Guest Stars

“I hate it when a cape shows up to a party. No one ever notices what I wear to an event when a cape is in attendance.”

Comment made at Hollywood parties.

Cassie had worked quickly, and they flew out on a red eye flight to New York. She simply requested someone to pick them up, with something that could carry a 'large object’ so she didn't have to drive in New York on little sleep.

They took Penny's truck and the Marquis to the airport to pick up the Tailor and her husband. Marcus laughed seeing Cassidy. "Oh god, she looks like the boss's sister."

"That's so weird." Anzy agreed, nodding. "The guy in the wheelchair and walking cast is her husband." Anzy held up a sign and waved.

"Hey! the boss wasn't sure how much space you needed, so we brought the SUV and the truck." Marcus said moving to help with the luggage.

"The truck for the crate... which is over there." She gestured at the luggage claim, a rather huge case, something that was likely on the very border of being checked as opposed to shipped as freight, sitting next to the claim office. "Thank you so much." She smiled as he fetched the smaller bags. Pulling a box out of her jacket pocket, she pushed a button, and the large case began to roll towards them. "I hate fighting with carrying this one."

"Does it lift too? I would have brought Nahoa, he's our strong guy, but he's on guard duty right now." Marcus said curiously.

"It's got loading feet. I've done this a few times." she admitted. "It’s just really slow. I used the smallest motors I could to save space for other things."

"Don't tell Badger that, he'll set it up like a go cart drag racer." Anzy said, shaking her head as Marcus laughed.

"I have the same problem with this one." She says, as the man snored in the wheelchair. "Carl sleeps on flights and he’s still on pain meds, so I apologize for him. He'll wake up for real in a little bit."

When they got to the truck, she worked a few more buttons, and the case lifted itself up, and managed to settle on the tail gate of the pickup, though it did need some help pushing and settling into the depths. "So, are we riding in the sedan?"

"What, are we there?" Carl blurted out, having awakened at the tailgate closing.

“Yes dear"

"Yup, Penny’s truck is a 2 seater,” Anzy said. “I'll drive it back and Marcus will drive you back. Do you need help getting Carl in the car?”

"Yes, please, He's a long drink of water." the small blonde smiled, patting the lanky inventor on the shoulder.

Marcus helped the man stand and helped him shift into the SUVs back seat. While Anzy folded the wheelchair and put it in the back. "Talk to the boss, she probably wouldn't mind letting your husband use the hot tub on the yacht, we'd just need to plastic wrap the cast."

"He'd likely appreciate that. He's also got weird bruises and nibbles from 'looking at a house'."

Carl grumbled. "I ain't saying nothing."

"You are making me want to break into the good booze for this story." Marcus said as he held the door open for Cassidy to get in. "And I don’t drink.”

"It's going to be a good one." Cassidy said. "I'm sure of it. He'll break soon, without Emilia giving him looks to shut up all the time."

"I will not!" He paused. "Okay, I probably will, but you could let me pretend."

"Yes dear."

They caravaned up to the house, Nahoa waving them in as he opened the gate. "Glad you got here early. The boss's work phone's been blowing up, and I already had to send three cars on their way. Suspect we are going to have a traffic jam up here round tenish.”

"Gotta love the media." Marcus rolled his eyes, and drove into the grounds, following the long driveway to the house and garage. One bay door was open, so Marcus backed the truck in.

"I am almost ready with breakfast." A second Anzy said, walking into the garage, confusing Carl and Cassie. “I'm going to go help me out with the big case. Can you show them where to put their stuff? Hey Boss!” She waived to Solaris who came out in skinny jeans and a t-shirt.

"Hope the flight wasn't too terrible."

"Not at all, not at all." Cassidy waived it off."

"Wow, which is uncanny. They could be sisters." Marcus said quietly to Anzy, who'd mentioned it before. “I mean, I saw it, but now it’s just weird.”

"Huh?" Carl asked, not completely awake, blinking at the two women. “Oh, wow, yeah. Damn, you look a lot like Cassie.” He said to Solaris, still groggy enough to not really register who he was speaking to.

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Ignore them. They are right though.”

The English woman nodded, with a smile. "Come on in, I wasn't sure how much space you would need. Would you like to see your room, the office, or the library room first?”

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"Our room. We can settle Carl in so he can go back to sleep. He's not got his usual stamina, and the pain medication isn’t kind." She said with a smile, blushing at the other people’s continued attention. "Then the workspace. The library can wait until we know I need the extra space."

They took the tiny elevator to the second floor and Solaris showed them to their room. “Please make yourself comfortable. This has an on-suite bathroom. and the office is just down the hall.”

"Excellent. Let me just get him settled." Only a few minutes later, she stepped back out, watching as the large boy easily carried her case along. "Impressive. Where is the workspace?"

“Right over here,” She led the second blonde over to a cheery office done up in with wood floors and a cheery yellow rug and curtains. There was an empty bookcase and bare desk in the room. “It’s technically another bedroom, we think, but it’s in a weird spot of the house so we haven’t done anything with it.”

"This would be great. Set that in the middle of the floor and move the desk in the corner there, please." She watched as the big fellow did as she asked, then she pressed a code into the case. It opened, and she lifted out three toolboxes. Then she pressed another button and stepped back, the rig unfolding into several worksurfaces, with various apparatus unfolding and assembling. "We can step out; it'll take an hour for it to completely set up and balance." she explained.

"Well, that is just nifty." Solaris said with a smile. “Do you work on location a lot?"

