Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious or any of it's characters.
:}
Most people would agree that Trina had changed a bit since her time at Hollywood Arts. Still plugging away at her career, she'd made a few obvious choices to help her along the way. Like the short time she rode her sisters fame as a singer, becoming a reality star, then managing to maintain her own fame as her sisters faded. But the biggest change had been her attitude. 'People will put up with all kinds of shit if you're someone they need, but once you're not, they don't wanna know you. Tori taught me that much.' She reminded herself, even as she walked up to the studio executives office suite. 'Her fame ended, and she still has friends in the industry. Hell, Mason gave her a job, to pay the bills, cause a pop princess is often a short term occupation, and she needed something now that people only remember her as a teen. But that job, in talent relations, it's helped her survive while she goes on auditions, acting and singing and whatever, all the while the ultimate good girl is out there, trying, while I've had me a touch of a career myself.'
She'd walked into the office, a happy smile on her face. "Raul, tell me, any hot goss to share?" She addressed the man behind the reception desk.
"You know I can't." The man at reception said, breaking his otherwise stone face to smile at her.
"I've got some." Trina smirked. "According to my contacts, Beck Oliver continues in his quest to be the new George Cloony, and has yet another new girlfriend."
"Sigh, tell me something I don't know." Raul groaned, enjoying this break from being the guardian of who got to see his boss.
"Oh come on, I've told you about his taste for difficult women, haven't I?" Trina shifted. "Mary Jones is too nice. No way she's anything but a short term reprise from whatever disaster he's dating next. Either that, or she has some deep dark secret."
"Or a death wish." Raul smirked, happy to add his own take. Leaning in conspiratorially, he dished "I've heard what she had to say about his ex's. And we both know who his ex's include… Speaking of, we may want to put the nicer members of our waiting room someplace safe, cause the worst of his ex's has an appointment today, with Mister Gardner."
"Before or after mine?" Trina asked, feeling a touch worried about this meeting. Mister Gardner had been her ally for a couple of years now, from when Tori was a hot commodity and everyone needed to play nice with Trina, just in case. He'd helped Trina find a few rolls in order to keep here acting, and often worked with whomever to get her a touch extra help to make her work acceptable, if not exemplary. Trina knew she lacked talent, but was a name, of sorts, and as such, could usually find some work, assuming she just played nice. Fame could do a lot as long as she knew how to use it.
As if on some hell born cue, the elevator outside the office Trina opened, and a cold wind metaphorically blew through the floor. The most successful graduate from Hollywood Arts in the last two decades walked off, a woman who's name should have been a warning. Jade West, the jaded girl who's movies had made her famous, and rich, hadn't had to learn the first rule of success, be nice to those around you, cause you never know which one's might be able to help you along the way. 'Jade's here, and me without my camera.' Trina smirked, as a plan started to form as to how she'd solve her latest problem, how she'd keep herself relevant in the changing market.
"I'm here to see Mister Gardner." Jade informed reception.
"And you are?" Raul shifted to his neutral face, not giving anything away.
"Jade West, and you know that." She snapped. "I've been here often enough. Honestly, unless they need to discipline me, I don't get why I have to come to them?"
Raul shifted to Trina. "Why don't you go grab some coffee, possibly at the shop. Mister Gardner is slammed, and behind today. Gonna be a while."
"Call me when he has an opening?" Trina asked, but walked a few steps back, ready to head off.
"So?" Jade demanded.
"I do remember you." Raul acted as if he just placed the face. "Hard to believe your thought of as nice on the set, given the number of police complains against you."
"Well, being a gank didn't work out on my early films, so I had to adapt." Jade grumbled. "He ready for me?"
'And they wonder why she's single.' Trina joked with herself. She almost felt her ally smirk, even as his poker face held. She knew he was thinking it too.
"Mister Gardner is swamped, and it may be a while." The man at reception repeated, calm and collected. "You can wait, we have coffee and such if you want."
