Chapter 178: 178
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(cont'd)
|||Giovanni and Nico finally manage to drag Reece to the storage room of the bar, finding temporary safety.
"*Cough* *Cough* Shit." Reece curses out with difficulty as he coughs out blood.
He is then assisted by Giovanni to sit against the wall, keeping the bullet wounds elevated.
"You're gonna be fine, buddy. Our men are coming." Giovanni says, consoling Reece as he presses his hand again on Giovanni's wounds once again.
"Damn it. Not like this, Reece." Nico on the other hand, is angry and panicking as he vigilantly guards the storage room door.
"*Cough* I'm done. You two go." Reece tells the two.
"Shit. We're not going anywhere without you, Reece!" Nico says.
"Damn. They got our cars." One of the subordinates who managed to survive, comes barging in the scene, reporting the situation 'outside' the bar.
"Sir. Dennis, Lawrence, and Huang can't make it." Another subordinate enters the store room and reports.
"Damn. Ugh.. Give me your gun." Reece, with a painful grunt, orders the one of the subordinates, and the subordinate obliges immediately.
"What are you doing?!…" Nico is frantic at Reece's action.
"You… all leave now. I can't let those three take all the credit." Reece despite the weakness and pain, manages to joke.
"You can get away. I'll stop whoever passes here. Go." Reece says.
"Reece…" Giovanni hesitates.
"Go! *Cough* Live! And make sure my son is safe." Reece says as he checks his new gun and looks at Giovanni and Nico in resolve.
Giovanni, understanding Reece, finally nods in acceptance.
"Let's go, Nico." Giovanni says as he lets go of Reece's bullet wounds.
"Giovanni…" Nico says, still not accepting the situation.
"The best we can do is to live for tomorrow and raise his family... Come on. Let's go." Giovanni drags Nico away from Reece. Despite Giovanni's logical decision, his heart is heavy.
"Reece… It was nice knowing you." Giovanni says his last goodbye.
"I'll f*cking gut those Russians in your name, Reece." Nico promises, finally accepting Reece's fate.
"*Cough* Heh. Yeah. Thank you, brothers. Now, f*ck off and don't waste my precious time." Reece smiles weakly at the two.
And with that, Giovanni, Nico, and the two remaining Cervo subordinates, finally exit the storage room to the back alley. Reece can only smile as he listens to the sound of the heavy footsteps of his friends, fading away into the distance.
Reece then weakly turns his head to the entrance of the storage room and raises his gun towards it, ready to shoot any enemy that appears at the door.
"I… feel… great…" Reece smiles as he feels an unprecedented sense of focus that he did not even feel when he was fighting in the coasts of Okinawa.
*Slam!* The storage room door bursts opens and an armed man appears.
*Bang* Reece shoots the enemy down before the enemy even spotted him. He smiles as the Russian did not get up. Another enemy appears and *Bang* Reece shoots once again. His shot was not good enough this time, but *Bang* he quickly follows up and the enemy is dead before he hit the floor.
One pistol however is not enough for Reece and before he can even muster the strength to grab his fallen enemies' guns, not only one, but four enemies, with more powerful guns and rifles in their hands, rush one after another in the room.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* Frank let loose his handgun in quick succession.
*Click* However, when his bullets run out, he only managed to kill only two of the four enemies.
"Heh. Not a bad way to go…" Reece says, looking at the fearful looks of the two remaining enemies in the room.
His bullets out, Reece then feels all the strength in his body run out all at once and his arm holding his gun up, falls back down. *Ratatata tata* Reece then receives a shower of bullets from the enemies. The enemies, emptying their magazines and making sure that Reece is dead, finally stop their assault.
Reece, now lifeless, still sitting with his back against the wall, his face down, is wearing a peaceful smile on his face.|||
"CUT!" Tayaw yells in delight at the successful take and starts clapping his hands.
"Let's give it up for Frank! Nicely done, man! Nicely done!" Tayaw expresses his appreciation.
*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* The crew also express their appreciation for Frank's performance. Frank then stands up and takes a deep breath. Looking at the crew's admiring eyes, he cannot help but feel moved. It was the 'fallen' extras that came up to him first to congratulate him with the job well done. Luca and Warren also came forward from wherever they ran off to, to also congratulate Frank.
"Thank you, everyone." Frank says, and tears suddenly start running down his cheeks.
