[JR19759]

Thanks guys.
It turns out I won’t be as busy as I thought I was going to be now, so I will have a bit of free time. Unfortunately, I’ve been trying out some of the ideas I previously mentioned and I can’t get them to work. So, what I’m going to do is two things. Firstly, I’m gonna take a little break to get some inspiration back. Secondly, I’m gonna open the floor to you guys. Do you guys have any ideas for what I can do next? It can be Lili and Danni related, or if you have seen something earlier on in my gallery that you’d like to see me redesign. Or, if you’ve got a character of your own that you want me to do my own take on, I’d be open to that.
But yeah, unless someone comes up with a good idea, I can’t see myself posting a lot for a while.

[JR19759]

Thanks dude.

Anyway, last interview.

Ok girls, we’ll kick off with the big one. How did you two meet?

Lili: I think it must have been at Alex’s party right?
Danni: Yeah. My then-neighbour Sarah threw a big birthday party for her boyfriend, Alex, and invited me and my flat-mates, as a way of making sure we didn’t complain about the noise I guess. So we went along.
Lili: I was a friend of Alex’s so I got invited too. I think it was Sarah who introduced us to each other, but I can’t exactly remember too much about it. It was a good couple of years ago now.

So, how did you two end up getting together?

Danni: Oh god. (*covers her face with her hands*)
Lili: Well, it was a bit awkward.
Danni: Awkward?! It was soooooo embarrassing. (*Goes completely red faced*)
Lili: We’d been skirting around each other for a good couple of months. It’s kinda hard to make a move when you have a crush on another girl, because not only are you worried that they might not be into you, but they might not even go that way at all.
Danni: I mean, I knew you were a lesbian anyway, Sarah had told me after the party. She was always trying to set me up with someone.
Lili: Sarah was trying to set you up with me? That sounds so like her.
Danni: Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d like me because at first it seemed like we were so different. When we first met you were so boisterous and out-going and I just wasn’t, but after hanging out together more I got to see a different side to you, one that I could relate to more and made me feel like it could work.
Lili: Maybe it would have been a whole lot easier if one of us had actually said something eh?
Danni: Probably.
Lili: Yeah, but anyway. One night, we were both at a friends party. It wasn’t all that great of a party to be honest, but someone got absolutely wasted and started getting… intimate. (*Danni starts blushing even worse than previously*) Well, considering the state she was in, I could leave her to get home all by herself and considering my flat wasn’t as far away, I lent her my bed for the night and crashed on the couch.
Danni: You can imagine how disorientated I felt next morning. Hungover and with my last memories of being at the party, I had no idea what was going on. And then at breakfast…..
Lili: Yeah, that was super awkward. But it would have been even more awkward had I not asked, considering some of the stuff you said the previous night. I couldn’t just let it sit in the corner and pretend it wasn’t there.
Danni: I suppose.
Lili: So, yeah. That’s the story.

Lili, you mentioned your mother said that she’d like Grandchildren one day. Is that something you’ve ever thought about or discussed?

Lili: What?! (*goes wide eyed in shock*) No, no we haven’t thought about that at all! What on Earth made you ask that?
Danni: I know it is possible now a-days for us to have a child, and we could even adopt, but..
Lili: Adopt, are you crazy! I’m barely able to look after of my self, let alone a child!
Danni: If you’d let me finish, dear, I was going to say “but I don’t think it’s something we’d be looking to do in the immediate future”.
Lili: Oh, ok. (*Looks around sheepishly*)
Danni: But it’s nice to know how you stand on the subject babe.
(*Danni winks and Lili goes bright red and hides her face behind a pillow*)
Danni: So, yeah, I don’t think we’d be looking to have kids any time soon.

Ok girls, I do think that wraps up the interview. Thanks for your time.

Danni: Thats ok. I hope it helped.

