This Old House: Felicia & Alani
Apr. 26th, 2020 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsFelicia and Alani team up to take down the most dangerous enemy yet, a locked door.
A locked closet should have been an easy thing to fix, so of course Alani had been happy to accept the work. It should have been simple enough that she could open it, give it a quick clean and make sure nothing was rotting inside, then get back in time to wrap up her first draft of her final paper. This locked door, however, was apparently put on earth to be the bane of her existence. She'd decided to go in search of a flat-head screwdriver and hammer to just try and pop the bolt.
Walking past an open sunlit room, she stopped to take in the setup and the gorgeous woman posing within. "Oh, wow. Fuck, sorry, just, uh, just passing by. Didn't mean to disturb." She tried to laugh off the embarrassment.
Felicia's head snapped up from her well practiced pose of flawless spontaneity. "Oh my god, thank fuck, come here? My remote battery just died," she said, leaning back into the foliage of the house plants she'd collected and staged to catch a slightly better beam of fractured light against her cheekbone. There was a predator focus as she tracked Alani coming into the room, but Felicia gestured, indifferent, to the tri-pod with her camera. "I usually have the lighting rig so it wouldn't be an issue to get new batteries, but sun movement, you know. It's all set up, just hit the shutter a couple times. Unless you want to give angle direction?"
Alani nodded and hummed an affirmation before glancing through the viewfinder. “Composition’s great, honestly, though I’m sure you’re aware of that with how serious your equipment is." She looks between the image through the camera and the woman a few times, finally clicking the shutter as instructed. "What'd you think if I brought the camera a little lower, pointing upwards? The plants are a great thing, and I think if I Slav squat right I can get a good glow while angled up at you. Thoughts?" It had been a long time since she stood for pictures herself, to be fair, but one never forgets the quick tricks.
If it’d been possible, an entire chorus of angels would have appeared over the two of them, cued by Felicia's delighted expression. “Normally I’d be a no on shot from bellow when I ate pizza for dinner last night but everything coming out of your mouth is pretty much magic,” she said, making a sparkling gesture for effect. “Go forth, create.”
At the motion, a grin tugged at Alani's face. It was such a strange thing to feel proud of, but the normality of it was a breath of fresh air. "To be completely honest, I wouldn't have been able to guess that." She snagged a few more shots from the new angle. "I think it's quite nice with all the work you've already done, but I won't be hurt if you hate them. Do you often use this room or it's just right to get this light?"
"Insider knowledge, spinach and pineapple protein smoothies for wine for dessert three days in a row because you're lazy? You will get caught and there will be carbs put in front of you that a scary person watches you eat caring absolute zero that it's super weird. This whole house is bizarre. Also your poop will be super green," Felicia said, looking down just past Alani, the corner of her mouth betraying a small twitch. "Anyway, I'm sure they'll be glorious. I shoot in here every spring, after the winter everyone wants some green. I could. Text you? The next time I do a full set up, we could get some shots for your profiles."
Talk about blast from the past. Alani couldn't help the round of giggling at the reminder of a life made up of a mainly liquid diet. "God, I do not miss those days. Protein smoothies and green shakes were my tween to early teens fuel. Though, as of yet no one's watched me eat an entire pizza... that I know of. Definitely would be a bit scary, if it's happened. Oh, hold that, that is perfect. " A few more clicks, before she eagerly looked up again around the camera. "That'd be really nice. I don't know when the last time I even took a picture of myself or had one taken that wasn't just a quick group shot." Oh god, she'd been looking for tools. Whoops.
"People like to see your face," Felicia said, falling out of her pose as the last of shutter clicks came to a stop, relaxing into a rolling out the base of her skull with some vaguely worrying bone clicks. "You've been right in your brand, that social activism is not about posing by Wholefoods or the pool on your yacht, but at the same time people need something to connect with, and your humanity has always been a strong tool."
She listened to the silent beat, interrupted, "Shit, sorry, that was fucking weird. Open offer still open but with the vaguely human query of uh, so what did I pull you away from?"
Alani's face flushed at the comment and it took every fiber in her being to not let out choked laugh. "Just between you and I, I don't even have a yacht to take pictures with. Sadly it was just never in the budget." Pausing to rub at her cheeks with both hands, she flashed a quick smile. "I would appreciate your help with getting a decent picture, for the future. Sunglasses and trucker hat do not a proper image make."
Standing up to stretch, she gave a sheepish look. "I was supposed to open a closet, as funny as that may sound. But no amount of home remedies opened it, so next order of business was to hit it with a screwdriver and a hammer."
Felicia gave Alani a wink and finger gun, too punchy to be really sure if she was being ironic or not. “I got you, girl,” she said. “Probably not on the door, though. Unless you want a lucky boost to most likely not hitting yourself when wielding the hammer, with a small chance that you end up just breaking the entire door.”
Confusion flashed across Alani's face before her eyes lit up mischievously. "Well, on the off side that I do break the entire door the pro would be that the lock would never get jammed again. So, really a win-win. If you would be able to lend me a hand on this front too, I'd greatly appreciate it." A pause, before she raised a hand as if to offer her something. "And I'd owe you."
"Oh, you say the cleverest things," Felicia replied with a cat canary smile as she got to her feet. A quick flip through her phone showed the images on her camera had been already transferred to her cloud database, which she held up for show. "In case one of the hormone monsters thinks they're funny. Lead the way," she further explained, leaving her gear behind.
"I do try, when it matters. And I need to practice, just in case." Alani snickered, casting a quick curious glance towards the equipment before escorting Felicia to the closet in question, making only the briefest of detours to make sure she had the right flat-head for the job. "So, plan, stick the screwdriver against the bolt as much as I can then whack it with this hammer. And if that, with a little luck, doesn't work we just brick up the door. Thoughts?"
