The Kitty Cat's Mates (ManxMen)

Side Chapter | Where is She?

"So the director's back, huh?" King rhetorically asked. He was sitting in a hydraulic stylist chair, sipping iced tea, with big pink curlers in his rust-colored hair. In front of him was a full row of vanity mirrors with bright golden light bulbs. Besides him were two of his fellow The Kitty Cat's Mates' co-stars.

"Yeah. That idiot. After over two weeks, she just comes back bursting through the studio like a nuclear missile."

King glanced at the firmly voiced person who said that through the mirror. "You better watch your mouth, Kain. She'll kill you if she hears that."

"Kill me? Pfft! As if the psycho could do it," spat Kain. He fixed his vintage aviator sunglasses, crossed his legs and arms, and leaned his head back on his chair.

Yusef chuckled. His eyes were closed, and he was relaxing on his own chair while a make-up artist puffed him up. "She won't kill you, but you'll wish she did instead."

"She can try."

"Remember, you said that." Yusef produced a lopsided, alluring smile.

"Whatever."

"At least we got a break from acting like I'm a beefsteak. Good gracious," King cut in.

Yusef smiled at him. "You should be happy we haven't reached the ravaged part in the script until now."

"Dude... it's still in the script."

"Can't wait for it," murmured the crossed legged and armed Kain.

"Did you say something?" King asked.

"Nothing." Kain tilted his head. King noticed him and Yusef exchanged glances for a moment before the two softly chuckled. It was as if they had traded conversations using a language they and the audience only understood.

King darted his gaze back and forth and them and knitted his brows. He shook his head, deciding to ignore it when Kain reverted to his old position. He then took the script pocketed on a tray beside his seat, briefly scanned, and flicked it. "We're still getting into the second arc's climax." He sighed. "It looks like we're only halfway throughout the story. It's taking too long."

"That's one of the reasons why the other staffs are angry. She's adding in more casts as well, and reshooting scenes... again."

"Who wouldn't get pissed?" Kain huffed. "She kept changing and changing and changing these damn papers, and then she'll just up and takes a break without a word. The last one even took a whole fucking year!"

Yusef shrugged in his seat. Kain was right, their director did take a year and a half off!

King stared at the abyss, old records winding inside his mind. Suddenly he cracked up a smile and laughed."Pfft!" King pressed his upper lip with his thumb and the middle of his forefinger. "I remember I was supposed to be named Asher McCarthy. She wanted my hair bleached-platinum and has three older brothers who are annoying as hell. And remember that school fest event— oh god, ha!"

King threw his head back and hacked out a laugh. Kain and Yusef remained still, staring at him as he lost it. "It was a cringe-fest!" King guffawed again. "That steamy scene when we got stuck in a jack in a box on a freaking haunted house? How did she even come up with that?!"

Yusef blinked. Then he chuckled. He couldn't hide a smile this time. He remembered the old scene. If that was added in the count, he would have been kicked down there thrice already. "And that's why we call her psycho."

When the werecat star relaxed a bit, he looked at Kain in the mirror and wiped a small tear. Still croaking out small laughs, he wheezed out, "You were a real cringe too, Kain."

Kain grumbled a deep, quiet, guttural sound out of his chest. He didn't want to remember that bed scene that happened in the earliest version of the story. It was the meaning of cringe. Good thing no one will ever know about it... but we got a whole lot of numbers, right?

Yusef blinked, looking as if he was deep in his thoughts. Then he uttered, "If we're going to talk about the cringiest... wouldn't it be Zach?"

King and Kain raked their thoughts too. Then both hacked a laugh and wheezed.

"Don't destroy his image!" King shrieked between guffaws.

"He's a real Casanova, all right!" Kain roared a laugh.

Yusef tried to contain laughing from the shrieking two, but he wasn't able to do it that well. The Zach in the old scripts were golden.

"Whew!" King wiped his tears and laid back, though not that composedly, on his chair. "Now that I think about it, I'm kinda thankful that she changed it out." King sighed out his laughing fit. "But why did she disappeared?"

"Haven't you heard about it yet?" Yusef asked. It was just an automatic urge, even if he knew the answer.

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't ask if I did."

"The long-haired man chuckled at the soft sarcasm. "Well, this is what she said:"

'I feel so bad for not notifying you guys. Thanks for the PMs you've sent me, you guys know who you are. Frankly, I haven't opened my profile that much or long. I've been lazy in composing The Kitty Cat's Mates these days since I've been focused on practicing architectural plates and taking advanced lessons in math. I'm just scared I won't be able to catch up on college (my class starts on September 14) since, as I mentioned before, I was a dropee for five years. 

Add on, I discovered a passion for digital arts too. I do traditional arts, but I found making digital art hard since I don't have any proper equipment for it other than my finger and phone. But then I still ended up loving it *laughs*

Check out my Instagram and follow me there to keep tabs on my current and future artworks. If it's not a hassle, please support me on that side too. The link will be in the description. I'm aiming to do chibi commissions in the future once I gather up enough profiles. On the other hand, my other... dimensional work is also existent. So I really lazed off in updates and notifications. I'm really sorry.'

"—That's what she said."

King picked on his nails. "How d' you memorized that?"

Yusef innocently smiled. "I have a script." He waved up a paper.

Kain, King, and the make-up artist stared at him.

"Where did that come from?" King asked, brows meeting while he did.

Yusef merely looked at his hand. "I don't know, it just popped up—"

They all went silent, all of them starting to harbor a growing frown. "... You know," King started. "When something... anything... randomly pops up in here—"

"She's around, isn't she?" Yusef continued.

The three actors stiffened. They slowly looked at the make-up artist who was wearing a cap and a face mask, and they all paled. 

"Who were you guys talking about?" she asked, smiling at them.

***

Ba dum tss!

So I recently created my first chibi and fifth digital art. Here's the WIP lineart. It was fun creating her. What do you think should we name her? Check out my IG for the painted and rendered version! *whispers* I'm bad at rendering though *also whispers* add me on IG.