Volume I Chapter 6

"Alright, sassy pants. Don't bother telling the thing in your pants to the undeserving people." I shrugged, and gave her a sarcastic look at her attempt to guilt trip me with dirty words.

Dirty. I can do that.

"Oh wow, I can't believe that you've been eyeing the kitten in my pants. To think that I convinced myself that you weren't interested in girl-" My mouth was shoved off with a long Spanish bread before I could finish saying a dirty joke that I made in my mind.

I looked at Faith, who giggled at her successful actions of making me quiet, and tried to dish out another joke to her about not minding the forceful bread play in the cafeteria table.

"Augh don mayd ne pread lay bop-"

"Oh, shut up and mind your manners." Jill said after giving me a small bottle of water.

"Bread play? I think you just gave me an amazing idea!"

The day quickly passed and before we knew it, English had arrived. Bethany took us to a room that had rows of seats divided by wooden stalls. The whole assortment of chairs, monitors, and headsets placed on each stall, looked like the rooms used for call center agents to train in. Seeing that everyone was slowly taking up the vacant seats, I took this chance to slip away from Jill's clingy hands and save myself the trouble of hanging out with the girls again.

I then propped myself beside Tanya Rogers and Andrew Portley who welcomed me in a silent, yet warm manner.

"Hi Tanya, Andrew. I'll be troubling you guys for a while." The girl let out a meek nod and fixed her seat so I could pass, while Andrew's head bounced up and down like a kid excited of his toy being shown on a show-and-tell class segment.

Sitting on the empty seat, I took a hold of the sleek headphones hanged in front of me and slammed it on both my ears. Bethany had already seated herself up the teacher's seat that was situated on a small podium in front of the room. Her stall was higher than all of us, and was filled with all kinds of gadgets that could control sound transmission of the twenty stalls that we resided in.

After prepping up and having us properly seated, she signaled everyone to put on their own headsets one by one like I did.

"Alright, devils. If all of you can hear me, please raise your hand so I can see. Thank you!" Her voice sounded out from the noise-cancelling headset, and like a well-known radio DJ, a song from the band My Chemical Romance sounded out on both of my ears. The beat was addicting and nostalgic so I couldn't help but follow it with a nod as I raised my hand high. I looked back at everyone to see them raised their own hands into a rock 'n roll posture, and I couldn't help but laugh and copy them as well.

Because of our silly fanboying, we all heard our adorable English professor chuckle on the other line as she warns us of fooling around.

"Okay, stop fooling around now. I took you guys here for a small class activity that everyone would enjoy! Now, if everyone looked at the screens in front of you-oh, and if anyone has their own monitor turned off you can see a few taped print-outs on your right. Have you guys seen it? Good! Don't take the tape off Obadiah, I can see you from up here. Now, where was I? Oh yes, what we will do is a short role play." I looked at the paper print-outs taped on the wall and saw that it was a script for a short story. Bethany was explaining how to do the role play with our voices and soon, everyone got the memo on what we were supposed to do.

"So, yes Bethany. We all know that we'll be dubbing and acting as we go, now what's next? Well, I should all tell you now that since this is an activity, I will be grading you based on how good you guys portray the character by using the set of words. If you break character or acted differently than what was assigned to you, expect to have your grade dive down like a professional diver." Bethany warned every one of the repercussions that we will have if we didn't listen to her words seriously. She then went on to say that there were actually four different stories pasted on each stall randomly. Everyone would need to follow the script even if it was intended for the opposite sex, and the thought of someone in class making voices made all of us laugh.

"Yes, laugh at each other's misery. Ha-ha. But even the girls aren't exempted off of it either. Now according to all the things that I've told you, the only problem is, how would you know when it's your turn to speak your line and story? Simple! I'll give the person assigned on the scenario as a character an early warning. They are allowed to prepare themselves and internalize for about a minute, and then will be put into the fire for the test. I'll be putting all of your mics online so that I'll know if anyone wants to hit the bathroom for a small break, but a permanent mute will be given to anyone who interrupts the characters when it's time to role play. Listen to the story and react when your needed to react." She then gave a 3-minute pause to warn the characters of the first scenario to internalize their own characters and story line.

"Times up! Good afternoon everyone! This is your 1-day DJ, Hudson here. Bringing you the best stories voiced by the devils of the East branch of Lutec Academy. The first story of the day would be summarized into one sentence, 'War is imminent, however, what was the cause of it?' The title of today's story is the 'War of the Veterans'. Numbers 007, 015, 003, and 011 will be taking over the spotlight." I looked at the number on top of my monitor to see that I'm number 012. I looked at my left to see that Tanya was 011 and went back to the monitor to focus on the ongoing story.

