Let's Talk About Love; a.k.a. Crazy, In Love (Keeley & Aniqa - DZ Feilian/Volks Renee)
So I'm still considering some changes to my crew... just... thinking about things... possibilities~ I thought it would be best, before I do anything permanent, to give everyone I'm considering letting go another go 'round. To that end, I took the sisters out for some play-time today (as they are currently tops on my 'maybe' list). I have long thought these two inseparable - is it strange that it makes it harder to give Ani up because I don't want to give up Keeley - one would think it would be the other way around? But if one goes, they both go, they're just that linked in my head. So it's only fair that they both got some face time 'round here.
But... I didn't want just a simple portrait shoot, I wanted something that showed off their characters, hopefully let me bond a bit again... if possible, so... it turned into a bit of mini-side-photostory, with props again! ^^; Yay props...
Neither of these girls ever get that much consideration in my head (sadly). I don't really imagine what their characters get up to very often, but... sometimes... just sometimes... a thought will pop into my head. This story is about the last thing I imagined with them - a couple months ago...
Let's Talk About Love; a.k.a. Crazy, In Love
Focused on her newest invention, Keeley bends over her worktable to screw another metal plate in place, tiny pink tongue caught between her teeth as her brow furrows in concentration. She's muttering to herself as the plate clicks into place, "Just get this on here then tear out that back bit and put in the yellow wires. Get the trips and connect them to the... the thingy. Back here. Right... Where're my pliars? Pliars, pliars... Aha!" she goes, on and on. She's tied back her hair and twisted it so the strands don't fall in her face, but she hasn't bothered putting on more practical clothes - the billowy white blouse her sister dressed her in this morning is still miraculously clean, since she's just started, but it will undoubtedly be grease-stained with spark burns by the time she stops. The leather pants, at least, are durable, and harder to singe.
She goes to reach for the hard-drive chip to stick in the back and her delicate fingers pat over the desk, searching with the one hand while the other starts to pry open the back plate. After a few seconds, she looks to where her digits brush over the hard wood, lending her eyes to the search only to realize... it's not there. She'd sent her sister Flipside to get it hours ago. Why isn't she back, yet? "Ani?" She turns, as if expecting her sister to be there, her tiny voice questioning. "Ani?" she tries again. How long ago was it really, that she went? Was it hours... days... minutes? She can't remember. She starts to panic, her wild heart beating, but she shakes her head and turns back to the table, picking up her well-worn red screwdriver again and telling herself her sister is fine. It was probably 'hours', she'll be back. Ani will come back. Ani always comes back. Her white-knuckled grip tightens on the handle, and it helps her get a grip on herself, too. Her breathing eases and in time her tiny pink tongue slips back between her teeth. The focus calms her and she soon loses herself in what she can do without the chip, trying not to think about it.
After a while - a long while - her back and neck start to ache with her position and she stretches, rubbing at the back of her neck. She's calm, once more, her sharp-featured face slack in a doe-eyed daydream as she lets her thoughts wander from her task. She thinks about him, the nice boy who shares her workshop at night. He gives her spare bits and pieces from his projects - things she doesn't even realize she needs until he gives them to her; almost like he's watching what she's doing... anticipating what she'll need. It makes her feel warm all over and she smiles whenever he comes up to her. She smiles now, just thinking about him. She wonders what that feeling is... and why she should feel that way. It reminds her, when she smiles at him, of the way her Mother smiles at her Father, surprise in her eyes, and wonder, like she never expects to be so happy.
She hears her before she even bursts through the doors, singing at the top of her lungs and skipping to her own tune, "Arr arr! Glory be~ Gimme a life of piracy~ Load me a cannon and fire it... As a career we admire it! How could you help but desire it?! It's the pirate life - Oh! - the pirate life for me~"* Ani bursts through the door as Keeley turns, large eyes blank and still distracted. Ani grins ear to ear as she holds out a bag in one hand, her other curled in a fist against her hip in a half-Peter-Pan pose. "I got it!" she announces proudly.
