Today's Forecast: Fabulous

Participants:

brynn_icon.gif caspian_icon.gif eimi_icon.gif joe_icon.gif owain_icon.gif raquelle_icon.gif silvia_icon.gif

Scene Title Today's Forecast - Fabulous
Synopsis Lighthouse Kids on an exploratory jaunt through Red Hook discover a hairdresser and new friends while dragging old friends along for the ride.
Date February 27, 2018

Red Hook Market

Raquelle's Temporary Salon


It's good to be kids out in the world, right? Brynn and Joe bounce out of the apartment (cuz Lance claims he has 'things to do') and just because she's bored as hell, she convinces (it doesn't take much) Joe that Caspian must need a haircut just as bad as Joe does. And Joe kinda does — cuz even though he showered and all after the monkey AND the squid, she's begun calling him Squidward just because his hair is standing up funny on one side. Maybe it did eat some of his hair! She did offer to color it.

And what the hell… since Caspian can't use work as an excuse, the forces of nature that appear to be Brynn and Joe when they're in a playful mood drag him along for the ride!

Raqelle's salon is one that no one's really heard of before, but Brynn eagerly signs in Lighthouse Cant for Joe to translate, And then when you're all done getting it cut, I can put really cool streaks in it, Cas! I bet blue would look REALLY cool in your hair. I promise I won't put glitter or anything! Cuz she's done that to Lance before.

Joe faithfully translates Brynn's sign, though he definitely adds his own bits to it as well, out loud, and signs them back so Brynn knows he's added. "Don't believe her about the sparkles. She will totally do it." Joe fishes into his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper that he then hands over to Caspian. "Here. Once I'm in the chair so to speak it'll be a little hard to translate. So Brynn just write on here with your power once I'm being cut." Joe signs that over to her as he walks along, a little bounce in his step. There's a scowl for the spot where he got squidded last night, but hey it all turned out good, they made a new friend.

"OH! Brynn. Silvia draws comics. Lance and I thought it'd be totally primal if you and her could collaborate. Like you ink slash color them, and she draws them. We told her we were pretty sure you'ud be all for it, and she got super excited. We're gonna start teaching her ASL so she can communicate easier with yah too." He flashes his LHK sibling a wide grin, then pulls up to the shop and peers at it. "Huh. Well… here goes nothing I guess…" And he pulls open the door to usher the other two inside ahead of him.

So, when Raquelle packed up his nice little home in TN, kissed his mother and aunts and so many cousins and talked to his significant other and his two mini-mes about why this is what they needed to do…he was not expecting to be hit with so many feelings. This was once his home and to see it now…

A temporary home for 'Hope's Horizon Day Spa' or something to that effect is one of those rental spaces, not too large and not too small. There are a couple of stations, a couple of bowls, couple of nal stations, a front desk and the waiting area has a comfortable dark purple couch and coordinating love seat, with bean bag chairs scattered around in shades of purple, and black. Everything is clean and the sweet smell of cinnamon and vanilla is in the air due candles being burnt and flickering in the lower lighting. Its a callllm location, little touches of east meets west in decorations.

The owner of the shop is sprawled out in a styling chair, his hair artfully toussled and leaning towards a more dark auburn than brown today and he wears a pair of fitted black jeans, a dark purple silky button down under a black leather jacket, and dark purple converse sneakers on his feet. He is busy however, very busy. He is savoring a delicious dumpling….it is being held aloft by chopsticks as he worships it with his eyes, the take-out box he is holding only wishes it was being eyed the way he is eyeing that dumpling.

He looks up though as the door chimes, lashes fluttering. "….well shit, now you have competition Dumpling baby. I think some babies a tiny bit more adorable than you have rolled in…" Is drawled softly as he raises his voice. "Welcome to some bullshit I've come up with for the name of this humble business, are you all hungry?"

His initial thought for the day was to be lazy. After the Monkey Rescue Mission went better than expected, the next day was spent recovering. Not because he was hurt - because he was tired and wanted to sleep and, thankfully, a lack of work that day meant that he could actually do it. Getting awakened by Joe hitting his buzzer at some ungodly hour a little past noon has Caspian up and dressed, blinking blearily as he slips out of his house and locks it up behind him before moving out into the city with the pair.

"Blue I can handle, I guess." Caspian says, looking up at his hair as they walk. "Sparkles, not so much." The slip of paper is taken, tucked into a pocket before he's bundled inside, standing warily, looking around the interior of the shop. "Hi there. Um…" he looks to Brynn and Joe. "I'm good. How are…you?"

It's been a brother-sister kind of day for the Mihangles today. Nadira has been working at getting her bar going, so Owain has been on little sister duty. To make things less monotonous, Owain decided to take Jori to the market, both to show her the sights and to obtain a few new items for everyone in the Mihangle household. A few bags containing various purchases hang from carabiner clips on his backpack, and he and his sister are having a very animated conversation in ASL, with the six year old flailing her words with a small scowl on her face.

The young man spots a few familiar faces in the Day Spa, gently placing a hand on his little sister's shoulder as he comes to a halt outside. Mostly, he notices Brynn — but Raquelle's face is also a familiar one, a warm face amid a series of scary memories from years ago. He pauses, mulling over things in his head, before signing to his sister. There's some people I know in there, and I need a hair cut anyhow. Let's stop in, okay? I promise, I'll get you something sweet for your patience. Just don't tell mom. The six year old blinks a few times, brown eyes jumping over the faces within, before nodding. Maybe you can get me a hair cut too! Mom said I need one anyhow. Owain meets this with a suspicious look, but nods anyhow, slipping into the ship with a grin.

Brynn is looking duly amused at Cas's comment that he could handle blue. Brynn signs, I can always change it right back if you don't like it. Then she shoves Joe's shoulder for saying she would totally put glitter in Caspian's hair. I only do that to you guys when you're jerks, she informs him with a sniff.

The petite brunette peers at Raquelle in fascination. Because… wow. Super cute outfit! Can I put sparkles in HIS hair?? Ask him, Joe! She tugs on Joe's arm, totally enthralled by the possibility. I can put lighter streaks in his hair to match his shirt! Oh please?!

Joe meanwhile is wearing whatever came to hand, so a t-shirt and jeans. He's got a longer sleeved shirt in the ratty backpack that's slung over his shoulder. He steps inside and lets his eyes wander about. "How on earth did you get candles here right now?" Is Joe's first question. Not how did he get dumplings given the foot shortage. How did he get candles. Always asking the important questions is Joe. He pauses though and looks to the rest of the group, then to Raquelle, a finger pointing at Caspian. "He needs a haircut." So does Joe. Raq would be able to see that easily. Something has left his hair uneven in a patch on the left side of his head. "Hungry? Always." Joe admits with a shrug of his shoulders. His hands move in sign for Brynn, though it's not ASL, it's something different, but everything Raq says Joe translates for her. And everything Caspian says too of course.

He sticks his tongue at Brynn as she shoves against his shoulder, but he does translate for her with Caspian, rolling his eyes as he does it, a smirk in Brynn's direction before he turns to look over at Raquelle. "My sister wants to know if she can put sparkles in your hair. THey'd be like real sparkles though. Not fake sparkles. They'd be permanent until you see her again. She could also do any colors you want in your hair." He stops and turns to look at her, his hands flying pretty fast, though he speaks out loud as he signs for the benefit of the others. "How is it again that you're not like loaded now Brynn? I mean there's so many things you can do with your power. Don't need paint or anything, or dye. I mean you could find a hair dresser I'm sure that would pay you so they don't have to use dye in people's hair." He stares flatly at her for a few seconds, then rolls his eyes again and sighs.

Raquelle says, "Aww, lookit that. Manners and lovely eyes, beautiful combination. I'm doing oh so fabulously right now." Is the purred response to Caspian. The hairstylist supreme rises from the chair with the grace and fluidity of someone who has had to balance being 6'2 with broadway dance choreography, allowing the dumpling to finish the journey to his lips and chewing distractedly. Because his eyes have fallen upon Joe with a singular focus. It takes him a moment as he just stares for a moment. His eyeliner sharpened gaze is flicking from one head of hair to the other before he swallows. He has to catch his bottom lip between his teeth and collect himself.

"You." He points to Joe and gestures towards the shampoo area. "You." He points to Brynn and gestures towards where he keeps the shampoos and towels and such. A look to Joe to translate, as he tentatively signs as he speaks. "I need number 3, number 5 and the pink bottle that reads Coco." Moving on. "You." He strides forward and offers the box of dumplings to Caspian and gestures towards an open styling chair. Then he turns to regard Owain for a moment. "Mm." He gestures towards the waiting area, then does a double take as something looks vaguely familiar about the young man. There is a pause as he kneels down before the little one that follows in with Owain, pointing to the front desk. "There are some lollipops behind the desk. My secret, now your secret too." Another gesture towards Owain. He waits for a moment before snapping his fingers. "C'mon now, I don't have all day."

Then another look to Joe. "Baby, there is a reason why you do not try to use scissors when you are on a good trip. I had some extra candles because…" He trails off. "Well because there are some things you get when you have a crafty auntie who believes all gay men are incapable of getting it up if they don't have candles in their home." He winks and then looks back after Brynn then back to Joe. "Maaaaybe next time. For now we need you to sit your little ass down and reevaluate the choices of getting high too close to a fan blade…""

Today's forecast? Fabulous.

