Crescendo – 3.3
March 16th, 2011
"Mr. Calle will see you now." The pretty receptionist said to me.
I smiled at her and walked through to Quinn's office. He looked as immaculate as ever, with his expensive three piece European suit and slicked-back hair.
"Just out of curiosity, how long does it take to get your hair picture perfect every morning?" I asked.
Quinn rolled his eyes and snorted. "Hello to you too, Nightingale. And I'd be willing to bet that I spend less time getting ready in the mornings than you do with your hair and makeup."
"I didn't even start wearing make up until very recently." I grumbled.
"Then I guess you managed to figure out at a young enough age that despite what the Lifetime channel tries to teach us, that appearances matter very much in the real world."
"Great life lessons you're imparting to an impressionable teenager here, Mr. Calle. Anyways, how many clients do we have today?" I asked.
"Just one, but he won't be here for another hour. We have a lot of things to go over today in the meantime. To start with, take a look at this." Quinn spun the laptop he had on his desk around to show me what he had on the screen. "Your website is finished and ready to go live!"
Huh, that was actually pretty cool. I sat down and started poking around on the site. It looked very professional, and I was glad to see it wasn't filled with glitter and pink like Quinn had threatened.
"Where did you get all these pictures of me?" I asked. The gallery section of the website had a number of pictures of me out in costume. They were mostly pictures of me volunteering at the hospital, but there were a few from my trips out to the Boardwalk and even a couple of photos taken with a long telephoto lenses while I was flying.
"Paparazzi. We just pay the photographers directly for the rights for the better photos so it ends up with us instead of one of the trashy tabloids."
It was kind of creepy that there were photographers snapping pictures of me when I wasn't even aware, but I guess it came with the territory of being a famous cape.
"Why is there a donations page?" I asked. I had plenty of money. It seemed wrong to accept donations.
"Ah, it's not for you to keep." Quinn explained. "There's big disclaimers saying that all net proceeds will go to charities of your choice. There's a list of a few good local ones I've picked out, and you'll pick a few that you want to support. It's a good way to get the community and your fans involved."
"Hmm, I didn't even think of that. I knew there was a reason I kept you around." I replied.
"The reason I keep you around is for the money." He replied, with a roguish grin to let me know he was only joking.. "Just thought you should know."
I rolled my eyes and returned to browsing the site. I briefly browsed through the merchandising section, which had some t-shirts and hoodies with my insignia on it. Figurines and dolls were apparently coming soon as well. I didn't think I was popular enough to warrant all this, but Quinn apparently had big plans for me. The website even had a blog on it. Wait, why was there a blog? I clicked on it, and saw that there was a lengthy first post that I clearly did not remember writing.
"Why is there a blog, and who's pretending to be me here?" I asked.
Quinn chuckled in response. "Katy, one of the interns here, will be maintaining your blog."
"What? Why do I need to have a blog. I don't remember saying I'd be OK with having someone impersonate me on the internet like this."
"You need a way to get your ideals and message out to your fans and the rest of the world. You said you didn't want to deal with a lot of the lower level PR stuff, so Katy is here to fill in for you. I can fire Katy if you want. She's a scholarship student at BBU and she needs this job to take care of her orphaned little sister, but hey, the client is the boss."
I glared at Quinn, who was looking rather smug at the moment. "I'm not that easy to manipulate."
"I'm not trying to manipulate you. That was just a joke." Quinn responded, with a sigh. "Look, Katy's not just making random stuff up here. Everything in that first post is based off of what you told me about what you want to accomplish and what your philosophies are. You'll have full approval of every blog post, and I want you to work with her so that she'll know what you want to say to the public each week. They'll still be your words and ideas, it's just that someone else will do the hard and time-consuming part of actually putting it down onto paper."
That… made is sound more appealing. I guess Quinn had a point, but it just seemed weird to have someone write for me like that.
Quinn continued speaking. "If you want, you can write these blog posts yourself, but there's nothing wrong with having someone else give you a hand with it. Most celebrities have help with this kind of stuff. Hell, even the President of the United States uses speech writers."
"Fine." I said, giving up the fight for now. "I definitely want to approve every post before it goes live. This first post looks good." It was mostly a rehash of things I had told Quinn before, about how I wanted to help the city and use my powers for the good of the common folk. I had to admit I was a little impressed with the work that Quinn had done so far. Our relationship wasn't a typical lawyer-client relationship. He was not just my lawyer, but also my business partner, manager, and PR representative. Hell, I even considered him to be a friend.
Quinn smiled at me. "Perfect! Unless you have any objections, the website will go live tonight then. Moving on, you received an offer for a record deal from Atlantis Records. I imagine that they're trying to sign you before you get even more popular and famous. They definitely lowballed the offer. If it's something you're actually interested in, we can negotiate a much better deal."
I stared at Quinn, flabbergasted. "I… don't know. I never imagined this happening before. What do you think about it?"
Quinn shrugged at me. "Do it if you think it sounds fun. Compensation wise, I don't think you'll earn more than what you're making now as a healer, unless you make it really big. Which may be a bad thing if it draws you the attention of the Elite. The other thing you have to consider is the ongoing trial of Canary."
I gulped. Canary's trial was even more reason why I had vowed not to take a master power that could affect humans. I had discovered some that seemed useful, but I hadn't felt the need to break my rule yet. When I picked my name and insignia, Canary hadn't been such a polarizing figure at the time. Now, I was wary of drawing even more attention to our similarities. It did sound like it'd be fun to perform for a larger audience though.
"Let me think about it and get back to you?" I replied.