"Why did you send HER to the coffee shop." The goth demanded.
"Because she's gonna be waiting a while, and prefers the coffee there." He replied, his calm, professional demeanor and voice solid as stone. "If you'd like, you can go too. Nothings stopping you. Just, make sure we have your current cell phone number, just in case. Hate to have you miss out on your opening just because the coffee there is better."
Trina now was deliberately hesitating, her plan starting to adapt to the moment fate had practically dropped in her lap. 'it's dangerous, cause this bitch always is, but it might just solve a few of my problems…' She told herself, ready to act.
As soon as Jade backed off, realizing she wasn't going to bully her way into a meeting, the older girl struck. "You know, we haven't spoken in a minute." She addressed the pale girl. "Why not come with."
"Because I don't like you?" Jade snapped, barely sparing the older girl a glance.
"But I'm betting I know why they wanted to speak with you." Trina teased. "That action film you did, it broke records, didn't it? You're more then ready to play an action star, and I need me a new gig, so why not come, talk to me, and I'll see what I can do to help you." She had moved, ever so slowly, while speaking, trying to draw the pale girl out. Knowing how to keep Jade's was her only advantage, having learned a few nonverbal tricks from her sister after high school. She was using them all now.
Jade looked through the older girl. "I don't need you. I've never needed anyone. Fuck, I've been canceled three times, and I'm still here, making money."
"But you don't know what I'm offering." Trina smiled, an open, friendly smile. She's moved to use her body to push the girl but not too much, instead managing to get the star to follow her, supposedly in the pursuit f a chair. "See, your right, your a somebody, and as such, for now, they have to see you. But me, I'm a nobody… Okay, I'm famous, and have some clout, but mostly I know how to play the game." Trina drew her in, step by step, as she spoke. "And as such, I had a meeting with Walter, Mister Gardner, to talk about a new roll they might find for me. You know, so I can continue to be relevant. And, get this, I know he'll see me, be glad to talk to me, cause I worked at that relationship." Her hand went up, stopping any comment. "And before yous say anything, nothing sexual. He has legions of girls willing, so I'd hardly be memorable. No, just building a friendship, doing what I can to be owed favors, and in return, he looks after me." She reached past the other girl to press a button on the wall, and the goth realized it was for the elevator, specifically the right floor.
Jade blinked, not from the shock of that admission, but because she realized Trina had maneuvered them into the elevator. They'd been walking as they spoke, and Trina had used body position to push the often pushy goth into the small car, and then let the door close, heading down. Absorbing all of this, Jade wanted to fight, be mad, except she wasn't going to give this talentless hack the satisfaction of the news story.
Jade stayed quiet for a long ride, not wanting to speak with Trina, who was, as far as she could tell, the polar opposite of the Trina she'd known. However, she wasn't ready to stop and stay quiet, not when Trina was calling her to task.
"I know how to play the game." Jade finaly said. "I'm nice enough to my cast, cause if I take out my frustrations on them, I don't get chiz done."
"I know." Trina said, smirking. She'd received a text, informing her that Mister Gardner was at the coffee shop, hiding out in the employees lounge. Their lounge was unlike most coffee shop lounges because there were more then a few power players in the industry who wanted to have their coffee and snacks in peace. It doubled as a VIP lounge, and Trina knew it. "Look, when we get there, I'll need to talk to one of my contacts, cause sometimes, just knowing whats happening helps. So, yea, made me some friends at a coffee shop. Wanna meet them?"
"No thanks." Jade growled. "I'm putting on my best bitch face, cause I don't feel like being mobbed by people claiming to be my friend. Just, fuck, I have no idea why they need to see me. I'm so convinced they're ready to punish me for whatever, and god, I have my lists." She shook, building up her rage, just in case. "Gonna have a hard time enjoying my coffee."
"Look, we're here." Trina told her as the door opened. A short walk brought them out to the inside entrance to the shop. "I need to see my contact. You, get some coffee, maybe a muffin, and find a couch to sit on. I'll be back."
