Stolen Rainbows and camouflage jazz pants.

12° Dyo 81380, early afternoon.

Clunk, clunk.

The cotton candy-colored bottles clinked together like crystal champagne glasses at a fancy dinner party, but their contents were definitely not champagne, and if you tried to drink them, you'd probably end up at the hospital having your stomach pumped by white-clothed nurses and doctors. No, they were nail polish - in every color of the rainbow, pastel and neon and glitter, like an explosion at a paint factory - and they were one of the more costly cosmetic investments India had made when she graduated Janarden and started her own beauty salon/dance studio, a few years back.

Her lips, painted a fierce shade of bloodshot red, pulled back in a tender grin at the little glass bottles, lined up in a giant rainbow along a narrow shelf that stretched across the entire side wall, and her nimble fingers (with the claws painted red by the cuticle and fading to gold at the tips) quickly pulled down a shade of acid green and turned the bottle over and over in her hands.

"Maybe tonight I'll give myself a mani/pedi in this color," she mused aloud, thinking of her matching eyeshadows and lipsticks and glitters that would accompany the green polish. "It matches my fur pretty well."

Glancing at herself in the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling mirror (another huge investment) on the opposite wall, her eyes inspecting her soft, gray-black fur carefully, lingering on the green parts on her hands, feet (they were exposed, clad simply in strappy sandals), tail, muzzle, and eartips. Her pale-silver/white underbelly and long, straight hair contrasted sharply to the darkness of her pelt and the color of her clothes and makeup (the aforementioned red and gold nail polish and lipstick, plus eyeshadow of the same color, a red tank top, and a dark miniskirt).

She grinned at her reflection, thinking of how out-of-place the beautician version of herself looked in the dance studio half of her shop (the whole called simply "Stolen Rainbows"). It was like seeing a bodybuilder in a home decorating store or something... But she knew that she could always go to the restroom in the back and change into her ripped camouflage jazz pants, the ones that flared into swishy bellbottoms around her calves, slip on her jazz sneakers, turn on the music, and dance like no one was watching.

 

OoC; Yes. She's in her small business, which is half dance studio, half beauty salon. :3

 

India's gaze traveled lazily over from her reflection to the door, alerted by the melodic chimes made by the opening door hitting a windchime suspended from the ceiling above it. From there, her gaze slipped down to the quadruped 'dragon, and she smiled broadly. A customer, she thought with glee. Finally. It's been slow today.

"Hello," she greeted, her voice warm and grand. "Welcome to Stolen Rainbows. What were you hoping to find today?"

Ah, the salesperson spiel. India took a deep breath and began to recite the services she offered, ticking them off one-by-one in her head, "We can provide hair and makeup styling, manicures, pedicures, haircuts, and the like. We also offer dance lessons, almost any style you can choose from, and whatever level you may be at already."

She carefully, gingerly placed the acid green nail polish back on the shelf in its place, between two other shades of green (one a hint lighter, one a hint darker - a very small part of a very large array of color), and took a few steps nearer to the Pendragon. "As you can see, the store is divided in half - cosmetics here, dancing there. Feel free to look around."

 

OoC; I should probably contact the staff and ask for Hair Styling to be added as an additional trade for India, because at the moment she only has cosmetics and dance as trades. xD

BiC;

India's eyes followed Tsuki as she wandered along the line of colors, her expression almost a little distrusting - she was protective when it came to her supplies. Craning her neck slightly to watch as Tsuki got farther along the line and her ears perked, she trotted after the 'dragon.

"Yeah, no prob'," she said with a grin, absentmindedly twirling a finger in a lock of her own ironing-board-straight ivory hair. "What exactly did you have in mind? With the shape of your face.. hm.. Lemme think. How short do you want it?"

She eyed the other's mane of hair critically, appraising it from root to end, already conceiving various styles and cuts - and perhaps even highlights? - in her mind's eye. When the other interrupted her brainstorming to ask for a manicure and pedicure as well, India's grin grew even broader.

"You don't look so bad, but I'd be happy to give you a mani/pedi also.. though you know, my services aren't free. What can you offer in return?" she said, though she did enjoy giving manicures.

OoC; The FAQ says there is no Ramathian currency, but that they barter for favors and services instead. :P How will Tsuki "pay"?

 

India's emerald eyes widened noticeably, and her ever-present smile grew broader as she appreciated the beauty of the small mirror.

"Oh, my. Wow, it's beautiful," India said quietly, awestruck by the fine little mirror. "I've never seen anything so.. regal."