Yup it did. Oh and Lili, don’t worry, I don’t have any plans for you two to have kids yet either…. you hope. (*Evil smirk*)

(*Lili throws the pillow she was hiding her face behind at JR*)

Lili: Shut Up.

Just kidding. Thanks again girls. See you later.

Danni: Bye.
Lili: Later dude.

If you guys are interested in reading about what happened at the party mentioned in the second question, Atomic Punk wrote an awesome short about it on his Tell My Story thread last year:
http://www.heromachine.com/forum/writing-contests-and-challenges/tell-my-story/page-4/

Wait, did I say I was done?
Sorry, I’m not. The interview might be over but there’s still one thing left to do. You see, these interviews were done in character, so it was the characters answering the questions, how they see things, how they want you to see them. So, hows about we take a sneak peak at my thoughts on this, because I can promise you there is a lot more to these two than they’ve let on.

Ok, so the thing I find the most interesting about these two is why they stay together, why they love each other. Now I’m not saying Danni was lying in her interview, but I think it was only half the truth. And I’m not sure either of them really know the full truth. The way I see it is they love each other because they both provide security for the other. With Lili, Danni can be herself, she doesn’t have to be forced into unwanted interactions, because Lili is there to take the lead and deflect most of the attention onto herself. Danni is quite shy and as any shy or socially awkward person will tell you, it is the worst thing to be forced into interacting with strangers or someone you don’t want to talk to/ be with, but Lili protects her from that, and Danni can’t help but love her for that.
In Lili’s case, Danni provides her with security just by being there. I think that what happened between her parents and to her father afterwards had a deeper effect on Lili than she would like to admit. She has a deep rooted fear of being alone in life, and with Danni she can face that fear because she isn’t alone. One would expect that if these two broke up for what ever reason, it would not be Lili who left Danni and Lili would be the one who took it the hardest. Then we have her rather interesting reaction to my question about children. Lili may well have a fear of responsibility, certainly she has a fear of familial responsibility, again steaming from what happened to her parents. Her saying “I can barely look after myself, let alone a child” may have been partially a joke, as a way to sidestep an awkward situation, but I don’t believe that Lili was lying. Her insecurities may not allow her to fully be able to confront her demons on this subject, but we will have to wait and see.
Another thing that I couldn’t get across in the interviews was one of the more interesting psychological hooks, posture. If you picture these interview taking place on the couch from the Gamer Lili picture, Lili and Danni would be sitting on the couch with myself, as the interviewer sitting in the position of the viewer in that picture. Now, in this situation, in their solo interviews, Lili would be sitting on the right side of the couch slouched on the arm, suggesting that she is very relaxed in the situation. Danni on the other hand, would be sitting on the left side of the couch, leaning forward, her hands clasped together, suggesting that she is less comfortable with the situation. However Danni would become more relaxed as the interview progressed. When the two come together for the final interview, Danni would be leaning on Lili, suggesting that she feels much more at ease with the situation if Lili is near, something that I have established previously. As much as Lili denies it, I would suggest that she is the more dominant figure in this relationship. However, this would change upon the dreaded “child question”. Her Danni would be forced to take the dominant role, whilst Lili is reduced to a cringing, cowering, hiding state. Here we can also see an interesting aspect of their relationship. You’ll note that every time Danni blushes, it is through self-inflicted embarrassment. But the one time Lili blushes, it is because Danni made her. Despite being the “less dominant one” in the relationship, I believe Danni knows how to read Lili better than Lili does with Danni, and as such, it would be Danni who would make any of the major moves in their relationship, something we have seen already when they got together.
Anyway, that’s enough of the psychological fluff.

I hope you guys enjoyed these interviews and my overblown psycho-analysis at the end. If you have any other questions, no matter how trivial or stupid, I’ll do my best to answer them. But apart from that, I don’t really have anything else planned at the moment. I mean I have a few ideas involving Lili and Danni, but things could be about to get very hectic and busy for me within the next few days, so I don’t know if I will be able to do much. Either way, thanks for all your support on this series, I have to say it’s been my favourite series I’ve done. So yeah, big thanks for all the feedback and suggestions, they really helped, and the fan art from Nug was pretty damn awesome, I did end up borrowing a few ideas from it to do my Danni picture (see if you can guess what they are).
Anyway I think I’ve rambled enough (literally been typing here for an hour and a half).
So
JR Out.