Shrugging out of his Jacket, Caspian hangs it up by the door on the rack designated for such things, reaching up to rub the back of his head a little. Yes, he's shaggy, but his hair is washed just this morning, so it's not as lopsided as Joe's, and he apparently takes care of it as well as a bachelor can. One of the dumplings is taken, a murmured 'thank you very much' offered as he moves to lower himself into the stylist's chair. "I'm…." He looks to Joe and Brynn, busily gathering shampoo, and then to Raquelle. "They brought me here, saying I needed a good haircut. So…." He gives a grand gesture. "Make me look nice, please."

The little girl doesn't look at Raquelle's eyes when he talks — she looks at his lips. Lollipops is about all that little Mackenzie Marjorie Mihangle II needs to read — she turns and looks up at Owain with the best puppydog eyes she can muster. With a roll of his eyes and a small laugh, Owain nods, gesturing toward the desk. The girl grins, running off to fetch one of the sweet treats.

Owain grins over at the others, moving to have a seat and picking up a magazine. He won't intrude…yet.

Brynn's eyes go wide and she grins at Raquelle and reverts to ASL. Primal! You have ASL!! It's funny how many people in her world do. But she's also incredibly lucky to have Joe, who is literally a talk-machine and willingly translates everything anyway. The teen immediately heads for where she's told to go find a Number 3, a Number 5, and a bottle that says Coco. Whatever THOSE are. When she comes back, she finally spots Owain and his little companion, but she can't wave until the bottles are set on the main counter for Raquelle. Then she shakes herself a little bit and looks toward Raq.

Cas definitely needs a trim, but Joe got nommed on by a squid yesterday cuz our brother's a bit of a jerk sometimes. It was really funny though! Just the thought has Brynn stifling a giggle. She whisks around Caspian and steals that paper Joe gave him in the doorway — she got distracted before and forgot to even try it out. She's never tried *writing* with her power on a piece of paper for purposes of communication, oddly enough. So she runs her finger over the paper and hands it to Caspian. This should work — never tried it! Primal! It works! I've done whole freaking walls before and never thought to do THIS. Her 'handwriting' is a feminine swirl of nearly calligraphic cursive. She looks pleased with herself. You're not as dumb as you sound, Joe! Primal idea!

"OWAIN!" Yeeeeah. Joe sees Owain and Raq's instructions fly out of his head. Joe is hurtling back across the salon to grab an Owain up in a hug. He will not be denied! He wraps Owain up as he jabbers at him. "How are you doing? Where have you been? Has everything been okay? How is your dad? How are your siblings? You look good!" Joe finishes his little tirade of questions as he bounces from foot to foot. "Actually it was a squid not a fan!" He tosses over his shoulder to Raquelle, along with a big cheeky grin, but no sign of falsehood. He looks back to Owain as he steps back, but only enough to let Brynn hug him as Joe is sure that is coming. WHile he didn't sign it to Brynn he's quite sure she'll have seen him tearing past her directly for Owain. "Scissors?" He asks of Raq. Delayed response. Joe's mouth gets ahead of his brain sometimes. "Good trip? Oh, lol yeah no. I babysit for a living. I can't run around getting high all the time when I'm trying to watch people's kids. It's so not cool."

"This is Caspian. He's our friend. He's LHK adjacent by now. He helped us rescue our sister's monkey companion. And her horse. See she's this feral girl that lives in the woods even though we are all trying to get her to come back into the city, or compromise and stay closer to the safe zone. Long story." Joe waves a dismissive hand as if he didn't just talk about the Monkey Rescue mission in public. Where people might not understand. Joe pauses to look at Raq, then over to Caspian, then back to Raq with a grin.

"Pretty sure he's gonna take care of yah, Cas." Joe walks over near Mackenzie and he signs at her let her know that there's a candy bar in his backpack if she wants it. And then he drops his backpack which he was still wearing, near her, and then asks her to guard it for him, winking at her before he looks over and catches Brynn signing at Raq. Totally primal. You have a hair dresser now Brynn. Cuz having a hair dresser that knows ASL? Yeah Raq is now theirs. Their hair dresser. He shifts fluidly to ASL from Lighthouse Cant since there are other signers in here too now.

Brynn Owain needs hugs! Joe is an encourager. He's like a chaos machine. "Also it was so not funny! I got attacked by a flying freaking squid. It was horrifying! But we did make a new friend out of the deal so… and it prompted us to come here for haircuts. Where we've made another new friend." A gesture at Raq. "And reunited with an ald one." A gesture at Owain. And whenever Joe talks and Brynn is around he is always translating, so his hands never stop moving if she's around. Cuz he never stops talking.

Not as d-… Brynn why are you so mean to me? What did I ever do to you? Oh that is a long long list. Where should she start?

Okay, everybody has been sent to their corners and Raquelle shrugs out of his jacket, exposing the sleeve of tattoos on one arm and he's hanging it on a peg before pulling out his hairstyling, securing it around his waist. Requests to look great from Caspian, then Brynn is not speaking outloud but her hands are moving through signs he can read and seem to make more sense. Sorta. There's a squid and he's just squinting for a moment. Then a look goes over to Joe as he is talking and…talking and talking..and talking.

"Alright, Shaggy..we will make you look attractive enough to bring plenty of honey, no worries." He promises Caspian and then to Brynn. "Thank you ever so much." He signs before he asks discretely, pointing to his ears and then to his mouth in turn. "Is it hearing or is it speech?" Then to Owain, that kid looks so familiar. So very familiar. Back to Joe. "Mmhm. Really? Is that right. Well damn. God dangit, are you serious? Hooleee shit, dip me in syrup and call me a pancake, that's just wow." He responds and pipes up from time to time during the rambling as he turns on the shampoo bowl fauset, testing it out a bit by spraying it on his hand. "Baby…ba-Oi! Easyflow! C'mon, let Raquelle apologize to your head for you…I don't know what 'squid' means but you need to set some boundaries for your girlfriend or shave your head. But sit, let me get this at least presentable again."

Caspian shifts in the chair, watching the goings on around the place. It's a little odd, a fully-functioning hairstylist here in the middle of the safe zone. Still, it could be worse, with him cutting his hair with that flowbee thing that he traded for a few weeks prior. Cutting, it did not do. More like buzz your hair out with a vacuum cleaner attached. Not fun at all, ladies and gentlemen.

"That's Brynn. She doesn't hear at all, thus the hands." Caspian says, pointing to the brunette, giving her a wave if he gets her attention. "And Mister Mouth, there, is Joe." He chuckles, settling back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other. "Remember, joe. Commas and periods let listeners know when it's okay to breathe." Glancing over his shoulder at Raquelle, Caspian shifts in the chair. "Just presentable will be fine, sir. I…." he blinks. "Did you give your name? I much prefer calling folk by their name instead of things like 'hairdresser.'"

Oh. Oh shit. He's suddenly being grappled into a hug. Owain blinks owlishly a few times, and then laughs, patting Joe on the back. "I didn't think you guys would recognize me!" He hasn't been around since before the war, after all. "Before the war started, my dad brought my stepmom and me and Jori," he gestures to the little girl who is going through each and every lollipop to determine which flavor she would like best, "out to Devil's Lake in North Dakota. Kinda did the rest of my growing up there, watching the lake take over th'town." He does have a bit of a North Dakota accent tinging his words.

He gets a little somber when asked about his dad. "Dad died back in 2015. Lung cancer." He leaves it at that, glossing it over and gesturing toward Jori. "Jori's awesome, though. She was born deaf, but she is the smartest kid I've ever met, and I am pretty sure she's going to rule the world." He grins proudly over at the girl. Like Joe, he talks in sign as he talks in his normal voice, for his little sister's sake. He just talks a lot less than Joe.

"I'm going to school over at Brooklyn College, major in chemistry. I finally manifested, and I turned out to be a metallokinetic." Owain grins to Joe. Finally, he glances to Raquelle, head dipping toward one shoulder. "Weren't you in E-ville during the riots, before the war?" He seems so young to remember such a traumatic experience.

Okay, now the place is a madhouse, with people's hands flying everywhere. There is way too much Joe-jabber happening at her for Brynn to actually catch while her eyes are flicking everywhere at once, so she gives up. Standing behind Caspian's stylist-chair so she's got someone between her and the whirling dervish That is her brother.

I… just met Owain, thanks, and I'm gonna stay over here til you slow down a little and don't look like a hand grenade about to explode. It might occur to Joe that Brynn was only with the rest of the Kids some of the time before the war; it wasn't until during the war that she became part of the crowd, really. We met the other day, though. He left me a number to give you guys, she volunteers.

In answer to Raquelle, she motions to her ears. Born deaf. other than that, she actually rather looks like she wants to fade into the background really badly. It's a little alarming when so much comes at you so fast, and the crazier it gets, the more still and quiet the chromakinetic seems to be.

