Per the recommendation from the Org, filming had been placed on a short hold so the necessary investigations and security planning could take place. Elsie was also confined to her condo as an additional safety precaution, leaving her with some unexpected free time and not many ways to spend it.

She had only one appointment on her schedule, and that was to answer questions for the Org about the latest attack on her life, but there was nothing for her to do once that was done with. Jordan was stressed out trying to prepare for his new album, while Minyoung was busy fielding the media storm that resulted from the attack. Aside from them, all of Elsie's other connections were busy, or they just didn't want to get too close to someone who seemed to be a target of rogue metas.

Then there were the few guardians Elsie knew, but, aside from Camilla, they had all been tasked to follow-up on leads surrounding the second attack. Even Mack had been reassigned from his acting duties temporarily, which meant filming would get even more delayed even if they could start up again.

Basically, Elsie was bored, and she didn't handle being bored all too well.

Luckily, Camilla was still required to be with her at all times. And while it was apparently Org protocol for her to remain outside of Elsie's "personal dwelling," it became a habit of Elsie's to invite Camilla inside first thing in the morning. Or rather, first thing in the afternoon, since Elsie tended to wake up later than what was socially acceptable. Their routine consisted of them making and eating breakfast or lunch together, then moving to the living room for Camilla to practice using her latent powers.

Since their first day of practice, Camilla hadn't been able to do much other than heal a few of her own small cuts, so the practice would usually be more frustrating for her than anything. After about two weeks of this, Camilla had mostly healed anyway, so she canceled her own training in favor of teaching Elsie how to better defend herself, much to Elsie's disappointment.

Elsie knew self-defense was an important life skill and would definitely come in handy for some of her action roles, but that didn't keep her from filing verbal complaints once a minute.

"When can we take a snack break?" Elsie whined from the floor where she had fallen. This was their fifth day of training and she was exhausted. "Or, better yet, a nap break?"

"You woke up about two hours ago," Camilla replied unsympathetically. "And we had lunch an hour ago."

"Yeah, but I'm tired again. Or hungry. I haven't decided."

Camilla rolled her eyes. "You're the one who said you were bored. I'm just offering a helpful solution."

"And this is what you normally do in your free time?" Elsie said in disbelief. When Camilla nodded in reply, Elsie huffed irately. "There must be something else that you like doing."

"I'll tell you if you're able to get out of my hold," Camilla offered. She extended a hand down to Elsie. "You ready?"

She wasn't, but Elsie was curious to find out more about Camilla. So with only a minimal amount of grumbling, Elsie accepted her hand and struggled to her feet.

It took almost another hour, but Elsie was finally able to break out of Camilla's hold on her. She was exhausted, but even as she lay on the floor, her limbs splayed on in all directions, Elsie felt a great sense of accomplishment.

The hold that Camilla taught her to break out of was the same one that Elsie faced a few years ago, high above the streets of downtown LA, with a strong arm wrapped around her neck and a knife poised against her back. While Camilla was nothing like that asshole stalker from then, Elsie still felt like she had finally been able to beat him herself.

Elsie's success was enough to end their training for the day, and they moved to the living room to lounge on the couches with snacks and the TV playing a random movie in the background. True to her word, Camilla revealed that she had other hobbies besides practicing beating people up.

"Photography?" Elsie repeated, then sighed. Did she really get tossed around for an answer she already knew? "I could've guessed that. You're always posting pictures on your profile."

"Yeah, but I'm always in front of the camera for those," Camilla said. "I prefer taking the pictures, not being in them."

"Why can't you do that instead?" Elsie asked before thinking, then came up with the answer on her own. "Because the Org said so?"

It seemed like Elsie's guess was correct, if Camilla's slight frown was any indication. "They like for their more high-profile guardians to have a strong public presence," she explained half-heartedly.

"Well, if it's any consolation, you do a great job at being in front of the cameras," Elsie offered, hoping Camilla wouldn't find her comment to be suggestive.

