Room 211, Sunday afternoon

[lovemykilt]

Priestly had his hair up tall and red, wearing a blue t-shirt with Japanese characters reading "Japanese is not my native language" and his ripped up jeans. He sat on his bed and carefully lined up all his various blue hair dyes and gels on the desk next to it.

Now all he needed was the cute girl who wanted to go vaguely punk.

[ooc: for Dinah, but also open]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

After her morning workout, Dinah had showered and dried her hair, then gone down to second to look for Priestly's room. And no, she wasn't nervous about this. Nope.

knock knock!

[lovemykilt]

Priestly looked up from where he was arranging the blues by brightness. "It's open!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah came in, grinning when she saw Priestly. "For once, I have no idea what your shirt is saying. Hi!"

[lovemykilt]

"Well, I'm told it says 'Japanese isn't my first language'. But it might be saying something rude about your mother."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"My mother would say something rude back," Dinah joked, then wandered over to look at all the dyes. "Thanks for doing this, I have no idea where to start. I guess I could just dive in, but..." She felt more confident with an expert advising her.

[lovemykilt]

"Hey, just consider me your hair-color guru. So, you thinking streaks, or all over color?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Streaks first, to see if I like it." Dinah pointed to one of the bottles, a nice bright blue, and said, "What do you think of this one? Oo. What blue did you have on Monday?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly pointed to a slightly darker, gel-based blue that was about half-empty. "That one. It's a little bit messy, though. Better for all over color. For streaks. . . ." Priestly noted the shade she'd picked and picked up one that was similar. "This works well. It's a sponge applicator, so your fingers don't change colors, totally washable, and it'll be very visible with your base color."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Cooool." She picked up the bottle, biting her lip. "Okay, do you have a towel I can borrow for my neck?" If this looked stupid, she wanted to be able to wash it out right away.

[lovemykilt]

"Yep." Priestly got up and dug around in a bag -- he still hadn't unpacked totally -- and pulled out a bleach-and-dye-stained towel. "You can put some vaseline along your hair line to help keep the color off your skin, too. It'll take a little while to dry, but once it does, it won't flake or anything."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah wouldn't have thought of that. "Okay, I'll start there." She took the towel and wrapped it around her neck, then looked for the vaseline jar, picking it up off the end of the desk. "How long have you been doing this?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly shrugged. "Just since last summer or so." Right around when he'd finally managed to grow some facial hair that was more than just peach fuzz. "But there's a fairly crazy art community in my home town, and I found some people to help me figure out what to do."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like fun. New Gotham has a good art scene, but a lot of it is the upscale, ritzy stuff. Not the wild-and-crazy." At least, not where she was allowed to go alone. Dinah carefully swiped vaseline along her hairline, around the sides, and down to her neck, then wiped her fingers off on her towel. "Okay! Dye time!"

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah, well, Santa Cruz's art is all hippies and college students. Not exactly swanky gallery material." Priestly grinned. "Dye time." He picked up the bottle and a little sponge brush and held them out. "You want to do it yourself, or do you want me to?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Could you do it? I won't be able to see the top or the back very well," Dinah asked, biting her lip. Maybe that was a weird thing to ask, although Priestly was so laid-back, Dinah didn't feel nervous about him messing with her hair.

[lovemykilt]

"No problem." Priestly dipped the brush into the dye, set the bottle to one side, and held his hands out, gesturing to the mirror he had set up on his desk. "Just tell me where you want 'em."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah pointed at the front, near the part. "Here, and matching on the side. And here?" She grinned, and restrained the urge to fidget with glee.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly nodded, reaching out and using the handle end of the sponge brush to start separating her hair. "How wide do you want 'em? And just on the top layer, or all the way through?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

She really hadn't thought this through. Good thing she had help. "Hmm. Better make it all the way through, I think. And about, oh," she looked down at her fingers, and held them about half an inch apart, "this wide?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly nodded again, brushing the hair that would be dyed gently away with his fingers before drawing the hair she'd indicated up and out, holding it carefully between his fingers while he stuck the handle of the brush in his mouth so he could turn it around.

He finally held the brush poised over her hair. "Alright, here we go." He flashed a grin, then started carefully applying the dye.

"This'll look awesome."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grinned back at him in the mirror, and let out an excited breath. "Do it!"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly would salute if his hands weren't full. He had to admit, it was a bit of a different experience dying someone else's hair.

Way easier, for one.

