Desert Dreamers XIX
Previously: Ana and Gracie hung out with their dogs, kicked ass at their jobs, and considered filing a restraining order against Orange Bailey-Moon. While the rest of the family retreated to Granite Falls, Rafael moonlighted as an online beauty guru and went all the way with Alexis.
Look at these naughty, naughty dogs insisting upon making themselves filthy mere hours after they've both had a bath.
They're quickly becoming partners in crime. It may look like they're just playing, but they get up to all sorts of trouble when their owners are too busy working to notice.
Then, when their misbehavior is discovered, they're so cute lining up for love that it's hard for either Gracie or Ana to stay angry at them for long.
In other news, Ana has switched agencies because she craved actual human interaction rather than the automated robot messages her old agency always sent her. These ones are much more encouraging.
And they actually followed through on the flowers! Bless them! It really is like having a grandma for an agent!
Don't worry, we'll get back to Ana and Gracie soon enough, but some updates on the rest of the family are in order before we entirely turn our attention to them. It may be pretty subtle, but I changed up Gaby's look a bit because I was having a hard time pinning her down. She strikes a good balance between simple and cute now, so this one may be a winner.
In terms of her hobbies, being a scout has made her a real renaissance woman, as she's determined to master everything to get as many badges as possible. For a while, she tries her hand at painting.
Then, once she's collected the arts and crafts badge, she turns to the punching bag to help her polish off that fitness one.
Heck yeah, a trophy! Sadly, I'm not sure she has enough days left as a teen to reach the final level of unicorn scout.
Gaby, please don't tell me you're only in this for the selfies... Don't be like your siblings. You can do better. Social media isn't everything, you know?!?
I guess I can't rag on Rafael too much, though, considering he's starting to make pretty good money as a techie.
Damn, Gideon, where did that rock-hard six-pack come from? Have you been hitting the gym behind my back?
I see I'm not the only one impressed by his unexpected transformation. You can probably guess where this interaction will end, so let's leave them to it and get back to Ana already...
The poor girl is just trying to enjoy a stress-free day off with her pets at the dog park, when all of a sudden she hears an ear-shattering shrieking sound coming from somewhere behind her... What in the world?!?
Fan: O-M-G, ARE YOU ANA?!? LIKE, THE ANA GOTH?!? WOW, YOU REALLY ARE HER!!! I ADORE YOUR WORK!
Even though this woman's screams may have permanently damaged Ana's hearing, she's pretty pleased to be having her first official fan encounter and she happily obliges to signing an autograph for her - which, as you can imagine, only led to more ecstatic shrieking.
Unfortunately, once you give one fan the time of day, it only encourages the others to come out of hiding and try their own luck. All of a sudden, a relaxing day at the park turns into an impromptu meet and greet.
Ana: Dude, I told you I would sign your picture, not that you had permission to play with my dog. That's a step too far!
Of course, the entire time this is happening, Artemis uses the situation as an excuse to make an absolute mess of herself while Ana's back is turned. I swear, this dog gets five baths a day.
Anyway, while Ana was taking care of all that, Gracie was busy working hard so she could get another promotion. I feel like this career is more of a grind than a lot of others, especially because the writing skill seems to build up so slowly.
In order to boost said skill, Gracie has started a children's fantasy series (because all writers need a side gig purely for their own enjoyment), and she may have taken some inspiration from real life when it came to naming her protagonists.
Before her next acting job, Ana stops at the coffee shop in Del Sol Valley for a quick latte when she runs into none other than her part-time stalker, Orange Bailey-Moon. He's actually chilled out on the "chance encounters" lately, so Ana decides to extend an olive branch.
Ana: Since it seems like you've finally matured a little, what do you say we call ourselves friends and leave all that romance nonsense in the past where it belongs?
Ana: Wait a minute... Who are you calling? Why are you looking at your phone like that? What's going on?!?
