"You know, I was kind of hoping I'd lose the bet," Jim hummed, looking up at Claire. She ran her gloved hands along his hair and gave a snort.
Jim took a long breath, ignoring the toxic smell of the bleach being rubbed on his hair, and then asked, "so, what color did you decide on?"
"Toby suggested yellow…" she let that hang in the air for a moment, letting Jim look pained, before continuing, "But I didn't want to be too cruel, so you get this nice blue."
Jim gave a sigh of relief as Claire dangled the cyan over him.
"I figured it would look better with your armor and turtleneck than yellow. Toby bought a bottle of it anyways, he would be crushed that you didn't use it instead," Claire mocked.
"Well, I guess he'll just have to deal with that loss, then."
XxX
"Aw, Jimbo! You didn't go banana for me!" Toby whined, examining his new blue streak.
"No, sorry Tobes," Jim laughed, giving his friend a playful nudge as they entered Trollmarket.
"Master Jim," Blinky greeted, and then seemed to freeze over, six eyes blinking in surprise. Before Jim knew it, four hands were rummaging through his hair and inspecting the blue streak. "You've changed!" He glanced over at Claire. "Is this something humans do when they are maturing? I was not aware of this."
"No, no," Claire laughed, halting Blinky's beeline to the books. "It's just dye."
Blinky merely looked confused.
"Like painting your hair! To… look nice. Or cool," Jim explained, then motioned to the troll's carvings. "Sort of like these," he compared, deciding to leave out that the carvings were closer to tattoos. They could confuse Blinky with that knowledge later… Jim was briefly distracted in imagining what the troll would say upon learning humans painted their skin by sticking needles into it.
"Oh! I see. Fascinating! Why did you decide to paint your hair, Master Jim?"
"I lost a bet," he huffed, maintaining a good natured smile.
"He was supposed to go yellow!" Toby complained, shaking a box of obnoxious yellow around, and then pausing as though an idea hit him. "Blinky, how would you feel about yellow?"
"It could work on troll hair, and yellow might actually look nice on Blinky," Claire hummed.
"It's only temporary!" Toby added.
All four of Blinky's hands met one another in an odd pound of determination. "Let's do it."
XxX
Naturally, AAARRRGGHH! noticed Blinky's hair first, clasping it delicately in his huge hands before yanking Blinky forward to take a huge sniff.
"Smells like… poison," he said harshly, snorting heavily as though it could be removed from his nose easily.
"It's hair paint! Isn't it glorious?" Blinky asked, using his many hands to frame the diagonal yellow streaks on each side of his scruffy hair.
"Want some?" Toby asked his wingman, shaking a bottle of bleach tantalizingly.
XxX
Draal walked in on the gang to see them perched upon AAARRRGGHH!'s back, delicately applying bleach to the tips of his mossy green hair, painting right above his horns. Blinky painted a messy streak down his friends chest.
"Smells bad," AAARRRGGHH! complained with a shuffle that rocked Jim and Claire, nearly tossing the pair off his back.
"Just remember, it'll look good," reminded Toby.
"Like Blinky," AAARRRGGHH! hummed contendly, settling down once more and allowing the trio to bleach his hair as Toby rambled about how great it would look and fed him VHS tapes.
"What is going on here?" Draal exclaimed.
"We're dying hair!" Toby said joyously, pointing to his own bleached streak. Remembering the trolls' confusion at the foreign concept, he added, "it's like painting it."
"Does it have any advantages?"
"You look nice, I guess," Jim answered Draal's gruff question from atop AAARRRGGHH!'s back.
"Intimidation, maybe?" Toby chipped in.
"I would like to partake in this strange human tradition," Draal decided. He didn't want to say it was for the bonding or fun they were all having.
Not at all.
It certainly was for the intimidation.
XxX
Draal's lack of hair presented a bit of a challenge, but Claire quickly adapted by opening a dark portal and bringing over a variety of cool-colored paints- purple, blue green… all the colors that would look perfect on Draal's rocky blue skin.
With a large thump, Draal plopped down, and Jim and Claire got to work.
Toby and Blinky finished bleaching AAARRRGGHH!'s mass of hair during this. The streak down AAARRRGGHH!'s chest had become a vibrant bright green, and Blinky was quite proud.
Claire and Jim each took one side of Draal's horns, painting swirling rings across them in shifting cold colors.
Jim lay his hand on Draal's metal prosthetic as Claire continued brushing his horns in swirls. They met eyes, and Draal gave a swift nod.
Jim filled in the indentations of the fake arm with the paint. He stuck mostly to blue, allowing green and purple to wander in the occasional indentation.
XxX
When it was over they certainly were an odd looking bunch, gaining the eyes of many a troll.
Surprisingly though, paint and dye like substances became popular products sold and worn in Trollmarket.
Eugh that ending is abrupt… ah well. Whatever.
This was mostly meant as light hearted dialogue practice, and a break from my larger fic.
I might draw a pic to go with it.
I have a tumblr: sylph-bird-63