"You alright Frank?" Warren asks, quite surprised at Frank crying.
"Yeah. I just didn't think I'd get emotional. *sniff* *sniff*" Frank after a minute or two, quickly gets over his crying outburst.
"Reece going out like that, I think I'd get emotional too. Great job man." Luca says.
"Alright everybody! Leave the guy alone!" The people in the dome hear Tayaw yell.
While the three main actors found it sweet that many of the extras and crew is concerned for Frank, Frank feels overwhelmed and burdened by the attention from people he does not know well.
"Great job for getting it one shot everyone! Everyone take an hour." The crew and extras, hearing the early and long break, all happily filter out of the dome immediately.
"Hey. Good job Frank." Tayaw approaches Frank with a smile.
"Thanks." Frank says, grateful for the sincere compliment.
"Too bad, that's your last scene." Tayaw says.
"Yeah. I know." Frank shakes his head, but is feeling a huge relief, finishing a job well. .
"May I stay for a few more days? I wanna watch what happens next." Frank asks. Tayaw processes the simple request and then looks at Warren and Luca.
He is surprised at Frank's request. Even though Tayaw had released different versions of the film script, tailored to what each character's actors need, and that he put in the actors' contracts to not talk about the parts of the script to actors they do not share the parts with, Tayaw is impressed that Luca and Warren did not blab to Frank. While Tayaw is impressed, he decides to follow what is in the contract.
"I'm sorry Frank. The next important parts are in the third movie, which you are not supposed to see. But I assure you, your character will be avenged." Tayaw says.
Frank, despite feeling a bit disappointed, simply nods in acceptance. He knows that the films Tayaw is making will make another big wave much larger than what September Ninth did.
"Hey. Isn't there a funeral scene? Frank's job isn't really done, right?" Warren asks Tayaw, half-jokingly.
"Oh. I can act like a corpse..." Frank says, now joking.
"There is. But it's an empty casket. That is an important part of the funeral." Tayaw explains.
"Empty?"
"Why?"
Luca and Warren ask in confusion.
Frank on the other hand, already knows the reason.
"Because the enemies are supposed to have gotten Reece's body. The Cervo Syndicate not even being able to retrieve Reece's body will add to their motivation for revenge." Tayaw says.
"Damn. That's cold." Warren shakes his head.
"Yeah. Was that how it happened?" Luca who is familiar with mob and syndicate stories, asks in curiosity.
Tayaw only looks at Luca before nodding. The body of the real-life counterpart of Reece, was indeed never found. Nobody living knows where the body is, and Gonzalo also didn't tell Tayaw what the Russians did to his friend's body.
"But! I have something might make you feel better." Tayaw says as he goes to the dome's control computers and grabs something under one of them.
The three actors watch in curiosity while the virtual set operators watch in amus.e.m.e.nt, having already seen the thing. Tayaw then walks back to Frank, now with a ribboned box on his hand, and hands it to Frank.
Frank then excitedly opens it with care and is dumbfounded at what he sees.
"A cake…?" Warren chuckles.
"A cake… 'Congratulations Frank for a job well done! -Half Basin Studios-'" Frank reads the message written in icing.
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
11 AM – Ironstone, East Ouigab
"Fellas! Good Morning!" Chala enters the living room in Tayaw's Ironstone mansion, excitedly.
"I have great ne--- Oh? Where'd these kids go?" Chala asks himself in confusion seeing a silent and empty house.
"Good morning Chala. I heard you come in." Chala sees Payew descend the stairs to the living room.
"Yeah. How you doin kid?" Chala asks.
"Good. But I know you're not here for me. They're in the bas.e.m.e.nt." Payew says as he goes to the kitchen to pick up a drink, before going back upstairs to his room.
"Heh." Chala can only chuckle as he is already used to the focused and busy Payew.
"Hey kid. Let's talk for a minute, yeah? It's your vacation anyways." Chala waves Payew over. Payew, realizing that he had not seen Chala in a while, decides to hang out with Chala for a while.
-----
Meanwhile, in the bas.e.m.e.nt, *Badump* *Bomp* *Pling* *StruM* *Phoom* *plink* an uncomfortable cacophony of instruments can be heard around the practice room, coming from the band tuning their instruments. A minute later, they are done tuning.
They however do not immediately play their instruments but instead all take seats on the on the floor, making a circle, ready to discuss with each other.
