Photo with Favel #5

The next one had Jenna in a raincoat while Favel perched on a prop that essentially looked like a plate on a stick.  He got on it and Jenna held it in the air, he spread himself out and let his tentacles dangle over the edges essentially turning himself into an umbrella while Sardius and Vash sprinkled water on them.

Jenna looked like a fancy woman going for a stroll in Paris in a poke-a-dot dress with high heels.  She had a red bow on her bag, another one in her hair, and a last one on the crook of her umbrella.

“Make your lips look like a bow,” Josh instructed.  “It’s the theme of the shoot.”

Jenna moved her mouth to obey, but she did a double-take.  “How do I do that?”

“Pout, honey, pout,” Josh said, giving her a demo that made Jenha laugh out loud.

Then it was impossible for her to pout until Josh growled at her.  It had been a grave miscalculation on her part to think that he had ever been playful.  He was always all business.

She obediently pouted and Josh got the shot. 

Favel was grouchy when he got down from the top of the umbrella shaft.  “Nothing more like that, Josh.  If I’m going to be dangling from that high up, I want to be in a spaceship.  Good grief.  I’m dizzy and not nearly wet enough.”

Jenna took hold of an extra watering can from the pile and poured water on him.  He closed his eyes and enjoyed it like he was a man enjoying the sun on the beach.  

Jenna didn’t know he was afraid of heights.

Photo with Favel #6

This one was not very imaginative, but Josh said they had to do it or they would look like monsters.  Jenna wore a wet suit and got in the water for a shot with her and Favel swimming.  Josh followed them with a little water drone and took pictures whenever it occurred to him.  

When Jenna saw the finished picture, it was delightful.  It was a picture of Favel offering her a white water lily.  Her hair was mostly tied up to stop it from swishing all over the place, but little bits of it crept around her in a charming way.  

For the first time, Jenna could see what Josh was making for them.  It should have occurred to her before, but it didn’t.  Her head was so caught up in the politics of it all that she couldn’t see the story of loving friendship that Josh was creating.  If everyone saw it the way Josh imagined they would, the two of them might win over the entire galaxy with cuteness.

Photo with Favel #7

The last photo done above water was all about the engagement ring.  Jenna was in a mermaid costume, which she thought was stupid until she saw that Josh had no intention of making her hop around like a monopod.  Instead, she was dressed up, lying on her stomach next to one of the sea entrances to her palace.  She was supposed to lean forward and drop one of her hands in the water.  Favel was in the water and one of his tentacles held her other hand, where she wore her engagement ring.  

The picture was crowned by a perfect lipstick set of lips on his mantle. 

They had begun that operation by having Jenna put on as much lipstick as she could wear and then having her kiss Favel.  Naturally, that initial lipstick smear had not looked photo-ready, so Misha got down on her hands and knees to dress it up.  She outlined it, filled it in, and added red sparkles.  

Then she redid Jenna’s lips and gave her red sparkles too.

This one ended up being the most difficult of the photos taken in Jenna’s palace.  Josh was unhappy with everything and was not happy until Jenna’s hair was half undone, her feet were sticking out of her costume and Favel was oddly entwined in her legs.

“This looks too sexy,” Sardius had warned Josh as he stood behind the camera and looked at the shot Josh was getting.

“I’ve already taken tamer ones of this shot that we can use for the initial release,” Josh said coolly.  “But we need stuff like this to exist so that it is clear to everyone that Jenna is not repulsed by Favel.  There are huge factions who believe that their relationship is a hoax.”

“But all Jenna has ever claimed is that they are friends,” Sardius argued.

“Yes.  And there are huge groups who believe that even their friendship is a lie.”

“If we swing too hard the other way, people will they’re up to more than friendship,” Sardius told him between tight lips.

“They’re already getting married.  What do you want people to believe?  To many people, the word marriage only has one meaning.  I’m not saying we release these pictures today or even tomorrow, but people may need to see proof that Jenna is not throwing up into her hands with Favel between her legs.”

“Too sexy,” Sardius complained again.

“You’d let a dog run between your legs and it would be nothing.  You’d stroke a cat on your lap and it’s nothing.  You’d mount a horse.  This is not necessarily different from those things.  You’d be a fool to think that Favel views his relationship with Jenna as anything more complicated than a master/pet perspective.  She’s his cuttlefish.”

Jenna looked at Favel for confirmation.

He looked back at her with huge black eyes and suddenly, he turned black all over.

Josh took about a hundred pictures before Favel settled down and went back to being blue.

“Do you think I’m like your pet?” Jenna whispered with red sparkly lips.

Favel looked down, which happened to be down into the water where he could be if he lowered himself a little further.  “We’re not the same species.  I thought it was okay that I thought of you as my pet because deep down, you thought I was like a pet you’d keep in an aquarium on your home planet.  That was okay with me because deep down, I think you looked like one of the animals my people ship in pods.  I hoped that was all the feeling you’d want from me because I would never ask you to feel more than that for me.”

Jenna nodded.  “We talk to each other like equals.  Can’t we be equals in our relationship instead of you looking down on me and me looking down on you?”

Favel’s eyes sparkled. “Of course.”

Jenna understood what he was saying and what it meant.  He did not care if everyone under the water or over the water thought of them as long as Jenna knew the color of his heart.  He could never love her like a husband.  All of this was just a public relations stunt to gain Adamis support.

“I wish you had a real husband,” he said softly through bubbles in the water.

Jenna gave him a half smile.  “Public servants don’t get everything they want, but it’s okay.”

Sardius chuckled from across the room.  “I want a pet like Jenna.  Where do I put in my order?”

“Just go to Earth and pick one up.  I hear that’s what Armen did,” Jenna replied with a graceful shrug of her shoulder.

Sardius was trying to change the mood in the room.  He was successful at getting them back on track and Josh finished taking the picture.

Photo with Favel #8

Jenna was back in a bathing suit.  This time it was one that had been made by a very famous designer to look exactly like Favel’s skin, so it was blue.  Misha curled Jenna’s hair and put a big blue flower in it to match the suit.

The plan was simple.  She was to lie on a surfboard.  It was black with blue wavy lines on it. 

Sardius helped her onto it before Josh pushed her out to sea.  Then he flew a drone over her.  When Favel was given the signal, he and two of his closest, bluest friends, wrapped their tentacles around the surfboard like they were going to pull her under.  Favel wasn’t big enough on his own to show enough tentacles at once, so he got a couple of his friends to show their tentacles, though they were not allowed to touch Jenna.  If they did, they’d taste Jenna, and it would have been extremely uncool of them to do so, so their tentacles touched only the surfboard.  Favel wrapped one of his tentacles around Jenna’s wrist.

Jenna’s job was to wink and blow a kiss to the camera hovering above her like she was about to get dragged under the waves and she welcomed it.

The final result was just so perfect, Jenna was astonished.  If Josh hadn’t proven himself before, he did then.