Players:
Summary: Chloe takes Heather for a makeover.
Date: November 20, 2010.
Log Title: Makeover
Rating: G.
NYC - Mutant Town
Mutant Town, also known as District X, has become a haven for mutants. This section of town doesn't care what you look like, accepting all mutants no matter what their appearance. Most of the businesses in this section of town are mutant run ranging from small convenience stores to clothing shops to restaurants to night clubs. The buildings here aren't the high rise buildings you might find in mid-town but most are about 5-6 stories high. Mutant Town might not be the most luxurious section of town, in fact it's fairly run down, but this section of where mutants are safe and welcomed regardless of race, religion and culture. .
Heather has to remind herself frequently that she agreed to this thing. She agreed to have her hair done, her nails done, her eyebrows waxed, or whatever other horrible things that Chloe wants her to do in order to pretty up. Heather does not seem happy about this, though, her uneven and relatively thick eyebrows furrowed as she follows her friend along, "This is going to take forever, isn't it?"
"Not really… Well okay it might take a while at our speeds," Chloe offers, waving her hands apologetically. "But it's not like we're going in for the full works." Largely because she spent way too much of her allowance on a huge pile of cake. "Besides you're getting out of all of the /worst/ parts because it's winter. So no complaining!"
Heather sighs at that, and pulls her fingers through her hair, detangling it slightly as she moves her hand. "Is it going to hurt very much? I would rather avoid pain if I could…" She frowns slightly and continues following, since she doesn't know where their appointment is.
Chloe nods over towards a little place tucked away in a side street. "Nah it won't hurt. Unless you fidget while they're working and then it's your own fault really!" she replies cheerfully. "Just consider it special training. Someday you may need to sit still, like perhaps if there's a bomb with a motion sensor or something."
"Ugh," says Heather, frowning at that, "I'll think of it like that, but that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy it. Am I at least going to be able to talk to you? I don't want to talk to boring strangers with their boring stories and boring voices." She crosses her arms and says, "After this, we're going to the store." She means the thrift store, though, since Heather simply does not buy anything that looks like a modern teenage would wear.
Chloe pulls off her beloved slow eyeroll of dismay. "Yes, yes it's fine. Why'd you think I picked a place in Mutant town? Normally I'd go to this little place in the suburbs but I figured you might not enjoy the atmosphere there as much. It's a little too slow world but here they aren't fast worlders but they at least understand the concept and won't try throw rocks at us."
"Oh, I like not having rocks thrown at me," says Heather, rubbing her arm lightly at that. "Well, at least they will understand that I'm not being rude, then, if I don't care about their day enough to listen." She glances around and says, "Where is it, anyways? Somewhere around here?"
"Next right, end of the street and down some steps," Chloe answers, pointing and giving a little wave to some bemused slow world pedestrians gawking. "I'll just do the polite stuff for us both. It never hurts to be nice to people when they're going to be cutting your hair or waxing your eyebrows. Unless you want to come out looking worse than Star did during her zombie phase."
"I don't care if I look like a zombie," states Heather, shrugging. "What does it matter?" Again, she reminds herself that she agreed to it, and not to be too negative. "No matter what, I'm still intelligent, isn't that what matters? My incredible brain?" She reaches up and feels her eyebrows, "So they just tear them out? /Right/ out?" No, Heather has never been big on tweezing.
Chloe bursts out laughing. "Would you rather they left them half way out?" She shrugs and adds "As for intelligence… Other people have no way of knowing how smart you are without finding out, but anyone can judge you based on how you look. If you go around with one eyebrow missing and your hair looking like a bird lived in it then they're going to presume stuff." Turning down the side street the blonde speedster sighs. "If you really must think of it as a system you can manipulate for effects. Adopt the right look and you can influence people without having to say a word."
Heather does tilt her head at that last way of phrasing it, contemplating the meaning of the words. She then nods, deciding that it's a good enough reason. "Then I guess I'll have to experiment a little," she says reluctantly. She's not a huge fan of bending to the whims of what is socially desirable, but Chloe makes a good argument. "Do you have any cake left at home?"
"I might have some cake bars and a box of muffins left. I sent a load around the girls dorm to share out after I ate so much I couldn't stand up," Chloe admits ruefully as she checks her watch. "Good, we're about on time for our appointment."
Heather also checks her watch, the same one she sends (sent?) back in time and looks up at the building. "Are any of the muffins chocolate muffins? I enjoy those." She walks up to the door and opens it but does not enter. Since Chloe is supposed to do the polite stuff, Heather waits with the door ajar.
Chloe nods. "Probably. Most of the stuff I got had chocolate in one form or another," she says, skipping in through the open door. Slipping into slow world she runs through pleasantries and which appointment she's there for. "You want anything special doing Heather? Like a new hairstyle or something. Or should they just do a trim and de-tangle… Which might take a while."
