This Woman's Work

The waterfront recreation area is an area consisting of the park located just behind the boardwalk and the boardwalk itself. The park is used for many picnics and barbecues while the boardwalk is a favorite of people going fishing or participating in other aquatic sports. The fishing area is limited solely to the stretch of the river which the trail runs alongside.
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Laurels
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This Woman's Work

#1

Post by Laurels »

((Katrina Lavell continued from Let's Get Physical!))

"Okay, I got this," Katrina muttered to herself as she got into position. It was a cool April afternoon at the park, and Katrina was busy preparing for her next big project: a music video. Katrina hadn't made a lot of music videos. Due to often having to work alone, she often found herself making videos that were either just sitting in front of her computer or were stylistically simple, like sitting in front of her computer with all the lights off and a single lamp positioned under her chin as she played "I Put a Spell on You" for a Halloween video. But now she was going to do something slightly different: filming a music video outside.

The park near the Waterfront was good for shooting outside. It was a clear day, there were clusters of trees that would ensure random people wouldn't wander into the shot. Like before, she was going to have to rely on static shots, but at the very least she could be creative enough to get them done and do them in various ways so that, when edited together, it would look more professional than the usual fare.

Besides, she had a real moment of inspiration this week, and she felt like she had to go into overdrive. She had been in a Kate Bush phase for the last month and a half. The Madonna phase lasted much longer than she expected, mostly because she came to adore wearing lace gloves and jackets and blazers over everything, but also because it was fun. But she soon decided to switch to Kate Bush in order to be a little more free and whimsical. She needed to expand her range, and it was watching the music videos for songs like "Wuthering Heights" that made her want to capture that 80's twee and bohemian style (if it was considered bohemian; Katrina kept going back and forth on that.)

But then, a few days earlier, the second season of The Handmaid's Tale aired. Katrina had watched the show, but since the season premiere began with the heroine and dozens of other Handmaid's being put on the gallows to a Kate Bush song, she felt she had to pay homage somehow and do something original and clever with all these reference points.

After watching the episode, Katrina got to work. She tried to write an original song inspired by Kate Bush, while also tying in themes and imagery from The Handmaid's Tale. After a day and a half of writing and recording, Katrina loaded her car up with props and other materials and hauled them all to the park by herself. After some time setting up the set dressing and the camera and tripod, and changing into her outfit and attaching a mic to her collar and the ukulele, she was ready.

She turned the camera on and got into position.

"Okay, this is 'Kate' by Katrina Lavell. Take one," she said.

She closed her eyes, breathed in, and out. She opened them again, and began to strum.

Katrina was standing atop an empty crate that was laying on its side, its opening facing the camera. Inside the crate were a few stuffed animals Katrina had laying around her bedroom and in the family's attic, all laid on top of one another. To the left of the crate was a wooden wagon wheel that was previously hanging in her dad's rec room that she secretly took down and snuck into her car before he noticed. She also grabbed a metal bucket from the same rec room that her dad's friends used to put cigarettes out in when they were over and had it lying next to the wheel, albeit with the Corona label turned away.

To the right of the crate was a sign that Katrina had made the night before on thick poster board. She had it taped to a lamp post she removed the lamp shade from, as she was certain she could get in trouble trying to hammer a wooden stake into the park's grass. The poster board was red, and in black, heavy brush strokes read "What is My Name?"

Katrina herself was standing on the crate in a long, flowing red gown with a black belt, kimono-esque sleeves, and black combat boots she got from her brother's room. She had a white knitted beret on her head to mimic the Handmaid bonnets from the show, and let her hair flow loose. She realized the Handmaid robes looked a lot like Kate Bush's outfit in the "Wuthering Heights" music video, and thought it would be a great idea to merge them together.

Katrina continued to strum the first few chords of the song, then began to sing.

Kate, by Katrina Lavell

I wonder where you've gone.
I wonder if you'll be back.
I wonder if you've survived
their latest attack.

I think of you daily
I think of you nightly
I pray you can find your way
through a world so deadly.

Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Where oh where did you go?
Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Can you please let me know?
Did they take your name,
fill you with shame?
Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Please don't leave me alone.


