2019-11-13 - Evie's Makeover

Evie is just opening the car door as Alison walks up to the vehicle. She hops out from the vehicle, landing with a soft thump. She smiles up at her redheaded companion then and takes a deep breath. A half second is spent flexing her toes and rolling her shoulders asshe readies for being in motion once more.

"Okay!" Evie calls out, her voice more enthusiastic than actually loud. Those low, slightly coarse tones of hers don't really lend themselves to dramatic increases of volume often. "So. You have to pick a colour," the blonde decides as she starts toward the doors of the Safeway with purposeful strides that carry her much more quickly than one miht expect of someone so small. "You're the one who's going to be looking at it."

Alison gives Evie a quick kiss on the cheek before they start heading inside. She just kind of stares and watches her move for a moment before heading over as well. Alison's outright smitten with this one.

"I've got a few ideas for colors, we'll have to see what they actually have. A few girls in town have that kinda.. dyed white look, so maybe not that? Depends on how much you wanna stand out." Alison heads to the door with Evie, though she doesn't have quite the same bounce in her step as the more athletic woman does. With a grin, she says, "It might be kind of weird if you go red as well. There's no shortage of redheads in Gray Harbor."

"I don't know if my skin tone will really work with white anyway," Evie replies htoughtfully. "I mean. would, but I think I would clash a bit." That expression becomes more thoughtful the longer she considers the question. Evie slows down as a result, allowing Alison to more readily catch up. The doors to the store simply slide open as the two women come close, allowing Evie to collect a cart. "We can get some food too while we're at it. But um.... Blue, maybe? Purple? I can do purple... Not so much orange, maybe. But- hmm..."

"Yeah, I was thinking blue maybe. What do you think about green? Maybe a streak.." She nods in response to the note about the skin tone. "Ooh, foooood.. I've been craving chicken again since we went out for pizza and wings. They have good chicken and jojos at the deli? Unless you meant, like, actual food to cook."

Alison gives Evie a little hip bump at the cart, shoving her over a little bit so that she can grab hold of it as well on one side. Pushing a cart is clearly an activity that requires two people, and is definitely not just an excuse for Alison to be close to Evie. The redhead looks up at the signs at the front of each aisle. "I thiiiiink the hair dye is across from the shampoo? So aisle six."

"Chicken and jojos works. I don't think we're going to be ocoking when we geto ut of here," Evie notes with a smile. She's bumped aside pretty easily, leaving the blonde to fix her companion witha glower as she is displaced. This quickly turns into a quiet giggle, with Evie content to settle in close to Alison as they review the aisles. "Shampoo sounds right," she agrees. "And green could be good. A streak isn't a bad option at all, if you really are into blondes now all of the sudden..."

The glower's met back with an outstretched tongue, before Alison giggles herself. "I meant more.. dyed one color, but then a streak dyed another color? You can do that, right? I've never dyed mine.. can you even dye red hair? I don't think I'd want to."

Alison starts pushing the cart in the direction of the shampoo aisle, turning when they get to the end of it. "I don't know about being into blondes. I'm into you, though."

"You'd need to bleach first, I tink," Evie replies helpfully. "Lot easier for blondes than redheads, I guess." she shrugs a little, not really paying attention to where she walks as ALison uses the car to lead the way. "Two colours, huh? That's just scandalous. I could see doing streaks of two differnet colours. I guess it will work to attract attention too. I can claim my head is a road flare if we do orange and red."

Alison giggles and shakes her head at the suggestion of a road flare. "We've already got one road flare for a head between the two of us."

Before much longer, they're at the hair dye near the shampoo, as was foretold by prophecy. There's a decent selection of bright colors, though no real options of different brands. Parking the cart, Alison bends over a bit as she peruses the colors. "Hmmm.. pink's an option too, I guess.."

"Me? Pink? Do you think pink's my colour?" Evie wrinkl;es her ose as she looks up at Alison, but she's sitll smiling. "I promised I'd go with whatever colour you settle on, but pink isn't normally my thing." She's on the verge of giggling, however, sitll apparently enjoying the game. "You did promise me a makeover. I guess that /is/ a pretty radical first step, right? ...Bubble gum or, like, something paler?"

Alison grins at Evie, pressing close to her as she brushes the (currently) blonde woman's hair around with her fingers. "I think a pink might look good, especially with a stripe of black on one of the locks in the front." The redhead gently picks up a few strands of the woman's hair, running fingertips down from scalp to the ends of it past Evie's shoulders.

