Pre-Montage Panic (TAG)

[Tayla Smith]

Tayla surveyed the purchases she made earlier that day. She was intimidated by the mountain she’d bought. She’d deal with the credit card bill later, right now the items themselves were terrifying. She’d never done anything like this. She’d never been interested in it, didn’t see any reason for it.

But now there was a guy. Now she had a reason. And she had no idea what to do. She needed help. A guide. A teacher. And the person that would have normally taught her, her mother, was in another universe and dead to boot.

But.

She had a roommate.

Her roommate knew this stuff, if her face was anything to go off of.

That settled it. Before she could panic or be overwhelmed any further, she grabbed four of the plastic bags and made her way out of her room and towards Felicity’s. Tayla pounded on the door twice before not even waiting to get a response and just kicking it open.

“I NEED YOUR HELP I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THE PRETTY AND THE THING WITH THE FACE AND THE MAKEUP AND—“ she dumped the bags on Felicity’s bed, causing a virtual waterfall of cosmetic products. Foundation of all shades, blush, eyeliner, lipstick, mascara, of all different brands and colors. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING I JUST BOUGHT ONE OF EVERYTHING AND WHY—“ she snatched up an eyelash curler from the pile, “—ARE THEY SELLING TORTURE DEVICES IN THE MAKEUP AISLE??”

Tayla just panted, trying not to panic over this more than she already was. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “Please help me. I... I actually have a date and I want to look pretty and I’ve never really saw a reason for dressing up and wearing makeup to look pretty but now I do and I don’t know how to do it so I just bought one of everything thinking I’d figure it out and now I’m just overwhelmed and...”

She cut herself off, focusing on breathing again. She clasped her hands together, eyelash curler still held in them, and looked at Felicity pleadingly. “Please?”

@chance

[Deleted]

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I'LL TELL YOU THE TRUTH

but never goodbye

Felicity had been sleeping. It was early afternoon. Suddenly she was being woken up by knocking on the door and Tayla just coming in and dumping make-up on her and panicking. Felicity did understand the sentiment. Tayla didn't really have anyone else to turn to, and Felicity DID know her stuff. She just sort of wish she'd been warned. And... "Tayla, that's an eyelash curler." It was said in a sleepy groan and she looked up from under her blanket, her hair a total mess. She was completely make-up free, and it was suddenly very apparent that while Felicity knew her way around make-up, she didn't really HAVE to use it to be what society called drop dead gorgeous. She grinned slightly. "Alright. You likely didn't need to buy this much, keep your receipt we might be able to return unopened products. If you had let me know ahead of time we could have gone together and I could have helped you match your foundation in the store." She was somewhat amused that Tayla, someone who'd gone through actual torture, thought an eyelash curler was a valid torture device. She looked through the pile of stuff and her eyes lit up. "Oooh you bought Fenty. Lovely. Good stuff, that." She sat up in bed and ran her fingers through her hair to calm it down a bit. She was waking up slowly. "Tayla if we're going to do this I need coffee stat. And to actually get dressed." ✉ Tayla Smith

@charactername

MELUSINE

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[Tayla Smith]

“Thank you thank you thank you!”

Tayla looked down at the eyelash curler still clutched in her hands.
“...seriously this looks like something they used to pry my eyelids open or something.” She tossed it back onto the pile.

“I’ll make coffee. And yeah I grabbed that brand specifically because the model looked kinda like you I thought. Also, what’s a “receipt?””

Without waiting for a reply she rushed out, leaving the pile of cosmetics on Felicity’s bed, and threw coffee on to brew. Then she grabbed the other six bags from her bedroom and brought them out to the dining room table, and began to organize them by what she thought they were. Some were easy, these ones said they were foundation, these ones said mascara, whatever the hell both of those things were, but others just had the brand name and not really much else on the packaging, so she just guessed.

“Felicity thank you so much, I don’t have any idea what I’m doing with this. I just... I never wanted to before but now I met a guy and he’s super sweet and I want to make a better impression on this date than I did when he stopped by earlier.”

@chance

[Deleted]

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I'LL TELL YOU THE TRUTH

but never goodbye

Felicity laughed on hearing Tayla talk about how she was pretty sure it was a torture device after all.  She shrugged. "There's no need to curl your eyelashes.  We'll leave it alone.  Personally I hate the thing too."  She heard the bit about making coffee and she grinned.  Thank goodness she was going to need it.  She felt happy that Felicity had been on her mind when picking make-up honestly.  Being a friend that her friends could depend on?  That was kinda a new sensation to Felicity.  She saw Tayla leave and Felicity dressed herself in some black leggings and a beige cardigan and t-shirt.  Casual and comfy.  She moved out to the dining room and saw all the bags. "Goodness you are not going to need that much stuff.  And a receipt is the paper the cashier gives you after ringing up all your stuff.  If you keep it, you can bring things back to the store if they don't work, depending on the return policy."  She heard the thank you from Tayla and smiled. "It's no big deal.  I've been doing it for awhile.  Little bits here and there.  Honestly you probably don't need too much.  Make-up is about enhancing what you already have.  It's sort of an art form.  I'm glad you met a guy who makes you feel like you have butterflies though.  Just remember that if he's a good dude, he'll care about what you're actually like, and not make-up or the impression you try to put on."  She'd been taught all of that by her parents, and who better to learn from?  They were the definition of a happy wholesome couple after all. ✉ NOTES GO HERE.

Tayla Smith

MELUSINE

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[Tayla Smith]

"...they don't have that back in my universe. You buy stuff, there's no piece of paper. You just get the stuff. Sometimes they email you I guess that "Hey thanks for buying the thing" but there's no paper thing they give. I might still have it. I also bought a corn dog though so I might have wrapped the stick in it before throwing it away. I'll figure it out. I'm rambling. Shit. Sorry. I'm just..."

Tayla sighed and sat down in a chair at the table. "He's just... just really sweet. And he was already sweet and accepting and caring when he was here earlier, and I was a fucking mess. I locked my keys inside and so Grace thought I was a burglar or something and jumped me and he showed up because he was sent by Aegis to check up on me and took care of her and then I invited him in for dinner and he said yes and then I accidentally stabbed my leg and he helped me take care of that and get the EMTs here and right don't look under the coffee table I moved it for a reason I haven't figured out how to get the stain out of the carpet in there yet. But yeah then he made tea and finished dinner and listened to all my bullshit and he just didn't care he just spent time with me and was super sweet and... I think he deserves to see me actually put in some effort to look nice for him."

She took a deep breath. She was shaking a little bit. She had never had anything like this before. Never had a boyfriend, never actually really had just a regular friend. She didn't know how to make it all work, and if the things she was trying would actually be good. It's why she was rambling and talking so much. If she was talking, she could control at least what she was saying, and explaining things calmed her down.

"I just want to look nice when I go out with Miguel and I don't know how. I never wanted to know how all this worked before. The quantum particles I was messing with didn't care if I had..." she picked up a random bottle off the table, "'bronzer?' on or not. They just did the things that science said they would do and I made it do useful things. This... hell. Relationships in general, I'm not good at."

@chance