Esmoroth Falls.
@jacksope-lives I have a portion of No Train, New Trauma that I wasn’t sure if I would use, but realized has been in my docs for months and since I don’t have anything else that I’ve worked on, it can be a thingy for us to start writing in, if you want. If not, it can be a potential deleted scene or potential drabble for the series.
“Who’s viewpoint is this from?” That was the question that her mom would ask whenever a story went on for a while and seemed to lose sight of its destination… or whenever she smelled a lie. She said that she asked it to comprehend the narrative better, but Hazel was convinced that she did it to try to catch somebody slipping. The thing was that she did it for everything from stories to songs, to movies, to books, etc. And she claimed that everyone did it subconsciously and it only seemed weird when she asked because she would ask aloud. “I just need better comprehension,” she said. Hazel looked over to Simon and the director. Simon also looked at the director.
“We decided…” He started, but Grace was staring at Simon and Hazel could bet, reading the silent motions of his face to detect even more confirmation. Simon sighed and leaned against the table behind him. Still silent, but in a defeated way that told Hazel that he had already had all of the arguments that Grace might have with the director, but to no avail.
More and more of this movie had been getting away from him as he spent more time with the family and Hazel was starting to think that he wasn’t even passionate about it anymore. Things that had been discussed whenever he first signed on for it were being renegotiated and arguments that he had already had were arising again, this time with him less victorious than he had been before the Esmoroth series became partially owned by the studio.
“Well, if everybody’s on the same page, who am I to argue?” Grace said, still watching Simon. He sighed and looked up at her, though his head was still down.
“The studio thinks that reworking some of the plot for the adaptation will lead to a longer and more successful run for Esmoroth.”
“Yeah. I understood it when he explained it,” she said. Hazel felt the tension in the room and she knew that she wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Simon’s entire demeanor was dark and Grace’s smile was clearly fake. “Well, so be it. I guess that’s that.” She headed for the door and Simon stood up straight, but she put up her hand, to signal that she didn’t want him to join her. He folded his arms, huffed, and rolled his eyes. Hazel was sure that he would start crying soon. She wondered if that hand was for her too or just for Simon because technically, this meeting was about something he’d originally promised that was now changing. Hazel decided to presume that she was in the clear since she hadn’t done anything wrong except for insisting that she could come to the meeting too.
She followed Grace and called behind her, “I’ll take care of her, Dad.” He gave her a grateful, sad smile. Both of them knew that Grace was about to go Full Monroe and whatever happened next, she might need to look up and see a loving face that she didn’t want to slap. That couldn’t be his at the moment. He didn’t know how to make her understand that this was good for everyone, but he didn’t even know if he agreed. Sure, there was more money for them this way and that was very important to him, but he’d just been a part of undoing a lot of work that he had to do on mending Grace’s heart and he wasn’t sure how he could ever rectify it again.
Grace was already on the phone with her team when Hazel caught up to her down the hallway. “Everything. Pull it all. I don’t want anyone to be able to access or acknowledge anything related to Esmoroth in any of my spaces. Yes, merch too. Pull it all. I want nothing to do with it.” Hazel hung back a little bit and winced at every movement she made, afraid that even her quietest motions might be too loud in the stifling tension.
Grace had just been informed that the music for the soundtrack may need to be reworked, as the studio had decided that they would not go the route of the books with The Idol Princess/True Queen. In fact, they would deviate totally by the end of the trilogy and the Idol Princess would not be resurrected in the sequel, nor claim the throne in the third installment…
Blah blah blah, unpopular character, ratings point to blah blah, and financially, it will make more sense to elevate more popular characters for such a huge investment. Hazel had been shocked into silence. SHE had been the main reason that the Esmoroth books leaned in the direction of resurrecting this character in the sequel and Grace had been the reason that Simon had written the sequel and final books the way that he had. They were literally like love letters to his wife and daughter… and now he was compromising the integrity of it.
“After everything I’ve gone through engaging with that pussy-ass fandom,” Hazel heard Grace mutter as she disarmed the car alarm. Whenever she opened the passenger door, Grace gasped. She had absolutely forgotten that Hazel was at the meeting. “Oh, you didn’t stay?” She asked.
Hazel sat down and clenched her teeth, scared of any type of reaction, “Should I have stayed? I can go back. I figured that they would begin damage control for your reaction…”
“There is no damage control for my reaction. I’m not involved,” she said.
“You’re a mega part of Dad’s ecosystem, though.”
“Ugh,” Grace said.
“I mean Simon,” Hazel corrected. When they were mad at him, he was “Simon.”
“No, no… You can stay with Simon. I’m gonna say some very unsavory things and you shouldn’t be around to hear them.”
Hazel put her earplugs in and turned on her music. “I told him that I’d take care of you.”
Grace pursed her lips. “I’ll take care of him!” she grumbled.
.
Simon couldn’t get Grace to acknowledge him for a couple of days. She seemed to be working on a new video for her social media and he left her to it, only exchanging looks with her whenever one of them passed the baby to the other. She had pulled out multiple costumes and had her lipstick-shaped marker notes on her idea pad like she’d done during her pregnancy with Ivory when she was working on music videos from home.
“How much shit am I in?” He’d asked Hazel whenever he got home that first night.
“So much that I have no clue,” she said.
They both sat on the foot of her bed in turmoil. If she wasn’t speaking about it, that meant that either she was so done with it that nothing anybody could say would change her mind, or that she was so engulfed by it that she thought saying anything would lead to sheer destruction. Simon was used to them talking Esmoroth things out, because Esmoroth was his way of communicating complicated feelings for so long.
Hazel added, “And she has removed everything Esmoroth from all of her spaces.” Simon rested his face in his hands and she rubbed his back, “Online and IRL…” she hated to clarify, but felt obligated.
“Okay,” he sniffled. He furrowed his brow and got up to go check on Grace. She was still wearing her wedding ring, which was actually inspired by Esmoroth aesthetics. At least there was that. She wasn’t completely ready to quit on him. She looked up at him, point blank, glaring annoyed at him until he cracked his knuckles and said, “Are we gonna talk about…” She turned her head and went back to vacuum sealing her smoothie blends, the sealer too loud for him to speak over. Dismissed. He nodded his head and walked away, dejected.