prismatica | {04 VIDEO feat Mollymauk}

[The video opens to Fish awake, sitting up in what seems to be their bed. Their dressing gown is on, at least. It's late at night in Lunatia-- give or take about 3am. And if your volume is up high enough, you might catch the sound of... someone? being very busy the next room over. Fish looks pretty concerned.]

Ah... hello.

[This is awkward.]

It's been a while since I've used this to address the whole network but... I was wondering how people deal with... ah... cats?

[And there's the sound of a door busting open and a blur of violet getting in the way of the camera and Fish and the suggestion that the merfolk threw their hand up so as to save the communicator from getting knocked over.]

Molly what--?

Ignore me, I'm just sneaking in here.

Wait, I can't--

Yeah, it's fine, just let me crawl in here.

I'm on the communicator.

Great. I don't wanna talk I just wanna sit...

[Rustle rustle.]

Perfect.

[A pause of silence.]

Continue, I'm comfortable now.

[The communicator comes down again, a little closer to Fish's face this time, they look defeated. But there's a very content, lavender-skinned, heavily tattooed tiefling on them, their tail swishing lazily and making a mess of the video a bit.]

I guess now you all know what I need... ah... a bit of advice on. Sorry, I'll get to replying to any answers later. It isn't the easiest having a lap full of cat-like tiefling.

[They huff and grin before turning the feed off.]

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Maybe. Or, I could just let him go through all this and just... well, get used to it.

[Fish chuckles.]

It'll only be for a few days, anyway.

You could, but that seems like it'd defeat the point of having asked for help...and probably be less fun for you...

[Surely feeding people is a normal activity that normal people find fun.]

I guess the big question is if it'll happen again next cycle.

Well, we'll see. I know we had a great deal of fun yesterday. But... ah... fun has its price during the cycles. I think I'll be able to navigate my own way through this.

Oh, I always thought the cycles helped to get people to have more fun, not pay a price... [He says that rather innocently, though with the fact that most of them encourage moonlacing, it's not too hard to tell what he's getting at.] But I don't really mind. I think Molly mentioned you to me once anyway, so I thought I'd say hello even without the advice.

[Fish's smile drops just a little at the stranger's first sentence. Lucky you, not having gone through what I have. But they carry on as if that didn't affect their mood.]

Oh? What did he say about me?

Just that you did his makeup for that festival that happened with all the dance performances and stuff. I thought it looked nice and I wasn't sure if he'd done it himself, so I asked~

[Because he can always appreciate aesthetic like that, honestly.]

Oh, that I did.

[They beam, they always like it when their work is given attention.]

I'm glad you found it nice. He was a very wonderful canvas to work on.

Mmm, purple seems like it'd be an interesting skin colour to work with... [Cosmetics companies in Ren's world can't even handle the spectrum of human skin colours, so he can't help be amused by the thought of how that would go down.]

I don't see people wearing really detailed makeup outside that often, so I guess that's what made me notice it. It seemed like a lot of attention was put into it.

I've been working with it all my life, so I've gotten used to it.

[They laugh.]

And doing detailed make-up like that is what I do for a living. I'd be pretty ashamed if I did less.

Oh, if it's your job then that definitely explains it...is it stage make-up you do, then? That seems like the style that fits what I saw best.

[He has a friend who's very into circus theatrics, and a lot of her "associates" have that kind of makeup. He's more used to getting the type that makes one look better on television.]

You can call it stage make-up.

[Fish is maybe a bit testy at the comparison. They paint very finely on people and on themselves. Their goal isn't camp, they paint as a female impersonator. But at the same time, well-- it is true. They do paint for the back of the room, too. So it is stage make-up.]

But I don't think it's accurate, if we're talking about what exactly I do. I can transform faces, darling. I can go from being not quite a girl or boy to being a full female fantasy on stage or off it.

[That definitely gives him a better idea of what Fish's line of work is, but he does tilt his head a bit at the response, like he doesn't quite get it.]

But you're still doing make-up for a performance, even if it changes things a lot...I don't think it usually makes that much difference what it's called, does it?

[Ren has a bit of a habit of sticking a pin in that kind of confidence when he sees it, to see how well it stands.]

[ Wow, this boy is absolutely testing them, isn't he? Fish huffs, not the kind who's kind about getting their confidence tested. ]

I don't always put make-up on with the intention to perform. Sometimes, I just put it on just to stand out at a party. I might put it on just for fun. As I said, I don't just do make-up for the stage. I'm a make-up artist.

Well, that is what the job's usually called, isn't it...? [Ren says that rather absently, like he's not understanding why they're putting such a fine point on it. In reality, he's very used to insistent terminology over that sort of thing, though he doesn't usually observe it himself.]

I guess it just kind of seems like another job to me, even if it's not a job I see people doing very often. If that makes sense...

[Spoken in the tone of someone who's used to things he says not making a lot of sense.]

[ Oh, now he's done it. Fish is absolutely annoyed. Just another job? A job? Fish takes a lot of pride in the things they do, and they hate that it's being talked about as something ordinary. ]

Suit yourself. If you're going to keep insulting the thing I take pride in, I've got no interest in speaking to you anymore!

[Inwardly...yeah, that's about how Ren was expecting it to be taken. Outwardly, he just looks politely puzzled, because either way, "insulting" wasn't really the intent.]

I don't really get how it's insulting to say that you do an unusual job...? But it's up to you, I guess.

[Ren tilts a hand in an airy wave, just in case they decide to hang up on him before he gets a chance.]

[Fish has enough of speaking to him and just cuts the communication. Politely puzzled or not, when Fish feels insulted, there's no way they were really going to be reasonable.]

{04 VIDEO feat Mollymauk}

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