Under an Amorous Spotlight

attention_whoreoine: love this! hope you make more of Spotlight! It's so good :) awesome poses and facial expressions

 

It was probably the most sane, encouraging comment left on a porn site dedicated to lewding supers, and Ava wasn't sure why she left it. But seeing how she only had three results on the site, and the artist was the same for all of them, she had figured some words of praise might motivate them into making more pieces of her. Preferably in highly compromising situations. ‘Feather_HZen' had done her an enormous favor in providing one of the most mind-blowing orgasms she'd had this year, so the least Ava could do was sign up for an account and say her thanks. And she meant every word—the art was seriously impressive for its quality. She’d love to be featured in more.

She didn't know what had gotten into her. Maybe it was all the talk of sex yesterday that had gotten her worked up. To say that making a profile on a porn site and leaving comments was uncharacteristic of her didn't do the claim justice. But even after scratching that itch, the thought of people using her as an object of their fantasies had her heart rate picking up. And the knowledge there was an artist out there who thought her attractive enough to spend who knew how many hours carefully creating artwork of her … she was flattered. And grateful, oddly

And aroused.

And, yeah, recognizing of her narcissism, okay? Her username had been a self-flagellating acknowledgement of that—'attention_whoreoine'. A play on words that only half worked, but hey, she’d thought it funny when she’d made it. Might as well call herself what she was. Attention whore. That much she couldn’t argue, based on her actions of last night. But after toiling in obscurity for three months, maybe the idea of a little recognition made her feel warm and fuzzy inside, and she didn’t care if she admitted that. 

Even if that ‘recognition’ was just Ava being fucked and filled in various positions.

Beggars and choosers, right?

---

“In here,” Brooke called. 

Ava peeked her head into Brooke’s room, then paused at all the equipment scattered about. Boxes, packing paper, instruction manuals, cameras and related equipment, and a bunch of other stuff—a whirlwind of technology had hit Brooke’s room, and Brooke sat at the edge of it, fiddling with a camera on her bed.

“What’s this?”

“Preliminary equipment,” Brooke said, attention focused on the camera in her hands.

“Preliminary equipment for … ?”

“Putting Spotlight into the spotlight.”

Ava paused. “But I haven’t said yes to that plan, yet.”

Brooke glanced up, wearing a vaguely amused expression. “Yesterday, you told me, ‘Brooke, I’ve known you ten years. Please.’. Can I return the sentiment, now?”

Ava hovered at the doorway, then huffed and walked over to sit on the bed next to her. “You could at least pretend I’m not easy to read.”

“Not in general. But to me? I knew you’d go for it before you even left my room.” Brooke bumped shoulders with her. “Familiarity works both ways, Aves.”

Another huff, but Ava couldn’t actually be mad at her best friend knowing her so well. “At least you got a head start. But how’d you afford it all? And get it so quickly? Looks expensive.”

“Few trips around town, and maxed out both my credit cards,” Brooke said breezily. “Let’s skip the part where we fight over it.”

Ava’s stomach sank to the floor. “Wait, what? You can’t be serious, Brooke. We have—we have a fund for Spotlight stuff, you know that.”

“Wasn’t remotely enough,” Brooke said. “You’re broke as hell, Ava, and so am I. Fortunately, we can thank modern society for the ability to go into crippling debt. Solved that problem for us.”

“Brooke!”

“Seriously, it’s fine. We’ll make it all back. This is your track to the big leagues.”

“And what about you?”

“I get to be best friends with the new world-famous Spotlight.”

“Stop joking around! This is serious. You’re in debt, now?”

Brooke sighed, then placed the camera to the side. She grabbed Ava by both her shoulders and met her eyes with a serious expression. With how reserved Brooke usually was, the action had twice the impact—Ava went silent, ensnared by deep green irises.

“Ava. I wanted to do it, and I have absolute faith the investment will return dividends. We could keep arguing, and you can get mad at me for refusing to return it, or we can move straight to business planning. Can it please be the second?”

