new sensation ,

[odette shaabrak]

live baby live
now that the day is over
i got a new sensation, in perfect moments
impossible to refuse

a slight wind had picked up that swirled effortlessly through the faux tunnel of the ponte vecchio. the ponte vecchio, translating from italian to english as the "old bridge", was an amazing feat of engineering and architecture. on either side of the cobbled road that ran through its center were boutiques and houses that hung daringly out over the arno river. these buildings weren't small in size, either - some houses were three storeys in height, their mammoth weight being supported entirely by the old bridge. it was an amazing sight, really. from the inside of the 'tunnel', one could look up and not find sky, but a roof designed with intricate carvings and decorated in artworks too glamorous to be merely fiction. on either side, one's eyes would either meet a building or the arno river, the beauty of tuscany beyond it. how the ponte vecchio could put up with all this since the sixteenth century only experts would understand. but, to the townspeople, perhaps it was the magic of tuscany that kept it standing solid as a rock.

it was along the road leading over the ponte vecchio that odette now walked. the bridge had always enchanted her, especially as a little girl. when she had first visited tuscany with her father, odette had giggled in awe and wonder at the site of the beautiful construction. even at the age of twenty one, she would still look up and smile brightly at the beautiful craftsmanship. odette enjoyed the simpler things in life like most people enjoyed carnival rides or parties; nature, art and everything in between gave her a sense of being, of purpose. purposefully, odette paused outside the window of a quaint little shop selling custom made furniture. beside an antique looking, albeit recently made, coffee table stood a lamp in the shape of michelangelo's david on a smaller, less magnificent scale. odette shook her head gracefully at that, suppressing a laugh. what would they think of next ? she thought bemusedly, continuing on her way.

odette wasn't really going anywhere. she followed her stiletto clad size eight feet wherever they went, not giving a second thought to her surroundings. it was so easy to get lost in tuscany - for odette, anyway. she walked without any given reason, which was a favourite past time of hers. as she strolled along, her mind returned to rhys, as it always did. odette shaabrak, twenty one year old musician-in-training at copabella school of the arts, was in love. and she wasn't in love with just anyone. odette was in love with the most wonderful, perfect human being on the planet - rhys thorpe.

it was a shame he didn't return her feelings. her strong, unrequited, unbreaking, unsurpassable feelings.

her heart ached powerfully at the thought. odette longed to have him near her right at that moment, just so his smile could ease the dreadful pain. her best friend - how could she fall for one of her best friends ? where had this unrequited love stemmed from ? but odette knew the answer to that, and her reflection grimaced back at her as she passed yet another high end clothes shop. she grimaced because she knew she had let herself fall for him, when in reality, she should have never allowed it. but her resolve was weak and she had wanted it, and now there she was, head over heels in love and getting nothing in return. odette stopped once more and cast her troubled hazel orbs up to the ceiling, willing the tears not to spill. around her, the hustle and bustle of daily life in tuscany continued on, ignoring the young woman with the tears in her eyes and the sorrow of a broken heart in sharp in her mind.

TAG tuscany; arno river; ponte vecchio; open.
WORD COUNT six hundred and thirty three.
LYRICS new sensation by INXS.
OUTFIT click !
OUT OF CHARACTER feel free to join in c:

[mark]

It wasn’t to cold out for the British native who was used to snow storms almost killing you in the winter. Though it wasn’t to hot so that a t-shirt would be required wear, in fact the weather seemed just perfect. Casing the young and very talented actor to venture from his home and from the school in search of something interesting... Well not really interesting in his mind as he now lived in Italy but interesting for his parents. His mother was a scrapbooker but not one of those annoying moms that took pictures of every little thing that she saw just special events. Birthdays, holidays, family trips, and of course various cast pictures from Mark’s plays. Nothing to overboard in his mind but then again he had grown up with the woman.

It was the same spirit that Mark posses now though his pictures were more of the racier variety. Various parties attended all over the world, many Exs, and some occasional one night stand girls had found there way into Mark’s photo albums. Now though well now was Mom time as he set his sights on taking some fantastic pictures of his home just so he could send them back to the folks where they would become part of a new scrapbook.
This had been an on going project stemming form his first year at Copabella. Though the school kept him more than busy and thus he was in his third year still trying to capture all of the highlights of his new world.

Sleeves rolled up on a dark blue button up shirt with dark black trousers to accompany Mark had set off with a camera around his neck. Of course ipod headphones hung from his ears as god forbid would he really take this time to immerse himself in the Italian culture and really try to learn the language. He was British and Brits weren’t really meant to speak anything other than English, even then most annoying Americans would argue that they failed to do that right. After all they were the ones who supposedly had the funny but cute accents and the weird slang. Pompous American pricks Mark scoffed as his feet now changed terrain to start walking along the Ponte Vecchio.

Places were the only things that Mark seemed to be able to pronounce right and sometime seven then he occasionally stumbled through the words if he had never heard the name before. Raising the lens to his right eye he closed the left one as if that would help him focus better. A small clicking noise was made as the somewhat older camera took its first shot in the new roll of film. Digital was nice but for some reason it always seemed that his mother could tell the difference between 35mm and digital. She liked the old school idea of getting your film developed as it was a bit of a surprise to see how things turned out. So following along in her tradition Mark had the somewhat bulkier camera hung around his neck as he walked forward onto the bridge.

Walking with the sounds of The Raconteurs playing Mark noticed a familiar figure stand in the center just looking up towards the ceiling… lost in her own thoughts perhaps but it would be rude of Mark not to say hello. Right? Taking out his ipod he turned off the music so that it would not give him away, Mark started to walk forward until he was right behind her. “Standing in the middle of a walkway is a hazard. Unless you are bright orange and have somewhat cone shape appearance to you.” A smirk colored his face as Mark was a person always full of one liners.

