Chapter 21
Bailey sat on the couch next to her favorite talk show host, an energetic, tall, Irish, redheaded man with a wit sharper than any blade. She was dressed in a “red carpet” worthy gown that exuded glamour. She had finally made it. All the hard work had paid off. “Being a Herald was always a waste of my gifts,” she said, beaming back at the host as the crowd applauded and cheered.
“Yes, of course. If I had powers, I’d settle for being a world-famous actor, as well.” The host rolled his eyes and paused for laughter. “Are you kidding me? I’d be out there fighting crime. Screw showbiz!” The laughter continued throughout the studio.
“What can I say? I guess I just prefer acting over crime-fighting,” Bailey playfully tossed back. “Ever since I watched Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I knew what I wanted in life.” Her transition from playful banter to earnestness created a smooth segue out of that part of the interview.
“Well, there you have it, folks, Bailey Baker, the star of ‘Wake Up’!” Something was off. The movie title was wrong. And, the host’s voice was morphing from a sexy Irishman to an annoying cacophony. The studio audience began to chant. “WAKE UP, WAKE UP!” Bailey looked down to realize she was naked. She flushed and panicked as everyone on set was yelling at her to…
***
“Wake up, Bailey..” The morning light attacked Bailey’s eyes as she bolted upright in bed. Luckily, knowing she could be filmed at any time for the reality show, she had decided to wear pjs that provided the necessary coverage. June stood over her. “Finally! Geez, sleepyhead! You were really out! Anyway, Ritchie is in the common room with the rest of The Challengers. He asked me to come get you. You know, it's nearly 11 am. Did you forget to set an alarm or something?”
Bailey was still groggy from the previous night’s festivities. “No. I was just hoping to sleep in, considering, you know, we haven't slept in nearly four days!” Bailey rubbed her eyes as June left her alone to get ready. She managed to get up, throw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and wander down to the common room. Upon arrival, she saw the rest of her fellow noobs sitting with a bunch of “suits” at tables that were spread out all over the space.
“Bailey over here!” Ashley waved her over to a plastic fold-out table near the front door. Around the makeshift desk sat Ashley, June, and a middle-aged man in a black suit and tie. “You’re in our group,” Ashley said with such high energy that it practically brought on a migraine due to Bailey’s exhausted state.
She slowly made her way over to Ashley and June and asked, “So, what’s this all about?”
“Costume design,” June said, turning to the well-dressed corporate stooge. “And I’ve got a few ideas.”
“Hello, my name is Wilfred,” the middle-aged suit said, ignoring the overeager young woman. “And this will be your first of many image consultations. Before we get started, I want to lower your expectations on costume design. While the All-Stars have been acting Heralds before this competition started and have full costumes and identities, you all will be starting from scratch. The Show wants to set The Challengers apart from the All-Stars visually, so you will all have a starting uniform. To begin with, you will each be given a black long-sleeve unitard as a base. In today’s consultation, I will work with each of you to customize, tailor, and accessorize this uniform to fit your needs. And keep in mind, these uniforms must be worn every time that you are engaged in an official challenge. The rest of the time, you can wear whatever you want, minus any clothes with logos or other copyrights, of course.” Wilfred leaned over to show Bailey, June, and Ashley a photo of the blank slate unitard on his tablet.
“So, if we aren’t wearing our uniform full time, won’t the viewers learn our identities since we won’t have masks on?” Ashley wondered aloud.
Wilfred was ready for this question. He knew it had been addressed in the entrance forms, and Ritchie should have mentioned it as well, but not everyone reads the fine print, and Ritchie does tend to drone on. “As previously covered, we have meta technology scrubbing all of the footage in order to add a simple digital mask to each of you to obfuscate your identity from the viewing public. And, if you ever mess up and call a fellow competitor by their human name, the scrubbing feature will also change that to their registered Herald alias. Keeping your identities secret is of the utmost concern to us, and we have multiple layers of redundancy. Now, back to the costumes..”
“I’ve actually drawn something up,” June interrupted as she pulled out a sketch of her planned Herald costume, which featured a pink visor with a cropped jacket.
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Wilfred took a look at the drawing. “That’s something we can incorporate. It may not be exactly this, but I do believe we can get close. So, we can crop the sleeves at the biceps, and add the gloves.” He surveyed the picture more closely. “And then, yes, I do believe we can turn the top into a crop top and make the bottom shorts. I’m not sure if we can make them quite this baggy, but we will make sure they have a similar reference point to boxer-style shorts. But they may be more like tight bicycle shorts if that’s ok?” June raised her eyebrows and nodded her head quickly while smiling as Wilfred continued his appraisal. “Ok, so we can definitely do this visor as your mask. I know for a fact we have this completely indestructible clear polymer that we can tint with any color without it impacting your vision. As for the cropped jacket, I think we can have the designers whip it up, but is this based on something in your wardrobe already?”
