Impossible Girl - 31

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IGirl woke with a crick in her neck, even business class recliners were crap to sleep in. She couldn’t wait to get to her hotel room and soak in a long hot bath. The stewardess brought her a bloody mary and the colour of it reminded her of how deeply she’d drunk from Rowan the night before. She pushed it from her mind, she might have to go weeks now.

She fired up her laptop, there was paparazzi at Tokyo airport. Roly would be pleased. To Roly paparazzi equalled photos, equalled magazine exposure, equalled sales. IGirl knew he was right but after a twelve hour flight she couldn’t find the mind set. She was too tired to put on a show.

IGirl had worn her hair in the bones onto the plane in Sydney and all she got was snide comments and amateurs with I-phones. She felt embarrassed, a ‘poser’ as a passing someone had put it. As soon as she got on board she’d pull them out. Her hair was a mess. Later on, when she’d had time to clean up, she would secure the IGirl illusion back in place and go court them. If they would have her back.

She'd burned bridges when the interest in the IGirl phenomena had stalked beyond the fashion shows and the Rowan Bark gigs and zoomed into their apartment with a telephoto lens. She couldn’t handle the microscope then. She didn’t know what it would see.

IGirl had needed time off, to lie low and learn to live again… with Rowan and … it. IGirl had avoided most of the winter fashion season, letting Roly take responsibility for launching the last collection. It wasn’t as successful and of course Roly blamed her absence for this.

Now Tokyo city and Japanese Fashion Week loomed large again in front of her. Tokyo had been so good to her. IGirl hoped her re-entry would be as welcome as the plane’s landing.

The early release pieces were getting good press. But according to Roly it was way too early to rest on her laurels. She needed to get out and work the scene again. It wasn’t enough to design the frocks, she had to wear the skull and bones, she had to be the brand, be the bad girl.

‘Celebrity designer’, she resented the label. When she was working every line, every cut, every seam obsessed her. None of the money or the acclaim mattered, she just wanted to make something beautiful. But now that the season’s designs were complete IGirl new she did want it. She always had.

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Sketchbook - 18

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More sketchbook because we haven't had time to do anything else but scribble in biro...

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Sketchbook - 17

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Sketchbook - 16

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Impossible Girl - 30

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I can’t be responsible for your guilt
Conversation #IG (IGirl) RB (Rowan Bark)

RB: I can’t be responsible for your guilt..
IG: You can’t be responsible for anything but your own comfort..
RB: Is my love not good enough for you?
IG: F*#$ Rowan I just drugged and bled a kid…
RB: You did what you had to do.
IG: Why can’t you be here for me?
RB: Do you want me to go and check the kid’s still breathing?
IG: NO. God why don’t you get it.
RB: I do get it. There’s just nothing I can do about it.
IG: Mr cool calm and f*cking conscience free…
RB: Don’t take this out on me.
IG: I just want you to share it.
RB: I’m not going to crucify myself every time I need to feed.
IG: What are you going to do?
RB: I’m not a bad person.
IG: We don’t know what the f*#$ we are.
RB: We know as much as anyone..


It’s business time
Conversation #IG (IGirl) Roly

IG: It’s not what I want.
Roly: What you want is unaffordable
IG: What’s the point then? I may as well do a range for Target.
Roly: I thought I was the princess in this partnership.
IG: You are.. I’m the Queen.
Roly: Ha ha.. your royal highness needs to keep it real.
IG: The reality of that dress is the flow of the fabric.
Roly: You can’t run a business without a profit margin.
IG: Well charge more. Treat it as a signature piece rather than a rack piece.
Roly: Someone will just rip it off.. we may as well give it away..
IG: I want to create beauty…
Roly: Oh get off the stool..
IG: It’s my vision that makes this business Roly..
Roly: Alright, maybe we can do signature piece and a rack version, make you happy?
IG: Yes
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Evinrud - 18

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The Difference Between a Secret and a Lie

Part 5 of 5

They come at me together. I catch a glint of the metal in Duey’s hand before my kick lands him flat on his face. Huey gets a punch to the throat and backs away in a choke.

‘You shouldn’t play with knives’ I say to Duey, who has nicked himself on the cheek with his own blade. ‘But I won’t hold my breath waiting,’ I say to Huey as he begins turning blue

Gabriel is always criticizing my smart mouth in these situations but I can’t seem to help myself. Call it adrenalin wit, but it’s about the only time I’m capable of joking.

Now the old lady has magiced up a broomstick and is swatting me with it. I try to think of what to say to her, instead I find myself grabbing the broom off her and breaking it over my knee. I give her a stare and she retreats to her doorway. What is the old bird’s problem.

The Triad suits are up now and come at me together again, knives out. Their signature move, didn’t work the first time.

‘Guess it’s time to clean up’ I say discarding the brush end of the broom.

