Day 49: Pearl's Beauty Salon Hair and Nails [noon]

[not_rly_fai]

[From here]

It wasn't too much further down main street before they reached the salon.  It was about what he expected it to be once they went inside.  While the town might be a bit rougher around the edges since their last visit, the shop was still in fairly good condition.  He gave the woman behind the counter a friendly smile and a wave as he

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[ninelivesonce]

"There's only a couple of them, and we've got all day," Taura said, her smile just a little bit crooked. Waiting around last night, as ordered, had gotten her an argument and a possible demotion; had she been wrong? Should she have stayed out in the rain, looking for any gap in the meticulous sentry line that only looked like a bunch of Institute medics and personnel haphazardly wandering.

No, damnit, she'd been right. If Homura couldn't see that, she'd find her own path out of the Institute. And now was not the time to try. She could be patient, when it mattered. And the salon, was warm and dry and soothing. Ulcers and stress-fatigue did no one any favors when it came time for a combat drop.

It was odd being the only woman in the waiting area. Social conventions on different planets varied, of course, but somewhere she'd gotten the impression that on Old Earth, only women had chosen to have their nails done. She'd started doing it because it hid how different her claws had been, but she'd found she liked it, along with mascara and satin and lace and a lot of things no-one had ever thought to offer her before.

She held up her hand so he could stop trying to be subtle -- the polish matched the name of the shop, but was chipped and cracked from a weeks worth of neglect. "Too bad they don't let us come here more often. It's nice to do something just for ourselves, yeah?"

[haplesstracker]

Scourge held up his hand in solidarity, happy to have found someone who understood the joys of good nails. "Oh, yeah. Nothing like getting a tune-up." His own nails were broken at nearly every tip and the paint was flaking. He'd been trying to take care of them, between the file and the little bottle of paint, but after Landel's little...session he'd been far too distracted. And blind.

"I don't get why nobody else does it. Last time I was here there was nobody else in the shop, nobody from Landel's, I mean. There were some regular humans." And they'd laughed at him, that was just cruel.

[ninelivesonce]

"Maybe the locals don't want to be around us. Crazy isn't contagious, but you wouldn't know it from the way people act." And she'd yet to meet any fellow prisoners she'd call crazy, but the town seemed to accept the cover story. "What color do you think?" They had a whole rack of polishes, and then the option of fake nails, which were done up like Cetagandan face-paint in minature; it was a charming effect, albeit one that might get your hands in very hot water in the wrong locations.

And she wasn't quite sure she'd want to glue something to her hands. The plastic ones did look a little stronger, though she didn't think they'd hold an edge any better than her natural nails. They did have the advantage of little sparkly synthetic gems, though.

[haplesstracker]

"Mmm..." Scourge eyed his own hand. "I've always been pink, so I just keep the pink. I guess you're a human, so you'd go with red." For blood, obviously. Scourge didn't have much sense of aesthetic but he know too well what humans looked like when you opened them up.

The people seemed angrier today than they'd been yesterday. Maybe Landel had framed them for the damage to the town, that was what Scourge would have done if he felt like being cruel. Shame, though...he'd liked talking to Pearl. She was okay, as humans went.

[ninelivesonce]

"Wouldn't red look like I have blood on my hands?" She shook her head, gently. "I frighten people enough as it is." And it stood out too much for daily wear in combat, but so did a lot of shades of pink.

But it was what he'd said just before that which kept bouncing around in her ears. You're a human. "But what are you if you're not a human? A pink what?" Humans were still pretty pink, at least from most of the genotypes she'd encountered. Talana had claimed otherwise, but she'd also claimed non-human origin. With pride, and the confidence that came from knowing what she was, rather than what she wasn't. "If it's not rude to ask, that is."

[haplesstracker]

"Pink nails. Our basic parallel to blood is pink, so my claws are pink. It makes it look like I've been hunting." He wiggled his fingers in example. "Thought frightening people and showing off how tough you were was the whole point of getting a special paint job. I mean, why else would you?" To look pretty? To attract a potential mate with which to have sex and then create little squishy human grubs? That would just be silly.

Scourge turned sideways in his chair so he could better talk to the larger human. Very large human, unfortunately, apparently his trend of falling in amoung tall people had cursed him yet again.

