"How did I get myself into this?" Clover lamented, pacing back and forth across her hut.
"You lost and arm wrestling match with a ginormous tentacle beast." Crimson drawled, taking an assortment of little pots and brushes out of her bag, and setting them out on the table.
"You're a dirty rotten cheater, using a giant space tentacle as a stand in." Clover complained.
"And you're a sore loser." Crimson retorted. "I gave you the chance to find your own stand in. It's not my fault you thought you could take the tentacle."
"I nearly had him, I was this close!" Clover held up her hand, thumb and forefinger a millimetre apart.
"Hmm?" Crimson looked into her sister's eyes, one brow cynically raised.
Clover's gaze slid to the side, and she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.
"I mean, maybe not, you know, exactly that close, but…but not far off, you hear?"
"Whatever you say, Sister girl, but a loss is a loss, and you promised to do whatever I wanted." Crimson pulled a satin pink dress out of her bag and shook it out, smirking as she held it up to Clover.
"Ah ha, I said anything as long as it doesn't threaten the security of the kingdom." Clover corrected. "And I can't protect the kingdom tied up in…what-ever that is." She poked the shiny pin fabric with distaste.
"It's a dress, obviously, and this is your day off. No one is expecting you to protect the kingdom either way." Crimson forcefully pulled the dress over Clover's head.
"But what if there's an emergency? Like if Koto comes back as a zombie, or…or-"
Crimson put one finger over Clover's lips to shush her.
"Is it really going to kill you to spend one day with me, doing the things I like? I know we've had our differences in the past, but I've really turned things around recently. Can't you give me a chance?" Crimson asked entreatingly.
"Well, you did sort of take King Julien prisoner and threaten to feed him to the tentacle quite recently, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to spend a day catching up." Clover acquiesced.
"Fabulous, now lets's have some fun." Crimson said, a mischievous glint in her eye.
Clover waited, face screwed up with tension.
"What are you doing?" Crimson asked.
Clover opened her eyes again and looked around uncertainly. "Oh, I just thought we might cut to a montage there or something."
"What are you talking about?"
Clover sighed, pulling her arm through the pink dress. For some reason it only had one strap. "Never mind, guess we have to do it the long way."
Crimson turned Clover around, so that she could do up the zip on the form fitting garment. "You do say the strangest things sometimes. There, perfect fit."
"Are you sure? I feel like it'll tear if I flex a single muscle." Clover said doubtfully.
"No flexing!" Crimson said sternly. "It's my favourite dress, so don't you dare ruin it. Now sit down so I can do your make-up." She propelled Clover into a chair next to the table. Opening one of the little pots Crimson dipped her finger in and stared smoothing the creamy substance around Clover's face.
"That actually smells quite nice." Clover commented. "All done?" she added hopefully, as Crimson put the lid back on the little pot.
"No, silly, that was just the primer. Next we put on the foundation." Crimson held up a stick of orangey red stuff.
"But that's the same colour my fur is anyway," Clover objected.
"Obviously. A good foundation should be invisible."
"But then what's the point of it?" Clover asked, feeling thoroughly bewildered.
"We're covering up all those nasty glare lines you're developing." Crimson mercilessly applied the cream foundation, and began rubbing it in with a sponge.
"I don't have glare lines." Clover objected.
"Well not now you don't." Crimson used a large fluffy pad to dust fine powder all over the top of the foundation. Clover sneezed as some of the powder drifted up her nose.
"What's even in this stuff? How do I know it's safe?" Clover complained.
"Oh I only use high quality products. You needn't worry, it's been tested on humans you know." Crimson picked up a large fluffy brush, and started applying blusher over the top of the setting powder.
"How much gunk are you going to put on my face?" Clover said, as Crimson applied a dark beauty spot to her cheek.
Crimson held Clover by the chin, turning her face this way and that to inspect her work.
"Just eyes and lips to go. Now close your eyes and stay very still."
Clover fidgeted but obeyed. Crimson used a tiny spong on a stick to apply dark pink powder to Clover's eyelids, followed by a delicate painting of liquid eyeliner at the base of her lashes.
"You can open them now."
Clover opened her eyes to see Crimson holding some sort of small metal torture device.
"I knew this was a trap!" Clover swung herself over the back of the chair and picked it up to use as a weapon.
"They're eyelash curlers." Crimson said, rolling her own eyes at her sister's overreaction. "See?" She demonstrated on herself.
Clover gingerly sat back in the chair. It took a few tries because she was flinching so much, but eventually Crimson managed to maneuver the curlers onto Clover's lashes and squeeze them closed.
"Thank Frank that's over." Clover whimpered, as the dreaded curlers went back into the bag.
"Oh don't be such a baby. I thought you were tougher than that." Crimson taunted, opening the eyeliner again. "Now keep your eyes open and look up."
Clover just about managed not to blink as the eyeliner brush swept along the bottom rim of her eyes. Next came a little spiky brush on a stick, which Crimson rolled over Clover's eyelashes. The lipstick at least, applied with a tiny little paint brush, was easy by comparison.
"Surely that's everything now?" Clover asked, as Crimson packed the dreaded make up away.
"Very nearly." Crimson pulled a leather case out of her bag and opened it to reveal a string of pearls, which she fastened around Clover's neck.
Next to be produced was a large needle.
"Now just hold still while I pierce your ears," Crimson instructed.
"No way." Clover said firmly.
Crimson rolled her eyes but put the need away. "Fine, you can wear clip-ons I suppose."
"That's more like it, clip-ons shouldn't be so ba-yow!" Clover yelped as the first gold hoop snapped shut on her earlobe.
"Oh, did you think they wouldn't hurt? No, these are actually much more painful than wearing proper earrings." Crimson mercilessly clipped the second hoop into place.
"I'll have to remember these next time I'm conducting interrogations." Clover said, wincing.
"Here, take a look." Crimson held up a mirror for Clover to see her finished transformation.
"Oh," Clover said, slightly at a loss for words. She looked…stunning. Just as pretty as Crimson, wait, exactly like Crimson…
"I hate it." Clover scowled.
Crimson smirked and pulled Clover out of the chair. "Come on, Clo-Clo, I can't wait to show off my handiwork."
Clover sighed and allowed herself to be led outside. Whatever awful things Crimson had planned it was probably best to just get them out of the way.