2023-07-18: A Young Woman's 'Subtle Hand'
- Log: A Young Woman's 'Subtle Hand'
- Cast: Ruri Hoshino, Sheryl Nome
- Where: The Nadesico - In Transit
- Date: 2023-07-18
- Summary: The Nadesico offers Sheryl a little extra security ferrying her around, and in turn, Sheryl helps their littlest Operator with a veritable emergency -- because Ruri doesn't know how to apply makeup!
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri Hoshino, now fourteen years old, has a problem.
...
She's never put on make-up before?!
As Sheryl's surely heard, it was a lucky thing that her flight was delayed, because Ruri's birthday was a battlesite before she arrived. Thanks to Ranka's singing and Alto and the others' defence, though, she was safely rescued from the kaiju who kidnapped her. Since then, she's been slowly getting back to it, but...
"Ruri-Ruri, what's the matter?" Minato Haruka asks, looking over the way to Ruri, at her station.
"Nothing," Ruri says, with a bit (a lot) too much blue over her eyes.
"Ayaa... is that really so?" Minato wonders, tilting her head and tapping a finger to her lip.
"Really, it's nothing," Ruri says, feeling like a clown.
"Hey," Megumi Reinard says, knowing a thing or two about not being able to put on makeup as well as a professional team herself, "it looks like we're due to give Sheryl-chan a lift!"
"Maintaining sensor sweep," Ruri says, ever-minded towards the security of their VIP.
But once Sheryl is on board, well...
< SOS ! >
A message pops up for Sheryl, courtesy Omoikane, calling her to the Space Baths.
And there's Ruri -- still in her operations uniform, she's not actually here to take a bath. She's using one of the big mirrors here, instead, to try and conquer the horrific force of... using her compact. Looking from the big mirror to the little mirror, she frowns, at the image of her face.
"I looked it up," she says, with mild despair, "but it still doesn't make any sense..."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl did hear that! It was one of the first things she heard when she disembarked. The outside of the Nadesico was kind of a mess, after all. She still isn't sure if she should be sorry or glad she missed it. She did miss it, though, so c'est la vie. At least she didn't miss the party, and that's what really counts. Along with Ruri's safety, of course.
The next time she comes by the Nadesico, it's to do a little travel. It's not Sheryl's personal spaceship, and she knows that, and it's not like this kind of transport is as necessary as usual while she's on her hiatus, but it is convenient in a lot of ways. Besides, she likes the captain and crew.
The moment she comes aboard, there's that message from Omoikane. She's got one of her private-life outfits on: a waistless, sleeveless periwinkle dress with white shoulder straps that drapes down just above her knees. A headband over her bangs and under her hair matches it, as do her white, heeled ankle boots with periwinkle bows on the side. She blinks, lifting her shades and resting them atop her headband.
"Hold my calls," she tells Grace, wholly unnecessarily, and strides off to the Space Baths.
When she arrives, she isn't really expecting an emergency. When she sees Ruri's face, she understands all at once it is every bit an emergency. She comes to a stop; then, after a second or two to collect herself, she walks on over to Ruri where she sits in front of the mirror and leans over next to her.
"Having some trouble?" she suggests, not unkindly, as she seats herself next to her and folds her legs. "I'm guessing you've never applied make-up before, hm?"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
It's a veritable emergency of considerable urgency! A young woman is lost--!!
Sheryl, of course, seems to effortlessly look good; it's not something Ruri's ever really had to worry about, because, well, check the uniform? The amount of times Ruri's called on to dress casually are... well, not quite count-on-her-hands rare, but pretty uncommon.
(Makeup isn't really professional to wear on the job, either, but that doesn't stop some of the women on board from slipping a bit on. Or a few of the men! Makeup is for everyone!)
"Ah -- Ms. Nome," Ruri turns and says, with a bit of a stutter-stop, as if she's not entirely sure what the correct amount of remove for her name is. Her hand holding the compact lowers, a little, as she looks down at it. "No..."
