Eon shrugs.  "Depends on the commercial.  This one's gunna be pretty big, so lots goes into it.  Not least of which you all.  And uh... not to scare you or anything?  But do try and not be rude to the bosses.  They get annoyed enough, they'll annoy the director enough to convince him to un-invite you.  So much as I love your nickname for The Perm, don't go using it with him around."

Mittens laughs!  "'The Perm!'  Even better!"

"This is Steve.  Head scriptwriter."

Steve nods to the group.  "You kids are in luck.  The E.P. has given the green light for you all to be allowed to contribute to the script.  For example, I heard about the possibility of singing?"

Mits side-hugs Rai.  "Prickle!  So worth it for Rai hugs."

Lev gave a borderline mischievous giggle at the nickname, 'The Perm', but reeled it in once Steve arrived. He had no intentions of being rude, not when he's the one invited, and not the one inviting. Even on the other way around... just a good idea to avoid it.

At the mention of the possibility though, Lev found his hand raised. Luckily he caught himself before gesturing to Timothius, refraining in the case it was preferred they mention it themselves and not have a finger pointing towards them.

"If allowed?" He'd give a excited smile.

Timothius smiled at Lev. "Yeah... Lev here and I wanted to sing."

Raichel shoulder-shrugs as she is hugged, blushes and says, "...rai... love you too, Mitts."

Bethany says, "So mind our manners and do as told? Sounds simple enough. Though thanks for the warning."

Raichel has a lightbulb moment and says, "Oh! Can I do a martial arts form in the commercial?" she quickly demonstrates a butterfly kick that melts into a sweep kick and then an uppercut, backstep and block, hoping to impress enough that they will think twice before saying no.

Steve nods to Lev.  And then Timothius.  To Rai he and the rest of the staff stare in surprise at her display.  The intern stands protectively between Rai and the expensive control panel.

Steve slowly shakes his head.  "So... think Girl Scouts.  Only... even softer.  The client is trying to sell the public on the idea that you Mutants are super harmless and just wunna be friends."

Parents show annoyance.

"Most of Mittens' school fears her disfavor lest they taste the wrath of her embarrassing impersonations.  Is that too un-harmless?"

Steve nods.  "Let's avoid absolutely anything that might be construed as you being more than a buncha cute plushies, ok?"

Mits blinks.  "Oh wow.  I was kinda kidding.  Didn't even remotely think something that harmless would be too R-rated for this commercial."

Steve nods again.  "Yup.  I'm even to avoid any canine teeth showing up on camera.  So try and smile without too much sharp teeth, ok?  Maybe I should go over what's been brainstormed so far."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:23, Wed 16 Mar 2022.

Lev's smile went down a bit at the mention of not showing teeth. He did have a few pointier teeth, and the idea that such would harm the commercial made him a little nervous. Even if probably not TOO literal.

"Singing is at least -usually- harmless. Woulda been cool to see the cool martial stuff though." He'd give an impressed thumbs up towards Raichel. As well as taking the mental note, do not anger martial cat. Martial cat can probably throw not-martial bat like a football. Though, the notion of angering wasn't ever intended at least.

Raichel looks a little dejected. "Aww..."

Timothius side-hugs Rai. "We can do harmless well enough. Actually, my power in particular is the opposite of harm; I heal wounds..."

Bethany says, "The news recently showed me using myself as a human traffic light. Is that OK?"

Mittens repeatedly flashes her canine teeth just to be contrary.  And she also saw a cool TV show about Africans who do that.

Steve is a bit flustered and echoes, "Human traffic...  Oh no!  Definitely not a good idea to do anything like that on camera."

Mittens gives him a, "whaaat?" but the adults "oooh."

"And healing a wound on camera would mean blood.  So...  Yeah.  Singing is sounding like our best idea so far."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:21, Fri 18 Mar 2022.

