In all the excitement of drawing up Mecha designs the next morning to explain the ideas that they began on at dinner the day before, everyone managed to forget that the event organizers were coming that day to do promotional videos.
"Greetings Director Kim, I will get the Master for you right away." They heard the housekeeper says softly after the doorbell rang.
Both Majors were in tank tops and fatigue pants when the game company director entered, while Uncle Lu was in pajama pants and a lab coat. Sketches and mathematical equations were scrawled on papers scattered all over the room, and the three hastily worked to clean them up before the Video Game company executives were exposed to sensitive military data.
"You forgot we were coming, didn't you? That's fine, we can make this casual." The Director sighed, motioning the cameras forward to the room that was set up to mimic a convention hall.
"I'm afraid that won't do. Now that everyone on the planet knows who we are, every official interview represents the Pilots Corps of the Military, so we will have to be in full uniform if we're not fully casual. Give us five minutes and we will be ready." Max informed him.
An in-home chat was one thing, but they couldn't get away with half a uniform for an official promotion. The options were still casual or full uniform.
Can we get you in the other outfits we have brought as well? We would like to get multiple spots if possible." The clothing and makeup crew asked.
"That's not a problem, just no uniform elements without a full uniform." Max clarified.
"Perfect, we have a holographic backdrop, so we can do multiple scenes in advance and limit the need for repeat ads. Gamers prefer a multi intensive campaign, according to our data."
Max wasn't sure who told them that, but the market saturation technique where the game ads came up constantly at every opportunity, was possibly the most annoying strategy ever in Max's opinion.
He hurried to change into his uniform, meeting Nico in the hall outside the meeting room.
"Let's get this going. I suspect they're going to want as much footage as they can get." She greeted him, carrying a small basket with drinks and snacks.
The basket turned out to be for Uncle Lu, who was overseeing the whole process from a chair off to one side.
"First up we will do the uniformed intro shots."
Show business was no less exhausting than piloting, Max decided after doing the introduction dozens of times, in different poses and scenery. Nico had it even worse, they wanted her to change voice settings multiple times a scene as well as all the different poses.
Then came the same thing with them both together, before it was time for a costume change.
"Most of the will be game footage, but we want four full runs. We're done with the uniforms, then we will do formal since you are both Nobles and high society prefers their own for endorsements.
After that will be a short beach wear shoot in the artificial resort scenery and one more in casual wear." The director decided.
Formal wear went smoothly, and they had brought a matching suit and ballgown for him and Nico. The beach wear scene was where things went all wrong.
The crew had forgotten the outfits and neither of them had anything suitable with them. Max and Nico had planned to get their own, but the propaganda video made them stay in yesterday.
"We will order a selection to be delivered. Do you have casual wear? We brought some, but we didn't know your style." The director explained.
"We have a little, but it might be too casual for an if you know what I mean," Max informed him.
As soon as he said that, the assistants rolled forward a coat rack with a wide variety of clothing on it. There was enough here to do a full fashion show, and the director was worried it wasn't enough for them to find an outfit they liked. He was greatly overestimating how picky Max was about what he wore.
Max was easy to please as far as casual clothing went. Jeans and a Comor Game Development logo t-shirt and he was good to go. Nico was a bit pickier, grabbing items off her rack and then going for his.
They stepped behind the curtains hung in the corner of the room to change, finishing up quickly to get the scene over with. Nico came out and Max couldn't help but wonder what sort of crowd she hung out with before joining the academy. He had met one friend of hers, who was an egotistical slacker, but she never really thought about the past.
She had one of the black men's logo shirts on, tied at the back to show off her figure. It ended most of the way down a gray and white plaid pleated skirt, paired with fishnet stockings and leather boots. She had given herself black lipstick that highlighted how pale she had made her artificial skin and tied her hair back in a ponytail.
She looked over her body over more time, adjusted her bust up one more cup size, and nodded in satisfaction.
The two younger camera operators whistled as she walked out and even the female assistant nodded in appreciation.
"Every big jock needs a small goth girlfriend and this is as close as I could get," Nico informed them happily.
"Alright, let's get to work. We will air this one first, they're perfect together." The director announced, bringing out a new script for them to follow for the casual scenes.
Before they were done with the Casual wear scenes, the beach wear had arrived. A delivery van brought a variety of shorts, polo shirts, and short-sleeved button-down shirts with tropical flower patterns. Nico had swimsuits with various covers waiting for her, and she was done before Max even picked his first outfit.
He had no idea what others wore for a whole day at the beach if it wasn't swimwear, he had been thinking of boots to keep the sand out, but this time it was all sandals and soft shoes.
"Start with this," Nico said, handing him a flowery shirt and knee-length swim shorts with a pair of soft shoes Max didn't recognize.
He changed quickly and came out, but Nico only laughed and then undid all the buttons on his shirt, showing off his torso. She was wearing a red bikini top with a bright-colored wrap skirt and sandals, so she was showing just as much skin, convincing Max that she knew something about beach wear that he didn't. Wouldn't this just lead to sunburn?
"At the beach, you wear just enough to be decent." She informed him.
That made sense, on the station everyone just stayed in swimsuits.
When they finished, the advertising group told them that all the clothes were prepared for them, so they could keep them. They wouldn't fit anyone else quite right, since it was all custom tailored.
That solved their shopping issue, they now had a full wardrobe of civilian clothing for their vacation. The only question was what they were doing to do with all this when it was time to go back on duty. A Major was given plenty of storage allotment, but not this much, and it could be a year or more before they wore most of it again.
Max decided that was a problem for later. For today he was mentally exhausted and just wanted to sink into the couch and wait for food to appear. Unfortunately, it was only the middle of the afternoon. They had made good time on their scenes, not often having to redo them, so dinner would be a while.