Jade got in line, ready to kill as she was forced to wait behind more then enough indecisive people to cost her valuable time she could otherwise be using to sit and stew about stuff. Meanwhile Trina made her way towards the lounge, waving at an off duty barista and pausing long enough to place her order. They knew her, and knew she could be nice, so she'd get her coffee quickly enough. Then she entered the lounge, secure in the knowledge that Jade would be a while. "Mister Gardner?"
"Trina, nice to see you." The man greeted her, rising from the nice couch where important people like him hid out. "Look, I've been keeping an eye open, just in case. Unfortunately, while you have some fame, you're just not a draw. If your sister weren't so low key these days, I'd be better able to market you. Only, god, if you had a touch more talent, or a touch less fame, I'd be able to find you something. Just, too much a name for background, and not talented enough for anything else."
"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm gonna get me a recurring roll in the new Jade West Action series." The Latina explained.
"Oh, and how will you do that?" The studio executive wondered, now intrigued. He knew Trina could come up with some crazy plots sometimes. He would only interfere if it sounded dangerous or illegal, as any success she might have only helped him. "And how do you expect to get near her without me having to deal with yet another police report?".
"Oh, simple." Trina shrugged. "My sister knew her, and as a result, I know her. I know a bit about her, and know a touch of how to play off some of her issues. So naturally, when she showed up at your office, I was able to redirect her to this shop, where she's out there, among the crowds, plotting the violent deaths of innocents just because that's so her."
"Oh?" The man willed the young woman to continue. This was far more then he could have hoped for, his problem child of a multi-threat now semi-contained. Plus, Trina was hinting that there would be that money making action series he was told to try and convince her to make. "Please, tell me this plot of yours involves her actually agreeing to that series."
"Oh, god, that's the easy part." Trina chuckled. "I just need to convince her to that she needs someone to help rein her in, help fix her image, and I can help. Not gonna be easy, she enjoys being a gank."
"I suppose there is power in being a bitch." Walter Gardner agreed.
"Only, I've discovered, there's hella more in knowing how to be nice constructively." Trina continued, even as her large hazelnut infused coffee arrived, carried to her by someone she knew she now owed some gossip. She thanked the girl, who immateriality vanished to let her have this conversation in peace. "I mean, how many discreet problems did I help you solve, so your stars could continue being stars. Honestly, I expected more affairs and pregnancies, and instead got so much drama that should have stayed in high school."
"Celebrities build egos." The executive said. "Helps that they have multiple people around them, telling them how wonderful they are. But I do understand, we've helped one another often enough, and you did help my wife do that spa day she enjoyed so much. Just never thought of that as a group activity."
"Women are social critters." Trina nodded. "We like to do things in a group, cause we talk about everything. That connection, it comforts us. The spa, pampering ourselves, that's just an extension of that connection. A woman who never wants company, she's either making it far more intimate then it has to be, or she's got a secret she's hiding."
"And you'll handle my Jade problem?" The man pushed. This was easily the thing he'd been dreading ever since the board had called him letting him know the Jade West action series was his responsibility. Getting it made was now a priority, and almost impossible given the woman involved.
"Working on it." Trina promised. "And while I'm at it, gonna handle my sisters chronic bad dating problem, and give you a few fun headlines to help keep your stuff in the news."
"Now I feel like your reaching." He leaned forwards. "Wait, how will this fix Tori's bad dates?"
"I think Jade's Bi, and I know Tori is." Trina said conspiratorially. "So, I'm gonna get them to date. Plus, in return for her using me to help work on her public image, cause any publicist would have to be hella brave to face the dragon of Hollywood Arts, so she'll use my suggestions, and she'll need something to replace her constant bad press. Trust me, I think this'll work. And who knows, maybe I'll keep Beck's current girlfriend alive, assuming she and Jade ever cross paths."
