For the sake of the children

[lexcorp-media.livejournal.com]

The cameraman aims at the cheerful blonde reporter, and the red light is on. "Charles," says the reporter on cue, "I'm here at the Moscone Convention Center, once again the site of the annual Tomorrow's Heroes auction. This year the children's charity theme is San Francisco's resident heroes of today, the Titans."

The camera pans around to show the busy arena, crowded with people wandering around several tables piled high with Titans merchandise. "Titans and collectors from the Bay Area have donated items for this year's auction. The proceeds will be benefitting area charities assisting children in need, including this year's victims of Degeneration Y." The camera returns to the blonde reporter, now joined by a balding, gray-haired Hispanic man in a tux. "Here with me now is Rick Cantu, of Bay Area Memorabilia, whose auction house is running this year's charity. Mr. Cantu, what can you tell us about this year's items?"

Mr. Cantu, obviously at ease in front of the camera, smiles. "Cynthia, we have an astonishing array of Titans-related merchandise available. If your viewers are unable to join us at the Moscone Center, they are welcome to visit our website at w-w-w-dot-bayareamemorabilia-dot-com to review tonight's catalog. And of course your station is being kind enough to provide live coverage of the bidding, and we expect many bidders will be calling the 1-800 number on our website." The URL and phone number appear on the screen. "Starfire has generously provided us with autographed copies of her famous bikini poster--originals, I might add, not reprints. Superboy has donated autographed videogames. Naturally we have a number of action figures both in and out of the box, vintage issues of Hero Beat, lunch boxes from just about every team line-up available, and for those of you looking for holiday gifts, we have some rare Christmas ornaments for sale."

"That's amazing, Mr. Cantu. And I understand there's a very special item to be unveiled during the auction?"

"Oh, yes." Mr. Cantu beams with pride. "Very rare, very collectible. We're most fortunate to have such an item donated, and we expect it to bring in a fine price for the charity." He taps the side of his nose, looking rather like a clean-shaven Santa. "But that's a surprise we're saving for the right time." He nods at the stage at the far end of the room. The curtains have been drawn, but they shift and billow every once in a while, hinting at the busy movements of auction staffers making last-minute preparations.

"We'll be here when those curtains go up," Cynthia promises. She turns back to the camera. "Live from the Moscone Convention Center, I'm Cynthia McAllister. Back to you, Charles."

"And ... we're off air." The cameraman lowers his camera, but Cynthia waves at him. "Keep that in place," she says, looking around at the crowd. "I want some Titans footage, when they get here."

Comments

[speedy-mia.livejournal.com]

Speedy walks in just as things start to get rolling with Damage right behind her. She's trying not to look as nervous as she feels but this is her first outing with the Titans doing the other part of their work, the non-fighting kind, her smile is tentative and her shoulders a bit tense.

[damage-granted.livejournal.com]

It took Damage a while to get the hang of the public relations stuff, too, but he got in a lot of practice during his first stint with the team. Since the debacle with the League, the Titans have been engaged in serious image rehabilitation; thus far, their efforts seem to have paid off. If the number of people in attendance today are any indication, they've regained the trust of the good people of San Francisco.

"Don't sweat it, Speedy," Damage says, walking alongside the hooded teen heroine, showing her a smile. The visit to the hospital with Flamebird had gone very well and it had also been a very gratifying experience.

[speedy-mia.livejournal.com]

The edge is taken off of Speedy's smile at Damage's encouragement.

"I'm just not used to dealing with people, like this." She gestures to herself in costume. "With media and stuff. I'm better at teaching kids how to play kickball." Mia at the Star city youth centre can deal with kids easily. Dealing with a sick child in a wheelchair, as she see's Jesse Quick doing, would be much harder.

[damage-granted.livejournal.com]

Damage has never been a glory hound, having done his best over the years to avoid the media. Considering the bad publicity he got after blowing up half of downtown Atlanta, that aversion is probably understandable. Still, it's part of the job, and the auction is for a good cause.

"And I'm better at visiting kids in hospitals," Damage explains, looking around as the two Titans move further into the convention hall. "But how often do you get to find yourself in action figure form?"

[speedy-mia.livejournal.com]

"Hospitals give me the creeps." Speedy avoids them when she can. There are a lot of reasons for that. "And I don't think I have an action figure, but that Wondergirl one over there is cool. Hey one of your's!" She grins as she drags him over to it.

[damage-granted.livejournal.com]

Although they've never bothered Damage, a lot of people have an aversion to hospitals, so Speedy's comment doesn't strike him as particularly odd. He'd been looking over at another table that advertised Hero Beat magazines - most of which were probably re-prints - and Titans trading cards. Then he'd felt Speedy tugging at his arm.

"What now...?" he asks, rather confused as she leads him to the table. "Oh, man...I can't believe my hair actually looked like that. What was I thinking?" Grant inquires of Speedy, grinning over at her. The fact that he has a figure at all comes as something of a shock.

[speedy-mia.livejournal.com]

"It's definately you. I think you should go back to it." This is not said with a straight face. Titans having memorabilia, is still new to Speedy, it's not something she followed as a child. So she assumes that every Titan of the past has an action figure.

[damage-granted.livejournal.com]

"Har har. Nightstar would probably kill me if I went back to that," Grant says, rolling his eyes at her ribbing about his hair. "God, that was such a bad look. Why in the world did I think that looked good?" Damage pauses then, looking over at the grinning archer, frowning a little. "And why didn't anyone tell me different?"

Of course, he certainly isn't the only Titan to suffer from bad hair issues, not by a long shot.

[speedy-mia.livejournal.com]

"I think it was one of those things that made sense at the time. Either that or everyone was just waiting for you to notice how bad it was. But it's all okay now, Nightstar will tell you exactly what she thinks of your grooming choices." Speedy says, smiling brightly, "I'll let you decide if that's a good thing or not."