"so… What now…?" Ike asked the group for their plans for the school break.
They have after all, the first semester of their junior year just wrapped up and they have more than one month before their second semester starts.
Since September of last year when the band first appeared on TV to promote their music, they have not received the stardom they already knew they were not going to get immediately, but were secretly hoping for.
There were no big entertainment companies that offered them a record deal, and the small companies that did contact them were sketchy. There are also simply too many musicians in Ouigab for them to blow pass by.
The most obvious benefit however of their TV appearance is a small jump in their popularity online as evidenced by the sudden boost of views and subscribers in their YouTube Channel. From their original 58,000 subscribers the day before their TV appearance, the subscriber count grew to 80,000 subscribers within a few days after.
The band however knew that they have not made enough impact so they decided to take a break from making their own music and instead have gone back to arranging and uploading easy, but good covers on YouTube to capitalize on their popularity boost. They have also decided to further practice their skills to go back to ROH Factory for some gigs.
Unlike their disappointment at the slight impact of their TV appearance, they were pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome by the ROH Factory staff and musicians. They have received all sorts of sincere compliments and appreciation for their improved skills from other musicians, while Rudy the bar owner even offered them headline spots, which they gladly took.
The other acts who have been eyeing those headline spots can only swallow their slight resentment at the band due to the benefits Percussive Corrections brought on the bar. The band's online popularity translated to a small but obvious increase of patrons in ROH Factory resulting to the increase in liquor sales which further resulted to the increase in income of musicians across the spots in the line-ups.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
(cont'd)
|||Giovanni and Nico finally manage to drag Reece to the storage room of the bar, finding temporary safety.
"*Cough* *Cough* Shit." Reece curses out with difficulty as he coughs out blood.
He is then assisted by Giovanni to sit against the wall, keeping the bullet wounds elevated.
"You're gonna be fine, buddy. Our men are coming." Giovanni says, consoling Reece as he presses his hand again on Giovanni's wounds once again.
"Damn it. Not like this, Reece." Nico on the other hand, is angry and panicking as he vigilantly guards the storage room door.
"*Cough* I'm done. You two go." Reece tells the two.
"Shit. We're not going anywhere without you, Reece!" Nico says.
"Damn. They got our cars." One of the subordinates who managed to survive, comes barging in the scene, reporting the situation 'outside' the bar.
"Sir. Dennis, Lawrence, and Huang can't make it." Another subordinate enters the store room and reports.
"Damn. Ugh.. Give me your gun." Reece, with a painful grunt, orders the one of the subordinates, and the subordinate obliges immediately.
"What are you doing?!…" Nico is frantic at Reece's action.
"You… all leave now. I can't let those three take all the credit." Reece despite the weakness and pain, manages to joke.
"You can get away. I'll stop whoever passes here. Go." Reece says.
"Reece…" Giovanni hesitates.
"Go! *Cough* Live! And make sure my son is safe." Reece says as he checks his new gun and looks at Giovanni and Nico in resolve.
Giovanni, understanding Reece, finally nods in acceptance.
"Let's go, Nico." Giovanni says as he lets go of Reece's bullet wounds.
"Giovanni…" Nico says, still not accepting the situation.
"The best we can do is to live for tomorrow and raise his family... Come on. Let's go." Giovanni drags Nico away from Reece. Despite Giovanni's logical decision, his heart is heavy.
"Reece… It was nice knowing you." Giovanni says his last goodbye.
"I'll f*cking gut those Russians in your name, Reece." Nico promises, finally accepting Reece's fate.
"*Cough* Heh. Yeah. Thank you, brothers. Now, f*ck off and don't waste my precious time." Reece smiles weakly at the two.
And with that, Giovanni, Nico, and the two remaining Cervo subordinates, finally exit the storage room to the back alley. Reece can only smile as he listens to the sound of the heavy footsteps of his friends, fading away into the distance.
Reece then weakly turns his head to the entrance of the storage room and raises his gun towards it, ready to shoot any enemy that appears at the door.
"I… feel… great…" Reece smiles as he feels an unprecedented sense of focus that he did not even feel when he was fighting in the coasts of Okinawa.
*Slam!* The storage room door bursts opens and an armed man appears.
