B5 Ficlet: Hair Trouble
Title: Hair Trouble
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Delenn, Susan Ivanova.
Rating: G
Word Count: 729
Spoilers: Soul Mates.
Summary: Delenn is in desperate need of advice on how to control her hair.
Written For: Challenge 276: Advice at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Some dialogue borrowed from the episode.
Being the first half-human Minbari hadn’t seemed so bad at first. Some of her own people had been less than impressed with Delenn’s transformation, refusing to see her as a Minbari and terming her a freak, but distasteful as their attitude might be, it was not entirely unexpected and she remained hopeful they would, as the humans said, come around in time.
Her new body required certain adjustments, her protruding chest threw off her center of gravity, affecting her balance at first, and her ears were larger and set higher on her head than they had been before, yet such changes were relatively inconsequential and quickly came to feel perfectly normal.
There was one aspect of her transformation, however, that she simply could not get to grips with, and that was her hair. How humans managed to make the ridiculously uncooperative stuff behave itself she couldn’t begin to fathom, and after wrestling with it in her quarters, alone, for much of the morning when she should have been doing other, more important things, she finally had to admit she needed help. She couldn’t possibly allow herself to be seen looking like this!
But who could she turn to for advice? Obviously her own people could be of no assistance with this problem; they knew no more about hair than she did. No, it would have to be a human, and one familiar with controlling an overabundance of hair. Commander Ivanova was the obvious choice; she never seemed to have any trouble with hers, it always appeared immaculate and well behaved, unlike Delenn’s own.
Commander Ivanova seemed rather taken aback by the sight that met her eyes when she entered Delenn’s quarters, and truthfully Delenn couldn’t blame her. The Commander’s hair hung smooth and glossy while her own was a completely unmanageable tangle. The harder she’d tried to unravel it the worse it had become, and frustration was making her irritable. It was a most undignified situation for someone in her position.
As Delenn had hoped, Commander Ivanova did indeed prove knowledgeable on the subject of hair. It seemed Delenn had been treating hers in a manner that was unsuitable; according to Susan it was supposed to be washed in water, an absurd notion to a Minbari whose methods of maintaining bodily cleanliness were quite different. Through ignorance she had apparently caused considerable damage to the delicate substance. If water were required, however, Delenn would bow to Susan’s superior knowledge on the subject. She would do whatever it took to restore the tangled mass of strands to something controllable; the only alternatives were to either cut it all off or lock herself away and never show her face again.
“I trust you,” Delenn told Susan, surprised to realise it was true. Susan was loyal to John, and not given to unseemly gossiping; she would keep respectfully silent on this matter and so save Delenn any embarrassment.
The process of restoring her unruly hair to order was oddly soothing, first washing it with water and a pleasantly scented liquid soap, then rinsing it and applying a ‘conditioner’ to restore the nutrients stripped away by the method Delenn had been using to cleanse it since her transformation. The excess conditioner was then rinsed away, and the hair gently combed to remove tangles before being wound around peculiar things called ‘curlers’ and allowed to dry.
All of Delenn’s frustration and annoyance melted away as Susan worked. It was a time-consuming process, but curiously quite enjoyable, and by the time it was completed she found her hair once more perfectly well behaved.
“I cannot thank you enough, Susan.” Delenn studied her appearance in the mirror, turning her head one way and then the other, relieved at the restoration of her dignity.
“If you have any other problems, you know where to find me. Now I really must get back to work.”
“Of course. I apologise for taking up so much of your time.”
“Don’t worry about it, happy to be of service.”
Susan left and as the door closed behind her, Delenn studied her appearance once more. Being half-human was clearly more complicated than she had anticipated, and more problems with her new and unfamiliar anatomy might yet arise, but at least she now knew who to turn to whenever she required discreet and confidential advice. Perhaps she might even consider Susan a friend.
The End
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Delenn, Susan Ivanova.
Rating: G
Word Count: 729
Spoilers: Soul Mates.
Summary: Delenn is in desperate need of advice on how to control her hair.
Written For: Challenge 276: Advice at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Some dialogue borrowed from the episode.
Being the first half-human Minbari hadn’t seemed so bad at first. Some of her own people had been less than impressed with Delenn’s transformation, refusing to see her as a Minbari and terming her a freak, but distasteful as their attitude might be, it was not entirely unexpected and she remained hopeful they would, as the humans said, come around in time.
Her new body required certain adjustments, her protruding chest threw off her center of gravity, affecting her balance at first, and her ears were larger and set higher on her head than they had been before, yet such changes were relatively inconsequential and quickly came to feel perfectly normal.
There was one aspect of her transformation, however, that she simply could not get to grips with, and that was her hair. How humans managed to make the ridiculously uncooperative stuff behave itself she couldn’t begin to fathom, and after wrestling with it in her quarters, alone, for much of the morning when she should have been doing other, more important things, she finally had to admit she needed help. She couldn’t possibly allow herself to be seen looking like this!
But who could she turn to for advice? Obviously her own people could be of no assistance with this problem; they knew no more about hair than she did. No, it would have to be a human, and one familiar with controlling an overabundance of hair. Commander Ivanova was the obvious choice; she never seemed to have any trouble with hers, it always appeared immaculate and well behaved, unlike Delenn’s own.
Commander Ivanova seemed rather taken aback by the sight that met her eyes when she entered Delenn’s quarters, and truthfully Delenn couldn’t blame her. The Commander’s hair hung smooth and glossy while her own was a completely unmanageable tangle. The harder she’d tried to unravel it the worse it had become, and frustration was making her irritable. It was a most undignified situation for someone in her position.
As Delenn had hoped, Commander Ivanova did indeed prove knowledgeable on the subject of hair. It seemed Delenn had been treating hers in a manner that was unsuitable; according to Susan it was supposed to be washed in water, an absurd notion to a Minbari whose methods of maintaining bodily cleanliness were quite different. Through ignorance she had apparently caused considerable damage to the delicate substance. If water were required, however, Delenn would bow to Susan’s superior knowledge on the subject. She would do whatever it took to restore the tangled mass of strands to something controllable; the only alternatives were to either cut it all off or lock herself away and never show her face again.
“I trust you,” Delenn told Susan, surprised to realise it was true. Susan was loyal to John, and not given to unseemly gossiping; she would keep respectfully silent on this matter and so save Delenn any embarrassment.
The process of restoring her unruly hair to order was oddly soothing, first washing it with water and a pleasantly scented liquid soap, then rinsing it and applying a ‘conditioner’ to restore the nutrients stripped away by the method Delenn had been using to cleanse it since her transformation. The excess conditioner was then rinsed away, and the hair gently combed to remove tangles before being wound around peculiar things called ‘curlers’ and allowed to dry.
All of Delenn’s frustration and annoyance melted away as Susan worked. It was a time-consuming process, but curiously quite enjoyable, and by the time it was completed she found her hair once more perfectly well behaved.
“I cannot thank you enough, Susan.” Delenn studied her appearance in the mirror, turning her head one way and then the other, relieved at the restoration of her dignity.
“If you have any other problems, you know where to find me. Now I really must get back to work.”
“Of course. I apologise for taking up so much of your time.”
“Don’t worry about it, happy to be of service.”
Susan left and as the door closed behind her, Delenn studied her appearance once more. Being half-human was clearly more complicated than she had anticipated, and more problems with her new and unfamiliar anatomy might yet arise, but at least she now knew who to turn to whenever she required discreet and confidential advice. Perhaps she might even consider Susan a friend.
The End