Jesse Lawrence. What more -- what else?! -- can you say? Actually, there's plenty. He's the prince of Companions ... and the similarity between the Companion and the hustler are so tenuous, they barely exist. Well, they do, but the Companions who entertain in places like Randolph Dorne's mansion in the sky are literally out of this world.
Incidentally, if you think Joss Whedon coined the term "Companion" to mean an incredibly high class, cultured, sophisticated, educated, elegant, dream of a courtesan ... wrong. Joss Whedon and FIREFLY were late by ten years! Mel Keegan coined this term waaay back in 1992, when Jesse Lawrence made his debut in the second of the NARC novels, EQUINOX.
(I'm going to give you the NARC links at the end of this post, because I also have to give a caveat, or disclaimer...)
So ... what is wrong with these pictures? In fact, although the skinsuit looks fantastic on him, Jesse wouldn't be wearing anything at all! The first time Jarrat and Stone met him (at a bar, in the middle of the day in downtown Elysium ... the capital city of the Avalon colony, on a moon with a big green gas giant called Zeus riding in the sky), Jesse was buff naked with his hip-length hair left loose, and a smudge of kohl here and there. All had with him was his wallet, keyring, and a pair of sunglasses. Wooooh! Oh yes, and he had a piece of jewelry that can't even be referenced on this "open" blog...
Well, since full-on nudes are not allowed on this main blog, I opted for a compromise. This is another idea Mel Keegan uses in loads of places in the NARC and Hellgate books, and also in Mindspace -- but I don't think MK was the first one to imagine this, though I could be wrong. (Anyone??)
Smart fabric. The color, texture and opacity of the cloth are programmable. They change according to what you need, or your mood, or what's appropriate to the time, place and company. So, for the purpose of this glamour shoot let's say the shots above were taken early in the evening when there's crowds and kids and old ladies galore all over the place, and Jesse wants to be a bit more discreet, so as not to get mobbed! Then, past midnight, you aim a remote at your skinsuit, and this happens:
The trick was to be subtle about the huge planet in the sky. You might want to make it bright, but this would be dead wrong, if the city's buildings are lit up. Reflected light off a planet the size of Zeus would make the city bright as day. So it stands to reason that (!) you're on the dark side of Zeus. The planet will orbit back onto the bright side in a few days, and till then the city has arclights which come on as the light levels fall. Read the novel -- it's all in there. Jesse Lawrence joins the "cast" of these novels, and also appears in both Scorpio and Aphelion. In fact, in Aphelion he has a great part ... grooming Jarrat to go undercover as a Companion. Yikes.As a parting shot, here's a gunship's eye view of the city of Elysium by night:
I'm playing with the Dystopia City Blocks models. Very good to work with. Will have to put a gunship in the sky right here ... Cronin, Ramos and the Blue Ravens to the rescue of some poor soul!
I'm going to give the links to the NARC novels right here, with this caveat: be aware of GLBT content! Be aware that these are not novels for kids. If you're all growed up an' all, and you like a mind-blowing SF novel that will stretch you about as far as you can go ... and you don't get upset about (or actually relish!) some gay love scenes, then you just hit paydirt. With the caveat given, here's the link: http://www.dream-craft.com/melkeegan/narc.html ... we're in the process, right now, of rebuilding this site into an adventure playground of incredible images. Won't be long now!
Jade, 12 October
***Posted by MK: my connection is intermittent, too slow for this. Seriously, guys, I've got dialup speeds. How are you expected to do anything these days, at 1990 dialup speeds?!!!