Sounds of war cry erupted on the other line of my headset. Several blades were clashing, and comrades were dying as bodies kept falling. It was extremely immersive as we listen to one of our classmates, Mark, to unravel what was going on.

"General! Do you think this was all worth it?" Benedict's voice came through.

Ting!

"What do you mean what I think? Are you doubting me, soldier?" I had to hold in a giggle when it was Jill who answered Benedict's question.

"No sir! But-"

Clang!

"If you're not-Argh doubting me! Ha! Then help me find their leader!"

Stab!

"Yes sir!"

"No need to find me Stone-face!" Charles proclaimed loudly.

Swoosh!

"And so, it was you! Asshat! Why would you betray us all!"

"Hahaha! I'm not betraying anyone! The king betrayed you instead!"

"No..." A slight pause was heard and the sounds of the battlefield was lowered. A flashback seems to be happening at the point of the story.

"Stone-faced! Do you think we'll survive this upcoming winter?"

"If the king would send the camp enough rations, then yes. We should."

"General Stone-faced, an official has come to look for you from the main land." I heard Clint report to Tanya about a new character arriving after him.

"Good evening gentlemen." A squeaking attempt of a woman's voice was heard, and I had to bite my tongue when I realized that it was Gian who's talking to Tanya with such a silly voice.

"G-Good evening madam."

"Good evening, official. General, this lowly soldier is leaving."

"You may leave. Good evening, Ms. Scar. May I know why an official from the main land is looking for me?"

"Well general, I'm here to tell you that I'm here to help with the main task at hand. I've also brought to you the military rations for the upcoming winter."

"I see. I thank you for that, however, I believe that a plan has already been filed and done by the head military tactician of the army."

Clang!

A jolting sound of clashing swords had erupted yet again.

"You can't poss-"

"Oh yes. The moment you declined the king's official for help, they decided that someone has to take in the reigns once again! One, who's more loyal to the king!"

Shing!

"Ha!"

Clink!

"Hey Stone-faced, what would you do if we would need to face each other someday."

"What nonsense are you gibbering about, are you drunk already? Weak!"

"No. I'm not drunk! Well, just tipsy, I guess. But still!"

Ting!

"If that's the case! Let us battle to the death!"

Whoosh!

Clang!

Shing!

Clang!

"I'm sorry brother..."

Stab!

Puchi!

Keeuk!

"Asshat! No!"

"M-may you continue living in the future... Avenge me brother!"

"Argh!!!" It turned silent and Bethany finally spoke. "The story has come to an end as General Stone-face��s right-hand man committed suicide. May we remember the brotherly tale of two war veterans come to an end. Alright! Nice work!" I took of my headset and gave Tanya a pat on her shoulder for doing a good job on dubbing her character.

"Pfft! Tanya! Is your character's name really General Stone-faced? Hahahaha!" I laughed when everyone chimed in to ask the quiet girl about the General's real name.

"Yes. It says on this script here."

"What? Ahahahaha!"

"Seriously?"

"Bethany's trying really hard to make us lose character on dubbing."

"That's probably it!"

"Alright, get your headphones on! Save your theories for later, for its Underwater scenario time." All of us then got back to listening on the conversation of a cursed Mermaid and a lone castaway.

It was actually fun imagining what the characters would look like if they're voiced by our fellow classmates, and we got to be surprised about how well they could take on the character's way of speaking before breaking off. One of my math group mates, Mark, had to perform as an incredibly sexy and sultry witch. He was the one who had the hooker mermaid to be cursed of her beauty bringing fort disaster to everyone, just because she nabbed his pirate boyfriend. The mermaid was unfortunately played by my best friend, Jill, who surprisingly acted her role quite well in the story.

The story started off on a lone island where the castaway, Nicole, was rescued by Jill, the cursed mermaid. She was helped by the said mermaid and a talking seagull for a favor of helping the cursed girl to ask the witch for forgiveness in her place. She then took it into her goal and went up to look for the witch's lair on the island. She found out from the loose-lipped seagull, Daniel, that the witch's abode was located on the highest mountain. So, she took the bird with her for a stroll. They found out that there was no one there and the seagull went back down convincing the girl that to not approach the mermaid any more. She asked why and that was when she found out that helping her would earn the witch's ire.

Back down the mountain, they found a lone navigator swept ashore. Nicole didn't believe the seagull's stories at first, but Jill's unintentional flirting with Anna, the navigator, led her to believe the bird's story. Daniel was pretty angry with the mermaid and soon set off to fly away elsewhere. Jill soon found out that the two had returned and saw her with the navigator, so she asked Nicole what happened. The castaway girl ignored her and helped the navigator instead. Jill was quite confused at first, but after hearing the petty words of the castaway, she quickly tried to clear her name by saying that the bird was one of the witch's henchmen.

