The Citizen looks at Lol-R oddly, then decideds to ignore him for now. He dutifully types in Hmr and Pbj's names into his PDC and then turns to the other two. "What about you guys?"

As he asks, Hmr-R and Pbj-R's PDC's chime with a new message indicator:

"Tet-R-Nak-3, friend citizen! But please tell us, how did this improbable situation come to pass?"

"I'm not sure." Says the citizen, now identified by his C-Mail messages as Marco-G-BUD, "I was just on my way to work, and it came after me, spewing some nonsense about 'Mr. Bubbles.' If you guys hadn't been here," he says, typing Tet-R's name into his PDC, "I'd have been dead for sure. Sayyy... I don't suppose you want to come with me? We're demoing new products today, and I hear that you troubleshooters just LOVE to test new R&D equipment!"

Hmr-r says, "How could I say no to such an inviting and excellent prospect sir! We will suss out this traitor 'MR-B-BLS' and execute him for this indignity!"

"Indeed," agrees Tet-R, following as he reads the license information.

The team begins to follow along with marco-G, Tet-R reading the credit license agreement. As per usual, it's about 200 pages long, but appears to be the standard license agreement, prohibiting use of the credits to buy products coming from service firms directly in competition with the one Marco-G works for. Tet-r doesn't have time to read it fully before a YELLOW clearance citizen comes up to the group, carrying a clipboard under his arm. "THERE you guys are! I've been looking for you everywhere!" His uniform is HPD&MC and his cap displays the logo of the reality vid series "Shooters."

"Shooters" is the most popular thing on Vid right now, nexty to Teela-O movies. It features real troubleshooters, and follows them on their missions. The last Season of Shooters was awesome, with an ex-intsec agent who struggled with revealing his mutant nature (Eventually registering and becoming a hero of the complex before getting accidentally dissolved in a vat of garbage solvents.) And the CPU clerk who discovered he was actually a cyborg assassin from the future (Who sacrificed himself rather than complete his mission)

"I'm Harry-Y-LGT-3, your casting director. Trouble finding the studio, huh? Don't worry, people get lost all the time... But come on, we don't have long to get you all set up."

Marco-G doesn't seem to be invited to the party and heads off to his job alone.

Hmr-r looks a bit confused, "Us, on the VID?! Like ....like .....Teela-O-Mly?!"

Hmr-r can barely constrain her excitement.

"Yeah, Bay-bee," says Harry-Y, "But not all scripted like her stuff! Crap! Writers imaginations and nothing real! Pah! Who needs writers? We have real Drama right here!" He motions emphatically at Lol-R. "Right here! Real Drama! Real Life! Real Adventure! That's what we want! That's what the people want! That's your Service-Service!"

LOL-R-SKT's ears perk up when his name is mentioned, and he extracts his index finger from his nostril and snaps a quick salute.

"Uh, sounds good! So... what do we do?"

Between the PDC dinging and the star powered possibility of appearing on CNN (The Citizens News network) reality shows... PBJ's head spins briefly...

Finally, a chance to not only be on HoloVid, but a chance to be on Holovid FILMING OTHER THINGS!

Maybe they'll use his multicorder footage for the interview interludes... Oh Joyous day...

PBJ-R-TYM looks around for a camera to stare into while using his own camera.

Harry-Y drags you all to the shooters production offices, where you meet with Trevor-R-HNL-2, cameraman and Brian-R-PFD-5 Special effects technician.

"Excellent," Says Harry-Y, "Excellent, you guys will be perfect. Now you realize that flash and dialogue aren't cutting it these days, our viewers demand personality and moral lessons, so we've prepared Personal Story Augmentation Templates for you. They'll make you more real and vibrant on the holoscreen. They're right... now where did I put them... one moment.

As Harry-Y walks off to find the templates, Trevor -R looks around, then speaks. "Now look, guys. I know that most troubleshooters don't like being filmed on their missions. I just want you to know I'm on your side. You do what you need to do, and I'll make sure it looks good for the audiance. This isn't the official mission record, that's still your recorder's job. I can edit out anything that the public doesn't need to see... of course time on the editing unit can get expensive... I'm sure you understand."

Finally, Harry-Y returns with 7 templates. Each one has an up front credit bonus for taking on the role, and you're told that there will be end-of mission bonuses depending on how well you play them.


While you're reviewing the PSAT's, HMR-R and Tet-R's PDC's ding, indicating new messages.

Hmr-r points carefully and gingerly to Wolveboy and says,"I will try being this one. What is my motivation for the first scene?"

"Excellent, excellent choice!" says Harry-Y, "We've been looking for someone to fit this role forever! All you have to do is sign here." He produces a clipboard full of forms with a little card saying "Wolveboy" stapled to them.

Standing as close to Harry-Y as uncomfortably possible, PBJ-R-TYM-2 rapidly decides that the "JoeF-R-Iday" is a fine role, and is probably a close enough match to his own personality to carry off.

"Say, Harry-Y... Is there any restriction to taking on more than one of these roles? I'm interested in that Joe Friday persona... but I think it'd be interesting to see if someone can pull off Man and Machine at the same time..."

Looking tenatively at the producer, PBJ begins going through his pockets for a pen to sign off with.

"An Intsec cyborg?" Harry-Y scratches his chin. "I love it!"