Ava’s face crumpled, which Brooke probably hadn’t expected. She buried her face into Brooke’s shoulder and hugged her. “Why are you so nice to me?” Ava’s voice was shaky. Brooke’s gesture—the implicit, absolute confidence—had hit her in the gut. 

Brooke patted Ava on the back, awkward in that adorably characteristic way. “You’d do the same for me. And you deserve it.”

Some warm feeling swelled in her chest, and Ava pulled back to search Brooke’s face. “It means the world to me,” she said seriously, needing Brooke to know she meant it. “You’re the most important person in my life. You know that, right?”

Brooke’s cheeks dusted pink, and she looked away. “Yeah, yeah. Love you too, Aves.”

Spurred on by a feeling hard to pin down, Ava pressed her lips into Brooke’s cheek. Brooke pulled back and blinked at her.

“I mean it, Brooke. Thank you. I’ll try to put it to good use.”

Brooke fumbled for words—the kiss had caught her off guard. It’d caught Ava off guard, too. “Well. Let’s go over what ‘it’ is, then, yeah?”

“Right. Business.”

They stared at each other for a moment longer, faces burning, before clearing their throats and focusing back on the matter at hand.

“So,” Brooke said. “Let’s start with big picture first.”

“Sure.”

“There’s three things we should focus on early, and each of them have their own problems. Let’s start with the easiest. Costume upgrade and persona.”

“Right. I have a few ideas on that, actually. Last night, I—” she stumbled over her words. I fucked myself silly to erotic art of Spotlight. You know, me. “I, uh, spent some time looking for inspiration. Sketched up a few things.”

“I figured you would. Can I see them?”

Ava nodded. She jogged to her bedroom and grabbed her sketchbook and brought it back to Brooke. When she sat down, she made sure to press close, so their bodies were touching. Brooke’s warmth pressing into her side felt even better than it usually did—Ava was still emotionally vulnerable from Brooke’s big gesture.

She set the sketchbook on each of their legs, then flipped to where she’d drawn some prototypes. “They’re pretty rough, but they get the point across.” Ava’d been drawing since she was a kid, and she was okay at it, but she wasn’t knocking anybody’s socks off. 

Brooke studied the drawings, face impassive. Most people she showed her art to, they immediately started gushing—which almost always felt fake. Brooke was slow and thoughtful in almost everything she did, and while she certainly was never rude, she always gave her honest appraisal. 

She flipped between a few pages, considering them quietly.

“They’re gorgeous,” she said finally, “but you’re still playing it too safe.”

“Safe? There’s a boob window! And look how much stomach is showing. How is that safe?”

“That’s about normal for heroines capitalizing on sex appeal,” Brooke said. “Honestly, less revealing than average. Only marginally more evocative than the typical super, even.” Brooke patted her on the back. “The goal’s to turn you into a sex icon. To have the world salivating over you. Which these would do, sure, since you’re you, but we’re looking for … more.”

'Because you're you'. Ava tried not to focus on how easily Brooke had said that. Was that how her best friend viewed her? Someone who fit right into the role, ‘sex icon’?

"More how?" Ava asked hesitantly.

Brooke bit her lip. “But maybe not all at once. Normal revealing might be fine for now. Too much all at once might actually make things less impactful. Tasteful. We should be tasteful about it. Build up, while the audience grows.” Brooke paused, then started nodding. “Actually, definitely that. Watching you descend further and further into degeneracy will make headlines—and earn you a rabid fanbase, cheering you on. It’s genius.”

She swallowed. “Degeneracy?”

Brooke glanced her way, concern furrowing her brow, so Ava shook her head.

“Right. Degeneracy. That’s fine.” Ava didn’t want Brooke starting to think she wasn’t ready for this. Especially after the … investment … she’d put in. “Just takes some getting used to.”

“Which is why easing-in is probably best,” she said carefully, still concerned. “Your comfort matters most, like I said.”

Making sure Brooke’s efforts didn’t go to waste was what mattered most, but Ava didn’t think Brooke would be pleased if she expressed that sentiment. “Bit by bit. A house is built a brick at a time.”