[JR19759]

Stulte, I tell you what. If you ever finish it, I’ll feature it as COTW, because I absolutely love the piece and, like Nug, I think it deserves a lot more recognition than it’s getting.
I also have another little confession to make. I did do a Steampunk contest with you in mind, considering some of the stuff you up loaded on your first few pages (I’m thinking mostly about the prosthetics and body enhancements here), plus the world you’ve created on this thread seems very steam-punk inspired (forgive me if I’m wrong). But that was the sort of thing I was hoping would be entered. Nothing against the gears and cogs Steampunk (I mean, considering the quality of the other entries on the poll it would be stupid to say I disliked it, they’re all superb or they wouldn’t have got onto the poll. Plus of course I did say I had joint favourites. I’m not going to say who, because that would be unfair on the other contestants.), but you are right, there is much more to Steampunk than just period costumes with some clockwork attached.

[JR19759]

*dies of awesome overload* (no wait, that’s probably a bad idea, she’d probably steal my skull)

[JR19759]

One must agree with Stulte, that uniform is most excellent. And ever so slightly Scottish…..

[JR19759]

@CantDraw said:

Now boarding for U.S.S Awesome. Seriously, that is a super-sweet design on that spaceship.

Shouldn’t that be the R.C.N Awesome? Still awesome, but geographically correct

[JR19759]

@Anarchangel said:

Um….guys? Why is the forum saying I’m a new member and that I’ve only posted twice? I’m confused. Have the past few years only been a hallucination?

It appears to be a glitch with the forums. It’s happened to some people recently. All it seems to be is reseting your post count, you haven’t lost any of your posts as far as we know. We’ll make sure Jeff is aware of the problem.

[JR19759]

It’s funny you say you prefer your other entry and that you aren’t that pleased with Battle Of San Bartoleme, because to be honest it was my joint favourite out of all this weeks contest entries. I think the details are superb, the ancillaries that aren’t the main focus of the picture (the vases, glasses and that clock) are just so well done. The fact you also included a damp effect on the towel and water on the floor really impressed me as well, a lot of people wold have either forgot about it or not included it at all. And then you have the scene in the window. The contrast between the dark and moody colours of the battle scene and the light and clean colours of the room really set the whole thing off. Obviously, you are right, it isn’t perfect. The characters back still needs a bit of work, but apart from that. Once again I’m gonna be honest, as soon as you entered it into the contest it was going on the poll. I’m just a bit disappointed it’s not doing better, because, as I said, it is my joint favourite of all the entries.

[JR19759]

Wear

[JR19759]

Thanks guys. I was hoping that bit would work. I basically just ad libed that entire interview, so it’s no surprise it went weird half way through.
Anyway, we’ve heard from Lili, so now it’s Danni’s turn.

And next up we have Danni. Hi Danni.

Danni: Hello. How are you today?

Not bad thank you. Anyway, first question. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Danni: Well, I was born in Brighton, but I now live with Lili up in London. My Dad was a GP and my Mum worked in an office. I have 2 sisters, Stacy and Zoe, they’re twins, I’m the oldest. I work as a waitress but I also write novels. I’ve not got any published at the moment, but I’m still trying, sending them to publishers. Nothing happens if you don’t try right?

Indeed. You said you had younger twin sisters. What was your relationship like with them when you were growing up? I’d imagine you would have found it hard to get away with anything, what with there being two of them and only one of you?