Katrina continued to strum along. The first verse and chorus were really good, but she had to kick it into overdrive for the next one.
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Jilly
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#2

Post by Jilly »

((Kayla Harris continued from It's All Good Man))

"...I swear to God if I ever see another Harley Quinn, I'll... I'm not sure what I'll do but it'll probably involve an assault charge."

Kayla's fists clenched and her eye twitched at she recalled every awful encounter she had with one at MTAC 2018 last week. Ever since that fucking Gretchen Kirkpatrick stole Kayla's rightfully deserved bragging rights last year, her Harley Quinn-fixation had gone into overdrive. Every con she went to there would be like 652 of them, and every single one of them made her blood boil. Like God, we fucking get it you have father issues - it's 2018, who doesn't? Maybe it was just a little bit irrational, but she couldn't help herself driving the conversation there.

Kayla and Charelle stole the con as Popuko and Pipimi anyway, so who cared about the sheer number of people who still dress up as Harley Quinn in this day and age? Not Kayla.

At least Charelle was here to pacify her kinda. For some reason watching and listening to her idly skateboard by Kayla always had a calming effect; maybe it was the rhythmic grinding of the wheels on the pavement. Regardless it was always enough to bring her rage down so she wasn't Caps Lock Kayla. Most of the time.

Harley Quinn was still a basic bitch of a costume though.

Kayla stopped in her tracks as she was distracted by a sad few (guitar? ukulele?) chords followed by... well, it sure was singing of some kind. She glanced around to try and pinpoint the exact source and found it - up ahead in the distance by some trees. Who was there? Kayla wasn't really sure, but she was gonna find out.

Kayla beckoned Charelle to follow her as she began her sneaky assault on the solo artist, dampening her footsteps as she got closer to the makeshift film set. The performer started their "oh Kate where oh where did you go" stanza as Kayla took position behind the trees in the apparent background.

Whelp, here she was with her ninja clan. Now what?
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Cicada
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#3

Post by Cicada »

((NiNjA cLaN hErE wE sTaNd))

Honestly, Charelle didn't have it too bad for Harley Quinns... Quinn's?

Grammar!

Supposedly the movie 'sucked' and the character was 'cliche' and Charelle had 'no taste' but it was like, the character was hot and occasionally funny. Good enough in Charelle's books. That all aside though, Charelle was lazily nodding. Drifting on her board, equally lazily. She'd planted on her face at least twice already. Honestly she'd expected more falls.

"Rest in peace, Gretchen. In advance," Charelle lazily quipped, slowly whipping her head like a turnstile to catch some of that sweet spring breeze to the face. Her footing on the skateboard wobbled dangerously. Whoops, toying with her sense of balance right there. She kept doing it, slowly working herself dizzy. Fun to watch the world go 'round and 'round. Only other thing in vicinity worth looking at was Kayla.

They'd been spending a lot of time together lately. IRL Popuko and Pipimi, to the point where Charelle was considering the blue dye job because, like, whatever. Mikki did blonde for the Alison Wonderland-ass impression, Forrest did rainbow for the LGBT flag-ass, maybe it was time Charelle go max anime girl. She could refer to Kayla for the requisite ribbons and dresses. Though Charelle would have to work on the more high-pitched voice herself. Ew. Effort.

Oh wait, apparently they were doing something. Charelle watched Kayla and didn't really pay attention to the other things in the area, apparently there were guitars or something. Was it one of the GHHS bands? Was it someone Charelle knew? Wait... did Charelle even care? Hm...........

...

She kept casually watching Kayla, tracing the shape of her face as it looked all serious. Kayla channeling her ninja arts or some shit. About to summon her ban-kai.

"Wait, what's up."

Kayla seemed to want things quiet in so far as Charelle could kinda tell these sorts of things sometimes, so, Charelle kept her voice on the down low as she slowly lumbered into position, her board tucked under an armpit.
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Laurels
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#4

Post by Laurels »

I wonder where you go
the kind of people you meet
if they're kind or mean
or if they cause you to retreat.

Please, please, please
tell me you're okay.
Please, please, please
tell me we'll meet again someday

Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Where oh where did you go?
Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
What do you have to show?
Are you covered in scars,
in that land so far
Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Please don't let them hurt you.