Brooke’s lips curled in amusement. “That it is.” She looked back down to the notebook. “I like these two most,” she said, pointing. “This one has more ‘wow’ factor. You still care about that, I’m assuming. Even if you’re going for sex appeal, you can still inspire fear and awe.”

“Scaroused,” Ava said.

Brooke looked at her, and Ava blushed. 

“It’s, uh, a phrase Jacky likes to use. Scared and aroused at the same time.”

“I put that together,” Brooke said amusedly. “That’s what you’re going for?”

“Maybe aweroused?”

“Then this one,” Brooke said with a roll of her eyes. “They’ll definitely be aweroused.”

“Perfect.” Her cheeks were a bit pink, but if there was anyone Ava could be silly around, Brooke was who. “And, uh, persona, you said is next.”

Brooke nodded. “I’m not exactly a PR person, but I doubt most supers are acting themselves when they’re on screen. You’ll need to play up some kind of character. There’s a few choices. Wide-eyed doe, confident dominatrix, girl next door, so on and so on. Plenty of things get people going. But you should pick one, settle into it. Get comfortable playing a role for the media. And your stream.”

“Stream?”

“We’ll get to that in a bit. Lots to go over. Do you have a preference?”

“Um. Wide-eyed doe might be easiest, but that’s not who I want to come off as.”

“I figured as much.”

“Confident dominatrix is, uh,” some interesting phrasing, “a bit strong, but in my head, Spotlight is assured, decisive, you know—bigger than life?” She hoped she wasn’t coming off as having a ginormous ego. "Honestly, can't I be myself? As in, the Spotlight I already play? I'm not sure I'll be able to get rid of the blushing entirely, so a kind of … stumbling confidence?" That summed up Spotlight's persona as it stood right now. She wouldn’t have to change much. Just add some sexual spice to it.

Brooke considered her. "I don't see why that wouldn't work. The awkwardness might honestly be a plus. It'd be relatable. Early on, at least, when you're growing into it. At some point, you'll have to stop blushing at everything. Eventually, a civilian dog-whistles you, you don’t turn red—you wink at him.”

“R-Right.”

“And no stuttering.”

“Right,” she said more confidently.

“Good. And obviously, work on your flirting.”

“What??”

Brooke shrugged. “I’d offer to practice with me, but obviously I don’t know how. You’re clever, though. Witty. That’s eight-tenths of the requirement. Figure it out—practice.”

“Okay. I’ll—” she almost said ‘try’, but corrected herself. “I will.” Easier said than done, but she’d known this pivot in her superhero career would take some adjustments, and she needed to show initiative. She would make this work. For Brooke’s sake as much as hers.

“That’s the costume and persona portion, then,” Brooke said. “Overview of them, at least. Setting aside the nitty gritty for later. Now, the stuff that’ll set you apart.”

“The whole, porn company’s mascot?” Ava asked sarcastically. That idea had been hilarious as it was mortifying.

“That’d be too much, too fast,” Brooke said. “Still think it’s a good idea for down the line, though. You telling me that wouldn’t make headlines?”

Oh, it would. And that was the point. Ava needed to stop being so hesitant about things. “Down the line,” she chose—not quite able to outright commit to such an embarrassing idea.

“Down the line. For now, picking up a following. The obvious, first. Social media. You have Twitter and Instagram pages, right?”

Ava nodded.

“But they’re not doing so well. You don’t use them.”

“Not really,” Ava admitted. Like she’d said, her plans for fame up until this point had been on the coattails of merit—from saving the day. She didn’t bother with social media. She was already outrageously swamped with full-time work and patrols as it was. No time to be making cute, quirky posts.

“Well, that needs to change. Those pages are getting revamped, and you’ll start using them. Daily.”

“How? It’s not like I have anything to post about.”

“Sure you do. Plenty, in the upcoming days—we’re going to be busy, remember? Change is on the way, which makes easy content. And that’s not mentioning stream snippets, which you should have plenty of. Worst case scenario, post a few of those each day.”

