exsilium | video; a work in progress

( Audio picks up the sound of industrial construction, either things familiar in woodshop, car garages, or anywhere of a similar sort. When the feed goes live, Collette is framed to one side, looking forward and away from the camera. She's clearly resting on her arms, and given the angle of the ground on the screen, she's probably lying on her stomach in order to do this. She glances over her shoulder, eyes going to something behind the tablet being used for recording, then smiles as her eyes drop down to the tablet itself. For all intents and purposes, the camera is positioned to make the viewing audience seem like they're side by side with Collette, wherever it is she is, keeping a low profile in this industrialized looking area. Concrete floor that she's resting on, packing boxes ahead of her, bundles of cables and chains glimpsed somewhere past her head. )

Guys! ( She keeps her voice low, not a whisper (they carry further, and can't be heard about the ambient noise), but low to avoid excessive attention. ) Anyone else catch where they dragged the ship off to with that giant crane after the crash? I wondered about that. But I've got news!

( She makes a waving motion at the camera, and it shifts, jarringly, to leave Collette off screen and show something covered in plastic and wiring and cables, a few Initiative workers using welding guns, others wheeling parts away or calling out shouts of questions over the sounds of construction. )

They say the spaceship's salvageable!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The plebs tend to be unwashed.

[ Which isn't exactly true, but always a good fallback excuse. With the conversation leading away from his uncomfortable near-death and its cause, even with the noogie, he's becoming less and less tense over it, except when he leans over him again. There's a tiny second or two where he holds very still suddenly and...

Then all she does is kiss his forehead. For that, there's no panic, which brings quite the relief, and so he rolls his eyes at her before wiggling his way into a better position to flop unceremoniously onto her lap. Since she's in the way, he'll just use that as a pillow and let his own legs dangle over the bed's edge. ]

What are you, a grandmother all of the sudden?

( She snorts, lips quirked at the corner. What she'd been looking to test was reaction. Based on his, she thinks maybe, maybe if she gets him used to being kissed at all, it'll slowly take away some of the fear.

Makes for an interesting prospect all on its own, regardless of real logic or chance of success and/or failure. Of course, trust her to get a boyfriend and still never get kissed. (Vanadi didn't count!)

One hand gets tossed out behind her to support herself while he wriggles around. An eyebrow quirks up as she looks down at him. )

Do grandmothers do that? I thought they lectured you about eating your vegetables and called you embarrassing names, like snoogums or dearheart, and pinched your cheeks.

( She rubs the back ofher wrist across her eyes, then brushes first one cheek, than the other, with the side of her hand. Then she laughs! )

Talk about a total transformation! Sixteen to sixty-three. Man, that'd be so weird!

Supposedly. Or mothers, I guess.

[ Not nannies, though. That would have been waaaay too weird. ]

You could technically do that, couldn't you? Just acquire a little old lady and putter around, baking everyone cookies and telling them to wash their faces all the time.

Gee, my insides go all aquiver at the mere thought.

( She laughs at the idea, pitching her voice high and creaky. )

Now you be a good boy, you hear? Remember to wash your face each night, and maybe Granny Collette will make you your very own cookies! And remember to get off my lawn, you rascals! You're trampling all my petunias!

( By then her free hand, for wont of anything else to do, is playing with his hair. Yeah, why was using her lap a good idea, again? Sure, her lap held still, but the rest of her...! )

[ Because it was there and wasn't going anywhere. So she could play with his hair, so what? He's not keen on personal space invasion, that's true, but if he's going to tolerate it, it may as well be from Collette.

She's the one who should be worried! He might doze off! ]

On second thought, maybe not. What an awful granny voice you have!

( She snorts, wrinkling her nose again. Her voice goes near sing song as she plays around with a line out of a children's fairy tale: )

All the better to nag you with, my dear!

( Flicking at the tip of his nose, Collette grins. Her voice returns to normal as she asks after her own line of curiosity. )

Just like Granny Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. Do you guys have a lot of fairy tales where you're from?

[ That's his cue to defend his nose with a hand. Wave, wave, wave, back, nose-flicker! ]

Depends on what you mean by fairy tale. Fairies are irritating, who would want to listen to stories about them?

( Time to lazily wave her own hand at the hand he's using to defend his nose, before attempting to nab said hand with her own. She blinks, breaking out into a lopsided grin. )

You actually have faries, don't you?

Yes, we do, and they're pests.

( Something in how she smiles highlights that Collette doesn't see this as being anything but amusing: in this case, it doesn't have anything to do with her world, so she can afford to be amused that they're pests. )

They're not literal where I'm from, not that I know. We have all these old children's stories that are supposed to teach you things. It's what we call our fairy tales -- Little Red Riding Hood's one of them.

( As if to emphasize the title, she leaves off the attack on his nose to ruffle his hair lightly with one hand. )

video; a work in progress

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