Once he had the lock of hair nicely coated, he wound it carefully around his finger, then, brush held once again in his mouth, reached over to grab a basic black clip to hold the hair in place against her scalp while it dried, keeping it away from the rest of her hair.

He stepped to her other side to get started on the next streak.

"Let me know if I pull too hard or something."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Okay, no problem." Dinah peered into the mirror, seeing a one streak already, and grinned in delight. "So the next time I wash my hair, should I just use conditioner? Or does it rinse out if you just get it wet?"

[lovemykilt]

"It could spread a little if you get it wet," Priestly said. "Might get a little bit on the rest of your hair or a towel or something, maybe fade a little bit. But it'll take shampoo to actually get it out."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Got it," Dinah said decisively, keeping her head steady with an effort. "So no one in Santa Cruz cares about your hair? Does everyone punk up their hair too?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly laughed. "Dude, I wish. My parents had a six month shit-fit, and half the population started calling me 'freak'."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Seriously?" Dinah said, starting to turn her head to look at him, then remembering and holding still. She made a face to show her opinion of that in the mirror. "That's harsh. My sister would freak, but she wouldn't throw a fit about it."

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah. Santa Cruz is pretty split between the raging hippies and the uptight preppies. Just my luck, I was born to the wrong side."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that has to suck." Dinah looked glum for a second, although the new hair was making her smile again. "I grew up in this tiny town in Missouri. Everyone knew everyone else's business. I hated it."

[lovemykilt]

"Really? The way you talk about New Gotham makes it sound like a big city."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I just moved there a year ago." She tilted her head a little to look at the progress. "But it really worked out, at least 'til just recently. I love New Gotham."

[lovemykilt]

"That's cool." Priestly pinned the second streak up. "What happened recently?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I got in a fight," Dinah sighed, still embarrassed about this. "And, well. I broke the guy's nose. And they dropped the charges, but... people kept waiting for me to get into another one." Like the entire media engine of Gotham. And all her classmates. And her boyfriend. "And there were these reporters stalking my sister, and me by proxy. Matt dumped me. Worst. Month. Ever."

[lovemykilt]

Priestly scowled. "Dude, that sucks. I hate how people will judge each other based on, like, one thing they didn't even see."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Totally," Dinah said fervently. "Gabby was still cool with me, and her girlfriend. They were about the only ones." She shrugged, careful not to dislodge the towel at her neck. "So when Alfred found this brochure for this place, it seemed like a good idea." She grinned. "And your parents thought this place would 'straighten you out'?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly laughed. "My current theory is that once I put the garden out, my dad stuck a bunch of private school brochures to the wall and threw darts at them to pick one out."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah laughed too. "Oh, wow. You so can't send any photos back home, can you? Unless you want to leave, I guess."

[lovemykilt]

"Wouldn't even if I wanted to. Well, not to them." Priestly sighed and shrugged. He loved his parents, he really did, but he sometimes really hated them, too. "I can send pictures to Trucker. He's the one who'd want to know what I'm up to, anyway."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Who's Trucker?" Dinah asked, interested. She checked the mirror. "This looks really good."

[lovemykilt]

"Told you. You can probably get some semi-permanent stuff in town if you want something that won't spread as easy." Priestly stepped back to admire his work. "Or some of the hair mascara stuff if you want something that you can put in and take out real easy." He turned to start cleaning some of the supplies up. "Trucker's this guy who runs a sub shop in Santa Cruz. Seriously cool dude, even though he's old. Did the whole Woodstock, Grateful Dead thing in the sixties and still surfs and drives an old VW van."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah unwound the towel and took a moment to admire the final results in the mirror. "Hair mascara stuff, I think. For days when I'm feeling like having the school colors in my hair." She turned around to watch Priestly put away the dyes. "Seriously? He's got to be, what, fifty-something? And he still surfs?"

[lovemykilt]

"Just goes to show, old guys can be cool, too." Priestly grinned and flashed her a thumbs up. "You want some help shopping for stuff, let me know."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Thanks, Priestly," Dinah grinned. "Maybe later this week? Lots of days without classes." She got up and peered into the mirror one last time, gleeful. "I'm telling everyone who asks who helped me with it."

[lovemykilt]

"I might have to set up a salon," Priestly joked. "I'm free Wednesdays. Got class or work the other days."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Wednesday's good! No classes or anything going on either." Dinah nodded. "I owe you for this one," she added, heading for the door.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly shook his head. "Nah. Just wear 'em with pride."