It was a mid afternoon call time, he got the part. It was a simple read but it was good news for the shifter’s three pronged plan to become famous in the states. He already had the music part down, next step was acting, then there was something else he couldn’t remember at the time but it all lead to profit! Sure, having a job with SUPER was great. He’d had even been moonlighting with the X-men helping them on various jobs they had across the states. Money was good but he knew all too well how quickly it all went away.

He was chewing an everything bagel as he entered the room with a mug of coffee in hand, ”’fternoon all! The star has arrived!” the bravado and mock bow he added to it was to let everyone know he was joking but he did have the lead role, well one of them.

“Hey....” a tired looking woman with a headset looked at her sheet of papers then back up to Carrick, “...Carrick?” she looked down again at the sheet and then pointed him to a spot in the room. “You read your lines before right?”

”That’s not how me process works. See I get inside ta me characters mind, his psyche. What makes ‘em tick what are his hopes and dreams and...” Carrick trailed off as he hand went up. “It’s a pizza commercial. Did you or did you not? I got four more commercials to film after this.” her question was direct and Carrick responded in kind, ”Yes.” he took another bite of his bagel and then looked around for his scene partner.

Her aunt was a wealthy woman, and Lenna herself was heiress to the wealth of this world’s version of herself (now deceased). It would have been easy to turn that money into connections, and jumpstart some sort of acting career. The wealthy do such things all the time. With acting, with music, with sports… as long as they had at least some talent. This specific scenario was not because of any such endeavors.

Lenna did not actively seek attention. She did not request her aunt help her become a “star”. The girl did not have any goals to be rich and famous. She had merely… gone for coffee. And maybe a bagel. Or a donut. Someone in line had “discovered” her. Interrupted, and told her that they thought she had the perfect face for a role. They told her if the job went well, it could potentially turn into further jobs, future work, and was she represented yet? Because they could certainly do the work, if it had not yet been taken. That was how she met her current “agent”, Beverly Switzler. No relation to the singer from the band, Cherry Bomb, she had been assured. The woman told her Lenna was lucky she wasn not some creep picking up girls and telling them they would be stars. This was a wholly innocent event.

Okay.

It had been a pizza commercial. Nothing fancy. She had read lines. There were lines. They were about pizza. It was not the script for a movie or anything. Money was not an issue for her, but more is always better. So… she showed up.

They had her dressed better than she had ever been dressed in her life. Costuming had made certain that all her clothing matched, and made sense together. it was an outfit some might even seem “cute.” Light blue skirt, tall white knee socks, white shirt, with a light jacket. Little ball-shaped earrings. Nice shoes. Her hair had been seen to, her face made up like the ways she never did. She looked nice.

The place supplied both bagel and coffee. Lenna was just taking a bite when the person she assumed would work with her as costar walked in. She assumed this because he made his presence known for the whole room. And also, she knew him. Lenna chewed, and chewed that over, as he was chewed out.

Carrick. They had trained together, gone to Atlantis together, fought together at the battle for the mansion, but she knew him very little. She finished her bagel, then looked to him.

”Behind you. Squirrel.” She said, without inflection.

She remembered how he liked to chase squirrels, from training. Would the comment get a rise from him? What was professional behavior again?

”No.... hmmmm...” he said musing on his own accent work and how he should deliver the lines with the best effort he could give. A rare feeling for the shifter. Normally he was perfect with just coasting by but this was important to him, to his future. Sure, he had the princess now but what if she was going to be queen? Could she take him with her? What would his status be? If he was internationally famous it be a lot better with his chances than what he was now. A runaway, a thief, the bastard son of a international terrorist. Didn’t give him as much hope as this did.

>>>”Behind you. Squirrel.”

The voice was familiar but he didn’t bother looking for the source. His train of thought derailed, and his pupils opened as he turned on his heel and looked around for said squirrel. Should he pounce on it? He wasn’t hungry, maybe just let it know that it only lives because he is so benevolent? He started purring at the idea, his tail flicked revealing just how far he was down the rabbit hole looking for the prey.

They were inside. There was no squirrel. ”Aww come’on! That wasn’t nice!” he said trying to snap himself out of it by slapping himself on the cheek with his free hand. Turning back he spotted the source of the distraction. Lenna. ”What’re you doing her love?” he asked squinting at her. Was she his page? Was she meant to find him script revisions and bring coffee? He was about to ask but recalled what she could do with a knife and decided against it. He didn’t want to be all bloodied for the shoot. Unless.... was that what they wanted?

”Here ta watch me big break?” he asked grinning from ear to ear flashing his pointed canines in a cheery smile. ”I’m the lead! Just waiting fer me scene partner!” he said looking around.

>> ”Aww come’on! That wasn’t nice!”

Lenna smiled thinly.

”Neither is eating squirrels.” She quipped.

He smacked his cheek, then turned to her and asked what she was going here.
He looked like he had more to say? And thought better of it. She eyed him, carefully. Like how he would eye a squirrel? No. No hunger in her eyes.

He kept talking after a second. Full of self worth and bravado. Braggadocio. He looked around for his scene partner.

Lenna put on airs, strutted around, and recited her lines in an absolutely flawless American accent. She had been working very hard on such a thing.

”I’m soooo hungry. What do we eat, what do we eat?!” She drawled. Then looked to him.

That was the cue for his line. He would speak, then the comical puppet pizzas would appear on the screen to scream about the pizza place/brand in question, and all would be well in the world.

Did pizza places even have commercials any more? This seemed dated, maybe ‘pizza, the Hutt’ might. Or ‘it is not delivery, it is D’evilry’, the one frozen pizza brand. But… what did she know. She could count the amount of television she watched during her free time on one closed hand.

”I have a hunger a hamburger just won’t stop. I need more pizza,” She purred ravenously.

>>>”I’m soooo hungry. What do we eat, what do we eat?!”

There was a pause and Carrick looked to his half eaten bagel and offered it up reluctantly. The fact that she was reading her lines to set him up for his own was lost on the shifter. Wait... where did her accent go? The new accent would have passed his standards for an American. Wait wasn’t she from?

The light bulb in Carrick’s mind flickered to life after a few more seconds. The realization couldn’t be clearer to anyone watching. The Irishman didn’t even need to clear his throat for his own accent to be gone. A convincing New York accent formed as he recited his own lines. ”Honey, you really got to ask? We got the best pizza in the city right around the corner!”

>>>”I have a hunger a hamburger just won’t stop. I need more pizza,”

”Don’t bother with burgers when Pizza is a phone call away!” there was a pause and Carrick looked to his hand that smeared ink on it due to the warm bagel he had been holding since he wrote the lines. Squinting he added, ”Can we get the stuffed crust?”

Looking back to Lenna he smirked. ”Not bad love. Accent work is better than I was expecting.”