Chapter 92

"I haven't said this yet but welcome to the family," Mora stretched her arms out towards me as we finally got out of the car to our destination.

I walked into her intimate sisterly hug as she messed up my hair, though with a height struggle.

"If anyone bullies you, just tell me and I'll set them straight."

Blake gave her the stink eye, "Charlie should be more concerned about staying away from you than any other bully."

"I'll KO you, I really will."

I pat both their heads, "Alright alright, get on with it."

"I just noticed how tall he is."'

"Oh right, you didn't notice because of the car…"

"A giraffe."

"He's probably missing oxygen, that's why he's also lacking in brain cells."

???

Hello?

I'm in front of you?

"I wouldn't be so mean to my junior brother but he looks like he'd eat tree branches."

I wanted to cry but no tears came out.

We walked inside the building and were led toward a room at the end of the hallway. Entering the room, I could instantly see the camera equipment and a small table with a glass containing a pink deodorant.

It was a wood wall with a window and a green background behind it. A chair and a small lamp facing towards us on top of a homely carpet.

As per usual, I shook hands with every single person on the set, the cameramen, photographers, lights, janitors…

Blake and Mora pulled me away for a few seconds.

"This is suspicious."

I tilted my head with confusion. "What's wrong?"

"No weird props nor weird scripts are lying around… have they changed their ways?"

"I was going to think they'd do something weirder like get you to smell a woman with a perfume… like you know those perfume ads where a half-naked guy is just smelling the neck of a half-naked woman? I still have no clue why companies keep doing those."

"I think you forget I am still seventeen years old?"

Mora scratched her head. "I forgot for a moment that you're still a baby… I thought you were like twenty-one years old the moment I saw you."

I tapped Blake's shoulder, "I don't look that old yet do I?"

"You look like you could be anywhere from eighteen to twenty-three."

I pat his shoulder and smiled in concern, "So am I going to do weird things today or not?"

"Ah, no. It'll just be a standard shoot today…. Haha…" Behind us came the voice of the person in charge.

I showed a polite expression, "I guess I'll be saved today, then?"

"You don't understand how strange this is…" Mora and Blake looked at each other with incredulous eyes.

"Is there something I am missing?" I was beginning to get a little annoyed at their constant mention of there being something weird about these Douglas perfume guys.

They just looked at each other and shrugged. "You'll get it next time, then."

I sighed and the person in charge spoke up, "Well it looks like everything has been set up, shall we begin?"

Seeing me nod, he smiled and handed me round gold-rimmed glasses.

"Our idea for the script this time was to be a homely perfume. The vibe you get while you're reading next to a fireplace out in a cabin in the woods… That sort of feeling."

My face grew interested.

He smiled, "We've brought the exact clothes we were envisioning for you. Since the set will be brown and warm colors, you'll need to be something that attracts attention but also fits the warm theme."

We walked towards the garment rack and he pulled out a crimson turtleneck, black dress pants, and leather dress shoes.

As a model, my proportions are already on my portfolio submitted by Knife Agency so I was only surprised the first time I was handed perfectly fit clothes like this a long time ago.

"The book you'll be reading is—"

"There it is… so you've finally shown your true colors."

I tilted my head in confusion at Mora's accusation towards the man.

He merely smiled with an amused twinkle in his eyes. "It is a gentleman's ad."

"I get you. You'll spray the perfume on him and then record some shots of him without the book in the shot. Then you'll slowly zoom out and show that that whole time he would have been reading an adult mag."

My eyes widened and I looked towards where Mora was pointing— the magazine with half-naked women, on the floor, hidden on the table.

He clapped, "It is a good script," he panned out his hands and waved them, as if words were coming out of his hands, "A cultured perfume, for the gentleman."

Mora seemed as if she was about to breathe fire, "A porn mag? For a gentleman?"

Blake who had been covering his laughing mouth couldn't help it anymore.

She immediately turned his head toward him as he immediately raised his hands, feigning innocence.

