NICK

Istood facing the mirror in my bathroom. I looked nothing like Mithrandes. Which was funny, because I had been Mithrande: for two and a half seasons of Lions of Medea. Well, technically two with three extra episodes in seasons four and six. Got to love those character flashbacks over a year later.

Mithrandes was broad shouldered and roped with defined muscle. He was all pecs and washboard abs. I was all pecs, and when in the middle of filming the abs were in full washboard mode, I was also hairless. I wasn't hairless now. The hair on my chest was filling back in, and the trail from my belly button down had grown back. I winced at the thought of getting my lower abs waxed again.

Isaac, my personal jack-of-all-trades, sat on the bathroom counter playing on his phone while Carly dabbed makeup onto m chest. She grumbled about it being easier if I waxed or shaved.

“It's the same makeup, same costume. People are going to know it's you,” Isaac said without looking up.

“It's hardly the same makeup. Is it?" I asked Carly.

She gave my chest and face a professional assessment. “It looks like it's supposed to be the same makeup, but like you didn’t know what you were doing”

“Because I don't. That's why I hired you," I complained. I didn't want the makeup to look exactly the same, but close enough, And I didn't know a thing about makeup. That's what professional makeup artists were for.

Carly had been hired to help me with the stuff that was beyond my ability, and then coach me through applying the heavy eye makeup and other facial markings. When my character died and later appeared as a ghost to his love interest, Ishtaria, I had special effects makeup of a smeared bloody handprint across my chest. It was supposed to be my own hand, unknowingly wiping away the wound that killed Mithandres.

Carly took my hand and squirted red dyed corn syrup into my palm. “Okay, Nick, blood it up." She made a gesture dragging her hand across the top of her chest.

I mimicked the gesture. The bloody swipe looked pretty good.

“Ew, why dead Mithrandes? Why is it always zombie beauty queens, and sexy nuns?” Isaac glanced at me.

“Seriously, dude?”

Isaac was wearing a black and white vertically striped suit like a mischievous demon. Only he was doing live Beetlejuice, so no zombie make up effects for him. Isaac was nothing if not a contrarian. He reveled in doing the opposite of what was expected.

Carly stepped back. I got a good look at the costume in the mirror. It was the exact same thing I wore while filming, yet it somehow looked like a cheap knockoff.

My hair was now cropped short, and my beard was more of a faint shadow than actual growth. I ran my hand over my jaw. “Hey, you'll smear the makeup," Carly chastised me. She had darkened my beard, making it look fuller, closer to what I had while filming.

I currently didn't have a beard, and I had chopped off my hair for my current role. Mr. Squeaky clean himself, Captain Tony Peale, AKA Captain Wonder. The character was almost too wholesome to be believable. But he was popular in the comics, an Strategic Studios was counting on me and Captain Wonder to be their next box office success.

“Okay, are you ready for the wig?” Carly asked.

“Too bad you had to cut your hair off’ Isaac said, as Carly rotated the wig on her fists.

“It's the same wig I wore on the show. For the number of zeros on that contract, you would have cut your mother's hair off I countered.

“50 cynical." Isaac jumped off the counter, still on his phone. “Speaking of contract, Rogers needs you in the studio next wee to do some voice over work. I cleared you for Tuesday and Wednesday. So, no ice cream or dairy after tonight.”

Isaac had my back, and my vocal cords. As an assistant, he had been the best I ever encountered, and as a friend, he was the best. He knew that I loved creamy foods, but creamy foods created too much phlegm and coated my vocal cords. I wouldn't have made the connection, eaten something creamy tonight and then shown up at the recording studio tomorrow morning constantly clearing my throat. Tuesday gave me two whole days to clear out my system.

“Duck,” Carly demanded.

I'stooped down to her level and she began tugging the wig on. It fit like a snug cap.

“Hold on." She turned and fussed with a costume element, and then began pinning, not exactly a headdress over the wig, bu a combination of scarves and coins on chains.

“Okay, you're set.”

I looked like a Halloween shop version of Mithrandes and not like I had just stepped off the set. Which was almost hysterica considering everything, including the wig had come from the set of Lions of Medea.