"Did you have to borrow it?" she asks innocently, absentmindedly.
"Yes! That's what I did. Yes," Ani giggles mischievously and her sister's brows lower in confused disapproval, not sure whether to believe her or not. The little rogue waves off the look and tosses the bag to her sister, watching her catch it and turn to tuck it into one of the drawers in her work table - she's already working on things past the point of the chip, so she'll get to it later. "Don't worry so much, little sister. I'll get them something else for it, later. I'm good for it!" Ani huffs, amused at herself. She pats her sister on one slender arm and hops up on the desk next to her, talking animatedly without giving Keeley any more time to think about her 'borrowing' the chip, "So you got everything you need?"
"Mm-hm," Keeley nods, already turned back to her project, picking the screwdriver back up in her dextrous fingers. "Brenik gave me the last piece I needed," she offers in an offhand sort of way, though it makes her stop and think again about what she'd been thinking of before. Confusion distracts her and she turns back to her sister, "Ani? Do you..." she starts, her head cocking slightly to one side, her voice a soft whisper, as always, "Do you think Bren is a nice person?"
"Heh?" Ani's eyebrows twist in surprise at the question, her eyes pinching with sudden suspicion, "Ya... I guess so. Why?"
"I... I dunno," she mumbles, twirling the screwdriver in her fingers as she shrugs.
"You... don't know?"
"He's just... I think he's nice... is all?" she adds, suddenly thinking she shouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Her cheeks feel warm and she's not sure why.
"It's nothing," she says, turning quickly back to her task and wishing her cheeks would stop feeling like they're burning.
For a moment, Ani just watches her sister in confusion, then it clicks, "Oh..."
"You like him!" she shouts, her grin returning as she laughs, a full belly laugh, her eyes lighting. She'd never really thought her sister would think about such things as... guys.
"I... I don't know... I don't what you mean," Keeley mumbles, now desperately trying to ignore her sister - whose words are just confusing her more.
"Of course you do! Oh, mabye you don't realize what it means, but you know~" Ani giggles as she hops off the desk.
"It's like," she starts, eyes going distant as they light with her inner romantic's daydreams, "Like when just looking at him makes you happy..."
"Like when every time he talks to you, and says something nice about you, or how you look, or something you did... it makes you feel all warm and tingly all over... And when he touches you, it makes your heart race."
"You know... like that."
Keeley does know, her sister is describing almost exactly what it's like to be around Bren these days. She doesn't understand why it started, she didn't always used to feel that way around him, she's sure... Her fingers stop their work and her head turns slowly back to her sister, her cheeks still warm as she breathes, "Am I... sick?"
"No!" Ani laughs, giving her flustered sister another firm pat on the shoulder, "You're just fine... it's totally normal when you like somebody!" Ani's eyes soften as her eyebrows rise, her smile, too, turns warm for her sister, almost a sense of relief in her voice, "You know, I didn't know if you'd ever think that way about somebody... You're so into your inventions and things... I thought maybe you wouldn't ever notice boys. But it's good..." and with that, a touch of worry wiggles in, too. It is good... but... she wonders if her sister can handle that kind of relationship. Would she understand it?
"Ani?" Keeley senses her sister's concern and her thoughts are derailed from Brenik as she reaches out for Aniqa's shoulder. "You okay, Ani?"
"Ya... of course," Aniqa reassures her sister, sighing and laughing at the same time as she resigns herself to the fact that her sister is growing up, whether either of them is ready for it or not.
"Really okay?"
"Really okay," Ani nods.
"You're just growing up... and it's scaring me," a moment of rare honesty slips from her tongue as she smiles at the sister she's spent most of her life taking care of.
