Shannon tries her hand at cosplaying.

The rest of November passes by without too much of a hitch. You went through the photos you've taken over the last few weeks, going through the last editing, retouching, & enhancements, before publishing them to the company pages, or to end to magazine publishers for review. Along the way, you've seen Shannon undertake a diet & fitness program, after consulting with her doctor. However, with all of the workload with photo shooting & editing you've been doing, you soon realized that if you want to grow the business further, the time was now to hire a crew of photographers, as well as an additional secretary to support or fill in for Shannon. So with your family's help, you brought in a few extra hands--three new professional photographers, who can handle other types of photography, or be your wingman. An additional secretary was also brought in, providing much needed relief for Shannon. Furthermore, the reception area was spruced up a bit, as you put up large printouts of the various cosplayers & other models you've taken photo of, as well as family portraits, & school photos.

The new crew:

• Gerry: A 5'11" Caucasian, specializing in portraits, and action photos, with an emphasis in combat sports.

• Armando (or Mondo, for short): A 5'8" Latino, specializing in photography of models & automobiles.

• Jimmy: A 5'8" Korean, specializing in cosplay & automobile photography.

• Edgar: A 5'9" African-American, specializing in portraits, & panoramic landscape photos.

• Elizabeth (or Eliza, for short): A 5'6" secretary. She's a more petite woman compared to Shannon, and speaks fluent Spanish.

So now it's Early December, and you've helped the new crew settle in, letting them know of all the details about what Lionheart Images do, and established a reasonable base salary for them, to go with any commission they receive from clients. The presence of Eliza has seemingly taken a big weight off of Shannon's shoulders at the front desk, and it seems to show in the increased energy she has, especially at day's end. But it isn't just the workload relief that has brought positive change to Shannon, but also her diet & exercise routine, that she's been able to incorporate into her daily schedule. That leads to one fine Saturday morning, where you make sure everything is in order for the following week, and check on Gerry, as he got his photography gear ready to do some ringside photography work at a local, independent pro wrestling event.

"Hey, Alex?" You hear Jimmy call out to you.

"Yes, Jimmy?" You turn to face him.

"I just finished doing the holiday photos with Mia," Jimmy tells you, "but now it seems that Shannon is doing something with Mia."

"What is she doing?" You ask him.

"She's trying to cosplay." Jimmy tells you.

You walk with Jimmy to the studio area, looking at the holiday photos of Mia doing a "Holiday Harley Quinn" cosplay. When you look inside, you see that while Mia has washed off her "Harley Quinn" facepaint, and was now her normal self again, Shannon wasn't in her normal clothes. In fact, you see that she's putting on a standard Black Widow costume. From the way the costume hugs her body, you can see that her diet & fitness program was starting to pay some small dividends at this point in time. She's shed some weight, looking a bit leaner, but still keeping that curvy frame she has. Her legs look a bit more shapely, even if one cannot see it at a distance. The table that Jimmy used as a prop for the photo session with Mia, now has a mannequin head, with a red wig on it. Next to it, is the same pair of airsoft pistol props that Mia used earlier.

"Hello, Alex." Shannon tells you. "Do you remember what I said, about doing something after Mia did her photo shoot earlier this morning?"

"Yes, I remember that." You tell her.

"This is what I was talking about." Shannon tells you, as she puts on a pair of knee-high boots, then the customary Black Widow bracelets.

"I didn't expect you to be getting some help from Mia." You tell Shannon. "What about the items on the table?"

"The wig I bought myself." Shannon tells you. "As for the toy pistols, I'm borrowing Mia's, for now."

"I did use them as part of my Harley shoot." Mia tells you. "So I'm giving Shannon a chance to try them out."

"Well, it looks like you're going to get a crash course in modeling, and doing cosplay for the cameras, Shannon." You tell Shannon. "I hope you're ready for your first....trial run."

"Definitely, Alex." Shannon tells, you as she puts on the wig. "Every thing starts with one step, right?"

With your help, and Mia's help, Shannon does some basic cosplay poses, before you & Jimmy take a few photos. As Shannon does her best to get the poses down correctly, Mia moves out of the camera POV, and grabs her smartphone, doing something. Given her lack of training in self-defense, Shannon reasonably struggles with hand-to-hand fight poses, in which Mia helps her correct.. After that, Shannon takes the toy pistols that she borrowed from Mia, and you guide her to a handful of poses. Mia watches you & Jimmy help Shannon out, all the while sketching something on a smartphone app. When it is all said and done, Shannon breathes a sigh of relief, then gives Mia her airsoft pistols, then takes off the red wig.

"Not bad for your first run, Shannon." You tell her. "There were a few moments where you did struggle to hold the poses. Other than that, you did a good job."

"I did?" Shannon asks you, looking at the photos & the ones that Jimmy took.

"It looked like you had some trouble holding that side pose," you tell her, "so there's room for improvement on the poses."

"For a debutante in cosplay, Alex," Mia tells you, "she did a great job in my books. I've been trying to come up with a cosplay name for her."

"A cosplay name?" Shannon asks Mia.

"Most cosplayers use cosplay names, to make it more catchy for cosplay fans, and to help mask her real identity for security purposes." Mia tells her. "You real name looks fine, but your real surname may seem difficult for people to properly pronounce. I've thought of cosplay names like...'Shannon LeBelle', or 'Shannon LaMorte', or 'Shannon LaVeaux'."

"Hey," Shannon tells Mia, "Bellamorte isn't that hard of a surname to pronounce."

"I have a real name, that even my closest friend, Eric, doesn't know...yet." Mia tells Shannon. "The 'Rocha' surname I use, is easier for people to pronounce."

"If you ask me," you tell the ladies, "I think 'Shannon LaVeaux' sounds the most catchy for a cosplayer, at least to me."

"I agree with Alex." Jimmy adds in.