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 Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:43 pm
There was still some time before Lumiere had to reach the shoot's location. Possibly longer since she just got the message that the second model that had been paired up for this small shoot had gotten injured on her way here. It had been a messy incident with another model right before this session, her manager had informed her.
Now, they would be scrambling around for a last-minute replacement since their reservation of the gardens would only last until the end of the day. It was a beautiful olden style with a fountain and a balcony. She looked up towards the balcony in the distance where a few shots would be taken.
If they could find a back-up. Her hands cupped a bottle of cold teal, the refreshing peach-flavored beverage suddenly knocked over by some rowdy youths skateboarding by. Along with her bag, her cellphone, makeup and various other items littered the ground suddenly. One of the youths spared a glance over his shoulder, briefly expressing sympathy but he ran forward to catch up with his friends.
This left an extremely vexed Lumiere to pick up her scattered items.. less vexed from their actions and moreso from her own careless ones to allow such an incident.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:21 am
Kaia was walking aimlessly down the street, staring at buildings she didn't know and signs that were unfamiliar. It was a little disheartening to realize she'd spent her whole life here but now didn't feel any more at home in the city than she did back at the negaverse HQ. It was a good thing she had a new past that would explain her unfamiliarity.
She was letting her feet take her to one of the few places she did know. A refreshing drink after a day of aimless sight-seeing was exactly what she needed. Only, as she got close enough to see the little place she saw the accident unfold at the storefront. She stopped walking, caught by surprise, but idleness quickly unfolded into irritation as she saw every one of the little punks run by.
"Hey!" she broke into a jog, her long dreads shaking against her back, and waved a hand after the kids that were slowly widening the gap between them. "You punks!" She said finally, the outstretched hand curled into a fist and a decidedly angry frown pulling the corners of her lips down. She stopped with a sigh and turned to look back at the poor girl that was gathering her stuff up from the street. She turned and walked back in that direction, sympathy overriding her own anger.
"Kids can be such a pain," she stooped down beside the girl to help her gather the items that had been knocked down.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:39 pm
"They can be quite the nuisances." Lumiere agreed, her hand tucking the mirror in her bag. She hadn't expected help.. nor did she quite know how to take it from a kind stranger. After all, in the entertainment industry, such kindness was usually accompanied with underlying motives.
As the two were gathering the contents of Lumiere's purse from the ground, a woman approached them. If not for the stressed and pitifully .pathetic expression, she was a beautiful woman. But she seemed stressed to the maximum, her posture haggard "Lumiere.. We've yet to locate a partner model for you, at this rate your shoot's going to be canceled--" She paused in front of the mess, her eyes blinking in surprise. "-- I'm sorry. I didnt know you had a friend with you." She glanced at the stranger, an idea suddenly forming in her head.
Without an answer from Lumiere, she jumped forward, both of her hands clasped one of the blond's, in a hopeful expression. "How would you like to try modeling? You're gorgeous material! I haven't seen you around before!" She bombarded the girl with questions, ignoring the blue haired girl's attempts to correct the manager otherwise.
The blue-haired model looked a little comically baffled in the background.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:54 pm
Alkaid blinked in surprise as some very random woman came barging on scene. She went from a sympathetic look directed at the blue-haired stranger to a baffled one for the strange woman babbling about something she didn't quite understand. She threw a confused expression at the girl she had only just met (Lumiere the woman had said?) and then back at the woman now grasping at her hands like she was a lifeline.
"I, uh, modeling?" came her extremely eloquent response. "You mean the sort where you stand there and let people take pictures of you?" That seemed very awkward and not like anything Kaia would have enjoyed doing. Then again, this woman looked so needy and apparently her decision would affect Lumiere as well. She didn't want anything to be canceled because of her.
"I guess I can try," she said softly, still unsure of what she was agreeing to. She just had to hope that she hadn't agreed to anything that was going to be humiliating.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:09 pm
"Great! Come this way!" The manager, finally let go of the stranger's hands, took the lead, leaving the stranger and Lumiere to walk behind the manager in awkward silence.
Lumiere bowed slightly to Kaia, in an apologetic gesture. "I'm sorry she inconvenienced you. She can be rather.. overbearing in her methods." Lumiere shook her head, walking at a slow pace behind the suddenly-pumped-up-manager. She sighed heavily, purple eyes flickering back to the stranger. Regardless of circumstances, it was clear that Lumiere didn't approve of asking randomly.