Felicia nodded. "Seems reasonable to me."
A locked closet should have been an easy thing to fix, so of course Alani had been happy to accept the work. It should have been simple enough that she could open it, give it a quick clean and make sure nothing was rotting inside, then get back in time to wrap up her first draft of her final paper. This locked door, however, was apparently put on earth to be the bane of her existence. She'd decided to go in search of a flat-head screwdriver and hammer to just try and pop the bolt.
Walking past an open sunlit room, she stopped to take in the setup and the gorgeous woman posing within. "Oh, wow. Fuck, sorry, just, uh, just passing by. Didn't mean to disturb." She tried to laugh off the embarrassment.
Felicia's head snapped up from her well practiced pose of flawless spontaneity. "Oh my god, thank fuck, come here? My remote battery just died," she said, leaning back into the foliage of the house plants she'd collected and staged to catch a slightly better beam of fractured light against her cheekbone. There was a predator focus as she tracked Alani coming into the room, but Felicia gestured, indifferent, to the tri-pod with her camera. "I usually have the lighting rig so it wouldn't be an issue to get new batteries, but sun movement, you know. It's all set up, just hit the shutter a couple times. Unless you want to give angle direction?"
Alani nodded and hummed an affirmation before glancing through the viewfinder. “Composition’s great, honestly, though I’m sure you’re aware of that with how serious your equipment is." She looks between the image through the camera and the woman a few times, finally clicking the shutter as instructed. "What'd you think if I brought the camera a little lower, pointing upwards? The plants are a great thing, and I think if I Slav squat right I can get a good glow while angled up at you. Thoughts?" It had been a long time since she stood for pictures herself, to be fair, but one never forgets the quick tricks.
If it’d been possible, an entire chorus of angels would have appeared over the two of them, cued by Felicia's delighted expression. “Normally I’d be a no on shot from bellow when I ate pizza for dinner last night but everything coming out of your mouth is pretty much magic,” she said, making a sparkling gesture for effect. “Go forth, create.”
At the motion, a grin tugged at Alani's face. It was such a strange thing to feel proud of, but the normality of it was a breath of fresh air. "To be completely honest, I wouldn't have been able to guess that." She snagged a few more shots from the new angle. "I think it's quite nice with all the work you've already done, but I won't be hurt if you hate them. Do you often use this room or it's just right to get this light?"
"Insider knowledge, spinach and pineapple protein smoothies for wine for dessert three days in a row because you're lazy? You will get caught and there will be carbs put in front of you that a scary person watches you eat caring absolute zero that it's super weird. This whole house is bizarre. Also your poop will be super green," Felicia said, looking down just past Alani, the corner of her mouth betraying a small twitch. "Anyway, I'm sure they'll be glorious. I shoot in here every spring, after the winter everyone wants some green. I could. Text you? The next time I do a full set up, we could get some shots for your profiles."
Talk about blast from the past. Alani couldn't help the round of giggling at the reminder of a life made up of a mainly liquid diet. "God, I do not miss those days. Protein smoothies and green shakes were my tween to early teens fuel. Though, as of yet no one's watched me eat an entire pizza... that I know of. Definitely would be a bit scary, if it's happened. Oh, hold that, that is perfect. " A few more clicks, before she eagerly looked up again around the camera. "That'd be really nice. I don't know when the last time I even took a picture of myself or had one taken that wasn't just a quick group shot." Oh god, she'd been looking for tools. Whoops.
"People like to see your face," Felicia said, falling out of her pose as the last of shutter clicks came to a stop, relaxing into a rolling out the base of her skull with some vaguely worrying bone clicks. "You've been right in your brand, that social activism is not about posing by Wholefoods or the pool on your yacht, but at the same time people need something to connect with, and your humanity has always been a strong tool."
She listened to the silent beat, interrupted, "Shit, sorry, that was fucking weird. Open offer still open but with the vaguely human query of uh, so what did I pull you away from?"
Alani's face flushed at the comment and it took every fiber in her being to not let out choked laugh. "Just between you and I, I don't even have a yacht to take pictures with. Sadly it was just never in the budget." Pausing to rub at her cheeks with both hands, she flashed a quick smile. "I would appreciate your help with getting a decent picture, for the future. Sunglasses and trucker hat do not a proper image make."
Standing up to stretch, she gave a sheepish look. "I was supposed to open a closet, as funny as that may sound. But no amount of home remedies opened it, so next order of business was to hit it with a screwdriver and a hammer."
Felicia gave Alani a wink and finger gun, too punchy to be really sure if she was being ironic or not. “I got you, girl,” she said. “Probably not on the door, though. Unless you want a lucky boost to most likely not hitting yourself when wielding the hammer, with a small chance that you end up just breaking the entire door.”
Confusion flashed across Alani's face before her eyes lit up mischievously. "Well, on the off side that I do break the entire door the pro would be that the lock would never get jammed again. So, really a win-win. If you would be able to lend me a hand on this front too, I'd greatly appreciate it." A pause, before she raised a hand as if to offer her something. "And I'd owe you."
"Oh, you say the cleverest things," Felicia replied with a cat canary smile as she got to her feet. A quick flip through her phone showed the images on her camera had been already transferred to her cloud database, which she held up for show. "In case one of the hormone monsters thinks they're funny. Lead the way," she further explained, leaving her gear behind.
"I do try, when it matters. And I need to practice, just in case." Alani snickered, casting a quick curious glance towards the equipment before escorting Felicia to the closet in question, making only the briefest of detours to make sure she had the right flat-head for the job. "So, plan, stick the screwdriver against the bolt as much as I can then whack it with this hammer. And if that, with a little luck, doesn't work we just brick up the door. Thoughts?"
Felicia nodded. "Seems reasonable to me."