[ninelivesonce]

"Well, it does make them hold an edge better. But I was good enough at frightening people before. All I had to do was smile." She turned a toothy grin on him, the one that would clear the full length of her fangs -- if she still had them. "Intimidating is all well and good when I'm working, but I like to have friends." She slouched a little in the chair to be closer to eye-level -- even at this height, she still towered over people, and it seemed to bother most of them.

Most of the Dendarii were used to her; atavistic reactions couldn't always be quelled, but even those who hadn't quite suppressed the twitching were nice enough to apologize. And after she'd staggered back into the shuttle carrying not one but three of her biggest (quite literally -- none of them were under six feet tall) critics after what was supposed to be a routine pick-up turned into a one-sided shootout, every slot on her squad had had six volunteers.

[haplesstracker]

"Being intimidating wins you friends," Scourge pointed out, staring at her mouth and wondering about the significance of the gesture. They were human now, they had no teeth to show. "When you're scary enough everyone wants to suck up to you."

Scourge could do with being intimidating. His nails were laughable rather than fiercesome, he had a terminal case of the short, and this was a place where even Lord Recluse was a minor threat compared to the world around them. And yet everyone who did have a more powerful body, like Kurt or Lugnut, spent most of their time angsting about it instead of enjoying the fact that they were huge or could teleport.

[damned_town]

"I apologize for the wait, dears," Pearl sang out as she moved over toward the pair sitting in the waiting area. It would've been far easier if they'd simply left so that she didn't have to deal with them, but, well, nice things had to be few and far between for the poor mad souls. If only Janice hadn't taken the morning off.

She set her fists against her ample hips and regarded the two of them with eyes narrowed and lips pursed thoughtfully. "Both of you? Or just you?" she asked, glancing toward Taura on the second sentence.

[ninelivesonce]

"Both of us," Taura returned, brightly. "We were just picking colors. What do you think is better? Pink, or red?" she asked, holding up her hands.

Neither matched the light blue of the clothes she'd been issued today, but gray went with everything. The grey sweats weren't even that far off the Dendarii uniforms, color-wise. The tailoring left something to be desired, though. And the flammability. But the hell with looking professional; this time, she was going to get something for herself. Pink it was, unless Pearl had a better idea.

[haplesstracker]

Scourge looked hurt. "You don't remember me? I came in here last week. You gave me a little rainbow colored heart file thing and took the paint off my nails." Had their twenty minutes together meant nothing to Pearl? She'd made him look nice, for once, and having that little bottle of paint around had helped him reestablish his identity after Landel stole his personality.

Unless Landel took the townspeople's memories away every day, the way they seemed to do with the nurses at night. In that case Scourge would just have to rebefriend her.

[damned_town]

Pearl frowned critically at the woman, scarlet-painted lips pursed as she looked from head to toe. "Mm, honey, with your coloring I'd go with a nice pink. I have some lovely shades that would suit you nicely, I think." She started to gesture for the woman to follow her over to the table but paused to squint at the man when he spoke.

"Oh, yes," she said after a moment, though her expression didn't brighten any with recognition. "The one with the bright pink nails, yes? That's not the color I was thinking of, mind," Pearl added, with a wave at Taura. "Much too bright for you. But, yes, come this way." And she turned away, bustling off to the table without further comment.

[ninelivesonce]

It was strange that she didn't remember -- while Taura wouldn't have thought twice about not being remembered, even with the fangs and the claws, at most ports of call, this was different. The weekly visits of the prison population seemed to be the only contact this town had with the outside world; it was like someone had disconnected all the wires and yet people were still talking to the comconsole like nothing had happened.

Unless -- was this even the same woman? A clone? Had Pearl been around that night, as well? Suddenly, stretching out her hands and placing them in her care seemed much more sinister. Taura walked over to one of the tables and did it anyway.

"I don't get to wear colors very often. Wouldn't be professional enough. And it'd bring attention to my hands." Don't give them a target; she shifted in her seat a little as an echo that wasn't hers slipped in; Katherine hadn't worn colors either, and for the same reason, even if her battlefield had been only a game. Ugh. "But I guess a little attention now isn't a bad thing."