Lev tilted his head at the concern, but didn't question it, given the adults present going 'oh'. That usually meant waiting to ask a friend later. "What kind've song is being planned, if anything has been mentioned about it?" He'd look towards Mittens, mimicking the gesture around twice before snickering, not intent to actually do such on camera.

Bethany says with a very confused tone, "What? But why? How is it bad to glow while wearing red or green outfits...?"

Timothius says, "People don't have to bleed to be hurting, but I get the point..."

Raichel holds up two fingers and electricity dances between them. "I'm guessing electricity is too scary..."

Timothius looks at Mittens, "Mitts, I know they're not filming, but that doesn't mean you should do exactly what they said not to. Do you wanna be kicked out before they even start filming like your friend predicted?"

Raichel says, "It's not like they said she can't do that right now, Timothius."

Timothius says, "Yeah, but we were warned they are sensitive and that the guy in charge looks for excuses to complain. That means not even looking in the direction of anything they said is off limits."

Bethany shrugs. "I'm not worried. People usually warn and clarify before doing stuff like canceling the project they got paid to do."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:15, Fri 18 Mar 2022.

Mits smiles at Lev's joining in and offers him a high five.

"'Human Trafficking' is another word for the slave trade," Mits' Dad explains, "And I'll bet they don't want any incidental connections made."

The chief scriptwriter nods.  "It'll only take one TV person saying something like, 'I thought that human traffic light girl was adorable,' and the next thing you know every other highschooler in the country will be joking about, 'Didja hear they arrested that girl in the commercial for being involved in slave trading?  They say she pled down to lesser charges.  Yeah.  Human Trafficing Light.'"

Mittens facepalms and groans.  Her parents deadpan.

"I've been at this a long time," he continues, "I'll do everything in my power for this to turn out to be the most positive message possible.  We might be able to use the sparks to light a lightbulb or something.  Just no arc lightning like you just showed.  Will make people think 'stun gun,' and those are controversial."

Mittens pretends to flip a gun and quips, "Trust me.  I know what I'm doing.  POW!"
(( Referencing this old show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjwX-zMRxO0 and holy cow even the way he flips the gun and poses is SO 80's! ))

Mits' lips snap tightly shut when Timothius makes his point.  She then whistles innocently.

Lev would take the high five with a quiet enthusiasm, giving a thumbs up to Mittens.

At the hearing of the potential human trafficking joke, Lev brought his palm to his face. Bad joke, and luckily a bad joke avoided. "We could go with the 'Shining Example'? Because of, well. Helping out and guiding traffic, sets an example... and she was... you know." He'd make a small wiggle of the fingers around himself. "Glowie!"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Sat 19 Mar 2022.

Bethany frowns. "Won't matter what we call it, Lev, the guy's right. Other people will call it something else."

She smiles. "But glowing without doing the traffic light thing is perfectly fine, right? Oh! And I could do stuff like this!" she produces a flower and sniffs it.

She glows a little bit and does a little dance. Then gives Steve a hopeful look.

Timothius smiles at Bethany. "Cute!"

Raichel says, "Curious your opinion... which is more violent? A stun gun? Or a roundhouse kick to the ribs? I present you the irony: People are more disturbed by a weapon designed to make someone stop moving for a few seconds than someone's ribcage bursting open. And then the same people turn around and have no problem with an electric fence being a thing."

Timothius says, "Steve's job isn't to be a philosopher, it's to know how the public will react. So he is every bit on our side... just knows how easily people can get against us over the smallest triggers."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:26, Sat 19 Mar 2022.

"Well between the lightbulb and your glowing, I guess we've got a theme going on," scriptwriter answers.

He nods to Timothius.  "Never said it was more violent.  Even told your friends that some zero violence stuff is out of the question.  Remember what I said earlier?  Softer than Girl Scouts?  Things like uniforms are considered too militaristic by our client, and he's not gunna have a uniform for his club.  The whole idea of the club is, 'Everyone is accepted as-is.'  With a big hint wink nudge that means people who don't look human or have some Mutant quirk.  But also means dirt poor kids who can't afford a uniform or club fee."

