Fic: Cobalt Blue (SP)
Ah ha! Finally! The story of the colored hair!
Title: Cobalt Blue
Prompt: 01. China Rose Lyrics A new moon leads me to woods of dreams and I follow
Word Count: 1025
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Kilce is learning to fight fire with fire... only with hair color instead of, you know, actual fire.
The darkness was thicker than Kilce had imagined it would be. For a group of girls more intent on getting the shade of their skin just perfect, they certainly had an odd sense of what fun was. "This will be fun," she muttered, mimicking Pliya's cheerful voice as she tried to keep from being slapped in the face with tree branches. Her typical haunts were all in the Old City and she would have rather dealt with rats than these dark woods.
The others certainly thought it was fun. From up ahead, she could hear some of the girls chatting even though she couldn't make out any words. There was laughter floating through the woods, like the call of birds back and forth in the branches of the trees. Tonight was the only night many of them had off the campus of the Academy.
That alone should have made Kilce concerned. In the week she'd been at Grantson Academy, she hadn't dared get too far off campus in case anything changed and her way back was barred. It was always harder to get thrown out than it was to be refused entrance.
An exposed root nearly sent her to her knees but she found her balance again without ending up on the ground. It made her pause, though. Catch her breath. Consider the stupidity of this once again.
As if sensing her unease, Pliya's ghostly silhouette appeared in front of her. "They'll leave you alone once this is over. You have my word on it."
"Will they? Do you promise?" Her words were honest but her tone was laced with sarcasm. She very much doubted the Hilla and the rest of the Yuna Ja would leave her alone after a simple ritual in the woods. If anything, she figured they meant to corner her and string her up for the wild animals she was sure called this portion of the forest home. Bears and boars. Just the things that liked to eat foolish girls who didn't follow their gut and wandered around in the dark where anything could happen to them.
Of course, she could have used her magic. That would have lit her pathway or taken care of the mean-spirited girls. It was like playing rotten, though. None of them seemed to have any magic. How that was possible, she wasn't sure. She'd tested Pliya several times but there didn't seem to be anything there. No resistance to her own questing magic. It was as if they were all empty. That, in itself, scared Kilce more than their sneers and taunts. What if she became an empty shell because she tried too hard to be like them?
"Come on." A hand reached out to touch her own. Pliya's face was a pale moon in the darkness. "I won't let anything happen. I'll stay right beside you the whole time."
She made it to the clearing without any other incident and, true to her word, Pliya didn't move from her side except when she was called forward to drink some water from a silly cup covered with plastic jewels. Kilce knew her jewels and those were nothing but really bad copies. It was all part of the ritual, though. Some of the girls giggled as they drank from the cup as if they realized how stupid it all looked but that didn't stop them from glaring at the new girl as they walked by. The intruder.
But Kilce wasn't going to let them win. She smiled sweetly at them all as if they were being nothing but welcoming. When Hilla stopped in front of her, Kilce even dropped into a low curtsy. "Are you ready to be marked?"
That sounded ominous but when Kilce looked at Pliya for a silent explanation, the girl just touched the strip of purple running through her dark locks. That sort of marked didn't sound too bad. She wouldn't mind a purple stripe. Or, maybe, a pink one like the blonde girl across the clearing. She'd noticed that color right off and had wondered how she'd done it. Now, it appeared she was going to find out first hand.
"I am."
It all seemed too simple. She was pulled into the middle of the circle and pushed down to sit on a rock. Hilla pulled out a painting brush and a pot of some foul smelling gel. "I'm going to brush this over a lock of your hair. If it turns a different color, the Hall has accepted you. And we, in turn, will accept you."
Out of the corner of her eye, Kilce saw Hilla reach out as if to stir the brush in the pot but it never made it inside. She made a good show of it, though. Then, very carefully, as if the dripping goo really was going to come in contact with hair, Hilla made a careful stripe through Kilce's dark hair.
"Oops. It doesn't appear to be-"
But two could play these kinds of games. It would leave her with a bad cough for a few days but Kilce didn't mind. She willingly absorbed the magic leaking from the pot and turned it on herself. It wasn't pretty but it would do well enough, she decided as the group of girls all gasped in unison. Instead of a stripe, Kilce's entire head of nut-brown hair turned bright blue. When the lock of hair that Hilla had been holding fell in front of her face, she messed with the color again so that it was a bit darker. More cobalt instead of bordering on teal.
"I guess it accepts me," Kilce declared as she stood up. Everyone was staring at her with wide-eyed awe but Hilla was the only one turning a strange shade of green, as if the very idea of Kilce's hair actually turning a different shade was making her ill. It would serve the girl right if her deception truly did make her as sick as Kilce was going to be because of her own. She liked that thought. It was enough to keep a smile on her face all the way back to the campus.