Mr. Bailey-Moon thinks he's real slick tipping the paparazzi off about his location then swooping in to forcibly kiss Ana the second they arrive. I can't believe she tried to give this guy another chance and he blew it in such a disgusting way!
Paparazzo: Hey, I'll delete those pictures for, let's say, five hundred bucks. Otherwise, it's straight to the tabloids!
Ana: You people are goddamn vultures, you know that? Can't you just let a girl order a latte in peace?
Ana arrives on set and tries to put that unfortunate incident behind her; it helps that this is the most truly stylish look she's sported for one of her performances yet.
However, she comes down with an unfortunate case of spiral hives as soon as she heads onstage to perform. This is really turning out to be a terrible day, isn't it?
Director: Are you sure you're okay? It'll be a pain, but we can reschedule if we have to...
Ana: No, I'm totally fine! Let's do this!
Director: Well, we should at least get you back to makeup for some cover-up-
Ana: No time! I'm ready to perform now!
Really, Ana? Because you sure don't look very ready to me. Maybe this isn't such a good idea...
Costar: Ugh, I didn't know I was signing up to catch some disgusting skin disease when I agreed to take this role!
Unsurprisingly, their romance scenes aren't very convincing, considering he wants to stay as far away as possible and Ana grows more and more delirious with illness by the second.
Director: I can't believe she came so highly recommended! She is ruining my work, people! This is a travesty!
To Ana's credit, she hangs in there and tries to complete her dancing scene, but she can't even do that without nearly poking her own eye out.
It doesn't help that buckets of movie rain are falling down on her the entire time, making her even sicker.
She leaves set that evening feeling totally defeated. I'm not sure the mood has ever been this somber upon wrapping up a performance before. I hope this disaster doesn't entirely derail her career.
Back at home, Gracie is kind enough to make Ana some healing green tea, and she downs cup after cup, hoping to get the sickness out of her system soon enough for her to book another gig, kick ass, and put this fluke of a performance behind her for good.
An absolutely amazing woohoo session also helps the sting of embarrassment fade away more quickly. I'm sure she'll be back at the top of her game in no time!
Look at these naughty, naughty dogs insisting upon making themselves filthy mere hours after they've both had a bath.
They're quickly becoming partners in crime. It may look like they're just playing, but they get up to all sorts of trouble when their owners are too busy working to notice.
Then, when their misbehavior is discovered, they're so cute lining up for love that it's hard for either Gracie or Ana to stay angry at them for long.
In other news, Ana has switched agencies because she craved actual human interaction rather than the automated robot messages her old agency always sent her. These ones are much more encouraging.
And they actually followed through on the flowers! Bless them! It really is like having a grandma for an agent!
Don't worry, we'll get back to Ana and Gracie soon enough, but some updates on the rest of the family are in order before we entirely turn our attention to them. It may be pretty subtle, but I changed up Gaby's look a bit because I was having a hard time pinning her down. She strikes a good balance between simple and cute now, so this one may be a winner.
In terms of her hobbies, being a scout has made her a real renaissance woman, as she's determined to master everything to get as many badges as possible. For a while, she tries her hand at painting.
Then, once she's collected the arts and crafts badge, she turns to the punching bag to help her polish off that fitness one.
Heck yeah, a trophy! Sadly, I'm not sure she has enough days left as a teen to reach the final level of unicorn scout.
Gaby, please don't tell me you're only in this for the selfies... Don't be like your siblings. You can do better. Social media isn't everything, you know?!?
I guess I can't rag on Rafael too much, though, considering he's starting to make pretty good money as a techie.
Damn, Gideon, where did that rock-hard six-pack come from? Have you been hitting the gym behind my back?
I see I'm not the only one impressed by his unexpected transformation. You can probably guess where this interaction will end, so let's leave them to it and get back to Ana already...