"Ani..." this time it's Keeley's turn to sigh, a slight smile curling up the corner of her mouth. Moments of clarity are short-term for her, but at that second, she understands her sister's worry perfectly, completely aware of her own failings - her spaciness and naivette... she worries for herself sometimes, too, truthfully, and worries she won't be able to handle all this 'growing up' her sister's talking about, but... she worries for her sister more, "I don't have to, if you don't want me to?"
It's half-a-joke, but Ani laughs anyway, pulling her sister in to rest her forehead against Keeley's, her voice suddenly teasing to wipe away the worry and bury it, "Nonsense! Of course you will... and that's okay."
Ani twists her sister around tugs her in close to whisper in her ear, "You're going to be just fine, Keener."
"Goddess knows you're smart enough to handle any stupid ol' boy~"
Confusion clouds Keeley's eyes again, their ocean-blue depths hazing as a delicate line appears between her eyebrows, "Bren's not stupid; he's really smart, Ani..."
The blond laughs as she leans against her sister, squeezing her tight as she sighs out even more worry, breathing it out of her, "I know, sis..."
She might have to keep an eye on this boy... at least for the first little while... Maybe a long talk in a dark corner wouldn't be totally out of the question...
* * *
Conclusion? Ya, I still think she's cute... and definitely a good mold for Ani. After the shoot, though, I realized something... part of what irritates me about Ani... is that she is just so freaking irritating to pose. I mean... she can do really great poses... but she is so loose and floppy that holding them is difficult. I'll get her in something that looks awesome and then one tiny nudge just trying to get a hair out of her face makes her tumble to the ground! I hate handling her almost as much as I used to hate posing Con before Miffi worked her magic, and when I can't stand to pose dolls and get so frustrated with them... it makes me do things like contemplate others in their place...
So maybe that's why I've been having these thoughts lately... It's possible this issue may be resolved if I can get her to handle better. So maybe it's just time to work on that... Or maybe I'll work on that first, and then think more about the 'replacing'/'selling' issue after... I thought a lot about what other doll I might conceivably replace the Renee with for Ani after this shoot and... I couldn't think of one better, so... maybe she'll stay for a while, longer... I dunno. Thoughts, thoughts... I feel so wishy-washy when I get like this - everyone feel free to ignore my randomness...
*"Gimme the Life of a Pirate" by the Olsen Twins - cute... ^^
But... I didn't want just a simple portrait shoot, I wanted something that showed off their characters, hopefully let me bond a bit again... if possible, so... it turned into a bit of mini-side-photostory, with props again! ^^; Yay props...
Neither of these girls ever get that much consideration in my head (sadly). I don't really imagine what their characters get up to very often, but... sometimes... just sometimes... a thought will pop into my head. This story is about the last thing I imagined with them - a couple months ago...
Let's Talk About Love; a.k.a. Crazy, In Love
Focused on her newest invention, Keeley bends over her worktable to screw another metal plate in place, tiny pink tongue caught between her teeth as her brow furrows in concentration. She's muttering to herself as the plate clicks into place, "Just get this on here then tear out that back bit and put in the yellow wires. Get the trips and connect them to the... the thingy. Back here. Right... Where're my pliars? Pliars, pliars... Aha!" she goes, on and on. She's tied back her hair and twisted it so the strands don't fall in her face, but she hasn't bothered putting on more practical clothes - the billowy white blouse her sister dressed her in this morning is still miraculously clean, since she's just started, but it will undoubtedly be grease-stained with spark burns by the time she stops. The leather pants, at least, are durable, and harder to singe.