Sure, my hair had been long, but not long enough for the leader of the barbarian horde. The wig made my dark hair look lik it was half-way down my back.

“You look perfectly barbaric," Isaac quipped.

“That's the point”

“And everyone will recognize you. I mean if Nick Sadler shows up at a Halloween party dressed in his Mithandres costume, everyone is going to know it's Nick Sadler”

Isaac and I tried to stare each other down.

“Oh for heaven's sake, Carly, tell him."

“I'm not saying anything, Isaac. I'm only here to do makeup, not make judgement calls.”

“Well played Carly, well played,” I laughed.

I followed Isaac out of the bathroom, leaving Carly to pack up her tool kit.

“Look, I went to Comic Con for a full day before my panel. I took pictures with other Mithandres, and like a hundred Ishtarias and no one recognized me. I feel like I could walk in wearing a Captain Wonder costume and still not get recognized.”

“I wouldn't count on that. The studio released first look stills. Captain Wonder is already a very popular costume this year. me a favor, just don't be an asshole if you get caught. You have to behave for Strategic Studios now. They expect you'— Isaa turned and poked his finger into my chest— “Nick Stadler is to be the embodiment of Captain Wonder. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

He stopped and preened in a full-length mirror at the bottom of the stairs.

“Yeah, don't be an asshole in public, and don't punch out photographers."

“Exactly. You have to be squeaky clean.’

By squeaky clean, Isaac meant no scandals. None. Until the Mithandres roll, I had been too unknown to garner the kind of attention that could result in a scandal. I had been in a bar fight or two over the years and had a scar along my jaw and on my knuckles as result. But no one cared about another unimportant actor getting into a drunken brawl. And that's all I had been. I was a working actor and had been that for my entire career. I was making it in Hollywood on my own terms. The Mithandres role made me a star. And now that meant being an upright citizen just like Captain Tony Peale, because Captain Wonder was going to launch me into super stardom.

“Yeah, yeah, I don't do any of that controversial stuff anyway," I said. I worked; I invested my money. I kept myself away from that nonsense.

“Right, and that now means the studio wants you to stop showing up as a stag at events and leaving with different starlets’ “0h, come on! This isn't the nineteen thirties where studios get to control every aspect of an actor's life I pointed out.

“Are you so certain? Your contract with Strategic is pretty damn intense. Did you read all of it?”

“Yes, I read my contracts. You and I read it together with that lawyer you hired."

“Okay, then you'll remember the whole subsection on your image?”

Fuck. I hadn't remembered the subsection, not until Isaac reminded me of it.

I brooded for a few moments, wiping the glowering expression from my face as soon as Carly carried her giant makeup kit downstairs.

“I got your cash-app, thanks,” she told Isaac.

He leaned in and did that fake kiss-kiss to each of her cheeks, European style.

“See ya, Carly.’ I waved as she left.

Isaac reached out and put my hand down. “Movie stars don't wave to the help

“Nick Sadler thanks the people who do the work. He acknowledges the little guy, the person who gets him where he needs be. Nick Sadler is not above being properly humble.”

“Well, I guess you do remember the part on how your image should be. Yes, being a nice guy is good for the image. But what's also good for that image, is having a consistent female companion who you show up at events with and leave with." “50 you're saying the studio wants me to get a girlfriend?”

“Yes, and no. They would like for you to find an event companion. You do not have to be in a relationship with the young lady”

I groaned. Young lady. I know as far as Hollywood was concerned, I hit my stride a little later in life. But their idea of age- appropriate co-stars was pushing the boundaries of age appropriate. The actress who had played Ishtaria had barely been nineteen. Almost twenty years younger than me. content.

“Who do they want?"

“I have a list of acceptable models and actresses. Rogers's assistant said they wouldn't object to you being seen with that model Nikki Jackson."

“Nick and Nikki? Are you serious?”

“You already have a couple's name. People could call you the Nicks."

This time when I stared at Isaac it was with a combination of disbelief and horror. I did not want a couple's name. I shuddered at the thought. And I didn't want to be stuck with some boney model who might get ideas into her head that this was something more than what it would be, a contractual obligation with my studio.

“Pass,” I grumbled. “Who is next on the list?"