daphne. (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} distressing) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} valarlogs,@ 2020-03-13 10:16:00 |
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| Entry tags: | !complete, adora (she-ra), daphne blake |
WHO: Daphne Blake & Adora
WHERE: Daphne's home
WHEN: Last month
WHAT: Friends going over options & chatting.
WARNINGS: PG
STATUS: Complete
There were a few people in the industry that Daphne thought to keep on good terms, people who were genuine and real, who weren’t trying to backstab or get one over on someone. Those were the people to stay in touch with, to try and stay friends with, even when you ended up barely spending more than a month in one place.
Adora was one of those people, and Daphne appreciated her very much. They might not get to spend time together a lot, being what their career choices were, but it was good whenever they were in the same place for long enough to catch up.
Rather than go out, where Adora would likely be recognised by someone and they’d most likely need to watch what they were saying at some point or another, Daphne opted to invite Adora to her place, order in food, have some wine and they could laugh at the script that she had right then.
And if things got a little more personal about things in the industry or persons at work, this way there wouldn’t be anything in the gossip rags.
Adora had only tripped twice on her way over to Daphne’s. The first trip had resulted in her bottle of wine being broken so she had to go out and buy another, where, with her huge sunglasses and hoodie on, she tripped in the store and banged her knee but didn’t lose or break anything else, so by the time she got to Daphne’s, she was just as harried as she usually was whenever she went anywhere on her own.
She’d unburdened herself of the wine and cracked it open immediately, pouring them both an unnecessarily large glass while they waited for their food to arrive and she finally flopped down on the couch, alternating between scratching behind Scooby’s ears and rubbing her sore knee.
“And I swear,” she said, “I have no idea how it happened. One minute I was just walking down the street and the next I was on the floor with a broken wine bottle and three people staring at me. No cameras, thank God, Julian would have a heart attack, he’s not paid enough to protect me from my own stupidity, but still.”
She groaned theatrically. “It’s a miracle I’ve only been hurt seriously once.”
Daphne really couldn’t help the small chuckle, “I’m amazed you haven’t had some kind of public relations incident.” Sure, these things happened, but there was always some walking involved in their line of work (public image).
“I would’ve thought for sure you’d have been on the front of Enquirer, Starlet topples on red carpet,” Daphne used her hands to signify each word of the headline, “and then just a full spread of your fall at some press event.” That wasn’t to say those things didn’t happen to people. But Adora just seemed to have some kind of issue with gravity.
“Maybe I should see if Shaggy will let me train Scooby as a guide dog. You might need him at this rate.”
Adora laughed and scratched behind Scooby’s ears as he lifted his head in response to hearing his name being spoken. “I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but the walking I have to do is always seriously limited for a reason.” She grinned. “My PR team are like wizards or something, they’re so good at keeping me on my feet and pictures of me falling out of public hands.”
That, she supposed, she had to thank Weaver for.
“They work so hard to stop me being a meme.”
She hummed, sipping at her wine. “Anyway, my clumsiness aside, how’ve things been with you?”
Adora was wonderful, she was. But sometimes Daphne wondered how she'd managed to not break every bone in her body already. "You might need to check that PR team of yours haven't sold their souls to make that happen." From the sounds of things they worked overtime to keep Adora's image as one of an elegant and poised model.
"They've been pretty fine," Daphne hadn't really been doing much of anything, she'd leased the condo, started to make friends, was seeing about building a life in one place. But beyond that she wasn't trying to do anything. "I've been enjoying my hiatus, honestly. It's nice to just get up when I want, do whatever I want. Scooby and I go on a lot of hikes and visit the beach a lot." There was a possibility she was going to learn how to surf.
"It's certainly a life I could get used to." Even if it would get boring after a while.
“I don’t think they have souls, so they probably did make a deal with some kind of crossroads demon or something. If those things are real, do you think they’re real? God, I hope not.” Adora tightened her fingers around her wine glass, “That would be horrible if they were, could you imagine? It’d be risky to do anything anywhere in case a demon popped out and tried to steal your soul.”
If that was the case, every lawyer she’d ever met - save the one who helped her most recently - was definitely a demon of some sort.
She smiled down at Scooby, and then over at Daphne as she talked about long walks and hikes, about how she was sort of settling in. It sounded good, but Adora wondered how long it would be before this life got boring for both of them, being so used to the hectic nature of photoshoots and soundstages, the business of being on the go constantly and always in demand. She wondered if Daphne, like her, worried a little about being out of the spotlight meaning that she’d become irrelevant.
