Post by Ryan D'Alteau on Aug 31, 2013 22:27:29 GMT -5
"Wash your face first, please." Over in the corner of the powder room - or whatever the hell they called places like this - Ryan could see his fiancée sitting down beside one of the vanity desks, having pulled up an extra seat in order to assist him once he was free to come over. Ryan usually hated those things. In order to give the user the clearest possible view of the canvas to which they'd be applying their make-up - their faces - the mirror was surrounded with lights which, although pointing straight ahead, simply served to irritate him. The moment he tilted his head, his eyes were stung with a barrage of searing light. He wasn't sure how Adele coped. "I'd like to start with a clean slate."
"There's a few other things I'd like t'do, too." It was mostly an off-handed comment; one which didn't really mean all that much. After all, Ryan and Adele had sex quite often and, when they weren't lying in bed or shoving each other up against a wall, they were quietly expressing their desire in private. Deciding to let Adele win when it came to his make-up, he grabbed a few paper towels and, after dousing them in water, began to wash off his own effort. It had done the job for the most part but, as ever, his fiancée thought she could do better. With only the two of them being inside the room, Ryan had reverted back to his normal voice, ready to shift back again if he heard the door open behind him. Although Helena and Felicia now knew who he really was, he was intent on keeping the secret from the other hundred or so people that remained.
"Sit down." Gesturing to the still vacant seat, she waited until her fiancé had sat himself down before returning her attention to the array of brushes, powders and everything else both she and the vanity were about to provide. Normally, even when he did it and, from the opinions of Felicia and, to a lesser extent, Adele, made a mess of it, the application of make-up was a peaceful, almost therapeutic activity; one which just so happened to be able to hide most of his harsher masculine features in amongst whatever he chose to wear at the time. To his chagrin, however, Adele decided that the first thing to do would be to take a set of tweezers to his face, getting rid of any hairs he'd missed while shaving and reshaping his eyebrows by plucking them out until she was satisfied.
"Hey..!" Having their hairs pulled out was one of a man's weaknesses and, just like the time Adele had seen fit to try waxing him, he wasn't taking this with his usual grace. "D'ya mind?! My eyebrows're fine!" They weren't, being far too bushy and thick for Ensign Candi to be seen dead with, but sometimes, all he wanted was for something to be over. By the time she'd finished, the stray hairs were just about gone and the curve of his eyebrows had been emphasised to a decent extent without overdoing it. Next on the agenda was the liquid foundation. With their skin tones being pretty much identical, the doctor saw no harm in using the same liquid she'd used on herself earlier in the evening on her fiancé and, after the irritation that torn hairs had caused, the soothing cold of the foundation was a welcome change.
Compared to the amount of work it had taken him to get himself ready, Ryan was slightly jealous at how easy Adele was making everything look. Everything was applied just so and, before his very eyes, a perfect shell of make-up was appearing on his face. "Pay attention." Once the foundation was in place, covering up whatever blemishes she could find, Adele's next task was to apply a concealing powder to hide the fact the foundation was even there. By doing so, she would equalise the look of her fiancé's face, helping to make it look as flawless as possible, ready for anything else she thought was worth adding. After telling him to close his eyes, the powder-covered bristles began to dance across Ryan's face and the front of his neck.
"You don't need to wear thick layers of make-up," she advised, switching one powder brush for a smaller one; this one covered in a pale, reddish powder. With it, she gently applied a thin layer to the contours of his cheekbone, returning the natural blush which had been hidden by replacing it with a fake copy. "It should really only be used to accent the features you were born with."
"Well, that's what I was tryin' t'do." Without Felicia and Adele ever seeing what he looked like when he ventured outside as Calla, it was only now - eight months after he started - that Adele had finally been able to help rectify his mistakes. Ryan had been silently taking pointers on how to apply a decent set of make-up whenever they went out by watching her and hiding it beneath being an affectionate fiancé but, when all was said and done, nothing seemed to beat first-hand experience or actual tuition from an expert in the field. At her command, Ryan tilted his head up and held his eyes open as Adele began to apply make-up to the area around his eyes.
"I just 'aven't needed much make-up for work so, uh... yeah." Damn it, why was it still so hard to talk to Adele about this? He was meant to be able to tell her anything that was on his mind without fear of being punished for it. It was what had got them through so much already and, when the time came, it would also be what would form the foundation of a happy marriage. "I'm still out o'practice. Sue me."
"Now close your eyes."
With each command, Adele was able to apply yet more make-up to her fiancé's face and, with a swipe of her finger, the pearlescent green powder finished off the layered effect of the eyeshadow; far more complex and convincing than he had been able to do alone. "There." And, with the hard part done, all that remained was for his lips to get the same treatment. Unlike the deep red shade he had chosen back in the dressing room, the lettering on the midsection of the tube Adele had brought with her told him that the lipstick she was going to use was called sea coral; a soft shade of pink that simply punctuated the natural colour of the wearer's lips rather than outright alter them. "Now you can really knock them dead."
"Y'do know I only have eyes for you, right?" For anyone but Adele, his flirting - if it could ever be called such - was little more than an act; a way for his act as Calla or Ensign Candi or whatever the fuck else Maurelle insist he call himself to appear more convincing. "Speakin' of which..." Pushing up from the chair, Ryan reared himself to his full height once more; a full six feet and six inches thanks to the heels on his boots and waited for his fiancée to follow suit. With a smirk on his face, his voice effortlessly shifted to the one he'd been using earlier; a quirk granted to him as a side-effect of Sophie's biokinetic meddling. "...what would the other doctors think if one of 'em came in and found you here with me..?"
The kiss gave him his answer. "You're so beautiful." It didn't matter. She was still Adele Couteau. If someone did come in here, she likely wouldn't have cared. "I love you."
"I love you, too." Now this was weird. Acting all loving and affectionate to Adele with his Calla voice wasn't something he'd really done until now. Sure, she'd heard it before, but it had only been a demonstration. Now, though... it was a part of him. It wasn't going to go away, just like the things about himself he'd been taught by Sophie. "Now... we'd better get out of here before I get the urge to abandon the party and lock us up somewhere private..." Returning the kiss, Ryan quickly broke away and headed out of the powder room. Not wanting to give anyone who might have been nearby the wrong idea and risk damaging Adele's reputation, he made an effort to leave the room first and leave as much of a gap between their departures as possible. As soon as he found himself in the main hall, he immediately got back to work, mingling with the guests and ensuring that, for now at least, he stayed away from Felicia.