She sighs, tapping the brush to the side of the compact. "I understand the theory," she insists. "The pH level of human skin needs a certain environment in order to avoid skin breaks or infection. Blue is a complimentary colour to yellow, too. That's colour theory. I read all about it... but even though I did all that, this looks so weird. I don't get it."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
That's the trick, isn't it? Looking good while looking like you barely even tried. Beauty is a matter of constant effort, though, and anyone who thinks otherwise has never devoted themselves to it.
"You don't need to be that formal, Ruri," Sheryl tells her graciously; if she were Japanese, or speaking Japanese, that would be a Ruri-chan. But she's not, so it's just Ruri. She nods as Ruri talks about the research she's done.
And, frankly, Ruri does look pretty bad. However, Sheryl just says, "Some things you have to figure out through actually doing it instead of reading about it. For now, how about you wash your face off and start over? I'll give you some pointers," Sheryl tells her. A beat, and she remembers to say, "Oh, make sure to use those makeup remover wipes I gave you first!" (They came with the trial make-up kit.)
After removing the make-up, she'll have to wash her face thoroughly, too. But having a clean face is the literal foundation of proper make-up application, so it's all important.
"The first thing about make-up is that unless you're going for a specific look, you want to keep a light hand," Sheryl says as Ruri does so. "You did what a lot of beginners do, which is use too much. That's why you looked weird."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri isn't speaking Japanese to match, but she still confirms: "All right... Sheryl-san." She's bilingual, you see, and the distance which those honourifics affords her helps her to get a little closer anyway.
"Mm... okay," she agrees, momentarily, with a little hum through her lips as she suppresses the urge to call anything she can't learn through theoretical research foolish. "I remember," she nods, and thanks to that theoretical research, she might even know why she's supposed to use them!
Thankfully, there is, in fact, a basin. Wipe wipe, scrub scrub...
Ruri's face doesn't literally sparkle when her portrait pops back up, but it's easy to imagine it doing so. (It's even possible, though not under these circumstances. ... and no one's told her about the glowing, yet, so...) She looks at Sheryl through the mirror, before she scrutinises her face. "A light hand?" She asks, head tilting just so. "I see... I thought it would be pointless if no one could tell." She doesn't have confidence in the power of makeup.
"Um... okay. Lightly..." She baps her makeup brush into the blush, and lightly paps that against her cheeks. "... like this?"
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
A good thing she doesn't, because the true foolishness is dismissing anything you can't immediately grasp using the methods you're used to using! ...Though Sheryl isn't exactly a brainiac herself. She leaves the high-level concept stuff to people suited to it. Professionals know when to leave a task to other professionals.
"Good!" Sheryl declares. She waits for Ruri to wash up and reset. Once she's dried up, she nods her on. Normally she'd tell Ruri that the next step after washing her face is applying foundation... but one step at a time. Ruri's skin is quite clear anyway, so she's fine.
"That's right," Sheryl tells her with an approving nod. "And don't worry--people will tell. Even if they don't realize they can tell." Sheryl winks, smiling. "A really good make-up artist will have you believing a painting could be a real human face." She picks up the lip gloss and offers it to Ruri. "For this--you want to just line one of your lips, then press them together and get both that way. If you put it on both lips, it'll end up too thick."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri's skin is, in fact, strikingly clear. If it were possible to have perfect skin, Ruri would have it -- in all its starkly pale glory. She's in the top percentile, born under a lucky star...
... for some reason.
"So it's subconscious..?" Ruri tries to puzzle it out, as she puts down the blush brush before she hurts herself. Subtlety!! She takes the lip gloss Sheryl offers her, and leaaaans in closer to the mirror to c a r e f u l l y line her top lip with the cute pink gloss.
Mwa--!
Ruri blinks, as she stares at her reflection. "Oh, so that's what Minato-san does..." She realises, with light surprise. "That's what you meant, right? How it isn't obvious?"
She tilts her head, and wonders: "I guess that's the kind of philosophy Megumi-san uses to attack, too... since when she's fighting, it's not really clear that she's fighting. Is that part of being a woman, Sheryl-san?" That SURE IS A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION ABOUT MAKEUP.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Maybe that's why her name is Hoshino?
"Mhm! People pick up on it without realizing it," Sheryl says with confidence. "It's something you'll notice over time. People react to you differently when you're wearing 'natural' make-up versus no make-up at all. I'm still gorgeous either way," and here she flips her hair, "but make-up highlights the charms you have already, so I absolutely get even more compliments then."