Danni: Not really, we got on pretty well. I know Lili and her brother have their sibling rivalry, but me and my sisters weren’t really like that. I suppose it’s because we’re all girls, we grew up liking the same sort of things. It doesn’t mean we didn’t argue, or that we still don’t, but we’re pretty close. They do sometimes do stupid things that I don’t understand, especially Zoe, she is a complete idiot when it comes to guys, but that’s just them. I still love them and I wouldn’t change them. Well, not that much anyway.

What about your parents? How was your relationship with them?

Danni: Well, there’s no heart-break story if that’s what you’re asking. We’re a pretty normal family really. My Dad was a bit strict, and what with him being a doctor and all, he was a stickler for us eating healthily and staying healthy. He always seemed to know if we’d sneak bought a bar of chocolate on the way home from school when we weren’t supposed to. But he wasn’t ever harsh on us, and he had a great sense of humor. He introduced me to the greatest TV show of all time, Faulty Towers, after all. My Mum wasn’t as strict, but she had her ways of making us do what she wanted us to do. We knew that if we did something wrong, we could bluff Dad about it, but Mum was a bit harder to fool.

How did your parents react when you came out?

Danni: I can’t say they weren’t a bit disappointed, but they were pretty cool with it. I mean Brighton is pretty well known for it’s gay scene so it’s not like they could afford to be bigoted about it, especially my Dad in his job. So it wasn’t too bad.

Cool, do you mind if we move on to a more personal question?

Danni: Ok, I guess.

Why do you love Lili? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you 2 are quite different. What holds you together as a couple?

Danni: You’re right, we are quite different on the surface. To be honest, when me and Lili first became friends, I didn’t think a relationship between us would work because we seemed so different. But I think that a successful relationship needs difference as much as it needs similarities.

So what similarities do you and Lili have that make you so compatible as a couple?

Danni: We’re both really passionate about what we do. Don’t let Lili’s lackadaisical attitude fool you, she is hugely enthusiastic about her art, maybe even more than I am about my writing. And I can’t help but admire that and love that about her. But that’s not all. Whenever I feel down, she’s always there for me. She looks after me and I try to be there for her when she needs me. She might not show it, but under all that bravado and her appearance of not caring, she has the same sort of insecurities I do, that fear of what other people think of you, we just have different ways of dealing with it. While I can be a bit withdrawn, and I’ll admit it, Lili puts on this out-going, cheerful front. But she’s let her guard down for me, and I’ve seen who she really is. She puts on this air of not caring, but I can see how much she does care, not just about herself, but others as well, and I love that about her. I guess that is why I love her. I don’t know what else to really say.

Don’t worry, I think you’ve said enough. And I do believe that wraps up this portion of the Q&A.

Danni: Ok, do you want me to go get Lili now?

If you could that’d be helpful. You can’t answer the next set of questions without both of you here. Well, I guess you could, but it’d be less interesting.

Danni: Ok, I’ll be back in a second.

Oh and y’all may be interested in what is included in the next/ last part of this CQ&A. I’ll put it this way, it’s only three questions, but they are BIG ones.

[JR19759]

Oh BTW, is it the first time you’ve made one of the CDC polls? I honestly can’t remember.

[JR19759]

Good song. Hadn’t heard of her before (although I did know who Lzzy Hale was), but I’ll definitely investigate her stuff further.

[JR19759]

Nice. Love her costume.

[JR19759]

You have my seal of approval (even if Clemont is a complete scrub, but whatever). And despite Vaporeon being my fave Eeveelution, I have to say Leafy is my fave here, but they’re all good.

[JR19759]

Thanks guys.
As for the Character Q&A……

Character Q&A:

Ok guys, as promised, here’s my Character Q&A. And we’re going to kick off the interview with Lili.

Lili: Hi

So, Lili, why don’t we start off with the obvious? Tell us a bit about your self.

Lili: Well, I was born in Milton Keynes, England, a few miles outside London, where I currently live with my partner, Danni. I work as a freelance artist, doing small time comics and magazine cartoons. I like playing video games and watching horror movies and I’m a total nerd about Mario. Is that the sort of thing you were looking for?

