Re: Svarik and the company II

[VisAnastasis]

Hans glanced at him shortly, with apparent displeasure of words that had to come. He raised his hand, and he plucked one hair from his head, and handed it to actor, careful not to touch him directly, as if he found it distasteful.
" If you find it.. Just swallow this hair, and I'll know. " he said simply. " But don't think you're getting of the hook. I'm going to send two of my men... To help you searching, and keep an eye on you. This is quite a big storage, after all. If nothing works, I will ask Erdel perhaps, for the help, in the end, to see if he can smell it, but I'd rather not come to that. "

[Mirach]

"Send more if you can spare them, I could use the help," Senecio said, taking the hair. "I'll write you the names of people I remembered were there." He took a random piece of paper from a heap, and went on to write the names. But then he took a closer look on the paper. "Wait... that's a part of the script! The pages must have gotten loose..."

[VisAnastasis]

" Really? That is... hm... Both fortunate and unfortunate, I'd say. At least we'll manage to recover part of the script, though it may take us a while. Hold onto that paper carefully. " he said. " I don't want to disturb Erdel with such requests right now, and, anyway, we don't need person of that high skills for something like this - we already have the place, so average tracker would be enough. Stay here and keep looking, and I'll bring a friend with keen sense of smell, to see if he can track down those separate pages by the scent. "

[Mirach]

"Yes, that would help," Senecio nodded. "Otherwise it could take days to find them all..."

[VisAnastasis]

" It's not as important to find all, as long as we manage to find the most of them. If we'd already have biggest part of it, we can fill in the blanks with new writing, in worst case. " Hans said sensibly. " I may need some more time to reach out for tracker, maybe two hours or so. In meantime, keep searching, and I'll first send two of my man to help you hopefully find more pages to have better smell samples. " he said with simple confident authority, and then, he turned to leave.

[Mirach]

"Alright," Senecio nodded, and started to go through the loose papers from one heap.

[VisAnastasis]

Hans left immediately, disappearing into the thin air, skipping through layers, as he probably had to go quite a distance to find the person they need.
Soon, around half hour later, two of Hans's men indeed came in, too, and they went on searching  with the actor for more papers from script.

[Mirach]

Since the didn't know the text of the play, Senecio told them what characters to look for in the various loose pages from different script, and to show him any pages that they would be unsure about.

[VisAnastasis]

They didn't know script, but knowing characters helped out much, so, while their progress was slow, three heads were better than one - and over next two hours, they managed to find four more pages of the script together.

[Mirach]

Senecio was intent on finding more, forgetting that he didn't have lunch yet, or anything else since he woke.

[VisAnastasis]

Around an hour longer, Hans finally returned. With him, there was a little, peculiar creature of the sea, sweet, like a big sea dog, reaching up to Hans's shoulder.
http://orig10.deviantart.net/ccd9/f/2015/316/e/0/synaxid___nodi_2015_by_princepaladin-d9gfe3r.png
It didn't bother with introductions, and Hans gave everyone signs to be quiet and not speak. Magical creature but sniffed the papers lightly, and then, it looked around, following the scent, finding new page belonging to original pile soon, and then another, and another...

[Mirach]

Senecio watched with fascination as the adorable creature was saving them hours of searching. As more papers were found, he started sorting them and putting them together in order to see how much is still missing.

[VisAnastasis]

Creature searched and searched, sniffing around the place, its pile of papers slowly growing. Only after a while, it slowed down, and critter shook its head slowly, indicating it can't smell anything more in the room. Hans nodded and bowed head to him graciously, thanking him on melodic Spirit language.
" How does it look? How much is missing? " Spirit asked Hans then, looking over his shoulder to see how his work is going.

[Mirach]

Senecio was still sorting it. "Around a third of the pages," he said. "And some are torn. Could he maybe take a short sniff in the other rooms, to see if some pages are not there?"

[VisAnastasis]

" That's quite a lot still, despite we made lot of progress. Probably people though it worthless, and used up some for notes, like you wanted. " Hans noted. " Alright, let's go to other rooms, I'll get us permissions. " he said sensibly, and after he arranged legal part of it with impressive speed and elegance, creature went sniffing in other rooms of the vast facility, in hope of finding more.

[Mirach]

They were able to find most of the pages in that way, indeed used for notes, or even folded to support a wobbly table or crumpled into a ball and stuffed into a shoe to keep its shape. At the end, when they went through all the rooms, only some ten pages were missing, although some were just barely readable.

[VisAnastasis]

" This is good. As long as it has some form, we can decipher it and fill in the blanks. " Hans nodded approvingly, when he browsed through their pile carefully. " I'll work through whole night with an expert to make sure I have it all rewritten into first draft that will have everything we can read deciphered properly. Hm.. " he paused, skimming through the text of more readable places for a moment. " The rhythm and meaning behind it seems interesting, but execution is a little sloppy. We should add some more finesse into it, specially love dialogs. Tide likes things that are sincere, not sloppy - if you agree, I'd prefer this not be final version, but that we get to refining it as soon as we have first draft of all we salvaged written on clean papers, and I'll make sure that's done by tomorrow morning. "

[Mirach]

Senecio couldn't help himself but smile a little. "Wasn't the first play supposed to be bad? But I agree, it's a play for Tide, and I would really want it to be good. And we shouldn't lose time. How about costumes and prompts? They don't need to wait for the script, the work on them should start right away. And we also need to find the right actors for the other characters. I have a few names in mind, but it may be hard to convince them."