Huey gets the broom handle to the face and Duey gets a reverse sweep taking out his legs. They are both down, but it’s got to be finished, so I take Duey out with the handle to the side of the head. He’s stone cold out of it. He’s the smaller one so I figure Huey can drag him out of here if need be.

The latter is trying to pull himself up holding his face still mute from the throat punch. I pick up his discarded blade and place my boot down on his chest with some force.

The old lady is complicating things again, she’s screaming something at me and this time she’s waving an umbrella.

I ignore her and hold the knife up to Huey’s throat. Leaning in with my most sinister expression I whisper, ‘There needn’t have been any trouble. You’ve got a half a minute to pick up your friend and get the hell out of here.’ Heuy’s lips are moving like he’s praying.

I’ve barely finishing speaking when the building’s front door swings open and the most beautiful creature I have ever seen steps through. She’s fiddling around in her purse but when she looks down and stares at me it feels like eternity. Eventually she breaks eye contact and I hear Huey gasping for air under me.

She looks at Huey and Duey, recognition and confusion crossing her face and then at the old woman.

The old woman is frantic now, screaming at the girl to go inside but she is frozen in place.

I snap out it and focus my attention on Huey again ‘Do you understand?’ He nods so I loosen the pressure on his chest slightly. I pat him down for weapons. Nothing, obviously didn’t think they would need much against one old lady.

‘That was foreplay, one more wrong move and you’re f*#$ed, okay,’

Huey nods again so I release him and step away, standing close to the girl.

It takes Huey a while to get Duey to his feet. He keeps losing his grip on him, bringing them both down. It’s like watching one of those olden day comedy sketches, the three stooges reduced to two.

The girl is standing still beside me, the old lady sobbing at her front door.
Eventually they reach the buildings front door, it’s shutting behind them when Huey finally gets his breath and balls back calling out ‘You’re f*#$ed motherf*#$er, f*#$ed, you hear me’.
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Studio IMP - 9

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My contribution to Reece's shoe fetish
http://veinstore.blogspot.com/2009/10/first-entrant-in-vein-wear-design.html

Follow the links and create and enter your own...

Chris.W

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The Un-named

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In her future she would become even more powerful than her mother

What she would will and imagine would become reality

Ancient trees buried deep within the ground bursting forth from the sand

Trees so old they burn up upon breathing the air

Black legacies destroying the beach barracks

Their wood become fire

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Evinrud - 17

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The Difference Between a Secret and a Lie
Part 4 of 5

This alley is so narrow I can touch the sides. Fire escape landings and street signs bunt overhead so I can barely see the night’s sky. I’m out of the crowd, but now the buildings are making me claustrophobic.

And... I’m being followed.

Two men trailed me into the alley, less than a minute behind. Their voices are low but there’s an echo, every now and then I pick up on a bit of their conversation. What I’m hearing isn’t good. They sound like they’re Triad on the job. They’re discussing ammunition. But why me? Maybe the sauce man was connected, someone who didn’t like to be f&*%ed with. It’s not as if I knocked him over intentionally!

I guess I’m not all that concerned. I can take care of myself. It’s just the complication I don’t need. I’ll play it cool for a while, pick up the pace for a bit and duck into a foyer the first chance I get.

These must be Beijing’s poorest residential buildings. They’re not slums but they’re a world apart from the uber skyscrapers that house the cities new rich.

All of the doors I pass are dead-locked and some are even chained. I’m not ready to stop for a locked door and let Huey and Duey catch up with me yet . A middle-aged couple appears out of nowhere and I step aside and bow politely. Behind them an entrance door is swinging shut. I grab it before the lock clicks. Bingo.

Inside there’s a single elevator, a stair well and three apartment doors. They must be absolute shoeboxes if they’ve fit three of them into the ground floor of this building.

The door locks behind me and I duck into the stair well to wait it out. It’s definitely not going to be my night though. It can’t have been two minutes when I hear the door buzz and click open. I take a peak, it’s Huey and Duey, somebody has bloody let them in!

I breathe in and breathe out but neither of them looks my way. Instead they approach one of the ground floor apartment doors. It’s opened by a scared old lady.

They’re not after me. They’re asking her about someone, but she keeps shaking her head. She is offering them cash. Whatever it is, its not enough. One of them knocks it out of her hand, the other pulls a knife.

F*#%, I can’t just stand here and watch a couple of thugs cut up an old lady.

‘Leave the lady, no trouble.’ I say, stepping out of the shadow of the stairwell.

The one with the knife is so surprised he drops it on the ground. The other one yells at him to pick it up. Then they all start screaming indiscriminately at me, Huey, Duey and the old lady.
My Mandarin is too basic to have any real idea what they are all saying now, but when Duey’s right hand slips under his left lapel I know exactly what’s going to happen next.
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