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.
Title: Cobalt Blue
Prompt: 01. China Rose Lyrics A new moon leads me to woods of dreams and I follow
Word Count: 1025
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Kilce is learning to fight fire with fire... only with hair color instead of, you know, actual fire.
The darkness was thicker than Kilce had imagined it would be. For a group of girls more intent on getting the shade of their skin just perfect, they certainly had an odd sense of what fun was. "This will be fun," she muttered, mimicking Pliya's cheerful voice as she tried to keep from being slapped in the face with tree branches. Her typical haunts were all in the Old City and she would have rather dealt with rats than these dark woods.
The others certainly thought it was fun. From up ahead, she could hear some of the girls chatting even though she couldn't make out any words. There was laughter floating through the woods, like the call of birds back and forth in the branches of the trees. Tonight was the only night many of them had off the campus of the Academy.
That alone should have made Kilce concerned. In the week she'd been at Grantson Academy, she hadn't dared get too far off campus in case anything changed and her way back was barred. It was always harder to get thrown out than it was to be refused entrance.
An exposed root nearly sent her to her knees but she found her balance again without ending up on the ground. It made her pause, though. Catch her breath. Consider the stupidity of this once again.
As if sensing her unease, Pliya's ghostly silhouette appeared in front of her. "They'll leave you alone once this is over. You have my word on it."
"Will they? Do you promise?" Her words were honest but her tone was laced with sarcasm. She very much doubted the Hilla and the rest of the Yuna Ja would leave her alone after a simple ritual in the woods. If anything, she figured they meant to corner her and string her up for the wild animals she was sure called this portion of the forest home. Bears and boars. Just the things that liked to eat foolish girls who didn't follow their gut and wandered around in the dark where anything could happen to them.
Of course, she could have used her magic. That would have lit her pathway or taken care of the mean-spirited girls. It was like playing rotten, though. None of them seemed to have any magic. How that was possible, she wasn't sure. She'd tested Pliya several times but there didn't seem to be anything there. No resistance to her own questing magic. It was as if they were all empty. That, in itself, scared Kilce more than their sneers and taunts. What if she became an empty shell because she tried too hard to be like them?
"Come on." A hand reached out to touch her own. Pliya's face was a pale moon in the darkness. "I won't let anything happen. I'll stay right beside you the whole time."
She made it to the clearing without any other incident and, true to her word, Pliya didn't move from her side except when she was called forward to drink some water from a silly cup covered with plastic jewels. Kilce knew her jewels and those were nothing but really bad copies. It was all part of the ritual, though. Some of the girls giggled as they drank from the cup as if they realized how stupid it all looked but that didn't stop them from glaring at the new girl as they walked by. The intruder.
But Kilce wasn't going to let them win. She smiled sweetly at them all as if they were being nothing but welcoming. When Hilla stopped in front of her, Kilce even dropped into a low curtsy. "Are you ready to be marked?"
That sounded ominous but when Kilce looked at Pliya for a silent explanation, the girl just touched the strip of purple running through her dark locks. That sort of marked didn't sound too bad. She wouldn't mind a purple stripe. Or, maybe, a pink one like the blonde girl across the clearing. She'd noticed that color right off and had wondered how she'd done it. Now, it appeared she was going to find out first hand.
"I am."
It all seemed too simple. She was pulled into the middle of the circle and pushed down to sit on a rock. Hilla pulled out a painting brush and a pot of some foul smelling gel. "I'm going to brush this over a lock of your hair. If it turns a different color, the Hall has accepted you. And we, in turn, will accept you."
Out of the corner of her eye, Kilce saw Hilla reach out as if to stir the brush in the pot but it never made it inside. She made a good show of it, though. Then, very carefully, as if the dripping goo really was going to come in contact with hair, Hilla made a careful stripe through Kilce's dark hair.
"Oops. It doesn't appear to be-"
But two could play these kinds of games. It would leave her with a bad cough for a few days but Kilce didn't mind. She willingly absorbed the magic leaking from the pot and turned it on herself. It wasn't pretty but it would do well enough, she decided as the group of girls all gasped in unison. Instead of a stripe, Kilce's entire head of nut-brown hair turned bright blue. When the lock of hair that Hilla had been holding fell in front of her face, she messed with the color again so that it was a bit darker. More cobalt instead of bordering on teal.
"I guess it accepts me," Kilce declared as she stood up. Everyone was staring at her with wide-eyed awe but Hilla was the only one turning a strange shade of green, as if the very idea of Kilce's hair actually turning a different shade was making her ill. It would serve the girl right if her deception truly did make her as sick as Kilce was going to be because of her own. She liked that thought. It was enough to keep a smile on her face all the way back to the campus.
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.