Artifact's dead, rest in Pibb. Story's got some bad words in it.

--

Arrows and dark magic darken the skies as the forces of the Dire and Radiant converge on one another, a mere preamble to the final fight, but still as bloody as any other. Kanna, commander of the Dire, gloats from her superior position against her mother.

"Look at you. Struggling. Screaming in agony. It's just like music to my ea-"

"CUT!"

The effects cut out as the creeps all wordlessly return to their positions, and Kanna and Prellex look to the director, confused.

"What? I thought that was pretty good," the Dire priestess explained. "No, no, dear, you were off your mark," her Radiant counterpart explained. "No, I was standing right on my mark. My feet were directly over it, and..."

The director cut them off. "No, so, I don't know how to explain this, but... we got word from on high. The production's over."

Kanna and Prellex both stood there for a moment, a heavy pause preventing any sort of response. "Wait, what do you mean it's over?" Kanna eventually asks.

"Yeah, uh, it just wasn't working out, so they pulled the plug."

Kanna waved, looking from her mother to the director. "What? Just like that? In the middle of production? Can they do that?" Prellex was quick to comfort her, saying "Now, hold on dear, these things happen. If we play our cards right, we can always get into Dota." "I mean, yeah," Kanna replied. "That was always the plan. But we had a whole..."

The conversation was cut short by the loud clanging of a studio door being forced open.

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" Rix the vhoul screamed, holding his phone aloft to show everyone the email that he had just received. Debbi was close behind, trying to sate his anger. "No, no, hold on man, we can't just..." "WHOSE ASS DO I NEED TO KICK?!"

Pointing directly at the director as he marched towards him, Rix continued his tirade as Debbi grabbed his arms and held him back "There will always be more gigs, man."

The vhoul spins around to his kobold companion. "NO! Fuck you! If you want to go back to being a goddamn jungle creep, be my guest, but I'm not! I had a plot! I had a story! THEY MENTIONED ME IN FUCKING UNDERLORDS BY NAME!"

Everyone else in the room awkwardly looked around to avoid each other's gaze at the mention of that game.

"ME AND LEGION COMMANDER WERE GOING TO HAVE A THING! I was even going to be corrupted or some shit! Do you know what that would have looked like on my IMDB?! I'm going to the top about this," Rix exclaimed as he marched out of the studio and Debbi gave an apologetic look to everyone else. "Get me Gabe! And not a video call, either! I'M GOING DOWN TO NEW ZEALAND AND PUTTING A FOOT UP HIS-"

His rant was mercifully cut short by the slamming of the studio door following his exit. Prellex, removing her headdress, leaned in to her daughter and whispered, "This is why we need a union."