She seemingly changes her mind with a small sigh, going back to the shelf. After a moment, she plucks out a box of blue hair dye. "Hmm, I think this might be it." Alison holds the box up beside Evie's face, trying to visualize the color in her hair. "Yeah, you'd look great with blue hair!" she says, before pulling the box away to show Evie the color on the packaging.

"If you like pink then do it," Evie replies decisively. Then Alison returns to the shelf and leaves Evie to watch her with rapt attention. When the blue hairdye comes down, Evelyn leans forward to get a good look at the box and nods a few times. "I thought so too," she agrees, reaching out to touch the box as she studies it. "Don't change colours on my account though. DO you really like this better than the pink option?" She is studying the redhead's expression to gauge her reply.

The box of blue hair dye's wiggled back and forth a bit, and then Alison holds some of Evie's hair over the part of the package that signifies the color. "Yeah, I think blue would look best. I think pink and black would look good too, but not as good as blue?" She reaches around Evie's neck, running fingers through her hair down her back. "Pink might work better if it was shorter, but I like the length it is now." Nothing about Alison's expression suggests that she's bullshitting Evie on this.

The line about not changing colors on her account gives her pause. Ali smirks, and cups Evie's face with one hand. "Yes, the blue. Sometimes I think you really just want to be told what to do, hmm? It is YOUR hair, after all."

"Do I want to be told what to do? I thought I made that clear already! And I am pretty sure sometimes you're afraid to suggest anything because I might react," Evie replies, lookinng iinto Alison's eyes with a bit of a sly grin on her lips to match the smirk. "A lot of 'Are you sure? We don't have to if you don't want to'," she'll continue. She's almost giggling. "We go in circles like that a /lot/. On everything from lunch to, well, hair dye. If you really want me to pick myself I can. I would probably go for the blue on my own, though. You're right."

Alison laughs a bit as well. "The blue it is, then." She leans in to give Evie a little smooch on the lips, then tosses the box in the shopping cart. "Lunch! Yes. That. With the lunch. Food." The redhead turns and starts pushing the cart towards the deli, her nearly nonexistant hips wiggling in some vague dance to some unheard beat. "I didn't realize how hungry I was until you mentioned food."

Evie bumps her hip against Alison's and then she releases the cart. She cocks her hips, and then begins to dance her way down the length of aisle toward the back of the store, and the deli. She's mentioned being a dancer, and it shows. Even when shes stomping her feet and moving to some nheard song in the middle of a store Evie has a lot of grace. She spins and slides, making her way right past one of the displays. "CHicken, jojos... Oh hey, I think they have a really nice buffalo chicken bowtie pasta salad thing too..." She disappears around the far end of the aisle a second later.

Alison makes a mock 'oof!' sound as Evie hip bumps her, despite her having just done the same thing a few minutes before. A grin creeps onto her face as she watches the woman dance down the grocery store aisle, and then disappear. Alison leans forward over the cart and calls after her. "Goodbye forever!" A few steps more, and she rounds the same corner. "It's always chicken with you, isn't it?"

"Not /always/," Evie replies earnestly. "I had a sausage biscuit for breakfast." After a blink she then flashes Alison another of those incandescent smiles of hers and shrugs slowly. "Chicken is good for you," she adds as she continues along the aisles. The next step has her on the ball of her left foot as she swings about, scooping up a box of coffee. "Don't cry for me, Argentina!" Evie is singing as she stares at the country pictured on the 'ethically sourced' label on that blue and black box.

Alison mmmmmms. "Sausage good. I can never keep track of what's good for you or not. First they're all like, sugar's the worst! Then it's fat! Then it's bread! Then it's gluten! I dunno." The redhead eyes the box of coffee as she gets close to Evie. "Caffeine's supposed to be bad for you too, isn't it? Maybe chicken's the only thing that's actually good for you." Ali gives Evie a little tug by the sleeve of her too large jacket. "Fooooooood.."

"Okay, okay. Food. If chicken is the only thing that's healthy then I guess I'm way ahead of the curve, right?" Alison begins to tug on Evie's jacket and the blonde mimics her movements, falling into place beside her friend while she waits for some idea of what they ought to do next. "So, are we doing the... Cheap Chicken Saturday thing? $5 for eight piecs of chicken? ...Um."