"Get her to sign on to an action series, subject to my approval, and I'll make sure your working well into retirement." He promised.
"Be right back." Trina replied before standing up and almost dancing out of the room. Moments later, she found Jade outside, glaring at the fans and entertainment workers who were here, at this off studio coffee shop, near the various industry off sight offices that had become so fashionable of late. "Okay, my contact got me a large hazelnut infused coffee, and a hot tip." Trina told the goth as she sat down next to her. Jade had already acquired her coffee, a sign that she could get things done if she wanted to. Trina thanked the gods that no one got hurt in the process. "So, here's the dish. They want you to do an action series, and just want to negotiate the terms. Not gonna go nice on you, cause they wanna make money, and have a lot of approval of what you write, how you direct, everything. However, you'll accept, cause you need the positive PR. Used to be, just do a Disney movie to fix a bad public image. Only, some people abused that system, and now… whatever. Just, for you to come across as legit, you'll need me, who will play a recurring roll as, I don't know, we'll figure that out, as well as acting as your personal trainer, to help with the martial arts chiz." Trina was nodding the whole time. "You'll make loads of money, have a lot of creative control, and best of all, will save poor Tori from dating hell."
"You too?" Jade groaned. "I'm gonna tell you what I told Beck, I'm not into Vega."
"Oh, okay then." Trina let it go. "Just, if your willing, I've been told where to find Mister Gardner, and can maybe arrange a quick, private meeting to work this chiz out. Just, let me check things out, and if I'm right, then we take you, make the deal."
Trina didn't wait for an answer, heading off to speak with her friend. "Okay, we need to decide, where will you confront Jade?"
"Not here." He insisted. "I like the privacy."
"An office on the first floor then. Text me… No, let me text someone, get the local, and we can all meet up there. I've got Jade interested, but we still need to close the deal."
"What I've worked so hard to teach you." Mister Gardner smirked. "In this town, it's about closing the deals. We have one, and now, your fulfilling your part, and giving me a deal with miss West that will benefit the studios greatly. Just, how will you get her to date Tori?"
Brown eyes shined. "Seeds planted. Just need time. Now come, I've forwarded the office to you. We have maybe half an hour. I'll have Jade there momentarily."
Trina walked out to where Jade was getting even more frustrated with the fans, people who knew enough to keep their distance, but somehow didn't. 'Good, I want her frustrated… Not angry, but not thinking, so I can close this deal before she remembers she doesn't like me…' The older girl thought before addressing the dragon in the room. "Okay, he's at a meeting with an exclusive client, and won't be back in his office for a minute. However, if we hurry, we can catch him in the other persons temporarily borrowed office. Insurance company sometimes lets power players use one of their back offices for chiz, like auditions, or clandestine meetings, and I think… Honestly, I have no idea why they're there, but this is a hurry up and wait situation. We take our coffee, and get you out of here, cause you're creating a scene. Then, after you handle one phone call for me, we're good to go. I just, well, I need to make a couple of calls, to help my own career, and then, we can talk…."
Jade wanted to just leave. She was a name, a force in the industry, and this talentless hack was telling her what to do at every step. However, she also knew that the executive she would speak to could make her career more difficult if he so chose. 'Trina seems to know what she's doing. Now usually I'd think she was just being delusional. However, she knows the reception up there, gods he'd better learn my name, or there will be hell to pay, but she knows him, so maybe…' Mostly, Jade hated the idea of waiting to see Mister Gardner for who knows how long, all because her contracts with the studio meant he could make her wait if he so chose. Yes, he had to see her, but he controlled so much of her life, like how much help the studio would offer, and if she'd be able to do anything else that day. Jade had heard about Beck's new girl, and was hoping to find her for some girl talk. Intimidation did wonders for her self esteem.