Ruri applies the lip gloss as she instructs; when she's done, Sheryl gives her another approving nod. "Exactly it! It helps that you already have such pretty 'big sisters' to model yourself after," she replies with a wink. She even doesn't mean just herself--there's also Minato, as Ruri just mentioned. "That's right."
Megumi... Sheryl doesn't know her well, but she remembers there's some kind of love triangle going on between her, Captain Yurika, and that one plain-looking guy who can't decide if he's a cook or a pilot. Not Sheryl's type, but she's not going to criticize other women's taste. She absolutely knows what Ruri's talking about, though, despite not knowing Megumi well, and she chuckles.
"Absolutely. You've got a stronger grasp of these things than I would've guessed, considering you don't seem all that interested in romance," she replies. She leans in close enough to bump her shoulder into Ruri's and teases, "Or is there a special someone in your life I don't know about~?"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"How foolish," Ruri reflects, with no real malice. "Is that what Minato-san means when she says that the standards for 'cleaning up' are so much different...?"
The rant which Minato laid into has been mercifully excised from the text, witnessed only by implication.
She nods, when Sheryl mentions her role models. "One day I'll catch up," she insists, and insists it to Big Sis Sheryl, because the key difference between her and Minato is...
Minato is Already An Adult! Sheryl is an Older Teenager. One of those is way more achievable to reach than the other, never mind how one of those people is an office lady turned helmswoman and one is an interplanetary super-star. It's important to have measurable and achievable goals in life.
Ruri blinks, though, when Sheryl's tone turns teasing. "Don't be a fool," she chastises her, mildly. "I'm not interested in anything like that right now. But since it's all anyone on the Nadesico can think about, I've gotten good at observing it. You see, if I know what the Captain and Megumi-san are doing to each other now, I can guess at the disruptions to our workflow much better."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"Probably," Sheryl says, some knowing sympathy entering her tone. She doesn't mind taking advantage of sexism with her overflowing charm and beauty, but it's definitely a thing that she's noticed. Just look at Alto: he's also naturally gorgeous, but he wastes it with his absolute refusal to pay attention to fashion 90% of the time. Maybe that's him pushing back against his onnayaku kabuki upbringing, but still!
She giggles, though, as Ruri declares she'll catch up one day. "I know you will," she replies, eyes sparkling. She's so cute...!
And maybe Ruri has no interest in being an interplanetary super-star, but she might just release a few songs of her own someday. When that happens, she's sure to be someone's number one.
"Oh? Is it really that foolish?" Sheryl says, smirking. "You won't think so when Cupid's arrow strikes your heart someday~." That said, it makes sense to her that Ruri's experience is second-hand. There is a lot of romantic drama on the Nadesico, isn't there? If one counts herself, Alto, and Ranka has secondary crew, there's a whole other love triangle going on...
Sheryl looks away momentarily with a wistful, wan smile at the thought. With a shake of her head, she runs a hand through her hair. "That makes sense. It sounds more like you, too," she says with a new, drier smile. "Do you have any interest in romance? If you don't, it must be awfully tiring to be on this ship."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Wouldn't that be grand? Being number one...!! She looks pleased when Sheryl giggles, anyway -- as pleased as Ruri tends to look, in any case. She's never been very emotive. Maybe that's why her skin's so good? It's never been creased by a deep, deep frown...
"Very foolish," Ruri nods, sagely, as her hand hovers over the eyeshadow brush. That accursed blue foe which made her look so outrageous...!! "I definitely won't be this much of a fool about it." She sounds so confident! Is this the foolhardiness of youth?!
She pauses, though, when Sheryl asks. "Hmm..." She starts, thinking seriously about it. "I think so," she decides, after a moment. "I kind of..." Got a puppy crush on Sheryl after hearing her sing? Oh, no, Ruri definitely isn't going to say something as embarrassing as THAT. Imagine having butterflies over Sheryl! That's the most foolish thing of all. Now she knows her better, she has no clue what she was thinking. Probably just that Sheryl was a very admirable young lady and a worthy role model to emulate. Yes, that's sensible. And after trailing off in a way which Ruri thinks is very subtle, she decides: "Well, I don't think I'd do something like chase after Akito-san, though. He's a kind person, but I don't think I like boys like the Captain or Megumi-san or Minato-san do."