There's shadows lurking around every corner
there's demons hiding in the night
They search for you, thirst for you
filling you with fright
Oh Kate, I worry where you've gone
and if you'll be alright
but I know you're strong, my dear,
and you'll carry on my might.

Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Where oh where did you go?
Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Are you coming home soon?
Will we meet again some day,
in a land far away?
Oh Kaaaaaaaate.
Please come home.

Please come home.
Please come home.
Please come home.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaate.
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Jilly
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#5

Post by Jilly »

Once Charelle was in position, Kayla knew exactly what they were gonna do. Kind of.

Kayla's hands danced around as she silently pointed to where she and Charelle should be, on opposite sides of the performer's back but hopefully well within range of the camera AKA the real centerpiece of this show.

And then she gave "the sign". It would be a hit and run, a flash flash mob. In and out before the performer knew what hit her. She'll never see it coming as their minds were too fast for eyes. Or ears in this case. Whatever.

But most importantly, they were gonna have to do that to her.

No, not "it". "That".

Kayla got into position, and looked over for Charelle to do the same as the singer started singing about demons or something. This song was actually kinda metal, whoever this Kate girl was.
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Cicada
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#6

Post by Cicada »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH8AXBIxfWY

... Actually the wrong song, but Charelle was like, vibing on the off-beat. Random noises in her head. Girl strumming guitar was doing pretty well, but Charelle couldn't help the mental meander into trash rom-com anime opening themes. Was the sort of thing she just did from time to time.

Charelle smiled dumbly, at Kayla, at life in general. Oh shit though, "The Sign". Wait, Charelle already forgot. Was the sign for "it" or "that"? Made all the difference.

But like, Charelle would just follow Kayla's lead. That's what she ended up doing all the time anyways. A perfectly chill Saturday as of late was like, following in the wake of Kayla's spaghetti bun hair and mumbling stuff while Kayla did whatever. Daydreaming, spazzing out, shenanigans. All that. Charelle took position, lazily drifting into looking over... Katrina? One of Forrest's friends? There were a billion of those how did one tell any of them apart??

Man, this song was intense. The one being sung in public, not the one still polluting Charelle's head with weeb-anese. Who was coming home? Why not just like, go to the mall or something? Maybe 'please go to the mall' didn't have as much ring as a lyric. Hell if Charelle knew, she wasn't a songwriter. All the songs she produced and DJed included lyrics like 'spent three racks on a new chain', which was probably not as coherent a narrative or, like, whatever.

Charelle shot the camera devil horns, then started hitting the most furious of machine gun dabs in time to what she was not particularly sure was the tempo of Katrina's song.
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Laurels
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#7

Post by Laurels »

Katrina played the last few chords of the song. After the last chorus, she had a few instrumental bars to bring the song to a close. It was to tie into the melancholic tone with the melody and leave that longing feeling for Kate to return home.

Katrina strummed the last chord on her ukulele and paused to take in the atmosphere. As she did, she noticed there was a weird sound behind her. She quickly turned around on her box and noticed there were now two girls behind her. One was dabbing so hard it looked like she was trying to slice into her face with her arms.

"What?"

Katrina was mildly confused, raising an eyebrow at such weirdness, but it was quickly replaced with terror.

"H-how long have you been there?" she asked the girls.

She quickly hopped off the box and hurried over to the camera. She began to rewind the video on the tape. If these girls ruined her take, she would probably go from being Offred to being Aunt Lydia in an instant.
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Jilly
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#8

Post by Jilly »

With Charelle in position by her side, Kayla mirrored her and shot her own devil horns followed by machine gun dabbing, though maybe a tad less forceful than Charelle. Enough to rustle this girl's jimmies but without shooting off into space at Mach 13.

There was a slight oversight. The instrumental cliffhanger left Kayla hanging, raising her expectations that there was more to the song so the terror twins could safely flee the scene before they got caught.

They got caught. The performer stopped (Katrina?!?!) and turned around and caught one of them mid-dab, the second most incriminating pose known to mankind. What followed was the quickest thinking Kayla could think quickly as their victim rewound the tape and would probably try to murder Kayla in the next 20 seconds.

