Alice through the looking glass (almostalice) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-03-19 17:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alice kingsleigh, felicity smoak |
Well you’ve come to the right place, because I loooooooove to chat!
Who: Alice and Felicity
What: Random encounters
Where: Around
When: Early March
status: complete
Rating: PG13
Now that things were a bit more normal, Alice grabbed her helmet cam and her bike and started to peddle around, asking people about their experiences with the ash. The whole thing had been surreal. Cleanup crews were still working with the ash and the hospitals were flooded with lung issues, but the skies were now breathtakingly clear.
Felicity was on the street at the edge of the park looking around at the ash covering what used to be beautiful green ground. Clean up was going to be awful, she thought to herself, picking her glasses off her nose and looking at the thin coating of ash over them. Shaking her head, she breathed on the lenses then reached for the hem of her shirt to clean them. The most annoying thing about this whole thing was how much of a pain cleaning her glasses was becoming.
The blonde's bike kicked up some more ash as she sped down the street and into the park. She was surprised to see anyone near it, especially right now, and slowed a she came up to the street. "Well hello."
Her helmet cam was running, with a bright red light to tell people that it was on.
“Oh, hi there!” Felicity jumped and turned around to face the girl, sliding her glasses back on her face so she could see the other person properly. “Wow, look at you...with your bike and helmet and looking all sporty,” she gave a little laugh. “Is that a...camera on your head?” she asked, pointing at the other woman’s helmet with a frown.
“Yes. I do blogging,” the British girl said, cheerfully. “I like to chat up people on the street and get the word, and what not.”
“Chat up? Oh umm...I’m sorry,” Felicity winced. “I’m uh...I don’t…y’know...I like...men,” she laughed awkwardly.
Alice blinked, then flushed. “Maybe that came out wrong! I mean I interview people! I’ve biked all over, and not just in this country.” She held out her hand, “I’m Alice.”
“Oh god! I’m so sorry,” Felicity reached out and shook hands with the young girl. “I didn’t mean to imply that you’re...you’re gay or anything, it’s great if you are, I just...I have a bad habit of babbling when I get nervous,” she apologised. “I’m Felicity. Felicity Smoak.”
“I like to avoid labels, it’s best to keep an open mind and you never know what might happen in the future,” Alice replied, shrugging her shoulder. She was still very much in the discovering herself phase of her life, which she suspected would last until she was 80. It wasn’t fun if one discovered themselves too soon, after all. “Let me turn the camera off.”
“Oh that’s ok, it’s not the camera making me nervous,” Felicity reassured her with a smile. “It’s people that make me nervous. Just a...general condition really,” she shrugged good-naturedly. “So uh...what do you interview people about?”
“Everything. Anything! I’ve interviewed soldiers and nurses, homeless folks and other people off the street. Just whoever looks interesting, I suppose. I want to bring peoples’ lives into the public record. Everything moves so fast now, we’re all getting lost.”
Felicity grinned at the girl, she was fun and quirky like her. “So where do you host the interviews?”
"Everywhere! I've done them under underpasses in and gun shops and once I did one while waiting in line at Disneyworld." She grinned.
“Oh no, sorry I meant, where do you host them,” Felicity replied, as if repeating the word would clarify it. “Like on the internet. At least I’m assuming you put them on the internet since that’s the most likely place to post them,” she babbled.
“Oh!” Alice smacked her own forehead, then dug around in her jeans until she found a business card. “Website is on the front, you can find them there!”
“Cool, I’ll be sure to check it out,” Felicity said, taking the card and reading the front before slipping it into her handbag. “So, what are you looking for today? Can I help?”
“Nobody in particular! I’m doing random stops, anybody who’s willing to chat for a bit,” Alice replied, tone and expression both cheerful. After some personal problems she’d wanted to be busy for a little while.
“Well you’ve come to the right place, because I loooooooove to chat!” Felicity grinned at the girl. “Y’know, despite having like ridiculous social anxiety when it comes to talking, so be prepared to stop me if I start to babble,” she warned the girl with a nervous laugh.
“What do you do,then?” Alice asked, settling back on her bike to get more comfortable. “For a living? For fun? Both? I do like it when it’s both.”
“Oh it’s both!” Felicity told her happily. “I’m a bit of a computer nerd, I know, you probably guessed from the glasses and awkward social demeanour,” she joked. “But I was left an IT company by a friend of mine, so now I sit around and play all day to my heart’s content,” she told the girl with a bright smile.
“I’ve met plenty of awkward folks who can’t navigate the web, and a couple nerds as cool as I’m eccentric,” Alice replied, winking at her. “And that’s wonderful! Someone really just left you their company? Just like that?”
“Well I worked for him first and I guess he trusted me to look after it for him while he’s away,” Felicity explained with a shrug. “His mom was ill and needed better treatment and he couldn’t just leave her to get treatment in another state so…” she trailed off as if it explained it all. “Anyway, that’s what I do now. “What got you into all of this then?” she pointed to the camera.
Alice chuckled, “You could say it was left to me too. By my father, really. Only it’s much bigger than one girl with a blog. I’m trying to … pull the family company into the 20th century at least and hopefully the 21st. Proof of concept as it were. I’m sure the board is happy to have me out of their hair right now.”
“Oh wow, so you’ve got a whole dynasty thing going on,” Felicity remarked. “The board not too happy with being dragged out of the stone age, huh?”
“Lord, no. They’re sieving money and they want to expand into outdated markets. Newspapers. Everyone else is trying to get out and they want to stay in. Huddling on the deck of the titanic.” Alice made a face.
Felicity laughed at that analogy. “Oh believe me, I know that story aaaall too well,” she agreed. “Working in IT you meet so many people who refuse to move out of the cave and on to the net,” she winked. “It’s a constant battle.”
“One that will sink the company. My company now.” She always hated saying that. Having her own company. She hated the very idea because it meant she’d be chained for life to something that was distinctly not her. But she didn’t have it in her heart to sell it. So then she had to change it. “If they don’t pull their heads out of their arses.”
“Well, if you want any help let me know,” Felicity offered. “In times like these I figure businesses should be helping each other out if they not selling them down the river,” she smiled.
“I may need advice, at some point,” Alice admitted. She held out her hand to Felicity. “I should let you go. I’m sure I’m keeping you from things.”
"That's all right, I love to talk," Felicity grinned, then heard an alarm on her phone going off. "Oh crap, yeah sorry, I've got a client to meet," she told her looking at the phone. Shutting the case, she reached into her bag and pulled out a business card case and withdrew a card to hand over to Alice. "Here you go, if you ever need me that's where you'll find me," she smiled kindly.
“Great!” She took the card, then wriggled her fingers at Alice, before kicking off on her bike and heading down the street. That had been fun!