*Bang* Reece shoots the enemy down before the enemy even spotted him. He smiles as the Russian did not get up. Another enemy appears and *Bang* Reece shoots once again. His shot was not good enough this time, but *Bang* he quickly follows up and the enemy is dead before he hit the floor.
One pistol however is not enough for Reece and before he can even muster the strength to grab his fallen enemies' guns, not only one, but four enemies, with more powerful guns and rifles in their hands, rush one after another in the room.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* Frank let loose his handgun in quick succession.
*Click* However, when his bullets run out, he only managed to kill only two of the four enemies.
"Heh. Not a bad way to go…" Reece says, looking at the fearful looks of the two remaining enemies in the room.
His bullets out, Reece then feels all the strength in his body run out all at once and his arm holding his gun up, falls back down. *Ratatata tata* Reece then receives a shower of bullets from the enemies. The enemies, emptying their magazines and making sure that Reece is dead, finally stop their assault.
Reece, now lifeless, still sitting with his back against the wall, his face down, is wearing a peaceful smile on his face.|||
"CUT!" Tayaw yells in delight at the successful take and starts clapping his hands.
"Let's give it up for Frank! Nicely done, man! Nicely done!" Tayaw expresses his appreciation.
*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* The crew also express their appreciation for Frank's performance. Frank then stands up and takes a deep breath. Looking at the crew's admiring eyes, he cannot help but feel moved. It was the 'fallen' extras that came up to him first to congratulate him with the job well done. Luca and Warren also came forward from wherever they ran off to, to also congratulate Frank.
"Thank you, everyone." Frank says, and tears suddenly start running down his cheeks.
"You alright Frank?" Warren asks, quite surprised at Frank crying.
"Yeah. I just didn't think I'd get emotional. *sniff* *sniff*" Frank after a minute or two, quickly gets over his crying outburst.
"Reece going out like that, I think I'd get emotional too. Great job man." Luca says.
"Alright everybody! Leave the guy alone!" The people in the dome hear Tayaw yell.
While the three main actors found it sweet that many of the extras and crew is concerned for Frank, Frank feels overwhelmed and burdened by the attention from people he does not know well.
"Great job for getting it one shot everyone! Everyone take an hour." The crew and extras, hearing the early and long break, all happily filter out of the dome immediately.
"Hey. Good job Frank." Tayaw approaches Frank with a smile.
"Thanks." Frank says, grateful for the sincere compliment.
"Too bad, that's your last scene." Tayaw says.
"Yeah. I know." Frank shakes his head, but is feeling a huge relief, finishing a job well. .
"May I stay for a few more days? I wanna watch what happens next." Frank asks. Tayaw processes the simple request and then looks at Warren and Luca.
He is surprised at Frank's request. Even though Tayaw had released different versions of the film script, tailored to what each character's actors need, and that he put in the actors' contracts to not talk about the parts of the script to actors they do not share the parts with, Tayaw is impressed that Luca and Warren did not blab to Frank. While Tayaw is impressed, he decides to follow what is in the contract.
"I'm sorry Frank. The next important parts are in the third movie, which you are not supposed to see. But I assure you, your character will be avenged." Tayaw says.
Frank, despite feeling a bit disappointed, simply nods in acceptance. He knows that the films Tayaw is making will make another big wave much larger than what September Ninth did.
"Hey. Isn't there a funeral scene? Frank's job isn't really done, right?" Warren asks Tayaw, half-jokingly.
"Oh. I can act like a corpse..." Frank says, now joking.
"There is. But it's an empty casket. That is an important part of the funeral." Tayaw explains.
"Empty?"
"Why?"
Luca and Warren ask in confusion.
Frank on the other hand, already knows the reason.
"Because the enemies are supposed to have gotten Reece's body. The Cervo Syndicate not even being able to retrieve Reece's body will add to their motivation for revenge." Tayaw says.
"Damn. That's cold." Warren shakes his head.
"Yeah. Was that how it happened?" Luca who is familiar with mob and syndicate stories, asks in curiosity.
Tayaw only looks at Luca before nodding. The body of the real-life counterpart of Reece, was indeed never found. Nobody living knows where the body is, and Gonzalo also didn't tell Tayaw what the Russians did to his friend's body.
"But! I have something might make you feel better." Tayaw says as he goes to the dome's control computers and grabs something under one of them.