Alison snickers. "I think you've got enough curves of your own, Ev." She peers at the hot food holding area. "Do you see that chicken salad? I think I wanna try that instead. Or maybe both. Eight pieces of chicken is probably a lot though?" Alison's hand lingers on the other woman's denim jacket, fingers rubbing along a seam.

It's a rough seam, one that must have split and been resewn again and again by patient hands. Feeling it, Alison could tell- if she were to pay so close of attention- that some of the sitches are far apart and not so straight, but they grow closer togethher the further she follows that seam. Like the person doing the worker either changed- or, more likely, gained in skill and experiencce as they worked on it. The jacket is fairly soft t otouch, as well.

"Eight piece? I can probably eat three, and the leftovers refrigerate really well," Evie replies to Alison, looking up from case as she does. "So... Either one." Before long, Evie moves all the way up to the counter and is staring into the hotcase at all of the fried chicken arrayed inside. "They must sell a lot of these. Huh."

Alison ponders on the question of the chicken. "Okay, sure, let's do that then. Hard to argue with $5." The redhead orders the chicken deal, soon leaning towards Evie at the counter while the person working behind it steps away. "Probably do sell a lot? On a Saturday, with the deal on.. there isn't a KFC in town, is there? Only place I know that has fried chicken anyways."

The chicken is provided, money is exchanged, napkins are obtained, and the girls grab a seat from the few available tables adjacent to the deli area of the grocery store.

Alison's no expert seamstress, certainly, safe for a few obligatory home economics classes in high school which involved very brief courses of instruction on how to operate relatively ancient sewing machines which frequently jammed. The details of the seam wouldn't really cause her to notice the inconsistency, but the jacket as a whole leaves her wondering. For some reason that Alison can't quite put her finger on, something about it doesn't seem to be 100% Evie.

Alison got into the chicken pretty quickly, chewing down, making little noises of happiness upon getting some food into her stomach, but slows down after a few bites. "Hey, is there something special about that jacket? I notice you wear it a lot. It looks cute on you, but it's so big! Were you planning on growing into it, or.." The redhead giggles a bit at her own joke, smirking and covering her mouth with her piece of chicken.

"You know, I used to think I would grow into it. Back before I found out the only part of me that was going to grow after I turned thirteen was my chest," Evie replies with a wry smile. She shrugs her shoulders slowly, flicking her wrists in order to clear them from the denim falling down her arms.

"It's been mine for a long time, though. I got it from my mom.,": She answers this as casually as she can manage, but the way her speech becomes softer the longer she speaks really tells a different story. Not to mention the way she tenses up slightly as she speaks on the subject.

Rather than continue to speak Evelyn retrieves a piece of chicken. The chicken thigh is nearing the sie of the young woman's face. So Eve takes a big bite out of it and stars to chew. She absolutely demolishes it before going for another piece.

Always tidy, Evelyn still gets some grease on her chin. She doesn't play with her fried chicken, apparently.

Alison offers a napkin for the errant chicken debris. "Maybe you got what was supposed to be my growth spurt, just in the boobs." She's quiet for a moment as Evie speaks. "Your mom, huh?" Alison doesn't say anything else at first, taking another bite of chicken while the silence lingers. After swallowing that and fishing out a napkin of her own to wipe the grease from her hand, she says, "You said your lived with your Dad, is -- uh, are they divorced or something?"

"They were never married. Um. They had a thing for a bit, I guess, but when I was little mom just- took off. I mean, we'd see her from time to time when she wanted money or somehting, but..."Eve shrugs her shoulders lowly and takes a deep breath, utrning her gaze upward toward the ceiling. She takes he napkin and wipes her lips clean. "Maddie was asking about this stuff earlier too. Anyway. She left this jacket behind. And well, I mean. The jacket's just a victim too, right? She- you know. Abandoned us both." Evie sighs, covering her face with a hand for a second as she looks down, staring hard enough to bore a hole in the table she's seated at. "So I rescued it before dad could donate it and hid it in my closet until I was big enough to put it on."

Alison blinks a little, feeling that distinct feeling that one feels shortly after stepping into something that they might not have wanted to. "Oh. Shit. I'm sorry." The redhead kicks her boot idly a bit, mostly to fill the gap in the discussion, but also out of nervousness. "Should I be sorry? The jacket looks good on you, uh.." She's really trying to figure out the right thing to say when negative emotions are on the rise. She's never been good at it.

The redhead stands up, scoots her chair over beside Evie, and sits back down, wiggling close to the blonde woman. "Tell me more about her."