"Okay, look. You can't tell me it's not funny. It's a wholly serious advertisement with a very serious and intelligent-looking man. At last, it is finally revealed that even the most stuck-up and virgin-looking guys even are in on the gentleman's culture."

I nodded. "Stuck-up, and virgin-looking. I'm not sure if you want to die from getting beat up or to die from getting fired. Choose your damnation."

He avoided my eyes, "It's not a porn mag though, it's just a magazine of women on the beach."

"Blake? Have you read those magazines before?"

He suddenly quietened and stared at Mora for a few seconds. "How do I explain this?"

I sighed, "And… what's the catch to this? For what reason am I going to be—" I glanced at the… 'gentleman's' magazine… and "—reading this… thing?"

"...Well our advertisements have always been strange to catch the viewer's attention… It's always worked…"

Mora nodded at his point, "Though all of their commercials are always weird, it's because they're weird that they're successful…"

"So what? I'm supposed to be this seventeen-year-old dude acting like a gentleman while snuffing my face into a magazine of bikini'd women? I have an image to preserve."

"There's something that hasn't been mentioned yet," the person in charge spoke with a grin, "The camera will swing back to the contents of the book."

He picked up the book and opened it, revealing a quote in an archaic font.

'Behind every great man stands no woman. There is no greater man than the man that can acknowledge the woman standing right next to him'

I was unimpressed, but my face remained neutral at the man who looked self-satisfied.

…

…

…

In the end, I found out they just really like messing with people.

The scandalous book was replaced by a more sophisticated newspaper.

It was a useless thing they did, just trying to mess around with me but those are the quirks of this industry. You get to meet rich people that do dumb things just to be entertained.

There were no permanent damages done to my reputation or being.

It was one of the weirder experiences in this industry that I've had.

Anyway, I was invited for an interview in a Late Show Interview.

We boarded a train to Regalia— remember, most trains in this world are interconnected— and was accompanied by Blake. At this point, Blake was more of a babysitter than my mentor or coach. I had learned at a rapid pace, and now experience was just what was left for me.

It was my second time in Regalia, and this time I would definitely go sightseeing a little bit. Maybe hold a fan meeting.

…

The entrance was not flashy at all, though Connor, the interviewer really wanted me to do a little dance or something.

Still, I showed a good energy level for the interview by smiling widely and waving at everyone in the audience.

He sat behind a desk and I sat to his side on a blue sofa.

"Charlie! How are you doing?"

My smile had faltered into a looser and more comfortable smile.

"Connor, my good friend…" which was part of the script, "I'm very excited, thank you very much." I went a little off-script with this part but he did not seem the least bit appalled.

"I'm glad to hear you are." He smiled and patted my shoulder from across his desk, making it seem extremely awkward for the camera for the comedic value. "Are you nervous, at all?"

He was a man of Indian origin. Very funny comedian, I watched a few of his comedy shows in his younger days before coming to Regalia.

I smiled, "A little… how can you stand the spotlight this easily?"

He laughed, "I should be the one saying that… A model walking the catwalk in front of thousands of people. Aren't you a little too humble?" I laughed politely at this praise.

He continued with a big smile, "I would probably trip and fall over if I had been in the Show."

The mission was clear. My mission was to look polite, and humble, but also youthful and boyish. As I'm already a streamer, my work partners expect that my fans will write extremely positive comments about my behavior that will bring me more fans.

If I'm cold, I will seem stuck up and annoying. Also extremely out-of-character compared to my personality in streams.

If I'm too bubbly, I'll just seem a tad bit too immature. It's not a bad thing, but the audience I'm trying to cater to is not a female-pure audience.

Blake told me that my appearance will carry me anyways.

"Well, perhaps the reason I'm nervous is that I am your fan." I paused and then continued, "I've watched your comedy shows before and they had me crying the entire time."

He laughed. This was also out of script but he seemed extremely pleased.