"No. Squid as in actual squid. Our brother." He gestures between Brynn and himself. "His name is Lance. He's a prankster. He's also the quietest person ever cuz he can dampen sound. He snuck up onto a book shelf out there in the market yesterday and dropped a live squid on my head. It gnawed on my head. But I'm indestructible so it just gnawed on my hair and… yeah." Joe nods his head a couple of times then opens his mouth to respond to Raq's question about Brynn but Cas has it covered so he just nods to affirm what Caspian said. "Oh my god. Did I not introduce us? That was so rude of me! Thank you Caspian for correcting my rudeness." He manages a slight flush of embarassment. Invade a man's shop but forget to introduce yourselves. What kind of children did Brian raise?

"Oh my god none of us introduced ourselves!" Joe exclaims, bursting out in a quick peal of laughter before his head whips back around to look over at Owain in astonishment. "Dude… once a Lighthouse Kid. Always a Lighthouse Kid. And yeah Brian kept us up in Canada to avoid the worst of it. So we all kind of hid out and stuff. I get it. Canada was nice, but I wanted to come home. So Brynn and me and Lance are all here. Lance's sister Hailey. Others are filtering in too. And that's Primal! I have no idea what a metallokinetic does but it sounds awesome. Brynn and Lance and I will be going to college too once I help them study up enough to pass entrance exams. I passed but I won't go to school without them." He pauses then, processing the bit about Owain's father. "Oh… shit… I'm sorry man. That… that's rough." The LHK's know death. They've seen plenty of it. Too much for a life time, let alone kids their age. "You seem like you're getting on okay though." He pats Owain on the shoulder then turns and goes over to the shampoo station FINALLY.

He takes a seat, then tilts his head back, far enough to look up at Raq. "I'm dead serious about the squid though. It was nuts. Also dont' have a girlfriend." Joe is… Joe. Carrying on 4 different convos while translating for Brynn is not at all beyond him, even if he continues those convos in disjointed manner sometimes. You weren't around when Owain was around? Joe asks slightly confused of Brynn. He coulda sworn. But to him it feels like Brynn has always been around so he might be wrong. He left you a number to give to us and… you didn't give it to us? Joe wags a finger at Brynn before he lets his hands fall down to his lap. His hair has grown out, truth be told it's a bit of a mess. It's clear he hasn't had a professional cut in like… a long time. He reaches out a hand though, grabbing hold of Brynn's and giving it a gentle squeeze. We're part of the world again. Just a gentle reminder to her that crowds are going to be a regular thing.

There it goes, lighthouse…Brian..names and such are dropped and Raquelle's breathing catches for a moment in his chest as he looks from one young adult to another as the world slows down for him and his expression flickers from amused to wistful and then back to amused. He takes a deep breath and exhales softly. A slow nod to Caspian. "Ahh." A firm nod to Brynn. He lifts his hands to sign clearly for her. "You be sure to keep your brothers in line okay? You have the finger dexterity to be an amazing hair stylist, so I'm going to teach you how to work a straight edge razor. The kind you use to shave heads." He winks before he stares at Owain and then he sees it. "Oh my sweet baby jesus…look at you all grown up and making me think bad thoughts!" He gives a small nod. He was in E-Ville, he risked his lives for other and was even almost executed. He was there. There's a shimmer of tears in his eyes as he swallows.

Then he looks around at all the children, exhaling softly and looking back down to Joe. "….and I am Raquelle Cambria. But if you call me Mr Cambria, I get twitchy. Raquelle or Kelly will do." He starts getting that hair wet, strong fingers working through damaged locks and he murmurs under his breath in Japanese.

"He takes some getting used to." Caspian says, closing his eyes, leaning back into the scrubbing going on in his hair. Its not the shampoo he normally uses - this one smells a bit more nutty, like coconuts or almonds, perhaps, but it lathers like a champ and makes his scalp tingle. "She just colors their hair or skin some lurid shade while they're sleeping if they get on her bad side. Was it clown makeup that once, that you were telling me via Joe, Brynn?"

Glancing up at Raquelle looming over him, Cas can only relax. "I don't get my hair washed by others too much. And Brynn?" he looks over to her behind him. "If you go to my bag, there's a sketch pad in there. I've got some ideas for our next piece if you'd like to flip through them."

"Oh…and it's a pleasure to meet you, Raquelle."

The little girl seems to notice Brynn's plight, and seems to understand it as well. With a lollipop hanging out of the corner of her mouth, Jori wanders over to the chromakinetic, holding out a grape-flavored pop for her. Grape is always the best, unless there's pink. Pink is always the best flavor. I'm deaf too. Are you evolved? The test says that I am, but we don't know what I can do yet. I hope I'm like daddy was, he could pick things up with his brain.

"In a nutshell, I can manipulate metal." Owain grins over at his little sister and Brynn, though when he looks at Brynn his cheeks seem to gain a lot more color than they normally have. Aww, that's cute. He waves to the girl with a shy smile, before he turns back to Raquelle, smiling. "I remember you. Glad you got out safely and stayed okay," he smiles to the hairdresser. As Raquelle busies himself with Joe, Owain wanders in the general direction of his little sister and Brynn as casually as he can. Seems the closer he gets to her, the redder his cheeks go. Hey, he signs toward the girl, smiling sheepishly. Sorry for running off like that the other day…

Jori looks back and forth between her brother and Brynn, and promptly giggles. In an entirely unrecognizable form of sign language, she makes a few signs at her brother — who glares at her and makes a few of his own unrecognizable signs right back.

Joe's reassurance is … not as reassuring as he might like. It took her longer to arrive in New York because she waffled about leaving the cozier, safer confines of rural living but was finally driven by a need for more to do with her art to enter the larger urban setting. She squeezes his hand briefly, though. There's a bit of a distracted wave at Owain…. she hasn't noticed the blush he's sporting. Kinda oblivious. The little girl who signs at her is adorbs, though, and Brynn finds herself easily responding to that — older child in an orphanage. This is within her wheelhouse.

Yeah, I'm Evo. Check this out, she grins at the little girl, reaching out for a lock of hair running it through her fingers to make it the girliest shade of pink ever. She winks at Jori, her attention drawn to Caspian by the shift in his weight as he looks toward her. Tipping her head, she catches 'sketch pad' though it's upside down — of course she did — and moves curiously to his satchel. Rummaging in it, she comes out with his drawings, and she gestures Jori over to see what she's looking at.

"Raquelle. That name sounds familiar. I think I've heard people mention you. Mind if I just shorten it to Raq? Or Quelle? I mean I can call you by your full name if you want, but I don't call anyone by their full names. At least not people I hang around. Cuz I'm lazy." Joe flashes a big grin up at Raquelle. "Kelly works for me. Is that Japanese? That's a cool language. Wanted to learn it when I was younger." Cuz you know… he's not young now. But these kids grew up very young so… there is that. "Brynn is a tyrant. Should see her. Oh!" He holds up his right arm, which he would have actually had to wear a long sleeved shirt to cover up. He pulls the sleeve down and his arm is bright like flourescent pink. Brynn can you change my arm back now? You took off in the market yesterday and left me like this. Pleeeeease I dont' wanna be pink anymore. Bright flourescent pink. He waggles his arm around in the air to make sure Brynn gets the point of what he wants changed back. To it's natural color too please! He eyes his sister. Cuz he knows her. He knows what goes on in her head. And she knows he knows. He peers at her, holding the stare for several seconds, then sticks his tongue out at her and grins.

Joe's eyes widen as he watches the conversation between Jori and Brynn. "Oh my god she's so cute. SHe wants to pick things up with her brain! See I'm not the only one that things powers are cool." This is spoken aloud, and signed in Brynn's direction. He's not the only one, he's just the only one that never shuts up about it. And he doesn't miss the color in Owain's cheeks, a brow goes up slowly. "Ooohhhh reeeeeealllly. How very interesting." A brow waggles, then both, that grin going mischevious. "HOLY CRAP THEY HAVE THEIR OWN VERSION OF LIGHTHOUSE CANT!" He announces to the freaking world, signing at Brynn about it too. In Lighthouse Cant of course. "I mean… well personalized signs and stuff… cuz secret codes and communicating without bad guys understanding." He's trying to stay still in his chair, he really is. But it's so hard to sit still when there's so much to do.

Caspian's sketchbook is a heavy black tome, almost like a hard cover, about 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide, with heavy pages and a rip on the canvas cover where it was pulled from some wreckage. That rip, though, has been decorated to show a flash of gold and silver beneath, like the cover is actually golden, but hidden, beneath a coat of black paint. The first page is blank, with a simple black-markered title of 'Sketches, volume 5' and Caspian's graffiti tag, but as the pages are turned, more things come into view.

"It's about halfway in." Caspian calls. "When I started." The first thing that comes into view is a sailboat - stenciled - with a sail covered in graffiti, sailing into a moonlit sea. The next is a short woman surrounded by cats, her blonde hair shorn close in the front, wearing a kimono. And so on and so on. Different versions of scenes - landscapes, cityscapes, hopes and dreams, all painted in bright marker, outlined in black. And inside the bag are a dozen different colors of Prismacolor marker - perfect for sketching.

"If you have any ideas or suggestions, just let me know." Caspian grins up at Raquelle. "I'm a street artist. Brynn and I have done a mural over by one of the parks in the safe zone, and now we're planning the next one. I could put something on your building if you were interested." A nonchalant offer before he glances over at Joe. "What's Lighthouse Cant? I thought you were doing, like, sign language that was official real sign language, not something you guys came up with. I mean, it makes sense…want to be quiet if you're being sneaky, so what better way to do it than that?"

