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Post by SadistSquirrel on Sept 25, 2019 17:25:24 GMT -8
The Tuffle could only grin. She was being given a chance, and a challenge… and not a very hard one at that. “ Refitting the seat could take less than a day ma’am. Hardly an issue… the only issue that could come of it is a weight balancing one which I don’t think is likely, but if so it’d only extend the wait period by a few days while I did some planning. Might lead to a slightly bulkier vehicle at the sides but it wouldn’t be impossible by any means at all.” Malina spoke with confidence, she at least knew how to do that when her skills were in question. She crossed one leg over the other as she thought to herself… there was one other part of the question she was posed after all. Malina seemed eager to get into it once she got her thoughts straight, wildly gesticulating with her hands as she spoke and thought at the same time... fairly lucky she didn't entirely fall over herself. “ The engine… wouldn’t necessarily be an issue, it depends on whether you would want it bespoke. I could simply take the engine out of the shell, replace it with another already designed for fuel efficiency but that’s possibly not what you’re looking for. If you wanted something above and beyond, even more custom… well, that’d probably take a little longer. Depending on what you wanted, I’m thinking… a few weeks? Maybe a month? Couple of months at worst? I work fast, don’t really spend much time doing anything else.” Malina wasn’t lying. She probably should get up to other things but… well, she has passion so there’s that. “ Is this a genuine request, Miss Brief? If so I mean… I could probably start work on considerations now.” A little too eager, she opened the bag she’d somehow kept at her side through all the rumblings of the day already pulling out a laptop that looked… a little outdated in truth. Almost anachronistically blocky and with a few scrape marks (and what looked to be a scorch mark of some kind!?) it'd certainly been seeing better days. She’d been making do with what she could afford with no hope for replacements and clearly that hadn't lead to her being equipped with the best of the best. Even if she sold herself as being so. A good worksman doesn’t blame her tools, after all.
wc: 402
twc: 4,694
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Post by zer0gravitea on Sept 25, 2019 17:41:36 GMT -8
Tap nodded more and more quickly, finding herself getting wrapped up in the little engineer’s enthusiasm. There was certainly something infectious about it, even if Tap didn’t particularly care about the specifics of how the request would be done so much as the simple fact that it would be done. But, then, Malina said that magic word that wholly piqued the heiress’s interests: custom. As someone of wealth, Tap relished in having things that nobody else did- especially if nobody else could. If she could get this pleasant little worker to construct her something so unique, so sublime, Tap would be more than excited. Of course, there’d be matters of signing non-disclosure agreements and more or less ensuring that if the specifications of the designs ever made it into the hands of someone not explicitly authorized by Tap herself, Malina would never put her hands on another wrench again… but those were small details in the face of the saiyan’s desire to possess something wholly and completely her own. That was, perhaps, the one drawback to her position as a model-- most things she took an interest in invariably became subject to copycat offshoots, whether by her own brands or rivals attempting to capitalize on some accessory that Capsule Corp did not deem necessary to spend resources producing. Sure, mimicry was the highest form of flattery, but Tap did so adore her individuality. In her own excitement, the heirless slid forward on the couch and brought herself even closer to Malina, eyes alight with unfettered jubilation. She opened her mouth to confirm the request, to make it so- and that was when the engineer produced something… Tap didn’t have the words for it. Horrific. Despicable. Eldritch Nightmare. Ugly. Unworthy. Literally the worst.She snatched the laptop out of Malina’s hands and quickly deposited it on the counter across from their couch, then fled back to the aforementioned sofa and recoiled as far away from the terrifying piece of technology. She nearly hissed at it, but retained enough dignity to refrain from doing so. “ Unacceptable. Entirely unacceptable! I will not suffer anyone under my employ to be caught using something so… degrading! Kami above, if anyone caught wind that you had designed something for me using that, you might as well use it to craft a noose for me-- I’d rather neck myself a hundred times than wear the shame of owning a product designed by something so… inferior. No, absolutely not!” Tap suddenly bolted to her feet and turned, seizing Malina’s hand to draw her, too, into a stand. She pulled the engineer close, sweeping her arm across the low of her back as though she were preparing to do something as unprofessional as dip her down into a kiss. Instead, she looked into Malina’s eyes with a gaze of utmost severity. “ Swear to me that you will never again use something so humiliating- for both of our sakes. I will provide you with something new, something fresh- something beautiful. And then, I want you to take that abomination back to the pit that it crawled out of and put it out of my misery.” wc: 551 twc: 5421 SadistSquirrel
