Chapter Text
The studio was bustling with people everywhere. Specifically the set. They were currently filming modern warfare 2, the second movie in the modern warfare series.
After modern warfare 2019 Huge success in the box office the director decided to make it a series, the decision got overwhelming support. The viewers were quite happy with the new and completely original story amidst sequels and sequels of other movies. It felt like finding a needle in a haystack.
Valeria sat still in her chair while their lead makeup artist carefully let drops of fake blood from the dropper fall on her face. She took a brush and skill fully spread the blood in a way that made it look natural, lifting valeria's face with a finger under her chin.
Valeria was quite fond of her character, she found her character's personality pretty similar to her actual personality so it wasn't very hard playing Garza's character. Though she couldn't lie her favorite part of Valeria, or about modern warfare in general was Valeria and Alejandro's dynamic.
She found their Friends to enemies trope extremely appealing. They both fit with each other like puzzle pieces, Their arguing like a divorced couple. But she could never see herself shipping Valeria and Alejandro, unlike how the fandom loved shipping them.
She could never even imagine ever romantically pursuing Alejandro, he was like a brother to her. Or maybe it was because it was quite obvious to her Alejandro had grown close to Rudy weirdly fast. She could tell he liked the man. Valeria and Alejandro's friendship had been going strong for almost 6 years now.
Valeria's attitude and dialogue towards towards Alejandro never failed to leave her in tears much to Alejandro's dismay.
Her co-star, Alejandro and her had been casted together on more shows than she could count at this point, It had become a huge joke in several fandoms about Valeria and Alejandro always being there in the same show the other starred in. She swore the directors did it intentionally at this point.
Valeria had a strong bond with Alejandro, they both had a sibling-like relationship, after getting casted on so many shows together it was the least they could do.
Another thing Valeria absolutely loved was the Ghoap ship, She found ghost and soap getting together really cute, but again everyone on the cast shipped them together, maybe it was because Simon and Johnny were already together.
Laswell was one of Valeria's favorite characters, right after herself of course. Kate did an amazing job in playing laswell, Kate on herself was a great actor and person, her personality sweet and calm. Almost motherly.
"All done" Alena said as she took a step back to admire her work. They would be filming the scene where Valeria is interrogated in the shipment container. Must she say el sin nombre was a badass name to her, But again Garza herself was an absolute badass.
Valeria stood up, taking a look at herself in the huge mirror in front of her. She had to admit Alena was damn good at her job. The blood was splattered in a creepily natural way, despite the fact Alena painted it on herself. Her lips a deep shade of burgundy with a 'cut' lip.
"Thanks, Alena. Damn good job you've done" Valeria complimented. Alena brushed her off, urging her to move so she could clean the table up. Valeria smirked at her before complying.
She had already changed to her outfit for this scene. A simple tank top and an empty vest on top paired with a set of simple blue jeans. Valeria loved the hot pink nails Garza always wore, She found it endearing how she cared to paint her nails amidst her chaotic job.
Valeria went on her way, walking past staff, some reviewing past scenes, some getting the set and props ready for filming.
She walked past Simon adjusting his Mask in a mirror, constantly fidgeting and tugging at it, she had heard his complaints of the mask being too tight and itchy and making him look like a thumb numerous times before.
"Lookin' good, Hermano" she reassured , patting his shoulder as she passed, He looked up for a second before going back to tugging at the mask.
Valeria came to a halt after spotting Alejandro standing alone, watching the staff put together a gun carefully.
She held back a snicker at seeing him in his outfit, the vests they wore always gave their bodies weird proportions. But it seemed to not affect Valeria at all. Alejandro was somewhere around 26, despite the fact his character was already well over 37 at least. But again all the actors were at least 3-10 years younger than their characters, only a few exceptions in the casting.
She didn't know what was up with them all being so much younger than their characters. The director told her that he had found them perfect for the role and had originally tried casting actors similar to the characters age but they just didn't feel the same.
"Alejandro" a nod "Valeria" the pair greeted each other, Valeria was honored about the fact Garza and Vargas's relationship was based off of her and Alejandro's bond. Rodolfo unfortunately the third wheel.
"Nervous?" Valeria taunted Alejandro, a reference to his first time on set when he was a nervous wreck. She was never letting him live it down. "Never" he boasted, making her roll her eyes.
"Say, you got a copy of the lines? I lost mine." Valeria reached into her back pocket to pull out the paper with her lines on it to review them over with Alejandro, and also make fun of the characters.
Highlighted lines marked Valeria's line amidst the other guys' lines. She couldn't help but let out a snicker at a line in the scene where the 141 and vaqueros interrogate Garza.
Graves: Alright how do you two know each other?
Alejandro: Know is a strong word.
Valeria: Strong word are important, Our word is our worth, Right?
Valeria's mocking tone was taunting to Alejandro, looks like she knew exactly where all his pressure points where. Alejandro let a small huff of laughter out, He also found Garza and Vargas's relationship interesting, similar to his and Valeria's in a way.
Alejandro read over his dialogue, substituting for graves and soap as Valeria flipped the page to the next set of lines.
"Go on. Tell them" Alejandro read out loud, mapping out in his head how he would say it while filming.
"I don't take orders anymore" Valeria read from the paper, "Even the dogs in Las Almas know not to bark at me" She said in a monotone voice.
There was a brief silence as Valeria and Alejandro stared at the paper, processing the line they just read before looking at each other and bursting out laughing.
