It became quickly apparent to Meredith that she had underestimated the size and intensity of the storm she willingly dove into. Not even a minute in and the mental defences she had built were obliterated. Defenceless, she would spend the next ninety-three minutes bearing the full brunt of Rei’s ‘attack’.
Her face twisted and contorted, unintelligent mutters and exclamations left her lips, and tears were also made to well up and fall from her eyes.
Meredith was totally enraptured by the movie. Even knowing the story back to front, she was still awed to no end. Amazement came in wave after wave, rocking her wooden boat side to side. She was helpless, but at the same time, she enjoyed the ride.
While she was doing this, Ralf, like a dolphin, had half his attention on chatting with Rei while playing casino games, and the other half focused on observing Meredith. The latter brought a smile to his face. He liked watching reactions in general, so taking in Meredith’s live reaction was a treat, especially when it was so expressive and jubilant.
This reaction was very much expected. In fact, he had a similar one when he first saw the movie.
First impressions were important, and with the movie being the first of its kind, Rei went all out, going above and beyond to ensure that it wowed. And wow it did.
Production had taken just over six months to complete. Now, using conventional means, this didn’t sound too impressive…but it was. With the Mental Space’s various tools, the movie could have been comfortably made in just over three weeks while still being high quality.
But high quality just didn’t cut it for Rei, and so he used that extra time to continue to polish the work, over and over, to the point where every single second of the ninety-four-minute movie was filled with every iota of his creative and artistic prowess.
The end result was a visual spectacle of the highest calibre, that left even Ralf, one very familiar with the medium, bedazzled in admiration and awe upon viewing it.
One area particularly praiseworthy was the fight scenes. The Dragon Prince had a fair amount of fight scenes in the book but they were written very vaguely. This left a lot up to plays and movies on how to handle each fight scene and was arguably the greatest difference between the various adaptions.
Rei could write a fight scene, well and good, but for this movie, he chose to borrow a bit. Not from his old world, but the library, more specifically, the Hall of Fame section. This section was dedicated to battles and moments that were especially dazzling. With hundreds of thousands of battles fought in the Mental Space, the duo had produced quite a number of incredibly high-quality spectacles.
Rei didn’t hold himself back and from it, took what was applicable and added it into the film, raising its overall quality by a few notches.
The ninety-four minutes passed by speedily.
[[…I still keep on losing, how how, we just altered the initial values…so how is my luck still this shitty,]] Ralf voiced, in a tone half-lost, half-confused.
[[Frankly, I’m amazed as well. Better up your donations at the fountain.]]
[[Yeah,]] Ralf replied, already contemplating the amount to throw into the fountain.
[[Hey, let’s wrap this up. It’s already been a minute now.]]
[[Oh, yeah.]]
Saying, Ralf shifted his mind away from his abysmal luck and set his focus back on Meredith, who was currently in a daze.
“What was that…you ask?” Ralf started with a faint smile.
Meredith’s blank eyes flickered with awareness at his voice. Registering his question a second later, she then nodded.
Ralf smiled. “The medium you just watched is called anime.” He had his Psi form the five-letter word in the air.
“Ani…me?” Meredith repeated slowly with a look of wonder as she stared at the Psi construct.
Ralf nodded at her perfect pronunciation before continuing, “The medium is very popular with the Silver Path, so we - as in me and my other selves decided to recreate it to the best of our ability. I think it turned out quite well, don’t you agree?” he asked while showing a cheeky smile.
Meredith smiled wryly. “Quite well is the understatement of the century - no millennium, at the very least. I came in with expectations as high as the sky and was still blown away. It was incredible.” As she continued, her voice grew more energetic, fueled by the leftover frenzy that infected her. “A new genre would turn heads but an entirely new medium will cause those same heads to explode, especially one such as this. Anime, it’s so flashy and colourful, I love it.”
“I had a feeling you’d like it.”
Meredith nodded. “Ralf, you said Ray made this, right. Please, thank him for me. It was amazing.”
Ralf smiled. “Yeah, I’ll pass your words along.”
[[Hear that? Good job partner.]]
[[Hmm, I’ll take it, I guess. Hopefully, mom will like it just as much.]]
[[Yeah.]]
Saying this, Ralf refocused on Meredith and flashed her a thumbs up. “Delivered the message.’
“Excellent. I can’t wait to see the continuation…I really can’t wait, seriously.”