Kayla booked it. She stiffled her mischievous giggles as her fight-or-flight response chose the safer of the two options. She wouldn't look back until she was out of the arena.

Eh, Charelle was probably fine.

((Kayla Harris continued in Monachopsis))
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Cicada
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#9

Post by Cicada »

Charelle finished artillery shelling her own face a-la American neocolonialist interests (wait shit when had she remembered what that even meant) and a quick eval produced some key data points:

- Kayla was running (you go girl!)
- They had been caught
- Awkward mid-dab pose

Hell, Charelle would talk to Katrina with her nose buried in her forearm. For the culture. She'd start a fashion trend. Couldn't be any worse than the whole weird neon green lime thing they'd been doing in school the past few months.

Kayla was going and then gone by now. Charelle was on her own, and she probably should have run, too. Kayla tended to have the right idea about things. But... man, that was too much bad vibes on her part. Logic time (rare). Had Charelle committed a crime? Well she sure as hell didn't know legalese so actually she didn't know.

And that was, like, all the reasoning she was willing to puzzle through at the moment.

She was staying, and she didn't even know why.

Mood.

"Nice pipes, Kat." Charelle laid down that casual observation like bricks. Bricks were laid down, right? Like Charelle was laid, on a regular basis? Something like that, metaphor may or may not have worked out? Charelle tilted her face a bit so she could establish eye contact over the intrusion of her forearm smashed into her own face. "We've been here 'bout... I dunno man. Long enough for me to like, remember you were singing about demons or something. Weird song yo." Man, explaining herself was hard. She'd almost run out of breath talking more in a few seconds than she normally did in an hour, on average. Check the statistacs.
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Laurels
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#10

Post by Laurels »

Katrina played the footage back. Everything looked fine at first, but after the first chorus, she could see the interlopers appear. She looked back up from the camera and saw that one girl had apparently run away, leaving her comrade behind. The other girl was left behind mid dab and awkwardly trying to chat up Katrina.

Katrina simply tilted her head to the side as the other girl spoke. The girl seemed to be mocking Katrina even more. She first complimented her voice, and then called the song weird. Yes, "weird" was a word that could be used to describe Kate Bush's music, but considering this chick decided it would be cool to interfere with someone's hard work, Katrina took it a little more personally.

"Well," Katrina said, furrowing her brow, "I think it's 'weird' that you still think dabbing is hilarious and not at all passé. But now, I've got a ruined take and need to shoot the whole thing over again. So thank you. Thanks for pushing my shooting schedule back a bit."

Katrina groaned. She was sure she nailed it in one take too before this chick and her dumb friend burst in.
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Yugikun
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#11

Post by Yugikun »

Charelle gave a push of the shoulders, tilted her head a little bit downwards once Katrina got through with her sentence.

"Sooooorrrrrrryyyyy."

Cause y'know, like, she was. Sorta fit the same tonality (uh, harmony, tonality had to do with like, chord structure and shit) that a couple of her crew gave when they knew the other person didn't want one but in terms of the general internal meaning yeah, she meant it. Didn't really regret doing it in the moment (cause you know she had to give it to 'em) but now that she was here? Yeah, shit. Maybe messing around with someone when they were actually in serious mode was like going 90 on the freeway — not the brightest idea. Not just because there was now someone directly staring her down but, like, that was just kinda the thing you got free with the deal.

...Weeb song was still bouncing around in her head which was


awkward


but she could make this non-awkward and stuff. Pick a god and pray for forgiveness. Make sure that there wouldn't be any big beef between her and Kat in the future.

No real clue what that thing would be but hey, DJ work was improvisation, she could translate that no problem.

"Didn't realize that this was a whole big serious thing," she said, putting a hand up behind her head. "If there's any way I can, uh, check in, make the next take the good one, uh, lemme know. Sorta wanna make it up."

Man, if her DJ peepz were here they would've like, make a mix out of the way she said her thing. Sweet Brown was gonna have to move outta town real soon.
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Laurels
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#12

Post by Laurels »

Katrina sighed. Well, Charelle was apologizing and offering to make it up to her. That was the kind of courtesy Katrina couldn't ignore, so she figured she could find a way to make sure Charelle was using her apologetic talents for Katrina's sake.