The poor girl is just trying to enjoy a stress-free day off with her pets at the dog park, when all of a sudden she hears an ear-shattering shrieking sound coming from somewhere behind her... What in the world?!?
Fan: O-M-G, ARE YOU ANA?!? LIKE, THE ANA GOTH?!? WOW, YOU REALLY ARE HER!!! I ADORE YOUR WORK!
Even though this woman's screams may have permanently damaged Ana's hearing, she's pretty pleased to be having her first official fan encounter and she happily obliges to signing an autograph for her - which, as you can imagine, only led to more ecstatic shrieking.
Unfortunately, once you give one fan the time of day, it only encourages the others to come out of hiding and try their own luck. All of a sudden, a relaxing day at the park turns into an impromptu meet and greet.
Ana: Dude, I told you I would sign your picture, not that you had permission to play with my dog. That's a step too far!
Of course, the entire time this is happening, Artemis uses the situation as an excuse to make an absolute mess of herself while Ana's back is turned. I swear, this dog gets five baths a day.
Anyway, while Ana was taking care of all that, Gracie was busy working hard so she could get another promotion. I feel like this career is more of a grind than a lot of others, especially because the writing skill seems to build up so slowly.
In order to boost said skill, Gracie has started a children's fantasy series (because all writers need a side gig purely for their own enjoyment), and she may have taken some inspiration from real life when it came to naming her protagonists.
Before her next acting job, Ana stops at the coffee shop in Del Sol Valley for a quick latte when she runs into none other than her part-time stalker, Orange Bailey-Moon. He's actually chilled out on the "chance encounters" lately, so Ana decides to extend an olive branch.
Ana: Since it seems like you've finally matured a little, what do you say we call ourselves friends and leave all that romance nonsense in the past where it belongs?
Ana: Wait a minute... Who are you calling? Why are you looking at your phone like that? What's going on?!?
Mr. Bailey-Moon thinks he's real slick tipping the paparazzi off about his location then swooping in to forcibly kiss Ana the second they arrive. I can't believe she tried to give this guy another chance and he blew it in such a disgusting way!
Paparazzo: Hey, I'll delete those pictures for, let's say, five hundred bucks. Otherwise, it's straight to the tabloids!
Ana: You people are goddamn vultures, you know that? Can't you just let a girl order a latte in peace?
Ana arrives on set and tries to put that unfortunate incident behind her; it helps that this is the most truly stylish look she's sported for one of her performances yet.
However, she comes down with an unfortunate case of spiral hives as soon as she heads onstage to perform. This is really turning out to be a terrible day, isn't it?
Director: Are you sure you're okay? It'll be a pain, but we can reschedule if we have to...
Ana: No, I'm totally fine! Let's do this!
Director: Well, we should at least get you back to makeup for some cover-up-
Ana: No time! I'm ready to perform now!
Really, Ana? Because you sure don't look very ready to me. Maybe this isn't such a good idea...
Costar: Ugh, I didn't know I was signing up to catch some disgusting skin disease when I agreed to take this role!
Unsurprisingly, their romance scenes aren't very convincing, considering he wants to stay as far away as possible and Ana grows more and more delirious with illness by the second.
Director: I can't believe she came so highly recommended! She is ruining my work, people! This is a travesty!
To Ana's credit, she hangs in there and tries to complete her dancing scene, but she can't even do that without nearly poking her own eye out.
It doesn't help that buckets of movie rain are falling down on her the entire time, making her even sicker.
She leaves set that evening feeling totally defeated. I'm not sure the mood has ever been this somber upon wrapping up a performance before. I hope this disaster doesn't entirely derail her career.
Back at home, Gracie is kind enough to make Ana some healing green tea, and she downs cup after cup, hoping to get the sickness out of her system soon enough for her to book another gig, kick ass, and put this fluke of a performance behind her for good.
An absolutely amazing woohoo session also helps the sting of embarrassment fade away more quickly. I'm sure she'll be back at the top of her game in no time!