"You don't need to apologize," Evie replies slowly, shaking her head. "Or I just wouldn't have said anything." She squares her shoulders a little bit and keeps her eyes focused down at the table, twisted slightly so tha a shoulder is faced toward Alison. She doesn't pull away as the redhead moves closer, but she doesn't actually look up either. Evelyn shiftsi nhrr seat and then takes a heavy breath, tossing her head once to throw blonde tresses back form her face. They fall into her eyes once more, of course, when she fails to really look up.

"I'm not sure there's a lot to tell. She was a drug addict and she left. Sometimes she'd, like, call and say she wanted to hang out but she was just trying to get a few bcks out of dad before she took off again." Evelyn pauses. "Sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm kind of ruining lunch, right? Let's finish up. We have a bucnh h more stuff to do today."

Alison wraps an arm around Evie and pulls her close into a half-hug. "That sounds really rough. I had both parents around, so, uh.." She's kind of at a loss for what to say again. Maybe an out of this conversation is in order. And thankfully, Evie offers it. "You haven't ruined anything." Alison closed the box on the chicken, shoving it in the cart with the hair dye, then offering Evie her hand to get out of the chair, then looks her in the eyes. "If you wanna talk about it more sometime, I'm here for you, yeah?"

Without waiting for an answer to that, Alison pulls up the list on her phone. "Okay, that's the hair dye, the chicken, what else were we gonna get here.. hmm, that should be in the pharmacy section."

The duo go about the rest of the brief shopping list, paying for things and checking out. Next on the agenda is Pens & Needles, the tattoo shop in town. That's where they head next, driving on over from Safeway, Alison holding the door to the shop open for Evie to enter first, finishing off a conversation started sometime earlier. "So yeah, that's why I don't like ska."

"Wow. I thought, like, you just didn't like hearing it. Usually, people don't have such an invovled story for why they don't like music. Really, though. Six hours?" Evie is scratching her head a little as they step inside, adjusting the sleeves of that old denim jacket as she steps through the door. "So this place looks... Clean. Clean is good."

Alison is likely well aware by now of just how much Evelyn likes things tidy, even if she doesn't complain audibly about that preference. For now, however, she is just examining the parlor, hands jammed into the pockets of the coat. "We were talking about wings and stuff. Let's see..." There's a book of potential designs, which Evie picks up. "Wow, they have a whole section of wing tattoos here." As she flips throug hte pages Evie's expression becomes a thoughtful frown.. She slowly sinks into her nearby seat.

"Did you have any other types of things you wanted to check out? I am still digging that rose vine, maybe. Or anentire bird and not just... the wings... I don't know yet."

Alison shrugs! "At least six." A beat as Evie looks around, giving the place a visual inspection. "Yeah, Cameron didn't get an infection or anything, so it's probably safe. Ish?"

Ali follows Evie over to the seat, standing in front of her, looking down, looming over her if not for the whole being nearly the same short height. "That all sounds good, really. Maybe something about gymnastics...?" She sounds pretty hesitant on that one, digging the bottom of the barrel for suggestions, until she blinks, and exclaims, "Oh! You could get a lesbian pride flag or something like that." A pause. "But then you've gotta worry about WHICH lesbian pride flag and.. hmm."

"Yeah, um. I have no idea which flag to take. I could do a nautical star though, that's pretty classic Lesbian Pride stuff. But I mean, people might take that the wrong way. I- might probably stick to wearign pins and stuff?" Eve sounds a little sheepish, but she is definitely thinking about the suggestion - and then second guessing herself, repeatedly. The girl takes a deep breath and wiggles al ittle where she's seate.d he book is shown to ALison and then she digs through a few more items.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c8/c9/bf/c8c9bf68e812b4f74f23404ae47e1152.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/f3/ab/5af3abe25a2df2a922cce64c8ba5761f.jpg

I did some poking around for ideass online too..." Evie adds quietly, scanning the pictures. "I can show you some stuff on my phone?"

Alison looks at the book when it's offered to her. She taps a few times on the first image of wings. "I like this one more.." The redhead's eyes dart to the second picture. A smirk sneaks into her face as her finger slides down towards the pictured woman's waist. "Were you thinking about a tramp stamp as well?"

Alison sits beside Evie so that she can look at art she'd found on her phone, peering over her shoulder. "Mmhmm."