[odette shaabrak]

live baby live
now that the day is over
i got a new sensation, in perfect moments
impossible to refuse

it took odette a few extra seconds than normal to realise she was being directly spoken to. spinning around on a sixpence, she was not at all surprised to see the familiar face of mark taylor grinning in his usual manner at her. odette had to smile. mark was one of the first people she had met when they had started at copabella three years ago. she'd found it hard to deal with his arrogant nature at first; odette had a knack at seeing the good in people, even when they couldn't see it in themselves, and had grown rather fond of him. at one point, she remembered, they had been near inseperable. reflecting over their past relationship had odette wonder what on earth she could have been thinking at the time. staring into his face now, she could still see the foolhardy teenager he had been when she'd first met him, despite three extra years of maturity and experience under his belt. as much as mark irritated some people, odette wouldn't have him any other way.

'you always know how to please the ladies - comparing one to a bright orange cone is just a chip off the old block, really,' said odette, returning his smirk in greeting. around them, life rushed passed as it always would, disregarding their presence for the time being. 'what brings you to this part of the world today, mark ? got another hot date ?'

it was so easy to act foolishly with mark. odette used to hate the way he made her feel like a six year old again, but now it felt more like a custom rather than a chore. odette fiddled slightly with a button on her coat. it wasn't a cool day and she really didn't need to be wearing it, but it wasn't a hot day, either, so she left it on in an attempt to look fashionable. it was silly, really; she'd much rather be wandering around in jeans, but she put up with stilettos and the silk shirt because it made her feel just that little bit more special. and, though she would never admit to it, odette hoped that she might impress rhys, or look just a little more appealing to him that usual, in the event that she might bump into him on her way. it really was silly.

'taking pictures for your mother again ?' asked odette conversationally. she had just noticed the bulky camera slung around his neck, and admired the way it looked so solid and elegant, in its own way. odette also couldn't help but notice the earphones hanging from his ears and rolled her eyes; it was typical mark to be listening to music in his own little world rather than soaking up and embracing the culture of tuscany.

WORD COUNT four hundred and seventy.
LYRICS new sensation by INXS.
OUTFIT click !

[mark]

Leaning in Mark’s hand found its way to her backside as he gave her a small hug along with a nice little peck on the cheek. It was his greeting for her and always had been. Just because they had stopped dating years ago didn’t mean that they were somehow no longer friends. Odette had experienced the good sides of Mark and that was something that he couldn’t really cover up anymore, or at least when he was around her. “Actually I think it was really a compliment. I heard there are a lot of hot construction workers in the States, I am sure you would fit in.” Moving back to his original standing position Mark moved his hand into his pocket as he felt as if it was sort of taking up space.

“No actually the dating is going to come later. I am getting your boy Rhys laid…” Saying it proudly there was no hit of sarcasm or joking tone in his voice. He always loved to see Odette squirm over these sorts of things, as really Mark was the type of character to really pull this prank. He knew of both of their affects towards one another yet he couldn’t understand why neither had done anything about the affections... now way the type to make a move as the first year students seemed to be getting hotter every year.

Looking down at his camera when the conversation changed Mark nodded absent mindedly as he lifted up the object in question before letting it fall back down against his chest. “Well yeah I figure I should get this stupid project done before I graduate and with the pace that I am taking that probably won’t happen.” Pulling out his ear phone he shifted the chord so that they too dangled around his neck. Now that he was having a conversation there was no need for music. “I don’t think my mum would really like my pictures that I have taken at parties. Her little baby is supposed to be a proper English gentleman not the life of the party.”

[odette shaabrak]

live baby live
now that the day is over
i got a new sensation, in perfect moments
impossible to refuse

if odette had not known mark well enough to be offended by his gestures, there might have been a riot. a quick squeeze of her arse, a kiss on the cheek - it was first class hitting on and would probably have earned him a slap across the cheek. but odette did know mark well enough and let it slide. there was no point getting worked up over something as simple as that, especially since she knew there was no meaning behind it for either party. sure, mark was a great lover and didn't look too bad on the eye either, but he and odette were destined to be friends from the start. it worked out well, considering there was only room for one man in odette's life and that spot had been filled quite thoroughly and permenently.

'mark taylor, don't even joke about rhys like that !' said odette, pulling a face - a response, she presumed, that he had hoped to get out of her. it was nothing but an innocent, harmless joke, but odette couldn't help herself - she searched the faces of the surrounding passers-by, looking for rhys in one of them. of her three closest friends, only two knew she was in love with him - violet and mark. the third, the closest of them all, would never find out as he was rhys himself. odette would never dare destroy their friendship with a bombshell like that. her unrequited love would be the death of her. she poked her tongue out at mark childishly. 'rhys is much too good for that kind of thing, anyway. and you will not tell him otherwise !'

she waggled her finger in his face for good measure. but, being the person she was, odette couldn't hold her straight face any longer and she cracked a smile for him. it was her usual smile, and it lit up her face sweetly, though not in the same way it did whenever she saw rhys. she rolled her eyes at his next comment and laughed melodically.

'i'm with your mother on this one; i don't want to see those pictures either !' said odette. mark usually was the life of the party - in a sense, he was the essense of it. odette couldn't remember a party where mark hadn't been fooling around or drinking with mates. it didn't bother her one bit - it obviously made him happy. 'but you are a gentleman, when you want to be. sometimes. how is that project coming along, anyway ? the scrapbook ? i think that's sweet ... in a sexualised, 'look-at-me' kind of way.'

WORD COUNT four hundred and forty one.
LYRICS new sensation by INXS.
OUTFIT click !