She goes to reach for the hard-drive chip to stick in the back and her delicate fingers pat over the desk, searching with the one hand while the other starts to pry open the back plate. After a few seconds, she looks to where her digits brush over the hard wood, lending her eyes to the search only to realize... it's not there. She'd sent her sister Flipside to get it hours ago. Why isn't she back, yet? "Ani?" She turns, as if expecting her sister to be there, her tiny voice questioning. "Ani?" she tries again. How long ago was it really, that she went? Was it hours... days... minutes? She can't remember. She starts to panic, her wild heart beating, but she shakes her head and turns back to the table, picking up her well-worn red screwdriver again and telling herself her sister is fine. It was probably 'hours', she'll be back. Ani will come back. Ani always comes back. Her white-knuckled grip tightens on the handle, and it helps her get a grip on herself, too. Her breathing eases and in time her tiny pink tongue slips back between her teeth. The focus calms her and she soon loses herself in what she can do without the chip, trying not to think about it.
After a while - a long while - her back and neck start to ache with her position and she stretches, rubbing at the back of her neck. She's calm, once more, her sharp-featured face slack in a doe-eyed daydream as she lets her thoughts wander from her task. She thinks about him, the nice boy who shares her workshop at night. He gives her spare bits and pieces from his projects - things she doesn't even realize she needs until he gives them to her; almost like he's watching what she's doing... anticipating what she'll need. It makes her feel warm all over and she smiles whenever he comes up to her. She smiles now, just thinking about him. She wonders what that feeling is... and why she should feel that way. It reminds her, when she smiles at him, of the way her Mother smiles at her Father, surprise in her eyes, and wonder, like she never expects to be so happy.
She hears her before she even bursts through the doors, singing at the top of her lungs and skipping to her own tune, "Arr arr! Glory be~ Gimme a life of piracy~ Load me a cannon and fire it... As a career we admire it! How could you help but desire it?! It's the pirate life - Oh! - the pirate life for me~"* Ani bursts through the door as Keeley turns, large eyes blank and still distracted. Ani grins ear to ear as she holds out a bag in one hand, her other curled in a fist against her hip in a half-Peter-Pan pose. "I got it!" she announces proudly.
"Did you have to borrow it?" she asks innocently, absentmindedly.
"Yes! That's what I did. Yes," Ani giggles mischievously and her sister's brows lower in confused disapproval, not sure whether to believe her or not. The little rogue waves off the look and tosses the bag to her sister, watching her catch it and turn to tuck it into one of the drawers in her work table - she's already working on things past the point of the chip, so she'll get to it later. "Don't worry so much, little sister. I'll get them something else for it, later. I'm good for it!" Ani huffs, amused at herself. She pats her sister on one slender arm and hops up on the desk next to her, talking animatedly without giving Keeley any more time to think about her 'borrowing' the chip, "So you got everything you need?"
"Mm-hm," Keeley nods, already turned back to her project, picking the screwdriver back up in her dextrous fingers. "Brenik gave me the last piece I needed," she offers in an offhand sort of way, though it makes her stop and think again about what she'd been thinking of before. Confusion distracts her and she turns back to her sister, "Ani? Do you..." she starts, her head cocking slightly to one side, her voice a soft whisper, as always, "Do you think Bren is a nice person?"
"Heh?" Ani's eyebrows twist in surprise at the question, her eyes pinching with sudden suspicion, "Ya... I guess so. Why?"
"I... I dunno," she mumbles, twirling the screwdriver in her fingers as she shrugs.
"You... don't know?"
"He's just... I think he's nice... is all?" she adds, suddenly thinking she shouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Her cheeks feel warm and she's not sure why.
"It's nothing," she says, turning quickly back to her task and wishing her cheeks would stop feeling like they're burning.
For a moment, Ani just watches her sister in confusion, then it clicks, "Oh..."
"You like him!" she shouts, her grin returning as she laughs, a full belly laugh, her eyes lighting. She'd never really thought her sister would think about such things as... guys.
"I... I don't know... I don't what you mean," Keeley mumbles, now desperately trying to ignore her sister - whose words are just confusing her more.
"Of course you do! Oh, mabye you don't realize what it means, but you know~" Ani giggles as she hops off the desk.
"It's like," she starts, eyes going distant as they light with her inner romantic's daydreams, "Like when just looking at him makes you happy..."
