frog

                   STUNTSTAR is their ship name so the chapters/parts are namedafter their roles

STAR

Acton Makiney, fresh off of parole, was doing his best not to kill his director. 

They needed a stunt double for the show he starred in. And the director didn’t hire anyone for anything that usually has an understudy or backup actor.

The show was called ‘the date to mackifiler’ or something like that.

All he knew was that he played a way-too-nice character with no backbone or self respect. 

And that he was supposed to be ‘in love with the camera’ or something. 

He didn’t have options. After the court case about his ‘abuse of coworkers’ was released to the public, they basically evaporated into thin air. The only place that would even allow him to audition was some Youtuber’s ‘production’.

He had to find a stunt double himself.

 He supposed that made sense. Considering that the whole team never really spoke to each other. Even with that,however, the ‘interactive movie’ was almost as good looking as Acton.

Which- take it from him- was a very high bar.

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STUNT

Colt sat in the poorly decorated ‘audition room’

Trapped in a folding chair in a little bitty space with fluorescent lights beating down on him like the hot sun in July.

A dying cactus in the corner.

How did he end up here? 

From the best stuntman he’d known. 

A man who hopped from building to building, who rode in cars and flipped them over, who got in dangerous situations on purpose, who pretended to die sometimes just for the bit.

to being the back up stunt guy for some youtuber’s weird video collection.

When he said he’d take a break this was not even close to what he had meant.

But his agent, Gail, told him to ‘at least stay in the industry’ so that’s what Colt Seavers did.

And now he was stuck in a chair. Doing nothing.

He didn't have to sit in nothingness much longer,though. 

Because a dark haired guy in a red robe walked into the room 

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STAR

“Acton, the stunt double is here.”

“You could only find one?”

“No one wants to work with you, Acton. Not even me.”

“Oh boo hoo. Just bring them to me.”

As Acton stepped into the horribly made rehearsal room- he hadn’t had to be in it since he was the only one who had applied for the role. He was handed a file and a picture.

As he graced the building with his full presence, he glanced down to the image.  Some blondeish guy with a nice face shape. Not better than his, but nice.

Then looked to the only chair in the room, and saw a head of dirty golden hair, florida tanned skin, and the most bored eyes he had seen since the divorce.

“He looks nothing like me.” he knew blondie could hear him, he didn’t care. Whatever was before him was outrageous, this man wasn’t nearly as similar to Acton as he would have liked.

“He’s the only applicant.”

“He’s the wrong applicant, you mean.”

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STUNT

When Colt finally met the guy, too clean to be real, Acton was his name apparently. 

He had three things in his mind; man, that cactus had been dead for a while, this guy looked nothing like him, and these stunts were going to be boring.

“Uh-hi, I’m Colt Seavers.-I’m applying for the stunt-double position.”

“Are you willing to dye your hair, mister..seavers?”

“I love my hair- but yes. I’d dye it a darker color if i had to”

“Get L’Oréal Feria 4.15 - iced chocolate brown. Not 4.1, not 4.5. Four-point-one-five. By tomorrow.” Acton ordered it like a Latte.

“Okay-what about 4.14?” Colt asked, he was being serious- surely going off by one number would be okay. It couldn’t be that much different, he thought.

“Absolutely not. If you're going to be my double we will have the exact same. color. There will be no cheap rewrites.”

“alright.”

“That’s all I care about. And the ‘director’ couldn't care less, so you’re hired.”

“Cool.”

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STAR

The Stunt guy, coal or something like that. Was nothing like Acton.

He was too tan. He had too many dimples. He looked too young. 

The biggest problem was his hair. As nice as it looked, it was not the right color. 

Not even close. 

Acton needed to make sure he changed it as soon as possible.

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STUNT

The few days after that interaction went almost completely silent. 

With the two of them only speaking to each other when they absolutely had to, there wasn’t much room for conversation.

But eventually the director came up with a stupid idea and they were forced to go to a gathering, ‘team bonding’ they called it.

Acton preferred the term hell.

The meeting room was a little better than the audition room, not by much though. 

The floor was cleaner, the wall paint was less chipped.

There wasn’t much decor, similar to the audition room. 

“Hey Team, come on in!” a very cheerful, very annoying voice called out.

“You must be the director, it’s nice to meet you face to face-”

“please cease your talking.. You sound like an overexcited child.” he never got the guy he’s doubling’s name, did he?

“Right,sorry.” the director said, he really did sound like a child then.

“Ignore him. Sir, he tends to be an asshole at all times.” a girl with jet black hair said

“Oh, uh-okay” the director mumbled.

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STAR

The ‘party’ was not the kind that Acton used to thrive in.

There was no loud music or fancy alcohol to render him thoughtless, 

no one was even dancing or mingling. Everyone was drinking cheap tequila in silence.

He saw his stunt guy, not nearly a double, in the corner of the room holding whiskey with a purple mini umbrella, he supposed he could speak with him

He waltzed past the partygoers  and made his way to the deep blue folding chair where whatever his name is was sitting.

“Hey, anyone occupying this space?” Acton said, a bit more nervous than he intended.

“I-uh.. no, do you want me to move-”

“No-unless you want to- then yes-I-I mean-”

Talking to people who aren’t rich or famous is always difficult for acton.

“Then I'll stay if that’s alright.”

“That’s fine, I- don’t uh- i don’t care.”

“Okay…”

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STUNT

Why was this so awkward? 

Colt was used to parties where he’d get completely ignored in favor of the person he was doubling. But now he was sitting next to the main character, and he wasn’t boasting about his talents or making fun of Colt’s job. He was just sitting there. Quietly.

“So, how’s the whole..’in love with the camera’ thing going? ”

“It’s-uh-it’s good.. I suppose.”

“That’s Good-...you look good.. ” so he’d compliment his coworker, that was okay, tons of people did that. 

“Thank you..”

“No you look really good- like- if  I took you to a fancy dinner I'd be congratulated.”

he’d had five red solo cups of strong, cheap vodka, wanting to get the party over with faster.

The conversations around them had been beige, all ‘how are the kids, how’s the wife’, things that Colt could not relate to. The kids part because he didn’t want kids.The wife part because he was alone. 

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STAR 

“You look nice too, maybe not as good as me- but nice. the -uh-gray matches your eyes”

It was true, and there was nothing wrong with the truth. Acton thought

“Oh, thanks. It was one of my go-to jackets back when I did another set.”

“Cool..”

It seemed like the planners read about a party once, but they skimmed the part that said  it was supposed to be fun…and have music 

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