[VisAnastasis]

" If money's the problem, then say no more. If they fit the roles, we'll pay them handsomely. " Hans said simply. " As for props and costumes - I'd like to get a hold of some good designer - with high spirit, lot of good will, and most importantly, someone open to new stuff and not snobish. The text will probably have some descriptions of proper clothing, and I want to make costumes as accurate and unique as possible, so I want us both to be involved in it, to make sure everything has flair and elegance. As soon as we make first draft of scripts, we can begin in same time to deal with this, while in meantime we rewrite play text. The script is a little weak, so if we're to make it visually glamorous and impressive, costimography and stages have to be extravagant and make it shine through. We'll make up visually what we lack in plot. " he said confidently, skimming through the text. " But I think plot can be saved as well. I asked around a bit about critiques of why it was cancelled, and I heard lot complaints were of public having trouble deciding who to cheer for. It's a gray play, but we can still pull it of and make it interesting. The key to engaging audience in gray literature, is not to make it ambiguous of as whom to cheer for - but to make you like and want to fervently cheer for both sides, so you watch with bathed breath which will win. We can add subtle changes to make both sides feel really sympathetic, that will be good. Ending trails of as well - we should give some sort of small but satisfactory ending, while still keeping  it open ended as war never ended, and we can maybe add some interesting vague bits across it, that will bait for a sequel. This is not something that can stand well on its own, but if we make it feel as first part of instalation, it should fare much better. I think it's salvageable, as long as we refine it and execute it properly, with quality team and with quality budget for everything. "

[Mirach]

"Do you think Tide would like it that way?" Senecio asked. "Or would he prefer to see the original? Maybe stage it in improved version and then give him the original script if he would like it? He assumed that the original was written by some spirit or demon, and was interested i ln his view... And it's not just a matter of money with the actors. They are proud folk. Once they have made a name for themselves, they would not want to be seen in a mediocre play even if it's  paid handsomely. Reputation is more than money, since without it you don't get the good roles and are fogotten. No actor wants to be forgotten. We will need to convince them that the play will be good and people will remember it well."

[VisAnastasis]

" If they don't want to be in a play, fine by me, in the end. " Hans grinned a little as he added a touch mischievously. " If they refuse, after all, we can always say them that we'll find some better actors. None the matter, that's the problem for other day, after script is refined. And I think it's better, if we do refine it. Like this, it sounds really passionate, but it seems as if an author was pouring out his heart and thoughts, without always paying attention to form or thinking beforehand for the ending. I don't want to change it too much. Just add more dialog when needed, change up order, add more suitable words, and refine a bit stronger ending that doesn't just trail of but has a bigger point. The end is pretty sad, but that's fine - as with some little changes, we can make it feel grand instead, and shake people's hearts - while continuation should still balm it up with some hope for the future. I want to keep it as close to original, but where change is necessary, I say we should make it. I believe it will be fine, as long as we give Tide full both original and improved script in the end, nicely written in book for his leisure to read when he feels like - he very much likes books, you see, so I deem this choice would be best. We will market it as adaptation, so it's obvious it's not just same as it once was. Some of my books written under various pseudonym were pretty popular, and I have never written a play, but with your aid, I think I'll get by fine. I expect you to know enough to be of use to me in this. "

[Mirach]

"I... kind of... thought that I will be the one doing it..." Senecio said with some surprise "Alright, if you want to. I don't have much experience with writing scripts, just with playing them, but I know what works on stage."

[VisAnastasis]

" And I know what works well literally, so that knowledge is something that will be useful to me. Between a writer and an actor, we should be able to give this proper flair, without making it reminisce a book or poem. " Hans said more quietly - he kept his distance emotionally, it was obvious, but he seemed rather determinate about this. " Don't get me wrong - it was in all means, supposed to be your punishment - but tables have, alas, turned. Tide has good intuition and feelings about things, and he really feels strong about this, and I will respect that. Don't get false hope that my valuable help shall be thrown upon you for free like this all the time - but since you only have two weeks at most, for this one, I feel my experience and influence can help you prepare this properly. Tide had bad experience with plays before, and this is first time in 500 years that he decided he wants to see one. I have no voice anyone, so I can't help him much on supernatural ways in his endevours, but my mind is still sharp, my hands are still brittle, and my words still hold great power. Between a great writer and a great actor, if we assemble good team to work on it, I think we can do this even sooner than two weeks, perhaps. To be honest, that is what I would hope for. IN any case, I only need to sleep for few hours every couple of days, so I will help you with this one, this one time, all the way through. At day, I'll work with you, through night, I'll be wrapping up things in organisation, and we will work it through. "

[Mirach]

With that, Senecio looked much more hopeful about the task that seemed too hard before. "We should start with the first draft right away then. When I refresh my memory of it a bit, I can tell you what was on the missing pages."

[VisAnastasis]

" Hmm... To be honest, I am eager to start right away. So what do you say that we discuss further details... over dinner? " he told him simply, narrowing eyes at him, as if measuring him up, without a word. " We did a good job, we should have a break now to replenish our energy. I know a good expensive restaurant that works up late. I can pay us for high class, so we stay in our own secluded part, and have enough primacy as we dine to look through script better. I'll bring paper as well, so I can write down quickly whatever you remember, and so you can tell me what actors are in missing parts, so I can contact original ones from ten years ago and hopefully get from first hand original missing text bits, if I can. "