Title: Roleplay
Summary: When Jessica asked to do some roleplaying, Roger thought she wanted to improve her acting skills with him. After all, they work for television. Little did he know, it was his acting skills that were about to be tested.
Chapter 1: A Flash of Inspiration
"What's wrong, lovecups?"
She shook her head, letting her peekaboo bangs sweep forward, a curtain for her emotions. "It's nothing."
His yellow-gloved hand held hers, encased in its purple opera glove. "It's not nothing if it's bothering the light of my life."
Jessica smiled at their past conversation, feeling the little glow in her chest. Her hunny bunny could be so…
She regained her composure, reminding herself that she was out grocery shopping.
It was both nothing and something at the same time. Something that wasn't worth for her Roger to get worked up about.
She was content with her appearances on their Baby Herman Show. The opportunity to hit on her husband for a living didn't always come to everyone. She got to dress up and interact with him in almost every short.
However, there were times she found her role lacking.
Her role in Tummy Trouble was pretty much ho-hum for her. She was a nurse rolling a cart of baby bottles. But in the back of her mind, she had wondered what it would be like if she was a doctor instead. She could be wearing a white lab coat over a silk blouse and slitted skirt.
Jessica absentmindedly shrugged her shoulders. Though she didn't point it out, it was fun imagining the perfect outfits for any occasion.
In the next short, Roller Coaster Rabbit, she was a damsel in distress. Bonded from shoulder to ankles. Although the director praised her for making it look good with her throaty murmurs of distress, she was kind of disappointed Roger was too far to appreciate it. (On the bright side, she had managed to surprise him by being the centerfold of Playtoon Magazine.)
Finally, her role in Trail Mix-Up was pretty fun. She drove the jeepney with a degree of ferocity before coming out daintily in her red heels. Most of her interactions with Roger were ad-libs. She had always taken a certain amount of smuggery at the look on his face whenever he saw her in her costumes.
It may have something to do with the fact that back when they were only friends, she could never get him to react to her that way when she began to like him beyond platonic. Roger admitted that he had always seen that she needed a real friend. Aside from the fact that he had also been pretty dense at first to what he had been feeling for her in their growing relationship. But that was another story.
It was her role in the Trail Mix-Up that made her realized that most of her roles in the shorts were kind of submissive. Servile. For a diva that controlled the stage and enthralled the audience, it was like trying on an outfit that just wasn't right for her.
But she didn't want Roger to pester the scriptwriters for it. It was simply a mild bother.
As she shopped, her mind fantasized better secondary roles for her. Roles that have a bit more power in them.
She smiled in the privacy of her thoughts when her musings threw in her bunny husband into the mix. Roger would sometimes discuss business with CB Maroon, collaborating with Herman on slapstick stories (whether Maroon wanted to or not).
Jessica breathed a laugh as she got out of the store, grocery bag in her arm. Her mind was certainly creating stories for her and her hunny bunny. But she doubted it would get past censorship if she would have her way.
"Oh thank you," she said, when the paperbag boy carried her groceries for her without her even asking.
"No problem, miss!" he answered with a grin that was both eager and rather hungry.
She walked out of the store and let him put the paperbags in the car. Jessica blew him a kiss and he blasted up in the air like a rocket, crashing back into the store's roof.
Her eyes caught sight of a new shop that wasn't there before.
Custome Shoppe, its sign proudly proclaimed.
Interest perked, she left her groceries inside their car and went inside the boutique.
"Oh my..." she murmured to herself, feeling like she just went inside a giant props room. Outfits from all walks of life -so well-made, one could immediately identify the costume in a glance. Farmer costumes. Feathery cabaret costumes. Magician. Chef.
Name it, the shop have it.
"Jessica?"
She turned to see a life-sized toon ragdoll looking equally as surprised as her.
"Remy," she smiled in delight.
They gave each other a quick hug. Remy the Rag Doll held her in arm's length.
"How're you Jessica, m'dear? Still glowing as ever, I see." Her yarn eyebrows rose in her own intonation.
Jessica felt herself smile mischievously back. Remy might look like a child's toy with her yarn hair and big button dresses. But Remy might as well be Remy the Risqué.
She tucked her hair behind her ear, playing along. "Playboy doesn't do him justice," she replied with a cat-ate-the-canary smirk.
Remy gave a theatrical, scandalized gasp before laughing outloud. "Oh Jessica, I missed you. Still wearing the gown I designed for you?"
She nodded, remembering the sparkling, strapless gown that she would wear in The Ink-and-Paint Club. "It's one of the best in my wardrobe."
Remy took out her tape measure. "It's been a long time since I designed an outfit for you." She began taking out dresses from one of the racks. "Your figure demands the right balance of drape and tightness, I love it."
"I don't really need one at the moment," Jessica replied after a thought, reactively catching the dresses Remy would push in her arms.
"Nonsense, it's almost Halloween!" Remy turned to the other racks. "I got costumes in rabbit sizes," she said in a sing-song voice.
Jessica's eyes widened when Remy showed costumes and costumes in Roger's fit. Remy shielded her eyes from Jessica's lightbulb of inspiration.
"On second thought," Jessica murmured. Remy smirked at the gleam in her eyes. "Can you design me a costume?"
Author's Note: Even though nothing happens here yet, I rated this as Mature because of the series of chapters that would follow. The next chapters will be posted in Archive of Our Own. The reason for this is because I want to give you the chance to read the tags of each chapter first and then decide for yourselves if you would be comfortable reading that degree of mature themes. It happened to me more than once when I was younger that I read mature fics that were too mature for me at that time. I would've put the link here but it won't clickable or copied. Just google AO3 Calliecature and you can find the following chapters in there. Belated Happy Halloween, everyone ;)
Remy the Ragdoll is inspired by Sally the Ragdoll in Nightmare Before Christmas.