"I don't know, sir, we are trying our best to adjust it as much as we can…" a tired-looking female said, her blue eyes flickering helplessly as she tried to hold back her drowsiness.
'All those all-nighters are finally catching up huh? I know I am well-paid, but even this is too much!'
Suddenly, the company decided they wanted the whole plot of the upcoming season of one of their popular series to change. Now this wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't required six months to the release of the season!
The excuse of the company is that 'it was only a little adjustment'. Putting aside the other poor crew that was about to suffer soon, they, being the idea churners and the very primary creators, were the first to be thrown under the bus. They had been given only two weeks to 'adjust' the story, which meant pretty much rewriting everything, which they figured out the hard way after four heartless rejections.
"Ugh… I am so tired of this… also…. Just what is that annoying noise? Why is the animation department making such a ruckus?!" the blue-eyed lady roared in anger, her voice waking her co-workers who were dozing off.
Furrowing her brows, she brushed back a naughty strand of her auburn-coloured hair that threatened to blind her.
"They're doing a birthday party ma'am!" an exhausted voice replied.
"Hah! It's almost like they're spitting at us. We're over here dying and they're throwing parties?! Very good! I can't wait to throw parties as well when the crunch reaches their side!"
'It's just a birthday party though…' a particularly sensible fellow thought but smartly hid his thoughts. With the fury and jealousy of his team members, if he blurted out his words senselessly he could become a victim of aggravated assault.
"Here, Mrs. Anne, you need to calm down a bit," a blonde-haired male with brown eyes coaxed softly while handing over a cup of coffee to the blue-eyed lady.
Looking at the coffee and the troubled male, as well as the rest of the team who watched her with worried eyes, she reached out to the cup with a sigh.
Mrs Anne was one of the heads of the writers' department and was known for her kindness. She was a walking mood booster and she almost always had a way of boosting her team's mood when down. Adding to her love for baking, which her team enjoyed to the fullest with the pastries she always brought over, the writers' department was envied for having such a wonderful departmental head. And even she, was now like this.
"The least they could do was give us more team members! There are like 48 members of the writer's department, and we get only 8?!" the blonde-haired male, Johnathan, complained.
"It's not the number. This number is already impressive enough for this project, it's the time. It's too little," Emily, a red-haired lady with hazel eyes, stated as she sipped her drink; she was the only content researcher in the group and now was on her seventh cup of coffee.
"That's exactly what I am saying! If they're gonna give us such a tight deadline then the least they could do is give us more people."
"Yada yada yada. Guys, we don't have time for complaints; we've gotta come up with an idea! You know how Neva is; since they pay a lot, they also expect a lot, and when you don't fulfill it..."
"I don't think just one failed project is what's going to get us kicked out," a dark-haired male with brown eyes, Andy said with a grunt.
"I sure don't wanna find out," Emily piped, downing her cup of coffee before keeping it aside.
After that exchange, everyone strangely quieted down; they seemed at a loss for words and simply drifted off doing their own thing. The team leader and her assistant, Jonathan, sat in a corner discussing something very seriously while Emily and the three writers, Andy, Elara, and Divine, stood at the corner of the room still brainstorming.
After what seemed to be an eternity someone finally said something, "Guys, I think I just thought of an idea!"
Like birds flocking towards grains, the voice owner was instantly surrounded by different pairs of tired-looking eyes urging her to speak.
Smiling at her exhausted-looking team members, she pulled out a book filled with lots of scribbles, using it to explain her ideas to them. The more they heard, the more their dull eyes brightened; how had they not thought of that? Something so simple yet innovative! Damn, this girl's got imagination.
Elara was a special case. Unlike others who had been here for a while and did a lot just to get here, the opportunity fell right into her lap, not out of nepotism but from a one-in-a-million chance situation. A shareholder from Neva had read her book and was so fascinated by her story they insisted on making her a worker.
At first, most of the writers' department members looked down on her because they believed she was there only by luck and would soon leave when her luck expired. But after her immense contributions to all the projects she worked on, their eyes cleared up, and they had to admit that some people were just made differently.
"Brilliant as always, Elara! What exactly were you in your last life?! It's almost like you can find the solution to any problem as long as it's related to writing!" Mrs Anne said, her eyes beaming with joy.
"I didn't just whip out the idea from thin air; I am not that much of a genius. I just have this habit of rewriting the narrative of any story that tickles my fancy; I liked that series, so during my free days, I might have changed a few things in the narrative for fun; I didn't know it'd come in handy," Elara said with a shy smile.
"Then why didn't you say so sooner?! Did you want me to die from a caffeine overdose?" Emily said exaggeratedly but the relief in her eyes couldn't be masked.
"The idea had its flaws... Additionally, since it was vastly different from the others, I decided to simply focus on adjusting it and speaking up if there was no other option."
"Whatever, girl, I just hope you know you're a lifesaver! There's no way they're rejecting this idea!"
With that, everyone's mood vastly improved; after cheering for Elara, they began bringing up ideas of their own to add to Elara's. It seemed Elara's suggestion was the key to unlocking their locked-up creativity.
"Alright Elara, have a nice day!" Divine said, his bright eyes reflecting his happiness on finally leaving early after working overtime for the past few days.
"Yeah, bye!"
As soon as the door was closed, Elara sighed deeply, her smile morphing into an annoyed scowl. "I'm exhausted too, you assholes."
Sure, she was the stupid saintess who volunteered to compile the story draft based on the ideas they brainstormed, but did she have a choice? The central idea was hers, and as the owner, she was probably the best person to adjust and finalize the draft, so understandably, the lot fell on her. Despite that, she felt unresigned, the least her selfish team could do was have someone help her, like Divine! All he did all day was mop around, and he didn't even contribute to anything!
Putting on her ear pods, she swiped through her phone looking for a playlist to help her conquer this night. Neva's official closing time was 6 pm but the gates would remain open until 8:30 pm when it'd be shut. Before then, the security guard would round the building by around 8 pm to ensure everyone was gone, and the last thing she wanted was to face them; she was too lazy for that.
This meant she had about an hour and thirty minutes to go; she'd probably have to complete this at home then… this fact made her even more displeased, but what had to be done had to be done.
Putting on the music and picking up her pen, she entered her concentration space and was soon lost in work.