What fresh hell is this, babies just flashing powers and talking about powers like its nothing! Raquelle finishes shampooing one head and then is working on the next then going back and forth between Joe and Caspian's head to thoroughly massage and clean hair, each young man receiving a head massage in the process. "Hmm, yes That might be nice indeed. Some local art..I'll let you know Picasso." Then he just narrows his eyes a bit at Joe's exuberance, a smile tugging at his lips. "You are simply so adorable I could just nibble on your cheeks. Now be still before I accidnetally pull out the other side of hair and you go around looking like a progressive punk indie singer."

Then his gaze seeks out the girls and Owain with a curious tilt of his head, lashes fluttering as he starts to hum softly, modulating his tones ever so slightly. "I'm gonna need you to sign as I sing Kaci and Jo Jo." His gift wrapping around his words lazily…strands of a laconic type of joy. Reassurance and something akin to calm radiating from the hairstylist as he works. "I've got sunshine….on a cloudy day…" He laces a shower cap over Joe's head, letting it sit with a deep condition. "When it's collld outside, I've got the month of May." He continues singing softly. "Well I guess, you'd say. What can make me feel this way…"

The chromakinetic has just gained a fan. As the little girl's hair turns pink, she lets out a little squeal of approval, a huge smile on her face as she applauds Brynn's display. That is so cool! You are so cool! Mom's gonna kill Owain! The last bit is signed with more than a little bit of glee. Then, she glances over at her red-faced brother, signing in that secret language again with a sly grin. A look of mild panic crosses Owain's face as the little girl turns to Brynn, the sly grin turning mischeivious. My brother thinks you're pretty. I bet he wants to kiss you! She laughs the laugh of someone who has successfully mortified their brother.

Owain goes bright red, furiously signing in that secret language that he shares with his sister. Probably yelling at her in ways that others shouldn't see or hear. Then, he's smiling way more sheepishly at Brynn. From the mouths of babes, right? He laughs nervously, and glares at Jori. Probably the only thing keeping him from dragging her out of the market by the ear is Raquelle's calming song.

Owain's not the only one who goes brilliantly red. Oh gosh, no! No way, Brynn demurs quickly. And then she sees Owain's face and scrambles to her feet, bringing the sketchbook with her to retreat back over to the other side of the salon. Turning to the end of the sketchbook, she focuses hard on the paper in front of her, tracing lines in a hurry. It's not as neat and tidy as the first time because she's a little — no, a lot — uncomfortable. Not very many young men around her to start with (who aren't considered her siblings!) and the ones who were? Well… being deaf is something of challenge in rural Canada anyway, then toss in brothers who are armed commandos, a foster father who is even worse, and a natural sort of reticence in large groups, and you have a young woman who has no clue what to even say to that.

Instead, she shows the soapy Caspian, 'I found one that I absolutely love, will you let me tweak it a bit. I'd like to make it a little more realism, instead of quite so animated-looking. Person, rather than cartoon? Shadings will shift it that direction, if you don't mind. Plus there are some fluourishes….'

She whips the page back to the picture she's talking about and although it's only a rough touch-up, she runs her fingers over several places and shows him what she means. ART. MUST TALK ABOUT ART.

"Weeeee do both." Joe shrugs his shoulders at Caspian's question. "We all learned ASL. But then we made our own language from it. Something we could use to communicate silently. I mean when you live in a place that gets attacked all the time, and is witness to a showdown between Peter Patrelli and Sylar at one point I mean… you want to be able to talk to eachother silently and without any one else knowing. Like in case you need to flee cuz the Pringles man is gonna come take all your abilities." The Pringles man being Sylar of course. "So we have ASL and we have our own signs as well. It uses ASL in some of it, but we kinda mixed ASL with combat signals that Brian taught us and a bunch of other stuff, and some stuff that we just plain made up. But yes. We speak both." Joe beams at Caspian, all wide grin and teeth before there's… is that a head massage. Yes… yes it is. And it shuts Joe up for the duration of it. Which is an amazing feat. Raquelle should be proud.

Once it's done his eyes open back up and his mouth starts running again. "I wouldn't nibble on my cheeks. They'd prolly break teeth. I mean pinchings are fine, but nibblings probably wouldn't work. Also that would be a cool look, but probably not on me. I mean… yeah probably not on me. My head is shaped weird. I mean not like super weird like Lance's head, but weird." He does sign along with Raquelle's singing as he's asked to do so, of course he lets Brynn know that he's signing a song at Raq's request. You're gonna be a busy little artist Brynn. Got all sorts of people that want to work with you now. That's thrown in before the song starts, and then his hands are moving along, only to stop and snicker when Brynn runs away from Owain like that.

"She's… shy. I mean not once you get to know her, but until you do she's super shy. Also if you upset her she'll turn you green and leave you that way." See, Joe and Lance can be protective, but most of the time Brynn? Brynn's got this. He leans back in his chair. He and Caspian are both in chairs, with Raquelle moving between them, tending to their hair. Joe's has been washed and is being conditioned, sitting in a shower cap at the moment. It could almost be a big jellyfish. Yesterday a squid, today a plastic jellyfish.

There are blushes and flailing of hands from Brynn, giving Cas a soft smirk as he leans back, getting his hair tended to just perfectly so. It's nice to be pampered, now and again, and with the war, pampering is often things like 'a plate of hot food' or 'a bed that's warm.' A shampoo and a haircut? That's kind of a big deal. Here's hoping this doesn't cost a thousand dollars or something.

"I like that one, too. And it was just a quick sketch. The background I thought we could do something with a lot more color - make it look like the city skyline or something futuristic, or if we really wanted to do something nice, a jungle or forest scene. It's not like we have a lot of those around here." Caspian gestures to Brynn. "Edit away. It's just a drawing right now. The tough part will be the painting."

Looking over to Joe, Caspian nods. "That makes sense. Might have to see if I can pick up a few words, here and there, if you guys are going to drag me on excursions."

Its so sweet to watch, these children have been raised in the fire and grown into little diamonds. Raquelle watches them as he continues to sing softly. "My girl…talking 'bout my girl…" He drapes a towel over Caspian's head and starts patting it dry before pointing him towards one of the salon chairs that are not next to the shampoo bowls. Then he's back to Joe's head. "You know, what's beautiful? Last time I was in this city we had to hide little angels like you all away. Keep you safe. We used to sit down and cry when test results came back positive and we knew the world wasn't ready to worship our little ones like they deserved…"

He leans Joe back again to start rinsing his hair and checking his scalp again. "And now look at each other, look at yourselves, there is a whole world out there, waiting for your sunshine to warm its weary bones. And I'm just lucky I'm getting a chance to bask in your rays." A warm smile is offered as he pats Joe's shoulder and drapes a towel over his head as well, pointing him over towards the only other stylish chair. Then he gestures towards Owain and the now free shampoo bowl. "You can sit here now if you like."

Totally red-faced, Owain is still rebuking his little sister in their secret language. Brynn doesn't exist right now, he can't even bring himself to look at her due to how mortified he is. Jori grins smugly at her brother, sticking her tongue out at him as he sulks over to the shampoo chair, red-faced and completely mortified. You're not very nice, Jori. I'm totally not going you any ice cream now.
The little girl makes a pouty face, but consoles herself by wandering over to Caspian and Brynn, being quietly curious about the pair.

With a spring in her step, Silvia approaches the makeshift salon. Seeing who must obviously be the stylist, she starts to speak. "Hi, I was wondering if you—" She stops, realizing there are two familiar faces. "Brynn! Joe!" She smiles brightly, moving so she's in Brynn's periphery and waves her greeting. "I didn't expect to run into either of you so soon. I guess it is destino. That or I hang out around here too much." The others in the area get a small little nod of greeting.

Brynn changes the sketch back, because if she's going to work on it, she'd RATHER work on it with her pencils and markers. Her ability is something she does use for her art, but as an embellishment instead of the be-all, end-all. She nods to Caspian, doing her level best to pretend NOT TO SEE Owain's blushing. She is clearly uncomfortable.

Silvia's arrival is met with something that looks VERY much like relief. Because maybe she'll draw at least Joe's attention, right?? She's a cute girl! She waves to Silvia, and then she moves back over to the chairs, to show Jori what she's doing, pulling her own backpack off her shoulders to set under her seat and hauling Caspian's closer to use his markers while she tweaks the sketch in his book.

"Well we can definitely teach you some battle signals for sure. Brian taught them to us. He wanted us to be ready for when the next Institute or Humanis First comes along. I guess these Pure Earth dicks are the next thing." Joe's shoulders lift in a slight shrug, his head bobbing around to the tune of Raq's singing. When he starts to talk about the past though, Joe's hands sign steadily for Brynn's benefit, translating all of it over to her, and there might just be tears welling in Joe's eyes. He reaches up a hand to wipe his eyes, stopping tearfall for the moment at least.

"Thank you. People like you are the reason that those of us that are still here are still here." Joe's voice has gone soft, and not so boisterous, at least for the moment. Moroseness never lasts with Joe though. "You should come to the library opening. Aunt Gillian is opening a library in honor of Doyle. Our friend. He was one of the adults that gave their lives for us." He's not crying. He's not. Though he wipes his eyes a few more times before he pulls in a deep breath and lets it out in a long sigh, releasing some tension that built. He slides out of the chair as directed and slips over to the other styling chair.