Trina guided Jade to a secluded spot, and asked to borrow the younger girls phone. "I could make this call on my own, except I kinda need to use my phone for something else too. So, you just let me make this call, and once I hand it off, I'll make a few others. Gotta do things in a certain order to succeed, so as to not ruffle any feathers."
Jade, not sure what else to do, gave Trina her burner phone, just so she wouldn't be burdened with the other girl knowing her number. She was already committed, and would play along, for now. Seconds later, she heard Trina talk her way into a video conversation with Tori. "What the fuck?" Jade demanded.
"Jade, think of this as me helping you." The older Vega girl was calm, her voice soothing. "Tori always helped calm you down. Now, you two talk, while I deal with my end, kay?"
"So, an action series, huh?" Tori smirked over the video link, her face dominating the phones small screen. "Finally found a way to make my sister a star I see."
"Never the goal." Jade snapped.
"But with her martial arts skills, and your vision, she wouldn't have to act so much as just hit the marks when she had too. Plus, she could work with some great fight choreographers, and…" The younger Vega was cut off.
"She was okay, sometimes, with following choreography, I guess." Jade admitted. Blue eyes scanned the Latina, and while she hadn't ever bothered thinking about it, she could now see how the right cut of a business suit could look sexy, while emphasizing parts of the person woman's clothing usually didn't focus on. Tori's figure, her smile, it was all on full display, even as the pantsuit looked professional as anything.
"She's gotten better." Tori agreed. "Now, without giving too much away, tell me the overall theme of the series, and how Neutronium can benefit from placing our artists in the film. Who knows, we may want to invest." The Latina seemed neutral, but the conversation had slipped, and Tori was using hard won social skills to start to do her part, even if she had no idea that this was her sister plan. 'I'm betting I can get in your pants, Jade…'
Trina hadn't so much called as walked into the insurance company and asked the receptionist if they could use the spare room. Again, her efforts to build relationships bore fruit, as they were more then happy to do Mister Gardner a solid by letting him use the space. And they knew, from happy experience, that Trina didn't lie about who she was seeing. Moments later, she texted the office location to her friend, and killed about five minutes to give Tori a chance to work her magic. 'Tori, I know this has been a fantasy for you, and Mason HAS been teaching you to be more direct, so go for what you want. Soften her up, cause it's time to come up with an action series…'
Trina had her idea by the time she got back to jade, based on something she'd read a few days before. Already she'd sent a quick pitch to Walter, getting the whole deal rolling. 'Funny how jade's name can do that, even as she struggled to get anyone to want to help her. The power of positivity...' She knew he would call Dingo, and see if they could do a re-imagining of one of their shows, about a teenage superhero and his sidekick slash partner. 'Age them up a bit, and we're on. Jade writes, plays the lead, and for all I know directs and produces. I play her friend and partner, while we find us the original series, the comics, and use that to harvest the series for enemies and chiz. Okay, we have the basis. Now, sell it like our careers depend on it, cause I need everyone on board. Lots of moving parts, but it's gonna work. I just know it will.'
She found Jade still on the phone and looking flustered. "I'm not undressing you with my eyes." The pale girl protested, but the energy was nervous, but not angry. "Look, can we just be serious for a moment…"
"Why don't you two agree to meet up some place and finish this conversation?" Trina suggested. "Tori, you have that nice place, with the view, right? Maybe Jade would like a private dinner?"
"No, we should meet someplace where she'd feel safer." The younger sister said over the open line.
"No, I'm good with the house." Jade slipped in, to busy being a contrarian to realize what she'd just did. "So…."
"So, Tori, you can listen in, but I have the basic idea of the pitch we're gonna give." Trina started to explain the old show, it's batman like roots, and how it desperately needed a reboot where the characters aren't teens any more, cause that part just didn't make sense.