"Charlie. You're already one of my favorite interviewees—"

I interrupted him, "Is that okay to say? I mean, what if past interviewees get jealous of you and me?"

He seemed surprised for a quick second and then gave a sincere laugh.

"They'll have to do a better job, then."

"Alright Charlie," he smiled and then followed up, "So… for the first question… this one's actually one that came up on the notice very recently… There was a disstrack on you, did you know that?"

Huh? Really?

To be honest… I had no idea.

…

…

…

Across different platforms, Y*uTube, Inst*gram clips, T*ktok, there were reactions similar to these.

[rukaene: he's so cute and innocent omg]

LIKES: 932

[keeazz: our boy has finally made it im so proud]

LIKES: 5K

[Kevinnnstrn: Didnt know about charlie before this but he seems like a great guy im prolly gonna start watching his stuff]

There was not that much need for editing for the interview. Nothing went wrong, rather, everything went smoother than Connor expected.

Of course, as a streamer entertainer, it's not unusual for me to be witty and fun in front of a LIVE camera.

"So… Charlie. How about you and I do a mukbang like you did with Felix and Arden?"

"That wouldn't be a bad idea" Connoer and I were currently having dinner; days later he invited me to celebrate the immediate success of the interview.

"Alright, but I'm not too good at eating too many things…"

An idea suddenly popped into my head, "Then… rather than a mukbang… how about we eat spicy wings?"

He seemed extremely pleased by the idea, "Alright, how about a spicy challenge? You might want to prepare your stomach because I'm going to bring in extremely hot spices."

I laughed.

Inside, I was sweating.

Not to be racist, but his Indian nationality said everything.

I'm okay at spicy, but my stomach gets problems too…

Connor laughed extremely loudly and patted my shoulder, he then laughed more when he saw my rapidly whitening face.

…

"Pathetic," Blake muttered.

"Very," Jagger's voice raspily cracked.

Blake wordlessly used his broken technique for the chopsticks to bring a piece of chicken to his mouth.

He grew frustrated when said broken technique also made his chopsticks drop the chicken back into the fast food box.

"You can just use a sp—"

"Hell no I will use these chopsticks and finally learn how to use them."

We were currently with Jagger.

At this point, he still looked emaciated, extremely skinny, and unhealthily pale. This was part of his diet to bring out the notable written characteristics of the character he was acting.

"So… for how long are you going to keep doing this?" I questioned.

"Probably a few weeks right before the end of the movie. I really want to eat Chinese…"

His several months-long starvation had fueled his desire for Chinese food. Jagger then asked, "When are you going to go eat those spicy wings?"

"Ah… Connor said he'd notify me… Apparently, we'll be doing challenges while eating the spicy wings. I don't think it'll be good for my stomach."

Knowing the guy, he'll probably make us do spins and jumping and really wacky things.

He popped out a carton of milk from who knows where and handed it to me.

"You'll survive."

I took the milk carton, but it was empty. I decided not to comment on it.

"Thanks."

He gave me a thumbs-up, "You should come by for our last few shoots. It'll be fun."

I perked up at that. "That would not be such a bad idea. Am I allowed to do that?"

"Of course. You'll also get to understand the industry a little more."

I nodded.

"As long as you don't record anything or give spoilers or any hints to the user that you were there."

"Oh, of course. I won't do anything stupid like that."

From his eating, Blake suddenly joined in on the conversation: "I wouldn't be too keen on that. Charlie can be pretty stupid at times."

"Pretty stupid is your face when I knock you out."

"Ha? This bastard wants to die?"

"...Jagger is this moron always acting like this?"

This was all banter. Blake and I got along really well and I looked up to him like an older brother. He taught me all the things I knew regarding the industry and also has accompanied me to many shoots and events.

"You haven't got the worst of it. Mora can tell you worse experiences."

Blake nodded, "Mora deserves it though."

"What makes me deserve that treatment too?"

"Tall handsome guys need to explode. Seeing as you haven't exploded, I am doing the universe a favor."

"You're a tall handsome guy though?"