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Post by SadistSquirrel on Sept 25, 2019 17:57:41 GMT -8
Malina had barely noticed the model’s rapt attention, so enthralled in her own world as she was… to her, something custom was to be expected. She’d made a lot of the things she used herself after all, if not entirely on its own than at the very least customised and personalised them! Like her laptop for exam-- The face she pulled as her laptop was ripped from her hands and flung aside was hard to describe, a mixed of betrayed pain and the loss of a loved one all rolled up into one… her hands rested in the air making small grabby motions at the space her laptop had taken up before it was wrested from her grasp and it seemed clear Malina was a little taken aback. “ I… but but… ah… it… I…” She sniffled, only to jerk back in surprise as Tap launched into the air… her own hands still extended, she felt like they’d practically been pulled from her socket as the surprisingly strong model thoroughly hoisted her to her feet. The height difference was frustratingly noticeable and a pain to Malina’s neck as she craned her head to look the heiress in the eyes. Her words were understood, but it was clear Malina didn’t entirely understand why for a moment. “ It’s got all my work on it! I’ve been using it f-f-f-forever!” She hesitated, her eyes tearing away from Tap’s own for a moment and looking at the laptop… it’d been with her for a while, but… “ O-Okay.” … sacrifices had to be made. Progress! She gave a long sigh with Tap clinging around her, locking eyes with her once more. While Tap was happily confident with her arms slung around the engineer, Malina was stiff as a board and unsure where to put her hands… after all; a mistake for Tap would be embarrassing, a mistake for Malina would be fatal… career-wise. Maybe literally. The thought didn’t exactly fill her with less dread. “If I’m provided with the right tools for the job, I’ll do it… I’ll get to work on some custom modifications for your bike. Improve fuel efficiency, give it a wider seat. Shouldn’t be too hard… might not need as much as I thought in truth. Although obviously I’ll have to be careful not to modify it too much otherwise you’ll struggle to find a mechanic who can fix it worth a damn if it breaks down somewhere. The engine I mean, pretty sure the seat will be doable for anybody ready.” The Tuffle was off again, relaxing once more as she rambled on about her work. She eventually couldn’t help but laugh at her own thoughts. “Want a cup holder?”
wc: 449 twc: 5,143
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Post by zer0gravitea on Sept 25, 2019 18:26:25 GMT -8
Good, yes- good. Tap would not let anyone under her direct influence be caught dead using anything quite as atrocious as that laptop, for all of the aforementioned reasons. That, and, honestly, Tap found old tech to be particularly revolting. If it was ancient, there was a certain antique charm to it- but for it to be recent enough to still be usable? Let’s just say that any sort of ‘hipster’ movement was essentially reviled by the model heiress. She did glance backward once more to look the terrible device over, scowling throughout- of course. When she returned her gaze to Malina, the saiyan smiled. “ Dearest Malina-- you will be my mechanic. If you are so successful in creating a variation of that bike that is purely my own, I would suffer no other fool to lay their greasy palms on it. Why else would I want a seat extension? You’ll be coming with me wherever I take it, obviously. As for your laptop, well… I trust that you are smart enough to transfer the data over to new equipment that Capsule Corporation will be providing to you. Let’s hold off on that cup holder, however--” the princess’s monologue was cut short by a sudden knocking on her trailer’s door. Tap’s brow furrowed at the noise. “ Miss Brief-- we’ve finished our edit drafts, if you like to come take a look at them?” the voice, notably feminine, echoed through Tap’s door. The heiress exhaled a long sigh, having seemingly forgotten that she was actually in the middle of work at that very moment. She reluctantly released Malina and turned to open the door, whereupon she cast a critical gaze down on the blonde designer standing beyond. Apparently the designer was used to such scrutiny, as she seemed entirely unphased by the glare. Rather, she stepped to the side and extended her arm to direct Tap’s attention toward the tables where their field editors had set up their stations. With another sigh, she looked over her shoulder at Malina and gestured outside with a nod. “ Come, Malina. The job demands our attention, I trust you will remember everything we discussed. Shigemi--” Tap addressed the blonde designer as she stepped out of the trailer, “ -- see to it that the usual NDA is drafted up for Malina, here.” After Tap was well on her way to the editing stations, that designer- Shigemi- looked up into the trailer and cocked her brow, intrigued by what she saw. “ Malina? We’ll have those papers ready for you in about a half hour. I gotta admit, I’m surprised-- you’re not usually the type she gets trailer-NDAs for. You’re… kinda plain- sorry, I don’t mean to be rude! I mean, you’re like me. Normal. You know how it is with people like Miss Brief. Only the best and all that. Anyways, half an hour. Pleasure meeting you!” and with that, Shigemi scurried off toward her own station, already fumbling with her phone to get Tap’s request under way. wc: 522 twc: 5943 SadistSquirrel