Wild beauty, she had - in the form all her nail polishes, lipsticks, hair dyes, every color of the rainbow and more.. and even in herself. But such a refined thing, so simple yet so intricate, which radiated an elegant, restrained sort of loveliness, was something she did not own. And now, she wanted it.

"That will definitely cover it all," she breathed, gently accepting it in her steady hands. "So.. do you want the manicure, pedicure, or hair styling first?"

 

"Okay.. would you like a wash and then a trim, or just straight to the trim?" India questioned automatically, the usual when dealing with customers. "And do you want any highlights or color streaks..? I think nearly any color would fit with your pelt color, though green or blue would really enhance your eyes. If you want natural colors, copper would be lovely," she explained, wandering over to a candy apple red pleather barber chair. "Step right up here and have a seat.."

With that, she reached over and picked up a plastic smock - it was rainbow striped and slightly metallic - from the cluttered counter which seemed to hold everything: differently sized shiny scissors, gel, mousse, combs, brushes, spray-on detangler, towels, paper towels, hair style books, a small box labeled first aid, the remnants of her lunch (some sort of fish on a dark, grainy bread, with a cup of a violently orange drink on the side).. Inspecting this all with her green eyes narrowed, she pondered, Maybe it's time for some cleaning again.

"Eheh," she chuckled, snapping out of her spring-cleaning reverie and flapping the smock open in the air. "Shall we?"

 

"Of course - we've got a shade called 'Morning Sky' that you might like," India said with a quick nod, whirling the smock around Tsuki's neck and securing it with the little hooks on the collar. "It's right over here.."

Meandering over to a glass display case laden with various shades of dye and colored styling gel, she whipped a key out of her pocket and unlocked the crystalline doors. "Lemme see.. It should be right here," she mumbled half to herself, rummaging through the stacks of little boxes. "Aha!" Triumphantly pulling out the box, she scanned the instructions - just to check that it was meant to be applied to dry hair.

She walked back over to Tsuki and placed the box on the counter, inquiring, "Is that good?" and gesturing to the picture on the front, which displayed a soft blue streak in blonde hair. "I'll need to strip the color from the to-be-streaked hair first, so this light blue will show." Reaching under the counter, she pulled out a pair of rubber gloves.

 

OoC; Sorry it took so long for me to reply, too. xD School and card games consume me. ;-;

Anyway, I have no idea what hair dying/styling in general would be like at all, and I'm too lazy to look up on Google what you really do for all this, so I'm going to start making things up now. XD Maybe they do things differently in Ramath-lehi anyway. -shrug-

BiC;

"Hour? Hour and a half?" India hazarded a guess, pulling a bland white bottle off the counter and shaking it vigorously. She set it down again, snapped on the powdery latex gloves, then used those gloved hands to select a handful of fur from Tsuki's mane. "This good?" she questioned, but without waiting for an answer, she pulled it through a hole in a crinkly sheet of plastic and pinned the plastic to nearby hair - a shield to ensure that only the selected hair would be affected. Then she picked the bottle back up and continued jiggling it, stirring up a darkish gray from the bottom. "Ah, perfect.."

Slopping a gurgly blop of the whitish stuff on her hand, she added, "I hope it's okay that I'm doing this first - it'll need to be washed out anyway, and hair trims better when it's wet and you can really see its length. This stuff will need to set for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Then we'll rinse, blow dry, dye, rinse again, cut, and possibly blow dry again." It sounded like a lot. Maybe an hour and forty-five minutes would have been a more accurate guess.

 

EDIT: OoC; Thanks. :3

BiC;

"Yeah, but as long as you don't have anywhere to go, we'll be fine," India said, in response to the other's comment on how it seemed it would take a while. She began running her gloop-coated fingers through the chosen lock of hair, really working it in and making sure it was pretty even throughout. As she worked on that hair, she seemed to have forgotten the second question asked by the four-legged 'dragon, and it was only after a long and deliberate pause, once she finished with the hair and was letting it sit, that she answered.

"I've been dancing ever since I can remember, and maybe even longer. Most people can't recall anything before age two, yeah? I used to take seven classes a paquite, one every paquite pui, for dance. It was pretty tough. Now I don't take class as often - I usually just teach. And as for cosmetics, I used to practice applying makeup on myself over the paquittens, my three days off with no school or dance. Later, I took classes from a real beauty school."

As she spoke, she moved over to the seat next to Tsuki's and flopped back, careful to keep her gloopy, gloved hand away from her body and clothing. "What about you?" she inquired back, nodding to Tsuki once - an invitation to take her turn on the proverbial soapbox, perhaps - "What do you do?"