"Are you sure about this? It's not going to be a very long shoot but you'll have to change into a variety of outfits and stand for long periods of time. I could guide you through the process.. but it wasn't appropriate to ask a stranger. I'm afraid we were in quite the tight spot." Her manners and tone was cultivated carefully and politely but the emotion in it was sincere. It seemed that Lumiere, also, wasn't sure of what this would lead to either.
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:53 pm
Kaia was left gaping blankly at the manager as she stood abruptly and began to walk away. The dreadhead seemed lost and confused, even as she pushed herself back to her feet and fell into line beside the stranger she had only just met. She was staring after the woman, lost in thought, when she suddenly realized that the droning in her ear was actually the other girl talking to her.
"What? Oh, no, it's fine. Mostly." She gave her a smile, even with her brows still drawn down in thought. "I don't mind helping out, it's just that this is kind of an unusual request? I don't want to ruin anything with my lack of talent." She laughed at herself, but the nervousness was unmistakable. She was fine with tests, she could leap across building tops and fight senshi into the wee hours of the night. But modeling? How could she have been any less prepared for this?
"I'm Kaia by the way. She called you.. Lumiere, right?" Well, at least she could introduce herself and break the ice. "And I'd love a little help, I have no idea what I got myself into." Which was true. She was usually confident and impossible to demoralize, not this nervous creature that had come out of the woodworks at the mere mention of cameras and posing.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:36 pm
"That's correct, I'm Lumiere. It's a pleasure to meet you Kaia." Lumiere offered her a smile and then looked straight ahead towards the shoot that laid on top of the shallow hill.
"Well, it's a magazine shoot. Nothing fussy-- If it had been more elaborate, we could have pulled another model in. But because it's a small one, there aren't many who are willing to fit it into their schedule." She turned her head to take an assessing look at Kaia, purple eyes scanning from top to bottom. "Just follow the director's orders and smile. It'll be a partnered shooting so just follow my lead." She offered Kaia a reassuring smile before the manager ran ahead to inform a middle-aged director of the change.
Immediately, two crew members materialized in front of Kaia and Lumiere, each taking the hand to lead them to their assorted wardrobe and changing areas. They were young females, probably around the age of twenty, as they selected an outfit for Kaia off the rack.
"Change into this, we'll be doing a light round of make-up right after you finish."
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:32 pm
"Alright," Kaia said with a nervous sigh, blowing it out slowly as she tried to steel her nerves. She wasn't sure why it was so frightening to have someone take her picture, especially since she was sure pictures had been taken of her before, but the idea was just.. unsettling. She couldn't turn someone down that needed her though.
"What will we - " she began to ask, just as the women appeared and began to shuffle the pair towards the pep work. Kaia barely had time to get a word in or ask any questions before she was given a dress and told to dress. Her cheeks flushed as she held the clothing to her, realizing that this kind of thing didn't leave much privacy. She turned her back on the people around her, though very few were paying her much attention, and awkwardly stepped into the clothing. Once she was done, she turned back around to tell them she was ready, only to have them tug and pull at bits and pieces of the outfit to get them 'perfect'.
And then she was being ushered to make-up, all the while looking for the stranger she had just met that was her only lifeline in this new, whirling environment.
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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 10:39 pm
It wasn't long before Kaia met up with Lumiere once again, placed next to each other to arrange their make-up. She was dressed similarly to Kaia in a 'matching' fashion. That was the only chance that Lumiere was able to whisper to Kaia, mouthing the words before the lip gloss was applied.
"Trust me!
Soon enough, the two were ushered out to the shooting location. It was a "natural" theme, the director putting the two girls in various positions against a tree. He would ask Lumiere to lift a heel or for Kaia to straighten her posture. One of the most crucial directions he consistently shouted out was the "interactive look," taking snapshots of the girls sitting back to back.
Eventually, the mood lightened.. to amusement? It certainly seemed that way for the blue-haired model as she sneaked Kaia a smile, the women hurriedly bringing out some vests for the next photo.
She mouthed: You're doing great!
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:24 am
The make-up had been an awkward moment for Kaia, as she didn't wear it and suspected that she had never had much interest in it since she couldn't recall any knowledge about its application. Watching her face transform with powder, eyeshadow, blush.. it was all a little much. But, when Lumiere caught her eye and gave her such reassuring words, Kaia tried to lighten up. The girl wouldn't lie, would she?