"It comes up. This is nothing compared to my autoloom, well it's got a small version... " She waved that off. "But for fashion shows, or field projects it's come in useful. There are events, have you bumped into the 'Public Heel Villain' concept yet?"

"No, I can't say that I have." Solaris said, waving to show Cassidy the way to the dining room. Where Anzy was putting out a full spread.

"There's, let’s call them semi-retired villains, who do what you might call 'display for hire' work. Heroes too. It has elements of performance art, as well as serves the heroes with sponsors who want them to do things to draw attention often enough to suit their needs. Heel Villains are basically working as a kind of entertainment, or maybe performance art, where superpowers and property destruction are on public display."

"For example, if you are Nike, and want one of your contract heroes to put on a good show for cameras, you might find a restaurant that's getting ready for a major remodel and a heel villain. Add a few stuntmen as 'bystanders' and 'goons', you've got a show. I've done more than a few of these events, where I find myself contracted last minute to put together unique yet easily recognized for hench outfits for the villain in question. It can be tawdry but I actually kind of enjoy designing corny outfits. It’s a guilty pleasure.”

“Does the public know when it’s a show as opposed to a real attack? I could see where that could get dangerous. I’m still deciding what I think of corporate heroes. I understand people need to eat, and not everyone is independently wealthy. But I worry about conflicts of interest.”

"The sites are pretty clearly protected and marked, and they're covered differently in the media." Cassie said. "And this is directly related to the corporate teams, yeah. But for young Tailors and Toymakers you get a lot of work to build your portfolio, and war chest."

"I get paid very well for those events, but they also tend to be rush jobs, and the places that lease out as the 'targets' get a lot of the demo work done free for their remodel, as well as money to pay for the rebuild project. And they get shown on several cable shows with the whole "Live, on camera" element but without the actual commission of a crime."

Solaris nodded. “Like I said I am very undecided about it.” She smiled as her fledglings came in to breakfast. “I’ll have a tray sent up for Carl when he wakes up.”

"That'd be great. Now... was I right about the invitations coming?"

“Yes, I think poor Penny has been on the work phone since 8 and Nahoa has had to wave off a couple of cars. How is that going Penny?”

"For this weekend, there’s a handful of Veteren’s Day events that would love to have you, but I think they were going to call either way. Also, you got invited to a Cybersecurity summit. Why the heck would they invite someone from the forties I just don’t know?"

"One, it’s likely Kriegsmarine will find a way to show up there. Two, she was known to have captured a variant of the Enigma machine, which is somewhat topic related. Three, Organizers do things like that out of spinal response. SuperHero invite qualifies as free security." Cassidy chuckled.

“I don’t think that is a venue for me, I’m still learning how to do things with my computer, I know nothing about cyber security.”

"Agreed." Penny nodded.

"There's a mixer occurring, between big wigs and the state and federal congressmen and senators. Supposedly it's a charity mixer, but I get the "now that the election is over, let's meet and talk" kind of deal feeling." Penny said, looking down at the list. "That is likely to draw Statesman who you haven't met yet.”

“I’d say that’s a maybe. Put a finger on the pulse of politics. Not my favorite type of gathering but a necessary one. We need to find more charities to chat up, though from what I can tell complaining about Russia hasn’t gone out of vogue.”

"No, that'll be a big topic. I'll RSVP to you. I'll also send you the invites for the three art showings over the next two weeks. That does seem up your lane, and they all permit one assistant as well as a plus one, so Mercedes can go and play secretary and enjoy the art too."

“Well, this will get me out of the house while you do prep for various events plus thanksgiving.” She looked over at Mercedes, “and I think our landscaper would pout if I turned down an art exhibition.”

"One at least would be nice."

"Zakai would like you to make an appearance at the Film Festival, since you're going to be showing up places. That's more just a fun thing to do, though. But to be fair, there's always filmmakers looking for producers." Penny said.

"From her mouth to god’s ears." Cassidy agreed. "Don't tell Carl though, he would want to go to the festival. Film student." The young Tailor turned to Penny. "Can you get me the dress code info for those events she accepts once she does? She's going to need a look for each of them."

“Well, you and Carl could come with me, someone has to explain the modern nuisances I miss.” She gave a self-deprecating grin, taking a bite of eggs.

“I suppose I can let him go to what he wants and come with you to stuff that doesn't involve sad clowns dying in the snow, or something."

“Good Lord. Please tell me something at the festival will be watchable.” Solaris said her blonde eyebrows shooting up in alarm.”

"Lots of comedies, horror shorts, sci-fi shorts... truth is a lot of stuff is actually pretty approachable. It'll be a lot of low budgets and artsy in its way, but people want jobs in Hollywood, not to starve while cranking out "Artiste" slop."

“Oh, thank God, I truly treasure the freedom of art and expression in the US. And defended many artists from prosecution, but save me from over-authored art.” She paused, something about that tickled her memory. “Oh bugger,” Elizabeth muttered. “I just realized, wasn’t this weekend when Erica and Levi were going to be racing?”

“Yeh, but they already said it wasn’t going to be a major event. Last drag races of the season, and they’re not qualified for any major part of the event. Just a chance to test out their car.” Elenore said. “I’m going to be taking Bailey, and film from the bleachers for them.”

“Ohh, I might send Carl with you. He loves gear head stuff, I’ve never been drawn to it in spite of being a techie. He’d also love to play with his cameras on this trip.”

“Even better, he can explain stuff to me.” The assistant agreed.