Set to Love

Chapter 2

Roused from her sleep at 4:30 in the morning by the alarm she thought she had set strategically a few hours prior, it certainly didn't feel like this gig was serving her well.

Deep into a dissatisfying doom-scrolling session on Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter, Marinette shifted her focus to tracing raindrops on the metro train's glass. What kind of psycho schedules a 7:30 am meeting on the other side of town? Okay, maybe not a psycho – she was consciously avoiding ableist language – but it was undeniably an inconvenient choice.

Getting off at her stop and heading to the building, she glanced at the time - 7:15 am - okay, she was early (for once). Hopefully, she'd make a good first impression with this team she'll be working with for the next few months.

Entering the building and briskly making her way upstairs to the correct floor, Marinette located the meeting room with lights on and people already seated. They're all early- should she arrive even earlier next time? Was this what Art Department was like? Whelp, she had her work cut out for herself already.

Opening the glass door, she was welcomed, "Good morning! Oh, you must be our newcomer! Marinette, right?" A woman with red glasses, effortlessly balancing a hefty laptop in one hand greeted her. Impressive.

Marinette smiled in relief, confirming she was in the right place, "Good morning, yes, that's me..."

"DUPAIN-CHENG!" a voice interrupted, and Marinette's stomach sank with a sense of familiarity.

"Aimée! What is the baker girl doing here? I thought Adrikins would've outsourced the catering in Shanghai! It's bad enough already having carrot top here." Marinette turned to confront her former bully classmate, who had traded her raincoat-yellow jacket and Gabriel cashmere sweater for a hot pink tweed jacket, a black dress shirt with laced motifs on the collar, and a ponytail with equally hot pink-dyed ends. The only recognisable features were her piercing blue eyes and Chanel sunglasses (seemingly) permanently perched atop her head.

"Chloé, this is our new set dresser. You know we need more hands to handle the recent changes - M. Agreste came to me personally with Marinette's resume," Aimée replied calmly to Chloé's outburst. Great, she must be accustomed to it, Marinette thought. This gig was going to be a blast. The woman turned back to Marinette, "I'm the Production Designer, Chloé is our Art Director, and Jemima is our Set Decorator. You'll get to know everyone else here pretty quickly. Today our storyboard artist, Nathaniel, has stopped by— so we can all suggest final changes before sending it off for approval to M. Agreste and M. Hardy." Marinette waved at Nathaniel with excitement, happy to see a much nicer former classmate. Aimée continued, "Take this and pull a chair at the back. Feel free to ask questions; today shouldn't be too stressful as we've seen this about a thousand times over the past week." She handed Marinette a clipboard filled with booklets – scripts, call sheets, and numerous lists and tables she'd have to decipher afterwards. Thanking Aimée, Marinette found a seat for herself.

"Nathaniel, start from Scene 3, Frame 1," Aimée instructed, and the display began to play.

A team member Marinette didn't know commented, "I like this shot of the male lead, but something feels off."

"I see that, but the close-up we had before wasn't working either with the flow from the next frame. We need to have both detectives' faces observing the crime scene and a good view of the set within these two frames seamlessly," Aimée agreed.

Marinette sensed an opportunity, unsure whether she should speak up given she'd only been in the room for a mere two minutes. Still, today her confidence held firm—whether fortified by the double-shot espresso she'd downed an hour earlier or an inherent determination— didn't seem to matter, "Um, sorry for interrupting - I admittedly haven't read the script yet, but what if the crime scene was taped off with bright yellow in a square between some rocks and the sea? Then this moving shot would work better, as the detectives could go under the tape to reveal the scene, and the camera could follow from the ocean side," Marinette suggested, cringing as she prayed she hadn't overstepped a boundary.