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Post by SadistSquirrel on Sept 25, 2019 18:54:05 GMT -8
The thought of being an assistant to somebody like Tap Brief was certainly a shocking revelation, even if she’d just be her hanger-on mechanic it was undeniably a step up from her previous contracting work. And besides! The heiress hadn’t even denied her the ability to work on other projects. Yet. She was a little overwhelmed by the sheer impact of the day’s events so far, so much so that the knock on the trailer door startled her a little. She followed along behind Tap as she was called for, her hand hesitantly reaching towards her laptop for a moment… before she sighed and left it there, stepping out of the trailer. Almost immediately she gave a faint shiver, less about cold and more for her own insecurity as she stepped out in her shirt. She looked to the designer with a faint smile, looking her over. “ Shig-” Only to be immediately cut off by Shigemi’s own words, just giving a quick nod of acknowledgement to her name… but as Shigemi kept talking, she gave a small pout. Plain!? That’s unfair, she’s just… she doesn’t have the funds to… well she can never find the time to… Okay, maybe it was accurate. She raised a hand, subconsciously bringing her hand through her gingery bob as Shigemi finished up. “R-Right! Half an hour. Pleasure meeting you!” She drew in a deep breath through her nose, her shoulders raising before she gave a long sigh and thought to herself. An NDA? It seemed confusing to her, although she quickly stitched the reason together. If Tap wanted her around, she’d probably see something she wasn’t supposed to talk about. It wasn’t something that’d cause her any issue, but better safe than sorry she assumed. With a carefree shrug, she took a step towards the editing suite. A step was about all she managed before a somewhat nasally, and familiar, male voice called out. “ Malina! Now that you’re finally out of the trailer maybe you can come and actually do your job!?” She whipped around to face Wes, who was already rushing over towards her… his tie was now completely gone and generally it looked like the man was reaching rock bottom. “ Your contract still demands that you work on these prototypes, and while you may have been entertaining the guest that is not why you are here!” For a moment, Malina recoiled… it wasn’t exactly like she had a choice… but then again, Wes had hardly been respecting the law of the contract up till now. She didn’t entirely know how to respond for a moment… and then she did. Oh did she. “ Well, I was told by Miss Brief that I was to come find her...” She downturned her eyes a little, made a show of looking a bit awkward, not hard given her usual state of affairs. “ ... while I know it isn’t in my contract, I somehow doubt you want your esteemed guest being upset. Or unsatisfied… right? How do you think Miss Brief, and by extension Capsule Corp, would feel knowing you were the reason the person she asked for never arrived?” She kept a calm voice, but as her little speech ended, she peered up over her glasses at the lanky supervisor and smirked. “ W-Well that isn’t… I mean… it wouldn’t be my fault! It’d…” Malina pointedly turned her head, looking to Tap. “ W-What are you standing here for!? If she’s asked for you, go!” The supervisor quickly rushes off, apparently not willing to be standing near Malina too long at this point… almost immediately his eyes set on somebody else. “ Stop stop stop! What are you doi--” His voice fades out into the distance… and fades out of relevance, as Malina practically skips up towards Tap. While she’d probably never get the chance to do that again… finally putting Wes in his place was extremely satisfying. “Miss Brief? How are the edits looking? May I see?”
wc: 659 twc: 5,802
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Post by zer0gravitea on Sept 25, 2019 19:26:19 GMT -8
“ It’s only fair that you be allowed to at least see, Malina, given how you are in at least half of them. The rundown is generally as follows…” Tap began to gesture at each of the editors one after another. In order: the first was a woman with curly red hair and a rather broad face, the second was a stubby looking man with short-and-spiked black hair, the third was a young woman of dark skin and an even richer chestnut hair, and lastely, the fourth was a somewhat unscrupulous looking lad- likely a late teenager. “ They each do the standard cleaning up of images, removing particulate and unsightly blemishes from the models, products, and the like. However, first up is Toyo- she works with Shigemi and focuses on spreads that would look best in magazines, particularly women’s. As you can see, our faces have been brightened up a bit and our natural figures accentuated just enough to increase a certain sensual appeal; the focus is on the models, in this case, us, rather than the product itself. The objective is to provoke a small sense of envy.
Then we have Dan-- he’s the technical guy. As you can see, the focus of his edits is the bike itself. He’s worked a few illusions, so to speak, to place emphasis on the product we’re selling. If you’ll compare the two drafts so far, we look much less still in Dan’s edits. The bike looks crisper, newer, as though riding it put no wear on the product whatsoever. Look at the motion shots- the bike looks like it’s just gliding along the ground, and the lighting emphasizes the machine’s own contours, as though he were trying to sell a certain sexuality of the bike itself.