"I really hadn't considered a tramp stamp," Evie replies seriously, tilting her head slightly as she does. Mahogany eyes turn upward briefly to study Alison's features. "Is that giving you ideas?" Her voice is light and teasing, but she also seems to be earnestly curious about the reaction.

Soon, they are moving on to other pictures, with Evie also nodding along as they scan through options. "The first one, hm? ...Totally. I can't fly, though. I dunno. Might change something. But then you'd call me a weeb." She's on the verge of giggling at this point. "But I think we're just about ready. I mean. Other than the tramp stamp thing."

Alison gives her head a little shake. "No. I've always thought of them as a bit silly.. kinda of a running joke. And besides, they're the kind of thing people usually get to see if they've got you bent over, and, well, y'know." A shrug with a sly smile on the woman's face, framed by messy red hair.

"Are you sure you can't fly? I can picture you in that cheerleader outfit flying through the air after a good throw from a few.. uh.. other cheerleaders? Is there a word? Something." She scans the book a bit more and the pictures from Evie's phone. "Yeah, I think I like that one best. But what about it would you change? Telllll me." Ali grabs Evie by the side and gives her a soft little pinch in her ribs, kind of a warning to spill the beans or face.. more pinches, probably.

"Ow, " Evie replies to the pinching. "...Ow! Hey." She squirms a bit, laughing as he's being pinched, and holds up both of her small hands to ward Alison off. "Okay, okay. Fine. Fine." She pauses for a second,. "I was pondering something a little darker. One wing on the left side coming down form y shoulder blade... But a stump on the other side, with feathers, and maybe a bit of blood. Like I've had it taken form me. Maybe a feather floating to the ground lower on my back. Like. You know, not quite a tramp stamp. That probably sends the wrong message for me, but you know. Maddie's my best friend. I don't havea problem with that sort of thing. Just feels like... False advertising, right?"

Giggles fall out of the redhead's mouth at Evie's reaction to the pinches, giving it up upon the woman starting to speak again. "That sounds cool!" A little spark in her mind, wondering if that.. no, it couldn't be that.

"Yeah, a feather like that would be good too, I think. I mean, it's not exactly like it says 'FUCK ME, DADDY' or anything like they usually seem to. But nobody would see it unless you wanted them to anyways, so you should get whatever you like." She reaches out and puts a hand under Evie's jacket, touching the small of her back over her shirt in the approximate location of where the feather would go. "Right here, kinda?"

"I wear sports bras and stuff, you know, so people will see most of this," Evie replies to the mention that no one would see it. She squirms a little bit but ultimately shrugs and gives a nod.. When the young woman feels a hand on her back she pauses and takes a deep breath,. Slowly. "There," Evie agrees, once Alison's hand has been shifted slightly by the subtle movements involved in respiration. "Perfect place for a falling feather." She nods once, apparently convinced.

"That's the one then." Evie pauses and then adds quietly, "I should think up some other ones too, but- I have time. This one is going to take multiple sessions for sure, right?"

Alison nods a little. "True. I'd get to see it, though, and that's awesome." The waitress gives Evie a little affectionate scratch before taking her hand away, sticking her thumb in the pocket of her own jeans.

"I hope it'll take multiple sessions! That'll be a shitload of work to have done. And I don't see any beds around here for me to nap on. Let's go talk to someone and find out."

"Okay."

The planning session takes more time than the two women would have expected. At first, the artist is dubious given that it's Evie's first tattoo but he slowly comes around to the young woman's point of view. And eventually, they agree to get started on outlining the wings. Evie has no idea what to expect going into things but she's surprisingly calm as she takes up her place, shirt off, to get to work. It starts with an oil pen used to draw out the entire piece in some detail before the needle ever touches skin. But that is just the beginning. Alison is allowed to watch as the artist works, Evie entirely comfortable with the redhead's presence- she asks, in fact, because it might soothe her nerves.

Evie, perhaps surprisingly, doesn't complain. She doesn't jerk or wince when the needle finally pierces flesh. She does occasionally speak in a soft, even voice - like she might even be try toing to calm herself. But it's rare. She seems to just want to let the artist work in peace.

In the end, Evie is given strict instructions on hoe to care for the tattoo, plans are made for a second session, and she leaves with the wound cleaned and bandaged. All part of the process. She is bouncing as she walks away, even if doing so does cause a small wince at one point.

"I can't wait to finish this. If I could do it all tonight I probably would. It's sore but---- it's really not that bad. At all. I'm definitely going to want more art. Next time I need to bring earbuds."