Her words were no exaggeration, the sight of her flickering gaze and her hands which tightly gripped at her knees, spoke volumes of her overwhelming impatience and desire.
Ralf’s lip tugged up as spotted these signs. ‘Oh, she has it bad. Well, I can relate.’
“You don’t have to wait.”
You are reading story The Silver Path at novel35.com
Meredith jumped at the words. “I don’t!’”
Ralf shook his head. “The Dragon Prince Part 2 and Part 3 are already done. Not only these, Diamond Hand, The Fairy of Briason and The Cold World are also completed. By the way, I did the last one.”
Meredith’s mind blanked at the revelation. A second later, her mental cogs resumed spinning and once they did, her eyes beamed with an ungodly light. Setting her wicked gaze upon Ralf, she squinted then said, “Transfer all of it,” in a low tone.
This wasn’t a request, but an order. Instead of speaking consciously, her overflowing desire materialised into speech.
‘Whoa, intense,’ Ralf couldn’t help but shudder a little.
Had he not been on the couch, he would be taking a step back at this moment.
[[Rei, you heard the lady. Give her what she wants, and pronto. She looks ready to open our head and forcefully pry it out of us, and with the aura she’s exuding, it feels like she can. Who’s the real Asura here?]]
[[Yeah yeah, on it.]]
Rei began the transfer.
At the news of the happening, the menacing aura around Meredith began fading fast, and when Jonathan sent the message that all had arrived, it completely vanished. The scowl on her face dissolved into a glorious smile, befitting a conqueror.
“Marvellous, simply marvellous. I have a hundred questions about the ‘how’, but that will have to be saved for later. No, as long as you keep delivering the goods, they can all go unanswered,” Meredith glanced to her desk and then had her Psi move towards it. Using her telekinesis, she retrieved several documents and placed them on the table in the middle of the couches.
“I want to watch those movies as soon as possible, so let’s run through the official stuff, okay.”
“Sure.”
The next thirty minutes were devoted to the documents’ contents. Everything went smoothly until the matters of crediting, promotion and distribution were brought up.
Crediting: this was the area Meredith was most curious about. Unlike usual, there were no names in the film’s intro or outro. She brought up this concern. To her, it was the movie’s single flaw. While she didn’t recognize any of the voices, she had heard many voices present, and stellar ones at that. She insisted that Ralf credit them, but he refused, replying this way:
Most of the voices don’t belong to real people. And those that do, well, crediting them is pointless - or rather, it will just be very confusing. As for Rei and I, well, we aren’t crediting ourselves for a different reason.
Meredith didn’t quite understand what he meant but didn’t push further. Next was promotion. Again, Ralf went against the grain.
I don’t want Enviso to promote it, at least not the first film. No trailer or anything, that’ll just take away from the shock factor. I plan to use the first match of the Challenger Series to promote it.
Lastly, distribution.
Would it be a limited distribution or a worldwide one? This was the question posed Ralf’s way. His answer was obvious; delivering it with a devious smile, he chose the latter.
“Okay, Ralf, that covers it.” Meredith gathered up all the sheets of paper and had them float to her desk.
“Ah, finally.” he stood up and did a simple stretch. “Meredith, I’ll leave you to enjoy those movies.”
“I will, I’m sure of it.”
Ralf nodded then turned around. His Psi moved to the trash and lifted it.
Seeing him do so, Meredith interjected. “There’s no need. Someone’s coming to clean this place up shortly. No, more than that, with the current atmosphere, this trash of yours is no different than treasure.”
Ralf smiled wryly at her words. He had heard from Samuel about the trend.
You know those swords you used, they’re being sold as collectables. Not just that, your bullet casings, your candy wrappers, basically everything you touch is becoming gold…it’s quite comical. Your mom’s works are falling into the same vein, so whatever price she’s selling them at, tell her to multiply by ten.
“Very well, I’ll abstain,” Ralf released the trash with a shake of his head. “Meredith, I’ll see you around.”
“Make sure you do.” Meredith’s eyes narrowed as a sliver of her fanatical aura flared up.
“Ah, yes.”
Turning sheepish, Ralf quickly nodded and then headed to the exit with hurried steps.
Out the door and in the corridor, Meredith’s voice echoed through his head. Out loud? In his head? He couldn’t tell. Regardless, it lingered like a haunting ghost, warning him to deliver the goods or else.
[[Next time, we deliver from home.]]
At Rei’s words, Ralf couldn’t nod faster. Deciding on that action, he made his way out of Enviso.