“What’re the beaches here like?” she asked, “I haven’t had a chance to get to them yet. Also, I mean, it’s winter and though it’s not snowing or anything it’s definitely not the sort of beach weather that you’d want for sitting around and doing pretty much nothing…”
“I think the whole thing with crossroads demons was deals for souls,” Daphne hid a smirk behind her glass, “You’d need to choose to get something in exchange for your soul. I mean, I guess most of Hollywood would fit the bill, right? Jack Nicholson totally sold his soul for fame. Totally.”
She could think of a few photographers she hoped were bound for hell too. But that was a little more on the personal side.
“They’re nice, sometimes it’s a battle finding one that’s not packed with people, January is an easy going time, fewer tourists it seems.” There was Daphne, talking like she knew what she was saying, “Scooby and I really like Huntington Beach, they have the pier there too? It’s fun. We definitely do more walking than lazing. We might laze a lot in the summer.” Hopefully with the blazing hot sun.
“Although I am going to learn how to surf.”
Adora laughed, “Yeah. I agree with you about Jack Nicholson. I’ve never worked with him but I know a few people that have and they are terrified of him. I saw him at an awards event a couple of years ago, but I gave him a wide berth. He’s just got the most chaotic energy.”
She nodded, leaning back into the chair and almost knocking her wine glass off the arm where she’d rested it, catching it but in her flailing she kicked the table, smacking her toes against leg and cursing loudly enough to startle the large dog that had settled near her.
“Fuck, come on,” she complained, “Sorry- you- uh- surfing! Yes, tell me about that. Surfers look so awesome.”
Considering the roles Nicholson took, Daphne would be surprised if there wasn’t chaotic everything around him. And then Adora… well, ‘Adora’d’ on her seat and Daphne just had to laugh, watching Scooby resettle slowly, like he was questioning his choice to lay down near Adora.
“Even sitting down, you just manage to cause a commotion.” It was a stunning ability that Adora had, but definitely not one that Daphne envied in any fashion.
“But yes, surfing,” there was no point in putting too much attention on Adora’s flailing if the other woman didn’t really want it, Daphne could ask about her toes later, “a friend from the network, you know the main one within the town, well, he’s offered to teach me. We’ll see how it goes, hopefully I won’t help up drowning in the ocean.”
Adora nodded, “I’ve seen the network. I haven’t done much on it yet ‘cause I just was trying to understand what people used it for? I mean, there’s a lot of talk about dreams and stuff? And generally a lot of random stuff that I’m hoping will make more sense the longer I live here?”
She tipped her head, eyes sparkling as she focused her attention on Daphne, “Is he cute? Your surf teacher.”
Daphne was sure the dream thing was a California thing, but then maybe talking to a group of people like that was just easier than getting actual therapy to figure things out. Goodness knew it was weird and localised, but she’d wait until Adora started experiencing things for herself to tell her that it was a thing.
Ciri and TJ seemed to deal with it a lot. “I think that’s the California air.” Daphne was sure it would make sense eventually. Even if Daphne had little experience herself.
“Well, he’s a surfer, so he’s at least fit?” Was it bad that Daphne hadn’t actually met Kyle in person? “He’s a doctor though, I think he’s a surgeon? He works so much he has to be pretty good.” And yes, she was avoiding the question about his looks, but she was sure she could get away with it.
“Hah, the California air.” Adora laughed to herself, though she wasn’t entirely sure what about it was funny. It was the kind of thing she’d heard before, from people claiming to be ‘burned out’ so they were heading to the mountains to get different air and recharge or whatever.
She arched her eyebrows as Daphne dodged her question. “Daph,” she said, turning to look at her friend. “You have met this guy, right?”
“Of course I have,” people met on the internet all time, it was how some relationships started, and while she wasn’t looking for that here, it wasn’t like she’d be the first person to meet someone she’d first met online.
Besides, they were meeting in public to do things in public. It wasn’t like he’d drown her at the beach in front of people. “His name is Kyle and he’s a doctor.” Which, you know, not exactly above killing people, sure, but she didn’t get that vibe from Kyle at all. She might’ve been emphasising the doctor part though.
“Adora, it’s fine. He’s just teaching me to surf, he’s not watering my plants while I’m out.”
“So being a doctor makes him an eligible bachelor, it doesn’t mean he’s not secretly a murderer you know.” Adora pointed out, index finger outstretched in Daphne’s direction. “At least you’re meeting him somewhere public so if he tries to murder you you’ll be able to get help from some passerby.”
She lifted a shoulder, playfully grinning at her friend. “Excuse me for worrying about you.”