"A new hairstyle? No. I guess it will look different without the tangles," says Heather, reaching up to touch her hair. Indeed, it would, since the messyness gives it a certain texture. "Just tell them to make it look normal. Like normal girl hair." She scratches her head and watches the interactions between Chloe and the slow-worlders. "Or whatever you think would look good."
"Sometimes I wonder if maybe you're actually an alien instead of a mutant," Chloe teases, slipping into slow world to run through things with the stylist. "I've told them to go for something simple and low maintenance. That way it won't need much doing with it for a while… Although I guess at our speeds that's still pretty soon. Since my power kicked in I've been getting my hair cut a lot shorter than I used to, because it grows like crazy and if I don't I'll get mistaken for Rapunzel."
"Your hair grows fast? My hair doesn't really grow very fast. Not much faster than slow-worlders. I think it's the same thing that keeps me from looking forty," says Heather, touching her hair lightly. "But I always just chopped it off when it got too long. In the White Prison, they'd drug me when they needed to cut my hair."
"That's the problem! You've got this impression that it's a chore when really it's a luxury," Chloe says, twirling her own hair around her fingers. "I saw on this history program that having long hair was probably considered a status symbol because it meant you could afford to spend the time looking after it." She chews her lip and adds "And we have nothing if not plenty of time."
"Yes, I could probably spend a lot of time on my hair, but I'd rather spend it writing or exercising. Maybe I'll just do it while I'm listening to class lecture tapes. But I've been trying to catch up all the notes I made in the demon world, but I can't remember all of them," says Heather, frowning slightly at this.
Chloe slips into slow world to discuss what she wants doing for herself, then speeds back up and replies "What sort of notes did you make? I honestly never really found anything there worth remembering. Well, okay maybe I /did/ discover that I could do with taking wilderness survival lessons. But for the most part it was all pretty same-y for me. Might be my own fault for spending so long trying to match my wits against the forest though…. Long story short, the forest kept winning. Or maybe there wasn't anything on the other side to actually get through and find. Guess I'll never find out now."
"Notes? I take notes about the environments that I end up in. There might be comparable solutions to problems that I can apply. It was an illusion world and a world of riddles. I've experienced both of those kinds of worlds in the past, and it's always best to remember what brings victory," says Heather. She watches with a small amount of confusion what's happening around her, since she's not really paying much attention to the slow bits. "Everything will eventually lead to something else. Best to remember how."
Having the capacity to slow herself to some extent Chloe seems far more content to actually enjoy someone making a fuss, especially when it's using up the last of her allowance for the month! "I remember the how part and I'm pretty sure how to stop things like that in the future," she says solemnly. "Beat ten shades of snot out of any magicians who even think the word demon. Maybe invest in a magic sword too, although I'm not quite sure where I'd find someone willing to sell one of those."
"You could probably buy one from the magician thinking about demons. It would be a one stop visit," says Heather, with her characteristic humour. That is, not particularly good humour. "I learned a few things. Pickaxes are useful in a wide variety of circumstances. Pure fear actually is scary in a non-directed kind of way. Wear my watch to bed. Those kinds of things."
"Keep spare watch battery with you too?" Chloe wonders with a smile. "I'm pretty sure beating someone up isn't going to make them sell me a top quality magical weapon. I'm not so sure I agree about pickaxes though, they're a very awkward weapon and not especially durable for combat use. A good sturdy axe however is superb for zombie killing. They get the Chloe seal of approval. You don't want any magazines or anything do you? We might be here a while longer. Oh and if I ask nicely we can probably get a coffee or some hot chocolate."
"I'm not usually especially concerned about combat functionality for my tools. I've used my umbrella to fight and defeat an armed gang before, it does not take an exceptional tool to become battle ready," says Heather, shrugging, "But I suppose an axe would have been better. But it would have been quite menacing." Of course, given that her pickaxe was covered in blood by the end of the adventure, it did not exactly look happy-friendly either. She tilts her head slightly and says, "I guess a few magazines would be fine. I might just update my twitter via phone."
"Cool. I'm going to slip into slow world for a bit and do the politeness thing," Chloe decides, translating Heathers need for a few magazines. "And I didn't want to leave you without anything to do. I think if the staff seem nice I might come back here again in the future, because I can fit in some shopping on the way home."
Heather nods her head rapidly (most usually think her quick nods are just because of her power, but no, even if you're sharing her frame of refence, she still nods qucikly) and says, "Okay, that sounds fine. I'll just read these magazines. I'm sure there is something worthwhile to read in them. Have fun caring about their stories and conversation."