"Silvia!" Joe calls out, not quite at max volume of course, but way louder than is necessary in the shop. "This is Silvia, the friend we made yesterday when Lance squid attacked my head. Silvia Kelly doesn't believe that it was a squid. Can you confirm this for me?" He gestures at Raquelle when he says Kelly. "Silvia this is our friend Caspian. That is Owain, he's from the Lighthouse like Brynn, Lance and I. That's his little sister over there and this is Raquelle. Hair dresser extroardinaire. Also protector of evolved children we just found out." Introductions done? Good.

"I talked to Brynn about the comics. I think she was down. We kind of get distracted by all the stuff. But I'm pretty sure she was down for helping with the comics. Oh Caspian here is also an artist. And so is Raquelle. Different art though. But lots of artists in the room. All the artists and me, with nooooo artistic bone in my body."

"Lollipops and dumplings behind the front desk honey." That's the response Raquelle gives to Silvia as she enters before he nods and smiles to something Joe is saying and commits himself to starting to comb out Joe's hair and measure the damaged lengths and start doing Hairdresser witchcraft in the form of making soft 'mm'' and 'uck' noises and the occasional sucking of his teeth as he measure out hair and starts strategically clipping certain strands and leaving the others. This might take a minute.

For once, Eimi is walking through the market. Mostly because she can't read and teleport at the same time, and her nose is buried in a battered copy of Macbeth. Unfortunately, the teen isn't very good at walking, and she's bumping into people without doing so on purpose, hurriedly excusing herself, and continuing.

Silvia says, "It was definitely a squid," Silvia asserts. "I saw it myself." She looks from person to person as everyone is introduced and she smiles broadly and offers a mock curtsey. "I am Silvia, if you had not picked that up because of Joe saying so." But Raquelle said the magic words that equated to food. She marches over to the front desk, picking out a lollipop and removing the wrapper before popping it in her mouth with a satisfied sound.

"I am pleased there are so many artists. But you could learn to do something if you wanted, Joe. I learned to draw as a way to escape my troubles. I wasn't very good at first, but I did it and I kept doing it for years. There wasn't always something to do when I grew up, so I made my own fun."

Brynn's attention is fully on the sketchbook in her hands as she makes changes to Caspian's original sketch. She does show Jori what she's doing as she does it, but the little girl is also watching the room — where Brynn is making a point to NOT do that. Being deaf has its advantages when one chooses to put their focus on a particular thing. It's easy to block out the world for a while. She does offer the image for Silvia to see if she'd like, but she's not really being vocal right now — apparently something has driven her to retreat just a little, much like yesterday's antics did.

Caspian moves as directed, a towel around his shoulders to keep his hair from dripping down his back or on the floor. He sits carefully, scooting back so his back is against the seat, watching Brynn rummage through his bag for art supplies.

Joe sits through the hair cut, antsy but trying not to squirm too much, as Raquelle mumbles and commments to himself about his hair Joe looks over at Silvia with a quick grin. "See!" He doesn't pull his head back to look up at Raquelle, though he really really wants to. "It ate my hair. It was trying to eat my head. But like I said, indestructable. I'm bullet proof too as well as squidproof." He watches Brynn shift into insular mode and frowns a bit, but tips his head and lets his eyes wander back around the room. "Oh wait, there's dumplings for everyone?" He asks, only just now getting that earlier statement about food for people if the want it. "Dumplings sound amazing. We should get some more so we don't eat all of Kelly's dumplings." Who is he talking to? That is anyone's guess.

"Yeah… I've tried. Lance likes to sketch too. And Brynn is an artist. So I grew up with artists. I really think I just don't have the patience for it is the problem. Funny cuz I was always pretty quiet when I was little. But being out of danger up in canada just let… me emerge as me? I guess?" His shoulders lift in a half shrug, eyes tracking Brynn, then Caspian slowly. They are all inside of Raquelle's hair salon, so Eimi will need to make her way inside to meet all of them.

Eimi bumps into someone again as she nears Raquelle's shop, and this person gets… angry. And that prompts the girl's ability to kick in. Outside there's a brief gust of air displacement. Inside, right behind Silvia, is now Eimi, who pulls her jacket a little more around herself and then looks around at all the people. "Oh shit," she murmurs.

"Patience is something you have to have as an artist. You have to be tranquilo." Silvia beams at Joe. "There could be some art that requires less patience but I would have to search for one."

But Eimi's reflexive reaction has unintentional side effects. As she appears behind Silvia, all the girl hears is a murmur of a swear behind her and she panics. She isn't exactly a fan of people sneaking up on her and suddenly she's just gone, melted away into a pile of sand.

"Million Mile Mouth, if you do not be still, I swear to god you are going to walk out of here looking like Charlie Brown." Raquelle speaks calmly and evenly, measuring out hair between his fingers and slowly cutting off a few more strands. "Yes, there are dumplings for everybody…somebody not wet or getting cut run next door to Mr Motos shop and get some more dumplings…."

He is in mid measure when there is that pop and displacement of air that makes him look up rather quickly. "Jaysus H-" Then Silvia melts into a puddle of sand and he takes a step away from Joe for a moment to place a hand on his hip. "Dios Mio…alright." He whistles sharply and even though the deaf cannot hear him, he still starts to sign as he speaks. "Listen up. I need somebody to go to Mr Moto's right the fuc-dge now, get ten orders of assorted dumplings and some fruit juice boxes. Tell them Cambria sent you and you will get it, we have a trade arrangement. Next, I need anybody else who has some new and exciting way to make me almost piss myself in shock, surprise, or glee to go ahead and get that shit out of your system right now. So if you can fart fire, eat glass, shoot lasers from your nipples, pull rabbits out of your ass or anything else that can induce a heart attack please get it over with so I can cut this baby's hair without scalping him." A pause and a gesture towards the sand puddle. "And you little lady, do I have to get you an ashtray to melt into or are you coming back anytime soon?"

Thankfully, Jori with her super pink hair streak can't hear anything to be terrified by the suddenly appearing girl — she's fascinatedly watching Raquelle cut Joe's hair with a captivated expression. Owain, on the other hand, notices all, and jumps a bit as Eimi appears and Silvia turns into a pile of sand, his hands gripping the seats of the chair he sits in. Thankfully, his ability takes a little more work to set off, especially when he doesn't really feel like he's in danger. Probably wouldn't be so good to try to murder a metallokinetic in a barber shop.

The change in his pocket does jingle a bit, though.

When Raquellle reacts, Jori blinks a few times, glancing around, before her eyes land on Eimi. After a moment, she moves over to Owain's side, putting her hand on his leg and signing in that secret language she shares with her big brother. The elder Mihangle signs back in return, before reaching out and ruffling the girl's hair. "I can manipulate metal," Owain mentions to Raquelle while signing for his sister's sake. He's still trying to act like he doesn't exist to Brynn. "But I have to concentrate to do it, unless I'm like about to die or something, so you probably won't piss yourself any time soon." He doesn't sign the last part.

Brynn's reactions to the chaotic environment probably do cause Joe some significant concern — it's a regression to behaviors that Brian has done his best to train out of her over the years. He doesn't want her to go still like bunny in wolf's sight! He wants her to be MORE alert and aware. But when she feels safe enough — such as when Joe and/or Lance are nearby — she doesn't feel the need to be on that kind of high alert. That being said, she's also not unaware of her surroundings. So when there's suddenly an extra pair of feet along with a sudden pile of sand, and there was no corresponding rush of air from the outside, the deaf teen's head whips up and levels on the newcomer with unerring accuracy. And it's probable that no one but Joe notices that the hand she's not drawing with — her right one, interestingly enough — drops to the side of her calf as she tenses.

And then her eyes are caught by Raquelle's signing and her gray eyes go VERY wide. She claps a hand over her mouth, giggling silently. She signs to Joe, automatically in Cant because it's what she uses most, Did he say FART FIRE??

Caspian is wet and in a chair, so getting dumplings, while sounding awesome, is not in the cards for him. He opens his mouth to say something but then that wonderful chain reaction starts, with Eimi popping in unannounced - literally - and Silvia melting into a puddle of sand, the man, patiently waiting his turn, stomps one foot. "Listen to the man, please. Enough of the showing off of powers. It is the safe zone, but some folk still look at evolved a little bit warily and besides, what if Raquelle here suddenly catches on fire, explodes, or teleports us all into the ocean? We'd be well and truly f….u..screwed. ". Good save, Cas. "So Knock. It. Off!"

Leaning over, Cas drips a little into the sand. Come on, pop up." and then he looks to Eimi. "Deep breath. Calm dodown n. no more blinking, okay?"

Joe sees an Eimi appear from thin air and he… doesn't panic. "THAT IS SO COOL! Did you guys see that? She just appeared out of thin air! How did you do that?" Joe wiggles in his seat so bad, but leaves his head remaining still, or mostly still, but it's /clear/ he wants to jump up and run over to Eimi and inspect her. But he doesn't, he restrains himself, if only barely, and sits in the chair where Raq was cutting no his hair. "Sil… where did… Silvia it's okay, you can come back out. No need to sand." He calls out in what he hopes is a calm sounding tone of voice.