"This club have a name?" Mits asks, sounding a bit less enthused about it.

"'The Acceptance Club,' is the working name for now.  Client wants the members to name it and plans to have some big contest for that."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:14, Sat 19 Mar 2022.

Lev gave a bit of a smile at the name, as well as the notation that people can come as-is. He was mildly worried that he'd need some manner of making a bat-face look less... in the worst case, 'intimidating', even if he never thought it to be very scary. Then again, people with phobias of bats do exist...

"Lightbulb and glowing... could be a theme for, well... the idea of acceptance. Since, well. Acceptance club for the initial name until a new one is made. Lightbulbs are usually with ideas... and a idea that glows stands out!" Lev smiled, looking between Raichel and Bethany. "A sparking of a new idea of acceptance? If that works for a theme of course...." He'd scratch the back of his head a bit, forgetting that there was a bunch of others around, and the idea sounding a little more corny than it had in his head.

Timothius says, "Do people really see girl scouts as militaristic?"

Bethany says, "Light is a nice enough theme for the commercial... but the name of the group shouldn't be so focused on my power... Oh! Club Variety!"

Raichel says, "Nice! But nothing wrong with Light Club or something, and having our motto be something like 'shining light in the darkness'."

Timothius says, "Hmmm... Share Squad... Universals... Common Club... The People's Group..."

"Isn't it supposed to be your job to figure out how the commercial should go?" Mits' Dad asks, "And yeah.  I heard somewhere that the Soviets think the Boy Scouts are some kinda pre-military training thing like Junior ROTC."

"Oh gimme a break!" Mittens groans before breaking into song, "Gimme a break.  Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!"

The scriptwriter nods.  "Already done.  And the result was rather dry.  More likely to appeal to the target audience if I get target audience input.  Most commercials go through several re-writes before filming even starts, and often even after."

Mits shrugs.  "If the club winds up named after light it won't be just 'cause of your power, Beth.  It'll be 'cause light has always been associated with the goodguys."

"Till lately, you mean," her Mom grumbles, "Like with what they're doing to Batman's image."

"You needn't worry about any of that winding up in this commercial, m'am."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:20, Sat 19 Mar 2022.

Lev gave a bit of a 'hmmm' at that. "It's not though, right? Never got to join 'em, but I heard it was usually fun... not... military for kids?"

Lev sort of absent-mindedly started humming the kit-kat tune as Mittens sang the first bit, before stopping himself, snickering a bit. He'd note to himself, bring kit-kats for the cats! Might be a bit too pun-based, but it is a chocolate bar at the least.

Lev thought for a moment. "Is it okay to ask what the original idea was? And why the result was dry?"

Bethany smiles at Mitts' reassurance and says, "Thanks, Mittens." she then looks at Mittens' parents and says, "Dark heroes is nothing new. Just look at The Shadow, who predates Batman! Or Paladin from Have Gun will Travel, who wore all black."

Timothius and Raichel have a "huh?" look on their faces, but then look curiously at Steven after Lev's question.

Mits' Dad nods to Lev's question.  "Yeah the Scouts is mainly about camping and learning to be mature."

"That's different," Mits' Mom answers, "I was talking about, 'Dark' in the sense of the protagonist being morally dark.  Like fighting against the police."

The scriptwriter takes out a spiral notebook and begins reading.  "Fade in.  Bored looking boy with obvious mutation watching human children play baseball.  Narrator asks, 'Tired of being left out?'  Boy looks at camera and nods.  'They won't let me on the team because I'm different.'  Narrator answers, 'There's a new club where everyone's welcome!  The Acceptance Club!  Write down this number and have your folks sign you up!  1-800 fun for u!  That's 1 (800) 386-3678!  Boy writes down the number and runs off.  Scene switches to boy having fun with other obviously mutant children and some humans.  Boy gives a big thumbs-up to the camera and says, 'Thanks, 800 fun for u!'"

Mits shruuugs.  "Like.  It's not terrible.  But yeah.  Kinda dry."

