Snowflake challenge, day 7

[john_amend_all]

Day 7

In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Draft a critical essay about a particular media. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of a Broadway show, a movie, a concert, a poetry reading, a museum trip, a you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Compose some limericks, haikus, free-form poetry, 5-word stories. Document a particular bit of real person canon. Take some pictures. Draw a stick-figure comic. Create something. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Write a ficlet? Now there's a thought. And I've got just the prompt.

260) High-Stakes Bachelor by Cindy Dees
Wannabe stuntwoman Lucie Miller can't believe she's landed a starring role in actor-producer Karen Coltraine's new film. A plain-Jane nobody and a megastar? Their on-screen chemistry is electric, burning up the celluloid… but offscreen, Lucie is stalked by danger.
Like a true Hollywood hero, Karen whisks her to her oceanfront mansion, practising love scenes while keeping her safe. But when their real-life relationship starts mirroring the movie's leading couple,the confirmed spinster fears she may fall for the doe-eyed ingenue. If the stalker doesn't get her first…

"I still can't believe you talked me into this," Lucie said.

Karen looked around the innocuous hospitality suite. "Come on, it's just an interview. It's not like you're getting pushed under a bus or something."

"And you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" Lucie grimaced. "Look, acting in your stupid film's one thing. But you didn't say anything about telling lies to the press as well."

"It's all just acting, isn't it?"

"Maybe I'll tell them what a nasty piece of work you really are."

Karen fixed an unwavering gaze on Lucie. "If you do, I'll reshoot that scene with Toggle and the jelly. And this time I won't stop even if you actually are sick."

"You're evil, you know that?"

"I should do." Karen smirked. "You keep telling me enough times."

Lucie folded her arms. "I still reckon this whole film thing's just a cover for whatever you're really up to."

"And you're not leaving till you find out what it is? Suit yourself, then. 'Cos if that's what I was doing, I'd just keep stringing you along, wouldn't I? Think of a few more stunts for you to do. You ever fallen off a multistorey car park?"

"No, but I did falling off a bridge on Tuesday, remember? I can still feel all the bruises."

Karen grinned. "Have to be something else, then. Maybe a car crash."

"This whole thing's a car cra—" Lucie began, but was cut off by Karen's mobile phone ringing.

"Karen Coltraine," she said. "Yeah, we're ready. Come right through." She hung up, and turned to Lucie. "And no bad language, OK? It's not like you've just done one of your stunts."

"If there's a stunt round here it's not me," Lucie grumbled.

⁂

"And is it true you're both doing all your own stunts?" Ms Chandra asked, looking from Lucie to Karen.

"That's right," Karen said. "It's essential for authenticity. I mean, Toggle being so accident prone's an important part of her character. That's why Sadie — that's my character — feels so protective of her. So the audience have to be sure it's really Toggle — Lucie — in all the accidents."

"Which stunt was most difficult for you?"

"Oh, the shark attack, definitely. Where I had to pull Toggle on board my yacht. My hair kept blowing about, the whole time."

Ms Chandra turned to Lucie. "And for you?"

"That bit in the exploding custard factory. I was black and blue the next morning."

"She smelt like custard for days," Karen added. "But that doesn't show up on film, so we could keep shooting."

"Fascinating." Ms Chandra looked a little puzzled. "When the British Film Board announced they were supporting your project, they said it was going to be..." She consulted a tablet computer. "'A gritty vision of the struggles of a lesbian couple in Eighties Newcastle.' I'm not quite sure where the sharks and yachts and exploding custard fit in."

"That was before she started putting her fantasies in," Lucie said.

"She means Sadie's fantasies, of course," Karen added smoothly. "You know, she saves Toggle after she falls in the river and then she imagines rescuing her from all these other terrible dangers."

"Oh, of course." Ms Chandra gave a bright smile. "Now, there have been some suggestions that this entire project was simply a vehicle by the Hulbert Group to avoid tax liability. I wondered if you had any comments on that?"

"We've been audited very thoroughly by the Inland Revenue." Karen shot a sideways glance at Lucie, as if to say You don't catch Karen Coltraine out that easily. "I'm pleased to say they gave us a clean bill of health."

"And... is it true that there's been a hint of romance on the set? The pair of you have been photographed together on the beach at Seaton Sluice, I believe."

"Just method acting," Lucie said. And I don't trust her out of me sight. "We try to live the part. But without the actual, you know, being in a relationship bit, 'cos we're not."

"Great." Ms Chandra leaned back, with the air of one who's reached the end of the difficult questions. "Thank you both so much for your time." She turned back to Lucie. "Oh, one last thing. I believe your stage name is Lucie B. de Miller. If you don't mind my asking, what does the 'B' stand for?"