Third we’ve got Yuki, who places particular emphasis on the images as a whole. You can see that she’s applied a few filters to tweak with the contrast or to give them warmer, colder, and so on ‘feels’. She typically works as though she were going to post these images in travel pieces, indie articles, or social media profiles. In some shots, we are the primary focus and in others, it’s the mountains in the background. Where Toyo and Shigemi are beauty, Dan is Tech, and Yuki is ‘mood’. Artsy stuff-- not particularly my favorite edits, but they have their uses.
Finally, there’s… Uhm…” Tap snapped her fingers and pointed several times toward the boy, who seemed entirely oblivious to the whole affair. He was lost in his own little world of editing and could be seen to be making bizarre… creations out of the otherwise stunning images they had taken. Some were discordant, some were bizarre but intriguing pieces that made the two riders seem to blend seamlessly into the bike itself. “ ... the intern. I can never remember their damn names-- usually better that I don’t, they don’t hang around for long. I keep them on my edit teams as wildcards so to speak. Most of what they create is utter garbage, but there are occasionally gems buried in the refuse. We usually have an intern on for only a handful of projects, then we shuffle them off to someone else with a curated portfolio and praise. If an intern’s work ever sees public eye, it’s usually in the form of some manner of viral campaign. It really depends on what they make of what we give--” Tap suddenly looked quite cross with the boy. She stomped over to him and slapped him firmly across the back of his head, then jabbed an accusatory finger toward the next image he had resumed work on. That looked as though he was exploiting the snug nature of Tap’s clothing in an attempt to draft a hypothetical image of her nudity. “ Oi! If I wanted something like this floating around, I’d pay someone real money for something tasteful- not this trashy, grade-school bullshit! I’m going to have Shigemi keep an eye on you, and if I so much as catch a whisper about this kind of garbage being finished, I’ll have the knuckles removed from your fingers!” The boy acknowledged Tap’s anger with only a sigh, a nod, and a quick deletion of the edit in question. She turned back to Malina and shook her head, clearly exasperated. “ The interns bring something fresh to the table, but it’s crap like that that makes sure we never keep them for long. Anyways-- have any thoughts to add to what you’ve seen so far?” wc: 780 twc: 6723 SadistSquirrel
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Post by SadistSquirrel on Sept 25, 2019 19:55:02 GMT -8
“ Oh right, I am… aren’t I? O-Oh… right… I am aren’t I.” Two very similar sentences, two entirely different tones as she leaned in horrified at being on camera. For the moment it was all she could manage before her attention drifted back to Tap’s words… she gave a small smile and a wave to the people she was being introduced to. As time went on, however, she seemed less and less disgusted with herself on camera… especially with Toyo’s work on the pictures. She was surprised to see as much work done on herself as there was… while Malina was hardly the focus, her presence in the chosen pictures wasn’t really removable… and cropping her out would end up cropping most of the bike out. Okay for the model, but the bike was technically the focus… even if the bikes had every potential to simply be sold by Tap having lounged on one for a while. She peered in close, occasionally pointing to something gently and asking a quick question… for a brief moment her attention was to Toyo and her work, curious as to how her work was being done… what drove her to do certain edits. This went right down to the chain until she reached the intern. With some small hesitation she attempted to talk to him, although it seemed clear it was going to be a rather one-sided conversation. “ Oh, I like what you’ve been doing on this layer…” She quickly pointed to another layer of the photograph, it seemed the intern had been using multiple layers for multiple different variations and simply hiding the ones he wasn’t using at the moment. Efficient for multiple projects, but a bit clumsy for specific goals… but exactly the kind of thing a wildcard intern would end up doing. The layer itself seemed almost chaotic at first as he flurried to hide the other layers, but the work was certainly… odd. The picture being used had Tap pressed up against Malina’s back, an early shoot where Malina was still clinging to the motorcycle beneath her for dear life. The intern had clearly been doing some interesting things with the picture, hypothetical nudity aside, and in this instance he had been slowly using a blurring tool which, with some more precise editing, had given the illusion of Malina melding into the machine itself. Tap was left unscathed, although the intern was quick to mumble something about intending to fix that. “ Oh, you could… or maybe just leave it as it is… a little bit of extra detail work on me could end up looking interesting, I’m sure some niche magazine or another could take it, right?” She gave a quiet chuckle before giving the intern a nod and leaning back. The intern seemed… surprisingly appreciative of the time and his attentions drifted quickly to the idea Malina had presented… for about a minute, before he suddenly had another idea and moved on to that. Malina looked back to Tap with a smile. “You know, so far I have to say I’m impressed… I was hoping to see the edit work at some point, but in progress wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I’ve always been interested but never really had the time away from projects and contract work!” At about that time, Shigemi came rushing over in a fast walk that threatened to put a running athlete to shame. “Miss Brief. Malina. The trailer NDA is drafted.” Malina shared a glance with Tap, before taking it and skimming through it. “Well… I guess I should sign now, huh?”
wc: 600 twc: 6,402
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