She pauses, and adds: "But I do think I'm a girl. I already asked myself that question after I got to know Acting Captain Rezza better. Not that I couldn't change my mind later, I guess, but I'm happy like this." Ruri has Examined Her Gender! She read the encyclopedia about it and decided that her cis gender still fit out of all the wonderful options she dug up. It's an important thing for a growing young woman.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Or a big, wide smile. Wrinkles go both ways, sadly.
Fortunately, youth counts for a lot. Sheryl's smile remains wide when Ruri declares she won't be such a fool over love. "Hmmmm~..." But she doesn't outright comment on it. Maybe this is the fun of being older--getting to see how the kids these days grow and form parallel experiences to one's own.
Her eyebrows rise when Ruri starts to admit that she does have interest. And the way she trails off... and the way she specifically says that she doesn't like boys... "Does that mean you like girls?"
She was just talking about that with Ranka, Rikka, Alouette, and Akane yesterday. It wouldn't surprise Sheryl if Ruri's some stripe of girl-liker too. Wonder widens her eyes as Ruri goes on to say she's examined her gender. That was something Sheryl never thought about until she met Alto--or rather, saw him perform female roles on stage. She'd been blown away that a boy could portray a girl so convincingly.
"That's a good question to ask yourself," she remarks, smile returning. "Especially if your answer is that you're happy with who you are."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl can't help it: she bursts out giggling at Ruri wondering if it's 'A' names she has a problem with. "So I take it you're not A-sexual!" she jokes merrily.
She does calm as Ruri continues, though, establishing that she might like boys and girls. Sheryl nods in understanding. "That makes you like me, then," she says, and lifts a finger to boop Ruri playfully on her nose, assuming she lets her. "You certainly don't need to be dating both at once to like both, though. It's not like you stop being bisexual because you're in a monogamous relationship." She shakes her head and shrugs. "Something I wish the press would get through their thick skulls!"
Not that Sheryl minds polyamory. But it is irritating to see reporters assume someone must be gay or straight based on what relationship they're in at the time.
"That's true," she says of gender expression vs. identity. "I usually prefer a femme look, myself, but I don't mind dressing in masculine clothes sometimes, either. Actually, I'm really looking forward to MCing this year's GUTS Cosplay and Crossdressing Pageant. I went with cosplay last year--" She winks. "--so this year is my year for crossdressing."
But all that aside, Ruri still needs help with her make-up. Sheryl scoots herself around to better face her and leans in to gently take the applicator from her. "This one can be tricky, so wink one of your eyes shut and I'll show you so you can do your other eye yourself..."
The make-up lesson will continue apace!
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri... snrks. It's the ghost of a laugh which, in anyone else, would surely have been uproarous. "Hehe..." She can't help it; Ruri is the type of genius who loves wordplay.
A year ago, Ruri would have assuredly dodged incidental physical contact, from shoulder-bumps to nose-boops. Now... she tolerates the boop, though she gives Sheryl an expression which can only be described as calling her a fool silently. Her verbal fools, right now, are reserved for: "People like reporters are very foolish around you." She might be being too nice, calling some of those people reporters, but Ruri is as yet innocent to many of the ravages of stardom.
(Give her time, she's hanging with the right crowd to figure it out.)
But Sheryl's like Eight, too... she wonders, for a moment, what that means for Ranka. She thinks it would be impolite to ask straight-out, of course, so she doesn't. She just silently updates her mental shipping charts to be even more complicated, because, indeed, the Macross Triangle are Nadesico-adjacent and have their very own spot on Ruri's shipping charts.
She lets Sheryl take the applicator, too. "Okay," Ruri nods, and closes one eye; she trusts Sheryl enough to mess around in her personal space like this, too. More things which would have been all too difficult for her, even a year ago.
She's still watching closely with one eye -- but she's watching to learn Sheryl's eyeshadow secrets...!
And all these secrets she learns today will only serve to make Ruri even more powerful.