It’ll do. How about your family? What was life like growing up?

Lili: It wasn’t anything special. I mean, it’s not like we were super well off or anything, but we weren’t exactly struggling. It was just average, your normal childhood in a middle class suburb. My brother Jason and I were always fighting, as brothers and sisters always do when they’re growing up. He was a complete idiot, and still is, and was always getting into trouble. Of course, being the younger sister, I got led into his stupidity and got into my fair share of trouble as well, but never as much as Jase. We must have driven Mum mad. She tended to be very protective of us, as all mums are I guess, but sometimes you got the feeling she’d have liked to have wrapped us both up in bubble-wrap before we went outside to play. I love her loads, but sometimes she got on my nerves. I guess that’s pretty normal as well, so yeah, nothing hugely out of the ordinary.

What about your father? How does he figure into all of this?

Lili: I…. I sorta have mixed feeling about him. He was a good man, he always said that fighting never solved anything and he always told me and my brother that we should never judge anyone before we knew them. And as kids he doted on us. But he had these problems. He suffered from depression and had this angry streak that sometimes surfaced. Most of the time it was okay, he’d just become very sullen and hard to talk to, but when it got bad, he got aggressive. It was so scary, because he was such a kind and gentle man normally, seeing him like that terrified me. Mum tried to cope, but as time went on it just became harder and harder to deal with and eventually she left him. I didn’t see him much after that, but when I did….. it was difficult. He….. he just got worse. It was like he was just a shell of the man I’d grown up with. When he got ill, it wasn’t much of a surprise, but seeing him just getting worse and worse…… Sorry. Anyway, before he died he gave me this heart locket. He said that he bought it for my mother when they first started dating and that I should give it to Danni. He made me promise to look after both her and it. He died the next day.

I’m sorry to hear that.

Lili: s’Ok. I just hope I’ve made him proud.

Anyway, lets move on shall we?

Lili: Fine by me. Ask away.

Ok, how about this one. How did your parents react when you “came out”?

Lili: (*grimaces*) Well, Dad took it better than Mum I guess, but neither of them took it brilliantly. I mean, Dad was sort of just like “Okay, are you sure it isn’t just a phase or something?” but he accepted it after a while. But Mum was in denial about it for a long time. When I talked to her about it recently she said it was because she really wanted grandkids and didn’t want to talk about it any more after that, which was…. Odd. I mean I can get the grandkids thing, but Jase could still have kids, so it seems a bit off. I don’t know.

Sounds like she has something else on her mind about it. Maybe you should try to talk to her a bit more about it?

Lili: Probably. But it’s not like she’s gonna change my mind about it. I’m happy with where I am right now, so she should be happy for me right?

I guess so. Anyway, the next question is kinda personal. I hope you don’t mind……

Lili: Go for it. I mean what’s the worst that could happen. It’s not like I can slap you or anything, I’m a fictional creation.

Hey, you leave the fourth wall alone, that’s my job.

Lili: Sorry. Anyway, you had a question?

Yes, I did. Would you mind elaborating on how your relationship with Danni works exactly?

Lili: Oh, you mean, like, who wears the pants in the relationship , that sort of thing? Nah, we don’t really go for that sort of thing. We’re just sorta together you know. Neither of us is really the dominant one, we’re equal and that’s how we like it. I know I can be a bit lazy with chores and stuff and Danni needs to give me a boot in the arse from time to time about it, but other than that? Not really.

I guess it would be hard to be “the man” in this sort of relationship right?! (*wink*)

Lili: (*laughs*) You got it.

Cool, I think we’re about done here. Thanks for taking the time out to chat to us.

Lili: That’s cool dude. It was fun.

We’ll talk to you again once we’ve spoken to Danni, so I guess we’ll see you then.

Lili: Ok. See ya later.

In case you can’t figure it out, my parts are in the italics.

[Author]

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