#and of course they got Thena and cast her as the sparkling white fairy queen

[softquietsteadylove]

Hello there! Love the actor au very much! How about Gil is watching Thena while she is doing a scene? Pretty sure he is mesmerized by her look, her presence and acting skills too!

Gil was staring. Everyone was.

Thena was in the middle of a few glamour shots, meant just to capture her natural beauty in their current work. It was a fantasy thing--she was a beautiful creature of nature, with massive wings they would CGI onto her in post.

A flower crown sat on her perfect sunshine hair, there were a few real little bunnies hopping around. A few green blobs were also scattered around in order to animate them into more fantastical creatures. It was quite different from the roles he had done with her before.

He was playing a royal guard, in charge of protecting the queen, who would turn out to be evil by the end of it. He hadn't had many scenes with Thena yet, but even just being on the same set with her put him more at ease.

"Sometimes," Thena murmured in the scene to her little bunny friends, as well as the young actor playing the fish out of water who had stumbled into her little forest. "People want for things they know they can't have."

"But why, your majesty?" the kid asked in - to his ear - a pretty mediocre accent. They couldn't find an actual English accent?

Thena sighed, stroking one of the bunnies that seemed to have really taken a liking to her. Gil had to keep his laughter in; furry animals weren't really Thena's thing. She was staying in the scene really well, but he was certain they would have to get them all off her once they cut before she freaked out.

"We are not so different from humans," she murmured, extending her vowels in a received pronunciation that she had mastered early on in her career. "They are capable of insatiable greed. But do we not also want for things just out of reach?"

Gil sighed.

"But, your majesty," the kid scooched a little closer on the fake forest floor they had constructed. "You are the most powerful fae around."

The kid's tiny hand floated up, stroking what would be a shimmering white feathered wing in the final film. For now, it was just the empty air between them.

Gil smiled; Thena moved her shoulders faintly, as one would when a part of their body was adjusting itself. It would look great when the wings were 'on her'.

Thena pursed her lips (a personal habit that made its way into her characters every once in a while). "Power does not equal strength, and strength does not guarantee things going the way you might like. There are things I want that my power will never help me attain."

She looked off into the distance, longing written all over her face. Although her eyes landed on Gil, in the distance, behind the blinding lights on the scene. Her lips twitched into a smile. "The heart wants what it wants, child. It longs for things it once had, no matter how you tell it not to."

"And...cut!"

Thena smiled as the kid was pulled away for a mandatory union break. She remained sitting, still encircled by free roaming little bunnies.

Gil chuckled, walking right up to the soundstage and being careful of any wandering cotton balls. The wranglers were already rushing out to collect up the vulnerable little creatures. Gil knelt down beside her and reached out a hand, "your Majesty?"

"Very funny," Thena chided him lightly as she took his hand. "My legs are asleep after all those takes."

Gil waited in that position until all the rabbits were collected up and clear from danger. Once the wranglers were all clear he moved back to his feet, pulling Thena up with him. She laughed as he swung her around in his arms. "You got it?"

"Ah!" she bit her lip as she tried to firm up her knees, "pins and needles!"

"Okay," he laughed, as if he needed that excuse to sweep her up in his arms and walk off with her bridal style. "Let's go."

"Gil!" Thena laughed as he made his way down the stairs and towards their chairs. They initially weren't anywhere near each other, but they had both moved them together subtly over the course of several days.

"Well, we can't have the fae queen wobbling around like a fawn," he teased, and received a poke in the cheek for it. She could have smacked him on the arm but he was in his 'armour' for his scene.

"You are supposed to be allied to a different queen," Thena pointed out as he deposited her right into her chair, flowing white dress and all.

Gil sat himself next to her, as he always did. "Well, she does turn out to be plotting, like, magical mass murder by the end of this. So maybe I should reconsider some shit in my guard life."

Thena just shook her head at him, pushing back the mane of hair she had, and which was made even longer by the extensions they had woven into it. "I won't miss this, I can say that much."

Gil helped her sort the mass of hair out of her way as she picked up her script and her bottle of water. "What did make you take this?"

"Hm?"

"Well," he shrugged, the replica armour he was wearing clanking faintly against itself as he did. "It's not really your usual thing. Especially the benevolent fairy queen part."

Thena raised a brow at him with a smirk, "are you saying being the beautiful queen of the enchanted forest doesn't suit me?"

"Come on," he gave her a nudge. Their laughter died down and he lowered his voice, "really, though."

Thena tucked some of her hair, and what was attached to it, behind her ear. Her smile became bashful as she looked down at her open scrip on her lap. "Well...I wanted something in between action films. And...when you told me you were signed on-"

Gil's eyes lit up visibly.

"Stop it," she murmured, sticking her finger in between the plates of plastic armour on his shoulder just to give him a good poke. "Why did you take this, then?"

Gil shrugged. "I mean, my part is relatively small. I was told my shoot time would be half of what it usually is. And I get to be a literal knight in shining armour!"

"Well, you do come over to my side by the end of it," Thena murmured, flipping through her pages. It was only briefly mentioned, and it would be ultimately up to the director and how things looked onscreen the day of the shoot, but it was implied that the queen's guard would defect by the end of things.

"See?" Gil wiggled his pinkie at her. "You're still my queen at the end of the day."

"The poor, lonely fae queen will finally have a soul to match hers?" Thena rested her chin in her palm, batting her lashes at him.

"Well, I'm sure she'll be in need of some," Gil mirrored her playful body language, leaning forward until they could practically touch noses, "protection."

#Thenamesh Actors AU #behind the scenes is going to go feral with this footage #big ass production like this #Maleficent meets LOtR vibes? #and of course they got Thena and cast her as the sparkling white fairy queen #and she's like I kind of just wanted like a side part #and they're like no you're too pretty sorry #so she gets the opposite lead #but then promo has all these shots of her and the queen's guard??? being cute together???? #like he picks her up and carries her? #they're best friends? #they're like literally always flirting? #yeah the guard is going to defect at the end of the movie #because they're going to get one singular shot #Gil is going to see what the queen is doing and say NO! This isn't Right! #he'll take up his sword against her #and then there will be one little shot of him and Thena looking at each other #and they're going to be like shit maybe this guy has been falling in love with the fairy queen the whole time? #think one-off film that somehow has off the charts shipping potential #from this one shot