Katrina looked around. It would be easy to say "step behind the camera and stay there until the take is done." That would ensure there'd be no dabbing or stanky legs or nae naes or whatever other dated dance moves Charelle may inflict on her project. But hey, she now had a second pair of hands to help with the shoot. That was definitely something she could use to her advantage.

Katrina looked through the bags she had near the camera. There was the usual materials to help with the filming, but there was also a makeup kit and a bag containing some extra clothes and costume accessories. She looked back at Charelle, eyeing the girl up and down.

"Okay. I know how you can make this up."

Katrina grabbed the makeup kit and a flowing white gown.

"Congratulations. You've just been cast in your first music video. Now come here so I can make you look appropriate."
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Yugikun
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#13

Post by Yugikun »

"...'kay."

She took that one step forward to greatness. Moved her face so that Kat could do her thang. Being in the video just seemed like more of a meme than anything else she'd already done (she hoped Kayla was paying her respects right now) but eh. Not too big of a deal. Con was over and Charelle had nothing better to do with her day, so…

"Do you want me to take this off?" She asked, ideally indicating her weeb cosplay shit. "This could be aesthetic, but, uh..."

Yeah.

Nuff said right there.
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Laurels
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#14

Post by Laurels »

((All Charelle nonsense was approved by Yugi))

Katrina stared at Charelle's anime girl outfit. It didn't match the aesthetic of the Bush-esque music video, but there was one part of it that did get Katrina's gears turning. She hummed to herself as she looked up and down Charelle.

"No...but I think I know what to do," she told Charelle.

Katrina took her place back on top of her crate. The camera was already recording, so Katrina played a few notes on her ukulele.

"Alright. Let's try another take," she said. "This is 'Kate' by Katrina Lavell. Take two."

Katrina glanced down at Charelle. She had spent the last few minutes dressing Charelle up for the video. She threw the white dress she had over Charelle's anime outfit. It was large enough to fit her, and Katrina pulled out an extra belt to cinch it in a bit. Then, she took some lipstick from her makeup kit and used it to paint the area under Charelle's eyes, then down her cheeks. She rubbed the lipstick out a bit so it looked more faded the lower down her face it went. Finally, Katrina took the neckerchief from the cosplay and tied it around Charelle's eyes. Now Charelle looked way more haunting and ambiguously religious. It was absolutely perfect.

For the set, Katrina had placed Charelle in the dead center of the frame, lying on the ground. Charelle was propped up slightly on her side, resting against the crate but still showing all the stuffed animals inside the open crate. She wanted Charelle to have a sort of rag doll look to her, so she tilted her head slightly to the side and had her arms lay limp at her sides. From how it looked on camera, it looked like Charelle was tossed out with the rest of the items on display.

Katrina made sure to give Charelle instructions to remain still, but to speak up if there was any serious issue. Katrina swore she'd try to get this done in as few takes as possible, so unless Kayla decided to return to bust out the Stanky Leg or the Nae Nae, Katrina was sure she could get this done before Charelle got uncomfortably numb.

She played the first few chords of the song, and began to sing.

I wonder where you've gone.
I wonder if you'll be back.
I wonder if you've survived
their latest attack.
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Yugikun
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#15

Post by Yugikun »

Pins and needles were like, low-key the worst part of this existence.

And like, being plopped down over here was sorta dumping the whole haystack onto Charelle. Things were most part okay, big part of her body'd be fine with staying there (new Survivor endurance challenge, it'd be better than anything that aired on Ghost Island). There were a couple of places on her body where she could feel the icy cold burn that pins and needles always gave her, though. Not a big issue though. Kitty Kat told her 'hey, @ me if you've got any issues' but she'd keep this on the down low (too slow). Pretty sure opening her mouth would ruin the shot anyhow.

Smiling would be moving her mouth as well. Thinking about it she was sorta stuck here.

Eh. She could do this for the vine. She could also do it to hear the sweet-ass banger Kat was singin' out right now. Not usually her kind of stuff, but hey, least Charelle was experimenting with her tastes.

Pins and needles still sucked tho.
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