Camilla didn't blush at the compliment, but it was a near thing. "Thanks," she muttered, before quickly grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl she had in her lap. Before she ate it though, she asked, "What do you like to do anyway?"

Elsie sighed in thought. "Well, acting has been my hobby since I was little; it's why I auditioned for For the People in the first place. So I guess my career is my hobby." Elsie winced a bit at her own words. "But that's kind of a cheesy answer, isn't it?"

"I mean, I wasn't going to say anything..." Camilla said.

"But you were thinking about it." Elsie rolled her eyes. "I admit, some projects are hell to work on, and I definitely regret a few of the roles I've taken, but it can be challenging and satisfying at the same time."

Absentmindedly, Elsie rummaged through the papers on her coffee table and found her script for For the World. The bounded pages looked a little worse for wear, and the dozens of sticky notes that stuck out from the sides were a stark contrast with the elegant golden bookmark that Camilla gave her that was neatly tucked near the middle of the pages.

"Like this movie, for instance," Elsie continued. "The premise sounded overdone and boring at first, but after reading through it, I got all these ideas for how to make my character more intriguing than what's on paper."

Before she could stop herself, Elsie began diving into the finer details of the script and what some of her ideas were for the scenes they hadn't filmed yet. She felt herself rambling, and she felt a little self-conscious about it, especially since she was probably boring Camilla out of her mind. By this point, most people would've probably told her to shut up, that she was talking too much, but Camilla only kept her focus on Elsie, her eyes absorbing every word.

"And this line here," Elsie said, flipping to the page that was bookmarked. "See? 'I couldn't have done this without you.' Complete bullshit, and nothing Sam would say. I've been brainstorming some ideas for an alternative, but I'll probably just ask to improvise when we're actually filming it."

"Do they let you do that often?" Camilla asked, looking genuinely curious. "Improvise?"

Elsie nodded, a little too enthusiastically. "Sometimes. Those are the fun ones. But a lot of directors I've worked with recently are real set on their own 'artistic vision' or whatever. They're not willing to take suggestions from anyone else because they think everyone else is wrong."

"And this director?" Camilla pointed to the script in Elsie's hands with some pieces of popcorn.

"They're pretty open-minded," Elsie said.

She held her hand palm-up next to Camilla's hand. In turn, Camilla obliged and gave her the popcorn.

"Can I see?" Camilla asked, and took the script when Elsie offered it to her.

She spent a few minutes reading through the pages leading up to the line in question, then flipping back further and reading those pages. Her lips moved silently as she muttered something to herself, thought about it, then shook her head a bit before flipping to a new page. After some time, she leaned closer to Elsie with her eyes on the script, and Elsie realized she had been staring.

"How about 'about time you showed up,' or 'took you long enough'?" Camilla suggested. "I mean, I'd prefer what you wrote here, 'I had this taken care of,' but you already crossed it out."

Elsie nodded hurriedly, hoping Camilla hadn't noticed her staring. "I brought it up to the writers before. They said it sounded too independent when they're trying to build a partnership in this movie." She took back the script and scribbled in Camilla's suggestions. "I like your idea though. It implies a desire for a partnership without being too needy about it."

"It looks like you'd rather not have a partnership at all," Camilla commented, eyeing the other notes that Elsie had scratched out in the margins of her script.

"I guess my mind was set on that mentality," Elsie admitted. All of her other ideas had been a little too independent and aggressive for the writers' tastes, and Elsie hadn't been willing to come up with compromises like Camilla had. "It helps to have a fresh set of eyes on it though. Thanks."

They continued looking over Elsie's script together, and Elsie pointed out all of the areas that didn't sit well with her. For a few of them, Camilla offered suggestions for what she thought sounded better, or at least a different way for Elsie to deliver the lines.

Most of the time though, Elsie only needed to bounce ideas off of her before an idea decided to materialize in her mind, and she would spend the next few minutes in silence as she scribbled down her epiphany. Once Elsie was done, she would have Camilla run through the scene with her, and then make more changes as needed.