“The likelihood of my becoming a plot point in one of those scripts is unlikely. Besides, if he does murder me, there’s a clear cybertrail right back to him.” Daphne chuckled and shook her head. Sure, murderers did those kinds of things, and she’d read a few news articles about creepy guys luring people away, but the chances were slim. “Besides, you know where I’ll be and when, if I don’t text you after surfing, you can call the cops.”
Sipping more wine, Daphne shifted herself on the sofa, “What’s your new script life? Psycho-drama? Or is this just your overactive imagination?”
“Promise?” Adora asked, eyebrow arching as she looked over at Daphne even while reaching into her bag and pulling out three blue-covered scripts. “‘Cause that’s officially a thing now, I’ll call the cops if you don’t let me know you’ve not been murdered.”
She tossed one over to Daphne, the heavy pile of paper landing on the edge of the table with a thump. “Here, take a look at that one. It’s called This House is Not For Sale. About some realtor trying to sell haunted houses? This one,” she pointed to the one on her lap, “I quite like the look of? Field of View, it’s some sci-fi thing and I’d get to keep my action-chick schtick for a bit longer. But then this one…” the final script sitting on the couch, “would give Emma Frost - you know I’m friends with her, right? - an aneurysm. It’s some c-list horror movie which wants their two female characters, both die by the way, to spend most of it either topless or in underwear.”
“I promise,” Daphne was more than sure it’d be fine. But if she just needed to text Adora before and after, that would be more than okay to do.
Thank god that Adora hadn’t thrown Daphne the c-list horror movie script, because Scooby would be fed that almost instantly. “Adora, please tell the horror movie people to get to fuck?” And Daphne rarely swore, but Adora was so much better than being horror trope fodder and running around like House of Wax extras.
“And, this realtor sounds like she’s the villain in the story, you’re a little better than that,” flipping through the pages, Daphne rolled her eyes a little at the plot. “You should go with the one that interests you most. I mean, you could audition for them all, I’m sure. But I’d have to kidnap you if you were cast in c-list horror movies.”
“Oh, I’d be on Dancing with the Stars before taking a c-list horror movie,” Adora said with a promising in her voice. “I’m not doing that to my career. Either of those things. If I end up being not relevant or whatever then I’ll just… find something else to do that doesn’t involve being a waitress.”
She snorted, “Can you imagine me trying to wait tables? With my coordination?”
She leaned forward, picking up her wine and offering the sci-fi script to Daphne. “What do you think?”
Dancing with the Stars was definitely better than a c-list horror movie, but the idea of Adora trying to dance professionally was worrying too. “Let’s hope it never comes to that.” There were plenty of things Adora could do before going that route, and hopefully it never included reality television.
“It’d need to be one of those immersive disaster places, where people pay to have stuff spilled on them.” And Daphne didn’t see that being anything people would pay for. Daphne sure as heck wouldn’t pay to get spaghetti dropped on her.
Taking the script from Adora, Daphne flipped through a few of the pages, “It looks rather compelling, and maybe it’ll push you into a new genre, right?” Sci-fi was definitely a strong and enduring genre.
“And it’s a sideways jump from the action stuff I was doing on TV,” Adora said, “and definitely a step away from the rom-com movies.” She’d done a few of those and they were fun, sure, but not her favourite thing.
It had often been a miracle that she managed to do the stunts that were asked of her and fighting choreography but could barely walk three steps without tripping herself up. She usually joked that it was like the spirit of a warrior possessed her on set and left her immediately when the cameras stopped rolling.
“I definitely don’t wanna be one of those, y’know, typecast actors where I get stuck just doing ‘romantic lead one, Brittney who falls for the wrong guy’ or whatever.”
Rom-coms were cute to keep things going, but Daphne could absolutely understand why Adora didn’t want to get pigeonholed into that one genre and deal with the constant type casting.
“I mean, you’ve got the range, especially with your background,” it wasn’t like Adora didn’t have a good standing as an action actress, and those were becoming more and more common, with female led action movies and women doing more in the action genre.
“But you know I’d support anything you wanted to do, even if it was some silly horror. You have to try something if it speaks to you.” After all, so long as Adora was enjoying what she did, that was the important thing.
“And if you need someone to run through lines with you, I’d happily help.”
Adora grinned, finished off her glass of wine and got to her feet to get the bottle to refill her glass, and Daphne’s, even though it wasn’t quite empty yet.
“You’re gonna regret that,” she teased, “because I’ll be taking you up on that and inviting you to set for moral support. That’s what best friends are for, right?”
She sat down again and turned on the TV, because sometimes you just needed to watch random crap to unwind with a friend.