“Oh! Yea, it's actually something I made myself. I can wear that one?” June asked.
“Well, I’ll have to bring it to our design manufacturing team to replicate so that if it gets ruined in battle, you will have backups. Plus, they can save the design in case you need any in the future.”
“Wow, Fuck yea! I’ll go grab it right now!”
“That is fine,” Wilfred glossed right over June’s overzealous word choice. “I think we are just about done with your edits now, anyway. Thank you for your time, Ms. Bradley. Or should I say, Skyrocket.” He smiled her way as she bounded out of her seat to go grab the neon-colored bomber jacket that would become her signature in the competition.
“Ok, who’s next?” Wilfred asked Ashley and Bailey as they sat around the small fold-out plastic table.
Bailey was sitting patiently, containing her excitement at getting this opportunity to begin building her brand. She looked over at Ashley. “You can go next if you want, Ash.”
“Oh!” Ashley responded as if she had just now realized she was a part of this exercise. “Um, I sorta wanted to work with Wilfred in private, if that’s ok. I have some ideas but would like to keep them a secret in case I have to, you know..”
The implication was obvious. Bailey wondered if she had been too open with information about herself so far. So many of her fellow Challengers had been weirdly open about certain aspects of their powers that it had a disarming effect. When someone shares something about themselves, one often feels the need to reciprocate.
“How about this,” Bailey interrupted. “I’ll go next. You can see what I reveal about my powers and needs in a costume. And then, if you feel like you still need to do your session in private, I'll head back to the room and shower since I did just roll out of bed.”
“Uh, sure. That works, I guess.” Ashley said.
“Great.” Wilfred stepped back in to assert some control over the situation. “What do you have in mind, Ms. Baker?”
“Ok. So, I've thought a ton about this over the years.” Bailey started. “I mean, I always figured it would be more of a signature costume as a meta in the acting community. But, still, a lot of the concepts still apply.”
“I’m sure they do?” Wilfred interjected in an attempt to pull Bailey back on track. He imagined this wouldn’t be the last time he would need to do so.
“So my power revolves around unlocking the energy in words. Right now, I use a wand that I have stored the word “shield” in. It allows me to quickly throw up a shield when in danger without having to take the time to write the word in the air or in the sand or something. For a costume, I was thinking I could have words repeating in different stylish fonts. So, like my left arm would have the word “lightning” written in different sizes and styles over and over again. My right arm would have “fire”. Around the belt area, I was thinking “shield.” She stopped to see if Wilfred would object to anything she had said so far. He did not.
“As far as the style, I think I’d like to keep it classic. Maybe a scoop neck with cutouts that look like overlapping necklaces.” Bailey leaned over to see what Wilfred was designing on the tablet. It looked a lot like what she had described. As he rotated the 3d model, she pointed, “A little lower of a back. Perfect! And then I’d like a 60s, “Jackie O” style, A-line skirt.” The end design was exactly what Bailey was going for. A true modern classic. But, it dawned on her that she wanted to add something. Something that would pop. “Are we allowed to wear a wig?”
Wilfred thought for a moment before answering, “I think we could work something out. What were you thinking?”
“Maybe like neon blue, a short bob, with a matching domino mask.”
Wilfred added the finishing touches and showed Bailey the end result.
“Lock it in!” she said enthusiastically. “Your turn Ashley. Should I leave you to it?”
“No, I think I’m ok sharing a little about my power. You’ll find out sooner or later.”
Bailey noticed June getting caught up with her brother’s group while trying to make her way back to her own group. Wanting to honor the trust that Ashley had placed in her, Bailey stayed at the table while Ashley described the bandolier and holster she wanted to be made out of small pockets, in addition to the “70s Flower Power meets camouflage” print she wanted to line her modest sundress. To finish off the design, Ashley suggested a mask that would allow her to wrap in vines if the need ever arose.
“Fair enough,” Wilfred said. “Let June know you can all expect the next draft in a few days. Pending your approval, you should have your costumes by the end of the week.”
Bailey looked around the room to see how the others were doing, and it seemed like everyone was about finished. Well, almost everyone. Bailey was not shocked by the one Challenger that was lagging behind the rest, looking frazzled. He had probably never thought about Herald costumes a day in his life. Still, she gave Joel a thumbs up across the room in hopes it would ease his nerves. Judging by his reaction, it may have done the opposite.