"That sounded a lot more natural," Camilla agreed when they finished going through one such scene.

"Yeah," was all Elsie could say.

The scene had been a bit on the romantic side, and Elsie, as much of a professional actress as she was, couldn't help the flush that began to warm her cheeks. Fortunately, Camilla seemed completely unphased by the scene and remained oblivious to Elsie's predicament.

"Are those scripts from your other movies?" Camilla asked, pointing at the pile of papers on the shelf under Elsie's coffee table.

Suddenly, Elsie felt embarrassed for a completely different reason.

"No..." Elsie began, not knowing how to explain herself without sounding like a nerd. "I had nothing to do with any of those movies, but... I don't know, they're interesting to read sometimes. When I'm bored."

Camilla, ever so observant, was not fooled.

"There's nothing wrong if you do," she said simply. "Do you try to work with the lines on those too?"

"Yeah..." Elsie said, still a little hesitant. "And... okay, don't make fun of me, but... sometimes, I like to imagine how I would direct certain scenes. Before I watch the actual movie, I have my idea of how it should be, and then I'll see how it compares to the final product. It's... kinda a stupid game I play. Nothing really comes out of it. And I can't do that with the movies I'm in, since that would have me conflict too much with the director, so I use these other scripts."

But Camilla seemed to be genuinely interested.

"That sounds fun, actually," Camilla said. "Did you want to be a director, eventually?"

Elsie felt herself blushing, and she averted her eyes to the pile of scripts under her coffee table. "Maybe. There are a few actors that move to directing, but not many of them are actually good enough to stick with it. I think I would need to work my way up to it first."

"Like by writing the script?" Camilla asked.

That was actually Elsie's exact plan.

"Maybe," she mumbled, trying her hardest to keep her face from getting any warmer.

But if Camilla noticed Elsie's embarrassment, she didn't say so.

"I think you could do it," Camilla said. "The writing part, at least. I mean, I'm not an expert or anything, but you seem to have some pretty good ideas."

"Really?" Elsie asked, sounding a little too desperate for approval.

Thankfully, Camilla didn't point that out and simply nodded, her expression not giving any indication that she was just saying that to make Elsie feel better.

"A lot of the original script sounds... dry and cliche," Camilla explained. "The way you change the lines makes them sound more natural, even if it's just changing a word or two."

"But there's more to writing than just the dialogue," Elsie said, and now she was the one that was sounding like she thought she wasn't good enough. "The overall plot is probably the most important thing. I don't know if I could do that."

Camilla shrugged. "Maybe. But at least, from the notes you've written, you seem to want to do things differently than what's already been done. And that's a pretty good start."

Elsie wasn't entirely convinced by Camilla's words, but the support did help a little.

"I guess I have to start somewhere, right?" Elsie grinned. "Well? Got any ideas for a plot?"

Camilla hummed in thought as her eyes glanced around Elsie's condo. "How about a story of a famous actress who gets so bored under house arrest that she decides to finally clean her condo for the first time in three years?"

Elsie groaned in response. That had to be the hundredth time Camilla told her to clean in the past week. "Only if the opposite role is a guardian that's going to help her."

"That's the best deal I'm going to get, isn't it?" Camilla said grimly.

"What's this?" Elsie replied, feigning shock. "Don't tell me you're giving in already? I thought you were stubborn."

"Even my stubbornness has a limit when personal hygiene is involved." Camilla got to her feet and gave Elsie a stern look. "We're starting in the kitchen. Specifically, your fridge, where it looks like you have a couple dozen science experiments growing in there."

"I thought you're supposed to be protecting me," Elsie whined as she slumped even further into the couch.

Camilla hummed in thought. "You're right. Would you rather practice self-defense again? Maybe we can work on how to flip people over."

Elsie quickly got to her feet and scurried to the kitchen. "I'll get the trash bags," she mumbled halfheartedly.

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