Then Raquelle lets his hair go and Joe is up out of his seat and moving first over to the pile of sand on the floor. "Really it's okay though. Come on back up." Then he turns to Eimi. "Hi I'm Joe! And there are a lot of people in here so I'll be rude and let them introduce themselves. Did you teleport? OR do you go invisible? We totally need a teleporting friend, or an invisible friend." Joe pauses a moment, glancing around the room at everyone, then back to Eimi again. "You can't scalp me Kelly. I mean you could shave my head down to the scalp, but you can't scalp me. Bulletproof." He jerks a thumb at his chest, all proud of his bullet proofness. "OH! I know what you remind me of!" Joe hollers and runs back to the pile of sand, or the Silvia, whichever she is right now. "You made me ink! From Finding Nemo! The little octopus girl in the fish tank." He bobs from foot to foot real quick, then runs over and throws a hug around a Brynn before he races back to his seat before he can get in trouble. Or he hopes before he gets in trouble, and retakes his seat. Brynn got hugs to reassure her. Also so he could gently pat her hand. He doesn't tell her to move it yet, cuz he has no clue if Eimi is friendly. "You don't need to shout and holler Cas." Joe admonishes the man, despite his own shouting and hollering, though Joe's is done out of excitement not reprimand. "And raising your voice at them is not gonna stop their powers from going off if they react to danger or startlement." Joe is an expert at helping kids get control of their powers. No really he… is. He and Brynn and Lance have dealt with so many children with powers it's second nature to coach people now.

Eimi takes a breath in, and Caspian's exclamation… well. First Eimi was in one place. Now she's in the farthest corner she can see, and flickers in and out a few times teleporting in place — one inch to either side — until Joe introduces himself. It seems to help, somewhat, and she shakes her head and lets out a breath.

"I teleport." She looks at Caspian, then back to Joe, and it's Joe that gets the response. "I got startled outside and this was the first place I saw."

Silvia starts to move, just slightly, the sand pile ready to inch its way across the floor when she gets dripped on. The droplets of water congeal the sand and its progress on the floor slows. Seeing that she has no real place to go and Joe's done a good job of calming the situation down, she slowly and carefully reforms.

"I like Finding Nemo." She directs at Joe in response to the earlier statement. She looks around at the rest of them, though she inches a bit away from Caspian. "Lo siento mucho." She directs in Raquelle's direction.

There is a look that goes to Caspian when he helps out. His eyes narrow a bit before he holds up placating hands. "Hey Hey Hey…" He focuses his now, taking a deep breath and attempting to let the gentle tones carress his words, radiating that calm. "Poppet, calmate darling. All is well. Have a seat at the nail station and I will get you a foot bath started, okay?" A nod to the other girls as well. "You are safe here, no need to pop around, lock up anything or drop into a mini beach…" And he signs that bit for Brynn's sake. Then there is just a look. A look is given to Joe and Caspian in turn.

A finger pointed a Joe. "I have had some top of the line vibrators that still did not have as much energy as you do. Sit." He points to the chair. "I was not finished with your head." Then to Owain. "Got it metal, cuz that isn't terrifying. At all." Then to Caspian. "Oh, there is no doubt, regardles of what you all show me…I will remain a flaming queen. But no teleportation here, just a hair dresser. I do have super powers but only my fiance gets to see them." He looks around. "Alright, everybody cool now?"

Wide gray eyes are more or less captured on Joe's signing, and the hug does ease her some, though Brynn doesn't take her hand away from her calf until things have settled. When she raises her hands to say something, Raquelle…. Brynn's WHOLE FACE turns SCARLET. OMFG, did he say VIBRATOR!??! That's like…. dirty words, there!

And the more Raquelle talks (which Brynn is following thanks to Joe's consistent signing), the more Brynn is giggling. AGAIN. For like the SECOND TIME in TWO DAYS, she is laughing out loud. It is not the norm for the deaf young woman, and she finally resorts to burying her face in her hands and giggling helplessly.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry.". Caspian says from his spot on the chair. "Growing up, I had to keep my ability quiet from everyone, and seeing you guys just use it in public so nonchalantly is….freaky.". Caspian settles into his chair, scrunching lower. "Sorry for shouting.". One foot goes down to turn the chair, facing Eimi in the corner. "Sorry. a promise I don't bite. I'm really a nice guy. just ask Brynn or Joe.". Then to Silvia. "Esta bien." Restaurant Spanish at best.

"Teleportation is awesome. I'm bulletproof. Brynn is a chromathingy. She manipulates colors. It's pretty primal. She can make your skin camo colored. Silvia as you've seen is uhhh sand mimic I think it was how Lance put it?" And well anyone else in the room that hasn't been outed as being Evolved it's not Joe's place to out them. I mean he outed Brynn but that's different. Don't ask him how. "I love Finding Nemo. It was a bit of a thing for some of us. The whole 'Just keep swimming' line. Cuz that's kinda what we did as kids to survive. Just kept swimming. I mean not actual swimming but… perseverance in life." He nods his head a couple of times, then remembers he's in stylist chair so stops bobbing his head and just bobs his foot. Cuz that's equivalent right?

Raq's comment has Joe's cheeks going bright red and a heavy snort leaving him. He translates Raquelle's words for Brynn of course, as he does faithfully everything else, despite his cheeks being bright red. "Metal, wait like magneto? Or different? I know you said metal earlier but…" And it's Owain who runs next door to go get dumplings. "Rude." He comments jokingly as the other slips out. "Sooo Kelly. Fiance huh? Got kids? I ask cuz I babysit. Lance does too. You'll meet him sooner or later. He babysits sometimes. I'm trying to convince him to go full time. We have a LOT of childcare experience between the two of us. Also we're totally combat trained so safe kidlets. If you ever need a babysitter. You should definitely let us do it." He glances to Brynn and nods his head, grinning wide. His own red cheeks have faded now. He so did. He said vibrator. Joe's face lights up when Brynn laughs like that, quite happy his sister is happy. Then he lets his eyes wander around the room, peering over at Caspian. "Oh. Yeah we didn't. But that's cuz we were orphaned refugees and most of us had powers so we didn't have to keep them secret from each other. Different lives I guess?"

"You guys are awesome. I'm so happy I'm back in New York. This is one of my new favorite places now. Made new friends, reunited with old friends. Good place indeed." He's mostly sitting still for Raquelle. He's really trying honest.

Eimi takes another breath, and half a step forward. There's even a smile. "I'm Eimi," she says, in introduction. It's a moment later that Eimi turns to Caspian. "I'm just… used to mine. It's normal, to me, but. I can see how it could be overwhelming."

And then it is Raquelle who gets stared at though, and there's a nod. "I… I am?" she shakes her head in somewhat disbelief, murmurs under her breath, "You wouldn't understand." But it's not a criticism, and at least some of that calm has rubbed off on Eimi, and she takes a few steps and looks out towards the street, and then down into her hands… "I teleported without my book," she says, and there's a check of the bag she carries and her pockets. Everything else is still there.

"Being bulletproof sounds useful."

"Solo sigue nadando…" Silvia murmurs, blinking a few times at Joe's comments about the movie and it's correlation to the the kids in general. It's enough to momentarily cause her to tear up. Looking away from anyone who might catch her gaze, she listens to the rest of the conversation. Brynn's laughter gets her attention and she smiles slightly over in the girl's direction.

"New York is very nice," she agrees. "It is a place I like. Most people have been very kind and understanding. There are bad people, but they have not bothered me much." Perhaps they know her parents would come after them if they had. Her gaze shifts to Caspian. "I am too familiar with raised voices. They usually mean bad things." She gives him a smile at his Spanish. "Gracias."

Attention shifts back to Joe's hair and he's got that done in a few strategic snips. Then a comb is whipped out as is product as he somehow manages…to balance out the hair and toussling it in a stylish casual look. Then he pats Joe on the shoulder. "/Now/ you can move." Then he's moving over to Caspian's chair, and removing the towel, studying his head thoughtfully and nodding to himself as he does the mental calculations in his head.

He does have to smile thought, softly at the sound of laughter, arching an eyebrow from time to time before nodding slowly to Eimi. "Yes darling. And do you need one of these strappin' young lads to go and fetch it for you? Your book?" And then to Silvia, he speaks softly in Spanish. "Do you need anything to steady your nerves little one?"

Brynn's helpless giggles finally taper off to something approaching manageable. I can't believe you just said that … out loud AND in sign, even! She's still snickering. Shaking her head, she moves off the small chair she was sitting in and shows Caspian what she's been shading and changing in his intended mural image. Then she sets the sketch pad down and signs rather rapid-fire, Raquelle, please, will you let me put lavender in your hair? Just the right shade to lighten up your blouse?? Because it's making her fingers itch, wanting it so much! And oh fine, while she's at it, she'll finally turn Joe's hot-pink arm back to normal color.

This is really, really nice. Caspian sits comfortably in the barber's chair and squares his shoulders. "Apparently Brynn is putting some blue in my hair when you're done so…..something that'll look good with streaks of blue.". he gives Brynn a smile before looking to the gathered group, nodding to the edits on the picture. "That's going to be fun. you think 10'feet tall will be too much?". he grins, giving the brunette a wink before leaning back, letting Raquelle do his best.