The three actors watch in curiosity while the virtual set operators watch in amus.e.m.e.nt, having already seen the thing. Tayaw then walks back to Frank, now with a ribboned box on his hand, and hands it to Frank.
Frank then excitedly opens it with care and is dumbfounded at what he sees.
"A cake…?" Warren chuckles.
"A cake… 'Congratulations Frank for a job well done! -Half Basin Studios-'" Frank reads the message written in icing.
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
11 AM – Ironstone, East Ouigab
"Fellas! Good Morning!" Chala enters the living room in Tayaw's Ironstone mansion, excitedly.
"I have great ne--- Oh? Where'd these kids go?" Chala asks himself in confusion seeing a silent and empty house.
"Good morning Chala. I heard you come in." Chala sees Payew descend the stairs to the living room.
"Yeah. How you doin kid?" Chala asks.
"Good. But I know you're not here for me. They're in the bas.e.m.e.nt." Payew says as he goes to the kitchen to pick up a drink, before going back upstairs to his room.
"Heh." Chala can only chuckle as he is already used to the focused and busy Payew.
"Hey kid. Let's talk for a minute, yeah? It's your vacation anyways." Chala waves Payew over. Payew, realizing that he had not seen Chala in a while, decides to hang out with Chala for a while.
-----
Meanwhile, in the bas.e.m.e.nt, *Badump* *Bomp* *Pling* *StruM* *Phoom* *plink* an uncomfortable cacophony of instruments can be heard around the practice room, coming from the band tuning their instruments. A minute later, they are done tuning.
They however do not immediately play their instruments but instead all take seats on the on the floor, making a circle, ready to discuss with each other.
"so… What now…?" Ike asked the group for their plans for the school break.
They have after all, the first semester of their junior year just wrapped up and they have more than one month before their second semester starts.
Since September of last year when the band first appeared on TV to promote their music, they have not received the stardom they already knew they were not going to get immediately, but were secretly hoping for.
There were no big entertainment companies that offered them a record deal, and the small companies that did contact them were sketchy. There are also simply too many musicians in Ouigab for them to blow pass by.
The most obvious benefit however of their TV appearance is a small jump in their popularity online as evidenced by the sudden boost of views and subscribers in their YouTube Channel. From their original 58,000 subscribers the day before their TV appearance, the subscriber count grew to 80,000 subscribers within a few days after.
The band however knew that they have not made enough impact so they decided to take a break from making their own music and instead have gone back to arranging and uploading easy, but good covers on YouTube to capitalize on their popularity boost. They have also decided to further practice their skills to go back to ROH Factory for some gigs.
Unlike their disappointment at the slight impact of their TV appearance, they were pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome by the ROH Factory staff and musicians. They have received all sorts of sincere compliments and appreciation for their improved skills from other musicians, while Rudy the bar owner even offered them headline spots, which they gladly took.
The other acts who have been eyeing those headline spots can only swallow their slight resentment at the band due to the benefits Percussive Corrections brought on the bar. The band's online popularity translated to a small but obvious increase of patrons in ROH Factory resulting to the increase in liquor sales which further resulted to the increase in income of musicians across the spots in the line-ups.