"Plus, it never matched the original comics." Jade added. "Yea, the whole working stiff makes it rich, only for his wife to die cause of her contacts in organized crime, and he starts as a crime fighter chiz could work. The strong point is the gadgets. More dependent on them then Batman, but for a learn on the job kinda series, I can totally see that working. So… Damn, we have an idea. Just need the rights…"
"Dingo has em." Tori said. "Look, I'm gonna get back to work. Jade, see you tonight? I'll make something for us, I'm a good cook now, and we can finish up our business." She smiled. "But I am a great cook. Honestly, you should see me with breakfast fare…"
"That show was abysmal." Walter Gardner said. "They took a comic that was more wish fulfillment, and made it into second rate television, and changed the main characters from adult to teens well before that idea was popular. Plus, you'd be burdened with changing at least one characters gender, and making both seem less like idiots."
"You saying I couldn't do it?" Jade challenged, and Trina was caught between two thoughts.
'Jade is fighting for the idea, which is good, but she's also getting focused. I need her to be off balance, so we get the deal made, me involved, and THEN she work that magic she does and make an action series about a superhero…' Trina debated saying something, only to stop when her partner continued.
"Right off the top, I'd shift things forward. No modernizing that chiz, cause that was another mistake." Jade explained. "The comic WAS wish fulfillment, but the world the guy created, it has potential. No, if we do this, the gender swap would be the major problem, unless we make it less of one. We just go the next generation, use the world, and make the characters fit better. We stop playing against type, and start using what we have. Like Trina. She's a trained martial artist. Daughter of the original sidekick, she was trained since her youth to be the hero's assistant. Gonna take a LOT of effort, cause she's gonna need to learn lines, lots of em, and not just the classic sidekick 'That was amazing' BS we think of. No, cause she's gonna be daddy's girl, trying to do what he wanted, carry on his legacy, but also have her own life. Me, I'm gonna lean into two parts of the main character, as his child, and push the science. The hot scientist has been done, but I can add a twist, have been a model, daughter of a model, and like Batman, use the image as part of my cover. Then, I have the gadgets, loads of them, and rely on them more then fighting skills. Trina and I will have our standard list of chiz, and then we'll have our variable stuff, and she'll be more a confidant with her own problems then a true sidekick."
"So, rewriting it as more batman?" The executive noted.
"More Iron Man meets Nightwing then Batmen." Jade countered. "Add in loads of personal drama, the effects of trying to have a personal life while heroing, and lets be honest, her job is gonna be being the hero. Have to figure out how to keep her identity secret in this crazy world, but figure her tech will do the heavy lifting. Just, this is a lot, and a whole series of movies is a huge risk, especially when the original comic was so much wish fulfillment. Not sure how to sell it."
"Easy." Trina smirked. "We sell it as Jade West adapting a fully fleshed out universe, and adjusting the characters to fit the modern world. We let your reputation sell the first film, not nostalgia like the other superhero flicks, and then we just make sure to make an impression with the first movie. Hell, we may even need to pull my sister out of mothballs to play a roll, just to add interests, and because she calms Jade here down."
"She sounded like she wanted to date me." Jade noted, weirded out at how good that idea felt.
"Yea, that may be the big selling point, so lets get her involved." Trina pushed. 'Looks like the deals all but made. Won't be done until the paperwork is signed, but Trina my girl, you're all but set for life now. So, it'll take about an hour for the preliminary contracts to be agreed upon, written up, and sighed. So the next question is, what to do with the rest of my day…' Her mind drifted as she watched the two power players hammer out the outline of the deal, the number of films, everything. 'Get all worked up, Jade, cause it's Tori's job to calm you down. So, tel the paparazzi where she is, so they can get pics in the morning… Nahh, leave that to Tori. She's always had good instincts about getting caught, or was lucky about it, unlike her love life…' Trina thought, even as she decided on what else to do that afternoon.
:}
So, Trina has learned the value of a good attitude, and taking advantage of an opportunity when it shows itself. Thinking Jade will only benefit from having Trina around, if for no other reason then to make sure no one else manipulates her the same way.
Thoughts?
Oh yea, review, which I only ask to pad my word count.