"Like when every time he talks to you, and says something nice about you, or how you look, or something you did... it makes you feel all warm and tingly all over... And when he touches you, it makes your heart race."
"You know... like that."
Keeley does know, her sister is describing almost exactly what it's like to be around Bren these days. She doesn't understand why it started, she didn't always used to feel that way around him, she's sure... Her fingers stop their work and her head turns slowly back to her sister, her cheeks still warm as she breathes, "Am I... sick?"
"No!" Ani laughs, giving her flustered sister another firm pat on the shoulder, "You're just fine... it's totally normal when you like somebody!" Ani's eyes soften as her eyebrows rise, her smile, too, turns warm for her sister, almost a sense of relief in her voice, "You know, I didn't know if you'd ever think that way about somebody... You're so into your inventions and things... I thought maybe you wouldn't ever notice boys. But it's good..." and with that, a touch of worry wiggles in, too. It is good... but... she wonders if her sister can handle that kind of relationship. Would she understand it?
"Ani?" Keeley senses her sister's concern and her thoughts are derailed from Brenik as she reaches out for Aniqa's shoulder. "You okay, Ani?"
"Ya... of course," Aniqa reassures her sister, sighing and laughing at the same time as she resigns herself to the fact that her sister is growing up, whether either of them is ready for it or not.
"Really okay?"
"Really okay," Ani nods.
"You're just growing up... and it's scaring me," a moment of rare honesty slips from her tongue as she smiles at the sister she's spent most of her life taking care of.
"Ani..." this time it's Keeley's turn to sigh, a slight smile curling up the corner of her mouth. Moments of clarity are short-term for her, but at that second, she understands her sister's worry perfectly, completely aware of her own failings - her spaciness and naivette... she worries for herself sometimes, too, truthfully, and worries she won't be able to handle all this 'growing up' her sister's talking about, but... she worries for her sister more, "I don't have to, if you don't want me to?"
It's half-a-joke, but Ani laughs anyway, pulling her sister in to rest her forehead against Keeley's, her voice suddenly teasing to wipe away the worry and bury it, "Nonsense! Of course you will... and that's okay."
Ani twists her sister around tugs her in close to whisper in her ear, "You're going to be just fine, Keener."
"Goddess knows you're smart enough to handle any stupid ol' boy~"
Confusion clouds Keeley's eyes again, their ocean-blue depths hazing as a delicate line appears between her eyebrows, "Bren's not stupid; he's really smart, Ani..."
The blond laughs as she leans against her sister, squeezing her tight as she sighs out even more worry, breathing it out of her, "I know, sis..."
She might have to keep an eye on this boy... at least for the first little while... Maybe a long talk in a dark corner wouldn't be totally out of the question...
* * *
Conclusion? Ya, I still think she's cute... and definitely a good mold for Ani. After the shoot, though, I realized something... part of what irritates me about Ani... is that she is just so freaking irritating to pose. I mean... she can do really great poses... but she is so loose and floppy that holding them is difficult. I'll get her in something that looks awesome and then one tiny nudge just trying to get a hair out of her face makes her tumble to the ground! I hate handling her almost as much as I used to hate posing Con before Miffi worked her magic, and when I can't stand to pose dolls and get so frustrated with them... it makes me do things like contemplate others in their place...
So maybe that's why I've been having these thoughts lately... It's possible this issue may be resolved if I can get her to handle better. So maybe it's just time to work on that... Or maybe I'll work on that first, and then think more about the 'replacing'/'selling' issue after... I thought a lot about what other doll I might conceivably replace the Renee with for Ani after this shoot and... I couldn't think of one better, so... maybe she'll stay for a while, longer... I dunno. Thoughts, thoughts... I feel so wishy-washy when I get like this - everyone feel free to ignore my randomness...
*"Gimme the Life of a Pirate" by the Olsen Twins - cute... ^^