cont'd |||Giovanni and Nico finally manage to drag Reece to the storage room of the bar, finding temporary safety. "*Cough* *Cough* Shit." Reece curses out with difficulty as he coughs out blood. He is then assisted by Giovanni to sit against the wall, keeping the bullet wounds elevated. "You're gonna be fine, buddy. Our men are coming." Giovanni says, consoling Reece as he presses his hand again on Giovanni's wounds once again. "Damn it. Not like this, Reece." Nico on the other hand, is angry and panicking as he vigilantly guards the storage room door. "*Cough* I'm done. You two go." Reece tells the two. "Shit. We're not going anywhere without you, Reece!" Nico says. "Damn. They got our cars." One of the subordinates who managed to survive, comes barging in the scene, reporting the situation 'outside' the bar. "Sir. Dennis, Lawrence, and Huang can't make it." Another subordinate enters the store room and reports. "Damn. Ugh.. Give me your gun." Reece, with a painful grunt, orders the one of the subordinates, and the subordinate obliges immediately. "What are you doing?!" Nico is frantic at Reece's action. "You all leave now. I can't let those three take all the credit." Reece despite the weakness and pain, manages to joke. "You can get away. I'll stop whoever passes here. Go." Reece says. "Reece" Giovanni hesitates. "Go! *Cough* Live! And make sure my son is safe." Reece says as he checks his new gun and looks at Giovanni and Nico in resolve. Giovanni, understanding Reece, finally nods in acceptance. "Let's go, Nico." Giovanni says as he lets go of Reece's bullet wounds. "Giovanni" Nico says, still not accepting the situation. "The best we can do is to live for tomorrow and raise his family... Come on. Let's go." Giovanni drags Nico away from Reece. Despite Giovanni's logical decision, his heart is heavy. "Reece It was nice knowing you." Giovanni says his last goodbye. "I'll f*cking gut those Russians in your name, Reece." Nico promises, finally accepting Reece's fate. "*Cough* Heh. Yeah. Thank you, brothers. Now, f*ck off and don't waste my precious time." Reece smiles weakly at the two. And with that, Giovanni, Nico, and the two remaining Cervo subordinates, finally exit the storage room to the back alley. Reece can only smile as he listens to the sound of the heavy footsteps of his friends, fading away into the distance. Reece then weakly turns his head to the entrance of the storage room and raises his gun towards it, ready to shoot any enemy that appears at the door. "I feel great" Reece smiles as he feels an unprecedented sense of focus that he did not even feel when he was fighting in the coasts of Okinawa. *Slam!* The storage room door bursts opens and an armed man appears. *Bang* Reece shoots the enemy down before the enemy even spotted him. He smiles as the Russian did not get up. Another enemy appears and *Bang* Reece shoots once again. His shot was not good enough this time, but *Bang* he quickly follows up and the enemy is dead before he hit the floor. One pistol however is not enough for Reece and before he can even muster the strength to grab his fallen enemies' guns, not only one, but four enemies, with more powerful guns and rifles in their hands, rush one after another in the room. *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* Frank let loose his handgun in quick succession. *Click* However, when his bullets run out, he only managed to kill only two of the four enemies. "Heh. Not a bad way to go" Reece says, looking at the fearful looks of the two remaining enemies in the room. His bullets out, Reece then feels all the strength in his body run out all at once and his arm holding his gun up, falls back down. *Ratatata tata* Reece then receives a shower of bullets from the enemies. The enemies, emptying their magazines and making sure that Reece is dead, finally stop their assault. Reece, now lifeless, still sitting with his back against the wall, his face down, is wearing a peaceful smile on his face.||| "CUT!" Tayaw yells in delight at the successful take and starts clapping his hands. "Let's give it up for Frank! Nicely done, man! Nicely done!" Tayaw expresses his appreciation. *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* The crew also express their appreciation for Frank's performance. Frank then stands up and takes a deep breath. Looking at the crew's admiring eyes, he cannot help but feel moved. It was the 'fallen' extras that came up to him first to congratulate him with the job well done. Luca and Warren also came forward from wherever they ran off to, to also congratulate Frank. "Thank you, everyone." Frank says, and tears suddenly start running down his cheeks. "You alright Frank?" Warren asks, quite surprised at Frank crying. "Yeah. I just didn't think I'd get emotional. *sniff* *sniff*" Frank after a minute or two, quickly gets over his crying outburst. "Reece going out like that, I think I'd get emotional too. Great job man." Luca says. "Alright everybody! Leave the guy alone!" The people in the dome hear Tayaw yell. While the three main actors found it sweet that many of the extras and crew is concerned for Frank, Frank feels overwhelmed and burdened by the attention from people he does not know well. "Great job for getting it one shot everyone! Everyone take an hour." The crew and extras, hearing the early and long break, all happily filter out of the dome immediately. "Hey. Good job Frank." Tayaw approaches Frank with a smile. "Thanks." Frank says, grateful for the sincere compliment. "Too bad, that's your last scene." Tayaw says. "Yeah. I know." Frank shakes his head, but is feeling a huge relief, finishing a job well. . "May I stay for a few more days? I wanna watch what happens