"Are you all from the lighthouse? Know the can't and stuff? If you guys are interested, we can have a meal at my place on Saturday or Sunday. I'd like to just….". he shrugs. "you guys are the only people I've hung out with since getting to New York."

"Well it's nice to meet you Eimi!" Joe greets the girl cheerfully, then pauses and lofts a brow at Eimi's statement towards Raq. "Well Raq was in E-Ville so I'm pretty sure he understands. Also Brynn and I totally understand too. We're Lighthouse Kids. Orphaned and hunted cuz we had abilities. We were on Pollepel island. We get it. We more than get it." Joe offers with a smaller smile in Eimi's direction. "Well hop out and get your book then hop back in?" He asks. "I'd do it quick before someone picks it up off the ground out there."

"What's that mean Silvia?" He asks, tone gone soft when he sees her tearing up. "Wait, does that mean Just keep swimming?" He grins wide. "I hope it does. Cuz that's pretty cool. Solo sigue nadando." Yeah his pronunciation is HORRIBLE. But he tries at least. "Also if anyone is mean to you let me know? I'll punch em. I don't brook bullying. It's not cool. And if someone attacks you I'll punch em harder. That goes for anyone in this room. I've got everyone's back if they need it. I /will/ go commando on some bad guys. Just sayin." He's released from his bonds. The chair. And with that he goes right to the front door and goes outside. He's not gone long, a few moments really, though there is the sound of a momentary scuffle, followed by someone yelping and then rapid footsteps. Joe comes back in book in hand and hands it off to Eimi. "Some dude had the book. Told him it was yours. He demanded to know where you were. His wrist will hurt for a few days but he'll leave you alone if he sees you again."

He holds his sleeve up for Brynn since she's signing about color, and she makes his arm no longer bright pink. "Yay! Not pink anymore!" This is definitely said with some sarcasm as he peers at Brynn. Brat sister. He does translate Caspian's statements to her though, then glances back to Raquelle. "And when you're done with our hair you'll really have to let Brynn at yours. She wants to put purple and sparkles in it so bad. So so bad." Joe glances aside at Caspian and shakes his head. "Silvia is a new friend we met yesterday, and Eimi we just met. Owain was at the Lighthouse for awhile though."

Eimi moves over to take the book, and tucks it in her bag. The reluctance to go back outside is evident, but the gratitude is too. Joe gets a very brief half a hug before Eimi has teleported right back to the corner of Raquelle's shop that she was occupying, just so that she can have her back to a wall again. "I've been on my own a while," she explains. "I've never had… friends. Before."

Never. That's the word she uses though it probably refers to what she can remember, more than anything else. "I was from Utah. Kansas City after that." Both of which are a long way from New York.

There's a squint at Brynn for a moment before he offers softly. "How about I let you do my nails in lavender so you can get some practice for your future job as part time nail tech here at the salon? You could do all sorts of designs." Raquelle does take note about the plan for /blue/ and he studies Caspian's head in a new light. "You want to do the tips or are you going to do a stripe of blue?" He asks of Brynn still speaking in sign before gesturing towards Caspian's hair and showing her the different places he could potentially part.

Eimi and Silvia both get a soft chuckle and kind nod of understanding as Eimi reaches into Raquelle's chest and pulls out his heart. Then cries on it and ships it off to Africa where a small child is staring at a camera as a voice over narrates the need for drinking water."Oh…darling. You can come in anytime you want…"

Then there is a soft sigh as he explains to Joe. "/After/ your darling sister learns some things about proper hair care and we study how her ability effects the health of the hair, then I will let her do my hair. Until then, she gets my nails because I'm pretty sure what she can do lasts longer than gel and dipping powder." He thinks before offering to Joe. "I have 2 daughters."

Then back to Caspian's hair.

Brynn's reaction to nails is amusing. She gets a wicked twinkle, and since Caspian is telling Raq about the blue, she just moves to the man's side and touches the hair at the top of his forehead. A Rogue-style blue stripe essentially pours like a wave up the strands she smooths her fingertips over, and she lets the stylist inspect to his heart's content. It won't affect the health of hair… I change the molecular structure and how it absorbs and reflects light, she explains. So it's an actual structural change, not a chemical one.

When Brynn does her thing, Cas expects to feel something like a tingle or a bit of warmth but, when she does it, he doesn't feel anything. It's a nice one, too. Dark, like the sea before a storm, and able to blend in fairly easily, giving hints of color if he moves just right. he looks up, plucks the now blue hair out to look at it, and gives Brynn a wink. "We'll have to change it back at some point, you know.".

Joe's clarification helps immensely, Cas looking to the others. "good to know. good to know.". he murmurs, looking up at the giant black man about to cut his hair. "I leave myself in your capable hands, Raquelle.".

Joe totally got a hug. Half hugs don't exist. That was a hug. "Well you have friends now if you want them. Well I mean I can only guarantee myself on that. Cuz I can't fully speak for other people. But I'm pretty sure others are game for it too. But why leave Kansas City for here? I mean… it avoided most of the fighting and… okay. Sorry. Don't mean to pry." Joe beams a big smile at her before turning to look over at Raquelle. "Her ability doesn't adversely affect anything. She literally just changes it's colors like… Here Brynn change me into crazy colors and stuff." He signs that at her too of course, then looks back to Raquelle. "She's changed our hair and skin colors for years. No bad effects. She does us up camo pattern and stuff when we'd be training and what not. She made me walk around with pink hair for a week once. Brian made her change it back. And all my hair is still here." Another wide smile for Raq.

"Oh her color changes are permanent as far as we know. So people would have to come back in for touch ups as their nails grew out if she did nails for you. But she'd literally just change the colors. It's not like dye or paint at all." Joe perks up at the mention of kids. "Well if you're ever in need of babysitting services remember me. Lance and I are gonna start an actual babysitting service. Like L&J Supreme Babysitters or something like that. I figured we should put all our years experience taking care of the other Lighthouse Kids to use yah know?"

He nods his head as Brynn explains how her power works. "Yeah. That. Not harmful to the hair and what not. Like I said." He winks at Raquelle, then grins and hugs his sister before he looks towards the front of the shop. "Where is Owain with dumplings? I'm hungry. He better not have eaten them all. I'm so going to have to pay ou back for the dumplings though Raquelle. Like a free babysitting night or something. Also you should totally let Brynn make you up a really nice sign outside. Bright the place up a little bit from the outside, bring in more customers."

Eimi lets out a breath. "There was still…" She doesn't finish the sentence, and shakes her head. "Another day," Is the answer, and then the teleporter takes a seat, over out of th way, and the book that Joe retrieved is set in her lap. Raquelle gets a big smile, and she asks, "Can I stay in here and read for a bit?"

With a bag filled to the brim with dumplings and a six year old in tow, Owain returns to the shop with a smile on his face. He can't really bring himself to look fully at Brynn yet, but he does steal a few glances as he delivers the food to the desk. It appears he and Jori were having a conversation in their private language, and he finishes that up once he has both hands free.

Then, he turns to grin at Raquelle. "Food's on, and I threw in a few extra things too." He signs as he speaks, gesturing grandly toward the bags.

"Friends are good to have," SIlvia offers Eimi before she looks to Raquelle. "You're very nice," she comments after a moment or two. "I am only used to M—my father being so kind with no desire for himself. But it makes sense, you are a father too." She was about to say more but then Owain shows up with the food.

"Comida deliciosa!" She moves forward, eagerly waiting for the food to be set out so that she can get some… she's gotten a bit peckish while they were all standing about and talking.

"Hmm, but did you ever consider that somebody might want the freedom to change their hair or nails back on their own terms without needing to wait for you?" Raquelle asks softly. "Its one thing to do it for friends or family who will always be around, and its another to do it for someone who cannot change it back even if they wanted to." No judgement in his voice or tones as he works on giving Caspian his new cut, scisors cutting with precision as he speaks."Jo Jo Binks, go help Rock Steady and his adorable plus one get the dumplings out to everyone if you would please." Then to Eimi. "Of /course/ you can stay darling." And then over to Silvia he just smiels softly and looks back to Caspian and Joe and Brynn. "When I finish with you, you can go and eat gorgeous, okay?" He offers to Caspian and then smiles kindly again to Joe and Brynn. "Next time? I will make some pizza. And you all can help me do more cleaning and decorating. I'm thinking some floor murals would be nice."

Oooh! Floor murals. Brynn looks appropriately chastized by the thought that maybe other people wouldn't WANT to wait for an appointment to change their hair or nails back. Perhaps even a little dejected. But the information that food has arrived perks her up and bit, and she slips over to go help herself to some — food is always a precious commodity.

It's different for Caspian. He's seen Brynn around for the past week, and the speed that the blue went into his hair meant that the blue would come out just as quickly once she laid her hands on it. Besides, there's a thing about someone playing with your hair that's comforting, and the more he can get, the better.

"Thank you, Raquelle" Caspian slips out of the chair when the barbering is complete, studying himself in the mirror mounted on the wall, grinning. He takes a few bills from his hip pocket and tucks them into the tip jar on the counter, giving Raquelle a wink before taking a dumpling for himself and a second for Eimi. Slowly, like one might approach a skittish colt, Caspian draws close enough to offer her a napkin-wrapped dumpling and a smile, taking a seat and flipping to a blank page of his sketchbook and starting to draw. "I'll show you this when I'm done, Brynn. A basic outline of the floor of this place. If you can get some ideas, you could come in every few days and change them. Make the customers want to come in and see what shows up on the floor next."