Daniel then returned with the witch beside him in the island and a huge argument broke out. The two newcomers-no, it was just the castaway who was stuck on the crossfire while the other two people around her walked far away from the scene. The verbal fight between the bird and the fish was so heated that they didn't even notice that the witch had taken the man beside the castaway, up to the mountain to speak with.

Nicole then noticed what was happening and quickly followed the sexy witch and shaking navigator back to the top of the mountain out of curiosity. There, she saw the witch interrogating and threatening the poor guy with curses so that he would leave the island as quick as possible. It took no longer than a sip of warm tea before the guy was soon seen running off the mountain, preparing his departure from the island and its dangerous inhabitants. The witch already knew that there was an uninvited guest in her house, so she invited the banished girl inside for a cup of warm tea.

Nicole soon found out the whole story from the witch of the island. The curse of the mermaid was only applicable to men, and was put to ward them off of the silly girl. The rumor about snatching the witch's boyfriend was a fake memory that the witch had implanted to the seagull who couldn't keep secrets. Everything about the curse was done because the witch fell in love with the mermaid of the sea.

The day went on with the two girls chatting about how they can help her settle in the island, and not soon after, the seagull went in to say that the mermaid had forced the navigator to eloped with her to the vast sea. The witch didn't do anything because she knew that the curse would activate and bring the silly girl back home. But who would've thought that the seagull would reveal that the navigator, was in fact, a woman in disguise?

Finally snapping out of anger, the three of them strode out of the mountain to see the two waiting for them at the beach. They look like they weren't eloping, but the witch couldn't take the thought of it anymore so she separated the two as quick as possible. The mermaid gave out a smug expression and immobilized the nearby witch with seaweed, as she talked about how the seagull and her knew of what they talked inside the witch's lair. It was the navigator who revealed that she accidentally snooped on their conversation when she went back to ask for a little help in getting out of the island.

Extremely embarrassed of what was happening, the witch didn't notice that the seagull grabbed a small vial of liquid on her waist and poured it on the mermaid's tail. The girl then soon had legs and carried off the struggling witch back into the mountain for some 'punishment'. The seagull then soon revealed to the two about how this would always happen whenever three years would pass. Daniel said that it was the curse of the island that would affect the memories of its inhabitants, and would replay how they all met in an extreme manner. He said that he wasn't affected because he didn't live there, and soon told the two girls to follow him into their own houses to rest.

Bethany then gave us a short 15-minute break as everyone teased the second group of voice actors in the room.

"Even though I shivered every time Stanford flirted with ease, I really like the story that seem to have been brought to life."

"The role reversal should be also evident in the next scenario at this rate."

"I hope it's not me!"

"But it's kind of fun dubbing characters of the opposite sex."

"Yeah. It has its own charm to it."

"Don't tell me that your jumping to the other side of the fence, Mark?"

"No! It doesn't mean that me having a fun time pretending as a girl, means that I'm a girl at heart."

"But isn't that the same as coming out?"

"It's not. Doofus!"

.

"Congrats! Do you have some tips to make your voice deeper for a male role?"

"It depends on the limits that you can reach, really."

"How about when I need to express that I'm in love?"

"Hey, hey! How would you read this line if your character is like this?"

"Let me see here... Oh, try emphasizing this syllable here and tweak your accent and pitch a little."

"Were you going through the script on the whole process or did you put some additional lines here and there?"

"I tried..."

While they chat over some questions and topics about the two scenarios, I silently practiced my lines over and over.

The scenario that I was a part of was called, 'A Family of Three.' The main characters were a man, a woman, and a dog. Yes, a dog, but not a talking dog. It would be too easy if the dog knew how to talk like a human like Daniel's seagull role, so I guessed that Bethany wrote this role to up the difficulty a little.

Unfortunately, I was the dog in the story. I had to know how to properly act like a house dog; whimpering, barking, breathing, licking, and howling. Acting properly as an animal would be a lot harder than acting as a human, but, although I may be doomed for having a taxing role of a dog, I'm not completely alone throughout my pet journey. Because on the list of side characters in the story, I saw someone had to get the role of a cat. The cat would be taken care of by two adults and their child. They owned a veterinarian clinic nearby the family of three, and would help treat the dog after it had caught sickness from eating bad food across the street.

Overall, it was simple story with a lot of hardened roles packed in together. Something that I wouldn't trade for other scenarios Bethany had prepared in the moment.