"Sure, take your time. Along the same line, you've been asked by the City Council to do a PR event. The city's worried that Lung's recent attack on the Boardwalk could have longer term negative repercussions on the economic health of that area, so they're trying to promote a mini-festival of some sort the weekend after the next at the Boardwalk. Music, food, fireworks, fun stuff for the whole family. Parian has already agreed to be there."
"That sounds fine. I take it you think I should do it?" I asked.
"Yes. It's a good opportunity to earn some political capital, and it's a good cause. They'll be leaning pretty heavily on the PRT to provide security, so you should expect at least some of the Wards to be there, and probably at least one or two Protectorate heroes as well."
I nodded. I felt better about it knowing that Sabah would be there. "Sure, sign me up for it."
"Excellent, they want you to perform a few songs. It can be either covers or original music, but you'll have to let them know what kind of set up you want. And you also have to keep it family friendly. There will be kids there."
Kid friendly, huh? I guess that rules out the ballad I wrote about the red-haired princess who got syphilis and then fell off of a cliff. It was probably my finest work. Maybe if I could find a suitable euphemism? "That won't be a problem." I said confidently to Quinn.
"Alright, that's about it for the business part. I'm still working on some of the big picture stuff we've talked about, but I should have something for you next week. Now for something fun!" Quinn said, with a wide grin on his face. "I was able to get in contact with Toybox, and I have you setup for a private online shopping session."
Quinn tapped away at his laptop for a bit, and then turned it to face me again. I eagerly took the laptop and started browsing.
Let's see what we have here on the front page. The world's fastest gaming laptop with a quantum CPU, a virtual reality gaming system, a life size robot Chewbacca with Virtual Intelligence programming, a 200 MPH Tron replica light cycle… what the hell?
"Wh-why is it all toys?" I asked.
"Taylor…" Quinn chided gently. "It's called the Toybox. Of course they sell toys. What were you expecting?"
"I-I don't know, like a black market tinkertech weapons dealer or something like that? Certainly not SkyMall for rich weirdos!" I exclaimed, suddenly feeling foolish.
"If there were a group of tinkers selling illegal tinkertech weapons to criminals, the Protectorate would hunt them down relentlessly." Quinn said. "The Toybox mostly sells unique and very expensive toys to eccentric millionaires and rich kids. Selling illegal weapons is more along the lines of what the Elite does. That said… you can probably find some items that skirt the boundaries of illegality that you seem to be looking for."
Oh god, is that what I was now? A rich kid? I pushed that thought away and dived deeper through the storefront. Let's see, tinkertech hunting supplies and personal security. That seemed more promising. There was a collapsible compound bow that folded down to a much smaller size. The folding mechanism was derived from tinkertech, and apparently wouldn't require too much maintenance. The site even sold taser arrows. That was something I would've loved to have before I got my shiny new blaster power. I tentatively added it to my 'maybe' list.
Besides the compound bow, there was nothing here I was really inter- wait, is that a Lightsaber? I clicked on it. The advert read:
"Ever dreamed of owning your own LightsaberTM? Now's your chance to live out your Jedi fantasies! Acquire your very own hard light baton/beam sword combination device today! Three hard light settings: B (Baton), S (Sword/Sharp), and SS (Super Sharp). Available in your choice of five different colors, and comes with a quick release holster and a charging dock. Bimonthly maintenance free for one year when you purchase today! Only $125,000. Free shipping!"
"H-how much money do I have?" I asked Quinn.
He peeked over my shoulder to see what I was looking at and snorted. "You have more than enough for that. Go ahead and treat yourself, kid. You deserve it."
It seemed like an obscene amount of money to spend on a fancy baton, but it would help me be a better hero! That's how I was rationalizing it at least. I added the hard light baton and the bow to my shopping cart, along with a quiver of taser arrows and regular arrows to my order. It was a lot of money, but I would be able to earn it all back quickly enough.
"Taylor, I'm home!" Dad's voice called out from the front of our house.
"I'm in the kitchen!" I yelled back.
Dad walked in and ruffled my hair a bit before I managed to shove him away.
"That smells good." Dad said in response to my glare. "What are you making?"
"Pork chops and Brussels sprouts." I responded.
"Ooh, my favorite. Are you trying to butter me up for something?" Dad said lightheartedly.
Wow, he figured that out quickly.
Dad was frowning now. "Are you?"
"Uhh, of course not Dad." I said in my most convincing voice. "By the way, is it OK if I have a sleepover at a new friend's house this Friday?"
Dad smiled widely upon hearing that. "Of course Taylor. I'm glad to hear you're making new friends. Who is it?"
"My new friend Vicky. She goes to Arcadia." I replied.
Dad stopped smiling, and his eyes narrowed. "Would that be Victoria Dallon?" He asked.
"Uhh… yup."
"And what will the two of you be doing?" He asked, in a low and flat voice.
"Umm, you know, girl stuff. Painting our nails, braiding each others hair, maybe taking down some criminals."
Dad sighed as he took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Taylor, this isn't funny!"
"We're not going to do anything too dangerous, I swear." I responded.
"You guys fought Lung last week!" Dad replied heatedly, his voice raising a few levels.
"You know that wasn't by choice." I responded in a small voice. "And I'm being serious. We're just going to patrol a bit from the air. We'll be sticking to areas that are relatively safe, and we'll be able to watch each others backs. It's much safer than going out by myself."
"I'd rather you not go out looking for trouble at all." Dad said, with a resigned look.
"Dad… you can't ask me not to be a hero. You know how much this means to me."
Dad looked miserable as he sighed heavily. "I want hourly updates while you're out, even if it's just a text."
I gave him a small smile. "Sure, I can do that Dad."
I pulled the pork chops out of the oven and finished plating our food. Dinner was a silent affair, and I retired to my room quickly afterward. I knew he was unhappy, but I didn't know how to make things better without giving up on hero work.