Lev did not want to be rude. He truly didn't. But the expression on his face was at the border of a deadpan, as he nodded in agreement. "It is not horrible. But I have to agree, it is dry. Bright side, a commercial with input from the general audience it may involve might kick off a lot better! Also-wait. Is that... the actual number?" Lev tilted his head just a bit towards Steven, raising a brow.

Timothius says to Lev, "I heard people can purchase specified phone numbers like that..."

Bethany ohs at Mitts' mom. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... you win THIS round, Mrs Thunderstone!" she grins at the mom teasingly.

Raichel mutters quietly, "Still say martial arts would be cool..."

Timothius looks up at Steven. "What if the opening is in black and white, faded and somewhat dark, and then when the boy is seen playing with others, it is in color, bright, and even some of the people from the baseball game come over and get accepted even though they didn't initially accept the boy?"

The scriptwriter nods to Lev.  "Yup.  That's the number.  Right now it's just a recording, but they'll have a staff answering phones long before the commercial's published."

Mits' mom shrugs at Beth.  "Something I'd rather be wrong about."

Daddy snugs Rai.  "Of course it'd be cool.  Maybe you can convince him with something that was meant to look more like standard dance or gymnastics.  Wu Shu, was it?"

The scriptwriter starts writing down Timo's ideas.  "Good ideas!  Keep 'em comin!"

Mits hmms, "The jingle needs to follow the rhythm of the phone number.  So you can sing the number and it'll be impossible to forget."

The scriptwriter nods to her, "Musician's already on that one.  Industry standard, so a very good idea.  Tried and true."

"Mittens is unsure if she wants to take coming up with anything 'standard' as a compliment."

Lev kept the number in mind, humming a few different rhythms to sort of practice and sort of experiment with what'd go with the number. He'd stop after a bit, realizing he still needed to pay attention to what was going on around him, and not to the rhythm of a number that might already have one, given what the script-writer has said. "If the question is okay, what is Wu Shu? Sort of... not had the chance to look into lots of things martial arts, even if it looks really cool."

Raichel says, "SO glad you asked, Lev... watch!"

Raichel begins moving slowly and gracefully. Not the swift, sudden, harsh moves from earlier, but rather pretty delicate moves.

https://youtu.be/D2W605JFCTU?t=21
(stopping at about 1:06)

Raichel says, "People might mistake it for Tai Chi, which can be just as relaxing and pretty too."

She glances at Steve hopefully.

Timothius claps for Rai, showing his support to his twin.

Bethany joins in clapping. "Gosh that's so pretty! How is that martial arts?"

Raichel says, "Long story short, it was a way of disguising martial arts in the form of dance when martial arts was outlawed, but has since become more of a sport than an actual self defense thing? But there is still self defense there if you look..."

She moves her arms up. "Someone reaching for me? I throw my arms upward to smack their arms up. Then in the same motion, move my arms to push them away..."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:41, Wed 23 Mar 2022.

Steve ohs.  "Well it may serve that purpose again.  So long as the client and most viewers don't recognize it as a way to fight, it looks like it could fit in."

Mits pumps her fist!  "Radical!  Then maybe Mittens can do some skating stunts after all!"

Steve shrugs.  "Never said you couldn't.  Just don't do stuff that would have parents thinking that the club is too dangerous for their grade-schoolers."

Mits' dad looks surpised.  "Really?  They're going to lump the teens together with the young kids?  That doesn't sound like it'll work out."

Steve headshakes.  "Nah there's separate age groups.  But we need to cram a lot into a short commercial, so having some young kids in the 'having fun together' shot will probably happen."

Mits lightbulbs.  "Oh hey!  Me, Beth, and Lev all have a buncha arcade credit for combining our superpowers to get rid of a really noisy insect.  Maybe we could work something out to make the 'having fun together' shot happen at the arcade?"

Steve shrugs again.  "Maybe?  Would that give a false impression that every club has an arcade?"