Okay, she managed, before she was fussed at to look forward once again and then quickly ushered after Lumiere to the set. Her nerves flared once more when she was first positioned and admittedly, she was a little awkward to start. Then she realized that she had Lumiere to rely on and the director wasn't really expecting something insane anyway. As she became more at ease, the more fun she had, and the better the shoot became. By the time Lumiere was giving her words of encouragement, she could only smile.
Thank you, she mouthed back before switching positions once more. It was tiring work, an a little stressful, but Kaia was having fun.
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:22 pm
It was late afternoon when the shooting was over, bordering on early evening. On a bench nearby the shooting, the two models were directed to be seated and dismissed, the only remains was the open vans that cameras and clothes were still being shelved into.
It was obvious that the shoot had them both tired out-- perhaps one less than the other. Lumiere offered Kaia a bottle of iced tea from the vending machines, bottles that had been hastily handed to her by her manager. The manager had left to talk with the director to hash out the last of the details, leaving both females alone.
"You did a fairly adequate job out there today for your.. first time? If I'm not mistaken? Far better than the original incapable model who had been arranged beforehand." Lumiere's personality had perhaps become a little more critical than earlier in the day .. or not. Considering their short acquaintance, it was hard to tell. But at the very least, one could decipher that her words were intended to be more encouraging than discouraging.
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:49 pm
Kaia took the bottle the bottle of iced tea with a small nod of her head to indicate her thanks. She twirled open the cap and took a deep sip of it, despite the fact that she wasn't a fan of most super-sweet iced teas. After that long session she was prepared to drink just about anything short of hard liquor just to calm the butterflies still flapping about in her belly.
"Definitely my first time, but thank you for the praise. I really just wanted to help, I wasn't expecting.. all of that." She laughed nervously, though the smile on her face suggested that she enjoyed herself none-the-less.
She put the cap back on her tea and set it down on the bench beside her, her eyes casually surveying the moving teams running back and forth. This whole thing was strange and new to her, like a different kind of world living in the shadows of the real one. Then again, a lot of the stuff she had been experiencing as of late was strange and new.
"So you do this?" She glanced back at Lumiere and waved her hand at the general area of the building to emphasize what she meant.
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:41 pm
"If you mean modeling, I'm been in this industry for awhile. Not always here in Destiny City.. just here and there." Lumiere explained, both hands cupping the bottle of tea in her lap. She tipped her head upwards to stare straight into the scenery of the setting sun, purples eyes seeming to focus past the horizon.
"My mother's quite accomplished.. I suppose, using her name, I could have risen higher. But that wasn't how I wanted it. So I moved here to Destiny City. You have quite the lovely city here." Lumiere spoke, assuming that Kaia was native to Destiny City. "Perhaps, some more .. incidents.. than most but all the same, I'm enjoying my stay here." She confessed, crossing one leg over the other as she conversed.
"It's overwhelming at first. But this all becomes routine in time. What doesn't?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:17 pm
"I wouldn't really know," Kaia tried to smile, even the tiniest fraction, as Lumiere attempted to compliment her on a city that she had assumed Kaia had grown up in. "My family moved away when I was a baby because of such incidents and I only recently came back to go to the university here." Lies tasted odd on her tongue but there was nothing else she could say - she didn't have enough knowledge of the city left to pretend she was a native.
She leaned back against the bench and stared up at the sky with Lumiere, finding it a decent distraction from the commotion around her and the waiting.
"I guess you can grow used to almost anything if you do it enough." She knew she'd become accustomed to her strange new life rather quickly, even if parts of it still troubled her. "I can respect someone that tries to earn a name on their own merit, rather than those that build their fame on someone else's efforts." A struggle to the top was certainly something she could relate to, even if she had a long way to go to prove herself.
It was funny how such different things could be related in their roots.
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:35 pm
They both sat there in a comfortable silence, following their conversation. Lumiere couldn't be termed as especially "talkative,"and simply having someone to fill in the silence for the sake of filling it wasn't a quality that Lumiere worked best with.
The gorgeous sunset in front of them only added to the tranquil scenery. It was difficult to remember, in times like these, the incidents of the city that gave people cause to move away.. or cause to return. Lumiere took the time to merely relax, taking slow sips of her tea.
"Oh. It nearly escaped my notice, but do you have some sort of contact information? We'll need an address or contact number to send the photos and payment to. After all, you did do half the work." Lumiere straightened her posture to address Kaia, giving her a half-smile as she picked up her bag to seat it on her lap. She fished for her phone, speaking as she did so. "If you're not comfortable with personal contact information, your university information will do just fine."
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