Valeria put her hand on Alejandro's shoulder for support as she laughed uncontrollably, Alejandro mirroring her laughs with a hand over his face over the ridiculous line.
"This goddamn Movie, I swear" Valeria barked jokingly, still wheezing slightly from her laughing fit, Alejandro tried to answer her but all that came out of his mouth were huffs and wheezes, still trying to catch his breath.
Johnny walked over, attracted by the commotion, "What's so funny?" he asked, scottish accent thick.
Valeria handed over the paper containing the lines, still bent over clutching her stomach.
Johnny read over the paper, before looking at them confused. "I don't get it" he asked, Alejandro gathered himself enough to point at the line Valeria says, Johnny shrugging as if the line weren't that bad.
"You lot need to get checked out" he insulted jokingly, Shaking his head in disapproval as he walked away. Valeria let a few final chuckles out before sighing with a grin as bright as day plastered on her face.
Alejandro snickered a bit as he spoke " 'Even the dogs in Las almas know not to bark at me'? Really?" he questioned "Hey, I didn't choose the lines" Valeria defended herself. "Their chemistry never fails to amuse me" Alejandro quipped.
Valeria took a look around, filming had been delayed for another hour due to issues with the camera. Valeria glanced over to Johnny helping Simon with the skull mask, Adjusting it while simon urged him to be careful not to pull too hard or it would scratch him.
Simon was nothing like Ghost. Simon had complained many times to them about how ghost is the complete opposite of his own personality and how hard it is for him to really make sure he feels like Ghost instead of Simon. Valeria understood what he meant. Ghost was more of a silent, introverted character while Simon preferred being happier and outgoing. The exact opposite of Ghost.
Valeria put Ghost's mask on once as a joke and god was it uncomfortable. The fabric was too thick and she could barely see out of it, a good chunk of her vision restricted for the sake of being edgy. Wearing the thing for more than 20 minutes would've triggered a panic attack, that day valeria's respect for Simon definitely increased.
After wearing the masks she finally understood why Simon was so grumpy on set, the mask would ruin her mood too.
Realistically, no one would be wearing a skull mask in the military, too inconvenient for the job and also too many restrictions in moving. But when was Modern warfare ever meant to be realistic?
Valeria leaned slightly forward, one hand on her hip while the other hung loosely by her side, right next to the fake sidearm. A staff member came up to them, "Filming starts in 10 minutes," he informed politely before going back to where he previously was.
Valeria nodded in acknowledgement, Alejandro keeping an eye on the man as he left, before taking a look at himself and walking over to stand beside the rest of the cast in that scene.
Valeria spent a minute just looking around the set of the shipment container of that scene, the producer explaining to her how she should say the lines and the expressions they would like her to make during her lines.
Eventually the filming started, She was sat in the chair ,one arm propped up on the back rest with her legs crossed. Alejandro , Rodolfo and the rest of the taskforce were also in the container as Alejandro spoke.
A smug smile painted Valeria's face as he spoke, holding eye contact with her.
"Vamos. Tell them" Alejandro urged, cocking his head towards the others.
Valeria's grin stayed plastered on her face, never faltering as she said her lines like second nature. "Oh, I don't take orders anymore" she calmly informed while looking at him with that same mocking expression, leaning back on her chair comfortably. "Even the dogs in Las almas know not to bark at me" she said, her voice straining midway through from holding in her laugh.
She held eye contact with Alejandro , she could tell by the look in his eyes he was struggling on the same level as her, both of them having to hold eye contact not helping.
Valeria focused hard, It was her job to act, to keep hold of her emotions and put on another person's personality. She was giving her everything to not break character, a small smirk still visible for Garza's character.
"Cut" the director said. The second Valeria heard the single syllable she sighed in relief, a few huffs of laughter escaping her as the director came on set, everyone looking at him expectantly.
"We're doing a retake, Valeria please try to hold in your laugh" he scolded, Valeria, was still laughing silently, shoulders shaking a bit. "Understood" she assured, a grin still decorating her face.
Rudy shook his head at her antics, "For the love of god Valeria, I do not wanna retake this scene" he pleaded with her. "You'll live through one retake ,Rudy" she insisted, earning a sideways frown from rudy.
"We're doing this from the start, I don't like how the scenes were looking." the director informed. A collective sigh was heard from the cast.
Everyone in the room walked over to the entrance of the shipping container to restart the entire scene again, leaving Valeria 'alone' in the shipping container.
"3, 2 ,1 Action!" the director directed.
Alejandro entered first, the rest of the taskforce trailing in after him.
"What happened, fucking cowboy? Did you start a war?" she teased Alejandro with a grin on her face.
"Violence chases you everywhere, I like it" she complimented in spanish.
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"Alright that's good for today, wrap it up" the director told them, everyone instantly hurrying away from that damn cramped container.
The second the director announced that simon ripped his mask off, running a hand over his face and sweat-soaked hair. Johnny snickering at the sight.
Valeria picked up her water bottle off set, taking a huge gulp. They had been filming for a good 3 hours, multiple retakes and scenes for a single 20 minute cutscene.
They kept on messing up, more than usual today, Though the best take in her opinion was the one where John lost his footing and fell on his ass halfway through. And the take was going so well too. The takes where someone messed up were always her favorite, it was honestly great entertainment amidst their busy schedules.
Valeria stretched her neck in both direction, the work of the day finally catching up to her she just wanted to go back to her trailer on set.