“Stream. You keep saying that.”

“It’s a growing industry,” Brooke said. “Surprised it hasn’t caught on more with supers, honestly. It’s like—live content. You’ll carry around this,” Brooke lifted up the camera she’d set aside, “with one of your constructs, keeping yourself in frame while you go about patrols. And especially in fights, taking criminals in. There’s a problem, though.”

Ava could come up with a hundred. “Which is?”

“Violence. Super fights aren’t always clean things, which breaks content policies of all the popular streaming sites. So you’ll need to take your business to an … adult site. With less rules.”

Ava paused. “Adult meaning?”

“Technically, it’s just the most popular service with little moderation. Functionally, that means—”

“Porn.”

“Is a sizeable chunk of the content, yes,” Brooke said shamelessly. “It’s popular with camgirls. But it’s categorized. You’ll be streaming in the ‘out in public’ category, which isn’t pornographic.” A pause. “Mostly. It’s typically hot girls going out to clubs, bars, coffee shops, and vlogging to a lonely male audience, with some spice thrown in.” She shrugged. “Which is a demographic you want to target.”

For having stated several times Brooke wasn’t good with marketing, she was stringing these arguments together with surprising speed—and what appeared to Ava as having significant know-how. But that was Brooke for you: a genius at anything she did.

“Is that smart? Won’t it be bad for my image?”

Brooke quirked an eyebrow. “You’re looking for controversy, and sex appeal. It’s more of a benefit than a detriment to be surrounded by such … esteemed company. You even get to hide behind, ‘oh, I had to do it, because violence policies’.”

Brooke had a point. “Okay. Streaming to a porn site.”

“It’s not a porn site. Unmoderated spaces just tend to gravitate there. Wanna guess why?”

“Sex sells, yeah, yeah.” She’d be hearing that a lot from Brooke, she suspected. It was the crux of the whole mission. “But, ‘vlogging’, you said? I’m not sure I know how to do that.”

“It’ll be a challenge, I’m sure. But not too much—you’re hardly awkward. Start practicing filling the air. It doesn’t need to be stand-up level content. Just chat away, talking about things that are happening. As a super on patrol, I doubt there’ll be a dearth of material.”

“I guess.”

“It comes with practice. Or, you know, so I’ve read. I believe in you.” The confidence in the words did a surprising amount to assure her. “Finally, your fan site.”

That, at least, she had an inkling of. Plenty of supers had them. “Okay. Anything that sets it apart?”

“Not early on. For now, you just want to make it popular. Shill it everywhere. On stream, on Instagram, Twitter, even interviews, if you get the chance. Dedicated fans are what we’re after, because they’re like viruses—they infect other spaces and spread the gospel. We want them centralized, building a unique community.”

Ava’s lips quirked. ‘Virus’. Funny way to put it. “And long term plans? You said ‘not yet’ to the unique thing … so something eventually?”

“Well,” Brooke said. “Those are still percolating. I’ll let you know when I’m more confident.”

“Okay. Sure.” Ava had enough shoved on her plate as was. She’d let her curiosity go unsated. “What’s our timeline?”

“Costume first, because that takes time, even on rush orders. We’ll go get your measurements at this place I scouted out tomorrow. Next up, a photoshoot. You need spicy images to start trickling out for your social media, start … titillating your fanbase’s senses. Until then, post costume updates—those sketches are good candidates. Or even your thoughts. Being active is as important as having good content. Be present—available. Respond to people.” 

Ava wrinkled her nose. “Fun.” Interacting with internet strangers … everyone knew how that could be a minefield.

“It’s more necessary early on,” Brooke said. “Getting a foothold is hardest, but it’s not something you’ll need to do forever. Should be like a snowball going downhill, just have to get it rolling. Which is why once your uniform is ready, and you've gained a tiny bit of an audience, we need something to set it spinning. The ignition before the bang.”

“Sounds like you have an idea.”

“I might,” Brooke said, lips twisting up. “I don’t think you’ll like it.”