, necessary since they were all rather eccentric in their separate ways... She stood up from her chair and moved toward the Mashin-harness with a sigh. "Here we go again." As the sounds of filming started on the other side of the doors, muffled through them, Eagle riffled through the scripts in his hands, looking for the highlighted parts that he'd been assigned. "Hmm?" he mused suddenly, pulling out a few loose pages that had been stuffed into his script. "What's this?" It looked like a new script, or part of one, which probably meant that it was still in the first stages of writing. He looked for a title, and didn't see one. But it was an X script, that much was obvious instantly, and he must have gotten it because it had some parts with Kakyou in it. But some of the names of the cast members didn't look familiar... "Hajime?" Eagle wondered aloud. "What kind of name is that?" To Be Continued... (Maybe) ************* Notes: Do NOT ask me how and/or why I found the time to write this at about midnight during finals week. There may be sequels at some point, I am not sure of anything right now except that I need to sleep. :p And no, you're not supposed to get every reference/inside joke in this, so don't worry about it... :) </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>