Joe nods his head to Eimi when she says another day. He's not gonna push her for super personal stuff. Not like he did with Silvia. He may or may not have asked her if her parents have ever accidentally vacuumed her up. But then there is food. Oh god food. That food is going to get destroyed. Joe moves over towards it, snagging himself a few dumplings before darting back out again to let others in there. One gets tossed in his mouth whole and he bites down, then has to start fanning his mouth as steam billows out from the freshly nommed on dumpling. "Hot hot hot." He murmurs around his mouthful of food. He takes breathes in and blows them across the food in his mouth to cool it a little bit, then resumes chewing.

"No you did not just name me after the WORST Star Wars character ever created." He stares deadpan at Raq. DEADPAN. He stares so hard that his eyes are fit to burst, then shrugs his shoulders and goes back to the dumplings. His version of hand them out is to spread them out so everyone can get at the food in the boxes equally and then dance back out of the way in case he loses a hand or something to the ravenous horde of kids in the salon. He also may have snagged a couple more dumplings while he was doing that. He walks over to the shampoo chair and takes a seat in it as he noms slowly on the little dumpling feast that's cradled in his hands, which don't seem to feel the heat at all like his mouth did.

It's okay Brynn. We are used to being around each other all the time. So you could change our hair and skin back whenever. Raquelle does have a point. But I'm pretty sure most of that could be alleviated by making sure the customers understand that they can't just get it changed back. They have to grow it out and cut it off, whether nail or hair if they want to change it back without coming in to see you. Also pretty sure it might mess with Raquelle charging for dyejobs. He'll then promptly nom himself another dumpling, cuz they're good, and he's hungry.

Owain grabs some dumplings for Jori first, making sure she is taken care of first. Then, the metallokinetic helps himself to some as well, a rather contented smile on his face. He's still slow to trust, but he feels like he can at least let his guard down around Joe and Brynn and Raquelle, because he knows that they're the good ones.

A bashful smile is offered to Brynn, and Owain attempts to renew conversation without it being too awkward. Sorry about my sister's rather blunt demeanor. She likes to go out of her way to embarass me. I hope you weren't too embarassed along with me. He glances to the six-year-old, who is too busy messily chowing down on her dumplings to notice that she's being talked about. I think she might have meant well by it, in her own special way.

"Can we make it look like a giant comic book?" Silvia asks of the topic of floor murals. She sounds excited at the possibility, glancing towards Brynn to see if she's as excited as she is. But Caspian's suggestion of changing the floor has her thinking. "What if we made it a comic book, but gigantesco! We could make different pages…" She's certainly thinking about the possibilities.

But there's food. Grabbing a few dumplings, Silvia cradles them like the precious commodity that they are. She looks toward Raquelle. "Muchas gracias!" She offers her thanks in Spanish before looking back to the others. "What's Star Wars?" She asks, and it's very hard to tell if she's trolling Joe or not. She then looks towards Joe as Owain and Brynn seem to be talking in sign. "Oooh, are they flirting?"

"Weee will work something out. I'm sure. Sometimes if we rely too heavily on our powers, we forget the sweetness of doing things a little more manually." Raquelle gives cool dad advice as he is wiping off his hands and starting to clean his supplies. He's got more hair to do, that's for certain but they are eating dumplings right now so he turns to lean against the little shelf in front of the mirror, arms folded over his arms…surveying his calm(er) little domain filled with living and walking and breathing and eating blessings.

Then there is a small nod. "You guys can design new things for my floor…as long as it stays within a specific color scheme and does not have lime green polka dots. I trust you all to do something amazing." Then he's just watching with quiet contentment.

Both her brows shoot upward as she nibbles on a dumpling. Then Brynn pops it into her mouth, looking surprised. You'd really let us do the whole floor? What colors? Lime green with polka dots is only good for punishments, she agrees. Definitely not professional at all. But I bet we could do some really cool tie-ins with the Chinese place next door and bring both of you in more business, she offers Raquelle shyly. But I don't always use my powers for anything… mostly I just do my art and then enhance it some.

Brynn waves to Caspian as he leaves for the next thing he has to do, and then she blushes at Owain. Uhm…. well, I was kind of embarrassed, yes. But she's little… she just says what she thinks. I'm kind of used to that… just not that way, she admits. She looks distinctly uncomfortable again.

"A giant comic book would be pretty cool looking. Not sure it suits to a salon, but it /would/ be pretty primal." Joe pauses, then looks over at Silvia and Brynn. "We should do the walls in Lance's apartment. Like big time." His head bobs a couple of times, affirming his own statement in between bites of dumpling. He almost loses a mouthful of dumpling when Silvia asks him what Star Wars is. He doesn't lose food though, it's not exactly easy to come by out here at the moment. He swallows and coughs a couple of times.

"Please please please tell me you're joking Silvia. And that your parents have not cruelly denied you the awesomeness that is Star Wars. It has whole comic series made off of it and…" His eyes narrow then, not sure if she's messing with him or not. "Are you messing with me? You've gotta be messing with me." His eyes narrow a bit further. He resumes eating his dumplings but with a slow measured pace while he stares at Silvia, waiting for her to betray the fact that she is indeed messing with him.

"Owain is akwardly flirting with my sister yes. And his little sister earlier made it even more awkward. What he doesn't know, is here soon Brynn is gonna turn him a funny shade of something if he doesn't stop embarassing her. And she's gonna leave him that way as punishment. I mean eventually his hair will grow out, or he'll shed the skin cells who's color she has changed but… it'll be a bit." He flashes her a wide grin, eyes flickering over to Owain. That was just as much for him as it was for Silvia. He signs in Brynn's direction too. If you decide to change him into funny colors, make sure it's really grand. He noms his last dumpling before sliding off of the shampoo chair and goes to stand over near Raquelle.

"Thanks for letting us all occupy your place for a bit like this. Not many places people our age can hang out around here anymore. I'm sure with companies and government rebuilding it'll all filter back. But right now there's not a whole lot for us to do but make trouble."

He waves at Caspian as well as the man departs. "Bye Cas!" He calls out to him, then turns his attention back over to Brynn and Owain, a soft chuckle leaving him. "I use my ability all the time, but it's not one I can turn off. I've learned to fight without it though. We've all learned to live without our abilities. Brian's training was thorough. He wanted us to be able to fight our way out of dangerous situations even if negated."

She really does like embarassing me. Owain grins to Brynn, managing to keep himself composed…and then, Silvia and Joe start talking, and while Brynn can't hear, he certainly can. He turns a stone-faced look to the pair, though his cheeks are burning pretty brightly red. Don't change me colors, please, I think my stepmom would kick my ass if I came home with something she couldn't wash off. In exchange, I'll totally get you some coffee, or tea, or whatever beverage you prefer, some time. My treat.

Hey, if he's going to get changed into a weird color, he might as well go all out, right?

Jori is watching at this point, giggling softly as she moves over to snag another dumpling. She likes these, they taste delicious.

"Yes!" Silvia says, excited at the prospect of drawing all over the floor. She's never been given a big opportunity like this before and so she is happy to try it out. But her Star Wars troll is successful and she grins broadly. "Of course I know what Star Wars is. I haven't seen it though." That part she admits sheepishly. "And I did not know that there were comics."

With that revealed, she chomps down on a dumpling, looking to be in heaven as she eats it, shooting Raquelle a big thank-you look. "I can't tell what they're saying, Joe," she admits. "Please caption it for me. You can make up all the words if you want." She suddenly grins and bites down into another dumpling and grabs for a juice box.

Arms unfold and Raquelle pushes off of the shelf with a small nod as he points to each person, making sure to make eye contact with them when he can, then he carefully signs as he speaks. "3 rules for the shop. No cutting anything but hair with the hair scissors. No blowing anything up. And last but not least." And he makes sure he slows down here. "Absolutely /no/ playing spin the bottle with the shampoo bottles or whatever it is you mostly grown ass children get up to these days." A pause. "And if you see a mexican hobbit walk in, please do not ask him the way to mordor, just…do not."

Then the hairstylist is stretching and nodding as he strides forward to select a juice box, lifting it in a mock toast. "To new friends?"

Joe is wounded, sorely and truly wounded when Silvia says she hasn't seen Star Wars. He signs it at Brynn to make sure she knows of this travesty. Then stares at Silvia again before he lifts a hand up and drags his palm down across his face. "I don't have any copies with me or I would totally bring you to Lance's place to watch them right now. Our copies are back in Canada at the safehouse. Bah. Now I need to find some copies of star wars, and a player. I wonder if I can buy them digitally. I bet they're pricey but damnit it would be worth it. You have to see it. And yes there are comics. A few different series actually. Actually more than a few, a whole bunch." Joe ohs and laughs. "Uhhh Brynn is super embarassed because the only boys she's been around for a long time were boys she grew up in the same house with. IE we're like sibligns. And Owain is flirting with her and it's embarassing her. He's also begging her not to make him funny colors." Joe signs to Brynn what is going on, then walks over and grabs a juice box too and lifts it in toast with Raquelle. "To new friends."


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