next." Frank asks. Tayaw processes the simple request and then looks at Warren and Luca. He is surprised at Frank's request. Even though Tayaw had released different versions of the film script, tailored to what each character's actors need, and that he put in the actors' contracts to not talk about the parts of the script to actors they do not share the parts with, Tayaw is impressed that Luca and Warren did not blab to Frank. While Tayaw is impressed, he decides to follow what is in the contract. "I'm sorry Frank. The next important parts are in the third movie, which you are not supposed to see. But I assure you, your character will be avenged." Tayaw says. Frank, despite feeling a bit disappointed, simply nods in acceptance. He knows that the films Tayaw is making will make another big wave much larger than what September Ninth did. "Hey. Isn't there a funeral scene? Frank's job isn't really done, right?" Warren asks Tayaw, half-jokingly. "Oh. I can act like a corpse..." Frank says, now joking. "There is. But it's an empty casket. That is an important part of the funeral." Tayaw explains. "Empty?" "Why?" Luca and Warren ask in confusion. Frank on the other hand, already knows the reason. "Because the enemies are supposed to have gotten Reece's body. The Cervo Syndicate not even being able to retrieve Reece's body will add to their motivation for revenge." Tayaw says. "Damn. That's cold." Warren shakes his head. "Yeah. Was that how it happened?" Luca who is familiar with mob and syndicate stories, asks in curiosity. Tayaw only looks at Luca before nodding. The body of the real-life counterpart of Reece, was indeed never found. Nobody living knows where the body is, and Gonzalo also didn't tell Tayaw what the Russians did to his friend's body. "But! I have something might make you feel better." Tayaw says as he goes to the dome's control computers and grabs something under one of them. The three actors watch in curiosity while the virtual set operators watch in amus.e.m.e.nt, having already seen the thing. Tayaw then walks back to Frank, now with a ribboned box on his hand, and hands it to Frank. Frank then excitedly opens it with care and is dumbfounded at what he sees. "A cake?" Warren chuckles. "A cake 'Congratulations Frank for a job well done! -Half Basin Studios-'" Frank reads the message written in icing. O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O 11 AM Ironstone, East Ouigab "Fellas! Good Morning!" Chala enters the living room in Tayaw's Ironstone mansion, excitedly. "I have great ne--- Oh? Where'd these kids go?" Chala asks himself in confusion seeing a silent and empty house. "Good morning Chala. I heard you come in." Chala sees Payew descend the stairs to the living room. "Yeah. How you doin kid?" Chala asks. "Good. But I know you're not here for me. They're in the bas.e.m.e.nt." Payew says as he goes to the kitchen to pick up a drink, before going back upstairs to his room. "Heh." Chala can only chuckle as he is already used to the focused and busy Payew. "Hey kid. Let's talk for a minute, yeah? It's your vacation anyways." Chala waves Payew over. Payew, realizing that he had not seen Chala in a while, decides to hang out with Chala for a while. ----- Meanwhile, in the bas.e.m.e.nt, *Badump* *Bomp* *Pling* *StruM* *Phoom* *plink* an uncomfortable cacophony of instruments can be heard around the practice room, coming from the band tuning their instruments. A minute later, they are done tuning. They however do not immediately play their instruments but instead all take seats on the on the floor, making a circle, ready to discuss with each other. "so What now?" Ike asked the group for their plans for the school break. They have after all, the first semester of their junior year just wrapped up and they have more than one month before their second semester starts. Since September of last year when the band first appeared on TV to promote their music, they have not received the stardom they already knew they were not going to get immediately, but were secretly hoping for. There were no big entertainment companies that offered them a record deal, and the small companies that did contact them were sketchy. There are also simply too many musicians in Ouigab for them to blow pass by. The most obvious benefit however of their TV appearance is a small jump in their popularity online as evidenced by the sudden boost of views and subscribers in their YouTube Channel. From their original 58,000 subscribers the day before their TV appearance, the subscriber count grew to 80,000 subscribers within a few days after. The band however knew that they have not made enough impact so they decided to take a break from making their own music and instead have gone back to arranging and uploading easy, but good covers on YouTube to capitalize on their popularity boost. They have also decided to further practice their skills to go back to ROH Factory for some gigs. Unlike their disappointment at the slight impact of their TV appearance, they were pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome by the ROH Factory staff and musicians. They have received all sorts of sincere compliments and appreciation for their improved skills from other musicians, while Rudy the bar owner even offered them headline spots, which they gladly took. The other acts who have been eyeing those headline spots can only swallow their slight resentment at the band due to the benefits Percussive Corrections brought on the bar. The band's online popularity translated to a small but obvious increase of patrons in ROH Factory resulting to the increase in liquor sales which further resulted to the increase in income of musicians across the spots in the line-ups.
